Agent 38: In The Making

Chapter 5: The Deepsea Metro

     (Warning, bit of a time skip here.)
     The old telephone finally stopped talking, and she shivered. That was the strangest thing she'd ever seen. But then again, her memory didn't stretch that far back, so she really didn't know.
     "Applicant 10,008, eh?" Cuttlefish mumbled thoughtfully, breaking her thoughts. "That's a beakful. I think I'll just call you Agent 8. This 'promised land' must be the surface. I wonder how deep underground we are... There's no time to waste! C'mon, Agent 8! Grab those new dealie-dos and get moving!"
     I wonder if all Inklings are this weird... Eight thought, bending down to pick up the CQ-80 device and the CQ Card. With a startling scrape, a train came from the dark tunnel to her left, screeching to a halt. The hot air whooshed up from under the train, warming her frigid skin. It was almost unbearably cold underground, which felt familiar in an odd way. She stepped onto the train and Cuttlefish followed, his Bamboozler tapping on the ground loudly. She heard the loud hissing of steam as the train departed the station and the doors closed. Eight wrapped one arm around a pole and leaned against it, thinking.
Cuttlefish sat down with a somewhat exhausted expression. "I'm pooped, Agent 8." He said. "Gonna rest my cuttlebones here for a bit." She nodded.
     Suddenly, the doors ahead of them slid open, and a small glowing blue sea slug with a tiny conductor hat inched towards them. "Thank you for using the Deepsea Metro today." The sea slug said in a deep male voice. "I am your humble conductor, C.Q. Cumber."
     Her eyes went wide.
     A talking sea cucumber.
     What the hell was going on!?
     Cuttlefish's words echoed her thoughts. "You gotta be squiddin' me!" He exclaimed. "A talkin' sea slug?!"
     "Pardon me?" C.Q. Cumber said, sounding a bit offended. "I take it this is your first time riding with us..."
     He stopped talking and took approximately 5 or 6 minutes inching towards them, before rearing up to speak again. "Here's the deal..." He said. "We're in a vast underground facility operated by the Kamabo Corporation... It's a series of test chambers connected by the Deepsea Metro subway system." He turned to her. "I see you're in possession of a CQ-80 device. I take it your aim is to reach the promised land?"
     "That's right!" Cuttlefish said. "We want out of here!"
     There was a short pause.
     "Understood." C.Q. said in a slightly hurt voice. "The promised land is a paradise to which we denizens of the depths are forbidden entry. To reach it, you must pass a test at each Deepsea Metro station. You must also find and collect the four thangs. When all four thangs have been gathered, the door to the promised land shall open."
     "So all we gotta do is pass some tests and find some thangs and we can go home?" Cuttlefish asked, excitement spilling into his voice.
     "I believe so... Let me show you to your first test. Activate your CQ-80." He said to Eight.
     As the small slug talked her through the stations and lines, her hope grew. Maybe, just maybe, she'd be able to make it out of here alive. She clicked on the red dot in the screen in front of her. It read:
     "Looks like the real thing..."
     Fake Plastic Station
     Get to the goal!
     And it had a picture of the Splattershot next to it, along with the cost of the level and how many times she would respawn if she was splatted. And, beneath that, the total number of tests in the Metro. 80.
     "Very good." C.Q. said. "Now departing for the first test."
     A few minutes later...
     She stepped onto the square platform, straight onto what the slug called an Equipper. She clicked on the photo of the Splattershot and the glass flew down, the weapon in hand and Splat Bombs accessible. She trotted towards the gate, and C.Q. stopped her, explaining what it was.
     "This is a turnstyle." He said, tiny arms waving in the air. "Scan your C.Q. card to pay the test fee and begin the test. If you don't have enough CQ points to take a test, you'll have to come back to it."
She scanned the card, shoved it back in her pocket, gripped the Splattershot tighter, and the turnstyle launched her into the stage, onto a checkpoint. As Agent 8 walked cautiously through the stage, she realized that the things she had originally thought were poles were fake trees.
     "Trees?!" Cuttlefish exclaimed, words mirroring her thoughts. "Man this subway is weird..."
     She quickly inked the floor and swam through the stage, thinking. Where was the enemy? Surely the test wouldn't be so easy. Getting to the goal wouldn't be a problem if there were no enemies to fight. And why bother giving her a weapon if there was no one to fight?
     All these thoughts made her even more tense. Something was watching her, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. She glanced up at a brick tower ahead of her.
An odd blue-green Octoling materialized out of the ink, sunglasses glowering a fierce red. "Target aquired." She said.
     "Octolings are your friends, right?" Cuttlefish commented. "Maybe try talking to them?"
     "Destroy." The green Octoling said.
     Eight's eyes went wide with sudden recognition.
     She glanced back at the Sanitized Octarian, who was desperately wriggling around, trying to get out of the rising water. She turned back to the Inkling with a sigh.
     Sanitized Octarians... Not friendly, not a force to be reckoned with. She inked the tower and swam up as the Octarian jumped down, firing at her. Eight rained ink upon the girl, who quickly dodged out of the way. Frustrated, she jumped down, but the girl swiftly tackled her, pinned her to the ground, and was about to fire before she exploded into pink ink on her. Eight smiled.
She had tossed a Splat Bomb behind the Octo and it had detonated just in time.
     Gotta remember that trick for later... She thought. Might get me out of a pinch at some point.
     Eight stood up, wiped the dust off her shoulders, and proceeded to the next room as the giant doors opened.
     "You might wanna talk a little louder!" Cuttlefish said over the com. She looked around at her clothing to see where on Earth his voice was coming from. She pulled the zipper on her rubbery crop top to her ear. Cuttlefish's mumbling came out loud and clear from it, so she guessed the microphone was in there.
     Eight broke a red box in front of her and fastened on the armor that it dropped, then ran into the next room. This one had two towers, so two Octarians that she had to defeat. They both swam out of the ink, one with a Brella, one with a Roller. She groaned, inked the nearest tower, and swam up as they both jumped down. She splatted the Brella with ease- the tactic she used was to aim slightly above the Brella and splat the user that way- and moved on to the Roller, who kept flinging more ink at her. She was starting to wish she had a Brella.
     Finally, she splatted the Roller and jumped off the tower, then breaking all the boxes. She found another set of armor and strapped it on, then ran into the next room. Only one tower again. This should be easy...
     It wasn't easy at all. Dualies kept rolling out of the way, and it was even harder because her ink kept reaching her even though she was on top of the tower. To make matters worse, the Octoling had pulled out an Inkjet, and used that to break both the sets of armor she had on. Finally, the Octoling got caught in her ink, and she used that time to splat her. She smiled.
     "The gate is open!" Cuttlefish said.
     She ran around the tower and stared at the glowing, floating, unassembled object that looked like it could be a pen. She shot it with her ink and it started to reassemble again. She shot at it more, and it dropped into a hole beneath it, half in and half out. There were a few glowing red dots that kept moving up and down the pen, until it unassembled and floated back into the air.
     Strange. Eight thought, shooting at it again. Once it was down, she reached out and touched it, and was immediately teleported back to the station platform, onto the Equipper. It took away her weapon and exchanged it for an extremely detailed mini cookie that floated in her cupped hands.
     "Octarians hunting Octarians..." Cuttlefish muttered. "What has the world come to?"
     As she stepped back on the train, she let out an exhausted sigh.
     Well... Only 79 more to go.

F in the chat for Agent 8?
Thanks for reading this chapter! Chapter 6 in the making.
Word count: 1518
Let's see what kind of foolishness Alex and Gabriel get into...