The Reluctant Hero (Splatoon)

Chapter 2

"Since time immemorial, a rare type of electric catfish known as the Zapfish has been prized by Inkling society as a source of energy. In fact, the entire city of Inkopolis is powered by a single one-hundred-year-old Great Zapfish!"
—Sunken Scrolls 1:1 (1.1)

Saturday, 9:06 a.m.

Inkopolis City Jail

The city jail looked a lot like the hospitals, much to Cole's surprise. In his head, jails were a shady sort of place. He expected something much darker and dungeon-like, with security guards, long hallways, and iron doors. Instead, he got a carpeted waiting area full of couches. A television mounted on the wall silently reported the news: Has the Great Zapfish disappeared again? One visitor was reading the smaller headlines scrolling across the bottom of the television, and another visitor was whispering to her kid. Many others simply sat in waiting or looked at their phones. The jail was so normal it very well could have been a hospital lobby.

The elderly sculpin at the front desk looked agreeable enough. This was no big deal, Cole thought as he took a deep breath. He approached the front desk, unsure of what to say. He had never been in a jail before. Cole hated talking to strangers, and he wanted to get this done as quickly as possible.

"Um, hello?" he tried.

"Good morning," the sculpin said, looking up from her computer. Her voice was squeaky, yet low in pitch. It might have been him instead of her, but Cole couldn't quite tell. "Who are you here to see?"

"A friend of mine has been missin' a few weeks," Cole stammered out with a slight drawl. "And I was wonderin' if you could help me with that." The receptionist blinked at him, maintaining eye contact for a little bit longer than Cole was comfortable with. He was about to turn his head away when she spoke up.

"I'm sorry, young man, but we only take scheduled visitors here. If you want to see someone, you should call us a few days in advance, tell us—"

"No, like, can't you just check if her name is in here?" Cole interrupted, raising his voice. "I don't really know if my friend is actually in jail. I been searching for her all over Inkopolis."

The sculpin at the front desk gave him another look before speaking. "You might be in the wrong place, young man. I would suggest you notify the police and—"

"I did. I done that already," Cole replied, interrupting her again. He tried a more direct approach. "Okay, I'm here to see Natalie Tilus. It's spelled T-I-L-U-S. Does she have any visitors scheduled for today?"

"Inmate register number, and your name, please," the receptionist said without skipping a beat.

"How should I know?" Cole demanded, a touch too loudly. By now, most of the visitors in the room were staring at him. He suddenly felt very out of place here as an angry, six foot one man from the boonies, a big guy who had stepped into a public building meant to accommodate much smaller people. He was an outsider, a troublemaker disturbing the peace. He did not belong in here, or anywhere in the city, for that matter.

He silently cursed himself for losing his cool so quickly and took another deep breath to calm himself. "Sorry," he whispered. "My name is Cole. Cole Leoidea. I don't know Natalie's register number."

That seemed to be enough, thankfully. The receptionist turned back to her computer and typed something in before looking up at him again.

"All right, kid. We have nobody with that name in our system."

That was a relief, but where was she, then? Cole thanked the front desk and walked out with as much dignity as he could muster. A few of the visitors were still giving him funny looks.

Cole was running out of options. Previous contact with Natalie was now over a month old and suggested nothing out of the ordinary. He had no idea where she could have gone. He could hire a private investigator to help him, but that was expensive. The missing person report should have the police conducting a search, but to Cole's knowledge, they hadn't done anything yet. Well, the report did list Natalie's parents as the contacts—maybe they had some updates.

Cole pulled his phone out of his pocket and prepared to call Natalie's parents when he realized that he was being followed.

¤ ~ § ~ ¤ ~ § ~ ¤ ~ § ~ ¤