It was morning and the sky was bright on Inkopolis. Grina lays her cup on the kitchen table, near a bottle of seamilk and a cereal box. After turning on the TV, she sits on the chair trying to open her eyelids as much as possible.
She prepares her breakfast, takes cereal wet of milk with her spoon and after a loud yawn, she eats the cereals. The more she gulps the cereals, the more her entire body was charging up with energy. The eyelids were fully raised now and the girl could pay more attention at the television than before.
"And now for the breaking news!" A male Inkling with glasses was talking. "The Squid Sisters finally announced the day of their concert: today at 18:20 PM, inside the Jumpin' Fishin' pool. People are already invading the place, eagerly waiting for the young idols to sing yet again in public."
Grina snorted in boredom: she took her smartphone and opens the WhatSquid application. She inhaled gladly, once she noticed Bars was online. After clicking on his icon, she taps a message on an empty box.
good morning barsy :3
She sends the message and decided to prepare herself, while waiting impatiently for a response. As she was deciding her shirt, a jingle was heard coming from the smartphone. Quickly, she grabs her phone and looks at the message.
morning
She taps down another message.
did you sleep well like a baby?
She throws the phone on the bed and runs back towards her closet. She chose a shirt with short sleeves. The jingle was heard again, while Grina wears the cloth. She dives on the bed, taking the phone with agility and reading the message.
more like a king
The girl giggles and quickly writes back.
lol
today we have to save that old man and the small girl :3
Grina relaxed more on her bed, waiting for Bars's next message.
yeah I know
A small message reads that the boy was writing another message.
we go there asap?
Grina writes deeply concentrated on the device.
yep
bring the splatter with u ;3
She smiles, as she sends this message. The girl was having some fun, with the chat. The next message didn't take too long to arrive.
ok, place?
Grina looks up, thinking about it… then she writes her thoughts.
plaza
don't take too long :(
She scratches her cheek, as the new message was displayed on the screen.
k
later
She writes back, in a fast pace.
alligator :3
As soon as she sends the text, Grina gets up and starts choosing her shoes… until another jingle was heard. Driven by curiosity, the girl grabs her smartphone.
rofl!
A little laugh escaped from Grina's mouth. She hides the application and puts the phone inside her pocket. She chose green shoes and wore them in the moment. The girl walks inside her bathroom and wears her contact lens breathing heavily in fear.
Once are correctly inserted, she blinks multiple times to see if the lens would stay.
"I-I'm getting tired of risking my eyes, just to appear fresh! From tomorrow, I'll use those nerdy glasses even if that means eternal mockery!" She promises mentally, looking at herself in the mirror and shaking her fist.
She walks inside the kitchen and opens one of the many food storages: she picks up two products of chocolate sticks.
"In case our hungry boy wants some chocolastic energy!" Grina giggles at the idea.
After storing them inside her pockets, the girl goes inside her bedroom instantly tracking down her weapon modified illegally. She lifts it up, while her eyes were sparkling.
"It's time to fry those Octarians!" She nods mischievously.
Grina took her Ink Tank on her shoulders and picked her wallet, struggling to find room for it inside her pockets. She took a last look around the house… and off she goes from her apartment. While walking out of the building, a persistent sense of remorse was lurking over her head: she frowns trying her best to not cry again.
"No, I can't cry! I have to be strong! I-I must be… the lives of two innocent people depend on me and Bars."
Inhaling loudly with her nose, the girl musters all her positivity she can take. Her smile comes a bit forced and her mind was getting full of pleasant memories. However, no matter the efforts, her mood couldn't be improved by such willpower.
The events happened last evening prevented the girl from sleeping in the first hours of the night. Before departing for the land of dreams, Grina promised to have a talk with Mirii within this very day. The quiet morning was giving her a small vibe of depression.
Once she exits the building, the girl's heart was suddenly sinking down: around her, there was literally no living creature walking around or talking with each other. The deep silence was choking Grina, making her think instantly about all the possible reasons for such impossible event.
"Th-this is a nightmare…! Th-this must be a nightmare! I-I need to wake up! I WANNA WAKE UP!"
The girl gave herself a nip on her right arm: nothing important happened. She starts breathing rapidly, her face was becoming pale and her body was losing all its warmth temperature. Thinking for only one second about Bars, made Grina rush down the road fearing the worst.
