Author's Note: This may be Splatoon 3 in fanfic format, but don't expect new gear, weapons, or stages. We would still be doing business in Inkopolis Square...but only with a new duo doing the news.
And without further adieu...
The match raged on, engulfing Skipper's Pavillion in the combating colors. Julianne took care of the area beside the spawns, on the grand steppes, escaping Shimano and Jeremy. The two yellow team members covered the corridors, targeting the enemy cyan ink.
Evan continue to engage the Clash Blaster & the Heavy Splatling, trading deadly streams of cyan and yellow, until Evan's head glowed iridescent, indicating his special was ready: the Splashdown. Celia was busy inking turf in the meanwhile, ordered by Evan to do so. Both guys caught wind of the special about to be unleashed, but they were too slow for Evan. Both guys tried to swim away, but Connor caught the full blast, splatting him, a yellow ghost squid drifting away from where he was. Luke, upon seeing what happened, Super Jump-ed back to base, avoiding barely the same fate.
Joshua, meanwhile, was intercepting Shimano and his N-Zap '89, trading bombs in between torrid streams of shots. Shimano had Autobombs to chuck at the enemy, while Joshua had the more simple Splat Bombs to spares.
"You've got heart, Octoling.", said Shimano, spitting the last word. "What is your name? ", he asked, as he chucked an Autobomb at Joshua.
"Joshua Catfish", the Octoling replied, "Former cadet of the Octarian army, last known rank, Private First Class.", he stated his brief military service while throwing a Splat Bomb.
"Pretty good for a lowly Octoling.", said Shimano, firing his N-Zap at Joshua.
"Heh, gotta be to survive.", said Joshua to the Inkling, octopus-ing to refill his ink.
"But you can survive this, Octoling?", he imposed at Joshua, his tentacles glowing as he uttered the very words, and with reason: his special has came online. He suddenly sprouted huge, twin missile packs on his shoulders, the Tenta Missiles. Because no one was around, all the missiles were locked on Joshua.
"Aw...squit.", was the only thing Joshua can say, as the middle were set loose by Shimano. Joshua squidded away from the missiles, only surfacing to throw a Splat Bomb. Shimano threw away the missiles as it emptied. The last three missiles would have missed, had it not for Joshua trying to throw a Splat Bomb, which proved to be his splatting.
Over at the east side, Celia was glowing already, indicating that her Ink Armor is ready to be called into action once more. Suddenly, Connor emerged out of the ink that wasn't covered by Celia or any of them.
"Why, hello there, ya little woomy!", he said menacingly to Celia, opening fire with his Clash Blaster. Celia barely dodged the weapon's explosive wrath, squidding away to get away from Clash Blaster's meager range, Celia re-positioning to fire at the offender, but missing. She opted to throw a Splat Bomb instead, only hitting Connor by the splash radius. He retaliated by pumping two shots, the last one almost splatting the young Inkling.
Joshua has just respawned. Looking up his wrist-worn gadget, he looked up where the rest of them was. He opted to jump to Celia, deeming her in danger. It would have been a timely decision had it not been for the fact that Connor retaliated with a Splat Bomb. Celia, frightened, froze, and moments after, got splatted. Joshua had to submerge to avoid the ink blast.
Joshua didn't spare a single moment to mourn, already putting his feelings to action, firing upon Connor. He knew the Clash Blaster sacrificed power for range. Connor decided to compensate with throwing Splat Bombs at him to start the engagement.
"Oh it's you, Octoboy!", Connor said sneeringly, a greedy look in his Inkling eyes. Joshua didn't reply, inking a short path to swim through past him to take him by surprise. Connor, however, caught on and Joshua barely escaped the blast, taking some damage, but healing immediately, as he was in friendly ink. Connor took a second to look for his prey before things turned around real quick, as Joshua emerged behind the mohawk Inkling.
Joshua did not take time to speak, firing upon the confounded Clash Blaster user, splatting him instantly, without any chance to react. He just inked away as he disposed of his foe, covering the parts where the yellow team touched.
"Heh. Pretty good for an Octo, should I say?", he said to nobody in particular, as he was left alone to ink whatever he could find.
"Not so fast, stupid Octo!", Luke laughed menacingly, as his Heavy Splatling whizzed to life, preparing for it's malicious intent.
"Luke Crowley. That must be you.", he coldly said to the Inkling.
