Author's notes: I really do feel bad about the long breaks between chapters but I should get a few out in the next couple of weeks since I'm out of school for now.
Don't forget to leave reviews at the end or any questions you have for me.
With that enjoy!
Chapter 5: Trials of Errors
"Marlin?!" the repeated use of my new name finally clicked into recognition just as Whark grabbed my shoulders and threatened to slam me up against the shop's counter, "what on Terra were you thinking?"
"I..." I started to say before I stopped, realizing the truth of how I let my anger get the best of me would only make him more mad, "I'm sorry Whark..."
"Oh you're definitely going to be sorry alright after Soral's turns us into fried calamari later!" his fangs made an audible click against his other teeth as he restrained himself from growling right in my face.
"Well maybe we'll win Whark, you never know."
He raised his head up to laughed at the ceiling before pushing on my shoulders again with his fingers almost feeling like claws digging into my skin, "Yeah right Marlin, like a bunch of noobs like us are going to beat a team that has at least several months of experience in turf war and rank under their belts."
"You may not be totally in trouble young squids."
"Huh?" looking over Whark's shoulder I could barely see the short horseshoe crab shopkeeper watching the three of us, "oh...sorry about causing a ruckus in your shop."
"It's fine, you're not the first team to do it and I doubt you will be the last one either."
"But we aren't a team Mr. Sheldon," Alga pointed, "we only have three players, not four."
"Well that's what I was saying before. If you can find the right fourth player you might stand a chance against the Inter-tidal Tsunami Splatoon."
"Inter-tidal Tsunami...Splatoon?" I asked.
"That's probably the name of the team Soral and those other two girls belong to Marlin," Whark explained, "most professional teams have a team name but I guess junior league does it too."
"Yep they do!" Sheldon said just as something caught his eye that was behind us, "Oh! Good morning Noi!"
"Noi?" prying myself free from Whark's grasp I turned around and end up nearly nose to nose with a female Inkling. If we were any closer I could have kissed her without much effort...not that I wanted to though...
I immediately jumped backwards, "Oh my cod! I'm so sorry. I didn't know you were there," I could feel my cheeks burning as I continued to speak really quickly while my voice partially squeaked at the same time. Behind me I could hear Whark trying not to laugh at my flustered reaction.
"No its fine," she answered. I may have imagined it but I could have sworn I heard a faint accent in her voice as she spoke, "I really should've announced my presence sooner. You wouldn't be the first I've accidentally snuck up on."
"O-oh..." I stammered out as I looked at her in more detail. She was a Lilac, almost lavender, colored Inkling with purple tips and skin so pale it almost looked like she had never sat in the sun. Her eye color strongly reminded me of a type of precious stone I've heard of. What was the name of it again...? Amathyst? Amithyst...?
"Amethyst!" I suddenly cried out before immediately covering my mouth with my hands and turning an even brighter red than was before.
"Oh, that's...a very pretty name but not mine if you were guessing," she stated as I turned even more red, "as Sheldon just said my name is Noi...Noi Humloche to be precise," she frowned at me, "are you normally this flustered around girls?"
"I uh...no..." I shook my head as I tried to get a grip on my emotions, "One of my best friends is a girl."
"A girlfriend?" a playful grin crept onto her face.
"Yea- I mean...no, she's not my girlfriend!"
She snorted in laughter for a few seconds before she could stop herself, "relax...I was just messing with you uh...?"
"Marlin, Marlin Colorian," the burning of my cheeks had finally started dissipated after several minutes.
"Marlin huh?" She looked over my shoulder at Alga and Whark, "what about your two friends?"
"Whark Kelpore and Alga Anemia."
"Nice to meet you..." she then glanced at my shirt before frowning again, "you three just arrived here huh?"
"Yeah...but this dude decided to pick a fight with the Inter-tidal Tsunami Splatoon captain," Whark grumbled from behind me, making me cringe.
"Soral Oceano?" Noi raised an eyebrow at us, "last I checked she was a B+ player...what made you pick a fight with her?"
"I wasn't trying to pick a fight wi-" I tried to explain before she held up a finger at me as she shook her head.
"No...now that I think about it I don't want to know what you did to put her tentacles into knots but whatever it was by the sounds of it you three are in trouble because of it."
"No squidding," Whark remarked, "and now we have to find a fourth player before this afternoon!"
"Yikes..." she winced before turning towards Sheldon, "I came in for replacement burst bombs...I'm almost out."
"Sure thing Noi," the horseshoe crab slipped into the back as she turned back to face me.
"So...you need a fourth player huh?"
"Yeah," I answered.
"And you don't know anyone who could be your fourth player?"
"No...I don't."
"Well..." she hesitated a moment for first time since she came into the shop, "...can I help?"
"What?!" I took a step back, "w-why?"
