Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hannah, is this really necessary?”

Three looked at Four. He was in his agent attire, and, aside from the lack of a right eye, looked the same as roughly a year prior. In front of Four was a kettle, in which Three and Four were to complete a check-in, making sure there’s no malicious Octarian activity.

“First, you must address me as Captain, or Three if you must, under these situations. We’re not at home, and we must maintain the agent facade while at work. Second, yes, Four, this is necessary. We specifically chose this shift because we didn’t want to have Neo do it.”

Four sighed, with his head tilted down, and his shoulders shrugging.

“I suppose so. On the topic of Veronica, they’ve improved massively in the time they became an agent.”

Three smiled. Neo, or Veronica, was an amazing member of the New Squidbeak Splatoon. Three had asked Neo about their backstory, and it was no surprise why they always seemed alert. Apparently, Little Buddy and them were inseparable as a pair, due to life circumstances. Three shook those thoughts. She needed to focus on the task at hand. It was simple, search around the area for five minutes, and leave.

“Come on, Four, let’s get to doing this task. Then we can sleep.”

Four closed his eye, as if rejecting anything he wanted to say at the moment to oppose the mission. Three appreciated it when Four knew when to speak up and when to stop. They both made a happy couple. Four eventually walked up to the kettle.

“Are you ready, Four?”

Four crossed his arms and nodded. Three turned into a lime green squid, changing the color into a bright glittery yellow to match Four’s color. Three jumped into the kettle, and Four followed after her.

The two of them landed inside a boss arena. The same one that housed the Octo Samurai seven years prior. The area was silent, with lights flickering every now and then. The grating surrounding the arena was a tad rusted. Three and Four super jumped to the arena, landing next to each at the center. Still, the place was ever silent.

“That’s strange.”

Three turned to look at Four, who was still getting on his feet. He placed his hand on his knee to balance himself, and eventually got up.

“What’s strange? Everything seems to be in order, there’s no strange sounds at all, unlike in Octo Valley’s arenas.”

Four shook his head.

“Although there’s usually no noise in the arena’s in Octo Canyon, this one is an exception. There’s always sounds in here, regardless of the energy level.”

Three looked around herself. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and everything seemed to be in order. The electricity was low, which signified no Zapfish in the area. The place seemed what it should be.

“What type of noise?”

Four looked up to the ceiling.

“The pipes above us always creak and crack. Sure, the rust must’ve damaged it, but then we should hear more noi-.”

Four squinted his eye, trying to make out something. Something in the ceiling.

“Three, get your gun.”

Three got out her Hero Shot without question. Whatever Four thought was up there he perceived as a threat. Still, there wasn’t anything that was appearing in the radar.

“Four? There’s no sign of octarian life or machinery at work here. What do you think you s-”

Four turned towards Three and tackled her to the side, causing them both to fall sideways on the ground. As Four did this, a giant creature fell through where the pipes were.

“What the Eel is that?”

Four covered the skin above his left eye. It was bruised a tad when he threw himself and Three out of the way. He recognized the creature.

“That’s one of the most deadly creatures alive, an Axolotl. But what in blazes is it doing here?”

The Axolotl was easily quadruple the size of Three, and probably weighed 10x as her. Three had to think of a way out, even though she was no biology expert.

“It’ll track our scent. We need to drive it away. Axolotls like their pure white skin, and would hate to have anything cover it. Although it’ll agitate the creature, if we ink enough of it, it’ll scamper away.”

The Axolotl seemed to notice the sound, and turned towards Four. Four’s eyes widened.

“The Eel? Axolotls are deaf, they shouldn’t be able to hear us.”

The Axolotl seemed to dislike that comment, and roared in anger, starting to give chase. Four moved to the left, and Three to the right, splitting up to divert its attention.

Three got up from the roll to the right, and readied her gun. Although the creature was cute, in a twisted sort of way, she wouldn’t allow it to hurt either of them. Three fired some ink, covering a section of its body. The ink seemed to annoy the Axolotl, to which it thrashed about. The Axolotl turned towards Three with quick speed.

“AUGH!!”

Four screamed in pain, to which Three fired ink at the Axolotl’s eyes. The Axolotl staggered back a bit, but then raced headfirst into Three. Three shot at the external gills of the Axolotl, and the Axolotl seemed to lose its balance. Three easily sidestepped the Axolotl, and it crashed through the Arena’s gates, and fell down. Three looked at the falling Axolotl for only a moment, before diverting her attention to Four.

Four was clearly hit hard by the Axolotl’s tail, and was unconscious. Thankfully, Four didn’t seem to bleed, at least from Three’s distance. But, as Three walked her way towards Four, she heard the arena creak. Three was halfway across the arena before she noticed that an arena section to her right was missing. It seemed to crack of-

Four. Three ran to Four, hoping her suspicions were false, but the platform around Four started to crack off. Just as the section of the arena that Four laid on fell into the darkness below, Three jumped after Four, and managed to catch his hand with hers, while also gripping to the edge of the Arena with her other hand.

