On the bus ride back to the hotel where the Kidman brothers were staying, both of them had suddenly lost the ability to shut up. Passengers were eyeing them with looks of annoyance but neither brother noticed: There was too much that needed saying before the excitement passed.
"Callie hugged me!" Edward exclaimed. "She hugged me!"
"Marie's real! The Squid Sisters are real! Inklings! Octolings! Inkopolis! It's all real!" Allan rambled as he held his Amiibo figurine in his hands like a tiny beloved.
Luckily for the seemingly delirious pair of Kidman twins their fellow passengers did not understand English, or they would be seen as completely insane and not merely a mildly rowdy irritation. They spoke simultaneously in near-hysterical semi-rants all the way back to the hotel, up the elevator and into the room where they were staying. As they sat down on their beds they finally quieted down and sighed in unison. There was a moment's silent reflection and they both knew they were thinking the same thing.
"We have to see them again."
Candie the inkling was on top of her game. Being the daughter of Callie of the Squid Sisters, it was only natural that she and her Sloshing Machine dominated Turf Wars. This particular battle was going amazingly well as she had been matched up with her second cousins, the twins Madie and Mo.
She was inking turf by the bucket-load, ink swirling out of her weapon as she covered up slabs of Bluefin Depot's floor with her yellow hue. Usually her colour of choice was the same shade of Magenta her mother typically sported (although this colour made up the majority of her tentacle-hair with black at the tips; the inverse of what was the case with her pop star mother), but the colour of the team she was part of for that battle was yellow, therefore so was her ink. Candie suddenly received a distress call from her cousin. She checked her map and saw that Mo was outnumbered in a partially enclosed space.
Candie landed on the scene just in time to see three different Splattershots closing in on Mo, who was stuck in enemy ink. Without thinking twice she sloshed out an escape route for the inkling boy, and activated her bomb rush just as the three assailants came close enough. The attackers were not unprepared, however, and one of them pulled out a Bubbler which all of them shared. The barrage of bombs pushed them away, but they soon began to push back. Candie thought all was lost as her Splat Bombs ran out, but in the next moment Madie charged in and unleashed her Inkzooka. With a few towering whirlwinds of ink, she managed to push the trio into the water, and as the last ten seconds of the match began to tick away, the battle seemed all but in the bag.
But it wasn't. There was one more Inkling standing on the Bad Guys' team and she had just activated her Inkstrike. She was too far away for the Mini Splatling, the Sloshing Machine or even the Grim Range Blaster to reach, and with walls and water nearly surrounding them there was nowhere for the Good Guys to run. That's when Candie realised that Mo had already fired up his Killer Wail, and the Inkstriker was snuffed out before she could even launch her attack.
Naturally, there had been a fourth teammate on Candie's team, but he had gone limp with awe just a few seconds into the battle.
"I thought I was a goner for sure!" Mo recollected over a milkshake, lime green like his ink had reverted back to. "I never lose when I'm on a team with you, Cuz'!"
"I wouldn't have been much help if ol' Trigger Happy over here didn't come charging in with her Inkzooka! Did you see those guys' faces?!" Candie was always in a cheery mood when she hung out with her cousins.
"But we would all have been splatted if Mo hadn't been around with his Wail! Not many people can pick their moments quite as well!" Madie was fidgeting with the silver tips of her green tentacles.
"And that would have left our victory in the hands of Noodle back there!" Candie chimed in and the three of them had a chuckle. Candie signalled the waiter to bring their cheque.
"One more Turf war?" Mo suggested.
"Nah, I'd better go see what my mom is up to…"
Candie arrived home to find her mother, half asleep, pouring frosted kelp cereal into the toaster at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Just as Callie was about to add the milk, Candie gently took the carton from her and guided her by the shoulders to the coffee machine. The past few days had been rough: If it wasn't a Squidbeak Splatoon emergency it was an Inkopolis News shoot that wore on past schedule, and amid it all Callie still had to be a mother with no help at all from Candie's long gone good-for-nothing father.
Candie hated seeing her mother like this, and felt largely responsible every time she did. At the studio Candie would often overhear her mother and cousin Marie reminisce about the old days in-between takes, and from the stories Candie would get the idea that her mother was a mere shadow of her former self.
Thousands of people cheered at the top of their lungs, a sea of glow sticks undulating and rippling overhead.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Marie said blushing into her mic.
"We love you all!" Callie shouted, her arms waving about so wildly that she couldn't help but jump around after them.
"Stay fresh!" the pop stars chorused before walking off, the crowd of humans still cheering.
The next moment everything went dark and silent and a long white arrow curled into a loop appeared to hang above the stage.
In the darkness of her bedroom Candie sighed, touched the looped arrow on the screen in front of her and watched the concert again.
"She was so happy," the gloomy young Inkling whispered to herself. "The girl on that stage is not the woman who raised me."
The next moment a poisonous seed sprouted in Candie's heart, and the more she nurtured it the deeper it took root. Soon it felt like the very ink that coursed through her body stung her mind and she needed to get something painful off her chest.
Candie took a deep breath. "Mom? Can I talk to you? I know it must have been hard. You know? Raising me without a dad. I mean yeah, Aunt Marie and Bessie have been there to help, but they have their own kids too, and their dads are still around. Be honest: Would you have been better off if I was never born?"
