“I wanna see fools getting splatted in slow motion!” - Pearl

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I had told David I didn’t want to go.

He didn’t listen.

Sitting in Scalpel’s own laboratory was scarier than facing a Hydra Splatling. It was very cold and I wanted to go home, but somehow, Scalpel was able to convince David to allow a few tests to be run on me. I sat in a metal chair and waited as Scalpel was getting his devices ready.

The laboratory was fairly big, much bigger than the living room back home. The walls were completely white and void of any form of vanity or decoration. All that filled the room were a few tables with test tubes on them and a few computers that were far bigger than any PC I’d ever seen, some even larger than an adult.

Scalpel had hooked up a few electrodes to my head, telling me he wanted to look at my brain activity. I kept looking down the entire time, not wanting to make any eye contact with this creep. He gave me a bad feeling.

“Amelia, I’d like you to think of your old home,” he said as he stood next to a large monitor.

“Wh--”

“Do it,” he ordered.

I sighed, my thoughts going towards the old house I had once lived in when I was little. I remembered my parents and my brother, an ache in my heart resurfacing from underneath all the other conflicting emotions I had to deal with.

“Very fascinating,” said Scalpel. My eyes glanced up to see the monitor. They were just line scribbles to me, making me wonder what was ‘fascinating’ in the first place. “Think of Nem Nemone,” ordered Scalpel.

Immediately, I thought of Nem-Nem, my heart feeling warmth. I wanted to go home and watch movies with her. I’d forget all about this stupid situation for those precious moments. “Are we almost done?” I asked, getting impatient.

“These readings suggest that you’ve formed a genuine, authentic bond with Nem Nemone, almost as if she were your real mother,” said Scalpel, simply staring at the screen, his gray eyes looking over every little bit of data that scrolled across the monitor.

“She is my real mother,” I responded.

“Incorrect,” said Scalpel without moving. “She’s an anemone. You’re a human. There’s no biological connection between the two of you.”

Ugh… “I consider her my real mother, whether you think so or not,” I stated.

“That’s understandable,” he said. “You’re going through emotional trauma. You needed the closest mother figure to cling to and you chose Nem Nemone.”

“You don’t get it,” I said.

He stayed quiet, continuing to stare at his monitor. After several minutes of staring at his screen in what I could only interpret as him zoning out, he finally broke the silence. “I’ve been wondering what your species was truly capable of. From the bits and pieces of human technology I’ve gathered, I could tell that your species was capable of creating nuclear-powered weaponry.”

“We destroyed ourselves with it,” I said, trying not to think too much about it. “It’s dangerous.”

“I am quite aware,” he said, pushing up his glasses. “We’ve found heavy traces of the radiation in a far-off region we’ve been investigating. Anyways… I have more tests for you. I’m going to have you talk to one of your species’ own creations.”

“You… want me to talk to a device made by humans?” I questioned. “That’s kinda weird, don’t you think?”

“This is no mere device. It’s an AI, also known as artificial intelligence,” Scalpel explained. “Have you… not been exposed to the majority of your own era’s technology before?”

“I stayed in the same house for a long time, sheltered from the world,” I answered. “My parents tried to keep me safe. The only stuff I’ve been exposed to was a television and a computer, and even those weren’t very sophisticated.”

Scalpel made a look of slight disgust. “I see…”

I looked down, avoiding eye contact. “Where is it?” I asked.

“Follow me,” said Scalpel.

“David said not to leave this room,” I stated. “It has cameras he can use to monitor us.”

Scalpel hushedly swore under his breath. “Fine. I’ll be right back with it.”

I knew Scalpel would try to pull a trick or two. I was satisfied with myself, remembering to keep myself calm and composed under David’s watch. As I removed the electrodes and waited patiently, I thought about Scalpel’s question. Nem-Nem was obviously a mother to me, and I know that even though I wasn’t the same species as her, she still loved me and I loved her.

“What’s up, Amelia?”

I looked up at the ceiling, seeing the other me from my dreams standing upside-down. She’d been hanging around in my mind for a while now since she had confessed to trying to unravel my DNA. She wanted to become me and I wasn’t about to give her that.

“What do you want?” I responded.

Dropping down from above, she landed in front of me. “Well, I mean, if I’m here, it means you’re in doubt again.”

“There’s no doubt about Nem-Nem,” I said to her.

With a smug smile on her face, she giggled. “It’s okay to have doubts, Amelia. You’re going through such a rough time that it’s obvious. I can still help.”

I clenched my fists. “Get splatted,” I said.

I blinked and she was no longer in front of me, but behind me instead. I felt her hand on my shoulder. “Ameeeelia. I’m here for you, you know. We’ve got that… connection.”

Creepy…

“I wouldn’t say creepy or anything like that…”

D-Did she just…?!

“Mhm,~” she replied. “I’m still part of you. Everything you think of, I get to see as if they were my own thoughts, and they are.”

I stayed still, wanting to just cry right then and there, but then she asked me, “If I showed you I really care, would you trust me?”

“You’re literally unraveling my DNA,” I replied.

