Guess who's back! My apology is at the end, and the many eager reviews brought me back to continue what I started 4 years ago! Who knows how many people will actually still care about this story, but I know I still love it. And now, the conclusion of the SNOWBALL WAR!

"The Invasion Grows"

By: pyrotornado

Chapter 13

"Is that game, degeso?"

"The Southern Winds is in sight, aneki," Eiko panted as she jogged after her sister, who didn't even seem to be breaking a sweat. "Have you called in the reinforcements?"

"They should be heading there right now. We should meet them by the time we get to the restaurant." Chizuru kept her eyes on the beach, watching for the turrets she could sense hidden beneath the snow.

"I don't understand," Eiko grunted. "Why would Isumi place their holding pen so far away from the base? It isn't exactly easy to guard with just one person, especially one as docile as Kiyomi-chan."

"It's insurance..." Chizuru replied without missing a step. "Even if we were to mount a rescue operation on Goro-san, or anyone who might be Captured, we would still need to make the trek all the way back to the Southern Winds in order to Capture the base." Eiko thought about this for a moment.

"So if you already realized this, why didn't we do the same?"

Chizuru smiled as she looked back. "I didn't really think about that at the time." She answered honestly. "To tell you the truth, I was impressed with how far Isumi-chan had thought things through." She turned back to the front. Cindy and Clark had made it to the alley directly behind the Southern Winds. "She's acting more and more like an invader, with every minute that passes in this game..."

"So," Eiko thought out loud. "Should we head back and check on the situation?"

"That shouldn't be necessary," Chizuru answered. "We left Satsuki-san to look after the base, right?" As she said that, the beach erupted in a cloud of white.

"Saru!" A voice boomed as more and more crashes were heard inside the snow-screen.

"You'll have to be quicker than that, ojou-san!" Several snowballs flew from the cloud and soared off into the ocean. "How long do you think you can dodge my tools of war?!"

"To heck with your tools, you old fart!" She retorted. "No human can actually match the speed of an Ocean Walker, saru!" Eiko and Chizuru blankly stared at the smoke cloud.

"Are we still going to be okay, aneki?" Eiko muttered in a dead-panned tone.

"Perhaps...we should notify the base?" Chizuru sighed as she pulled out her walkie-talkie.

Cindy walked calmly and cautiously down the road towards the Southern Winds, having received the call from Chizuru for the reinforcements. 'I'm so glad,' she thought. 'The experiment has been a complete success.' She turned her attention to the device strapped to her back. A large rectangular pack with several rods sticking out from every side, arcing electricity every now and then, but nothing too dangerous. "Professor Kanabe's Water Repulsion Diving Equipment…" She murmured. "An absolute marvel of advanced aquatic technology! So hard to believe he had developed the plans for this device as far back as a decade ago! Designed to create a breathable atmosphere for the wearer by using super high speed electrolysis to instantly break water down and convert it into hydrogen and oxygen! This 'snowball war' has proven to be the perfect testing ground for the device!" As she neared the restaurant several of the turrets turned her way and fired. As soon as the snowballs got close, they collide with what seemed like an invisible barrier and disintegrated instantly, prompting Cindy to smirk.

"Truly," Clark added as he hid behind her, with another device strapped to his back. "We must thank the Same-Seijin for providing the location of the professor's notes. They certainly could prove useful in not just the exploration of the ocean, but the future development of space exploration as well!"

As he said that, he leaned over and fired a barrage of snowballs from the device, utterly destroying the turrets with the high-speed missiles. Cindy looked back at him.

"You might want to dial back on the tension of the firing mechanism, Clark," She advised. "Those might do more than hurt if they actually hit someone…" As they rounded the corner, they could see the Southern Winds at the end of the road. "Look, there it is! We've almost made it." As she said that, she walked on a patch of ice and slipped. "Wah!"

Clark rushed over. "Are you alright?" Cindy dusted herself off.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She quickly took off the device she was wearing and checked for any damages. "Hmm, the device seems to be alright," She mumbled. "But it's shut itself off, I wonder why?" She turned the device back on, causing electricity to start arcing back and forth between the spires again.

