The inkling sat up, groggily wiping his eyes and readjusting his golf visor. He must have only gotten an hour of sleep or less, although it felt like he didn't sleep at all. Running a hand over his tentacles, he looked around. The first figure he saw was Mask, still passed out on top of his hero roller, still with both zapfish curled up on top of him, still snoring loudly. With lidded eyes, he turned his attention next to him.
It took him a moment to process the empty space. He blinked slowly. Army was gone. His head whipped around, searching for his friend, expecting to see him standing idly against one of the walls, or at least somewhere. His breath quickened, turning to Skull. He remained perched on the stack of crates, charger in his arms. His eyes stared distantly at nothing, and Aloha quickly became angry with him.
"Dammit, Skull, what are you doing?!" He stuttered.
The purple inkling finally drew his gaze downwards to the practically steaming teammate below. "Hmm?"
"Army! You were supposed to be keeping watch, and Army is gone! How did you not see?!"
"Oh, Army. I saw him."
Aloha was plunged into a state of confusion. He saw him? "...What? What happened? What the hell do you mean?!"
Skull shifted, leaning his arm on his knee. "It was only about ten minutes after you fell asleep. I heard movement, and I aimed down at where you were. That's when I saw him." Aloha could hardly comprehend what he was hearing. "He stood up, and I kept my charger trained on him. I nearly thought I was hallucinating, but his pupils moved. He looked directly at me. And then..." He sighed, turning his head to look towards the darkness, the other following his gaze. "He walked away. He didn't look at anyone else: not you, not Mask, not even the zapfish. He just turned and stumbled away."
Aloha's mouth parted in concealed rage as he continued, acting nonchalant. "I honestly should have shot him. Now that he seems to be self-aware – or, at least, he's no longer pretending he's not – he's a major threat. We don't know anything about this goop that seems to be controlling all these Octarians, and, with Army's training, if all that knowledge was retained... we need to be on our fucking guard."
"Why..." Aloha asked through gritted teeth, fists clenched. "Why didn't you do anything? You let him LEAVE?"
"What the hell was I supposed to do?" Skull retorted. "Do you wanna keep him on a leash and collar? You can do whatever the hell you wanna with him, since he's your little science project, but I have no responsibility when it comes to him, unless he decides to attack us."
"I can't fucking believe you right now!" He shouted. "The least you could have done is woken me up, then! Asshole!"
"Not my job."
"You're despicable", Aloha sneered. He spun on his heels and snatched up his hero dualies.
"And just where are you heading off to?"
He tossed his head over his shoulder, eyes slitted. "It's not your responsibility, so don't fucking worry about it."
"Aloha, no. You aren't going off on your own."
"Fine, let's put it to a vote." He faced the sleeping form of their teammate. "Mask! Hey, Mask!" The inkling responded with a loud snore. Aloha walked up to him, lightly kicking him in the side. "Hey! Hey! Hey, Mask! Wake up!" He scoffed when the other still did not awaken.
"Well, if the two of us were to vote, it would be a tie. And, since I have the authority here, that means we go by my say. So..." He seemed to relish in Aloha's anguish as he gestured downwards, pointing at the ground. "Stay. If you leave, I'm gonna beat you up so bad you'll be blue and green like those Octarians."
