Splatoon: The Bate Bros.
Marksman's Challenge
The brothers stood outside their home facing Inkopolis, the females staying indoors, seeing them off from behind the open doors. Splin turned around, peering cautiously at the older Inkling.
"Are you going to be fine here? Food, clothing, anything?" Splin asked.
Maria chuckled. "I'm fine, but could you try and grab a fresh set of clothes? These clothes may have been… 'Fresh', sometime ago… But now…" She gestured to the dirty set of "Hero" clothing she had on, the futuristic shoes normally brimming with light, fizzling out with loud cracks. "Heh, ironic that the younger Inkling would be asking me what I would want."
Splin looked to the side, rubbing the back of his neck, moving his headphones. "Sorry!"
"No need to apologize Splin." Maria smiled warmly.
"Yeah man." Tai agreed. "Just get the lady some clothes, can't expect her to romp around without some fresh clothes, am I right?" She coughed momentarily. "Cod those squids in the plaza are really getting to me. A-Anyway, you know what to do!"
"Got it, let's go bro!" Sharq exclaimed, dropping onto the grass as a squid.
Splin nodded, taking his headphones off his neck and placing them on his head, following Sharq's lead. The two blasted off into the stratosphere, straight through the clouds, becoming blue specks in the sky as they headed towards Inkopolis. Tai quickly waved, then immediately turned to Maria, who was staring away at the sky.
"...We can morph into squids?" She wondered aloud.
A large smack could be heard, Tai's hand planted on her face. "We have a lot of work to do. Come on, lemme show you the basics, you never know what might happen around here." She motioned for her to follow her outside, shutting the house doors as they left to reteach Maria the basics of the art of being a squid.
The brothers nailed the landing for once, landing perfectly in the center of the plaza. Perfectly, at least, for a squid that just splat straight onto the ground. Sharq rose shakily, shaking his head to relieve some of the dizziness, coughing up a bit of blue… Blood? Hold on.
A dab of the blue substance Sharq coughed up floated seemingly magically in midair, and was deposited in a floating test tube nearby. The test tube vanished, leaving Sharq mystified. Splin, not so much, considering he was sprawled out on the black asphalt, slightly beaten up from the landing.
"What are you doing with that voice?" Sharq asked, stretching his arms, which cracked suddenly. He gasped, inspecting the appendages, only to be reminded once again that squids have little to no bones.
Tests to determine if this is blood or ink, the very canonicity of this world depends on it!
"Really?!" Sharq's eyes lit up.
No, actually I have no clue if this is blood or ink.
Splin stretched all of his usable limbs, all easing with satisfying clicks. He put a hand to his mouth, wiping away another mystery fluid to human knowledge.
"Both. Definitely both." He sighed, cleaning himself as best as he could.
"What's the plan for today?" Sharq asked to his brother, who was currently shaking off excess blood/ink by repeatedly switching from squid to kid.
"Well, I thought of participating in a few Turf Wars, maybe some Ranked Battles, then buying new clothes for Maria like she asked. Possibly even purchase that new… Heavy Splatling Deco."
Sharq perked up immediately at the mention of a new ink gun. "New weapons? Sweet, I'm in!"
Splin smirked. "Don't you always… Well, we better get a move on if we're to get all of this work done today."
Both of the brothers dusted themselves off, and headed for the glorious Inkopolis Tower, the Great Zapfish watching over them. Until they were rudely interrupted.
"BEHOLD, IT IS I. THE GREAT ARI!" The infamous trickster shouted, his squad supporting him traditionally joining in with a chorus of, "Yeah!"s.
"Keep walking." Splin whispered to Sharq, failing once he realized Sharq was already greeting the egotistical Inkling. "Voice, give me strength."
Okay.
A sticker of a strength clothing buff, a muscular orange arm, drifted down by Splin's feet. Splin took a deep breath, two hands raised parallel in front of his face, his eyes closed in frustration. He breathed back out, picking up the sticker anyways and stuffing it into his pocket.
