Chapter Text
This was very dangerous. He knew that, but he also desperately needed more friends. Hanging out with his older cousin and said cousins girlfriend like a third wheel all the time was getting kinda sad. ... Maybe this idea would change his life in a meaningful way... at least thats what Niko thought to himself, standing at a pier at a beach in Inkopolis, with a bottle in hand. He needed to get this done quick. He was already starting to catch worried glances by the other people at the beach.
The bottle in his hand was empty with the exception of a neatly rolled up letter. Inside the letter he had written that he was looking for a friend, along with his phone number and adress. And a sticker of their turf war teams logo that he had designed himself. A very dumb idea, but by far not the dumbest hes had in his life. It was also uncharacteristically risky of him. Normally he would never agree to do something this blatantly dangerous, but the desperation caused by his loneliness was starting to claw at him. His other friends, had been busy for weeks and he had simply spent all that time holed up in his apartment. He had already read all his comics twice over, he had also re-sorted his tableturf collection multiple times. He had even deep cleaned his apartment for once. Something he rarely did.
It was clear that something in his life needed to change.
So he made sure that the bottle was tightly closed, took a swing and threw the bottle as far as he could with shaky hands. Which was actually quite far, considering that turflings were pretty strong. He watched the bottle for a while, observing the way it glistened in the morning sun as it drifted further away into the horizon. Then he turned around and speedwalked away from the pier, staring at the floor while he purposefully avoided the concerned stares from the various sea creatures that were going after their work or were simply there to visit the local fish market. He kept walking until he reached a less populated area, and sat down at the first bench he found. The bench was situated at a place where one could stare down at the ocean without actually beeing in danger of falling into the water. He could still faintly make out the sound of waves in the distance. However they were quickly silenced by the sound of rushing cars somewhere on a street behind him. Once seated he placed his bagpack on the bench besides him and took out his shellphone. He had to turn up its brightness to even see anything on the screen. He checked the groupchat of his team with great nervosity. The question he had sent hours ago had finally received an answer.
"Yo, anyone up to hang? I'm taking the train to Inkopolis in a few minutes." he had sent that message in the early morning.
"Sorry dude, me and Tim are training for the upcoming duo challenge today. We can hang some other day." Winters had replied to it a few minutes ago.
Dissapointment washed over him. Of course they were busy without him. He put his shellphone away, got up and stretched. Then he put his bagpack back on and made his way to his favourite second hand comic shop which was pretty unknown due to not beeing anywhere near the square. It was only a ten minute walk from the beach and situationed in a cramped alleyway between two small resteraunts that Niko honestly had never seen anyone enter. Once there he spent a few hours browsing and reading through the used books. It was his favourite store because of how cozy it was. Worn leather sofas allowed visistors to sit and relax a bit, music from the owners personal collection of cds quietly sounding in the background. The owner was an old nautilus, who always wore different band t-shirts everytime Niko had come to visit. Niko couldnt name any of them and the one time he had asked about the bands, the old man had told him that they had been popular before the Inkling had even hatched. He had found the store on complete accident a few years ago, when he had taken walk and got suprised by a sudden heavy rainfall. So he had simply entered the next best store he had found to take shelter. Which had been the comic store.
Another thing Niko liked about the store was that it was far too untrendy to be visited by most inkfish. Which meant that he could browse the products without disturbing anyone or beeing made fun of. Which did wonders to his normally anxious mind.
After around two hours spent that way he left the store with three new comicbooks, they were slightly damaged, but he was content as long as they were still readable. He didnt care all that much about the condition of his things.
The Inkling took the next bus to Inkoplis square, where he briefly contemplated on giving Winter and Tim a suprise visit in the lobby, but decided against it in fear of coming across as an annoyance. In the end he took next train back to Splatsville.
The train from Inkopolis to Splatsville was mostly empty in the early noon, so he felt relaxed enough to take out his headphones and listen to some music. Once he arrived in Splatsville, he ate a quick lunch and made his way to MakoMart to work his shift as a cashier afterwards. His shift went on until the early evening.
On a shore near Inkopolis, an Octoling was having a not so nice day in comparison. He sat in a makeshift tent near the shore, looking at the slowly setting sun with a bit of worry. He had escaped the octarian domes only a few days ago, it hadnt been a very planned escape, and he was slightly regretting it now. With a grumbling stomach he reached for the dufflebag that he had carried his beloved octoshot with during the escape. Inside were only empty food cans besides the weapon. With a disgruntled expression he grabbed the octoshot and the makeshift cloak he had made with some sort of salmonid fabric that had washed ashore and stepped outside.
