Splatoon Manga: CybeRun

Chapter 1: Brand New Day

⭐️Chapter 1: Brand New Day

It was a cloudy morning, but the air was warm and it had rained all last night. This week was supposed to call for lots of storms, but so far it hadn't rained yet. It had once again been about a month or so since the garden adventure, and everyone had recovered well from it. The pollen had lessened over time, and things went back to being normal. The squidbeak were doing great!

They'd made some new friends, but they kept the squidbeak splatoon and their missions...mostly a secret. Some Skylings still lived in Inkopolis, and seeing them around was cool too. A few folks from Nexus Laser City moved in, and some creatures from the forest moved in to assist people in shops. Life was going great, and they'd been training with the idol 4 in preparation for their next foe. Flip had to admit, it was such a relief to be safe again.

Nana had become her best friend ever since the Hero Central tests. Rider had initially not wanted her to join the squidbeak, by upon seeing that the was the 8th trait of passion, he let her in so the squidbeak could compete. The Exceptionals had made quite a fuss back then, and the whole trait corruption thing really freaked some people out. Nonetheless, Athena had gotten away while the rest of her team turned out to be just non-evil lackeys following her. Athena showed up later when Nemesis appeared and Calliope and the luminous came back, but then she was captured.

Back to Nana, Flip had watched her take on the forest mission. She was proud of her friend for enduring such a hard task, and was shocked with the others when she found out Nana was the reincarnation of an old water hero. It made her wonder if any of her other teammates were special. Or if she was special at all. Being the most recent member of the squidbeak, even if she'd joined several months ago, made her feel...left out.

She sometimes felt like she was nothing in comparison to the veteran agents, Goggles and Rider and whatnot. She'd considered using a charger to aid her friends, since so much of them relied on close range, but progress on that was slow. She'd been training with one in secret just in case. In the meantime, she joined her friends whenever they had matches against one another in Octo Canyon, or trained in general. She was doing alright.

At the moment, the squidbeak were in the square, raincoats on for safety. They'd been talking about strategies for fighting villains.

"And then you jump in, and I take that opportunity to run around back and WHACK 'EM real hard!" Gloves exclaimed.

"Well yeah but what if they turn around?" Hachi asked.

"The you attack them while their attention is on me! Simple enough!"

"I mean, I could lead in with a dynamo swing instead, I dunno," Rider grumbled.

"Yeah, but the dynamo's kinda slow. We need some shooters with quick reflexes, you know?"

Flip let the conversation drown out in the background as she stared off into space. Her head was too busy thinking about other things to be focused on strategy. Gloves kept going on and on...

"And then we-hey, uh...Flip?"

She didn't hear him. Nana gently tapped her shoulder, and that was when Flip snapped out of it.

"Wha-huh? Sorry, wasn't listening."

"You doing okay? You seem to be...out of it," Nana asked.

"Y-yeah, I'm alright. I've just been...thinking I guess. About possible villains...just to fill my head with thoughts, I guess," Flip replied.

"Hey, that's my job," Rider said.

"I know..."

"Well, has anything come up? You know we're a little more open ever since...well...those other predictions happened," Prince asked.

"Not really, it's just something to fill my head, I guess," Flip shrugged.

"I see. Well, it shouldn't be anything a king can't handle," Emperor said.

""Didn't Noir call you an ex-king once? You were defeated by blue team..." Prince asked.

"We don't talk about that," Emperor replied through a gritted beak.

Flip let out a light snicker at the mention of that. Emperor was always one to think high of himself, even when others told him otherwise. He wasn't the trait of confidence for nothing, especially with the confidence in himself. His confidence was what hhad gotten him to become friends with Celadon. Flip sometimes found herself wishing she was like that.

All of the squidbeak had traits, actually. Prince was empathy, Gloves was bravery, Hachi was wisdom, Nana was perseverance, Goggles was optimism, and Rider was justice. Flip herself was passion, as she had a passion for turf war, fighting, and her own hobbies more than others seemed to. She didn't disagree with it, she was fine with it, she just felt...a little more out of tune with her trait at the moment.

"Anway, what did you guys want to do today? Maybe try executing some of those plans we were talking about?" Goggles asked.

"Yeah, might as well actually act on what we say instead of talking about it," Rider added.

"Sure thing!" Nana replied.

"Absolutely," Hachi nodded.

"Then let's get to it!" Goggles exclaimed.

The squidbeak got to Octo Canyon's entrance and dove in after making sure nobody was watching. As they got out, the went straight for the training dummies. The thing was, Octo Canyon had been modified a little to have more space, seats, and decor. This had been modified ever since the squidbeak's mission to Nexus Laser. It was pretty nice too, and the squidbeak used it often.

Nobody knew how long they trained for. Marie eventually brought out cups of lemonade as everyone was finishing up, with Callie staying in the shade. Gloves was the first to notice her, and ran over as some of the others kept going behind him.

"Is this for us?" Gloves asked.

"Yes," Marie replied quietly.

"Sweet, thanks!"

He took a glass and beckoned the others over when they were all done. Flip ran over with the crew and took a glass with them.

"I feel refreshed, don't you?" Nana asked the group.

"Yeah! I'm glad we got all that fighting out! I had no idea if those attacks would work or not!" Hachi said happily.

"Me either! Glad we could figure it out!" Goggles smiled.

"I actually feel like we've improved a lot! I feel ready to take on any task now!" Gloves exclaimed.

"Yeah, me too!" Prince said.

Flip smiled as she drank from her cup.

"It's almost like this day couldn't possibly get any better!" she added.