"Goooood morning, Inkopolis!" called Callie's voice from the plaza screens.

"We'll cover todays turf war stages in just a moment, but first, we've got something much more exciting to talk about," Marie said with a soft smile.

"That's right! Next week, the Splat League will be starting back up for its sixth season, and Inkopolis couldn't be more excited!"

"After that mess with the Great Zapfish disappearing last year and interrupting the tournament, the professional battlers are itching to get down into the field—and all the rest of us are looking forward to some top-notch matches as well."

"Are you interested in participating this year?" Callie asked, pointing to the camera. "Well, if you're at least S rank, sixteen years old, and dying for some hardcore turf war action, there are a few teams this year holding auditions for new members!"

Two logos appeared on the screen; the first was an orange picture of a firing splattershot, and the second was a blue squid with sunglasses. Marie gestured to them. "Pro teams Ink Blast and Cephalosquad have both announced that they are searching for some fresh ink on their teams. Make sure to check out their websites for more information."

"And don't forget, any group of four Inklings that meet the age and rank requirements can sign up for the junior bracket! Who knows, if you do well enough, we could be seeing you from the pro commentating stands next year!" Callie said with a wink.

The Inklings down on the Square were buzzing, talking excitedly to one another about which teams they couldn't wait to see, who they thought would win this year, how they wished they were good enough at turf wars to enter themselves, and so much more.

Keri's eyes, for one, were fixed on the screen, but she wasn't listening, not really. "Ink Blast is recruiting?" she whispered to herself, eyes wide.

The waiting room for the audition was tense. She'd been there for about an hour by now, watching as Inkling after Inkling went into the room and came out again. Some emerged smirking, sure they'd crushed it, and others were practically crying. Some were literally crying.

Keri was next, and Keri was sweating. She pinched at the hem of her shirt, fingers dancing on her thigh. She hated being nervous. She shouldn't be nervous. She was plenty qualified. But, then again, so were a lot of Inklings, probably.

The door to the audition room slammed open, causing Keri to squeak and jump. The girl that had been in front of her in line stormed out, grumbling to herself. Her chin-length tentacles swayed as she marched over to a boy—her friend, presumably.

"Didn't go so well?" the friend asked.

The girl pulled at her beanie. "I screwed it up. I coulda done it but I screwed it up!"

"Well, this isn't the only team holding auditions. Cephalosquad—"

"Cephalosquad's dumb as shit! Look at their logo!"

"Come on, have you even watched any of their matches?"

The girl looked away guiltily, but before Keri could eavesdrop any further, a jellyfish with a clipboard floated out of the door and gurgled at her, motioning at her to follow. The girl's words hung in her mind; what if she screwed it up? She'd screwed stuff up before.

She shook her head. Stay positive, Keri. You've got this.

The jellyfish led her through a short hallway that opened into a gigantic room. There was a full indoor turf war arena here, complete with ramps and grates and a spawn point at either end. The jellyfish left briefly and returned with an ink tank, which Keri took and strapped on. Before too long, she heard footsteps behind her, and turned, seeing three inklings approaching her. She immediately started to die on the inside: this was Ink Blast! They were really here! In front of her!

"Hey, how are you doing today?" asked the one in front. She was wearing a simple grey hoodie, a weirdly casual look for the battler Keri had been watching for years. Her long tentacles hung loosely at her sides, but Keri could still see the tension held in their strong muscles.

"H-hi! Good! Oh my god, you're Tentaclaw!" Keri fumbled, staring at her. "I can't believe I'm finally meeting you! I'm, uh, I'm sure you're hearing this from everybody but I'm a really big fan, um…"

One of the other Inklings—his pro name was Brella Knight—laughed, placing his well-built arms on his hips. Keri found herself glad he wasn't super serious; with kind of body shape, he could be really threatening if he wanted to be. "I'm glad. We're going to start with a few basic questions, and then move into the practical part of the audition."

Keri nodded, swallowing her nerves. "Okay. Got it."

