Chapter Text
Cas watched as the waves of the water were parted by the ship's bow. It had been short of a year since they got to breathe the Great Blue's salty sea air, and it was quite invigorating to their spirits. Too bad they would have to part from it in a few minutes, as they were currently heading to an island 100 kilometers off the coast of Inkopolis, the location of their most recently assigned mission.
"Agent 3." The old voice of his commanding officer, Captain Craig Cuttlefish, bellowed from the small ship's cabin. "We're only 5 kilometers away from the drop-off point. It would be in our best interest for you to get your gear together so that the ship doesn't spend much time within enemy lines."
"Right." Cas said as they pushed themself off the ship's railings and headed down to the ship's weapons locker, the thought of how close this potential Octarian outpost was to Inkopolis boiling their inked-based blood. What kind of plan did the Octarian Empire have in store for the Cephalings of Inkopolis and the surrounding counties, and why did it need to involve the most dangerous island known to sailors and ship captains?
They returned to the deck shortly afterwards, geared up and armed with their agency-issued splattershot and a small knapsack filled with a week's worth of rations. The Captain had gotten the ship's lifeboat into place, ready to be lowered into the sea once Cas got in. "When this raft hits the waters, you will make your way to the island." The Captain started, pulling out and handing his protege a flare gun and some flares. "Once you make landfall, you will fire one flare into the air. This will start the countdown."
"168 hours, correct?" Cas asked, making sure they had the right number down.
"Yes, 3." The Captain confirmed. "One week's time. If you don't make contact 1 hour after the timer hits zero, I will be forced to leave you behind, in case the Octarian Threat is real. I expect you will row your way back to the main island in case this happens, yes?" Cas sighed, replying that they will. "Alright then, Agent 3." The Captain chirped. "Into the raft you go!" He said as he stepped aside for his agent to climb into the raft. The Captain then hobbled over to the crank and began to lower the raft into the Great Blue. From that moment, Cas Sango-Mavrin had taken a backseat to Agent 3 of the NSS.
~~~
By the time 3 reached the shores of Oshima Island, their arms were already starting to ache from the rowing. But that was part of the job as an NSS Agent, their body always aching from the amount of movement they've done in battle and physical activities. Perhaps after the mission was complete, they should look into taking advantage of the gym their apartment complex gave residents free access to. 3 dragged the raft through the shore and into the island's foliage, doing their best to cover their tracks from potential Octarian Scouts who might be patrolling around. Once they were sure the raft wouldn't be noticed without having to be right up against its hiding place, 3 pulled out the flare gun, loaded it with a flare, and fired it towards the Captain's ship. With that completed, 3 activated the timer on their watch, and began to trek into the island's forest.
3 slowly made their way through the island, stopping every once in a while to listen for potential enemy movement. Things were silent however, too silent for even 3's liking. For an island far from Inkopolis' shores and feared by many to even visit thanks to its legend, one would expect the Octarians to be moving freely on the surface, not having to worry about prying eyes or potential threats, yet 3 hadn't even encountered a singular Octotrooper patrol. If there was an Octarian Outpost on this island, the Octarians were doing a good job making sure nobody discovered them.
3's hopes rose when they spotted some abandoned buildings in the distance. "Perhaps it was here they were settled." 3 thought as they came closer to the ruins, stopping just within the treeline to keep them cover as they did an eye sweep of the area. Not even a single source of activity could be spotted though, causing 3 to puff. Was it possible that the legend of the island got them too, that those who came onto the island never returned?
"Unlikely." 3 thought to themself. "There's no such thing as a haunted island, and there is no way in shell that an island could get rid of any ship that went missing near it."
Since 3 was unable to find any sort of activity within the ruins, they moved in, crouching to limit the noise of their own footsteps in case there was someone in hiding, waiting to ambush unwanted visitors.
Searching around turned up. A building that was out of 3's view during their initial visual sweep appeared to have been converted into a potential base of operations, having tarps draped over a hole to protect the inside from the weather. The strange part about the tarping however was that they looked worn, as though someone was there but had left before they could remove their presence from the area. Despite that, this was clear evidence that someone, Octarian or other, had indeed set up shop on the island, and 3 made their way towards the covered building.
