A/N Sorry this is so incredibly late, guys! As expected, college got majorly in the way, and Basil Grey had lots of internet problems, so there was a lot of setback. But I promise I'm working on the next chapter as we speak, in addition to the next chapter of "Serv'd Up", so lots of good stuff coming your way!

FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT: I have finished going back through "Ships Ahoy!" and edited/updated each chapter, from grammar mistakes to continuity errors to just plain changing small details because I didn't like them. So be sure to check it out!

SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT: A good friend of mine, Fictious33, is holding his own Odd Squad Oneshot Contest, located at the mini-URL below (plus spaces bc this site is evil). In this contest, you submit a oneshot idea, and I believe he'll write the winner as a story. Please go check it out, there's no reason any Odd Squad fan shouldn't! :)

goo . gl / JZu9US

Chapter 1: "Hi, I'm Ori!"

Hi, I'm Ori! You probably know who I am already, I'm an agent at Odd Squad. What you just saw was a case I solved once, pretty recently actually! You see, after rescuing him on that top-secret mission last year, Odd Squad was supposed to escort the Ambassador back to his home country, but the two agents escorting him got surprised by the Shapeshifter, who kidnapped the Ambassador and escaped. Security traced her to the town park, so Orchid and Octavia and Oz went in disguise as backup, while Ms. O sent me to trap Shapeshifter! It's pretty cool because Oscar had just invented a gadget that looked like the Revealinator, but it could turn Shapeshifter into something else instead of the other way around. So I decided to turn her into her worst fear, so she would be distracted enough to catch!

But how did I know that her worst fear was ants on a log?

…Okay, if I'm being real for a second, I don't know how. I just know that, for as long as I can remember, I can...hear things. Like, people might tell me things with their mouths, but then they tell (but not really "tell") me other things, too, and I hear (but not really "hear") it and so I do my best to listen to that.

It wasn't even until the end of my time at the Academy that I slowly began to realize everybody else couldn't do it, too.

Back in those days, it was harder for me to hear-but-not-hear those other things that people would say-but-not-say, because I would only hear parts of it, and it was only if I was next to them. Like one time, I was turning in some late homework to one of my Academy teachers before class, and I heard him tell-but-not-tell me that he hoped there'd be enough egg salad chowder left in the cafeteria—at least I think that's what he said, because it came out like this: "I...there's...e...ad cho...eria." Back then I couldn't always decide if I had trouble hearing-but-not-hearing what everyone else was saying-but-not-saying to me, or if everyone else had trouble telling-but-not-telling me things. But no one ever got mad at me if I didn't answer them, so I hoped that meant it was nothing to worry about.

All that started to change when I graduated the Academy and got assigned to Precinct 13579.

My trainer in the Training Room, Obfusco, was okay. With his mouth he would say really confusing things, but at the same time he would say-but-not-say what he really meant. And for some reason, I could hear-but-not-hear and understand him more clearly than I had with anyone else before. So he might say with his mouth, "Like a spring lamb doing yoga in the Mariana Trench, you have exited the crucible unscathed!" but he would also say-but-not-say, "You passed...nal test...top score!" which I took as, "You passed your final test with a top score!" (Which was pretty awesome, by the way.) I couldn't be sure if I was getting better at hearing-but-not-hearing, or if Obfusco was just easier to hear-but-not-hear for some reason, but either way it was really cool.

Not so cool, though, was my tour around headquarters.

Okay, now first things first. Before I tell you about what happened that day, I want to make one thing very clear: I did my best to follow everyone's instructions. I really did.

I guess my final week of training with Obfusco messed with my head a bit too much. Not because of him saying confusing stuff or anything, but more since I got in the habit of only listening to what he said-but-didn't-say. So when I got sent up to Ms. O's office for my tour, I think I accidentally decided that all Odd Squad agents did their most important talking by talking-but-not-talking.

Here's what happened:

First, Ms. O introduced me to the two agents that would be giving me my tour, Olive and Otto. I couldn't believe I was finally seeing two real agents up close. No, literally, I didn't believe it at first. See, one of my friends at the Academy—O'Puck—he told me once that every Odd Squad office claims to have thousands of agents, but really only has about thirty-one, and the rest are just holograms. So even though I was quick to exclaim, "Whoa! Two real Odd Squad agents!" I was also quick to get suspicious and ask Ms. O, "Unless...are they holograms?"

