Splatoon: Number's Game
Chapter 14
Marie sat in her chair, legs crossed comfortably as she looked out over the moonlight-covered landscape that was the land beyond the edge of Inkopolis' territory. Somewhere out there beyond the canyon was where the Octarians's base was settled.
Despite the peaceful and quiet atmosphere she was immersed in, her mind was full of questions and worry. She reached in her pocket and pulled out the metal casing that they had found within the statue.
With this being the only real sign that they found out there, it must hold some sort of significance? She was sure that it had to be important in some way. But what was it? What purpose did it serve?
"Hey, kid. You alright?" Marie glanced back at her grandfather coming to join her. She nodded and closed her fingers around the casing.
"Yeah. Just out here doing some thinking, gramps." Marie answered politely, sitting back again. Her grandfather made his way over next to her, tapping his hand on her shoulder.
"I understand. Jealousy can be a difficult thing to deal with."
"Jealousy? What?" Marie looked at him in confusion.
"Your sister is out on a date, and that's great for her. But don't worry, I'm sure you will one day find a nice inkling boy for yourself." He said reassuringly.
"You think I'm sitting out here because I'm upset that Callie's on a date?"
"Well…you know… I could see it." He responded. Marie groaned and shook her head.
"I don't care about the date, gramps, if you can call that. I just have some stuff to think about is all." Marie shook her head.
"Oh, alright. My mistake. I still gotta meet the kid taking my youngest granddaughter on her date." He commented.
"Ugh, can we drop the date, gramps?"
"Oh yeah, my bad. So, what are ya doing out here then, kiddo?"
"Just getting my thoughts in order. We came across some intel about the Octarians recently. They've been back at it again, and we have no idea what they're planning." Marie began.
"Those nasty Octarians. What do we know?"
"Not much right now. There's a worry that they might try to ramp up their mind-control tech, the stuff they used on Callie, and spread it out to take the octolings in the city back under their control."
"You think that could work?"
"Dunno, but it's possible, isn't it?"
"Octarians are crafty and they're slippery, but so are we. Just keep an eye out."
"Yeah… There's something else too. Remember that statue head that popped up in the ocean? The one that no one could explain why it appeared or what happened to it?"
"Oh yeah, the Lady Liberty head."
"The…what?" Marie asked blankly.
"The statue. It was called Lady Liberty. Even back in my day, that old thing was all but destroyed, or so we thought. Seeing it again brought back some…bittersweet memories." He shook his head.
"Gramps! You knew about it and you didn't say anything?!" Marie stood up, looking at her grandfather in surprise. He held up his hands.
"What? That old thing was ancient history, back before your day and mine! I didn't think it was important."
"Well, it just became important. Gramps, you know what this is?" Marie asked, showing him the metal casing they had found.
Her grandfather took a look at the casing. His eyes squinted to study what it was. Then, his eyes widened in recognition, and a pale, horrified expression came over his face.
"Marie…where did you get this?"
"I went to the crash site. The inside of the head was littered, I mean the ground was absolutely covered with these things." She answered.
"Oh no… How many would you say there were?"
"Too many to count." Marie answered, now becoming worried over her grandfather's tone and grave expression.
"If that is true…the Octarians have just gained a huge advantage over us." He said, turning around and rushing back towards their outpost entrance as fast as he could with his cane. Marie stood up and followed with him.
"What do you mean? Gramps, I need to know what we're dealing with here." Marie insisted.
"Marie! We're back!" Callie's voice called from the outpost entrance. Marie and her grandfather looked up.
"Good, she's here. You should both here this."
Alex fixed his suit jacket and leaned up against the wall, waiting for Marie to show up. Meanwhile, Callie stood by him. He looked sideways at her.
"Tonight was cool, by the way. Think you'd ever want to do it again?" Alex asked. Callie smiled kindly.
"We'll see."
Marie and her grandfather came over finally and joined the both of them. Marie took a look at Alex and nodded towards him. He nodded back and stood up straight. Their grandfather just looked at Alex with confusion.
"Nice suit."
"Thanks. You too." He joked lightly in response.
"Who is this snappy-dressed delinquent?"
"Oh! Gramps, this is Alex. One of our best agents. We went out to dinner tonight." Callie introduced him, patting her hands on her grandfather's shoulders. He hummed and nodded.
"Ohh, so he's the date! I see now. Well then, what's your name, sonny?"
"Alex. Nice to meet you." Alex nodded.
"That's Cap'n Cuttlefish to you, kid! You haven't earned informalities yet."
"I, uh, didn't call you anything, Cap-Cap'n." Alex stuttered a bit in his confusion.
"Oh. Well good, it's bad to assume! Now since you're all here, we can address the serious topic at hand. Marie, please show the bullet again."
"The…what?" Marie asked.
"The bullet, Marie, the metal thing in your hand! Hold it up!" Her grandfather insisted impatiently. Marie held it out again. Alex and Callie stepped in closer.
"That's what you guys found at the statue head, isn't it?" Callie asked.
"Yeah. You said it was called a bullet?" Alex asked.
"Yes. Nowadays you kids shoot your ink out of your N-Zappers and your Tri-Slushies, but back in the days of the war, guns shot these babies." He explained.
"Um…gramps, that seems really pointless. What damage would these things do?" Callie asked.
"You wanna know what damage these things do? These things were designed to punch holes in you. As in one hole for where it goes in, and one hole for where it comes out." He explained further, tapping the bullet against Callie's left shoulder and applying a little pressure.
"If you were to get hit in the wrong spot with something like that…" Marie thought out loud.
"It would kill you. No spawn point would save you from this."
"So these bullets were like insta-splatters back then?" Alex asked, holding the bullet up.
"Did I say anything about splatting, boy?" Cap'n raised his voice, "These don't splat you, kid, they kill. Whether you're a squid or a kid, these bullets will get rid of you." He explained in a rhyme.
"But the guns that shot these 'bullets' are gone, right?" Marie asked.
"All it would take is some modifications to their weapons, or they could build something for these. It wouldn't be that difficult. All they would need is explosive powder."
"I should call Marina. Let her know what we have." Alex said, pulling his phone out. He saw that he already had texts from missed calls from her. The texts confirmed that she had already come to the same conclusion.
"Bring her in the loop, Alex. Callie, gramps and I need to…figure out what we're gonna do next." Marie said, rubbing her forehead.
"Got it. I'll see you soon." Alex said before jumping in the entrance pipe and swimming away.
"Kids," Gramps shook his head and clicked his tongue. "If you paid attention in your history classes instead of doing all that texting, you wouldn't need national treasures like me to explain this stuff to you." He lectured.
"Gramps, let's just talk about what we can do to prepare for this." Marie sighed…