Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Captain 3 was never one for expressing herself, rather choosing to lock away everything behind a blank expression and the use of the words “I’m fine” hundreds of times over even when she wasn’t. It made things easier for her to just shove away her emotions and keep a focus to the task on hand, wether that be patrol, paperwork, or fighting.

However, when she was around 8, she found it so much harder to keep her emotions down.

She’d usually find herself getting nervous, unable to keep eye contact, and overall just being a mess around the agent. She tried shoving those feelings aside just like everything else but whenever she did and then found herself with 8 those same feelings came rising back up.

No matter what she just couldn’t help the way she acted around the octoling. And it wasn’t just the way she’d act during conversations, she’d find herself staring at the agent whenever she got the chance, looking at how her tentacles moved whenever she was in a conversation showing how much she was interested in it, the way she smiled seemed to be an infection constantly able to make anyone caught in it’s range smile as well.

Overall she was just so pretty to look at, 3 would end up pulling her gaze away and internally scolding herself for doing so but then would immediately go right back to doing it again leaving her in a endless loop until either the octoling left the room or someone else was with her.

3 was currently in one of those situations staring across the room from the little table she sat at watching the girl in a beautiful red dress that complemented her natural ink color with a skirt that stopped below her knees dancing with Marina who was in a white dress that covered her legs entirely. They both danced with big smiles on there faces to the music that played which encouraged the room to be more energetic with there movements.

3 herself had on a tuxedo with a green tie which matched her ink color. She had to buy the suit since every other piece of clothing she owned was hoodies and sweatpants which would definitely not fly at a wedding.

Three sighed to herself and rest her head in her hand watching the way 8s tentacles wiggled around showing how happy she was in the movement while Marinas did the same. The way she moved with the music and how giddy she looked made 3 raise her lips slightly in a smile.

“Yo 3, watcha doing?” The inkling heard and she tore her gaze away from the happy octopus to look at the origin of the voice her tiny smile dropping back down into a blank line.

“It’s Captain 3, and what do you want?” 3 said in a slightly annoyed tone once she realized who it was.

“Come on 3 don’t be like that, everyone’s having a good time and your over here in a corner.” 4 said, she had a yellow dress on just like her ink color and her usual short tentacles which where basically a smaller version of 3s own tentacles.

3 sighed and crossed her arms leaning back in her chair, “That’s because I don’t dance.” 3 stated giving the smaller agent a glare.

“Yeah well Neo doesn’t dance and you see her out there.” 4 said pointing to Neo who was wearing a black suit with a purple tie awkwardly shuffling while smallfry bounced around in front of him.

“At least I think she’s dancing.” 4 said as they both watched her.

“I don’t know what that is, but it’s not dancing.” 3 said shaking her head and looking back at 4, “Why don’t you go bother Marie, you two are dating so shouldn’t you be out there with her?”

“Nah she’s busy with Callie, the two of them are over there breaking it up on the floor.” She pointed to the two idols who where there own dance to the music that looked like they choreographed it. Callie had a big smile on her face while Marie had a smirk. Callie had a pink dress on that went down to her ankles and revealed her legs a bit while Marie was wearing a green suit.

“Cool, now go be someone else’s problem.” 3 said looking back toward her favorite octoling. 4 followed 3s gaze to the octoling and it was like a lightbulb went off as a smirk grew on her face.

“I bet you’d dance if 8 asked you to~” 4 said teasingly causing the inkling to immediately snap her head back at her and give a death stare.

“I said go be someone else’s problem.” She said sternly and 4 raised her hands backing away slowly,

“Alright, I’ll leave you be grumpy pants.” 3 sighed and rested her head on the table. As much as she disliked 4s behavior, she couldn’t bring herself to hate the squid. That doesn’t mean she didn’t get in her nerves a lot because she did, all the time.

Suddenly the music started to transition into a much more calm and romantic song and 3 looked up to the dj booth confused at the sudden song change only for her confusion to turn to boiling anger as she saw 4 whispering something to the dj before looking back at her and signaling to the octoling across the room.

3 aggressively shook her head no causing the inkling to mouth, ‘Just do it!’

3 stared daggers into the girl for a moment before reluctantly sighing and standing from her seat turning in the direction of 8 and making her way over passing Shiver and Frye who where walking over to one of the tables to take a break from dancing after the last song.

As she approached the octoling who was still with Marina now doing a small dance 3 tapped her shoulder and watched the octoling let go of Marina and turn smiling down at 3.

“Ah 3! Are you having a good time?” 3 nodded giving a small smile to the octoling already feeling her body turn hotter in her tuxedo as if someone had just turned the heat up in the room.

“Hello agent 3! It’s nice to see you up. I assume you came to take this dancing machine off my hands!” Marina said pinching one of 8s cheeks to which the octoling giggled tried to swat her hand away.

“You’d be right, congratulations on the marriage by the way.” Marinas smile grew bigger and she bowed,

“Thank you! I better go find Pearl before she gets herself into trouble.” She started walking away giving one last wave, “Have fun you two!” She yelled.

8 and 3 turned to look at each other again the latter sweating nervously as she held her hand out, “Do you…wanna dance?” She asked, 8 grabbed her hand gently causing ink to rush to 3s face while her other hand went to her shoulder.

“I’d love to!” 3 swallowed the lump in her throat and put her free hand on 8s waist,

“C-cool,” the two started to sway to the music, 8 with a happy smile on her face and 3 with her own much more nervous yet happy smile.

The inkling was internally freaking out about how they where basically holding hands, “You look nice, that suit fits you well.” 8 complimented and 3 felt her heart rate speed up, at this rate she was practically gonna explode.

“You too, you look pretty…nice! Pretty nice!” 3 quickly corrected getting a laugh and a thank you from the octoling.

“It’s been a while since we all got together, I’m glad we can have this.” 8 said looking out to the room which encouraged 3 to do the same.

3 had to admit, it was nice having there disfunctional family all together. Marie and 4 dancing, Callie talking with Deep cut at a table, Neo and Smallfry sat down at a separate table with the retired captain cuttlefish who had on a little bowtie, Marina and Pearl also slow dancing in the middle of the room with big smiles, not to mention some of the wedding staff who weren’t busy where also there as well enjoying the event as much as everyone else, it felt peaceful.

3s smile only grew as she looked around the room, “Yeah…I am to.”

Another minute of dancing passed and 3s nerves began to calm down as the music echoed throughout the room the lighting dark enough to enhance the calm atmosphere.

“3, do you see that?” 3 perked up at the octolings words and she followed 8s gaze to a strange looking octoling that had entered the room, it was wearing a trench coat and had a mask on concealing most of its body. However what bits of skin that you could see looked a strange nauseating green.

“Yeah I do…let’s check it out.” 3 let go of 8 and the two started to walk over to the octoling,

“Excuse me! Do we know you?” 8 yelled as they got closer but the octopus didn’t even move.

“Hey she asked you a question!” 3 said her tone more hostile.

Once they got close enough 3 grabbed the octolings arm, “Who are y-“ she was cut off when the octoling punched her square in the face causing her to stumble back into 8 who caught her with a shocked look on her face.

“3!”

“Ah! You bitch!” 3 yelled grabbing her nose which had green ink running from it now, the octoling quickly threw off its trench coat and mask revealing an ink tank and octarian armor, but the worst part was that it’s skin was green which reminded 3 to much of Kamabo.

“What the fucks going on over there!” Pearl yelled across the room, everyone was starting to realize what was happening and there attention turned to the doors.

3 got her footing back and wiped her nose, “We have an uninvited guest!” 3 yelled back as her hands balled into fists, she went to swing at the octoling but it raised an octoshot to the girl and her eyes widened. She quickly grabbed 8 by the arm and yanked her away to a nearby table hiding them behind it as shots of a sickly green ink began to fire from the gun.

“Hey punk!” 4 yelled running up to the octoling and punching it in the face causing it to drop its weapon as it reeled its head back. 4 stood fists raised ready to throw another punch. “Come on! You wanna dance, let’s dance.” The octoling pulled its head back down with an emotionless expression and caught the next of 4s fists before punching her so hard she went flying a few feet into a nearby table causing it to break.

“4!” Marie yelled running over to her girlfriends aid while Callie and Deep cut stood up,

“You picked the wrong group to fight!” Frye yelled out her hands balling into fists.

3 watched all this happen before turning her gaze back to the octoling she was with seeing her expression had changed from its usual happy demeanor to wide eyed horror. “8, are you okay?” 3 asked grabbing 8s hand,

“I-it’s…it’s a sanitized octoling.” She said staring at it.

3s eyes widened in realization and shock, she thought all the sanitized octolings where gone, considering they where all in what remained of Kamabo after her and 8 escaped.

Suddenly the sanitized octoling yelled something in octarian and the doors flew open with more sanitized octolings walking in holding different weapons.

“Oh shit, everyone get down!”

Chapter Text

“Come on you green creeps! Fight us without those dumb weapons!” Pearl yelled from her hiding spot behind a table that was turned over to be used as cover for her and Marina.

“Pearlie, I don’t think there gonna listen to you!” Marina yelled actively having to hold the squid back so she wouldn’t try to jump out at the sanitized octolings.

A few feet away 3 and 8 sat behind another table with 3 holding onto 8, the octoling in question was trembling, letting out slight whimpers, it pained 3 to see her like this, so scared and vulnerable. She wished she could make this all stop just so 8 wouldn’t have to suffer through this, cod knows that this whole thing must have reminded her of Kamabo and her traumatic experiences with that.

Sanitized ink flew everywhere covering the ground beside the agents, “Marie!” 3 yelled looking up to where she was hiding behind a table with 4 who had recovered from the punch she took now and was shouting a lot of obscenity's at them now.

Marie herself looked over at 3, “Do you have your weapons?” 3 yelled and her hearts sank when Marie shook her head no.

“I’m trying to contact Sheldon so he can bring us our weapons!” 3 nodded in understanding and peaked over the table to see the octolings where getting closer now as they continued there endless volley of ink. 3 felt stupid for not bringing her hero shot and scolded herself for being unprepared.

She scanned the area for someway to distract the octolings and that’s when she spotted Neo quite a bit away and an idea popped to mind, “Neo! Use smallfry!” She yelled and the inkling looked at 3 before looking down at her companion and grabbing him.

3 positioned herself so she was lying back with her legs reeled back ready to kick with her full force and 8 looked at her confused, “I’m gonna make a push, once I kick this table I need you to get to safety.”

8 looked at her with unsure eyes her whole body trembling and 3 narrowed hers with determination, “Trust me.” She said and watched 8 take a breath in an attempt to calm herself.

“Ok…be careful”

Just then, smallfry went flying in the air directly at the octoling that had started the whole ambush, landing directly on her face and starting to scratch and bite as the octoling screamed out, dropping her weapon and causing the other octolings to stop for a moment in confusion.

That one moment was all 3 needed as her legs went flying into the table kicking with all her force and watching as it went flying into the octoling that was being attacked by smallfry slamming directly into her and splatting her on impact.

3 and 8 quickly got to there feet with the octoling running for cover with Callie who was nearby at the dj booth with Craig. 3 ran as fast as she could toward the octolings grabbing the weapon the one dropped and throwing it full force into the face of one of the octolings that had dulies causing her to drop them and stumble back.

The other octolings had recovered from there shock and where now aiming there weapons at 3 as she slid toward smallfry picking the little guy up and hurling him at an octoling wielding a blaster who began screaming just like the last one before inevitably splatting. Just as the other two octolings where about to open fire, Neo came bolting in wielding a metal folding chair and slammed it hard against a foe wielding a charger causing them to fall to the floor. 3 who was still on the floor did a sweeping kick knocking down the last octoling of the group that was wielding a splatting and quickly got on top punching her unconscious.

3 stood and looked around scoping the area for more threats, those threats ended up being more octolings entering through the back doors. “Ugh! Where the hell is security!” She yelled in annoyance.

Neo now stood by the captain, metal chair in hand that now had a dent in it with smallfry at her feet growling. With the entrance to the room clear of foes all the staff began to run out of the room past the two inklings, meanwhile Callie, 4, Pearl, Shiver, and Frye ran to the two inklings grabbing chairs and other blunt objects to use as weapons while Marie continued to try and talk to Sheldon with her current words being, “No I don’t care about weapon specs just get them here now!”

Big man had went to go hide in the dj booth with 8 and Craig, the music from it was now playing Anarchy Rainbow instead of the stock music it was playing before. 3 looked over confused only to spot Marina messing with the equipment who gave a quick glance and thumbs up.

“These hand sanitizer freaks crashed the wrong wedding!” Pearl yelled a table leg in hand ready to swing as the octolings pushed forward.

“Let’s show them what the NSS can do!”

3 yelled before charging toward the octolings with everyone following suit, 4, Pearl, and Frye letting out battlecrys as they rushed forward to the enemies. Just as the octolings stopped ready to fire, 4 threw a vase at the one with a hydra splatting causing it to stumble and mess up its aim, Pearl took this chance to swing the table leg and knocked the octopus to the ground finishing it off with one last swing at its head.

Neo swung her chair at the octoling with a splatana wiper which swung back and there weapons clashed as they stared each other down with fangs bared before smallfry jumped up at the octoling and made it lose its footing giving Neo a chance to swing and splat the octopus. Frye did a drop kick straight into the enemy holding a squiffer knocking it down to which Shiver gave one smooth stomp. Callie jumped onto the octarian with a tenta brella and gave a wink before punching it multiple times before it went down.

3 quickly dodged a shot that was fired from the octoling with a sloshing machine before kicking it out of her hands, punching as hard as she could knocking it to the floor to which Neo made quick work with her chair.

Suddenly a suction bomb landed inbetween the group, “Look out!” Frye yelled as everyone quickly dove out of the blast radius but in turn got separated as more sanitized octolings swarmed the area.

3 quickly took cover behind a table as sanitized ink flew everywhere, “Marie! Whats the status with Sheldon!” Marie peaked up from her cover,

“He sent his drones out with our gear!” She yelled.

3 nodded and peaked out from behind the table seeing how Shiver and Frye where working together to fight off a couple sanitized octarians while Pearl swung wildly at anyone who got to close. 4 looked like she was having the time of her life as she grabbed vases and glass cups chucking them and Callie was stuck behind cover by an octarian with a mini splattling. Neo was working with smallfry to take out the octolings that got anywhere near the dj booth and 3 took a mental note to thank her later for protecting the rest of the group up there.

Suddenly the table she was behind got thrown to the side by an octoling with a octobrush. It attempted a swing but was stopped when 3 grabbed it and used all her strength to lift the octopus in the air before slamming it back into the ground behind her and wrenching the brush from its grasp using its handle to quickly splat the enemy.

That’s when a scream sounded out, not just any scream…8’s

3 turned seeing that 8 was grabbed out of the dj booth and being dragged away by an octoling using a brella as cover as it made its way to the doors.

3 felt her breath quicken and she started bolting toward the octolings yelling as she did, just then one of Sheldon’s drones flew in through a window holding a weapon case, 3 grabbed it from the drone and ripped her hero shot and ink tank from it slipping it on and finally getting a chance to spray her own ink at the shield.

Eventually the shield broke and the octoling in a panic shot a spray of sanitized ink at 3, it burned as it hit her skin and brought back terrible memories which she tried to ignore as she grabbed the brella hurling it away and punching the octoling to the ground to which she got on top and started a barrage of punches at full force listening as the octoling cried out in pain.

3 didn’t care and it instead only fueled her as she kept going until finally splatted. Out of breath and gasping for air, 3 looked over at 8 who was staring at 3 wide eyed, suddenly 3 regretted her actions and her face softened.

Then out of nowhere another octoling came running at 3 from behind with a roller in hand ready to swing, 3 turned ready to fight back but realized she dropped her hero shot in her outburst and panicked looking around for it when suddenly 8 reached her arm out toward the octoling splatting it quickly with the weapon 3 was looking for.

3 looked back at 8, “Thanks.”

8 nodded and a small smile appeared,

“Of course.”

Finally the music died down as the rest of the NSS grabbed there gear with Marie and Marina joining the fight with there brella and charger respectively and finally finished off the last wave of sanitized octolings.

Marina let out a sigh and looked around, “Is everyone okay!” She yelled out getting a few tired responses. Soon everybody had gathered back at the middle of the now ink and debris covered room.

“What was that all about?!” Callie asked looking around with her roller slung over her shoulder. “Did they know about the NSS?”

Pearl interjected with, “Not only that, but they where those same freaky octo dudes from the metro!”

Neo looked confused and tilted her head, “What metro?” Pearl just told her she’d explain later.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I do know our wedding is ruined!” Marina said a frown on her face,

“I don’t know what your talking about, that was freaking awesome!” 4 said pumping her fists and hero shot in the air.

“Yeah that was so crazy! Like a ranked battle but more intense!” Frye said doing the same thing as 4.

“Glad to know you two enjoyed our near death experience.” Marie said sarcastically.

Suddenly a groan got the group’s attention and they aimed there weapons at the source which was the octoling with the charger 3 knocked out earlier. It slowly came to and froze in place in the ground as it saw the NSS surround it with Marie’s charger laser aimed directly at its head and 3’s hero shot aimed at it as well.

“How do you know us? Why are you here?” 3 demanded, the octoling said something in octarian and 3 sighed, “Anyone catch that?”

Marina shook her head,

“You don’t wanna know what she said.”

A muffled noise came from the octolings pocket and 3 grabbed what was in there which was revealed to be a radio.

“Hello? What’s happening? Respond!” A rough voice said through the static.

“Who is this?” 3 asked into the radio,

“You don’t need to know that, I was hoping my forces would take care of you but it seems even with the data I collected it still wasn’t enough.” The radio responded.

3 raised an eyebrow in suspicion,

“What data? Tell me now!” 3’s patience was beginning to run out,

“Doesn’t matter, just know that even though my boss is gone, I will still continue for his image of a beautiful mammal world, and you’re pathetic group will be eradicated before you can stop me.” The voice paused, “You better watch your backs…I’ll return.” The radio then clicked signaling the other end had disconnected.

“Wait, did he mention mammals? Is Mr Grizz still out there?” Callie asked but 3 didn’t respond. Her mind still settling on those last words.

“You better watch your backs…I’ll return.”

Chapter Text

3 was sure the wedding was over.

The entire thing had gone so smoothly until the sanitized octolings showed up, everyone was laughing and dancing and eating to there hearts content. And suddenly a bunch of crazed octos show up and wreck the place. Sure the agents may have been responsible for ‘some’ of the damage but how could they prevent it when being shot at!

Besides, the wedding was not 3’s biggest concern at the moment. Her head was spinning with the cryptic knowledge she had managed to gather from everything that happened.

‘Sanitized octolings, how are they on the surface?’

‘Who was that on the radio?’

‘Was there work in Alterna not done yet?’

3 sighed as she sat on one of the metal chairs in the room that was covered with broken glass, wood chunks, and ink with her head in her hands. She was confused, so much had happened today and she couldn’t even take a second to process it all. After the attempt to get info from the radio failed 3 had given it to Marina in hopes that she could trace some kind of signal.

Meanwhile everybody else was ordered to take a minute to relax and calm down, although it was kind of hard for anyone to relax after what had happened.

3 wasn’t concerned about the rest of her agents, they seemed to be fine after the whole battle, just banged up and there fancy clothes torn and covered in ink. But when she laid her eyes on 8, who was standing in front of a puddle of sanitized ink staring at it emotionlessly, she couldn’t help but worry about what the octoling must’ve been thinking in the moment, especially considering her past.

———

8 stares at the pool of ink that sat on the floor before her, she wanted to look away but she just couldn’t. She thought she was done with Kamabo, thought she could finally live happy and carefree on the surface with her loved ones.

How naive she’d been.

Staring at the sickly green ink only made those memories flood her senses more and more, failing a test and being blown up, being shot by octarians over and over, it was scary.

Not only was she scared, she was upset, upset with herself.

She froze up when her friends needed her, she hid when her friends needed her! Not only that, she didn’t even fight back.

When that octoling managed to sneak up to the dj booth and grab her, 8 couldn’t seem to move no matter how much she tried. It was as if someone had tied her limbs down with weights leaving her defenseless.

Every time she looked at those octolings the memories of Kamabo hit her, and she found herself needing to coil up into herself to escape it all, the only time she fought back was to protect 3. It felt good to finally fight back after being so useless the whole time, but 8 wished she still did more.

Tearing her gaze away from the sanitized ink she tried to think of anything else except Kamabo and she looked around the room before her eyes settled on 3 who was looking back at them face expressing concern. However once she made eye contact the squid quickly looked away, 8 never understood why 3 did that, one minute she was looking at her and the next she’s pretending to be looking at a blank wall or a random cup or a cloud.

It wasn’t just strange that she’d do that but also the fact she only did it to her. 8 asked Callie and Marie about it since they knew her the most out of anyone else but they never gave her an actual answer instead opting to giggle like little kids and tell her it was nothing at all.

Did 3 think she wouldn’t like her staring? Did she think she’d find it weird?

8 didn’t think it was weird, in fact it was more weird she would abruptly look away than continue to stare. And besides, she liked when 3 looked at her, it made her feel all warm and tingly when she did.

After a minute of looking at the girl in her torn and ink covered tux she decided to go talk to her, maybe ask why she would look away, or just ask how she was feeling.

She walked over and sat beside 3, tapping her shoulder to get her attention. “Hi 3.” 8 said giving her a warm smile,

“Hey 8.” 3 said back giving a small smile, “You ok? I saw you looking at that ink over there and I thought…” Both girls fell silent and 8 looked down to the floor absentmindedly kicking a shard of glass away.

“I am fine, just…remembering things.” 3 sighed,

“This whole thing was a disaster.”

8 looked back at 3, a tired expression on the inklings face, “I thought it was fun, until the fight happened,” 8 stopped for a moment, “I’m sorry I didn’t help. I shouldn’t have hid.” 3 shook her head,

“Don’t be, you where scared, I wouldn’t have expected you to fight after everything you’ve been through.”

8 furrowed her brows a bit, “But you where in Kamabo too. And you weren’t scared fighting those things, why should I have been?”

3 sat up a bit and put a hand on 8’s shoulder making the octolings hair squirm a bit, “You dealt with the worst of it 8, I was just exploring. I wasn’t fighting for my life in tests. You had every right to be scared.”

As if 3 hadn’t realized what she did, she quickly took her arm off 8’s shoulder and looked back to in front of her. “It wasn’t your fault.”

8 felt unsure about what 3 said, sure she dealt with a lot but that doesn’t mean she should just let everyone else do the hard work, but she didn’t feel like arguing so she left it there.

Looking at the inklings face she realized there was a bit of sanitized ink on the girls cheek, “3, can you look at me?” 3 turned her head back to her and looked caught off guard when 8 suddenly brought her hand to her face and rubbed the ink off her cheek. “There, that’s better.” 8 smiled again and watched as 3’s cheeks weirdly turned her own ink color.

Suddenly the girl stood up, “I-I’m gonna go use the bathroom.” Then she promptly walked off. 8 watched as she walked past Marie who tried to talk to her but got annoyed when she ignored her, leaving the room.

“What was that all about?” 8 heard someone behind her say and she turned to see Pearl standing behind her.

“I don’t know, I removed some ink from her cheek and she said she needed use the bathroom.” Pearl hummed in acknowledgment and sat where 3 was,

“She’s totally got a thing for you.” Pearl said nudging 8 with her elbow.

“Really? What makes you think that?” 8 asked feeling her tentacles start to squirm much more.

“It’s just the way she acts around you. She’s definitely a lot nicer to you than anybody else.” 8 raised an eyebrow, “And it looks like you’ve got a thing for her too.” 8 felt her cheeks turn pink at this, she’d certainly had a fondness of 3 but something like Pearl was hinting toward was not what 8 had ever considered.

“How can you tell?” 8 asked nervously,

“Your tentacles start moving whenever your feeling strong emotions, I learned that from Marina. And whenever your talking with 3 they start moving.” 8 looked up at her tentacles and they where in fact moving.

“Don’t worry, your secrets safe with me…and Rina.” 8’s eyes widened,

“Marina knows too?” Pearl nodded, “Well she knows 3 likes you, but she doesn’t know you like 3.” Pearl paused for a moment before a smirk appeared, “At least not yet~”

8 abruptly stood her face blazing pink, “I’m also going to use the bathroom!” And she quickly speed walked away hearing Pearl start to laugh. Marie started to approach her asking something about 3 but 8 didn’t catch it as she walked by hearing Marie groan in annoyance as she left the room.

———

3 sat in her chair glaring at the papers in front of her on the desk, she’d been meaning to get read through them considering they where all potential pieces of evidence on the whole Mammal problem but so far she hadn’t really managed to comb through much without her mind drifting back to the same problem.

8

She needed some kind of distraction, anything to get her mind off the girl. And sitting in silence reading documents sure wasn’t helping.

“You keep glaring at that paper like it stole your food.” Marie said behind her but 3 didn’t turn to look.

“I’m thinking.” Is all she said.

“Thinking about murdering that paper?” Callie added,

“Enough about the paper! What do you guys want?” 3 asked in an annoyed tone, she was tired after how long today had been and wasn’t in the mood for what the two girls where plotting.

“I Wanted to tell you that we’re keeping that octoling from the wedding in Alterna, I asked you if that was alright but you just ignored me.”

3 sighed, “Yeah it’s fine, any leads?”

“No sadly, I tried to find out who was in charge of Grizzco now that Mr.Grizz is gone but no one really knows.” Callie said moving to sit on the desk causing 3 to look up at her annoyed. “Maybe you should just take a break, todays been long for all of us. You deserve a break.”

3 furrowed her brows and grabbed one of the papers from the stack, “I’m fine.” She said prompting an eye roll from Marie who now stood beside her.

“You always say that, just get some sleep. You won’t be able to do anything when your minutes from passing out tomorrow.” Marie said.

3 grumbled, she was right, but she was never gonna openly admit it to her. “That means you put this down.” Callie said grabbing the paper from 3 and sitting it on the stack.

“Now go to bed.” Marie said crossing her arms, 3 thought about arguing with her but she was so tired she didn’t even bother.

Standing up, she walked over to her room, “Whatever mom.” She said walking into her room.

As she shut the door and flopped onto her bed in the messy room she thought about what she could do tomorrow, try to get some work done, chase down any leads on Grizzco, talk to 8…

And now she was thinking about her again, cod this girl had infected her mind.

