Numi didn't like being surrounded by a crowd and so did the only thing that came to her mind: run away. She was currently hiding somewhere inside Deca Tower. She decided to change her hiding spot, so she ran out, and ran straight into Benio, causing both of them the recoil backwards. "Sorry!" Numi exclaimed.

"Heh. We've got to stop running into each other." Benio chuckled.

"Is the crowd gone? Is it?" Numi asked.

"I don't know, probably not." Benio replied and got up. He then helped Numi get up and asked "Wanna play some turf?"

"Yes!"

"You sure are energetic. Let's go!" Benio exclaimed and the two ran to the nearest lobby. They didn't have to wait long for both teams to get filled and to get sent to a match. "Shellendorf Institute... I hate this stage." Benio groaned.

"Why?" Numi asked.

"See that glass roof of sorts? There's always either a charger or splatling there."

"Oh..."

The match began and ink immediately started flying everywhere. Numi slammed her roller down, hopped onto it and rolled out as if it was a log. She sped ahead of her team, eager to reach the opposing side and say hello to the other team. Benio was swimming in the ink trail left by Numi as she sped ahead, while the other two members of their team inked the base. In mere moments Numi reached the half point. She started to turn around the sarcophagus in the centre and ran straight into an octoling girl using an inkbrush. By a bizarre and unlucky chance, instead of either getting splatted to get respawned, their weapons caused them to ram into each other head first. "Owie..." Numi muttered as she rubbed her head. She slowly sat up and looked around to see what happened. The octoling girl that she rammed into slowly got up, holding her head.

"Ouch... what happened?" the octoling asked, to which Numi replied with a shrug. The two awkwardly looked at each other, completely confused by what happened. Benio jumped out of Numi's ink trail, but didn't fire his .52 gal deco at the octoling girl.

"I've seen something like this happen only twice before... are you two ok?" he asked, to which both Numi and octoling nodded. "That's good." Numi stood up, took a few wobbly steps to her mini roller and picked up. She then turned around and walked over the octoling's brush, without wobbling as much, picked it up and gave it to the octoling. The octoling gave Numi a slight smile and to Numi and Benio's surprise, started hopping around while rapidly switching into octo form.

Numi's eyes shined when she realised what the octoling was doing. "Party!" she beamed and joined the octoling and they both soon started to shout 'Booyah!' and other cheers, laughing as they did. Benio stood there somewhat awkwardly and didn't even notice when they were joined by two more teammates from both teams.

"Alright. You have fun with your party, I'm off for a 1 on 1." Benio said, inked himself an ink trail and swam forward. Finding the only opponent left was easy: she, an inkling girl, was doing the exact same. "Timeout!" Benio exclaimed as he jumped out at the end of his ink trail.

"Ugh, what?" the girl groaned. She held the same weapon as Benio.

"Everyone else is doing a party back there. Wanna 1v1?"

A grin formed on the girl's face. "Shell yeah! Subs only?"

"Sure! Let's not ruin their party though."

"Alright."

"You ready?"

"You bet!" the girl exclaimed and tossed a curling bomb at Benio, who jumped aside and tossed his curling bomb. They both dove back into their ink, refilled and tossed more curling bombs at each other, once again dodging and repeating the whole process. After a few repeats, the girl got unlucky and slipped as she tried to dodge and got splatted. Benio in his excitement didn't notice that a curling bomb rolled right up to him, and he too got splatted. A few second later after having respawned, both Benio and the girl sighed and headed back their 1v1 spot.

"This is fun!" Numi beamed to everyone. She didn't notice Benio pass by, too focused on the party. The group partied throughout the entire match, while Benio and the inkling girl competed fiercely in 1v1. Time flew by and the match ended. Numi's team barely won, with only a 1% difference, which was only thanks to Benio's last curling bomb. After everyone returned to the lobby, they looked at the results. Benio and inkling girl have inked the most turf and had the most splats, in fact being the only ones with splats, while Numi and octoling girl have inked the least turf. Benio and Numi left after a minute with another inkling, who headed for ranked lobbies.

"I've got to go. Was nice to meet you and I hope we'll see each other again. Bye." Benio said and headed for the exit.

"Bye, bye! Thanks again!" Numi beamed and waved energetically. After a moment she checked that she had everything, and after checking twice that she did indeed have all her things, she too headed for the exit, taking her time as she had plenty of it. Before going outside, she took a peek, and after making sure there was no crowd, nor anyone looking in her direction, she bolted towards the manhole. She hastily reverted to her squid form and went into the sewage system. "Which way was it..." Numi thought to herself as she tried to remember the path to Cuttlefish Cabin.

