Authoress' Notes: Hoooo boy! Inklings getting in Smash is my highlight of the damn YEAR, son! I mean, it was a no-brainer they'd get in eventually, but still! So, why not write a story about it? And why not have Ness and Lucas involved? And why not start shipping Lucas and the orange Inkling girl? Don't ask why, but you can blame it on Miitopia.😂


Squid Party

Chapter 1: Under Pressure


Lucas took a deep sigh. He knew he shouldn't have ever agreed to doing this.

He was originally told this would be 'an epic trip of fantastical proportions', only to discover he'd be tricked into volunteering into going to some weird city filled with squid people. He'd never seen them or even heard about them until that morning and by then, it was too late to do anything about it. The thought of going in blind terrified him. Fortunately, Master Hand believed there was safety in numbers, so Ness was partnered up to tag along.

With the Smashers amassing another fortune from their last entry, the big hand decided it was that time again; to open the doors for all to partake in another glorious Smash tourney. Already, replies were coming in by the truckload, leaving the appendage and his crazy brother everlastingly busy trying to sort through them all. Many had been disposed of for either not following entry instructions or the entrant just not having enough to work with in battle. The lucky few that made it past the preliminary stage were informed of their potential and a pair of Veterans were chosen to visit and survey the place of origin. It was a new thing Master Hand wanted to try out, allowing his Smashers to mingle and gather more information to save him some much-needed time.

Lucas could see where he was going with this, but it probably would've been a better idea to send some mainstream representatives, not just random Veterans. Mario and Link had already been sent off to visit another potential candidate, with Kirby and Pikachu being deployed tomorrow, but he couldn't see why the four couldn't alternate or something. He'd heard through the grapevine Falco and Pit were going somewhere next week, but that didn't even make any sense. The two had nothing in common...

He reached into one of his bags and pulled out a slip of paper. He'd looked over it before, but even as he unfolded it for the third time to read, he still wasn't sure what it meant. This was mostly because it was a flyer the potential Smashers sent advocating their lifestyle, written in a foreign language of scrawls and gibberish. Various gaudy logos and stickers littered the crinkled parchment, making it look more like a suitcase that'd been around the world.

Apparently, he and Ness were en route to a place called Inkopolis, home to a crossbreed of humanoid squids and other various sea creatures. When it came to fighting skills, they liked to battle in something called Turf Wars? By shooting ink at each other? Like, what did that even mean? Were they fighting over ink? Territory? And why? He didn't even want to think about what they looked like...

He was jerked from his thoughts at the sound of the train skidding to a halt, making him almost think their trip had turned into a literal trainwreck. The jellyfish driver said nothing as they came to a stop, but Lucas could hear the audible jiggling of his gelatinous form, due to his violent braking.

That was another thing that probably should've tipped Lucas off that this was no ordinary commute. He thought maybe it was somebody wearing a costume or some sort of toy or something at first. It wasn't until he caught it playing piano with the driver's panel about halfway through the trip did he realize it was actually sentient and not of his world.

Already, Lucas could hear the sounds of bass reverberating against the windows of the train, as if there was a wild party going on outside. A cacophony of garbled chanting and banter added to the festive atmosphere, making Lucas heave an uneasy sigh. He was so bad at handling crowds...

He yelped as cold water squirted him in the face. Ness, the culprit, snickered as the blonde looked at him in shock. Lucas forgot they'd been sent colorful, plastic squirt guns as thanks for coming to visit. The two had playfully engaged in a squirt war when their trip started, but he hadn't messed with his since.

"C'mon Luke, don't be a slowpoke! We're here!" With that, Ness sprang from his seat with his luggage and bolted for the door.

Shrugging, Lucas grabbed his bags and reluctantly followed him. Ness barely had time to exit the automated double doors before he was assaulted by an array of colorful paint, confetti, and party streamers. Lucas would've jumped through the ceiling in shock if it were possible. Before he could catch his breath, a myriad of neon-colored, tentacle-like appendages snagged Ness and yanked him outside. At this, Lucas dropped his bags in horror.

