Splataclysm! - chapter 4
So uh, since Splatoon 2 is out now, have another chapter of the weird Splatoon AU I guess! Don’t worry if you don’t know anything about Splatoon it doesn’t matter lol
(Also on AO3 by the way)
Octarian ink hurt.
That was the first thing Marinette found out after entering the kettle in Octo Valley, with Adrien – or Chat Noir, rather – at her side.
The Octotroopers were strange Octarian enemies that seemed to be a single tentacle, or bunch of tentacles, with a face stuck on them. They blasted out globs of toxic purple ink from their weapons. Slow moving, easy to splat, not very bright, situated at large intervals so it was easy to have a rest in between.
But still. Their ink hurt.
“This stuff is impossible to walk through,” Adrien muttered, flinging some green ink from his Krak-On Splat Roller onto the ground ahead to cover up the toxic purple ink.
“It’s a different type of ink,” Marinette replied.
“Indeed, that’s right, buckos!” The voice of Captain Fu echoed through their radios, slightly static. “And if you get splatted with this stuff, it’s curtains for you. There’ll be no respawning from that!”
“It’s alright, we won’t get splatted,” Marinette said. “Isn’t that right, Chat Noir?”
His face paled but he nodded anyway. “Yes that’s right… Ladybug…”
Marinette looked to their path ahead. These underground kettles certainly didn’t look underground from the inside, since the walls were covered in large screens that had sky and scenery on them. It made sense that the Octarians did that – no one would want to look at a grungy cave wall for their lives.
The two heroes carried on along the narrow pathways, trying to avoid falling down the sheer drops on the sides. Every now and then they’d come across another gonkish Octotrooper and it would shoot at them in complete futility. Splatting them was no real challenge. The Octotroopers were not very good at their job. Tiny droplets of their ink did manage to splash onto Marinette occasionally, and it stung, but it was nothing that a quick swim in inkling ink couldn’t heal.
It wasn’t long before the end of the kettle was in sight.
“There’s a butterfly trapped up there!” Captain Fu said, able to see what was going on through the miniature cameras installed in their outfits. “Go get it out of there and bring it back here!”
“Not the Great Butterfly?” Marinette asked.
“No, they won’t guard that one so easily. But they stole more butterflies from us than just that. You’ll have to free as many as possible. That’ll depower their defences enough for you to get further into Octarian territory.”
“And then we can find Nino,” Marinette said, directing that last bit at Adrien. He looked somewhat worried.
“Yep, that’s right!” Fu said. “Anyway, Octotroopers up ahead blocking your path. Give ‘em heck!”
Marinette didn’t even need to think. She ran up and unleashed a barrage of shots from her Hero Shot, hitting the Octotroopers before they could even blink. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Adrien doing the same with his weapon.
There, only a few left now. These remaining Octotroopers had shields up in front of them. Marinette lobbed a Splat Bomb over their heads, causing them to turn around and look, and then she splatted them while they were distracted. Huh, these poor Octotroopers really weren’t too smart. Hopefully they could respawn soon enough considering they were in their home area. She did not like the idea of killing off these Octarians for real.
Within a few more seconds, all the Octotroopers had been wiped out. Marinette leapt up onto the platform and grabbed the butterfly from where it had been trapped. It was concealed in a little yellow bubble and seemed to flutter excitedly when it saw that she was rescuing it.
“Good job, buckos! Now get that butterfly back here and we can start working on the next kettle!”
Adrien had left a Squid Beakon back near the entrance to the kettle so the two of them Super Jumped back to it, then climbed up out of the kettle and back into fresh air. Captain Fu was waiting there to greet them.
“Nice work!” He stepped forwards and took the butterfly off Marinette. “The next kettle’s gotta be around here somewhere, go have a look for it. I’ll go and put this back where it belongs.” He shuffled off with the butterfly.
“Well, we did it,” Marinette said, smiling at Adrien. “We did a good job.”
He shook his head. “No. You did a good job. I really didn’t get to do much.”
“What? Of course you did! You’re fantastic!”
“Not compared to you!”
She put a hand on his shoulder, looking him right in the eyes. “Is this because I’m a rank S+?”
