Splatoon 3: Mammalian Madness

Chapter 2: An Unexpected Food Run

Otto, the Smallfry, and I trekked through the desert for a bit before we reached the train stop. It was the same one we used to get to the desert, and just as we reached it, the train arrived. It was surprisingly easy to smuggle a Smallfry onto it without arousing any suspicions. Well, I can't really call it "smuggling" since people brought their pets on there all the time anyway.

We took our seats and got comfortable. Our little friend quickly began looking around curiously.

"Ok, so seriously," I said as the train lurched forward, "where do you think the little guy came from?"

"No idea," Otto said. "How do these guys normally travel?"

"Uh...I think in the water? Which begs the question...how the heck did he wind up in a desert?!"

"Don't ask me. I don't have all the answers. What do you think happened?"

"Freak accident and he wound up there? I dunno..."

"Still, poor guy," Otto said while petting him gently. "All alone out there. It's gotta be rough..."

"He survived for this long, so he's definitely tougher than he looks. Isn't that right, li'l buddy?"

The Smallfry puffed out his chest proudly.

"Careful, Izzy," Otto warned jokingly. "Puff up his ego too much, and he'll pop like a balloon."

I poked the fish's stomach, and he let out a little squeaking sound. (Not gonna lie, I melted a little. It was so cute!) He didn't take too kindly to that and bumped into my side in retaliation. It didn't hurt or anything. It was like having a little rubber ball just bounce against me.

"Heh, ok, tough guy, chill out," Otto chuckled as he grabbed him to settle him down. "Scrappy little dude, huh?"

"Yeah." Inspiration struck me. "Huh...scrappy."

"Yeah...you know, likes to fight and stuff."

"I know what it means, dummy. I'm thinking about a name for him: Scraps. It fits his attitude and how we found him."

"Hmm...Scraps. That's not too bad, actually. Also, isn't there a Salmonid called a Scrapper anyway? Maybe he'll turn into one of those when he gets bigger?"

"What do you think?" I asked the little fish. He seemed to think about it for a moment before he bounced a bit in place with a little smile at us.

"Huh, guess he likes it," Otto said.

"Ok," I said. "Scraps, it is then."

We all heard a low growling sound which we realized was Scraps's stomach again. He pat his stomach sadly. I couldn't believe he was still hungry.

"Don't worry," I said as I pet his head, "Once we get off this train, I'll get you something to eat...and maybe something for us, too."

"It'll be another...er, hour or so, though," Otto added uneasily.

Scraps's jaw dropped, and he spun around dizzily before falling on his back in the seat. Otto and I looked at each other.

"Welp, that's the second shortest time I've had a pet..." I said.

"Second? Really?" Otto said. "Wait, you never told me you had one before."

"Well, it wasn't a 'pet' per se. It was a bird that kept following me one day."

"Oh. So you took it in?"

"Nah, I just let it follow me before I realized it was one of those birds that eats sea creatures and was just trying to eat my hair."

"Ouch...when was this? When you were little?"

"Er...last week."

Otto's eyes widened before burst out laughing. Naturally, that was embarrassing since people were starting to look at us.

"Is-Is that why your hair's such a mess now?" he asked while still laughing.

"Shut up! You're so loud!" I quietly shouted while pushing him. "And quit laughing, I really tried to fix it!"

"Hahaha, oh, cod..."

"I hate you."

"And yet, you hang out with me anyway."

He got a swift hit in the arm for that right then and there, but I couldn't deny he had a few points. My hair, while a very nice teal color, was an honest mess because of that incident, so I tried to clean it up. It was cut short, pretty unkempt, and kinda dried out at the ends. (Stupid hair dryer...) Still, in a weird way, I was oddly getting kinda used to it...

Anyway, after riding the rails for a bit, the train finally stopped. Once we disembarked, we had to take a minute to take in the breathtaking sight of our home city, Splatsville.

I'll admit, Splatsville is a bit...out there. No, that's not right..."chaotic" would probably be a better word. It was a bit crowded at times, kinda noisy, and just generally pretty hard to live in for some people. Although, it had its charm and was a pretty cozy spot to live in, too, if you got lucky. It was also a surprisingly close community especially by the main hangout area, so most people just knew each other for one reason or another. Still, it was a pretty smart idea to try not to associate with people who seemed a bit shady.

