"Awright. Now peekin', now."

Delta closed her eyes with a steadying breath, listening to eight feet patter around her now-blinded surroundings; one pair stopped ahead of her, one on the left, right, and one behind her. She could feel her body tense up in response; the Inkling was surrounded with no idea who would strike first and no way to see it coming. And the resulting vulnerability was unbearably uncomfortable.

"Mmkay." Cap'n Cuttlefish's drawl told her that he'd shoved a toothpick between his rickety old fangs—a habit the retired sailor shared with Delta's hometown coach. "Oh, right…I press this button. Ready…"

Oh carp we're starting, Delta's thoughts panicked as she resisted the urge to open her eyes. Carp carp carp, get ready already!

"And…"

Agent 4's ears listened like they'd never listened before, desperate for any kind of forewarning.

"Go!"

Two hands wrapped around Delta's neck and shoved her sideways—time to open her eyes. Her left hand plucked a thumb from her throat as her right found purchase in someone's solar plexus—Agent 3's apparently. Delta twisted his wrist to the left and the Inkling flopped to the ground with a grunt.

But another foot slid across the dirt before she could grab the zip tie. Delta had just enough time to deflect the hook and jam her forearm into the side of Agent 8's neck. Two knees to the gut had the Octoling doubled over enough to flip him and both agents were restrained in another few seconds.

"Dang." Agent 8 coughed as Delta helped him up. "Now I see why Sheldon told me not to mess with you."

"Six-point-four seconds, good." Cap'n Cuttlefish grumbled from somewhere behind Delta as she stepped back into the circle, closing her eyes again. "Go!"

"Hands up, you're under arrest for wearing waaaaay too much camo."

Delta broke into a subtle smirk as she slowly raised her hands, opening her eyes to Marie aiming a Hero Shot at her protege. Of course she would be the one to bring a gun.

Agent 4 slapped the barrel to the right and her other hand wrenched the weapon downwards, twisting Marie's thumbs from the handle. A yank wrested the shooter free and Agent 4 slid back, aiming it at the kimonoed popstar.

"You're under arrest for too many puns." Delta quipped back.

"Five seconds." Cap'n Cuttlefish chuckled through his toothpick. "Go!"

Nothing.

Agent 4 huffed in discomfort, knowing the wait was just to psych her out...and it was working. Every passing heartbeat felt like a pair of scissors inching closer and closer to a dangling bungee cord.

Arms finally encircled her in a tight bear hug from behind. Delta opened her eyes and bucked her hips but the attacker had already hoisted her into the air. The agent caught a lucky break and her foot found the back of Callie's knee—but Agent 1's response was quick and absolute. Delta's face met dirt as Callie effortlessly slammed her onto the ground, pinning the agent and wrapping an elbow around her trachea. Agent 4 had just enough time to wedge a hand into the chokehold for a sliver's worth of breath as she scrambled for a foothold under Callie's weight, and it wasn't long before she heard the captain's whistle.

"Time!" Cap'n Cuttlefish bellowed, and Callie's weight vanished. Delta stayed on the ground for another second to catch her breath…Callie was strong—and much more skilled than the younger agent had anticipated. A kick to the back of the knee was difficult to notice, let alone turn into an advantage. The two might've lightly sparred before, but that display was ridiculous.

…Maybe she should've put a little more thought into why Callie always seemed to win those sessions.

"That's ok, don't worry 'bout it!" The chipper idol offered a hand after scooping her beanie off the ground. "You'll get it next time!" Delta took it and rose to her feet, glimpsing a purple tattoo peeking underneath Callie's disheveled shirt. The younger agent spared a subtle nod at the octopus brand and the pink squid was quick to cover it back up with a glimpse at her unsuspecting grandfather. Cap'n Cuttlefish had been understandably distraught to learn that an agent—one of his grandsquids no less—was captured by the enemy while he wasn't around to protect her. Callie was careful not to dump saltwater in the wound, so she often kept the tattoo out of sight from even NSS members.

"Awright, just haft tally this up…" Cap'n Cuttlefish spat his toothpick out as he scribbled on his notepad, entirely ignorant that the handheld timer had a setting that could've done the math for him. "Now unless there's an Agent Five that I don't know about—" He cast a comedic glare at his youngest granddaughter. "—everyone's had their turn." Both Delta and Marie happened to glance at Sheldon just outside the circle—and Agent 4 could swear his eyes bulged beyond his goggles.

