(AN: I do not own Splatoon and Naruto. Also, when on their job in the New Squidbeak Splatoon, they will be referred to as their agents names. So remember this; Naruto is Agent 9 and Ripley is Agent 3. One more thing; I know I used to do the missions during hero mode in the original. However, I began to realize that there really wasn't much story in it aside from hero mode. So instead, there will be moments in it rather than the whole mission with the possible exceptions being the boss encounters. So don't count on chatter from Cuttlefish like in canon.)
Chapter 2: Octo Valley, Area 1
Moments after Agents 9 and 3 left where the shack and sewer entrance along the path, they saw a corner platform.
"Alright, first things first that you should know." Agent 9 told Agent 3 "In order to enter the octarian domes, we need to unveil the kettle entrances. The only way of doing that is by inking them up, pretty easy, right?"
"Yeah." Agent 3 nodded in agreement "You would think they would have made it harder to access their domes."
"Oh, I have no doubt that they will make it harder for us as we progress. After all, this is area 1, which I like to imagine as an early warning that enemies are coming." Agent 9 stated "There are four kettles here, whereas the other four areas have seven kettles."
"Yeah, you're right, definitely an early warning system to the real challenge that trouble is coming their way." Agent 3 agreed with the assumption since it was quite smart.
Agent 9 fired his hero shot at the first kettle, revealing it. Just when Agent 3 was about to step onto it and begin, Agent 9 held his hand up to halt her.
"We will be working together from here on out, so we must watch each others' backs." Agent 9 informed her. "Granted, this is only the first area and we have fought in turf wars so we are no strangers to combat, but we don't know what to expect here."
"It can't be harder than fighting multiple inklings wielding different weapons, sub-weapons, and specials." Agent 3 countered "Especially if said groups know each other and work together excellently."
"Yeah, you got a point there." Agent 9 conceded "But still, we work together on this. To get a feel of what we would be up against."
"Yeah, alright, let's just do this." Agent 3 said before she inked up the platform to reveal the kettle before entering the kettle in her squid form.
Agent 9 rolled his eyes before he turned into his squid form himself. His squid form, much like himself, is a hybrid of an Inkling's squid form and Octoling's octopus form. He retains the squid mantle, fins, and eye markings (his eyes are still separated like an Octoling in octopus form). He has a couple of orange spots on the "forehead" of his squid mantle. His two long tentacles become more inkling-like, losing the three suckers on them yet still retaining their length differences (the left tentacle being as far as an Inkling's if not a bit longer while the right tentacle is at least half that length, just a bit longer than the other tentacles). Like an Inkling's squid form, these two long tentacles work similar to an Inkling's squid form two long clubbed tentacles. He has four small octopus tentacles (similar to Octoling's octopus form) where an Inkling's four shorter tentacles would be at and like an octoling, he has four smaller ones on the underside, giving him a total of ten tentacles. The outer middle two of the front four tentacles appear and act similar to the long tentacles of an octoling's octopus form, being slightly shorter than the right long tentacle, while the two inner middle tentacles were even smaller and in the form of a mustache.
In his squid form, Agent 9 enters the kettle.
Octotrooper Hideout Zone
Agent 9 materializes and stands up, seeing Agent 3 already waiting for his arrival. In front of their spawning point was a launchpad, waiting for them. Some of the ground was already inked up, no doubt because of Agent 3's arrival. The ink color of the zone was green.
"Testing, testing. Is this thing on?" Agents 3 and 9 heard Cap'n Cuttlefish's voice over their headset.
"We read you, Cap'n." Agent 9 replied to comms "Any other agents on the comms we need to know about?"
"Negative, Agent 9." Cuttlefish replied "Believe me, if they weren't busy doing their own jobs, Agents 1 and 2 would be talking to us right now."
"I hear that." Agent 9 replied before readying his Hero Shot "Alright Cap, we're moving forward."
"Roger that, good hunting agents!" Cuttlefish said one last time before going silent.
"Let's see what the Octarians have to throw at us." Agent 3 commented as the two approached the launchpad.
"This is the first zone in the first area, I doubt we'll be seeing the big guns." Agent 9 retorted "We're likely to see fodder instead of actual challenge."
"True that." Agent 3 agreed while sighing "Just getting my hopes up."
Agents 3 and 9 turned into their squid forms on the launchpad and super jumped to an area next to their spawn point. They landed on the top of a ramp, looking down onto a field that had some wooden boxes. The field had two kinds of ink; green and purple. On top of a box in the middle was some sort of severed octopus tentacle which had two protruding, circular eyeballs with a green sclera and purple-blue small irises with purple markings around the eyeballs. It has large, round, connected, purple lips, but lacks other visible features such as ears or noses. It has two small and stubby legs but otherwise lacks humanoid limbs.
