"…What did you say your name was, again?"
The vessel's captain didn't look Gavin in the eye, instead opting to focus her attention on the sailor knots she'd been tying into the rope wrapped around the ship's railing. "It's Caroline."
"Caroline…" Quinn repeated to himself with an absentminded scratch at his fangs. "Huh. And what was this bar that Elizabeth liked to visit with her friends?"
"…I don't know." Caroline's white head towel swung with the shrug of her shoulders, her back still facing the Salmon Runners. "I don't remember the name." The Octoling tensed up as her whole body froze—almost as if some sudden realization had slapped her across the face, then the moment passed and Caroline was back to tying. "I know it's one a lot of Salmon Runners like to frequent—think a crab's usually the bartender."
"Shanty o' the Sea?" Delta recited from her seat along the portside railing, although she would've preferred to spend the ride mentally preparing for another Salmon Run instead of playing 24 questions with the boat's captain; Grizzco Industries seemed about as averse to cameras as the former Turf player—one of the few things she liked about the company—but that didn't mean her infamous "beast mode" was ready to let loose after several days of inactivity.
"Yeah, Shanty o' the Sea." Caroline finally confirmed with a nod. "That's the one."
"So you've been there?" It was Gavin's turn to ask the questions. "When was the last time you visited the place? Was there anyone, ah…" The Octoling flicked at his mohawk as he tried to find the right word. "…Anyone unusual, who might've hung around whenever Elizabeth was there?"
Caroline's elbows began to slow as she tied her knots more carefully. "You guys undercover cops or something?"
"U-uh, no! No, we're just curious." Quinn hastily tried to backpedal, then pointed a finger at the Octoling seated across from Delta. "Our buddy Ayla's a big fan of murder mysteries."
Ayla slowly dragged her head out of the comic book she'd been quietly reading and turned it towards Agent 3. She didn't utter a sound, but her displeased glare said it all: "why on earth did you have to bring me into this."
"Well," Caroline continued with a careful, noncommittal shrug. "If you're gonna be nosy about it, there kinda was someone shady the night she died. Think their name was Alex or something."
"Alex?" The gears in Delta's head began spinning as she put the pieces together. "Was this Alex a guy?"
"Heh, yeah." Caroline finally looked at the agents over her shoulder, and Delta could swear her beak had broken into a pleased smirk. "Yeah, Alex is a guy."
"Did you talk to him?" Quinn was on the edge of his seat now. "I'm guessing you did if you learned his name."
"I think so." Caroline shrugged as she began moving, closing the door to the captain's cabin and sitting beside the engine to steer the boat towards the growing gray dot on the horizon. "Probably, but I don't really remember—it was a long time ago and he didn't really stand out."
"Ok, but…" Gavin weighed invisible scales between his hands. "Is there anything that you do remember?"
"Not really." Caroline's reply was nonchalant. "Like I said, he didn't really stand out. But that should be more than enough to satisfy your civilian curiosity; we're almost at the ruins." Gavin opened his beak again as he anxiously rubbed a hand against his waders, eager for more information.
"Drop it," Delta mouthed to the Octoling agent. She knew that Caroline was giving them good information, but it was more important to keep their cover for the time being…and something told her the term "civilian" hadn't been used lightly.
And true to the captain's word—the gray dot had enlarged into a large, rusted construct poking out of the green sea. The structure eclipsed the quickly setting sun, creating a halo of reddish orange rays that shone against white steel on sunken wings as far as the eye could see. Delta first mistook them as trashed planes until she realized even the half-submerged wingspan easily dwarfed a normal aircraft.
Sitting smack dab in the middle of the scrapyard was a peculiar cube-like building. At least, that's what it looked like from a distance—because the closer Caroline steered the boat the more it morphed into an odd, thick cylinder. Ancient ramps peeked through the light mist as they spiraled around the structure, almost like ribbons curling down from the tip of a pole. It certainly wasn't the kind of design that happened without reason, and the more Delta studied its oddly sloping sides the more convinced she became that the metal exterior hid something else underneath.
