Over the Splatlands…
The Splatlands is a scorching desert, where heaps of trash were commonly a decoration, usually coming in a package with the smell of ash and coal. Collecting the rare minerals was a sort of income for Splatlandians… well, moreso it was their living and how they made it by.


[SKY OVER THE SPLATLANDS]

The sky was usually clear, so clear that you could see the heatwaves… except that in this instance, our familiar band of world-saving heroes could be seen falling from it.

"Well, this is BAAAAD!" Sonic yelled out, flailing around in the sky, his gaze shooting around. As would anybody else, due to the fact that he was falling from EXTREMELY high in the sky. Shoot, the air pressure probably would've taken him out by now if he was a normal human!

Knuckles and Tails shared the same sentiment.

"YOU'RE TELLING ME, SONIC!" Knuckles shouted out, spreading his arms out as he tried to glide. But unfortunately, gravity was NOT on his side. Tails was on the same boat with his flight. It seems like all three of them were gonna be hedgehog, fox, and echidna splattered on the ground!

"Guys, we gotta find some way to soften the landi-GUYS!" Sonic and Knuckles' shock and fear soon turned into excitement, as both of them dove even faster towards the ground below. It was almost how scary they were excited, considering there were A LOT of questions that needed to be asked about that strange crack in the sky.

Guess he'll have to just go with the flow.


As the team descended further down to the surface, they pushed through the clouds, eventually spotting the lands underneath. Was it…. Was it a desert? And OH GOD what was that weird ash, coal, and OIL SMELL!?

Sonic covered his nose, his descent still fast. "Eugh, it smells like the Oil Desert Zone."

Tails soon responded with a quip. "Heh, we both know."
Knuckles responded as well. "...what are you two talking about?"

Sonic and Tails quickly realized. Oh yeah. Knuckles wasn't there for their second venture to Little Planet. Almost as if they thought the same thing, all 3 of them looked down.

…oh crap. THEY WERE NEARING THE GROUND!

"What are we gonna do?!" Sonic yelled out. All 3 of them were getting dangerously close.

Tails soon responded, his tails spinning. "WE GOTTA FIND A WAY TO SOFTEN THE LANDING!"

Knuckles, with some help from Tails adjusting him, managed to start gliding. But Sonic? Oh-ho! He had other plans!

Sonic dove towards the ground faster, an almost blue aura surrounding him. He got into a kicking stance. Then, it was time.

Knuckles and Tails landed on the ground perfectly, while they looked up at Sonic, and what he was doing.

Sonic kicked the sand below, a massive emp shockwave bursting out that sent Knuckles and Tails flying back a bit. Sand flew everywhere, flowing in the direction of the wind. The energy formed into a cross slash, which shredded the sand. The shockwave was MASSIVE, stretching out across the entirety of the Splatlands. (and unknowingly to Sonic, it reached Inkopolis and Splatsville.)

The sand swirled around all of them, almost cinematically so, after a few seconds, the sand flowed away, all three of them revealed to be unscathed.

"...you really had to do all that, huh Sonic?" Knuckles looked at Sonic, unimpressed. After being his friend for so long, Knuckles eventually came to expect the theatrics and over-the-topness from Sonic.

"Yup! Had to make a grand first impression for this new world!" Sonic responded, grinning with that familiar sense of nonchalance and energy.

While Knuckles and Sonic talked, Tails thought for a second. What was that crack in the sky? Where are they? Tails momentarily held his thought, looking over to his peripheral to see a very beat up sign in a language that… he doesn't know. Welp. So much for that observation.

Sonic stretched a bit, mentally noting down that the desert seemed to span on for forever. Well, that was never an issue for the self-proclaimed 'Fastest Thing Alive'. (and he can back it up, too!)

"Well gang, how about we get moving, yeah?" Sonic looked over his shoulder at Tails, who looked at the sign one more time before joining the other two.

"Yeah, we should probably get moving! sucks that my translator's busted…Tails muttered, before all 3 of them started their trek across the Splatlands.


- - Splatsville, After the Grand Festival… - -

The recent collaboration between Deep Cut, Off the Hook, and the Squid Sisters had shook the music industry. The beats that the group had made shook the industry, new and old artists stepping up their game to even have a chance of being compared to them. Their collaboration name was more commonly known as…
Now or Never Seven.
The group was originally supposed to disband following the Grandfest, but after some clever convincing by Captain 3, the group stayed together. Partially because all of them were in the New Squidbeak Splatoon (or, well, associated with it). So, to this front, they all decided to stay in Splatsville for the time being, purely for convenience.


