OctoSquids (Splatoon story)

Chapter 15 - Save Our Souls

Plum opened his eyes. He found himself once again in an Inkopolis Square that he did not quite recognize. This time, it wasn't the shape of the structures around him that looked different. Now, it was the lack of structures. Most of the buildings he could recognize before were barren, some even destroyed. The Galleria was in tatters, the Grizzco building seemed to have exploded from the inside and the entrance to The Shoal was wide open, without any doors or windows. There was a crack on the giant screen of Deca Tower, though it seemed functional, displaying a peculiar logo. It had two wave shapes that formed what appeared to be a sea cucumber, and below the logo was a name that he was too familiar with: Kamabo Co.

Plum began to tremble as he looked around his surroundings, confused as to what was happening. He decided to step away from the square, wanting to find something familiar to him that was not in pieces. He eventually made it to Coral Shores Pastries, or at least, what he thought it was. The building seemed to be one of the most tattered around him. It barely had any walls or ceiling. Standing in the middle, stood a familiar figure, Alex. His back was facing Plum as he hesitantly approached him.
"A-Alex..? Is that you?", Plum called out, but Alex did not respond. He stood eerily still as Plum slowly approached him.

Plum was just about to tap his shoulder so he could look at him, but Alex quickly turned to him in a split second and quickly grabbed ahold of Plum's neck, startling him as Alex pushed him all the way to the nearest wall.
"Alex!", Plum choked as he tried to get Alex's arms off of him. He knew he was getting stronger, but he didn't remember Alex being this strong. Plum then noticed something disturbing on Alex's face. His expression seemed greatly exaggerated, with his eyes and mouth being unusually wider than an Inkling's should be.
"Help me!! Help me, Plum!!", Alex yelled at him. "Don't let me die!! Not now!!", he screamed as Alex's smile widened out of proportions and started laughing maniacally, his sanity spent. His cackles soon turned distorted as Plum noticed Alex's body slowly melting away. In a matter of seconds, Alex was now nothing but a puddle of ink, and his laughter slowly faded away in echo.

Plum tried to catch his breath from such a disturbing and frightening occurrence.
"Plum!!", called out a familiar voice to him from afar.
"Mom...?", Plum muttered as he looked around, looking at a possible direction from where Coraline's voice came from. He began to run towards that direction, headed straight to his own house. Once he made it, he saw Coraline trying to run towards him, but Lucio was on her way, trying to stop her.
"Let me see him!! Let me see my son!!", Coraline screamed desperately.
"You can't, honey, okay!? Who knows what might happen!?", Lucio yelled at her back.
"Mom! Dad! What's going on!?", Plum exclaimed as Lucio turned to Plum, still trying to stop Coraline from running off. He did not look happy.
"What the heck are you doing here!? Go!! You'll get yourself killed!!", Lucio yelled at him.

"But--", Plum was about to ask, but just then, he felt the back of his shirt suddenly begin to rip as he noticed large Octarian tentacles sprouted from his back. "What the--", he was about to say, until those same appendages seemed to grab on to something and whisked Plum away in seconds. He eventually crashed into a tree and fell to the floor. The tentacles suddenly retracted back into him as he noticed the tentacles left his shirt in tatters, since what was left of it fell straight to the floor. He now seemed to be in the forest at the top of Mount Nantai. How did he get up here so quickly?

Plum weakly stood up, until a pale green hand quickly grabbed ahold of his neck and lifted him off the ground. When he looked, Plum could see Athena grabbed ahold of him, staring at him with lifeless eyes as she choked him and walked towards the clearing of the forest. As she did, Plum could see different clothes on top of differently colored puddles of ink on the ground around him. Each color and set of clothes matched one of his friends: Annaki Flannel Hoodie and light gray ink was Douglas, Black Fishfry Bandana and green ink was Calder, Tinted Shades and dark blue ink was Rainey, and finally, Retro Specs and yellow ink was Maria. Despite seeing his friends' remains, he still noticed one was missing.