Chapter Description:

And now I get to learn the price Spike paid to steal my life and make an Octoling out of me.

Why does a Sea Urchin have debt with Grizzco? I have no idea.
Am I going to be able to defeat my own Inkling? I also have no idea.

Disclaimers:
Splatoon is owned by Nintendo
Spike is my own OC, as is the currently unnamed Sea Urchin.

Shortly after I'd seen the fruits of Marina's research, I was teleported to Inkopolis Square and couldn't move again - likely the credits sequence had finally finished for Spike and had returned there. I didn't see or experience any of the unlock messages that normally follow the first-time completion of Octo Expansion, or any of the boxes they come in. I could only assume that Spike got to see and unbox them, but I didn't.

Only a few moments later, the square was suddenly much more populated - last time I'd seen this was when Spike first brought me here, and just like that time, I found I wasn't under his control again. I looked around, but couldn't see any Inkling that looked like him. Then again, I had no idea what gear he was wearing from all his playing turf wars.

"Behind you," he told me, tapping my shoulder. I had no idea what to expect to see, since he'd rarely commented on his own gear, but turned to see that he'd clearly moved on from the basic gear that I was now wearing once again - albeit with the Octo Tee instead of the Basic Tee.

Spike had the Pilot Goggles resting on his forehead, the Light Bomber Jacket, and the Sun & Shade Squidkid IV shoes - all of which he told me about, suspecting (correctly) that I wouldn't be all that familiar with the specifics.

"I'll change you into something fresher next time I'm outside," he told me. "For now, since you're out of Deepsea full-time now, there's a few things we gotta go over - starting with where we live."

"Uh, where we live? You mean where you live?" I asked, following him yet again as he beckoned, leading me… somewhere.

"No, because most of the time only one of us is gonna be in here, so you can share my digs. And since you're out, lemme get you some fresher food than was probably down there. I'm paying - though now you're out, you can use my funds. Don't worry, I got plenty."

Spike being nicer to me this time was an unexpected change, particularly since he treated me to a Galactic Seanwich and a Main-Up Guava at the Crust Bucket - and both were absolutely infinitely better than what I'd had to put up with down in Deepsea, and I said as much.

"Yeah, that's something else I heard from other player's Octolings. But hey, no harm done and you didn't spend that long down there really."

"No harm done? After all the times you got me splatted?" I protested.

"I didn't do it deliberately, 'kay? Well except for that first time, but that was for a reason. I am sorry I got you splatted so much on the escape sequence though, even after doing all the tests, that was… still a challenge."

"Well if it makes you feel any better, I don't remember any of those - I only remember the successful attempt for each area." Spike gave me a startled look, so I explained about time being wound back each time.

"Huh, never knew that… guess you probably don't want to know how many times you did get splatted then. Not that I was keeping count, to be honest."

"And by the sounds of it, you had to take a break because it made you saltier than seawater."

Spike scowled. "At least in online play I can try to blame the lag or something, in that escape sequence I can't blame anything but myself - and I swear it was out to get me. Or you, anyway."

He led me into the lobby of a tower block, taking the elevator up to a higher floor, and his own studio apartment. It wasn't large, but it had everything your average Inkling (or Octoling) needs in life - and a nice view that had a few familiar sights - possibly stages. One area even had a match going on, though I couldn't tell which stage or mode.

"Probably shoulda come in to tidy up before I brought you here…" he muttered, looking around at the mess. "Oh, I set you up with a user on my computer. Can't do the same with my phone, but since it's not gonna be often we're both in here, you might as well just use it as is."

"You're not staying? I thought you only had to turn me into an Octoling?"

"And just who do you think is going to take care of your life outside the Switch? And uh… on that, we… gotta talk about… my getting you into here," he said, suddenly getting a bit hesitant as he started clearing things away. "The uh… guy I got the magic from had a price that has to be paid. And it's not just as simple as paying him off, it's not a cash deal or anything."

I didn't want to let on that Marina had told me this already. Spike didn't seem to be aware of anything I did when he hadn't been controlling me. So all I did was clear off a space on his couch, cross my arms and asked, "Just what did you promise this mystery person?"

"He, uh… has a whole ton of debt with Grizzco, and one of us is gonna have to do a ton of work with them to pay it off. And not by playing Salmon Run either, if I take you into Salmon Run, it doesn't count."

"So what you're saying is, it's off-screen work for them that doesn't earn us anything."

"Pretty much. But that's only half of it. He decided that since I was putting you through this, only one of us could work off that debt. And he set requirements on me - I gotta train you to fight in here - like, not under my control." He paused, pulling out a yellow wristband from the pile he was tidying, then digging a little further to find a yellow shirt.