"Perhaps a safety device?" Clark mentioned. "We can disable it with a few tweaks, if we need to." He said as he pulled a screwdriver from his coat.

"No thank you," Cindy retorted. "If it's something that will keep the device from electrocuting me, I want it active." After the device continued its usual hum, she continued to walk carefully towards the Southern Winds.

Clark shrugged. "Your loss…" He put the screwdriver away, unaware of the Ika Musume head directly above them staring down.

"Aww!" Erika grumbled as the snowball collapsed in her tentacles. "I broke another one, Takeru-niichan!" She and Takeru had positioned themselves on the roof of the Southern Winds, surrounded by a collection of misshapen snowballs and a few puddles of black snow.

"That's alright, Erika," Takeru comforted. "You'll get the hang of it soon." He grinned as he looked at the red armband around Erika's left arm. "Remember, you're the Commander! Leave all the fighting to me!" Erika puffed up her cheeks.

"I can do it, degeso!" She bent down to pick up the broken snow. She carefully put the pieces back together, but as soon as she started to pack the ball with her tentacles, the ball fell apart. As she looked at the pile of snow, tears started to well up.

"It's fine, Erika," Takeru sweat dropped. As he looked over the edge of their fort, he could notice some approaching figures. "They're here…" He whispered. Erika wiped her tears and huddled next to the wall. "I hope Ika-chan knows what she's doing…" As he muttered, the radio he had at his side beeped.

He lifted the transceiver to his ear. "Yes? … Ayumi-san? … I understand." He hung up the radio and turned to Erika. "My sisters are coming from the beachfront, and Cindy-san and one of the scientists are coming from the road."

"What'll we do, Takeru-nii?" Erika shivered. "Can we really beat them all, degeso?" Takeru put his hands on Erika's shoulders.

"Erika, listen," he looked her in the eyes with a serious expression. "Do you trust your big sister?" She nodded. "Do you trust in her skills as an invader?"

"Of course, degeso!" Erika barked excitedly. "My big sister is the defender of the ocean, Ika Musume, degeso!"

"Right!" He nodded. "And that same Ika Musume devised this plan of ours!" He pointed to her armband. "Ika-chan declared that you be the commander for a reason! Do you know what that reason is, Erika?"

"Because she trusts me…" Erika nodded in agreement.

"That's right!" Takeru exclaimed. 'Although, it was really because Erika asked for the position…' he thought to himself.

"Right…Right, geso!" Erika felt her confidence soar. "Onee-sama gave me this position because she knew I was the best fit for it, degeso!" She grabbed a snowball from the pile. "I'll do my best to make Onee-sama proud, degeso!" She put her tentacles to her sides and lifted the snowball into the air. "For the Squid Faction, degeso!" She started to climb over the wall.

"No! We're supposed to stay up here, Erika!" Takeru quickly grabbed her before she could be noticed by the other team. After Erika had calmed down, Takeru sighed. "First things first, we need to go over Ika-chan's plan…"

"We're here, degeso..." Isumi stated as she and Ayano stepped onto the beach that surrounded the Lemon Shack. "Time for Operation: Gladius, geso!" As Isumi took another step towards the Shack, her instincts told her to jump to the side. A flurry of snowballs erupted from the roof of the shack.

"You instincts are as impressive as ever, Ika-Seijin!" A muffled voice called out. Isumi's eyes darted around, looking for the source of the voice. "But how long do you think you can last against an opponent you can't see?"

'This must be one of those idiot's inventions, geso...' Isumi thought as she attempted to sense out the scientist. 'Ayano warned me about this one, so...' She quickly scooped some snow into her tentacles and fired a white missile into what seemed like air, but instead collided with an invisible wall.

"But how did-" A stunned Harris slowly reappeared. "Ah, I see!" He put his fist into his hand. "Aliens have a higher sensory ability! I should have increased the specs to account for-" Another snowball planted itself into his face.

