Agent 4 had spawned into the 'Square' with a golden light. It felt a little disorienting, but they assumed that dizziness after being dragged into a virtual reality (willingly this time) would have that affect. Across the square, Pearl, Agent 8, Marina and Acht stood at the door to the Spire, each looking at them with confused faces - except for Agent 8, who looked as if they should have known this would happen.
And to be fair...they really should have.
"Agent 4? How'd you get here?" Marina asked, tilting her head as the inkling ran up to the group.
Agent 4 caught up to them and explained - firstly, they just used their sea-cucumber phone to enter as Marina told them three months ago. And secondly, they were going to help defend the Spire of Order just as Marina asked back then!
"...That's fair," Acht remarked, crossing their arms, "I'd want to fight for my pride, too."
Exactly!
Pearl sighed. It was clear she didn't prefer bringing Agent 4 along due to past interactions, but she didn't seem too against it either.
"Okay, fine! I can respect the hustle. But they better not bring-"
"-Hey." Cyrus spawned in, walking over to the group with his hands in his pockets. "Nice to see you guys again."
"-NOOOO!" Pearl shouted, and Cyrus only laughed.
"Yeah, I missed you too. Pearlie."
"Hey! That's my nickname!" Marina pouted.
"I don't see a trademark," he snickered.
Agent 8 glared, then gave an unsure look to Agent 4. The inkling awkwardly gave a shrug. They had no part in the feud, even if Pearl often associated them with it.
But Agent 4 and Agent 8 were good friends, and they respect one another! Despite Pearl being a jerk towards Agent 4, they wouldn't force Agent 8 to choose between the two of them. And even though Agent 8 seemed to dislike Cyrus, they wouldn't make Agent 4 choose between them either.
As long as it doesn't affect their friendship, they can be friends with their friends' enemies!
"So uh, what's going on with the Memverse anyway? Heh, besides it being rebooted two months ago," he asked. That was probably the biggest question, and Agent 4 almost forgot to ask...
"Well, since I have to rebuild the website, it's easier for Smollusk to take control!" Marina exclaimed, "Think about it like Tower Control. Right now, Smollusk's in control of the Memverse. And if we can't reclaim it in time..."
"...Smollusk will reprogram the Memverse to grayscale the whole world." Acht finished.
"But that's what I don't understand!" Marina cried, "Last time Smollusk lashed out was because it was lonely. It just wanted a friend...and we were trying to take them away from it!"
"Wait, wait, hold on a second," Cyrus interrupted, "...'Smollusk' hid Agent 4's soul and basically kept them as a soulless hostage because it was lonely and it wanted a friend?"
Yeah! Agent 4 was surprised too! What the heck?! Why didn't anyone TELL them that?!
"...You realize how absolutely RIDICULOUS that is, right?"
"H4CKER! It's just a baby..." Marina frowned.
Cyrus looked incredibly confused, but he just let it be.
"Anyway, you were saying?" Acht got them back on track.
"Oh, right! After we freed all of the palettes, Smollusk said that it liked being the Big Bad of the tower. But something like this is just too far, even for it!"
Agent 4 was incredibly skeptical over that. Maybe because Smollusk did the worst to them, but this didn't seem 'too far' for a soul stealer...
Acht leaned against the wall and said, "Agent 8 climbed the Spire a few hours ago, but it's...different. Since the Memverse was rebooted, the Spire went back to normal. There's only 10 floors instead of 30."
"That's a good thing though, right?" Cyrus asked.
"No! Turns out, it's trash!" Pearl insisted. Agent 4 gave a look of confusion - complete trash...?
They had to ask. What happened?
"Yeah, cut to the chase, eh?" Cyrus added after Agent 4.
Pearl quickly continued - almost before Cyrus could finish his sentence. "The floors are all weird now! There are two sides in one! Agent 8 and I tried to complete the level but we couldn't get to the left side!"
Two areas...?
"The floors are split in half, but they mirror the other side. Each floor looks like it needs four players each - two on either side of the stage - to help each other complete mirrored puzzles!" Marina explained in further detail. It looked as if she were actually excited about it, which Agent 8 caught onto. They knew how much she liked things like this, even if she couldn't admit it right now, due to the circumstances of the situation.
Agent 4, though, was about to ask another question before swiftly being interrupted by Acht.
"Before you ask, Marina and I can't go. The elevator itself doesn't even have buttons anymore. We need to complete a 2-person puzzle from inside to reach the next floor, so...it looks like we'll all be busy."
It seemed as if they were the only one trying to stay on track with the conversation.
"Ah, see? You really do need Agent 4 and me. Pretty lucky we crashed your plans, huh?" Cyrus snickered.
"...You're right. That was pretty convenient," Acht replied.
Pearl just groaned. "Couldn't we have invited Neo Agent 3 and the new Cap instead?!"
Agent 4 sighed. They weren't exactly looking forward to working with Pearl either. They felt neutral towards Marina though...at least she wasn't being mean like her bandmate!
"Too bad!" Cyrus smiled, "You're stuck with Agent 4 and me. Or, are we stuck with you?"
"THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!" Pearl yelled.
"Hey, hey. If we're all going to be working together, consider putting your differences aside while we're here," Acht said, looking between the two.
Pearl groaned once again - and Cyrus just grinned at her.
"FINE! I'll try, but only if he does!" Pearl dramatically turned away from him.
"Hey, I haven't done anything bad to you...without reason, that is," he shrugged.
"What reason did you have for stealing from Pearl's bank account?!" Marina suddenly lashed out.
Agent 4 could only stare. They already knew she probably didn't like him, but she was keeping her cool until now...
Agent 8 made eye contact with them and just awkwardly shrugged. This would be fun for the both of them, wouldn't it...
"She was being a jerk to Agent 4. If she were nice...maybe she'd still have 500 more bucks in her giant pile of cash." Cyrus snickered.
"FIVE HUNDRED?!" Marina gasped - Acht's head perked up, and Agent 8's and Agent 4's eyes widened.
That was a LOT! Agent 4 knew he used Pearl's money to pay for their café visit - what ELSE has he been buying?!
...Actually, he dragged them along on so many shopping trips that they felt as if they should've put that together sooner.
"Oh, nevermind. That's nothing." Pearl spoke, relieved. Suddenly their surprised stares all went in her direction!
"I forget how rich she is..." Acht remarked.
Then, Agent 8 approached the door to the Spire and nodded, trying to signal the attention of the other five.
"Oh, right!" Marina said, "We should get going, shouldn't we?"
"Right, I guess so!" Pearl replied, "Sooner we go, sooner we leave!"
"Alright...guess we're starting, then." Acht stopped leaning against the wall.
"It's only ten floors anyway. How hard can it be?" Cyrus smiled.
Hopefully not very, Agent 4 thought. But he was right! Only ten floors...
The six of them walked into the Spire and into the elevator. Here we go!
Surely nothing will go wrong!
YOU ARE READING
Chasing Chaos - An Order Up Sequel
Fanfiction(Agents 4 and 8 are referred to with They/Them pronouns so the reader can imagine them as their own playable characters!) (This is a SEQUEL to Order Up, a past Splatoon fanfic I wrote. Please read that one first, and thank you!) Two months ago, the...
