Chapter Text
The New Squidbeak Splatoon
[Agent 2] (Are you sure about this cap?)
(We still have no leads on the new CEO of Grizzco.)
[Agent 1] (But do you really need to go to EVERY Big Run? Why not ask 3 or 4 to do it?)
[Agent 3] (I’ve got pro league practice with my friends.)
[Agent 4] (Marina invited me and 8 to help her with a project she's working on.)
[Agent 8] (^)
[Agent 1] (Oh, Can you ask her when the next album is coming out for me please?)
{hearted by Agent 8 and Agent 4}
(Can we stay on task here 1? Anyways, I’ve handled the investigations for the previous Big Runs so I’ll keep going. Call it a gut feeling but something about this Big Run feels different than the last ones.)
[Agent 8] (If you get one of those golden trophies can I have it?)
{thumbs up by Captain}
[Agent 2] (I got a bad feeling about this. I wish someone could go with you because we can’t pull you out if something goes wrong.)
(You and me both. I’ve handled Octavio, the Deepsea Metro, and plenty of Hazard Level Max salmon runs, I’ll be fine 2.)
[Agent 8] (To be fair though, I did kind of save you from Tartar.)
Technically I got caught because I got careless about rescuing you and Cuttlefish.
(True. I’ll be careful out there 8. It will probably be as quiet as last time though. Captain out. Have fun 8.)
[Agent 3] (So are Cap and 8 dating?)
{thumbs up by Agent 1, Agent 4, Agent 2, and Agent 8}
*sigh* Callie caught them holding hands during training ONE time and immediately told the whole splatoon.
Ah whatever. Time to get going. Captain wasn't wearing her hero gear as that would completely defeat the purpose of going undercover. She was wearing her Takoraka Nylon Vintage hoodie along with Onyx O1STERs and her Squid Nordic. It was a lowkey winter fit meant to blend in with the first of the cool September breeze. The cold air helped with her disguise as quite a bunch of others in Inkopolis Plaza were shielding themselves from it.
She wandered over to the covered manhole in the square with a pile of junk laying on it. The Octo Valley campaign flew through her mind again, the Great Zapfish disappearing, the Octarians, the Octobosses, Octavio, but most importantly, Cuttlefish, Marie, Callie, Pearl, Marina, Shiver, Frye, Big Man, the new 3, 4, and 8. She never imagined how much her life was going to change when she moved to Inkopolis, those 7 years ago. I mean how many others could say they’ve been drafted into war against threats that the public never even knew existed. Cap grinned. She didn’t go out in public too much after she took over for the old captain since she was busy looking out for hidden threats. But when she did, she would pay a visit to the spot and reminisce.
Back to work kid. You got work to do.
Walking over to the Inkopolis division of Grizzco she could see the exterior sirens dully flashing along with the incessant whirring of helicopter blades. Quite a large number of people had shown up since the incentives the company offered attracted the desperate, the prideful, and the easily influenced. Inside were teams in all stages of readiness talking with each other and getting ready to go out
“How many golden eggs do you think the gold teams are gonna bring in this time?”
“I dunno, the goldens at Undertow got up to 150! I heard one group even got 193! Can you believe that!?”
“Seriously, man, we are so cooked.”
Captain walked up to the desk where the receptionist was corralling teams together and readying deployments.
“What’s your name?” The receptionist asks on autopilot.
“Luna Inkadia” Cap answers.
“Alright, you’re with flight 621. It departs in 10 minutes. Go get ready.”
Captain heads to the lockers and gets changed into her slopsuit. It’s a bit heavier than her hero gear but this is far from her first rodeo. She checks on her phone about the runners she’s paired with.
|Big Run
|Um’Ami Ruins - 621
|Hazard level 160%
|Luna Eggsecutive VP 40
|Salm0nSl4y3r Profreshional+3 80
|Santino Eggsecutive VP 240
|Fingers Eggsecutive VP 180
|Salmo-meter Empty
|Time till deployment 4:39 Room 7.
Cap walks to Room 7 to meet her new teammates to gauge them. The room is bathed in a dark red glow as the countdown ticks on. Two male inklings in a blue and white slopsuit and a female octoling in green are in the room. The octoling is training on the dummies practicing bomb throws while the two guys are sitting down.
“You must be our fourth. I’m Santino, that’s my friend Francisco A.K.A Salmon Slayer. And she is Fingers or Patrice. I’m guessing you’re Luna then.” Cap nods.
“Quiet type?” Cap nods again.
“Cool, Cool. Just don’t be afraid to call out for help if you need it.” Cap looks towards the target course.
I should probably get a warmup in if
As soon as cap steps into the practice area the loudspeaker blares to life.
“Group 621 please report to the hangar for deployment.”
I guess I’ll have to wait.
The helicopter ride is pretty quiet other than Santino and Salmon Slayer talking to each other. Fingers was napping on the way over but Cap was ready.
“Whoa man, I’ve never seen a desert flood like that. It’s crazy.”
It is odd that water can even reach a place as dry and far from sea as here. The other Big Run spots were all on the coast or right next to large bodies of water but here?
“We’ve reached the drop zone. Prepare for Big Run.”