"Is that an octarian?" Agent 3 asked.
"...I guess?" Agent 9 replied with uncertainty in his voice "Honestly, I expected more humanoid octopuses like us."
The octarian was riding on a small, simple vehicle consisting of a cylindrical platform with a black ring on the bottom, a long hose-like protrusion with a megaphone-like nozzle on the end, and a single joystick on top that the Octarian uses to operate the vehicle. Agent 9 noted that there was another behind a pair of boxes on the left.
"Ah, that right there is an Octotrooper." Cuttlefish informed them "It is the most basic trooper in the octarian army."
"...So cannon fodder then?" Agent 3 stated in a form of question.
"Let's see how they are before we start labeling them." Agent 9 suggested before the two agents inked forward, alerting the octotrooper of their presence.
"...Why did it act like it didn't notice you until it saw the ink land in front of it?" Kyuubi asked Agent 9.
'Maybe their incompetent?' Agent 9 mentally replied.
As Agents 3 and 9 splat the octotrooper and the box it was on, Agent 9 saw a swirl of ink gather into a ball before exploding, revealing another octotrooper.
'So they have teleportation capabilities.' Agent 9 thought as Agent 3 took down the octotrooper that came out from behind the two boxes. 'Smart, so they can set up ambushes and reinforce their troops on the field.'
Agent 9 splatted the newly arrived Octotrooper before destroying the box next to it. Both he and Agent 3 collect small, orange orbs that appear similar to fish eggs, known as Power Eggs.
"...So…" Agent 3 spoke after the fight while breaking another box for power eggs.
"Yeah, yeah." Agent 9 replied with a disappointed sigh "Their cannon fodder."
Agent 3 grinned before she inked the ramp that led to a checkpoint and went up. Agent 9 followed and they saw an octotrooper in the middle of a circle of purple ink, which was surrounded by green ink. This octotrooper had front facing armor and looked to be stationary.
"I get the box, you get the trooper." Agent 3 said before she moved to the left in squid form.
Agent 9 didn't even bother to argue as he moved to the right in his own squid form. Agent 3 came out moments later, destroying the box to collect power eggs, which got the attention of the stationary octotrooper, who proceeded to fire a slow ball of purple ink. By the time he had fired, Agent 3 had returned to squid form and moved away from the fire zone. Agent 9, on the other hand, fired a row of ink behind the stationary octotrooper to collect power eggs.
'...' Agent 9 remained silent as he stared at the stationary octotrooper, who didn't even hear Agent 9 fire his Hero Shot right behind him. Agent 9 just took where he fired from, not even hiding in the ink, as he stared with an unimpressed and deadpan expression
"...Yeah, their incompenent if not worse." Kyuubi deadpanned.
'Holy carp, I hope the rest of the Octarians aren't like this.' Agent 9 mentally replied 'If they are, I'm going to be sorely disappointed.'
"Well, that old man did mention Octolings. Perhaps we will see them later."
'You would think that they would be the first line of defense. Have a few officers ordering around the troopers.' Agent 9 thought to himself as he finally splatted the octotrooper.
"One thing is for sure, whoever is leading these octopuses, doesn't know how to lead an army." Kyuubi stated.
Meanwhile…
"Achoo!" A certain octopus sneezed.
"You alright, sir?" Someone asked.
"Yeah, I think someone was talking about me." The octopus replied before adding in an angry tone "Probably that slimy bottom feeder."
Back with the Agents…
Agents 3 and 9 landed at the final checkpoint. They managed to clear all previous checkpoints with no problems at all. They managed to find some sort of scroll at checkpoint 5 but decided against reading until they were out. The scroll looked really old so Agent 9 volunteered to hold onto it. At checkpoint six, the previous checkpoint, Agent 3 managed to snag an armored helmet to wear.
They see a tower at the center with the zapfish being at the top. There was a vault at the side, some boxes all over the area, and two Octotroopers (one with front armor, the other doesn't) circling around the tower. There was a ramp down with three power eggs on it. Agent 3 went after the one with the front armor while Agent 9 went after the one without it. Both were taken down easily and the boxes destroyed before Agent 3 found the key in a stack of three boxes at the top right corner of the area.
As Agents 3 and 9 walked back to the vault, they saw three swirling purple ink spheres appear, two beside both sides of the vault while another appeared on top. When the spheres bursted, two troopers appeared on both sides of the vault while a new looking trooper appeared on top of it. This trooper looked like an octotrooper, but had two tentacles instead of one. Not only that but it's assault contraptions have a green button, operated by it's second tentacle.
"Is this their commander?" Agent 3 questioned.
"Maybe." Agent 9 replied "Regardless, he is obviously their 'ace in reserve' in this area."
"Let's see what this guy can do." Agent 3 said before charging forward.
