Splat Force III: Bolton's Reign; Chapter 6

(Thx for the feature! Always a pleasure! ^^)

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W E L C O M E ! ! !

This is Nomad! Kicking off the second quarter with the sixth Chapter of Splat Force III: Bolton's Reign!

So far, I've been very pleased with the response to Damian, as he's slowly becoming one of my personal favourites to write. This is why today's Chapter will be mostly centred around him.

In addition, Bolton and Led will be returning to an old, familiar place where they once fought the Splat Force back during the first story.

The last thing I want to bring up is that this is the first Chapter that will be featuring a new writing technique of mine that will be used for future stories called: narration.

So without further ado, let's get into this! ^^

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(Chapter Hub)

C H A P T E R 6 : U N D E R G R O U N D S O C I E T Y

The residents of Giftopolis were given a newfound feeling of hope now that Bolton was around. It was something that they had been waiting for a long time. Led leaned against the wall by the entrance to the underground society and watched over everyone.

Damian was getting a warm welcome back greeting from the residents that remained, Bruce was looking around himself aimlessly and Melissa was silently meditating in the corner, her eyes were closed and her legs crossed.

"You seem uneased, Led."

Bolton said as he approached his old ally.

"Whatever happened to you after that fateful day?"

Not wanting to reveal what he was truly doing, wanting to protect his parents by not getting them involved, Led quickly thought of a lie.

"I-I was living on my own."

The older Octoling began to grow a small suspicion of him. He kept it to himself, for now.

"I see..."

He whispered as he stood next to him, now leaning on the wall.

"I understand your reaction. It has been a while and being by yourself can drain you, I know that. But now there is no time for tension as we go forward with the great salvation."

Bolton stopped leaned against the wall and took three big steps forward before turning back to Led.

"Come, Led. There is a place I must take you."

He muttered as he grabbed his blade from its scabbard and opened a flame ring, crossing over. Led followed behind him.

They were now in a rich field. There were small hills all around. However, what set the field apart from any other field was the old castle in the distance. The castle itself was from the old ages that were now a shadow of its former self. The place looked burnt and broken down.

As the two of them walked through the courtyard, it all came back to Led.

"Wait, this is the Once Great Symbol! Why have you brought me back here?"

"To reminisce of the old days that you and I shared."

He answered as he walked through the broken down front doors as Led stood in the middle of the courtyard.

"Do you ?"

Led looked around him.

"Yeah, you trained me here in this courtyard. You taught me how to master my gifts. It was also here where-"

"Where the Splat Force attacked us not long after Frederick Evans died, only for them to lose another one of their own."

Bolton said as he gave Led the beckoning sign as a way to call him over.

"Yeah, allegedly..."

He whispered in response as he walked over to his leader.

They both noticed that the place had been cleaned up since they were last there. The rubble from the fallen rooftop had been moved to the side but not cleaned up. It was as if someone was searching for something but gave up on the way.

The cleared path allowed them to barely access the old throne room.

"I this place very well, back where it all started with Henry Spence all that time ago. I still treasure the day I met him face to face in the hallways. Without it, I wouldn't be here now."

Bolton sat down on the broken throne. Unlike how he was back then, this time he perfectly fit in on the throne. Upon noticing, Led began to steadily approach him.

"You didn't come here just to reminisce, didn't you?"

He asked. Bolton shook his head slowly.

"Why are we really here?"

"This will be our base of operations, at least until the great salvation commences. After that, it'll be rebuilt to its former glory."

Bolton answered. The implications it gave to Led horrified him on the inside.

B A C K A T G I F T O P O L I S . . .

Damian ran back into Giftopolis, holding a large bag full of fresh bread, fruit, vegetables and candy, pleasing all the new residents. He ran around to every tent and gave them all the supplies that they needed. After being thanked by the residents, he was confronted by Melissa.

"Hello!"

Damian greeted cheerfully, contradicting her concerned look.

"Hi, can we talk?"

She requested, wanting to try and start a bond with him.

"Yeah, we can!"

He answered as he began to walk to the first tent on the entrance's left.

"Come!"

