"Those are the Octarians? They look so… stupid!"

Agent 3 laughed. "Yeah. They mostly are."

She and Agent 4 were crouching behind some crates stacked up at the entrance to the Octarian base. It was a pretty standard setup for a base: a bunch of floating platforms, a dark, unforgiving abyss below them, and various Octarian soldiers wandering around, failing to notice them.

"Typically, no individual Octarian is gonna pose much of a threat," Agent 3 explained. "Just watch out for the Octolings with the black tentacles, they're surprisingly tough."

"Like that one?" Four asked, gesturing to an Octoling off in the distance.

Three nodded. "Yeah, like that one." She looked closer, and frowned. "Wait, is she carrying a slosher? That's not good."

Agent 4 turned to her, looking at her through the visor of her helmet. The other agents were still insisting that they only ever meet while incognito, and Three was starting to seriously wonder why. "What, are you like bad against sloshers or something?"

"No, it's just I've never seen an Octoling soldier using one before. You know, when I first started, they only ever used shooters. Then they started using blasters, then rollers, and now sloshers, too. I don't like it."

"Do they have subs and specials and stuff?"

"No specials. Or at least I haven't seen any specials. As for subs, nothing that'll surprise you; mostly splat bombs."

Four nodded, and raised her roller. "Alright. I think I'm ready."

"Great. You take out any of them that get close, and I'll focus down snipers and stuff. With the mods, I should be able to outrange them. On three. One… two… three!"

The two of them burst out from behind their cover and took off down towards the center of the base. Keri raised her Hero Charger and fired a line of ink straight at the nearest octotrooper—he didn't stand a chance. They jumped into the ink trail and swam forwards, even as the base's alarm began blaring.

Agent 3 emerged from her ink and immediately unloaded her charger into an octosniper overlooking the platform. She heard a few splats from behind her as Agent 4 made quick work of some ground troopers with her roller. A few octocopters tried approaching, but two charges later and they were gone.

"Octolings!" called out Four.

Three swiveled; a group of three Octolings were quickly bearing down on them, lead by one of the elite Octolings, the kelp in her hair flowing behind her as she ran. Two shooters, one blaster; shouldn't be too hard.

Agent 3 took out one of the red-tentacled Octolings before they'd even started firing. Four began running towards them, but the elite one threw a splat bomb, prompting Four to back up, retreating back into her ink to dodge the shooter fire from the other one.

Three leapt forward, dodging the elite Octoling's blaster shot, and lobbed a splat bomb of her own behind the two octolings, forcing them in closer. She used the barrel of her charger to pole-vault over more purple ink, and then sniped the second normal Octoling from midair. Just as she landed, Four burst out from the ground and swung her roller right at the elite Octoling's face, instantly splatting her.

Three spared her a quick "Nice!" before they started running once again.

They continued throughout the rest of the base in a similar manner, and before too long, the baby zapfish was in sight. It was also guarded by, like, three octosnipers, and a bunch of Octolings.

"I'll take care of the snipers so we have more room to move," Agent 3 said. "You focus on the Octolings. I'll be back to help you out as soon as I can."

Four nodded, even as the Octolings began charging towards them. Three crouched down in squid form and super jumped clean over the Octolings, landing right on top of one of the Octosnipers. She kicked him off the platform before he could react, then took out another one with her charger. The third and final one was prepared to fire, though, so she quickly jumped down onto the ground below, letting the shot soar over her head. Right as she returned the gesture with a shot of her own, however, she felt a glob of ink slam into her back.

She cursed, and twisted around to see a cluster of Octodivers behind her. She casually sidestepped a follow up shot—because, honestly, those projectiles moved so slowly—and shot one down, prompting the others to retreat back into the ink. So she just dropped a splat bomb on top of them, watching with mild boredom as it went off and annihilated them.

Now to check on Four. She was probably—

Four's voice rang out, immediately drawing Agent 3's attention. "Shit! Three!"