Not a perfect paradise, but it's home.

The first thing Otto and I decided to do was check in with our scrap collector boss. Once we got to the building, I stopped Otto from going in when I saw the sign up front.

"What's up?" he asked. I pointed to the sign.

"'No pets allowed,'" I read aloud. "Right...I forgot about that..."

"Hey, uh, does Scraps even count as a pet?"

"You know, that's something to probably look into later. But for now, what do we do?"

"Here, gimme the stuff you found. I'll see what we can get for it. You just watch him out here."

"Gotcha. Maybe we'll get something for that Splattershot Jr. we found out there."

I handed him my bag of treasures, and I took a seat on a bench nearby as he went in. Scraps was about to follow him, but I scooped him up before he could.

"Hold on," I said to him, "you're staying out here with me."

Scraps blew a raspberry and folded his arms...er, fins.

"Come on, don't be that way. He'll be back in a minute. In the meantime, how about we figure out what to eat?"

He perked right up at the mention of food.

"I knew you'd like that. But first, I need to clean up and change a bit..."

I took Scraps to the changing room around the building. I set him down on a carboard box lying nearby.

"You stay right there, understand?" I told him. "I'll be right back."

He seemed to understand and stayed put as I went inside to grab my clothes. Anyone who worked with the scrap collectors had to share small lockers because space was so limited. Naturally, I shared mine with Otto which was also good since I really didn't trust some of my other coworkers to not steal my stuff and sell it for some bonus cash. (Hasn't happened to me yet, but I heard stories.)

To not leave Scraps outside for too long, I quickly cleaned the sand and dirt off of me and changed into my more casual clothes which consisted of my red Annaki Tee, Seafoam Hoodie, and Pearl 01STERs.

Once I was done, I came back outside expecting Scraps to be asleep or lazing around, but apparently, I really underestimated just how adventurous and hungry he was. He was gone...

"Uh, Scraps?" I called out as I looked around the box I set him on. "Scraps, where'd you go?!"

He wasn't around the area either, and that was when I began going into panic mode. I had a feeling in the back of my mind that it would've been a bad idea to leave him on his own too long. I hurried around the corner of the building, and just as my luck would have it, it was crowded in the main hangout spot.

"Oh, come on, you crazy fish," I muttered in annoyance. "I told you to stay put..."

I then began a quick mad dash around the place looking for any sign of him. Luckily, to my short relief, I eventually found him...and he was freaking out a bunch of people as he rushed passed them.

I hurried after him to try to catch up. He then approached a small group of people eating some foods from one of the stands outside. Scraps, possibly channeling his inner flying fish, decided to jump and snatch the foods right from out of the hand of one of them,

"Hey!" one Inkling boy shouted. "What the-?!"

"Is that a Smallfry?!" an Inkling girl screamed.

"Oh, cod...this can't be good," I thought. They started trying to kick him away, but they did it so frantically that they kept missing as they scrambled to get away from him. Scraps continued munching on the food that he shoved entirely in his mouth, clearly not caring that he just stole it and the Inklings and Octolings around him were trying to shoo him off.

"Chill out, I got this!" an Octoling boy said as he raised a Roller. "Hold still!"

"NO! WAIT! DON'T HURT HIM!" I shrieked as I sprinted over to them. I don't know why, but my first instinct to stop Scraps from being crushed by that Roller was to tackle the guy who had it.

"Ow!" he exclaimed. "What the halibut, lady!"

"Hey, get off!" the other two yelled as they pulled me off of him.

"Sorry! Sorry!" I said repeatedly. "I was just trying to protect my-"

Once I looked over in Scraps' direction, he was already gone again. This time, he was heading towards the battle tower.

"Oh, for cod's sake!" I yelled as I ran after him. "Hey, wait! There's no food up there!"

I scrambled up the stairs leading to the tower, and he was just enteiring it by the time I got up there. At that moment, I rememebered that there was a concessions stand inside, so he must've been smelling the food. It was really good, so I couldn't blame him. That was also the moment when I realized that Scraps was about to run into a building with dozens of armed cephalopods. Yeah, that was bad. Really, really bad.

