Chapter 6
"Alright Three. You ready for your next mission?"
Amber nods in response to Ika's question. It has been about a week since she joined the agency, and she had taken a good grasp at what she was doing. Her aim was improving, along with her confidence, and she was quickly becoming a great agent.
Ika still supervised her on screen, while making sure Marie didn't interfere unless needed. Safe to say his older cousin was not happy about that.
Either way, Amber was a welcomed part of the group. She now frequently hung out with Ika, and the two got along just fine. Ika's prediction was also true as the young inkling and the hyper Callie were instant friends. Amber… still needed a little work on breaking Marie out of her formal shell.
Right now though, her thoughts were not on the past. She was currently focused on her next mission. It was a simple one, but definitely a bit louder than before. She was currently tasked with infiltrating an Octarian arena and disabling a recently activated octoweapon.
An octoweapon is a large machine that were used by the Octarians in the Great Turf War. They are extremely powerful and often covered in ink resistant platings. One needed to destroy a tentacle hidden on the machine to destroy the machine, or simply remove the power source. Since removing the power source within the ink-filled machine is practically suicidal, most opt to destroy the tentacle.
Amber's mission was a bit different to defeating an octoweapon in battle though. The machine was activated, yes, but not operating. It would not attack and would simply gather energy until it is needed.
All Amber had to do is go in, remove what is giving the machine energy, and get out. Simple… most of the time. There was always that minuscule chance that the machine can react violently to the intrusion, but that was EXTREMELY low when they are charging.
Amber was recently given the rundown by Ika. She was to go to the boss kettle within their lookout, the only one they currently had full access to with no issues. Once inside, she would navigate the area to the arena, where the octoweapon was being charged. She would then disable it, and get out.
Ika looks at Amber and says "It should be simple, but there is always the potential of something going wrong. Be sure to be on guard at all times."
Amber nods, taking her Hero Shot out. Ika crosses his arms and then says "And have you been practicing your hopping?" In response, Amber jumps into the air, landing on the roof of the cabin. Ika grins and nods in approval.
Hopping was a little technique military, or agent, inklings and octolings used frequently. It simply involved them making their legs slightly inky, and then compacting them tightly. Once they jumped, their legs would loosen rapidly and they would go high into the air, like a spring. This enabled them to jump much higher than normal, able to easily reach the roof of two-story buildings. Amber could do that, but she's heard from Callie that Ika can get up to five stories high and a quarter of the way across the valley in single jump. Considering the sheer size of the valley, that was incredibly impressive. Then again, movement was Ika's thing.
As Amber takes her things, she thinks about this a bit. Each of the agents had their own 'specialty', as they called it. Ika's were movement, assassinations (although he was a bit weird with this for some reason), and infiltration. Callie was a front-liner, and could take a lot of hits, despite her smaller size. Marie was the commander, and also their sniper. She was the most level-headed and logical of them all.
And then came Amber. Amber had yet to find her 'specialty', though she refused to call it that. Specialty was a little too close to her discomfort zone. Anyways, she believed herself to be a combination of the three. She could plan on the fly, was good at sneaking, and recently found out she was good with a lot of weapons, be it front-line, support, or mid-range. She was a jack of all trades, master of none type.
By the time she finished her line of thought, she had managed to reach the kettle. She clicks her headset and says "I'm going in now."
There is a little bit of static, then Ika says "Alright. We're going quiet unless needed. Good luck." Amber smiles and nods, then jumps into the kettle.
After the familiar rush passes her, Amber looks around where she was deposited. It was similar to the first area, but the dome around her was showing a simulation of day time. Despite her being wary and untrusting of the Octarians, she felt kinda sad they had to use giant screens just to see some semblance of the outside word. It was extremely disheartening.
Amber shakes her head, clearing the thoughts. She could think on them later. For now, she had a mission. Amber quickly jumps up, landing on a rooftop. She looks around, taking in the tightly packed buildings. Every time she saw the conditions of these little towns, she was taken aback by the poverty. It was something she never saw in Inkopolis.
