Splatoon: The Brothers and the Others
Inaba's First Day
Octopia, Octropolis, whatever, it's a city underground. Octolings, Octarians, and others thrive in peace, living amongst ruined buildings and destroyed mechs. I mean, it's not exactly clean cut and peachy like the Inklings' homes up there, they get to frolic in their sunshine and grass and whatever, while we suffer underground, having to deal with their bull ship. That's where I live, Octropolis I mean. A decent apartment, with one of the best mothers you could ask for... I'd tell you how it looks, but honestly, I can't care much to remember. Too much unnecessary effort. I can tell you about my "new home", though, the Octarian HQ.
Hmm? Oh, right. What's up, my name's Tai, Tai Inaba. I'm fourteen. The Inklings, having won the Great Turf Wars a few years ago when I was just a small octopus, practically banished us to this codforsaken place. Sure, whatever. They won because some idiot decided NOT to plug in a Great Octoweapon. I mean, come on! I'm lazy, but that just takes the cake, how do you screw up your one job that badly? Wonder if that guy got fried to a crisp, wouldn't surprise me. ...Hmph. Anyways, I guess I should explain what's going on, this is my story, isn't it?
I'm an Octoling. You know, octopus, whatever the "ling" stands for, I don't care. I got four tentacles sticking down my head, I don't bother maintaining them in those "uniform" ways the other Octolings do. I also have a pair of Octoling Goggles, Octoling Armor and Octoling Boots, pretty light pieces of metal that are supposed to protect us or something. What's the point, really, they're really only good for a different fashion look, to be honest. Right now, I'm being enlisted into the Octarian army. I've already gotten a bunk, I'm sitting on the bed of it right now, but our leader, Octavio, an octopus dude wearing a samurai hat, is emphasizing that we get on official registration. Kinda stupid if you ask me, why bother registering when we can go out right now and krill those guys and take our land back? Stupid, I'm sure Inklings, despite being strong warriors, aren't that difficult to deal with!
"T-41!" A voice called, from the other wall of the bunk.
Scoffed. "Coming, Aussie."
"4U55-13! Remember that, you will address your superior like that for as long as you are enlisted in our army!" Aussie yelled.
That was my "commanding officer", or should I say, "always got her panties in a twist" Aussie. She offered to take me under her wing, but honestly, I couldn't care less. I just wanna kick some butt.
"Sure, whatever Auss."
With that said, hopping off my bed, I walked to the door leading in and out of my bunk and opened the door, which slid up automatically as I moved towards it. Not gonna lie, pretty convenient. Another door to the left opened and out walked the ever-nagging black and red colored soldier that is Aussie, a fellow Octoling who always seems to wear her Octoling Goggles, sort of a metallic mask with purple lights for eyes.
"We make for the main room at 0800 hours!" Aussie declared.
"So 8:00?" I asked, bored out of my mind.
"Precisely, rookie." Aussie nodded, a smirk on her face. "Forward march!"
I sighed and rolled my eyes even more bored somehow. "Whatever."
We made our way through a large hallway, weaving through other Octarian forces. Eventually, we trudged through a crowd, finding ourselves in a large room.
"Eh?" I muttered, looking around. "Whoa."
So, apparently, by main room, she meant a flipping party room full of dancing Octolings. Not gonna lie, some of them have some good moves. There were multiple tables, most seats were already taken, a bar, and a bunch of balconies from above where other Octarians were dancing on. The coolest thing had to be the fact that our leader, Octavio, was spinning records on a turntable onstage, overlooking all the Octarians. The beats were pretty sweet, almost hypnotic. Although to be honest, wasn't too alluring to me.
All of a sudden, Octavio paused spinning records, clearing his throat. "Octarians!"
The entire room looked over at the DJ, pausing in the middle of getting their groove on.
"I'd like to take this time to make an announcement." Octavio began. "I know the state of things is looking pretty unfresh."
The entire room nodded in agreement. Gotta agree there, my mom's been having some tough times since that war.
"But I know, with the help of our new recruits, we can all prevail against the Inkling forces. We have the firepower, ingenuity, and can we all agree, we're MUCH fresher than those hipsters up there."
Most, including me, present in the room chuckled at that.
"As soon as we get you all registered, we will face those Inklings in combat. I can't guarantee that all of you will come back alive…" Octavio stated morbidly.
The room fell silent.
"That's why we have a spawn point we stole from the Inklings here," Octavio stated proudly, motioning elsewhere.
A round metal platform was hoisted up on stage by two Octocopter troops who were hovering in the air. The platform was dropped next to Octavio.
"Thank you J3r-ry." Octavio nodded proudly..
"No problem sir!" The Octocopter I can guess was Jerry said, hovering off.
Octavio walked over to the spawn point and flicked it on using a switch on the machine. The machine whirred, and suddenly the round platform was lightly filled with a violet ink substance.
"Now, to demonstrate, we have sent an Octarian squad on a mission… Unfortunately, one of them didn't quite make it, the commanding Octoling officer to be exact. However, by combining Octarian technology, we have managed to extract her from the hot zone. Kinda like this."
