Splashdown Part 2

Hey, name's Marro, I am an inkling male who is a turf war researcher here in Inkopolis. My wife's name is Coral, I have a daughter named Marie and an adopted son named Masu.

"Marie, come meet your new baby brother!" Coral said.

"Why is he an octoling?" Marie asked.

"You know how mom is pregnant right, well, your baby brother is missing an ink sac, sadly he won't make it, but we still wanted you to have a baby brother, so we adopted Masu," I said, "That's why he's an octoling."

"Oh, I think he looks cute," Marie said, with a smile.

A few years pass, Masu gets older, and Marie starts middle school. Sadly, I quit my job and became a stay at home dad. But one day, Coral went missing. I called it in to the police but they aren't doing anything about it.

"Hey Cuda, yeah, can you come over to my house?" I said, over the phone, "Mmhmm, yeah, feel free to stay the night, alright bye."

"Who were you talking to?" Marie asked, "And where's mom?"

"Kiddo, um, you mom went missing, I don't know where she is."

"What, why would she go missing?"

"I don't know, but I called Uncle Cuda, and he and I will look for her."

"Can I come?"

"No, you can't, it's too dangerous, and I can't even stand thinking about losing you."

"Can you take me Dad?" Masu asked, "Please?"

"I just told your sister no, what makes you think you can go?"

"I dunno, I'm stronger than her."

"No you're not," Marie said to Masu, "I can pick you up, you can't."

"Quit fighting, you'll both have to stay at Auntie Reef and Uncle Bass's house for a few days, is that alright?"

"It's fine by me," Marie said.

"Alright, Uncle Bass's house is the best!"

A few days pass. I left the kids at Reef and Bass's house. Cuda and I have been searching for Coral for two days now.

"Bro, there is something I need to come clean about, and my boss gave me permission to tell you," Cuda said.

"Uhh, okay?" I responded with.

"I work for an organization that protects Inkopolis from threats like the Octarians and recent information showed up about a squidnapping by the Octarians. I think it might be your wife."

"Alright, why are you telling me this now?"

"Because the company we work for is under the radar," a voice said from the shadows, "Anyways, Cuda I got your hero shot for ya."

"That's Pierce, he's my co-worker," Cuda said.

"Oh, OK," I responded.

We headed to the forest behind my old college. Cuda and Pierce were leading the way to the Octarian kettle. We walked for what seemed like hours going deeper and deeper into the woods. Then, I saw a silver object in the distance. It was the kettle that Pierce was talking about.

"Alright, you sure you want to do this Marro?" Cuda asked me.

"Yeah, I'm ready as I'll ever be," I responded.

We all went into squid form and went into the kettle. We came out into a grassy clearing where Pierce spotted an Octarian. It was an Octotrooper, and a scared one at that.

"Marro, let's see your fighting skills, take care of that Octarian," Pierce said.

"You want me to fight?" I asked, "I thought you two were the agents of immense power."

"Just get over there and splat it, Marro," Cuda answered.

"Fine."

I walked up to Octarian, and I didn't know what to do with it.

I could try and make friends with it, but it'll still probably splat me, I thought, yeah, I'll try to talk to it, I know a little bit of the Octarian language.

"Hello there," I say, in the octarian language, "I know that I'm an Inkling, but I was thinking, maybe you and I could be–"

I was cut off by the Octarian calling for help.

"Alright, I guess not," I thought, aloud.

I jumped up onto the Octarian weaponry it was using and started hitting it.

"Why isn't he using a weapon?" Pierce asked Cuda.

"I don't know," Cuda responded.

"I'm gonna go and help him."

"Fine by me, he's my brother though, so give him some slack."

SPLAT! The Octarian fell to the ground, half-dead. Pierce and I, both look up in shock. We both see a white haired inkling.

"S-Silver, what are you doing here," Pierce stuttered. Almost as if he likes her.

"I came to help you," Silver said, while walking up to me, "And who might you be, wait, let me guess, Cuda's brother."

"H-how did you know?" I asked.

"He talks about you too much," she said.

"You talk about your brother too much as well," Cuda said, "By the way, how is Onyx?"

"Onyx is fine, he recovered well, but he won't be back to work for a few months," Silver responded with, "Anyways, why is he here?"

"His wife, Coral, went missing, and we think it was the Octarians," Cuda said.

"Still not a reason to bring him along, he can't even fight," Silver said back.

"She has a point," Pierce said.

"You, stay out of this," I said to Pierce, a little annoyed, "Can we get back to finding my wife, please?"

So Silver, Cuda, Pierce and I continued searching for Coral, until we came up on an Octarian base.

"Why do you not have a weapon?" Silver asked me.

"I'm a peaceful squid, or I at least try to be," I respond, making the peace sign with my fingers.

"Oh, still should've brought a weapon."

"I'm a peaceful squid, weapons don't solve problems."

"Still should have brought a weapon."

"Will you two stop?" Cuda and Pierce said at the same time.

We continued on into the Octarian base, but we were stopped by an Inkling, she had red hair, and red eyes, she looked a little bit like Coral.

"Leave," the mysterious inkling said, "Or die."

"Uh, no," I decided to say.

"Shut up!" the rest of the group said.

"So, you have chosen."

Out of nowhere, again, an inkling and octoling came flying from the trees.

"Not again…" I say. We black out.

I woke up in a cell. I looked around and I was greeted by the dank smell of rotted fish. I was surrounded by my team, but the inkling and octoling that came from the trees were nowhere to be seen. I rubbed my head, it was bleeding, but the blood was dried. Nothing spoke until I heard Cuda groan.

