Work Text:
All was peaceful in Tentakeel Outpost, all was silent across the floating island. Marie and Agent Four were sat on the grass eating greasy junk food that Four had brought for the two of them from the Crust Bucket truck in the square. Marie knew Crusty Sean, he was a pretty cool guy but she never knew he was this good at cooking!
It was the most peaceful moment the two had been able to have in a while, to be honest Four had been doing most of the work by going to the kettles and saving the many MANY zapfishes that those damn Octarians had taken, but it was a lot of work for Marie too, she’d found this kid wandering around the square like a lost jellyfish, teaching an inkling who barely even knew how to hold a Splattershot jr how to fight military trained enemies was easier said than done
The kid wasn’t all bad though, she was a little bit ditzy but she caught on really quickly and brought a whole new level of excitement to the job that the last agent never had. 3 just went in, grabbed the zapfish and left without so much as even cracking a smile but Four was practically hopping, skipping and jumping her way through every kettle with a grin on her face.
She was like an almost near copy of her cousin, it hurt, but having someone with the same excitement that always seemed to radiate from her helped, it was a great motivator to finally get her back from whatever’s happened to her…
Marie took a bite of her deep fried shwaffle as the walkie talkie by her side screeched itself to life with an extremely irritating static screech. Marie placed her food to the side of the empty paper bag and reached for the device, she pressed down on the button on the side and waited
“Hello?” Marie held her finger to the loudly slurping Agent Four who was trying her damn best to get every last drop of the sub saver berry juice she’d bought as she lifted the walkie talkie up to her ear, resting it on her shoulder
She didn’t need to turn up the walkie to be able to hear Sheldon clearly, anyone in a ten mile radius would be able to hear his constant yammering and blabbing, how could anyone find weapons that interesting?
“Yes Sheldon- yes we got the crate- yeah” Marie spoke, rolling her eyes as Sheldon kept talking, not even stopping to take a breath, she could barely even get a word out in between his rant, she knows exactly what was in the Ammo Knights crate that Agent Four was currently eating their lunch on.
“Oh no Sheldon. The Octarians left the kettles and are coming to attack us!” Marie stated quite bluntly before she switched the walkie talkie off and took a sigh of relief as she pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand.
“You heard the horseshoe crab, get up, we’ve got training to do now.” Marie stood up from the small grass patch, she wiped down the front of her dark grey kimono and picked up her green parasol resting it back on her shoulder
Agent Four hopped from her seat on the crate with the drink cup clutched in her hand still, she shoved it into the pocket of her high vis yellow jacket and turned around to look down at it with a slight head tilt
“What’s in here anyway, Marie?” Four turned their head to look towards the older inkling and she pushed one of her short yellow tentacles behind her ear.
Marie walked over, her zori sandals making a quiet thump against the dirt and grass beneath her feet, she reached for the crate, she lifted the lid from it to reveal all of the metal and ink filled glory inside.
“Weapons, you can’t keep using the Hero Shot the entire time. The Octarians are dim but they’re not stupid, they’ll figure out a way to stop you, who knows what they’ve got waiting for you in Beaker’s Depot or Slimeskin Garrison”
Agent Four reached into the crate and pulled out a fairly large roller, the Hero Roller, a grin broke onto her face as she weighed it in her hands, it looked like the average carbon roller but the framing was a light green colour rather than the usual black or metal.
“I love rollers!” Four cheered, as she swung the weapon around cheerfully. Marie placed her hand on the end of the roller and took it from Four’s hands
“If you know how to use the roller then there’s no point in us training with it.” Marie placed the roller down onto the ground leaned against the crate. “Now this.” Her hand latched around the handed of the Hero Charger, like the Hero Roller the Hero Charger resembled the normal Splat Charger but was coloured in black and lime green with blue glowing lights up the ink tank
“I can definitely show you how to work this one.” Marie half smiled down at the weapon, this one was her own personal favourite, she’d been using it since she was a child and could knock down all the targets she’d propped up nearby with her eyes closed.
When Marie looked up she could see that the excitement had left Four’s face. She was bouncing on her heels now with her hand in her pocket as her eyes drifted round not focusing on anything in particular.
“...Don’t really like chargers, they’re a bit boring.” She said, this shocked Marie, boring?! Had this kid never seen a single professional turf war game or a tower control match?
“Oh just try it anyway, would you?” Marie handed the Hero Charger over to Four and placed a hand on her back, nudging them over towards the three inflatable targets
Four dragged her feet as she walked to the area, she took a few steps back and held up the weapon, she squinted her left eye shut and took the shot, the glob of bright yellow ink soared through the air… and went right off the edge of the floating island
Four’s orange eyes stared blankly ahead at the completely untouched training dummies that blew gently in the breeze mockingly and Marie took a sip from her swim speed apple juice “Wow, I don’t think I've ever seen anyone miss that badly”
She tried again, too far to the left this time, then it was too far to the ground, on her fourth try she hit the rocky wall. Four couldn’t attempt a fifth shot before she ran out of ink, she groaned and went to toss the charger to the side.
Marie stepped forward and placed a hand onto Four’s shoulder “calm down, you’re not going to learn how to use it immediately.. that would be a miracle in itself. Just hold it steady and focus.”
Marie reached forward and straightened Four’s arms so the charger was aimed directly at the orange training dummy
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
“Marie I don’t get it!” Callie whined as she dropped the charger to her side and kicked a rock in front of her
“You’re so impatient, Callie.” Marie rolled her eyes from where she was stood directly next to her cousin “you gotta pull the trigger when it’s pointed at the dummy, not after.” Marie teased sarcastically as she pulled the wooden dummy back into a standing position
She pulled Callie’s shoulders down to relax them and turned her head to look directly ahead.
“You gotta look right at it, right in its centre and shoot.” She spoke while looking right over her cousin’s shoulder. “They’re not gonna wait for you to steady yourself, you just gotta shoot the second your charge is ready.”
Callie’s eyes focused as she looked ahead to the dummy, Marie’s tips echoed around her head as she pulled the trigger on the charger. The recoil bounced her back a bit
There was a large splat of pink ink right in the centre of the wooden dummy, she’d actually hit it. Callie’s eyes lit up as her head quickly flicked from the dummy to Marie
“I got it- I actually hit it!” Callie threw her arms in the air, almost dropping the charger on her head, she then flung her arms around Marie.
Marie half smiled at Callie as she tilted her head at her, “Don’t get too excited, you only landed one hit.” She spoke with a slight chuckle in her voice
“Well I don’t care cause I’ve done it!” Callie cheered
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
“Marie?” Four’s voice broke through the silence as Marie finally stopped zoning out. Four had popped the dummy and she was too busy reminiscing to notice
“Well, good job Agent 4.” Marie spoke as she looked from Four to the popped inflatable, she patted the agent on the back as they half smiled at her like she could tell that there was something up with Marie but just couldn’t tell what exactly
“You can get back to using this now.” Marie said quickly as she picked up the roller and practically shoved it into Four’s hands
Four was just like her, from the boundless enthusiasm to the expertise with the roller. It was like the world brought her a second Callie just to let her know that everything was okay
Callie was going to be okay and Four was there to keep her sane until then.