Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Across the many dimensions, lie the endless possibilities of causality, originals, offshoots and crossovers. Ascended beings disconnected from those realities branch it off, transform it to their liking, and observe how things could go, or maybe should’ve gone. Like budding flowers in a massive fractal-growing lotus that forms the multiversal roots of their origins.

But sometimes, the discarded what-ifs, like pollination, bear fruits that continue the endless cycle of creation and destruction; renewal and rotting; ideas, works in progress and abandoned projects.

And between those dimensions, cracks from those realities form. An idea left behind that becomes part of another; what could’ve been repurposed for a different story; the recycling of concepts that never saw the light of day.

Rainbow cracks start to form in a reality currently on the cusp of its collapse, its events bringing it down and cracking at its seams. A game played, but never won, its ultimate puppeteer destroying it simply because it could. Through those cracks an individual falls, glitching out because his already dead status was suddenly turned to alive.

An incorporeal ghost becoming a corporeal corpse. Awake all the same. 

His distress turns to confusion and then awe to what he’s seeing. Like light blue stars to the dark canvas of the night, the multiverse unfolds around him, letting him see glimpses of everything happening simultaneously, some universes exploding in supernova fashion, giving way to new ones inspired by it, and others expanding and branching off in a tapestry of existence.

He falls into another universe that recently branched off its main path, as if fate wanted him to be caught by it. As he entered, his view became a sort of kaleidoscope of shapes and lights, feeling as his own form became malleable and his mind began unfolding, memories and thoughts blurring themselves with each other and becoming forgotten.

Suddenly, it all went dark. But not without him passing out and re-entering a planet’s atmosphere.

A few weeks before, but actually just one...

A young inkling walks into Inkopolis Square.

It just so happens that today, she has come over to play some Turf Wars and earn some gesos after moving to one of her friends’ apartment while seeking to be independent from her own family ties. While it has been a few months since she planned this whole trip, she is no stranger to leaving behind things that could track her down and getting out of places without people noticing (she’s not that proud of either skills).

As she walks towards the Battle Tower, she notices a manhole in front of the Grizzco building. She feels that it seems a bit out of place there, but she ignores it... though there is that slight feeling of being watched, but due to it being a public place, she dismisses it for it being somewhat normal.

If she had trusted that feeling, she would’ve noticed the pair of eyes currently looking at her from under the manhole. Something about her just called to the person currently hiding, and they got the feeling that they found the one. The one who could help with their current predicament, and even though the decision was a bit desperate, they made up their mind about the decision. From hundreds of candidates reviewed and observed (only her), our unnamed stalker person in need who you DEFINITELY Do Not Know who it is it's Marie has concluded that she has been chosen by destiny to be a part of something bigger than herself (she was the first seen).

A few hours later, she takes a break from her fun activities by exploring the Square a bit. There’s the typical clothes shop, the shoe shop, the weapons shop, the hats and headgear shop, and the food truck manned by Crusty Sean himself. She mostly just looks around, getting a feel of the place. The only thing that does catch her eye are the News Idols. Specifically the Octoling one.

Now, at first it had been a bit odd to her that there were basically none in Inkopolis, but seeing how the public is swooning over her and talking about her cool hairstyle, it’s probably because they had never seen any ever since the Great Turf War... which back home is a somewhat touchy subject, but she’s not gonna be questioning it now. Maybe she moved from there as well.

They go through a news story of a recently discovered meteor in the sky. Because its discovery is so recent, they’ve not analyzed its shape or trajectory, but they’re sure it won’t collide with the planet, so it’s nothing to be concerned about. Peculiar...

On a different note, one new thing she does notice is that there’s now someone standing over that weirdly placed manhole. The person is wearing a green kimono and using a parasol to protect themself from the sun’s rays. Once noticed, and when approached, they turn swim form and go through it, disappearing without no one else noticing.

After mulling it a bit, curiosity wins her over, and she decides to shoot his roomie a quick text.

Mils > Hey, I’m gonna go follow a weird lady into a manhole

Mils > If I don’t come back tonight, don’t go looking for me

With that done, she follows suit, and goes inside.

“Hmm... The Octarians...”

It’s around midday, and Marie has just come back to the outpost. She hopes that at least by tomorrow, her chosen one at least comes to explore, and although she’s been doing somewhat fine with trying to get Callie back, her efforts have been very unsuccessful lately. To say she’s starting to become desperate would be an understatement, and-

A noise coming from the manhole to Inkopolis grabs her attention, and when she looks back, the Chosen One™ has finally come to her rescue. She has long hair, and the left long front tentacle looks damaged from possibly being tangled a few times.