Psychic energy flew to his fingertips as he dashed towards the door to fight off who, or whatever, had taken Ness. In his haste, he forgot about the possibility of being entangled by the same entity and was also yanked outside. Practically jerked from the train, he was quickly surrounded by several humanoid creatures with wild, garish apparel and cephalopod-like hairstyles. They gurgled and gargled in foreign, but elated tones as he was carted out on their shoulders like a celebrity.

The vivacious creatures set Lucas down in time for one of them to plant an orange squid hat on his head, complete with googly eyes and dangling tentacles. Another one approached Ness, offering the same hat, except blue.

"Oh, sweet!" exclaimed Ness, fiddling with his gift. "More free stuff!"

"O-oh, uh... Thanks, I guess..." murmured Lucas, eyeing the grinning spectators suspiciously. He wasn't too crazy about his gift, as it mussed his hair...

Feeling pretty confident now, Ness shook hands with a random bystander. "Hey, folks! How's it goin'? How's tricks? What's the haps?"

The girl withdrew in shock and whipped out her cellphone, taking a picture of the capped boy to show her equally-shocked friends.

"Uh... Okay? So!" Ness stepped forward and into the awing crowd, hands on his hips. "Where're your proprietors? The ones in charge of this whole shindig? Your official assessment starts the second we meet them, so make it count! First impressions matter, guys!"

A male with a green cowlick stepped forward, gargling incoherently. Lucas took note of the odd scribbling on his black t-shirt, as well as his black shorts and leggings. His yellow-and-pink mesh sneakers shifted on the concrete as he walked up to them, adjusting his black-and-yellow fingerless gloves. His aqua eyes looked Ness up and down before he smiled wide, adjusting the pair of stylized headphones resting on his ears.

As if responding to his call, a sunkissed female weaved her way through the crowd to join him. Upon seeing the Smashers, her amber eyes sparkled in awe through her pink, shoulder-length hair. She wore what looked like a basketball jersey with a realistic squid imprinted on it, as well as an underskirt and black-and-cyan sneakers. She fiddled with the bill of her black-and-white cap before clumsily taking it off, squeezing it between her hands as she gushed. Overcome with emotion, she aided the green boy in gargling. Whatever they were saying, they both were excited about it.

"Yeah, um..." Ness made a face. "Same to you, I guess."

Lucas leaned over to speak in a whisper. "I thought we wouldn't have any problem communicating with them. Master Hand said they'd be able to understand us..."

"Yeah, but he didn't say we'd be able to understand them..." Ness flatly answered. Just like that overgrown glove to throw them into the fray like this...

"So, what're we going to do?"

"Don't worry, I got this."

"Huh?"

Ness cleared his throat and threw his arms up, speaking loudly and slowly. "Hello! There! We! Are! Smashers!" He pointed to himself and Lucas. "We! Part! Of! The! Super! Smash! Brothers! Tournament! We! Fight! You! Fight! We! Visit! We! Friends! Understand? Yes?!"

The locals stopped their chattering and looked around in shock and confusion, as if Ness'd just said a derogatory word. There was an awkward silence, only broken by the ambiance of the city and distant chirping of birds. The green and pink humanoids before them shrugged at each other.

"...You know... We can speak English, dude..."

Ness blinked. "Huh?"

The voice came from seemingly nowhere, not one person coming forward as the owner. It didn't sound like it came from a distance, either; it was almost as if it was in his own head...

...

Ness's eyes shot up in time for his squid hat to look down at him.

"What the-?!"

In a flash, both his and Lucas' hats quite literally sprung to action as they leapt from their heads and into the air. With a splash of vibrant, blue ink, Ness' 'hat' took on the form of a boy with a blue, tentacled ponytail. Things seemed to move in slow motion as the sun glinted off the pilot goggles on his head, a sly grin finding its way onto his face. His cobalt eyes looked down at the crowd in excitement, knowing he'd turned more than a few heads with his sudden appearance. He sported a white, short-sleeved shirt with a squid-like insignia on it, wearing a long-sleeved, black shirt underneath. His legs were splayed out in a dynamic pose, boasting his black shorts and plum-and-yellow squid-patented sneakers.