"Thought I'd lost these…" he mused to himself. "Got them from a Splatfest I went to while you weren't playing. They're not available for me to use in turf wars and the like of course, they're just… merch, not the real gear…" he trailed off.

"I'd try to get you to one, but since there probably aren't going to be any more for this game-"

"Yeah, yeah I know. Anyway more than likely will be me taking you to one. If I get the next game, I know a way to bring you over so we can carry on over in the Splatlands. Anyway, as I was saying, when you think you're ready for it, I have to take you to him, and he'll arrange a duel between just the two of us, with matching gear. He'll get you to decide if you want to pick the stage or the weapon, and I pick the other one. Whoever wins gets to leave, whoever loses has to stay and work off the debt."

Even knowing that the Sea Urchin was likely to charge a high price didn't prepare me for that. I was going to have to win a duel with my own Inkling? And whether or not I'd get my life back depended on it.

I had to take a few moments to properly process what he'd said, and a few more to manage to think up a response. "Spike… just… how are you even going to train me? You kind of have to be out there since I don't know how to leave, and if you're controlling me-"

"Yeah, yeah, don't get your tentacles in a knot," he interrupted me. "I have thought of this, you know. First off, you know about muscle memory - so taking you into turf wars is gonna help you a little. I'll use different weapons with you to help you get an idea of what they're all like."

"Yes, but if you're controlling me-" I started, and got interrupted again with an irritated wave of a hand and a wrapper for… actually no, I don't want to think about whatever that was. I was definitely going to have to tidy this place up even more for him if I was going to live here too…

"I'm not done yet! And I know it helps, because before I dragged you in here, I talked with people who's players don't play anymore. They couldn't go into turf wars or ranked or anything, but there are other ways to play that I'm going to tell you about, and when they went into it, they still had some idea how to play weapons they'd only used when controlled."

This was news to me. I'm not sure where I got the idea from, but somehow I'd thought that there wouldn't be any way to actually play when not controlled. I'd have said something to ask about it, but didn't want to get interrupted a third time - and besides, he was going to explain anyway.

"The test range is freely usable by anyone so you can try out rental versions of weapons for yourself, and Recon mode is always available when that isn't going on," he said, gesturing out the window at the match still going on. It was hard to tell at a glance, but it looked like whoever had the blue ink was winning.

Spike continued, "And if you head into the Shoal back in the square, you'll be able to meet up with others who aren't being controlled by their players too, set up matches with each other, that sorta thing. Don't worry about gear either, you can use all the gear I've got."

I couldn't help myself. "Aren't you meant to be the one training me? Not other people's Inklings and Octolings?"

The remark seemed to sting him, "I am going to be helping you out. I'm going to come in whenever I can around taking care of your human life, meet you at the Shoal and either do a one on one match or the two of us against others so I can carry your incompetent ass."

This time, I was the one stung by his remark. "You don't know that I'm going to be as incompetent now as I used to be outside the game! Especially after what you just said about muscle memory and taking me through every single test in Deepsea Metro!"

"If you're that certain you aren't going to be bad, I'll take you down the Shoal right now and see how many times I can splat you before you even get close to me," he said flatly. "I could set up a five minute match with just the two of us, and you wouldn't even be able to splat me once."

"You said yourself there's a difference between fighting in here and fighting using the controls outside the Switch, and I haven't even had the chance to try anything without your control."

Spike rolled his eyes. "And I spent my entire life as an Inkling until you irritated me enough that I stole your human life, while you have only had a week or so as an Octoling. No matter how much I did with you in there, you're still too inexperienced to take me on right now."

Despite the irritated response, I couldn't deny he had a point. What I'd gone through so far was not likely to make me a match for anyone - and all my experience so far had been in the Deepsea test stations. What I needed was some experience with the stages and weapons I might end up fighting him on.

"First things first though, didn't you see you were going to get me out of this basic gear, not to mention putting me through Octo Canyon?"

"And putting you into turf wars too. Maybe even some ranked matches, I've gotten good enough that I really should consider them," he said thoughtfully. "Probably a bit of each. As for gear… I'm gonna do for you what I did for myself," he told me, going over to his computer.

He pulled up an in-universe website that went over all the match-legal gear and where it could be found. Down one side were some slots that looked like they were for saved gear sets, but since he seemed to have logged in on the user he'd set up for me, his ones weren't there.

"I already made you an account on the site and added myself as a friend," he told me. "Make yourself a gear set or two and send them to me, then I'll look them over and get them for you, if I haven't already. I wouldn't decide on a weapon until you've tried them all though."

"And probably even if you take me into turf wars, you're going to use a weapon that you're good with outside, right?"

"Of course. Well, in a match you'll be using whatever gear works best. I just always make sure to put myself back to this look between matches, because some of my gear choices… well at least I get to take some comfort in knowing that others also put up with terrible choices in fashion because of the abilities on the gear."