Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material appearing in this story. The OC's belong to their respective owners.

Before Azure Joined the Heroes in Alterna

BGM: Big Run - Main Theme (Splatoon 3)

Azure stood on top of a railing in the middle of Wahoo World, shooting down several Chums and Cohocks with a few team members that were making a mess of things.

"Sheesh… never thought they'd come deep into the city…" Azure mumbled to himself, throwing a Splat Bomb into a group of Chums.

"Wah!" A male Inkling tripped over a few Small Fry as he was soon targeted by missiles by a Fly Fish. "...Oh splat me." He groaned as he was bombarded by said missiles.

Azure grimaced as he threw a Splat Bomb at the life preserver before Squid Jumping on top of the Fly Fish, pulling out two Splat Bombs with a smirk and then tossed them in, before jumping away as the Fly Fish exploded, leaving behind Golden Eggs as he jumped over and stacked them up as he hopped off the ledge and hurried over to the Egg Basket as a Cohock nearly smacked him with a frying pan, only to get destroyed by a female Inkling who swung her Flingza Roller into him.

"Booyah!" She fist pumped while Azure threw the Golden Eggs into the basket.

At that moment, the alarms sounded as the Salmonids retreated for now.

Pause BGM

"Phew… is that it?" A rookie Octoling boy asked.

"That was just the second wave. Now we're going into the third." Azure reminded.

"How many waves are there?!"

"I told you this was a bad idea for a rookie." The male Inkling said.

"Eh, experience is experience." The female Inkling shrugged.

"Heads up, you got Grillers on your tails." Grizz said.

Resume BGM

"Grill WHAT?!" The Octoling whimpered as a Griller came into view.

"Well, at least it's not Glowflies…" Azure said as he pumped his Splattershot and took a few steps, only to fall over and faceplant into the ink. "Mmmph! What…?!" He looked down to see his shoelaces tied together, noticing a Smallfry swimming away. "Hey!" He glared as the Smallfry turned around with a mischievous giggle and disappeared into the drink. "...Ugh, I hate Small Fries…"

A Griller had its sights on Azure as it made its way toward him as he untied his shoelaces while another Griller came in and had the others preoccupied. Azure looked up to see the Griller right on top of him. "...Aw splat."

Suddenly, in a flash, a shadow came in and slashed the Griller hard enough to send it careening into the other Griller. Two human feet landed in front of Azure. "You okay?" A woman's voice asked.

"Huh…? Who are you?"

The woman, standing at five foot seven, she had long auburn hair tied back in a layered ponytail, had fair skin and ocean blue eyes. She wore a pastel blue leather jacket over a pale pink tunic, a pair of blue jeans with knee pads, a pair of chocolate brown combat boots, black fingerless gloves, and a matching colored leather belt with a bronze buckle shaped in her family crest. There is a silver breastplate covering her full torso, as well as a holder draped over her left shoulder that holds her weapon in place on her back. Fastened to her head was a pastel pink outdoorsman helmet with the Kingdom of Mistral's logo on the sides, black flaps covering her ears, and a tempered glass visor covering her upper face to protect her eyes and glasses.

She held a two handed sword with rounded edges on one side, a keen cutting blade on the other, she also had a Wind Dust crystal inside of it.

She turned around with a smile on her face. "Cordelia Brooks, nice to meet ya!"

"Never thought I'd meet a human like this."

Cordelia turned around. "Untie your shoes. I'll cover you."

With a nod, Azure went right to work on untying his laces as the Griller came back steaming as Cordelia swung her sword into the Griller again, this time hitting the fish tail poking out of the lid as it stalled and spun around as Cordelia tilted her head before hitting the other fish tails, and by the time Azure sprang back up, he shot at the fish tails, causing the Griller to explode as they both threw the Golden Eggs into the basket.

"Usually we have four at a time, but I am not opposed to more help. I've heard of humans appearing in the Splatlands, but I never thought I'd see one again for so long…"

"Hmm? Did you say something, Grizz?" The female Inkling asked.

"Oh. Don't worry, it's nothing. Just collect those golden eggs!"

Azure and Cordelia both shot/slashed at the Grillers as the other side took care of two Grillers making their lives miserable, but Cordelia swam through the water and came out, slashing the Griller's fish tail to stun it, giving them the opportunity to go hog wild on the Grillers until they were destroyed.

Once all the Golden Eggs were thrown into the basket, the remaining Grillers disappeared into the water right as the victory alarms played.

"Good work. Wahoo World should be fully secured and-"

End BGM

WARNING! WARNING!

"Uh oh…" A male Inkling grimaced as a massive Salmonid came bursting out of the water. Cohozuna… and he was sporting green eyes.

BGM: King Cohozuna (Splatoon 3)

Large, Fat and Ugly - Cohozuna

"Another one of these…" Azure readied himself.

"This should be the last wave. Knock down that Cohozuna otherwise Wahoo World is done for. I'm authorizing Egg Cannons to shoot that thing down with Golden Eggs!"

Cordelia got in a stance. "Alright… let's knock this big boy down."

"Wh-what the kelp is THAT?!" The rookie Octoling yelled.

"A King Salmonid… although I've never seen one with green eyes before!" The female Inkling said as the Salmonids came out at full force, some of them malicious, some of them not… but what confused them all were the fact the malicious Salmonids were turning against their fellow Salmonids.

"That's peculiar… I've never seen this before. I've heard rumors, though."

"Let's focus on the big guy while they tear each other to shreds!" Azure said as he shot at Cohozuna to get his attention. He turned to him and unleashed a torrent of water at him. "Ack!" He dove for cover as it left a massive hole in a wall. "What in the…?"

