Splatoon: The Brothers and the Others
Stranded at the Home on the Hills
Splin groaned, blinking slowly as he rose from his slumber. No matter how many nights he spent resigned to his bed, he never felt fully refreshed whenever he woke up, even if he spent hours asleep. He always dismissed the feeling with an "oh well", then got up and went for either the bathroom to get ready or the fridge to get fed. Then it was off to the roof, or maybe a Super Jump to-and-from the city.
Today proved to be different, given the young girl currently choking him.
"Gak!" Splin choked. He reached for the hands clasped around his neck, trying in vain to pry the fingers off as they dug into his flesh.
Two bright green eyes bored into Splin, said eyes a cocktail of fury and fear. "How did you get in?"
"Aaaccck chhhgh-" Splin replied in turn.
Sadly, that didn't seem to be the answer she was looking for. Splin could scarcely do anything other than grab her arms, desperately trying to keep himself from getting choked further as he was lifted out between the sheets and pinned against the wall. Despite looking scrawny, her strength was tremendous.
"Answer me, Splin! Before I decide to do this the 'safe way' instead."
Her fingers started to close in tighter on his neck. Splin's brain must've flicked a self-preservation switch immediately after, because before Splin realized what he was doing, he morphed into a squid, slipping out of her grasp. Quickly switching back, he launched himself at her, headbutting her with his humanoid head.
And what a mistake that was. Splin felt himself hit something hard, like he had just launched himself headfirst into a steel girder. Reeling from the blow, he backed up and held his head, only to get countered with an uppercut to the gut. The world spun. The girl took no time at all to then slam Splin into the floorboards with her other fist, splintering the floor and knocking the wind out of him.
Splin wheezed, rolling over on his back. His vision swam, and soon, he blacked out, barely making out the girl's facial features softening ever so slightly as he fell into unconsciousness.
Splin woke up again, blinking slowly. As he awoke, all the pain began to set in again, and he inhaled sharply through his teeth.
"You didn't kill me."
Splin would've whipped his head over to his left, but the splitting headache made it hard. Slowly and methodically tilting his head to the left instead, he grimaced at the girl, now sitting on top of Sharq's bed.
"I wonder why," Splin groaned, clutching his stomach.
She had green tentacles that went down to her knees and a glare that could kill. Or rather, she had one green tentacle that went down to her knees. Whoever did her hair cut her tentacles unevenly, with her tentacle on the left being completely cut and tentacle nubs sticking up on the top of her head. With her t-shirt's sleeves frayed at the ends beaten up shorts and sneakers, Splin guessed that she could've been homeless. That, or her beating the absolute snot out of him was just her fifth fight today.
Putting all that aside, Splin was worrying and wondering why this strange, incredibly strong girl had broke into his house and nearly put him into a coma. He struggled, attempting to get out of his bed, only to find that he had been wrapped to the bed with swathes of tape, wrapping under the mattress and the bed frame.
"Who are you?" Splin asked, glaring back.
Her eyes narrowed. "I wanted to ask you the same thing."
She stepped off Sharq's bed and stepped up to Splin's, glaring him down. "I wanted to ask you a lot of things, actually. Who are you, and why do you look like Splin? How did you get in here? What's your face gonna look like if you give me an answer I don't like?"
"How did I get in here? This is my house!" Splin protested.
The girl slugged him in the face, knocking him back onto the bed. Splin reeled from the impact, crashing back into his pillow. Some of the tape loosened, audibly snapping in half as the sheets came free.
"Agh!"
"Lying counts as an answer I don't like," she answered.
"Well, if you'd let me explain myself and stop beating my ass and-" Splin paused. "Whoa…what?"
The girl watched, cautious yet bewildered, as Splin got up and stood on his bed. Seeing how easily he escaped made her cringe, as if critiquing her own work.
"Damn?" Splin spoke, looking back and forth. Something deep within him stirred. "Hell. Shiiiii…tuh? …Fu? Fuh. Fuuuuh." Splin frowned. "That's strange. Some must be off limits."
The girl responded to this strange outburst by punching his leg.
"Okay! I was just wondering!" Splin protested.
"Answers. Now." The girl stomped a hole in the floor. "No more lies."
"I…uh…" Splin scowled, suddenly glaring at the girl. "Wait a minute! Regardless of whatever I say, you're just going to hit me again!"
