If you wanna criticize this story please be respectful and constructive in the reviews! This is my take on an agent 24 child! Unlike my last 24 story (which wasn't 100% serious anyway) they all have names!
Captain 3: Cerulean (Ceru for short)
Agent 8: Haru
Agent 4: Ember
Neo 3: Celeste
They're all their canon ages except neo 3, she's 16 (I think she's canonically 14 in the game)
"THERE HE IS!" Shouted an elite octarian soldier to her small group of lower troops. Fear rushed through the body of a 14 year old octoling boy. He had light purple eyes and as he put it, "shamefully donned the Octarian ink color." He was wearing the neo octoling armor but had no weapon.
He could hear the sound of his heart pounding more than the shouts and commands of the octoling leading the troops. The boy looked behind him to see a light from an octoseeker in the distance, distracted by fear he tripped on a rock. "Shit!" He said under his breath.
"We finally got you now, traitor." snickered one of the octolings chasing him down as she approached the fallen teenager. "No one gets away with hearing that squid propaganda!" She was really close as he finally got up, he froze in fear. "Not gonna fight me? That makes my job easier." She was about to grab him, but he kicked her in the face, shattering her neo shades. He quickly made a run for it. The soldier began to curse in octarian.
The runaway blocked out every sound the group after him made, his legs were in great pain, he didn't stop for anything until the end, where he picked up a sledgehammer laying on the ground. He super jumped to the ceiling of the dome and destroyed part of it with the hammer so he could break free.
"FUCK!" Screamed the elite octarian. "You idiots let him escape!"
"Sorry m-miss." stammered another octoling, clearly scared of her. "He just-"
"He tripped and took over an entire minute to get up, YOU STILL SOMEHOW FAILED TO CATCH HIM?"
"Miss please! We-"
"Not another word." She shot the other in anger, the lower octoling respawned all the way back at their base, miles away.
"The great Octavio chose us to patrol Beaker's Depot, foolishness like this is disrespecting his name…Don't make me fire another shot."
The octoling boy super jumped out of the dome, the ground above was a barren field of grass with a few trees. He noticed that there were train tracks next to him, and shortly after he heard an actual train. It was a freight train, and one of it's cars was mistakenly left wide open. He took a deep breath, and jumped into it. It was heading westward, though he didn't know where yet.
The boy was amazed when the train went across the bridge, a vast ocean sat below him. He had never seen such a beautiful sight, though like most cephalopods, he couldn't swim in it, though another reason could be because jumping off the bridge might be dangerous. Eventually he fell asleep, as he was completely exhausted from running.
He never noticed it, but he was smiling for the entire ride. Octo Valley and Canyon were no longer part of his life now.
The sound of the train's horn woke him up. Since it was now stopping, he jumped off. It was hot, but that wasn't an issue since he was wearing the somewhat revealing octoling armor. It was midnight, it seemed that no one was out on the street– Perfect. He looked around, the entire city looked abandoned at this hour. The shops were dead silent and as dark as the sky above.
However, there was one place open, that being a fancy restaurant. He peeked through the window, a bit frightened since he saw tons of cephalopods in there. He quickly turned around, standing right next to the door. Inside the restaurant, many couples were on romantic dates, a blue inkling boy and a pink octoling boy in particular.
"It's already midnight." said the octoling. "We should get going." The two left their table and paid. The inkling went ahead, he usually does that to look "protective." His octoling finds it quite cute. "That was some good food." he said, impolitely flinging the door wide-open. It didn't open all the way, as the runaway was there. He yelped when the door slammed on his face, startling the couple. The inkling's boyfriend stayed back in fear.
The inkling was locally known for getting extremely irritated by these sorts of things, and he was about to. But when he saw who he hit, he quickly noticed something in the runaway octoling's eyes– Sadness. His anger turned into pity.
"Sorry." He said, trying to sound soft and kind. "What's your name?" he then asked awkwardly (his social skills aren't great). The octoling just stared into his deep blue eyes, as if he wasn't sure how to answer. He finally spoke up. "Don't have one."
