M A New Supporter Enters the Battle!

[Koa Kuddlefish]

Prologue to an Arbiter's Rage
♦ Koa ♦​

City towers materialized around me like flies to freshly dropped overripe shrimp. They burrowed down from the sky; their interiors briefly visible from the briefly entwined dimensions. As the fully registered from my frame of perspective, the skyline behind them filled with blues was ripped away by, twisting the clouds billowing upward to replace cerulean blues completely craggy overcast. As the disparate vista and ground connected, people appeared like raindrops splashing down. All of them were minding their own business, not overly concerned about my presence even as auras of color and confused light washed over them.

For a brief moment, everything red-shifted, streaks of crimson shooting into the sky before turning maroon and then settling down in something that wasn't a candy land fetish of LSD

I could only smile at the spectacle. It was evidence of my technical might. Even if I had been cribbing from numerous designs found on the Medium, it took superior thought to distill thousands of cultural developments and media along with the sciences to make something capable of FTL travel between the known worlds. Said device bobbed at my feet, a shiny orb pinking as its metallic surface cooled inside my tank of Ink that was my Express-O-Respawn Anchor.

The Warp-V-Tex took advantage of the Anchor's ability to teleport and made it non-directional through coordinates systems.

As the kaleidoscope filtered away from the edges of every surface around me I took a breath, testing the air. It smelled odd. Like fruit that was about to expire, and yet might just be still edible. Bad but almost good enough where you might risk it.

Cevanti, one of the few places in the known universe that had a working spaceport, and a huge population. Also a tourist trap for technophiles, despite it being a dying world.

And here I was, risking it in a place that was supposedly suffering from the legendary 'unmade'. If nothing else, there would be no other place where I could find valid targets for testing the latest in Kuddlefish technology.

Stepping off the platform of my anchor, I started tapping my wrist, I brought up the screen glowing orange screen of my Omnitool. A few swipes then called a targeting reticule which immediately highlighted my Anchor the Warp-V-Tex that was bobbing in the ink funnel.

"Separate, and digitized all matter, please Siren."

"Processing," a simulated voice replied and within a moment, hexagon covered it in an orange glow before the entire structure. After it started turning white, the whole thing started flaking away. Simultaneously, a storage bar appeared in front of me, increasing the percentage as more and more of the Anchor was absorbed. It shivered to stop at 63%, then a loud ZAP, and at once the light dispersed in a way my experience told me it shouldn't.

My throat hitched, fear spiked. "Carp. Carp! Nononononononononon...!"

My fingers sliced across my Omnitool pulling up data. Only for red ERRORs to flash across against the orange. "Siren, what the hook?"

"Error" Siren echoed in a dull monotone. "Data lost. Exotic particle accumulation resulted in fragmentation. Suspected cause due to wave harmonics in the FTL high energy deflection system."

I blinked and pulled up the visual of the data storage. "Please tell me it was a continuous piece that was stored?"

"Affirmative, 62% of the data is uncorrupted and whole." She replied. I nearly slumped with relief. Okay... I can fix that. With a deep breath, I reached out with my hand and touched the screen, and put in stasis. It would take me a week or longer to resolve probably unless I found a downed starship or something. How lucky would that be? That only happens in stories and bad fanfiction.

I thumped my chest once, a wave of pressure passing into my lungs with a hollow thunk, took a breath, and let it out in a sigh. Worry leaving me. "I can do this. I'll be the best supporter Cevanti has ever seen." I can rebuild it from scratch. This time, I will make sure to build it better!

With a nod, I took a step forward, turning to face the city.

Time to find someone to support and have adventures.

♦ Kao ♦​

A few hours later, I was sitting on the ledge of an abandoned building looking out across the city, enjoying the view twenty stories up. The sun was starting to set, the sky a brilliant shade of purple and pink. I was leaning on the concrete, one leg crossed over the other, my toes resting on the edge of the roof. The wind was cool, the air crisp and fresh, brushing through my fins and tentacles. Mama would probably be freaking out seeing me up here, even though she knew I could technically survive the fall.

Ink is pretty useful at times.

Though the people below would appreciate it. Too many even this time of day were milling about, unassuming to my presence as their would-be-savior. No one seemed to need my brand of help beyond a guy with a leaky faucet. An easy fix, all things concerned. Still, I would have thought that with the Seige of Markov having been so recent, there would be more to do. Heck, I had only seen a few job postings for hunting the unmade.

This place was just too ideal, save for a few shady folks wanting to make some coin.

Who didn't want to make coin? I certainly did. Who wouldn't? But you have to be honest about it.

I had gone through the street vendors careful to pick the ones who had honest salvage to sell but nothing seemed to meet my requirements that I could use to fix my anchor. A few of the more dubious ones were will promise me the moon but I knew their kind. I had learned long ago that if you want anything, don't look at the price tag. Look at how much they were willing to haggle and the sound of desperation in the voice. Bunch of hagfish.

And not because of their haggling skills. Though some of them were definitely up there in skills. Well beyond me anyways.

So I had made my way to the top floor of the tallest building in the area to decompress and figure out what to do next. It was fun getting up here. A few shots of ink had me climbing the building like it was a race track. Totally and hilariously fun. Now I felt like the queen of the world, or at like my little skyscraper of it. Sure there were taller buildings but how many of them had an Inkling as woomy as me?

None. So hah!

The breeze was making me feel a bit sleepy. I yawned and stretched, then looked down at the closest street. Bit run down but not so bad that I would be worried. It was a nice day, soon-to-be night. And with the nightlife often came black market traders who had more to score and more varied wares. I had coin enough that I could probably afford the prices. But if not I might be able to help them in other ways that they might offer me discounts.

And discounts were the bread and butter of getting what you need when one was a thrifty engineer.

With a flick and a swipe along my right arm, and a burst of orange hexagons, my Spot-U-Splat Charged Rifle shimmered into place in my hands along with its tank on my back. The weight of my ink sloshy in it a comfort. I twisted a dial next to the trigger and turned up the pressure. A slight beep let me know that it had reached the proper charge.

I flung myself off the roof.

The wind howled along the length of my ear-like fins as I took aim. In the air, my view of the street was clear, when I pulled the trigger on my rifle it whipped and kicked like a whale, punching me straight in the shoulder. If I hadn't already been falling I would have been knocked on my butt. Instead, I started to tumble. It didn't matter much at the moment as I allowed myself to transform. My body becoming more aero and fluid dynamic in the span of only a blink.

When I hit the ink-soaked asphalt, instead of splatting, I flowed into it.

I never understood how it was possible given how water-based fluids worked. I really should have splatted but whatever psionic ability that allowed me to transform into living ink also gave me the ability to survive falling to my doom provided it was ink on ink impact. And then turn a thin film of ink into a varitable seal of liquid that was deep beyond compare and yet still just as thin.

Woosh! Bubble rippled around me. Sounds outside of it muting. Pinking with air being pressed out of my domain. Everywhere it was white but some out shifting to pink, then to purpose and back again. My pearlescent ink was beautiful.

My world was ink. Reality was bent by my ink. The reality was ink, and it was deep as an ocean and yet only a thin film. Understanding this was simply instinct. One that came to my people, supposedly, from a time when the first Turf Wars were less competition and more violent slaughter. For me though it felt like the freshest freedom an Inkling could hopeful. Unfortunately, my little puddle hardly accounted for an arena.

When I made the transition back to the 'kid' form as everyone called it, the world righted and began to make sense again to my humanoid sensibilities. Or as my daddy called it, 'My less than insane standards.'

I looked around at the alleyway I had fallen into, looking for anything useful. There wasn't much to see besides a few broken crates and a few trash bags that were too full to fit through the doorways of the buildings. I scanned the area, looking for anything that might be helpful.

"Wha ye doo'ing har?" A hateful voice slurred. "Yeh trying to ge in too?"

"Huh?" I asked in a rather dim tone, before turning towards the source of my confusion.

"Ah, yer a sphy? Mun shaid thar sphies evawhere"

It was coming from the direction of the main road. A broad, heavy-set man with a large squarish face was walking towards the alley, his eyes wide and his mouth open. Around his mouth, a silvery liquid leaked. Possibly something that he was drunk off of. It would explain his speech impairment and the odd mutation from standard human appearance. Specifically, there were vaguely black and blue lines running through his skin and an odd glow in his eyes. "Ya gonna die!" he shouted, his voice slurring even more.

As he walked, I noticed exactly what he was wearing. Vaguely black, mottled with gray and brown detritus, a hood and a tie... Robes? But they were fuzzy and thread bear, with a white down-facing C...? Black robes and a badly drawn... is that supposed to be an omega? Is he trying to be a walking cliche conspiracy theorist? I mean I've seen some odd things on the Medium. Rule 34 is just one, but this looked like the worst of the worst when it came to cosplay. Low effort yet his dull brain believed he had 'dun good'.

"That's not very fresh," I quip. I'm half tempted to blast him. A little ink never hurt anyone. At least then he'd be cleaner.

"What're ya dooin' in da alley?!" He bellowed.

"Looking for someone who sells specialty, items" I say trying to keep my voice level. This guy sounds like he tried to chug a portal potion. It's not a very pretty thing to see if someone survives.

"Nuh uh. Ya ain't lookin' fer no thing. I canna tell. I've seen a lot of yer kind in here. Yer all the same. What its ye squiddies say? Splat. Ye, gonna splat ya! All fer Darkshy." That last word was completely contorted to the point where I couldn't understand what exactly he was saying. Is someone dark and shy? Is he trying to impress someone for a date?!

The guy raised a hand and pointed right at me. Then he slunk off to the side of the alley's mouth and grabbed something off of one of the crates. It was long, rusted red, and L-shaped. Then almost without warning he charged, raising... the Tire iron(?) above his head and bringing it down.

Definitely not fresh.

I took to my squid form again splashing into the ocean of ink sliding backward so he couldn't even hit me through the paper-thin film, before popping up again, firing my charged rifle. In a flash of pearlescent white-pink ink, we're both thrown away from each other as my chest throbs with the pain of Sir Newton's third law.

Screaming as he went, the man flew backward, rolling butt over head, his body covered in ink. Ha. Nice!

He groaned as he rolled over onto his stomach. I could barely hear him muttering to himself. Something along the lines of, "Shot ma in tha face ye bith!"

I couldn't help but laugh as I stood. "Not only are you not fresh, but you're completely on the hook aren't you?"

He growled and tried to get up only to trip on his own shoelaces and splatted face first in the ink once more. It didn't take him long to find his feet again though. I resecured the Spot-U-Splat, bracing it against my shoulder along with steadying my stance, and took aim. One breath out, I squeezed the trigger.

POP!

Like a liquid cannon, a wave of pearlescent blasted him into a stupor against a wall. Even with properly a stance, I nearly buckled over backward as my feet slid from the force. My shoulder wanting to unhinge before finally, I claimed victory of remaining upright.

Newton, what did I do to you deserve this? I sighed. Note to self, add inertial dampners.

My fingers ghosted over my arm once more, pulling my equipment status. No damage. Good. "Siren, call Emergency Services and let them know I've been accosted by a man with blue and black glowing veins."

"Right aw-"

The world cracked sideways, and the heavy gravity of this world came calling my name.

Pain made itself aware to me in the most intimate of ways as my head snapped down and sideways before I kissed dry asphalt. Said asphalt also decided that it was a good idea to dig in against my arms, legs, and back. My vision clouded but that didn't stop the darkening alley from suddenly being cast in stark relief of electricity coursing through a familiar tire iron. One that I had dismissed earlier.

The man holding it looked manic with pearlescent fluid dripping off of him and the flickering light zapping around him, causing gouts of steam to flow from his robes, crusting it with dried ink. His grin is vicious and hungry to dish out more pain as he stepped toward me.

"I told ya, ye'd die. Ye didjint believe meh. Na one belehs ol 'dum' Jon. I'll show dem like I'm g'nna show ye. Lesh see how ye like splatten!"

My fingers slide from under me and my toes do the same. I push but nothing moves. Trying again brings on a new wave of agony ripping from the spot where my spine met my shoulders. It was at this moment that I realized I that I've forgotten how to get off the ground. My body feels like it's made of a soggy jelly donut. I can only watch him step closer, and another... and...?

His next step came more distant than the last. Was he moonwalking?

This scallop who got the drop of me is showing off by dancing?

Several seconds passed by as slowly but surely he was now further away. Point of fact everything around me was looking smaller and more distant yet somehow larger? Had someone dropped a badly molded fishbowl around me? I try and reach out but-ow! Nevermind.

With that little of a prelude, he seemed to pause to look around. The manic grin becomes a tad bit more thoughtful and then morphs into a dim frown.

That's when I noticed he was sinking and had been for a while.

What the hook? What in the reef is happening?

"Fook is goin ong?" He hissed. Then he looked down and went pale. All at once, the slow motion of change took off faster than before and he was gone.

I was so busy being trying to figure out what was going on, it was only afterward that I realized the why far too late.

She was green... or rather her outfit was. A dress specifically that was adorable looking really, with little frills on the bottom. Somehow it made the breastplate hooked around her chest look good.

Throughout it all, the greens seemed to shift, churn and whirl into ribbons that shimmered to other tones before flowing back through one another in a mesmerizing vista of color. Whoever designed it was a genius of fashion. It was accentuated though with how everything around her seemed to hum... or actually no, there was some sort of vibrating blur around her. It made her seem larger than life.

Regardless of that, she was small, maybe a bit taller than me. Her skin though was a pale peach. I think mama called it caucasian once? She wore a cracked visor and had blond hair that was struggling to reach beyond the back of her neck. On her right breastplate, there was an Emblem of a white V with a swooping background.

She was all the way at the other end of the alleyway. Just far enough where I couldn't make out who she was, but in a blur, she managed to cross the distance in a fraction of a second. Only it wasn't turbotastic fast, no it was... like she stretched? Her whole body spanning the entire distance before her back end realized it was being left behind.

When she finally came together she was standing above where the man had been. She muttered something and spat. Her entire form suddenly frizzed like some sort of graphical artifact from a bad connection. As she were a living digital signal.

I tried to stand but my shoulder wasn't having it, nor did my lungs as an involuntary yelp gave me away.

Not more than a breath later, she quirked her head, the corner of her eye capturing me in a glance... her eyes traced me, taking in first my rifle, then my omnitool, then me. "Shit" She muttered rudely. Suddenly, like a green cloud given the ability to move on its own, she looming over me. Then she slowly kneeled and strong arms scooped under me to help me up.

The world became a blur, and then the maw darkness itself engulfed me.

♦ Koa ♦​

I woke to the smell of someone letting all the magic smoke out of the box. The kind that once you let out, meant it stops working. Which also meant more work for me to get it working again. Surprisingly I felt like I'd be up to that. I don't know why considering I'm pretty sure I had just been clobbered over the head by a magically electrified tire iron... but it was a good I was willing to take

Said plasticky smoke was accompanied by a diligent ticking of a clock.

Had I left something charging?

I opened my eyes and blearily looked around. What greeted me was a room with a bed, a dresser, and a closet. It was all made of sterile-looking steel. Only a single large beam of light came through a window that was set into one wall. It seemed barely enough for the room let alone the small succulent plant that stood within it. I could hear grumbling noises just beyond an ajar door. Next to it on the far wall, hung what looked like a school uniform, similar to the one I wore only more... archaic? Along with a backpack with the word written 'Missy Byron, if lost return to 413 Brighton Way, Brockton Bay'. Never heard of a Brockton Bay. Maybe another one of the worlds out there? Or one of those rare travelers?

"Of course they're both burnt out. Why wouldn't they be? How the hell am I going to replace them?" A voice growled to themselves. They were the words that both consumers and technicians would know and hate. Especially those experienced in the art of dealing with 'disposable' technology. That voice was coming from the same ajar door as before.

One thing stood to the fact though, it was a small room and the ceiling was low. Hardly big enough for one person, let alone with me hogging space.

I sat up and rubbed at my face and neck.

There was an ache of a distant injury like one that was days or a week gone. It didn't feel like time had passed significantly, some sort of healing device? Those were expensive especially if you didn't make them yourself.

Maybe what the voice was complaining about was that they used their healing devices on me? And... crab if they burnt out because of me. Still best be sure about my situation. Confirm first that I'm safe and I have my tools.

A quick check of my arm found the Omnitool was still intact. I ran through several apps that I had configured for it and it looked good. I lucked out. It would have been really bad if it had been damaged. But my gun hadn't be returned to its storage.

Slowly I stood and cleared my throat loudly. "I take I have this Missy Byron to thank for not being shell bait?"