Then he marched towards the ocean, looking for washed up things that might be of use to him, such as algea that he might be able to at least satiate his hunger temporarily with. What he found instead, woke his curiosity. A glass bottle laid half buried in the sand. He picked it up, positively suprised that it seemed to contain something. He put it under his arm and grabbed a bunch of washed up clams and algae as well before returning to his tent.
With the sun slowly setting behind him he made it a point to open the bottle first while he could still somewhat see.
He uncorked the bottle, and took its contents out. A small letter, as well as a thin sticker in the shape of an iceberg with a squid edged into it fell into his lap. He turned the sticker around in his hand. It glittered holographically in the sunlight. He found it far too pretty to use and thus put it back in the bottle for later.
The letter was written on new paper- a weird sight for him, but that was probably just because new paper was somewhat sparse in the domes and as such had been often upscycled. It was clearly written in the Inkling language, not a language he was particularly well versed in, but considering that he had worked with old Inkling technology left by agents on their missions or just generally discarded tech stolen from dumpsters, he found it easy enough to decipher... at least somewhat. Some things were unreadable to him, but that was partly because of the writers messy handwriting. Hope bloomed in his hearts as he read the contents. He didnt particularily care about the writers loneliness, but he did care about gaining a potential ally in foreign territory. He was completly clueless about most of the surface, so having a contact that seemed to know more about than he would certainly be beneficial. He carefully put the message back into the bottle and stowed it into his dufflebag. Then he got to work to create a somewhat edible meal for himself.
It was already dark outside when he heard a sudden noise. He turned around quickly, and stopped what he was doing to listen. Someone was outside the tent, not necessarily close to it yet but still close enough to be audible to him without much difficulty. Hesistantly he dared to take a peek through one of the holes in the tents fabric. An Inkling stood in the distance, wearing a yellow jacket and shimmering headphones. His mind immediatly went to the horror stories he had heard of the feared agents that had toppled octavios concerts not once but twice and cause unimaginable casualties each time. Anger welled up in him at that, they had caused him so much uneeded work, repairing all the damage they had left on their dumb missions! But fear welled up in him as well, would they splat him even if he hadnt taken as single zapfish for himself? He couldnt know and so he returned to his tactical observation of the potential enemy.
The agent was holding a sort of communication device, communicating with their employer or commander or whatever, he didnt know all that much about the Inklings military structure, just that it must be far more chaotic than the octarians.
He had only done the most basic combat training before beeing trained as a mechanic instead as his talent in fixing broken stuff became apparent. Not everyone in the soilder training was able to fix a broken octoshot on the fly, something he could with allot of ease and took great pride in.
The agent was coming closer now.
Rico grabbed his octoshot as quietly as possible. He could mostly make out what the agent was saying now that they were coming closer and closer.
"...I found something.. It's some sort of tent. I'm gonna check it out! I'll call you back."
With those words the person gripped their dualies carefully and advanced until they stood directly in front of the tent.
"Hello. Is anyone here?" They tilted their head slightly sideways as they peeked through the fabric. "I'm four! No need to be scared." The agent smiled "I come in peace!" Rico stared at the agent wordlessly. He wasnt very impressed. He did chuckle slightly, she wasnt as intimidating as she had seemed when she fought DJ Octavio a few years ago. He still remembered that concert- he had gotten front row seats with his parents and his little sister afterall. His parents had been pretty influental in octarian society. He felt a bit homesick remembering that. He still raised the octoshot at the agent anyways. He couldnt be too safe around an Inkling afterall.
"Woah!" Four exclaimed at his serious expression. "No need for that. I'm not here to harm you! I actually came to offer help."
Rico narrowed his eyes at that. "How?" He grumbled in his fairly shakey Inkling. He had never actually spoken the language before, only read it.
"Recently allot of you have been leaving for the surface correct?"
He nodded.
"And you probably did too right? You wear the armor of a soldier. But there aren't any other soldiers stationed here." He did infact still wear his old basic armor, it had been a gift by his father when he had enrolled in his first soldier training, and in his head fleeing in armor was safer than just dooing so wearing his normal clothes.
"Yes I did." He replied dryly.
"Well finding a place to live on the surface is difficult. Thats why I got sent to look for freshly escaped octarians to help them out a bit" She smiled at him.
"See? No harm."
He lowered his octoshot slightly.
"You're probably hungry, right?" He nodded at her question.
"Well I can fix you some grub if you follow me." Grub as in the insect? Rico made a disgusted expression at that thought. Four laughed, as if she had read his mind she replied.
"Grub as in food. I'm not feeding you insects. Don't worry!" She stretched a hand out for him to take.
He took it. He needed some actual food. And he still had his octoshot, in case that the offer turned out to be a trap.
