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[thelegendofsplattim]

Chapter 14 - Finale: Retribution

"What the heck?" I say, staring at the Salmonid ink on my hand. I look up, and see a large black-and-orange airship overhead, surrounded by what appear to be military jets. "Uh, guys..." says Sapphire, pointing at the ground beneath us. We all look to the ground and see exactly why. There were rings around each of our feet, the same ones as the targeting rings used by Tenta Missiles.

"Scatter!" Says Mina, as we each run off in different directions. Once the missiles land (and narrowly miss), we all get back together. "We need to get out of here, now." She says. We all nod in agreement and book it towards the Square, hoping that the ship wouldn’t follow. However, it very much did, and it was surprisingly quick about it, too.

When we arrive at the Square, we're greeted with the sight of a long line of people, being ushered away from the place. In the mosh pit of faces, though, there was one that I'd never forget... especially after last seeing it last week.

"Rose!" I shouted over the commotion, running up to her and giving her a hug. She hugs me back, but her face is serious. "What’s going on?" I ask her. Surely she knows what’s happening. Rose pats me on the back, gently pushing me aside. "Don’t worry about it, sis." She says. She looks in the direction of the crowd and points to a guy with a black jacket, spiky hair, and sunglasses. "Go with him, okay?" She says, her voice much more gentle than what I'm used to. "He'll get you to safety." She turns away, as Marco, Polo and Mina catch up to me. "B-but sis!" I stammer. "Isn’t there anything I can do to help?"

Rose turns back to me, kneels down, and puts her hand on my shoulder. "You can help me by getting to safety." She says, giving me a tight hug. "I've already lost mom, I can't lose you too..." My eyes tear up a little when she says that. I breathe a sigh of defeat and hug her back. "O-okay..." She lets me go, and I start walking in the direction of the crowd, motioning to my friends to follow.

As we walked through the crowd, our gazes were all directed on the battle happening in the skies above us. Military aircraft were coming at the airship from all sides, attacking with everything they had, but it just seemed like it was never enough. "Those fighter jets aren't even scratching it..." Says Mina. Marco nods in agreement. "Yeah... I think that ship might be too heavily armored." "If I had to guess, I'd say the best way to take down that ship would be to take down the pilot..." Says Sapphire, joining the conversation. Suddenly, I get an idea. A stupid idea, sure, but an idea nonetheless. "Y'know what, I have an idea." I say, looking around to the rest of the crowd. "But we need to get out of this crowd first..."

Upon hearing me say that, Polo gives me a mischievous grin and pulls out her phone. A couple minutes later, we look towards the various electronic billboards in the Square and see... something. It was a video of some guy named Rick Astley dancing to some song called 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. The video was notorious in the human era for some reason, but for us, it served as the perfect distraction. With everyone distracted, we slip away from the crowd and run towards a nearby building. 

"We need to get up there!" I say, pointing to the top of the building. Marco begins to rev up his Mini Splatling to ink a path up to the top, but Mina interjects. "Won't someone get mad if we get ink on this building?" She asks. Marco shrugs and inks the building anyway. "So? Not our problem." He responds, motioning for the rest of us to swim up.

At the top of the building, we had a good view of the Square and all of the surrounding area, and most importantly, we were one step closer to that airship. "Alright, Red. What’s the plan?" Asks Marco, once we reach the top. I turn towards him. "How many Tenta Missiles do you have left?" I ask him. "I've got two missiles left. Why?" I nod, and point at the ship.

"I’m thinking we could use the Cepha-Launcher to get one of us onto the ship. From there, we take down the pilot, and the ship with it!" I explain. Polo nods. "Good idea!" She says. "So, who's actually getting launched up there?" She asks. I turn to Marco, who's giving me his 'Shell no' look, then I turn to Mina, who raises her eyebrow at me, looking at me like I grew an 11th limb.

"I guess I'll go." I say. "I’m not just gonna sit here and twiddle my thumbs while this thing threatens lives!" I say, motioning towards the ship, which seems more focused on firing at the crowd than it is on the military aircraft gunning it down. "Well, if you put it that way, then I'll go with you." Says Mina, clenching her fist. "After all, someone’s gotta make sure you don’t do anything stupid."

I laugh a little bit at her comment and turn towards Marco, nodding. He pulls out his Tenta Missiles, which, sure enough, only had two missiles remaining. "Hey, uh, before you two go and do this extremely dangerous thing, how are you going to get back down when you're done?" Marco asks. Mina hesitates for a second, but I go ahead and climb on the missile. "I'm sure there’s a parachute or two on board." I say. "It'll be fine." Mina climbs on the other missile, shaking her head.

After giving Marco the good-to-go, he pulls the trigger, and we blast off towards the airship.

Rose’s POV

"What the heck—" I say, seeing the video playing on each of the billboards in Inkopolis Square. Out of the corner of my eye, I see an Octorpedo flying towards the crowd, so I quickly shoot it down before it hits anyone. "I wish some people would understand that this isn't the time for jokes..." I mumble to myself. Anna throws up some Ink Armor to help protect the crowd, and then comes running up to me. "We need to keep it's attention away from the civilians!" She says. I nod in agreement, as the commander and Lilia come up behind us. "Anna, you go with Mike, make sure the civilians get to safety." Says Violet. Anna nods and goes off towards the crowd. "Rose, Lilia, you’re with me. Let’s try and distract this thing." We nod, and begin firing away at the ship, attempting to lead it’s fire away from the crowd of civilians. Luckily for us, it takes notice to us firing, and it begins to fire back. "It’s working, guys!" Lilia shouts over all of our gunfire. "Don't let up!"

Scarlet's POV

With a very ungraceful landing, I tumble onto the deck of the airship, hitting my head on a guardrail. "Ow..." I rub my head as I carefully stand up. Mina managed to land better than I did, at least, as she was simply dusting herself off. "Alright... You ready to do this, Red?" She asks me, getting up off the ground. "You know it—" I say, reaching for my D-Liter... that isn't there. "Uh... shoot. I left my weapon on the rooftop!" Mina sighs, pulling out her Luna Blaster. "Maybe there’s an armory or something around here somewhere." She says. I sigh, hoping that she’s right. And with that, we head to the inside of the ship. The ship's belly was lined with black walls and a black floor, with orange lights lining the walls. 

We turn a corner and find a room with various weapons inside. "Jackpot!" I whisper/exclaim, running into the room. There were all kinds of weapons in there, but they were all... odd. There was a Bamboozler, a Ballpoint Splatling, a replica of the Grizzco Slosher of all things, and even the fabled Dual Squelcher. I considered picking up either the Grizzco Slosher or the Dual Squelcher, but in a situation as serious as this, I had to go with something that I was familiar with. So, instead of those, I turned around and grabbed the weapon that was hanging above the doorframe: the Tempered Dynamo Roller. And wouldn’t you know it, it was a good thing I decided to turn around.

"Heads-up, Red. We've got company..." Says Mina. I look into the hallway, and see various Salmonids and Octarians running towards us.

"Ugh, we don't have time for these guys..." I say, noticing something else in the room with me. A canned special with a label I'd never seen before. "What’s this?" I ask, holding up the can. Upon seeing it, though, all the bad guys stop in their tracks, even the mighty Steel Eel coming to a halt.

"I don’t think they like that very much..." Says Mina, with a mischievous grin on her face. "Well then, I say that’s the perfect excuse to use it!" I say, ripping open the can and flipping it upside-down. A small ball comes out of the can, which, after hitting the ground, quickly expands into a large, crab-shaped tank. I look at the tank in awe, kind of bewildered by all of the buttons and levers on the control panel. So, I turn to Mina. "I'll let you have the honors." I say, motioning towards the tank fancily. "Well, don’t mind if I do." She says, rolling up her sleeves and hopping on the tank. The Octarians and Salmonids start to back away. Pressing some random button, she fires a glob of ink at the Steel Eel, destroying it... from the front. Which is usually impossible. "This thing is awesome!" Mina says, looking at the control panel in delight. "Now then, what does this one do?" She says, pushing another random button, which activates the turrets on each side of the Crab Tank, gunning down an Octocopter and a Chum. The rest decided to be smart for once, and ran for their lives.

"I'm seriously hoping they make this thing legal at some point." She says, hopping off the tank. It curls back up into a ball, and disappears. "I'm sure they might." I say, picking the Dynamo Roller back up and holding it over my shoulder. "Now come on, we need to go find the cockpit of this thing!" I say,  running down the hall, motioning for Mina to follow. With a nod, Mina runs after me.

Eventually, we make our way to the door leading to the cockpit of the airship. "Phew, finally..." I say, catching my breath, as we'd been running from more Octarians. Looking behind me, though, they were still right on our tail. And this time, we didn’t have that Crab Tank thingy to help us out.

"Man, these guys don’t quit, do they?" Says Mina, firing her Luna Blaster at a few Octarians. I swing the Dynamo Roller, taking out a few, but more showed up to take their place. "Yeah, they just don’t stop coming!" I say, swinging the Roller again. "We can’t go on like this..." I back up a little bit towards the door so I can have some space to catch my breath. Mina turns to me for a second, before turning back and continuing to fire. "Y'know what, go on without me!" She says, over the gunfire. Now it’s my turn to look at her like she's crazy. "What?!" I exclaim. She turns back to me. "If we take out the pilot, we take down the ship. Take down the ship, and we take out the bad guys!" She explains. I nod understandingly, but I still hesitate for a moment. "Go on, Scarlet. I'll hold them off." She says, activating her Bomb Launcher to emphasize her point. With a sigh, I nod and go to the door, slamming it open with the Dynamo Roller.

On the other side of the door was a small room, with the same black-and-orange color scheme as the rest of the ship. On one wall was a pane of glass that overlooked the city below, and in front of it was the ship's control panel. In front of the control panel, however, was someone. They were wearing a dark, hooded cloak, and a pair of Red Hi-Tops. Their face was partially obstructed, but from what I could tell, they had pale skin and brown, bloodshot eyes. I could also barely make out a pair of Studio Headphones underneath the hood, and they were also wearing something else that intrigued me: a Splatfest Tee, showing a design for Team Cat, which was part of the Cat vs. Dog Splatfest they did over 3 years ago. What's more, they were also petting a plushie of a cat, though they were looking at me quite menacingly.

"Who do you think you are, barging in here like you own the place?" They ask me, menacingly stroking the cat plushie. "And who do you think you are, attacking innocent people? It's messed up!" I say in response. The cloaked person shakes their head. "Oh, don't worry. There’s only a select few that I'm after, and they're far from innocent. If any civilians get in the way, that's on them." That's when it hit me. When the ship was chasing us, it attacked all of us, yes, but it was primarily going after Mina. That's also probably why it was targeting the crowd of people; it was trying to get Mina from inside the crowd.

"Wait a minute... Are you the one after Splat Tim's descendants?" I ask, gripping the Dynamo Roller tightly. They chuckle a little bit. "So I see you and your friend got that note I left at the museum..." I growl a little bit. "But why?!" I ask. "What did Tim ever do to you?!"

They stand up, pulling a Splattershot out of their cloak and pointing it at me. "What did Tim ever do to me? What did Tim ever do to me?! He took everything from me, that's what!" They say, breathing heavily for a moment before putting the Splattershot away. 

"You look like you've played a Turf War or two, so answer me this. Does someone win a Turf War based on one's skills alone?" They ask. I think about it for a second. "No. Winning Turf Wars requires teamwork and coordination." I answer. They nod. "Exactly. And have you ever wondered about how whenever you hear of Tim's exploits, there’s never any mention of his teammates?" I look towards the ground for a second. "Now that you mention it... why is that?" I ask, out of curiosity. They begin pacing back and forth across the small room. "Because he was a narcissistic basshole, that's why." They say, clenching their fist. "While he was out there, telling fake stories of his 'amazing feats', we were the ones doing his dirty work! While he was out, playing the hero and failing, we were the ones carrying the objective!" They go and punch a nearby wall, sighing before they continue. "And then people try to be just like him, and they wonder why their lives turn into a mess..." I loosen my grip on the Dynamo Roller a little bit. "But not all of his descendants are like that!" I say. "My friend Mina, she wouldn’t hurt anyone—" I get cut off as the cloaked person points their Splattershot at me again. "Silence. I didn’t come all the way out here to hear petty excuses from some teenager. If you dare to try and stop me, then I suppose there’s no saying I didn't warn you." I sigh and raise the Roller. "If you wanna be that way, fine. Who even are you, anyway, talking to me like that?" I say, putting on my brave face, though on the inside, I'm kind of terrified.

"You may call me Splat Tina." She says, putting her finger on the trigger of her Splattershot. "In the brief moments that remain to you."

She fires a few shots at me, and being largely unable to dodge out of the way due to the weight of the Dynamo Roller, I took a different approach, blocking the projectiles with the Roller instead. Afterwards, I swing the Roller at her, missing her entirely, but coating the floor around her in ink. So, seeing that she was surrounded with nowhere else to go, I swung the Roller again, certain that it would finish the job. However, she managed to block it with a Bubbler at the last second, grabbing her Splattershot and shooting me in the hip to get me to back off. "Argh!" I groan, putting my hand where the bullet landed while backing away. The Bubbler wears off, and she reaches behind her back, evidently getting ready to do something nasty. "You’re persistent, I'll give you that..." She says, slowly taking her hand out, revealing a Killer Wail. "But your persistence is futile." She sets it down, but just as she's about to fire it, something collides with the ship, knocking me out of the way and messing up the cannon's aim. "What the—" Says Tina, trying to steady herself. I roll to the other side of the room, breathing a sigh of relief as I get up. The cannon fires, shooting the laser pointed at the floor, and we go back to our battle.