There was a crash of metals and the rolling sound of some sort of saucer against the floor along with some extremely muffled cursing. The door was pushed open and the same blonde girl with a green color-shifting mask appeared behind it. She was wearing a black shirt, a white apron, and a pair of pants. Her hair was tied back in two pigtails and there was a frustrated-looking grease smudge on her cheek. She looked like she should be in secondary school, but instead, she was looking down at me like she was a teacher. "You are..." She trailed off as she took in my appearance. "Well, you look alright." She waltzed over, took an even closer look, lifting up my tentacle sending tingling sensations through it.

I giggled. "I feel all right, thank you. I'm Koa by the way." I say, not sure exactly what's going on.

She quirks her head again towards the backpack. "Missy you've already saw." She admits. "And well, at least I didn't waste a regenerator-" So she had used one on me? Yep, definitely owe her for sure. "-for nothing. So-" Her entire body seemingly pixelates, spreads apart, and slams back together. Her voice becoming oddly hollow.

"Not again," she mutters. Before her whole body reforms in a swirl of glowing pixels like something out of the weirder parts of Nos'talgia. What the hook? That shouldn't really be possible without some odd applications of how essence works on a personal level.

"What the hook was that?"

That looked like Medium matter. Only it was being expressed in the physical world? The only way I know of to do that is to come back from the medium as a ghost. Only a few people ever come back from the dead. It's common enough where it's uncommon but it's not expected either. Maybe a handful every year but... ghosts, those happen all the time. People are able to pull themselves from the force of the medium but not take their life with it. They usually degrade unless they can bind themselves to a digital signal or a physical one, and after that they become integrated.

Haunted houses were a thing for a reason.

Which was the limit of my knowledge of paranormal studies. I knew enough to be able to store matter there for my Respawn Anchor, Sentry Turret, and Charged Rifle. But not so much to bring back the dead... yet. I felt her pick me up. And she made the world do funny things.

Clearly, she wasn't dead unless she was a really powerful ghost.

"You mean what the fuck?" She corrects, sounding confused.

I wince. "It's rude to cuss like that. And no I said hook because you're supposed to stay off the hook you'll get cooked."

She stared at me. "Like fishing?"

I nod. "Yeah, cause I'm an Inkling. Our euphemisms are related to the ocean. You must be an Outsider if you don't know that."

Her face scrunched. "We'll come back to you being an Inkling later. So I'm a... what was it... an Outsider?" I nod. "I guess that sort of fits. One moment I'm helping move some heavy tinker tech for PRT, Squealer busts through our storage depo, the next woosh. In falling through something that seems like code and data and then ended up in a ditch about two blocks from here with some piece of tinkertech embedded in my stomach.."

I nodded. "Not sure what tinker...tech or a Squealer is," I say the word testing it, "but if it's advanced, unreliable, or makes the laws of physics cry like a big hatchling, then ya, that can get you to the Crossroads. And it sounds like you were briefly in the Medium." Whoever Missy was, she wouldn't be the first nor the last. It felt like I ran into at least one month in Nos'tagia.

"Medium?"

How to best explain it... ah. "It's a pseudo afterlife, digital communications grid, and place you can visit if you have the right connections."

She looked at me like she was trying to figure out who I was and how I could be talking like this. "Okay..." She trailed off and looked around. "So, you're an inkling, what's that mean? Can all inklings create a tech or just you? You seem to know more than Burger Joe down the street."

"That's a loaded question, can we sit?" I ask, nodding towards the couch. She walked over and sat down, crossing her legs and leaning back against the arm. I followed suit and sat. "I'm guessing you are from a place called earth?"

"Earth Bet." She said with a wry tone.

Bet... "As it beta?"

"It's Hebrew but it has a similar conna..." She trailed as if looking for the correct word.

"Connotations?" I bubbled.

"Yeah, that."

"Okay. If your world is second, then you're familiar with the first or third?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Multiple Earths similar history."

"Right. There are tons of people from the Earths. Same with Inklings and Octolings. Myth and history have it, we survived the great human war that wiped themselves out. Inklings evolved from squids and Octolings from-"

"Octopuses?" She finished.

"Fresh catch you are," I note, appraisingly.

"Why do you look human?"

I smiled at her. "Do we?"

My body melts, in some cases sucking into me, other times elongating, all together forming into a squid. The transition was fast and sudden and the world seemed to change with it. I'm careful though to make sure to keep my ink on the inside. I rocked my head, tentacles waving at her, and gurgled, "We look human because it's chumming and yer stuff was available. Or if you believe the tribe's myth, because your blood-soaked the oceans and we made it ours."

I allowed the change to snap back, and it was only then that I noticed that not only were we further apart the couch was a lot bigger.

"Shuck me sideways and call me clammy," I said poking the couch. "That's like uberfresh!"

"Fresh?" She squeaked. "Can all you do that...?"

I nod. "Yup, dead useful for Turf Wars." Then I add grumpily, "Not that I've ever been in one."

"Two entire species of Changers? PRT is gonna flip."

I shake my head, tentacle wiggles shimming with it in confusion. "PRT?

"Parahuman Response Team." She said slowly. "I'm a part of the Wards program."

Not sure I'm getting the context but I can swim this current. "Then I'm guessing this," I wave to the space between us, "Is normal for humans from your world?"

She shook her head, replying, "Nope only parahumans can do this. And each of us is different."

I think I get it. "So this tinkertech is made by Parahumans?"

Her eyes go wide as saucers and she nods. "Yeah, I need to find a Tinker so they can send me home, and maybe get this thing out of me?"

"Thing?" She seems to blush a bit, pulls her apron aside lifts her shirt up almost to enough to be impolite but then I see what the problem is. Just partially into where her rib cage starts is a circle of metal made of a dozen or so jagged squares and rectangles, all encircling a deep blue lens. Inside it I could see fractal-like circuitry that was running through it and then out to the rest of her body, around her ribs up... it looked fused to the body.

I whistled short calamari in surprise. I caught myself wanting to reach out and touch it.

"Confirmed. Searching," came the cool voice of my AI assistant. Lines of code suddenly blinking across my arm's interface along withou

Please tell me it's not a hyperbolic reality shunt... because if it is, I'm both the luckiest and unluckiest inkling alive.

"It's a hyperbolic reality shunt." Siren replies promptly. "A device used to project a piece of the Medium into the real world, in order to allow broadcast on a stellar distance. It's also not compatible with biological life normally. It's typically used for larger ships and fleets to stay connected while faster than light speeds."

I groan. Knew it.

"So what's that mean? I'm going to die?" For someone discussing her potential demise, she doesn't sound that concerned.

I shake my head. "It should be impossible to even attach you in the first place. Medium exposure outside the medium is like trying to mix oil and water. Without an emulsifier, it should be..." I glanced down at the couch again. "What does your Parahuman ability do."

She tilts her head slightly. "Bends space-time to my every whim." She quips.

"And how does that affect your body?"

She shrugs. "It doesn't. My manton limit prevents me from being affected by my power just like any living thing?"

"Manton limit?" I ask.

"Dr. Manton discovered it. Most parahumans have things that protect themselves and others from their power." She said knowingly.

"I'll have to remember that," I say thoughtfully. "But you're saying you can only use your power non-living things?"

"Yep." She says.

I nod. "Like a couch."

"Exactly." She says with a wry grin.

I run the numbers. Orange hard light flashing as a keyboard against my fingers. Space-time manipulation isn't unique, but on this level, it wasn't common. I'd say frightfully rare even. But something like that would explain why she could somehow keep a reality shunt attached to her body like that. Normally they had to be specially installed so that they could even interact with the physical world.

"I think your powers are acting as an interface between the Medium and the Shunt, keeping it in this reality. You must have flown right through a factory while it was being tested, not quite in the medium and just before you landed in Cevanti."

She shrugs. "I guess. It was a bit of a blur."

I look back up at her. "I'm guessing your powers aren't as fresh as they used to be?"

She shakes her head. "No, my range is all shot to hell and-" Her body explodes, again, digital light flashing across the room and the sound of groaning echoing everywhere multiple times before, she slams back together again. "Ugh. That happens."

Huh.

It makes sense. The shunt is trying to transmit Medium access across Cenvanti, her powers are probably what is feeding it the power to do that... so, lower range but not enough to completely disable her powers. If it had, it would have plopped off by now.

"So what's the verdict Doc?" She asks breaking me from a hundred and one thoughts.

I bite my lip, then nod to myself. "If I were anyone else, you'd chum shucked up the ink sac. But I'm not just anyone else. Know where we can some decent salvage?"

Her face lit up and that was all I needed to know about my chances of finding resources. Not just for her, but for myself.

"Yeah, I know a place."

 

[Koa Kuddlefish]

An Arbiter's Rage
♦ Koa ♦​

I would have called it a sea of junk if not for the overgrowth of every kind of plant imaginable. The oddest-looking trees warped by whatever had been destroying Cevanti now stood a prideful watch of the ruin of technology and resources. Dilapidated buildings, broken ships, cracked glass, shattered concrete, twisted metal, and other debris littered the landscape. Even a broken body or two of some massive beast.

The air smelled heavily of dead fish, oil, and burning plastic. It was also thick with the smell of ozone, smoke, and the sharp tang of saltwater.

From what I could gather, this place had been cut off from the rest of the city when the siege took place. How everything could grow practically overnight was beyond me. Sure there were individuals with those abilities, but this wasn't the first conspiracy I had heard about the local flora and fauna fighting back.

Tracing the area at least once, eyeing out potential areas to dig, I then bee light to roughly the center location to our area before tapping several times on my omnitool. Golden-orange light envelopes me as I bring up the schematics for the Surf-N-Turrent Sentry, aimed the reticle in front of my feet, and pressed go. Other than a digital 'woosh', and a mass of orange shoots out utterly silent. It's only until the hexagons start flooding the targeted area, a third of a meter squared area that a low hum plays out.

"Building a sentry," I say with a grin.

Missy, or Vista as she likes to be called in costume glances my way. Her armor and outfit looking crisper than before thanks to my own repairs. Not enough time to upgrade it yet, but repairs are simple. "Eh?"

I nod my head at the orange glow at my feet which is nearly half my height in so many seconds. "It's my automated defense turrets. Shoots waves of ink."

She nods. "Cool... now like a technical person care to explain how that's defensive?"

"Yup it is cool! Still testing it so it doesn't cause too much damage though."

"That doesn't explain how ink is defensive."

I look at her, oh she wants a more in-depth explanation. "Alright, ever done a bellyflop?"

She physically winced. "A few times. Also had the privilege of a fight a water manipulator monster... once"

Ah, plenty of experience.

"Water doesn't compress without enormous energy. My ink is mostly water only more viscous. So I can launch it farther, faster than water, and still allow me to do damage before it loses all energy.

As the construction was completed, I tapped the scan and targeting app. Green-listed Vista and red-listed a piece of wooden structural debris, simple as point and click. Immediately the entire structure unfolded and the head took aim. Now it just needed ink.

I pulled on my gun, pressurized it, pressed the nozzle right into the induction port, and fired.

A semi-loud chirp emitted from it. A full tank light beaming blue at me. "Let her rip." That was all the sentry emitting a loud 'Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-bam! Ding.' followed by dozens of organic soup bolts being lobbed at the chunk of roof and quickly reduced it to a soggy wood chipped mess. There was a dull click and the ticker on the side of it showed '0001 kills'. The kills portion being written in red marker in my own hand.

I snorted. Cheeky blighter.

Vista looked around at the ruins, then back at me. "Well, that's one thing off the list. Think any of this will be worth the trouble?"

I give her my best grin. "We'll have to dig to find out."

She nods back. "Let's get to work."

♦ Koa ♦

Having Vista around made light work of getting started

Even if she considered herself 'limited', it was pretty damn easy to exam small things made big, and move big things that were made small. It was giving me all sorts of ideas for a shrink and growth ray weapon that would make this kind of work a lot easier when on my own. It wasn't like I'd have her around for long but if I could keep her with me, that would be awesome... but fate loves to make a mackerel of plans.

I had my eyes filleted for things that were especially shiny. Even if I couldn't find especially high tech, like computer components, basic raw materials could still be useful for manufacturing. Though I'd be limited to the designs I had stored away on my omnitool, I could still probably improvise something that would help Vista with her impossible problem.

I'd never thought I'd run into something as outlandish as what was attached just under her ribs. By all that was insane with the crossroads, this was the craziest. Having a piece of nonphysical matter materialized there shouldn't be possible. For anyone else, they would have just passed through it. It was like trying to breed an inkling and an octoling together. Sure only biological level we were similar but, not that similar.

Now it was up to my scientific genius to engineer a way to bypass the shunt and pull her more thoroughly into the physical world so her interactions with the device were less influential.

My eyes were drawn to four piles that had accumulated in our search. The biggest one and least important was made of mostly concrete and steel. As for the second biggest one, it was ceramics and raw materials that couldn't be salvaged for the purposes of the original component. The third pile was like the second only much smaller, damaged but not as much. Potentially repairable. The fourth was barely two or three widgets and greebles that could be useful to our immediate needs.

Instead, they were the replacement parts I needed to repair my anchor since I was missing the pieces completely rather than just forcing it to retake its original shape.

While Vista was useful in moving and finding things, owing to her 'parahuman' powers, she wasn't nearly as knowledgeable about what we were searching for. Of which, we needed a power source, we need something that could alter the interactions between dimensions, and a method to nullify her own powers. So far nothing had fit into any of those categories so instead, it was finding things that I could use to build what we needed.

"How about this?" Vista offered from a few feet away, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I glanced over to her, blinked, and flexed my jaw closed. Holy kracken kalomari.

"That... t-that-that's for the definite pile," I said trying to keep myself in check my hopes at the door and not stumble over my suddenly dry throat.

Vista's senses seemed to catch that it was more than I was letting on. "Spill."

"Spill? Spill what?" I asked dumbly.

"What is it?"

I tear my eyes from the chrome and white finish of the body. It had to be damaged. No one familiar with it would willing to leave a Mark 42 Bleed Torsion Generator lying around in a scrap heap. It was worth enough coins that I could literally spend live the finest of life in 8-Bitain. Highest class home. I'd be a queen of queens. And that's if I was willing to actually part with it.

I once saw a half-destroyed one in a science museum that couldn't be repaired. I would have given my tentacles for just a few hours alone with it. For this... there was a lot I would do for it. Only I didn't have to. I could help Vista, and I could have it all to myself. Mine.

Mine.

The things I could build with that powering my tech would be... well beyond anything I could ever hope build at the current rate I was going. Even a chance to scan and disassemble it before selling it would put me well ahead of where I was now. But with a working one, I wouldn't have to be subtle. I could brute force through every problem I encountered by just adding more power. A few variable growth capacitors would practically guarantee it.

Only a dozen or so were thought to have survived their entrance into the crossroads when someone idiot tried to turn one into a doomsday weapon only, to instead end up creating a one-way portal. Brough a huge section of a city with it and a number of non-inkling species. None of them were human either.

"Well?" Vista said.

"Unlimited power. With that, I could probably do anything I wanted. Fixing you would be a lot easier with that." I say softly.

A slow-burning spark of hope filled her eyes, followed by a more stoic nod. "Well better keep it-"

The ground rumbled.

"Earthquakes? I didn't know Markov had earthquakes." I note.

My omnitool suddenly piped up with an orange glow. "That was not an earthquake."

Something cracked distantly and a glimmer of werelight caught the corner of my eye just a hundred feet away. And another crack sounded like a gunshot as earth just crumbled away leaving a horrifying crevice sickly aquamarine gloom in its place.

"Let's pack up?" Vista offered hesitantly

I nodded. I started towards our piles, only for the earth itself to buckle under my legs. Vista beat me by seconds and was already swinging a bag off her shoulder, heaving the junk we had found by the armload. Impossibly, large objects managing to not only fit into it but have room to spare. She wasn't haven't any problem carrying it around either.

Bags of holding. She's a shark swimming chum kicking bag of holding given arms, legs, and a mind of her own.

The pattering in my chest told me everything I needed to know. I think I'm in love.

"Koa, hurry!"

What... oh right!

I launched myself forward and started pushing more of the valuable stuff from the pile toward her when the ground shook again. This time it took my legs from under me.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-bam! Ding.

I knew that sound.

"Hostiles detected," Siren helpfully informed.

A phantom of something passed through me. Touching a part of me I didn't even know existed. Like igniting an old gas stove. My fingers curled into fists and my teeth snapped shut, grinding. A spark of rage and disappointment lit inside me. A cold heat. As if to agree with me, the sky was rapidly dimming and more cracks could be heard.

"I can handle this," I growled. A tone I never used before but it fit.

