Chapter Text
-Final Wave Clear!-
“We did it! Oh my cod, we did it!”
Frye stood gasping for breath atop the Spawning Grounds’s egg basket with her grizzco splatana in hand, while Shiver stood a little ways away, tri stringer on their back. The two inkfish glanced at each other with wide eyes, like they could hardly believe they actually made it past this final wave. Spawning Grounds was never a piece of cake, of course, but this last shift just borderline turned them into fish paste.
Frye hopped down from the egg basket and scooped Shiver up in her arms, holding them tight as they both cheered. Their cheers slowly dissolved into laughter, and just then Shiver took a moment to address Frye more sincerely. “You were wonderful out there, Frye. Like a true work of art.”
Frye’s ears fluttered gratefully at the praise.
“Aw, thanks, Shiv! You did pretty well yourself,” she said with a toothy grin. The two pulled back slightly from one another, still embracing. Shiver’s gloved hand came gently to Frye’s cheek, and Frye felt herself flush at the tenderness of the touch. Scarlet eyes carefully scanned over Frye, checking her for injuries. “I’m okay, I’m okay,” Frye assured them warmly. “You don’t needa worry about me.”
Suddenly, both inkfish felt the ground shift beneath them as Big Man wrapped them in one of his signature Big Man hugs.
“Ay, ay! (Holy carp, we made it! We’re alive!)”
The trio cheered and congratulated one another, showering themselves with praise. It was all celebrating and metaphorically popping bottles until they realized something and paused.
They were missing their fourth teammate.
“Ay? (Wait, where’s Three and Little Buddy?)”
Over and over, each member of Deep Cut tried to call Three on their radios. There was no response.
-Kssht!-
Over the radio, Mr.Grizz, or at the least the recording of Mr.Grizz ordered the trio to super jump back to the chopper.
“A-ay! Ay… (But, Boss, we’re missing a teammate- we can’t just leave before we find them.)”
Big Man’s earpiece screeched with more static.
“They’ll live. There’s a Grizzco emergency pickup line for this anyway.” Grizz’s voice sounded haphazardly edited to produce the words, but they didn’t pay it much mind.
The manta ray frowned, deeply worried as he looked around and saw no signs of Neo Three.
“Ay, ay. (Please, just give us a little time to look for them,)” he pleaded. “Ay. (I wanna make sure they’re alright.)”
Frye nodded firmly like Mr.Grizz could somehow see her. “Yeah, we’ll be quick, promise!”
Mr.Grizz begrudgingly agreed to their request, but he said the extra helicopter fuel was going to come straight out of their already slim paychecks.
-
“Let’s make this quick. I’m going to check every inch of the main structure,” Shiver began, dishing out orders near the basket. They had agreed to meet with the rest of the New New Squidbeak Splatoon after this, so they had to be efficient.
“And Big Man, you check down near the shore. Frye, you check near the dam. But don’t wander too far,” Shiver said, pausing to adjust their slopsuit. Theirs was too big, Frye’s was too snug, and Big Man honestly just wore the hat. “Both of you be careful and call at the slightest sign of trouble, alright?” Frye and Big Man nodded as Shiver cleared their throat. “I couldn’t stand to lose either of you,” they added more quietly.
“Yeah, yeah we’ll be careful, leader ,” Frye teased.
Big Man smiled and gave Shiver a cheerful salute.
“Ay! (You can count on us!)”
With that, the three dispersed to their assigned areas and started looking.
Frye super jumped up to the top of the dam relatively easily. Usually it was considered off limits ‘by law’ or whatever, but Frye didn’t care. Neither did Three, she imagined.
The yellow inkling walked over to the edge of the dam and leaned over the railing, using her vantage point to see far into the distance. The view was pretty nice, allowing her to see the faint silhouette of the Inkopolis skyline in the far distance, and much closer to her she could see a whole bunch of salmonid contraptions bobbing in the water like bath toys.
Just across the murky green water, Frye could still see Big Man looking on the other shore near the empty fuel tanks, and even further in the distance, on the crisscrossing metal catwalks, the tiny figure she knew was Shiver. Luckily, the salmonids were all gone, at least for now.
Frye looked down at the base of the dam and cupped her hands around her mouth, calling, “Hey, Three, you out there?!”
…
Nothing.
Three was pretty tough, though, so Frye wasn’t too worried as she continued her search through the dam.
The dam itself was covered in beautiful salmonid art, lines intricate, colorful and free flowing. In the warm orange light of the slowly setting sun, the drawings on the rough concrete almost seemed to glow. Frye supposed she’d never really paid attention to this sort of stuff until now. Greenish water also flowed down from the top of the dam in large, carefully controlled streams, and the rushing sound of it was oddly soothing, accompanying Frye as she searched tirelessly through what felt like miles of musty stairwells and empty corridors, filled only with hissing pipes and sophisticated machines she didn’t recognize, but was still left utterly impressed by.