Crap.

Three didn't stop to analyze the situation; she just began sprinting. As she ran, she just barely had time to process Four laying on the ground, and the elite Octoling standing over her, slosher at the ready. Oh no she fucking didn't!

"Hey! Octo-bitch!"

The Octoling turned, just in time to see Agent 3's boots collide with its face as she drop kicked it straight off of the platform and into the abyss below. She immediately swiveled around to fire her charger at the final remaining Octoling, catching it right in the chest and easily splatting it.

She turned and offered Four her hand. "Are you okay?"

She took Three's hand and stood back up, looking at Three with wide eyes. "Wow. That was… I'm glad I'm on your side."

Three smiled. "No problem. Let's get that zapfish."

They walked the short distance to the enclosed space in the middle of the base that held the baby zapfish. Three easily busted it out of its prison, and held it protectively in her arms. Immediately, the whole base began to shudder; all the lights and screens flickered briefly before going out. It took a few seconds, but her eyes adjusted to the darkness well enough. "Alrighty. Now we bounce. There should be an exit just over there."

Agent 4 walked forward, but stopped as she came to the top of a ramp going back down. "Crap! We missed one!"

She pulled back her roller, but Three rushed forward, grabbing the shaft with one strong arm before Four could swing it.

Four frowned at the sudden resistance, and turned her head. "Hey! What—"

Three ignored her, and made eye contact with the Octoling four had spotted. It wasn't even an elite; it just stood there, snarling, shooter in hand, not daring to shoot.

"You should probably get going," Three said.

The Octoling hissed, but turned tail and dashed off deeper into the base.

Once she was gone, Four lowered her roller, looking a bit annoyed that Three had stopped her. "What was that all about?"

"We took the zapfish," Three said. "This base has no power anymore."

"So what?"

"So no spawn points is what, dumbass."

Silence. "Oh. Shit. Thanks for, uh, stopping me, I guess."

Three sighed. "It's okay, you didn't know. But, just for reference, most of these Octolings are being brainwashed into doing this. So really try not to kill any of them, okay?"

"Wait, what? Brainwashed?" Four looked appalled. "Fuck, Three, we've got to help them! Can't we do something about that, instead of just re-stealing zapfish all the time?"

"Um." Three adjusted her cape. "Probably. Eventually. I dunno. I don't really… plan stuff. I just kinda do whatever Cap'n wants me to do. I think he's a bit wary to have us engage the Octarians unless it's, like, provoked. Like if they steal a zapfish, or invade our territory."

"I'm feeling pretty provoked! Brainwashing? That's horrible!"

Three felt supremely uncomfortable. "I… yeah. I agree." A beat. "Let's head back."

"Ah, great job, agents," Cap'n Cuttlefish said once they returned to the cabin with the zapfish. "How was it, Agent 4?"

"Pretty cool," she confessed. "I've never fought like that before. It was… exhilarating. And scary. And thrilling. Hard to describe."

Cuttlefish looked to Agent 3 next. She cleared her throat. "Well, she passed all my tests. Kept up just fine, and I only had to save her ass once, which is less than I was expecting."

"Oh, gee, thanks," Four said unamusedly.

Three turned, smiling playfully. "Hey, it's true. But, seriously, you did great. I think we're gonna be able to get a lot more done now that you're here."

Four smiled back at her. Hooray! Bonding! She was so good at this pseudo-mentor business.

"You can keep that roller if you want, Agent 4," Cuttlefish said.

"What? Really?"

Three laughed. "Yeah. But you have to dumb it down until it's identical to the replicas if you wanna actually use it in a splat battle and not get disqualified."

Four thought for a moment. "Well, it'll be fun to mess around with a weapon with so much modding potential, but I think I still prefer the dynamo."

Three made a face. "What, really? But it's so slow!"

Four smirked. "Not if you use it right."

"I guess that's true," Three mused, thinking back to how Alex had used the roller during the Meet and Greet.

