It's certainly no Hero Suit, but things could be worse. Marie lamented as she pulled on the neck line of the heavy sweater she was wearing. It was thick enough to mimic some of the protection of the Hero Jacket, but that didn't exactly make it a comfortable thing to be running around in. Bodging the rest of a suit together wasn't exactly a pretty job either. She ended up with worn safety gloves she cut the fingers off of, a pair of turf pants she hadn't used in years, her mask from her civilian disguise, and an ear piece Callie had somehow paired to her own headset. At the very least she still had a her Hero Runners and ink tank. It seems the little bastard couldn't take everything, though her shoes did feel like they had been worn by someone else for a time. At least the spare tank hadn't been messed with, so she still had reliable ink storage.

"You're being very vague!" Marie shouted up to her cousin. "You could have explained where we're going while I was putting this crapsuit on!" They were currently sprinting along one of the valley's many strata that jutted out just wide enough for them to stand on. Callie was in front, leading Marie somewhere she hadn't specified yet.

"Sorry! I only figured out where we were going like, 30 seconds before we ran outside!" She hooked the fingers of her right hand into the canyon beside her, using her claws as little hooks to swing herself around the corner. "Agent Three didn't exactly mark out any trails!" She shouted back with a fading voice.

Without claws of her own, Marie had to slow down enough to round the corner without flying off the edge. Callie had slowed enough for her to catch up relatively quickly. "So, where are we going!"

"We're going to enter from the Chunk Dome!"

"What? Why there?"

"There were a buncha different points marked off on the big map! There was one in the beach dome's city, one in an abandoned farming station, a few other boring ones, and the only one without an X on it!"

Callie paused her explanation as the pair suddenly turned left, leaping off the edge of the cliff and letting their momentum carry them forward. They connected with the opposite wall after a few seconds of air time, where they quickly brace themselves for sliding down the steep slope.

Callie laughed as they slid down, clearly enjoying the thrill a bit more than Marie was. "We're hauling ass like this because the place Agent Three has marked is beside one of the military camps!"

Marie nearly lost her balance. "ITS WHAT?" What the hell? How dumb is this kid??

"He's up on one of the divided domes, the twelve sector one with a third missing. The map's over a year old though, so things might have gotten worse."

"Great." Marie deadpanned. They reached the bottom of the cliff and resumed running, back the direction they came, now with Marie in the lead. "You at least looked over our newest maps?"

"There were actually a lot of updated maps. A majority of them are in the [southern] wing closest to the cabin, but a surprising number of them went pretty far in!"

"All penned by Agent Three I presume?" Marie couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"Yeah. And honestly? They're really good. Like, better than mine good. You gotta look at them when we get back, it's actually pretty impressive."

"Sure." We'll look at his maps after we get him to stop running head first into enemy territory! (No matter how good they might be.) "Get ready for the squeeze, we're nearly there." Just ahead was a subtle crack in the wall, nearly invisible if you didn't know to look for it. Marie stopped herself by simply slowing her sprint down to a jog. Callie... went for a more direct method. When she was maybe ten steps from the crack, she swapped to her swim form, letting her momentum bleed out as she skid across the rocky ground. They got close enough that their headsets caused a bit of radio feedback, but it didn't last long as Callie was already running towards the opening with her Hero Roller raised above her head. She slashed at the opening, coating the thin passageway with yellow ink, giving them more than enough room to swim through without issue.

The pathway lead into a small cave with a kettle against the left wall. Callie jumped into the kettle without changing forms. Marie's hand was already on the intake, giving it the ink it needed to function. The lid slammed shut and Marie clamped her hands over her ears just before the piercing shriek of the pressurizing kettle echoed in the tiny cave. The moment she wasn't risking damage to her hearing, Marie put more ink in the intake, and jumped on top of the kettles closed lid in swim form.

