Eight wasn't entirely sure what the social context was for what she was doing but she knew it had to be an honour.

When Eight imagined Three speaking to her for the first time, she had never anticipated being asked for help. The idea that the cool, confident, and competent Three would even need help had never occurred to her. What's more, she hadn't just asked anyone for help. Out of everyone she knew, she had asked her, HER! Eight's tummy had been full of flutters ever since.

Even now as she walked along the sidewalk next to her stoic Inkling companion, she felt giddy and barely felt her feet touch the ground. The sun was shining, the breeze off the ocean was just right, it felt like a perfect day.

Three suddenly grabbed her hand in a firm grip, making Eight squeak in surprise and then she noticed the serious look on Three's face as she stared ahead.

Eight had been so excited that she hadn't been paying attention to her surroundings, and those surroundings weren't the sort she was used to when looking around Inkopolis.

The nearby buildings lacked a certain polish, and reminded her of shops and storefronts back in the Metro, only in daylight. Some windows were covered over with plywood and paint peeled from old wooden signs above the storefronts. Equally rough looking, were the people loitering along the sidewalk.

Mostly Inklings, they resembled many of the people she had seen at the car meet, but without the friendly smiles. They were generally older than the two of them, with perhaps one or two in their age bracket. They eyed them with suspicion. It reminded Eight of times as a cadet when she needed to run errands requiring her to go into the areas the regular army occupied. It was always easy to tell who didn't belong there.

She tightened her grip on Three's hand, not out of fear but solidarity. She wanted Three to know she was ready for whatever came. Not wanting to look at the unfriendly looking people around her, she tried to focus on something else.

She spotted a mother across the street who looked quite busy indeed. She held her phone to the side of her head, trying to carry on a conversation, while she used her spare hand to hold onto a fussing toddler. In addition, she was standing one foot atop the back wheels of a stroller, in which a baby squirmed and wriggled impatiently. Eight suddenly had a more up to date perspective on why mothers in Octarian society were so revered and treasured.

Eight jerked as Three came to a sudden halt, her mantle now a bright, fiery red, her eyes staring intensely somewhere ahead. Eight followed her gaze and saw an Inkling female standing near the corner of the street. Her mantle was also red, but it was flashing. Three's mantle too started to flash, along with those of all the Inklings around them, except for the poor beleaguered mother whose toddler was now crying.

The non-Inklings on the street made themselves scarce, hiding back in the shops or hurrying back the way Eight and Three had come. Eight stood stunned, wondering what could have set them all on edge, until a group of creatures lumbered around the corner at the far end of the street.

The Inkling who had first started flashing stopped and backed against the wall as the group of five large, stocky crabs shuffled past her. The Inklings all stopped flashing and kept their mantles at a solid crimson. It was obvious now that whoever these crabs were, the Inklings perceived them as a threat.

Then, as if by one mind, a large number of the Inkling females moved, not towards the crabs, but to the poor mother who now had two crying children to deal with. Even as she was trying to speak above the din to whoever was on the other end of her phone call, the other Inklings surrounded her and her children, and it was only then Eight realized what they were doing.

The Inklings stared outwards from their circle, glaring at approaching crabs, a wall of crimson barring them from getting too close to the children. Eight eyed the male Inklings who were also looking intently and wondered why they hadn't joined the wall? Three too hadn't moved, although she glared at the crabs as they approached with fierce intensity.

When the crabs reached the barrier around the children, which occupied much of the sidewalk, they stopped and Eight felt the tension in the air spike. It was only then Eight understood their strategy.

The larger and stronger females formed the protective wall between the threat and the young, while the smaller but faster and more agile males and young females would attack from behind.

Eight released Three's hand and prepared for a fight. She didn't know the crab species very well but if even Three perceived them as a threat, she would as well. Three's glare even intensified, her eyes conveying, not hate, but a look that vowed a violent end for any of those crabs should they push.

The crabs clacked their claws and mandibles at the wall of Inklings as if in challenge. The Inkling response was a loud, simultaneous hiss. They would not be moved. Eight watched with her hearts hammering in her chest, waiting to see how the crabs would respond.

The crabs clacked angrily but moved around the Inklings, in that peculiar sideways fashion only crabs could pull off, until they were on the other side of the circle and then headed irately away.

Three relaxed but the rest didn't until the crabs reached the other end of the block. Then, the females of the wall turned around in place and their mantles changed from angry crimson to serene blue as they moved closer to the stroller.