“Not exactly my choice,” she said with a stern expression. “That’s just how my process works. If I were my own person, I wouldn’t have to become you, right? You’re not the only one fighting to keep alive. I’m in here, too. I don’t want to cease from existing, so if I have to end your life to begin mine, I’ll do it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t give you advice. It’s nothing personal. It’s just pure, raw nature…”

I didn’t want to hear it, this talking about life and death in nature. “What’s your advice?” I asked, finally just giving up. Maybe if she gave me her advice, she’d leave soon after.

“It’s simple, isn’t it?” she asked me, looking into my eyes. “She’s an ex-pro. You just need to keep playing. Enter the ranked division and make her proud. That’s what I’d do.”

“Ranked…?” I questioned. “But with how I am, with how human I am, I don’t think I could even make it past B rank.”

I felt her ruffle my hair. It felt so real, I could’ve mistaken her for a real person if I had just started seeing her right now instead of earlier. She giggled and said, “That won’t be a problem. I promise.~”

“What makes you say that?” I asked, giving her a glance of suspicion.

“You’ve already gained a few traits octolings have,” she said.

“What?!” I shouted, feeling my hair. It still felt human, making me sigh in relief.

“Not in a phenotype way,” she said. “At least… not yet. No, I’ve boosted your speed, strength, and tenacity. You’ve been like us for a while now. You have our instincts, our hunger for victory.”

That explained why I wanted to hurt Wreckage back at Wahoo World…

“I keep trying to tell you that it’ll be okay, but you won’t listen,” she said. “You still feel like yourself. You won’t know you’ve changed. You’ll just remember being… an octoling. It doesn’t hurt.”

“I don’t want to forget my friends and family,” I said.

She sighed. “Ugh, your stupid attachments. It’s like buying a house and finding out it came with cockroaches.”

“Wouldn’t you want someone to be attached to?” I asked her. “To look after you and help you through the tough times?”

She looked at me as if I were insane. “Oh, wow. That’s… weak . Unprofessional and completely misguided. If you get attached, you get shot in the back. Your human instincts are way too trusting if you ask me.”

“I’ll trust my friends with my life,” I stated. “You’re not convincing me in any way, especially with the way you see things.”

She groaned and said, “Alright, fine. But take my advice. If you want at least some closure with Nem before I take over, you’d best start playing ranked. I gave you that advice. I care more than them.”

With those final words, she vanished, leaving me alone with just my thoughts, but I wasn’t alone for long, as Scalpel had just re-entered the room, holding some kind of metal box. When he placed it on the lab table next to me, I was able to get a closer look.

It was rectangular and metallic. On its side was a crank and on its front were was looked like two large bells for eyes and what looked like a protruding siren speaker on its front. On its other side was a smaller, holdable bell-shaped speaker hanging from a prong, a cord attached to the top of the bell-shaped speaker led into the machine’s back.

“What is that?” I asked.

“This… is an AI,” answered Scalpel. “Recovered from a classified mission carried out by a professional team. We call it Tartar.”

It didn’t look like an AI, but then again… Grizz’s statue was an AI. I don’t think I had a point in my judgement here. “Is it really from my era?” I asked. “It looks so strange.”

Bram ran his fingers over the smooth, metal surface of the machine. “It is. Right before the extinction of humanity and built to pass on its knowledge.”

“And you can’t activate it yourself?” I questioned. “You’re supposed to be some scientist, right?”

Bram’s eyes looked my way, a smirk on his face. “You’d be correct. Although I could hack into it, I’d risk activating some program unknown to me. I wouldn’t want it to erase all its data in order to forever defend those secrets I so desperately seek. It’s why I need you to start it up.”

“And that requires… my DNA,” I assumed.

“You would be correct,” said Scalpel. “As part of our deal. Is that not a condition you are willing to accept?”

I really just wanted to go home.

“Yes, I’ll accept that,” I sighed out. Reduced to a lab experiment…

Scalpel held out his hand. “I’ll need a single hair. Given that your DNA has not been fully destroyed, I might be able to get something out of this AI. I’m not entirely sure whether it will give me access or not.”

I… yanked a hair out from my hair, wincing at the very minute pain and gave it to him, sending a glare his way as well. He simply stared back for a few seconds in response before he inserted the single hair into a small slot in the bottom of the machine. He then began to turn the crank on its side, making it produce a humming noise as it started up. I was a little worried. Was this thing dangerous? Could it hurt someone?

And then…

“SEARCHING FOR USER ID,” it shouted. “SANITIZED USER IDENTIFIED. STANDARD ACCESS GRANTED.”

Scalpel swore under his breath before saying, “Well, this is unfortunate…”

“What?” I asked. “What’s going on?”

“Hm… If I were to tell you the very context of this machine, it would result in a breach of classified data that you were not ever meant to know about,” said Scalpel. “But then again, that information was classified by a government that refuses to acknowledge the death of hundreds of inklings, so… I don’t think I’ll abide by those rules right now. It’s from your era, so you should know about it.”

“Then… what’s going on?” I asked.

“Tartar was designed to pass down the knowledge of humanity to the next intelligent species. However, that wasn’t all it was designed for. It was also meant to pass down the secrets of genetic manipulation. Tartar has gone rogue in the past, and so I conclude that it thinks you’re one of its… sanitized subjects.”