"The newbie.", he replied, fierce malice in Luke's eyes. The Splatling started to shoot for the Octoling, prompting Joshua to swim away to avoid the lethal rain. Joshua replied by throwing a Splat Bomb his way, prompting him to swim away momentarily. Joshua was wondering where was his adversary, but a familiar whizzing answered his question maybe too late.
"Hahahaha!", he laughed evilly, as he was unleashing another lethal rain at the fleeing Octoling, swimming away to get away faster. "Run Octo, Ruuuuun!", as he was maniacally running and inking his escape route. Joshua's situation got worse as he also ran into a rejoining Connor.
"Going somewhere, Octo-fag?", he said leeringly to the surrounded Octoling. The Heavy Splatling was behind him. He had to stand his ground. He has to somewhat come over this situation while Evan or Julianne wasn't available. He then decided to prioritize the Clash Blaster, capitalizing it's short range over the Splattershot Jr. Luke wasn't making matters better, as he was mercilessly firing upon the Octoling. Both Connor and Joshua landed shots, forcing both to submerge to heal themselves. Connor surfaced first, but with a glow Joshua recognized wasn't good for the situation.
A beam of yellow ink started to protrude from Connor's temporary apparatus: the Stingray. Luke then decided to join his friend in a pincer move to splat the Octoling: the Stingray on one side, the Heavy Splatling on the other. However, Joshua realized fast that the Stingray slowed it's user, as he witnessed it point blank. He then fired a Splat Bomb at Connor and swam away from the blast, leaving Luke enraged as he witnessed Connor go boom in a splash of cyan.
The one minute music started to make itself known. All parties were headed to the center to duke it out for turf. Jeremy was hilariously outmatched against the Custom Jet Squelcher , putting down Julianne's offender in short order, her weapon's power punching through the Octobrush's wild swipes, simply swimming sideways to avoid the lethal wave. Evan was having a peaceful time inking more turf when he heard signs of a heated struggle: Joshua. But, what he witnessed was not what he expected: remains of a Stingray kit sunk below the ink while Joshua threw Splat Bombs, dove into ink, then fired at Luke. He then decided to be silent about it and intercept any help.
Shimano had already turned his sights on Julianne, maneuvering to engage the Octoling female. She simply swam away and fired her gun at the Inkling, knowing full well her range advantage against the N-Zap. He retaliated by throwing an Autobomb at the Octoling, forcing her to momentarily swim away while Shimano topped up his reserves.
"30 seconds, give it your all teams!", yelled the announcer enthusiastically. That's just what both teams needed to hear. Evan spotted a newly respawned Connor coming back for revenge. He immediately chucked a Burst Bomb as he was approaching. Connor got damaged, and was forced to immediately drop into the ink. He then thought to swim behind Evan and then splat him to kingdom come with his Clash Blaster.
But Evan knew how they played, and they did not care for Ink Battle etiquette. Evan swam away and resurfaced only to face the Clash Blaster user, infuriating the mohawk Inkling.
Joshua bobbed and weaved in between full charges of Luke's Heavy Splatling. Determination was flaming in Joshua's eyes, meeting Luke's splat-hungry eyes. Luke thought to himself, "This squit right here is taking too damn long to splat.", as he chucked a Sprinkler a few meters in front of him, barring Joshua to close the distance, opting instead to throw a Splat Bomb at him, the squidded away. Then Luke unleashed his Special: the Stingray.
But there was one problem: Luke activating the special meant he was immobile, therefore exposing himself to an attack. Joshua, already learning from his splatting of Connor, wasted no time positioning himself out of the Stingray's arc and began firing upon him mercilessly. Luke tried to Super Jump away, but Evan already swam into the scene and splatted him without hesitation.
Julianne was feeling the slower fire rate of her gun against the N-Zap, it's user skilfully weaving in out of her shots, responding in turn with firing his N-Zap. Suddenly, another cyan figure streaked through the skies, joining behind Julianne. She reformed back to a girl: Celia.
Celia, having had filled her special, ran up to support Julianne, activating Ink Armor near her, granting both of them the special. Motivated, Celia and Julianne split and flanked Shimano both sides, with Shimano wisely hiding and Super Jumping out of a sticky situation. The timer was surely making itself known.
"Ten." Shimano unleashed his Tenta Missiles once he reached spawn point.
"Nine" All of the cyan team scattered to avoid the lethal ink missiles, Evan running into Joshua, who in turn ran into Julianne and Celia.
"Eight." Yellow team surrounded them, but it was 3 v 4. Evan's team was more balanced than Luke's.
"Seven." Shimano joined them via Super Jump, opening fire once he landed.
