"How did I let myself get talked into this?" Pit mumbled.
He wondered exactly that multiple times as he stood under the roof of the hideout, looking out at the bright green land. The better question to be asking, he thought, was why some of the Smashers were even excited to do this. What sounded like a fun and competitive activity to them seemed to be quite the opposite to him.
The Inklings were definitely on the more energetic side, and that was evident both during battles and on regular days. So when the time came around that they said they would be hosting a competition involving a sport well-known to them, Pit wasn't the quickest person in Smash Mansion to happily count himself in. These kinds of things weren't exactly up his alley, and he would have very much preferred that the activity be something a lot less like this.
He continued to look out at what was ahead of him, the land around him still and eerily silent. Stretching out a couple leagues ahead of him were eight shelter-looking constructions that looked similar to what he was standing in. They looked like the miniature equivocal to the dugouts that members of a baseball team would be seen in. To his left were the other seven constructions on his side of the flat and grassy turf. There were sixteen of these things built around the perimeter altogether, with two to three of the Smashers positioned in each one of them.
There had to be some sort of way he could excuse himself from this and get a ticket out of it. He could try to successfully pull off some older tricks in the book, like pretending he needed to be excused because he didn't feel well or something like that. Those bluffs, however, probably wouldn't work out for him. Everybody here was obviously smart enough to see around a lie when it was spoken, so that wouldn't work too well.
"This is so not going to be fun," Pit said to himself.
This felt like he was standing on a battleground, anxiously anticipating the moment he was supposed to charge into war. It was an image he couldn't shake that he let manifest itself in the back of his mind. He thought he might as well have that camouflage face paint on his skin right now.
Sure, that might have been a dramatization of what this whole shebang actually was, but still… this wasn't the most ideal way to spend an afternoon during a weekend meant for relaxation.
"You have to release that tension of yours, Pit," Palutena muttered. "You can't have any fun if you're like that all the time."
The green-haired goddess stood directly behind him, letting out a shallow sigh under her breath. She decided not to wear the bright white dress she typically donned; instead she switched up her attire with a metal, crop top-like garment, held by two shoulder straps and complete with a white shirt underneath. Considering that this activity was held by the Inklings, she believed the clothing choice was like something that they might have worn back where they were from.
"What exactly are we suppose to do anyway?" Pit inquired apprehensively. "I wasn't paying complete attention when I was being given the rules the first time around."
"The whole object of this game of theirs is to hunt down this flag that's hiding somewhere out here," Palutena replied informatively, hoping to refresh his memory. She lifted the blaster she had been holding onto up over her shoulder. "If any of us get struck with the ink from somebody else's blaster, though, it means you're out and can't help the rest of the team anymore."
"And by team you mean everyone else that's on this side of the field, correct?"
The question was a pretty basic one, but she answered it anyhow. "Yes, you have to defend us by aiming for the others over on the opposite side of us."
Pit nodded his head, now obtaining the knowledge of what was about to happen momentarily. "And are you sure it's too late for me to just, y'know, forfeit from this game?" he asked a few seconds later.
"It's about to start in a few measly minutes, Pit," Palutena responded.
The angel folded his hands and looked over at her with a desperate look on his face. "Pretty please with a cherry on top and sprinkles?" he begged.
The goddess suggested, "I'm promising you that it'll be more fun than you think. I've never steered you wrong, have I?"
"Oh, okay…" He knew she was right about him never being guided in wrong direction, but that didn't mean he was happy about still having to do this.
A low chuckle arose from Snake, who had been standing them in the shelter in absolute silence. "You're getting yourself on tenterhooks for nothing, angel boy," he remarked gruffly. "The things I've experienced in my lifetime would have you driven to tears."
"Aren't we at an unfair disadvantage here?" asked Pit. "Those Inklings can turn into squids and swim through this ink stuff to replenish their ammo. None of us got that ability, do we?"
"I've infiltrated enemy strongholds with barely any ammunition," remarked Snake, "and sometimes I wasn't even armed at all. Wielding one of these things that shoot a wee bit of ink is child's play."
"I'm pretty sure these things shoot way more than just a little splash of ink, Snake. And I bet their range is further than you think."
The soldier huffed under his breath before chuckling to himself. Had this been a "survival of the fittest" kind of situation and not just a game for fun, Pit was already eliminated from the equation in his mind.
