Chapter Text
The Sun of the morning rose over the city of Inkopolis Square. A whole world of creatures exists in this world. The morning was filled with the bustle of inklings, the humanoid creatures of this city. They were similar to humans for the subtle difference of mono-colored tentacles for hair and with the powers of spraying ink from their fingers and bodies. The humanoid squid people were bustling around, getting to there destinations as they could. However, two creatures are beginning their morning up in their penthouse suite in one of the highest buildings of the city, Pearl and Marina.
Peering through the big open window of the highest tower of the city, Pearl could be seen leaving a showering room after returning from a late-night turf war she of course won with no trouble. Turf war was a kind of event that happened in the region…and she was defending Her top ranked spot in the leaderboard. She returned home and took a shower to wash off the various ink stains of enemy ink off. Her signature pink and white color was slowly returning as she was clean. Pearl was a shorter Inkling, with two thick tentacle ends on the ends of Her ‘hair’ that had the signature bright pink she was famous for. Her yellow, humanoid eyes looked over towards the sunrise that could be seen from the apartment window Wrapped in a towel, she walked to the kitchenette that was on a stepped-up platform of the apartment. The room Pearl was in was a sort of futuristic two-bedroom apartment with a kitchen and dining room connected together on a slightly raised platform. Neon lights in bright green and pink patterned on the ceiling that were at low levels with the décor being a mix of pink pillow and lime green cushions. The whole space was very cozy but also futuristic. The floor was tiled with a cool white paneling, with the walls painted the same white with splotches of shades of green and pink that fit the duo living here well. A half wall put in place separated the two floors nicely. On the higher elevation was the doorway to Marina’s room and on the lower that was nearest the bathroom door was Pearl’s. Marina’s door was painted deep blue and had a whole host of notes on the front to ‘Stay Out’, and that ‘Dangerous Chems’ were inside the room. Pearl’s door was bright pink with several stickers all over it that were cartoons of inklings and sea people of various kinds all over. Marina was always working on some new technological bit. Soon She would join pearl out here when it was time to announce the swap of stages for Turf Wars and other events of the day for their broadcast…but they had plenty of time.
Pearl and Marina ran ‘Off the Hook’, a Morning show where they discussed the goings on of the city of Inkopolis that were worth sharing. They also shared the rotation of ‘stages’ for those participating in Turf Wars, A competition in which two teams faced each other and were competing to paint an entire stage in a color that represented their team. However, soon to come into the spotlight was the monthly Splatfest! Splatfest was a duke between two teams to see which side was the best. Each side has a set of ten teams of 4 and go against each other in 4V4’s to eliminate the other team. Eventually, it leads to the best team of 4 on each side to face against each other in a turf fight! But if you get splatted once, being covered enough in ink, you were out! Pearl and Marina were the heads of the opposite teams, being the idols of the city. Pearl was pretty excited for this next Fest; which was better, Pancakes or Waffles? Pearl knew the obvious answer and it was pancakes...like the ones in Her fridge she was about to eat for Her breakfast!
Pearl entered into the kitchen and walked towards the fridge to get Her pancakes. As She looked, She saw Marina had left a small sticky note on a plate of prepared pancakes that read ‘For the goober I call a roommate ;3’. The stack was delicately stacked 5 high, with a topping of whipped cream and a side plate of sliced strawberries covered in chocolate. Pearl gave a smile and sighed, only Marina would go beyond like that. As Pearl got to the dining room that was a few steps from the kitchen, Marina had come running out of Her room with excitement in Her octopus-like eyes. Marina was dressed in a black crop top with a large zipper on the front. She wore black shorts with key chains on the hip, and because she was doing some science-y stuff she had a big white overcoat over Her crop top that made Her look a bit more professional. Marina’s Octarian bright blues scanned the room for Pearl and Marina called to Her. “Morning Roomie! Can’t talk! On the verge of a new invention and gotta go pick something up real fast! See you at the studio later! Bye!” She said as She dashed towards the door of the apartment. She zipped through the door as Pearl watched the Octarian run out the door before she slipped Her head back in. “Oh and don’t touch anything in my room! I mean it this time! BRB!” She instructed, before bolting out the door and down the steps of the apartment complex. Pearl, giving a shrug, got to Her pancakes finally and paid no mind to the allure of the bedroom that rightfully didn’t deserve Her peering eyes inside.