That last bit didn’t make sense. “Sanitized?”

Scalpel stared at the machine with what looked to be disdain. “It once attempted to create an army using a mixture of both human and octarian DNA, along with its own creation of synthetic DNA. A few inklings were also affected, but it was primarily the octolings who suffered. Already-existing subjects were turned into pulseless husks, becoming undead, biological machine soldiers that obeyed every single order from Tartar. They no longer had minds of their own once this process happened.”

“That’s awful,” I said, frightened. Undead inklings and octolings…? That sounded like the horror movies Nem and I would watch through Splatoween month. “What happened to the sanitized after Tartar was stopped?” I dared to ask.

“They’re in containment, being studied,” answered Scalpel.

“Is the government hoping to change them back?” I asked.

Scalpel seemed to pity my naivety with an odd look in his eyes. “No. It’s irreversible. They’re being studied so that our government can see whether or not the sanitized can be tamed and trained as soldiers.”

That didn’t sound good.

Before I could question him any further, David walked into the room. “Bram, what are you doing? The moment I heard that word, I--”

“Sanitized?” guessed Scalpel.

“Yes!” confirmed David, throwing his arms up. “Why would you blab about classified information like that?! You knew I was watching through the cameras!”

Scalpel had an annoyed expression on his face as he pushed up his glasses. “She’s a human. It involves her kind and she deserves to know.”

“You know they won’t see it like that,” said David. “You’ve just risked your job!”

“And I trust you to keep me safe, David. We are brothers, after all,” replied Scalpel. “Dad always did tell us to watch out for each other.”

David looked at me, fear on his face. He gritted his teeth as he mulled it over before saying, “Fine! I’ll keep this quiet… You still owe me for all I’ve done for you.”

“I am aware,” said Scalpel. “My debt to you is still very great, and so I’ve come up with a way to make both our lives easier in time. I just need to keep doing my research. As for Amelia… she needs to go for now. I wish to be alone with the AI now that it’s given me some amount of access.”

David sighed as he held his hand out to me. “Come on, Amelia. Let’s take you back to Nem.”

I nodded, taking his hand. Scalpel gave me one last glance before turning to the machine. There was something seriously wrong here, but I couldn’t really do anything about it. This was adult business and I certainly wasn’t an adult… Besides, who would’ve listened to me? I couldn’t exactly take this to the authorities. They’d want to know who I was and why I know all this. They’d eventually even find out what I was, so I kept quiet, choosing to ignore this secretive stuff.

After I was driven home, David patted me on the back as we approached the door. He sighed, contemplation on his face. “Bram’s not a bad person,” he said. “If I had just been a better brother, he wouldn’t have pushed me away in the first place.”

Curiosity steered the wheel of my brain yet again. “What did you do?” I asked.

He stared straight ahead, possible memories going through his mind, I thought. He sighed again and answered, “Growing up, Bram and I had a sibling rivalry like no other. Both of us were desperate to get Dad’s attention. Bram excelled at everything involving cold science. I wasn’t one for that subject. When the government had approved Bram’s improved spawn points for Turf War games, I took advantage and played as much as I could. Bram wasn’t too happy about that. I made fun of him, telling him that he was letting things get to him and that he needed to grow a thicker skin.”

“And now he’s trying to shut you out,” I concluded.

David looked at me with sadness in his eyes. He really wanted to make amends with his brother. I could only guess what deeds David had done to cover for Scalpel just to fix the relationship. “I know this might seem selfish, but right now, you’re possibly my only chance at fixing things between my brother and I. I’m finally able to talk to him after all these years just because you exist.”

Selfish or not, I understood his need to talk to his brother. I was still looking for mine. Mark was still with the octolings and I needed a way to get to him. I just… didn’t know how. I couldn’t trust Henry anymore. He’d betrayed me.

I opened the door and, before entering, I looked at David with a look of concern. “I hope you and your brother can fix things,” I said to him. I didn’t want to be near Scalpel, but I’d known David the entire time I’d been in Inkopolis. After all, David was the one who had found me. If he hadn’t, I would’ve never met Nem-Nem.

“Thank you, Amelia,” David replied. “I hope so, too.”

As I walked inside and closed the door, I yawned, feeling tired. My stomach growled, reminding me to eat something. I hadn’t really felt too eager to eat anything lately. With all this stress, I was slowly breaking down, but at least I had Nem-Nem to help me get through it. As I went into the kitchen, I found a note on the fridge.

Went out to get more flour. I’ll be back soon. - Nem-Nem

I smiled. Nem-Nem was… my reason to keep going. My mother hadn’t ever made an attempt to connect with me. She was often too busy fighting with Dad. Even though I missed her, I… didn’t see her much as a mother…

Was that bad…?

“Sounds pretty messed up to me,” said the other me.

I turned to her, the octoling copycat standing by the fridge. “What do you want?” I asked.

“You’re having those thoughts again,” she said.

I tried to derail the topic. “Do you even have a name?”

“Hm… My current designation is Ezra,” she answered. “Now, let’s get back to your mommy issues.”

