King: Hello again! We've got a fresh catch of a chapter today. Let's have some fun~
Inspiration: Splatoon 2 Salmon Run
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Ozpin took a sip from his mug. He wanted to be somewhat snarky at the expense of his second-in-command, but he had learned better by now. So, he'd fall back to his go-to. "That was certainly fun."
Glynda took a deep breath. From what she had seen, she actually felt… proud. She'd always been proud of her students, but this felt odd. She simply nodded in response to the headmaster.
King faded into existence but didn't say anything.
Yang looked to the magic ball with concern, "You okay?"
After a few seconds of silence, he responded, "No, not really. While I was searching for the reality you wanted to follow up on, they started to blend together. I thought it was just how many I went through… then I remembered! They all were the same! Each reality has infinite futures! I've had to watch the same thing over and over again without realizing they were all the same!" The ball shivered a moment before sighing, "Can I stop and just play something I found earlier?"
Yang smiled to help calm the magic ball, "No problem."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. Go ahead."
"Thanks." King took a deep breath. "Okay, let's go."
"Umm…" Ruby raised her hand to get King's attention, "What exactly are we getting into?"
"I just like this one. Don't worry, it's not a psycho-Jaune one." King faded out and started the next show.
The screen opened to show a massive mall area, catching Coco's attention. They could see lots of stores of various types, mostly clothing, behind glass. A small shadow started to form on the glass before a balloon landed with a loud splat. The glass was now covered in a bright yellow paint of some kind. As the paint ran down, the camera pulled away to show the ground was also covered in the same paint.
"What in the world is going on?" Coco leaned forward. Last time she checked, people don't paint the ground.
They saw a section of the paint seem to rise up, like something beneath it was moving slowly. After a while, it moved faster. Whatever it was, it flowed up the glass and up to the top of the store.
Weiss was frozen at the idea. No! That is not possible!
The camera followed slowly, being left behind by the creature. When the camera reached the top, it found a young Jaune with a folded umbrella in hand. He was dressed in a red leather jacket, combat boots, black jeans, and a red beret. Red-tinted, mirror sunglasses covered his eyes.
Coco let out an impressed whistle. This Jaune knew how to dress. She was slightly bias, given his style reminded her of her own, just modified slightly. "Not bad. Not bad at all."
Neo smirked seeing the umbrella. A part of her hoped it was a weapon, like her own.
Jaune cracked the joints in his neck and moved from side to side. "Alright." He lowered himself into a stance ready to jump into the fray. "Show time!" He jumped down from his perch and toward the ground. This side of the mall area was covered in purple paint. Jaune pointed his umbrella toward his landing site and fired a mass of paint from the tip, coving the ground in yellow paint. Jaune dove into the paint like it was a pool.
"Woah!" Ruby hopped in her chair excitedly, "That's so cool!"
Weiss was broken. There was no way any of that should have happened.
A group of three men and one woman in masks charged forward. Each had a gun of some kind in hand and pointed toward the pool of yellow.
"They kind of look like water guns…" Nora pointed.
The four masked attackers had their weapons trained toward Jaune's puddle. When they opened fire, they were met with the spread canvas of his umbrella being used as a shield. As they fired, more and more of the surface became covered in purple paint. The umbrella started to move forward slowly. Seeing this, one of the masked men signaled to the other two to stop firing and flank Jaune's umbrella as he passed. When the umbrella finally reached the group, they pointed their guns around the edges only to find the area behind it empty. The umbrella was moving forward using a miniature propulsion system.
As the canvas continued on, the four masked individuals gathered together, confused. Suddenly, a paint can on the end of a suction cup popped into frame behind them. The base of the can started to glow and let out a noise, like it was a makeshift bomb. The four masked players turned to find Jaune sitting on the nearby bench. He gave them a two fingered salute before the can burst into a mass of yellow paint. All four of his opponents seemed to pop, their clothing and masks falling to the ground as four squid-shaped, soul-like things flew upward.