Pulling a part of the tarp up to peek inside, 3 noticed that the building had been furnished with what looked to be metal crates, some cots, and a mix-match of Octarian weapons and technology, confirming exactly what the Captain had feared: there were indeed Octarians stationed on the island, potentally plotting something against Inkopolis. After one last check to confirm nobody was in the area, 3 shifted into their swim form and snuck under the tarp.
3 shifted back into their humanoid form upon reaching the middle of the room, being precautious as to not disrupt anything. If the Octarians were to come back to find something was out of place, 3's reconnaissance mission would be made much harder than necessary. All they really had to do was find out why the Octarians were here, scout out their fortifications, and return back to the ship, potentially without anyone discovering they were even here at all. Looking around the room, Agent 3 spotted a closed laptop on one of the metal crates, connected to a wire that led outside, possibly to a generator. Carefully, Agent 3 made their way to the laptop and opened it, being sure not to jostle it around and lose its original spot, and attempted to turn it on.
Well, "attempted" was the key word here. Despite holding the power button down for longer than needed, the laptop didn't even power on. Understandable for a computer, but a laptop should at least be able to hold its charge for quite a while. Unless the Octoling using this somehow forgot to not only turn off the laptop after they were done, but also fuel the generator.
Speaking of which, Agent 3 realized that the generator wasn't making any sort of sound. This wasn't normal, even for an army of Octolings, there was no way those guys would make such a simple mistake like this. Agent 3 closed the laptop and followed the charging cable outside, taking care to check their surroundings. No way they could let their guard down for a moment, even if there likely nobody around. Captain Cuttlefish made that mistake once and that got him captured a couple years back, with Agent 3, fresh in the years and new to the field, having to receive back-up by Agents 1 and 2. Quite a surprise for them when they realized just who exactly they were.
Reaching the generator outside, 3 noticed there was another crate next to it, albeit one of the cooling kind. If 3's suspicions were true, then it was likely that whatever was inside the crate was still fresh enough to use, and that they had managed to walk into the most cleverly crafted ambush of all time. If that was the case, 3 would definitely give them a round of applause for outsmarting them before throwing themself into a fight. The Agent unlocked the cooling case and cracked it open.
Only to close it quickly after being hit by the whiff of rotten eggs, and not just any kind of eggs, but Golden ones too. Something that Salmonids would never just hand over to anyone, Inkling, Octoling, or other. These were likely sold to the Octarians by Grizzco in what could be considered "Under the Table Dealings". But the fact that the eggs had managed to rot away could only mean one thing to Agent 3:
Nobody had been here for over a month, two at most.
Was it actually possible that the legends were true, and that the Octarians and those before who came here simply vanished? Agent 3 shuddered at the very thought. There was no way that could have been possible, where would they even go?
Agent 3 looked around one last time to be sure nobody was in hiding, being met with only the sounds of the forest, before heading off further in, hoping that they may find something worth their effort...
~~~
Nothing.
Quite literally nothing had shown up, and the Agent had already spent how long out here, a quick glance at their watch, three hours searching for any signs of Octarian- Shell, anyone by this point. If they managed to go the entire week without encountering even one Octarian Soldier, that would be quite the surprise to even the Captain himself. And if there were any on the island, and they had both managed to allude each other by some dumb luck, the other Agents would break down laughing. "For once," the Agent thought to themself. "I would give anything to encounter-
CLICK.
Agent 3 only realized what had just occurred too late to do anything about it, as the ground beneath them suddenly gave way into a tunnel, sliding the poor Agent away from the surface. Just a few second after they fell through, the trap door rose back up into position with a click, as though nothing had happened at all in the first place.
Agent 3 could only look on in terror as the slick metallic tunnel slide them further and further downwards into the earth. They couldn't stop their descent with their Splattershot since the ink wouldn't be able to stick to the walls, and attempting to slow it by outstretching their limbs would only hurt them at the speed they were currently going. All they really could do was hope for a potentially safe exi-
A hatch opened up in time to spit the agent out onto the white floor, where they found themself rolling and tumbling before coming to a hard stop against a wall. 3 groaned from the unneccessary pain they've just been put through. "Really need to stop jinxing myself." They thought as they climbed back onto their feet. "Now, where exactly am I?"