Rose’s POV

"These things aren’t even making a dent..." I mumble, firing another volley of missiles at the airship. "No kidding. To the degree that this thing is armored, I don't know if it even has a weak point!" Says Lilia, taking a moment to reload. The commander stops firing for a moment, putting her weapon away and pulling out an Inkzooka. "Then maybe we just need some more firepower." She says, firing a shot at the airship. The shot makes contact, rocking the ship a little. "It looks like that worked!" Lilia says. Violet fires another shot, but over the fire of the Inkzooka, I hear a sound, like an electric guitar screeching into a megaphone. And while it sounds like an odd description at first glance, any Inkling worth their salt should know what it means.

Just then, my suspicions are confirmed as I see a holographic marker showing the trajectory of a laser beam. I didn’t see anything on the ship itself that could’ve fired it, so it must’ve gone off from the inside, but I couldn’t help but notice that... Violet was standing directly in the laser's line of fire.

"Commander, look out!" I call to her, but by the time she comes to realize what’s happening, it's already too late.

"COMMANDER!" I shout, running over to her side. "Rose..." She says, her voice strained. She coughs up a little bit of purple ink and then moves her hand off of her chest, revealing a gaping hole where the laser hit. "So this is how I go..." She says, letting out a weak laugh. "At least it wasn’t to a Sprinkler..." I shake my head, holding her in my arms, her body beginning to drip as it struggles to keep it's form. "No, no, no, commander, we need you here..." I say, with tears in my eyes. She swipes the hat from off of my head and shoves it in front of me with a smile. "Quit it with the formalities, Rose... You're the commander now." She says, coughing up a little more ink. "I gave you that hat for a reason, y'know..." I just sit there, shaking my head. By this point, Anna and Mike had just walked up behind me, and though he can't see Violet lying there in my arms, I think Mike could tell what happened by the sadness in my voice. "Commander..." Says Anna, getting down to Violet's level and saluting. Lilia and I follow suit, and Violet salutes back to us before coughing again. 

"Well, guess I'll be heading to Davy Jones’s locker now..." Says Violet. I let out a sad smile. Though I've heard the expression multiple times, I never knew what it meant. To be honest, I still don't. Maybe I'll find out on the day that I die.

"Let me know what you find in there... alright?" I say to her, as she smiles one last time, giving me a weak laugh. "Aye aye... captain." She says, as she breathes her last breath. By now, her body was a puddle of purple ink and a pile of clothes. Amongst it all, I could see her tiny, squid-shaped ghost flying away. Would she respawn? Would she get some sort of afterlife? Is the afterlife even real? I've been through this song and dance so many times, yet I'm still not sure. All I know is that I spent the next few moments weeping, with the others by my side.

Scarlet's POV

"Persistent little pest!" Says Tina, as she charged up a Splashdown. Only, instead of rising into the air like normal, she simply charged a punch directed at me. I dodge out of the way of her punch; the excess force causing her to ram into the wall. I take the initiative and swing at her, but she uses her bare arm to block the Roller and push me back, sustaining heavy damage while doing so. I catch my breath for a sec before going in to swing again, as she blocks the swing with another Bubbler. "This. Ends. Here." She says, trying to push through the Roller. So, I push back. After a little bit of back-and-forth between the two of us, I manage to overpower her with a last-ditch-effort push, swinging the Roller into her side, sending her flying backwards across the control panel and through the glass with a splat, her little ghost flying away, never to be seen again. "Woo!" I shout, throwing my arms up in the air due to the adrenaline rush of victory. I'm about to break into a victory dance when I hear an alarm going off. "Huh?" I walk over to the control panel out of curiosity before internally panicking as I realize what happened. With that final blow, I sent Tina flying across the control panel, and she ended up hitting the ship's self-destruct switch on accident.

"Oh cod!" I say to myself as I drop the Dynamo Roller and rush out the door to find Mina, who was standing outside, watching a group of Octarians and Salmonids scramble in fear. "Mina!" I call to her. She turns to me with a sigh of relief. "Thank cod you’re alright." She says. I appreciate her concern, but I ignore the comment and get straight to the point.

"Okay, so, good news and bad news." I start. "Good news is that the pilot has been taken care of, and that there’s no longer any sort of threat to Inkopolis or to your family." Mina adjusts her glasses. "Oh, that’s good." She says. "And the bad news?" I grab her arm, ready to bolt back to the ship's deck. 

"The bad news is that this ship is going down with a bang!" I say, panicked. "What?!" Mina exclaims. "I can explain later, but right now, we have to get out of here before we blow up with the ship!" Mina nods in agreement, and we race out of the ship and onto the deck. It was then that we realized an issue.

"Uh, how are we getting down from this thing?!" Mina asks. I frantically look back and forth as I realize that we, first off, don't have time to go back down there to look for a parachute, and even if we did, I don’t think there were any on board anyway. Taking a deep breath, I turn back to Mina. "We're gonna have to jump." I say, wishing there was a way to tune out your own words. Mina turns to look at me. "Are you crazy?! Jump from this height?! We'll just hit the ground with a splat!" She says, slamming her hands together for emphasis. I sigh. "It's either that, or we both get blown to smithereens." I take her hands. "Just trust me on this, okay? We can both jump together if it makes you feel better." Mina looks up and sighs. "Fine..."

Together, we make our way to the nearest guardrail, and on the count of 3,  we both leap off at the same time. As we fall, the star necklace accidentally falls out of my pocket, and though I tried to reach for it, it was too far gone. From here, I go into squid form, and brace for impact.

Marco's POV

"Bro, you’re going to wear yourself out, pacing back and forth like that." Says Sapphire. She’s right, as I had been pacing across the rooftop for around half an hour now, and my legs were starting to get tired, but the adrenaline of worry was still keeping me from collapsing. "I know, I know..." I say.

Sapphire shrugs and goes back to looking at the airship for a second before pointing up at the sky. "What's that?" She asks. I look where she's pointing and see what looks like two tiny specks dropping down from the ship. One a bright scarlet red, the other a chocolate brown.

Immediately after seeing this, I quickly go and start climbing down the building. Rushing though the Square towards their landing spot, I see something else fall out of the sky: a star-shaped necklace. It hits the ground, but when it does, a weird pink ball... thing appears in it's place. The ball looks around confusedly for a second before looking up, seeing Mina falling directly above it. It raises it's hands(?) up, seemingly in hopes of catching her, but she just lands right on top of it instead, bouncing off and tumbling onto the ground. She slowly opens her eyes and wipes herself off, now covered in scratches from tumbling onto the concrete. Though I was relieved to see Mina safe and sound, I couldn’t celebrate yet. I look back up at the sky, and with a home-run worthy baseball dive, I catch Scarlet's squid form just before she hit the ground. "Gotcha!" I say, breathing a sigh of relief. Scarlet slowly opens her eyes, and once she realizes that she's still alive, she quickly gets out of squid form and hugs me tightly.

"Thank you!" She says. I hug her back. My face is slightly red, but I don’t think she'll notice. "Anytime, Red. Anytime."

Scarlet's POV

As I stood there, hugging Marco, I saw Rose approaching out of the corner of my eye. "H-hey, sis..." I say, turning to face her. I expected to get the full force of my sister's wrath, but I was a little surprised to see that she approached me with a sad smile, rather than being angry.

Silently, she pulls me into a hug. "Uh... S-sis?" I say, her silence honestly scaring me a little. "I'm just glad you're alright..." She says with tears in her eyes. In the corner of my eye, I can see her nod towards Marco, probably as a silent thanks for saving my life. After a second, she sighs, stops hugging me, grabs me by the shoulders, and shakes me. "What were you thinking?! You could've gotten yourself killed!" She says, the anger I was expecting to see earlier showing through. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! It won't happen again..." I say. Rose sighs and looks back up towards the airship, which by now had already exploded, as there was not a trace of it left in the sky. "Don't be." She says, patting me on the head. "It was because of your guys' efforts that Inkopolis isn't under attack anymore. For that, you guys are heroes." I look to Marco, Mina, and Polo, who had just caught up to us. "W-we are?" I ask. Rose nods, wiping a tear from her eye. "It's kind of ironic, in a way... You witness the birth of one hero, and the death of another..." She says, hugging me again. "What do you mean—" I ask, before noticing the group of people standing next to a pile of clothes, laid on top of a puddle of ink. I recognized one of them from earlier; the spiky-haired one with the jacket, so I assumed they were friends of Rose's. "Oh... I'm sorry..." I say. Rose gently pats me on the head, and the 5 of us approach the group, and stand together in silence.

[thelegendofsplattim]

Chapter 13: React

Rose's POV; A few hours earlier...

I was in my room writing a letter to aunt Jade when I heard running in the hallway nearby. "What's going on?" I ask, poking my head out of the doorway. Lilia stops and turns to me. "Commander's called a meeting outside. You might wanna come too." She says. I shrug and follow her outside, where the others are all gathered around the commander.

The area outside doesn’t look like a typical military base, as we're all gathered in a relatively small patio area, and nearby is the building where all of our sleeping quarters are. The building is rather small, but granted, there are only 5 of us using it. 

Lilia sits down on a box that was lying around, next to Mike, who's staring off into no direction in particular. Some find it weird, maybe rude, but he's blind, so we don’t mind it. Anna was seated on a swivel chair that she probably brought from inside, and the commander, Violet, was standing tall, facing all of us. It still feels kind of weird, seeing her without her signature captain's hat, but I have to remind myself that I’m the one wearing it now, after she gave it to me a few months ago. She may be rather young, but when it comes to the military, she knows what she’s doing.

Anna, on the other hand, is older than all of us. She’s seen a thing or two, and her experience is invaluable on our missions.

"So, what's up, cap?" Says Mike, staring more towards a wall than to any of us. "I'm glad you asked, Mike." Says Violet. She walks over to a side table and grabs a remote. She presses a button on the remote, turning on a projector, which projects the image of an airship. "I've been receiving reports from the Inkopolis Air Force about this unidentified aircraft that entered their airspace recently." Says Violet. The aircraft in question was a dark black with orange accents, but besides that, there wasn’t really anything special about it.

Lilia raises her hand. "What is it even for?" She asks. Violet shakes her head. "We don't know. But whatever it is—" she pauses to press another button on the remote, switching the image to a picture taken aboard the ship, showing various Salmonids and Octarians seemingly working together. "—It's bad." She finishes. We all look at the image with wide-eyed expressions (except Mike, who like I said, is blind), struggling to grasp the amount of chaos that would ensue if this ship got anywhere close to any residential areas.

"Octarians and Salmonids... working together?!" Says Anna, in shock. I turn from the picture to Lilia, who's sitting right next to me. "Do you think this might be General Octavio’s doing?" I ask. Considering that we haven’t heard anything on Octavio since last year, it wasn’t a very far-fetched assumption.

Violet shakes her head. "Again, we don't know. What we do know, however, is where it's going." She says, turning off the projector and putting the remote back. "According to the Inkopolis Air Force, the ship is making a direct course for...Inkopolis Square." 

I try to hold back a gasp, but I evidently fail. "I-Inkopolis Square?" I ask, in disbelief. Violet slowly nods. "Yup. Now, as you all know, our first priority is to protect the people. Though the Air Force has units heading in to face the threat, we need to be on the premises to make sure that the civilians aren't caught in the middle. Am I clear?" She says. The rest of us nod, though, in all honesty, I'm worried about Scarlet.

"Good." Says Violet, turning towards me, apparently noticing the worry on my face. "Grab your things. We leave in 30." She says, dismissing everyone. As I turn to walk away, however, she tugs on my arm. "Don't worry, Rose. Your sister will be safe. We'll make sure of it." She whispers to me, patting me on the back and sending me back on my way. I nod towards Violet, and head back to my room. That letter to aunt Jade will have to wait.

A few minutes later, while I'm in my room packing my things, an Echolocation tag begins to swirl around me. "C'mon in, Mike." I say, turning towards the door. Because he's blind, Mike usually uses Echolocators and Point Sensors to get around. Heck, that’s why my Splatling comes with a Point Sensor.

After a couple seconds of him fumbling around, trying to find the doorknob, he enters the room. "Hey Rosie, you ready to go?" He says, leaning on the wall. I sigh. "Yeah, just gimme a sec." I say, grabbing my bag and my Splatling. He raises his eyebrow at me. "You alright?" He asks. "Yeah, I'm fine." I say, instinctively putting on a fake smile, despite knowing that he can't see me. He folds his arms. "Look, I don’t need to see your face to tell that something's wrong." I sigh and turn around to face him. "Okay, well... I'm worried about my little sister." I explain. "She lives out there, and knowing how reckless she can be sometimes..." I don’t finish that thought. Frankly, I don't think I want to.

