Chapter Seven:
Sea Dogs, Spaghetti and Splatsassins
Upbeat music filled Inkopolis Square, which was nearly twice the size of Inkopolis Plaza, as Inklings spoke with friends, had ice cream or coffee and went shopping for new clothes or weapons. A couple Jellyfish minded their own business with one extending its arm and tracing it along the ground, a few Octolings toured the place, took a couple photos and chatted amongst themselves.
The sunlight gleamed off a large golden turtle statue overlooking the district by Deca Tower and its Turf War Lobby, making it glow as bright as the jumbotrons advertising various weapon and clothing brands. The Great Zapfish rested around the tower, watching over the city it was providing power to.
Inklings exited the Turf War lobby, carrying golden coins that they'd earned from their victories, gifted to them by Judd and Li'l Judd. Crusty Sean smiled as he attended his ice cream truck, giving out ice cream to the city's inhabitants and those who visited the lovely and colorful Splatoon city.
"Hey, yoo-hoo."
Crusty looked over the counter on the side of his van, seeing the plucky mustached Italian in red-blue overalls with derp-y eyes staring at him.
"And how may we help you, sir?" The friendly crustacean asked.
"Mario would like some spaghetti, plz?" Mario said. After the chaos of the assassin attack and, while Saiko and her band were doing their own things, like yesterday's Turf War or music practice, the fat Italian had decided to wander the city some more while reminiscing a little. And now, he was hungry for spaghetti... and in Inkopolis Square of all places.
"We don't have spaghetti, sir." Crusty said, "Buuut..." He offered Mario a sea dog, basically Inkopolis' version of a hot dog with a bun, "We have this."
"Oooh..." Mario reached into his pocket and pulled out ten gold Mushroom Kingdom coins, "Can I have it?"
"Yes, you can." Crusty said with a smile in his eyes, handing Mario the sea dog and accepting the coins, "Enjoy your meal, sir."
'It may not be spaghetti, but that certainly looks yummy.' Mario thought, licking his lips as he savored the sight of the sea dog that he held in his hands.
He walked away from Crusty's and sat down at a nearby table, then he helped himself to the tasty meal, eating every inch of the sea dog. It tasted so crunchy, so soft, Mario didn't recall the last time he ate Splatoon food.
Then again, he never forgot when he ate one of those Sea Snails at Spike's alleyway shop during his first visit to Inkopolis on the day he met Meggy. It had taken him a while to turn back into regular Mario and, despite his history of taking power-up mushrooms, eating Sea Snails was where he drew the line... not counting that Splat-Bomb he mistook for a Dorito.
Mario munched every last piece of his sea dog until it was gone. Just as he was finishing the last bite, he turned and spotted a purple-haired Octoling boy with glasses dressed in black sitting at another table and, right in front of him, was a plate of spaghetti.
'Oh my gosh, mama mia.' Mario thought, his eyes widening and his heart thumping. He. Could. Not. Resist.
He shot up from his table, dashed towards the other table, and stopped near the Octoling's chair, taking the fella by surprise. Mario looked at him with a bright expression in his eyes, then he said, "That's a nice spaghetti there. Can I have it?"
"Oh, sure." The Octoling replied, "I didn't know you liked spaghetti."
Mario whooped and sat down as the Octoling passed the plate over to him. Mario dug into the sweet, sweet-looking pile of noodles, meatballs and sauce, scarfing it down rabidly like a beast as a couple of Inklings watched, feeling a little disturbed. Mario soon finished it and flashed the Octoling a thumbs up, "That's-a so nice-a."
"Glad you liked it." The Octoling said, "By the way, are you Mario, the silly lookin' fat guy on Team SplatSquad? Name's Cooper, by the way."
"Nice to meet you, Cooper." Mario nodded, "Mario can't thank you enough again for-a the spaghetti."
"Must be real tasty." Cooper remarked, "I know, I've been trying out spaghetti for a while."
"Ooooh, I've been eating lotsa spaghetti for years and it never gets-a stale. Once you've had-a your first spaghetti meal, you can't-a forget how tasty and-a gorgeous it is. Mario and spaghetti are-a inseparable, even though I'm-a willing to-a share it with people if they're feeling down, like-a Meggy before she turned into a human, when she was struggling with Splatfest."
"Well, sounds to me like spaghetti can help people with their problems." Cooper smiled, "And it seems that it really helped Meggy in the long run, especially with how well you guys did in that last tournament. I never thought spaghetti would be good motivation food."
"Mmm-hmm. You can learn a lot from..." Mario trailed off and frowned, noticing a red light shining on his head, mostly thanks to the clear reflection in the table, "Why is there a dot on-a my head? Is another person trying to-a kill Mario? This-a seems to happen a lot and, I swear, someone must be really out for my spaghetti noodles..."
"GET DOWN!"
Cooper jumped out of his chair, pounced on Mario and pinned him on the ground just as a gunshot went off. Inklings shrieked in surprise and another gunshot rang out, Mario and Cooper rolled out of the way, noticing a trail of red light before the next shot exploded. They took cover under a table and looked up, spotting a shadowy figure on the roof with a rifle.
"JUMPING ZAPFISH!" Shouted ASpider25 aka Green, a green-colored Inkling in a mask, "WHAT THE SQUID IS GOING ON HERE?!"