Vista was still struggling to get the last pile packed. Her eyes were wide and unsure of herself or perhaps me. "Are you crazy?" She hissed, "This feels like a master effect! We need to pull-"

I ignored her. Something was attacking me and I would be sharkbait if I didn't see that it was put down. And I was going to be the one to do it. I'd prove myself today. To her, to my parents, to Uncle Felix, to myself.

I slung my rifle around, repressurized it, and fired. Neon white ink splashing across the pockmarked ground. It splattered loudly with a crash forming a line crossed in front of my distant sentry. I forced myself back into standing, not even remember falling, and then taking one step forward. The moment my toes touched ink I sunk into my body into transforming as quickly as this warmth had come to fill me.

It felt like being hatched anew, bringing a savage grin to my lips. I swam. Even as I moved, I could hear more cracking and the sound of my sentry turret firing away with a throbbing, 'ch-ch-ch-ch'. It only egged me on, my body flowing like a current until hitting the edge of my ink's borders. My tentacles clawing at them like spindly feelers. I didn't bother waiting.

I flashed upwards, reforming in an instant, drawing a bead on a hostile being splattered with the liquid borne from my own body. It looked like a rat and spider had gotten freaky with one another while skinny dipping in a nuclear dump. More eyes than it should have.

I drew my charged rifle again, and fired, and let myself fall back once again, the force of my rifle hitting with more than significant kickback. Only this time, I fell while taking on my squid form before I even hit the ground. Sinking once more into the ocean's white depths with a splash, somersaulting around and swimming forward once more.

Swimming in ink is an odd experience. I was both so deep as to be in thousands of meters down and yet, I was still at the surface, rushing forward and completely able to see my quarry.

Relaxing my grip on the ink, I launched myself upward once more, gaining back my limbs and jamming my rifle forward into the monster's mouth. I don't know which one of us was more surprised. Me that I thought this was a good idea, or it, suddenly having a heavy piece of wet metal filling its oirfice.

I pulled the trigger, flooding it with my people's legacy.

Time to have my first Turf War.

♦ Missy ♦

I watched as that crazy squid-girl Koa ran off in a Master fueled suicidal rage, heedless of the fact that her tinker tech was doing a sufficient job of allowing us to retreat. I hadn't known her long but she honestly seemed stuck in a permanent state of caffeine induce hyper happiness. This sudden shift in mood, both in myself and her didn't bode well.

It was only due to my time spent with Dean and Vicky that I had any hope of realizing this insidious sensation existed outside of myself. It didn't belong.

While I may have had my difference with Vicky stealing any chance of me ever being with Dean, while she was around. The constant low-level, 'love-me-slash-fear-me' aura she gave of made for a good goalpost to judging myself. Sparring with Dean only added to that whenever he managed to hit me with one of his emotion blasts, rare as it was.

It took a whole month before he was willing to give me a taste of every emotion he could produce. I had to pull every trick a woman can to convince him my justifications were sound. After all, we were the wards, there was always the potential threat of supervillain masters enthralling and then abusing me as a result. You just had to look to Lung's 'farms' to see that much was true even without a Master cape.

Funf act, being short, adorable, and unfortunately young did have its benefits, loathsome though it is to admit. While I didn't get the same kind of immunity that a real master would have, by the end of my own personal trial I had gained an appreciation of just how dangerous Dean could be if he ever decided to cut loose.

Even then, when I was at my most emotionally vulnerable, Dean lived up to his Gallant capename.

If only Vicky hadn't been more than a female chaperone that Dean had insisted on. As much as I loved her as a sister, she had also been an unbeatable competition. Well that, the law, and culture. Stupid age gap.

And now he's dead, I'm here. I can't even commiserate with my 'eternal rival' about that fact. Not after what Panacea had done to her.

I couldn't change either fact any more than I could fix my powers being a shadow of what they once were. But the didn't mean others couldn't. Unless I missed my mark, there was magic here, and this squid... inkling girl thought she could do something about the tech stuffed into my tummy. What if other things were possible?

Stop. Master-Stranger protocols. Except no one to pass the buck on to. Shit.

Right. I didn't have time to brood or hope. I'd done enough of that. Right now I had to make sure Koa stayed alive. It was self-serving but I didn't care. Instead, I shrunk the bag as far I could, and strapped it to my belt.

"Get your ass in gear Vista. Prove that you're a hero." I mutter. If Gallant can be here for me, then I'll have to be Gallant enough in his memory.

I turned my mind on the field my wayward companion went off towards and started running. With each step I started shrinking the area in front of me and enlarging the area behind me, chaining the area of effect I still had at my command.

Though the world blurred in my eyes, my power continued to tell me just what they were missing. Anywhere that dead, anywhere devoid of life I could feel what existed. I knew where to step, what twigs not to step on, where the ground changed level. I was a master of all things. But, where life existed, where it flourished in this corrupted planet a void existed. I could not that spot, nor the area immediately around it. And this place was very much alive and growing so by the second.

A void shot out from the growing darkness.

I dived away and the ground shattered as something long, leafy, nearly black-green with spines took my place. When it pulled away, it left behind growing vines that were sprouting, taking away more of what I could see.

Aw hell.

Got to find squid kid and leaf... and now I know Clockblocker has been rubbing off on me.

Chuckling, if only slightly. I leaned into my power and set course to the growing sensation of liquid splattering the area.

♦ Koa ♦

Ink surged around me, refueling my tank, and repressurizing it. I had long given up any hope of my Charge Rifle doing anything more than inconveniencing these foes, but it did allow me to herd them, using myself as bait and let my Sentry dish out the damage.

I had just managed to corral the last two and was starting to think that maybe I should have taken the risk of charging the group instead. I wasn't sure I wanted to do that. I had a feeling I was going to need my head on straight when I got back to VIsta. I already felt like I was running out of metaphorical steam.

Still, I wasn't going to let that stop me.

I built up pressure of ink inside my sac once more and refocused it on my mouth. Then I pushed myself upwards out of the sea I had built myself and launched myself even further up, unleashing a motive deluge. The earth started shrinking away from me, though the trees barely moved at all. Gravity it seems was a cruel mistress as I started my descent and I had only a brief moment to see my current situation,

Three of the monsters had been converging on me and I was going to land right on top of them. Chum.

I fired three shots of my rifle and nearly splatted from the force but it was enough to change the direction and speed at which I was falling. I hit the ground with an impact that knocked me into a slide as let my squid form take my momentum and turn it back into movement, shooting myself back out into another jump, this time with a much low angle and much faster. Right back at my Sentry.

The taste for this round Turf War was starting to lose its flavor.

"You're not getting away!" I shouted as loud as I could as my Sentry opened fire again. This time the ink-born bullets slammed into the creature's face and chest, leaving a trail of blood mixing in my shimmering ink as they went.

I tried to move in for the kill hoping to drown it like I had to first one but before I could, the monster threw itself backward, and then forward, dodging each shot. Then it leaped over my Sentry and landed on the other side. My Sentry all the while peppering its underside with heavy ink shots.

"Come on you snail suckers! I'm not done yet!" I yelled, trying to get some sort of reaction out of it. But it didn't seem to care at all about my words. Instead, it lifted one of its leathery limbs swiped down on my sentry. Metal crunch, a leg buckled. The damage was extensive. For a moment the sound of inkfire halted.

Then my beautiful machine started firing again, shifting gears and hitting point-blank in the beast's hide and face. It roared, throwing itself off the ground and into the air, and brought a limb up to swipe at my Sentry, finally rendering it down into pieces.

"Sentry down." Siren noted dully, "Returning it to storage and beginning repairs."

Motes of light and signaled Siren doing what she did best, as the wreckage disappeared in orange. Only now there was a gap in my defense, leaving me to face the victorious creature, just as the seconds still living one reared its head from the forest from before.

Chum baiting, snail sucking...!

Shark it. Time to get out of here.

I jumped once more into the air. Angling myself low to the ground towards the way I had come. I could hear the sounds of creatures behind me. I had no idea how many were left since every time me or my sentry put one down, more showed up. And I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to out-splat them. Hopefully, they weren't about to follow me.

I was almost close enough.

But then I saw them.

Two of the things, coming my way fast.

I wasn't going to make it.

All at once, they started veering away, yet their gait never changed. In fact, they looked like they were trying to fight it. But to no avail. They stopped and turned around, looking back the way they came. Their heads bobbing up and down, like they were confused. Almost as confused as I.

It was almost too late when I realized the trick.

Missy!

My eyes darted around me for just a moment. She had to be somewhere nearby to have pulled that off.

I dipped back into one of the smaller pools of ink still available. Just long enough to recharge before crawling out again.

Where the hook is she-

"There you are!" hissed a voice right behind me.

I spun around and found green gowned Missy standing in the off the side of the road we had followed to get here., her arms crossed and smiling even as she stayed low to the ground and motioned me to follow her. I didn't need to ask even once.

We moved quickly through the trees as I tried to figure out where exactly I was. I couldn't remember much about the area, other than we were a fairly short distance from the city. I had been so focused on getting away from the battle, I hadn't paid much attention to where I was going or anything else for that matter. If I had to get back on my own, I'd be shucked.

Keeping my eye on my surrounding now that dimness in the sky hadn't gone away if anything had gotten worse. Plants had seemingly multiplied a hundredfold from what I caught sight.

"Do you think they're following us?" I asked quietly.

"I don't know," she said, breathing far too lightly for someone her size. I was already pushing my limits of physical exertion. "I hope not. If they are, they're doing it from outside my range."

I nodded and kept moving. We had to get back to the city where it was safe. I don't know what came over me back there, but I couldn't let it happen again.

I swallowed my pride and asked, "How did you find me?"

She snorted and then started chuckling as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Finally, when she died down she shook her head and said, "You are the messiest person I have ever laid eyes on." The snark was thick in her voice when she added, "And you smell like one, too. All had I had to do was follow the smell of saltwater and magic color changing neon white stained soil."

Oh.

I laughed. That kind of made sense. Turf Wars weren't known for their stealth. And as it was, it was starting to become obvious, she was the only reason I had made it this far, and I owed her everything. Twice over now.

"Well, thank you for saving my life again," I told her.

"It's what Heros do." She said in possibly the fishiest and most serious voice I had ever heard.

"I think that's what humans call 'corny as hell'." Missy gave me a half-hearted glare and slapped me on the back with a wet squish.

With a sing-song tune, she lilted, "It's not corny if it's true."

I shook my head. "If you keep telling yourself then you're cooked."

"Assault would be crushed." Missy retorted a wee bit derisively.

What is with her people and odd naming conventions? Vista, Assault, what next Chubmaster?

"You're going to have to explain more about the world you come from. Cause it doesn't make sense"

She grunted. "Sure but let's just get the fuck out of here first."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah sure. You know you have a very dirty mouth."

As mama called it, she flipped me the bird.

 

[Koa Kuddlefish]

Epilogue to an Arbiter's Rage
♦ Koa ♦​

Our loot was arrayed around us like some chummed-up pirate's den. Almost no surface in Missy's kitchen-slash-workshop was safe. Everything of even basic importance was arrayed around the Bleed Torsion Generator which my fins were telling me was off. At first glance, it looked like it could be exactly what I described it as. But a second look and a third scan were revealing more and more that what we were looking at was a master knockoff. They were supposed to be near indestructible but short of exotic particle weapons but this one was showing wear and tear.

Then there were the microscopic imperfections that were shorting out my high-resolution scan which was only 13% complete. We wouldn't have the results for another day but I knew in my ink what it would tell me.

Could it tap into the Bleed? Probably. But, was it safe and would it do so effectively? That remained to be seen.

Even my equipment could do that. They used ink not only for ammunition but to fuel a micro fusion device to create a bleed field. But only as long as it had a physical fuel source to act as a catalyzer. It got me a lot higher than the upper limit of fusion fuel efficiency but still a long way off from perfect matter-anti mattery output, or something like a black hole battery.

The more I looked at it, the less I had the feeling that I had found limitless power, and more someone talented trying to make a quick coin. Like really talented. Duplicating one at this level was beyond even me. If they had used the same materials as a real generator, it'd almost be as good as an original.

With a real one, I could have even sent her home. But it wasn't.

"We have a fishcake, not a crabcake. A very nice and tasty fishcake. Maybe even an expensive gourmet fishcake but not a crabcake." I explained morosely. I was being a bit petulant, I know that. I really hoped for a real one. Still, there were things I could learn from this. Maybe even improve on.

Missy's demeanor was a bit more professional than me but I could see the disappointment in her eyes. "So what now?"

"Now? I do some science!" I yelled throwing my arms and tentacles into the air.

She cocked an eyebrow and gave me her best stare. I was learning to interpret that as, 'speak like a normal person.'

"I won't be able to remove the shunt as I'd hoped but I can control it." After all, the circumstances Missy was in were almost like having to maintain the shunt. Only instead of keeping it active, it was dialing down all its properties and suppressing them as best as I could.

Hopefully, it would unlock more of her power, but we'd have to see.

I pointed to the fake. "Once we find out how bad a fake this is, we'll be able to determine if I can use it to weaken the shunt's hold on you. If we can, we'll go forward. If we can't, I'll have to rig up something simpler in the meantime."

"That's a big 'if'," She said with a frown.

"I'm an engineer, that's how we work." And it was. Lots of testing to see what worked, then we through more power at it to see what happened. And then build something to work somewhere between the two reliably. "That and a lot of waiting in between."

"And I am a Hero. But even I know what you're wanting to do sounds impossibly advanced. Are you sure your not some Case 53 Tinker?"

I snorted at how seriously she said it. "I'm still not sure how to take that or what a Case 53 is. Besides, another whole Earth filled with Heros, Villains, and 'Endbringers'? Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, there's a few popping up in the crossroads all the time. Though you're the first I've met."

Though I would have liked to meet that Dragon of hers. The best Tinker in the world? Sounds like fun.

"So tell me, any woomy waiting for you when you get back?"

Her face reddened. "Woomy? What's that."

"Someone cute? Who makes you want to yell booya!"

She slumped sighed as all the life deflated right out of her. "No..."

"You sure?" I poked her.

Her face darkened. "I don't want to talk about it right now. Look I'm glad you're doing this for me but I think I'm going to bed, we have a long day tomorrow."

I nodded. That seemed like a sensitive topic. She was only a few weeks out from being separated from everything she knew and not willingly at that. I'd already decided I'd do everything I could to help her. She saved me, now she needed someone to save her.

Who better than little ol me?

♦ Koa ♦

The next day, I was sitting at a spot in the kitchen that Missy had cleared for me, staring at the omnitool interface. It was showing a close-up of the shunt.

Slowly and remorsefully, I spooned in a mouthful of fruit-flavored Kelpy-Os. They'd already gone warm and soggy in my bowl of milk.

It was a mess. It was a mess. It was a mess!

The shunt itself was a very simple thing, digital alloys, metamaterials, code, and conceptual ideas made physical by the Medium's nature and matter. It worked by its own internal mechanics that could be reliably be predicted. Hook, I used those predictive algorithms to create a connection to the medium on my Omnitool. But this... it was like that whatever Missy's power was, it was interfacing, perhaps subconsciously with the shunt.

As a result, the shunt was bleeding, the barrier between the piece of Medium and flesh was breaking down. Or in Missy's case, the medium was infusing her flesh right around where the shunt intersected her body, and the circuit-like designs were, a synthesis of something between the two.

And it was giving me a fin-ache.

Right now, the changes were minor. And with what I had come up with so far, I could stop it from growing. But I was at a loss and reversing it. Short of just cutting it out and clawing her out of the Medium after she died, there wasn't anything I could that didn't involve death and resurrection. Something told me she'd be averse to that.

Part of me though was interested in what would happen if I let it take its course. What it was building was seriously fascinating and raised new ideas on how cybernetics could be advanced in ways that only existed on Nos'talgia and the Medium itself. Not that I'd ever let an idea like that take root.

I take a gulp of juice and sigh.

"You're spinning your wheels. Not everyone can have a magic golden hammer that fixes everything. If you can't solve it, fix something else." I said to myself. Keeping the same voice that Uncle Felix always said to me. A slight twang, with a bit of city slicker, and some digital static.

It was good advice, and if I hadn't heeded it a hundred times or more I'd never get anywhere.

With a swipe, I opened up my cad software began designing something that would at least suppress Missy's problem for now. I have a vague idea of how to do that already. Maybe I'd find something in the process that would help.

♦ Missy ♦​

Cold air whistled around me, making it hard to ignore the heat in my cheeks and the tightness in my chest that was keeping me from breathing normally. Even wearing leggings, and socks, my torso was that much aware of just how cold it was wearing a bra.

It's no different than being in a locker room with another girl. Besides, Koa isn't even human. Just making sure I don't become any more of a tinker tech cyborg than I already am. She's a squid, no need to be embarrassed about her seeing me that way. She's probably done this hundreds of times right?

