Splatoon: The Brothers and the Others

Breachin' the Barricades

Dosio was pleasantly surprised. He had to admit, as he stared at the streets ahead, he could say without a doubt that Sharq's plan was working like a charm! He marveled at the fine black line of asphalt untouched by jellyfish that continued past rows of buildings. Surrounding the black path were two mobs of jellyfish standing on each sidewalk. While many jellies poked the asphalt road with their tentacles tentatively, none dared cross the street.

"Eat this!"

Alhough, Dosio doubted they would have gotten this far if it wasn't for Pela.

Speaking of which, Dosio ducked swiftly as a jellyfish soared overhead. He glanced back at it as it landed on top of a mountain of similarly knocked-out jellyfish behind him, gulped a nervous lump down his throat, and peered forward cautiously. Dosio turned around and gazed at the chef with awe in his eyes.

"What about you? You want a taste?" Pela screamed at the next jellyfish in front of her.

In response, it took a cell phone from behind and snapped a quick picture, its eyes shrinking in horror. Pela rose her frying pan, practically eclipsing the sun, and slammed it down onto the jellyfish's head, effectively crushing the jellyfish into the ground. As the group sped across the road, Dosio hopped over the blue pancake lying squished on the floor. He gave it a quick glance and continued forward.

As he did, the jellyfish let out a weak, "Blrrooo," and promptly deflated flat on the floor.

Never before had a pan been such a destructive force. Clangs sounded off with each bash, and as Pela's barrage continued, so did the increasing piles of jellyfish that flew up and behind her. In the mad chef's wake, several jellyfish fluttered down on the streets and sidewalks like deflated pancakes. Dosio then peered back left at Sharq who, by the looks of his smile, was either in Wonderland at the moment or ran out of cares to give.

Dosio veered to the side and nudged his shoulder. "Hey, Sharq."

Sharq glanced right and shouted, "Yeah?"

Dosio stared ahead. "Shouldn't we tell her to ease up or something?"

They peered forward, then instantly ducked under another jellyfish and bobbed back up as it flew overhead and crashed behind them. Pela was a cyan tornado who tore through the crowd with a cacophony of crashes and slams. Pela had a sadistic smile on her face as she opened up a path. Not a single jellyfish in front of her was spared the wrath of the pan. Behind her, Willie and Zip ran to keep up, the couple armed with spatulas and spoons.

Between ducking beneath the jellyfish and occasionally smacking the stragglers, the employees would turn back and grin at the other two as if to say, "We've got it all under control," while fending off the passive jellyfish.

Sharq answered Dosio while wearing another cheerful smile, "They should be fine! I mean, you shot one!"

"That was just ink though," Dosio stated and turned forward, pointing at the pan, "That's metal. These guys' brains should be-"

Dosio slowed to a walk, peered back over his shoulder for a split second and stared at the jellyfish, then turned back around.

He scowled and asked, "Do jellyfish have brains?"

"I dunno." Sharq answered plainly, "Besides, frying pans can't be worse than rifles, can they?" Sharq suggested with a shrug.

Dosio sighed and muttered, "You say that but…"

"Hmm?" Sharq wondered aloud as he cocked his head.

Dosio ducked as another jellyfish soared above, shaking his head. "Nevermind. For the record, I'm not gonna pay the medical bills."

Sharq gave him a reassuring smile. "It's fine, none of them are actually being hurt by this."

Dosio scowled and peered back at the jellyfish. He watched as several of the jellyfish began to clamber out of the piles and off the streets into the safety of their brethren's masses. Droves upon droves of blank eyes gazed at the Inklings warily as they passed by. Immediately, Sharq and Dosio shared a quick look, then apologetically waved back at the crowd.

"...At least none of them are dead?" Sharq stated with another, less-assured smile.

"Chew on…!" Pela started with her frying pan ready to strike, "Uh…"

The jellyfish cluttering the path turned to one another and back towards Pela with puzzled stares. She scowled, hopped up in the air, and brought the pan down on the crowd. Cracks began to split the road into fragments as a shockwave reveberated throughout the ground.

"Shut up! I'd like to see you try to make this up as you go!" Pela barked at the now squished bystanders.

