Girl from Inkopolis

Grate-way of Opportunities

Caramel switched forms, the air whipping her tentacles about wildly. She spread her arms to slow her descent as she plummeted toward the ground, grunting slightly as she made contact with the concrete. The others had already landed, chatting animatedly amongst themselves. The bright colors of the plaza never failed to impress her, the ever-changing billboards, the noises from the arcade machines, the clothing on display at the stores and the smell of Crusty Sean's food truck.

Today, however, something was different. A small crowd had gathered around a building on the right... the newscast studio? She jogged over to the crowd, trying to sneak a peek at what was going on. The rest of her group followed closely behind, standing on the tips of their toes.

"What's going on? What's going on?"

"I... dunno..." A little jingle sounded off, returning everybody's attention to the window. An announcement at this time of day?

"Why's our producer freakin' out, Marina? Check the teleprompter!" A loud voice called. That distinctive voice could only belong to Pearl from Off the Hook, one of the idols of Inkopolis.

"Uh... give me a moment... let's see..." The soft-spoken voice of her counterpart Marina trailed off for a moment before picking back up, sounding much more panicked. "The Great Zapfish has disappeared?!" Everybody in the crowd turned to look at the Deca Tower in the center of the Square. True to her words, the massive catfish was nowhere to be seen. "There's more, too! Pop superstar Callie has gone missing!"

...who?

"Oh, no, that's terrible!" Pearl cried. "Isn't somebody gonna do anything?"

"I-I can get a search party togethe-" the background music suddenly shut off, causing a stir at the front of the crowd. What was going on? Caramel tried to peek over the mass of bodies again, but to no avail.

"Ahem- sorry about the outburst, guys. Bad news. With this whole Zapfish sitch going on, we're gonna have to shut down Turf Wars for now, 'least til we can get some more power going."

"I hope they're okay... but for now, that's all the time we've got."

"Don't get cooked, stay off the hook!" The pair said in unison. The crowd began murmuring, mostly complaints about the loss of Turf Wars. Caramel's brow furrowed a little as they dispersed, leaving her group huddled up in front of the now-empty recording studio.

"Aw, bummer, we didn't get to meet them..." One kid groaned.

"Yeah, and I was looking forward to Turf Wars, too..."

"You guys wanna go do something else?"

"Yeah, we should... no point wasting our first day of break..." Students began to walk off, leaving Mint and Caramel standing awkwardly in front of the window.

"So... what's the plan, Minty?"

"I-I'm going to go with everybody else. You want to come with?" A little flurry of green in the opposite corner of the square caught her eye. A young Inkling woman in a kimono was standing motionless, clutching onto an umbrella that partially obscured her top half. What little of her face could be seen was clearly turned down in a frown.

"Nah, you go ahead. I'll catch up with you guys later."

"Alright, if you say so. Be careful." Mint turned, waving over her shoulder as she jogged away. Caramel waved back, waiting until her friend had disappeared around a corner to turn her attention back to the woman. One of her hands moved into view, a handkerchief visible for a brief moment. Was she crying?

"Hey, miss! Are you alright?" Caramel started toward the woman, but the woman flinched, her umbrella jerking up to reveal a gorgeous face, gold irises streaked with tears and green-tipped white tentacles tied up behind her head. Before she could get any closer, the woman shielded her face up again, switching forms and falling into the manhole underneath her. "Miss!" Rushing over to the grate, Caramel whipped out her Dualies and dove in.