Splatoon Stories
Mysteries of Octo Canyon
By Dev3978
Chapter 1 Diving In
It was morning again in Inkopolis, but it was also the wandering thoughts of a certain Inkling boy again. Denim was still thinking about the mysterious Octoling race and their even more mysterious homeland. He thought about such things as he got out of bed, took a soap-filled ink shower, changed into his Splash Mob gear, and ate his cereal with a serving of pulp-filled orange juice his little brother forced him to start drinking ever since the conclusion of a previous event. The two boys were eating at the table, with Mesh the little brother curiously glancing over at his big brother sometimes looking up into the air, lost in thought. Once he was done with his Off the Hook cereal, Mesh put his bowl aside and folded his arms at Denim in a huff.
"Denim, you've been acting weird lately," Mesh told him. "I can tell something's eating you up. Spill the beans!"
"Nah, not yet, Mesh," replied Denim. "I think I need to go ask my teammates something first."
"Wow, big bro," muttered Mesh, getting up from his seat to take his dirty dishes to the kitchen. "Way to keep secrets from your own little bro."
"Trust me, Mesh. You're gonna need to wait before it's time you know," said Denim. "It'll bowl you over more than this cereal bowl will in the sink!"
He dumped the cereal bowl down into the sink with a noisy thud to back up his statement. Mesh just rolled his eyes as Denim quickly walked to the front door to leave before Mesh could bother him anymore.
"That's my big bro," groaned Mesh. "Always cracking jokes."
Once he was out the door, Denim breathed a sigh of relief before embarking upon the long walk to Inkopolis Square like so many other Inklings do when they leave their homes to play Turf War.
(Yeah, he'll know the truth soon enough. I just hope he can handle it. There's probably no way I'm going to keep this secret hidden for the rest of my life. Probably not even after today!)
…
It was a long walk to the square from Denim's house, but after years of doing it, it felt like nothing but a casual stroll to him. Once he had crossed the required number of blocks and streets, he found himself back in Inkopolis Square like usual. The day was typical for the others in the area, as they milled around chatting, eating, and drinking. However, Deca Tower featured a gigantic electric catfish known as the Great Zapfish curled around it. Its big, expressionless eyes looked forward while it emitted several sizable volts from its yellow, curly whiskers.
Denim walked around, looking for his two Octoling teammates, Octolife and Octophones. One thing that struck him was that he could never look at the kids with the different hair the same way again. Now that he knew who they were, he felt privately stunned that so many had actually moved here. In fact, it seemed that half of the kids in the square were Octolings, if not even more! This fact made him stop and stare ahead, dumbfounded. Finally, he saw two recognizable Octolings walking across the square to approach him after leaving the doors to Ammo Knights. Octolife was still wearing his new gear while Octophones preferred to keep her Octo-Layered LS on for another day, although Denim knew that she didn't often take her beloved Smoky Wingtips off. The two were now approaching Denim as he stood nearby the claw machine near The Shoal.
"Good morning, Denim!" greeted Octolife. "What is not down?"
"Huh?" blurted Denim. "Oh, you mean what's up? That's the proper expression, you know…"
"Ah, got it," replied Octolife, nodding his head earnestly. "I am still having to learn Inkling. I am getting better, though!"
"Is something the matter, Denim?" asked Octophones curiously. "You act a little odd."
"Odd?" he said. "Oh, don't mind me. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that there's now a bunch of you guys in Inkopolis. You guys might even outnumber us someday!"
Saying this made Denim feel antsy, but the two Octolings looked at him reassuringly.
"Do not worry, friend," said Octolife. "There is a lot of us, it is true, but we are not going to run you Inklings out. The word spreads quickly with the social media and all. Many of us are leaving Octo Canyon and Octo Valley almost every day!"
"See, that's what I'm wondering," blurted Denim. "Where exactly are these Octo places you two keep talking about?"
"Just outside of the city," answered Octophones.
This basic description didn't satisfy Denim for a moment. He shook his head and began looking around as if he could find a sign.
