Shelly had overheard Randy and Angela.
"So, I guess you figured it too, Randy."
Angela and Randy turned their heads towards Shelly.
"Shell? Did you… hear everything we just said?" Randy asked.
"Yeah, I did."
"So, wait, you figured that Michael was in the war too?"
"Yeah. He told me about something the other day that really made me believe it."
"What was that?"
"He told me about the Octoling he saw, I was able to see in his face that he was really concerned about it."
"And you figured he was in the war from that? How?" Angela asked.
"He looks similar to the Michael from the war, him being really scared about an Octoling was all I really needed to figure it out."
"Have you ever considered going to law school? You could make a hardened criminal sweat bullets with deduction skills like those."
"Randy, you and I both know nothing's set in stone yet about this, for all we know this could all just be a huge set of coincidences." Angela put in.
"Yeah, keep sayin' that, and maybe it'll be true." Randy took a sip of a soda can he had popped open. "C'mon Angela you can't possibly think this is all a huge coincidence, not with how much evidence we've got."
"I'd like there to be at least one person who's skeptical about this, and I'd like that person to be me."
"So does that mean you don't even believe your own words, and you're just saying that stuff because you "think" someone should think it?" Randy chuckled.
"Well, I… Alright I'll admit that it ain't the easiest thing denying it, but there's more than just two opinions on this."
"No there isn't, you either think he was in the war or not, there's not much of a gray area here."
"Well either way, arguing about it ain't gonna solve a damn thing."
"Now that's something I can agree with."
Angel and Randy, in the middle of their small disagreement, hadn't even noticed that Shelly had called Michael.
"Yeah, I need to talk to you about something, can you come over quick? Yeah, Randy and Angela are here. Alright, thanks."
Shelly ended the call after Michael agreed. She looked over to Angela and Randy.
"You called him about this!?"
"Yep."
"When we were going to try and plan out a way to get him to tell us!?"
"Mhm."
Angela and Randy just sat in silence before both uttering "Why!?" in unison.
"You two would've been too busy getting mad over small arguments for you to actually formulate a coherent plan."
Angela and Randy looked at each other and back at Shelly, with a defeated look that said 'Yeah, I guess you're right.'
"Uh, sorry guys, but I gotta leave. A friend of mine needs to talk." Michael said to his brothers-in-arms. Though with how the situation was they were more aptly named "Sisters-in-arms".
Michael was able to catch up with Agents 1 and 2 during their down time, they may have been working with Captain Cuttlefish, but when they weren't busy with that, they spent time being the Squid Sisters, the biggest musical sensations in Inkopolis, Callie and Marie.
"Aww, but you just got here! C'mon, Mikey, can't you hang out a while?" Callie said, a bit disappointedly.
"I'm really sorry but I don't want to ditch my friends if there's something important to talk about."
Marie cut in. "We understand, you can go, we need to get back on stage soon anyways." She leaned in close to speak out of Callie's hearing range. "Don't mind Callie, she's just really excited to see you again." Marie winked at Michael before going back to a neutral position. "But thanks for telling us about the Octoling, we'll keep a watch out for her."
"Yup, you can count on us!"
"Thanks guys, I'll see you around."
Michael got home quickly to see Randy and Angela sitting on the couch watching TV and Shelly sitting at the table reading a book.
Angela noticed him. "Hey, welcome back, how'd it go with those friends of yours?"
"It went fine, was nice to see them again. So, uh, Shelly, what was it that you wanted to talk about?"
Shelly put in a nearby pencil as a makeshift bookmark and closed her book. "I think Angela would like to talk first."
All eyes rested on Angela. "So, uh… damn this ain't gonna be easy but here goes. Michael, last night I woke up and saw you leaving the house. So, um, I… followed you."
Michael's face turned much paler than it should have and his blood cooled to icy temperatures for a brief moment. "O-Oh, did you?" He tried his best to hide his nervousness but only succeeded in making it more prevalent.
"Yeah I did, and, uh, Shelly told us about the Octarian you saw."
Michael glanced at Shelly for a brief moment, making eye contact. She had a guilty look on her face, obviously not feeling good about giving away what Michael told her, now that Angela brought it up to him. She didn't want to hold his gaze much longer and turned her head towards the TV.
"And, uh, we wanted to ask, why did you go tell that old Cuttlefish guy before you told us?"
'Oh no.' She had heard him talking to Captain Cuttlefish, calling him 'Sir' and 'Captain', his cover was blown.
Michael stammered a bit, trying to push words together to form a lie. But upon the fourth moment of silence, he gave up.
"Give me a second." He said in a quiet tone. He was devastated, not just about his cover being blown, but even moreso about thinking how they'd treat him now that they knew. They knew everything about him being a hero of a war. Of course things would change, he knew they would after this.
He had to mentally fight himself to keep from breaking down right then and there.