"I-I'm just the help!" The horseshoe crab frantically blurted before dashing behind Marie's black kimono. Agent 2 mouthed a "he's fine" back to her grandfather, and the horseshoe crab sped away with excuses of "fixing the water tank" and whatnot.

"Then congrats, you waddleworts survived today's training." Cap'n Cuttlefish pointed himself towards Cuttlefish Cabin 2.0. "Now it's time fer the real task o' the day; I'll see you hatchlin's in the briefing room." The aged sea captain began shuffling towards the tiny shack just outside of Tentakeel Outpost, leaving the rest of the NSS to follow behind.

It wasn't long until Delta passed the vacant stretch of dirt where Octavio's snowglobe used to be. Cap'n Cuttlefish had pulled a few favors after his return from the Deepsea Metro and transferred his old enemy to a maximum security prison off of the island entirely. He had also called for extra guards assigned exclusively to watching Octavio's every move, extra turrets watching the perimeter…and arranged for extra recordings of Spicy Calamari Inkantation, just to remind the octopus what he'd done.

"Hey, Gavin!" Agent 3's voice pulled Delta from her thoughts as he jogged up to his friend, playfully messing with the Octoling's pink mohawk. "Didja get settled into the hotel ok?"

"Yeah." Agent 8—Gavin—was quick to straighten his mohawk back out. "This nice girl helped me find the place; so I'm sure Quinn The Free Inkling is enjoying his peaceful solitude."

"Dude, you wanted all the weapons in the apartment cleaned and tested three times at exactly six-o-five. In. The. Morning." Quinn wrapped an arm around his fellow agent after they stepped inside the Cabin's first floor, making their way to the trapdoor underneath the tiny rug. "You're my bud, but you can do that squit on your own TIIIIIIME—" Agent 3's words were interrupted when his foot slipped halfway down the ladder and the Inkling tumbled the rest of the way to the Cabin's catacombs. He landed on his behind and looked up at the other agents with a dopey thumbs-up, but Delta had to surpress an eyeroll. Her "legendary" predecessor was easily one of the most uncoordinated squidkids she'd ever met.

"…And I don't miss dealing with your habits either." Gavin muttered to himself as he properly stepped his way down the ladder. Marie passed the Hero Shot back to Agent 4, who slung the yellow rifle back over her shoulder, and the Squid Sisters slid into the tunnels after Delta.

Marie's beak curled into her signature half-smile as she gave her cousin's shoulder a playful nudge. "Should've known you'd klutz your way through something as silly as keeping your shirt on."

"Meanie." Callie stuck her tongue at her cousin's empty jab. "I know I shoulda expected it 'cuz it's, like, a tattoo—but it's crazy annoying to cover up sometimes. Just the other day the Devil Moons director decided to start filming the pool scene—totally outta the blue—so he told all o' us to get into our swimsuits and I was like, 'uhhhh…'" She gave an awkward giggle at Marie's smirk. "Took almost five coats of concealer to, well, conceal."

"You know, they keep makeup artists on-site for a reason." Marie passed a pink, diamond-shaped necklace back to her cousin—Delta recognized it as Marie's latest birthday gift to the pink squid. "Just sayin'."

"Well how the carp would I explain it?" Callie took the necklace and fastened its clasp around her neck. "'Remember that time I went missing for like two weeks and freaked everybody out? Yeah so long story short I'm Agent One of the New Squidbeak Splatoon and that whole missing thing was actually the Octarians trying to take over the world again and I ended up with a tattoo before it was all over. So, y'know, hope that still keeps character and everything.'"

"Okay fair point." Marie conceded with a shrug until the three turned the corner and joined the rest of the New Squidbeak Splatoon around the large oak table in the conference room.

"Now." Cap'n Cuttlefish eased into his seat at the head of the rectangular table—and the rest of the NSS took their seats with him. "Let's get 'ta business: we have a new mission I want us to work on. Word on the street says somethin' funky is brewin' in our beloved city, and I'd sleep better if we looked into it."