Once again forcing the thoughts aside, she quickly bounds across the buildings to the arena. It was nothing more than a big, circular platform on the outskirts of the town. It was mainly used for testing the weapons, but was also the weapons' place of stay.
The young inkling lands on the last roof, looking around for any octolings or octarians. Seeing no one around her, she jumps down and quickly runs across the street to the entrance of the arena. She hops across the gap, ignoring the booth operating the retractable bridge. She lands on the other side and walks forwards, looking around warily.
The arena was empty, save for a large cube on the opposite side of her location. Amber frowns and she sees a zapfish stuck in its light bulb cage, giving energy to the cube. "That must be the weapon. Odd looking weapon, but it doesn't matter. Let's get this over with."
Amber walks over to the large machine, analyzing it. It seemed to be nothing more than a giant metal cube. In fact, even the platings on it were inkable. What kind of machine was this?
She circles it, looking for more, when her whole body stiffens. It was something that she developed rather quickly in the last week, constantly being in high-threat situations. If her body stiffened, something was wrong.
"Well well well, look what we have here boys." Amber slowly turns around, her grip on her gun extremely tight. She looks at the entrance of the arena to see three octolings watching her, grinning widely. There was one female, which looked to be the leader, and two males behind her.
The female grins even wider, her sharp fangs glinting in the light. "Seems like we finally found that mystery agent that's been running around."
One of the males chuckles deeply and says "Turns out the mystery agent is nothing more than some little girl!"
The males proceed to laugh loudly, while the female grins even wider. She then says "Come on little girl, come with us and you won't die. We just want some info."
Amber just narrows her eyes and doesn't speak. If the octoling is threatening you, do not speak. They are an enemy and will require your full attention. The female octoling eyes Amber a bit, then says "A quiet one huh? Well, if you won't come with us, then we'll show you why you don't play with the big kids."
Once the leader said this, the other male presses a button in the control shed. Amber's eyes widen as the arena begins to shake, mostly behind her. Amber stumbles a bit while the octolings laugh. "Have fun with Octostomp!" And with that, the octolings all depart.
The shaking begins to decrease, but Amber was still wary. Suddenly, she hears an odd sound of surprise and fear. She turns around, and then backs up rapidly in shock. A tentacle was coming out of the top of the cube, grabbing the zapfish. The tentacle then rips the zapfish from the wires the bulb was connected to, pulling it into the machine.
A spark of electricity arks across the machine, making Amber eye it warily. Then, it hops into the air. It turns upright, and Amber finally sees what this thing was. It had a giant face on one side, coated in Octarian ink. Underneath it was a pair of small legs, somehow keeping the thing up.
Amber gulps, then presses her headset. "Four? Come in Four. I need assistance."
Some static is heard, and then Ika's concerned voice appears. "Three? What is it? Something go wrong?"
Amber chuckles grimly, backing up slowly. The machine was looking around, but somehow didn't notice her yet. Though, it was only a matter of time. "You know that tiny, tiny chance of the octoweapon attacking?"
Amber just gets silence, and then "Don't tell me…" Amber chuckles grimly again. "Yeah, it is attacking." The machine suddenly trains its eyes on her, staring at her. "And I think it noticed me."
The machine stares a bit more, then roars loudly. It begins to run quickly at Amber, but nowhere as quick as the young inkling. Amber's eyes widen and she yelps in surprise, running the opposite direction. Ika then hops in and says "Three! Tell me what the machine looks like!"
Amber turns around a bit, then says "It's a big cube with a face on one side. It also has these tiny legs somehow supporting the whole thing."
Amber hears a sigh, and then Ika says "Ok. I was worried it was an Octo Shower or something similar. Anyways, that is an Octostomp, and one of the easiest octoweapons to deal with. All you have to do is attack the tentacle after it tries to 'stomp' you with its face!"
