Authors Note: I hope you all enjoy, this is my first attempt at a one shot. Have a good day, and take care!
It was a normal morning in Inkopolis, one of the only few cities on this planet. Thousands of years ago, earth had been covered in a massive flooding. When some of the water started retracting, life had begun to evolve. Squids had evolved to adapt to land and had become inklings. All inklings had the ability to change from their inkling to their squid form at will, which was good for the most popular sport in all of Inkopolis, turf wars, which most inklings participated to become fresh and for fun, and most didn't care if they win or lose.
Two of the most popular celebrities were the two that leaded the turf war news, and were the most famous stars in existence. The Squid Sisters, Callie and Marie, who were a pair of cousins, were not only the hosts of a famous news show that always shared updates and news, but were also actors and singers. Their music was the main thing they were well known for. Each CD album they released would become platinum sellers within a couple of months' time. The Squid Sisters were doing their usual routine today at the studio they worked at.
"…and that's why it's not safe to have ink drinking contests," Callie finished a news report about the risks to drinking too much ink. She was an inkling with big black tentacles that had a pink tinge at the end that were tied up into a bow that were very long, nearly to her feet. She was wearing a black shirt with pink on the front of it in diamond shapes with a pink hat on her head. Callie was the more happy go lucky of the Squid Sisters.
"Let's hope those poor squids get better soon," Marie spoke up, with white tentacles that had a green tinge at the end that were done up into a bow, behind her head and facing right in a fancy style. She was wearing a black dress with green diamond on it. Marie was the more laid back of the two of them, but she knew when to be serious when she had to be.
"Staaay fresh!" they both said in unison as they both did their pose together. Afterwards, both cameras were turned off. The two always had a busy schedule, that the only way to get any free time was to spend a whole day prerecording reports and other forms of news, not that their station minded at all. They were the two only stars that did not let their money and popularity corrupt their minds into acting selfish and greedy. Instead, they were quite nice to their fans and helped out others a lot. With their news report done, the two stepped off from the stage they normally stood on.
"You two did great as usual," they heard one of the two cameraman. He had short black tentacles with a yellow tinge at the end, tied up and hanging on the side of his head. He was wearing a white bubble vest and a pair of leather gloves on his hands that looked durable enough to withstand a lot of abuse.
"Thanks, Agent 3," Marie said as her cousin smiled. This was Coal, alternatively known as Agent 3. Callie and Marie were Agents 1 and 2. Their friend here was a typical squid kid. A few months back he had accidentally taken a tumble down into a pipe at the main plaza where he had wound up in Octo Valley and ran into the Squid Sisters' grandfather, Captain Cuttlefish. He had the good luck or misfortune to have gotten tangled up into a secret war between octolings and inklings. The octopi and squids had fought in the great turf war decades ago that inklings had won. However, the octoling leader had a grudge that he had to see through for revenge, and he used music to brainwash all octolings to do his bidding and serve in his army. The three agents had defeated them, and thus no one had seen any sign of the octarians in Octo Valley since then.
"I have a name you know," Coal reminded her. Sadly they weren't even agents anymore at this point, yet Marie insisted on referring to him by his codename.
"Sorry, Coal, she's just used to it. Why are you still wearing those gloves though?" Callie had to ask. He always wore these same leather gloves ever since they had first met. He gained a nervous grin, seeming sheepish to speak.
"Err… it's kind of my dream to have a motorcycle one day. You know, when I can drive," the black inkling answered truthfully. He was only fourteen and a half years old. The Squid Sisters were both seventeen themselves, yet they were his best friends. They both begun laughing at his comment a little. Callie however had no position to judge him over it. She had failed her driver's test several times and Marie preferred to walk everywhere she went, though she did have a driver's license, not that she told her dear cousin about that, but she figured it was better to have it ready in case they ever needed a driver in an emergency.
"Well, I think it's a cute dream… maybe when I get a car and a driver's license, we can race!" Callie happily exclaimed. Marie did not like the look on the two inklings' faces. Once they were done talking, Coal went off to go edit the footage. His usual day required him recording and editing the recorded footage with the help of the other cameraman. The Squid Sisters were going to take one of their regularly scheduled breaks, the two leaving through a nearby door which led to their dressing room, and closing it behind them.
