Agent 38: In The Making

Chapter 14: Amnesia Patient #2

The one thing he could remember from the fight was smashing through glass and falling into oblivion before everything went black.
     Again.
     His memory was somewhat blurry, and he couldn't remember who he fought with, or why. It was just a blank spot in his mind. It went from saving Cuttlefish and a familiar Octoling from being smoothied in a giant blender, and then hurtling backwards through glass and falling. He remembered everything before that, escaping someplace with an Octoling, then she was hurled through the floor by a sanitized one, he remembered Gabriel and Dynasty, but none of it pieced together correctly.
     Strange.
     Wind whipped around his ponytailed hair, indicating that he was outside somewhere. Everything was aching and sore and hurting, and his left arm felt like it had been bent the wrong way. Three shook his head hazily and opened his eyes, staring out at the seemingly endless ocean that stretched for miles in all directions. There was a cracking sound in the distance, and he turned to see a broken statue hulking out of the water.
     What the hail? He thought. What is going on?
     "Ah, he's awake!" Said a familiar voice. Three swiveled his head to see Cap'n Cuttlefish waving at him. "Finally."
     There were three other people sitting down on the ground, which he soon realized was a metal platform hanging from a helicopter. Two of them were Octolings, just without the goggles, and the last one was a hilariously short Inkling with high platform shoes on. The 1st Octoling had neon pink hair parted to the side, she wore a crop top, a short skirt, and had the most beautiful eyes he'd ever seen. They were a gorgeous pale white that shimmered with a million colors, sparkling like white opals in the sunrays. She was pretty attractive.
     The 2nd Octoling had black hair that faded to teal green at the edges, and her fingertips were also a teal green. She wore headphones and a white headband over it. The Inkling and black-teal Octoling both had the same necklace, a bulky silver chain with an even larger logo at the end.
     "What-"
     "Is going on?" The pink haired Octoling said, finishing his sentence. She smiled. "Long story."
     She looked so coddang familiar, it was almost annoying. "D-do I know you?" He questioned.
     Everyone looked at him like he'd asked if she was a fish. Three sat up awkwardly.
     "You can't be serious," Pink Hair said. "We fought twice! You saved me and Cuttlefish! There's no way that you don't... oh, no." She shot Cuttlefish a look, then to short Inkling and Black-Teal Hair. Their faces dawned with realization. It annoyed him that they weren't telling him anything.
     "What?" Three asked irritatedly. "You guys keep giving each other looks but you're not answering my question."
     "Y-yes, you do know me," said Pink Hair. "I'm just... surprised that you don't remember me. I'm Agent 8. Or Eight, whichever you feel happy calling me."
     He whirled to Cuttlefish. "There wasn't an Agent 4, 5, 6, or 7 last time I checked."
     "No, no." Cuttlefish laughed. "I just call her Agent 8 because her nickname before was 10,008. And there is an Agent 4."
     "That makes no sense, but okay." He looked around for a minute. "Where are we?"
     "In the middle of the ocean, flying towards Inkopolis Square." Eight answered simply. She muttered something under her breath about the side effects of sanitization, which completely caught his attention.
     "What about sanitization?" He asked.
     "Oh!" She looked startled at the fact that he heard her. "Um. Nothing."
     "It's not nothing if you're talking about it." Three said, annoyed. "And quit keeping things from me!"
     "Now I'm getting worried." Cuttlefish mumbled. "I didn't think you'd be able to forget that. From the way you were screaming, it sounded really painful."
     "What do you mean- you know what, can you both stop hiding secrets from me and just tell me your parts of the story!? Because I obviously don't remember!" He yelled.
     "I guess. Agent 8, go ahead." Cuttlefish said, sitting down.
     "Um..." Eight said nervously. "Alright. So, Cuttlefish and I were trapped underground, he was looking for you and I was passing these tests. There were 80 of these tests, I passed every single one, and I get these little cakes for each one I pass." She pulled out an extremely detailed cake of a metal fish. "They're pieces of my memory. See, when we got trapped underground, I lost my memory because... actually, I don't know why, but these little cakes help me regain my memory. This is the last one." She tucked it back into her pocket. "Anyway, so I complete these tests and find four things that, this is going to sound weird, but a telephone told me to find them. So, I take these things back to the telephone, it puts them together, Cuttlefish and I walk into it thinking it'll take us to the surface, turns out it's a blender, we almost got smoothied, you saved us-"
     "Yeah, I remember that..." He interrupted. "I remember my CQ-80 beeping really loudly- hey, where is my CQ-80?"
     "Oh, um..." Eight mumbled. "I lost it during our fight. Sorry."
     He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Continue."
     "Right. So, you broke the blender, ended up unconscious, and then this part is Cuttlefish's turn." She pointed at the old squid.
     He cracked his knuckles and opened his mouth. "So, you're knocked out, I tell Agent 8 to find a way out without me and that we'll catch up once you woke up. You start waking up, telephone starts cursing me, 20 sanitized Octolings burst into the room, they grabbed you,"
     "And put the slime on me." Three and Cuttlefish said at the same time. He stared down at the ground, remembering with a shiver. He'd never felt fear like that before. Not even while fighting Octavio.
     "...Correct." Cuttlefish finished. "You're memory isn't completely doomed, good to know. So, you're half sanitized, eyes are glowing, you're being controlled by the telephone, and you grab me by the neck and take me through a shortcut that led to the elevator. You tied me to a UFO and waited for Agent 8 to come fight you."
     "And here's where you come in and kick the everliving snot out of me." Eight said bitterly. "You had, I dunno, 5 different specials that you used very quickly, dodge-rolling without Dualies, you name it. You did a Splashdown in my face, I flew across the arena from the impact, you grabbed me by my neck and held my over the edge, I bent you're arm the wrong way, you dropped me, I grabbed onto the glass railing, jumped back up, you were busy with your arm, I broke your armor, you were blasted back from that impact, and you smashed through the glass and fell over the edge. So, I grabbed the rope you tied Cuttlefish with, jumped off, grabbed your wrist, saved you, got to the surface, and it turns out the telephone created the sanitized Empire and wants to destroy the world with a deadly ink laser. He pulls out a big statue, Marina made these things called hyperbombs that she put on the statue, I had to go make them explode in under three minutes to make it stop charging, I did that, I am now exhausted, and this is Pearl's part."
     She pointed at the short Inkling with the big forehead. Pearl shook her head at Eight.
     "I think my voice explains it all." She said, voice as raspy as sandpaper.
     "You did something with the Killer Wail?" He questioned. She nodded.
     "And now we are here." Eight finished. "And Cuttlefish and I haven't eaten in a long time. Nor slept."
     "Last question..." Three said, staring down at the uncomfortable looking shoes Eight was wearing.
     "Did you do this all in high heels?"

I am a massive fan of Agent 8. She saved the world in friggin high heels. What a legend.
Hope you enjoyed!
Word count: 1355