"That depends on-"
"Nope!" Splin waved her away in frustration. "I know for a fact you're just going to bash my head in if I try to explain myself! I'm outta here!"
"What?" Her eyes lit up in alert.
Splin stomped off his bed, making a beeline for the door. "The one time I wish I had someone like Ari over," he thought, "Maybe then he could at least distract this girl long enough to push her out…"
"NO!"
The girl tackled Splin to the ground. At least, she tried. Making a clean break for it, Splin backed up to his right, hitting the wall with his back, and hopped off the side, pushing himself to the corner. The girl's face was fraught with concern. She whipped her head toward Splin, getting up to her feet quickly.
Splin backed up into the wall. There wasn't much room to dodge anywhere. He prepared himself mentally for fighting her again, ignoring the pain in his body.
"No," she repeated, throwing composure to the wind, "Look, I don't know what's going on."
"Yeah? Yeah! Ditto!" Splin barked.
The way she looked at Splin didn't inspire much confidence. "Look, just don't go outside. It's not safe."
Splin glanced out the window. He couldn't see much else besides the hills and the weather. The weather, however, was a storm through and through. Deluges of rainwater splashed against the outside of the house. Going outside right now would be…
Splin scowled. "It is raining harder than usual…"
"What? NO! I'm talking about the psychos you'd let in!" The girl exclaimed.
Splin gave her a look.
"Don't be like that! You're thinking, 'Like the one inside, right in front of me', right?"
Splin folded his arms. "This coming from the girl who likes beating people senseless without giving them a reason."
She gritted her teeth. Suddenly, a wave of guilt seemed to wash over the girl. She looked down and away at the floor, pacing a bit.
She turned back to Splin. "So you just…woke up here? Out of the blue? You really didn't come to kill me?"
"Where else would I wake up? It's my-" Splin stopped himself. "Why would I kill you?"
The girl calmed down, walking toward Splin slowly. "Listen, I'm sorry I beat you up."
"What is this, school?" Splin thought to himself.
"But strange things have been happening, and I wasn't sure if you could be trusted. You definitely aren't trying to kill me, and I may have overreacted…" She shook her head, offering her hand. "Let's start over. My name's Mari."
Naturally, Splin reluctantly stared at the open palm. He leaned in slowly, grasped her hand lightly, and shook. "Splin. …But apparently, you knew that. Who are you?"
Mari's expression hardened. "Splin…listen. I know this will sound a little strange, but…you wouldn't happen to know about…alternate universes?"
"…"
Mari sighed. "Too crazy to consider, right?"
"No, it's just been a while since we've really done stuff like this," Splin admitted, rubbing the back of his head, "I don't think I've really had a talk with anyone in a long time about different universes, or even traveling to one outright."
Mari clasped her hands in front of her mouth in surprise. "Wait. You're serious?"
Splin frowned. "Yeah…?"
Mari beamed. "So…I was actually right? You AREN'T my Splin? You're actually from another universe!"
"Well, hold on…" Splin raised his hands in defense. "Just because there's been a misunderstanding doesn't necessarily mean anyone's been put in another dimension or universe or…"
Memories of adventures past flashed through Splin's head. Even with hindsight, just blaming everything on universe travel shenanigans felt cheap to him, and this could be another bizarre occurrence. Because who hasn't had a strange girl he's never met before start talking to them about alternate universes, right?
"Hold on, hold on!" Mari shook her head. "I'm gonna test something. Sit down over here!"
She motioned for Splin to join her at the kitchen table to the side. Mari sped over to the other side and beckoned, to which Splin just sighed and walked over.
"Okay, since you haven't killed me yet, that means that you're DEFINITELY not my Splin!" Mari explained, suddenly way less gloomy and confrontational.
"Where are you getting this from? Listen, Mari, right?" Mari nodded at him. Splin continued, "I don't know what's going on, but who's to say that I'm anyone's Splin?"
Mari arched an eyebrow. "Whatcha mean by that?"
"…Uh, what if there's just another person named Splin? Who…happens to look like me?" Admittedly, not one of Splin's stronger arguments.
Mari rolled her eyes. "Come on, who else would name their kid Splin?"
"…" Splin's frown got larger.
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry. Let's clear things up," Mari cleared her throat, "You say that this is your house. That's your bed over there, right?"