“Four, this isn’t a time to joke around!”

Four dangled from Three’s hand, still as the sands.

“Orson, this isn’t funny I need you awake!!”

If it wasn’t for Four’s small breaths, Three would’ve thought him dead, with how he wasn’t moving or waking up. Three heard the ground around her hand start to crack. Three tried using her headphones to call Callie and Marie…

…

…

No response.

Three grip on Four’s hand tightened as she called Agent 8.

…

…

No Response.

If Eight didn’t pick up, then neither would Pearl or Marina. Three’s grip on the only thing keeping her from falling was loosening. She didn’t want to call them, but they were the only light sleeper in the entire New Squidbeak Splatoon.

…

…

“It’s two in the morning, what do you n-”

“Veronica, it’s an emergency.”

“What is it Captain?”

As Three prepared her words, she felt Four’s hand slightly slip from her hand. She tried grabbing his hand harder, but that made her lose her grip on the arena floor even more.

“Listen, tell Callie and Marie to search the bottom of Octo Canyon’s Suction Cup Look-Out Boss Kettle.”

“Search the bottom of the boss k- Captain what type of situation are you in?”

“We’re going to need a search and rescue for Four and I.”

Three didn’t even bother to listen to Neo’s worry cries, as all her attention was on the grip of Four and the grip of the Arena. She was starting to lose her grip on the Arena. She felt terrible, burdening such a new agent this much.

“Tell them that if the search is unsuccessful, that Eight is promoted to Captain.”

“PROMOTED TO C-? CAPTAIN WHAT THE EEL IS GOI-”

She couldn’t hold onto the Arena any longer.

“Neo, I’m sorry.”

Three let go. She could only tightly squeeze onto Four, listening to the muffled static mess that was transmitting Neo’s pleas, as she fell down.

Down into the abyss.

Chapter Text

Veronica sat on the bed with the headphones still in their ears. They couldn’t hear Three anymore. They were woken up in the smallest hour of the night, with news that shook them to the core. What the eel were they suppose to do? They couldn’t call Callie and Marie at this hour, after all, it was way too early in the morning… but the Captain did say it was an emergency.

Neo looked at Little Buddy, who was cleaning up the drool they left while sleeping. Some things never change. Still, the Captain left an urgent message, and Neo would not fail. After all, if they failed, the Captain and Four would be…

Neo looked to the side of their bed. On the bedside table was the wedding photo Neo took during the Captain’s wedding. It was painful to look at. It felt that, every moment Neo looked at it, a moment closer to Three and Four’s demise.

Neo picked up the Ceplaphone. Neo dialed Callie’s number, but before they could enter the final digit, Neo had second thoughts. Was it truly ok to interrupt at such a time? Neo quickly shook those thoughts away as they reminded themselves that the Captain herself called them only moments ago. If Neo were to be worthy of being called an Agent, they would need to get rid of such silly fears.

…

…

“-ello? Neo is that you?”

Neo’s voice failed them. They couldn’t say what the Captain wanted them to say. They couldn’t disturb Callie at all. They didn’t want to disturb anyone. Neo canceled the call before Callie could speak again.

Neo stopped and breathed. They needed to be calm. They were making rash decisions, and they needed to help the Captain. The breathing soon turned to hyperventilating. What if the Captain’s dead because they didn’t call Callie soon enough? What would the squid sisters think of Neo calling them at such an early hour? They would be annoyed surly, and if they found out what happened to the Captain they would be annoyed that Neo didn’t tell them earlier. But if they found out about the Captain and they turned dead, then would they think Neo was to bla-

The Ceplaphone rang, interrupting Neo’s downward spiral of thoughts. Neo steadied themselves, and picked up the Ceplaphone.

“Neo, are you ok?”

Neo couldn’t just hang up, that would be way too suspicious.

“Yes, well no, but yes… it’s not about me.”

“Who is it about?”

Neo took a breath in. They just needed to say 3 words. 3 simple words.

“Captain and Four.”

“… what? What happened?”

Neo swallowed. Their hands were shaking. Sure, they’ve been through a lot, seen a lot as well, but…

“Captain called me a few moments ago… s-she said that a search party needed to be formed for her and Four.”

Neo heard muffled noises from the other side. Neo listened, and could hear what they thought was Callie racing to Marie and shaking her awake. Neo then heard Marie speak.

“Neo? What’s going on? Why is Callie waking me up this early in the morning?”

Neo grabbed the Ceplaphone with two hands.

“It’s the Captain and Four. The Captain called me a bit ago to order a search party for the two of them.”

“… the Captain ordered you for a search party for them?”

