Chapter Text
Who’s the orange blob? Agent 3 thought while sitting at the meeting. It was the first time that she’s seeing the new agent? Or was it just a random person? Well whoever they were she hoped people would address it at least at some point while being there. She wasn"t sure how long it would take before Captain Cuttlefish would start talking about the stranger unless they mentioned it when she wasn"t there yet. Which was of course a big possibility with how late she was.
“Okay so now that agent 3 has arrived we can finally start the meeting” Captain Cuttlefish said making everybody look at him and nod "To start this meeting I want to congratulate our new agents with their amazing work and welcome them into the squidbeak splatoon" new agents? So the orange blob is a new agent as well…what has that one even done?
"Now that we went past that we will discuss how we are going to deal with the octarian menaces that are still around and that annoying Octavio"
A quiet sigh escaped agents 3 as Captain Cuttlefish started explaining multiple ways to "dispose" of the octarian menace as he called it. The old man meant it well, but he could sometimes be too much especially now they have an octoling in their team. How are you supposed to say that their kind is horrible when one of them helped them. Agent 3 took a quick look at agent 8 and the girl didn"t seem to mind it too much. I hope her inklish is just too bad to understand anything of this otherwise that might still prove to be a problem
Agent 3 really tried to keep her mind on the subject of octarians and getting rid of the last remains of the army, but sitting there with her head on her hand and hearing him drone in the same tone made her body feel heavier. It didn"t take long for her eyelids to flutter close while she tried to keep her eyes open. Her body didn"t seem to get the memo her mind was trying to give and it didn"t take long before her eyes fluttered close and stayed close instead of opening every 5 seconds.
The only relief she had was that her sleep was dreamless. It also didn"t take long for her to hear the voices around her again and her eyes to slowly open themselves again. She slowly looked around pretending she totally didn"t sleep before catching the gaze of agent 1 and seeing the soft and knowing smile. Feeling embarrassed agent 3 let her gaze glance over everybody else just to get stuck on the knowing look of agent 2 and feeling her own pulse quicken does she know? If so, what does she know? Did I talk in my sleep? No I never do…at least I don"t think so. But what if she knows…
She quickly averted her eyes and looked at the captain once more who didn"t seem to have noticed her dozing off. Looking next to her she noticed agent 8 smiling at her and she knew she got caught by everyone. Well except for the captain which was a relief to her. He did anything for her and she really wanted to repay him for that so falling asleep in his meetings wasn"t really a great start.
"Let’s go to the next part of the meeting since we just went over all the different strategies. I think it"s important you all get to know each other so you all can maybe get along. After all there are now two new agents that can use some introductions. I’ll leave you kids to it since you’re all the ones working together and maybe you will make some friends along the way.” Captain Cuttlefish slowly got up and walked out of the meeting room before anybody could say anything about it.
"Did he just-" agent 4 asked not being able to finish her sentence before a chuckle from agent 1 interrupted her. “Wait, why is that funny I’m so confused” the agent muttered, not sure what to think. It"s kind of funny to see someone else being confused for once or in general out of the loop instead of it being me
Agent 1 looked at the girl and tried to stop her giggling before taking a deep breath “Sorry that’s just how he works although I can imagine it must be confusing for you. Don’t worry you will learn soon enough, it"s also what happened to agent 3.”
Just the acknowledgement of the things that happened in the past made agent 3 sigh. Of course Callie would still mention it because there is no fun in not teasing me she thought before rolling her eyes fondly.
“Since we should get to know each other I’m assuming we are just gonna talk about stuff?” Agent 8 asked, having a confused and concentrated look on her face. She"s kinda cute although that might just be the fact that she’s so new to everything and her accent comes through when she tries to speak Inklish.
“Something like that I’m assuming yes” agent 3 muttered her voice sounding very raspy and a bit broken from the lack of use but it got everybody"s attention so she continued “After all this entire deal means we will be spending a lot of time together either on missions or in this room so it will be handy to know a little about what the others can do…although assuming the same thing happens as before I think it might also be good to know what everybody is called outside of the agent business. After all, I"m not gonna be called agent 3 outside of work. This is afterall still a secret thing…I’m sure we all remember that” She finished her sentence off before giving a little glance over to Callie. She really liked her presence; the girl could just sometimes be a big airhead.