Heh, sorry. As you were.
Splin rolled his eyes, making his way over to Sharq and the notorious troublemaker, a crowd already gathering around them. The Booyah Base stores' shopkeepers even paused work, looking out the clean windows at the gathering. Splin snuck through the crowd as a squid, popping back up at the center where Sharq was standing with the others.
"Ari, what do you have in store this time?" Splin asked with an eyebrow raised.
"So glad you asked, rival of mine!" Ari grinned.
"Rival?" Splin questioned.
"Of course, you have bested me on numerous occasions before, but hey, you pretty okay, for a scrub of course!" Ari chuckled, the females of his squad joining in with their trademark use of giggling.
"...Thanks?" Splin looked to his brother, who was hopping excitedly. "Sharq really?"
"C'mon Splin, get into the spirit! He might have something cool for us to do!" Sharq said excitedly, still hopping up and down.
"Last time you told me to 'get in the spirit' of things, I almost got splatted by a man on fire and burned a skeleton's house down." Splin reminded him.
"Anyways," Ari shouted, getting the crowd's attention. "These two gentlemen have offered to take place in a new challenge I have devised!" The crowd oohed at this declaration. "These two will be in charge of a challenge of endurance and precision!"
Splin put a hand to his chin in thought. "Endurance and precision…"
"Correct, Splin, it shall be a test of snipers!" Ari declared, throwing his hand up into the air, prompting the crowd to cheer wildly.
Sharq sighed. "Aw. Wished it was rollers."
"Now, you two will be in charge of entering a standard map rotation for an hour, using only Splattershot weapons! Subs and Specials are okay too, use them all you like. Unless of course…" Ari walked closer to the brothers, a cheeky grin present on his face. "You're too scared to try."
The crowd nearly burst into hysterics at the slightly overused bait insult. Splin and Sharq simply stood there, Splin with an indifferent look, whereas Sharq was riled up and ready to go.
Sharq scoffed, in an playful, amused way. "Yeah?! Well-"
"H-Hey! S-Stop picking on them, Ari!" A nervous voice rang out, then faded.
"Oh yeah? Who's gonna make me, this two sure as shell ain't!" Ari snickered, the crowd gasping in surprise.
"E-Excuse me." The voice whispered throughout the crowd, Inklings being lightly pushed to the side.
A female Inkling passed through the crowd, arriving at the center behind Sharq. She was a pink tentacled Inkling, with blue eyes that shyly darted around, with very light skin. She wore a full Squid Girl outfit on; a white cap resembling a squid head, a white tunic with pink accents, and a simple white pair of shoes with pink bands covering her legs just above the shoes, the same bands connected to her arms. She seemed uneasy, cowering slightly behind Sharq, who gave her a reassuring smile. Murmurs among the crowd began, most of them saying, "Cute.", or "Aww…" in response.
Ari's eyes expanded, kinda like a certain member of the DK Crew's. "Holy. Squit." He whispered. Coughing, he adopted a snarky grin, and slowly advanced on the girl. "Hey baby, you wanna join our squadron later, we have room for one more." He told the girl, winking. His squadron did fabulous poses besides him to try and amplify his flirting method.
"A-Actually, my name's Aqua… A-And no thank you." She squeaked, moving further behind Sharq in an attempt to shield her from the awkwardness of the situation.
"Oh, I know you're just being modest." Ari chuckled, believing that he was getting somewhere with her. "Well then. Before you accept the greatest offer of your life, I want to know…" Ari grinned. "Were you the one who tried to call me out?"
Aqua walked out from behind Sharq, and nervously stood up straight. "Y-Yes, you shouldn't t-treat people like that, unless you were a complete bully! And n-no, I wouldn't accept an offer like that from someone like you!" She closed her mouth using her hands, blushing intensely.
A camera crew broadcasted her sick burn across Inkopolis, Marie of the Squid Sisters watching with a huge open smile and bright eyes, Callie stifling laughter. The entire crowd had their mouths agape in shock, turning to Ari for a comment. Camera flashes broke out, capturing the "moment of impact", as it were. Ari stood with eyes wide, then growled.