Both the Speedster and the Telepath entered the moist tent. Inside was a large table full of the food that Damian had gathered. At the back of the tent were sleeping bags for the residents that lived there. A few of the residents stood in the corner and watched as the Hammerhead Shark began to gobble up all of the food.

The two of them glared at Bruce, who took notice of them and glared back as he carelessly crunched a large drumstick.

"All that food took ten minutes to gather up..."

Damian sighed as he and Melissa faced each other.

"Anyway, what is it you want?"

"I want to gain a level of trust with you. Led has been distant from the rest of us since we came down here. I'm assuming he's probably gone somewhere. Bruce seems to be more focused on the food rather than anything else."

She said before taking another small glance at the greedy Shark before looking back.

"Who are you, Damian? How did Bolton find you?"

"Bolton told me you're a Telepath, right?"

Damian asked to which Melissa nodded.

"Why don't you look in my head and find out."

Melissa's eyes began to widen with confusion.

"Are you being serious right now?"

"Yeah, go ahead! I think it's better to show it rather than tell it."

He responded. He closed his eyes and relaxed his body. Melissa walked forward and closed her eyes two as she placed two fingers against his forehead.

5 Y E A R S A G O . . .

It was the annual Sports Day at Marine Academy, a high school that was located opposite Barika Academy, only across the road from its gates. On the school field, There was a large, rectangular race track that was outlined with white markings. Next to it were four individual sections for the four school house teams. On the opposite side of the track were seats for the teachers or any member of staff. It was the four hundred meter race and all the contestants were warming up. They all wore white T-shirts and shorts that were the same colour as their schoolhouse

("Sports Day, one of my favourite days of the school year, it was the day in which I felt the freest. The last thing I expected on any of those days was for something to go wrong.")

There were eight individual students taking part in the race, one of them was a younger Damian Batson who hadn't developed his gifts yet. Unlike his present-day self, Damian's afro was shorter, curler and still developing. The Octoling looked down and saw his left leg twitching ever so slightly. It unnerved him at the moment but chose to see past it.

("Something was wrong with my leg, I knew something was up at the time, my leg never twitches, especially after the warm up. If only I knew what was to come...")

The coach approached him and placed his hand on Damian's shoulder. Both of them had matching skin colour, eye colour and overall a similar body build.

", do what we discussed."

"Take my time and jog most of it, I know!"

Damian replied playfully. He spoke at a normal speed, unlike his present self.

"You don't have to doubt me on this, Dad!"

"I know, and I never will!"

The coach said with pride.

"It's almost time now, go out there and show them other boys what you've got, my little runner!"

("All the other kids were always jealous of my relation to my old man, they wished their dad was as cool as mine. He was my hero growing up, and I was his little runner...")

As Damian ran to get into his position, a younger Avery ran up to his father, who picked him up and placed him on his shoulders.

"Are you excited to see Damian give it his all?"

The coach asked, getting an exciting nod from the smiling mute child.

"Yeah, me too!"

("Avery was allowed to skip school for the day, just to see me! The only one who wasn't there was Mom, who was most likely at home downing a drink...")

Damian bent down and pressed both hands on the ground and took many deep breaths, getting him in the zone.

"Batson!"

Another contestant called out. Damian turned to his left towards a ginger Inkling with freckles and slit back hair. He wore the same green shorts as he did.

"I'm gonna kick your ass!"

Both boys laughed with each other.

"That's if you can catch up with me first!"

Damian competitively responded as the two laughed more.

("Kyle was my best friend since childhood. We went everywhere together, same kinder garden, same summer camp, same everything. We both clung to each other during high school. He saw me as an older brother, despite both of us being born during the same month. I wonder where he's at now. Who knows, maybe he did get to go through with his dream of being a world-famous Tower Control player.")

"ON THREE!"

The coach yelled and lifted a whistle close to his mouth.

"ONE, TWO-"

F W E E E E E E E T ! ! !

Everyone on the track began to run as fast as they could. All the buff, popular contestants were in the lead, as a shock to nobody in the crowd. However, Damian managed to stand his ground throughout the race, despite his physique not being as strong as theirs.

