Prologue
The city of Inkopolis: home to cool fashion, colored ink, sports, but most of all, the civilians; the Inklings. They like to keep cool, but love their city's biggest sports arena, most commonly known as the Splat Zone. Each week they host a game of four against four battles, that's when the fun starts. To win, one team has to gain more turf and points for performance than the other. When one team wins, they get a special prize. Basically, it's splat or be splatted. But today, Inkopolis is going to be handling more than it can chew.
On the streets, one particular Inkling was enjoying himself, without a care in the world. His blue eyes shined from the sun, his blue hair blowing in the wind as he skated across street. His white jacket blew wild as sped by everyone close by. He saw a ramp, therefore seeing an opportunity. Smirking, he zoomed to the ramp to jump and land on the next. As soon as he made the jump, he turned into a squid, spinning in the air, and changed back into his humanoid form as soon as he landed. He stopped in front of an ally, kicked up and trapped his skateboard, then entered, only find himself at a locked door. The door was a slide open and had a sliding peephole. When the peephole opened it revealed two emerald green eyes.
"What's the password?" The emerald-eyed Inkling spoke.
"Eight colors; one blue." The blue Inkling answered before the peephole shut. The door slowly opened a crack, but it was large enough to let him in. "Thanks, Thomas."
"Anytime, Pete." The emerald Inkling, Thomas, replied before shutting the door behind him. Thomas wore glasses, future like gear and a backwards hat.
The room that they were in was inked in different shades of colors (lime green, emerald, teal, blue, orange, yellow-orange, magenta, and purple) with different posters, trophies, gear and with eight chairs and a large table. This was the secret hub of the Neon Council: a secret group made up of the eight best players in each color category. Once a month, they discuss about future tournaments coming, how their day was or just to just blow off some steam, play video games. They usually take it easy on each other during monthly tournaments, but this time, things were about get rough.
Once Pete sat down at the table, he noticed that the rest of the council, were already there. There was moment of silence between everyone, making it too quiet. It was an orange haired girl with headphones who broke the silence.
"So, is everyone ready for this?" She asked the council, receiving nods as an answer.
"That's right, Pepper." A lime green haired girl with a snowcap said. "This is going to be our biggest challenge yet."
"In a few weeks, the annual Splat Striker Tournament will commence," said a purple haired boy with a laptop and a Pac-Man shirt, "and we will not hold back for whoever wins the trophy, Alice."
"You're correct as usual, Vlad." Thomas commented. "But remember, no matter what happens, we will always remain friends."
"Though that's true, Thomas, my team has no intention of losing this year." A pink haired girl with heart shaped gear added. "We will win this, or my name isn't Carla."
"Yeah, right." A yellowish orange haired girl with a cowgirl outfit scoffed. "That trophy rightfully belongs to Stacy the Roller and the yellows!"
"Calm your tentacles, Stacy." Pete said. "We still have plenty of time before the tournament even starts. Don't we, Tom?"
"Eeyup." The Teal haired boy, Tom, with a motocross getup, responded.
"Pete's right. We should spend more time acting a bit more friendly towards each other." Pepper suggested. "Agreed?"
"Agreed." Everyone accepted the suggestion.
"Now let's focus on-" Pepper continued before being immediately cut off from a glow from the center of the table.
The glow was so bright, it nearly blinded everyone in the room. The brightness dialed down a bit, but it was enough for the council to see. It then into a map; but not just any map; a universal map showing the locations of different stars and planets.
"Whoa." Stacy said in awe.
"What is this?" Alice said.
"It appears to be some kind of map." Vlad spoke up.
"Yeah, but… why is it here?" Pete said.
"I can answer that…"
The Inklings jumped at a disembodied voice. Whatever or whoever it was, it sounded like it came from the center of the table.
"Who said that…? Pete suspiciously asked.
"I did…" The voice spoke once more before a hologram of an adult Inklings face appeared. "I am AIIU; the Artificial Intelligent Inkling Unit."
"Whoa… wait a minute. An artificial consciousness?" Thomas said in disbelief. "How is that even possible?"