"Oh is that SOOOOO?!" Ari yelled. "Well, I think we can make room for a third contestant to this event, isn't that right?!" The crowd oohed at Ari's challenge to her, only frightening her more. She panicked, shifting to squid form and latching onto Splin's back, shivering.
"Uh… Actually, I think we need to go… Anywhere besides here today. Thanks for the offer, though." Splin coughed, attempting to rid the awkward tension in the air, Aqua thanking him profusely, hopping off his back.
Splin grabbed Sharq's shirt collar, pulling a reluctant brother away from the crowd with Aqua trailing closely behind, avoiding eye contact with anyone.
Ari chuckled. "You're not getting away that easily, rivals of mine! For you see… You have already entered!"
"No, I'm pretty sure I haven't." Splin answered with his eyes closed, walking away.
"Aren't you forgetting something…?" Ari said, waving Splin's pair of headphones.
"Wha- HEY!" Splin shouted, running back for the headphones.
Ari laughed, stepping aside, letting his female friends to provide as a barrier. "Ah ah ah, you'll get them back after you win the challenge!"
"Hmph!" Splin growled, stepping back with eyes burning bright. Looking over at Sharq and Aqua, Sharq nodded with a competitive smile, Aqua shaking her head pleadingly. Splin silently apologized to the girl, who sat on the ground in morbid fear. "Alright, fine, we'll do it. What're you planning this time?"
Ari looked away, eyebrow raised. "How about…"
Splin, Sharq, and Aqua rose from a spawn point, the enclosed perimeter of Blackbelly Skatepark directly in front of them. Ramps of all sorts were dug into the area, with a large tower at the center of the map, the spawn point placed on top of a gentle incline. Similar to the Bluefin Depot challenge, the entire map was covered in ink, orange ink to be precise. Splin, Sharq, and Aqua donned a blue, nearly identical to the color conditions of the previous Ari challenge, and all had ink sniper rifles of the sort equipped, though Aqua held her Splat Charger behind her back, looking down at the floor. Splin was dusting off his Splatterscope's lens, Sharq spinning around a Kelp Splat Charger. Just outside of the map, Ari stood watching over the three, a megaphone clenched in his hands, and a crowd watching and waiting. News teams and such arrived per the norm, writing down literally everything that was happening.
Ari tapped the megaphone and raised it to his face, shouting, "Alright! The rules are simple as always, simply advance to the enemy's spawn point, and you will win. But you'll find that this might be a little more… Challenging. Like before, there will be a hidden time limit and a large group of Inklings standing in your path, like SO!"
Ari snapped his fingers, but to no avail. He snapped them again, and nothing happened. Frustrated, he began snapping his fingers wildly, until one of his female companions took the megaphone from him and raised it to her mouth.
"Uh, he means you can go now!" Rit said, giving the megaphone back to Ari, who had his arms crossed angrily.
"Uh, oh okay."
"Sorry, didn't hear him."
Battalions of squid kids revealed themselves, popping out of every nook and cranny that happened to be orange. At least half already had special weapons ready and aimed at the spawn point our heroes were standing on. A pair of orange Inklings popped out of the ink by the spawn, immediately recognized as Willie and Zip.
"You guys are playing?" Sharq asked.
Willie nodded energetically. "You bet Shady, during our lunch break, Ari asked us-"
"Pleaded, specifically." Zip added.
"To participate in another challenge! Although, I'm not really sure why you guys decided to try again after last time."
Splin sighed, feeling around his neck and head. "He didn't really give us much choice, he swiped my headphones and told us we had to beat his challenge to get them back."
Zip blinked. "Why didn't you notify the police then? He did steal your stuff, right?"
Splin facepalmed. "The better question would be, why didn't I think of that?"
Everyone chuckled, except for a certain female.
"Hmm? Hey Splin, who's the cutie behind you, your girlfriend or something?" Willie asked.
