Shadow in the Glass: a Splatoon 2 Fanfiction

Chapter 2

Lyze eyed Mona's hair for a few very uncomfortable seconds. "Huh," he finally said.

"It's a birth defect," Mona quickly rushed to her own defense, "I can't do anything about it."

"I don't see any reason why you should do anything about it. There's nothing wrong with it, in my opinion," Lyze said. "Your hair doesn't reflect who you are, which is what you should be judged upon."

"Oh. Thanks."

"Anytime. You should probably get going now."

"Yeah." Mona took another look at the frozen gang. "What did you do to them?"

"That's... a story for another time. You have to go. And I've got places to be. Bye!" He quickly fled the conversation.

Mona sighed in frustration. "Whatever. Not that it mattered anyway." She turned toward the Deca Tower, where Turf Wars were organized. She heard there was going to be a match between rival teams, which was always hyped up. And playing on one of these teams was her best friend, Jake. Jake was an Inktoling Boy, with the classic male Inkling hairstyle, and the eye markings of an Octoling. He was a slight introvert, like Mona. But you know what they say; two negatives make a positive. Despite his shy personality, he was incredibly skilled at Turf War, and thus made it onto a competitive team quickly. His team was called the Inkrunners. Their rivals were the Alpha Turfers, who hadn't showed up yet.

She was about to walk in, when she was stopped by Judd. "Meow, meow! (You need an ID to participate, miss!)" he said.

"I'm not playing, I'm just here to spectate."

"Mrowr. (In that case, you're good to go.)"

Mona walked in, and caught sight of Jake. She found his blue hair right inside the Lobby, along with his teammates.

"Hey Jake."

"Oh hey, Mona!" It was astounding to see how comfortable Jake was with this sport.

"Ready to win, Jake?"

"I guess."

"You got this!"

"I'll try my best."

"Good luck."

"Thanks, Mona."

Mona mockingly saluted her friend, then walked through the Lobby and typed in the coordinates for Arowana Mall, the location of the Turf War. But when she typed the numbers in, a strange message appeared. It said 'ACCESS DENIED. PLEASE ENTER ID' in big red lettering. Below it was space for eight digits, and above it was the Toni Kensa logo.

Mona frowned. She had spectated many matches in the past years, and not once had she ever received a DENY message.

"Hey, Jake, can you look at this?" Mona called to her friend.

"Yeah, sure. What is-" Jake stopped dead when he saw the message on the command pad. "Oh no. Not now."

"What?" Mona inquired.

"They said it would be soon, but I didn't expect it to be this soon...."

"Jake?"

"Oh cod, what do I tell everyone?"

"Jake!"

Jake snapped out of his thoughts. "...I'll be back," he said, before running off.

"But what's happening?!" Mona yelled at him, with no response. Today was just getting better and better.

Jake soon returned with the pop idols Pearl and Marina. When Pearl saw the message, she gasped and went pale, while Marina quickly stepped in with a murmured 'excuse me' to Mona, and started her computer-hack stuff.

A few long minutes passed, before Marina stood up with a grim expression on her face. "It's in effect," she gravely said. Pearl went paler and Jake had a shocked expression on his face.

"Pearlie, let's go make the announcement."

Pearl stayed frozen for a few moments longer, then shook herself off. "Y-yeah, right, Marina, let's go." They ran off, Pearl clearing the way with bossy commands.

Mona turned to Jake. "Now will you please explain to me what's happening?"

"You mean you haven't heard?" Jake looked at her incredulously. "Well, basically, about a week ago, Off the Hook got an emergency broadcast from the Toni Kensa Corporation. They didn't give an exact date, but they said soon, with the money they received from their new line of weapons, they would take control of the SPAWN pads and monetize our Turf Wars and Ranked Matches."

"Wait...," Mona shook her head in disbelief. "You mean to say that-"

"Yeah," Jake said darkly. "From now on, we have to pay to play."