"Welcome to the Ruins of Ark Polaris." Caroline slowed the fishing boat to a stop near the building's bottom level. "This is one of the best spots to find Salmonids migrating at dusk, but there's one very important rule you gotta follow at all times." She paused with a stern finger and waited until she had every passenger's attention—a rare moment where she held eye contact with each one. "Never. Go. Inside. Under any circumstances. Understand?"
"How would we even get in?" Gavin turned to stare at the construct's rusted scaffolding. "I don't see anyplace that could even remotely—"
"Understood." Ayla interrupted the nosy agent with a sharp elbow to his gut. The gesture left Delta somewhat surprised; that was the first time she'd seen the Octoling actually speak up about anything.
Caroline slowly lowered her finger, still eying each of her passengers. "Okay." She crossed the deck to crack her cabin's door open, reaching a hand inside to retrieve the now-familiar orange suitcase and setting it on the floor. "Here's your weapons for tonight; figure out who gets what and Super Jump to the beakon on top of the ruins. And remember—no going inside. I mean it." After another stern glare from Caroline, Quinn clicked the case open and took his weapon, followed by Ayla and then Gavin. Delta reverently scooped up the Splattershot, slowly and meticulously exploring the weapon's key details. Trigger pull? Smooth. Heft? Doable. Cleanliness? Delta brought an ear to the plastic casing just above the bolt carrier, listening for the sharp click as she tugged the charging handle.
Oh yeah. She could work with this.
A quick Super Jump took the team to the top of Ark Polaris—just like Caroline had said, and Delta took the first few moments to survey the area. The top platform could be reached by three different ramps, which meant three different locations that would need defending if they ever needed to make a stand near the egg basket. A quick lean over the edge told her that the avenue behind each ramp was straight and narrow—just like a hallway, and perfect for shooting Salmonids in a barrel. The final level was the largest and the lowest, and its proximity to the ocean—and therefore the horde—told the agent that no one should venture down there unless forced to.
"Here comes the first wave." Caroline announced over the radio as five inkrails sprouted to life, two circling the basket's platform and three climbing all the way from the bottom level to the top. "You guys are still on the newer side, so your first quota's only 8 Golden Eggs. Good luck."
"…Here's hoping Salmonids can't ride ink rails." Gavin said with a wince, rolling his shoulders in anticipation.
Delta however didn't care. Her mission remained the same regardless of how many ways the enemy could breach the top floor: survive until they had enough Golden Eggs for Caroline to let them out alive; and surviving was Delta's specialty. A familiar fire flared to life deep inside her gut—and Delta welcomed it like an old friend. It was game time.
"Over here—six o' clock!" Quinn's splatling spewed its throaty rattle from somewhere behind her, and Delta's adrenaline-filled legs flew over cold steel to discover the first of the horde—a Flyfish flanked by two Scrappers and a school of Chum.
"On mark?" Delta knelt beside his left flank as she aimed all her focus on the Flyfish, one hand bracing against the ground and the other hovering over the red switch on her life ring.
"Standby…" Agent 3 stopped his firing to reach for his own Splat Bomb. Delta's ears caught the throaty rev of a motor climbing the bottom-most ramp, but she resisted the urge to move. Quinn had ordered her to wait, and that was exactly what Agent 4 was going to do.
The tiny Salmonid inside the Flyfish's cockpit growled through the glass as its flippers flicked a few levers, and the launchers on either side yawned open to reveal rows upon rows of Tenta Missiles snarling at the agents like teeth.
"Mark!" Quinn barked and two Splat Bombs sailed into the launchers—Delta's on the left and Quinn's on the right. They exploded almost simultaneously, rending each compartment to shreds and crashing the cockpit to the bottom level in a burst of Golden Eggs. Delta's periphery caught the orange blur of Ayla's octopus form slipping off the top platform and towards the eggs below, with Quinn following closely behind.
