Chapter Text
Upon waking up, Agent 3 noticed two things.
Number One: Her head was pounding like her brain was trying to renovate.
Number Two: An Octoling was smiling at her. It was a warm smile that almost made her forget about the headache.
“Urgh…”
The Octoling looked over behind Three. “Three is waking up!”
A crowd seemed to instantly form around her as she pushed herself off the ground. Looking around, she noticed not only the Octoling, but Cap’n (thank cod he’s okay) and… famous musical group Off the Hook? Surely this was her massive headache causing her to hallucinate. “I’m awake, I think. Why is Off the Hook here?” “They helped me escape the Metro.” Ah. That made sense. What do pop idol duos do if not get involved in dangerous paramilitary missions? “Okay. Second question… The last thing I remember was jumping down onto that blender after hearing that distress signal. Was I out the entire time?” Suddenly, everyone looks awkward. The tall one from Off the Hook begins trying to explain it. “Well, you see, um, you were, well…” Oh cod. The sigh Tall let out made Three feel like she was on trial. “The telephone put some sludge on your head and tried to mind control you into killing Eight?”
What?
“That’s… not what I expected.” Sure enough, bringing her hand to the side of her face, she rubbed off some dried cyan… ink? “Great. Any other war crimes under my likeness I should know about?” The short one from Off the Hook piped up. “Nah, just the fight. Well, it also used you to tie up Cap over here, but he’s fine.”
Three stared flabbergasted for a solid half a minute. “Cap’n, is this true? Surely I’m still hallucinating. Tell me I didn’t try to squidnap you and kill her while I was at it.” Cap’n shook his head. “It was that blasted telephone controlling you, so I don’t think that counts as you doing that, eh?”
If they weren’t on a helicopter flying above the ocean (wait, when did that happen???) Three would have tried to hide. Alas, the world was cruel, and she would have to face the music. “Either way… sorry. You too, uh…” “Eight.” “Yeah. Sorry, Eight. Also sorry for trying to fight you before all this, too.” “You remember that?” “I mean that was the last thing I remembered before waking up in the Metro, so how could I forget? But yeah, I’m sorry about trying to fight you.” “We can blame Mr. Cap’n for that, don’t worry.” “Heh, that we can.” Cap’n lowered his hat in embarrassment. “I said I was sorry! If I’d known you were a Squid Sisters fan, I’d have left ya alone!” “And how would you have deduced that, Cap’n? Telepathy?” “Ho ho! I suppose I can’t argue with that.”
The ride back to Inkopolis was uneventful, which was absolutely a blessing after the hell everyone had gone through down there. Except Off the Hook, they must’ve been somewhere else. Three didn’t remember seeing them on any security cameras while she was sneaking around the Kamabo Co. HQ.
As Shorty and Cap’n engaged in a rap battle, Three silently stared at the sunrise. Somehow, it looked just a little more beautiful above the buildings. She noticed that Agent 8 was absolutely enraptured. Her eyes had gone wide, and Three had to shake her a bit to snap her out of it. “Beautiful, ain’t it?” “Yeah. It makes me happy.” “Truth be told, I usually see the sun rising as a sign I’ve made a huge mistake. This is a nice change of pace.” “A mistake?” “I’d say ‘not sleeping’ is a pretty big mistake.” “Three!!!!! Sleep’s important!!!!!” Eight almost looked serious, but that expression gave way to a smile. “Well, I’ll get some sleep once we get back. Maybe that’ll fix my headache.” Three smiled back in return. Maybe they weren’t destined to be enemies after all.