The three octolings fired at Nathan and Diana, who managed to dodge. Spraying some of their own ink, the two sank into the ink. The Nathan's gear had the Ninja Squid ability, so he managed to swim unseen. Diana didn't have this ability, and one of the octolings spotted ripples in the ink. Thankfully, however, Nathan managed to splat her from behind before she could fire at Diana. Diana emerged from her ink.
"Alright," said Diana, "2 on 2. We can handle 'em!"
"Heh!" said the female Octoling, "As if!" Both the male and female began firing again, this time more aggressively. Hiding and swimming in their ink, the two octolings attacked the two inklings. Nathan took aim at the male while Diana took aim at the female.
The octoling that Diana was dealing with climbed up a wall and jumped off to attack from above. Diana would've gotten splatted by a Burst Bomb if she hadn't heard sound of the ink splashing as the octoling jumped out of it. She fired at Diana again, but Diana simply swam up behind her and splatted her. Diana then meet back up with Nathan.
"One left," said Nathan, "He's toast."
"Oh I've got something VERY special to share with you guys!" said the remaining male octoling. He took out a large charger-like weapon, with an attachment that looked like a blaster weapon. It had to be held by two hands, as it seemed quite heavy. The octoling fired a large, fast-moving ink sphere from the blaster part of the weapon.
"Whoa!" said Nathan and Diana as they dodged the projectile. When it hit the wall, it created a large explosion, bigger than any other blaster, with the radius twice the size of a Splat Bomb. "What the-" The octoling then fired a shot from the charger part of the weapon, blasting Nathan right in the stomach, knocking him down but not splatting him.
"Nathan!" yelled Diana.
"Don't worry...Ow...I'm fine..." said Nathan, "Just give me a minute to get up..."
"Grrr..." Diana glared at the male octoling, who was smiling at his work. "You piece of-!" Diana charged at the him at full force. He fired at her, but Diana managed to evade the attacks. She tackled him, pinning him to the ground and aiming her E-Liter 3K Scope right at his head.
The male grabbed the gun and attempted to move it away from his head, and was succeeding in doing so. Diana tried to keep the charger where she wanted it, but it was no use. The octoling punched her in the jaw, stunning her, and slammed her into the wall, punched her in the stomach, and aimed his own weapon right at Diana's head.
Diana desperately tried to push the weapon away, but the octoling kept fighting back, making it very difficult. By some luck, Nathan had recovered and slammed the octoling in the side of the head with his Silver Hero Roller, splatting him instantly.
"Are you okay?" Nathan asked.
"...Yeah," said Diana, "Are you?"
"Never better." Nathan helped Diana up. "You're still as bold as you where back home, y'know?"
"Heh heh, yeah."
"Let's go back to Inkopolis Plaza. We may find someone who can help. Octolings attacking out of nowhere is nothing normal."
"I agree. Let's hurry." Nathan and Diana unequipped their weapons and headed for the plaza as fast as they could. Thankfully, they were close to it.
When they got there, they looked around for someone who could help. But they knew that if they tried to tell any random person, they wouldn't believe them. Suddenly however, the Inkopolis News station came on, and the Squid Sisters, Callie and Marie, were on the big screen on their studio.
"Hold on to your tentacles!" said Callie.
"It's Inkopolis News time!" said Marie. Nathan realized that Callie wasn't as enthusiastic as she usually was, which surprised him.
"Today, we have some BREAKING NEWS!"
"What is it?! What is it?!"
"Well...actually it's more...ALARMING news!" Some people in the plaza stopped to hear the broadcast.
"What is- Wait, huh?"
"They've been reports lately of...disappearances."
"Of what? Food? Items?"
"No! Inklings!" Everyone in the entire plaza froze.
"Wait WHAT?!"
"There have been several reports of people missing from their homes!"
"You mean...they're gone?!"
"Yeah! I heard the number of reports has reached somewhere around 50!"
"Uh oh...what clues do we have?"
"Nothing! They just...disappeared without a trace!"
"Uh oh! Not good!"
"Do you think..."
"Do I think what?!"
"That...that THEY are..."
"What?! But they were defeated two years ago!"
