Splatoon: The Brothers and the Others
Hidden From the Masses
Dink! Dink!
"...Mmh…" Chi muttered and turned her head. Curled up in a fetal position she scrunched her face. "Later…"
Dink! Dink! Dink!
She swatted at her forehead dismissively with a frown. "No...I wanna sleep."
Dink! Dink! Din- BONK!
"Ow!" Chi exclaimed and swatted up at her forehead. She rubbed at a particularly red spot of skin and winced.
"Oh hey!" She heard someone call down at her. Chi's eyes fluttered open and instantly narrowed as the harsh daylight streamed in through the hole on the roof. Luckily for her an Octocopter shaped shadow loomed over her and protected her from the sun's rays. "Phew! I was getting worried for a second."
"...Jerry?" Chi slurred almost drunkenly and attempted to stand. "Agh!" She recoiled and felt her forehead. "My head…"
"Ooh…" Jerry inhaled through his lips sharply. "Yeah...sorry. You were…" He spun his metal cap around and hid his weapon. "Struck by a ceiling tile."
"...No wonder my head feels so…" She groaned in irritation.
"Yeah…" Jerry bit his lip ashamedly. "Uh, you remember what we're supposed to do?"
"...Something something Inaba." Chi murmured in a daze.
"Yeah!" Jerry chimed in gleefully. "We're going to...uh, see Tai's mom right?"
Suddenly Chi leaned backwards. Slowly it seemed as though the consciousness in her eyes slowly returned. They also returned with a few pounds, it seemed, as Chi began to sink backwards.
"Uh oh." Jerry spoke as his metallic legs scratched across the metal floor.
Before Chi could land on her back Jerry rushed as best as he could without any flexible limbs. Launching himself behind Chi, he began bracing himself, curling up in the cushiest form he could manage. Chi landed with the back of her head down on top of Jerry's tail.
"Ooogh…" She grit her teeth. "Thanks Jerry."
"You're welcome." Jerry muttered and attempted to lift them both. He waited for the strain on his head and the whirl above- "Oh wait."
"...So." Chi sighed in exasperation. "We're actually going to see her?"
"...Yep." Jerry spoke up.
The Octoling covered her face with one violet-blue tentacle in shame. "...Is she still mad at me?"
Jerry looked up to the sky outwards. Clouds began to crowd the sun's space. "Well...I'm not really obligated to keep track of those type of things to be honest."
"...Okay." She whimpered in earnest terror.
"Don't worry, I've got your back." Jerry spoke up.
She turned around and pat Jerry underneath her back. "...Thanks for trying to cheer me up. But I don't think we can do it without a miracle."
Jerry nodded in solemn agreement. The two remained still on the floor surrounded by debris of all shapes and sizes.
"I said," Chi reiterated with a frown, "We really need a 'miracle', like, some help from an OUTSIDE FORCE."
Another shard of sheet metal dropped from the ceiling with a clang as it stabbed itself into the floor next to them. Chi continued to gaze up towards the sky expectantly while Jerry continued to lay underneath her in confusion.
"...Um?" Jerry glanced around. "What are you doing?"
"...I was trying the thing where...Tai or...Splin and Sharq talk to the sky." Chi admitted slowly until the words felt foreign and pretty stupid when she uttered them. She bit her lip. "I mean, it kinda worked for them. I was just hoping...that we could get some help?"
She stared up at the rays of light as they beamed down on her. As she glared up underneath the sun's rays Chi swore she could see something. A small shadow blotted out a thin ray that shone down on the octopuses. A small scrap of paper landed square down on her round nose. She blinked, reached up at her face and plucked it off her dainty muzzle, and inspected it.
"'No'." She read aloud. Chi groaned and squished her head back further onto Jerry. "Really?"
"Urk!" Jerry squeaked behind her.
Immediately she stood up and turned around. She knelt down and wrapped her arms around the smaller octopus, hefted him up, and stood straight.
"Sorry Jerry." She told the octopus. "I'll leave you off at your dorm to wait for your new propeller."
"What? And leave you going into no man's land by yourself?" Jerry cried out in a sort of offense. "Chi, c'mon, I'm not going to leave you all high and dry. I'll tag along and-" His cannon adhered to his helmet snapped ahead. "You know. Heck, we might even find-"
An incessant buzzing noise came about. Their eyes flashed skywards, where lo and behold, a gray blur spun about in an endless revolution. It persevered upwards and onward out of the hole in the ceiling into the great blue much to Jerry's horror.