Burying her face in her pillow, 3 yelled into it. She didn’t have a reason, she just needed some way to let out some of the emotion she had bottled up. Afterwards, she closed her eyes and felt her body begin to relax into the bed, her mind focused on one thing.

8

———

“Are you sure this is ok?” 8 asked looking down to the road bellow that was filled with people walking and chatting with each other.

“Relax! It’s not trespassing if you don’t get caught.” Pearl said helping Marina up the ladder before shutting the hatch that led from the building to the roof.

8 had been thinking about 3 and what to do about her feelings for her all night and so the next morning when she asked Pearl and Marina for help about what to do she definitely didn’t expect this.

“Why couldn’t we just do this at our place Pearlie?” Marina asked looking over the edge of the roof.

“Because 8 needs to practice somewhere she isn’t familiar with. She’s not gonna go on a date with 3 at our apartment!” 8’s cheeks turned bright pink,

“I never said I wanted to go on a date with her!” She yelled stamping her foot into the ground.

“Relax 8, we’ll get to that later. Right now we need to talk about how you’re gonna get into a relationship with 3.” Pearl said.

Marina sighed, “I’m not sure I’d follow your advice.”

Pearl looked at her smiling smugly, “I got you didn’t I?”

Marina laughed, “Alright, fair point.”

Pearl cleared her throat and turned to 8, to be honest she was kind of excited to learn about this. Maybe if she did she could talk to 3 and maybe they’d be able to go on dates like Pearl and Marina do. And maybe they’d be able to ki-

“Alright kid! If your gonna swoon 3 you need to learn the basics. Never change yourself to try and look cooler for her!”

8 nodded in understanding,

“Got it!”

“Don’t try to force yourself onto her, take it slow, things like this take time.” Marina added.

“But at the same time drop hints, maybe a little flirty comment here or there.” Pearl turned to Marina, “Like this, hey Rina, you look nice today!” Marina smiled,

“Why thank you Pearl, I like your clothes.” Pearl turned back to 8 who was focusing on every word.

“You got that kid?” Pearl asked and 8 nodded,

“It’s a little confusing but I think I understand.” Pearl nodded and stepped back,

“Alright, give it a try then!” Pearl said excitedly.

8’s eyes widened, “O-ok!” 8 took a deep breath, “You look nice today Pearl!” 8 yelled.

Marina and Pearl laughed a little, “That’s good but maybe don’t shout it.” Marina said correcting the other octoling, “Don’t wanna scare her off.”

8 nodded and calmed herself, “You look nice today Pearl.” She said much calmer now.

“Good! Now that you know that it’s time for-“ a ringtone cut the squid off and 8 reached into her pocket pulling out her phone. The contact name was 3 and 8 felt the ink rush to her cheeks as she quickly answered,

“H-hello!”

“Hey 8, we got a meeting at Alterna today, need you and your parents down here.” 3 said.

“There not my parents!” 8 yelled causing 3 to laugh,

“I’m kidding, but seriously, get down here.”

8 smiled,

“Alright 3, See you there!” She said enthusiastically.<

“See you.” 3 said before the line went dead.

“What was that about?” Pearl asked.

“It was 3, we're needed at Alterna.” 8 said putting her phone back in her pocket.

Marina smiled, “Well I guess we’ll have to continue this lesson some other time.”

Pearl walked over to the hatch opening it and gesturing for Marina to go first, “After you~” she said causing Marina to giggle as she went down the ladder,

“Oh stop it you!”

8 took one last look at the road from above and sighed, she was excited to see 3 again.

Chapter Text

8 hopped out of the kettle into Alterna, her feet planting in the fake snow. She’s been here before, in fact it was where she finally got to see 3 after months of them not seeing each other when the inkling moved to Splatsville.

She spotted 3 sat on a crate holding something with Marie standing beside her and a giant snow globe with a blanket over it for some reason. the two looked at the octoling with Marie giving a smile and 3 a little wave. 8 felt her hearts speed up a bit at the sight of 3 and her hair started to curl a little, she took a breath before making her way toward the girls hearing Marina and Pearl pop out of the kettle behind her.

“Hello! Where is Callie?” 8 asked as she approached, Marie rested her parasol on her shoulder before answering.

“She’s busy looking through any documents we managed to grab on Grizzco.” 8 tilted her head in confusion and 3 seamed to catch on,

“We think whoever ordered the attack at Pearl and Marinas wedding might be connected to Grizzco, in fact that’s why you’re here.” 3 said standing up and tossing whatever was in her hand behind 8 to Marina who had finally arrived with Pearl and caught it, examining it closely.

“A usb stick, what’s this for?” Marina asked, 3 gave a mischievous smirk which made 8 a little uneasy about what she might have planned and reached behind the crate grabbing a roll of paper and unfurling it revealing a map of Grizzco.

“Taking any info we might find on Mr.Grizz’s personal computer.” 3 said causing Marina and 8’s eyes to widen in shock.

“Wait, are we breaking into Grizzco?” 8 asked in a concerned tone. She knew 3 wasn’t exactly one for following the rules but this seemed like a whole new level.

“Yes we are, and we’re getting Deep Cuts help as well.” Marie said a smirk on her face as well.

“Oooh shit! This is gonna be awesome, us sneaking in right under there noses and taking what we want!” Pearl yelled in excitement jumping up and down.

“Yeah but there’s absolutely no way your going in there with us.“ 3 said crossing her arms causing the excited inkling to stop jumping and a frown to stretch across her face.

“Why the hell not? Your gonna let ‘Rina in there but not me!” Pearl yelled clearly getting frustrated.

“Need I remind you that your so loud you literally destroyed a giant statue.” 3 said, 8 chuckled at that while Pearl glared at 3.

“Sorry Pearlie but she does have a point. You’ll have to skip out on this one.” Marina said putting a hand on Pearls shoulder and giving her a sympathetic look to which the inkling finally gave up shoulders slouching as she sighed.

“Fine, but you better kick ass in there.” Pearl said causing Marina to laugh and ensure that she would ‘kick ass in there’.

8 looked back over at 3 who was now rolling the map back up, she thought about what Pearl said this morning.

“But at the same time drop hints, maybe a little flirty comment here or there.”

Now might as well be a good time as any to try that out.

“Hey 3…”

3 looked over at her raising an eyebrow in silent questioning.

“You look nice today.”

It seemed like 3 wasn’t expecting that because suddenly her face started to match her ink color and she dropped the map, “O-oh! Uh thanks, you don’t look bad yourself…” 3 said mumbling the last bit as she bent down to pick up the map.

8 got confused, why did she react that way? Did she say the wrong thing? Was it not the right moment? Cod she had a lot to learn about the whole flirting thing.

8 saw out of the corner of her eye that Marie was now wearing a much more smug smirk as she watched 3 fumble to pick up the map.

“W-We should get to work discussing the plan.” 3 said standing back up,

“Sounds good!” 8 said giving the inkling a smile.

———

3 climbed up the side of the roof and sat down taking second to breath, she just managed to climb to the top of the Grizzco building and was now waiting for everyone else. It was pretty tough to scale the building while also remaining undetected, but she did it.

Frye was the next to reach the top and she stood triumphant with her arms at her hips, “That was easy! How you doing boss’s boss?”

3 looked over at her and shrugged, “Little tired, but I’ll be fine.” Frye nodded and turned around reaching down to help shiver up. 3 had no idea how Frye managed to have so much energy, she was like Pearl except slightly less annoying…slightly.

“Alright, according to the map there should be a hatch up here leading inside.” Shiver said as she started to look around. At the same time 8 managed to climb up and flop onto the ground panting like a dog. 3 laughed and nudged the girl with her foot.

“You doing alright 8?” 8 groaned, “So…tired…” 3 laughed even more at how dramatic the girl sounded, it was weirdly adorable. “Well you better get ready because this is just the start.” 3 said and 8 groaned even louder.

Marina was the last to make it up and she wiped some sweat from her brow as she looked back down to the ground below, she reached up to her headphones and pressed a button, “Pearl, are you and Big Man in position?” She asked.

3 heard some muffled talking through the headphones and Marina laughed giving a quick ‘I love you’ before bringing her hand back down. “Alright, they’re in position, we should know if anyone shows up.” 3 nodded and stood helping 8 up as well.

“Found the hatch!” Frye yelled waving her hands, the trio walked over. Shiver opened the hatch and peaked her head in taking a quick look around.

“We’re all clear, but stay quiet, you never know who could be around.” Shiver whispered before hopping in. Frye quickly followed along with Marina leaving just 8 and 3 outside.

“3, before we go…can I ask a question?” 8 said grabbing 3’s arm to stop her from jumping in. 3 was curious about what the octoling had to ask and turned to face her.

“Could we…hangout, some time? We haven’t had a hangout ever since you moved away and I was thinking we could have one, like old times!” 3 felt her hearts speed up and she nodded, she’d missed hanging out with 8 so this would be a great chance to spend time with her.

“Uh-yeah sure, I’d love to-like to!” 3 said quickly correcting herself and cursing internally when 8 laughed.

“Great! Now let’s go steal some stuff!” 8 said excitedly jumping down the hatch with 3 following after.

Once they where inside, the two looked around seeing boxes of hats lying around everywhere and weapons hanging on racks against the walls. The room was dimly lit which combined with the dirty concrete floor made and eerie atmosphere.

Frye was digging around in one of the boxes of hats and pulled out a firefighter hat placing it on her head and tapping Shivers shoulder getting the octolings attention, “Look shiver, I’m a fireman!” Shiver laughed at that.

“Please stay focused, we don’t wanna get caught in here.” Marina said as she looked around the dim and dirty room. Frye grumbled and took the hat off tossing it back in the box.

“You stay focused.” Frye said crossing her arms and walking away to search the room.

The room itself looked to be a stock room, with all the hats and guns lying around haphazardly it looked to be that way, there where also a few suits hung up on racks in a corner.

3 walked around occasionally picking up a gun off the racks and examining it before setting it back down. “Anyone find the door to the office?” She asked, She got a few no’s and some silence before 8 announced, she found it from behind a few boxes of hats stacked up to block it from view.

“I found it! Ngh-it’s locked.” She said disappointed.

Marina walked up and patted 8 on the back, “Good job 8, your awareness skills are still as impressive as ever.” The taller octoling said causing 8 to smile and hug her.

3 watched from where she stood, holding a splattershot in her hands. She smiled and looked down at the weapon in her hands, it was adorable how much Marina acted like a mom toward 8. To be honest she was kind of jealous, her mom never really treated her like that, hell most of the time she’d just call her a disappointment. She couldn’t even recall a moment where her mom was genuinely proud of her, it pissed her off to think-

“Captain 3, are you ok?” Shiver asked tapping 3 on the shoulder and snapping the inkling out of her thoughts. She realized her grip on the gun in her hands was much tighter now, to the point she was denting it.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine…” 3 said putting the weapon back on the rack, she shoved her thoughts aside, no reason to go thinking about the past, especially now.

Shiver nodded concern still on her face but she backed off anyways turning to go join the others at the door to the office. “Here, I’ll get this unlocked.”

3 walked over and joined the others as well watching Shiver get on her knees and pull out a bobby pin, she put it in the lock on the doorknob and began to twist it around hearing a click every now and then.

“Shivers a pro at this stuff, she could probably do it blindfolded if she wanted to.” Frye said nudging 8 with her elbow, finally one last click sounded out and Shiver turned the doorknob opening it and standing back up.

“Impressive! Not even Pearl can lock pick that fast.” Marina said walking into the office with 3 and 8 following behind.

Once they where in the door was shut and they looked around the room, there was a desk with some unimportant paperwork on it along with a computer. There was a chair and a stepstool for some strange reason even though the last time 3 saw Mr.Grizz she was sure the guy was tall enough to not need one of those, and there where a few cabinets.

Other than that nothing of importance was in the room aside a few golden eggs but that was about it. It was kind of underwhelming to 3, she hoped there would be something in here that would hint toward who the mysterious man on the radio was but unfortunately there was nothing to help solve that.

Marina began to work on the computer trying to access it, meanwhile 3 took the time to sit down in the chair and looked over at Deep cut who where going through the cabinets and digging out any papers they could fine with Frye just carelessly throwing them on the floor.

3 furrowed her brows at that and thought about saying something when suddenly she got a tap on the shoulder and spun the chair around to see 8, her hearts sped up a bit seeing her.

“I am curious 3, what do you think this mysterious enemy is planning? Could he be using golden eggs like Mr.Grizz did to make the fuzzy ooze? And if so, should we shut down Grizzco?” The octoling asked.

To be honest…3 hadn’t thought of that, if this foe is using golden eggs to help spread the fuzzy ooze just like Mr. Grizz did, then they needed to convince people to shut Grizzco down, or at least stop going there. But there was no way they could convince people not to go there anymore, they thought it was fun, and if it’s fun then why would they stop?

3 took a slow breath pondering the question, “I…don't know, that’s a good point 8. Maybe what Marina finds on that computer could help figure that out. Speaking of which…” 3 turned the chair to look at Marina who was still typing away, “Any luck Marina?”

The idol stopped for a moment and looked over, “Almost, I think I’ve got it. I’ve mostly just been guessing passwords.” 3 raised an eyebrow at this, she was hoping the girl would have some secret tech wizardry she would pull to get into the computer but nope.

Suddenly Marina spoke again, “Aha! It was Mammals, kind of obvious when you think about it.”

3 stood and walked over to the computer with 8 following, the two of them looked over Marina to the computer. The desktop had the Grizzco logo on it and a orange background. There was a spreadsheet of different shifts people ran, along with that was a note for “Plan A, Grizzco” There was also another spreadsheet which read “expeditions”.

“Not a lot here…” 3 said, she was disappointed there wasn’t much to see. To be honest she was kind of hoping there would just be some big long written text of who there enemy is and his plan and all that other jazz.

But it’s never that easy.

“I’ll plug the usb in anyway, whatever info, no matter how small is still important.” Marina said pulling the usb stick from her pocket and plugging it into the computer and a few seconds later she began transferring whatever data there was to the stick.

3 decided to take the time to inform Pearl if there success and she reached for her headset about to press the button that would let her talk into it when suddenly,

“A SANITIZED OCTOLING JUMPED ON THE ROOF! THEY KNOW YOUR IN THERE!” Pearl screamed causing 3 to nearly rip her headset off from how loud it was. It was so loud everyone else could hear it as well and they turned to look at 3 in confusion.

“Good cod Pearl tone it down! I think you almost made me go fucking deaf-“ 3 started to say but was cut off by Pearl again.

“You don’t have time to bitch at me! Hide!” Through Pearls loud voice she could also hear Big man freaking out.

3 quickly walked over to the door and cracked it open just a tiny to bit to look outside and she saw the hatch opening which caused panic to rise in her as she shut the door again and locked it turning to Marina and 8 who where both giving equally concerned looks.

“What’s the progress on that thing?” 3 asked pointing to the computer, she’d hoped since there was so little on it that it wouldn’t take long.

“A few minutes, we probably don’t have that long though.” Marina said, 8 was pacing back and forth clearly panicked with her tentacles wiggling nervously.

“Is there any way you can speed it up?” Frye asked standing up.

If there was any way for her to speed it up she would’ve done it already!” 3 whisper yelled, she might’ve come off as a bit rude with that one because Fryes expression soured.

“Well geez you don’t have to be a dou-“

The doorknob rattling cut her off and everyone stared at it in silent panic, 3 could hear 8’s breathing speed up.

She needed a plan and fast, if they where caught the whole thing would be a bust. 3 looked around for anything to help buy them time but unfortunately nothing would seem to help the situation.

The doorknob began to rattle more aggressively clearly showing that whoever was on the other side was losing there patience, and it meant they where running out of time. 3 ram over to the computer and saw that it was about two thirds of the way done.

“Screw it.” 3 said grabbing the usb and yanking it out of the computer. Marina tried to grab it from her clearly annoyed by her progress being stopped.

That’s when the sound of a key slotting into the doorknob rang out through the room, 8, 3, and Marina quickly crawled under the desk with 8 turning into her octo form and getting into 3’s lap so they could all sit under there. 3 would’ve been freaking out about this if she wasn’t freaking out about the fact they might get caught.

Frye and Shiver turned into there squid and octo forms quickly squeezing into the cabinet and shutting it.

The door opened and 3 covered her mouth to hopefully silence her breathing as she saw sickly green legs walk into the room, there combat boots slammed against the ground as they entered. They stood still for a moment before a voice sounded out,

“Did you find the intruders?”

It was the mystery man from the radio, and from the sounds of it he was talking to whoever was in the room through another radio.

The person said something in octarian that 3 couldn’t translate,

“Alright, get back here then.”

Suddenly the legs began to move again this time leaving the room to which the door shut.

“Shit…that was to close.” 3 said sighing in relief, she could feel 8 relax in her lap which relieved the inkling even more.

“I agree, we should leave before more turn up.” Marina said crawling out from under the table. 8 squirmed out from under the table in her octo form before turning back to her original form, 3 followed and stretched once she was out.

The cabinet door opened and Frye peeked her squid form out, “Are we good?” 3 nodded and watched Frye relax crawling out and turning back to her original form with Shiver doing the same.

“How did they find out we where in here? Do they have cameras?” Shiver asked.

“I don’t know, for now I’ll take what we managed to get and review it. Maybe we’ll get some clue from this.” 3 said grabbing the usb stick from Marina.

“Can we please leave now? This place is scary.” 8 said nervously rubbing her arm.

3 couldn’t agree more.

———

8 opened the door to her room and jumped onto her bed relaxing into it. Today had been pretty crazy, first she gets taught how to swoon 3, then she goes on a stealth mission to break into Grizzco and nearly gets caught!

Now she just wanted to lay there, and probably never get back up.

“Hey kid, watcha doing?” A voice asked which 8 immediately recognized.

“Nothing Pearl, I am just relaxing.” 8 said her voice muffled considering her face was buried into the bed. Pearl laughed at that and suddenly 8 felt the bed sink a bit which meant Pearl had sat down on it.

“You use my advice on 3 yet?” The inkling asked.

“Yes I did, she didn’t seem to expect it because she dropped her map when she did and started getting all weird.” 8 tilted her head to look at Pearl now, “Did I do something wrong?”

Pearl shook her head and patted 8’s own head, “Nah girl, 3’s just a mess when it comes to getting attention. If it takes just one compliment to get her like that, imagine what it’ll be like when you kiss her~”

8 felt her tentacles point up at that and she quickly sat up, “I imagine she would explode if I did that!”

Pearl laughed and patted 8’s shoulder, “You still got a ways to go before you get to that point kid, but relax, you got good old mama Pearl to help you out!”

8 laughed at that, “So your my mom now?” She asked tilting her head.

“Eh, basically. Besides, it’s probably so cool to have two famous idols as your parents.” Pearl said crossing her arms.

8 shrugged, “Yeah I guess that is pretty cool.”

Pearl hopped off the bed and walked toward the door, “Alright kid, I ordered from that takeout place that you really like so hope your ready to fill that stomach.”

8 hopped off the bed eager to finally eat, “Yes I am ready!” She said running out the door with Pearl following her.

Her feelings could wait, she was hungry.

Chapter Text

It was quiet in the messy apartment, that was home to the squid sisters and the leader of the NSS. To anyone else this quietness would’ve been welcome, relaxing even.

But for a certain Idol it definitely wasn’t.

“I’m so bored!” Callie exclaimed slamming her head into the desk that she sat at. She’d been looking through papers all morning, it was all anything that Marie and 3 could manage to gather about Grizzco. where 3 managed to get all these papers was lost on Callie but she didn’t question it.

Most of what she read was just articles about different records that where set and then broken in Grizzco wether that be “best solo run” or “most golden eggs collected” or just the announcement of new areas that Grizzco found. Nothing helped bring them closer to figuring out who there mysterious bad guy was.

Callie couldn’t even be bothered to finish another paper so she decided to distract herself with something else, which she was a pro at.

The inkling lifted her head off the desk with a paper stuck to her forehead that eventually fell to the floor, she pulled her phone out and thought for a moment before opening her photos. Nothing like a good trip down memory lane to distract her.

The first photo that came up was a selfie of her, Marie, 3, 8, 4, and Neo. They where in there wedding clothes and all smiling (except 3) with Callie having an arm wrapped around Marie. Callie smiled as she remembered the wedding, well at least the parts not involving a huge death battle.

———

“And Smile!” Callie said holding the phone in the air.

She wrapped an arm around Marie pulling her relative into the cameras frame, in response Marie let out a surprised noise before smiling. 4 quickly hopped into view of the camera with a big toothy smile standing beside Marie, beside Callie, 3 tilted her head so it was visible and she looked emotionless into the camera. 8, who was the tallest of the group, stood behind with a toothy smile just like 4.

After a few seconds Callie took the picture, she then brought it down to examine the photo and was quite happy with the results.

“Aw~ We all look so happy! except you 3, you big grump.” 3 just rolled her eyes in response and walked away to probably go sit down and brood.

8 and 4 looked at the photo and gave there thoughts on it, quite satisfied with how they all looked in there fancy clothes.

“We look very stunning in this!” 8 said with wide eyes. Callie laughed at 8’s amazement.

“We look so sick! Especially you Marie~” 4 said looking over at her girlfriend who chuckled and grabbed her the agents hand.

“Thanks 4, you look pretty cute in that dress.” Marie said giving 4 a kiss on the cheek to which the girl giggled in response.

Callie, who was watching made a gaging noise which snapped the two out of there little moment. 4 laughed nervously and walked away with 8 following while Marie just shook her head with a smile.

“You two are so cheesy.” Callie said causing Marie to roll her eyes jokingly,

“Well at least I’m not single.”

Callie stomped her foot and protested at that causing Marie to burst out into laughter. This went on for a minute until the two calmed down.

“Have you noticed how 3’s been acting today?” Marie asked, Callie nodded,

“She’s been more distant, maybe she’s uncomfortable with being here?” Callie suggested. 3 had been acting much more distant today, especially with 8. Usually the two of them would at least be talking to each other but it seems 3 didn’t even wanna do that. It was strange to say the least

“Maybe it’s about 8, we both know she’s got a huge crush on her. Maybe it’s because she’s all dressed up today.” Marie suggested, Callie found herself agreeing with that. 3 definitely was not one for talking about her feelings and such, especially when it came to 8.

The two cousins figured out the crush 3 had on the octoling because of how she treated 8 compared to everyone else. She was always much more cold and annoyed with everyone, but when it came to 8 she seemed to let down her tough demeanor. She was much nicer, less harsh in tone, heck she was like a whole different agent. Plus she just couldn’t keep her eyes off the octoling.

In other words, 3 was a big softie for 8.

“I think your right Marie! I tell you what, we need to get those two together!” Callie said turning her hands to fists to show her excitement.

“Yeah we do, I think they’d be good for each other. Cod knows 3 needs someone she can rely on emotionally, and 8 as well.” Marie said looking over at 4 and 8 who where talking to Deep cut.

Callie looked around the big room, it was the “dance room” as Pearl called it and spotted 3 sat at one of the tables near the dj booth with her eyes on the octoling they where just talking about.

“Yeah, I think so too.” Callie said a sly smile growing on her face.

———

Callie smiled at the memory as she took one last look at the selfie before scrolling,

The next few photos where nothing special just a few selfies of Callie in different clothes making goofy faces which she would post to her Finnstagram. But then she scrolled far back enough to a photo of her, Marie, Neo, and 3. Neo wore her hero gear and had a huge smile on her face as she stood between Callie and Marie who where giving thumbs up with one of there hands on each of Neo’s shoulders. Behind the kid was 3 who was actually smiling in this photo, sure it was more of a smirk but Callie would count it.

She remembered them taking this photo after Neo saved the world, when she returned from space she was pretty proud of herself as anyone who just saved the world from being covered in fuzzy ooze should.

But the thing that made her so happy she looked like her mouth would break from how big she was smiling was when 3 told her she was proud It wasn’t even that much, just a simple, “I’m proud of you.” And suddenly the kid was glowing like a lightbulb with happiness.

Callie found it adorable personally, that kid didn’t really seem to have much outside of the NSS except smallfry so seeing her light up like that just with 3’s approval was heartwarming.

The Callie remembers a time she tried asking if Neo had any actual family but the inkling didn’t really have an answer, she just shrugged and kept moving for the next kettle. It was odd to her that the kid wouldn’t even know if she had any real family.

A mom? A dad? A sibling? Nothing.

Callie shook the thought and continued to scroll through her photos with even more selfies of herself until she reached even farther back in her camera roll.

This photo had Her, Marie, and 4 in it with Marie wide eyed while 4 was giving her a kiss on the cheek, and in the background was the shack from Tentakeel outpost and a few fireworks going off behind them in the dark sky.

Callie remembered this one well, it was new years and 4 had told Callie she was gonna confess to Marie her feelings for her. It was cute seeing how worked up 4 was getting, for someone so happy all the time she sure got nervous that night.

And in that photo was the moment 4 confessed…in the form of a kiss.

And on midnight as well! Romantic~

That night Callie had never seen Marie so confused and yet happy at the same time.

Scrolling down a little further, Callie got to a photo of her, 8, and 3 when she was still an agent (and in her edgy phase).

In the photo 8 was giving an awkward smile while still in her old Kamabo test subject outfit while 3 wore her old agent suit, cape and all. It was a photo Callie took of the two after they escaped Kamabo, it was also the first time Callie met agent 8 and she was not disappointed.

The girl didn’t really know how to speak inkling at the time and was in general really on edge but she was still really sweet and it was nice to get to be apart of her development into inkopilis.

Callie noticed something in the photo however which she squinted at to see, it was 3 and in the photo she wasn’t even look at the camera she was looking at 8.

And she had the tiniest smile on her face.

Callie took in a sharp breath, she couldn’t believe she’d never noticed it before! The signs where all there from the beginning!

That means for the last 5 years, 3 had a crush on 8…5 YEARS!!!!

Callie and Marie thought it’d been just a couple years but no, this girl had been hiding her feelings for 5 years!

She was in disbelief, how in the world did this girl manage to hide her feelings for 5 years? Callie would never be able to do it for that long.

Then again she wasn’t 3 who was a master at masking her emotions.

Just then Callie heard the door open and she looked up to see Marie enter.

“Hi Marie! Where’s 3?” She asked tilting her head.

Marie sighed taking off her coat and setting it down on the small recliner in the room,

“Busy breaking into Grizzco with the others. I decided to stay behind, needed to check up on gramps in the crater anyways, he says he doing fine.” She said.