"Baka..." Isumi dead-panned as she pointed to the ground. "Even if you are invisible, you still make footprints in the snow, degeso..."

"Well played, Ika-Seijin..." Another muffled voice replied. "But don't think that just because you were able to beat Harris," The beach began to shake as the snow that covered the sand was pushed aside, revealing a large, mechanical tank-like structure right in front of the beach house. "That does not mean you'll be able to beat the Martin-bot 9000!" The fat, sweaty scientist popped his head out of the roof of the tank.

Isumi gazed in awe at the creation. "So it's come down to a test of strength now, degeso..." She clenched her teeth as she readied her tentacles. "Those three idiots brought something unnecessary to the table, geso..."

From inside the Shack, Nagisa stared in utter amazement at the scene before her. "This...is still supposed to be a game, isn't it?"

Eiko and Chizuru stood only a few yards from the Southern Winds. The cold wind of December blew gently, yet with a bite. "We finally made it, aneki…" Eiko panted.

"It would seem that way," Chizuru muttered as she surveyed the landscape. "Now I wonder what Isumi-chan has planned for us now?" She could notice multiple mounds of snow piled up conspicuously around the building. "Odd…" She finally said.

"What is?" Eiko asked confused, also noticing the snow mounds.

"Up until now, the turrets had been hidden very well beneath the snow, but these…" Suddenly, one popped out pointing directly at Chizuru.

"I-I'm very sorry about this, Chizuru-san!" They could hear Ayumi stuttering from inside the restaurant as the turret fired one of its white missiles at Chizuru. Just like the rest, Chizuru deftly dodged the incoming snowball and very quickly rushed in to destroy it. The moment she made contact with the device, however…

Plop…Plop…

Two snowballs gently landed on the hood of her jacket.

…

…

"Ara?" Chizuru paused for a moment before reacting. All she did was gently brush the snowballs off her head. 'I see…' She thought to herself. 'Very clever…Isumi-chan…Having them hide any kind of malice to dull my ability to sense danger.' She turned to Eiko, who was staring at the situation in awe. "I guess…I got Captured…" She smiled as the turrets suddenly turned their attention towards Eiko.

"That's right, degeso!" Came a voice from above. The two sisters looked up to see Takeru and Erika looking down to them, gently holding snowballs while smiling.

"Sorry about that, Onee-san!" Takeru called down.

"Takeru!" Eiko yelled back at him. "Get down from there before you hurt yourself!"

"Hmm…" Erika grinned at her. "Are you sure you should be worried about us right now, degeso?" She snapped her fingers, and suddenly the entire area around them erupted in a cloud of white. Eiko found herself in the middle of a large field of snowball turrets, not just the ones hiding in the obvious snowbanks behind Chizuru.

"Oi! Oi Oi Oi!" Eiko groaned loudly. "Isn't this a bit overkill, old man?!"

"Hmm…If one is faced with an overwhelming force, you bring overkill to the table!" An old man sat amidst the wreckage of his 'tools of war'. A week of building, placing, and planning; and all of it was destroyed in a matter of an hour. Still he grinned. Because he knew, they accomplished what they were meant to do…

The scrap metal of the Martin-bot 9000 lay around her. "I know we brought weapons to the table first, by bringing the turrets into the game, degeso…" Isumi sighed. "But once you started actually trying to attack me, what did you think would happen, degeso!?" She yelled as the pudgy scientist lay sprawled out on the ground covered in snowballs.

"I'm sorry I got caught, Ika-chan!" Ayano called out from the Holding Pen, with the other two members of the Invasion Club nodding sadly.

"No worries, degeso…" She waved it off. "I've got this…" She turned to the Lemon Shack, seeing Nagisa shaking like a leaf.

'I knew it!' She was screaming in her head. 'I knew that Squid Person was dangerous!'

"Well, well…" Isumi grinned evilly. "Nagisa-san... Have you been waiting here for me, degeso?" She casually made her way towards the door.

"S-Stay back!" Nagisa quickly grabbed a snowball at the ground and tossed it at Isumi, who simply allowed herself to be hit. "Huh?!"