Tentaclaw cleared her throat, and looked down at a piece of paper in her hands. "Alright. Full name?"

"Keri Avony."

"What weapon do you use, Keri?"

"I, uh, tend to switch it up a lot, but I'm best with dualies."

"Standard dualies?"

"Hero dualies replica, but yeah."

Tentaclaw nodded. "The hero weapons do look cool, don't they? I have a friend who's aiming to get a full set. They're hard to come by, though."

"Oh, um, I have a full set, actually," Keri said. "When I said I switch it up a lot, it's between all the hero replicas. I like the base weapons the best, and I thought it'd be cool to have a theme, so uh, yeah…"

Tentaclaw and the other girl, Bomber, shared an intrigued glance.

"Wow, you're like a proper agent," Brella Knight said, smiling.

Keri gave a short laugh and fiddled with her tentacles. "I wouldn't go that far. The agents work hard to protect Inkopolis; I don't think I'm quite good enough for that."

"Well, anyway," Tentaclaw said, returning to her sheet of paper. "What would you say is your greatest strength in a turf war?"

Keri thought for a moment. "Probably my agility. I'm really good at dodging around enemy fire and stuff while I'm battling. I'm also pretty good against multiple opponents."

"Is that why you prefer dualies?"

"Yeah, they're super light, which is great, and if you're using one of your hands to dodge then you can still fire. But I'm proficient with all the base weapons."

Tentaclaw nodded. "Alright. Now, the flipside of that: what would you say is your biggest weakness?"

"Oh, jeez. Um. It would probably be communication and coordination and stuff, just because I haven't ever been on a team before. I tend to play on my own, or with random teammates."

"Thanks for your honesty. Now, let's see…" She turned the paper over. "Do you have any experience in Juniors?"

Keri shook her head. "Like I said, I've never had a team."

"And how many pro Splat League matches did you watch or attend last season?"

"All of them."

Tentaclaw smiled. "Kinda figured. Okay, so, those are all the questions we have. Time to move into the practical section. You brought your weapon?"

Keri nodded, pulling out her dualies and connecting them to her tank.

"Great. I'm gonna go make sure the spawn points are set up; Bomber here will tell you what you're doing."

Tentaclaw walked off into the arena, pulling out her Splat Charger, shooting a line across the floor and swimming away. Bomber adjusted her goggles and stepped forward.

"Alright, here's the deal. The battle will last three minutes, and it's going to be three against one."

Keri's jaw dropped. Excuse me? What the fuck? "You're kidding. There's no way I could beat all three of you by myself! You're pros!"

"Aren't you auditioning to be a pro yourself?" Bomber asked, smirking. "Besides, there's a handicap. You'll respawn after being splatted like normal, but the three of us will exit the battle altogether if you can splat us once. If you manage to take all of us out, then you win. But if the timer runs out, or we manage to ink 90% of the turf, then you lose. Got it?"

Meekly, Keri nodded. This was gonna be rough.

"And remember, this is an audition. Winning doesn't guarantee your spot. Now, if you don't have any questions, the game starts at the bell."

Bomber lifter her Luna Blaster and hooked it to her tank, walking off after Tentaclaw. Brella Knight paused briefly to give Keri a thumbs-up, then followed suit.

Keri took deep breaths as she stood at her spawn, her ink taking on a deep purplish color for the match. She gazed out at the white expanse of the field, running through strategies. Before too long, there was a hissing sound as the field cleaned itself, and Tentaclaw's ink trail from earlier evaporated. A second later, the bell sounded, prompting Keri to take off.

She rushed to the high ground, hoping to get a better vantage point. She knew she would have to take out Tentaclaw first: like hell would she be able to fight the other two with a charger constantly watching her back. Problem was, Tentaclaw practiced the ninja squid technique and also wasn't an idiot, so finding her, let alone splatting her, could prove to be a holy crap here comes Bomber.