Callie was relieved to hear gramps was ok, after everything that transpired with Mr.Grizz gramps decided it was a good idea to take a vacation. So now he spends all his time up in his camp in the crater, mostly sleeping.

“What about you, find anything?” Marie asked.

Callie’s eyes widened, she got so caught up in reminiscing she forgot about what she was supposed to do! She quickly sat her phone down on the desk and looked down picking up the paper that fell earlier.

“Uh…no, all I could was find was worthless, nothing here talks about the owners or there origins or…” Callie trailed off as she examined the paper in her hands and her eyes widened.

Marie walked over curious, “What is it…holy crap.”

The paper the cousins read talked about an expedition Grizzco took to a point of interest, the destroyed remains of the statue commander tartar tried to use to destroy inkopilis.

Both sisters looked at each other with wide eyes,

“We gotta tell 3.” Marie said and Callie quickly agreed.

———

3 sighed as she approached the door to her apartment, today was a close call, and now she just wanted a break.

Tightening her hold on the usb stick in her hand as if it would run away if she didn’t, the captain opened the door and entered shutting it behind her.

“3! 3! We got something!”

And immediately 3’s want for a break disappeared and she turned to the two idols standing at the desk littered with papers.

“You do? What is it?” 3 asked walking over to the two. In Callie’s hand was a paper and she grabbed it from her beginning to read it. “Wait…I knew it!” She said slamming the paper back down on the desk.

She’d figured that whoever it was running Grizzco must’ve been to Kamabo but there wasn’t any sure fire evidence until now. However at the same time, thinking about Kamabo made 3 nervous as those terrible memories where resurfaced. She leaned against the desk with her hands balled into fists.

“Did you manage to get what you needed at Grizzco?” Callie asked tapping 3 on the shoulder.

That’s when 3 was reminded of the usb stick still in her hand and she opened her fist revealing it. Marie quickly grabbed the usb from her.

“Alright, good work. Now we gotta look through whatever’s in here. I’ll do it since Callie’s already done her part.” Marie said. Callie breathed a sigh of relief clearly happy to not be doing anymore reading.

3 turned and walked away from the desk heading toward the bathroom, “Ok, you two keep working, I’m gonna take a nice warm shower.” From behind the captain, she could hear Callie say “Aye aye captain!”

Entering the bathroom 3 turned the light on and walked over to the mirror looking in it. One of her hands ghosted up to near one of her eyes as she remembered what happened at Kamabo.

When she was mind controlled.

Once that ink was removed from her face all that it left was a nasty headache thankfully, but the memory of it was still strong. The way it forced her to basically be a passenger in her own body. How she was powerless to stop herself from attempting to kill 8.

3 quickly tore her gaze away from the mirror and to the shower turning it on, breath quickening.

She has to stay focused, no time to dwindle on the past…

Right?

Chapter Text

3 opened her eyes and looked around at her surroundings, it was the elevator in Kamabo. She was back here again…

‘What the…’

The agent felt her head pounding as if something was trying to escape it and she attempted to bring a hand to her head to maybe suppress the feeling but her hand never moved, it instead held onto her hero shot which rested at her side. She tried to move her body, anything even just to blink but it was like she’d completely lost control.

Then her head forcefully tilted down and she saw 8.

‘No…no! Not again!’

Panic filled the agent as she realized what was happening, the octoling was in her test subject outfit and had a octoshot in hand looking very nervous.

3 attempted to speak to the girl, to say something, anything. But no matter how hard she tried no words came out.

Suddenly her body moved, her other hand grabbed onto the hero shot as well and she jumped down onto the platform. 3 felt dread as she knew what came next. Her hero shot began to fire sanitized ink at the octoling who dove out of the way shooting her own weapon in response.

‘Stop! I said stop! I don’t want to fight her!’

3 couldn’t let this happen she just couldn’t, there had to be some way to stop this, to tell 8 she was still there.

The fight continued with 3 getting pelted with pink ink a few times which irritated the headache she had and making her wanna scream out but nothing left her lips. The inkling pulled out a inkjet in response and fired from above at 8 who did her best to dodge each attack. Eventually the inkjet ended and 3 landed a good bit away from 8 who was hid behind cover recovering from the last attack.

‘Please! Stop hurting her!’

Her own body didn’t listen and she activated a baller special and ran toward 8’s cover catching the octoling off guard who tried to swim away but wasn’t fast enough as the ball exploded in sanitized ink and hit her leg causing her to fall to the ground and drop her weapon.

‘No! Don’t make me do this!’

3’s body took this chance and ran toward the octoling jumping on top of her dropping her own weapon in the process. She used her now free hands to grab the octoling by the throat and cut off her oxygen.

‘I’m so sorry…’

3 could only watch as the octoling squirmed under her hold gasping for air, her eyes wide in panic and fear as she desperately scratched at 3’s hands with choked gasps for air escaping.

‘I’m sorry…’

Eventually the girl below her stopped struggling and went quiet with her whole body turning limp. 3 let go of the octolings neck and her body disintegrated into sanitized ink below her.

‘What have I done…’

3 felt like crying, she tried but she couldn’t even do that, she just sat there motionless, her head pounding as the sanitized ink started to pool under her.

‘Wait, what’s going on?’

Suddenly 3’s body began to sink down into the ink, she felt it begin to burn her skin as it slowly swallowed her. Her legs where the first to be submerged and soon came her hips and then her arms and torso. The only thing left out of the ink as she continued to sink was her head and at that point her body finally listened to her as she cried out in pain.

“AAAAAHHHHH-“

———

“AAAHHH!”

3’s eyes snapped open and she jumped out of her bed grabbing her hero shot which laid beside it and aimed it in front of her.

Nothing greeted her in the darkness of her room, no enemy’s, no sanitized ink, nothing. Just her and the gun she held tightly with a shaky hand.

3 dropped her gun to the carpeted floor listening to the plastic thunk sound it made as she took a deep shaky breath.

“What the fuck…” she said, 3 had nightmares before, they plagued her mind a lot especially after what happened in Kamabo. But just recently they’d started to go away, until now it seemed.

3 looked around at her messy room trying to remember what exactly happened and how she ended up in her bed. She glanced around the few Squid Sister and Off the Hook posters and dirty clothes strewn about the floor along with the blanket for her bed but nothing came to mind until she spotted the towel at the foot of her bed, she must’ve fell asleep after taking her shower.

3 looked down at her own body and saw she was wearing a tank top and sweatpants, her usual clothing for lounging around. Her arms shone with sweat from the moonlight pouring in from the window behind her, she brought a hand up to her eye and felt around for anything but just like when she was in the bathroom she felt nothing.

3 sighed and walked over to her closet sliding the door open, she was greeted with a few t-shirts and hoodies of different colors and her old cape hanging on a rack, on the floor below the rack was her old ink tank.

She grabbed one of the light green hoodies which matched her ink color and slipped it on before shutting her closet.

3 then stepped past a few dirty clothes and to the door of her bedroom quietly opening it and stepping out into the living room. Once out there she was greeted with more darkness, the only light source being a laptop that rested on the desk revealing a sleeping Marie who had her head in her arms with her form slowly rising and lowering with every breath she took. She was wearing a white t-shirt and black sweatpants, she also had a blanket resting against the back of the chair she was sitting on

3 quietly walked over to the sleeping girl and grabbed the blanket carefully draping it over her without waking her up. She then watched the girl quietly breath in and out, she must’ve been working late and passed out.

3 looked at the laptop sitting on the desk, it had a few notes pulled up on it and had the usb they used at Grizzco plugged into it. She closed the laptop submerging the room completely in darkness, she’d review what they got later.

The girl then walked over to the front door and slipped on her sandals. She unlocked the door and opened it taking one last look behind her to make sure she didn’t wake Marie before exiting into the hallway, shutting the door behind her.

Her eyes ached from the bright overhead lights as she walked down the hall, she tried to shake the sleepiness as she reached the elevators and pressed the button waiting for it to arrive.

3 decided that taking a walk might help her, after all, whenever she had nightmares like that she found it hard to go back to sleep. Maybe she’d have some kind of revelation where she’d magically figure out who the boss of Grizzco was and how to save the world.

She sighed, she knew that wouldn’t happen. It’s never that easy, especially in her line of work.

The ding of the elevators arrival snapped her out of her thoughts and she stepped in pressing the button that led to the main floor and listening as the doors creaked shut.

Once again stuck with her thoughts she decided to think of something else, or someone else.

8

She remembered what happened earlier that day when she got a compliment from the girl, it was just one simple little compliment and yet 3 felt like she was gonna burst.

That girl did strange things to her, she’d found herself wishing that she was back in Inkopilis with her when she first moved to Splatsville, but usually she was busy with agent work so she didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on 8. However when 8 moved to Splatsville so she could continue her agent work 3 had never been more happy in her life. She even waited at the station for when 8 got off and to greet her only to be brought into a bone crushing hug.

But she didn’t care, she had 8 with her again.

Suddenly the elevator dinged again and the doors opened revealing the lobby and she stepped out, she walked past the couple people that sat in the lobby on there phones and opened the door to the outside walking out onto the sidewalk.

3 looked around at the tall skyscrapers that greeted her and cars that would occasionally pass by. It was a little chilly out so she was glad she brought her hoodie, the inkling began to walk in no certain direction, she just wanted to clear her mind. She passed the occasional street light and piece of trash like an empty soda can or a empty ramen noodle cup on her walk, cars that passed would occasionally illuminate the path ahead.

3 took this time to think, what could be her next move? What should she do? Where could she go? She needed a plan, everyone was counting on her.

She couldn’t go back into Grizzco, they’d be expecting her this time. She already had Neo search Alterna top to bottom so that was no use. There was only one thing she could think to do.

Return to Kamabo…

3 closed her eyes and kicked another can she found and listened to it roll away. She didn’t want to go back there but what other choice did she have? So far anything they could gather all pointed back to that forsaken hell hole. And there was no way in cod 3 was gonna send 8 there, she didn’t deserve to go back down there after how hard she fought to escape it.

3 opened her eyes and continued to walk, maybe in the morning she could review the evidence they found and get some other clue, a different option maybe. Anything.

Her thoughts where cut short when she heard rustling from an alley she was about to pass.

3 quickly turned and stared into the dark of it raising her hands which balled into fists ready to fight whatever was there.

“Who’s there!” 3 yelled and the rustling stopped. She didn’t like this she was in the open, it was to easy for someone to sneak up on her right now. Maybe she could find cover and scan the area for any other-

“Captain? Is that you?” 3’s eyes widened and she quickly returned to her normal self, it was just Neo. Cod she was on edge tonight.

“Neo? What’re you doing out here?” 3 asked watching the younger inkling step out into the light, she looked upset and 3 was determined to figure out why.

“It’s smallfry, I can’t find him. He was in my apartment this morning but now I can’t find him, I think he ran away.” 3 felt her face soften and she stepped closer to the inkling, she was wearing a black tank top and shorts which made it a little hard to see her in the dark.

“How long have you been looking for him?” 3 asked examining the inkling, it was hard to see in the little light they had but she could see that the girl was covered in sweat and the area under her eyes was dark like she’d been crying.

“All day…I-I’m so worried about him, he’s never ran off like this before.” Neo’s voice was laced with worry and tiredness. 3 felt her hearts begin to ache at the state of the girl, she was fond of her so to see her like this was upsetting.

3 put a hand on Neo’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

“We’ll find him, don’t worry. But maybe you should go home and get some sleep, we’ll help you look for him tomorrow.” 3 gave the girl a sympathetic look. She didn’t expect Neo to suddenly start to shake, her lip quivered and she buried her head in 3’s chest beginning to cry. 3’s eyes went wide in surprise and she quickly hugged the girl in an attempt to comfort her.

“H-he’s all I have! I-I can’t lose him!” Neo said between sobs as she hugged 3 back, 3 just continued to hug the girl trying to keep herself from squeezing to hard. It hurt 3 to hear this, she didn’t know what Neo went through before joining the NSS but she did know her parents weren’t in the picture and that’s about it.

“It’ll be ok…I’m here, you have me.” She didn’t know if that would exactly help Neo calm down but it was worth a shot, it only served to elicit more tears from the girl.

After a minute and lots of tears which ended up staining 3’s hoodie purple like Neo’s ink color the girl seemed to calm down, she was taking shaky breaths and had her arms crossed looking down at the sidewalk.

“Do you want me to take you back to my place?” 3 asked only getting a nod. “Ok, follow me.”

3 began to walk down the sidewalk and Neo followed. She definitely didn’t expect her midnight walk to end up like this, she just wanted to clear her mind and forget about that terrible nightmare and now she was helping Neo with her own problem.

3 watched the girl as they walked side by side, she had stains on her cheeks from her crying now and she was shivering a little bit, 3 decided to fix that by slipping her hoodie off and holding it in front of Neo causing them to stop walking.

Neo looked up at 3 confused and 3 just tilted her head to signal for the younger girl to put it on. Neo grabbed it and slipped it on, it was a little to big for her with the sleeves going over her hands and it reaching down to her knees but that seemed to keep her legs a bit warmer since she had shorts on, she also stopped shivering.

They continued to walk again with 3 now feeling the cold but she didn’t really care, as long as Neo was ok she would deal with it.

Eventually they made it back to the apartment complex and 3 opened the door holding it for Neo. Once they where both inside 3 grabbed Neo’s hand and guided her to the elevator pressing the button and waiting for the doors to open.

“Why didn’t you call me? I would’ve helped you look for him.” 3 said breaking the silence that laid between the two.

“…I didn’t think to, I’m used to doing stuff on my own.” Neo said looking away. 3 sighed, she remembers when she was like that, always thinking she could do everything on her own. When she first joined the NSS she was very insistent on doing things on her own, but eventually when it came time to fight Octavio and the sisters showed up singing the Calamari Inkantation, she learned more or less the importance of getting help.

“You don’t have to do this on your own, you have people looking out for you now. I learned a long time ago the importance of relying on people.” When Neo didn't respond 3 continued, “Listen, if you ever need anything, call me. I don’t care what it is I’ll be there.” Neo looked back at 3 and the inkling wondered if she said the right thing, she wasn’t exactly the best at comforting people so she hoped she was doing this right.

“Thank you…” Neo finally said looking into 3’s eyes, 3 just gave a small smile and nodded. Maybe she was better at this than she thought.

The door to the elevator finally opened giving that familiar ding and creak as it opened. 3 walked in with Neo following.

Once inside 3 looked down at Neo again, “You wanna press the button?” Neo simply nodded and 3 pointed at the button for the 4th floor which Neo pressed and soon the elevator doors closed.

“Marie told me you joined the NSS when you where my age. So that means your 22 right?” Neo said and 3 nodded.

“Yep, 8 years ago, time flies.” It felt like just yesterday she was back in the plaza turfing it out at just 14 while also working for the Splatoon, and now she was the one leading it. It was poetic in a way. “Why do you ask?”

“I was curious, I never knew you where that old, you look younger.” 3 laughed at that.

“Thanks Neo…you look older than you are you know.” Neo smiled at that.

The elevator dinged one last time and the doors opened, 3 stepped out with Neo following suit and the two walked down the hall to the door that lead to the apartment.

“Just letting you know it’s a bit messy so-“ 3 started to warn Neo but was cut off by her.

“Smallfry makes big messes at my apartment, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Ok then.” 3 said opening the door and walking in, she waited till Neo was in before shutting it. She then slipped off her sandals with Neo doing the same to her boots.

“Cmon, you can sleep in my room.” 3 whispered as she guided the kid through the dark living room where Marie was still fast asleep and into her bedroom.

Once inside, 3 walked over to the bed and began to make it much more presentable with the blanket actually being on the bed.

“You weren’t kidding, this is a mess.” Neo whispered walking over to the bed.

“Told you,” 3 said patting the bed, “Alright get in.”

Neo looked between the bed and 3 with a confused look, 3 raised an eyebrow in silent questioning.

“Where will you sleep?”

Ah that’s why.

“Don’t worry about it, you need to get to sleep. Now go on.” 3 said patting the bed again.

Neo hopped onto the bed pulling the blanket back so she could get under the covers, once she was comfortable 3 turned and walked back to the door opening it.

“3” Neo called out and the girl turned to look at her, “Good night.”

3 smiled at the girl, “Good night.” She said before shutting the door.

Once 3 was back in the dark living room she walked over to the recliner and sat in it, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

She doesn’t know why but suddenly 3 felt different about Neo, like she didn’t want anything to happen to her, she felt like she had a responsibility to protect that girl. And cod help anyone who dared to hurt her.

3 soon felt sleep begin to take over and she just prayed that she wouldn’t experience another nightmare as her body relaxed and her head lolled to the side.

———

3 slowly awoke to the sound of something sizzling and she groaned rubbing her eyes as she sat up.

“Good morning 3, I would ask why your not in bed but Neo already answered that for me.” 3 opened and her eyes and saw Marie standing in front of her.

“What? Oh yeah, what’s going on?” 3 said standing and stretching, she could smell bacon and it made her mouth begin to water.

“Callie’s making breakfast, you want any?” 3 nodded and watched Marie walk toward the kitchen, she could see Neo sitting in the kitchen at the table still wearing the hoodie from last night.

She decided to take this chance to review what they gathered from Grizzco. Walking over to the desk and opening the laptop she was greeted with what looked to be a diary entry of sorts. It was apparently the 3rd out of 4 entry’s so she decided to read it.

JR 2023/1/06

“It’s been almost a year since my boss and his plan for mammals taking over the planet. My army I’ve gathered from the remains of Kamabo proves to handle themselves well. I’ve had them training for our ambush on the NSS at the wedding of famous idols Pearl Hime and Marina Ida. If all goes according to plan I should be able to wipe them out before they manage to catch wind of my schemes. I’ll continue to work on producing fuzzy ooze with the golden eggs I collect from Grizzco since the original supply that my boss had was destroyed with the rocket.”

3 contemplated what she just read,

“An army? He has a army? And who the hell is JR?” She said to herself in confusion. She decided to read the next page of text in case that held some answers.

JR 2023/1/09

“The squad I sent to eradicate the NSS failed, i underestimated the potential that they had in hand to hand combat. I will need to train these octolings more, until then I’ve moved my base of operations to the old abandoned factory on Jell street since the NSS will most likely attempt an infiltration of my original setup in Grizzco. Ive moved all my stuff there and will continue to think of a plan on how to eradicate this nuisance before they become a real threat to my plan.”

“Jell street…holy shit we’ve got him.” 3 said a smile growing on his face, they finally had it, a location! This means they could prevent another hairmeggadon situation!

3 leaned back in her seat and sighed in relief, she had to tell everyone.

“3! Breakfast is ready!” Callie yelled from the kitchen and 3 quickly stood.

Once 3 entered the kitchen she looked at Neo who sat beside Marie leaning into her shoulder, the idol had an arm wrapped around the kid who was looking miserable.

“How you feeling Neo?” 3 asked sitting down on the opposite side of the table. She was still concerned about the girl who looked to still be torn up about smallfrys disappearance.

“I’m ok, I just…I expected to wake up with my little buddy but…” She closed her eyes and sighed.

Marie began to rub the girls arm in a soothing way, “Hey, it’s ok, we’ll find him.” She said in a soft tone.

3 turned and looked at Callie who was carrying a few plates that had pancakes on them along with bacon. She sat the plates down before sitting down herself and giving a concerned look to Neo.

“I called Marina and told her about the situation, she said she’d print missing posters and have Pearl and 8 post them around the square.” Callie said, “We will find him, I promise.” Callie was usually never that serious but when she was that meant it was important.

3 looked down at her pancakes and began to cut them with her fork, “I read those notes you where reading last night Marie, and I’ve got a location.”

Marie looked over at 3 with intrigue, “Really? Well we’ll have to send a group out to scope the place then.” She looked back at Neo still rubbing her arm. “You wanna go? It could get your mind off things.” Neo nodded and began to eat her pancakes.

“Ugh pancakes again, why can’t you ever make waffles?” Marie said trying to change the subject and Callie gave a cheeky smile.

“Because they’re the best! No one cares if the syrup slides off pancakes, just add more!” She said beginning to eat her pancakes as well.

3 smiled at the twos bickering and began to eat her own pancakes.

She began to think of who she’ll send to that factory, and she thinks she knows who.

Chapter Text

It was dark in 4’s apartment despite the fact the sun was out, all the blinds where shut on her windows making sure no pesky sunlight could sneak in and ruin her sleep.

The inkling snored loudly from her spot on the couch, her head was leaned against the arm of her couch with a empty takeout box from last night laying on her stomach, one of her legs dangled off the edge of the couch.

The agent was stirred from her sleep when a knock sounded at her door. 4 stirred but soon went back to snoring a minute after. Soon another knock much louder sounded out and 4 began to wake up with an annoyed groan.

4 sat up rubbing her eyes and looked over at the door listening as an even louder knock that shook the door occurred with a voice accompanying it this time.

“Wake the fuck up 4! I know your in there I could hear you snoring from out here!” 4 immediately recognized the voice as 3’s and sighed standing and stretching. 4 lived in the same apartment complex as 3 and the squid sisters so it wasn’t uncommon for her to wake up like this. She decided she’d keep 3 waiting a bit longer since she was so rudely woken up.

Looking around the apartment, 4 took notice of how clean it looked after she was done yesterday since she had some free time after going to the gym. Her eyes soon rested on a picture of her and Marie sharing a kiss sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch and smiled.

“4 don’t make me kick this door down!” 3 yelled banging on the door once again.

Finally, 4 sighed in annoyance from 3’s impatience and walked over to the door unlocking it and opening it, squinting at the light that came from the hallway and seeing 3 standing there with an annoyed look on her face with Neo and Callie accompanying her. Neo was wearing her hero gear and 3 had her captain outfit on with that familiar hat and Callie wore her usual outfit for when she was in Alterna. They all looked much more professional than 4 who had on her yellow pajamas with inkling patterns on them.

“Wassup?” 4 said leaning against the doorway and looking at 3 who looked up at her with her arms crossed.

“I called you multiple times, why where you still asleep?” 3 asked in her usual grumpy tone. 4 just shrugged, to be honest she was hoping she didn’t have any work today just like yesterday and would just get to sleep in but it seems that plan was out the window.

“I wasn’t expecting a psychopath in rags to be banging on my door that’s why.” 4 replied sarcastically getting a snort from Callie.

Callie, decided to inform 4 of the situation, “We need you, we think we’ve got a location on the new boss of Grizzco.” 4 raised an eyebrow at that and looked at Callie intrigued.

“Really? Where?” 4 asked, after the whole fiasco at the wedding with those octolings, 4 was looking forward to a meeting with the guy responsible.

“Get dressed and we’ll show you.” 3 said impatiently. 4 lazily saluted,

“Aye aye captain.” She said tiredly before turning back to the apartment to go get her gear. This should be a fun day.

———

8 was holding a stack of papers in her hands following the short inkling in front of her who held a roll of tape and one of the papers. The inkling in front of her wore a light pink hoodie and shorts along with a crown while 8 wore a black sweater with a pink octoling symbol on it and jeans. The papers in question where missing posters for Smallfry, 8 knew that it was Neo’s…pet? And she felt terrible for the younger inkling, she’d never had a pet before so she couldn’t imagine what the kid was going through.

Suddenly the inkling stopped in front of a stop sign near the road and reached up on her tiptoes taping the paper to the red sign which blocked the word.

“I don’t think that’s allowed Pearl.” 8 said tilting her head.

“Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. Besides, we need these people to have some reason to look at the paper.” Pearl said turning around and grabbing another paper from the stack before she continued walking. 8 shrugged and continued to follow, guess she couldn’t argue with that logic.

The two girls walked past a couple inklings as they made there way toward the square, Marina told them before they left to post some papers in the square since that was a popular area for people to roam.

8 decided to take this time to think about 3, more importantly her plan on how to ‘woo’ the girl. She had some time yesterday after her infiltration of Grizzco to think about it. She already offered for the two of them to hangout but she still hadn’t thought about what they’d do just yet. And besides she still wasn’t exactly a master at romance yet so she didn’t know what moves to make in order to make progress with there relationship.

“You’re being awfully quiet, something on your mind?” Pearl asked turning and walking backwards so she could look at the octoling.

“I am thinking about 3, I still don’t know much about romance and I’m worried about what to do.” Pearl nodded with a smile stretching across her face,

“You think you’re ready for another lesson on romance?” She asked and 8 nodded. She would take any help she could get. “Alright, try being a little more touchy than usual. Like, anytime you see her, go in for a hug, occasionally wrap an arm around her shoulder, maybe ‘accidentally’ brush hands with her while your walking. Subtle stuff that shows you like being close to her.”

8 nodded absorbing all the knowledge she was taking in, “Did you ever use this stuff on Marina?” She asked stopping along with the inkling so they could put up a poster on the display window of a shop.

“Heck yeah, she always got flustered whenever I did it, made it super obvious she liked me. Who knows, maybe 3 will be like that as well.” 8 thought about it, as much as the inkling pretended to be tough and cold, she was surprisingly easy to get flustered. 8 thought it was adorable and started thinking about the scenarios that could play out.

Maybe a nice trip to a restaurant and she put an arm across her shoulder, or maybe they’d be walking together to her apartment and brush hands and 8 could act all innocent like she didn’t do anything.

“But don’t go overboard, it’s different with everyone. Some people like the contact while others don’t, you just gotta find that balance.” Pearl said stopping to tape one of the papers to a car door.

8 found that was a common theme with romance, unlike a lot of things in life romance was so unpredictable. She’d hoped that there was some way she could figure out how exactly to act and what to do and while she’s been getting advice from Pearl and Marina on what to do it seemed that most of it would have to be learned from experience.

Which 8 wasn’t particularly fond of.

“What’s it like being married? Is it different than being girlfriends?” 8 was genuinely curious because even though the two where now happily married they still acted the same they always did.

Pearl just shrugged, “Eh not really all that different. We just act the same, it’s the whole reason we got married in the first place.” She said, “Guess the only difference would be that we call each other wife every now and then.” Pearl said that one with a dopey smile clearly enjoying calling Marina her wife.

“But why do people get married then? I know it means you can’t ever be in a relationship with anyone else but what else could it mean?” 8 was still confused, she didn’t exactly understand the whole point behind marriage.

“It means you love someone a lot, so much you’d never wanna spend your life with anybody else. It’s a declaration, like shouting how much you love that person out to everyone in the world! It doesn’t mean anything has to change, it just means you truly want to keep that person in your life forever.” 8’s eyes widened in surprise. She definitely didn’t expect that much from Pearl, she sounded so wise it was almost uncharacteristic of her.

