Chapter Text
“No fair! You threw your hand out later than mine!”
“Not my fault you’re too fast for your own good, I threw it after we said “shoot”, so it still counts!”
Hivemind tried to ignore the squabbling between the two inklings behind him as he looked up at the seemingly endless tower before him. Amongst a sea of bleached coral, it stood imposingly in the center of the husk-like replica of Inkopolis Square. It was completely covered in what he could only assume, and hoped he was right in assuming, was gray sand, leaving footprints when he took steps backwards to try and see the top of the tower. It didn’t matter how far back he walked though, the building seemed to reach into the artificial sky, out of bounds.
The spire was far from the only odd thing in the area deemed the Order Sector. The air was still, not a single gust of wind disturbing the surroundings. Silver lines and shapes appeared from thin air and morphed as they liked, shifting into different forms like liquid metal until vanishing just as fast. The few creatures that walked or floated nearby did so almost soullessly, their reason for existence only to wander aimlessly. Whether or not they were created for this world or had a purpose mattered not; Hivemind felt no kinship with these creatures, no shared fondness like the jellyfish on the surface received. Staring at the leftover code brightly glowing along the boundaries of the world left him feeling dizzy, his vision splitting into red and blue.
Is this what an orderly world was like?
“—Hive, I totally won, right?”
“Hm?” He snapped out of his thoughts and looked at the owner of the gruff voice, thick eyebrows furrowed beneath the fish skull on his head. Next to him was Jet, wearing the white jumpsuit they all spawned in with, hands on her hips as she glared at Fierce. Gray ink didn’t match their personalities, Hive thought to himself, only able to picture them with the brighter colors of turf wars or a metallic gold to their chaotic nature. Their tentacle tips being colored a more rosy pink suited them well, though.
“Sorry, I don’t know what you were talking about.”
“About how I won rock paper scissors fair n’ square!” Fierce said, to which Jet scoffed.
“If you weren’t cheating, you’d agree to a rematch!”
“No way, then you’ll just keep asking for do-overs until you win!”
“Jet, you lost.” Justice flew in between the two, propelled by fan blades that spun below him. The drone form he took resembled his signature helmet, the only difference being that the spikes that normally protected his ears acted as movable tentacles instead, able to flap around and point as if he were using them in squid form.
“It’s our first time here. You can always climb it as a subject another time.”
“Subject?” Hive asked as he looked up at Justice.
“I checked the logs before we entered.” The octoling-turned-robot explained. “This simulation is meant to be a solo experience, so the developers recommend a maximum of only two subjects—players if you will, for every active session to prevent the tower from spiking the difficulty too much. Other participants can turn into a different form, such as a drone, to assist those scaling the spire without counting as a subject.”
“And who wants to do that? I want to get in on the action!” Jet complained.
“Is that what you two were arguing about?” Hive sighed. “If you didn’t want to turn into a drone I wouldn’t have minded.”
“Well, we assumed you wanted to go up the tower regularly since you told us about this thing in the first place.” Fierce scratched his cheek. “Doesn’t feel right to make you stay on the sidelines when we’re the ones tagging along.”
“It doesn’t matter how I get there, I just want to climb to the top.”
“Yeah, why is that by the way?” Fierce asked. “Goggles did say he had fun in here, but he didn’t explain what exactly the reward was. You don’t strike me as the type to do things without reason.”
Hive shifted his gaze between the tower and Fierce. He hoped his glasses prevented the other from noticing.
“Hachi told me something…he said that there was someone living at the top of the tower that reminded him of me. If what he said is true, then I want to meet them.”
“Someone lives in here?” Jet asked, staring up at the building. “Must be annoying to get back up.”
“Apparently they never leave the top. They spend their time in the control room, which is where we should be heading.”
He looked back up at the tower almost longingly. Hive didn’t know anything about the person in charge of the spire, yet he had never felt so strongly about meeting a complete stranger. He had to know if Hachi was right, if this other person’s concept of order was the same as his own.