"There it is!" Jerry nearly screamed. He wriggled hopelessly in Chi's grip. "What are we waiting for."
Chi sighed and leapt towards the door. "Alright, guess we're going!"
With the pounding of feet and the whirring sound of the Octocopter's fan ascending into infinity and beyond fading into the distance soon the headquarters were silent again. The debris scattered on the floor began to rest in place alongside the metal walls and floor.
On the land above several "blocks" of land floated in an eternal suspension above the great abyss of Octo Valley. The valley ran deep and wide in a roundish crater protected by several rocks arranged in a mishmash of brown. Among the blocks laid several white tea kettles seemingly embedded into the ground.
Behind a collection of trees and rectangular structures laid one such seemingly ordinary kettle. Out from the top popped out two young arms and a face barren of masks with a smile. "...Ah." Tai breathed in deeply. "Smell that fresh air guys?"
Behind her another Octoling grunted and made her way up. Aussie adjusted her goggles in irritation. "I could hardly smell anything inside there." She gazed around and took a mental note of the natural and octopus-made features. "Still...it is beautiful isn't it?"
A whistle noise came from the side. One of the kettle's spouts spewed smoke in a proud manner. Both of the Octolings felt a vibration beneath them. They casually stepped outside of the kettle, with a quick hop outside in a compact octopus form, and reformed into their respective red and violet Octoling shapes adjacent to the kettle.
A whisper emanated from the hole, which slowly grew into a shriek, which gave way to a full fledged scream. From within the kettle the distinct shape of a fellow octopus launched out and tumbled in an arc onto the ground below. "...Ow." Chi complained as she shakily lifted herself off of the pavement.
"How's the weather down there Chi?" Tai asked as she stepped in front of her. She offered one hand down in front of her face.
Chi glanced over at Aussie. "Will I get court-martialed if I bite her?"
"By all means." Aussie shrugged and stared.
She sighed and grabbed hold of Tai who lifted her up with ease. Tai flashed her a toothy grin. "Getting a little dirty now aren't we?"
Chi instantly let go of Tai's hand and backed off. "You're scaring me."
"No, like, literally this time." Tai snickered in earnest. She cleared her throat and gestured down at Chi's chest-plate covered in dirt.
Chi glanced down flustered at the metal strapped across her torso. Her flusters faded away when she realized they were coated in a thin layer of dust. She brushed herself off and walked past Tai with a huff.
"Welcome to my personal shell C-H1." Aussie grumbled and walked alongside her.
"Is it true what she said?" Chi jabbed a thumb behind her at the ungraceful soldier as she lounged about in the sun leisurely. "'Every week'?"
Aussie did not smile. "Week. Month. Year. You name it." She shook her head in disapproval. "She's like a plague. Except instead of making your entrails feel as though they're melting she makes your IQ feel like it's draining out of your head."
"How long have you been-" Chi bit her lip. "I mean, how long have you stayed around her?"
"About a year at the most." Aussie mentioned with a sigh and kicked at a weed they walked on past.
Chi perked up in horror. "Just a year?!"
"...You get used to her...antics." Aussie scowled. Her head twitched.
Chi watched with a frown as Tai slid a small daisy in between one of the pieces of seaweed that extended from Aussie's goggles. Tai shifted into an octopus, dropped towards the ground, and switched back only to lounge and gaze up at her handiwork.
Aussie reached back, felt the petals on the daisy, and shook her head. "It may be a violation on the dress code but screw you Tai. It feels-" She took in a deep breath through her nose. "And smells pleasant."
"Aha!" Tai called out and pointed over to Aussie. "You said my name. My ACTUAL name."
"Good for you." Aussie scowled and pressed on forward. She continued past a fallen building and a stubby tree. "You must feel so proud."
"I won't feel proud until I get you to say my name regularly." Tai announced with her hands on her hip. "Or if I can get you to-"
"Shut up." Aussie interrupted and walked off. She gazed off into the distance. "Our intel tells that the rebel camp is situated right over there. See the floating land mass?"
The other two Octolings turned and contemplated the cluster of cement and metal landmasses that floated above the abyss.
"Which one?" Tai asked with a yawn.
"The one with the-" Aussie paused for a moment, narrowed her eyes, and lightly lifted her goggles. Her red irises scanned them. "The one with the...decayed structures."
