Authors Note: Hi all, I hope you enjoy this chapter! I made it longer than normal, I know. But it was for you all! Have a good day and take care!
Bonus Note: Also, if no one has noticed it. I name all the characters after colors, if I can.
Maize had ran through the crowded plaza with his octobrush on his side. He had approached one of the edges of the plaza, where there were small metal beams set up to hold up the Splatfest banner, which was crafted with a lot of care to represent the Cars vs Planes theme. He grabbed on and began to climb up it. He had to use his tentacle hair to keep himself from falling off. When he reached the top, he saw two squids, one with their back turned by the ledge. He immediately grabbed his leg and threw him off the rooftop into a bush below.
"Hey, what the!" the other inkling pulled out an Aerospray RG, firing some splotches of blue ink at the yellow squid. Maize used his octobrush and caught some of the shots before he swung, smacking the enemy squid and coating them in yellow ink. They splattered instantly into a puddle of ink. Maize looked over to the other rooftop. Thankfully Onyx and his two helpers had disabled the first killer wail and were now dealing with the emergency backup that was being called in. Suddenly, something hit Maize like a hammer.
"Oh no… I don't know how to cut it off!" Maize screamed in realization. This killer wail was almost done charging, and it was going to fire onto the plaza. Even if it was the only one that fired, it still would cover a huge area.
"There he is!" he heard, looking over. Coming over the rooftop were more inklings of various colors, all armed and angry, though they all had partially visible injuries. Maize hated to think that Cornell had gotten so many injured or crippled squids to help with his dirty work. He looked at the killer wail, going to the front of it.
"C'mon…!" Maize gritted his sharp teeth as he got in front of the killer wail, going under it. He began to push up with all his strength. He felt his body screaming in protest. Killer wails were easy to place, but once they were down, they were hard to move. He began to see red rings appearing around the front of the huge weapon.
"Graaaah!" Maize roared, forcing it upwards as he threw it over onto its back. The attacking squids were terrified.
"Wait, get away!" one of the many shouted. They had little time to react when the killer wail let out a loud noise. It fired a wave of red sound waves that instantly splattered the wave of inklings and destroyed part of the rooftop. Maize got so startled by it that he almost fell off the roof, but he caught the edge of it, dangling off of it. The killer wail had caused quite the bit of noise pollution in a brief few seconds, and had drawn quite some attention.
"What was that?!" Marie asked, still onstage. That loud sound had interrupted their singing. The entire audience and crowd they had looked confused and afraid.
"Hey Maize! You alright?" Onyx called out, seeing the unexpected scene play out before him and his backup, but it was nice to know that he had dealt with a huge chunk of the enemy.
"Uh, y-yeah… just improvising like usual," Maize sighed. He had been doing this as a main form of planning for a while lately. He began to pull himself back onto the rooftop. They both had to find Cornell. Callie took notice of their dear friend, having seen him clinging to the edge of the rooftop.
"Maize?" Callie chirped. But there were other inklings in the crowd not caring, where the Squid Sisters couldn't notice. One pink squid was now on their cellphone.
"Sir Cornell. Things have gone really off the rails!" she described while preparing her Splattershot Jr and her ink tank. Cornell was very unhappy to hear this.
"Well… a host must make sure all of his guests are attended too, even if it must be done manually… Plan B. I'll get things ready here," Cornell ordered before hanging up. The young squid girl stood up.
"Plan B!" she shouted, the rest of her partners in crime instantly agreeing to this, beginning to get their weapons ready immediately.
"Whoa, get down!" Marie grabbed Callie by her hand, yanking her out of the way, watching a torrent of pink ink spray the stage. They couldn't see who had done it though. The crowd started to go crazy and were trying their best to escape this sudden outburst of violence. This Splatfest had gone wild. Agents 1 and 2 immediately climbed off the back of the stage. They had been targeted for the attack, just as some sign to show how serious this assault was.
"You were right! This is not a prank!" Callie fearfully admitted. This was horrifying for a situation. She had a few nightmares where their fans would attack them just a common fear for any star. Marie knew her instincts were right when she got suspicious of that text from Maize claiming otherwise. While Callie was panicking, Marie quickly tried to think up a way out of this, noticing more and more various colors of ink beginning to spray the area and splatter inklings left and right.
