So, yeah, it's been a few months. In that time, I took a really long impromptu hiatus and Splatoon 2 came out! This, of course, motivated me to write this story again.

Now, some of you might be wondering why there's a new chapter one and where all the other chapters went to. The reason I did this is because when I first started writing Un-Ordinary, I meant it to be a crackpot. But I couldn't really write a decent story like that, and it seemed to be actually getting reads, so I decided to give it a real plot halfway through. That just made it more terrible.

Now, I have the entire plot flushed out and I'm aiming for regular updates...past this first one. I just wanted to get this chapter out, because it's already been too long, and so that people can see what I'm aiming for. I apologize if you were expecting the next chapter or if you liked the original thing better, but it just wasn't working for me.

And without further ado, STORY TIME SQUIDKIDS!

"Take your sister and RUN!" The words of his father cut through the roar of the flames and the bangs of the gunshots. With tears running down his cheeks from the smoke and pain, skin glistening from the inferno around him, the inkboy grabbed his wailing sibling and limped as fast as he could around the fire. A last burst of adrenaline knocked down the already damaged door, and the two escaped into the shattered calm of the night.

The sounds and heat faded as they speeded away from the destruction. His sister quieted into low, hiccupping sobs against his chest. Finally, they collapsed in the forest behind their house. The inkboy took a moment to glance over his sister and a seared, bright red patch on his leg before looking back.

Before his eyes, the walls caved in. The roof crashed down in a great woosh of hot air and soot. The two children froze, waiting, hoping, disbelieving.

Their only reward was the fire licking at the stars.

Cole opened his eyes slowly, his vision blurred with tears. The last remnants of the destruction, of the pain and loss, slowly disappeared as he sat up. He wiped his eyes and stared at the blanket for a bit, and then with a sort of resigned determination, got ready for the day. He had just finished brushing his teeth when his phone rang.

The Squid Sister's theme song lifted his spirits for a bit, but the number on the screen made him want to facepalm.

Sighing, he answered. "Again?" he asked as a greeting. A muffled confirmation came from the other end. "I'll be there in ten." He hung up, stretched, and grabbed his keys before locking the door behind him.

Exactly nine minutes later, Cole arrived at Octo Valley with a bagel in hand. "Hey Callie, Marie," he said as he walked into the disheveled hut.

"Cooooooooole," Callie whined through her scarf, "How many times do we have to tell you to call us Agents 1 and 2?!"

"If I could figure out who you were within five seconds of meeting you, there's no point in using you 'code names'," Cole answered as he rolled out an inkling-sized glass dome. He settled it next to the shattered remains of the original snow globe.

"Alright," Marie said, cutting off Callie's retort. "Let's just get Gramps and leave."

"Yeah!" Callie enthusiastically responded, flinging up her roller. A stray drop of ink sailed through the air and hit the new snow globe top. The glass shattered into a fine dust.

Marie facepalmed.

Five hours later…

Cole groaned, letting Capn' Cuttlefish slide off his back and onto a waiting chair. "Thanks, bucko!" the old inkling exclaimed.

"No, problem, Capn'," Cole wheezed out, rubbing his back. And if you have one more last minute errand that you forgot about, I'm going to blow something up.

"Oh, yeah, bucko, I almost forgot!"

Welp, looks like Inkopolis is going to be a smoking crater by tomorrow.

"I'm planning to go on a short research expedition in two months or so, and I was wondering if you would accompany me as an assistant?"

Cole blinked. Well I wasn't expecting that, and anything related to SCIENCE! is a good cause, buuuuuuut…

"I'll have to check my schedule," Cole responded, dodging the question. The war veteran appeared to not notice, and waved him off.

Cole stepped outside to see that Callie had successfully bribed Octavio to stay in his snow globe with a lifetime supply of crabbie cakes.

"She does realize," Marie whispered to Cole, "that the majority of the cakes are outside the globe, and Octavio is going to have to leave to get them, right?"

Cole simply shrugged. He knew better than to take sides in the eternal friendly-war-thing between the two pseudo-siblings.

"Alright girls, I need to head off," Cole said, interrupting Callie as she attempted to not-so-sneakily steal back one of the crabbie cake packs. "I have a match in twenty."

"Good luck!" the inkgirls chorused in unison, before glaring daggers at each other. Cole sweatdropped as he went through the grate.

"Hey, Cole, over here!"

Cole caught sight of a wild-haired inkling through the thick crowd in Inkopolis Plaza. With a smile, he approached his only (male) friend.

"Hi Brett. You ready?"

The inkboy just smiled and twirled his carbon roller with practiced ease.

"It looks like our opponents aren't here yet. We might as well sit down while we wait. Though, the benches are already filled…"

Brett, however, stopped listening to Cole after he had said "wait," and instead headed straight towards a seat that had two napping inklings on it.

Cole blinked and then immediately ran after Brett. "Dude, don't-"

"Hey, can my buddy and I sit here? Thanks."

The two inklings, a boy and girl, stirred to wakefulness at Brett's voice.

"Wha?" the inkboy mumbled.

"Sorry," Cole apologized. "I'll just grab my friend and refresh him on proper social customs."

"Hey! I taught you those in the first place!"

"Thank God I didn't listen to you."

"Uh…no, it's fine," the inkgirl cut in. She scooted closer to her companion to make room for Cole.

Cole sighed but nonetheless accepted the invitation.

"So, introductions!" the inkboy started once Cole settled down. "My name is John, and her name is Kay."

"Brett, and my friend here is Cole-hey, man, what's wrong?"

Cole and started and stared at Kay with a strange look on his face once he heard her name. "Oh, um, sorry," he said, jerking out of his reverie. "You just…reminded me of someone."

"Hey!" The quartet turned towards the source of the shout, a short, white-haired inkgirl with a crown and a Splattershot. "You're our opponents right?"

"Uh, actually, these two aren't-"

"Great! Meet us in the lobby!" the inkgirl announced, cutting Cole off. Before he could protest, she ran off.

Cole sighed. "Alright, we should go and clear that up."

"Nice meeting y'all," Brett said, with a wave.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Where's the rest of your team?" John looked around, futilely trying to identify his new acquaintances' teammates among the plethora of inklings.

"Eh, they called off last night," Brett told them, his tone carefree. "We didn't have time to recruit anyone else, but we'll be fine."

"Fine? How do you call a two versus four fine?" Kay shook her head. "No, we'll join up with you."

"Uh, it's fine, really, you don't need to-" Cole tried, before being cut off.

"Nonsense!" Kay exclaimed, pulling out a Splatterscope from nowhere. "We'll join you. She thinks that we're teamed up, anyways."

"Really, it's fine-"

"Great!" Brett butt in with a grin, before Cole could finish. "We'd love your help!"

"Sweet! Let's splat those suckers!"

Cole facepalmed and whispered to Brett, "You just want to convert them to your fake religion, don't you?"

Brett gave him a cheesy smile. "Anything for you, God-kun."

So, I'm incorporating as much new information from Splatoon 2 as I can. Most stuff actually fit in neatly, despite not knowing the scrolls from Splatoon 2 until a few weeks after the release. And of course, small fragments of information always appear in Off the Hook broadcasts, so if any inconsistencies to canon appear, please forgive me.

Just as a note, every character introduced in this chapter is either a main character or has a large supporting/pivotal role in the plot. Food for thought ;).

Expect another update in 2-3 weeks, and then weekly updates (hopefully) after that.

And as always, reviews are highly appreciated!