They twitched their eyes back in response. Willie and Zip stepped around the flat, blue puddle of blinking eyes. Ahead of them, Pela screamed a hearty battle cry as she bashed jellyfish after jellyfish with no remorse.

Sharq nudged Dosio. "I'll go ahead."

Dosio gave a curt nod and slowed to a walking pace. Sharq, on the other hand, began to speed past the blue flapjacks and underneath all of the blue missiles being involuntarily hurled his way. He ducked, flipped, and dashed around the jellyfish until he found himself a few seconds away from the storm of carnage.

Running past a balistic jelly-missile, Sharq hurried towards the couple and asked, "How's it going?"

Zip and Willie snapped back around. As they did, a few jellyfish zipped by their heads.

"Swell for us, thank you for asking," Zip replied as she spun past another jelly.

"Pela's really going at it!" Willie declared as he ducked under the next poor soul who had been panned, "At this rate, we'll make it to the plaza in no time!"

"Forget the plaza, we could clear the city at this rate," Zip whistled while she eyed the jellyfish pitifully, "The poor things don't stand a chance."

"Great! Then the plan is working perfectly," Sharq mentioned, "All we have to do now is get into the manhole and we're set!"

The pity instantly vanished. "Perfect," Zip stated with a smile.

Dosio nearly stumbled over a collapsed blue tentacle. "Remind me, why a manhole?"

"Yeah, to get to Octo Valley," Sharq stated plainly.

Dosio gawked at Sharq quizzically. "Where?"

Sharq's smile faded. "Um… Octo Valley? The Octarians?"

Dosio shook his head and dodged another jelly. "...Yeah, no idea what you're talking about."

Sharq bit his lip. "Ohh... Shoot. Well, Octo Valley-"

"You two!"

"Whoa!" Dosio and Sharq flinched and turned ahead.

They gasped. Standing firmly ahead, Pela held her ground with all her might as a mighty wall of jellyfish stood in front of the group firmly. The jellyfish were relentless, both as a wall and as annoying tourists, snapping candid photos of the group while pushing against her Pela's frying pan. She gritted her teeth and shoved the jellyfish, only for the shambling and picture-taking mass of jellyfish to heave back against her. A few of the jellyfish on top of the mass fell off periodically, yet the wall stayed tall and strong despite Pela's pan.

"Sharq!" Pela managed to shout amidst pushing, "Listen up, 'cause I'm only saying this once. You and..."

"Dosio!" Dosio shouted back at her.

Pela gave a curt nod and pointed back. "Him."

Dosio's face curled up into a scowl.

"You'll go through and get into the plaza. Willie, Zip and I will keep the rest of them busy!"

"We will?" Her two employees inquired.

Pela shot them both a look and screamed, "You're getting paid overtime for this!"

Startled, the both of them nodded their heads quickly. "Yes, ma'am!"

Instantly, Pela glared back with gritted teeth at the other two. "You better find my sister, Sharq!"

Sharq nodded and fiercely saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"

"And that's another thing, I'm a cook, not a drill sear- Aw, whatever," Pela muttered to herself, "Whatever, whatever! Just get ready!"

All four of the other Inklings braced behind Pela as she cocked one eye at the wall of jellyfish. The sun was blotted out as the jellies began to creep in like a tidal wave over them, arching over and ready to flood the group.

Pela gritted her teeth and clenched her frying pan tightly. "On the count of three!"

"Okay!" Sharq exclaimed and pumped his fist.

As soon as his fist shot up into the air, Pela slammed her frying pan down into the nearest jellyfish as tremendously hard as she could. As it stood, stunned and immobile, she cocked one eye lined up at the jellyfish wall. With a swing befitting of a pro-baseball batter, she launched the jellyfish into the wall at a tremendous speed. It hit the center of the wall, and practically paralyzed the jellyfish on impact. One after another, they broke off from their formation and spilled to the ground like a blue fountain display. Eventually, the once great wall disassembled to nothing but a pile of dazed jellyfish with full phone data storages.

Sharq turned to Pela and shot her a curious look.