“Hey...”

“Wh-”

“You showed up!”

“Who-”

“As soon as I saw you aimlessly wandering around the square, I knew you were the one.”

“What?”

“I’m Marie. I know you’re probably a bit starstruck, but I need you to get over it.”

“Who?”

“Yes, I’m THAT Marie. You know... from the Squid Sisters.”

“......Who?”

An extremely palpable silence fell between the two, so thick you could cut it with a butterknife.

“You’ve never heard of me? For eel?”

“I just moved here.”

“Well, you obviously aren’t very cultured, but you’ll have to do.”

“What does that mean?”

“See, I’ve got this little... thing I need some help with. By now you’ve heard that the Great Zapfish that powers Inkopolis Square is missing.”

“The big eel thing?”

“Well, it’s not just missing-it’s been squidnapped by the Octarian menace!”

“Who the what now? But I thought-”

“How do I know this? On the surface, I may just look like an absurdly talented pop star...”

“Is this for a show?”

“But in truth... I’m Agent 2 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, a secret society of heroes who save the world from Octarians!”

“This just sounds racist.”

“Now, I’ve been trying to- ...wait, what did you say?”

“Like, I think I’m beginning to understand what ended up happening here after the Great Turf War, but this whole mockumentary you’re doing just feels... wrong.”

“...But I’m not filming anything, I’m serious about this.”

“...Right, well, have fun with your... reality show thing. I’m gonna go back-”

“Wait wait wait wait.”

“...sigh What?”

“I’m not... look, they not only took the Great Zapfish, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they also squidnapped my cousin. I’m trying to find her, but I need help. I don’t work well alone... and it’s been hard doing things without her.”

It was a bit hard to keep her composure, but in the end a single tear managed to escape one of her eyes in the process, and her chosen one was about to leave based on presumptions about her views on Octarians? Where did that come from? She saw how Marina had been doing after defecting, and was happy for her, but she knew not everyone would be the same (specially the one behind this).

“Look, I...” began her possibly new recruit, “I’ll think it over for today, and if I want to help you, I’ll come back tomorrow, alright?”

“Thank you...”

And so, she left. Marie was left standing alone, with her thoughts once more. She looked up to the sky, and saw what seemed to be a slow-going shooting star. She wishes that hopefully her cousin will return safe and sound, and goes back into the shack.

Chapter Text

Night fell, and by that time, Marie had left to go do whatever it was she did outside of Agent work. Like normal life stuff. The outpost had been left alone, a few lights outside keep the place visible enough in this darkness, and an Octoling sent on a mission arrives. An Elite, sent over to sabotage whatever she could and then come back to report on what it is the NSS is planning to do. She goes around as silently as possible, just in case that Idol decides to hang around. A bright light in the sky distracts her for a small bit. It’s cloudy, and it seems that when it collided with a cloud, it stopped shining as bright as it did. But it looked like it was heading her way. In fact, it was pretty much on its way at the moment.

Oh yeah, did I say a week? I meant to say a day.

Panicking, she looks around and decides to take cover by heading back from where she came through and gets behind the wall next to the ramps, hoping the formation of rocks will at least mitigate the blast. It crashes into a spot above a grill-looking type of contraption, simply spewing rock and dust all over the place. Surprisingly, it didn't shoot through the rock formation, nor did it break it completely, but it definitely shook up the place a lot. Enough to knock down a few poles and lights.

As the Elite came out of her hiding place and approached the crater, an individual inside it was beginning to show signs of life by groaning due to pain. Going around the corner, she saw a glowing arm with cuts flowing with glowing rainbow blood stretch out trying to grasp for something, quickly morphing into a smaller arm as the individual popped out of the hole and fell unceremoniously onto said grill-looking contraption and then face-up onto the floor, groaning again.

But we're not here for these two just yet.

It was around 8 a.m. that Marie finally came back to the Octo Canyon, to await the possible new recruit’s arrival. When she got there, she noticed that nothing was out of the ordinary, apart from the hole on the rock arch, the fact that everything was tidier, and that there seemed to be some stains of dirt and dust in some... places...

That hole wasn’t definitely there yesterday, and she can’t recall when was the last time she cleaned up the place, but everything else was where it should... be...

