Author's notes: Hey I'm back again for summer to do more chapter updates.

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 7: Zapfish and Octarians

Out of all the things I'd thought I'd see down in a secret dome where supposedly our race's greatest enemy resided a bright clearing-like area wasn't one of them.

Landing on my knees I gritted my fangs tightly as I groaned loudly, staring at the ground for several minutes as I waited for the pain to stop. Looking up I gasped as I saw a clear sky with tiny clouds and dozens of floating platforms scattered in front of me, "What...?"

"It's not the real sky Agent 3, it's just an illusion the Octarians set up to look real."

I nearly swore out loud as I jumped a little at the sudden sound of the captain's voice through my headset. It was going to take a bit to get used to it, "Oh...I-I guess that makes sense..."

"Don't worry Agent 3 you'll probably won't see any Octarians. This dome is pretty inactive."

"If you say so..." I mumbled as pulling the Hero Shot from its holster next to my tank and moved forward.

Eventually I ran across a swirling pool next to an inactive respawn point. Seeing how lifeless it seemed I shuddered, "Cap'n Cuttlefish?"

"Yes Bucko?"

I cringed at the nickname but tried to ignore it, "I found a respawn point...but it seems dead..."

"Ah, you must have come across an emergency port."

"Emergency port?"

"A very special type of respawn point that will be able to bring you back with some of the energy stored in it, however most of these don't have very much energy now and can only bring you back a few times before it runs out of energy. After that, unless it's reserves are out, it will teleport you back here in Octo Valley if you get splatted again."

"Oh..." taking a step closer the modified respawn point glowed bright green like my current ink color before dimming down to gently pulsing green glow, "are these all over the place?"

"Yep...you'd see quite a few or these if you explored more of the domes."

"Why is there so many?"

He hesitated before answering, "Well I did say you are not my only Agent."

"True..." something about the way he said it seemed odd but I decided not to question him.

"You should be near a super jump port as well if I remember correctly..."

I glanced over at the swirling pool I saw earlier, "should it be the same color as me?"

"Oh! You found it?"

"I think so..." I took another look around myself only to see I was at a dead end. Going back would have been pointless and I didn't see a way forward...except...

Gently stepping into the pool I felt it sucking at the bottoms of my shoes. Since I couldn't think of anything else to try with it I instinctively shifted into my squid form after a minute of simply standing on it and it doing nothing.

Immediately I felt a large amount of ink rush into my body and before I could do anything I shot into the air a second later.

I yelled loudly as I flew until I saw I was about to land. Bringing my legs forward I only stumbled a little as I touched down on something solid again.

"Fun wasn't it?"

I clenched my fangs tightly before answering, "A little warning about what it did would have been nice Cap'n..."

"Oh...sorry about that lad."

"It's fine Cap'n, I'm not hurt or anyth-" I froze as I saw something suddenly round a corner and start coming towards me. Looking at it longer I realized the thing was actually two things the first being a small scooter of some sort but it was the thing driving it that was the main reason I stopped moving.

It's skin was maroon in color and was pretty short in comparison to me with bright luminous green eyes with purple markings around its eyes but I could only see one of its eyes since the other one was covered by its one long tentacle.

"C-cap'n...?"

"What is it Agent 3?"

"What do-ack!" I ducked as a large blob of purple colored ink almost hit me in the face. Looking up I saw the strange creature had spotted me.

"Intruder! We have an intruder!" I heard it cry out before with a twist of the joystick like handle a hose like object rose and started to aim at me.

"Oh carp!" I ducked behind some random crates as another blob of ink came at me, "Cap'n I'm being shot at!"

"You're what?!"

"I thought you said this dome was inactive?!"

"I-it should be...maybe it's just someone on patrol..." he suddenly sounded uncertain of himself on that fact.

"Well either way I need help!" I winced inwardly as another blob whizzed inches away from my face.

"Don't you have your Hero Shot Agent 3?"

"Yes?"

"Then use it to take the Octarian down!"

"B-but..." a sound to my left caused me to fall silent as I went behind another crate as I heard the Octarian start speaking again.

"The intruder appears to be neutralized. Beginning search for potential other intruders..." the sound of his scooter getting closer made me tense up as he came around the corner of the crate.

"N-no!" pulling the trigger a blast of green ink came out of the weapon and hit the Octarian straight in the chest. With a screech of pain it exploded into green ink right in front of me.

"Agent 3...? Agent 3?!"

"Y-yes Cap'n...?" I finally stammered out.

"You alright lad?"

"I'm fine..." slowly I got up from the ground.