"No time for questions. Right now, we need your assistance." AIIU said.
"We?" Carla tilted her head. "What you mean 'we'?"
"I'll explain later, but first, my creator wanted me to find you, so I could warn you." AIIU explained.
"Warn… us?" Tom jumped in. "Warn us about what, mate?"
AIIU then turned into a humanoid with a see-through body before pulling up some sort of screens. "The Octarians." The holo-screens then showed armies of octopus-like creatures. Some of them looked like tentacles, others looked like machines. "A hundred years ago, the Inklings and Octarians were at war over the world. The Octarians wished to take control of our beloved planet; conquering, destroying, corrupting and enslaving anyone or anything that gets in their path. The Inklings however, wished to preserve the worlds ink, live in harmony, become free from the Octarians corruption. Each side was so powerful, neither could defeat the other nor claim their turf."
"WAIT A SEC!" Pete exclaimed. " If each side were evenly matched, how did our kind defeat the enemy?"
"That's just it, we weren't evenly matched for long." AIIU lowered his head while the council just sat/stood in silence. "Their first tyrant of a king, Octavius, found a way to corrupt ink, the Nega-Splattanium Crystal. Using it's negative energy, Octavius created unholy beasts of ink that can change form at will, called Inkliers. Because of his arrogance, the Inklings nearly lost the war."
"But how did we win?" Pete repeated.
"Ten warriors, one from each Inkling color faction, mysteriously appeared at the grand temple of Ink." AIIU continued. "Once they arrived, they prayed to gods for guidance. They answered their calls by granting them each a power of the ten colors; the power of the Kraken. Because of this new power, the ten warriors destroyed the Nega-Splattanium Crystal along with its creations, as well as forcing the Octarians underground, never to be seen again, thus winning the war."
"But how are they a threat now? They were sealed away." Vlad said.
"Not all of them." AIIU replied, receiving confused yet shocked looks from the council. "A few went into hiding, but now they're done doing so and looking for the ten keys that could unseal the gate that holds the Octarians back."
"But what does that have to do with us?" Pepper jumped in.
"You are all descendants to the ten warriors." AIIU explained once more. "Only you can defeat the Octarians and save our world."
"Yeah… but there's just one problem; there are eight of us and last time I checked, two of those ten colors went extinct long ago!" Stacy snapped.
"Not true," AIIU replied before bringing up the universal map and zooming into one particular galaxy, on one peculiar planet, "the two lost colors are still, how you say 'up and running'. When the war ended, the two warriors went to this world to bring back their civilizations. The cyan warrior already had a daughter, so he would have to wait until she was older. His brother, the red warrior, however, fell in love with a human and had a son, therefore creating the first Human-Inkling hybrid to ever exist."
Everyone just stared at each other in confusion before echoing. "Human?"
"No time to explain. I must bring these children to our world, so they will help us in your fight." AIIU replied.
"But how will they get here?" Pepper asked.
"When they become 14 years old, the probes I sent their fathers with will activate." AIIU answered. "Once they find the probes, a message from their fathers will initiate. When the message ends a portal to our world will activate, sending them here."
"But are we going to do until then. I hate waiting!" Stacy slammed her fist onto the table. She was an impatient girl, so keeping her temper in check was next to impossible. Everyone in the council found that out the hard way in fifth grade.
"STACY! Let him explain, mate!" Tom exclaimed, which rarely happens. He was usually shy and mute, and he usually speaks one to ten words per time spoke.
"Until the children arrive, you will meet up with this man," AIIU showed picture of a crusty old man that appeared to be a ships captain, "Cap'n Cuttlefish."
"That old geezer who appears almost everyday from the sinkhole then disappears as quickly as he arrived?" Alice asked with a hint of surprise.
"Alice, please!" Pepper snapped. "How will he help us AIIU?"
"You'll find out when you find him and when you do, he'll ask you a riddle. The answer: the ten color tribes." AIIU replied. "Now if you excuse me, I must be on my way." With that, AIIU left as mysteriously as he arrived.
"Did he just bail on us?" Pete said.