AN: IT'S HEEERE! My next story is finally here! Let me start with this: yes, this is a story-mode adaptation, so I'm warning you now to EXPECT SPOILERS. (I know, I know, some of you probably expected or wanted something different, but if some of you stuck around with me for my first three stories, that means, by some miracle, I'm doing something right, right?) ANYWAY, with that obligatory warning out of the way, here's the first chapter! Hope you enjoy it!

Splatoon 3: Mammalian Madness

Chapter 1: A New Discovery

Well...looks like it's storytime again! I've been told this is pretty fun to do, so I think it'd be pretty cool if I kinda tag-teamed with someone when telling this story. You know, to give this whole thing the "multiple POV" kind of feeling, if you get what I mean. Before I get into this, let me tell you…WOW, this is a wild story to tell! I have no idea where to start or if you'll even believe a lick of it, but gosh darn it, I'm gonna tell it! Okay, most of that isn't entirely true...it's just...man, there's so much to go through here. I won't be alone telling it, but it's still a lot to tell, you know?

Ah, never mind. I'll just have to roll with it for now, so why don't I just start with some introductions?

Ok, so...hi, my name is Izzy, and I'm an Inkling. (I won't go into detail about what that is, so let's just say I'm a squid girl and move on, alright?) I'm sixteen years old and spend most of my free time splatting my enemies in ink battles like any other squid my age.

I live in Splatsville, a pretty big and rather rough spot in the Splatlands that's often called the "City of Chaos." And that's with some good reason. There are a lot of tough characters around here who think they're the biggest and baddest dudes who rule the streets. Some of them aren't that bad, though. Take me, for example. People might look at me and think I'm some kind of tough chick, but I wouldn't say I'm really like that. Don't get me wrong, I'm no pushover, but I'm not dumb enough to go out and just pick a random fight to prove how tough I am. But despite all of that, Splatsville is what I call home.

Anyway, my life is pretty weird yet awesome since I'm a part-time treasure hunter. Well, okay, technically speaking, I'm a scrap collector. See, I head outside of the city into the hot and sandy Splatlands to try to find some junk that might be pretty valuable. It's a lot of fun exploring what winds up out there, so I like saying I'm a kind of treasure hunter. Actually, you know what? This is probably the perfect thing to bring up at this point since I was out there when things kinda kicked off for this whole story!

I was out in the Splatlands exploring and attempting to collect valuables like usual. I was searching around a big scrap hill that somehow always wound up getting a little bigger out there whenever I came back. Where these scraps came from, I have no idea. I didn't really see too much that I could carry and would have higher values, so I consulted my hunting partner to see if he had better luck.

"Hey, you find anything?!" I shouted.

"Nope!" he shouted back from the other side of the pile. "It's as barren as…well, this desert!"

"Har har, very funny."

"Jokes aside, I really don't think we're having much luck today, Izzy."

"Yeah, you might be right…" I looked around and spied another pile of scrap in the distance. "Hey, why don't we check that one over there by that rock formation?"

"Alright, but before we do, can we stop for lunch first? I'm starving!"

"Yeah, sure. I think I see a shady spot over there anyway. We'll eat, cool off, and get back to it."

"Yes! Now, we're talking!"

I hadn't looked around to see where he was, so once I went around the pile to find him, I realized he wasn't where I thought.

"Uh, where are you anyway?" I asked.

"Up here-W-W-WHOA!"

I then heard the familiar and always hilarious sound of someone tumbling over a hill of scrap. I ran over to the other side of the pile and found a dark-skinned, green octopus boy lying face down on the ground. His bucket hat just landed on his head by the time I got to him. Yeah, I think this is a good way to introduce my best friend into this story…

"Y-You good, Otto?" I asked as I tried my hardest not to laugh. He gave a weak thumbs up and a dazed moan which meant he was fine, but I still helped him up. "Nice landing, but, heh, maybe next time, try to tuck and roll for bonus points."

"Agh! Blech!" he sputtered as he wiped the dust from his face. "Ugh, I'd be happy not to faceplant for once."

"But it's your trademark move."

"Funny…can we eat before I wither into nothingness now?"

"Heh heh, sure, let's go."

We both got our lunches, with Otto still brushing his white shirt clean, and headed over to the rock formation. It had just enough shade for us to sit down and keep cool as we ate.

"You know…" he said with some of his sandwich still in his mouth, "I expected a lot more when we agreed to go a bit further out into the desert to find some valuables. But there's NOTHING out here!"

"As they say 'one crab's trash is another crab's treasure,'" I said before sipping my soda. "So there's plenty here, just…none that we can really take back with us."

"Told you we should've gotten a truck."

"Uh...dude, neither of us can drive…or have a license."

"Who says they'd have to know it's missing?"

"And we're not stealing one! Especially not after what happened last time you tried that."

"So I accidentally ran over some loose urchin spikes which busted the tires and almost made me crash, but the best news of that day was that nobody got hurt!"

"True, but need I remind you that we almost got fired and you almost got arrested? We're lucky we were only let off with a warning and our last haul was enough to cover the repairs for the truck."

