The Agents of the Squidbeak Splatoon: Aftermath of Octo Expansion

Chapter 7 - Fly Octo Fly

Cherry and Lorelei stared at eachother for what felt like forever. Lorelei's eyes were wide and fearful, while Cherry's were most likely as wide as they could get. She had very narrow and intimidating eyes, something she liked about herself.
Lorelei's hand suddenly jerked towards Cherry's mouth, to which she stumbled backwards in alarm when Lorelei pressed her thumb on the gap in her teeth.
Lorelei retracted and wiped her hand off, looking back at Cherry. There was a long moment of awkward silence- Cherry had no idea what that was all about.
"...what was that?"
Maybe she meant the memories? Cherry was a bit uncomfortable being the only one conscious with Lorelei in her presence (also after she sticked her hand in her mouth, she had the right to be nervous), but responded, "..stupid."
Lorelei snorted, covering her mouth with her sanitary hand. "I mean, like, what was it? A vision? Dream? Memory?"
"A memory," said Cherry, looking around the empty room. The only other people in it were Itazura, Soda, and Leo, which were all unconscious. Cherry realized that they didn't get to Leo or Lorelei's memories. After all, the one that just ended faded away as Itazura was beaten to death for betrayal.
"Why were we shown these?" asked Lorelei, reeling Cherry back into their conversation.
"Because," she said, "Hanako is a huge jerk."
"How so?"
Cherry looked away. "I was conscious for her dumb explanation on her evilness. Apparently this is all for her enjoyment- watching us relive each other's worst memories. Honestly, she didn't even do it right."
Lorelei's feet were swinging over the edge of her chair. She stared glumly at the ground.
"..yeah. Right. I'm glad nobody saw any of mine."
Cherry leaned forward. "What's your worst memory?"
Lorelei, taken aback, looked into Cherry's eyes. Cherry had the urge to tear her eyes away, but she was completely lost.
"The blender," said Lorelei coldly, shivering at the mere thought of it. "It would've been my last memory if it weren't for you, yanno... I was terrified.. being blended to a pulp isn't how you wanna die.."
Cherry hesitantly pat her back, leaning forward a bit more so they were looking at eachother from the same angle. "Hey, it's okay. I can understand why that's your worst memory."
"Hey, can I tell you something?" Lorelei asked, shutting her eyes tight. Cherry tried not to hold her breath.
"Um.. yeah. Sure."
"I wanna know more about you," Lorelei said, sitting back up straight. Cherry copied, though completely focused on everything she was saying. "I wanna know what made you so sad. All you said on our first day of meeting is that you lived elsewhere. I wanna help you!"
"Help.. me?" echoed Cherry, in utter bewilderment. "Why would you want to help me?"
"Because I need to return the favor," Lorelei shrugged, then smiling. "Besides, getting to know you a bit more might strengthen our relationship! It can go from best friends to.. ultra mega friends, as you inklings call it."
Cherry barked a laugh and shook her head. "Hah! We don't call it anything like that."
"There has to be a word for a friendship like that," Lorelei decided determinedly, putting her fist in her other hand. "So I made it up."
"You really are weird," Cherry sighed, then adding when Lorelei gave her a hurt look, "in a good way. Weird is cool because you don't expect it. Unexpected things can usually be good."
"Right, right. I'm... spontaneous."
"H-huzzah...." came a mumble from beside Cherry. Both her and Lorelei twisted towards the source of the sound. Soda seemed to be waking up, tossing and turning with her brows deeply furrowed.
Cherry reached out to tap her, but was stopped by the girl abruptly jolting out of her seat.
"AAAAGGHHHHHH——- WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!"
Soda looked at the other two, who were utterly terrified, and sat back down rather casually. "Oh, hey."
Without any warning, Soda stuck her hand in Cherry's mouth as well. When she retracted, Cherry spit on the ground.
"Are you really THAT disbelieving about the fact all that was real?!"
"You said you just grew it in," Soda explained, "so that was the best way to make sure."
Lorelei was nodding. Cherry groaned and looked around. It was weird that nobody else was in there. Weren't they supposed to be watching from the computer in the corner?
Maybe they knew Cherry was conscious and moved to a different room. After all, they wouldn't wanna get beaten up if any of them woke up early like they did.
