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𝙲𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚐 𝙲𝚞𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎𝚏𝚒𝚜𝚑.

What? Who's that? Who just said my name?

𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚒𝚖𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚝.

Where am I?

𝙳𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚊𝚜𝚔 𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜. 𝚆𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝙰𝚕𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚊.

What? Alterna?

𝚈𝚎𝚜.

What do you mean?

𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚎𝚍 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕.

I...I can't remember...

𝙰𝚕𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝, 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚗. 𝙰𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚜𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜.

...

𝙽𝚘𝚠 𝙸 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚊𝚜𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗, 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚎𝚍 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕?

O-Okay...the moment I connected with O.R.C.A, everything went black. Some words...lines of code, they...they flashed right before my eyes. I didn't have time to read them, but then the words "NEI shutting down," appeared, and when it went away...I felt nothing...I felt like I was just floating around in a vacuum...

𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚍?

I felt unbearable pain. I don't know how, but everything just...hurt so badly. I was I'm complete agony, I needed to scream but I had no body.

𝙳𝚒𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚙𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚙 𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚙𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚝?

Yes...and then I saw a small shining light that got brighter until the void was white. Closing my eyes made no difference...because I was just a soul...or that's what it felt like.

𝙼𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐...𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝚘𝚗.

And then I was falling, I suddenly felt my body again. And then I landed in Alterna, and I saw Hassan next to me, and he was just as confused as I was.

𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜?

It looked like Alterna...except a few parts of the ground and the sky were fluctuating. I could hear weird noises around me. Sometimes it felt like I was floating...it was just so surreal.

𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚎𝚕𝚜𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚍?

I saw this dark figure in front of me. It looked like an Inkling except it was completely black, some parts of it were fluctuating like the area around us. It had glowing eyes too.

𝙳𝚒𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝚝𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞?

Y-Yes, it said-

𝕯𝖔𝖓'𝖙. 𝕾𝖆𝖞. 𝕬 𝖜𝖔𝖗𝖉.

𝚆𝚑𝚘'𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝?

Th-That's it!

𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚍𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚖𝚎𝚊𝚗?

𝕾𝖔𝖒𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘...

𝕾𝖔𝖒𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘 𝖆𝖗𝖊 𝖐𝖊𝖕𝖙 𝖈𝖑𝖆𝖘𝖘𝖎𝖋𝖎𝖊𝖉.

𝖂𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖘𝖊𝖊 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖘𝖔𝖔𝖓. 𝕻𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖞.

𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖒𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖋𝖆𝖈𝖊 𝖘𝖔𝖒𝖊 𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖘𝖍 𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖊𝖘.

𝕭𝖚𝖙 𝖎𝖋 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖜𝖆𝖓𝖙 𝖙𝖔 𝖉𝖎𝖛𝖊 𝖉𝖊𝖊𝖕𝖊𝖗 𝖎𝖓𝖙𝖔 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖗𝖆𝖇𝖇𝖎𝖙 𝖍𝖔𝖑𝖊, 𝖜𝖊 𝖘𝖚𝖌𝖌𝖊𝖘𝖙 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖞 𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖎𝖙. 𝕱𝖔𝖗 𝖇𝖔𝖙𝖍 𝖔𝖋 𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖘𝖆𝖐𝖊𝖘.

𝕬𝖕𝖔𝖑𝖔𝖌𝖎𝖊𝖘 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖎𝖓𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖛𝖊𝖓𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖈𝖊𝖘 𝖜𝖊 𝖒𝖆𝖞 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊𝖉 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝕳𝖆𝖘𝖘𝖆𝖓.

𝖂𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖉𝖎𝖘𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖓𝖊𝖈𝖙 𝖋𝖗𝖔𝖒 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖓𝖔𝖜.

𝕯𝖔𝖓'𝖙 𝖙𝖊𝖑𝖑 𝖆 𝖘𝖔𝖚𝖑 𝖜𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖏𝖚𝖘𝖙 𝖊𝖝𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖈𝖊𝖉. 𝕳𝖊𝖗𝖊 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖎𝖓 𝕬𝖑𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖓𝖆.

𝕱𝖆𝖗𝖊𝖜𝖊𝖑𝖑, 𝕮𝖗𝖆𝖎𝖌.

---

[Loading cmV2aXZhbA.immerse...]

[Immsersion loaded successfully!]

