Already. They had been out of formation for two minutes, and her squadmates were already shamelessly flirting with each other.
"Alley, look! They have mushroom soup today!"
"Really? Yay! My favorite!"
"Do you want my portion? I'll gladly give it up for you"
"Awwww!" Alibi cooed before devolving into that infuriating tittering giggle of hers. "You're so sweet! I'd love to have them, but you need your strength too!"
"Daw... you care about me..." Ramona closed their eyes and smiled, swaying slightly as they basked in the meaningless shower of empty compliments. "I might have to sneak a couple of extra bites to you, though."
Again Alibi let out another squeaky laugh, this one bad enough to make the members of other nearby squads roll their eyes. At least they have a bit of sense.
Arai and her squad were currently standing in one of two lines in the central cafeteria. It was a rather plain building, with really no decorations save for the large, open roof that showed off the sky. The lunch lines snaked along the outer wall, while the expansive space between them was filled to the brim by long, straight tables with pre-attached seating. Little metal disks were held up just far enough away from the table that one could unrealistically sit down and be comfortable. Really, they just made her butt hurt.
Trying her hardest to ignore the two key reasons she was less than a minute from adding a new dent to the walls, Arai turned her attention to the serving menu; a simple sign with the day's four meal choices written out on a slate. A small lightbulb above each dish indicated whether or not there were still supplies to make it. No light, no food, you had to choose another option.
Today's offerings were surprisingly diverse; mushroom soup (as expected,) salad with a side of bread (the boring, permanent option,) some flavor of rice bowl (fine, if a bit plain,) and spicy ramen *(wait, really? Maybe today isn't as awful as I thought.)
"Arai, look! They have ramen too!" Ramona unhelpfully told her, like she hadn't been staring at the menu.
She let out a slow breath, managing to keep her temper in check. "Good. it's the least they can offer me after the stupid drills from this morning." Today had been another long day of nothing but work. Just like the hundred before it. It had been days since Agent 3 last attacked, and that put the entire complex in a fit. The absolute pinnacle of intelligence running the military decided that every soldier needed to be doing additional drills in the morning to 'maintain vigilance' or some scrap like that.
At least the line was moving, if a little too slowly for her liking. Only three units were still in front of them.
Alibi looked at her with a small scowl. "Honestly, you'd be happier if you just accept that that kind of thing happens. It is wartime after all."
"WE'RE FIGHTING ONE FUCKING PERSON!!" Conversation quieted across the cafeteria as everyone turned to look at her. Arai tried to hold a defiant look and stare back at them all, but she broke in seconds, turning away to try and hide her blush. Her tentacles curled and tears poked at the edges of her eyes as embarrassment momentarily overtook the anger she was feeling. She provokes me on purpose, I swear!
Conflicting emotions warred within her brain, but ultimately, anger won out as it always did. The sheer amount of incompetency that bleed through every single millimeter of the military was going to put her even deeper into the ground. It was one guy. One singular fucking soldier. Months spent trying to stop just one single soldier.
He'd been cornered dozens of times; three of them by her and her squad personally! Without fail, every single rusting time, some hollow headed cluster of troops would forget the only fucking thing every commander in the domes had been relentlessly screeching about for months, and clump up as tightly as they could to make sure Agent 3's bombs splatted as many of them as possible.
The collective focus of the cafeteria let up while she was stewing, and while her tentacles and blush may have calmed down, her mind certainly did not. It continued to spin in the same fruitless circle it had been for months now, all centered on one inkling: Agent Three. Ever since that stupid inkling showed up, her life had gotten worse. Before the rusting zapfish heist, things had been awful, but stable. It was the same routine day in and day out; and more importantly, that routine wasn't threatening to kill her every time she did it. But then the military had to go and piss off the entire inkling military, who then proceeded to show them up for months with a single cod damn soldier. It was infuriating.
A dull stinging her hands finally broke her out of the mental loop. She looked down to see that two of her claws had managed to break through the calluses on her palms. Aggressive weapons training, and a nearly chronic need to clench her fists had earned her calluses on her hands thick enough that her claws usually couldn't do anything but scrape away at the toughened skin. She pressed the wound against the side of her shorts to hide any bleeding she might have caused.