Simultaneously, the orange 'hat' formed into a female with a pair of long, orange tentacles dangling from either sides of her head, much like pigtails. She also wore a similar white shirt, but with enigmatic lettering on it and the same black shorts. Her dark studio headphones and bright fuchsia-and-cyan sneakers commanded everyone's attention as she somersaulted in the air. Listless, orange eyes glanced over the crowd from beneath her bangs, mouth set in a thin line. She looked more indifferent compared to her fellow cephalopod, as if she were only doing this on a whim.

As the two finished their aerial display, they both raised their fists and surrounded themselves with their respective color. Plummeting to the earth, their fists slammed into the pavement, loosing a torrent of blue and orange ink that drenched every onlooker in the vicinity. As the shroud of ink dispersed, they stood and crossed their arms, confident and spotless amid a world of mess. At their sides, the green and pink humanoids from earlier knelt and performed jazz hands.

The blue boy snapped his fingers. "...How's that for a first impression?"

The quiet nature of the square suddenly erupted into thunderous cheers and applause from its inhabitants. The blue-haired boy drank it all up, smugly beckoning for the crowd to cheer louder. The audience complied, some of them even throwing confetti and streamers into the air. Content with the level of praise, he regarded Ness and Lucas with a smirk, while the orange one averted her gaze altogether.

"Dude!" exclaimed Ness, fists clenched in excitement. "I don't know what the hell you just did, but it was awesome!"

"Well, we do try to make a splash when we can." The green boy chuckled and bowed. "On behalf of the Inklings, we'd like to welcome you to Inkopolis! We're all so happy to have you here with us. It's an honor for any Smasher to make an appearance in our humble city."

"Yes, welcome!" The pink Inkling bounced over and grabbed Lucas' hands, shaking them frantically. "Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!"

"N-n-nice to m-m-meet y-y-you..." managed Lucas through her ecstatic greeting.

"Yeah, you guys got some pretty nice digs here," Ness looked around with a grin. "There's so much stuff going on! Can't wait for the tour!"

"Tour?" The green Inkling snapped to attention. "Yes, of course! A tour is definitely in order! We want you to soak up as much of Inkopolis as you can, sirs!"

Ness waved off his formality. "Ew, don't call us that. Makes us sound old and you sound lame. I'm Ness and he's Lucas."

He nodded eagerly. "Yes, very sorry about that, sir-uh, I mean, Ness!"

"Speaking of which, what're your names? Don't think we caught them."

"Uh..." The Inklings looked at each other before the blue one sheepishly coughed. "Our name's are kinda hard to pronounce in a foreign tongue..."

"Try me."

"...Well, if you must know, my name's-" Neither Ness or Lucas could even begin to decipher the gurgling and gargling noises he spewed forth.

Ness regarded him for a long, uncomfortable moment before nodding. "...Yeah, think we're just gonna go with 'Blue', 'Green', 'Pink', and 'Orange'. How 'bout that?"

"The pink one's more of a magenta, really," piped Lucas.

His fellow psychic smiled incredulously at him. "Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't know we had a fashion designer over here."

Lucas scoffed. "I was just saying...!"

'Magenta' perked up. "Hey, that's okay! I like that name! Magenta... It sounds so... 'erigmatic'!"

"Enigmatic..." softly corrected 'Green'.

"Yeah, that too!"

"Cool then!" Ness raised a hand. "Up top!"

"Yeah!" 'Blue' laughed and mirrored him, the two locking hands in a friendly handshake before slapping each other's back.

