The City Stirs
On the shoreline of Bluefin Depot, the moon shining down from the sky, a section of ocean was spontaneously walled off by a concrete wall, and then the contained ocean water drained away into a grate. As the grate slid open, a blur leapt out of the hole in the ground, and landed onto the surrounding sand.
Right afterwards, an ear-splittingly loud guitar rift echoed all around the entire neighborhood, prompting multiple lights to turn on in virtually every apartment building in a kilometer-wide radius. The source of the noise was a tall and slender urchin on the sand playing his guitar like a maniac, the resulting cacophony blasting out of an amplifier strapped to his back.
"HELLOOOOO WORLD!" Tetanus cried, as he finished his guitar solo. "Tetanus has arrived!"
"Keep it down! Some of us are trying to sleep here!" A tired and irritated voice yelled out from the distance.
"Urrgh…" Spyke grumbled, the street urchin facepalming while he emerged from the grate. "Guess I got my work all cut out for me 'ere."
"So I noticed." Cobalt replied, trying not to laugh as he climbed out after Spyke. After him, the rest of the team emerged from the hidden entrance, as they hurriedly climbed out of the drained ocean floor onto the harbor.
"Hey, Bro!" Tetanus said, looking around, "Where's the welcomin' reception?! Oi expected there to be Inklings flyin' 'ere by now, lured in by the power of my music!"
"First of, Tetanus." Spyke groaned. "Inklings don't 'fly', they 'super-jump', big difference 'ere. Secondly, there's no welcoming reception because it's eleven in the evenin' right now!"
"Wait, ya don't mean tha' there be no heroes bein' vigilant at night, and lookin' out for lawbreakers?"
"You wot- oh bloimey, this will take a while…"
"It's eleven in the evening?!" Katelyn gasped, ignoring the exchange between the two urchins, "Ooo… I do hope my mother doesn't notice I'm late…"
"It's okay, Katie." Mei-Lin reassured. "Just say that you were taking care of me if she does, that is a good enough excuse."
"I suppose if she even notices… but thanks for the tip, Mei-Lin."
"Lateness aside," Chris said, looking back at the grate. "I can't help but feel we've forgotten something But what-"
Right on cue, there was the clunk of hard shell on rock, and the very tip of a massive Super Sea Snail jutted out of the hidden entrance, along with a muffled "Meep…" as the unfortunate creature struggled to fit through the tight space. Tetanus briefly stopped conversing with Spyke, and turned to the entrance.
"Ah, there ya are, buddy!" He said, chuckling. "'ere, lemme help ya outta there." Walking behind the inklings and jumping back down onto the drained sea bed, there were sounds of exertion and highly exaggerated grunts as the urchin attempted to pull out Tiny from the disproportionate hole.
"Oh…right." Cobalt said as he remembered. "What are we going to do with Salty now? Are we just…" he looked briefly at Spyke as the urchin looked at Tetanus from the harbor. "…going to return him to Spyke?"
"I was trying not to think about it, to be honest." Katelyn said, taking out Salty from underneath her hat, and giving him a gentle coddle. "But… I guess I have no choice now, do I?"
"Look…" Cobalt breathed loudly through his mask. "There's always going to be a time when you're supposed to say goodbye to someone, but when you're going to is entirely up to you."
"What do you mean by that?" Katelyn asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well personally I'd just take the lil' guy and leg it, but I presume you can come up with a better way to go about it." Cobalt replied, shrugging. "Go talk to Spyke. I'm not much of a talking guy myself if I'm honest, but if anything happens…" He took a brief glance at Spyke before looking back at Katelyn. "…we'll just revert to the original plan. I'll support you either way, of course."
"Cobalt, you really suck at coming up with plans." Chris remarked, "But I agree with him on the latter. We're with you, no matter what happens. I don't really have to repeat myself on that fact, don't I?"
"H-he's right." Mei-Lin said, struggling somewhat to choose the right words. "You always had to take care of me… but if you have problems of your own, don't hesitate to ask us. I cannot do much by myself, but perhaps with us together..."
"Listen to yourselves…" Katelyn chuckled, as she wiped a tear away from her eye. "I'm supposed to be the one looking out for all of you, not the other way round. Haha…"
She closed her eyes, and quickly composed herself, before breathing out and held Salty firmly in her arms. "Okay, I'll talk to Spyke. Salty, don't worry, I'm not gonna let you get into harm's way, okay?"
"Coo…?" Salty replied, unsure how to assess the situation.
"Okay, y'all can cut the drama now." Spyke interrupted, walking up to the inklings. "I've been eavesdroppin' on your conversation over there, I've already decided on what to do with the lil' guy there."
"Huh?" Katelyn replied, "What are you going to do with Salty?"