It took Numi nearly 40 minutes to find her way in the sewers and at one point she almost fell into a particularly stinky part of them. She moved the manhole cover aside and emerged at Octo Canyon, right next to Cuttlefish Cabin. Numi set the cover back where it was after moment and happily skipped towards the cabin. "Hello! It's me, Numi!" she beamed. No response. "Hello?" Numi repeated herself as she approached the cabin, but still no response. She looked for a window to look through, but to her dismay all windows were right up under the roof, far above of how far she could reach. She walked up to the sliding door, but found out that it was locked. Numi puffed her cheeks in annoyance, crossed her hands and sat down on a bench next to the cabin.

She sat there for a few minutes, resting her back against the cabin, with her mini roller, backpack and ink tank all set by the bench. As Numi sat there in silence, she heard something. And then again, a moment later. She kept on hearing a soft melody for a few seconds every few moments. This melody seemed to be coming from Numi's left and after a few minutes she was overtaken by curiosity. She got up and cautiously followed the melody. She peeked around the corner and at first saw nothing interesting. The she heard the melody again, coming from right in front of her. She looked down. A small cage was resting on another bench. Numi knelt down and looked into the cage. She got starry eyes when she saw a fluffy, little white bird sitting inside the cage. The little bird started rapidly waving its small wings, hovering off of its small branch and started to sing its melody again, landing after finishing the short melody. "Hi!" Numi beamed quietly to the bird. "You sing beautifully!" she complimented the bird, which looked at her curiously.

Numi sat down by the cage and watched the bird perform its concert over and over, complimenting it every now and then. She kept on beaming a bright smile at a the bird and talking to it as if it understood her. After a short while someone tapped her lightly on the head. Numi jumped up and spun around, only to stumble back and fall over. She was startled, paling slightly as she looked up at the person in front of her. It was an elderly man with a hunch, holding a T shaped cane. He was trembling and it made him look fragile. "Hello! How did you get here bucko?" the man asked in a friendly tone.

"Y-you scared me!" Numi exclaimed and puffed her cheeks.

"And I'm sorry for that." the man replied and reached out his hand to Numi. "Get up, you'll get your clothes dirty." he said calmly.

"Uh, thank you." Numi said as she grabbed his hand and got up with the man's help. The man approached the cage and Numi stepped aside.

"I've noticed that you like my little friend here." the man said and gently tapped the cage with his finger. The bird flew a bit closer to the side, appearing to be excited.

"I do! It's a tiny, fluffy bird and it's cute!" Numi pumped excitedly.

"You sure have a high spirit bucko. I came here to feed him, but firs-"

"Can I watch? Please!" Numi exclaimed, cutting the man off. The man sighed. He nodded and took out a small package of seeds. "Yay!" Numi exclaimed happily, raising her fist in the air. The man opened the cage and the bird flew out, landing on his shoulder. The man then opened the package of seeds, took a bunch into his hand and let the bird fly down to land on his hand and start to eat the seeds. Numi's eyes were shining and she carefully walked a bit closer. "Can I pat it's head?" Numi asked quietly after a few minutes of silent watching.

"Of course you can, but be gentle." the man replied. Numi could barely contain her excitement. She carefully walked a tiny bit closer and reached out her hand. She patted the bird's head as gently as she could. It was the softest thing that Numi has ever felt. After a moment she started to pet the bird, running her hand from its head down to its back repeatedly and holding back the urge to squeal in excitement. The bird didn't seem to mind, plucking at the seeds in the man's hand.

The man noticed Numi excited expression and asked "You like birds, don't you?" He got a very energetic nod in response. The bird continued to pluck the seeds for a few more minutes. When the bird finished, the man gently put it back in the cage, refilled its feeder, replaced the water container and closed the cage. He then turned to Numi, who had her eyes glued to the bird. He cleared his throat, getting Numi's attention, and asked "How did you find this place?"

"Uh... I can't tell!" Numi exclaimed, with a very awkward expression.

"Alright then, what's your name?"

"Uh... I'm Numi... who are you?" Numi replied somewhat shyly.

"I'm Cap'n Cuttlefish." Cuttlefish said, making a peace sign with his left hand.