"Cuda, what happened to us?" I asked.

"Ugn, an Inkling and Octoling knocked you out, as they jumped down from the trees, we tried to fight them but it didn't help," Cuda responded.

Huh, the Octoling looked a little familiar. But I didn't recognize the Inkling. I heard a voice outside the cell.

"So, you're finally awake," the purple Inkling said, "Name's Calmar, I work with Cuda and so does Meg."

"Who's Meg?" I asked.

"You know her by Meggy, but that's a nickname for her, her real name is Meg," Calmar said, "And sorry for making you bleed, that was not the plan, to bring someone else along."

"Yeah, but it's my wife we are trying to save, so."

"That red Inkling you saw, we saw her get squidnapped, and we watched her get mind controlled by the Octarians," Meggy said, "The way to stop it, take off the bandana."

I knew it, that red Inkling was Coral, but why would she let herself get mind controlled? My mind was racing with possible scenarios where I could have saved her, where I could've been the one squidnapped, where Coral was splatted instead of being squidnapped.

"C'mon, we've got work to do," Calmar said, while throwing me my hero gear.

We ran through the corridors of the Octarian base looking for Coral, encountering Octarians along the way. What seemed like hours went by until a very specific Inkling we were looking for showed up.

"Coral, it's me, Marro," I say to Coral.

"I know no 'Marro'" She says, in a kind of robotic voice.

"Screw it," I say to myself. I start running towards Coral while the rest of the team is telling me not. At this point I don't even care, I just want my wife back. I want my life, our life, back to normal. I begin to start crying as I run faster and faster towards Coral. I finally reach her and tackle her. The bandana comes flying off. Her hair returns to the bright orange it should be, her red eyes regain the pink shade that they had.

"Hgn, what, what happened?" Coral asked, "Last thing I remember was, no, where are the kids?"

"They're fine, nothing happened, it was just a bad dream," I said, "It was all a bad dream."

I'm crying at this point, Coral, wiggles her arms free and she wraps her arms around me, just like back in college.

"Marro, could you get off me, I'm kinda starting to hurt now."

"Oh, yeah, sorry."

"Glad you could get your wife back," Cuda said.

I straight up punch Cuda in the jaw, I'm a little ticked off that he didn't tell me earlier that he had information on where Coral was.

"Dude, what the heck was that for?" Cuda asked.

"That was for not telling me where my wife was earlier."

"Jeez, you didn't have to punch me for it."

"Alright, you two stop fighting," Silver said, "We gotta find a way out of the Octarian base."

After another few hours of searching, we found the exit. But as I was running out, I was greeted by a group of Octolings. I froze, I couldn't move, I couldn't even breathe.

"Marro, wait…up," Coral said, "Well crap."

Coral and I both put our hands up in surrender. But, the rest of the group just pulled out their weapons. Then a fire fight broke out, Coral and I ran for the tree line but we got stopped by an octoling.

"Now where do you think you're going?" it asked.

A bolt of ink came flying towards the octoling's face.

"Nyaow-feeeee?!" the octoling said.

"Woomy!" Coral says as we continue on.

I look back and see Cuda with a modified E-Liter 4K. I see the entire team fending off octolings and Octarians. I see them all taking on at least 3 per person. I stop in place.

"Marro, we need to go!" Coral said.

"No, I'm gonna help the team, the team that helped me," I say.

I don't know what came over me, but I grabbed an Octarian splattershot and just started running towards the scrimish. I ran, and ran, and when I came up to it, I just threw all pacifist ideals out the window and started splatting octolings. I had a little glint in my eye, Cuda saw that, and I think he was genuinely scared.

There were no more octolings. All of them were splatted. I was breathing pretty heavily. I drop the Octarian splattershot. I fell to my knees, and I started to laugh. At first it was a small laugh, but it got louder. Coral started to walk up to me but I just continued to laugh. But while I was laughing, I started to tear up, again. I started crying, I continued to laugh, Coral continued to walk towards me, Cuda readied himself for what was gonna happen next. I stopped laughing, crying, I even stopped breathing. I fell over and blacked out.

I hear loud chatter. Sounds like I'm back in a hospital.

"Ah, so you're finally awake," the nurse said. I'm in another hospital bed, an IV in my arm.

"What happened to me?" I asked.

"You lost a lot of ink, you were bleeding internally," the nurse responded.

I was bleeding internally, was that because of my laughing, or the fight? I guess I did get hit pretty hard in the stomach. A few days pass, some of the team comes and goes. Coral spent the entire two days with me. The hospital released me on the second day.

"Ready to head home and get the kids?" I asked Coral.

"Yep," Coral said, "Look, I'm sorry I scared you so much."

"You don't have to be sorry."

"But…"

"Coral, you're fine."

"Marro! I don't feel fine!"

"You know what, come here."

I embraced Coral, to make sure she felt loved, because she was. We walked home, and stayed there for a little bit. The phone rang.

"Hello? Oh, hey Reef. Yeah, of course. We'll be right there," I said into the phone.

"What was that about?" Coral asked.

"Reef asking us to pick up the kids," I answered.

Coral and I head over to Reef and Bass's house. We took the subway to their part of town. And we decided to hang out a little bit. Coral and Reef took Marie to Inkopolis plaza and did some shopping. Bass and I stayed home and just watched TV. Masu was playing games on Bass's computer.

"We're back!" Coral said, as she came through the door.

"How was the plaza?" I asked.

"It was OK, the food we ate wasn't any good," Reef said.

My phone started to ring. I answered it with a, "Hello?"

"We have a job offer for you…"

To Be Continued…