Splat X: The Bate Bros.
"What year is this?"
"Hyah!" Tai cried out, leaping into the air.
Her eyes were trained on a slow moving target, hardly noticing the Octoling at all. Tai raised an Octobrush, a large flat paintbrush with a thick lavender paint decorating the tips, flying off the brush dangerously.
"I got you now you son of a squitch." Tai thought to herself, bringing down the brush onto the target.
The target was somehow slashed completely in half by the paintbrush, ink dripping off the now bisected, unaware target, revealed to be a cardboard cutout of an Inkling, the poor inanimate object dropping to the floor below, purple spreading across a stainless steel floor.
Tai groaned, gripping her head, nearly tearing off her Octoling goggles. "Ugghhhhhh… This isn't challenging at all! All of the targets just walk around like idiots, just waiting to be splatted!"
"Isn't that how Inklings normally act, weaklings that just stand around lazily?" A nearby Chi asked, twiddling her small Octoling tentacles. "I mean, that's like...the point, right?:
"NO!" Tai cried out, tossing the Octobrush to the side, surprising her fellow Octoling. "At least Inklings can dodge and shoot back, this just takes all the fun out of it! Hmph!" Tai pouted, walking away from the target range.
The two Octolings sat in a battle simulation room, gray surrounding the large room, targets of all shapes and sizes strewn about, with chairs at the back as well as a large open door leading outside to the rest of the base. Octolings, Octotroopers, even Octostrikers, large octopi sitting in U.F.O.s, were practicing their aim on targets of Inkling agents, most of the targets' faces drawn inaccurately, as if to portray the Inklings as evil creatures, their fangs overemphasized. Blots of ink shattered the wood, splintering the wooden squid kids.
"Feh." Tai sat down next to Chi, slouching back in her chair.
Suddenly, a tall figure entered the room. The figure stared over at the targets, clearly interested. She wore a cloak that covered the entirety of their face, shrouding their identity. However, one thing was certain, he or she was towering over the Octolings, standing high and menacingly.
Tai raised an eyebrow. "Ah, interested in some target practice, newbie? Good luck"
The figure said nothing, but nodded. They went over to a counter, picking up a standard Octoshot gun, walked over to a shooting range, pushing others out of the way, much to their displeasure. The figure pointed the Octoshot at the targets, pulling down on the trigger, blasting the targets with ease, knocking over several wooden Inklings, surprising the Octarians.
Tai was clearly impressed, the girl walking up to the taller figure, hand on her hip. "Nice shooting. Hey." Tai poked the figure on her leg. "Talking to you, sunshine. What's your name?"
The figure turned back to Tai, glaring down at her. A pair of hands poked out of their sleeve, the hands reaching for their hood, pulling it off. The hood revealed an Octoling of sorts, but she looked considerably different compared to the others. While she retained most of the features of an Octoling, her tentacles on the front of her head were longer, similar to that of an Inkling. The Octarians gasped in surprise, unsure of how to treat this person. The woman cleared her throat.
"My name's Tek." She muttered.
Inkopolis city was bright and bustling as ever, sea creatures of all sorts busily heading to and fro. Among them was the two brothers, Splin and Sharq, accompanied by Maria. The three walked along a sidewalk, cars in extensive lines slowly cruising by as they went.
"Nice day for a walk, am I right guys?" Sharq asked the two, walking along happily.
"Yes." Maria said calmly, humming quietly to herself.
"Yeah, but Sharq, why'd you want to bring Salty with us again?" Splin asked, walking besides him.
"I wanted to take him for a walk!" Sharq exclaimed, looking back at his faithful snail companion. "I even got him a leash for this occasion!"
Salty's shell scraped on the ground as he was dragged along throughout Inkopolis. Sparks flew as the snail "followed" the three, though Salty didn't seem to mind as always, though the loud scraping sound it made attracted weird looks from passing Inklings.
"Huh." Splin mumbled, looking around at the city. "Weird, people are rather calm considering that Super Sea Snail crisis that just happened."
"Maybe they just don't mind the extra snails." Sharq remarked, looking back at Salty.
"I dunno, the crowd standing at the top of the second floor begged to differ." Splin remarked, looking away.
Unbeknownst to the three, a shady figure was staring at the three from the shadows of a nearby building. His eyes darted from side to side, hungrily eyeing the sea snail Sharq was dragging along. He quickly left the shadows of the building, making a mad dash for the sea snail.
"I'm just surprised we cleaned the snails up that easily!" Sharq smiled. "Who'd have guessed Spyke had a- Whoa!"