Agent 4 nodded a little with a sheepish smile “Right that makes perfect sense.” She muttered which made agent 2 sigh being used to the girl’s antics by now. It still clearly gave her a headache sometimes. How did she survive on the field if basic logics aren’t in her own mind? I swear another one like agent 1 is gonna be a pain. Agent 3 thought before looking at agent 8 to see if she got the idea and getting a relieved smile the minute the girl seemed to understand.
“So to start it all off you can call me Maeve outside of work.” Agent 3 said, giving a little wave at everybody.
“Meeve pretty cool name although a bit strange I guess” Agent 4 answered making Maeve look confused almost instantly.
“Maeve” She tried again. You"re not gonna tell me that she doesn’t understand a simple name…right?
“Yeah Meeve it’s what I’m saying” Agent 4 tried again looking a little confused while tilting her head to the side. The sight alone made agent 3 just agree to it so she just put up her two thumbs realizing the girl wasn’t gonna get it somehow.
The interaction made agent 8 giggle “Maeve silly not Meeve. You’re almost there you know just a letter different try it again” She said to help the clueless inkling out who at that point seemed to flush a bright orange the same color as her own ink.
“Right Maeve…I’m so sorry I’m a bit stupid sometimes.” The girl muttered looking thoroughly embarrassed. She looks adorable like this although I really didn’t mean for her to get embarrassed 3 thought before her thoughts were interrupted by the same sunshine who seemed to bounce back pretty quickly “Anyways after that fail it’s good to meet you all I’m Avril.”
Agent 3 nodded in acknowledgement while agent 8 smiled before speaking up “It’s a pleasure to meet you Avril you can all call me Thora. I hope it will all go alright from here” The octoling said earning her a nod from agent 3 and a grin from agent 4.
“Awww you’re all so cute…the name is Callie Cuttlefish and I’m part of the squidsisters. I know one of you doesn’t know us most likely since you’re an octoling but there’s enough time to get to know us you’re here anyways" She said, getting a happy grin on her face . She"s always lighting up the room with those charming smiles. She really knows how to make everybody either happy or to make sure everybody feels included.
“It’s all kind of whatever, especially since most of the room knows us already, but everybody seems so into the whole introducing themselves business I’ll be polite enough to do so as well. The name"s Marie Cuttlefish and I’m the other squidsister so I guess it’s good to meet you all if we can count it as a good thing” Of course the typical Marie greeting of everybody knows me and if they don’t their loss. This woman can be so charming on the stage and still doesn’t even care enough to do so here.
“Soooooo how did you meet Captain Cuttlefish agent 8?” Agent 1 asked, looking clearly excited to hear that story.
Thora laughed a little “trust me the story isn’t all that interesting…but I met Captain Cuttlefish when we fell into a subway. So basically the octarians were on a mission and agent 3 and I got in a fight thanks to that. While fighting the floor beneath our feet gave way and we fell into the subway which caused us to hit the floor. Because the ceiling had collapsed there were pieces of it scattered everywhere and it caused agent 3 to be cut off from the captain and me. So the captain was checking up on me and I started to hum Calamari inkantation and that’s when he told me that every friend of the calamari inkantation is his friend or something along those lines he was a bit confusing.”
“Yeah that sounds like gramps, I mean the captain. But it’s really cool that you know the song. It"s one of our favorites and honestly I think your story is pretty interesting. Keep talking I wanna know how you got out of there” agent 1 said getting a huge smile on her face once more.
“Right so Captain Cuttlefish told me that for now we should be on our way and that because my number was 10008 he called me agent 8 for it to be shorter or something like that. So he needed an agent and I wanted to get to the surface….he said that agent 3 was strong and would find their way to us once we got further so we basically went deeper into the subway, going as far as even getting in one of the metro’s where we got told there was a way to the surface. There were just some missions that had to be done. Which is where I came into play once more although before that there was a signal on our communication device so we got some help from DJ Hyperfresh and MC Princess.”
“Wow you got help from them?” Callie was clearly very impressed by how the story picked up. Let me guess she knows who they are already but wants to leave it as a mystery so it sounds cooler at the reveal…this girl is something.