Aqua flinched. Gulping, she timidly stepped out from behind Splin. "H-Hi, my name's Aqua."
"And she isn't my girlfriend." Splin said, slightly embarrassed. "She accidentally got caught up in this challenge, and now she has to participate with us."
"Enough chit chat! Now's time for action, the crowd awaits!" Ari declared dramatically, the crowd cheering in response. Ari paused for a moment. "However, considering that there is only three Inklings on their team, I'd say that a fourth contestant could be added, what do you say?" The crowd cheered harder. "Well then, any brave souls willing to participate, the entire team who wins will now get DOUBLE the prizes!"
"I'd like to participate." A voice called out.
Everyone present looked to the voice. Surprisingly, Maria stood behind the blue spawn, her agent clothing switched out with a Squash Headband, a Sailor Stripe Tee, and Blue Slip-Ons, a Splat Charger dominantly held in her hands, with a small box at the side, an octopus sticker stamped on the front with a small hole in it. She tossed the box into the spawn rather nonchalantly, and climbed over to the spawn point. Splin's eyes went wide, while Sharq was beaming. The crowd warmly greeted her, Maria walking towards the spawn point with one arm waving and the other holding onto the sniper rifle, her tentacles automatically turning blue as she went.
Ari was caught staring at the surprise entrance, but continued anyways. "There you have it folks, the final contestant! We will begin momentarily, but feel free to snap pictures or such of our brave participants!" Ari shouted.
Splin greeted Maria nervously, then stooped down to the box. "Tai, what made you think this was a good idea?!"
Tai's voice scoffed, a pair of eyes rolling in the shade of the box. "I figured this would be a good way to get back some memories, reliving Turf Wars and junk. Besides, it's good exercise if anything! Give her a chance man. Also I wanted to watch some people get splatted." Tai giggled evilly.
Splin looked over at Maria, she was smiling down at Splin. "Trust her Splin, it's going to be alright."
"She completely just 'evil laughed' us like a super villain would, and you would trust this decision?" Splin deadpanned.
"...Well, didn't you trust her despite…" Maria gestured to the box.
Splin sighed in defeat, nodding his head. "Could you at least explain where you received the new clothing from?"
"Ask Tai, she knows." Maria said, preparing to fight.
Splin looked at the box. The small yellow Octopus eyes looked up at an invisible flashback cloud.
A male Inkling wearing a white and purple baseball cap with other unimportant fashionable clothing, similar to the one worn by Jelonzo, the shopkeeper of Jelly Fresh at Booyah Base, was hauling a large box overflowing with clothing to said Jelly Fresh store. An octopus slid up from behind him, and choked him out silently, knocking him out. Tai switched to humanoid form, tossing the unconscious Inkling out of sight, and stole the entire shipping.
"...I bought it." Tai stated.
Splin decided not to press her for questions.
An anxious squeak could be heard, both Maria and Splin turning to Aqua, who was looking at Maria, and down at herself, crossing her legs shyly. Maria sighed, patting Splin on the head, much to his embarrassment and her hidden joy, and walked over to Aqua. She was crouching to Aqua's level, speaking softly to Aqua, who was visibly calming down.
Suddenly, Aqua shouted, "O-Okay." Aqua gripped her Splat Charger, raising it above her head with a flick of her tentacles. "I'll try not to l-let you down... A-At least, I hope so…"
Splin smiled. "This… Could actually work."
"Are you four ready?!" Ari asked through the megaphone, unfortunate bystanders literally bursting from the impact of the megaphone, sending others away in fright. People set up warning tape around the prideful Inkling, backing away from him.
Splin looked over to Sharq, Willie and Zip. Willie and Zip waved their goodbyes, switching to squid form, and swam away towards the enemy base, orange ripples barely visible as they went. Maria stood back up, picked up the cardboard container and laid the box down by the spawn point, the barrier reacting slightly to the Octoling's presence, but with no onlookers noticing whatsoever.