"I got impatient," Pela announced plainly with a shrug of her shoulders, "I wasn't gonna let them overwhelm us again."

Before Sharq could say a word, the jellyfish began to pick themselves up and converge into a mass once again. Pela glared at Sharq and pointed straight and firmly towards the plaza, to which Sharq nodded in affirmation.

"Let's go!" Sharq shouted to Dosio as he dashed through the disorientated jellies.

Sharq began to climb the mound of jellyfish at a breakneck pace. Just behind him, Dosio simply nodded, albeit reluctantly, and followed suit. Behind them, Pela watched them speed off past the jellies with a rigid frown. Willie took a quick swipe at a jellyfish with a spoon as he and Zip back up to their boss. The jellies that had been pushed around reassembled in a mob around them.

"It's up to them now," Pela remarked grimly.

Willie gulped, "I'm starting to think that Shady's a magnet for trouble."

"Pela, they're definitely royally peeved," Zip replied with a nudge, huddling between the two.

Pela arched an eyebrow. "Yeah? What tipped you off?"

Zip pointed at the crowd. As soon as she pointed, the mob of jellyfish simultaneously pulled out black, permanent markers. They opened the caps, hurled them away, and drew eyebrows over their eyes, quickly discarding their markers. The Inklings huddled into a close circle as a definitely angry mob of jellyfish began to close in on them, their tentacles wiggling menacingly.

"Oh, you resourceful little…" Pela growled, "You won't pay for food, but you will buy fifty gazillion markers?"

The jellyfish stopped closing in and just glared at her. They shared a quick look with one another, then shrugged furiously, though it was not apparent if that was just because of the new eyebrows.

"Fine," Pela pat her palm with her hand, "Don't wanna pay in Gs? Then I guess putting you all in the ground'll have to work. Come on!"

...And that marks the beginning of the first official Brothers and the Others commercial break!

The Brothers and the Others is made possible by your local Anon Train, Dumirin, and from readers like you. Thank you.

You're reading The Brothers and the Others! Back to the show.

If one tried to visit Inkopolis Plaza at the moment, not much would have changed. Inkopolis Tower continued to stand upright and sturdy, though the Great Zapfish was absent from his normal roost. Booyah Base was still Booyah Base, still decorated with posters advertising old fashion trends cluttering the glass windows. In fact, had it not been for the mass quantities of jellyfish, Inkopolis would have been practically unchanged.

Judd wore his same, tired face as he watched the plaza from atop his pillow. "Meow? (Ever notice things change purr-etty quickly around here?)"

"Eh?"

"(Just an observation,)" Judd announced, "(You must admit, it's a marvel seeing these kids grow up and change things around so fast.)"

"...Yup. Real astondin'."

Judd's tail lazily curled up. "(Soon we'll be old news. Weird to think of, isn't it, Spyke?)"

The sea urchin frowned. "Oy mate, could you focus more on the current predicament? We can philosophize when we ain't sinking."

The urchin swatted at a swarm of jellyfish underneath him. The mat Spyke normally lounged upon was being carried atop the sea of jellyfish, as well as several Super Sea Snails and shells. The snails healthy shivered as they were carried away by the current, while the empty shells simply bobbed back and forth above the jellyfish. Stretching forward from his pad, Spyke grasped for them carefully, his mat bobbing back and forth on the verge of capsizing. He grasped, once, twice, three times for a snail...

Only to catch a handful of air.

Frustrated, he slammed his fist on top of his mat. Underneath him, one of the jellyfish exclaimed in surprise. Spyke glared long and hard at the snails as they were swept away (squeaking in terror) from Spyke's grasp.

"Get back here wif those!" Spyke shouted and waved his fist at the jellyfish, "This is the second bloomin' time this has happened! I'm already losing business as it is, it doesn't help my usual stock's gettin'-"

Spyke paused and shut his mouth quickly. Judd cocked an eye at the urchin curiously, watching as Spyke retracted his fist from the air bitterly. He scowled, settled back on his mat solemnly, and began to tap on his mat with a slender finger.

Judd's tail curled up. "Rowl? (Losing business? I've been giving the kids snails. How are you losing-)"

Spyke rested his hand on the mat and turned to the side. "I'm not losing anything but customers."