"I'm willing to bet that green eyes mean it's not like other Cohozuna we've met. This one might have a few tricks up his sleeve."

"Yeah, Grizz… I've noticed!" Azure said as the Inklings and Octoling threw Golden Eggs at him while Cordelia swung her sword into his belly to push him back. A Steelhead came swimming over and tried to assist, only for a Malicious Maws to come up and tore the Steelhead to shreds, and then was skewered when a Fish Stick dropped its pillar on top of it, exploding the Booyah Bomb that the Steelhead was charging up in the process.

Azure glanced over at the golden eggs laying about as he swam over to it and shot them at the Cohozuna, then the big Salmonid jumped into the air to try and slam down to create a big splash… only it didn't, since Cordelia had caught him, only the massive weight was enough to put her down on one knee.

"Not… a… chance… in hell!" She threw the Cohozuna back, getting up and countering the Cohozuna with a powerful slash that knocked it back on a Steel Eel, crushing the giant metal head that startled the driver, and then it got frying panned by a malicious Cohock.

"...Whoa." The Inklings and Octoling said in awe, the latter had his eyes sparkling.

"So cool!"

"...Were humans always this strong?" Grizz wondered.

Cohozuna got back up and roared, charging up a Kaboomle with his mouth. "I'll take it!" Azure said, jumping up and charging up a Booyah Bomb. "Booooo…. YAAAAAAAAAH!" He threw the Booyah Bomb in his mouth, which caused a chain reaction that made the Kaboomle explode in his mouth that stunned the massive creature as it belly flopped on the ground, then Cordelia raised her sword up and swung it down to behead the giant beast.

End BGM

"It's over! Wahoo World is saved!" Grizz declared as the water started to recede, leaving behind a massive mess to clean up. "I'll send in a clean up crew to clean up the mess before it can be authorized to return to Turf Wars and other matters. You can stay here and help out if you want. I don't care what you'll do, but you'll be paid regardless."

"That was pretty cool how you did that." Cordelia said.

"Aw, thanks… I just saw an opening and thought I could cancel it out." He admitted. "Now then… you wanna grab a mop? This is gonna take a while."

"Absolutely."

A few hours cleaning later…

"Alright, out you go!" A janitorial Inkling said, dumping out a car in the ferris wheel with some freeloading Salmonids while some other Octoling and Inklings tidied up a rollercoaster.

"I used to do a lot of Salmon Run for years." Azure said. "However, I stopped doing it because I finally realized that it's shady as kelp. Not to mention Grizz is… sketchy."

"Indeed. I came to this world because I felt there was something fishy going on and I wanted to get to the bottom of it." Cordelia explained. "I was hoping I'd bring my kids along but they had another commitment. I had just missed them."

"Oh, who are your kids?"

"Camrin and Chloe, they are a part of Team MAJC."

"Ah, I see."

"I didn't want to wait for them, I was getting a bit antsy… although, I would've dropped by earlier, but I was held up by Ammo Knights."

Earlier…

"Um… you just slapped a sticker on this and called it new?" Cordelia asked, looking at a Custom Splattershot Jr.

"I even painted it!" Sheldon said.

Cordelia sweatdropped. "Riiiight…"

Back in the present…

"You can't tell me he just dipped it into a paint can and slapped a sticker on it and called it "new"." Cordelia said.

"Yeah, I've never been a fan of Sheldon…" Azure mumbled. "Especially when he urges you to "Try out this weapon instead of that one!" It made searching for Callie a little unbearable at times."

"Oh…"

"Anyway, while I don't do Salmon Run anymore, I typically do Big Runs these days because… honestly, it's the right thing to do, what, with the Salmonids invading the areas every so often."

"Right." Cordelia smiled.

"But yeah, I feel there's something shady going on in with Salmon Run and Grizzco, but I'm not sure what it is. I heard there's a top employee that goes by Ikura, but I dunno if I just missed her or she's on break."

"Hmm, well, we can always find out."

"Yeah." Azure looked at his phone, seeing three missed messages. "Huh? I missed a few texts?" He then realized who it was from, causing him to slightly blush.

"Hey, we're heading over to the Crater. Captain Three is with us. Want to come too?" - Marie

Ten minutes later…

"You there? You usually respond to my texts almost immediately unless you're taking a nap, and I know you don't take a nap around this time."

One minute later…

"I… didn't mean to make it sound like I'm a stalker there. Apologies."

"Girlfriend?" Cordelia asked, causing Azure to blush a deep red.

"N-no! We're just good friends!" Don't think she feels the same way, honestly…

"Okay." Cordelia smiled. "I'm gonna take a look around Grizzco a bit longer."

"Right." Azure got into position. "Hope she didn't start the party without me!"

He immediately squid jumped away while Cordelia walked off, finding herself back in Splatsville and looked into Grizzco, finding a bear statue eating a fish.

Cordelia clenched her fists staring at the bear statue. "I don't know what's going on here, but what I do know is that you're awfully shady… and I'm going to get to the bottom of this."

She would spot an "Employee of the Month" billboard nearby and would see Ikura on nearly every month.

Top, Hard Working Employee!

Cordelia sighed. "I don't feel any sense of anger or hostility toward you or any other squid who works for Grizz. I pity those who unknowingly work for a shady businessman…"

She closed her eyes, and with a deep breath, she opened them with a determined look on her face.

"Alright… let's get to the bottom of this situation."

This one was a collab between Yoshi and Flash with his new OC, Cordelia!

Deadpool: Good luck out there, Cordy... you're gonna need it.

ibuki: ...Cordy?

Deadpool: My nickname for hee. It'll catch on!

But Flash calls her Cordy all the ti-...ah, never mind.