“Then hey, what are we wasting time out here for? Let’s go already!” Fierce grinned, lightly punching Hive’s shoulder. He winced.
“Jet, c’mon! Don’t be a sore loser.”
She let out a sigh, crossing her arms. “Fine, but only because I don’t want to force Hive to do it. Justice, how do you transform into that…thing?”
“Imagine yourself hovering, then spin around in place.”
Jet shut her eyes, humming as she twirled around with one foot, before her body was suddenly enveloped in glowing pixels, transforming into a small drone much like Justice. The more muted yellow of the robot shell was more suitable to her personality, even getting tufts of bright yellow fur sticking out of her head, much like the mohawk of her helmet.
“Woah, I’m flying like a bird!” She flapped her tentacles despite the fact her flight was achieved through her lower propellers. “This isn’t so bad after all.”
“Let’s enter.” Justice beeped, hovering next to Hive. They all nodded in agreement, and stepped through the glass doors together into the building.
In the foyer, they were greeted with the sight of pillars on all sides, clear water lapping at them as if trying to climb the glass walls. Training dummies and other platforms with grates and boost pads were to their left and right, the spire’s version of a practice room, perhaps. A somewhat familiar, catchy beat played throughout the room, the lights on the floor pulsing in tune with it, following the edges of the tiles until they led to the elevator doors directly in front of them.
“So, where do we get weapons?” Fierce asked, walking up to a dummy and poking it.
“Don’t worry, it’s rather simple.”
A beam of light shone out from Justice’s robotic face, and in an instant, a Splat Charger dropped into Hive’s hands. Its length and weight felt similar to the real thing, but it was much smoother in texture, feeling unfamiliar the same way new shoes don’t quite fit right the first time.
“So you can just make things outta thin air?” Fierce seemed impressed. “Could you make me my weapon?”
“Unfortunately the system only has a few basic weapons coded in. The closest I can create is a Splattershot.”
He shrugged. “I’ll take it.”
Justice dropped the shooter into Fierce’s hands as Hive tested out his own weapon. From the get go, it was clear that it felt clumsier to use, taking longer to charge and not shooting targets from the same distance he was used to. Part of the awkwardness was because it wasn’t his trusty weapon that had its handles and trigger worn down by use, but even his own body movements felt sluggish. Hive tried swimming through the ink trail he had just shot, and confirmed he seemed to be moving slower than usual. Hive looked back at Fierce, hoping that the other inkling was experiencing the same issue, but he seemed too busy running around and shooting targets to talk with. Justice noticed Hive’s confusion, leaving Fierce to continue his target popping spree to approach him.
“A main thing you should be aware of is that your virtual avatars don’t have the same capabilities as your real bodies, so I would use our time here to adjust yourselves.”
“You seem to be perfectly adapted.” Jet commented, her flight pattern noticeably more wobbly than the other inkfish.
“Probably because he spent time practicing instead of insisting I’m a cheater.” Fierce called out, not even looking at Jet as he popped another target.
“Shut up.”
“By the way, drones can create sub weapons at a set rate by imagining them.” Justice added helpfully. Jet was immediately interested in that prospect, heading towards Fierce to drop autobombs near any unpopped dummies.
“You seem to have done plenty of research.” Hive commented, taking a break from his practice to watch the other two happily test out their weapons.
“I dug into what I could, but a lot of information was encrypted. I know Marina Iida was lead developer for example, but the others who helped create this space seem to be hidden or redacted.”
“I wonder why. Would they not want credit for their work?”
“There’s something about this place that isn’t meant to be discovered, that much is clear from how secure some of the logs are. Maybe it’s for their protection. This isn’t meant to be a game, after all—it’s an experience.”
Hive looked towards the elevator doors, shut yet intimidating with its presence all the same.
“I hope it’s a good one.”