Squidding Around
Chapter 4
Hope you guys enjoy! By the way, another Splatfest is coming up...this time it's Snowman vs Sandcastle! As in would you rather build a snowman or a sandcastle?
The next morning…
The sun is already high in the sky, with its golden, sparkling rays already blazing through the window to the carpet in Mario's bedroom. The plumber was snoring quietly; he was pretty exhausted from all the shenanigans from yesterday dealing with the shady urchin dude in the alleyway, Agent 3, the Squid Sisters in their studio and the Inklings in the plaza.
At least Callie and Marie were nice enough to tell them where a cheap apartment even though it's a couple of miles away from Inkopolis. All Mario wanted right is some peace and quiet…and spaghetti.
Mario squirms and moves around a bit in the bed "Ah spaghetti…" he mumbled "Ah mama-mia…" In his dream, he was swimming in an endless ocean of spaghetti, jumping in and out like a dolphin, enjoying himself and even eating some of it. He was laughing was joy which caused him to smile in real life of course.
Then suddenly the door swung open, Toad scurried in like a raccoon, got on Mario's bed and attempted to wake up the plumber. "Marrrio! Mario! Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up!" He spoke in a rapid pace, but wasn't enough to wake him up.
He scrunched his face "Oh just-a five more minutes…" He said before sleeping again.
"Come on, you shroom eating fatso, let's do something awesome or whatever" Toad whined. Mario didn't budge, he tossed to the opposite direction and continued snoring quietly.
"Mario! C'mon man!"
He still didn't budge.
Toad has to think of something "Hmm…" He pondered for a moment "Ah" He remembered something from a while back, so he yelled again
"The Princess has been capturreddd!"
At this point, Mario's eyes shot open and jumped to his feet off the bed, looking pretty angry "Are you-a freaking kidding me?!" He demanded, gripping his hat
"No, I'm serious!"
"No Toad! Get out, I don't want-a to hear this crap!"
"But Mario, it's your duty!" Toad explained
"Nope! Screw-a that! Nope! I'm out" The red plumber unwittingly jumped and bashed through his bedroom window, falling a few stories down. He can be heard screaming on the way as it gets fainter and fainter. Toad couldn't believe his reaction to that, he began to bust out laughing.
"Toad? What was that-a noise?" Luigi walked in after hearing the commotion, and was surprised to see Toad in front of a broken window "Uh Toad? Why is the-a window broken and where's Mario?"
"Ha! You wouldn't believe it…that dumbass jumped out of the window and falling a few stories down as we speak" Toad responded
Luigi was shocked "Wha-? Why did he-a do that?"
"Because I told him that the princess was captured and he…fell for it, get it?" Toad slipped in a pun which wasn't caught on by Luigi however.
"Peach? Toad, you-a realize we're not in the Mushroom Kingdom anymore right?" Luigi pointed out
"Apparently not Mario but he will find out in about a few minutes or so" said Toad
3 minutes later, there was a knock on the door catching Luigi's and Toad's undivided attention.
"Who is it?" Toad called out. The door opened and there stood Mario, still looking angry covered in leaves, dirt, and twigs. He spits out a bird which it flew out of the window.
"Mama mia…" uttered Luigi
Toad tried to hold back his laughter.
"The princess wasn't-a captured wasn't she?" Mario asked
"Ha no Mario! We're not at Peach's castle anymore…even though I kinda miss being there but still we're not there!" Toad answered and laughed once again
Mario just smiled "I just-a realized that Toad, that we're in another galaxy!" He said with sarcasm
"Oh really what's the name?"
"It's a-called "Graveyard" Galaxy if you catch my drift" Mario just walked in to the kitchen and plopped on a chair.
"Where's-a SMG4 and Steve?" Luigi wondered
"I don't-a know, they're supposed to be here right now…what time is it?" Mario questioned
"It's 10:30 in the morning" said Toad "You overslept, Mario"
"Hi guys!" Steve greeted as he walked, his blocky body fits through the doorway perfectly, with SMG4 strolling in behind him
"Hey guys" Everyone greeted back
"Hey what's going on everyone?" asked SMG4 and he looked bizarre at Mario "Annnnd what happened to you?"
"Eh don't ask" Mario said in an irritated voice, he brushed off the leaves and twigs from his hair and hat. Steve went to the fridge, took out a drink and sat in a chair next to Mario.