Just in case, she went around, inspecting everything in the vicinity just in case someone went snooping everywhere last night. Everything is where it was last left at, and nothing seemed to be stolen. She can’t even begin to make sense of any of this, deciding to dismiss it. After all, there are more pressing matters at this point in time, and most likely meaningless distractions like these can be ignored.

Speaking of which. The inkling from yesterday arrives, now sporting a braided left tentacle, and a now shorter right one. In her personal opinion, kinda fresh, though somewhat tacky.

“I’ve decided to uh... help you. With finding your cousin.”

“...Thanks, it means a lot.”

“You will be welcome.” Neither of them said that last part. The voice -which had a rough quality to it- sounded like it came from above the little outpost shack, but there didn’t seem to be someone there at all.

“...Anyway, as I was going to say yesterday, I’ve been trying to keep an eye out on the Octarians in my downtime, but I’m a busy girl. I need YOU to go get the Great Zapfish back from them! What do you say? Are you in?”

“......Maybe?”

“I’ll, uh... take your awkward response as a yes.”

“I mean-”

“Welcome aboard! You are now Agent 4 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon. I even bought you a brand-new Hero Suit as a signing bonus. I left it in the cabin, so you can get changed inside.”

“...Alright then.”

The newly dubbed Agent 4 went inside the cabin, and Marie stood where she was to simply wait.

“Ah, so this is when I am.”

Marie became alert, quickly scanning her surroundings, before looking back up at the cabin roof. It was the same voice from before -except it sounded more natural, instead of an impression of someone-, but they were out of view to even discern who or what made it.

Before she could think of what to do, Agent 4 came out, now changed into her Hero Suit.

“Well, look at that, it fits like a glove! Not bad for an old hand-me-down.”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing! Now, let’s go tear these Octarians limb from- actually, let’s just tear them down. You get the idea.”

“Right.”

“Oh yeah. The entrances to the Octarian realm are invisible, so you’ll have to ink them to reveal them.”

“That’s... actually helpful.” And so, Agent 4 began walking across the rock arch to begin exploring the Canyon. Marie on the other hand, looked back to the roof of the cabin, getting more suspicious of whoever is on top of it. She thought back on what they said, like when she said she was grateful about the now Agent 4 deciding to help, and how she would actually be even more grateful when it probably would be over. Or the use of ‘when’ instead of ‘where’ they are now, meaning they either said it wrong, or came back from something after not knowing what time it was... even though there was no point of reference for it.

Squinting her eyes, she decided to ask. “Who’s up there?”

After a bit, the sounds of a bird chirping came from above. “...Must’ve been my imagination.” ...or the wind. With that conclusion, she entered the cabin to assess and comment on the Agent’s future missions.

A few seconds passed, and an individual slowly made their way off the cabin, making sure to not make any noise if possible. They stretched a bit, and with giddiness, made their way onto the first area with kettles. They almost ran onto the new Agent, making sure to stay out of view as much as they could, and once they were sure the Agent entered the first level of many, they made their way into the third one.

They stood over it, trying to think of a way to get inside, judging by the fact that they couldn't morph into a swim form capable of going through specific surfaces. They put one of their hands in their hoodie pocket while circling the kettle, and slowly took out a pair of tweezers big enough to cut through metal.

"Hohoho. Delightfully devilish, Seymour."

Chapter Text

Agent 4 was a natural at this, as if their upbringing made them prepared for these types of situations. This crazy plan might work after all she thought to herself out loud during her first mission. Normally, she would’ve expected Four to breeze through them, but was more entranced with taking in the sights and meticulously exploring the place when not in a fight.

She does note that Four tried to talk to the Octotroopers when going through her first mission, but was met with confusion that was followed with the usual aggression. Second mission didn't take as long, since Four simply gave up on trying to communicate with the Octarians. There was one peculiar hiccup along the way.

Before the start of the third mission, she was notified that the kettle that led to it seemed to have been broken into by someone, because it took less shots to open, and the grating on it was mostly removed. Once inside, some of the screens that comprised the dome, suddenly flickered off, dimming the place quite a bit, before turning back on on their own and taking a few minutes before they showed the same sky as the rest. The music -which had stopped as well with the hiccup in power- came back with static and interference, before going back to normal.  Marie’s unsure what that means, but it did make Four take a bit more caution during the rest of the mission. And the last one for the day, was the boss kettle.