"Holy crap!" Yang couldn't believe what she had seen. "Did he just kill them?!"
Velvet was rocking in her chair slightly at the thought. She couldn't really handle the idea of a crazy Jaune.
The screen suddenly froze and pulled away showing two figures sitting in a recording room. The first was Weiss Schnee, dressed in a pale white dress with a pair of pink tights underneath, a pair of white boots, a pair of white punk gloves, and a pale pink crown of some kind hanging by her ponytail. The other was Blake, in a black crop top and shorts with pair of boots and elbow-length, fingerless gloves. Weiss was sitting on a beanbag chair while Blake sat on a stool behind a turntable.
Coco smiled and nodded in approval, "I have to admit, these versions know how to dress."
When their heads moved, the group noticed that their 'hair' wasn't hair. Both had tentacles acting as their hair instead. Weiss had long, white squid tentacles tied up into her signature side-ponytail. Meanwhile, Blake had shorter, black octopus tentacles that faded to become a light purple at the end.
"So, their both Faunas?" Ruby's head tilted as she asked.
Yang's head tilted the other direction as she crossed her arms, "Apparently."
"They're not faunas." Sun pointed out, "I've seen squid faunas before and they don't look like that."
Weiss kicked her feet out and shot her hands into the air in excitement, "Now that's a play!"
Blake addressed the viewers while Weiss gushed, "That maneuver cost team Fang the win in this match, but one cool play does not a Splatfest make."
"Splatfest?" Blake paused hearing that, "What the heck is that?"
"It sounds like a sport's festival of some kind." Ren reasoned.
Nora jumped up, excited, "Yeah! Let's do this!"
Ren placed a hand on Nora's shoulder and made her calm down again.
Blake continued, "When we first opened this Splatfest, we asked you all one question."
Weiss returned to her usual sitting position again, "Which season do you prefer, spring or autumn?" A screen behind them showed two halves, one was a bright green while the other was orange. Both showed someone in the center enjoying the season.
"Okay… it's a popularity thing?" Yang thought out loud.
Blake picked up Weiss's statement, "Now it's time to get to the results. First the larger poll. Drum roll please~!" After a small roll, the numbers appeared on the screen: [Spring – 53%, Fall – 47%]
Weiss's arms shot up again, "Booyah!"
Blake groaned a little. "Alright. Alright. Popularity is just one part of this. Now for the results that matter."
Weiss sat back in victory, "Doesn't matter. Our play of the 'fest was a Spring team. I've no reason to believe we could…" Weiss was cut off when the results arrived.
[Solo wins: Spring – 49%, Fall – 51%]
[Team wins: Spring – 42%, Fall – 58%]
Blake crossed her arms, smug, "You were saying?"
A few of the students celebrated a sort of victory by proxy. They had their answers when they heard the question. Others just say back and rolled their eyes or groaned, depending on their personalities.
Weiss groaned and fell back in her chair. "Just you wait until next time Blake! Anyway, that's all the time we've got."
Ruby chuckled a little, "So, Weiss and Blake are show hosts?"
"It seems like it." Nora replied.
Blake moved her turn table to the side. "So, until next time…"
They both stood up and moved in a coordinated action, speaking at the same time, "Don't get cooked~ Stay off the Hook~!" When they finished, the program ended and the turned into a pink field with a strange design in green.
Yang had a moment of bliss. She knew those versions of Weiss and Blake were a squid and an octopus. She also knew about the phrase 'off the hook.' But this? 'Don't get cooked, stay off the hook'?! It was incredible!
Pulling away, they saw the screen was a large jumbotron on a building overlooking a crowded plaza. A little less than half of the crowd were cheering while the rest groaned. Everyone they could see had tentacles for hair of various colors.
The camera snapped to a nearby table to show four cups meeting over the middle in a toast. The four people sitting at table included Jaune, Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha. Though it was harder to tell as they all had yellow tentacles for hair. All three laughed for a while, reminiscing about the Splatfest.