Mike walks up to me and looks me in the eye, making me remember that I'm currently being echolocated. "Relax, Rosie. There won’t be any casualties out there on our watch." He says. Despite his tinted sunglasses, I can tell he’s giving me a reassuring look. Or trying to, anyway. "Thanks, Mike." I say, going and kissing him on the cheek. "I needed that." He gives me a quick look of bewilderment before putting his poker face back on, as if nothing ever happened. Although, his face is slightly redder than normal. "A-anytime, Rosie. Anytime." He says. "Now come on. The Square ain't gonna protect itself." I nod in agreement, and walk with him to where the others are waiting for us.

Like he said, Inkopolis Square wasn’t going to protect itself.

[thelegendofsplattim]

Chapter 12: Reckless

Life is kinda boring now, if I'm being honest. Rose has gone back to the military base near Calamari County, there’s no missing artifacts or assassins to worry about, it’s just me and grandma, chillin' on an early weekend morning.

Oh, yeah, there’s that pink ball thing too, I guess. Still not entirely sure what’s up with that, but I can at least confirm that it not only isn't hostile, but also that it likes to sleep even more than I do. "C'mon, up and at 'em." I say, nudging it with my foot. It somehow managed to fall asleep on the cold hardwood floor of my bedroom, and it even got a sleeping cap from who-knows-where. Groggily, it turns to look at me, and I smile a little. "Come on buddy, rise and shine." It takes off the sleeping cap and stretches, babbling similarly to a baby whilst doing so.

I pick it up and head down to the kitchen to make some breakfast for the both of us. Grandma's already awake watching TV, so I say my hellos to her along the way. "Mornin', Nana!" I say, giving her a hug. "Good morning, Scarlet!" She kisses me on the forehead, gives me a quick noogie, and sends me back on my way. In the kitchen, I whip up a couple bowls of the best breakfast ever (which, if you were wondering, is a bowl of oatmeal with a spoonful of peanut butter mixed into it. Try it, you'll thank me later.), and as the food is in the microwave, the doorbell rings. "I got it!" I shout over to grandma as I rush over to the door and whip it open.

"Heya, Red!" Says Sapphire, standing just outside the door with her Roller held over her shoulder. Marco and Mina were also there with her, with their weapons, the Mini Splatling and the Luna Blaster Neo respectively. "Oh, uh, hey guys!" I say, trying to ignore the loud beeping of the microwave in the background. "You ready to do some Turf War today?" Asks Marco. I quickly glance back towards the kitchen and then back to them. "Uh, I was just making breakfast..." I respond. "Well hurry up, then! We had that big match today, remember?" Says Sapphire, her voice definitely irritated, but in a cheerful sort of way. I swear, I'll never understand how she does that...

"Oh, right!" I say, just now remembering that we were going to do that. "Give me like, 5 minutes, alright?" Mina nods. "Alright. We'll be at the electrical box around the corner." I nod, and then head over to the kitchen to get breakfast. I put a spoonful of peanut butter in both bowls, stir them around, and hand one of them to the pink ball, the other one being for me.

Though I tried to scarf down my food as fast as I could, the ball somehow ate it even faster than I did. I'm pretty sure by that point, it probably inhaled the food. Literally. After finishing my food, I rush back to my room to grab my D-Liter, say bye to grandma, and head outside to the electrical box. "Alright, I'm ready!" Mina glances at her watch. "Huh. 3 minutes. That's gotta be a new record." She says. "What can I say? I've been getting better at this whole 'speedrunning' thing." I say, twirling my D-Liter around. Marco rolls his eyes before glancing at his phone for a second. "Okay you two, are we gonna get going, or what? They're waiting on us." "Alright, alright." I say. "They wanted to battle at the Manta Maria, right?" Marco nods. "We haven't been to the Manta Maria in a while..." Says Sapphire, getting up from the electrical box. "This'll be fun!"

Later, at the Manta Maria; Sapphire's POV...

"This is not fun..." I grumble as I appear back at our team's Spawn Point. The others were all here with me, and the enemy team was right outside our base, ready to spawncamp us no matter which route we took. "No kidding." Says Mina. "At this rate, we won't be able to do anything." Marco fires his Splatling at a nearby puddle of enemy ink, inadvertently charging his special. "Yeah, but there's gotta be something we can do, right?" He says, not seeming to notice his own glowing hair. Red seems to notice, though. 

"You're right, there is something we can do." She says with a smile on her face. "How about we hit 'em with the good ol' Cepha-launcher?" Marco smirks. "Sounds like a plan to me." He says, busting out his special weapon, the Tenta Missiles. The others climb onto the missile racks in their squid forms and I follow suit, but not before charging a special of my own. Now with us on the missile racks, Marco pulls the trigger, sending us flying through the air. At the highest point of our flight, I jump off the missile and activate my special: the Splashdown. With a large explosion of ink, I go crashing back down to the ship, wiping out two members of the enemy team. A couple seconds later, Mina and Red land as well, taking out the other two. "Nice one, guys!" Says Marco, running up to us. "Thanks! Now how about we turn this match around?" I say, slamming my Roller down to emphasize my point. "Let’s do it!" Says Scarlet. She and Marco go off to paint the right half of the ship, so Mina and I go and paint the left.

We were just minding our own business, painting away, when I noticed someone up on the grate around the mast. They had a Splatterscope, and they were aimed straight at Mina. "Mina, look out!" I shout to her, unable to really do anything due to my Roller's short range. "Woah!" Mina yelps as she barely dodges the shot from the Splatterscope. "That guy’s gonna be a pain..." I say. "Neither of us can reach them." Mina looks to me with a smirk on her face. "That's not exactly true." She says, pulling out a Splat Bomb. "You play baseball, right?" I nod, knowing exactly what’s going down. She tosses the bomb in my direction, and I swing my Roller, hitting the bomb up to the grate. The guy with the scope didn’t have enough time to react, and they went down with a bang. "Booyah!" I say, high-fiving Mina. And with that, we continue on our way.

Marco's POV

"Where to, Marco?" Scarlet shouts up to me. I'm standing on one of the higher ledges of the ship, out facing the enemy base. I quickly glance to my phone and then to Scarlet. "Everything’s pretty much painted." I say to her. "Only other place left is enemy base." She tosses a couple of Burst Bombs at some small puddles of enemy ink. "Alrighty then. Ready to go give those guys a taste of their own medicine?" I hop down from the ledge, landing right next to her. "You know it!" I say. So, we start making our way to the enemy side of the map. As we go, I occasionally glance behind me, partially to make sure that no one’s sneaking up on us, and partially just to look at Scarlet. (So what, she's pretty, okay?) After a little bit, we meet back up with Mina and Sapphire, and with the tune of 'Now or Never!' blasting through the ship's speakers, we charged into enemy base, just as they had done to us.

Sapphire started rolling in with her roller, Mina activated her Bomb Launcher, and Scarlet and I were contending with a Bloblobber perched on a high-up ledge. Carefully, I dodge out of the way of a set of Bloblobber bubbles and end up next to Scarlet. "You think you can get me up there?" I ask her, pointing to the ledge where the Bloblobber is. Scarlet chuckles a little. "Oh, I can definitely get you up there. Just gotta get this bad boy into Burst mode, and..." She turns a small dial on her D-Liter, and then points it towards me. "There, hop in!" She says, pointing to the inside of the Explosher end. I give her a quick skeptical look, and then use my squid form to hop inside. She points the D-Liter up towards the Bloblobber, and then pulls the trigger, firing me alongside a glob of ink more akin to a Blaster shot than the normal Charger-style shots that the D-Liter normally fires. After flying through the air for a sec, the glob explodes, sending me up to the ledge. Though I was thoroughly unprepared, I was able to use the Mini Splatling's quick charge time to dispatch of the Bloblobber before they were able to get rid of me. After that, the match-ending whistle blows, and I breathe a sigh of relief, as I feel that was enough recklessness for one day.

Scarlet's POV

"Nice shot!" I call up to Marco, watching as he took care of the Bloblobber, the ending whistle blowing shortly after. "Thanks." He responds, hopping down from the ledge. "I didn’t know your thing could do that." He says, pointing to the D-Liter. I smile. "Yeah, Mina gave it an upgrade last time I went to her place. You like it?" Marco nods. "Yeah, it’s pretty neat. A little terrifying, to be honest, but neat nonetheless." He says. We both laugh a little bit before Polo comes up behind me, tackle-hugging me. "WE WON!" She shouts, as if it were any surprise. Though, it made me realize that I was too busy paying attention to Marco to realize that the Judds had already announced the results.

"We sure did!" I say, patting her on the head. "Now then, how about we head to the Square to celebrate, yeah?" I ask the others. "Yeah!" Says Sapphire. "After all that running around, I could go for a bite." Says Mina.

So, we said goodbye to the others that we fought against, and started heading towards Inkopolis Square. As we walked, we discussed the different highlights of our battle, and talked about all the fun we had. It was a great time... until I felt something on my head.

"Huh?" I say, feeling something like a raindrop fall on my head. I wipe the top of my head and glance at my hand. On it wasn't actual rain like I feared, but it was something that might’ve been even worse. Salmonid ink.

[thelegendofsplattim]

Chapter 11: Resign

Silica's POV; A few days earlier...

Man, Inklings can be such idiots sometimes.

I was walked through the halls of a prison with two guards to my sides. Though they checked me for any technology that may have been on my person, it seems they forgot that our tentacles are for a whole lot more than just looking pretty.

As we walked, the guards were having some sort of conversation, which, to be frank, I couldn’t care less about. However, it served as a worthy distraction. Using my ponytail, I carefully picked the lock on my handcuffs.

Eventually, we made it to the cell where I was supposed to be held. "Anything else you want to say before we lock you up, lady?" Says the guard to my left. "Why, yes, actually." I say, as my handcuffs fall to the ground. Quickly, I roundhouse kick the guard on the left in the back of the head, and hit the other one in the groin before kicking him to the ground, yoinking his walkie-talkie from his pocket. "Thanks for the distraction, boys." And with that, I ran.

Granted, there wasn’t very many places I could go, given that the alarms would go off any minute now, and I didn’t exactly have the place memorized, but I figured that anywhere would be better than the inside of a prison cell. Turning the corner, I take a second to catch my breath. Sitting down on the cold prison floor, I grab a paperclip I found on the floor, and begin to hack into the walkie-talkie. The boss isn’t going to be happy about this... but I have to let her know anyway. "Ah, Silica. Just who I was hoping to hear." Says the boss, barely audible over the crackles and pops on the line of my haphazardly hacked-together cell phone. "Did you do the deed?" I hang my head in shame. "No, I'm afraid I did not." I respond. "I was bested by a bunch of... teenagers, and taken into federal custody."

On the other line, I hear an angry growl, followed by a bang and a sigh. "Silica, do you remember what I promised you, on that day when I hired you?" I sigh. "You promised that I could start a new life with my daughter in Inkopolis..." I say, remembering the day clearly. "You said that I'd never have to work as an assassin for another day in my life." My mind goes back to that moment at Bluefin Depot, when those meddlesome Inklings bested me.

Though to be honest, as much as I want to blame the squids, as we Octarians usually do, I have to remind myself that it was my own daughter who lured me into that trap, and landed the finishing blow.

"Yes, yes I did." Says the boss. "I promised you all that... and more." The disappointment in her voice is starting to shine through. "I'm sorry that I failed—" I was about to say, before being cut off by a bang on the other line, like the sound of someone slamming a desk. "Don't you 'I'm sorry' me!" She shouts, to the point where I have to pull the walkie-talkie away from my ear for a moment. "Listen Silica, you promised me that you were the best of the best! I do not tolerate failure from 'the best', okay?!" I once again hang my head in shame. "I'm sorry..." I respond, not really knowing what else to say. "I— *sigh* I'm done working with you. This deal is over." She says. I start to panic a little. "B-but-!" I start, before the boss cuts me off again. "Silence! I don't want to hear another word from you." I sigh in defeat. "Enjoy your rotten life in prison, Silica." She says, before mumbling something. "It seems that saying is true... If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."

And from there, she hangs up. Defeated, I sit down on the floor, staring up at the flashing red lights on the ceiling, all of them appearing distorted due to the tears in my eyes. The sound of the alarms were blaring throughout the prison, and the sounds of frantic footsteps were coming from various directions, but in the moment, I didn't care. I was too busy thinking about my daughter. All those missed birthdays... All those games we never got to play together... All those experiences that we never had... And we would never have, all because I was too busy working. Even back at Bluefin Depot... the fact that my own daughter would rebel against me, and that look in her eyes as she pulled the trigger on that... thing... She looked sad, yes, but the sadness was minimal compared to the relief that was on her face, as she saw me pinned down to the ground, defenseless.

"Where did I go wrong...?" I ask myself, as the prison guards begin to surround me, ready to take me to the cell where I'll spend the rest of my life.

[thelegendofsplattim]

Chapter 10: Reality

So, it's been a few days since that whole fiasco at Bluefin Depot. Silica was taken to prison, the Splat Tim artifact is still in it's rightful place at Shellendorf Institute, and everything has gone back to normal.

Or, at least that's what I keep trying to tell Mina.