"Three, wai-" Agent 9 tried to stop her as he came into their range.
Agent 3 fired the first stop, easily splatting the octotrooper closest to the ramp. This prompted the other two to aim at Agent 3. Agent 3 managed to splat the second octotrooper before the twintacle trooper pushed the green button on it's assault contraption. Upon doing so, instead of firing a blob of ink, it rapidly fired several shots of ink. Agent 3 barely dodges the shots as the trooper ceases fire to adjust his aim. He never got the chance to as he was splatted immediately by Agent 9, who had moved into firing range after the first purple shot was fired.
"Damn, he was close." Agent 3 commented as she checked herself and saw not a spot of purple ink on her.
"Next time, wait before acting!" Agent 9 scolded three "You're lucky that you dodged that volley. It could have been worse."
"What, I'm alright, aren't I?" Agent 3 shrugged her shoulders.
Agent 9 groaned "Whatever, let's just get this over with."
Agent 3 nodded her head in agreement before she used the key to unlock the vault and the two used the launchpad to go up to the top of the tower. At the top, Agent 3 destroyed the container holding the zapfish and grabbed the zapfish. She turned around to Agent 9 and showed off the zapfish, which was wiggling in her hand.
"Mission accomplished." Agent 3 said "Easy work."
"Don't get too cocky, Three." Agent 9 reprimanded the new agent.
"Whatever." Agent 3 shrugged her shoulders "Let's just move on."
"Yeah, let's get out of here." Agent 9 agreed.
A bit later in Octo Valley, Area 1…
Agents 3 and 9 come out of the first kettle. Both returned to Cuttlefish Shack, Agent 3 gave the zapfish to Cap'n Cuttlefish for him to deal with while Agent 9 took out a box to hold the newly acquired scroll into it. Of course, both agents had read it before putting it into the box. It had a picture of the Great Zapfish. Kyuubi mentioned that it resembles a Namazu-e, an ukiyo-e print of Namazu. On the scroll, there was a text that read: "Since time immemorial, a rare type of electric catfish known as the Zapfish has been prized by Inkling society as a source of energy. In fact, the entire city of Inkopolis is powered by a single 100-year-old Great Zapfish!"
Both agents agreed to locate and read future scrolls, before archiving them for future reading.
Returning to the field, they approached the second kettle.
"So, shall we go together or separate to cover more ground?" Agent 3 asked.
"Stay together for now." Agent 9 stated "Perhaps this next one will be better than the previous one."
"Don't get your hopes up." Agent 3 replied with an eye roll.
"I'm not." Agent 9 answered back as both him and Three entered the kettle.
Moments later,,,
"..." Both Agents said nothing as they stared at the single small, pill-shaped mechanical Octarian contraptions with two large, purple eyes, a nozzle for a mouth, and two legs adorned with indigo colored sneakers that was trying to waddle it's way to them through the ink that Agent 3 had fired.
"...Is that an actual octarian or a robot they built?" Agent 9 asked.
"How am I supposed to know?" Agent 3 replied.
'Probably shouldn't tell him that there is an octarian inside that thing.' Kyuubi thought to himself as his negative emotion sensing could feel the fear within it.
"Just put it out of its misery, Three." Agent 9 ordered the other agent.
Agent 3 nodded and fired, this time splatting it.
A bit later…
"First severed tentacles, then pill-shaped mechs, and now round ball-shaped octarians." Agent 9 said as he looked at the Octoball perched atop a stack of crates. The octarian in question appeared to be a small, round Octarian with one large eye and a pair of purple lips.
"You know, do you think they were born like this or do you think thei-"
"Don't even finish that sentence, Three." Agent 9 warned "They were either born like this or experimented into this."
"At least their better than those Octotroopers…" Agent 3 commented.
"Not by much, though." Agent 9 added.
"Yeah, not by much." Agent 3 agreed.
A minute later…
"Oooh, that is so cute!" Agent 3 gushed at the Squee-G moving around on the wall, clearing up the ink.
"They clean up the ink rather well." Agent 9 said as he saw it up "Makes me wonder if they are used to clean up the stages of Turf War as well, would certainly clear your messes you made with your playmates in them."
"Hey!" Agent 3 shouted while sporting a blush on her face.
Fun fact about Ripley; there are times when she takes an interest in an inkling girl on the enemy team. It all started when Ripley did Turf Wars. She would fight incredibly well, she was so good that it wasn't often that she got splatted. She wouldn't care much if she was splatted by inkling boys, but it was the girls that got her attention. After getting splatted by one, she would try to locate and fight the one that splatted her, to see if it was luck or not that they won. Most times, it was just luck and she would quickly lose interest. But to those few rare ones that had the skill to back up Ripley's splatting, she took an even bigger keen interest. Ripley is a lesbian, she loved strong women. So the next time she encountered them again, she would isolate them from everyone else and have her way with them.