The dressing room was as average as any other in this studio building. They had their mirror set up with makeup across a counter with two chairs, and different outfits lining one side of the wall, which they never really wore much. When either of them thought about it, they didn't know about each article of clothing. They all had just gradually appeared over time, shortly after they had started working in this studio. There was a small refrigerator off to the side of the room with a cabinet above it. Marie approached it, hungry.
"Callie, can you hand me that ladder?" she requested. She felt short for her age, but her cousin was in the same boat. The two synced up really well together, though their fights could get very volatile if they weren't careful.
"What ladder?" Callie asked. Marie looked behind her, seeing a small ladder beside the black inkling, which had taken her hat off her head and rested it in front of the mirror.
"…that one, right beside you. Please hand it here. I'd like to get our lunch," Marie spoke. The Squid Sister's dining schedule was a bit hard to keep up. Usually they just ate junk food while working. They both were rarely affected by it since they had high metabolisms, but sometimes it was a bit annoying to them.
"Oh! This isn't a ladder, Marie. It's a stepladder," Callie said to her cousin while bringing the ladder over and resting it, so that the white squid could reach the top of the refrigerator and get into the cabinet like she wanted.
"What's the difference?" Marie questioned. This was a back and forth the two of them had quite often.
"A ladder lets you reach high places with a lot of steps up. A stepladder only gives you a few steps up?" Callie spoke the first thing off the top of her head that even she was not that confident in speaking. She watched Marie go to the third step of this ladder and start rummaging through the cabinet.
"So? How about we call them height elevation devices?" Marie asked, wanting to really just stop this whole weird ladder name conversation. That sarcastic retort seemed to be enough to end it. Callie was finding it fun, but nodded, giving up and going over to the nearby couch in the dressing room which she laid down on, using her big tentacles for pillows. She wanted to get some rest while they could. Her cousin pulled out two small bags from the cabinet and tried to look inside them, quickly gaining an angry look across her face.
"Darn it! That's the fifth time this week!" Marie crumpled them into tiny balls and tossed the empty paper bags. They fell to the floor, with no weight in them. The contents had been taken, and it was not the first time this has happened.
"Wait. They got mine, too?" Callie asked upon seeing the paper bags, looking quite saddened by it. She smoothened one of the crumpled bags and looked inside. There was nothing in it but crumbs. For the last week, someone had been stealing the food from the Squid Sisters' private dressing room, and it kept happening. No matter what the food was and where they hid it, there would be nothing left by the time they got to it, even if they kept checking hourly. This mysterious person could always win and thieve the food with no issues.
"Aw… grandpa made me those crab cakes, too," Callie said sadly, just tossing the bags in the trashcan.
"How does this keep happening?!" Marie sighed, rubbing her head, trying to figure this out. They had already informed the studio owner of this going on and they brushed it aside, claiming this was just the Squid Sisters being extremely careless with where they left their food unattended. Her cousin tried to think on this, wanting to help put an end to it, so she decided to think about those who could get into this dressing room, since they locked it whenever they were not inside it.
"Well… aside from me and you, the only ones who have keys to this room are the owner of the studio, the janitor Roger Wilco, as well as the cameramen, Azure and Coal," Callie said, though when spoken aloud, the Squid Sisters both had the same thought in their heads. The first cameraman Azure had been with them for the last few years, and he was completely trustworthy. In fact, he was afraid of coming into their dressing room because he was always terrified of messing something important up. The janitor only came every other day, so he had no way to take their food for a week straight.
"So… you're thinking Coal did it, too?" Marie asked. Her cousin nodded. Once again, the two were synced up quite well and now they both had the same question lingering in their minds.
"What can we do to get him to stop this?" Callie asked. The answer came to them both right afterward.
"Let's prank him!" Callie and Marie said together with big smiles across their faces. He was one of their best friends, but they were growing quite sick of their food being stolen. They had even tried to actively make horrible food. The worst to their ability. A food that was rotten and made with expired ingredients, and it did not work. They had to assume Coal had a stomach able to tolerate anything.