Could this situation actually get any worse? Gramps is gone, the kid's waiting in one of the most dangerous spots he possibly could be, and I don't even have my damn Hero Suit! Without warning, the top of the kettle opened. Marie dropped into a puddle of yellow ink, the kettle's lid slamming shut above her as the piercing shriek started up again. You and me, kid? We're gonna have a long talk about the chain of command. Marie sailed down the inkline with more determination than ever.

Callie always entered first. Her focus on roller close-combat was better for securing the covered areas their kettles let out in. Marie jumped out of the inkline, her charger aimed and ready, in case Callie did need help with a fight. Luckily, that wasn't the case this time, so Marie lowered her charger and took a look around. This kettle let out into an old, run down brick building in an abandoned dome. A decent place for cover if there ever was one, but it wasn't infallible. Callie hadn't left any kind of signal or marking with her ink, so it was most likely safe to try and pick her way out past the rubble. She found Callie outside, carefully crouched near the respawn pad, priming it. To anyone looking, the thing appeared entirely dysfunctional, but thanks to some very precise wiring done by Marie it was fully functional without it giving away their presence. Marie synched with it when Callie was done, and then turned her attention to the space around her.

Realistically, domes could be broken down into two types: simple, and confusing. The simple category was comprised of places like the agriculture, city-like, or most notably, residential designs. They were all relatively flat with a single, clearly defined purpose. The other kind, the confusing domes, really lived up to their name. As Marie looked out over the bizarre landscape in front of her, she couldn't help but feel the names they chose were fitting.

The ground within this dome, which they'd lovingly nicknamed the "chunk" dome, was split into massive, squari-ish sections with massive gaps of emptiness between them. Directly to her right, a massive tower loomed easily 100 feet taller than the platform they were standing on. On the left was a similar story, only with a drop instead. All along the outside of the domes these... chunks of land rose from the bottom of the dome, with one pillar in the center much larger than the others. Traces of infrastructure implied moving platforms were supposed to move people between the chunks, but any working technology had long since been taken. The only thing in the space between the sections were the thin, metal catwalks that were nearly invisible against the darkness that permitted the dome. Investigations they had launched years ago had revealed that the chunks were actually not solid material, but filled with rooms. From what they could gather, the intent was for each chunk was meant to be a small, self sufficient little community ecosystem, complete with micro garden spaces and a water recycler.

Despite the promise and abundant materials though, this dome was abandoned, and for good reason. Nearly half of the TVs were either broken or missing entirely. Several of the connecting catwalks were no more than scrap metal on the dome floor. Biggest, and perhaps most concerning of all, was the quarter of the dome's wall that had been ripped out when two of the chunks collapsed. Another chunk a few spots over was missing its entire lower half, the remaining bits hanging precariously, held up only by wall mounts. All in all, the place was in too poor of a condition and far too dangerous for the Octavians to even consider it worth scrapping. I hate being in here. I know this is one of the more secure chunks, but it still feels terrifying being on it.

Even with the poor lighting from half the screens being gone, it was easy to see the determined glint in Callie's eyes. "You ready?"

Marie nodded. "Yeah."

Callie slashed her roller at the ground, giving them a puddle to submerge in. Moments later, the two superjumped over the middle chunk, straight through the hole in the side of the dome, and into the consuming darkness around them.

Leaving the light of the domes behind, Marie focused for a moment, causing the spots along her tentacles to glow with a soft yellow light. "Alright, find our bearings, and get moving." Using her glow as a guide, the two found their way to the edge of the cave they had thrown themselves into. When they touched the wall, they each felt along it in opposite ways, searching for an etching they had put there years ago.

"Got it!" Callie whisper yelled.

Marie hurried back to Callie's position. Now that they knew where they were things would get significantly easier. "Hey, before we go."

"What's up?"

"I think we need to stop and gather some intel as we go."

