Forum Thread

Milo glances down at the burner phone sitting on the desk. He has been using it to keep in communication with his gang. He hesitates for a moment. Trying to decide the best course of action. Everything was working perfectly, they were actually ahead of schedule. The Lozano's company would fall soon. That's when he wants to strike- right when the Capitol is shocked and panicking from the news.
"Tell them to strike as soon as possible." Milo tells her. "I expect the company will fall within the next few hours. After that, there'll be a brief delay until the Capitol to figure out. That'll be your window of opportunity." He places a hand on Lucky's shoulder. "Good luck to you and thank you." He hesitates again. "And please, make sure my girls come back to me in one piece." He pleads.

Lucky nods at Milo then points to a small box in the corner by Milo's desk. "Boxie." At first Milo thought she was pointing it out, but before he could ask she had super jumped the way she had come in, and she was gone. When Milo opened it there was a bit of money in there and some Super Sea Snails for Milo to use if needed. She had left this for him and he knew it, these were hard to come by with the Capital limiting their Turfwars and Splatfests. And yet, she gave these precious items to him anyway.

Lucky delivered the message and all the other Octolings and Inklings nodded. Once they found a window of opportunity they could strike. Lucky pulled out her octophone and watched the MineGames from it. Please be safe. She mentally begged her sister.

It was now day time. Coraline hadn't slept at all and was the first out the door to find Bella. Rita and the others followed. Now, where were Charlie and Katana?

---

Almost as if they can hear Coraline's thoughts, Charlie returns to the group. Katana is in tow, and even though she slept all night, she looks exhausted. She yawns and shoots everyone an annoyed look, but other than that, she does nothing.
"Where is Echo?" Charlie asks. "I'm sure she'll want to revenge on the Ox Man. We can distract the Ox Man while Rita, Coraline, and Katana find and save Bella." She nudges Katana with her elbow as she talks. Katana grumbles and shoves Charlie, although not too hard.
"That's enough. I got it. Let's just get this over with so I can nap." Katana whines.

The group briefly discussed the plan: Charlie and Ellie would distract the Ox boy tribute while Rita, Coraline, and Katana would find/save Bella. The group gathered a few boats and headed towards the Svanana biome.

---

Bella watched as the Ox boy, and two other tributes discussing something. The smallest one of the three seemed unhappy with what they were going to do, his Emologa perched on his shoulder. "I still don't understand why we have to hurt her, she's just like us-"

The Ox boy pointed his spear at him. "Look. You can either help us, or we can kill you and send your party back home to whatever's left of your family. Do I make myself clear Dominic?" He snarled and the boy nodded. "Good. Now stay here and watch our stuff. They'll be coming, you better not try anything either." The two stormed off leaving Dominic alone.

Bella scooted away from Dominic as far as the cage would allow, but he didn't seem like he was going to hurt her. Instead, he pulled out his pack of dried fruit and a small bottle of water. Bella visibly hesitated. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. I promise. You have to be hungry right?" Bella nodded and carefully took the water and food from him, making quick work of the fruit and water.

---

At first, Akiro was startled, and he slowed down a bit. Who knew his name? But as she got closer, his heart skipped a beat as he realized it was Chelsea. He never did think he would see her again, but here she was, and somehow it made the dark snake eating away at his mind move back just a bit. He spread his arms out, despite his exhaustion. "Hey!" He was too tired to say anything else, and he realized that as he spread his arms, stumbling forward and almost landing in the sand, though he managed to stay upright and catch his balance. *Note to self, eating something fast.*

---

Sucking in a breath, Charlie leaps out of her hiding spot. She reaches Dominic before he can even sense her. His startled cry is swiftly silenced when Charlie presses her forearm against his throat and holds a hand over his mouth. "Shh." She whispers soothingly. "I'm not going to hurt you. We're just going to save our friend and leave. Don't do anything stupid now, okay?" Charlie asks. When she moves her hand away there is a thin layer of ice on his mouth. He can easily wipe it off if he wanted, but the message was still clear. Charlie waves Rita and Katana over. "How do we remove these bars?" Charlie wonders outloud.

Chelsea had wrapped her arms around Akiro as soon as he was within reach, squeezing herself tight to his chest. "You found me," she whispered. Suddenly, she jerked back. "Oh gods, you must be starving! Come on into the temple, I've got clean water and a bit of meat." She bustled him into the tower she'd exited, warning him of the tripwire and pointing it out. As soon as he was past the traps, she went about digging in the chests from the tomb below. She'd brought them up after a while, thinking they may be good for storage. Pulling out some dried meat and two bottles of water, she held them out for Akiro to take.