“Huh? N-no, of course not… I just…” He looked down at the ground. “I really didn’t do that much. I want to help out more. I’ll do better next time. You’re just so fantastic, and so talented and so good at what you do! You’re amazing, Marinette!”
“It’s taken a long time of hard work to get as good as I am now. You’ll get there too soon enough. I know you haven’t been in Inkopolis for as long as I have, but you’re doing amazingly so far.”
He smiled, looking a little better now. “Thank you Marinette. I know we’re not supposed to tell anyone about what we’re doing here, but do you think my father would be proud of me?”
“Of course!”
“And would Nino be proud of us?”
“Nino would be super proud of us!”
“I can’t wait to see him again!”
“Me too.” Marinette turned and looked at the rest of the valley behind them. “Ready to go looking for more kettles?”
“Yeah, let’s do that!”
“Hey Rose, some dodgy emo sea urchin called Juleka wants your number because she’s too shy to ask you out in person.”
No point beating about the bush. At least this way Rose wouldn’t mistakenly think Nath wanted her number for himself.
“Oh, Juleka!” Rose smiled sweetly, mumbling through a mouthful of ice cream. “I’ve seen her! She’s such a cutie pie, isn’t she?”
“Uh… nah. Not really.”
Rose giggled. “Well, I would be very glad to talk to her in person, but if that would make her uncomfortable then she can certainly have my phone number. Here – please take this to her!”
Rose quickly took a piece of paper from her pocket and scribbled down a number, leaning on the table of the café in Arowana Mall that they were at. She handed it to Nath.
“Thanks,” he muttered, getting up to leave. “Uh, do you want me to pay for the ice cream, or–”
“It’s alright, I’ll do it! You go give that number to her!”
“Thanks, Rose.”
Well, maybe Rose wasn’t that bad all the time. Having an overly sweet, polite friend paid off sometimes. Nath needed to save up as much money as he could for new weapons, after all.
Already back in Inkopolis Plaza, it occurred to him he couldn’t quite remember the way to Juleka’s little black-market hideout. Which of these alleys led to it? He looked around for someone to ask – preferably not someone too fresh and intimidating.
Plagg the cat was lying on his little pedestal in the corner, watching him. Huh, maybe he would know.
“Plagg, can I ask you something?” Nath said. “Which way do I go to find Juleka?”
“That way,” Plagg said, raising a finger in a certain direction and then dropping it. “Why, do you want some new abilities or something?”
“I ordered a new beret from her and I have to go pay her.”
“Oof. Her prices are steep, but she’s good. She can even change abilities on gear if you pay her enough. Say your shoes have attack bonuses but you want defence bonuses? She can do it.”
“Wait, really? Thanks for letting me know!”
“No problem, kid.” Plagg yawned. “Say, you’ve been working real hard lately, doing a load of battles and not getting much fun out of it. You deserve something good. Here, take a Super Sea Snail.”
Plagg reached out from behind him and put one straight into Nath’s hands, winking.
“Thank you!”
“Seriously, no problem. I’ve got a surplus of them and the next Splatfest is pretty far off. You need it more than I do. Now go pay for that beret of yours!”
Nath nodded, then ran off down the alley that Plagg had indicated.
Wow! A real Super Sea Snail! How cool was that? At least Plagg was being nice, and not treating him like some kind of newbie. In fact, Nath could just pay Juleka with this instead, right? But then what would he do with Rose’s number?
Well… once he got that beret, he would be fresh, right? And he had deduced earlier that having a girlfriend would make him even fresher… so if he bought the beret with the Super Sea Snail, then used Rose’s number to ask her out… after all, Rose wasn’t that bad, he’d get used to her boundless optimism soon enough… and surely she’d like him more than someone like Juleka…
And there Juleka was, sitting right there in exactly the same spot as she had been before.
“I got your beret,” she said, hanging it on the tip of her finger and waving it in front of his face. “Now where’s the number?”
“Um actually, I have a Super Sea Snail,” Nath said. “Here you go.”
Juleka pushed it away. “I don’t care about the Snail. I want the number.”
“Ugh, fine. I’ve got it. Here you are.”
