He was officially part of the plot now.
Yay.
At least he wore the Hero Suit well.
Wanting to get things done as soon as possible, Cal went straight for the first teapot-looking thing he found (thankfully it was next to Cuttlefish).
From there it was surprisingly… leisurely.
Using the launchpads was cool, but the octotroopers were exactly as dumb as Cal expected.
(Were they even sapient? He wasn't sure.)
He could have tried to do it faster, all run n' gun: that way he could've moved everywhere as a squid.
But honestly? After throwing himself into that tunnel just so he couldn't chicken out, he was disappointed.
He argued with himself so much, oh this wasn't a game oh the conflict oh the angst…
And now he's here, literally strolling because he barely needs the mobility of swimming in ink, because the living tentacles' aim was just that bad and the shielded ones were just slightly more tedious.
Sure, when he landed somewhere completely covered in purple it was annoying. But that's the thing: it was always annoying, never difficult.
He never played Splatoon 1. He had no idea how well this area matched the game.
But damn if it didn't give him level one vibes.
/
Cal leapt onto the teapot thing's grating, once again in Octo Valley.
"Nice work on your first mission! I knew ya could do it, bucko! Though you were a mite too casual about it…"
The newly minted agent knew he wasn't supposed to hear that last part, but couldn't help himself as he responded:
"Well, I had hyped myself up about the whole fight-our-historical-enemy thing, but… they were pretty meh, get what I'm saying?"
At this, the old veteran chucked a little.
"Of course they were. Octotroopers weren't worth much even during the war. There's plenty of types though so don't get cocky!"
The greenette snorted a bit but then got serious.
"Roger that I guess."
Cal did as good of a salute as he could, by now right in front of the (super)centenarian.
"So do we rescue some more zapfish?"
"Depends. Do ya have somewhere to be?"
"Eh. My Ma might be worried if I stay out too long, but if they're all as easy as that one I can do a couple more."
Cuttlefish lightly whacked Cal in the head, fortunately with his hand.
"What did I tell you about cockiness? Now that one of the zapfishes is rescued the rest of the domes will be much worse! The Octarians are good at coordinating."
Now the younger of the two grimaced.
"So… What? I leave and come back tomorrow?"
Cuttlefish nodded.
"We're going to need to start bright and early if they react like I expect. More importantly you'll need to be well-rested, so go back home and treat yourself."
And there's the realism I expected, thought Cal.
"Fair enough, Cap'n."