"You're not gonna punch me for saying that again, are you?" Splin questioned.
Mari shook her head. "Don't worry. That was just self-defense."
"Uh huh." Splin gulped. With a defense like that, you'd never have to worry about anything getting close to you ever.
"Just tell the truth."
"I've been!" Splin grumbled, stopping himself again. "…Yes, that is the truth, that is my bed, and as far as I can remember, this is the house I've been living in for almost my entire life."
Mari snapped her fingers. "I thought that was weird! Because I've been living here for years! With Splin and Sharq!"
Splin paused. "Me and…Sharq?"
"Yeah. Well…yeah." Mari's tone dropped. "Used to."
"Oh." Splin shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "What uh…what happened?"
Mari glared at the kitchen table. "Splin happened."
Splin blinked in confusion. "Uhh…"
"My Splin happened. … Splin(1)! We'll just call him Splin(1)!" Mari exclaimed.
"Okay," Splin said, "Splin(1)…that's so weird how you're able to say that. Then that makes me…"
"You'll just be 'Splin'," Mari explained, "It'll make things easy."
Splin sighed. "My brain's going to stop registering 'Splin' as a word by the end of this."
"Was it ever a word?"
He grimaced somewhat. "You keep talking about Splin- Uh…Splin(1) trying to kill you." Splin pointed out.
Mari nodded. "Yeah…not too long ago, something happened with him. It's why I'm stuck inside this house."
"Stuck inside?" Splin looked back at the rain. "Not because of the rain?"
Mari shook her head. "No, the storm itself isn't the problem, but I bet he's just using that to keep me on edge."
"He's using…the storm," Splin said, going through the words in his head.
"Is that a problem?" Mari frowned, then something seemed to dawn on her. "Can you not touch water either?"
Splin blinked. "You can?"
Mari got up from her seat and turned to the kitchen appliances. Walking up to a sink installed at the back by the wall, she casually turned the faucet and ran the water, placing her hand under the stream and letting it soak the palm. She glanced back at Splin and nodded.
"Huh. Okay…" Splin scratched the back of his head. "Unless you're using some sort of diluted water or solution that looks like water, then…"
"Different universe, right?" Mari pointed out, wiping her hand clean.
"You seem awfully comfortable talking about alternate universes," Splin said, staring at her hand.
"Well…" Mari cracked a small smile. "This isn't really my home universe."
Not her home universe… Suddenly, everything started to make just a bit more sense. Splin stayed quiet, giving her a nod.
"That's why I can touch water and others can't. Splin(1) and Sharq…or Sharq(1) I mean. They both took me in when I woke up in the middle of nowhere and had nowhere to go. One day, I was lost in a completely different world, with no one who knew who I was, who my friends were, and where I came from." Mari sighed. "They let me stay here. Those were good days."
"A different world…"
Splin stared at Mari for a while, almost examining the girl sitting across from him. There was a biting sense of déjà vu. Something about her green tentacles. The punches and the strength behind them. Even the way she looked back, worried face and all…
"Maria," Splin blurted out.
"What?" Mari's eyebrow rose. "No, it's 'Mari'."
"No, I know…but you just reminded me of someone. You're from another universe? A third one?"
She shrugged. "I've talked your ear off long enough and I get the feeling that you know something I don't."
"Well, it's just that you remind me of a woman who was from another universe different from my universe. Not this universe, but the one I'm from. She's like an alternate version of you that we found one day who was originally from another universe."
Mari clicked her tongue and leaned forward. "Is that right?"
Splin bit his lip. This might be a long day for explaining. "Well, it started when-"
Before he could exchange more info, the girl tensed up. "Wait."
So much for explaining his side of the story. Splin stopped, looking around the house in confusion. Nothing. He glanced back to Mari, whose ears perked up. Her entire body tensed up.
"Do you hear that?" Mari whispered.
Splin shook his head. Mari hopped over the table(Splin was silently impressed) and turned Splin around to the window. The rain outside began to let up, pitter-patter on the roof and against the windows slowing. The sound of rainfall stopped a few seconds after.
Splin arched an eyebrow. "It stopped raining?" He got off the chair and walked to the front door.
"No!" Mari screamed.
"Whoa, whoa! What's the problem?" Splin deadpanned, but still rooted in place.
"Whenever the rain stops, the psychos come by!" Mari shouted, "Remember?"
