Splat Force: The Gifted; Chapter 12

(Thx for the feature once more! ^^)

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W E L C O M E ! ! !

This is Nomad! Back with some more Splat Force: The Gifted!

This Chapter is going to focus on the other main characters (The trio, Fred and Cosmo) since the last Chapter had the focus be on Bolton and the newly introduced Led.

Without further ado, let's get into this!

(This Chapter has been Remastered)

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(Chapter Hub)

C H A P T E R 1 2 : R E A D Y , A I M , F I R E

The sun rose once more. The light shining down on the Earth. Inkopolis blessed with a new day. However as many people woke up to fun and games, three Inklings in Bluegill Town did not.

In the undergrounds of Bluegill rested the Splat Force's former base. In the base, there was a door by the weapons stand leading to the chambers. The room was full of bunk beds. There was one against the right wall visible from the door. To the left was an aisle of four bunk beds two at the back wall and two at the front wall with one final bunk bed against the left wall. Opposite the front door was the bathroom door.

In there rested the three Inklings, Drift on his bed directly to the left of the front door, and Ami and Zane sharing the bunk bed against the right wall. Ami on top, with Zane and Drift at the bottom of their respective beds. They were all sleeping.

In the lobby, the elevator opened up and out came Frederick Evans. He looked around the empty lobby and shook his head, though he wasn't surprised. After all, his son had always been a late riser, why wouldn't that be the case for his friends? Frederick entered the chambers and turned on the lights.

"Ugh!"

Zane groaned, grabbing his pillow and forcing his head in it in an attempt to ignore the light and somehow drift back to sleep. Unfortunately, he still laid awake.

"Dad... wha-what time is it?"

Driff yawned, opening his eyes as he sat up... only to fall back in his bed.

Frederick raised his arm to have a look at his watch.

"Six thirty!"

"Six thirty?!"

Ami called out, not used to waking up this early, even when her sister got up early at home and made lots of noise, she still tried to get a bit of sleep in... looks like that wasn't happening today though.

"Dad isn't this too early?"

Drift groaned, slumping forward in his bed again.

"Well that's the time that the Splat Force used to work. Now get your butts off your beds and get breakfast!"

Frederick instructed with a smirk, clapping his hands twice to emphasize it. The collection of Inklings still barely clinging to sleep groaned.

Frederick walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Drift slowly climbed out of his bed, he was shirtless. After building up enough motivation, Zane finally rose... only to see Drift half-naked.

"Oh my, Drift! Why don't you wear a shirt to bed?"

He exclaimed, covering his eyes.

Drift just gave the simplest answer.

"I get hot easily. Plus, it saves me getting out of my clothes in the morning."

"But couldn't you just put pajamas below your daily clothes?"

"I'd get even hotter, Zane."

Drift simply replied, smiling at her as he finally put a shirt on.

"Temperature wise."

Zane quipped as he started to slowly get up from his cozy blankets.

"Yeah, yeah, only temperature-wise."

Drift replied, knowing full well that he wasn't one of those incredibly handsome models that people see on a billboard.

Zane let out a sigh as he looked up to check if Ami was up. She was. Ami looked down at Zane with a smile.

"You'll get used to it. He sleeps shirtless during sleepovers."

She told him.

Drift noticed a navy green patterned bag that was placed next to his bed, he didn't placing anything down there, he looked at Zane and Ami's bed, their bed had two, presumably one for each.

"Hey guys, by any chance do any of you two own navy bags or did they just magically appear out of thin air?"

He asked, slowly opening up the bag.

Zane looked to the side of his bed and also saw a navy green bag.

"Don't buying one. There's another down here, I'm assuming it's for Ami."

"Yeah...? I guess whoever placed them there didn't want me getting left out, hehe!"

Ami giggled, climbing down the wooden ladder and making with the floor, her feet getting cold from the ground.

The three of them each opened up their own respective bags. Each of them received something similar, it was the Splat Force gear, each in their signature colors, Zane's being light-grey, Ami's being pink, and Drift's being green. The group of Inklings started to put on the gear on top of the clothes they were already wearing, though Drift remained topless under the gear.

"Is this like our uniform or something?"

Ami asked, unsure of what to feel about it after putting it on and realizing that it didn't feel comfortable.

"Yup, this is the Splat Force gear."

Drift answered, knowing its design from his father.

"So, are we invincibility?"

