A/N: WOOOOOO! If y'all have watched the Nintendo Direct, you would know that they announced smash in the Switch, and the inklings were in the trailer! Wouldn't you know it, after the prologue, where I "Linked" the Splatoon world and the Smash World, this happens! Honestly I didn't see it coming, but that made the surprise all the more better! Also, the new Splatoon DLC looks fresh! Maybe, once it's released and I've played it, I'll be able to incorporate it into this story...

To the chapter!

Chapter 60: WaTS Part 1: Calimari County

Callie and Marie looked at Link. His piercing blue eyes avoided theirs, as if he was nervous. A full head of tentacles sat on top of his head, with two longer ones on either side of his face, almost making him look like a girl. Both couldn't help but notice the instrument hanging from his waist.

Callie was the first to speak up. "Link, huh?" She took his hand in both of hers and shook it. "Nice to meet you!"

Marie followed suit, nodding her head towards him. "Looking fresh, squid."

Link smiled sheepishly. "Thanks. Uh, you guys look fresh too"

"Ah, he's sweet, too." Callie said, smiling.

"Trust me, I know how sweet he is!" Cuttlefish said, patting him on the back. "Eh, sorry about fibbing about the jam session. It's just that I wanted you to meet my granddaughters, and I know you'd be too shy to agree to meet them if I told you ahead of time."

Link chuckled awkwardly. "...you got me there. I am extremely uncomfortable right now." He then gasped. "Oh, but not because of you guys!" Link said, gesturing to the Squid Sisters. "It's just that I, uh… have… allergies?"

Marie held up her hand to stop Link's embarrassment. "You're good, dude. I understand. You're a bit starstruck, is all."

Cuttlefish threw Link a pair of keys. "Now that you met my granddaughters, can you go get my boat ready? I gotta speak to them."

Link nodded and bowed to the two stars. "It was very nice meeting you!" He said before running out the door.

"What a peculiar squid." Marie said after Link had left.

"He's actually what I want to talk to you two about." Cuttlefish said, taking a scroll out of his pocket. "You guys saw that blue instrument on his waist, did you not?"

"Yep. Looks totally ancient." Callie said.

"Well, take a look at this scroll." Cuttlefish opened the scroll and held it towards the two cousins. It depicted a small group of Inklings whose features were too vague to make out standing at the top of a hill. Closing in around them were a bunch of Salmonids that Callie and Marie were used to splatting during their Salmon Run shifts. However, these Salmonids looked crazier than usual. Their eyes were bloodshot, and they were surrounded by a dark purple aura.

Callie couldn't help but gasp at the desperate scene. "Woah… Does this show the discovery of the Salmonids?"

"I don't think so." Cuttlefish said. "We've never seen Salmonids like this before."

"Is this from one of the battles of the Great Turf War?" Marie asked.

Cuttlefish shook his head. "I fought in the Great Turf War. If it was, trust me, I would know."

"Well, what ancient event does this sea scroll show?"

Cuttlefish pointed at one of the inklings. "Look at what is in this Inkling's waist."

The two looked closer at the inkling. They couldn't make out his face, but the blue instrument hanging on his hip was very familiar.

"That's the same instrument that Link was carrying around!"

Cuttlefish nodded. "That's what I thought when I first found Link unconscious."

"Wait, hold up." Marie said. "You 'found' Link? And he was unconscious?"

Cuttlefish laughed. "Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you how I came to know him. Well, you see…"

Three months ago…

"Whey hey, and up she rises, early in the morning!" Cuttlefish sang as loud as he could into the open blue. As he sang shanties from a time long before his own (which he found in some ancient texts), all his troubles seemed so far away. The whole event with Agent 8 was settled, and now he could relax. Or so he thought.

Suddenly, with a loud clap, ahead of him, hundreds of meters in the air, a dark object appeared in the sky.

"What the heck is that?" Cuttlefish took out his binoculars to get a closer look. It appeared to be some sort of giant purple portal. From the center of the portal he saw a glint of color appear.