The main reason why she wasn't in trouble with officials and such is because of the modes. Regular battles in Turf Wars are monitored lightly, only enough to see no cheating being caused. They don't actively keep an eye on every inkling on the field. Judd only shows up when the timer ends. Ranked battles, on the other hand, are monitored somewhat more than regular battles since things such as ranking on the leaderboard are present. When splatfests hit, all modes (with the only exception being the Private battle mode) were monitored heavily. As such, Ripley doesn't get in trouble for her 'activities' on the field. As for the girls themselves, they never actually report Ripley for such 'activities' either since they usually end up enjoying it. Though none of the girls would go into a relationship with Ripley, they do at times get together outside of Turf Wars to have 'fun'.
It is a closely guarded secret in the community, but Naruto managed to learn of it. He wasn't surprised to say the least.
"Actually, do octarians have genders?" Agent 3 suddenly asked, her blush now gone as she was legitimately curious about it.
"...Maybe?" Agent 9 tried to answer "I know Octolings are but the re-"
"Wait, Octolings?" Agent 3 asked, catching the word.
"Yeah, Cap'n mentioned them in his stories." Agent 9 stated "Said that they were octarians that were just like us inklings, humanoid form and all."
"...Did he say the female octolings were hot?" Agent 3 asked.
"Three!" Agent 9 shouted in embarrassment while blushing.
"What? It's a serious question." Agent 3 replied with a grin.
"He didn't give me too much detail on them so I don't know." Agent 9 answered "We'll be encountering them eventually, let's just move on."
"Yeah, yeah." Agent 3 replied as she began to ink the wall up with her Hero Shot 'I hope one does prove to be good enough.'
Another minute later…
Agent 9 sighed as he used the ink cannon to ink the wall and clear the way for Agent 3, who was on the ground and was now making her way up to the zapfish. Agent 9 then left the cannon once Agent 3 made it to the top and went up to join Agent 3 at the top. When he did get up there, he saw Agent 3 holding the zapfish wiggling in her hand.
"Alright, mission accomplished here." Agent 3 said.
"Yeah, and with the Sunken Scroll too." Agent 9 added as he had spotted it immediately after the Squee-G encounter.
Later…
"Of course they can fly…" Agent 9 deadpanned as he and Agent 3 were now in the third kettle dome of Area 1.
In front of them was a small octarian equipped with a large propeller helmet that allows them to hover. They have small legs adorned with what appear to be helicopter landing skids.
"Well, they have octarians that act like bowling balls or boulders and even possible suicide bombers." Agent 3 stated to Agent 9 "Honestly, helicopter octarians aren't really out of the realm of possibilities."
"I know that, Three. What I'm getting at is that I expected an actual helicopter piloted by octarians. Not… this!" Agent 9 gestured to the Octocopter "Honestly, why is this a thing? It's an Octotrooper in the sky, for crying out loud!"
"Yeah, even I'll admit that it is very underwhelming." Agent 3 agreed "You would think that the octarians would be better than this. Honestly, I want to know how the Inklings of the Great War almost lost to these guys."
"Who knows why, maybe we'll learn one day in the future." Agent 9 stated before he sighs and ready himself "Alright, onward with the mission."
A few minutes later…
"Eat inknadoes, suckers!" Agent 3 shouted as he used her newly acquired Inkzooka to decimate the three octocopters and two octotroopers.
Honestly, it was less of a fight and more of a slaughter, for the octarians really. Honestly, only two octocopters managed to fire off blobs of ink before being splatted by Agent 3. Said blobs of ink being so slow that one could walk past it without having to even put effort in dodging.
"Honestly, this is so disappointing." Agent 9 muttered while he followed Agent 3 to the newly revealed launchpad and proceeded onward. "Whoever is running this octarian military really needs to step up their game."
In another location, a certain octarian sneezed "Someone is talking shit about me." That octarian muttered angerily "Note to self; find out who and dubstomp their fucking face in."
Another few minutes later…
"Oh, you have to be fucking kidding me." Agent 9 said as both he and Agent 3 looked at their newest enemy.
They had just gotten the last checkpoint when they spotted the newest octarian enemy. It was a big octarian who wore a helmet similar to those of an Octocopter but with a different nozzle. They are colored dull orange with two large tentacles that somewhat look like wings and three shorter ones on the back.
"That has got to be the biggest octarian we have ever encountered yet." Agent 3 said.
"We're still in Area 1, I doubt he is the biggest we'll ever meet." Agent 9 told Agent 3 "Still, wonder what he can do."
"Let's find out, shall we?" Agent 3 asked rhetorically before inking a path forward and moved up.
