Bombs

Listen up, agents!
When you're in the field,
Nothing is as you imagine it.
If you get caught
by what seems good,
you'll miss the bomb at your feet.

"Let's go, Agent 4!" Marie leans over the monitor, her work set aside for once. No sign of an Octoboss from here, but that doesn't mean much. The ravenous octomaw could all but disappear.

But when Four superjumps down, Marie's hearts seize. "Wait..." She leans so close to the screen her nose almost touches. "Is that...? CALLIE?"

Callie turns around, and Marie stops breathing. Callie... "I told you to leave," she says, her voice flat.

"Callie..." Marie whispers. "Why?"

"Now you leave me no choice..." Callie trails off.

Four snorts in Marie's ear. "It's like she's reciting lines," she says. "Are you sure she's an actress?"

That snaps Marie out of it. Callie is there, and she's here. "I'm coming, Four," she says, texting Sheldon; he said he'd drop everything if Callie was found. "You know what to do."

Marie doesn't wait for a response: she tears off her headphones and runs from the room, to the bathroom, where she changes into her Squid Sister's outfit (it might jog Cal's memory) and grabs Callie's, too, where Marie's been keeping it with hers. Pulls on her hero headphones, designed to be less noticeable if she needs to go under cover, and the tablet that can give her Four's video feed. Grabs the stereo, a practice CD with background music (no vocals) for all their songs already inserted, batteries fully charged; Sheldon can use it to hack into the speakers. Last of all, she grabs her charger, and pulls on the tank of Low-Tide ink.

It won't hurt Callie even if Marie misses the glasses completely with a direct hit to her face.

Marie steps outside just as Sheldon's van screeches to a stop in front of her. "Get in," he says.

"I should be on stage—"

"I'd have to drive slower or you'd fall off," he says. "There's a hatch in the roof, you can climb out when we get close and I'll slow down then."

That's fine. Marie lets herself in the back seat and dumps her stuff. Sheldon takes off before she's got the door closed, and Marie's pressed back against the seat, they're going so fast. She has to work to lean forward, get the tablet, open it. Watch as Four—Callie falls to one knee, and Marie's hearts lurch, but she's alive. She's alive, she's—that's a tattoo, what did they do to her. Rage burns in Marie's stomach as she glares at DJ Octavio. "That's it, Agent 4!" she growls. "Show no mercy!" And then, changing the settings so people around Four will be able to hear her, too, "SNAP OUT OF IT, CALLIE!"

But Callie gets to her feet and starts again.

Marie turns her mic off. Her hearts are racing, her hands shaking, but she forces herself to take deep, slow breaths and do warm-up exercises. She has to sing this right. Octarian Music helps support the brainwashing, keep people from questioning, and may work to keep Callie under their control even after the hypnoshades are removed; she has to sing through it, around it, in it, over it until Callie's aware enough for Calamari Inkantation to even work. And if they've got Callie singing Bomb Rush Blush—well, except not, it's some Octarian abomination—then they must have that set up to support the brainwashing, too. Marie may not be able to stop that song, but she can change it.

"Slowing," Sheldon says. Marie undoes her seatbelt, stands. There's a catch in the ceiling and she opens it, pokes her head out. The wind whips at her tentacles, trying to undo their ties, as Sheldon slows. Marie grabs the boombox and ties it to part of the stage until she needs it, hoists the ink-tank and charger (slower now, the wind scarce ruffling her tentacles, and she's flying over a stadium of Octarians watching the fight). Charges her shot.

Four knocks DJ Octavio out of the Octobot King, leaving it still for a moment.

Marie fires.

Her hearts lurch as Callie clutches her face, but Callie isn't splatted, she's still standing, she's okay. "Now, Agent 4! While Callie is stunned!" Marie sets down her charger, her hands clenched into fists, and takes a deep breath. She needs to calm down before she makes a mistake. "Make DJ Octavio pay." Marie taps the headset, turning off her direct link to Four, because she's got a job to do.

She might not be able to sing Calamari Inkantation alone, but she can sing Tide Goes Out. It won't fit with the drums and trumpets, not exactly, but she's worked on improv before. She can do this. She can. And she keeps her eyes on Callie, doesn't look away, no matter how Sheldon swoops his van, no matter what Four is doing down below.

Callie wipes her eyes, straightens her shoulders, and starts singing. Marie's hearts ache; they've never sung like this before, different things together, it's always been taking turns or harmonizing the same words. Their voices twine together, and she didn't realize until now what a good round their solo songs make.

Even when they're apart, they complement each other.

