Splat X Separation

Unrestrained

"Hmm…" Maria hummed as she stared down at her lap.

The two vibrant eggs continued to roll in place atop her lap. For quite some time, the eggs bounced off of one another as if they were riding in bumper carts. She watched them while biting her bottom lip, her hands pressed against her own lap nervously like two barricades. Every so often they rolled and bumped into each other, and she had to step in as to prevent an unfortunate bounce to their untimely doom. While they bounced, as if drawn in a whirlpool, they swirled in the same pattern back and forth, in their own mysterious little rhythm. Small trails and spots of blue and green swirled about her pants as they went, but conveniently vanished but a few moments after.

She was so lost in the hypnotic rhythm of the orbs rolling on her lap that she hardly noticed Jack's smiling face behind her.

Jack attempted to greet her, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hey-"

"Eek!" She squeaked, snatched the colorful eggs up, and held them close to her chest.

As a precautionary measure to her involuntary reaction, she also involuntarily whipped her hand at Jack, slapping him straight across the cheek. Her hand was an explosion across her husband's face, and cracked a sound as if it were a whip. Her eyes expanded in shock, and Maria's face tinted a bright light-green out of embarrassment whereas Jack's glowed a bruised gray.

As a sizzling sound emanated from his cheek, Jack reached up and began to massage his face. "Easy there, Agent 3. You're not in Octo Valley anymore." He sucked air through his teeth as he rubbed. "That smarts…"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Sneak-Up-On-His-Wife." Maria pouted mockingly, lifted her head to deliver a smooch to the disaster area on her husband's face, then placed the eggs back in her lap. She then cupped his face in between her hands. "Maybe I should tag a bell to your shirt. Think that'll help?"

"Maybe," Jack commented, took her arms off his face, and into his own hands, "Or maybe you need to learn to let your guard down a little every now and then."

"Rich coming from you, soldier boy," She muttered with a roll of her eyes as she leaned in towards his face.

Before they could lock lips, Maria froze, and clamped one hand on Jack's face. As he yelped in surprise, Maria reached down to her lap and precariously scooped up the pair of eggs again as they rolled towards the edge.

"Phew," Maria sighed and nuzzled the two eggs, "That was close."

"...Uh huh," Jack muttered grudgingly as he felt his face grow hot underneath the two hands stuck to his face.

Maria glanced back up at him slowly with her eggs safely tucked between her arms, and with a bead of light-green sweat on her forehead, perked up suddenly. She snorted, then pressed a hand to her lips, her eggs secured by her arms

"Oh, mmfff," She laughed good-naturedly, "I'm sorry, Jack!"

"'Sorry' won't cut it anymore Maria." Jack's eyelids lowered as he wrapped one arm around her and pulled her in close.

Her eyebrow cocked up suspiciously as a coy smile popped up on his face. "What do you have planned now?"

"First things first, are the kids secured?" Jack inquired through his half-lidded expression.

Maria hugged her eggs ever so slightly tighter. "Seriously Jack, what are you- Ooh!"

She let out a squeak as she felt herself rise. Maria gazed down at Jack, and he simply smiled back with the goofiest grin he could manage as he spun her about in his arms. Throughout the whirling, Maria simply rolled her eyes and continued to cradle the eggs carefully in her arms.

"There," Jack announced proudly, "You hold the eggs, and I can focus being intimate," He breathed huskily.

"I could've just set them down somewhere." Maria frowned down at him.

"Heh. I wouldn't miss this for the world, and these two rascals aren't going to do anything about it," Jack responded with a grin towards the eggs.

Regardless of the peculiar position, the two of them began to lean in towards one another, Maria keeping her arms tightly wrapped around the orbs. As they approached one another, out of the corner of their eyes, they noticed something wriggle. The both of them froze suddenly and gazed down at the eggs cautiously. They shivered as they sat in between Maria's arms.

"...Did you see that?" Maria glared down at her eggs.

All of a sudden the eggs shook. One of them pushed outwards from her grasp and slipped out between her arms, secreting clear trails as it rolled out. Maria gasped in horror and reached out as it tumbled out from her arms and careened down towards the harsh floor below.


"Nngh!" Tek grunted as her face and metal had an impromptu meeting.

"Oh, hey..." A voice called out to her in a tired tone.

Tek muttered a string of curses into the floor as she attempted to stand upwards. The metal naturally did not care about her injuries and remained silent under her colorful language. An aching shock rocked through her back as she pushed downwards even as gingerly as she could manage. Through fluttering eyelids, Tek could make out a few beads of color drip across her vision. As she gasped for breath, she pushed against the floor with her elbow in an attempt to keep herself up.