"Arai, you back with us?" Ramona asked, giving her a concerned look.
As much as Arai really wanted to believe they were just asking after her, the bemused smile on her squadmate's lips told her not to expect any kindness. "What."
"Just making sure you're ok is all." Alabi commented. "You looked a little out of it." Behind her, the line finally moved forward, leaving two units in front of them.
"I'm fine." Arai insisted, giving them the most scathing glare she had. They kept watching her, like they were expecting her to say more. "I'm just a 'little' frustrated with everything right now."
"Girl, I think you were BORN frustrated." Ramona agreed with a small, breathy laugh.
Arai had to take deliberate care to not clench her fists. "I might as well have been when the sheer amount of scrap we're forced to deal with. It's—" She cut herself off, and took a deep breath. Everything was fine. She was about to get her favorite meal. There were no more patrols for today. Just. Breath.
When she felt like she couldn't snap a solid metal bar in two, she tried again. "With everything else going on, and all the work, I'm just—"
"Daww... don't worry! It's alright!" Alibi was suddenly beside her, trying to wrap her in a side hug.
Having experience with this, Arai managed to sidestep the attempt at the last second. "Let's all just shut up and get our food, ok?"
"We'll get our food alright," Ramona agreed without missing a beat. "I just hope all the cooks are in, so we can eat sometime within an hour."
"It's not that bad," Alibi tried to defend.
For once, Arai and Ramona were on the same side of things. "The fucking kitchen staff are being forced to do patrol routes. It's BAD, Alabi."
That was enough to make her grimace. "Ok, fine, it might be a little bad. But they're just doing the best they can. That's the only thing any of us can do, really."
Arai had to bite back several different comments. She firmly believe there was more they could be doing. She could name forty things right here and now, but they were all different flavors of disobedience, ranging from basic insubordination to overthrowing the government. Alibi would um and ah her way in a circle for a few minutes before giving up with a shrug and coming to the same conclusion she had at the start. This argument wasn't a new one, she'd had it the first day she joined the unit a year and a half ago. And a year ago, and six months ago, and a month ago, and yesterday, and every single day in between each of those as well. This time, Arai decided it wasn't worth the effort, and just shut her mouth.
It took a lot of effort.
Conversation stalled, and Arai turned her attention inwards, focusing on her breathing. She could relax, her body was capable of doing that. It took a lot of effort, and one of the increasingly rare evenings off to get close to anything like that, though. Today, she had that chance. She didn't know how, or why, all she knew is that Imari told them they had the evening free, and their leader never went back on her word unless there was a good reason for it.
As the line stepped forward again, she fully opened her hands and stretched her fingers backwards as a means to keep them from clenching again. Eyes closed, hands open, she took measured, deep breaths for over a minute, finding a sense of comfort in the simple, rhythmic activity.
Every soldier in the building tensed. Agent 3 was back and attacking somewhere else within the domes. Everyone waited for a moment, before remembering that they weren't the soldiers currently on duty. The collective sigh of relief was visible as everyone's shoulders relaxed. Conversation slowly started to fill the room again as things returned to operation.
Arai's hearts were beating like crazy, just the alarm alone was enough to send her into another spiral about Agent 3. Far too many times she had to take up arms and watch every person around her fail miserably to stop him.
But that wasn't now. Right now she was about to eat her favorite food and then take the evening to relax somewhere quiet, away from her squadmates. If anything, it was a relief that he was back. They weren't all waiting in suspense anymore. With her immediate future affirmed, she opened her eyes and stepped forward to get her food.
Only to stop dead and see the lightbulb above the ramen had gone out.
She wasn't sure if her hands, her toes, or her tentacles were clenching hardest as she placed her order for a rice bowl. She was so tense she was a push from swapping forms.
