Dawn of a New Day
A lone snowflake drifted down from the sky, as a ray of sunlight beamed down upon Inkopolis. In stark contrast to the freezing blizzard from the day before, the weather was relatively tame this time round, with only a slight cold breeze permeating the air. Up in the air, even though the sky was still heavily covered by clouds, specks of sunlight were beginning to shine through the gaps, causing the snow in various places to begin to melt.
Booyah Base was one of many places in Inkopolis where the effects of winter were starting to retreat. Most of the snow aside from the piles situated in shady areas has all but melted, revealing large patches of the concrete underneath. Even Inkopolis Tower's doors were no longer frozen shut, water droplets flowing off the doors and shimmering under the sun.
It was right beside these set of doors that Cobalt can be spotted sitting down, his eyes half shut as he alternated erratically between snoozing peacefully and groggily looking around the plaza, waiting for something.
"Ugh… I probably shouldn't have stayed up all night playing video games with Chris…" the masked inkling grumbled, "Ah well, at least we managed to get here first…"
Abruptly, an inkling with orange tentacles ran past him, and stepped towards the doors of Inkopolis Tower. Noticing this, Cobalt turned to the random inkling and called after him.
"Hey, don't bother man." He said, "The tower's still not-"
But evidently unable to hear him, the inkling wandered straight inside the tower, the doors slamming shut after him. Cobalt simply shrugged.
That particular inkling wasn't the only visitor to have passed by Cobalt and left disappointed. For the past two hours, inklings have started to show up in small numbers once again in Inkopolis Plaza, mostly civilians that no longer had to face the prospect of taking a howling blizzard in the face while socializing in the plaza, but there were a handful of curious ones that noticed the doors into the Turf War lobby were no longer frozen. All that investigated left disappointed however, because even though the doors could be opened again, the machinery inside was broken down due to the lack of any maintenance workers. On the top of Cobalt's head, this would likely be the seventh inkling that leaves disappointed.
"Hey, Cobalt. Was that another player?" A voice asked. Turning to his left, Cobalt saw Chris approaching with two cups of coffee. The former accepted the slightly steaming cup from Chris, and looked back at the chrome doors of the tower.
"Yeah, I reckon they've been showing up since the weather's died down a bit." Cobalt remarked, before turning away from Chris and lifting his gas mask gently, downing the entire cup in one gulp before readjusting his mask again. "They don't seem to have realized no one's been maintaining the equipment inside though."
"Mmhmm..." Chris replied, turning to look at the TV screen outside. Just like yesterday, the screen was still turned off, a black display still present. "I suppose it's not like what we did yesterday would have any immediate effect."
The inkling that entered the tower came out again, looking noticeably more despondent than when he entered, and seemingly deep in thought. A chilling wind blew through the plaza, and surprisingly it bought a large piece of paper with it, the flapping object impacting the inkling straight in his face.
"Ahh! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" A familiar voice apologized frantically. Chasing right after the paper was Mei-Lin with Katelyn in tow, the latter barely slipping her bobble hat over the Super Sea Snail hiding underneath. Fortunately it would seem the orange tentacled inkling was too deep in thought to have even noticed the paper hitting his face, and he wandered off still thinking.
"Oh, there you are!" Cobalt remarked, watching as Mei-Lin finally managed to grab hold of the piece of paper as it drifted near Inkopolis Tower, revealing it to be a partially sketched drawing of some kind of octopus. "I was wondering when both of you would arrive."
"I thought we agreed to meet here at noon." Katelyn replied, taking out her phone to check the time. "We just got here in time, more or less."
"Cobalt got here two hours earlier than the rest of us." Chris said matter-of-factly. "He didn't really catch the memo when we decided on the meeting time, so I had to follow him here earlier than scheduled."
"Wait, we were supposed to meet here at noon?" Cobalt asked flatly.
Chris slapped his forehead so hard the sound echoed all over the plaza.
"Anyway…" Chris grumbled, "On to the subject matter. I've been studying the fragment that we got from the cross yesterday." Reaching into his pocket, he took out the quarter of stone sphere the gang received from the Spirit of Infrastructure.
"So what's so special about it?" Katelyn asked, taking the fragment and examining it closely. While it looked like a crudely chiseled stone piece from a distance, upon closer examination the flat surfaces of the fragment had an intricate network of zigzagging lines that no carver could have made with a chisel. Turned at certain angles, the lines even seemed to catch the light from the sun and sent it pulsating through the lines.