"Wait a moment…" The inkling muttered. He had a closer look at this mysterious octoling, and noticed that he was in full octarian armor, except the shades were replaced with a cheap black mask covering most of his face. He was also covered in all kinds of scrapes, bruises and scars.
"Are you from…"
The octoling didn't want to hear the rest. "Can you shut up?" he asked somewhat aggressively. The inkling frowned. "Did something happen?" he asked, but he quickly felt a bit bad for it. "I don't want to go back." said the octoling, with another hint of sadness. The inkling oddly felt the same way. He assumed the octoling was from Octo Valley, and he's definitely been there before.
A closer look at the inkling caused the octoling to have a brief flashback.
"That damn squid!" yelled a large pink octopus with green eyes.
The inkling asked if he was okay. "You're spacing out." The octoling snapped back into reality. "Wait…" he said shyly. "I don't have anywhere to go."
"You can stay with us." he replied. A very small smile formed on the octo's face. "As soon as I properly get used to whatever this place is called, i'll be out." he said.
"You mean Splatsville?"
"If that's what it's called. Wait, who's us?"
"I live with my boyfriend." said the inkling.
It began to rain. The inkling's boyfriend stepped out, his hair covered by his hood and protected from the rainwater. The runaway was hesitant, but he got in their car.
"What's your name?" asked the other octoling. "He doesn't have one." his boyfriend said, answering for the mysterious guest. "It's…whatever." said the runaway octo. "What's yours?"
"I'm Haru, and that cute inkling next to you is Cerulean." he smiled. "H-Haru!" Cerulean's face was covered by blush. "I dunno about cute." said Cerulean, flustered. "I think i'm tough."
"You can be both." said Haru, softly laughing. "Here we are." he parked the car. Their guest's first thought was on how huge their house was.
Inside, Haru let the strange octo rest on his bed. He took off his hood, which sent a fearful strike down the other's back. "I knew it…"
"Knew what?" asked Haru, who's calm tone quickly disappeared as he dodged a punch from the other. "You look like you work for Octavia!"
"Octavia?" Despite being a former member of the army, Haru had never heard of her. "Don't act stupid." Haru froze. Cerulean then came in. "Did I interrupt something?"
"I…I WON'T LET YOU TAKE ME BACK THERE!"
He was about to break down, but Haru hugged him tightly. "I don't know your story or who Octavia is, but you won't go back there." The octoling wanted to cry. "We'll make sure you're safe." The two split apart after a minute. "Are you comfortable with telling us something about what happened?" he asked, softly.
"Octavia is the head of the Beaker's Depot wing in the Octarian army. She's endlessly tortured me since I was a kid." he said nothing more about her, he didn't want to burst into tears in front of these strangers. "Cerulean, I don't have a name, i've just been called by various bullshit numbers ever since she took over as the leader…"
"What should we call you?" asked Haru. Their guest wasn't sure. "To start, your eyes are this very pale purple." he said. "They look almost white. It reminds me of quartz."
"Quartz…" the nameless octo mumbled.
"Did you say something?"
"Quartz…I'd like to be called that."
"It's decided then, your name is Quartz!"
Quartz began to cry. He began to feel at home, like he truly belonged. "W-why are you crying again?" asked Cerulean in slight panic. "I'm not upset." said Quartz. "I've never been called something so…genuine." he wiped his tears. "It's nice."
He remembered Octavia again. She always referred to him by the various soldier numbers she assigned him. She forced him to become a soldier when he was 5, shortly after the death of his mother, who foolishly trusted her with taking care of him.
This made him tear up once again, he felt the large scar around his left arm as he cried. Haru rushed to comfort him and Cerulean quickly followed. "None of these scars were from fighting for DJ Octavio." he said quietly. "If we were all fighting in the same army, why was I hurt like this?" After having the first shower in months and searching for a fitting pair of pyjamas, he went to bed, and had a good sleep for once.
The two took Quartz shopping for clothes in the morning. They went to a place in Arowana mall, since stores like Man-o'-Wardrobe won't let "unfresh" cephalopods in. Quartz also changed his ink color to dark purple, finally getting rid of the octarian red he had for so long.
