Agent 3 moved through the Octarian base with ease, splatting aggressors left and right, weaving in between ink globs and sniper shots. As she gunned down the final Octoling soldier with her Hero Shot, she wiped her brow, walking over to the caged zapfish.

"Even with Octavio gone, I guess they still need electricity," she mused, shattering the forcefield and grabbing the wriggling fish. "But no matter how much they need it, stealing's stealing. Let's get you back to Inkopolis, buddy."

A few minutes later, and she was back at the shack.

"Ah, Agent 3," Cap'n Cuttlefish greeted from the porch. "That was rather quick. You've been progressing even more in your abilities as of late."

"Yeah," she said, dropping the zapfish in his hands. "I guess." She dropped her Splattershot to the ground, and then went about removing her various protective gear.

She walked into the shack, where Agents 1 and 2 were lounging, their weapons propped up against the wall.

"Hey Three," Agent 1 said with a wave. "How goes zapfish recovery?"

"Pretty well. You'd think they'd put more effort into security, but like. They don't."

"That kind of inadaptability is what led the Octarians to lose the war in the first place," Agent 2 said, taking a sip of lemonade.

"You guys do any good recon?"

Agent 2 rolled her eyes. "Come on, Three. We always do good recon. We just usually don't find anything during our good recon."

"Mmhmm." Agent 3 sat down in one of the wooden chairs, closing her eyes and letting her tentacles flop down onto her stomach.

"Hey, Marie, do you have the match list for the tournament yet?" Agent 1 asked.

"Nah. Apparently, commentators aren't important enough to get the schedule before the public does." She didn't sound bitter at all.

"Come on! We're, like, the most famous band in Inkopolis!"

"You know, there's a new band coming up that seems to be getting pretty popular," Agent 3 said. "Off The Handle, or something? I don't know, I don't listen to them much."

"Yeah, I've heard of them," Agent 2 said. "Off the Hook, I think. Not really my style."

"Besides, they've got nothing on the Squid Sisters," mumbled Agent 1. "Hey, Three, are you into the Splat League? I know talking personal life isn't really your thing and all, but like. I'm curious."

Agent 3 sighed, sitting up. They'd probably find out eventually anyway. "Well, I auditioned for Ink Blast."

Instantly, Agent 1 straightened in her chair, leaning forward and lifting her sunglasses off her eyes. "Woah, really? Keri, that's awesome!"

Agent 3 gave her a look.

"I-I mean, Agent 3, that's awesome!"

Agent 3 shrugged. "I guess? I mean, they said I was a good contender, but they haven't announced who's actually joining the team yet."

"Oh, come on, you're one of us badass secret agents!" Agent 1 exclaimed. "They'd be lucky to get you on their team!"

"You're certainly skilled enough for League matches," Agent 2 said.

"I dunno. Everyone in league has these awesome techniques that like, break new ground in how you can use weapons and shit. And all I'm good at is jumping around."

Agent 1 shrugged. "Moving as quickly as you do is a pretty awesome technique in my eyes."

"And there's plenty of pro players who don't have techniques like those," Agent 2 said. "But I guess they're not really as popular." She shrugged.

"Wow, thanks," Agent 3 grumbled, giving Agent 2 a look.

Agent 1 smirked. "So, have you thought of a pro name yet? I wanna practice saying it enthusiastically for when I commentate your matches."

"Try not to get saddled with something stupid," Agent 2 said. "I throw up a little every time I have to say 'Squidbird.' "

Despite herself, Agent 3 flushed a bit. "Guys, come on! I haven't even gotten on the team!"

"Oh my god, I got on the team!" Keri cried, jumping up and down in her bedroom. Opened on her phone was a brief seamail from one Cassie Hyuri, with the subject simply saying, 'Congratulations!'

Dear Keri,

Congratulations! After much deliberation, Ink Blast has decided that you would be the most apt addition to our ranks out of the many applicants, due to your impressive technical skill, quick thinking, and versatility on the field. Our first match isn't for a while, but there's a lot to go through before you're combat-ready. Please come by our offices tomorrow at 1:00pm for initiation. Please be on-time, dress for a turf war, and bring any and all weapons you could see yourself using during the tournament.

