Inked Over Secrets: a Splatoon 2 Fanfiction

9: Helpless

The first thing Arty felt when she woke up was pain.
Her eyesight was blurry, but she could still faintly make out the shape of Seven leaning over her, with Avia behind him.
She blinked to clear her vision, and alerted Seven she was awake.
"By cod! You're awake!" He exclaimed. "I thought you wouldn't ever open your eyes again."
"How long was I out?" Arty managed to croak.
"Three days."
Arty sat up bolt upright. "WHAT?!" She shouted before immediately regretting it, as her limbs became sore.
"Yeah. That fall you took partly paralyzed your left leg and hurt all your limbs." Seven stayed matter-of-factly.
"Since when did you become a doctor?"
"It's necessary to become a Squidbeak Agent."
"Oh. So what does all that mean?"
Seven's expression darkened. "It means that if you strain your left leg enough, it could be fully paralyzed, forever. And all your other limbs are weakened. We can't trust you to walk without support."
Arty resisted. "I'm fine. See?" And she tried to get up. However, just like Seven said, all her limbs were shaky, and her left leg wouldn't support her at all. She would have fallen, had Avia not appeared behind her and caught her.
"Watch it there, gal pal." She chuckled, though Arty could hear her worry under a thin drape of positivity.
"So how did you even fall?" Seven questioned.
Arty recounted her meeting with Tartar and his kick off the tree.
Seven was shocked. "Why would Stinger do that?"
"It wasn't Stinger. It was Tartar, also known as May."
"Well, that explains it."
Avia interrupted. "Uh, I know you two are chatting and all, but we should find a safe place to stay while Arty recovers. If we head back to Octo Valley, we may be able to stay in that old man's place."
"His name is Cap'n Cuttlefish, and he doesn't like people to remind him that he's old," Seven said stiffly. "But yeah, he'll let us stay."
Arty spoke up. "But Stinger. He needs us now more than ever."
Seven shrugged, a solemn look in his eyes. "I don't think there's anything you can do — we can do — until we get back to full strength. You're-" he hesitated before speaking again, " partly disabled, I'm pooped from staying up for three nights taking care of you, and Avia's popped from guarding us for three nights."
Arty chimed in at this. "Wait, guard? What tried to attack us?"
Avia recounted the past few nights. "Around 20 Octotroopers, 8 Octolings, 2 Octosnipers, and 1 Speedy Octobomber thing."
Arty felt two strong emotions now; self-disgust that she couldn't help defend her friends, and admiration that these two risked their well-being and literal life for her. "Yeah. We should go," was all she could get around the lump in her throat.
"You won't be going anywhere." Five monotonous female voices rang out in perfect harmony. Seven and Avia turned to find five Sanitized Octolings, all with Octo Shots trained on them.
"You will submit to Tartar or die resisting." The haunted voice—voices—rang out again. "Come with us and be spared."
"Never!" Was all Avia said before training her Pro on them and pulling the trigger.
The Octolings dived out of the way and opened fire. Two shots landed on Avia's chest, and she toppled backward, taking Arty with her. Seven quickly stepped in front of her and revved his Splatling, but the Sanitized trio trained their guns on him and each fired a shot. All hit home. Seven toppled backward, hitting his head on the ground.
Arty knew what had to be done. She struggled out from under Avia and trained her sights on the middle Octoling. Her fall from the tree had disorientated her, and she missed.
Never in her life had she felt so helpless.
"We will give you one more chance. Submit." The Octolings spoke again.
Avia stirred. Arty was relieved she was still alive.
"Arty, grab my hand."
"What?"
"Do it."
She locked hands with Avia. "Now what?"
Avia concentrated, and turned her hair color to Arty's natural pink. She grabbed Seven's hand and, with some trick, changed his color to pink too.
"You are too late. You will now be annihilated." The monotonous voices spoke again. "We only wish we could have spared you."
All three pulled their trigger.
At the same time, Avia shut her eyes and concentrated to the point where her face was a mask of anguish.
Suddenly, Arty was plunged into darkness, feeling like she was in a tiny room.
In a quick second, daylight appeared again, and Avia let go of Arty's hand and collapsed.
Arty looked around the unfamiliar place they had appeared in. "Avia, What is this place?"
Avia looked up, beads of sweat tumbling from her forehead. "I managed to warp all three of us to the camp I live at. It's on the outskirts of Octo Valley."
Arty stared, wondering if she had lost her mind. "You don't mean—"
"Yes," Avia nodded gravely. "Welcome to the Telepathink Camp."

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In the haze of grief that was Stinger's mind, he registered May entering his prison.
"Good news for you, bad news for
me." He said.
No good news will ever cheer me up again, Stinger thought bitterly.
"The girl is alive."
Stinger stared at May in disbelief, his breath leaving him as he registered what the villain had said.
"I guess it won't make a difference to you, because you're never getting out of here."
Stinger felt the power that had consumed him before he was possessed by May. Then, it was powered by anger. Now, it was powered by the strongest emotion one can think of. It can make someone go to any depth, to any height, across any terrain, and any distance.
It's known as love.
"You sure about that?" Stinger said, before exploding with blue ink.

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BAM! Two cliffhangers in one chapter, dang. In case you're wondering, Stinger does not reflect me. I am not in a relationship; I'm too young for that, I believe.
Two things:
I want to apologize (again) for the delay. Yesterday, responding to voomy1 's comment, I said I would update. I didn't, so sorry about that. Since I already mentioned her, shout-out to Voomy.
And that brings us to our next point: thank you, all of you, for supporting this story. I honestly expected this book to maybe get 100 reads. Currently we're at roughly 250. Every time I see the Views number increased, even by one, it gives me a warm feeling to know that people are interested in my work.
So thank you, all of you, for sticking around. Stay fresh, squiddos.