Bella looked up at Charlie with hopeful eyes, up until she suddenly let out a scream of alarm. Rita quickly saw the panicked look in her face and pulled Charlie and Katana out of the way. Just in time to avoid a thick steel spike from impaling them from below.

The Ox boy looked down at them gleefully, his eyes shown with delight. The other male tribute also seemed to be enjoying what was about to go down. "So you came after her, how predictable. Shall we get started?"

(The Ox boy and NPC boy tribute with earth manipulation is to use as seen fit, just don't kill them as I have a plan for that. Have fun.)

---

"Seriously!?" Katana screams. "I wake up early! Right when the sun is rising-!" She begins pacing back and forth, counting every annoying thing on her fingers. "-I don't even have any coffee! Then I have to go out and run across the whole arena, only to nearly get impaled by a cowardly attack!?" She stops pacing and turns around. "How DARE YOU!?" She screams. She extends both hands towards them, firing shots at both of them.

While Katana is distracting the two in a very convenient fit of anger, Charlie works on helping Bella escape. "I can try to lift the steel spikes out of the ground by using my ice powers, maybe freeze the ground and lift them up?" She shivers. "I'm worried that may kill you, but I think it's our only chance."

Akiro thanked her, taking the water bottle and dried meat, and started to eat. It was almost painful to eat, as his stomach had gotten used to a lack of food, however much it hurt. But he was able to down half a water bottle and eat some of the meat successfully. "Thanks," he said again, "Didn't think I'd have anything else but the rabbit." He gestured to the pack on his back, still clutching one of the water bottles. "So have you been here since the Games started? Didn't get a glimpse of you." Of course, he hadn't been able to see much at all, but that wasn't important.

---

And with that, her suspicions were confirmed. The groaning of zombies and clatter of skeletons got louder and louder as they drew near, locating their next victim. She was frozen still, unable to do anything. Ah man... why did she have to come down here? She should’ve stopped when she began to see those strange silhouettes, why did she continue? She could just go back upstairs and have pretty much nothing to worry about. She slowly moved her shaky arm towards her bag where her “weapon” was, not wanting to use her power for the sake of conserving strength. She was already hungry and exhausted, she didn’t need more of it. She pulled out the metal rod and held it in her hands, figuring if she couldn’t moved her legs, she could fight them off.

---

Echo woke up late, realising that she had slept past the time. She groaned in frustration, well, at least her powers were back on full power. She dived into the shadows, reappearing in a dark corner of the cave. She noticed Charlie and Bella, and hurriedly scurried over. “Bella, stay still.” Diving into her shadow, she reappeared in Bella’s, before grabbing the octoling and disappearing again, back to hide into the shadows. “Bella, remain silent. You are safe, although you can’t see anything. I’m Echo” Echo whispered. She had made eye contact with Charlie, so she hoped that would help, and Charlie wouldn’t panic.

---

Chelsea sat down in front of Akiro, shrugging a bit. "I would have used my ability to clear out the competition, but I was worried about harming you in the process. It's a fairly indiscriminate power." She cast her gaze to the cool stones below them, then looked back up at him. "But where did you go? Your pack is too full for just a rabbit, after all." She nodded to the pack on his back, clasping her hands together in her lap.

Bella shook her head and pointed at the Ox boy. Despite not saying any words the message was clear, as long as the Ox boy was alive the steel bars wouldn't budge.

Coraline splatted the ground and was soon at the cage. "Go help the others. I'll try to get her out." She turned to Bella. "Can you change into your Octopus form?"

"No, the bars keep me from doing that. I've already tried." Bella whimpered, she could reach a hand through but that was it.

"I'll get you out, I promise."

"But-"

"Shh, it's going to be okay." Coraline took a look around the bars and found that she couldn't get in even in her squid form.

Meanwhile the fight between teh Oxboy and the male tribute against Rita and co had already started.

---

Charlie jumps in surprise, having not expected to witness Echo use her powers. At least she managed to stay silent and not scream. "Why don't you come into the light and help us take down the Ox Man?" Charlie asks. "Katana and I will keep an eye on Bella."

Katana, who overhead Charlie, quickly takes her side. She was running low on energy and fast. The Ox Man was faster than he looked and his friend was good at deflecting her blasts. "Yeah, that's a good idea. We'll sit back and watch the fight. Don't worry Bella, these people are going down!" She says confidently.