Juleka took the piece of paper, then looked up at Nath with that fierce one red eye. “Are you telling me you had the number, but you weren’t going to give it to me? You were trying to keep it for yourself?”
“Um…”
“For your insolence, I’m gonna take both the number AND the Sea Snail.”
She snatched it right out of Nath’s hand before he could protest.
“And here’s your lousy beret.”
She chucked it at his feet and turned away, pulling her phone out of her pocket to add Rose’s number.
Nath picked up the beret and put it on his head, feeling somewhat annoyed and guilty at the same time. Dating Rose probably wasn’t a good idea anyway, she was way too annoying to have as anything other than a friend. So was Juleka. Those two would be perfect for each other. Forget about interfering there.
He went and stood in the corner with his arms folded, trying to look fresh, while he sorted out his thoughts. He had this beret now. Getting a girlfriend would be easier. Or boyfriend? He shouldn’t rule that out, not after knowing that Juleka and Rose were into each other. But if he did have a girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever, it would have to be someone he could actually get along with. Someone who understood him. Someone who actually wanted to do battles, just like him. Someone relatable.
A small, hooded figure walked over to Juleka. Great, another dodgy person. These back alleys really were a great place for being murdered.
“Hey Juleka? Can I get another ability reroll on these stupid shoes? I need defence up or Kim won’t stop making fun of me for getting splatted all the time…”
That voice! Why was it so familiar? He could have sworn he had heard it in battle before…
Against the Slaughter Squad…
Of course – it was Alix. No one else was that short. He just hadn’t realized it was her when she had a hoodie on, covering all that bright pink hair.
Hang on. She was talking to Juleka? Juleka knew her? And Juleka knew Nath, too! That was like, one degree of separation from one of the toughest, freshest, most infamous inklings around! Did this mean he could actually speak to her? Should he?
But no… there was no way he could just talk to one of the Slaughter Squad. That was unthinkable!
What about Juleka, though? She wasn’t even an inkling, she was just some sea urchin running a shady business, and clearly she could talk to the Slaughter Squad. So why not Nath? They were fellow inklings, just like him!
But they were so cool. Too cool. Even with this beret, he was nowhere near their level. Better to just let it be.
Well, this felt familiar. Back home in Calamari County, after Mireille and Aurore had left, he had been too shy to talk to anyone else. They probably didn’t want to talk to him anyway. He was used to feeling lonely. At least here in Inkopolis, there was a chance to improve himself. Perhaps he would be popular too someday. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to get this jealousy under control.
Marinette and Adrien’s adventures through Octo Valley continued. They rescued butterflies from several more kettles, venturing further and further into Octarian territory as they did so. The enemies became more difficult to defeat too, using smarter tactics and better armour. It was not easy.
Adrien just kept reminding himself of one thing. Do it for Nino. Everything they went through, it was to save Nino. To make sure he was okay. He didn’t deserve to be kidnapped from home by Octarians and kept away from everyone he cared about for over a month! No – they had to rescue him. They just had to. No matter how tough it was.
Days passed through their adventures, and they finally came to a kettle that looked bigger than the rest, even from the outside. As soon as they entered, something looked different.
The entire kettle was just a large, circular arena with a metallic cube near the back. In the centre was a rather large looking butterfly – though not large enough to have been the Great Butterfly from the top of Inkopolis Tower. As soon as they took a step towards it, a giant tentacle sprouted from the cube and grabbed the butterfly, pulling it inside the cube. The cube itself then rose up in the air and landed with a thud in the centre to reveal a giant purple face on the side of it.
“Uh-oh buckos, that’s the Mighty Octostomp,” Fu warned through the radio. “I believe it’s what the kids are calling a ‘boss level’? Anyway, you’d better defeat it if you want to get that butterfly and rescue your friend. Good luck!”
A boss level? Adrien shuddered involuntarily. He was nowhere near as good as Marinette and he knew it. This was not going to be easy. But he had to do it. He had to do it for Nino.
The Octostomp, giant and looming, began shuffling across the ground towards them, leaving purple ink in its wake. Marinette tried shooting at it but that didn’t achieve anything. The Octostomp suddenly jumped high up in the air, almost directly above them.