He got through the first two hundred meters with ease whilst still moving at a consistent speed. He noticed that all of the jocks ahead of him were slowing. At that moment, he began to speed up, contradicting what he and the coach had discussed.

From afar, both the coach and Avery began to cheer, with the latter only clapping his hands and smiling.

"Go on, son!"

However, upon ing the third of the fourth sections, the twitches on his leg became stronger and stronger, causing him to trip and fall over. This allowed the jocks to run past him with ease, presumably granting them an easy win.

"Batson! Are you okay?"

Kyle called out as he stopped running to check on his best friend.

Everyone in the crowd had their eyes on Damian, even the jocks had slowed down to look at what was going on. His legs began to vibrate as he began to stand up.

("From that very moment, my life changed forever...")

After standing fully up, Damian launched himself forward and not even a second later, he ed the finish line. He had run so fast that he gust of wind blew the jocks back onto the ground. However, he didn't stop there, he couldn't control his speed. He ran straight ed the finishing line and tripped over a chair he couldn't avoid in time. He tumbled into the back of a tree, knocking him out.

"DAMIAN!"

The coach screamed in worry as he dashed over to his son whilst still carrying Avery in his open arm.

The coach stood over Damian and was in shock to see that his entire body was now vibrating at super speed. It was at this very moment that he knew that his son was different.

("Sports Day had to be cancelled early. An ambulance showed up ten minutes later and later the news of what happened had reached the entire school.")

O N E W E E K L A T E R . . .

("It wasn't long until news broke out across Inkopolis. Unfortunately, this included my mother. Let's just say she didn't take it lightly...Both my Dad and my Mom fought over me for the rest of the week, with Dad trying to defend me whereas Mom wanted to get rid of me. A week later, things got dirty.")

The coach walked into the living room. The floor was made from dark wood, the walls were solidified white stone. There was a fireplace opposite the open entrance of the living room with a sofa placed in front of it and a couch facing sideways to its left, where his mother sat.

"Mara, what are you doing up this late? It's past midnight!"

"I'm sorry, Andres. But he has to go! The gifted scum must be taken care of!"

Mara whispered as she lifted her arm, revealing a knife.

Andres was taken aback by what he saw.

"Mara, is that-"

What neither of the two realized was that their oldest son was hearing everything they were saying from the top of the stairs. He looked mortified. Avery stood behind him, he didn't know what was going on.

"Stay here, if anything happens go to the bathroom and lock the door."

Avery nodded before Damian tiptoed down the stairs. On the way down, he heard loud movement coming from the living room until all of a sudden, he heard a loud yelp. His eyes widened as he tiptoed faster until eventually, he was at the bottom of the stairs.

He took six short steps forward until he arrived at the living room entrance. Damian watched in horror as his weakened father had his life choked out of him by his mother. He noticed that his stomach had been sliced by the knife. As soon as Andres' lifeless body fell to the ground, Mara broke down crying.

Damian's entire body was shaking rapidly at a subnormal speed.

"M-Mom?!"

He weakly called out, on the verge of tears.

Mara went still for a few seconds before slowly turning to her son, gritting her teeth tightly. Damian's eyes widened and a tear fell down his cheek. The sight of his messed up mother was too much for him to handle.

"Oh Damian..."

She whispered aggressively. The whisper was enough to send Damian running up the stairs at full speed.

"DAMIAN GET BACK HERE!"

The Speedster picked up his younger brother and dashed to the bathroom, locking the door behind him as their mother bolted up the stairs. Avery clung to his brother's left leg, horrified at what was occurring.

K N O C K , K N O C K , K N O C M ! ! !

"OPEN THE DOOR RIGHT NOW, DAMIAN!"

Mara screamed at the top of her lungs, accidentally waking up her neighbours next door.

S L A M ! ! !

Mara stabbed her knife into the door, cutting a door into it.

"Oh squit!"

Damian cried out as he began looking around the bathroom to try and find something. The only option he could find was jumping out the window.

"Avery, hold on!"

S L A M , S L A M , S L A M ! ! !

