Sisters No More

Chapter 2: The Truth (Marina)

"Pearlie!" I yelled. "Come look at this!"

I had just found out about Marie's new post. Supposedly it was a video of Callie beating her up? That didn't sound right, but I wanted to watch it anyways. Pearl rushed over and sat down next to me.

"Oh man, is that the video?" Pearl asked me.

"Yep," I replied.

I pressed the play button and the video started. It showed Marie leaving her house, but soon after, Callie snuck up behind her and hit her with a roller. I gasped. Callie continued to beat up on Marie until a group of Octolings ran to the scene and got Callie to retreat. A few Octolings were killed by Callie though, which was hard to watch. The video ended when Marie passed out, and the Octolings picked her up and walked away.

"Oh my God..." I said quietly. 

"Now that's some news," Pearl said. "We got to cover that on Inkopolis News right now!"

"I don't think we have to Pearlie," I said, looking out the window.

People everywhere were watching the video. It was even being shown on the big screens on the side of buildings.

"Do you think it's real?" I asked Pearl. 

"Why not?" she replied. "It looks real to me."

"But... Callie wouldn't do that," I argued. "I should know, I'm a huge fan of her."

"You don't know what her private life is like," Pearl said. "Callie and Marie act like they're great friends in public, but maybe they have some real tension between them."

"Wait a minute, where is Marie now?" I wondered out loud. "She obviously had her phone, but those Octolings saved her."

"Ah, she's probably at home," a voice said from behind us.

We turned around and saw Sheldon coming through the door.

"Sheldon?" I said. "How would you know?"

"Because I drove her back to the square with Callie and Agent 4."

"Wait, what happened?" Pearl asked.

"Well, I'll try to make this as short as possible. Marie was kidnapped and brainwashed. Marie captured Callie. Callie somehow got to Marie, but Octavio didn't like that. Callie was brainwashed and Agent 4 was captured. Then Marie saved them, but Agent 4 had to defend the door from Octolings while Marie apparently was trying not to kill Callie because of the effects of the brainwashing. Then I sent Marie a Killer Wail and they escaped and I picked them up."

"Marie was brainwashed?" I asked.

"Yeah, and I guess that video was made as a backup to make Marie hate Callie when she was brainwashed."

"So, the video isn't real?" Pearl questioned. 

"Well Marie was definitely kidnapped, so I'd assume that the Callie I the video was not actually Callie."

"Man, we got to get this news out!" Pearl exclaimed.

"I think it might be too late," Sheldon said. "Callie already got a huge amount of backlash. The damage has been done. Thank God the police don't do anything or Callie probably would've been arrested by now."

"Well if it is fake, then that brings up the question: Why would Marie post the video?" I asked.

"Only reason I could think of is that the effects of the brainwashing haven't worn off yet," Sheldon suggested. "I mean it's been a week, but who knows how powerful those things are."

"The Octoling goggles never had much of an after effect," I said.

"But these are glasses," Sheldon said. "Newer version I guess."

"Well that doesn't matter, we need to set this right somehow," Pearl said.

"We'll have to wait and see what happens. There's no way people will believe us now that everyone has seen the video," Sheldon said.