Zane asked, making sure that he would be safe in a possible gunfight.

"I mean, you would still live but you won't be invincible. Those vests are bullet-resistant. Besides, you won't be safe from a blade fight, and you sure as hell wouldn't be safe from a collapsing building."

Drift explained, making sure to put the image straight to Zane to avoid reckless stunts, though reckless stunts were not in his nature.

Eventually the three of them were fully dressed in their uniform. They went into the bathroom to have a look at their reflection in the mirror, with Drift looking like his father, if his father had long and brighter hair, and Zane and Ami still having their respective headband and bobble hat on.

The three walked out of the chambers and into the main room, ing the weapon stationary and into the bar area. They saw three plates, each containing a pile of pancakes.

"Pancakes!"

Ami cheered, running up to the bar table, and licking her lips.

"Mom's pancake recipe never fails to deliver!"

Drift exclaimed as he dug in

"This is going to shock you three, but I have never had pancakes in my whole life."

Zane confessed, knowing full well that Drift, Ami, or both, would be shocked out of their minds... and he was right.

Both Drift and Ami slowly turned around and both looked Zane dead in the eye gasping.

"You haven't even had one pancake, not even an omelet?!"

Ami asked, astonished.

"Well, in my defense, I'm still new to Inkopolis, so I don't know all the popular foods."

Zane explained, hoping that neither Ami nor Drift would kill him.

"Well, at least you get the chance to have them now, kid! My wife made these Pancakes for me and Drift every other Tuesday. Ami has also had them before, she'll tell ya that they're good!"

Frederick assured with a smile, giving Zane a thumbs up. Inside, he had a warm, prideful feeling in knowing that his wife's cooking would live on and do good.

"Oh yeah! Try 'em!"

Ami persuaded Zane with a stuffed mouth.

"Okay! Well... here goes nothing!"

Zane said as he sat down and began to eat.

It was a challenge to get through those pancakes, as enjoyable as they were.

"So... that's what Pancakes are like?"

Zane said, feeling fuller than ever.

"Yup! Told you they a good!"

Ami exclaimed, rubbing her delighted belly.

During their breakfast, Frederick had been setting something up on the training grounds. He was placing down bullseyes for target practice. He walked into the storage room on the top right corner of the base and walked out with a cardboard box and placed it down by the stationary.

He opened up the box and took out what was inside, it contained a variety of different weapons that the Splat Force used. These include their own Splattershots, similar looking to the ones in Turf War, though the ammo used was more lethal and didn't paint the area where it shot. He also took out Splatterscopes, long-ranged weapons that were deadly in the wrong hands, and lastly, he took out Duellies Squelchers, weapons used for both hands and rely on speed. He placed each weapon on the stationary.

"When you three can move after that big breakfast, you have your weapons right there. Choose one and that would be your weapon type."

Frederick instructed, making sure that they didn't wander around clueless.

Both Zane and Drift looked at each other and then looked at the weapon stand. And just like that, they were off on their feet, running over to the stand. Zane managed to get there first and was able to get his weapon just before Drift did. Zane managed to get the Splattershot while Drift got the Splatterscope. Ami slowly followed, yawning and rubbing her eyes, feeling tired again after eating the pancakes. She picked up the Duellies that were left for her.

"Hey Ami, you doing okay? You don't seem to be one hundred percent"

Zane asked, feeling worried about her slowness.

"I'm fine, Zane... I'm just tired that's all, I usually wake up around eight, so this is just different, that's all!"

Ami answered, hoping that Zane wouldn't be worried about her.

"Well, you might want to be fully awake because your training begins now!"

Frederick announced, clapping twice once more to symbolize it.

"Umm... sir, you never specified what to do?"

Zane commented.

Frederick nodded at him.

"Ah, that's right, my mistake. I thought the training dummies and target practices would've made it obvious."

He said sarcastically. He walked to the front of the three of them and presented their tasks.

"So, each of you have your own tasks. The task for Drift, since he chose the Splatterscope is to hit an exact bullseye. Watch and learn son."

He took the scope from Drift's hands and got into position.

", when using a weapon, you need to know the golden rule: Ready, Aim, Fire! You ready yourself up by getting into a position like this."

Frederick stood one foot ahead of the other, both hands on weapon, eye into the scope.

"Once you are in position you aim your weapon at the target which in this case is the middle of the bullseye. Once you are locked on..."