She must have looked like it too, because Ramona and Imari were actually being quiet for the moment. Or, well, as quiet as they can be. They were still talking with the other members of their squad, who were seated across the table, but they weren't flirting. If Arai was physically capable of feeling any emotion other than molten rage, she might have cried small tears of joy. Instead, she simply sat, staring at the table, stiff as a steel beam, with her hands wrapped around her knees so she didn't break her fingers clenching them too hard.
Agonizingly slowly, she managed to let colors other than red into her field of vision. She counts over two thousand breaths before she can pull her hands off her knees. Another thousand before she could bring them up to the table, and then five hundred more before she moved her gaze. It sucked, but it was just a setback. Rice bowls were still good. She still had a nice evening off. It was a blow to her mood, but the day was still recoverable. She even managed to tune into the conversation of her squadmates before the food was prepared.
There was one final huff of indignation as they walked to the counter to get their meal, but she'd managed to get over the loss by the time they actually sat down to eat. Like expected, the food was a bit plain, but food was always a quiet comfort. It was calming to finally have something to eat after hours of waiting. With a sigh of relief, she grabbed the piece of bread that came with the meal.
Arai's stomach dropped. These new alarms were louder than the previous ones. There's no way. All the frustration she had managed to put aside came rushing back, plus a lot of extra.
That was the emergency alarm. There was a second attack.
Commanders practically materialized at the front of the cafeteria, barking orders that panicked soldiers obeyed without question. Arai hollowly reached out and took another bite of her rice bowl, before Ramona pulled her away from the table. She was going to lose her head and scream every single frustration at her squadmate, but the words died on her throat as she saw the pack of coordinators sprinting across the cafeteria. If she'd been caught still sitting while they were supposed to be moving, they would have cooked her alive. She gave a reluctant nod of thanks before their entire unit was marched out of the cafeteria, food all left on the table, uneaten.
Imari ran them harder than Arai had ever run in her life. They were one of the first units to arrive in the affected dome, beating out every (formally) off duty unit, and nearly every training unit at that. Military dome C11 was split into two sections, a lower and a higher section, divided by a massive artificial cliff. The command center was on the edge of the cliff, visible easily from the tunnel they exited.
The two agents in bright reflective vests were just as easy to spot as they ran out of the building. Neither familiar was familiar to her, but the vests they wore made her blood boil on sight. That has to be Agents 1 and 2 then! Arai had no chance to vocalize her thoughts as Imari had them super jumping up the side of the cliff the instant it was in theoretical range. They didn't miss.
To her left, the command center was in disarray. Yellow ink stained the small section of the inside she could see from here. The other agents were already gone by the time they made it to the top, and there was no trail for them to follow, so Imari led them into the command center to assist in restoring order.
With any Agent 3 attack, there was a standard protocol they were all supposed to follow. Among all the defensive preparation, all zapfish that can be moved are to be taken into the closest centralized and heavily defended area. Once Agent 3's attack had been properly located, the standing military was then deployed to try and limit Agent 3's movements in the vain hope they could recapture the zapfish.
Doing that left the command center with all the zapfish virtually undefended. The same command center that had just been attacked by the previously MIA Agents 1 and 2.
The results weren't pretty. Over two dozen upper military personnel splatted, though they did respawn, and absolute havoc wrecked on all the plans and equipment inside. Worse though, twelve zapfish were taken in a single attack. Over a third of all the zapfish they still had, gone in an instant.
Around her, commanders screamed, coordinators shouted, and general chaos shook the very foundations of the command center. None of that even processed in Arai's mind. There's three of them now. We couldn't handle a single soldier. And there's three of them now. The agents clearly showed no hesitation in utilizing their new advantage either.
Fear, hopelessness, anger, but above all, dread, bitterly swirled in her mind as she robotically shot over the yellow ink with magenta. It was the same feeling she got after news of the first zapfish had spread. It was the same feeling she had when news of the Squidbeak captain's capture spread. Things had just changed. Her life was only going to get worse now that the viable threat to the domes had just tripled.
The Agents escaped, and Arai's life got worse because of it.
The announcement was not one Arai wanted to hear, but Coordinator Yuriko's words weren't to be ignored.
"UNIT 12-C7, IN POSITION!" Imari shouted, not missing a beat.
