She sat in the living room of the castle, controller in hand and her rubber duck at her side. Tari was engaged in a gaming session, playing Splatoon 2.
Splatoon 3 was coming very soon and the cyborg gamer girl did not want to be rusty when she got the game, her gaming skills had to be perfect for her playthrough if she was going to play it with her friends, especially with those Turf War matches.
It was another fine summer day, especially in the early days of September, and the time for the release of the new Splatoon game was looming. In the past few months, Tari had been replaying the first Splatoon, followed by the second Splatoon. She'd even gone to Inkopolis to partake in a few Turf Wars.
A smile molded on her face as she splatted another bad guy in a Turf War match and took some territory, Tari patted Archibald on the head and grinned. "You looking forward to Splatoon 3, Archibald?" She asked, "Because I sure am, just a couple more days and we'll be able to play it before we can go visit the real Splatville."
The blue-haired gamer sat back in her chair, enjoying the game. However, that peace was disrupted when the door burst open and Mario ran into the room with an excited holler that forced Tari to pause the game and set her controller down with an irritated sigh, her focus ruined.
"TARI! TARI!" Mario exclaimed, "You gotta see this!"
"What, Mario?" Tari groaned, "Why are you interrupting my Splatoon time?"
"SHE'S BACK! MEGGY'S BACK!"
"Uh, Meggy never left us, Mario. She's been with us for a long time."
"No, no. Not the Meggy we currently know. The other Meggy who we used to know, the Woomy squid girl. ITS-A HER! That's the Meggy who's back!"
Tari eyed Mario with confusion, was he trying to prank her or was he suggesting that, somehow, Meggy had transformed back into...?
"In the courtyard! Right now!" Mario grabbed Tari by the hand and dragged her out of the room excitedly, "She's waiting for you, you're going to love this, Tari!"
"Ok, ok, Mario..." Tari said nervously, "Show me, it better not be a prank you're playing and I've got a match in progress. At least I put the game on pause and Archibald's covering for me."
She followed the silly plumber through the hallway of the castle out into the courtyard where they found SMG4 waiting with Saiko, Melony, Luigi, Fishy Boopkins, Shroomy and Bob.
The group greeted Tari with a happy wave and Mario shook the cyborg's arm with giddiness, repeatedly saying that she was right here and waiting for them both.
Tari looked up and her eyes widened, her jaw dropping, her mind full of shock. Standing before them was an orange Inkling girl in a white shirt with long dark sleeves, black shorts, leather boots, a red beanie, goggles and a headphone. This was no ordinary Inkling girl, it was...
"Hi, Tari." Inkling Meggy said, "Great to see you?"
"M-Meggy?" Tari was stunned, "Wh-What happened?"
"Long story short..." SMG4 explained, "We're in the middle of a story arc where we're dealing with Nintendo and Meggy turned back into an Inkling due to a temporary ownership change contract."
Soon as the meme man mentioned the word 'story arc', Tari flipped.
She could not believe what SMG4 was saying, it hadn't been that long since they finished the Cosmology Lore with REVELATIONS that depicted the gang's final battle with the entity known as Zero and, now, SMG4 was doing another arc when the events of REVELATIONS and GENESIS were still fresh on everyone's minds months later?
"Darn it, SMG4!" Tari protested, "You said you wouldn't do any story arcs for a long time, especially after what we went through with Niles and the God Box. We spent an entire year discovering the origins of our universe and battling Zero, now you're doing THAT?"
"Tari, there's no harm in telling a story as long as you have good writing." Saiko said, "Plus, SMG4 has the entire Nintendo Lawsuit Arc planned out, it's not gonna be as big as the last arc, but it'll be somewhere along the lines of Bob's arc that involved his rap career."
"Hey!" Bob cut in, "That story about my career as a rapper was overrated and people don't talk about that much compared to the Waluigi storyline or the Anime Crisis arc."
"We can't forget the YouTube arc either, Bob." Boopkins told his friend, "Uh, does that movie we did about Splatfest count or is that something else entirely?"
Inkling Meggy cut in with a smile and a polite wave.
"Guys, guys..." She said, "It's going to be okay; we're going to be okay. We've gotten along just fine for years and I was just paying you guys a visit, checking on you to see how you're doing before we get back to our respective tasks such as SMG4 working on his arc and me getting past that barrier. I wonder how the other me is."
The door opened and everyone turned, Meggy, the Inkling-turned human one, had just arrived. "I just got the call from SMG4..." She said, "Something about my Inkling self and... Whoa."
Meggy saw Inkling Meggy and the two stared at each other for a while. Then Inkling Meggy waved to her human self with a grin, obviously intrigued by the prospect of getting to interact with the other Meggy. "Hey, Meggy." The Inkling said.
"So, is IF MARIO IN SPLATOON 3 coming up?" Tari asked SMG4, "If so, I guess it'll be part of your Nintendo arc or do you wanna scrap that or hold off until the arc's done?"