"Three!" Ari began. "Two, one…"
The entire crowd went silent for a moment.
"GO!" Ari shouted, the crowd bursting, not literally, with excitement.
Two Killer Wail specials were prepared by the enemy team immediately, both setting the large speakers on the ground and firing weirdly visible orange sound waves simultaneously at the blue spawn point, deflecting harmlessly off the barrier, although making the three young Inklings back up, the cardboard box sneakily hopping away, throwing some insults to the, "Squid-Jerks" as it will. Maria, however, narrowed her eyes, a memory of a certain DJ octopus coming to her mind. The racket of the Killer Wails faded out, and the orange Inklings were prepared to fight, but were completely caught off guard when Maria splatted two with a quickly executed Splat Bomb, precisely sniping down others advancing. Splin, Sharq, and Aqua all stood shocked, mouths wide open. Maria noticed this, and blushed in spite of herself.
An enemy E-Liter shot from the tower fired close to her, Maria gasping in shock, ducking for cover in the ink as a squid. "Little help here?" She asked from the blue dyed portion of the floor.
They all shook their surprise off and nodded, the three charging into the field of battle, leaping off the ramp. Heh, "charging".
"Good one voice!" Sharq chuckled, slamming a Sprinkler into some poor Inkling's hiding spot, then poking her with his gun's nozzle, firing.
"...Always with the puns." Splin sighed, obviously not a patron of the fine art of honestly bad puns. He fired rapidly at a Krak-On Roller player who tried to sneak up on him, splatting him after three shots. He moved to the right through a wooden half pipe, advancing on the middle with Aqua following behind, supporting him steadily with a careful watch.
Maria trekked alone through the middle, firing a straight line of blue at the tower, staining the tower wall. She turned to her left and right like a sprinkler, blasting down enemies with ease, splotches of blue breaking the perfection of the field of orange. Climbing up the side of the tower she inked, she hopped out of the ink onto the top of the tower, securing an almost invincible vantage point, taking out enemies with ease.
Sharq squealed in amazement, with somewhat of a fanboy-ish charm to it. "That's so cool! How do you that that so easily?"
Maria shrugged happily. Spying a Splat Bomb tossed at the tower from the corner of her eyes, she leaped off, and kickflipped the bomb back towards the enemy base, nailing the sender in the face. "...Practice, I suppose."
Her splatting spree didn't last long, as a group of rollers practically dogpiled onto her, rolling over and over where she once stood in fear that she might somehow reanimate in seconds. Finding that she wasn't some supreme force of nature, they immediately moved onto Sharq, who frantically squirted feeble blasts to the left in an attempt to escape. It didn't work to say the least, a Splattershot user gunning him down in seconds.
While the other two began to respawn, Splin and Aqua were currently trudging into enemy territory, moving up a ramp close to the right side of the wall, left from the enemy spawn's point of view. Splin led the way, Aqua hugging her gun as she followed closely behind.
"...You seem tense." As Splin said that, Aqua had shuffled behind a large cube planter, shivering. "Aqua, I know it's probably not my place to ask this, but why exactly did you stand up for us if you're… Not exactly… A people's person…?"
Aqua peeked her head out, looking around. "N-No reason, I just… Erm… F-Felt like doing it, hehe!"
Splin turned his head around, a disbelieving frown on his face.
Aqua cringed, her eyes darting in every direction Inkling-ly possible. After what felt like a century to her, mere minutes to Splin, she sighed deeply, sitting on the ground.
"...n't wan…" She murmured.
Splin sighed, shaking his head. "No, it's fine, sorry I asked."
"I didn't want to get involved!" She shouted.
Splin turned around, surprised. Aqua clamped her hands tightly over her mouth, but Splin, who quite frankly was fed up with this, pulled her hands down and stared directly into her eyes.
"What were you going to say?" He asked, Aqua's face slowly turning crimson. She scooted backwards, eventually getting stuck against a wall.