The tall one, Otto, said-but-didn't-say something too fast for me to catch. "Can a hologram do this?" he asked, putting a hand on my shoulder.

No, I agreed, I guess a hologram can't touch my—

Turns out that wasn't what he had in mind. Instead, he surprised and delighted me with his best boxer impression. "HAI!" he shrieked, punching and head-butting the air. "HAI! HAI! HAI—"

"...partner...showoff," the girl, Olive, said-but-didn't-say in annoyance behind me, and I turned around just in time for her to cut him off with "We're not holograms!"

After that Ms. O started giving Olive and Otto their instructions, something about dangerous places, but since she didn't say-but-not-say anything with that, I wasn't really paying attention. I started wondering if anything else in the office was actually a hologram, so I was busy memorizing what the office looked like now, in case any holograms shifted later into something else.

I don't remember much of what happened next, though. I might've said something about the time I made shoes out of bananas because I thought it was really impressive, although I don't think Olive liked that very much. I do remember we went down to the big center room in HQ (I think it's called the bullpen?) and Olive started giving some boring speech about how awesome Odd Squad is. Yeah, yeah, I heard all of this already from all the teachers at the Academy. So when I heard her say-but-not-say something about "First...to...lab...p—sh..." I was glad to have something to do. This must be what she really wants me to do, I thought, running over. Oh hey look, there's a button! Maybe that's what she wants me to do, push the button in the lab! So I pushed it, but then it made a weird noise and green lightning things started shooting out of it. "What does this thing do?" I wondered, getting a little nervous.

"HEY!" I heard Olive shout, and next thing I knew she'd expertly shut it off and dragged me away from there. "Don't touch that!" she scolded, pointing her finger at me.

Well, that was a little confusing. I'm glad she fixed it and all, but why would she tell-but-not-tell me to push the button and then tell me not to? Do all Odd Squad agents just say stuff that's the opposite of what they say-but-not-say, like is that a thing?

As Olive started her boring speech over again, my thinking was interrupted by something else being said-but-not-said, this time by Otto. I didn't catch everything, but I thought I heard "gadgets" and "look" and "puh...ket," maybe? Oh, I bet he's saying pocket but in a funny way! And to look for a gadget, maybe? Quickly I ran over to Otto and pulled the first thing I could find out of his pocket, and sure enough it was a gadget! "Cool gadget," I said, admiring it.

Otto looked down at me in surprise. "Where'd you get that?"

Whaddya mean, where did I get this? "Your pocket?" I reminded him. Maybe it would work better if I could say-but-not-say "your pocket" instead, but I hadn't figured out how to do that yet.

Olive clearly didn't get it, because all she did was say, "Hey, this is not a toy," (yeah, I got that, thanks) and take the gadget from me, without even explaining what it could do.

The next thing I remember is Olive saying the first stop was the lab, but then Otto started arguing with her that we should go to the donut room first. I sighed. This was getting dull. Olive and Otto weren't even paying attention to me by this point. Didn't I have a tour that I needed to get started?

Listen for what they're saying-but-not-saying. Right. Maybe that'll help.

Otto wasn't saying-but-not-saying anything different from his argument that we should go to the Donut Room, but Olive said-but-didn't-say something interesting: "Al—s stupid...just...go to the Volcano Room."

Okay, so the Volcano Room. That was a start. I wasn't sure why Olive would want me to go there, but maybe she believed it was best to expose me to some of the more dangerous places in headquarters. (O'Puck had told me stories about some of these rooms whenever we'd have sleepovers at the Academy. I'm not gonna lie, they scared me a little, and there was one night I couldn't sleep after hearing about the horrors of the Tentacle Room. I really hoped I'd never be asked to go in there.) I was still nervous about what had just happened when I pushed that button in the lab, but I figured that Olive, apparently a veteran agent, knew what she was doing by telling-but-not-telling me where to go.

So with that in mind, I decided to get this tour started on my own, and left behind the two arguing agents to find the Volcano Room on my own. Wait'll Ms. O finds out I found my way around headquarters all by myself, I thought giddily. She'll be so proud of me.

