The Big Run - Part 2
You are watching the Anarchy Splatcast, live with DEEP CUT
There was no real presentation, music, or pomp to this particular broadcast as Deep Cut came onto the screen. The musical trio didn't even say their opening lines, instead cutting right to the chase.
Shiver somberly tapped her fan down. "Well, we've never really lied to you guys before… too much at least… and we're not gonna start now. It's not looking good." She said as Big Man's TV began to show overhead footage of the ongoing Salmonid invasion. "The Salmonids are rising from the underground in complete droves and are swarming select parts of the city's south side."
"Stay away from those areas, everyone!" Frye exclaimed as she pointed at the TV.
"I had stock in some companies that were based down there…" Big Man frowned.
"We're coming at you with this quick broadcast to remind you of one thing." Shiver pointed her closed fan at the camera. "We are Splatsville. We are a community. As a community, we are either going to make it through this, or we are going to go down trying. Simple as that."
"We'll be right here with ya, Splatsville. Doing our own part." Frye continued. She pumped her fist into the air. "Don't give up and don't give in! New motto, just coined."
"Uh… sure."
"The Square is still a safe place for now, so feel free to gather down here if you need food, water, Grizzco applications, or anything else." Big Man continued. "Or just a hug. I'll be giving out hugs. I, uh… I really need one myself, just so that everyone knows. Times like this are just really stressful, and I, uh, I start to feel the pressure on my head, and kind of down in my feet, and I really need to find a way to calm down quickly, so uh, if you see me in the square, just come down and-"
"Alright, Splatsville." Shiver cut him off. "To recap. Come to the Square, we'll help you, and stay safe out there. Also, go ahead and join Grizzco over there and join the fight if you are able-bodied. For all of our sakes…"
"Alright, shut it down." Frye slowly stood up, and the feed went black.
The Salmonids now filled Syd's nightmares. Waves and waves of Salmonids were coming after her, whether it be Chums, Cohocks, or even the massive Cohozuna. The massive army, with the collapsed Splatsville behind them, had now discovered her junkyard, closing in on her and Chase.
With tears in her eyes and with Chase held close to her chest, Syd curled up against the wall as these Salmonids closed in on her, surrounding her, ready to devour her. She closed her eyes.
When her eyes actually opened once again, the Salmonid noises had not gone away. She darted her eyes around the tent and touched her own cheek, confirming to herself she was now awake. …Huh?
She shot up into a sitting position, accidentally waking up Chase in the process, who bounced off of her chest. She looked around. It had to have been the middle of the night by now, and the two of them were still very much alone in their tent, but she could still hear Salmonids… from somewhere nearby.
They seemed fairly distant, but still loud enough to have echoed into her dreams. Her eyes widened. Perhaps this junkyard wasn't going to be safe for now after all.
As silently as she could, she grabbed a flashlight and went to zip open the tent and head out, with Chase in tow. She motioned at him to be quiet, and Chase covered his own mouth as he followed.
She followed the noises from as much as a distance as she could, but the source appeared to be moving, forcing her to pursue further into the heart of the dark desert. She turned on her light.
Her silent mission was leading her farther and farther away from the site of her tent, and was straight up leading her around the pit where the massive, upside down tower rested. From there, she saw another light source in the distance, where the source of the Salmonid noises were now moving. She squinted as she stealthily moved over.
She soon came up by the side of a cliff, where she and Chase looked down at the pit below. She vaguely knew this place. Every junker by these parts did… It was the Crater. It was a mysterious site she never really knew the origins of, but it was most certainly being used, and the scaffolding that led to the bottom of the crater were lit up with various lights that illuminated the Salmonids who had apparently made a base out of this place. The last time she had ever been near this area, it was abandoned, so she knew… this was related to the Big Run. This was their staging ground. But… why? What advantage did this place give them? What were they planning here?
Overcome by curiosity, she slowly made her way down the side of the cliff as far as she could go, and then made a super-jump to the very top of the scaffolding. She gulped a bit as she inched forward slowly, scared of both the possibility of being noticed and even the smaller chance of this scaffolding collapsing beneath her. There weren't too many Salmonids around, and the immediate area before her seemed clear, so she continued to inch along. Chase held her neck as she did. She looked over the railing.
The Salmonids on the levels below her were all busy moving equipment around, and as she further watched their work, she noticed as some of them eventually ducked into exposed manhole covers. She squinted. From here, they almost looked like… kettles?
She kept inching her way along as stealthily as she could, walking down the ramp, until she came across another much closer kettle, which suddenly opened up. She squeaked slightly before she dived into her squid-form and hid, just barely out of eyesight from the Cohock that was sticking his head out.
The Cohock gave a look around before he emerged from the hole, followed by some other Salmonids that were carrying some equipment out. One of them closed the kettle behind him.
Syd waited until they were gone and, together with Chase, slithered over to take a glimpse down into what this kettle held, extremely confused. She was only further confused when she saw that it led into a pit with seemingly nothing but darkness. She squinted her eyes.
At around that moment, she could hear more Salmonids incoming, and they were closing in. Panicking as she moved, she suddenly slipped through the grating, and was promptly sucked in by a vacuum effect through the tube it led into, screaming.
Chase, following from behind, screamed as well as he fell, although his came out more as "WEEEEHEEHEEHEE!"
Syd screamed the entire way down until she was dropped into the massive, dark, underground dome structure at the bottom. Landing awkwardly on her face, she panted to catch her breath as she turned back to her humanoid form and slowly pushed herself up, just as Chase was sent careening into her back, plopping onto the ground.
Syd shook her head. "What the hell was that?" She sat up fully, and paused as she took a look around at the secrets this Crater apparently held.
She and Chase were now on a floating platform, surrounded by the more distant walls that formed the dome, which were covered with giant, powered down television screens. In fact, the entire place was largely dark and out of commission, giving a spooky, abandoned vibe that was only lit up by some occasional lights that the Salmonids had placed down. In fact, the more she looked around, it only confirmed to her that the Salmonids had only taken refuge here recently, and it had to have been abandoned for long before that.
She looked down at Chase. "You ok, bud?"
He only responded by suddenly rushing forward to explore.
"...Ok." Syd got onto her feet as she stepped forward to follow him, looking through the Salmonid's equipment that was stockpiled here.
They looked around for a few minutes. Really, there didn't appear to be much of note here; The only real equipment they had seemed to be old, recycled junk that was used for the Salmonid bosses, really showing off to her how much more primitive the Salmonids really were. She hummed nervously to herself as she looked around for any more clues on what else this place could've been used for… and her answer laid toward the back of the platform, on a small desk that was lit up by its own light. She squinted as she walked forward.
Amid some other random junk in boxes on this desk was a journal, which she slowly opened. The first pages were filled with what she could only assume to be a map of the Crater and some other nearby places in the Splatlands desert. All of it was crudely drawn, and required effort to even tell what she was looking at.
At the tail-end of an arrow that pointed to the apparent Crater map, was a large, brown… humanoid man thing, with a round head and overly large arms, that was crossed off by several poorly drawn question marks. She squinted in confusion at that before she kept turning the pages, looking through more of these maps.