Going inside, Four was met with a small platform containing a Launchpad that most likely led to that round arena that had a pool of Octarian ink around a zapfish lightbulb dangling on an electrical chord, and from the looks of it, all of this floated over a city that was miles under them. It all felt a bit off, like the point for doing this just didn't feel right. She stepped onto the launchpad, and was flung across towards the arena, landing and watching as a big tentacle yanked forcefully the zapfish into the ink, and immediately glow a blinding light, as chants were heard while a structure emerged from within the ink. A massive… oven-like structure emerged, with Octarian faces on what looked like loaves of bread.

"What the hell??"

"Looks like the tentacle up there is the source of the trouble."

The aptly named Octo Oven moved forward unto the Agent's vicinity, spinning in place to aim one of its oven faces. Four moved around, trying to be out of its range, inking the floor and watching as it built pressure and shot out its loaves, quickly getting back into their ovens.

"Whoa! Holy carp!"

"The end of the loaves look deadly. That's why I never eat the end slices."

"What does that have to do with this!?"

Just as the Octo Oven was about to attack again, the speakers that were playing music for the fight began playing static and interference, like connecting a cable to an instrument while the input wasn't muted, making both combatants stop what they were doing, looking confused. A quick tapping on a microphone was heard, and a familiar voice to the Agent was heard.

"Is this thing on? Sorry by the way. clears throat Uhhhhhhh……" the sound of papers being shuffled was heard across the mic. The Agent took the opportunity to get some distance from the Oven, while it itself looked dopey and confused, showing that the music was what was giving it its drive to do its purpose. "…Oh right, I didn't make a script. So!" and like a flick of a switch, the person's attitude changed immediately to that of an announcer at a sports game "To our possible viewers, y'all ready to rumble?" The sound of more cheering was heard, like the initial awkwardness was left behind to give way for ambitious cheers.

"Agent 4, what's happening down there?"

"Uhhh-" "At the edge of the platform, we have the newly recruited newbie of the NSS, give it up for Agent 4!" A round of boos are heard, jeering aloud while the Octo Oven seems to have regained some of its agency, and giving Four a glare.

"Hahaha. Who knows? Maybe she'll prove herself something. At the center, the one of a kind appliance that can produce delicious pummeling, the first in line of safeguarding the hopes and dreams of all Octarian kind, and dealing 425° of pain, it's. The. Octo. Oveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!" Cheers galore, while the aforementioned Octo Oven spun in place, doing some tricks for the crowd.

"Now, I understand the rules of the game dictate no cheating. But let's be real, we want a show, and a show is what we'll get. So! Fighters, are you ready?" The Oven gave something akin to an affirmation, while Four just… shrugged.

"My files never said anything about a commentator." mumbled Marie into her earpiece.

"I guess you forgot something…" whispered Four to answer.

"In that case," said the announcer, as a beat started permeating the arena, "ladies, gents and nons, let us begin. In 3!" The Octo Oven began looking at Agent 4 with malice.

"2!" Four started taking a stance to help keep as much distance as was necessary.

"1!" Four unknowingly started bobbing her head to the music as the melody came on, while Marie was just beginning to pick up the tune that managed to get through her audio equipment.

"Begin!" The Octo Oven moved forward, trying to pierce the Agent with its bread. Four easily dodged the attacks, and in a fit of rage, the Oven overheated and shot forward all its contents, leaving itself open for attack. Four dodged just in time, and began inking and swimming towards the top, splatting the tentacle and jumping away.

"Donut stop! You knead to keep going!"

"Stop that."

The Oven became annoyed, and fitted itself with metal surfaces on some of its sides to try and deter climbing. It also began shooting up Ink Rollers to take control of the area and leave less room to move through.

"MMM! CHURROS! Wait, nope. They're just columns of ink."

"Now's not the time for food." she exclaimed exasperated.

"...But there are fewer walls on the oven to climb now."

"Wuh oh! It looks like this Agent's having bread flung at her not just in the literal sense, but also in the pun department. Guess you weren't bready for that, huh?"

Agent 4 became distressed enough to almost be hit by an attack, barely dodging out of it. She dodged once more, before the Oven overheated and brought out all the loaves. She climbed, having to reach one of the inkable walls, and splatted the tentacle on top for the second time, jumping away.

"Good. But don't start loafing around or things might go a rye."

