The Agents of the Squidbeak Splatoon: Aftermath of Octo Expansion

Chapter 1 - Fresh Start

"A-Agent 3?!!" A female voice cried. Agent 3 sucked in a breath as she peered at who was talking to her. An octoling. One that hasn't been sanitized. She was waving her arms around crazily with a panicked look on her face.
Three pulled out her gun from its position beside her body. This wouldn't take too long.
She jumped down and, not knowing she was able to do this, completely filled her gauge level without thinking and using splashdown as she came after the octoling.
The one that was fighting back surprisingly well. Better than any other octolings she's helped sanitize so far. This one was weird.
Three threw bombs that followed the octoling.
She went to a high up (out of range for the octoling's short range weapon) platform and attacked with tenta missiles.
She did multiple continuous splashdowns.
But.. the octoling put up a fight. After what seemed like a million splashdowns, Three looked at her with dreadful, emotionless eyes.
"I won't let you injure yourself anymore!!" She yelled. "I'll get the stuff off, just do the hanging in there!!"
Three didn't pause to actually listen to what she was saying. She wanted to, really, but an impulse told her to keep going. Keep trying.
That's when the octoling threw a bomb to her left and started attacking her right. When Three dodged the bomb, she was right in the octoling's reach, being pelted by her ink.
She yowled in agony as she fell backwards, hearing the clunking of a gun dropping to the ground before being caught.
"It's okay. We're almost up to the surface," the octoling reassured. Three didn't have time to respond before going unconscious.