Splin rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, today's given me a lot to process. What are you talking about?"
He walked toward the window again. A crack rang out, similar to the booming of thunder, and then a few moments later the window shattered, glass and rain spilling onto the floor. Splin jolted, staring at the debris on the ground then looking forward.
A face peered in through the newly created hole. A girl with pink tentacles and violent, blue eyes smiled back at Splin. Even from the distance away, it felt like he was face-to-face with this intruder. He was too startled to move.
"Oh, hello," she greeted him warmly, "I didn't realize Mari was having friends over."
"…Hi?" Splin waved back.
Mari ran over to Splin's side and raised her fists toward the girl in the window hole. "Get to cover, Splin."
"Splin?" The other girl's eyes shimmered. "Your name is Splin?"
Splin admittedly didn't know what to take from this at first. Maybe it was all the information he had to absorb about this probably being an alternate universe. The fact that whatever dimension, universe, or world he was in was very similar to his probably should have shocked him more, but everything he had done prior really didn't make him feel too surprised about any of this.
He may not have been surprised, but all of this did make him slow to heed Mari's warning.
Another loud shot rang out, and this time it tagged Splin in the shoulder.
"Splin!" Mari screamed.
He hit the back of the house's wall, clutching his left arm. Splin groaned from the impact, then exclaimed "Agh!" as he clutched it. Pain started inching up and down the left side of his body, and he felt something drip down over his fingers from the hole in his arm.
It only started feeling worse. Getting shot at with ink was one feeling, but this was new. New and horrible.
Splin might've thought more about the burning feeling and compared it to other injuries in the past, but he was too focused on the immediate fire in his shoulder that was consuming his thoughts.
The girl in the window hole closed her eyes and smiled again. "Hmmm! He's not much of a sturdy guy, isn't he?"
Splin clenched his teeth, looking straight ahead. He wanted to warn Mari to hit the deck as well, but he spoke up too late. She was already jumping through the hole.
"What?" Splin shouted in surprise.
Still clutching his shoulder, Splin ran over to the window. At least, that was his plan until another bullet struck the side of the house, creating a circle-like hole in the wood. Taking cover behind the wall, he waited, breathing in and out. He looked down at his arm, brain scrambling to formulate a plan of action. Normally someone might submerge themselves in ink to shrug off ink damage, but he didn't have a weapon with him and he didn't know if he could fix what was lodged inside him with a dip in an ink pool.
Splin bit his lip, leaning toward the window. He knew the state he was in, but what about Mari? Was she dead? Injured?
Half-dreading the answer, Splin looked out the window. All of his pain seemed to numb. His head felt cloudier and his eyes felt blurry. Even what should have been the feeling of rain from outside falling on his skin went unnoticed.
Mari hopped up and down, one leg then the other, and rolled her head over her shoulders. "Okay."
Over on the right, Splin watched as the girl before brandished a weapon unfamiliar to him. It was like a shooter weapon, but longer and slimmer. Whenever it fired, it left holes or kicked up dirt wherever the shots landed.
With Mari, however, it didn't seem like a threat at all. She was a blur, dodging to the left and right, Splin following her green streaks with his eyes like light trails. Rain seemed to pass right through her body, barely drenching her.
The girl with the gun just laughed. "You can't dodge bullets forever, Mari."
"You're probably right," Mari grunted, another bullet grazing the side of her leg.
Now instead of a blur, Mari became a neon smear on the field. At least, that's how Splin rationalized it as she flashed a neon-blue, facing the bullets head-on. Whatever she was doing, every time she glowed, a bullet would seem to hit her but then fizzle out. Not bounce off her or pass through her, no, the bullets seemed to disappear whenever she flashed blue, striking a defensive pose as though she were parrying a martial artist's blows with her hands.
That said, Splin thought that the poses were more for style than anything.
Regardless of style, Splin was thoroughly taken aback by this substantially intense battle, finding himself drawn to both girls as they dodged and weaved, blocked then countered. It was unlike anything he had seen in his life, like Mari was dancing and skirting around with death itself. Bullets were practically just long-ranged punches with how she was taking them. As Mari closed in, the girl with the pink hair flipped, twirled, and spun, spraying bullets everywhere. Which, unfortunately for Splin, meant that he had to duck behind cover every now and then.
