Splatoon Manga: NightRoad

Chapter 70: Helicopter

⭐️Chapter 70: Helicopter

"Yo, what?!"

The squidbeak had finished explaining the story of what had happened to Pearl. Pearl had listened with great interest and had asked for all the details and good stuff. The shadowlings had stayed quiet, and out of their mess. Marina had finished their call.

"That's crazy. I can't believe we missed all that!" Pearl said, amazed. That sure sounded like one heck of an adventure.

"Emperor IS okay, right?" Marina asked. She didn't want him ill or anything, cod forbid that weird thing that happened after shadow fusion where people weakened to a point of very slow recovery.

"Yeah...I just...feel tired..." he mumbled. No pain, just tired. A good nap would probably restore his energy...food might as well.

"You need rest" Prince turned to look at him. He was standing against the wall, body slumped down on it. He needed a chair or something. There were unfortunately none to be seen in the basement at the moment, however.

"I know...I'll get it when the next...next best moment approaches..." Emperor yawned. He could barely keep his eyes open. He shifted positions to just...laying on the floor. He didn't want to risk sliding down the wall and hurting himself. Prince notified the rest of the group of his choice, and they made sure not to step on him.

"Anyway, what are the edgier versions of yall doin', taggin' along with ya as well?" Pearl asked, paying attention to the shadowlings for the first time in a while.

"Uh. They said they were going to come along just in case but uh..." Prince turned to look at them.

"The situation has become much more serious than initially planned" Negro said with a monotone voice.

"We never wanted to hurt anyone. We were only following orders" Jet added.

"But those orders were to defeat us...right?" Rider asked.

"Defeat, not kill. Even when we would've captured you, we wouldn't have tortured you or anything of the sort. We're not that evil" Kuro clarified.

"Well...if you say so..." Rider didn't trust them, but something was better than nothing.

"But we need to get him back! The captain, my bro, has let this get to his head! We have to snap him out of it!" Crow said.

"Yeah, but...how will we do it? We don't have something to make us all huge and powerful, and us cephalopods can't fuse together like you all can! Or at least, we've never tried, but...now's not the time for that!" Gloves said. There was too much to consider.

"Yeah, well. Even if we were to fuse together, it wouldn't be enough, and we'd be unstable due to an imbalance" Pitch explained. He wanted to make sure the squidbeak understood that there was nothing the shadowlings could do on their own to stop Noir at this point.

"Not to mention, even if we tried to drain your magic and energy to fight him, he's WAY stronger, and I'm pretty sure Ebony wouldn't be able to bring himself to just...fight his brother one on one in the state he's in now" Heise added.

Ebony nodded.
"I wouldn't be able to. I also wouldn't be able to drain magic, simply because that's just...not who I am."

The squidbeak thought.

"How did he even get that large and powerful? Did trait magic really give him that much?" Nana asked.

"Well, he also has a more hidden side to him. Yknow, how Ebony was actually super powerful but just didn't reveal it until later?" Heise said.

"Oh..."

Silence.

"Well, we're getting a helicopter ride. What does that mean to anyone?" Flip asked.

Prince thought. Emperor couldn't do anything at the moment, he was down...was there anyone else capable of doing something?

"We see how big Noir truly has gotten, then make a plan" Hachi said. Maybe, if they got the size, they'd know what they were dealing with (sure they had seen him when it first happened, but even then, he was covered up some) and then they could assess the situation.

"But it's not like we can just make our own giant weapon! Maybe there's something else we can do!" Nana suggested.

"I'm sure we'll cross that bridge when we get to it..." Prince said quietly, not wanting to start any arguments.

"Okay, but BEFORE we cross that bridge, does anyone have any suggestions?" Gloves said, hearing Prince. He didn't mean to be rude, but...just in case there were any last minute ideas.

"Get to his eyes and poke 'em?" Goggles asked. That would do the trick.

"Well yeah, but...he'd see the helicopter and probably smack us out of the air..." Marina said, before anyone agreed to it, since it did sound like a nice plan.

"Dangit! There's gotta be a weak point on him somewhere!" Rider grumbled, frustrated.

The shadowlings themselves had no clue about any weaknesses on their captain. Heck, that's one of the reasons why he was picked. Few weaknesses were good in their case, but now...it was bad.

"Well, maybe it IS the eyes, we just need a better way to approach it!" Nana suggested. Surely there had to be a better way than just...flying over there and attacking. Maybe they could get ground support? Or maybe more helicopters for more air support....

"Don't worry everyone, I'll think of something" Marina said.

Pearl spoke up.
"No, it's okay Rina, you don't have t-"

Suddenly, a ringing noise. Marina picked up her device, and put it to her ear.

Silence.

"The helicopter's here" she said, after a short minute.

"Alright! Let's go!" Pearl shouted.

Quickly, the squidbeak and the shadow seven climbed up the basement stairs, with Off the Hook following them. They got out to the front of the mansion and opened the doors. They ran outside as quick as they could. The helicopter was there, in the center of the place. Captain Cuttlefish was there as well.

"Aye, well if yer off to fight another giant monster, might as well bring me along to watch ye" he had said.

The squidbeak sighed, and boarded. The shadow seven filed in after them. Marina and Pearl got into the helicopter part. The helicopter began to leave. The squidbeak and shadow seven looked down, only to see the shadowlings waving at them and yelling "good luck!" and "be safe!" as they rose higher and higher...

And off to inkopolis they flew.