With an explosion of ink, an orange squid launched across the battlefield. She transformed back to her humanoid form in mid-air, raising her Luna Blaster, smiling devilishly, and firing. Keri managed to roll away, quickly bouncing out of the roll into a crouch and pumping the triggers on her dualies. The blaster shot collided against the turf, and Bomber quickly morphed back into a squid, catching herself in the explosion from her previous shot and thus flinging herself over Keri's head. Keri quickly began inking the ground where Bomber was going to land, but she was undeterred, landing right on top of Keri's ink and firing her blaster once again. Keri shot to the side and swam off of the ledge they'd been fighting on, just as the projectile splashed down behind her.

She didn't get far before Bomber cut off her escape with another shot. That was fast! Shouldn't the ink have slowed her down? Keri swore and shifted back to her humanoid shape, deftly spinning around while firing to create a circle of ink under her feet. She continued to put pressure on Bomber with her dualies, scoring a fair amount of hits; Bomber fired one last shot right at her, then swam off. Keri threw herself to the ground, and the ink glob soared over her head. Her feet were caught in the tail end of the explosion, but the damage wasn't too bad.

Maybe she could cut Bomber off and take her out before she recovered? It was worth a shot, Keri thought, covering the ground with her ink and swimming off. As she turned the corner and transformed back, however, she saw Tentaclaw lying in wait. She had the suction cups of her tentacles pressed up tight against the the side of a high wall, and the muscles in her tentacles were flexed, supporting her weight. Her feet were wedged hard against the surface of the wall, too, to provide some support, but she was clinging there largely on the strength of her tentacles alone.

They way she clung to walls always looked hella fresh on the TV screens, but now that she was on the receiving end, it was less 'cool' and more 'holy shit I'm gonna die.'

Tentaclaw must've registered the fear in her face, because she smirked. "Gotcha."

Keri barely had time to skid to a halt before Tentaclaw pulled the trigger. She felt a concentrated burst of ink slam into her stomach, and her form lost stability as she splatted into loose ink.

Several seconds later, she reformed on the spawn pad. She'd walked right into a trap. It had obviously been a trap, too. How stupid was she? She'd watched Tentaclaw pull that same stunt a hundred times during tournaments!

She shook her head; she didn't have time to critique herself right now. She ran off down a flank path in the hopes of getting behind them. Unfortunately, when she turned the corner, Brella Knight was already waiting for her. Of course he was. God.

Keri whipped out her guns and began spraying even as Brella Knight fired a blast of ink at her. Most of her shots landed, but she had to jump out of the way before she could finish him off. His blast had clipped her shoulder, and the foreign ink stung against her skin, but she ignored it, shifting into her squid form and swimming along the wall behind him. She launched off the wall, guns blazing, but Brella Knight swiveled and popped his Tent Sorella Brella, easily blocking her shots. He then launched the shield, and Keri knew she was in trouble.

She rolled to the side and sprinted around Brella Knight, but he lead her with a shot from the umbrella handle, cutting her off. Then he reached out a hand and grabbed one of the wires on the tent head, which was still propelling itself forward, and twisted it around to face Keri once again.

Keri gulped. All these advanced tactics—she wasn't sure she was really cut out for this. She couldn't cling to walls, or launch herself with her own explosions, or freaking grab a moving brella out of midair and turn it around 180 degrees.

But she had to try.

With the umbrella blocking line of sight, and with her movement options fairly limited, Keri turned to the wall she was backed up against and fired straight up it. She climbed it, but before reaching the top, she jumped away from the wall, shifting back to her humanoid form in midair. She grabbed a burst bomb from her pouch and hurled down at Brella Knight; he leapt back, grabbed the Tent Sorella's head, and with one strong movement, wrenched it around to intercept the bomb. There was an explosion of purple ink, and suddenly her movement options were wide open.

She touched down with a smile on her face, scanning the area. If she was right, then… Yes! There!

On the part of the corridor that led to Orange's side of the turf, up on a raised platform, Tentaclaw materialized, charger at the ready. She noticed Keri staring at her and frowned. "So much for a sneak attack," she muttered, pulling the trigger anyway.

