Agent 2 could hardly see her own feet in the pitch black that was night, but a glance at the billowing red lights in the distance told her she shouldn't give herself away with a flashlight. Octo Valley was technically enemy territory, but it was far on the fringe and the Octarians didn't have the cephalopower to guard the place at all—especially with DJ Octavio safely behind glass. In all of Agent 2's time in Inkopolis, Octo Valley had been a safe and secret enough place for the New Squidbeak Splatoon to conduct operations to protect the Inklings from the Octarian menace.

Until tonight, it seemed.

Agent 2 advanced to a position far enough from the lights to minimize the risk of detection, and close enough to get a good look on what was going on. She could already tell it wasn't good—even without her charger's scope Agent 2 could see that the red lights looked more like flames at this distance. She went prone, planting her belly on the ground while propping her charger in front of her. Agent 2 adjusted her lime green cap while she slid the lens protector off her Splatterscope. She pulled her face mask a little lower to keep it from getting stuck on the lip of the scope before bringing her eyes to the apparatus.

Cuttlefish Cabin was being razed to the ground, all right. Agent 2 could clearly see the waving colors of oranges and reds devouring the old woodwork of the late cabin through the scope. She thanked her lucky stars that Cap'n Cuttlefish had left for a research trip, but still internally winced at the realization that most of his belongings were torched. Agent 2 moved her makeshift binoculars to the left and found Octavio's snowglobe shattered to pieces, and the Octo King was nowhere to be found.

There were, however, Octolings all over the site. Two patrolled the opposite side of the compound with Octo Shots and three scanned Agent 2's direction with chargers. The Splatoon's last member looked through her own scope at the closest Octoling, whose sights were heading in Agent 2's direction. If she didn't do something, she'd be spotted and splatted.

She wasted no time in reaching over to her pack and pulled out an earthen brown blanket she kept around for camouflage on missions. With a quick flick of her wrist, Agent 2 wrapped herself and her charger in the blanket, leaving only a small sliver open for the scope to peek through. She stayed utterly still, saying a silent prayer that the Octoling would pass her over. The Octoling expertly moved her charger over to Agent 2's hiding place, then came to a stop as she stared at the blanket. The two snipers stared at each other as the enemy tried to figure out if the brown blob was a threat. Agent 2 took a deep breath as her finger began to curl around the trigger. Shooting at the enemy would no doubt cause detection, but if she'd been sniffed out already it was better to make a preemptive strike. She lucked out, since the sentries with the Octo Shots started shouting to the snipers to move out in the opposite direction.

Agent 2 took the opportunity to retreat—it looked like there was nothing left to salvage and the recon squad could return at any minute. She ran back to the extraction point but paused before Super Jumping. Realization dawned on her that if she hadn't "borrowed" it a few days ago, Cuttlefish's book would have been burned in the blaze tonight. Agent 2 frantically searched through her bag to make sure it hadn't fallen out when she grabbed her blanket. Sure enough, the purple-sleeved book was still safely in her possession. Agent 2 breathed a sigh of relief. She needed its words now more than ever.

Marie hugged the book to her chest as she walked up the steps to her apartment. She opened the door and placed the aged text on the round kitchen table. Marie had already thumbed through a couple pages and it basically told her she needed a new outfit. If the Octarians were able to attack Cuttlefish Cabin, that meant they had inside information. And, that further insinuated the old disguises were compromised. Heck, they could have been there to ambush Marie.

Or Callie, Marie realized with dread. Surely her disguise as Agent 1 would have been compromised as well. But…the timeline was off. The fire at the cabin was only an hour old tops, and Callie had been missing for two days already. Two days…Marie could hardly believe her math. Her cousin had been gone an entire day before Marie even realized she was missing. She was busy talking with her parents in their hometown when Callie vanished on her way to their apartment after work. Marie wasn't even expecting her cousin until the next morning, and still waited another day before returning to Inkopolis to search for her. She let out an aggravated sigh, upset with herself for letting things go so far so quickly. Marie should have checked on Callie sooner, and now the attack on Cuttlefish Cabin was too much of a coincidence. Callie must have gotten herself caught up in the brewing Octarian menace and was now in trouble.