"But Agent Three might—"

Marie held up a hand, visible only in the glow of her tentacles. "Saving that idiot is our number one priority, but we don't know where he is. Just as importantly, we don't know what's changed in the domes. We going to pass two encampments and two commons on our way to his little hiding place. Lets peek into those long enough to get a grasp on what exactly is going on down here."

Marie could see Callie rolling the fingers on her left hand. She doesn't want to detour. (She's really worried about him.)

"Fiiine," Callie agreed. "But only the encampments. Any change in military activity should be visible there."

"That's a solid compromise. Let's go." Marie darkened the glow of her tentacles as the two started on yet another sprint.

The sheer amount of running was something that neither of them had expected when Gramps had first brought them into this whole thing. Once she got a good scope of just how big the domes really were, it made a lot more sense. The domes were already quite large. The distance around each dome was bigger. The distance between the different domes was MASSIVE, especially when running through the caves around rather than the straight-shot tunnels connecting them. They easily passed 40,000 steps a day on an average recon mission checking in on only two domes.

They ran for about twenty minutes, slowing as they approached the first outpost. As daunting as the name sounded, an outpost was just any kind of structure that had been built out into the caves. Every dome technically had an outpost, almost all of which were simple locked doors attached to some kind of monitoring station. In a few cases though, like the one ahead of them, were a bit more extreme.

According to gramps, estimates at the time the discovery of the domes dated the complex at over 12,000 years old. For them to still be standing, much less operational, was truly a testament to the ancient human's abilities. Ultimately, though, it doesn't matter how good of an engineer you are in the face of time. Nothing can stay standing forever, and the domes has weathered their share of time and then some. The chunk dome they entered from is probably one of the best examples, but it was far from the only one. There were numerous domes in a similarly destroyed state. Some were in such a bad state they were entirely inoperable. Others were in a better, half operational state. Most of them were completely fine, though of that majority, there were a few like the one they were rounding right now.

It was, for all intents and purposes, completely fine, so long as you ignored the massive gash in its side. A cave-in during some part of the domes astronomical life span had essentially cracked the side of it wide open. All of the domes like this were used as sort of 'gateways' into the caves, where a few different outposts had been established. Some of the largest were an abandoned mining project, a large fishing lake, mushroom farms, a training course for the soldiers, and some kind of retreat, among other things. A few ramps and hanging lights made any crack a premier way in and out of the domes. Though, not a particularly good one for sneaking inside.

The one in front of them now was probably the smallest mushroom farm, owed to it being a hefty distance from the central domes. Dingy metal shacks stood beside the actual farms, lived in by the farmers, and whatever unfortunate unit of soldiers were unlucky enough to draw guard duty. There weren't many lights around the structure, just a few hanging bulbs hastily wired into the central building. Seeking around was more a matter of silence rather than sight, there was more than enough darkness around the edges of the encampment to conceal them. It wasn't possible to completely snuff out the sound of their steps, but years of practice and the careful design of the Hero Runners served quiet enough to slip past.

Once they made it around the outpost, it was back to sprinting. The atmosphere of the caves was actually somewhat pleasant, (when removed from their context, at least.) Throughout the caves, occasional patches of lichens covered the wall, glowing just bright enough to highlight silhouettes, but not much else. By no means was it enough light to see by, but it could help you keep your bearings if you knew where you were. Occasionally, they would have to slow down and feel along the wall for markers they'd carved, but beyond that, it was smooth sailing past two other domes.

Soon enough, they came to their first stop. It seemed like a normal outer shell of a dome, but a bit of feeling around revealed the small ladder Marie had cut into its side years ago. She gave a quick shine of her tentacles to signal the location to Callie and started climbing. While most of the cracks in the side of the domes were known about and utilized, the ones along the top tended to go ignored or unnoticed by those inside the domes. That served their needs just fine, as it had given them the opportunity to spy with practically zero chance of getting caught.

