Ron was in the training room of the building when Tartar entered.

"Hello and welcome to Grizzco Industries."

Tartar flinched, then noticed a wooden radio on a red box. It was a giant salmon with a bear in its mouth. Tartar touched the antenna.

"Hands off!"

"Waah!"

"I'm assuming you're here for a job, right? I can see the look in your eyes. And lucky for you, we have a free spot for a new worker to sign up."

"Did somebody quit?"

"Sure, we'll go with that. You're kind of weird-looking, but I'll cut you a break because the sea doesn't wait for anyone. Go over to the window and sign up. Then we can go through training next."

The metal covering the window opened a bit, and a clipboard with a single sheet of paper on it slid out. It slammed shut.

"Alright, antisocial ones in here."

Tartar sat down and grabbed a pen from the cup on the table next to him. Ron came over.

"Hey! Tart!"

"Don't call me that."

"You're going to do some Salmon Run? Never thought you were the kind to."

Tartar shot him a look. "I'm trying to read." He looked back down at the paper, then realized he could just talk to Ron then and there. "Wait, I actually came here to talk to you."

"Cool. I think we have a-"

A light on the wall began to flash as a siren sounded.

"Sorry, break time's over. Back to work." The radio ordered.

"Sorry Tart. I'm busy right now. I have another break in a few hours so we can talk then. Kay?"

"Alright..."

Tartar handed the paper back in. The radio clacked against the box.

"Great. Welcome to Grizz Co. as an official employee. Now we have to go over the basics, so if you could just change into the uniform and head to the helicopter, we can get started."

The tutorial was, as the name implied, the basics. The radio explained the Golden Eggs and Egg throws. Tartar had to get used to using a Splattershot, but that came quickly to him. After that small shift, the radio then began going over the eleven types of Boss Salmonids. They only got through the Steelhead, Steel Eel, and the Scrapper before the radio told him to stop.

"Great job out there, I can see the fire in your eyes. I feel like you're ready to take on a real job."

"But I didn't finish the training!"

"Don't worry, you'll have a team of others who can help you if you need it. But you learned a lot faster than all my other employees so I'm cutting yo a break. That, and also we're short a team member. When they get back, you'll head out with them. Got it?"

Tartar nodded.

He didn't have to wait long, the training took up most of the time they had been gone. Lucky for Tartar, Ron was in this group, along with Apocalypse.

"Oh! Apocalypse! I haven't seen you in a while! How have you been holding up?"

"Took part time 'case Ronny's team was down a man. Looks like somebody else quit if Grizzo sent you in."

"Uh...what?"

Ron smiled. "Ronny's a nickname. He calls Mr. Grizz 'Grizzo' for some reason. But now we have all the time in the world to talk."

Apocalypse dropped the Splatling onto the ground, leaning on the top of it. "So why did you come here? Everybody comes here for some sort of reason, right?"

"I only came because I wanted to tell Ron that-" The siren interrupted Tartar.

"Alright everyone, time to head out."

The final team member was somebody Tartar did not know. They had a chip in their right ear, and a few scars on their tentacles. Their hair was short and curly. Their uniform was black.

That's when Tartar realized he was the only one wearing the orange one Grizz had first given him. Ron's suit was yellow, and Apocalypse's was blue.

"How did you get those uniforms?"

Apocalypse looked at him. "Oh, just doing jobs. The orange one was a weird color on me, so I got one I actually liked. But you can keep the orange one if you want, I'm not going to judge."

The first two waves went great, but the third one proved to be difficult. Apocalypse, who was usually the offence, was forced to defence because of the weapon he was given, and Tartar was forced to offence. Thankfully, Ron and the other Inkling had his back.

"That was...rough." Rom fixed his helmet. "Hey, Tart, why'd you have so much trouble with the Flipper-Flopper?"

"Grizz didn't want me to finish the training. He pulled me out early. But I think I'm getting the handle on these Salmonids. Say, doesn't Aniya have one as a pet?"

"Yeah. Apparently she found it."

A siren blared.

"Again with the sirens?!" Tartar covered the headphones with his hands. "Can't Grizz find another way to alert us about things?!"

