76) Awaited Confrontation

                                    

                                          
Marie's POV:
                          
I awoke. I thought I had died. Rather then seeing a black pool of emptiness, I awoke to both Peal and Marina. Within a matter of seconds I had figured out that they saved me. 
                          
"Quite the beating you took. Not gonna lie, but it was a pleasure watching it!"
                          
"Shut it, forehead!" I snapped towards Pearl's comment, only to realize what this could mean. "Wait, you guys saw it all."
                          
"Indeed." Marina spoke softly. "Just as you had waited for Tess to appear in order for you to ambush her, we also had too in the event of one of you dying. We prepared by packing a spare zapfish that Zen brought over, which we were intending to use it on Tess after you won the battle. Whilst you two were fighting, we hid across the opposite end of your main fight and waited, since the fight was mostly on the far side of sector 5."
                          
"Obviously though, the exact opposite of our predicted outcome happened!"
                          
I ignored Pearl's snarky comment and began to lift my head up. I was located in the official Off The Hook apartment, which worked miracles for me as we were situated right opposite Sheldon's shop. I could see it through the mirror glass wall, but as I rose up to give him a piece of my mind for disengaging my charger, I was held down by both Pearl and Marina,
                          
"Hey, what's the big idea?"
                          
"You need to take a moment to have a breather after that battle. At least tell us what went down." 
                          
"I lost to Tess. Is there anything more to that?"
                          
After quickly escaping their grabbing, I was about to make a dash for the Ammo knights shop till suddenly, Sheldon appeared from the door. He had a sincere look carved onto him and it was apparent somehow that he had planned to make it up to me.
                          
"Marie, disregarding the fact that I disabled you're charger, you are to stay here and recuperate up until you are in a full physical form. I'll fix up you're charger and-"
                          
"You bastard!" I lunged towards him, however he swiftly dodged as I fell onto the ground.
                          
"Let me finish." Marina handed him my charger as a glint in his eye appeared. "After I finish you're charger, you should be fully awake and ready for whats to come."
                          
"And what is that exactly?"
                          
"We're going to fight alongside Tess!"
                          
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Tess' POV:
                          
Finally, after all I had been through to get to this point, I had finally made it. This was the final boss kettle. This was the area that seemed almost as if it were from a dream. This was the place where Inkopolis' future was set on a dangerously risky scale. There was so many definitions and meanings of what this place truly meant to me, which only helped make it seem far more overwhelming then it should have been.
                          
Just like the boss kettles before it, this area consisted of the spawning platform which I would start at, to a place where I would squid-jump onto the large circular arena which had housed my enemy. There was only one key difference as to what made this place put me on edge, and that was the huge and overwhelming presence of a crowd watching us. The second I came onto the arena, a wide variety of jeers, shouts and comments were thrown towards my direction by the Octarians viewing what was to become a grand fight. I ignored this however, for in front of me stood Callie - and only Callie, with her back facing towards me. I turned my head around to inspect the premises. It seemed Octavio was nowhere to be found. This was a good thing. Now, without the presence of Octavio, I could force Callie to snap out of her trance and join me before it was too late. I put down my dualies only at a slight angle of comfort as we began to converse.