After finishing breakfast and she got dressed in a fresh new outfit that was a simple dress with a frill on the skirt edge, puffy white and pink jacket, and a silver and pink crown resting on the side of Her squid tentacle hair. Pearl Herself didn’t have much going on today besides their News segment for the new turf locations and for once could just chill in the apartment. Pulling Her squid-shaped phone from Her pocket, She plopped Herself down on one of the pink bean bag seats in the living room and scrolled Her phone for interesting news bits that nobody seemed to cover. Pearl was in a lot of different social circles…some that only those who proved themselves chill or ‘fresh’ could be in. Looking through, nothing really seemed to be catching Her eye. As She was scrolling, one particular article popped out that made Her do a double take. “GrizzCo looking towards expansion. Hundreds of new employees entering Salmon Run Workforce.” Pearl looked at the article for a moment before shaking it loose and putting Her phone to the side.
“Meh, we don’t need any segments for a basic call today.” As She got up to stretch. Walking over to the far wall across from the bed and bathroom was a touch screen tv she activated by pressing lightly on the screen with a finger. The screen lit bright pink and white as the name ‘Pearl Houzuki’ appeared with Her leaderboard stats appearing. She was at the top rank for everything in the area; Highest splatout rate, most turf inked, her badge for the ranked league was at the max for this season, she had more credits from winning than she knew what to do with, and of course a small display of Her registered splatting weapon was floating to the side. Pearl used a set of dual pistol-like weapons called Dualies that had about every equipment boost you could possibly want. They had an ungodly firing rate, they seemed to conserve ink incredibly well, as well as had mini-rockets attached to the guns that could force the user forwards with a dash-like ability.
Pearl was the best of the best, of that it was unquestionable. It was such a shame she was essentially banned from competing in the splatfests she hosted…cause Her team would never lose! She smiled Her little egotistical smile at the rankings, with nobody even coming close to Her on the leaderboard. “VOOMY!” She laughed as She did a backflip backwards into the bean bag she was sitting in before and looked towards the leaderboard with a goblin-like expression on Her smug little face. “Guess they can’t handle a bit of the wild side huh? I wanna see someone top last night haha!” She mocked. After a bit more gloating, looked back towards Her phone and sighed. She felt a bit of a pinch sensation on Her hand and sat up a bit more. “Oh! Almost forgot.” She said to Herself. She walked into Her bedroom and scanned the room.
Her room was chaos incarnate. Posters on practically every square inch of the wall from music artists, movies, shows, video games, anything you could think of. One bookcase on the far end was a bunch of collectable stands of popular artists and videogame characters. Several bits of clothes were all over the place and Her bed looked more like the den of a wild animal with dozens of blankets and pillows all strewn about that looked like you could nest in between if you snugged in the right way. On a desk in the far corner was about the only place of organization in the room; a white desk with make-up, files for unfinished music sheets, Her home computer and double monitor set, and a collection of pink and white containers with little pink beads inside. The inkling walked to them and open a container and popped two of the pink beads into Her mouth and almost instantaneously the pinching disappeared. “Can’t be forgetting that, Pearl.” She said to Herself. Just as she was thinking, a weird sound started echoing from outside Pearl’s room.
Pearl leaned Her head out and began hearing a low humming sound that was coming from the slightly ajar door of Marina’s bedroom. Faintly in the crack of the door, a little blue light could be seen in the nearly pitch-black room that was almost tempting to be investigated. Pearl thought about it for a moment before stopping Herself. “Pearlie…Marina specifically told you not to go in there. So what if there is probably some really cool…amazing and fresh…invention on the other side of that door?”