But the agent had no time to watch them before the Scrapper finally turned the corner and closed in on Delta's position. A few suppressing shots to its flank immobilized the vehicle as the Chum dug its flippers into a defensive position—except the Inkling had better things to do than simply accept the Scrapper's game of attrition. One sliding strafe and a handful of shots to the vulnerable Chum's backside was all it took, and Delta was ferrying the eggs into Grizzco's basket.
Except her celebration was short lived—because a Drizzler crashed its metallic umbrella right onto her position, knocking the agent onto the walkway below. Delta's training kicked in and she instinctively tucked her chin and slammed her forearms against the rusted ground to safely break her fall. She had half a second to glance up and discover the Cohock brandishing its cast-iron pan above her head.
Agent 4 made the split-second decision to avoid the swing by rolling off the second level and onto the bottom floor, ignoring the familiar sting of foreign ink burning at her skin. Delta landed with enough balance to channel her momentum into a kneel, pausing for a heartbeat to scan her surroundings. The good news was there was an inkrail in the corner dead ahead of her—with a Snatcher and a stray Golden Egg to boot—but the bad news was the eight Chum on her left and the four Cohocks on her right, already closing in on the lone Inkling. And the water behind the Snatcher had begun to ripple.
A massive, leathery-black head rose from the waves as the Steelhead crawled itself out of the water. The green halter inside its maw quivered with a deep, rumbling growl, and the Salmonid snarled itself upright as the gigantic bomb began to swell on its head. Splatting that bomb would've made short work of the trout, but the armored Steelehead's proximity would've made any attempts to shoot it entirely futile.
Refusing to waste precious milliseconds thinking about it, Delta charged the Snatcher and unloaded her Splattershot until the fish was little more than an orange puddle. A sudden draft against the back of her neck told the agent she only had a heartbeat to scoop the egg into her life ring before the Salmonid behind her swung again.
Agent 4 burst forwards—keeping close to the Steelhead's tail and well out of its firing range. The overgrown trout awkwardly stumbled backwards in an attempt to drop the bomb on its far-too-close target, but Delta had long since cleared the Salmonid and leapt onto the inkrail behind it. She skated upwards toward the egg basket, watching the Steelhead glare at her as its helmet filled another bomb. Delta shot it down without hesitation.
She arrived at the basket to deliver her Golden Egg as Gavin and Ayla donated the seventh and eighth, and a glance over the platform's edge told her the rest of the Salmonids were retreating. The first wave was over; and Delta's lungs began drawing slow, deep breaths, determined to make the most out of the few seconds of peace. She happened to glance at Caroline's boat…
And there she was.
The first thing that caught the agent's attention was the glowing blue rings. They had cut through the somber mist to illuminate the Octoling underneath, circling each suction cup that lined the long, purple tentacles like a hazy halo. The figure herself stood about an inch taller than Marie—judging from the deck's umbrella behind her—and had been silently watching the Salmon Run like an alpha wolf stares down a bothersome puppy. The wind howled a driven, despondent wail as it swept down Polaris' twilight-bathed tower, twirling the mist beside her close-toed shoes and kicking at the pristinely white lab coat draped over the Octoling's green v-neck. The outfit screamed scientist, but it wasn't until Delta noticed the deep blue eyes that she realized the Octoling hadn't been observing the horde at all. She'd been staring directly at Agent 4 herself.
And her expression was…calm? Curious? Angry? Apathetic? It was difficult to tell; her slimly sculpted eyebrows shifted so imperceptibly it was almost impossible to discern which emotions were thrown into the intensely intricate mix. But Delta knew what it wasn't—it wasn't kind.
She didn't have much time to process the exchange, however, because the ground began to rumble beneath her green boots. And then the rumble grew into a quake, and then a roar—all of which failed to disturb the nonplussed Octoling.