It was amazing to see this place up close for the first time, but it was discouragingly empty.
That was, until Frye found a door near the top of the dam- a door that was so rusted its lock seemed to have been shattered with the slightest effort. That alone confirmed that someone had been here.
Frye decided to take the risk and stepped into another corridor beyond the door, dark and terribly humid. The inkling drew her splatana carefully as the door shut behind her, half expecting something to jump out at her. But nothing did.
She was merely led out to a concrete platform with a dead end, the only way forward a ladder leading into the churning water.
Frye looked out at the vast sea below her. There was a chain of small islands stretching out towards the horizon, mostly covered in all sorts of industrial junk. Towards the end, Frye could see the shining lights of small buildings in what looked to be a salmonid town.
There was little chance of Frye finding Neo Three out here in such a huge place, but curiosity drove Frye forward. The inkling super jumped from island to island until she came to a small island with a large, rounded clearing.
Now this place looked kind of interesting. It was lit with a series of hanging nautical lanterns arranged in a semicircle around a clearing, and among them were piles of what looked like empty bottles of lighter fluid. The area was also dotted with tall metal spikes with huge sculpted chunks of barbecued meat and vegetables. In terms of salmonids, though, or any other sort of life, it was empty.
Frye’s footsteps crunched on the isle’s gravelly shore as she poked around, adrenaline rushing in her ears. This place was almost definitely off limits for inklings.
Frye kept walking and carefully called out Three’s name again. Nothing answered but her echo.
In the center of the small island, Frye came upon a giant round grate, something like a massive grill submerged in the gravel. All around its perimeter were more salmonid paintings on the ground, illustrations of bigger fish eating smaller fish in an infinite loop.
The bold red colors in the paintings captivated Frye until suddenly, something caught her attention. Beneath the grate’s surface, something was glowing.
Again, curiosity made Frye shift into swim form and slip through the dark metal grate. With a grunt, she fell onto something rough like a stone, only to realize it was a stone. A huge, dark rock that looked close enough to coal to be the real thing. Frye clambered down the piles of coal twice her size to the bottom of the grill, where at the center of it all was something like an unlit gas burner, holding a shining, pearlescent egg.
“Woah…”, she gasped.
Frye gazed at the relic with stars in her eyes. It was like the perfect golden egg, but with a translucent silvery surface shining with colorful rays. The little fish bones inside looked crystalized with white quartz, frozen in time. It was so shiny, Frye could even see her own reflection.
This kind of thing looked like it’d sell for a hefty price, too. Enough to keep even Splatsville’s poorest prospering for at least a year. And not only that. Shiver would totally worship the ground she walked on if she brought them this. The thought brought a devious grin to Frye’s face, and she looked around one last time.
It wasn't like there was anybody here to stop her from taking it.
The second Frye laid her hands on the cold, smooth surface of the egg, she heard a low rumble rising in her ears, the shock of which made her drop it right back into place, chipping its perfect exterior.
Before she could bend down to pick it up, the metal above her let out a sharp creak like a cry for mercy.
Frye looked up to see two enormous white eyes staring down through the grate above her.
Frye wasn’t scared, though. Not even when a booming voice like nothing she’d ever heard rumbled in her ears like thunder at sea.
“You treat my people like mindless animals, you steal our precious eggs, and now you come directly into my territory and disrespect me and the heart of our seas. You shall pay severely for your crimes, foolish inkfish.”
The looming figure’s words flowed slowly and were eerily clear, like for some reason whoever was speaking wanted to make absolutely sure she understood.
Frye creased a brow, unimpressed.
“Ah, shove it, whatever you are. It’s not even that broken. I’ll leave it if it’s that big a deal.”
The cohozuna came down through the grate with an ear splittingly loud crash, sending Frye flying among a bunch of rocks. She was just lucky one of them didn’t crush her.
When Frye looked up to peek at the damage, the metal grate above her was almost completely sunken in, broken and bent around where the creature landed. It was so huge that part of its body towered above the grate, and part of it was below, where Frye perched carefully on top of a rock, gasping for breath.
The egg was intact, but that was the least of her worries now.
The cohozuna was tearing chunks of the grate out with its teeth and throwing them aside as if it were nothing.
Monstrous jaws suddenly ducked beneath the metal and snapped at the inkling’s hiding place with a blood curdling roar. Frye’s first instinct was to run towards it, drawing her splatana and slashing at the beast as she tried to hop up onto its back. Its constant movement made that strategy near impossible, knocking her off every single time. Even worse, the stones around her absorbed any and all ink.