"(There's definitely more to this than meets the eye,)" Judd purred and licked his paws, "(Just the other day I counted thirty-seven customers coming in and out of your alley, Spyke.)"

Spyke rolled his eye. "Thirty-six, that one was a pair... Oy, we've got bigger fish to fry, love. Like… What's that over there?"

Predictably, Judd turned towards the back of the plaza. Several jellyfish flew up into the air past the concrete barrier, each one noticeably flatter than the last. Much like plastic bags caught in a tornado, they spun away in the wind and up into the sky. Judd hummed a surprised tune as he turned back towards Spyke, then immediately froze.

Spyke gazed back at Judd with his head stuck just above the jellyfish. "...Whaddya know."

Spyke and his mat had already been submerged, with nothing but Spyke's spines and his carpet's sinking tassels stuck just above jellyfish level. Spyke was anyways, as he sorrowfully eyed his now sinking mat.

Judd sighed and asked, "(Come on, what have you been up to Spyke?)"

Reluctance inscribed on his face, Spyke sighed in defeat. "...Right, fine. Don't tell anyone," Spyke started, "But I've-"

"Let's goooo!"

"Oy's that?" Spyke chirped quickly as he turned towards the back of the plaza, away from Judd.

Judd narrowed his eyes suspiciously, turning with his glare firmly stuck on Spyke. "Meow! (We're discussing this later!)"

"Whatever you say, ref," Spyke muttered under his breath.

On the other side of the plaza, two Inklings flailed like fish out of water as they tried to get into the plaza. Sharq and Dosio were an awkward pair as they climbed. Their legs kicked and their hands scratched at the cement as they attempted to jump the wall, the flood of jellyfish close behind them. Clear from the large, hastily drawn eyebrows they wore on their brows, the jellyfish meant business.

Eventually, Sharq stopped for a moment, rested his free hand on his chin for a minute, and turned to Dosio. "Follow my lead."

Sharq immediately released his grip on the wall and landed back onto the mosh pit of jellyfish. Though he stared, shocked, Dosio took a deep breath and leaped with Sharq into the mob. Seconds later, two squids rocketed out from the crowd with jets of ink, scattering several jellyfish. They flew above the plaza and began to fall as they flew above the center.

"Meow! (Brace!)" Judd called out.

As he shouted, Sharq and Dosio planted face-first into the thick jellyfish-packed plaza. Spyke blinked lazily and turned to Judd with a blank face.

"(...I thought there'd be an explosion,)" Judd replied.

Spyke rolled his eye. Sharq's face rose up from the pile of jellyfish dizzily. Attached to his face, an equally dazed jellyfish stared at him. Sharq peeled the jellyfish off of him and dropped it in the pile below, giving it a few apologetic pats to the head.

"Judd!" Sharq exclaimed.

"Meow. (Hi,)" Judd greeted.

Sharq paused for a moment. "Uh, hi! How's it going?"

"Mew. (Fine, what's up with you?)"

"Oh, it's-"

"Sharq, your plan?" Dosio complained as he kicked a handful of jellies away from him.

"Oh, right! Judd!" Sharq pointed down towards the jellyfish.

"Mrow? (What is it?)" The cat purred.

"We need to get down there," Sharq stated.

The cat stared down long and hard at the jellyfish. He squinted down through the jellyfish while his tail wiggled calmly in the air.

"(There?)" Judd questioned.

"Yeah!" Sharq affirmed, "We need to get to Octo Valley!"

"Meow? (Why?)" Judd asked with a yawn.

Sharq folded his arms. "So we can find Lalai."

Judd narrowed his eyes. "(Isn't she the-)"

"For Cod's sake!" Dosio screamed, "Get on with it!"

Sharq pouted and turned to him. "I'm getting to it, I'm- Dosio!"

"What?" he shouted, "What now?"

"Um, well, don't freak out, but-" Sharq muttered.

Dosio peered at his feet immediately. He screamed again and frantically swatted at the jellyfishes' heads as his shoes began to sink through the gaps. Dosio attempted to struggle, shaking his legs back and forth, only to sink down through the jellies further.

