Chapter 1

Arrival

"Last stop! Inkopolis plaza!" The Jellyfish bus driver yelled to the only passenger still aboard.

"…"

"Hey, Kid! Wake up, it's your stop!"

"Bwa…?" A young Inkling boy replied, removing one side of his studio headphones from his ear and wiping the sleep out of his eyes. "What did you say…?"

"C'mon, kid. I ain't got all day, hit the road." The grumpy bus driver opened the door and gestured out it

"Wait, this isn't Inkopolis plaza… Where is everyone?" He said, looking out the window at a mostly abandoned plaza, only populated by a few Jellyfish working on construction.

"You live under a rock, Kid? The plaza's been abandoned for a year and a half now."

"What?! B-but… where do ink battles take place then?!"

"Kid, calm the shell down… they take place at Inkopolis Square now…" The driver said, visibly exasperated.

"Square..? Oh... well, does this bus go there too? Can you take me?"

"Grr… that was 5 stops ago, kid… if you want to go there, get out and walk…" The Driver growled as his mood shifted from exasperation to outright annoyance.

"W-wait! I don't know how to get there!"

"Just head up through there, there's a jump pad that should get you the rest of the way. Might give you a chance to reconsider going there…" The driver said, pointing a tentacle out the open door.

"Why would I do that?" The inkling said, slinging his cheap plastic ink tank over his shoulder and grabbing his backpack and Splattershot jr. from the bus seat next to him. The bus driver flashed him an almost sympathetic look at that.

"You got a name, Kid?"

"Yeah, my name is..."

"Never mind, I don't care, you ain't exactly the freshest lookin' squid on the block. From the looks of that Splattershot jr., you mean to be an ink battler, right? Well, to make it at that you need to at least have some clout goin' i-"

"Oh, that's not a problem! We had Ink battles all the time at home. I was the best in the entire town!" He interrupted, holding his tiny Ink pistol in the air triumphantly, brushing off the grumpy bus driver's insults.

The bus driver only shook his head and breathed a heavy sigh as the energetic inkling ran off the bus. "Keep tellin' yourself that, Kid." was all he said before closing the door and driving off. He was just happy that the twerp was gone and he could go home.

The young inkling stared out at the area in front of him, inhaling the fresh afternoon air with a confidant grin on his face.

"I don't care what he or anyone says, I'm gonna be the first pro ink battler from my hometown! All I gotta do is get to Inkoplolis and start wowing some people!" He yelled to no one in particular as he tore off down the deserted alleyway in front of him.

The path to the jump pad was actually more of a blessing than an annoyance, in the end. The area was only partially developed and still under construction, so it actually ended up providing the young inkling with a chance to brush up on his mobility skills. Like shooting his ink on the ground and swimming through it to move faster, using his ink to swim up walls and through grates. After he was satisfied with his practice, he used a splat bomb to destroy the crates in the way of the last wall, inked it with his Splattershot jr, and swam on up. At the top, a platform with a rippling pad of green ink was waiting for him.

"That's it... the jump pad…" From the platform, he could see an amazing view of the Inkopolis skyline. The sun hung low in the sky, covering the city in a soft orange light. From where he was, he could see the light of the Square. It being evening, the last ink battles of the day should be starting soon.

"This is really it… the start of my new life." He could feel himself hesitating. When he was talking to that rude bus driver earlier, he was just trying to sound tough. However, now that he was here, overlooking the Square, he was beginning to doubt himself.

What if that guy right? What if I'm not cut out for this? Even if I'm the best ink battler back home… there really aren't many of them to begin with… and I have only been doing this for a year…

It took a few minutes, but he was eventually able to build up enough confidence to step onto the jump pad.

"Here I GOOOO….!" He screamed as he transformed into his squid form and was almost immediately launched high into the air, flying towards Inkopolis Square on a stream of neon green ink.

From high in the air, He could see most of the lights in the city were out. All except for the immediate area around the square and a few small spots around the city in the distance, which he assumed to be the ink battle stages.

What's going on? It seems like most of the city is blacked out… Is the electrical grid on the fritz or something?

As he landed in the back of the square, the huge screens attached to the main buildings all blared to life, playing a quick jingle before the two news hosts appeared. The one on the left was short and pale with short white tentacles, the other tall with dark skin and very long black tentacles that faded to a light blue color towards the ends.

"Huh? Oh, right! Off the Hook does Inkopolis news now! Kinda miss the Squid Sisters… but Pearl and Marina are pretty fresh too, I guess…" He said. Directing his attention towards the screen as the newscast began.

"Y'all know what time it is!" Pearl began.

"It's Off the Hook, coming at you LIVE from Inkopolis Square!" Marina continued.

"BREAKING NEWS! The Great Zapfish is still missing after 2 whole days!" Pearl said, waving her arms in panic.

