Splat X: The Bate Bros.

Reunited, Even For Just A Moment

"Tai! Maria!" Sharq shouted, stooping low enough to dodge a dislodged brick flying from a nearby building, still running throughout the evasion of hurdling debris.

"Yeah? Uh, just a second!" Tai shouted back, patting Maria on the back quickly, who at this point had gone completely silent, staring out at the sea and the black hole above. Tai dashed over to the two, skidding to a stop on the sand, kicking sand up as she went.

"You've obviously seen the sky already, so I think I speak for all of us when I say we need to get the shell out of here!" Splin told her, pointing at the city of Inkopolis, the buildings bordering the beach getting sucked into the rift ripped in the sky.

"Yeah, about that…" Tai inhaled sharply through her teeth, turning around to Maria, still gazing out sadly to sea. "I doubt she's ready to move just yet."

"Agh…" Splin sprinted over to Maria, nearly tripping again once he halted by her side, pulling on her arm desperately. "Maria, I'm sorry, but we need to leave! Maria!"

She didn't respond, only lowering her head at the sound of his voice.

"I know you must be feeling terrible right now, but if we don't evacuate the beach, we're going to… E-End up like them." Splin gulped after those last words, closing one eye and stepping back in anticipation of a fist to his face or something.

"They're not dead." Maria murmured.

"Huh?" Splin asked, breaking out of his defensive stance, stepping forward, but stepped to the side instead to avoid a collision with a shattered glass pane dragged from a store nearby.

"They're not dead." Maria repeated, droplets of tears still dripping down their face.

"...Okay." Splin said, looking at the black hole. "We still need to retreat, so I think we should-"

"I'm staying." Maria said pushing herself off the ground, standing up at the beach shore.

"...What?!" Splin asked, open mouthed.

Maria glared heroically towards the black hole, a humongous mechanical limb being tossed out of the hole itself, falling towards the beach. Maria reached at her side and unholstered her Hero Shot ink gun, tilting the gun sideways like all the action movies you ever saw, and shooting at it like the cool woman she is, blasting the limb, though only slowing it down somewhat. A swift flash appeared, cutting the limb in half, the two halves dropping into the water, only to be pulled back by the force of the vortex. The four of our heroes snapped to the right, Leonidas sheathing his sword with a grin.

"You're welcome." Leonidas replied, covering his sword completely in the sheath.

The Octoling among them grinned evilly. "I like this guy already."

Leonidas scoffed, and proceeded to continue slashing at objects flying by, while not wholly necessary, still looked cool, and that's what matters. Maria blew air out of her mouth, slightly irritably, though a hint of a smile was present on her lips.

"They're not giving up their fight, so why should we give up ours?" Maria told him cryptically, expertly shooting back pieces of shrapnel being hurled out of the vortex.

"What fight, you mean the objects that happen to be shot out towards our general location?!" Splin asked, gesturing to another large shard of metal landing on the sandy shores.

"Yes, that's right." Maria smiled at Splin, who stared wide eyed and mouth agape, obviously not convinced.

"Maria, I think you're amazing, cool, and extremely kind to us, but I really think that we should leave, like RIGHT NOW." Splin shouted at Maria, not attempting to care if he were to get beaten up for shouting.

Maria on the other hand, continued smiling, her face still slightly stained with tears, patiently inspecting Splin's, who at this point did what any logically sane person would do, and backed away, constantly keeping his eyes on the black hole to keep himself from getting skewered or sucked in.

"Sharq, help me out here!" Splin shouted desperately, only to see his brother was taking shelter behind a trash can, which was inevitably dragged off the ground towards the black hole.

Sharq shrugged, grinning sheepishly. "Sorry dude! I think her mind's set! Besides, I think she and Leo over here-"

"Leonidas, I don't know you!" Leonidas yelled, slicing through an opposing chunk of cement using his sword.

"Have got it covered!" Sharq finished with a yelp, sliding to the side as a squid to avoid another object.

Splin turned over to the Octoling, "Tai…?"

Splin noticed Tai unholstering her Octoshot, joining the two in destroying any debris that came their way.

"I dunno, this is pretty fun." Tai smirked, turning to Splin. Another mechanical limb flew out of the vortex, which Tai deflected with a blind shot, shooting behind her. "You two go find cover, we'll handle this."

