Splatoon: Number's Game

Chapter 16

"Hey, 8, I'm thinking about ordering some food. In the mood for anything specific?" 3 asked.

8 simply shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh, come on. You know that doesn't make it any easier for me," 3 giggled. "What about pizza?" She suggested.

8's eyes drifted upwards as she thought about this. She shook her head.

"Hmm…oh, let's get food from that fried noodle place!"

8 nodded her head and smiled.

"It's decided then. Let me call them right now." 3 said.

As she reached for her phone, it began to buzz. Alex' contact ID picture came up on screen. It was strange for him to call at this hour, so she answered the phone quickly.

"Hello?" She asked oddly.

"3? That you?" Alex's voice asked. His breathing sounded labored on the other end.

"Yeah? Are you alright, Alex? You sound like you're in pain."

"Is it that obvious?" Alex joked, chuckling and immediately wheezing in pain afterwards. "Ow… I'm on my way to your apartment." He said.

"What? Right now?" 3 asked in surprise.

"Yeah." Alex answered.

After his answer came through the line, there was a knock on the door. 3 hung up the phone. Both girls stood up, "That's Alex." She explained, making her way to the door and opening it.

"Please tell me you have first aid!" Alex groaned as he hobbled in with Evan's support. 3 stepped to the side in surprise, but as they passed she could see his injured shoulder.

"What happened to you?!" 3 asked in shock, closing the door quickly and running to clear a place for him to sit on her couch.

"I got jumped by three octolings in the subway. One of them shot me." Alex said as he sat down, clutching his shoulder tightly.

"Shot? That doesn't make any sense." 3 said.

"It wasn't a normal gun, 3." Alex said. The two of them locked eyes for a couple moments. 3 quickly realized what he was talking about.

"Your name is Evan, right?" 3 asked, turning to him.

"Uh, y-yeah, yeah." Evan nodded.

"Come with me. I have first aid supplies in my closet." She said, gesturing for him to follow. They quickly exited the room.

8 worriedly knelt down by Alex. She put a hand on his arm. Alex stifled a pained groan and looked at her.

"It's okay. I'll be fine. This just re-eally hurts." He said, doing his best to be reassuring. It wasn't very convincing.

8 leaned forward a bit, trying to move his hand to see his injury. Alex quickly began to protest.

"No no, 8, stop." He hissed, moving his shoulder back.

8 still managed to slide his hand out of the way, seeing the crimson red stain spreading out form his shoulder through his clothes. 8 quickly drew back in shock. As Alex covered his wound again, she realized that he had blood all over his hand.

8 looked down at her fingertips and realized that she had his blood on her fingertips too.

"Okay, let's get you patched up." 3 said. 8 quickly stepped back out of the way, retreating into the kitchen. 3 opened up her kit while Evan pressed a towel into his shoulder.

"Ow! Jeez, dude!" Alex grunted.

"I'm just doing what I was told, man. What the heck were you doing out there?" Evan questioned, keeping pressure on his wound.

"Ah! What're you talking about?" Alex questioned.

"What were you doing out there that got you lit up dude?!"

"I wasn't doing anything! I got jumped dude!" Alex said defensively.

"Well, there had to be a reason. Were you involved in something? I betcha it has something to do with Grizzco, doesn't it? I knew that place was shady as all heck." Evan speculated.

"You cannot be serious right now." Alex grumbled.

"Both of you, put a cork in it," 3 interrupted. "Alex, get your jacket and shirt off so I can patch your shoulder up."

"Yeah, alright." Alex agreed, hissing in pain as he did his best to slide his injured arm out of the sleeve. He used his other hand for most of the work. With 3's help, he was able to get everything off.

"Okay, Ev, let me take over." 3 said, motioning for Evan to move. 3 took his spot and got to work, moving the towel out of the way.

"Where'd you learn this stuff?" Alex asked curiously.

"I wanted to be a paramedic very, very briefly," She answered. "That's a nasty wound, dude. Do you know what you were shot with?" She asked.

"Did Marie and Callie fill you in on what we found at the site?" Alex asked.

"Yeah," 3 answered quickly. Then she realized what he was saying. "You think that's what it was?" She asked.

"No question." Alex answered, looking up at her. 3 swallowed, putting a patch over the front of his shoulder.

"What? What're you talking about?" Evan asked.

"The Octarians have gotten a hold of a special type of ammo called bullets. They can tear inkling bodies to shreds. Looks like Alex here caught one with his shoulder." 3 explained.

"O-Oh shoot…" Evan's eyes widened. "You can't be serious."

"I'm afraid she is." Alex winced again as 3 worked on the back of his shoulder.

"B-But why would the Octarians be after you?" Evan asked his follow-up question. Alex sighed; he was going to have to answer him honestly.

"I'm part of a secret squad. 3 is a member too. It's our mission to protect Inkopolis from Octarian attacks. We've been looking into a couple different threats. They sent sleeper agents to kill me. That's the only thing that makes sense." Alex explained.

"Oh shoot…" Evan said in shock, shaking his head and stepping back. "Oh dang, are-are we in danger? Am I in danger? Are they gonna come after me because I'm with you? Shoot!" Evan began to panic, nervously brushing his hands back through his hair.

"Evan…"

"I-I gotta go…" Evan said, hurrying out of 3's apartment and throwing the door closed behind him.

"Don't worry about him. He'll be okay." 3 said, finishing up with his shoulder.

"I hope so." Alex said sadly.

"So you said they were sleeper agents, huh?" 3 asked.

"Well, I said that, but what I meant is that the octolings had on mind control glasses, like the ones they used on Callie." Alex explained.

"Gotcha… Well, at the very least, that means we likely don't have any actual octoling secret agents running around. So that's one less thing to worry about." 3 reasoned.

"Right," Alex sat back on the couch with a labored exhale. "We should fill in the others. We need to come up with a plan to take care of this…" Alex said, reaching for his phone. The others nodded in agreement.