"This really isn't good… most of the city has already shut down in order to conserve the power we still have stored up…"

"Yeah, all that we have now is Inkopolis Square and the battle stages… We won't even have that soon if the spawn pads lose power!" Pearl said with an annoyed look on her face, before squinting at something behind the camera. "Yo, Marina. Why is our producer freaking out?"

"Huh..? Oh, the teleprompter… let's see here… Oh! THIS JUST IN! Pop superstar Callie of the Squid Sisters has gone missing!"

This development caught the young inkling way off guard.

"Callie's missing..? That's terrible… what could have happened to her…?" He wondered aloud to himself, before returning his attention to the news.

"WHAAAT?! For eel?! NOOO! Do something Marina!" Pearl screamed, turning to Marina for answers. The taller inkling also looked to be grasping at straws.

"Uhhh… Ok, I'll put together a search part-"

"Nah, whatever. I'm sure they'll turn up at some point. In other news…" Pearl interrupted, quickly shifting back to her chilled-out persona.

"Wait, but shouldn't we form a search party or someth-"

"Nope! We can worry about that later! On to today's last set of regular battle stages!"

"Oh, right. Our job." Marina said, scratching the records on her turntable and revealing the turf war stages to be Blackbelly Skatepark and Camp Triggerfish.

"Hey, did you know I designed this stage back in the day?" Pearl said to Marina, referring to Camp Triggerfish.

"Yup. Your parents own the place, right?" Marina said back.

They went on to reveal the ranked and league stages, but the young inkling boy didn't care about those. He started walking towards the Deca Tower, so he could sign up to be in one of the last battles of the day. As he walked into the waiting area of the tower, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye, through the glass. A taller inkling (taller than him, anyway), standing on top of a grate near the corner of the shopping center. The top of her face was obscured by a neon yellow parasol, but to him she still looked vaguely familiar somehow. She seemed to be looking right at him, but he couldn't be sure because of the parasol. He decided to write her off for now, he had bigger things to worry about.

Signing up to be an official ink battler in Inkopolis was fast and easy enough. All he had to do was give his name, physical attributes, and sign a few documents. In practically no time at all, he was on the subway to Camp Triggerfish. Adjusting his headphones and the ink tank on his back, his thoughts drifted to the weapon in his grasp.

I'm not stupid, I know that my splattershot Jr. isn't great in direct combat. Its range is awful and the massive spread in the shots makes things even worse. That's why I'm not gonna focus on that. I have to sneak around and focus on inking turf and team support…

With a quick look around the subway car, he could tell the other inklings around him were much better and more experienced than him. Most of them even had longer ranged weapons, one holding a luna blaster being the only exception.

Oh carp... I really hope that one with the E-liter is on my team… she looks like she knows what she's doing… Maybe I should try talking to her… get some tips? Yeah let's do that.

He turned to the inkling girl holding a custom E-liter 4k in the seat across from his.

"Um… Hi. I-I'm new here... You look like you know what you're doing, sooo maybe you could give me some advice..? Help prep me for my first battle…?"

She slowly looked up for her phone, a smirk starting to form on her face.

"A noob, huh? Well, you certainly look like it..."

"Heh… Yeah... the bus driver said something just like that…" Maybe this wasn't such a good idea…

"Well listen, newbie. Just 'cause you're 'the best ink battler in your hometown' doesn't mean you're worth a thing here in the big leagues." Her smirk only grew wider with that last part.

"Wait, I didn't sa-"

"Didn't have to. I can see it in your eyes, the way you carry yourself, and the way you hold that dinky little pistol like it's a real weapon. And that ink tank!" She broke out into a laugh. "It looks like you strapped a plastic water bottle to your back!"

"H-Hey! You dont have to be such a jerk about it..! I just wanted t-"

"HA! Right! You wanted help! Ok, listen up noob. You're nowhere NEAR fresh enough to even look at me, let alone ask me for anything. And…" She lifted her weapon onto her shoulder and pulled her skull bandana up from her neck and over her face. "I'm gonna formally teach you that lesson on that battlefield today."

The train came to a stop and a loud voice came on the intercom. "Camp Triggerfish. One minute until turf war. Ink battlers, get to your spawn pads."

"Time's up, noob. Get ready to get splatted." The inkling girl said, getting up from her seat and walking off the train.

Before, he was nervous and unsure of himself. Now… he was all fired up. He wasn't going to just sit there and let what she said go unanswered. He was gonna show her what he was capable of.

"So what if I'm a noob… that doesn't mean anything…" he growled to himself as he got off the train to his first turf war.