"I don't wanna talk about his anymore..."
"Yeah, let's just move on to the current stages..." The two then revealed the current battle stages, pretending as if they hadn't heard the story, and stopped the broadcast. They said "stay fresh" as usual, but they sounded more worried.
The entire plaza seemed to be frozen in time. No one moved. After nearly a minute of silence, everyone was talking about the events. What was going on? What would happen to them? Questions and fear and anxiety were heard all over. Even Judd was awakened from his slumber by the broadcast.
"This is NOT good!" said Nathan.
"Inklings disappearing without a trace?!" said Diana.
"If Octolings are in the city...I'll bet the Octarians are behind this!"
"But can we do about it?"
"Um..." Nathan then spotted someone going into a manhole by a group of trash cans. He couldn't tell who it was, as the man and descended so fast, but he was able to see that it was an Inkling in humanoid form. He headed for the manhole. "Over here!" Diana followed him.
"What? It's a sewer..."
"I saw someone go into it. And looking inside...it seems kinda clean. Like someone's keeping it tidy."
"Huh. Odd."
"Maybe that person I saw could help us?"
"I don't know...if he lives in a sewer then..."
"Diana. It's worth a try."
"...Alright. Let's go."
"Okay." Nathan turned into squid form and went into the manhole. Diana hesitated at first, but did the same. The two went through a long passageway through the pipes. Both were surprised on how fast they were going within those pipes. Within a mere 15 seconds, they found themselves at the end of the path. It turned out that the "sewer" was actually a passage to a place known as Octo Valley.
When Nathan and Diana leaped out of the other side of the manhole, they found themselves in Octo Valley, and were surprised at the surroundings.
"Whoa...where are we?" said Diana.
"I...don't know," said Nathan.
"Whoa! Nathan, look!" Diana pointed to Inkopolis in the distance. "We are NOT in Inkopolis anymore!"
"Wow...Just wow..."
"STAND BACK OCTOJERKS!" yelled someone from behind. Nathan turned behind and was shot in the face by a shooter, covering his face in ink. The person holding the shooter quickly realized that Nathan and Diana were just Inklings, and threw the gun away.
"Oh...heh heh, sorry buckos! I thought you were those pesky octolings again."
"It's fine," said Nathan as he wiped the ink off his face, "We all make mistakes."
"You alright?"
"Yep, I'm alright."
"That's a relief! I would hate it if I hurt ya, bucko!"
"So um, who are you?" asked Diana.
"Me? Why, my name is Cap'n Cuttlefish! I'm here to look out for any fishy activity from the Octarians."
"So you're keeping watch over the Octarians?"
"That's right! I had a team two years ago that beat the Octarians! We gave 'em what for, though! We beat 'em before they could be any damage on Inkopolis!"
"So you're the leader of some kind of military team?"
"Well, back in my younger days. Two years ago, it was more of an agent squad. My granddaughters, Agents 1 and 2, were also part of the team. But Agent 3 was a legend! He was the one who beat down the Octarian King...and pretty much everything else. Me and Agents 1 and 2 were his support team.
"Really?"
"Yep! But recently, I've discovered that they've returned, and they're already wreaking havoc in Inkopolis! They've grown stronger...they've...they've..."
"I knew it!" said Nathan, "I knew the Octarians were behind it!"
"Yes! They are! But I hope you don't mind if I ask, why are you here?"
"We were attacked by a group of octolings after a Turf War match," said Diana, "One of 'em had an odd weapon...it was a Blaster and a charger merged into one! After we splatted them, we headed for the plaza and discovered that citizens have started to go missing in Inkopolis!"
"What?! It's true?!"
"Yes! We saw someone go through the manhole and decided to follow him...or her. We were looking for help."
"You must have seen me," said a male voice. It was Smith, a member of Cuttlefish's new team and the grandson of one of his deceased friends.
"And you are...?" asked Nathan.
"My name's Smith. I'm the scientist of the New Squidbeak Splatoon."
"New Squidbeak Splatoon?"
"Follow me," said Cuttlefish, "I'll explain over here." Nathan, Diana, and Smith followed Cuttlefish into his nearby house