The journal was filled with crude maps like this as far as it was actually filled in, but near the end of these entries, she saw something that caught her eye. It was actually one of the more clearly-drawn things here, enough so that she could immediately tell it was a map of Splatsville. It was marked by Xs that represented the important places to strike… and one of them was a much bigger X than the others. Confused at what this target was, she turned the page again, only to find nothing more of note. Desperately, she slammed the journal shut and instead started looking through the boxes, and to her luck, she found stashes of more official maps for the city of Splatsville.
She straightened them out on the desk and started looking through, as the Salmonid's plan finally began to unfold before her very eyes. Comparing these maps with the one in the journal, she located the biggest X to be near Undertow Spillway, which she immediately started looking through different maps to investigate into further.
Apparently, down below this location, was a massive, isolated water-control center. There were many smaller places just like it around Splatsville's sewers, and were how the Salmonids were controlling the water pressure and flooding the streets in certain areas from underground. But this bigger one under the Spillway was apparently a central one that controlled half the sewers in Splatsville… and from here, if they got control of it, they would be able to flood the whole city at once. Just like that. It was pivotal to their plan.
She set the maps down in disbelief as she stared ahead. This invasion could be held back after all… What was she even thinking? She left Johnny behind, fled for her life… and for what? What if she was needed at the Spillway? What if the Salmonids were already gaining control of it as she stood here, and she could've helped to stop it? Was…
Was Grizzco and Splatsville's residents even aware of this yet? Mr. Grizz hadn't even mentioned it…
Her hearts sank as one revelation fell over her: She had to go back. She had to see a defense against this through. Gulping, she scooped up all of these notes that she could carry as she turned to leave. "Come on, Chase! Now!"
Chase bounced as he followed.
Luckily for Syd, Splatsville was actually a quick hop and skip away from this dome thanks to the manhole system here, and it only took a bit more sneaking through the Crater surface before she accidentally came across the manhole, peeked inside, and followed it until she emerged from the connected manhole in Splatsville's Square.
She looked around the Square as she resurfaced. Although it was still the middle of the night, the Square was still populated, by a bunch of people who were apparently seeking refuge here. She didn't understand what was so special about this particular spot, but she regardlessly moved along and walked up the stairs to get to the Grizzco Industries building.
She shoved her way inside with Chase and with all of the notes she was carrying, but paused as she quickly discovered… the place was empty. Everyone who was fighting in this Big Run had already been dispatched into battle and cleared out from this place.
She blinked. "Hello? Mr. Grizz?" She called out as she walked over to where the bear statue normally would be. "Hello?"
The bear statue was present at the side of the room, but it wasn't turned on. She poked it, awaiting any kind of response, before she ultimately sighed, giving up. She supposed she could wait until morning when Mr. Grizz was back in, but… she wasn't sure she had that kind of time. She grabbed her things and headed right back out, deciding to look elsewhere. She… figured she could head back to Johnny's, at least. Maybe if she was lucky, he was home.
But first, it was at this point that she took a second look around the Square. The people that were present here seemed to be supplied with free food and water, confirming to her that this Square was indeed being used for refuge. As if these events didn't feel enough like the coming apocalypse.
She sighed before she looked around curiously. Was Mr. Grizz the one helping these people? Who else would be doing it?
The answer came to her as she walked near the Deep Cut studio, and the door opened. Shiver stepped out as she saw her, recognizing her. "Well, well. Was starting to think I wouldn't see you again. Especially not now of all times."
She and Chase turned to face her. "You… what are you doing here? And awake?"
"Apparently we're charity runners now. Helping those people who don't really have anywhere else to go right now."
She took another look around at the nearby people. "Couldn't they just… evacuate?"
She briefly held her hands up. "And go where?"
She didn't respond.
Carrying some boxes out of the studio, Shiver walked over near the top of the staircase to restock some food. "What was your name, again? Did I ever catch it?"
"Syd."
"Well, Syd. I saw you fight in that skyscraper that we barely escaped with our lives. Why aren't you with Grizzco right now?"
"I…" She awkwardly cleared her throat. "I don't know."
She just gave her a knowing stare.
She gulped. "A-Actually, I was just going to sign up, but no one's there."
"Because everyone's already out and fighting the good fight. Didn't you notice?"
She sighed. "It's been a long day for me, alright? Really, I just wanted to show Mr. Grizz some of these." She briefly held up the rolled up notes she was holding under her arm. "See if these would help."
She looked at them. "What are they?"
Syd gulped yet again. "I…" She hesitated, before she decided to just let it out. "I think I uncovered the Salmonid's plan to flood the whole city."
She raised an eyebrow at her. "What? Where'd you find something like that?"
"It's complicated and I don't really know how to explain it."
Shiver walked over to her, and started eerily looking her up and down.
"...What are you doing?" Syd asked.
"Truth detecting."
"I-… Is that necessary? Just, fucking…" She handed her one of the maps.
Shiver unrolled it and looked it over. She stared at it for a couple couple moments. "Hm."
Syd just kept watching her, until she rolled it back up.
"Remember the last time we met and we talked about teaming up under the right circumstances?" Shiver told her.
"Uh… yeah? I guess?"
"I think one just came up. Come on in." She motioned to the studio, giving her a smirk.
Syd glanced at it, then back at her strange grin, before she hesitantly followed her inside.
Shiver led her to the back of Deep Cut's studio, where Frye and Big Man were both resting for the night in their hang-out room. The room was definitely decorated as such, with lots of colorful Deep Cut merchandise and everyday items like a television and a small kitchen. Big Man in particular was snoring loudly, with nothing but Frye's deafening ear-plugs to block off the sound for her.
As Shiver came in, she rudely turned on the light and went to shake both of them awake. "Wake uuup."
"Huh?" Frye jumped awake. She quickly pulled her earplugs out. "What's going on?"
Big Man had an even more intense reaction, and suddenly started swatting the air. "Uu-wah! The Salmonids are here already!? NOT FOR LONG! Where are they!?"
Shiver dodged his attack. "Woah! Big Man, calm down!"
"I'll take them all on!" He kept swatting around as some kind of threatening body language, unable to hear her. This continued until Frye jumped onto him and tackled him. "AYYYYYY!"
"Big Man! Gotta-" Frye finally pulled out his own ear-plugs. "It's just us! There's no Salmonids, you're fine!"
Big Man awkwardly face-planted onto the ground once Frye let go of him. The rest of them just stared at him, baffled.
"Woo…" He slowly pushed himself up and onto his feet. "That was scary." He stretched. "So, what's going on?" He said as if nothing happened.
Shiver sighed. "Got a visitor."
He turned to notice Syd. "Ah. Hello, again." He closed his eyes and smiled.
Syd just awkwardly waved.
"This better fuckin' be important." Frye tiredly stretched as well.
"It is." Shiver nodded. She motioned to Syd. "Show them the thing."
"What thing?" Syd asked.
She gave her a look.
"...Oh, right." She found a table to walk over to and set all of her notes down. She straightened them out for them.
The trio joined them to look them over. "Woooah…" Big Man droned. "You make art? That's so cool."
"I didn't make these, the Salmonids did. Some of this, at least." Syd told them. "The others are official city maps."
"Where the hell'd you get these?" Frye asked.
"You know that old Crater place off of the upside-down-tower thing?"
"Uhhh, barely."
"The Salmonids made a base there. A staging ground of sorts for the Big Run. And when I went there investigating, I found all this."