Once on top, Callie helped her pull a shin sheet of metal out of a large dent. The original damage to this spot hadn't been enough to fully pierce the dome's metal shell, but it had gotten close. Close enough for Marie to finish the job with a blowtorch, a bucket, and a lot of careful maneuvering. With a bit of teamwork, she and Callie managed to not only create a hole large enough for them to drop through, but disguised it too. Directly below their hole was one of the TV screens used to display the sky, which had been promptly disconnected and hollowed out completely. The screen itself was swapped for tinted glass, which let them see straight into the dome, while making the screen appear dark. To anyone below, it'd just look like another dead screen, especially when the back cover was in place. They had made countless windows like this across many of the domes. Being able to see in from a birds-eye view offered more than enough information to make the effort useful, all while remaining almost completely undetectable.

This dome was what they called an encampment, one of the many throughout the complex. They were military hubs, with training grounds, barracks, and the like built throughout. Most encampments didn't have any one specific thing that needed watching, rather they were good for getting information about how the soldiers were acting. Generally, the level of activity gave a decent read of the dome's internal situation: Soldiers milling about was normal, any kind of formation meant there was some kind of large scale training going on, disproportionately large gatherings were some kind of award ceremony, and they hadn't ever really seen anything else.

They had to readjust their positions for before they could look inside, their headsets were conflicting again. (Cheap piece of junk.) Now in better positions, they peered inside, and saw something neither of them had ever seen before. The activity below was bordering on frantic, with hundreds of soldiers swarming across the encampment. Commanders dashed around, barking orders to barely maintain the semblance of order the soldiers were under. Several soldiers sprinted one way carrying boxes of something, while a dozen others ran the opposite way with their weapons drawn. Bombs were being slapped into any empty hand that cold hold them. Medics set up portable respawners in any corner that a remote sense of cover.

"Is that...? No flippin' way. Maire, look." Callie pointed towards the front where a very large line of soldiers, prepared their chargers. A different soldier, wearing a distinctive green headband looked over them, barking orders.

Marie's eyes widened in realization. "That's their elite charger squad!"

"And the roller squad is preparing around the edge road too."

"Just what is going on down there?"

They watched as a particularly frazzled looking octoling ran to the administration building, carrying a zapfish wrapped in a blanket.

"That's a zapfish," Marie confirmed with a nod. "One point for our rogue agent, it seems like they were behind the heist." Damn, we should have brought the binoculars. To make up for the missing equipment, she pulled her Hero Charger up and peered through it's scope. She looked around for a few moments, pausing as she watched a group of soldiers set up an Inkstrike mortar. Dozens of crews like this were around the dome building splatlings, elevated sniping platforms, and other mortars .

"Wait, are they bolting the weapons to the ground?" she asked, to point Callie's attention at the strange behavior.

"Doesn't that defeat the point of it being 'mobile' infantry?" Callie pondered. She looked over the mess for a few more moments. "Wow, they're really setting up for something. Good thing you stopped me from charging in."

They watched for a few minutes longer until suddenly everything started settling down. Hundreds of soldiers were in place, all their weapons primed and ready for something. Marie could feel the tension rising, like a chill slowly dragging itself up her back. It was clearly the common sentiment, as nearly every soldier seemed to lean forward in anticipation.

And nothing happened.

Well, not nothing, as the command center was suddenly possessed by an even more intense storm of action. Commanders sprinted from the building at full speed, some barking orders loud enough for Marie to hear the echo. Squads started moving, the snipers all left their positions, and the munitions specialists began rapidly deconstructing their weapons.

"What...?" Callie stared down, confused.

There was a heavy pause as they watched the action below. "We need to move." They found him, didn't they? Marie didn't want to say it, but she was sure her cousin was thinking it too. "Come on." Marie jumped to her feet and pulled Callie up. (They found him and we weren't fast enough to get there in time.)

"Breathe!" Callie insisted as she helped Marie get the cover in place. "No spiraling in the field. Focus on your breathing as we climb down."

