Sho laid with her eyes closed after passing out in front of Jenny from blood loss. She felt two hands gently touch onto her cheeks. She slowly opened her eyes to find herself in a pure white void......the cephalopod saw a woman standing above her with her eyes full of concern, but also love and care.

The woman was known as Philomena, an Octoling who stood above Sho and showed her a sense of gentle pride, illuminating off of the Monarch Butterfly Wings that sprouted from her back.

Pilomena:.....stand......the girl will not last for long without your assistance....

Sho: oh! Hey mama!!

Sho, with a smile on her face, jumped up and looked directly at her mother, giggling a little towards her.

Sho: so this is where you've been hiding to surprise me on my birthday! It looks like I finally caught ya!

Philomena:.......

Sho:.....hm......this is a weird place though.....

Sho felt the woman gently place her hand on her cheek, and it instantly stopped her and muffled her thoughts from her gentle touch.

Philomena:.......look how much you've grown.......

Philomena felt more on Sho's cheek, then slid her hand up to the Octo's forehead, gently touching onto her heart suction cup.

Philomena:......I should've known you'd be reckless like this......that robot is a traitor.....

Sho: huh?

Philomena: you're the last pure minded stream in our clan.....she wants to kill you and finish off our blood line....

Sho: I don't like ketchup, but I love lines, mama! Straight lines! Those are my favorite!

Philomena couldn't help but let out a tiny smile at her daughters innocent state of mind, and all she did in response was  let out a little sigh as her monarch wings began to glow behind her.

Philomena: stand still....

Philomena gently placed her hand on Sho's severed arm, healing her daughter to stop the constant bleeding, and she did the same to her eye.

Philomena: I cannot bring back your arm or eye.....I already know your father is in charge of that task.

Sho: thanks! Mama mama! I was feeling very weird today! I met a nice girl and I named her Leaf! She's so nice and happy!

Philomena: I know that....*smiles* it seems like you've found your wing bond.....

Sho: she's not wing bond! She's leaf!

Philomena: no.....within our clan....we must live.....support.....then die for our wing bond......your body Sumi reflects hard against hers....which I'm surprised of.....

Sho: mm?

Philomena: you felt close with them....you noticed a tense strike within your Sumi.....

Sho: yes! I was very ticklis-

Sho stopped mid sentence and noticed an energy splat of Sumi running from her back, which made her turn around and look to see now she had her mothers wings on her back. She looked back at her mother, only to see an apologetic smile.

Philomena: I'm sorry.....I wish we could chat more.....but.....you have work to do....do not worry.....my wings will guide you....we have to save the pep talking for later.....

Sho: but I wanna talk to you forever! That's no fair! You were so quick!

Philomena: I must finish this quickly....once you are truly aware and worthy....you will see me in the angelic dimension once more....well.....after you meet the others......

Sho: but mama! I'm still waiting for my present!

Philomena:......your..........present......

Philomena looked down slightly....and her vision flashed to a young sight of her daughter standing in front of her with a big smile on her face. She let out a little giggle before leaning towards Sho and poking her on the nose.

Philomena: your present will come soon enough.....I just need you to be a bit more patient.....

Sho grumbled a little before the area around the two rumbled and shook violently below them, and instead of sending Sho off, her mother grabbed her by her head with the area around them glowing brighter by the second.

