Michael quickly ducked under a shot from an enemy. He dashed across the field, snaking back and forth. When he got close enough he jumped down into a slide, effortlessly moving across his own ink. Knocking the opponent down he spun around and splatted them with his Octoshot Replica. He shot a few rounds of ink for a path up the ramp ahead before jumping into the ink and swimming ahead. He reached the middle zone of Blackbelly Skatepark, where his teammates were fending off the enemy team from reaching their spawn.

Angela patrolled the base of the arena's spire, fending off a squid approaching with a Krak-On Roller. He approached with a jump from her side and swung down the monstrous weapon. She ducked under just in time for her to just barely hang on. She shot twice with her .52 Gal and took down the boy. She dived into her ink to speed up the recovery from the ink she had been struck with. She threw down a Splash Wall while scaling the spire to guard its side from any enemy fire.

She breached out next to Randy, who was standing atop the tower with his Heavy Splatling revved. "How're things lookin'?" he asked, keeping his gaze ahead of him.

"It's like they've all got quick respawn abilities, you splat one and another one's already respawned!"

Their HUDs displayed that one of their previously held Splat Zones had been taken over. Randy hopped to the edge and unleashed the fire from his Splatling down at the unsuspecting enemies below. He splatted one, but the other jumped into the side of the spire covered in his ink. Randy hopped back, prepared to fire more volleys of ink at them, when the enemy jumped up a considerable distance from where Randy was aiming.

"Oh bloody he-!" He yelled out before being swiftly splatted by a Splattershot Jr. Angela was taken aback and was about to be sent into respawn as well. The enemy burst into ink out of the blue. Angela looked to her side and saw her sniper, Shelly, standing up from a crouched position. She flashed Angela a hasty thumbs-up before jumping off her ledge and diving into her ink. Angela was relieved, she could always count on Shelly to get the team out of tight spots like that.

Michael ran to the left of the spire, inking through the section engorged with ramps. He was confronted by a Suction Bomb from above. He stumbled back before taking a deep breath and swimming right past the bomb. It exploded, slightly covering him in ink. The one that had thrown the bomb jumped from the catwalks above, twisted in the air and slammed his roller right on top of Michael, splatting him.

Michael stomped his foot on the bright floor beneath him. It rippled at the force, but continued to transport him through respawn. Glancing to his HUD, he had to stop himself from doing the same to the equally bright walls around him. "Dammit! They took both our zones!"

"Great observation." Said a monotonous voice behind him. It was Shelly.

"They got you too!?" Michael was exasperated. Shelly wasn't easily splatted. She replied with a simple nod.

Michael was already running when he respawned, straight towards the spire. He was suddenly jerked to the side. Shelly had grabbed his arm and was pulling him towards the right of their spawn, where Randy was firing forward behind a Splash Wall. Shelly let go and ran right past Michael, swimming up the side of a wall and climbing to the grated platforms above. She quickly took aim and was charging her E-Liter. Moving in to support Randy, Michael chucked a Suction Bomb over the wall. It was straight in the path for an unfortunate Inkling, who the Suction Bomb stuck to. His face was covered, and he frantically ran around firing randomly before being splatted by the bomb's explosion.

"Nice." Randy said as he quickly fist-bumped Michael. They both returned to defending their spawn.

In the commotion caused by the Inkling splatted by Michael's bomb, Shelly was able to pick off one more Inkling. She slipped through the platform and landed on the ground below.

Looking around, Randy un-revved his Splatling and moved towards the spire. "Yo Michael, go ink the ground for Shelly then meet me at the top of the spire!"

Michael complied and accompanied Shelly in the short distance they had to move through. Shelly nodded to him in thanks as she climbed up to her sniping spot. Michael moved forward, confident in the cover Shelly's sniping provided. Michael found the zone he passed partially covered in his ink. He finished the job before swimming up to the top of the spire. Randy was there, and when he noticed Michael he pointed to the edge ahead of them. Michael understood and sprinted to the drop, leaping off and tossing a Suction Bomb right behind him, which latched onto the corner of the spire. Taking the bait, an inkling confidently leapt out of his ink. Landing, Michael spun around and splatted him in three easy shots. The bomb detonated, splattering ink on the spire's side. Michael cautiously moved towards the enemy spawn, seeing that the second zone had been reclaimed.