Sharq spun around rapidly for a moment, dizzily falling onto the sidewalk.
"Sharq! You okay?" Splin asked, picking up his brother, Maria snapping her head to the two in worry.
"Yeah… Just a little-" Sharq paused, eyes wide, looking down at the leash he used to "walk" Salty, the line leading to an empty lasso on the ground. "Where's Salty?!"
"Your snail is mine!" A purple tentacled Inkling shouted maniacally, running away with Salty in between his arm, through an alleyway.
The three sat, bewildered at the events, until they all snapped out of it, shaking their heads.
"How rude!" Maria shouted, dashing after him.
"H-Hey! Give us back Salty!" Sharq shouted as well, following Maria and the perpetrator.
Splin sighed, and turned to the screen- Nowhere in particular. "This is gonna be a long day, I can tell, isn't it voice?'
Eh, don't sweat it Splin. Follow that snail-napper!
Splin nodded, and dashed to the right, through the alleyway the others took. Once in the alleyway, he noticed the purple tentacled Inkling being chased by Maria and Sharq through multiple other alleys, seemingly not going anywhere, running in circles. Splin rolled his eyes, switching to a squid, and Super Jumped upwards, into the sky. There, he swerved to the right as best as he could, falling and landing onto a large building, switching back to a humanoid form as he hit the roof. On top of the building, he had a great view of the chase, the purple tentacled Inkling constantly switching from alley to alley. Splin stared over at Maria, waving to get her attention. She didn't notice, still chasing after the crook.
Splin sighed again, examining the paths the crook took. To Splin, it appeared that the criminal was running in a pattern, only going through alleys opposite to Sharq and Maria at the time. Quickly noting the patterns, Splin ran back on the building, mentally and physically braced himself for what he was about to do, and ran back towards the edge of the building, tossing himself off the edge of the apartment building, quickly descending. Just as planned, the purple tentacled Inkling dashed just underneath Splin, whom he landed on harshly, gripping onto the Inkling's shoulders. The Inkling yelped, attempting to shake Splin off.
"What's your deal, man!" Splin groaned, still latching on the man.
"I need this snail!" The man growled, taking Splin and tossing him through a window, shattering the glass, though Splin luckily managed to remain unscathed.
Splin groaned, picking himself up, when he noticed that he had landed in a room with a large pile of Super Sea Snails, the snails shaking in terror. Splin stood straight, confused, until an unforgiving hand pulled him from the house, back into the alley, slamming him into a building parallel to the one he had just pulled him outside of. Splin cried out, falling roughly on the floor. The purple tentacled Inkling was holding him by his shirt collar, glaring at him angrily.
"You… You just had to go and steal ALL of the Super Sea Snails, didn't you?! You thought that you were going to get away with it, huh?!" The Inkling spat, Salty in his right arm trembling.
Splin blinked, coughing out a bit of blood. "W-What are you even talking about?!"
The purple tentacled Inkling burst into insane laughter. "Ha! Don't play dumb, you were there, weren't you? In the plaza, taking all of the snails for yourself, WEREN'T YOU?!"
Splin raised his hands defensively. "Whoa whoa! I thought they were overcrowding the plaza, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to steal anything from you! ...Hold on, what would you require all those snails for?"
"Well…" The purple Inkling grinned evilly, raising his fist. "You should've thought about that before you-"
His semi-menacing speech was cut off by a speeding fist rocketing into his face. Maria stood, breathing heavily, Sharq picking up Salty and stowing it away under his hat, Salty shivering rapidly. Maria stooped down, and hugged Splin, who was gasping for breath both from the surprise, and from the bear hug Maria was giving him.
"Are you alright, Splin?!" Maria asked, nearly crushing him with her grip.
"Ouch! Y-Yes, I'm fine…" Splin said, desperately trying to take in air.
Maria sighed in relief, dropping Splin by the wall. Sharq dropped by close to him, checking to see if his brother was okay. The purple Inkling wasn't finished, the Inkling grabbing a discarded piece of sharp glass, not caring that the edges dug into his hand a bit. Maria stood up, hatred bursting from her eyes. She pushed in front of her, energy sparking from her hands…
Then fizzled out completely.
"E-Eh?!" Maria gasped, backing up, shielding the two brothers as best as she could. She scowled at the man. "Back off!"
The Inkling man growled. "You saw what they did! That's MY Sea Snail!" He shouted, raising his fist, Maria keeping a straight face, though small beads of sweat dripped down her neck.
"Salty is ours, for crying out loud!" Splin shouted, the purple tentacled Inkling glaring at him, raising the shard of glass above his head furiously. He was about to plunge the makeshift knife into the trio, when a tapping on his shoulder got his attention. "Muh?"
