"Hi Spyke." The purple-tentacled inkling said, greeting the sea urchin as she sat next to him. "More problems at home, love?" he asked, not turning his attention away from the snail shell he was turning over and over in his hands. "Yeah." Replied the inkling, taking a sandwich out of her bag. "You want this, Spyke?" she asked, holding the messily made sandwich out to him. "…'Aight."

A Year Ago…

Jee was a twelve-year-old inkling with her tentacles usually colored purple. She lived by Inkopolis, but she was always willing to help for a bit of spare change so she could travel to the city. She grabbed her wallet, apiece of cloth taped and stapled all over so it would keep together and walked out the door. She had a backpack on her back, and she concentrated mostly on keeping in semi-kid form as she walked to the train station. The middle aged inkling at the ticket booth smiled at her as she paid for her ticket to Inkopolis. "Are you going to see Callie and Marie's news studio?" he asked, passing her the slip of paper. Not knowing what to say, Jee nodded and ran off towards the train.

"Inkopolis Station!" blared the speaker as all the kids around Jee got up. The semi-formed squid kid hopped off the train, walking onto the launch pad everyone was using to get to Inkopolis' plaza. She squinted as she concentrated on becoming a squid, a squeak of joy escaping her as the small squid collapsed onto the launch pad. "Fresh." She whispered as she landed. The city never ceased to amaze her. She changed back into sort of kid form and pulled her makeshift wallet out of her bag. "I have enough to buy some juice and maybe a muffin…" she thought, staring in the direction of the café. Before she started walking, something caught her eye. Faint colors like a lightshow coming from an alleyway.

She continued staring, her head tilting slightly as she saw a pretty fresh looking inkling walking in. "If they're going in, it's probably safe…they don't look too much older than me…" she waddle-ran towards the alleyway, her short purple tentacles trailing behind her. As she reached the alleyway's entrance, she stopped to catch her breath and peeked in. The fresh inkling from earlier was chatting with someone that definitely wasn't an inkling. It had spiky black hair and was holding some sort of shell. As he talked to the inkling, he turned the shell around in his hand, reflecting light and colors off of it. Jee was interrupted from her thoughts as she heard the inkling call "By the way, Spyke, I can see the reflection from the snail shell. Tone it down a bit!" as he walked confidently towards the exit to the alleyway. Jee pressed herself against the wall, concentrating on not inking herself as the inkling passed. She sighed as he left and dipped into the alleyway, carefully tiptoeing in the shadows towards Spyke. "I can see you." He growled, putting the shell safely behind him before staring in her direction.

Jee squeaked, turning a bright red and covering her face. "Hey, don't be embarrassed." Spyke said in a gentler tone. "Why're you down here, love?" he asked as Jee walked closer. "I-I…um…saw the lighty-thing." She mumbled, looking down at her feet. He nodded, patting the ground next to him as if to say sit down. "You wanna try?" he asked, carefully passing the small inkling a shell. Jee's tentacles went back to their normal purple color as she tried not to drop it. She held it up to the sky, trying to catch the sunlight onto the shell.