"MA'AM!" The unit cried as one, snapping to attention before fanning out to prepare for the inevitable failed engagement. Alibi, Ramona, and Kiran began the mortar setup, while Toshi, Sero, and Nick worked on the respawner.
The domes were being blitzed. Multiple simultaneous attacks by all three agents, every day for the last three days. There was no rhyme, reason, or pattern to who, where, or what got attacked. Sometimes there were attempts to steal a zapfish. Sometimes it seemed like Agent 3 was trying to score a new record for splats in a mission.
It was exhausting, and Arai was damn tired of it. The stupid inklings just had to ruin everything. I haven't gotten two consecutive hours of downtime in a week! Her legs hurt. Her arms were sore from lugging her weapon literally everywhere. Her head hurt significantly more than it usually did too, which was only made worse by the slab of metal they called goggles she was forced to wear. They were pressing on her head and eyes enough to make her want to rip them in half.
She had actually done something similar recently, though it wasn't deliberate. They were back in the meal hall when another attack started, cutting off meal time yet again. Her fist curled automatically in response, squeezing tight enough that her grip shattered the brittle metal of the cup. The resulting combination of jagged flakes of metal and her own claws made her bleed hard enough that she got to sit that attack out while she received medical attention. Only that fight though. That left her with bandages on her hand, and somehow feeling even worse than she had before. The stupid bandages chafed, which was agitating the calluses on her palms.
To make things even worse, she and Imari weren't joining the others in the setup, they had a different job. Arai didn't bother muffling her swears as she grabbed the edge of the roof, and pulled herself on top of the nearest barracks. Her hands was already screaming in protest, but it's not like it was going to change a damn thing, so she ignored it instead. Lookout duty was by far the best job of the lot, but that was the same as saying 50 pushups was better than 70. The two of them would watch over both of this dome's transitions, in case Agent 3 tried to sneak between them to escape them. Just sitting there, perched on the roof.
The slanted roof. The one that was at an angle that was really not meant for comfort or long term standing. She was already exhausted from running transport and responding to two false alarms within the day. The typical stressors in her life hadn't seen fit to let up on anything either, which was just FANTASTIC with everything that was going on. At this rate, a little bit of foot pain was just a stone in the canyon.
"Keep your head up soldier." Imari instructed. Her voice was firm, but it lacked the usual push it had when instructing the group.
Arai nodded on reflex. 'Keep your head up—' You're one to fucking talk. Take your own advice, maybe? Then you won't be such a hard ass anytime someone so much as raises an eyebrow at you. Something had been different with Imari lately. It was like she'd gotten stuck in the angry mood she'd have after any mandatory leave. It turned every tiny interaction with her into a massive headache.
Still, Arai didn't actually hate her leader. She knew well enough when it was just her anger talking. Her reputation among the soldiers didn't come unearned. Behind the barracks doors though, she was a lot less of that and more generally pleasant to be around. Not that that's a high bar, but she doesn't push me to 'lighten up' or 'do teambuilding' unless a coordinator was coming through. She's quiet too.
The preceding silence was as blissful as it was infuriating. On the plus side, Alibi was far enough away that Arai could pretend like she couldn't hear her squad mate. On the minus side, the entire rest of the situation, sore feet and all. She couldn't do anything but perch here and wait for Agent 3 to rear his ugly mug again. It could be one of the other two Agents, frankly, she'd given up on keeping track who was doing what some time after the 5th attack. *It has to be 3, I need all of this to stop or I think I'll lose it.
And then Imari started tapping her claws on the roof. It didn't take long for the inconsistent scraping sound to wear through her already filter-thin patience.
"Stop." Arai's eyes instantly widened. Fuck, rust, damn it, she's an officer you star-eyed moron! "AHEM! UH! Sorry, ma'am, that was wrong of me. Though, I would appreciate it if you could stop the tapping sound?"
Imari regarded her for several seconds, her face neutral, and very hard to read under the goggles. "Watch your tone, soldier. But, yes, I can stop." Thankfully, she did, but she fell right back into the angsty fit she'd been in before. It didn't feel right, seeing her like that. Imari was supposed to be a disciplined and unwavering force, and here she was fucking moping.