Four sighed, clearly accepting the comments being said. She'd have to focus now, because the oven put metal plating on its bread to leave even less area for inking, and shot more Ink Rollers.

"Wait... Armored bread? But... Armor? On bread?"

"Armor? I hardly know her."

"Uh... Some kind of...glazing machine...has appeared." And indeed it had, long enough to cover the whole radius of the arena, slowly turning in place to cover all of it. Four started going around it in the same direction, making sure to stay out of the glazer's range. Once most of the arena was covered, it began doing its previous attack of trying to impale the Agent. Annoyed, it spun to quickly attack again quickly with each of its three lower ovens, and overheated, leaving an opportunity for retaliation. She splatted the tentacle, and jumped off to wait for it to explode.

"This guy's toast!"

Its main eye looked around in distress, as burnt bread after burnt bread came out of its six ovens, and light and lightning arched across its body, exploding in a shower of ink. In its place was left a Zapfish in a bulb.

"And there you have it folks. Give it up for Agent 4!!!" The crowd booed and cheered, more so the former. "Tune in next time, when she gets towards her next opponent. Goodnight everybody!"

With that, the Agent retrieved her prize, and went back to camp. She changed back to her clothes, as it was starting to go dark, bid her farewell, and got back to the Square, ready to hit some matches before heading back home. Marie brought out a notebook to start taking notes on the Agent, like her skills, appearance, and through the help of Sheldon, her match history. Pretty much the basics, since she barely knew much, like where she's from, her age, and why she had that style of tentacles. There was also the matter of that announcer she just learned about –as if the mystery required a corkboard to even solve–, and where that music originated from. It was definitely not something she had heard before, and was quite catchy. The beat hadn't escaped her head, it was something new with a touch of the old, and the voices heard weren't recognizable nor the lyrics understandable, but there was a familiarity that she couldn't quite place –like a cousin you never met or even knew abour until you were both of age–.

After putting into said notebook what she could for the time being, she left the cabin and went back home.

Meanwhile...

"Sir, we have news."

"What is it, soldier?"

"There has been 5 breaches of security, most made by an unknown Agent. The last one was-"

"Well well well, if it isn't the big man himself in the flesh. Or would it be in the mantle?"

"...Him. He turned himself in after hijacking and... commentating the Octo Oven comms. He requested to see you directly."

"Hmmm... you may leave, Commander."

The commander saluted, before leaving the room.

"These are interesting times, don't you think?" he said smiling.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"Someone who has seen the future. I've got a proposition for you."

Chapter Text

The shift ends, and a shop is closed. A young inkling stands around its entrance alongside some coworkers of his, says his usual goodbyes, as they all go their usual routes to their homes. It’s a day like any other, filled with the usual work and the usual banter. The only thing currently in his mind is getting home and watching some TV.

While most young Inklings like him tend to prefer to earn a living through Turf Wars, he’s not really that much into sports. He does indulge in it from time to time, but he’d rather have free time for most of his day, so he simply applied for a job as a cashier at an electronics and hardware store. Good pay, decent hours, and a lot of flexibility and understanding from his boss. A rarity in the workforce, from what he’s heard of from other places.

As he comes across an alley, a noise coming from it grabs his attention –specifically, the rustling of bottles and cans–, making him stop in place, before simply looking inside it to spot whatever made the noise. Someone's tentacle was visible, similar to the ones Marina has styled (which are cool, in his opinion). He slowly walked towards the person in the alley, making them freeze up once he was in their view. It was a girl, in weird clothing that exposed maybe too much of her stomach. Her eyes were beautiful, and... okay maybe he also stood there like a deer in headlights, but he had to compose himself quickly.

"Uhhh..." cod, this is so embarrassing "Are you...ok?"

". . ."

"What are... why are you going through the...trash?"

"Uh-"

"You know what? Just... follow me."

He continued on his path towards his apartment. She watched him from the alley, before deciding to catch up to him. In his head he was having thoughts about the fact that he was inviting a stranger to his abode, and even though some part of him was embarrassed, the majority was overtaken by wanting to just help her, even if it brought back some... unpleasant memories. She, on the other hand, was both curious and confused for why he was that quick and willing to give her aid. She was told she would be helped on the surface, but due to not knowing who or how to ask (or even being able to read), she just wandered until she ended up at that alley.

Well, that was fun, she thought as she exited the Deca Tower. A small smile painted her face, having done the job of relieving some of her stress from the day. It was already dark outside. and she decided to head home to rest up for tomorrow.