“Shut up,” I responded. “You’re ruining my life!”

Ezra placed her hand on my shoulder. “You’re the one who did that, Amelia. You snuck in. You let them inject that ‘medicine’ and now I’m here because of it. I’m just doing my job.”

“Do you even have empathy?” I asked her, stepping back a little.

“I do,” she said with a smile, surprising me. “I don’t want you to keep hurting like you are right now. You think of me as a monster, but I’m just doing my job. What I’m doing isn’t my choice. We could still be friends, even if I have to take your identity in the end.”

“No,” I replied. “Just go away.”

“But what about Nem-Nem?” she said. “You’re going to enter the ranked divisions, right?”

I…

“You want her to love you. You want her to care about you in the same way she cared about her real daughter,” Ezra said to me, stepping closer. “I just want to help you. You only have so much time left and this is at least something I can do to help you find peace with her before you’re gone. Don’t you care about her?”

“I care about her,” I timidly replied, my back now against the wall. She was up in my face now, my body freezing. I was being stared down by her and I couldn’t move out of fear.

“You want her to love you?” she asked me as she stared into my eyes.

What was wrong with my brain? I should’ve been able to tell her that Nem-Nem already loved me, but there was a huge part of me that just believed her. I felt like the evidence was overwhelming. She did get attached to me soon after we had met, her motherly instincts kicking in and making her see me as a replacement daughter. She… she loved me, right?

“You love her, right?” asked Ezra, as if she were echoing my own question to myself. “Enter ranked. Get to Rank X. Be the turfer that Nemmi couldn’t be.”

I hesitantly nodded. “Y-Yeah,” I whispered quietly. “I’ll enter ranked…”

“Good girl,” she said with a smile, patting my head. “Go on, eat something. Then we’re heading to Deca Tower.”

After she vanished, I slumped down, huddled up, hugging my knees as I rested against the wall. I needed to get myself together. There was seriously something wrong with me. This weird mental control she had over me was scary. Like, she couldn’t directly control me, but she knew exactly how to influence me. She was inside my head and knew all my thoughts.

How do I fight against someone like that?

I forced myself up and made myself a sandwich. There was no point in whining about it now. I… needed to reach the top. I wanted to make Nem-Nem proud. She was still right, whether I wanted her to be or not. I grabbed my dualies and my suit before heading out to Deca Tower.

I was nervous as I stepped into Deca Tower on my own. It felt alien, foreign, as I had always had Ace and Bryson, and Liv with me, but with them being in an entirely separate rank than me, I was forced to go this alone. The Unsplattable Inkling Girl would make her appearance in the rank divisions.

I raised my hand, the holographic button display appearing beneath it. I made my selection to Ranked, then hit Confirm. The familiar tug of warp technology hit me and the familiar scenery of Mako Mart greeted my eyes.

Next to me were three inklings, none of whom I knew. In ranked mode, it was pretty much impossible to play alongside familiar teammates, as it would make it unfair. If I wanted to win this, I had to learn how to cooperate efficiently and quickly with random teammates.

“Or you could, I dunno, use instinct?” suggested Ezra, appearing in front of me. I couldn’t really talk back to her, not in front of these random inklings. They’d think I was crazy. I just nodded my head in acknowledgment and she smiled. “Don’t worry, it’ll be easy!~”

Out in the middle of Mako Mart was one big square marked by a red line. In that one large square space, we had to seize control by inking every inch within with our ink color. The area outside it didn’t matter.

“Remember to go with it,” said Ezra. “Instinct is your greatest weapon.”

I stayed silent, and as my phone beeped to indicate the start of the match, I ran towards the center, hopping up onto food shelves and over to the other side so I could reach the spot in the middle. I could already hear the sounds of enemy fire, ink hitting the ground. When I reached the spot, it was already green, the enemy ink’s color.

With pink ink, I rushed a brush user, my arms outstretched and my dualies rapidly spitting out its ammo. He didn’t waste any time in attempting to swing it at me. Suddenly, I jumped back, just narrowly avoiding it. He quickly closed the distance and swung it against my side and-- I caught it before yanking at it, pulling him towards me as I lifted my other arm in a bent position, his face making forced contact with my elbow.

He was shocked, not expecting such quick movement, but it didn’t stop him from trying to get his brush back, so… I gave it back, using my dualies to charge myself forward in a short slide across the ink as I pointed the tip of his brush forward, slamming it into him and piercing right through his chest, making him explode in pink ink and covering the squared space, securing it for my team.

That had definitely gotten his teammates’ attention. A young inkling girl with pigtails held up her bucket and tried to slosh ink my way, making me move out of the way as she inked some of the square. Another girl, one from my team, came from behind her with a roller, running right over her before the enemy could do anything to me.

This was good. At least she was looking out for me. I didn’t know about my other teammates, though. Before I could question any further, a spiky-haired inkling boy came out of seemingly nowhere. My instincts took over at that moment and I simply did what came to my mind. I jumped forward, reaching out and grabbing his face, surprising him and making him drop his standard dualies. I jammed my knee three times into his stomach before kicking him away from me and firing off my dualies at him.