"What were you guys talking about?" asked Soda, hugging her knees and looking around. She didn't seem to be scared at all- this situation appeared to be completely normal for her.
Cherry didn't have time to cover Lorelei's mouth before she spoke out, "I was saying I wanted to help Cherry through her issues once we're out of here. Seeing that memory makes me realize she obvious have some."
Cherry's face went hot as Soda burst out in laughter, falling back in her chair amidst her own giggles. "Has the ogre fallen in love with the princess?"
"Which one's the ogre? And no," said Cherry, though the answer was obvious. Soda rolled her eyes and smirked at Lorelei's bewildered expression. "Nevermind... so what was all that stuff? It must've actually happened because of Cherry's missing tooth."
"Agent 3 told me they were memories," said Lorelei. "She said that Hanako is... mean. 'A huge jerk'. This was all for her entertainment."
Soda clenched her fists. "That stupid son of a gun... first she sanitized herself and now she's torturing us with.. eachother?! UGH!! I thought May might not agree to this but apparently she's right with Hanako for this!"
"Maybe May doesn't want to be there," Cherry pointed out. "She won't speak. Maybe that's a part of her being sanitized. She lost her voice so she wouldn't get in the way of their plans."
Soda and Lorelei both exchanged anxious glances. Cherry got to her feet, stumbled a bit, and looked around yet again for any signs of anybody else being in the room. Her eyes drifted over to the computer in the corner and she approached it- being very cautious- and tapped the spacebar on it. Lorelei had gotten up and was now watching from behind her back while Soda half payed attention and tried to wake the others up.
"Password required..." murmured Cherry. "Hmm.. I don't know what they'd use as a password!"
Lorelei put a pink finger on the W. "Maybe it's obvious. Maybe..."
She tapped the W, then the A, S, and D. She then put in 123, sliding one finger over to the shift button as she put in an exclamation mark and a question mark. Hitting enter, the desktop opened to show many applications scattered across the screen.
Cherry blinked in surprise. "What's wasd?"
Lorelei's hand moved to the mouse as she began scanning the computer for vital information. "I just heard it at some point. Not sure what it means, but it sounds important."
Cherry narrowed her eyes. Impressive; she'd gotten that on the first try. Did it seem a little sketchy, though? That password was so easy.
Lorelei went into files to see all of the downloads on this desktop. There was a shout behind them and Cherry turned to see what it was. Apparently Soda had awoken her brother, who was uncharacteristically trembling in fear. Cherry furrowed her brows, let out a small 'hmph', then turned back to what Lorelei was doing.
The girl had opened a Word document and was now scrolling through it. The document was titled 'Sanitization- Processes and Faults'. It even had pictures.
Horrible, gruesome pictures.
On the screen were images of actual octolings and the different ways they were sanitized. Some were injected, some were dipped in the stuff, and some ate it in their food. It all gave different results. Beside the pictures were descriptions on what happened to them and how they could be de-sanitized, all of them able to be de-sanitized by being hit by non sanitized ink.
And then there was a picture of herself. One glowing greenish-blue blob over her eye, her dark and imposing eyes staring endlessly. Cherry shivered. She didn't like it at all.
Hard to believe it happened in the first place.
Beside her picture was another description, but this time both Lorelei and Cherry were paying close attention to it.
It read, 'sanitization by injection- Inkling. Took longer to fully sanitize. Annoying blob on the spot injected. Easily de-sanitized.'
Cherry scoffed. Annoying was right.
Lorelei scrolled down a bit more and there was an image of Hanako and May- Hanako looking smug and May looking quite nervous.
'Sanitization by covering- Inkling. Much more effective than injection for this species. Harder to de-sanitize.'
Something must've caught Lorelei's eye. She scrolled down more and saw an image of a sanitized octoling with one half of its body submerged in sanitization ink, limp. It read, 'an extra dose of sanitizer, no matter what form previously sanitized, will end in death.'
Cherry blinked. So a double dosage kills, huh? She might be able to use this against someone..

(This story has, unfortunately, been discontinued and drafted. Sincerest apologies to whoever this inconveniences. I hope you enjoyed what we had.)