"Because you look like you could use it," she answered as Sheldon came back with a bag which she slipped into a bag on her shoulder, "besides I'm not that far ahead of you. I only started two weeks ago and only just hit C+."
"Bu-"
"Marlin..." she leaned up to me which caused me to feel very warm again, "...please...let me help you."
"Uh...sure?" the question was more for me than her since the words had tumbled out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying.
"Oh, Marlin..." groaning Whark placed his face in his hands as he shook his head at me.
"Cool, I'll give you some pointers before the match. Meet me at the practice arena in ten minutes," with a grin she turned around and headed out the doors. A mixture of confusion, and worry swirling around in my head in the wake of her absence as I tried to piece together what had just happened in the last ten minutes of my life.
In the end I wasn't sure if what I'd done was a good thing or not.
"We are so dead," Whark muttered as he clutched his gun tightly while we waited for an opening in the matches.
"Don't say that Whark or we will be," Alga told him as Noi paced back and forth in front of them while I leaned up against the wall on my side since I already had my ink tank strapped to my back. It was currently empty since the valve connecting my tank to the needle inserted into my ink sac was shut to prevent orange ink from being siphoned into the tank.
"Well...I hope we win..." looking up I could see Soral glaring at me for the umpteenth time since we had arrived there as she rubbed the handle of her dynamo roller. The two girls, Azuse and Case, sat patiently next to her while a yellow colored male inkling who I didn't have a chance to catch his name yet looked bored out of his mind while slumped up against the wall.
"Inter-tidal Tsunami and the Tiger Sharks Splatoons?" A lime green official asked as he came out from behind the counter.
"The Tiger Sharks Splatoon is here," Noi declared. Being the oldest and the most experienced of the four it didn't take much to decided that she would become the captain for the team.
"Same with the Inter-tidal Tsunami," Soral barked sharply as she and her other three teammates stood up. She then turned her gaze sharply at Noi, "and for the record if you think we'll be easy on you you're greatly mistaken."
"We never thought you would," Noi flatly stated as she stared the medium blue Inkling down. Soral in response opened her mouth slightly, showing the tips of her fangs in a half snarl.
Suddenly I wasn't so sure that it was just Noi being kind that caused her to help us out. The full reason though I wasn't sure I wanted to know.
"Alright..." if the official saw the two captain's glare match he sure didn't show it, "Tiger Sharks will be team orange for this match while Inter-tidal Tsunami is team blue due to one player with minor color blindness."
"Who...?" I started to ask.
"It's Azuse who's colorblind Marlin. She can't really see greens and yellows that well," Noi answered me before I could finish. How she would know something like that of another Inkling I wasn't sure...unless...
"Teams must now head to their designated respawn points to begin the match," the official told us, causing me to break out of my thoughts. Pointing down a hall he urged us to start walking down it.
"Alright! Let's do this!" the yellow Inkling cried out as he pumped his fist in the air.
"Can it Neel!" Soral immediately snapped at him, "remember what I told you earlier?"
"Yeah...don't get cocky and only cheer when we win..." he grumbled as he lowered his hand and slumped his shoulders down. Even his bright yellow eyes seemed to lose their brilliance as he walked forward towards his team's own spawn point as we headed towards ours when the path split.
Reaching our own spawn points I looked down to see it was already filled with orange colored ink underneath the metal grate. Switching our ink tank's valves on so ink could start filling our ink tanks we each turned into a squid and slipped into the ink underneath our feet.
Rising up from the ink several minutes later I shook myself off as I looked around the area we were in. The area seemed to be near the seaside as I continued to take in my surroundings. Seagulls would fly overhead or call at us angrily from perches of shipping containers and the like and the smell saltwater drifting up from foamy water below us.
"Saltspray Rig?" Noi raised an eyebrow, mildy confused as she continued to look around at where we were, "I was almost certain we would get Walleye Warehouse..."
"Is this bad?" Alga asked her.
"No...but we do have to worry about falling in the water..."
I Shuddered at the thought as mental images of me simply haphazardly falling off the edge came to mind. Our ancient ancestors may have once swam in these waters back when the Landdwellers still walked the land but that knowledge seemed to have all but disappeared after our people came onto land. Any Inkling who fell in the water would after several minutes drown before dissolving into ink. As long as there was a respawn point close enough they would simply come back but if they were too far away from one or if the respawn quit working they wouldn't and would remain dead...permanently.
"Just stick to the plan and we should be fine," Noi insisted as a loud whistle suddenly sounded and we took off to accomplish our individual part in the plan.
Covering the ground as I went I constantly kept glancing around for team blue. Because this was only our first match Noi had suggested we try to avoid fights against them, for which I had no problem following that suggestion but it didn't stop me from feeling like I was being watched.
Trying to avoid drawing any attention I headed towards the lesser noticed large area that was smaller than the other major area but so far appeared untouched except for a corner which had a splatter of blue ink. Working my way around I made it over to the blue splatter last so I could quickly head back out of there afterwards.