I’m currently sitting in the treehouse in her backyard, watching her sift through a bunch of old-looking files. "What are you even trying to find in there, anyway?" I ask out of curiosity. She stops for a moment to adjust her glasses before going right back to the files. "I don’t know, to be honest." She responds, turning towards me. "It's just... Why would someone hire an assassin to kill the family of Splat Tim? I don't get it." She shakes her head and goes back to the files, and I just sort of nod. "So, you're trying to find something about Splat Tim in there or something?" I say. "I guess..." Responds Mina, her voice trailing off as she stops to look at one file in particular.

I get up from my seat and go peek over her shoulder at the file. From what I can tell, it looks like a blueprint or a diagram for... something. I dunno, I can't tell if it's a hoodie, or a game controller, or what. There's a bunch of writing off to the sides of the diagram, saying stuff about 'Amiibo functionality' and 'The fourth wall', but it's all gibberish to me.

"What’s that?" I ask. Mina gets up and turns to me. "This... this looks like my dad's old research!" I tilt my head in confusion. "Huh?" I ask, as Mina never really mentioned her dad much, so I had no idea what she's talking about. "See, my dad... he was a scientist." She pauses for a moment, hanging her head down. "At least, according to mom. I never met him..."

I sit down on the floor next to her. "You never met him?" She shakes her head. "Nope. He died a couple months before I was born..." She also goes and sits down on the floor. "Oh..." I respond, knowing that exact feeling. According to Rose, my dad died shortly after they found out that I was even going to exist.

"From what my mom told me..." Mina continues. "A lot of the stuff that my dad worked on had something to do with something called the 'fourth wall'." She says, as she takes another look at the blueprint. "I always wondered whether he was some sort of construction worker or something, but I guess now it makes a little more sense." We both laugh a little bit.

"So, what do you plan on doing with that?" I ask. Mina gets up and looks around at her workshop before turning back to me with a determined smile. "I think I'll try and finish what he started."

Mina's POV; A few hours later...

"That ought to do it." I say, wiping a bit of sweat off my eyebrow. I take a step back and look at what I just made. From what I could tell from dad's blueprint, they were supposed to be jackets with remote control functionality, so they could manipulate certain electronics. It sounded neat, but we still needed to make sure they actually worked. I turn to Scarlet, who had somehow fallen asleep over all that noise, and I nudge her a bit to wake her up.

"Hm?" She mumbles as she wakes up, before taking notice to the jacket in my hands. "Wanna try it out?" I ask her, as an excited look pops on her face.

"You bet!" She says, hopping up from the small sofa where she fell asleep. "I figured you’d say that." I toss the jacket to her, and she puts it on as I go and grab mine, as I made two just in case.

Putting on my jacket (or I guess it's more of a vest, really), we make our way to a small entertainment area in the treehouse, as I figured it would be the best place to test the jackets' capabilities.

"So, what exactly are these things supposed to do?" Asks Scarlet, following just behind me. "Well, according to that blueprint, they're supposed to be able to manipulate electronics." I respond. I walk over to the TV mounted on a nearby wall and turn back towards Scarlet. "Try pressing the TV button. The one with the blue letters." She looks at her jacket for a second before pressing the button. And wouldn’t you know it, when she does, the TV actually turns on!

Scarlet gasps in excitement. "No way!" She says cheerfully, before looking back to the jacket. "Do you think we would be able to play a video game with these things?" She asks. I assume she noticed the... inspiration that my dad used in designing them. "Maybe." I respond, walking over to a very old human-era game console I had lying around. They called it a... Switch? I think? I dunno. "Why don't we find out?"

I go to a cabinet next to the TV and pull out a cartridge for an old game that we'd play all the time, called Super Smash Bros. (Which, if I'm being perfectly honest, I only knew about because Off The Hook did a Splatfest on it once. I was on Team Heroes, if you were wondering.)

We boot up the game and go to play a couple of matches, and interestingly enough, our jackets were able to control the game. "Okay, these things are sick." Says Scarlet, after our last match. "Thanks." I respond. "I gotta say, I didn’t expect these to work, either." Scarlet chuckles a bit and turns to a backpack she had lying on the floor. "Although, I have to wonder... would we be able to use this?" She asks, pulling a small figure out of the backpack. The figure itself wasn't particularly special, it was just a pink ball with a smiley face, but it was one of those fancy figures with the NFC data inside of it. An 'amiibo', I think it was called. "I dunno, you can try it I guess." I say.

She grabs the figure and gently taps it to a section of her jacket, and that, my friend, is where everything went wrong.

Scarlet's POV

I went and tapped the amiibo to the jacket, wondering if it would work with the game console, like how it usually does with a regular controller. When I did that, though... nothing happened. "Huh. Weird..." I say, a tiny bit disappointed. Granted, these things were made like 20 minutes ago, so I guess I should've expected that some things wouldn't work, but still. "Oh well, I guess it doesn't work." I say, putting the amiibo back in my backpack. Just then, the sky outside goes dark, the ground shakes, and we hear a huge thud outside, followed by a yelp from Mina's mom. "W-what was that?" Asks Mina. Worriedly, we both scurry out of the treehouse to see what was going on.

When we get out there, we find Mina's mom, standing in front of a small crater in the ground. "Mom, what's going on?" Mina asks. Her mom turns to face us. "I don't know, but this... thing just fell from the sky!" She says, pointing into the crater. I inch closer to take a look. Inside the crater was... a pink ball, just like the one on the amiibo I used earlier. "Weird..." I say, carefully going and picking up the ball. "Careful, Red..." says Mina.

Picking it up by what I could only assume was it's foot, I spun it around a little bit, just until I could see it's face, which consisted entirely of two dotted eyes, a mouth, and two blush marks on it's cheeks.

Interestingly, it didn’t seem very hostile. If anything, it was just as confused looking at me as I was looking at it. "What are you...?" I ask it, not necessarily expecting a response. And sure enough, I didn't really get one.

Mina cautiously approaches the crater and looks into it. "What's this?" She asks, pulling something out of the hole. From the looks of it, it was some sort of star-shaped necklace. Immediately after seeing the necklace, though, the ball jumps out of my hands and snatches the necklace out of Mina's, holding it close to it's face as it looks at us both.

"That necklace seems important to it..." Mina says. Slowly, I walk up to the ball and bend down to it's level, although even then, I was still at least twice it's height. "It's alright, little guy." I say in a comforting tone. "We're not gonna hurt you." It slowly walks up to me, definitely still skeptical. So, I gently pet it on the head(?), and turn back to Mina. "Y'know, it's kinda cute." I tell her. Mina sighs. "I guess..." As I pet the ball, it smiles, and seems to warm up to me a bit more, even leaning on my leg a little.

"So... what do you girls plan on doing with... that?" Asks Mina's mom. "I don't know, really..." responds Mina. "We can't exactly send it back, cause we don't even know where it came from." I pick up the ball and hug it as I get up from the ground. "I can take it home with me. I'll take good care of it, promise!" I suggest, sounding like a little squid in a pet shop, but what can I say? There’s something about this little guy that just makes me feel like a kid again, almost as if it were made of pure happiness or something.

Mina folds her arms and shakes her head. "Red, I wouldn’t even trust you with a goldfish, but if you insist..." "Booyah!" I mutter to myself, resisting my internal urge to jump for joy. Just then, my phone goes off, startling both me and my new little friend. (I'll figure out a name for it later.) I quickly glance at my phone, set the ball on the ground, and start packing up my things. "I gotta get going." I say, picking the ball back up. "See ya around!" Mina waves us goodbye, and I start on my way home, with the pink ball in my hands.

"You and I are gonna get along just fine, I can already tell." I say to it, patting it on the head as we walk home.

[thelegendofsplattim]

Chapter 9: Restart

Wait, did you seriously think that the story ended there? Cause let me tell you, we're nowhere near done yet. But before I tell you what happens next, I think some introductions are in order. My name's Scarlet. Though, I'm pretty sure you knew that already. Either way, I figured it was about time I told you a bit about myself.

Now, though I may look like your ordinary girl from Inkopolis, I actually came here from Splatsville, which you may know as the 'City of Chaos'. And well, that description isn't far off. Back when I used to live there, (which was when I was 5, so it's been a while) the place was really shady, and you wouldn't go a day without hearing about something illegal going on.

I had moved to Inkopolis when I was 5, mainly because my mom had died 4 years earlier, and that was around the time that Rose had gotten into the military, so my only other option was to go live with grandma in Inkopolis. 

It was when I got here that I met Marco and Sapphire, who happened to live just down the street, and we've been best friends ever since. Now, you may not have known this, but Sapphire and I are pranksters. So much so, that April Fools is our favorite day of the year, even more-so than our own birthdays or even Squidmas. Our tricks have ranged from the classics, like hand buzzers, whoopee cushions, etc., to highjacking the jumbotron and Rickrolling the entirety of Inkopolis Square. (We'll probably do something bigger next year, who knows.) Marco even joins in on the fun sometimes, but overall, he's much more serious than me or Polo, mainly tagging along because his parents said he had to. Considering that he's Sapphire's older brother, I guess it makes sense. Heck, that's why we gave her the nickname "Polo": because of how often she was alongside Marco.

And then there's Mina. She hasn't actually been in Inkopolis for very long, maybe like a year or so, but we've already become pretty good friends. Mina loves learning about just about everything, but machines and weapons especially. You know that weapon I was using? The "D-Liter"? Mina and I made that. Mina actually has a huge treehouse in her backyard, which sort of doubles as a little workshop of sorts. We hang out there sometimes, usually with Mina tinkering on...whatever project she's working on, and me just sort of watching. Sometimes, if she needs help with something, I end up as the guinea pig, being given the role of testing out whatever she's working on. I don't usually mind, though, cause what she usually makes is actually pretty cool. 

Alright, what else... Oh, then there’s Rose, who as you already know, is my big sister. She’s also a soldier in an Inkling military division called the Seascape Splattalion. I've never met any of the other people in Rose's unit, but according to her, they all treat each other like family, which I find pretty sweet.

Actually, that's kind of a lie. I did meet the Splattalion’s commander, whose name was Violet. She pops in occasionally during me and Rose's calls, and from what Rose has told me about her, she’s pretty cool. I wish I could meet them all someday.

There's also my aunt Jade, who I mentioned briefly back at the museum. She's a police officer out in Splatsville, and as such, you probably won’t see her in this story. A bit of a shame, that, cause she's awesome.

She also technically isn't actually my aunt, as she actually isn't related to me or Rose at all, but she was such good friends with my mom (while she was alive, anyway), that we just kinda saw her like one. Now, even though you won’t see her in this story, I figured I'd mention her anyway, for context's sake.

Speaking of the story, how about we get on with it, yeah? Cause we're still not quite done yet. Now then, let’s find out what happens next...

[thelegendofsplattim]

Chapter 8: Resistance

So later that night, I lay on the rusty iron bridge of Bluefin Depot, waiting for the moment when we put our plan into action. Rose and Mina were down below, enjoying the dim light of a bonfire, and Fuchsia was back in Octo Canyon. According to her, her mom was supposed to be home tonight, making this the perfect moment to make this happen. We sent her off with a letter, telling her mom to meet us here, and now we're just waiting for her to come back.

As I lied there, staring at the stars in the sky, I hummed a melody to myself. It was of an old lullaby that my mom used to sing to me all the time when I was younger. Or so I heard. I didn't know mom all that well, because she died when I was 1. Though, I vaguely remember stargazing with her once, as she told me a bunch of facts about the stars... of which I remember none of them.

A little bit later, the sound of footsteps can be heard, clanking across the metal pathways of the depot. Turning over to see who it is, I see Fuchsia running in.

"Did you give her the letter?" Asks Rose, getting up from the bonfire. Fuchsia nods. "Yup. S-she'll be here any minute!" She says, climbing up to the bridge, where I was. I nod, and start climbing down. Mina puts out the bonfire, and sure enough, a few minutes later, more footsteps could be heard from across the depot. They weren't fast, like Fuchsia's, but rather calm and slow.

In the distance, I could see a glowing red dot, as well as some yellow, with a tinge of blue. As they came closer, I could make out more of their features, like how the red dot was on a pair of evil-looking sunglasses (that had kelp tied to it, so that's a yikes), and how their yellow hair was tied in a ponytail, with blue rings on the ends. While Rose, Fuchsia and I were hidden throughout the depot, Mina stood front-and-center, her bioluminescent hair glowing in the darkness.

"So, what's this? You're just giving yourself to me?" Asks Fuchsia's mom; the assassin. Now that she was even closer, I realized that despite her hair being yellow and the rings on it being blue, the tips of her fingers were blood red. I don’t want to think about why. "Not necessarily." Mina responds. "Just thought you could humor me for a sec before I "meet my demise" or whatever." The assassin chuckles, though I can see the red dot on her glasses darting back and forth between us and our hiding spots. Just in case, I hold my breath a bit.

She raises her weapon to Mina's face. "Sure, sure. I'll answer you one question. Ask carefully." Mina thinks about her question... for around two seconds. "Who are you?" She asks. "The name's Silica." Responds the assassin. "Not that you or your friends will be alive to remember it." She says, quickly turning her weapon in my direction, and firing a shot. I yelp a bit as I dodge out of the way. The shot seemed to have the range of an E-Liter, maybe more, but the charge time was definitely more akin to the Squiffer. Oh dear, what have we gotten ourselves into...

