Artemis was expecting to spend her afternoon after school doing ink battles, but her team was pulled aside by Ayane during lunch to an empty classroom well away from anyone else, and for a reason that in hindsight shouldn’t have surprised her, but it did anyway.
“So we’re actually going on a mission for once?” Artemis chuckled, “what about the boys?”
“It’s basically our turn to handle it, and Ethan’s handling Octo Valley today anyway,” Ayane said, as she began using the whiteboard. Artemis also recalled that Orion had a bunch of extracurricular activities today, so he’d be too busy as well.
Karlene raised a hand, “it’s been nearly a month since we beat Octavio, why now?”
“Because you guys really made a mess of things for the Octarians in the Canyon and they’ve needed to relocate to new base locations in Octarian territory. It’s taken all of this time for them to properly recover from that,” Ayane said as she began sketching a simple map of the area. “We’ve got intel that there’s a new weapons production lab in the area between the Valley and the Canyon. They’re gathering up old human-era artefacts that they’ve recovered in hopes of using them to create new and deadlier weapons.”
Iris gasped. “That’s terrible! We can’t let that happen!”
Artemis grinned, punching her palm, “well, it wouldn’t be any good if we let them do that. I’ve been itching for another mission. Gotta show ‘em the error of their ways, after all.”
“YEAH! Go girl power! Let’s kick their butts!” Hinata giggled.
Karlene smirked, a hand on her hip, “sounds good to me, let’s do it.”
Artemis looked over at Iris, who looked… Somewhat less excited. In fact, she seemed rather nervous, holding her left arm and looking down. “Iris? Are you okay?”
Iris sighed. “I know we need to do this, because what the Octarians are doing isn’t right, but… I still don’t want to hurt them. And what if they recognise me?”
Oh geez. Bless her heart, Iris was a peaceful soul, but that meant she was more hesitant about fighting other people. She just wanted a peaceful life in Inkopolis, one could only imagine how much it tore at her to fight her former comrades, even if it was the right thing to do.
Artemis went behind her and started massaging her shoulders. “Iris, it’s okay. Assuming they’ve got a respawn point to retreat to, it’s not like we’ll be hurting them all that much. Besides, we could get a mask for you or something if you’re really that worried about being recognised.”
“We’ll take point and you can watch our backs,” Karlene offered.
Iris bit her lower lip, but she seemed to relax a bit from Artemis’ massage. “No, it’s… It’s okay. I’ve got Colonel to fall back on if I need to. I’m at my best when I’m fighting at close quarters, after all. I shouldn’t be hiding myself or my face, now.”
“That’s the spirit. Handling missions will be second nature to you. Remember, we’re doing this for everyone’s sake, not just for Inkopolis,” Artemis nodded, satisfied that Iris had regained her nerve.
“That’s nice, but I haven’t even properly started the briefing yet,” Ayane said, regaining everyone’s attention. “Merga will be joining us, in case the Octarians have anything nasty up their sleeves. Here’s what we’re going to do…”
Later after school, the girls gathered at Octo Canyon to get their equipment, before teleporting out to their destination with help from Merga. Super-jumping was nice, but there was something even faster and more convenient about teleportation, even if it took a bit of getting used to.
This was the first time Iris had worn her Hero Suit outside of training. While her teammates seemed to be used to it, she did a feel of unease having it on, like it was a symbol of her new responsibilities. She had sworn to help protect the city she now called home, but… Well, talk was cheap. At least she had her trusty Octo Saber as a tool of comfort, which was odd considering it was a weapon.
The terrain near the base was barren and rocky, with the base itself built into the rocky outer wall of Octo Canyon. The facility wasn’t a dome, but rather completely built from scratch by the Octarian military. There were many such facilities dotted around the wastelands, for both military and scientific purposes, and generally their locations as far as most Octarians were concerned was on a need-to-know basis.
They had arrived at a hidden portable respawn point not far from the Octarian base, powered by a zapfish, which Merga had apparently already set up. Ayane pet the zapfish, Charger on her back and Hero Shot in her other hand. “We’re here. Our mission, first and foremost, is to secure the artefacts and capture or destroy any weapons being developed by the Octarians.”
Iris noticed that next to the respawn point was a boombox. “Miss Four, that boombox… Are you planning to use that with…?”