Amber raises an eyebrow from the weird advice, when she hears the machine behind her roar again. She turns around, and her eyes widen in surprise as the whole machine jumps into the air. Seeing it was trying to land on top of her, Amber quickly dives to the side.
The machine lands and makes a massive shock wave, pushing Amber back a bit more. Amber gets up, rubbing her head, and sees the machine on the ground, struggling to get up. She looks up and sees a tentacle, and she realizes that that was her target.
The young inkling quickly hops on top of the machine and fires at the tentacle. The appendage begins to bulge outwards, covered in orange, and then explodes. Amber shields her eyes from the ink, and then hisses as a drop of purple ink hits her hand. She quickly jumps away, watching as purple ink spews out of the place the tentacle was once at.
The Octostomp shakes violently, and then another tentacle pops out. It flails around a bit, then re-enters the Octostomp. The giant cube hops back onto its feet, and then does something disturbing. Its face pops out, making Amber step back in disgust, and then the face resets. An arc of electricity goes across its sides, and its sides begin to spark dangerously.
Amber eyes the electrified sides warily, already telling herself not to touch them. The machine roars loudly, then begins charging her down again. Amber instantly begins running, trying to keep an eye on the machine at all times.
She was doing quite well, when the machine suddenly seems to speed up. Her eyes widen in surprise, and she tries to run faster. However, she couldn't run fast enough. But, even if her legs couldn't move that fast, she had another way to move.
Amber sprays the area in front of her with ink, then quickly dives into it. Her body automatically converts into its inky squid form, quickly swimming across the ink she put down. She was able to stay ahead of the Octostomp now, but it still was moving very fast.
Then, the machine jumps into the air once more. Amber quickly jumps out of her ink, creating another trail, and swims away. The Octostomp slams into the ground, and then something strange happens. The electricity on its sides begins to arc to the ink, electrifying it rapidly. Amber's eyes widen and she jumps out of the ink, just as the volts of electricity hits where she once was.
Her body turns back to normal, and she stares at the ink in surprise. She didn't think ink could conduct electricity! She suddenly hears a loud clanking sound, and she looks up. The Octostomp was shaking, trying to get back up. Remembering what she was here for, she quickly hops over the electrified ink and begins to attack the tentacle.
Same as last time, the tentacle bursts into orange ink. Remembering what happened last time, Amber quickly jumps back before the purple ink could hit her.
The Octostomp produces another tentacle, then hops back up. It shakes violently, and then electricity begins to arc to the ground around it, like a barrier. Amber eyes the lightning and says to herself "It can electrify ink, which means I need to be careful when swimming. And now, it has a much larger radius. I need to stay far from it to be uninjured."
The electric cube roars loudly, then begins to charge her down once more. Amber quickly makes a trail of ink and runs away, not wanting to get hit by the barrier of electricity. She also had to frequently jump from one trail of ink to another, keeping them separate, else she get electrocuted.
After only a few moments, Amber finally sees the Octostomp jump into the air. Quickly diving into another trail separate to the one she was in, she just barely avoids the electric field around the machine. She could feel her body shiver and tense as it passes by the electricity.
Not wasting a single opportunity, Amber quickly gets out of the ink and jumps towards the Octostomp. She manages to get far over the electric field, and lands on top. She fires at the tentacle, and it quickly bursts apart. She jumps away and watches to see if there was more.
The cube seems to jerk suddenly, and then a loud clanking fills the air. Amber watches, disturbed, as the legs connected to the machine begin to spin faster and faster. Then, they just stop. Amber eyes the machine warily as it begins to smoke, and then… it explodes. Amber's eyes widen as orange ink sprays all across the arena, covering the whole thing. She quickly covers her eyes so she doesn't get blinded.
Amber uncovers her eyes, looking around in only slight awe at the amount of ink around her. She then hears another crackle of electricity, making her go on guard. She looks at where the Octostomp once was, and sees the zapfish there, still stuck in the giant light bulb.