“Mhmm it was really nice especially when MC Princess and Captain Cuttlefish had a little rap battle going on. It kinda made me laugh but at that point I had to do some of the missions to get four different things…still don’t know what they were but I got told to get the four ‘thangs’ so when we had them somehow there was this phone who assembled them and once we got in…I think we were about to die when agent 3 came to the rescue and knocked it over. Without her help we would have been dead right now so I’m just glad she was around.” With that statement agent 8 glanced at agent 3 with a smile before looking back at the other agents again.
“So how did you reach the surface if that wasn’t the way?” Agent 2 asked, having a calculating look on her face. Ahh classical Marie just getting to the point instead of enjoying a story.
“Oooh right that was a bit tricky. There was another way luckily but it meant fighting my way through some layers and at first I didn’t have my weapon so I had to sneak around and be really quiet. Not gonna lie, octarians are pretty scary if you can’t fight them. And they all didn’t really know me so they still attacked me. When I had my weapon I went through them all to try and reach the surface. I think there was only one challenge that I felt was really difficult…” Her voice trailed off just like her look. It seemed like the subject was still painful.
Agent 1 seemed to notice almost instantly and widened her eyes for a second “listen if it’s too much to talk about you really don’t need to I promise.” She gave the girl a quick smile and a reassuring look to make sure she didn’t feel pressured.
“Yeah it’s not that important I’m sure we get it all without the details as long as you’re comfortable.” Agent 4 said with a nod and a worried expression.
“It’s okay guys.” Agent 8 said after looking at agent 3 and seeing a little nod from the stoic inkling making her feel reassured it was okay to talk about. “It’s more that I didn’t want to make anybody else here uncomfortable since I wasn’t sure how much agent 3 still remembers from that time. Let’s just say they were sanitized and I had to fight them…that was the challenging thing especially with how strong they are.”
Agent 1 let out a gasp and turned to agent 2 for a quick second. Agent 2 in turn watched the reaction of agent 3 who in the end didn’t seem to react to the news as if she didn’t really remember anything at all. Of course I remember everything but I just don’t want to make it more difficult for agent 8 and I know agent 2 long enough to be in danger if she knows that I remember everything I did in that state especially since I really couldn’t control myself.
“So basically after that fight Captain Cuttlefish and I managed to drag agent 3 with us and we got to the top where a helicopter was waiting for us with MC Princess and DJ Hyperfresh in it. The phone wasn’t done with us yet and used an old human statue with what he wanted to destroy the world so I had to stop it. DJ Hyperfresh hacked into the system and gave me points to aim for so we could stop the giant statue with ink and once it was covered MC Princess used a giant megaphone to let her voice be louder and screamed the loudest booyah I’ve ever heard. In the end her voice caused the statue to break and thanks to it we kind of made sure that inkopolis didn’t get destroyed. When we were in safety both of them introduced themselves as Pearl and Marina from Off the hook and I can’t thank them for helping enough honestly.” Agent 8 finished her story still looking super excited about it all no matter how many times she remembered what happened.
“Wow, that sounds absolutely amazing.” Agent 4 said having those little stars in her eyes and looking like it was the coolest story she had ever heard. “I think I’ve seen off the hook before while being in the plaza. They did their broadcast if I remember correctly.” She muttered looking like she was concentrating to actually remember before shrugging.
Agent 1 got a huge grin on her face. “That’s so exciting especially with those two having followed up on our news. It’s really nice to hear you got to meet them. They always seem really interesting to me…although I guess I didn’t really see much of them but still.”
Agent 8 nodded and slowly turned her gaze to agent 4 “how about you? I mean you’re new as well right?”
Agent 4 nodded and seemed to get really excited about it. “Funnily enough the first one I met was Marie...well I didn’t really know it was Marie but still the point remains. So I was basically walking around in Inkopolis and Marie was standing on a grate. When I came closer she went through it and I followed her. She basically started to explain who she was since I had never heard of the squidsisters before which disappointed her so I already did great at the beginning. But she was still willing to help me since I had a look that the Captain was always looking for or something I didn’t really get it honestly.”