Aqua looked down at the ground, face still red, and spoke, "...I didn't want to get involved. I've never been one to get into Turf Wars… All the boys just try to f-flirt with me, and the girls make fun of me for being… Shy." She confessed, her eyes drooping. "...But I was never one to take a bully sitting down. When Ari challenged you, I wanted to help you out somehow, try to get him to stop. But… Oh, look at me now. U-Useless, just f-following you around while you d-do all the work…" Her voice cracked, and she depressingly stuffed her face into her tunic.
Splin's face was that of sympathy and concern. Putting a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder, he mentally groaned at what he was about to do. He pulled her into him, and embraced her, a surprised yelp from her coming out. Expecting a slap, a knee to the 11th tentacle as they call it, or anything else painful, he shut his eyes. It never came, instead quiet weeping from the girl could be barely heard, Aqua hugging Splin tighter. They stayed like that for a few moments, when Splin broke the hug, taking his hands away and putting them on his lap.
"Listen… I'm no good with cheering people up, certain that's Sharq's job. I'm not amazing at Turf Wars either, and I'm especially terrible at trying to console people I just met." Splin began, a teary-eyed Aqua listening intently. "...But what the heck. You helped us out, you laid a burn on Ari, you're still helping us now. You don't have to do anymore, you've done plenty for us already, but we really appreciate it. Now, if you wish, hurry back to spawn and rest. We'll take care of this. If you can, though, I'd really appreciate it if you could battle alongside us, one last favor?" Splin smiled, although in his mind he was not at all convinced he had said the right things.
Despite this, Aqua hugged him, and stood up straight, confidence oozing out of her, tentacles flapping excitedly. "...N-No, thank you Splin, I definitely feel better now." She took up her Splat Charger, aiming at the sky. "I'll do my best, don't worry!"
*Splin's decent, makeshift speech fills Aqua with determination.
Splin stood up as well, pointing his gun in the air as well. "Then it's settled, let's go!"
Unfortunately, the moment was immediately spoiled by a well timed Splat Bomb detonating in their faces, sending the two back to the spawn point.
All four of the blue team members reappeared at the spawn point. Maria stretched her fingers, Sharq rolled his head, Splin took a deep breath, and Aqua was smiling courageously.
"You all have thirty seconds left! Do your best! (But I hope you fail anyways.)" Ari shouted, and whispered the last part to himself. The audience gathered around the skatepark looked on patiently.
Splin motioned to his teammates to huddle closer. "Alright, I have a plan. When I fire one shot, everyone will swim in a straight line through the new ink, and will pop out and blast anyone who is in range. After we're sure that there are no more threats present, we'll shoot forward again, repeating the process until we finally reach the enemy spawn. Understand?" The other three nodded. "On the count of three. One, two…" Splin raised the Splatterscope to his left eye. "Three."
He fired, and the others jumped off, changing to squids in midair, landing safely into the blue ink. Splin aimed and shot at a Roller advancing on the line, taking him out. The other three swam ahead, reaching the end of the line, where Sharq elongated the line with another Splat Charger blast, launching a Sprinkler sub weapon onto the tower, pushing off enemy snipers. The retreating snipers were dispatched by Maria and Aqua, shooting in tandem as enemies moved closer, splatting three. Splin attempted to rejoin his teammates, but was splatted by a .52 Gal user. Sharq flinched, firing backwards at the enemy, however, was quickly overpowered by a group of Splattershots.
"Ten seconds!" Ari chimed in.
Maria shot forward, Aqua running with all her might. Maria ducked as a squid, barely avoiding orange attacks as she Super Jumped back to spawn. Aqua was just about to reach the spawn point, climbing the ramp leading up to it. Willie and Zip blocked the way, close to splatting her, when a timer sounded.
"Time's up!" Ari shouted.
Judd, present as usual, tossed a can of sardines into the trash can. ...Let's say evil sardines so that no fish get offended. Somehow appearing at the center of the stage on top of the tower, he waved up an orange flag, signifying orange's close victory. "Meow. (Orange team purrvides a solid defense!)" Upon declaring that, he scampered off to the Inkopolis Plaza.