Pearl looked towards the door with a bit of hesitation, Her curiosity peaking at the idea of what was behind the door. “Come on…surely a peak wouldn’t hurt…” Said a voice that sounded like Pearl. On Her shoulder, a little imaginary Pearl appeared from a splash of red ink that wore a little devil costume and had the stereotypical attire of a trickster that was tempting Her to enter. “Well I really shouldn’t. After all it is Marina’s room.” Pearl was saying, trying to convince Herself to stay out. “Well that doesn’t sound like much fun! Come on…just use your little peepers inkling and have a goopy gander.” The little devil on Pearl’s shoulder said, before disappearing with a splash of imaginary red ink.
Pearl looked towards the door and felt a tight sensation in Her brain that was itching to look inside. “No…respect boundaries Pearl.” She said, before walking over to Her bedroom and shutting the door to prevent Herself from going. “Besides…Marina will probably gush about it later anyway so I’ll know what its gonna be eventually…” Pearl said to herself to convince Herself to stay. But as Pearl worked, the whirring of the machine was echoing just loud enough that the idea of what it was couldn’t leave Her mind. What if it was some kind of new special weapon? Maybe it was some kind of new splat weapon or some kind of cool armor piece that provided a boost of energy? The idea of whatever it was stuck to the back of Pearl’s mind and made it difficult to work.
“You don’t need it Pearl…you don’t need it.” That was a straight up lie. It wasn’t like Pearl was malicious in doing this…she just hating waiting. She rocked slightly in Her chair, trying to just let it go but the idea of the thing stuck in Her mind and drove Her crazy. “I don’t need it…I don’t need it…I definitely don’t need it…” She muttered to Herself. Pearl started biting on the end of Her tentacle hair, yipping slightly as if that would help keep Her focus. “I don’t need it…I don’t need it…” She said to herself before suddenly bursting out: “I NEED IT!” and darting from Her room by jumping across the bed and transforming. Her body and everything pearl suddenly twisted and melted into pink ooze that formed together in the air into a small little pink and white squid-like creature that twisted around in the air. Two big white dots appeared on the front face of the creature, with two little pink pupils that matched the skin of the creature. Pearl darted from the door in Her squid form and quickly skittered Her way to the door, reforming into Her Humanoid form when getting to the door and peeking an eye through the doorway to see inside. Pearl nudged open the door to see inside the dark room.
Unlike Pearl’s messy room, Marina’s was the cleanest place in the world. There wasn’t much in the bedroom, but what was there was organized neat and pretty. Black shelves lined the walls with organized filing cabinets of all paperwork Marina used being safely stored away. The jet-black room had little memorabilia in it besides a lone desk in the center of the room. The floor was completely clear of anything and looked recently vacuumed. Marina had a dresser and desk set in the back corner similar to Pearl’s, all organized and pretty. In the center of the room was Marina’s tech stuff that was all on a circular desk with a gap in the center that let Marina spin in a chair to reach everything she possibly needed on a desk. Marina had Her four-monitor supercomputer and a variety of things on the desk, with little tech bits like metal screws and bits, wiring and circuit boards all on the table in various projects she picked up every so often. On the computer, something in particular looked interesting to Pearl. It was a project called ‘Order Zone’ that seemed important. However, the blue glow that had attracted Pearl’s attention was coming from something else in the room. The thing that Pearl was after was a little gun that sat on the table in a holster that set it sideways on the table.
The little blue light from the machine was almost calling to Pearl as She stood, fixated on the little bit of technology. “Well hello little goober…What do you do?” Pearl said to Herself as She walked towards the glowing device. Pearl grasped Her hand slowly onto the hilt of the machine and was aiming down the sights around the room. As Pearl looked down the weapon, She noticed that the weapon didn’t have the normal conventions of a splat weapon. For one, there was no tank on the weapon itself for ink storage…nor did it even look like it fire a liquid. The end of the weapon was a tesla coil rather than a barrel.