Drops of violet leaked from her abdomen from underneath a short white bandage, which stung as she arched her body. Her arms felt as though gravity had increased, buckling as her vision blurred. Though everything seemed to spin and the colors blended together in an incomprehensible mess, she shut her eyes and sighed in relief.

"...You alright there, sunshine?" Tek felt someone nudge her cheek.

With a growl, Tek gripped the offending person, and pulled down the offender close to her face while her vision gradually smoothed. "It hurts."

Tek squinted her eyes. Judging by the violet on top of the talking black and gray splotch, she assumed that she had grabbed an Octarian. Slowly but surely, her vision cleared somewhat, and lo and behold the splotch revealed itself to be an Octoling. Gripped in Tek's right hand was the Octoling's own gloved hand, casually wriggling its bare fingers back at her.

The violet-eyed Octoling troop she came face to face with solely blinked, and shrugged nonchalantly. "Uh-huh. I figured it might. That's a lotta ink you're losing."

"Help me up." Tek commanded with a growl as she felt herself fall towards the floor again, bracing herself with her left elbow.

The other Octoling simply stared back at her silently. Tek did the same, her eyes narrowing into a harsh glare. As if the look traveled straight through her, the Octoling just stared back as indifferently as a brick wall.

"...Please." She asked the other Octoling with a sigh.

"'Kay." The Octoling yawned, reached down, and pulled Tek's right hand up.

Carefully, Tek got to her feet while her abdomen ached. With a grunt, she lifted up with the smaller Octoling in front of her pulling her up as well. She glanced around the room as she stood, spying counters stocked with vials, and a bed stained with blue-violet ink. Tek cursed quietly under her breath, glaring down at her own hand stained with the very same sickly fluid.

"Damn it. She got me…" Tek cursed more audibly, her hand balling up into a fist.

"...'Dam it'?" The other Octoling arched an eyebrow. "Huh. That a foreign term?" She folded her hands together and placed them on her hips. "Dōiu imidesu ka?"

The room was completely silent for a minute. Once that single minute passed a small drop of ink dropped from Tek again and broke the silence with a drip.

"...What?" Tek squinted quizzically at the other Octoling.

"Yeah, I dunno either." The Octoling shrugged her shoulders, and placed her hands back on her hip. "You've got real flipping flat reactions, lady."

Tek glared upwards towards the other Octarian troop, who absentmindedly fiddled with her metallic goggles haphazardly wrapped around her neck. "...None of you cuss?"

"What do you mean? Yeah we do." The other Octoling remarked with a smug smile. "Sort of like you, just...not as weird."

Tek glared at the Octoling dryly when her eyes lit up in realization, "...You're that same Octoling from the first day." Tek shut her eyes in exasperation. "Just my luck."

"I know, very lucky right?" She winked down at the taller woman bleeding out on the floor. "What are the odds that we'd bump into each other in the same, maze-like, tiny base?"

"...Hmph." Tek grunted and gingerly pushed herself up and off the floor. "Save it. Why are you here?"

"Looking out for you out of the goodness of my sweet little hearts." She pouted, fluttered her Octoling lashes at her, and wrapped her hands together behind her back innocently. "I had to wake up early for you too, aren't you grateful?"

Tek remained silent with a deadpan expression.

"Cool. You're welcome." She grinned and offered Tek her hand. "Well anyways we kinda need to get going."

"And why is that?" Tek squinted her eyes at the Octoling with one hand on her bandages.

The Octoling shrugged. "I dunno. Important orders. I'm in a hurry too, I already missed out on my consecutive twelve hours of sleep, so we gotta go soon. Probably like now."

With a scowl, Tek glimpsed over the Octoling from the floor. Her tentacles sagged over her head in a disorganized mess. Her gloves were somewhat ruffled as if they had been haphazardly put on, the same with her clothes. Tek furrowed her brow and continued to glare up at her for quite some time.

Her tired smile faded after a few moments, and to Tek's surprise, the Octoling yawned with a stretch of her arms. "…Hello? Are you dead? I gotta take you to Octavio or Aussie's gonna kick my bass."

Tek scowled at her, "Your 'bass'."

"Y'know." The Octoling turned around with a cheeky expression. "What connects the legs to the rest of us?"

"...I get the picture." Tek frowned and waved her away with a grumble underneath her breath. "What about my wounds?"

