"Please, give me back Skippy!" Hun lowers his fists.
"Skippy? I never heard anyone carrying such name!" The taller Sea Urchin shook his head, then he looks over the others. "Did you guys and girls heard it from somewhere?"
The Sea Urchins said "No!" in different timing and voice volume. Some of them even shrugged or looked up in the air.
"I'm referring to the Super Sea Snail!" The boy points at Skippy.
"Uh?!" The guy's eye popped out. "This piece of tool has a name?!"
"He's not a piece of tool!" His words echoed through the area. "He's my sister's pet and now he wants to get back home! Right, Skippy?!"
Skippy squeaked, almost like a jingle.
"There! You better leave him alone or else I"
Suddenly, a loud laughter burst out from every humanoid Sea Urchins! Hun backs a little, raising an eyebrow. Mirii felt like letting out a loud scream.
"Ah ah ah! What a funny story, dude!" The guy dries a tear off his eye. "This must be spammed all across Inkopolis!"
"He-hey! This is not funny!" He growled, gritting his teeth. "I'm serious! Give me back Skippy!"
"You must be living under some kind of rock, yeah?" The taller Urchin stops laughing. "No wait… even rocks have a brain! That's why they kicked you out from them!"
The kids laughed even harder! Some of them, fell on the ground holding their stomachs! Hun's eyes become red and smoke was coming out of his ears.
"Th-that's it!" He does a fighting pose again. "You left me no choice!"
"Oh no…!" The guy talks in a fake tone of voice. "Watch out everyone! Mr. KickButter is seeking some butts to kick!"
"I'll do it on YOU, if you keep taunting me like that!" His fists shake. "I promised to bring Skippy back to my sister and I'm going to do just that, no matter the dangers I have to face!"
Mirii kept hearing Hun's words mentally. The world around her suddenly stops, as the girl's eyes rest on the boy. Multiple thoughts were running over her head: each of them were covering her heart in mud in such great quantity, she felt chocking.
A battle cry made the world proceed normally: Hun charges at full speed towards the group of Sea Urchins as a Squid. He jumps while spinning, but one of the kids takes out an old baseball bat and hits him! Hun flies towards the empty Sea Shells, crashing into them: those fell down all over the place!
Skippy hides back inside his shell, as he looks the entire scene.
"Bah… if my little brother counter that, you must be a born loser." He chuckles, while shaking his head.
Moving the shells aside, Hun slides slowly as he yelps loudly. Mirii squeezes her eyes, looking at the boy: a red mark resembling a baseball appeared on his side. She gasps and instantly, everything was becoming red around her. She throws her bag near her feet, takes her Charger weapon and holds the trigger with so much strength, she could almost break it!
She carefully positions the weapon, while looking at the baseball bat through her scope.
BLAM!
The item blasts off the kid's hand, rotating at high speeds and landing on the other side of a brick wall. Immediately, everyone rest their eyes on the girl with a simultaneous gasp: the kids screamed, hiding inside their spiky shells. Mirii aims her weapon right on the guy's head, looking through the scope.
"Who the turf are you?!" He looks at Mirii, then at Hun.
"… give him the Super Sea Snail." She holds the trigger.
"You said WHAT?!" He lifts a foot.
"Don't try to move and do as I said." She keeps standing still.
"Oh come on! You seriously mean that you don't want anything more useful in exchange?!" He looks behind him, seeing Hun returned into his humanoid form. "I can give you lots of money for this!"
Hun shakes his head.
"How about a fresh new gear?!"
The boy re-shakes his head.
"I can help you meet a really cute Inkling chick!"
BLAM!
The guy screamed, glancing at a straight ink line passing almost near him!
"I'll repeat for the last time." She holds the trigger. "Give him the Super Sea Snail."
He looks at the girl, for a while… then he sighs.
"… where are we getting with the times…? First the Turf War Station closed up for good… and now THIS!" He throws Skippy with a fast spin.
Hun catches him with a jump-grab: the animal squeaked loudly, trembling.
"Hey! Are you crazy throwing animals around?!" He frowns, while wearing the bag which still had Skippy inside.
"Ooooh, shut up!" His eye was on fire. "You got lucky to have a girl Charger at your disposal! But next time, man… that Super Sea Snail is going right here!"
The guy pats his pocket.
"Or else my name is not Wall!"