"What the heck?" Quinn stared at the tower's steel underneath his feet. "You guys're seein' this too, right?"
"Yeah; I've never felt this at any of the other outposts." Gavin replied, but the tension in his voice quickly gave way to concern when the tremors suddenly stopped—filling the charged, twilight air with a tense silence. "What's going on?"
"…I don't know." Delta returned her gaze to the boat. The Octoling was still there, still watching her—even though the agent never saw her on their ride to the ruins. The newcomer raised a slow, almost apathetic arm towards the boat's cabin and beckoned with two fingers—and Caroline was walking over within seconds. The purple-tentacled Octoling began talking, sparing a nod at Agent 4 after finally breaking eye contact to wait for the captain's reply. And the answer was too far from earshot for Delta to understand what was going on.
Caroline eventually retreated back inside her cabin, and the other Octoling crossed white-coated arms across her chest as she absently stared at something beneath the tower. The wind slowly, quietly nudged a thick tentacle into one of her electric blue irises; but the stranger didn't seem to even notice—let alone care.
That was when Delta noticed the swarm behind her. What the agent had previously assumed were flickering lights had closed in on the ruins, sparkling behind the boat like defiant yellow stars against the dark blue sky. They rushed past the stranger and swarmed Delta; a swat at them stunned one into her palm and she realized they were glowing butterflies, lighting up her Rainmaker-shaped scar like a golden beacon in the cold night.
"Looks like the glowflies have come out to play." Caroline was back on the radio. "They're attracted to a cephalopod's scent, so don't be surprised if they hang out for a bit." Delta stared at the glowing butterfly with a thoughtful frown, watching the insect tickle her palm as it stretched its little legs.
"But glowflies mean a Chum Rush isn't far behind." The Grizzco captain continued from within her cabin. "Salmonids hate the little buggers with a passion; probably because their own predators like to use the bioluminescence as a way to locate nests—that roar might've been one of 'em just now. But in their haste to snuff out the homing beacon, Chum have a tendency to destroy everything else around it…including entire cities 'til civilization learned how to build walls."
"So what are we supposed to do?" Gavin demanded, incredulous. "Just get trampled all over this wall-less pimple?"
"You're supposed to gather eleven Golden Eggs this wave." Caroline's response was calm, indifferent. "Look, Yuri made all of you read the liability wavier. This job gets rough sometimes and you just gotta roll with the punches. Over." Caroline's transmission ended with a curt buzz, and Delta dropped her hand once the glowfly had recovered enough to fly off. She risked another glance at Caroline's boat; the stranger's inexplicable presence was distracting to say the least…and it was beginning to unnerve her. Delta hadn't prepared herself for an audience.
"Quinn, your six!" Gavin's shout made Agent 4 whip her head toward the other Inkling, spotting a thick line of angry red mohawks scrambling up the ramp behind him.
"…OH SQUIT!" Quinn also scrambled—with Quinn levels of elegance—away from the snarling stampede and up towards the central inkrail's platform. "Defensive positions, everybody!" Gavin took a position in the corner of the top level, raising his dualies to cover his friend's retreat. Delta also ran to the central inkrail—it was the only platform on the whole tower that boasted one way in and one way out. Quinn charged his Splatling, firing at the absolute droves of Chum nearly climbing over each other to reach the glimmering golden bugs flying around Delta. The team held that position for what felt like eons until a bright flash of light exploded in Delta's periphery, followed by a twinkly ping.
"Got a Goldie!" Ayla's voice came through their radio as Delta's glowflies vanished. "Come get the other eggs before—" Silence dominated the radio as the glowflies reappeared around Gavin. That couldn't have been good.
"Gavin, swap with me." Delta shouted over the growls and snarls. "I'll go find her."