Cuttlefish took out his notebook and drew up a quick sketch of the portal, as well as the coordinates the portal appeared to be at. "Well ain't this peculiar…"

He looked at the portal again and noticed that the spec of color had moved downwards. Squinting his eyes further, he realized that, slowly but surely, that spec of color was continuously moving towards the ocean down below. Being the adventurous soul that he is, Cuttlefish turned on the engine of his boat and started heading towards the portal.

As he got closer, the spec of color started becoming more clear to him, and to his surprise, the thing falling towards the ocean was an unconscious Inkling!

"Oh no! If that Inkling reaches the ocean, he'll be splatted!" Cuttlefish revved the engine in his boat up to max and started racing towards the falling Inkling.

"I'm not gonna make it!" Cuttlefish yelled. To whom he yelled it at, nobody knows. Then, he got an idea. He put the boat on auto-pilot and ran into the engine room.

"If I just rewire this wire, and take of this thingimajig… aha!" The modest fire burning in the engine grew to a great flame as Cuttlefish removed the speed limit on his boat.

Running outside, he could see that the Inkling was rapidly approaching the ocean. But it looks like the boat was right on track to catch him now.

"Excellent." Cuttlefish said, admiring his handiwork. He wouldn't admire it for long, however. With the boat moving at twice it's maximum recommended speed, the hull of the ship started chipping away under the stress.

As the ship approached the portal, it was being shredded apart at a rapid rate. First, the bottom of the ship was torn off. Then the living quarters. Then, the engine room, leaving nothing but momentum moving the rest of the boat forward. At this point, Cuttlefish was basically sailing on a large piece of wood. However, the large piece of wood made it to the portal, and the Inkling landed on it safely.

The sea captain breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness." His ship may have been gone, but he could always get a new one. If this Inkling had been splatted far out into the ocean, far away from the Great Zapfish, he wouldn't have come back.

He turned the unconscious Inkling over. He was wearing a green tunic, with beige leggings and brown pants. A green cap sat on the top of his head. On his back appeared to be a beautifully made shield and a sword. At his waist was an blue instrument, which Cuttlefish would later identify as an ocarina. He looked upwards, but the portal had disappeared.

He observed the Inkling, and upon making sure there were no serious injuries, Cuttlefish slapped the Inkling a couple times in the face. No response. He slapped him around a couple more times.

The Inkling stirred a little bit, and eventually opened his eyes. He sat up slowly, groaning. "...where am I?"

Cuttlefish smiled. "You're awake!"

The Inkling looked at Cuttlefish and repeated his question.

"You're in the open sea, friend. That was quite the fall you had there!"

"I… fell?" The Inkling looked quizzically at Cuttlefish. "What exactly happened to me?"

"You fell. From the sky. You would've been toast if I hadn't caught you on my boat."

The Inkling looked around. "What boat?"

"This plank right here is my boat! Well, what's left of it, anyways."

This only added to the Inkling's confusion. "...what?"

Cuttlefish could tell the Inkling was a bit frazzled. "I'll explain everything soon, but first we should help you get your bearings. Now, what's your name?"

The Inkling thought for a while. "Link. I think."

"Link, huh? Where are you from, Link?"

"Honestly, I have no idea." Link said. "I don't remember anything."

"Ah. Amnesia, huh?" Cuttlefish was floored. This Inkling just fell from a portal that appeared out of nowhere, wearing clothes that he'd never seen in his life, and he had amnesia. What a pickle.

"Well, I'm sure your memories will come back with time. For now, we gotta get back to Calimari County."

"Calimari County? What's that?"

"It's where I live. It's no Inklipolis, but it's a nice little town."

"... Inkopolis?"

"Wait, you don't even know what Inkopolis is? The most well known city in the world?"

"Sorry, but no."

"... do you know what an Inkling is?"

Link thought hard. "Is that a type of food?"

Cuttlefish face-palmed. "This is so much worse than I thought."

He tore off two smaller pieces of wood from his "boat" and gave one to Link. "Let's get rowing. We've got a long way back to land. In the meantime, I have a lot to catch you up on…"

Present day

"Woah, that's quite the story!" Callie said, opening her mouth in shock.

