Chapter Eleven:

Inky Street Chase

She stopped for the briefest moment, and morphed back into her humanoid form, standing on all twos. Vin's eyes were wide as a wall, and all of the ink in her body felt like it was draining from all of that fear.

She didn't look back, and she ran to the nearest station exit, knowing that Officer Meggy was on her tail.

Meggy ran through the Metro, her hand gripping the handle of her service pistol in a tight fashion, and she kept her eye on the rogue Splatoon player. No one mocked her for changing species, pushed her off a platform, tried to ice her and the others, and get away with it.

The squid-turned human girl pushed a Jellyfish out of the way, and dashed through the nearby gate. She saw Vin running up the staircase, which led out of the Metro, and Meggy squeezed the trigger with her sights set on the fleeing target. The gunshots rang out, startling some people in the streets above.

Vin gasped as the bullets streaked around her, with one scratching part of her sleeve, and she ducked her head just as she reached the top of the stairs. She briefly glanced back to see Meggy in pursuit, and the cyan-blue squid kept moving.

Bright sunlight danced upon her skin, and fresh air swept into her nostrils, as Vin made her way into a city district that wasn't part of Inkopolis Plaza or Inkopolis Square. She ducked around an Octoling, and several cephalopods yelped when another gunshot rang out, right as a furious Meggy emerged from the Deep Sea Metro.

"Meggy! Wait!"

Saiko emerged from the subway area, having followed her friend with a level of great concern. In a second, she was swarmed by a couple of young Inklings with one holding up a magazine that had her face on the cover, and a few cameras began flashing with photos being taken.

"Saiko! Can we get your autograph?!" An Inkling asked.

"What song have you cooked up for the concert?" A Jellyfish chimed in.

The anime girl heard the sound of gunshots, and moved through the crowd. "Out of the way, out of the way!" She yelled, "I have a friend in my band who is going on a warpath, and people could be badly hurt!"

Meggy ran through the street corners as fast as her legs could move, with her eyes hard locked on the fleeing Vin.

"Get your tentacled ass back here!" The highly-skilled Turf War player yelled, "You're not escaping the consequences in any way, shape, or form! Come and take your punishment like a sensible humanoid!"

"Meggy! Meggy!" An excited Octoling girl with pink hair exclaimed, "Will you sign my Splattershot?"

Meggy ignored her Octo-fan, and fired another shot from her gun at Vin. The bullet hit a stop sign, putting a slight hole in the middle of the letter 'o'. The former Inkling fired another shot, accidentally hitting the rearview mirror of someone's parked automobile, and unintentionally causing property damage in the process.

A laser-focused Meggy opened fire again, and again. And on her next shot, the bullet hit Vin in the right leg. Blue ink dripped from the wound above her ankle, and the infamous Turf player shrieked as she stumbled over.

Vin gasped, and winced as she felt the pain in her leg from where the bullet had hit her. She heard Meggy coming closer, and, despite the injury, the cyan-blue Inkling morphed into her squid form again. Vin swam through the streets, and avoided a car that passed by, determined to escape from Meggy no matter what.

Even in those moments, she still felt pain. With every inch she moved, Vin felt ink leaking out of her. It wasn't that grievous, but she couldn't stop.

If she stopped, she knew what her fate would be.

"Sorry, boss." Vin muttered, "Who could have thought we'd underestimate Saiko and the group?"

The gunshot wound stung so hard, it was like she'd been stabbed. Vin swam a little further, then she morphed back into human form, and slowly stood up. She limped towards a building where she heard the sound of rotors spinning, and kept moving. A Jellyfish yelped when it saw the cyan-blue squid girl with the inking leg wound.

'Whatever...' Vin thought. She was so distracted by the pain, she didn't notice that she was approaching a large hole that contained a whirling blade; one of the many generator rotors that helped to provide power to Inkopolis, and a couple of Zapfish were helping to power it.

"Ah..." She gasped, catching a glimpse of the hole as she got closer.

Vin turned around. And that was when Meggy caught up, pointing her gun at the Inkling with a vicious snarl on her face. She stared into the nasty squid's gold eyes, her finger over the trigger, and breathed heavily.

"You're not getting out of it..." Meggy said intensely, "...and it looks like letting you walk away was the biggest mistake I am not about to make twice. Easy way or the hard way, you took the latter. And this ends the hard way..."

Vin made a desperate grab, and the gunshot ran out. A trace of cyan-blue ink landed upon the gun, and the hand gripping it like splashing water. The wounded Inkling stumbled back, and Meggy watched as Vin fell over the edge with a scream. The cry was cut short, replaced by a not-so pretty sloshing sound, and cyan-blue ink sprayed the walls.

Meggy backed away, and lowered her gun as she calmed down. Her heart pounded, and she almost stumbled over herself. The woomy girl's mouth hung open a little, and she processed what had happened.

'Was I too harsh?' She thought.

Today, in her fight for justice, in the line of police duty, Officer Meggy had just crossed the line. Police brutality was a thing, and Hal Monitor had once said that nothing was illegal when one was on the side of justice. This was it. She'd gone over the edge, and Meggy Spletzer had gone too far.

From a distance, Saiko, who'd been pushing her way through groups of excited fans in the area, watched her uniformed friend with worry. She'd heard the gunshot, and she'd heard the scream. In her heart, the anime girl felt helpless, and she felt grave concern.

'Meggy, what have you done?'