The orange team cheered, as well as the crowd, though some were disappointed the blue team had come so close to achieving the goal. At the blue spawn, all of the blue team were neutral about the loss. Maria was glad she had participated, though Splin sat with a slightly disappointed scowl. Sharq had his hand on his back, Aqua standing in front of them, apologizing profusely.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She repeated, freaking out.
Sharq waved calmly. "It's okay Aqua, you did all you could. Splin, you gonna be alright?"
Splin sighed. "...Hopefully. I just wished he hadn't have taken the headphones. Money, sure. But the headphones?"
Across the map, Ari raised the megaphone back up to his face. "Nice try, rivals! Maybe next tiiiime!" Ari laughed, Sari, Rit, and Bas echoing, "Nice try!".
Aqua pouted, staring angrily at Ari, but was stopped by Splin. She whimpered, sitting in between the brothers, her palms on her cheeks as she pouted, both brothers and amnesiac mother comforting her.
"Yo, Loudmouth! Aren't you forgetting something?" Willie shouted from the orange spawn.
Ari stopped laughing. "Eh? Uh, yeah yeah, good work. You can go home now."
"You promised, 'double the reward', remember?" Zip reminded him, arms crossed.
Ari gulped, and his squad looked absentmindedly in different directions.
The entire orange team began nodding in agreement. The crowd began to murmur among themselves.
"...Ah, y-yes. I have the reward, right here in fact…" Ari chuckled nervously, and pulled out Splin's Designer Headphones. "You see? Double the headphones… Heh heh?"
"...Are you kidding me?" An orange team member questioned.
"more like, 'are you squidding me'." A voice called out in a goofy font, a trombone going off in the distance.
"OH MY GOD, SANS." Another voice groaned in a textured font.
"...That's the reward?"
"What the heck, are you serious?!"
"I could just buy headphones for cheap!"
"I paid a hundred coins for this?!
"Uh… You were lucky, we'll meet again!" Ari cried out, pointing at Splin, tossing the headphones towards him, only for them to land in Zip's hands.
Ari dashed away, his squad members running after him, parts of the crowd chasing after him with everyone else going home rather unsatisfied. Zip shook her head, and waved to her teammates, dismissing them. She and Willie swam through the ink, which was slowly evaporating with the match's ending. Popping out by the blue spawn, all ink now completely erased, she handed the headphones over to Splin, who gladly accepted, wrapping them around his neck.
Splin raised his hand out. "Thanks Zip!"
Zip took his hand and shook it, nodding. "No problem, dude."
"After all, what's a Music Man without his headphones?" Willie said. "Good game!"
"I don't believe you've introduced me." Maria said.
Sharq smiled. "I'll fill you in!" He began walking with the others around, telling Maria of how Splin and he had met the two, Maria nodding with each detail.
Aqua turned to Splin after the others had left, twiddling her fingers.
Splin reached his hand out for another handshake. "Thanks again for helping us Aqua."
Aqua grasped his hand, and shook it once. "Aquatica."
"Hmm?" Splin hummed curiously.
"M-My full name's Aquatica Reef, in case you were wondering…" Aqua said.
"I think it's a great name." Splin smiled, Aqua doing the same.
Aqua and Splin smiled in silence, watching Sharq emphasize an Inkstrike sailing through the air with his hands, when she all of a sudden, she gasped in realization.
"W-What time is it?" She asked.
Splin reached into his pockets, pulling out his still hardly used phone. "...5:58." Splin read aloud.
"Oh no! I have to get home soon for dinner!" Aqua took off quickly, running outside the stage, but not before waving goodbye. "Bye Splin, it was nice battling with you! A-As a teammate, I mean!"
Splin waved back, as Aqua ran towards the city underneath the evening sky. Looking over at Sharq and Maria, he noticed that Zip and Willie were also waving, the two lovebirds holding each other's hands as they playfully raced away. Sharq and Maria walked up to Splin, who was walking away as well, towards the exit.
