Splatoon: The Bate Bros.

The Royal Flush

Once again, it was peaceful in Inkopolis Plaza. Nothing changed much, most of the squid kids were blogging on the social media known to all as "Miiverse", drawing fanart, comics, memes, and everything you could possibly think of in the Splatoon hub world. That is, until a certain braggart decided to disturb the peace.

"STEP ASIDE, PLEBS!" Everyone who's eardrums weren't completely shattered by the loud announcement turned to the front of the plaza. The Inkling that shouted was none other than our infamous little troublemaker, Ari Jabin, as well as his squad, Sari, Rit, and Bas at the head of the plaza by the trains. Standing on top of one of the benches, Ari was holding a megaphone, shouting, "My girls and I are just gonna play in one of the Turf Wars, which of you losers are gonna do the honors of giving up to us so we can get cash?!" His female squad joined in with their trademark use of giggling. Of course, no one wants to get shouted at this early in the morning, so most of the Inklings either fled the scene, or fell over from temporary loss of hearing. Great start to a chapter, paramedics already involved.

"Hmm… Think I was a little too good?" Ari scratched his chin.

Sari just shrugged, "Probably just couldn't compete with the best of the best, huh?" The other females simply smiled, and said, "Yeah!" in response.

"All I need," Ari said, "Someone I can style on, show them my coolness factor." He stated, imitating an explosion with his hands. "Someone fresh enough that I can beat, someone weak enough to respect me, someone who'll get me on Inkopolis News! Ah, I can see it now… Even Callie and Marie will want to meet me!" He said chuckling. "A plan that could get me into the history books!" His squad simultaneously struck a pose with him, all saying, "Aw yeah!"

"Now, to make a couple phone calls…"


Of course, you can't have a chapter in this story without the brothers getting involved. Splin and Sharq were currently flying towards the plaza, messing up the trajectory a little again. This time they landed on a certain street urchin.

"YOW!"

"SHARP!"

Splin and Sharq quickly bounced off of Spyke, who didn't seem to mind two squids falling on him at over 30 mph. (Or over 50 km/h for any readers living elsewhere)

"I gotta set up a landing point or something…" Splin said, rubbing his back.

"What did we land on anyways?" Sharq asked irritated.

"I believe you mean 'who did you land on', love."

The brothers turned around, coming face-to-face with the alleyway urchin. Upon seeing him, the two immediately stepped up, and said their condolences.

"S-Sorry Spyke!" Sharq stated.

"Apologies…" Splin chimed in, looking at the ground.

"It's fine you two. At least you didn't steal away my business, unlike that bloke over there." Spyke pointed at a gathering at the bottom of the tower, a certain Jungle Hat Inkling standing at the highest step. "Boy's been taking all of my business away from me. Can't get any dough to buy more Super Sea Snails, certainly not enough to provide for my clients."

"Hey, it's that guy from earlier." Splin observed. "Hmm. Seems to be extremely pleased with himself." Turning around to ask Sharq what he thought, Sharq was nowhere to be found. Surveying the area, he found Sharq running towards the crowd. Sighing, Splin turned back to Spyke. "I'll see what's going on. Maybe we can help get your business back." That being said, Splin rushed over, calling Sharq's name. Spyke looked over at the crowd, before going back to tapping his finger on the ground.


"Win prizes and glory! Power and prestige! All your hopes and dreams can come true if you join!" Ari shouted to the crowd gathering around, still burning the ears of innocent civilians. Nevertheless, many Inklings and other sentient sea creatures were patiently listening.

"You mean like a lottery or something?" A sentient lionfish asked, scratching his head.

"Close, but not at all! This is a test of skill, of might, smarts, speed, this is a test of who is the best!" Ari shouted directly towards the lionfish, whose feelers went up in interest. "The challenge is simple, if any of you can beat me and my squadron, as well as 12 other Inklings, you can win gold and glory!" The crowd became excited, chatting and asking if they could join. "The entry fee is simple, just a measly 9000 coins!" This announcement quieted the crowd, all murmuring and checking their stashes. News reporters and cameramen got in the mix, presumably because the news days here, pardon my language, really suck recently.

"We're here live on the scene, where a boy named Ari Jabin seems to be holding some sort of contest!" Pausing, the news reporter immediately stated, "That's all for today. Back to you in the studio, Callie and Marie."

"OH COME ON!" Ari shouted, disrupting more poor Inklings' hearing. "There's gotta be some of you who are willing to fight for fame! How about this, the winner of the challenge will get new gear and a whole lot of cash? We need you people, I need you people! (To fall for this), who's brave enough to take on this feat? Anybody at all?!"