"Okay." Tai turned around and raised her hands in mock shock. "Oh my! Whatever could that be behind us?"
Aussie growled, turned around, and recoiled. True to Tai's word there laid a building skeleton of rusted steel with a few sagging metal beams. The lights in Aussie's goggles flashed dangerously. Tai on the other hand just raised one gloved hand up to her head, brushed a tentacle out of her head, and winked back at her commander with her right arm firmly on her hips and her left planted on the structure.
Almost as if she were a bull Aussie snorted puffs of smoke out of her short nose and began to stretch her fingers in various complicated forms. The sounds of her fingers cracking and the caws of seagulls as they flew on past them were all that could be heard.
Eventually after she had enough of essentially wrecking her own fingers Aussie simply sighed, shook her head, and forced her hands down her pockets. "I swear to Cod. Sometimes I wonder how or why you were employed in our core. Then I remember your mother exists."
Tai's impish grin started to falter. "...Well that's not my fault now is it?"
"Uh, hey?" Chi's voice interrupted from behind the two. "Which land mass is it again?"
Aussie turned around, sighed again, and moseyed away from the other Octoling in time for her to miss Tai as she stuck her tongue out at her. "Just follow me."
Aussie ran off with a single authoritarian peek behind her. Tai sighed and crossed her arms behind her head yet again and walked past Chi. She nodded her at the other Octoling. Chi managed to nod back in acknowledgement and continued on behind. The duo followed slowly behind as Aussie made no haste in running towards the edge of the platform.
"...We're going there?" Jerry muttered uneasily as he gazed over the edge.
"Yeah...unfortunately." Chi rubbed the back of her head.
They peered back into the abyss. Just above the dark rocky terrain below a lone land mass hovered in an unsteady tilt. Wilted trees and discarded metal structures teetered dangerously off the edges of the cube mass. Moss and cracks clustered and covered the concrete. A single droopy line of ink connected via an orb of fuchsia concentration were all that hooked the masses together.
Jerry shivered slightly in Chi's grip. "I've said it before and I'll say it again. What a day to lose your propeller…"
"It isn't too late." Chi looked up and over her shoulders behind her back. She spied a discreet kettle in the distance. "We can still leave-"
"No way." Jerry immediately switched gears and shook his head. "I'm not gonna let you do this alone Chi. It's just like mom always said." Jerry turned back towards the mass below. "'No sugar until after you finish your homework!'"
Chi blinked with a frown on her face. "What?"
"...This assignment is meant to be the homework and you not dying is...uh…" Jerry bit his lip. "It sounded better in my head."
"So no turning back?" Chi asked curiously.
Jerry shook his head. As his noggin swiveled Chi had to push outwards to prevent being smacked by his weapon conjoined with his head. "No. I'm ready."
"...Alright." Chi spoke and gulped. She walked over towards the orb of ink and the string of violet. "You think you can follow along?"
"I'd hope so!" Suddenly the air of worry dissipated instantly about Jerry. "I was voted the second best swimmer on the team."
"...You used to swim?" Chi asked with an eyebrow cocked.
"We're octopuses Chi. Our ancestors used to swim in water for Pete's sake." Jerry proclaimed proudly. "We'll talk about that later though. Stuff me in that sphere."
"Gotcha." Chi nodded and made her way towards the purple orb.
With Jerry still comfortably situated in her hands she stepped behind the orb. She grunted and lifted the Octocopter onto the sphere and let go as Jerry's tail graced the fragile orb. As soon as she retracted her arms he sunk into the recesses of the sphere, metal cap and all, and disappeared almost completely. After a few moments a pair of yellow irises peeked out from the orb and blinked back at Chi.
"You okay?" Chi inquired and leaned down towards the eyes.
Jerry winked back at her. A garbled noise emanated from the round sphere.
"Hm?" She arched an eyebrow. "Hang on."
Chi fell to the ground and sat upright with her short octopus head upright. She bounded forwards and dived headfirst into the sphere. Jerry blinked and glanced about. A pair of bluish-violet pupils gazed back at his.
"Ready?" The Octoling's voice echoed throughout the ink.
"I guess." Jerry paused and gazed ahead at the strand. "...Will this support us?"