"So how you guys like your apartment?"
"It's pretty decent" answered Toad
"A bit large for an apartment, but it's-a good" said Luigi
"The small room back in the castle is-a much better" Mario admitted
"Right then…well guys, we have a big day ahead of us" SMG4 announced, as he walked to the living room and looked at everybody
"Why is that?" Luigi seems a little interested
"Oh boy! How-a interesting"
"Alright, since we have absolutely no idea how to get back home because turns out dark blue pipes disappear just like any other pipes, we don't know how to make one appear either" SMG4 explained
"So you're saying we're screwed and we're stuck here right?" Toad wanted to make sure
SMG4 looked at him with a straight face "Basically yeah"
Everyone groaned and whined at this moment.
"Since we're going to be here for a while, we need to learn how to cope and get along with those Squid kid things out there, get to know the Sisters, Inkopolis, and explore more of this place…it's still pretty new to us"
Mario took out a plate of spaghetti from nowhere and began eating some of it.
"I know how crazy it was yesterday, almost getting killed by those octopus people, abandoned by that Agent 3 girl, surrounded by the Squid things, and the Sisters and the weird spiky hair dude in the alleyway"
"Oh geez that guy…He can probably ruin birthday parties with that huge head of his" Toad commented "But he looks pretty chill"
"Speaking of-a Agent 3, where is she?" asked Luigi
"Right…we just got to find her and have her tour us through Inkopolis I suppose and visit those buildings she mentioned yesterday"
"But how are we gonna find her? She looks like everyone else it will take forever" said Toad
Then a familiar female voice ranged out in the apartment
"Just because I look like everyone else doesn't mean I'm like one of them"
Everyone turned their heads to the door, and there leaning against the doorway is Agent 3, now wearing a crimson long sleeve shirt with dark grey fore-sleeves with a logo on it, black pants and black sneakers and still possesses the glowing pointy headset gear that covers her ears.
Her tentacles are a different color than it was yesterday, orange.
"Agent 3, what a surprise to see you here" SMG4 spoke up "How did you find us?"
"Yeah, I know…and I can hear you guys from down the hall" She said
"Toad was-a yelling the whole time" Mario looked at the short humanoid mushroom
"Mind if I come in?" Agent 3 offered
"Come on right in" Toad said
Agent 3 came in, shut the door and examined the apartment left to right, pondering at the same time "Heh nice place you got here, it's about the same as mine" she commented
"You live here too huh?" Luigi asked
"Yeah, I live down the hall like a couple of doors away and I can hear you guys last night too…" Agent 3 remembered tossing and turning in her bed last night, since they wouldn't shut up.
"What are you-a doing here Agent 3?" Mario asked
"Well first things first, you guys don't have to call me Agent 3…my real name is Cassidy and second I'm here to see what you guys are up too" Cassidy answered
"We're not doing nothing as of right now but we're hoping to do something today" said SMG4
"Like what?"
"Going around this-a place to see what the hell it's all about" Mario butted in
"We want to know to if you can show us that Booyah Base or whatever the hell it's called" Toad assured "The place where you can buy weapons you use to murder those kids"
Cassidy giggled a bit "Okay the thing is…that no offense, you guys are not fresh enough to even buy stuff inside those shops" she is pointing at them as she speaks
"What do you-a mean not fresh enough?" Luigi questioned
"Psh, get a load of this guy" Toad pointed at Luigi "Look at what he wears"
"You're-a wearing a diaper, Toad" Mario pointed at his white underwear
"It's not a diaper!"
"I mean, in order to be considered very fresh you have to participate in the Turf Wars and win battles…that's how we run things around and our motto is "Stay Fresh" as the Squid Sisters say all the time…oh speaking of them they've did some news talking about you guys" Cassidy assured
"Oh great, they're-a going to talk about my sexiness" Mario assumed, looking happy
"Oh geez" Toad groaned
"What they are-a saying about us?" wondered Luigi
"Observe" Cassidy went to the plasma TV, turned it on and changed the channel to the Squid Sister Channel and it showed the same thing as it did on the large TV in the plaza, and the Sisters appeared.