"And you're saying he doesn't even know where that instrument came from?"

Cuttlefish nodded. "That's right. But, let's get back to the scroll. I racked my brain for weeks, searching through old archives, looking for what event from the past this events."

"And?"

"Well, based on the dark purple portal looking similar to what surrounded the Salmonids, and Link coming out of the portal, resembling one of the inklings on the scroll, I think this scroll depicts not the past, but… the future."

As if on que, a gigantic boom echoed throughout the town. An earthquake shook all of Calimari County. Marie held onto Callie, and Callie onto Marie. Cuttlefish stumbled towards the window and opened the blinds. "Oh no…"

The sky was covered in dark purple clouds. Portals like the one Link came out of were all over the town, with Salmonids spewing out of every one of them at an overwhelming rate. Cuttlefish was quick to notice that these Salmonids looked exactly like the ones in the scroll.

Callie and Marie looked on in horror. Everywhere, the residents of Calimari County were being splatted mercilessly.

"They're not coming back after being splatted… which means the Great Zapfish must be in trouble!" Marie said.

"We gotta help them!" Callie yelled. She started running for the door.

"No!" Cuttlefish grabbed her arm. "It's basically suicide to go out there now! We have to escape somewhere safe and lay low until we can find a way to fight back!"

"I hate to admit it, but he's right." Marie said. "Well go out there just to be splatted right now."

Callie made a fist and sighed. "Yeah, I guess so."

Cuttlefish nodded. "Alright. There's a way to get to the New Squidbeak Splatoon HQ right here from the hotel. Follow me. And be careful."

The three crept outside the room and into the hallway. Thankfully, there were only a few Salmonids this far up, which were easily splatted with his trusty Bamboozled. However, as Cuttlefish led the Squid Sisters further down the hotel, they had to splat more and more of them.

Eventually, they made it to the kitchen. Cuttlefish pushes one of the fridges to the side, revealing a small door behind it.

"Through here." He said, opening the door. When he opened the door, a Salmonid jumped out and attacked him, pinning him to the wall.

Marie gasped.

"Grandpa!" Callie screamed. She punched the salmonid, but without her weapons she was useless.

"Don't worry about me!" Cuttlefish said as he struggled against the Salmonid. "Just get to safety, and find a way save the Inklings! I know you can do it!"

Marie and Callie watched helplessly as the Salmonid got the upper hand, and with one brutal swing of the frying pan, splatted the Great Captain Cuttlefish.

With tears in their eyes, the Squid Sisters ran into the secret entrance, slamming the door behind him.

"Grandpa…" Marie cried, falling to the ground. Callie sat down next to her, and they sat there, consoling each other for a few minutes.

Eventually, Callie got up and took a deep breath. "...we have to get moving. If we can save the Great Zapfish, we can revive everyone who's been splatted."

"And how are we gonna do that?" Marie asked. "There are probably millions of Salmonids in Inkopolis right now. What chance do we have?"

"To be honest, not much, but has that stopped us before?" Callie said, smiling slightly.

Marie smiled back. "It won't hurt to give it a shot. Actually, it'll probably hurt a LOT. But we still gotta do it."

Together, the two of them walked down the pitch black tunnel, their arms outstretched so that they could feel their way forward. Eventually, a faint light appeared, and as they approached it, they could see another secret door. Through it, they were at the secret base.

The secret base was modest, not much bigger than your average house. The room they were in right now was the observation room. The walls were made of dark metal, as was the ceiling and floor. Some computers sat in the corner, and a large holographic table sat at the center of the room, surrounded by chairs. To Callie and Marie's surprise, Link was there, panicking to himself.

When Link noticed the two, he jumped in surprise. "Callie and Marie? You guys are alive? Thank goodness!"

He ran up to them and gave them a hug without thinking. Then, once he did think about what he just did, he yelped and backed up. "I-I'm so sorry about that! I don't know what came over me…"

Marie smiled. "It's good to see you two, Link."

Link grinned. "Thanks."

On the holographic table, many different angles from Inkopolis were seen, and it was even worse than Calimari County.