"Huh, weird how I've never seen anything about them when traveling out on the road, or even any signs," he muttered. "If we're not busy playing Turf War, could you two maybe take me to these places?"
This made both of the Octolings look taken aback at his question. Octolife looked down at the ground sheepishly while Octophones grimly shook her head, her ponytail whipping harshly.
"No, we are not going back. Ever," declared Octophones.
"I didn't mean to make waves or anything," said Denim. "What was so bad about it?"
Octolife looked back up from the ground, looking somber, yet firm.
"We were oppressed there," he explained. "The Octarians are an authoritarian group, full of octopuses that are mean and hateful toward the Inklings. Control was tight. We lived with panels depicting the outside world. It was a pitiful living. Why would you want to go there, Denim? We left there for a reason."
Not liking the suddenly serious tone of their conversation, Denim just shrugged his shoulders and flashed a grin.
"Got it. I was just curious," he said. "Inkopolis is definitely way more of a free society than anything you guys apparently had. I don't know about panels, but there's no fake stuff around here. Just plenty of fun and freedom!"
The two Octolings smiled warmly at his last line. Octolife looked over back to Deca Tower, eager to return to playing a certain sport again for the umpteenth time.
"Fun and freedom, that is so true," said Octolife. "Come on, Octophones! Let's see what strangers we can play with now!"
Denim watched the two Octolings leave to go to the tower. He was happy to see that they were enjoying Inkopolis. He was also happy that Octolife was acting considerably less shy and awkward than he had been when he tried to hide his identity. Still, he turned back and breathed a sigh of resignation.
"I was just curious… but I'm still curious!" he cried. With that, Denim walked off, remaining alone.
(I just don't understand. I get that they wanted to move to a better place, but they never want to go back. Surely it can't be that bad, no? One thing's for sure. I'm not gonna rest until I know for sure what this Octo Canyon is like!)
…
Later, it was lunchtime in Inkopolis Square, which meant The Crust Bucket was packed. Kids both squid and octopus lined up in front of the popular vendor. The few tables in the square had already been occupied by lucky kids, but the others didn't mind, as they opted to stand around drinking their juices and snacking on their fried waffle meals known as Schwaffles or their fried meals resembling hot dogs and shrimp called Seanwiches. This was a time for them to get a helpful boost in experience or making more cash for the afternoon due to the effects of the food and drinks. Denim observed the crowd from the glass windows down from The Shoal.
(Where's Mesh at? I think I'm going to come clean now…)
Amongst the crowd, Denim finally spotted his little brother waiting anxiously in line, although he was about to make it to the front. Crusty Sean the Japanese Tiger Prawn was undaunted by the crowd, as he frantically worked and asked his customers for their orders at impressive speed. Watching him swinging back and forth between the window and back inside of his truck to work was an amusing sight. Once Mesh made it to the prawn, he ordered a Super Seanwich and got it within minutes. Satisfied, Mesh happily carried away his basket holding the meal until he noticed Denim lurking near the building windows.
"Denim! Great timing!" exclaimed Mesh, now trotting over to him.
"Little bro, there's something I need to tell you," replied Denim in an unexpectedly serious tone that made Mesh pause.
"Uh, what is it?" he asked. "Are you gonna finally tell me what's the matter now?"
"Yeah, let's go somewhere a little more private," said Denim. "Just make sure to not drop your food in shock when I tell you!"
He led Mesh around the corner of the building windows to come to a stop at a wall blocking the street. Denim looked back and forth to make sure no Inklings were around or at least within earshot, and then he looked back at Mesh with a grim look. Mesh anxiously awaited the big secret.
"Mesh, before I get into the nitty-gritty deets, here is one simple truth you must know," Denim told him.
He dramatically leaned in closer to Mesh's pointy left ear to deliver the message.
"Octopuses still exist," he whispered.
"WHAT?!" cried Mesh, jumping up in the air and making his food jump from its basket too. "THEY'RE EXTINCT, BRO!"