The Deep Cut trio stared at her before they began to look through all of the notes. "Woooah…" Frye said.
"...What are we looking at?" Big Man asked.
"The Salmonids are planning on flooding all of Splatsville at once and they're gonna use the central pump center to do it." Shiver explained. "In other words, they can make all of Splatsville their turf in pretty much an instant."
"Woooah…" He said yet again, much to Syd's annoyance at this point, and his eyes widened as he stared at the blueprints.
"So, what do you want us to do?" Frye looked at Syd.
"I mean, I was going to show them to Mr. Grizz, but apparently everyone is already out fighting the Salmonids." Syd replied. "Shiver was the one who told me to come in."
"We'll do anything we can to protect Splatsville." Shiver nodded. "Count us in."
"Ok, but still." Frye continued. "What do you want us to do?"
"Well…" She went over a nearby drawer, searched around inside, and soon came back with her own stash of blueprints. "You guys remember that heli we acquired the designs to, right? The one we have in storage?" She straightened them out on the table, on top of the previous notes.
"Wait, are you saying that-?" Again, she and Big Man looked down at the blueprints for the helicopter. "Woooah…" She droned in exact sync with Big Man.
Syd sighed and leaned her head back. "Get me off this planet." She mumbled.
Shiver playfully smacked her arm with her fan. "Whaddya say, Syd? We can take you right there to the Spillway and you can help us take care of this."
Syd looked up at all of them. "Are you… sure I should be the one who should be going? I mean… I'm really more of a messenger here."
"Don't play scared with us." Frye leaned back, striking a small pose. "We saw you in action already. I still remember what you did to my eels." She punched her own chest. "Which I still don't forgive you for, by the way. You neither, Big Man."
"Aw…" Big Man looked down.
"Fighting you and your eels was different." Syd replied. "This is… an army. An entire, concentrated army. I had… I had never seen anything like them before. I barely even escaped them."
Shiver closed her fan. "Oh, I'm sorry, would you rather just let all of Splatsville fall?"
"I didn't say that."
"You thought it." Frye replied.
"Yeah, you totally give that vibe." Big Man added.
"I don't even have proper Salmonid training." Syd continued. "I have minimal Grizzco experience, and both times I've been there, I fucked up somehow."
The Deep Cut trio all looked at each other, whispering among each other. Syd stood back and waited for them to once again include her in the conversation.
"Alright." Shiver faced her after a second. "Fine. We can go ourselves. We'll just be taking these notes from you, thanks."
"Guess that team-up's still not happening." Frye shrugged. "But oh well."
"Thanks for your time, though." Big Man beamed.
"Uh… sure." Syd just stepped back and watched as Shiver collected all of her notes.
As Shiver and the others started getting all their things and prepared to head out, Syd stood back and watched with Chase.
This was it… wasn't it? She relayed the message, she got help involved, and the chances of everything turning out alright just went up. She did the right thing. She could relax now. She looked down at Chase, who bounced a bit as he looked back up at her.
She looked back at Deep Cut, and Shiver gave her a glance back. Actually, it was barely even a glance, as she immediately reverted her attention to something else. She almost seemed… disappointed. Now, Syd couldn't help but shake the feeling that…
No, no. It was over, and she did the right thing. She closed her eyes, nodding to herself in approval. It was over, and she did the right thing. It was over and she did the ri-
"Yo, braidy." Frye called out to her. The three Deep Cut members were now gathered at the door and prepared to turn off the light. "Are you planning on becoming the official fourth Deep Cut member, or are you gonna let us lock up?"
"S-Sorry. Come on, Chase." She said as she and Chase followed them out.
She stood idly by as Deep Cut locked up the studio. She turned to look over at some of the people in the Square, all currently relying on Deep Cut's charity. They all seemed particularly stressed… like they had nowhere to go… like they were waiting for a hero, a knightess in shining armor, accompanied by her brave Smallfry companion, as they descended from the Heavens to-
She suddenly face-palmed softly as she snapped herself from those weird thoughts. What was she even thinking? She quickly reminded herself of the horrors that the Salmonids presented, of what she was up against.
"Uh… what is she doing?" Big Man asked his two partners as they stared at her.
"IIII think she's having a moral crisis." Shiver squinted a bit.
"Cool." Frye nodded. "Love those. They suck, but they're always inspiring."
Indeed, Syd's mind was racing. She saw not only what she was up against, but what all of Splatsville was up against. What all of these people were up against. What Johnny and Sally up were up against.
Oh, god. Johnny and Sally. She totally let them down before… and now they were probably out there, already fighting the Salmonids, unaware of the threat they presented and how to stop them. But, she was actually considering going to help them, wasn't she? She couldn't, it simply wasn't beneficial to her. After all, she wasn't the hero type. She wasn't now, and she wasn't ever going to be.
But, what if she tried? What if, in the end, something went wrong, and this all came to hinge on her? What were the chances of that? Should she go? Should she stay? What would Johnny and Sally think if she did stay?
Weighing her options, she realized something. It wasn't like she hadn't fought through life-or-death situations before, and made it out ok. Frye herself already said it, she did take on her and her eels. This was possible. Frightening, sure, but possible. And if she went for it… if she did this… if she put herself on the line, one more time, then… what would Johnny and Sally think of her then? She opened her eyes, a new wave of motivation slowly falling over her.
"Syd?" Shiver finally asked her from behind.
She turned to notice that they were awkwardly standing there, staring at her during her very visible dilemma. "Yeah?"
"Do you just wanna come with us on the heli?" She gave her a knowing look as she put her hand on her hip.
She paused and gulped. The decision was now or never… and finally, she nodded. "Yeah… Of course. Just, one small thing."
She shook her head slightly. "What?"
"I need a weapon."
It had been a long and sleepless night for all of the Grizzco Industries workers that were working to quell the Salmonid invasion in affected parts of the city, keeping the Salmonids from spreading further. At this point, however, some more parts of the city had been flooded, further solidifying the growing hold that Salmonids had on the city.
The Grizzco workers down in the Undertow Spillway in particular were feeling the full brunt of the Salmonid forces, just as Mr. Grizz had previously warned. There was considerable flooding here and a new wave of Salmonids coming in to attempt their attack at least once an hour. Although Mr. Grizz had sent multiple large teams here, as the hours went by, more and more of the Grizzco workers were being taken out, steadily reducing their forces.
Johnny and Sally were taking a break alongside their remaining teammates between one of these waves, as Johnny wiped the sweat from his forehead, looking around. The sewer water around here had steadily risen again, further alerting them to the fact that they might not be able to protect this place for long.
Sally stepped over toward Johnny. "You holding up ok?"
"Not drowned yet, if that's what you mean."
"Don't get too comfortable. They'll be back soon enough." Mr. Grizz told them through comms. "And they'll only be getting more aggressive. They want this area. Badly. Don't let them take it."
Sally sighed. "You know, Grizzy, if you think that this is so important, why don't you get your basement-dwelling-pedo ass out here and help us?"
He didn't respond.
"Thought so." She took a seat next to Johnny.
Johnny was still staring blankly at the water below them. Above even the minimal sleep they had gotten tonight, he just… hadn't been the same since Syd left, and Sally could tell.