Reforming from the light blue ink inside the spawn pad, the young inkling boy looked out at the stage in front of him. The evening light was shining beautifully over Camp Triggerfish, covering the whole wooden structure with a soft orange glow and reflecting off the gentle waves of the lake. Too bad the newbie ink battler wasn't here to sightsee. He was here to prove himself. To that jerk from the train, to all the other battlers there, and to himself. He KNEW that he had a future here in inkopolis Inkopolis. Otherwise, what else did he have in life? A quick look around the arena in front of him told him all he needed to know. Not a lot of high ground. Not ideal for snipers. As long as he kept an eye out and didn't linger too long on the central bridges, he definitely had the upper hand over her. If he played his cards right, didn't let himself get caught in the open, and supported his team, he could definitely help his team to victory.

"This is it..." Was all he could say to hype himself up as the countdown started.

3… 2… 1… GO!

He was off like a bullet, inking as much ground as he could as he went. He decided his best bet was to take the left hand path, going up the steps and activating the ink rail.

Ok... almost have enough to activate my ink armor… Looks like two of my teammates went down the center and the other went to take the area off to the right. If I can give them some ink armor, we might be able to push them back hard enough to put them in a bad place ear-

His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden stream of ink ripping through him in an instant. He didn't even have time to scream before he was splatted, leaving only a large puddle of purple ink behind. The origin of which was standing halfway across the map, laughing to herself.

"Easy there, noob. You didn't think I was just gonna let you go after our little conversation on the train..? That's rich... Hey guys!" She yelled out to her team "Leave the noob with the stupid ponytail to me!" Her team complied with their leader's orders.

The newbie's spirit flew down into the spawn pad and his body reformed from the colored ink. He took a sharp breath in after recovering from his untimely splatting.

"GASP… ouch… that really could have gone better..."

Looking out at the stage, he could see the game was still about even.

"Looks like what I did before was enough to give us a cushion for now… but my ink armor charge is down by half... gotta make up for lost time…" He said to himself as he sprinted off again, swimming in the ink his team already laid down to get back to the action faster.

"There… the area to the right of spawn was taken back by them. Let's change that." His confidence began to resurface as he rode the ink rail towards the purple area.

The wide spread of his splattershot jr.'s bullets let him cover up the area in no time flat.

"There, that ought to do i- WAA…!" He was barely able to step to the side in time to dodge another jet of ink from the bridge parallel to his team's side of the map. He immediately dove into his own ink and swam away as fast as he could.

That was way too close..! I can't let her splat me TWICE! Ok, all I have to do is get across that bridge, and over to their side. Won't be easy.. but from there I can ambush her and maybe others… I have my ink armor now, so maybe I ca- Wait, what's that?

A giant purple bubble floated above the ink he was hiding in.

W-Wait! That's a….!

That was all he could think before the bubble exploded and he was smeared across the ground.

"This is gonna be a long match…"

He was not wrong. For the next minute and a half, he was completely dominated by the charger player. He would try to get the upper hand, try to outmaneuver her, but she was always one step ahead of him.

A sneak attack from the side? She saw him first and splatted him before he was even in range to hit her.

An attempt to avoid her altogether? She hunted him down and blindsided him.

No matter what he tried, nothing worked. And it was starting to affect him. With each splat, he only became more reckless, hasty, and upset. It was like he was watching his future be taken from him.

Th-this time..! I made it around her... she doesn't suspect a thing..! I can do it! I can finally splat her and..!

He sprung up out of his ink and fired at her wildly. He was well within his own range, so he should have been able to hit with no issue… that is… if he had actually taken the time to aim and didn't miss nearly every shot.

"Really..? This is just sad now..." She swung her weapon around, bashing him in the head with its massive steel tank and knocking him on his back, in the purple ink.

In the enemy ink, he was stuck. Almost completely unable to move, especially with the throbbing pain in his head.

"agghhhh…." He struggled to get free of the enemy ink, but to no avail. He was soon pinned down by her foot on his chest.

"Listen up, Squiddo. It's time for another lesson. Listen good, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once. You will NEVER be one of us. You're welcome to try and prove me wrong… I'd love to teach you another lesson, Noob." Her voice was smug. He hated that.

The final countdown of the match began, and the Newbie was nearly in tears of anger at the veteran battler pinning him down.

"Y-you jerk… j-just cuz you beat me now, doesn't mean I can't-…!" She cut him off.

"Looks like our time is up. Later, noob." She fired one final time, splatting him right as the match ended.

The fat cat and his little friend stepped up to their podium and looked over the ink-coated map. After a quick look, the little feline raised a purple flag, signaling that the purple team had won the match.

All the newbie could do is stare. Stare at the percentage on the screen.

Blue team: 40.3%

Purple team: 52.7%

He felt like he wanted to cry right then and there, but he would never let the other battlers see that. He left the arena quickly and sat as far back as he could on the train, hoping no one would look at him.


"Hey, Shelly. Don't you think you were kinda hard on the little guy? It was his first match here, and you nearly drove him to tears…" The inkling boy with the luna blaster said, quickly glancing at the young inkling in the back.