Much to 3's currently increasing dismay, yet another hatch opened up in the floor, allowing a strange spherical apparatus to hover out. The machine turned around towards the agent, meeting their eyes with its camera lens. 3 knew that they've basically been caught by this point, but the design of the thing was far different than that made by the Octarians. Octarians' machinery took on a more boxy shape with a mix-match of different metals, with only the Octobot Kings being the roundest of their mechanisms (Mainly to store the Great Zapfish). This machine had a sleek style with a dash of science-fiction, so unless the Octarians were testing out new designs to replace their industrial looks, this machine was likely not made by them. Either way, what the shell had they stumbled upon?
A part of the floating ball opened up, and beams of light made their way up, down, and sideways over the agent's body. Agent 3 mentally smacked themself upon realizing that in their daze, they've allowed an unidentified object to scan them, revealing to anyone who was watching the system the machine was connected to that a possible threat had entered the facility. That meant escape was going to be damn near improbable.
"Scan complete." The machine spoke in a robotic tone. "Unauthorized Person detected. Activating capture protocol." And with that, arms unfolded from the machine and began to move towards the agent.
"Son of a bitch!" 3 thought as they pulled out their splattershot, only for the mechanism to swing one of its arms out, knocking it roughly from their left hand before they could even take aim, causing them to scream out their previous thought over the sound of the weapon clattering. The agent fell backwards onto the wall as they held their hand, only to be forced to let go in order to grab something else that was coming their way, something that 3 was unfortunately still frightened of since their toddler years.
A syringe, filled with a milky substance, was slowly pushing its way towards their body, the only resistance being their grip around the attached arm pushing back as hard as they could. Agent 3 did not want to find out what was inside that vial, but with their injured hand and the force of the metal arm being stronger than theirs, it would only be a matter of seconds before the tip of the syringe pierced their skin. Oh what a joke of an end to Agent 3, having survived many encounters with Octarian Soldiers, destroyed many Great Octoweapons, and even taking down the Octarian Lord Octavio Octara himself, only to be defeated by a freaking robot sphere. Not even the sound of footsteps heading their way would be able to-
Hold up. Footsteps?
As soon as Agent 3 took notice to the noise, the robot was forcefully kicked away, causing them to undoubtably close their eyes in a flinching manner while also freeing them from what should have been their end. Once 3 opened them back up, they took notice to the sphere attempting to restabilize itself, which meant that 3 only had a few moments to spare before whomever's rescue attempt turned sour. 3 turned back to the direction of their splattershot, which was within leaping distance. Seeing no other options, the Agent made a grab for their weapon with their uninjured hand and aimed at the sphere.
"ERRoR, eRroR." The machine sputted out as the agent charged their shot. "SUBjects should NOT INTERfere with CapTURE PROTocol. Further interFERENCE shall BE met wITH-"
"Oh shut UP!" Agent 3 shouted as they fired the shot at the machine, puncturing its shell. The machine hovered still in the air for some seconds before finally losing its power, falling onto the ground with a metal thunk. Agent 3 let out a sigh of relief, glad that the robot wouldn't be attacking them or whomever came to their aid. Question was, who exactly did save their butt just now? The agent took a glance downwards towards their savior, only to go wide-eyed.
On the floor, still looking at the punctured remains of the machine, was a male Cephaling outfitted in a black jumpsuit, one of the sleeves not even passing their elbow. Around one of their wrists and ankles were tight yellow bands. Their black Ink Tank was a strange sort, too bulky for even an Elite Octolings to use. But neither of those things were what had 3 in their current state.
It was the fact that it was an Octoling that had just saved them. And right now, the Octoling, their enemy, had turned his attention to 3. Before either of them could say a single word, a loud sound of feedback blasted the air, causing the two to wince.
"Test Subject One-Zero-Zero-Zero-Eight, must I remind you that destruction of property will result in immediate termination." A voice spoke, potentially originating from an unseen intercom. "Oh, and whom might you be, Intruder?"