The closest Frye got was using her splatana to climb up onto the cohozuna’s neck. She narrowly missed its eye, and it quickly seized the opportunity to throw Frye to the ground like a ragdoll.
The fall knocked the breath right out of her, and as she saw razor sharp teeth flying straight towards her, what little bit of her instinct cared for self preservation took over. Frye scrambled into the spaces between the rocks, shifting into squid form.
The king salmonid let out a frustrated snarl she could hardly understand, calling her a coward. She could hear him furiously digging through the rocks, getting closer and closer, and for a moment, Frye felt herself start actually shaking . Whether it was with fear or rage, the inkling didn’t want to know.
Frye shifted back into human form only to try and call Shiver and Big Man for reinforcements. She pressed the call button on her helmet over and over, and all she was met with was static, quickly drowned out by another roar.
Either Frye was too far from a decent signal, or her fall on the rocks damaged her radio.
Frye’s wounds were starting to get to her as well; All the scrapes and cuts from the stones and broken metal shards were starting to bleed, making it harder to move. Her ink recovery was close to non-existent. The pain in her limbs screamed for her to stop and rest, but she couldn’t.
Frye took a breath behind the stone that provided her cover and slipped again into a fighting stance, tightening her grip on her splatana.
All she could do now was wait for him to reach her so she could try and fight.
Each moment was agonizing as the digging grew louder and louder, and Frye’s thoughts began to spiral.
She was alone. This thing could crush her no sweat, and so far from any respawn points, there was no telling what could happen to her if she was splatted. The raw, unfamiliar fear raging in her hearts only grew with the groaning of the metal grate beneath the slowly advancing king salmonid, and then Frye heard a splash, like it was retreating into the sea. After that, nothing.
Frye blinked in disbelief as she was left alone once more. She came up past the grate back to the surface and just as she thought, the coast was clear.
Well that was easy.
—
After that, Frye was walking on air. She made it easily back to the dam and the Grizzco emergency line picked her up within the hour and took her back home. She couldn’t believe she got out of that practically scot free. Now she could finally meet up with her friends in Alterna and tell them all about her strange adventure.
When Frye popped out of the grate to Alterna, there were her partners, along with Neo Three and the bosses. It looked like Callie and Marie were having a slight argument while the captain laid dead asleep across a bunch of crates. Meanwhile, Shiver and Big Man were locked into a game of table turf as Neo and Little Buddy watched.
Frye bounded with excitement towards her friends, her footsteps crunching in the fluffy artificial snow.
“Hey, guys, sorry I’m late!” The expressions Frye was met with ranged from weird indifference to quiet anger, but Frye chalked it up to them all being a little upset at her lateness. “Look, I promise I have a good excuse.”
Shiver slammed their card down onto the table turf board.
“It better be good,” they said coldly. Shiver didn’t take their eyes off their chosen card as they spoke. It was a foil cohozuna card. “We looked for you everywhere. Didn’t even end up getting paid because we searched so long.”
Big Man nodded.
“Ay. Ay. (Shiver was going nuts when you didn’t answer your radio.)” The frown on his adorable face made Frye want to burst into tears. “Ay. (I almost had a heart attack myself.)”
“Oh, guys, I’m so sorry,” Frye said quietly, ears dropping with guilt. “I swear I didn’t mean to go and make y’all worry. I was just lookin’ for Three in the dam when I found this weird door, and I figured maybe they’d gone through there…” Frye glanced at Neo, but they avoided her eyes. “That’s where I found this awesome treasure- it was like totally huge and shiny, but right as I went to nab it, this huge king salmonid showed up and we had to duke it out. ” Frye decided to leave the part where she dropped the priceless relic and almost got eaten out of the story. “He said somethin’ about there being big consequences to my actions or whatever, but he let me go so I’m thinkin’ it was a bluff.”
Big Man’s face dropped even further.
“Ay? Ay?? (You upset a king salmonid? And then you tried to fight it alone?? )”
“He wasn’t that mad,” Frye said with a pout. “You’re blowin’ it outta proportion…”
“Ay… (Oh cod…)” Big Man wilted like a piece of spinach. “Ay…(We’re cooked…)”
Frye opened her mouth to defend herself, but Shiver quickly interjected.
“What is wrong with you? I tell you not to wander off and then you go and almost get yourself killed like an idiot- ” The octoling stood to be eye level with Frye, deep blue tentacles writhing with anger. -“and now we have to worry about what kind of cosmic punishment your stupidity is going to rain down on all of us.”
Frye stiffened, doing her best to stand her ground.
“Hey, chill out, we can probably fix it. We just gotta go back and find the cohozuna again. Easy.”
“What, you want me to run after you through salmonid territory trying to fix a mistake you made?! A mistake you don’t even realize the gravity of? I’m not your fucking babysitter, Frye,” Shiver spat.