Agent 2 seemed to roll her eyes fondly at agent 4 and the antics they clearly had gotten into. While agent 1 seemed to lose her excitement about the story. That is weird. Normally Callie is so excited to hear stories so what exactly happened here?
“So anyways Marie told me that Callie went missing and that the great zapfish was stolen so that we had to solve that. She gave me some training and let me go through the missions…I didn’t know it was that challenging to be an agent but in the end it turned out really fun. We kept hearing a voice through our communication device and we couldn’t figure out who it was so we basically ignored it. Well more like Marie worried about it and I didn’t really know what to do so I just ignored it and went on with business as usual. It was really nice to get some upgrades although the weapons Sheldon wanted me to try out were a bit of a pain. Specifically, the charger is a pain.” Agent 4 chuckled a little while saying that taking a little glance at agent 2 after saying it as well. RIght the charger is a pain never really noticed…guess I’m just a lot easier with the weapon although I guess it’s not for everybody.
“Anyways when we got to the bottom of it we figured out it was Callie who talked over the radio and she was working together with DJ Octavio. It was a bit weird so I had to fight both of them which by the way was not my favorite thing in the world. Especially since Callie is pretty strong although the music that was playing was really good. That’s the point where Sheldon drove a big van to where we were…Marie was on the top of it and shot the hypno shades off of Callie’s face which caused her to be stunned. Sadly enough afterwards Marie didn’t help me anymore and I had to do it all on my own again.”
“You’re still salty about that? I told you I couldn’t help. I had to get Callie back to being herself and that would only happen if she could recognise me. I can’t focus on both shooting Octavio who is moving around like crazy and getting Callie back to us.” Callie went to Octavio??? Why would she do such a thing?
That was the moment agent 3 looked over at Callie and saw her looking at her lap which made the girl feel awful. Clearly the sunshine had been pushed around and if anything agent 3 just wanted to wrap her arms around the girl and hold her close to let her know she is loved and cared for. She couldn’t do that so she just made a mental note to do so later. For now she left the matter alone knowing that pushing the girl wouldn’t help her feel any better about this.
“Yes I’m still on about that I almost got murdered and you were just telling me not to die so you could get Callie back. You had a whole charger and did nothing!!! Anyways back to the story Callie started to remember everything again which was amazing. I got the rainmaker and while listening to their beautiful harmony of the Calamari inkantation I defeated Octavio. So coming back to the city was nice, especially hearing on the news that the great zapfish was back even tho he looked a bit different or something. Anyways, that was my story to be fair.” Agent 4 said grinning happily while agent 8 looked excited.
“That seems like it was a big adventure and it’s such a nice story. I’m glad to have you back agent 1.” She said, giving the girl a big grin.
Callie responded in kind with a big smile on her face before looking around the room. She looked at her cousin and already saw the calculating look on her face.
“So agent 3 how has life been while getting back?” Marie asked still that calculating look on her face.
Agent 3 scanned her facial expression for a second before sighing. “In general it’s been okay. I"ve just been really busy, you know. It’s still always a thing to keep making sure Inkopolis isn’t harmed in any way.”
“Right of course.” Agent 2 said and her reaction already implied she didn’t believe agent 3 in any way.
“You know agent 4…Avril and agent 8…Thora why don’t we go hang out in the city for a bit. I don"t think we need to do a whole lot here at the moment and I think it will be a nice way to get to know each other.” Callie stated before getting up from her seat and walking to the door not even waiting for the other two.
“You know what? Good idea Callie.” Avril said, also getting up and waiting for Thora to follow them. Once the octoling was standing Avril grabbed her hand and dragged her to the door. It didn’t take long for the door to fall close behind their retreating forms leaving only agent 3 and agent 2 in the room.
“So what is this really about Marie?” Maeve asked a little cautious knowing one wrong word and Marie could be snappy.
“Maybe your tiredness and the fact that even the Captain doesn’t look up from it anymore. You fell asleep in the meeting. Don’t think I didn’t see that. Most of us did even if we ignored it. Don’t get me wrong you might be able to fool Callie that it isn’t too bad but let’s face it you and I clearly know better. You’re not in a capable shape right now and I wanna know why that is? I’ve never seen you this distracted before.” Marie finished her statement by crossing her arms over her chest and somehow that just annoyed Maeve to no end.