Capturing the second zone back, Angela quickly dove down into her ink, taking the ramped path towards the enemy spawn. She had noticed Michael moving through the center road, and decided to take any Inklings pre-occupied with him by surprise. Surely enough, there was one inkling firing forward, and a second just moving out of respawn. Angela grinned, stealthily swimming towards the two. Angela fired at the freshly respawned, taking her down quickly. The first one had gotten caught in the burst of ink caused by her, and was then quickly splatted by Michael.

Randy was defending spire from the Splattershot Jr. from before, who was constantly diving and rising out from his ink. He was moving faster than Randy could track. Shelly, after a few missed shots, had enough of his shenanigans and threw a Burst Bomb straight at him, knocking him off-balance. Randy directed his barrage of ink at him, tearing through the inkling and splatting him. Randy was then caught off-guard by a Splat Bomb the boy had volleyed at him right before being splatted. Randy slipped back, and the bomb conked him right on the head, detonating and splatting him once more.

Shelly watched as Angela and Michael, becoming overwhelmed by the quickly respawning enemies, retreated back towards the spire. Angela was caught from behind by a roller. She kicked Michael out of the way, being caught in the ink flung at her. Michael retreated further, watching in dismay as the zones were once again under enemy control. Shelly was forced into retreat as well, overwhelmed by the no-doubt countless bombs thrown by salty squids. She and Michael re-grouped near their spawn right as Angela and Randy were back in action. Randy stayed back, but Angela slowly stepped forward, past Michael and Shelly.

Suddenly taken over by rage, Angela yelled. "AH'VE HAD IT WITH THIS STUPID BACK 'N' FORTH!" She spun her weapon in her hand and quickly fired at the incoming enemies, splatting two in mere seconds. She hopped back, chucking a Splash Wall in her spot. Landing, she dived down into her ink. Flanking around the Splash Wall, she jumped out and splatted the last two enemies. She knew they were quickly on their way back from respawn. Looking back and noticing Shelly's glowing hair, she called to the sniper.

"SHELLY! ECHOLOCATOR!"

She quickly hit a button on her E-Liter, sending out signals that tracked and planted themselves on all the enemies. They had already respawned. As if fueled by just how utterly fed-up she was, Angela's hair began rippling and glowing just as Shelly's had. Mashing a button on her .52 Gal, Angela's pulled out a Killer Wail, slamming it onto the ground in front of her. "GO FORWARD NOW!" She commanded her team, who complied. When they passed, she unleashed the massive speaker, sending a gargantuan blast of sound across the stage. Her HUD displayed that she had splatted the entire enemy team.

Michael and his team ran ahead, reclaiming both zones on the map. Checking his HUD, the team's timer displayed that there were 30 more seconds remaining for their victory, and 2 for their enemies. His heart feeling like it was going to burst, Michael climbed to the top of the spire and was joined by Randy, Shelly, and Angela. The four of them bunched up on the spire's peak, hoping their height advantage would suffice to let them defend their zones.

Their timer now read 23 seconds.

Michael and Randy fired upon the Inklings who swarmed the base of the tower. They firstly prioritized reclaiming the zones, but quickly started going straight for the group instead. Angela took note and slammed a Splash Wall down in front of the two. Randy returned the favor and threw down his own Splash Wall in front of her and Shelly. Protected from two sides, the only way the enemies had to go were now the un-sloped sides.

Their timer now read 14 seconds.

Shelly was precisely throwing Burst Bombs, some even over her shoulder. One dropped right on top of an Inkling who was climbing the spire, sending him barreling down onto another who was following the same motions. The two were quickly dispatched by Michael and Randy. Angela supported by firing at those struck by Burst Bombs, forming a one-two combo with Shelly. Along with offense, Shelly used the bombs to reclaim small bits of the zones, keeping them from full enemy control.

Their timer now read 6 seconds.

To their surprise, a Suction Bomb rose up from the base of the spire, planting itself firmly between the four of them.

"SUCTION BOMB!" The whole team barreled off the top of the spire.

The game was now in Overtime.

