Bonnie's PoV
The next day, the Rainbow Squids sat at their table once more, though Alexis, Geneva, and Inigo were all absent. Roy and Yuri were engaged in an arm-wrestling match, with the winner uncertain. Bonnie watched with anticipation, wondering who would win. Eventually, strength overcame the former, and he slammed the latter's arm down on the table, marking him the winner.
"Aw, you got me," Yuri remarked.
"Better luck next time," he teased.
"Wanna try again?" the yellow-haired inkling asked.
"Yeah, and I'll win again," the red-haired inkling replied.
Before they could proceed, they heard a high-pitched voice, getting closer and closer to them.
"Guysss!" They looked up to see Agent 4 and Agent 8, dressed in their signature outfits, running towards them. They stopped in front of the table, and the short-haired inkling began running in place, nervous. "We gotta help Three!" she fretted. "She can't confront Tiffany alone!"
"Yes, and what if the Vigilante turn on her, too?" Eight panicked. "Please!" She bowed, holding her hands out. "You must help us!"
"But what can we do?" Bonnie asked with a frown. "We're not as strong as you two."
"We need witnesses," Four explained. "Just in case something goes wrong."
"You just want us to watch?" Perry puzzled. "That's boring."
"Still wouldn't hurt to go," Octavia remarked. "I wanna see what happens."
"Yes!" the curly-haired octoling exclaimed. "Will you all come?"
Roy sighed. "Sure, why not. I don't have anything better to do." The other Rainbow Squids murmured in agreement.
"Great! Follow me!" Agent 4 exclaimed, gesturing for them to follow. They rose from their seats and walked over to Grizzco Industries, hiding in a nearby bush. Agent 3 was near the entrance, donning her hero suit and cape. She was scrolling through her phone, a bored expression on her face. A few minutes later, a boy wearing a hero costume approached her, beckoning her to follow him. The Vigilante had arrived.
The long-haired girl put her phone away and proceeded to follow the Vigilante. The group emerged from the bushes and continued to trail behind them. They traveled through the streets of Inkopolis, buildings towering over them. No one would bat an eye at them. It just appeared that they were taking a walk together. Some female inklings attempted to flirt with the Vigilante, but he simply dismissed them.
Eventually, the Vigilante turned into an alleyway, and Agent 3 followed. The other two agents and the Rainbow Squids turned into squids—or octopus, in Eight's case—and pressed against the wall, listening in to the conversation. Bonnie held her phone, hiding behind a trash can. She opened up the recording app, holding the phone with a stubby tentacle. With her other tentacle, she pressed the record button and angled the phone so Agent 3 and the Vigilante were in view. Some blue ink dripped off of the phone as Bonnie touched it, but it quickly disappeared.
A smiling Tiffany leaned against a green dumpster. "You've come, boy," she greeted. Her dark eyes drifted over to Agent 3. "Who's this?"
"Tiffany..." the Vigilante started. "This is Agent 3."
"Agent 3," she repeated. "You said she was your first girlfriend?"
"Huh?" Three puzzled. "But-"
The boy with the ponytail quickly shushed her. "Y-Yes," he continued. "She was my first girlfriend. But she was out of town for the past year. I would've brought her sooner, but she didn't come back to Inkopolis until recently."
The lady nodded. "I see." She examined Agent 3 for a few brief moments before shaking her head. "Unfortunately, she's not who I'm looking for."
"Well, she fits your description," the Vigilante defended. "And you never told me her name, so..."
Tiffany snickered. "That's right, I never did tell you her name."
"What?" he muttered. Now upset, he complained, "You set me up!"
"I was just testing your abilities," she explained. "Besides, Agent 3 has the wrong eye color. The squid I'm looking for has two green eyes. Not...a weird, turquoise one."
"I wasn't born with a weird eye," Three grumbled.
"What's that?" she asked, her eyes narrowing as her smile grew longer.
The green-haired girl let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm done with these games." She pulled out her Hero Shot, much to everyone's surprise, and pointed it at Tiffany. "You want Geneva Gonati, right? Why?"
Surprise briefly flashed in her dark eyes. "Put down your weapon," the lady deflected the question. "We're just trying to be amicable here. I haven't done anything."
"Answer me," she demanded.
"You won't press the trigger, will you?" she teased. "Besides, you'll go to jail if you splat me, out here in the open, while I'm not connected to a spawn point." Agent 3's hand trembled slightly, and Tiffany snickered. "You're not going to press it," she taunted. "I can see it in your eyes."
"I will if you don't stop messin' with me," Three threatened.
