Splatoon: The Brothers and the Others
The Future is in the Past! Part 1
In Inkopolis, a variety of festive lights, pictures, fireworks and other celebratory artworks were displayed all around the city, most of it concentrated in one area: Inkopolis Plaza. Inkopolis Plaza had to be one, if not the shining gems of Inkopolis, as it is generally considered as the number one spot for the thing all squids, or at least most squids, love. Turf Wars. The center of the plaza is surrounded by a multitude of different buildings, ranging from the one stop shop destination known as the Booyah Base, the Squid Sisters' Studio to watch the two darling idols of Inkopolis, the Squid Sisters themselves, perform live on television, but most Inklings of this age of...somewhere far in the future of Earth which I'm not willing to disclose are generally ready to perform in Turf Wars, games Inklings compete in where they must coat the ground with their ink. The reason that the plaza was so lively, however, was because this was a celebration of sorts, a Splatfest, an event held in Inkopolis ever so often, where Inklings choose between two sides of one or two particular subjects.
But enough of information most of the viewers probably know by now, this is solely about our heroes and the adventure they are about to have. Speaking of which, our protagonists of this particular chapter in the story are just about here now! And by here now, I mean hurdling through the sky.
Two blue squids were currently falling from the sky, heading towards Inkopolis Plaza. Despite the sheer oddity of it all, the squids looked forward with rather indifferent expressions, as if they've done this before forty-something times. The two squids were just about to slam into the asphalt of the plaza when suddenly, they changed form into Inklings. Arms and legs sprouted from the tentacles as did their stout, round heads pop out from their arrow-shaped squid heads. These squid humanoids skidded to a stop, landing nearly harmlessly in the plaza, until momentum decide to stomp its foot down, launching the two onto the floor.
"Ow," One of the Inklings muttered, getting up, dusting himself off, "Still haven't gotten it down."
"Give yourself some credit Splin, That one wasn't too bad!" The other one piped up.
The two Inklings stood up and faced the Inkopolis Tower. Splin dusted off his Black Anchor Tee and lifted himself up, taking care to arrange his Designer Headphones around his neck. While he crouched down to fix his Orange Arrows, the other Inkling took a deep breath. Wearing his Takoroka Mesh with pride, he too dusted his White Anchor Tee off, and giddily ran about, his Banana Basics dirtied with dust. The two of them shared the same tannish skin tones, as well as brown irises that studied the tower in different ways.
Splin studied the tower carefully, a giant catfish wrapped around its green exterior. "Well, good to see that the Great Zapfish is fine."
The other one eyed the tower, smiling like a buffoon. "How you doin' Zapfish?"
The catfish wrapped around Inkopolis Tower stared back.
"Good to know!"
"Why wouldn't the Zapfish be fine, Sharq? He sits up there all day," Splin said and gestured to the catfish.
"Well, how were we supposed to know before, Splin? After all, it doesn't talk much." Sharq told Splin as he pointed upwards.
"Well, you have a point there. Come on, let's sign up for the Splatfest. Maria, for whatever reason, wants us home by ten, and Cod help us if we accidently delay a second longer than needed." Splin said, hand on his hip.
"Come on bro, Maria's a nice lady! She'll understand if we have a few Turf Wars before the night's over." Sharq reassured Splin, grinning.
"And if she doesn't?"
Sharq shrugged. Shaking his head, Splin walked to his left, approaching a table of sorts. Behind the table was a bulletin board with two large pictures posted on opposite sides of each other. One shown a dinosaur amidst a prehistoric landscape, and another one shown a futuristic utopia with U.F.O.s flying above buildings.
"Hmm...I'm not too sure what I want to choose, to be honest. Both are solid options, you return to the past to relive memories and such, or travel to the future and see what has improved. Difficult…" Splin said, looking over the options.
"Well, it's a good thing I brought-" Sharq reached into his shorts pockets, and somehow pulled out a glowing cube that was much larger than the pocket space itself. "Tele-Cube!"