"Ooh, right...forgot about that..."

I sighed. Otto, if you couldn't tell, was a bit of a loose cannon, but he was a cool guy. We both met when I first showed up in Splatsville a few months ago, and we hit it off pretty quickly. In fact, he was the one who got me this job in the first place. I was happy to take it because I wanted to make some extra money. Ink battles were good for it, but having to compete in them every single day felt kinda tedious after a while. I wanted more, so Otto introduced me to scrap collecting. Honestly, it's a good gig.

As the two of us relaxed, I reached for my sandwich...which had somehow disappeared from my bag without me knowing. I looked over at Otto who was munching away while wiping his hands of the crumbs. I glared at him. Good friend or not, he was about to get hurt if he did what I think he did. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" he asked.

"Otto..." I said as calmly as possible, "where's my sandwich?"

"Uh...didn't you eat it already?" he asked.

"No. Did you?"

"No. W-Wait, what's that supposed to mean?!"

"You totally ate it, didn't you?!"

"No! I literally just finished mine."

"Don't lie to me!"

"Izzy, I swear on the Great Zapfish I did not eat that! I can't even eat two of your sandwiches, remember? You load them up with so much stuff that one is more than enough for me."

I thought about it, and he did have a point. I tended to load them up with a lot of meats, cheeses, and condiments, and he did have a smaller appetite than I did. I took his word for it.

"Ok, so if it wasn't you, then what happened to it?" I said. "I know I didn't just eat it without knowing."

"No clue, but if you're still hungry, you can eat my chips."

I shrugged. He reached for them in his lunch bag, but as he looked in it, he started digging through it kinda frantically.

"What the-?" he muttered. "I could've sworn I packed some..."

"Don't look at me," I said. "I was nowhere near that bag."

"This is weird...did we just forget to pack food properly or did someone just pull a fast one on us?"

"I don't kno-"

Suddenly, I heard the distinct sound of a bag crackling and chips crunching.

"Hey, you hear that?" I whispered. He listened out for the same sound. His ears perked up a bit.

"Yeah..." He was about to get up and look around for the source of the noise, but I held him back.

"Hold on, I think it's coming from behind this rock."

I motioned for him to stay put while I looked around it. When I reached the other side, I saw his chip bag rustling on its own. That set off a lot of alarm bells in my head because that REALLY wasn't normal. I motioned for him to come over and see it, and once he did, his eyes widened.

"What is it?!" he asked.

"How would I know?" I retorted. "Go check it out."

"No way, you do it."

"No! Just man up and get over there!"

"Ok, ok, look, why don't we both go for it? You stay put, and I'll go around. On my signal, we'll jump it together."

"Right."

Otto slinked back and quickly went to the other side of the rock. He and I then crept closer to the rustling chip bag. He held up three fingers and mouthed the countdown.

"Three...two...one...GO!"

We both rushed to the bag and grabbed it. Whatever was inside was small, but it struggled pretty wildly. I closed off the top of the bag, and Otto held the bottom to keep whatever it was still.

"What is it?!" I asked.

"I don't know, but it's lively!" he said. "And...kinda soft. Like a rubber ball or something. OW!"

Otto reeled back clutching his hand. I stupidly looked at the bottom of the bag and the next thing I knew, something jumped onto my face. I screamed as I tried to pull it off, but it wouldn't budge.

"OTTO, GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" I shrieked.

"Hold on, I got you!" I heard him say as he helped pull the thing off of me. "Let go of her, would ya?!"

I felt the creature finally release its grip, and it finally got off of my face. However, it took my White Invisfloat glasses as a parting gift. I couldn't see what the little thing was, but I could just barely make out that it was gnawing on the headband.

"Gimme those!" I demanded as I snatched them back. I removed the headband since it was covered in slobber and put them on again. Just as I did, the creature squirmed out of Otto's grip and scampered off behind a few piles of junk. "What was that thing?!"

"It...looked like a little fish..." Otto said. "Call me crazy, but I think it was a Salmonid..."

"A Salmonid? Way out here?"

The mystery creature poked its head out from the junk pile and looked at us with its bulging yellow eyes. It wore dark green pants, and on the top of its head was a tuft of yellow hair in a style that kinda reminded me of the top of a pineapple. Sure enough, once we got a good look at it, we determined that it was indeed a Salmonid.

Salmonids are a race of these super-aggressive salmon that keep coming up on land for some reason or another. I've never understood what their deal was that they kept doing that, but so long as they didn't come into my home, I didn't care where they were. I've seen a few pictures of them in various sizes, and they all look pretty wild and crazy. The one that we found appeared to be a smaller and younger version of one.

"Oh! I've heard of these things before," I said in realization. "It's a Smallfry, a young Salmonid."

The Smallfry ducked back behind the junk again quickly.

"Is it...is it afraid?" Otto said carefully.

"I think so..." I said. I honestly started feeling a little bad. I've heard that Salmonids usually work in groups, but I've never seen a little one all by its lonesome. If I were that size, I'd probably be a little nervous after being jumped by two giant cephalopods, too.