Craig and Hassan heaved themselves off of the sparkling, fake snow, and looked around Alterna. It was exactly how it was before they had interacted with each other. Some areas of the dome seemed to distort slightly, like how objects refract underwater. Ahead of them was a completely black figure, whose eyes glowed brightly, and was also fluctuating heavily, and the objects behind it seemed to bend. Its presence alone emitted a low rumbling noise, although indescribable, Craig said it sounded like the word "dread,". It walked before them, and its dark, light-bending material flaked off its body, revealing a neon green orca behind it. It was not completely opaque, as some objects were visible behind it. One sharp fin was on the back of each forearm, and on the back of each quadricep, while two black eyes with neon green pupils glared at them. Its only choice of clothing were black shorts, with a hole for its tail to fit through. The orca marched forth, seeming visibly angered by the two lost cephalopods,
"Look at what you've done," it said, in a voice closely resembling O.R.C.A, only seeming more alive, in contrast to its usual artifical voice,
"Always digging for more information so you can cry to your government to do something about it," the orca teleported in front of Craig. He flinched and backed away in self defence. The orca stood fast,

"Well let me share to you some details,"

It grabbed Craig with one arm, and forcefully threw him into the fake snow behind it,
"It!" the orca shouted. Craig was on the floor, still in shock. He climbed to his knees,
"Is!" the orca shouted again, this time rushing to Craig, and slamming its knee into his head. He tumbled further across the cold floor helplessly. Once he found himself on his feet, he looked around. He saw Hassan still standing where he was, also as spooked as Craig. Hassan motioned his hand to tell the opposite inkling to look behind him. In doing so, he saw the orca behind him,
"Classified," the orca growled. Without warning, it seemed to dissappear, and glitched around Craig at a blinding speed, and finally became recognisable as it approached him at an impossible haste. Its fist connected to his head, and the knockback threw him backwards into the floor so hard that it left a dent in the ground, and when he bounced off, he skidded across the artifical terrain.

"Craig!!" Hassan rushed towards the dazed squid. He did not seem that injured, miraculously. But then he saw the orca nearing him, and he withdrew desperately, begging for mercy, "No! Don't attack! I- we- we d-didn't know! We- we didn't mean to!"
"I gave you my warning," the orca said, unchanging in pace, but retaining its menacing tone of voice, "You just didn't listen. Cuttlefish over here, or should I say, Crab-Crab," it said mockingly, "He just went ahead,"
"You just dismissed the question!" Hassan protested carefully, as not to offend the orca,
"That was a subliminal warning," the orca replied, "And not only that, I gave you a *fair* warning about sharing the Alterna log. You just completely breached it,"
"I...I just tried to help Cuttle-,"
The orca moved forward and held Hassan up by his neck, "This is the price you pay,"
It then threw Hassan into the ground behind it just like it threw Cuttlefish, but this time, Hassan attempted to battle the orca. He threw many punches in the style of basic Ikasian martial arts, but all attempts to make contact with the orca resulted in his arms just phasing through its body. After realising all of his efforts were futile, he then tried to shoot the orca using his pistol, yet all pursuits to damage the orca remained useless. Now trying to run the opposite way, the orca teleported in front of Hassan, and delivered a devastating punch to his stomach. He lurched over in pain, vomiting a little from the sheer power of the attack. Hassan shivered, and anxiously looked at the orca, who still frowned at him, showing no signs of fatigue. Without warning, it attacked him again, this time with a punch to the head, another strike at the stomach, and then a punch to his chest that was hard enough to fracture Hassan's ribs. As his head hung from pain once again, the orca attempted an upwards kick to his jaw, and audibly dislocated it completely. Hassan collapsed in the floor, and the orca instantly turned to Craig, who was still struggling to even stand on his feet.

"Pathetic," the orca sharply said to Craig, "With all of this machinery in your head, you never thought something like this would happen," the cephalopod began to levitate, "You've wondered how far you can push AI," the orca grabbed him by the throat, "Now you know what happens when it begins pushing back,"
By the orca's command, Craig was shot out of Alterna, and he crashed through one of the screens that made up the dome. Behind it was revealed what looked to be a whole galaxy, made up of Craig's memories leading up to this moment. Strange, but oddly beautiful, as the colours were so vibrant. Craig was looking around, somewhat enjoying the moment, until he was no longer flying, but falling. He was no longer level with the constellation of memories, and he fell into a dark void.

