A/N: Hey guys, I'm back again with a new story. Splatoon this time, enjoy!
'This place isn't like the others.' Agent 3 thought looking around the area she'd been directed to. For one it was entirely underground. This in itself was not unusual, Octo valley was defined by several kettles that the purple ink cephalopods lived in, a number of which led to underground tunnels and chambers. No, what was odd about this place and separated it from the others was that the zapfish was exposed here. The power giving fish which powered all of inkopolis was her target and it sat in the center of the large room connected to the hallway she was in. She put her back against a wall and peered around the corner to plan out her assault.
The container holding the zapfish was in the center of a large courtyard. There were a few octotroopers patrolling the area and looking up above she saw that on a ledge were a few snipers trying to stay hidden.
'A trap huh?' Agent three grinned at the thought. 'These octos think we'll fall for anything.' She spotted a good place to send her seeker and reached for the weapon when a noise behind her caught her attention. She realized what was going on a second too late.
From the same scaffolding above a pair of octolings dropped down. Agent three didn't waste time trying to splat either assailant. Instead she tossed the seeker in a random direction and immediately changed into squid form to follow the moving mine. The octolings were caught off guard and their weapons inked where she'd been a moment before. Swimming through the ink she got behind them and jump out in humanoid form, splatting one in the back before the other could turn and return fire. Agent 3 rolled to the left to dodge the purple ink and kept rolling around another corner for cover. Safely behind the cover she tossed an ink bomb back where the octoling had been. It detonated and she spun around the corner ready to splat whatever was left of her foe. As she rounded the corner she hit something solid.
Or more correctly, something solid hit her face. She realized as she fell that it was a fist and looked to see the octoling she hadn't splatted standing over her, her left arm extended and ending in said fist.
Before the inkling could pull her weapon up the octoshot splatted a trio of globs on her. She felt the ink hit her own weapon and her legs. She fell into a puddle of purple ink and looked up as an elite octoling walked up behind the one still pointing a weapon at her.
~/~/~
"Should we take her prisoner ma'am?" The elite octoling shook her head.
"No, splat all that they send. Then the old squid will stop sending them."
Lea looked down at the wounded inkling and tightened her grip on her octoshot. She took a deep breath, let it out and pulled the trigger. The inkling slumped over and to the octolings horror her head fell onto her boots. She nearly jumped back when a firm hand on her shoulder stopped her.
"Good job there kid." The green ink began to seep onto her boots. "I know it can be a little rough, but you did good out there." The hand left her shoulder but Lea was too shaken to move. "In fact, I'm going to recommend you for a promotion." Lea didn't hear any more of what her superior said. All she could think about was the ink slowly spreading across her boots.
'I sure hope they stop coming.' She thought.
~/~/~
1 year later, Octo Valley
The sun was finally high enough in the sky that its rays could penetrate into the kettle dome that Lea called home. The light started at the door to her small room and slowly crept across the floor as the earth rotated and finally the light hit her eyes. It didn't take long for the solar rays to wake the octoling. Lea didn't want to get up. She didn't want to go to formation. Most of all she didn't want to deal with the world. She turned on her side and tried to go back to sleep, pulling the bed covers tight around her body. After a few minutes she realized it was no use and resolved to simply stare into space from her bed. Her room was still mostly dark, but her eyes could easily spot the picture on the picture tacked up on her wall. Two octolings in shinning new armor and uniforms, both giving victory signs to the camera. There was some writing on the bottom of the photo and while Lea couldn't make it out from across the room, she knew what it said by heart.
'Remember when we graduated from the academy Sis?' Lea frowned at the memory and decided she wanted to think about something else. Reluctantly she pulled off the covers and crawled out of bed. The octoling dodged the bottles she'd emptied and the bits of armor on her floor that she'd let fall when she finally went to sleep earlier that morning and made her way to the small bathroom her kettle had.
She looked at the mirror and was unimpressed at what she saw. The grey color under her eyes had deepened on account of her late night and she blinked a few times in the hopes that they would recede. Failing that she looked at the mess of tentacles on her head. The kelp that marked her as a superior had already begun to turn them from their natural red to black, but there were still large streaks of red. Proof for anyone who looked to see that her promotion had been recent. She shook her head but the mess of suction cups refused to behave. A sigh escaped her lips and she looked at the bathroom clock.
'Still two hours to first formation.' She though looking at the time. Living underground meant that they were not slaves to any kind of day/night cycle. Instead the head octos made a schedule and all the octolings had to follow it. She spat into the sink and turned to start her shower.