Before Agent 9 could reply, the Octobomber noticed Agent 3 and fired out a splat bomb from his nozzle. Agent 9 ducked into cover while the bomb detonated. While Agent 9 managed to evade it without damage, Agent 3 wasn't the same. Since the bomb exploded a bit behind her, a bit of the purple ink from the splat bomb landed on Agent 3 that caused her to hiss in pain from the purple ink that landed on her. Ignoring the pain, Agent 3 took aim and fired at the Octobomber before it could launch another bomb, effectively splatting it.
"Three!" Agent 9 called out as he inked a path to his fellow agent "Are you ok?"
"Yeah." Agent 3 replied as the pink ink that hit her faded away "A bit of the ink from that bomb hit me but nothing too damaging, just a minor burn at most and even though, should be gone in a few minutes."
"Alright, if you say so." Agent 9 said as he checked Agent 3's minor burns where the ink had landed and saw that they would heal quickly.
The two would clear up the remaining boxes, get the last of the power eggs in the dome, and get the zapfish.
Later…
Agent 3 and 9 stared at the final kettle, which was in the middle of Area 1 resting on a large, purple pillow. Unlike the other kettles, this one was visible in broad daylight and didn't need to be inked up to reveal.
"This is an invitation." Agent 3 stated.
"Perhaps but one thing is for sure, this isn't an ordinary dome if the octarians so blatantly keep it out without even hiding it." Agent 9 added.
"Or they forgot to hide it." Agent 3 added.
Agent 9 was going to refute it but couldn't given that they have been fighting incompetent octotroopers and more "...Understandable." Agent 9 conceded.
"Whelp, let's get this over with." Agent 3 said as she entered the kettle, Agent 9 following.
Inside the kettle…
Agents 3 and 9 arrived on a platform where the spawning point was. They see a launchpad in front of them and when they look out, they see another platform larger than their own and it looks like an arena. It appeared to be a large circle with a podium towards the back and strong floodlights all aimed at the center.
"...I got a bad feeling about this, Nine." Agent 3 said uneasily. Something about this didn't feel right at all.
"Same, Three." Agent 9 replied as he prepared himself "Prepare yourself. This could very well be an ambush. But no doubt about it, the leader is waiting for us."
Agent 3 nodded "So, let's see who is behind the theft of the Great Zapfish."
Both agents get on the launchpad and land onto the arena. They took a few steps forwards, looking around for any indication of an ambush or the octarian leader. However, they could hear the static sounds of a zapfish and they looked, seeing a zapfish in it's light bulb-esque pedestal being lowered down to the podium.
"...Are they surrendering or something?" Agent 3 asked.
"No, that can't be right." Agent 9 replied "Why would they surrender now? We haven't even gotten out of Area 1 yet."
"Who knows?" Agent 3 shrugged, "Perhaps the leader is a coward."
"No, otherwise they would be handing back the Great Zapfish and not a normal zapfish."
"Then maybe the leader of this area?" Agent 3 suggested "Either way, I call dibs on freeing the little guy!" Agent 3 moves past Agent 9 and runs towards the podium.
"Three, wa-" Agent 9 was going to say when they were interrupted.
The source of the interruption was a big tentacle that had emerged out of the small circle filled with purple ink at the top of the podium. The tentacle was a dull red-violet color and had a large, green, X-shaped scar on it. The tentacle grabs the light bulb-esque pedestal that the zapfish was trapped in and after a moment, pulls the zapfish into the podium. This scene caused the two agents to stop, especially Agent 3 who was in front of the podium.
Immediately after the zapfish was pulled into the podium, purple electricity sparked around the podium for a moment while yellow line lights at the edges of it turned on. Then, suddenly and out of nowhere, the podium jumped up and turned backwards. However, instead of falling back, the podium landed on it's two amusingly small legs with black socks that were blocked from sight. Not only that but it also revealed it's square face that had purple ink all over it with the only thing not purple on its face was it's eyes, which were green with a black dot for a pupil. Agent 9 ideally noticed that it had four different layers to its face, including another square which comes out slightly more, the main face area which sticks out again, and the eyes and mouth which both stick out of the face.
Agent 9's musing was cut off when the large cube let out a roar. Then, it immediately jumped up to land on Agent 3.
"Three, get out of there!" Agent 9 called out to Agent 3.
Agent 3 barely rolled out of the way from being squashed. Unfortunately, Agent 3 couldn't escape the splash of purple ink that the large cube creature made and let out a scream of pain as she was splashed with a lot of purple ink.
"Three!" Agent 9 shouted out before running over to Agent 3, ignoring the downed large cube. "Are you ok?"
"Do I look ok to you?" Agent 3 replied in a pained yet angry tone "I feel like I just touched a hot surface that burned me! It doesn't help that I got burn marks on the spots where clothing didn't protect me!"
