Chapter 1: Interference
Bzzzt
A lone cell phone illuminated a dimly lit facility room. The singular occupant of the room stepped towards the device. Reaching out a gloved hand, the octoling woman brought the phone to her face, reading over the notification with a dark grin.
A knock at the room door pulled the woman's attention away from the phone. Her face seemed to visibly sour for a moment before settling back into a calm professional state.
"Enter," the woman spoke aloud. Her voice was stern and commanding as she turned her full body to face the metallic door. The door slid open with a quiet hiss, revealing an inkling man with black tentacles slicked to the back and a freshly trimmed goatee.
"Evening Veckata, may I come in?" asked the inkling cordially, though it seemed he wasn't exactly waiting for an answer as he was already entering the room as the question left his mouth.
Veckata's face slightly wrinkled in reaction to the inkling's insubordination, but she quickly composed herself once again. She said nothing to the man as she just looked him over with an expectant look on her face.
"If you're concerned don't be," said the inkling, seeming to pick up on the Octoling woman's expression. He shifted his weight before reaching into the pockets of his uniform and retrieving a pipe and lighter, "Everything has been arranged, it will be there."
If Veckata was at all reassured by the inkling's words her face didn't show it. In fact, the octoling's face seemed to darken slightly before she addressed the smoking inkling again.
"My forces will be mobilizing within the hour," Veckata began as she walked towards the wall past the inkling man. Hanging on the wall was what looked to be a custom-manufactured undercover brella, however, the tip of the brella seemed to be serrated and needle-sharp. The octoling carefully took the brella from its resting place on the wall and lightly inspected the weapon in her gloved hands.
"See to it that your assistance remains beneficial to our cause," Veckata spoke with a professional tone, a tiny hint of disdain present in the otherwise calm demeanor. She finished her inspections and started her path towards the door of her room, "and see to it that you're gone from my room when I return. We will speak again soon, general."
With that, Veckata disappeared behind the closing hydraulic door, leaving the general in the room alone, who promptly chuckled and released a puff of smoke into the air.
"Of course, Ma'am."
SOTR
Ikalia Galaxy let out a brisque yawn in her stadium seat, silently reaching a hand out to cover her mouth. The Goby Arena air conditioning seemed to provide quite the comfortable atmosphere for the purple inkling.
"Gonna fall asleep, already?" quipped the dark-skinned inkling with green tentacles sitting next to Ika, "The match ain't even started yet, man,"
"Well they'd better get started soon or I'll be watching the damn highlight reels," responded Ika, leaning forward and rating her left elbow on her knee while resting her head on her hand, "Why does this carp take so long, anyway?"
"Have you seriously never watched a professional turfing match before?" asked the green boy in disbelief, "A team ranking up to X is a big deal. It's always this much of a spectacle."
"X, you know I'd much rather be on the field than in the bleachers during shit like this," lamented Ika, looking up as the stadium screen relayed live footage of Marie Cuttlefish being escorted in an announcers booth by some official bodyguards. Ika let out a silent scoff at the scene.
"Well then, what made you wanna come to this one all of a sudden?" inquired X, adjusting himself in his seat.
"I know some of the members of team Nexus personally."
X's eyes widened a little.
"Oh, shit really? Who?"
"...Reese, Reese Reilley, the roller."
X leaned back in his seat again.
"The assistant captain? Damn. What is he a…?"
"Coworker."
"Ah. How considerate of you to show up to such an important game."
Ika side-eyed him.
"You say that like I'm not normally."
X's voice went high-pitched.
"Well…"
Ika turned to face her best friend.
"This is baseless slander and I will not stand for it."
X scoffed aloud and crossed his arms.
"Uh-huh, okay, and what did you plan to do if Reese and his team lose this match?"
"Make fun of him, obviously."
"That's what I thought."
"Whatever Lettuce Head, shut up anyway, it looks like they're finally getting started," Ikalia dismissed her best friend's extremely accurate accusations of her to focus her attention on the arena. As Marie spoke over the stadium speakers, team Nexus, and their opponents, team Mimic were already on their spawn pads getting prepared for the game to get underway.
Ika's eyes drifted over to the members of team Nexus who were all together on their spawn pad.
Just as she'd have guessed, Reese looked to be giving some sort of pep-talk while the rest of the team shook off the pre-game jitters.
Reese wasn't a mystery to Ikalia, after all, they'd been on the same secret task force for over six years now. Reese was the ever courageous Agent Four and she; the esteemed Captain Three of the New Squidbeak Splatoon. They, along with many other members of the NSS worked tirelessly to keep inkling and octoling civilization safe from external threats.