Right.

Her fingers danced around the right side of ribs, pressing some sort of device into the shunt thingy that somehow was solid to me but completely permeable to her that one point her hand inside it and my abdomen. How it had been Shadow Stalkered into me like she put arrows into people I have no clue. Maybe blame Squealer? That sounded like a good idea.

Blame the bitch that got me sent here in the first place. I can live with that.

I watched as Koa pulled away and looked at something on her Omnitool. She tapped it several times, then turned back towards me. Her face was serious for once.

She grabbed my right arm and lifted it up above my head. "Hold still," she ordered.

I did.

Then she pressed a button on the Omnitool. It made a loud click and a soft hum, and I felt a sensation of warmth that ran through me. It was like a mini-vacuum sucking the shunt out. Only it didn't move. It was still there as far as I could see.

Quietly at first, and then more loudly I could hear... music? And, popping noises, a foreign language that had the same watery quality of Koa talking. What the hell? Then an orange field appeared and in full color inside it, a video started playing of squid kids and octopuses fighting some sort of war.

"Neat, I'm literally able to pick up the 147th Golden Turf War Tournament from your belly." She said cheerfully. "I won't ever have to pay a hundred coins for it again!"

I stared at her for a moment, then bent space between my hand and the back of her head. Finally, I whacked upside the tentacle. "Really?" I groused.

Koa had a blank look on her face.

I gave her a pointed stare and she finally cracked a smile.

"What?" She started giving me the cute of a puppy. "it's insanely expensive to watch in pay per view. Also, you're done for now."

I lowered my arm. Tense for a moment and didn't feel like I was about ready to become a digital snow globe again.

"Okay, what does it do?"

"It helps your body keep on this side of the Medium and your power from pulling you through it."

I frowned. "My power was trying to pull me through the hole in the universe that's sitting inside me?"

She nodded, then shrugged.

"Sort of, your power is weird. Capital W weird. You were somehow in both worlds at once, you pixellating was when your power tried to pull the Medium further into this world. This little device that sits inside it, prevents that."

I blinked.

"So it's like a forcefield?" I asked, and she laughed. Kindly but in annoyingly too smart for her own good sort of way.

"No, not really. It doesn't hold the medium in place or stop it from moving. It just keeps your power from seeing it as something it can interact with."

So basically a trump effect, huh. If she could do that, could she do other things like something that could enhance my power? I tried bending space again and well it definitely felt easier. My sight through it is clearer. More energetic? Yeah.

Even if she wasn't a parahuman, she was still definitely a Tinker. Even if she didn't admit it, jerkmaster would agree with me. Casually making something from junk that could affect or manipulate powers was huge! Wonder if I can get a taser or something, maybe a gun like her's? She did owe me big twice over. I should be able to ring a gun or two out of her.

"Hey, Koa?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you make me a gun?"

"Uh sure. Yeah, let me know what kind and what role you want it, and I can figure something out."

"How about a lightning gun." It'd mesh well with her use of ink since I'm pretty sure its conductive. As long as she's out of the way... yeah that can work really well.

Suck that PR and Youth Guard peons! Vista is going to show you all up! Sending me out with nothing but a breastplate? Who does that? It's like you were trying to get me killed on purpose!

"Missy?"

I blink out my world domination fantasies. "Yeah?"

"You're drooling."

I checked my lips.

Shit!

 

[Koa Kuddlefish]

New Horizons Interlude
♦ Koa ♦​

Wires, salvaged parts from half a dozen different devices, even an old toaster's heating elements, and bunches of chunks of metals and ceramics. All of it added up to increasing my stockpile of resources that were meant to make Missy's dream weapon. A powerful, awe-inspiring lightning bolt gun. A shotgun with some shocking attributes. One could even call it a Shockgun. A Gig-A-Volt Shockgun.

Yes! Ha, perfect. That may be my very best name so far.

"The tesla coil is connected to the capacitor." I sang as I connect the micro-coil to an array of capacitors that I definitely wasn't using ramune bottles to extract quantum foam energy from. That would be insane. No sane engineer would do that. Right?

"The capacitor is connected to a soda bottle," I continued, aligning several of the harmonic transducers around it to better deepen its connection to the underlayer and act as an improvised sub-electron amplifier. "Soda bottle is connected subspace vacuole fixator...!"

A spark of lightning zips through the entire array, the empty bottle of ramune cracks, and I hear the hiss of the vacuum disappearing. And there is the faint smell of burnt plastic and oxidizing silver.

"Reef!" I curse and draw up the overlay. "Siren, see what I missed?"

Orange panels flashed over the device that would eventually be called a gun but at the moment looked more like someone had taken apart of microwave and tried to attach it to a pair of metal rollerblades and a mass driver. Siren for a part was mapping everything I put together, starting with the ramune bottle, and working backwards.

"The bottle started generating its own current before the rest of the system was able to induce tunneling across the vacuum gap. The build-up electrons destabilized, sending a charge that was larger than the pump could handle-"

"And is generated a kinetic element which cracked the glass."

"As I said, a proper sub-electron amplifier would eliminate the need to improvise this design." She was dead monotone but I could hear a quality of 'I told you so, you didn't listen' that was very much impolite.

Rolling my eyes, I replied, "Yes, and then we'd have to worry about getting the reef forsaken thing wet. My way avoids that. Cause I don't want Missy going..." I mimed firing the gun, falling, and made a big explosion with my hands and a "Brrcow Boom," noise which Siren probably appreciated if only for more context. See I can mature when I want to be!

"Once we have the amplifier, it would only be a matter of producing a water-tight container with redundant safety measures." She replied without a hint noticing my extra descriptive actions.

Fine, be that way. I hummed. It helped me think. Most of the time.

Buying one was expensive, a thousand coins for just one amplifier and not even a high-quality one. They exploded when you got them the least bit damp but they could scale in a way my systems couldn't. Coating it with metamaterial rubber was a possibility and when it wasn't in use, it would be watertight on its own.

I sighed.

I really, really did not want to have to buy one. Mainly because there was only one place to buy them and as it turned out Cevanti was the one place you could get them since the schmuck who sold me one last time had been run out of Nos'Talgia for reasons that couldn't bear being mentioned. Plus if I told Missy, I'm sure she'd try a strangle him with his own shop.

And that wouldn't stop him since said schmuck was an immortal glitch who could escape the Medium at his leisure.

A throaty yawn from behind me broke me from musings, a very Missy yawn at that. "Good morning Koa."

I turned to see her wearing something that could be called pajamas. Green synth-silk, with a silver stripe going down the right. Simple, classy, not what I would expect her to pick out for pajamas at her age. Humans always seemed to mature more slowly than inklings or octolings. The look on her eyes told me she probably needed more sleep than she got, or was in need of caffeine.

What did mum say about giving young teens caffeine? Wasn't it supposed to make them hyper?

Hyper was a good thing. Or so I've been told. I mean, after all, people called me hyper all the time and nothing ever seriously bad happened. Plus I learned to fix a lot of things that I broke, or Uncle Felix would. Either way between the two of we got a lot of accomplished. And so, me being hyper, or Missy being hyper, or BOTH of us being hyper could only end in fun times.

Because being hyper always made this kind of work easier.

Maybe... hiss spark! Nope, that's not a good idea. How about... oh right, I should reply.

"Morning." I mumbled back. My brain mostly focused on why my Ramune based amplifier could be made to work. I was missing something obvious. Coating the inside with titanium perhaps?

Her arm stretched across the apartment and was already filling a kettle with water and getting it on the burner even as she leaned over to look at my work.

"You're still working on it? And.. that's the same thing you were wearing yesterday," Her comment ended in a deadpan.

"Sleep's for the unmotivated and uninspired," I muttered groggily. "I'll get it done." I just had to pay money to a man of questionable morals.

"You're going to wear yourself out," she warned.

"That's why I'm taking breaks." Bathroom breaks being the bulk of it. And breaks to get water. Snack breaks. Tea breaks. And when I was waiting on those breaks I was working on this. Perfectly efficient use of my time and Missy's. Especially since we were already making plans to go out again and see if we can figure out what exactly caused the land itself to mutate and try and attack us.

"But... it isn't finished yet." She said as if testing me. I wasn't sure what to make of it.

"It will be," I assured her. And it would. That hardest part was already complete. I just had to get the Sub-Electron Amplifier working or replaced and then it would only be a matter of making it gun-shaped.

She didn't say anything.

"What?"

"I'll pour you some more of that, Kelpy-Os, really are those a thing?" she said.

That brought a small smile to my face. "Yup! And some fruit-flavored energy drink!"

"Absolutely not." Missy deadpanned once more. And that unfortunately was all there was to it.

 

[Koa Kuddlefish]

New Horizons Interlude Pt.2
♦ Missy ♦​

Many a shop surrounded us, as we walked. Clothes, food, adult book stores, fireworks, strip clubs, normal book stores, software supplies, gaming, and many things I didn't even have names for. We saw it all, from a distance. A lot of it though reminded me of Lord's Market. Knock off brands, things that looked mainstream but weren't. A lot of it though was technology that like Kao, was improvised when put together.

I quickly averted my gaze from a twin-tailed alien hologram dancing lewdly at a man's feet as was stuped near a barrel with a bonfire burning inside, he was- I looked away.

Gees get a room.

But wasn't that just it? This is just more proof of what I was already feeling

Markov is an odd duck as far as cities go. And that was factoring out the weirdness of monsters. It didn't compare to Brockton Bay's parahuman population even after the Undersiders cleaned house. I've been here for nearly three weeks but honestly? I was seeing the similarities. People rarely talked about their problems and until Koa, I was the same. It took having a tinker dropping into my lap for me to break away from this learned helplessness I found myself in.

Instead of learning about what was going on, I was trying to protect my civilian identity when it didn't matter. I was trying to keep my head down at the same time. I listened in and picked up on half facts. And use that to justify pretending my situation hadn't changed enough to hide from the fact I was alone. I did random jobs and earned money to buy things like the two regenerators I used to keep myself and Koa alive.

Things like that. But I didn't tell anyone I was alone. I acted like I had parents if anyone asked, though few did, and then took out my frustrations through proactive action like trapping criminals until the local authorities could pick them up. People didn't question how a thirteen-year-old girl like myself could possibly do what she did. After all, this was the Crossroads. Who cared if she wore a mask.

It made things too easy to not interact with people meaningfully.

Perhaps stupidly, I embraced the time-honored tradition of stopping crime and stealing criminal's wallets. No need to rely on other people if I could just make my income off of the backs of real criminals. No need to beg.

If Direct Piggot ever found out, I'd have my ass chewed six weeks to Sunday. But frankly, I didn't care, and if I did get back I'd just be happy I can be with the rest of the wards again.

Until that happened though, I had a lot to do and a lot to prepare for. I had genuinely found myself a Tinker. Just seeing her act and talk, reminded me of having Chris around. And if I squinted just right, I could just pretend Koa was a Case 53. Just like Weld.

For now, I could live with that, because I was still a Ward. And that meant I had a job, a purpose, and a reason to wake up every day. I also had a place to sleep and food to eat. Plus it was fun as hell, even here. Find criminals beat them up. Make money. Though those monsters the other day were far more interesting a frightening.

That alone reminded me of home in other ways.

"You're quiet today," Koa says, her tentacle bobbing in step with my own hair. She's wearing a new outfit this morning. Like something from before I was born. The nineties maybe? It's odd. Lots of solid white with rainbow paint splattered onto it. Only the paint is made of tiny uniformly aligned dots. And instead of a skirt, she's wearing simple bike jogging shorts.

"I'm thinking," I answer.

"About what?" She asks.

"War and peace" I respond jokingly. It's not really funny. And she doesn't laugh.

"Peace is a lie. And war pointless." She says in false seriousness.

"They're real enough for people to die over," I remind her, remembering the time I fought Hookwolf. "And if you want to know what I'm thinking about, it's how much time I spent here already and I'm only now starting to get how far away I am from my home and how hard it will be to get back."

I take a breath scanning our surroundings, no one following us that I could identify. And the crowd was too dense to really track them by the shadows they left in my thinker field. I wasn't wearing my mask or visor, or outfit. Today was just shopping for things we couldn't scavenge, any fighting would be dealing with someone trying to mug us, not someone else.

"Fair." Koa breathed out a sigh but then brightened up. "Ooo, is that 252 Phased Modulator?"

A wrapped my arm around her shoulder. "Do we need it for anything right now?"

"No, but we may need it someday!"

I rolled my eyes. She was supposed to be the mature one yet more than once I felt more like a babysitter of our relationship. Point of fact I tightened my grip as she started squirming.

"Can we afford it and the sub-harmonic-thingy?" I ask pointedly.

She scoffs, and corrects me, "Sub-Electron Amplifier. And nooo. We can't. Why do you have to be so logical and mature?" And there's the pouting. Crocodile tears are what they are.

Me logical? Me Mature?

I had been struggling to get anyone to respect the fact that I'm trying to be mature in a body full of hormones that I don't want. I wanted to be a Parahuman first, and not a preteen role model! But no, PR says I can't show the world that PRT regularly employs superpower child soldiers. I have to be older before I can lead the Wards as team leader. It doesn't matter that I've been at this for five years since my parents drove me to Trigger.

Why is it now when people start respecting me as a person for my actions rather than basing their opinions on a number that was my age?

How is a crapsack place like this able to see past my number when I couldn't get anyone back home to do the same for a few minutes? Why couldn't Dean?

Finding my voice, I reply slowly and trying to sound understanding, "Because, if we want this to work. We can't spend all our money on... ifs."

Koa darkened, visible, her skin and tentacles took on shades that were deeper and less bright. Even the whitest portions became cobalt gray. And then she saw something else and tried to get out of my grip again, her body and demeanor brightening up.

"Trillion Core RAM, with a temporal processing core? Missy, please we got to-that is so fresh! Before someone washes it away!"

Tinkers...

Then the shop we had been looking for came into view, 'Rootkit's Registry'. It was brightly lit with holographic neon signs and... more lewd women and men dancing in miniature on top of every surface that wasn't being used to show off some sort of product.

Okay, I can kind of understand Koa's reluctance to come here.

This is going to be really fucking awkward if we have to stay for much longer than a quick pick-up.

"Koa, we're here."

"What? Oh...! Ew. Seriously, it's even worse than last time! Why do Navis have to be such Urechis?" And just like that, she was slowing down and dragging her feet.

Urechis? What's an Urechis... actually, you know what? I don't want to know. More importantly, what's a Navi?

Guess I was going to find out.

 

[Koa Kuddlefish]

New Horizons Interlude Pt. 3
♦ Missy ♦
​

"I don't need a lightning gun if this Rootkit is that much of a problem. Something else would be fine." I said softly only several steps from being inside this screwed-up look parlor.

She shook her head, tentacles flopping lifelessly. Like she didn't have the energy to articulate herself. "No, it's a good idea, especially with your abilities. We need this and... Siren is right. I can't make one myself, not without a lot of equipment that's more expensive than this. And maybe if I have one I might be able to make something similar."

She squeezed my hand and started walking forward. I followed though a twinge in my stomach said that something was amiss.

As we entered the Registry, I noticed three things, first, the lights shifted brighter with flashes in between. Second, the holographic displays were suddenly switched from lecherous content to ads for guns of all sorts, and things I didn't even recognize as outright as anything in particular. Even the raucous sounds of vulgarities of cheap romance were replaced with smooth jazz.

As we got closer, to the back of the shop the counter I realizing something. Koa, the normally happy joyful inkling that I'd known so far for the past three days was looking furious. I'd like to say I can read a person and figure out their normal moods, but I wasn't Dean, but I could be close. Even when I didn't want to be the 'heart' of the team.

That ire and rage were aimed at the figure near the front. Black and red armor reminded me of the Empire 88, however, the smarmy look on his face was off-putting in his own right. He was looking like the cat that just spotted its next mouse. To make matters worse, he was dressed as capeish as I had ever seen.

"Well well, what do we have here?" An oily yet digital voice announced. Not from the figure's form but from speakers in the building. "The Arbiters must be smiling on but, though I can't imagine why."

That was the fifth time I had heard of the Arbiters but aside from some sort of judge, the reference escaped me.

"One lost apprentice, and my word, has she brought me but parahuman present. How truly exquisite."

I froze midstep and nearly tripped myself. I hadn't told anyone but Koa what I was.

The Navi, Rootkit. I suppose his name would be, grinned, sallow teeth against paper white skin. His helmet shading much of his eyes from view so I could only make out slits.

How could anyone possibly know what a Parahuman was? Were there others?