B A N G ! ! !

The bullet flew directly at the bullseye, hitting the middle. The three young Inklings started clapping.

"Yes, cool I know, but the downside is that there are no Ink trails on the way to the target like in Turf Wars, so you can't swim through it. Now Drift, your turn."

Frederick gave Drift the weapon.

"Ready!"

Drift managed to get into a similar pose that his father was in. He had his left leg behind the right leg and had both hands on his weapon, he just forgot to put his eye in the scope.

"Aim!"

Drift moved around his weapon to try and get it in a good direction.

"Fire!"

Drift panicked at his father's sudden yell to fire and ended up firing the weapon, but missing the target by a mile.

Frederick raised an eyebrow at his son.

"Well, you certainly missed the target. Tell me what you did wrong."

"I don't really know where I went wrong, I just did..."

Drift said, confused about what he didn't do right.

"Ah well you see, you forgot to put your eye on the scope. That caused you to go off the rails right there. You try that again whilst I sort out your friends."

Frederick instructed as he walked over to Ami and Zane and took them to the other side of the training grounds.

"What will we have to do?"

Zane asked, feeling prepared to do anything that the Commander said.

"You two will be over here. Neither of you two will be needing your weapons for this task as you are both going practice combat on each other-"

"Wha-What?! I don't wanna hurt her!"

Zane interrupted, not feeling comfortable about hitting a girl, let alone his friend.

"Well, I'll be busy helping out Drift, who needs my help. You two have each other to practice with."

Frederick said, glaring at Zane for being defiant.

"But, she's a girl... and she's my friend! I don't wanna hurt her!"

Zane answered back.

"Oh, you're one of them... how about this, you punch each other's palms, just the palms, to see who has the stronger punch?"

Frederick offered, using one hand as an example and using the other to punch his other palm.

Ami's hands were starting to shake, she was nervous about this, not wanting to be hurt, or Zane getting hurt.

"D-Do you think it would be best if we called Cosmo? I-I think she will help!"

The girl suggested.

"Ami, in times like these, you have to rely on each other to train, and not an adult."

Frederick said softly but sternly, wanting to talk some sense into her. Though times were now hard, he knew that they were still kids after all.

"Well, how would we know how to punch and all that if we don't have someone to guide us the right way? Drift has you, wouldn't it be more fair if we also got one?"

Zane asked, trying to back up Ami's point.

Frederick stopped for a minute and started to stroke his chin thinking about the offer, eventually, he came up with an answer.

"Fine, I'll give her a call, but you better work harder for her! I doubt she'd be too pleased with being up this early."

"We will!"

Ami assured him.

Frederick walked away from the training grounds and walked to the elevator, exiting the base. Once reaching the surface, he walked outside, feeling the soothing morning breeze touch his skin. Though the sun was rising, the outside world was still dim. Frederick took out his phone and dialed Cosmo's number.

"Hello?"

She answered.

"Hey, it's me, sorry for waking up so early."

Frederick greeted.

"No worries! What's up?"

"I've woken the kids up for their first day of training. It's been a couple of days and I figured that now was the right time."

Frederick explained before getting to the point.

"Anyway, Drift is doing fine at the shooting range, however, Zane and Ami have been defiant about combat training, mostly the former, and have requested that you come and help them out."

"Okay, first of all, why are they up at six forty-seven in the morning?!"

Cosmo asked, her voice spilling out concern.

"Secondly, they're friends, why would they want to risk hurting each other?"

"I never asked them to hurt each other, only to practice. That's what everyone did back then after all."

"Yes, but they're also kids! They don't know their own strength yet, they're still growing!"

Cosmo replied.

"Okay, I'll be over in a couple of hours, gotta take Platinum to school first. Her Dad won't be able to take her for... obvious reasons."

"Yeah, I know."

Frederick replied before bringing the conversation to a close.

"I'll see you then."

"Okay then, bye!"

"Bye."

Frederick responded before ending the call. He shut his eyes and let out a strong exhale.

Down below, Ami and Zane walked over to the bar and sat next to each other.

"How come you didn't want to practice with me?"

Ami asked him, her voice going back to being soft.

"B-Because I don't want to hurt you Ami, you're my friend, a-and I care about you. The last thing I want to see is you in pain because of something I may do."

Zane answered, his eyes not making eye

"Aww, that's adorable! Thanks!"

