Author's notes: Hey guys, long time no see. Things went well at the scouting event I was helping out at and now it's time to release the next chapter of "Splatoon: Secrets of the Inklings"
Looking through my traffic stats I noticed something kinda odd. For chapter 11 the number of visitors is higher than the number of visitors for chapters 9 and 10. What on earth...? Are people skipping chapters or is something really screwy with the system that tracks the number of visitors for each chapter? I know that chapter 10 is pretty short and a little out of context but it really is pretty important to the story. So if any of you did skip it (or chapter 9 but that doesn't worry me as much since the dip isn't as big with this chapter as it is with chapter 10,) I would highly recommend going back and reading it. You'll possibly regret later if you don't.
Also don't forget to leave any questions you have for me and the story in the comments below. Any questions I receive will be answered in a similar fashion as the question I presented to the readers was formatted. (I really don't plan to do a Q and A section like some authors do so any burning questions to you have for me will only be answered here.)
Enjoy!
Chapter 12: Incoming Agent
"Brush, smush I don't care what you say or how good you're with it. There is no way in all the known animal kingdom that I will consider it a roller."
"I don't get what your problem is Ploosh," Molly responded as she patted the shaft of the weapon in her hand, "unless it has something to do with your butt getting kicked by the team member from the Manta Rays Splatoon, does it?"
"What?" he whipped around to face her, "what has that got to do with it? No it is not because I got beaten by Cass, it's because they're nothing like rollers and that's it!" Stomping ahead of the others he only made it several feet away before a loud beeping sounded from the devices on his, Squil's and Inka's wrist.
"Is that who I think that is?" Molly asked.
"Why in all things squid would he have called us now?"
"Who knows," Squil shrugged, "I'm sure he has a reason."
"Yeah and you said the exact same thing when he contacted us that one time just so we could taste his new recipe for crabby cakes."
"They were still too salty in my opinion."
"Maybe he has something about Marlin," Molly suggested to the others.
Instantly Squil turned to look at her wide eyed, "What do you mean?"
"Oh! Um, well..." her cheeks burned as she quickly realized her mistake.
"Wait a minute...you know?"
She shook her head but didn't dare look him directly in the eye.
"Okay which of you told her?" he demanded as he turned to glare at the other two.
"It was me Squil, she found out about Callie and Marie and eventually she got me to let slip who Marlin was." Inka replied as she looked down at her feet in shame.
Listening to Inka admit to him what had happened Molly suddenly noticed something about that she had just said. Last night she had referred to him in present tense but now it was in past tense, almost as if he...
She shook her head before addressing the steadily heating conversation, "it's really more my fault than hers Squil. I made her tell me about him. I wanted to know more about who I was replacing."
"No one is replacing Agent 3 Molly. You were recruited just like the rest of us were and like us, if you're willing, you will help out to take down the Octarians and prevent a new war from taking place."
"We should probably hurry up and go see what the Captain wants either way," Ploosh replied as he walked in the direction to the Octo Valley entrance.
"I'm glad you all came at such short notice, even you Molly."
"Well I just happened to be with the others so I tagged along," on the journey there the four of them had quickly decided not to mention the incident at Saltspray Rig to Captain Cuttlefish. At least for the time being until they could learn more about what happened.
"Actually I did want to meet with you specifically for a good reason bucko. As I'm sure the others have explained the Squidbeak Splatoon is not only a team in the Turf War games but a secret covert operation that works to keep the Octavia forces at bay. Being part of this team is a great deal of responsibility and not just any young Inkling will be picked for it. Callie chose you for the team and I'm sure you would make a great new agent."
"Hey yeah that's great for you and...wait, what?! Captain you're not saying...?"
"Yes, indeed I am Squil. Molly is to be Agent 4."
"What?!" all four of them said, including Molly.
"Both Callie and I have been discussing you Molly. She feels you are ready to take on the responsibility of being a full-fledge agent and I trust my granddaughter's judgement."
"But Captain she's the youngest of us all. If anyone should become a agent shouldn't it be Squil since he is the oldest of the four of us?" Inka asked.
Molly couldn't help but agree with her. She had the least amount of experience in the Turf Wars and completely none on these secret missions they had mentioned before. And there also was still the whole thing with her for some reason being able to turn into a Landdweller still being an issue...
"You three have been wonderful in helping this operation stay on its feet but Agent 1 has made it clear to me that she feels that Molly is the right choice for this position...what do you say bucko, you ready for this?"
Instantly all I eyes turn towards her.
