After the Storm (A Splatoon 2 AU Fanfiction)

Chapter 7

Marina zipped through the streets of Inkopolis, swerving on occasion to avoid the goo left on the ground. Pearl sat behind her, holding on tightly to avoid falling off. The scene around them played similar to how it was in the Square: the green octolings helped up trapped inklings only to place a pair of shades on them. The hypnotized, discolored inklings would start to chase them, but Marina was faster.

She took a sharp turn left on some street. By now the buildings were gradually smaller compared to the Square and its surrounding areas, and the piles were a lot smaller, which seemed to slightly upset the off-color octolings.

Pearl gripped tightly onto Marina, causing the latter to wince slightly. "Be careful!" yelled the former, who looked behind.

The octolings, unable to find any inklings within the goo, were in hot pursuit of the motorcycle. As they passed more octolings, the others started to join the party.

"Yo, we got an entourage following us," Pearl remarked quite loudly. "I don't think they're here for photos."

"What?" Marina said. "They should be tired by now!"

Pearl looked back at the group. They all showed no signs of stopping, even the ones that joined a long time ago. "No, they aren't! What kinda weird inklings are these?"

Marina glanced at the side mirrors, seeing glimpses of the crowd following them. Though, she seemed to be looking at the mirrors for too long, not realizing in front of her that another group had formed a chain in front of them. Her mistake was not looking where she was going, and she was about to pay for her mistake. She swerved around, but was unable to find an opening, leaving her with no choice but to break the chain, and maybe run someone over in the process.

Marina regained control over the motorbike, speeding towards the chain, and going past it as two octolings unlinked themselves from each other. That was the least of the duo's problems, though.

When the bike swerved, it caused Pearl to loosen her grip on Marina to hold onto the seat. As the two octolings unlinked themselves while Marina passed through them, they grabbed Pearl's shoulders, yanking her off the motorcycle.

Marina sharply turned the bike around as she noticed the lack of weight behind her. She saw the group immediately swarm Pearl, seeming to overpower her. Dismounting the bike, Marina ran over to a pair of trashcans, taking off the lids and shaking off the goo that landed on it. She then rushed over to the crowd, pushing away as many of the octolings surrounding Pearl as possible. Some of the octolings began to grab at Marina, and she felt something warm touch her left shoulder as she pushed away more octolings on her way to grab Pearl.

Pearl was squirming away from the grasp of myriad octolings, even switching into squid form to try and avoid their cold touch. Soon, she felt something warm grab hold of her. She struggled, before whoever grabbed her held her close.

Marina had grabbed Pearl amidst the chaos, and held the squid close to her chest as she rushed back towards the motorcycle. Her arm started to feel like it was burning, but it didn't stop her.

Hopping onto the motorbike, she began to speed away, controlling the bike with one hand as she held Pearl with the other. As they went further within the suburbs, they hoped there'd be no more interference, even as the crowd continued to follow them, and disperse as some of the more restful Inklings started to emerge from their houses.