"Are you serious?!" Splin nearly screamed at her, Tai chuckling at the Inkling's annoyance.

"Relax, we'll catch up with you as soon as this-" The Octoling shot at the portal in the sky to point. "Is over. It's for the best anyways, I doubt you could punch one of those back with your own hands."

Shaking his head, Splin reached for an ink weapon, only to realize that he hadn't brought an ink weapon or attachable ink tank at all. Taking a quick glance at Sharq, he realized that none of the two brothers had any ways to defend themselves from the constant barrage of flying, deadly objects. Weighing his options, Splin gritted his teeth, lowering his head and shaking it.

"...You've got a point. We'll retreat to the city, but please be careful, don't want you or Maria to get smashed in by an inanimate object." Splin told her, Tai grinning cheekily as she listened.

"Aw, you really care about us." Tai gushed jokingly, flittering her eyelids as if to bat her nonexistent eyelashes.

"Of course I do." Splin told her, rubbing the back of his neck.

Tai grinned, exposing her octopi teeth, repeatedly raising and lowering her eyebrow.

"You know what I mean!" Splin said in exasperation.

Tai giggled. "Just messing with you bro. Later Splin!" Tai shouted, turning back to the water, now raging with waves from the collisions of falling sky metal, spraying violet ink out of the Octoshots.

Splin rolled his eyes. "See ya. Sharq, let's go." Sharq nodded, hopping towards him, running with him towards Inkopolis.

"Hold on!" Leonidas shouted to the two, causing the two to jump slightly. "I need you to escort them out," He gestured to the three other Inklings on the beach, much more visibly calmed, though a tension remained prevalent throughout the air. "Take them to safety."

Splin and Sharq looked over to the three, Sharq waving in a friendly manner. The Marie of this universe wore her Hero Suit as always, the sea reflecting over the jacket. She sat nearby the two Inklings from early, an Inkling girl with a red bow worn behind her light pink tentacles, smiling slightly despite the situation, carefully watching over an older Inkling with yellow tentacles, knocked out on the sand, breathing quietly. Splin looked at the three, quickly noting their appearances.

"Hiya!" Sharq greeted them, the two conscious females waving back in acknowledgement.

"Oh, one more thing." Leonidas grunted, somehow setting a slashed piece of metal on fire, which just confused Splin more. "If Hanako gets hurt at all…" The metal shard inexplicably exploded to emphasize his point. "I make your life a living hell."

Language, there are children present.

Leonidas didn't hear that, practically glaring holes into the two Inkling boys. Sharq nodded, helping the two females up. The other brother looked over at the three others currently shooting and slicing back at the black hole, preventing a single piece of dangerously fast projectiles from bashing into them.

"Alright. You can count on us… Even if I don't entirely understand what's going on." Splin said, looking over to Hanako. "Uh… Hope you don't mind me asking, but come with us. Please."

Marie sniffled, rubbing her eyes, wiping away white tears from her eyes, glancing over at a puddle. She nodded, sniffling, and began walking, gesturing for Hanako to follow. She nodded, attempting to pick up and carry the older Inkling best as she could, only managing in holding him up a little. However, she stopped in the middle of carrying him, staring dumbfounded at the beach shores, everyone else following her lead. A new portal began materializing, though this one seemed harmless compared to the spinning vortex of terror just above them.

"...Sorry, not taking any chances with this one." Tai grunted, holstering her Octoshot and switching to octopus form, sliding away stealthily towards the Inkling brothers.

The Inkling brothers, being the cowards they are-

"Hey!" They shouted simultaneously.

Ran off into the shelter of a large store nearby. Tai followed, equipping her Octoshot once again in the event of a brick flying through the window. The three watched from a safe distance, taking care to stay behind counters in the store.

"Wait, Tai I don't understand, you have a gun, why couldn't you have remained out there?" Splin asked.

Tai scoffed. "Hey, someone's gotta keep you two from getting splatted."

"I can protect Splin!" Sharq complained, wrapping an arm around Splin's shoulder.

"I'm not that weak…" Splin pouted, his eyes widening in realization. "Crab, we forgot to escort the others!"

The younger brother dashed for the door, his efforts ultimately snuffed by a brotherly tackle.