"Um..." she bit her lip, remembering to use one of her none-fanged teeth this time to do it. Looking between all of them she saw a mixture of emotions play across their face. Some were scared, others hopeful and one in particular was even now glaring at her with a very cold, dark look with his fierce looking blue eyes.
"Should I take your silence as a yes?" Captain Cuttlefish asked drawing her attention again.
"Oh no Captain there's no need. I'll gladly except your offer to become one of your agents," grabbing his hand she shook it with a small smile. Glancing over his shoulder she looked to see Squil's reaction at her choice.
Currently he was giving her look like he wanted to kill her.
Swallowing nervously she fumbled with a bundle of clothes that the Captain had suddenly trusted into her arms, "this is actually Agent 1's old gear but it should fit you nevertheless. Could you perhaps double check for me just in case?"
"Um, sure," walking over to the shack she went in to go change.
The clothes consisted of a black long sleeve turtleneck with a reflective neon yellow vest to go over it, black shoes with yellow accents and a wireless headset that fitted perfectly over her pointed ears and had faintly glowing blue lights on it.
"Wonderful! It does fit just as I hoped." Cuttlefish cried out when she came back out, "you just need one more thing Molly." He handed her a communicator with orange accents on it, " this is a short range radio communicator which will allow you and the others to talk to one another while in a mission. It is not just for in missions but also for contacting you whenever I need you to come to Octo Valley for any reason. Because it is short range the headset will allow me to talk to you while in missions. Whatever you do don't take the headset off or get it damage, otherwise you're on your own."
"I understand," she nodded as she strapped the device onto her wrist and covered it up with her long black sleeve.
"Please tell me we were not all dragged here to only officially make Molly Agent 4?" Ploosh whined as he leaned up against the side of the shack clearly bored.
"No I'm afraid not Ploosh. I have finally been able to locate a baby zapfish that is in desperate need of rescuing."
"What's a zapfish?" Molly quickly asked.
"They are a species of electric catfish that powers many of the things we use today. The mother of all zapfish called 'the Great Zapfish' gives energy to the whole city of Inkopolis and resides wrapped around Inkopolis Tower. Two years ago the Great Zapfish was stolen from the tower by the Octarians as well as a large number of the baby zapfish. Thanks to the help of Agent 3 we were able to get them back but every once in a while more of the baby zapfish are found to be in the clutches of the Octarians and the team has to go get it."
"So this is a retrieval mission?"
"Right on bucko!"
Molly winced, "Do you really have to call me that Captain?"
"Wha...? Oh, no I don't bu- I mean Agent 4. Follow me to the right entrance." Turning slightly pink in the ears he mumbled something about kids these days before leading to them to what looked like a tea kettle half buried in the ground, "here it is."
"Are they supposed to look like that?"
"Yeah they are," Inka answered as she placed similarly looking headset over her own ears as the boys did the same, "the grate over the opening prevents most creatures from entering into them, but that won't stop a Octoling or, in our case, a Inkling from getting in. You ready to proceed Agent 4?"
The sudden formality briefly threw Molly off before she stammered, "I-I suppose so."
"Very well," nodding her head at her Inka turned into a squid and slid down into the large tea kettle with the boys following suit. Not wanting to be left behind again she quickly followed after them.
Landing roughly on hard cracked cement Molly barely was able to prevent herself from falling to the ground. Breathing a sigh of relief she looked up above them to see a giant rock ceiling above them that where small rays of sunlight would get through cracks and holes in it. "This place is a little dark."
"Octarian's eyes are sensitive to sunlight. That's why the Octolings that do go to the surface always wear special goggles over their eyes to prevent them from going blind up at the surface," Squil quickly answered, his tone clearly carrying hints of bitterness behind the words.
"Squil! This is not the time nor the place to be behaving like a child. You are the oldest one here and you should be acting like so." Inka said to him in a slightly hushed voice.
"Well maybe I don't want to be here!" Pulling his headset off his ears he shoved them into Ploosh's hands, "I'm sure you guys can handle this with only three. I'll meet you back at Octo Valley."
"Squil! Get back here!" Inka hissed as he walked off totally ignoring her, "ah, forget it! Let's just get this over with so we can go home." Pulling a black bag off her shoulder she handed Molly and Ploosh a black weapon before pulling one out for herself, "these are called 'Hero Shots' and they are to be used only for fighting the Octarians. Unlike most ink weapons it has no special but multiple sub weapons are compatible with it including splat bombs, burst bombs and seekers."
"Got it," Molly replied as she hooked up her ink tank to the gun, "hey Inka why don't you have a getup like this," she quickly pointed at the sweater with the yellow vest.