While running, the girl noticed several people around the district but they didn't matter anymore: her brain was cursed with horrible theories and scary observations about her boy friend. Her only hope was resting in the plaza…
She finally reached the area: her head was anxiously searching for a particular familiar face, while holding her breath. Once Grina saw very recognizable clothes, a sudden strength immediately covers all her entire body and her mouth quickly forms its biggest sincere smile: she sprinted extremely fast towards Bars, which was looking in another way.
"HI BARSY!" She shouted, diving on him.
He turns over her, instinctively grabbing the girl: both fell down on the ground, hugging each other. She strokes him with her head, as she sighed in relief.
"Wh-what the shell, Grina?!" He complains, raising his shoulders.
Grina looks at him, still smiling.
"Ih ih, I did a weetle surprise attack!" She said in a kiddy voice, trying to emulate a cat muzzle.
Bars stares at her… and chuckles a little.
"Ship! If you were a seatiger, I'd have been toasted!"
Grina giggles and jokingly tries to chow down the boy, even emulating the chewing sounds.
"Ha ha ha ha, stop it girl! It-it tickles!" He laughs uncontrollably.
The girl gets up, laughing too. She pours a hand to the boy, which he holds without hesitation and gets up with the help of Grina.
"Man, you sure know how to wake up completely a person, don't you?" He comments, as he took back his modified weapon.
"Yep! Morning hugs are a neat specialty I trained over the years." She grins, starting to walk once Bars had his weapon in his hands.
"Since when you hugged me like this in the morning?" He follows the girl, puzzled by her speech.
"Since now." She grins.
The answer confused the boy even more.
"Ehm… Grina?"
"Hmm?" She smiles at him.
He stares at the girl… then he sighs.
"Nothing." He lowers his head.
The boy starts blushing a bit.
"No, ask me without any guilt! Really, I'm all ears!" She raises her ears, almost hugging him again.
The boy blushes even more, gulping in hesitation…
"Well?" She tilts her head, curiously.
"Well… ehm… I… I wanted to say that… I liked that hug…" Bars becomes red, wishing to hide for a moment.
Grina instantly blushes a lot, realizing more clearly what she has done before. Turning quickly ahead, she lowers her head wishing to become invisible. Neither the two said anything to each other, as they almost reached the manhole: Grina's eyes glances at someone very familiar to her left. She stops to take a better look.
The girl saw Mirii sitting on the top of parallel bars! She pulls multiple times at Bars's jacket, to get his attention.
"Look! Over there!" Grina pointed enthusiastically at Mirii.
The boy immediately tracked her: he smiled.
"Wanna talk with her, for a moment?" He asks.
"You bet!" She smiles too.
They run towards their friend: Mirii quickly notices them and reacted in shock.
"Hi Mirii! Finally we found you!" She waves her hand.
"Girl, where have you been yesterday?! We wanted to invite you both for some chowing and dancing!" Bars said dancing briefly.
The shorter girl stares at the Inklings, without showing any emotions.
"… ehm… Mirii?" Grina becomes slightly worried.
"Uuuuhhhmm… why the silence? Aren't you happy to see us?!" Bars was reacting in the same way.
Mirii keeps looking at them, starting to gradually frown.
"Oh, I know Bars… … she's still mad about the other day… right?" She lowers her head in shame, waiting for a response with faint hopes.
As suspected, their friend didn't react at all.
"Look! I… we actually wanted to talk to you, yesterday… well… about that thing happened inside the squad…"
"Yeah, we were greatly looking for that, pal…!"
"I wanted to discuss about that with Hunry and a nice catfish burger in front all of us… but I think it needs to be said now."
"Let me guess: you two really think I'd forgive YOU, after all the things you have done to me! Am I right?" Mirii jumps down from the parallel bars.
"… wait… you are still mad at us?" Grina expanded her eyes surprised.
The shorter girl shakes slowly her head.
"I'm not just mad… we are enemies now."
That statement shocked the two Squids, making them panic.
"WHAT?! NO! I-I can't be your enemy! I'm your best friend! No, scratch that! I'm your sister, Mirii!"
"Yeah! Me too! You are our sister, Mirii!"
Suddenly, the shorter girl expanded her eyes with anger.
"Retreat immediately what you have said, right in this instance…!" She menaces them, using a serious tone.
Getting scared by her attitude, the two friends walks backwards while sweating.
"W-wait! P-please Mirii, don't act with impulse…! You c-can't let a stupid quarrel have th-the best of us…!" Grina was unable to speak with a reassuring voice.
"I'm NOT your sister! Repeat that, now!" The shorter girl twitches her fingers, like she's about to grab Grina's throat.
"Girl, how could you"
"I SAID TO REPEAT THAT!" She stomped the ground with all her force.