"Eh. He'll learn." She retorted, dropping the smug persona. "If he wants to hack it as an ink battler here, he's gonna have to learn to deal with the occasional jerk."

"Wait, so you weren't-"

"Of course not. No one is that cartoonishly evil… He asked for a lesson, and I gave him one. If he really wants to do this, he'll be back. Maybe not tomorrow, but he'll be back." Shelly said, sliding her E-liter into a carrying bag and disconnecting her ink tank.

"I still think you were too hard on him…"

"We'll see about that."


The newbie ink battler was not taking the loss well. All he could think about was that girl's smug face as she splatted him over and over. Scattered thoughts of the battle clouded his head like a black cloud as he just wandered aimlessly around the square.

Range… all I need is a weapon with some range. A splattershot…. Yeah, a real splattershot would definitely have just enough range to help me deal with her!

His wandering stopped in front of the square's weapon shop, Ammo Knights.

Wasn't this place in Inkopolis plaza..? Meh, whatever…

He entered the shop and was immediately snapped out of his funk. He'd been in an ink weapon shop before with his older brother, but the one back home had nothing on the amazingness in front of him. Weapons packed on the shelves as far as he could see. Shooters, rollers, chargers, blasters, sloshers, even sets of dualies and brellas. He wanted to spend all day just marveling at the amount of ink weaponry in front of him, but he knew what he was there for. He may not have won the match that day, but he still got some G from it. That, plus what he brought with him from home added up to just over 1000G. Which was just enough to buy a normal splattershot. Confirming his cash balance on his phone, he reached out to grab his new weapon.

"Ahem..."

He stopped dead and turned to address the nasally voice behind him. It had come from a very short horseshoe crab man with goggles over his eyes. The crab man was looking him up and down, his gaze repeatedly stopping on the splattershot jr in his hand.

"O-oh… hi. Are you the owner..? 'Cause I'd like to bu-"

"I'm sorry, but is that truly the only weapon you have in your possession?"

"Yeah..? That's why I'm here. See, I wanna buy this splattersho-"

"I'm sorry, I truly am, but I don't think you're ready to handle that kind of firepower just yet." The crab man said, adjusting his goggles.

"W-wait… can definitely handle it…! How can you say that I can't…?" He stammered out, confused.

"I, Sheldon, am an expert on ink weaponry of all kinds. And I can most definitely tell when someone can and cannot handle a weapon. Now, all you have to do is go play a few matches, practice a bit, and come back when you're ready to handle a weapon like that." Sheldon said, walking towards him and ushering him out or the store before slamming the door behind him.

The young inkling was completely stunned as he stood there on the curb near the shopping center.

"Well… a-at least… he wasn't as mean as that charger girl…."

It may not have been as harsh, but it still hurt all the same. He briefly considered trying the other shops, but realized he'd probably get a similar result as the weapon shop. He turned his eyes to the pavement and decided to call it a night, just wanting this trainwreck of a day to be over. With that decision, a realization hit him like a charger shot to the eyeball.

I don't have nearly enough money to afford a hotel room here… ooooh carp. Well… uhhh…

He looked across the street, to the alleyway near the café.

..That alleyway looks comfy enough…

Feeling utterly humiliated and defeated, he began to shuffle his way over. He had just stepped off the curb when he heard a soft whisper from behind him.

"Hey. You, with the ponytail and the sad eyes. You've been having a real bad day, haven't you?

Turning around quickly, he could see her. The woman he saw before his ink battle. Same yukata, same parasol covering her eyes, same everything.

"You… I-I saw you earlier. Before my ink battle..." He said, trying to get a peek at her face from under the parasol.

"Yup. And I saw that battle. Kiiind of a train wreck."

"What..? You here to kick me while I'm down too?" He was getting really tired of meeting new jerks in this dang city.

"Not exactly. But if you wanna know why, you're gonna have to follow me."

And just like that, she had disappeared down the grate in a splash of neon yellow ink.

Am I really at such a low point that I'd even consider following some random girl into the sewers… on my first day in town…?

He knew he would regret it later, but he stepped onto the grate anyway, transformed into squid form, and slipped through.

At this point… literally anything could be better than sulking like this…


So, this chapter has been sitting on my google drive for the better part of the last 3 years. My thinking was 'I'll just write the whole damn thing before posting any of it so I can revise as I go and keep a consistent upload schedule!'

Oh how naive I was… 4 and a half chapters later, I lost interest, played a different game, and here we are. So f*ck it. Here you go. Will I post more? Maybe. Will I keep writing past what I had? Unlikely, but I guess anything is possible. Who knows, maybe with Splatoon 3 breathing down our necks I'll get the inspiration to finally finish this dang thing.

Until we meet again

~Ghost