"Then, you better think another one!" Hun walks away. "Because you'll never get Skippy!"
Mirii keeps her aim towards Wall, which was clenching his fists and observing Skippy. Suddenly, someone hits her weapon with a piece of wood board: its shot made everyone else look up! The girl turns around to see a Sea Urchin with an appearance similar to Wall.
"GO GET HIM!" He shouts, as he swings the wood board over Mirii.
The kids emerged from their shells and rushed towards the escaping boy: they all did a battle cry, while stretching their arms in direction of Skippy. The creature slides inside his shell, squeaking. Hun watches closely his ink path, as he turns a corner.
Meanwhile Mirii bends down, as the wood board passes her head. She jumped backwards, while another fast swing caressed her feet. Taking her weapon, while holding the trigger at the same time, she makes sure to include the guy's head inside the scope.
He raises his hands, letting the wood board rest on the ground. She shots right on his feet, making them dance on the floor. The guy jumps down from the balcony, followed by a scream. The girl smiled, as her hand forms a fist. However, the yells of the kids were tormenting her mind.
During his run, Hun notices a bunch of barrels piled up and had a little inspiration. He jumps on one, two and three of them. The fourth jump was almost similar to a professional Olympic jumper: right over the brick wall!
Landing on his feet, the adrenaline kept his legs moving forward! His instincts are buzzing throughout his brain. The sounds of multiple steps made them even louder! His eyes were unable to look behind, since for every step there was a glass shard or burned-out objects in the way.
At least, he wasn't the only one in this situation… but slowing down wasn't a good idea at all! And now, there seems to be someone running on the top walls too! Oh wait… with a quick glance, Hun could recognize everywhere those swaying long tentacles. He smiled, exploding in a quick speed boost!
He felt like flying over that messy sidewalk and reaching the end, before his mind could realize it! Turning back, that spiky nightmare didn't end as he thought. With perfect landing, as the girl would comment, Mirii thrusts her weapon forward with her eye already on the scope.
Their shoes-wearing feet tried desperately to grasp the ground, leaving behind a little puff of dust. Their run resume, but on the opposite way: the kids disappeared from the same way they came. The boy sighed in relief.
"I can't believe we made that, Mirii!" His head turns in her direction. "But you know…"
His eyes inspect her weapon.
"If those kids were getting closer… would you really shoot at them?"
She raises her weapon: her finger wasn't holding the trigger.
"Not really…" She smiles. "I think that a little scare was more than enough."
He chuckled.
"That was too close, anyway… but thanks to you, now Skippy can see my little sister again!"
Skippy squeaked in a short jingle. Mirii giggled for a bit.
"Shall we move?" She deposits her weapon away.
"Ok!"
The two Inklings walk away.
"Ah, Hunley…" Mirii lowers her head.
"Hmm?" His eyes analyze her face.
"I… I wanted to say sorry…" She looks away.
Her ears were lowered down too!
"Huh? For what?" He tilts his head.
"About before… I-I tried to force you into giving that Super Sea Snail away…!" She sighs. "Even though I helped, I still feel responsible for this mess! If only I knew all of this beforehand, I"
"Mirii… that's ok." He stands in front of her.
Both stopped.
"How can you say that?! I was wrong! I distracted you!" She massages her right tentacle.
"Uhm… well… did you distracted me on purpose?"
"Of course not! Why should I do that?!" She frowns.
"Then, you are innocent!" He smiles.
"Am I…?" She points at herself.
"Yes. All this incident reminds me of a mistake I did years ago…!" He looks up. "I had to bring seaeggs inside my house, but I tripped and broke almost all of them! My dad arrived, seeing me crying and begging for forgiveness."
Mirii listens his story very carefully.
"He folded his arms and asked Do you have a bad breath? I didn't understand why that question… but I breathed near my hand just to be sure. I answered no… and he suddenly smiled, replying Then, you are innocent! People that lie have always nasty breaths! I thought about that for a while… then I finally understood."
Mirii tilts her head.
"You… did you check my breath…?" She blushes a bit.
"Eeehhhmmm…" He chuckles, becoming red too. "Yes and no… I mean, you were near me and… well, at the same time I knew the results! Soooo, ehm…"
"That's ok, I understood it too." She smiles. "Thank you for giving me another chance…!"
"You are welcome!" He winks.
Together, the Inklings resume their walk… their hands were very close to each other.