Chapter 32: The Ruler of the Octarians: The 2nd part

Once Roenaldo landed on a checkpoint, DJ Octavio ramped up the music, adding some beats, vocals, and orchestral bits to it. "Aw yeah," he said while bopping his head, "Now we're bopping! It's about time that I got some backup dancers up in here. Octotroopers, ya'll ready to get funky?!" The Octobot King started ejecting many egg-shaped capsules out of its holes while Roenaldo prepped his gun. Once he shot the incoming projectiles, Octotroopers of the normal and Twintacle variety appeared, all dancing on their machines to the music. While they were busting moves, they also shot at Roenaldo, causing him to step back and forth while remaining evasive. Once the Octarians landed on the ground, he made short work of eradicating them all. As he was doing that, he noticed a metal fist coming at him from behind, which he promptly countered. "Alright, alright," said Octavio, "Your first appearance wasn't all that. Octoballs, you're up!" The machine spat some more eggs into both of its hands, shaking the contents around like a pair of dice before rolling the Octoballs in waves towards Roenaldo. The squid hopped over the approaching spheres, knowing full well that he could not shoot them quickly enough. Agent 2 whistled as the octopi fell off the platform before ending with a "SPLAT!" Octavio shook his wasabi sticks in anger, growling, "Looks like these ground moves won't work. TROOPS! Take to the skies!" Even more eggs were ejected, flying upwards and cracking in the air to reveal some Octocopters and Octobombers, all of which had propeller hats that glowed with neon colors. The airborne assaulters flew around to the rhythm while launching their ink at Roenaldo. While the agent aimed upwards, DJ Octavio chuckled quietly to himself while rearranging the music makers in his vehicle. "Hey, you," said the DJ, "I don't think you appreciate ma beats enough. How about I let you hear the ultra-high-definition mix?!" He pressed a button on his dashboard, causing a device eerily similar to the Killer Wail to appear on the front of the Octobot King. "Here we go," boomed Octavio, "Tunes so fire they'll make your eardrums burn! LET'S MAKE SOME NOISE!" The giant megaphone channeled the sound energy from the floating beat producer to create a powerful laser beam that gradually moved towards its target. DJ Octavio laughed maniacally as Roenaldo ran away from the laser of doom, the flying Octarians still in hot pursuit. Eventually, one Octocopter painted the ground beneath Roenaldo, causing the latter's foot to get stuck in place. The sound beam then caught Roenaldo in its wide radius, causing the Inkling to vibrate intense as his body was rocked by the intense waves. Deafness transitioned into death as Roenaldo was splatted, and the whole entire crowd burst into whooping applause.

"Well," said Agent 2, "Here we are again with you having no revives left. And let me guess, you aren't going to back down?" Roenaldo rubbed his ears to make sure that they were still working before answering, "Exactly. If I leave now, then what's going to happen to the captain?" Agent 1 responded, "Yeah, you tell her, Agent 3! You've gotta keep pushing if you want to save the day! Stay strong, we believe in you!" Roenaldo clapped his hands together and ran forward with his Hero Shot, an adamant look in his eyes. Yes, he did have a twinge of fear in him due to what he was fighting, but his strong sense of duty propelled him to stand in front of the Octobot King once more.

"Huh?" said Octavio, "You again? You just don't know when to quit!" Roenaldo spun his gun around, replying, "You bet I don't! Do you have a problem with that?" The DJ laughed, answering, "Not one bit, squirt! In fact, I'm more surprised than anything; you Inklings are supposed to be worthless, lazy chumps!" He gripped his wasabi sticks with more conviction as he continued, "But I'mma make you wish you were in bed! Say goodnight!" The Octarian then made his machine launch fist after fist, not even stopping for one second to rest. Similarly, Roenaldo did not let up, shooting at and reflecting each punch thrown. Octavio attempted to switch it up from time to time, making his vehicle do open-handed strikes, karate chops, and more sending of troops. However, Roenaldo was hardly fazed by all of this, and he simply used his Hero Shot to handle all of the threats, diving into his ink whenever necessary. The crowd chanted Octavio's name as he and Roenaldo duked it out, with the former being pushed backwards by his own punches and the latter chasing his enemy along the platform. Eventually, after taking many hits, the octopus yelled, "Enough of this! It's time to bust out my Octonuke 2.0! I'mma bout to turn you into a radio edit!" The DJ once again ducked into his pool to allow a cannon to shoot a larger, 16-tentacled version of the octopus-shaped missile from before. Roenaldo smiled confidently, saying, "So what if it's a little bigger? With enough ink, anything can go down!" With that in mind, he opened fire on the flying object. It was difficult to do so, but he still got the job done. With the Octonuke now flying back towards him, Octavio slapped it with his machine's right hand, sending it spinning away. The increased aerial abilities that the extra tentacles provided allowed the missile to fly at an arc back towards Roenaldo, who gasped in surprise. He quickly turned to the left to return the projectile back to its launcher. With its remaining left hand, the Octobot King slapped the Octonuke to the left in a curving fashion, this time doing so with extra force. Still, Roenaldo was able to prevail, using his Hero Shot to its maximum potential to parry the ballistic. Octavio's mech was shook especially hard, causing the pilot to bounce around violently in his cockpit.