BLAM! A gunshot exploded right by the humanoid squid, who narrowly avoided it. Mario scrambled out of cover and jumped onto Green, pushing him out of the way before another gunshot rang out, streaking by so fast, it caused Mario's hat to fall off.
"Uh, thanks." Green said to the fat Italian, "Can you get off me now?"
"MARIO, BE CAREFUL!" Cooper yelled.
BLAM, BLAM, BLAM! The mysterious attacker fired again and Mario jumped to his feet while Green morphed into his squid form and made a run for it, racing to a nearby sewer grate for cover under the streets. Mario ran and shouted like a madman, picked up his hat and ducked inside a coffee shop before the sniper pulled the trigger again.
Glass shattered and Mario yelped as shards rained down around him. The jellyfish in charge of the shop yelled at the fat Italian, telling him to deal with the terrorist instead of cowering, running and luring the assailant into causing property damage.
The spaghetti-loving hero nodded and dashed out onto the streets of Inkopolis once more, noticing the red laser beam of the attacker's weapon as it moved with the assassin trying to get him in their sights.
Mario pounced onto a purple-haired Inkling girl with short tentacles, sporting purple gloves, coned ear muffs, black shorts and a white-colored shirt with purple sleeves and light-purple polka dots, right as she was roller-skating by. He recognized her as one of the Splatfest players who didn't make it far, but his memory lane trip was short-lived by another gunshot.
"Wha... Why is this happening?!" Sharon exclaimed, "And I was just trying to enjoy an afternoon of roller-skating."
He got off of her and helped her up, then Mario noticed that the attacker had left their position on the roof and was advancing in his direction... in cyan-blue squid form!
If Mario didn't know any better, this was the same Inkling assassin who had attacked him and the band when they were checking into their hotel rooms. Or maybe this was a different assassin?
"It's-a Mario time!" The plumber cried, "You're too slow!"
He jumped in to intercept the attacker and pounced on them, pinning the mysterious masked Inkling to the ground and knocking the gun out of their hand as they reverted back into their humanoid form.
"Okie-dokie." Mario pulled out a bat, "You're going to talk and tell me why you're doing this as well as who you're working for. Or... Mario's going to do something very illegal!"
"DID WE JUST MISS AN ASS-WHOOPING?!"
Saiko had arrived on the scene with Meggy, Shroomy and Whimpu, who were in the area with Saiko's band manager, Jeeves. Mario lowered his bat and waved happily to the others, "Oh, hey-a, girls... and-a guys. Mario just took out this nasty Pisano and..."
"GET OFF ME, YOU STUPID FAT MUSTACHED IDIOT!"
"Oof, mama mia!" Mario fell off as the mysterious Inkling shot to their feet. And then, they morphed into squid form and launched into the air in a super jump, even without the usage of an Inkling launch pad. The mysterious attacker retreated to the rooftop, and then, they ran off, leaving behind a frustrated Mario and several surprised Inklings and Octolings.
"That mamaf***er got away again!" Mario yelled.
"But at least nobody was hurt." Meggy remarked.
"And we should be thankful for that." Jeeves grunted.
"So, what's-a goin' on?" The fat Italian then asked in an upbeat manner, "Aside from being attacked by a Squidward again."
"I was just about to get some coffee with Alex." Saiko said, "Then we heard there was a commotion in the plaza and you were under attack, so we came to help."
"Hold on." Mario raised a hand, "You were going to get coffee with who?"
"Alex." Meggy and Saiko both said.
Meggy pulled out her phone and showed Mario a picture of a green-haired Inkling with brown skin, followed by another picture, one that showed Saiko holding hands with him. Or, as Saiko insisted, he'd taken her hand. Mario studied the pictures, and then, he started to laugh.
"You mean the squid boy you met outside the hotel?" Mario chuckled, "You're telling me that you two are dating?!"
"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND, JACKASS!" Saiko yelled, "We're... We're just friends, it's just that... he's a fan of mine and likes me, b-but not in the romantic way, even though Meggy is trying to play matchmaker when we..."
"It's okay, Saiko. We're cool."
The group turned and saw a green-haired Inkling with brown skin in a red sweater heading their way, rather Saiko's way, with a sweet smile. Mario looked at the photos on Meggy's phone, then he looked at the Inkling in the vicinity until he realized this was Alex. If Mario had an opinion on him, Alex looked like "a nice Squidward boy".
"Yo, Mario!" A blue haired Inkling boy wearing goggles shouted, "We're not Squidward!"
"Chill, Goggles, chill! He means no offense." Alex said. He flashed a smile that was so nice, Mario thought he saw his teeth sparkle, "Right now, Saiko and I have... some coffee business. In fact, maybe we could swing by the Squid Sisters' studio. I hear Callie and Marie are hanging out with Off The Hook, Callie said she wouldn't mind if Saiko, Meggy and the rest of the band joined them."
Meggy's face brightened up. "That would be great, I haven't talked with Marina in a while."
Saiko punched the air, "Ah, yeah! The Mushroom Kingdom's number one rock-stars are hanging out with the popstars of Inkopolis!"
"Can I come too, girls?" Mario asked.
Saiko and Meggy looked at each other, feeling a little uneasy, especially since Mario had a tendency to cause trouble. Hopefully, he wouldn't. Besides, what was the worst that could happen?