"Dude, you're staying in here." Sharq told him firmly, causing Splin's struggling to cease immediately.

"Yes, because we'd rather stay in here, watch her get injured, then arrive the receiving end of HIS sword." Splin pointed out, helplessly letting his arm go slack.

Sharq let Splin up, the three now sitting in silence, all three watching out the glass pane windows of the store carefully. Watching the portal specifically, they watched a tall, slightly muscular male Inkling walk out of the portal. This particular Inkling had blue tentacles with orange stripes standing up like spikes and eyes with jade irises, giving the figure a dynamic and heroic look. He had on a black vest with golden shoulder pads, the vest open showing off its upper torso. White, baggy trousers covered his legs, a belt hanging just above it, tall black boots with red trails emanating from it.

Someone from the group on the beach gasped. "Rem?! Ix?! Is that you?!"

The figure smirked and crossed his arms, looking straight at the group of Inklings. "Yes and no."

Splin's suspended disbelief was cut, Splin standing up and walking outside completely unnoticed, Sharq and Tai following suit, though they tried to be sneakier.

"Splin! What are you doing?!" Tai hissed, Splin sighing.

"I don't even know anymore." Splin admitted, letting himself fall onto the sidewalk overlooking the beach.

As he said that, a tremor shook throughout the city. The swirling void above everyone stopped all of a sudden, other objects in the sky frozen with it, bursting soon afterwards. One of the sea lion squid person hybrids from earlier burst out of the portal, sending more debris around, causing Splin and Sharq to scatter, everyone else who relatively had any strength to shoot back a shard of metal standing still, facing the vortex. Somewhat smartly, the two ducked behind a bench, though considering their first encounter with one of those in this particular dimension, they weren't too fond of that.

"I will… Kill… All of you!" He screamed from the sky, a light flashing in his palms. Laughing maniacally, the light in his hands formed into a large ball that continually grew, until it was a large as the vortex itself, which he then unleashed as a beam of energy, firing it towards the shore.

Splin closed his eyes, and breathed out slowly, landing backwards on his back slowly. Sharq joined him, looking at the sky. Tai shrugged by the side of the sidewalk facing the beach, walking across the street, and joined them, taking her goggles and laying them by her side.

"If I knew this break would be our last, I would've brought popcorn to at least celebrate or something." Sharq said, staring up at the beam, letting his hat fall down, playing with his untied tentacles on his head.

"You and me both." Tai said, stretching her arms and yawning.

"I wouldn't count our eggs before they hatched, both of you." Splin opened one eye, and pointed at the beach. "Seems like Maria still isn't letting anything happen to us."

On the beach, the tall Inkling wearing the purposely heavy armor on his shoulders, the cyborg Inkling with one arm from the news known as Jack, and Maria, stood side by side, launching a combined beam of light towards him, the combined energy beam from the three piercing through his, hitting the "Sealing" and launching him away towards the sun. The three of them breathed sighs of relief, their postures easing up as the evildoer was blasted off into space.

Meanwhile, in space, only a few seconds before the evil Sealing was launched away.

"I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS! REMIIIIIIIIIIX!" He yelled, closing in mere feet (a little more than mere meters) away from hitting the surface of the sun.

Ugh, stop whining.

Completely out of nowhere, a blue hovercraft flew by, a man wearing a red helmet with a visor, also garbed in a blue bodysuit with yellow gloves and yellow boots jumping out of the vehicle, somehow immune to the sun's harmful radiation and heat.

"Falcon Punch!" He shouted, his fist lighting on fire not due to the sun, but because of sheer Nintendo video game reasons, punching the Sealing, propelling him harder into the sun.

The Sealing's face before his demise shifted to anger and bewilderment. "WHAT THAT DOESN'T EVEN-" Were his last words before he crashed into the surface of the sun, an explosion from the sun firing off.

"Show me your moves!" The man said with a grin, hopping back into his hovercraft, speeding away.

That's what happens when you get involved in another story, good sir, good day.

The area of the impact on the sun didn't reply, simply burning.

Splin, Sharq, and Tai watched the event unfold with eyes wide and mouths agape, though two had their mouths agape in a smile, the other one with a stare of befuzzled respect.

"...I have to admit, that was pretty epic." Splin said.