Numi got starry eyes. "CAN I GET A NEW MISSION? CAN I, CAN I? I DIDN'T TELL ANYONE, SO I COMPLETED THE MISSION PUMI GAVE ME! PLEASE?" she exclaimed in a single breath, startling Cap'n Cuttlefish.

Cap'n Cuttlefish stood still for a moment as he processed what Numi said. "Hmmm, do you have a sibling?" he asked.

"I do! My sister Pumi is an agent! She has tentacles like mine but yellow and she's always asleep or doing pranks!" Numi pumped. "She said that I can be agent 7 if I don't tell anyone, and I didn't tell anyone!" she added proudly.

Cuttlefish was surprised by Numi's outbursts. He thought for a minute before saying "Here's what I'll do. I'll give you a mission to prove yourself. If you succeed, I'll give you a proper mission. If you don't, I won't give you any other missions." he said and asked "Am I clear?"

"Yes! Very clear!" Numi nodded energetically.

"Alright, follow... no wait, I might not have a hero set for you... and I can't send you in starter set... wait here for a moment please." Cuttlefish said as he walked over to the sliding door, before unlocking it and going inside. He could be heard rummaging through selves and boxes, sparking Numi's curiosity which she had to fight. After a few minutes Cuttlefish emerged from the cabin, holding a set of folded clothes, shoes and a headset. "Go inside and change into this." he said as he handed the clothes to Numi.

"Ok!" Numi beamed and ran into the cabin. Cuttlefish went over to Callie's favourite bench, sat down on it and waited. A few minutes later Numi ran out of the cabin wearing the clothes that Cuttlefish gave her, but she kept her skirt and scarf on. Her hero set was something in between Licy's and Pumi's hero sets, a hybrid of sorts. Headset was the only thing that fit perfectly and only because it was adjustable, while everything else was slightly too big. Set included a belt with two small, round boxes attached on either side. It was really helpful for Numi as it helped to make the set less lose on her. She ran over to Cap'n Cuttlefish and exclaimed "Done! What now?"

"Does it fit?"

"It's a bit too big."

"Sadly I can't do anything about that. This is Agent 1's first hero set. The shoes turned out to be too small, the rest of it shrunk after washing." Cuttlefish said, recalling events from a few years ago. "Won't that skirt and scarf be annoying?"

"Nope, they won't! Where's the mission?"

"Do you plan to do it without a weapon or ink tank...?"

"Oh, right... I'll just use my roller an-"

"Absolutely not!"

"Why?"

"I'll tell you later." Cuttlefish said, got up and went inside the cabin. He walked out with an ink tank and a weapon that Numi hasn't seen before. The ink tank like a regular ink tank but darker and with some lights around the top and bottom. "Agent 1's first ink tank and a new heroshot. Sheldon gave it to me to test a few days ago, which I haven't gotten to do."

"It looks... weird..." Numi said, unable to find a better way to describe how the heroshot looked. The weapon had a grip similar to grip of a splattershot which connected to a large sphere, both of which were cyan in colour. What appeared to be an orange manual air pump was sticking out of the back of the sphere, where stock would be located, while a thick, yellowish pipe went out from the front and connected to a metal cylinder. There were three more, cyan rubber pipes connecting to the cylinder. On the right side of the cylinder was what seemed to be a pressure gauge, while the left side had a pressure relief valve and a lever or bolt. The barrel of the weapon was yellowish and looked like a narrowing hose end.

"It does look unusual, but trust me, this is the best weapon that Sheldon has invented! Or at least he said so." Cuttlefish replied as he gave Numi the heroshot.

The heroshot was surprisingly light. "It's ugly... can I use my roller instead?"

"No."

"Why?"

"It'll break, among other things."

"Oh... but I don't want to use THAT thing."

"But you have to, I've got nothing else for you. If you don't don't want to use it, then I can't give you any missions."

"...fine..." Numi groaned and took the heroshot.

"There's a small practice range over there. I'd say that you should try out this weapon before you go on your mission."

"Ok..." Numi said and slowly walked over to the range, stopping at a drawn line. Across from her were three target balloon, while to her right was a strange device she didn't know and a small table. Cap'n Cuttlefish made his way to the table, turned around and looked at Numi. Numi took aim at the left balloon and pulled the trigger. Her heroshot started shooting like a normal splattershot, just barely missing the balloon. Numi took two steps closer and popped the balloon with three hits. The same as a splattershot. "Is this a splattershot...?" Numi asked as she inspected the weapon.