Frye found herself flinching like she’d been struck. The other splatoon members' eyes widened at the usually soft spoken octoling’s outburst. Shiver bared their fangs with a rage Frye rarely ever saw, and their red tipped claws gripped their closed fan to the point she worried it might snap.
“Don’t stand there all shocked like a little deer in the headlights. You put Splatsville in danger. You’ve lost the treasure, you’ve lost the fight against that stupid salmonid, and now you’ve lost my respect.”
“Ay, ay! (Shiver, that’s a little harsh!)”
Shiver whipped around to face Big Man.
“And what are we gonna do if he was telling the truth, huh? If his punishment wasn’t ‘just a bluff’?” they snapped. “There’s no telling what a powerful king salmonid could do if provoked.”
“Ay…(You’re right…)” The ray’s fins came up to cover his face as his voice cracked with distress. “Ay? Ay! (Oh, what if a bunch of king salmonids come and destroy everything?! Flyfish everywhere, stingers destroying buildings, missiles raining from the sky! And then… Joe! )”, Big Man wailed.
“We can take ‘em!,” Frye assured him, gently placing her hand on the ray’s back. “It’s gonna be okay, Big Man!”
Big Man only cried louder.
“Ay, ay! (It’s the end of the world! We’re all doomed and it’s all Frye’s fault!)”
“You just had to touch the shiny thing,” Marie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “If you don’t fix this, Frye, I’m making sure nobody pays you or Deep Cut a cent ever again.”
Even Callie, who loved spoiling Frye rotten, glared at her with hateful narrowed eyes. “You know what Frye?” The older inkling crossed her arms. “We’re not going for overpriced boba and soft tacos after this.”
Frye clutched at her hearts like Callie just shot her in the chest.
“Wh-No sweet treats?! This can’t be-“ She shook her head like she couldn’t believe it. “No, we can fix this! Guys, come on-”
Frye reached out for Big Man, who recoiled from her touch. The look on his face as he did broke Frye’s hearts.
When she tried to do the same and reach out for Shiver, she yelped at a sharp smack to her wrist.
“Don’t touch me.”
“H-hey, don’t be like that, Shiv,” Frye said weakly, ears pinned flat against her head. They couldn’t be serious. This had to be some kind of joke.
Shiver’s fan opened with a clack, partially covering their face.
“I told you, I’m not going anywhere. I’m sick of you, Frye. I’m sick of cleaning up all your messes.” Frye felt her hearts squeeze at the pure venom in their words. “Do whatever you want. I’m not going.”
Shiver glared coldly at her from behind that fan like she was a stranger. Shiver, her best friend, her partner in crime for years . Those warm scarlet eyes that always looked at her with such care were suddenly cruel and sharp, that well intentioned love that made them so bright suddenly absent. It was all enough to make Frye weak in the legs.
“Ay, ay! (Gah, Shiver’s acting so weird, too! It’s gotta be a sign of the end!)”
Shiver turned furiously and dug into Big Man about his dramatics, and in turn the two began to squabble about absolutely nothing.
By now, Frye simply stood there staring into nothing, lost in thought. Tears beaded in the corner of her eyes, and all she could do was blink them away. No matter how she looked at the situation, none of it was making any sense. Shiver and Big Man could get cross with her sometimes, but this…
Was Deep Cut really about to fall apart because of something like this?
Something that was her fault?
The foil cohozuna card on the table gleamed up at Frye, almost like it was laughing.
“It’s not that bad,” Neo Three cut in. They walked right up to her and she hadn’t even noticed. “It sounds like it could be a simple curse. The king salmonid probably figured it’d get to you more mentally than if he went and started an invasion. I’d bet that’s the reason why old Cuttlefish has been acting even more senile than usual, too.”
“What’s that? Agent Three, where’s that Octavio?,” the old man rasped. “Kelly, Maria, fetch me my AK-47.”
Three and Frye exchanged a concerned glance before deciding to ignore that.
“A curse?! No way he was being serious!” Frye balled her fists with a boiling fury. “That guy’s gonna pay for messin’ with my friends! I’m gonna turn him into the biggest sashimi anyone’s ever seen!”
For the first time since she’d battled them, Frye saw Neo Three crack a smile.
“I can go with you to try and fix it if you like. Maybe Little Buddy knows the guy who cursed you.” The agent’s small fry made a noise like he was slightly offended. “Sorry if that was kinda racist,” they added.
“Wait…if it’s a curse…” Frye furrowed her brow, deeply puzzled. “Then why aren’t you actin’ all weird too?”
“I think it might be proportional to how much a person likes you.”
...
Frye took a second to process that.
“Okay. So are you gonna help me or what?”