When Colin woke up, he suddenly regretted the idea of a night below the stars. Devan had taken the liberty of taking his sweater out of his suitcase and sleeping inside it, and it was absolutely covered in static.
"Gosh-Darnit, Devan," Colin grumbled as Devan shook off the disorientation from being slid out of the sweater, "you've made it all static-y now. It'll tingle."
An improvement, in my opinion, Devan replied haughtily, stretching. You humans and your clothes...
"Hey, I don't have fur. What am I supposed to do?"
Right. Devan said slowly, raising an eyebrow. No matter. Let's go see Marissa, she's probably off waiting in Octo Valley.
By the time they got there Marissa hadn't arrived, so they took the spare time to inspect the shack nearby.
"What do you think it's for?" Colin asked as he fiddled with the doorknob. Devan wondered why she didn't tell him it turned the other way, but decided this was too funny.
Probably weapons. That's usually what these shacks are for.
"Good, we can borrow some." He finally twisted it the other way and opened it.
A few seconds later, he was mobbed by a group of small yellow fish-like creatures.
Then, of course, as was nature with the zapfish, they zapped him. For an inkling this would just be a pleasant tingle, but, well...
"AUGH!"
Colin?! What in the-? Devan growled at them in an attempt to shoo them away, and they promptly ran back into the shack. Colin couldn't do much, he was effectively too 'shocked' to move.
"That's a terrible joke, D."
Quiet, you're breaking the fourth wall.
Colin recovered slowly, but luckily Devan had taken the liberty of going in the shack herself and found a pair of things which at first glance looked like crutches. They probably would have assumed as such if Marissa hadn't arrived at that very moment.
"Did you two wait here all night?" Marissa inquired with a bit of shock. "And why's he lying on the floor and twitching? Is he hurt?"
I think he'll be fine, Devan replied, poking him delicately with one paw and getting a moan for an answer, and we slept in the skate-park.
"Oh good - wait, the skate-park isn't really any better, is it?" Marissa groaned. "Listen, I've decided to help you guys. I just needed to get my weapons this-morning, it took ages to convince Judd I wasn't trying to smuggle them to Octarians or something. You guys aren't Octarians, right?"
No, Devan said with a hint of distaste, They don't sound particularly pleasant.
"They're the folks we fought - will fight? - in the great turf war. And now that I say that I have a feeling the tenses are going to be a nightmare." Marissa groaned.
I'll keep track.
Once Colin had recovered thoroughly, he got up and accepted the situation.
"Oh, so these are weapons?" He asked. "How do they work?"
"Like this." Marissa picked up one of the bamboo weapons and pulled back on the handle. then she let go, and a long line of ink went about three meters ahead of her.
"I'll be honest, I modified these," She admitted. "Normally they're supposed to need two hits to take out an enemy, but I modified the strength to be one. Plus I made the one you're holding recover ink very, very quickly. Almost instantly, actually. Don't even need to dip."
Dip?
"Swim. In the ink. Like this." She ducked down, and as she did the yellow colour around her head-tentacles spread to her entire body, until she was a small yellow squid-like creature with large eyes. Then she jumped into the yellow, and she was barely even visible. She moved around a bit, little eddies of ink trailing behind ehr, and then she got up, her body reverting to normal.
"Didn't Colin tell you about this?"
Colin and Devan glanced at each other, hoping for the other to generate a witty reply. Marissa facepalmed.
"You two seem more unbelievable by the second. Now you're going to tell me that he can't swim."
"No, I can't." Colin shivered, recalling a childhood nightmare about drowning. "Never could, never will. No thanks."
"Great. A Squid that's scared of swimming." Marissa said, deadpan.
"Well, technically speaking-"
Don't prolong it, Colin, you're just making it worse. Remind me to give you swimming lessons when this is all over. Devan shook her head. Even I can swim, and I'm a dog.
"Devan, you're a time-travelling dog that can speak to hu-inklings and you run around being witty and dropping me in alien worlds. With that on a résumé, I could get a job as the president of America."
Really? I never was one for politics, but-
"No. I'm just trying to put your ridiculous situation into effect."
... let's just go to war.
AWEWWWO
"WHAT IN GREAT SQUID WAS THAT!?" Marissa squealed, grabbing Colin's shoulder. He lifted his hands form his ears and shot Devan a glare.
Time Travel. We are now about one-hundred-and-one years in the past. She looked around. And ironically, in Octo Valley.
"Time travel sounds like that?"
"It sounds like whatever she thinks it sounds like. Now we need to get out of here and find Cap'n Cuttlefish."
"Oh, right." Marissa grabbed her weapon from its holster. "Get the Bamboozlers ready, right."
"Oh, that's what this is called," Colin commented, grabbing his own. He pulled out the notebook and flipped to the newest page. It promptly filled itself with a map of the area.
"What's that? It looks useful," Marissa commented.
"A very adaptable notebook," Colin replied. "Exit's this way."