We would also ask that you refrain from making your acceptance public for a few days; we want to make a joint announcement with Cephalosquad sometime later this week about both you and their new player, but for that, we need to get you newbies publicity-ready. So for now, keep it on the down-low.

We're looking forward to working with you!

Sincerely,

Cassie "Tentaclaw" Hyari

Keri read and re-read and re-re-read the email, practically vibrating with excitement. She was gonna be in the Splat League! On Ink Blast! Screw being a secret agent, this was the real shit!

Wait.

What the hell was she supposed to do until tomorrow? Cap'n probably wouldn't need her for a few days, and it's not like she had a lot of stuff planned. Callie and Marie would probably want to congratulate her, but she didn't really want them all over her about it until she'd gotten everything a bit more settled. Same with Ben, probably, though he'd be pissed she didn't tell him immediately. Whatever. It was Ben, they'd known each other forever. He'd been pissed at her many, many times in the past, and he'd lived.

She looked over to her weapon rack; it probably wouldn't hurt to make sure everything was in top shape. She'd literally never taken them in for maintenance, so it was probably overdue. Sighing, she grabbed an old backpack and stuffed it with most of her weapons; the Hero Charger and the Hero Roller had to be strapped to her back, and she was carrying the Hero Splatling awkwardly in her arms, but it worked.

Once everything was in place, she left her apartment and made her way to Inkopolis Square, entering into Ammo Knights.

Sheldon greeted her with wave. "Heya! What kind of weapon are you looking for today?"

"Oh, um, I'm just here for maintenance."

"Alrighty! Head on to the back room, my intern will sort you out."

Intern? "Okay."

Keri pushed open a door at the back of the shop, and found herself in a small workshop. A girl with short, yellow tentacles and a simple black beanie was seated in a swivel chair, tinkering with a Dynamo Roller. She turned when Keri entered, putting her tools down.

"Need something?" she asked.

"Yeah, my weapons are due for maintenance I think."

The girl squinted and moved her head to look past Keri's shoulder. "Well, if that charger's anything to go by, then yeah, they sure are. Lay them out on the counter, I'll take a look at them."

Keri frowned. Was it her, or was this girl being a bit rude? Whatever, not her problem. She began removing weapons from her backpack and laying them down on the counter.

The girl's eyebrows climbed higher with each weapon Keri layed out. "Holy sh—holy crap," she said. "You've got a full set of Hero Replicas? That's insane!"

"I worked really hard for them," Keri said. It wasn't really a lie.

"I'll bet. You know, I'd think you'd take better care of them. These aren't mass produced like other weapons; if one of them breaks, you'll be hard pressed to find another one."

Not really. She was pretty sure Cap'n had a whole warehouse full of the things. But she didn't say that.

The girl picked up her Hero Blaster and turned it over in her hands. "Wow, this is a really good replica, too. Where'd you even get all these?"

"Oh, you know."

The girl looked at her for elaboration. Keri didn't give it.

"Well, anyway, for nine weapons, this'll probably take a while. You can wait here or outside if you want."

"I'll just wait here."

"Suit yourself." The girl turned to a speaker sitting next to her and turned it up, pop music filling the room. It wasn't anything Keri recognized, but that really only meant it wasn't one of the Squid Sisters' songs. Sounded like rap, maybe? Rap-pop hybrid kinda thing. She didn't particularly care for it.

"What band is this?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

The girl gave her a look. "Off The Hook. You've seriously never heard of them?"

"Oh, wait, yeah, I know them. Just haven't listened to any of their stuff before. I didn't know it was so… this." She waved her hand vaguely at the speaker.

"Come on, they're stuff's dope! Way better than that overdone pop that the Squid Sisters popularized."

"Oh, you're a hipster. I get it."

The girl's eyes narrowed. "Look, punk, do you want you're weapons fixed or not?"

"Yes. Fine. Sorry."

The girl rolled her eyes, but quickly went to work, starting on the Herobrush. She looked vaguely familiar, now that Keri was really looking at her, but she couldn't quite place it. Had she played with her in turf war? No, that wasn't it.

Done with her work on the brush, the girl reattached the handle and moved on to the Hero Slosher, idly adjusting her beanie.

