Splatoon Manga: CybeRun

Chapter 2: Isn't it Great?

⭐️Chapter 2: Isn't it Great?

The squidbeak were on their way back to Octo Canyon, but...it was different from yesterday. It was the next day, and they'd all recieved a text message from the idols that had been sent early in the morning. It simply said "Urgent: Come to Octo Canyon as soon as possible!". Naturally, everyone took it as a threat, guessing it could be the next villain or mission. However, everyone was split up, and hadn't joined together in the square yet.

Prince and Emperor were on their way, since they lived some distance away from the square. Gloves was running late as well as Goggles, and both were speed-prepping their things. Hachi and Nana had actually woken up early, so they were on their way on time. Rider was in between being on time and being late, as he was going to sleep in until he saw the text. Flip...was running through the square as fast as she could.

She'd brought her roller with her instead of her charger, because that was her better weapon. She had no time to try out new tactics with an urgent call. She'd put on her flip mesh, tank top, mint dakroniks, and everything in between and sped out the door. She didn't want to be late, and she promised herself she wouldn't let anything stop her on her way over, not even breakfast. However, something caught her eye as she ran, and she looked over.

It was an old man sitting on the side of a building. He seemed like a frail old inkling, just merely getting by on food and water. She noticed a hat next to him, and a small cardboard sign saying something about needing money. Flip sighed, as she didn't have any money on her at the moment, no spare coins or anything. She felt bad, but there really wasn't much she could do. She slowly neared him, despite her mind telling her not to.

"Hang in there. Things will get better, I promise," was all she could say as she huffed and puffed from running.

"Thank...you..." replied the old man feebly but happily.

Flip began walking away as fast as she could. She didn't want to make the situation any more awkward than it already was. She resumed her running soon after, but because she'd taken a break, she felt herself become a little more tired. She swore under her breath for listening to her gut to stop. She figured that that delay might as well have made her late to the text.

However, as she neared an alley to inkopolis, she could see Hachi dive into the grates to Octo Canyon, with Gloves coming up behind him. So the others were arriving, great! She could still make it and not be late by a large amount of time. Despite her lungs burning, she ran over and dove in after them. As she swam through, she was surprised to find everyone else but Goggles in cephalopod form, huddled in the tunnel.

"Okay, we all got the urgent text, right?" Gloves asked.

"Right," Rider replied.

"We need to plan out something before we get up there. We don't know what it could be."

"What if it's a hostile Skyling?" Nana asked.

"We aim for the wings, or get them out of the air. We learn from our past mistakes," Hachi replied.

"What if it's a Luminous member?" Prince asked.

"We see what they want. If it's Hex, we hit his head as hard as we can," Rider growled.

"But what if it turns out he's here to apologize?" Prince asked.

"Hit first, ask questions later!" Rider hissed.

"Okay...what about the Exceptionals?" Flip asked.

"Eh. They're easy enough. We can take 'em on," Emperor replied.

"What if it's Cerise?" Flip asked again.

"Hit first, ask later," Rider grumbled.

"But she can see the future!" Flip exclaimed.

"Well, start doing unpredictable moves!" Rider nearly shouted, before getting a loud "shhhh!" from the others.

The group heard a light "oof" come from behind them, and turned around to see Goggles. Late as usual. They caught him up on what they were talking about, and he hopped on board of giving out villain suggestions.

"What if Nemesis-"

"Goggles, we killed her," Rider said.

"Oh."

"What about the Shadowlings? Or the Twinklings? Or maybe Takomorika's back?" Flip asked.

"The Shadowlings should have no reason to interfere with us, the Twinklings are in SPACE, and I don't think Takomorika would need our help again," Rider replied.

"Hey, you never know," Flip shrugged.

"Alright, so now that we've knocked out our past foes, we need to work on potentially new foes-"

"Gloves, we're wasting time by just sitting here!" Hachi cried.

Gloves paused. Hachi had a point, but what if it actually WAS a new foe? What if the squidbeak got out and it was something new that they weren't prepared for? Well, he supposed he could pull a Rider and get mad at the other squidbeak for not listening to him, but...he'd just have to see about that.

"Okay, enough wasting time then. Are we all ready?" Gloves asked the squidbeak.

"Yeah!"

The squidbeak popped out of the entrance to Octo Canyon, weapons ready. All of them were gripping them as tight as possible, and their hearts were pounding as their fight-or-flight modes activated. The idol 4 were standing some distance away from them, talking amongst themselves.

"Where's the danger?!" Gloves shouted.

There didn't seem to be anything around, but the squidbeak kept their guard up. It could be a trap that was hidden around the place. As they made their way over, the idol 4 looked at them funny. They exchanged a glance before Marie whispered a suggestion to all of them. They all let out a silent "aaaah" before turning to face the squidbeak.

"Everyone, calm down! There's nothing to be worried about!" Marina said.

"But...you guys said it was an emergency!" Goggles exclaimed.

Callie smiled and laughed a little. She shook her head as the squidbeak lowered their weapons.

"There's no danger here! We called you all because you guys are gonna have a final exam!"