Eight tensed but Three grabbed her hand and started to lead her away as if nothing had happened. But Eight continued to watch and after a moment, finally realized the baby had stopped crying, and recalled the calming effect of that beautiful blue wave pattern Inklings were now displaying. So, after the crabs had gone, they had further helped the mother by helping to calm her children.

Eight wondered if this was normal behavior for Inklings. Did they all know each other? Had they been strangers? How had civilians moved with military precision and formed that tight formation so well? Was this a regular occurrence? Her mind was inundated with questions, but they turned the corner and the scene was out of sight.

Eight was at a loss for words. As far as she had seen, while living in Inkopolis, Inklings got along fairly well with the other species. This was the first indication of any hostility she had noticed. Was it simply because there were young children or were those particular crabs a known problem?

After another three blocks, Three finally took them off the sidewalk and onto an open tarmac area with what looked like a large workshop and a long line of storage units. The roof of the workshop had a sign that read "Rex's Garage."

It wasn't an entirely unfamiliar sort of place to Eight. As she had told Three, she had worked in the motor pool and workshops in the army. Looking in through the large openings, however, she could see that the machines being worked on here were just civilian cars and trucks.

Three took a key out of her pocket and unlocked one of the storage units. When she lifted up the door, all of Eight's thoughts about the earlier incident vanished, and she beheld Three's car.

It was squat and boxy, and the red reminded Eight of Three's eyes. She wasn't sure if it was good looking or not, but it's somewhat muscular looking appearance and bright red colour definitely spoke of someone who liked attention. In other words, it didn't seem like Three at all.

"So, this is it then?" The response from Three was a nod.

Three went over to the back corner and retrieved a large, soft-cover book, and Eight red the title out loud. "Heinous Manual: Hakodate Consort Mk. 1." She looked at the car on the cover and found it to be much more… reserved than the example sitting in front of her. It had obviously been extensively modified, which was to be expected if Three's mother had been involved with that group of car enthusiasts.

Eight opened it to a bookmarked page where it outlined the steps in removing the engine and transmission. There were a lot of steps but it didn't look like anything she hadn't tackled before. Although she hadn't done it alone, the scale was much smaller this time, so that should make it easier.

She tilted her eyes up from the book and noticed Three looking at her. She looked apprehensive. Did she dare suggest that Three even looked... worried?

"It doesn't look too difficult." Eight surprised herself with the confidence she put into her voice. "It's just a lot of time and some of the fastenings will likely be badly rusted but I'm sure we can manage."

Eight wasn't sure if her eyes were playing tricks on her or not but Three's body seemed to slacken just a bit, as if relaxing. Eight even had a notion that she might have even been holding her breath. The thought made Eight giggle and the two set down to work.

Seeing Three in coveralls was new and Eight found the utilitarian look it gave her appealing, even if it looked baggy on her slim frame.

Rex, the proprietor of the workshop, showed up only briefly to check on them and to help them put the car on jack stands so they could work on it more easily. After that, Three spent the majority of the time under the car or in the engine bay, following Eight's instructions. Eight had offered to help directly but Three, in one of their rare moments of verbal interaction, had politely refused, wanting to do the work herself.

Eight didn't understand precisely why Three wanted to do all the work herself. She suspected it was a matter of pride. She had said it was some kind of test from her elders, but even so, seeing the Inkling she had come to admire and care for working so hard, filled Eight with her own sense of pride.

It was hours later when Three's phone began to beep and the Inkling grunted loudly in annoyance. She dragged herself out from underneath the car and removed her gloves to operate the screen. They both knew what it was, however.

"Times up?" Eight asked. She cringed slightly at the disappointed tone she heard in her voice.

Three's response was a simple changing of her mantle's green tone, but blue and purple rippled in its depths. She didn't want to stop. Eight didn't either for that matter, but Three had another concert to go to with Callie and Marie and she needed to be there early.

Suddenly, it was Eight's phone that began making noise and she hurriedly answered it. "Hello?"

"Hey, Eight." It was Pearl. "Are you still with Three?"

Eight frowned. "Yes. Why?"

"Because the present I got her just arrived. Can you bring her over?"

"Well, she has to get ready for the concert so I don't think she has time to-"

"She can get ready over here," Pearl replied hastily. "Trust me; she'll want to do it."