As the stabbing got more frequent and louder, and as Mara's scream became louder and more aggressive, Damian opened the window as fast and as wide as he could and together with Avery, he took the leap of faith.

They landed on the pavement below, Avery had his arms wrapped around his older brother's neck. He climbed down and ran in front of him to see if he was alright.

"I'm okay!"

He grunted before picking Avery up and running away.

("Minutes later, the police showed and took her away, the neighbours heard it all and called them. After that, I never turned back again...")

Damian stopped running after arriving in the middle of Inkopolis Plaza. He placed Avery down onto his feet before collapsing onto his knees, crying. Avery hugged him, hoping that he would stop crying, but to no prevail. The two brothers stayed with each other in the middle of the empty plaza.

2 M O N T H S L A T E R . . .

("Me and Avery spent months running alone. We couldn't come back home nor could we go back to our schools, especially not after what happened with me on the race track...")

Damian held Avery in his arms as he leaned against the walls of the Inkopolis Cathedral, panting heavily, trying to catch his breath. His head was increasingly warm, he was sweating heavily under the warm summer sky. Avery cuddled his older brother, and Damian patted his back.

("We had nowhere else to go from here. It seemed as if our luck had run out. Well that was until...")

"Hey man, are you okay?"

An Octoling with a green Mohawk asked. He wore saggy robes and the scent he gave off was vomit-inducing.

"I've seen you two run by here once or twice and I figured you could use some company."

"No, we're fine on our own, thank you!"

He replied aggressively. However, Avery nudged him and pointed to the Octoling.

"What about him, Avery?"

"He's trying to tell you that you can trust me."

The Octoling told him.

"I'm a Telepath, I can read his thoughts."

Damian looked at Avery, who nodded.

"Okay...?"

He whispered before looking back at the Octoling.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Kurt."

He answered.

"I'm from a small town underneath the city in the sewers."

"Man, no wonder you smell horrible!"

Damian said with disgust before he placed Avery down and approached him.

"Where is it?"

("He took me down to the underground society that they named Giftopolis, the gifted's very own Inkopolis forced underground by society, just like the Octarians after the Great Turf War.")

"Welcome to Giftopolis!"

Kurt said as the three of them walked into the small town. There were only a couple of small tents with only a handful of residents, all of which gave the two brothers a joyful wave.

"Make yourself at home!"

("Me and Avery lived in the first tent on the left side of the entrance, by the dinner table. We slept in the same sleeping bag in the corner. To our dismay, there was no food on the table.")

"Wait here, Avery."

Damian told his brother, who was tucked into the sleeping bag.

In a flash, Damian was out of the tent and after four seconds, three of which he spent climbing the ladder, he was out of the sewers. He stole a plastic bag from a supermarket and began to place any kind of food that he could find in there: bread, fruit, vegetables, sweets, meat, anything. Seconds later, he was back down into the sewer, back into Giftopolis and back into the tent.

Managing to sense Damian's speed, Kurt ran into the tent and saw what Damian had done.

"Did you just-"

"Yup."

Damian answered with a smug attitude.

Kurt raised an eyebrow, too surprised to even sense what was inside the bag.

"Is that-"

"Yup."

Damian repeated smugly.

"No way!"

Kurt exclaimed as he approached him. They both poured the bag onto the table and a mountain of food came out.

"This is incredible! Imagine the wonders that you can do for us!"

("He wasn't wrong. Since that day, I became the go-to Octoling for food supply, basically doing a repeat of what I did that day.")

3 Y E A R S L A T E R . . .

("Years go by and many come and go. Kurt was one of the few who left to find other potential hiding spots for the gifted to improve on. As for Giftopolis, he left me in charge. I was popular with the residents, not only did I help out with educating both the other kids and Avery, but I even managed to start a small education class, with my best efforts of course")

Everyone in Giftopolis was now living a much better life now that Damian was involved with them. Over the years, his speed had managed to sneak away food and drinks from restaurants, market stands, and supermarkets, all in the blink of an eye. His acts have even inspired others to go out and do the same. Unfortunately, they lacked his speed...