"Hold on to your tentacles…" Callie began
"It's Inkopolis news time!" Marie finished
"Ugh, are they going to do that each time?" Toad whined
"It's pretty much their thing I suppose" replied Cassidy
"Before we unveil the current Turf War stages today…we have some other news" Callie announced
"Oh what is it?" said Marie
"Do you Inklings remember those strange beings that were in the plaza?" an image popped up showing the heroes looking scared.
"Man, they got my bad side" SMG4 complained
"I remember those beings" Marie recalled
"We found out that they're really nice beings who came from another universe called the Mushroom Kingdom" Callie stated
"Mushroom Kingdom is a place where these beings like to go racing, play sports and even partying" Marie continued
"And that's not all…turns out they're humans!"
"How shocking!" Marie pretended to act like she never knew
"In other words…when you Inklings see these beings make 'em feel welcome" Callie suggested
"With wide open arms…err tentacles" said Marie "And that's all for today!"
"Until then…"
"Staaay fresh!" They ended the news with that same pose. Cassidy then turned off the TV.
"When did they air that?" Toad asked
"Oh about 2 hours ago…believe me I was shocked to find out you guys are not Inklings too"
"Don't worry, Callie and Marie were the same way...they said it's been over 10,000 years and the land animals are dead and we're pretty much the only humans in existence blah blah blah" SMG4 recalled "History stuff"
"You know you and they-a keep saying Turf Wars over and over again…what is this-a Turf Wars?" Luigi wondered
Cassidy wasn't sure how to explain this but she will try to tell it as best as she can "Okay, Turf Wars are four versus four battles, where you and your teammates have to cover up the ground with the color of your teams' ink more than the other team…whoever inks up the most at the end wins…its quite simple"
"That sounds like paintball except more extreme and messy…I like that!" Toad shouted
"It's not paint…we use ink" said Cassidy
"You were like dark blue yesterday…why are your tentacles orange now? Did you dye them or something?" SMG4 questioned her
"No, every time I enter a Turf War match, my tentacles just randomly change colors and it stays like that until I enter another match…any other questions you guys have?"
"Well can we participate in this "Turf War" thing?" Mario wanted to know as he's really interested in this kind of thing
Cassidy pondered for a moment, scanning each hero then she spoke again "When you enter the match prepared to get splatted…which means you get "killed" by the other team but you really don't get killed because you respawn afterwards back at your team's spawn point"
"Sounds-a brutal" Luigi commented
"Dude who cares? It sounds hella fun!" SMG4 was excited
"But first, let's go to Ammo Knights, that's where you can get the weapons but since you guys are pretty much noobs, you're getting a beginner's weapon…you're going to like the guy running it"
"Let me guess…its some fat blob thing that's a jellyfish right?" Toad guessed
"Not even close…" Then she glanced into Mario's bedroom and saw the broken window "Uh, you guys might want to fix that window over there…"
Ammo Knights
Cassidy and the Mario gang went through the front door of Ammo Knights, one of the main shops in Booyah Base where the Inklings both veteran and new players go to shop for their weapons whether it's chargers, rollers, brushes, sloshers, Splatlings, blasters or an overpowered E-liter, this is the place to go to.
The Mario gang looked around the shop, it looks like a rundown garage rather than a shop. On the walls are some weird looking weapons that look like oversized water guns, paintbrushes, paint rollers, sub machine guns, buckets, and pistols.
Their ears are greeted with some catchy music playing in the shop.
"Hello! Hello! What kind of weapon are you in the market for?" A male voice ranged out. The gang all looked at the source, it was wearing black boots, a brown vest, has huge goggles, buck teeth and a horseshoe crab on its head
"Dude, I think the shrooms are starting to kick in…" Toad whispered into Mario's ear
"Me too" Mario whispered back
"Hey Sheldon, what's up?" Cassidy said, waving her hand
"Ah Cassidy, good to see ya! How are you doing in the Turf Wars?" The horseshoe crab thing asked
"Pretty awesome so far, I won like 6 matches"
"That's great, and oh…" Sheldon's expression changed when he saw Mario and his friends standing next to Cassidy
"Are those your…human friends Cassidy?" Sheldon pointed at them
"Well I guess you can say that…these guys are interested in taking part in the Turf Wars"
Sheldon's expression brightened up "Really? I'm glad to hear that, newcomers that aren't even Inklings taking part in the matches…never thought I see the day"
"Yeah you…shellfish thing we want some really cool weapons you have here…like that kick-ass mini-gun you have up there" SMG4 pointed at the Splatling hanging on the wall which Sheldon looked at
"The Splatling? I'm sorry but I'm afraid you're not fresh enough to buy that just yet" he apologized. This made SMG4 unnerved as he put on a grouchy face
"See, told ya" Cassidy said
"If you want to be fresh…you have to- "Sheldon started
"Do this-a Turf War crap…we know" Mario interrupted
"What weapon do you give to-a beginners then?" asked Luigi
"Glad you asked…let's see" The weapons dealers counted heads "I'll be right back" Sheldon retreated back into his shell and went to the backroom.
