Coral Shores (A Splatoon Story)

Chapter 8 - Ripped

The town hall of Coral Shores was desolate that night, with no soul other than Leven found within. She was looking through everything she has worked up to so far. The progress of the Uputonium excavation, its securement, the poor Inklings and Octolings forced to mine them, and of course, the mutated victims she was forced to witness. Aside from the usual work she was told to do, she tried to create a new version of Conway's cure to see if she could revert their states, but to no avail. She was angry at everything that has been going on. She was angry at Coral Shores for trying to stop her and at her own soldiers for betraying the Corporation. If they knew what would be coming to them in the long run, they would be sorry. However, Leven was also angry at herself. She could not tolerate her own failures throughout her stay in this lonely town.

Before she could react, her leg enhancement began to flash a bit, catching her off guard. She sighed, knowing what was to come. From her pocket, she retrieved some sort of screen and pressed a button, only for the screen to project on a more holographic screen in front of her. Displayed on the screen was a static image of a man, but Leven would not describe it as either Inkling nor Octoling. The image had the man's face obscured, but it was obvious that whoever it was, he was taking a picture with his pet, a cat.
"Progress report.", a robotic voice resonated around the room as the screen flashed based on the voice's phonetic pattern. Leven was about to answer, but she could not bring herself to do so. "Progress report!", the voice repeated, but Leven could not bring herself to answer again.
"[ASSESING COMMUNICATION EFFICIENCY...] [EFFICIENCY: 24.51%] [ENABLING CONTEMPORARY SPEECH MODE]", the robotic voice suddenly blared out, and after a few seconds of silence, the voice spoke again, albeit less monotonous.
"What is crackalacking, girl!? Tell me the deets on what's been going on!", a female voice, a lot more flamboyant, began to speak to Leven.

Hearing the A.I. speak like that made Leven roll her eyes.
"I'm not an idiot.", Leven commented.
"[DISSABLING CONTEMPORARY SPEECH MODE]", the voice went back to its monotonous speech.
"Everything is going fine... There have just been...a few complications.", Leven let the voice know.
"I did not put you in charge of this operation so you can return with complications, subject 10,011. I have enough already.", the voice told her, sounding more and more sentient as it spoke.
"Athena rebelled against us.. All for the sake of saving her friend.", Leven complained.
"That should only be an obstacle you should get through. However, I imagine the town's thief has been causing you problems?", the voice continued speaking. Leven's eyes widened a bit.
"How did you know?", Leven asked.
"Achieving our goal is what The Kamabo Corporation is all about, and we can't reach that goal without information.", the voice asserted. "I need you to take care of him and your soldiers as soon as possible, or they will both jeopardize the entire project and our goal will be unreachable.", the voice continued, making Leven sigh.
"Way to put on the pressure.", Leven complained.
"I do not expect stress from you. I expect results.", the voice retorted as the hologram in front of Leven disappeared back into the screen.

Leven sighed and stood up from where she was.
"How in the world am I going to find them now...?", Leven spoke to herself.
"What did I tell you?", her own voice resonated around the room, making Leven panic a bit. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a figure next to the door that led to the Mayor's office. It was the same reflection that scared her earlier that day; the thing that made her kill Meredith by accident.
"Hey!", Leven yelled as she ran over to where she saw it, using her leg enhancement to dash over there faster. Once she arrived in the office, there was nothing.
"Emotion is holding you back.", her voice resonated once again, making Leven growl in search for the obnoxious reflection. Eventually, she did find it hovering over the town hall's lab.
"Emotion is what got me this far!!", Leven yelled as she tried to attack her own reflection only to overshoot her assault and strike the table all the way across the room.
"If it did...You would investigate.", her voice whispered to her this time, and in front of Leven, papers and documents were scattered on the table, yet one stood out, detailing property damage to a restaurant in Coral Shores, and the one who needed to pay for those damages was Murdoch Irving.
"How does this help...?", Leven asked.
"Remove emotion from the equation, and the answer will become clear...", her voice whispered again. Leven continued to read the document, until she noticed who was going to receive said document.
"Ariel Oliveria's Orphan House...".