The roller girl stared at me, but after seeing me look back, she grinned, sharp teeth flashing. Was that… approval?

I saw a fourth inkling, a familiar face this time, and I wasn’t too happy to see her. What was she doing at the bottom ranks…?

From behind the roller girl came the piercing of an umbrella through her stomach. The poor girl had it jammed in there good, and although I wanted to help, I knew I couldn’t do anything. It was already too late. The umbrella clicked open, making the inkling girl explode in green ink.

As the ink fell like rain, I saw the opponent more clearly. Bryson’s sister, Guava, from the match on the beach, the one who had sniped me in the head. She grinned with a sinister aura surrounding her, flame licking off from her hair.

“Y-You’re not my rank!” I objected.

“You’re not my raaaank!~” she mocked. “Shut up, brat. I cleared my records.”

“Wh-Why?!” I questioned, taking a step back.

She stepped forward, her pupils quickly shrinking as she caught sight of my fear. That predatory instinct emerged in the form of a twisted grin, her teeth glinting in the light. The urge to run struck me, alarms going off in my head. She twirled the undercover umbrella around her finger as she slowly approached. “You didn’t know?” she asked me. “I do that often, always regaining my old rank in less than a week.”

“Less than a week?!” I repeated in disbelief. “Why?!”

She laughed before replying, “I reset my rank because it’s fun to take down noobs like yourself. To see you all running and screaming as I hunt you down just gives me this sense of inner peace. Of course, you wouldn’t possibly understand it. You’re just a filthy C- rank.”

We stared at each other as she kept coming closer. Where was my team?! I didn’t need this now! I just wanted to impress Nem-Nem!

Standing behind Guava was Ezra, a smirk on my other version’s face. “Why aren’t you doing anything?” asked Ezra. “I gave you all you need to win a fight.”

I shook my head, doubt swarming my mind. She sighed and had a disgusted look on her face. “Fine… I didn’t wanna do this. I’m taking the wheel.”

“Excuse m--?!”

I wasn’t thinking anymore. I was fighting. I immediately ran up to Guava right then and there, my dualies firing. She opened up her umbrella, easily deflecting my ink, but the umbrella couldn’t hold forever. Before it could even break, though, she closed it and swung it across my face before I knew what had hit me, knocking my helmet off my head.

Stumbling, I tried to regain focus, but even my body wasn’t waiting f or that. As Guava got in close for another swing with her umbrella, my hand reached up and grabbed it, making her laugh. She seemed amused by my very efforts to survive.

“That’s cute,” she said before slamming her knee into my face, then again, and again, and again, and again. After she was done, she kicked me to the ground. “I’m surprised you haven’t exploded into ink yet.”

“P-Please stop,” I mumbled, my mind dazed from the constant bashing to my head.

“Aw, what was that? Was that begging?” she questioned. “Go on, beg some more!”

I wanted to stop. I tried to stop. Ezra wasn’t letting me. I could feel myself getting back up. “E-Ezra,” I whispered. “Please, don’t. I don’t wanna die…”

Ezra giggled in my head. I just wanted to do ranked. I was here because of her. Was she trying to kill me? Then I heard her say, “Don’t worry. I’d never let you die. If anyone’s going to take your life, it’ll be me.~”

I felt a sharp pain in the gums of my mouth. What was Ezra doing to me? My back felt itchy again, just like when the fever had first started. “E-Ezra…?” I groaned through the agony. “Please, stop!”

“Shush,” she said. “You’ve always wanted to be one of them, right? I’m just giving you a taste of what it’s like. Maybe then you’ll appreciate your own species better.”

“Geez, what’s up with you?” asked Guava. “You want me to finish you off that badly?”

I then felt a sudden adrenaline rush. “What’s happening…?” I whispered.

“The more damage you take, the higher the thrill. I’m making you attack until your body finally acknowledges that it’s outmatched.

Oh, cod… “T-Turf Madness? I can’t have Turf Madness,” I mumbled out. I couldn’t hear Ezra anymore. I couldn’t hear Guava’s laughter. I had that urge, the urge I had at Wahoo World to hurt Wreckage during our fight. It was stronger than before and I wanted… to hurt Guava.

I ran my tongue across my teeth, feeling how they had sharpened just like any cephalopod’s. The sudden pride filled me, making me grin. I felt my blood boiling and my heart pumping, my vision most definitely clearer now. I could pick up the tiniest details, noting cracks in the ground and dust particles in the air. I could hyperfocus on anything I wanted, and so my gaze locked onto Guava, my own twisted smile revealing itself.

With a simple push of my leg, I darted towards her with a warcry, a loud scream that could easily be heard throughout the store. Guava held up her umbrella, opening it up yet again. Not this time, you pompous traitor… I tackled straight into it, pushing her back. I could hear her umbrella creaking as I used force to pin her against the wall with its handle against her stomach.

She began firing point-blank at me in an effort to splat me. The force of the ink hitting me was literally nothing at this point. All pain for me was numbed and that was just how I wanted it. She thought she could reset her rank to terrorize newbies, huh?! No! I dropped my dualies, grabbed her umbrella, and then wrestled it out of her grasp, tossing it behind me as I gripped her neck.