“It also means you wanna bang them-“ And there it was.

“OK! I think I understand now!” 8 yelled out her tentacles beginning to squirm. Pearl began to laugh hysterically. 8 sighed and tried to ignore the hysterics coming from the inkling.

“Who the hell put this on my car!” A voice behind the two girls yelled and Pearl stopped laughing immediately,

“Shit! Run 8!”

———

Marie’s car pulled up to the gate that held the way into the factory in front of them, 4 looked out the window and up at it, the place was huge no doubt about that, it was also really old with plenty of vines and debris everywhere. It was also the perfect place for a base of operations, in a quiet part of the city away from any houses and businesses, perfect place to plan out any potential world ending schemes.

“This is it, let’s hope someone’s here.” Callie said opening her door and getting out, everyone else quickly did the same while Marie shut the car off.

3 got out and waited till Neo exited before shutting the door, she then promptly placed her hands on Neo’s shoulders and began asking if the girl needed anything and if she was ok. 4 thought it was strange but ignored it.

“So…what’s the plan?” 4 asked walking over to the rusty gate and pulling on it hearing the loud creak it’s hinges made. They didn’t really talk much about the plan on the way there since they where to busy informing 4 of what happened with Neo and Smallfrys sudden disappearance. It reminded 4 of when she was younger, she had a pet sea snail which ended up disappearing. Turns out it died in its sleep and 4’s parents just got rid of it without telling her, not exactly the best time she had.

“You’re gonna sneak in there with Neo and Marie so you can look around. We need to know if the boss is there and just who he is, and if we’re lucky we’ll stop him before he can put his plan into affect.” 3 said walking over to the trunk of the car and opening it beginning to dig around.

4 smiled at hearing Marie would be in there with her, it’s been a while since they worked together on a mission so this would be a little nostalgic. Plus she’d get to spend time with her girlfriend so that’s always a win.

Speaking of Marie, the girl walked up to 4 and grabbed her zipper to her hero jacket and zipped it up all the way. 4 just gave a cheeky smile which got her a half smile in return. Marie had her own version of the hero suit that was lime green like her ink color and looked a lot like 3’s old hero suit.

“You can’t use the front door since they’d be expecting that so you’ll need to find an opening in the roof.” 3 said pulling Marie’s charger from the trunk and shutting it before throwing the charger to the idol.

4 raised an eyebrow in question, “You’re not going?” 3 shook her head and walked over to Callie who had her roller slung over her shoulder.

“We’re your backup, anything goes wrong in there just scream and we’ll come rescue you.” Callie said. 4 scoffed and nudged Marie with her elbow.

“I’m sure we’ll be fine! Ain’t that right Marie?” Marie shrugged,

“Eh, knowing you we might bring the place down.” She said quickly giving a smirk, 4 felt offended by this slander and placed a hand on her chest.

“I can’t believe you! I’ll have you know I’m a pro at stealth.” That was a lie and 4 knew it, but she was just enjoying messing around with Marie.

“Whatever you say dork.” Marie said chuckling and punching 4’s arm jokingly.

“Ugh, get a room.” 3 said breaking the moment between the two, 4 wouldn’t let it bother her, she’d just make sure to annoy 3 even more once they where done here.

“Alright, you lovebirds better get in there before someone notices we’re here.” Callie said pointing her roller at the factory. 4 nodded and opened the gate listening to the extremely loud creaking noise it made that would probably alert whoever was in there.

She held the gate open watching as Neo and Marie walked in, to be honest 4 forgot Neo was there considering how quiet she was. Losing Smallfry is really affecting her and 4 felt really bad, maybe she could help Neo look for Smallfry once this mission was over. It would definitely be nice to have something good happen, seemed like bad thing after bad thing was happening with no end.

4 shut the gate and began to walk before 3 spoke up.

“Neo, One more thing.” 3 said getting the girl’s attention who turned around looking at 3 confused.

“Be careful in there.” 3 said giving Neo a worried look unlike any 4 had ever seen before. Neo also looked surprised by this and she nodded in understanding.

That look was familiar to 4, like the same one her mom would give her when she tried to do something dangerous. That’s when it clicked in her head, 3 was treating the kid like her own! The signs are all there, the way she kept asking if she was ok and needed anything, the way she showed genuine worry, and on the way there she kept checking on Neo as well.

4 decided to keep a hold of this knowledge and began to follow Marie and Neo who where quickly leaving her behind.

Once they made it close enough Marie stopped and pointed up at the roof,

“We’re gonna need to super jump up there, just be careful where you land, we don’t wanna fall through the roof.” She said preparing to jump herself turning into her squid form.

4 and Neo did the same and soon they all launched into the air before landing on the roof, the tiled floor they landed on shook and creaked with the force of the landing. The roof was covered in foliage and was falling apart with plenty of holes left in it.

Returning to there normal forms, 4 peaked into one of the holes curious as to what she may find only to be disappointed at the sight of nothing. It looked like the place was completely empty, untouched for years, it made alarm bells immediately go off in her head.

“I don’t see anything…you sure this is the right place?” 4 said, it was kind of weird how empty it all was. 4 had at least expected a few of those sanitized octolings to be inside but so far there was nothing to really take note of.

“It’s what the evidence we gathered said, maybe there just deeper in the building.” Marie said crouching down in front of a big hole in the roof that had vines stretching down into the inside of the factory.

4 took a look over at Neo to see what she was up to and saw the girl was trying to walk around but the floor was shaking with every step she took. It was clear the roof wasn’t safe, they needed to get in quick before the roof fell apart, they’d definitely lose the element of surprise then.

“Hey be careful Neo, you don’t wanna fall through.” 4 said and the younger girl turned to look at her mid step.

“It’s fine, I think it’ll hold-Ah!” As the inkling was talking she took a step and suddenly the floor under her caved with her falling with it. 4 felt her hearts stop and panic flooded her mind, before she knew it her feet where carrying her toward where Neo fell.

“Neo!” As 4 was running the floor began to shake under her as well and she stopped hearing it creek loudly.

“4 what happened?” Marie asked standing back up about to walk toward the girl.

“Neo fell through the fucking roof! And I think I’m about to as well!” 4 said, this was bad, Neo fell and probably alerted whoever’s in the factory, and now she’s about to as well.

Suddenly there was a loud crack and 4 felt the roof begin to cave in under her.

“Oh Fu-“

The roof caved and 4 fell down into the factory, the girl closed her eyes and braced for impact as she heard Marie call out her name. Soon she felt something collide with her hip and her whole body rang with pain, soon after she collided with ground blacking out promptly.

———

“Ok, I think we’re good.” Pearl said, both her and 8 where panting like dogs. They had to to run after the guy who’s car they put a paper on discovered it, 8 found it kinda exciting, if not feeling a little guilty.

“At least we are at the plaza now.” 8 said looking around, there where plenty of inklings and octolings out today. They where talking with each other, taking selfies and recording videos, playing that new Tableturf game that 8 wasn’t really all that big of a fan of. In general it was peaceful, people where minding there own business and 8 found herself smiling.

“Alright, I’m gonna need you to take over with hanging these things. I’ve got something I need to do.” Pearl said putting the roll of tape on top of the stack of papers 8 held.

8 furrowed her brows in confusion and watched as the inkling walked away to the stairs, she was about to protest but decided against it once she was already nearly halfway up the first set of stairs passing a few kids who immediately started following her.

Sighing in defeat 8 walked over to one of the nearby storefronts and sat the papers down at her feet grabbing the roll of tape and began the process of hanging the paper.

While she did she wondered what Pearl could possibly be doing, it didn’t look like she was going into any of the stores so what could she possibly be up to?

Her thoughts where interrupted when a octoling walked over and leaned against the wall beside 8. She decided to ignore it thinking he was just trying to relax and finished taping the paper to the wall, that’s when the boy spoke.

“Sorry to bother you but is that your pet?” He said, his voice sounded strange, almost like a girl imitating a guy but 8 decided not to acknowledge it in case it was rude.

“Oh no it’s not mine, it’s my friends.” 8 said turning to face the guy, he was wearing a varsity jacket and shorts with some white sneakers, along with that was a pair of headphones currently resting on his neck, he had a single tentacle which curled at the end

“Hm, sorry to hear that.” He got off the wall and stretched his hand out to 8 who looked down it in confusion, “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Ell, you?” Oh that’s why.

8 grabbed his hand and shook it giving Ell a smile, “I’m 8, it’s nice to meet you too.” Letting go 8 quickly checked to try and see if Pearl was still in view but she wasn’t anymore, come to think of it a lot of the kids by the stairs where gone now as well.

“I saw you run in here with Pearl and I just wanted to ask…do you know Off the Hook?” Ell asked tilting his head in curiosity. 8 thought about what to say,

‘Oh yeah they helped me escape an underground test facility 5 years ago and brought me to the surface taking me in as one of there own.’

Nah she couldn’t say that, she’d probably scare him off. 8 decided on a much more simple answer,

“I do, I’m kinda like there…kid? It’s complicated.” Ok much more vague than simple but it’ll work.

“Woah, so you’re like…there adopted daughter? That’s fresh.” Ell said an amazed smile stretching across his face, 8 giggled at that and reached down grabbing the tape and papers again.

“Yeah it is pretty cool, I gotta hang more of these papers around but your welcome to join me if you want to.” 8 said, if she was gonna be here she might as well have some company, And Ell seemed like a good guy.

“Sure! I’ll tag along with the daughter of Pearl and Marina of all people!” Ell said with excitement in his tone.

8’s smile grew and she walked over to another wall sitting the papers down and hanging another paper.

“So how exactly did you manage to fly under the radar of the media? I’ve seen you in a couple of Pearl and Marina’s Finnstagram posts but other than that I’ve never really heard of you.” Ell asked leaning against the wall while 8 attached the paper to the wall.

“They didn’t want to expose me to the media and become super famous like them. They said I shouldn’t have to deal with being flooded by fans everywhere I went.” 8 said stepping back and making sure the paper wouldn’t fall. It was true, after 8 first made it to the surface and started to explore inkopilis she was sorta overwhelmed by how much there was to do, Pearl and Marina didn’t want over excited fans to be piled ontop of that stress.

“Makes sense, I honestly don’t know how celebrities survive being dog piled by people everywhere they go, I dunno it just seems so stressful. Like, excuse me I’m just tryna buy some groceries here!” Ell said exaggerating the last part which got 8 to laugh with Ell joining in soon after.

After that moment 8 went to go pick the papers back up but Ell grabbed them before she could confusing the girl, “Here I’ll hold these for you, make it a little easier.” 8 was starting to get pleasantly surprised at how nice Ell was, he was like Marina but mixed with a little bit of 4, it was refreshing.

8 nodded and walked over to the stairway leading up to the lobby with Ell following suit, she decided to start the conversation this time curious to learn more about her new friend.

“I hope you don’t find this offensive but…why do you sound like a girl?” 8 felt nervous hoping she didn’t just say something bad and stepped up onto the railing.

“Nah you’re all good, it’s actually because I used to be a girl.” 8 looked down at Ell confused, “I’m trans, I used to be a girl but I decided being a boys cooler, so boom.” Ell said handing one of the papers to 8 who let out a noise in realization.

“That’s cool, I didn’t even realize you where! I think you did a good job at hiding it, apart from the voice.” Ell seemed to light up at that and a big smile stretched across his face.

“Thanks! That actually means a lot, so I appreciate it.” 8 smiled again and finished hanging the paper hopping down.

“No problem, let’s go.” 8 said starting to walk up the stairs again that lead to the lobby.

Once the two octolings made it up they saw a small crowd of people where surrounding the glass near where Deep Cut would do the daily news and 8 raised an eyebrow in confusion.

That was until the crowd parted and Pearl walked out of it heading toward 8 and Ell.

“Alright 8, let’s get back to…who are you?” Pearl asked looking over at Ell who seemed to freeze up.

“O-oh I’m Ell! It’s nice to meet you Pearl, I’m a big fan!” He said sitting the papers down on the floor his singular tentacle starting to wiggle like crazy. “Oh and congratulations on the wedding!”

“Thanks dude! It’s nice to meet a fan who isn’t insane!” She said looking the guy up and down before grabbing his hand and shaking it. “It looks like you met 8 already.”

Ell nodded giving a nervous smile, it looked like a complete contrast to how he was when the two of them where talking.

“Yeah, your daughters really nice.” Ell said looking over at 8, 8 herself just smiled back.

“Yep that’s my 8! She takes after Marina.” Pearl said walking over to 8 and playfully punching her arm, “Alright kid, let’s bounce before we get overwhelmed.” 8 nodded and grabbed the papers from the floor beginning to follow Pearl.

“Bye Ell! It was nice to meet you!” 8 yelled.

“Thanks 8, same to you!” Ell yelled back.

“That guys pretty cool, hope we see him again sometime.” Pearl said once they where away from the crowd. 8 nodded in agreement.

Suddenly her phone went off and she sat the papers down pulling it out of her pocket, it was a message from 3. 8 felt her hearts speed up and she opened it quickly to read what it said.

‘3’

“We need you here ASAP!!!”

Below the message was 3’s location which she shared, 8 furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and showed the message to Pearl.

“That doesn’t sound good, we better get going.” She said.

8 nodded in agreement, whatever was going on meant 3 was in deep trouble.

———

“4! Wake up!”

4 groaned in pain and opened her eyes seeing Neo crouched down above her. She planted her hands on the ground and lifted herself up feeling her body ache in pain.

“Ugh, you alright Neo?” 4 asked rubbing one of her eyes, she couldn’t really care less about how she felt right now, she knew 3 would probably kill her if anything happened to Neo on her watch.

“I’m fine but what about you? You slammed into that giant furnace when you fell.”

Furnace? What furnace?

4 turned her head looking around the room, it was covered in foliage like the roof and there where conveyor belts with old rusty pieces of metal on it. One of the conveyor belts lead to a giant metal furnace which had a dent on the top of it probably from where she hit it.

“Yeah I’ll be ok, Where’s Marie?” 4 said looking around. That’s when Marie dropped down from above landing in front of the two other inklings her charger slung over her back.

“I swear you’re gonna give me a heart attack one of these days, we’re here for a total of 15 minutes and you manage to fall through the roof and knock yourself out.” Marie said with an annoyed tone grabbing 4’s hand and pulling her up to her feet despite the pain that shook through her whole body when she did.

“Love you too.” 4 said pulling her usual cheeky smile, that seemed to help Marie who eased up a little.

“So…do you think anyone’s here? If there where don’t you think they would’ve investigated the sound by now?” Neo asked looking around hero shot still in hand.

She had a point, something should’ve happened, maybe someone comes to investigate or alarms start blaring, anything at all. But it was quiet…to quiet.

“Something’s wrong, this feels off.” Marie said grabbing her charger from her back.

“Maybe they moved? Probably don’t like staying in one spot for to long?” 4 suggested, it kinda made sense, at least to 4.

“I don’t know, but stay on guard.” Marie said beginning to walk around slowly with her charger in hand ready to fire.

4 began to walk as well gripping her hero shot tightly and began to think through the possibilities.

‘Maybe they left when they saw them pull up?’

‘Maybe they aren't here and 3 was wrong?’

‘Maybe they are here but there just waiting for us to come to them?’

No matter what 4 assumed it never fully made sense, she thought through every possibility as she went to go open a door covered in overgrown leaves.

‘Or maybe this is a trap’

Just as 4 grabbed the doorknob and turned it suddenly the door flew open knocking her back onto the ground and dropping her hero shot.

She grabbed her head which hurt really bad, why couldn’t she stop getting hurt today?

“Agh! Cod that hurt!” 4 looked up at the door and saw a octoling walk through the door.

But the octoling looked different, it had that same green skin that the sanitized ones did but it’s tentacles where all weird and fuzzy. It looked down at Neo with those red shining shades piercing her own gaze.

“What is that?!” 4 yelled crawling back while the octoling stepped closer its boots slamming against the ground.

It got closer and closer until…

“Get away from her!” Marie yelled out a laser suddenly appearing which rested on the octolings chest, the strange octoling in turn jumped out the way as Marie fired a shot.

4 quickly took this chance to turn into her squid form and swim through Marie’s ink back to her grabbing her hero shot along the way.

Once she exited her squid form she spotted another one of the strange octolings enter the room.

“This was a trap! They where expecting us!” 4 yelled readying her hero shot while Neo ran to her side also ready to fight.

“They look like those fuzzy octolings I fought in Alterna.” Neo said. Marie began to charge up another shot as the octolings started to slowly approach.

That’s when a loud ringing noise sounded throughout the facility,

“You made it! I’m so glad you could, I was wondering when your little Splatoon would show up.”

It was that voice from the radio at the wedding. And now he was on some kind of PA system, 4 groaned.

“So you’re not here are you?” 4 yelled out.

“Of course not, did you think I’d just leave the location of my current whereabouts on some computer? No you idiot!”

That’s when the octolings got close and Neo and 4 started shooting at them, but no matter what they kept dodging all there shots. It was weird, they had amazing reflexes unlike any 4’s seen before.

“Who are you?” Marie yelled shooting at the octolings and yelling in frustration when they dodged her shot again.

“I won’t tell you that just yet, for now I think I’ll inform you on who your dealing with.”

4 dodged backward as one of the octolings swung at her with its claws. She attempted another shot but even while swinging the octoling still dodged her!

“Im unlike anything you’ve seen before! I know who you are, I know what you’re capable of! I’ve been studying you and your Splatoon for a year!”

4 kept backing up while shooting and checked to see how Neo was doing, she seemed to be handling herself, working as a distraction for the second octoling while Marie tried to get a shot on it.

“I know your fighting styles and techniques! I know you use Alterna as a base of operations! I know everything!”

That’s when 4’s weapon ran out of ink and the octoling charged forward ready to kill. 4 put her arms up bracing for the hit when suddenly she heard something land in front of her. She opened her eyes and saw Callie blocking the octoling with her roller.

“Get back!” She yelled pushing her roller forward which encouraged the octoling to fall back.

“Helluva entrance Callie!” 4 said quickly hopping in her ink to recharge.

“Thanks! Now get ready, those things aren’t letting up.”

Once 4 filled her ink tank she hopped back out and aimed her hero shot at the octoling which began to approach again.

“I figured if I was gonna lead you here I might as well try out a little experiment I have going on. It’s a masterpiece! These octolings with there impressive skill on fighting combined with the dna of mammals through the fuzzy ooze makes the perfect soldier!” The voice said again.

4 didn’t really know what he was talking about but it sounded bad, if they struggled to fight these 2 then imagine what would happen if they had to fight more of them!

“Now!” Callie yelled swinging her roller at the octoling which dodged backward, 4 took this chance to shoot it with her hero shot and managed to actually land a hit.

That’s when 4 felt something pierce her arm and she cried out in pain turning her head to see the other octoling had dug her claws into it and had it’s other hand raised ready to kill.

4’s eyes widened and she tried to kick it off but it wouldn’t budge. That’s when 3 charged into the octoling knocking it onto the floor and quickly splatting it with her hero shot.

“You ok?” 3 asked and 4 grabbed her arm feeling ink starting to leak out, there was a hole in her sleeve now from where the octoling jabbed her but she figured she’d be fine.

“Sorta, can we please hurry up here?” 4 said, she’d only been here for a bit but she was tired already.

That’s when 2 more of the strange octolings burst through the doors and 4 groaned in annoyance.

“We need backup!” Marie yelled from across the room while dodging the attacks of the first octoling. 4 wanted to run over to help but unfortunately the two octolings started heading in her and 3’s direction.

4 looked over at 3 and saw her pull out her phone beginning to type on it.

“What are you doing?” 4 asked watching as 3 tapped on it a couple more times before putting it away.

“Calling for backup now eyes up!” She said beginning to fire at the octolings.

4 stood and aimed her hero shot with her good arm beginning to fire as well.

Chapter Text

8 ran as fast as her legs would take her, she could feel sweat running down her forehead from how long she’d been running for. The place that 3 had shared there location from wasn’t exactly close and with how urgent the text looked she assumed no time was to waste.

“Cmon 8 we’re almost there!”

Oh yeah and Pearl was riding on her back.

“I’m going as fast as I can!” 8 yelled, since Pearl was a lot shorter and had smaller legs 8 was tasked with carrying her while she used the phone to guide where 8 should go. Sometimes the two would pass a couple people and get confused looks but that didn’t stop 8, social awkwardness could wait, she had a girl to save.

“Take a turn around this corner!” Pearl yelled her hand coming into 8’s view above. 8 slowed down a bit feeling her legs burn and her muscles ache in pain as she rounded the corner and spotted a giant overgrown factory in the distance with a familiar lime green car in front of the gate leading in. “There it is!” Pearl yelled.

Seeing the place where 3 supposedly was brought back all the energy that was beginning to leave 8 and her legs kicked into overdrive letting her run faster than she’s ever ran before. Once she finally made it to the gate she let Pearl down before swinging it open hearing the loud creaking noise it made as she ran inside toward the doors leading inside.

8 hoped she wasn’t to late, it took quite a bit of time to get there from the square and all she could wonder is why in the world 3 would be in some old abandoned factory in the first place.

The octoling reached the door and pushed on it expecting it to open but unfortunately it didn’t budge. Years of exposure to the elements and yet the locks where still in pristine condition…perfect.

8 groaned in annoyance and tried ramming her shoulder into the door but it still didn’t budge and only left her with a sore shoulder. That’s when Pearl finally caught up.

“It will not open!” 8 said as she attempted to ram into the door again. Pearl quickly joined in with the both of them ramming there bodies into the door which produced no results except them hurting there shoulders.

After a couple minutes suddenly a loud crash sounded out and both girls stopped quickly running to where the sound originated at the side of the building. Once they turned the corner they spotted a familiar inkling lying on the ground in front of a hole in the brick wall with her roller beside her.

“Callie! Are you okay?” 8 asked running to her aid and quickly getting to her knees helping the idol sit up. She had a few bruises and scratches with some leaking pink ink from her arms as if something had been scratching them.

“I’m fine…I just need a minute…” Callie said sounding exhausted as she reached around aimlessly for her roller. 8 heard what sounded like fighting and turned her head to see that 3 and 4 where fighting off a strange looking sanitized octoling, for some reason it looked like it had fuzzy tentacles.

“What the hell is going on?!” Pearl yelled peeking through the hole, 8 was also equally curious as to just what was going on.

“We can explain later but for now I’d really love some help.” Callie said getting to her feet and grabbing her roller. 8 stood as well and looked into the hole in the wall feeling her heart rate pick up as she watched 3 and 4 fight the octoling which managed to separate the two. She could feel those memories of Kamabo returning, the tests, the countless deaths, the sanitized ink, all the things she wish she could forget just like she did with the rest of her life until she wound up down there.

“8 cmon! We gotta get in there!” Pearl yelled snapping 8 out of her mind, the octoling looked down at Pearl and then back at the hole in the wall taking a deep breath before running toward it hopping inside.

“Is that all? I can do this all day!” 8 heard 4’s voice yell before quickly a loud cry in pain sounded out, “Ok that one was pretty good!”

8 turned and saw 4 was pinned against a conveyor belt with the octoling trying to dig its claws into her face, 4 was holding back its claws with her own hands. 8 went to go run to her aid when suddenly a laser appeared on the sanitized octolings head causing it to jump out of the way last second.

8 turned and saw the origin of the shot was Marie who looked like she was trying to keep her cool. The octoling attempted to run over to her when she was suddenly rammed into the floor and she turned to see one of those fuzzy sanitized octolings looming over her. 8 felt her breath catch in her throat as it stared her down revealing its claws.

8 tried to move, tried to get away, anything but no matter what her body refused to respond with the only movement being the frantic darting of her tentacles in random directions from the panic and she just stared in fear as it raised its hand ready to strike.

“AAAAHHH!!” A battle cry rung out as 3 came into view shooting her hero shot at the octoling getting a few hits off before it retreated. 3 took this chance to run to 8 extending a hand out, “Are you okay?” She asked clearly out of breath.

8 could feel her body trembling, she was doing it again, this was just like the wedding, she was freezing up.

“Y-yes…I am.” 8 said grabbing 3’s hand and letting the inkling pull her to her feet.

“Good, because I need your help to splat these things. They’re way to fast for one person to handle.”3 said aiming her gun at the octoling that had retreated which was quickly running back in for another go.

“Got it.” 8 said trying to shake the fear out of her, she couldn’t hide again, not like last time. She had to face this, she couldn’t be a coward.

Once the octoling was in reach 3 began to fire but the octoling soon dodged and 8 took this chance to run at it swinging a fist at the enemy which managed to connect causing it to cry out in pain and stumble back. 3 continued her relentless volley of ink landing a hit while 8 went in for another punch that the foe dodged by backflipping. Whatever this was octoling was affected by was clearly giving it the ability to move faster than a normal person should and 8 could see why 3 needed help now.

The enemy landed and quickly dashed toward 8, 3 tried to shoot it but it was to fast as it swung at 8 who dodged backward. 3 moved closer continuing to shoot and managing to land another couple shots before the octoling swung at 3 knocking her gun out of her hand which slid across the floor. 8 attempted another swing but the fist was caught, 3 also tried to go in for a punch but her fist was caught as well and she tried to kick the octoling when suddenly both her and 8 where raised up.

8 would’ve gone for a kick but the sanitized octoling started to swing the two around before throwing them into the nearby wall which nearly caved with the force they hit it at.

8 landed on her knees and hands looking up to see the octoling was already running toward them again not giving them a second to breath. 8 looked around for anything she could use when she spotted a sharp jagged piece of metal sitting on the ground nearby and she grabbed it, she waited till the octoling was close enough before she swung at it cutting its stomach. The octoling stumbled back clearly not expecting the attack and 3 dove at it knocking it to the ground and pinning it down.

“8! Splat it!” 3 yelled trying desperately to hold the octoling down, 8 crawled over and raised the piece of metal in the air before sending it back down onto the octolings head watching it stop it’s resistance and burst into pink ink.

Both girls sat down with bits of pink ink now on their legs. They looked at each other panting, 8 gave a awkward smile not knowing what else to do in this situation and 3 just stared with an unreadable expression.

Even with the current situation they where in, 8 couldn’t help but admire how beautiful 3 looked right now. Her body shone with sweat which the sunlight from a hole on the roof reflected off of, her green tentacles with scars on there ends that only served to make her look more unique, even the bruises on her body only served to accentuate it.

