Author's notes: The question from the previous chapter is still up for you guys to try to guess about the trick I use for the Inkling's names in my story. If its not answered I'll probably reveal it as fun trivia for the story in either chapter 9 or chapter 10, I'm not sure yet for certain which one.
On a side note after reading some other Splatoon fan fiction, (as well as in some other types of fan fiction,) I've noticed that some did author notes at the beginning and others did it at the end where they could explain references they used. Which do you guys prefer? Please let me know as well as any comments or questions you have for me.
Enjoy!
Chapter 8: Onto Turf Wars
Giving Molly a brief tour of the general area of Inkopolis the others quickly explained the different areas, such as the Booyah Base shopping mall and the dojo for one on one ink competitions. At the end of the explanations in front of a building that was called Inkopolis Tower Inka and Molly had to wait for Squil and Ploosh to come back since they had gone to go get their Turf War equipment.
"Are those two roommates or something?"
Inka snorted, "Sure if that's what you want to call it. Ploosh is actually living with Squil's family since his lives in Calimari County, a good several hours drive away."
"What about you?"
"Me? I'm living with my older sister and my nephew Urchio, she's a waiter for one of the cafés here. It has some pretty good crab cakes at it if you are hungry later."
"Um, sure I'll try to remember that." She said as she started to feel nauseous at the thought of eating any kind of seafood.
"Hey Inka, ditched the boys have you?"
Molly jumped several feet into the air at the sudden voice behind her and nearly turned into a squid in the process. Turning around she found a partially stunned medium blue female Inkling with similarly colored eyes that wore headphones like Alga had, a burgundy shirt and pink and blue sneakers. "Wow, you're pretty tense."
"I'm sorry," Molly squeaked, her face turning red for the umpteenth time that day. "I only just arrived here today."
"I figured that was the case," a smile formed on the girls face, "I didn't mean to startle you. My name is Soral and I'm on the Manta Rays Splatoon."
"Oh, you're Soral! I've heard a lot about you."
"Hopefully all good things I'm sure," she leaned her shoulder up against one of the pillars, careful not to let the large roller strapped to her back hit anything. "What's your name and Splatoon?"
"I'm Molly and I'm in the Squidbeak Splatoon."
Soral's posture slightly stiffened at the statement, "So you're Marlin's replacement huh?" She turned her gaze towards Inka.
"Yes Soral she is." Inka gave her a look like she wished Soral hadn't brought up the subject.
Seeing her unease Soral quickly backtracked out of the current conversation, "Well anyway I have to go girls. Zackerel and the others are probably waiting for me in the lobby. It was nice meeting you Molly." Showing her fangs in a friendly manner she walked up the last few steps to the entrance of Inkopolis Tower and walked into the lobby.
"Hey Inka was that Soral?" Ploosh asked, as he ran up to them. In his hand he had a black and green duffle bag and a roller strapped to his back like Soral had only it looked to be lighter in weight than hers had been and his was bright green with blue swirling marks on the ends instead of hers which had primarily been mostly metallic.
"It was, the Manta Rays are about to go and do Turf Wars."
"Hey why don't we do a Turf War with them?"
"Ploosh not that I'm not eager to play again but Molly hasn't ever been in a Turf War before and last I check the Manta Rays are one of the higher ranked Splatoons."
"Molly could handle it, can't you Molly?"
"I-I, u-uh, um..."
"Come on Molly...please?" he started to give her a sad look, ears drooping downwards and a slight pout forming on his lips. If he had turned into his squid form Molly was almost certain that he would started to whine like a sad little puppy.
"Alright fine!" She said but while the other weren't looking she quickly gave him a "I'll blame you for this if this goes bad" look. She saw him slightly shiver in fear in reaction to her expression.
As they walked into the lobby the saw Soral and three other Inkling standing in front of a black and white cat whose markings strongly resembled a bow tie and coveralls. Upon farther observations Molly also quickly realized that the end of its long tail was in the shape of an arrow.
"I thought all mammalian creatures didn't survive the flood here?"