Nora jumped up and slammed her cup onto the table. "I still say the play of the fest should have been our team knockout! All four of us lined up and taking down the enemy team, it was so cool~!" Nora jumped slightly, turning into a bright yellow squid.
This surprised all involved. The first one to speak up was Nora, herself, "What?"
Nora landed on her chair and morphed into a blob of yellow ink before returning to kid form. "You know what I mean?"
Ren chuckled, in his own reserved way, "Nora, while that was an impressive play at the time, it was just before the fest started."
"Oh…"
"They don't seem too effected by Nora TURNING INTO A SQUID!" Weiss was trying to get a grip on what she was seeing.
Nora finished her drink and let out a satisfied sigh. "I want another one. Hey! Crusty!"
A man standing in a food truck prepared her a new drink. His hair wasn't tentacles, rather he appeared to have a shell. He was the resident food man, Crusty Sean.
Weiss's eye twitched. "No…"
Yang's face was stuck in a permanent grin. "No way! Please let there be more!"
Crusty tossed Nora a new drink, "Here 'ya go Squiddo!"
Yang was having a field day. "Like kiddo! But she's a squid! This is awesome!"
The others groaned.
Nora grinned and took a deep gulp from her beverage. "Good stuff."
Pyrrha rolled her eyes, playing with her cup a little, "I still want to know how he fries a shake…"
Jaune leaned back in his chair, "Probably best not to ask." Jaune's watch started beeping and he sighed. He finished his drink and placed his voucher on the table. "I need to head out."
Pyrrha turned toward Jaune as he stood, "Another shift?"
"We all have money to make." Jaune grinned and started to walk down the street. As he approached a store set off to the side, he took a deep breath and walked in.
The interior was solid orange. It had the theme of being a fishing store or a launching site for aquatic expeditions. A radio off the side in the shape of a grizzly bear started to shake, "Right on time kid. I've got a shift with your name on it!"
"That's why I'm here."
"That's the ticket. A real Pro-fresh-ional.
Yang was in heaven as the others entered their hell.
The screen wiped from the side to shift to a boat. Jaune was sitting on the deck in neon orange overalls with green boots and gloves, both rubber work style, over his white uniform shirt.
Coco nearly died seeing that travesty. The only thing that kept her conscious was that it was a uniform, and thus it was something he didn't choose to wear himself.
Jaune waited as the boat began to approach the island site. This was his job. Fight back against the Salmonid.
This caught Blake's attention, "Salmon?"
"Salmonid?" Weiss caught the wording, "The heck is that?"
Jaune looked through his manual one more time before he arrived. Salmonids were a race of creatures that rose up from the oceans with the squidlings and octarians. Difference was, Salmonids can return to the water. Every 70 years, they'd come back to the surface to steal inkling eggs.
Weiss thought for a moment, "So, Jaune is an inkling?"
Yang grinned.
"Oh no…"
"I have an inkling that it might be the case~"
"Shut it, Xiao Long."
Neptune got stuck on the last part. "Wait… If Jaune's this inkling thing… and inklings still lay eggs… then those Salmonids are…"
The thought died in a room of silence and terror. Even Cinder couldn't kill a baby, but an unborn egg?! Nothing about that was okay.
Inklings would always fight back and drive them off, but not without losses. They were never ready when the Salmonids rose from the waves. That's how it was until Grizz Co. opened. Mr. Grizz observed the Salmonids and gave the inklings notice when they started to move onto land. He'd equip them with the best weapons he had and give them transport. All he asked in return was collecting any Salmonid eggs that appeared on the battlefield.
Cinder couldn't help but smirk, "Eye for an eye, it seems." It was deliciously twisted in its own way.
The boat began to slow near an island. Mr. Grizz set up a bait area on the island to keep the Salmonids off the mainland. And now it was time to cash in. Jaune stretched his back and moved toward the bow. There, three others in the same uniform were standing around, getting their weapons out from the locker off to the side.