The ice now broken, they continued bonding by high-fiving and performing long, overly-complicated, weird handshakes with each other. Green gave Lucas a more formal handshake as Magenta tried the same, but shook the wrong hand. The three laughed it off as the crowd gathered closer, now more comfortable with these outsiders. It wasn't long before the Smashers were surrounded in a sea of color and styles. The Inklings offered the warmest of welcomes, greetings, and salutations of all kinds. Some even pulled out their cellphones to record the event and take selfies, making all sorts of ridiculous faces in the process. Among the bright smiles and laughing faces, Lucas noticed a lone figure in the distance.

When the others pooled together to meet them, 'Orange' stood alone, arms still crossed from earlier. She looked... upset. At what, Lucas didn't know, but he could relate to her being a loner. Maybe she was just shy and didn't like big crowds. He sure knew that feeling...

Smiling, he squeezed through the crowd and approached her with an extended hand. "Uh, hey. That was a pretty good show you guys put on back there. I'm Lucas. Guess we'll be calling you Orange, then?"

The girl looked at him in disgust, as if he'd walked in on her undressing. She glanced at his hand, then him, then his hand again and hissed.

Blue saw this and scrambled over to her, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "...Orange? Aren't you gonna say hello to our guest?"

She side-eyed him and growled in their language, making him scoff.

"Orange, c'mon now. That's not very nice." He gritted his teeth, voice quieting to a whisper. "You're gonna blow it for all of us..."

From behind him came the many hushed and distraught whispers of her peers, all egging her on to open up and properly welcome their guests, lest they forfeit the chance of a lifetime. Fed up with their droning pleas, she groaned and forced a fake, toothy smile.

"Oh yeah, hey there, you!" Ness walked over. "Not much of a talker, huh? That's all right. Nice to meet you, anyway!" He playfully knocked on her head. "...Can you even hear us through those headphones of yours? Hello? Helloooooo?!"

Orange shuddered. Ness may've been unaware of her sour mood, but Lucas picked up on it in an instant. She looked like she was about to snap both their necks, evident by the slow clenching and releasing of her fists. Blue could see things were getting ugly, so he intercepted her.

"Well!" He clapped his hands together. "Now that we got the greetings outta the way, how's about that tour we promised? You guys only got a week to chill with us..." He turned to regard the crowd, fist pumping the air with vigor, "so get this party started!"

The Inklings' excitement reignited as they swarmed the psychics, hoisting them over their heads and carrying them off into the city. A few stragglers grabbed their belongings from the train and toted them off to storage. Blue cheered everyone on and happily waved farewell until the crowd's roars of victory petered off into the distance. It wasn't long before only four Inklings dotted the once-crowded square. Orange blew loudly.

When he was certain Ness and Lucas were gone, Blue dropped his ecstatic facade, shoulders drooping with a sigh. He glared at an aloof Orange over his shoulder before whipping around in fury.

"What... is your problem?!" he roared.

"My problem?! MY problem?!" she screeched back. "The hell's your problem?! All that kissing up and crap you're doing? You're disgusting!"

"Oh, I'm sorry," he sarcastically shot back, "it's not like I'm actually trying to get us into the biggest tournament organization ever created or anything!"

Orange was in his face in an instant. "Turf Wars are the biggest tournament organization ever created."

Blue tried not to cower under her gaze. "C'mon, Orange. Don't do this. Not in front of the others..."

"Yeah, Orange." Green gently touched her shoulder. "You really need to loosen up and go with the flow."

"Go with the flow?" She yanked away from him. "Go with the flow?! You mean by letting a pair of nobodies come in and belittle us like we're nothing?! I dunno where you guys get off doing this shit, but it ain't gonna fly with me!"

"But those guys are mondo cool..." tried Magenta, sadness tinging her voice. "We just met them and they're new here, so maybe if you give it some time, you'll get to like them, too!" She flashed a bright, hopeful smile at her.

Orange flashed her own fangs at her in a snarl, making her fall over and cower behind her cap. "The hell I won't!"

Blue held a pitiful expression. "Orange, don't do that. You're scaring Magenta..."