"Yeah." Marie forced herself to take a deep breath. They scrambled over to the ladder, Callie went down first while Marie followed after. She did as instructed, maintaining her breathing at a steady pace. It helped some, but it was getting harder to keep her worry at bay. Just hold on kid, we'll get there.

They didn't say a word as they took off, sprinting down the cave with a renewed determination. They stopped for nothing, save for a peak through their window into the neighboring encampment dome. It was almost entirely empty, save for the soldiers just starting to pout out of the tunnels from the encampment they were looking into a moment ago. Agent Three wasn't there either. That took a weight off Marie's shoulders, but the way soldiers were sprinting across to one of the connecting tunnels replaced it with new fears just as heavy.

They came upon the next dome, which unfortunately didn't have a window they could look into. They'd have to go inside if they wanted to know what was happening. A small gap in the side that didn't even reach their knees was the safest way in. Marie didn't hesitate, aiming the Hero Charger directly at it and pulling the trigger in. It clicked into place once, which caused the weapon to begin rapidly pressurizing the ink within its' small tank. About a second later, the handle vibrated very faintly, telling her the ink was fully pressurized. She pulled the trigger further in, firing yellow ink down the small gap. They both dove into the ink, one after the other, sparing as little time as possible.

Marie wriggled out between two of the TVs, swapping forms and instantly pressing herself against them. Callie was already striding forward, flicking a tall line of ink against the side of a nearby building. Marie took aim and fired near the top, finishing their pathway up to the roof. They swam up quickly, hopping over the edge with weapons drawn just in case, but thankfully there was no one waiting for them. Looking out over the dome, it was not hard to notice that this place too, was buzzing with activity.

This dome was also on the stranger side of things. It was broken into three large sections, separated by a large, empty gap. Each section was broken into three tiers, all rising from a large central platform. Buildings of moderate scale covered the stepwise landscape, giving the entire dome a strange, town-like feeling.

"THERE! HE'S THERE!" Callie shouted, grabbing Marie's arm as she pointed at the center of the dome. Amidst a swarm of octolings was a lone inkling, running full tilt away from the weapons aimed at him. His movements were erratic, he jumped and rolled seemingly at random. He broke left only too suddenly flip back to his right. It was practically impossible for Marie to track him, which meant their chargers were just as tripped up.

She could feel her hearts picking up just watching Agent Three run for his life. He finally dove behind cover, giving Marie a chance to catch her breath. "Cal we need to mo—" The words died in her throat as she watched him SUPERJUMP BACK OUT INTO THE ENEMIES.

"What is he doing!" Callie cried, a hand on the side of her head.

Agent Three swapped forms mid air, dropping a pair of bombs amid the soldiers that were chasing after him. The explosions took out nearly half the soldiers in one blast, utterly destabilizing their ranks. He landed into a roll, shooting an arc of ink in front of him as he landed. Marie almost felt obligated to stare as Agent Three tore through the remaining enemies. They were disoriented by the bombs, most of them losing track of him entirely after he superjumped to the other side of the fight. Two more soldiers felled, another superjump. None of the soldiers could keep their eyes on him, they couldn't see him to fight back. When there was three soldiers left standing, Agent Three superjumped towards the section they were currently on.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" Callie whisper-shouted.

"I..." We need to help him! (He's about to have half of the Octavian army breathing down his neck, trying to help would be suicide.) Marie shook her head to try and get her thoughts back in order.

Callie swung herself over the railing in the meantime.

Marie frantically tapped on the earpiece she wore, bringing the device to life. "Do you have a plan?"

"I'm going down to help him! Keep me covered!" The sound of a roller slash assuaged Marie's worry about her hitting the ground, but there were dozens more crowding in to take its place. How many soldiers are there? There are more coming from the adjacent dome, our time is very limited. Will he react poorly to seeing us? What if a soldier sneaks up behind—

Marie clamped down on her train of thought, sucking in a deep breath and raising her charger. "Fine, I'll try and keep up. And Keep talking to me. I'm going to lose sight of you a lot I'm afraid." Marie focused on shifting her ink color to blue, weak firing her charger a few times to cycle the remaining yellow ink out of it as she did so. It wouldn't be a perfect match, but hopefully close enough that she doesn't hurt him if he's caught in the crossfire. She prepared to superjump to a nearby building. We'll just have to get out before things go wrong.