Mina uses the extra fraction of a second that my existence bought her to whip out her Luna Blaster and fire a shot at Silica, forcing her to back off. Then, she makes a beeline for... anywhere else but there. "Scatter!" Mina shouts to us as she runs. I nod, and book it in some random direction, with Rose and Fuchsia doing the same. "You can run, but you can't hide..." Says Silica, just barely audible over the unmistakable sound of Autobombs.

Quickly, I duck into a small building nearby. It was rusty like the rest of the depot, and looked like it had been abandoned for decades, but it made for a good enough hiding spot. Once I catch my breath, I turn to my phone.

"Everyone ok?" I text to the others, via a little group chat we set up beforehand. "I'm alright; hanging near the west side" types Rose. I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that Rose was nearby where I hid. "Holding position on the bridge" types Fuchsia. "She hasn't seen me yet." I wait for a second to see Mina's response.

"I think I lost her. Should be safe for now, but not sure how much longer" types Mina. Though I'm relieved that everyone's safe, I can't help but feel chills down my (nonexistent) spine, as the world around me grows eerily quiet; the normally obnoxiously loud sound of Autobombs fading into silence, with no blasts or explosions to be heard...

Rose's POV

I breathe a quiet sigh of relief, knowing that the others are safe, but I continue patrolling the area for any sign of Silica. Blue-ringed octopi like her are as deadly as they come, and after losing mom all those years ago, I'm not taking any chances. Gripping my Splatling tight, I keep wandering around the silent depot.

As I walked, however, I noticed something off in the distance. Or rather, someone. They had short, red hair and skin that looked similar to mine, wearing a blue hoodie and a pair of blue Moto Boots as well. They also had a pair of very familiar-looking Sennyu Goggles on their head. As they turn to me, I can see their eyes, which are as dark of a grey as the goggles on her head. Just like Scarlet's...

"M-mom?" I whisper, cautiously coming a little closer. As I do, she opens her arms for a hug, to which I gladly accept, my emotions taking over for a second. Picking up my pace, I go to hug her, but as I do, the image of mom disappears; the only things left in front of me being a puddle of red ink, the pair of Sennyu Goggles, and an Autobomb. I caught only a quick glimpse of it, but the bomb was pitch-black with blood red accents, as opposed to their normal white-and-whatever color scheme. There also appeared to be some sort of camera or something on it, which must've been what was displaying the hologram of mom.

Seeing the bomb, I quickly backflip out of the way of the explosion, and while I survived for the most part, the blast still grazed me. "Oh, that dirty little..." I mutter, my brain reflecting on what just happened. I was already against that assassin, but now she's made it personal.

As I catch my breath, I hear a scream coming from a small building nearby, and instantly, my big-sister instincts kick in. "Scarlet!" I yell, making my way to the building where the scream came from.

Scarlet's POV

"Not again, not again, not again..." I think to myself, as I whimper in the corner of the building, with tears streaking down my eyes. As much as I wished this moment wasn't real, there was no way that it wasn't. I could feel the cinders occasionally graze my face; I could smell the smoke in the air, and most importantly, I could see the billowing flames burning in front of me. My back was turned towards the wall, and the only door and all of the windows were already engulfed in flames.

This wasn't like when I was 7, when the school I was in went ablaze and I was barely able to escape through the window. 

(Yeah, everyone else evacuated without me, and I was left behind to fend for myself. Being extraordinarily average has it's downsides, I guess...) This time, every escape I had was covered. My only option was to hope that someone outside heard my cries for help, which I could barely hear over the crackling of the fire. "So this is how I go, then. Burnt, charred, and extra-crispy." I think to myself, as the flames slowly grow closer. I start humming that lullaby again, and as I do, Rose comes storming through the door, bursting through the flames like they were nothing. "Scarlet!" She shouts, running to me and giving me a hug. "Rose!" I shout back, eternally grateful to see her again. I throw myself into her arms, and sob uncontrollably into her shoulder. "I-I thought I was a goner..." I say wearily. Rose pats my back. "It's okay, sis. It's okay." She says calmly, though her eyes are darting around the room, as if looking for something. Eventually, her eyes settle on the ceiling, just above the corner where I was a second ago. She whips out her Splatling and shoots the spot, revealing a black-and-red Autobomb. With a bang, it crashes to the floor, and all of the flames disappear.

"You alright, sis?" Rose asks, hugging me again. "Y-yeah. Just a little traumatized, that's all." I say. "So then that makes two of us." She mutters, just loud enough for me to hear. I don't bother asking, as I've already had enough trauma today to last a lifetime, maybe two. "We need to go find the others, ASAP!" I say. Rose nods in agreement, and we take off to go find Mina and Fuchsia.

Fuchsia's POV

From up on my perch on the bridge, I could see mom staring at her phone for a moment, before putting it away and walking in the direction Mina went. She hadn't seen me yet, so maybe this was the perfect opportunity to follow and get the jump on her. But at the same time... I was too terrified to move. "Come on, Fuchsia. This is your chance! Go!" I tried telling myself, but I was still scared. "Look, if you don't move now, someone's going to die here tonight." That was enough to get me to budge. Getting up, I quickly (but carefully) climb down from the bridge, and tiptoe after mom, being careful to stay out of sight.

Eventually, we come across Mina, near the edge of the depot. "Like I said. You can run, but you can't hide." Says mom, tossing one of her Autobombs up and down in her hand. "That may be the case..." Mina says, pulling out her Luna Blaster. "But you never said I couldn't fight!" She fires a few shots at mom, and she dodges the last two, though she got grazed by the first. Mom shakes her head, pulling out her gun. "So you've chosen death, I see? Fine then." She says. "Makes my job easier." She fires a shot at Mina, which she quickly dodges out of the way of. They continue fighting it out like this for a little bit, but over the sounds of gunfire, I hear the faint, yet familiar sound of a Splatling charging. (I wish I wasn't so familiar with it, but I guess it's better to be in this situation.)

Just then, a barrage of projectiles go flying through the air, said projectiles looking similar to those fired from the cannons we have in Octo Canyon. "What in the-" says mom, while Mina has a smirk on her face. With mom distracted, Mina fires her Luna Blaster once again, the shot making direct contact with mom's face, knocking her down to the ground, and knocking the gun out of her hands.

I make my way out of my hiding spot, unsure of what to do. Everything was happening so fast, and I could hardly keep up. "Fuchsia!" Scarlet calls to me. I look to where her voice was coming from, and find her on top of some scaffolding up above. Without much of any prior warning, she tosses her weapon, the 'D-Liter' as she called it, and I barely catch it, making my way to mom and pinning her chest to the floor with my foot. Though I couldn’t see her eyes, I didn't need to to see that she was mad. Finagling with the behemoth of a weapon I was given, I point it at her; my face with a slight touch of sadness on it. "Sorry, mom." I mutter, pulling the trigger, splatting her in one uncharged shot.

Mina then comes by and puts her little octopus ghost in a jar, and Rose calls the police. 

"You alright?" Asks Scarlet, as we watch the police cars take mom away. "Yeah..." I respond. "To be honest, it felt like... like the weight of the world was taken off of my shoulders." Though I'll always love my mother, I'm glad that her days of violence and murder are finally over.

[thelegendofsplattim]

Chapter 7: Rethink

After school the next day, I went back to Inkopolis Square and sat by the manhole cover, waiting for Fuchsia to arrive. I felt a little guilty as I sat there, as I left for school before Rose even woke up, but I'm sure she didn't mind... did she?

Either way, I was taken out of my thoughts when the manhole cover opened; Fuchsia's head poking out of it. "S-sorry I'm late!" She says. I smile to her. "No worries." I say, pulling a set of gear out of my bag. "Put these on." Fuchsia nods and ducks back under the manhole to change, then popped back up shortly after. What I gave her wasn't anything fancy; it was just a Basic Tee and a pair of Cream High-Tops that I had gotten when I first got to Inkopolis.

I bend over to give her a hand, and hoist her up out of the manhole. She shields her eyes from the sun, which, even though it's starting to set, is still brighter than most of the lights in Octo Canyon (from what I saw, anyway).

Now under the light of the sun, she does a little twirl, admiring her new clothes. "Would ya look at that, it fits you like a glove." I say. "Not bad for an old hand-me-down." I mutter under my breath. She smiles, her eyes glimmering in the sunlight. "I like it!" She says. "It's um... Oh gosh, how do you say it... Fresh?" She looks at me nervously, as if she was afraid that she just defiled the whole Inkling race or something. "No, no, you got it!" I say, reassuring her. She breathes a sigh of relief.

Afterwards, we head to a nearby café, where I told Mina to meet us earlier. We were around halfway there when we ran into Rose. "Oh, uh, hey sis." I say nervously. I quickly glance over to Fuchsia whose face has gone pale; her body trembling slightly. Understandably so, as she was staring down the six barrels of a Splatling yesterday. Rose raises her eyebrow at Fuchsia, something undoubtedly going through her mind. After a second, she holds her hand out to Fuchsia.

"I think we got off to a bad start yesterday." Says Rose. "My name's Rose. What's yours?" Fuchsia quickly glances to me, then cautiously shakes Rose's hand. "M-my name is F-Fuchsia." She says, slowly shaking Rose's hand. "I-it's a pleasure to meet you, R-Rose."

Rose's POV; Several hours earlier...

"Gah!" I startle awake, breathing heavily, thankful that it was just a dream. Or rather, a nightmare. Being in the military takes a toll on your sanity, so I was glad to have a break, even if it wasn’t for very long.

Sluggishly, I get out of bed and get dressed, heading out of my room with a big yawn. As I eat my breakfast, I notice that there was no sign of Scarlet anywhere. "I guess she left for school already." I think to myself, a little guilty that I wasn't able to say goodbye. "Oh well, I can still go and meet her after school."

After I finish my food, I kiss grandma goodbye, and head out to the city to run some errands; and find something to keep myself occupied for the next six hours. As the day went on, I couldn’t help but think about how much must've gone on between the last time Scarlet and I saw each other, and now. It's kind of amazing how she turned out to be the spunky little kid she is now, considering her only parental figure was grandma, who, being brutally honest, isn't always there sometimes.

Y'know, I kinda wonder how mom would've felt, seeing her kids all grown up now...

Uh, sorry 'bout that. Anyway, a few hours later, I head to the Inkblot Art Academy campus to pick up Scarlet, only to find that she's once again not there. "Weird." I think to myself. "Maybe she's hanging out with a friend somewhere?" I figure that's the most likely option, and decide that maybe I should head back home.

Well, I'd say that, if my stomach didn't do the talking first.

"Change of plans: go grab something to eat." Just then, I remember a café that someone told me about earlier, and decide to maybe stop by there for a bite.

I'm around halfway there when I run into Scarlet, who was hanging out with... that Octoling from yesterday. "Oh, uh, hey sis." Says Scarlet, giving me a nervous smile. Her friend, on the other hand, looked downright terrified; her skin a sickly pale and her whole body trembling, as if she'd met the Grim Reaper or something. Although, thinking back to how I acted yesterday, that description wasn't far off.

I raise my eyebrow at the Octoling, wondering what she's doing up here on the surface, but at the same time, I can't help but think a little bit. Given that my sister is hanging out with her right now, maybe she had something to do with it. And if she did, then maybe she trusted the Octoling enough to risk bringing her up here. Maybe I should just play along; see where it goes.

After a second, I hold out my hand for the Octoling to shake. "I think we got off to a bad start yesterday." I say. "My name's Rose. What's yours?" The Octoling quickly glances to Scarlet before cautiously shaking my hand. "M-my name is F-Fuchsia. I-it's a pleasure to meet you, R-Rose." She says, her voice making it clear that she was still a little scared of me. Though, it didn't look like she had any bad intentions, or anything. "Maybe she's not so bad after all." I think to myself.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Fuchsia." I say, shaking her hand a little faster and smiling, to show that there's nothing for her to be afraid of. And well, she calmed down a little. 

"So, where are you two going?" I ask. "We were just going to the café around the corner." Says Scarlet, pointing in the direction of the café. "Wanna come?" I shrug. "Sure. I mean, I was heading there anyway." 

Scarlet's POV

So, we continued the rest of the way there with Rose by our side. I glance to Fuchsia momentarily, and it looks like she's calming down a bit; as the color starts to return to her face, and she's not trembling as much anymore. Though I was tempted to ask Rose about her sudden change of heart, I figured that was a topic for when we get home.

"Hey, Red!" Says Mina, at the café. Smiling, I go up to her, ready to give her my usual high-five, but when I go for it, she moves her hand out of the way at the last second. "Nope, too slow." She says. I chuckle a bit. "Alright, alright. Sorry I'm late." I say, sitting down at the table, and motioning for Fuchsia and Rose to join us.

"It's alright..." Mina says, noticing Fuchsia. "Who's your friend there?" She asks. Fuchsia then goes up to Mina, with her hand out for her to shake. 

"My n-name is Fuchsia. W-what's yours?" Mina smiles, and shakes her hand. "Mina." She responds. "Nice to meet you." Fuchsia smiles sheepishly. "You t-too, although I w-wish it weren't under these circumstances..." Mina raises her eyebrow at the comment and turns to me, to which I take a deep breath. 

"Listen, we need to talk." I say, my voice more serious than most people are used to. Mina's face turns more serious as well, catching on to the fact that this isn't just some friendly gathering. "What's up?" She says, taking a sip of her drink, which, knowing her, is probably hot chocolate or something.