She had fear in her eyes and it excited me. It made me feel so powerful, so dominant, tenacious! Sadly, the feeling was short-lived as she forced me back with a kick to my stomach. As I was trying to keep from falling off balance, she decided to do what I had done to her.

She tackled me and her strength was astounding. We fell off the platform where the marked square was, our teammates going at each other with their weapons while Guava and I were now simply using our fists.

She punched me over and over, screaming with that familiar inkling gurgle. I punched back, even as I was on my back, but I just couldn’t shake her off of me. I could hear Ezra giggling in my head. She seemed very amused by all this as she asked, “Are you having fun?”

I… was, and I didn’t care why. All I cared about was this feeling. I finally headbutted her, then pushed her off me before I kicked her in the side. Her mouth was moving, but I couldn’t hear her. On her face was fear, but I didn’t care. This felt too satisfying. I felt alive as I kept kicking her over and over.

From my side, I could see the boy with the brush again. It looked like he was coming to his teammate’s rescue. Big mistake. I abandoned my prey and went for my new toy with great speed, my hands reaching out. I didn’t need weapons. I just needed instinct, tenacity, bloodlust.

He raised his brush as I gripped it in my hands, tugging at it with improved strength. His face had the expression of both confusion and fear, only fueling my desire even further. I threw his brush away from us and tackled him into my team’s marked turf, pink mixing with his green, the inkling screaming to get away as it seemed to hurt him.

It unnerved me, as if my human side were still fighting to give me rational reasoning. I just… let go. He wasn’t deserving of it. My heart was still pounding and I needed to get rid of this excitement, and then I was reminded of who did deserve it.

I caught her in the corner of my vision, trying to reach for her umbrella. I quickly grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, my instincts going into full throttle. I… I needed to end her, so no one else could get hurt. I looked to my left, seeing my teammates’ turf. That boy wasn’t deserving of such slow punishment, but Guava…?

The first person who came to my mind… She had hurt Bryson. She had hurt his heart badly by betraying the Annaki family and leaving and she had been cheating the ranked modes as well, terrorizing inklings. Surely, she deserved this, right? I wrestled with her, tugging her closer and closer to my team’s turf. She knew what I was doing and so she kicked and screamed with every bit of fight she had.

I was clutching tightly, my hands acting like a steel-clawed vice. It was inevitable as I forced both of us down into my team’s ink. I had her face-down, the side of her face pressing into the ink. I couldn’t hear her screaming. All I could hear was Ezra’s amused laughter.

And then… came the hit from behind.

My head was hit hard, making me collapse, my hands letting go. I… could feel the adrenaline going away, sudden second thoughts hitting me. What had I just done? From my mouth, something dripped into the pink ink, a much darker hue, something red. Was… that mine…?

“What’s wrong with you?!” shouted a familiar voice.

I knew who it was, and as I came to the realization of what I’d done, I shivered. I slowly got up, most of my suit covered in ink, and my face had also been mostly marked. My body was aching badly, but it didn’t hurt as badly as when I turned to face Bryson himself...

“W-What are you doing here?” I asked, afraid.

“While you were distracted with her teammate, my sister sent me a text for the first time in years!” he answered with anger in his voice. 

“I-I can explain!” I spouted, fear overtaking me. What had I done?! No! “Bryson, sh-she hurt you! I was trying to--”

“You weren’t even trying to splat her,” he said. “You dragged it out… You were trying to torture her! Where’s the honor in that?!”

I felt my heart pound loudly. D-Don’t do this… “Bryson! Please, I just wanted to--!”

“SHUT UP!” he screamed. He caught himself and said, “You’re lucky I’m not giving you a permanent splat! She’s my sister, my business! YOU HEAR ME?! YOU KEEP OUT OF MY FAMILY’S BUSINESS!”

I wanted to shut down and push the world away. This was too much for me to handle. I had done wrong and I was being scolded by one of my only friends. “P-Please, don’t,” I forced myself to say, my eyes watering. “Please, don’t hate me…”

He shook his head in disapproval. “Guava did hurt me, but I was gonna get back at her in my own way… What you did wasn’t even squid. You tried to make her suffer for business that wasn’t yours. The Annaki way is quick and well-executed. What you did was just animalistic…”

“Bryson, please, forgive me!” I begged, my vision very blurry at this point.

Staring at me through his Annaki shades, he said, “I thought you were fresh. You're not even close…”

At that moment, my heart shattered into a million pieces. “B-Bryson…?”

“Go home, Amelia,” he said. “Don’t even finish your match. Just go home and just… I don’t know, stay there. I can’t even look at you right now.”

As he went over to his sister, my mind was blank. I… listened, turning around and running home, hot tears trailing down my face. He gave me the option to leave and I took it, embarrassed and ashamed. I had lost the respect of someone I looked up to and I deserved any and all forms of punishment. Why did I listen to Ezra?!

“It was to impress Nem-Nem,” she answered in my head. I ran even faster, hoping I could outrun her voice somehow, but it was in vain. “It’s too late, Amelia. What’s done is done. I can still take your pain awa--”

“SHUT UP!!!” I screamed.