A snap, I only just registered that it was his fingers only it rang out like a gong, and all the holograms vanish and instead were somehow sending cube-like pixels to one central point above him. Forming into a brain with two red glows burning faintly. It was a hologram of a triggered Parahuman brain. I'd seen it enough in Vicky's textbooks when she tutored me so I could get in classes. Ever trying to catch up to my fellow wards, trying to prove my worth, and skip grades.

Only it wasn't showing it a generic brain. No, this one was of someone who had likely been scanned. And my gut was telling me it was mine. I remembered the MRI I was given to verify that I wasn't just some master victim who'd be trumped up.

Koa however seemed to completely disregard it and slapped down our shared credit chit with all the money we had on it not currently spent.

"One Sub-Electron Amplifier, model one," She snarled.

The man's face morphed in a vicious grin that was trying to appear genial. He raised a hand and the picture of the brain disappeared, in its place a hologram of coins appeared in one hand, and a cutely deformed version of Koa appeared in the other. "Come now, that's not how we do this bug and coding show. There's a whole process. You make an offer, I counter offer. You counter again, I name an unreasonable price and don't budge. You do a favor for me and I sell it to you at a discount."

Koa's large eyes were storming. "Or I could inform Uncle Felix and the rest of the town, and we see how fast you can drag your sorry fins out of the medium."

His laugh boomed, literally. Glass displays rattling. Even the lights flickering ever so slightly.

He ran his hand along with his helmet like it was an actual head of hair. "Your 'Uncle' would be helpless outside his domain, and your townspeople would not live long outside the operations of Nos'talgia let alone the gaming zones. Now, why don't you tell me a lie you actually believe?"

"One Sub-Electron Amplifier, model one, now." Her tone was colder now.

"Alas, I'm fresh out of Sub-Electron Amplifiers, my dear. Perhaps I can interest you in something else? A Tyflon XRS Quantum Modulator?" Again his grin sharpened. He was specifically playing with her, egging her on.

Koa stamped her foot and pointed a dozen or so hot orange, almost read gems rods with indentations in the middle. "It's right there."

Okay, time to put a stop to this.

"Those my dear are display pieces, you can't possibly ask me to part with those."

I tugged on Koa' shoulder, "Let's go. We can find them somewhere else or alternative."

"You can try, I'll even put you in touch with Khan."

Once more a picture appears, a tiger given bipedal form wearing a suit.

He's the only man who knows how to make these marvelous devices. Here's the thing." He leans forward, his own body pixelating. leaving a trail of light. "They are only useful for very specific purposes and electrical tools made with them are either very specific... or utterly outmoded." What I could see of his eyes darkened. "Besides Khan is a smart person, though. He would lose much should he compromise our relationship."

I try and pull Koa away be she's rooted in place, either by obstinance or anger. "Come one You can build something else."

She doesn't even react.

"Let's not be too hasty. Now, despite the fact that they are display pieces, I might be convinced into parting with one possibly at a discount. I only ask for a small, itsy bitsy favor. I'll even throw in a few options."

Koa frowned. "I'm listening."

"Option one, Parahumans are quite hard to come by. The events that often trap them in this universe are singularly more destructive than most. A genetic sample is more than enough to get what I need. I'll give you all the amps you want and a permanent discount even."

"Absolutely fucking not." I snarl. I'd seen what biotinkers can do like Bonesaw. I heard from Weld what even lesser ones like Blasto could do. The last thing I wanted was to have even more clones of me running around.

"Such language. It was hope but alas. The second option, is there are several patents you never transferred over to me, Koa, before my untimely demise-"

"Shuck you!" I think even my ears were burning with that last one. "Let's get out of here Missy."

Koa starts to reach for her coin chin as I turn away when that bastard again starts speaking, "Again with the hastiness. Perhaps there is one other thing that can convince me. And the cost is only immaterial, compared to a thousand coins. But it's perhaps the one thing I want most of all."

Her voice barely catches my ear, "What?"

I turn to see Koa still at the counter, her head aimed over her shoulder, rigid.

"Simply put, I want an apology. You see when I was unceremoniously thrust into the medium, all I could remember for the longest time was your glare, the betrayal of the girl who I mentored to make some of the finest weapons I'd ever seen. The look as you showed our neighbors where my server was. How you hacked it to bits and severed my connection to the material world. The accusations you threw at me about who I sold what to."

"Get to the shucking point before I cook you again."

"With that attitude, I almost wonder if I'm being too generous... Still, it's a small thing. The one thing I ask for is an apology."

Oh no. I close distance on Koa and grab her by the hand. I'm not letting her apologize to this skeevy creep for who knows what.

Right my hand grasps her by the wrist, and I start pulling, I hear, "I'm sorry."

"Can you repeat that again, with context? These old microphones and cameras of mine just aren't what they used to be," He was smug beyond belief. And his face, his entire posture was vicious and looming.

"I'm sorry. I should never have told on you."

"For what?" I could practically hear him snickering under his digital breath. Not that Koa seemed to notice.

"Saying you were spying on everyone, that you were stealing from them! From me." What? From what I'd seen so far, he seemed handily capable of all that. From what I heard about essentially blackmailing this Khan person from his own lips. It seemed likely. Her voice was quiet now but she was still audible. "For sending you to medium."

"Meh... I'm still not feeling it." He quipped, idle glancing down at his fingernails. "Perhaps if you...!" He looked up from his fingers and froze while Koa yanked her hand out of mine.

She was getting on her hands and knees. Pale liquid streaming from her eyes.

"Please."

A robot arm swung through the roof, completely schadenfreude to the situation, opened the display case with the red gems, and moved over to the countertop, dispositing it with a plink.

"Ha! Koa Kuddlefish, when I opened up my store today, I thought, it's Tuesday, nothing can surprise me on a Tuesday. But boy was I wrong. Who would have thought that little ol' me would see me do business with the one who drove me out of my own home." He boomed as if regaling us with some mythical tale.

A beam of light sliced across the chit that had fallen from her hand onto the floor.

"One thousand coins has been deducted from your account. Do please come again soon." Koa didn't even wait for him to finish speaking. She grabbed the chit, and the gem and pushed both into that fancy bracer tech of hers, and ran off. Even with my power, it took me a few minutes to find and catch up with her.

I vowed that I was going to do something about that bastard.

I didn't know what, but I was.

 

[Koa Kuddlefish]

New Horizons Interlude Pt. 4
♦ Missy ♦​

It took a day for Koa to even come out of the mood she was in. At first, I thought she was going to just throw herself into her work as if nothing had happened. I'd seen Chris do that on more than one occasion, usually after he bombed another math test or his home life got him going. From what he had shared, it wasn't as unbearable as mine, but it was close. But this more than anything else made me realize I needed to stop treating her like a parahuman, no matter how much I'd like to think of her as one.

I offered what comfort I could but she instead shut me out. I did catch her talking to someone on her bracer, but beyond a few choice words that made me think therapist, I got nothing out of it.

She didn't seem broken though. But she had been close.

Parahumans are broken. I'd realized that the day I was sewing up a gash underneath my collar bone instead of asking a favor from Amy. When I got into fights, especially with parahumans. It was a way to relieve stress, to feel freedom. I wasn't bloodthirsty or psychotic-like Sophia but I had my moments.

Facing down with Hookwolf alone and then hiding I even had the encounter ranked up their with my top ten worst ideas ever. Koa I don't think was like that. From what she described through Inklings had their moments, but they valued competitiveness, not actual violence. Maybe I missing a cultural thing here but there was the difference between her 'splatting' monsters and facing off against childhood boogymen.

If it had been me in her shoes, I'd probably have torn the store up. Everything about that had the makings of a trigger event. Only instead, I didn't end up on the ground and she didn't trigger with a parahuman power. I didn't even know it was possible or not. Only humans had ever been parahuman. Still getting powers for a traumatic event is a pretty shitty booby prize.

I'd trade my powers for a happy family in a second. But I knew for a fact that my mom and dad would never be happy unless the one was likely killing the other.

Another day passed before she even touched the gun, and most of it was mopey sort of half-assed attempts at getting her last attempt situated to the gem thingy that caused all this grief.

It was rather a surprise though when I heard humming coming from her lips by the second morning after. It was subdued but more than I heard from her in a while.

♦​

I yawned closing my bedroom door, my mind and arm already working to get a pot of water on the stove for my morning coffee, while my eyes hung out of my head thanks to what my ears were hearing.

Humming. A somewhat pleasant yet somber tune that reminded me of an old song that Assault sang when he thought no one could hear. Something about cooking with herbs and conditional love. It was accompanied by Koa being arms deep inside a roughly long gun-shaped rectangle and as the centerpiece.

"Stable current detected," The black box on her arm rang out, causing her to only pause for a moment before continuing on.

I sighed, mostly in relief. Maybe I had underestimated her, or Inklings just handled emotional pain differently? But whatever, I was glad she was back somewhat normal. Even though I was still trying to figure out what normal was for her and for us. I was already getting the feeling that we'd be getting to know each other for a long time before either one of us had the resources of tackling 'Escape a universe.'

I set a few plates in the dishwasher, grabbed a mug, and made for the kitchen rather than acting like a lazy parahuman and using my power to make physics rock back and forth in a shower. I poured myself a cup of the hot liquid, added a bit of sugar to it, and took a seat at the table.

The hum was still there, but I couldn't quite place it.

"What's that?" I asked.

Koa was leaning over the counter, looking down at the gem thing, strapping some sort of silvery metal on either tip to anchor it in place. All the while humming, with her tongue sticking out, clenched between her lips, like a cat with its tongue caught. Once that was done she wiped her forehead, licked her lips, and looked up. "Huh? Morning"

My mouth quirked. "Morning. So what was that song you were humming?"

She hummed a few bars of the same song, enough that I could recognize, and asked, "If you mean that, it's Scarborough Fair."

It sounded familiar, but I still couldn't place it. Rather than let me flounder though, Koa seemed to catch on to my lack of understanding. "It's a song Mama taught me after you know... Him."

Ah.

"It's about how conditional love can be. How people can use each other," She explained, sounding a little sad, but not overly so.

"That sounded familiar." She looked at me oddly. "I heard Assault sing it once or twice." I elaborated. Though what I didn't say was how it applied to my parents far too well.

"You had it on your world too?"

I shrugged. "I guess, I don't know the words very well, or even the name." Then a thought occurred to me. One I wanted to follow through on. "Can you sing it for me?" I said, then putting my coffee to my lips.

The look on her face was both sweet and hilarious as she blushed to a literal neon red before nodding. "Okay. I'm not that fresh though."

I smiled back, pulling up a seat next to her, I hadn't heard her say fresh or use any other Inkling slang in a while. "Don't worry, I won't judge. I sing like a frog."

Her elbow popped in my side lightly. Pulling a giggle from me. "Careful, I know plenty of frogs who can sing really well."

I caught her eye though, she was stalling with a hum in her mouth instead. I elbowed her in return. "Go on, sing."

"Fine!" She giggled and then took a breath, and started singing for reals, "Are you going to Scarborough Fair?"

She was good, and more than anything, that told me I still had a lot to learn about my new friend. For however long I had a chance.

Author's Notes

To anyone who cares enough to read my writing, I recommend listening to Gunslinger Girl ~Scarborough Fair

 

[Koa Kuddlefish]

New Horizons Interlude Pt. 5
♦ Missy ♦
​

I stared at the completed shotgun. No way was I calling it the Giga-Ah-Volt Shockgun. I liked Koa a lot, but I didn't like her that much. Her naming sense was even worse. And a little research had told me it was endemic to both her species and their cousins the Octolings, but even from what I had read, it was not as bad as her.

She seemed to take pride in both how beautiful she could make her tech and naming it the worst possible of names.

And it really was pretty. Its siding had been smoothed out, the interior repeatedly waterproofed. The barrel and its housing was an angled rectangle in shape but the rest of it seemed to grow out of it organically into something more like a classy shotgun. Of course, I had her paint it green with a silver-white stripe going down the bottom side of it.

And I know guns are bad, and I had seen enough bodies from every gang war in Brockton for the last since I was eight but I always felt unbearably vulnerable. I'd have liked a shield at least but I had no real way to stop people from misbehaving or send them cowering. This would change that. Vista now had to stopping power now.

Or would have if Koa actually trusted her work.

"So remind me again why I can't use it?" I said eyeing the wires connected to it and the computer Koa and rigged up. "It looks done to me."

"Oh, it is," She assured me, smiling and looking proud of herself.

"But?"

"It's not ready yet."

"Why not?"

She shrugged, "I'm testing it to make sure each piece doesn't blow up on us."

I sighed and rolled my eyes at her. "I thought you said it can't blow up."

"I said it won't blow up from water damage, or ink damage. I never said it malfunctioning couldn't." Tinkers. They're never specific until they want to be. Oh, it's an anti-endbringer weapon? Oh by the way it shoots black holes. Maybe mention that before you started aiming at your nemesis instead of an endbringer?

I gave her a look that told her I wasn't buying it.

"It's a new gun, it needs a test run." She insisted.

"Test runs usually involve using them, not using wires. I can do that right now!" Like there were some very mean rocks just a few blocks from here that'd make really good targets. I saw the bullying a few pebbles just the other day.

She shrugged at my mock glare. "I think we're good."

"You don't know that."

"I do."

I snorted, "We'll see."

That brings a grin to her face. "You know what. You're right, we will see a bolt of super fresh lightning cooking gun work, eventually. In another seventeen hours and fifty-four... fifty-three minutes. And not a minute before my system gives it the all-clear."

I can be good. I can wait that long. I just have to find something to do in the meantime.

♦​

The night is cool on my neck, and wrists, my visor so how clarifying vision despite it being both green and oddly shaped to alter my facial features. Tinker tech but the most durable kind of tinkertech. Built to last. That I had damaged it when I had first arrived attested to the miracle of my survival. My shoes were the same, durable tinkertech materials meant to outlast even me. And under them, rocks kept skittering from under them, cracking as only rock on asphalt can.

Crunching gravel on a paved is never a good sign. It's coarse and the sound is distracting when on patrol for criminals. It also made it harder to listen to people who were following you.

And patrols are meant for one thing only, to stop crime. Whether by force or by letting people know you were there. The only problem was this wasn't America, nor even Earth Bet. People didn't know capes and with so many cultures, it seemed like my costume wasn't even remarked on. So that left me to stopping crimes from happening as I found them rather than preventing them by presence.

At least low-income locations were all the same. A hotbed of idiots trying to make a quick buck.

Something starts clacking, maybe of someone stumbling, a muttering a voice, a yelp. Telltale signs of a mugging. Or worse.

I move, compressing reality in front of me, stretching behind to push me forward, and I start racing towards the noise. I'm not going to let anyone get hurt, not tonight.

Ahead, I hear a scream and the sounds of fighting. The noises grow louder, more frantic. There's a thump, then another, and another. Then a yell, and a crash. More muffled moving as I reach the mouth of an alleyway, sliding to a halt just before. My power letting me make out the four voids. Two thin ones and two which are small close to the ground. Fully alive, nothing that could be misconstrued as a corpse. I made it in time.

Two men looming over a couple, a man and a woman. The couple huddled against each other, holding hands, looking terrified. They're dressed poorly, even for the area. The man has blood flowing from his forehead but still trying to shield the woman.

I throw my hand out. I don't need to do it to control my power but sometimes it just feels easier to use it when I do.

The whole street seemingly starts shifting and moving according to my will, I focus on enlarging the area directly between the two groups, adding as much distance as possible. In the process smearing the textures on the floors and walls closest to them. Then like the robed guy that had been attacking Koa not too far from here, I began changing the comparative height between the ground and itself surrounding the assailants, literally shaping a hole to trap the folks.

It's slower going, the men are massive and closely packed which makes the space around them that much harder to bend. Like trying to pick up the driest of sand as it falls through your fingers and around the edges of your hands. Even with my power stabilized by Koa's tinkering using my power is like it is now is like when I first triggered, muddled and confused.

I know what I want, and what I can do, but the finesse is all missing.

It's because of that, that I'm unable to catch them fully before the first one realizes what is going on and knocks his buddy out of the way while dancing to the side as well, both tripping over the foot-deep ridge. Scrambling spooked cats.

Not going to get away like that!

I throw down another expansion field on the top of it increasing the area immediately around either side of the hole so they can't escape, dragging them back in by their own body's positioning so the whole wraps around them. Thank god they aren't that fast.

"You can't run from me," I say, my voice sounding calm and controlled as I walk directing into sight. "I can see you."

They both look at me, wide-eyed and panicked. Even four or five times my weight they can't hope to run away from their crimes. I push them deeper in the whole they can climb out, then narrow lip so even if they did they wouldn't fit.

I turn to the victims. "Have you called emergency services already?" The man with the bleeding head looks at the woman who is sobbing, her face wet with tears. He shakes his head yes.