"Well… how do I put this…" Spyke groomed his quills absentmindedly as he started thinking, "I put y'all through a lot of trouble, getting ya to reconcile my personal problems and almost being turned into fried squid in the process. To be honest I'm surprised Riley and Beano didn't eat the Super Sea Snail, normally they'd be on the critter once their thoughts went to food."
Katelyn didn't comment on that, noticing that Cobalt's been staring at her with a renewed look of concern.
"So… keep the fellah. Last thing I need is a reminder of what went on down there. Perhaps you could consider it payment for-"
There was a sudden interruption in the form of a loud noise akin to a plunger being withdrawn from a stubborn toilet, and abruptly Tiny's gigantic body sailed through the air, much to Spyke's bewilderment. The massive Super Sea Snail collided with the rusty steel pylons within Bluefin Depot, the unstable structure creaking loudly on impact before collapsing on top of itself. To top it off, a derelict train parked on top of the structure fell off the crumbling rails, landing onto the stage and detonated in a large fireball, the extremely loud explosion reverberating all over the neighborhood. If there were any residents in the neighborhood that miraculously wasn't woken up from Tetanus's guitar performance, the explosion most likely did the job.
The inklings and Spyke stared at the scene before them with looks of utter disbelief.
"YOU FREAKIN' WOT, MATE?!" Spyke spluttered at Tetanus, which was laughing maniacally at the massive explosion while running away into a back alley with a slightly smoking Tiny. He quickly turned to the inklings as police sirens began to echo from the distance. "Oh for- whatever! Take the critter, run far away from here, we never met. TETANUS, GET BACK HERE!" He began chasing after Tetanus, vanishing into the shadows.
The group decided it would be the best course of action to evacuate the scene of the crime as soon as possible, and swiftly ran away from the smoldering wreck that was Bluefin Depot, leaving nothing but the sounds of crackling flames and approaching sirens.
The inklings have now gathered in Inkopolis Plaza, having ran from Bluefin Depot on foot from the commotion. The area itself hasn't changed that much since Cobalt had waited in vain for Inkopolis Tower to open, and indeed the entrance was still frozen shut since morning. However the blizzard has now all but subsided and all that remained of the howling snowstorm was a few motes of snow that still drifted from the cloudy night sky, the moon shining through from behind the clouds.
"So…" Chris sighed, finally being able to catch his breath. "That just happened."
"Heh. Poor Spyke," Cobalt chuckled, looking at the trail of smoke that marked where Bluefin Depot was, "I reckon the next few days will be hellish for him."
"You know, now that I think about it," Katelyn said, "Spyke really does care a lot about Tetanus doesn't he?"
"What makes you say that?" Mei-Lin asked, looking at Katelyn with a puzzled expression.
"Well, how should I put it…" Katelyn leaned on the side of a vending machine as she examined the Super Sea Snail snoozing peacefully underneath her hat, "Spyke seemed to me like this guy that puts business over relationships. If he's devoting all this time and attention to Tetanus, then that has to mean he does treat that urchin as priority. He doesn't have anything nice to say about him, but he could have just as easily ignored him. See what I'm getting at?"
"Actions speak louder than words, I presume." Mei-Lin remarked. "Maybe you're right."
"There's something else that has been bothering me…" Chris said, looking at Mei-Lin. "Back when we fought Tetanus. What happened to you? That outburst…"
Mei-Lin hesitated for a moment and was about to speak, but before she could Katelyn quickly interjected. "She…doesn't like to talk about it." She said, looking at Mei-Lin's widening frown. "She's got an aversion to being covered in any substance that doesn't match her color, but black sets her off more than usual." Katelyn tilted her head slightly, looking at Mei-Lin with concern. "Now that I think about it, you never did tell me why you were like that. If we're going to be getting into fights like this, then that phobia of yours…"
"I-it's okay." Mei-Lin stuttered, "You don't have to worry about me, really…"
"But then, why even attend that one Turf War match at all?" Chris asked, raising an eyebrow. "If you were that adverse to enemy ink…"
"I…" Mei-Lin replied, "I thought that with Katie watching over me, I'll be able to suppress my phobia. Guess… I was wrong about that." She absentmindedly readjusted her sleeve, trying to hide the sadness in her eyes.
"In any case, I reckon we should be parting ways for today." Katelyn quickly changed the subject, and grabbing Mei-Lin's left arm. "I'll be escorting Mei-Lin back home now. So when and where are we meeting again?"
"Hmm." Chris replied, deciding not to probe any further. "I reckon we'll meet at this very spot, tomorrow noon. We'll decide on what to do then."
"So, we're meeting here tomorrow noon, sounds like a plan!" Katelyn gently nudged Mei-Lin away towards the streets, and waved goodbye to Chris and Cobalt. "Alright, see you two tomorrow!"