"Aside from the fact the inner carvings weren't like anything I've seen before, it just looks like any old quarter of a stone sphere." Chris replied, pocketing the fragment again as Katelyn returned it to him. "So have we decided on today's plans?"
"I remember the Spirit mentioning there being another altar message being sent today…" Mei-Lin said, "I would've suggested that we head back to the Shrine of Guidance and await the message by then, but it seems inefficient…"
"Well it was an improvement over going to the library and getting a rough idea on the location of all the crosses. That was my suggestion."
It was then something caught Cobalt's attention, while Chris and Mei-Lin talked amongst themselves on their next course of action. The orange tentacle inkling from earlier just wandered towards a nearby manhole and vanished, turning into a squid and jumping through the grate.
"…Hmm? Did that guy just…?" Cobalt mumbled to himself, watching the spot where the inkling disappeared. His curiosity piqued, he got up from the floor and meandered towards where the inkling vanished, his teammates much too preoccupied with their discussion to notice.
Suddenly, the TV screen next to Inkopolis Tower reactivated, and the Inkopolis News jingle played. The inklings gathered in the plaza stopped what they were doing and turned to the screen in surprise, including our heroes.
"Hold on to your tentacles…"
"It's Inkopolis News time!"
Callie and Marie showed themselves on the TV screen. It was clear however they weren't in top shape, the evidence being the presence of bags under their eyes and a noticeable effort to consistently stand up straight.
"Hello again, Inkopolis!" Callie said happily, "Feels like it has been a long time since we announced the news, don't you think Marie?"
"Sure is, Callie." Marie replied, "But we got a special announcement to make, folks! The Splatfest Altar printed something!"
Callie recoiled in surprise. "Wait, what?!" She exclaimed, "How come I didn't know anything about this?"
"I don't blame you Callie, I didn't either." Marie replied again, a clip of the Splatfest Altar printing the message being displayed in the center. "This footage was recorded yesterday by our friends in the Shrine, and by the looks of it a few inklings witnessed this as well."
"But what about the message itself?" Callie asked, making a glance at the footage being shown.
"Unfortunately, it isn't a Splatfest announcement. But it would seem that this is a clue as to how to restore them." Marie replied, "It would seem that we may need to leave this to our talented agents."
Callie nodded knowingly. "Yeah I agree Marie, all these cryptic messages are totally unfresh. That being said however, we'd welcome anyone that wishes to assist in deciphering this message, I imagine our agents will need as much help as they can get."
"That being said, we do have something else to share." Marie continued, "A large explosion occurred in Bluefin Depot yesterday near midnight, causing major damage to the stage. There were no casualties, but I guess no one's using that stage in a long time."
"It wasn't being used since two weeks ago though…" Callie muttered, "Suppose we're ending the broadcast here then, Marie? It's not like Turf Wars are being played right now, not much need to announce the stages."
"That is true, Callie." Marie nodded, "Regardless of such, we will keep you all updated when the situation develops. Until then…"
"Stay fresh!" The Squid Sisters said together, doing their signature pose. The TV screen then proceeded to display ads as if it was never turned off in the first place.
The inklings around the plaza began to react accordingly to the news broadcast. Some began talking amongst themselves, others began tapping on their phones and updating their friends and family.
As for our heroes, there was some amount of pressure as some of the other inklings in the plaza realized that they were the exact same ones that saw the Splatfest Altar print the enigmatic message, and turned towards them.
"Hey, don't those look like the inklings from the broadcast?" One of the inklings called out, pointing straight at them, "Let's go ask them, they have to know what's going on around here!"
"Looks like our actions were being recorded yesterday…" Mei-Lin mumbled, looking around nervously as eyes began to settle on the group.
"Well I dunno about you all, but does anybody else feel nervous?" Katelyn said, looking around as some inklings began to approach them, likely to question them. "As much as I'd love to be on TV, this isn't really what I expected. I get the feeling we shouldn't be answering questions right now…"
"Well, I'm out of ideas." Chris said as he looked around at the unwanted attention they are getting. "Cobalt, any ideas- Cobalt?"