“Yes, and the way it sounded…”

Neo couldn’t even get the words out of their mouth. How were they supposed to transfer that information? They couldn’t! They just couldn’t!

“Never mind, but she told me that the search needs to be around Suction Cup Look Out’s boss kettle.”

“… that was their mission assignment. Neo, do you have anything else the Captain told you?”

“… specifically, the bottom of the boss kettle.”

“WHAT?!”

Yep, Neo was screwed. Neo didn’t like being yelled at, but could usually handle it, but this wasn’t an angry yell. This was worse.

“Neo, did the Captain tell you anything else? Anything at all?”

… yes, the Captain did, but how the Eel was Neo suppose to say that? That the Captain already planned a promotion? That the Captain was sorry? How could Neo do anything like that? What was the Captain thinking, putting that information on them like that?! What could they even reasonably expect from someone like them? They were the newby! They don’t belong in this family of agents, they d-

Neo heard Marie speak on the Ceplaphone, but the words failed to reach Neo’s ears. Tears started to flow down Neo’s face. They were useless. What were they supposed to do? They couldn’t give them any more information than what they already gave. And to think that the Captain said she was sorry?? How in the blazes was Neo supposed to stay calm? It’s impossible! They should’ve left the group when they had the chance! What use were they? Neo turned off the call. They shouldn’t have disturbed the squid sisters at such an hour. They shouldn’t have to listen to Neo crying.

So they cried. The crying continued for what felt like an eternity, before Neo calmed down. They had to help the Captain and Four. Failure was NOT an option. Having settled their nerves, Neo picked up their Ceplaphone. A few messages from Marie and Callie, both stating that, whenever they were ready, would be willing to talk about it and devise a search party for the group. Neo dialed Marie’s number, and called.

…

“Neo, are you feeling more stable?”

“Y.. yes, I’m ok now. Sorry for having you worry so much for my s-”

“Don’t think about it Neo. The more you think about it, the easier it is to fall back into those thoughts. Right now, if you’re ok, we need to discuss the information we have on the Captain and Four’s whereabouts. First, I need to confirm something. You said that they were at the Suction Cup look out’s boss kettle, correct?”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

“And specifically, at the bottom, right?”

“Yes.”

“… did they tell you anything else?”

Neo took in a large breath, and focused on the words.

“… the Captain mentioned t-that if the search was… unsuccessful, that she planned a promo-”

“That’s what made you so upset then.”

Marie sighed.

“Neo, we will find the two of them. I promise you, we will find them alive and well.”

Neo softly smiled at those words. Neo wanted nothing more than to see them again.

“I-I’ll head to the area. I’ll meet you when you’re there.”

With that, Neo shut off their phone. It was time to go find some agents missing in action.

Chapter Text

Three woke up, with her mind dizzy and exhausted. She tried to recall what happened, as well as why she was in a dark place. All around her existed a seemingly endless black. She placed her hand on her head, and felt a warm liquid trickling down her forehead. She must’ve been bleeding. Why was she bleeding? Three picked herself up, and looked around. She was certain that Four and her were on a mi-

Oh. That’s why she was bleeding. That’s why everything was dark. She fell with Four. But then where was Four? If Four wasn’t here. Then again, where was “here”? Was she anywhere at all? Was she dead?

The nausea kicked in. Three felt her knees buckle, and she collapsed back on the ground. Pain. That was a good sign. Three presumed the dead didn’t feel any pain. Now she needed to find Four. However, the silence forbade her from speaking. She didn’t want to challenge the deafening silence. She heard movement from somewhere near her. Three breathed in slowly and purposefully, as to not alert whatever was close to her presence.

A groaning voice nearby spoke.

“W… where am I?”

Three nearly shed a tear. They were both all right… at least for the moment. Three quietly moved towards Four’s voice. She quietly felt around, and felt Four’s arm. Four suddenly moved away at the touch.

“It’s me Four, we’re ok.”

Four breathed slowly, and opened his left eye.

“What happened?”

… Three certainly could tell the truth, and that would be beneficial… But, what would his reaction be? Steadying her breathing, she spoke.

“We fell Four. You were knocked unconscious, and I had to run and grab you before you fell… but the arena was collapsing. I made a call before we fell, but… we’re at the bottom of the Kettle.”

The small lights from the headphones provided some light that reflected off of both Three and Four’s reflective jackets. From this light, Three could make out Four’s reaction… but Three refused to believe her eyes. Four seemed to be holding laughter, but the laughter seemed to originate from fear…

“… heh… the bottom of the kettle?… Three, do you know what’s at the bottom of the kettle?”

Three was scared to ask, but any information, no matter how dire, was important. Three shook her head to signify her lack of knowledge.

“Well neither do I, but I have an idea. Take a seat, Three, it’s going to take a while.”