"You could say that. Heroshots are upgraded splattershots, much more durable. They also splat opponents faster." Cuttlefish explained.

"What is this for?" Numi asked and pointed at the grip of manual air pump.

"It looks like air pump to me. Why don't you try pumping it?"

"Uh, ok." Numi said and began pumping the heroshot with her left hand while holding it with her right hand. It was surprisingly easy, and after a few pumps Numi stopped. "It did nothing. It only moved the arrow thing here..." she said, poking the glass cover of the pressure gauge with her finger.

"Try shooting it now."

"Okie!" Numi replied and once again aimed at the balloon. She pulled the trigger and was shocked when the balloon popped after just two hits. The ink from her heroshot was more focused, travelled faster through the air and hit harder. Curious, Numi turned around 180, pumped the heroshot some more and fired. She fell backwards because she didn't expect any kind of recoil. She didn't even know of recoil because of how small it was on other ink weapons. Her jaw dropped when she saw that the ink trail she made was like a charger ink rail, but thinner.

"Sheldon was right when he said this is his best invention! That's a few weapons in one!" Cuttlefish exclaimed. Numi switched to her squid form, dove into the ink trail to refill her ink tank and switched back to her humanoid form a moment later.

"How do I make it... splattershot again?"

"Try turning the valve." Cuttlefish suggested. Numi turned the valve to the right and immediately heard a hiss as pressurised air escaped the weapon. Numi waited until the hissing ended, turned the valve to the left, aimed ahead of her and fired. The heroshot was once again shooting like a splattershot.

"It's cool! Ugly, but cool!" Numi exclaimed after staring at the heroshot for a long moment. "Can I go on a mission now?" she asked after a moment. Cuttlefish nodded, turned around and started walking to the next area, motioning Numi to follow. Numi followed Cap'n Cuttlefish obediently to the next area, passing under a stone arch which was of magical origins in her eyes, because of which her curiosity was peaking. The very first thing she saw after passing the arch was a splotch of purple ink to the left, an extension ahead with what seemed to be a big kettle at the end and what seemed to be a launchpad and a way down on the right.

"You see that launchpad?" Cuttlefish asked, pointing at said launchpad with his cane

"I do, why?" Numi replied as she looked at the launchpad curiously.

"It will send you to your first missi-Hold up bucko!" Cuttlefish started and before he could even finish Numi rushed towards the launchpad, eager to start her first mission. "Stop!" Cuttlefish demanded, raising his voice. Numi froze, once again startled, and turned around. "Ahem. Before you go, I have to show you how your headset works. Mind taking it off for a moment?"

Numi sighed and took her headset off. "But it's just headphones. That glow."

"That's where you're wrong bucko. Hero headsets are much more than just headphones." Cuttlefish started, taking the headset from Numi and immediately pointed at the right headphone. "For example, this here has a small camera fitted in it. See?"

"No... huh? What?! Why... what is it for?" Numi asked in a very surprised and confused tone, her eyes widened slightly when she noticed.

"I gotta know how missions are going and sounds are not enough. Speaking of sounds, the other headphone has an inbuilt microphone. And last thing: it will glow red if you get hit by octarian ink. It will glow darker red if you're about to be splatted." Cuttlefish explained and handed the headset back to Numi.

"Splatted? So, missions are like turf wars?" Numi asked as she put her headset back on her head.

"You could say that about most missions, but it's not about inking turf. More like ranked, at least from what I know about those games."

"Can I go on the mission now?" Numi asked, hopping in place impatiently.

"Go ahead bucko."

"Yay!" Numi beamed happily as she turned around and ran to the launchpad. Moments later she was launched in her squid form to her destination, which took a short while. While Numi soared through the air, her eyes closed due to fear of heights, Cap'n Cuttlefish moved back to the cabin. He went inside and took a seat by a small desk. He turned on an old laptop, switched one of the only few programs he knew how to use on and plugged in an old microphone. He was now waiting for Numi to land.

After two minutes Numi landed in a pool of artificial ink, still in her squid form. Artificial ink can't be dissolved by microorganisms, so it remains in its place until it gets removed with a special machine. It negates impacts from super jumps and in general behaves like normal ink, with the added bonus of it changing colour to the colour of current user, in this case pink for Numi. However, its healing abilities are much, much weaker than those of normal ink. It was also much, much colder.