I nod and smile reassuringly. "Good, good. Tell the officers that they should be able to retrieve the criminals from the hole in about half an hour."

I didn't know what this city's vigilante laws are, but I'm doubtful their friendly given how much poverty I've seen. I glance up towards the building directly above and layer down shrink fields bring the top closer to the ground, and then step in, reaching out to climb out on top of the building before dissipating the field. Leaving on the one restraining the criminals in place.

Another fight that I could probably have ended sooner with something more than just the ability to bend space-time. just have to wait another few hours.

Time to get out of here.

 

[Koa Kuddlefish]

♦ Missy ♦​

Thank god coffee is a multi-universal constant.

A mug was in my hand and it was wafting with delicious aroma over-roasted beans as I came out the front door of the cafe. It was a little early for the morning crowd but the line for the counter stretched out the doorway and around the corner. I'd gotten a table near the window and the view of the street made it easy to watch for anyone coming and going. The woman sitting across from me was reading her tablet.

The new man from behind the counter looked up and smiled. "Morning!" he said.

I nodded and took a sip. I wasn't sure how much I could drink. It was cheap tasting and nothing like the stuff I stole from mom's divorce attorney. Why I was at my mom's attorney's house, I have only the vaguest idea. and the less I think about it the better, but when they left me alone in another room for three hours, with nothing to do but look through the cupboards. I made off with the coffee and made a beeline for Armaster's espresso machine in the canteen next to his PRT side lab.

The man may have had his problems but he knows how to make a coffee machine.

Reminiscing aside, the caffeine had to be helping. It was easier to focus on my own tablet as I surfed the medium for something specific.

Welcome to Parahumans Online
You are a new member, read the rules Here.
Your account is in good standing.
Your account is flagged as an Unverified Hero
Error. UniCore BBC has run into an unexpected error, please contact the Administrator of this website.

I hit refresh.

Error. UniCore BBC has run into an unexpected error, please contact the Administrator of this website.

I sighed.

At some point, someone from Earth Bet had attempted to remake PHO, and whoever they were, stopped supporting it for the page to go kaput. It had been Koa's magic that managed to get me registered but for the life of me, I hadn't been able to get any further. The fact that it existed at all meant I may not be alone.

The only problem is I could be since the lack of support could mean they were dead.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" the woman asked, looking up from the screen.

I blinked and shook my head, "No, no, I was just thinking out loud."

She put her tablet down and smiled at me. "I'm Marylane, what about?"

I shrugged. "Vista, and a website is down, has been for a long time. I'm worried about the owner."

Her smile faded. She took a sip of her own drink and sighed. It was only then I noticed how thin a frail she looked. "I don't really follow that kind of thing."

I grimaced. "I have a friend who sort of is but she's at her limit."

She watched me for a moment, then nodded. "If you're serious about finding the owner, there is an old friend of mine who might know."

I raised an eyebrow. "Old friend?"

She gestured to herself with a tilt of her head. "He always called himself a white hat, never explained what he met. But he could take the strangest of doohickies and make them do whatever he wanted and they could do just about anything."

My eyebrows went up. "Like what?"

"Anything," she said with a shrug. "But it was a while ago and I haven't seen him in years. He's probably dead by now. But if he's alive he might be able to help you."

I looked out the window, debating if I should just listen to a stranger in a cafe but really what could I do next? There was a time before I was due back for finally test the shotgun. Hunting down someone who might be able to find who made the website would be a good use of time as anything. "I can certainly look in it. Do you know where I can reach them?"

She smiled. Grabbed a coffee-stained napkin and scribbled something on it before handing it to me. And address a nightclub's name and a person's name.

I drained my cup, looked at my watch, and said, "It's a bit early, I'll have to wait until later. Thanks for the advice though."

She smiled, but it wasn't a happy one. "Good luck, kid. You're going to need it."

I nodded but I couldn't help but think she seemed a strange one even by adult standards. "Thanks, I hope not."

♦​

The club was packed despite it being light out when I got to the place. Music was reverberating through walls and I swear I saw a single coin on the sidewalk vibrating whenever I heard a 'wub'. A bouncer sat outside, smoking a cigarette as he stared into space. When he caught sight of me though he nearly swallowed it, then spat it out cursing.

"What fu-reak is a kid like you doing here."

"Looking for someone," I said as seriously as I could.

The man's eyes narrowed. "You sure your not at the wrong place?"

I sighed. And said the first lie I could think of. "I saw my daddy and a strange lady come in here. She kept kissing him. Aren't daddy's supposed to only kiss mommy's?"

The man stared at me and laughed, then his face turned serious again. "Kid, you almost got me. Seriously though what do you want?"

I sighed, "I am trying to find someone, and someone told me to come here to help try and hunt them down."

"And this is the only place you know of?"

"No, but I'm hoping someone else will know. It's important."

He shook his head, "Sorry, I can't let just anyone in here. Especially not a kid."

I stood there for a moment, then pulled a card from my pocket and handed it to him. "I'm looking for a White Hat, or someone who called themselves that."

The man's eyebrows raised. "White hat eh? Did this someone have a name?"

I nodded. "She called herself Marylane."

"Fu. Freaken shi.. shiticles."

I raised a single eyebrow, "I've heard worse."

He guffawed. "Alright kid, come on, follow me." He pushed open the door, and yelled at the counter, "Hey Joey, watch the front for me!" Then he led me past tables and booths and toward a small stage in the corner.

"This way," he said as he moved. "Just remember that I said no kids allowed."

"I'm a bit young to have any," I said with a smile.

"Better keep that in mind," he said with a scowl. He opened a side door and motioned for me to go in ahead.

I did so and found myself in what looked to be a long hallway that someone decided would be good for storage. There were boxes stacked everywhere. The only light came from a flickering bulb above the boxes. He shut the door behind us.

"I don't know what the hell you're doing kid, but if you are trying to find someone and its through the medium, then this is the guy." He led me down the hallway and when it ended at a dead end, he whacked a blank part of the wall three times with his foot.

A section about four feet by five inches slid up into the ceiling. Only behind it was some sore of security mesh.

"Tang, what aren't you supposed to be bouncing people or something?" Someone said from in the room just out of sight, hidden amongst a large assortment of computers and what I think Chris once called server blades. The odd thing was instead of being boiling hot it was cold, my breath fogging up before.

"Joey's covering for me." The now named Tang, said grimacing slightly. Like he knew what was going to be said and wouldn't like hearing it.

The voice growled and grouched out, "Joey's a shit bouncer, that's why we hired you."

"Sorry. I know, but a kid showed up looking for you, said Marylane sent her your way." He didn't sound too apologetic, but who was I to judge.

"Kid? You know I hate kids... wait, she ain't mine is she?"

Tang look at me gave me a quick once over and snorted, "Cute as a button so I can't see you ugly ass ever producing anything like that."

"Fuck you Tang." There was a pause before he continued, "Alright, send her it. Let's see what ol' Marylane was thinking."

I heard the clunking of keys, and then the security mesh slides upwards as well.

Tang smiled, and said, "Ok, here you go, kid. Good luck, you're going to need it."

Why does everyone keep saying that?

I stepped in and the doorway vanished once more under the wall and mesh.

"Stop lollygaging, this isn't a place for little girls. Besides, you'll freeze your toots off."

Freeze my what? Whatever. I follow the voice and find that ugly wasn't the half of it. What I found wasn't a person, much less a giant slug. A Hutt. As it from Star Wars.

A fucking space slug from Star Wars was standing right in front of me working on a bunch of computers.

Holy hell.

"Let me guess, you saw Star Wars too?" He asked.

I nodded. Not sure how a character from a movie series could know that they were in it. "If I ever meet Jabba, I'm going to kick his tail then kick the producer of that movie."

"How do you-?" I started.

"I've been watching a lot of movies lately, and the Crossroads has a lot of humans coming through. A few even have movies on them when they do." He said with a smile far too big with only darkness and a tongue inside. "That's where I come in. People who come to the Crossroads have history. If I'm lucky, that history has been recorded in other cultures like media."

"LIke Star Wars is to Hutts." I said, causing him to smile even wider.

"Exactly.

I looked around the room, not really knowing what to say. This guy was obviously weird. He was a freaken space slug. Yet, I really didn't have anything to go on. For finding the website owner or dirt of Rootkit. One or both of those would be a godsend. Maybe.

"So how come..."

"How come I'm speaking basic?" Could have fooled me.

"Ah, haven't come across that tidbit yet. Our basic is your... English. Or something funny acts with the way the universe works here. Some languages do that, others don't. As there are only three Hutts in the universe, that I'm aware of, speaking Huttese would make finding a translator difficult."

"Oh."

"Indeed. So what do you want?" He asked with little regard to my thoughts.

"Well, I was told that you might be able to help me find someone, but I don't know what I should be asking for. And I also wanted to ask if you knew anything about a Navi named Rootkit, or something like that?" I finished.

"Finding people is easy, give me some details and I'll have something for you. Navi though? Those things are problems. And Rootkit is the biggest problem this side of the medium. Anything on them will cost you even if Marylane sent you my way." He said in a gurgling huff.

"You know her?"

"Yeah, we met a couple of times. She's an odd one."

"She's a friend of yours?"

He laughed. "No, she just likes to play games with people. She's a good person, but a bit dangerous. That your here is proof of that."

"Why?" I ask, suddenly nervous.

"When I ask for a payment, and you agree. You better make good on it. You want dirt on Rootkit, I'm going to need assurances that you'll keep your bargain."

I thought about it. I didn't think he was lying. And, I was willing to pay, the question was what?

I had to admit, I was curious as I was I was also terrified. Hutts were supposed to be the most dangerous beings in Star Wars short of actual villains like the Siths. Dealing with one was what got Han in trouble right? Then again Han wasn't known for being the brightest decision-maker either.

"What kind of payment are you wanting?" I said, almost regretting even asking.

"Good your thinking. I hate making deals with people who don't think. It's always them that I have to come down hard on." His tone told gave me plenty of ideas of his idea of hard. "Gives us a Hutts a bad name when I do," He added, scowling.

If Vicky were here she'd say he's blaming the victim.

"The payment?" At my cue, he slides a hand across a panel and several holograms sprung up. All of them with pictures of me masked and costumed up. "Vista. Local vigilante. Suspected Parahuman. Fifth one we've run across in fifty years. The fourth is still around but we haven't gotten a confirmed picture."

I chilled and not because of the cold. "I"m not giving my DNA."

He snorted. "Even I'm not that stupid. Your parahuman powers are more trouble than they are worth. I can find a mage who can whip up powers in a bottle for cheaper."

Again. Oh.

Three mug shots appear. "What I want for you is to hunt down a few criminals who think that stealing from me is a good idea. Bring them either to me or the police, and I'll get you your information on Rootkit. Now, who is the person you want me to find?"

I told him.

He smiled. "I see what Marylane is doing. clever." He motioned with his hand as a envelop hologram floated over to me. Getting the idea from his motioning. I pulled out my old wards phone and powered it on. Useless here but... it-

The hologram flowed into it and information started displaying. Address, name. Someplace called Opealon. Another planet?

"Your new friend should be able to get you there no problem. But if you want the information I have for Rootkit to be any good, you'll get to those through thieves, before some other bounty hunter does."

I nodded.

"You have a deal," I said.

 

[Koa Kuddlefish]

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. T-

I three my bouncy ball at the clacking noise maker only to miss completely. Leaving the ball to bounce off the wall and come flying right back and bopping me in the head.

Ow!

Today just can't end soon enough. So many more important things to do tomorrow.

I was really starting to think of how I could upgrade that hooking clock so it didn't make any noise. Who in this day and age used a mechanical clock? I'm mean sure you could live in the boonies like Erde Nona, but almost everywhere else you could find some vestiges of either Nos'Talgia gametech or Cenvanti's more traditional tech.

Missy's clock did nothing other than remind me of how much time passed, and how late Missy was running. Time unspent meant time I had to think about the previous few days. Now she's out and about and I had nothing to distract me. She had been pushing to be the first one to fire it, and all things considered, was surprised when she wasn't back before my tests for it were complete. With her kind of power, she shouldn't be capable of being late. So... why was she?

I really needed to get her a device that I could contact her with... and I

Damn that clock is really, really, REALLY irritating.

And just maybe I can hook two crabs with a single harpoon.

Three quick steps found me in front of the door directly underneath it the chummed up contraption that dare call itself a clock. Its mechanical design only works the odd greeble or just plain scrap. It was an ugly thing. I've seen better clocks at the local flea market. And time to give Missy a better replacement.

I reached out to try and grab it only... yeah to short.

Okay, need to get a chair. One of the sturdy ones in the dining area... or the stools from the kitchen which are closer... meh. The stool should be closer. Low effort for the win.

I trudge over to the one of the said stools and moved it over, only realizing just how cooking heavy it is, and plopped down against the door. One groan-inducing clime later I got up and nearly lost my balance as the stool's seat started spinning underneath me!

Chum chum chum! I wave my hands out trying to stabilize myself but the wall is too close and only barely manage to get down before falling off.

Shuck me.

I snatch up the stool and put it back, before stalking over the living room to grab a normal chair and this time a little bit further from the wall so I wouldn't be clinging to it. One step, two steps, three steps. There I'm up. I reach out and-

"I'm home," Missy calls as the door opens up, cracking into the backrest of the door, tipping it.

"CHUM!" I scream as the air itself summons me towards the ground and a brief moment of weightlessness and SPLAT!

The world is an ocean of pain and ink as I struggle to pull myself back together. It's not often that I have to do it but it's just as tiring as the last. Most people don't know that splatting an inkling is not instantly lethal. Just a matter of doing it enough times before us that is our mind runs out of energy to pull ourselves back together. It's a matter of endurance rather than injury. It's why to respawn anchors are so important to turf wars. It gives us liquid deep enough and safe enough for us to reform wholly.

"Koa!"

Slowly I swim my way through my puddle to the top and pull myself out, drawing my ink back in, careful to have my clothes on the outside and not the inside. No flashing of Missy is going to happen today.

Ugh. No one ugh isn't enough. Double ugh.

"Are you okay? I'm so sorry!" Missy's hands were gripping me rather forcefully around the shoulders as she looked me over.

"Fine," I muttered.

She looks at me, the chair behind her, and the clock. "What were you do?"

Hook.

Uhh... "It was off?" I offered.

Her bruised face showing a great deal of concern. Eyes wide, brow crunched, mouth slightly ajar. Definitely concern but that shifted somehow to consternation. "Is that question or a fact?"

"Both."

"You were going to use it for parts, weren't you?"

Chum shuck.

Wait bruised?! I was about to admit as much when I recognized what the blossoming of a purple, yellow and blue bruise forming on her cheek actually meant. Another glance showed me a split lip, two more cuts, and another bruise where her belly was showing.

"What happened to you?

Her face turned red and looked away. "Criminals."

Yeah, I wasn't buying it. Sure, that may have been the cause but I'd never seen her come back that injured from the few patrols she had done. Usually, a scrape or a skinned knee. Not looking like some fully mature human male with anger issued decided her face was offensive. What kind of criminals was she dealing with?

“Is it going to happen again?” I ask, looking her right in the eyes, something I found can make people uncomfortable when they are trying to hide something.

She met the look though and said, “Not. They won’t bother us again.”

I tilted my head. “I didn’t know anyone was bothering.”

“It was preempting a problem.” She said with a small hint of pride.

“Alright. If you won’t tell me about how you got beat up, then I won’t tell you about how noisy your clock is.”

“It's noisy?” She asked, somewhat confused.

I grabbed both of the fins on either side of my head and shook them a bit.

“Hello, I can hear through these.”

“Oh. That makes sense.

I sighed, slowly got up, my skin sticking to the floor. “Well now that you’re here. The Gig-A-Volt Shockgun is ready for use. And you wanted to investigate that scavenging area again?”

Missy nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then let’s go?”

“Sure.”

 

[Koa Kuddlefish]

New Horizons Pt. 8
♦ Koa ♦​

Air whistled softly through the trees. It was late morning and yet the sun hadn’t yet risen high enough to burn off the mist that clung to everything. It was still dark out but that may have been owing to the canopy around us. Still not so dark that we couldn’t see each other. It was just enough light for me to get an idea of what Missy might be thinking of doing next. Or perhaps trying to figure out where to go next.

All around us the forest was alive. Birds chirped and flitted through the air. Squirrels scurried through the leaves. I could even hear the occasional rustle as some large creature moved around. There was a quality to it that was off. Electronic even. The animals were fast enough that I only caught flashes of them. But they were there.

We were on the edge of a clearing with only a few sparse and a lot of wildflowers. A river ran nearby, and I wondered if it was a good source of water.