I take a seat at the table and show Mina my phone; on it were pictures I took of the assassination documents Fuchsia showed me yesterday.

As I explained the situation, I could tell Rose was wondering how I figured this out, and just wasn't saying anything. On the other hand, I could practically see Mina's gears turning; her brain going into overdrive. "So, let me get this straight: an assassin is after me and my entire family?" Asks Mina, trying to wrap her head around everything. I nod. "Pretty much." Rose leans forward. "So, what's the plan, then?" She asks. "Cause I know that none of us are just gonna stand there and let this happen." Mina thinks for a second and pulls out a sketchpad, scribbling down a plan almost immediately. "Well, I have one idea... But it's risky, and we only get one shot." She says, adjusting her glasses a little. 

"W-well, let us hear it, then." Fuchsia says. "Because at t-this point, any idea would be welcome."

[thelegendofsplattim]

Chapter 6: Recon

"AAAAAAAHHH!" We both screamed at the same time, while Rose stood, her Splatling pointed at the girl. "D-don't hurt me!" Says the girl, holding her hands up. "I'm unarmed!" Rose, seeing that the girl was indeed unarmed, put her Splatling down, though she continued to stare at the girl; her eyes narrowed.

"Who are you? What are you doing up here?" Rose asks, her inner soldier shining through in her voice. "Sis, I think you're scaring her..." I say quietly, being a little bit afraid of my sister's angry side. "L-look, I don't mean any harm, okay?" Says the girl. "I'm just looking for someone!" I shoot Rose a quick look, as if to say "Let me do the talking."

"Maybe we can help you." I offer. "Who are you looking for?" I say, in a very sweet and polite tone, as opposed to Rose's sternness. "W-well..." the girl says. "I'm looking for a girl. She has short hair, faded yellow eyes, pale skin, and... um... Oh, gosh, what else..." she taps her forehead a few times before continuing. "Oh, and she wears glasses!" She says. Me and Rose exchange looks.

"Sounds like Mina." Rose whispers to me. I nod in agreement. "Why?" Rose asks the girl. "B-because she might be in d-danger." She says, while looking just past us. Rose and I glance at each other again. "W-what kind of danger?" I ask, worriedly. But as I ask, the girl yelps, and heads back under the manhole cover.

"Wait!" I say. Instinctively, I look behind me, trying to see whatever that girl saw, but there was nothing there. I look to Rose, and she looks back to me. We both shrug, and head home; our minds still thinking about... whatever it was that just happened.

But as I lied there in my bed that night, I was unable to sleep. Rose was already out cold, but my brain wouldn't stop thinking about what that girl said. "What does she mean by 'Mina's in danger'? What kind of danger?" I thought to myself. Despite my best efforts to shrug it off, go to sleep, and worry about it tomorrow, my brain just wouldn't let me. It didn’t need sleep, apparently. It needed answers.

So, I grabbed my goggles, got dressed, and snuck out. As I made my way to Inkopolis Square, I thought more about what it was I was actually doing. Everyone knows that manhole leads to Octo Canyon, which is why nobody goes down there. Though, that got me thinking. "Wait, was that girl an Octoling? Is that why Rose was so on edge?" The more I thought about it, the more it started to make sense. Though, I still didn’t know why or how that girl knew that Mina was apparently in danger, but that’s what I was going to find out. 

I glance back and forth across the silent square, plop my goggles onto my face, as to hide my eyes, and I jump down the manhole, unsure of what awaited me on the other end.

When I arrive, I take my goggles off for a brief moment, to let my eyes adjust to the sudden burst of light they'd been greeted by. It was all artificial, I'm sure; it was midnight when I got here, but it still caught me by surprise a little bit. Putting my goggles back on, I quickly remind myself of those times that Rose tried teaching me Octarian back when I was little. I didn’t remember how to read the language, but I still knew how to speak it. A little. As I take in the sights, I come across some seaweed on the ground, so I pick it up, and tie it to my goggles, remembering that high-ranking Octolings have seaweed on their goggles. (Or so Rose said at one point.) With my disguise as good as it was gonna get, I walk up to a nearby Octoling. "Excuse me!" I say in Octarian. The Octoling turns to me. Raising his eyebrow, he lifts up his shades a little, and scans me. After a little bit, he puts his glasses back on, and I let out an internal sigh of relief, as I was sweating bullets the entire time. "May I help you?" He says, arms crossed, as if I'd interrupted him in the middle of something really important. Knowing my luck, I probably did.

"Yes, actually. You see, I'm looking for someone." I say, trying to sound official. I describe the girl I met earlier, and wait for the guy's response. "Sounds like you're looking for F-51A." He says. "I'll go get her for you." He then leaves to go and find... uh, F-51A, apparently. "The heck kind of a name is that?" I mutter to myself.

A little while later, he returns with F-51A, and wouldn’t you know it, she's actually the girl I was looking for.

"Here she is." Says the boy. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've gotta get back to work." He says, before leaving. "M-may I help you?" She asks me. I glance around the area. "Can we talk somewhere... private?" I ask her. Confused, she nods, and we go into what looks like a house of some sort, put together with all kinds of random stuff. Now with no one else around, I take my goggles off of my face, and put them back on my forehead. "Phew, thank cod I can take these off now." I say, in Inkling this time. She recognizes my face immediately and gasps. "Wait, w-what are you doing here?!" She asks and exclaims at the same time. I quickly shush her. "Shh, keep your voice down, will you?" She nods, her face even more confused than it was a second ago. 

"Listen, I'm just here to get some answers, okay?" I explain. "You know that girl you were looking for? I'm her best friend." I slouch a little in the couch I was sitting on. "And frankly, I'm really worried for her." The girl nods, understandingly. "I see..." she says. "And what about the big one that was with you? With the gun?" She asks. I nervously laugh. "Oh, right. That was my sister. Sorry about that..."

"I-it's okay." She says, chuckling a little. "So... you wanted to know what danger your friend was in, r-right?" I nod vigorously. “More than anything.” I say. She sighs. "Okay, I'll tell you. But... could you do me a favor afterwards?" I nod, though now it's my turn to be confused. "Alright, wait here." She says, going into a room. Though I couldn't read the sign that was on the door to the room, I assumed it probably said "Off-Limits", or something like that. A little while later, she returns with a pile of papers, which she spreads out on a table nearby. "What's this?" I ask.

"A bunch of documents...for the assassination of an entire bloodline." She says. "Someone was sent to kill the family of some guy named 'Splat Tim'. I've never heard of him, but it seems a bit overkill to annihilate a guy's entire family, no?" I nod in agreement, as I then notice something: a picture of Mina.

"No way..." I thought aloud. Mina really was part of Splat Tim's family line. And she really was in danger, too. "So, um..." I start, trying to get my mind off of this for a moment. "What was that favor you wanted?" I ask.

"Oh, that..." she says, glancing around the room. "I need to get out of here." I tilt my head in confusion, so she elaborates. "You see, the assassin sent to kill your friend and her family... was my mom." I give her an "Are you serious?" look, and she nods in response, as if she was reading my mind. "A-and I'm kind of afraid that maybe she might found out that I k-know about this, so... I need help getting out of Octo Canyon." She says. "Alright, well, how about this: meet me at the manhole tomorrow, and I'll help you out." I say, feeling a mixture of worry on Mina's behalf, anxiety in the fact that I'm really doing this right now, and tiredness because it's 1 in the morning, and I still haven't slept. 

"Thank you!" She says, giving me a hug, which startles me a little, but I don't oppose it. Who am I to deny someone a hug?

"No problem, but I need to get going." I say, yawning. "I need to get some sleep." I put my goggles back on, and head towards the door, but just before I leave, the girl stops me one last time. "Wait, um... what's your name?" She asks. "Scarlet." I respond. "What's yours?" "You can call me F-51A." She says. I shake my head. "Yeeaaah, no. That's a mouthful." I say, thinking of something else to call her. "How about I call you Fuchsia?" I ask. She nods. "Fuchsia... Yeah, I like it!" I smile.

"Well then, I'll see you tomorrow, Fuchsia." I say. "You too, Scarlet!" Fuchsia responds.

[thelegendofsplattim]

Chapter 5: Resonance

"Mornin', Rose." I yawn, exiting my room, in my school uniform. "Mornin'." She responds. I grab some breakfast, hug Rose, and head off to school, my mind still trying to wrap around what happened last night at the museum.

As I walk, for the most part alone in my thoughts, I hear someone up ahead, calling my name. "Hey, Scarlet!" Says Mina, who’s waiting for me. She's also joined by Marco and his little sister, Sapphire, (or Polo, as we call her) who are two of my other best friends. "Mina!" I respond, running up to her and giving her a high-five, as I always do. I then turn to Marco and Sapphire, giving them high-fives, too. "Mornin', Marco!" I say, high fiving Marco. "Mornin', Polo!" I say, high fiving Sapphire. "Good morning, Red!" Says Sapphire, her usual smile on full display. Marco gives a nod in my direction. He's not usually much of a talker. 

As we make our way to the bus stop, we go about, chatting away as we usually do. Sapphire and Marco talking about how they finally beat that one game that they felt was impossibly difficult, I talked a little bit about how my older sister that I hadn't seen in 9 years came back to visit, and Mina...stayed surprisingly silent. Sapphire and Marco continue chatting even after we get on the bus to Inkblot Art Academy, but I take the moment to talk to Mina, who’s in the seat just next to me.

"You alright?" I ask her, quietly, as to not make her feel too uncomfortable. Though, my concern still showed in my voice. "Yeah, I'm fine." She responds. I could still tell that there was something on her mind, but I didn’t bother to ask her about it. Maybe there was a reason she didn’t want to talk about it.

Eventually, we arrive at the school campus, and go about our day. I won't go into the details, cause it was pretty boring, but eventually, we all get back together, and head into the cafeteria for my favorite part of the day: lunch. No, it's not because we get to eat food, or hang out together, or any of that.

It's because out here in Inkopolis, the cafeterias are practically battlegrounds. 

After giving the others a silent countdown, we race into the cafeteria, grab our trays of food, and book it to our table in the furthest corner of the room, which practically the entire school has dubbed "The Uncool Kids' Table". Not that we really cared. We named our Turf War group after this darned table, and we were proud to sit there.

Quickly, we make our way to the table and tip it over, the four of us hiding behind it as if it were a shield. On my tray, I had all the food I'd need to last until the end of the school day, as well as a bunch of apples, to throw at anyone else who dared to come near. In Inkopolis, we're pretty much the food-fight capital of the world.

For the rest of the period, we basically tried to scarf down our food, whilst trying to defend our table from the onslaught that was headed for it. It's a great way to get your adrenaline pumping after the monotony of the morning, and it's why there's hardly any schools in the entire city with gyms in them.

"See you guys tomorrow!" I say, a few hours later, outside the building. "Bye, Red." Says Marco, Sapphire following behind, and waving goodbye as well. Though I was waiting for Rose to come by and pick me up, Mina decided to stick around with me. "Hey, um..." starts Mina. "You remember that message we found last night? At the museum?" I look to her, questioning where she's going with this. "Yeah, why?" I respond. Mina sighs. "I dunno, it's just... it reminded me of something my grandma used to say all the time." I raise my eyebrow. "You mean how she'd always say that you're related to Splat Tim?" Mina nods. "Mhm. I still don't quite believe her, but... what about the off-chance that she's right, y'know?" She says. I'm about to respond when my phone goes off, the ringtone of Wet Floor's "Don't Slip" breaking my train of thought. Mina motions to my phone, telling me to take the call.

"Inkopolis Pawn Shop, Your trash, Our treasure." I say to the other line, knowing full-well that it's Rose. Mina stifles a laugh. "Hey sis, just calling to let you know that I'm almost there." Says Rose. "Alright. Love you, sis!" I respond. "Love you too." Says Rose, before we say our goodbyes and hang up our phones.

Immediately, I turn back to Mina and put my hand on her shoulder. "Relax, it'll be fine." I say, attempting to calm her down, though in reality, I'm thinking the same thing she is. "If you say so..." Mina says, her voice still kinda concerned.

A little while later, Rose finally shows up. I say goodbye to Mina, and me and Rose go on our way to Inkopolis Square. We stop by the Crust Bucket for a treat, and go and sit down at a bench in the far corner of the square, in between Ammo Knights and the Grizzco building. "So, how was school?" Rose asks. I shrug, and take a bite of my fried... hot dog... thing. "Eh, it was alright." I say, with my mouth full a little bit. Rose takes notice and shakes her head, but doesn’t say anything about it. "I see." She says instead. We sit there and eat in silence, until said silence is broken by the sound of metal rattling. "What was that?" I ask, my ears perking up to figure out where the sound was coming from. The sound happens again, and this time we're able to pinpoint where it came from: the manhole cover next to us.

Rose gets up as the manhole rattles again, and I just sit there in anticipation. Eventually, the manhole cover is lifted up a little bit, and peeking out from it, was a girl.

Her curly hair went down to about her shoulders, and she had fairly light skin and dark, turquoise eyes. However, there was something else about her that I found weird. It was how the markings around her eyes were sharp and separated, and how her ears were big and round, rather than the sharp ears and round, connected eye markings that most Inklings have.

