#7 - Sanitized

Agents

Agent Three's POV

I mean, It's not a completely believable story that an Octoling is joining the New Squidbeak Splatoon, but then again it's not unbelievable. I guess I'll have to meet her before I make any assumptions. But I can't meet her without finding a way to enter a sewer grate and not look suspicious. When nobody in the plaza was looking, I slipped through. I walked until I reached the other side of the Octarian town I was in. Then I activated a hidden Inkrail.

The Inkrail took me to Octo Canyon. I saw Agents 1, 2, 4, and 5 already there. But where were Agents 6, 7, 8, and Cap'n Cuttlefish?

~~~

Following Agent Eight

"Crabby cakes! This stubborn Octo will not come!"

Cap'n Cuttlefish and Off the Hook were trying to convince Eight to meet the other Agents. But after the incident with Inner Agent Three, she had been refusing to meet them.

"Veemo!"

"Come on, Eight! They're just like you!" Marina tried to encourage her. "...Well, except for the fact that they're Inkling, half-Cuttleling, have saved the world from the Octarians, and...Oh sh-seaweed, I shouldn't have mentioned that..." Eight zipped away and hid. In Pearl and Marina's mansion.

Surprisingly, they found her in five minutes, curled up in Octo form inside a cardboard box. "No!" she squeaked, and she hopped into a Blobobber. Pearl picked her up. "Yo, you know that they only hurt the bad guys, right? They won't kill you! And if they try, remember you already beat Agent Three twice! And apparently, she's the strongest Agent! Pearl rambled on, trying to convince Eight that meeting the Agents was safe.

"Veem?"

Marina pulled out a Rubik's cube. "Boxie!" Eight chirped. She took the cube and tried to solve it. Cap'n took her from Pearl. "Finally- let's go!"

~~~

Marie's POV

I could see Agents 1, 3, and 4 growing impatient. Hmm...I could wait much longer, but I wondered when the new Agent would show up. I could hear Callie humming Bomb Rush Blush, so I hummed Tide Goes Out. We looked at each other. "Calamari Inkantation?" Callie asked.

"Calamari Inkantation,"

(Timeskip woooooo)

We were still singing when the new Agents arrived. We were both surprised to see that she was an Octoling, but we kept singing. I think Gramps was surprised that we were singing the Inkantation, but he started dancing.

When the song ended, I turned around and noticed that Off the Hook was there. What?!

WAIT. Did Gramps seriously recruit Pearl and Marina from Off the Hook as Agents 6 & 7? I bet he didn't even know that they're idols!

Oh yeah. And there was the Octoling. She was pretty young...I'd say she looked about 14. She looked too small and weak to be an Agent, but according to Gramps, her mission was a million times harder than any of ours, and she had completed it. I got a closer look at all of the Agents. Eight looked like a normal Octoling except that one of her tentacles was just sliced off. I also noticed that there was a small tear in the Captain's, so I pointed it out to him. "Oh! I wonder where that came from," he wondered. "Blend," Eight asked. "Oh! It must have been that," he said.

"Blend?" I asked.

"Oh...that's a long story," Marina laughed a little.

"Well, I've got the time to hear it."

~~~

Agent Eight's POV

I kicked at the odd blob of goo that I had knocked off Agent Three's head. Cap'n Cuttlefish slipped out of his ropes. I looked at Agent Three. "Sleep?"

"Yes, Agent Three's sleeping. Don't wake her up, though," Cap'n replied. "But I'm worried. Her ink color is usually orange...so why isn't it changing back? Her tentacles are still the Sanitized ink color..."

We rode to the top of the Spinal Phase in silence. Until we got to the top. I peered over the edge of the elevator rail. And then I heard a scream. I whirled around, but Cuttlefish and Three were gone.

But Three wasn't gone.

Suddenly, I was knocked back by a Splashdown.