"Wha- Sharq, seriously?" Splin said, facepalming. "Already? You're bringing the space-time object?"
Sharq nodded gleefully as the cube vibrated just as happily. "Uh-huh!"
Splin's tentacles drooped off the back of his head. "Why?"
"I didn't have a coin to flip. So this guy-" Sharq began, pointing towards the cube, which flashed in response. "Will act as a coin toss!"
"That's uh- How would that- ...Why?" Splin said, at a loss for words.
Sharq shrugged, adjusting his cap. "Which will you pick? Heads or tentacles?"
Splin looked at the cube. None of the sides had any form of heads or tentacles to speak of. Sighing, Splin reached for the back of his head, and pointed to two tentacles sticking out as they slowly began to fall lower.
"Tentacles it is!" Sharq said, gently rolling the cube on the ground like a dice.
The cube flashed a bright light.
"Oh, ship!" Splin cursed.
Splin and Sharq opened their eyes. Splin instinctively raised his hand flat above his eyes as to act as shade, while Sharq blinked as to get the glare of the sun out of his eyes.
"...Wait a minute, sun?!" Splin gasped, looking around.
That's right, sun.
"Oh, hi voice!" Sharq nonchalantly greeted the author.
How's life been treating you squid kid?
"Good, well, minus the fact we're stranded somewhere completely unknown and different, but good!" Sharq said.
"Hmm…" Splin murmured.
Surveying the landscape, most of it was orange and brown dust, with the occasional tumbleweed that blew by. Few rock structures dominated the land while weeds underneath poked out from the earth and stretched toward the sky.
The Tele-Cube lay dormant on the ground beside them, glowing dimly. Splin sighed, assuming they were trapped in some sort of wasteland until he turned around. Splin came face to face with what he recognized as the dinosaur on the Splatfest poster. Except here it was much taller. And scaly. With huge, menacingly sharp teeth.
Splin frowned at it. "Oh."
"What's up Splin-" Sharq asked, whirling behind him, also noticing the dinosaur.
All three of them stood in silence. After a while, the dinosaur stooped down, took a sniff of the two Inklings, then somehow licked its lips, deciding that calamari was definitely on the menu today.
"How do you run from this thing?" Sharq asked.
Splin cleared his throat. "...I don't remember. I haven't gone to a museum in-"
The ginormous lizard roared, shaking pebbles on the ground and filling the air with a deafening sound.
"Very, very, quickly."
The two of them switched into blue squids, and frantically hopped away, Sharq taking the Tele-Cube with him. The dinosaur grimaced, then roared, pebbles lying down on the ground shook from the mighty vocal exercise. Splin and Sharq slid down an incline, taking shelter behind a large rock below.
"Do you think we can take it?" Sharq asked.
Splin adopted a thinking face, then peeked out of the safety of the boulder, immediately retreating when the reptilian rapscallion chomped at the air just above him.
"I dunno Sharq, we have no weapons, we obviously don't have super strength, and the…"
Dinosaur.
"Is RIGHT ABOVE US!" Splin yelled.
The dinosaur backed this statement up with another snap towards the boys' tentacles, snagging Sharq's cap in one of his teeth.
"Hey!" Sharq protested, reaching for his cap.
"Sharq, what are you-"
The dinosaur lifted its head, dragging Sharq's cap and to that extent, Sharq itself up into the air. Sharq squirmed, slamming his fist on the dinosaur's teeth, the dinosaur dropping him and the hat, growling somewhat. Sharq landed on his back, shaking off the fall quickly, placing his cap back on his head.
"Splin, what do we do? Five minutes outside of our house and we're fighting something!" Sharq exclaimed.
"Sharq, don't be ridiculous. We aren't fighting it." Splin said calmly.
"Well then what are we-"
"WE'RE RUNNING FROM IT!" Splin shouted, dragging Sharq by his t-shirt.
"Oh!" Sharq got up to his feet, and began to sprint frantically.