The first was Sun Wukong, just with short yellow, octopus tentacles. Next to Sun was the first surprise appearance of a blue squidling version of Mercury Black, tinkering with a small pyramid of some kind. The last member of the crew was Velvet, her rabbit ears replaced a long pair of brown, octopus tentacles framing her face.
The radio from before rested on the boat, "Alright kids. Let's get going. Remember, get me those Salmonid eggs and you get a bonus to your paycheck at the end. Hook up your preservers and get out there!"
Each member of the team affixed white life preservers to their backs.
"Why do they need that?" Blake could tell they had a secondary function, but she couldn't tell what that was yet.
Once they were all set, they watched as a pink substance filled the white coloration of the preserver. Once they were all full, all four of the team disappeared into their preservers. In a few seconds, they all reemerged with their tentacles/hair turned pink.
Yang chuckled, "Oh! Hey."
Ruby tried to stop her, "Yang…"
"They're Pink-lings!"
Cue groan from others.
Mr. Grizz's radio started to shake again. "Good luck out there."
The four turned solid pink and sunk into squid/octopus form.
Weiss nodded from before, "Okay… that explains why they didn't react to Nora…"
All four shot off toward the island with a torrent of ink behind them. They all landed in a pink puddle and reformed. Sun had a giant paint roller, Mercury had a pair of miniature guns, Jaune had an umbrella, and Velvet had a heavy, minigun.
Coco shed a fake tear and placed her arm over Velvet's shoulders, "I'm so proud of you~"
Velvet tried to get out of Coco's grip, "Coco! Stop it!"
All four started firing their paint guns around them, or running the paint along in the case of Sun.
Ruby was confused, "Why are they doing that? There's no enemies around yet."
Weiss sighed, "Ruby, remember what we saw earlier with Jaune's… play? They can move through that ink, as ridiculous as that is…" Weiss had to take a moment to calm herself back down, "That, and they're all squids or octopuses. It's likely they move faster by 'swimming' through that ink than they do walking."
"That makes sense."
Mr. Grizz's voice came over their headsets. "Alright, we've got Salmonids incoming! Remember, your personal vendetta gets left on the boat. You're on the clock! Get me my eggs or I'll find someone who can!"
Jaune took a moment to take a deep breath as the horn sounded. "Here they come." As he spoke, a deep fog started to roll in.
Once the fog was thick enough, Mercury pointed his guns out and away from the group, "Look alive people and remember your call outs."
The other three shouted in unison, "Right!"
Sun's arm shot up in excitement, "Let's do this!"
Nora and Ruby followed suit, "Yeah!"
A metallic creaking made all involved point their weapons toward the sound. A massive shadow towered over the ink/octolings. When they could see the shadow's form, they saw a giant, armored fish with openings along its back with some kind of green item within. Its jaw was rigid, and it moved slowly and creaked at it went. Its dead eyes looked down at the team and it groaned. Their first opponent was a Steelhead.
The three excited voices went silent. Everyone felt a shiver run up their spine. That thing was a giant and it's likely a monster all around.
The four started to spread out as a green balloon started to expand over its nose. The Steelhead unleashed the balloon, which spun in the air and landed near Velvet. She dipped under into the ink and fled as the balloon burst, coving a large area in dark green. Velvet reappeared on a higher location, looking down at the Steelhead. The giant Salmonid looked toward her and started to form another balloon. Velvet started to spin her minigun and unleashed a mass of paint onto the balloon. The balloon burst while still connected, taking out the Steelhead.
Velvet was speechless. Seeing herself do something so crazy, it was incredible. Maybe… Maybe she could really do something like that.
Mercury was running circles around a nearby Scrapper, a Salmonid hiding away behind a large shield. Mercury broke the shield's propelling system and jumped over the shield to attack the creature behind it.
Sun ran along with his roller in front of his feet, mowing down smaller Salmonids as he ran. He jumped off a ledge and reeled his roller back. When he slammed the roller down, the paint sprayed outward and forced a few larger Salmonids to pop.
