#7 - Sanitized

Unreal

It's 12:06 already. I don't know if they're coming...

But then, something...unexpected happened. An Octoling walked up to me, and he looked familiar, but I didn't remember him.

"You came," he said. I had heard his voice somewhere. It was so familiar...

"Yeah, and if you know anything about Marissa, I need to know!" I said. "Anything..."

He laughed. "Well, she's alive. When-" 

"WAIT, WHAT!?" I couldn't believe it. No, really. I couldn't.

"Well, at the time she was splatted, we were working on our respawn points. We were testing them on some of our soldiers, and you probably don't remember because of the goggles, but... You and Marissa both volunteered to help," he explained. I didn't say anything. "Apparently, one of them worked. After she respawned, we got to work replicating the respawn point. But as for her..."

"What!?" I asked.

"She escaped Octo Valley, so Octavio sent his Elites after her. I don't know exactly what happened next, but...I heard through th' grapevine that she got chased into the Deepsea Metro and got Sanitized. If I'm right, she should be...#9,989. Probably some number higher than that, though,"

I immediately dashed off. "WAIT!" he yelled. "DON'T GO!" but I wasn't listening.

But then he caught up and grabbed my wrist. "If you really thought that saving her would be that easy, you'd be wrong!" he said. "SO WHAT!?" I asked. "I don't have anything to lose!"

"Then..." He laughed. "What about your sanity again?"

And he shifted to his Octo form. How could I not recognize him!? It was DJ Octavio!

"I found a way to easily escape that snowglobe," he said. "And now, I'll have you sent back to Kamabo!"

"No!" I cried. "There's no one left there anyway!"

"But that's where you're wrong," he said. "Commander Tartar has TONS of Octarians and Octolings you've never met.

"Why?!" I asked. "You're taking this too far!" I managed to slip away and I ran as far as I could until he lost me. I quickly superjumped away and went back to the plaza. Thankfully, the other Agents were able to lock him back in his snowglobe.

But I was done. He had been talking about himself in third person. He had sent the Elites to bring Marissa to Kamabo. I would probably never see her again, and if I did, would I even recognize her, lined up with all the other identical Sanitized soldiers?

That night, I left for Octo Canyon. I saw Octavio in his globe, being rescued by two Sanitized Octolings. Luckily, I was able to splat them since I had brought my Dualies. They cried out in pain as their little blue souls flew back to their faraway respawners. "Drat," Octavio grumbled. "What do you want?" 

I didn't answer. I just looked closely at his Hypnoshades. It was kind of odd to see him wearing them if he was the one controlling everyone...

And then I saw it. The Kamabo logo.

"Tartar!" I exclaimed. I deactivated the snowglobe, and before Octavio could do anything I pulled off his shades. "It was YOU! You're the one making all this trouble! Not Octavio!" I quickly reactivated his snowglobe's force field. I crushed the Hivemind Glasses and threw what was left of them off the edge of Tentakeel Outpost. "You were the one who kept giving Callie those shades! YOU were the one who sent Mari to Kamabo! YOU!"

Octavio was finally back to normal. I quickly left Octo Canyon and went to the Deepsea Metro. 

It was time for this stupid, repetitive madness to come to an end.