("However, I knew deep down inside that something would go wrong one day and oh boy, things went wrong...)

"Everyone look! I've got bread!"

A teenage Pufferling resident announced to the whole civilization with a large smirk on her face whilst holding a large bag full of bread, grabbing their attention in an instant.

Damian ran forward to her and inspected the bread bag, grabbing one loaf and looking closely.

"Damn, she's not lying!"

He said out loud to the other residents, impressed.

"How did you get this?"

"I took out the salesmen using my spikes and stole all his bread."

She answered as her dark blonde hair turned into sharp spikes. Everyone looked at her, concerned.

"Oh don't worry, everyone ran away as he fell to the ground, so nobody saw me come back!"

"Cayenne, why did you do that?!"

Damian exclaimed, feeling unnerved.

"Did you even clean up after yourself?"

"Nope! My older sister didn't so why should I?"

Cayenne replied smugly.

Damian face palmed briefly.

"Which is why she's in jail!"

He exclaimed.

What the villagers didn't know was that it was already too late. Unaware to any of them, a swat team of Inklings in black padding and armour were already climbing down the ladder and jumping onto the ground. None of the villagers were able to hear it through the bickering.

Minutes and the problem between the two of them still hadn't been solved.

"You know what? I'm done! I'm done living down in this dirty squit hole, not being able to see the day and night sky without worrying about surviving or making it back. I am leaving this dump behind and there is nothing you can-"

B A N G ! ! !

Cayenne went into shock, falling onto her knees as tears began to stream down her cheek.

"No!"

The Speedster screamed. In a flash, Damian picked her up and took her to the very back of the small village, behind the tents. He held against her bullet womb, trying to stop any bleeding, but it was too late.

"No! No, no, no, no!"

"I-I..."

The Pufferling muttered as she ed away before getting the chance to finish her final sentence. Damian carefully placed her body onto the ground, staring with shock in his eyes.

B A N G , B A N G , B A N G ! ! !

The echoing gunshots woke him up from the shock. He ran away from her body and into the main battle and saw residents around him get taken out.

"AVERY!"

He screamed, looking all around him, dreading the thought of him being shot. Luckily, Avery was spotted running toward one of the tents. The Speedster sprinted to him.

The two brothers hugged tightly, the younger one crying heavily and shaking, burying his head into the older brother's shoulder. Damian looked around them. Both sides were falling, with the residents taking a bigger blow than the swat team. The tents were lit ablaze. It wasn't long until the hiding residents were found and taken care of. The young Speedster was too shocked to do anything. The only option left for him was to escape and leave everyone behind.

("I'll never understand how I didn't see it coming, and I'll never understand why I didn't stay and help fight against them, I wish I did, but I was scared...After escaping, I concluded that nowhere was safe in Inkopolis. And so, I did what anyone else would do in my shoes and got out there as soon as possible. All I had left was Avery and the last thing I wanted was to lose him to the same place I lost both my parents and my two homes.)

Damian ran to the edge of Inkopolis, looking out into the sea ahead of him. He then looked down at his feet before glancing back at the sea, and then his feet, and then the sea once more. He placed Avery on the sand, not wanting to accidentally get him killed from a potential reckless fate.

The Speedster took in a deep breath and stretched his legs for a minute. Damian shut his eyes, his adrenaline was pumping. One leap forward and he was dashing on top of the water.

Damian opened his eyes, realizing that he wasn't dead. He laughed out loud and opened his arms like a flying bird as he ran on the water, turning back to the land where he picked up Avery.

"Watch this, Avery!"

He whispered before taking off into the sea once more, feeling relieved after the stressful situation back at Giftopolis.

("For a moment, I felt free, running away from Inkopolis. Although Giftopolis was gone, I still felt as if me and Avery had a bright future ahead.")

Hours of running around the world went by, Damian ran from land to sea to land to sea and so on, with him getting more and more tied by the second. Eventually, he collapsed in the middle of a desert, falling asleep. Avery tried to nudge him in an attempt to wake him up, but to no prevail.