"Hey! You two!" Marie grabbed two random squids from the side before a blast of green ink flew by. She had saved those two from being splattered for the moment.
"Whew, thanks…" the male inkling sighed in relief. Before he knew it, his ink tank filled with blue ink had been taken from him, as well as his charger weapon which was long and light blue in color with a bottle at the back of it. Marie knew this was a classic squiffer, not what she personally would pick for a weapon. But this was no time to be picky.
"He-hey! What are you doing with my boyfriend's weapon?" the female squid asked the Squid Sisters. She had a krak-on roller on her back with her ink tank of green ink.
"Sorry, but we need these weapons badly. We'll return them, with autographs of course!" Callie explained. The couple looked to each other, unsure about this, but they thought it might be easier to escape without their weapons slowing them down. The female inkling turned over her green ink tank and her krak-on roller.
"Be careful," Marie told them, letting the two inklings return to their escape attempt. Callie tried to take in a breath to calm down, aware that this was about to get more chaotic. Marie climbed on top of the stage once more, charging up her classic squiffer and aiming. One of Cornell's workers noticed her and attempted to turn around and fire, but Marie let go of the trigger, watching a strong blast of blue ink fly through the air and hit the inkling in the face, splattering them instantly. Another two were at the side of the stage, aiming for the famous squid.
"Knock it off!" Callie charged at them, catching them off guard before she crushed them under the roller, leaving behind a big green trail of ink. Rollers really packed a punch. The black inkling loved the type of weapon a lot.
"Where did he go?!" Maize angrily asked himself. He had met up with Onyx midway when the rooftops started to get closer together, making it easy to cross and group up. They had no idea where Cornell could have gone. He was nowhere near here, or in their sight. The yellow squid was paranoid that the red squid was controlling the reigns of this attack in hiding.
"He probably knows I'm gonna rip his tentacles out!" Onyx said while searching the surrounding area from their higher vantage point. One of his two security guards suddenly got splattered into a puddle of orange ink.
"Whoa!" Maize threw himself down, falling onto the rooftop. The other security guard got blasted before they could even move a muscle. Onyx saw an enemy orange squid who was holding an inkzooka, a special weapon that unleashed a strong blast of ink that did a lot of damage. This seemed like a good sign. If they were still being attacked when they were a little farther away from the main plaza, it meant that Cornell's crew were protecting something. That or this was just one rogue squid that just wanted to splatter other.
"Maize, you go get Cornell. I'll deal with this punk," Onyx cracked his neck. Maize looked at him, unsure about this, just before they both dodged another blast of the inkzooka.
"Are you sure?" Maize tried to argue, "What if…"
"Do it! I'm not gonna let this jerk use Tentatek's own weapons and damage the company's reputation, not even Aero's!" Onyx opened fire, the ink flying as the enemy inkling took cover behind the roof. Maize nodded, wishing he had the other agents to help. The yellow inkling began to run off toward the direction past the inkzooka wielding lunatic. He had to find the red squid now and fast. He was feeling more and more worried that those killer wails weren't the only thing that was prepared to ruin this Splatfest.
Maize had climbed off the roof and back onto the streets. He saw a gigantic mess of red ink. It almost felt like a trail, but he could tell that several squids had been splattered here, judging by the patterns around.
"Why do bad guys pick the scariest looking places…?" Maize pondered to himself while adjusting his goggles. He did not want to walk down a somewhat eerie alleyway into a doorway that led into one building. This was the type of place that if he bumped into someone, he could guarantee that his wallet would be gone. Maize kept his hand on his octobrush as he followed the red ink, one step at a time, feeling like he could hear his own steps echo.
"Hello?" Maize tried to call out into the empty environment, hoping that maybe someone friendly might be around to help. As he entered into the building, he saw three small windows letting in moonlight and illuminating the hallway, and a metal shutter. He grabbed the handle of it, seeing the red ink continue in there.
"Welp, it's now or never," the yellow squid grabbed the handle of the shutter, tugging hard and sliding it upwards, hearing it rattle loudly. There were some lights coming from inside. He took a few steps within when he suddenly heard someone trying to charge at him. The yellow inkling ducked, seeing a blast of pink ink splatter the wall.
"Fight me like a real squid! Hiding in the dark is pufferfish levels of low!" Maize stated, watching the annoyed inkling appear from the darkness with a tri-slosher in their hands.