“Yeah, but after we complete our primary objective,” Ayane said. “Otherwise we’ll just be giving away our location to the enemy, and we don’t want them panicking and doing something stupid, or even trying to make off with the goods.”
Iris completely understood the tactical need to prioritise objectives, but she had mixed feelings about it, considering using the Calamari Inkantation could be a viable way to free the minds of the Octarians inside the base. But preventing them from causing more harm came first, however. “Understood.”
“Heck yeah, let’s take ‘em by surprise!” Artemis grinned, spinning her Hero Dualies in her hands. It wasn’t remotely a surprise that she was so enthusiastic, though Iris wished she could take this a bit more seriously.
Of course, there had to be two of them not taking this so seriously - “They won’t know what hit ‘em,” giggled Hinata, briefly revving up her Hero Splatling.
“Let’s not get too excited, we’re on a mission, not fighting a typical match,” Karlene said, checking her Hero Shot briefly. “Agent 4, Hydro Dragoon, lead the way to our entry point.”
“Of course. I found an abandoned access kettle, figured out where it lead, and covertly opened opened up the other end after teleporting there. But we should move quickly before they figure out it’s open,” Merga said. “You have command, Agent 4.”
“Roger that, Hydro Dragoon. Are there any enemy respawn points detected in the area?” Ayane asked.
“Affirmative, and outside the facility. The enemy will likely escape when splatted, but they won’t be permanently harmed.”
“Good,” Ayane said, putting a hand to her headset, “Cap’n, you receiving our signals?”
“Copy that, Agent 4, I’ve got you nice and clear over here,” said the Cap’n over their communications network. “Good to see you back in action. You’re clear to proceed.”
They wasted little time making their way to the kettle, keeping out of sight of the main entrance to the facility, which had a normal door built into the slope and covered by security cameras. The kettle required a bit of climbing to get to as they inked their way up the rocks and to it. Ayane went in first, of course, and the rest of the team followed once she confirmed the coast was clear.
Iris was in front with Artemis, quietly checking corners and sneaking up on patrols. The steel corridors were patrolled by bored Octotroopers who were more than a little surprised when Iris and Artemis started ambushing them, covering the floors and walls with orange ink from both weapons and splats.
She hated this. She hated the looks and cries of pain when her adversaries were splatted, even though she knew they’d be alright. She hated that they had to be her enemies at all. The collective Octarian grudge was just so ingrained, and yet from her perspective, now so baffling. The enemy were trying to restore a dying empire when it would be easier and better to just co-exist with the Inklings. But Colonel, for some reason, wasn’t surfacing, forcing her to endure having to splat her own former comrades.
But of course, the problem with having to splat enemies was that soon, the alarm was sounded, resulting in sirens echoing through the corridors. Merga turned on the boombox, which began playing the Calamari Inkantation. Hopefully, they’d open the minds of any Octarians still here.
Still, Iris was wondering why Colonel was silent and incommunicado when she opened a door leading to a lab. Inside were a whole bunch of Octarian soldiers and scientists, attempting to grab or destroy their research. But when the Splatoon came in with weapons at the ready, they all froze, weapons pointed back.
Then Iris’ worst fear came true. One of the Octoling soldiers spoke up. “Colonel Mizuno? Why are you-” Then Iris saw a flash of realisation on her face. “The rumours were true. You’ve defected to the side of the Inklings.”
This is one battle you need to fight yourself, Princess. That was the first and only thing Colonel said to her the whole mission, at that point.
“Yes. I have,” Iris said. “I’m done fighting a war that ended a hundred years ago. The Inklings accepted me as a friend and who I am with open arms. Please, all of you, stand down! We don’t have to fight!”
Some of the Octarians hesitated and lowered their weapons. Others were more incensed, and immediately opened fire.
Iris side-stepped some incoming shots, slashing through the first soldier that had tried to shoot at her. The soldiers and scientists who had stopped fighting immediately dropped to the floor, covering their heads as the other Agents opened fire, splatting attackers left and right, with Artemis dodging around fire, Karlene handling the mid range, Hinata providing covering fire, Ayane shooting distant targets and Merga charging targets as she slashed them with energy-ink blades. Ultimately, the Octarians didn’t stand a chance.
As the fight approached its end, Iris focused on a scientist scrambling to try and escape with a strange steel shooter-like weapon she had never seen before. He panicked as she approached, and raised the weapon towards her.