A light from the spawn point emanated from the goop, and out popped an Octoling, who was gasping for air. The entire room burst into cheers, and the Octoling, who had just been respawned as far as I can tell, waved at us nervously, got up, and walked away. Everyone who had the ability to burst into applause, loud clapping and cheering followed the announcement, Octavio bowing pretty respectfully.
"Don't be afraid to go out fighting, a spin in the cycle will restore you to your original self!" Octavio declared. "Now with that out of the way, recruits, off to the training room for your entrance exam!"
"Wait, what?" I murmured questioningly. Exams? That sounds boring as all shell.
The crowd cheered, and most of the Octolings made their way out the room to the right of the stage Octavio was on, or more specifically, towards the entrance Auss and I came from.
"You heard the king, T-41. Off to the training room!" Aussie declared, pushing me away.
"Uh…" I managed, before being pushed away.
After a few minutes of getting dragged from, we all stood in a white room, with a few chairs and weapons laid strewn about.
Aussie waved me off. "Stay here and listen to further instructions. See you after the entrance exam!" She said, marching away.
Nodding, I turned around to face the room. By the looks of the basic white coloring of the room, I can bet it's going to be pretty high tech, maybe holographic battlefields or digital targets or something. My excitement was peaked, maybe this exam would be fun.
"Alright, Octolings, your objective is to blast away at the Inkling targets, which will soon be displayed in the firing range. Go ahead and take any weapon you see, try it out." Octavio's voice surrounded us.
I smirked. To my left, I spotted a simple, black and silver weapon with a small oval canister on top filled with violet ink. Picking it up, I aimed it towards the white, baring my fangs. In other words, I'm pretty excited I get to shoot things! Eee, I hope they fire back, it's going to be awesome!
...Ahem. The other Octolings nearby picked up Octoshots as well, aiming as well.
"Targets will appear in five, four, three, two, one…" A different, feminine voice called out, probably another Octoling.
"Heh…" I muttered.
Cardboard pictures of what appeared to be Inklings popped out. Can't say I was too impressed. Most of the targets looked like us, but had shorter, deformed looking tentacles, large teeth, eyes with huge black marks on them that covered nearly their entire face, and drool dripping from their mouths on clothing that looked like it was from ages ago. Something inside of me told me that this wasn't exactly accurate.
"Fire away Octolings, give them one heck of a scratch." Octavio's voice echoed.
I fired at the cardboard target, nailing it on its head, the evil Inkling falling back and splintering into a thousand pieces, now decorated with violet. My smile diminished slowly. Was it THAT easy? Another target popped up back in its place, so I did the same. It too shattered within seconds of my initial ink bullet. I could feel my eyelids droop, and I yawned as if I've been doing this forever. Target after target popped up, each one breaking.
"You know what," I said. "Nah."
So, naturally, to make this more interesting, I leaped into the target range, shifting into an octopus midair, landing on the ground, shifting back into my regular Octoling form as I landed. Oh right, Octolings can turn into octopi, though I'm pretty sure that's obvious. Landing in the target range, ducking and dodging friendly fire from my comrades, personally taking out their own targets.
"Wha?! HEY, YOU! CEASE FIRE IMMEDIATELY AND RETURN TO THE BARRACKS!" The feminine voice from before shouted.
I put my index finger to my chin. "Mmm…nah. This is much more fun."
"SECURITY!" Her voice screamed.
All of a sudden, a Splatoon of Octotroopers hovered across the white ground on their mobile metal platforms towards me, the ground underneath them getting doused with purple ink as they slowly...slowly moved towards me.
"...Oh my Coooooood, just lemme be." I yawned, simply walking away from the Octotroopers, who all sighed as they realized that they probably couldn't keep up.
I jumped from the firing range back into the barracks area.
"Oh, you REALLY did it now, rookie."
"DJ Octavio's going to punish you hard for that."
"Ah, whatever, I don't give a ship." I shrugged with a nonchalant wave of my hand.
They grumbled behind me. I smiled, rather pleased with myself until I bumped into Octavio, whose tentacles were crossed, the octopus sitting in some giant floating machine with robot fists and a turntable inside.
"Um."
"T-41, right?" DJ Octavio asked.
"...Yeah?" I said.
"Come with me." He said, hovering away, gesturing for me to follow using his giant robot hands.
I sighed, walking away with the octopus. Following the octopus through hallways, getting some less than friendly stares from other octopi, who I mostly stuck my tongue out at. I found myself in the room from before, the festive vibe now gone as everyone else had left. DJ Octavio snapped his robot fingers and suddenly, the entrances and exits to the room closed off. Nevertheless, I remained calm, staring him down.
"What do you want, Octavio?" I asked.
The octopus stared me down. Suddenly, he burst into laughter, pretty much catching me off guard.
"...Did I say something funny?" I asked, not too happy at his response.
"Sorry, sorry… You just remind me of your mother."
