AN: I return! And with another chapter. Hope you enjoy it.
Splatoon 2 Untold: Mystery of Agent 8
Chapter 4: Rising to Roll Out
As soon as I opened my eyes, I could faintly hear the sound of someone...screaming. It was a terrible scream of fear, and it sounded like a girl's voice. In the dark room that I found myself in, I made out the shape of a girl in front of me. I barely recognized her, but something in my brain told me I knew her. Just as I was trying to approach her, the girl ended up being grabbed by a large tentacle, and she screamed as it pulled her away. I wasn't the kind of person to leave someone in the clutches of some creature like this, so I tried to follow her. I moved much slower than I thought I was. As I suddenly moved at normal speed again, I was already too late to get to her. Needless to say, I was getting scared...
"Alright, Fin," I thought trying to calm myself. "You've gotta be having some kind of nightmare...that's gotta be the only explanation for this..."
Suddenly, I felt something cold wrap around my arm and then around my neck. It started tightening its grip and pulling me somewhere. I tried to get free from its grasp, but it was in vain. I struggled frantically to break free, but once it began to pull me down into a dark pit, I fully began to panic.
It was the moment it managed to bring me into the pit that shocked me awake.
"AAH!" I yelled as I sat up quickly. "W-What was that?! And who was that?! What's going-?!"
I stopped when I realized that I was actually awake this time, but I was still the only one around.
"Okay..." I said while trying to calm my rapidly pounding hearts. "Alright...it was only a really vivid nightmare..."
I slowly stood up and looked around at my current location. I was in some kind of facility that kinda reminded me of a sci-fi horror film.
"Whoa...where am I...?" I said. "And how'd I even get down here...?"
Recalling what happened in my dream, I realized that it wasn't just any dream. It was me remembering what happened that made me wind up here. I thought long and hard about what happened.
"Okay...let me piece this together..." I thought. "What happened today...? I remembered traveling with Cap'n Cuttlefish up to Mt. Nantai. At one point or another, while I was telling him about my last adventure, we ended up running into...HER!"
I remembered that Octoling girl with white hair and meeting her during my adventure with the other agents in Octo Canyon. Only question I had when I saw her recently was why she was there on the mountain to begin with.
I remember her distinctly, too, since she was in better light. Her hair was pure white when we first noticed her. She also had...for a lack of a better way to say it...a rather shapely figure. I think I was the first to spot her, and she ran off. I didn't want to hurt her, but the cap'n thought she was an enemy and told me to go after her anyway. I went after her, and when I had caught up to her, her hair had changed to pink with white tips. I remembered trying to speak to her, but...
"That thing that came out of that hole by us..." I thought. "It took her down there, and it took the cap'n, too. I guess it took me at some point...but why?"
I walked forward and accidently kicked my Hero Shot. When I picked it up, it felt slightly warm which let me know it had been used a fairly recently.
"Well, at least I know I put up a fight against whatever that was..."
A blinking light nearby caught my eye. It came from a blue device. As I approached it, a card next to it also caught my attention. I picked them both up and examined them.
"I wonder what these are," I thought.
I pressed a button on the device, and a holographic screen showed up with a loading bar. Above the bar read "Kamobo Co. Employee Model CQ-80". Once it finished loading, the screen showed a video of what looked like a sea cucumber with a conductor's hat.
"Hello, new employee," he said. "I am pleased to inform you that you are now working for Kamobo Co. as a new subject for tests. As one of thousands of test subjects working here, you are tasked with the important job of performing tests for the company which we will use for further research in our studies. These tests will be challenging, but they will be a beneficial to our work. To begin, please head onto the Deepsea Metro to find a station to carry out your test. Once you find it, select your testing destination and complete the test. We wish you the best of luck, and thank you once again for choosing Kamobo Co. as your new workplace. We're sure you will enjoy it here."
The message cut out. Naturally, I was confused.
"Okay...that was...something..." I thought. "I can't be taking tests. I need to find the cap'n and that Octoling. But...I don't know where to start..."
The CQ-80 beeped and displayed a map with a prominent point showing where I was currently. Above the map were several icons, and one of them showed an alert. I selected it, and it showed a newly made chatroom.
"This could come in handy later..." I thought. I set up a name for myself. I just named myself "Agent 3".
I went back to the map and selected a destination on one of the tracks.
"I wonder how long until-" A train came rushing from a nearby tunnel and stopped. "Until that arrives..."
I ran over to the train and boarded it.
I'm probably not the first to say this, but the passengers on the train were...fairly strange-looking. And that's coming from a squid who can shapeshift. There were different-looking jellyfish and fish people, and as I walked through them to find a seat, they all kept giving me odd looks. For once, I was glad it wasn't because of my eye color, but it may have been because I was the only passenger wearing a bright-blue and black suit and a dark cape and headset while everyone else was either in casual or business wear. I looked like I was trying to cosplay as some kind of videogame or comic book character.
I took a seat, and soon, the train moved.