"Hey! Ari, can me and my bro join?!"

Ari turned in the direction of the voice, his smile quickly disappearing. "...Except him. Oh Cod, that's just perfect." Ari said, groaning. "The one scrub who could possibly beat me." "Maybe if we ignore him he'll leave, cous." Sari said, one hand on her hip and the other one under her chin. "Hopefully Sari, I don't want to have to deal with this clown again." Sharq dashed towards the crowd, breaking through, with a sack of gold raised above his head. "I saved up a little, what do you think?" Sharq stopped, panting, raising a whopping 900,000 coins. Ari and Sari stared at each other, before smirking. "Sure… We'll just take this."

"WHAT?! Sharq no you'll bankrupt us!" Splin panted, finally catching up to his brother.

"Too late!" Ari laughed. Suddenly, Rit and Bas swooped down and grabbed the sack of gold. "Thank you, handsome!" They winked at Sharq, smiling back at them. "Ladies and gentlemen, our first challengers!" A cheering began within the crowd, everyone pushing Splin and Sharq to the front of Inkopolis Tower. "These two brave young gentlemen have the guts, (not to mention the money,) to face the ultimate Ari Challenge!" Ari yelled, his female companions faking a swoon.

"Before we start, what do you have in mind?" Splin asked uncertain.

Ari grinned. "Ah! I was just getting to that…"


"Hmm…" Splin murmured. The two brothers were at the Bluefin Depot, currently at the south spawn point. The only difference is that every single nook and cranny of the map was covered in an orange coating. Splin and Sharq's hair coloring switched to blue for this round, signifying their contrast to the other team. The duo's weapon choices were a Slosher bucket and a Mini Splatling, Sharq attaching another odometer to his weapon, making it a-.

"Strange? Yeah, wonder how I figured that one out professor?" A cocky voice rang out jokingly.

Excuse me, just gonna deal with a certain Boston Boom-Bringer, see you guys on the flip side.

"See ya later voice!" Sharq yelled, smiling and waving at the air.

"Bye," Splin said waving, going back to surveying the area.

"The challenge is simple," Ari shouted from the other side of the area. Luckily, the spawn point's protective barrier stopped his megaphone's absurd volume from blasting out any eardrums. "All you two need to do, is get that little flag…" A flag behind the spawn point with a picture of a Rainmaker on it was flapping in the wind. "...And get it over to our base, or the other side of the map! We're giving you 10 minutes to get over here, if it seems easy, trust me, it won't be." Ari put the megaphone down, sitting at his spawn point, his female squad sitting on the bricks surrounding it.

"Hey guys," Rit started, "What happens if they do manage to get over here?"

"Trust me, with the help I got, those two don't stand a single chance!" Ari laughed, his squad looking at each other uncertain, before turning their attention back to the orange-stained battlefield.

"This is new… Hey Sharq, mind tossing a Suction Bomb over there? We should test the waters first..." Splin pointed at the orange tiles ahead of them. Sharq nodded, throwing an explosive cylinder of paint in front of their spawn point. The bomb made a small "whirring" before exploding in a shower of paint. A flash of orange could be seen, before the mess was immediately recovered by twelve other enemy Inklings. "Uh oh. Splin, we're gonna need a really good plan for this one."

Splin took his headphones and placed them on his head, reached into his pocket for his phone, and picked a track. "Guess we're gonna be Playing with Danger today." Sharq looked over, and revved up his Mini Splatling, and nodded, a determined grin present on his face.

A groan could be heard. "Ah crap, you gave em' song references too?" The cocky voice rang out again. "There's only so many dumb references you can make, ya know!"

Hey, sometimes you gotta branch out.


AN: I'm currently facing a bit of a "delay in productivity", meaning I won't be able to get to the AWESOME MLG RAINMAKER-ESQUE SCENE that I'm sure you've all been waiting for today. Schoolwork, free time, lost items, trying to finish up video game stories, all of the stuff that keeps you from doing anything. Besides me rambling on about my business, thanks again to NSPfan for sticking with my story. Yeah, the TF2 references are really more about me spouting references, but I'm planning a bit of a crossover story later on. Most of the future interactions with the Tele-Cube are gonna be themed adventures or something, with crossover stories in the future going into detail with Splin and Sharq Bate going into other video games. Other than that, I think that's it for now. This is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, I'm just gonna grab a snack, I'll see you next time!