My face shifted into a frown. This guy knew my mom?
"Huh?"
"Your mother, Mrs. Inaba, right?" He said.
I stared at him for... I don't know how long.
"Ms. Inaba." I corrected him.
He chuckled again.
"Somewhat rebellious." He said, his eyes looking away, tentacles reaching for his turntable.
Taking a step back, I frowned again, aiming the Octoshot I picked up from earlier. "Whoa, hands away from there."
"What?" He asked.
"I've heard the rumors, you control Octarians with those. I'm no idiot," I hissed.
"Ah, that? I won't lie, I have used those before. But these records-"
Octavio lifted up the records from the turntable and rubbed the covers of the discs, which were just some random music discs with what appeared to have a red gloved fist on one and an irregular cross shape on the other. Tilting my head at the discs, I shrugged.
"These are just old records from extremely long ago. Can't blame an old octopus for wanting to listen to his favorite tunes, can you?" He said, putting the red gloved fist record back on, giving it an experimental spin.
The music that played briefly made a man yelling something at the top of his flipping voice, and the heroic stylings of a guitar, before Octavio stopped grinning.
"So...then, what did you want to talk to me about?"
"Tai." He said. "You show potential."
"Really. That's cool I guess." I said with a shrug.
"I'm serious," Octavio said, lowering his voice. "With enough training, I'm positive you'll have the strength to-"
At this point, I pretty much bailed, I didn't really care what he was saying.
"Sure, whatever old man," I told him, walking for the exits, still blocked by doors. "I'm just here to stop Inklings from massacring us all. Maybe get paid, dunno, but I'm not here to become one of your 'elites' or anything. Thanks anyways."
Walking away, the doors suddenly opened as I approached.
"Hey. Thanks a lot." I said, walking away through the hall.
Octavio muttered something, then closed the doors behind me. I made my way through a metallic hall, back towards the barracks and target range. Once inside, I reached the inside, where a bunch of Octolings stared at me incredulously. Aussie, still inside, gave me an angry look.
"There you are! Where have you been, we've been shooting targets for the past twenty minutes, and I haven't seen you since." She huffed hands on her hips.
"Yeah, about that," I said, spinning the Octoshot I had. "That's what got me a 'talk' with Octavio."
Just then, Aussie's eyebrows rose in interest. She removed her Octoling Goggles, Aussie's eyes seemed to light up and her red irises glowed in a pretty... Not gonna lie, it was kinda cool. "...Is that so? Well done T-41."
"'Well done' my bass." I blew out of my mouth. "I don't care about this, you hear me? I'm just here because I have to."
"Then consider it a sign of good fortune." Aussie shrugged her shoulders.
Just then, another Octoling walked up to Aussie, not exactly as happy as she was. "4U55-13, she completely shattered the rules of the target range! You're just going to let this little bimbo go without a warning?!"
"Bimbo?" Aussie's eyebrow shot up.
"Bimbo." I blinked.
"Yes!" The other Octoling snapped her fingers.
Bimbo? Wow. That's a new one. Before I could argue anything, Aussie glared holes in the other Octoling.
"Might I remind you that you were the same person with an accuracy of twenty-eight percent three weeks in a row? If I were you, I wouldn't insult allies clearly superior to you." She said, shutting down the Octoling.
"R-Right, apologies commander." She muttered, walking back to the target range.
She nodded, then turned back to me, a strange bright present on her face. "You can thank me later. Wish to take another shot? Within parameters?" She asked, pointing towards the target range.
With a big smirk, I twirled the Octoshot. "Sure. Only if I get to bend the rules a little."
"Within parameters," Aussie repeated quickly.
Together, we walked towards the target range, aimed our Octoshots, and shot down those Inkling targets like the sons of squitches they were. Heh…
Well, that's me anyway. Here I am now, sixteen years old, bordering on seventeen in a few months. Now I'm stowed away in a cardboard box. Yeah, it's sorta weird, but none of the things I've dealt with have been entirely normal leading up to this point.
"Heh…" I snickered.
"Tai, are you alright in there?" A voice whispered to me from outside the box.
"Yeah, just fine Splinny boy, why'd you ask?" I asked in a teasing, sweet voice.
"...Nevermind, you're fine." He sighed.
I snickered. "Thanks for asking."
AN: And here's that spin-off story I mentioned earlier. Basically going into more detail on some of the others in the Bate Brothers' universe. I recommend reading that if you want a little more understanding on some of the characters, but for those just tuning in, I'll try and detail their whole back stories and other adventures in their own rights without having to ask people to go read the Bate Brothers' Adventures. In the meantime, I'll be working on the next chapter, thanks for being patient in advance! Thanks for reading, this is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, off to play Paper Mario TTYD, see you when I see you!
By the way, this was an experimental chapter. Most of the ones after this will be in third person mind you. I can't embody my characters as well as I would like!
AN II: Wow. I uh, neglected to properly check this chapter before it was sent out. How embarrassing! Good thing there's always editing in post. ...In post of post in this case.