I only saw a ripple of movement only a second before Soral lunged out of the blue puddle with her roller held above her head, "Nice try Squib!" slamming her roller down a wave of blue hit me before I could react and everything turned black.
Clutching my stomach slightly I fought the urge to gag as my body reformed back at the spawn point. The vertigo wasn't something I had expected to experience so I was caught completely off guard as I fought back the bile that threatened to climb up my throat.
Seconds later Alga respawned as well but nearly ended up on her knees in the process, "Holy Carp..."
"Yeah...I wasn't expecting it either," I replied as I swallowed one final time and stood up straight once I was certain I wasn't going to puke, "come on...Whark and Noi can't take the other team on by themselves," shifting into my squid form like Noi had showed me and the other two I built up ink pressure in my ink sac for a few seconds until I couldn't hold it any longer and released it as I flew upwards from the pressure.
Twisting through the air I held my hands out like wings as I shifted back into humanoid form. Letting the cool air rushing past my face calm me down slighly for a few seconds I opened my eyes to see where I was landing.
Immediately I wished I hadn't as I saw who was about to splat me once I landed...again.
"Hello again Squib!" Soral cried out with an mischievous grin just as I landed on my feet in front of her. Her roller coming towards me was all I saw before I blacked out again for a few seconds until I could respawn.
It didn't take me much to figure out that Soral was purposely targeting me during the match. Every twenty seconds or so I would find myself reeling at the spawn point after having been splatted by her. By the end I didn't feel like puking anymore bur had started to lose count of how many times she had taken me out, but the repeated splatting was starting to take it's toll on me by the last half minute as I tried to cover a little bit more turf before time ran out.
"Mari-I mean Marlin! She's coming!" I heard Alga scream from somewhere on my right which was followed by a shriek of fear before the sound of exploding ink reached my ears.
"Augh! Again?!" turning my head I quickly spotted a ripple coming towards me very quickly. Returning my focus to where I was going I put a boost of speed into my steps in a vain hope of escaping the blue squids grasp.
My forward momentum quickly ended up a faceplant into blue ink as something slammed into my back and pinned me into the ground. My ear faintly started to tickled as a voice whispered into my ear, "You thought you could get away huh Squib?"
I tried to squirm out of her grasp but she only pushed me farther into the ink which was starting to burn against my skin.
"You want to know something?" she continued to whisper into my ear, "when you spoke before I really was kinda worried about how well you'd do but now I see that I was greatly mistaken to think you had any skills! You're nothing but a weak limbed orange Squib that doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut!" she finally let me go only to slam her roller onto my back just as the whistle went off to end the match.
As I respawned again Soral's words repeatedly stabbed me in the chest like sharp knife running me through. She was right, I was a terrible player and I did have a nasty tendency to say stuff before thinking about the consequences. It was the same reason behind me chewing my mom out before I came to Inkopolis which made me feel even worse as guilt threatened to swallow me up again like it had then.
Ending up back at the lobby seconds before the others due to me respawning I ran towards the front doors of the lobby. Tears threatening to well up in my eyes as I fought the crowd as well as fought the darkening thoughts running through my mind.
"Marlin, come back!" I couldn't tell who it was that called me but I didn't dare stop to find out as I pushed through the doors and headed down the front steps. Taking a sharp left I started to head towards one of the alleyways that led away from the main plaza in the hopes of finding somewhere I could be alone.
In my blinded rushing I didn't see the raised sewer grate I was going towards until my shoe had caught on the edge and I started to fall forward.
"Oh carp!" by instinct I shifted into squid form only to realize seconds later that it had been a bad idea.
With a frightened squeak I was helpless to stop myself from sliding between the bars and down into the darkness of the sewer pipe.
I had no idea how long or how far I fell before I finally stopped with a pained squeak but I was too overjoyed to stop falling to care about it. The feeling was short lived though as I tilted my triangular head upwards and realized I couldn't see the light from the grate I fell through. Going back, at least for now, didn't seem an option to me.
Whimpering a little like a young squirt I quickly started to move forward as I dodged sharp glass and metal that threatened to cut my soft body. Based on the way it looked the sewer hadn't actually been used for actual sewage for a long time which only gave me a small bit of comfort about the situation.
Turning a corner I suddenly spotted pale light filtering down in a column in front of me from another grate above.
With a squeal of joy I rushed towards it and reaching up to it with my tentacles I pulled myself up and slipped up through the bars before shifting into my humanoid form to prevent myself from falling back down it.
I kneeled there on top of the grate for several minutes as my entire body shook from the experience, "never again...I'm never going down into that creepy place again!"
"If that's the case then how are you going to get back Bucko?"
I looked up to find the old man from before staring at me from only an inch away from my face.