Agent 38: In The Making

Chapter 49: It Is Time

*Ngl I kinda wanna start referring to the characters by their names a bit more...*
     Three had been brainstorming all night to try and come up with an idea to take down the Empire.
     He had to let those sanitized bastards know that they couldn't mess with his family, with Inkopolis, not while he was still breathing. Three had to let them know that they couldn't get away with their treachery!
Back when Alex was under Tartar's control, he had full view of all of it's memories. However, Three hadn't focused on them, he'd focused on holding the telephone back. Now, since he remembered briefly looking at those memories, he spent the rest of the day after the meeting thinking about it.
     Eight was asleep, pillowing her head on his shoulder, while Three was busy giving himself a headache. Everytime he thought about it, the memory vanished, and he had to dig it up again. It was so close... right at his fingertips, but not quite there... Three furrowed his brows, squinting, a scene flashing behind his eyes, but it was gone as quick as it came.
     Come on... He thought, gritting his teeth, his eyes closed. Work with me here...
It was like trying to pull a needle from a haystack, almost impossible, but then he felt the prick of the needle, and steadied himself on that brief flash of memory.
     Alexander had gotten used to controlling his mind a lot more, given his time in the Imagination, and holding Tartar at bay. In this particular moment, it felt like there was a tiny crack in his mind that he was trying to rip open by force, inch by inch.
     Slowly, surely, the crack opened more and more, until suddenly Three dropped into a cold, dark hallway that smelled of hand sanitizer.
     He gradually turned in a circle, examining his surroundings. The hall looked vaguely familiar, as if he'd been here before...
     Wait, Alex thought, bewildered. I have been here before. This was the hall I took when I found Gabriel.
     It looked different now, though. The hall still had the heavy door, but there was a small patch on the wall that looked roughly painted over, something he hadn't noticed before. Three cautiously stepped towards it and pressed his hands to the area. It was wood, broken wood, that would probably give him a blister if he ran his hands over it. Three traced a finger up and down the area, until he felt a circular indent in the wood.
     Aha. A doorway.
     Alexander hooked his fingers into the indent and hauled the door open with a triumphant smile.
     The sense of triumph quickly faded when he realized it was just another hallway, carved from stone, slowly getting smaller and smaller until he was sure he would barely fit if he tried to squeeze through. There was a brief moment of unease in his mind, if he should really attempt this, before he realized this was just his memories and nothing bad could happen here.
     Three started down the passage. It continued at normal height for a tad longer before he had to bend down a little, pressing his hands to the ceiling to see when it got shorter. Alex bent down a little more, and more, and more, until he was crawling on his hands and knees, the walls pressing in on his sides as claustrophobia started to kick in.
     Soon, he was on his stomach, sliding along the floor like a snake towards the opening at the end. His hair brushed the ceiling, his elbows cramped in the tight space as he reached for the exit, straining. It was so close... so close, yet so far...
     Three shimmied onto his back, using his legs to push himself further and further up. His head was through the hole now... then his shoulders, now his arms, until he got stuck at his hips.
     "Come on..." Alexander grunted, straining. "So... close!"
     Three squeezed one leg through the exit and pressed it to the wall, using the last ounces of space he had to pull his other leg out. As he got back up on his feet, there was yet ANOTHER hall ahead, but this time, it opened to an absolutely gigantic doorway, and the passage wasn't tiny.
     Alexander ran to the stone doorway and gasped.
     It opened up to a monumentally massive room that Squidzilla himself could stand up in and dance around. It was at least eight stories tall, with a ring of ten doors on each story. A makeshift staircase of floating rocks led down to the first level, the boulders wobbling in midair.
     Realization struck him like a slap to the cheek.
     This was it. This was how they would destroy the Empire.
     With a jolt, Three's eyes flared open, and he jumped to his feet. Eight awoke with a yelp.
     "What- what is it? What's wrong?" She asked, alarmed.
     Three cocked his head to her with a malicious grin. "I've got it."
     "Got what? What-" Eight yawned. "What are you talking about?"
     "I know how to take down the Empire." He said, turning around. "I know how!"
     Her eyes widened, her jaw slack in dibelief. "You're joking, right?"
     Three jumped onto the couch, scooping her up in a hug. "I figured it out! We can save Inkopolis, we can save the world if we plan it right!"
     Eight shimmied around in his arms, smiling, and kissed him on the cheek. "See, and this is why I fell in love with you, you smart, handsome little devil."
     He grinned back at her. "I love you, too." Three stood up and quickly grabbed his phone, opening the group chat between all the Agents.