#9
I just went back to read the old version of this chapter.
And oh lord, it's the most pointless one in the entire story. Almost nothing mattered. At all.
Buuuut there were just enough important things in it to prevent me from just outright deleting it.
Alright, here we go, let's see what I can do with this.
Four blankly stared at the cabin.
Now that the excitement was over, she started to feel the lack of sleep. She tiredly wandered to the ragged, patched-up couch by the manhole and fell into it, making sure to avoid the side the captain sat in.
"We still haven't found Agent 3..." he said as he waddled back to her. He squinted at the ground in some shallow thought.
"Yeah, there was nothing else we found down there," Four dropped her head on the armrest, letting her eyes droop. "Except I found another one of those big kettles with the lids." She was describing it half-asleep in a childish voice. "It was behind a big metal door with, like, super big electromagnetic locks."
Cap'n Cuttlefish, still standing, looked down at her in disbelief. "That's... that's important..." he said.
Four continued. "And one of the guards, there were two of them without the shades, he said something about how they don't get much power. Something about it being stuck in actor volley, or something, I don't know."
"Bucko?" He tapped his cane on the ground. "Was it Octo Valley, they said?"
"Probably? I don't know." She was too sleepy to replay the scene in her mind. Four fell asleep right there, letting herself go limp in the welcoming softness of the vintage couch.
"She saw what, exactly?" Two burst out of the cabin, wearing her sunglasses again. "I heard something about a metal door, and locks." She jogged over to see Four with her head and arms limply hanging off of the couch.
If it wasn't for her heavy breathing, it would look like a crime scene. She looks adorable when she's asleep, thought Two.
The captain took over, slowly turning around to face her, "Eh, she said that we need to cut off power to that Lab."
If the doors were locked electromagnetically, they'd disable if the facility faced a blackout. Then they could explore deeper into the Lab.
Two understood that, but there was still one part that puzzled her. "But I heard Octo Valley, too. Why's the source there, of all places?"
"Because..." said One as she crept out of the cabin with her mask on. "Because if they put it under the city, it would have strong effects on wireless devices. Samomid eggs... do that..." she slouched, putting her hands in her pockets again.
"Wh-" started Two. "Oh..." She just remembered something else. "Got it..."
"Let's... just... find a way there..." muttered One, faintly smiling and shuffling to the couch. "What do we do with her?"
Two looked at Four, then at Octavio's corner. "Guess we're camping here tonight," she sighed. "I'm not dragging her back. Or leaving her with him."
—
Four woke up to an unpleasant mouthful of dirt. Sometime during the night, she rolled off the couch and planted her face in the soft soil.
Disgusted, she spit, leaving a damp wad of it on the ground.
Groaning, she stood, stretched, and looked around, rediscovering where she was.
The sun was up, still rising, but it shone brightly, so the lanterns around on the cabin in the corner were put out. She didn't know if it was automatic or not.
The tree above her gave some shade, though.
Standing right next to her was Two, but she hadn't noticed that. "Next time, try not to fall asleep next to Octavio, okay?"
"Ah!" Four jumped back, still in that transition phase to full awareness. She almost landed on her Dualies sitting on the ground. "W-what?"
"He's right there. Octavio. Don't let him kidnap you like he did with Three." Her expression, especially her eyes, was unreadable. "And Callie," she murmured.
"Oh... uh... sorry..." Four picked up her Dualies while cautiously staring at his corner with the pink room divider. The silhouette of the globe was faintly visible, but she's couldn't make out Octavio's shape. Does she sleep? she thought, holstering the Dualies.
"Morning!" yelled One from the cabin, harshly kicking the door open. "What's the plan now?"
"We get to Octo Valley," said Two. "We can... Wait, Four, you know where that is?"
She shook her head and blinked. "All I know is that it's where Agent 3 got the Great Zapfish the first time." Once again, she fell backwards onto the couch with nothing else better to do.
"That's most of it," explained Two, "but some time after he did that, Octavio sealed the entrance from Inkopolis Plaza. Then carved out a piece of said Plaza and used it as an arena. You fought him on it."
"Hold up," said Four, holding her hand up. "A piece of the... Wouldn't people notice that?"
One jumped in, crossing her arms in amusement. "Pff, yeah, everyone saw it. The higher-ups in the city said it was roadwork and moved everything to the the square," she laughed.
"...Yeah," said Two as she adjusted her sunglasses. "Anyway, we have to fly there."
Basically what I did here was take the parts that mattered and stretched them to hell and back, added details that weren't there before, and deleted the useless parts. And patched up a plot hole. I won't go into the details on that one.
And still. It's short.
Holy crap, I was such a bad writer a year ago.