During the fall, the one who had tossed the Suction Bomb jumped out and slammed Angela into the wall with his roller. As he landed, he was quickly splatted with Shelly's own one-two combo of a Burst Bomb and a rapid shot from her E-Liter. Attempting to return to the spire's top, she was suddenly pulled away by the force of an Inkzooka.

Noticing the fire, Randy revved his Splatling and fired in the Inkzooka's direction, splatting her in mere seconds. The same Splattershot Jr. as before returned the favor with his own barrage of ink, splatting Randy as soon as his weapon stopped firing. He was not aware of Michael's Suction Bomb, however, and was splatted almost instantly after.

Michael was fired upon by a Tentatek Splattershot. He quickly swam out of the way. Looking as his HUD, he noticed that a zone had been put into neutral possession just before the game went into Overtime. And it was the zone that was being fired upon.

Michael's instinct took over. He jumped and fired at the zone, fighting to reclaim it amidst the inkling's own fire. He had little time left, as the enemies' teammates were sure to respawn soon.

A strange fire ignited in Michael as he ceased fire on the zone and instead threw himself at the opponent. They fired upon him, hitting two shots. Michael dove down and began to snake left and right. When it seemed like he had learnt the pattern, Michael put a delay on his turning. This allowed Michael ample time to get close.

Breaching the ink, Michael volleyed over to the opponent's side of the ink. His feet felt of solid iron, enveloped by the rejecting enemy ink. He trudged through, carrying another bomb in his hand. As he inched closer, the enemy noticed him and turned.

But it was too late. Michael was close enough.

The Suction Bomb went off in his hand. Its wave of ink destroyed the enemy.

The weight on his feet lifted, Michael swam towards the zone and fired upon it.

In his peripheral vision, Michael saw the form of the Inkling with the roller jump overhead. He swung down his roller…

And the horn sounded.

Michael had not been splatted.

Looking around, the zone had been reclaimed, and he was not affected by the opposing ink around him.

The judge of all Splat Battles, Judd, appeared to give the matches results. Preforming a small, admittedly adorable dance, Judd raised up the flag for the winning team.

Michael's team.

"MEOW! (The winner is the GREEN TEAM!)" Exclaimed the feline.

The atmosphere immediately settled down. Michael's adrenaline took a good while to settle back to normal amounts. Michael couldn't immediately take in the fact that his team had just won. At least not until he heard an unmistakable, southern-accented cheer behind him.

"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEE!" Cried Angela as she pulled Michael into a tight and unimaginably painful bear hug. "I've seen a lot of insane things in battles, but that… THAT was somethin'! You really gave that guy a run for his money, Mikey!"

In a surge of incredible pain, Michael was barely to choke out a coherent sentence. "If we had bones I think you would've broken some just now."

Angela blushed in embarrassment and let him go.

Shelly simply gave Michael a thumbs up.

Randy, in stark contrast, was howling with laughter. "Oh man! That guy's never gonna live THAT one down! He just up and let you walk right at him! Man if that wasn't a ballsy move then I don't know what the hell is! Where'd you even think of that?"

Michael was unsure what to say. "It just sorta… came to me, I guess. I mean, I'm sure you guys of all people know where my experience comes from. So I kinda had to come up with plans on the fly a lot in that… profession."

Angela chuckled. "Well, it don't matter where you got it from, it still worked wonders. Nice job, Mikey." She gave him a rather forceful pat on the back, accidentally knocking the already sore Michael straight into the concrete below.

Both teams were paid their due cash and battle experience and were sent off back to the battle lobby in Inkopolis Plaza.

"After that battle, I don't think we're gonna pull off anythin' like that for a while. Whaddya guys say I make y'all some food when we get home?"

"You kidding me, Ange? Last time you made me food I almost lost an arm!"

"Hey, that wasn't my fault! I'm tellin' you, that store's cauliflower had something wrong with it."

"More like your taste in food was what was wrong."

"You wanna start somethin' Randy? 'Cause you know I ain't afraid to fight back. Don't make me find a bee's hive just for this."

Randy immediately cringed at the mention of bees. "Nope nope nope! You are not bringing bees near me again, no way no how! If I catch you bringin' a hive anywhere near the house I'm moving out."

Angela laughed. "Take it easy, Randy, I'm just playin' with ya'. I'm not stupid enough to bring a bee's nest near the house."