Denim shushed him and grabbed hold of Mesh's basket before it would be about to drop and ruin his food. Mesh quivered with widened eyes as Denim looked around yet again to see if anyone heard. Luckily, the area was so crowded and noisy that no one noticed. Denim turned back to his little brother.
"It's true, little bro," said Denim. "Octopuses still exist. You see these guys with the new hairstyles? They're all octopuses. They're called Octolings. They all come from a couple of places called Octo Canyon and Octo Valley. They've been hiding their true identity this whole time, scared of what we Inklings would think. A couple of them revealed themselves to me and Clip yesterday. Don't be afraid of these guys. In fact, they're just like you and me. They're not like the evil Octarians you read about in school. They reformed. They're good guys now!"
Mesh remained quiet, looking unsure much like Denim was when he first learned about all this. Then he became surprisingly excited, grinning widely and shaking up and down like he was about to super jump.
"Dude, that is SO COOL!" exclaimed Mesh. "Wow! I wanna check these Octo places so badly now!"
"Good, because I'm the exact same way," replied Denim, nodding.
"Oh! Oh! I got an idea!" said Mesh, pointing his fingers up and returning his own nodding. "If ya need a team, just let me call up mine. They'll join us in no time!"
"Huh, I was actually thinking that same thing too," said Denim, feeling impressed. "Fine. Knowing you, I seriously wonder what your teammates could possibly be like."
They decided to come out from their private corner to take a look at the crowd together. Mesh eagerly surveyed the square for his teammates, placing his gloved hand below his eyebrows while squinting to pick them out from the crowd. After a few minutes, Mesh pointed happily at a trio of Inklings standing near the red mailbox in-between Headspace and Ammo Knights.
"This way, big bro!" exclaimed Mesh before jumping off. Denim had to hurry to catch up to him as he darted through the throng of Inklings and Octolings.
Mesh's team had finished their meals and drinks and were merely hanging out now. One was an Inkling boy with a pale skin tone, orange slick hair, and orange eyes. He wore Full Moon Glasses, a Squid-Pattern Waistcoat, and Clownfish Basic shoes with denim shorts. Another Inkling boy had a pink skin tone, bluish-purple eyes, and purple mush-cut hair. He wore a Sneaky Beanie, Annaki Drive Tee, and Annaki Tiger shoes with cargo pants. The lone Inkling girl in the team had a dark black skin tone, purple double-bun hair, and dark purple eyes. She wore a White Headband, Zekko Long Radish Tee, and Purple Iromaki 750 sneakers with loose sports shorts. They turned their heads to see their leader approaching, smiling and waving.
"FM! Sneaky! Radish!" greeted Mesh excitedly, calling them each by nickname. "Mesh here! Listen to what my big bro wants to do. Prepare your minds to be blown!"
They all turned to see Denim now, and he suddenly became just a bit afraid at having to tell all three about the existence of Octolings. It made him hesitate, but given his outgoing nature, he only gulped before trying to smile and be willing to share his big news.
"Octopuses still exist," he began. "Don't look at me like that! It's for eel. They live among us as these guys with the new hairstyles we've been talking about for months. They're just like us, but they come from some place called Octo Canyon, or Octo Valley. My Octoling friends don't want me to go there, but my little bro and I want to check these places. Are you willing to join us on a mission?"
The three Inklings were struck speechless by these bombshells about the kids they've known and played with this whole time. They looked at each other. Then Radish shrugged her shoulders and Sneaky closed his eyes to think, while Full Moon (or FM as Mesh calls him) was clearly the most skeptical of this proposal. He was the first to speak.
"OK, I admit that I believe everything you just said, even though it's rather profound" said Full Moon, "but I'm afraid I'm going to sit this one out."
"Awww! FM?!" moaned Mesh with disappointment. "Don't you wanna check Octo Canyon? Don't you wanna go where no Inkling has gone before? This is the freshest experience of a lifetime!"
"Yeah, no," replied Full Moon bluntly. "These Octo places sound like trouble to me. If they moved from there and don't want to come back, why would we want to go there? We have no idea what they're even like! Sorry, I'm going to be responsible and stick with good ol' Inkopolis, thank you very much!"