Three patted the ground to make sure it was solid and clean enough to sit on. After slightly reducing the dirtiness of the floor, Three sat.

“From what I’ve studied, the bottom of the kettles should be nothing but water. We should have come in contact with water, but we didn’t. If we should have fallen into water, but instead fell on land, then we can only be on a shore. Do you agree with my thinking so far?”

Three nodded her head. So far, Four’s thinking seemed correct.

“Good. I’ve done a lot of Grizzco work in the past, and I recall reading the Grizzco manual. Actually, in retrospect, I’m surprised that not many people are aware of the existence of living octarians, but we’ll deal with that later. The main point is that in the manual, it mentions that Octarians trade with Salmonids. This is how Octarians have a supply of salmon eggs to fuel their machinery. Does that make sense?”

Three once again nodded. Still, something felt amiss… it seemed that Four hadn’t exactly told the full extent of his idea.

“Great. Because we are on shore, and not dead, then we might be close to where Salmonids would come up to trade with Octarians. Salmon act- THAT’S I-”

Three clamped her hand over Four’s mouth.

“Shite, Four, are you trying to gain attention?!”

Four giggled as he put his hands up in surrender. Three sighed, and let Four’s mouth go.

“Sorry about that. Anyways, salmon activities are spiking up, as we’ve seen in Wahoo World and Inkblot Art Academy. So, if the salmonids raided the Octarians, they would be powerless. However, it seems that the Octarians developed an ace up their tentacle. That Axolotl that attacked us… they omit a gas that acts as an opposite to glow flies, something that definitively stears Salmonids away. Only problem, is that they are natural predators to inklings, which is why we can’t develop a replica of the gas to protect o-.”

Three shut Four’s mouth.

“I’ll allow 3 more sentences.”

Three let go of Four’s mouth. Four sighed.

“The Axolotl that hunted us is likely designed by the octarian military. Its purpose should be driving off aggressive salmonids, but it is attacking us as well. We need to be careful to avoid it.”

Four is quite amazing at info dumping, which is great whenever they weren’t in a survival situation in which too much noise could be their downfall. Still, the information was good to know. But now…

“We need to form a plan, Four.”

Three put her fist to her cheek and closed her eyes to think.

“I’d say that, although staying here is the best option for us to be found by our search crew, it’ll likely let the Axolotl find us easier. But if we get too close to the shore, the Axolotl can catch us where we either have to defeat it, or we die in the water. Your opinion?”

Four closed his eye. The two of them were close to the shore. If salmonids traded with Octarians there, then…

“We go to the shore. If my thinking is right, then there might exist a warehouse in which we can camp out. There might exist some tech there that allows us to protect ourselves from the Axolotl.”

Three nodded. That was a plan. Three helped Four up, and Four supported Three, as they walked towards the faint, near nonexistent sound of waves. Three still had her gun on her, and Four had his gun on him, so they could fight if necessary. Still… Three silently hoped that whatever was to happen, that the two of them would see Neo again.

Chapter Text

Three collapsed on the ground. How long has she and Four been walking for? She didn’t know what time it was… or what day for that matter. Three’s felt Four get her arm around his shoulder to support her. Four chuckled.

“You know, Three? This isn’t half bad.”

“The Eel you mean it isn’t ‘alf bad?”, Three sputtered out.

With a cracked smile, Four continued.

“Well, the last time I fell from a tall heig-”

Three rolled her eyes. “Oh do shut up. We are NOT going to compare that to this.”

Four sighed. “Pessimistic nihilism speaks again.”

“How is that even remotely relevant?!” Three said, trying to keep her voice low.

“Well, on the bright side, the sound of the waves are getting closer. Can you make out anything?”

Three looked in the direction they were walking. She couldn’t see a thing. The only thing on her mind was escaping alive, getting a nap, and the salty sea air. The salty sea air surrounded all of her senses, making it hard to make out anything. But… there was a scent that interrupted the salty smell, if only briefly. A smell of something burnt was coming to her. It was quite near the shore. Three spoke after considering what the smell meant.

“Hey, Four, you’re more of a salmonid expert than I am, do you know if certain trade stuff for salmonids have a burnt smell?”

Four stopped. Three tried to look into his eye, but that eye was on the other side of his face. The only eye she could see was the eyehole that was covered with an eyepatch. Still, it was unusual for him to just stop, which likely mean danger was near.

“Orson?”

Escaping his thoughts, Four answered the question.

“Not really, but it’s a better shot than anything else. Let’s go take a look.”

The two made their way to the smell. The soft ground was starting to become more rocky. After what felt like an hour of walking, but couldn’t have been more than five minutes, Three spotted the Warehouse. It was massive, easily five stories tall at bare minimum. As the two made their way to the entrance, Three found the door handle, and reached to open.