"Where's Cornell?" Maize demanded. The inking shook their head with a smirk. It was the one who had a scar on their arm.
"Sorry, I can't say," they responded before trying to throw another wave of the pink ink at Maize. He got covered in some of the ink. It stung his legs and entire lower body like poisonous water. He forced his legs ahead and swung his octobrush, smashing the tri-slosher bucket out of their hands and flying across the room. Maize pinned the scarred inkling against the wall with his brush.
"You tell me right now! He's ruining what should be a fun night!" Maize repeated his demands, noticing a syringe dangling out of the coat pocket of the inkling. He grabbed it and took it away, seeing two units left within it.
"Wa-wait! Don't take my serum!" the enemy squid requested, looking like he had seen a ghost when that serum got taken away. Maize assumed there was a reason behind this.
"You want it back? Then tell me now," he glared. The scarred inkling bowed in agreement, not wanting to lose his pain curing medicine.
"H-he's in the back room where the huge skylight is, with the owner of Tentatek," the serum addicted squid explained. Hearing about the CEO struck a nerve. He held the syringe back farther.
"Aero…?! What's he doing with her?" Maize asked. He never felt this protective of her before. Aero was always able to fend for herself. But this seemed like a situation that left her unable to defend herself.
"I-I dunno! Please don't take away Cornell… I need that serum. Everyone one of us does! I can't take the pain daily, none of us can!" the squid begged, looking ready to go on their knees. Being unarmed and having their medicine stolen really was a dramatic surprise for them. Maize could not relate to the feeling of immense pain on the daily basis, but that scar did look nasty. He felt guilty.
"I promise everything will be fine without Cornell," Maize declared while presenting the syringe back to the scarred inkling who took it back confusedly.
"A promise...? What's the worth if Cornell is gone? Every doctor thinks we're just drug addicted brats," the inkling plopped down onto the concrete floor, seeming grandly depressed, imagining that the amazing medicine the red squid made was gone.
"The Special Squid Services helps everyone out. You can count on me," Maize reassured before he continued his urgent rush. The inkling on the floor looked at the syringe in his hands. Maize's words had felt reassuring for some reason.
Maize did his best to try and be quieter with his hurried approach this time, not wanting to get surprised by another attack. Even if his pants and most of his legs were covered in another ink color, he had to tolerate the pain for now. He began to arrive to the room that the scarred squid had told him about.
"You can't seriously blame me for something that happened a long time ago! I only became CEO three years ago!" Aero's voice rung out. Maize stopped in his place, being near another doorway, holding his octobrush.
"You know, as a guest, it is quite rude of you to continue rambling to the host. I'm not accusing you. I'm just accusing your company," Cornell spoke up. His tone sounded bored and uninterested. Maize decided to take a risk and peek into the room. His eyes were ready to burst out through his goggles. He identified three big green and orange rockets with propellers at the bottom of them. They were inkstrikes, huge area covering special weapons, aimed right for the skylight. Cornell was in the process of preparing them to launch.
"My company is a part of my family history! Whatever you're rambling about had nothing to do with Splatfest!" Aero continued her protest, trying to get him to cease this insanity. But then she spotted her husband, looking shocked to see him here. Maize motioned her to stay quiet.
"My grandfather could have helped so many more lives. Once all of this is over, I will help just as many as he did," the red inkling spoke. At this point, Aero had given up on her negotiating efforts. There was so much hypocrisy on top of that statement alone that she couldn't make enough rebuttals to make her point clear. If he really planned on helping squids, he would forget the whole revenge deal and move on from it as it was just a simple accident.
"Five minutes, and these will cover the plaza. I know this won't put an end to Splatfests, but it will make others afraid, and take your company's reputation down a lot," Cornell sung. At this point Aero was getting angrier. If she was not tied up to a pipe, she would have broken out by now and inflicted so much pain to that crazy medicine lover.
Maize began to slowly sneak up through the side, hoping to hide behind the inkstrikes like they were pillars. Aero's nervous gaze followed him. Cornell entered in the code, watching the countdown begin for the five minutes that would soon come to pass.
"Over my dead body!" Maize shouted, jumping out with this octobrush overhead. Cornell got bashed by the strike of yellow ink that coated his trench coat with a big streak. Unfortunately he did not get splattered by the attack.