Keri snapped her fingers. "Aha! You're that girl that bombed the Ink Blast audition!"

The girl started. "Excuse me?"

"I was behind you in line! You came out all like, 'Man, I totally blew it!' "

"I, uh—well, how did you do, huh?" the girl asked defensively.

"I totally beat them," she said excitedly. "I actually—" She stopped, remembering that she was supposed to keep quiet. "Well, I haven't gotten a response yet or anything, but I think I did well."

"Good for you, I guess," the girl growled, bristling.

"So, did you end up auditioning for Cephalosquad?"

"Jeez, it's none of your business!"

Keri let out a low whistle, holding her hands up. "Okay, wow, sorry I asked."

They sat there in an uncomfortable silence until the girl had finished her work. "Alright. Done. You should find that the pressure's gone up on all the guns, and the slosher and roller should have more volume now. You really need to maintain these better; they were full of dried ink and dirt and junk."

"Alright, alright," Keri said, shoveling the guns back into her backpack.

"You know, that kind of weapon care really isn't becoming of a Splat Leaguer," the girl commented wryly.

"Oh my god, why are you so bitter about this? Look, I'm sorry I did better on the audition than you, okay?"

The girl frowned. "We're done here. You can leave now."

Keri rolled her eyes, but complied, swinging on her backpack and exiting the shop. "Some people, man," she grumbled under her breath.

She stopped at the café for a quick bite to eat, then returned to her apartment. Her work as an agent paid surprisingly little for how dangerous it was, so her place was pretty modest. It was also a complete mess, with clothes and various doodads littering the floor.

Keri dropped her backpack to the ground and began placing her weapons back onto their racks. As much as she hated to admit it, they did look a lot nicer now.

She admired them for a few seconds; she had fond memories of all of her weapons, but especially her hero ones. Without them, she would, most likely, be dead. And that would kinda suck, because if she was dead then she wouldn't be able to play in the tournament with Ink Blast.

It still felt like a dream. Hell, it was her dream, pretty much, ever since she'd watched the first season of the Splat League six years ago. Little 10-year-old Keri had watched Ink Blast fight their way up the ladder, and even though they lost in the finals, she'd wanted to be on their team—they were just that cool to her.

(And she supposed she may have had a little crush on Tentaclaw back then, too. Thank god she was over it—that would've been awkward.)

Battling alongside them had been her fantasy for so long, and now it was quickly turning into reality. She supposed she kind of had Cap'n Cuttlefish to thank, honestly; without her field experience as Agent 3, she never would have been able to make the audition. It was funny how life worked out like that.

At last, she retired to her bedroom, flopping down at her desk. She opened her laptop and went onto the Splat League's official website; if she was going to meet with them tomorrow, she should be in the right mood. She pulled up the archived matches from previous years, and began watching.

"Oh my god that's a lot of weapons," Tentaclaw said when Keri trudged into the Ink Blast headquarters, lugging her overstuffed backpack along with her. Apparently, the auditions had been held in one of the practice arenas for the larger Splat League complex; Ink Blast's offices were located in a much smaller part of the building, and they did not, in fact, get their own full-sized turf war arena. They basically had a seating area out in the front that she supposed they used when meeting with people outside the team, a lounge area for breaks and stuff, a storage room, what looked like an office space, and a locker room, which they were in now.

"I told you I switch it up a lot," Keri said, awkwardly setting everything down.

"Man, you really do have a full set of Hero weapons," Brella Knight said, crouching down. He picked up her brella. "I've always wanted to test out the Hero Brella Replica. I know that it's basically the same as the Splatbrella, but it's still cool."

"Why does everybody care so much about the fact that I have a full set?" Keri wondered aloud. She was hoping people would just kinda be like 'oh, neat,' and then move on. She had gotten lucky with that maintenance girl in Ammo Knights, but eventually somebody was gonna realize these weren't replicas.

"Because it's unusual, and it shows your dedication to the sport," Tentaclaw explained. "Actually, that's an important thing in this kind of business. If you want to build up a fanbase and sell merch, you're going to need to stand out. Hell, you could even theme yourself after this if you wanted, like how Orion has his whole dumb 'Knight' shtick."

"It's not dumb, it's original," Brella Knight said.