As she got to the apartment, she could hear his voice coming from inside as if he was talking to someone. He probably got a friend to come over she thought, maybe they're nice. She opened the door, and saw her friend in the kitchen, while an Octoling sat at the dinner table, looking around and then looking at her, noticing that she had arrived. Thinking nothing of it, she closed the door and gave the Octoling a wave.

"Hey Eddy, I'm back."

"Hmm?" Eddy looked back, revealing that he was cooking something. "Oh hey, Emmy. How was your day?"

"It was... something, I guess. That weird lady I told you about had me going through some sort of domes inside kettles to recover zapfishes, I think."

"You mean it wasn't just the Great Zapfish that went missing?"

"Seems like it, I dunno. Fought some bipedal tentacles, climbed some structures and destroyed a huge oven that was powered by both a tentacle and a zapfish while some sort of announcer commented on it. It was very weird." she said as she left her stuff by the entrance and then took a seat at the table. "What are you making."

"Dinner."

"I know, but what specifically, dingus."

"Hehe. Just pancakes. You want some?"

"Sure. Who is she, by the way? Some new fling?" she said smugly.

"What?" he said, becoming flustered by the implications. "No. No no. Just... someone who needs help, I think. Found her on an alley on my way from work. She's probably homeless."

"Probably?"

"Yeah. I mean, who wears that outfit while digging through trash?"

"What is happening?"

"Just a conversation between friends."

"What did you say?" he said as he came over with a big stack of pancakes, plates, forks and a syrup bottle.

"Not much, just telling her that we're talking. You could've told me to help you bring stuff to the table."

"Nah, it's fine. Wait, hold on. You can speak to her?" he said as he put down the stuff while Emmy helped with placing things where they should be.

"Yeah? You know I'm bilingual, right?"

"You never really told me." he said as he took two pancakes.

"Well, I guess it never came up." she responded while grabbing only one. "I speak both Inklish and Octarian. If you're hungry, you can grab some."

"I thought the Octarian language died with the war."

"Well, you never grew up with Octolings in the city."

"Oh. Wait, is that what Marina is?"

"You mean the news lady?"

"Yeah, from Off The Hook."

"Yep. Though I don't think she came from where I'm from. The city would've gone nuts over it already. ...Or maybe not, actually."

The conversation went on, with Emmy asking Ed about the rest of his day. At some point came the realization that they should get the Octoling some more adequate clothing instead of the croptop and shorts that she's wearing, as well as preparing the couch so she could sleep there. Eddy lent some comfy pants and Emmy gave one of her shirts, so that she would sleep in something else.

As she lied down in the darkness, illuminated only by the lights outside and the moon, her mind wandered to many new experiences she had this past day. The wandering, the meeting of someone who cared despite not understanding eachother, the sights, the food –dear cod the food–, the roommate who for some reason knew how to speak to her –despite the fact that she's too nervous to even respond, or even say anything–, and how much better of a resting place this 'couch' is in comparison to the bunk beds in the barracks. It felt too good to be true, but that person had told her that she'd find help, and that it beat having to be stuck underground with endless testing just to be discarded in the end. If she was honest, she was waiting for the other shoe to drop, for it all to be an illusion or a dream... but sometimes reality is not that perfect, and she's seen the imperfections already. Maybe she'll just... take the plunge into the unknown for a better life, Cod knows she has needed it since the incident two years ago.

And so, she drifts to the land of the dreaming dead.

Chapter Text

Another day, another set of missions. After having dealt with the Octo Oven, the second area of the canyon had been unlocked, and Agent 4 went over to complete four missions for the day. On the first one, she wasn't expecting for Sheldon to request the use of a Roller, but she wasn't gonna refuse outright (mostly due to curiosity of why). For the second one, Sheldon requested she use the Dualies, which while not her favorite type of weapon, she was still quite proficient at. For the third one, it was a Charger this time around. Every time, Sheldon said it was to gather battle data for them, probably to sell more, and after asking Marie about it, she said that he was more of an honorary member due to his proficiency in making weapons, and also because of his grandfather's involvement with the original Squidbeak Splatoon.

Before she could even head inside her fourth mission, a pink figure dressed in black caught her attention, sitting near the next kettle with a foldable table and chair, blasting some music coming from a small speaker on their phone. They had frills on the top of their head, short physique, a black leather jacket with a light gray shirt underneath and sunglasses.