The two Squids stopped in their tracks. Grina's mood dropped drastically, throwing her into the verge of sadness.
"… I… I wanted to say sorry to Hunry, yesterday…" Her eyes appeared watery. "I-I said all those horrible things to him… I-I acted like a true idiot! YES, I WAS THE REAL IDIOT AT THE END! PICKING ON HIM WAS A VERY BIG MISTAKE!"
The girl starts crying a bit.
"P-please, accept my apologies Mirii! L-let's reform Inkinators… l-let's be friends once again!"
Mirii slowly turns around, not daring to look at them.
"… that will never happen…" She said in a low voice.
"WHY?! WHY YOU SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!" Grina growled exasperated.
"Because… I still didn't forgive Bars…" Mirii still didn't look at her. "His incompetence, despite unintentional, is too large and heavy to convince ME to join in your squad. Now, if you excuse me…"
The shorter girl walks past the two friends, with her head lowered. Despite the position, Grina could notice that Mirii was sobbing quietly. Seeing her friend in trouble, the girl tried to stop her but Bars blocked her from doing so.
"I KNOW YOU WANT TO BE OUR FRIEND AGAIN, MIRII!" She shouted at Mirii. "PLEASE, COME BACK TO US!"
The shorter girl halts for a second… then she walks again.
"MIRII, PLEASE!"
"COME ON, GIRL! WE NEED YOU!"
The girl was getting away from them.
"MIRIIIII!" The friends shouted at the same time.
Mirii starts running, disappearing from their sight. The Inklings stared at each other, in a loss for words.
"… I saw her crying, Bars…" She broke the silence.
"Really?" The boy passes her a paper handkerchief.
"Yeah." She dries her tears with it. "Mirii truly wants to be our friend again… but maybe we should talk to her later…"
She inhaled through her nose, loudly.
"Let's not waste any more time here and enter into the sewers."
"D-don't call it like that…! Th-that's not a sewer in any way!" He trembles at the thought.
Grina smiles, patting his shoulders.
"I'm friend with the crocodiles: I'll tell them to just eat your little finger." She catches out her tongue.
Bars trembled at the sole idea. The girl giggles and gives him signal to follow her. They both go near the manhole and jumped through its grate in Squid form. They traveled with Bars following Grina, reaching the other side of the pipe and jumping out of it through the other grate.
As soon as they land on the two different but near spots, 3 Octotroopers immediately notice them and start shooting.
"Oh, what's this? The welcoming committee?" Grina rolls to her left, shooting at them.
Her projectiles were very strong: they splatted one Octotrooper in less than a second! Bars jumps in the air, doing a battle cry and splatting one Octotrooper with his melee weapon. The other one got scared and guides his hovercraft towards a rope attached to a bell.
DING! DING! DING!
Grina splatted the Octotrooper by throwing a Burst Bomb.
"Ain't let you sing one more note, Mr. Tent-a-fail!" She said at the small tentacle flying away.
GNEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOO!
"OH SHIP!" Bars holds his head with his hands. "THE ALARM!"
"Calm down, Bars! Let's see where the buzz is all about!" Grina looks around carefully.
She tracked a stereo speaker blasting the alarm sound through the entire valley. The girl shoots at it, making it fall down and break on impact. However, the sound was still present!
"I hate this music! Would you mind to help me getting rid of it?" She gently asked to Bars.
"As long as I have to clean up the ground!" He grasps more his weapon, as he looks at the ground covered in purple ink.
"Good thing we absorbed the same color during our pipe journey!" She look one of her tentacles, colored magenta. "All right, big boy: do the shower at this mess!"
Bars grins, sprinting at full speed around the ink.
"Wow! I'm faster than Brush the Inkling!" He commented, surprised of his sudden speed.
While the boy was busy covering the ground, Grina shot at the different stereo speakers destroying each of them.
"ENEMIES FROM THE AIR!" Bars runs back, reaching the girl.
Suddenly, 3 Octarians flying on boards and wearing rock-like clothes, were rocking their guitars. Their music produced visible waves, which were flying towards the Squids! They dodged with a lucky roll.
"Rock music? How about METAL?!" She shoots against the aliens, shouting like a metal singer!
They avoided her attacks: one of them dived towards Grina. She jumps backwards throwing a Burst Bomb on his face, making him crash against the ground. The Octarian was stuck on the magenta-colored ink: Grina splatted him with her main weapon.
"AAAWWWW YEEEAAAHHH!" She pretends to rock her weapon.