But Callie is louder, and louder, and Marie finds herself echoing Callie instead of singing her own song, and she stops there and takes a deep breath, because no. She can't sing together with Callie, not the way she wants to.

She is not following Callie. Callie is following her.

So at the next gap in lyrics, Marie jumps back in. And Callie stays quiet for a full verse, her eyes on Marie, before she shakes her head twice, fast, and starts back in.

When Four knocks DJ Octavio from the Octobot King again, making the machine hold still, Sheldon swoops close. Callie's lips are pursed, her eyes wide; tears streak her cheeks where she stares down at Four and Octavio. She tears her eyes away to look at Marie, her eyes widening further; more tears slip out as Callie opens her mouth, closes it, hugs herself.

"WAKE UP, CALLIE!" Marie keeps her eyes locked on Cal, but Callie doesn't respond, just squeezes her eyes shut and shakes her head, tentacles whipping, before singing again.

Marie growls. This will work. This has to work. But if it doesn't.

If it doesn't, Marie decides as she takes a deep breath and jumps back into the song, wrestling control of it from Callie, changing the melody, making her listen, making her think, if it doesn't work then when fucking Octavio is unconscious Marie is tackling Callie and taking her home anyway, and keeping her at Cuttlefish Cabin playing recordings of Calamari Inkantation until it does.

She is not losing her cousin.

Not to this. Not to—

Callie clutches her head and groans, without Four even landing a hit on her and Octavio this time. "My... my head..."

Marie's hearts stop. "The low-tide ink is working!" she says, clutching her hands to her chest, hardly able to believe it, even though it's nothing the low-tide ink did, not really. The glasses are off and... and...

In her ear, Sheldon says, "Stopping the music, hooking up your source."

The boombox. Calamari Inkantation.

Marie grabs it, checks it's ready with hands that shake, and hits play. "Callie!" she shouts, over the drums and guitar. "Remember!"

Oh please, please, please let it have worn off enough for this. Marie could be imagining things, but Callie's hands have frozen where she was rubbing her temples, and Marie just.

She hopes.

"That heavenly melody!" she shouts, because it is, it is, Calamari Inkantation was used by their ancestors for strength and it worked and used by Calamari County for luck and it worked and she and Callie turned it into a tool that can fight brainwashing oh cod oh cod please.

"The one and only..." Callie says, and Marie's hearts nearly stop, she holds her breath, oh, cod, Callie, please.

"I..." Please, Callie. Please. Come back to me.

"I remember..."

Marie's breath catches in her throat, her eyes are all blurry, but Callie looks up. Straight at Marie, with a light in her eyes that wasn't there a few minutes ago. Callie backs up on the stage, clenches her hands, runs, and jumps.

She catches her foot on the edge of the van and falls forward. Marie drops the boombox, darts forward to catch her before she can hit the ground, pulls Callie into the tightest hug she's ever given, oh thank you thank you thank you "Are you hurt?" Marie whispers in her ear; she doesn't bother to ask if Callie's all right, Callie isn't all right, she was with the Octarians wearing hypnoshades for months and she has a tattoo and "I swear to cod, Cal, if—"

"I'm fine," Callie says, hugging Marie back with weak arms, pressing close to Marie like she wants to sink in and memorize how this feels and, cod, Marie never wants to let go. "I just... how long was I gone?" She doesn't know? "What happened?" Oh, cod, what did they do to you. "My head is all fuzzy, I, I don't know anything that's going on."

Calamari Inkantation helped every Octoling who's heard it. It can help Callie. It must help Callie. Marie never wants to let go, but she does anyway. "I've done testing. This works best live. Come on, one performance of Calamari Inkantation and you'll feel better." She has to.

Callie nods, tears still streaming down her face, but her voice is steady. "Let's do this, then."

The opening repeats, and Marie steps away, taking her spot; Callie moves to hers on shaky legs. But Callie is right there with her as they start the song, choreography exact as they've done every time before, and Sheldon drops Four a rainmaker (her best mode her favorite Four once said she'd main rainmaker if it was an option) and Marie doesn't even try to feel anything but joy and wonder and relief because it's over.

It's over.

Four slams the rainmaker on Octavio's head and they've done it, they'll put him back in jail, and the song ends and Marie grabs Callie and hugs her.

And Callie hugs back, so tight Marie's breath comes in a woosh even before Callie says, "We did it, Mary."

And Marie's chest goes tight, and she pulls back enough to see Callie's face, relief and exhaustion and confusion and pain in every line of her body, and can't respond.