Though I may have found it weird, Rose certainly didn't, and she almost immediately whipped out her Heavy Splatling upon seeing the girl. The girl jumped a bit after seeing the Splatling, screaming a little bit. Given the girl's sudden appearance, and even more sudden screaming, I couldn’t help but scream a little myself. "AAAAAAAHHH!" We both screamed at the same time, while Rose stood, her Splatling pointed at the girl.

[thelegendofsplattim]

Chapter 4: Revolt

"Everybody ready?" Says Mina, through an earpiece in my ear. I look around the room I'm in, and nod, not that anyone can see me doing so. "I'm in position." I say into the earpiece, keeping a good grip on the weapon in my hand. "Same here." Says Rose. From where I am, I can just barely see her standing near a railing up above, leaning towards the lobby of the museum.

"Remember the plan, ladies." Says our security guard friend, whose name we found out was Joseph. "Figure out where the thief is keeping that artifact, and bring em' to the police before they steal anything else." I roll my eyes, grateful that he can't see me. "We know, we know." I say. "Let's just get this over with."

While we were out grabbing our weapons, I also changed back to my normal attire, cause, y'know, gear abilities and such. While we were at it, we gave Mina a Zipcaster special that Rose had brought as a souvenir from back in Splatsville, where we're from. That way, she could keep a lookout from above without being seen.

Joseph's POV

I roll my eyes at the red girl's comment, just before noticing a blue glow coming from the glass door to the entrance of the museum, where I was. "So they're one of those kinds of thieves, huh?" I think to myself. Just then, the door opens, and the thief walks in, somehow not tripping any alarms. They were wearing a Traditional Headband and a variant on the Traditional Apron as well, and some sort of black-and-lime-green glow-in-the-dark sneakers. In their hand, they were holding the very artifact we'd been looking for. But in that moment, I was less worried about what the thief was holding, and more about who the thief was.

"Aqua Marine." I mutter under my breath, into my headset. "Huh?" The pink girl with the captain's hat asks. "A world famous thief." Mina explains. "She's a wanted criminal in over 20 countries around the world." "Mhm." I nod. "At this point, it'll be a miracle if we pull this off." "Well then, let's make a miracle." Says the red girl with the goggles. I quietly sigh, and put my finger on the trigger of my Splattershot. Carefully and quietly, I make my way towards Aqua. Yet, despite being perfectly silent, she still notices that I'm there. "Shoot." She says, quickly glancing in my direction before using her modded Splat Dualies to hightail it.

"Get back here, you!" I shout, giving chase. I fire a few shots in her direction, the sound of gunfire echoing throughout the silent museum. Narrowly dodging my shots, she quickly turns back around to face me, splatting me in no time flat. "Darn it, she's good." I grumble as I respawn in one of the staff-only rooms. 

"Where is she headed?" Asks the pink girl. "She's heading towards the east side, where Mina is!" I say, quickly trying to get back in the action...

Mina's POV

"I see her." I whisper into my headset, as I stand stuck to the ceiling over Aqua's head. She glances back and forth across the room before slowing her pace, putting her Dualies away. Carefully, I tiptoe a little bit as she moves forward, pulling out my Luna Blaster in the process. Then, I quickly drop down from the ceiling, firing a shot at her, which barely misses due to shot deviation. "Dang it!" I exclaim, the Zipcaster wearing off. Noticing me, Aqua then makes a beeline for the nearest shelf, and grabs a very fragile looking vase. 

"Ooh, look at this!" She says, brandishing the vase. "This looks pretty nice, don't ya think?" She starts tossing the vase up and down in her hand, tauntingly. I put my Luna Blaster away, and begin carefully approaching. "B-be careful with that!" I say. "That vase dates back to the human era." Seemingly intrigued, she looks back to the vase. "Oh, so this thing is historically significant?" She asks. "Something like that..." I mutter. "Oh, neato!" She says, as the vase slowly tips out of her hand, plummeting towards the ground. "Oops." Quickly, I dive towards the vase, barely catching it before it hit the ground. I take a sigh of relief, but as I look up again... She vanished.

Just then, Joseph comes rushing into the room. "Where'd she go?" He asks. I shake my head, get up off the floor, and put the vase back on the shelf. "No idea. One second, she was there, the next, gone!" He lets out a low growl, just as Rose cuts in on the headset. "Guys, she's headed for the display area where the artifact was!" She says, panting as if she was in pursuit. "We're on our way!" I say, motioning for Joseph to follow.

When we arrive, we're greeted by Rose, who's down on the ground in a cloud of Toxic Mist, coughing up a storm. "Are you alright?" I ask. Rose looks at us, eyes wide, and shakes her head. Soon, we see why. Because just then, Aqua appeared behind us, throwing down a second cloud just next to our feet. With the three of us out of commission, she confidently strides into the room, ready to steal as she pleases...

Scarlet's POV

"Oh gosh, it's all up to me now, isn't it?" I think to myself, hearing the coughing fit just outside the room. Keeping a careful grip on my D-Liter, (which if you're wondering, is a charger with infinite damage and worse range than a Sploosh-O-Matic,) I take a deep breath, and hide in a puddle of ink, waiting for my time to strike.

Aqua then walks into the room, the Splat Tim artifact in her hand. "Man, those guys just didn't know when to quit, did they?" She says to herself, as she walks towards a shelf at the end of the room. As she reaches for the Inkling figurine, (the one we found that card behind) I emerge from my hiding spot, and point my weapon at her. "Put your hands up where I can see them!" I say, doing my best impression of my aunt Jade. She turns around to me, the hand with the artifact raised in the air, the other one near her waist, reaching for her Dualies. 

"And why should I?" She says. I take a deep breath. "Look, I don't mean any harm. Just return that artifact, and I'll put this down." I say, putting emphasis on the behemoth of a weapon in my hands. 

"Wait, you mean this thing?" She asks, holding up the Splat Tim artifact. "Relax, I was gonna return it.” I point my weapon towards the floor. "Huh?" I ask, as she puts the artifact back on the shelf. "Yeah, you heard me right." She says, then picking up the regular Inkling figurine instead. "One of the museum workers sent me to come and get this." She chuckles. "Said it was a little action figure they made, that got lost in some boxes or something." "Oh, so you stole the artifact by mistake?" I ask. She nods.

"Yup. Came back here to return it, but your friends" she says, looking back to the room's entrance. "-Were a little antsy."

I chuckle a little. "Sorry about that..." I say, looking around at the mess of ink she made around the area. "Though, you do realize we're still gonna have to turn you in to the police, right?" She looks at me, and rolls her eyes, her scarred, green eye glowing in the dark. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." She says, crossing her arms, and leaning against a nearby wall. "Just get it over with."

I pull out my phone and dial 911, all the while keeping an eye on Aqua. "Is she really just turning herself in, after all that?" I ask myself.

Turns out, the answer was yes. When the authorities arrived, Aqua was arrested for her past crimes, though they made sure that the Inkling figure made it back to it's rightful owner. Meanwhile, back inside the museum, we celebrated our extremely unlikely victory(?). "Nice job, Red." Says Mina, giving me a pat on the back. "It was nothin'." I respond. Rose was outside with the police, and Joseph was staring at the newly-returned artifact, with his eyes squinted. He walked to the shelf where it was, and picked it up, pulling a piece of paper off of the bottom.

"What's this?" He asks, walking to us. We take a look at the paper, which to me, had a bunch of scribbled handwriting on it. "I dunno, but from what I can tell, it's written in Octarian." Says Mina, adjusting her glasses. "I don't think any of us know how to read Octarian, though."

"Rose knows how to read Octarian." I say. "Maybe she knows what it says." Mina and Joseph nod. "Good idea." Says Joseph, as he heads downstairs, me and Mina following behind.

Outside, we meet up with Rose, just as the police cars were leaving. "Hey sis, do you know what this says?" I ask, as Joseph shows her the paper. "It's written in Octarian." Mina says. Rose shrugs, and takes a look at the paper for a little bit, her eyes widening slightly as she reads. "Well? What does it say?" I ask, wary of my sister's slightly panicked expression. Undeterred, she reads it to us anyway.

"Ever since we were young, you hogged the glory; left the rest of us to live in your shadow. The others were content, but me? Oh, no, no, no.

Tim, your days are numbered. I will splat you, your descendants, and even the children of their children, until your bloodline 'does it' no more. Maybe then, will people question your fame, and your legend."

(A little while later; Mina’s POV)

Later that night, I returned to my house, a little bit shaken by what Rose had read earlier. A bunch of different thoughts rushed through my head, as I opened the front door. Though mom was asleep, as I expected, I was a little surprised to see grandma, sitting in an old rocking chair, and reading a book, under the dim light of a lamp.

"Ah, there you are, young lady!" She says, quietly, as to not wake mom. "Where have you been, out so late?" I sigh, and put my stuff away. "Sorry, sorry... I had closing duty again." I say, partially lying. Fortunately, despite knowing that Shellendorf Institute closes an hour or so earlier than the time I came home, she didn't question it. "I see." She said instead, though I still felt like on the inside, she knew I wasn’t telling the whole truth. "Well, young lady, you should get to bed. You have school tomorrow." She says. "Right." I say. "Love you, grandma." I say, heading to her chair to give her a hug. "I love you too, Mina." She kisses me on the forehead, and I go to the stairs, but before I go up, I turn back to grandma.

"Hey, um... you know how you keep saying that we're descendants of Splat Tim?" I ask her. She puts her book down. "Yes, why?" My mind rushes back to that moment outside the museum, with Rose reading the writing on that paper. "I-is that true?" I ask. Grandma leans back in her chair. "Why, of course it is!" She says, a large smile on her face. "As a matter of fact, if he were alive today, I guarantee that we would be his pride and joy!" I turn back to the stairs. "Uh... huh." I say, my suspicions being pretty much confirmed. "Well, good night, grandma." I say, going up the stairs without waiting for a response. 

As I tuck myself into bed, I can't help but think that I might be having nightmares tonight.

[thelegendofsplattim]

Chapter 3: Reveal

"Well, girls, here we are." Says Mina, as we walk through the doors of Shellendorf Institute. I take a look around the area, noticing all the display cases, filled with stuff from the ancient human era. "Doesn’t look like anything's missing from here, so that's good, right?" I ask, as I stare at some small, weird device with a screen and a couple of buttons on it. "I mean, yeah, but we’re here to find out more about the Splat Tim artifact, remember?" Says Rose, as she looks at a painting of a bunch of spherical, bomb-like things walking on a hill. Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone else leaning against a wall near the painting, but I didn't think much of them. People loiter in museums all the time.

"In that case, I hate to inform you ladies..." says someone else; me, Mina and Rose turning to see who it is. "But the artifact you're looking for has gone missing." This guy looked to be a little older than Mina and I, and he was wearing a security guard uniform. On his hip was a holster, with a singular Splat Dualie inside. Rose steps forward, her arms crossed, and with the most unamused expression on her face. "We're aware." She says. "We're just trying to figure out what happened to it." The security guard or whatever follows suit, folding his arms as well. "Well, if you really want to know what happened to it, a certain coworker of mine took it." He says, glaring at Mina. Mina facepalms, and walks closer to the security guard. "Oh, for crying out—" she says, before her tentacles start glowing brightly and flailing around. "Just because I had closing duty that day does not mean that I took it!" She shouts at him, just loud enough to make her point without causing a scene. "Suuuuuure. Tell that to management." He says. Mina lets out a low growl, which I take as my cue to do something.

"Now, lets all just calm down." I say, stepping between Mina and the security guard. "Mister, could you maybe take us to where the artifact was?" I ask, as politely as I can muster. The security guard sighs. "Just for you, fine. We already poked around in there a little, though, so I doubt you'll find much." He says, motioning for us to follow. After walking through a hallway filled with all kinds of old things, we're led to a room that it looks like they were still setting up, as there were boxes full of stuff scattered about on the floor. There were also a few shelves with stuff on them as well, like a figurine of a pink gumball with feet(?), and an upside-down water bottle, which was apparently important enough to have a plaque all to itself.

"Well, I better get back to work." Says the security guard, as he turns back towards the hallway. "Oh, and if you do manage to find anything, just holler. Okay?" The three of us nod, and he leaves the room, leaving us with the bazillion things in here. Immediately, I go and inspect the water bottle because it looked important, what with the plaque and all, but there was nothing there. We continue looking around the (rather large) room for a little while, before Mina breaks the silence of our search. "So... are we actually gonna tell him about any of this?" She says, as she rummages through a box of, from what I could tell, teddy bears and blankets. "Nah, I don't see the point." Says Rose, who is inspecting a vase. "I mean, unless you want him involved in this." Mina turns back to the box she was searching in. "Fair enough." I, on the other hand, had gotten bored of looking around. "What're we even looking for in here?" I ask. Rose gets up and starts pacing to the other side of the room. "I dunno, evidence, I guess?" She says. "Basically anything we can use to prove that Mina isn't—" She comes to a stop as she momentarily winces in pain. She looks down at the ground where she's standing, and notices a large puddle of blue ink. "-Guilty." She finishes her thought. She looks up at a nearby shelf, with an Inkling figurine on it, and turns back to Mina. "Hey, do you like the color blue?" Rose asks. "Hm? Not really. Blue is like, my least favorite color." Mina responds. "Why?"