Sally sighed as she just looked in the same direction that he was staring. "You know… thinking about it… maybe Syd was onto something after all. We're fighting a waterfall, we're not gonna hold them off forever."
Johnny didn't respond.
"Look at us. Look at our team." She looked around. "Whatever dam we have for said waterfall is about to fucking crack open. Are we really just supposed to take that? We gonna sit here and wait to get drowned or mauled to death?"
"I'm not leaving this place as long as there's still a city to fight for."
Sally stared at him, sighed once more, and looked back into the water.
"If you wanna leave, though, Sally, you can." He looked at her. "I didn't stop Syd and I won't stop you."
"Didn't say I wanna leave alone."
He fell silent, as they stared at their reflection together.
"You think this is a cool way to die?" Sally asked after another moment.
"What?"
"Our talk in the elevator. When we contemplated what ways we'd want to die." She somberly stared ahead toward the rest of the Spillway. "Out of all the things in Splatsville that could've killed us, can't say this is how I'd want it to happen."
He looked at her and followed her gaze, pausing as he noticed that the sun was starting to rise, with its beams of sunlight spilling in through the cracks in the ceiling. He looked up. "Maybe… it won't be so bad after all. I mean… at least we're not alone, right?"
She did as well. "Yeah… yeah, we're not alone."
But the peaceful moment would only last so long before the Salmonids, from somewhere beneath them, called out once again, giving them an even shorter break than what they had before. It was an eerie call for war that they had already heard several times at this point, but this time… it was accompanied by a somewhat distant, high-pitched screech, from somewhere underground, as the ground beneath them suddenly shook for a second.
They looked down, to see that the water line near their feet was rising once again. They stood up and joined up with the rest of their team as they gripped their weapons. They could tell at this point, the Salmonids were coming in for their most ruthless strike yet. Sally looked at Johnny, wondering if their end was indeed coming up, before, standing together with the others, she got ready for the next wave.
Sure enough, the next wave was coming in hot, and bubbles emerged from the rising waters until, once again coming from the sewer system, the Salmonid army emerged onto land. A Cohock, accompanied by some mechanical Salmonid bosses, reared its head toward the ceiling as it roared loudly.
Johnny, Sally, and the others opened fire on the incoming horde, and the next gruelling, exhausting battle for Splatsville began.
Indeed, this wave was more relentless than the others as the Salmonids, as if driven by the rising sun itself, marched into battle with great vigor and hunger. As such, the fight had already been going on for several minutes by the time the approaching helicopter began to fly overhead above ground.
Shiver, Frye, Big Man, Syd, and Chase were all onboard, as Syd leaned outside the open door to look downward. "Sounds like there's already a battle going on down there!" She shouted above the sounds of the helicopter blades.
While Big Man flew the chopper, Shiver laid out the maps and the blueprints on the floor, straightening them. "The water control center is underground, even below the Spillway! The entrance to it is a big trap-door, you can't miss it! If the Salmonids haven't already accessed it, they're certainly fighting like hell to get to it, so hopefully my back-up will be here soon to help you out!"
"Back-up!?"
"You'll see! Until then, make use of those bombs we gave you!"
Syd sorted through the weaponry she had. Indeed, Deep Cut had given her some extra-strong Splat Bombs for use against the Salmonids. She nodded. "Got it!"
"Good! Now, last thing!" The next thing she handed over was a big wrench-like key she and Deep Cut had stolen. "This is the key to the big pumps, it should help you access them and reverse the Salmonids' flooding! Don't lose it!"
She nodded and held it close as well.
Big Man waved his body in excitement without letting go of his controls. "Let's get down there and do some damage!" He cheered.
Shiver nodded as he proceeded to pilot the chopper to find a sizable hole in the ground, and descend into the Spillway.
Indeed, Johnny, Sally, and the rest of their team were finding themselves absolutely overwhelmed by this particular wave as hordes and hordes of Salmonids continued to close in, growing heavily in numbers. Johnny found himself deeply on his toes, turning and shooting at anything that moved toward him to keep himself safe.
So far, he was doing a pretty good job at it, and was keeping the immediate area around him clear, but as the Salmonids grew in numbers, he had less room and less time to work with, resulting in, finally, him running out of ink. He eyed his gun and his eyes widened as he attempted to swear, but before he could, multiple Chums and Smallfries jumped him, tackling him. He wrestled them to keep their hungry mouths away from his skin, as another Chum grabbed him and tossed him like a ragdoll. Again, the process repeated as more Salmonids moved to tackle him.
"Johnny!" Sally, who was also on her toes and neck-deep in various Salmonid attacks, moved to help him, before a Scrapper suddenly used the distraction to drive itself directly into her. Knocked to the ground, she turned her gun and kept trying to fire at ensuing Salmonids, before she rolled to her feet to dodge the Scrapper again, more Chums, another Scrapper, and then a Steel Eel, which itself was plowing through their own Salmonid forces to get to her. Knocked down herself, she screamed as the gun was knocked from her hand and she too was trampled.
Johnny let out a much longer scream, fighting for nothing less than his life from the ravenous Salmonids on top of him, when the wind and flurrying sound of the helicopter blades blew through them all.
Although this wasn't enough to stop the battle, it was enough to confuse some Salmonids and get them to look up at the helicopter that was now hovering just above the Spillway.
"Light 'em up!" Shiver opened her fan and stuck a pose, pointing it outward.
"YAHHHHHHHHHH!" Frye shouted as, from her controls, she began firing the helicopter's turret at the Salmonids.
Finally, the Salmonid's attack was thrown off once again as a barrage of ink flew at Frye's targets. One-by-one, groups of Salmonids were forced to flee, including the ones that were attacking Sally, then finally the ones that were attacking Johnny.
Sally crawled onto all fours, dramatically spitting onto the ground as if she was throwing up all the contents in her stomach. "BLEH! BLAH! I got Salmonid spit in my mouth!"
Johnny, recollecting himself, slowly stood up as he looked up at the helicopter. "Is that…?"
Indeed, Syd was leaning out the helicopter and firing at Salmonids herself, using her Splattershot to do so.
Johnny gasped and laughed like a child as he held his own hair, absolutely euphoric. "Oh my god!"
Another few moments passed as the helicopter worked to scare off more Salmonids. "The path's clear, go, go!" Shiver announced to Syd.
Syd nodded. "Remember to watch my little buddy!" She called to them before she super-jumped onto the battlefield. She rolled to her feet and rolled her shoulder after landing. Walking over to find where the Grizzco workers were at, she gulped a bit when she saw Johnny. "Hey, uh-"
Without warning, Johnny suddenly rushed up and hugged her.
"Woah! Uh…" She blushed heavily and hugged him back. "H-Hey…" She awkwardly chuckled.
"Sorry, was that, uh-" He broke off. "Was that sudden?"
"Uhhhh…" She shrugged. "You know what? No. Just glad to see you. Uh…" She turned to see that Sally was approaching her as well. She opened her arms again. "Hey."
Sally squinted. "I'm not hugging you."
"O-Oh." She awkwardly lowered them.
She casually cracked her neck. "Nice seeing you, though."
"Yeah, you too." She smiled before she turned to start walking. "Listen, though, we've gotta move."
"What? Did you come back for something?" Johnny asked as they followed.
"There's a water control center underground near here, it's what the Salmonids are after, we need to get to it before they do. If they reach it, Splatsville falls."