Pearl took bravery and after looking over Her shoulder for Marina and taking a pull of the trigger. Suddenly, a blue bolt of lightning fired from the tesla coil and hit one of the objects on the desk. Blue light enshrouded the piece of scrap metal and it disappeared with a fuzz of blue light. Pearl stood in astonishment at what just happened. Pearl investigated the table and sure enough, the little piece of machinery that she hit had disappeared into thin air…Or was evaporated…Pearl took the tool from the room and as she admired it, tripped on something as she left. Pearl fell to the ground, the glowing gun firing again towards one of the bean bags in the living room. It disappeared from view and almost at the same instance a sound came from the kitchen of something falling.
Pearl looked down and saw that the machinery she fired a second ago was laying on the ground. Pearl, in shock, got to Her feet and ran to the kitchen where the crash happened. The bean bag chair had teleported on the kitchen sink and push a few bowls over to smash on the ground. “Wait…a teleporting gun?!? Oh Marina you genius!” Pearl said, a devious grin on Her face. “Oh its time for some ‘testing’.” Pearl said with a smile.
All throughout the apartment, Pearl fired at a variety of objects to see what would happen and where they’d teleport too. After a while, Pearl then started pulling out trick shots and setting up obstacles to test the weapon further. One known fact about Pearl…when She finds a new plaything, expect it to eventually go off the rails. After a few tries and some silly old math, Pearl had an idea. Grabbing a lightweight item, she cleared a space in the living room that had become a mess of overturned and weirdly placed objects. She took the paperweight and threw it up in the air and fired at it. The object then appeared in a different spot in the room and she fired at it again. She continuously kept firing at the paperweight, making it teleport around the room and trying to keep the thing from hitting the floor. A few attempts took time to truly master it, with her highest score being 16 shots before the paperweight hit the floor. “Ohh I could so top that!” Pearl said to herself, being entertained with the funny little device. “Oh Marina you’ve outdone yourself!” Pearl said out loud, laughing with a bit of chaotic energy behind it. Suddenly, Pearl had an idea. “Wait…what if I tried to eat something out of the air?” She said to herself, a devious smile crossing Her face.
With a sprint, She raced to the kitchen and looked for something small that if fired at, would be easy to get in Her mouth. “Mmm eggs? Nah, too delicate and gross. What about grapes?” She ran through the list and came to a conclusion. “PANCAKES!” She yelled, reaching into the fridge. Pearl looked inside the fridge towards another batch of pancakes, with the same whipped cream and strawberry toppings. As She was pulling the next pack out, She saw the message that Marina left. Pearl stopped for a second, looking down to the device in her hands. A bit of guilt stung a bit as Pearl thought about upsetting Marina. “ehhh…what are you doing Pearl? What if you hurt Her feelings?” Pearl thought, taking a second on if maybe she made a mistake. Marina had let her test out inventions in the past…but she also was very secretive if she wanted to be. Was this overstepping? Well, it definitely was, but was it farther than too far? Pearl looked towards the secondary stack of pancakes and thought about it.
“Alright…last teleport but then I gotta get this place cleaned up and put the toy away.” Pearl convinced Herself. Pearl grabbed the pancakes and set them down into the middle of the room, looking down the sights and aiming. “right, if my thinking is right. The pancakes will teleport behind be. I have to shoot and then aim my head back in time to catch it.” She said to herself, reassuring the plan. “one…” She aimed towards the stack of pancakes. “Two…” She got into a good stance, preparing to jump back to catch the pancakes. “Three!” She said, firing the laser at the pancakes and hopping back.
When Pearl hopped, she fell backwards and dropped the gun towards a soft pile to the side. She opened Her mouth wide with a massive smile and waiting for the food. As Pearl laid on the floor, She realized that the food wasn’t appearing. Sitting up in confusion, She looked towards the pancake stack and realized it hadn’t moved…in fact, it was glowing. The bright blue of the weapon was over the stack of pancakes, making them glow brighter and brighter. Suddenly, the stack was weirdly growing? They started puffing and giving off a look like they were beginning to bubble up.