"Look out," Grizz said through their headphones, "we've got a King Salmonid incoming."

"King Salmonid?"

They all Super-Jumped back to the Egg Basket. Tartar stumbled a bit from the sudden weight on his back.

"That's an Egg Canon. Put it to good use and take out that King Salmonid."

A large, snake-like Salmonid rose from the water. It let out a ground-shaking scream.

"What. The. Fresh. Heck. Is. That?! That was not in the training!" Tartar pulled at his hair.

"Horrorboros, of course." Apocalypse sighed. "Eight, take out the bomb. It's like the Steelheads."

"I told you to stop calling me that."

"Well, you can't have the name Tartar. We're all Tartars."

Tartar rolled his eyes with a small huff. He aimed the Splatana towards it. "Er...wait. How do I use this thing?"

"How do you not know how to use a Splatana?" Ron asked, a bit upset.

"I've never seen this weapon before! There's no trigger, no aiming device, nothing!"

"Just swing it," Apocalypse said calmly, "like a bat or something."

Tartar swiped at a Drizzler, small waves of ink coming from it.

"Ohoho! I get it now!" He charged it up and attacked the Drizzler as it attempted to flee.

"Help!" Somebody called.

Apocalypse stopped firing. "Ron!"

"Help!"

"There's no Egg Basket," Tartar said. "What do I do with this?" He held up the Golden Egg.

Apocalypse tossed a bomb towards Ron's lifesaver ink tank that was slowly moving closer to them. "The bomb, fire at it. And if you can't hit the bomb, shoot the Salmonid."

"Booyah!" Ron fired a Golden Egg at the Horrorboros' eye.

It screeched and charged for him. Ron ducked into the ink to avoid it.

"That's new!"

Tartar figured out how to fire off the Golden Egg, and fell backwards from the blast. The bomb exploded, and the Horrorboros shook the ink off its body.

"The Salmonid's being pretty aggressive, Grizz!" Ron tried, but there was no response. "I think we have to kill this one, guys. Something's disrupting the signal, I can't get a message through to Grizz!"

"Great," the other Inkling said. "I've been waiting forever to finally finish off one of these guys."

"They can talk?" Tartar said, not trying to sound rude.

"The bomb is the weak point," Apocalypse explained. "If we focus on that, we can take it out."

"Wait..." Tartar pointed towards something on its head. "What is that?"

"Focus, E-Tartar. You can still work while talking."

Tartar picked up another Golden Egg that dropped from the Drizzler. "There's something on its head! I'm going to try to aim at it! Ron, Apocalypse, distract it so I can aim properly!"

"Rodger!" Ron started firing at the bomb. "Hey, stinky! Over here!"

Tartar missed the first shot, so he tried again. That time he got it directly on the center of the Horrorboros' head. The object fell to the ground, and all the Salmonids retreated. Tartar picked up the item.

"Great job out there," Grizz said. "Get back to the helicopter and you can go on break. If you're going to have nightmares, HR says you have to do it off-clock."

"What is it?" Ron came over.

Tartar held it between two fingers. "It looks like a microchip. This could be why the Salmonid was being too aggressive."

"Are you saying somebody was controlling it?" Apocalypse rested his head in his hand. "May I see?"

Tartar placed it in his hand. "I don't know what kind of tech it is, but it has the Kamabo Co. insignia on it. But I don't remember making any microchips, much less controlling a fish with one. Also, Ron, Eight wanted to talk to you. Seems like she wants to hang out with you for a bit."

"Oh! I'm free now, so I can do that!" Ron hurried off towards the entrance to Alterna.

Tartar sighed. "Maybe Marina knows? She's been in Inkopolis and Splatopia longer than I have so perhaps she could-what are you doing?"

Apocalypse didn't look up from the chip. "Deconstructing it. If we want to figure out where this came from, then we need to find out how they built it."

"You...know technology?"

"AI, Tartar. I'm a genius just like you and the others. I just try not to use it because then people will ask me to build things for them."

"I didn't see you as the type to invent things. Sorry if I sound rude."

"No, I get it. Ron was surprised too. But can you leave me be? I can't work while people stare."

"Uh, yeah. Sure."