Oh, shit! That was totally why Agent 4 wasn't allowed to know her identity! Because she was famous now! Man, that was weird to think about.

She wondered why she wasn't allowed to know Agent 4's identity. Eh, the other agents probably just didn't want her to feel bad.

As they walked off, Four sighed. "It's a shame we can't meet up in real life. It'd be cool to like, chill together. Or maybe go turfing. We could probably clean up."

Three laughed. "Oh, totally. It'd be disgusting." This was weird. They'd only just met, and now she wanted to hang out with her?

Not that she was complaining. She just wasn't very used to people responding to her like that.

Mostly they tended to respond like Alex.

"Do you have a phone?" she asked. "We could exchange numbers. No rules against texting."

Four chuckled wryly, bringing out her phone. "Finally, a girl asks for my number, and I don't even know what she looks like," she joked.

Hmm. So she was into girls.

Interesting.

They exchanged numbers, and then went their separate ways. Three had a meeting with her team later that day, but not for a while, so she decided to just go home for now. When she turned onto the street that housed her apartment complex, her phone buzzed.

Ricardo: so ur on ink blast now, huh, keri?

Oh, hell.

Ricardo: wonder how long thatll last

Ricardo: try not to get disqualified LOL

You: Go fuck yourself sideways, Ricardo

You: I told you to stop texting me

Ricardo: LOL just block me then

Ricardo: u wont

Ricardo: maybe i should drop by 1 of ur games sometime

Ricardo: thatd be fun huh

Keri started typing a response, but decided against it. Not worth it, she told herself.

Ricardo: smh i see you ignoring me

Ricardo: well cheers it sure has been nice talking to you

Ricardo: off to buy my "Hero" figurine now from my local splat league merch shop lmao

Ricardo: see ya later Kariline~

God, she hoped not. Wow. What a way to ruin her week.

She shook her head, trying her best to brush him out of her mind, and kept walking.

Keri entered the Ink Blast HQ just barely on time, setting her Hero Charger back on its rack. Cassie and Halley were already seated down in the lounge area, and Keri joined them. "Is Orion—"

"Late," Halley interrupted, sounding so very, very tired. "Again."

"…Right."

"He'll be here, don't worry," Cassie assured. "He hasn't missed a meeting. Like, period."

"Well, technically, if you were to combine all the minutes late that he's been—"

"Halley, give it a rest," Cassie said. "Not all of us can be so deathly organized."

Halley rolled her eyes, but shut up.

A minute later, Orion burst into the room, panting. "Sorry… I'm late…"

"Oh my god, did you run all the way here?" Keri asked.

"Don't… judge me," he wheezed.

"Right. Glad you could make it," Cassie said. "Please sit."

He did.

"So! Battle reflection time!" Cassie announced, clapping her hands together. She turned to Keri. "We do this after every match. You'll get the hang of it pretty quick. As always, I'll start with myself.

"Overall, I think I played well this match. Well, I think we all did, really, but anyway—I did a good job keeping Squidbird under control, and my plan of saving the Stingray to counter his Inkjet payed off. Also, I thought it was pretty cool how I shot Bowler out of his splashdown. On the other hand, I was a bit tunnel visioned; I ignored Ronald when I shouldn't have, and that let him get a splat off on Keri, and I also should've been there to shut down Tornado's Inkjet, since my weapon is the most equipped to handle that. I also won't take credit for my survivability, as I didn't engage nearly as much as the rest of you, and I also had Keri as my personal bodyguard, basically."

She paused, before turning to Orion. "Orion. Again, everyone did well and you're no exception. We held ink advantage for the entire game, thanks to you holding the center for long enough that the rest of us could really get some paint on the ground. I know you were dealing with pressure from at least one of Ronald, Tornado, or Squidbird at pretty much all times, and so only getting splatted once is a testament to your abilities there. That said, you should've known to bail once Tornado activated her Inkjet. You're still overestimating how much damage your brella can actually tank. I know mobility isn't your strong suit, but with a few well-placed splash walls you should've been able to get out of there and focus elsewhere until the special wore off."