The stack was slowly starting to get taller and taller, as Pearl looked towards the teleporting gun to see if something broke. “Oh shoot…no no no… *@#$!” Pearl cursed, the pile of expanding pancakes becoming bigger and bigger. The pancakes then started multiplying and becoming more like they were melting together as the stacks appeared. The soft, battery body of the pancakes was malforming into a massive shape. Giant strawberries that were like spikes were growing out the back of the creature as it slowly gained shape. “Ohhh that’s not good…” Pearl said to herself as the creature was beginning to take shape. “Pearl tried firing the gun at the creature, but the teleporter simply gave a puff of smoke. Pearl looked towards the device, seeing that the little light inside was dimmer than the idea of doing this in the first place.
Pearl watched as the monstrosity she created was taking shape, its headless body waved around as its melting shape was becoming clearer and clearer. “Well…this couldn’t get any worse.” Pearl said, stepping back from the creature in fear. Just then, Pearl heard footsteps coming from the entrance of the apartment door. In haste, pearl dashed over to the door in squid form, and just as the door was opening, she slid through and shut the door. Who else to return, but Marina. Marina stepped back in surprise, unawares of the creature behind the door.
Pearl blocked the doorway, leaning against the frame of the doorway in the hallway they found themselves in. It was a hallway painted white, with several windows on the opposite side of the hall that let you look down on the city below. The hallway was a bit on the fancier side, seeing as they were famous idols after all. “Heyyy! Wassup Marina! How’s it hangin?” Pearl said nonchalantly. “Uhh I guess good? Everything good Pearl?” Marina asked, confused. “Ohhh…nothing much just wanted to uh…talk to you before you disappeared into your lab!” Pearl lied, making a giant smile creep onto Her face as she talked. Marina gasped a bit. “Oh no! I guess I have been really busy as of late…I’ve just had a little project I’ve been working on and I wanted to really get it off the ground. Its experimental but it’ll turn out good I think!” Marina said, as something seemed to crash from the apartment the two stayed in. “What was that?” Marina asked, looking towards the apartment door.
“Oh I’m sure nothing…anyway!” Pearl said quickly. “Well I wanted to ask something while you’re here!” Pearl started. “So like…say for instance…and this is crazy circumstance…but if that invention went a bit…crazy? What would you do?” She asked. “Oh? The one I’m working on? I don’t think that could happen! I’m being real careful about it.” Marina answered, reaching for the doorhandle behind Pearl. Pearl stopped Her hand and tried to distract Her. “Hey look, I’m just REALLY curious…like say an invention that like…teleports stuff around or something…but then decided to like…make a monster instead? What would you do?” Pearl asked with a bit of a cadence in the question as if that would better communicate and hide the problem, unsure if the question was too on the nose. Marina stopped for a moment. “Well…I did have an invention like that once…It seemed like it was stuff with hyper-expansive foam or compounds in it. Stuff like sponge, cotton, soda, soap, cake…definitely anything with yeast. It was always a bit experimental. But usually, I fixed it by inflating the target with ink…it would usually slow the process.” Marina explained. Pearl nodded and gave a understanding smile. “Cool…Unrelated note: Can you stay out here for like five minutes?” Pearl asked, pulling out one of Her two dual splat guns filled with Her signature pink ink.
Pearl dashed into the room and barricaded the door behind Her so Marina couldn’t get in. As Pearl entered the apartment, it had become even worse than before. Pancake batter was all over the walls, giant strawberries on the ground from the beast, and sticky brown maple syrup lined the walls. The living room was now home to a giant pancake monster with two strawberry eyes that were on top of a pancake stack face that growled as it melted more pancakes from Its body in quick succession. The pancake creature reared towards Pearl as She aimed Her sights down the creature. “Alright you sweet, delectable main course…time for lunch.” Pearl said as the beast gave a snarly roar. The door to the hallway gave a shake. “Pearl!? What’s going on in there?!” Marina asked, worried. “Don’t worry! I got it!” She said, charging towards the beast.
Pearl fired a line of pink ink forwards towards the beast, who instinctively flinched away from the ink with its pancake-batter feet and towards the wall with the tv. The pink ink splattered over the floor, making a mess. Pearl swapped into squid form and suddenly could plunge into the ink, disappearing from view. She then appeared at the opposite end of the bright pink strip and jumped into the air in humanoid form to fire more at the creature. The pancake monster roared towards Pearl and tried to swipe at Her, but missed as Pearl fired another line of ink up the wall and disappeared into the ink-covered floor. A few seconds passed where the creature dashed to where Pearl disappeared, only for Pearl to reappear in the same spot where She fire ink that was still connected to the other ink of the room.