"Good." He sighed in relief.

"Besides, I'd use a wasp's nest instead." Angela smirked as she saw Randy's entire body lose all its color. He made a small, pained wheeze before going back to normal.

Amidst the bickering Michael called back to them. "Hey guys which do you like better on pizza, mushrooms or anchovies?"

In unison, both Angela and Randy said "Mushrooms, why?"

"Because Shelly was getting tired of your arguing and is ordering some pizzas for us."

Right on cue, Shelly thanked the squid on the other end of the phone and hung up.

"Well, pizza works too, I guess." Angela said in a sheepish tone.

"Look, all I'm trying to say is that mayonnaise should not be used that way. It's just wrong. Especially for the poor bird."

"Alright Randy, I get it." Angela fitted her key into the house's door.

Opening the door, the team's ears were assaulted by extremely loud snoring. Glancing to the table the perpetrator was a pale inkling with her head resting on her arm. A long stream of drool flowed from her mouth to the floor.

"Sis, wake up." Michael shook the inkling awake. She jumped in her seat and groggily looked around.

"Whuh-? Oh." She yawned and scratched her back. "Hey Michael. Back so soon?"

"We've been gone the entire afternoon."

Noticing the redish orange light flooding in from the window, she looked to the clock. "Aw man, I slept for six hours!? Hm. Not bad." She noticed Angela crouched low wiping up the blue inky saliva from the floor.

"Honestly Micheline, ya' gotta learn to sleep with yer mouth shut."

Ignoring the remark Michael addressed his sister. "Sis you gotta stop staying up so late. Unless you're building something like a time machine or a wormhole maker thingy there's not a single reason for you to stay up all night."

"Wh- Time machine? Wormholes? C'mon Michael, everyone knows those aren't possible." She put a hand to her chin. "Though maybe with how space time and all that works, we could fold space in on itself and go to a different time. Heck, if that's possible then wormholes aren't out of the question either..." Pausing, she turned towards a sheet of lined paper resting on the table. "Hm… I have to do some calculations…"

Michael sighed. He knew that 'calculations' meant hours, probably even days of secluded work when it came to his sister. Once she got into it, it was as though she had been sucked in by a vacuum. She probably would've compared it to a black hole or a 'neutron star', whatever that was. He left her alone to her work.

For the rest of the day, the team mostly lazed around. Their pizzas arrived soon after getting home and they decided to just sit by the TV and watch whatever came on. It was only at around 7 PM that somebody noticed something was weird.

"Hey, where's Junko?"

As if on cue the door to the house was opened and in Junko walked. She stripped off a long coat and beanie that fit more when worn by a boy than by her, revealing the figure and hair of an Octoling. Making a very audible groan she flopped ungracefully onto the couch, landing next to Michael. Her figure bent uncomfortably, with her legs hanging off the side of the couch.

"Any luck with the job hunting?" Angela queried, even though she knew the answer.

"No. Got rejected again on the grounds of "cultural difference" in the staff or whatever. Buncha racist jerks."

Life was somewhat hard for Octolings in Inkopolis, they had only all been given official citizenship 6 months ago, and many Inklings were naturally still adverse to the idea of living with those they held as mortal enemies for their entire lives. Junko was no exception, she had been rejected from no less than 20 jobs in only the past few weeks. No matter how professional she made herself look, she simply couldn't land a job anywhere.

"Well, hey, I'm sure you'll find a job sooner or later. It's not like everyone who runs businesses hate Octolings." Michael attempted to give her a reassuring pat on the head, but it ended up just being really awkward. She gave him a weird look. "S-Sorry. But, look, maybe you could hold off on trying to get a job for a while, just cool off with some Turf Wars, yeah?"

Despite the mounting disappointment, Junko was able to give a slight smile. "Yeah, I guess. Would help to get my mind off of it." She turned herself to sit upright. "So, what're we watchin'?"

"Ah it's just some old movie. Pizza?" Angela passed one of the pizza boxes to Junko. She was about to take it when something exploded in the house's hallway. Looking back, the team saw Micheline sliding on her socks out of her room.