Seeing her leader reduced to such a state flared Arai's frustration, but it also, much more annoyingly, stoked that part of herself that wanted to reach out and help. It was inane, even after all these years of torment and anger, some part of her couldn't stand it when other people were suffering. Even now 10 days later, Arai's mind still occasionally flashed back to that new soldier, Marina, she'd met in the alleyway. The poor girl had looked like a salamander in a searchlight when she called out. I hope she's doing alright now. Better than me, at least.
That same urge to meddle was nudging her to move. She didn't want to, but just like the moment she'd spotted the newbie soldier fleeing into the alleyway, Arai knew she wasn't going to overcome the impulse today. "You've been doing the pitiful act for a month now, and frankly, I'm getting sick of it."
"Excuse me?"
"The whole stupid little drama act you're doing over there."
There were a few beats of silence. "I didn't think you cared about that kind of stuff."
Arai huffed. "I'm not, you're just being annoying and this is the best way to make you stop."
"Hmm. Right. It's not relevant."
Every second that ticked past compounded Arai's annoyance. Don't look back at her. Don't do it. You know what you're going to see. Don't— cod damn it. Behind her, Imari hadn't so much as looked up from her brooding.
"What's your fucking problem?" Arai snapped.
The unit leader slowly turned to look at her, face completely neutral.
The fact that she hadn't been slapped with three weeks of work detention was enough to keep Arai going. "You're so miserable for a month and you don't do anything?"
"You've been visibly unhappy for far longer than I have."
"I make it very blatantly obvious why I'm pissed, but you haven't said a thing."
Imari eyed her for a few seconds. "My sister was all but a school drop out. She was fast tracked into a support role, but even that is only as needed."
"I didn't know you had a sister."
"We don't agree on a lot of things. She can do so much more than she lets herself, but she just—" Imari stopped with a sigh. "I can't find her. She left our apartment without saying anything. I know she's not dead because her jobs are still getting done."
"Sounds like she ran away." Arai shrugged. Sounds like the only smart person in the domes to me. Why would anyone want to put up with this shrimpshit?
"That's what I'm afraid of." Imari fidgeted for a moment, before resolve straightened her posture. "When this is all over, I've got some places I want to look through to see if I can find her."
Something about that doesn't feel right. "Do you think there's a... reason she might have run?" Arai wanted to be a bit more direct, but insinuating to her commanding officer that her problems were her own fault didn't feel like a smart idea.
"Running from her responsibility." Imari didn't hesitate to respond.
"Can't be that. You said she's still doing her job."
"I—" Imari paused. "No, that doesn't— then why...?"
The announcement echoed through the dome, amplified by every speaker wired into the system. Arai and Imari moved on training alone, straightening their aim and shifting their full attention to the transitions. The tension in the air reached the ceiling, silence falling as every single soldier prepared for action.
.
.
.
Agent 3 flew out of the transition, escaping the twin mortar shots that had been prepared for his arrival. The shouts of commanders and soldiers chased him inwards, but neither soldier on the roof paid them any mind.
They both jumped from the ledge down into a puddle of ink, quickly taking their place with the rest of the squad, who were already in position. Alibi sped past them into the maze of barracks, a bag of mortar tracers clutched at her side. Everyone sat, tense, as they waited. The only change was the shrill beeps of the mortar system, demanding Ramona's attention every time a tracer was thrown. The ground shook slightly with the impact of every launch.
But not as much as Arai's hands with her Octoshot. This Agent... this stupid fucking inkling ruined everything in her life. His attacks forced them to respond at all times. He ruined her sleep, her meals, her free time, every last little bit of it. *At this point, I'll stop him with my own claws if that's what it takes.
The handle of her octoshot dug into the calluses on her hands, the resulting dull sting from her bandaged hand was almost satisfying as it mixed with her heartbeats. If we can just get him, then EVERYTHING will fix itself.