“Captain we need your help!” Neo yelled breaking the moment between the two. 8 turned her head and saw Neo working with Pearl to try and take down one of the sanitized fuzzy octolings.

3 immediately got to her feet running to go aid the two grabbing her hero shot on the way, 8 took a second to get to her feet feeling her whole body ache in pain. She would’ve gone to help the 3 of them take down the octoling but suddenly she was bumped into by Marie.

“Hey 8, I need you to tag in for me. 4 is really hurt and I gotta help her, you good with a charger?” The idol asked in a hurried tone handing 8 her charger, 8 looked down at it and then back up at Marie nodding. She’d learned how to use chargers pretty well in ranked modes, it wasn’t exactly her favorite weapon type but she knew how to use them effectively.

“Yes, go help her, I will cover for you.” 8 said giving Marie a determined look and nodding, Marie gave a quick ‘Thank you’ before she ran to go help her girlfriend which was sat on the floor with yellow ink leaking from her body onto the floor from her arm, 8 felt bad for the injured girl, out of everyone else here it looked like 4 had taken the worst of the beating. Marie quickly wrapped an arm around 4 helping her up and guiding her out of the hole in the wall made from when Callie was flung through.

8 looked over and saw Callie trying to fight one of the sanitized fuzzy octolings, it was clear Callie was getting tired with how she slowly she was starting to swing her roller and yet the octoling looked like it wasn’t even breaking a sweat.

8 aimed the charger waiting until she heard the familiar beep to signal a full charge and aimed it right at the octoling firing and watching as the octoling barely dodged to the side clearly not expecting the shot. Callie took advantage of this and swung her roller full force into the octoling but unfortunately it grabbed the roller trying to hold it back so it wouldn’t crush it.

8 took advantage of this and charged up another shot letting it fire right into the back of the octoling causing it to fall to the ground before Callie finished it off with her roller. Afterwards Callie looked up at 8 and smiled giving a thumbs up.

“Thanks for the help 8!” She said and 8 smiled giving a thumbs up back.

8 then quickly turned her attention to the last of the enemy’s in the room that 3, Neo and Pearl where trying to take down, even with how outnumbered it was it still managed to hold its own however it was quickly being cornered. 8 ran to get closer while charging another shot with the charger with Callie following suit and soon 8 had the charger aimed at the octoling which dodged it before backing up to avoid the volley of ink from 3 and Neo’s weapons while Pearl went in for the occasional swing. Eventually the octoling was trapped in a corner and promptly finished off with 3 and Neo’s weapons splatting it with there green and yellow ink respectively.

Now that the room was clear everyone took a chance to breathe with Callie falling to the floor in exhaustion while Neo leaned against the wall and 3 took slow breaths looking up through the hole in the roof, and Pearl didn’t even look tired just standing there with her arms crossed looking around the now ink covered debris filled room. 8 sat the charger down and leaned against the wall closing her eyes.

“Man that was crazy! You guys ok?” Pearl asked getting a few groans rather than actual responses.

8 thought about what she’d just witnessed, sanitized octolings, but now they where somehow faster and stronger? Not only that but they had fuzzy tentacles, maybe it had something to do with that fuzzy ooze 8 heard about. Not only that but what where they doing here?

Why couldn’t these things just disappear? leave and never come back. Why couldn’t her past just die already?

8 huffed in frustration and pushed herself off the wall turning to look at everyone else but was confused when she saw that 3 was now nowhere to be found.

8 looked around confused until she spotted 3 now standing in front of one of the brick walls, her hero shot was sat at her feet. The octoling was about to ask what 3 was doing when suddenly the inkling reeled her fist back and punched full force into the wall causing it to crack. 8’s eyes widened and she began to speed walk over to 3 confused at just what she was doing.

“3! what are you doing?” 8 asked but 3 didn’t respond only throwing another punch into the wall. This was deeply concerning because those punches looked like they hurt.

It seemed everyone else was catching on now, “Yo 3 what the fuck are you doing?!” Pearl yelled.

3 once again didn’t respond only punching the wall again, 8 began to run now deeply concerned about the Inkling hurting herself.

“3 stop! You’re going to hurt your hands!” 8 yelled getting closer and watching as 3 began to punch the wall faster now letting out audible sounds of anger.

“Captain stop!” Neo yelled and yet 3 still didn’t respond only letting out an angry yell.

8 finally made it to 3 and grabbed her arm stopping the inklings attempts to punch the wall again, in response 3 began to yank her arm trying to break free and 8 only gripped tighter.

“That’s enough 3!” 8 yelled yanking back on 3’s arm and turning her around. 8 felt a knot begin to form in her stomach when she saw 3’s face as she turned around, the inkling looked angry, very angry. 8 had only seen 3 like this before a couple times and one of them was back at the wedding when she fought that sanitized octoling that grabbed 8.

3’s angered expression quickly disappeared being replaced with one of regret and she pulled her arm from 8’s grasp looking away.

“3…are you okay?” 8 asked in as gentle a tone as she could, something was clearly wrong with the inkling and she wanted to get to the bottom of it.

However it seemed 3 wasn’t willing to explain and she just stayed silent which only made 8 more worried.

“Is everything alright in there?” 8 heard Marie yell and she turned to see the idol was reentering through the hole in the wall.

“We got rid of those freaky octodudes but then 3 started punching the wall like a psycho.” Pearl said pointing over at 3 and 8. Marie turned to the two and her eyes narrowed, it looked like she knew what that meant and 8’s curiosity only grew about what was going on.

“3, what’s going on?” Marie asked approaching, 8 watched as 3 closed her eyes and took a deep breath. 8 decided to try and help Marie get to the bottom of this.

“Yes, what’s going on 3? You can talk to us you know, we are your friends.” 8 said putting a hand on 3’s shoulder, the inkling flinched at the contact but didn’t move so 8 assumed it was ok.

“I’m fine.” Was all 3 said even though she clearly sounded not fine. Marie wasn’t buying it and she stopped in front of the inkling her stare intensifying.

“Bull, you just don’t wanna say it. Tell me what’s wrong.” She said sternly, 3 bit her lip like she was trying to stop herself from saying something and her breathing started to speed up a bit. “This is just like when you started out in the Nss. Just talk to-“ Marie began to say but 3 cut her off opening her eyes and looking up at the idol with an equally intense stare.

“No it’s not! I said I’m fine-fuck! what do you want from me?” 3 said quickly starting to sound angry again, 8 could feel the tension in the room starting to build, she looked back toward the others her where all watching silently now.

“I want you to tell me what’s going on with you! I know you don’t like talking about your feelings because you think it makes you weak or whatever but it doesn’t!” Marie said anger starting to rise in her own voice. 8 stayed silent out of fear for what might happen if she spoke her mind.

“Screw off Marie! I said I’m fine, can we just continue with the mission?” 3 said bending down and grabbing her hero shot.

“No, you’re not continuing. You’re gonna go clear your head.” Marie said sounding done with this conversation. 3’s eyes and widened and she clenched her teeth quickly barking back with,

“You don’t get to decide that! Since when where you the captain?” Marie grabbed 3’s hero shot yanking it from her hand.

“Since you where dismissed from duty, Now go!” Marie said pointing to the hole in the wall. 3 looked like she was about to say something but she decided against it huffing out a breath and stomping over to the hole in the wall. 8 watched feeling worry for the inkling as she stomped away, she couldn’t believe Marie just dismissed 3.

“8 go with 3, make sure she doesn’t do something stupid. I’ve gotta stay here and check out the rest of this factory make sure we don’t miss anything.” Marie said sounding exhausted now. 8 nodded and began to walk toward the hole in the wall to follow 3, stopping to hear Pearl begin to speak.

“Well I guess I’d better get outta here as well, wouldn’t wanna get in the way and-“

She was cut off by Marie who shoved 3’s hero shot into her chest, “Nuh-uh, you’re the only one here not seriously injured so your helping me.”

Judging from Pearls tone she didn’t seem to like the idea, “Psh, fine grandma. But I’m gonna complain the whole time.”

8 sighed and stepped out of the factory turning and seeing 3 already heading for the gate, her tentacles started to squirm a little with nervousness. She quickly ran to catch up with her soon walking with her side by side.

3 didn’t even pass a glance just stared straight ahead to the gate, it made 8 even more uncomfortable than this situation already was. She decided to try and lighten the mood a bit.

“You fought well back there, as skilled as always.” 8 said looking down at the inkling hoping she would at least react but she wasn’t even given the luxury of that. She decided that maybe being anywhere than here would probably help ease 3. “Are you hungry? Because there’s this nice restaurant that Pearl and Marina to this one time nearby. And you did promise we’d hang out some time so maybe this could be our chance?” As 8 said that out loud she quickly realized it was more like she was suggesting a date but she quickly shoved that thought aside.

“Sure…” was all 3 said, she sounded tired which was reasonable considering how long she must’ve been fighting for in that factory, maybe later 8 could ask just why exactly she was there.

“Great! And don’t worry about money, Pearl let’s me use her bank account.” It was very convenient for 8, considering how much money Pearl had and made along with Marina, 8 was basically set for life financially.

“Cool…lead the way.” 3 said grabbing the gate and opening it that stupid loud creaking sound filling the air again as 8 walked through with 3 following quickly.

The two girls began to walk down the sidewalk once again side by side, 8 would’ve enjoyed the peace and quiet of this moment if it weren’t for the obvious elephant in the room not being addressed. She decided to take her mind off it by examining there surroundings, it was quite different to 8 how everything looked in Splatsville compared to Inkopilis. She’s only been here a few months and it’s still taken time to adjust, just the sheer size of the buildings was overwhelming enough combined with the fact that a lot of it looked a lot more dated than Inkopilis.

Inkopilis had a certain homey feel to it, one that made you feel like you belonged. Splatsville on the other hand was much more…well chaotic. There was a lot more litter here than Inkopilis and a lot of the inklings and octolings who lived here seemed to enjoy the anarchy and basically pure freedom they had.

It was new to 8 and should’ve scared her but then again she’s basically spent her whole life adjusting to new things so this was basically an average Tuesday for her.

Soon the buildings became familiar to 8 and she realized they where closer to the restaurant, it was somewhere Pearl took her and Marina when they first moved to Splatsville, at first 8 wasn’t to excited but when they got there it turned out to be much more pleasant than she thought. The people where nice, the employees where nice, it had nice warm feel to it, the food was good, all in all it was great and had 8 looking forward to living in Splatsville.

Turning a corner 8 spotted the restaurant in between two bigger buildings, it contrasted the usual brick and cement of the other buildings with a dark oak style and a neon hanging on the roof that said, “Crazy Lannies”. There where a few windows lining the walls that showed the inside with patrons drinking, eating, chatting, and just generally having a good time.

As they approached the building 8 opened the door and held it for 3 watching the inkling walk in wordlessly. She was starting to look a little better and it made 8 feel better herself.

8 walked in herself and was quickly greeted with the delicious aroma of food and rock music blasting along with the chatter of people. Looking around 8 saw a few guys sat at a counter with big glasses of what looked like alcoholic drinks talking, there where plenty of tables and booths full of people who had plates of food and drinks all happy, it made 8 feel warm inside.

“Hello, welcome to Crazy Lannies!” 8 heard a voice yell over the noise and she turned to see a man with his tentacles tied up and an apron on behind a little podium. He gave a smile and waved and 8 returned it stepping up to him. “Will it just be you two today?” He asked pointing to 3 who was standing there with her arms crossed looking at the floor.

8 nodded, “Yep! Do you have any booths open? Its been a rough day and we’d really like to sit down.” She said giving a nervous laugh. The man nodded and typed into the computer resting on the podium.

“I feel you girl. Now just give me a moment and…alright! Let’s get you two to your table!” He said moving from the podium and beginning to walk through the restaurant grabbing a couple menus on the way. 8 quickly followed with 3 right behind.

8 occasionally gave a passing glance to some of the other people at there tables which where to busy talking or eating to notice her, she really hoped that no one would notice how bruised both her and 3 where or how strange 3’s captain outfit looked.

The waiter eventually stopped at a booth in a corner that was farther from all the commotion which 8 highly appreciated. The two girls sat down on opposite sides and the menus where sat in front of them.

“What would you two like to drink?” The waiter asked pulling a notepad and pen from his apron.

“I’d like a Sweet tea. What about you 3?” 8 asked, she assumed the girl would probably just get a soda or water.

“I’ll take a beer.” She said giving the waiter a lazy look. It definitely caught 8 off guard and her eyes widened in surprise, she didn’t know 3 drank alcohol.

“Alright, one sweet tea and one beer. I’ll be back with your drinks!” The waiter said jotting down there orders before leaving. 8 took this chance to try and talk to 3 properly.

“I didn’t know you drank alcohol. I don’t mind it’s just…unexpected.” She said leaning in and resting her arms in the table. The inkling leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms and looking down at the table.

“I do sometimes, not all the time, just every now and then.” 3 said giving a shrug, at least she was starting to talk more now.

“Hm…Do you mind telling me what you where doing in that factory?” 8 asked, it wasn’t exactly the most subtle way to change the subject but it would work.

“We where following a lead we got from that computer in Grizzco. It turned out to be a trap, now we’re all out of fucking leads.” 3 said that last part much more bitterly and 8 could feel the tension starting to rise again.

“Is…is that why you are upset?” 8 asked feeling her tentacles begin to squirm nervously.

“No-not exactly, I just…it’s…” Whatever 3 was trying to say she was clearly having a hard time with and 8 waited with faded breath.

“And here’s your drinks! Are you two ready to order yet?” The waiter came back at the worst time setting down the drinks and stopping 3 from finishing what she was gonna say.

8 internally groaned in annoyance and grabbed her sweet tea taking a sip from the straw that was placed in it before sitting it down and grabbing the menu quickly opening it and glancing through it.

“Yes I’ll have a hamburger.” The octoling said looking back up at the waiter which nodded and wrote it down on his notepad before looking over at 3.

“I’ll just have what she’s having.” 3 said not bothering to look at the waiter now.

“Alright, I’ll get these to you two as fast as I can!” The waiter said before walking away once again. 8 hoped that now 3 would finish what she was gonna say, she knew the inkling didn’t exactly like talking about her feelings but maybe since it was just the two of them she’d be more willing to open up.

“So…what where you gonna say?” 8 asked.

“It’s nothing.” 3 said going to grab her drink, 8 sighed and reached over the table grabbing 3’s hand stopping her from grabbing the drink and subsequently catching the inkling off guard. 8 hoped she wasn’t being to forward here.

“3, you can talk to me, you don’t have to hide how you feel. It doesn’t make you weaker to talk about your feelings, so please just talk to me.” 8 said looking 3 in the eyes, the girl looked like she’d been caught doing something and looked at 8’s hand holding her own and closed her eyes taking a deep breath.

“I-I’m…I’m scared 8, I don’t know what I’m doing and I’m scared. I don’t know where we should go or what we should do, I don’t even know who we’re fighting and yet he knows so much about us. It scares me, and because of that I…” 3‘s mouth hung open as she tried to find the words.

“It makes you mad. It’s upsetting not knowing what’s going on, I get it.” 8 said finishing 3’s sentence for her. The inkling gave a bittersweet laugh and shook her head.

“You really do don’t you.” She said opening her eyes and looking into 8’s. It was much more different now, she was vulnerable. She was letting out how she truly felt…she was trusting 8.

“Yes, and I just want you to know that you aren’t alone in this. We all are here for you, no one’s going to judge you for feeling what a normal person feels, it’s life.” 8 spoke from her heart hoping 3 would understand and learn from this, 8 didn’t want her holding all these feelings in on her own, she wanted to be there for her.

In response to 8’s words, 3 squeezed the octolings hand which held her own and took a shaky breath.

“But I’m the captain, I’m supposed to be the leader, I’m supposed to be fearless and guide everyone. I’m supposed to know everything.” The inkling said looking down at the table now.

“No you aren’t, good leaders don’t know everything. Good leaders let others help them and talk to them when they need to, good leaders admit when they don’t know something and that they need help. You are a good leader 3, you just need to trust the people you lead.” 8 added her other hand to 3’s own grabbing it with both. She needed 3 to understand she didn’t have to hide these feelings.

“It’s hard to do that…I’ve done it before but all it did was get me in trouble.” 3 said closing her eyes again. 8 didn't know 3’s past before they met, heck no one in the Nss knew 3’s past, but whatever happened back then really hurt her, and 8 wanted to try and help fix that.

“Then maybe…if you need to talk to someone, if anything’s bothering you or if you’re just feeling down, come talk to me. I’ll always be here for you 3, this isn’t a fight you have to do alone.” 8 gave her most genuine, heartfelt look as she said this and it seemed to work because 3 looked back up at 8 and a small smile stretched across her face.

“Ok…thank you 8.” 3 said.

“It’s my pleasure.” 8 said back giving her own smile.

The two sat there with 8 holding 3’s hand for a minute the two not breaking eye contact, they would’ve stayed like that for longer but 3’s phone began to vibrate and she moved her hand out of 8’s grasp grabbing from her pocket and 8 felt a pang of sadness at the loss of contact retracting her own hands.

“It’s Callie, she said she’s going down to Neo’s with 4.” 3 said looking down at her phone. At the same time she absentmindedly reached for her drink and brought it to her lips taking as swig. 8 physically cringed at that, she'd tried alcohol before when Marina left her and Pearl home alone once, it didn’t taste very good in her opinion.

Setting the drink down, 3 put her phone away just in time to notice the waiter coming back with there food. The man sat the two plates that had very delicious hamburgers on them with an even better smell causing 8 to nearly drool.

“Alright, here you two go! If you have any issues let me know.” He said, 8 and 3 gave there thanks before the waiter left and soon they dug in to there food. 8 felt like she was in heaven with that first bite into her burger, she closed her eyes and savored the taste, it was one thing 8 ordered when Pearl brought her here and she’d loved it before and loved it all the same now.

“I made a new friend earlier today, when I was hanging those missing posters for smallfry.” 8 said through mouthfuls of food trying to start a new more pleasant conversation.

3 looked intrigued and raised her eyebrows, “Really? What’s there name?”

8 smiled and sat her burger down reaching for her sweet tea and begin to explain what happened earlier in the morning before the factory incident.

———

8 held the door open for 3 once again as they left the restaurant much happier and full then when they entered.

The two began to walk down the sidewalk side by side once again, a much more comfortable and light atmosphere than what it was before.

“So where are we gonna go now?” 3 asked, 8 thought for a moment and realized she probably should’ve been home by now and Marina was most likely worried sick.

“We could go back to my place, Marina is probably expecting me to be home by now anyways.” The octoling said.

3 hummed in agreement, “Alright, better than just chilling at home alone.” 8 was happy to hear that, she’d remembered when the two them still lived in Inkopilis 3 would always come down to Pearls mansion and hangout with her since she lived there, sometimes 4 would come down as well and the three of them would laugh and eat snacks and watch movies like little kids.

They continued to walk in a pleasant silence with the sun shining down on them, the occasional car passing by, when suddenly a loud noise caught the two off guard. 8 and 3 both turned to see an alley beside them and the origin of the noise being a trashcan on its side. 8 would’ve questioned why that happened when suddenly the head of a familiar cat popped out of the trashcan with a empty can of tuna in its mouth.

“Lil Judd? What’ are you doing out here?” 3 asked walking over and crouching down in front of the cat. 8 walked over curious as well and crouched down beside 3.

“Mew (I was looking for tuna.)” The cat said dropping the empty can of tuna. 8 giggled at this, she’s always found the cat cute and this was no exception.

“Well there’s none here, come on we’ll take you back with us and get some tuna.” 3 said stretching her hands out in offering, the cat quickly jumped into 3’s hands and curled up. 3 then stood up and held the cat to her chest which made 8 just want to cry from how cute the whole display was.

“Aw 3~” 8 said standing back up and petting Lil Judd who purred from the attention, she swore she could see 3’s face turning her ink color but the inkling looked away before she could get a good look.

“L-let’s hurry up and get home.” 3 said turning and leaving the alley with 8 following.

———

“I’m home!” 8 yelled opening the door to the apartment. Marina was walking past holding a few wires and tools and nearly dropped them turning to 8 and smiling.

“There you are! What took you so long? And where’s Pearl…and why are you bruised?! Did someone hurt you?” Marina asked immediately setting her stuff down on the nearby counter and placing her hands on 8’s cheeks and tilting her head up and down. 8 laughed and moved her head back, Marina was such a worrier sometimes.

“It’s ok! There where these guys but-“ she was about to explain but was cut off when 3 walked in.

“She absolutely kicked there asses.” The inkling said walking in still holding Lil Judd. 8 smiled at the comment and Marina turned to her with a confused look.

“Oh, I didn’t know you would be here 3, and Little Judd…It’s nice to have you!” Marina said giving 3 a smile, 3 nodded and looked down at Lil Judd who hopped out of her hands and started walking around exploring the apartment.

“He’s probably looking for tuna, we found him in an alley.” 3 said putting her hands in her pockets now. All 3 girls watched the cat walk over to the fridge and start to attempt at opening it.

“That explains the smell…well anyways, are you two alright? Any serious injuries?” 8 and 3 shook there heads no.

“We’re just very tired. Anyways what are you doing?” 8 asked peeking behind Marina to the pile of tools and wires sitting on the counter. If there was one thing Marina liked to do it was tinker, she loved taking apart and putting stuff back together making it better.

“I’m trying to work on that radio from my wedding, so far I’m not really getting anything so I’m trying to get any kind of signal.” Marina said walking back over to the counter and picking up her supplies. “If you need anything you two let me know.” She said before moving away toward her bedroom.

“So what do you wanna do?” 3 asked shifting from one foot to another.

“We could watch tv together, I’m just really tired.” 8 said, her legs weren’t burning anymore after there visit to Crazy Lannies but her body was still sore all over.

3 nodded in silent agreement and 8 guided them to the living room quickly sitting on the couch and melting into the cushions letting out an audible noise of relief. 3 sat beside her equally relaxed and grabbed the remote handing it to 8. The octoling began mindlessly flipping through the channels stopping on SpongeBob and sitting the remote down.

Today had been quite an eventful one and it wasn’t even over yet! First 8 made a new friend, then she ends up in a giant fight after running a marathon with a midget on her back, then after all that she ends up having a emotional talk with 3! It was all so much and she grateful for this break, especially with 3.

The tv droned on with whatever episode of the yellow sponge was on currently but 8 wasn’t watching, she was to tired to focus. She yawned and turned her head to see if 3 was even watching and noticed the girl was beginning to doze off, her head tilting down as her eyes fluttered shut. 8 decided to help the inkling sleep wrapping an arm around her and pulling the girl so she was leaning against her side, 3 didn’t object and seemed to relax even more.

8 closed her eyes and took slow breaths, maybe after a good nap she could take Lil Judd back to Judd and explain what happened to Marina, for now she would just sleep.

Eventually 8’s body grew heavy and she felt herself slipping from consciousness listening to the beat of the inklings hearts that was leaned against her as it lulled her to sleep.

———

Marina was starting to get annoyed with this radio.

It’d been a couple days now and she still couldn’t find a signal, a clue or a hint of just what might be going on and it was driving her insane on the inside, on the outside she just pretended everything was fine when it most definitely wasn’t. Her whole desk was covered in plastic and wired and tools, she had her own radio connected to the now taken apart radio, she was hoping that whatever signal she found on the radio would transfer to hers.

Using a solder, Marina watched as the smoke rised while she connected a wire to the circuit of the radio. She really needed to clear her mind somehow, she was so worried about this whole situation, knowing that all sea life is on the brink of being destroyed again was stressful enough and knowing she was holding probably the only other useful clue they had apart from the data from that Grizzco computer was only adding onto it. Pile onto that the stress of 8 coming home bruised and battered with her superior/crush and Marina really felt like just laying down in bed and never getting back up.

But she couldn’t, she had to keep going, for sea life, for the Nss, her family.

After finishing with the wire Marina tried messing with the knobs on her radio again trying to find a signal, after a few minutes of silence she groaned and slammed her head on the desk.

That somehow seemed to do it because quickly static came on and along with that a voice speaking in octarian.

“We need the package moved to the site under Hammerhead bridge tonight so don’t get spotted! The Nss are onto us so be discreet!”

Marinas eyes widened and she turned the volume up hoping to get a bit more info but unfortunately apart from a little background noise the signal cut off. The octoling sat down her radio and stared blankly in a direction.

“Hammerhead bridge…ok, that’s something.” She pushed off the desk and walked over to her door opening it quickly, she had to tell 3 about this.

However when she walked back into the living room and saw 8 and 3 fast asleep leaning against each other while SpongeBob played on the tv she figured it could wait.

Chapter Text

Callie groaned as she sat down on the wooden chair in Neo’s kitchen. Her whole body ached from the fight she took part in, sure she wasn’t as hurt as 4 was considering 4 got stabbed in the arm with a crazed octolings claw and thrown around a bunch but it wasn’t like Callie wasn’t also hurting. She got thrown through a wall for cod sake!

Sat in front of her was a medkit on the small wooden table that was open, it was used on 4 who Callie could see was now lying on Neo’s couch in the relatively small apartment. The poor girl had her hero jacket off revealing her tank top and bandages wrapped around her arm along with a few band aids littering her body and ice on one of her legs. Littering her body as well was plenty of smaller scars of different severity’s. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing slowly, her chest rising up and down with every breath in and out.

Callie wished she could’ve been there to help 4 a lot sooner, once she heard the loud voice of the same guy they heard on the radio boasting about his new experiment and how he knows everything about us and blah blah blah, she went jumping in, but clearly not soon enough.

4 was a bit of a loose cannon, always getting hurt and yet still going back for more. It was the explanation for all the scars that littered her chest and stomach and arms and legs and etc. The many times 4 would go to save Callie from her hypnosis from those really cool shades that she unfortunately didn’t have anymore or from patrolling the kettles or doing shifts at Grizzco, 4 would always end up with a new injury which lead to a new scar that would litter her already scar ridden body. 4 didn’t seem to mind them however, in fact she thought they where cool, and to be honest Callie though they were cool too.

Neo walked into the kitchen getting Callie’s attention and she gave a small smile to try and lighten the mood. Everyone was pretty bummed out about the whole situation but Callie tried to keep a positive attitude, even if it was forced at the moment.

“Will 4 be ok? I don’t want Marie to be upset knowing I let her girlfriend get hurt so much.” Neo said walking over and sitting down on the chair on the opposite side of the table. She looked worried which explained the question of 4’s current health.

