Chapter Fifteen:
Police Run
Mario's response to the Inklings in blue?
He cranked the middle finger, flipping the police off, then he whipped out a Splat-brella and raised it as Meggy and SMG4 watched with bewilderment. Mario poked his head out from behind the umbrella's folds and laughed at the cops as if to taunt them.
The helicopter's Splatling weapons fired off in seconds and the blue ink rained down around the group, covering a good portion of Moray Towers. The blue ink impacted Mario's umbrella shield, protecting him for a while, until the hard impact of the ink caused him to lose balance.
Meggy morphed into squid form and leaped around the area, avoiding shots from every direction. SMG4 made a break for a nearby garbage can and ducked inside, hoping the cops wouldn't bother him there.
However, a female Inkling cop leaped out of a nearby helicopter and picked up the trash can, much to the meme man's dismay as she carried his hiding spot into the helicopter.
"Let's get outta here!" An Inkling sergeant yelled, "And tell the boss about our catch!"
The helicopters flew off with the captured SMG4 as he yelled "crap". Mario yelped in terror, but Meggy was confident.
"Hold on!" She called, "We're coming, SMG4!"
Meggy ran towards the edge of Moray Towers and leaped off with Mario right beside her, they followed the helicopters through the streets of the city, avoiding Inkling cars and working to avoid raising some eyebrows.
They followed the police's trail across a good swath of Inkopolis all the way to Diaries, one of the Shifty Station stages that was often used during special Turf War events.
However, the place looked a little different, especially with the new buildings that had been constructed there, explaining why it hadn't been used in a while.
Both Meggy and Mario stopped and looked up with absolute surprise, seeing SMG4 locked up in a big gold cage, and guarding him was Big Man. That was unexpected, someone must have paid Big Man with the threat of something bad happening to the rest of Deep Cut if he was going to guard the meme man.
"There's SMG4! Let's get him!" Mario said.
"Wait!" Meggy held Mario back, stopping him from going further.
Before them, between the two friends and the tower with the hostage SMG4, a whole squad of police officers were waiting for them with weapons ready and all the helicopters on stand-by.
"This is the Inkopolis police!" A sergeant called in his natural Inkling language, "Do not move or we will open fire! This is your only warning!"
Meggy looked at Mario. "Red? Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" She asked.
Mario was silent for a minute, obviously not thinking what Meggy was thinking as he was envisioning himself fooling around and bouncing on an umbrella for a while before falling off. Then he thought about saving SMG4 and pumped his fist. "Yes." He said with derpy eyes.
Meggy put her hands together with a near sinister grin and pumped her fist. "Let's go kick some ass!" She cried.
Mario whipped out his Splattershot and threw Meggy her own. A police officer kicked a radio to life and Fly Octo Fly started blaring from the speakers, the duo primed their weapons and the intense standoff become hostile. Officers opened fire, the sounds of exploding Splattershots echoing across the entire arena.
Both Mario and Meggy dodged the blasts and fired back on the cops, splatting a good many of them as the fallen officers' spirits floated away to a distant spawning pad and left their uniforms behind.
Mario leaped through the air knocked over a blue Inkling, hitting him in the face. Meggy busted another cop, only to find herself at Splat-point by another. Luckily, Mario knocked out the officer and saved her.
A pair of cops ganged up on Meggy, but the Splatfest champion fetched Mario's weapon and dual-wielded the Splattershots, letting the officers have it. They took out cops coming at them from all directions, one group after another.
A cop dropped his weapon and ran with a scream, seeing he was out-matched, only for Mario to leap into the air, pull out a Splat-charger and blast him.
Meggy threw a Splat-bomb into the mix and the following explosion sent several officers scattering while one got splatted hard, Mario and Meggy grinned and high-fived before heading towards the tower, even as more cops moved to impede their path.
"MAYDAY! MAYDAY!" A cop yelled into the radio, "WE NEED BACK-UP! I REPEAT, WE NEED BACK UP!"
Splat-charger Cops arrived, taking several snipes at Meggy and Mario, who ducked each shot and hid behind a car as cover while knocking an Inkling policewoman unconscious.
Mario poked out of his hiding spot with another Splat-charger ready and fired at the charger cops just as another police chopper flew in, dropping off another pair of cops carrying a Killer Wail.
"MISSUS OBAMA, GET DOWN!" Mario shouted and took cover behind a barricade with Meggy.
A loud BOO-YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA roared through the vicinity as the cops deployed the Killer Wail, blasting away several cop cars and what was left of the fallen in their attempt to take out Meggy and Mario.
Several Splat-bombs rained down and began exploding, covering the area in blue ink as the duo ducked and dodged the blasts.
"Red! Take out that Killer Wail before they use it again!" Meggy ordered, she lowered her head in a sorrowful manner, "I hope Pearl forgives me after this is over."
"Let's-a go!" Mario nodded.
The plumber ran towards the squad of cops and pulled out a pack of Bob-Ombs and a Splat-Bomb, throwing both explosives at the weapon and the cops surrounding it.
The officers cried out as the Bob-Ombs hurled towards them and barely had time to move when the explosives struck, devastating the vicinity in a strong explosion as pieces of the Killer Wail flew everywhere.
Meggy high-fived Mario and they ran inside the building, fighting off more officers blocking their path, floor by floor and staircase by staircase as they made their way towards the rooftop, towards SMG4.
One last cop stood in the way, but Mario knocked him out with a kick to the head. He and Meggy watched as the officer tumbled down the stairs, at least the Inkling didn't have any bones.
The group kicked down the door and raced onto the rooftop, coming face-to-face with one last obstacle in their way of saving SMG4, the manta serving as their friend's guard; the Big Man.
"Hiya, friends." The manta said, "Let's not fight. It's all love and..."
Mario bonked Big Man with his noise and sent him falling off the tower, Big Man cried out as he plummeted to what could have been certain doom had he not been related to an aquatic species. But there was no doubt he would live, if he splatted, a Spawning Pad would most certainly bring him back no problem.
With one more obstacle taken care of, Mario and Meggy turned to SMG4. The cage would have been complicated, but just before Big Man fell off the ledge, Meggy grabbed the key to it from the manta's possession.
The Inkling inserted the key into the lock and twisted it, unlocking the door and allowing the meme man to walk free once more just as Mario knocked the cage off the edge.
"My hero!" SMG4 hugged Meggy, then he hugged Mario.
However, their troubles were far from over. Just as the group was breathing a sigh of relief, the ground beneath them began to rumble and a large shadow fell over them, giving Mario, Meggy and SMG4 chills. Something was breathing down their neck, something not friendly, and it wasn't the cops or Lawyer Kong.
The group turned, finding themselves face to face with a massive brown-colored bear with gleaming yellow eyes and patches of colorful ooze on parts of his body.
"None of you creatures are in my employ." The bear said, "Hence, Grizzco has no need for your service..."