A few more trigger presses and dodges later, the pink girl grimaced and stopped firing. Mari charged toward her, only to sidestep as another gun was brandished and fired, scattering buckshot across the hills, tearing through mud and grass. Mari was barely done dodging when another shot rang out, the bullet speeding through and tearing through the grass Mari's feet. The gun that fired looked like a Splatterscope, but longer and with a different shaped barrel, trigger, scope, and…
Okay, so gun knowledge wasn't Splin's strong suit. It looked like a Charger, and from the looks of the distance between the two fighters, Splin guessed it worked like one too, clumsly to wield at close-range but even deadlier from afar.
"Like the new arsenal?" The pink girl smirked. "Little present from your brother!"
"Why are you doing this?" Mari shouted, clenching her fists. "Everyone's already dead! Why don't you leave me alone!"
"Oh Mari…the world was dying long before we did anything to it," the other girl sighed, shaking her head, "Splin and Prothe are just putting it out of its misery. I know it hurts, but it's like putting a family pet out of its misery. We can't drag this out anymore."
Mari shook her head, then began running toward her again. The pink girl sighed again, pulling out a smaller firearm and taking aim. She fired one, two, three, then seven total shots. Despite her aim, Mari just powered through, parrying each bullet. The pink girl rolled her eyes and pulled out another weapon.
Splin frowned. This one was strange. This weapon was bulky, glowed orange, and had three pincers in front of the… It didn't have a barrel or anything, so what was she going to do?
The answer, Splin found, came in the dirt. The weapon glowed as she pointed it at the dirt under Mari's feet. A chunk of the earth came out, putting Mari on a floating, unbalanced rock. Whatever gun that was, it had Mari and the ground beneath her feet in a lock.
The pink girl smiled viciously. "You're too clever for conventional weapons, Mari. Guess that means I have to fight smarter!"
With that said, she pointed the dirt at the house. Splin's eyes widened, and he instinctively hit the deck, switching into squid form just as Mari collided with the wall. Grass, mud, and dirt fell apart against the front of the house, leaving Mari a mess.
The pink girl just shook her head and took off in the rain. Mari shouted in frustration, hitting the side of the house. Splin flinched as her face peered in through the window, covered in mud.
"Come on!" She shouted.
"What?" Splin squinted.
Mari reached in, grabbing Splin by the arm. "We have to chase after her!"
Splin flinched again as he felt the water drip onto his arm. Ice cold. "In the storm?"
"What, you afraid of getting sick?" Mari sneered.
She looked down at Splin's arm. Her eyes widened, and she immediately let go. Splin's skin seemed to melt wherever water drops touch, dripping off him like tanned paint. Mari stared in disbelief.
"I forgot. That bad?" Mari muttered, looking up at his face.
Splin sighed, nodding. "I don't think I'll be able to do much in this weather. Especially with…"
Mari looked down at the bleeding in Splin's other arm.
Mari shook her head, walking over to the back of the house. "Maybe not. But I can't just leave you a sitting duck with Lalai out there. This house can't hold up against her guns forever."
Splin stared at the floor. "Yeah, you're right about that…" A chill ran down Splin's nonexistent spine. "Lalai?"
"Yup!" Mari shouted from the other side of the house, digging through a cabinet, "I'm not as strong against ranged weapons, especially bullets. That's why- Ah! That's why I hope you can help me with this."
Mari fished out an old N-ZAP gun, the paint on the barrel looking faded and scratched. She tossed the gun handle-first at Splin. The weapon bumped off his arm and clattered against the floor.
"What's wrong?" Mari asked.
"…Lalai is the girl that just shot at us?" Splin asked, wide-eyed and in disbelief.
Mari nodded. "Uh-huh. You recognized her?"
"Not really…" Splin muttered, looking out the window, "I just can't imagine that SHE was Lalai."
"I understand, it's probably hard for you. But I mean, it's only natural that she'd come to finish me off," Mari scoffed, tapping her foot, "She's basically putty in Splin(1)'s hand."
Splin tilted his head. "What does that mean?"
"Well, with you guys being boyfriend-girlfriend for who knows how long now, it was inevitable," Mari said with a dark scowl, "Of course being the little sister doesn't matter…but you'll- I mean, she'll gladly side with her lover over all else."
"I'm…Lalai's boyfriend in this universe?" Splin asked, blinking in confusion.
