Order comes with a price (splatoon 2 fanficiton) (complete!)

Chapter 5

It was cold outside.

It was always cold outside now.

Marie could see her breaths in puffs in the air.

Currently, she was stopping by the turf arena to monitor the battles. The cuttlefish honestly didn't understand why marina had her do this. Everyone was sanitized. They obeyed perfectly with preset commands on who was too win, and it only made the turf wars boring to watch with no excitement involved of the random outcomes. Instead it was rigged, and Marie already knew that this match was yellow vs purple, and yellow was to win. She was there to make sure it stayed that way.

I wish callie was here. She always knows how to lighten things up...

Marie quickly shook her head, as if shaking away the thoughts as she continued walking through the new orderly inkopolis to the newly redesigned lobby. Her thoughts always seemed to drift, either to callie or agent 4. She couldn't help but be curious if they were doing ok. Marie would never ever, not in a million years, tell marina this, but she was sorta glad they hadn't been caught yet.

To see callie or 4 with pale green skin, their black and pink, and gold and orange tentacles a blue and green, with blank, expressionless faces hiding the pain they had to go through to get that way..

The idea alone gave the cuttlefish nightmares. No wonder she always seemed too tired in the mornings.

Then again, she was a night owl so that probably had something to do with it.

The cuttlefish paused in her tracks as she neared the lobby. It was extremely faint, but she heard it.

Footsteps and rustling in the distance.

Marie knew for a fact that every cephalopod was to be at the turf arena watching for the next few hours. So she tried to think of whoever wouldn't be sanitized that could be out here.

Marina was busy taking care of pearl.

Eight usually always stayed inside because she hated seeing the sanitized cephalopods.

Three never leaves 8's side.

And that disgusting slimy telephone couldn't even walk out of the building he stayed in anyway.

And Marie was right here.

C.. Could it be Mizuta?

Keeping as quiet as possible, Marie followed the sound, stopping to hide when she heard talking, and as soon as the voice hit her ears, tears threatened to spill, Marie placing a hand over her mouth to hold in a gasp.

"You said he'd be here f1sh, I don't see him..."

"Give him some time, since he's not sanitized he's gonna avoid being caught hun."

"Alright, that's understandable then! Octavio, 4, you keep keeping watch. Comet, stay close to me."

C... Callie... she's here, she's ok, she's alive..

Marie poked her head out from her hiding place behind a wall, her eyes widening and her mouth creasing to a frown at the sight of her friends.

Mizuta's arms were all scarred up, more scars poking out from the bottom of her pants. 4's eyes were extremely puffy and red, her hazel gaze dull. It pained Marie's hearts to see her agent like that, she wanted nothing more then to run out of there and give her a hug. The cuttlefish could faintly see lil judd nestled in her hoodie of the torn up hero jacket, which currently wasn't on her head. The kitten had a torn ear, but otherwise seemed unharmed. Octavio had a look of pure defeat and hopelessness she'd never seen in him. Marie had to silently admit, even she felt a little bad for him. Then there was some salmonling. Marie noticed he was wearing a hand me down hero suit and hero headphones from callie, a cracked ink tank strapped to his back. The salmonling's hair was all messy, a large scar over his left eye, eyes occasionally glancing towards 4, but he stayed nervously latched onto Callie's arm. Marie couldn't help but be curious on who he was, and why he already seemed close to the others. A pang of pity struck through her as she realized he was another kid dragged into war.

We need to stop recruiting children.

What made her the most upset though was callie's state.

The gold spark In her cousin's eyes she'd grown to love was completely gone. Pearl's old crown still sat atop her head. Her outfit was all torn up, and through the rips in her shirt and pants you could see bruises. Her once flawless beautiful tentacles were now scarred in places, completely dull. Her form showing she was tired, even as she kept a bright smile on.

Oh cal..

It broke her heart to see them all like this. But there was nothing she could do. They all had weapons on them and she'd left her charger behind. There was no way she'd risk walking out to greet them. And somehow, marina always knew when Marie seemed to slip up. It was weird. Talking to them was a risk she wouldn't take.

Marie quickly hid herself more when a male octoling came into view. The cuttlefish peered at him, confused, until her mind clicked with recognition.

He was one of the octoling's in charge of helping to sanitize others, back before that group was sanitized themselves. He had mysteriously disappeared one day, and marina had said to forget about him, because in her words, "he was irrelevant anyway."

"Mizuta is this him?"

"Mhm. Promised to tell me where pearl is as long as as he gets to live in the metro away from order. Is that alright with you cal?"

Marie could see her cousin instantly nod right away.

"Yes! Of course it's ok! Go down to the station, tell C.Q. callie sent you, and if he doesn't believe you tell him this." Callie leaned into the octoling's ear, murmuring something Marie couldn't hear. Probably some sort of password. The octo nodded, a grateful look on his face. "Thank you, I don't know how much longer I could hide out here. I really don't want to end up like everyone else.. I hated seeing the pain in other cephalopods faces when they got sanitized."

Marie watched callie give him a sympathetic glance and a pat on the shoulder. "It'll be ok. We can get them back, just tell me where pearl is."

Is he actually going to do it?

"Eight has a spare key to the room she's kept in. All you gotta do is find eight, and you can find pearl. And if you can't get to eight, good luck busting down a solid steel door, which is on the 7th floor, hidden behind the paining of marina. I know she was there because 8 and I were friends at one point, she offered for me to visit pearl with her because she trusted me.

Callie nodded with a small sigh of relief. "Thank you. Thank you so so much." The octoling smiled shyly and nodded. "No Problem, thank you miss callie."

With that, he was off to the metro station in a sprint. The salmonling gave a curious glance to callie. "So.. what now?" Callie grinned eagerly. "We go find 8, and then pearl."

I have to tell marina

The cuttlefish paused at the thought. If she told Marina, that was that.

The chance she'd never see her cousin, or agent 4, or any of her friends again was extremely high.

...that telephone corrupted Marina's mind. It's about time someone tried to fix what inkopolis has come to.

I won't try to stop them. No one has to know I saw them.

With that thought, Marie silently slipped her way out back towards the lobby, the image of her cousin staying in her mind, Marie giving a pained expression at it as she walked.

I'll make sure you get out of this alive cal.

I promise.