"Hmm. What'd you think, Sharq? Good day?" Splin asked.
Sharq grinned, a gleam from his teeth flashing. "Sure did! Pretty weird, but hey, we've seen worse!"
Splin smiled. "Maria?"
"Wonderful! I mean, we were very close to victory, shame we didn't win, but I feel… Great!" Maria smiled.
A box, covered in orange, hopped over to the three. The eyes inside surveyed the area carefully, then Tai popped out of the box, dusting herself off. "Told you." She said, looking at Splin. "So Maria, any memories?"
Maria paused, a puzzled look on her face. "...Not many. I DO remember how to Super Jump and fight. But other than that… Hmm. I did remember something… C'mon, what was it…?!" She strained her brain, searching for the fleeting memory.
"Whoa, no need to go nuts over it." Tai calmed her down. "It'll come back to you eventually, don't worry."
Maria sighed, looking to the stars that were popping out of the cover of night. "...I suppose."
"Alright guys, I think it's time to head home, we deserve a break~" Sharq yawned, eyes closing.
Splin nodded, slinging a shoulder around his brother. "You don't look too hot right now, just making sure. Shall we?" Sharq nodded, and the four walked off, switching to aquatic lifeforms as they exited the skatepark, Super Jumping back to the house.
"Rem, what are you doing?" Maria asked to a young Inkling squid, not yet developed into a full humanoid shape yet.
"Callie and Marie!" She managed to say with excitement, though the words were somewhat gurgled.
Maria rubbed her squishy little head, a happy squeal coming from the squid. "Hee hee, enamored with them as always I see. What about you, Ix?"
Another young Inkling squid sitting by pointed with a tiny tentacle to a television screen, where the young and upcoming pop stars, The Squid Sisters, were shown onscreen. The squid was specifically pointing to Marie for some reason, emphasizing her with each point. Maria giggled, rubbing Ix's head as well.
"Heh, they still watching them?" A slightly raspy yet fatherly voice called.
"Yep." Maria stated. "...They're fanatic about them, wonder if they'd be great friends someday?"
"I'm sure they would." The raspy voice said. The owner of the voice stepped out, his face blurred, about to hug Maria, when the memory faded out.
"Maria, are you okay?"
Maria shook her squid head as best as she could while in the air, Splin and Sharq looking at her with tilted heads. Tilted relative to the ground at least. Maria nodded.
"She was probably just thinking, guys." Tai suggested.
The four were close to landing to the house on the hills the brothers called home. As soon as it seemed they were actually going to land perfectly for once…
"Aaagh!"
They didn't. Maria, being the complete amnesiac boss at life as she was, landed mostly unharmed, landing through a hole and onto her cot luckily, but everyone else completely missed the house, rolling down the hills.
"...We forgot to earn money for the beacon." Splin sighed, picking himself and his friends up, the three walking back up to the house, resting after that travesty of an event.
AN: Awkwardness in Reviews: This is a bit of an open note to Ultrapyre. First things first, thank you for reviewing, as well as Dread Angel, Darkstar248, and Mr. Loner, but this is a note to Ultrapyre. While I thank you for reviewing, and while you probably didn't mean it, please try to respect other writers when reviewing. Dread Angel seems to have taken the matter personally, even if you may have just been stating your opinion, I'd like to ask that you try not to bring down other stories on my review page, (unless it's this story) thank you. But hey, I'm not your parents, so I can't really do much. Anyways, for the other reviewers, thanks again. Dread, I'm glad I could get Maria's personality down, really helps that you'd think so. Darkstar248, this story's writing process is pretty random, so don't be too surprised to find more of that! And Mr. Loner, I kinda agree, the Merasmissions are a little annoying. Especially when you try to write a story and you get a NEW ONE. Ahem, sorry. Anyways, thanks for the third time, this is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, hopefully I can finally finish up my fourth TF2 story chapter. Adieu!