That may have been Jace's guess, but he was skeptical of the two's relationship as maybe just a prank or a joke. Of course, the second Marie kissed 3 in front of him, his jaw dropped and he paused for a good long moment. To his right, Callie stared in awe. She moved her mouth like words were in her head, but she couldn't put her thoughts into voice.

Agent 3 looked like the happiest squid alive when Marie detached herself form his face, he had a massive grin spread from ear to ear. Jace had never seen him with anything happier than a sly smile, the grin looked like some sort of a stranger had taken over Agent 3.

"What happened back there, you two?" Celine asked Marie and 3, "I don't think he only told you his name."

Jace couldn't believe it. Celine was completely nonplussed by the sudden relationship between two people who he really didn't expect to get together. She was completely unaffected.

Marie smiled mischievously, "Kear- I mean 3, here asked me out. What did it look like?"

A shrug from Celine, "Exactly that. I just wanted to hear you say it."

"Go figure."

"So that's why you've been trying to get his attention." Callie had found her voice, "You've been trying to get him to ask you out." Callie smiled warmly, "I'm so happy for you, Marie, I always thought that you and 3 would be together, and since this doofus," she pointed at 3, "finally asked you out, I think you'll be great together. But, 3, treat Marie right, or else you'll have the agent who's been an agent before anybody else after your ass."

3 nodded, "Of course. I'd not do anything to her, ever. And were you really trying to get my attention?" He asked Marie. Marie nodded and smiled, "I've been interested in you for months now, I just thought you were more interested in Callie."

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in Callie, but she never held my thoughts the way you did. No offense," he added to Callie, who shrugged in a 'none taken' gesture. "But I noticed when you would try to get me to be around you. It was a little hard not to, but I was really happy. It gave me an excuse to talk to you. But I was always afraid to ask you out… I don't know. I can fight hordes of Octarians without trouble, but give me a girl any day to ask out and I'll be shaking in my boots."

Jace looked at Ora and Celine while 3 and Marie were talking. Celine was still not affected by the conversation, like she expected it the whole time. Ora, on the other hand, was smiling in happy surprise and looked back at Jace. When she realized he was looking right at her, she winked.

"Hey! Squid Sisters! We've got five minutes before we let in the fans! Get backstage and warm up your voices for the show!" A squid's voice came on over a P.A. system on the stage. Callie groaned, "Come backstage with us. You can watch the show from wherever you want, but at least hang out back there until the show starts, it gets really lonely."

So they went backstage, listening to Callie and Marie warm up their voices and talked amongst themselves while the ambiance of clamoring squids slowly got louder outside.

Around ten minutes before it was time for the show, a rabid fan showed up in the backstage entrance. It was some sort of an insane dude in a walking squid sister's advertisement of an outfit.

"CALLIE! MARIE! MARRY ME!" He screamed out as loud as possible before getting tackled by security and forcefully escorted out.

Marie sighed, "If only he was a little calmer. We would've stopped security and talked with him, that's generally what we do with fans. But as it is… he seemed more at home in an insane asylum."

"You get weirdos at every event." Callie said. "Well, it's almost time. Use these passes to get anywhere you want. All the food is free, all the spots are open, do whatever you want to do." She handed Jace, 3, Ora, and Celine passes with the letters V.I.P. on them.

"When the show's over, come back here."

Jace, 3, Ora, and Celine used the passes to get into the first row of the show stage before Callie and Marie came out. When they showed their tickets to the security guard, the guard told them to be careful as they could be trampled by rabid fans.

They took their spots only a minute before Callie and Marie came out with their first song. After the first line, 3 smiled, "Remember the Octarian who's trapped in the snowglobe-like thing?" He asked Jace over the music.

"Yeah, wasn't his name Octavio?"