"That's only the second hit, degeso…" She smirked. "Without a third person here, you can't defeat me, degeso…"

"Ika-chan…" A painful groan came from behind her, causing Isumi to freeze. Without even looking back, she could tell who it was. "Please accept my love-filled snowballs, IKA-CHAN!" Isumi quickly used her tentacles to propel herself to the roof of the Lemon Shack, just in time to avoid Sanae's flurry of white fluffy missiles.

'I had just the thing for this, geso…' Isumi frantically began checking the pockets of her coat for her contingency plan. But before she could reveal it, Sanae had already climbed to up the wall and onto the roof.

"Ika-chan…" She calmly said. "I will chase you to the ends of the world! So please…" She cried a maiden's tear as she held a snowball out in front of her. "Don't run from me…?" As she was about to throw the disqualifying snowball, Isumi did something unexpected.

"For you, degeso!" She held a tiny bag of cookies out in front of her. The bag said "Isumi" on its tag. "I…uh…made these myself, degeso!"

Sanae froze mid-toss, the snowball falling from her hand and landing on her head. "Ika-chan!" She leapt towards Isumi with her arms stretched out for an embrace. As she did this, two things happened: 1) Isumi had used her tentacles to craft a snowball behind her, and gently tossed it onto Sanae's back, and 2) Using the bag of cookies like a bull cape, she led Sanae to jump from the roof and onto the snow below.

Stunned from the fall, Sanae looked up confused. And just as soon as she had taken the cookies out of her coat, she used her tentacles to cover the small plastic bag in snow and toss it down the beach. "Ika-chan's cookies!" Sanae yelled as she ran after the hurled snowball filled with the promise of homemade cookies made by Isumi.

"Now then…" She sighed as she jumped down from the roof. "Where were we, degeso…?" She smiled evilly as she turned back towards the quivering Nagisa in the base.

"So now everything comes to a close, degeso…" Isumi stood triumphantly at the door to the Lemon Shack base. Nagisa, trying to keep her grip on sanity, pulled out the copy of the rules they had been given.

"You still can't win, Squid Person!" She held the rule sheet out like a flimsy shield. "The rules you made say that you can't achieve victory if you don't capture me or the base! I've been inside the whole time, so I still have three hits to go! And unless you go all the way back to your base, you can't rescue your teammates!" Isumi simply shrugged.

"Oh, Nagisa…" She shook her head. "I thought you, of all people, would realize I had a plan for this from the very beginning, geso…" In Nagisa's mind, Isumi looked like a spawn of Cthulu come up from the depths. Isumi walked over to the Holding Pen where her friends had been waiting patiently smiling, having been told the details of the plan by Ayano in secret. Isumi unzipped her coat to reveal a rod similar to the poles the turrets had been made with, only this one had a small mechanical arm attached to it.

"What?!" Nagisa took a quick step back. 'She's had that in her coat this entire time?!' Sudden realization hit her. 'Wait…now that I think about it, she hasn't crafted a snowball with her hands this whole time! It wasn't because the tentacles were simply better! It was because she was concealing that thing this whole time!' Isumi stabbed the pole into the ground outside of the Holding Pen, turning it on.

'How far ahead did she think this through?!' The pole extended an arm into the Holding Pen, as did Isumi. They first grabbed Ayano, then Tomomi, and finally Yuka.

"That's four, Nagisa…" Isumi grinned as they walked into Lemon Shack. She held the pole she'd been carrying out to her. "I suppose this," She pounded the end of the pole into the floor of the Lemon Shack. "…would count as the 'marker' that defines our victory, degeso?" Before she could answer, Nagisa fainted in her chair.