"He snores like a sea lion last I checked." Delta overheard Callie's whisper to Marie, who elbowed her cousin to shut up and listen.

"Agent Four." The Inkling's attention snapped back to the captain at the sound of her callsign. "How 'bout you brief the others on that favor you did for me."

"At this point we've all heard about the recent murder spree the media has been covering." Delta quickly obliged. "The cap'n put me in touch with Spyke to see if his cyber skills could fetch us some extra info. The police file on the database mentions they made an arrest about twenty-four hours ago, but it turns out that a brand-new murder was called in just this morning."

"That's the ninth victim this killer's taken in two months." Cap'n Cuttlefish added, retaking control of the discussion. "And the murder rate's mighty low in Inkopolis. Now I know we usually let the coppers be—" he raised a wrinkled hand to placate the room full of confused eyebrows, "—but they've thrown everythin' they got at this guy for two months and still nabbed the wrong soul. Our job is 'ta make sure the city's safe, and it won't be until whoever's behind these killings is behind glass; so I want us to step in and find this guy. Agent Two—" the aged veteran turned to his granddaughter, "—how 'bout you share your thoughts on these murders."

"They're weird." Marie began with a small nod.

"You're weird." Callie mumbled back with expert timing. Quinn and Sheldon had to surpress a snicker while a smile snuck through the captain's beard.

"Each murder happens a little differently," Marie ignored her cousin's jab—save for the annoyed eyeroll. "But you can still see some trends. The victim is killed in their home, but sometimes there's evidence of a break-in while other cases suggest the perp was invited in. The body is always supine and covered in ink as if they'd been shot. Police have tried to shed light on the weapon itself but tests have been largely inconclusive."

"So…" Quinn paused to gather his thoughts. "That all sounds normal for a homicide to me. What's the weird part?"

"There's a body, for starters." Marie was quick to reply—she must've expected that question. "All of the victims were either Inkling or Octoling, which means they should've burst once they were shot. But the body was always intact by the time first responders arrived. The forensics team shouldn't have had anything to autopsy, and yet…" Marie plopped a stack of autopsy reports onto the table with a confused shrug.

"What did they find?" Gavin reached over to grab a packet from the pile…and Delta made the mistake of following suit.

"Basically…not much." Marie sighed at her sparse synopsis. "Nothing that makes sense, at least. There were no wounds on the victim save for a blunt one to the head. How the killer inflicts that is hard to follow since it looks different every time—the only consistency is that each victim has at least one. And it wasn't what killed them; most doctors agree the cause of death was respiratory failure."

"Wait, they suffocated to death?" Callie looked up from her papers, confused. "I mean—that explains why the body didn't go poof, but really? Someone shoots you and suddenly you can't breathe?" Delta quickly shut her own copy to keep her lunch. Why did autopsy reports have to show a picture of the dead and naked subject on the very first page?

"I warned you guys: it was weird." Marie shrugged back with a knowing smirk. "There's no signs of physical constriction or anything, the lungs just…stopped. And that's not even the creepiest piece of evidence. Every victim was found with a fishhook jammed into their shirt's collar, with string attached."

"Maybe the perp's a fisherman?" Quinn suggested, looking up with an unsure smile. "And they just…really like their equipment?"

"Then explain the dead glowflies attached to each line." Marie blinked back at Agent 3, taunting him to answer. "Strung together like a fly-kebab."

"…Yeah okay, that's weird." Quinn slunk his gaze back to his copy of the report. "That's weird even for a crazed lunatic."

"The cops have been calling our perp 'the Lightfisher' thanks to that tiny habit." Callie piped up as Marie passed thicker files around the table. "So far they think the fishhook thing is a calling card: a way for the killer to claim credit for the murder."

"As for the identity of the perpetrator themselves, well…" Marie let out an exasperated sigh. "Until we can figure out exactly how and why they're doing this, it'll be hard to thin the suspect pool to a workable number."

"Except we've already narrowed it by one!" Callie threw a finger into the air, fangs flashing in an optimistic grin. "McNotme's got the best alibi he could ask for; how could you possibly attack somebody miles away when you're locked behind glass?"