Callie's plush-squid likeness stared back from Candie's embrace and didn't answer. She sighed and looked at her feet as her legs dangled down the side of the bed. Then she gathered up her courage, let herself down to the floor, and left via her bedroom doorway.
Candie slid down the secret trash can entrance behind the dumpster in the alleyway most people walk by without a second glance. She was met by a puzzled Dr Akkoro, already dressed for bed.
"What in the name of the great oceans are you doing up at this hour, child?"
"I was…" Candie swallowed "… wondering if you would let me borrow the time machine?" she asked
"What's this for?" It would have been irresponsible of Callum Akkoro Sr. not to ask
"I wanted to take Mo and Madie to watch one of the Squid Sisters concerts from back in the human era. Get a feel for what our mothers were like back in their prime." came Candie's response
"Well, I see no harm in that." The carefree Octoling scientist agreed. "Let me show you the ropes."
After explaining to Candie how the thinking cap enables the pilot to operate the time machine, Dr Akkoro moved on to newer additions: "I've managed to combine some technology from the thinking cap and the nanomics to come up with these new contraptions: Voila!" The scientist produced a perspex box containing what looked like three little dots, and lifted one out on his finger. "I call this a nanotrans. You stick it behind your ear and any conversation you hear from the locals will be instantly translated to Inklish in your head. Inversely, whenever you form sentences in your head, the translations for the words will be sent to your brain in the last language you heard, and you'll be able to converse with the locals. I have also fashioned some human disguises in various sizes, and I'll load a few into the newly installed wardrobe for you first thing in the morning. Last but not least, you'll be happy to know that I have installed several nozzles near the ceiling of the time machine that spray a special saline ink mist of my own invention into the chamber that will protect your bodies from the side effects of the antimatter conversion (I really wish I'd installed that before I lent the machine to my past self…)."
As Candie walked home, she found herself astounded as usual by Doctor Akkoro's eccentric politeness and eagerness to apply science. There was only one more obstacle to clear.
"Mo-omm… Mommy, dearest…" Candie said in a voice so sweet you'd think it's where she got her name.
"What is it, sweetheart?" her mother asked equally lovingly.
"Do you mind if I go back in time tomorrow night to go watch one of your pre-Mollusc era concerts?" Candie asked. "We did really well in the Turf Wars today so I'm sure I can afford a day off."
"You're not going alone, are you?" Callie asked as any mother would.
"Of course not," Candie said earnestly. "I'm taking Mo and Madie with me." She turned to Marie. "If that's all right with you of course, Aunt Marie."
Marie was technically Candie's second cousin once removed, but since Callie and Marie were as close as sisters it stands to reason she was more like an aunt to Candie if not a second mother. 'Aunt Marie' was also just easier to say.
"If Callie's fine with it, so am I." Marie answered.
There was a brief pause in the conversation as Candie looked at her mother expectantly. "All right." She said finally.
"Thanks mom." Candie said and turned to go to her room. She stopped in the doorway.
"One more thing," she said, turning back to her mother and "aunt", "Please don't tell Madie and Mo. It's a surprise, okay?"
And what a surprise it would have been if Madie had not eavesdropped just outside the window.
The streets of Inkopolis were deserted the following night and Candie set up Doctor Akkoro's time machine in the Plaza. She quietly stepped inside, put the Thinking Cap on her head and entered the date her parents met into the console. She swallowed down the lump in her throat. She knew that once the time machine started up there would be no turning back. Her hand slowly inched toward the button that engaged the Matter Converter and began to quiver as she closed her eyes, mentally going through the process of what she was about to do.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Madie and Mo had been silently trailing behind her and snuck onto the time machine without her knowing. Candie jumped at the sudden sound of Madie's voice and spun around with a start.
"You were going without us!" Mo said indignantly.
"You guys can't be here!" Candie said urgently. "You have to go home right now!"
"Wait a minute." Something caught Madie's eye. "That's not a concert date. That's in the Mollusc Era" she said, looking down at the text in the machine's console.
"That's the day your parents met. What were you going to do?" Mo asked with some indignance still audible in his voice.
"Nothing!" Candie said guiltily.
A look of shock spread across Madie's face. "You were going to keep them from meeting, weren't you?"
Mo gasped.
"No!" Candie said without convincing anyone, least of all herself.
Mo's expression changed to concern. "Cands, whatever you think is-" he began genuinely.
"The pep talk will have to wait!" Madie interrupted. "We need to turn this thing off!" she said as she reached for the controls.
"Don't touch that!" Candie cried out and grabbed her arm. Madie's hand brushed against some buttons as she tried to wrestle out of Candie's grip.
"Let me go!" Madie struggled and the two inkling girls inadvertently pressed more buttons as they wrenched for control over the time machine.
"Hey! Careful!" Mo cautioned as he grabbed at the confusion and tried to pull his sister out of it. Someone's arm slipped out of the hand that was gripping it and all three inklings fell back with Candie accidentally hitting the matter converter button in the process. The time machine hummed to life and the inklings froze in fear before vanishing from sight.