Philomena:......I love you....but before I leave the battle to you......with my remaining time.....I have something to say......

~~~~~

Shadow dodged through the air and sliced down pillars of metal that Gage thrusted towards her. He looked at her face from afar and saw her Kilu begin to slightly gleam brighter and darker below her blood trailed head.

Gage: (her added strength is too much......she can barely withstand my attacks........)

Shadow landed on the ground and Gage instantly dashed at her and thrusted his gauntlet towards her face, but it fazed through her head once again.

Gage pulled his fist back and allowed Shadow to swing her axe towards his neck, but just as Shadow did so, he quickly thrusted his gauntlet once again at her, hitting her stomach and making her grunt in pain as blood seeped from her mouth.

Gage: you're getting slower.........just accept your defeat.......

Shadow aggressively grabbed Gage's gauntlet that was on her stomach, with Gage seeing and feeling the pure anger from the inkling girl, and when he looked straight into her eyes, she brought her head forward and head butted Gage before kicking him away with her foot.

Gage flew a minor distance before catching himself and using his gauntlet to stop his momentum. The boy sighed to himself before seeing a small drop of blood drip from his forehead, and as he stood up straight, he used his hand and felt on the blood from his head, looking down at his fingers, then at Shadow who was glaring at him with a determined aura surrounding her.

Shadow: so what!? I can fight you all night, you bastard!!!

Gage stayed silent at Shadow's statement, instead closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to himself.

Gage: Jennifer.......have you killed her?.....

Gage got no response from their link of Sumi, and all he saw was purple static that overtook his view of Jenny's eyes, confusing him.

Gage:....Jennifer.....answer me......

Gage exhaled deeper as he focused through Jenny's awkward static, seeing Clover through the field of distortion, blocking Jenny's attacks by herself, but Gage's body went stiff from disbelief, because from the corner of Jenny's eye, Gage saw Sho on her knees with her missing arm and eye, completely unconscious.

The boy's eyes shot open and when they did, Shadow was right in front of him with her axe, ready to swing it at him. Within the blink of an eye, Gage jumped high in the sky before Shadow could even react in time. Gage looked all throughout his empire, then laid his eyes on Jenny, who was in the middle of her battle with clover, and for the first time in his life, Gage felt his blood boil within his body, veins shoot out from his head, and his teeth clench together as he glared at the robotic inkling.

Gage: WHAT ARE YOU DOING JENNIFER!!!!?

The loud wail of Gage's voice echoed throughout the empire. Shadow looked up in shock just as Clover did as well, seeing the Inkling in the distance, looking straight at the robot as her vision was brought straight back at him, and only Clover was able to hear what Jenny mumbled from her mouth at Gage.

Jenny:....what does it look like, you fool?........I'm disposing of these two disgusting parasites.......

Gage grunted in disbelief from Jenny as he saw her look away from him, and as Shadow looked up at the boy, she gritted her teeth as he shifted his own attention back down to her, but before Gage touched the ground, Shadow felt her heart pulse deeply within her chest, and her vision fade for a slight moment, almost passing out.

Shadow quickly shook her head awake and swung her axe at the boy, and he responded by punching her axe with his gauntlet, which cracked the floor below the two.

Gage: get out of my way....I have more important matters to attend to....

Shadow extracted her axe and swung once more at Gage, and he leaned his body backwards to dodge the swing before supporting himself with his hand on the ground from behind and using one of his feet to thrust a kick towards Shadow, but she caught his kick with her hand and let out a roar as she threw him away from her, but before Gage took any damage, he used the metal around him to catch himself, then glared at Shadow from pure annoyance.

Gage: you really are persistent......

~~~~~~~~

Clover jumped over a tentacle thrusted towards her, and sliced it without hesitation. Jenny thrusted more tentacles at Clover, but she cut through most of them while suffering minor cuts and slices from tentacles that managed to slip past her awareness.

Jenny saw the injuries that she was inflicting onto Clover, but she didn't let out any sign of happiness that she was injuring the inkling. She instead gritted her teeth at her, seeing her still maintain her speed and not lose her focus even though she was losing a lot of blood from her many wounds.

Jenny:......(this inkling.......)

Jenny stopped thrusting her tentacles, and instead dashed directly at Clover and extended her fist forward to pierce Clover straight through her chest.

Before Jenny had the chance to rip out Clover's heart, Clover stepped to the side quickly and shifted her body to Jenny's shock, raising her sword and striking it downwards at Jenny, which cut off her entire arm.

Jenny: (she just........doesn't give up....)

Jenny saw Clover swing her blade towards her once more, and she used her other hand to catch the blade with her fingers. Jenny attempted to shatter the blade, but she didn't even manage to scratch it one bit.

Jenny: ( I can't even break her blade...that blacksmith.....)....*tsk*..(she really wasted the last but of our strong resources for this......mere child!)

Clover aggressively pulled her sword back and made Jenny slightly fall forward a bit, which Clover took advantage of and used her foot to brutally stomp on the Robot's back, pinning her down just as she raised her sword once more.

Clover: I'll splat you.......this zone is mine............m-mine........

Jenny watched as Clover brought her sword down to cut her head in half, but before the blade made contact, it stopped before her. Jenny looked up as Clovers blade, along her body began to twitch violently. Clover began gasping for air, and her eyes reverted back to normal, and her body barely managed to even move an inch. Her mouth began to foam as tears began to rush down her cheeks due to the overwhelming stress of her body.

Jenny analyzed Clovers body and saw her Sumi running ramped to try and sooth her nerves. The Robot regenerated her arm and pushed herself up, which made Clover stumble and fall back, shaking violently on the ground before her.

Without any form of hesitation, Jenny thrusted one of her tentacles down and tried to impale Clover through the heart once again, but her tentacle was cut off immediately before she could even react.