He blinked a bit. "Uhh… ok. That explains a lot. What do you need from us?"
"You need to help me protect it and, well, deactivate it, using this." She held up the key. "So we can reverse the flooding they've already been doing."
Sally cocked her weapon. "Done and done, count us in."
"Great." Johnny shrugged. "Let's go find it, then."
As everyone joined up and started walking behind Syd, at that moment, Johnny's radio sprang to life in the form of static-filled noise, as someone began speaking on the other end. Johnny looked around at the others before he grabbed it, lifted it up, and tuned it slightly so that everyone could hear.
"I see what you're trying to do, but it won't be that easy." Mr. Grizz told them. "Your braid-haired friend here didn't think this through properly."
"And why's that?" Syd asked.
"See for yourself. Here they come." The radio went silent.
Confused, they all looked around as, indeed, at that moment, the sounds of Salmonid growls that were already all around them started to get louder. Then, to further scare them, the ground beneath them suddenly shook somewhat, as an even louder growl filled the air, catching the attention of all of the Grizzco workers.
As everyone prepared for the fight of their life, the trio backed up somewhat and stood together, weapons raised. Syd gulped nervously, but for once, she didn't necessarily feel the urge to back down. She was here now, whether for life or for death. She looked at Johnny, who gave her a reassuring nod, then at Sally, who gave her a slight smirk before she turned straight and maintained her battle pose.
Another loud growl and shake could be felt until, a moment later, a splash of water erupted from the Spillway. Water was flung everywhere, splashing among some of the Grizzco workers and forcing them to dodge, as finally, the massive, floating snake-like monster erupted from the underground. Among the panicked screams of its enemies, it glided around the air for a moment like a giant coil, before it straightened itself, revealing its massive eel-like head, with some kind of black mechanical device in its mouth, two horn-like lightning-shaped strands of hair, and terrifying white eyes similar to Cohozuna's. It stared straight ahead, not at the Grizzco team, not at the helicopter, but at Syd. Directly at Syd. It opened its mouth widely.
"RRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Its high-pitched, somewhat mechanical scream was enough to vibrate through everyone's bodies and damn-near puncture their eardrums. Everyone desperately covered their ears, but that did very little to block off the scream itself. In the immediate aftermath, Syd leaned forward and groaned, her ears ringing.
"FUCK!" Sally backed up, for once appearing quite terrified.
"What!? What is that!?" Johnny asked.
"That's Horrorboros!" She pointed. "Remember how you didn't think Cohozuna was real!?"
"Yeah!?"
"Well, I DIDN'T THINK THIS THING WAS REAL EITHER! WE'RE FUCKING DEAD, DUDE!"
"Oh, SHIT!" He started to panic as well.
They had no more time to prepare as the next wave of Salmonids emerged and began their attack, while Horrorboros simply began to circle the area. Gripping their weapons, all of the Grizzco workers got back into battle to defend themselves.
"Give them no mercccy." Horrorboros announced to its underlings. "Kill every lassst surfaccce dweller. Kill them all. Killlll."
As the chaos continued below, the Deep Cut members were still merely reacting onboard the helicopter. "Uhhhh-" Frye started. "Do I aim for the army or the dragon!?"
"T-The dragon, I guess!?" Shiver shrugged. "I dunno, just improvise!"
"Got it!" Loading some more ammo into her turret, she aimed once again and began firing.
Feeling the ink merely poke its back, Horrorboros reacted immediately, rearing its head toward them and unleashing another smaller scream.
"Uhhh, ok, I improvised!" Frye screamed in a panic. "Now what!?"
As Horrorboros began closing in on their chopper, Frye kept firing directly at its face, and much to her fear, her attacks were doing pretty much nothing. Horrorboros screamed a third time, getting closer and closer.
"Oh sh-!" Big Man swerved the chopper to just barely dodge its gaping maw, while Frye kept firing at it as it passed. It swiftly began circling back around to attempt its next attack.
On the ground, all hell had once again broken loose as Syd, Johnny, and Sally worked as a team to navigate the battlefield and reach the control center. They dodged lesser Salmonids, while occasionally working together to take down boss Salmonids that selected them as their targets. "C'mon!" Syd called after them.
Despite their best efforts to stick together, their immediate path was blocked as a Steel Eel, ruthlessly shoving other Salmonids to the side to get to them, emerged before them. Syd found herself separated from Johnny and Sally as they dodged in opposite directions, but did not stop rushing forward, inking a path for herself while holding the key close all the while. She dodged and blasted through the likes of a Maws, who tried to sneak attack her from below, some overhead missile strikes from a distant Flyfish, and the dolphin-like Flipper-Flopper, which dived at and almost splatted her as she dodged its explosion of green ink. She fell to the ground. Although she was most definitely internally panicking, she tried her best to control her breathing as, before she could get back up, a Fish Stick came over and tried to drill itself directly into her. Barely rolling out of the way, she got back on her feet and swiftly inked a path through the Flipper-Flopper's puddle to continue on her path.
This time, her path was blocked by a massive Steelhead, with the bomb in its head already grown and about to be thrown at her. "Son of a-" She dived out of the way, just barely dodging the radius of the exploding bomb that covered the surrounding area with more green ink. Only having a moment to re-ink some of her own territory, she was forced back on the move as the prior Steel Eel managed to catch up with her once again, creating its own trail as it chased her. Although she tried to make a new path to get around it, she again found herself blocked as a Stingray, from a distant Stinger that was stacked upon its tower of pots, activated and began honing in on her. On top of that, her new escape route led her directly back into the threatening presence of the Steelhead, who was spawning another bomb to throw at her.
With no way out of this, she dodged the Stingray, found a somewhat safer spot to duck down, and then closed her eyes, clenching her eyelids shut in absolute fear.
"AHHH!" Johnny's warcry could be heard and, just as she again looked up, Johnny came back into view to fire at and detonate the Steelhead's bomb early, which erupted in its face and took the monstrous figure down.
The Steel Eel, meanwhile, stopped in its tracks as its entire body began falling apart, from its tail to its head, as Sally came up from behind and splatted the Smallfry that was piloting it.
Furthermore, Syd looked in the distance as the distant Stinger was also knocked down from its tower of pots, from the barrage of ink that was fired from Deep Cut's helicopter. Syd looked upward, where the helicopter turned and revealed Frye, who gave her a thumbs up. "WE'VE GOT YOU COVERED!" She cheered.
Syd couldn't help but briefly smile, as Johnny and Sally came to reunite with her once again. "You good?" Johnny pulled on her arm to help her up.
"Yeah, let's get this done already." She got up and ran further toward her destination with them. It may have felt like a little victory there, but it didn't change the fact that there was still a constant stream of Salmonids coming in from the river, with a seemingly endless barrage of Boss Salmonid horns.
Elsewhere, other Grizzco workers were amassing Golden Eggs from other Boss Salmonids, and were beginning to fire them at Horrorboros. A small team had even taken down a massive Big Shot and taken control of his cannon launcher, which they used to fire more Golden Eggs in a more powerful manner at the beast.
Horrorboros roared loudly in pain as it was struck with many of these, but against their wishes, and not quite like anything they had previously seen with Cohozuna, they were only making it much more aggressive. It reared its head and screamed directly at the Big Shot's cannon, before diving downward toward it. As it did, energy began to build within its mouth as the mechanism on its jaw began to charge up for its next attack.