Well, a blind ground charge might not be the best way to do things, but I can make this work.

It'd been months since Callie had really gotten to run, so today was already a really good day. It had been even longer since she got the chance to really do anything with her roller - it'd be to say she wasn't a little excited. She straightened her face, wiping away the small smile she knew was there. This is a serious thing! No place for pride here. Keep your head in the game Cal, and maybe you can brag to the kid later. The last thing she needed was the new agent thinking she was some kind of fight-addicted maniac.

An inkstrike in the distance gave her a target to run towards. She tried her best to keep to alleyways and shadows, not entirely abandoning stealth. More just... placing it to the side for now.

She didn't need to go much further to find the commotion. Another inkstrike impacted two blocks from her. Now that she was next to the action, running through the streets was far more risk than it was worth. She carefully flicked her roller at the side of a building, making a line to swim up. From her new vantage, it was a bit easier to see what was happening, and oh my cod what is happening.

He was doing it again! Agent Three landed from another superjump without taking time to recover. Just straight into a sprint, flinging a hand out behind him, throwing three bo—THREE BOMBS?? AT ONCE?? The spread of bombs did wonders though, keeping the mass of soldiers back, making enough room for him to superjump away. How did he... what did he...? Was he wearing a harness with a zapfish in it?

Callie watched down in the street, the remaining soldiers gave chase, but she could see their efforts quickly growing half-hearted, a few of them even stopped altogether and just sat down on the ground, looking incredibly tired.

"What the FUCK?" Marie asked over the radio, her voice a mix of bafflement and astonishment.

"You saw that too?"

"You mean launch himself over the gap to the exit tunnel?"

"He WHAT?"

"YEAH. Wait, if that's now what you saw-- ok you know what never mind." She could hear Marie deliberately take several deep breaths. "Point is, he's not on our slice anymore."

I think we've been underestimating him. Callie's spare hand bounced in the air while she thought. "Ok. Change of plans. You try to stay on him outside the domes. Keep an eye on his movements, and keep me updated."

"What? Aren't we going to—"

"We won't catch him. Not by running after him." Callie tapped her roller against the ground, creating a small puddle of ink at her feet. After taking a few seconds to aim, Callie superjumped back towards their entrance, landing a few blocks away and running the remaining distance. She saw Marie fly past overhead, already on her way out of the dome. Her cousin was well and out of the dome by the time Callie reached the exit. She swapped her color back to yellow and dove into the gap without slowing, quickly swimming through and reforming.

Now outside, she took just a moment to steady herself with a deep breath. She gingerly swung her roller forward, planting it on the ground in front of her as she prepared to run. This wasn't going to be the sprinting she and Marie were doing earlier, this was different. She wasn't holding back before, more so she hadn't been pushing herself at all, really. Between herself and Marie, Callie was by far the more physical of the two. Not to say Marie was a slacker in any sense, they were both far more capable than most other people she'd ever meet, but Callie was just more movement oriented. *Besides, we're a combat duo! We've spent years learning how each other fights so we can offer nearly-perfect cover!

But Callie knew how strong she really was. She knew she could be doing a lot more than just being Marie's frontline. Guilt always immediately followed the frustration she felt whenever she had to limit herself for the sake of her cousin. It's not right for me to be mad about that. It's not her fault I'm this strong and she isn't. Callie had gotten a good handle of these feelings over the years. It didn't matter how annoyed, stunted, or frustrated she felt, especially when what she was doing didn't need her kind of power to begin with.

But right now, out here, alone, in the dark? This needed her best. A wicked grin pulled itself across her face as Callie started to run.