"What?" SMG4 gasped, "C'mon, Tari. You know that I'm gonna do that video once the game comes out, I'm not gonna ignore it just because I talked about moving away from Splatoon stuff and remarked that Meggy's Splatfest victory was likely it for Splatoon-related adventures."
"You got that right, SMG4." Meggy nodded, "My days as an Inkling and competing in Splatfests may be long behind me, but it's always important to honor the past even while you move forward. I was getting ready to go visit Splatville, especially with the game about to come out and with the new tournaments coming up."
Inkling Meggy giggled. "Oh, I look forward to the Turf Wars, those are my favorite." She said, "Who doesn't love a…?"
BOOM! An explosion rocked the castle, cutting off the Inkling before she could finish her sentence. The gang jumped in alarm, Melony activated her Fierce Deity mode, Saiko drew her hammer and Bob whipped out his trademark swords.
Mario and Luigi looked at each other, almost frightened as they wondered what was going on.
Right on cue, with the castle apparently under attack as it was shaken by explosions, a loud scream echoed through the castle walls and Princess Peach ran outside with a scream.
"THE CASTLE IS BEING ATTACKED!" The princess shouted furiously, "ANYONE WHO'S BATTLE READY AND WILLING TO HELP, I'M LOOKING AT YOU, MARIO, PREPARE YOURSELVES AND LEAD THE CASTLE'S LINE OF DEFENSE!"
"No time to waste, guys!" SMG4 adjusted his hat, "Let's go stop whomever the enemy is from destroying Peach's Castle and wreaking havoc in the Mushroom Kingdom. We're gonna help, nobody's gonna let this place get wrecked again, let's get moving right now!"
Without a second thought on their minds, the whole gang, including the two versions of Meggy, raced to the main foyer of the castle and headed out the front door just before another massive explosion shook the castle and rubble rained down.
Once the group had made it outside onto the castle grounds, they saw what was going on...
A squad of Octarians with heavy cannons had amassed along the perimeter and were aiming at Peach's Castle, several Octolings were with them too, their Splat-Weapons ready. Mario and SMG4 glanced at each other, wondering if this was some sort of joke.
Just why would Octarians be attacking the Mushroom Kingdom?
"It doesn't matter why they're doing this..." Inkling Meggy warbled as if she could read the others' thoughts, "...but those Octo-jerks are going down hard and we're gonna get 'em good."
"You also have to go through me, fools."
Everyone gasped in surprise, the Octarian forces snapped to attention as a huge flying machine came down from the sky, hovering above the ground. Mario recognized it instantly as the Octobot and piloting the mech was...
"DJ OCTAVIO?!" The gang cried.
"That's right, you mixed scrubs." Octavio buzzed, "The Octo-DJ's in da house, ready to remix your day and make everyone in the ever-so colorful Mushroom Kingdom face the frightening musical beats of my soundtrack of ultimate Octo-vengeance."
"What do you want, DJ?" Mario demanded, "What did the Mushroom Kingdom ever do to you?"
Octavio screeched with a furious and sinister laugh, "Don't think I forgot that you stole my Octobot, you stupid plumber, and I'm gonna super jam an apology out of you until we're hearing a record of screams leave that yapping jukebox of yours and your precious hometown kingdom's gonna be rockin' to the tunes of terror."
"Bro, what the shit?!" Bob protested.
"Your plan's not gonna work, Octavio." Inkling Meggy declared, "Why? Because this whole song's gonna end with you flying off your beat mixer."
"If anybody's gonna face the music, it's gonna be you, DJ." Saiko remarked confidently.
The feared leader of the Octarians flipped his lid, "ONLY I GET TO MAKE FUNKY RAP AND MUSICAL RELATED PUNS! Enough with this rap, OCTARIANS, ATTACK! REMIX THE FOOLS AND MAKE THIS KINGDOM FACE IT'S FINAL RAP!"
Mario and his friends stood their ground, ready for battle, both Inkling Meggy and her human counterpart had their weapons ready and they were not going to let Octavio get the best of them. The DJ was singing the tunes of chaos and destruction, so the heroes were going to sing the tunes of peace, freedom and justice until Octavio's tunes were beaten back and... Great, now we're doing puns too.
Octavio's forces headed their leader's command and launched their attack, firing their ink-related weapons and unleashing whatever ammo they had upon the Glitchy Gang.
"Let's hit him with everything that we got at our disposal!" Inkling Meggy yelled.
Human Meggy nodded in agreement with her Inkling self. "GET 'EM!" She cried.
The two versions of Meggy fist-bumped and went all-out, firing off a big stream of ink from their Splattershots at the enemy.
Inkling Meggy charged in, shooting down a pack of Octarians and knocking out several Octoling soldiers while jumping and morphing into squid form to avoid enemy ink coming her way. Human Meggy leaped around, sidestepping Octarian fire and firing back at the attacking foes.