"Can you keep going?" Agent 9 asked.
"Barely, but I'll recover." Agent 3 replied "I need to cool in a pool of ink."
"Then go ahead, I'll deal with this thing." Agent 9 replied as he looked at the now shaking cube creature.
"Sure, good luck with Octostomp." Agent 3 replied as she used her gun to ink a small spot for her to hide and recover in.
"Octostomp?" Agent 9 asked, turning his head towards his fellow agent.
"What? We needed a name and since it tried to stomp me with it's face, I felt it was the perfect name for it." Agent 3 replied as she turned into her squid form mid-sentence, making her voice change.
"Fine, Octostomp it is." Agent 9 replied just as Octostomp got up.
Agent 9 immediately began running to the right, catching Octostomp's attention. It lets out a roar before turning and jumping to smash the hybrid agent. Though unlike Agent 3 that barely dodged last time, Agent 9 managed to dodge not only the stomp but the purple ink splash as well. Agent 9 fired his ink shot at the Octostomp but to his surprise, it didn't even damage or injure it. In fact, it was sticking like the surface of any environment that was inked by inklings.
'Now, how do you beat something made of the same surface material as the environment?' Agent 9 thought to himself before noticing the top of the downed Octostomp. The tentacle that grabbed the zapfish earlier was now out, completely exposed. 'That'll work.'
Agent 9 inked the side of Octostomp and climbed up it in his squid form. Once at the top of Octostomp's back, he fired his Hero Shot at the tentacle, inking it up until it goes pop and purple ink geysers out. To avoid getting sprayed, Agent 9 super jumps to the other side of the arena, landing in front of the large purple ink square that had Octostomp's face on it. This same square being the position that Octostomp was in before "awakening".
Agent 9 looks as Octostomp gets up, he could hear the faint sounds of electricity buzzing inside Octostomp. Then, to his immense surprise, the tentacle bursts out of the hole in Octostomp's back.
'Damn, I thought I had splatted it.' Agent 9 mentally stated while scowling 'Should've known it wouldn't be that easy.'
Suddenly, Octostomp spun around to look at Agent 9. Just when Agent 9 thought that Octostomp was going to charge again, it tilted it's head right, just enough for him to see it pull it's face in. When Octostomp did that, some pieces of its sides came off.
'Oh great, that just makes things harder.' Agent 9 deadpanned mentally as the Octostomp lets out a mighty roar.
"What the carp?" Agent 9 hears and looks, seeing Agent 3 no longer in a pool of ink. Now that Naruto looked around, there was no more ink left on the field "Oh, now it can dispel ink in the arena! What is this BS!?"
"You look better." Agent 9 told his fellow agent.
"You sit down, Nine." Agent 3 stated as she readied herself "Time for some payback for earlier."
Agent 9 shrugs "Alright then, good luck."
"Round 2!" Kyuubi states in his deep voice "Fight!"
As if both Octostomp and Agent 3 heard miraculously, they began to move against each other. Octostomp was originally moving to attack Agent 9, but it took notice of Agent 3 to it's right and moved to attack her instead, since she was closer. Octostomp jumped up to smash Agent 3, only for her to roll out of the way. Following the strategy that Agent 9 did before, she inked the side of Octostomp and went to her squid form to climb and reach the top of the downed cube. Like Agent 9 before her, she inked up and caused the tentacle to pop and the geyser to occur once more. Agent 3 super jumped away and landed right beside Agent 9, who moved away to avoid Octostomp.
They watched as Octostomp got up once again and like before, the tentacle came out and revealed itself.
"Serious, how many times do we need to knock him down before he gives up?" Agent 3 asked as they watched Octostomp turn towards them.
Like before, Octostomp tilted his head to the right and pulled his face in. When he did that, more of the sides came off. All that was left now were three square platforms, one at each line from top to bottom. They could now see the insides of Octostomp, which was nothing but purple ink. Then, electricity sparked on the three lines and the platforms began to move.
"Oh, you got to fucking kidding me." Agent 9 said in disbelief.
"Tag team this time?" Agent 3 recommended her fellow agent, to which Agent 9 nods in agreement. "Alright, I go left and you go right?"
"Sure." Agent 9 said as Octostomp lets out it's mighty roar that cleared the ink off the arena.
Agent 3 began to ink a path to the left while Agent 9 inked a way to the right. Octostomp looked confused, like it didn't know which one to go after. It ultimately decided to go after Agent 3, indicated by it turning towards her and letting out a roar that, at this point, was a sign of it preparing to make a jump to stomp.
Agent 3 dodged the attack and inked the platforms. However, Agent 3 found it incredibly difficult to reach up to the top because the top and bottom platforms were moving. Not only that but Octostomp was getting up faster now, making it incredibly difficult to reach the top before Octostomp got up. Agent 3 almost made it to the top before she was flung off and away when Octostomp got up.