Ami said smiling, placing her head on Zane's shoulder as she began to catch up on more sleep. Zane couldn't think of anything to say, his face started to blush a similar color to Ami's hair. Her head felt warm. Nonetheless, he smiled.

2 H O U R S L A T E R

The elevator opened up once more, this time, the blue-haired Octoling woman walked out of it and entered the main room.

"Cosmo!"

Ami exclaimed, running over to the woman and hugging her.

"Oh! I wasn't expecting that greeting!"

She chuckled, patting Ami's back before getting down to business. Zane approached them.

"I've heard you two need a good teacher."

"Yeah, I don't want to end up hurting Ami."

Zane explained as the three headed to the training ground.

"Aww! You're such a gentleman! Such a contrast to Commander Grumpy over there!"

She joked. Frederick glanced at her, giving Cosmo a discontent glare.

"I'm kidding, obviously!"

After Frederick looked away, Cosmo turned to the kids and winked, making Ami giggle.

"Is he usually like this?"

Zane whispered, making sure that Frederick didn't hear.

"Oh yeah, he's like that all the time, don't take it too personally."

Cosmo quickly assured them cheekily.

"I always knew him as Drift's cool, but professional Dad. I've never actually seen him in action though."

Ami commented.

"He may seem a bit hard because he's worried for his kid. I know the feeling. I have a daughter, and if she were ever in this situation, I'd be anxious too."

Cosmo said before shifting topics.

"Okay so here is how we shall do this, Zane, you will punch the palm of my hand with all your force. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine, I just want to see how strong you are at the moment."

Zane walked in front of her and clenched his right fist, moved his arm back, and forced it forward and into her palm.

"Okay, that was not bad! You can do with a bit of working out your muscles but yeah, I think you did well for your first punch. Now, your turn, Ami."

Cosmo said, turning her attention to the young girl.

Ami clenched her fists, but unlike Zane, she immediately went for the palm instead of building up the punch.

"Okay, we could improve this by changing how you begin your punch. You want to put the thumb on the outside of the fist, not the inside, or else you may hurt yourself. After that, you then want to move your arm back slightly so that it would have more power to it, but other than that, just average at best"

"Okay then, Zane, this may sound like an out-of-nowhere thing to request, but punch me in the face."

Cosmo requested, putting her hands behind her back to not block it.

"W-Wait... what?!"

Zane exclaimed, suddenly being struck by this offer.

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

She assured, giving the young boy another wink.

Zane sighed, speechless at the request. His moral of not hurting girls had come to the test today, first Ami, now Cosmo. Questioning the life he was living. Zane took a deep breath, clenched his fists, moved it back, and then... he missed.

In fact, Cosmo had just vanished entirely like she wasn't even there. Zane looked around him, trying to see where she went.

"Down here!"

A voice called out. Zane looked back forward and then looked down and saw that Cosmo had entered her swim form. Cosmo quickly entered her Octoling form.

"Oh... was that why you requested me to punch you?"

Zane asked, surprised he didn't even think about swim forms.

"That's true! You know, the more you use that form, the more neat tricks you will learn to pull off. And as you get older, you get quicker, well until you become an elderly man, but that's beside the point."

Cosmo explained.

"I'm sure you've had plenty of experience with that considering your kids love Turf Wars so much."

Ami looked at Zane, giving him a cheeky smile before having a squid party. Zane smiled back at his friend before ing in. Though she didn't the party, Cosmo looked at the two kids and smiled.

Cosmo caught a quick glance at both Frederick and Drift, the latter of which was smirking away. Frederick shut his eyes and shook his head slowly. Cosmo giggled and scratched the back of her head. She turned back and clapped her hands, making them stop.

"Okay, we'll have one big squid party later, but for now, let's do some training, haha!"

"On it!"

Ami exclaimed as she and Zane got back onto their feet.

Cosmo looked back at Frederick, who shook his head once again. In response, Cosmo came back at him with sarcastic gestures, making his eyes roll.

3 H O U R S L A T E R . . .

Over the course of the training hours, the kids went over their punching skills whilst also learning how to manage their swim forms in battle.

"Okay, you two seem to be doing fine. I'll go check on Frederick and Drift, and then we'll get you guys some lunch."

"Cool!"

Ami replied, starving for a good lunch.