The sound of Missy’s footsteps drew my attention. I turned to see her standing in a patch of sunlight, staring at the ground, her hands clasped behind her back.

Something was still not right.

Studying Missy... I mean Vista, I have to wonder if she actually knows where she's going, because this doesn't look remotely like the way we came last time. And more to the point, if we actually ended up where we had intended originally. And more to a point, that area we had been, possibly a zoo filled with organic life. Or a farm.

The look of consternation worried me.

This path that we were taking now, was anything but similar. Life if you could call it that was... mechanical. Gleaming, with glassing wings, and silver-black metal carapace, and eyes like actual gems.

And another. A lizard sunning itself only its scales were painted green, with traces of iron rust on the edges.

Some morally repressed part of me could only think, 'Oh look some super fresh spare parts, which I was so desperately needing. And these were robots pretending to be animals filling the role of ordinary ones. Maybe if I found a corpse three... but I wouldn't do the hunting myself.

"I think we're lost," I finally say, just as we pass a huge tree with an equally large silver beehive. The sound coming from it was practically a small roar of a jet engine, and thankfully we weren't bothered by its guardians.

I was about to add, "I'm pretty sure, anyway."

But instead of saying it I just stare in awe.

Miss, urk, I mean Vista, stops and turns to look at me. Her eyes are wide and I can tell she is trying to read my expression.

"Maybe. I don't remember animals like this," She says morosely.

"It's fine, this is an amazing-looking area." We can try and find the place we were attacked later. I wasn't exactly jumping for chum to be in a life or death struggle again. Peaceful suits me fine for right now, at least until I can get my respawn anchor working.

Missy nods slowly.

We continue walking, and soon we come across a building that looks like a cross between a barn and a spaceship. The roof is made up of a series of large panels that form a dome shape. The whole thing is surrounded by a fence, and inside the fence, there was a sign, though what it had once said was lost to the ages with a carbon scoring covering it.

Thankfully the fence was in such bad condition that it barely qualified for its own name anymore.

"Investigate?" Vista asks, sounding a bit weary.

I shrug. "If you want. Might have some salvage."

She echos my shrug. "Just be cautious. I'll lead." And with that, she was unslinging her Shockgun and with her free hand, I could see her pinky wiggling in a circle. Just like that the fence's gap widened into something vehicle size that we could slip through.

Inside we found the entrance of the building leading to a hallway that led to a staircase and rooms. The stairs themselves looked old and were covered with dust. But they went down far enough that I couldn't see the bottom. Call downstairs, plan B.

As was usual for most hallways walls were lined with doors, but no windows. The only sunly coming in was a crack in the roof on either end of it. It was had a utilitarian design. Reinforced with iron or steel, if the rust marks I was seeing were anything to go by. The floor was also littered with debris. A lot of it looked like the same robotic kind of insects and a few small reptiles as well. All dead.

Sad but at the same time fortunate. I pulled up my storage app and started digitizing every carcass I could find.

"Ew, Koa, what are you doing?" Vista hisses. Well, not hiss. Humans can't really hiss all the well, they pretend they can but they can't. Inklings though can't at all so I probably don't have room to talk.

"They're robots and they're dead. Spare parts. Not the freshest, but I don't think it matters in this case. Especially if we have to make a run for it. And if we do, we'll have something to show for it." I chirp happily.

Vista doesn't respond. Instead, she walks over to a door on the left and opens it.

The room beyond was filled with a massive pile of metal, with the occasional piece of glass or plastic lying amidst it. There was a lot of it, but it was not as overwhelming as I'd expected. The glass came from a skylight with moss hanging through it, and the regularly if slight plop of dripping water only added to the ambiance of it. Peaceful even.

The room door across from me though was something that looked far more interesting.

[STORAGE, AUTHORIZED ACCESS ONLY]

"I'm going to take a look around. If you find anything useful please let me know." I say, and then I walk towards one of the piles of junk. Scanning it and grabbing anything that looks interesting before moving on to the big reinforced door.

"Wait! We don't split up. Haven't you see any horror movies ever?" She grumps out, as soon as she notices where I'm going. I stop and turn to look at her. She has a look of incredulity on her.

"Nope, mama says they're too violent for me."

She blinked. "Parents still do that?"

I didn't know how to answer that. "I guess?"

"Look, we split up, something is going to pick us off one by one. It's how it works." As if to reinforce that, she zips from one end of the room to the other and taps me from behind.

"Like that." She said in a deadpan.

I smile and snort. "Then stick close by miss horror pants."

She rolls her eyes. "You're such a dork."

"All engineers are dorks with good educations," I snark, before turning back to the big heavy doors. I give it a good kick not expecting anything to happen. "Hey Vista, can you open this jar of herring?"

"What?"

I glance at her, "Can you open this jar of herring?"

"A jar of herring? Is that actually a thing?"

I stare at her. Had she been raised by hermit crabs? "How can you not know what a jar of herring is. Herring cured in salted brine is one of the most delicious things in the world. Hook, even pickled herring is delicious."

Vista cocks her eyebrow. "Sounds like a red herring to me." Before doing that thing she does and expanding the gap between the two doors and heading through it.

"Oh, you did not just make that joke," I mutter.

"It's a pun. You don't get to complain about it being a bad pun. Not when every eupha... eupha what-its you make is built around bad puns!"

"You mean euphemisms?"

"Yeah, that!"

I snort and stare back at scanning the walls. It was just like the hallways. All military in design, with only a little bit of light leaking through one of the sockets in a light. The bulk of what we can see is coming through from the previous room.

"Siren, can I get a little light please?"

"Yes Ma'am" My omnitool ignites in an orange glow, saturating the room in the same. Parts upon parts everywhere. Or rather, guns, a generator or two, a few things I can't identify, and best of all more insect corpses which look a lot like bees, or is that waps? Yeah, wasps. Slightly different shapes than bees.

Following the glinting trail, I spot a nest that looks completely abandoned.

"Vista, we're going to bag all of this!" I announce with a grin that just knows is maniacal. And we broke into sorting and picking everything up.

After five to ten whole minutes did I notice that something was amiss as I went to try and pry the mechanoid wasp nest off the way. With an improvised crowbar, wedged into place I spotted something big, huge with a giant gold eye the size of my head staring at me.

I will admit, I screamed like and freshly hatched inkling.

♦​

Vista's cackles were as annoying as they were legendary. So much so that she had full-on her cooked butt, holding in her sides, face red, with tears of joy trailing down her face.

"I can't believe it took you that long to notice!" She gasped out between breaths. "I enlarged one of those lizard things, ages ago. It's practically the size of a large car. And you didn't notice!" Finally, her cackle died away to giggles. By that time I had already had the wasp's nest stowed.

Hiccuping, Vista waved her hand. With nearly a blink of an eye, the lizard seemingly resumed its original size of something no bigger than my thumb.

I gave a good-natured snort. "Be sure to look forward to my revenge."

She nodded and hiccuped again. "Oh, we'll see." She said quietly before giving me a knowing smile.

I rolled my eyes, already envisioning what I'd need to do to get her back.

♦​

With no more pranks to delay us, we made good time clearing out the storage room. I didn't find anything truly destructive, like grenades unfortunately and the guns were fairly old so mostly would be used as scrap or as a frame for my next version of my Spot-U-Splat. But a far better haul than that last place.

I had found enough that I could possibly get my Spot-U-Splat up to the mark one going in a few minutes. It'd be a waste of resources but considering I had a gut feeling this was an old supply depot... there were a lot of options to be had.

I swept my eyes across the new hallway we found ourselves in. This one had a similar feel to it. Everything was like the last two, military-grade. The walls were painted black, the floor was a dark grey.

"That's odd," Missy said out of nowhere, looking right at a wall. "I'm seeing a room right here but no openings to get inside with my shaker-thinker sense"

"What?" I asked with a frown.

"It's a room, but it doesn't have a door or windows. Completely sealed."

"How is that possible?" I ask with a shrug.

"I imagine you'd do it after counting all your construction workers."

I chuckled, "Yeah, but while make a room that no one can get in. Any bodies in there?"

She shook her head. "If there was they'd have to be ash or dust for me to not notice."

"So what are we doing?" I ask looking at her. She's the hero. A ward, whatever that means. Regardless of funny names, she has nearly seven years on me in terms of experience if she hadn't been exaggerating her age to me about when she got powers.

"We're going to check this room out. I don't think we're going to get much from this area though. Unless we want to go back and try and see if this is just part of a larger facility. My range still sucks and I'm feeling a lot of water downstairs so we probably would be wading around.

My ink chills. I don't even both keeping my fear out of my voice"Stagnant water in a military depo? That's not fresh at all. Both in a literal and radical sense."

To show my point, I pull off one of my gloves and stuff my finger into a small puddle that has an oily film on top. Almost immediately a sense of hotness erupts with skin touches it, and the puddle begins taking on the same pearlescent qualities as my ink.

"It's not as bad as on Turf Wars, they make that stuff into something that will dissolve me on contact, but I wouldn't last long wading." I just don't have the experience of holding myself together under duress. Maybe eventually something like that wouldn't bother me, but it's a long ways away for now. "If I were just splatted dry, I could pick myself up, but if you dissolve me..."

"Bye-bye Koa?" Missy says, sounding sick.

I nod.

"Well, in that case, no water. Though I think I found a lab or a workshop."

A smile flits across my face. A military workshop even one as old as these guns has to be worth some loot!

 

[Koa Kuddlefish]

Detour into a side quest:
A Pound of Flesh
♦ Koa ♦​

Robotic crickets chirped as the sun started setting, had been for a while the forest's gloom brought them out early. While the sun was still high enough to matter as far as being able to see it, it was far, far too low to make it back to the city in time before night was on us, even as close as we were. Especially with the low-hanging orange ball of fusion burning light that was barely cutting through the canopy that was behind us. Barely a flicker. At the rate, it was going though it wouldn't be true sundown for another couple of hours even now, it was already dark enough that the forest and the clearing we were in was near black.

I didn't mind it though. I liked being out here. It felt good to be free. I was in the middle of a large clearing with my friend.

New friend, I had to remind myself. It had been barely any time at all yet here we were roughing it.

A glowing mechanical insect settled into place my rifle's iron sight, light flickering merrily. Just one of many artificial fireflies floating about, casting just a hair's breadth worth of light around us. Only the wind seemed to stir them up.

"Hey, Missy?" I called out questioningly.

She mumbled something then looked over at me. "Yeah?"

"What's it like to being a hero?"

Her eyes widened. "Awesome. It's kind of like those Turf Wars you showed me, only the other team does bad things and there are more of them than you." She paused and grimaced. "And they get access to the field before you do."

Wow, that's like... that sounded like a brutal cookout. "Wow. That shucking sucks."

Missy nodded. "Yup if fucking sucks big ass donkey balls. But its also awesome"

Big ass... I snorted and cracked. Cackles rang out across the clearing.

"What?" Missy squeaks, flushed for some reason. "What's so funny?"

I fight to keep from giggling out loud like some hatchling who's seen something new for the first time or given too much crab meat. Only I can't help but struggle to keep it in. Or rather I fail to do so with the entirety of my face starting aches with the pressure of my ink and tears. "B-big ass donkey balls?" I snigger. "What the hooking, cooking whale hunting maniac came up with that phrase? Who would want to do... that?"

Out of the corner of my eyes, I can see Missy staring at me. She raises a finger, opens her mouth, and pauses as if to contemplate exactly what she just said, that fact that I repeated it to her, what it implies, and lets her finger drop. Then to start the whole thing over she raises it again and says, "I don't know... everyone at school says it."

I hiccup through my grin, mirroring Missy from hours earlier today, and wipe ink from my eyes.

"You're a weirdo." She finally giggles out.

"Thanks, you too!" I finally manage mirthfully. She really is as fresh as she looks. But I don't think I could take her any other way.

♦​

We stay like for some time. Just enjoying the night, we'll need to make camp inside soon. Probably should have already. But this area seems pretty peaceful. Something trills in the distance, amidst the chirping and a few bird songs. A warbling that is suddenly cut silent. And then everything else in the area goes silent as well.

That didn't sound good

"Hear that?" Missy whispers. And a lot of grass starts rustling. At first, it started far away, enough to be mistaken for wind, and getting closer in three different directions. More rustling. I think I can hear the sound of claws. I can't tell from where, and a part of me doesn't want to think about it. Another part of me wants to meet whatever it is in the field of battle.

That sounds reasonable at least.

I'm about to summon my Spot-U-Splat when her hand grabs me by the shoulder to stop me. She doesn't say a single word other than to shake her head.

Not wanting to make noise myself I tap her shoulder and point down at the depot beneath us that we had been using a resting point.

Her gold lock shimmy as she nods back. Everything is still as she seems to focus on something for a moment, and then like that the area before us, seems to contort. The busted window shaft is not only closer but the ground underneath it is too. Then without warning, she grabs my hand and pulls as the wind itself slice past my pack and something very solid touches one of my back tentacles, followed by the sound of very strong jaws slamming shut on air.

We fall a few feet and nothing more. But the rush was enough to push air from my lungs and strain my ink sack. It took every muscle I could to not give in to needing a moment. I throw my fingers onto my omnitool and swirl it once to activate the flashlight feature and blight orange light floods around me, casting a pallid glow onto the retreating form of something large and dog-like, if it was part inkling and all dark blueish-purple.

I don't get a view for long before Missy's power squeezes that area shut before expanding the metal to be thicker.

"What the hell was that," She wheezes.

Only a brief glimpse was enough to stir up a video I saw a year ago on newcast. The most of the blurry images circulating on imageboards of them were sent by people insane enough to try and record the fighting when Markov was under siege.

"Akata. They are invasive, and mean as a shucking orca." I mutter

That gives me a look from Missy. "What's wrong with orca? They're graceful beautiful creatures of the sea."

"Their mothershucking Inkling-eating jerks is what they are." I pull up one of two pictures I have saved to my omnitool to show to her. "Side's the point. The Akata are stealth hunters and if they get a bit into, well just hope you don't mind being a zombie when you die." I said as plainly as I could. She deserved to know. And put simply didn't know what else to tell her. This was new territory for me. I really shouldn't have chosen Cevanti as my first adventure world, but I wanted a challenge, and now that I met Missy. I didn't regret it either.

I wasn't sure what to do.

Finally Missy spoke up, "What do you know about them?"

I took a breath and answered her "Unless they've been unmade, they mostly hunt at night since they stand out too much during the day. Pack hunters that like living in the caves of Cevanti. Oh, and they aren't supposed to be this close to Markov. I'm not sure why, but they don't like it for some reason-"

I paused as I heard tapping and skitter of hard nails against steel and concrete. It came somewhere deeper in the depot.

They were in the building. We'd need our fins to keep us safe.

I look at Missy who's frowning up an unfresh tsunami. The way she looking has me concerned for what exactly she can see on the other side of her power. As if to answer my thought, she straightens up on me, points towards her eyes, and then points three fingers to just right of us. She moves her hand slowly, stopping, and continuing again. If that was what I thought it was... it meant that they were close enough to be in the range of her power. Which while a problem, meant she could delay them or stop them entirely.

I had to only take one look at the dilapidated state of the depot to chide myself in thinking that. Her power didn't take anything stronger than it already was. She'd explained that. This place was falling apart at the seams. Concrete wasn't meant to stay wet long term. Water as they say always wins, and when it does that, it takes down the house by caving it in from under the foundation.

Trying to use this place as a barrier would stop some things but if I had seen so far regarding the Akata... it wouldn't do it for long.

Her hand gives mine a squeeze, and she mouths something to me but I'm not sure what. Sniffing maybe? Following something? Following our old trail? That was concerning. Or completely inaccurate. Maybe, we'll be, all right? Yeah, I can live with that. Still best not to trust my gut on reading lips.

With little else I can do other than mouth back a, 'What?' and get my fully upgraded Spot-U-Splat ready.

She sighs in a slow, almost deliberate yet inaudible motion, but doesn't let go of my hand. Instead readies her shockgun in her one free hand, as well as can be expected, and begins pulling, in a repeat of her last motion. It's only then that I remember that we hadn't had a chance to find a good way to test fire it. No targets other rocks were available and they didn't provide a good biological analog. Which, I guess, left us to do live fire experimenting. Which I guess will be a thing. Least I know it won't blow up. Hopefully, it didn't kick as bad mine had.

We moved.

Clunk. Clunk Clunk.

Each step we took felt like it was gong ringing at the center of a placid lake. We had no way of making it quieter and every few steps Mi-Vista would stop and point where the Akata was, followed by a look of concentration and then annoyance. I could only guess that whatever they were doing was cutting through Missy's attempts at waylaying them. I couldn't expect her to not be trying that.

Clack. Another step, and more scurrying.