"Fine, fine," the lady sighed, rolling her eyes. "Yes, Geneva Gonati. That's her name." Both the Vigilante and Agent 3 tensed at the revelation. "What's with the weird looks? It's almost like you know her..."
"I've met some of her friends," the long-haired girl remarked. The barrel of the Hero Shot still remained pointed at Tiffany's head, Three's gaze unwavering. "You still haven't answered the second part of my question, though. Why?"
"I can answer this," the Vigilante interjected. "She wants to talk to her, so she can reach her brother. She wants to reconnect with him."
"Good boy," she mused. She returned her attention to Agent 3. "You see now? I just want to talk to him. Nothing more than that."
"I don't believe that one second," she snapped. She still held up her weapon, approaching Tiffany, causing the older inkling to press against the dumpster she leaned on. "Remember when Asher went to the hospital?"
The lady blinked. "I don't," she insisted, annoyance seeping into her voice. "That never happened. Besides, I would've remembered visiting him if that was the case."
"Lies," she growled. "You visited him. I remember you visiting him."
"You know, I think I do know," Tiffany immediately followed. "He lost control of his car, right? I was devastated when I found out about it."
"That's not what happened at all," Three argued. "It was a charger shot to the gut."
"No, it wasn't. You must be imagining things."
"Why would I make this up? I saw it myself!"
"I have no idea where you came from, little girl, but I'm certain you didn't grow up it in Kitano. I would've recognized you if you did."
"Maybe it's because of my eye," Agent 3 noted, "but I did." She pulled out her phone and started scrolling through it. She showed Tiffany the phone screen. "You're the reason why he ended up there in the first place."
As soon as the lady processed whatever image was on it, she grabbed the collar of Three's jacket, causing her to drop her phone. Bonnie flinched as the object landed on the asphalt, causing a loud thud to be sounded. The Vigilante quickly picked it up and started looking through her phone.
"Well, buttercup, you finally showed up," the red-haired lady intoned, her voice like ice. "It took you long enough." Her dark eyes focused on the boy with the ponytail. "Well, Vigilante, thank you very much for your help. You can go now."
The Vigilante remained where he stood, silent. "Well? Go!" Tiffany barked.
"...Let her go," he muttered.
The lady raised an eyebrow. "What did you say?"
"I said, let her go," he repeated, louder, holding his chin up high.
"I-" Tiffany blinked, grimacing. "I give you that roller, allow you to shoot up to fame in the first place, I help you achieve your dreams, and this is how you repay me? You are the Vigilante! I thought you were better than this."
"No," the boy with the ponytail muttered. "The Vigilante is not who I am." He threw his tinted shades off his face and stomped on them, cracking the red lens. He took a few steps forward, his ink shifting from red to indigo. "Who I am is Inigo Sable. I always have been, and I always will be."
Bonnie nearly dropped her phone from shock. What? she puzzled, in awe of the revelation. Inigo is the Vigilante?! ...Inigo is the Vigilante. Her shock soon became replaced with worry. Oh no. Roy wouldn't like this. He wouldn't like this at all, to hear that his best friend was cheating on women left and right. Neither would Yuri. Or anyone else, really. She was just glad Geneva wasn't here with the other Rainbow Squids—she would take it the hardest. But she would have to find out eventually...
Tiffany threw Agent 3 aside, and she hit her head against the wall. The green-haired inkling rubbed the spot for a few seconds before standing back up, pulling out her Hero Shot once more. She stepped next to Inigo, preparing her weapon.
"How dare you," the lady snarled. At last, her true colors were revealed. "Liars, backstabbers, betrayers... The scum of the earth. Unfortunately, you're joining them, Inigo, turning on me."
"W-What about Agent 3?" he stuttered, his confidence faltering. "You still need her, don't you?"
She plucked Agent 3's phone out of his hands and put it away. "Not anymore, I don't."
Tiffany then pulled out a can of some sort and bust it open, causing a Bubble Blower to appear in her hands. She swung it thrice, creating giant, red bubbles. They started circling around Inigo and Agent 3, looming closer and closer.
"Goodbye, Inigo, buttercup," she said coldly. "It's a shame it has to end this way."
Tiffany jumped over the two inklings and placed a suction bomb behind one of the bubbles. She started dashing out of the alleyway, only for Agent 4 and Agent 8 to jump out of their hiding spots, apprehending the lady. She struggled to get free, her lip curling to reveal her teeth.
However, that wasn't Bonnie's main worry. As soon as the suction bomb blew up, Inigo and Agent 3 would be splatted...for good.