Boopkins pulled out his microphone near some Octarians and took a deep breath, getting ready to unleash his secret weapon. The enemy turned to face him and Boopkins acted quickly, his vocal cords rumbled as he sang as hard as he could, using his bad singing voice as a powerful weapon.
No sooner than he'd let out his singing voice with the microphone amplifying it, the Octarians near him screamed and exploded in puddles of ink.
Even the Octoling soldiers near the vicinity of Boopkins' singing weren't too happy with this, they cried out in pain and covered their ears, feeling his voice rattle their ear drums uncomfortably. One Octoling morphed into her octo-squid form and took off, wailing all the way and leaving her sisters at the mercy of Boopkins' voice.
"Oh carp..." An Octoling moaned, "It's so horrible..."
Inkling Meggy appeared behind her, the Inkling's ears protected by her headphones, and splatted the Octoling. She watched as her spirits flew off into the air, likely heading for an unseen spawn pad in an unknown location.
Bob launched himself at a massive Octarian turret, spinning his body and displaying his blades.
The Garo turned into a cloaked whirl-blade of doom and cut through the Octarian, cleaving the creature in half and spraying ink upon the ground while the defeated enemy cried in pain and dissolved. Bob made a superhero landing and posed dramatically, letting out a triumphant laugh.
"MY FORCES ARE BEING REMIXED INTO INK!" DJ Octavio cried out as Mario, SMG4 and Luigi jumped on a pair of Octarians and stomped them into the ground, "This DJ will not have it! THE SOUNDTRACK OF DOOM MUST BE UNLEASHED!"
"How about the soundtrack of your defeat?"
Saiko leaped onto the Octobot, swatting away some missiles and Octarians with her hammer. She glared at the Octarian leader, causing him to shiver with fear.
"I'm about to mash you unless you leave..." She growled.
Octavio gulped, facing the pink-haired anime girl with her massive hammer. He let out a gurgling sound and ink flooded his booth. Inkling Meggy leaped onto the Octobot in squid form and morphed back into her humanoid form, pointing her Splattershot at the Octarian commander.
"Looks like you don't stand a chance." She said.
Inkling Meggy pulled the trigger, splatting Octavio in the eyes. The feared leader of the Octarian Army screamed in pain as his tentacles slammed the control console, sending sparks flying in every direction. The Inkling then splatted up the entire control panel of Octavio's flying machine, causing it to waver in the air and crash into some trees.
"NO! NO! NONONONONONONONO!" Octavio screamed, "YOU'RE WRECKIN' MAH MUSIC BOOTH, MY BABY, MY PRIZED REMIXER! YOU'RE DESTROYIN' MY JAMS!"
"And your rap has wrapped!" Saiko declared.
Inkling Meggy tossed a Splatbomb into the Octobot and leaped off with Saiko followed suit. The anime girl swung her hammer, hitting DJ Octavio's mech so hard, she sent it flying into the sky with Octavio screaming with outrage, "YOU HAVEN'T HEARD THE LAST OF MY BEEEAAAAATS!"
BOOM! Inkling Meggy's Splatbomb detonated and the Octobot vanished in an explosion of paint, parts flew and the unmistakable outline of DJ Octavio was seen flying over the horizon as he shrieked until he vanished off to places unknown.
In an instant, every Octarian ceased their attack. Several Octolings and Octarians ran off, while the others ended up getting splatted by the gang.
"All right, everybody!" Human Meggy declared, "We got 'em good!"
"Well done, team!" Inkling Meggy agreed, "We did it again!"
"Ay, all right!" SMG4 said happily, "Nothing feels great than a sweet victory!"
The gang got to work cleaning up the mess from the battle, throwing out Octarian remnants and collecting fallen Octoling gear, until the courtyard was clean.
With that settled, the gang could relax after another wacky battle. The two Meggys took their time to hang out together, chatting about Turf Wars and various Splatoon-related things. Eventually, a light flashed and a glowing portal appeared.
"Looks like it's time for me to go now." Inkling Meggy announced.
Tari was surprised by how this day had gone, she'd been reunited with Meggy's Inkling self after so long and now, after fighting a battle with her, it was time to once again say goodbye to the girl Meggy used to be. Her eyes welled up with tears, but she mustered up the strength to hug Inkling Meggy.
"F-Farewell, Meggy." The gamer girl sobbed, "T-Take care of yourself and don't forget me, have fun with your adventures and make sure you stay safe."
"I'll be okay, Tari." Inkling Meggy said, "You have the best life you can have."
"Bye, Meggy!" The others called.
Inkling Meggy nodded and entered the portal, heading back to whatever alternate universe she was from. She waved to the gang one last time before the portal vanished, and she was gone.
Tari smiled and headed back inside the castle, ready to resume playing Splatoon 2 and looking forward to Splatoon 3 and further adventures with the Meggy she and the others knew and loved very much...
The End