—

Three took in a deep breath as they emerged from the metro station.
It was so colorful out here. Flashing lights and screens displaying advertisements, people laughing together at their own shenanigans, some stores for every squidkid's needs.... even some new idols. Off the Hook. She had met them before, but it still stung that the Squid Sisters weren't here to see all this (as far as she knew), even that weird box with strange writing on it from home was here.
The tall tower to the right of the metro station had more advertising screens on them, one shaped like a phone. That was kinda cool.
Three continued to search for more details. The weapons shop was still being run by Sheldon based off of the groaning kids exiting the store with a new weapon. That was reassuring. Wait, is that a little car over there? Hey, it's Crusty Sean! He's selling food now... this was getting a lot weirder. The food even looks kinda like him-
Eight was standing beside her with twice the amount of her curiosity and excitement. She's never been on the surface before, so all of these things were relatively new to her.
"Woah, so you're THE Agent 3?!" Someone exclaimed in front of her with shock.
Three didn't notice this person as her train of thought kept trudging forward.
It was a nice and sunny day, much less gloomy than it would've been if Agent 8 didn't save the world. ..it's a long story. Most of which Agent 3 wasn't even there (or conscious... sometimes mentally) for. Apparently she had been brainwashed after responding to the distress signal Marina had sent her, being knocked out cold from saving Eight and the 'cap from a giant blender.
Marina also mentioned something about goop coming from her right eye... which explains the greenish blue mark she had on her dark face. Might be there for life. The goop had made her follow a strict mindset. This was supposed to fully sanitize her and make her one of the 'perfect specimen' that the telephone had envisioned.
Never mind that, though- someone was talking to her. Who was it, again? Ah, yes. Agent 4. Three had never heard of her, but she seemed to know loads about Three. Agent 8 was timidly standing beside Three, staring at the band-aid on the back of her head.
What were they doing again? Oh, yeah. After Pearl and Marina dropped them off on their pretty fresh helicopter, they suggested that they met up with Agent 4. Since this kid had just approached them (supposedly waiting for them, she assumed that's who this kid was. After all, they would be working and living together in the near future in an apartment funded by the 'cap. You know, for all their hard work. Being big kids and all, moving out of their parents' places. Three actually didn't know how old Four was. Whatever. Wait, she was talking to her. Right.
"Oh, uh- yeah, that's me," Agent 3 responded, snapping back into reality. Four stuck her hand out. The girl was a bit lighter skinned than Three with loads of freckles on her face. Her eyes were a brilliant orange and her hair was neon yellow and short- going down to her chin. She smiled at Three like she didn't have a care in the world. Three awkwardly shook her hand.
"You probably know me! I'm Agent 4!! My name's Miyu, but everyone calls me Sodapop because I main the soda slosher. Marie told me ALL about you. She said you're two years older than me and really stinky."
Three crinkled her nose in confusion. Agent two? And who ever said she was stinky? She forced herself not to check.
"You're a new face to me," she said simply. "My name's Caroline."
"Nice to meet you, Caroline!!" Soda said as she shook hands (once again, Three noted to herself), "but if you're gonna be in these parts, you're gonna need a nickname. How about Cherry? Has a ring to it. Matches your... one pink eye. What happened to your face?!"
Why the nicknames? They didn't do this at Inkopolis Plaza. Well, that was two years ago.. golly, she's never really kept herself up-to-date while working.
"Um.... long story."
Social interaction was not really her thing after all these years. Soda then turned to Agent 8 as she brushed off Cherry's weird face.
"What about you, huh? Got a name?"
Eight blinked and looked at Soda, then shaking her head. "I have not been assigned a name yet, no. At least, not that I recall."
Poor Eight. Cherry had caught up on a majority of her story. She had woken up in the metro station with no memories of what happened to her before then. Cuttlefish helped her figure out who she was and what to do. The crazy telephone mentioned earlier had given her a c.q and a keycard, telling her that completing all these tests and getting some 'thangs' would allow her to go to the promised land. The promised land ended up being a blender that Cherry had to save her from. Thus causing all the drama already explained. Cherry attacked because she was brainwashed and Eight had to save the world under peer pressure and a time crunch. Yikes. Cherry never really had any time limits.
Soda held her hand out to shake Eight's. "That's okay. We'll just give you one!! Hmm... any ideas? Maybe Cheeto."
"Why would you call someone a Cheeto?" Cherry snorted in amusement.
"Well, it's a food, right? And I decided that food nicknames are cool."
"And what attributes does she have that is anything like a Cheeto's?"
Sodapop paused for a long moment, then making a hand gesture. "Good point. You got anything in mind?"
Eight continued to look at them with wide, curious, and pretty eyes. Cherry almost slapped herself. She wasn't pretty, she was just ordinary. STOP BEING SO STUPID, THREE..!!
"Um. Maybe.... Lorelei?" Cherry guessed.
"Lorelei? What kind of food is that?" Soda asked, more confused than rude.
"It's... not a food. I think Lorelei is a good name for her because she.. she's really nice to me... it sounds like a sweet name. Also.. um... her favorite Off the Hook song is 'Into the Light', and.. you know..."
Cherry found herself shuffling her feet anxiously and fought to stand still. Most of the things she said were completely off topic, so she just pulled her cape over one shoulder to hide her embarrassment.
"I love it!! Lori... Hooray for wonderful names!!!" Soda exclaimed, taking Lorelei by the hands and twirling around. Lorelei, startled, nearly tripped backwards. She laughed and jumped around even after Soda let go of her hands.
"So the jumping is fun!!" She beamed. "I very much enjoy! Okay, I stop now. Pain to the head is not such a good thing."
"At least you know when to stop," Soda joked. "Oh, yeah! Tomorrow night there's gonna be a huge welcoming party for you two! In celebration of saving the world! I hope I get front row seats.. eheh..."
Soda messed with her fingers anxiously. So she wasn't too well known.. Cherry almost pitied her.
When nobody else spoke, Soda made an awkward noise before starting to walk off, taking Lorelei by the hand. "Let's get to the apartment and get to know each other. This'll be fun!" She then beamed at Lorelei, who tried to smile back, her smile ending up looking like a grimace.
Cherry grumbled something under her breath before following.