"Judd's the exception." Inka stated, "When the flood became imminent the Landdwellers placed him in a protective cryogenic sleep. Our people found him while going through the remains of the Landdweller's civilization. During the Great Turf War he helped out our side and now is the gamekeeper and judge for the games."
"Oh," the explanation didn't stop her from continuing to stare at him.
"Hey guys," noticing their presence in the lobby Soral and the rest of her team walked over to them, "I didn't know you were going to do Turf Wars."
"We decided that we would like to go up against your team since you guys are already here," Ploosh declared.
"With a Rookie?" A male Inkling with reddish orange colored tentacles and eyes asked with a raised eyebrow.
"If they think they can handle it I don't see why not Zack," Soral insisted.
"Well alright, I just hate it when I feel like I'm taking advantage of a team due to them lacking experience." he held out a hand to Molly, "my name is Zackerel, but most people call me Zack, and I'm the leader of the Manta Rays Splatoon. You clearly have already met Soral and this is Crad and Cass, they're twins." He quickly indicated the cyan male and female Inklings behind him.
"Molly, just arrived here today." She took the offered hand and shook it.
"Well Molly may the best Inkling win."
"Hey Zack! Walleye Warehouse just finished it's last competition, let's head out!" Cass called out to him as she heaved up something that looked very much like a giant paintbrush and headed down one of four hallways.
"Alright Cass I'm coming. See you guys on the field." He followed the rest of his team.
"We should get ready too. Come on guys," Squil already had on his harness and ink tank as he pulled out a gun similar to Molly's from his bag. Ploosh unstrapped the roller from his back and Inka quickly snapped together a long-range weapon. Pulling her own Splattershot out Molly followed them down the same hallway the other team had gone.
Near the end of the hall it split into two separate alcoves with brightly glowing pools of ink that had a grate over it. The one that the Manta Rays were standing above was lime green while the unoccupied one glowed royal blue.
"Blue it is," Squil stepped on to the grate. Turning into his squid form he slid down between the metal bars of the grate and into the blue pool of ink. The other two quickly followed suit.
Leaning over it Molly tried to spot them in the ink but couldn't. Glancing over into the other alcove the other team was already gone as well. Swallowing nervously she stepped onto the grate and turned into her squid form, causing her to go through the grate and plunge into the ink pool below.
Once she was no longer disoriented from the drop she swam down a tunnel and up through another grate to find the others waiting for her. All of them now, however, had blue colored tentacles instead of their normal colors, minus Squil since it was the color he naturally had.
"What...?"
"Our tentacles and ink changes color when we are in Turf Wars, once the game is over our tentacles will change back to our normal colors and we will produce our normal colored ink again. Yours has changed color too if you hadn't noticed," Squil pointed to her tentacles.
Grabbing hold of one of her tentacles she brought it up to her face saw that it was indeed the same color blue as Squil's normal color and looking behind her she also saw the ink in the tank on her back was blue as well.
"Hello fellow Turf War Players," a voice rang out from speakers around the area, "my name is Judd, your wond-fur-ful judge and gamekeeper and since we have new players in this game I want to make sure the rules are purr-factly clear. The object of the game is to cover the turf with your color of ink. Walls don't count and splatting opponents won't improve your overall score but will certainly help spread your color across the turf, also physical fighting will not be tolerated and any who do so will be automatically disqualified. You'll have three minutes, good luck and may the best Inklings win."
"Let's do this!" Flicking the roller he had open Ploosh slammed it onto the ground. Rolling her eyes at him Inka raised her weapon to eye level as it charged up to fire and Squil cocked his own gun in preparation. Molly swallowed again as she shakily raised her Splattershot.
Squil looked over at her and gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder, "Just stick with me Molly and you'll be just fine."
"Thanks Squil."
"The game will begin in 3...2...1. Go!" The cat's voice rang out.
Instantly Squil, Ploosh, and Inka ran off the grate and rushed off in three different directions, immediately started to paint the ground with the blue ink. Hesitating for a second she followed Squil as he went down a path of corridors. Covering the spots he missed in his haste the two of them quickly had a large chunk of the hallways on their side of the area covered in blue.
