Splatoon Manga - Canon Lightroad

Trait

⭐Chapter 10: Trait

Vintage opened his eyes to find himself back in the hotel room, with his friends standing around him. He glanced at his arms, and sure enough, there were bandages.

"Vintage! You're awake. How do you feel?"

Nana was the first to walk over to him, holding his hand. He shook himself awake and smacked her hand away.

"A little tired. But I don't feel any pain," he muttered.

Nana nodded, her expression unreadable.

"Hey, why aren't we in the hospital or something?" he asked.

Rider turned towards him. "Someone sent us a package with all the stuff we needed to fix you up. Dunno who it was from, though. Hachi and Nana helped you out with some tips they'd learned from the Octarian army. We didn't think it was a good idea to get the guys at the hospital too involved with this. But on the bright side, you've defeated Amaryllis!" he informed.

"I didn't. I merely injured her. She'll be back," Vintage grunted.

"You've got the right idea to not let your guard down. I'd say Amaryllis is still out there. We've got to catch some of them at least, and hand them in to the police," Skull said.

The rest of them agreed. Vintage looked down at his hands, and slowly took some of the bandages off. Faint burn scars still remained on his hands. There were very few, though.

What...was that power of hers? And that power I had, too?

"Hey," Vintage said, as everyone turned to look at him.

"When I was fighting that nautilus... She suddenly became super powerful. The black patterns on her shell lit up, and her eyes went all weird, and then she started blasting all this light at me. It burned," he explained.

Hachi thought for a minute. "Blasting light... that does not sound like something a nautilus can do. But, for the rest of us, let us be careful. I will look into this light-blasting thing."

"But that's not all-when I thought I was done for, I...I started thinking about how I was better than her. Then all of a sudden, I gained enough power to defeat her. Not new powers or anything, it was like, I was way faster and stronger than usual. I have no idea what happened, but I think it could happen to you guys too. I just don't know," Vintage stated.

The others were staring at him funny.

"Wait, you said you thought about your power over her, right?" Goggles said.

"Yeah?"

"What if it's like... your... uh, some kind of hero power?" he suggested.

Vintage was visibly confused.

"You're a rude but powerful guy. Maybe that's like--your special thing?"

"You mean like uh...rudeness..cruelty?" Skull added.

"Well, I specifically remember saying "despair", so..." Vintage mumbled.

"Yeah! Despair! That's your hero power!" Goggles cheered.

"Hero? Despair doesn't sound like a hero..." Skull muttered.

"Goggles, I don't think being mean is a superpower..." Rider sighed.

"No, maybe he's right," Vintage interrupted.

"What," Rider said, dumbfounded.

"When I started thinking about my reputation, how my actions would affect it, when I started feeling like causing despair, I felt that powerful aura around me. Maybe he's right, maybe it is something to do with a trait we have. The problem is finding out what it is. Well I've got mine, so I don't know about you all."

"Hachi?" Skull turned toward the Octoling, who was doing some research on a laptop.

"Maybe you're... smart-ness?" Goggles asked.

"Wisdom?" Hachi clarified.

Goggles paused. "Yeah. I mean, you're super smart so maybe that's it? Skull, maybe yours is-"

"Being an airhead and getting lost," Rider grumbled.

Skull gave him a look.

"Shut up, hot topic," He snapped back.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!"

"HOT TOPIC, WHAT'S IT TO YOU?!"

"WOAH WOAH WOAH, GUYS--don't fight... please!" Nana pleaded, holding Rider back so he wouldn't murder Skull right there and then.

Vintage looked around the room. Hachi, Nana, Rider, Skull, Goggles...

Someone was missing.

"Guys."

Everyone turned towards him.

"Where'd Gloves go?" he asked.

Skull sighed.

"You see..."

~

45 minutes earlier...

Gloves was walking around Nexus Laser, all on his own. It was getting dark, and not many people were around. He'd figured that the Luminous 7 were after crystals or something, so he'd looked at the map of Nexus Laser and done a bit of research on valuable items hidden around the place.

He decided to make his move on the fangtooth of the Luminous. He wasn't sure if it was Hessomight or Hessonite or some other similar name, he'd forgotten already. He thought if it was crystals they wanted, they'd try to steal the Sound Crystal from the Vermillion Theatre, the same one they'd gone to the day before. That crystal was able to store and release sound energy.

If I wanna catch him, I'm gonna have to think this through.

Gloves had sent off the others to keep an eye out for Vintage. This was something he needed to do alone. There weren't any movies playing at the moment in the theatre, so not many people would be around. It was getting dark, so that seemed like the perfect time to strike; in the mind of a criminal, at least.

This fangtooth was huge, and very similar to the ones they'd fought back at the River of the Past. He didn't look like a normal humanoid fangtooth, though, he was like some kind of...monster. Similar to what Vintage had said, though, he lacked a neck, and was very front heavy. Gloves was getting near the theatre now. There was an uncomfortable silence as he stepped across the concrete pathway with few people around. Soon enough, he'd arrived at the front doors.

Now, if I were a villain, where would I go?

Presumably to break in, one would want to take a way in with as little people around as possible. So in the back way, perhaps where all the garbage is dumped. Gloves went around the building quietly, summoning his new weapons, the "Amber Dualies," as it said on the sides of them. They were black and orange with a rock pattern on them. He wasn't sure of the special weapon yet, though.

He rounded the corner. It was dark and wet, and it smelled like popcorn and nachos. Yuck. There was still that uneasy atmosphere surrounding the place. He took small steps, getting ready to attack at any minute. He turned around.

Nothing.

He let out a sigh of relief.

And then all of a sudden, he felt himself being tackled and skidded across the ground. A large...could he call it a paw? was holding his head down. He heard roaring laughter as he craned his head to see who--or what--was on top of him.

"Hey, how'd you know I'd be here? You're clever, I'll give you that. Too bad you won't be around much longer, cuz Hessomight here is about to make you SORRY YOU EVER CAME HERE!"

~

A girl stood atop a building, watching all that had been going on lately. She was sent here with a mission, and she was going to do it. She heard someone else was going to work with her, and that they'd split off to a different part of the city to help as well. She'd seen what the squidbeak were capable of. She was ready to aid them whenever she could.

For she, like one of them, was a-