Suddenly, the Smallfry returned from its hiding spot and charged at us with a gurgling battle cry. (I couldn't say it "ran" at us per se since Salmonids don't have legs. They just sorta...waddled to get anywhere. Still, it was pretty fast.) In one of its fins, it held a small plastic spork. Once it got to Otto, it started smacking his leg with the little weapon. Otto didn't flinch, and we both looked at each other with confused expressions.

"Oh..." I said. "It wasn't afraid...it was just retreating and grabbing its 'weapon' to attack us..."

"Heh heh, it's trying its hardest, though," Otto said while cracking a grin as it continued its very weak assault on his shin.

Finally, after a few more seconds, the Smallfry finally tired out and collapsed on its belly panting in exhaustion. This was when Otto and I couldn't contain our laughter, and we let loose with it.

"Hahaha, wow, that was just...adorable!" I said wiping a tear from my eye.

"Yeah, heh heh," Otto said while calming down. The Smallfry quickly sat up and seemed to be full of energy again. It looked around quickly as if it were trying to figure out where it was again. Finally, it relaxed a bit and decided to just nibble on its spork in a bored daze. Otto quickly grabbed the spork. "Whoa, whoa, don't eat that! You'll choke on it."

The Smallfry tried reaching for it, but he kept it out of reach. We heard the sound of a low growl coming from the little fish. The Smallfry felt its belly and moaned a little sadly.

"Aww...poor thing must be hungry..." I said. "Wait a minute, you're the one who ate our food, aren't you?"

It bounced a little as if to say "Yep!" before letting out a little burp. I glowered at it, and it bashfully looked away.

"Little fish, big appetite..." Otto said with a raised eyebrow. "If it's hungry, do we have something else we can give it?"

"Hmm..." I thought for a minute and snapped my fingers once I got an idea. I went back to get my lunch box, and I pulled out a couple of sugar cookies. The Smallfry's big eyes managed to somehow widen even more in awe. It hopped up excitedly, begging for one.

"Heh, here you go, little guy," I said as I knelt down and gave him one. It excitedly munched on it and licked its lips when it was done.

"There. Happy now?" Otto said sarcastically. The Smallfry hopped in place excitedly, making Otto smirk. "I'll, uh, take that as a 'yes.'"

"This is cute and all, but it doesn't make sense. Why's a Smallfry all the way out here on its own?"

"I don't know. Salmonid schools usually look after one another, but I guess this one might've wandered too far away."

"I wonder if its family knows it's missing..."

"My guess is no, but I'm hoping I'm wrong about that."

Something in my gut told me that his family was long gone at this point. I didn't like the idea of a young creature out all by its lonesome. It just didn't feel right. The Smallfry then came closer and nuzzled against me. I pet its head and pushed down its hair in the process. It noticed before shaking its head and making it pop back into place.

"Otto...?" I said.

"Yeah?"

"Would it be wrong if I just...uh..."

"Don't tell me. You wanna keep it, don't you?"

"Well, come on! Just look at him!"

"Him?"

"Uh, my gut's telling me it's male..."

The Smallfry nodded in response. (Wow, first guess.)

"Look at him!" I continued. "He's small and pretty much defenseless. Who knows what could happen to him if we just leave him out here?"

"Good point. Well, he seems harmless enough. Just really, REALLY hungry. What could a little guy like him do to cause any trouble?"

"See? Besides, I can make sure he doesn't do anything crazy."

"Okay, well, I'm with you."

"You are?"

"Sure! It's not every day we get up close and personal to a Salmonid that isn't hostile." The Smallfry snapped at him making him back up a little. "Ok, mostly not hostile. I think he really likes you, Izzy."

I tossed Otto the other cookie, and the Smallfry immediately jumped toward him begging for it. Otto dangled it over his head before dropping it, and the little salmon caught it in his mouth and munched away at it. Otto knelt down and raised his hand for a high-five. The Smallfry responded by hopping up and slapping his hand with his tailfin. We both laughed at the spectacle because of how unexpected it was.

"I guess feeding him is like saying 'Hey, I'm nice,'" I said with a smile. "Good to know. But, uh, what do we call him?"

"Hmm...how about just Smallfry?"

"Nah, it needs to be unique. Something nice, something fitting, something perfect for him."

"Li'l Tater?"

"Cute, wiseguy, real cute...get serious!"

"I am!" He wasn't...I could see the sly grin on his face. "But our shift's almost over, so we'd better head back. We can figure out something on the way."

"Fair enough," I said as I knelt down and gently picked up the Smallfry. "I hope this is alright with you, little guy."

The Smallfry flapped his fins excitedly. The next thing we knew, he hovered up above my head and lay down with a little sigh. Otto and I just looked at each other and shrugged as we gathered our stuff and got ready to head back to Splatsville.

"This is one strange little salmon..." I thought, "but he was our strange little salmon now, I guess."

AN: So it begins...let's see how this goes. See you in the next chapter!