"Is everyone in their pods?"
"Affirmative. All subjects present and awaiting cryo-sleep."
"Good good. Initiation the cryo process."
"What about you, doctor?"
"…"
. . . . .
BEEP BEEP BEEP
Ray made a swipe for alarm clock, missing it by a few inches, before managing to successfully hit the snooze and silence the obnoxious beeping. The young inkling stretched out, before throwing the blankets off of his body, hopping off the bed with a yawn.
The 16 year old Ray was a short inkling boy, clocking in at only 4'10", he had been upset about his short stature in the past, but has since grown used to it. His short tentacles laid flat on his head, on of the tentacles sticking up fashionably. It was a unique style to be sure, but it was 'fresh' as people referred to it as. His blue eyes scanned his closet before he decided on what to wear. A simple t-shirt, shorts and sneakers. He wasn't ever one to be flashy.
After eating a quick breakfast and packing his gear, he was off, locking the door to his house on the way out. He would of said goodbye to his parents, but he lived alone. He didn't mind it though, he spent most of his time turfing. After walking a fair bit, he finally made it to Inkopolis Square, sitting down at one of the tables near Crusty Sean's truck, the Crust Bucket.
While waiting for the morning announcement, Ray took out his squid-phone. Not knowing how to properly kill time, he scrolled through some of his photos. Most of them were saved drawings he had come across on Splatnet, while there were a few pictures he had personally taken with teammates. These teammates were from really good games he played, where they usually dominated the enemy team. A little 'tradition' of sorts he had.
"Hey." He heard a feminine voice calling out to him. Closing out of the app, Ray looked up to the owner of the voice, and saw an inkling girl standing across the table. Even without standing, he could tell that this girl was significantly taller than him, maybe about 5'4". She wore a yellow-green hoodie with a zipper, a pair of glasses, sweatpants and black high-tops. Two tentacles hung down on sides of her head. "Oh, sorry, I'm not disturbing you, am I?" She asked with concern.
"Oh, uh, no, you're not, don't worry." Ray waved his hand, dispelling the girl's worries.
"Oh good. You don't mind if I sit here, do you?" She asked, gesturing to the empty seat on the opposite side of the table to his own.
"Uh, sure, go ahead." He nodded, gaining a smile from her as she sat down and made herself comfortable.
"You're Ray, right?" She suddenly asked. Ray raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah?"
"Cool!" She smiled. "I'm Shelly." She waved happily. "I heard you're a pretty great player in turf war. You also quickly climbed the ranks in pro games too!"
"Please." Ray said, he wasn't used to compliments outside the occasional cheers of teammates. "I'm definitely not as good as you're making me out to be, plus I'm only an A rank."
"Oh come on, don't sell yourself short like that! Oh, uh, sorry, I wasn't-" She began to apologize until Ray let out a small chuckle.
"Don't worry, I'm not THAT sensitive about my height. I've grown used to the sort of thing. Plus, you didn't intend for it to be a poor joke." He smiled, making her worries wash away once more.
"Phew, alright. Um…" She shuffled her feet underneath the table. "Ray, would you mind if we… played a game together?"
"Oh? Have you suddenly fallen for me?" Ray smirked once he got the desired results; a blush overtaking Shelly's face.
"Wh-what?! N-no, I-" She stopped her panicking once she saw that Ray was attempting to stifle a laugh. Her embarrassment turned into a cute pout. "Hmph, I just wanted to play a quick game with you is all."
"Alright, alright." Ray composed himself, though his smile remained. "Sure, I don't mind playing a game with you. Turf war?" He suggested, gaining a nod from Shelly.
"Sure!" Just then, Off the Hook came on the big screen in the square for the daily announcement.
. . . . .
After hearing what the morning battle areas were, Shelly and Ray entered into Deca Tower together after registering their names on the terminal.
"Just your name as well?" Ray commented, seeing Shelly enter in her real name like he had.
"Yup. It's mostly just because I couldn't think of a cool username." She admitted, making Ray roll his eyes. "What about you? Why don't you have username?"
"Just preference. I felt my name was enough." He answered. "Anyway, what weapon are you going to use?"
"Just a charger." Shelly pulled out her weapon, allowing Ray to see it. "I bet you're going to use your Kansa roller, right?"
"You knew?"
"Yup. I've heard about you, remember? It's pretty much your main weapon."