However, when the fate of cephalopod life as they knew it wasn't in danger, all of the NSS agents had their own lives to live, which is why they found themselves here at this X rank-up game.
In all honesty, Ika most likely would not have shown up for this game in literally any other given situation, but she was eventually convinced by her own superior, Director Cuttlefish, that this would quote, 'be an important event for Four' and 'I know you two aren't always on the best of terms, but you should at least show your support as captain of the force.' Yeah, whatever.
Reese's scan of the crowd eventually led to him locking eyes with Ikalia. He looked slightly shocked for a bit as the two NSS agents steadily held each other's gaze for a moment. Ika then flashed the smuggest smile she could fathom and gave Reese a double thumbs up, which prompted an eye roll from Reese as he broke eye contact to stare back ahead at the battlefield.
Ikalia snickered. Oh well, at least if Reese hilariously bombed this match, Ika would have a front-row seat to see it.
And she could take some pleasure in the fact that Reese definitely knew that, too.
SOTR
Reese Reilley took a deep breath, breathing in the crisp air of Goby Arena. He briefly looked over his shoulder to the rest of his team, who were all preparing themselves for the upcoming battle in their own respective ways.
"Is everyone ready to go, do I need to go over the plan again?" Reese asked his team. Even though they had gone over the plan literally five minutes ago, this match was extremely important and Reese would have absolutely no problem giving a quick refresher.
"Don't worry Riri, Vicky and I get it," chirped a girl to his left with pigtails and a Luna blaster in her left hand. She then leaned towards him and held her hand next to her mouth, though she made no attempt to whisper, "But y'know, JJ's a little slow on the uptake sometimes, he might need a refresher-"
"Fuck off, Pastelle," retorted JJ from behind the girl. He brushed a tentacle to the side of his face and gave Pastelle the bird before going back to assessing his e-liter 4k.
"I only said something 'cause I'm right," said Pastelle as she flipped her pigtails and squinted in JJ's direction.
"Oh please. You just love hearing yourself talk."
"Well, my voice is gorgeous."
"More like grating."
Pastelle's eyes narrowed.
"Lying through your teeth."
"That makes two of us, then."
Pastelle and JJ's bickering faded into white noise as Reese turned his attention to the last member of his team.
Vicky Terrace tore her concerned gaze away from her teammates to lock eyes with her co-assistant captain. Clutching her Forge Splattershot Pro tightly in one hand, she gave Reese a thumbs up with the other, accompanied by a small, reassuring smile.
Reese mimicked the expression wholeheartedly. He could always count on his co-assistant captain to be ready for anything, both in the arena and out on the field.
Due to Reese being preoccupied with the Memverse during the whole Mr. Grizz incident, Reese didn't get to meet the new Agent Three until a few months later. And what a laugh it was to find out they had been on the same professional turf war team for over a year prior, and both assistant captains to boot. Reese chuckled to himself as he let his eyes wander about the stadium.
"Goooood Morning Inkopolis! Hope you're all ready for a splatastic match today! I know I am!" Marie's voice rang out through Goby Arena. Reese's mind briefly flashed back to the fact that Shiver was the one originally slated to be the celebrity guest announcer for team Nexus' X rank-up game, however, once Marie got wind that it would be Reese's team competing, she basically confiscated Shiver's spot for herself, instead.
Reese's eyes continued to wander about the arena. He could hardly believe it himself, team Nexus was really here. If Team Nexus could pull off a win today, they would officially be an X-ranked professional turf war team.
He took a few more short breaths. He had to be ready for anything, he had to stay focused, he had to-
What the hell?
There, up the stadium seats, Reese saw her, his superior.
Captain Three.
What the fuck was she doing here? As far as Reese knew, Ikalia never showed up to, or even watched professional matches.
So what the fuck was she doing here? Marie, he could understand, she was the one who recruited him, and he knew Callie was having a watch party at the Off the Hook studio. Agent Three was obviously right here next to him…so why?
There was no way in hell Ika gave enough of a shit to drag herself to one of his matches, unless…
She was here to fuck with him, wasn't she?
At that very moment, Reese accidentally locked eyes with the NSS captain, who flashed him an extremely smug smile and a double thumbs up. Reese rolled his eyes and stared back ahead, his face immediately souring.
Of course she was just here for the added pressure. Probably to remind him that a loss would only solidify his inferiority to her. She's probably here to judge his every move and mistake. Reese shut his eyes tight in frustration. He'd never hear the end of this, he could already hear all the jokes flying from his damn superior's mouth. Of course she'd be here to fucking-.
"Is everything okay, Reese?" asked a concerned Vicky. Reese glanced at his anxious teammate, before letting out a sigh and attempting to cool his head.