The purple Inkling turned around, brandishing his shard of glass, only to get completely knocked out by a fist, flying out of the alley, landing out on the sidewalk dazed. "Oough…"
The trio watched in a mixture of surprise and relief, turning to the person who had completely knocked out the man. They noticed someone, his fist shaking in fury at the man he had just completely taken care of. The man wore a very dark blue jacket with a hood, red, distinguished shirts worn underneath, the jacket flowing somewhat like a cape in a nonexistent wind. They also wore brown gauntlets on their arms and brown boots on their feet, though slight stains of violet from the knocked out offender remained on the male's fist.
Maria, though she still took a defensive stance as to protect the two brothers, eased up a little, lowering her hands. "Wh-Who are you?" She asked meekly.
The man removed his hood, revealing a blue tentacled, pale Inkling male, smiling in spite of what just went down. "Betcha didn't expect to see me again, huh?"
Maria gasped, her eyes growing wide. "I-Ix? I-I-Is it really you?"
The savior Inkling smirked. "How many other Ixs are there?" He asked, before he was nearly crushed by Maria's hug, sounds of bones(?) cracking under her grip.
Maria burst into tears, the light green droplets pouring down her face. "My precious baby! I missed you so much!"
Ix grinned awkwardly, "Yeah, I missed you too." He said, slightly embarrassed.
Maria looked up at Ix suddenly. "Is your sister here?"
A figure, wearing clothing nearly identical to Ix, though one of her arms covered by a gauntlet looked… Odd. She stepped out of the shadow of a nearby building, dropping her hood. An orange tentacled Inkling female was revealed, smiling.
"Right here." She declared, Maria swiftly including her into the hug. "Heh… yeah, I missed ya."
Splin and Sharq blinked, rubbing their eyes, blinking in disbelief. Finally, Splin crossed his arms, eyeing the two make sure he wasn't suffering from some sort of dimensional side effect, like the one he'll experience in the chapter after this arc.
Luckily for me, Splin ignored the slip of the tongue, watching the two carefully. "Uh… Are these your kids?"
Finally releasing the poor protagonists of the Splat X universe from her unyielding grip, Maria turned back to the brothers. "Heh, yeah. Rem, Ix, these are Splin and Sharq. Splin and Sharq, these are Rem and Ix."
The four turned to each other, blinking once more.
"Hey." Ix greeted them with a quick nod, placing his hands in his pants pockets.
Sharq simply stared back. "...Hey."
Rem blinked, clearing her throat, looking over the two with a newfound curiosity. "So… you adopt these two?"
Maria laughed heartily. "No, I think it's more like they adopted me."
Splin, being the paranoid, always questioning squid as always, mouthed, "How is that even possible?"
"Hang on." Sharq said, inspecting the two closely, tilting his head. Rather closely, staring wide eyed just for the sake of it. "How did you even get to this universe? From the looks of it, you don't have a Tele-Cube of any kind."
"Ah." Rem held out her hand. "That'll be because of-" She held her hand out a little longer, nothing at all floating into her hands. "The… Tele...Orb… Ix, where did it go?"
Ix looked around for a moment, shrugging cluelessly.
Rem rolled her eyes. "Great. Guess that's the third thing we need to look for…"
The three family members of the Altezio family continued speaking to each other, the brothers, standing by, huddling by the wall.
"Hey, uh, Splin, this is kinda weird. I'm glad that Maria's reunited with her family again, but I have a bad feeling about this…" Sharq admitted quietly, looking over at the three.
"I suppose… Although, I'm sure nothing terrible will happen, after all, those three," Splin gestured to the three, tears dripping down Maria's face, "They're pretty powerful Inklings, and the three of them together? They're practically unstoppable!"
Sharq bit his lip carefully. "Yeah, that's true… Okay, so uh… What now?"
"Hmm…" Splin murmured to himself, then bounced up in fright. "Wait, what happened to the purple tentacled guy?!"
The two turned to the street, prepared to dodge any attempts at attacks, freezing once they noticed a familiar street urchin struggling to carry the offender away.
Spyke froze as well, almost dropping the insane squid, but smiled ominously, putting one bony finger up to his mouth, silencing the two. He stalked away, dragging the Inkling on the ground as he went, the Inkling muttering unconsciously, rambling on about snails and Spyke.
The two brothers took a step back just to be safe, where they bumped into the Altezio family, staring down at them.
"Alright, Splin, Sharq, Mum says you might know a girl who can help us with this-" Rem took out a photo from a small folder, revealing a photo of some sort of Octoling.