Orion nodded, a thoughtful look on his face, and Cassie moved on. "Halley. You did a fantastic job inking, for starters, and using your Inkzooka to take back the center after Tornado used her special was a really smart tactical move. Also, I saw you dodge Ronald's Inkstrike on the replay, and that was clutch. My main note is that your splats were a little low; I think you were spending a little too much time inking when you should've been backing up Keri or Orion in their fights, because they both had a lot of prolonged engagements that you could've jumped in and settled. That's a problem I had, too, though, so pot calling the kettle black and all that. Oh, and that time you jumped right in front of Tornado without realizing it? Make sure you look before you leap. But you've gotten that note at least twenty times by now, so you already know to work on that. I won't fault you for getting splatted by Squidbird, because it was a direct result of you focusing Tornado, and getting her out of the way was definitely worth getting splatted over.

"Finally, Keri." Keri gulped. She wasn't sure if she should be nervous, or what. "You did amazing for your first real match. When I was watching that replay, I was super impressed. For someone just entering the pro scene, you have an incredible sense of stealth and combat strategy; the way you used your curling bombs as mobility, offense, and as a distractionary technique is not the kind of proficiency I would ever expect from someone who switches weapons so often. You also did a great job staying on top of Bowler throughout the game, monitoring his super jumps and spawn times and stuff. And of course I have to commend the splashdown double kill, and that absolute play of the game with the splat bomb and autobomb. However, you did get a bit distracted at times, like when Ronald splatted you from behind and when Bowler almost got that splashdown off on us. It's understandable—between the audience, the announcers, and the nerves, the environment has a lot more distractions compared to your ordinary turf war. But it's definitely something to work on. Also, your decision to take on both Ronald and Bowler at the same time was… questionable." Keri sighed. Yeah, she knew. "In this context, it worked out really well; you managed to keep them busy for a good long while, which is especially beneficial as the match is in it's later seconds like that. So here it was actually a really good choice, but only because you had the skill to back it up. Just make sure you always know you can handle stuff like that before you commit, because if a play like that goes bad, it goes really bad."

Keri nodded. Those were all good points. It was important to make sure she knew what she could and couldn't take on.

"And, uh," Cassie continued, "I've noticed you tend to get a little… aggressive, when you're in a tight situation."

Keri furrowed her brow. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I haven't watched you play a ton, but in your audition, when the time was running low, you kicked Orion's brella. And in yesterday's match, when you were feeling pressure from Ronald and Bowler, you defaulted to a physical solution, which in this case was whamming the splat bomb. Both of those strategies worked well, because they were unexpected, but… they were unexpected because they're dangerously close to breaking protocol. Like, kicking weapons around and stuff is generally okay, and you can do a bit of hand-to-hand stuff, but I don't want to see you punching anyone in the face. Got it?"

"Yeah, of course!" Keri said. "I would never do something like that. I mean—" She cut herself off, flashing back to that morning, and the feeling of her boots slamming into the Octoling's face. The crunch of her nose. "No, yeah. I wouldn't go that far. I'll… make sure of it."

Cassie smiled. "That's all I ask. Now, we're going to be doing a few practice matches. Cephalosquad has their first match next, and they wanted to get some more practice in."

"Cephalosquad again?" Orion asked. "Don't you think we practice with them a disproportionate amount?"

"It has been a bit constant," Halley commented. "Especially in the past year or so."

Cassie looked down at her phone and shrugged. "Just, uh, worked out that way, I guess. Okay, Jierdan says they're ready, so let's grab our gear."

Keri groaned. "Wait, you're saying that I'm gonna have to deal with Alex a disproportionate amount?" She couldn't believe this.