Sun smiled, "Dude~! That was awesome!"
Jaune jumped along and used his umbrella to prevent being splatted by a nearby Salmonid. As he did, the other three were collecting golden eggs and placing them into a large basket. Jaune fired paint from his umbrella, causing multiple Salmonids to burst. They continued to fight off the various Salmonids, slowly pushing them back into the water. Then, a small Salmonid, no larger than someone's hand, ran up behind Velvet. It struck the back of her knee, causing her to fall backward.
"Oh no…"
Their firing line disrupted, a few of the Salmonids started to move forward again. Jaune turned and burst the Smallfry, before turning back and opening his umbrella to defend Velvet as she got back to her feet and started to spin her minigun again. When his umbrella unfolded, they were face to face with a giant metal face. Jaune went pale seeing that, "Carp! Move!"
"Carp?" Nora tilted her head, "It looks more like an eel."
Yang was shaking. "It's like crap! Oh my god, I love this world!"
The four moved off and up a wall using their ink. Jaune popped up first and looked back to see the full Steel Eel's length, moving to reach them. "This is bad…"
Mercury leaned over to look at the Salmonid boss. "We can get behind that thing easily."
Jaune pointed to a flying fish with giant missile salvos on either side of it. "A Flyfish," he moved to point to the eel, "a Steel Eel, and…" He pointed out blinking buoy light, "A Maws waiting for us."
"Okay." Mercury conceded, "That's officially bad."
"And it'll get worse if we just stand around up here."
The Flyfish in the distance started to descend and opened its salvos.
Jaune turned to the team, "MOVE!"
The team flew off in four different directions as a series of green ink missiles turned their former position into a green mess.
Ruby jumped a little when the missiles crashed into the ledge. "Oh my gosh!"
Mercury charged around the Eel and fired at the driver on the end. The fish growled at him, moving its Eel around toward Mercury. This gave Velvet an opening to hit the driver enough times to destroy the Eel from the end. As this happened, Sun ran down the smaller Salmonids and toward the Flyfish. He charged through, avoiding the missiles' blast radiuses. He jumped and threw the pyramid from before. The pyramid began to glow and erupted in an inky explosion, ripping one of the salvos off.
Sun landed with a smirk, something blinking beneath him. He froze in shock, looking downward. Between his feet was a blinking light of a small buoy.
Sun paused, remembering Jaune pointing that light out before, "That's not good."
Suddenly, a giant flesh-pink shark rose up from a pool of ink and tossed Sun up with it. The world moved in slow motion as Sun started to fall again. The Maws slammed its jaw together and popped Sun like a balloon.
Sun almost threw up and/or fainted seeing himself get ripped apart like that.
Blake went into shock seeing that. It was a twisted way to go.
"Sun!" Mercury fired his guns at the Maws, but it did little to slow the creature. His anger causing his reason to stall. He heard them but couldn't get away in time. A series of green missiles ripped into Mercury and caused him to burst into ink.
Velvet tossed a pyramid grenade into the open salvo, causing the entire structure to burst and three golden eggs to fall. As she moved, her slower pace made her a target for the Maws, but she was ready for that. She planned for it. When the light stopped below her, she jumped to the side as Jaune tossed a grenade into her place. When the Maws tried to chomp on Velvet, it ingested the grenade instead. The Maws exploded soon after.
Before Velvet could land, a small Salmonid struck her with a frying pan. She was getting ganged up on by the Salmonids. She tried to back away, firing into the crowd, but there was just too many.
Coco winced, "This is bad."
"No kidding…" Velvet hoped there'd be some way they could get out of this.
Jaune landed in front of her and opened his umbrella to keep the Salmonids back. "30 seconds!"
This confused the group. Thirty seconds to what?
Jaune's umbrella was starting to give way as the little fish creatures started to rip through the canvas. "Velvet! Run!"
Velvet shook her head, "No! I'm not about to…"
"Just go!"