Gavin obediently ducked into his octopus form and swam past Quinn as Delta slipped back onto the main level. She scanned through her surroundings, trying her best to ignore the blue rings on purple tentacles in her periphery until she spotted Ayla's life raft floating in a corner beside two Golden Eggs. Agent 4 began to sprint towards her-
But not before a new stampede trampled the agent from behind.
They were two down and two to go—and the girls had no way of warning the others. They instead were left to watch the second school of Chum bolster the first stampede's numbers, easily overpowering Quinn's splatling and pummeling his splatted pulp aside like a measly afterthought. The oh-so-brief scrap had bought Gavin just enough time to hop on the inkrail and escape, but the horde was already slamming their pans onto the rail's landing; and then there were four life rafts instead of four live cephalopods.
Without another scent to keep them around, the glowflies vanished; and after another minute the Chum's eyes reverted from their crazed red to the normal yellow. They looked around, then at each other, then snorted an approving huff at the successful defense of their homeland and waded back into the sea.
It was another few minutes before a series of rapid, explosive shots splashed against Delta's raft and allowed her to respawn. Caroline jogged off to revive the others without a word as the agent pulled herself out of the orange ink, subconsciously glancing at the captain's boat once again. That same Octoling was still there, still watching Marie's protege with that same bottomless scrutiny Delta felt she could drown in; except this time the stranger was holding a purple cooler with only the slightest hint of a smirk in the corner of her beak. Another moment passed before the Octoling slowly turned around, delivered one last blue-ringed gaze over her shoulder, and strode right into the obscured darkness below Ark Polaris' almost otherworldly twilight.
"…You guys gotta stay on your toes during a Chum Rush." Caroline returned with the boys, shouldering a wiry brella the likes of which Delta didn't recognize. "They like to charge from one direction and then switch without warning—so you could be in for a nasty surprise if you aren't watching your back."
Delta pushed herself into a stand, finally pointing an inquisitive finger at the Octoling's vessel. "Who was here just now?"
"…Who? Now?" Quinn blinked at her; the others must not have noticed their uninvited guest.
"Oh…" Caroline's brow furrowed as her eyes followed Agent 4's finger, staring into space before she returned the gaze with an answer. "That was just a researcher studying the area; a lot of science types are drawn to the Salmonids and weird stuff in the Restricted Zone. Think they report to JAMSTEC or something."
"JAMSTEC?" Gavin crossed his arms, puzzled. "First I've heard of them."
"Amnesia'll do that to you." Quinn answered with a chuckle, and Ayla's purple eyebrows skyrocketed in surprise. "JAMSTEC stands for Joint Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. I've heard their name pop up at work a few times—they do a lot of environmental and marine science; so yeah, it makes sense they're drawn to a place like this." Caroline cracked a tiny, content smirk.
"Where did she go?" Delta glanced back towards the now-empty fishing boat.
"Probably left in her own vessel." Caroline gave a nonchalant, uninterested shrug. "Or something; I don't really care. The visibility gets pretty bad out here the more the sun sets so I wanna get us out of here already." She began walking back to the fishing boat, waving for the others to follow.
Except Delta couldn't help but notice that no other ships had come or gone through the Restricted Zone.
"…And you're sure you want to stake this place out." Delta set her tray down at one of the thirty open tables at Shanty o' the Sea; it was the next day and after bringing the others up to speed on Caroline's words, the young agent had woken up to a spontaneous invite to watch the place for anyone who might call themselves Alex. "At brunch. When almost nobody goes to a pub."
Callie waved her off as she pulled up a chair and they both sat down. "Eh, it'll be fine. Besides—"the bouncy squid plopped her elbows onto the table, eagerly staring at Delta with her head in her hands; "—we gotta catch up! Marie steals ya all the time and it's never just the two of us; what's new, girl?"
Delta shrugged as she unwrapped the silverware from her napkin, cracking a small smirk at Callie's gesture. "Nothing much. Just the investigation, volunteer stuff—the usual."
