Another two weeks had passed since Actaeon and Callisto had come to visit, which had been a fairly enjoyable time, but after that, life had returned to normalcy.
Or, at least, normal by the standards of the New Squidbeak Splatoon. Because Artemis’ weekly routine was now including at least two missions a week and regular patrols of Octo Canyon. Ayane and Ethan had definitely been serious about the agents getting more involved in their duties as part of the team. It was more work than Artemis would’ve liked, but she signed on for the long haul, too late to complain.
But then on a Saturday morning, the whole team was called in to one of the training arenas for a sudden briefing. Even Callie and Marie were there, and so were X, Zero and Merga.
“Listen up, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve received intel on some kind of big project being working on by an Octarian scientist in a secret facility here,” Ayane said, pointing to a point marked on a map laid out on a table, “we need to infiltrate the facility, find out what it is, and shut it down.”
“Must be a big deal if all of us are going,” Karlene said. “Do we have any details into what it is?”
“Not really, just a name of the project lead - ‘Gate’, and whatever it is, we’ve detected big power spikes whenever the project is being tested,” X said. “Also, it’ll just be you guys for now. Zero and I will be hanging out at Tentakeel Outpost in case you need backup.”
“I’m going to be patrolling the Inkadian coastline to monitor Salmonid activity,” said Merga, arms crossed. “If something goes wrong I can always teleport over, but hopefully it won’t come to that.”
“Gate… He’s a high-ranking scientist,” Iris mused, rubbing her chin. “He’s brilliant, but incredibly ambitious, which got a lot of resentment from his colleagues, from what I could recall. I’d heard reports of potential sabotage of his work when I was still a Colonel. Seems most of his rivals being out of the picture must’ve allowed him to return to the spotlight with his own projects.”
“Gee, sounds like a stable mind,” Orion said dryly. He was no longer wearing the neck band, and he seemed to have no real inclination to return to his original body. Artemis couldn’t be more happy for him.
“Regardless of who’s in charge, the Octarians are developing something we think is pretty dangerous, so that needs to be shut down pronto,” said Zero. “The Captain will be monitoring your progress, but we don’t have much else in the way of intel, so you’ll be going in mostly blind.”
“Is that so…” Iris frowned. “I’m going to bring Yamato as a backup weapon. Knowing Gate, he might be working on something to disable ink weapons or something of the sort. So I’d like to have some kind of insurance against that.”
Artemis blinked, turning to her. While she had been practising with the sword a bit, Artemis never thought she’d actually consider using it in battle. “Iris… Are you sure? It is, you know, a steel sword…”
Iris nodded, the look in her eyes being surprisingly resolute. “I know, I don’t want to hurt people with it, but… The safety of the team comes before that, and if something happens, I want to be somewhat prepared. Colonel agrees with me on this.”
That brought to mind one of the other weapons the team had confiscated weeks ago - according to the Octarian research notes, the sword with the motorcycle handle was called ‘Red Queen’, supposedly owned by a legendary demon hunter. Artemis had been having a bit of fun practising with it herself when she had the chance. She turned to the Captain, “Cap’n, permission for Iris and I to bring along Yamato and Red Queen for this mission?”
The Captain stroked his beard in thought. “Permission granted, but use them only if you need to.”
“Yes sir!” Both she and Iris said, saluting.
“Another one of you should probably take the… ‘Cypher’? I believe that’s what it’s called.”
“Ciel hasn’t gotten around to making it work as intended, but even without power it’s still a viable blade, so that should be fine,” X said, as he teleported out. He came back with all three weapons in hand. Red Queen and the Cypher now had their own dedicated sheaths, for safety and also for carrying around. “I’m not sure I approve of this, but Iris has a point, we don’t know what exactly you guys are walking into.”
Artemis took a hold of Red Queen, feeling its weight and heft, briefly admiring the weapon before she slung the sheath over her back. Iris tied Yamato’s sheath to her waist. Shell, she looked so cool with that sword.
Karlene chuckled, looking them both over. “Not bad, you two certainly make it work for you.”
“I’ll take the Cypher,” Liam volunteered, “I think I can handle short-ranged weapons well enough.”
“You just want to carry it around, Boss, we both know it’s a pretty sick weapon,” Koji smirked.
"Yeah, so? What of it?” Liam snorted, taking the Cypher and holstering it onto his back as well. Artemis couldn’t deny that he looked pretty cool with it.