Numi hastily reverted to her humanoid form, opening her eyes as she did. "Cold!" she exclaimed as she jumped out to the side of the pool. She looked around and before her eyes was... "Obstacle course? But this was supposed to be a mission!" Numi complained to herself, puffing her cheeks in annoyance. There was a wide trail of artificial ink leading down a path that led to a platform slightly below at a small incline. Everything: ground, fences, walls and all other things were made of wood, bamboo and mats.

"Your first mission is to complete this obstacle course agent 7. I built it with agent 4 a few months ago." Cuttlefish said over the radio. "Well, more like helped 4." he added quietly, thinking that Numi wouldn't hear, but she did.

"Pumi built all this?!" Numi exclaimed in shock. She knew that Pumi liked to build and tinker, just like their dad and granddad, but Pumi building an entire obstacle course from scratch sounded too far fetched for her.

"Eh, yes, she did. Mostly. It took her only two weeks too. I still don't know how she managed that."

"Pumi must know magic!" Numi excitedly exclaimed.

"What?"

"Magic! Pumi must be a wizard!"

"Right... you sure have quite the imagination bucko. Magic doesn't exist."

"It does! That's how birds fly and how microwaves work!"

"... anyway, follow that ink trail!"

"Oh, right!" Numi said and started to run by the trail of ink.

"Agent 7, why are you running by the ink and not swimming in it?"

"That ink is very cold!" Numi replied without stopping. Cuttlefish wanted to say something but decided not to. Numi ran down to the lower area and followed the trail to right down a path that led to a large platform. In the middle of said platform was a small raise with a single target balloon, with a fierce looking octotrooper drawn on it and a strange box with a pipe next to it. Numi assumed that she had to pop it and approached it. She aimed, but before she fired she noticed that the pipe has moved slightly. She ignored it. She heard a hiss and a strange pop. A moment later something cold and slimy landed on her left cheek. "Whaaa?" she said in confusion. Numi checked her cheek with her left hand and when she looked at it she saw a purplish, jammy substance on her fingers.

"Sheldon made training weapons for balloons and it seems that agent 4 has once again replaced fake ink with jam..." Cuttlefish mumbled.

"It's jam?" Numi asked and immediately put one of her fingers in her mouth to taste the jam. A smile formed on her face as she instantly recognised the taste. "Yummy! Blueberry jam is my favourite!" she beamed happily and licked the rest of the jam off her fingers.

Cuttlefish cleared his throat to get Numi's attention and said over radio "Agent 7, focus. You have to pop that balloon."

"Oh, right." Numi replied. She wiped the jam off her cheek and once again took aim, this time firing her heroshot, popping the balloon seconds later with three hits. The box next to it played a sound and lowered its pipe, letting some jam slowly drip to the ground. There was a strange orange orb left where the balloon used to be. Numi slowly approached the raise and picked the orb up. If inklings had fingernails, the orb could be compared in size to fingernail on the pinky finger. Numi picked it up. It was warm and felt gelatinous in touch.

"That's a power egg. Collect as many as you can, as they can be used to upgrade your weapon!" Cap'n said over the radio.

"How does this upgrade something...? And where an I supposed to put it?" Numi asked as she inspected the orb. "It kind of looks like a gummy..." she thought to herself. "Can it be eaten?"

"Uh, well, if you cook it, yes. But it's wasteful. As for how it upgrades and where to put it: it contains a lot of energy which can be used to power it up or to power up a machine that will upgrade it. You can put it in one of the two boxes on your belt, both can hold up to 500 power eggs." Cap'n explained, slightly slower so that Numi could understand it all.

"So it's like batteries?" Numi asked as she reached for one of the boxes on her belt. She grabbed and opened the left one, revealing a bizarre mesh. She squeezed the power egg into the mesh and closed the box.

"You could put it that way bucko, but power eggs are a lot more powerful than mere batteries. Oh, I almost forgot. The boxes collect all power eggs you touch while you're in your basic form. I still don't know how Sheldon achieved that... Anyway, ahem, onward agent 7!"