"Oh yeah." The Octoling glanced at the stained bedsheets. "Nothing much we could do."

"So you let me bleed." Tek remarked sourly while she examined the bed.

"Well, no, we wrapped bandages around you y'know." The Octoling emphasized as she spun her finger in a circle. "We just couldn't help you the traditional way, dunking you in a vat of ink. You're… Well, I dunno."

"...No, I get it," Tek muttered and stared down at her wounds, "Great."

"I mean, we could probably get you some ice or sponges or something to help you later." The Octoling shrugged.

Tek frowned and whipped her head towards the troop. "Really? And how would that help?"

"It would help clean, I guess." The Octoling shrugged. "I'm not a doctor, soooo…"

"Ugh." Tek growled and turned back towards the bed.

The otherwise white blankets were darkened with dried blue-violet ink. The Octo-Inkling stared down at her wounds as they leaked through the bandages wrapped about her abdomen. With a scowl, she surveyed the room, one arm pressed lightly against her stomach.

A few standard medical tools were sprawled about on the tables and counters across the room. Most were harmless measuring equipment, such as round stethoscopes and thermometers. Scanning the room diligently, she narrowed her eyes while ignoring the sting of her wounds. After a few seconds of surveying, Tek spied something in the far corner of the room. A small gray tray with a scalpel stacked neatly on top glinted underneath a metallic lamp.

Tek briefly considered her options with a cursory hum. She glanced behind her, the bedside devoid of any other medical equipment. She huffed out a sigh, which unfortunately also stung, and walked over towards the counter.

"Uh, whatcha doin'?" The other Octoling asked with a yawn. "Listen, we gotta-"

Without a word, Tek snatched the scalpel off of the tray, and unraveled the bandages around her guts. Tek winced as she felt the skin around her wound, but continued to retrieve the bandages. With a final tug, the bandages released themselves from her body and collectively coiled to the floor.

For a moment, Tek stared back down at her exposed abdomen. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could barely see the blurred Octoling in the corner as she continued to watch as if she were frozen in place. Tek breathed out, shook her head then shut her eyes, and plunged the scalpel downwards into her stomach.

"...Oh." The Octoling blinked, then in a flash, her tentacles sprung up in shock. "Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?!"

"Faaahh!" Tek gasped out, beads of sweat dripping down from her head, her vital fluids flowing from her pierced abdomen like a waterfall.

The pain surged through her stomach. Eventually, Tek gave in to the excruciating agony, and shouted up to the ceiling as she collapsed to her knees. A pool of violet began to collect around her legs while her Octoling escort continued to watched petrified.

"Oh Cod," She gulped and finally extended two fingers up to the goggles encircled around her neck, "Uh, hey, Aussie? We might have a-"

She cut herself off and watched in a disgusted fascination. Though she bled profusely, Tek managed to grit her teeth through the pain, and sunk to the ground in a fetal position. She laid still for a moment, then shrunk into the ink as if it were quicksand. The pool of ink rippled as she delved inside, droplets of blue and violet splashed across the floor. The Octoling watching flinched and took a step back from the puddle but continued to gape at the surface mesmerized.

The puddle quivered and bubbled almost as if something were brewing. The drops of ink astray from the puddle the hybrid had sunk into dried and lost their dark hues. After a few moments, a head arose from the ink. Her black eyelids closed, she lifted her head from the ink, then her body, lines of goo stretching from her head down to the puddle. The Octoling watched in a mystified awe as Tek arose from the ink, her arms by her side and her eyes still shut.

The Octoling stared at Tek's abdomen. Unfortunately, her red top had not magically regenerated by her mid-section, although the skin underneath her clothes no longer drew any blood to speak of.

"...Whoa." The Octoling blinked once slowly and clamped her mouth close. "That… That was…"

Across from her, Tek groaned and pressed her right hand by her stomach, her eyes still tightly shut. She attempted to stand straight, only to stagger. Tek quickly fell backwards towards a counter. Her elbow bashed the counter, which Tek propped her arm up with. Besides her stomach, her left hand clenched at her abdomen as she braced herself onto the counter with her right hand. As she struggled to stay upright, out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed a very wary smudge step towards cautiously.

Tek tilted her head back at the blurry smudge and grunted. "Help please."

"Wow." The other Octoling gazed at her in awe. "You're completely fine?"

As she stood hunched over clutching her abdomen, Tek gritted her teeth as she glared back at the blurry Octoling. Suddenly, she coughed violently, and a glob of ink flew from her open mouth.

