Five days had passed. A long time for Rackley to take in the discovery of his birth mother. His new girlfriend stayed supportive of the matters, and Zaffre being glad to let him know the truth really helped his emotional stability. Today, the blue squid was on another set, dressed in his squid ranger uniform. Two similar looking costumed actors stood, one being yellow and one being red. The set around them depicted an ancient ruin.
"Get out of our way, Black! We have to get that artifact!" the red squid ranger called out, pulling out a slim, fancy looking weapon, aiming it at the black squid ranger and firing a red burst of ink. The black prism squid ranger chuckled, hitting a button on his gauntlet and creating a dark bubble shield around him that blocked the ink.
"Sorry, you two, but I have my own needs for this item," he laughed, turning around the bubble shield granting himself immunity to any attack. He reached over to the pedestal, grabbing the glowing ball that had been resting on it. The artifact played as a plot point in the show that the main heroes need to stop a trio of monsters that had repeatedly trounced them.
"Please! You promised you'd help us if we needed it!" Yellow begged, sounding convincing enough. She was set up to be the black ranger's love interest. Black pocketed the artifact before he spun around, covering himself with his cape. The colored cloth went completely flat upon being lifted up by the other two rangers. The black ranger had somehow vanished mysteriously.
"Promises are only worth keeping if they don't impede me from achieving my goal. We'll meet on the battlefield, whether as allies or enemies. However, that will be your decision," the black squid ranger's voice echoed with a light evil laugh.
"Alright, cut!" the director called out as the lights flicked back on the set and the cameras stopped rolling. Rackley groaned, changing back from his squid form. He had used it to hide behind the pedestal while the cameras were focused on his cape. The yellow and red rangers walked off immediately, glad to have finished the last scene for today. Rackley took his helmet off and stepped off the set, and he saw Marie and Callie standing nearby, having been watching away from the stage.
"You did great out there," Marie complimented. Like always, her boyfriend had done his role well. Rackley began undressing his costume, which he never did before he found out who his real mother was. The white squid was happy to see him changing at least, the black squid glad he was no longer spending all day and night recording scenes.
"Yeah! It's nice to see you taking off the costume, too," Callie had been worried quite often about how little he took it off, having thought he wore the costume in the shower to wash it, but that was hopefully just her overactive imagination.
"Thanks, you two," Rackley smiled, letting one of the wardrobe managers take the costume and helmet from him. He hugged his girlfriend in a warm welcome. The Squid Sisters were happy to see him mentally recovering a lot. He had even spent more time with Zaffre whenever she was around. He had one thought come to his mind though since at this time, they should be covering the latest Inkopolis news.
"What are you doing anyway? Aren't you going to be late for the news broadcast?" Rackley questioned. The two cousins pointed to behind them. By the door was an older man with a lot of medals on his shirt with a cane hunched over in a captain's hat. He was the grandfather to the two cousins, and the one who trained Agent 3 to fight the octarian army.
"Grandpa wanted to talk to you so we brought him here. Don't worry, I think the city will live with a teensy late broadcast," Callie stated, not minding the thought of them late, even if it was by a few hours or a few minutes. They had one devoted fan base that would forgive them for quite a lot. Thankfully the Squid Sisters weren't the type to take advantage of their dear fans and their hearts. They were more involved actively with their fans in turf wars then they knew.
"After that pair of earthquakes yesterday? I don't know I think Inkopolis needs to see you two beauties as often to help calm down," Rackley chuckled jokingly. He approached the captain and gave him a greeting salute, a force of habit he had gained whenever he met the elder squid, one of the last few living from the great turf wars ages ago. He had been holding up alright for his age. His granddaughters cared for him a lot.
"Hey, Captain Cuttlefish, what is it you need?" Agent 3 asked, Callie and Marie standing alongside him. Their grandfather had not informed them of anything recently, which was worrying to them. Whenever he wanted to discuss something with all three of the agents, usually it meant something big was occurring.
"Heheh… mornin', Rackley… first off, let me say congratulations on being reunited with your birth mother," Captain Cuttlefish congratulated him.
"Thank you, captain… but Marie was the one who convinced me to finally break out of my fear of who it might be," the prism squid ranger smiled, giving credit to his girlfriend who sheepishly smiled. She did feel bad for prying into his life when he was mentally and emotionally fragile enough, the very thing Callie was afraid of doing, but Marie hated watching someone suffer the constant torture of a puzzle in their mind, but knowing his birth mother was one puzzle solved, where his original caretakers had vanished to was another set of mysteries that he would focus on when the time came.
"You two look so cute together, yet somehow intimidating," Callie complimented them. They both gained a light laugh, hearing the same compliment Cambridge had said. The elder leader of the Squidbeak Splatoon coughed, gaining their attention.