"Ship!" Dosio cursed and strained to escape.

He grunted and tugged his legs. The jellies beneath him continued to shift around his feet, but Dosio's legs stayed firmly stuck in place like gooey cement. With a growl, Dosio switched into a squid and hopped above the jellyfish.

"Haha!" Dosio exclaimed as he dove back into the pit.

Gravity had other plans. Before he could land, he slipped through the pit of jellyfish and vanished beneath the surface near instantaneously. While he dove into the abyss, the jellyfish shifted back in place and blocked the hole he had sunk in. Judd and Sharq gawked at the jellies with wide-eyes while they continued to babble on to each other as if nothing had happened.

"Dosio! Oh, my Cod," Sharq stammered, "They- It just swallowed him up! He's gone!"

Judd frowned. "(Squid is a delicacy.)"

"Shoot, that explains the feelin' I'm getting."

Sharq and Judd glanced to the side. Alarmingly, Spyke's chin had been completely obscured by jellyfish. All that remained of him was a spiky head and one ominous green eye, which was already being covered.

As he sank further into the mass, Spyke shut his eye and muttered, "Ain't my preferred way of going out, but beggars can't be choosers."

Soon enough, the urchin also began to disappear beneath the jellies. Except instead of falling down smoothly and quickly, his spiky head poked and pierced several of jellyfish as he submerged. The jellyfish around him blurted out variations of presumed jellyfish curses and jiggled nervously as he vanished. Soon enough, they cluttered over the spot he once sat and settled over him uneasily.

Judd scowled and looked up from the jellyfish to Sharq. "Meeeew? (Are you sure about this?)"

Sharq sighed, only to give Judd a huge grin. "As ready as ever!"

Judd purred, "(Good for you, then. I was afraid you weren't aware you were sinking.)"

"Huh?" Sharq mumbled confusedly.

Before he could do anything, he plunged downwards. Sharq yelped as he dropped straight into the sea of jellyfish, like a rock sinking through the ocean. In a flash, he plummeted and smacked into the asphalt below. The impact echoed, jellyfish reverberated above him as the sound traveled.

Sharq groaned and lifted his face up from the pavement. "Oww…"

His eyes opened slowly and lit up exponentially. Sharq pushed himself off the asphalt and gazed around him. Jellyfish had arranged in a clustered, moving sturcture. Several small openings stretched like gates through the masses and opened and closed periodically. Every once in awhile, a few jellyfish would shift in place and expose bits and pieces of the submerged plaza.

Before he could take in all of the scenery, Sharq peered forward through one of the arches in front of him and raised his hands up to his mouth. "Dosio?"

There was little response. Sharq blinked and squinted his eyes. Although thin rays of sunlight managed to poke through the jellyfish, the majority of the plaza was still cloaked in a bluish shade or clouded by jellyfish. He strained through the crowd, but there was no sign of him.

Sharq bit his lip and promptly sat on the ground. "Hey," he asked as he turned to one of the jellyfish, "Have you seen an Inkling around here? Blue tentacles? Wears goggles on his face?"

The jellyfish reached back into the mob, pulled out a cell phone, and shut one eye. The camera flashed in Sharq's face, causing him to yelp and cover his face.

"Hey!" Sharq protested and rubbed his eyes, then glared straight at the jellyfish with a scowl.

"Sharq? Sharq!"

Sharq blinked the spots out of his eyes and turned to the side. He gasped as, through the swarm of jellies, a lone Inkling's face barely poked out of the masses, a tanner patch of skin than the rest. Disoriented and dazed, Dosio attempted to escape, albeit feebly. He tried to pull away from the jellies, scratching at them, but reamained stuck hopelessly in the lot of them.

Soon enough, Sharq and his eye's locked. "Hey! Get me out of here!" Dosio called out desperately.

"Oh no," Sharq muttered as he ran up and examined him, "Quick, switch into a squid!"

Dosio's face scrunched up, his fist clenched, and the tentacles on his head shivered. "I'm…trying!" He slammed his head back into the jellyfish. "I can't!"

