Inkblot [A Splatoon2 Fanfic]

Chapter Twenty-One

    "500,000?! You said it was 50,000!"

    That boy's scream was loud enough for Spyke to hear from his place in the café. For the fifth time today, Murch managed to piss another kid off with a ridiculous price. Spyke remembered being a little tough on kids when he did this, but Murch was just ruthless. He knew the boy was just trying to impress him to get into his clan, but, truth was, Spyke wasn't in any sort of mafia or yakuza to begin with.

    All Spyke had were connections with other people that owed him favors, and they helped him find cheap gear and other things kids asked for. If any kids went missing during the process, it was only because his contacts did something without even telling him. Spyke even did everything in his power to find one of the missing kids, which only ended in a horrible misunderstanding and the end of a beautiful relationship. After that he didn't bother to ask his contacts what happened to the kids that went missing.

"The fuck did you call me, you little brat?!"

Outside, Spyke could see Murch taking off in a run while that kid and two of his friends gave chase. That was the second time today. Spyke decided to cut the work day short. He was about to shut his laptop when he saw a line from a news report.

'Tragedy at Clowny Fish Daycare Center—Many gone missing!'

"What...?"

   Out of curiosity, Spyke opened the page and read what it contained. His eye slowly went wide and his mouth fell open as he kept reading; awful memories flashed in his head.

"Shit!"

Spyke slammed his laptop shut and pulled his bag over his shoulder, hurrying out the café. He passed by Murch, who was in urchin form as those kids threw him around like a beach ball, but he didn't stop to help. Spyke hadn't seen something like this in years, he didn't even know what to do! Getting this on the news would cause mass panic and there was no way he could tackle this on his own...

    "Damn it... I thought we could avoid this...!"

————

"Hachi, sweetie? I got a warm bath ready for you,"

Tres came in the bedroom, shirtless, and knocked on the door frame. Hachi laid in the bed, still red faced and breathing heavily. Tres sat beside him and leaned down to kiss the younger boy, smiling as he saw him blush more.

"Are you ok~?" He asked playfully.

"I'm... I'm fine...!" Hachi said breathlessly. "That was... amazing..."

He shyly smiled. Tres brought Hachi to a sitting position and lifted him up in his arms bridal style, the younger boy quickly holding on the second he was in the air.

"Nice view~"

"No looking!"

Hachi squealed and tried to cross his legs. Tres kissed his forehead and carried him to the bathroom, sitting him in the warm bath. The Octoling let out a satisfied hum and put his head back.

"Thanks, Traci..."

Tres left one more kiss on his cheek.

"Your clothes and a towel are right there. I'm gonna go get dinner ready, ok?"

"Ok!" Hachi beamed.

Tres left the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. He got a shirt on and grabbed his phone, checking it for anything new as he went to the kitchen. Marina gave confirmation that Átta was awake and she was working on paying for her treatment. Hachi'd be happy to hear his sister was ok.

"Now, what to make for dinner..."

Tres went to open the cabinets to see if there was anything he could work with. Then he heard a car pull up outside; Spyke just got home. When the door opened and slammed he turned to greet Spyke, but the second he saw the urchin, he saw fear and stress in his eyes.

"Is everything ok...?"

"No, no, everything is not ok, not even a little ok!" Spyke threw his bag down and let out exasperated breaths.

"W-Why, what happened?"

"Where's Hachi...?"

"In the bathroom, just put him in a bath..."

Spyke leaned on the counter with his head down, Tres still able to hear him breathing heavily. Then he quietly explained, not looking back at the squid.

"At a daycare... an entire class went missing... all that was left was a teacher and three kids. The teacher was really shaken and in shock and didn't give comment, but the kids with her told police that... there was an inky black monster with thousands of eyes that got bigger and bigger and it took all their friends and another teacher..."

He looked back at Tres.

"The father of one of the missing children confessed that his son went to school with symptoms of Inkblot... he didn't take the boy to urgent care because he was afraid of what would happen..."

    Tres was suddenly understanding the gravity of the situation...

    "Did... the boy get other children sick..."

    "More than that... see, children sick with Inkblot reach the terminal stage a lot faster than teens and adults. For anyone older it takes a few weeks, with children it's at least three days because the infection can spread through their little bodies a lot faster. When someone is in the terminal stage and they touch another Cephalopod, they don't just infect them they... absorb them..."

    "In that book... those photos of ink blobs with eyes—!"

    "We named it the Cephamalgam. It's a mindless mass of ink that's multiple Cephalopods fused together... it starts small, but the more innocents it absorbs, the more dangerous it gets!" Spyke's voice got more intense. "One managed to form back then... it took almost a month to hunt it down and kill it, but it had already managed to absorb half a town and consume those that weren't made from ink... it was... damn it..."

    Spyke put a hand over his face. Tres didn't see any tears fall, but knew this was a painful subject for the older male.

    "I'm sorry..." He said softly.

    Spyke took his hand away, taking a few breaths to recollect himself.

    "I don't know how big that thing got... but I know it's roaming somewhere in the city... and something has to be done soon before bad things happen..."

    In all honesty, Tres was absolutely terrified to think of such a thing; a bloodthirsty monster loose where his friends and family were? It sounded insane... but Spyke was right. This wasn't something they could just brush under the carpet...

    "What kills it?"

    "What...?"

     "... How do we kill the Cephamalgam?" He asked again sternly.

    "It'd take a lot of hydrofluoric acid..."

    "You know where I can get it?"

     Spyke dragged a hand down his face and sighed; he sounded aggravated.

    "I know what you're thinking, Tres... I'll tell you what I know but answer me this... do you know what you're planning to get yourself into...?"

    Tres stood his ground. He thought about the promises he made to Hachi for them to leave and search for flood ruins together once this mess was over. Hiding tears with determination, he nodded.

    "Trust me... I know what I'm doing,"