"Oh, come on," Cassie said, rolling her eyes. "I don't understand why you two hate each other so much. You two seem like you'd actually get along really well."

"Yeah, well, we don't."

"Then think of this as a chance to change that!" Orion said cheerfully. "I'm sure by the end of the match, you two will be practically best friends."

"You're totally fucking focusing me!" Alex shouted, swinging her roller around everywhere.

"No I'm fucking not!" Keri yelled, dodging around the blue ink and blocking as much as she could with the body of her Hero Slosher. "I'm just trying to flank, and you keep jumping me!"

"You came at me from behind! That's definitely focusing!" Alex ran forward and leapt onto her roller, careening towards Keri at speeds that Keri did not appreciate. As she came within range, she tilted forward, using the momentum to bring the roller up over her shoulder and down hard against the ground.

Keri respawned mad.

She super jumped to Orion; he was currently facing off against Overcharger, a member of Cephalosquad who figured out that if you squeezed really hard on the hose part of the Goo Tuber, you could build up an unreasonable amount of pressure, and unleash a devastating burst of ink. Keri crouched behind Orion's Brella as Overcharger fired, covering basically the entire area except for directly behind Orion bright blue. Keri jumped out from behind the brella, threw down a suction bomb, jumped off the suction bomb to avoid stepping in enemy ink, and then let loose her slosher on Overcharger. Orion followed up with a blast from his brella, and that was that.

"Nice one!" Orion called, but Keri was already off, swimming as fast as she could. She quickly found Alex once again, and threw out another bucket's worth of ink. Annoyingly, Alex dodged.

"A sneak attack isn't focusing, that's just tactics! You're the one who's focusing!" Keri shouted.

Alex slammed her rolled to the ground and ran at Keri. "Seriously? You literally tracked me all the way over here just to tell me how you're not focusing me? I'm not even the one you should be fighting! Aren't you supposed to be dealing with Jierdan? That's fucking why you went slosher!"

"You don't know my strategy!" Keri insisted, swimming along a nearby wall to get behind Alex. She popped out just in time to lob some more ink at her, following it up with another suction bomb. Alex couldn't dodge both, not while lugging around that gigantic roller, and soon she was gone.

"Jerk," Keri mumbled before taking off towards the enemy base. She had a brief run in with Bullet, a member of Cephalosquad who also used a slosher, and just barely managed to win. As soon as she was finished there, however, a goddamn seeker appeared around the corner.

"Come on!" she shouted. She quickly backpedaled, doing some fancy footwork to trick the seeker AI into slamming into a wall and exploding. Out of the explosion, however, came Alex, once again riding her roller like some sort of motorcyclist pole dancer.

"Die!" she screamed.

Keri was getting real tired of this. In a fit of frustration, she threw her slosher at the base of the roller, causing it to catch and send Alex flying. She slammed right into Keri, and they rolled across the ground, smearing ink all over their clothes. Soon, they were wrestling each other, trying to get on top of one another.

"What is your problem?" Keri spat.

"My problem?!" Alex screeched. It grated on her ears. "I'm no the one with the goddamn problem here!"

Keri elbowed her in the shoulder, rolling on top of her. "Yeah, just keep telling yourself that!"

"The hell's that supposed to mean?" Alex growled, kneeing her in the stomach and flipping the both of them over.

"It means you're an asshole!" Punch.

"Oh my god, what did I ever do to you?" Headbutt.

"Are you kidding me?!" Tentacle pull.

"Ouch! Fuck!" Alex yelled. She transformed into squid form, and Keri followed suit. The two of them kept fighting, grappling each other, slapping each other with their tentacles, trying to poke the other in the eye.

Before either of them could claim victory, however, Keri felt something pick her up, and she was soon staring into Halley's goggles. She Keri in her left hand and Alex in her right, and was looking between the two of them with a face that was the perfect blend of furious and exhausted.

"What. The fuck. Are the two of you doing."

It wasn't a question.