*Moving with a roller is different. It's not just another weapon, an external tool. The roller becomes an extension of your senses. With it, every bump and divot in the ground become known well before your feet could ever find them. More than that, the roller becomes an extension of you, another limb you can lean on to support yourself. You trust the roller the same as you trust your legs, in turn, you lean on the roller to help you go faster.

Marie called it 'a perpetual breakneck-paced stumble, with the roller being the only think keeping her away from a mouthful of dirt.' Callie called it fun.

The nature of the caves being, well, caves, meant that there was very little light to see by. To make matters worse, Callie wasn't stopping to feel the walls for their guide markings, meaning she was navigating entirely by memory and intuition. So far neither had let her down. Running around the domes like this wasn't a common thing, as much as she cherished the few times she got to do so. Still, that lack of practice meant navigation took a lot of thought, tracing her route over the mental maps she had in the back of her brain. Lucky her that running cleared her head, and that was all she had to do right now.

That, and listen to Marie. "Ok, I skipped the Ag dome entirely, and I'm right at the hillside encampment. That was the right call. This kid is FAST." He cleared an entire ag dome that fast?

Callie didn't respond, and Marie didn't expect her too. Keeping her breathing steady was a bigger priority when she was running like this. Her footsteps echoed through the cave. Like usual, Callie opted for speed and power above all if given the chance. Abandoning stealth like this was a risky maneuver, but with the military as scrambled as it was, and a decent mental map fresh in her mind, the risk was worth it. Her roller ran dry, as she wasn't supplying it with any ink. With the amount of ground she was covering, her tank would be empty at the halfway mark, and there'd be a massive line marking her exact trail. Not exactly a good thing to leave behind, even if I'm not trying to be subtle.

"There's practically no one in there!" Marie sputtered over the line. "Agent Three is absolutely tearing through the— wh— He just made a mortar crush itself by superjumping into it's side!"

Callie smirked to herself. Not many things could leave Marie this bewildered. So that's why they were bolting them down. I have to say, this kid is pretty sharp. Just how many times has he done this for them to start securing them the moment he's near?

"I think he's broken them. There's just a reckless charge straight for him— wait. No. That's just one soldier, and I guess her commander yelling to back down? Either way it's not looking good for them."

Callie managed a grunt in response. She had to admit, after seeing (and hearing about) him in action, the kid's plan was kind of solid. Somehow, he drew the bulk of their forces to one area, then snatched a zapfish from somewhere else, outmaneuvered whatever soldiers were in the area, outran the surrounding confused soldiers in the neighboring domes, and made it to one of the hubs where he could vanish down any number of tunnels. Maybe we're underestimating this kid. First the map thing, and now this. I only saw him for a moment, but it seems like he's a pretty competent fighter too, if a little unorthodox.

Maybe he'll be able to keep up with me.

"He's about to start towards-- cod alive I forgot this kid won't hesitate to blast himself across a dome in broad daylight. Yeah, ok. He's entering the tunnel to the hub. It's going to take me a few minutes to catch up to you guys, even at a sprint. There's no doubt in my mind he's hurling himself down that space as fast as he can." Marie grunted as she put the cover back on their window. "I'll catch up with you as soon."

Callie nodded, not that Marie could see it. She was coming up on her destination, and she didn't intend to slow down. The crack in this dome was wide enough for her to run through, the only issue is the screens blocking it on the other end. She'd need to swap forms and slip through the gap underneath them. Callie carefully raised the roller off the ground, her speed decreasing as she had to adjust her balance. She carefully maneuvered it until it was directly out in front of her, like a lance. The muscles in her arms burned with glee as she held the heavy roller before her, unrelenting in her charge. A second before the roller would have impacted the screens, she jumped and changed form mid air, riding her momentum into the crack, and straight through the gap.