"Yeah, I'm all good Vicky, thanks," Reese appreciated the concern, and slowly but surely he was able to calm his racing mind. He then gestured to Captain Three using his head, "Ika's here."
"R-really!" Vicky's eyes lit up a bit upon hearing this immediately sought out her superior in the stadium seats above. She eventually found the purple inkling she was looking for and gave her a big wave, and was rewarded with a wink and salute from her captain. Reese silently observed the scene, while his and Ika's relationship was…strained to say the least, it was nice to see her and Vicky get along, and if it helped calm Vicky's nerves at all, he'd take it.
"Today's match will beeeee…a Rainmaker game, how fun!" Marie continued her announcements, putting on a spectacle for the crowd, "You know the rules, get your hands on the special weapon in the center, hit the checkpoints, and most of alllll…"
"Make! It! Rain!" The crowd joined in with Marie as if on cue. Reese smiled inwardly at his commander, she sure knew how to work a crowd.
"Allllright!" Marie once again commanded the attention of the stadium, "Let's get this match underway! Maverick of team Mimic, is your team ready?"
"Absolutely Marie!" responded Maverick, the leader of team Mimic, the S ranked team that were going to be Nexus' opponents today, "We're ready to crush it!"
"Alright, and Reese of team Nexus!" Marie spoke as she turned her attention to Nexus, "Is your team ready?"
Reese locked eyes with each of his teammates, all of them had their weapons at the ready with determined looks on their faces. Only after receiving a nod from each of them did Reese finally respond to Marie.
"Yes Ma'am, we're ready," Reese spoke with conviction.
"Ever the gentleman," Marie's eyes softened for a split moment, "Anyway, let the match begin in three!"
Both teams took ready stances.
"Two!"
Weapons were gripped tighter.
"One!"
The last of the personnel for delicate prepping of the Rainmaker weapon scurried off the playing field.
A buzzer sounded.
"Make it Rain!"
SOTR
"We're ready to go," spoke an octoling clad in dark military-grade armor and pitch-black tentacles. The octoling spoke to his superior in an underground passageway, with the muffled sounds of battle coming from above, "The Levoctus will mobilize on your command, Lady Victur."
"Wonderful, prepare to move out in five minutes," Lady Victur ran her hands over her undercover brella lightly caressing the serrated edge, "Send me Blake."
"Yes, Lady Victur," the Levoctus soldier saluted and made his way down the passageway. Eventually, someone different came back down the same passage. Lady Victur looked up to see an inkling girl with a double bun approaching her. She carried what seemed to be a custom Jet Squelcher and was dressed in similar armor to the previous soldier, just slightly altered to show her superior rank.
"You said you wanted to see me, ma'am?" asked the inkling girl, looking a lot more relaxed than the previous soldier around Lady Victur.
"Are you ready?" asked the lady once Blake got close enough.
"Yes ma'am, our forces are all in position, and our undercover soldiers are ready to act on the signal," Blake answered her superior with practiced conviction and formality, "this is sure to be a perfect victory for the Black Levoctu-"
"I meant are you ready, dear," Lady Victur interjected.
"I-I don't think I understand, ma'am," responded Blake as her face contorted in confusion.
"As inferior as our enemies are, this is still your first ever real assignment in the field…And you still do not possess the gifts of my race, not yet."
Blake shifted where she stood.
"Well…um, I'm sure the rest of the Levoctus will carry out the mission to perfection, so even if-"
Lady Victur took several steps closer to Blake at that moment, her gaze darkening as her tone shifted.
"Your main focus should be to make yourself as strong as possible," Lady Victur's deep fuschia pupils stared directly into Blake's ash-gray ones, "The only way this world will accept you is through a display of strength. So that is exactly what you strive for. Do you understand?"
Blake's eyes drifted towards the floor and she bowed her head, "Yes ma'am, I understand completely."
"Wonderful," the lady let an approving smile stretch across her face as her stare lessened in intensity, she then pulled a cellphone from her uniform pocket and checked the time "Now let us depart, sweetie."
Lady Victur began to walk down the dark underground passageway with Blake close behind. The footsteps of the two heavily armed Black Levoctus members echoed through the hallway. Lady Victur smirked.
"It's time."
SOTR
Ikalia had to admit, she wasn't completely disinterested in the event going on in front of her.
The purple prodigy knew firsthand just how strong Reese and Vicky were, and as far she knew, the other two Nexus members could more than pull their weight.
But team Mimic was not going down without a fight. A tough one, too.
The score was currently stuck at 79 to 84 for Nexus and Mimic, respectively. This meant that while Nexus was currently in the lead, it wasn't by much at all.
