Living Situation || Agent 3 x Agent 8

[15]

"Y'all know what time it is?!" Pearl exclaimed.

"It's Off the Hook, coming at you LIVE from Inkopolis Square!" Marina replied.

Richie and Tara were chilling at a table next to Crusty Sean's. They had been enjoying a Run Speed Tomato smoothie together before the Inkopolis News broadcast had started. It was around 11 AM, so that meant stage rotations.

"Before we reveal the current stages, we have some bad news to report," Pearl stated. The crowd buzzed with confusion. There wasn't normally any other news to report besides the stages. What could it be?"

Marina nodded and cleared her throat. "Last night at approximately 8 PM, a swarm of unidentified individuals raided an Inkling's house during a party. No one was harmed, but-"

"Someone was kidnapped!" Pearl blurted, startling her colleague.

A picture of a male Inkling appeared on the screen. Richie gasped and Tara dropped their smoothie onto the ground, the red contents spilling everywhere.

It was Ashton.

Off the Hook were shocked as well. They had met Ashton before, and while they weren't super close like the Squid Sisters were to him, they had still considered him cool and a friend. A few people started murmuring about their reactions.

Marina pushed one of her tentacles back. "Witnesses claimed that they couldn't see where Ashton was when the burglars attacked. No one noticed he was missing until they found his Golf Visor on the floor with purple ink on it," she explained, showing a picture of the aforementioned gear.

Tara recognized the ink right away. It was the same color as enemy Octarian ink. She grabbed Richie's hand and went to the manhole, thankful that everyone was too distracted by the news to notice them.

Callie and Marie had been expecting them. It looked like both of them had been crying, but Marie was trying to hide it with her hat. They were both wearing their agent outfits.

"So...I'm guessing you heard?" Callie asked, her voice lacking its normal cheeriness. Her phone sat next to her, playing Inkopolis News. It soon ended and she shut it off.

Tara nodded. She glanced over at the snow globe and was surprised to see that DJ Octavio was still there. He looked grumpy as usual, but something felt...off.

"Octarians most likely kidnapped him," Richie said. He felt disgusted at his own race. Why would they kidnap his best friend? "Me and Tara will-"

Marie held up her hand. "I know what you're going to say. You guys want to go after him," she said. "I appreciate you wanting to help...but this is something me and Callie have to handle ourselves."

Tara tilted her head. They were going to finally get off their asses? Next thing she knew, jellies would fly.

"But why?" Richie asked indignantly. "We are more than capable of getting him back. We'll have him out before-"

This time Callie silenced him. "We...had a fight with him before the party," she explained, looking down at her shoes. She seemed embarrassed. "I don't want to go into details...but basically, he got mad at us and left. We didn't hear anything from him since then."

Tara remembered how Ashton would act around the Squid Sisters. He seemed happy and always had a slight blush on his face whenever he talked to them. Even if he did like to annoy them from time to time, he still cared about them a lot. The girls seemed happy too. What could've happened between them?