"I told you we are not agents Mo- I mean Agent 4. We are simply cadets that help the agents fulfill their mission. Why do you think Squil is so mad at you right now for becoming an agent instead of him. He's been waiting for months to become one and now that you've showed up you pretty much have stolen his chance."
"It's not like I wanted this."
"Then why did you say yes?"
"I, uh...okay I don't know, but what was I suppose to say?"
"Who knows," she said shrugging, "it doesn't matter anymore. He'll just have to get over it on his own. For now we have a zapfish to go rescue."
Walking through the area they met very little resistance. Only a couple of times did the trio see Octarians and with each one Inka and Ploosh explained the best and quickest ways to dispatch them before they could raise the alarm to the other Octarians. When taking out a guard sometimes they found keys that unlocked new areas for them to explore or an inactive launch pad for them to use to jump over large chasms.
Eventually the lack of action started to get the better of them.
"Hey Inka."
"Yeah Ploosh?"
"Isn't it odd that we haven't run into anything that powerful or dangerous?"
"Yeah...why do you ask?"
"Well do you remember what happened last time?"
She shuddered, "Yes I do, but why are you bringing this up?"
"Because if I didn't know better Inka I feel like we're about to walk into another...augh!" He quickly fell down on one knee as he grimaced in pain from the splatter of magenta ink on his leg.
"An ambush! Everyone split up so that they can't get us all at once!" Inka cried out before running out of sight.
"Agent 4 get out of here!" Ploosh said through gritted fangs as he limped into cover.
"No, I won't ditch you in this condition."
"Great, you're worse than my cousin Agent 4."
"Whose your cousin?"
"Molly! This is not the time for this!"
"Right, sorry."
"Never mind that Agent 4 just...help me over there." he pointed towards where a bunch of his colored ink was on the ground, "if I can get myself into it I'll be able to heal faster."
"Okay," peering around to see if any Octarians were going to attack them she led him over to the ink where he quickly turned into his squid for and sunk into it. With a faint squeak he sighed as the ink started to soothe his injury and allow his body to heal. "Stay here Ploosh, I'm going to try to find Inka."
Giving a slight nod he completely submerged himself with barely a ripple.
Standing up from the puddle Molly held the Hero Shot she had up and started to work around the area as she continued to avoid the occasional shot fired at her from her hidden attackers. When one of them became too over zealous she fired in the shooters direction several times before she heard a screech followed by the sound of a wet explosion. By some minor miracle she had actually defeated the shooter.
Unfortunately for her the defeat of the one had brought multiple others to shoot in her direction.
Dodging the Octarian ink she ducked around a corner. While catching her breath she soon was able to identify what two of the attackers were saying as they got closer to where she was hiding.
"Where did that Inkling go?"
"Who knows, they can certainly be slippery when it comes to not getting caught."
"Do you think it was one of Cuttlefish's agents?"
"Which one? Agent 2 and Agent 3 are ours now and I very much doubt he would send Agent 1 for risk of losing her as well."
"Well I was just thinking..."
"You were thinking nothing! Now let's get going before Octarnick tells us off for lazing about."
"You mean if poor Nicky can remember."
This comment causes the two of them to burst into laughter before they walked away from where Molly had been hiding.
Sighing in relief she inked up the side of the wall with her gun to get a higher vantage point. The sooner they could get out of there the better. As she climbed the last few feet in humanoid firm she was surprised to suddenly be met with a bright source of light.
"Sheesh, who turned on the light?" She asked as she covered her eyes to prevent herself from going blind.
A gurgling squeal answered her.
Pulling her arm away from her eyes she saw that the source of the light was in reality a bright yellow fish creature with long curly whiskers on the sides of its head. Currently the aforementioned whiskers were clipped into some form of conductor that every time the creature struggled cause a large amount of energy to pass through it and brighten its enclosure, which was in the shape of a lightbulb.
"You must be the zapfish that everyone keeps talking about." Molly replied as she gently placed her hand on the container. Whatever it was made out of was certainly thick but still seemed to be possibly breakable, "hold on, I'll get you out of there." Raising her Hero Shot she shot at it until the thing shattered to pieces and the zapfish quickly squealed with joy.
"Hey there little guy, I told you I would get you out of there." Walking through the broken glass she went to work on freeing it from the conductor, "this was almost too easy."
"You're right, it was," a new voice declared as the cold barrel of a gun was placed onto the back of her head, "and if you touch that zapfish again I can show you just how easy it will be for me to splat you out of existance."