Eight raised a questioning eyebrow at Three who was obviously able to hear Pearl's loud voice coming out the phone, even several feet away. The Inkling looked at the ceiling in thought and then shrugged.

"Okay," Eight said hesitantly. "We're on our way."

Privately, Eight was grateful for Pearl's request because it meant spending more time with Three. She still spoke very rarely and obviously wasn't the type for small talk but it was still nice even just talking to her, and being with her of course.

When they arrived at the penthouse, Pearl was there to greet them.

"Hey, you two. Come on in. Don't worry about being dirty, Three. Nice to see you again by the way. Eight, can you help Three with the shower? Don't worry about your clothes, Three, I've got something just for you that you can wear to do your bodyguard job or whatever. It's already in the bathroom. Go on, go on or you'll be late." She pushed Three gently in the direction of the bathroom and then gestured for Eight to lead her the rest of the way.

Three stared at Eight, looking very obviously puzzled. Eight could only shrug in response. She had no answers or even theories to give for Pearl's behavior.

Eight grabbed a towel, washcloth, and everything else Three needed and then made sure the bathroom had all the necessary things as well. She spotted the boxes on the bathroom's shelves that had to be the clothes Pearl had gotten for Three. It reminded her of the box her maid uniforms had come in.

She felt the smallest spike of apprehension as it dawned on her that Pearl had deliberately put Three in a situation where she had no choice but to wear the outfit in those boxes. She couldn't imagine what kind of outfit it was but given Pearl's unusual eagerness she doubted it was anything normal.

Eight's mind flashed with the image of Three in the same kind of maid uniform she had and her face bloomed in a fierce blush as she realized how cute Three would look wearing it. With said Inkling taken care of, she hastily extricated herself from the bathroom and didn't dare let herself imagine what outfit Three would be wearing when she came out.

Pearl was sitting on the couch with Marina, the latter looking like someone indulging the antics of a small child. Said "child" was grinning so broadly Eight thought it might pull her whole face wider.

"Everything go okay?" The ivory gremlin asked.

"Fine," Eight replied. Her words dripped with suspicion and Pearl put up her hands in a defensive gesture.

"Hey, I'm not doing anything to hurt Three. I'd never do that."

"Then what are you up to?" Eight realized only after she spoke that it was the harshest tone she had ever used when speaking to Pearl. She felt a pang of regret but Pearl didn't seem bothered.

"You'll just have to see." Her eyes, ones virtually identical to Callie and Marie's, twinkled and her expression oozed smugness. Eight was both curious and irritated. Marina entered the conversation then.

"So, how did you day with Three go?"

Eight slowly removed her gaze from Pearl and met Marina's. "It was alright. I read the instructions in the manual and Three did the steps. She wanted to do it herself. She worked really hard."

Marina smiled approvingly. "Three certainly seems like she'll be a reliable friend. Make sure you don't lose her, Eight."

"I'll try." Then she looked at Pearl again. "I do have a question for you though, Pearl?"

"Oh?" Pearl's grin remained unfazed. "Did something happen between you two on the way?" Eight shook her head and Pearl was disappointed to not get a stronger reaction.

Eight told the two of them about the incident with the Inklings and the crabs that she had seen. The way the older females had formed a defensive wall around the children and their poor mother, the way the males and the smaller, younger females had waited, prepared to strike the crabs from behind. When she had finished her tale, Pearl, whose smile had vanished, sighed.

"Yeah, that happens, especially in the rougher neighbourhoods. If those crabs were the wrong sort, they might have held the kids hostage and forced the mom to give up all her stuff to get them back."

Marina's look sobered, as someone who had lived on the surface far longer than Eight, who was utterly horrified.

"But… but... children are sacred," she stammered. "Mothers are sacred. The gods told us so. It is their will; their law!"

"I know," Pearl said softly. "But not everyone believes in the same gods we do and nobody likes it when we mention that our species were directly touched by the Precursors either."

Pearl leaned back in her seat. "I don't know how it is with Octolings, but Inklings have very powerful protective instincts when it comes to children. It's not uncommon to hear about inkyora hurting their own mates unintentionally, just because the protective instinct is so powerful. What you saw, is a mix of that instinct and the ones that drives us to create shoals."

"Social groups," Eight paraphrased to herself.

"Not just social groups," Pearl said. "A shoal is a family in itself. The other people in a shoal are people you can count on and the attitude of that shoal is determined by its leader. The leaders of significant enough shoals become matrons."