“Listen I just have had a few nights here and there that I couldn’t sleep but I don’t think you have a lot of room to talk now do you? Have you seen your own reflection lately? Don’t know if you’ve noticed but you look like you haven’t slept in months.”
“Well I know I don’t look the best but Callie is back so I can sleep better now. I just want to make sure you’re doing okay. You know this Maeve. Come on, we know each other a lot better now especially after everything that happened a few years ago. I just want to make sure you’re not losing yourself to this. Listen sometimes being an agent can be tough and I want you to know that no matter what you can come to me with your problems I’m always willing to listen and to help.”
Maeve rolled her eyes fondly before giving the girl a small smile. Marie returned it before yawning. “I think you need more sleep. Marie coffee isn’t always gonna keep you from falling down, you know this. Besides, Callie can take care of herself. So you can now just go to bed and sleep.” Please just believe me and just go to bed. I don"t need to worry about you as well now do I?
“Right sure I can but are you sure you will be alright? Because something about the whole here and there doesn’t sound good. Maybe you need to take a break from hero work?”
“A break oh come on you can’t be serious Marie I don’t need a break I’ll just go to bed just like you and get some more rest no problems here.” Maeve said, giving a confident grin to the girl who just rolled her eyes as answer.
“Right, that is totally all you need…well you know where to find me when you’re finally willing to tell me the truth. I"m too tired to really start an argument but once I’ve slept you’re in for a lot of trouble, little liar. See you around Maeve please take care of yourself I don’t want to lose you.”
The way Marie said it with so much care made Maeve feel a bit bad for lying about how bad it was but the girl clearly had enough trouble herself already. “Of course now get some rest, see you later Marie. You better take care of yourself as well.”
Maeve watched Marie leave the room before letting out a sigh. She didn’t realize how tense she had become while being alone with the girl. I swear I forget how scary she can be sometimes and sure I guess she’ll figure it out one day but it’s not today. For now I just have to keep hiding it a little better so she doesn’t accidentally figure me out. What am I even supposed to say to her ‘Yeah Marie so part of the reason I can’t sleep is because I clearly wasn’t there for you?’ Or even better yet…’Yeah remember that I keep fainting whenever things are getting difficult yeah so that’s kind of the reason I now have nightmares oh and being sanitized didn’t help at all.’ Right, that will all go wonderful. I can already see the disappointed faces…not just from her but also from people like Callie. I mean she has to work with me too and when she needed me where was I? Not where she needed me to be. Agent 8 looks up to me as if I’m the most capable agent around while at this point I think the world is in better hands with agent 4 she seems capable…
Agent 3 finally dragged herself up from the chair she was still sitting on after thinking for a while. No matter how much she kept thinking about it she knew in the end she wouldn’t really find a solution to her problem with Marie so she better just get home and hope to sleep some more. Dragging her feet to the door she opened it and groaned seeing how bright the light outside was. I forgot the sun was out and that it was bright…I really need to get home . With that thought in her head she kept on walking just ignoring other inklings and even octolings clearly going around their own lives. To her it didn’t really feel like it was her problem and if anything she just wanted to go and lay down at that point. While walking home she let her mind wander a bit.
So Agent 4 was there right at the best moment to not only protect Inkopolis but to also make sure Callie got back to being herself. Wow when the two people I care the most about needed me I was just doing other things. Sure I know it was important what I was doing but still it doesn’t make me feel any better about not being there for them. They had to go through so much without me there just because I was gone with their grandpa. I guess I should thank agent 4 at some point for making sure they are okay.
Maybe if I didn’t faint as much I would be more useful. That way others wouldn’t have to fight my battles and I could actually get things done. So maybe I just need to train more. That way I can help others as well. That’s what I will do after sleeping. I"ll go and train…well maybe not today but soon in the future I’ll just train more and keep my body in shape. After nodding to herself about her idea, agent 3 opened the door to her house and walked in. Just being there made her take a deep breath of relief to be out of the light and into the comfort of her own home. It didn’t take her long to stumble to her room and fall onto her bed, not even taking off her clothes of the day. Since she had made her plans for the future her mind was empty for a bit leaving her with a dreamless sleep once more. For once she couldn’t be more thankful for it.