"Okie!" Numi beamed happily, inked a path going to the next platform on the right, switched to her squid form, jumped in and swam to ahead, collecting three power eggs as she went. She popped out at the end of the path and landed on a fourth power egg before reverting back to humanoid form. In front of her was a bamboo wall that was roughly twice her size. Confused, she walked to one of the ends and peeked behind the wall. She saw another balloon, this time on a moving platform and three wooden crates behind it, one of which was orange. Not wanting to be hit with jam again, Numi hid behind the wall. She sat down for a moment and thought, after which she got back up. She pumped her heroshot a few times, peeked around the corner and fired at the balloon. She not only missed the balloon, but also fell backwards from the recoil. She got up and tried again with the same result. And again. When she tried the fourth time her heroshot didn't shoot and her ink tank made a click sound. She ran out of ink. Numi puffed her cheeks in annoyance, reverted back to squid form and dove back into her ink trail.

She jumped out a moment later with a full ink tank and went back to the corner. She stood with her right leg forward and fired again, but this time she didn't fall over. Her shot fell short and seemed to be wider. Numi didn't pay mind and shot again, this time the shot was even shorter and wider. Numi looked at the five ink trails left from her shots. "Oh, it needs more air!" she thought and pumped her heroshot again, this time more. She took her stance again and just as she was going to shoot Cap'n cut in, startling her.

"Don't aim where it is, aim where it's going to be in a moment."

"You scared me again!" Numi exclaimed with annoyance, but listened to the advice. She followed the balloon's path with her eyes and fired a minute later, barely missing. She tried again and finally popped the balloon. "Yes!" she exclaimed happily and energetically, excitedly hopping in place with a bright smile on her face. After a minute of celebration, Numi made an ink trail to the nearest crate and dove in with her squid form, collecting the power egg from popped balloon as she went.

"Crates like this never have anything useful in them, unless they're quite large. You should look for orange crates instead. They can have different things in them, but be careful, enemies may hide in some." Cuttlefish said. Hearing this, Numi looked around and aimed at an orange crate she noticed. She fired, breaking the crate, revealing three power eggs and making a trail to them. She swam over to them and collected them before jumping out of ink and landing on an uninked part of the platform. She noticed a large orb made of black plastic, with a small unshielded fan coming out in a way that made it look like it pointed at the bamboo wall. "Inkrail ahoy! Ink it to activate it!" Cap'n beamed. Numi ran up to the ink rail and instinctively poked it. Nothing happened. She turned the valve on her heroshot, waited for the hiss of air to end and turned the valve back. With her heroshot back in splattershot mode, she fired at the inkrail. It made an odd sound as a metallic rail extended from it, from which gushed artificial ink, twisting and turning its way in the air as it made its way to the next platform, which was to the right of Numi's current platform, but too far to reach. "Hop on! Basic or main form makes no difference, you go at the same speed in both."

"It doesn't look safe..." Numi muttered

"If you're scared go on in your basic form."

"I'm not scared! Just... worried."

"Nothing will happen bucko, this has been tested many times before!"

"Uh... ok... here I go." Numi said and hopped onto the rail a moment later. The rail immediately pushed her along. Numi struggled to keep balance at first, caught off guard by the surprisingly strong ink current, but in no time her struggle ended as she soared through the air on the rail. She laughed a bit, finding it to be a fun. "I'm a bird!" she giggled, flapping her arms in a way that mimicked the motion of bird's wings.

"You have better sense of balance than agents 1 and 3, bucko. And definitely better sense of balance than agent 4." Cap'n noted. "But not as good as 8, though she had a lot of practice. First reaction however, is always the same." he added. After a few moments of fun on the rail, Numi reached the next platform, hopping off at the end of the rail. In front of her was single power egg. She collected it before turning her attention to the platform itself.

"Why is there a gap in the middle? And what's that big fish?" Numi asked as she walked towards it. She jumped down to the lowered part, pondering how Pumi built this training course. She heard a click and a clank. She slowly turned her head to where the sound came from and saw another balloon and a blob of jam speeding towards her. Numi hastily ducked, hitting her heroshot on the wooden platform. "W-why was that o-one hidden?!" she demanded. She has paled slightly and her hearts were racing.

"You must always be prepared, for enemies can hide at every step!"

"Wha-" Numi began, not noticing that the box next to the balloon adjusted its aim and shot another ball of jam. Numi wiped the jam off her face, aimed at the balloon and popped it with three hits. "Are there more hidden balloons?"

"I can't say that, bucko. Sometimes. Today maybe, maybe not, who knows? How would I know where enemies hide?"