Mario is starting to realize something here: Lots of things that they see…is similar or familiar of what they see back in the Mushroom Kingdom and its starting to get to him little by little, but he kept quiet about it for now.
"Who the heck was that shellfish guy and why didn't he give us the minigun?" Toad asked
"I don't know…maybe because he was shellfish" SMG4 said. The others face palmed.
"That's Sheldon all right, he won't let you buy two of the same weapons…believe me I tried" Cassidy added in "Anyways, there's the other shops I mentioned yesterday you guys should check them out after you done like a couple of battles…you should be good to go"
Sheldon finally returned, carrying five boxes as he struggled and set them down side by side "Well there you go fellas"
Mario, Luigi, Toad, SMG4 and Steve all grabbed a box, opened it, and took out a weapon to their disappointment
"What kind of kiddy toy is this?" Toad complained, his weapon is the Splattershot Jr. while the rest got a regular Splattershot "It looks like a knock off water gun"
"That's the Splattershot Jr...perfect for your size" Sheldon explained "A beginner weapon…the rest of you have the regular Splattershots"
"Nice" SMG4 said
"Let's-a go kick some ass!" Mario shouted
"Not so fast, Mario…like me we have to go through training" Cassidy assured
"Oh now she says it" Toad muttered
They went through a door to leads outside into the training area with balloons as shooting targets embedded into the ground with a stair case off to the side that leads to another area. Beside the door are some extra ink tanks that are not used.
"Let's get to training" Cassidy announced
A few hours later…the training is complete with exception of shooting one another in the face, butt, back and stomach. Cassidy explained the special ability and sub-main weapon but they used misused them and ended up making a mess everywhere until they got good and she thinks they're decent enough to go ahead and get into the game.
Right now they're all standing outside of the lobby tower, the entrance has 4 TV screens showing various images of stages announced today. They noticed a pedestal with a sleeping fat cat on it.
"What's that fat sack of fur do all day?" SMG4 asked
"Judd does nothing…just sleeps all day, that lazy feline" Cassidy answered
"Man, wish I was-a him" Mario said
"Sleeping all day and not doing a damn thing, that's living" Toad added in.
Then he glanced off to the side, and something caught his eye. He saw what looked like an old bearded man with a cap looking back at him in a manhole, he looked surprised and went back inside.
"Creepy old stalker…" Toad muttered
"Come on let's go…but one of you guys have to stay behind it's four versus four remember?" Cassidy reminded them
Everyone immediately looked at SMG4, indicating that he is to stay behind, the blue plumber darted his head back and forth not believing what's happening to him.
"Aw you guys suck!" SMG4 whined with an angry tone
"Well looks like its Mario, Luigi, Toad and Steve then…go have fun guys and memorize your training skills"
"Okie-dokie!" Mario shouted "Let's-a go" he ran to the lobby
"Yahoo!" Luigi followed him, his ink tank hits Toad in the head
"Ahh! Watch where you swing that thing!" Toad yelled and went along
Steve shrugged and followed them too
Cassidy and SMG4 watched as they went inside the lobby and the door shut.
"Yep, they're screwed…" SMG4 spoke
"Let's see how it goes for them" Cassidy suggested "One of the stages their fighting in is either "Hammerhead Bridge" or "Piranha Pit"
SMG4's face expression fell "Is there piranhas in the Piranha Pit?"
"Could be, as far as I'm concerned as the name suggests"
That statement made SMG4 feel uneasy about it. Then again, seeing them getting their butts chomped on, made him laugh mentally.
Come to think of it...I wonder if there really is piranhas in the Piranha Pit? Who knows...maybe not...anyway, stay tuned for the next chapter!
Stay fresh readers