“Chat, look out!” Marinette called, grabbing his arm and pulling him aside. The next second, the Octostomp had thudded back down to the ground, landing on its face and splashing purple ink everywhere. A few drops got onto Adrien and he quickly brushed them off. Octarian ink was something he could never get used to.
“Look, it’s stuck! Let’s use that!”
Marinette had already run around to the side of the Octostomp and begun shooting ink at it, leaving long green trails up the wall. Without thinking, Adrien transformed into squid form and swam up the ink until he reached the top of the cube. The tentacle was here, sticking out of a hole. Adrien whacked his Krak-On Splat Roller onto the ground and flung ink at the tentacle as much as he could, hoping that would do something.
After several seconds, the tentacle exploded in a burst of green ink. Yes!
“Ladybug, look! I did it!” Adrien waved back down at her.
“Watch out! It’s going to do something!”
Looking back, he saw that purple ink was now gushing out of the hole where the tentacle had been before, and the entire cube was shaking. He quickly Super Jumped back down to Marinette on the ground, just in time. The Octostomp grew another tentacle and thrust it out of the hole at the same time as jumping back into a position where it could attack from, shedding several of its metallic wall panels as it did so.
“It can’t have unlimited tentacles,” Marinette muttered, frowning. “We’ve got to keep destroying them. It’ll be harder to get up there again though, since some of the panels on the side are missing…”
The Octostomp was shuffling towards them again, seemingly faster this time. It must have been angry. Marinette and Adrien moved away again, avoiding all the purple ink it was leaving. Sure enough, the Octostomp repeated its trick of leaping into the air and faceplanting into the ground.
The side wall of the cube was a lot harder to get up now, considering that half the panels were missing. Marinette inked as much of it as she could, but the Octostomp got up again and started attacking them before Adrien could climb up.
“You distract it, I’ll climb up this time,” Marinette told him.
Yeah, that made sense. Marinette was way better at everything anyway. He already knew that.
The next part of the battle mostly consisted of Adrien trying to stay out of the way of all the toxic ink that seemed to be raining down everywhere. Once the Octostomp was stuck face down in the ground again, Marinette swam up the side and shot at its tentacle until it exploded, then jumped back down to the ground as it once more regrew a tentacle and righted itself. Now it looked really angry.
“I think we’re almost there,” Marinette said, giving Adrien a quick thumbs up before running off to dodge another attack.
Things were getting really difficult now. So many panels had fallen off the side that it would be extremely difficult to swim up there. In that case he would definitely leave that to Marinette. She would be much better at it.
The Octostomp moved faster than ever, spraying so much purple ink around that just staying safe was a real task, let alone trying to move around. Marinette couldn’t even get to the side of the Octostomp when it had gone face down. There was just too much toxic ink everywhere.
“I’ll use my Kraken,” Adrien said.
“What?”
“My Kraken! My Special Weapon! The gauge is filled up, I can use it…”
“Will it work though? This is Octarian ink!”
“Do we have a choice?”
Marinette shook her head. “Alright, fine… but be careful! Wait until it next faceplants, then use your Kraken to swim up its side and destroy the tentacle.”
“Got it.”
In Turf Wars and Ranked Battles, Krakens were a fantastic Special Weapon to have. It turned the inkling into a giant invincible squid for a few seconds, one that could swim through enemy ink at top speed with no repercussions, and could attack brutally and kill in one hit.
Would it work now?
Well, he had to try. For Nino.
The Octostomp leapt up into the air, then smashed itself down face-first onto the floor. Now was his chance.
He activated his Special Weapon and turned into the familiar green Kraken. It felt good to be invincible!
Surging forwards, he swam through the toxic ink like it was nothing. It was easy to get up the side of the Octostomp now that he was so big. And there – there was the tentacle! He leaped forwards and thrust at it, using his killer attack to obliterate it.
And yet… something was not right.
He felt faint. Sick. Dizzy.
Using the Kraken did not usually do that to him. Sure, it was tiring, and usually left him feeling a little out of it. But this? This was something else.