Onboard Deep Cut's helicopter, Shiver took notice of this. "Shit! We've gotta keep it distracted!"
Big Man steered the chopper closer to the floating monster, and Frye again aimed before she opened fire, striking its face and halting its charging process. Extremely pissed, Horrorboros turned back toward them and roared, before lunging at them instead.
"Urgh-!" Big Man swerved the vehicle to barely dodged its bite.
Shiver eyed her watch to check the time, still desperately awaiting for her back-up. "Master, where are you!?"
After another moment as Horrorboros continued its attack on them, it successfully managed to ram into the chopper's underside.
"Woah!" Frye exclaimed as she and Shiver were both nearly tossed off their feet as the chopper turned in the air. Although Shiver tried to hold onto the wall, Frye crashed into her and sent her toppling out. "No-!"
Shiver found herself dangling there above the river as Frye barely grabbed her hand, clinging onto the chopper door for dear life.
"I've got you!" Frye exclaimed.
"Yeah, and when was the last time you've washed your hands!?" She snapped back up at her.
The both of them suddenly looked off in the distance, as subtly, somewhat in the distance, they heard a familiar roar.
Chase was meanwhile with Big Man in the pilot seat, desperately clinging onto him. Big Man himself was sweating profusely and whimpering to himself as he desperately kept out of the range of Horrorboros' attacks. "Guys, I could really use a distraction for this thing!"
"Can it, Big Man! We're in the middle of something!" Frye tried pulling Shiver back up.
"Guys! Seriously!" He clenched his teeth.
Shiver and Frye both looked over as the source of the distant roar finally got closer, as within the Spillway's river, the familiar finned monster swam through the water, closing in on their location fast.
All in the next moment, the chopper buckled violently as Horrorboros once again rammed into it, damaging one of its turbines and causing it to downright spin out of control.
"Ohhh, noooo!" Big Man screamed as he desperately tried to get it back under control.
Shiver was hyperventilating as she started to slip from Frye's grasp, while Horrorboros, now focusing directly on them, came in for yet another attack. Calculating the direction they were spinning, it opened its mouth and came in for a devastating bite.
In her effort to hold onto Shiver with both hands, Frye was suddenly thrown from the chopper herself, and together with Shiver, she screamed as they fell toward Horrorboros' open mouth. At that moment, however, with a roar, Master Mega dove from the water at high speeds and managed to catch them out of the air first, before careening onto land.
Despite the whiplash feeling and her panting heavily, it only took Shiver a moment to recognize what just happened, and she grinned widely. "Master!"
"Uhhh…" Frye pointed upward at the spinning helicopter, which was now incidentally careening toward them.
"Oh, shit! Climb on!" She and Frye both climbed onto Mega's straddle, and after another second, Mega briefly lifted his head into the air before he took off through a horde of Salmonids to escape. That very same horde, after being rammed through, briefly looked up before they were consumed by the fiery explosion and helicopter blades as it crashed onto land and drove through them all, taking out a whole swath of enemies.
As the wreckage came to settle, Master Mega stopped and looked up at Horrorboros, who made eye contact with him.
"RRRAAAAHHHH!" It screamed at him.
"ROOOAAARRR!" Master Mega returned.
Shiver and Frye both turned and stared onward, wondering about Big Man's fate, but as it turned out, they didn't have to worry about it. Big Man, along with Chase, had apparently already jumped from the chopper and into the sewer water, and was already climbing back onto land.
Big Man was panting angrily as he came up, the tips of his fins clenched. A nearby group of Salmonids that were taking notice of him started to approach him, but he now meant business, and was now expelling some of his own ink onto the ground. "You all asked for it!" Turning into his own ink form, he dived into his ink puddle, emerging into his massive Stingray shadow form. He immediately began approaching the incoming Salmonids.
Shiver smirked as she again turned forward. "Alright, Master, let's give 'em hell!" She patted his back, and with her and Frye on his back, Mega leapt forward into battle as well.
As this was happening, Syd, Johnny, and Sally were fighting their way through yet more waves of enemies, when finally, they came over to the entrance of the underground control center, accessed by a trap-door on a sloped wall that. Although it was normally supposed to be sealed shut, it was already, to their fear, opened. The control panel next to it was occasionally erupting in sparks, apparently having been chewed on by some Salmonids that had reached it while everyone was distracted.
"Oh, no." Johnny said.
Syd looked down the stairwell that this entrance led to. "Ok, no time to lose." Holding her weapon forward, she led them down.
The fairly large control center they were led into was a maze of different rooms and pipe structures for them to wander through, and it was already filled with plenty of Salmonids. As they came into one hallway, an entire army of Salmonids that were trying to access a door suddenly turned to them, prompting the trio to open fire and battle their way through. As they navigated their way through, actually, there was an entire gauntlet of different Salmonid groups to fight through, and the ensuing battles covered lots of these halls and rooms in both allied and enemy ink. It was a fairly brutal throwdown, and Syd found herself getting bit or scratched a couple times, but they regardlessly cleaned out each hallway that they passed until they reached the large central control room.
For a largely unused place, it was fairly kempt, but that no longer mattered as it was now taken over and being trashed by the next group of Salmonids, who were working on figuring out how to work the pumps and accomplish their mission, once and for all. Just as before, they all turned to them and grabbed their weapons upon noticing them, but the trio again opened fire on them to clean them out and halt their progress, covering the room with ink.
In the aftermath, Syd looked around to survey the assortment of controls, recalling the blueprints she acquired. "Alright." She stepped forward. "We need to figure these controls out and reverse everything the Salmonids already did."
They didn't make it far into this objective, however, as they heard more Salmonid shrieks down the hall. As they all pointed their weapons, they heard some ominous creaking, shrieking, and then finally crashing sounds among the walls. The room around them shook slightly, and some of the lights around them began to flicker.
Frightened, the trio grouped up together and stood back-to-back as they looked around at the various entrances to the room, as the surrounding Salmonid noises got louder. They gripped their weapons tightly, with Syd's accumulated sweat practically barreling down her face as she braced herself for war, again holding the wrench key very close.
"You ready?" Johnny asked.
"Yeah." Sally replied.
The room again shook slightly as, to their fear, the horrifying white eyes of Horrorboros crept into the room through the darkness. The massive shadow of its head reflected off the wall from the flickering lights as it inched closer.
As the lights stabilized, Horrorboros' towering figure became far more visible as it swam through the air. Its body did seem somewhat injured from the prior battle outside, but that did nothing to pause its pursuit. "Inklingsss… you delay the inevitable. Your cccity will fall…" It hissed.
The trio backed up from it as it curled through the air in a snake-like motion toward them,
"SSSooner or later… thisss world will be… cleansssed. We will bring down buildingsss… we will raissse all occceansss… we will amasss power… we will find the big one that hasss plagued usss. And you…" Again, it was staring at Syd and the key in her hands. "Will be fed upon."
While Syd stared it down in complete fear, trembling as she backed up further and further, Johnny and Sally looked outward as more Salmonids began to barrel into the room, ready to prey on them.
"Give yourssself to usss…" Horrorboros continued. "Give yourssself to usss… give usss your power… and you will dissscover peaccce."
