Survivors of Alterna: Final Run

Chapter 23: The Grand Disaster

Akikta opened his eyes and saw he was no longer in the foggy white room of the splicing chamber. He wasn't even in the Superiority Complex anymore.

Based on his surroundings, he was still in Atlantis—The Bowels, to be exact. The shapes of the ruined sectors were irregular enough for him to tell, but why was everything colorless? Actually, before that, how'd he even get here? And more importantly, why couldn't he move?

Akikta was fully conscious and could feel his body, but he had no control over its movements. And the strangest part? He was moving involuntarily. Despite that, he was moving with a purpose. He wanted to get somewhere, or rather, to someone. He didn't know who, but he knew where they were, weirdly enough.

Then the damnest thing happened. A beam of ink struck him in the back like a laser, yet he felt no pain. He knew it was ink from the liquid's viscosity.

Akikta turned to see the beam of ink firing from the tip of a mask. The mask looked exactly like the one Masu wore, but the entity wearing it wasn't her. It was a salmonid of some kind, stacked on top a dozen of pots. He recalled someone calling the mask a 'stinger mask', so that must be what the salmonid was.

The stinger was surrounded by various other salmonids, much to Akikta's horror. To make matters worse, he was alone, and the horde was approaching him fast. However, the fear he felt was heavily outweighed by a different emotion—anger. Without hesitation, Akikta's body sprung towards the group at speeds he didn't know he could reach.

Then he blinked, and the horde was gone. So was Atlantis. He was somewhere entirely different.

The scene unfolding before him had a bunch of inklings, octolings, and various other sea creatures scrambling over one another to get away from him. Fear was all he could see in their facial expressions.

The bright lights and loud noises told him where he was. Even in a black-and-white world, he knew this was the concert. The same one where the Squid Sisters performed live for their splatfest.

He remembered this night vividly. How could he not? Because of him, his brother ended up absorbing a lot of innocent souls. Akikta had watched him absorb a few, which is what gave him nightmares.

After a moment, Akikta realized something was off. While he remembered the scene perfectly, he noticed his point of view wasn't in the right place. Whereas he recounts Subject 7 devouring countless inklings and octolings, it was now he who was devouring them.

Whenever any creature got too close, his hands, which he still had no control over, reached out and grappled them like fish in a barrel. He could feel the vibrations from their screams as his appendages expanded and covered them entirely.

This must've been a very bad nightmare. No, this was a very bad nightmare. At least, that's what he told himself before he saw... himself.

Past the rushing crowd of sea creatures, Akikta locked eyes with himself. The look he gave was one of complete shock. He remembered giving Subject 7 that exact look...

The screaming, the absorbing, the look he gave himself—It all was so real. Too real to be a nightmare. That's because it wasn't. This was a real memory of that event, but from his brother's point of view. How was that possible? Why was that possible? And why did he feel the sudden urge to kill himself?

For some reason, Akikta was furious. He didn't know what the cause of his anger was, but he knew all of it was directed at himself.

Like he remembered doing, Akikta turned and bolted towards the docks where the Manta Maria was docked. He felt the body he was in lunge forward, rolling over tons of squids and octopuses alike. Somehow, he knew he wasn't going to make it to himself. His real body was too close to the ship, and that body of water struck fear into him.