“NO!” Artemis suddenly dodge-rolled twice in quick succession towards him, grabbing his arm and forcing it down as they struggled.
BANG.
Iris winced in pain, her ears ringing. Her headphones had muffled the noise a bit, but it was so loud as to be painful. How deadly could that shooter be if just the sound of it firing could hurt someone?!
Artemis was also briefly disoriented by the bang, but fortunately a streak of ink splattered the scientist, causing the weapon to clatter to the floor. Ayane stepped over to them, “are you alright?”
“Yeah, but… Ow, that noise actually hurt,” Iris winced, putting her saber away.
“Wow, that was crazy!” Hinata said, coming over to look at the weapon, and extended a hand towards it. Artemis slapped it away. “Ow, what?”
“Don’t touch that, you’ll hurt yourself if you don’t handle it properly.” Artemis carefully picked up the weapon, taking it to a nearby workbench, unloading what looked like small metal ovoid objects from it. “Of course it hurt, this isn’t meant to be used without ear protection. The fact that it was even loaded in the first place really pisses me off.”
“We weren’t planning to use it!” Said one of the remaining scientists in a panic, “We simply restored it and were going to test it, not use it on anyone!”
Karlene looked over the weapon as Artemis disassembled it with surprising dexterity and speed. The weapon itself was small, one-handed, double-barrelled and had some kind of rotating chamber with six slots for the ovoids. “Agent 5… What is that thing? And why are you so familiar with it?”
“It’s called a ‘firearm’. Of course you wouldn’t know what it is, they’re pretty rare nowadays, they’re really only used by hunters like Dad. He has a dedicated safe for the ones he uses,” Artemis said, taking a deep breath. Her attitude had taken a complete one-eighty the instant the weapon had become relevant. “They’re extremely dangerous, illegal in ink battles, and one of the few things I knew about the Octarians before I became an Agent is that the Inklings and Octarians agreed long ago to only use them on monsters, not people.”
“I’m impressed, Agent 5, not many people know about that. That treaty was signed long before even the Great Turf War,” Cap’n Cuttlefish said.
Iris could hear Octavio in the background, grumbling, “we’re not savages.”
Hinata, for once, actually seemed unnerved, mostly by how serious Artemis was being. “I’m not sure I get why it’d be so dangerous to use.”
“Ink weapons don’t hurt Inklings and Octolings attuned to the same ink colour, Agent 10,” Merga said, as she looked over the other weapons in the lab. “Firearms don’t and can’t distinguish between friend and foe, like energy weapons.”
Artemis nodded. “You gotta treat them with respect and be careful where you point them - always assume they’re loaded. I learned that the hard way when I was younger. I accidentally shot my dad in the leg while practising with one of his rifles a bit too carelessly.”
Iris winced. This explained so much about her attitude towards these things. Artemis didn’t want someone else getting hurt by them. “If he had shot me… I would’ve gotten instantly splatted, wouldn’t I?”
“Yeah. You would’ve. I’m glad that didn’t happen, though,” Artemis smiled to her, before she immediately started looking around the lab, apparently for similar weapons to disassemble. Ayane was talking to the scientists and soldiers who had surrendered.
Speaking of which, Iris looked at the various weapons on the workbenches and in the glass cabinets around the lab. Ancient weapons in varying states of condition and restoration, none of them ink-based - swords, firearms of different types, some kind of long tonfa-blade, a bionic arm with some kind of grappling hook functionality…
One of the swords caught her eye in particular, a slightly curved blade in a black sheath which had a blue cord likely used to tie it to one’s waist. She took a hold of the weapon, slowly unsheathing it partially and taking a look at the details, admiring the diamond patterns on the handle and the gold hand guard, and the blade itself had noticeable temper lines. Whoever had forged this weapon was a true artist.
There was also something about the weapon that was unseen that she could just… Feel. But whatever it was, it was a pale shadow of what it had been. She could imagine that’d be the case after 12,000 years of neglect. “I wonder what kind of story you had…”
“I believe, according to my databanks, that’s a ‘katana’, an old Japanese sword,” Merga said.
A name came to mind, but Iris couldn’t figure out why. “I… I think ‘Yamato’ is its name. I don’t know why, I just… Get this feeling. It feels like a sword with a proud history.”
“Is that so? Interesting,” Merga said, as she continued inspecting.