"…you have the best makeup available. Try and make us look a bit paler," Marie said, having an idea.
"Got it," her cousin nodded, going over and getting the makeup required for this, aware this was going to be quite a hard prank to pull off, yet they had a truckload of materials in their dressing room to use for it, and they had a good history of acting behind them, so they hoped to be able to put that to use.
Coal sat by his camera, making sure it was working fully. He had not been one of their cameramen for long, but each day that passed, he felt like he was getting the hang of it, and he felt like it was part of him at this point.
"Azure! We need you in here!" Marie's voice rung out from the dressing room. Azure, who operated camera one, was just another inkling with short light blue tentacles that covered most of his eyes. He was wearing a pink shirt and a baseball cap.
"Am I in trouble…?" Azure muttered, looking to Coal with a very pleading expression, looking terrified of what the Squid Sisters would do to him. The black haired squid shrugged.
"If you get fired, can I get your desk?" Coal asked.
"But I don't have a desk," Azure complained.
"So if you get fired, can you get me a desk then?" Coal asked. Azure ignored him then as he slowly opened the door to the dressing room. Suddenly, two hands grabbed him and yanked him inside, the dressing room door slamming shut behind him.
"Lucky…" Coal muttered, going back to what he was doing, finding that the blue squid was lucky to be locked in a room with the Squid Sisters. Then again, at one point, the former Agent 3 had been trapped in the mouth of a huge robot with Callie and Marie, so in a sense, he had been locked in a prison with them for a few minutes, but they had broken out easily and defeated the octarian war machine. They were fond memories, not the most enjoyable but still fun to recall. After at least five minutes, the other cameraman popped back out from the room.
"How'd it go?" Coal asked, the blue squid sighing in relief.
"They said they might be a little late to the next recording session. They're feeling a little sick, so they want to try and rest a bit longer," Azure explained.
"Alright. Let's take it easy until they're ready," Coal nodded, yawning tiredly, but he was more than happy to have an extra few minutes to their breaks.
"Sorry for the wait," they suddenly heard as the Squid Sisters exited their dressing room. Coal's face focused on his cameras lens, trying to make sure it was all set up and ready to go.
"Don't worry, it's fiiiooohmygosh!" he squealed in shock, seeing the two pale faces of Callie and Marie. They seemed more sapped of their energy than ever. Azure just stood there, wide eyed.
"Ar…are you two alright?!" Coal questioned, coming over to them. He removed one of his leather gloves, feeling their foreheads to check for fever.
"Yeah… I think we just got the flu..." Callie reassured they were alright.
"You don't have fevers… we should cancel the rest of the recording sessions for today," Coal said while putting his glove back on his hand. Marie shook her head.
"It's fine, Coal. This happens to us a lot. Usually it just means there's gonna be a full moon tonight..." Marie reassured, giving some odd excuse about how the phases of the moon affected their physical health.
"Let's get this over with, then. The sooner we're done, the sooner you two can rest," Azure said, and they all agreed, the Squid Sisters getting into usual position.
"You want the teleprompter on or off?" Coal offered.
"On, please," Callie requested. He assumed she was having some trouble with her eyesight, so he turned on the teleprompter, which was ready to give the next news report and their lines if they needed reminders. They began the recording, both cameras rolling on them.
"Hey there, Inkopolis… the Squid Sisters here with our normal news reports this morning…" Callie began, but wound up coughing shortly afterwards, rubbing her eyes. Coal was concerned to see her looking so sore and achy, and it was out of the blue too. They were fine just a little while ago, then suddenly they looked like they had caught a nasty flu, but were missing the fever. He just kept rolling, thankful that this was not a live broadcast but just a prerecording for another day in case they needed it. However, there were a few inklings watching from the outside. There was a huge glass wall after all to let the fans see their favorite duo in action. They looked concerned as well.
