AN: All I have to say is that it's a miracle that I managed to put this chapter up and I hope you like it. This took such a long time to finish...
Splatoon: Agent 3 Begins
Chapter 9: So...I'm Not Dreaming?
After that touching moment, we all finished our meals. Surprisingly, Callie actually did get some drinks for us.
We left the restaurant, and I decided to call it a night because it was very dark outside.
"Well, I think it's time for me to go home," I said. "I'm kinda tired."
"Yeah, me, too," Marie agreed. "I guess we'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah. Have a good night, and thanks for the dinner. It was great."
"Alright, good night, Fin," Callie said while yawning. She and Marie took off down the sidewalk and waved back at me.
I looked at my watch to see that it was 10:30 at night. I walked down the sidewalk in the same direction the Squid Sisters went. However, Marie noticed and looked back at me questioningly.
"Uh, Finley," she said. "I thought you were heading home."
"I am," I said. "I live this way."
"You're house is this way?"
"I live in Sunset Sea Apartments."
Callie spun around and started walking backwards.
"That's where we live, too!" she said happily.
Didn't see that coming...
"Why do you two live in an apartment?" I asked. "Don't you two have enough money to buy a house? Or, for that matter, a mansion?"
"Maybe enough to buy just a house, but not a mansion..."
"We live in an apartment for more privacy," Marie explained. "Although, it was Callie's idea."
"How do you have more privacy?" I asked.
"Nobody would think that celebrities like us would live in an apartment. It's so inconspicious."
"'Inconspicuous', Callie..." Marie corrected.
"Whatever."
"I guess you have a point?" I said under my breath. "Not sure if it makes sense, though..."
"It's unnoticeable, sure," Marie said. "But the other reason we live there is because I lost a bet..."
"Wait, what?"
"Callie wanted an apartment; I wanted a house. After a one-on-one Turf War, we said 'hello' to our new apartment."
Callie snickered smugly as she continued walking backwards. Marie stuck her foot out in her path to trip Callie, but she stepped over it.
"Ha Ha! Nice try, dear cousin," she said triumphantly as she stuck out her tongue.
"Cousin?"
"People take our stage name too literally," Marie said. "We're actually cousins, not sisters."
Didn't see that coming, either! Like most people, I thought they were sisters. But now that I think about it, "Squid Cousins" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue...
"But you two sure do act like sisters..."
"We've known each other for so long, we might as well be."
"We're even both 16," Callie said.
"Cool, we're the same age," I said. "Though, I will be 17 in a few weeks."
As we continued chatting, we nearly passed our apartment building. When we went inside, the Inkling woman at the front desk greeted us.
"Hello, Mr. Splatterson," she said. "I see you've met the special residents of the building..."
"Special residents? Uh, I-I have no idea w-what you mean..." I said nervously.
"It's cool, Fin," Callie said. "Carol already knows who we are."
"Oh, then, never mind..."
"Did you have a nice day?" Carol asked.
"It was...eventful...but I'm glad it's over now."
"But there should be more excitement coming tomorrow," Marie said. "Which reminds me. Neither one of you wake me up if you get up early. I'm gonna sleep in tomorrow."
"Don't we have to wake up for the morning broadcast tomorrow?" Callie asked.
"Yeah, but I'm gonna enjoy my sleep anyway, so don't wake me up."
The two went on about Marie's sleeping habits as they walked to the elevators. Carol and I looked at each other.
"Do they...?" I started.
"Get stuck talking about a weird subject a lot?" she finished. I nodded. "Sometimes. But you get used to it after a while."
"Let's hope I do. Well, have a good night, Carol."
"Thanks. You, too."
I walked to the elevators, but the sis-er, I mean, cousins-had already left. I went up to my apartment and got ready for bed. While getting ready, I started pondering over the events of the day. So much had happened. I made friends with two pop stars. I fought in a Turf War and unintentionally gained a rival. And I became a special agent and fought a race of octopus people. Not too bad for my first full day in Inkopolis, right? Although it was good, I had a lingering uneasy feeling.
"This had to be a dream, right?" I thought as I got into bed. "Usually when things go so well for someone, it either means bad things are to come or I'm dreaming. Sure, I did want a little excitement in my life when I got here, but...all the stuff that I went through today couldn't have just happened in one day. This had to be a dream. There's no way I could've met the Squid Sisters and became an agent. When I wake up tomorrow, things are gonna be so different, but it'll be reality again, so I might as well get ready for it."
These thoughts swarmed in my head as I started falling asleep. A part of me just knew that today was some sort of super-realistic dream and didn't want it to be real, but the other part disagreed (as usual). I finally fell asleep, but my thoughts kept going. Did today REALLY just happen?
I woke up. I got out of bed and put on my clothes. Ready and willing to face reality, I put on my headphones and prepared to head out the door. I went down to the first floor and went out the door. However, right as I was leaving the building, I heard a familiar peppy voice that made me freeze in place...and almost made two of my hearts stop...