"How's the boy front?" Callie hadn't moved a muscle, staring at the Inkling with big, curiously golden eyes.
"Mm." Delta paused to swallow her slice of steak. "Dylan's actually taking the train up tomorrow."
"EEEEE!" Callie almost knocked her glass over mid-squeal. "He's visiting tomorrow? That's so exciting! The two of you are soooo adorable together!" Delta could've sworn Callie's feet had stomped enough to pass for an earthquake; good thing no one was around to watch the spectacle.
"Yeah." Delta flashed a tiny smile as she nudged Callie's lemon tea away from the edge of the table. A year with the pop star taught her the excited flailing was far from over.
"So what're you guys gonna do?" Callie remembered there was food in front of her and started pawing through her fries. "You gonna go to the movies? Take a hike? See a play? I keep seeing those 'Squicked' posters all over the place, maybe that's a good one."
"A hike sounds good…" Delta raised a hopeful eyebrow; she loved hiking. "But I know he wanted to go to the movies."
"Well, whatever you do I wanna hear all about it." Callie paused to swallow a beakful of burger. "Gimme alllll the deets. Where you guys went, what'd you do, if he remembered to bring flowers…what you and Marie have been up to lately…" She casually leaned back in her chair and wiped her beak with a napkin, not taking her eyes off Delta. "…Y'know, all the stuff a girl's gotta know."
"Wait." Delta paused halfway through slicing her steak. "That last part has nothing to do with…"
"It still fits under the 'girl's gotta know' category." Callie shrugged the Inkling's protest off, still holding eye contact. "I heard you guys talking 'bout something in her 'office' earlier and the two of you have been sneaking 'round ever since. And I still want allll the deets—" She wound her finger in a circle for emphasis. "—So open your beak and start talking."
"…Carp." Delta dropped the knife to run her hands through her tentacles. "So that's what this is about. I should've known you wanted to meet for more than just recon."
"Yup!" Callie innocently beamed back; a slightly terrifying sight considering how effortlessly she'd tricked Delta into her interrogation. "Marie knows most of my tricks, but you don't. And you fell for it hook, line, and sinker!" Callie paused for a sympathetic chuckle. "Remember I'm Agent 1, not Marie. Gramps came to me first for a reason: I'm good at what I do. But y'know what that also means?"
"…What?" Delta wasn't sure if she should've taken Callie's bait.
"I outrank Marie." Callie's sly grin widened. "I know she told you to keep quiet, but I'm ordering you to spill it. And I'm sure I don't need to tell you how the chain of command works." Delta's lips pursed in annoyance. Technically…Callie was right. She was the superior officer, so she had the right to pull rank; the klutzy squid had effectively cornered Delta between betraying Marie and what her upbringing practically considered treason. And Agent 4 knew that was intentional—Callie knew how important military code was to Delta and was clearly using it against her.
Dang, Callie was good at this.
"…She wanted my help with something." Delta finally admitted, hoping that staying vague would honor both Squid Sisters. Callie didn't even grace her with a response, only sighing with a knowing look of "come on, you can do better than that."
"Look," Callie leaned in, resting her forearms on the table; it was an unusual and somewhat intimidating sight to see the pink squid ignore food in favor of her relentless hunt for information. "I can tell she doesn't want anyone to know. And that's probs 'cause she doesn't want word getting to Gramps that she's up to something. I know my 'cuz, and I know when she's trying to hide because we both did it together when we were little."
"But I wanna help!" Callie's beak frowned into a hurt pout. "Operation Crabby Cakes was the best and she always needed my help sneaking 'round the kitchen. You guys probably need the help anyway, and I promise I won't tell a soul."
"I don't know…" Delta shook her head as she absently played with the steak knife, impressed Callie had hit the nail on the head but still hesitant to betray Marie's wishes.