Pearl continued circling the monster, painting more ink around so that She could disappear into the ink and reappear elsewhere to quickly move around the creature. The creature roared in frustration as it was slowly covered in pink ink. “Yeah! Like these moves you delicious monstrosity?” Pearl mocked, dashing around the room and making the beast become more and more frustrated. Suddenly, the beast gave a deeper growl and from it’s batter beige body it blasted a bucket of pancake batter in an outward blast that caught Pearl off guard. The batter Hit Her square in the face, making Her blast backwards against Her bedroom door. “Ow.” Pearl said, slowly sliding to the ground and hitting the floor. One of Her dual ink guns flew across the room while the other fell to Her feet.
The beast, seeing it’s chance, dashed towards the downed Pearl. Pearl, Seeing the creature approach, dipped into the ink without Her weapons and had to dodge around the room. Expanding pancake batter with a brownish tinge and bright pink ink was covering the walls, floor, and ceiling of the room. From the outside, the giant glass window was completely covered in light brown and pink color that made seeing in really difficult. Pearl dashed in squid form around the room, trying to avoid the pancake monster as She tried to recover Her dual ink guns. Finally reaching for one, She grabbed it and fired more pink ink to give herself room to breathe. The monster, still hot on Her in the small, compact space, doubled back as the pink ink covered its eyes and momentarily blinded it. Pearl used to opportunity to fire more towards the creature when suddenly Her gun ran dry. She ducked into the ink with the weapon, slowly recharging it again with more ink as she entered into the ink puddles.
The batter monster had learned however, making the floor completely covered in batter and forcing Pearl out of the ink She used as hiding and got Her stuck in a corner. The beast then inflated even more than before, looking like it was ready to burst like a giant bomb. “Oh sweet sushi rolls…” She muttered, waiting for the batter bomb to go off. Suddenly, a pipe with a suction cup on the bottom was thrown between the two forms. The bright greenish blue of the bomb then burst outwards and splattered all over the two forms.
The beast staggered backwards, revealing to Pearl Her savior. Standing at the top of the mini-stairway was Marina Ida. She had an umbrella-like weapon to Her disposal, but with a giant funnel at the top of the umbrella that let her fire her blue ink towards the enemy. Marina quickly got to Pearl’s side and shot open Her umbrella shield. “Does this have something to do with that question you asked earlier?” Marina said with a laugh, not looking too angry yet. “Heh…maaaaybe?” Pearl said with a grin. The Pancake beast, not having patience, started charging at full speed towards Marina’s Umbra Shield. The beast’s paste battered against the shield and threatened to crush it.
Marina, pulling a secondary chord on the umbra staff, loosed the shield and blasted the creature against the wall. The creature splattered across the wall, stunned for nary a second. Marina pulled a extra folding attachment to the shield and reextended the shield and fired Her ink towards the creature. “Maybe next time let me know one of my inventions breaks loose? I did make it after all!” Marina said with a happy tone. Pearl shrunk back, squeezing Her head into Her shoulders. “About that…” Pearl rebutted, putting up a finger. Suddenly, the creature fell from the wall…and then seem to split into dozens of pieces. Small little pancake monsters crawled over the walls, each looking towards the duo idols with their red, beady strawberry eyes. “Uh Marina…” Pearl said, pointing towards the small creatures.
They fell from the ceiling as they landed on top of Marina’s shield, surprising the Octoling. Marina gasped as she flailed the shield around to get them off. More of the batter creatures were appearing around the ankles of the two humanoids. Pearl saw an opening where she could ink a strip forward from behind Marina and dash towards the kitchen where she figured Her other dual pistol could be. Taking the opportunity, She sprayed and squidded towards the kitchen, looked for Her other dual weapon to be fully reequipped. “PEARL! HELP!” Marina called out, being overwhelmed. “Working on it!” Pearl called out.
