Chapter Text
Renée pressed a palm to their throbbing temple. It had been about a week since the Kamabo incident, and they could still feel that cold, gelatinous mass digging icy needles into their skin. It was a miracle their eye still worked at all. They sighed, resting their head on the wall of the cabin behind them; they needed to clear their head fast.
Today they were meeting the new agent; the hotshot who had stepped up in their absence to rescue not only the Zapfish, but Callie, from the clutches of Octavio. From Marie’s ecstatic (for Marie’s standards) explanation, Agent Four was a pretty impressive squid, for a newbie. She was adaptable, fast, had a sharp mind and a huge heart. Honestly, they sounded pretty impressive.
So Renée would have to make a good first impression.
Four was new, and truth be told, Renée really wanted her to look up to them. After all, they would be their senior now; someone to lead by example, to show the ropes to the green, if talented, agent; someone who might even want to be their friend. And they really, really hoped they weren’t about to meet a replacement. Kamabo was only one mistake, but it was a nearly crucial one, but Marie didn’t seem the type to have such a strict-
“Watch your step, Four.”
Speak of the devil; Renée stiffened as Marie’s voice reverberated from inside the drain leading into Octo Canyon, and they quickly smoothed out their uniform and waist-length tentacles, and assumed as relaxed a pose they could think of. Look cool, Renée, you get one chance to impress the newbie.
The grate over the drain rattled, and Marie rose into the afternoon sun, brushing off her kimono. Shortly after stepping off the grate, another rattle announced the arrival of a short, golden-tentacled inkling. Honestly, Renée was just impressed they kept their composure; they were expecting Four to be tough, or intimidating. Not cute. Not ‘freckles dusting her cheeks, eyes sparking in awe, bouncing with an energy that was almost infectious’ cute. Just the sight of them made their hearts soar high into the clouds.
“Four,” Marie announced, waving a hand in their direction, “I’d like you to meet Agent Three.”
“Sup,” Renée droned in as laid back a fashion they could muster, doing their best to ignore how Marie raised an eyebrow in amusement. Luckily, the new girl didn’t seem to notice anything off.
“I-it’s an honour to meet a hero like you,” Four squeaked, looking like she was about to explode from nerves. “Marie and Callie told me so much about you fighting the Octarian Army when they first attacked!”
“Yeah,” Renée sighed, picking at their fingers idly, “It was no big deal, nothing I couldn’t handle.” A quick glance showed Four enraptured, her eyes like molten gold glowing with amazement that sent Three’s hearts aflutter. Another glance showed Marie struggling not to burst into laughter. Please, Marie, they prayed internally. Please don’t ruin this!
Ruin it Marie would have gladly done, had Callie not called out from the cabin to the three of them to meet inside; the events of the last few months would need to be recounted, from both sides. Four had barely crossed the threshold inside before Renée dropped the ‘cool’ act, taking some time to absorb the last few moments and regain their composure. And they really needed to regain that composure, made harder when they remembered how Four smiled-
“Woooooow,” Renée flinched at the sound of the smug crooning, low enough that it wouldn’t be heard by those outside, and their eyes flicked to a very smug looking Marie Cuttlefish.
“’Nothing you couldn’t handle’, huh, Renée?” she chuckled. “If I recall, when we first found you, you were on the verge of tears coz you had no clue what to do after Gramps got taken.”
“Marie, please, I’m begging you,” Renée pleaded with clasped hands. “I need to make a good impression. Let me have this.”
“Alright, kiddo,” Marie sighed with a roll of her eyes. “Just… do me a favour; take care of her. She’s a more than capable agent, it’s just...” She fell silent, leaving Renée to speculate on what had happened to leave such a concerned look on the pop star’s face.
“I’ll... do my best, Marie.”
“Thanks,” Marie smiled genuinely, before returning to her mischievous smirk. “Also, if you’re trying to be covert, you may want to find a better way to hide that obvious crush on her.”
“Wh- MARIE!” Renée hissed in a blushing panic as Marie slipped past them to enter the cabin. Well, at least she didn’t seem concerned about how much of a screw up they were. With a groan, they pulled themselves to their feet, took a deep breath, and exited the cabin. Gone the signs of wear and exhaustion; gone the hints of a crush they totally did not have, nope, not at all. Now what remained was a stoic, serious expression; something fitting of an agent. They were Agent Three. They could handle this.
============
They were not handling this well.
Good Cod, everything was going wrong today! Capt. Cuttlefish was missing, presumably in danger; the Fuzzy Ooze they’d found had apparently spread to the surface, so now they had to worry about it spreading far enough to be a danger to civilians; the local Zapfish was now missing, Octavio was on the loose, Octavio who was supposed to be guarded by Four which meant that if he was here then-
“Captain Three?”
The noise in their head suddenly grew quiet at the approach of the new Agent, sporting the codename ‘Neo’. Apparently the kid had followed Gramps to the desert overhead, admittedly planning on robbing him. Instead, he’d sat her down and got her some Seaweed Stew, muttering something about how famished she looked; Captain Craig Cuttlefish sure had his quirks, but if he insisted on feeding every stray kid he bumped into, more power to him. She’d even offered to help him investigate the Fuzzy Ooze while he tried to fix up his radio, and was the last to see him before the two plummeted into Alterna.
She’d been working her way through the Domes of Alterna at a great pace, with help from her Salmonid friend, “The Third Son of Kartaka, Earl of Fort Souppe”, or ‘Soup’, for short. The warbling Salmonid had quickly been clearing paths for the NSS to push forwards through, provided enough eggs could be stuffed into the hungry fish.
“You stopped talking some time during the last dome,” Neo chirped, and Renée did not miss how her gaze wandered to the radio in their hand. “Are you good?”
“... Distracted,” Renée muttered, pushing themselves to their feet, hooking the radio back on their hip and grabbing for the nearby first aid kit. “How’s your arm doing?”
Neo held out her forearm, wrapped in gauze, and Renée nimbly unwrapped the cloth to inspect a large gash running along the length. Looked like the stitches her holding together, good. Renée pulled out a fresh gauze and began wrapping it around her arm.
“It’s healing nicely,” Renée muttered. “I’m sorry you ended up tangled in this.”
“It’s sorta what you expect in the Wastes,” Neo replied with a shrug. “I’ve had worse, and had to handle it myself.”
“That is… nowhere near as comforting as you may think it sounds.” Renée snapped the first aid kit shut and dusted themselves off, gaze drifting to the orange and red hues painting across the LED screen sky. “It’s getting late, and we need to eat. Think it’s time we call it for the night. You’ve made some fantastic progress already.”
And that she had; after Renée and Callie had finished patching up Neo's injuries, she'd taken to the task of clearing domes easily as Callie and Marie left to investigate Octo Canyon’s Outpost. At first Renée was reluctant to just throw a new agent into such uncharted territory, but Neo’s quick and nimble movement in combat meant she was handling the tasks with ease, which gave Renée some relief.
Cod knows they really needed some. It would still be hours before Callie and Marie would make it back to Inkopolis; hours before they’d get any news. Part of them was holding out hope that Callie and Marie would get there and find an inconsolable Four, feeling so guilty about accidentally letting Octavio go, a broken radio nearby; more worried the NSS would think them incompetent than for her safety. And then they could have a laugh about it when the three got back to Alterna.
But Renée knew they were kidding themselves.