As they neared where the center was Squil was several feet ahead of Molly when as he turned a corner he let out a short yelp of surprise before exploding in a burst of lime green ink.
"Squil!" She cried out as she ran to the area where he had been. Turning at the same corner she quickly skidded to a stop when she nearly ran right into Cass who was in mid-swing with her brush. Quickly showered in lime green colored ink Molly barely had a chance to wipe some of it out of her eyes before Cass whacked her twice more with the brush and she blacked out.
Shaking her head she found herself back at the starting point with Squil standing next to her, "you alright Molly?"
"Yeah, what happened to us just now?"
"We got splatted, when you get splatted you're sent back to your respawn point. But luckily for us we can just super jump back onto the playing field."
"Super jump? what's that?"
"This," turning into a squid Molly watched Squil puffed up slightly before launching himself into the air with a trailing stream of blue ink.
"Oh! That's pretty cool!" changing into her squid form she allowed her body to fill up with ink and quickly forced it out sending her skywards. Shifting into her humanoid form in mid flight she gasped slightly at the view she had over the whole area. Large sections of it was covered in their blue color but other parts, including in the center, were completely covered in lime green. Looking some more she quickly spotted Inka being chased down by Crad who had a Splattershot like Squil had.
Nearing the ground Molly brought her legs forward and landed on the concrete with a slight jarring sensation in her legs. Immediately lifting her gun up once she was certain of her footing she shot Crad just before he could take out Inka who had become trapped in their ink while trying to get away from him. Like Squil had he exploded into a puddle of ink leaving Inka the chance to spray the area around her feet to free herself.
"You okay Inka?"
"Yes I'm fine. If it were not for the fact that I had to jump down from the second floor to avoid one his suction bombs he wouldn't have been able to almost get me like that. Thanks for the backup."
"Your welcome, both me and Squil got Splatted at the same time by Cass so I understand why you wouldn't want to be splatted in these games."
"Those Inkbrushes can seriously take you out fast if the owner knows what they're doing. From what I have seen in this case what's happening is Cass is taking us all out so that we have little time on the field, allowing the rest of their team to focus on covering turf in their own ink. If we don't do something soon this match is as good as lost to us."
As she listened to what Inka was saying an idea suddenly came to Molly, "If someone could take her out do you think it would give us a chance?"
"Um, sure I guess it could help bu...hey! Molly stop! Where are you going?!" Ignoring her Molly rushed off where she could hear battling taking place, covering any lime green she saw as she ran and silently hopped her plan would work.
Running around some crates she once again nearly ran right into Cass. Jumping backwards she barely missed the sweep of ink from her Inkbrush as Cass tried to attack her. Turning into her squid form she slipped into some blue ink as Cass started to chase her down. Climbing up onto several tall crates she shifted back as Cass chuckled up at her while raising her brush up to spray her, "You sure know how to get yourself in trouble rookie."
"Yeah, but I also know how to take people off guard," raising a burst bomb above her head she smiled mischievously at her as a loud ding sounded from her ink tank, "hey Cass, think fast!" She immediately started to throw one burst bomb after another.
Instinctively Cass tried to catch the bomb with her hands but it busted open upon contact with her hands and covered her with blue ink. Three bombs later she exploded with a shriek of terror.
"One minute remaining," Judd called out from the speakers.
Throwing the last few bombs she had Molly hopped off the crates and went back to spraying the ground to cover the last of the ink Cass had put down. Passing through one of the corridors she quickly had to hide in her ink as Zack and Crad ran past. They covered very little of the blue ink so she was able to wait until they had just barely gone past before she popped out of the ink and hit Zack squarely in the back, causing him to have to go back to his respawn point. Crad looked backwards to see the cause of his leader's defeat but didn't pause as he continued to run.
Several seconds later a large blue squid swam around the corner and towards her before it shrank down to a normal sized squid before it changed back into Ploosh, "Hey did you get either of those two?"