"Whoops," The Octoling muttered as the ink dropped to the floor, "Nope, never mind."

"No," Tek growled back at her and squashed the ink onto the floor irritably, "Clearly I'm not 'completely fine', Octoling. Now. HELP. ME. UP."

The Octoling sighed, and with a deliberately ridiculous shimmy, sauntered towards her side. "If you're going to die on me, might as well remember yours truly's name before you go."

Tek glowered at her. "Just take me to Octavio, Octoling…"

"Tai." The Octoling had on an open-mouthed smile. "My name's Tai."

"Shut the hell up Tai," Tek hissed as she propped her right arm atop Tai's shoulder.

"Aww," Tai cooed back at her with a smug smile on her face, "You're growing on me."

With a giggle, Tai lifted her shoulder up. Though she continued to stagger somewhat, Tek managed to stay glued to the smaller Octoling and continued on with her. Tai smiled sweetly again and began to walk with Tek limping besides her, Tek's head leaning over Tai's shoulder.


Immediately, Tek wondered whether or not it would have been wiser to stay in bed. As they stepped out of the room, both Tek and Tai had to back up as a platoon of Octarian troops marched on by. Octotroopers rode on platforms with red fire extinguishers taped to the sides, the black nozzles extended to the front of the platform besides the cannon. The platoon rushed forward, clogging the halls completely. After a minute, the hallway was clear, and the sound of hissing, crackling, and shouting in the background filled the empty space.

"Alright, let's go." Tai urged the both of them on out the door frame.

As they stepped outside of the medical bay, a steel door slid down from the top of the frame and shut in place behind them. Red lights flashed about the halls as they walked together with the unmistakable scent of smoke permeating the steel corridor.

"Did I cause this," Tek muttered all of a sudden.

"Huh?" Tai perked up and glanced to her left up at the hybrid.

"Was this my fault?" She frowned upwards at a red alarm light spin back and forth on the ceiling.

Tai glanced behind them, and sniffed the air, her nose wrinkled. "That depends. Can you summon fire?"

"...No." Tek frowned down at the Octoling.

"Alright, then can you shoot a gun," Tai inquired as they strolled along the hall, "Like a really big gun?"

Tek rolled her eyes and heaved out a sigh simultaneously. "So I did cause this."

"Hey, I'm not pointing fingers ma'am, I'm just trying to get down to the meat of this." Tai nudged the hybrid with a smirk. "Could you fire a giant cannon?"

"Oh my God." Tek face-palmed as well as shake her head as the two of them walked away.

"Oh that's so cool." The Octoling beamed brightly.

In the background, the imperceptible orders of the Octarians were screamed over the droning noise of the siren. Somehow it seemed as though the smell of smoke only grew stronger as the time went on, as did the non-stop screaming. Removing her hand from her face, Tek glowered down at the floor, then turned to the right back towards her Octoling escort.

She had a devilishly curious smirk on her face.

Tek narrowed her eyes at the Octoling. "Wipe that smile off your face."

Tai perked up suddenly and glanced to the side. "Uh, what smile?"

Tek stared down at the floor. Even with all the smudges left behind from traffic, the few places untouched by octopus kind were polished to a remarkably high degree. So high in fact, that Tek could see Tai's grin from the floor.

Tek scowled as they continued down the hallway slowly. "Now I see what Commander Aussie was talking about."

"Who, me?" Tai thrust one finger down at herself then pressed down on her chestplate. "Why, I'm flattered!"

"She used 'aggravating' as one of her keywords as a matter of fact." Tek trudged ahead slightly as her arm dangled around Tai's shoulder.

With a step forward, Tai grinned back up at her. "Like I said, I'm flattered. What else did she say?"

"You're incredibly obnoxious." Tek shook her head disapprovingly. "How long have you served here?"

"Let's see…" Her hand opened up, and Tai tapped each of her fingers. "I'm sixteen...so about… Like two years tops."

She snorted in amusement as Tek narrowed her eyes down at her. "Good lord. Now I feel bad for the commander."

"Aussie?" A lengthy yawn caused Tai to pause in place for a moment. "Nah, she loves me too much to let me go, same as I love screwing with her too much to leave."

"Must be a lovely relationship," Tek muttered underneath her breath.

Mockingly, Tai pressed both of her hands together by her chest and swooned. "It's made in heaven." She crossed her arms, and much to the other's annoyance, lifted them up and behind her head, pushing Tek's arm out of the way. "What about you?"