Mesh glared at Full Moon and folded his arms, always a sure sign he was not pleased.
"Whatever. Be responsible," retorted Mesh. "The rest of us are gonna embark on a super-fresh quest. If we run into any evil octopuses, we'll just splat 'em. No problem! Right, Sneaky and Radish? Right?"
He turned to look at them hopefully. They shuffled uncomfortably, but Radish chose to speak up.
"Well, it DOES sound kinda cool," she said, "but how are we gonna get there?"
Full Moon laughed, thinking that he had these seemingly irresponsible Inklings outwitted in their daring plan.
"Yes, what a good question, Radish! They don't even know where to go!" exclaimed Full Moon. "Here's a better idea… let's just stay here and play like we should."
Now Denim was the one appearing disgusted with Full Moon and looked away unhappily, not liking that his plans met a hitch. It truly was a good question of how they were supposed to go to places they didn't even know that existed before. For all they knew, they could be a hundred miles away or just outside city limits. He saw a nearby manhole, and he got a sudden idea. His face instantly brightened.
"I got it! Let's go down the sewers!" exclaimed Denim.
This idea shocked Full Moon, Radish, and even Mesh. Radish in particular wasn't impressed, as she made a disgusted face as if she ate something bad.
"Eew! You mean we should go down that manhole back there?!" said Radish. "That's just dirty!"
Sneaky, who had been silent this whole time, started chuckling and got up from resting his back on the mailbox.
"Heh, that's funny, considering we always like getting each other dirty with ink," muttered Sneaky. "Actually, the idea's not half-bad. That manhole oughta take us somewhere, yeah? Hmmm… I can feel my exploration senses tingling!"
"Oh, yes!" Denim exclaimed with relief. "A guy wearing a Sneaky Beanie and Annaki gear. What a perfect recruit for our secret mission!"
Seeing that most of the others were warming up to this mission, Radish shrugged her shoulders again and smiled.
"Well, if you guys think it's so fresh, who am I to fuss?" she asked. "Sure, I'll go."
"That's the easygoing Radish I know!" said Mesh. "Aight, we're gonna get going now. Later, FM! You can just go listen to the radio or something!"
…
The four of them went to grab their weapons before they would leave. Denim got his Splash-o-Matic. Mesh's favorite were the Enperry Splat Dualies, so it was these he took with him. Sneaky preferred the Inkbrush and Radish liked the Goo Tuber. Once they had gotten their weapons from Deca Tower, they returned to stare intently at the manhole they convinced themselves led to the mysterious homeland of the Octolings. As expected, Denim was chosen to go in first.
He turned into squid form to go through it into the dark tubes below. Mesh was next, then Sneaky, and finally Radish. It was all darkness from here. They could sense that they were passing through other sewers and pipes. No one uttered a word, but they were clearly excited and perhaps somewhat scared of what they could be in for. Their trip seemed to only go on and on, and they blindly went down random passages, all in the hope that they would end up somewhere at least close to these mysterious Octo locations.
Finally, they found a sudden bright light in the tunnel that quickly resulted in them coming out into the bright sunshine. Unfortunately, they now found themselves falling off from a cliff, popping out of the open pipe that had led them here. Their big squid eyes became even bigger and they yelled with fright as they plunged down onto a grassy lot of land far below. They turned back into kid forms to land on the ground. A human would've broken a leg falling from this height, but since Inklings were boneless squids made of ink who can super-jump incredible distances, their bodies only shook wildly when they landed.
"UGH. Well, we made it guys. That took forever, but we made it," said Denim.
Denim took a look around. Their grassy lot was surrounded by brick structures with grates lining some of them. The surrounding countryside was rocky and very much like a canyon, which made Denim excited that they had made it to at least one of the two Octo places, Octo Canyon. Giant structures of octopus arms were erected around this canyon. The city skyline of Inkopolis was seen in the distance. This made Denim feel nervous.