Jenny stood in shock as she turned around to see that Clover's body has been moved farther away from her and Sho stood above her with Monarch wings spreading from her back.

Sho leaned down towards Clover and her hand glowed brightly, extracting a large amount of dark purple Sumi from Clover's body, which made Clover stop shaking as she held the sphere of ink in her hand.

Sho:......Raven Sumi interrupts regular stream and cephalopod cells............I see.......

Jenny: I see you're still alive and haven't died from blood loss, you disgrace.......that's good......I was hoping that you'd survive so I can torture you-

Sho: silence....

Jenny stood still as she saw Sho crush the Sumi sphere of ink in front of her, then the girl slowly turned her head towards Jenny. The robot saw Sho's eye color has changed from white to Gold and gave off a pure and radiant aura around her.

Jenny:.......(this aura.......this isn't Biki.......it's.........someone else.....)

{P} Sho:......I never understood why you called my daughter by such mindless and cruel names........all it does is show your fear and ignorance......

Jenny saw the golden eye strike deep into her mind, holding her in place as she saw the Octoling face her straight forward and seeing her tentacles flow in the wind that dragged her aura along with it.

{P} Sho: you must be a child behind all of that metal.........and from what I've seen......name calling seems to be your only true form of attacking her...because you're too weak to face her in any other way.....

Jenny felt her body shake from disbelief, seeing Sho grip onto her sword which was pierced into the ground before she extracted the negative Sumi from Clover's body. With no opening in her stance, the golden eye shot deeper into her soul.

{P} Sho: I've sacrificed many things within my life.....but it was all for the growth of my daughter......your sacrifices were for nothing but selfish desires.......I despise those with selfish desires......

Jenny saw the monarch wings spread with life, then give off a radiant glow that burned her very cells deep into her robotic core, and with one final wince of her eyes, they slowly faded from gold to white.

{P} Sho:.......less talk.......show your strength........through combat.......

Jenny:.......

Sho: h-huh!? Blah! What happened!?

Sho looked at her back to still see the monarch wings intact, which made her smile as they flapped behind her from her joy.

Sho: *gasp* mama's wings are still here!....wait a second!....

Sho turned her head quickly and saw Clover grunting and trying her hardest to fight off her pain, and with her speed, quickly ran to Clover's side and looked at her.

Sho: Leaf Leaf! Are you alright!?

Clover:.....I can still.....feel the pain......but.....it's less tense....*grunt*....dammit.....

Sho: hmph! looks like your ketchup stopped, so you won't be sleeping anytime soon! That's good, but let me just....

Sho looked down and saw that Clover's wounds were slightly healed up from her injuries, and the Octo reached her hand forward to heal the rest of the damage to her body completely, but before she could, her mother's voice stopped her from doing so.

{Philomena}: do not......

Sho felt the calm hands of her mother touch her face from behind in a soothing way, deeply sensing the warm and comforting flow of her own Sumi that made her body sooth in peace.

{Philomena}: I used half of my Sumi to heal her body.....it was badly damaged.....if I wouldn't have did so.....she would've died because she lost so much blood already.....I couldn't heal her completely however.....I must save the rest of my Sumi to help you maintain my Wings.....

Sho:......

{Philomena}: don't worry....the girl will survive.......she's your wing bond after all....I wouldn't allow her to die....

Sho:.....okay, mama....

{Philomena}:.....Allow me to guide you.....because it looks like the robotic disgrace actually has emotions to express towards us.......

Sho turned her head, and within her split second of vision, saw Jenny's fist directly in front of her face, getting ready to connect due to her speed. Sho felt the wings on her back flap on their own and let out a large gust of wind that pushed Jenny back slightly and moved Sho within the speed of light away from Jenny, along with Clover, who was now on her knee, slightly coughing and panting heavily.

Sho: woah! Ha! You're fast, mama!! And you saved Leaf too!!

{Philomena}: I'll support her as much as I can.......she isn't weak.....I know she'll finish this........now......enough talking, daughter.....time to focus....

Sho: oh! right right!

Sho looked at Jenny and saw her glare with a pure hint of bloodlust coming straight from her eyes, curling up her fists just as Clover stood back up with a cough and using Sho's shoulder as support.

Clover: Sho....what happened? What did yo-

Sho: hush hush! We must be serious now, Leaf!

Sho adorably frowned at Jenny while clenching on her sword, but even though the frown on the Octoling's face, Clover could still see slight signs of the girl holding back her smile, which only made her bubble up inside with happiness for her innocent efforts.