His words clung on and reverberated across the string. It weakly stayed in place as small ripples danced across the thin stream of ink. It was not unlike a dangerous tightrope at a circus. Except there was at least a thousand foot difference in height between the octopuses and a deadly drop.
"Slowly." Chi cautioned as the duo crept towards the line.
They slid off of the orb and down the wire of ink. Immediately they clenched their teeth and prepared for the worst as they began to drop down the line of violet. They slid down, as the line threatened to drop them down into the abyss, but held on for dear life as careful as they could.
Halfway through their downwards climb Jerry sighed in relief. "Huh. Well this isn't so bad."
"For a few years this has held up pretty well." Chi mentioned as her eyes gravitated to the ground. She snapped back upwards. "So long as you don't look down."
Jerry nodded in response. As they continued down the rope of ink the wind rustled nearby. They stopped abruptly.
"...Do you hear that?" Chi asked all of a sudden and eyed about the air.
Jerry's eyes followed suit. "...Yeah. ...It almost sounds like-"
An ever familiar "whirl" sound continued to buzz around the two of them. Chi and Jerry's pupils both gazed up above them. A steel colored blur whirled towards them.
"Hey!" Jerry cheered with a laugh. "It's my propeller! And it's coming straight at us!" He grinned, glanced at Chi's set of eyes frozen in terror in the stream, and glanced back. "Oh wait."
The whirling propeller zoomed along with the wind. Without hesitation the two began swimming at the fastest speed an octopus could muster. The propeller whirled above them, dropped down, and continued along with the wind into the line of ink behind them. The orbs behind and in front of them flashed a silent alarm and slowly dimmed.
Chi and Jerry leaped out of the ink as it faded behind them just inches away from the mass. Before they could land gravity took ahold of them as Chi reached out.
"Oh shiiiiiiiip!" Chi cried out.
"What is there to be afraid of?" Tai prodded Chi with her own set of eyes as they crawled down the thick rope of ink connecting them to the landmass below.
Chi gazed down for a split second and whimpered. "That?"
"Don't tell me you're afraid of heights." Tai grinned at the other Octoling's eyes. "We could drop from here and probably land without a scratch!"
"Eh…" They heard someone clear their throat in front of them. They glanced upwards at Aussie as she sat on the edge of the landmass. "That's a bit of a stretch."
"Shut up Aussie!" Tai whispered back at her almost frantically. "Trying to get her to face her fears!"
"Or you might accidentally splat her across the canyon floor." She commented and shrugged her shoulders.
Chi suddenly felt very sick. Tai turned back around and smirked at her. "Don't worry. This thing carrying us right now-" She stuck one hand out of the ink and pointed back at the stream. "It's pretty much indestructible." Tai then whirled back around to the other Octoling. "Ain't that right Auss?!"
Chi could see Aussie sigh as they crept closer. She stood up and shouted back. "Yes! We have all the power we need and there's no reason for disconnecting this landmass! You don't need to worry about anything! Except for Tai..."
Tai nodded and turned her eyes back to Chi and winked. "You see? Indestructible."
As Chi gripped the platform with one hand and the Octocopter in her other she simultaneously felt as though she wanted to strangle whoever was in charge of the ink lines. Jerry gulped as he prayed that his metal cap would not slip out of Chi's grip while Chi tried to lift herself up onto the platform.
"Just...a little...gah!" Chi groaned and felt her arm contract weakly. She gazed down sheepishly at Jerry. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Just...uh...chillin'?" Jerry shivered nervously. "Y-You think that Octavio still has the respawn pads up?"
On spur of moment Chi spied Jerry's propellor as it spiraled down into the chasm below them. Jerry took notice as well and the two Octarians watched as it dropped into the gulf and out of sight. Eventually they managed to make out a "clang" as the remnants of the metal disappeared.
Chi gulped and struggled to pull herself up. "...I really don't wanna find out."
"Uh, okay, I think I've got an idea!" Jerry called up frantically. "Can you throw me onto the platform?"
Chi's eyes widened in terror. She glared down. "Jerry?!"
"That'll lighten the load! Then I'll help pull you up!" Jerry suggested as his skinny ski-legs wiggled below him.
Chi began to sweat. "...Are you sure?"
"I believe in you!" He called back up and wriggled even faster. "Just please do something quick!"
"...Alright." She swallowed nervously and shut her eyes. "Here goes nothing!"
"Wait wait wait open your eyes first!" Jerry cried out. "Open your- AAAAAAGH!"