"Wow, we're in quite the pickle, aren't we?" Link said, looking at Inkopolis sadly.

"Yeah, we barely made it here alive." Callie said. "Speaking of which, how did you get here?"

"Oh, these two inklings saved me! I was surrounded, but then they came from nowhere and splatted all the Salmonids around me! Then they led me here."

"Oh? Where are these inklings now?" Marie asked.

"Scanning the rest of the base for any threats. Oh, here they come!" Link pointed behind him. Callie and Marie turned around to see Agent 3 and Agent 4 looking back at them.

"Agents 3 and 4! I should've known!" Callie said, smiling. Seeing them helped her morale improve tremendously.

Agent 3 and 4 smiled at them, as silent as ever.

"Hey guys…" Link said, his eyes widening. "Where's Mr. Cuttlefish?"

Marie gulped. It was hard enough dealing with the news on her own, but saying it aloud would be even harder. She opened her mouth, but no words could come out.

Link looked down. "It's ok. You don't have to say anything."

"We're sorry, Link."

"It's not your fault." Link said. "It still hurts, though. He was the only one who cared for me when I arrived in Calimari County, alone and with no idea what I was doing. He's the only one I had."

Marie opened up the armory underneath the table and took out her charger. "We gotta get to Inkopolis and save the Great Zapfish."

He clenched his fists and looked at Callie and Marie in the eyes. "Let me help you. I've never fired a gun before, but I can't just sit here knowing that Mr. Cuttlefish is in danger."

Callie and Marie looked at each other. They could both sense something in Link. A potential. The same potential that Cuttlefish saw in Agent 3 and Marie saw in Agent 4.

"Of course you can help us. Pick whatever weapon you want."

Link nodded. "Thank you." He looked at the armory and picked out a Splattershot.

"Good choice." Callie said, picking up her Roller. She threw a small packet at him. "Here, take these as well. You'll need the extra protection."

Link opened the pack and found a yellow vest and futuristic headphones that wrapped around the back of his head instead of over his head. It was the same outfit that Agents 3 and 4 had on. He put them on hastily in the other room.

When he came back, Callie and Marie had changed into different clothes as well. Callie was wearing a pink t-shirt with a violet wool jacket over it, black shorts with a pink stripe on either side of it, sunglasses, a dark pink beanie with a star button on it, and tennis shoes. Marie was very similarly dressed, except she wore a baseball cap instead of a beanie and a face mask instead of sunglasses, and her clothes were light green. They looked completely different from the pop idols Link knew them as, and to be honest, he thought they looked better this way.

"Now you look like a hero!" Callie said, fist bumping him.

"Alright, before we head out, we need a plan." Marie said, pulling up a map of Inkopolis city on the holographic table. Millions of red dots were swarmed all around the map, almost to the point where the whole map was just one red glob.

"So, as you probably already guessed, each red dot represents a Salmonid. According to the cameras, the least swarmed area is the Arowana Mall, and we just so happen to have a secret entrance there."

"Sounds good to me. Maybe on the way I can pick up some cute clothes! I'm kidding, of course." Callie, who was certainly not kidding, said.

Marie rolled her eyes and put her Hero Charger on her shoulder. "So, who's ready to save the world?"

Agent 3, with the Hero Shot in hand, cocked her gun and smiled. Agent 4, with the Hero Dualies, spun them in her hands and smirked.

Link looked the Splattershot up and down, and then reached into the armory again. "Hold on." He pulled out a sword and shield and strapped them to his back.

Marie looked at him quizzically. "Why are you bringing those? You can't hold a shield and fire a Splattershot at the same time. And sharp objects like that sword will just go through Salmonids, like how we can just phase through grates."

"They make me feel better. Even though I have no idea where these came from, they feel familiar. They were with me when I woke up at sea, and I intend to find out why I have them."

Marie nodded. "Gotcha."

"Alright, I think we're ready." Callie said. "Let's go splat these posers."

Together, the five of them, Agents 1-4 and Link, walked down the tunnel leading to Inkopolis, ready to face the Salmonid Swarm.

To be continued...