Towards the small dining room, Pearl’s other weapon was underneath the table. She reached for it, when a small pancake creature appeared from the living room of chaos behind Her and started biting at Pearl’s tentacles on her head. “OW! You little…” Pearl spun over and attempted to push the creature off Her body. “Oh I so regret doing this.” Pearl said under Her breath. She reached a hand out for the other dual weapon and pulled it from the table. The mini-pancake monster that was on her suddenly jumped onto Her front and in the air, Pearl fired bother ink blasters towards the monster. The creature inflated and glowed bright pink before exploding into a mess of pink ink. The ink splattered over Pearl, Making Her instinctively cover Her eyes. Pearl laid on the floor for a second before sighing. “Maybe pancakes get eliminated early this splatfest…” She said to Herself.
“PEAAARL!” Marina called out. She was being dragged by the smaller pancake monsters into the big form that was overtaking the living room. A massive batter ball of strawberries, syrup, and pancake was making fists and trying to break through the glass of the apartment. A crack appeared on the window, followed by a shatter, as the creature broke free from the apartment and took Marina with Her. “MARINA!” Pearl yelled, getting up and dashing towards the escaping pancake monster. As Marina tried to fight back, the creature flailed a batter tentacle at Marina, forcing Her to drop Her Umbra gun to the ground as the creature made its escape. “PEARRRL!!”
The creature scaled up the side of the building, making its way towards the roof of the building by splattering up the side the of the building. Pearl and Marina’s apartment was a few floors below the top floor, where the studio for ‘Off the Hook’ took place. Marina tried breaking free from the form but the creature had a tight grip on Her as the monster slopped its way up the building like a slime. Pearl looked on towards the creature in shock, before frowning and dashing towards Her bedroom. Pearl barged through and started looking around Her pile of stuff, looking for something in particular. She threw clothes aside, toys and books, until she found what she was looking for. It looked like a pink megaphone that was on a stand. The megaphone had a little white crown on top, and the size of the megaphone itself was about Pearl’s height. Strapping the megaphone onto Her back, Pearl dashed out the door and out of the apartment towards the top floor to reach there before the monster did.
On the outside, Marina tried changing into Her smaller form like Pearl’s, but the creature was squeezing Her too tight for Her to move or do anything. The monster reared over the city of Inkopolis from the top of the tower from a set of antenna towers. The little baby monsters circled around as the creature and Marina looked over the morning of Inkopolis. The sun was now just a little over the horizon as not only was the main plaza of the town seeable from this height, but even the combat tower not too far from the complex the creature was on. On that tower, the thing that powered the city of Inkopolis was visible. It was a napping creature the side of the building itself. The giant, scaly black creature with bright green fins and a goofy face was encircling the top of the tower like a giant snake. It had two bright yellow whiskers that twirled over and over into almost like an electric mustache. The batter monster looked towards the creature with great desire. Marina saw what the creature was looking at and gasped. “Oh no…Not the Zapfish! Shoot! PEARL! WHERE ARE YOU!?” Marina called out. At the same time, Pearl emerged from a top floor entrance door at the top of the building and looked towards the batter monster that was above Her.
Pearl saw where the creature was looking and immediately got to action. “Marina! Cover your ears!” Pearl yelled, firing ink towards the creature to get its attention. The sun was behind the creature, making its size even larger and bigger to gaze on. The ink attracted the babies, which Pearl quickly took pop shots at, using the ink rockets attached to the weapon to boost around and avoid the miniature pancake monsters with ease. She flipped and jumped off the few walls of the building to avoid them, nary a batter hitting Her with Her full load out to Her side. After popping the last baby into a pile of pink ink, Pearl got Her megaphone off Her back and aimed the speaker towards the ‘head’ of the creature and mocked it into attention.