“I’m sure she’ll be fine, she’s had worse. And besides, it’s not your fault that all that happened. It was a bad situation, no one’s to blame.” Callie said. It was sad that Neo thought she was responsible for what happened to 4, she didn’t need that pressure put on her along with the pressure of knowing that your home is in danger of being destroyed, she was just a kid. A bit ironic when thinking about 3 and how she was the exact same age when she first joined the Nss immediately being tasked with saving the great zap fish and later on rescuing gramps but hey, she turned out fine!

If your definition of fine was traumatized, having major trust issues, terrible at expressing your emotions, and being a mess in general.

It made Callie feel terrible knowing that she was basically leading Neo down the same path that 3 went down all those years ago. At least this time Neo had more people to rely on then two girls who never even bothered to tell her their real names until she saved the world and a crazy old man blabbering on about “THE RULES OF THE BATTLEFIELD!”

“But it was my fault that 4 and Marie jumped in, I fell into the building and they came after me. If I didn’t fall then maybe it would’ve turned out different, maybe-“ Neo began to spiral with every word she said and Callie quickly tried to reassure her that none of what happened was her fault, because it wasn’t!

“Neo, things wouldn’t have changed even if you didn’t fall in. It was a trap so it didn’t matter what you did, no one could’ve predicted what happened. Now please, calm down.” Callie gave a heartfelt look to Neo to try and really sell the point home that she wasn't at fault here.

“I…I’m sorry, but I can’t help feeling like this is my fault. When I saw the captain and how mad she was, I thought that maybe I screwed up somehow, that maybe she’s mad at me.” Neo looked down at the floor, her arms moving to hug herself. Cod it hurt to see her like this, Callie knew her words alone wouldn’t be able to fully reassure the kid but she had to try.

That when she remembered something, a memory from far back when 3 first started out as a agent herself. It was after gramps was kidnapped and 3 was furious that it’d happened, she blamed herself claiming that she should’ve seen it coming and that she could've stopped it but in reality she couldn’t have because she was busy in one of the kettles when it happened.

“You know…3 used to be like that, thinking that everything was her responsibility.” Callie turned so she was now facing toward the other inkling who was still looking at the ground and hugging herself. “Back when she first joined the Nss, she was in the middle of a mission when gramps got kidnapped.” That piqued Neo’s interest and she looked up at Callie with curious eyes. “When she got back she was so mad that she had an outburst a lot like the one she had at the factory. Me and Marie arrived to see her punching a hole in the wall of gramps old shack, once we got her to stop punching the shack like it’d killed her family she told us what happened and that she felt responsible, that it was her fault it happened.”

Neo stopped hugging herself leaning closer and placing her hands on the table.

“Really? That doesn’t sound like the Captain at all.” Neo said.

“Oh but it was. She was a lot like you Neo, sure she was definitely a lot…angrier, but she’s grown a lot since then and still is.” Callie placed her own hands ontop of Neo’s and gave them a gentle squeeze of reassurance. “She doesn’t blame you, in fact she probably blames herself just like you are right now. This is a very scary situation and sometimes that fear makes people upset so that’s most likely why she had that outburst.” Neo’s expression was unreadable and the girl looked down at there hands which Callie was still holding. “You’re not in trouble Neo, and you never were. Do you understand?” Callie had to make sure Neo understood, cod help she dumped all this knowledge and it still didn’t get through.

Thankfully it seemed to since Neo nodded and a small smile formed, the first Callie had seen since Smallfrys disappearance.

“Yes…I do.”

Callie smiled herself and retracted her hands resting them on her lap. “Good.”

The two of them sat in a comfortable silence for a bit, enjoying the peaceful moment they had. Callie figured they’d earned it after everything that’s happened today.

“Hey, how are you two doing?” A voice cut through startling Callie a little and she turned to the voice which was 4 who was standing in the doorway of the kitchen leaning with her hood arm against it most likely to support herself. Her injured arm dangled at her side, the bandage wrapped around the forearm had a spot of yellow ink seeping through.

“Better now, how about you? You got pretty beat up out there.” Callie said standing up to offer her seat to 4, however the Inkling just shook her head and moved past her to the fridge.

“I’m alright, ain’t nothing I haven’t dealt with before. I’m just worried about how bad Marie’s gonna rip into me when she gets back.” Callie laughed at that and sat back down, good old 4, she could get beat nearly to death and still get right back up like it was nothing. Plus the part about Marie was right, anytime 4 ends up hurt, which is a lot, Marie ends up fussing about it and is usually the one to do the first aid on 4. However this time Callie ended up being the one to do it, which was kind of entertaining in a sadistic way with all the creative language 4 ended up using while her arm was being treated. Callie ended up getting a “Fuck you.” When she reminded 4 there were children present.

4 opened the door to Neo’s fridge and started to rummage around, Callie took note of her arms and how muscular they looked. A few years ago on new years, (the same day she confessed to Marie.) 4 made a resolution to go to the gym. Callie thought she’d drop it after the first week like everyone else does but surprisingly she kept at it, and it definitely helped to make her more strong, which Marie definitely liked.

“How’re you doing kid? Feeling any better?” 4 asked grabbing a can of soda and shutting the fridge opting to lean against it as she took a sip. Neo nodded silently and 4 hummed in acknowledgment. “Good, I know that little smallfry guy means a lot to you, if you need any help then I’ll see what I can do.” Neo nodded again at that this time in appreciation.

Suddenly, the door to the apartment opened and in trudged a very exhausted and annoyed looking Marie. Everyone turned to look at her and the room fell dead silent, Callie knew when to poke fun and when not to when it came to her cousin and from the looks of it…this was definitely not the time to do it. She sat her charger down on the small table which clearly didn’t fit it and looked around. No one even said a peep, Neo looked intimidated, 4 gave a smile to probably lighten the mood and Callie was just concerned.

“Hey babe, you look like you need a-“ 4 said but was promptly cut off by Marie walking up and slapping her girlfriend in the face, definitely not what Callie expected to happen.

“Don’t you ‘hey babe’ me, do you have any idea how worried you had me! I had to carry you out of that damn building while you where bleeding on me and now you think you can just be all casual?” Marie sounded mad, like downright pissed mad, Callie had been on the receiving end of that mood from Marie more times than she could count, especially from the many times she put on the hypnoshades. And yet 4 looked so chill about it, she just looked back up at Marie and sat her soda down on the counter beside her.

“I love you too.” 4 said wrapping her arms around Marie’s waist and pulling the angry inkling in closer. “How about you come sit down with me so you can relax. You need it after dealing with Pearl without us for so long.” 4 said in a very soothing tone. And just like magic, Marie’s anger seemed to fade being replaced with tiredness instead. She leaned into her girlfriend and didn’t even make a noise when 4 moved to lift her up bridal style in her arms and carried her back toward the couch. It was like magic, the one thing that seemed to break through Marie’s tough exterior, her one weakness, 4.

Callie could just hear Marie say, “I hate you.” And 4’s retaliation with a, “No you don’t.” Before promptly a kiss sounded out.

“Please you two there are children in the room!” Callie yelled and all she got back was a laugh from 4.

“Marie seemed really mad, why did she hit 4?” Neo asked looking much more relaxed and confused now that the squid probably contemplating murder was no longer in the room and instead cuddling with her girlfriend.

“She was just worried about 4, she’s weird like that…heck, love makes people weird like that.”

———

Soft…so soft…

3 had never felt so comfortable before.

So soft…and warm…

She didn’t even know what it was, all she knew was that her body was completely covered in warmth and softness.

Never leave…don’t ever want to leave this feeling…

3 didn’t know what time it was or where she was or what was going on, all she knew was that she fell asleep while at 8’s place and now she didn’t want to get back up, captains duties be damned. 

That’s when it truly hit her, she was at 8’s home. Her memories quickly started to flood back, the fight, her outburst, her talk with 8 about her feelings. 

To tired…don’t wanna get up…

3 started to wake herself up a bit despite her mind and body wanting to stay relaxing in whatever pleasant and warm and oh so soft area this was. She groaned and opened her eyes which were pretty blurry so she rubbed them and what she saw when her vision refocused was definitely not what she expected. 

Oh my cod…

8 was laying on top of her…8 was laying ontop of her. And her face was so close to 3’s own, her eyes shut and her beautiful lips parted ever so slightly as she took in a slow breath every now and then.

CUTE!!!! TO CUTE!!!!

3 felt her face heat up and turn her ink color, out of all the things she expected to wake up to, 8’s adorable sleeping face was not one of them. And you know what…

3 definitely wasn’t complaining.

However, the world was cruel, and one of its cruelty’s was the fact she had work to do. She still needed to figure out their next move now that they lost their latest lead.

“8…8…wake up 8.” 3 gently whispered trying to nudge the sleeping octoling awake. In response, her hair proceeded to cling onto 3’s body, the suckers getting attached to her clothes. That gesture alone almost made 3 want to give up her attempt to wake up the girl and just fall back asleep.

Keyword, almost.

“8, wake up. Cmon 8, I need to get up.” 3 said a little louder now and she tried to move despite the fact their was a sleeping girl on top of her. 8 seemed to stir from her sleep a little and in retaliation, wrapped her arms around 3 and hugged her letting out a noise in rejection.

3 felt her face get even hotter and her hearts began to beat against her chest, she really hoped Marina wouldn’t walk in and see this. 3 would never be able to look her in the eyes again after that.

“8…come on, please let me get up.” 3 attempted to move once again but was pinned down by the octolings weight. However, 8 seemed to finally start to wake up and 3’s eyes where greeted with 8’s own magenta eyes. Those same magenta eyes proceeded to widen in shock and 8’s whole face turned her ink color as she bolted up quickly, her tentacles unstuck from 3’s shirt and started to squirm like crazy.

“Ah! I’m so sorry 3! I did not mean to fall asleep on you!” 3 just laid there looking up at the flustered octoling, she would’ve gotten up by now but her lower half was still being sat on by 8. But once again…3 definitely for sure was not complaining.

“Hey you’re alright! I just need to get up and-“ 3 began to speak but soon stopped when she heard a door shut. Turning her head she watched as Pearl walked into the room.

Of fucking course Pearl would walk in on this. Cod she would rather have Marina walk in then Pearl, at least Marina knew how to be respectful.

“Yo Rina! I’m home!” She yelled as she turned and came to a stop spotting the two of them on the couch. 3 could only imagine how suspicious the image of 8 sitting on top of 3’s waist with the two of them extremely flustered would look, and judging by the wide eyed expression Pearl gave it must’ve looked VERY suspicious.

“Oh shit! Sorry were you guys doing something? Shit I should probably-“ Pearl said starting to back away.

“No no! It’s not what it looks like Pearl! I can explai-“ 8 began to say desperately waving her arms. That’s when Marina walked out of her room and immediately her expression was the same as Pearls.

3 genuinely contemplated splatting herself right there and then. The two of them probably thought her and 8 were doing something and all she could do was sit there because this CODDAMN OCTOLING WOULDN'T GET OFF HER!!!!

“Oh my! What’s going on in here?” Marina asked her expression quickly changing to concern. 3 waved her arms in desperation and somehow managed slip out from under the octoling.

“Nothing was going on! We fell asleep and just ended up like this!” 3 tried to explain, this had to go down as her most embarrassing moment out there. Trying to explain to your crush’s parents that you weren’t…that, and just fell asleep on top of each other, which wasn’t very convincing of a story to anyone who didn’t see what happened first hand so 3’s chances weren’t looking to good.

“Well it sure as shit doesn’t look like that!” Pearl yelled, cod 3 was sick of her.

“Alright calm down! Please! Everyone just take a second.” Marina finally yelled out and 3 couldn’t agree more. “3…disregarding whatever was going on between you and 8,” 3 groaned and pressed her face into the couch cushion out of embarrassment. “I need to talk to you. I think I may have a lead.” And immediately up went 3’s head out of the cushion and she looked at Marina.

“Really? What is it?” She said hopping off the couch and walking up to the octoling disregarding the other two people in the room.

“I managed to get a signal on the radio and I heard someone talking about a package under Hammerhead Bridge. It sounded very important so we might need to go check it out.” 3 felt a laugh bubble up and she smiled, good old Marina always coming through. Sure she just walked in on a very embarrassing scene of her and 8 but that didn’t matter anymore, they finally had something against that douche obsessed about mammals they could use that wouldn’t be a trap!

She ignored the concerned look from Pearl and reached into her pocket pulling out her phone.

“Great work! I’ll get Deep Cut to scout it out and make sure it’s not a trap, you get your radio and see if you can pick up anymore signals.” 3 said scrolling down to the contact on her list that said Deep cut and tapping on it, quickly leaving the room so she could talk to them about the situation.

———

Pearl walked over and sat down on the couch beside a very embarrassed 8. She put an arm around the octoling and leaned in.

“You know…when I said try to be more touchy feely with her I didn’t exactly mean that.”

8 burried her face in her hands and squealed. Pearl couldn’t help but just laugh.

———

“Does it hurt?”

Marie gently touched the bandage wrapped around 4’s arm before quickly retracting it at her girlfriends pained expression.

“Not as bad as it was a bit ago, it hurts when I move it though.” 4 said leaning back into the couch, “I’ll be fine, I always am.” She said with a lighthearted tone giving a infectious smile to Marie who gave her own smile in return.

“You always are…somehow.”

Callie watched all of this from her spot on the recliner in the living room with her own smile on her face. She loved getting to witness these moments between Marie and 4, given Marie’s nature to worry 4 was like the perfect counterweight. They’re like polar opposites, one so carefree and reckless, while the others so composed and strategic. It’s like a saying Callie’s heard from somewhere before, opposites attract.

Callie didn’t just like witnessing Marie and 4’s relationship, she liked getting to see any kind of relationship. She was kind of a sap for romance, hence the love for romance movies, shipping her favorite characters in tv shows, and her unyielding determination to help anyone that’s in a romantic situation even though she’s never been in one herself.

It kinda pained her that she’d never really gotten into a relationship like Marie and 4 and Pearl and Marina and she was always told by her cousin that she’d find someone someday but it’s been quite a few years and so far she hasn’t found anybody. But she was ok with that, she had friends and family. What more could you need?

Looking back to the small tv that was playing some random sitcom between a inkling and his best friend jellyfish, Callie watched it soon becoming enamored by the plot of the inkling and his jellyfish friend trying to sneak into a rollercoaster ride since their to short to ride it.

After a few minutes the plot was really starting to get good when suddenly she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Marie standing over her with a concerned expression. She motioned her head toward the kitchen silently telling her what she wanted and Callie nodded standing up and following her out of the room, 4 was still in there watching tv, Neo was currently in the shower.

“What’s up Marie? Something wrong?” Callie asked once they were out of earshot of 4, that look on Marie’s face meant something was on her mind and it seemed Callie was about to find out.

“I’m worried Cal, more than normal worried.” Marie said her tone matching her words, Callie leaned against the counter and gave a look that showed she was listening. “That factory was our last lead, and now it’s gone. We have nothing to go off of now, not only that but we’re now down an agent with 4 being injured. I know she says she’s fine but with that arm injury theirs no way she can fight without hurting herself.”

Oh boy, here it comes. The Marie spiral into madness.

“I’m sure we’ll find something, we just have to wait.” Callie said trying to once again be the optimist.

“Wait? We can’t wait, do I need to remind you what is at stake here!” Marie said her voice rising but she seemed to catch herself quickly toning it back down. “I’m afraid to say that we’re out of options here, we don’t know how much time we have until this guy puts his plan into action. We could have days, weeks or maybe until tomorrow.” Marie started to pace back and forth not even looking at Callie anymore. She hated when her cousin got this bad, it was hard to get her to calm down, even with 4’s help.

Plus, Callie hated to admit it but Marie had a point.

“Well what about that sanitized octoling we have locked up in Alterna? We could try interrogating it, who knows what kind of info it has.” Callie suggested, sure neither of them knew octarian language but it couldn’t hurt to try.

“No that won’t work, we don’t understand the octoling language and it definitely wouldn’t just tell us what we wanted. Maybe we could check in with Deep cut or send out patrols to Alterna to see if anything’s been going on down there while we’ve been gone…no that wouldn’t work either. Deep Cuts been busy with the news and they don’t seem to be using Alterna as a base of operations.” Great, now Marie was talking to herself. Cod this whole situation is really getting to her, who knew the end of the world could be so stressful?

Callie got off the counter and grabbed Marie by the shoulders stopping her pacing and forcing her cousin to look at her.

“Marie! Calm down, like I suggested, we’ll just have to wait. I know it’s not a good idea but it’s our only idea at the moment.” Callie said holding Marie by her cheeks. It looked like Marie wanted to object but she instead to a breath and grabbed Callie’s hands taking them off her face.

“Ok, fine. I’ll wait, but we don’t have much time to wait. Who knows what that mammal loving weirdo is up to right now.” Marie said stepping back and crossing her arms.

The two of them stood in silence neither not really knowing what they should do next. Callie was about to suggest they go back to 4 when her phone started to ring and she pulled it out to see who was calling.

“It’s 3, what could she want?” Callie said looking back up at Marie.

“I don’t know, but she better be in a better mood now.” Marie said her expression souring. Callie definitely didn’t forget 3’s outburst and was honestly praying that this phone call was much more positive than any of the news they’ve received in the last 2 days.

Tapping on the screen to answer, Callie brought the phone to her ear.

“Hello, 3?”

Very quickly a voice responded.

“Callie! We got him! We fucking got him!”

Well at least 3 sounded happier now, but why exactly was still a question. Along with who ‘he’ was.

“Who’s he? What are you talking about?” Callie asked leaning against the counter, she looked back to Marie who was waiting expectantly.

“The new boss of Grizzco, Marina managed to get a signal on that radio from the wedding and now we got a location. They were talking about some kind of package which sounded important so I’m heading down with Off the Hook and Deep Cut to check it out.” This was a major relief to Callie. Now Marie wouldn’t have to worry so much.

“Really? That’s awesome! Do you need any help?”

3 responded soon, this time there was some background noise which sounded like Frye yelling something.

“No, we can handle it. You guys just recover, I’ll call back with whatever info we get.”

Callie heard another yell in the background along with a pause.

“Yeah I’m coming! Alright, just thought I should call and let you know what’s going on.”

Callie nodded even though 3 couldn’t see it and smiled. Look who was right, looks like her idea of waiting wasn’t so bad after all, even if they only waited like a total of 5 seconds.

“Alright, you be safe 3…love you.” Callie added that last part with her smile growing bigger. She could hear the smile in 3’s voice as well when she responded in a much more hushed tone.

“Love you too.” Before the call promptly ended.

“What was that about?” Marie asked as Callie smugly sat her phone down on the counter and looked at her crossing her arms.

“3 got a new lead that she’s gonna follow, and you know what that means~”

Marie groaned and looked away, she already knew what was gonna come next.

“I was right! All we had to do was wait!” Callie was feeling very proud of herself right now and reveled in it. Marie preceded to walk back into the living room.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Callie.”

Callie was in fact gonna say whatever.

———

“How much longer do we gotta go?” Pearl asked.

The gang was currently on the platform below Hammerhead bridge navigating their way through plenty of giant cargo containers from random businesses 3 didn’t know about. To be honest, 3 was still pretty tired even after her little nap that she was now trying to push to the back of her mind after the very awkward moment she had, so walking across a giant bridge for the last half an hour wasn’t really doing her body much good. The sun was starting to go down now so they didn’t have a lot of time to work, 3 figured she must’ve been asleep for far longer than she thought.

“I think we’re close. They had a few of those green octolings on guard near some of those cargo containers when we checked it out so we should be careful.” Shiver said as she lead the way with fan in hand. Frye and Big Man were following side by side with 3 and 8 walking together behind them, Pearl and Marina following from behind the rest of the group.

“You know, I never got the story for what those freaky guys are, or how you know them.” Frye said turning to walk backwards so she could look at 3.

“It’s a long story.” 3 said quickly, she didn’t really wanna think about Kamabo right now. It was a whole can of worms she’d rather keep locked up in the back of her mind.

“Come on! Spill the deets! We got time anyways.” Frye said much more pleading now.

Cod she didn’t wanna think about this, she was already starting to suffer nightmares from her experiences in Kamabo again and now people wanted to know what went down in there. Sure Frye didn’t even know about Kamabo or what the significance of her question meant to 3 but she sure didn’t wanna answer it. But then again, that would probably only feed into the inklings confusion and questions.

“They…they’re-“ 3 began to reluctantly say when she was cut off by a voice piping up.

“It’s a sensitive topic, we’d rather stay away from that.” It was Marina saving the day once again, 3 looked back and gave a appreciative nod which the octoling returned with her own understanding one.

“Alright, just a little curious.” Frye said turning back around. 3 decided to look up at 8 and see how she was doing, things were definitely a little awkward between the two of them after that incident and she was being awfully quiet, maybe she could try to spark up conversation and clear the awkwardness from between them.

However when she saw 8 looking out toward the sea with a pained expression 3 followed her gaze quickly understanding. It was the statue tartar used to nearly destroy all sea life, it’s head barely peaking up above the water still after all these years like a painful reminder of what was almost lost.

3 could feel the memories flooding back and she quickly looked away back to 8 and tapped her arm watching the octoling tear her gaze back down to 3.

“You ok?” 3 asked, 8 took a quick glance back to the statue before nodding.

“Yes, I’m fine, I just…don’t like seeing the statue. It brings back bad memories.” 8 said.

“Me to.” 3 said giving an understanding look, 8’s expression seemed to soften and she looked back to the direction they were walking and 3 did the same.

To be honest, it felt nice knowing she wasn’t the only one dealing with the repercussions of that place. As much as she wishes 8 didn’t have to go through all of what she did, 3 was still grateful that she wasn’t alone.

“Ay! (We’re here!)” Big Man announced before Frye and Shiver quickly shushed him, to be honest there shushing was much louder than his announcement.

“Quiet dude, we don’t know if their still here.” Frye whispered.

The group had now come to a stop at a railing that overlooked a platform much lower. 3 stepped up to it and looked over not spotting any sanitized octolings but plenty of cargo containers of different colors.

“Doesn’t look like anybody’s here, at least we get a break.” 3 said looking around, it was definitely a relief that no one was here, she was tired of fighting. Soon a new issue arose…which container was ‘the package’ exactly? Most of the metal containers looked exactly the same except for color and some where stacked up on top of each other. Not to mention there where a lot of them.

“That’s cool and all but…how the hell are we gonna find the one we need?” Pearl asked stepping up to the railing which was almost as tall as her.

“Don’t worry, we got that covered.” Frye said revealing her phone and handing it to 3, “Big Man took a photo of the place while we were scouting it out.” 3 hummed and looked down at the phone, that was smart, and most likely not Fryes idea. Soon confusion took over 3 and she pointed out that…

“Uh…this is a picture of Shiver sleeping.” Frye froze at that like she’d been caught and Shiver slowly turned her head to look down at her.

“Why do you have a picture of me sleeping?” The octoling asked raising an eyebrow in question.

“Uh-no reason! Just scroll forward already!” Frye yelled out, 3 decided not to question it and scrolled catching the next photo which was not Shiver but instead a above view of a couple sanitized octolings standing beside the door of a blue cargo container, in front of the sanitized octolings was a normal looking octoling wearing some kind of gear that made them look serious. 3 felt her curiosity peak, she couldn’t see the octolings face cause they were facing away from the camera but from what she could see, it’s skin wasn’t green and it’s tentacles weren’t fuzzy. Was it still a possibility that there were octolings still mad about the great turf war? She’d have to ponder that one later.

“Ok, so it must be that container over there.” 3 said looking back up from the phone and pointing at a blue cargo container sitting in a corner by itself.

“Alright! Good thing you took that photo Big Man!” Pearl said nudging the manta ray with her elbow. Big Man practically beamed at that with a big goofy smile stretching across his face.

“Ay! (Thank you!) Ay ay (I actually really like photography! Before I became a musician and bandit photography was actually gonna be my plan.)” 3 was genuinely surprised at that. What other secrets did this manta ray have up his…sleeves? Fins? Yeah fins.

“Really? That’s very interesting Big Man! You’ve gotta tell me about this plan of yours.” Marina said walking up to the manta ray who was now looking even happier, it was pretty adorable.

“Uh-huh, you guys can go ahead and do that, I’ll take Shiver and 8 down with me to check out the container.” 3 said, they didn’t know how much time they had before someone came back so they should probably hurry so they don’t get caught.

“Sounds like a plan, but don’t think you’re out of this just yet, I wanna know why you have that photo.” Shiver said pointing her fan at Frye who just looked away in embarrassment.

3 sighed and turned to look at 8, she was still being quiet which wasn’t normal for her.

When she looked at 8 she spotted the octoling was looking at her but then turned away as if she hadn’t been looking at 3 even though she clearly was. It was strange to say the least.

“Come on 8, let’s get down there.” 3 said deciding to not point out the strange behavior just yet, at least not around all their other friends.

8 turned to look back at 3 and her tentacles starting squirming, she looked nervous. But why? Had 3 done something? Was this about the whole fiasco back at her apartment?

“Oh, ok.” Was all the octoling said in a quiet tone.

Ok now 3 was hella suspicious, 8 was not like this just a few hours ago. 3 was gonna get to the bottom of this, right after they got to that container.

The three of them, 3, Shiver, and 8 walked over to a nearby ladder leading down onto the lower platform and descended, 3 could start to hear the voices of there other friends fading with what little conversation she could pick up being,

“So what made you want to get into photography?”

Once they were on the lower platform, Shiver began to move ahead of the other two girls who followed much slower. 3 figured now she could question just what was going on with 8.

“Alright 8, what’s wrong?” 3 asked immediately getting to the point.

“What? What do you mean? Nothings wrong.” 8 said in what sounded like a panicked tone, the octolings tentacles started to squirm even more making it somehow even more obvious she was lying.

“Your a terrible liar, come on just tell me. I opened up to you, it’s only fair.” 3 said crossing her arms and giving a serious expression with furrowed brows, she wasn’t gonna back down from this.

“I’m sorry, it’s just…it’s silly. You would laugh at me for it.” 8 said looking away.

“No I won’t, I’m not an asshole…to you.” 3 said getting a chuckle from the girl which made her own hearts flutter at the sound of it.