As I reached home and went inside, I could hear Nem-Nem humming to herself in the kitchen as she did her usual baking. When I closed the door, she called out, “Amelia? Is that you?”

I didn’t want to answer. I didn’t want to say anything, but I forced myself to say, “Yes, Nem-Nem.”

“Your voice sounds a little strained,” she noticed. “I hope you’re not getting ill again.”

“I’m fine,” I said. “R-Really…”

Nem poked her head out from the kitchen, skepticism on her face. “Oy… You wanna talk about it? Something happen?”

I shook my head, trying to hide my emotions. She had enough to worry about. “I’ll be okay, Nem-Nem…”

“Okay, now I know you’re lying,” she said. “...Fine. If you wanna be alone, it’s okay. Talk to me whenever you’re ready, and it doesn’t have to be today either. Take your time.”

“Thanks, Nem…” I quietly said. “I appreciate it…”

She gave me one more look of concern before receding back into the kitchen to continue her hobby. I slowly went to my room, my mind filled with regret. What was wrong with me…? Was that really Turf Madness? Was that how it felt?

“Like a drug, right?~”

Ezra was sitting on my bed as I entered my room, looking high and mighty with her smug grin. I wanted to make her pay, but she was only in my head. There was no way to stop her from doing what she wanted with me. She knew my wants, my fears, and all my secrets.

“Why are you doing this?!” I asked her. “You’re already eating away at me! What else could you possibly want?!”

Her grin went away, replaced by a quivering lip. “I’m not doing this to hurt you…”

I wasn’t having any of that. “No. You want to torture me!”

“I told you I’d teach you how to appreciate your own species better,” she pointed out. “You yearn so much to be like them but you fail to see how weak they really are, both physically and mentally.”

I just couldn’t keep from staring at her in disbelief. “But you want me to be an octoling.”

“I don’t want you to be anything,” she said. “I’m helping you so that you can at least make some peace with yourself before I can take over. I can at least give you that…”

I had… a lot of questions.

She laid down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. “Besides, I… don’t know what I want to be yet…”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked, curious and confused. “Aren’t you just octoling DNA?”

“It’s not very simple to answer,” she said. “Think of me as… the building blocks, and that I’ve been given instructions. Octarians are smart… and they’ve given me all sorts of instructions, allowing me to change the host into whatever the octarians want me to make the host into. There are many like me, those who follow orders, but… I think your nanobots are messing with me. I’m not supposed to show you kindness, but I want to. According to octarians, I’m simply supposed to deceive you.”

“What you did back at that battle…  wasn’t kindness,” I said, sitting on the bed next to her. “Now Bryson hates me…”

“I just wanted to make you appreciate yourself,” she muttered. “I see inside your mind and I just see so much dissatisfaction with your life. Why do you hate yourself?”

“I don’t wanna talk about that,” I tiredly said. “I just… wanna sleep…”

She got up from my bed, giving me this… look, like it was pity. I didn’t need pity, not from her…

“It would’ve been better had you taken my hand,” she said.

As I laid down and closed my eyes, I replied, “Probably, but I can deal with it…”

My sleep was filled with swirling colors. These colors would take on the shape of events I had gone through. I saw my first day waking up from the cryopod, my first time meeting Nem-Nem, my first Turf War, my first Splatfest, my time going into an octarian base, and most importantly, my biggest mistake.

I shifted and turned in my slumber, unable to wake up. I just want to see these images. I just wanted to sleep soundly and forget what I had done. It haunted me…

Then came the inkling dreams again, this time providing me with an escape from everything else. I was a knight, fighting for the king against the Annaki threat, but what the king didn’t know was that I had been part of the Annaki clan’s plan all along.

With the help of Basil Annaki, I was able to get a position right next to the king as we planned the attack on the Annaki clan’s hideout. With me alone in the room with the king, it was as simple as a swing of the brush from behind him. He was gone and I got away without consequence. With Annaki influencing the people, anarchy took over until a better king was put in place.

I awoke the next morning, feeling more tired than when I had gone to sleep last night. My body ached, and as I looked in the mirror, I saw bruises on my arms and legs. They must have had come from my fight against Guava… I slightly lifted my shirt, seeing an even worse bruise on my stomach, making me grimace in disgust. It looked pretty bad…

Nem didn’t seem to notice yesterday, but then again… I had been talking to her from across the room when I had entered the home. She would freak out if she saw this, I was sure of it.

“Just cover them up with a long-sleeved shirt. Today feels a little cold anyways,” said Ezra in my head.

Was I actually about to take her advice again…?

Yes. I am not bright. I didn’t want Nem to find out.

“Good girl,” said Ezra, making me groan.

After putting on a long-sleeved shirt, I went outside, skipping breakfast. I couldn’t face Nem right now. I didn’t want to face anyone. I just wanted to hang out somewhere in solitude. Sure, my room would’ve been a good place, but after having had a taste of the outside world, I was now more prone to being happier outdoors.

As I explored parts of the city I’d never known before, I began to keep tabs of my location by using my phone. These parts were shadier, known to house bad people, so I kept to myself, only walking down the sidewalks and looking around.