"And secondly, Rackley, I'm glad you're dating my grandsquid. They both need to get out more often. Having cameras constantly on you isn't good for your eyes!" Captain Cuttlefish expressed his feelings. Rackley rubbed the back of his head, glad to be complimented by the captain. The two cousins looked annoyed to hear another lesson about protecting their vision being spoken.
"Well I'm just glad you're happy…"
"Yes… however, if you break her heart, Agent 3, you won't have to worry about your agent duties anymore, because you'll wake up in the deepest part of Octo Valley and have to climb out with your own two tentacles," Captain Cuttlefish threatened him. Rackley gulped in fear, Marie patting his back trying to get him to calm down.
"Grandpa! You know Rackley is a good squid," Callie defended her best friend's relationship with her cousin. The elder squid sighed in defeat, holding his head. He really was missing the days when they were just young squirts. How time flew so fast for him.
"Right, right, sorry… as for the reason I wanted to talk to you, it's about those two earthquakes that hit yesterday. I think something is going on with Octo Valley," Captain Cuttlefish said while stroking his beard. That sentence alone already had given Agent 3 a sense of dread. Somehow, someway, this old inkling had a certain fear from the earthquakes that struck the day before. Sometimes earthquakes would occur in Inkopolis, but two in such short timespans. One after another was an unbelievable coincidence.
"What about them, captain?" Rackley raised an eyebrow. The elder looked to his grandsquids.
"You two mind giving us a moment? This is a mission just for him," Captain Cuttlefish requested. The Squid Sisters looked confused. Normally they too were sent to tackle any mission, all three of them together, especially if it meant going to Octo Valley.
"Grandpa, we aren't letting him handle anything dangerous alone," Callie argued, only to see him tap his cane on the ground hard in slight irritation.
"Look here, squiddos, I love you both, but this might be a lot more dangerous than it seems. I got no clue what is going on, and hopefully he won't need help on this… but if there is a threat level of S, you know what the rules are," Captain Cuttlefish retorted. The Squid Sisters looked concerned at the danger level of this mission. S was the highest of them all. It was quite scary to imagine, but the protocol was that one agent would investigate and then determine if backup was required or not, and if so, call the other agents. They knew that no matter how hard they fought, Rackley would not change his mind on being that agent to investigate S-Level missions. The two cousins walked away to let them talk.
"So you know what's causing the earthquakes?" the squid ranger quirked. The elder nodded before pausing for a moment.
"Er… yes, and no. Y'see, squiddo when the octarians got freed of their mind control, one of them gave me the map with locations of several laboratories or facilities. Most of them were destroyed by lack of maintenance in the last year, but one of the weapon development facilities are still running the place they made those scary machines in," the elder war hero elaborated where the earthquakes were occurring, but the problem was that they had no idea what only one theory was left, and Agent 3 gulped at the memory of that.
"The giant ones powered by zapfish... that's impossible I got all the zapfish back," Rackley claimed muttering. He wondered if maybe the octolings had tried to make a new energy source when the zapfish began being taken. Whatever it was, if this was a giant robotic war machine creating havoc underground, just enough to cause earthquakes, it had to be stopped fast. Who knew how much damage it was causing as they spoke.
"There are a million possibilities to what it can be, but I want you to go see what it is, then identify its weak point. If and once you do, call Callie and Marie for backup and destroy it, while you're gone I'll be trying to dig up any information on these pinchlings that I can." Captain Cuttlefish explained the plan thoroughly. Agent 3 saluted, but before he could take a step away, he heard the elder speak up.
"Again, Rackley remember… keep that eel away from my grandsquid's clam. Got it?" he warned. Agent 3 gained a mad blush across his face. He nodded rapidly before beginning to head for the door. He could mentally hear the elder laughing at his expense. He then noticed Marie coming to him before he could leave the studio.
"You sure you don't want us to break protocol for you?" Marie questioned.
"I'll be fine, Marie. I've handled worse than an earthquake causing machine… I think," Rackley groaned, holding his head. He had hoped the giant war machines before would have been all he ever had to deal with.
"Well…if you say so but please be careful," Marie pleaded. Rackley smiled, and the two exchanged a quick kiss, though he could sense the captain's burning gaze intensely focused on him. Once they broke apart, the blue squid was about to leave before he heard her whisper to his ear, "Please take somebody with you. Even if it can't be one of us, I'd feel a lot better knowing you weren't alone."
"Don't worry, Marie. I'll be fine," Rackley nodded, giving her a thumbs up. He the ran out the door, not wanting to get teased or threatened by Captain Cuttlefish anymore. His girlfriend had a point; he would feel a lot safer himself if he had help with him, and he knew just the squids to go to.
"I hope mom and Cambridge aren't busy…"