She reformed before hitting the ground, rolling to keep her speed. Her roller was on her back now, the spaces in this dome were too tight to reliably utilize its full potential. Like before, she opted for speed over stealth here, as this dome was properly abandoned. It was on the more normal side, with the structures divided into twelve sections rather than the usual four of a city-like dome. However, four of those sections were completely missing, along with the dome walls surrounding them. A massive cave in from forever ago caused it to break off entirely, essentially condemning the entire place to permanent structural instability.

Swerving through the streets of the dome was an... odd experience. Despite how long she'd been an agent, Callie hadn't really spent much time inside the domes. She was always on the outside, or sneaking around the edge, looking at what the soldiers were up too. She never got to admire the domes for what they were. Maybe someday I'll get that chance.

For now though, she had a squid to catch. She finally came to a stop outside a seemingly normal building. There wasn't anything indicating it was more than it seemed, save for a marking on the map back in Cuttlefish Cabin. So this is your spot huh? Initially, she was going to walk straight through the front door, but paused last second. He might see the open door and think I'm an enemy, better find a different way in. Callie looked around the building, pausing when she spotted a window on the opposite side of the house from the front door.

She flicked a careful, thin line of ink up to it, which she swam up moments later. She reformed with one hand poorly grabbing the shallow windowsill, while the other tried to shove the window open. Strangely, it didn't budge. Callie gasped in surprise as her grip slipped, sending her falling towards the ground. She hit the ground with a grunt, quickly scrambling to her feet.

Without any thought, she aggressively slammed her roller against the ground, creating a large puddle of yellow ink for her to land in, if she slips again. It took several more tries, but eventually she managed to force the window open enough to get an arm through; which gave her enough leverage to shove the damn thing a bit more open so she could fit her swim form through.

Rather than the quick drop to the floor she expected, she found herself tangled in some kind of white sheet. It took an infuriating amount of scrambling, and several form shifts for her to finally dislodge enough of the sheet for it to dump her flat on her stomach against the room's cold floor.

Callie simply laid there for a moment, holding in the sudden frustration she found herself riddled with. After several long seconds, she let out a slow breath, and opened her eyes.

"I'm in his hideout." Callie whispered for Marie to hear. "Going to keep quiet for now."

Marie took a few deep breaths before she spoke. "Got it, I'll let you know when I'm close."

She set up, idly rubbing at her stomach. Above her, she could see the ripped sheet that had caught her before she could fully enter. As annoying as that was, It was kind of a smart idea. If someone tried to jump him in here, he'd have more than enough time to react. She slowly stood, rolling her shoulder to try and work the sudden soreness out of her torso. Now, let's take a look at what you've got set up in here. She was expecting like, a chair, maybe a book or something. It was just a temporary hideout after all.

Instead, she saw a sleeping bag and pillow surrounded by a mountain of granola bar wrappers, jugs of water and piles of bomb frames. A hastily constructed pen had seven zapfish lazily toddling about inside it. Every other window she could see was similarly covered. Above the front door, a cluster of burst bombs sat tied to a rope, ready to swing towards the opening.

Oh my cod... has he been staying down in the domes? She carefully propped her roller on the ground to avoid splattering ink, and stepped forward. How long has he been down here?

"I'm in the dome," Marie chimed in her ears. "I'll be there in just a moment."

A few of the zapfish looked up at her with curious glances. They all seem to be in good health, they've got food and water. She turned her attention to the sleeping area. It really was a sorry sight, with all the wrappers haphazardly pushed into a pile. I can't even think about eating that much granola. Eugh. It didn't seem like his rest was all that restful either, judging by the crumpled state the sleeping bag was in.

Half hidden under the piles of bombs was a stack of papers. Callie bent closer for a better look. She could only see the top one, but the detailed map of some part of a dome told her all she needed to know.

One of the zapfish made a surprised, but happy sounding squeak, drawing Callie's attention to it.

And then she felt the barrel of a weapon press into the back of her neck. A cold voice whispered to her in accented octarian, "Drop the roller. Now."