He shouldered his dufflebag and together they exited the tent, walked up the hill next to the beach until they reached a wide open area, where four instructed him to follow her superjump. He did and together they landed infront of a small cabin far away from the beach. It was clearly some sort of military base. Wait was that the DJ? He stared at her in shock and then back at his former king, who was trapped in a snowglobe. At the moment the DJ seemed to be asleep. He made a mental note to somehow rely that information back to the other octarians once he found his sister. Four led him inside, casually walking past the trapped DJ as if that was a normal thing to do. Once they both were inside, she told Rico to sit down at a weathered and very old table. She grabbed some sandwiches out of a lunchbox on a shelf and handed him one. He inspected it first, couldve been poisened afterall and then bit into it. It actually tasted pretty good.
"Do you like it?" He nodded. "Im glad to hear that." Four sat down at the table too. Then, much to his annoyance, began drumming her fingers against the table. "Soo..." She began with a more serious expression. He stopped mid bite and raised an eyebrow at her. "Do you have any place to stay yet?"
He thought back to the adress in the letter. He needed somewhere to stay, and he didnt want to admit that he hadnt thought his escape through."I have an adress in mind."
"And that would be....?" He recited the adress from memory. Four frowned. "That's all the way in Splatsville. How do you even know anyone there?"
"Well.... I dont know the person, but I know his adress." Now Four was the one to raise an eyebrow at him.
"That sounds seriously creepy dude." He just shrugged in response.
"Ok. How about this? For your own and that guys safety, I'll come along? We visit the guy and if he's like actually nice and not some sort of cod damned serial killer I'll leave you there and you get to stay with him. And to check that you're not like trying to kill that guy. Sorry but you knowing a random guys adress makes you sound like an assassin." Rico nodded.
"Sure. Sounds reasonable." He had finished his sandwich by now.
"How do you even know a random guys adress? Splatsville is in the middle of the desert!" Asked Four.
"I found it in a letter." He replied sounding a bit bored.
"Huh? What letter. No one is dumb enough to-" Rico handed her the letter, which she began to read through quickly. "Huh. I guess someone was dumb enough to write his adress on a letter. Well this is either really sad or really sketchy, so I'll definitely accompany you!"
Rico waited while Four changed to more unassuming clothes in a different room. Then she led him through a sewer until they both popped back up in an alleyway. From there Four led him to a trainstation, where they both luckily immediatly caught one of the few trains that led to Splatsville. She thankfully paid for his ticket. The trainride itself was uneventful. Rico made a note to observe the turflings that he saw, to emulate their style once he got his hands on some money, that way he would blend in better. He only needed to stay here until he found his sister afterall. Then they both could go back to how things were before. While the Octoling was busy staring at the different train guests, Four was playing a mobile version of squid beatz on her Shellphone with her headphones on.
After a few hours they arrived, and Four immediatly asked one of the people at the trainstation for directions.
"I've never been to splatsville before." She explained slightly apologetic to Rico, once she had returned. The stranger had thankfully helped her by writting a note on her phone, that explained the rough location of the street they were looking for and how to get there.
As they walked through the very busy and cramped streets of the desert city, Rico couldnt help but admire the buildings, Splatsvilles architecture differed alot from Inkopolis. He was positively suprised to see many other octolings, same as he had been in Inkoplis. Hope bloomed in his hearts at that, maybe he would find his sister soon. Soon they arrived at an apartment complex on the outskirts of the city, whose walls were covered in what rico assumed to be multiple layers of graffities. Some of them actually beeing rather nice looking drawings.
"Is this the right adress?" Rico asked Four. She nodded. Then she noticed the defective sign on top of the doorbells.
"Should be. Do we just go inside? We can't exactly ring."
Now Rico nodded. "Yes. I think so, the front door is open." It was indeed open, as a lobster had just left the door a few moments ago to bring out the trash. And hadn't closed it behind herself.
They entered the entrance floor, discovered that the elevator had apparently been out of work for years, at least it seemed that way due to the cobwebs that had build up on the doors and decided to take the stairs instead. Once they reached the fourth floor, they rechecked the adress on the letter and rung the doorbell on the corresponding apartment door. The building seemed to be pretty rundown, as lights flickered and the wallpapers were ripped on some parts of the floors.
While they waited, Four took up the conversation once again. She was bouncing on her feet. "So, this is it then? Was nice knowing you."
"I appreciate that you brought me here. Thank you for that."
"No problem!" Four grinned at him. He however didnt return it. Just nodded in acknowledgement.