“This door handle is much more rusty than I’d expect.”, Three said with a bit of surpise. After gripping it, Three felt another texture. But that texture was impossible to exist. After all, they’re on land, even if close to the sea. Three opened the door.

The inside was a gigantic room, with three long tables stretching to the end of the hall, with stairs at the end. The tables were filled with computers, boxes, vials, books, boxes, microscopes, radios, and maybe even more boxes. The place looked like had a method to its madness though, with more data stuff on one side and experimental stuff on the other. The ground was completely dry.

“Wow… this isn’t just a trading post… I think this is an entire laboratory and a trading post as one!” Four said with some surprise. “Three, I’ll go look to see if there’s any comfortable seating areas for you, as well as bandages. Could you look for any way to contact us out of here?”

Three nodded. As Four headed upstairs, Three looked to see if any the radios or computers were of working condition. Not one made a noise. They were all beyond working condition. Giving up on that idea, Three started opening boxes. There were some gadgets and things in the boxes, but the boxes were sorted with labels. While Three wasn’t exactly fluent in the octarian language, she could read some.

Three put her thoughts together. Octolings tended to communicate through the radios inside their headwear. In other words, octoling headwear contained radios. Three started looking for boxes containing any word that could meant headwear, like hats, glasses and more. After some digging, Three found a box with the name “Experimental T3V Goggles.” Three opened the box up.

Inside the box was something that looked like the Grizzco 360 All Scope. The left visor had just one hole for one eye. The other visor had 3 holes for what seemed to be 3 smaller eyes. Looking into the goggles, Three couldn’t seem to see anything in the 3 holes. Curious about the strange object, Three started to put it on.

“HANNAH STOP!”

Three jumped at hearing Four, yelling, her name, and Four yelling her name. The goggles dropped back into the box.

“Shite! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!” Three said with some desperation. Looking at Four, Three felt that he was genuinely terrified.

“Why did you try to stop me putting those glasses on?”

Four walked down the rest of the staircase and looked at the Experimental T3V. He picked it up, and examined it.

“Three, I did some modifying with some Grizzco rewards, and I think this is an unmodified Grizzco 360 All-Scope. When I accessed the data of that headset in the past, I noticed that the right eye vision area was explicitly carved in.”

“And?”

“Three, if you were to put this on, you’d probably lose your right eye entirely.”

Three just sat in silence. She shook her head.

“How did you come to THAT conclusion?”

Four sighed. “Three, this box says T3V. That probably means Tri, or 3, Vision. We can only see light and color, which is just 1 type of vision. DJ Octavio had once muttered to me that he tried to get better detection systems for the army. Some detection systems, or vision, that would be useful is Thermal and X-Ray. Do you follow me so far?”

Three could only nod. He wasn’t saying anything about how it could remove your eye, but he’d probably explain that soon.

“The way our brain works, is that it’s wired to read light. The only way to see something other than light is to re-wire our brain. But we have a blood brain barrier, right? So we can’t just dig a hole into our brain to reworked it. This device… likely has a wire that is meant to connect to the brain through an empty eye socket. It’s no wonder DJ Octavio didn’t pursue this matter further.”

Three blinked, just to make sure she heard all that correctly. “Are… are you saying that, if you put that on, since you don’t have a right eye, you can see heat?”

Four shrugged. “Only one way to find out.” He placed the goggles on, and for a moment, it seemed that nothing changed. He then took a stride back in pain, but caught himself on the lab table. Four didn’t even speak, he just looked past Three, to the door handle that lead back outside.

“Four?”

“Three, I found some bandages upstairs, I believe in placed them in a place you’ll see. I’ll be upstairs in a minute, I just need to figure out how to see in color now.”

Three nodded. She moved up the stairs, and found the bandages. She started to wrap her head. She still had no idea when help would come. Or even if help would find them for that matter. But she had to believe in Neo. They had to find them. Three heard noise from the lower level, and walked down. In Four’s hands were two glass vials and a box of what had to be matches.

“Four? What are you doing?”

Four, obviously shocked, nearly slipped on some water with the vials, but managed to avoid it.

“Four I swear if you slip I’m going t-”

Wait. Slip? The floor was dry earlier. How was it w-

The door handle. The texture that shouldn’t have been there. The feeling of Corals.

“FOUR HURRY UP THE STAIRS NOW.”

Four didn’t even bother to argue. After all, it seemed he noticed it too. The wet floor, the strange texture.

This place had been underwater before. In fact, it likely went underwater periodically. It was about to be high tide.

As Three helped him up, Four spoke.

“How did you find out?”

“The door handle and the floor.”

“What do you m- oh. That was what you were referring to.”

Three narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean ‘that’?”

Four looked near the edge of the room on the floor. Nothing was there.

“Looks like our friend is back. It probably tracked our scent.” Four then looked straight at Three, still wearing those goggles. “We need to move upwards, and fast if we want to escape this Axolotl.”