"Am I the only one who knows proper manners for guests?" Cornell sighed before disrobing his trench coat, dropping it aside. He revealed a white and red striped shirt underneath and a red ink tank on his back. Tons of syringes lined from inside the trench coat. It looked like one bad fall while wearing that coat would inject him with a thousand units.
"Shut up about your manners! You tied up my wife!" Maize reminded, starting to think maybe he should have freed Aero first just so he could get some help. The countdown already passed the four minute mark of the timer. Aero felt a lot happier, seeing her husband with that spirit in him.
"Is that a no?" Cornell reached down behind his back and pulled out a splattershot pro, beginning to open fire, spraying balls of red ink. Maize swung his octobrush upwards, splashing up yellow ink and catching the splotches, mixing with the red before splashing onto the floor. Before the yellow squid knew it, he had taken cover behind the inkstrike, and so did Cornell on the other side.
"Maize, I don't mean to rush you, but my arms are falling asleep!" Aero added, hearing her husband chuckle at the joke. He needed to stay light and calm. He saw Cornell change into his squid form and begin swimming through the red ink. Maize began swinging his brush back and forth rapidly, sending out wave after wave of yellow ink that covered the red up fast. He saw Cornell pop up in front of his face. He seemingly had the ability to swim with lightning speed in his squid form.
"Grah!" Maize got hit hard when Cornell bashed him with his splattershot pro, harming him with the weapon and not attempting to splat his enemy. Aero saw the countdown reach the one minute mark. The yellow squid lay on the floor, his head throbbing in pain.
"I honor your chivalry, but I have to treat you like the poor guest you are," Cornell apologized, aiming his splattershot pro for Maize's head. The yellow squid gulped.
"Maize! You gotta do something! They're going to launch!" Aero screamed as the countdown reached thirty seconds. The yellow squid knew his wife was terrified, aware that if the Splatfest got ruined by the Tentatek's Company weapons, then they were about to get lawsuits, or be forcibly shut down by police for having such poor security that several of their weaponry got stolen.
Maize had to wing it. He slammed the palm of his hand on a button that was on the octobrush, right when Cornell fired with a grin. However, the red inkling stepped back in surprise at what he saw Maize had now become.
"Oh yeah…" Aero grinned. Not only was Maize in his squid form, but he was five times larger than regular, and his tentacles looked stronger. Maize had become a kraken; a nice tide turner in turf wars, or when someone needed a boost of power.
"You think that will scare me?" Cornell tried to keep his confident face as he began firing. Maize let the red ink hit him, it but it did not hurt. As a kraken, all ink did not bother the user like he was rather invincible. The countdown was reaching ten seconds. Maize swam over to one of the ink strikes, throwing his tentacles onto it. He pulled hard and knocked it over onto its side, before he slammed it hard with his tentacle, breaking it in half. The damage had kicked one of the many syringes over to Aero. She grabbed it with her hand with the minimal movement she had, beginning to slowly cut at the ropes with the needle.
"No! What are you doing?! You must stop!" Cornell screamed, realizing that there was nothing he could do in this situation. He watched as Maize grabbed the second inkstrike rocket with his suction cups, ripping the top off of it and hitting it as it fell over and crumpled apart from being so heavily hit.
"Come on! You can do it!" Aero cheered. Cornell began to fire rapidly, trying to suppress Maize in any way possible. The third and final inkstrike began to glow at the bottom, indicating that was done charging and about to launch. Maize grabbed it with one of his tentacles, but the red squid got between them in an attempt to stop the yellow kraken.
"Sorry! But I'm keeping a promise!" Maize growled, punching hard with his other tentacle. He hit Cornell right into the ink rocket, his head clanging loudly against the metal. Cornell collapsed into unconsciousness, just like that'. Maize grabbed the last ink strike with his tentacles as it was beginning to launch. He was trying his best to stop it.
"Uh oh…" Maize lost his kraken form. It finally ran out of its special limit, and now the yellow inkling was stuck on the inkstrike, he had no time to react before it launched. He got sent flying toward the night air, smashing through the glass of the sky light.
"Oh gosh! Maize!" Aero screamed to the empty area, before she noticed another inkling standing in the doorway. It was the squid that her husband had just promised things would work out for him, with or without the medicine. The teenage squid saw Cornell unconscious on the floor with one of his teeth bashed out. He approached the Tentatek Corporation CEO.
