Chapter 4 – Inkopolis Basics

Toda stood still as she looked at her wristpad. A strange button was blinking, and she had no idea what it meant. One thing that stumped her for sure, was why turf wars needed these 'wristpad' techno thingies. Teal ink splashed against her foot as Paci slid in next to her. He was surrounded by some kind of force field, and upon contact one appeared around Toda as well. "It's a bubbler, like a shield," he said, and glanced at Toda's blinking wristpad. "Hey, that button enables your special weapon."

"Special weapon?" Toda asked.

Paci nodded. "Yeah, a special weapon. Once you get enough coverage points, it finishes charging. Then, you press that button with the symbol for that certain type of special. Like mine, a bubbler. All Splattershot Jr.'s come with bubblers. You should save your special for when you really needed. But you only get a limited time to use it, you can see its charge go down. Maybe you could use it against those snipers." He pointed up at two inkling girls, each wielding a splat charger. They sat upon the highest point in Blackbelly Skatepark, and were sniping upon the squids below. Well, one of them at least. It looked like the other girl was using it like a shooter, not like a charger should be used.

"Thanks, but I still don't understand the rest of this stuff," Toda said.

"Alright," Paci began, "There's a picture of the map, the whole battle stage. See all that teal and pink ink? That's the current coverage of each team. And look at that pulsing squid symbol," he pointed at the squid on the wristpad, "that represents your location. The one next to it, is mine. Up on the top are some more squids. They represent who's currently alive and who's been splatted. Oh, and there's your points in the corner."

Toda blinked. "Wow, you sure know a lot."

It was like Paci didn't hear her. "Your wristpad also shows who you splatted, and when you respawn it shows who splatted you, for a short amount of time."

Toda furrowed her brow. "You play this before you were 14 or somethin'?"

Paci shrugged. "Those online battles we'd play as kids are replicas of the real thing. I don't think I'm very good myself. But I wanna get a roller." His eyes gleamed. "A Krak-on roller."

"Eh," said Toda. "I don't believe a roller and I would do good on a relationship. Shooter's better for me." She looked at her wristpad. "Our team's winning, ya' know- "

Paci pulled Toda by the arm. "Watch out!" But it was too late. Both inklings were splatted by a huge pink squid creature.

The arrow designs on the respawn pad began to move in a speeding circle, as Toda reformed, Paci not so long after. Toda scratched her head. "What the heck was that?!"

Paci stared at his wrist. "Look on your wristpad." Toda did as told. On it was some footage of an inkling boy, the words on the screen saying, Splatted by Kraken!

A name was also listed, as well as his current gear. According to the screen, his name was Teu. Not a very common name, Toda figured.

He must be from the mainland Pacific.

The background music changed. It was now a more, upbeat, song. "The 'one minute left' song." Paci explained. "Plays at the last minute."

Toda squidded along the east side of the skatepark. Apparently the tables have turned, and pink ink was covering the majority of the area. Toda began shooting all the pink, and then she heard a short whimper. The inkling boy who had splatted her earlier was now trying to step his way out, however, was too slow and had not caught sight of Toda until- splat! A small pink squid floated up into the air, making a sad warble. A name appeared on her wristpad. Splatted Teu!

That moment, a new feeling entered Toda. She began to shoot, squid, and splat.

Splat the opposing team! was all Toda thought as suddenly the teal team was winning again, and the whistle blew. The warbles of a female inkling Toda had splatted echoed around the map, and Toda's wristpad blinked, an arrow pointing behind her towards the base. Following it, she saw the rest of her 'splatoon'.

Her and Paci, level 1 Splattershot Jr.'s. Another male inkling wore a hat, positioning it backwards. He also wore some crazy looking shoes, which Toda recognized as the 'crazy arrows'. He wielded a Splattershot. The other was a roller, although the only gear different from the basic was his pilot goggles.

The respawn pad had converted into a jump pad, and soon all the squids who had been in the battle were at Inkopolis Tower, awaiting results.

The teal team had won 78.5 to 43, and were cheering. So this was what an ink battle was like. They pay you for simply playing and having fun.

How delightful, Toda thought, holding a few sand dollars in her hand.

"That was fun!" Paci exclaimed, his mantle quickly turning a bright yellow expressing his emotions.

"Let's do some more," Toda said. "Best we get to level 4 so we can get all the stuff we'll need. Along with more weapons and money too!"

After those few battles, Toda had reached level 5, while Paci was only a few points away. She began to examine the picture on the window of the clothing shop, Jelly Fresh. She and Paci walked in, and had gotten a warm welcome from Jelonzo, a jellyfish. The tips of Paci's tentacles had turned a bit green in amusement from Jelonzo's way of speaking. The jellyfish lived alongside inklings, however spoke a different language and not the standard, Cephalopod, a.k.a. Common Mollusk. Toda had gotten a few shirts, and was now wearing a Black Anchor. Paci was wearing a Squidvader Cap he'd bought from Cooler Heads. Toda had gotten a Sporty Bobble Hat and they both had to agree, that tiny clownfish was something they would want dead ("LOSER ALERT!"). Paci wore a Black Layered LS with Inksaver (Main) as his main ability. As for their foot gear Toda wore the Orange Arrows, and Paci wearing Yellow Seahorses.

"Watch out!" Paci cried as he threw a sub weapon. He expected that a squid beacon could be thrown a certain distance, but it simply placed itself in front of him. Toda laughed. Paci began to realize Toda had a strange, heh-heh-heh, laugh. She moved back a little from the squid dummies used in the testing area, apparently testing the range of a Splattershot. When she realized that the range wasn't that much, she heaved a sigh of disappointment.

"Hmm, guess I'll have to level up to get this roller..." Paci said. He bought a regular splat roller, but what he wanted most was a Krak-on roller. An echoing beep noise went throughout the area as Paci began to see lines on his wristpad screen connecting him to the squid dummies.

"So this is an echolocator. Cool," Toda said, now holding an N-zap '85. "This n-zap is really good," she said, grinning. "I'm gonna get this one."

Paci rolled his eyes. "I've gotta wait till level 7 to get a Krak-on roller." He looked down, seeing his long shadow cast over the area. The sky had become a warm orange, with the outlines of clouds tinged pink and gold. Toda was on the high grate across the area, splatting the dummies below her.

She looked up. "Hey, think we should go back to Octo Valley? I actually find that it might sharpen our skills before we can play another battle."

Paci thought about it. The shadow of a cloud loomed over them, showing the bioluminescence from Paci's mantle. "Hmm, sure. I guess we could..."

Toda blinked. "Then let's get going!"

Paci jumped down from the grate. "Alright." The two inklings left the testing area and made their way to the grate tunnel leading to Octo Valley.