For a brief moment Jerry felt himself soar through the air even without a propeller. As liberating as it may feel the Octotrooper could not feel anything with the overpowering feeling of shock and the overpowering sound of his own screaming. Chi pried one of her eyes open and reached up with her left hand to grab the ledge.
She shut her eyes again. "Are you okay Jerry?!"
The screaming had ceased. Chi began to panic. At that instant the horrifying sound returned and ended with a "thump". She glanced all about the area, especially down, expecting the worst.
"...Jerry?" Chi called back.
"Grab on!" His face popped over the edge.
"Eek!" The Octoling's grip slipped for a brief moment.
She grabbed hold of his cannon cap and held on for dear life and switched into a shivering octopus almost out of sheer instinct. As if anchored to the side Jerry began to bend upwards, grunting all the while, until he managed to stand upright. He flung backwards with all of his might, caught a glimpse of an octopus as it cowered through the air, and heard another "thump". Jerry took the moment to thank the stars for his ski pole-legs and rolled over on his stomach.
He peered ahead worriedly. "Chi?"
Jerry felt eight soft tentacles wrap around him tightly. He stared into the blue eyes of the octopus Chi who squeezed him just as tightly as she did with her regular arms.
"Whew!" Both of them collapsed back.
Chi reverted back into an Octoling sprawled over on the ground. She sat up and sighed again and felt beneath her chest-plate. "Ugh. My hearts are pounding…"
"I don't even know if I have any and they're going off." Jerry spoke with wide eyes as he gazed up at the sky.
Chi stood up and brushed herself off with a sigh. She ambled on over towards Jerry as he leaned against the cement lining of the platform. "You still up for this?"
Jerry turned his head back upwards. He felt a pair of arms close about him and lift him up into the air where he could peer across at the disconnected pair of orbs. "...Well, there's no going back now."
Chi nodded in response and turned back around. The shadow of a mass above them clouded them in a shade away from the sunlight. The trees picked of leaves and the discarded metal only made them feel all the more vulnerable. They walked underneath the shade and explored amidst the piles of scrap and the lonely plants.
They continued for quite some time up until they reached a small assembly erected out of the ground. A lonely kettle plastered with several stickers of octopuses sat in front of them. Its spout laid with one half seemingly threatening the sky with its sharp edges while the other half laid discarded underneath.
"...The Octarian Underground." Chi whispered as a familiar repetition bounced in her head. She rubbed one of her head tentacles worriedly. "I haven't been here in a while."
"...I know you've been asking me this, but just one last time, are you sure you're up for this Chi?" Jerry queried as he gazed up at her.
Chi felt the wind brush past her tentacles. "...Of course. We need to tell her."
"Alright." Jerry nodded as Chi stepped forward. "Here we come Miss Inaba."
She stepped over onto the kettle and transformed into an octopus. Chi slipped through, as did Jerry, or at least the bottom half of him.
Jerry blinked and stared up at the metal cap. While his main body slid through his weapon continued to stick to the surface. "A little help Chi?" He called down.
All he heard was the sound of something sliding down. Jerry grunted, rustled about in place, and sighed. Then he heard something creak. Within seconds he and the debris of the manhole cover of the kettle slipped down into the pipe with "clangs" and yelps of irritation as the crashed into him on the way down.
Needless to say Jerry would be having a fit with the engineers.
AN: You know I feel sorta good updating again. It feels nice getting some actual work done for once instead of playing LISA or having Steam chats with friends and acquaintances about stuff we want to get done but don't have the willpower to get finished.
Aside from that update let's talk reviews. Thanks Ultrapyre and write n wrong for reviewing.
Quite honestly although I do adore the fanarts Ultrapyre no one takes too much time investing in their characters. Again, being sort of hypocritical here seeing as this isn't exactly character development central, but I still think that more people should flesh out their guys a bit more if they go to all the trouble of making bios for them and all in any way they can.
But hey. That's just an idea. A bad idea! Thanks for reviewing.
Oh yeah hold on, uh, write n wrong! Glad you enjoyed the little Valentine's Day special. Glad to hear you're trying to be productive there. Cod knows we need more of that amirite?
...Anyone?
Thanks for reading. This is ThePizzaLovingTurtle. Off to play the most depressing indie game I've ever delved into. See you when I'm done crying and cringing over the terror, the horror, the painful experience that is LISA.