"Welcome to the City of Chaos!" An Inkling greeted.
"Welcome!" Voices repeated.
"Why are they greeting us like that?" Commander asked.
Aniya smiled a little. "Well, Splatville is the city where only the best Splatters come and battle it out."
"What do you mean by Splatters?"
"The best people in Inkopolis. The best at Turf Wars. Like...Team X Blood from the mangas."
"And those are...?"
"Sheesh dude." Aniya sighed. "You've got to be kidding."
"I'm sorry!" Commander apologized. "I lost my memories, remember?"
"Hm...ever hear of Off the Hook?"
He shook his head.
"Well, you gotta listen to this one, at least!" She brought out a pair of headphones. "This one's my fave!"
The headphones started playing music. The song was called "Fly Octo Fly~Ebb and Flow" from Off the Hook. He stood there, listening to the song, a sudden wave of familiarity washing over him.
"I think I've heard this one before."
"Good, good!" Aniya cheered. "That means I'll help you get your memories back by being myself!"
"Yo, who's the green boy?"
Commander looked at who said that. There was an male Inkling standing behind Aniya. He was a lot taller than her with yellow hair with black tips. He was wearing a shirt with yellow on the bottom half, black shorts with yellow pants, and shoes with the bottom half yellow with black soles. His hair was tied back into a ponytail.
"Me? Green...?"
"Yes, you!" He walked over to Commander and looked at his hair. He flicked the longest part of his bangs. He walked in a circle around him. "Why are you here? You don't look too strong."
Aniya laughed. "I'll bet he could beat you to a pulp, Kite!"
"Yeah right!" Kite scoffed. "He don't even have a weapon!"
"I'll just take him to Ammo Knights then!" Aniya grabbed Commander. "Let's go prove him wrong!"
She dragged him into the shop. She gently pushed him toward Sheldon. The Horseshoe crab watched him fumble with a Splattershot. Commander put it back where he found it. An E-Liter 4K caught his attention. He lifted it off the shelf and turned it around in his hands.
"Well, do you like it?" Aniya asked.
Sheldon tugged her sleeve. "Aniya, I don't think you should trust that guy."
"Hm? Why not?"
"He looks like he's under Commander Tartar's control."
"Who's Tartar?"
"Well," Sheldon made sure Commander went to test out the weapon before he said anything else, "Tartar was kidnaping Octolings and making them take part in some sort of "Find this item and you'll be free" game. As I've heard from Agent 8, he was blending Octolings into a thing called "Sanitization", which was supposed to make you look much like he does, but you were pretty much mindless. They followed Tartar's orders like mindless slaves."
Aniya watched as Commander came back out of the testing room and dug in his pockets for some cash.
"You think he's evil?"
"Well, Tartar died, so maybe the Octolings and Octarians under his control aren't under his control anymore?"
Commander brought out some blue coins that looked like bottle caps by the way they were colored by turning his pocket inside out. Some of them fell on the floor, so he picked them up, hitting his head on the counter in the process. The bottle cap coins had the same new-but-familiar symbol on it that Commander's hat did, but they were white instead of blue. He slapped some of them on the counter and walked back over to them.
"I have a weapon now."
Aniya shot him a strange glance. "Welp, gotta go."
She bought him back outside. Maybe if I give him an order, he'll do what I say like that!
Kite walked back over there. "So, you have a weapon now, eh? You still can't beat the Yellow Jackets!"
Two more people came over, one a female Octoling, the other a male Inkling.
"Hey, I'm Roseanne." The Octoling said. Her curly hair also had black tips, and she wore an outfit similar to Kite, but with a black skirt over her pants instead.
"And I'm Jack! Nice to meet you!" His hair was styled into a short mohawk, with the tips black as well. He wore the same uniform as Kite, but with only a pair of shorts.
"If you are a group of Splatters, where's the fourth Yellow Jaffiff?" Commander started, but Aniya covered his mouth as he finished.
"Heheh, would you look at the time! We'd best be getting that round in now." She grabbed his cheeks and pulled them as far away from his face they would go. "Heheh, silly little Octoling! Don't ask questions."
She pulled him into the Lobby. There was a level 1 Inkling in there.
"Who're you?" Aniya asked the Inkling.
"I-I-I live here!" They stuttered. "I have the job of cleaning the Lobby, please don't hurt me!"
"Whatever, just don't get in our way." Kite said.
The stage was Undertow Spillway. Aniya's team color was pink and the other team was orange. Aniya ended up on the same team as the Yellow Jackets while Commander was with a female Inkling with her hair in a ponytail, an Octoling, and another Inkling. Commander's hair color didn't change, which was odd.
"Yo, what's with the weirdo?" The ponytail Inkling asked.
"Idk. Don't do anything. Staaaay heeeere." The Octoling told Commander.
He straightened his stance.
The ponytail Inkling and Octoling left.
"Go ahead. Do something." The other Inkling said.
Commander loosened his stance again and ran off.
"What's up with that guy? He's like a little soldier..."
Author note: Okay, I lied again. I'll just hold off on the hosts for now. They will show up eventually though, you can count on that. Stay Fresh!