OK Agent 32 Side Order drabble GO.
Agent 8 (or Shelly, as they had been told by their close friend, Matt- though, Pearl and Marina still called them Eight.) had become quite accustomed to climbing the Tower of Order at this point. Nearly halfway through all the Pallettes, the difficulty never even surpassed that of Girl Power Station, which still gave them stress dreams on occasion. They had hoped those Octolings had gotten free, but they pushed that thought to the back of their mind for now. There were other things to worry about.
Like finishing Agent 4's Pallette.
"Eight, are you with us?"
Marina's voice shook Shelly back to reality- or as close to reality as one can get in the Memverse.
"Oh, uh... yeah, Marina. I'm fine."
A flash of pink flooded Shelly's eye's- Pearl had suddenly flew right up into their face to get her battle buddy's attention.
"You better be! We're coming up on a boss floor! Yo, Rina! What floor's up next?" The drone yelled excitedly.
"Um... intensifying_harmony.floor! So you're going against the Parallel Canon next!"
Shelly froze. That boss. The one they had extreme suspicions about. The one that strangely resembled their boyfriend.
"Eight? Hello?"
"I'm fine! Let's go!"
"Ahem."
Acht's sudden noise made the group turn to them, as if they had forgotten that they were there in the first place.
"... Am I really that quiet? Whatever. Eight, if you're not feeling up to it, we can go back to the foyer or Marina can switch the boss to the Asynchronous Rondo, it's no problem."
Shelly shook their head. It's not like they had told their companions about their suspicions yet, and they didn't want them to worry... though from the looks on the other's faces, they already were.
"Seriously, it's fine. Come on Pearl, let's go beat these guys!"
"That's what I like to hear! Team Eight rides again!!"
"Well then, stay safe. Marina and I will be here keeping the elevator warm."
The elevator door opened up to the balcony, and Shelly rushed to the cage as quickly as possible. They could see the Parallel Canon in the distance, each of them getting ready to take them on. As soon as they landed, the first wave started- the pair of gray helmeted "Inklings" wasted no time trying to take down their Octoling adversary, but failed miserably as always. The second wave fared no better, each of them going down quickly thanks to the many power chips in Shelly's current Pallette. Though, strangely... the masked Inkling hadn't dropped yet. Odd, it usually comes in the second wave...
"EIGHT, WATCH IT!"
Pearl's shout managed to snap Shelly out of their trance, and just in time, too- they were almost the victim of a Triple-Splashdown. Luckily, they were able to dodge roll away, and Pearl took the Inkling down with an Inkstrike. The next 3 were splatted just as easily... which left the final one. This time, Shelly would get to actually have a look at this Inkling to see if their suspicions were true. It rode the cage and immediately used a Triple-Splashdown, and as the ink settled... Shelly got a good look at him. They'd recognize that dumb spikey hair from anywhere- it was him. Agent 4.
Archie.
Their heart jumped, and not in a good way. They had hoped that Archie had managed to stay out of this, but somehow he was sucked in too, now mindlessly serving as defense for Smollusk just as Marina was before.
"Arch-"
Splat.
He had gotten the jump on them. One life down.
"Eight?! What the heck was that?! Don't tell me you froze!" Pearl said, getting right back into Shelly's face again.
"I... that's... that Inkling, it's... Four."
"Wait. Your roommate? The one who's Pallette you're running right now?"
"Well... we're more than roommates, but..."
"YOU'RE DATING SOMEONE?!"
"That's not important right now, Pearl! Can you just help me free him like we freed Marina?"
"Of course! But we're gonna have a conversation about this later, y'hear?"
"Yeah, I know."
The ensuing fight took up the rest of Shelly's lives. Most of them were wasted trying to reason with the greyscaled Inkling, but now they had a plan. Pearl set her Killer Wail to a non-lethal level, and as soon as Archie's body was just destabilized enough, Shelly would rush in and rip the mask right off his face- it sounded just stupid enough to work. When the Killer Wail ended and the Inkling was practically melting apart, Shelly ambushed him from behind, grabbing the mask from the chin and pulling as hard as possible. Archie screamed in pain- though digitalized through a filter, Shelly knew it was him. The dense, chaotic, lovable squid they loved dearly.
"Sorry, Archie, but this is hurting me way more than it's hurting you!"
A few more tugs, and Shelly heard a click- they hoped it was something good, but the hope was momentarily dashed when Archie threw them off of him.
"What the shell are you doing, Shelly?!"
He actually spoke. Though garbled, that was him, his real self.
"Archie! It's me, don't panic, let me help!"
"Y-you're hurting me! I can do it on my own!"
"Calm down, please! Just let me get the mask off of your face!"
Archie didn't let them. He just kept pulling, and each time, the color returned to his skin and tentacles, but...
"I-I can’t... I can't get it off!! H-Help!!"
Shelly walked back over to him, and kneeled down. There were tears pouring from the red eye sockets of the mask- it was truly stuck. He tried to pull it more, but Shelly stopped him.
"Don't hurt hurt yourself, Archie. It's going to be alright."
They kissed him on the forehead of the metal mask, and it finally fell off. His colors were back to normal, and the greyscaling had been undone. The Tower seemed to count that as a victory, and on the platform behind them, the locker key formed.
But that could wait. Despite Pearl's protests, Shelly comforted Archie in their arms, both soaked head to toe in ink.
It was surprisingly nice.
"Thanks..."
"You're welcome."
"Don't let me go."
"I won't."
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