~\~\~
An hour and a half later Lea was clean, dressed, armed, and armored. As she walked down the corridor connecting the elite apartments to the rest of the octolings barracks she passed a pair of octotroopers. They glanced up at her as she passed, then looked away quickly. Lea frowned, was the red in her tentacles still that noticeable? She adjusted the kelp in her hair as she walked. The hallway eventually gave way to a larger kettle and in it there were a dozen or so octolings milling about. Some were talking in small groups, others were comparing weapons. Lea walked past these octos to where a pair of elites were conversing. They turned to her as she approached. One gave her a curt nod, while the other, this one without any goggles, smiled.
"Lea, good morning." Her smile stretched the crooked way that her old squad leaders always did. "It's good to see you here this morning." She turned to the other elite. "I'll talk to you more about it later." This Octoling simply gave another nod and wandered off to talk to a pair of lower ranked octolings. Her old squad leader turned back to her. Lea rendered the octarian salute.
"Ma'am." She said. Her squad leader chuckled and returned the salute.
"Lea you've been promoted. It's just Kia now." Lea blushed and lowered her right hand.
"Uh, right ma- er, Kia." The words still felt strange to her. For over a year Kia had simply been Ma'am to her. Kia smiled crookedly again.
"You'll get it. Your tentacles are almost black I see." Lea blushed again.
'Is it that obvious that they're not there yet?' She thought and without thinking reached for them. Kia shook her head.
"Your fine, and I am happy to see you here today. We've lost too many octarians already, we need all the good ones we have left." Lea was about to respond when Kia looked past her suddenly.
"Looks like your number two has arrived." She said with a nod in that direction. Lea looked behind her to see an octoling who stood at least a head above the rest moving towards her with a big smile plastered on her face.
"Good morning ma'am!" She said as she reached Lea. The senior octoling had to look up at her soldier.
"Good morning Ana." Lea examined her subordinate, noting that the octobrush she held in her hands looking comically small. Lea reflected just how little she knew about the tall octoling. Paperwork indicated that she was actually older than she was, but a mix up during her training had her recycled through basic training multiple times. Something like that would have made any other octopus bitter, but Ana always seemed happy. Their entire species stood on the brink of destruction and all she ever did was smile. Ana had her smile on right now and Lea guessed that under her goggles her eyes were just as wide.
"And word on our next move ma'am?" Lea frowned.
"It'll all be explained in the brief." She replied. 'Though I can't imagine what.' She thought. 'We've lost our commander along with the last of the zapfish. Where do we go from here?
"All the same, I have a good feeling about today." Ana spoke up taking Lea out of her thoughts. Lea opened up her mouth to reply when a loud shout caught her attention.
"Form up!" The two octolings dropped their conversation and all of the octos in the area rushed to get into their ranks. All of the elites were in a column on the far right with both Kia and the elite she'd been talking to in front of lea and each officer's respective squad to their left. Lea noticed that while Kia seemed to have almost an entire ten octoling squad in her row, she had less than half that.
'So this is how it looks when you're losing a war.' She thought. In front of her a visibly older octoling stood before the formation. She filled her lungs and called out.
"Splatoon! Attention!" The hundred or so octolings and an equal number of lesser octos in the kettle all snapped to attention. "Squad leaders, bring it in for orders." Lea and the other elites all saluted and started a quick jog to form a semi-circle around their current leader. When they were all there she pulled her goggles up. "Alright ladies check it out. Training will continue as planned for today, first and second squads have the range, third and fourth will conduct Physical training and the rest will run mission lanes with the exception of tenth squad which has valley security this week." There was a murmur of agreement from the assembled elites. Their leader nodded her head. "Additionally, I want the leaders of second and third squads to be here at 0500 hours tomorrow. Locked and loaded with your best uniform on." Lea nodded but her mind wondered the reason.
'An inspection? Am I in trouble?' She thought. The senior octoling took a step back.
"You'll be gone all day so have your squads integrate with first and fourth squad respectively for tomorrows training. That will be all, get formed back up."
~/~/~
"Lea, hold up a minute." The octoling turned around to see Kia walking over to her. The formation had just ended and Lea was preparing to start her squads' morning workout. The senior elite smiled as she reached her. "Do you ever go to the Octopuses Garden?" Lea frowned.
'The club? Why would she ask me that?' She thought as she shook her head.
"No I usually drink at home." She replied, 'cheaper anyway.' Kia gave her a serious nod and her crooked smile crept out.