"Hi, Fin!" Callie said. I turned around slowly to see her sitting on a couch in the lobby listening to music. She waved and smiled brightly. However, I was in total shock.
"HOLY CARP!" I screamed internally. "THAT WASN'T A DREAM!" I was freaking out so much that I didn't realize that she came up to me.
"Uh, you okay?" she asked worriedly. I was still in denial, but I managed to slowly nod.
"Uh, w-where's Marie? Still s-sleeping?"
"Mm-hmm! She made it really clear not to wake her up until...actually, right now." Callie took out her cellphone and texted her. She sent "TIME 2 WAKE UP!" and started walking outside. I went outside to walk with her.
"Do you think that she'll wake up to that text?" I asked.
"Oh, I think she will," she said deviously. "I made her ringtone for her texts crazy loud."
"Ooh, wow, that...heh, that's quite the wake up call!"
We laughed as we imagined Marie scrambling out of bed. Suddenly, I realized that I forgot my backpack. I told Callie to keep going, and I'll try to catch up. I ran back to the building and back to my apartment. My backpack was on right where I left it last night, but before I took it, I looked inside. My Agent 3 suit and my Hero Shot were still in there. That confirmed to me that I was definitely not dreaming...
As I left my apartment, I saw Marie walk speedily past my door.
"Morning, Marie," I said. She stopped in her tracks and turned to see me.
"Hey, Fin, what's up?" she said.
"You, after Callie's text message surprise," I said while trying not to laugh too much.
"Ha ha..." she laughed dryly. "That was a good trick."
"She told me what she did. I wish I could've seen your reaction."
"I almost fell out of bed!" She looked at the clock on her cell. "And now I'm almost late. I need to go. Wanna come with me?"
"Eh, sure."
We went outside of the building, and before I started walking toward the plaza, Marie held me back.
"Hang on, I have an idea..." she said. "Let's squid-jump to the plaza."
"Really? A-Are you sure?"
"It's not that far. Plus, I'm too tired to walk."
"Tired? Or lazy."
She glared at me. "Hmph! I'm also trying to do it more so that I'll get used to it and not get air sick whenever I do it."
"Makes sense...sorta..."
We changed into our squid forms and squid-jumped to the plaza. However, I never planned where I was gonna land, so I landed in Spyke's alley in his pile of snail shells. Luckily for me, he wasn't around. Once I got out of the pile, I noticed that Marie wasn't around.
"I landed, but she hasn't yet? Where is she?" I thought.
"INCOMING!" I heard her yell from above. She was coming right towards me, and at that split second, I realized what was gonna happen next. She landed on top of me...AGAIN!
"Why does this keep happening to me?!" I said while I was face down on the ground. Marie quickly stood up and helped me to my feet.
"Sorry..." she said sheepishly.
"No problem..." I said painfully. "At least this time I got a warning..."
"True. Anyway, I gotta go. See ya!" She went into the side entrance. When the door closed, I left the alley and went into the plaza. As usual, it was still busy.
"I probably should get ready for 'work'," I thought. I walked over to the sewer grate near Judd's bin and dove in. I popped out of the other grate and found Cap'n Cuttlefish napping in an old chair. He looked so content that I decided not to wake him up. Instead, I went over to where the baby zapfish were being held and counted them to make sure that none were missing. While I was looking at them, one of them splashed me with water. I then recognized that particular zapfish.
"Oh, it's you. The first zapfish I rescued," I said. It caught me by surprise when it hopped up into my arms and shocked me with its whiskers. "Whoa! Take it easy, little guy."
It nuzzled closer to me and made a purring (well, more of a gurgling/purring/buzzing) sound. I guess this one liked me a bit. As I got a closer look at it, I noticed that this one looked a bit different from the others. The other zapfish had curly electric whiskers, but this one had them in a zig-zag shape. Otherwise, it looked the same as all the others. It reminded me a lot of...well, me.
"Hmm, I guess you and I are one of a kind for our species, huh?" I said. The little guy zapped me again; but strangely, it didn't hurt as badly. "Maybe I'll give you a name...as soon as I think of one...but for now, you'll need to stay in here, okay?"
The zapfish nodded and hopped into the tank while splashing me with water again. I chuckled at how silly the little fish was. I moved on to put on my Agent 3 gear and got out my Hero Shot. I walked around the nearby area trying to find another small kettle. What I found instead surprised me. I found a huge kettle resting on a purple platform that kinda looked like a big pillow. It was open, but I was hesitant to go in it.
"Why is this one different from the others...?" I thought. Before I started to second guess myself, I took a deep breath. "I need to stop thinking too deeply about this kind of stuff. Maybe this kettle just has something special in it? I'll never know unless I go in it."