("The next morning I woke up and found Splatsvile, the place where I finally found my purpose as a freedom fighter. The place was anti-gifted and even had a large prison where the gifted were taken, that being the Diabolos Institution that me and Bolton took down a couple of days ago. It was more hostile there but at the same time, it was oddly thrilling.")

2 Y E A R S L A T E R . . .

("Within my time there, I had gotten myself involved with this resistance, they were all just as scared as me and Avery. We stuck with each other through everything.")

"I'm just gonna go out and get bread!"

Damian announced to the rest of the resistance.

"I'll be back in roughly a couple of minutes, depending on if I get accepted or not."

"Good luck with that!"

Rachel told him, only getting a brief smirk in reply before Damian was gone.

Damian climbed up and ladder and out the bunker doors, making sure to close them behind him. He reached into his pockets and felt the money inside them, feeling relaxed now that he ed to bring them. Damian ran into the city of chaos, eventually running into the marketplace, where someone else was walking amongst him, he just didn't know it...

"Hey man, would I be able to get some fresh...sandy bread?"

He asked a stallholder, who glared at him at first sight.

"I would never give away my precious bread for some freak like you!"

He muttered aggressively, catching the Octoling off guard.

He took two tiny steps back, gasping.

"What?! How did you know I was-"

"I can see it in your white pupils..."

The stallholder whispered.

"Oh right!"

Damian whispered, dragging out both words.

"Listen, man, I'm really sorry about-"

S L A M ! ! !

Before finishing his sentence, the stallholder had already been punched in the face and the Speedster now carried a full bag of bread. Years of fighting caused him to adapt to a hit and run lifestyle, the one that got Cayenne killed back at Giftopolis.

"This..."

He said, finishing his sentence. He looked around and saw the stallholder next to the man, he had seen it all.

"Well...bye!"

Before the other stallholder had a chance to even move the smallest inch, the Octoling had runoff. Unfortunately, his run had to be cut short after taking a corner to the right down the road before taking a lift down an alleyway.

"Woah!"

He yelped as he tripped over a long wire. He fell face-first onto the cold ground. He groaned as he sat up and held his knee in his arms, trying to get through the pain.

Behind the Speedster, doors swung open and a gang of six tanned Inkling men sprinted out and circled him, each of them wore the same sand-coloured striped buttoned shirt and the same red jacket, alongside the same sand-coloured cargo pants.

"Uh oh!"

He whispered, realizing that there was no way out of it, he had nowhere to go.

"We have studied your pathways!"

The gang leader said. To stand out, he wore a purple jacket instead of a red one.

"You run from the market, down the street and through this alleyway. Predictable!"

"Ah shoot! I knew I should've taken a different path!"

The Speedster groaned before attempting to run forward, only to be caught by two of the gang and pushed down.

"Ugh! It was worth a shot!"

("Until one day, he showed up...")

"Uh guys, do you not see that...Flame ring?"

Damian asked, only to be denied, to the gang's dismay.

"You think of us like fools!"

The leader of the gang spat out.

"I'm being serious, look!"

Damian replied. The gang leader glanced behind, but before he could make a move, Bolton's blade has already been thrown into his chest.

("And the rest is history...")

P R E S E N T D A Y . . .

Melissa removed her fingers from his head. She felt overwhelmed upon seeing everything that went on with him.

"I-I'm so-"

"Sorry?"

Damian interrupted, knowing where she was going.

"Don't be, you weren't there so why would you be sorry?"

There was a brief moment of silence between them, even Bruce had stopped gobbling up the food and was looking at them.

"I-I should probably check up on Led. Any idea where he is?"

Melissa asked, changing the conversation.

"Oh, you mean that grumpy lightning guy who suspiciously has beef with Bolton?"

He asked.

Melissa lightly nodded and frowned.

"It's a bit more than that, but yes."

"Last time I saw him, he was with Bolton and they went through a flame ring together. I don't know where exactly but I know they're together."

Damian answered, putting a worried look on Melissa's face.

"Oh...I'll find him."

She responded, closing her eyes and crossing her fingers.

"First, I need to get Bolton to help get me and Bruce out since he can't fit through the cover.

