Splatoon: Security in Chaos

Panic

"I have to do this next trial before we proceed," D1 explained.

"I can help!" Albert exclaimed, grabbing his broken Inkbrush, which had only the tip, meaning he could only slap enemies with ink and couldn't roll it along the ground.

"No it's too dangerous without a proper weapon," D1 retorted, "Look, you wanna get out right?"

Albert nodded, "Yeah."

"Well the surface is amazing for someone like you," D1 continued, "But if you die here you'll never see it. So wait on the train car, if you don't wanna risk it."

"What's it like up there anyways?" Albert inquired.

"There's these little lights in the sky at night called stars," D1 explained, "Like... little eyes. They dazzle in the black sky."

"I wanna see!" Albert exclaimed eagerly.

"Then wait here," D1 replied, "Just a few more trials and we'll get you up there..."

D1 entered the fray, the trial pitting her against several sanitized Octolings in a timed deathmatch. D1 opened strong, charging down an enemy sniper with a curling bomb to cut through the enemy ink before she blasted them to kingdom come. She turned around to dodge fire from two enemies with Dualies strafing until they ran out of ink and blasting them both with another bomb.

However she had forgotten one enemy who took aim from beneath their green ink and prepared their Splat Roller.

There was a scream, as they were suddenly sprayed with ink. The Octoling turned around to see a trembling Albert, the fear of death in his eyes. The Octoling attempted to splat him, but Albert ducked to the side of their blow, sliding on the ink to got to an opening on their right and finish them off.

The rest was completed. Albert's hands shook, he felt his heart race like it was going to explode.

But that didn't matter to him as he rushed over to check on D1. He asked her, urgency in his voice, "A- are you OK? It's O- OK. We w- won."

"I'm fine," D1 assured, "I'm OK. Thanks. Got in a little over my head."

"D- don't leave me," Albert begged, "W- we have to g- get to the surface. Y- you wanna s- see the stars a- again. Right?"

"Hey hey," D1 assured Albert, but also dodged the question, "Easy. Easy. Look at me. I'm here. I'm OK. Take slow, deep breaths. OK?"

Albert listened, slowly calming down as D1 continued, "Do you always have a panic attack when you fight?"

Albert nodded, "I don't wanna die. Not before I see the stars."

"OK," D1 replied, "Look, if you're really insistent on helping me fight you need to like, find a way to not have a panic attack every time. Lemme try something."

She placed some earbuds in Albert's ears and put on some music and smiled at him, playing some music, "When we get into trouble, just, focus on the music, focus on my voice singing. OK?"

Albert nodded, "OK."

"You're not alone anymore Albert," she assured, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "I'm here now. It's going to be OK..."

Meanwhile in the present, after another two weeks of pushing towards the radio tower, Albert prepares to lead an assault on a gang using orange ink who had taken control of an old clothing store. It was slightly out of the way of their main goal, a detour, but a necessary one. As he explained to Terry, "...and yeah I don't trust the masses at all, but I want them to be safe. It's not malice, it's lack of faith in them to do right by themselves. The refugees need clothes to stay warm with the nights getting colder until we get them out of the city, so we need to take this store for them."