Chris then spotted Cobalt crouched on top of a manhole, next to the vending machine near Inkopolis Tower. He seemed much too preoccupied trying to see what's in the manhole to realize the team was being watched.
"Dammit, man." Chris groaned, it was evident he wasn't expecting this turn of events at all. "Let's… act natural. Maybe if we walk away like nothing's wrong, they would ignore us?"
Ignoring the gazes of the other inklings in the plaza, the three began wandering towards the vending machine nearby. Standing next to the vending machine, Chris started to whistle a few tunes in an innocuous manner, Mei-Lin continued sketching the octopus picture she was working on earlier, and Katelyn stared at the vending machine itself as if deciding on what to buy.
"Ah, what the heck. I highly doubt they're the exact same inklings on TV, lots of people run around dressed like that anyway." Another inkling commented. The small crowd agreed and quickly dispersed, going back to their usual routine.
Chris gave a brief sideways glance at the dispersing crowd, slightly bewildered at the short attention span of his own species.
"Wow. I didn't think that would work." He said flatly, before looking down at Cobalt. "Anyway, what are you doing there, Cobalt?"
"Hmm…I'm pretty sure it wasn't my imagination…" Cobalt replied, not even turning to look at Chris, "But I could've sworn I saw an inkling jump down this manhole."
"What? That's ridiculous!" Katelyn exclaimed, peering down the manhole. Her hat wriggled for a moment, then Salty popped out of from underneath to take a good look as well. There was no discernable bottom to the pipeline from their point of view. "Cobalt, you sure you weren't just seeing things, right?"
"Nah, I trust my eyes." The masked inkling replied, "I'm certain I saw-"
Abruptly, the ads on the TV screen were suddenly replaced by footage of the news studio once again as a harsh beep sounded through the air. The news screen in the center was once again displaying the Splatfest Altar printing something, and to the sides Callie and Marie stood bewildered right in the middle of wandering off the set while a shrimp wearing a headset standing right in front of the monitor and looking at the previously empty space quickly glanced at the camera and ran off-screen.
"What the?! Another message now?" Callie exclaimed.
"Oh! This- this is a surprise!" Marie stammered, ushering Callie to get back into position just as she did the same. "It would seem that the gods are making us work hard for this restoration!"
Everyone in the plaza turned in bewilderment once again at the TV screen as the second set of cryptic messages arrived much earlier than they had expected. Interested, Chris and Mei-Lin stepped away from the vicinity of the manhole and began watching the broadcast intently along with the crowd that gathered in front of the TV screen, the latter rifling through the backpack she once again bought with her and withdrawing a notepad, ready to scribble down the message being sent. Cobalt on the other hand was still fixated at staring down the manhole, with Katelyn looking at him skeptically before setting down Salty next to him and running off to join the others.
"Do you see anything, little guy?" Cobalt asked, turning to the Super Sea Snail. The critter peeked down the manhole, squinting hard before turning to Cobalt and gave him a confused 'coo'.
Up on the screen, the message finally stopped printing. The camera zoomed in, showing the picture in great detail. Just like the last one, one of the crosses was shimmering in a rainbow color, this time the one emblazoned on the upper right.
The message itself was just as cryptic as the last one:
Though you have reached an important milestone, your journey is far from over.
The Spirit of Evolution awaits, its light buried under a mass battlefield.
Where brothers in arms once stood hand in hand, but now writhe in endless strife.
From lands they once shared, their reason to fight now all but forgotten.
May your pilgrimage lead you to strength and wisdom.
Callie and Marie stared at the message for a brief moment, both of them quiet as they digested the message being displayed to them. Then simultaneously, they seemed to reach the exact same conclusion as a flash of clarity appeared on their faces.
"Wait, isn't this message referring to-" Callie began, but Marie quickly shot a look at her which prompted silence from the Squid Sister instantly.
Marie then turned to the camera, and tried to speak calmly. "Ah… it would seem that the second message would be referring to… some kind of battlefield where two species constantly fight one another. I'm sure our agents will find this VERY interesting."
Callie nodded vigorously, and turned to the camera as well. "Yeah, I agree Marie! I'd imagine they would require as much help as possible… probably right now!"
"But nevermind that, don't we have an event to attend? We'll leave the worrying to our agent friends." Marie said, "Well until then,"
"Stay Fresh!" Both of them said, doing their signature pose quickly, before Marie motioned the cameraman to turn off the camera as they ran offscreen.