Chapter Text

Rushing Three up the stairs of the warehouse, Four was well aware of what he had to do. Like most living creatures, Axolotls did have a weakness to fire. But still, Four would be lying to himself if he didn’t admit he was scared out of his mind. Tucked in his pants pockets were samples of Steelhead Saliva. In his breast pocket, a match. If everything went to plan, the Axolotl should leave them alone, and Neo could find them.

Still… he never wanted to hold a match ever again.

“Come on, Four!” Three yelled. “The water’s rising faster and faster!”

Inklings exploded in contact with water. If not for the sunscreen that was invented ~40 years ago that acted as a membrane to protect inklings from exploding and still enjoy the water, Three and him wouldn’t have to worry about the rising water. Of course, neither of them prepared for this to happen, so no one brought sunscreen.

Each step closer to the roof, Four had to mentally prepare his mind. He knew what had to be done. He knew that the fire would make the Axolotl leave Three and him alone…

Still…

Three kicked down the door to the roof. Four motioned Three to get to the other side of the roof. As Three ran there, Four quickly emptied the vials. The Axolotl was gigantic, so the flames to scare it off also had to be gigantic. Thankfully for the Salmonids, Steelhead Salvia couldn’t combust into flames on its own. But thankfully for Four, he already planned for that. Running to where Three was, Four caught his breath from all the climbing and spoke.

“Three, I have a plan. You need to ink that area, where the color’s a bit off. If you do that…”

Four reached for the match. His hands didn’t like the feeling of the box. He took the box, and handed it to Three, but not without some hesitation.

“I think we can start a fire.”

Three looked concerned, but she knew better to argue than at a time like this. Three took out her hero shot and started shooting. The sound of the Axolotl’s climbing was increasing, and right as Three finished covering the ground in ink, the Axolotl had arrived. Four watched as Three took the match, swiped it across the box, and threw the small flame towards the ground.

Despite the Axolotl’s charging, it stopped upon the sight of the massive flames. Through the flames, Three could see the Axolotl attempt to retreat, only to realize that it was surrounded by the raised tides. There was no space to climb around, so all it could do is look at its prey, across the inescapable wall

Three sighed in relief. “Four, you really are something else, you know? I mean, how many people plan to create an expl-”

Three set her eyes on Four’s face. He was petrified.

Three started to ask Four what was going on, but her voice fell on deaf ears.

… how long had it been since Four lost his memories? Eight months? Yes, that seems right… Four was ecstatic to regain his memories…

But…

There was a memory he’d rather forget forever. He had tried and did well to repress those memories whenever he enacted the plan to create the fire… but once he set his sights on the inferno…

He recalled that terrible event again…

———— Roughly Eleven Years Ago ————

“Orson, hurry up! We can’t be late to support my brother’s meeting. Besides, Pearl will be there.”

Orson was excited. Pearl was his favorite cousin, and even though they couldn’t spend much time together, each moment was worth it.

As Orson got into the car, he thought of the last time he met Pearl. She had taken a step into the music field. She was talented for sure, so of course Orson supported her decision. Even though Orson tried his hardest to study, he promised Pearl that, no matter what, he’d spend time listening to her songs (as long as his mom allowed him to). The car drove through the falling snow all the way to camp triggerfish.

…

The car ride to camp triggerfish was long, but once Orson got out of the car, he jumped to great his cousin.

“Pearl!”

Pearl was looking around the area, and was picking up an old box before she noticed Orson. After noticing him, she placed the box and ran up to him.

“You’re here too? That’s great, now I can’t be bored! How’s school so far?”

“I’m doing very well! I just got accepted into an early high school! How’s your music career?”

“It’s just getting started! I’m trying to pair with some other band members, but other people just can't understand my style yet. But I’ll find someone!”

Orson smiled. He really aspired to be someone like Pearl. The two of them started walking through Camp Triggerfish. After getting onto the actual camp through the one entrance, Four set his sights on the place. It was a unique place, with the four totem poles around the roughly square area. The setting sun made the totem tower over them, more so than usual.

“So what’s your parents trying to do here?” Orson asked, with curiosity.

“Apparently Pops wants to buy this place so he can turn it into a turf war zone. I dunno about that though, the place seems too complicated for a turf war place. It would take massive renovations to build the place into what he wants.”

Orson looked around him and the surrounding area. It was almost like a maze, with the wooden beams going up and down. The night was rather cold, especially with the light snowfall. Pearl sat down next to a circle of rocks, and placed a heater on the other side of the rocks. With the heater keeping them warm, Orson and Pearl talked for an hour. As the snow fell, Orson and Pearl noticed the lightning.

“Wait it’s not raining. How can lightning happen?” Pearl asked herself.