- -3 Minutes Before the EMP - -

Life in the chaotic city of Splatsville was just as it had always been. Relishing the chaos, the residents. In this chaotic city, Agent 4 and Neo-Agent 3 were surveying the area, after reports of Salmonids surging through the manholes.

Agent 4 sighed, looking around on a nearby roof clutching his Hero Shot. Neo-3 was on the same roof, looking around. Little Buddy was in 3's backpack, popping its head out and looking around.

Agent 4 broke the silence, sighing. "I don't know what the Captain expected to happen here. And geez it's hot!" Agent 4 fanned himself. Since he was from Inkopolis, the more orderly city, he wasn't used to the excessive heat that was in the Splatlands. Meanwhile… Neo-3 was used to it.

"Yeah, for you Inkopolis inklings. Not to be rude, but we're kinda used to it." Neo-3 said. Agent 4 glanced over. "Mhm…"

2 more minutes had passed, with nothing happening. Both Agents were about to give their report since they were nearing the end of their survey, but suddenly…

BOOM!
A massive emp blast had hit Splatsville, disabling all manners of technology in a mere 2 seconds. The shockwave itself caused buildings to shake violently, a few trees and such falling. Through all the earthquakes Splatsville has had, none of them could compare to this. It was like an explosion!

Agent 4 And Neo-3's communicators cut out, their modified Hero Suit's glow slowly disappearing. Little Buddy's head shot around everywhere, as if it was on a sugar rush like some addicted little kid. Neo-3 luckily managed to calm it down, handing it a Deep-Fried Shwaffle.

"What the actual hell was that!?" Agent 4 said, looking more shocked then panicked. What could've made that massive impact?

Neo-3 looked back at 4. "I… I don't know. Can we head back now? Please?" Neo-3 said, in a pleading tone. He wasn't about to mess around AND find out.

Agent 4 looked in the horizon. "Yeah… Let's head back, for now." And with that, both of them shot towards the horizon, presumably towards the base.


[CRATER]
Our heroes, after their long trek across the Splatlands (well not THAT long, maybe 3 hours) came across a massive crater.

Sonic was the first to say something about it, looking down in a sight-seeing motion.

"Woah! That's a massive crater! Wonder what could've caused it, ey?" Sonic bumped Knuckles's elbow a bit, Knuckles looking back towards Sonic.

"Yeah, it is massive." Knuckles then directed his gaze towards the bottom of the crater, raising an eyebrow. It looked odd, like it was a battle arena. Now, for a warrior like Knuckles, this intrigued him. Maybe he'd look at it later when he had time.

Tails tweaked with his translator. He was getting close to fixing it, but not all there yet. Plus, he couldn't turn it on regardless because of Sonic's previous EMP blast. "We should probably get a move on… we gotta find civilization!"

Sonic responded soon after. "Yeah, good point. Kinda getting sick of the Oil smell, y'know? I could really go for beating up one of Eggman's bots right now…" Sonic said, before running up the Eiffel Tower-like structure and looking into the distance.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, spotting something that looked like a city 15 miles away. "Tails, think I found that civilization you were talking about!"

Tails's ear flicked, and he looked back up towards Sonic, as he leapt down from the tower.

"Really? Where!? In what direction!?" Tails said, momentarily getting out of his translator haze. He was excited to see how people were in this strange world!

"East." Sonic pointed East, past all the scraps of trash and splats of ink-wait…ink?

"Is… is that ink?" Sonic said. In a place like this, he would've expected anything BUT ink!

"I… I think so. But let's not focus on the trivial things right now. Let's get moving." Knuckles said, sounding like a wise sage with years of experience.

Sonic looked back towards Knuckles, grinning. "Great idea, Knucks! Last one there has to get me some spaghetti when we get back to home base!" And with that, Sonic blasted off, leaving Knuckles and Tails behind in the dust.

"Sonic, wai- uhh…" Tails sighed. He was hoping to learn more about the strange crater. But alas, exploration comes first.

With that, Knuckles and Tails blasted off with Sonic towards the east.


Next Stop: The Bustling City of Anarchy and Chaos, Splatsville.