-Chap. 2) Don't Be Such a Guppy!
"Thanks for letting me stay, Ink." Squirt closed the door of the condo that Ink lived in somewhere in Flounder Heights. She headed for the Inkopolis tower for Turf Wars, in hopes of collecting more squidollars. "Man, all that running makes me thirsty!" She licks her lips, as she sees a vending machine. "Just a Dr. Kelp and I'll be set." She inserted a squidollar and received a Dr. Kelp. She pops open the red can and takes a few sips. Suddenly, she felt something grab her leg. Her blood went cold. She dropped her can, and she nearly screamed as she was being pulled into the manhole she stood on. She tried to pull the skinny fingers off of her, but it was pretty strong. "Let go of me! Hey! Stoppit!" She tried kicking, but that was no use, she gave up her struggle. She got pulled in. She screamed, but realized she was going down a slide, and she started to laugh and cheer! She could see the end of the slide, there was a faint light up ahead. "Woah!" She landed flat on her face. "OK, that hurt. A lot." She moaned. She got up. "Huh? I thought I was in a sewer or something! Is this REALLY where-" She shivered. "-the STUFF goes?" She walked around a bit, amazed at the floating cities, the freakishly large tea kettles, that weird old guy standing there with the shifty eyes… "Wait, a min-" Squirt was interrupted by the old guy walking towards her.
He slowed down as he approached. He cleared his crusty, dried throat, and- "THE OCTARIANS ARE COMING!" He screamed, shaking Squirt hard, like, really hard. She fell on her bottom and wiped the dust off her pants. "Geez dude, I was sitting a foot in front of you." She remarked. "No need to shout." The fragile wrinkly inkling took a deep breath. "Sorry squiddo, I guess I lost it there. Let me introduce myself. I am… Captain Cuttlefish of the New Squid-beak Splatoon!" He pointed at himself proudly. "I think I've heard of that. Wasn't that the alliance that defeated the Octo-army, like, 100 years ago?" Squirt asked, remembering how much her teacher just blabbed all over the subject in Elementary back in Calamari County. She took lots of notes on the subject, she remembered someone by the name of Cuttlefish being part of the Squid-beak Splatoon. The Octarians were great at making slick contraptions that almost always work. "Way to be!" Cuttlefish said, holding up a thumbs-up. Squirt paused for a minute. "Wait-How old are you then?" She made a disgusted face. Cuttlefish shrugged. "Lost track 50 years ago." He started to stroll along. "Wait-" Squirt called. "Why did ya need me?" She asked. His big shifty eyes lit up. "Oh, ya! I almost forgot. Being old does ruin the ol' brain." He laughed a dry laugh. "I need you to take down the octarians for me!" He points at Squirt. "What-" She got interrupted. "I can see it, that twinkle in your eye! Its a strong one! I think you'll do. Better than my last agent, anyway." Squirt paused. "Did you say 'last agent'?" Her stomach rumbled. He just waddled off for a little bit, and came back up with a shirt, some shorts, shoes, and a helmet. "You'll need this. I stole this from the octarians a while ago." Cuttlefish shoved the suit into her arms, and he went digging for something. "Wait, you just randomly grabbed me off from a soda machine, just some newbie, and you expect me to fight off a whole army myself? How do you even know I'm qualified?" Squirt protested. "Aha! Here, you're gonna need this squiddo." He tossed her a black gun, with green plastered around it, and it was sparkly too.
"Did you even hear a word I said?" She asked. "Eh?" Cuttlefish cleaned out some sticky yellow stuff from his ear. She shuttered. "Never mind." He put on his blue captain's hat to cover his bald head and pointed his cane to the right. "Let's go splat some octo-jerks!" He slowly made his way to the freakishly large, randomly placed tea kettles. Squirt stood there flabbergasted, with her jaw dropped. "Keep your mouth closed, you'll attract flies." He demanded. She clamped her mouth shut and put the yellow life-vest over her head, to cover up her white fire-fin shirt, and slipped her helmet/headphones on. As she tied her shoes on, she listened to Cuttlefish's instructions. "First, ya gotta get in the kettle." He pointed his cane to the kettle. She nodded, and fell on her face from unbalance. "Be prepared for any surprise attacks, 'cause the octarians can spring up from anywhere! Oh, if you're stuck, I slipped a walkie-talkie thing in your helmet." Squirt tapped her helmet. "Use the gun and...ya know… splat 'em, and stuff." He said, nearly dozing off into space. "Sounds simple enough." She shrugged. She heard some snoring. Cuttlefish stood there, drooling away, and sleeping. Squirt snapped a few times. "Wake up!" She ordered. His eyes immediately opened. She almost peed herself because of those eyes, they were as big as golf balls! "Sorry, just resting my old eyes. So, are you ready?" He said, in a chipper tone. "As I'll ever be…" Squirt hesitated. "Give 'em heck, Agent 3!" Squirt paused. "Agent threeeeee-" She got pushed down the kettle in her squid form just as she was going to protest on her new title.
It was pitch black, almost like the pupils on an eye, that just seemed to go on forever. Squirt's muscles seemed to relax, her eyes felt like anvils, and she seemed to weaken. The long fall was… relaxing, it seemed to go on infinite, it almost felt normal. Then the light snuck in. Squirt covered her eyes from the blinding light. "Oof!" She landed on her supposed destination. She got up dizzily but shook it off. It looked so much like Inkopolis, although the clear blue sky looked extremely fake. She could really tell this was underground. From the looks of it, the place looked pretty unstable. Hey, 1 2 3! Cuttlefish calling! The intercom in her helmet rang in her ears. Not even bothering to say hello, she responded. "What is this place?" He answered within seconds. His voice was croaky and cracking up, but she could make it out. Octo Valley. See any octarians? She sighed. "No, not yet. I don't think I want to. I mean, really. How do I know if they do attack? What'd they do anyway? It would've been on the news ya know!" She realized. You're gonna give up? He cracked, feeling disappointed. "Well, no. I'm gonna need some proof first. Otherwise, what's the point in fighting these guys. They haven't attacked in 100 years anyway. They could be… not, evil?" She continued. Fine, we will set a deal. If ANYTHING suspicious happens, you'll work for me. If there is NOTHING, you can think of me as the insane old guy living in the manhole. OK? She laughed. "You already are the insane old guy living in the manhole!" Cuttlefish just grunted. "OK, OK, it's a deal!" She giggled. She stopped, looked around a bit. "Uh, now, how do I come back up?"