Hello, school-induced hiatus? School-induced hiatus machine [B]roke. Understandable, have a great chapter.
Dane was overwhelmed as he landed in Inkopolis Square.
He had been dropped in a relatively open space that seemed to be rectangular by looking at the buildings that lined the central area. In front of him there was a large radio tower with a giant screen on it, similar to the one in the Plaza. The rest of the tower was covered in billboards and another giant screen that was shaped like a phone advertising gear from brands he had never seen before. He was told that the Great Zapfish had also moved over there, but he couldn't see it on the tower.
Before he could marvel at all the new surroundings more, Hana landed next to him.
"Whoa..." she said after landing. "So this is Inkopolis Square, huh? It's... kinda small."
"Look at all this new shit!" Dane said to her, barely even noticing what she said.. "Look, there's new shops-" he pointed at the row of buildings he assumed to be shops. "There's a new Tower-" Dane pointed at the tower, which he didn't know the name of. "There's even a new shady alleyway, two of them this time!" He made her look to the left of the tower, which had a cement ramp leading up to a building with a big neon orange sign. The walkway there was blocked by a large metal gate. Hana was turned to the right and saw a much smaller alley that didn't look quite as shady.
"And look at all the people!" He did a sweeping motion with his arm to show her. There were inklings just about everywhere, talking to each other, eating, shopping."There's so many of them compared to the old place, they've all got new gear, I probably look like an idiot just standing here and pointing around, but that's th-" he stopped as the center screen on the tower played a jingle reminiscent of the Inopolis Plaza news theme. As it did, most of the inklings stopped what they were doing and walked closer to the center of the square to watch.
The screen cut to a news studio that had an inkling and an octoling sitting and standing respectively at either side of the studio. The inkling had a white vest with a large gold zipper, as well as pink leggings, white boots, and a crown that looked similar to her tentacles, which were short and white with pink ends. The inkling seemed to be relatively short, which Dane inferred from the fact that her feet didn't touch the ground even from her chair. On screen, she was captioned as Pearl.
The octoling on the left seemed to be the polar opposite of Pearl. She was wearing a black crop-top with no sleeves, the silver zipper on which was mostly undone. She had four large dark brown tentacles on her head, which faded to a light teal color and had the suckers on the outside, as was the norm for octolings. She also was wearing some studio headphones and was standing at a turntable set. The octoling was captioned as Marina.
"Y'all know what time it is!" Pearl announced.
"It's Off the Hook, coming at you LIVE from Inkopolis Square!" Marina followed. The screen wiped itself with grey bars for a moment, then returned to the studio. Behind the reporters was a large rectangular window in which they could see some inklings taking pictures and video of the broadcast.
"Check it!" Pearl said. "Here are the current Regular Battle stages!" Following this, Marina spun one of the records on her turntable which displayed snapshots of two stages on the modern-looking white Tv in the center of the camera's view, one after the other, called "Inkblot Art Academy" and "The Reef." Inkblot Art Academy seemed to be staged on an open part of an art school campus. The Reef looked like it was a relatively open large courtyard surrounded by a shopping mall setup.
"Just rush down the middle and smash 'em. Piece of crab cake!" Pearl announced.
"Nah, it's all about the side routes if you ask me," Marina countered. The whole time the conversation was happening, Dane was still internally (and a little bit externally) flipping his shit and Hana had become quiet in concentration at the broadcast. The screen reset again the same as before.
"And these are the current Ranked Battle stages!" Pearl continued. Marina revealed them as "Starfish Mainstage," which appeared to be just a stage where a band might play that was open on the front and back, and "Musselforge Fitness," a large excercise facility. "A membership to this place costs an arm and a leg," Pearl said dejectedly.
"Yeah, but at least the arm and the leg will be jacked," Marina joked. The duo seemed to be capable of the same kind of off-the-cuff snide and snappy remarks at each others' own expense, like the Squid Sisters. Hmm, Hana thought to herself. I wonder why the Squid Sisters Broadcast isn't on here. Maybe something happened to them? No, there's probably a better explanation... The screen reset again.
"Here are the League Battle stages!" The inkling newscaster said, but neither Dane nor Hana really paid attention. Whatever League Battles were, they had never heard of them and certainly wouldn't be ready to do them for a while. Another reset of the screen, which cut to Pearl glancing backwards nervously.
"Uh... why is our producer freaking out? Read the teleprompter, Marina!" Pearl urged.
"Huh? Let's see here..." Said octoling read nervously and spun her turntables. The Tv displayed a picture with the headline 'GREAT ZAPFISH MISSING' and the top of the tower with a striking lack of giant electric eel atop it.
"THIS JUST IN! The Great Zapfish has... disappeared?!" Marina gasped, which set off a bunch of anxious conversations in the crowd, which, up until then had been relatively quiet. Dane and Hana looked at the top of the Tower and sure enough, the giant black fish was nowhere to be seen.
"Wait, like, for reals?! I feel like I've heard this story somewhere before..." Pearl said with notes of suspicion in her voice. Marina continued reading her script and turned to the next news slide. It was a black-and-white headshot of Callie from the Squid Sisters smiling titled 'POP STAR CALLIE ALSO MISSING.'
"There's more!" Marina continued. "Pop superstar Callie of the Squid Sisters has gone missing!"
"NOOOO! NOT CALLIE! This is terrible! Do something, Marina!" Pearl demanded. Dane and Hana looked at each other for a second, worry evident in their eyes, and turned back to keep watching.
"Uh..." Marina fumbled for what to say. "Okay, I'll put together a search part-"
"Whatever. I'm sure they'll turn up at some point," Pearl interrupted. "In other news..."
"But, shouldn't we form a search party or someth-" Marina began again, but she was cut off by a transition wipe, to which some of the audience laughed.
"And that's all the time we've got!" Pearl finished. "Until next time..." she hopped out of her plush chair and Marina pushed her turntables aside.
"Don't get cooked... Stay Off the Hook!" they said in unison and waved the tops of their hands at the audience, similar to how the Squid Sisters used to. After a moment, the screen on the tower went back to advertisments and the crowds in the center went back to what they were doing. Hana looked at Dane, unsure of what to say.
"Well, that was certainly something," she decided.
"You said it. That Marina girl, though... she, uh-" he cleared his throat. "She really - really catches your eye, if you know what I'm saying."
"Yeah, you were staring at her the whole time!" Hana teased.
"I was not!" He shot back, making a mock angry face and they both laughed for a moment. When they stopped, Hana sighed anxiously.
"I hope Callie and the Great Zapfish are alright," she said and Dane nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I hope so too. I'm not worried, though," he said confidently. "The Zapfish disappeared before and it came back soon enough; I know it can come back a second time." Hana smiled at his confidence and felt a little more reassured herself.
"Anyways, I should probably go find my apartment now, put my suitcase away, y'know," Dane said.
"Me too, I'll come with you. My apartment isn't too far from yours," she lifted the extendable handle on her suitcase and said,"After you," and pointed them to the train. Dane grabbed his suitcase and strode back towards the train station, with Hana following right after.
"We're finally here, my dude," he told her just outside the covered area. "We really get to start again."