"…Very well." Callie huffed an overdramatic sigh. "Then you leave me, the honorable Detective Callie, no choice. I didn't want to do this, but desperate times call for desperate measures." Callie swept her shellphone from her pocket with an extra snooty flair—her acting skills were coming in handy—and held the phone to her ear.
"Hey Dylan," Callie began, voice returning to normal. "Didja know your girlfriend has a giant pile of stuffed animals right underneath—"
"SHUSH!" Delta lunged across the table, but Callie effortlessly squashed the tackle with a tug on one of the agent's tentacles, effectively pinning her to the table's surface.
"Tell me what Marie's up to or the next call won't be fake." Callie's voice sounded calm and businesslike over Delta's struggles.
Delta would've loved for a bystander to step in and help her out, but the pub was practically empty…which was also intentional on Callie's end, wasn't it. "Okay, okay! I'll talk, just…put the phone down!"
Callie released her grip and lowered the shellphone, batting expectant eyelids at Agent 4.
"…She realized Octavio couldn't have been the one who brainwashed you." Delta finally answered with a defeated sigh, massaging at her scalp as she sat back down. "She wanted my help figuring out who it actually was."
It was a good eight seconds before the ex-prisoner said anything. Callie's shoulders had hit the back of her chair—almost as if some invisible force had pushed her away from Delta's words. The pink squid's head dipped towards the floor and her arms folded across her chest, brows furrowed into sharp squiggles and the golden eyes beneath them looked a thousand oceans away.
"...She's right." Callie finally muttered, lifting a hand to absently scratch at a fang. "Holy carp, she's right." Callie went quiet again and Delta's panic began to set in. The idol might've seemed fine in her everyday antics, but all trauma needed was an unfortunate mention to dredge itself awake from its deep, sedimented slumber. Agent 4 swallowed the lump in her throat, mentally kicking herself for letting Callie wear her down. She should've known better.
"Look." Delta tried to backpedal into damage control. "Marie's been keeping close tabs on the Canyon for a while. She hasn't seen any signs of a muster, so we aren't even expecting them to try anything right now—"
"I want in." Callie mumbled, lips twitching into an ever-so-brief snarl.
"You…what?" Delta leaned closer to make sure she was hearing the pink squid correctly; that was exactly the last thing she'd expected the ex-prisoner to say.
"I want in." Callie spoke more fervently this time, finally snapping her gaze back to Delta. "Because why was Marie even looking at the Canyon in the first place?"
"Uh…" Delta leaned back a little as her mind raced for an answer—only to arrive at one she didn't want to share.
"That's the kinda thing she does when she feels guilty for not paying enough attention." Callie's hand vanished from her beak as she crossed her arms back over her chest. "Which means Marie still feels like it's her fault. Dang it." The pink squid gave a sharp shake of her head, pursing her lips into an irritated line. "I thought we'd talked about this."
Delta kept quiet. She told herself it wasn't the time to talk, but the truth was she didn't know what to say. Seeing the normally upbeat, optimistic Callie visibly upset was nerve-racking to say the least; not to mention Delta's own interpretation wasn't any less concerning. An entire year had passed without so much as a peep from the Canyon; who's to say this mystery Octarian hadn't moved onto more domestic concerns? Was Marie the one who couldn't move on? The tactician had been showing signs of hypervigilance, and the insistence on secrecy wasn't helping her case. But agreeing with the disturbed cousin would've been more hurt than help, so Delta elected to keep her beak shut than risk another accidental mistake. In fact she regretted even mentioning Marie's surveillance at all.
"Look, I've gotta help now." Callie's troubled, golden eyes finally found their way back to Agent 4. "The two of you can't do this on your own."
"Hold up, just…forget about Marie for a second." Delta stopped the idol with an insistent wave—partly to redirect the squid to more crucial topics and partly to escape the current conversation. "Worry about you; are you sure you're ok with all this?"