Agent 9 moves behind Octostomp, heading to his right as the large cube turned around and jumped at Agent 9. Agent 9 dodges the stomp and inks the other side of Octostomp and manages to quickly climb to the top. Just in time too since Octostomp was getting ready to get up again. Agent 9 fires his Hero Shot at the tentacle and managed to make up pop like before. Agent 9 super jumps away as a geyser of purple ink bursts out of Octostomp.
Agent 9 lands and sees the legs of Octostomp begin spinning around, going faster as they did until it was going at plane level spinning until it suddenly stopped. As it spun around, green light began to glow out of the Octostomp. Finally, after a moment, the Octostomp exploded in friendly ink.
"Help, I'm blind!" Agent 9 cried out as ink got into both his and Agent 3's eyes since they were unprepared for the sudden ink explosion.
"Just wipe it off!" Agent 3 said as she wiped her eyes, Agent 9 doing the same. Soon enough, they see what remained. The entire arena was covered in ink and there was a circle of power eggs with the zapfish in the center of it and a scroll in front of the zapfish. Agent 3 was the first one to move, grabbing the power eggs. Agent 9 grabbed the scroll just as Agent 3 opened the lightbulb and freed the zapfish.
Later…
"-and that is our field report." Agent 9 said to Cap'n Cuttlefish inside the shack.
"I see." Cap'n Cuttlefish said as he thought over everything that Agent 9 and 3 had just informed him of "To think they even have Great Octoweapons on their side…" Cuttlefish shook his head "At any rate, excellent work, Agents. This is only the beginning, I have a feeling that the Great Zapfish will be at the end of the long road this campaign is going to have. So keep up the good work!"
"Shall we move on to Area 2?" Agent 3 asked.
Agent 9 shook his head "No. While the area gate has been broken, I think it is best to return home for now. We can get up in the morning tomorrow so we can make more progress."
"I believe that is the best course of action." Cuttlefish said.
"Aw, but I wanted more action." Agent 3 whined.
"Think of it this way, we can get more action tomorrow early." Agent 9 said as he went to change.
"Fine, whatever." Agent 3 said with a disappointed sigh.
After a bit, Naruto returns from changing out and Agent 3 goes to change out of her gear. Once she was finished, some more words were exchanged while Naruto put away the scroll into a folder box. Finally, they went back to the sewer grate and left.
Later…
Naruto opens the door of his house and walks inside. After leading Octo Valley, he decided to go a few rounds in Turf Wars. Once done, he came back home to relax, get a meal to eat, maybe watch some anime or cartoons, then head to bed.
"Hello Naruto." Naruto freezes up as he heard the familiar voice say to him from the stairs. He turns to look at the owner and sees Marie.
Marie was wearing something more casual; a black shirt with a green jacket that had a collar, lime green tights, and a green hat with a logo similar to the Firefin one. Naruto knew of this attire; it was the outfit that Marie would wear in order to hide her identity from her fans. Of course, she would have a white facemask with it but she seemed to have taken it off.
"Marie!" Naruto greeted with a smile "What are you doing here? I thought you would be at Inkopolis News station."
"Oh, I'm finished there for tonight." Marie replied "I was surprised to find you were gone for most of the day. Where were you?"
"Oh, you know." Naruto replied casually "Talking with the Cap'n, seeing how he is doing."
"Oh really now?" Naruto hears another familiar voice call from upstairs and hears the owner coming down. That is when Callie comes into view "Hi foxy!"
"Hey Callie." Naruto greeted her.
Callie's attire was also casual. She was wearing a white shirt with a black undershirt and a pink cardigan, a pair of black shorts, a pair of brown heeled shoes with pink socks sticking out, earrings, and a pink beanie with a star on the left side with her bang showing. Like Marie, Callie had sunglasses to hide her identity from fans.
"What's this about gramps?" Callie asked Naruto.
"Oh, you know, telling him about the stolen Great Zapfish and everything." Naruto replied "Happened like he usually does."
"Panicking and speaking about the 'octarian menace'." Marie stated "But that shouldn't have taken most of the day. So…" Marie walked up to Naruto "spill it."
"Let's take a seat in the living room, I'll explain." Naruto knew not to withhold information from Marie, she had her ways of making him talk. Honestly, it would be simpler to tell and not hide anything.
So Naruto did just that. Callie and Marie sat on the couches while Naruto sat in a chair and began to explain the day's events to the squid sisters. Their reactions were different. For Callie, she was happy to have another member of the team. She was asking for details about Ripley (Agent 3); what her favorite food was, what's her favorite color, did she like pancakes (because for some reason, Callie loves pancakes exactly like Naruto's love for ramen). As for Marie, she was quiet and thinking things over. She would sigh after a bit of time.
