The Reluctant Hero (Splatoon)

Chapter 16

"Major changes to regulations by the powers that be have led to a call for the complete replacement and overhaul of all special weapons. Designers and manufacturers are struggling to comply with this new regulation."
—Sunken Scrolls 2:11 (3.2)

Tuesday, 9:46 p.m.
Beaker's Depot

Cole got on one knee and took aim at the two approaching Octolings. Then, he pulled the trigger. A spray of buckshot knocked both Octolings into the wall, and Cole himself felt the black semi-automatic shotgun kick back against his shoulder. For a 12-gauge, this thing was impressively thin, which masked its high capacity—a hallmark of Sheldon's impeccable design. It loaded eight shells at once and fired them off without any pumping required. What it lacked in grace it made up for in sheer stopping power. It was a gas-operated semi-automatic, after all—a bit on the heavy side for Cole but perfect for this particular situation. Beaker's Depot had many winding hallways, which necessitated a lot of close-quarters combat.

Another Octoling guard rounded the corner as Cole was reloading. The Octoling readied his rifle, but Marie stepped in between him and her fellow agent, yanking on her own shotgun's iron sights. The little ghost ring served as a trigger for the weapon's secondary purpose: a ballistic shield unfurled from the barrel like an umbrella, blocking a wide area out in front of Marie. The shield absorbed several shots before Marie fired one herself, blasting the guard off his feet. She pulled on the sight ring again, collapsing the ballistic shield back onto the gun.

"Thanks," Cole grunted.

"Nothing beats a brella!" said Marie, twirling her shotgun like a baton. With her free hand, she tapped Cece's stolen access card to the door, which lead down a floor. The card reader, however, did not react. The door remained locked.

"Ugh, they know we're here now," Marie deduced. "These were working just a minute ago."

"Let me," offered Cole, emptying the buckshot rounds out of his brella shotgun and into his backpack. He loaded two breaching rounds—capsules full of wax-bound metal powder that wouldn't ricochet after being fired—into the chamber as Marie turned around to watch his back. Angling his gun down at the door handle, Cole fired. The locking mechanism fell out of the door, blown to pieces, and Cole shouldered the door open.

"So you do know how to breach a door," Marie exclaimed. "You never fail to surprise me, Agent 4."

Cole smiled. At the bottom of the stairwell, he blew open another door and both agents stepped into the third floor. Cole turned right, aiming his brella down the hall, and saw nothing, while Marie pointed her gun down the hallway to their left.

"All clear, apparently." Marie declared, hesitantly. "Don't let your guard down."

The agents snuck through one last hallway. The next one was supposed to be a row of cells, where Agent 3 and Captain Cuttlefish were. They were so close, now.

Almost everything had gone according to plan. All of Cece's info had been spot on except for the part about guard patrol schedules. Her counts of how many and details on when and where were all completely wrong. There were no Octarians where Cece said there would be, and there were Octarians where she said there wouldn't be. Thus, the agents had gotten inside the armory without a hitch but ran into hostiles almost immediately. That had set the whole place on high alert. So, Cole and Marie took the one option they still had, to go in hot, guns blazing. Sheldon's brella shotguns and armored jackets proved very sturdy.

As the agents turned down the hallway, they encountered the real problem. All of the holding cells were empty—there were no prisoners at all. Instead, two of the cell doors were swung wide open. Bits of dark purple stained the walls and floors, and the bodies of six, no, seven dead Octarians lay on the floor.