Although Syd felt more terrified than ever, as she stood here, trembling like a child, the urge to back down did not come to her. Not this time. Shakily clenching her fist and staring it down, she raised her head slightly. "No." Raising her gun, she fired into its eye.
Horrorboros briefly flinched and backed up slightly before it shook its head. "Kill. Killlll."
Hearing its commands, the Salmonids all raced forward, from all sides, roaring as the massive battle throughout this large room proceeded. The trio stood there ground as best as they could, firing at all incoming enemies to hold them off, and slowly chipping their way through droves and droves as more waves came in to replace the fallen.
Syd dodged around the room, using her gunfire to hold the enemies off, but to Horrorboros' shock… this trio was holding up surprisingly well. Getting increasingly irritated, it suddenly lunged forward toward Syd. "Killlll!"
Syd's eyes widened as she looked up and barely dodged out of the way of its bite. As its massive body swung through the room, it collided with some of the machinery, breaking a couple of pipes and causing some water to begin leaking.
As Syd dodged another attack and briefly stopped to look over the scene, she locked eye contact with Johnny from across the room.
"Syd!?" Johnny shouted as he fired at some more Salmonids.
"I've gotta lead it out of here! I'm what it wants!"
"Syd!"
Syd fired another shot into the monsters eye and rolled under its massive body. "Come get me, fish breath!" She ran into the hall.
"RAAAAH!" The monster let out a smaller roar as it gave chase, colliding with a couple walls to squeeze in after her.
Syd barely ever looked behind her as she ran as deep into the halls as she could, escaping the horde of enemies into the increasingly dark underground tunnels that these led to. Every time she did look behind her, she saw that Horrorboros was giving chase as fast as it possibly could, and was causing a fair amount of damage as it raged along, causing more leaks and gas spills as it began to charge some energy with the mechanism in its mouth. Eventually, however, Syd managed to slip past a wall of large pipes by briefly turning to her squid-form, and she heard the crash as Horrorboros crashed face-first into it.
She rolled to her feet and paused as she listened closely, hearing the King Salmonid's irritated growl as it slithered away. Did she lose it? Unsure of the answer, she held her gun forward and kept moving, searching for another way out.
This place was a maze that she couldn't quite recall the maps to, and it was eerily dark and quiet, with no audible noises except for the dripping sounds of water, the distant rage of the Salmonid army, and her own breath. Noticing how heavily she was breathing, she tried quieting herself as she made her way along, listening for any signs of Horrorboros' approach. She could subtly, very subtly, still hear its growling, which meant… it was also searching for her, like a predator in the wild.
Gulping as she kept this in mind, she kept searching for a way out, pointing her weapon down each hallway she passed. As she came across an intersection, she heard a noise behind her, which although small, was enough to make her jump, spin around, and fire directly at the source. Her high-pressure ink loudly bounced off a pipe, and the tiny crab she just narrowly missed hissed at her before it scurried away.
Her eyes widened as she realized what kind of noise she just made. "Oh, shit." She muttered.
Indeed, a moment later, she turned to see as Horrorboros' eyes again crept down a hall toward her.
"I can hear youuuu…" It growled.
Whimpering in fear, she tried firing another shot at its eye, but missed this time, as she ran down another hall. Horrorboros screamed as it slithered after her.
"I sssmell your ink. I sssee your eyesss. You cannot hide." Again, it began building up energy in its mouth.
Syd was on the verge of crying as she ran for her life, turning more corners in an attempt to lose it, but it had it too far in its sights now. She tried firing back it once more, again missing.
"I will feassst on all of your kind."
Syd accidentally screamed as she nearly collided with a wall, but kept moving.
"Thisss world will be conssssumed. I will have vengeanccce." More and more energy built in its mouth as it prepared its final attack.
Despite all of her efforts, and all of the ink she tried firing back at it, she was finally driven into a dead end. Screaming once again in complete fear as she shot her head around in all sorts of directions for another way out, she turned to watch her pursuer's terrifying approach.
"I will be orderrrrrrr!"
Syd starting using super-jumps to climb up the pipes in the room, and Horrorboros tried lunging its head at her, smashing some of them open. Water began gushing out and flooding the room, locking her above a pool of death as she climbed to the highest possible ledge she could grab onto. Here, she was at her final destination as she faced down the beast, which had now accumulated almost enough energy in its mouth to unleash its inescapable attack on her.
"I will be rebirthhhh." Horrorboros taunted her for the last time.
Shaking horribly, Syd looked through all of her equipment, but… she had nothing. Nothing that would get her out of this alive, at least. And she needed to make sure Horrorboros didn't get her key… so… This was going to be her last stand…
This was it. After all that she had been through, it turned out… it all led her to this. She stared down this creature, as her last thoughts went back to Chase, and to Johnny, and even to Sally.
And… even to her parents… who she hadn't seen for so long…
Her tent… The home she had made to herself… the memories she had made for herself here in Splatsville… her new home.
After all, it was her home, her place of death. She was going to go down for it now. But was she going to go down as a scared little shit whimpering in front of the new world's ruler? Or… could Splatsville survive this because of her? Could it thrive because of her? Could she take this thing down with her? Although it terrified her… she knew the answer. She knew it all along.
Standing up as straight as she could and glaring directly at the beast, she turned back into her Squid-form for her last stand, super-jumping onto Horrorboros' face.
They both screamed; Horrorboros screamed out of frustration and anger, while Syd screamed more from determination and straight-up rage, using the key to stab its eye. It screamed again, louder this time out of pain, as Syd tried stomping its eye out. Scrambling to get her off of it, it roared as it flailed around, colliding with the wall. She was nearly thrown off, but held into its face as best as she could as she prepared her own last attack.
With its good eye, Horrorboros stared at her as she pulled out her specialized Splat Bomb and shoved it directly into its mouth, amid the building energy ball. She screamed as a searing pain from the energy ball ran down her arm.
Horrorboros' eye widened as the energy ball of green ink began to instead turn into Syd's yellow ink as Syd's bomb went off, prematurely triggering its own attack. Yellow ink erupted everywhere in grand fashion, throwing Syd off as she again turned to her Squid-form and aimed herself at another one of these ledges. She rolled and collided with the wall as she landed.
Choking on Syd's ink, Horrorboros screamed and thrashed around, colliding with more walls in a blind attempt at finding her once again. As the foundations of the room began to give out, Horrorboros looked up for the last time as the ceiling suddenly caved in, collapsing on top of it and bringing it down into the pool below.
Severely weakened, Syd panted as she watched and listened, raising her head somewhat as she listened to Horrorboros' final, drowned out screams, as violent bubbles emerged from the sewer water. But, as the moments passed, and Horrorboros was strangled by the heap, one last weak growl was let out before everything fell silent, and the pool went calm.
Dropping her head, Syd groaned and held her stomach. She looked at Shiver's key, which she held to her chest. She did it… she… could rest here… in peace… everyone would be proud of her… wouldn't they? Thinking about this, she lightly smiled…
She closed her eyes.
Several moments passed in absolute silence, and although she may have fallen asleep for a moment or two, Syd found herself to still be very much alive and conscious, prompting her to take a look around to see if she could get more comfortable. She herself had not been crushed, as the rubble had mainly fallen into the center of the room, but she still didn't have a lot of room to move around. But… then, as she pointed her light, she noticed something. When the ceiling did collapse, the walls had kind of started to give out too, forming cracks along the wall. Their structures were no longer sound at all, and seemed to lead to something behind them. She squinted a bit. Could it be…?