The prehistoric powerhouse roared, and gave chase, charging after the two brothers. They shifted into squid form, sliding down various dusty inclines, ignoring the dirt being tossed up into their faces. They slid down until they reached a large rock, which they promptly ducked behind. A moment later, they stood behind the rock, holding smaller pebbles in their hands.
"Take THIS!" Sharq shouted, chucking a rock.
Splin and Sharq tossed rocks at the dinosaur with expert precision, but unfortunately, the rocks just bounced off of the dinosaur with hardly a scratch. The tyrannosaurus tilted its head back, then smacked the rock the boys were using as cover using its head, pushing them far away. The two of them landed on the ground by another large rock, grunting from the impact. The two of them ducked behind it, panting excessively.
"Any other plans?" Sharq asked.
"...Wait a minute. Sharq, where's the Tele-Cube?"
The two of them peered from outside the rock, noticing the cube glowing. Right by the oversized lizard's feet.
"...Hmm." Splin murmured. "I have a new plan."
"Nice! What is it?" Sharq asked.
"Well, I think that if I can get to the Tele-Cube-" Splin pointed towards the cube. "I think I can Super Jump back over here, and using the cube's functions, transport us back to Inkopolis."
"Sounds pretty solid."
"The problem is, I can't outrun the dinosaur in any way shape or form, so if I were to approach it, from any angle, it's going to hurt. A lot." Splin said, hand on his cheek.
"So what do you think we should do?"
Splin took a look around. The dinosaur was still rampaging, searching for the two, large footsteps shaking and tossing pebbles into the air.
"Wait, narrate that last part again."
Tossing pebbles into the air.
"That's it! Sharq, palms open!" Splin commanded.
With a nod, Sharq held his hand up, showing the palms of his hands to his brother, who promptly hopped in as a blue squid.
"What are we doing exactly?" Sharq asked.
"Think of me as a Splat Bomb. The Tele-Cube is the opposition, got it?" Splin said, staring straight ahead.
"Got it! Hyah!" Sharq said, reaching back, and tossing Splin, the blue squid spiraling towards the cube.
Splin landed, on the Tele-Cube, just under the dinosaur. Quickly taking the cube and switching into his standard Inkling shape, he began to run towards Sharq. The dinosaur noticed him, and once again chased after them. Splin dived towards his brother, his hands gripping the cube tightly.
"Alright, quick, Sharq, activate the cube!" Splin yelled, the dinosaur closing in behind them.
"Uh, alright! Cube, take us to the future!" Sharq yelled.
"Huh?! Sharq that's not-"
The brothers disappeared in a flash of light, the dinosaur slamming his jaw into where they once stood. The dinosaur grimaced, then let loose a roar of pure anger into the sky.
The two brothers reappeared in a dark room, the Tele-Cube popping up beside them, looking inactive and silent. Taking a look around, they could see absolutely nothing. Noticing a light, the two instinctively walked towards it. Once close enough, they realized the light was passing through a door of sorts. Splin reached out to open it when suddenly it opened by itself.
"Automatic doors?" Splin wondered aloud.
"Maybe we're in the Octarian Base?" Sharq suggested. "They have a lot of tech there."
Splin shrugged, then stepped out into the light. He blinked once. Then twice, to confirm what he was seeing was real. Splin stood in Inkopolis, or at least he thought so. Looking around, every Inkling he saw had some sort of glowing aesthetic to their clothing. Initially shrugging it off as some new fashion trend, Splin took a step forward.
Then a bright flash of light surrounded him.
AN: This is fairly late considering the Splatfest is already over, but I felt like writing this anyways. gg Team Future, you tried your hardest, gg Team Past, we did it. For those who haven't read the original story, the Tele-Cube is basically a plot convenience object with a cooldown, where nearly anything is possible with it, but is generally ignored for fear of...destruction of Inkopolis.
In other news, reviews! Thanks ERODE for reviewing! I'm glad you like the story, ERODE, I'll make sure to get more updates out.
Not much else to say here, but thank you once again for reading, this is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, off to watch Parasyte, see you!