Princess Callie

Chapter 32: An Unlikely Victory

Agent 4 fired his ink at Sebastian. Both to force him to stay back and to ink as much ground as possible. Sebastian on the other hand, realized Agent 4 had the range advantage and wanted to close the distance. Sebastian threw a splatbomb at us. I quickly took cover behind the door while Agent 4 stopped shooting to swim away from the bomb. He threw an autobomb at Sebastian as he tried to charge up another attack but Sebastian noticed his opportunity. He ran right past the autobomb but made sure to get enough to trigger its explosion. He ran up to Agent 4 and landed a few shots on him which knocked out his armor. Agent 4 was now on his knees. He probably wouldn't survive another hit.

While Agent 4 was trying to pull himself up to continue fighting. I saw Sebastian preparing to finish him off. I jumped between them and yelled, "Stop fighting!"

"Callie! What are you doing?" Agent 4 asked.

"Saving your life!" I answered as I used myself as a shield to protect Agent 4. Sebastian was looking just as emotionless as last I saw him. He had his weapon pointed at my stomach but he didn't shoot. He must've had orders not to splat me. "Sebastian... please. A friend of mine will be here soon. You can come with me. Leave this place. We can run away and be together again."

Sebastian simply stared at me. I noticed a truck flying over. It was one of the old Squid Sisters trucks that had been modified. It landed on the helipad near us. "Come on!" Sheldon yelled.

Suddenly another voice was heard. It was Octavio. "Sebastian! Throw yourself off the edge!"

Without hesitation, Sebastian dropped his weapon, turned around and started walking away. I grabbed his arm with both my hands. "No Sebastian! Don't do it!" I pleaded as I tried to pull him away. He ignored my pleas and kept moving while trying to shake me off.

"Hold it!" Agent 4 ran up and tried to tackle him but Sebastian was a little larger than him and easily threw him off. Agent 4 grabbed his ankle in order to stop him.

Sebastian struggled to get free. After a few seconds, he freed himself from both our grips and started running. I chased after him hoping I could stop him before he could get away. Unfortunately, he was faster than me. Sebastian ran off the edge and fell into the moat. Presumably dying in the water. All I could do was watch. "Sebastian!" I screamed in horror. He couldn't be dead could he? Maybe the spawn point was reactivated while I was in prison. I couldn't accept that he was dead.

"We have to go!" Agent 4 grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me towards the truck. I snapped back to reality and decided to climb on top. This wasn't the time to mourn Sebastian. Sheldon began to take off. That was when I saw him. Octavio was in the Octobot King II. The Great Zapfish was sucked into the flying robot. "I have to get that zapfish." Agent 4 declared. He jumped off just as Sheldon began to fly the truck upward. I also noticed the guards were at the door yet they weren't attacking.

"Agent 4! Don't be a hero! Get back on the truck!" Sheldon yelled.

Another voice came from the Octobot King II. It was Marie. She was wearing some kind of gas mask and had an Octarian version of her performing outfit similar to what I had. She looked betrayed. "Callie! You're with them! How could you?"

"Marie! I don't know what he told you but he's feeding you lies!" I almost walked off the edge but stopped myself. I knew right away what they had done to her and silently swore to myself I wouldn't leave until she was freed from Octarian control.

A fast remixed version of the song Tide Goes Out began to play. "Imma remix your face!" Octavio declared as he launched one of his fists at Agent 4.

He shot at it and it bounced back to the Octobot. As it hit, I saw Marie lose her balance but she stayed on stage.

"Sheldon get me in close. I need to get Marie!" I yelled so Sheldon could hear me.

"No! It's too dangerous. I have another idea. Marie and I have been working on a special ink. We call it low-tide ink. It was designed to reverse the effects of your brainwashing. We can use it on her. I'll put it in a suction bomb." Sheldon explained.

"Wait! We don't want to splat her!" I responded.

"Don't worry the low-tide ink won't. I made sure of that. You see. The low-tide ink is..." Sheldon reassured me.

I ignored Sheldon's rambling and considered our options. Sheldon was right. It would be incredibly dangerous to board the Octobot and bring Marie back to the truck by force. At least with this new experimental ink there was a chance we could succeed.

"...You know what I mean?" He finished.

"What? Uh yeah. Alright. We'll try the low-tide ink." I replied. Sheldon handed me a suction bomb through the driver side window. I waited for him to get close and threw it at Marie.

The suction bomb landed in front of her. She noticed and tried to get away but there was no where to go. She got caught in the explosion. Marie was now disoriented and the explosion knocked the mask off her face. Fortunately it didn't splat her.

Their song was interrupted but Marie recovered quickly and continued their song. I began to sing Bomb Rush Blush engaging them in a battle of music. On the ground, Agent 4 was barely holding his own. He had covered a large amount of ground with his ink but that land was shrinking rapidly. He was starting to slow down from exhaustion. It was hard to believe he was able to hold out this long. Suddenly a reflected punch threw Octavio off the robot, I noticed Marie stopped singing and the music came to a halt. She was holding her head in pain. The low-tide ink must be working. I noticed there was a stereo on the truck. I prepared the song Spicy Calamari Inkantation.

"Marie! Remember!" I started the music. "That heavenly melody!"

Marie was a little slow but she was recovering. "The one and only... I... I remember..." she jumped at the truck. I watched in amazement as her performing outfit morphed into her Squid Sisters outfit as if by magic. Marie took her place next to me and we together we sang the newest version of Calamari Inkantation.

As we sang I took a quick look noticed Agent 4 seemed reinvigorated. He had a sudden wave of confidence possibly brought about by the magical nature of our song. The wind was at our backs! A small drone flew towards him and gave him a rainmaker. I wasn't really listening to Sheldon talking but I noticed Octavio went higher into the air. Too high for even a charger to reach. Sheldon deployed two ink rails in the air and Agent 4 jumped onto one of them. The song was clearly having some kind of effect on the battle so I made sure to focus on singing.

I noticed Agent 4 riding a third ink rail towards the center. The Octobot King II was down. He slammed the rainmaker into it like he had just won a ranked match. The robot exploded in a shower of ink.

"We have to arrest Octavio and get the Great Zapfish." Marie declared. We ran to Octavio and prepared to take him into custody. Now the only issue was transporting the Great Zapfish out and then sneaking it back into Inkopolis. We did it once so it shouldn't be too hard. Luckily the guards who were chasing Agent 4 and I didn't follow us up to the helipad. I never knew why.