Keri easily dodged and began firing up at the sniper. A few shots hit their marks before Tentaclaw jumped off the ledge, her tentacles grabbing onto an uninked part of the wall. She dug her feet in and held, raising her charger once more.

Keri adjusted her aim to Tentaclaw's new position, but then she heard a noise from behind her, and instinctually rolled to the left. One of Brella Knight's burst shots whizzed past her head and splattered against the wall, cutting off Keri's rightwards movements. Continuing to focus on Tentaclaw, she inked the wall above her, ensuring that she wouldn't be able to swim back up to safety. Ducking a charger shot and then jumping over another brella blast, she landed against the wall, merging into the ink and swimming up towards Tentaclaw. Trapped by ink above and below her, the sniper jumped off, falling down to the ground that was now largely orange thanks to Brella Knight's shooting. Before she landed, however, Keri leapt from the wall, too, falling after her. She materialized another burst bomb in her hand and threw it at the falling Tentaclaw. With no means to dodge, the bomb splattered directly against Tentaclaw's face. Keri followed it up with several shots from her dualies, and Tentaclaw's body burst apart. Keri let out a cheer.

"Hey, nice one!" Brella Knight congratulated. In the same second, he hit her point-blank with a full shot from his Tent Sorella Brella.

Keri laughed to herself as she respawned. She'd just splatted Tentaclaw! A pro battler! Today was going great.

Now all she had to do was deal with the other two. She pulled up her tablet to check the turf map, and nearly screamed. Her opponents were growing dangerously close to the 90% mark; Bomber must've been inking during her battle with the other two! She took off down the main path without hesitation, firing her dualies in opposite directions to cover as much ground as she could.

As she arrived in the arena's center, the unmistakable sound of an inkzooka being fired accosted her ear drums.

"Shit," she mumbled, swimming back the way she'd come as a tornado of ink burst through the center. Riding the waves of the torrent, Bomber launched herself right at Keri, inkzooka in hand.

"Woohoo!" she cried, firing right as she flew over Keri's head. Options limited, Keri was forced to jump backwards into the orange ink that coated the center of the stage. It clung to her sneakers as she tried to run, and there was already another inkzooka shot coming. Keri sighed, and was swept up in the tornado.

She respawned once again, and once again took off, this time up towards the sniping platforms. She looked out into the main area and saw Bomber and Brella Knight together, exchanging a few words. Keri took a moment to spread her ink around the area, then dropped into squid form. Time was running low; she had to end this, now.

She jumped from the highest point she could find right on top of the two orange Inklings.

"There!" Brella Knight yelled, firing at her. Keri rolled out of the way, shooting at Bomber to keep her aim unsteady. She leapt into the air over a second shot from Brella, and threw a bomb at Bomber. Bomber swam backwards away from the explosion, and when she reformed, fired a blast at Keri, who swam away in turn. Before she could escape, however, a splash wall fell in front of her. She nearly ran straight into it, but swerved at the last moment.

Bomber shot at her again, and Brella Knight launched out his tent head. The explosion from the blaster caught her, but she was still alive, and pulled out her Tenta Missiles, which were finally charged. As quick as she could, she locked on; Bomber panicked and used a shot from her blaster to launch herself over to Brella Knight, who had his umbrella head gripped in his left hand, keeping it orbiting around his body at the ready. Once the missiles fired, Keri followed up immediately with a low-thrown burst bomb, which slipped under Knight's shield, damaging both of them. While Brella Knight was distracted blocking all the missiles, Keri quickly recharged her ink before resurfacing and facing off against Bomber. They shot, and dodged, and swam, but they were both managing to stay in the game. Keri was thankful Bomber was running the ink mine—it was great for defense, but less great for using in the middle of the fight. If she had to dodge bombs as well as blaster shots, she'd have been splatted by now.