Once the octopus finally stopped, he suddenly stopped the music and shouted, "You CRETIN!" He then made his vehicle regrow its hands before flying straight at Roenaldo, who jumped back in shock. The squid was promptly grabbed by the flying object's right hand, now left helpless as he was dragged towards the DJ. "You," snarled Octavio as he glared at Roenaldo with his angry, green eyes, "You must not know who you're messin' with. I am THE DJ Octavio. The one who led ma kind in the Great Turf War. The one who helped them survive in this damn underground place. Do you see these scars?" He motioned to his X-shaped cuts that covered some of his tentacles. "All of those Octoweapons you fought," he explained, "They were all piloted by MA cut-off tentacles. Do you get what I'm saying, fool? I'm willing to hurt myself for my people!" He turned a monitor to face Roenaldo, revealing a bunch of Octolings and Octarians of all ages and genders. "Alla these octopi," he said, "They all root for me. They all cheer for me. They all LOVE me. And you know why?" Roenaldo, still held in a tight grip, struggled to respond, "Why's…that?" The DJ answered, "I'mma tell you why! I'm their last hope! With this Great Zapfish, I'm gonna brighten up this hell with beams of hope, and we're gonna take our future back from you worthless Inklings!" While Octavio was doing his monologue, Roenaldo attempted to wiggle out his Hero Shot, but another robotic hand snatched the firearm away and threw it into the abyss. Octavio's monitor flashed to a camera in the audience, showing that a male Octoling sitting in a sucker of a metal tentacle had caught the Hero Shot, and he was holding the weapon in the air triumphantly, a big smile on his face. "You see that," boasted the DJ, "I've got a whole CROWD to back me up. In fact, the whole underground's watching this show right now. And what have you got?" Roenaldo was pulled in closer, "That 'Agent 3' name you have means nothing. I know that old coot Cuttlefish; he calls anyone who puts up with him an Agent. Other than that fossil and his idiotic friends, who do you have that cares about you? I've seen you running around all those lairs with that stupid look on your face. You've clearly got no life. I bet that the only thing you do back in Inkopolis is watch ink dry, huh?" The audience laughed as the hand tightened around Roenaldo. "No…" he groaned, "That's…not…true…" Octavio laughed in a mocking tone before replying, "Don't lie to yourself, chump! We all know what's up." He started assembling his music equipment before stating, "Hey, you're looking pretty blue there. How bout I make your skin turn white with my new remix?!" Roenaldo watched as another Killer Wail-like weapon was set up, this one having more devices attached to it. DJ Octavio looked back and forth, saying, "My loyal Octarians! Let's make this moment extra special! Be sure to speak in this inkstain's language so that he can know how fried he is! Ready? This is the final countdown!"

The whole crowd cheered before chanting, "10…" Roenaldo started to bounce around wildly, desperately trying to get out. "9…" Roenaldo quit his struggling; it was hopeless. "8…" Roenaldo started to think about his life choices. "7…" He wondered why he even decided to move away from Blackbelly Ridge. "6…" Wasn't his life perfectly fine back there? "5…" Sure, it was boring, but it was better than dealing with this! "4…" All he wanted was to show what he could offer to the outside world, to prove his worth. "3…" And what did that get him? "2…" Death by Killer Wail? "1…!" "Dang it," muttered Roenaldo, a tear forming in his eye, "Maybe I really am a fool…"