“Not bad, Boss,” Axl chuckled.
“You definitely wear it like a pro already,” Hinata giggled.
“Alright, enough, we’re wasting time here,” Ayane said, refocusing everyone’s attention back on her, as she laid out another map, this time with the local terrain around the base and what they knew about the base itself. “We’re going to be going in as covertly as possible through the ventilation system once again. Last thing we want is for the Octarians to do something stupid in a panic, so if we can minimise the chance of that, the better. Once we’re in, we make our way through the facility, take out the alarms and security system, shut down this project of Gate’s, and then arrest the guy. Quick, simple, get out, do what we need to do and then get back out.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Artemis grinned as she punched her palm, “let’s show those jerks a thing or two.”
When the team arrived at their entry point, the reason why the ventilation system was not really monitored became somewhat obvious - the entry-point was not only fortified, it also was hidden under a large pile of rocks arranged to look fairly natural and still allow for decent airflow. Of course, ‘was’ was the operative word, because both issues were swiftly dealt with by the use of their weapons’ energy modes. The whole team was slipping through the vents in single file, with Iris at the front.
Fortunately, the storage room she emerged into was clear of enemies, so she signalled the all clear. “No sign of any enemies, we’re clear to move in.”
She watched the door, a firm grip on her Octo Saber as the rest of the team came in one at a time. She could consciously feel the light but still noticeable weight of the katana at her left side, and there was a temptation to unleash it on her enemies, something that tore her up inside. She didn’t want to inflict harm on anyone, and especially not actively spill blood with an actual blade. And yet she was getting uncomfortably used to unleashing ink-based violence, would she be able to come back from using a steel sword… Or worse, killing someone with it?
“Hey, you alright, babe?” Artemis said in a hushed tone, coming over and kissing her on the cheek. “You look way too tense even for this mission.”
“Sorry, I’m just worried that I might be tempted to use Yamato without… Needing to,” said Iris. “That I might like using it to hurt people.”
Artemis blinked. Then she giggled.
“Artemis…!”
“Sorry, sorry, it’s just funny to me, you know? Trying to picture you as some kind of blade-wielding psychopath, I mean. I just don’t see it. You’re one of the cutest, kindest people I know,” Artemis grinned. “You’re totally overthinking it. Just focus on the mission, and chances are you’ll never need to actually use it.”
Before Iris could respond, Ayane interrupted them, also in a hushed tone. “Okay, we’re all in. Let’s get moving, try to avoid active confrontation until we reach the security room. Let’s not mess around, people.”
Iris nodded, opening the door and peering out into the corridor. Nobody around, good. She and Artemis dashed out together. They had a general idea of their route, and Iris could read Octarian signs that helped give a better idea of where to go, so it wasn’t too hard for them to figure out where the security room was.
The Octarian base was certainly newer, like some of the others they had raided, unlike the domes that had been believed to have been left behind by humans - shiny steel walls and ceilings over polished rocky floors. She had visited bases like this before, but she could tell this had been constructed much more recently. Made her wonder if it had been built explicitly for Gate’s experiment, and that made her fear what it might be.
Moving stealthily around the facility with such a large group was, to put it simply, difficult, and Iris found they had a few close shaves, nearly being spotted by Octotroopers or even Octoling soldiers either patrolling or just moving around the base. If they had to splat any of them, that meant the alarms would go off shortly after, and they couldn’t afford to do that yet, if they could help it. Also, there were a few security cameras here and there, but they were fairly simple to avoid.
Thankfully, they arrived at the security room without too much trouble, staffed by a couple of bored Octotroopers and an Octoling. Iris jumped the Octoling and pinned her to the floor while covering her mouth, while Axl and Artemis did the same with the Octotroopers, while Ayane plugged in some kind of hacking device that Marina had come up with. Thankfully, they had brought some rope and some cloth for this situation, and the gang got to work tying the trio up and gagging their mouths, before leaving them in the corner, angrily struggling and grunting.
“Marina’s doohickey came through for us. Security and alarms are offline,” Ayane said, as she unplugged it, the screens showing pop-ups saying as much.
“Nicely done, Agents,” said the Cap’n over the comms line. “Now it’s just the main objective.”
“Okay, good, can we start actually kicking butt now?” Liam asked.
“Let’s still be discreet, but yeah, we’re double-timing this,” Ayane said. “Let’s go.”