Understanding dawned behind Eight's eyes. "Like Silvia." Pearl frowned but Marina nodded.

"Yes, like Silvia. That's why she has the purple scarf around her neck. It tells everyone she's a matron."

Eight nodded and thought for a moment. "But, what if a shoal's leader follows someone else?"

Pearl chuckled. "You're overthinking it, Eight. There's no by-the-numbers system for making Matrons. Even they will often have shoals under them, just smaller ones. They're chosen just by what feels right and who might be able to make the best use of what authority matrons are given."

"Chosen by whom?" Eight asked.

"By the Matriarchs." A silence hung for a moment before Pearl realized that Eight didn't know who or what the matriarchs were. Sighing, she continued on.

"They're basically the ones that make the laws. Each one represents their shoal and each one of their shoals has matrons with their own shoals, which are by extension, part of the Matriarch's shoal."

Eight's brow creased as she thought hard, trying to process this information and contextualize it until Marina spoke up.

"They're basically the Or' Ufala, but for Inklings. Obviously, membership isn't gained quite the same way."

Eight nodded in greater understanding. The Or' Ufala, or "Council of High Minds" as directly translated into Inklish, was the Octarian's body of highest authority. It was they who decided how and where to allocate the nation's resources, what little of them there were, and they who provided non-secular guidance. DJ Octavio, as the commander of the military, automatically had a seat on the Or' Ufala. Eight now wondered if he still would should he ever get back.

"This is boring." Pearl protested suddenly. "Who cares about government? I mean, sure, pretty much all Matriarchs are great and stuff, but the thing they hate most about their job is arguing in the council forum." She visibly shuddered. "I couldn't stand that."

Eight and Marina looked at each other and then started to giggle, both imagining Pearl voicing her opinions among the distinguished and material with the same crude vehemence with which she argued in private, and the more childish and impudent manner that was her TV persona.

"What's so funny?" The little white Inkling demanded in that very same childish petulance. The octolings were giggling too heavily to answer and Pearl sulked.

Eight had just started serving tea when Three, at last, emerged from the bathroom. Eight heard her quick and excited steps before she saw her, and the image she saw when she looked up from the kettle made her jaw go slack.

Three was dressed almost entirely in black with heavy-duty boots, cargo shorts and jacket. On her hands were fingerless black gloves and on her head was a single black cap. The final flourish, and the outfits most striking component, was the long, black cape that just barely stopped above the floor.

Three looked like the modern interpretation of a war goddess, fearsome and intimidating even at a glance. Or, she would have were it not for the sun-bright smile and the excitement glowing in her ruby red eyes.

"It looks good." Said Pearl, her face twisted into a smile that would have looked all too nasty to anyone not already stunned and transfixed by Three's striking appearance, and Three herself who was too euphoric to notice.

Three's response was an explosion of bright colours through her mantle that completely drowned out her usual green. To Eight's eyes, there was an odd beauty in that chromatic chaos, like joy made tangible.

"Well you'd better not wait around here." Pearl went on. "You have a concert to go to and a couple of pop idols to babysit. Don't worry about your clothes, you can leave them here and pick 'em up some other time."

If Three used colour language to express her sincere thanks then Eight was unaware because less than three seconds later, Agent 3 was out of the penthouse and running to the elevator. The door shut, and Pearl burst out laughing, unable to contain herself any longer.

"Pearl," Marina said in that admonishing maternal tone of hers.

"Oh come on!" Pearl gestured to the door. "You saw how happy she was. How could you say 'no' to that face? She was like a little kid at Squidmas who got everything she had on her list."

Eight wasn't sure what Squidmas was but she couldn't argue that Three's level of happiness was well beyond anything Eight had seen from her before. Seeing that normally serious face so full of delight had been more than heartwarming; it was as if she'd seen a whole new world.

She looked up as Pearl's laughter reached a crescendo. "I just wish I could see the look on those girl's faces."

Marie was at a total loss for words. Callie would have thought her expression hilarious were she not so stunned herself by Three's entrance.

Three stood holding the ends of her cape in each hand, her eyes big and bright, and her smile was full of naive glee. It wasn't a face they were used to seeing on her and Callie was struggling to come up with any instance of having seen her quite like this before.

In a rare moment of ineloquence, Marie sputtered a bit before she managed to utter actual words.

"Three, wha- what's going on?"

