Author's note: Alright, another story coming out! Hope you like this one too and hopefully I can keep up a decent upload schedule. As usual, if you want full context for the events, read my previous stories. For those who haven't, I'll do something I honestly should've before, and have a summary of the events up till now.
Life in Inkopolis: The Next Step
Chapter 1: Prologue
A while ago, the Octarians stole the Great Zapfish…again. The present member of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, Marie, sought after an agent to find the stolen Zapfish as well as other missing agents. She recruited Sarah Ligo as the official Agent 4. Along the way, Sarah would fall in a trap by a particularly troubled Octoling named Cassandra and ended up injured badly. Luckily, her brother Otis came in to save her; a favor she would soon return. Together, the agents would defeat the Octarians' leader, save the missing agents, and retrieve the Zapfish.
Meanwhile, Cap'n Cuttlefish of the NSS had found himself in a mysterious underground facility. It took the efforts of him, Beth aka: Agent 3, two Octolings named Mei and Guyver, as well as Marina and Pearl of Off the Hook to save the city from a crazy AI that wanted to wipe out all life it deemed imperfect.
Soon enough, everyone got settled in life in Inkopolis, but there was more work to be done. Cassandra was working under a commanding officer by the name of Sieg, who was planning something bold. Their investigation only resulted in a weak lead and the discovery of humanoid Salmonids known as Salmonlings. All that they knew of his plan at the time was that it involved a battling tournament. The agents had formed three teams to compete in the tournament so they could investigate what was going on.
Sarah had formed a team with Guyver, an army-enthusiast named Sylvia, and a shy Octoling boy named Octim.
Beth would form a team with Mei, her friend Arnold, and Mei's friend Zoey.
Otis would form a team with his friends, the nerdy Damien, the stoic Samantha, and the odd Ivan.
During their time in the tournament, they would discover the Octarians' true objective, the daughter of a Zapfish breeder named Alice Notodarus. While their performance in the tournament was decent, they would ultimately fail to keep Alice out of the hands of the Octarians. To add insult to injury, the Octarian king had broken free from his prison and during a patrol, Arnold would disappear as well.
The Splatoon would then start searching for the missing Octarian king and their missing Agent. Sarah, Guyver, and Agent 1 would search a Salmonid settlement with the assistance of a Salmonling they captured and named Finnia. Beth would take the disappearance of Arnold rather hard and go on an obsessive rampage throughout the Canyon that had to be stopped by Mei and Otis, the latter of whom, had been spending his time basically babysitting a Salmonling they named Terry.
Sarah's team would succeed in getting to the Salmonid settlement, but they were soon captured and made to fight in a Colosseum by a Salmonid war chief named Papa. They would escape along with other captured cephalopods they found, but would be shot down and attacked by Salmonid motherships. Thankfully, they landed on land that was being used for a Salmon Run and the Grizzco Workers were there to help, though one named Greg, who had some bad history with the Splatoon, was less helpful than he could've been. They managed to escape with their lives, though definitely worse for the wear.
They would relax back in Inkopolis, but their break would be cut short when the Octarian King would be found with Octim who, unbeknownst to everyone, even himself, was a long-lost Octarian prince. His grandfather would manage to send him to Octo Canyon to be in the arms of his own kind.
The Splatoon then went to save Tim, receiving some help from a tournament team and a group known as The Defenders, led by Greg, the latter group would leave prematurely. During his time in the canyon, Tim would meet Commander Julia and her protégé Valerie. Valerie would be a kind individual to him while Julia turned on him when she found out he was made the heir to the Octarians. Julia would attempt to kill both Tim and his grandfather, but fail and attract the attention of Sieg's forces; the two sides ending up in a short civil war.
The civil war ended shortly after Julia triggered a partial dome collapse with Tim being the one to incapacitate Julia, who was then taken into custody to face punishment for her crimes. Tim would reunite with his friends one last time before heading off to Octo Valley to meet the rest of his family.
The rest of the Splatoon went back to the city for a brief period of much needed cooldown…