"Whoa, we're really far from the city, guys," he muttered. "I hope Mesh and I get back home before evening, or else our Mom and Dad will be worried."
"Don't worry about it, we're just here to get a look around, and then we'll get right back home," said Radish, not fazed at the thought of being miles away from home.
They started to split up to search the area. Mesh's attention was soon caught by the appearance of a green balloon. He shot this balloon, which in turn produced another balloon nearby. Startled, Mesh went and fired at this balloon too, but it produced another one farther away. Before he knew it, he was following this balloon right to the next one, and the next one, until three balloons appeared to mock him from on high. His two teammates also took interest in their unique surroundings, as Radish enjoyed inking up a wall and going up a speed ramp on the side of one building over and over again. Sneaky was silently perplexed at the sight of giant, strange kettles that seemed to act like the manhole in Inkopolis they had just traveled through, only these rattled with activity and had squid stickers on them. It wasn't long before Denim grew bored due to the bizarre lack of other creatures in this area.
"OK, I admit that there's some interesting stuff around here," said Denim, glancing over at Mesh frantically trying to pop his sequence of balloons again. "Here's my beef. Octo Canyon is way quieter than I thought it would be. Seriously, where's everybody at? Shouldn't this place be crawling with octopuses? I don't see a single arm poking out anywhere, do you guys? And I don't mean the giant stone ones!"
Radish stopped zooming up the speed ramp to turn back into kid form, happy but somewhat dizzy. Mesh groaned that he was being too slow with the balloons before sulking back to his brother. Sneaky was still puzzling over the kettles and standing near one prompted the other three to approach him.
"Gee, that sure looks like something you slip through to me," remarked Radish, looking at the kettle curiously. "I just don't wanna get cooked, though."
"Nah, I bet it's just a creative way to get around," replied Denim. "These octopuses must be creative. I mean, a kettle serving as a manhole? Really? And Octolife and Octophones said this was such a bad place. Well, I say we oughta just dive right in and see for ourselves! We made it this far."
Denim confidently walked on top of the kettle and turned into squid form. As he entered it, the kettle suddenly came alive and squealed violently, scaring everyone with a start. Hissing steam, the kettle settled down with a loud clank, and became still. Mesh briefly left his jaw hanging until he cried with terror.
"AAAHHH!" he screamed. "MY BIG BRO! HE'S BEEN COOKED! DENIMMMMM!"
Poor Mesh almost started crying at the thought of his big brother unknowingly getting cooked to death in a giant kettle, and he was tenderly comforted by Radish while Sneaky shook his head somberly. Fortunately, Denim had made it through just as well as he had through the sewers of Inkopolis. However, he quickly realized that he was now falling into a gigantic, domed area. Yelling with surprise, Denim could see that while he was falling at great speed, he was surrounded by massive panels depicting a partly cloudy sky while buildings were nestled on the bottom of the rocky terrain, perilously so far below. It would've been an interesting sight if not for the falling at high speed.
"NOT AGAIN! SUPER-JUMP ENGAGED! CRASH-LANDING!" Denim screamed as he fell.
Turning into squid form midair, he finally landed with a splat at a spawn point that made the massive fall a surprisingly smooth landing. His arms stretched out with his face looking worried, he realized that he was still in one piece, and as he often does when something turns out well, he breathed a sigh of relief. He looked up and had to turn away from the blinding sun that shone through into the deep dome of panels. He looked around and gaped at the panels, feeling a little disturbed by the fake scenery he had learned about from Octolife. Giant, floating rocks and toys didn't help.
"Welp, I'm here," he muttered to himself. "Time to meet some octos."
On his narrow platform, it didn't take long for his first sighting. An octopus was now emerging from a nearby pool of magenta ink, but it was not the elongated, eight-armed animal he was expecting to meet. It was a big-eyed, fat-lipped creature with little boots and one octopus arm for its head and body. It was soon joined by two others, and they now advanced curiously toward this intruder on their simple vehicles steered with a joystick. Denim stared at them in wonder.
"GASP! I see them." he said. "I see octopuses."