He could feel it now. The toxic ink that he had swam through. It was taking its time, but was very definitely affecting him. Starting to hurt now. Curling around his entire body like a vine, suffocating him.
As if from a distance, he felt himself sliding off the top of the Octostomp as it raised back up in the air. Saw it exploding into pieces. Saw the butterfly gently floating down into the centre of the arena, ready to be rescued. Was that real? He couldn’t even tell, not when his head was spinning so much.
His Kraken transformation was on the verge of ending now, he could feel it. And then would the pain hit full force? It was already bad enough as it was. So bad that his vision was going blurry. So bad that he couldn’t see, he couldn’t hear, he couldn’t think.
The transformation ended. He blacked out.
“Hey Adrien?”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t know if it was a great idea to bring smoothies to this place, it’s so dusty here…”
He can’t help but giggle. Smoothie dates are always the best, no matter where they are. Even if construction work dust gets into everything.
“You know Adrien, I once did something really stupid here.”
“Really? More than usual?”
A loving punch in the arm for a sassy reply like that. At least he can actually make sassy replies around someone like this. Usually, saying what’s on his mind is not an option for him.
“Yeah, more than usual. A lot more than usual. Being stupid is my strong point, and I really hecked up here once…”
Adrien shuffles a little closer. “Really? What was it?”
“Well… I threw something over the side. In the water. And now I wish I didn’t.”
“Why did you do that?”
“Because I’m an idiot! You know I told you about that person who hates me? Well yeah, it’s partly because of this.”
Adrien peers over the edge of the bridge. “Well maybe there’s a way you can fish out whatever you threw in…”
“Really? You think so?”
“Of course! You’re so cool! You can do anything you put your mind to! I wish I had your kind of motivation!”
“Aww, Adrien…”
It’s no surprise when he’s pulled straight into a hug. It happens so often. Having someone who loves him like this, is… nice. So nice.
“Adrien, you know I love you, right?”
“Of course…”
“In that case I’m buying the smoothies next time. And we’re not coming here to drink them!”
He looks up to see the flash of playfulness in those beautiful, deep, grey eyes. It melts his heart.
“Adrien? Adrien! Oh thank goodness, you’re coming round… are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay!”
Eyes…
He opened his own eyes to see a pair staring right back at him, wide in fear.
But no… those were not his beloved’s grey eyes. These were bright blue eyes.
“You’re awake! Oh, Adrien! You had me worried there!”
Oh yes, of course. It was Marinette. She leaned down and hugged him.
Wait, where was he? What was going on? His brain was still filled with the remains of memories, things he must have been dreaming about while unconscious. Now he was lying on the floor in the middle of the arena. Once Marinette had let go of him, he saw that she was holding the butterfly.
“What happened?” he asked, his voice coming out as a croak.
“You used your Kraken to defeat the Octostomp, but then you fainted,” she replied. “That Octarian ink must have done a number on you. You’ve been out for five minutes. But at least you’re okay! Wait, you’re okay, right?”
He nodded, sitting up. “Yeah, I’m okay. Don’t worry.”
“Phew, I’m glad to hear that.”
“And so am I!” Captain Fu said through the radio. “I’d suggest only using your Kraken in emergency situations if it’s gonna knock you out like that. And now that you’ve got that butterfly, you’d better get out of there and back here.”
“Yeah, let’s go,” Marinette said. She stood up and then grabbed Adrien’s hand and pulled him up too. He still felt a little dizzy, but it was going away. Good.
“How long do you think it’ll take before we find Nino?” he asked.
“I have no idea.”
“I miss home.”
“Really? It’s only been a few days!”
“I know…”
Marinette hugged him again. “Don’t worry, we’ll do this as quickly as possible. You’re doing such a great job so far. I could never have done this without your help.”
That made him feel a lot better. He followed as Marinette climbed out of the kettle, over to Fu’s shack, and gave him the butterfly.
Missing home? That wasn’t exactly right. It wasn’t his house he missed, or his strict father, or even the battles he used to take part in. It was a certain person he missed. Nino, obviously, but someone else. Someone who hadn’t gone missing. Someone who he had shared smoothies with on Hammerhead Bridge one day…
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