"Saru…" Satsuki sighed, slumping over in the chair that had been placed inside the Holding Pen for her. "Sounds like the game's come to an end, saru…" She spat to the side. "And now I don't even know how I'm supposed to react to something as unbelievable as this…" Same Musume had found herself sitting in a little lawn chair on the side of a road, roped off by a simple line in the snow and four safety cones. Goro and Kiyomi, hearing that the game had been decided, decided to head back to the Lemon Shack to celebrate. Satsuki, humiliated at her loss to the old human man, decided to continue sitting in the chair as a way of self-punishment for her failure. For once in a long time, she wasn't very hungry. "This certainly wasn't what I was expecting to be doing when I first came up to this surface world, saru…"

"But it does seem you're having a lot more fun these days, Satsuki-san…" A voice from behind the wall called out to her. Satsuki's ears perked up.

"Well, well…" Satsuki grinned. "I'd been wondering where you've been for the past few years, saru…" She called back without turning around.

"Yes, well…" The voice continued. "I've been trying to find my own solution to our kind's situation, in my own way. I haven't really had the time to call up on old acquaintances." She seemed to be twiddling her hair as she said that.

"So, given that you're here, saru…" Satsuki closed her eyes. "I assume you've been keeping an eye on that little squid, saru?"

"Ika Musume…" She mumbled. "No…Isumi Kanabe…The defining link that brings both the world of Ocean Walkers and the world of humans together…" The girl on the other side of the wall smiled. "She's bright, cheerful, and makes friends easily…Miss Mirabelle would have been so proud…"

"But she can be an outright pain, saru…" Satsuki spat. "Always dragging everyone else along for the ride as she does this and that…" She thought back to when she first came to the surface. "If I had just gotten those bracelets when I got the chance—"

"Humans," The girl interrupted. "Aren't as weak as you think, Satsuki-san…" There was a clear tone of seriousness in her voice. "Whether you got the bracelets as you planned or not, you're original plan would have just lead to unnecessary violence and bloodshed. If you had gotten your hands on those bracelets, and used them to attack the humans, the humans would have retaliated with unrelenting force, and then…" She paused. "Moved on to wiping out the rest of us…"

"So what are we supposed to do then, saru…" Satsuki rolled her eyes, as if she'd heard this speech before. "Keep hiding under the oceans until 'Miss-Link-between-Worlds' can convince the rest of the world that we ain't all bad? I can't wait for that little ditz to grow up and 'take over the world' like she's been saying this whole time, saru…"

The voice just smiled. "You won't need to wait…" Satsuki looked over to the side, to see a young girl dressed in a red dress and pink hat walking around the corner towards her. "The others will make themselves known very soon…" She smiled as she stood next to Same Musume with her back to the wall.

"Heh…" Satsuki chuckled. "You're something else…Kozue-san…"

By the way: Those cookie's were Isumi's present from Kiyomi. Everyone in the Invasion Club got one.

I originally planned for a few more scenes than what made it into the final product, but it was already long enough as it is. Those scenes were: the battle between Isumi and the Martin-Bot, Commander Erika versus Cindy and Clark, and the ending where everyone was enjoying the after-party (minus Satsuki who was talking with the mysterious Kozue). Honestly, I've had the story all thought out in my head since the start of the arc, but as I said before, real life had other plans and I had to put this project on the back burner for a while.

Sorry about leaving the story for so long, but the truth is that I've been trying to find a good job in my computer programming field. The journey has been long, and filled with tears, but I've finally found a place where I can feel happy with my work! I know my bio said that I was seriously considering becoming an author; well that idea went nowhere (due to personal reasons). My true passion has always been programming, and now I can make money doing that.

That being said, I always felt that leaving this story on such a cliff hanger was a painful, depressing feeling. Therefore, until I can actually get into the groove of working, I'll be spending more time working on the Invasion Grows in my free time. I can't say with absolute certainty if I'll be able to work on this story very much, as I finally have a full-time job and don't have much time for working on my own things. But I can say this: 'The Invasion Grows' is NOT dead. I still have plenty of other arcs that need to be typed up, including the introduction of at least 3 new Ocean Walker girls with unique personalities and ties to Isumi and/or Satsuki. Hopefully, the next story will be set in either Spring or Summer, and I'll have more inspiration for the other stories. Until then, I hope you'll be able to put up with my infrequent uploads ;)