“It’s best that we find a safe place to store these. Besides, I doubt we’d be allowed to keep them at the dorms,” Karlene said dryly. “This is a pretty cool arsenal, but it’s also pretty dangerous.”
“I’d say… Wow, this sword has a freaking motorcycle grip?!” Artemis grinned, looking at one of the single-sided swords, which had exhaust pipes and a clutch lever as well. “Would be fun to test out in a safe place.”
Iris smiled, sheathing Yamato properly as she walked over to Artemis. “Nice to see you taking weapon safety seriously, Agent 5.”
Artemis blushed. “I… I already hurt someone I care about by doing something stupid. Don’t wanna do it again.”
Iris kissed her on the cheek, taking a strange amount of pleasure in seeing Artemis so flustered. “That’s good.”
Artemis turned to her, now looking more concerned, “are you alright, though? Between having to splat all those Octarians and that gunshot-”
“I’m… I’m okay for now, Ar-Agent 5. Thank you,” Iris smiled softly.
“You sure? I noticed Colonel didn’t surface even once that whole time.”
Iris was blindsided. “You noticed?”
“I think you underestimate me sometimes, babe, of course I noticed,” Artemis smiled, taking Iris’ hands. The word ‘babe’ caused Iris to immediately blush. “It’s okay. I know you’re not keen on hurting people, but… What we’re doing is preventing more people from getting hurt. ‘Evil wins when good people do nothing’, as my mom says.”
Iris knew Artemis meant well, and she probably didn’t mean to be condescending, but Iris kind of felt that was how she was acting. Of course she knew that. But to just overcome her personal problems with fighting was not so easy.
She sighed, letting go of Artemis’ hands, “Agent 5… I know. But pretty words won’t help me overnight. This is something I need to figure out for myself.”
Artemis blinked. “Was… That you talking, or Colonel? I honestly couldn’t tell.”
Iris realised that she couldn’t tell either. “I… I don’t…”
“But I get what you mean. I’ll shut up about it, but if you need help, I’m always here,” Artemis smiled, hugging her, before getting back to work.
As Iris helped clean things up, she found herself stewing over the question again and again.
Ethan was admittedly a bit disappointed there was no meetup at the Outpost this afternoon - between the mission and what came afterwards, the boys being busy with extracurriculars and the idols having packed schedules, it seems everyone was too busy to make time for this afternoon and evening. It left him at a complete loss when he arrived in Inkopolis Plaza after his rounds in the Valley, the sun having gone down and the streets mostly illuminated by streetlights and any stores still open. What was he to do with his free time?
Then he saw a shadow zooming across the sky, given away only by the moonlight and the contrast with the lights below - it zipped across buildings almost like it was flying.
He didn’t hesitate, super-jumping straight to the next building the figure was zipping to. He gripped his Hero Roller, immediately splashing ink in the figure’s path, “hey, you! A little suspicious, zipping across buildings like tha-”
The figure didn’t give him time to finish, somehow extending her arm to the top of a stairwell entrance, and zipping to it. He couldn’t identify her properly, only that she was covered in some kind of green, inky suit - a dead ringer for the phantom thief. Her figure was unmistakably female.
“HEY! I’m talking to you! I want to tell you something, geez!” Ethan called out, as he tried to give chase.
The figure looked back at him, standing on top of the stairwell entrance. The look in her eyes was… Pained. But she turned away, leaping off and latching on to the next building.
Ethan wasted no time super-jumping right to the next building, but the problem was that between the time it took to start the jump and the time it took to do the whole jump? His target was moving faster than him. Much faster. And she was fast on her feet, too, as she demonstrated when he tried to chase her down on foot.
Despite his attempts to stay ahead of her? She managed to misdirect his next jump, and slipped away into the night, disappearing from sight. He couldn’t even hear the sound of her zipping anymore, either.
Ethan swore to himself, as he sat down to rest. He was going to need to figure out a way to catch up with her next time. Maybe Marina or Ciel could cook something up?
And as for the thief… Something about this felt familiar. Her movements. The fact that she had an experimental Octarian special weapon. And… Well, her figure was a bit distracting with that suit. Seriously, concentrating on the chase wasn’t the easiest when he was getting distracted by her-
Nevermind. He had suspicions, but he hoped they were wrong. And besides, he needed more evidence before he could accuse anyone. Time to return to his apartment, and figure out his next move.