"Oh, right." He rubbed the back of his head, looking away. "Anyway, ready?" He asked, gaining a nod from his teammate. Confirming they were ready, the way opened up behind them, revealing a floor pad that would launch them to the battle area's spawn pad. Stepping onto the pad, they shifted into their squid forms and allowed the launch pad to send them in the direction of the arena.
. . . . .
"Cryo pod 1:No life signature detected.
Cryo pod 2: No life signature detected.
Cryo pod 3: No life signature detected.
Cryo pod 4: Life signature detected.
Occupant: Zane Flores
Civilian.
Stable condition.
Initiating thawing process." Words on a computer screen flashed. A nearby pod let out some steam as the glass on top defrosted. The ice melted away, revealing a young, human man. Once the hatch of the pod lifted, Zane gasped for life. His eyes widened as he took in precious air, before erupting into a coughing fit.
"Oh God, this is what it feels like to be birthed?" He wheezed out, recalling what the scientist described the process of being defrosted would feel like. Once he was certain that he wasn't dying, he composed himself, taking in a deep breath, then letting it out calmly.
Zane, a man who had just turned 20, he had short, black hair, brown eyes and was currently dressed in special clothing for the cyro-stasis. He was one of the many civilians chosen to be put into cryo-stasis before the rising sea levels could wipe out the remaining humans more than 12,000 years ago.
"How long has it been? He asked, not expecting to receive answer. He looked over at the other pods, seeing that they still had frost covering the glass. Unaware of their fate, he simply assumed that they had yet to awaken. "Maybe I should change out of these clothes while waiting for everyone to wake up…" With that, Zane headed towards the locker room, nearly stumbling as he tried getting feeling back into his legs after his long slumber.
. . . . .
At Snapper Canal, Ray was in the front lines, inking territory as he ran along, keeping an eye out fro any enemies. All the while, Shelly stayed behind him, inking territory when she got the chance, but focusing on keeping an eye out for enemies. Just then, a bomb was thrown towards them, Ray kept running while Shelly escaped through a trail of blue ink she shot diverging from Ray's path. Not soon after the bomb exploded into orange ink, an octoling jumped from the edge, shooting out ink towards Ray, who was the closest. However, before he could hit the ground, he was splatted by Shelly. She turned towards Ray and gave him a thumbs up until he saw him jump up and fling vertical line of ink past her, splatting an inkling that had tried to sneak up on her.
"Gotta watch your back." Ray said, before seeing her shoot ink behind him, splatting another inkling that tried sneaking up on him, attempting to splat him with an octobrush.
"I agree." Shelly smirked, making Ray chuckle while sweat dropping. The rest of the round went smoothly, Ray and Shelly covered each other while their other two teammates worked on the other side of the stage. Eventually, three minutes had passed and the round was finished. Each team was called back to their spawn pad and presented with a screen of the map with two cats, Judd and Judd Jr. After tallying up the results, it was obvious who the winner was. Blue team had won with 78.2% of the territory covered.
"Nice job, Ray!" Shelly nudged him, congratulating him on achieving the top of the scoreboard. "Though I do have to say, I didn't expect you to get splatted so many times. I beat you out in that regard."
"They only reason I got splatted more is because I was out in the front line, while you stayed back. It isn't exactly easy to splat a sniper that plays it safe." He nudged her back, making her giggle. "Well, want to do another game?"
"Actually," Shelly began. Ray looked towards her. "Can you come with me real quick? I want to show you something."
"Uh, I guess?" Once exiting out of lobby, Ray followed behind the taller girl. She led him past Grizzco and towards a manhole cover. She quickly scanned the area. Seeing no one else aside from herself and Ray, she bent down to lift the cover, which had turned out to be a fake to hide a grate in the ground. "Uh…?" Ray looked on with suspicion.
"I need you to trust me, Ray, I'll explain once we're on the other side of the pipe."
"And you can't explain now because…?"
"It's better if I can make use no one listens in us." She tuned into her squid form and jumped into the pipe, not before grabbing onto the ledge to look up at Ray. "Hurry, I don't want anyone to see us." She waved a tentacle, motioning him to follow before proceeding down the pipe towards wherever it was leading her towards.
"Wait!" Ray tried to call out, but she was already long gone. He sighed, he looked around himself before walking towards the manhole. Before jumping in, he made sure that his roller was easily accessible. Once he felt that he was prepared for whatever awaiting him on the other side of the pipe, he shifted into a squid and jumped in after Shelly.
. . . . .
Here's the second story that I will be working on alongside My Yakuza Hero.
I hope you guys enjoy this story, and if you haven't, maybe check out my other story as well, if you want to of course. Take care. ^^