Everybody became silent once again as they saw Kirby quickly waddle his onto the leftmost side of the field, away from the Smashers. This must of meant that the game was about to begin in a few seconds.
Pit exhaled deeply and reached over to his side, picking up the ink blaster he had carefully sitting there. He could hear the thick liquid swooshing inside of it as he lifted it up and held it with both hands.
A few seconds of motionlessness rolled by, finally interrupted when Kirby blew into a whistle he was holding. The sound of the whistle stridently split through the stillness, and with that both teams ran towards each other. Everyone that had been positioned inside each of the shelters was now sprinting around, blaster tightly in their grasp, defending themselves and other teammates from getting hit with colorful ink.
Palutena and Snake both started to run out onto where all of the action was now unfolding, among a sharp cut to the right in an attempt to avoid being eliminated in the beginning. Being the only one left that hadn't stepped out to the field, Pit gulped trepidatiously before breaking out into a full-fledged run. Ink in every color one could think of could be seen flying through the air in either direction, big splats of it staining the green grass and leaving their vivid hues on the ground.
Unsure of what he should do next, Pit simply went towards a thick log that sat directly within his vision. He ran over towards it and got on the other side of it, crouching down so he could stay out of sight. As he got ready to aim his blaster at whoever came running by, surprising them with a blast of the ink, he hoped this was enough of a barrier for him to remain unseen.
One Hour Later…
Pit looked down at his white chiton, which now looked like tie-dye with marks of splattered ink that landed on him earlier. He just hoped that all of that would wash out when the time came for laundry to be done. In the meantime, though, he figured he would meet back up with the others, who were all probably inside by now.
He courteously wiped his sandals off on the welcome mat, leaving streaks of blended colors against its rough surface. He uttered a deep sigh as he started to step through the door, joining the other Smashers that were now talking to each other.
Well, he thought, at least I'm not the only one that got covered in that ink stuff.
As everybody continued their conversations, he noticed that their clothing was just as stained by spats of color as well. He even caught sight of Lucario standing alone in the far corner, his once-blue fur now purplish-pink thanks to him getting completely hit by someone's blaster during the game.
He continued to look for Lady Palutena, that way he could give her the congratulations she properly deserved. It was her that was the first to find and get her hands on the hidden flag, and that made her team automatically the winning one. This wasn't exactly a great surprise to him, as the goddess seemed to naturally be great at whatever she set out to do.
Pit wasn't looking at who what was in front of him as he scanned the room for Palutena, and he ended up bumping into the spiky shell of Bowser.
The burly Koopa Troopa turned himself around, revealing that his scales were covered in a rainbow of colors from the ink. He started to growl sternly under his breath, ready to snap at whoever bumped into him from behind, only to see who it was and immediately calm back down. "Oh, sorry, Pit," he apologized.
"That's quite alright, Bowser," replied the angel. "I should've paid more attention to where I was going."
"Don't worry about it," Bowser responded. "Just have been in a crankier kind of mood after being beaten out there." He looked down at his arms, flecks of ink across them in mismatched colors like he was the object of an abstract painting. "You can clearly tell how bad I did from the way I look now."
Pit held back his laughter at the Koopa's appearance. "That's not good."
Bowser shrugged his shoulders, letting out a good chuckle at himself. "It ain't all that bad. Junior found it pretty humorous."
"Say, there's not gonna be anymore of that planned in the future, is there?" Pit inquired, changing the subject. "That game of the Inklings, I mean."
"I have no idea," the Koopa answered with uncertainty. "But at least that activity was milder compared to some other things i've participated."
"What do you mean by that?" the angel wondered.
Bowser looked back at him with serious eyes. "All I'm gonna say is think long and hard before you sign up for some competition proposed by the Ice Climbers every few years or so. Ended up having to scale this huge block of ice and it wasn't fun. Not only was I freezing my shell off, but I couldn't quit slipping back down to where I started."
Pit had no idea clue about this particular competition he was talking about, believing it was something that was more recent that he no one decided to let him in on.
If it was anything crazier than what happened this afternoon, though, he was going to have to take a hard pass on it.
Author's Note: With this show called Squid Game being incredibly popular right now, I couldn't help but think about the Inklings for some random reason, since they can take on the form of a squid. I'm not exactly sure why they kept coming to mind, but I needed to write something that was centered around an activity of theirs.
Don't have anything else to really say this time around, so I hope you all enjoy this little story of mine. Your feedback, whether good or bad, is gladly appreciated.
'Til next time! :)