At that same time, Drift continued target practicing. His skills kept on improving as time went on. He got a total of twenty bullseyes, in the span of seventy-five attempts, but he still had a long way to go.

"Dad, do you mind if I rest myself for a bit?"

Drift asked, worn out from being in the same stance for quite a while.

"No, not at all, go ahead."

Frederick answered, giving him a thumbs up. Instantly, Drift ran over to his friends. The three kids began having a squid party as the two adults watched. Cosmo giggled whilst Frederick rolled his eyes.

"Kid's these days..."

"You and Rex were once kids too, you know?"

Cosmo asked, walking over to him with her hands on her hips, giving the Commander a wink. Frederick snarled.

"How have things been for you, Fred?

"First of all, only he calls me Fred!"

Frederick exclaimed, making Cosmo chuckle. It became clear to him that she just wanted a reaction.

"You've really grown an attitude since the Gifted Wars, I know who you got that from."

"I'd be shocked if you didn't."

Cosmo replied before allowing Frederick to answer her question.

"Anyway, things have been okay. Had a rough start with him missing and needing to ready himself, which is what I expected for a Rookie."

Frederick explained.

"Wow, did you just call your son a Rookie?!"

She asked cheekily.

"Well, he and his friends are Rookies now... at least until the Bolton threat is done with."

Frederick responded before asking for Cosmo's side of the story.

"What about the other two?"

Cosmo looked back at the kids, who had all sat down on one of the benches and were talking.

"Well, their punching skills seem to be fine, a little tweaking could do but other than that they're fine. They could also use a good warm-up."

She explained, hoping that Frederick had some sort of warm-up idea.

"Are you suggesting that we should take them out to the forest for a jog?"

Frederick assumed.

"I was thinking yoga or crutches, but that works too!"

Cosmo answered, gently punching him in his left arm, to which Frederick just gave her a stare.

"Okay... so a no to that as well... alright."

Frederick walked onto the stage and stood in the middle, breathing in before grabbing the kids' attention.

"Alright can we all gather around please!"

He called out. The trio all gathered around the stage. Cosmo ed Frederick on stage, standing on backstage left.

"Okay, we are going to have a small jog around the woods outside as a way of warming up. When that's done, we can have a long lunch break. Are we clear?"

"SIR, YES SIR!"

Drift yelled at the top of his lungs. Everyone in the room stared at him awkwardly.

Frederick especially was left stunned. Cosmo was on the verge of laughing.

"Wow, I haven't heard that in a long time..."

Frederick uttered. The whole thing felt surreal to him.

"Anyway, let's get outside!"

The group walked to the elevator and went up. Upon reaching the surface, Frederick unlocked the gate into the woods behind the shed and opened it up, letting the trio and Cosmo before closing the gate and locking it behind him.

They each arrived at a circular pathway. In the middle. The track wasn't very long, only taking a minute to run around. However, directly in the middle of the wood was a large structure hidden by an enormous blanket. Only Frederick and Cosmo knew what it was.

"Make sure you are following the track, don't go elsewhere!"

Frederick instructed, clapping his hands once more to make them start jogging. Immediately, the three of them were off. Frederick and Cosmo watched them from the distance.

"This should give them a good breather for quite a bit."

Cosmo said as she began breathing in the fresh air.

"Yeah it should."

Frederick replied.

"Besides, they've been up for quite a while now. Hopefully, they should have more energy for the afternoon."

"They should."

Cosmo said before giving Frederick a suggestion.

"If you want my honest opinion, I think that they need days of rest in between. Definitely give them weekends off and during the week, have them train every other day."

"Right... so Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are training days and the other days they relax in the base?"

"Yeah! That's a good schedule, right?"

Cosmo asked, wanting to put the mental health of the kids first. She knew that too much work could overwhelm and discourage them.

After giving it some thought, Frederick nodded and agreed with a hum.

"Sounds like a plan, as long as they are trained and ready for when Bolton comes knocking again."

"Yeah... I'm sure everything will turn out just fine."

Cosmo assured herself, hoping that the younglings weren't going to be in too much danger.

T O B E C O N T I N U E D . . .

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T H X F O R R E A D I N G ! ! !

Thanks for reading Chapter 12 of Splat Force: The Gifted. Before I wrap things up. I wanna quickly shout out eika For helping me with improving some of the scenes and overall making it a better product. That's it for this week. Until next time, stay safe out there! ^^

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