Ika watched as Reese destroyed the barrier for the Rainmaker and then swam past it, followed by Vicky who actually grabbed the weapon.
Reese made some sort of hand signal and the rest of Nexus sprung into action. Using his golden dynamo roller, Reese inked a path of red through the blue ink on the battlefield for his co-assistant captain to follow with the Rainmaker.
Their journey only went unimpeded for a couple of seconds before Maverick and Miles, two members of team Mimic, appeared in their path.
As it was, Vicky couldn't really help in a firefight due to the giant hunk of metal in her hands, so as it looked, Reese was currently at a disadvantage.
At least that's how it looked.
Maverick was the first to engage, lunging with incredible speed and slashing at Reese with his splatana wiper. Reese effortlessly side-stepped the attack and raised his roller to block the follow-up slice from Maverick, their weapons locking against one another.
Even though Maverick was currently preoccupied, he wasn't the only one who attacked, which led Ikalia's eyes to Miles, who was currently beelining toward Vicky and the Rainmaker with his octobrush at the ready.
In any other match, Ikalia would've written off Vicky as an easy splat in the next few seconds, but she knew better.
This was Reese they were dealing with, after all.
In a display of raw strength, Reese pushed forward hard, pushing Maverick and his wiper back just a few steps, and in less than a second twisted his body, straightened his roller, and flung a line directly in front of Miles' path, just narrowly missing him by a thread and stopping him in his tracks.
Miles looked dumbfounded by the fact he'd almost been splatted when Reese was supposed to be under attack. Maverick was the first to recover and charged Reese again with a flurry of slashes. Absolutely none of which landed, and it seemed to be making him more frustrated by the second.
"Miles, help me out!" Ika could faintly make out the scream of team Mimic's captain as he begged his brush-wielding teammate for help to quickly eliminate the NSS agent. Ikalia almost laughed aloud. There was no way Reese wasn't expecting something like this after setting it up so perfectly. The prodigy leaned forward in her seat. Oh well, guess she wasn't gonna get to make fun of the agent for choking.
Miles immediately reacted to his captain's call for assistance and darted toward Reese, who was still locked in battle with Maverick. Reese's focused facial expression didn't even remotely change as Miles approached, he just continued to block and deflect Maverick's quick slashes and slices.
Seconds later, Miles made it to attacking distance and prepared to swing his brush at Reese's midsection.
The next moments felt like slow motion.
Once Miles had made it to the fighting duo, Reese immediately used one of Maverick's own slices against him, parrying it downward and then bringing his own roller down and trapping Maverick's splatana against the ground under it. All this happened just as Miles started his swing, which prompted Reese to use his roller as a support to swing his body into the air, making himself parallel to the ground. Due to Reese's body suddenly being off the ground now, Miles' octobrush swing hit nothing but air, but the octoling had so much power behind the swing he stumbled forward after missing. Right into Reese's swinging kick that he used the momentum from pulling himself off the ground to perform.
The force of the kick stunned Miles who dropped his brush. Holding on to his roller handle like a fulcrum, Reese spun all the way around his roller handle before landing back on the ground. As soon as his feet touched the floor, the NSS agent brought his roller up with insane speed, smacking the still-trapped Maverick directly in the face with red ink.
It wasn't enough to splat the captain of team Mimic, but it was enough to leave him immobile long enough for Reese to spin around, arc his roller high over his head, and bring it down onto Miles' stunned form with crushing force, splatting him instantly.
The crowd erupted with cheers at the splat, but the fight wasn't over yet. As Miles was splatted, Maverick recovered from his immobile state and immediately turned on Reese, capitalizing on the disadvantageous position of his weapon, splatting him instantly.
At least, that's what would've happened.
If it weren't for the interference of a mechanical whir.
And then ding.
A high-pressure torrent of red ink soared through the air straight at Miles' torso, the connection with his body splatting him instantly.
The crowd's cheering somehow got even louder to the point Ika considered covering her ears to avoid permanent damage.
"Ohhh! And what a play from JJ Reddings of Team Nexus!" Marie announced over the speaker, "How will Mimic respond- wait a second, what!?"
Ikalia rolled her eyes as it seemed Marie had just now noticed that the score was now 33 to 84 and still plummeting in favor of Nexus.
Apparently, while Reese took on Maverick and Miles, Vicky had taken the opportunity to make a mad dash toward the goal, even scoring a lucky splat on Carson on her way there. Ika subconsciously leaned forward in her seat. Was this it? Was Nexus about to close this match out? If they kept this push going then maybe-
"You look mighty interested over there," X remarked with a smirk, crossing his arms and leaning back.
