Adjust (Agent 3 x Agent 8)

Woomy #16: Octarians

The octoling's heart was thumping loudly, so much so that his head felt like it was throbbing. He remained in his octopus form, feeling very startled with the combination of the surprise attack and the loud shattering of the Hero Suit armor.

"Nova..are you okay..?" Nagi asked, still holding him in his arms. She was whispering as to avoid calling more attention to themselves. The sniper, wherever it was, was aware of their location, further proved by the red laser remained set not far from them on the floor. "This concrete here must be covering their line of fire, but can't actually get to us..." 3 noticed.

Nova felt oddly comfortable in the inkling's arms despite the current situation. However, he quickly snapped out of it, hopping out of her embrace regrettably. Her expression as he reverted back to his octoling form remained concentrated as she tried to peek around the corner. His sight was limited a bit, as the red sparks continued to flutter around him. "I'm okay," 8 reassured her, to which she nodded back.

"Good. If we didn't have this extra armor, we would've been gone a long time ago," She continued, shooting a small puddle of ink near the wall. "Just submerge yourself there in the meantime. The armor should regenerate faster."

Nova followed her advice and did so.

The inkling continued to peek around the corner from the concrete structure, and must've realized that she was in line of sight, as the laser seemed to brighten with a "Beep!" Another streak of purple ink zipped through the air, luckily missing. Both the inkling and octoling jumped back to avoid the shot, pressing their backs up against the wall.

"I think it's resting a top of one of the structures. If I'm not mistaken, there's a yellow trampoline that leads up to the charger."

"Are you sure?" Nova questioned, gripping his Octoshot in hand.

"I've been here hundreds of times, I'm sure of it."

Nova nodded determinedly at her, before saying that he'll find an alternate route just in case and serve as a distraction, running out of cover. "8-!" 3 exclaimed attempting to call him back.

Nova had sprinted through, seeing the laser from the charger lock onto him, though it seemed as if the charger was hesitant on firing. 8 used the tactic of spraying the floor briefly and swimming repeatedly, before jumping behind another wall out of sight of the charger. He checked his surroundings, and saw multiple tall structures, all of them having some method to go up them. Some required to be painted on and swim up of, others had the trampolines and the coiled up platforms that would roll out once shot at. 8 instantly remembered these from his time down in the Deepsea Metro. It was almost as if he was reliving these events, except this time he had 3's support. He never really felt this way through a Turf War, possibly because of the self reassurance that it was just inklings playing for fun, not for splatting someone into oblivion.

Here his heart was racing, knowing that if he was too careless, he could lose his life.

With a sound that he could recognize anywhere, 8 wasn't able to see that another Octarian appear atop of another pillar, which had a high view of the entire map. As the red sparks flew around him once again with a loud shatter, he managed to catch a glimpse of the Octarian that fired at him. He had locked eyes with their goggles, a glimpse of red flashing on them while they pointed their charger at him. They had dark tentacles for hair, and had what he always assumed were two strings of seaweed atop. "An elite Octarian huh..?" He muttered to himself.

Time seemed to slow down in that moment hearing the charger beep once again. He was far too slow to swim away, and since this was an elite Octarian, she would surely be able to hit an octopus swimming through the ink slowly. 8's life seemed to flash right before his eyes, the majority of it being a distant, forgotten memory. Though the rest consisted of his time at the Metro, going through the rigorous challenges that pushed him to the limit, meeting Captain Cuttlefish, Pearl, Marina, and eventually Nagi. Inkopolis as whole flashed through his eyes, almost as if he was walking down the plaza, and turning to his side, there Nagi was, walking alongside him.