Splin squinted his eyes, analyzing the photo. The Octoling in question had two large suckers on their tentacles in the front, longer than most Octolings.
Splin closed his eyes, breathing out, thinking. "...Okay. I just have to ask," Splin opened his eyes, staring straight at the two. "...You two wouldn't be opposed to sliding down a sewage pipe, would you?"
The five Inklings entered the Inkopolis Plaza, Rem and Ix attracting quite a bit of attention from those in the plaza, males inexplicably attracted to the female sibling, the same with females interested in the male, whispering and giggling surrounding the group.
"Huh, your plaza looks pretty nice." Rem whistled, looking around.
"Uh, thanks!" Sharq said, looking up to her.
"Well well well!" An egotistical Inkling shouted.
Splin, Sharq, and Maria instinctively froze, looking over to where the voice came from. As always, Ari showed up at a really bad moment, posing dramatically with his squad of females behind him. Rem and Ix simply stood there, confused at the orange tentacled Inkling's appearance and his squad of ever pretty females.
"Rivals of mine!" Ari called out, Splin and Sharq sighing, opting for a simple wave.
"Hi Ari." Sharq greeted, grinning like a loon.
"I have yet another challenge for you-" Ari stopped midway, his eyes landing on Rem. "HOLY SQUIT. He-hey, baby, could I see that rack?" Ari leaned over to his squad of females who stood in shock, whispering, "You see, if I'm more direct with the females, I think I have a better chance. I think it'll work." The females nodded reassuringly with somewhat disturbed glances, Ari giving them a glad thumbs up, turning back to the group. "So, how about-"
Rem was about send Ari to the fire realm with a single punch, stopping suddenly when Splin and Sharq quickly stood in between them, luckily protecting Ari from any bodily harm.
Splin turned to Ari with a pleading look. "Please, leave before anything awful happens to you."
Ari's head moved back a little, nodding solemnly. He made a rapid pushing motion towards his females, who nodded, all of them picking him up, parading him swiftly out of the plaza. Rem huffed, stuffing her hands in her pockets angrily.
"T-That was Ari." Splin introduced the fleeting squid.
"Rude little…" Rem growled.
"Anyways, moving on," Sharq suggested. "That over there is the entrance to Octo Valley! Normally, I'm pretty sure that the Octarians would try and splat all of you, but since you're with us, we can get you in there without too much of a problem!"
Ix raised an eyebrow at the Inkling brother. "Really? What's the story behind you guys and the Octarians?"
"We kept them from dying!" Sharq exclaimed.
The three other Inklings blinked.
"...Nice." Rem and Ix stated.
"So…" Sharq kicked open the manhole leading to Octo Valley. "Here we are! Just jump in, and we'll slide off to Octo Valley!"
"Great, let's go then!" Ix said, leaping through the manhole, Sharq following suit.
Before jumping in, Splin looked over to Maria. "Are you coming with us?"
Maria shook her head. "No, I think I'll stay above ground for a while. Stay safe!"
Splin nodded, leaping through the manhole. Rem, before leaving through the manhole, gave her mother a quick hug, before diving into the manhole, Maria sitting by the manhole, waving farewell.
The three male Inklings flew out from the manhole, Ix landing perfectly on his feet, Splin and Sharq not so much, hitting the dirt face first, though they recovered quickly. Cap'n was snoring silently on his couch, though none of them really noticed.
Ix looked around, scratching his head. "Hey, where's Rem?"
"Guys?" Rem's voice echoed from the manhole. "I'm… Kinda stuck."
Ix sighed, gesturing to the brothers that he might need a second. He leaped back into the manhole, sounds of rustling coming from the pipe, the two of them popping back out soon after, dusting themselves off.
"What happened?" Sharq asked, tilting his head curiously.
The two of them looked at each other, then back to the two brothers. "How old are you?"
"Fifteen, my brother's fourteen, why?" Sharq asked innocently, Splin standing by just confused.
"...Just a tight fit." Rem muttered.
"Huh?"
"Nothing, let's just keep going." Rem told the two, walking away, Ix following closely behind.
Splin and Sharq stared at each other with confused stares, shrugging it off, running ahead to rejoin the other two. They walked through fields of Octarian kettles covered in squid stickers, eventually reaching the hidden kettle leading to the Octarian HQ. There, an Octoling guard was stationed, looking around carefully, until she spotted the Inklings. She hesitated, before realizing that the brothers were among them, calming down significantly.