Bars throws a Suction Bomb right under one of their boards. The unlucky Octarian gasped loudly, while the bomb was about to detonate.
BOOOM!
He flies against the other Octarian and knock him out from his board: both fall on the ground, instantly splatted by Bars's main weapon.
"SHELL YEAH, BARS!" Grina gives a high five at the boy. "That one truly rocked!"
Bars laughed.
"You can say that again, girl!" He grins, utterly excited from the action.
"The tour isn't done yet! Do you see that camping area?" The girl points at it. "That's our final box! Let's rock and roll, baby!" She smiles mischievously.
Bars nodded showing his teeth. Before they could move an inch, suddenly the alarm was replaced by an odd music.
"Huh? They got bored of it?" He sighed in relief.
"… I feel weird, Bars." Her arms and legs were getting weaker.
The Inklings become Squids.
"What the?! Why we turned into Squids?!" Bars complained in shock.
"Beats me!" Grina replied, struggling to return into her humanoid form.
"Wait… dasquid?! I can't change into my tall form!" The boy moves his tentacles in panic.
"You too?!" The girl swims near him.
The boy sighs frustrated.
"Great… just TURFING great!" He looks at the purple ink ahead. "How we are going to fight those tentacles now?!"
"The cause is this music, Bars! Since it started, our problems appeared!" She pointed at the stereo speaker with her tentacle. "We have to stop it!"
"How?! I can't jump on those speakers: they are too high!" He tries skeptically. "No, it's impossible..."
"Darn it!" Grina slams a tentacle on the ink. "If Hunry was here with us, the speakers would have been history!"
"Yeah, Hunter is very good at using his Squid ability…"
"Anyway, we are not going to retreat just because we are little Squids. Bars, you will act as a trampoline for me." She swims back, to take a run-up.
"All right!" He rotates to raises his tentacles upwards.
"HERE I COME!" Grina swims at high speed.
She jumps on his tentacles, which the boy quickly pushes with all his strength, letting the girl jump even higher, head-slamming against a stereo speaker. It fell down, breaking once impacted with the ground. Grina falls back, feeling dizzy.
"ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" Bars massages her head.
A bump was formed on it.
"Ooowww… my head…" She was seeing the stars. "I can't take down another one… I quit the job…"
"Maybe you should wear a helmet?" He caressed the injured girl.
Grina shakes her head, recovering completely her sense.
"If we could find one! Where could it"
THERE! OVER THERE!
SPLAT THEM ALL!
5 Octotroopers were marching aboard their hovercraft towards the two Squids.
"FUNK! RETREAT!" Bars shouts scared.
He swims away as fast as he could! The Octarians go after him, covering their path with purple ink. Quickly after, Grina emerges slightly from the magenta ink: she successfully eluded her enemies!
"Maybe if I slide on the sides…" She looks at them: those weren't covered in purple ink. "… I could reach their base and destroy the source of this music."
The girl jumps on the sides and slide slowly, but safe from the harm of the purple ink. Unfortunately, once she reaches the large and circular area, Grina notices that the camping base was covered all around with purple ink.
"Drat! I can't get into their base in this state! There must be a way, though… oh, actually… I could borrow some ideas from one of those videogames, Bars plays often! Yeah, like that Squid which keeps jumping on the platforms in order to reach the end."
She saw that the structure was resembling a platform level.
"All right! Gotta play the most realistic version of Squid Jump!" Grina frowns in concentration.
The girl jumps on the chairs and tables, throwing war equipments and food away from her path. She could hear the music coming out from a large tent.
"Ok, running start!" She takes another run-up.
Once ready, Grina slides as much as she could doing a farther jump, successfully entering inside the tent: however, she couldn't stop herself and thus, the girl starts rolling ahead crashing against a table. Aside from different tool, on the top of it there was the stereo playing up the dreadful music: it fell down, completely destroyed on impact.
The music no longer plays and Grina could finally turn into her humanoid form again. She gets up, a bit injured from that abrupt landing.
"Ohi ohi ohi… how did I become a steamroller…?" She massages her head. "Ohi… uh? M-my hand?!"
She looks at both her hands and weapon.
"YES! I BROKE THE CURSE!" She jumps from the joy.
The girl quickly comes out from the tent: she immediately shoots magenta ink, while laughing maniacally. Something flew over her head and Grina could glance at it, for just a second: 5 tentacles were flying away.
"Ha ha, Bars took out the pests!" She smiles widely. "No matter what dirty tricks, they may pull out of their hats: we will always be able to ruin their show!"
Grina starts shooting ink again, getting rid of the Octarian ink present in the area.