Chapter 2: HE LIVES!
Location: Inkopolis Plaza
"Hold on to your tentacles! It's inkopolis news time!"
A bright neon jumbo screen lit up across the plaza. The Squid Sisters, Callie and Marie struck a pose before announcing the daily news. Callie was the first to speak and reveal today's stages.
"For today's regular stages we have…Arowana Mall! Next, we have Flounder Heights! For ranked matches we- Hey! Marie!"
Marie pulled Callie off to the side and whispered in her ear before Callie went back in front of the camera.
"It appears we have an extra special news flash today." She began. "It seems that an unidentified...thing has crashed down in Blackbelly Skate park. Since that was one of the ranked match locations for today, we advise all players to stay as far away from the area as possible until further notice."
Marie walked back onto the set. "Since the area is off limits, scheduled turf wars in that area will be relocated to Walleye warehouse temporarily. An apology in advance to the janitorial staff."
The huge screen turned off, and the people of the plaza returned to their daily activities.
Meanwhile, in Blackbelly skate park
A massive black and pink mass sat in the skate rink, bits of it oozing down the skate ramps. Minutes later, the boil bubbled and groaned, before bursting, erupting in spores and spewing pink mucus across the concrete. Out of it, Nidus emerged thrusting his fists in the air with a loud, triumphant screech. Nidus looked around him, noting that this place was much more colorful than what he was used to. Ripping his feet from his infested airbag and sloshing through it, Nidus set off to explore his surroundings.
He found a small building near the impact site, and decided to investigate. Inside, he found bits and pieces of armor and helmets. "Some sort of military outpost?" He thought to himself. He found a small plank of sorts with wheels attached to it. He played with the wheels a bit, until he spotted a poster on the wall with images and a language he was unfamiliar with.
The poster depicted a humanoid creature securing a helmet to its head. The next image showed what appeared to be the bits and pieces of body armor he saw earlier, also being affixed to the creature. The third image seemed to conclude the message, with the creature holding the plank in its hands, giving a thumbs up. Other humanoid creatures in the background could be seen standing on it, with several lines behind them depicting movement.
Nidus started putting two and two together. This place was not a military outpost, but instead a recreational facility. The plank with wheels he found earlier was a vehicle of some kind. He rummaged around the building, looking for other information. He tried standing on the vehicle, only to have it collapse under his weight.
"Hello! Is anyone here?" Nidus did a 180, turning to face the voice. Had he been discovered?!
Shit, shit, shit, shit!
Nidus jumped straight up, his sharpened claws and feet allowing him to cling to the ceiling. A door opened, and two squid-like humanoids walked through. One blue female, and one green male. They wore casual sports clothing, and toted around weapons of some kind, with the blue one in the lead.
"The tracks stop here, Jim. There's nothing else here." The blue one said, lowering her weapon.
"Whatever came out of that black gunk obviously came in here and trashed the place." Said the green one. "Hey, check this out! This skateboard is broken. I think whatever did this tried to...ride it. Weird."
Nidus' claws started to slip, making the ceiling release crumbs and dust onto the floor below. FUCK.
The blue creature looked up, briefly getting a glimpse of something scurrying across the ceiling into the shadows of another room.
"There it is!" She exclaimed. "Let's follow it!"
Getting spotted was possibly the second worse thing to happen today. Nidus really, REALLY hated stealth. Nidus dropped from the ceiling and looked around for a place to hide or spring an ambush, the two creatures undoubtedly chasing him. "Aw geez, what would Loki do in this kind of situation?" Nidus panicked, looking around the room. On the other side of the room, he spotted an air vent. Perfect.
Bullet jumping onto the wall, he managed to pry off the vent grate and shimmy his way inside before re-attaching it. He watched through the slits as his pursuers skidded to a halt, and started firing their weapons randomly across the room. "Strange." He thought. The weapons fired not bullets or energy shots, but ink. The ink seemed to match their respective colors.
"Come on, it has to be here somewhere!"
Chuckling to himself, Nidus turned around in the vent, and crawled his way down the long path. Eventually, Nidus dropped out from the vent and found his way back outside. He made his way to the outskirts of the park and spotted a vehicle parked outside. It was black and white, with red and blue lights on the roof. Definitely local law enforcement. Nidus quickly made his way out of the park and slipped into an alley, into darkness.
Hours later, Inkopolis Plaza
Nidus leapt from building to building trying to map his surroundings. He pulled up his HUD map, only to be greeted by a constant "MAP UNAVAILABLE" message. He tried his comms unit, attempting to contact the Lotus. No dice. He did however receive various local radio signals. Among them were commercials, talk shows, music stations, and news channels. He started broadcasting a Tenno distress signal in hopes a Cephalon, or even better, the lotus herself could try and contact him.
Nidus turned on one of the music signals and listened to the tunes to pass the time. As night fell, he drifted off with the music lulling him to sleep.
End of Chapter 2
Why do I do this to myself? Well, no turning back now. The weird-ass crossover train has no brakes. CHOO CHOO!