"Uh... kindly ask them?" Numi said as she stood up and collected the power egg. She continued on her way towards the gap in the middle, collecting another egg. She saw two large crates in front of which was a glowing, metal briefcase that seemed to be floating. Numi got starry eyes and bolted towards the case. The moment she touched it a flash of light beamed from it, blinding her for short moment. "Magic! Wai- where did it go? What did it do?" she said to herself before realising that something was on her head and knees. Numi put her right leg forward and looked down at the knee, while also feeling around her head with her left hand. "Wha?! Where did these knee pads and helmet come from?!" Numi exclaimed, completely confused.

"Armour! Always useful, and convenient." Cuttlefish said over the radio.

"Eh? How does it work?!"

"To be honest, I'm not that sure myself... it's a mix of inkling, octarian and some other tech according to Sheldon, but that and what it's for is all I know."

"Is it magical?"

"You really like magic, don't you? But you could call it that. Depending on the hero set, you can wear up to three armour pieces. Anyway, onward agent 7!"

"Okie!" Numi beamed and fired her weapon at the two large crates, breaking them. A stream of purple artificial ink hit her a second later and she fell backwards. Behind the now broken crates was a different balloon - slightly bigger, darker, with a different octotrooper drawn on it and a different box next to it.

"Twintacle appeared!" Cuttlefish announced. "Oh, you took some ink. I suggest you retreat before it shoots again." he added calmly.

"It stings!" Numi shouted as she dragged herself backwards, out of range of the balloon.

"Worry not! Unlike real ink, this can't really hurt you. Just dive into your own ink to get rid of it!" Hearing this, Numi immediately made a puddle of ink with her heroshot and jumped in it after hastily changing form. She got out after a few minutes, now calmer and without any trace of artificial ink on her. "Seems like the rest of balloons still have artificial ink instead of jam."

"That was scary! And mean!" Numi exclaimed angrily. She quickly popped the balloon, collected the power egg and continued walking towards the gap, which she now noticed was very wide. There was a platform not that far down, with a wooden pole out of the middle of the platform, with a strange metal end from which grew out a large balloon like fish, surrounded by what seemed to be tiny, floating sponge squares in a V formation.

"Shoot that balloon fish!" Cuttlefish ordered. Numi did just that. The balloon fish immediately doubled in size and exploded a second later, spraying ink on the sponges which rapidly soaked it up and expanded, forming a V shaped bridge. Another balloon fish grew out of the metal end of the pole a few seconds later.

"Woah..." Numi stood still for a few moments before walking over the newly formed bridge.

"You can swim through inked sponges, but it can be hard sometimes."

"Really?" Numi asked and changed form. She immediately sank into the sponge, slowly being pushed down by gravity. She swam up and jumped out, changing her form in mid-air, giggling. "It tickled! Sponges tickle!"

"Only agent 1 says that... are you ticklish?"

"Yup! And tickles are fun!" Numi beamed after a moment.

"That explains it." Cap'n said. Numi decided to walk over the bridge. Despite being slower and liking tickles, she didn't want to sink too much into the sponge and fall out at its bottom and into the gap, despite there being a platform just slightly below the sponges. "Do you not like swimming in ink?"

"Oh, no, not really. I'm just still not used to it."

"Why's that?"

"I only learned that two weeks ago. I only did it in lessons and a little bit in turf wars. I'm trying to swim more, but I guess I'm just used to walking. Oh, I can run really fast! Should I run instead?"

"If you want to finish this mission faster, yes."

"If I do this fast, I'll get a mission faster?"

"Well, if you finish the course, yes." Hearing this Numi sped up her pace to a jog. She wanted to run, but she noticed that there was a balloon in the way, with an octotrooper hiding behind something drawn on it.

"A shielded octotrooper! Ink the ground under it and then flank it!" Cuttlefish pumped.

"What does flank mean?" Numi asked as she started shooting at the balloon, dodging a ball of artificial ink a moment later. Her shots didn't do anything to the balloon, but the ink slid down and formed a puddle around the balloon, partially jamming it's rotating platform.

"Get behind it!"

"Oh! Alrighty!" Numi beamed and ran around the balloon while still shooting at it. The balloon slowly rotated, bogged down by Numi's ink. She was too fast for the balloon and a moment later Numi landed three hits on the back. "Pop!" Numi giggled. She changed her form and jumped onto the power egg, after which she changed back and continued to jog. She stepped on a speeding, slightly angled conveyor belt that she didn't notice and got launched forward and into the air. She squeaked and tightened her grip of the heroshot as she soared through the air.

