Splatoon: The Brothers and the Others

"You let them go."

Up until this point, Tai hardly considered herself a runner. Not at all, really. She was too lazy to get up early, resulting in scalding words courtesy of Aussie. She was scolded on the athletic abilities needed to properly serve in the army. She would always shrug it off, hoping to pacify Aussie's nagging by promising that one day, she would indeed, start training seriously, and Aussie would go off every time muttering something about how she had better.

Now that she WAS running seriously for once, she might have found it somewhat liberating, refreshing even, to feel the rush of the run. But the fact that Aussie cursed at her every corner she turned was hardly any supportive incentive. At every corner, at every doorway she turned in an attempt to lose her naggy superior, it only seemed to worsen as she gained speed. Tai began sweating, not of physical fatigue, but because her endurance for Aussie's arguments thrown at her was wearing thin.

Her voice echoed throughout the base whenever Tai managed to turn a corner, and even then Aussie was right back on her trail, scolding her choices. "...There's no point in trying to help them, they'll just stab you in the back! Inklings are-"

So on and so forth she spoke, and so on and so forth did Tai not care, as she had heard it at least a million times beforehand. However, had she stopped then and there to retaliate, she probably would have been tackled and taken out. Her superior officer was a prude, but heck, if she was strong at the very least. She clutched the keycard in her hands. The doors to the prison itself were simple and automatic; the doors of the prison cells required authorization. Of course, it was hard enough with some bossy woman pursuing her, but what would be even harder was convincing them that escape was possible.

Aussie, on the other hand, had no idea what Tai was up to. She had known her as less than altruistic most of the time, mostly just hanging out at the base, waiting for the eventual mission call. But this was unprecedented! It was worrying, an Octoling going against the status quo. No matter how annoying she could get, how downright childish she could be, the very last thing Aussie wanted her friend to do was ruin her own life by doing something stupid.

So the two ran through the Octarian base, two different drives motivating them to get to that prison before anyone else. This would prove more than hazardous for practically everyone else. Crowding the hall ahead of them, a group of different Octarian forces, Octotroopers, Octocopters, Octolings, octopus of every variety marched through the narrow hallway, weapons holstered at their sides. Tai grunted, shifting into an octopus in an instant, diving in the pile of tentacles ahead of her. Swiveling throughout the ground, she cause a few Octolings to jump up in surprise, the confused foot soldiers taking up arms, glancing at the ground nervously. As Aussie gained on her, she stared up at the ceiling. Octocopters above were just as bewildered by the commotion. In the midst of all that chaos, Aussie leaped up, grabbing onto one of the Octocopters, which spun around in fright. She continued forward, hopping from 'copter to 'copter, until she found herself on the other side of the mob, landing on the floor with an audible clang, briefly turning around to give an apologetic wave to the scrambling troops, before making haste for Tai once more-

"Slam!" Tai spoke up, a door heading for Aussie's face in an instant.

"What the-"

Slam went the door as Aussie felt herself being launched back, hitting the metal walls. She groaned, one eye staring back at Tai.

Tai looked back, grinning. "Sorry! Gotta get going!"

Making it up to her feet, Aussie adjusted her goggles somewhat, and spat a gob of violet-red ink out of her mouth. She stretched her arms for a moment, then took off with a glint of violence in her eyes.

Sprinting through the base for a few more minutes, eventually, Tai came across the gloomy violet door that served as the entrance into the prison. Taking a cautionary glance behind her, she breathed in a sigh of relief, entering the room. As soon as she entered, she was greeted with glares and grumbles.

"Relax, guys." Tai spoke up, placing one hand on her hip as she raised the other, the keycard proudly displayed.

The tension between the cephalopods dissipated almost instantaneously, and the Octoling holding the card smiled as she heard the doors clatter when the Inklings slammed into them.

"Tai, you're an angel." One of the females said, giving her a watery, yet glad face.

"Nice work!" One of the others spoke up.

Tai beamed proudly. "Yeah, well, it wasn't easy. I had to get past Auss and-"

"AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T, T-41!"

She grunted as Aussie tackled her head on, the two of them landing on the floor. Gritting her teeth, Tai opened one eye, noticing as the red Octoling began unholstering her weapon, aiming the nozzle of the Octoshot down at her companion, violet lights glaring down at Tai. She struggled to get to her feet, but Aussie had none of that, pressing the barrel further into her face.

"T-41, any further and I'll have to shoot you." Aussie told her.

Blinking back boredly, Tai tapped the top of the nozzle. "Uh huh. Do it then."

Freezing up, Aussie glared back. "What?!"

"I wanna see you try. Pretty sure these guys would like to as well." Tai yawned, pointing towards the Inklings staring back, fear etched in their faces.

Turning from the Inklings back to Tai, Aussie snarled, "Don't test me." As she said that, she fired one shot onto Tai's arm, a chorus of gasps escaping from their captive audience.

For a short while, Tai stared back at Aussie, almost in disbelief. The facade of shock was thrown to the side when Tai shook her arm, in turn rubbing the ink off easily. Aussie's eye twitched beneath her goggles as nervous giggles followed from the cells.