"But you'll…"
Jaune paused a moment and sighed. "I'll be fine! Just run!"
"But Sun and Mercury were…"
10
Jaune growled a little allowing his umbrella's canvas to fly forward without him.
9
He turned around to grab Velvet by the hand.
8
He jumped from the ledge.
7
He tossed her to the other side.
6
Velvet landed on the opposite ledge, spinning around to try to catch Jaune.
5
Jaune had fallen too far. She couldn't catch him.
4
He fell into the sea with a large splash.
3
His inkling body wasn't deigned to return to the ocean. His inky body beginning to dissolve.
2
He disappeared, only his preserver remained.
1
Velvet fell to her knees, unable to save him.
TIME!
The room fell silent. What they had seen hurt a little, but at the same time… it was very Jaune. He would save someone at the risk of his own life. They knew how he was, but they didn't want to see it. Velvet, in particular, was taking it badly. Her counterpart was the one saved, but she couldn't save him in return. It was a sort of survivor's guilt. Coco grabbed Velvet by the shoulder to help her cope.
Velvet shook in place. This wasn't supposed to happen. Jaune was… Everyone was… She was about to break down when her preserver started to beep. She was forced into her ink form and launched back to the boat.
Velvet was shaking, "Why is this still going?"
Coco wanted to comfort her, but just couldn't find the words.
Velvet landed back on the boat. She rose back up into her humanoid form in shock. She was alone. The others were…
"Hey! Earth to Velvet!"
This got everyone in the audience to jump.
Blake recognized the voice, "No way… But how?"
Sun was leaning down toward Velvet, looking her in the eye.
Velvet looked like she'd seen a ghost. "What?! How?!"
Sun chuckled, "First timer?"
"What?"
Mercury placed his weapon away, "First time on the job for Mr. Grizz. Getting splatted here is like having the kettles back in Inkopolis so long as we have these preservers."
Weiss froze in confusion, "Kettles? What?"
This got a chuckle out of a certain pair of sisters.
Velvet looked at the preservers on their backs. "I thought they were our ink containers…"
"Duel use. Didn't you read your manual?"
Velvet chuckled nervously. "It was a little…"
Sun laughed, "Yeah. We get it."
Velvet looked around. "Wait! Then where's Jaune?"
Sun pointed to a pink streak in the sky headed straight for the boat.
Velvet's eyes went wide. Then… is that…?
The preserver landed and spun in place. After a moment, Sun smacked the preserver with his roller and Jaune popped into existence. He let out a large inhale and clutched his chest. "Swimming is overrated…"
Velvet placed her hands on Jaune's shoulders.
Coco grinned, "Maybe we'll get a Velvet to take the first…"
Velvet started to shake Jaune in place, "WHAT THE SHELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
Coco paused, "Never mind then…"
Jaune took a moment to take this in, "What's wrong with me?! What's wrong with you?! I told you to run! We hit the quota, all had to do was have someone survive until the preservers pulled us back!"
Sun interjected, "Fresh Fish."
Jaune turned to Sun, "Fresh…" Then he hit a realization. "Oh!"
Velvet realized her position and shrunk a bit before returning to her chewing Jaune out. "That doesn't explain what took you so long to get back!"
Jaune went deadpan, "Have you ever fallen in the ocean? Your ink dissolving into nothingness as you start to melt away with it?"
"Um… no?"
"Point is, it takes longer to recuperate after that than other methods."
Mercury tossed Jaune something that looked like a large spray paint nozzle. "Gear up. We're not done here."
Velvet went into shock, "We're not?"
"They're not?" Everyone asked.
Jaune sighed, "We have a few minutes before the next stop…" He handed her a small book. "The Grizzco Manual. Read it. Short version for now is we have two more stops to make. Be ready when we arrive."
Jaune left Velvet to read and stretched his newly reformed body. He looked out over the ocean. No time to get salty with anyone. Wave it off and look straight on. Right now, he had a job to do. Jaune smirked as he stood at the bow, "I'm not getting cooked today."