"I…" Callie's voice faltered into an unusual halt, rubbing at the shirt fabric just above her tattoo before abandoning her thought with another uncharacteristic tsk. "Am I okay with my cousin chasing after real trouble with guilt that isn't hers? Heck no. I don't think she's gonna look at…" The ex-prisoner swept her hand in a circle as she tried to find her words. "…I don't think Marie's gonna look at all this objectively, and somebody's gotta keep an eye on her."
"Well, that's what I'm there for." Delta offered a friendly shrug. "I can make sure whatever she's feeling doesn't cloud her judgment."
"Thanks, but…" Callie replied with a small smile—but at least it was progress. "But I need to be there. I need to see for myself."
"…Okay okay, I get it." Delta conceded with a nod to herself. She might've had her own reservations about letting Callie join, but one look at the pink squid's indignant eyes told her that arguing would be futile. "But I'm not the one who decides who does what here. You're gonna have to take this up with Marie."
Callie's head tipped into an absentminded nod. The two sat in silence for another couple minutes, until Callie's shellphone began quivering as it played Squid Squad's Seaskape. She slowly leaned over to pull a pair of wired earbuds from her tiny handbag and plugged them in.
"It's the station." Callie offered an earbud to Delta, pressing the other into her ear. "You probably wanna hear this, too." Agent 4 took the earbud and shoved it into her own pointed ear as Callie silenced the ringtone with a swipe across the screen.
"Hello?" Callie's voice hoisted itself to some semblance of its normal cheery pitch.
"Hi, is this Agent 1?" A male Inkling answered from the other line. "Officer Esteban speaking."
"Yep." Callie absently scratched behind her ear. "What's up?"
"Detective Alex wanted me to let you guys know…" Esteban began. "Another homicide was just called in. An Inkling named Duncan was found at his apartment, lying in a puddle of green ink and a fishhook with glowflies stabbed into his collar. No witnesses this time but we're pretty sure this is a Lightfisher hit; you guys wanna come check it out?"
"Y-yeah, 'course." Callie started insistently tapping Delta's shellphone, mouthing at her to let the others know. "When d'ya think it happened?"
"We still don't know for sure." Esteban answered with a cough. "But we think the time of death was somewhere around late dusk; the poor sod was probably stalked just like Elizabeth was, so the Lightfisher might've started tailing him even before then." Delta paused her typing for a second; that was right around the time she was at Ark Polaris for yesterday's Salmon Run.
"Uh-huh." Callie began tapping her fingers against the table. "And where was Ares during then?"
"…That's where things get weird, ma'am." Delta heard Esteban's uncertain shuffle through her earbud. "Ares was sitting right outside our station—doing absolutely nothing—for almost that exact same window, if not longer."
A/N:
Did you know: if you label a whole bunch of things to return to for revisions, you have to actually go back and revise all of those things? And that makes the revision phase longer? Sometimes I wonder how I managed to get into this school…
Speaking of school, I have a paper due tomorrow on topics that take an unnecessary amount of letters to spell, so I'm not gonna ramble this time. Here's a few comments on today's chapter, and I'll see y'all in the next one:
-JAMSTEC irl stands for Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. It's one of the corporations that did a collab with Splatoon, resulting in a Japan-only Splatfest and the addition of the CHIKYU and Shinkai 6500 in Manta Maria and Abracadabra Station, respectively. And because they also added the Oceanic Hard Hat w/the JAMSTEC logo, I decided to take all that in-gameness and turn it into a company within the Splatoon world as well; except the J stands for Joint instead of Japan for obvious continuity reasons XD.
-And yes, Quinn has a job outside the NSS. We'll hear about it as soon as he finally gives me an opportunity to tell you guys.
-"Agent 4"—it's totally fine for you to use Delta's name! I've noticed it's actually somewhat common, plus they'll probably have about as much in common as Samantha the polite nice girl and Samantha the angsty gothic chick. So you can go ahead and take that weight off your shoulders, and thanks for asking!