Iris was on point again as the group made their way towards the main lab area. While the group were trying to keep quiet, they were still moving much faster than before, and this meant inevitably they did run right into a few foes.
Iris felt a bit guilty as she splatted an Octoling right after seeing his panic and shock. There were still a lot of Octolings who hadn’t been able to understand there was a better way, yet. Why did they have to fight?
However, Axl put a hand on her shoulder, having noticed that she had frozen up right after. “Let’s just keep going, Iris.”
Iris nodded, and they kept moving. No point thinking about it, and Colonel was urging her to focus on the mission as well.
However, one thing that had stood out to her as they moved was that the Octolings were wearing black bands around their necks. They reminded her of the neck-band Orion had been wearing during his physical therapy, but they clearly weren’t the same thing, either. Was it part of Gate’s experiment?
Before long, they managed to reach the main lab. It was a large, dome-like room with a huge device in the middle, sparking with electricity - something was stuck into the middle of it, though she wasn’t sure what it was, but above it were three rotating emitters that connected to each other and the embedded object via plasma, underneath some kind of rotating turbine.
And then a voice sounded from one of the observation rooms above them. “Ah, the New Squidbeak Splatoon! Welcome! You’re just in time for the latest test run!”
Iris looked up towards the observation room, and frowned, seeing an Octoling male in a lab coat. His eyes were blue, and his hairstyle had something of a curved horn look to it with two of his tentacles, with two more acting as sideburns. He was also wearing one of the black neck-bands. “Gate…”
“Nice to see you again, Colonel,” Gate chuckled. “Did you honestly think it’d be that easy to make it here entirely undetected? I’ve got my own methods for spying intruders.”
“Too bad you didn’t alert the rest of the base, pal, because we’re here to wreck your little experiment and arrest you personally,” Ethan smirked.
“You’re assuming there isn’t a silent alarm, and besides… I wouldn’t destroy my project while it’s in operation. Considering what it does, destroying it might actually do some dreadful things to you!”
Suddenly, the machine whirred up fully, and before anyone could move to destroy it, it unleashed a burst of energy that at first seemed to pass through everyone harmlessly.
Artemis laughed. “Come on, dude, was that all? Looks like your little experiment was just a-” Suddenly, she doubled over, gasping. Parts of her body were starting to fluctuate between solid form and ink. “W-What the…?!”
Whatever Gate did, it wasn't good. Iris could see the same effects happening to herself and the rest of the team, and it was taking everything she had to not double over as well. She didn't feel like she was dying, though, so that was a silver lining, at least, but still... "Oh, no… Everyone, we need to leave! Now!"
“Don’t need to tell me twice…” Axl groaned, as everyone bolted for the exit.
Iris could hear Gate’s maniacal laughter behind her as she moved. Blast doors were coming down to try and cut them off. “Now, now, where are you going? I’m not going to let you leave that easily! And don’t think I haven’t forgotten about your robotic friends, either!”
The group had managed to get out of the lab before the first blast door came down, and Iris managed to get past a few more, but her eyes widened as she realised that some of her comrades were being cut off, slowed down by their sudden affliction. She saw Artemis stumble and fall, disappearing behind the last blast door. “AGENT 5!”
“We gotta keep moving!” Karlene groaned, as she ran alongside her. “We need someplace to hide while we wait for this to wear off…”
“R-Right…” Iris looked around the corridor as they ran, and spotted a door to a supply closet. “THERE!”
They barged right in, slamming the door behind them. It wasn’t a large closet, and they couldn’t see a thing without a light on, but it would work just fine.
Iris groaned as she briefly passed out.
She felt strange when she came to a couple of minutes later, but she was too disoriented to figure out what. “Ugh… What happened…?”
“I’ll get the light,” Karlene said. Iris heard her fumbling for the light switch. “What the shell happened to my hands…? Okay, there we go-”
The light flashed on. Iris blinked as she noticed that Karlene had in squid form while fumbling for the light, using one of her tentacles. “Agent 9, why are you like that?”
Karlene looked back at Iris, “what do you mean? Why are you in octopus form?”
“I’m not in-” Iris froze. She looked down at herself. Somehow, she had transformed without realising it. “Okay, that’s weird…”
She tried changing back. But she couldn’t. “Wait… I can’t change back.”