"Six. Five." Julianne locked onto the Octobrush user, but was harassed by the N-Zap user. Evan engaged with Luke while Joshua was holding off Connor so that he cannot help Luke.
"Four. Three." Celia sneakily tossed a Splat Bomb between the clash of Julianne and Jeremy. Jeremy was incensed even further, zipping away to catch Celia.
"Two. One." Joshua was left alone, but Evan had just flew into the air: He activated Splashdown at the last second, splatting both Luke and Connor.
"Prrrrrt!", as the whistle blared, signalling the close of another Turf War match.
Both teams marched on out of Skipper Pavilion, eagerly waiting for results. Tension was so thick between the two teams, the atmosphere was electric. All members were silent, only looking at the battle arena, which was an indistinguishable mess of cyan & yellow. The two judge cats, Judd and Lil' Judd, came up on the screen to tabulate the total ink covered by the warring teams.
And then, the final results.
Team Cyan won, 43.7% against Team Yellow's 41.5%. Evan and his team cheered, avoiding harassment from Luke's goons as they threatened earlier, much to their frustration.
"We ain't finished with you squits just yet.", Luke said venomously, rage burning in his eyes. "You weaklings got lucky.", he added.
"Hah! No puss for you!", said Joshua tauntingly at the group.
"Why you little Octo!... ", said Jeremy, as he was rushing in to slap his Octobrush on Joshua, incensed. However, Evan stepped in with his Hero Shot Replica.
"I don't think so.", Evan said deftly, pointing his weapon at Jeremy.
"Let's just leave, boss!", said Connor. "We just came back you know? ", he added.
"Grrrr.", was the only response Luke could provide. The bullies were starting to leave when Luke faced them one more time, making himself clear.
"Next time we meet, I'm going to splat you all into next week, you'd be better off calling it early!", he yelled at Evan and his motley crew. "And we're gonna get some of that ass, and no paltry Octoling is going to stand in my fucking way! You hear that Squid Scout?! You hear that?", he blurted out, rejoining his gang.
"So, are we rematching?", Evan said to his motley team, ignoring Luke.
"Sure, nothing to do.", said Julianne. "I might have to switch first."
Both the newbies agreed too, and Super Jumped back to Deca Tower.
(Meanwhile, in the studios)
Pearl and Marina were sitting at the producer's office, ready for the hell about to roll over in this session. The producer was a middle-aged inkling, his hair/tentacles slicked back, colored butter yellow. He has a gaunt face, only worsened by anger.
The office featured a sleek black wide table, with the name "Nicholas Rainmaker" spelled in a gold nameplate in front of him, with varying piles of paperwork on various subjects, beside a laptop. The walls were adorned with various Off the Hook albums, in chronological order, and a shelf was dedicated to his ward's achievements at the Sea Conch Music Awards, most of which were from Off the Hook. The floor was gleaming porcelain, and his area was carpeted, a red & black stripe seaweed carpet adorning his space. A flatscreen TV was abuzz with news at the back of his seat.
"So then, girls.", he said tersely to the duo. "What was all that bullsquit about?" He asked the duo. Marina's facial expression didn't change one bit.
"With all due respect, I felt that was overdue, sir.", Marina began. "The show was a perfect platform to dispel any negative connotations on my race.", she stated.
"Look here Marina, here's the real score.", said the producer. "Conscience is a weakness in the showbiz industry. They'd rather be entertained than to be forced to swallow a hard pill.", he said. "Didn't Pearl teach you that? And you didn't even tell me this was gonna go down?", he went on.
It was Pearl's turn to speak.
"Sir, I advised her against all of this, believe me.", she said flatly.
"Well clearly, you did not do enough.", he said in a voice dangerously terse, close to yelling.
"We even got into a conflict because of this matter. Ask Marina if you don't believe me.", she deftly said to Mr. Rainmaker.
"Was that true?", he promptly asked the taller DJ.
"Yes, producer.", she answered. "I viewed it as her being selfish." she said simply.
"Look here, I am willing to make a statement about your race Marina.", he said in his best calm voice he could manage at the time. "But now I'd have to haggle all over again with the news studios, sponsors...hell, you may have caused an upset in the market!", he said, exasperated.
"Give them time, I'm sure they'll understand.", said the Inkling rapper, fidgeting with the crown in her hands.
"And what if they don't?", said the producer back. "Some of our prospects come from fabled Great Turf War veterans!", he reiterated. "They won't take too kindly to Octolings endorsing their stuff!", he said, exasperation increasing by the minute.