I changed into a squid and dove into the kettle. As I fell, I thought "Who knows? This mission might be easy."
Once again, I landed in a pool of green ink. This time, I was in some sort of dark arena. Several lights hanging from the ceiling pointed directly to a central round platform with a...giant, metal cube on it. That didn't look good. The platform that I was on was small, and the only thing that was there was a launchpad. I swam over to it and squid-jumped over to the big platform.
When I landed, a captured baby zapfish was lowered slowly onto the top of the big cube thing. It startled both of us when an octopus tentacle came out of a hole on top of the cube and pulled the zapfish inside of it. The cube sparked and did the weirdest thing that I have seen. It sprouted small legs hopped up onto them revealing a large (and really creepy) inky, fuchsia face with green eyes. We both stood there staring at each other for a long time until a loud voice boomed around us.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Well, if it isn't the new inksquirt?" it said menacingly.
"W-Who s-said t-that...?" I said nervously. "A-And who a-are y-you...?"
"You'll know who I am soon enough! All you need to know is that this is the end for you. Behold! Great Octoweapon Number One: THE MIGHTY OCTOSTOMP!"
The Octostomp let out a loud metallic roar and charged toward me.
"WHY DID I SAY THAT THIS MIGHT BE EASY?!" I yelled as I ran around it. It continued chasing me and slamming its face to the ground to squash me. I sprayed ink all over the ground to move away from it faster, but an idea struck me as I was swimming in it. After the giant metal face slammed down again, I stopped moving and waited for it to get up again. While it struggled to get up, I saw the tentacle from earlier sticking out from on top of it. "Maybe that might do something."
It got back up, and I moved in carefully. This plan was crazy, but it was all that I could think of. While I was in my ink, the Octostomp couldn't see me, so I moved slowly toward it as it was wandering around looking for me.
"Here goes nothing," I thought. I stood up out of my ink and shot its back. It turned around and began to fall on its face again; but this time, I dove out of the way, sprayed ink on the side of the machine and swam up to the tentacle on its back. I shot it with ink until it burst. I didn't know if that tentacle was attached to anything, but I also didn't have time to speculate. The Octostomp began shaking violently, and I squid-jumped as far away as I could from it. It then sprouted another tentacle (Seriously, is an Octarian in that thing or something?) and stood up. It seemed to have taken damage because several metal plates on its sides broke off. The machine roared ferociously again, and somehow, the ink that was on the ground vanished. It charged for me again.
I finally figured it out. Get it to miss its attack, climb up to the tentacle, and splat it. For however long that may be, I had no clue. But at least I had a plan...
After a while of running the same plan twice, I splatted the tentacle for a third time. I squid-jumped away and looked back at the giant machine. It didn't try to get back up this time. Instead, it began sparking and shaking uncontrollably until it froze. Then...BOOM! It exploded and showered green ink all over the arena. All that was left was the newly-released baby zapfish. I went over to it and freed it.
I found a way to get back to the surface with the zapfish, and when I did, I put the zapfish into the tank. As soon as I did, my zapfish friend came back up and tried to splash me with water again. I ducked out of the way, and the water nearly hit the still sleeping Cap'n.
"Good to see you, too," I said to it. I sighed and sat down near the tank. The zapfish hopped out of the tank again, and I caught it. It looked so glad to see me. "You are one crazy little fish, aren't you?"
It shocked me again playfully. It still didn't hurt...
"I don't suppose you want to hear how my mission went, do you?" The zapfish perked up. I took that as a 'yes'. I told it the whole story, and it listened intently. When I finished, I sighed.
"You know, little...guy?" It nodded affirming to me that it was male. "Even though I'm not dreaming, I never would've thought that I'd be doing any of this in a million years. Fighting Octarians and giant robots seems like a crazy idea. Yet I'm living it, right now. I'm not so sure if I can do all this. What if I can't do it...?"
The zapfish shocked me again with all his might. Now, that hurt like crazy!
"Oww...what was that for?" He nuzzled closer to me. "Sheesh, anything I say that you'll disagree with will spark up that much of a reaction from you?"
I paused for a minute. Spark...
"Hmm...S-Sparky...?" I said aloud. The zapfish looked at me curiously. "Hey...maybe that can be your name...Sparky."
The zapfish's eyes lit up with happiness. He really seemed to like that name.
"You like that name?" I asked. His whiskers shocked me playfully again. "Okay. 'Sparky', it is."
Despite finding a new fried in Sparky, I was still unsure if I was still able to protect him and Inkopolis from the Octarians now that I know what they're capable of. But at least I know that some people-and even fish-believes that I might be able to do it. I just hope they're right. Aside from that, I also had a question burning in my mind about this recent mission...
"Whose voice did I hear down there...?"
AN: Well, that's it for this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope to see some possible artwork in the future. The next chapter will come soon but not for a while.