He sat down next to her, setting the bottles down next to him. "Ran to the forest, figured that was the best place to hide. After that, I tried going to the tundra, but ah, let's just say that my body didn't like the temperature." He didn't want to tell her that he nearly froze to death, or press her about her power, though he was curious. "That's just bulk from the jacket, guess I got the short end of the straw on the supplies." Which certainly was a problem. How was he going to survive in the desert of all places without supplies? At least he had a weapon. He looked around, a little unsure of what else to say.

---

A zombie appeared into view, startling her enough to get her feet moving, but not for long. She only managed to just put back a bit and make a few steps before her feet stopped working again. Suddenly, she began to hear a small hssss from behind her. Oh no... ooohhh no... The cliche “creeper” thing had finally come, and it was for her. She didn’t have enough time to react before the green demon blew up on her, doing some massive damage to the tunnel and to her. Luckily, she had managed to make a wall of her own flesh to hopefully protect her from the blast, but it was far too late and it didn’t give her the protection she needed. She was blown straight into the zombie, knocking both of them down and leaving Rui in a very tight spot. She was heavily injured and weak, and she was right on top of something that was hell-bent on eating her.

---

Echo rolled her eyes at Katana, before nodding, and placing Bella with Charlie. She took out her Haladie blade, and went to join Rita’s group. “I want revenge now” she stated. With full energy, she swung gracefully from here to there, landing hits when she could, expertly weaving in and out, dodging their hits, and looking out for signs of them using powers.

---

It was a battle that the group was quickly loosing. When Rita was thrown into the metal cage she quietly cursed. "Dam it, I just need a distraction." The cyan's mind was working at top speed, she saw an out, but now to enact on it.

Rita perked up. "Ellie!" The trainer looked at Rita. "Use "that" secret weapon we talked about!"

Ellie's face looked panicked. "But-"

"Now!" Rita hollered. With a hesitant nod, Ellie pulled something out of her pocket and threw it at the two males. It hit the one and bounced uselessly against the ground. It was an empty Pokeball.

The boy was about to laugh when suddenly one of Coraline's bomb bursts went off and threw both males into Katana, who made quick work of the one, killing him almost instantly. The other was tossed between Echo and Charlie before Echo's blades stabbed into the Oxboy's chest. He crumpled to the ground.

The group stared down at the tribute boy as he lay unmoving, not too long later a cannon fired.

Coraline shook her tentacle out of her face and turned back to the group with a look of calm. "Alright, now that's done lets-"

Suddenly there was the sound of metal piercing flesh, organ, and bone cut through the air, chilling the area with deady slicene. Coraline's hazel eyes shot open wide as they dialted to pin points then slowly looked down, where they landed on a thin metal spike that had entered her through her back and out her stomach. Coraline's mouth dropped open in shock as she and everyone else slowly took in what had just happened.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Bella's scream of sheer terror and heartache broke through tension as she tried to reach through the small gap where the male tibute had trapped her.

The ox of a male tribute was still alive, but just barely. "You idiots," he laughed giving the group a bloody smile as saliva flew from his mouth. "Did you forget about my abiltity?" He suddenly started to laugh even harder, even louder, the laughter soon cut off into coughing as he chocked on his own life force before finally resting on the ground. His eyes staring out at the group, but no longer seeing.

The spike suddenly retracted from Coraline, with nothing holding her up the cyan inkling fell to her knees. She looked at her wound leaking cyan blood/ink, the damage was internal, something vital had been busted and she knew it. With the last of her energy, Coraline looked up and tilted her head slightly to the side, giving the group a small smile, her words however despite being spoken to the group, were directed to Bella.

"You better win Splatfest for me, okay?"

As her face relaxed Coraline crumpled to the ground, and she didnt move.

Two cannon blasts echoed through the arena. No need to finish off the male ox of a tribute, and no way to help Coraline possibly.


(Basicly)

---

"Coraline?" Charlie asks. "Coraline!?" She races forward, gently holding Coraline. Tears stream down her face, she shakes her head. Desperate for this to not be true, for her eyes to be deceiving her. "No! This wasn't supposed to happen!" She yells. "D*mn it, Coraline don't die on us! You have to make it back- you and Bella. Please-!" She starts to tremble, she turns away from Coraline, swallowing down bile that threatens to rise. "Rita! You can heal! Please do something!" Charlie begs, even though she knows it's useless. "Please." She whispers.