"I got Zack but Crad got away."
"Well that's better than nothing I suppose." He seemed a little disappointed at her answer.
"How did you make yourself big like that?"
"Its my special for my Krak-on Splat Roller," he lovingly patted the handle shaft of the roller, "it's called the Kraken. When I transform into a Kraken I can take out players just by ramming into them but I can get partially stunned if they try to shoot directly at me and I can only be a Kraken for a short period of time."
"Well I guess that explains why those two were running. I was probably the least of their problems."
"That's certainly not going to be what you will be thinking when I'm through with you rookie!"
Looking behind Molly groaned slightly when she saw a very angry Cass coming towards her very quickly, "why does it seem like everyone is out to get me?"
"Well you probably wouldn't have this problem if you didn't have such a nasty habit of pissing people off!" Rushing towards Cass he tried to roll over her with his roller but the Inkbrush allowed her to avoid his roller and whack him from behind sending him back to the respawn point. Barely slowing down Cass continued to come after her.
Turning into a squid she swam through blue ink as fast as she could as once again she had to avoid Cass and her Inkbrush. This time however Cass made sure that she couldn't try to climb up any crates and out of reach. Eventually she forced her into a corner that was completely surrounded in their ink.
"Any last words rookie?"
"'Why me?' comes to mind but I don't think you'll really care."
"Yep, you're right. I don't care." She raised her Inkbrush to attack.
Only to suddenly explode in a burst of blue ink.
"We can't even leave you alone for even a minute, can we Molly?" Inka asked as she helped cover the lime green ink surrounding her with short bursts of ink from the charger weapon she had.
"I figured someone would show up," she shook lime green ink off from her head, "how did you find me so fast?"
"I got splatted when Zack sneak attacked me from behind on one of the second floor overhangs. When I had respawned Ploosh told me Cass was hunting you down for an earlier stunt you had pulled on her and I super jumped to get over here to rescue you."
"Thanks again Inka, I didn't think she would take it that badly."
"Some players can be pretty sore losers when they lose. Speaking of losing..." a loud whistle sounded followed by Judd stating that time was up and that we were to return to our respawn point to exit the area. "Come on let's go see how badly we lost."
By the time they had returned to the lobby Squil, Ploosh, and the Manta Rays had already arrived and seemed to be staring at several screens that show a birds eye view of Walleye Warehouse, "it's pretty even isn't it?" Zack was saying as Molly and Inka walked over to the group.
"Judd will be able to determine the winner," Soral answered his comment, her tentacles already half changed back to its normal medium blue color.
"Either way its going to be close. Hey Molly, nice going with that sneak attack on me. You caught me completely off guard."
"Thanks Zack," she replied as her face turned pink.
"Alright everyone the totals are in!" Standing in front of the screen with the two teams on either side of him Judd waved his tail in anticipation, "the winner of this game is...the Squidbeak Splatoon, 48.6 to 45.7!" He waved a blue flag as well as pointing his arrow shaped tail at them for emphasis.
"Booyah! We won!" Ploosh pumped his fist in the air as he grabbed hold of Molly and pulled her into a tight hug, "and it's all thanks to you Molly."
"I very much doubt that Ploosh," she insisted as she tried to free herself from his grasp.
"Hey rookie," finally getting away from him she watched as Cass came over to her, "not many Inklings have been able to splat me in a long time. Keep up the good work and I'm sure you'll become an amazing Turf War fighter."
"Thanks, and actually my name is Molly by the way."
"Whatever...Molly." she gave her a small smile before walking back to her brother.
"Congratulations and here is your award," holding a small bag Judd handed it to Squil who opened to reveal small gold coins in it, "500 coins for each of you. Don't use it all in one place."
"Don't worry Judd we won't," Squil responded, "when we get the chance we'll separate the earnings so we can each use what we earned as we each seem fit."
"Sounds good to me," Inka said as she flicked lime green ink off her hoodie, "but first I would like to get a little cleaned up if you guys don't mind."