“Ok. I feel like I’ve messed up, when I woke up on top of you and made a scene. I’m worried that I’ve upset you.” 8 said still not making eye contact. 3 sighed and pat 8’s shoulder, how could she ever be mad at this girl? Sure it was kinda dumb what happened but that didn’t mean 3 was upset with her!

“Does it look like I’m upset with you? I don’t care 8, sure it was awkward with Marina and Pearl walking in on that but honestly I couldn’t care less.” 8 finally made eye contact with 3, her tentacles stopped squirming which was definitely a good sign. “We’re cool, alright?”

8 smiled and nodded, “Yes.”

There was the octoling 3 liked.

“Hey! I really hate to break up the moment you two are having but I need some help opening this!” Shiver yelled followed by a strained grunt. 3 sighed and looked back over to Shiver seeing how she was trying to open the door to the shipping container, despite the fact that there was a metal latch preventing it from being opened.

3 walked over and lifted up the latch which unlocked the door that Shiver was still trying to open causing her to stumble back rather ungracefully as the door opened.

“There you go.” 3 said in her usual annoyed tone, she could hear 8 trying to stifle her laughter as Shiver stood and dusted her pants off giving an annoyed look to 3.

“Uh-huh, let’s hurry up and search this thing.” Shiver said sounding pretty impatient now and walking past 3 into the container. 3 shot a confused look to 8 and the girl in return just shrugged.

Turning to enter, 3 could spot a few wooden crates that looked to be nailed down, beside one of the crates was a crowbar and sitting on another of the crates was a clipboard that 3 quickly snatched.

There was a piece of paper on the clipboard that had inventory of whatever was in this container.

Arm R X:1

Arm L X:1

Leg R X:1

Leg L X:1

Chestpiece X:1

Other than the confusing chart their was text below that looked to be scribbled on with a pen.

“Wait and deliver to sewage area under square.” 3 read aloud, 8 and Shiver looked over 3’s shoulders to look at the clipboard as well.

“The sewers? Ew.” 8 said making a face, 3 had to agree with her.

“Why would they bring it to the sewers? That’s just nasty.” Shiver said backing off.

“It makes sense, no one goes in the sewers. It’d be a perfect way to get around without being spotted.” 3 can’t believe she hadn’t thought of it sooner. What with the fact no one had spotted any of the sanitized octolings on the surface it made sense they’d be sticking to more subtle ways of getting around. Green skin would definitely be hard to hide.

And what about the crates? What’s in them?” 8 asked, in response 3 dropped the clipboard and walked over to the crowbar picking it up.

“Guess we’re about to find out.” 3 said before jamming the crowbar into the lead of the crate and pushing it down hearing a loud pop and crack as the lid rose up. 8 and Shiver stepped in and lifted the lid off as 3 tossed the crowbar away.

“Woah, is that…an arm?” Shiver asked reaching into the crate. 3 stepped up to it and examined what was in it which was definitely an arm, a giant metal arm.

“Wait a second…I think this is pieces for a robot.” 3 said her eyes widening in surprise. Both the other girls looked equally surprised turning to look at 3.

“Really? What should we do!?” 8 said panic rising in her voice. 3 tried to think about what they could do, they couldn’t take any of this stuff because it would be to heavy, breaking it was out of the question, so all 3 could think was…

“Nothing, let’s leave it here.” Both girls looked at 3 as she said that like she’d gone mad.

“Are you kidding? We’re just gonna let them have pieces to build a giant robot!” Shiver said in disbelief.

“Well we can’t really do anything with it now. So we let them take it to the sewers, we go down there and ambush them, maybe catch their boss.” 3 said, it sounded like a good plan, at least to her. “Unless either of you have a better idea?” She asked getting no such response from either octoling.

“I guess we’ll try it, not like we’ve got any other choice.” Shiver said, 8 nodded in agreement.

3 grabbed the lid to the crate and sat it back on trying to make it look like they totally hadn’t just broken it off before walking out.

“Alright, let’s go.” 3 said waiting for Shiver and 8 to leave before shutting the container.

Mission success! Now they had a new location and some actual info they could use against their opponent! Now they just had to use that info.

8 yawned and stretched upward, “Does this mean we get to go home? I’m tired.” 3 couldn’t agree more and nodded.

“Yeah, let’s get out of here. I think we’ve earned a good nights sleep.” 3 said beginning to walk back toward the ladder.

Once they reached it, 3 was about to climb but stopped when she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see 8. She looked nervous again and 3 was hoping she wasn’t still having worries.

“Do you want to…stay at my place for the night? It’s been a while since you’ve done it.” 8 asked, 3 was relieved that it was just a simple question. And to be honest, she wasn’t looking forward to confronting Marie right now.

“Yeah I’d lo-like to.” 3 said quickly catching herself, almost embarrassed herself again.

8 smiled at that and 3 quickly turned to climb the ladder trying to hide her own smile.

Once she made it back up she spotted Marina, Pearl, Big Man, and Frye all sat in a little square talking to each other.

“Man, great job keeping an eye out guys.” 3 remarked sarcastically walking over to the group.

“What’d you find?” Pearl asked ignoring the remark.

“Pieces to a robot, and apparently they’re using the sewers to get around Splatsville.” 3 explained.

“Oh that’s smart, and unsanitary. And what about the robot pieces? What are we doing with them?” Asked Marina as she stood.

“We’re gonna leave them alone for now. It’s getting late anyways, we’ll deal with it tomorrow.” 3 said. Marina nodded in acknowledgment but her face showed concern which confused 3.

“Ok, but I have another question. Did you ever get Little Judd back home?” Marina asked.

3 had completely forgotten about that, she was supposed to take Lil Judd back to Judd but she’d completely forgotten! Come to think of it, she didn’t see Lil Judd when she woke up which was strange.

“No I didn’t…was he still in the apartment?” 3 asked, she really didn’t wanna have to start getting missing posters for another missing animal.

Unfortunately Marina shook her head no.

“I don’t know where he went, he wasn’t in the apartment when we left. I think he might’ve run off.” Marina said giving 3 more anxiety than she already needed.

Cod she didn’t wanna have to explain Lil Judds disappearance to Judd.

“Ok…we’ll deal with that eventually. For now I’d really just like to get some sleep.” 3 said in a tired tone.

Marina nodded in understanding and turned to get Pearl.

3 turned around and saw 8 walking up to her. “What was that about?”

3 shook her head and sighed. “Don’t worry about it.”

———

Callie was nearly on the verge of sleep.

All huddled up in a bundle of blankets with Marie and 4 both fast asleep, it was so warm and comforting.

That’s when Callie remembered there was someone missing from this huddle.

Neo

The kid was sitting in the recliner watching the tv with a blank expression, she looked to be deep in thought about something. Callie figured it was unfair to keep Neo out of the nice cocoon that had been formed.

“Neo, you wanna join in?” Callie whisper yelled getting the girl’s attention. Neo shook her head No and Callie brought an arm out of the blankets and motioned for her to join. “Come on, it’s not complete without you!” She whisper yelled again.

Neo reluctantly stood and approached the couch sitting down and letting Callie pull her into the mass of blankets.

“There you go, is that better?” Callie asked getting a nod and a yawn from Neo.

“Yeah…thank you Callie.” Neo said nuzzling her head into the shoulder of the idol.

Callie smiled and closed her eyes letting her body relax again and feeling the kids body relax as well.

“No problem Neo.”

———

3 laid on the makeshift bed on the floor of 8’s room staring at the white ceiling covered in glow in the dark stickers that depicted the stars. It was a simple addition but it helped to make the dark room more lively.

Turning her head to 8’s bed which was a bit off the ground she could see the octolings back turned to her. 3 didn’t know if 8 was asleep but tried anyways to talk to her.

“Hey 8…you awake?”

After a moment the octoling turned her body, soon 3 saw that same face she was infatuated with glowing in the moonlight, her eyelids were drooped low showing how tired she was.

“Is something wrong?” 8 whispered.

3 shook her head and moved so her body was facing the octolings.

“No, I just wanted to say thank you. I really appreciated the talk we had today.”

8 smiled at that and yawned again which made 3 yawn. Cod she was tired.

“You’re welcome 3…I don’t want you to hold these emotions in alone…you can talk to us…we’re your family.”

3 smiled at that and moved to look back up at the ceiling.

8 was right, they where family.

And the best one she could possibly ask for.

Chapter Text

3’s never felt like this before, so worried and unsure. Her whole life had been the same routine up until this point,

Wake up, go to school, go home, do chores, get yelled at by mom because it was never good enough, sleep.

It wasn’t a good routine, she dreaded waking up every day to her alarm knowing that it would all be the same. Somedays after a particularly nasty argument with her mom she’d get in bed and wish she never woke up again, or maybe when she did wake up it would all turn out to be a dream and she’d just been stuck in some horrible nightmare for the last 14 years of her life. But still, no matter what, she’d wake up and still be stuck in the same damn town, in the same damn house, with the same damn mom who never saw anything good in her.

It was torture, and she wanted out of it.

And yet, after all the arguments, all the fighting, all the crying 3 did in her bed thinking about how worthless she felt, she never left. Something inside her kept saying that it wasn’t worth it, that she shouldn’t leave, that it would all get better eventually. All she had to do was appease her mom's wishes, get the highest grades possible, do all the chores in the world, and never talk about how she felt, and eventually, the world would magically give her a break.

But that gift never came.

And now here she stood, outside her mom's house, the place she’s lived for the last 14 years of her life. She’d finally had enough, her mom had berated her for the last time. She didn’t have a plan of where she’d go, what she’d do, or how she’d make money. She didn’t have any belongings except for the few coins she saved and hid from her mom, that and the oversized lime green hoodie on her back and the baggy sweatpants protecting her legs from the cold chill of the air.

She didn’t know what was gonna happen next once she ran away, she might end up living on the streets barely scraping by via digging through dumpsters, and eventually, be killed by some random mugger who needed an extra buck.

But cod would it be better than this.

And so, taking one last deep breath, 3 turned her back to her home. It wasn’t her home any longer, her mom could rot in that house for the rest of her life, 3 wasn’t gonna live like this anymore.

But as she walked further and further down the road, she felt her hearts ache knowing that she was leaving behind her old life, her old friends, her old home, her old town, her old name, all of it. And even though she didn’t want to admit it, she felt terrible knowing she was leaving behind her mom. Even though her mom constantly berated her and told her she wasn’t good enough, and that she didn’t care about her feelings, 3 still cared about her. And the overwhelming fear that gripped 3 as she realized the full weight of what she was doing, that for once she didn’t know what was gonna come next.

But she had to keep pushing forward, there had to be something more for her out there. A better life…

She just had to find it.

———

3 could feel something nudging her arm, along with a soft voice that called out to her.

“3…wake up 3.”

It was almost enough to make her fall back asleep, listening to such a soft and warm voice. Had it not been for the fact her arm was nudged again she might’ve fallen back asleep.

“Come on 3…time to get up.”

3 finally listened to the voice and opened her eyes being greeted with a beautiful sight.

8, her face illuminated by the warm glow of the sunlight shining down on her through the bedroom window as she crouched down beside 3. Her lips upturned in a smile that filled 3 with warmth, more so than the blanket covering her body. Those welcoming eyes looked into 3’s own and made her hearts speed up.

This was the better life she fought for.

“Hi…” 3 said her voice sounding deeper considering she’d just woken up. The inkling returned 8’s smile with her dopey one’s that made 8 smile even bigger.

“Hi, did you sleep well? I hope it wasn’t too uncomfortable sleeping on the floor.” 8 asked her eyes traveling to the mass of pillows and blankets all piled up to make a makeshift bed. Considering how many blankets and pillows there were 3 definitely didn’t have any trouble sleeping.

“Yeah…I slept good. Thanks for giving me all these pillows and blankets, honestly it was comfier to sleep on than my bed.” 3 let out a chuckle and sat up letting the blanket fall to her lap.

“I’m glad, I wanted to make sure you were comfortable before I went to sleep.” 8 stood and stretched letting out a groan as she did. 3 took note of how her tentacles were tied up in a ponytail, her attire being a black t-shirt and shorts which showed off her toned arms and legs to which 3 wasn’t complaining.

“You think you’ll be ready to help me check out those sewers today, and see if we can get the drop on our enemies?” 3 asked, as much as it pained her she had to stay focused on her duties. Considering most of their other agents were injured or recovering from the last mission she was pretty short on help at the moment. Cod maybe she should get her own army like that LJ guy had, it’d be a lot easier to save the world without having to worry about being secret and keeping a low profile.

“Yes, I think I can handle it.” 8 sighed and walked over to her closet, opening the door, “You work too much you know that, after this, you deserve a long vacation.” 3 chuckled at that and stood trying to shake off her sleepiness.

“I think we all deserve a vacation, but duty calls and we’ve gotta answer.” 3 said. 8 giggled at that and pulled her null armor out of the closet, after escaping Kamabo that armor ended up becoming her agent outfit, it was probably one of the good things to come of that place. Apart from 8 herself.

“Marina is making breakfast, that’s why I woke you up. I thought you’d like some waffles before going back out to work.” 8 said setting her null armor on her bed, 3 felt her stomach growl at that, she was pretty hungry and how could she say no to waffles from Marina? Whenever 3 would sleep over at Pearl's mansion, before Pearl moved to Splatsville leaving the mansion behind, waking up in the morning and getting a plateful of waffles from Marina was amazing, almost as good as hanging out with 8. Marina knew how to make a mean plate of waffles.

“Of course, I’d love some waffles, you know Marina is a master at waffle making.” 3 said excitement in her tone as she hopped up a newfound energy present.

8 giggled the sound making 3’s hearts flutter, the inkling looked around knowing her captain hat was missing and 8 must’ve known what she was looking for as she pointed at a small nightstand beside her with the old hat resting on it beside a velvet red box. 3 picked up her hat and put it on before her attention turned to the velvet red box. She’d never open it, not without 8’s permission of course.

“What’s the little box for? Jewelry?” 3 asked, she’d never seen 8 wearing jewelry before. The closest to that was the golden pick she got in Kamabo but that was probably long gone by now.

8 turned and grabbed the box opening it, 3 was greeted with a bright light refracting from the sun into 3’s eyes and she squinted at it quickly recognizing the gold design. “I thought you got rid of it. Never saw you wear it after I moved.” 3 said turning her gaze to 8. The octoling looked down at the golden toothpick and a serious expression overtook her happy demeanor as she closed the box. “No I never did, it’s important to me. It reminds me of how far I’ve come, and how far I still have to go.” 8 said with a serious tone that made 3 a little uneasy, perhaps she pried too much. But when 8 looked back down at her and her face softened that same infectious smile showing back up, 3 felt the tension leave her and quickly be replaced with a burning in her cheeks.

“What do you mean…how far you have to go?” 3 asked feeling her hearts speed up, cod 8 did things to her that the inkling would never understand.

“Perhaps another time, I’m hungry.” 8 said pointing to the door leading out of the bedroom. 3 thanked the great zapfish above that the subject was changed. Between that strange dream about her past and 8’s weird behavior 3 really needed a break to just stuff her face full of waffles.

“Yes ma’am.” 3 said breathlessly quickly turning on her heel and heading to the door nearly letting out a annoyed groan when she heard 8 laugh again. Cod that girl needed to quit it!

Opening the door 3 was greeted with smell of batter causing her mouth to water from the smell. Walking into the kitchen past the living room 3 spotted Marina standing at the counter with her back facing the inkling. She was hard at work mixing together some batter by hand in a big green bowl with a wooden spoon, multiple egg shells laid on a paper towel beside a measuring cup and and a box with a picture of waffles on it, beside the box was a waffle maker shaped like an inkling.

“Man that smells good, you need any help?” 3 asked moving to stand beside Marina who gave a quick glance to her before her attention moved back to the bowl.

“No I’ve got it. I figured you’d want some of my waffles considering how big of a fan of them you are.” Marina said giving a chuckle.

“Where’s Pearl?” 3 asked watching as Marina continued to mix the batter till it looked perfect.

“Still sound asleep in bed, I usually get up before her.” 3 nodded and reached into her pocket to pull out her phone curious as to what time it was.

8:38 Am

“You normally wake up at 8?” 3 asked watching hungrily as Marina took some of the batter and poured it into the waffle maker before closing it.

“Usually I wake up at seven, but I felt like sleeping in a bit this morning.” Marina said setting the bowl down and turning to face 3. “How did you sleep?” 3 stretched and leaned against the counter.

“Slept better than I usually do.” Which was strange because just last night she’d been suffering nightmares of Kamabo and yet now she was dreaming about her past before she became 3?

“Was it because you where with a certain…someone?” Marina asked her expression curious.

3 could immediately understand what Marina was implying and she felt her cheeks heat up again looking away quickly as to hide the clear evidence that Marina was right.

“N-no! I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Cod could she make it more obvious?

“3, I don’t mind you have feelings for my…for 8. I just want you to understand that I support it, you two deserve each other. And with what I saw you doing yesterday I thought-“ Ok that was enough!

“No we didn’t do anything!” 3 took a breath to try and regain some composure. Cod this took a weird turn. “We just fell asleep and that happened alright, we weren’t doing anything weird it was an accident.” 3 didn’t even have the willpower to turn and look Marina in the eye.

“Alright, I just thought I should put in my two cents. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.” 3 sighed and turned to finally face Marina still finding it hard to look her in the eye.

“You’re fine.” 3 walked over to sit at the table so she could wait for the waffles to be done. “Me and 8 are gonna check out the sewers today. You think you’d wanna come along?” Marina immediately shook her head no at that and turned to grab the waffle from the machine.

“Ugh no thanks, I think I’ll leave the spelunking in the sewer systems to you two. Besides, you don’t seem to mind a little stink.” 3 furrowed her eyebrows at that.

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing! Nothing at all!”

———

Neo opened her eyes and rubbed them trying to adjust her vision to the sunlight pouring in through the windows. She could feel arms wrapped around her stomach and the soft rising and lowering of someone breathing against her back.

Turning her head she was met with Callie’s sleeping face, she looked so peaceful so Neo tried to make a good effort to not wake her up as she slinked out of the idols grasp and stood.

The apartment was quiet apart from the soft sounds of breathing coming from the 3 guests all cuddled up together. Neo wondered how they managed to do that so easily, to just relax and trust one another enough to fall asleep holding onto each other, it was weird. But then again they have known each other for years compared to the one year Neo’s known them, and even then she never found herself really trying to bond with any of them. The only one she really felt comfortable around that wasn’t smallfry was the captain, maybe it was because she looked so much like her or how much more calm she was compared to everyone else.

Pushing that thought aside Neo walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge looking for something to drink, she glossed over the baggie full of power eggs she’d feed smallfry and to a can of red cream soda, her favorite kind. Pulling it out of the fridge Neo was careful to not make a loud noise when popping the tab open and began to drink the carbonated beverage.

While she did that her eyes drifted to a window that had sunlight pouring just opposite of where she was standing against the fridge. Taking a break from her drink she walked over to the window and looked out at the hustle and bustle of cars going down the road and people walking on the sidewalks, the other apartment buildings nearby with their windows opened some having air conditioners jammed in them.

Neo thought about smallfry, how lost he must be out there in the endless city full of identical looking buildings. No wonder he hasn’t come back yet, everything looked the same, all grey and depressing unlike nature. Neo preferred the wilds to this, heck she enjoyed the desserts of splatsville to this, even Alterna was a sight to see compared to all this grey. Maybe he just couldn’t find his way back because all the buildings looked like the one he lived in.

And it was obvious those missing posters weren’t gonna do anything, heck all they’d do is tell people, “Hey there’s a salmonoid loose in the city so if you find it please try not to splat it!” Like anybody would actually do that.

Huffing out a breath Neo walked over and sat her soda down on the counter before opening the fridge and getting the bag of power eggs out. If she was gonna find smallfry she shouldn’t just be waiting in here.

Walking over to the door Neo didn’t even think about the consequences of leaving without telling the three people still fast asleep on her couch. She opened the door and quickly shut it behind her before striding down the hall to the stairs.

“I’m coming buddy.”

———

“Alright, with the way we’re going I think we could be getting close to the square.” 3 said making her way down the dark tunnel. So far they hadn’t run into anybody which was both a blessing and a concern. Sure that meant they wouldn’t run into a squad of fuzzy and sanitized octolings and be splatted immediately but that only raised the question of just where they could be?

“I can see why Marina didn’t wanna come down here, it stinks.” 8 said her voice sounding much more muffled by the helmet. Her helmet in question had a flashlight built in that was lighting the path forward.

3 had to agree with that, to be honest her first choice of navigation wouldn’t be the sewers considering how horrible it smelled and the fact you’re basically walking in other peoples crap but what did she know, not like her whole occupation happened because she followed an old man into a sewer grate.

“Yeah, not what I’d call fun, but someone’s gotta do it.” 3 said trudging on, “Just stay on the walkway, better than going through whatever the hells in that water.” 3 said pointing to the giant flowing river of disgusting murky water rushing past the two. She was regretting eating so many of those waffles now, they where delicious sure but cod did the smell of these tunnels make her wanna hurl.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been in a sewer before.” 8 said her octo shot resting in one of her hands which swayed idly as they walked side by side. 3 had her hero shot held the same way, it had some noticeable new scratches in it ever since Pearl was given it by Marie, Cod 3 was sick of that midget.

“Glad I could grace you with the experience of walking through the sewers, the sights and smells are just wonderful.” 3 remarked sarcastically getting a chuckle from the octoling.

“Is it to late to turn back? The smell is really getting to me.” 8 said wafting her free hand in front of her helmeted face.

“Yep, we’re doing this, whether we like it or not.” 3 needed something to keep her mind off the smell, sure 8 was a good distraction from the conversation they’d been making, but then again the conversation they were having was about the sewer only reminding her of the horrible smell.

“It's weird we haven't bumped into anybody down here yet. Do you think we're just not in the right spot?” 8 asked. It was exactly what 3 was thinking, that paper they found yesterday hinted toward people being down here. And yet no one? 3 didn't like it.

“They could be hiding out somewhere, planning their next move.”

“Well if we're gonna be alone, then I've been meaning to ask…how has this whole thing been treating you?” 8 asked.

3 thought about the nightmare she suffered about Kamabo and contemplated telling her but decided against it when she realized how creepy telling your crush you dreamed about killing them would sound.

“Well…not good that's for sure.” 3 said giving an uneasy chuckle, “Feels like the clocks ticking you know? Like we've only got so much time left until something horrible happens.” 3 sighed, “I'm worried about Neo as well, she's quieter than normal. Ever since Smallfry disappeared she's been distraught.”

“I don't know her that well but I can't imagine what she must be going through. The only times I've ever seen her really look comfortable when it wasn't with the little salmon was around you.” 8 said.

It was true, Neo was only really ever willing to open up around her and even then it was to an extent. When 3 asked why the young girl was all alone and not with her parents Neo told her she didn't have any but refused to elaborate. It was kind of shocking then when 3 found her and suddenly the girl started crying into her chest.

“Yeah, I found her a couple of days ago looking for Smallfry in an alley. She ended up crying in my arms…it was rough.” 3 said.

“I feel sorry for her. You mentioned she didn't have any parents before right?” 3 nodded. “Maybe…maybe she sees you as that parent she never had? Maybe that's why she's more willing to open up to you, she looks up to you. That's how it was for me when I met Marina and Pearl.”

3’s eyes widened in realization, she'd never thought about it like that, Neo looked up to her. Why would she? 3 doesn't see herself as a great role model. Sure she's good at fighting but other than that she's not what anybody should aspire to be, at least in her own eyes.

“I've…never thought about it like that.”

3 wasn't against the idea of being a mom to Neo, hell anybody would be better than nothing. But she didn't know how to be a mom, at least not a good one. The only example of a mom she had growing up was her own but she didn't even wanna think about that. 3 could barely take care of herself how could she take care of a kid?

Maybe she could talk to gramps for advice? When she left home and ended up joining the Nss he became a sort of parental figure for her. Teaching her how to fight, how to properly act in a conversation, and help her learn to control that anger she used to have. That doesn't mean his teachings were sometimes old-fashioned but at the very least he was much better at raising a kid, considering how 3 used to be when she was younger, gramps had a lot of patience with her.

With a plan to visit Craig later, 3 decided to change the subject. She was curious as to how the octoling was taking the whole situation they were in.

“How have you been handling all this? I know those sanitized octolings have been bringing up bad memories, has it affected you at all?” 3 asked, she’s noticed how every time the agent encountered one of those things she’d freeze up like she’d seen a ghost.

“I’ve just been trying to cope with it. It helps when I talk about it to Marina and Pearl. Which if you’d just do for once in your life you wouldn’t be struggling so much.” That last part sounded playful but 3 knew there was a serious message behind it. It wasn’t her fault she didn’t like opening up…ok maybe it was but still, she didn’t exactly grow up in a household that appreciated open thought.

“Yeah I get that but I just…it’s hard.” 3 stopped walking for a moment turning to face the octoling which stopped as well now looking down at 3 with a sympathetic look. “Anytime I try to say how I feel I just…can’t. I’m honestly kinda jealous with how easily you can speak your mind and how you feel.”

“It’s because I trust my family, that’s the thing 3, it’s all trust.” 8’s expression soon turned to a pained one. “Do you not trust us? Trust me?”

Cod the way 8 said that with such heartbreak made 3 feel guilty. It’s not like she didn’t wanna trust 8, in fact she did! She trusted this girl with her life! But something deep inside her just kept pulling her back from saying what she wanted to say.

“No I do! It’s just…I…forget it, I shouldn’t of said anything.” Cod she was doing it again.

“No, you promised you would talk to me if something was bothering you.” 8 said putting her hand on 3’s shoulder and stopping her from walking any further, 3 couldn’t muster the courage to turn around. “Why can’t you talk to me? I’m your friend, friends listen to each other.”

“Please 8 can you just drop it, I shouldn’t of said anything it was stupid of me.” Shaking her head 3 gripped her hero shot tighter, they could’ve at least had a talk like this anywhere other than in a sewer tunnel that could potentially have enemy’s in it.

“No, I need to know why you won’t listen to me. I won’t drop this until you give me an answer.” 8 was stubborn 3 had to give her that, but she was stubborn as well.

“I said forget-“

The sound of something metal colliding interrupted 3 and both girls turned to the origin of the sound seeing above the walkway on the opposite side of the two girls a manhole cover being pried open with light pouring through that illuminated a ladder below it.

“Oh shit get down!” 3 whisper yelled ducking down and 8 following quickly while also turning off her helmet light.