"Perhaps you should come back then..."

"N-no sir...I can do this..." lifting the Hero Shot up I started moving forward.

"You sure?"

"Yeah..." I stopped in front of another super jump port. Turning into a squid I launched high into the air and landed on a different floating platform.

I didn't see any more Octarians as I continued to progress through the place so when I came across a raised area on one platform I was somewhat cautious, "sir...I think I found something..."

"What is it...?"

"A large pedestal or something..." looking at the top I blinked rapidly at a sudden bright light that came from it suddenly, "...and there is something really bright on the top of it..."

"That has got to be the Zapfish Agent 3! You're almost out of there."

"That's great Cap-" stepping forward I was suddenly met with a decent sized Octarian that erupted from the purple ink.

"Intruder detected!" it roared as it shot several large shots of purple ink at me.

Ducking behind a crate I yelped as I felt the ink touch my sleeve and start seeping into it. The following burning sensation made me yell even louder as I tried wiping the ink off me which only made my hand then burn.

"Get into your own ink Agent 3!" Cap'n Cuttlefish cried out.

Gritting my teeth I dropped onto my stomach as I shifted. The cooling touch of my ink on my skin was somewhat soothing to the irritated areas on my body, "S-sir..."

"You alright Agent 3?"

"I think so...their ink hurts a lot..."

"It's extremely poisonous to our race. The very touch of it burns our skin worse than acid. Thankfully our own ink has healing properties to our race..."

"Y-yeah..." turning back into my humanoid form I kneeled in the puddle of my ink as I tried regaining my breath, "what would happen if I got hit with more ink than I did?"

"You saw what happened to that first Octarian you took down..."

I swallowed as I nodded only to remember he couldn't see me, "yes sir...I understand..."

"Good...you better hurry before you alert more of them."

"Right..." taking a deep breath I braced myself mentally as I came out from behind the crate with the hope that the Octarian had wondered off.

As I came out though it took all my self control not to cry in in fear like a squirt when I saw it was right in front of me with its weapon now trained on my face.

"Thought you could hide from me Inkling?!" It demanded with a thick accent that I was coming to the conclusion was normal to the Octarians, our language must not originally been the same as theirs.

"I was hoping..." I admitted with a nervous laugh before leaping to the side as I shifted.

"Intruder on the run! Currently in pursuit!" I heard it say as the sound of ink flying through the air reached my ears. Zigzaging through the green ink I tried to avoid getting hit again.

Going into humanoid form while in midair I turned my head while landing only to end up with ink in my eyes, "ack!" reaching up to my face I took a step forward only to feel myself trip over a crack in the worn tarmac. Crashing to the floor pain flared up from the side of my head as I felt my weapon slip out of my fingers.

Wiping the ink out of my eyes I scoured the ground desperately as my eyes continued to water until I swung my head to my left and ended up with the muzzle of an Octarian weapon in my face, "Nice try Inkling..."

Blinking back tears I looked up at the Octarian in disbelief which made it chuckle, "Who's idea was it to send a little kid out to fight against Octarians?"

"N-none of your business!" I finally stammered out which only made him laugh more.

"I don't know which is funnier...the old coot sending a kid out here or the fact the kid stupid enough to think he could handle it..." He stopped laughing however when he saw me aiming my Hero Shot at his face as I glared at him.

"I'm not just some stupid kid! I'm Agent 3 and I can totally handle it!" his eyes grew wide with fear for a second before he exploded into ink.

"Agent 3...? You okay?" the Cuttlefish eventually asked me after several minutes of silence.

"Yeah...I'm okay..." I suddenly felt drained and my head was still slightly throbbing from hitting the ground as I spoke to him, "I just need to go get the Zapfish and I'll be out of here," looking down I spotted something glittering in the ink from the Octarian exploding. Picking it up I quickly realized it was a key.

"The Octarian was a guard..." looking around I spotted a vault that was clearly covering something up.

Walking over to it I slipped the key into a hole in it and it opened to reveal a super jump port. Slipping into squid form I flew over to the pedestal and landed on the edge as I blinked several times while I waited for my eyes to adjust to the sudden light.

After a minute the light died down and I could finally see that what had caused was a small yellow fish in a light bulb shaped container.

It wasn't the fish itself that had glowed but the wires its long whiskers were attached to. As I approached it let out a squeak of fear until the wires lit up and it yelped in pain instead, "how could they let such a cute little creature be in so much pain...?"

"They don't care about the pain they are causing Agent 3..."

"I can see that..." biting my lip I shot at the container and covered my head as glass flew past my face before stepping forward to release the Zapfish from the wires.