Sho: Alrighty!! I'm getting my victory slice for sure this time!!!

Sho dashed off towards Jenny, leaving Clover completely confused and lost for words as she saw the two clash in front of her. Sho easily dodged a swing from the robot by ducking under it and using her sword to slice off Jenny's legs, but before the robot fell, her arm molded into a metallic spear and she thrusted it towards Sho's head, to which she dodged and used her sword once again to stab Jenny's chest and pin her down.

Clover watched as Jenny struggled to break from Sho's blade, and she gritted her teeth before slamming her hand into the ground under her and many pillars of metal shot up from under her, which forced Sho to remove her blade as her mother's wings pushed her up into the sky while Jenny's legs reformed and she stood once again to look up at Sho.

Clover: (....how the hell do we even beat her?......any type of damage she receives will immediately recover.....)

Clover grunted to herself as she tried to look at the robot a bit harder, and before her eyes, she noticed that one of Jenny's hands was missing a singular finger, a finger that was destroyed much earlier on within their fight.

Clover: ( her hand.......the damage hasn't recovered.......)

Clover thought deeper and came to a sudden realization, which made her quickly reach into her pocket and pull out the metallic triangular bomb that Heather gave to her when she received her sword, seeing it slightly beep over and over again in front of her.

Clover:....(this nitro bomb.......one of these flew towards her from the area where Gage and Shadow were fighting..........)

Clover looked up at Jenny, and saw her clash directly with Sho's blade once more, trading blow for blow with her, and within their clash, she saw The robot make eye contact with her, showing no sign of mercy, but to respond to her glare, Clover smirked at her and grabbed onto her sword, ignoring the slight shaking and pain in her body that still remained.

Clover: Thanks Heather......You truly are something else....

Clover dashed directly into the battle and Sho saw the girl run from the corner of her eye, which made her smirk and duck her body down to allow Clover to jump over her and swing her sword at Jenny, but she saw the Robot dodge the blade quickly by running back, then the three stood silent between each other, until Clover looked over at Sho, seeing her looking down and giving herself a nod.

Sho: Alrighty mama!

Clover:.....

Sho's eye glowed golden once more, and she looked directly at Clover with a innocent and gentle aura, but even from her aura, Clover felt a slight tense of fear run down her body when Sho glared at her with her golden eye, then slowly opened her mouth to speak.

{P} Sho: I've been impressed by your feats thus far........any average stream would've gave up by now......

Clover felt her body tense up from the calm, yet menacing tone from Sho, but she calmed herself down before taking a deep breath and letting it out, which Philomena responded with a calm and relieved grin.

{P} Sho: a pure indomitable will you have, child.......I'll explain myself at another time.......for now.....we must focus on the battle..........

The two looked over at Jenny in the distance, seeing her metallic tentacles drip with Raven infested Sumi as her eyes violently twitched at them, but Sho responded by pointing her sword at Jenny, showing no signs of fear or hesitation.

{P} Sho: she's regenerating quicker and quicker as the battle goes on.....her awareness is increasing.....her Sumi is getting more lethal.....we have a solid hold on her for now.....but my daughter hasn't adapted to my strength just yet, so my wings are fading quicker than I thought. I can only do so much for the time being.....and my Sumi is slowly degrading......I only have 2 minutes left before my wings fade.....

Clover:.......

{P} Sho: I do not like long battles.......if we keep this up, she'll have us completely analyzed and we'll die before dawn.....we must figure out a way to kill her now......

When Philomena looked at Clover, she saw a determined stare from the Inkling, and from behind her back, she saw the triangular bomb within her grasp, which simply made her wings expand from amusement.

{P} Sho: a quick thinker.......Marvelous....I can see why you linked so well with my daughter...

Clover: hmph! I just need one opening!

Philomena saw Clover's beautiful and prideful smile, a smile that made her pause for a minute, seeing a slight vision of her own husband's smile within the Inkling. Without wavering for too long, Philomena readied herself as her golden eye began to fade away.

{P} Sho: I see......as you wish......

Sho's eye returned to its white state, then she quickly snapped back to herself, looking around until she saw Clover smiling over at her.

Sho: Leaf! I-

{Philomena}: listen, daughter......

Sho: huh?...

{Philomena}: I don't have much time left. Your wing bond has given me enough information to coordinate myself with her movements.....I need you to sync with my flight patterns. If we cannot do so, the plan will fail and we'll die....

Sho: I've already done enough sleeping for the day! I don't wanna sleep anymore!! I want my victory slice, so I'll do my best!