Orson, excited to help Pearl, jumped at the opportunity to explain how thunderstorms can happen in snow storms. The conversation lasted a bit longer until aperson, likely an assistant for the camp, came to the place they were talking.

“Pearl, your father needs you now.”

Pearl sighed. “Alright, I’m coming. I’ll be back in a bit, Orson.”

As Pearl got up, a box fell out of her pocket. Orson looked at the box. It was some box of matches, likely litter that Pearl picked up and planned to throw away. Orson picked up the box and put it in his pocket. As he waited, the night seemed to get colder and colder. He could go to where Pearl was, but that was boring meeting stuff that she didn’t want to be at. Looking at the circle of stones, Orson had an idea.

He took the matchbox from his pocket. Sure, the heater was on, but the night was really cold, with the snow and the wind. He should’ve brought a jacket, but he didn’t want to. So, he took the match, scraped it against the box, and saw the small flame. He threw the small flame into the circle, and it started a small fire. He felt his body warm up, and smiled…

However, things happened that Orson couldn’t even imagine. The wind picked up some embers from the flame, and dropped it off at the heater. Before Orson could realize what was happening, the heater exploded. Orson quickly covered his face, but the blast of the explosion flung Orson against a wall, and he blacked out.

When Orson regained consciousness, he smelt the burnt wood, and immediately got up. The area around him was on fire. Running through where he thought Pearl was, he shouted her name. There was no response. Orson started to panic, and dropped to the floor. He needed to get out of the fire. It was hot, too hot. He scrambled his way to the bridge that connected the camp to the parking area, but upon arriving, he saw the bridge had burnt and fell.

“MOM? PEARL??” Orson cried. He tried to locate the two, but couldn’t find any of them, not with the flames already obstructing his vision. Then Orson heard what sounded to be like a megaphone.

“Orson? You there? Hold on, Pop’s calling the fire department! They’ll be there soon! Just hold on, and don’t breath the smoke!”

Orson nodded at the voice. He turned around, and looked for a safe place to be that wasn’t already in flames. He ran through the campsite, trying to find a way out. However, the campgrounds were surrounded with water, likely to protect the campsite from wild animals. No matter how far he went around the camp grounds, the entire place was engulfed in flames. Orson felt his chest getting weak from all the running, so he just walked to the middle of the campground. If the firefighters needed to find him, he needed to be out in the open, not hidden. So, keeping his head high, and taking as few breaths as possible, he sat on his knees.

All around him, flames. He couldn’t seem to see anything else outside the fires. Orson’s chest started to hurt. Breathing was painful. Despite the snow storm, the falling snow did little to dampen the inferno. He tried to close his eyes, but his eyes refused to close. The crackling of the flame ran through his ears. He wanted to close his ears, but his hands were too tired to move. His mouth tasted the ashy air. He could close his mouth, but he knew that he needed to breathe. The smell of the smoke was overwhelming. Tears started to form in his eyes. All around him was the raging inferno. He couldn’t see his mom, he couldn’t see his dad, he couldn’t see Pearl, he couldn’t see anything besides the inferno. All that he could do was cry and watch the inferno rage on.

…..

As the fire fighters brought Orson down, he couldn’t gather the courage to speak. The questioning went on for weeks, but eventually, they determined that a stray bolt had struck the heater. There was no evidence of the match box (as it had all burnt up), so no one besides Orson knew. Pearl’s father had later bought the camp and renovated it.

————— Eleven Years Later ——————

And yet… he started a fire again. The memories flooded him, and started to overwhelm him. Sure, last time firefighters helped him to get out, but they were stuck. Sure, they were safe from the Axolotl, but they were stuck on the building. They couldn’t get off the building, especially with the water surrounding them. Why did he think this was a good idea? What was the purpose o-

Four felt a tug on his shoulder. He looked over to the side to see Three. She looked concerned. But not for the fire. For him. Was she worried about him? How long was he spacing out for?

“Orson, are you ok?”

Hannah. Hannah was worried about him. Was he ok? No, absolutely not. They were stuck on that rooftop next to a reminder of an event he’d wish he’d forgotten forever. But… but he had to be ok. Not for his sake, but for hers.

“Y-yes, sorry about that Three.”

Right now, he needed to focus. Why did he start the fire? He wouldn’t have done that for a reason as simple as to stop the Axolotl. He’d rather try fighting it first, even in the condition Three and him were in. So why else would he start a fire?

The fire was large, way bigger than was necessary to stop the Axolotl. So w-

Bigger. The fire was big. Big enough to be seen from a long distance. Orson turned on his Termo Vision. As he searched the sky, he saw a large object flying towards them.

“Hey, Three, how big did you say Little Buddy got?”