"I see, well you should check it out. I heard there's a new singer there and she's pretty good." Lea gave her a slow nod.
"Ok, maybe I will." 'What is this about?' Kia smiled wider and nodded again.
"I really think you should go see her. Tonight. The show starts at seven." Lea opened her mouth to ask what her old squad leader meant but the octoling turned around as soon as she finished talking and walked over to her own squad. "Alright, everyone go to attention. I got a full day of training ready for you." Behind her Lea frowned before turning to address her own squad.
"Third Squad, Attention! Half-right, Face! Push-up position!"
~/~/~
"Somewhere…beyond the sea…Somewhere, waiting for me….My lover stands on golden sand, and watches the ships, that go sailing." Lea turned her attention away from the stage and back to the bar she sat at. Not that the Octoling on stage in the red dress wasn't talented, because Lea was impressed with her voice, but because her drink was more interesting to her now. She took and sip and closed her eyes, relishing the burn of the liquid as it slid down her throat.
"What're you having? It looks good." Lea nearly choked on the mixed drink in surprise as she looked over to see Kia, now in civilian clothing like herself, sitting next to her at the bar. Lea regained her composure and swallowed.
"Sea water and rum." She replied. Kia chucked once and waved to the bartender. The lesser octo behind the bar started to wander over.
"I should have known you'd be drinking something legitimately dangerous." She turned to the bartender. "Tentacle ale." The octo walked off and Kia just starred at Lea. Lea for her part tried to ignore the stare at first but by the time her former squad leaders' pint had come she couldn't stand the crooked smile.
"Alright what is it? Why are we here?" Kia dropped her smile and reached for her glass.
"Don't think I don't know what day yesterday was." She took a large drink. "She was under my command then. You both were." Lea shook her head and drained her glass.
"Wasn't your fault ma'am." She muttered. The bartender looked over and she nodded. Kia took a sip before speaking.
"They are all my fault. Every one of them who didn't make it to the next formation. They are my fault because they were my responsibility. That's the biggest part of being in charge of people." Another sip. "Taking responsibility. I put your name up for elite because I knew you could handle that." Lea's next drink arrived and she went right to it. "But that doesn't mean that you need to take on the responsibility of something that wasn't you fault." The song finished and a light applause filled the club. Even so it wasn't loud enough to cover the sound of Lea slamming her empty glass down on the bar top.
Kia watched as her former subordinate gripped the glass so tightly she thought it was going to break but after a moment she relaxed.
"Thank you ma'am, but I'll be ok." She said. An uncomfortable silence stretched between them and the next song started.
"Well I love the chase, till the minute I win it. A beautiful face, delirious love for me in it. Give me your heart, and baby I'll bail it. 'Cause I always kill, the things I love." Lea took a deep breath.
"Was that all you asked me out to talk about tonight?" She asked. Kia went back to staring at her again and Lea reached into her jacket pocket for her wallet to pay for the drinks.
"No." Lea's head snapped back to her superior. "No it wasn't." She took another large gulp of her beer and waved for another. "I wanted to talk to you about your mission tomorrow. Where do you think you're going after you board the UFO?" Lea shrugged.
"I have no idea." She replied. Kia's beer arrived and she took a large sip. "Where?" Kia smiled at the bartender, then jerked a thumb to the left. The octo nodded and disappeared through a door to the back.
"You're going to inkopolis." She said taking a large sip. Instantly all of Lea's anger drained out of her along with the red in her cheeks the alcohol had put there.
"What?" Kia took another drink.
"You heard me. You'll be guarding an important VIP too." She turned to face Lea, a serious shadow covering her face. "I don't know all the details, but this mission is important. Really important." Lea, suddenly sober, leaned forward.
"Why?" Lea's mind raced with the possibilities. 'Could it be sabotage, messing up one of the squids big parties? Or it might be some kind of recon mission, figuring out what the deal was with all that 'fresh' lingo? Or maybe even another zapfish raid?' Kia looked around the room quickly, but ever other octo was watching the singer on stage so she leaned in.
"Diplomacy." Lea blinked.
"What?" This time she was sure that she had heard her superior wrong. Kia nodded and Lea's mind started spinning. 'That can't be right. No, it's impossible. It can't be.' A dozen variations of that sentence shot through her brain but what came out was,
"That's…that can't be." Kia shook her head.