"Our biggest report today was that there was a huge accident at Saltspray Rig. The water refinery had a malfunction occur, and three workers almost died. Luckily inklings were fighting a turf war there. They set everything aside to help save them, and thankfully, everyone made it out alive," Marie exclaimed about the good news. That was one thing that was great about turf wars. Nearly everyone knew the primary goal was to have fun, win or lose. The few that did not go to have fun at all were a bit more aggressive than they appeared to be, but those types were few and far between.
"Um, Cal-Callie? You alright?" Coal asked, seeing her, aware they could edit out his talking. Callie was beginning to cough violently as she went onto her knees. Soon enough, she fell over, her coughing stopping. She was on her side, facing away from them all.
"Callie… ugh..." Marie wound up having to support herself against the nearby wall, looking to be nearing a similar position as her cousin.
"Azure! Call for squidamedics now!" Coal ordered, his fellow cameraman already on it. Coal went to catch Marie. He got her before she could fall and helped her stay standing. She panted, leaning back against the wall.
"H-hey! Stay with me, you two. Help's on the way…" he requested. Callie was now pushing herself off the floor, beginning to stand back up. Coal noticed, about to go help her, until suddenly Marie fell toward him.
"Marie?! Whoa!" Coal fell to the ground back first with a now unconscious Marie on top of him. She was surprisingly a lot heavier than she appeared. He saw red in Callie's eyes, as she approached Azure.
"Boss! A-are you alright?" Azure asked before suddenly being tackled into the corner. Coal's eyes widened as he watched Callie, who just dug her three sharp teeth into his shirt. Coal heard cameraman 1's howls of agony that rung through his ears, and he saw red explode from Azure's shirt.
"Ca-Callie! Stop!" Coal shouted, seeing one of his best friends eat another one of their friends was a traumatic sight to behold. He heard a light moaning, wanting to help Azure when he saw Marie reawaken.
"Oh, thank goodness! Marie, your sisters lost it!" Coal exclaimed, trying to get up while still being pinned by her until she opened her eyes. He saw the same red eyes she now had, and she was licking her teeth. She had him pinned down, looking ready to devour him.
"Ohmygoshhelp!" he squealed. Azure's screaming had stopped, and that was terrifying to the teenage squid boy. He hesitantly kicked Marie with both of his legs in the stomach, throwing her off him and slamming her against the wall. Coal immediately got up in such a rush to get out of the room, practically crawling on all fours to get out, until he realized that the door was locked. He even tried to turn the very lock so he could open the door, and it still would not budge even after being unlocked.
"Cooaaal…" Callie's voice called out in a melodious fashion. Coal felt like he was about to have a heart attack.
"We're staaarving…" Marie's voice added onto his terror. He turned around, his back leaning against the door that was not going to open. The Squid Sisters' red eyes intensely focused on him, their pale faces expressing nothing but scary grins. Callie had blood around her mouth and on the front of her shirt.
"Ah! no please! No!" Coal screamed, burying his face in his hands. He was terrified, thinking he was going to be eaten alive by the now cannibalistic Squid Sisters. After a few heartbeat skipping moments, he felt a minor pain from his pointy ears.
"Gotcha!" he heard their voices chime. They both had bitten his ears. Coal looked at them fearfully, seeing them back off. Callie was reaching into her eye and pulling out a red contact, her eye going back to normal.
"Wh-what?" Coal asked, horrified. Marie rubbed her stomach sorely. That kick she had received from him was quite painful.
"Wow. That went better than I thought it could," Azure chimed while getting up from the corner. His shirt was torn with broken packets of fake blood that had been attached to his body underneath his clothing. Callie and Marie were trying to clean themselves up a bit after that whole deal. There was a big mess now, but it was worth it, and they had put on a good show for the fans watching from the glass wall, which had become a giant crowd now to witness this insane display.
"Wait, what? I thought you two had become zombies! What the heck is going on, you two!?" Coal shouted. His anger was understandable. He almost had lost himself in fear with their prank. He did not care about Azure having a hand in it, aware he had probably gotten pulled in without care since he always did as he was ordered from the Squid Sisters. He was lacking a back bone, as far as he knew.
"We wanted to get you back," Callie answered. His eye twitched a little.
"…what for?"