"Ah yes, dash tracks. I forgot to tell you about them, but I think you know what they do." Cuttlefish said with a chuckle.

"This isn't funny!" Numi shouted. A few second later she landed on another dash track, immediately losing her balance and falling on her butt as she was launched again. "I don't like this!" Numi exclaimed and hugged her heroshot. She landed on another dash track, which was faced in a different way, and got launched to the right, then like on the second dash track, then to the left and then backwards to the third one, doing a loop. "H-how to g-get off?" Numi sobbed as the loop repeated.

"Oh dear. Let me think... try changing form mid air, then back to land on your feet. After that try to jump to the side." Cuttlefish said. Numi did as Cuttlefish suggested without a word. It took her a few tries to stick her landing and she fell over twice, each time having to repeat the process. After a few minutes, she was finally on her feet and managed to stay like that, despite being launched every few seconds. She waited a moment. Numi was launched again, but this time the very moment her feet touched the dash track she immediately jumped to the side. Or at least tried. Her jump was too weak and she ended up falling on the next dash track with only one leg and so loop continued, but in a worse way. Numi faceplanted the track, hit her side on the non-moving part of it, was dragged along and launched again and again. She fell short of the next dash track, landing right before it with another faceplant.

"T-that hurt..." Numi mumbled. She slowly stood up after a few minutes, picked up her heroshot and asked "Is there much left?"

After a moment Cuttlefish replied with "You're halfway there... are you ok, bucko?"

"I'm good, I'm good!" Numi beamed and started walking in the direction of a balloon, this time minding her steps. As she approached, she noticed that a normal octotrooper was drawn on it. She saw it turn to her and immediately thought that something was off. She hastily took aim and right before she fired, two balls of synthetic ink were launched at her. Instead of soaring through the air, the ink balls bounced towards Numi. She was too confused to move out of the way and as the result the ink balls landed on her head after a few bounces, breaking her armour helmet in the process. "Wha-whoa!" Numi exclaimed another pair of ink balls. "Why does this one shoot so fast?" she asked as she ducked, letting yet another pair of ink balls pass overhead.

"Octotroopers use two types of fighting platforms: one that shoots slow moving ink blobs and one that shoots fast moving ink balls." Cap'n said as Numi popped the balloon. "Ink blobs go much further, but ink balls are much faster and always get shot out in pairs." he added. Numi collected the power egg and continued forward. She soon encountered what looked like many yellow, grey and patterned air beds, all right next to each other with no gaps in between. "Those are bounce pads. You ca-" Hearing the words 'bounce pads', Numi immediately jumped onto the field of bounce pads and to her delight, she bounced up like on a bouncy castle.

"Yippee!" she happily exclaimed.

"Having fun bucko?" Cap'n asked after a minute.

"Yup! I love bouncy castles and this is like a bouncy castle!"

"That's nice, but could you get to the other end?"

"Okie!" Numi beamed and bounced her way to the other end of the bouncy field with a big, bright smile on her face. "Uh, why is there a broken bridge here?" she asked when she noticed a collapsed bridge leading over a large gap, jumping off the bounce pads a moment later.

"This wasn't like that a few days ago. It must have been caused by that crazy storm. Do you think you can super jump to the other end?"

"Uh... I'm not sure. I'm not good at super jumping and that's a looong gap..."

"Drat! That means that you can't continue."

Numi gasped. "But I want to be get a new mission! How can I get a new mission if I can't finish this one?!" Numi exclaimed in a single breath.

"Calm down, calm down. I've made a book with Sheldon and agent 2 that will tell you about the things that are ahead. It's going to be like a test."

"And if I pass I'll get a new mission?"

"Yes. Since you need to come back anyway, there's a launch pad to the side of the gap under the sponges."

"Yay!" Numi exclaimed and hopped back onto the bounce pads. "Um, can I play on this bouncy field for a bit?" she asked shyly.

"Of course bucko!" Cap'n said. "All agents do that, so why shouldn't you?"

"Really?"

"Really!"

"Yay!" Numi beamed happily and energetically as she began to bounce more, her scarf trying to keep up with her which made it look like two maroon banners. "Bounce pads are the best thing here!" Numi shouted after a few minutes of giggling and laughing. This was some of the most fun she had in a while and to her, fun was one of the most important things.

A/N: Sorry that this one took longer to release. Encountered several mind blocks, laziness and a lot of distractions.

Also this is roughly what Numi's heroshot looks like.