When the next mortar shot landed in the courtyard only a single building away, everyone braced. Agent 3 shot down the corridor between the buildings, running faster than Alabi could keep up. It was a scene Arai had seen more times than she could count. The enemy is spotted, and everyone moves in to engage him.
Only, Agent 3 wasn't like the traditional "enemy" unit they were trained against. He moved too fast, played too dirty, and with a completely different goal than the soldiers. Every soldier was preparing to engage in combat, to fight until there was a determined winner and a loser. Agent 3 just wanted to escape.
That's why, when everyone moved towards the barracks to catch him, Arai chose to break from the traditional formation, and run away. Judging by the sounds, Agent 3 did exactly what was expected: he threw a pair of splat bombs to keep the soldiers at bay, before launching himself over their heads, intent to skip the fight entirely. He landed a few paces beyond the respawner, barely pausing to stumble before continuing his sprint.
Until Arai launched herself at him with a yell of frustration. Agent 3 was already trying to pry himself free before they hit the ground. She couldn't understand a word he said, but could recognize the tone of fear in his voice.
"YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" She screamed as she pulled his arm, forcing his body up just enough that she could wrap her legs around his midsection, preventing him from escaping. Her blood was boiling as she forced him to the ground, pinning the same arm to the ground to further limit his means of escape.
"I FINALLY FUCKING GET YOU, AND YOU CAN'T EVEN FIGHT BACK!!" She spat the words at him, laced with as much venom as she physically could. His body tensed, warning her he was about to switch forms. Arai threw her octoshot away, wrapping her arm around his neck, cutting off his airflow.
A sharp pain erupted in her side as Agent 3 kicked with all his might. It hurt like hell, and it made her grunt in pain, but she held on. He pushed and thrashed with slowing intensity, but she had him pinned.
"I FUCKING HATE YOU!" She growled, leaning in close as she tightened the chokehold to send the message. For the briefest of moments, they locked eyes. Fear and desperation swam circles around an unstoppable dogged determination in his eyes. She dug her claws into his chest, grabbing fistfuls of the vest to pull his head even closer to hers. "YOU RUINED MY FUCKING LIFE, AND NOW Y—"
Agent 3 staggered to his feet with a primal scream. The sudden shift caught Arai off guard, jostling her around enough that he managed to take a deep gulp of air. He barely had his feet under him, so she tried to shove him back down by throwing her weight to the side, but he managed to swing the momentum so he fell the opposite way. Her way. There was nothing she could do to fight back as he fell on top of her.
With the wind sufficiently knocked from her lungs, Agent 3 tried again to stand, only to again be stopped by Arai. She still had a death grip on the vest, which she squeezed even tighter to make sure he knew. He couldn't change forms, not with her claws dug in like that, unless he wanted her to have a death grip on his body instead.
A choked, wheezing laugh escaped her, the first time she'd laughed in months if not longer. Despite having the obvious upper hand in the fight, Agent 3 couldn't win. He couldn't beat her, but that didn't stop him from trying.
"NO." Arai growled, pulling him down with all her might. She was still mostly stunned from the drop, but she could keep him here long enough for her unit to catch up. She couldn't understand the string of words he was uttering, nor did she care to. The only thing she was focused on was keeping her grip inescapable. She wanted this all to end.
And then Arai's hand rocketed back into her face.
Agent 3 literally threw himself to the ground some distance away, and superjumped before she could get back on her feet. Dumbfounded, Arai looked to her hand, which was holding a bright yellow vest in a death grip. Her claws had pierced clean through the fabric, and clear through her calluses too.
She didn't feel any pain, even as blood dripped from the wound. Even as her unit arrived and helped her to her knees. He'd escaped. Again.
It felt like she was on fire. Every limb trembled with barely contained anger, until she just couldn't take it anymore. A scream of pure, unadulterated rage tore itself from her throat, mixing with the sirens heralding yet another attack. Her fists balled, puncturing the callouses on her other hand as every muscle in her body tensed in a desperate attempt to relieve even a fraction of the energy in her body.
Agent 3 escaped again, and Arai's life only got worse.