Sho readied her sword, then Clover leaned her own body forward just as she saw Sho's wings flap and disperse a large gust of wind. Clover nodded to herself and ran towards Jenny as well with her own sword.

Jenny thrusted her tentacles towards Sho, and the girl relied on her mother's wings to dodge as she used her sword to slice the tentacles with a gleaming smile on her face. Jenny's tentacle shot straight towards Sho's face, but just before it hit her, she quickly ducked under the tentacle and slid alongside the ground while slicing it from below.

Sho stood back up without losing any form of momentum, then continued to run straight at Jenny, then once the two were face to face, Sho moved her head out of the way from Jenny's punch that was shot towards her face, adjusting her sword with one arm and slicing upwards across Jenny's body, making a diagonal cut that was shallow and quickly healed in front of her eyes.

Once she slashed Jenny, The robot quickly redirected a punch towards Sho's wrist, which hit her and made her sword fly high in the sky.

Jenny: you're dead....

Jenny aimed one last punch towards Sho's neck, and from every direction, Sho was surrounded by Jenny's tentacles, giving her nowhere to retreat on the ground. Her monarch wings flapped once again and aggressively pushed Jenny backwards as Sho avoided all of the tentacles by sending herself into the sky and up to her sword.

Instead of grasping her sword, Sho spun her body and used her foot to kick her sword, launching it straight at Jenny as fast as a bullet within a spear-like fashion.

Without any proper time to react due to Sho's prior gust of wind from her wings, Jenny was pierced straight through her stomach with the blade and forced her back slightly, but Jenny quickly caught herself and grabbed onto the blade, trying to forcefully pull it out of her stomach, but Sho pushed herself with her wings downwards and grabbed onto her blade as well, overpowering Jenny and forcing her back, pinning her to a wall of a building.

Jenny: GET OFF OF ME!!! WHY WON'T YOU JUST DIE ALREADY!!?

Sho felt her heart pulsate within her and felt her strength fade for a slight second due to her overuse of her mother's wings, and with this tiny window of vulnerability, Jenny grabbed onto Sho's arm and aggressively pushed her back to try and pry herself out of her grasp, but Sho didn't budge one bit.

From the corner of her eye during their struggle, Jenny saw Clover run straight from behind Sho towards her with her blade in hand. Jenny glared at Clover with no sense of fear before using her tentacle to knock away Clover's weapon from her grasp, making her sword spin in the air and tumble onto the ground too far for her to recover in time.

Jenny: do you really believe I'm that foolish to let my guard down in such a way?......

Clover: of course I do!

From behind her back, Clover pulled out her nitro bomb, and Jenny's emotionless state suddenly turned into a face of pure shock and horror. Jenny raised her other arm to try and strike Clover, but Sho noticed in time, but since she didn't have her other arm to properly stop the robot, she opened her mouth and aggressively bit down on Jenny's arm, holding it in place with her teeth, which only disgusted Jenny.

Sho: *NYOM*

Jenny: *tsk* WHAT ARE YO-

Before Jenny could finish, Clover shoved the bomb straight into her chest, then the beeps of the bomb became louder and more frequent, and Jenny's glare of fear froze her body completely, while also being due to the fact that Sho had her pinned down, but she let out a slight grin to try and ease herself from her current situation, looking at the two girls, but mainly Sho in particular.

Jenny: my death means nothing! You'll both die with me from the bomb anyway!!

Clover: I know that! But I already know what I'm going to do to make sure you go to hell in the worst way possible!!

Clover raised one of her legs and kicked Sho from the side of her body, knocking her away and making her fall to the ground. Sho quickly caught herself and looked over to see Clover holding Jenny down all by herself, receiving a metallic tentacle pierce straight through the side of her stomach from behind, but as she coughed up blood, she held on all by herself.

Sho:.....Leaf?......

Sho began to realize Clover's true plan, and she instantly tried to run back to stop the situation, but the second she tried, her wings faded from her body, and she instantly lost her balance from her decrease in strength which made her fall over with no more strength to push herself up.

Sho: Mama!! Save Leaf!!

Sho felt her mother's voice fade from her mind, and her wings turn into nothing but Sumi essence. Sho tried to push herself up, but before she could completely do so, the nitro bomb exploded and knocked Sho back, slightly electrocuting and burning her skin in the process just as her vision began to fade, seeing nothing but the brutal explosion before her.

Sho:.............Leaf?.......Don't sleep....not now.......I still haven't..........given you......your..........victory.........slice......

~~~~~~

*Extra Story Art*

The dreadful Pineapple pizza strikes once again!