"My name's not Orange, and her name's not Magenta! Your name's not Blue, and he's not Green! Why're these two even here? Where's Mario?"

Exasperated, Blue shrugged. "Look, I don't know, okay? We filled out the application, they accepted it, and now they're here to scope out the competition! We're in the running for the tourney, what else do you want?!"

She listed off on her fingers. "Respect, honor, and recognition from a reliable source. Those two..." She pointed in the direction the psychics went, "are not a reliable source. If they're really gonna take us seriously, then where's Mario? Where's Link? Where's a real superstar?"

Green was starting to lose his temper. "Who cares?! They're still Smashers and they're still to be treated with the utmost respect, as much as Mario even."

"Mario already gave us the good word when he invited us to that go-kart tournament!" explained Blue. "Did you ever stop to think he might be a little too busy to visit this time around? Dude's got a ton of things on his plate!"

Orange narrowed her eyes. "That's no excuse. He should've made time for us. Sending these halfwits is like spitting in our face as far as I'm concerned. We shouldn't have to bust our asses trying to please them when we've been practicing all this time for a celebrity!"

"But they can still get us into Smash, so what does it matter who we try to please?" asked Green.

"If I have to bend over backwards and be a damn mockery to some bozos we've never even heard of, then maybe I don't wanna be in Smash!" Her outburst shocked the trio. "I've got my dignity, and I'm not gonna throw it all away for some stupid glitz and glory!"

"...All right, fuck this. I'm done." Magenta gasped at Green's choice of language. He disregarded this and gently helped her up. "If you don't want to be in Smash, fine, but you're not going to ruin it for the rest of us. We've put far too much time and energy into this to let this opportunity slip through our fingers."

"..." Orange turned her back on the three.

Green furrowed his brow. "...Come on, Magenta. Let's go catch up with the others. You don't want to miss out on all the fun, do you?"

Near tears, she coyly tugged on her hair. "...No."

He dusted her off. "Come now, no tears. We've got a lot of partying to do in such a short amount of time."

She sniffled, blinking them back. "...Will there be cake?"

He sweetly put her cap back on her head. "So much, you'll never be able to eat it all."

"...Okay."

"That's my girl." He pulled her close and nuzzled his head against hers, making her gush. Pulling away, he smiled devilishly. "Now... Last one there's a rotten Power Egg!"

With that, he dashed off as fast as he could, laughter echoing through the empty streets. Magenta gasped and pouted, chasing after him.

"You stinker! You cheated!" she whined. "You better not eat all the cake before I get there!"

"Who needs cake when they'll be ice cream?!" his faint voice taunted.

"Shut up! Cake's always gonna be better!"

"That's not what the Splatfest said!"

"HEY!"

Their playful bickering continued until they where nothing more than silhouettes in the distance. Eventually, even their footsteps were just a memory. Blue looked somberly towards the sky, noticing the sun was starting to set. It seemed to cast a dour glow over the abandoned streets, shadows from various structures creeping across the walls and roads as if trying to pass along a foreboding message. A feeling of dread welled up inside him.

Finally, he turned around. "Orange."

"Don't call me that." She still had her back to him, his own shadow overcasting her.

"Orange, we need to go. It's getting late..."

"Don't. Call me that."

"Listen, Orange. You need to stop acting like a-"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!"

In a rage, she reformed into a squid and crouched down. She glared daggers at him one last time before angling herself upwards and rocketing off into the distance. Forlorn, Blue watched her Super Jump towards the darkening sky, her landing point unknown. Frustrated, he became a squid and was about to Super Jump after her, but stopped.

No... He had better things to do. If he went after her, he'd be ducking out on the festivities. He couldn't let the other Inklings down. Green and Magenta could only do so much on their own. If Orange was going to be a no-show, they'd need his help more than ever.

Still in squid form, he relaxed on the pavement and sighed. He dejectedly watched her orange ink trail streak across the sky, its droplets glistening in the vermilion sunset. It was so beautiful.

...But it left him feeling so blue.