Keri frowned. "Orion?"

Cassie looked at her. "Yeah? That's his name?"

"Oh, right. I dunno, I just, um."

Tentaclaw laughed. "Come on, Keri, you don't think we really refer to each other with our pro names, do you? Most of them are really dumb anyway. I'm Cassie, he's Orion, and—well, I don't know where Bomber ran off to, but her name's Halley."

"Yeah, please don't call me Brella Knight every time you refer to me," Orion said. "That name was a mistake I made at a young age."

Cassie turned to him and smirked. "Really? I thought the whole knight thing was original?"

"The knight part is cool," he said. "I just wish I hadn't slapped 'brella' in front of it. Marie keeps saying 'Brella's Sorella Brella' when referring to my weapon, and I know she's just shortening the names for commentating reasons, but at this point it really sounds like she's making fun of me."

Keri laughed. She knew Marie—she was definitely making fun of him.

Cassie giggled, then turned back to Keri. "Well, anyway, about your weapons: since you're a member of a league team, you're actually free to keep them here at our offices. It's really nice not having to lug them from the residential areas all the way to the Square or Plaza for turf wars and stuff."

Keri nodded, noticing the weapon racks lining the locker room—there was a plethora of different blasters, chargers, and brellas, and a sprinkling of other weapons here and there.

"Just find space wherever for now. We'll clear you off your own rack soon."

"Oh, I don't mind," Keri said, laying her various guns down on the racks. "I'm a pretty messy person myself."

"Don't tell Halley that," Orion said, causing both him and Cassie to laugh.

"Don't tell me what?" Halley questioned, appearing in the doorway and looking at Orion suspiciously. Her tentacles were braided, pulled over one shoulder, and her goggles were resting on her forehead, as opposed to on her eyes like when she was in battle.

"There you are!" Cassie said, walking up to her teammate and around the question. "Where were you? You missed Keri."

"Sorry, I was getting the paperwork."

"Of course you were," Orion said.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

" 'Hey, new recruit, welcome to Ink Blast. Here's your paperwork! Go into the corner and fill it out, won't you?' " Orion made faces as he spoke, doing a poor imitation of Halley's voice.

"She's not even officially on the team until she fills these out, brella-brain."

Cassie rolled her eyes. "Quit it, you two. Let's just get the forms over with, alright?"

"Thank you," Halley said, pushing past Orion to stand in front of Keri. She dropped a thin stack of papers into her hands, along with a pen. "Okay, so, this one is official induction into the team, and then this one is official induction into the tournament, this one is a liability thing so you can't sue Splat League if you get hurt during a match, and this one is an agreement that all merchandising based off of your professional identity must be approved for sale by Splat League. Oh, and then you have to fill out this one on how you want to receive your payment."

Keri had about a million questions, but the one that managed to push its way out of her mouth first was, "I'm being paid?"

Silence.

"Uh." Halley blinked. "You thought you weren't being paid?"

Keri scratched the back of her head. "Well, I dunno, I guess I never thought about it."

"Keri, we're literally called 'pro battlers.' Pro. As in professional. As in this is our full-time profession."

"Well, full time isn't wholly accurate," Cassie interjected. "During the off season, Splat League won't pay you. But there are a lot of tournaments, and those of us in the Splat League tend to participate in the larger ones of those as well. There's also sponsor deals, showing up at promos, that sort of thing, for in-between tournaments."

"Oh, shit," Keri said.

"That's not a problem, is it?" Cassie asked, starting to look a bit concerned. "You will have to be able to commit a good amount of time to this."

"N-no, not at all! It's great, actually. I could really use the money. I just hadn't really considered all of the… everything. But that's totally cool—I don't do a whole lot, so it's not like there will be schedule conflicts." Not unless the Great Zapfish was stolen again, or something dumb like that.

Once all the paperwork was filled out, Keri handed it back to Halley, who shoved it into a folder. "Great. I'll take these to where they need to go later today, and then it'll all be official. And speaking of the industry and all, you're going to need a pro name, and preferably some sorta theme to base your look off of. Something for fans to latch onto."

"We talked about that a bit before you came in," Cassie said, lifting up Keri's Hero Shot with one of her tentacles and tossing it into her arms. "We were thinking she might be able to play off of all this hero gear she has."