"It is. Now I'm telling you this tonight so that you don't lose your cool tomorrow when the UFO touches down there and an Inkling is waiting on the tarmac." She took another swig of her beer. "I don't know what this is about, but I need you to keep your head in the game and not do anything stupid." Lea took a deep breath and shook her head.
"I don't get it. Why should we deal with inklings…and why do I have to play honor guard around those…squids?" Kia's crooked smile crawled onto her face.
"Well you may not have noticed in formation but there aren't too many elites left in the valley," she pointed to her face." and you don't take an octopus whose face is all scarred up on a friendly mission." Lea shook her head again.
"I don't like this ma'am." Kia nodded this time and reached for something in her jacket.
"You don't have to like it, you just need to follow orders." She smiled again. "You're a good soldier and if I though you couldn't handle this stuff, you would still have red tentacles." Kia put her wallet on the bar top. "I got this. You go home and clean your armor, then get some sleep." Lea nodded slowly and stepped off her chair.
"Thank you ma'am." She said, Kia was mid swig and only raised a hand to wave in goodbye. Lea started out of the club just as the octoling on stage was finishing her song.
"I wouldn't need to wait for my share of sorrow, 'cause I always kill, the things I love."
~/~/~
Somewhere in the ocean east of Inkopolious
"Sea snail duty, that's all I seem to get these days." The other inkling in the fishing boat looked over at his complaining partner and shook his head at the inkling. "What? Don't tell me you want to be here."
"No I don't, I'd rather be getting my turf war on, but guess what?" It was the first inklings turn to shake his head and he looked at the sky.
"Here we go again."
"Someone, had the bright idea that we'd make more money working for the city then we would inking turf so here we are." He reached out and gripped the edge of the net that hung off their boat. "This was your idea, so don't complain, just help me with these nets." The first inkling reached over the side of the boat and got a good hold on the net as well.
"We do make more, and I figured we wouldn't draw fishing duty all the time." They started to haul it up. "I'd take any work from the city over this one." He chuckled. "I was really hoping we'd get a job at the news station." With a grunt they pulled the net and it's contents onto the deck. "I mean that Marie man." The other inkling stopped messing with the net and pointed a finger at his coworker.
"Hey. You know deep down that Callie is the best." The first inkling shook his head.
"C'mon. You gotta love that sass. I mean-" He cut himself off as something in the net caught his eye. "Hey what's that?" The other inkling moved to see what he was pointing to.
"Hey there's something on some of these…no all of these shells." The first inkling undid the net and grabbed one of the sea snail shells. He held it up to better examine it.
The shell looked like any other sea snail home except it'd been splatted with some kind of grey ink. He turned the shell over to see a trio of grey bulbs attached.
"What the squid?" The inkling reached out to touch one of the bulbs when they all popped open, revealing a mess of tendrils from each. Before he could drop the shell two of the bulbs hurled themselves at the inkling and attached themselves to his neck and face. He dropped the shell and tried to pull the bulbs off. He pulled on the bulb on his face and in doing so he fell over.
His coworker rushed over to help him, finding the inkling motionless on the deck. He grabbed his friends' shoulders and gave him a gentle shake.
"Hey man are you alright? Man?" The other inkling was completely knocked out. He looked at the weird bulbs on his friends face and frowned. He set the other inkling down and ran over to the ships cabin, grabbing the radio as soon as he reached it.
"Base this is snail boat 4. I have a medical emergency." The voice at the other end of the line responded immediately.
"Rodger Boat 4, what is the nature of your emergency?" The inkling swallowed hard.
"Mike is…one of the crew has been knocked out after being exposed to something." He took a deep breath. "He's not looking too fresh."
"Understood, we're spinning up a rescue. What are your current coordinates?" A clattering sound turned his attention away from the radio. The inkling looked behind him and what he saw stopped the blood in his veins. There, standing just outside the door to the boats cabin was the same inkling who had just expressed his preference for Marie, only he looked different. Wrong.
"Uh, man? Are you ok?" He stepped into the cabin and he saw that the bulbs from the snail shell were firmly attached to his face and his eyes and tentacles had both turned the same dull grey. His eyes went even wider when he saw the splattershot from the boats emergency armory in his friends' hand. "H-hey mike, what're you-"
There was silence for several seconds after the grey ink covered everything inside of the cabin before the radio operator spoke up.
"Boat 4? Boat 4 come in."
A/N: I know what you're thinking: "Jim, why not finish the stories you've been working on forever first?" Don't worry I am working on those stories too, I just had a rush of inspiration with splatoon and I had to put it into words. As always thoughts, comments, and observations are always welcome.