Tracking us by sound seemed a definite possibility. Or vibration? Smell also. Or hook, it could be by anything. All of the above or some extrasensory ability that every and their dog had save for me.

Clack.

The next step we took brought us to a T-junction in the hallway, dirt, and debris scattered everywhere along with a few parts I had apparently missed. I almost reached down to collect them but thought better of it when I saw Missy's concerned face focused somewhere else. I did what I could to study the area.

This was an area I recognized, we had been here earlier in the day. One directing was leading to the entrance of the building some ways away, the next to the storage room. The third direction was down. Towards where the water had been collecting according to her. Down there meant my almost certain death.

Did that mean the storage room? We could set up a pretty nice trip there but it was small, even with Missy's powers there was a limit to what we could do with it. Something bigger would be better. More room to twist things up.

I gave her hand a squeeze, pushed my mouth to her ear, and whispered as quietly as I could, "Make an ambush?"

She held up one finger, nodded, mined a space and a center point before pointing down. Then she mouthed something else and grabbed my hand once more. She carried me towards the storage room only to abruptly turn towards the stairwell... pulling me... down! Going down sent my stomach going with it as I started to realize she wanted to use the water as part of her ambush, perfect for her gun. Except for the water...!

"Wa-" I started, but she squeezed my hand even tighter. Enough that it hurt. Her eyes shining at me brightly, fiercely.

Alright. I get it. I need to trust you. Trust that you remember that this could kill me.

As we reached the bottom of the stairwell, what I saw was anything but my watery grave. Water was pushed off to either side with a soggy concrete sandbar of sorts in between. When I stepped on it, it felt solid. Missy's going? Looking at the liquid in the orange light, I could see it sloshing. So she had definitely been rearranging things this entire time.

I caught her eyes again, what I hadn't seen before a half-grin and a look of determination.

Fine, I can live with that.

♦​

We made it to some sort of underground bunker. Stale mildew, ash, rot, and a hundred other little things I couldn't identify hung in the air with the punch of someone's sick. I firmly labeled it worse than unfresh, and downright horrible. This was the kind of adventurers that Inklings wish they had but never talked about. It wasn't glamorous in the least.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was mold in the walls. Deep, deep, deep in the walls. Along them were metal frames of something that once been beds but were now no much more than scrap. Silently waiting for the return of their people, rusted through almost completely but still recognizable if one squinted or had really bad eyesight. The piping on the wall and the few TVs I saw were in better condition, though if only because they'd have been above the water line stained permanently into the walls where it wasn't covered by some oddly glowing moss.

In the back, we found the locker room, and facilities.

Tubs, showers, and toilets were all intact, but the sinks and faucets looked like they'd been taken apart and put back together wrong. Odd but not altogether noteworthy for anything but a novelty. Different kinds of people had different needs and not all those people were human.

Missy went to the sink first and turned the taps. Only a hissing sound came out and immediately closed it back up.

She cut her hand across her neck but didn't say a thing.

I nodded and tried to move past her to the back door.

She grabbed my arm and shook her head violently and pointed back the way we came.

We returned to the bunker area. Beyond it though was completely different.

The area we had run through was once more a flooded corridor. Grimy water lapping back and forth as it once more replaced the air and concrete that disturbed it. But more than that, it looked even deeper but in the process of being reshaped further. Possibly using all the water than had been in the bunker. To add to it the ceiling above the hallway was now lowering so as to push out all available air. It went beyond undoing her work and instead towards the complete and total opposite.

"Shit, they found us. Might as well talk now. The will get to us but first, they'll have to swim through all that." She pointed to the now twisting hallway that was giving me a headache just looking at. "Right now though they're as worried about the water as you were. They've dipped something in it several times but they haven't started swimming... yet"

I raise an eyebrow or as much as one as any inkling ever had. "You're going to try and drown them?"

Her nose flared and she shook her head. "I'm not sure that would work. Everything expands when it breathes in. It's minute but I can sense the way it distorts my shaker power. They haven't at all even when running through the building. So I won't assume they are normal when everything else here is robots besides us people."

They weren't breathing?

How can that possibly work? Some sort of internal energy production system? Solar energy? Respiration through ingesting things? Maybe working like fusion power? Converting everything to energy? Maybe-

Thwak! Something hard flicks me in the forehead!

"Koa, I need you to focus on the here and now. Science can wait for later." She said in a cold voice. Her eyes not wavering from the point of entrance.

Fair enough. I activated my omnitool and started the construction of my sentry. Positioning it so it would have a view of the entire room while being able to guard our back. I also gave it a targeting protocol of at most one foot into the water so it wouldn't waste fuel on something ink wouldn't be able to penetrate.

I really need to increase production to three. Having just one was a liability in situations like this.

Vista called out. When I looked at her, she said, "Help me pile up those cots in the way it gives me something to conduct lightning gun through."

"Shockgun." I corrected innanely. Her idea though was good. The water while conductive itself would distribute the charge too much and weaken it. The iron though would keep it more centralized and give it means of arcing through anything that attempted to get past it.

For my comment though Missy provided me some entertainment in the form of a bright pink tongue aimed at me.

"Real mature," I replied. And then while smiling, I returned the favor, before we both went to work.

It only takes up a few minutes before the rusted metal is piled up at the entrance. I was trying to think of anything else I could do to add it but I was coming up blank.

"Thoughts?" I asked, but Missy I noticed had stiffened.

"The first one has gone in the water. The other two seem warier but they're following it in. It should take them some time to get through though. I squeezed it tight and doubled the length and made it all wobbly like." She said sounding more annoyed than concerned.

"Can you give us some height and some space for my turret to fire downslope?"

"Yeah, though I'm reaching my limit on how twisted this space can get without completely choking it off." A few moments later though we stood well above the pile of springs, and cots that had been thrown at the entrance. And my turret would provide a decent chokehold over the area.

"They're about halfway through and digging through any areas I've cut off like its butter."

Hook.

Alright. My turn.

I take aim, leveling my barrel at the inclined surface leading down to our kill zone, and fired. My arms jerked up but this time I didn't fall over as my upgrades worked. A lance of liquid color-shifting power splashed down and exploded, covering the area in briny ink. I hit it again, slicking it and the sides of the walls so nothing could climb up. Then for good measure, I covered my half of the room with ink.

The floors, the ceiling, and the walls.

Then I heard the wine of the capacitors of the Gig-A-Volt Shockgun, activating.

"They're here." Vista flatly leaned over her edge and fired.

If my gun had been a loud crack, hers was a true boom, as electricity coursed outward, blooming like a vining thorned plant, from her barrel to the mess of iron in a blink of an eye. Then light itself seemed to shatter into darkness followed by a glare that brought a burning a sensation to my eyes. Then there was a wumph and hiss as the sound of water flash boiling overtook us. But even above the cacophony, I heard something deep and basso impact the concrete bulwarks Missy had shaped.

Missy herself looked thunderstruck, her arms held aloft and a small bruise forming on her collarbone. The astonished look however morphed into a frown as if not noticing the injury, and was distracted by something else. Readjusting herself, her right foot moved back and she kneeled. Then as one took aim and fired again. History repeated itself and steam burst forth, both in a larger plume and bringing within an oppressive orange-white sheen filled to the brim with humility.

A fully mechanical whine sounded, as the internal mechanisms of my Surf-N-Turn Sentry Turret actived. Then another grinding whirl began as it locked and began firing. Slow at first, and then faster.

Crack, crack, crack, cra-cra-cr-cr-cr-cr-cr-cr-cr-cr-cr! On it went in a hailstorm of fury that would cook every ling on a turf war stage if only it were allowed.

Only did I realized that meant our barrier hadn't held. Even under the constant blasts of Vista's baby and my creation.

"Plink, plink!" Went the counter on my turret designating kills even as the staccato of fire continued. The head of the turret swinging wildly at the pit tracking something that I could only barely see.

KILLS! Yes! Two kills-wait, only two kills? That wasn't enough. There had to be three.

I double-checked my rifle. Everything felt good. Nothing I could do to improve it right now, which only left to me to take a loose aim, ready to adjust my grip. I even search my feelings to make sure this isn't like last time and there isn't something 'mastering' me as Missy puts it. No sensation of rage or disappointment. Only fear, curiosity, and a desire to shoot something.

And Akata was a worthy target.

A dull thud sounded below, then scrabbling, and a shadow flowing upwards at me. Odd as it was, it reminded me of when a bird passed overhead. Only this was different, it was flying towards me. And then ink was flying through the intervening space as my turret targeted it. I followed its lead and fired as well adding mine to the mix before falling backward.

On purpose.

I slipped into my ink, sound muting to half its volume and distorting. The ocean world surrounding my entire body as claws came down around me. Odd-looking things, not like cat's nails but, as if the paw and nail were one material. Impossibly long, and nearly skewering me even in this form.

Sorry, not sorry. Not going to let myself make an easy target of myself.

I push backwards, swimming with all my might.

With a burst of ink and impacted the ceiling, and bounced. In the brief moment between the two planes, I saw its blueish exterior, writing mass of tentacles and body was a tapestry of smoking electrical burns, and where ever ink had hit it, was equally smoldering.

I popped out from the ceiling, falling, took aim, and fired again.

A hard blast of ink hitting it square in the next covering its entire front side with pearlescence and sending it sliding backwards into a tumble. I expected noise, a cry of pain but was disappointed by silence. I got nothing but the image of its body seizing up for a moment, righting itself.

"Koa get out of there!" Uh... yeah, probably good advice!

I ducked under it, becoming one with my ink even as it came sailing for my head. Swimming it into my personal sea as a squid and launched myself towards Missy's side. I landed, and took aim again, blasting it only for a boom of thunder to calamari the Akata in deep-fried ink.

Electricity arced over the slumped form, causing its body to twitch, and its beady glowing yellow eyes to blink in and out of existence. Still, no sound came from its maw only the sound of its tendrils and legs slapping the floor in near-constant convulsions.

Gees, how durable is this thing?

The eye that was facing us suddenly refocused and it stumbled to its feet before the air turned weird. Shifting growing larger and smaller in pockets, twisting in and out until half the room was smeared. I tried to shoot again only for my ink to go flowing in a full U-turn into the back wall rather than a straight line.

"Fire to the left!" Then Missy turned and aimed in that direction and I watched as my create let loose lightning that seemingly bounced off the wall without touching it, loop around and strike the thing in the head, and lighting up the ink it stood on like fireworks.

I wanted to step closer and take a look but she stepped in front of me. "It's still alive."

Yeah, Missy would know.

In a jumble of limbs, it took off again, swooping left and right trying to navigate the world of twisted light like it was a maze made of glass. Sometimes it seemingly ended up back where it started with, other times making headway.

Missy just calmly waited and fired again amidst the staccato of my turret. The ink-slathered monstrosity started twitching again but whatever gave it resistance to damage let it shrug off most of the paralyzing effect of the Shockgun. I made a note to upgrade it when we got home. It rushed again, slipping around even more like was hopped up pufferjuice.

"Fire straight, now!" I locked on and fire. The blast of ink spinning through the air and struck like a guided missile sending it sprawling, then Missy aimed to right and fired again, leaving the dancing lightning to send the thing flying and slamming only a few feet away.

It didn't take long at all to recover as it focused on the sources of its pain now that it was out of the area that Missy had created.

It jumped.

I dunked down into my ink once more and then launched out again. Only for a paw to lance-AH!

♦ Missy ♦​

As if in slow motion, I could only watch in stomach-churning act of Koa bursting out of impossibly thin ink like it was a lake, only for the Akata to slug her in the back with the clawed paw. ink flowing in a bubbly explosion. I didn't miss the scream either. It was gurgly in a weird sort of way but it was there. It was her. I recognized it from the night that I first met her, and when I pranked her earlier today.

That was her voice and she was in pain.

Her body plopped down only a few feet from me with strange color-shifting lifeblood leaking down. I didn't have time to scoop her up or comfort her. If I did that we were both dead.

I could only hope that she'd be able to pull herself together like she had when falling off the chair and I had to buy her time to do that.

My finger tightened on the trigger of the shotgun, and my arm wrenched itself upwards. Light boomed and the fucking Cthulhu dog went flying into the wall with a meaty thwack. I then called about my power undoing everything I had done in the room in an instant, and then sent everything I could into the walls, to wrap around that voice in my sight, the one of two in the room beside me. Around the paws, around the tail. Around the neck. Everything until only its head was exposed. Its struggles against my acts were the only noise it made, and with each bit of damage, it dealt I reinforced with more. Twisting the world around it into a vortex so that all matter around it held it to my whim.

My only whim right now was to see it dead and Koa alive.

I nearly pulled the trigger again but what little gun training I had with Miss Militia had taught me otherwise. The damn thing was ungainly hard to keep level but I took time between shots, I could counter that.

I loosened my grip then reaffirmed it.

Then I pulled down on the shotgun and aimed for the Hellhound wannabe and fired again at its mouth. And again the sound of Zeus cheering me made me aim again and fire again. Each time it started to do anything other than a slump, I pumped it again until its skin was glowing char of something not alive. I then fired it ten more times just to be sure, even after the ghostly void in my senses disappeared and was replaced with utterly alien physiology that didn't match any corpse I had ever encountered save for the two smaller ones in the pit.

Not taking any fucking chances with this thing having a brute rating other than just being durable. I fired one last time.

There.

Now I'm done.

I turned to Koa for the third time and cradled her.

♦​

Our approach to Cytokine Industries was an odd one. Hell, our whole quiet retreat from the Depot back to Markov in the dark, was eerie. No telltale sign of any more Akata, and I wasn’t willing to test that big black spot that had been one room over. Quiet. No one seemed to know or care that one of their boogey monsters had been so near their city.

Or that we nearly died.

To that point, it took Koa more than an hour to pull herself together from the hit she took, and from what she had told me prior, most of her trouble was she hadn’t been fully splat and instead partially concussed. But in a way that was the difference between her and humans. I just nodded my head as I could appreciate that her biology was weird as fuck, and she knew what she was talking about.

After she had come to her senses, she had gone into researching everything she could about the Akata on her omnitool (I really need to get one of those) and she had come across a very interesting and potentially lucrative venture with Cytokine Industries. While dubious as the Ruby Dream Casino that the Asian Bad Boys ran, or Lung himself, it meant money that we dearly needed for resources and a possible in for technology that hadn’t yet been leaked to the Medium’s underweb.

Frankly, it smelled just as dirty as ‘Cauldron’ that the PRT/Protectorate had been found racketeering capes for and creating Case 53s. But at the moment I was at a loss to refuse the income we’d be earning.

Still, when we were brought what appeared to be a tinker lab of the future, by some rather overworked assistant, I wasn’t expecting much. Sure, I had briefly hoped that there might be power armor or something in my future but this seemed more like a dissection room rather than heavy machinery. Maybe Cytokine Industries R&D Division was made of a bunch of eggheads?

Then the far door split open and two people, one looking feminine even while wearing medical scrubs and another wearing the same only bulkier and more masculine, entered with grins on their faces.

“I’m Dr. Neuman and this is my assistant Dr. David, I’m told you have a prince and two pups?” The more feminine one says and going by her voice and make-up, she’s a she.

Koa nodded. “Yeah they were a bit nasty, Missy did most of the work putting them down,” she said pointing at me.

“Really, impressive for one your age. Please tell us where are these specimens?”

My age? Ugh. Guess not everyone can look past it.

Koa however either didn’t even notice the gaff or pretended not to. And really probably good she didn’t.

“Will this table do?” Koa asked, to which they agreed.

A beam of orange light shot out of her omnitool and from pixels came the corpse of the large and the two smaller ones.

Dr. David was the first to remark. “That-that is quite significant damage. What weapons did you use?”

“High-velocity ink projectiles and a gratuitous lightning.”

“Salt-based ink, you are an Inkling yes?” Neuman asked.

Koa nodded.

“Very clever, saltwater has a deleterious effect on them. Though some articles overstate its usefulness. Using it as a conduction point for an electrical weapon is very clever.”

I was starting to feel a little out of my depth.

“Before we get too much into the science of it. Is Cytokine interested in a continuing the relationship, or would you prefer to pay us and have us on our way?

Dr. David chuckled while Neuman seemed to grow slightly serious. “Yes, I suppose that is the proper way of doing things. I suppose the phrase is… why not both?”

Koa’s eye widened. “Really how much?”

And there it is, she may be older than me but she’s more of a kid than I am.

Dr. David drew out a small pad and showed it to us. There was a large number and a potential business contract. A very large number. “If you continue doing this kind of work for us, we can see about raising the price. This here though will be the starter payment. Will that suffice?”

Against my will, my own eyes grew wide.

Yes, that would suffice quite well.

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