Marie shook her head to clear her thoughts. Callie would have told her that ruminating on the past didn't solve the future (in less eloquent terms), and she was right. What mattered most was whether or not Marie managed to get them out of this mess. She walked over to the closet in her room and began looking through her clothes. Marie needed something different enough from her original getup but still could mask her identity. Her eyes landed on her traditional black kimono. Dressing normally wouldn't arouse suspicion, but she still needed something to remain incognito.

Marie looked at the corner of parasols in her room. One of those should work, as long as she was careful about always angling it to cover her face. The Squid Sister rummaged through the collection and her hearts twinged a little at one. It was a yellow parasol with the white Cuttlegear logo on the front—the one that just so happened to serve as the New Squidbeak Splatoon logo as well. The parasol had been a gift from Gramps shortly after the Zapfish fiasco two years ago. Marie picked it up, finding small comfort in the memory of her grandfather. He would know what to do if he was here. But his research trip took Gramps way out of shell service and he wasn't expected back for a while. Marie would have to combat the Octarian threat on her own.

Dawn was starting to break as Marie left her room and walked back into the living room. She turned the TV on to have something in the background while she studied the book on the kitchen table. But that soon turned out to be a mistake, because five seconds of the newscast had her seriously missing Callie. The Squid Sisters quit their old job as anchors two years ago, but it was a riot when they were on the job. Between the constantly broken teleprompter and immeasurable amounts of banter, the two both loved the time they spent on the show. Off the Hook had since replaced them, and they were good anchors—but every broadcast they would make had Marie reminiscing over the old times.

A sudden mood shift on the broadcast brought Marie out of her reverie.

"Read the teleprompter, Marina!" Pearl quipped.

"Huh?" The Octoling DJ hesitantly turned to look past the camera. "Let's see here…" Marina gave her turntables a spin to progress the news' slideshow. The screen showed an animation of Inkopolis' only power source—the Great Zapfish—vanishing into thin air. "The Great Zapfish has…disappeared?!" Marie's face went white.

"WHAT?!" Marie vaguely heard Pearl's response, but her brain had quickly kicked into overdrive. She turned the TV back off—this time she needed the silence to think. Marie knew she shouldn't have been all that surprised the Great Zapfish "vanished" right after Octavio escaped, but still. She didn't think he had the resources to make a strike so quickly. He just broke out of a snowglobe, for carp's sake. This had easily turned into the absolute worst case scenario. Gramps and Agent 3 were unreachable. Callie was who knows where, but Marie suspected it wasn't any good. Octavio had broken out. The Great Zapfish was gone. Any strategist worth half their salt would have said it was already over, and it was only a matter of time before Marie herself was ambushed.

But she didn't have that luxury, Marie realized with fervor. She couldn't give up—not while she thought they had Callie. It was Marie's duty to watch over Inkopolis while Gramps was away, and she wasn't about to do a half-inked job. She leaned back in her chair and sighed. What did Gramps do last time this happened? He got help from a new agent, which coincides with…

Marie knew what to do. The Squid Sister grabbed her parasol in one hand and Gramps' book in the other and set out for Inkopolis Square—the perfect place to find new recruits.

A/N: Hey everyone! RisingPhoenix56 here, and thank you so much for reading! As you can probably tell, Caught in a Lie will follow Splatoon 2's Hero Mode—with a few extra plot devices, mechanics, and augmented characterization that end up creating new scenes while filling out older ones. For example, this prologue is a slight rewrite of the last chapter of the Squid Sister Stories. Also, Cap'n Cuttlefish's book is a book in real life. It really fits the game's canon/atmosphere, so I decided to put it in. I'm not sure how detailed I'm going to go into the book's content, but that's a question for a future me.

I'm aiming to release Chapter 1 in about four to six days, so keep an eye out! Thank you all for reading!

~RisingPhoenix56

This fic is available on both FFnet and Amino

PS: I wrote that parasol scene before 3.0 released. I liked it so I decided to keep it in anyways

I do not own Splatoon or the book I mentioned