“Huh?” Karlene blinked, and Iris could tell she was trying to change as well, visibly straining. “Me neither…”
Iris strained herself as much as possible, but somehow, she simply couldn’t change back. It didn’t take long for her to put two and two together, and panic immediately set in. “Oh cod… That’s what Gate was working on! A device that can force Inklings and Octolings into swim form and prevent them from changing back! We’re practically defenceless!”
Karlene showed a brief moment of panic herself, but she was suddenly focused, and something seemed to pop right out of her body - her Hero Shot. “Not entirely, it’s just gonna be… Harder.” She tried manipulating it with her tentacles, using her suckers to hold it and the tip of her tentacle to press the trigger, “yeah, this is still gonna be hard to use, and right now I’m not getting much ink output, so I’ll to use the energy shot mode. I bet you’ll have a lot more luck using your Octo Saber with those tentacles of yours.”
Before she tried to do so, Iris noticed that Yamato was right beside her. Apparently it hadn’t integrated with her body when she transformed.
The Octo Saber’s energy mode would be too dangerous to use like this, Colonel advised. A normal steel sword would be better.
As much as she hated to admit it, Colonel was right. She took up Yamato with her tentacles, finding a good, solid grip with it. “No, I might hurt myself or you with an energy blade. This sword would be easier to use safely.”
“Come in, Agent 8, Agent 9!” The Cap’n said, clearly panicking. “What’s going on down there?! That burst messed up communications for a bit there… Why are you holding your weapons in swim form?”
“Things have gone up squit creek, Cap’n, Gate’s device has locked us in swim form,” Karlene said. Thankfully they didn’t need to do anything in particular to actively communicate with him. “We need backup, fast.”
“Roger that, you two. Try and reunite with the rest of the squad, I’ll get help!”
“Alright, guess our new objective is to reunite with the rest of the gang, make sure nobody gets splatted or captured, and get out,” Karlene said. “You okay with using that sword, Agent 8?”
“Yeah. I think so,” Iris said, dreading what she’d likely have to do with it shortly…
X smiled as he looked over the gathering of folks meeting up at the Outpost, just hanging out. While it had originally been supposed to have been just him, Zero, the Squid Sisters and Off The Hook, Callie had invited Ciel, Alia, Layer, Palette and Nana as well, since it was the weekend. Sadly, Marino couldn’t come, she was busy with a weekend photoshoot.
“So are the Agents busy with a mission today?” Alia asked. “Must be big if they’re doing it on a weekend.”
“Yeah, we’re waiting around as backup,” Zero nodded. “Which is why we’re all armoured up and stuff. It’s a pretty big mission.”
“Can’t go wrong with being too prepared. I’m sure it’ll be alright, but can’t be too careful,” Marie nodded.
“We’ve got a big problem!” Cap’n Cuttlefish stammered, as he threw open the door to the cabin. “The agents are requesting backup!”
X bolted to his feet. Looks like the worst case scenario had come true after all. “What’s the problem?”
“Whatever Gate’s experiment was, it forced the agents into their swim forms! They can’t change back! And Gate said there was a silent alarm, so the whole base is probably on high alert too!”
“Damn, that’s not good,” Zero frowned.
“Hold on, did you say ‘Gate’?” Alia asked, getting up as well.
“Yeah, he’s the scientist that the team are tasked with capturing, why?” Callie asked.
“Oh. Oh great,” Alia groaned, shaking her head. “Why did it have to be him…”
“He used to be Alia’s colleague… And also he’s her ex-boyfriend,” Palette sighed.
Marina turned to a very confused Pearl. “He’s a big-time Octarian scientist. Very ambitious.”
Pearl seemed to get the idea immediately. “Oh, okay, mad scientist, got it. Uh, this is a big problem!”
“Zero and I will get down there and back them up,” X said, “you ladies stay here and try and work on some kind of countermeasure. Ciel, I’m authorising you to get those new hero suits ready. It might be our best shot at counteracting the experiment.”
“Yes sir,” Ciel nodded, as she teleported out.
“Be careful, X, Zero,” Layer said. “If it’s something made by Gate, it’s probably more than just a forced transformation.”
“Yeah, he’s probably got more stuff up his sleeve,” Nana nodded.
“Thanks, we’ll keep that in mind,” Zero nodded. “Come on, X, let’s go.”
X nodded, and they teleported out. Hopefully this wouldn’t get worse before it got better, but he was not counting on it…