"What?" Tek cocked an eyebrow in confusion.

The wall made a slight clang as Tai pressed her hand onto it. "You have anyone in your life?"

For a moment, Tek inspected the Octoling again, peering at her from head to toe. In response, Tai merely cocked an eyebrow and a small smile. Tek's shoulders lowered calmly as if a weight had been lifted off of them.

"...I have my sister," Tek stated finally.

"Huh. What's she like," Tai asked as she leaned back on the wall.

An abrupt tremor rocked the base. The sirens continued to flash and blare and the shouts continued, only it seemed as the shouts grew louder over the sirens this time. Both Tai and Tek stumbled and glued themselves to the sides of the halls as the floor rocked back and forth.

"What are they doing," Tai complained while she attempted to stand up straight, "Are they blowing up more stuff in there?"

Another shock rumbled and shook the base.

"Oh no." Tek's eyes widened.

A horrible metallic screech ripped through the sirens' blares. The duo immediately clutched underneath their tentacles and shut their hands over their ears as the hallway contorted and splintered.

"Gah!" Tek grit her teeth irritably.

"Ugh!" Her escort shut one eye.

Out of the corners of Tek's eyes, she noticed a dent in the wall adjacent to Tai jut out. As she clamped her hands over her ears, she noticed the dent grow in size as whatever was on the other side continued to attempt to break into the hall.

Immediately, Tek attempted to shout a warning to the Octoling. Though she tried, the cacophony of metal as it teared and sirens as they blared nullified any attempt she made at contact. With a scowl, Tek leaped towards the other wall and tackled Tai, and both fell to the floor with a slam.

Much to the hybrid's dismay, being up close to Tai did mean that she could hear her cry out, "Agh, Cod, ow! What-"

"I'm saving you!" Tek shouted down at her.

Sheets and splinters of metal practically exploded outwards from the wall. The two ducked as close to the floor as they could manage as sharp fragments of the alloy rained across the hall. Out from the freshly created giant hole in wall, a blur launched out, and instantly rammed through the next wall. As the metal settled on the floor and the hallways still as obnoxiously noisy as ever, Tek lifted her face from the floor and glared out at the second hole in the wall.

A laughing individual atop a sparking machine flew off into the outskirts of Octo Valley, and vanished from view.

"No," Tek muttered breathlessly, "No, no, no, NO."

On the floor underneath her, Tai peered out the hole, with an expression of amazement paralyzed on her face. "Who…?"

Tai paused as Tek turned back to her. She marveled at Tek, as the hybrid now looked as though she were going to kill someone. Tai hoped she was not the target.

A frown manifested on Tai's lips. "...That wouldn't happen to be-"

"Tenta. She's loose." Tek's teeth clenched tightly.

"Well…"

All of a sudden, the alarms above them had ceased. The shouting had not stopped, and in fact had intensified into lots of terrified screams, but the lights had stopped blinking, with sunlight from the hole in its place. Debris was scattered across the floor and the walls had been shattered, but it seemed as though Tek and Tai were unharmed, the two of them gradually standing back up.

Right in front of DJ Octavio.

"Oh." Tai blinked. "Hey old man."

"...Tai." Octavio's green octopus eyes narrowed.

The giant magenta octopus sat in front of them with his tentacles crossed, a green cross-shaped scar on the left tentacle in the front. He sat in a small throne where a rocket thruster lifted the chair from underneath. The throne hovered, and pushed rebelliously against the ceiling as it floated. Despite the throne being absurdly cramped in the small hallway, he adjusted the golden samurai helmet atop his crown with one of separate tentacles casually.

The chair pivoted towards Tek. "Originally, I WAS going to tell you to clean up your mess…"

Octavio's fleshy tendril reached to the side of the throne and twisted a dial on the side. The throne fidgeted and buzzed, then whirled towards the hole quickly. The hybrid and the Octoling stood up straight and stared out the hole out at the rocky enclosure that was Octo Valley.

"But it looks like we might have a bigger issue on our tentacles." Octavio stated with a sigh.


AN: The Splatfest demo is today. Maybe I'll see you guys there?

Thanks Darkstar248 for reviewing. You know, if this were an actual novel, I might say it's a personal interpretation up to the reader which reflects the love and hate relationship with siblings similar to that of Tekken or something.

But all I can really say is that it's up to you on what that represented.

Thanks for reading, this is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, don't forget to buy a capacitive stylus if you want to draw in Splatoon 2.