"Ohhhhh, how painful. Auss, how could you…?" Tai asked melodramatically, raising her non-injured arm over her head, closing her eyes as if she were on death's door.

"Cut the bullship, Tai." Aussie coughed, embarrassedly getting up to her feet, "Why are you trying to free these captives?"

"Here's another question," Tai said, getting up to her feet, "Why are you trying to splat these guys? I heard all of it. Granted, most of it was just… Boring, but I know for a fact you want to execute these people."

Aussie frowned. "It's us or them, Tai."

"Yeah, I can't believe that. I know for a fact that my mom-" Tai began, trailing off slowly.

Aussie cocked an eyebrow at her, but almost as soon as the reference to her mother began, Tai shook her head, staring right back at Aussie.

"Nevermind. Point is, I'm not letting you shoot them." She said, staring at Aussie.

The hesitation from before plagued Aussie's mind as she fumbled with her gun. "...Move out of the way, Tai."

"If you shoot, I'm going to use the keycard." She glared back at the commander, "I'll block the ink and let them go."

"If you block the ink, I'll just throw you to the ground." Aussie spoke up, staring back at her.

For a moment, the Inklings stared in awe at the confrontation. There was a spark about to ignite a bonfire here, and they knew it. Tai would make cautionary looks at the wall, where an indentation the size of a card remained. Aussie kept her eyes on the other Octoling, not a muscle moved.

"...It isn't fair to shoot them now." Tai glared, "If you're going to do that, it'll be out in one of the kettles."

Without her goggles wrapped around her face, Aussie could see Tai's green and violet eyes clearly. They were filled with a new fire, a determination that she had never found in Tai ever before. It was awesome in a way, and thanks to that awe, Aussie lowered her weapon for a split-second. As she saw Tai eyeing her gun, she immediately realized her mistake, and raised her gun again.

"FREEEEEEEEDOOOOOOOOM!"

"Blagh!" She cried out as a stampede of squids ran over her, with Tai running behind.

On the floor, a violet red octopus groaned, a round, purple head dizzily looking towards a door. A herd of squids dashed away, past disorientated guards, with an Octoling leading them off as dust clouded the halls. Aussie reverted back into Octoling form, readjusted her goggles once more, and took off after them.

One by one, an Inkling popped out of a kettle, gleefully running off through Octo Valley back towards Inkopolis, shouting words of supreme thanks to Tai as they ran off. She stood by the entrance of the kettle, with a hint of pride on her lips. Eventually, the very last Inkling made it out; a roughed up, female Inkling stared at Tai for a while, before enveloping her in a hug, shocking Tai somewhat.

"Thank you." She spoke, before dashing away, joining the others.

Sighing, Tai leaned back on the kettle entrance. After a while, a rattling noise attracted her attention, and she mentally braced herself as another octopus hopped out of the grates of the kettle, a plume of steam rising out of the side.

"You let them go." Aussie spoke up, "You actually let them go."

"Yep." Tai nodded, glancing at Auss, "You're getting slow in your old age Auss. We could've had a picnic and still been ahead of you by a mile."

"First, a one-year age difference does not grant you the permission to call me old. Second, I was late because I had to notify him that the prisoners escaped."

The younger Octoling bit her lip, then sighed, walking off. "Aw, geez Auss… Mom's gonna be inked off to see me back home after being expelled from the force."

Aussie glanced at the sky. "...I never told him who released the prisoners."

Stopping mid-stride, Tai turned back, where Aussie had her arms crossed, yet could not look at Tai directly. Across from Tai, she looked just as bossy as ever. Yet somehow, she was forgiving. Tai could not believe her eyes or ears. Here she was, sweeping the incident under the rug akin to a student covering up for another one to prevent expulsion. But for Tai, it just meant that she herself had got Auss to calm down and stop trying so hard.

"However." Aussie spoke up, glaring back at Tai, "Because there are now more Inklings in the force, I fully expect you to finally start training to deal with the Inkling menace if we are to stand a chance at winning this war."

Standing on the soft dirt, she smiled and shrugged, moving back towards the kettle. "Sure thing, Auss."

Tai walked back to the kettle slowly and leisurely, dropping through the grates quickly enough. She could only laugh as Aussie followed in after her, with one last remark for the day.

"If you don't, I'll kick your sorry butt out myself."

AN: Of course, after that, we still have not explained Chi, have we? Well, I'll get back to you on that. I'm thinking of putting a priority on "The Drafted Squid", another Splatoon story based around the Great Turf War before I come back to this one. So, yeah, sorry, I might be taking a break on this one. Not a hiatus like my TF2 story, heavens no, but updates might be slower.

Ignoring that note, let's take a look at the reviews. Thanks Ultrapyre and write n wrong for reviewing!

I'd think that the reason that Octarians have not been seen with prisoners before (besides Cap'n Cuttlefish) is because that might prove a bit too dark. Or perhaps it hasn't been considered Ultrapyre. Thanks.

write n wrong, thanks, glad I got Aussie's personality another chance to shine.

Thanks for reading, this is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, off to work on Phish's story.