Agent 38: In The Making

Chapter 36: *Inaudible Screaming*

     "Last thing..." Eight said as she walked into the next train car. "I hope you're not afraid of bugs."
     Three hesitated for a second. "Kind of. Why?"
     But she'd already proceeded into the train car, aiming for an odd looking creature. It was a grayish blue in color, had six long, spindly pincers, two thin legs, a thick, hard shell with stickers on it, a pair of glasses, two antennae that looked like a long mustache, and wore a suit and tie.
     It was a giant bug.
     Out of nowhere, memories flashed theough his head. He remembered running away, screaming as a worm slowly inched towards him. He remembered curling into a ball on the floor as a jewel beetle hovered nearby, clumsily bumping into him. He remembered a spider that had wandered into his apartment and how he literally threw a knife at it to avoid getting close. He remembered seeing a dragonfly for the first time and bursting out in tears. The last thing he remembered was going to the zoo once and seeing a centipede. He'd had a nervous breakdown right then and there, and Mother had to take him home to calm him down.
     But this was so, SO MUCH WORSE.
     Three leaned against a pole and crossed his arms, never taking his eyes off the monster that seemed to be having a casual conversation with Eight like it was no big deal, like having a coversation with a massive bug was a normal activity. Chills shivered through his veins, making him shudder. He felt himself tense up and tried to relax, but the mere image of the bug made his anxiety spike right up to the moon. He watched as Eight turned to him, ignored his panicked face, and turned back to the bug for another moment. Then, she walked towards him again.
     "Why didn't you tell me there'd be a massive freaky talking bug thing here?" He asked with a shiver, never taking his eyes off of it.
     "Because I thought you'd want to meet the cephalopod who helped me," Eight responded as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.
     It's a giant, talking bug!" Three hissed as quietly as possible. "I don't know how you expected me to feel-"
     "Ah, young squire, is this the fellow you wanted me to meet?" The bug asked in a deep, rumbly voice. He stood up and stretched his claws with terrifying cracking sounds.
     Eight peeled him off the pole which he'd been clinging to and grinned up at the giant bug, her eyes reflected in its pitch black glasses. "Yeah. Iso, I'd like you to meet Agent 3. He helped me start a life once I was on the surface. Three, meet Iso, the cephalopod I never asked for but always needed."
     The bug stopped a few steps away and pulled out a long, creepily thin pincer and held it out to him, expecting to shake hands. NO WAY IN SHELL was Three going to touch the coddang thing. It moved its pincer a tad bit closer and he instantly froze up against Eight, like someone had turned him to ice.
     All Three's fears of bugs were now stampeding through his head as roughly as a waterfall, to the point where he started shaking.
     "I'm delighted to..." The bug's words faded out halfway through the sentence, and the world very suddenly went dark.

