Permafrost: Thunderbird

Chapter 28: Fighting Spirit

⭐️Chapter 28: Fighting Spirit

The Infernos has already launched into a fight with Hunter, spreading out around him as Glade and Ella also joined in. Hunter himself had pulled out a harpoon looking weapon that was dripping ink, so it was very possible that that thing could splat. The two mutants were merged with a shark and an orca respectively, both seemingly agitated yet distressed about the situation. The Infernos wanted to get the shock collars off, but they didn't know if it was dangerous OR if they had time. There were also no respawn points nearby from what the group could see, and even if there WERE any, they didn't know where they were located.

Ella revved up her mini splatling while Glade spun his dualie squelchers. Hunter had aimed the harpoon at the group, and for only a few minutes, the space was quiet and peaceful. Then the shark mutant finally lost its patience and charged at the group, initiating the fight. Glade dodge-rolled out of the way while Ryn threw a burst bomb at its face to blind it. It ducked and reeled back to punch her, causing her to swim away as the fist landed on the ground.

Out of curiosity, Jack tossed a splat bomb at the Thunderbird Totem, only for the bomb to explode harmlessly without leaving a mark on it. It seemed the machine was un-inkable and therefore probably not able to be destroyed by normal means. Jack swam back to recover ink before attempting to swing back and destroy the machine by brute force, but Hunter used his vulnerable state to his advantage and fired his harpoon weapon at him. Jack didn't have time to turn into a squid to dodge it and braced for impact, but Silvia managed to dash in front of him and catch the harpoon with her brella. It instantly destroyed the canopy once it pierced through though, and was retracted before it could fall to the floor or be grabbed.

Silvia got a glance at the man's identification pin, which simply read "Hunter". So that was his name, huh? Cosmo and Ryn started to cover the room in red ink for later maneuverability, while Glade started shooting at the shark mutant's eyes to blind it. The mutant raised its arm over its eyes instead, shielding it from the ink and not dealing much damage. Seemed like it would take more than just ink to take these mutants down.

The orca mutant lunged forwards, massive hands ready to swipe down whoever got in its way. Ella tossed a burst bomb at the orca mutant in hopes of blinding it, but the mutant immediately swiped at it, destroying the bomb and rendering it useless. Ella flinched at this, and ducked into her ink to flee instead of shooting the mutant in the face or turfing the ground. Her special weapon, Tenta Missiles, were probably not the best kind of weapon to use in an enclosed space, even if it was rather spacious. Ink armor and splashdown was fine, but things like Tenta Missiles, Ink Storm, and those other specials with a large, varying effect radius were not suited for this fight.

Jack reeled back to swing down at Hunter now that he knew that ink bombs did nothing, while Silvia ran around to the other side. Surprisingly, Hunter did not aim for either of them, so Jack took his chances as he swung down as hard as he could...but he was stopped shortly by another force. The shark mutant bit down on the dynamo roller and flung Jack over its head, sending him crashing down into the floor. Silvia had approached Hunter to try and tackle the harpoon gun out of his hands, but he had aimed his harpoon at Cosmo and fired. Silvia's canopy had regenerated by now, but she wasn't quick enough to get it open to block the shot again.

"COSMO, LOOK OUT!" she yelled.

The small Octoling quickly looked up from turfing in time to see the harpoon being launched straight at him. He dropped into his ink, allowing the spear to impale the wall nearby instead. Ryn watched this happen from where she stood and narrowly avoided getting smacked by a mutant's tail before running up towards Hunter.

"Give Bird back!" she shouted. "We know what you scientists do here!"

"I would, but she's already been released...I believe it was one of those traitor team members who did it..." Hunter simply replied, retracting the harpoon from the wall.