“HEY! BATTERHEAD! YOU WANT SOME POWER? CHECK IT!” Pearl yelled, before straining Her body with a tenacity. She focused energy into her head, making Her ears ring and a bright pink glow all over Her body that radiated almost as bright as the sun. In this moment, Marina watched as Pearl’s form seemed to almost bubble with heat. The ink on Her skin and Her eyes glowed with a brightness similar to the beams of a spotlight. Faintly, Marina could almost hear a song emanating from Pearl’s form that sounded like one of their signature songs as Pearl powered up. Suddenly, and without warning, Pearl gave off a shockwave yell that funneled into the megaphone device in front of Her that almost twirled like a wave of ribbons in a cone-like blast that extended the cone even further. The result was a beam of pink shockwaves that blasted over the entire body of the creature. The Pancake Monstrosity gave a roar as it dropped Marina onto the roof of the building with a twitch and the creature recoiling in agony. Pearl’s scream grew louder and louder in intensity as the pink ribbons enveloped over the creature and blasted this chaos of music and voice towards the beast. Faintly, the tune of ‘ebb & flow’ came from the aftershock of the ribbon wave.
Marina, taking the opportunity, dashed away from the creature and focused Her own energy as well. Marina’s deep blues grew brighter and brighter in Her tentacle hair. Her finger’s blue tips glowed even brighter than they were before and became almost like beacons of light that she twirled in dance-like fashion. Her eyes glowed bright like the foam of the morning ocean meeting the bright blue sky. From behind, Marina had more tentacles appear, Her form growing brighter and brighter as Her humanoid form began to melt away and Her more octopus-like features becoming more pronounced as She gained more tentacles. She doubled, then tripled, then quadrupled in size, becoming bigger than even the blob on the roof of the building. Just as Pearl, the faint sound of ‘ebb & flow’ could be heard coming from Marina’s giant octopus form as a volley of bright blue ink fired from Marina’s tentacles that bubbled the pancake creature who was still being stunned from Pearl’s shockwave screech. The two forms; the pink ribbon waves, and liquid blue ink, converged and crossed together as the two powers combined together, the sound of ‘ebb & flow’ now clear as day, and began inflating the creature more and more…until in an instance, the monster combusted with a blast of pink and blue. The batter blasting in all directions as pink and blue ink covered the rooftop.
Pearl’s shockwave dispirited and Marina slowly shrunk back into humanoid form. The two creatures admiring the work they achieved as the morning sun greeted them on the rooftops. Marina gasped as She was quaking in exhaustion and Pearl swallowing her ache in Her throat. Marina and Pearl looked towards each other, not saying anything, until Marina started laughing and ran towards Pearl. “Oh Pearl! You’re so brilliant! Always in the nick of time!” She said, hugging Her friend and squeezing that little bit of life out of Her. “Yeah…yay me…” Pearl said, unconvinced. “Look Marina…I gotta come clean. I made that thing…” Pearl explained, waiting for Marina to be mad.
Marina looked towards Pearl and laughed. “No duh! I’m not an idiot Pearl. You used my teleporting gun and fired it at a yeast…It hyper expanded and took over the studio. Its not rocket scientist silly.” She said with a smile. Pearl looked towards Marina with a squint. “And you’re not mad I went into your room after you told me not to?” Pearl asked, hoping for redemption. “Oh no! I’m very angry, almost ready to bonk you over the head, but you seem apologetic enough so its fine…besides, I’ve always wanted to see what would happen so you had a fun time, I got to see something cool.” Marina said with a smile, making it almost seem like Marina was lying about being angry. Suddenly, Marina’s face went cold as She looked towards Pearl. “Do that again…” Marina squinted Her bright blue eyes towards Pearl as Pearl gave a gulp.
Suddenly, the color returned to Marina and she smiled. “Besides, I got to spend the morning with you! That’s pretty fun!” Marina said, picking up Pearl in a hug. Pearl wasn’t sure whether to be afraid or happy Marina dropped it. The two looked towards the sunset as Marina pulled Pearl over and the two looked towards Inkopolis below. In silent agreement, the two of them sat together up on the rooftop, eating the last few mega strawberries from the monster as they watched the remainder of the sunrise together. “Shows in 10. Wanna be here a bit longer?” Marina asked Pearl, who smiled as She laid Her head onto Marina’s arm. “Yeah”