"So we now have a new recruit and grandpa never informed us about it." Marie said.
"He was probably going to tell you two at some point." Naruto replied with a sweatdrop "His mind was probably distracted by new events that he forgot to inform you of the new recruit."
"Well, we'll be having a talk with him tonight." Marie said before looking at the clock and noticed it was late. "Ah, speaking of home, we should get going."
"Aw, but I wanted to stay here tonight!" Callie complied to Marie.
"Callie, you know how grandpa gets if we aren't home on time." Marie replied while looking away, a small blush on her cheeks 'Though I would love to stay here with Naruto.'
"Fine, let's go." Callie said as she got up from the couch.
Marie did the same and Naruto also got up to follow them to the door as they were leaving. Marie put on her white mask while Callie pulled out her sunglasses.
"Get home safely and have a good night." Naruto told the squid sisters.
"Don't worry, we will." "Thanks!" Marie and Callie replied to Naruto while waving goodbye.
Naruto smiled as they left, closing the door behind them. After a few moments, he would go to the kitchen to get something before heading to bed.
Meanwhile…
"Is this report accurate?" An octopus octarian asked the octarian in front of him.
Unlike most octarians, which appear to be severed tentacles of octopuses, this octarian was an actual octopus in his entirety. He is a dull red-violet with darker areas around his eyes and tentacles and appears to be perpetually angry. He wears a large gold helmet in the style of kabuto with an octopus-shaped emblem on the front, and one of the two tentacles that are always crossed in front of him bears a large, green, X-shaped scar. He was sitting on a chair in front of a desk, looking over the report made to him about Area 1; the recent attack on it and the defeat of Octostomp.
In front of the desk was a female octarian that was the equivalent of inklings. She has thicker and curlier dark hair than inklings, with four tentacles instead of six, have her suckers above her hair than underneath, beige undersides of her hair, small round ears, and no spots at the ends of her hair. She wore a metal, crop top-like garment that was held up by two brown shoulder straps and has a sleeveless black shirt underneath with a thin stripe down each side and is accompanied by a thick brown belt worn loosely around the waist. She also wore a pair of very dark brown leather boots that have black laces and come up to the wearer's knees. Their thick soles, which are a slightly lighter brown than the rest of the boot, each have a small red symbol resembling an Octoling's tentacle. Finally, she was wearing a pair of large metal goggles that were covering both of the wearer's eyes, a darker circle of metal with a tiny purple hole in the center, presumably to look out of. There are also four studs on the goggles, two below each eye. She also had two long strands of seaweed attached to her head.
"Yes sir." The octoling saluted as she answered "Tech teams went over the footage twice and even checked it again a third time. Octostomp was destroyed and the zapfishs in Area 1 have been recovered by the Squidbeak Splatoon."
"Do we have identification for the culprits?" The octopus asked.
"Negative, sir. But we managed to get audio that they were identified as Agents 3 and 9. The female being Agent 3 while the male is Agent 9." The octoling replied while the octopus looked at the images of the two agents.
He was more interested in Agent 9 than he was with Agent 3. Unlike Agent 3, Agent 9 was more different than inklings. In fact, he looked like a hybrid of an inkling and an octoling. The octopus could see some characteristics of octolings on Agent 9; the suckers on his tentacles and his eye dashes that were common on female octolings. Yet at the same time, seeing characteristics of inklings on Agent 9; the suction cups at the end of his two long back tentacles and his ears. Not to mention the squid mantle on his head, which was weird.
"I see…" The octopus said while thinking 'So, you're still around Craig. I thought you would be dead by now, but I guess I was wrong. It won't matter in the end, I will get my revenge for what you did.' "Anything else?"
"Negative, sir." The octoling stated.
"Fine, leave." The octopus ordered, which the octoling saluted and left. The octopus mused in thought before pressing a call button "Commander, prep defenses in Area 2 and move the Octonozzle to the Area 2 arena."
"Yes sir!" A female voice replied before ending the call.
'You may have won the Great Turf War, Craig. But I have no intention of letting you winning again.' The octopus thought to himself while giving the expression of a man with an evil plan, smirking and his hands together on the desk with a plot brewing.
'You will pay for what you did years ago.'
Hello everyone. Apologies for such a long delay but a lot of things have been happening with me IRL. I hope you enjoy this new chapter, the next one will be about Area 2 and possibly more. Like in the beginning, I felt there was little story in it in the overall campaign. There were points of story and lore but usually around the end of the areas and/or boss battles. I feel Splatoon 2 had more story than the first so, I'll just be going with that.
I will attempt to give more character to individuals such as the other agents, Cuttlefish, and Octavio. Maybe make better battles like the Octolings.
Regardless, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and have a wonderful day.