Soon someone climbed down the ladder, the light that illuminated them showed their tentacles and skin revealing it was an octoling and notably not green or fuzzy.

Once the octoling made it down the ladder another followed quickly shutting the manhole and temporarily leaving them in darkness until a flashlight turned on.

“Alright, the boss wanted to make sure the area was clear of anybody or anything before we bring in the package tomorrow.” The octoling holding the flashlight said, their voice sounded like a girls.

“You really think that anybody would just be running around in the sewers? Last I checked people don't usually run around in their own crap for fun.” The other octoling said, their voice sounded like a guys.

“Boss said that the Nss would be looking for us, considering they have one of our radios they could be listening in at any moment.” The girl said beginning to walk down the walkway the flashlight shining in front of her and the guy followed.

Both 3 and 8 stayed crouched holding their breaths, they were gonna have to play this one stealthy to ensure that they could get a chance to interrogate these two.

“We need to follow them, find a way to get close so we can interrogate them.” 3 whispered, she couldn't see 8 in the dark that well but could make out the nod she gave.

After waiting for the two octolings to get ahead a bit 3 started to slowly crouch walk down the path with 8 following beside her.

“I just don't get it, why do you not open yourself up to us? None of us have ever given you a reason to not trust us, in fact, we all have encouraged you to be open and honest about yourself, and yet you still won't talk about how you feel.” 8 whispered. 3 couldn't believe 8 was still talking about that while they were in this situation. She really wasn't kidding when she said she wasn't gonna drop it.

“Are you kidding me 8, now is a horrible time to talk about this.” 3 whispered trying to stay quiet so they don't alert the two unaware enemies. Thankfully the rushing water in between both walkways seemed to drown out any whispered conversation.

“It's as good a time as any. I want to know why you don't talk about your feelings. As I said, you don't have to go through this alone, and yet you choose to. Why?” 8 asked. Just as she did 3 noticed a little bridge over the water that they were approaching and both of them turned to pass it allowing them onto the walkway that held the two octolings.

3 closed her eyes and shook her head. 8 couldn't know about this, she's already been through so much, losing her memory, nearly dying in Kamabo in a number of horrifying ways, and now this. She didn't deserve to listen to 3 talk about her terrible past, that would only add to her worries, at least that's what 3 thought.

“It's because I'm fucking stupid alright! I'm a stupid coward!” 3 whisper yelled, she knew it was risky to be doing this with a couple enemies ahead of them but she didn't care. She couldn't see but she could also tell 8 was taken aback by how the octoling turned to look at her.

“3…you are not stupid, and you're definitely not a coward. I just want to understand why you are so scared to talk to me.” 8 said her tone much softer now.

Just then, the two octolings spoke up again and 3 silently thanked them for ending this conversation early.

“Alright, we're here. And it looks clear.” The girl octoling said her light moving around to reveal a big circle area that the water from in between the walkways was pooling down into. Multiple other tunnels surrounded the area as well with water pooling in from them as well.

“How are we gonna fit a robot in here?” The boy asked sitting down and dangling his legs over the edge of the walkway.

“We’re bringing it in pieces so it'll fit easier. Then we'll put it together and when the times right…bam! They won't know what hit them.”

3 couldn't understand why some random octolings would be willing to help a guy trying to destroy all sea life, maybe they were tricked into helping him?

“Alright, lets take them by surprise. See if we can figure out what they know.” 3 whispered to 8 standing and aiming her hero shot at the back of the girl octoling.

8 stood as well aiming her octo shot at the boy and reaching to turn on her headlight.

“I'm not done with this conversation. We’ll talk about this more later.” 8 whispered turning her light on confusing the two octolings who turned around.

3 sighed, cod she was really not looking forward to later now.

“Get down on the ground now!”

———

This might've been a bad idea.

So far Neo’s been walking around the city of Splatsville aimlessly trying to find Smallfry, but no matter how many, “This ways!” she yelled out or how many power eggs she scattered on the pavement she just couldn't find him. And the longer she spent searching for her little buddy the more the pain in her heart grew.

Neo didn't think this would ever happen. For most of her life, she's been alone the only thing keeping her company being her little buddy. No matter what, no matter the obstacle, no matter who they came across, Smallfry never abandoned her. On those cold rainy nights when Neo would be hiding in a cave feeling like she’d freeze to death or the days she walked in the hot deserts dehydrated and close to passing out, Smallfry was right there with her.

And yet now for the first time in her life, he wasn't here, and it scared her.

Sure she had all these new people to talk to and get to know, but they weren't Smallfry. He knew her struggles, he knew what she went through, they didn't know anything about her.

So she was gonna get him back, she needed him.

“Smallfry! Where are you!” Neo yelled out as she walked down the sidewalk. She held onto the now half empty bag of power eggs and waited to hear if Smallfrys familiar warbles would appear but nothing came.

“Smallfry! Please! Where are you?” Neo yelled much more desperate now. She didn't know how long she's been walking, her legs ached but that didn't matter, she needed to find Smallfry.

“Smallfry! Please come back!” Neo could feel the tears starting to well up in her eyes again. He had to be out here he just had to be! But no matter where she looked it was like he'd just disappeared off the face of the earth.

Neo started to approach a cafe, on the outside of it was a couple tables and a couple of people and a manta ray sat at one of them. Neo didn't recognize them since their backs were turned but she noticed one of them wore a black leather jacket, a blue beret, and ripped jeans with some black boots while the other one wore a black tank top with a gold chain around their neck along with brown baggy pants, flip flops, and a brown beanie to match. And the Manta ray just wore a fedora.

As Neo began to walk by them the one in a beanie turned around in her seat and smiled at Neo beginning to wave.

“Yo Neo! It's us! Deep Cut! You know, Frye, Shiver, Big Man!”

Oh, now Neo knew who it was. She stopped and turned to see the inkling waving at her excitedly before getting hit in the back of the head with a fan.

“Shut up Frye! We're trying to be sneaky!” Shiver said looking annoyed with Frye who rubbed the back of her head.

“Ay! (Nice to see you again Neo!) Ay? (What were you yelling about?)” The Manta ray asked turning around and revealing himself as Big Man

That reminded Neo of her search for Smallfry, she contemplated telling them about her missing friend but decided against it when thinking about how much good that's done so far. Everyone's told her that they'd find him, to not worry, that they're sure he's ok. She was sick of hearing it, why couldn't someone just actually help her?

“Uh-nothing. Why are you guys here?” Neo asked hiding the baggie of power eggs behind her back so as to not raise any more questions. Thankfully it seemed to work.

“We're waiting for a shipment of Toni Kensa gear to roll through on its way to a warehouse.” Shiver said standing and walking over to Neo who tried her best to make sure the power eggs weren't in view. “And we're trying to make sure we don't get recognized…Frye!” Shiver added that last part looking back at Frye who stuck their tongue out at her. Neo had to admit, it was kinda funny.

“Why are you waiting for it exactly?” Neo asked, knowing these 3 they were probably trying to steal it.

“Oh we’re just gonna hitch a ride you know, maybe borrow a few of those weapons.” Shiver said in an innocent tone with a mischievous smile.

“Oh! You should join us! It’d be fun!” Frye yelled nearly falling out of her chair from how much she was leaning into the back of it. Neo wasn't too sure she should do that, she was still on the hunt for Smallfry, plus what would the captain think if she found out Neo was running around with Deep Cut stealing stuff?

“I'm…not too sure I should do that. The captain probably wouldn't like it if I-” Neo began to explain when she was cut off by Frye hopping out of her seat and walking up to Neo placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Who cares what the captain thinks. Besides we're doing it for a good cause!” Frye said. Neo raised an eyebrow in questioning.

“The weapons we steal will go towards kids who can't afford weapons to turf it up with the rest of us.” Shiver said, “And I do need a new Tri-stringer…” She added with a whisper.

“Oh, well if it's for a good cause then I guess…” Neo said, to be honest she still wasn't sure she should be doing this.

“Alright! You don't need the captain's approval, you're a big squid! You can do whatever you want!” Frye yelled pumping a fist in the air. Neo smiled feeling Fryes energy starting to rub off on her. Plus she was right, she didn't need the captains approval, she's been living most of her life independently. Why should she worry about what people think now?

“Yeah…you're right!” Neo said hiding the power eggs in her pocket and pumping her own fist up.

“That's the spirit, now…Big Man!” Shiver yelled getting the manta ray to walk over. She handed him a strange looking gun that Neo didn't recognize, it looked like it had a hook sticking out the barrel of it. “You know what to do.” Shiver said looking up at Big Man and they both nodded.

Suddenly Frye wrapped an arm around Neo confusing the younger squid.

“Uh, what's going on?” Neo asked as Shiver also grabbed onto Neo, Big Man wrapped both his large fins around the group bringing them into a big hug. This was both nice and very confusing, where they hugging to comfort each other before the little heist?

“Oh you'll see…” Frye said sounding very suspicious and only adding onto Neo’s confusion.

That's when a big truck with a cargo container on the back turned down the road and started to get close to the group. Big Man aimed the gun at the truck and waited till it was about to pass.

“Hold on tight Neo!” Shiver yelled.

“What do you me-ah!”

That's when Big Man fired the gun and the hook stuck into the back of the truck with a rope attached. Immediately the group was pulled with the truck and everyone let out a yell of excitement except for Neo who cried out in surprise and fear.

This was starting to feel like a bad idea.

———

3 aimed her hero shot at the girl octoling kneeling down in front of her with her hands behind her head. She was honestly contemplating splatting her right now with how much her patience has run dry.

“I'm gonna ask you again…who is your boss?” 3 asked her finger on the trigger of her gun. If this girl gave her one more smart-ass remark she was gonna lose it.

“Myself, I lead my own life.” The girl said giving a smug smirk.

“3, maybe you should let me take over.” 8 said her gun aimed at the guy octoling also on the floor.

3 sucked in a breath ignoring the horrible smell that invaded her senses and dropped her gun grabbing the octoling by her shirt collar and pushing her until she was dangling over the edge of the platform above the sewer water. She was gonna get her answers one way or another.

“Listen here you little shit, you're gonna tell me what I want, or else your gonna go for a little swim.” 3 said gripping the octolings shirt tight so she couldn't break free with all the squirming she was doing.

“Ah! You're crazy! Let me go!” The octoling yelled, 3 started to loosen her grip a bit lowering the octoling closer to the water. Sure this was a dirty tactic, literally, but 3 was tired of this.

“You wanna see crazy? I'll show you what crazy actually is unless you tell me what I wanna know!” 3 yelled.

“Just tell them! It's not worth it!” The boy octoling yelled.

“Fine! I'll tell you!” The girl octoling yelled in defeat. 3 sighed in relief glad to finally get what she wanted.

“We don't know the boss! He never revealed his identity! He runs around in some robot suit and gives us orders!” the girl yelled in desperation clinging onto 3’s hands.

“Where is he! And so help me cod if you're lying-” 3 yelled, she decided to encourage the girl by lowering her further to the water.

“I'm not lying! He's using a packaging factory as a base of operations!” The girl yelled her feet kicking desperately.

“What's it called!” 3 yelled trying her best to sound intimidating.

“MACKEREL PACKAGING!” The girl squealed out, looks like intimidation worked.

3 was about to ask another question when she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. Groaning in annoyance at the horrible timing, 3 lifted the girl back up onto the walkway and dropped her.

“Wow…you were scary just then.” 8 said turning to look at 3. 3 just hummed and pulled out her phone not even bothering to check who was calling as she answered and pressed the phone to her ear.

“What is it?” 3 asked.

“Hey 3!” it was Callie.

3 sighed and rubbed her temple, what could she possibly want right now?

“What do you want? I'm kinda busy here.” 3 said giving her best annoyed voice to drive the point home.

“I promise I'll be quick! So…you know how me, 4, Neo, and Marie went to Neo’s apartment last night?” Callie said, she sounded guilty and 3 wondered just what exactly happened.

“Yes, what happened? Did 4 accidentally sleep walk out a window again?” 3 asked.

“No not this time. Neo kinda…” There was a pause that left 3 waiting, only adding to her annoyance.

“Disappeared. As in she's just gone.”

3’s eyes widened at this, she immediately assumed the worst. Like kidnapping.

“WHAT!” The inkling yelled causing everyone else to jump in surprise but honestly 3 couldn't care less.

“Now I know you're probably upset about this-” Callie began to say.

“Upset? No, I'm just dandy! Hearing that a kid just disappeared in the middle of the night doesn't get me down!” 3 said with obvious sarcasm.

Callie however didn't seem to catch on.

“Really?”

“No! Where is she? Do you know where she could've gone? Does it look like anybody broke in?” 3 asked rapid firing question after question.

“No, we have no idea! And it doesn't look like anybody broke in. I think she might’ve run off.” 3 could hear in the background what sounded like Marie and 4 were talking, they also sounded worried.

“If she's out there at risk of being taken by those sanitizied octolings or some random person I'm gonna go look for her!” 3 said turning and starting to walk back down the walkway ending the call before Callie could speak again. Looks like this mission was ending early.

“Wait 3! What about these two?” 8 called out.

3 sighed and turned around kicking the girl octoling in the water the boy octoling watching in horror as his partner fell in and started to flail around clearly disgusted by being in the crap filled water.

3 then turned to the boy who’s eyes widened and he started to back away.

“N-no! Wait please! Don't do thi-” but it was too late as 3 pushed him in the water as well.

“Will they be ok?” 8 asked watching as both octolings flailed around in the water.

3 picked up her hero shot and turned starting to walk back down the walkway.

“Eh physically they will, but mentally…”

———

“Woooo! This is awesome!” Neo yelled feeling the wind in her tentacles as they flew down the road. The rush she was getting from how fast they were flying down the road was otherworldly, and still, a little terrifying with how close their legs were to the ground while still floating above it.

“I know right! The only bad part is when the car stops!” Shiver yelled barely being audible over the yelling of both Frye and Big Man.

It didn't even click what Shiver said until the truck started to come up to a red light.

“Wait what-AH!”

The truck came to an abrupt stop at the light and the group went flying into the air everyone yelling in sync. Neo thought this was it, she was gonna fall into the road and end up dying. She was never gonna find Smallfry, no one would know what happened to her, she would just end up a puddle of ink on the road. Feeling her ascent into the air stop Neo looked down to see the road and closed her eyes bracing for impact with it.

But it never came, instead, she felt something below her and she opened her eyes to see she was floating in the air! Confused, she looked down realizing she was on Big Man's back. The manta ray was stretched out in the air making a big makeshift kite allowing him to float in the air and support Neo.

“Woo! The rush never gets old! Thanks for the save Big Man!” Frye yelled and Neo turned around noticing both she and Shiver were also on Big Man as well.

“Ay! (No problem! I love getting to glide like this!)” Big Man yelled.

Neo looked out to the city below, it was insane just how different it looked from up here. The cars looked so small and the people even smaller. It felt liberating being in the air, the wind blowing against her face, the sun shining down on her. It felt like the moments she’d spend in the air when super jumping.

“Like the view?” Shiver asked moving to sit beside Neo.

“Yeah…this is awesome.” Neo didn't even look up still enraptured with being so high up. The last time she’d been so high in the air was back when she first joined the Nss and ended up riding a rocket into space. Nothing would ever be able to top doing that! But this came pretty close.

“There’s the warehouse. That's where all the goodies are hiding.” Shiver said pointing down at a big metal building that had a few cargo trucks parked in front of it, the truck that the group was following was now pulling into the building as well.

“Big Man! Bring us down on the roof!” Frye yelled.

“Ay! (You got it!)” Big Man replied before dipping down, Neo had to hold onto the manta rays back so she wouldn't end up slipping off.

The descent down toward the building started off slow but soon began to get faster and Neo held onto Big Man tighter starting to feel uneasy from how fast they were falling.

“Uh-should we be falling this fast?” Neo asked looking over at Shiver. Shiver herself just shrugged before grabbing onto the manta ray's back as well.

“Ay! (Prepare for landing!)” Big Man yelled as they got closer to the roof of the building. With the speed they were going, it was inevitable that they would crash into the roof so Neo braced for impact soon colliding with the roof and tumbling off Big Man and rolling toward the edge of the roof.

“Oh cod!” Neo yelled falling off the roof but grabbing onto the edge of it so she wouldn't end up falling even further onto the pavement below.

Thankfully Frye rushed over and grabbed Neo’s hand pulling her back up onto the roof.

“That was epic! How you feeling Neo?” Frye asked standing back up, Neo however just laid on her back breathing heavily after the few close calls she just had. She didn't understand how Frye was so energetic still even after crashing into the roof. It must've been some kind of superpower.

“Like I don't wanna get up.” Neo answered. Frye didn't seem to care and grabbed Neo’s arm lifting her up.

“Oh come on! We're already here, let's see what kinda goodies they got hidden in there!”

Neo pulled her arm back and sighed, “Do you always have this much energy when doing these things?”

Shiver walked over noticeably missing her beret, it probably fell off in the “landing”. She had something in her hand that Neo couldn't make out.

“Yes she does, it's cute but it gets annoying sometimes.” Shiver answered causing Frye to turn around and stomp her foot.

“Whatever! You're just boring.” Frye said pointing a finger at Shiver.

Shiver just ignored it and handed the object to Neo which turned out to be Big Man's wooden mask, horns and all.

“What's this for?” Neo asked.

“To disguise yourself, don't wanna be recognized in public for breaking into and stealing from a popular designer company do you?” Shiver said raising an eyebrow.

Neo shrugged and put the mask on, can't argue with that.

“Alright it's go time!” Frye said pulling out her own wooden mask and slipping it on, unlike Neo’s mask which didn't cover her mouth, Fryes mask covered her entire face, big forehead and all. She proceeded to turn to Big Man who was lying on the floor. “Yo Big M! Keep an eye out for anything fishy alright!” she yelled.

“Ay…(You got it Frye…)” Big man replied.

Shiver put on her own mask and walked over to a vent sticking out of the roof and turned into her octo form.

“Alrigh you two, follow me.” Shiver said swimming in.

“Yeah try to keep up Neo!” Frye said bumping Neo's shoulder before turning into her squid form and hopping in the vent herself.

Neo chuckled and turned into her squid form swimming in the vent as well. If she was being honest this was fun.

———

“Neo! Where are you?!” 3 yelled at the top of her lungs. She'd been walking down this sidewalk for 20 minutes yelling for Neo ever since she got out of the sewer and it was beginning to show because her throat was getting sore. 8 was walking beside her and the two of them were both looking for Neo which 3 was thankful for.

“3, I hate to say it but I don't think we’re gonna find her. This city is big, there are so many places to look.” 8 said putting a hand on the inkling's shoulder stopping her.

3 turned around and looked up at 8, she hated to admit it but she was right. There was no way they were gonna just find her roaming around the streets, and they didn't have any way of calling or texting her because she didn't have a phone. But that didn't mean 3 was gonna just give up.

“Well we have to try! she could be in trouble right now, I can't just sit around knowing something bads happening to her.” 3 said giving a desperate look to 8 who looked down at her with a sympathetic expression.

“It's sweet that you care about her but that still doesn't change the fact that she could be anywhere right now.” 8 said. 3 sighed and rubbed her eyes, she didn't understand why this was happening. It's bad enough that the end of the world is coming AGAIN! And now Neo just up and disappears, this was not doing 3 any good for her nerves.

“Here, let's sit down and think about this.” 8 said guiding 3 over to the curb and sitting down on it 3 sitting beside her. 8 was definitely much calmer about this than she was, that was another one of the countless things 3 liked about 8, how she always manages to keep a level head.

“Where would she even go?” 3 asked while 8 took her helmet off and sat it down on the other side of her along with her octo shot.

“Maybe she went to the arcade? I know kids like going there.” 8 suggested. 3 shook her head at that, she knew Neo wasn't that big on tech so that was a pass.

“No she’s not a fan of tech…maybe she went to the square.” 3 suggested, she knew Neo did like some of the ranked modes. 8 shook her head at that.

“3 we just came from the square, and we got all those weird looks from people as we exited the sewer.”

3 groaned in annoyance and buried her head in her hands. Cod this was stupid, would the universe just give her some kind of sign as to where this kid could be?

“What about Alterna? You mentioned she liked doing some of those challenges in it.”

3 shook her head, she already had Callie and Marie check there and they said they couldn’t find anything.

“I can’t think of anywhere else she’d go. Cod I wish she’d just show up!” 3 said taking her face out of her hands and looking back up at 8.

8 gave a sad smile and put a hand on 3’s back starting to rub circles on it. 3 had to admit it felt nice, she felt her body relaxing almost immediately from the touch.

“You remember what I said this morning, about you needing a vacation? Because I meant it.” 8 said her tone gentle, it helped 3 to relax even more.

“Well with the way things are going, I don't think I'll ever get one.” 3 said chuckling.

That's when a boom sounded out and 3 immediately stood turning to see flying into the sky in the distance a bunch of yellow eels. She immediately recognized them and her eyes widened.

“What is that?!” 8 exclaimed standing up.

“Frye's eels…come on!” 3 said starting to run down the sidewalk.

“Wait Frye has eels?”

———

Neo slid through the vent grating and landed ok the floor of the warehouse with a plop before turning back into her normal form. She looked around the warehouse noticing a bunch of boxes of differing sizes all with the Toni Kensa brand on them stacked on different shelves. Some of them had different weapon parts sticking out like the handle of a roller or the barrel of a charger. Neo had never seen so many weapons in one place before, she began to walk but was soon stopped when a hand grabbed her arm and tables her down to the floor behind a big wooden box. She saw it was Shiver and was about to question why she did that when the girl put a finger to her mask signalling her to be quiet.

“Alright, that's another shipment done.” A man's voice said.

“Perfect! Come with me and sign some of this paperwork and then we can get to unloading this stuff.” another voice said and the sound of footsteps which soon got more distant until the faded away.

“That was a close one…now let's go see what they got!” Frye said in a whisper yell.

Standing back up, the trio walked over to where the truck was pulled in and Frye immediately got to work trying to open the back of it up.

“Ngh! Can I get a little help?” Frye asked. Shiver walked over and lifted the latch which unlocked the back and looked at Frye. Even with the mask, Neo could tell the smugness was there.

“I hate you…” Frye said opening the back of the truck, Neo held back a laugh and Shiver just chuckled.

When the truck was open, Neo could see plenty of boxes labeled Toni Kensa with that iconic logo. Some of the boxes were pretty small while other looked big enough they needed two people to hold them. It made her wonder just how they were gonna get this stuff outta here.

“How are we gonna carry this all out?” Neo asked stepping up and into the back of the truck.

Shiver laughed and grabbed one of the smaller boxes.

“We aren't taking all of it, the thing about being a good bandit is you need to know how much you should take. Don't wanna take too much or you'll be over encumbered and it'll be difficult to escape.” Shiver said stacking the box she grabbed on top of another one. Neo hummed in surprise and grabbed a box, she definitely didn't expect to be knowledge dumped on about the intricacies of banditing.

“You sure know a lot about this bandit thing.” Neo said walking last Frye who had 3 boxes in her hands stacked one on top of the other and hopping out the back.

“Yep, we're pros at this!” Frye said hopping out as well and nearly dropping the boxes on Neo. Yep…pros.

“Alright, hope the kids like dualies and splattershots.” Shiver said hopping out last.

“Yeah I think I left the clipboard in the truck, don't worry I'll get it.” The man's voice from earlier said. Neo froze when she heard footsteps approaching but then abruptly stop.

“What the? Hey! We're being robbed!” The mans voice yelled.

Neo turned to see the man was a jellyfish wearing a truckers outfit. To be honest she definitely wasn't expecting a mans voice like that to be coming out of such a small guy.

“Uh…sorry?” Neo said giving a nervous laugh.

“Sorry bud! We're taking these!” Frye yelled dropping the boxes and reaching into her pocket.

“Well so much for stealth, get ready Neo.” Shiver said wrapping her arms around the box she was holding.

Neo was confused but then she saw Frye pull out a smoke bomb. Immediately her eyes widened, the last time she saw Frye use one of those was when they battled and it didn't really go well.

“Oh no.”

Frye threw the bomb on the ground and the force from it knocked Neo into the air and she held on tight to the boxes as she flew in the air once again.

“Eel’s! Get your wriggly butts out here!” Neo heard Frye yell and soon a bunch of Eels flew out and one of the caught Neo as they flew into the air and tore a hole in the roof of the building.

Soon for the second time today, Neo was in the air and this time flew high above the warehouse watching as a torrent of eels flew around her Frye and Shiver on one of them still holding their boxes of weapons.

“Seeya!” Frye yelled as they began to fly away from the building.

“Ay! (I thought you were going stealthy?!)” Neo heard Big Man yell and she looked down to see one of the eels had picked up the manta ray.

“Is this how all your jobs end?” Neo yelled her eel moving to fly beside Shiver and Frye.

“Not all of them but a lot of them yeah.” Shiver said. Makes sense, considering how clumsy this duo was.

The eels soon left the building behind and flew down low landing onto the road and disspating into puddles of yellow ink. Neo enjoyed this landing much more than the last one, definitely much more controlled.

Moving to the sidewalk, everyone took a second to breath, everyone taking there masks off.

“I'll be honest…that was fun.” Neo said giving a genuine smile and setting down the boxes she held.

Shiver returned it and sat the box she held down.

“It always is, that's apart of why we do it.”

Frye butted in sitting her boxes down as well.

“Yeah! The rush is awesome! Not to mention we’re doing something good for the community.” The inkling said with a big toothy smile.

“Ay! (You should join us Neo! It’d be fun!)” Big Man said, Shiver and Frye, both nodded in agreement.

“Yeah! We could always use the extra help!” Frye said.

“What do you think Neo, you down to join? You'd be doing good things for the community. Kinda like what you already do.” Shiver proposed.

Neo looked down at the mask she had worn, she had to admit it was fun. And it got her mind off Smallfry, plus she didn't really do a lot outside the Nss. Maybe she should accept.

“You know what…sure!” Neo said looking back up at the trio who all smiled at her.

“Awesome! Great to have you on board! Now let's get these weapons to some kids.” Frye said picking up her boxes Shiver doing the same.

Neo picked up her boxes as well and turned to walk back down the sidewalk, to be honest she was looking forward to this.

Until she bumped into someone and dropped the boxes causing a black and white dualie to slide out.

“Oh, sorry about that.” Neo said quickly bending down to pick up the weapon without checking who she bumped into.

“Neo?”

Neo stopped when she recognized the voice and she looked up reluctantly.

It was the captain.

“…shit.”