"Here. We need to get going," he said while freeing Aero from her bindings, much to her relief. The syringe did not make for a good knife at all.
"Waaaaaaaahhh!" Maize was screaming as he rode the inkstrike through the air. It was terrifying to be flying so high in the sky. It was unstable, too, due to the dent it had received. The yellow squid began to try and bash it with his octobrush while using his tentacles to hold on, every hit created a new ding he was doing everything he could to try and stop it, but the short air flight would be ending soon, right into the main plaza.
At the main plaza, the Squid Sisters had been fighting ever since things had gotten chaotic. Marie was shooting squids with her squiffer Jr. She let go of the trigger, watching another burst of ink splatter one of the hostile inklings instantly. They had dealt with a lot of them for the most part. The two cousins were covered in various splotches of different colored ink.
"Uh… Marie? What is that?!" Callie asked, pointing into the air, watching something in the sky begin to come falling down. It was indeed an inkstrike, the mark appearing on the ground as a warning.
"Really…? An inkstrike," Marie rubbed her forehead tiredly. They had to run now if they wanted safety. However, just as fast as it came, they heard Maize's screaming on top of it before it crashed into the center of the plaza. But, there was no huge explosion of ink. Just the sound of the screaming coming to an end. With a loud clang as well, all of the fighting simultaneously ended. The Squid Sisters began to shove their way through the remaining crowd of enemies. There were only a few of the hostile inklings left, and those few seemed intent on getting away now, aware that the plan had failed.
"Maize!" Callie gasped, seeing their blonde friend lying on the cracked concrete, the ink strike in pieces with the red ink inside oozing out of it. His goggles loosely dangled on his face, and the octobrush and his own ink tank were broken into pieces. Callie rushed to his side and tried to make sure he was alright. Marie was approaching, but she had not dropped her guard.
"Maize! Maize! Come on! Speak to me!" Callie shook him. It was an upsetting scene to both her and Marie. The squid they considered like a brother was covered in bruises and cuts and scrapes all over his body, lying unconscious. Thankfully it did not last long, as they heard him coughing.
"Ohhh… I think I broke every bone in my body…" Maize groaned. Callie hugged him tight, though it made everything hurt, like he had been ran through a crusher.
"You're insane! You know that?" Marie commented. That little rocket ride he took was not what they expected to see. There was that big grin of Maize's again, that smile he always tried his best to keep up.
"Yeah… I am," he chuckled in agreement before going into a coughing fit.
"Can you please call an ambulance? I've had one heck of a rough day," Maize requested while Callie tried to make sure he was comfortable for now, with his head resting on her lap. She got her cellphone out and immediately began to dial for emergency services. Her cousin begun to realize Splatfest had been halted due to this crazy events that had occurred. Now she had to address the crowd.
"Erm… look, every inkling. Tonight was greatly derailed from the main point. We don't like Splatfests to bring harm to anyone. Thankfully, the Special Squid Services did everything to halt it. But sadly, we're still going to have to delay this Splatfest for three days so we can recover and repair," Marie tried to explain to the audience. The squids all seemed to understand. They had just witnessed the crazy random attack break out in the main plaza.
The Squid Sisters could hear the sound of ambulance sirens. They were already nearby due to someone calling paramedics about all sorts of injuries. Multiple ambulances came up, at least three beginning to get follow up. Tonight was crazy and had gotten blown way out of grandiose proportions. Maize was happy though that everything worked out. He had saved the Splatfest from being made a scary event. Hopefully, Cornell's attack would be seen just as some insane boredom from a group of squids. It didn't take long before the yellow inkling was being put onto a stretcher, the Squid Sisters watching him get carried off into the ambulance.
Hours passed, and the night continued normally from there. Maize had pocketed his octoling goggles to keep them from being suspiciously looked over. He was lying in his hospital bed, with a lot of bandages wrapped around a lot of his body. The room was quite colorful and relaxing. He was just playing his Gameboy Advance while he lay there. It was some personal entertainment each hospital room offered, which was nice.
"Uh, knock knock," he heard, looking up to his open door. Aero stood there, carrying a small wrapped box and a flower in her hand. Onyx was right behind her, looking like he had received some medical treatment himself. They entered inside the room, letting the door close behind them.
