Better Eight Than Never

Chapter 48: The final battle

"TODA RUN!!!!" Simon screamed and lunged forward to grab their boyfriend's hand, but they were too late. His fingers slipped between theirs as he was grabbed by the Octomaton's tentacle and hoisted into the air. "TODA!!!!" They screamed again, sloshing ink up at the robotic limb, but not only did it not reach, but they were fairly sure it wouldn't have done much anyway. Pushing aside a wave of hopelessness, they looked around quickly and spotted a fire escape on a building nearby. "Jill! Keep it distracted!" They said as they ran toward the building.

"Simon! What are you doing!?" Jill shouted, but then she yelped as she was caught up in the action.

They didn't look back to see how, they were already inking the wall so they could reach the fire escape, which they swam up to and climbed the steps two at a time. They were already breathing heavily, but if they stopped they knew very well that Jill and Toda could both die before they could do something. They hoisted themselves onto the roof, and compared the height of the building to this monster. It was still bent over, but it might not be for long. With enough speed, they could make the jump... They sloshed a quick runway, making sure that there was no break in the line before squidding and tensing.

3...

2...

1!

They swam forward, hearing Toda scream. They were coming, he just needed to hold out for a little longer.

As they ran out of runway they jumped, springing into the air and soaring over a great distance of empty air before landing on the back of the Octomaton's head. The metal was surprisingly warm to the touch, and tremors came through it regularly. They didn't even stop to catch their breath, running to the edge and looking down. Below them they saw Toda, wrapped in the tentacle by his waist, and hanging up-side down from it's grasp. It was unclear if he was screaming in fright, or pain, or both, but what mattered most was that he was in trouble. They scanned up the tentacle, and found that some rubble was stuck to a suction cup not far from where Toda was dangling. They aimed, then sloshed ink down, watching a small splatter stick to the rubble. "TODA!" They shouted. "MOVE!"

As soon as they said this, the Octomaton began to move, beginning to stand up. They swore and started to run along the edge of the head as it slowly straightened up, trying desperately to keep their feet on 'solid' ground. As they crested the rim of one of the Octomoton's panels, the other side was much steeper than anticipated, and they slid for quite a ways until the top of the head began to level out. They clung to the metal beneath them as best they could until they could stand without falling several stories, and went back over to the edge.

Toda was just transforming to slip out of the tentacle's grasp, and managed to zip up the ink that they'd placed for him. However as he climbed to the top of the rubble, it began to crumble under his feet, and lurched to one side. Their gazes locked, and Toda squidded once more, tensing and super jumping toward them.

Their breath caught as they realized his aim was off, he hadn't calculated for the Octomaton moving. They dove to the side, reaching out a hand, grasping toward him. This couldn't be like last time, they decided with conviction. And with that... their hand tightened around one of his tentacles, and in one swift motion they pulled him up on top of the Octomaton's head. "Are you... okay?" They asked, gasping for breath.

He gave them the briefest of smiles, though his hat had fallen off during this stunt. He looked rather exposed without it. "Shaken..." He admitted.

Below them the concrete slipped from the tentacle and plummeted down, crashing right into the back of the Octomaton, causing it to let loose a deafening roar. The metal of the monster's back groaned and shook, but still remained unpunctured for the moment, though a large dent was left at the impact.