Three blinked innocently at Marie, genuinely baffled by her question. She had yet to come down from her happy high and failed to recognize the situation she had unknowingly created.

Witholding a sigh, Marie rephrased her question. "What's with the outfit?"

"It was a gift."

"Fine fine, but what… made you wear it here when you're supposed to be working?"

Back down to Earth, Three bit down gently on her bottom lip. "I'm… your bodyguard. Shouldn't I look, kinda, something like this?" Her voice trailed off at the end and Callie smiled inwardly.

It was obvious that Three had been so enamoured with the outfit she hadn't even thought about the image it would give her. That dark, comic book heroine look fit her tastes to a tee after all and Three had always loved capes. Her eccentricities were one of the reasons she and Marie were so fond of her, but it was rare they affected her job.

Marie took a deep breath and closed her eyes, forcing herself to calm before answering the next question.

"Who gifted this to you?"

Three's mantle, settled back down to its natural green, rippled purple, indicating some level of regret. The look in her eyes also made it clear she understood what Marie was really asking and the implications the answer would have. Thus, her answer came out as little more than a squeak.

"Pearl?"

Marie's eyes darkened and her mantle rippled red before she regained full control.

"I might have known."

"She offered to let me shower there and said she had some clothes for me." Three had the look of someone only just realizing they had been duped. "And she hurried me out the door pretty quick, saying I could pick up my clothes later." Her mantle went light-purple with shame, realizing how easily she'd been manipulated, and hung her head.

Marie regarded her junior with a mix of annoyance and disappointment. "Three, you should know better. We taught you to be aware and to not let your emotions overwhelm you. This is why. You let your guard down. You've gotten complacent."

Three's shoulders sagged completely and her mantle turned white except for the light-purple shame spots dotting it. Her torso was bent over in an apologetic bow. Callie, then decided to come to her aid.

"Hey, Marie." She grabbed her partner and cousin's shoulders from behind and lay her own head on top of hers. "Come on, nobody can stay alert all the time. Besides, you're not really mad at Three, your mad that Pearl got back at us and you never saw this coming."

Marie's eyes narrowed but they weren't focused on Three, rather, somewhere immaterial.

"I'm not mad," she insisted. "But I am disappointed in you, Three. You accepted a job and that job expects something of you. You forgot that."

Three shrunk in place, unable to meet her friend, boss, and mentor's eyes; and so continued to stare at the floor.

"Now Marie," Callie said in a soothing tone. "Don't be too hard on the baby. She doesn't get to have a lot of fun. Didn't you see how big that smile was when she came in? Come on, it was only a teeny little mistake. We haven't given her much attention lately, after all."

"Don't talk about her like she's a toddler," Marie said testily. But her eyes softened and she turned her head away.

"You're too soft on her, Callie."

Callie giggled shamelessly and kissed Marie's cheek, which didn't dispel the latter's grumpiness.

"Pearl got us fair and square," Callie said. "Best thing we can do is to own it and not blame Three for the consequences of something we did." She looked at Marie levelly and Marie looked back at her, dissatisfied.

"Fine." And then she looked at Three. "But I expect better from you in the future."

Three nodded quickly and turned yellow with pink spots in gratitude.

Marie stood up and this time she did sigh. "Come on, let's get this over with."

Sneaking in wasn't a problem. Rex's security was a joke, especially to one of their skill.

After cutting the wire on the roof's security camera, it had been simple to exploit the new blind spot. There was no one watching the camera footage in real time so there was no worry. Their only concern was being spotted from the street as the occasional car or pedestrian went by, but she was camouflaged accordingly and her target was in shadow.

Picking the lock on the garage door was child's play. The fact that something so precious and valuable was protected by such weak hindrances actually felt upsetting. Still, they couldn't complain about it in this case as it suited their purposes perfectly and allowed them to unlock the door with little trouble.

They lifted the door only slightly, using a small stone underneath it to hold it up before transforming for just long enough to slip under the small gap. The darkness was only a minor inconvenience and they wouldn't need a lot of light for what they were about to do.

The little red car sat, alone and unprotected. Any vestiges of self-imposed resistance to what they were about to do left them and they produced a small can from their fanny pack. Inhibitions gone, they couldn't help but grin savagely at what pain they were about to inflict and they moved towards the helpless little car with malevolent glee.

Author's Notes:

This is the beginning of the story's final act and sets up the conflict that may or may not finally equal Agent 24. We'll have to wait and see ;)