"Oh! Uh…yeah. I take it that's not the case with you?" Mari coughed. "Sorry, I forgot. Relationships aren't the same everywhere, right?"
"Relationship?" Splin shook his head. "We've only had conversations a couple of times. She's nice…but I wouldn't say we're…dating or anything."
"Then…does that mean you won't have any problems with shooting her?" Mari asked, sounding just a little too eager.
"I-" Splin folded his arms. "…Ow."
He unfolded as quickly as he folded. Splin gritted his teeth; the bullet hole in his arm was beginning to sting again. Somehow, the revelation that he and Lalai were "a thing" in this reality numbed him of all other feeling. Nevertheless, the pain was back on the mind, and it was having a very intrusive stay.
Splin walked over to one of the chairs by the kitchen table and laid his left arm on top of the table. As if on cue, blood dripped and leaked onto the surface, painting the table a depressing shade of blue. Mari walked over, looking at the wound and the bleeding almost nonchalantly. She had picked up the N-ZAP from the floor and set it on the side, away from Splin's injury and the mess it was causing.
Splin shot her a look. "Mari, I don't think I can help you."
"Why not?" Asked Mari.
"…Why not?" Splin repeated. Offended, he gestured with his good arm to himself.
Mari blinked as though she had a revelation. "Oh, do you need help with that? Here."
Splin frowned. Why would he need help with a gu- OH COD. It may have been a little embarrassing, but at the moment Splin was too wracked with agony from Mari twisting his arm and slamming it into the table to judge himself for screaming.
"WHY! OH MY- AAAAGH!" Splin's mouth was agape, sweat pouring down his face.
Mari smiled softly. "Sorry, people tell me I can get a little rough with things like this."
"I- YAAAAGH! Why are you doing this?" Splin cried out, desperately smashing his fist up and down into the table.
Mari's eyes widened. "Oh no. Um…you wouldn't happen to heal differently, would you?"
"HEAL?" He spun his head down to the table. "Oh my Cod, no! What are you- Huh?"
Splin's arm was submerged in his own blood. As mortifying as it would seem, Splin felt an odd sensation. Breathing slowly, he raised his arm, watching as the blue blood spilled off his arm, pooling on the table. Mari was barely phased. In fact, she seemed almost delighted. Looking at his arm, Splin was shocked for what must have been the hundredth time today. The bullet hole was gone, healed as though nothing had happened.
The blood puddle bubbled. Splin panicked, only for a damaged bullet to come floating to the surface.
Splin's head churned with confusion. Possibilities, anything to explain this strange phenomenon. Was this another quirk of this reality? Maybe the Tele-Cube had changed something about him. Or was this some sort of hidden ability latent in Inkling biology itself?
Also, how the hell did the bullet come out? Did the blood push it out? That seemed rather unrealistic.
"Oh, thank goodness. You're okay," Mari said with a smile.
Splin's questions were put to the side as he turned to Mari and glared at her. "You practically broke my arm!"
Mari frowned. "Excuse me? I helped your arm."
Splin wanted to scream again, but he figured that would probably just make her break his arm for real. "Okay, before we do anything else, can we talk about more of the differences between our universes? Like what 'healing' means here, for example."
Mari shook her head, going back to rummage through the cabinets. "Sure. Whenever you get an injury, submerge yourself in ink or blood. That's how it always worked, in my universe and this one. Now can you put this on so we can move?"
Splin raised a finger to protest. Instead, he got pelted with a rain coat. An umbrella clattered to the ground by the chair he was sitting on as well.
Mari sighed sadly. "I'm sorry if this is too much, but I need your help Splin. These people have taken everything away from me, and I can't just stay here and wait for them to kill me. For your sake too, I want you to come with me. You can't stay here either, and I think it's pretty obvious why."
Splin pushed the raincoat off his face. He wanted to shout at her, ask her "Why should I?". Today he was just supposed to work on the house Beakon, maybe grab a bite to eat, and not get stuck on another adventure, much less get shot in the arm.
Granted, the more he thought about it, the more Splin realized he didn't have a choice. Tele-Cube wasn't here, so no dimension/universe/wherever-the-hell-he-was travel. Strange things have been happening to him and his body. There was a peculiar, strong, and frankly sort of shifty girl ordering him around. There was a girl he knew who was capable of shooting him dead, and a version of him who was busy being an evil overlord or something. Here he was, no extraordinary power, no friends he knew, and nothing but a raincoat and a dusty old N-ZAP gun on loan for protection.