Mustering her strength, and making use of whatever room she could use to move, she crawled over and tried pushing and kicking at the rocks, putting all that she had left into it.
Johnny and Sally were cleaning up in their own brutal battle against the Salmonids as, as if aware of Horrorboros' death, the Salmonids had suddenly stopped trying so hard to finish their attacks, making the remainder of the battle significantly easier for them.
Regardless, in the aftermath, Johnny looked around, realizing that… Syd still had not returned. Holding one of his wounds, he panted as he limped down one of the halls. "Syd?" He called out. "Syd? You there?"
Sally looked around as well, rubbing her own shoulder as she and Johnny both came to the same realization… she had probably been lost. Sadly, they looked at each other.
At around that moment, Chase was finding his way into the room as well, curiously looking around for his owner. Looking around and seeing no trace of her, he looked up at Sally.
Sally returned his gaze with a more sad look, before she reached down to pick him up. She pet him a bit. "I'm… sorry, little buddy…"
Confused but extremely frightened by the implications, Chase teared up before he curled up into her chest. She sighed and held him close.
Johnny looked down as well. It appeared that he couldn't spend more time with her after all…
But then they heard some rocks shuffle down the hall, prompting them to point their weapons just in case. Chase leapt from Sally's grasp, bouncing a bit as he curiously watched to see who it was.
Johnny inched forward as finally, Syd, drenched in sweat and some of her own ink, came into view, panting as she held her own wounds. "J-Johnny."
"Syd." He lowered his weapon.
Chase bounced happily before he excitedly bounced into Syd's arms.
"Awww." She tried petting him, before Johnny suddenly came over and lunged into another hug with her. Chase leapt onto Syd's shoulder as Syd held Johnny close and squeezed him.
Syd sighed, once again tearing up. "I'm… sorry I tried to leave before… I-"
"It's in the past now." He smiled and broke the hug slightly, gripping her shoulders as he looked at her. "I'm just glad you're ok."
She smiled, feeling a certain temptation as she stared him in the eye. Chase's own eyes went back and forth between them, curious about that look between them. Syd leaned forward slightly, before-
"Ahem." Sally cleared her throat.
They both broke off and turned to her. "What?" Johnny asked.
Sally nodded her head toward the controls, where an alarm was going off. "The whole city is flooding."
"Shit, seriously?" Syd stepped forward.
"It was the two of us against an whole army of Salmonids, yeah, some of 'em got to the controls."
"Well, let's shut that down then." With her friends behind her, Syd walked up to the controls, pulling out the key. Figuring out the controls and using the key, she then moved to halt and reverse all of the flooding the Salmonids had caused.
In the Spillway, the Grizzco workers and Deep Cut had concluded their own battles and scared the last of the Salmonids away, and were now watching as some of the waters that had risen began to retreat. More Grizzco workers looked around, proud and extremely relieved. It seemed, after all, the city had been saved.
"Thanks for the assist, Master." Shiver climbed off of the shark's back. "Although, seriously, we've got to have a serious talk about your arrival speed."
Embarrassed, Master Mega curled up slightly and grumbled a bit.
She rolled her eyes and pulled out a snack. "Alright, alright, here you go, tough guy." She tossed it over.
Panting, he lunged to grab the treat out of the air with his mouth, devoured it, and then dived into the river to make his leave.
"Uhhh…" Big Man leaned over. "Can I maybe have one of those?"
Shiver rolled her eyes again before she pulled out another one and tossed it over. "Alright, here you go, puppy."
He grabbed it and happily nibbled on it.
"Where are the others, though?" Frye asked.
She shrugged and looked around as, moments later, the rest of the Grizzco workers turned to watch as Syd and her friends returned from the control center entrance.
Syd, at the moment, was still quite exhausted, and quite unprepared as an army of Grizzco workers rushed them to celebrate their victory. They all stood around them, cheering and thanking them, as the trio simply stood together, side-by-side, appreciating the crowd.
Sally kissed her fingers and held them up in a peace sign. "Thank you, thank you."
Syd looked at Johnny, who gave her a smile. She blushed slightly, then looked at Chase, who happily bounced on her shoulder.
As Deep Cut gave them their own distant smiles and prepared to head out as well, Syd and her friends looked on at the world around them that would stand another day.
Some Time Later
Although the Big Run events had certainly caused some heavy damage here and there, at the end of the day, the city was still Splatsville, the City of Chaos, and the events had thus turned out to be yet another day and another fun story to talk about as life proceeded exactly as it was before. Now, however, the populace knew the Salmonids were still out there, and as Mr. Grizz would warn, the threat of future Big Runs, even more angry and ruthless than the last, were not out of the question…
Regardless, Syd's mind was now on something else. It was to Johnny's relief that she had decided she was staying for good, and had now really embraced her life with her friends, but together, they had some things to piece together. She, Johnny, and Sally had returned to the Crater, which had now been cleared out by the Salmonids, to investigate. As they stood at the bottom of the pit, Johnny used some scanning equipment to examine the place while the rest hung out around him. Syd lazily kicked some rocks while Chase just kinda sat around and sniffed the ground.
"So whaddya think the Salmonids wanted with this place?" Sally asked.
"I have no idea." Syd knelt down to feel a rock with her fingers. "They seemed to have just been using this place as a staging ground, but…" She huffed. "The more I think about it, the more I can't help but think about that… 'Big One' they kept talking about."
"The big one?" She scoffed. "Sounds gratuitous."
"Uhhh… I literally almost got killed by a giant snake monster."
"Dragon." She corrected.
"Eel." Johnny interjected.
"Whatever." Syd sighed.
"Well." Sally shrugged. "If another 'Big One' just comes up, we'll just kill it. That's pretty much our thing now. Isn't it? I mean, the word about that is spreading…"
"Uhhhh… guys, about that?" Johnny said, with some nervousness audible in his voice.
"What?"
"This scanner might be glitching on me, but… there's something very big down below us. And there's activity down there."
"Activity?" Syd asked.
"Oh my god, is it another monster?" Sally asked. "Should we be excited or nervous?"
"No, no, it's… something dome-shaped."
"Ok?" Syd shrugged. "Yeah, there's a few of those dome things here, I already told you about them."
"No, no." He looked at her. "I'm not talking about those. Whatever this one is… it's much bigger… and weirder. And it's directly below us." He looked down.
Syd and Sally both paused as they looked down as well, and they all stared at the ground as the air grew ominous for each of them.
Happy Halloween, everyone! So, I'd like to apologize one last time that it took this long to get this far into the story; I recognize this one may have been more effective if I released these first 8 chapters in a shorter time-span, but unfortunately I've only found that it's hard to find time to work on this story while prioritizing NSS:A. But regardless, this chapter does conclude a bit of an 'arc' I intended for this story, and that involves the story of how Syd got settled into Splatsville. Now that she's really settled, and is here to stay, you can except the story to venture into newer ideas and for a lot of the coming one-shot premises to be crazier. I'm excited to get into them. Until then, have yourself a spooky Halloween night. *mwahaha*