Vian woke up with a smile on his face, Today was moving day! The New Squidbeak Splatoon was transferring to Splatsville, a massive city in the middle of the Splatlands. The crew had spent the last couple of days packing up their homes, the Splatlands were far away and had their own apartment complexes.
On the train ride, Vian sat tinkering to adapt the hero outfits to the hotter, harsher environment adding armor, shortening the length of the pants and shirt, padding the shoes to make for comfort on the sand, and adding a visor to dull the high light levels and protect the eyes from the sand. As he was working, his friends started going to sleep, Harber commented that they would like to have a bigger ink tank, and Gleam suggested armor on the sides of the boots, Vian happily obliged, designing an ink tank that could hold 50% more ink, a corresponding weapon to handle the pressure of all that ink and armoring the sides of the boots so sliding would be painless.
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Once Vian was done he headed back to the sleeping car, and passed out dreaming about their new home.
The next day:
Donnie woke up with a spring in his step (when doesn't he???) Splatsville! Only two hours away, as the crew waited, they sat and ate breakfast in the dining car, but as they were finishing up, screaming broke out in the car before theirs (the first car after the driver's) and Donnie ran in, their's something on the tracks! He jumped a couple of seats to stand next to Vian and yelled, "C'mon! Let's fix it!" Vian nodded and flew to work, making an Inkzooka out of the dinnerware, he blasted the debris out of the way, and the car cheered, but moments later the inkzooka started to make strange noises, Vian ran to the last car, unaware that his friends were following him, and the inkzooka exploded with a roar of sparks, the heroes flew through the air and slammed into the burning hot sand, luckily the car they just decimated contained their hero outfits, and Vian instructed everyone to put them on, guys behind one rock, girls behind another and Harber behind a third. Once everyone was changed Vian showed his friends how to activate the coolant system inside the suit's boots and shirt, now that everyone everyone was feeling cooler, they headed out for the Splatlands following the train's tracks, but about an hour into their journey with Splatsville on the horizon, the sun started to set, as the group shut off their coolants they huddled together, as it was very cold, gadget gathered some dead shrubs to burn in a fire and Vian rubbed a rock against his boot's armor, sending a shower of sparks onto the bushes and causing them to combust, producing a cheery glow and gentle warmth, as the group nodded off, they set a timer on their suits to wake them before sunrise, wanting to beat the heat, and drifted into a soft sleep.
Gleam woke up to the sound of a shrill cry, she sat up and surveyed her surroundings, she checked her interface clock and saw that it was three in the morning, groaning she got up to inspect the sound, as she came to it, she saw that it was a baby salmonid pinned to the ground bu some debris, she hesitantly approached it and the little thing writhed about. She took a step back, but then saw a look of hopelessness in the eyes of this creature, and knew it'd be dead by daylight in the harsh sun. She gingerly removed the twisted metal and cracked concrete, the salmonid happily leaped into her arms, and it felt strangely good to hug, not slimy or scaly, but smooth and warm. She pulled it into her chest and snuggled it, as she stood up she heard her friends calling for her, she concealed "her little buddy" in a flap on her Ink tank, and ran to assure them that she was ok, she hurried with Vian and Harber back to the camp before the rest of the group worried about them, once they got back, the group once again set out for Splatsville. When they arrived they walked around for a bit, exploring the new digs, the weapon shop was bigger, the cafe was serving morning coffe, and there was a shady looking alleyway, all the sudden, from Vian's headset, a call came in from Cap'n Cuttlefish, he said that they were approaching the drop point, "Drop point?" Vian asked, you'll see, Cuttlefish replied, as the group walked deeper into the alley, they saw a storm grate, knowing the meta, they approached it but as they neared, the world began to shimmer blue around them, matrix-style, suddenly the floor flickered out of existence, and the group was falling, Vian - being at the head of the group - screamed the loudest (that's totally how that works) as they plummeted into oblivion...
