Splatoon Manga: NightRoad

Chapter 9: Night

⭐️Chapter 9: Night

Everyone was in SHOCK.

Was that a shadowling? They looked so dangerous! Who knew what they were capable of? They had already seen the news, but who knew what else they could do...

Noir stood up, and dusted himself off. He then took the mic. The music still played in the background. Luckily, the mic made him loud enough to be hearable through the music.

"Well this sure is a lively audience, isn't it?" He looked around, ignoring the Off the Hook behind him. He scanned the crowd.

"Residents of Inkopolis huh...."

His tone had a bitter sweetness to it, like you knew this was someone you didn't want to mess with despite their voice.

"What do you want?!" Marina asked.

She was scared, but she held her ground. Being a member of the squidbeak, she would NOT back down to an enemy.

"Easy." Noir turned to face her.

Mic still in hand, his cape flowing behind him. Dramatic? nah. 

"Our home is crumbling, and we need a permanent place to stay for the rest of our lives. Inkopolis fits all our needs, and therefore we are taking over." he explained

"T-taking over? But why not just share the space with u-"

Marina was cut off.

"Because you INKLINGS AND OCTOLINGS will TAKE UP the resources, and the space is only big enough for one species. That will be US, thank you."

"How DARE YOU-"

Pearl stood up and chucked a piece of rubble at Noir. He moved ever so slightly to dodge it.

"Psh. I don't even need to use my shadow power. Such a weak species..."

Noir turned to face the crowd while Marina tried to calm Pearl down behind him. Man, the nerve of this one! Then again, they'd faced worse.

"Now then. This can go two ways. Either you all surrender peacefully and move somewhere else, or...we take this place by FORCE."

The crowd murmured, unsure of what to do. Was it worth the risk of staying? Could they make a plan and then come back later? But these things were worse than Skylings, would they be able to get away with it? Perhaps the squidbeak would be able to solve this? 

Meanwhile, the squidbeak looked at Rider, who was boiling with rage, only to keep it hidden with an angry stare. Everyone, despite not wanting to believe or admit it, knew that there would be a tiny chance that this would happen. Now that it had, they were unprepared. 

"Ah..." 

Prince was scared. Rider's anger had shot to near 100%, and he didn't want to be the one recieving it first.

"Uh. Rider." 

Gloves was the first one to speak to him. Prince sighed, but at the same time felt bad for him. He WAS the one who started the party, after all.

"I. TOLD. YOU. AND. YOU. DIDN'T. LISTEN." He said through clenched teeth-or, in this case, beak.

Rider looked ready to explode at any given moment.

"I think I owe you an apology..." Gloves said in a near whisper.

He was practically shaking from fear.

"Yeah. You do." Rider turned to stare at him with his angry glare.

Rider was trying to keep it under wraps so the commotion wouldn't cause the shadowling to look at him. He wasn't about to be blamed for being noticed after he was already right about them showing up.

"Well. At least our training didn't go to waste...?" Flip said with a nervous smile.

"You all. Have trust issues. And it shows." Rider said, still mad.

"No, I don't think that's the right word for it...we just...didn't believe you?" Nana mumbled.

"SAME THING!" Rider shouted, though the murmurs of the crowd were louder.

"S-sorry Rider...I'll...I'll be sure to listen next time..." 

Prince figured the least he could do was apologize.

"You're fine, you didn't actually partake in the whole 'party' idea, you just helped set it up." Rider grumbled.

Emperor didn't like the fact that Prince had to apologize to Rider in that manner, but then again, Rider was right. All this time, and the squidbeak hadn't listened. Had they listened, they could've come up with a better plan. He sighed.

Goggles, Hachi, and Nana apologized as well. The other three (Gloves, Flip, Emperor) decided to wait until later to apologize. Right now though, they had something else to focus on. They looked up at the stage. They couldn't really see the shadowling from here, but it looked like they had black tentacles, red eyes, and fish fins for ears.

The crowd finally answered Noir's question, some saying they didn't want fights but others insisting on fighting. Louder talking followed, and it sounded like everyone was having an argument. Except you couldn't hear what they were saying, since there was also music playing as well.

"Ahem." Noir snarled.

The crowd quieted down.

"Alright then. How about this." Noir said in a calmer, but almost more deadly tone.

"Those who wish to leave now may do so peacefully. Our forces will not attack."

The cephalos hesitated for a bit, but those who picked this option turned into their squid or octo form and slowly left to octo canyon. Any other species quietly followed as well. They did this to make sure nobody saw where they were going so they wouldn't be followed by shadowlings. They didn't really trust this new species...

Luckily, Noir didn't see them. There was less than a quarter of the crowd left. The Squidbeak (including Pearl and Marina) was in that quarter, readying their weapons.

"As for the rest of you..."

His eyes flashed a sinister red, and he snapped his fingers once.

"Prepare to be destroyed."

The shadow 7 took this as their cue, and dove down, all at once.

Noir meanwhile, turned to the two idols. Instead of a splatting gun however, he pulled out two twin longswords. The two stars gulped, but pulled out their dualies and brella nonetheless. Meanwhile, everyone else looked up, and prepared to splat them when they landed.

However, they enhanced their landing with a shadow splashdown, and everyone but the squidbeak was knocked out just by it alone. Even people who wouldn't usually be hit by it. Perhaps it was because there were 7 at once? maybe these shadowlings had more power in them than usual inklings or octolings? Whatever, it was a bad move to stand by anyone super jumping. You never knew what they were going to pull on you.

The squidbeak, who weren't hit by the initial blast (having been in the very back by the fence), had braced themselves, in case anything happened. They had shut their eyes and put up a defensive stance. After hearing the splashdown off, they opened their eyes.

...and stared in complete shock.

There, in front of them, were 7 shadowlings.

And for some reason...

They looked VERY familiar.