     Three woke up in Eight's arms with a groan. He leaned on her shoulder and shivered. "What happened?" He whispered.
     "You fainted before Iso could say hi," Eight said with a giggle. "You big weenie."
     He moaned. "You'd better not tell Four about this. Or anyone else." Three's eyes darted to the door as he remembered what had happened before he fainted. "And don't you dare make me go near that thing again."
     "Iso Padre is so nice, though!" Eight said, her tone slightly exasperated. "If you'd just give him a chance, I think you'd really like him. Never judge a book by its cover."
     "Whatever," He rolled his eyes and nuzzled her neck. "Just please don't make me."
     The doors in the left side of the train car slid open and the other Agents staggered in, looking horrified. Marie had to clutch a pole to stand straight, Aaron instantly sat down, Gabriel leaned in the doorway, eyes wide as if he's just narrowly avoided death, Marina and Pearl were comforting eachother, and Callie was trembling. One by one, they turned their heads to stare at Eight with newfound respect glinting in their eyes.
     Callie was the first to speak. "Eight, how the ACTUAL SHELL did you get through that station!? It was a living nightmare! Here I thought the stations would be easy!" Her face was splattered with ink of both kinds - hers and the sanitized ink - and mixed with tears, as if she'd had a breakdown in the middle of battle.
     Marie smiled thinly at him, as if she knew what he was about to go through. The green Squid Sister pointed at him with glimmering amber eyes. "Your turn."
     Eight told him to go to the lead train car and speak with the blue sea slug, to tell it to go back to the Girl Power Station. So he did, narrowly avoided making eye contact with the bug, and had a rough time trying to squeeze between an extremely oversized blobfish and a buff jellyfish.
     Three almost stepped on the sea cucumber before he saw it and quickly backpedaled to avoid crushing it. It looked up at him and stretched its legs to meet his eyes. Three nearly vomited.
     "C.Q. Cumber, was it?" He asked, clearing his throat.
     "Yes. How can I help?" It said in a deep male voice.
     "Just wanted to ask if we could head to the Girl Power Station." Three said, crossing his arms. The sea slug dropped back down and nodded.
     "Just a warning," It said before Three could turn around. "The stations have been acting odd ever since 10,008 defeated the Metro. The station might not be fully operational upon entering."
     Three nodded and went back to the rear train car, where the group was. He deliberately avoided the bug, nearly pressing himself against the wall to avoid going near it. He talked with Eight for a little while before the train came to a stop once more. Three stepped onto what Eight called an "Equipper" and a dome of glass suddenly flew up around him. He whirled around, startled, before spotting a small holographic screen above his head. It had three options. A curling bomb, splat bomb, or autobomb, but no weapon accompanied the bomb. He clicked on the autobomb (*cough cough* Inner Agent 3 *cough cough*) and the glass came down with a small whirring sound.
     Three stepped on the turnstyle as Eight swiped a small card across it, and he was launched out onto a platform with a canned weapon of each class. Below the platform was another, much larger platform with walls surrounding it but no roof, canned specials, a few pillars with grating connecting them, a couple spawn points, and an orb on a pedestal in the middle of it all. Sanitized Octolings with each weapon class stood on the north wall, ready but not moving. Three inspected the weapons for a moment before choosing the Splattershot, since a Charger seemed a bit like a stupid decision in this case.
     Eight stood behind him, chose a Brush, and told Three she'd wait there and jump in if she thought he needed help.
     "Basically, you have 3 minutes," Eight explained. "Choose a special, get ready for a nightmare, and prepare to defend that orb like life depends on it. Mostly because it does." She glared at the pink orb for a moment, which had shifted to a beautiful hue of orange to match his current ink color: orange that faded out to a deep scarlet at the edges.
     Three raced forward, leapt off the ledge, and landed with a thump in front of the canned Splashdown. He picked it up and it faded in his hands, and he felt the power surge through him. Three destroyed the boxes around the orb and climbed up a small pillar to get to a set of armor, then sprinted across the next set of boxes to get another set of armor. Now fully clad in protection, Three sprinted towards the first enemy, ink flying, and quickly splatted the Octoling. He dashed towards the wall and took the chance to splat a few of them since they refused to move.
     Then, Dualies, Brella, Blaster, and Brush all jumped down at once. Three quickly took out Dualies and Blaster, then moved onto Brush, who was dumbly running its weapon over and over into a box. He caught it unaware, then turned to Brella just as its ink slapped him in the face.
     "Ow!" Three yelled, wiping the ink away from his eyes as it stung into his skin. "You're REALLY going to regret that!"
     Three dodged out of the way just as the umbrella part shot out and splatted it with ease. He smirked in triumph before turning to see Eight frantically waving at him and pointing at the spawn points. She tapped the zipper on her chest and he heard an ear-piercing screech of feedback on his headphones. Three winced.
     "You're not done yet!" Eight cried. "The normal ones are gone, but now the Elites are gonna come, and they've got specials. Buckle up!" He set his jaw with determination and quickly replenished the orb, which had only been damaged a little bit. The first four Elites came from all sides, left, right, front, and behind. The one on his right had a blaster, but that was the only one he took notice of before he broke out in battle with them. Soon, four became five... and then seven... and then eight... and then Three had to quickly use the Splashdown. The special splatted three of them, leaving five more to splat. Blaster broke out into an Inkjet, furiously firing at him and the orb.
     Three tried to duck for cover before one of the other sanitized jerks tripped him and he fell backwards onto the floor. The Splattershot flew out of Three's hand before he could tighten his grip on it, and Blaster pressed its weapon to his chest. He sighed and closed his eyes, knowing he'd have to start over once he was splatted. There was a near-silent thump, and nearly a moment later, the Blaster fell to the ground. Three opened his eyes to see Eight flinging her Inkbrush at the Octolings who dared challenge her, destroying them all with a wicked grin on her face.
     He smiled, snatched the Splattershot from the floor, and quickly stood up to join her.
     STOP! Tartar roared, its voice louder and stronger than ever before. Three froze and clutched his head in pain. You are depleting my forces, you superflous nobody!
     SHUT IT, Three yelled back. I don't have time for you!
     He proceeded on, even though Tartar protested loudly all the way through it. When they were finally done, they went back to the train and rode back to the surface, with Eight sleeping on his shoulder and Aaron buzzing the entire way about how Splatoween was tomorrow and frivolous nonsense blah blah blah.
     What Three had to worry about, however, was much more urgent than finding out what Eight's costume was.

I am so horribly sorry that I didn't release the Splatoween chapter on Halloween, I was busy trick-or-treating for the first time. How did your Halloween go?
Word count: 1955