"You do that then. I'm gonna get some more food."

He responded before running out of the tent, leaving her behind with Bruce and a couple of residents, who were intimated by the Shark.

L A T E R T H A T E V E N I N G . . .

It was now approaching sunset. Led had finished his walk from the Once Great Symbol down to the outskirts of Inkopolis. A flame ring was formed ten feet away from him. Bolton walked out, followed by Melissa and Bruce. The former of the three walked back through the flame ring and back into Giftopolis.

Led ran forward down the grassy path and met with them.

"Are you two okay?"

"I'm tired but, I should be fine for the rest of the day."

Melissa answered before the two of them looked at Bruce.

"What about you, Bruce?"

"I feeling stuffed! I haven't had big meal in long time."

Bruce answered, licking his chops.

"Yeah, that's because you...Nevermind."

She replied before turning back to Led.

"What's the plan now?"

In the distance, within the trees, another flame ring opened, Bolton walked through and this time he stayed in the area and watched them from afar.

"I need to go home for a minute, Bruce are you able to take us there?"

Bruce nodded as both Led and Melissa climbed onto his back. The shark pushed all his force onto the ground before leaping into the air like how an Inkling or an Octoling would super jump.

5 M I N U T E S L A T E R . . .

Bruce landed on the road after a long super jump. Both Led and Melissa climbed off him. They had all arrived back home. Despite his large size and weight, Bruce had barely made any markings on the solid road.

"Thank you, Bruce!"

Melissa told the shark, only getting a slow, faint pant as a response. She turned around and saw Led heading straight for the house.

"Led, wait up!"

The Octoling had walked up the stairs and opened the door by the time she caught up with him, Bruce waited outside, looking around him. He began to carefully watch a butterfly that flew around him.

On the inside, both Led and Melissa walked into the living room, the former looked stressed and he saw both of his parents watching TV.

"Led! Are you feeling better after this morning?"

Johanna asked as she stood up and approached him.

"He's back. We had an encounter with him and..."

Led paused, not wanting to finish the sentence. Both parents approached him with concern. He turned away and began to look out the window.

"I promised myself that I was done with this life. I promised you I-"

"Led, it's gonna be alright, son."

Michael assured him but to no prevail.

"No! I promised you all that I'd change! But now he's back and I'm involved with his grand plan for salvation again and..."

Led exclaimed with a sigh.

"I just don't get it. I want what Bolton has been offering but I don't want to be involved with anything he does..."

Look at me, Led."

Johanna told him. Her son turned around and looked into her eyes. She took ahold of his hands and gently held onto them.

"The world has got its plans. Sometimes, they aren't always for the best. The question is, do you really want to follow and embrace its plan or do you want to embrace and make your own plan?"

Led continued to silently stare out the window, breathing slowly. His thoughts were all over the place, he couldn't think straight.

"I need to clear my head some more..."

He answered before walking out of the living room and out of the house with Melissa, Johanna and Michael all following behind him.

"Led, please be careful, honey!"

Johanna called out to him with a worried tone of voice. The married couple wrapped their arms around each other as their son slowly looked back.

"I love you both."

Led told them. He stood still for a small second before walking to Bruce, climbing onto his back.

"Take care of him, okay?"

Johanna asked Melissa, knowing that she was arguably more close to him than both herself and Michael.

"I will don't worry!"

The Telepath assured them as she too climbed onto Bruce's back.

"See you later!"

Both parents waved goodbye at them before Bruce leapt into the air, away from the small town. Both parents walked inside the house, feeling worried about their son.

Little did they know that someone was watching the whole scene from afar, staring down from the roof of the house opposite them, glaring at them as he gritted his teeth.

"I knew it..."

T O  B E  C O N T I N U E D . . .

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T H X  F O R  R E A D I N G ! ! !

Thx for reading Chapter six of Splat Force III: Bolton's Reign! I hope you all enjoyed seeing Damian's past as it's something that I wanted to explore after bringing it up back in the third Chapter of the story. Next week's Chapter is where things go dark, like really dark, so stay tuned for that! Until next time, stay safe out there! ^^

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