Three raised an eyebrow. “Well, I don’t have the measurements, b- wait are you saying that it’s flying to-”

Four nodded. That object was the reason Four gambled on such a large fire, even though he knew how scary it was. As the object flew closer, he felt the pulse of an echo-locator on him. Marie must’ve used her special. Finally, Four turned on his regular vision, and saw the gigantic Little Buddy fly towards them. Four heard the sound of a loudspeaker.

“¡ǝɹǝɥ ɟo ʇno noʎ ʇǝƃ ǝʍ ǝɔuo ǝlqnoɹʇ ɥɔnɯ os uᴉ ǝɹɐ oʍʇ llɐ’⅄”

Yep, that’s Callie. Four was going to have it from Marie and Neo. He couldn’t help but chuckle. He took another look at Three, who looked both terrified and relieved. As Big Buddy descended, Three and Four both climbed on. The team flew away from the burning building. As the wind rustled through Four’s hair, he saw Neo just staring at the two of them…

Neo. Four could tell that they didn’t live an easy life. They knew too much for their age. They weren’t naive in the slightest, and Four could tell that that was from experience. Four wanted to comfort them, but he didn’t know what to say. He figured that, if they didn’t say anything after the flight back, then Four would try.

…

As Big Buddy flew back into the arena, everyone hopped off. Neo immediately grabbed Three by the shoulders with such a grip to kill a fish. Neo was visibly shaken, and wasn’t showing their face.

“… Captain, never once in my life had I cried. Back then, I didn’t have anyone besides Lil’ Buddy to call a family. But after I met y’all… I’ve felt a happiness that I’d never thought possible…”

Four could see the tears falling from Neo’s face. They were trying their hardest to not look Three in the eyes.

“I don’t want no apology. I don’t want non of that. I want a promise. Don’t you EVER call me like that… I don’t want to lose you… I don’t want to lose the family I just found…”

… Four thought on those words. While he grew up in a nice area, he heard whispers of what those areas were like. He’s heard about how weakness wasn’t tolerated. It was a eat or be eaten world there. For Neo to show such a shakened self, Neo must really trust them.

Three put her arms around Neo’s head. From the look in her eyes, Four could already tell just how hard those words hit her. She wouldn’t readily admit it, but… she asked the same of him soon after he regained his memories.

“I’m… I won’t. I promise.”

Four smiled at the scene. To his knowledge, Three didn’t recall exactly who Neo was prior to the Alterna incident, which Neo and Four were fine with. Four wouldn’t dare claim to know what living on the streets was like, but he knew from his time talking with Neo.

The sight of Marie walking towards him shook Four out of his thoughts.

“You’re lucky that I didn’t speak a word of this to Pearl.”

Oh right. He didn’t even consider how much Pearl would have been worrying for him. It seemed that it would’ve worried Pearl a lot, if Marie’s bloodshot eyes were any indication.

Four was about to apologize, but Marie cut him off.

“Neo woke us up at 2 in the morning. Do you even have an inkling of how I felt? How they felt?”

… did he truly understand? He could tell that Marie had already cried her tears a while back. From the looks of it, she didn’t sleep after being woken up.

“Look, I’m s-”

“You need to talk to Neo before you even think about talking to me.”

With that, Marie turned away. Four sighed. Marie was always protective of him, even more so than the other agents. She likely spent several hours wishing that she and Callie were the ones who chose to do the mission rather than him and Three. Still, the past couldn’t change, and everything ended up well in the end.

Four looked over at Neo and Three. Three was helping them dry their tears. After a final hug, Three went off to Callie to apologize, so Four took his chance to talk to Neo.

“… hey, Veronica.”

Neo looked up at him.

“Thank you for causing that fire. Lil Buddy wouldn’t have been able to find you without it..”

Four smiled. “No problem, Neo. How are you holding up?”

After a sniffle, Neo spoke. “I’m… fine. Does… does the Captain k-”

“I haven’t told Hannah a thing about your past.”

Neo nodded.

“Thanks… I can’t believe that I’d be crying over her after… that.”

Orson sighed. “Veronica, don’t beat yourself over that incident. You had to do whatever you could to survive. I’m glad I was able to stop it before you went too far.”

Neo grabbed Orson’s hand.

“Are… you sure you can still be ok with me being a member? Even after?”

Orson used his other hand and patted Veronica’s head.

“Kid… you had a tough life. A really bad life. But that’s the past. You’ve became a better person. You’ve learned to become vulnerable, to care, and to save others. You’ve saved the entire world once, and your family twice.”

Orson took a deep breath in.

“Neo, you’re family to us, ok? You SAVED us. Without you, Three and I would be in a much worse situation. How about this, I’ll talk to Three on hearing you out, ok?”

Neo widened their eyes.

“What? Wait but she wouldn’t fo-”

“She will. I know her.” Four interrupted, before patting Neo on the back. “Now, come on, let’s get you some Gyros. My treat.”

Neo nodded. They loved Gryos.

The End.