Sharq raised his fist out towards Splin, which he gladly answered with a real bro fist. The three stood up, Tai taking her goggles and adjusting them around her neck, leaping under Sharq's hat, which Sharq took and laid on his head carefully. All three of the mortal cephalopod teenagers looked over at the beach, watching the god-like Inklings reunite. Maria had pulled in the taller Inkling with blue and orange tentacles for a hug, which, with a flash of light, had switched to two other Inklings, returning the hug. The one-armed Inkling Jack walked over steadily, and joined in the hug, the three on the beachfront hugging it out, the rest watching, until the hug broke, Maria smiling warmly at Rem, Ix, and Jack. The Marie from this current dimension smiled, tears of joy blinking out of her eyes, while Hanako watched over the yellow tentacled Inkling, who was coming to, eyes opening. After a brief questioning that our three heroes couldn't hear, Hanako and the older Inkling embraced each other, a bit of light shimmering off the older one.

Splin smiled. "Wow. Huh, I guess everything worked out in th-th-th-the e-e-e-end. Huh?!"

Splin looked down at his arms. They appeared normal for a second, until suddenly his arms began twitching violently, staying in place, but continually flashing bright colors and shifting areas multiple times.

"Oh n-n-n-no!" Splin said, repeating consonants as if there was a bug in his system.

Yeah, your time is almost up guys, you better get out of here soon or else this universe will go nuts again.

The three nodded, the side effects occurring on Splin quickly taking effect on them too. The three ran over to Maria, ignoring stares from the other Inklings on the beach, shaking Maria's hands and tentacles.

"Thanks f-f-f-for everything you've d-d-d-done for us Maria, goodbye!" Sharq said, rushing away.

Splin nodded, waving goodbye to her, running with Sharq. "E-E-E-Even if we haven't known you for l-l-l-long, thank you."

Tai shrugged, glitching back and forth. "I-I-I-I'm not g-g-great with formalities, but what they said works fine. Goodbye Maria!"

The three of them ran towards the city, Maria smiling warmly and waving goodbye to them. She looked over to her family, blinking out tears from her eyes.

"Maria, what's wrong?" Jack asked, looking at Maria, taken aback by light green particles coming off her.

Maria looked up with a river of tears coming from her eyes. "...Goodbye, everyone."

Splin, Sharq and Tai were beginning to glitch out more, warping back and forth with particles colored like them following. The three, after a hasty couple of seconds of running, reached the plaza, a portal in the center already established, Tele-Cube floating over it, beeping red violently. They all leaped for the portal, Tele-Cube following after them as all of them went through, the portal vanishing, a blink of cyan light closing it, sending the three back to their own dimension.

"Aah!" Splin yelped, tossing his bed sheets off of him violently, sweating and gasping for breath. Looking around, he could see that he was at home, safely sitting in his bed. Still panting, pushed off all the covers of his bed, hopping off.

A chime from behind him got his attention, Splin turning back to his bed, noticing a dull red light glowing from underneath his pillow. Picking up the pillow, he tossed it aside, and picked up Tele-Cube lying on his mattress, a battery with a percentage with a small "5" in the middle, a tiny portion of the battery filled with a red liquid. Splin pat the Tele-Cube reassuringly, at least as reassuring as you can be to an animate-inanimate object. He walked over to the counter, where Salty the snail was watching carefully, setting the Tele-Cube by Salty, who hopped over, nuzzling the cube as if to hug it. The cube's charging percentage went up a notch. Splin looked around him, Sharq sleeping with his cap and Splin's headphones on the dresser by his bed, and Tai snoring on her junk pile of comforters she referred to as a bed, both sleeping peacefully.

Splin grinned evilly, slowly sneaking over to the alarm clock sitting on the dresser, and lightly pressed the top of it.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.

"YAAAAHHH!" Sharq screamed, rolling off his bed in surprise. Tai shook erratically, throwing a pillow at the alarm clock, which Splin safely dodged, holding the alarm clock had in his hands. The two of them woke up completely, standing up and staring at Splin angrily.

"What's wrong, is something bothering you?" Splin asked innocently, though his teeth exposing smile contrasted drastically with his sarcastic innocence.

"I will splat you!" Sharq and Tai shouted, launching themselves at Splin, who despite being tackled by two angry aquatic animal teenagers, was laughing nearly uncontrollably, tears of triumph coming out of his eyes.