Marina was thinking about blurting out how Cuttlefish met Marina and had a dossier on her, but she decided against that, thinking about his anonymity and the New Squidbeak Splatoon's.
"Then we are ready to pass Inkopolis News over to who you may deem worthy.", Marina said, after some thought.
"I'm ready to follow her too, sir.", Pearl said, supporting Marina's move.
"Are you all sure about this? People would be looking for you like crazy!
"Maybe like a farewell concert to signify our departure?", Marina suggested. "It's be a payday for everyone. Win-win.", she proposed.
"That, huh.", he said, mulling it over. "When are you planning it?", he asked.
"Next weekend maybe?", said the tan-skinned DJ. "That could give the kids all the time they need to buy tickets.", she added.
"On Starfish Mainstage too maybe? Finish where we started?", said Pearl, nostalgia running through her.
"You really are doing this? This is that time, huh? Alright, lemme make some calls and see what I can do.", he said finally, sighing. "Can I just say this? You guys are the best talent this producer ever had. Replacing you would be quite the task.", he said to the duo.
"We kinda figured, Mr. Rainmaker. I recognize most of those trophies.", said Pearl.
"But what is success if you are lying to yourself?", said Marina.
"Well, that may have been what was behind all that kerfuffle earlier.", he said, resigned. "I see. Principle over material things. That's what it was.", he said to her. "Well, my old man will never believe that his son managed the career of an Octarian singer/DJ. I'd never hear the end of it, and how Octarians are a threat to society.", he narrated.
"He should meet Captain Cuttlefish sometime.", Pearl finally deciding to reveal him. "He may know your old man, Mr. Rainmaker.", Pearl offered.
"Oh, what? ", the producer was surprised. "You two know Cap? THE, CAPTAIN CUTTLEFISH?", he said, surprise taking him over.
"Yes sir, on a little hiking trip on Mt. Nantai.", said Marina, whipping up an immediate cover story.
"Whoa, really? My old man served him in the final raids of the Great Turf War.", he said, still shocked. "No wonder you two got some nerve.", he said simply.
Marina looked at Pearl shiftily, knowing what was both on their minds. "If only you knew...We saved Inkopolis a year ago from some madman who wants to goo us to death.", Marina thought to herself.
"Alright you two, get some lunch.", he finally dismissed the pop duo. "And maybe treat the crew while you're at it.", he added.
"I got that covered, boss!", Pearl said to him, walking out the door, Marina close by. As they closed the door, they both heaved a sigh of relief now that was over with. Suddenly, Pearl's mobile device played an 8-bit version of Acid Hues, signifying she had a message.
When she whipped it out, the sender, much more so the message was unexpected.
*Marie
Meeting in Cuttlefish Cabin. Grandpa wants to see you. We're renaming Agent 8. Agent 3 &4 will be there. Get here asap.
BTW. That was brave of Marina. Well done.
*Agent 2.
"What does Cap need?", said Pearl, still processing the unexpected message.
"I dunno Pearlie, but this a welcome distraction.", Marina said. The paparazzi and the fans will be out for us. "Come on, Marie and Callie may be waiting for us.", she said to her partner.
"Gotta get changed first to something incognito.", Pearl reminded her.
"Civilian clothes sound fine to me.", said Marina. Both went to their dressing rooms and picked up whatever they can plausibly match. Pearl picked up her Gold High Horses once more, but now matching a denim skirt to her Zekko hoodie. She then put on shades & a Takoroka Mesh to finish the look. Marina pulled on a pair of jogger pants, pulled up a pair of Turquoise Kicks, and finished it off with her tank-top and bandana from when they battled Commander Tartar & NILS. Both sneaked away to the parking lot, making way for Marina's motorcycle. The car would be too obvious and would be easily spotted.
"You're a big bike enthusiast, Marina? ", said Pearl, clambering on to Marina's front with difficulty because of her height deficiency.
"Nah, I just found this more functional and powerful.", Marina said, as she started the engine up. They soon zoomed out of the parking lot, and soon, out of Inkopolis Square, to meet with the NSS & their forerunners, the Squid Sisters.
They soon pulled up into a gasoline station and parked the bike there. Marina put a prototype version of her Octo Beacon, her own design, on the face of her bike. Both girls looked both ways to watch for prying eyes, then Super Jumped into the grate in Inkopolis Plaza, and dove right after into the sewers.
After-Chapter Bits:
What does Marie and the rest of the NSS want to share to the popstar duo? Find out next!