I rushed in hoping that, by some miracle, there wasn't a commotion going on. Naturally, I was wrong. Scraps had raided the concessions and was scarfing down the inventory. The panicking goldfish lady who worked there was scrambling to get him to stop.

"Oh, now, stop that!" she yelled while trying to catch him. "You need to pay for those if you need to eat!"

"SCRAPS!" I shouted. "GET OUTTA THERE!"

He clearly saw me, and he gained a look of surprise and fear like a kid who's parent just caught him with his hand in a cookie jar. Ironically, he had a cookie in his mouth...

"O-Ok, little buddy," I said as calmly as I could. I carefully approached him. "Take it easy. I said I would feed you once I came out, so you don't need to keep eating, alright? Put down the snacks and-"

I saw the look in his eyes that made me stop. It was the look of someone ready to book it and not look back. He saw a few plastic utensils nearby and shoved a bunch into his mouth.

"What're you doing?! You can't eat-"

He inhaled.

"Wait, no, no, don't you dare!"

He spat them back out at me. Plastic forks and knives covered in his green, inky slobber flew in my direction like a bunch of Tenta Missiles. I took cover since they were going so fast, I'm pretty sure they would've impaled me instead of taking out one of the practice dummies.

"Wow, heh, cool trick..." I chuckled nervously. When I looked up, he was gone again. "Oh, no..."

Just as I was about to follow him, I heard the concessions lady clear her throat.

"Uh, does that little fella belong to you?" she asked.

"Kinda, yeah..." I said while turning uneasily to her.

"Well, it just ate maybe a weeks worth of meals."

Looking at the newly disheveled stand, I knew where this was going. I sighed and was on the verge of tears knowing that what I would say next would hurt both my soul and my wallet.

"I...uh, d-don't think I have the money to pay for all of this right now," I squeaked, "B-But I'll pay you back! I promise!"

"I'll hold you to it, young lady," she said with a rather clear eye roll. "Until then, you're not getting a single thing from here."

"That's...fair. How much do I owe you?"

I'll spare you the amount she said. It still hurts to even mention...

I excused myself with a sheepish grin and ran back outside of the tower. Behind that smile was a mix of regret, shame, and a lot of fury towards a certain rambunctious little fish.

This time, I was pretty sure I lost Scraps entirely because I couldn't even see his trail of carnage around the area.

"Oh, Scraps, you're really testing me now," I muttered angrily. I facepalmed. "Ugh, how am I even get all that money?"

"Yo, Izzy!" I heard Otto call out. He ran up towards me sporting his casual clothes which were his usual Bucket Hat, blue Annaki Tee, Lime Ski Jacket, and Zebrafish Hi-tops.

"Otto, hey..." I said trying to look calm.

"Uh, hey? You look...stressed...?" So much for looking calm.

"Yeah, er, we got a situation..."

"What's up? And where's Scraps?"

"That's the problem. I may have...lost him..."

"What?!"

"I didn't mean to!" I blurted out. "I just set him outside when I went to change into my normal clothes, and he ran off. I almost caught him, but he's too fast. You haven't seen people freaking out about something have you? It might be him running around."

"No, I haven't..."

"Carp, carp, carp! Otto, we need to find him before he eats everything!"

"Alright, alright, just chill out! Look, he's a Smallfry with a big appetite, so chances are he's just gonna follow his stomach and nose. Let's go around and see if we can find any food source."

"Good idea! Let's hurry before someone calls animal or pest control."

"Or worse, Grizzco."

I shuddered at the thought of that.

"Ugh, don't even joke about that, man..."

"Sorry. Let's roll."

I was about to tell him about the money I owed the concessions lady, but I figured it'd be better to save that for when we've finally caught Scraps. He wasn't gonna like hearing that, though...

AN: Ok, so obviously, it's been a hot minute since I actually updated this story. (Especially since it's only the second chapter lol) My excuse/explanation: life. It gets in the way sometimes, and there's not much I can do about it. Anyway, expect very, very sporadic updates. I will finish this, but it'll take a while.

Either way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you in the next one where hopefully things calm down for Izzy and Otto.