#7 - Sanitized

Alternan Mind Games

Three's POV

"Our first destination will be the Cozy and Safe Factory," said Shiver. "While you complete the missions, we will be searching for the Fuzzy Ooze weak point. By now, I'm sure you've noticed that every glob of the Ooze has a swirling orb. If you can manage to destroy it, all the ooze in the glob will disappear,"

"Yeah," I said. "Luckily, we have this little guy!" said Four. She held up Ahato's Smallfry.

"Ay?" (A Salmonid? Woah! A bitey little one! We can easily clear the way with him.)

Unsurprisingly, Deep Cut had already cleared some of the missions with their level of skill. I had done some research on them before we moved here, they seemed like a shady group. I found out that they're a trio of bandits, but I won't tell them I know yet. I need to stay on my guard, they're not saying anything more except that they need the treasure. For what? What is it? I needed to know.

I easily cleared all the levels with the help of Four. It would've been faster with everyone, but I didn't want to ruin the fun they were having. Probably shopping or playing Turf War after their visits with Ahato.

We reached the top of the area. There was a huge Kettle covered in Fuzzy Ooze. The mohawked Smallfry, who we had nicknamed "Inky," immediately knew what to do. He gobbled up the Ooze glob, destroying the rest of it. "Work on the next area," I told Four. "I'll go see what kind of treasure this is,"

When I entered, there was nothing there. Frye came in with me. "Hey! We couldn't find anything for now, and I saw you open the Kettle, so I wanted to come too. What's in here?"

"You mean...you don't know?"

"Um..."

We continued walking. There was a large arena. I saw a huge Octostomp in the corner, but it wasn't powered on. It looked run-down, like it hadn't been used in a very long time. "Whoa!" said Frye. "I wonder if I could bring that with me,"

"How would you fit it through the Kettle entrance?"

"Oh."

Suddenly, I felt sick. "I-"

"I don't think-"

"Huh?" said Frye. I heard her voice, but I didn't know what any of her words meant.

"I thi...nk I sho...uld..."

Suddenly, everything went black.

And brown.

And pink.

And swirly.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Frye's POV

What was going on? She had been fine a second ago, what happened?! "Scarlett!" I said. "Wake up!"

Oh. Oh, no.

I looked over at the strange cube-thing. Fuzzy Ooze dripped out of it. It flowed across the room, straight to Scarlett. "W-wake up!"

And she did.

But...I dunno if it was really her. She had these lifeless eyes, and her hair was-

Was...orange?

I panicked. Those Octolings' hair was orange. If I don't do something soon, she'll turn evil, I should run!

"N□t thi□ ag□in..."

Her voice was strange. It sounded like I was hearing it over one of those crappy Grizzco walkie-talkies that make your voice almost unrecognizable. "Oc□osta□p..." she said. "Bego□e!"