There was absolutely no choice but to go with the flow.
Splin shut his eyes, took a deep breath, and took the N-ZAP off the table. "I'm going to have to…kill someone I don't even know that well, then maybe myself."
He paused. A part of him really struggled to say "kill".
Splin looked at Mari. "This is insane."
Mari looked to the side. "You don't have to kill her. Just catch her off guard, and I'll take care of the rest."
Splin chuckled lightly. "With this, huh?"
There was nothing funny about this. Splin took the N-ZAP and held it gingerly. How long was it since he's even entered a Turf War? Weeks, months, years?
Nothing funny at all.
Splin gave Mari a sad smile. "Okay. Let's go."
What happened next should have surprised Splin, but everything today left him too drained to protest. As Mari gave him a hug, Splin just sighed and reciprocated it. It was a nice hug, all things considered, and with how everything was shaping up, it may end up being his last.
"Again, I'm so sorry," Mari said, breaking the hug, "I know this is…too much. But there's nothing else I can do. No one else can help me but you, Splin."
Splin squinted. "Okay."
Mari turned to the house's doors. "The rain is starting to thin. I think now's our best chance to go out there and strike back. Though he's probably doing this on purpose…"
"So…I still don't understand. You never explained how Splin(1) controls the rain." Splin put his arms through the raincoat's sleeves.
Mari opened the door and stepped out onto the glossy wet grass. She looked back at Splin, grave determination on her face.
"He doesn't just control the rain, Splin. He controls everything."
Splin, all decked out and ready to go, stepped out with her. "So…does he send goons that have like weather devices…or?"
"No, he literally controls everything," Mari glared at the sky, "Everything in this world except for me."
AN: No idea where I was going to end this. I wanted to write a huge single chapter, then I realized that reading one huge chapter isn't ideal. So I'm splitting this up. Also not ideal, but what can you do.
Remember that one April Fools chapter a long time ago, chapter 93 I think? It's a thing. It's real sorta. Fun fact, this storyline was in the works for years, but because of laziness and life throwing more curveballs, it hasn't been "canon" for a while. It was real canon to me though, because there were several times I kept thinking about this storyline and how I'd write it.
So here it is, the Mari chapters, after years of not doing anything they're here. They're probably not going to live up to my own expectations after so long, but I'll write them anyway because I want to.
Also DreadAngel I swear I'm not ripping you off Mari is still her own thing and Maria is too.
I wanted to do something different to close out this story because despite Splatoon 3 coming out later this year, I really just don't think I'm into Splatoon anymore. Plus, everyone else I used to know in this community just…aren't really a part of it anymore. I know I come off as a hermit, but I don't really feel like I have much left to give to Splatoon and Splatoon to me.
Because let's face it, whatever grand aspirations I hope Splatoon 3 will have in terms of story or camarderie won't be real.
I'm happy for the communities and people who will enjoy Splatoon 3 and much more beyond that. I don't think I'll be able to really give the game or the community much of anything anymore. My life has gone in so many directions and changed so much since I was younger and decided to write The Bate Brothers' Adventures for fun that I don't really think I can offer the same sort of energy or passion as I did years ago.
Sorry for the rants in my authors notes, but there aren't many other places for me to discuss this with other people who might be "in the know". So…after this and a couple other chapters for fun, I might just leave this story to be "finished", because I don't have any ideas for continuing this in terms of a grand, connected story aside from maybe one collaboration that another writer asked me to do a while back. 100 chapters so far is nothing to scoff at, and for what it's worth I did enjoy this. Though, right now it's more me just writing for the sake of it rather than anything.
Which, ironically, is how we got this story and the last ones in the first place.
Anyway, that's that. Uh, thanks RealCoolDude and Anonymous for reviewing.
Yeah, I don't blame you for thinking that way RealCoolDude. Truth be told, I was struggling to find ways to end that chapter. I wanted to write more about Aussie and Phish, but I couldn't really figure out a way to write a *big* story between or about the two of them at the time. Had a lot on my mind and stories were not one of them.
Thanks Anonymous. I think? I mean, I guess if you're enjoying the nonsense. That's nice, I suppose.
Well, that's that. Thanks for reading, this is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, remember to save money for your favorite games.