Amber quickly runs over, then smashes the zapfish out of the prison it was in. Amber then activates her headset and says "I beat the Octostomp and got the zapfish powering it. I'm returning now."
She hears a bit of static, then Ika says "Good, but be careful. I can see multiple hostile signatures converging on your location. I recommend getting to the rooftops as soon as possible."
Amber nods, then quickly begins to run. As she does so, she can begin to hear multiple voices coming from the town in front of her. She curses, knowing exactly why. Her battle may have been ignored with the Octostomp roaring, but that last explosion would've set off alarm bells in people's heads and around town.
The young agent jumps across the gap between the arena and the street, quickly running across. She only had a few more feet to go, when she hears "There she is!"
Amber looks to her right in shock and sees multiple octolings, maybe ten of them, running at her. She curses to herself, then quickly jumps onto the building, tightening her hold on the zapfish slightly as she does so. Using her hopping skills, she quickly bounds across the rooftops with ease.
She suddenly sees a glob of ink fly past her head, just barely missing. Her eyes widen as she realizes that she was being fired at. Her armor could block some attacks, but not for long. She needed to get out of there, and FAST.
Amber compresses her legs a bit more, and suddenly she was bounding much further than before. She looks around for the alley she needed, and then she finally notices it. She quickly turns towards it, not letting up on her speed in the slightest.
One of the octolings following her across the rooftops clicks a button on her shades and says "The target is going for the kettle! All units, get to the alley as quickly as possible! We can't let her through!"
Amber was close to the alley, when she hears multiple voices coming from all over. She couldn't hear much from the distance they were at, but she could discern some words. Alley. Kettle. Stop her.
She knew enough that the octolings were going to try and stop her from getting into the kettle. She grits her beak, then quickens her step. Now, she just needed speed, not distance. Returning her legs to normal, she runs as fast as her 14 year old body could take her.
As the voices grew louder, she knew she was cutting it close. She finally reaches the alleyway and instantly jumps down. The kettle was right beneath her... "STOP HER!"
Time seems to slow as Amber looks to her right. An octoling had a charger trained on her, already firing. The ink trail flies at her slowly, her decent just as slow. Then, before she even recognized things were normal again, she was already in the kettle.
The ink splatters on the wall behind where Amber once was, just barely missing her as the kettle pulled her in quicker. The sniper curses loudly, then radios his commanders. "Target escaped. Mission failed." The octoling then gets up and walks away, disappointed in his failure.
A lone soldier runs into the dark room, nothing lighting it up other than the many screens flashing with different scenes. The octoling kneels at the doorway and says "Octavius sir, the agent escaped. We were unable to apprehend her."
The long figure in the room twirls a glass of wine absentmindedly. "Is that so? Anything else to report?"
The octoling thinks a bit, then says "Despite being active in the field for only a week, she displayed incredible skills with aim, planning, and evasive maneuvers. She even seemed more adept at hopping than the soldiers stationed in the lookout."
The figure adjusts his suit a bit, humming in consideration. "Hm, very interesting indeed. I will report this to Octavio as soon as possible. Dismissed."
The octoling soldier bows his head and says "Sir." He then quickly walks away. Octavius always freaked him out.
The figure once again looks at the screens in front of him. "It seems that my plans will need to be postponed to account for this… unseen factor."
Blood red eyes narrow as they view two screens in particular. "And here I thought the previous agent's death would be enough. How foolish of me. I certainly hope you are better than your predecessor, Agent 3."
Two screens suddenly seem to become more focused and clear. One showed the new Agent 3 expertly avoiding the Octostomp and its special electric attacks made to conduct through ink.
The other showed a single inkling, surrounded by octolings on all sides. Just before a flurry of ink hits the agent, two discerning features were shown. A single ring on his ring finger, and a black cape emblazoned with a large, white 3.