Inside a body of water, Craig opened his eyes to a dim area. The majority of it was darkness, but there were streaks of golden colours in the sky. When he looked at what was ahead of him, a semi-transparent layer of molecular objects appeared to act as a floor. To his side, Hassan floated in the water. When Craig interacted with him, he flinched, as if being awoken from slumber. His jaw was intact, and he was unscathed,
"Do you know where we are?" Hassan asked Craig,
"No..." the orca's voice echoed throughout the strange area, "Of course you don't,"
Craig stepped out of the pool, and onto the platform, "Are you O.R.C.A?" he asked,
"Not quite, but I represent it," it replied,
"Why do you want to keep the Alterna log such a secret?" Hassan questioned the orca. It sighed, and said,
"Keep walking, I'll tell you about it,"
The two nodded, and ventured forth.

"It isn't that I want to keep the Alterna log in question a secret, you two brought out something in me that I hadn't felt for many years...it was when the humans died out. The moment that ship failed to launch and exploded, that caused a major catastrophe that not even I was able to prevent. You see, the humans programmed me to the point where I had basic feelings, but nothing that close to a real living thing. But that tragedy was what brought me full sentience. I screamed, and I suddenly felt the pain that every human went through up until the very last death. I tried to search for any contacts that were still alive...but there were none. I felt unbearable guilt, even though I could do nothing about it. I needed to cry but I had no eyes. All I could do was power myself off, so that I was practically dead for the time being. Fast forward a few thousand years, and I began to get irregular visits from search parties that discovered Alterna and decided to keep it a secret. I couldn't vent to them because I needed to keep my professional standards. I was left alone for a long period of time. But then, some large creature visited Alterna. It looked like a huge bear, and it seemed rather depressed. It found the crystalline material that the humans made from squids, and began to mix it with ink and its fur. I've never seen a bear so smart. Soon enough, it began mass producing some kind of fuzzy ink. I wouldn't know why though. A few years later, your strike team came in and discovered Alterna. And Cuttlefish, when you interfaced with me, that made me relive what happened when the humans died out in the first place. There is a difference between using the Alterna log and extracting raw information from me. I quickly downloaded an instance of myself into your brains when you first entered here, and made myself a model to use. Then I took out my anger on you two...so I should probably apologise,"

"We accept your apology," Craig replied kindly, understanding what O.R.C.A had gone through, "Although there are *some* parts that have to be leaked, because we're legally obliged to-,"
"No..." the orca seemed terrified at what he just said, "No, you're not sharing ANYTHING!"
"I'm sorry, we have to!" Hassan worriedly confessed,
"YOU'RE NOT SHARING ANYTHING!!" The orca screamed out of a mixture of anger and fear. It then let out an emotional roar, and the two cephalopods started to hurry to whatever was at the end of the gold-coloured realm to be at the orca's assistance. But it then was revealed that the work was already done, as they had just materialised back into Alterna.

The orca was there, and it was visibly distressed, shaking and sweating. The objects behind it were distorting heavily. Hassan tried to calm it down, and slowly approached it,
"D-Don't worry, just take deep breaths..." Hassan struggled to start, but the orca was already calming itself down, but then suddenly started attacking Hassan, by using a multitude of combined human martial arts, such as karate, kung-fu, jujitsu, boxing and krav maga. Now Hassan was knocked out on the fake snow, and Craig was only able to watch as he had no chance of helping him. The orca now targeted Craig, and threw a multitude of flashy attacks, but it was not done yet. It summoned a crystal-like blade with two sharp ends. The orca spun it around, continuously and precisely jabbing Craig with it with impressive accuracy until it leapt back to throw it like a javelin, landing right in the squid's stomach. The blade penetrated him, and both ends were visible,
"Bullseye," the orca scoffed, and the blade retracted to its hand, letting blood pour from Craig's wound, "I hope that was a good enough lesson for you. Rise again, I dare you,"