"We meet at last, Miss Four. I'd say I've heard about you, but I don't even know This you. It's nice to finally meet you, but it's even better to meet me." At that, he held out his hand for her to shake it while standing on his chair to reach out further. She recognized the voice, but hesitated and decided not to. "Gonna leave me hangin'? That's fine too." he said sitting back down.

"Who even are you?"

"What I am is not that important, but if you must know, I'm the Announcer from before. I've been meaning to talk to you, actually."

"...Why?"

"Well, I've seen what you're capable of, and I've got a favor to ask of you."

"You're not gonna make me test out gear, are you?"

"And what, steal Sheldon's thunder? Pshh, nah. I want you to retrieve some things that you'll come across while on missions. Specifically, some scrolls. Get me those, and I'll let you in on some secrets from the past, present and future about our predicament."

"...You mean these?" Four brought out the six Ancient Scrolls she had collected so far.

"Those exact ones, yes. You read them yet? I plan to bind them so that they're easy to access and don't deteriorate with time. Have you taken a look at them?"

"Kinda?"

"Well, it's good that you do, they sometimes give context to current events, like Miss Houzuki's current fame status." he said, storing them to bind later. "Now, I did promise secrets, and six you'll get. So, what would you like to know?"

"Who are the other agents?"

"Straight to the point on this one, eh? Well, Agent 1 is Callie, the one you're currently trying to find alongside the Great Zapfish. Agent 2 is the one who recruited you yesterday. Agent 3 is currently investigating something very far away alongside the NSS Captain. Their current whereabouts I don't exactly know, but I won't tell you where they'll be. Spoilers."

"Spoilers?"

"If something is too important in future events or just straight up something so relevant, I'll simply say spoilers. Otherwise, I'll do my best to be as vague about it. By the way, that one didn't count. You still have five questions left."

"Right... What's in it for me as an Agent?"

"Mainly satisfaction from completing your mission, but gratitude from anyone outside the NSS isn't on the table. Tends to happen with paramilitary groups and undercover agencies. You'll save the day, but no one will know. Four to go."

"...What did you mean by 'knowing This me'?"

"Simply put, multiverse theory. There are many Agent 4s, some tall, some short, some female, some male, some in between, some neither. Of all shapes, sizes and colors, as well as ways of life, and attitudes. You are one of a kind, because if You –judging by your Style– never immigrated here, or decided to get in the Square's manhole, someone else would've become Agent 4. Three more."

"Wha... How did you know where I'm from?"

"Because I've seen how your city looks... or rather will look in five years time. As for its importance... you guessed it, spoilers. And so, there was two."

"So uh... who are the Squid Sisters?"

"Can't blame ya for not knowing, most Agent 4s don't when they first start. They are a duo between cousins Callie and Marie, who date back to when they won an award for singing at a competition when they were kids. Specifically, by singing their most popular singled, Calamari Inkantation. Legends says it's got the power to break brainwashing and hypnosis, as well as inspire a need for freedom. Hella catchy too. Someday you'll get front seats to a live performance to it. 'Til then, you'll have to face these Octarian forces to reach the big man himself. And then there was one. Make it count."

"Uhm... Why did you commentate that fight?"

"Look darlin', you ever heard of kayfabe? It's basically like that. It's a show, to the people. You gotta let them respect you. Admiration comes after that, and you gotta show that you're not easy to push around as they want you to be. These people need a distraction from their current living conditions, and while they do have one currently at the moment, you can add onto it. And that's what I'm here for. So go out there and show them what you're made of!" he gave her a thumbs up, and proceeded to watch as she stood there for a bit, before heading towards the last kettle for today. But before she could even head inside it, "Oh, and by the way. Call it a hunch, but if you manage to come across an Octoling buddy of mine, send her my regards." saying that, he got up from his chair, folded it alongside the table, and carried them away, not looking back if Four was still looking at him –which she was now– or not.

She took a second to take in what he said, and who he could probably be talking about, but because she and her roommate had taken in an Octoling last night, that's probably who the announcer was talking about. Just as she entered the mission, she remembered that there was an Octoling Idol in Inkopolis, so there was probably that chance, though she'd be very surprised if she even managed to come into contact with her. She was immediately distracted with Sheldon giving her back the Hero Shot, and thus the quest of using it to gather data, as well as massive Squee-Gs.