"Hmm..." I thought. "While it's cool that I'm able to board this thing, what kind of metro doesn't require a ticket to board it?"
Of course, I had many more questions pertaining to my current situation, but the only thing I was focused on was finding where the cap'n and that girl were. I figured that staying where I landed wasn't gonna help me find them. Getting on the metro might help me cover more ground and probably help me learn a thing or two about where I was.
Soon, the train stopped. An announcer said that we had reached a station, but the name of the station made no sense to me.
"What the halibut is 'Roll Out Station'?" I thought. I looked at my CQ-80 to view my destination. Sure enough, that was my stop.
I got off the train and found myself looking at a gate.
"What kind of tests did that sea cucumber say I was taking?" I thought. "Or did he 'accidentally' leave out some details?"
I walked off the train to go through the gate. Before I did, a tube surrounded me once I stepped on a strange pad. In front of me on the glass, a Baller special weapon icon appeared.
"A Baller?" I thought. "Oh, I get it. These tests must be more physical than mental."
I selected the Baller as my special weapon and assumed that it was set once the tube went away. I got up to the gate, scanned my card, and suddenly was launched out through the gate into a pink respawn point. I instinctively changed colors to match it, but the weirdest thing happened. Somehow, the Baller activated and I got stuck in it.
"Wait a minute! Why am I in this?!" I said in surprise. "I didn't activate it."
"To complete the test, you must get to the end of this stage before time runs out," an announcer said. "You are restricted to the Baller special which is active at all times."
"So this thing is permanent until I finish this test?! Seriously?!"
"Time starts now."
"What?!"
A timer showed up on the baller and was starting to count down. It was going pretty fast, too. I didn't have time to stop and think about what was happening so I started rolling myself forward as quickly as I could. At first this was easy, but then I saw that this wasn't simply a speed course. It was a whole obstacle course.
First up were platforms that required me jumping over small gaps to land on them safely. That wasn't too bad, but seeing the seemingly endless pit I could fall into made me uneasy. I ran over another respawn point that gave me a couple of extra seconds. There were multiple ramps that I had to use if I wanted to reach another area. At one point, I was launched to a wall and had to scurry up the wall using the Baller. Kinda frightening, but I managed. What got me a bit unnerved was the strange-looking teal Octarians that I had to splat to get by.
"I had a feeling these guys would still be involved in this somehow..." I thought. "But I wonder what's with the new look. Did they fall down here and get sick or something?"
I passed them and was almost knocked off the platform by a spinning stick of teal ink. I liked the color, but it was being a nuisance at the moment. I managed to jump over it and get to my next destination. Upon reaching the destination, I found two more spinning ink sticks in my path.
"Of course...it never gets easier..." I said tiredly. Rolling around in a Baller is surprisingly strenuous. Nevertheless, I still jumped over the other sticks.
Upon jumping down to another platform to reach another respawn point, I saw more moving platforms with ink sticks ahead of me. Ahead on a higher platform, I could see more of those weird Octarians guarding some shining object. I took a deep breath to gather my energy and ran, jumped, and climbed up to it. Once I reached the top, I detonated the Baller to get rid of the guards and exhaustedly rolled into that shining object.
"Test passed!" I heard the announcer say. The Baller dispersed, and I launched back to the station entrance. I fell to my knees and breathed heavily.
"Phew...that was...harder than I thought..." I said while trying to catch my breath. "Although...I guess that's why those things have a time limit in Turf Wars...that and to keep players from abusing its power, of course."
Some small soft trinket bounced off my head and fell to the floor. It looked like an Inkling girl with short pink hair.
"I don't know what this is..." I said. "But I have a strange feeling I should keep it..."
As I pocketed the little object, I heard the train rumble a bit. That sound made me freeze in realization.
"Oh, no...don't tell me..." I said as I looked up. The train had started moving. "WAIT! I'm not on yet!"
I didn't know why yelling would help because obviously it didn't stop the train from speeding away leaving me at the station.
"Great. Just great..." I groaned. "Now what am I gonna do?"
I noticed a tunnel on the other side of the tracks. I figured that exploring the place instead of just riding the rails would give me more answers as to where I was. And I could hopefully find the cap'n and that Octoling. I crossed the tracks and went down the tunnel.
As I explored the tunnel, I decided to check out what else was on the CQ-80. Other than the chatroom and map of the metro lines, I found another map showing more floors to the facility. I seemed to be in the lowest level, but from what I could understand, if I were to find a way out of here, I would have to find a way up to the top floor and I'll be home free. But I'm not just gonna leave the cap'n and the Octoling down here. With any luck, I should be able to find them soon. I hope...
"I wonder how they're doing anyway..." I thought as I continued on.
AN: Looks like Fin's giving his thoughts on the situation out now, but moments with him narrating are gonna be a bit more scarce in this. That doesn't mean he's not gonna give his two cents on the problem every once in a while.
Until then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you all in the next one.