"So, this-" Rose says, motioning to the mess of blue ink around her. "This wasn't you?" Mina gets up and heads to where Rose is standing, her face in utter confusion. "No, this wasn't me. I'd never put ink in a museum." She says. I walk over there to see what else I can find, and I notice something next to the Inkling figure. "Hey, what's this?" I say, carefully tiptoeing around the ink, and pulling what looks like a card of some sort out from behind the figure. Mina and Rose come closer to me as I inspect the card, though there isn't anything noteworthy about it, except for a logo.

Wait a minute, the logo!

I quickly whip around back to the hallway, and notice that same person that was loitering near the painting earlier. Only, as I look again, I realize that their hair is the same shade of blue as the ink on the floor, and they're wearing an apron with this exact logo on it. Noticing me, they walk back out to the lobby of the museum. "Guys, what if I told you that I think our thief might be coming back for more?" I say, turning back to Mina and Rose. Mina had apparently captured a (frankly, kinda blurry) picture of our suspect on her phone and turns back to me. "Sounds likely to me." She says. "Should we go tell the security guard, or call the police, or something?" Rose asks. I turn to her, shrugging off her suggestion. "Nah, we can handle it." I say.

"Uh, are you sure we should do that?" Asks Mina. "Totally!" I respond. "The less fanfare there is, the higher chance we have of catching the thief dead in their tracks!" Mina continues giving me her skeptical look. "Come on, it'll be just like old times." I say, gently shaking Mina's shoulder, and ignoring the death glare that I know for a fact Rose is giving me right now. Mina sighs. "Okay, but shouldn’t we at least run this by the security guards?" I roll my eyes. "Fine, I guess."

A little while later, we give our security guard 'pal' a rundown on our plan. Surprisingly, he gives us the good-to-go on staying by the museum to catch the thief. Quickly, we head home and grab our supplies, and wait for the thief to strike...

[thelegendofsplattim]

Chapter 2: Return

There I was, lying on my bed. It was pretty early in the morning, and I was still sort of half-awake from the adrenaline of seeing Rose again yesterday. It almost felt like a dream...

But I was oh-so abruptly reminded that it wasn't.

Before I knew it, music was blasting throughout my room, just loud enough to knock the drowsiness out of me. And honestly, I take that back. It's not even music. It's just bass, bass, and more bass. Judging by the fact that I couldn’t hear grandma reacting to it, I assumed she was off running errands or something.

Annoyed, I turn over and cover my ears with my pillow to try and drown out the "music", but the sound still seeped through. Slowly, I could feel the anger build up inside me, to the point that my tentacles started to glow and flail wildly, as it does when my special is charged. I try to keep It together, but ultimately my emotions take over. In a fit of anger, I quickly get up and instinctively throw my pillow at the doorway to my bedroom, where Rose stood and narrowly dodged the bundle of fluff I threw at her. 

“WHAT THE SHELL WAS THAT FOR?” I scream at her, knowing for a fact she was the one playing the "music". Getting the message, she turns to her phone and turns the music off. "You know, I remember we had a rule when we were younger..." She says, with a smug look on her face. Near instantly, my tentacles calm down, but I'm still kinda peeved. "Lemme guess: whoever wakes up first gets to blast obnoxious music to wake the other?" I say, vividly remembering all the times I used to do it to Rose. She was not an early bird at all back then, but I suppose times have changed. 

She nods, and points backwards with her thumb, pointing at the front door. "Mhm. You still wanna go to Shellendorf, right?" She says, reminding me why I was supposed to be up this early. "Oh, right!" I exclaim. "Uh, let me get dressed and we'll head out. Okay?" Rose nods, and closes the door to my room, leaving me by myself to get dressed. I put on a Baseball Jersey instead of the Octoling Armor Replica I was wearing yesterday, because I felt Rose might feel uncomfortable seeing me wearing that. Y'know, she doesn't like Octarians, what with being in the military and whatnot. I still keep the Octoling Boots, as they're not as obvious, and I turn over to my nightstand and put on my Sennyu Goggles, which I've never left home without; not after Rose gave them to me. And even then, I'm pretty sure she got them from mom...

Aaaaaanyway, I then head out of my room, and after a Pop-Tart, me and Rose head out on our way to Shellendorf Institute, with the blues of the late-morning sky as our backdrop on the way. "Man, it's so nice out today..." I say, taking in the scenery. "The sun is shining, the birds are singing—" I say, before doing a quick little twirl, and hitting someone in the face with my tentacles. "Owww..." says the unfortunate girl who I hit. She was about my age, with pale skin and freckles just above her cheeks. She had short hair, and was wearing a Choco Layered LS, some Turquoise Kicks, and a pair of Retro Specs; at least before I oh-so gracefully knocked them off of her face. 

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!" I say, giving the girl a hand. "Are you alright?" She grabs my hand and gets up, rubbing her face where I hit her. "Yeah, I'm fine. Won't be seeing much without my glasses, though."

"Then let me help with that." Says Rose, who was lagging a bit behind. She pulled out a Point Sensor from her pocket, and held it up in the air, causing it to send an echolocation signal to each of us, and showing the girl where her glasses were. Immediately, she bends down and picks them up, plucking them back onto her face where they belong. "Thanks." She says to Rose, before turning back to me. 

"Scarlet, you seriously need a haircut." I roll my eyes. "I've been told, Mina." "Wait, you two know each other?" Says Rose.

"Yup!" I say, pulling my friend closer. "Mina, this is my sister, Rose." I say. "Rose, this is my friend Mina. She works at Shellendorf." Mina holds up her hand, as if to interrupt me. "Um, about that..." she says, her voice getting slightly nervous. I turn to her. "Wait, did you get fired or something?" I blurt out, momentarily forgetting that I should think before I say anything. "Wha—No!" Mina exclaims, before fidgeting with her glasses. "Well, not yet, anyway..." Me and Rose tilt our heads in confusion, so Mina clears her throat to give us the rundown.

"You see, not long ago, a group of archeologists excavated an artifact from Piranha Pit. Only, it wasn’t just any old artifact..." She rummages through her bag, and pulls out a picture of said artifact. "It was an artifact confirming the existence of the legendary Splat Tim!" I stare at the photo in awe, but Rose has a confused expression on her face. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but who's Splat Tim?" She asks. Me and Mina look at her like she's crazy. 

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHO SPLAT TIM IS?!" We both shout in unison. "He's only like, one of the biggest legends in Turf War history!" Mina exclaims. "I heard he once crushed an entire team with an Inkbrush!" I add. Overwhelmed, Rose cuts in. "Okay, okay, I get it! But, what does that have to do with you losing your job?" Mina nervously tugs on one of her sleeves. "Well... The artifact was stolen yesterday." She says, her voice getting a little quieter at the end there. "WHAT?!" I exclaim, fully not expecting to hear this news.

"Mhm. And everyone thinks I’m the one who stole it!" Mina says, her face visibly distressed. Doing what I'm pretty sure best friends do, I put my hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down. "Don't worry, Mina. I'll help you find it." I say. She turns my way, her face in (apparent) disbelief. "Y-you will?" She asks. "Of course!" I say, shaking her shoulder slightly. "That's what friends are for, right?"

Rose then comes up behind us, putting her hands on both of our shoulders. "I’ll come too." She says, a determined look on her face.

With a renewed sense of vigor, Mina then turns to the both of us. "Well, what are we waiting for, then?" She says, starting towards Shellendorf Institute. I nod to Rose, and follow behind, with Rose lagging behind yet again.

Though in the moment, I can't help but feel like we're being watched…

Eh, I’m sure it’s nothing.

[thelegendofsplattim]

Chapter 1: Reunion

These past few days have been absolutely insane. There was this big laser statue thing that popped up in the distance, aimed right at us, and we were all ushered by these official-looking guys into a bunch of flying trucks so we could evacuate the city. Fortunately, the threat was taken care of, and we were able to go back to our normal lives, but it was still a good scare nonetheless.

I sat there at a table in front of the Shoal, practically on the verge of passing out. Could you blame me? I spent my whole day training and doing a few Ranked Battles. By this point, with the sky a beautiful hybrid of orange and blue, I was exhausted. My body wanted more than anything to just fall asleep right then and there, (and to be honest, I almost did,) but I still had to stay awake; at least until I got home.

Just then, though, my phone went off, the ringtone of Off The Hook’s ‘Acid Hues’ breaking the silence of the square in these evening hours.

Not even bothering to look at the number, I answer the phone, with one of my signature snarky responses at the ready.

“Inkopolis Pest Control, We spray, You pay.” I say to whoever is on the other line, doing my best customer service impression. “Hey, sis.” Says the person on the other line, immediately snapping me out of my attitude. “Oh, uh, Rose! I wasn’t expecting you to call again so soon!” I say, in my normal voice this time. “Neither was I, but I got a break and figured I’d call.” Says my big sister, Rose, on the other line. She’s a soldier in the military, (no, not the Squidbeak Splatoon, whatever would give you that idea?) so I don’t usually see her often. We try and talk on the phone as much as we can, but our different (and very tight) schedules meant that it was still a rarity for us to talk at all.

“Figured. So, how are things over at the base?” I ask. Rose chuckles a bit. “They’re… fine. The commander’s got us working our tentacles off, trying to get us ready for the “Octarian invasion”.” She says, and though I can’t see her, I can practically hear the air-quotes around “Octarian invasion”. “Honestly though, it just makes me wish I was back home with you instead.” She says, her voice trailing off. “Speaking of which… when are you coming back?” I ask, though I already know the answer. “Not anytime soon, I’m afraid.” She says. “I’ve still got a ton to do.” I sigh, trying not to make the disappointment in my voice too noticeable, but Rose seems to notice anyway.

“Look, I’ve gotta go, but I’ll tell you what: next time I have some time to spare, I’ll call you first thing.” She offers. “Deal?” I breathe a sigh of defeat, knowing that despite me wishing she could come home, this’ll be the closest I’ll ever get to ever seeing her again. “...Deal.” I respond, still trying to sound positive. “Cool. Love you!” Rose says, cheering me up a little. “Love you too, sis.” I say. We say our goodbyes and hang up our phones, and now I’m back to… sitting around, wondering what to do. By now, twilight was quickly approaching; the neon lights of Inkopolis Square illuminating the soon-to-be night sky.

“I guess I’ll just go home or something…” I mutter to myself. “It’s not like there’s much to do out here at night.” I get up and gather my things, but then I notice something off in the distance. Or rather, someone.

She was wearing a Custom Painted F-3, a pair of Chocolate Dakroniks, and what looked like an old captain’s hat. Her skin tone was the same as mine, being dark, but a bit on the lighter side, and she had bright orange eyes. She also had her hair done up with one long tentacle on her left side, going down to about her waist.

But seeing that outfit, those eyes, and more importantly, the very specific way that she waved to some nearby jellyfish… it couldn’t be.

And yet, it totally was.

“Rose!” I shout, running to my sister and tackling her in a hug. “Woah, hey there, Scarlet!” She responds, almost falling over from my aggressive hug. (Also, yes, my name is Scarlet.)

“Did ya miss me?” She asks. “Did I?” I respond, making it clear that, yeah, I did. A lot. Though, I had to wonder…

“Wait, what are you doing here?” I ask. “I thought you still had stuff to do at the base!” Rose laughs, and noogies me on the head. “I was messing with you!” She says. “If I told you, it wouldn’t have been a surprise!”

I cross my arms. “You know I hate surprises…” I mutter. “Sure, sure, but you gotta admit, as far as surprises go, this was a pretty good one, right?” She says. I roll my eyes. “I guess…”

“Aaaaanyway…” Says Rose, changing the subject. “Got anything cool you wanna show me?” “You bet!” I say, before noticing the night sky. “...But all the places I wanted to take you to are probably closed.” Rose shrugs it off. “So? We can always go tomorrow.” “I mean, yeah, but… Just how long are you staying?” I ask. “Well, I may or may not have the entire rest of the month before they call me back…” she says, all nonchalantly, as if this wasn’t the longest amount of time we’d seen each other in person since I was 5. And I’m 14 now. “Wait, seriously?!” I kind of ask and exclaim at the same time, having been taken aback by this news. Rose nods, with possibly the most smug look I have ever seen on her face, and for that, I tackle-hug her all over again.

“We should probably get going, y’know.” She says, her voice a little muffled from my hug. “It’s getting late.” I pull back from my hug, realizing what that meant. “Oh cod, grandma’s probably worried sick about me right now!” I say, going into my squid form, ready to Super Jump back home. Rose gets into Super Jump position as well. “Oh yeah, one more thing.” She says. I look at her confusedly for a second, before she slaps me on the back with one of her tentacles. “Tag, you’re it!” She says, already Super Jumping away. “What th—CLAMMIT, ROSE!” I shout back, Super Jumping after her; our tiny, squid-shaped silhouettes fading into the night sky.

[thelegendofsplattim]

Prologue: Realization

So, you all know who Splat Tim is, right? I mean, he's one of the greatest legends in all of Inkopolis, of course you know who he is. You know, he's the 'he does it' guy, and all that.

But have you ever wondered what it was he actually... y'know, did? Well, after a friend and I found a death threat to him and basically his entire family, I sure did.

So, let me take a moment to tell you the story of how me and my friends found out the legend... of Splat Tim.