"You did very well Agent 3," the captain told me as he looked at the young Zapfish that was still curled up around my chest. Its entire body shuddering in fear as I gently rubbed the top of its head.

"Thank you Cap'n," I stopped petting the Zapfish with a sigh, "I wasn't quite expecting what had happened..."

"I'm sorry lad...that wasn't how it was supposed to go. It seems the Octarians must have known I'd send an agent to stop them. At least you made it back in one piece and now that we have this Zapfish it will be able to bring us one step closer to stopping them," he held out his hands to me, "you can let go of it now Marlin and be on your way."

I hesitated as I took a step back, "Um, actually Cap'n...I'd like to reconsider your offer..."

"What?" he looked at me confused for a second before recognition came into his eyes, "you mean...?"

"Yeah, I'll be an agent for you..."

"Why did you change your mind?"

"The fact that the Octarians have no care for the pain they are causing...it's not right. I can't let them do this!"

"If you are certain..."

"I am."

"Very well...from this point on you are officially Agent 3. No other agent can bare this title and no other person besides other agents are to know of these missions you'll be going on...you understand?"

I nodded.

"Good...since I need to be able to get in touch with you whenever I need you take this..." grabbing something out of his pocket he pulled out a black bracelet with white markings, "it's made so it will only work for you once you put it on. It's your communicator for when you aren't in the field and wearing those..." he pointed to the headset around my neck currently, "keep it close and on your person at all times."

"I will," slipping it on the bands went from white to orange on it as I adjusted it on my wrist.

"Alright...the gear is also yours so you may want to take it home and get cleaned..."

"What?" lifting my arms up I recoiled slightly at the smell of sweat and body odor as it reached my nose, "okay...point taken..."

"Mhm...rest and prepare for tomorrow, you'll certainly need it..."

"Thank you Cap'n," I gave him a quick bow before handing him the Zapfish. Slipping behind the shack to go change I got back into my gear from before and walked back out with my agent gear in my hands to find him holding a black Turf War bag.

"I noticed you don't seem to have one...you can use it to hide your agent gear."

"Oh...thank you Cap'n..." taking it from him I hastily tossed the stuff into it, "I don't suppose there is another way out of here besides..." I indicated the sewer grate.

"Fraide not Agent 3. But it hasn't been used for actual sewage in a long time."

"That doesn't make me feel better..." taking a deep breath I walked over to it and dropped down into it in squid form.

Pulling myself back up through the grate at the edge of the plaza was difficult, but not impossible once I had realized a small super jump up to it would give me enough height to allow me to grasp the bars. Once I was out I shifted back to prevent myself from falling back down, "oh cod...I've been down there a lot longer than I thought..." with a groan I looked up at the dusk filled sky, "Whark's gonna kill me..."

"You're certainly got one thing right!" I turned my head in time to see Whark come at me before pinning me to a wall, "where the kelp have you been?!"

"S-sorry...I had to..." I stopped myself as I took a quick glance at the black bracelet on my wrist, "I...I had to be alone for a bit..."

"You ran off!"

"Whark he said he was sorry about running off!" Alga rushed up and pulled him off me, "can't we just leave it at that?!"

"I suppose..." he glared at me for a moment before he finally relaxed, "just...don't leave without saying something first...okay?"

"Yeah, I will," I nodded.

"Alright...while you were gone we found a few apartments to rent. With our wins from today I was able to make a down payment on one while Alga did the same with another."

"What about Noi?"

"Noi Humloche? She went home I believe..." Alga explained, "from what I gathered her family actually lives in Inkopolis."

"Really...?" I didn't mean to make it sound like I was upset about it but after I had said it I couldn't help notice Whark raise an eyebrow at me until he noticed I was staring at him and he dropped his gaze.

"We should get going...it's nearly sundown. Come on Mari-I mean Marlin..." he started heading down a side street with me having no choice but to follow as quickly as I could after nodding a goodbye at Alga who had a worried look on her face as she watched us leave.

After several minutes of walking Whark climbed up onto the porch steps of a small apartment house as he pulled out a key, "There's two keys...one for each of us," he tossed one at me which I barely caught, "I'm serious about what I said before...don't run off like that again man..."

"Don't worry...I won't," I insisted as I took in the place as we walked in, "pretty nice place..."

"Yeah...we got lucky," he let out a yawn, "but I don't know about you but I'm going to go sleep...night Marlin."

"Yeah...night Whark..." as he walked into the bedroom I couldn't stop myself from looking at the bracelet again, "what have I gotten myself into...?"