Captain and the other runners drop into the zone and are met by a wall of water surrounding the battle stage on all sides. It was kind of creepy seeing how empty it was as the nearby ruins and buildings were buried under the waves. Cap readied herself for anything but other than the random weapons and new stage to adapt to. The run went normally. Too normally. A Neutral Tide, A Low Tide Mothership, and a High Tide. The other runners didn’t even go down more than three times and one of them was “Salmon Slayer” getting caught off guard by the shifting water level. Everything was normal. The others didn’t seem to care but for a veteran like her it felt wrong to not be surprised.
She decided to keep running with the team since they were pretty competent all things considered, even if one of them was a bit greengilled (fishy greenhorn, not sick). As the hazard level rose she found herself putting in extra effort but was still handling the challenges alright. This came to a head on their Hazard Level Max run.
“We actually made it to Haz Level Max?” Santino asks.
“Well yeah, we’re awesome dude.” Francisco says.
“I have to admit, I didn’t think we could handle the higher pressures but we always managed to squeak by. Though I think Luna has been pulling a large percentage of the weight around here.” Patrice adds.
Captain gives a thumbs up.
“Okay we got this. We got this right? I mean what could possibly go wrong?” Francisco asks.
Caps eyes shoot open along with the rest of the cabin as they shoot murderous intent from their eyes.
“You better not have jinxed us dude.” Santino says.
These kids.
“We’ve reached the drop zone. Prepare for Big Run.”
“Well if we do make this, I’ll buy us a round at the Crab-N-Go then."
Hazard level Max can be unforgiving. I’ve seen plenty of rookies get mobbed up and wiped out due to poor communication and bad positioning. Lets just hope we can get something easy.
Wave 1: High Tide Glowflies.
Wave 2: Neutral Tide Grillers.
Wave 3: Low Tide Fog.
The final alarm sounds and they had just barely made the quota with one egg over the limit. The others hadn’t realized it but Captain heard the distortion in it which means there's one more wave.
Horro or Coho? If it’s Gao’s spawn I hope we get decent weapons at least.
“Booyah we di–"
The alarms screamed across the empty field. The others weren’t prepared for it but Captain knew to start preemptively inking the turf to claw out any advantage she could get.
Rising out of the water was a gargantuan salmonid the size of a building. The horrid creature lets out a reverberating scream that shakes the ground.
Coho
Final Wave
|Luna Snipewriter 5H
|Santino Tetra Dualies
|Salm0nSl4y3r Grizzco Dualies
|Fingers Grizzco Dualies
Come on!
The final wave was a nightmare, being given a charger in salmon run was usually a death sentence but the Snipewriter’s gimmick made it even worse to use. If it were a Horrorboros at least the Sniperwriter does good damage to his bombs but against a damage sponge like Cohozuna it was next to useless and it takes multiple shots to pop boss salmonids. And on top of the unpleasantness of it, it doesn’t even pierce targets making it terrible at crowd control. In fact it actually led to her being splatted twice because she couldn’t escape her situation. But the others with the (insanely) powerful grizzco weapons were able to plow through most of the lessers which left her to assist with the boss salmonids and with seconds to go on the mission clock they defeated the Kind Salmonid.
The celebration was a triumphant one with even captain letting out a Booyah. Francisco was dodge rolling with his dualies and the squidbagging was a cathartic experience before they jumped to the chopper to leave. Although that was when Captain noticed that Francisco hadn’t actually jumped up with them. He was still dodge rolling as the helicopter was leaving.
“Wait, Francisco is still down there!” Santino says
“Why hasn’t he jumped up? The sea rings should do it automatically.” Patrice adds.
Captain noticed that the dodge rolling actually broke a part of the sea ring and as such it was no longer functioning. Without hesitating she jumps out of the helicopter to him.
“What?” Captain points to the Helicopter.
“It’s leaving!? But why didn’t I–”
Captain doesn’t wait for an answer and grabs his wrist and forces her body to superjump on its own. With the inherent jamming that the salmon run zones cause, the process would be impossible for any squid else. But not her. They jump to the helicopter and it’s only a few feet away. But they don’t have enough power to make it. She couldn’t get high enough. On instinct she throws the unaware bozo to the helicopter where he’s grabbed by the other two. But Captain wasn’t close enough and falls back into the arena as the helicopter flies away with the runners.
“LUNA!!!!”
Time seems to slow as she reflects on her actions that got her falling down to the ground
I guess I’m gonna be home rather late. I should text Marie to let her know I’m gonna miss dinner. But there’s no signal out here due to the EM interference caused by the big run. Carp.
*thud* The hard ground greets her as she lays there watching as her salvation flies away. The sound of rotor blades fading into the sunset and eventual nightfall. The air immediately loses its warmth and the bitter chill of the night begins to bite through her slopsuit as she hears the sound of chittering and roars. The geysers shoot back up again and the tide lingers around neutral. A pair of Flyfish rise out of the water, a Steelhead pokes its head out, schools of Cohocks, Chums, and Smallfry fly out of the geysers and a towering Stinger glares its oversized eye straight at her. Targeting reticules from the Flyfish barrage cover her arms and body like a bad light show.
Wave 5. Just my luck. Okay. Deep Breath in. Deep Breath out. No more holding back.