Keri had spent years building up a good aim, and her ink landed true. Bomber's shots landed around her, but she jumped and twisted, managing to avoid the brunt of the explosions. Eventually, Bomber retreated into squid form and tried to run; at the same time, Brella Knight managed to block the last of the missiles with his shield. Crap—she had to act fast. Keri threw a burst bomb, forcing Bomber out into the open, and, leaping over a blast from Brella Knight, drilled her full of ink.

As the satisfying splat echoed throughout the field, Keri took one look at her ink tank and dropped into squid form. She really needed to tone down the bombs; she was having to refill constantly.

Brella Knight released his umbrella head off to her left, threw a splash wall behind her, and then shot to her right, trapping her in a triangle of orange ink. He fired once more straight at her, and she was forced to come back up with a half-full ink tank. His umbrella crashed against the wall, and before Keri could hit him with more than a few ink globs, the shield reappeared on his gun, and launched it again. Keri tried to wrap around, but he took a shot at her, hitting her good on the shoulder. She staggered, and when she looked back up, the umbrella was once again coming straight at her, blocking her line of sight.

Then, suddenly, it moved, revealing Brella Knight right behind it. He must have snuck up from behind its cover!

"Crap!" Keri shouted, stumbling away from a burst of orange ink. He fought like a whirlwind, one hand shooting with the handle of the brella and the other manipulating the head, each covering the other. Before too long, Keri found herself once again back at the respawn point.

"Twenty seconds!" called Tentaclaw from over the speakers. Keri cursed and swam forward; mercifully, Brella Knight hadn't moved from the stage's center. He could've easily gone and hid and ended it there; though, Keri supposed that wouldn't help them assess her abilities very well if he did.

Instead, he was standing dead in the middle of the open middle area, his shield reattached, and the whole ground inked orange.

"Ten! Nine! Eight!"

Adrenaline pumping through her, Keri's fingers went wild, firing the dualies faster than she ever had before. She rushed straight at him , and, predictably, he popped the shield, easily blocking the hits. Considerably less predictably, Keri let out a yell and roundhouse kicked the shit out of his stupid umbrella.

"Seven! Six! Five!"

Her shoe collided with the massive tent, sending it flying. Brella Knight managed to keep grip with one of his hands, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing, as it sent him spinning with the momentum of the weighty tent.

"Four! Three!"

While he was disoriented, Keri threw her dualies to the ground and summoned a burst bomb in either hand, completely depleting her ink tank. With a roar, she flung them straight at her feet, and the two of them went up in a shower of purple ink.

"Two! One! Game!"

The ink rained to the ground, revealing Keri to be the last squid standing. Her eyes were bloodshot, she was panting, her hands were clutching her knees, she was covered in ink and sweat—she was a mess. And she had won.

Tentaclaw started to clap, walking onto the field and up to Keri, her teammates close behind. "You did it! Great job!"

"You guys," Keri said in between heaves, "are really goddamn annoying to fight."

"That's the plan," Bomber said, hand on her hip. "You handled us pretty well though."

Brella Knight nodded. "You weren't kidding when you said you were good at dodging. I've almost never had that much trouble hitting someone."

Keri blushed, still panting. "Thanks, that means… a lot coming from… from you… ugh, I need to lay down."

"You're one to talk," Tentaclaw said. "We've done this eighteen times now. Though, we haven't exactly been going all-out. We need to give you guys a fair shot after all."

Keri nodded, too tired to keep responding. That was frustrating to hear.

"Alright, Jerald will show you out," she continued, gesturing the jellyfish that had called her in. "Obviously, we haven't seen everyone yet, but you put on a good show out there. You're a strong contender, Keri."

Keri smiled. Half of her brain was ecstatic that she'd just been complimented by Tentaclaw, and the other half wanted to tell her to shut up because Keri had a massive headache.

She followed Jerald in a daze, packing up her dualies and returning her ink tank. She'd managed to catch her breath by the time she'd returned to the lobby, and saw the next boy follow in after her, just as nervous as she'd been.

She'd given it her all; now all she could do was wait.

Keri sighed. She hated waiting.