A few turns later, Colin turned a corner into something that looked a lot like Marissa with red tentacles. It promptly screeched at him.
"AGH!" Marissa shouted, pulling her weapon. The Octoling pulled her own weapon, a shooter of sorts, and Colin made for his own gun.
Devan sat to one side. She wasn't going to drag the attention towards her recently-groomed fur, after all.
It hissed in a foreign language and pointed the gun at Marissa.
Colin? That's a problem. I don't know about the spawn points around here.
"Right." Colin hunched, then leaped directly at the Octoling, into the shots from the gun. Each shot was a bit painful, but it was about the same as being hit by a pillow at high speed. In short, he could stomach it at the risk of clean clothes.
"COLIN!" Shoot. He forgot to explain this to Marissa.
Oh, well.
Colin twisted awkwardly and whacked the Octoling in the head with his Bamboozler. It promptly fell over and stopped moving.
"Is it dead?" He asked Devan.
Nah, just knocked it out. Which reminds me, we're headed that way.
"Colin, ARE YOU OKAY?!" Marissa cried.
"HUSH!" Colin hissed, and she promptly quieted. "Look, I'm fine. I'll explain later, but I'm perfectly ink-proof. The only thing that could kill me is a whack to the head." He smirked and walked off in the indicated direction.
And promptly hit a wall.
"Devan..."
You fell for it.
Stepping out into the sunlight, Colin briefly shielded his eyes as he looked out to the world of one hundred years ago.
Far in the distance, blue skies reigned, and green was all that could be discerned of the land ahead. What was around them was a large wasteland and barely a drop of water to be seen, as well as a huge machine which was simply lying in the wasteland. It looked new, however, so he promptly decided it was something akin to a tank and that it should probably be destroyed.
"The lost Octoweapon!" Marissa exclaimed, approaching it. "It was the destructive force that the members of the Squidbeak Splatoon destroyed before they joined Cap'n Cuttlefish!"
"Which means we need to destroy it." Colin nodded, going back into his suitcase. He dug through some things until he found what he needed.
"What are you doing with a load of collapsible buckets and a packet of cigarettes?"
"Quiet, just help me get the gas out of this thing." He got up with two buckets and began pouring the flammable liquid on the machine.
"Huh, so this is what they used to fuel stuff before Zapfish were discovered," Marissa awed, as she began to fill buckets and hand them to Colin. "Wonder why they stopped. Maybe because Zapfish are infinite?"
"Multiple reasons, including that, presumably," Colin commented, deciding not to dive into the rabbit hole of Zapfish. "But in a moment you'll see another. The fuel tank empty now?"
"Yeah," She said, handing him the last bucket.
He tossed it onto the machine, then approached the machine.
"I suggest you stand back, this could get dangerous." He lit the cigarette (while wondering briefly why they gave cigarettes to a teenager barely above sixteen) and threw it at the machine before running for cover.
"HURRY!"
Marissa ran.
A few seconds later the machine burst into flames.
"Devan, what are you doing?"
Getting the scorch marks out of my fur. I won't forget this.
"I guess I can see why they don't use it any more," Marissa commented faintly. "Please warn me next time we do something dangerous like that."
Oh, calm down. It's just a little fire.
"Says the dog who is frantically getting scorch marks out of her fur." Colin joked.
Quiet, you.
"Regardless of her predicament," Colin began with finality, "I believe that we have to find the other members of the Squidbeak Splatoon next. Can you pass me the notebook in the front pocket of that suitcase?" Marissa nodded and passed it to him, and he flipped to the list of objectives.
"Here we go. So, first is... this guy." He pointed at a still-forming image of a human-crab morph.
"He kind of looks like Sheldon," Marissa commented idly.
"Hold on, let me check the list of relatives," Colin said. He peered at the small writing until he found the name. "Yeah, Sheldon's his grandson, not born for another ninety years or so. Ammoses Shellendorf's only about sixteen at the moment... wow, that's younger than me."
"How old are you anyway?" Marissa asked.
"Seventeen-ish. I haven't been keeping track since I got here, that would be hard with all the time-travel. Which reminds me, Devan, if you're done with the whole scorch mark thing, can we exploit some Quik-Travl and get over there?" He pointed to the horizon of a small town, where the greenery just about started.
Sure.
"Oh, Marissa?" She gave him her attention. "Just a warning, Quik-Travl can be a bit disorienting. Just stick close."
VWOOOOOP
"Thanks for the warning, I think," Marissa said, wobbling a bit. "I liked that last sound for time travel a bit more than the last."
I'll consider it as permanent. Maybe.
"Thanks- wait, just maybe?"
It's too much fun making Colin fall on his face, Devan commented from where she was watching him pull himself up. And making this predictable makes it hard to do that.
"Sometimes I wonder if my reactions are genuinely hilarious or if you're just sadistic."
I'd say the former, Marissa can't stop laughing.
A/N: Hey-o! Miss me?
I'm back with a new chapter! Let's see how long that lasts...
Remember, reviews are always appreciated!