The door opened. An Inkling answered the door and was now facing Rico. He was shorter than him, wore his short tentacles slicked back and was wearing comfortable clothes. His ink was light blue and his ears were droopy compared to the other Inklings he had seen. The Inkling, who he assumed to be Niko- if this really was the author of the letter, looked at him with an unsure expression, then at Four with an even more unsure expression. He had clearly not exspected guests late in the evening.
"W-Who are you t-two?" Stammered Niko. Looking nervously between them. "...Can I help you?" He then added sounding a bit more calm. But he clearly wasnt any less nervous as his legs were still shaking.
"I am looking for the author of a letter. Do you know a person named Niko?" Rico said while searching through his belongings, to present said letter to the Inkling.
Recognition sparked in the Inkling as he showed him the letter. Who then blushed bright blue in embarrassement. "Y-Yeah, that's mine... but if you're the finder then who is that girl there?" He said pointing at Four.
"That's kinda rude." She replied. "But I'm just here to make sure neither he nor you get hurt. I'm going to leave in a few minutes anyways." said Four.
Niko stared at her blankly for a second, unsure what respond to that answer and replied with a confused "Oh ok...?"
"Maybe introductions are in order. My name is Rico." Said the Octoling in an attempt to break the akward silence.
"I... uh... my name's Niko but you already know that..." At that the Inkling seemed to have a realization. "W-Why dont you come inside? That's probably much more comfortable than the cold hallway."
Normally, Rico would have denied such invitations from strangers, but... the Inkling honestly seemed really harmless to him, and its not like he had a choice. Either he convinced the Inkling to let him at least stay the night or he would sleep outside again. Even if Niko were trying to harm him the moment he stepped inside, he was sure he would be able to subdue the Inkling rather easily. While he had only been a mechanic, his parents had still made him endure the entirety of the basic soldier training. And the inkling probably didnt do much more than basic turf war.
While Rico followed inside slightly hesistantly, Four just waved. "Well, you guys seem to have everything handled, so I'm gonna leave now! Have fun." But before she turned around she handed Rico a piece of paper with a phone-number on it. "Call me incase an emergency happens or this guy turns out to be a weirdo afterall!" She said cheerfully while leaving. Soon she was gone and the only noise left was the noise of the flickering light and the distant sound of a closing door.
Rico followed the Inkling inside into a cramped kitchen. A stack of unwashed dishes filled the sink, a binder of some kind of trading card game was open on the table, covered by multiple issues of comicbooks in sad conditions. There was also a half empty bottle of fruitjuice and the wrapper for some sort of take out sandwich. Nikos ears turned slightly blue in embarrassment as he witnessed his own chaos. So the Inkling half-heartedly and with way to much hurry cleaned up by just taking everything on the table into his arms and then throwing it on the counter. Instead of taking a place at the table, the squid stood leaned infront of the counter as if in an attempt to obscure his own mess.
"May i take a seat?" Niko nodded and Rico took one of the kinda sad folding chairs and sat down.
They stood in akward silence for a few moments "...Are you hungry?" It was the delay and hesitation behind the question that made it painfully obvious to Rico that the squid infront him had even worse social skills than he had thought.
"I would like to eat something please but only if its no bother to do so." He was very hungry. The sandwich hadnt been enough to fill him after days of poor nutrition.
"Its no bother. I asked you to if you wanted somethin". Niko moved over to the fridge seemingly forgetting about the mess on the counter. The fridge only contained a few foods. Elsewise it was empty.
"Do you like orange juice? I also have cactus juice.... and err a bit leftover Lemonade. Is any of that to your l-liking?" The Inkling looked over his shoulder, waiting for his guest to answer.
"Orange juice is fine." Rico smiled. He was actually quite "hyped" as he had heard the turflings around him say in the train, about trying orange juice. Juices had always been more like a rare treat for him back in the octarian domes.
"Regarding food...." Niko sighed. "I dont know if i got anything you might like... uh do you want a sandwich? I gotta warn you... I dont have many ingrediants for you to choose from, I also have some cereal, or vegetables in general. Frozen meat i could fry up.... err do you have any preferences for food?"
"A sandwich is fine." Truly, Rico was fine with anything as long as he got some food. He had not asked four for any more than the food and hadnt eaten since. He had no money that was usable on the surface afterall.
"...A-Alright." Rico wasnt sure why Niko was so nervous, afterall it had been the Inkling that had written his adress along with an invitation to visit in his letter.
In the end, both of them ended up sitting down at the table, eating mediocre sandwiches in the early night, where it was also decided that Rico would be able to live at Nikos place for awhile. After the octoling had explained his currently non existant living situation. That night Rico fell asleep in the Inklings bed as Niko had insisted on sleeping on the couch. He for once slept a pretty restful sleep.