"Yeah yeah whatever, loser," Ika leaned back into her seat as well, "When the game actually starts happening it's tolerable. Takes forever for something cool to happen though."
"Well, not everyone can do the shit you do, man. Hell, I don't think anyone could do the shit you do."
Ika sighed and looked upwards.
"Well, you learn a thing or two in my line of work, Xavier."
"It's definitely more than two things."
"True enough."
Xavier was right. Ikalia most definitely had an insane advantage over the average inkling, but it's not like she knew why she had that advantage. And she couldn't even have her folks explain anything to her, on account of them being absent her whole life.
Whatever, as much as Ika wanted to figure out where her strength came from, it wasn't important right now. Or at least not as important as the fact that-
"Vicky Terrace of team Nexus is just steps away from the goal!" exclaimed Marie as the roars of the crowd swelled louder than ever before, "She's so close!"
And she was just getting closer, and closer…now she's climbing the goal pedestal, this is it. Nexus is going to win!
Sssss…
For a second, it seemed time had frozen for everyone. Vicky was in the air, Rainmaker held high above her head ready to slam the weapon down on the goalpost. The crowd was on their feet.
And then, a deafening rumble shook the stadium.
Ika could only blink once before the pedestal Vicky was leaping towards exploded in a ball of fire, sending concrete and metal shrapnel in every direction.
Vicky's airborne form was immediately thrown back with incredible force straight into one of the arena walls. Upon impact her body crumpled limply to the floor.
Ikalia hopped up from her seat as she watched her agent hit the ground. What the hell was going on? That seemed to be the question on everyone's minds as the entire arena had fallen into a stunned silence.
"Vicky!" Reese was the first one to move, rushing to the unconscious form of his teammate, though not much time was given to anyone to react before the giant hole freshly blown into the arena floor erupted with a huge geyser of black ink, shooting so far it almost touched the stadium ceiling.
From the dark ink geyser, the forms of inklings and octolings with the same black ink and matching uniforms emerged. Each was armed with a military-grade turfing weapon.
By now the Goby Arena security had realized something was off and they sprung into action, drawing their weapons on the people coming from the geyser and moving spectators from their seats.
"Evacuate! All civilians and non-security staff evacuat-!" was the last thing said by a lead security detail member before he was shot point blank by what seemed to be a civilian in a hoodie. However, the ink used to splat the security officer was the same black ink used in the geyser.
This event sent everyone into a panic, as now it was revealed that there were members of this terrorist group in the crowd pretending to be civilians. This was then the time the uniformed soldiers from the geyser began firing on civilians and security personnel in tandem.
"What the fuck is going on!?" exclaimed Xavier, who was now also on his feet due to the commotion.
"Like hell if I know!" Ika responded. She watched a couple of black ink soldiers disconnect the power to the respawn pads on the playing field, which meant that there were no more second chances, not even for the competitors.
This shit just got real. Really real. Really quickly. Ikalia watched the chaos, chewing on the inside of her cheek. What could she do? The NSS were strictly prohibited from carrying out any military operations inside city limits, but she had to do something.
A lot of innocent people were going to die if she didn't make a decision right now. In a panic, Ika scanned her eyes over the battlefield once again, her eyes settled on Reese who was kneeling next to his unconscious teammate. He had a worried look on his face as his eyes darted from Vicky to the chaos around them and back again. He was obviously feeling the same pressure that Ikalia was in at that moment.
Eventually, his panicked gaze reached Ika, and he stared at her with a desperate look on his face.
Begging for orders from his captain.
Ikalia's face darkened. Fuck her rules and restrictions, people were dying and she had a mission now.
"Xavier, go home," Ika said as she walked towards the railing separating the seats from the playing field.
"Woah, woah what do you mean? What're you gonna do?" X asked with a concerned look on his face for his friend.
"As per my job description, I'm kinda obligated to sort this shit out," Ika replied, placing her foot on the railing.
"Are you sure you're gonna be okay? This looks pretty fucking serious."
"I'll be fine, X, but I need you to get somewhere safe. Now."
Xavier looked ready to refute, then sighed.
"Tsk, fine, but you'd better let me know as soon as this shits over! I'm serious!" X said pointedly before taking off into the rushing crowd.
Ika watched the green boy disappear into the crowd before, turning back to face the center of the stadium.
He should be able to make it out fine. She knew firsthand just how much he wanted to help, but he just wasn't built for this type of thing.
At least not like she was.
Ika turned and saw multiple black ink soldiers descending into the playing field where Reese and the others were. Ikalia shifted into squid form and charged a super jump right to Reese and Vicky. Okay…
Let's get to work.