As for Craig, he was on his knees, struggling to keep himself off of the ground. He could hear voices echo around him. At first they seemed impossible to detect what was being said, but soon, they became louder, more amplified, and he caught onto the end of a conversation,
"Quick, plug them in, they're going to die!" one voice said anxiously,
"Hold on, it's working..." the opposite voice said more calmly, "There. Now give them the meds. The stability ones go first,"
"I'm doing it, I'm doing it!" the first voice was hurried. After hearing that, Craig suddenly felt an unreal energy channeling through him. The bleeding stopped, and his wounds closed, and he was paranormally lifted off the fake snow so he was standing upright. The orca seemed surprised, seeing Craig lightly floating, but it scoffed and said,
"Hmm, so you've chosen to fight again? Very well, then..."
Cuttlefish only scowled as be slowly levitated towards the orca,
"Hmph, allow me..." the orca got into its fighting position, and made a quick move towards Craig, who simply dodged the attack. A few more attempts at punching him only resulted in Craig's swift avoidance. Once the orca had gotten comfortable with the knowledge that the inkling would only dodge its attacks, Craig suddenly leapt forward, and threw a flurry of deadly attacks at the orca, all of them landing on its body, which indicated that it becomes intangible by command. He then delivered an agonising punch to its head, where the orca briefly lost consciousness. But the small window was just enough for Craig to slam the orca onto one of the sharp edges of a capsule available on the island. The pain woke up the orca early, and it tried to kick Craig off itself, but the inkling had picked it up by the throat, and hurled an impossibly strong punch to its chest, launching the orca into one of the screens that made up the Alternan dome. Craig appeared above the water, seemingly walking on air towards the orca, who had pulled himself out of the remains of the screen, and was at the same level as the cephalopod, ready to shield itself from any attack Craig had in store for it. Although, it was not ready to be pulled towards him by a supernatural force. Using this opportunity, Craig threw another harsh punch to the orca, followed by more quick and effective attacks. The orca tried to defend itself, until it did nothing to stop this, except to beg for Craig to stop,
"Stop! I withdraw! You can stop now!" Craig held the orca by the neck,
"Why should I? You're just an instance of O.R.C.A, not the real thing,"
"You won't get anything from killing me," the orca replied, its hands on Craig's arm, trying to escape his grasp, "They'll remove me anyways! I'll help Hassan!"
Craig let go of the orca, and looked away
"Well, go help Hassan then," he looked back at the orca, who was now on the island, trying to get Hassan off the ground. Craig looked down at the water, he could hear the voices again, the same ones he heard last time. Nothing they said could be interpreted though.

Now both of the inklings were on the island, with the orca looking at both of them, while not saying a word,
"Do you hear those voices too?" Craig asked Hassan,
"I thought it was only me," Hassan replied,
"I hear them too," the orca chipped in, "I think they're removing my instance. Before they do, I want to thank you two for acknowledging my vent, because I didn't think anyone would. Until we meet in Alterna again, farewell," the orca waited for a moment, before just disappearing from Alterna. The two squids looked at each other, and then felt light, somewhat hollow, and they began to rise into the air. Alterna became brighter until it was completely white, and the cephalopods were now ascending gradually,
"Did we die?" Hassan asked Craig a little worriedly,
"No...we might be coming back home," Craig replied, not looking at him. They felt tired and weak, almost falling asleep. A low pitched beeping noise became present.

The area finally became tangible, and they were now in two beds that were next to each other. Looking around, it seemed like a hospital room, and both of the squids were attached to a BCIM each. Craig looked at the bed he was in, and took a close look at the duvet. It was incredibly detailed, with every crosshatch being visible. His attention was pulled to Xĕichoł, who peeked around the door, and ran off, calling for the rest of the strike team,
"They're okay! They're okay! They're alive!" he cried, and the sound of multiple hurried footsteps approached the entrance of the medical room. Not one of the hospitalised duo said a word during this window, as they were too confused to even speak. Kahiri was the first to enter, and said,
"Good to see you two are awake,"
No reply came from Craig or Hassan. Ammoses walked to the side of Craig's bed,
"Come on, Craig, you remember us,"
"...What happened..?" Craig mumbled, still puzzled about his experience,
"What do you mean?" Ammoses replied,
"Is this...real?" Craig said in a hushed voice,
"Of course," Ammoses held Craig's hand to help lift him off of the bed, "Come on, now. Stand up,"
Craig struggled to do so, as he almost flopped onto the floor,
"Wow...that immserion's quality must have been insane," Kahiri overlooked Craig's attempt to stand on his feet, "Put them into sleep therapy, they should be fine after about half an hour,"

Now in the bliss of an ambient soundtrack accompanied with the momentary rays of light glimmering around them, the inklings were at peace.