"I GOT IT! I GOT I-!" She slammed right into a closed door. Rebounding she ran into the living room, sliding too far and flipping over the couch and falling headfirst into the table. She twitched for a second then jumped back up to her feet, showing a huge purple bruise on her face. Barely being affected by it, she started excitedly talking again. "YOU GUYS! I FIGURED IT OUT! IT'S SO SIMPLE HOW DID I NEVER THINK OF THIS!? THIS IS GONNA CHANGE THE SCIENTIFIC WORLD!"

"Whoa whoa whoa, okay. One, stop screaming. Two, what did you find out?" Michael asked.

"Time travel's possible! My hypothesis was correct! We can fold space in on itself!"

"Really? How do we do it?"

"Absolutely no idea!" The room got a sudden air of disappointment hanging in it. "But but but! That doesn't mean it's impossible! We'd just need a lot of energy to do it."

"So… How do we get the energy?"

"Oh, well it's quite simple really all, we need to do is…" She paused. "Do I have a bruise on my face?" Michael gave a slow nod. "Huh, that'd explain why I'm blacking out." She immediately slammed face-first into the floor. The room was silent for a few minutes.

"Should we help her out?" Michael asked.

"It would probably be better if we just let her sleep." Shelly said, resuming to watch the TV. The rest of the team let out slight words of agreement before returning to the movie themselves.

After Micheline recovered from her fainting and the movie ended everyone decided to call it a night. Michael was about to climb into bed when he was stopped by his roommate Shelly. "Hey, Michael, you got a minute?"

"Well I was about to go to sleep but sure." He went over to where Shelly was sitting, and took a place she scooted from. He glanced at the laptop screen in front of the two.

"Have you heard of the Battle League before?" She asked.

"No, not really. Why?"

"It's a big establishment that's meant to rank the top players in the world. Here's the current rankings." She moved her finger across the screen while scrolling. "At the top is the Orange team here in Inkopolis. Most of the top teams live here in Inkopolis, actually, because it's such a big hotspot for battling."

"Is our team on this list?"

"Yes. Angela registered us a few months before you joined." Shelly typed in 'Angela' into the website's search engine and scrolled through a few teams with members of the same name, before stopping on theirs, named 'Squid Pro Quo'. Michael groaned at the physically painful pun but he looked at the team's profile anyways. According to the website, their team was ranked 562nd in the world.

"So, why're you showing me this?"

"Because I've noticed that we've gone into a slump with our battling. That last battle today wasn't our best performance. Here, look at our ranking history." Scrolling down, the site showed that not even a month earlier the team was at the staggering rank of 138th, a month before that they were sitting, amazingly, at 43rd.

"So… what do you suggest?"

"I want us to get back into shape, we haven't been battling as much anymore, and we need to fix that. What I'm suggesting is that you and I start battling more often. After that, we can help Randy and Angela get back into battling as well."

"Just the two of us?"

"Yes."

"Well, uh, I'll have to think about it, Shell. I mean I just thought we were doing just fine with battling."

"It's just a suggestion, I'm not forcing you into it."

"I know, but… Ah forget it, I'll think about it tomorrow. Now's not the right time for me to be thinking." He slid off the bed and trudged over to his own. "I'm getting some sleep, g'night."

"Goodnight."

Despite his words, Michael was still thinking. The idea seemed simple enough, he and Shelly would just battle a bit more and then help Angela and Randy. Then again, he didn't understand why Shelly was so hung up about their ranking. He just battled for fun, not for glory or anything like that.

"Eh, I'll think about it some other time."

Amidst Shelly's continuous typing, he was able to doze off to sleep.

So, uh, hey guys. Been a while since I posted something, huh?

So I owe you an explanation. Simply put, I disliked the original version of this story, Electric Splataloo 2. I feel like it was going nowhere, and I also thought that the writing was incredibly stale. I was about to give up on it when I thought to simply redo it from the beginning. Change things like spicing up the humor, making the characters just a bit more distinct, and also omissions of some unnecessary chapters. So welcome to Electric Splataloo Gaiden, a better, and hopefully more engaging revision of Electric Splataloo 2. I hope you guys don't mind me starting this story again from scratch.

Anyways, I'll be working on the chapters for this story off and on, hopefully I'll actually hold up my promise this time to get the next chapter out relatively soon.