"Inigo! Three!" Roy called from his hiding spot. "Take cover!"
The suction bomb exploded, bursting all three bubbles and covering the alleyway with a rather gruesome display of red ink. Ink stained the walls, dripping off of windowsills, onto the floor. The dumpster had been covered in ink as well. Bonnie transformed back into a kid and peered over towards the scene, holding her breath. She noticed two sets of eyes, peering out from below the dumpster. Two squids then crawled out from beneath it and transformed back into Inigo and Agent 3, both with shocked expressions on their faces. Some ink had gotten onto them, but they seemed unharmed otherwise. The blue-haired girl let out a sigh of relief.
They trudged through the ink, reaching the end of the alleyway some seconds later. "Looks like you met your match," Agent 3 remarked, crossing her arms.
Tiffany looked behind her and scowled. "You lived," she simply said. "How?"
"I'm not the same girl I was all those years ago," she replied. "I've gotten stronger. And smarter." She walked up to Tiffany and pointed her Hero Shot at her once more. "If you ever hurt anyone again, I will cut a fish. Got it?"
The lady remained silent, her glare narrowing even more.
Bonnie stopped recording the video and emerged from her hiding spot, followed by the rest of the Rainbow Squids. Inigo examined the group, amazed.
"You all came," he muttered. He laughed weakly to himself, gripping his sides. "Now you know the truth." He turned around, his head drooping. "And now I know the truth as well."
"Inigo?" Octavia called, reaching a hand out for him. "You OK?"
"I'm fine," he replied, his voice cracking.
"No you're not," she concluded. "Come here; I'll give you a hug."
"I don't need a hug," he rejected.
"You'll regret it..." she teased.
Inigo still did not move, pressing his head against the wall. Roy sighed and pulled out his phone. "I'll call the police." He dialed the emergency number and proceeded to talk to someone on the phone. A few minutes later, he put it away and gave a thumbs up. More time passed, and the sound of police sirens soon rang through the air. A car stopped in front of the alleyway, and two sharks emerged from the car, uniformed. One of them walked up to the Rainbow Squids.
"One of yous have evidence?" he asked.
Bonnie gave a nervous nod and pulled up the video she had recorded, skipping it over to when Tiffany first used Bubble Blower. She showed it to the policeman, and after watching it, he nodded. He turned to the other shark and gestured to him. The second shark pulled out some handcuffs and placed them around Tiffany's wrists. Agent 4 and Agent 8 let go of her, and the shark grabbed her instead. Eight now held a green cellphone in her hand, and she proceeded to return it to Three.
"We'll need to copy the video," the first shark explained. "So, I'll need to take that phone off of you."
"I..." The beige-skinned inkling frowned and held out her phone. "OK."
The policeman took it and walked back over to the other policeman. "Good day," he called. They put Tiffany in the back seat of the car before getting in the car themselves, driving off, leaving the group in the dust.
After the events of what had just transpired happened, Agent 3 relaxed. "It's over," she realized. "It's finally over."
Agent 8 looked over at the green-haired inkling, and a big smile grew on her face. "Yes," she confirmed. "It is over."
She walked over to the other two agents and pulled them into a hug. "Thank you," she muttered. When the hug ceased, Agent 3 looked over at the Rainbow Squids, a smile on her face as tears streamed down her cheeks. "And thank you, too."
Bonnie smiled. "You're welcome, Three," she muttered. "You're welcome."
A/N: :crab: Tiffany is gone! :crab: It's my Valentine's Day gift to you. Happy Valentine's Day, regardless if you're in a relationship or not.
Poor Agent 3. I'm not sure how many times she's almost been killed at this point. Inigo, on the other hand...is going to have nightmares for weeks. Get both of them therapy. And Agent 4 and Agent 8, too. They need therapy, too. Fun fact about the title - it is indeed another Vocaloid reference, this time to Mind Brand. The lyrics don't necessarily fit, but I think the scorn is there to somewhat describe Agent 3's feelings towards Tiffany. Now that Tiffany's in jail, hopefully we can breathe a little easier now. And hopefully the Rainbow Squids can breathe easier now, too. The original ending was that Tiffany was simply chased off, not wishing to return because of Agent 3. About a week ago I came up with an alternate ending where Tiffany's final gambit ends up seriously injuring Inigo and Three, landing them in the hospital, and Tiffany in jail. I decided not to go the hospital route, since that's more violent than I want the story to be. The final ending is pretty similar to the alternate ending, though. I still needed a definite reason why Tiffany would not return, after all. That's all I have to say. Branchwing, out.