The following day, Michael left the house.
Though not exactly by himself.
Not wanting to be seen, Michael put on a sweatshirt to hopefully give him a low profile. He wanted to get to Captain Cuttlefish, tell him about the Octoling, and get back to the house. He woke up early to try and get it done before anyone else woke up, and it would've worked well.
If not for Angela.
For how much she hated waking up, Angela was, ironically enough, a light sleeper. And Michael accidentally tripping over a misplaced chair, didn't do well to keep her asleep.
Angela stumbled out of her room quick enough to see Michael leave the house in a hurry.
"What in Sam Hill…"
Even if her mind didn't work correctly, she still found the situation weird enough to try and follow Michael.
"I swear if he ends up stealing somethin'…"
Following Michael, she soon found herself in central Inkopolis, approaching the main tower. She watched in worry as Michael scanned the area and then transformed into his squid form. He then jumped down a large drain that sat in front of the tower.
Angela was kind of taken aback, she always wondered what was up with the drain, and now she was even more confused about it.
'What business does Michael have going down there?'
Reluctantly, she followed Michael down the drain.
She was successful in halting herself before she went through the bottom. She slowly set her feet at the bottom and put her ear to get a clearer take on what was going on.
She heard Michael.
"Hey, Captain Cuttlefish."
'Captain Cuttlefish? Isn't he that old guy who helped in both wars?'
"Oh, good morning Michael! Long time no see."
"Yeah, long time no see. Um, I'm sorry but I can't really stay long, I just needed to tell you something really important." Michael's voice had a sort of no-nonsense tone to it, which was pretty out of the ordinary with how Michael usually was.
"Oh, this sounds serious. Well tell me, lad, what is it?"
"I'll cut to the chase, I saw an Octarian in Inkopolis the other day."
'An Octarian? Here?'
"An Octarian! Michael, tell me, did you see any others?"
"No, just the one, sir. It wasn't just a regular Octarian either, it was an Octoling."
"My god. Michael, do you have any idea what they might be doing in Inkopolis?"
"That is what I came to ask you, sir. I don't have much of an idea myself."
"Hm. Well, there's not much we can go off of just one Octoling. She may just be some delinquent who broke out of jail. Michael, I want you to report any other sightings of Octarians in Inkopolis straight to me. I'd appreciate if you could give Agents 1 and 2 a call about this too. I don't get much reception to the rest of Inkopolis down here."
"Of course, captain. May I take my leave?"
"Of course. Stay safe."
"Goodbye, captain."
Angela's heart nearly sank when she realized Michael was heading back into Inkopolis. She rapidly turned back into a full squid and swam up the drain pipe as fast as she could, just barely jumping out before Michael rocketed out of the pipe. He started to make his way back to the house, looking around to make sure nobody was around.
Angela was lucky, Michael only walked back to the house, allowing her to get back quicker and jump back into her bed before Michael was even feasibly able to realize she had followed him.
She tried her best to get back to sleep. She could only relax when she heard Michael's gentle footsteps into the house and back into his bed.
Finally, the curtains rolled in on her consciousness.
Angela woke up even later than she normally did that day. She found Randy sitting on the couch, watching TV as he always did in the morning.
"Hey Randy."
"Yo."
"Hey, uh, Randy. Can I ask you somethin'? It's about Michael."
"Uh, sure." He took note to turn the TV's volume down. "What's up?"
"He's been actin' kinda weird lately, d'ya know why?"
"No, not really. Why do you ask?"
"Well, uh…" Angela held on to the last word, she didn't feel entirely willing to give up what she heard last night but she felt like she had to tell someone about it. "…last night Michael left the house in the middle of the night. He woke me up on accident and, well, I decided to follow him and…"
"Before you go any further with this, does this end with you finding out something kinky about Michael?"
"No, it doesn't and I'd appreciate not having to relocate your jaw again because you can't keep yer damn snarky remarks to yerself."
"Alright, alright. Sorry."
"No, no, I'm sorry. It's just that I just woke up and last night got me thinkin'. So, I started following him, and we end up in Inkopolis' plaza, and he goes and jumps down that one big drainage pipe in front of the tower. So I follow him in there and when I get to the bottom I find he's talkin' to that old coot, Captain Cuttlefish."
"What business does Michael have with that guy?"
"Apparently Michael works for him. He kept using all this formal talk like calling him 'Sir' or 'Captain'. So, apparently, Michael saw an Octarian in Inkopolis and he's all shook up about it."
"An Octarian? Here? What in the…"
"Yeah, same thought I had. Cuttlefish also told Michael to tell this to some people named 'Agents 1 and 2', whoever those are."
"You know… this is making me think. I've had this suspicion since we met him but I just kinda brushed it off."
"What is it?"
"What if, our Michael is really the same Michael who saved Inkopolis in the war last year?"
The thought surprised Angela. "I… haven't considered that. Hell, maybe our buddy has a more exciting life than we ever thought."
"Yeah. But, man, how do we approach him about this?"
"Why don't we just ask him?"
Randy scoffed "Yeah, that'll work. 'Hey Michael, Angela followed you around last night and we think you're a war hero.' Won't work in the slightest."
Angela elbowed Randy in the arm.
"What? It's true. If he hasn't told us yet why would asking him about it so upfront-like get him to tell us now? He's probably hiding it from us for a reason."
"I hate to admit it, but you're right. We're gonna have to think of a way to get him to tell us."
"Well, time will tell, I guess."