Suddenly, every single unnamed inkling in the plaza began speaking to one another, making random remarks an excuses such as remembering they had appointments to do, some place they have to be immediately, prolonged trips to the bathroom and so on. All of them instantly scattered in various directions, before converging at the manhole Cobalt was staring down alongside Salty. The two recoiled in surprise as a flood of inklings switched into squid form and hopped down the manhole one by one in quick succession.
In no time at all, the only ones remaining in the now practically deserted plaza were our heroes. Chris and Mei-Lin were taken aback by what just happened, Katelyn was running towards the manhole to catch a glimpse of the stream of inklings disappearing down the grate, and Cobalt has fallen onto the floor in bewilderment, alongside a dizzy Salty which was spun around by the stampeding crowd and was now teetering on the spot with spirals in his eyes.
"Okay, MAYBE I could have imagined an inkling deliberately jump down the manhole, but I don't think I can just imagine thirty or so inklings jumping down the same manhole." Cobalt said as he steadied himself, and picked up Salty to dust him off. "I suppose you believe me now, Katelyn?"
"There's definitely something fishy going on here, all right." Katelyn replied, accepting Salty from Cobalt and gently replacing the critter back inside her hat, "The entire plaza going for a disappearing act? That was seriously the craziest thing I've seen in my life."
"The Squid Sisters were acting oddly as well." Chris said, walking to the manhole alongside Mei-Lin. "If there isn't some manner of conspiracy going on here, I'll eat my hat." Chris noticed Cobalt staring at him with a look of amusement as he said that, then he sighed. "It's a figure of speech, Cobalt."
"So…what now?" Mei-Lin asked, looking up at the news screen which has since reverted to displaying ads. "Are we just...going to… follow them?"
"Hey, that's a great idea!" Cobalt exclaimed, and immediately jumped right at the manhole, shifting into squid form in midair and passing straight through the grate down into the depths before the others could respond. Seeing this, Katelyn also hurriedly jumped down the manhole while shouting for Cobalt to wait up, not noticing that Salty got caught by the grate and bounced off it with a loud clunk, landing lopsidedly next to the manhole.
"Cobalt, wai-" Chris began as he ran up to the manhole, then he groaned as both Cobalt and Katelyn disappeared completely from view. "DAMMIT COBALT, listen to me for once!"
Mei-Lin looked at the manhole where Chris was throwing a miniature tantrum, before fidgeting apologetically. "Oh…sorry. I didn't mean to…"
"No, no. It's not your fault." Chris grumbled, shaking his head. "Urgh… well, we better follow them before they get themselves in trouble with whatever's on the other end."
Approaching the manhole, Mei-Lin looked down through the grate, before frowning. "Is it safe to even jump down there…?" She asked.
"Well I'd imagine if that many inklings were so willing to go down that pipe, it most likely is." Chris replied, before motioning Mei-Lin to go on ahead. "Ladies first."
"Alright…" Mei-Lin switched to squid form, and slipped through the grate as well, before Chris did the same and followed suit.
All that remained now was Salty, as he got up from the floor and stared at the manhole briefly. As a second or two passed while the Super Sea Snail crawled on top of the manhole and stared down the shaft, contemplating how he was going to follow his companions, the manhole was inexplicably flung open by its hinges by some unseen force. Launched by the lid, Salty flew a few feet into the air with a squeak of surprise before falling down the manhole right after the inklings, soon after the lid slamming shut with a loud clang.
AN: Gentlemen, I HAVE RETURNED!
Well, sort of. After a few weeks of being buried in assignments and tests, I've had another epiphany. Thing is, while the work I was stuck with does seem daunting, it fell apart incredibly fast once I took the effort to work on them. As a result, I've had enough spare time to work on this silly piece of literature.
Thinking back, it does seem rather silly for me to think of releasing this story in batches. There IS one major downside to this, being that if there was a major mistake that I made, changing the entire batch would prove to be too much. Hence I've reverted back to the usual upload schedule of 'post a chapter and watch as it gets buried under other stuff' format. Sorry if that last message seemed a bit too 'attention-whoring' to some of you.
Nevertheless, I welcome as much feedback as humanely possible. Don't be shy, say your mind on the uploaded chapters, ESPECIALLY any improvements or observations. That review box ain't gonna write itself!