Chris nodded, and waved goodbye to the girls. "See you all then."
The girls wandered off, disappearing into the horizon. Watching them leave, Chris then turned to Cobalt.
"Staying over as usual, then?" He asked the masked inkling.
"Yeah. Lead the way, mate."
With that being said, Chris and Cobalt switched into squid form, and one after the other super jumped into the distance, leaving Inkopolis Plaza mostly deserted.
That is, except for the presence of an elderly inkling, peeking out of a manhole right next to the vending machine Katelyn was leaning towards. Taking out a photo, his shifty eyes darted towards the retreating figures of our heroes, before looking back at the picture, a freeze frame of what had transpired in the Splatfest Altar room with the four kids in plain view.
"Hmm… seems to me we got a coupla handfuls of feisty young'uns over here!" He muttered to himself, stuffing the photo down a set of ragged clothes. "That's the reconnaissance mission done and dusted, now where's my crabby cakes…?" The elder inkling quickly vanished back down the manhole, leaving behind a pristine silence.
"Hang on to your…*yawn*… tentacles…"
"It's…*yawn*… Inkopolis News time."
Callie and Marie of Squid Sisters fame are currently in front of the news bulletin, prepared to make another announcement. This time however, both of them look to still be half asleep, and clearly not in the right shape to be making any coherent speech, let alone a news bulletin.
"*Yawn*… Steve, why did you wake us up in the middle of the night?" Callie groaned at the camera, "I wanna get some more shuteye, I had this magnificent dream where Turf Wars came back…"
"I was trying to reach y'all since the afternoon!" a cranky voice shouted from behind the camera, the lens shaking slightly. "It's not my fault both of you weren't answering my calls until ten hours later! Now look sharp Sisters, you're on air!"
"*mumble*… Steve, I don't see any point in making a broadcast right now." Marie groaned, trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes. "There's no one in Inkopolis Plaza! Hasn't been anyone there since two weeks ago! Not much point in news bulletins if we aren't announcing any stages afterwards, are we?"
"Gnnnnn… Nevermind that, this is an important news broadcast!" Steve grumbled from behind the camera, "The Splatfest Altar's printed something, I told you two so many times over the phone!"
"Unless it involves a new Splatfest, I don't care!" Callie moaned, "Now if you excuse me…" She then proceeded to collapse off camera, the sound of snoring filling the room.
Marie on the other hand was slightly intrigued. "Wait, you didn't tell us what the details of what the Splatfest Alter actually printed. What is it, anyway?"
"I 'unno, some kind of cryptic message. Here, I'll play it on the screen." The news bulletin then displayed the very same scene Steve had witnessed earlier, the Splatfest Altar printing the message alongside the inklings witnessing it.
"Hmm…" Marie watched the scene that played out before her, before turning to Callie. "Hey, wake up Callie! This IS Splatfest related!"
"Wha… really?!" Callie instantly vaulted herself off of the floor. "Okay, you got my attention, Marie, what is it?"
"It's… it would seem like some form of message on how to restore Splatfests!" Marie said excitedly. "Callie, we need to broadcast this, everyone would definitely want to hear about it!"
Callie read through the message a few times, before raising an eyebrow. "Spirit of Infrastructure… pilgrimage… Man, talk about a mouthful. The gods aren't making this easy on us, I see."
"In any case, this session's a bust, we'll rerecord everything." Steve said from behind the camera. "I'm not even supposed to be here, but I guess now I got your attention. We'll take it from the top- wait, is this camera still on-"
*click*
AN: I'll be perfectly frank. I don't even know how many of you are still with me after all this time, I suppose there's ThePizzaLovingTurtle who's been loyally reviewing nearly every chapter I've put out, but even now I'm starting to lose motivation to continue writing this. There's a lot of different factors as to why of course, but bottom line is, even I can't hold out forever.
A writer is nothing without an audience, and without any sort of acknowledgement, I'm not sure if there's much point in continuing. Yeah I did say before that I'd be happy to be able to satisfy even ONE guy, but now I'm not so sure on that statement.
So unless I can get some form of recognition such as praises or criticisms, ANYTHING at all, this could be the last chapter I'm putting out. I won't mark it as complete, because we're quite evidently not even a quarter of our way through.
I had some thought on this, however. IF I'm continuing this, I could go for a different upload schedule, possibly writing a batch before posting them at regular intervals. That will ensure that I still got a regular stream of content for my audience to enjoy, AND give me time to catch my breath.
But until then, if ever, this will be the last you will hear from me. Until this fanfic is buried under the deluge of other fanfics of course, in which case I'd likely be never heard from again. So... goodbye for now.