It was only later I figured out what Olive had really said-but-hadn't-said:

"Going to the Donut Room, ha! Almost as stupid as taking a recruit to the dangerous rooms in HQ, it's just pointless. It'd be like if you asked him to—oh, I dunno, go to the Volcano Room."

Whew, it was hot in here. But the heat was worth it to see that awesome explosion. This had to be why Olive really wanted me to come here, I mean how often do you get to see a volcano explode like that? Good thing that really nice security guard told me how to figure out the code to get in the door, otherwise I might've missed it. (Although it was kind of weird how he also said-but-didn't-say "Nine pl...wo" instead of letting me figure it out, but hey, I'm not complaining.)

"Ori!"

The door opened behind me, and in ran Olive and Otto. Oh good, you're just in time! "Look guys, fire!" I pointed out to them proudly.

For some reason they didn't pay attention to it at all, instead just dragging me off the viewing plank and back into the hallway. Of course, I told myself. They've probably seen stuff like this loads of times before, and it'll probably get too hot and dangerous soon.

"Ori, you really have to stick with us," Otto panted once the door was shut.

Oh, right, he didn't know what Olive had told-but-hadn't-told me earlier. "But she said to go into the Volcano Room," I explained to him, pointing to Olive.

To my surprise, Olive looked confused. "What? No, I did not say that!" And then she made a strange face and said, "Ori, you are...one of a kind."

One of a kind?

What did she mean by that?

I mean, of course she hadn't told me to go to the Volcano Room, she told-but-didn't-tell me to go. The two things are completely different, of course.

Before I could think about it much more, though, another Odd Squad agent showed up and started talking to Olive and Otto, except this guy looked like another guy I'd seen at the Academy once who called himself a scientist. But the way they were talking was the exact opposite to what I'd been hearing-but-not-hearing, so I wasn't sure if it was the right thing to be listening to. So when I heard Otto say-but-not-say "At le...ould—go—into the Dinosaur Room downstairs," I decided that sounded like a much better idea, and I quickly ran to find a staircase or elevator or something. Plus I can hear-but-not-hear more words now, I realized happily. I must be getting better at this!

Eventually I got to this huge dark room with a ton of boxes, and there was this door at the back marked with dinosaur stickers, so I did some math, punched in the code again, and went inside. I got to meet some cool-looking gigantic dinosaurs (which was pretty sick!) and they were super nice, until that one scientist guy who called himself Oscar showed up. I didn't think they liked him a whole lot, because after that they started attacking him, and so I tried to tell them to stop, but Oscar managed to get away and shove me out the door instead. Then things got even more confusing, because Olive took me by the shoulders and said that going into the Dinosaur Room was very dangerous. But I already knew that, didn't I? Wasn't this the point they were trying to get me to do or something?

After that I remember things getting confusing. A girl they called Dr. O came over then and started asking them stuff, and somewhere in there I heard-but-didn't-hear someone (not sure who) say-but-not-say something like, "Ori...run all over the place," and when I realized that would be a faster way to see all of headquarters, that's exactly what I did. But as I ran around I kept hearing-but-not-hearing soooooo many different places to go to, and it was so confusing because I couldn't tell what all the places were because everyone was talking-but-not-talking all at the same time. Eventually I heard-but-didn't-hear "Princess Room," and glad I finally had a clear name, I ran looking for it. The combination was a little harder to figure out this time, what with the three numbers instead of two, but it was worth it. It was a very pretty room, I discovered, and I really really loved the fountain in there, although the Robot Princesses were a little creepy when they showed up. Luckily Otto and Oscar found me and pulled me out while Olive and Dr. O covered us with these really cool-looking metal shields. And then I guess the tour was done because after that they all said "We did it!" and then Ms. O showed up and said I'd had a really good tour and I was ready to become an agent!

Whoa, I can't believe it! I thought. It's actually happening! I was so excited I started dancing and grinning like an idiot, but right before she could give me my badge, I heard someone say-but-not-say, "Ori...need...run off again!"

…Are you serious?

"N...ow!"

I couldn't believe it. I went through that long crazy and sometimes scary tour and now I can't even get my badge? As fun as it was, I was a little fed up. One of these days I have to learn how to say-but-not-say things back to people, I decided, so that they don't get mad at me for it. Hopefully someone'll show me how.

But now wasn't the right time, it seemed. So once again, a little reluctantly but obediently, I took off running to odd-knows-where.