"At last, I have my revenge!" Splin said triumphantly while laughing, wiping away tears, Sharq and Tai crushing him playfully, all of them laughing, which spontaneously caused everyone else in the room to join in, Ann-Gel opening her eyes and snickering, Salty's shell shaking in good humor, Tele-Cube providing more studio recorded laughter, even the alarm clock beeping wildly as if to laugh.

However, the laughter was cut short by the sound of sobbing. Splin, Sharq, and Tai froze at the noise, listening intently. The sound of sobs appeared to be coming from the roof, everyone directing their attention towards the ceiling. Splin lightly pushed the other two off of him, and made his way towards the stairs, concern present on his face. Opening the trapdoor slowly, he looked around. It was nighttime in Inkopolis. The Squid Beakon was toast, charred and smoking, but what caught Splin's attention most was an adult female Inkling, sitting on the roof opposite to the beacon, crying. Splin walked over to her, sat down besides her, in silence for a while. Her sobs lowered to sniffles, desperately trying to keep tears from flowing out of her eyes.

"Hey." Splin said softly.

Maria turned to Splin a sad smile and tears still streaming down her face.

"...I'm sorry that you couldn't stay." Splin said.

Maria's smile grew a little, and she smothered Splin with a hug, Splin not protesting in the slightest, patting Maria on the back.

"We're doing feel good hugs?! No fair!" Sharq joined in, hugging both of them. "Comforting's my thing!"

Maria smile grew more.

"Ah, screw it." Tai sneaked into the middle as an octopus, joining in as well.

Maria's smile and tears were at the largest they've been in a while. The four remained like that for a long time, five whole minutes, when they slowly broke the hug.

"I can buy us food." Splin offered, Maria standing up slowly, sniffling.

"...I'd like that. Thank you." Maria said.

"Halibut, here we come!" Sharq shouted.

The four entered the house, closing the trapdoor behind them.

-Credits I Guess, It's That Kind of Moment-

Cast

Splin Bate: Bate Brother B

Sharq Bate: Bate Brother A

Tai Inaba: Octoling Who Actually Did Stuff

Maria Altezio: Squid Mom

Rem Altezio: Firey Fighter

Ix Altezio: Shadow Brawler

Leonidas… Altezio, Pretty Sure Treble Doesn't Have The Last Name To Succeed Rem's: Swordsman From A Doomed Future Who's Not Lucina

Jack Altezio: Cyborg Squid Dad

Ty Colorian: Passed Out Beacon

Hanako Colorian: Pink Bow

Marie… Of the Splat X Universe…?: Caring Girlfriend

Danja: Guy Who Got Punched In The Face

Captain Falcon: "HYES."

Producers… I Think

Dread Angel: Splat X Author

Tehreign: Of Ink and Science Author, I mean his characters were prominent in the other story so technically he deserves a mention.

ThePizzaLovingTurtle: I wrote the words you're reading right now, yaaay.

Those Who Reviewed During The Last Chapter

Ultrapyre: Thanks, uh, I usually just draw my own pictures or set stuff up in video games so I can take screenshots so as not to really harm any rules, try that, but that's just my advice, dunno if it'll work.

OctoInkling75: Thank you for the kind words and letting me use Aqua again!

Hoopa679: Thanks, Ari kinda had it coming, and it's a good thing I saved that laugh track!

Honorable Mentions

Nintendo: They made the game this was based on, so thanks Nintendo!

The Entire Shared Universe Group: Thanks guys, without your support (and permission) this chapter and the last ones wouldn't have been possible, well, probably, but copyright would get involved and that's a nasty business, thanks!

The Fandom: Without you guys helping me out, this chapter may not have existed, thank you for reading!

Thanks for playing- I mean reading!

Author's Goat:

Uh, you're still here?

Well, as long as you're here, I wanna say that this chapter arc is over, not the story.

…I don't even know why I'm writing the credits specifically for this chapter. Didn't even break thirty chapters yet.

...Oh well. Hey, you, since you're still here, do yourself and I a favor.

Go and have some fun, play Splatoon maybe, I'll wait.

Yep. ...Well, go on now!

...Oh right. Ahem, this is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, go out and have fun, later!