"What do you mean?" Sharq inquired worriedly.

"I said I can't!" Dosio wriggled violently, "It's too tight in here!"

Dosio's limbs strained against the jellyfish. The tips of his shoes and his fingertips wriggled like small tentacles and his face shifted between his skin's light tone and his tentacles' deep blue. Biting his lip, Sharq reached forward with both of his hands, gripped his companion's face and began to pull.

"Ow, ow! Wait, stop stop stop," Dosio complained and whipped his head to the side.

Sharq grunted and backed up as he tugged on Dosio's head. "I can't get you out if you won't sit still!"

Just then, Sharq felt someone wrap their hands around his waist. He felt the stranger pull with him, heaving Sharq and Dosio back. Sharq gasped as Dosio's body began to slide out slowly from the jelly mass.

"Thanks!" Sharq piped up.

The two yanked back and forth, as did Dosio's head and neck. A sickly shade of blue crossed his face and neck as he was pulled. After a few seconds, they all heard a pop. In a flash, Sharq and the stranger landed back on their rears as Dosio launched out of the mob over and past their heads.

"I'm free!" Dosio called out as he sailed by.

Unfortunately for him, the speed of his departure caused him to smack into another jellyfish wall headfirst. He bobbed back and forth in the wall like an arrow striking a target, then laid still in shock, his face now firmly wedged in the opposite wall.

Shock quickly turned to anger as he tried to pull his head free. "Eh? Oh, no flipping way!" Dosio screamed as he flailed what parts of him were free wildly.

Dosio pushed on the jellyfish and switched into a squid. Luckily for him, this time his head managed to slip out of the wall and he landed on the asphalt. He morphed back into an Inkling with a disgruntled grimace as he stood and dusted himself off. His first reaction to being free was to punch the jellyfish.

The jellyfish instantly bounced his fist back and Dosio punched himself in the face.

"Agh!" Dosio roared as he pressed to his cheek using his right hand, "You-"

"Are you okay?" Sharq asked as he offered a hand down to him.

Dosio grumbled, rubbed his cheek, and took Sharq's hand, "Just…!" he sighed, "Peachy, Sharq. I'm just peachy."

Sharq frowned. "Are you sure?"

"I'll be better once we fix this mess," Dosio grumbled.

Sharq sighed and surveyed the small plaza. "Sorry. Well, at least we're in."

The two Inklings gazed up at the sky, or at least the small crack of sky they could make out. Even that small glimpse of the atmosphere was eventually blocked as another jellyfish wedged itself in the space.

"Yeah," Dosio breathed, "But how do we get out?"

Sharq frowned up at the jellyfish. From underneath, they were a writhing mass of blue tentacles wiggling back and forth. They clambered over one another as periodic camera flashes, like lightning, blinked in and out through their clouds.

"Well, first things first…" Sharq began, "Thanks."

Sharq turned around behind him, hand outstretched in a friendly gesture. His hand stopped short as a gleeful grin popped back up on his face.

"You're welcome, A," Lalai said with a smile.

"Lalai!" Sharq gasped in surprise.

There was a sigh. The three Inklings stared at the nearest wall.

"Oy, any chance you can spare a few tugs?" Spyke asked with his head and a lanky arm jutting out of the wall.

AN: It'll take five million eons to finish this, I can already tell. Then again, I might think of it like federal income taxes; maybe it'll be better for everyone if I do this in installments.

Thanks, R.C.D., Dumirin, and Guest for reviewing.

First of all, gee, thanks for making it all the way to chapter eighty R.C.D. It makes me happy that I've made something that someone else managed to enjoy for a solid eighty chapters. Thanks for the praise, man.

Looking back on it, Dumirin, I feel kinda bad that the Valentine's Day chapter was just a solid rant more than it was a short parent generation chapter. My bad, I'll try to keep my rants condensed next time.

You know what Guest, you're right. Maybe back then I wasn't too familiar with the timeframe in which the Great Turf War took place, so I sorta messed stuff up. I think I have a decent excuse for Phish, but as for Chi's parents… I think I need to fix that. Thanks!

Thanks for reading everybody! This is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, hope I don't procrastinate too much!