"Well, that's what…" Marie had opened her beak to respond, but her features quickly sagged into consternation. "How did…" She swept a concerned thumb across her chin. "…Hmm."

"See what I mean?" Callie proudly pointed to her cousin as proof.

"That's one squid out of the whole city." Delta risked a grab at one of Marie's files; she wished she'd brought her camo backpack to help carry all the new homework. "Are there any leads we can investigate?"

But the agent was met with silence as Marie stared into space, golden eyes as wide as clamshells. A nudge from her cousin jolted her back to the present and the squid glanced at the captain, who nodded at her to continue.

"…I looked into each victim the killer's murdered." Marie folded her arms as she sat back down. "And I noticed all of them worked as Salmon Runners for Grizzco Industries. There's definitely some sort of connection."

"An' Grizzco likes to keep mighty quiet 'bout themselves." Cap'n Cuttlefish finally spoke up. "Which seems fishy after what we saw outta Kamabo Corp's shyness. So far Grizzco's given detectives barely anythin' to work with, and even less to the outside press. We'd need a team on the inside if we want to chase this lead."

"So basically…" Quinn attempted to tap his fingers on the oak but ended up banging his knuckles underneath the table. "You want agents to go undercover and investigate what Grizzco isn't telling."

"Yup!" Callie beamed back. "Our best bet is to sign up as Salmon Runners and keep our eyes peeled for anything fishy. But Two and I can't do it 'cause it's hard to play ninja when your name attracts half the city."

"Sheldon can't produce his own ink, so he's ineligible for the job." Marie added. "And Gramps is, well…"

"These cuttlebones have seen better days." Cap'n Cuttlefish chuckled.

"But that leaves…" Delta scanned the rest of the table. "Three, Eight and me. Salmon Runs need a team of four workers, and the more fillers we're paired with the more cephalopods we'll need to keep quiet. We'll need a fourth member to minimize loose ends."

"We're gonna have to keep the fourth in the dark, no matter who we pick." Gavin began, scratching a pensive thumb across his chin. "But…I might know someone who wouldn't mind the extra coin."

A/N:

I didn't need Sakurai to tell me that roller mains are BUFF

Jokes aside, thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, favorited and followed the last chapter! This one was also on the shorter side and only focused on one narrator, but starting with the next chapter things should get a little longer and focus on both Delta and Ayla's perspectives. Alex was only a prologue thing.

But oh boy does it feel good to be working with the Squid Sisters again...I've missed them. The new arrivals have also been interesting to experiment with—Cap'n Cuttlefish's voice is hard to write, but that's probably because I'm using a version of him that's equal parts rugged old sailor and intellectual scholar. It took a while to find a mix of the two that blended naturally, and I'm still not sure I like it. We'll see what other chapters need him to do.

And given how most fics on the archive seem to go, some of you might be surprised with the direction I've taken with Agent 3. I've noticed a lot of people write him/her as a super athletic hero—and there's nothing wrong with that—but it's just not my personal take on the character. I studied a lot of taekwondo when I was younger so I was staring at the scene where Agent 3 breaks the [spoiler] and scratching my head…because how on earth do you knock yourself out with your own kick? I'd seen that kick hundreds of times, I'd done that kick hundreds of times (not from a [spoiler] mind you but that actually shouldn't make much of a difference), but not once had I seen anyone screw it up that badly. So my own personal version ended up as him being horrendously clumsy but also one of the luckiest people alive. Quinn and Gavin are also guys because holy smokes do I need to balance the gender ratio for poor Cuttlefish.

It's a little hard to give context to the training drill I started the chapter with since these things tend to vary from studio to studio, but this one is (mainly) a high-level Krav Maga drill. Basically the entire class surrounds you in a circle and you have to close your eyes, and any classmate can attack you in any direction and any way that they want. You're not allowed to open your eyes until the first sign of contact, and then you have only eight seconds to defend yourself from the attack. Also don't try this at home haha, if you want to give it a shot then go find a krav maga instructor.

I'd like to get Chapter 3 out relatively soon, but I honestly don't know if I can since my summer semester started last week and the workload is already ginormous. Don't you just love it when the assignment says to read 7 scientific papers but it's doubled to 14 when you check back the day before it's due? Hopefully that doesn't become a trend with this instructor…