"For stealing our lunches from our dressing room, over the last week. Seriously, I know our food tastes great, but stealing them was not cool," Marie added while removing her own red contacts, feeling all too great to have done this prank. It was the most fun she had gotten in quite some time.
"Your lunches? I didn't steal any of your food! Who told you that?! The studio manager took away my key to your dressing room a month ago, because he didn't trust me with it yet!" Coal said, shocking them both. Callie immediately felt terrible for the prank now. If only she and Marie knew that before going through with the prank.
"Your prank wasn't cool either, you guys," their second cameraman tried to go through the door, but once again it would not open. He began kicking it out of anger, wanting to get away from this studio immediately.
"Gramps, open the door," Marie spoke, and just like that the door opened, revealing Captain Cuttlefish. He was making sure that Coal could not escape. When his granddaughters called him to request his help in a prank, he was more than happy to oblige. He practically lived in the plaza anyway.
"Coal, wait! We're sorry, it was just a big misunderstanding," Callie pleaded, wanting him to stop and not leave in rage, aware he could very well quit if he wanted to. Captain Cuttlefish was confused, only being aware that a prank happened, and not the reasons for why.
"We'll do anything to make it up to you," Marie added. She felt a lot worse than her cousin did, mostly because she was the one who came up with this 'revenge' prank in the first place. Coal tried to take in a deep breath to calm down while exhaling.
"Like what?" he asked. They were unsure of what to do or what they could give him to cheer him up.
"How about a date?" Azure spoke up while he was cleaning the fake blood off himself.
"A… date?" Callie and Marie were confused, wishing the first cameraman had kept quiet. Neither of them could say anything further.
"A date… that sounds perfect," Coal had this grin across his face that could only be described as devious. The Squid Sisters sighed, thinking that was only fair. One of them getting to enjoy a nice restaurant trip or just a peaceful night out away from work sounded good.
"Of course it sounds perfect!" Captain Cuttlefish sadly saw it as a good thing for one of his grandsquids to have a date. The two did not get out enough lately.
"Alright. Which one of us do you want to take on a date?" Marie asked with a straight face, aware they could probably just put a lock on their dressing room's refrigerator to solve this food theft problem for good. Coal thought on this for a second and shrugged. Thinking he was this far, he decided to keep pushing his luck.
"I want to take both of you out to the Zapfish Grill tonight," Coal stated. The Zapfish Grill was the newest restaurant, not far from here, that advertised that their food would spark consumers' taste buds into an overjoyed delight. The two were caught in shock at his request.
"Both of us? On a date with you?" Callie repeated, wondering if she heard him right.
"Yeah. A date with both of you," he nodded.
"Sounds good… a night off work for both of us will be great," Marie shrugged. Callie could not believe what she was hearing, but she sighed, giving in. She was not going to miss the chance at trying out a new restaurant's menu. She loved to eat at new restaurants, disguised or not.
"I think it'd be best to call it an early day, girls," Captain Cuttlefish told his grandsquids. They did not argue with their beloved grandfather, they would love to get off early, and either way they had to get cleaned up from the mess they made from their prank.
"C'mon. It'll be my treat," Coal smiled, leaving with his two best friends to go to their place, thinking they could all hang out until tonight when the best time to go on their date would emerge. As the three took leave, the cousins and their younger friend had to wonder together just who was the one stealing food anyway.
"Guess I should go too. The janitor'll be here in the morning to clean up," Azure yawned, walking off. He wanted to go enjoy a few turf wars before he went home, wanting to see how many other squids he could possibly scare while still drenched in this fake blood. He left the recording room to go relax, leaving Captain Cuttlefish alone in there.
"Ah… I'm glad my squiddos have such good friends…" the elder inkling chuckled while hobbling over with his cane to the locked dressing room door, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a key. He unlocked the door. The manager of the studio gave him a key in case he ever needed to check up on his grandsquids. Captain Cuttlefish went straight for the refrigerator, opening it and pulling out a small can of soda, the last one of Marie's favorites. He opened the can before beginning to drink. He took a seat on the couch, trying to take a rest.
"It's a shame my grandsquids are never around when I come to have lunch with them. Eating alone is a bit depressing."