"Hey Aero. I'm glad you're safe," Maize greeted his wife warmly, seeing her hand over the wrapped box. He took it, confused. It was yellow with a red ribbon wrapped around it.
"I know I agreed to be with you through good times and bad. But I didn't know it meant this," Aero joked, referring to their wedding vows. He got a small laugh from that, but wound up coughing again. He untied the bow on the present before opening it, seeing a pair of glasses within.
"My spare glasses! You still had them all this time?" Maize asked while putting them on. That was a lot better for his two eyes. He had left the spare glasses at her home a long time ago before he cleared out. Onyx was glad that the two were happy, but he was here as a friend and a security guard.
"I have some of your stuff Maize. You were just gone one day. And I still want to know why," Aero requested her husband to tell her what had happened that fateful day a long time ago. It was only shortly after she became CEO. The yellow squid had changed so much since then, but he didn't look to happy with this topic.
"I'm sorry. Do you remember when we were both ten?" Maize questioned, while seeing his wife hold up the flower. It appeared to be a blue colored rose that brought back all too many memories.
"You'd always take a flower from your mom's garden, and whenever I was sad, you would make me overjoyed again," Aero had continued their reminiscing. Their childhood together was quite great.
"I remember that time I snuck into my older sister's room. We snuck out some of her weapons, and dad was not happy when he got home when he saw the mess we made," Maize laughed in retrospect. He had done quite a lot to his sibling growing up, but he could never recall her getting mad over it. His sister always had insisted he continue to have fun with ink, no matter what.
"Do you remember that promise you made?" Aero requested. He had made probably thousands of promises at this point, but he knew the one his wife wanted to hear.
"Yeah. That one night you were crying, because your bird died. I did everything, but it never cheered you up," he started.
"…then one day, you barge into my room and say…" she continued, the two going back and forth between themselves.
"…I promise to always make you happy!" Maize quoted the exact words of his younger self before he sighed, recalling those times. Somehow that promise had instantly cheered Aero up. She never understood why. He thought it was time to tell her what she really wanted to hear.
"I'm sorry I left. I wanted you to be happy. But I never really was happy in that marriage," Maize admitted, expecting to see her upset, but his wife seemed to already know that, having nodded.
"You married me… and then let me make it an open marriage, all because you wanted to keep me happy, right?" Aero requested the truth on the matter. If his promise really was that important that he had done all that for her. The childhood friend of hers took a moment to respond.
"A promise is a promise. It was all for you," Maize answered. She sighed, beginning to rub her own tentacle nervously. He never had told her that he never wanted part in the marriage, all so she could be happy. The blue inkling looked to Onyx. He knew what she was about to do, having discussed it with him before.
"I want a divorce," Aero forced the words out of her mouth.
"R-really? Bu-but Aero, I thought you always were happy with the marriage," Maize responded, stunned. He hated to admit that he was happy to be getting divorced. His wife practically was married to Onyx due to their open marriage. She shook her head.
"I was happy to be with you. But I'd be more happy if we cut out the romance binding us," Aero missed their old friendship. As a couple she never felt like they were on the same emotional status, she had been the one that primarily had made their friendship escalate, and it never felt right since then.
"Huh… I always was the one trying to make you happy. But this time, you've made me happy," Maize smiled, glad that everything was turning back to normal, but he was aware that he had to spend a year waiting for that divorce to be finalized, unless his former wife had some strong connections as a CEO.
"Hey, Onyx. You better take good care of her," Maize told Onyx. The black inkling nodded, aware that the two still were together at the moment.
"I'm a security guard! That's my job," Onyx joked, gaining some snickers. He rummaged around in his pockets before presenting a coin card to Maize. He looked it, seeing 20,000 coins on it, much to his surprise.
"Consider that a gift for the heroism," Aero said, having taken those coins out of her own savings. It was not like it was much. She had millions from being the Tentatek Corporations owner. Maize couldn't be any happier. The three of them continued to talk. He and Aero reminisced sharing their tales with Onyx after this long night. Everything seemed to be coming to a calm end, but for Maize, he still had a lot of work to do as a member of the Special Squid Services, but he was always going to help squids out, no matter how dangerous. But first, he needed to recover in the hospital, as much as he was irritated by it. He was glad that Cornell had been arrested, at least, and his entire crew were now scattered. There didn't seem to be a remote threat to any future Splatfests now.