"You two are back again, huh?" She muttered, staring at the two, who nodded in confirmation. "Tai, right? I'll get her for ya." She held up a primitive radio device to her face, clearing her throat. "Splin and Sharq are here, they want to see Tai." She holstered the radio device in her belt, standing by.
"What's the extra security for?" Sharq asked.
"Sharq!" Splin sighed.
The Octoling looked away slightly, breathing out somewhat. "Um, sorry, top secret business. You understand."
Splin and Sharq nodded, waiting patiently. After a while, the kettle doors opened, Tai herself leaping out, landing in front of the brothers.
"Hey you two! What's up?" Tai asked, adjusting her goggles around her neck, greeting the brothers.
"Heh, well, Maria's actual children have shown up and… they need some help." Splin told her, sneaking a glance to the other Inklings, who were huddled up, hidden under the shade of a decayed building, their hoods lowered.
Tai's eyes sparkled in delight. "Wh-What!? They're REALLY here!? Oh my Cod! I really wanted to meet them! Are they, like, right here?"
"Yeah." Splin smiled, quickly and discreetly catching a folder Ix tossed to him from the shadows. "They say they're looking for some Inklings with modified DNA called Tenta and Tek." Splin reached into the folder, taking out a picture of the augmented Octolings, showing it to Tai, who quickly analyzed the photo.
"Funny you should ask…" Tai whispered, standing up straight. "I know where one of them usually is."
"Where?" Rem asked, exiting the shadows, startling Tai somewhat, who jumped back, in a slight battle pose. "Calm down, I'm not here to fight." Rem took off her hood, revealing herself to Tai. "So where is she?"
Tai stared at Rem in surprise, "You're certainly…" Then stared more intensely at Rem's unmentionables. "...big." She admitted, eyebrow raising somewhat, impressed.
Rem sighed, as if she had been told that before, "I get that a lot. But where do they usually hang out? This is really urgent."
Tai nodded, scratching the back of her head. "Right, follow me, but I recommend you keep your hood up. Just to be safe." She turned back to the kettle, the doors beginning to open. Rem and Ix pulled their hoods back over their heads, Splin and Sharq following Tai closely, the entire group entering the kettle.
They entered the kettle, slowly walking through the halls of the Octarian HQ. The Octarian forces walking along the halls stared at the team oddly, but for the most part ignored them, going off the prepare or lounge, hardly a protest to the team to be heard. After a while, they reached a large room, hidden away from the public eye, much more private than the base itself, if possible. Opening the door swiftly, Tai led the two powerful Inklings inside, the room nearly pitch black, multiple pillars rising out of a bottomless pit.
"She doesn't like too many visitors at once." Tai explained. "Splin, Sharq, come with me."
"Uh, good luck you two!" Sharq exclaimed, waving goodbye as they left the two in the room, the door slamming shut as they left.
Tai led Splin and Sharq down the hall, then halted, turning her head back and forth, until she burst into an uncharacteristic fangirl squeal.
"eeEEEEeeeeEEE~!" She smiled, hopping with energy. "So cool!"
Splin was taken aback by Tai's sudden shift in personality, though Sharq was cheering Tai on. Tai realized her folly, coughing quickly, a slight blush on her face.
"Never speak of that to anyone." She aptly put, turning around, walking off through the hallway, Splin and Sharq following behind.
The three original members of the Bate Bros. crew arrived at the Rec Room, Octolings and Octotroopers alike sitting quietly on the the chairs, having drinks of different descriptions. Shockwhisk, cheery as always, danced around in his kennel, generating lots of electricity for the HQ.
Splin, Sharq, and Tai sat down by a small round table, Tai propping her boots on the table as always.
"This is really strange… Why would two select people be so important that they'd need to traverse dimensions to look for them?" Splin wondered aloud, resting his head on his hand, elbow on the table.
"Beats me!" Sharq shrugged. "But they must mean a lot to them, somehow!"
Tai nodded. "Yeah… I feel like it's classified information. After all, whenever someone like them gets involved, you know ship's going to go down."
Splin closed his eyes in thought. "Yeah… Sharq, you know that odd feeling you had earlier?"
Sharq nodded. "The bad one?"
"I don't know why, but something tells me…" Splin opened his eyes, staring straight at his brother. "That we might need to keep an eye out for any trouble."
AN: Yep, it's another Splat X arc. It's a little soon, I know, but hey, beats sitting around… Not… working on the story I guess. ...Huh. Thanks to Dread Angel for writing the good dialogue, couldn't do it without your help! That's all I have to say for now really, after the Splat X arc, be prepared for a Squidsmas Holiday chapter, maybe something more! Thanks for reading the story guys, this is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, see you guys next time!