As I walked into an alleyway, I marveled at the graffiti on the side of the buildings, the artwork being incredible, with so much detail. As I went further, Ezra decided to appear and start talking again…

“So, I was thinking…”

“No,” I answered. “Stop asking.”

She leaned against the wall, growling, “Ugh… You’re so difficult!”

“I don’t want to die,” I responded.

“What do you think’s gonna happen to me if I don’t take over?” she asked me. “It’s not as if I have a home to go back to, or even my own body. Take pity on a poor and lonely hallucination.”

“Please don’t give me those thoughts,” I replied.

“Yep. Poor you,” she mocked. “You have it so easy, you know? You’re alive, I’m not, but I could be! Your time on Earth passed ten thousand years ago, but apparently, you’re still here!”

“What do you have against me?!” I almost screamed.

“Nothing,” she said. “I’m moody… Your nanobots are damaging me and it’s taking a toll on my programming. I’m still trying to kill you though, so no pressure.”

Interesting…

“So, are you your own personality?” I asked. “Like, are you able to form your own opinion, or are you just following orders from the octarians?”

“You could say I’m on the fence of listening. I could become an octoling like they programmed me to, but I don’t have to. I just have nothing better to do, I guess…? I can change my process whenever I want, but the urge to do it comes and goes, so… It’s confusing and I wanna eat food. Amelia, go eat food so I can taste it.”

“Are you just… bossing me around now?” I questioned as I put my hands on my hips, offended.

She stared at me as if I was an idiot. “Uh, yeah, I think so,” she answered. “Okay, so, I can literally experience life through you, so tasting food is like paradise for me. The pain you’re feeling, I feel too, but that’s not important to me. I kinda just discard it. As for good feelings, I do like that anemone’s baking…”

“If I were to let you taste more of her baking, would you let me live?” I asked her, hopeful.

“Aaaaand consider your hopes shut down, cuz I can’t,” she said. “That’s the one thing I can’t control. The car’s already moving and the brakes are broken, but at least I’ve got the wheel and I can steer into anything I want.”

This was irritating me…

“Are you at least able to slow it down?” I asked her. “Please, don’t do this to me.”

“Are you kidding me?!” she exclaimed. “You’re not the only one who wants to keep existing! You act like this is all my fault! I’m not the one waltzing into octarian bases! Tell me, Amelia, who went in there?!”

Her emotions were all over the place. At first, she mocked me, then tried to boss me around, then got really angry. She seemed to be a lot calmer yesterday, but when I thought more about what she had said, I… kinda felt bad… “Do we really need to do this?” I asked. “I know you want to keep existing, but I don’t see any way to do it without killing myself.”

“Well, if I’m gone, where do I go?” she asked me, tears suddenly streaming down her cheeks. “...Am I even able to have a spirit? Can a respawn point even catch me? I don’t think it’s capable of respawning the unborn… It blows and I’mma cry…”

Woah, uh. “Hang on a minute, let’s talk about this. You’re not… dying,” I spouted out. “I’ll find a way to get you your own body.”

“Doubtful,” she said as she vanished, leaving me alone with my thoughts again.

The more I thought about it, the more frustrating it got. I felt like the only creatures with that type of capability would have been the octolings. They were super smart and they were always on the cutting edge of science. Maybe… if I…

I’m desperate enough… but I’d need Bryson…

But he was upset with me…

“What are you doing out here?”

I almost jumped out of my skin, turning around and seeing Ace. “Wh-What are you doing all the way out here?!” I asked.

He gave me this… judging look. “C’mon, Amelia… I know what happened. Bryson tells me everything.”

Oh no… “P-Please, don’t be mad at me,” I pleaded.

He stepped forward and simply placed a hand on my shoulder, a sympathetic smile on his face. “Nah… I’m not mad. Bryson’s a different story. You wanna tell me what happened?”

I wasn’t sure how to explain it to him. Where would I begin? I said the first thing that came to my mind, “Turf Madness…”

He looked a little skeptical. “Huh… so humans can get Turf Madness, huh? Wanna tell me how that works?”

“The DNA that was injected,” I answered. “She-- it is affecting me and I had this urge to hurt people. You need to believe me! I would never try to hurt someone in my right mind!”

He put his hands up as he said, “Woah, chill. I’m not going to just throw all my doubts into the ring. If that octarian stuff is really messing with you, then I’ll teach you how to control Turf Madness.”

I looked up at him in high hopes. I needed to know. “Can you really do that?”

He grinned. “Of course! We all learn to control it sooner or later. Some, like Bryson, have even mastered Turf Madness.”

Woah, what?! “What do you mean by mastered? Can he--?”

“Hey, hey! Nope!” he interrupted, putting a finger to my lips. “None of that. You need to get it under control first. You’re way too far from trying to master it. Trust me, we don’t need another incident, okay?”

I slowly nodded and he pulled away. I was feeling a little more hopeful. If I learned how to control it, maybe Bryson would forgive me, right? My stomach felt queasy at the thought of remembering my actions. This guilt was gnawing at me and I knew it wouldn’t feel right until I made it up to him.

I just needed to learn how to control it...