"Yep. When I was fighting him and his army, the fight went south. Octavio had the upper hand and was about to take me down when Callie and Marie hacked his war machine. They played this song from it, and I started to kick Octavio's butt. I think that the song invigorated me. I have no clue how, but it seemed like Octavio's attacks came slower and I could move faster, like I was pumped full of energy. Watch the crowd, you'll see. This happens every time I hear this song, and I think it works on others too."

And sure enough, everybody in the crowd seemed to be filled with energy. All the squids looked like they'd been injected with pure caffeine, and Jace could feel his own senses getting faster, heightening. Everything around him slowed, even though he could still move like normal and hear things in real time, but it was like everything was moving underwater.

This was what it must have felt like to Ora when she used her suit's super speed function. Time relatively felt slower as she moved faster. Sheldon technically invented a machine to induce slow motion.

"Holy crap." Jace said. "Ora, is this what it feels like to have your super speed?"

But Ora and Celine weren't at his side any more. Jace turned around, scanning for his two friends.

"Ora! Celine!"

3 turned around as well, "What's wrong, Jace?"

"I can't see Ora or Celine."

"They probably went to go use the restroom or get something to eat," 3 told Jace as Callie and Marie finished their first song, "don't worry about them. They're fine."

From the stage, Callie and Marie struck their classic squid sister's pose. The crowd exploded into cheers. "Hello Inkopolis!" Callie screamed into her mic. More screams from the crowd. "How are we all doing tonight?"

Marie held up her hand to quiet down the screaming that ensued.

"I'll take that as you're doing great. Our next song is a for a little somebody in the crowd right now. You know who you are."

Almost half of the male squids in the crowd passed out thinking that it was for them. But 3 merely smiled and looked Marie right in the eye.

The next couple of songs passed, and still no Ora or Celine. But right when the bars for the fifth song came on, Celine and Ora showed up almost dragging two other squids. Jace waved when he saw them.

"Guess who we saw, Jace!" ora shrieked over the music, and sure enough, those she and Celine had brought looked up, and Jace looked into the faces of Crista and Eddie.

"Hey Eddie," Jace said cheerfully, pleasantly surprised to see the two of them, especially when Crista seemed to never get out of the house. "Hiya Crista!"

There was something up, Crista was way too shy and stayed inside too much to go to a concert on her own. Jace thought to himself. He decided to question them.

"What's the two of you doing over here?" He asked them. Eddie frowned, "Jace, can I talk with you for a moment? In private?"

Despite the loud music blasting over them, Jace could still hear Eddie's voice even when he was talking normally. "Yeah, sure. I'm fine with that." They walked off to the side and Jace looked at the normally shy Eddie, "What's up?"

"I asked Crista out." Eddie said plainly, "I asked her out, and that's why we're here. I should've asked your permission first since you've been sort of like the 'big brother' to the Octarians who live here. So, here we go, can I go out with Crista? I've been really interested in her since she came to the Academy after you rescued her, and she seems really interested in me too. Can I go out with her?"

Jace was surprised he was so forthcoming. He had hardly talked with Eddie, despite sitting with him all the time at lunch and in the shooting range. Eddie hardly talked to anybody, maybe the relationship would be good for him.

"Yeah. I'm fine with it. Go for it, man."

The night seemed to be one filled with relationship, Jace thought to himself, maybe I'll get lucky and find my courage. He looked at Ora again as she was dancing to the music. Jace felt his heart and stomach take a leap in his gut as it settled somewhere around his adam's apple. It was guilt, he'd been interested in Celine all these years only to be interested by Ora… that feeling was definitely guilt. Or maybe I can take a little while longer to think about it.

A/N: sorry about the shoddy update schedule, a lot of stuff in life has got in the way. But i can say that I will be back to normal scheduling. Splaticide will be out every week on thursdays, and there will be nothing that stops me from uploading. Ships are still open, save for those now closed in this chapter, and I'm still taking tallys on who Jace should ship with, so give me a comment saying who you'd rather he be with. And As Always, Have a Great Day, Dlahm OUT!