A few inklings eyed him, fearfully averting their gaze when he glared back. When he wasn't looking at those kinds of people, he was focused on looking down at the acerola rain boots Cerulean had just bought for him. This caused him to accidentally bump into a clothing rack. "You really like those shoes, huh?" muttered Cerulean, who was experiencing second-hand embarrassment.
Quartz didn't hear him, he just shoved a manatee swag sweat into the inkling's hands, his second-hand embarrassment fading when he saw the sparkle in his guest's eyes. Haru came back over to them with a blobmob mask, asking Quartz if he liked it. The younger octoling happily nodded. After shopping, he rushed into the fitting room to change into his outfit, almost getting emotional from looking at himself in the mirror.
"You look good." said Cerulean. "How do you feel?" asked Haru. "Good." replied Quartz, smiling under his mask. When they were leaving, something outside the window on the lower floor caught Quartz's eye. Eight cephalopods were rushing around and covering the floor in ink. "Is everything okay?" asked Haru. "Haru, what are they doing?"
The older octoling laughed. "They're playing turf war! Two teams of four fight as they ink the floor. The team with the most ground covered wins." he explained. "It looks fun." Quartz sighed. "They played this in Octo Canyon too, but I never actually saw what it looked like until now."
"You're walking too slow!" yelled Cerulean, not because he was angry but because he didn't notice they stopped and was on the other side of the hall. "C-coming!" answered Haru, taking Quartz's hand and running over to his boyfriend.
"Let's get you a haircut." said Cerulean. "You look homeless with that style." They went into the salon, and an octoling girl greeted them and took Quartz to a seat. "What style are you looking for?" she asked. He looked over at Haru. "I want his hairstyle." Haru blushed a bit, he felt flattered by his answer. "That shouldn't take us too long." said the hairdresser happily.
(I think they call it hair and not tentacles cuz I know Pearl calls Marina's hair a hairstyle and not a tentaclestyle or something in a chat log)
As expected, Quartz loved it. "Octavia would hate this!" he thought, slightly smirking.
One hour later…
Beaker's Depot, Octo Canyon…
"Miss Octavia! We found him." called an octoling, running into the base. "Where?" boomed Octavia. "My buddy's keeping an eye on him now, we spotted him at Arowana Mall in Inkopolis!" they answered. "Hmmm…" hummed the elite. "Keep an eye on him."
"Wait, miss! That's not the entire story."
"What?"
"He was with two people, miss."
"And why are they important?"
"The octoling looked like that soldier who worked at Tentakeel Outpost a while ago, said to have fallen victim to the squid music before disappearing during that strange green octarian invasion, it looks like he survived it and betrayed the great leader."
"So-called "octolings" betray us quite often, so what? Who was the inkling?"
"He almost looked like…"
"Looked like what?"
"A-a-ag…"
"Like WHAT?"
"AGENT THREE!"
"Hmph." she huffed. "I'm not surprised, really. How pathetic."
She went over to the small mic in her office. "SOLDIERS! THE RUNAWAY HAS BEEN LOCATED! GET OVER HERE IMMEDIATELY TO DISCUSS THE PLAN!" she yelled into it, which basically summoned the entire local troops. She got up and went to the whiteboard that stood in front of everyone. "Good. That rat has been found, one of our competent soldiers is spying on him as we speak." Octavia said calmly.
"Once we get a solid location, I will bring three of my strongest warriors with me to drag him back here." she continued. "Let's discuss how we'll sneak into that above-ground hell..."
To be continued…
That's chapter 1! Agent 4 and neo 3 will appear in the next one and I also plan to make the agents actually do agent things too so don't worry!
If you're wondering why I chose Beaker's Depot (3rd area in splat 2) of all places: I chose a Splatoon 2 location cuz it's the game I know the best. I was gonna go with Cephalon HQ but it didn't feel fitting and the next best thing was Slimeskin Garrison, and for some reason I don't like that place lmao so I went with Beaker's Depot.
I ALSO FINALLY GOT SPLATOON THREEEEEEEE! I can finally stop borrowing my friend's copy every 19804785904 years and PLAY EVERYDAY YASSSSS!