Halley looked at the Hero Shot, looked at Keri, and hummed. "That's not a bad idea, actually."

Orion snapped his fingers. "And didn't Cuttlegear release a line based off of the agents after they saved the Great Zapfish? I remembered wanting to pick up some of those hero headphones, but they were too small on me."

"Uh, I don't know," Keri mumbled, not liking where this was going. She knew she shouldn't have used her Hero weapons—it was too risky! But after using them for so long, switching off them would feel weird, and she would've had to buy new ones, and… ugh. This was a mess.

"It kinda fits your playstyle, too, don't you think?" Cassie added, each word sending Keri deeper into regret. "Great at dodging enemy fire, knows how to handle multiple opponents; sounds like agent stuff to me. There's that rumor that Agent 3 took on a whole Octarian army single-handed. I mean, it's a ludicrous rumor, but still."

Shit. Say something. "But wouldn't this be kind of disrespectful to the agents and everything? I mean, even if nobody's ever seen them, they're real Inklings, and I'd kind of be using their style without their permission and all." She was grasping at straws here. Was it obvious she was grasping at straws here?

"I think it'd come across more as a respectful kind of thing," Orion said. "Especially if you say that. Just be like, 'Even though no one knows who they are, and even though they get no credit, they fight tirelessly for what the greater good. It's where I draw my inspiration.' People buy that stuff up so fast."

"Plus, you can't go wrong with a name like 'Hero.' It's short, it's simple; I don't really see a downside. I mean, it's your choice, but like." Halley shrugged. "Seems like the obvious choice, you know?"

Keri looked between the faces of her new teammates, six expectant eyes staring at her. The idea was solid. Every point they'd made had been a good one. She just wished her secret identity as Agent 3 and her pseudo-secret identity as a professional battler weren't literally the same thing.

So she put on a smile. "That's actually not a bad idea. Let's do it."

Cassie fist-pumped. "Yes! Just watch, you're gonna be so cool-looking out on the field! Oh, my god, we should get you a cape!"

"No, we shouldn't" Halley said immediately.

Keri thought for a moment. A cape sounded pretty fresh, honestly. She pictured herself standing at the top of a cliff, maybe, right after saving Inkopolis from certain destruction. She had the Hero Charger resting over her shoulder, tentacles swaying in the wind, an epic cape flapping wickedly behind her…

"A cape sounds cool," she said, simply, instead of all that edgy nonsense.

"I'm pretty sure capes are against Splat League gear policy," Orion said.

"Oh." Darn.

She was still gonna buy a cape.

"Wait, how do you know that?" Cassie asked, narrowing her eyes at Orion. "Were you seriously considering buying a cape for your whole knight thing?"

"No, shut up," he said.

Cassie broke into laughter. "Oh my god."

"Is there anything else we need to cover?" Orion asked, changing the subject.

"She'll need to write up her bio on the Splat League website, but that's not hard," Cassie said. "And then she needs to actually get her gear and stuff before the first match, but that's not for a while."

"Right, the bio, I almost forgot," Halley said, pulling out her phone. "I'll seamail you a link right now. Just go to the Splat League site and log in with this username and password, and then go to 'battler bio' and fill everything in. You've probably read bios before, but just talk yourself up, basically. Like, 'Halley "Bomber" Heck is a wild, unpredictable player. Able to launch herself across the turf with her own blaster shots, she's sure to leave destruction and lots of splatted opponents in her wake.' That sort of thing."

"Do you seriously have your bio memorized?" Orion asked.

"No, I made all of that up just now."

Keri looked at her. "I can't tell if you're being serious."

Cassie and Orion both shrugged, looking just as confused on the matter.

"Alright, well, I think that's everything," Cassie said. "Oh, well, they always hold this event where all the new battlers get to meet fans. You'll be with whoever Cephalosquad picked out, and then I think there's a new team, too, who got in from juniors. But us and Cephalosquad are the only previous teams new members. So that'll be fun."

More like nerve wracking and stressful, but, yeah, fun works too.

"Now, are you down for a bit of training?" Cassie asked, flexing her tentacles menacingly.

Keri smiled. Now, here was the part she did know a thing or two about.