Chapter 2
Wednesday, October 3rd - 4 days before the Draft
Draft Academy Day 1
They were told to meet at Goby Arena, and even with all the preparation and practice she had gotten the day prior, Marcie still felt all too nervous. As she and Jamie approached the arena, along with about a dozen other prospects in front of them, she kept wiping her glasses off over and over, the irrational fear of her glasses being dirty during a battle in full effect at the moment.
"I am so hyped," Jamie said, even though his shaking gave it away anyway. "This is our big chance. Like, for real."
It was a bit windy outside the forum, so their access badges around their necks were waving in the breeze, spinning on their swivels. The tree and flower bushes along the walkways shook. "Are you nervous at all?" Marcie asked.
"Oh, I'm terrified," Jamie admitted, shaking his head. "But, as I said, I am hyped."
"I'm nervous, too. Minus the hype," Marcie said, taking some comfort in the fact Jamie wasn't feeling that confident either. Did all the current Pros feel this way when they first arrived at the Draft Academy? "I feel like I don't know what to expect."
"No one here knows what to expect, unless they've done the Academy before," Jamie said.
Marcie hadn't thought about that. The rules were that if you registered for the Draft, but then you went undrafted and didn't get signed on to a Pro Club, you were banned from registering for the Draft the next year. The rule was in place so there was an element of risk to registering as to avoid having every single eligible Amateur sign up every year.
Jamie reminding her of the rule did not make her feel better at all. "So if we don't get drafted, we have to go another two years until we can try again."
Jamie took a deep breath, groaning as he exhaled. "Yep. Terrified."
They reached the entrance, comprised of a dozen glass doors. As they entered, they walked under an LED marquee advertising the Draft. Spectators weren't allowed at the venue, which was a good thing in Marcie's eyes.
"Where did your girlfriend tell us to meet again?" Jamie asked.
Marcie winced at him calling Angel her girlfriend. He was joking but he almost sounded like he wasn't. "She's not my girlfriend," Marcie protested. "We've only sent each other a few texts."
"I know, I'm kidding," he said, though he seemed a bit annoyed with having to meet up with Angel. He had said about ten times since they had met a few days ago that he had a bad feeling about her. He swore it wasn't because she was an Octoling, just because she had seemed almost too friendly at IPC HQ. He thought she might try to sabotage other Amateurs so she could get herself drafted before them. All of this was baseless, and Marcie had been quick to call him out on that, but Jamie retained his suspicion, even if it was, by his own admission, kinda dumb.
"She said to meet near the doors to section 208," Marcie finally answered his question.
"Okay," he said as they swam through the crowd, which was following along a path outlined by velvet ropes. The corridor just beyond the actual arena was mostly concrete with bricks along the walls. Closed off concession stands lined both sides of the large hall that encircled the building. They just passed the gate to section 216.
"At least she went out of the way for this meeting," Jamie said. "I'm getting claustrophobic." By the time they passed section 210 they had left the designated path leading the other Amateurs down the familiar flight of stairs towards the battle stage entrance.
Marcie sighed and tapped Jamie on the shoulder, then straightened her striped shirt. "Do I look alright?" she asked him.
"You look stunning," he told her, nodding with his eyebrows up.
"Seriously though," Marcie murmured, annoyed with his insincerity. "I like her. I want to look good."
"You look fine," Jamie promised, far more sincere.
"But fine isn't good enough," Marcie complained.
"This isn't a dance. You don't have to look like pop star."
"I know, I just..." Marcie sighed, adjusting her glasses. "Let's just find Angel."
"There you two are."
Marcie and Jamie turned and yelped at the Octoling who had just appeared behind them. Marcie's first thought when she saw Angel was sneaking up behind people must be her thing. "Angel!" Marcie greeted.
"Good to see you two again," the Octoling said with a nod. She was dressed in an Annaki tank top and leggings, her magenta hair tentacles pulled back in a ponytail. "Ready for the Academy?"
"Oh yeah," Jamie said with a confident nod, but Marcie was much slower to respond.
Angel chuckled in Marcie's direction. "Don't worry. I'm nervous, too."
Marcie felt a small bit of warmth in her chest at hearing Angel admit that, though she felt awkward for being so obviously on edge. "Hey, uhh..." she got the urge to start asking Angel questions about herself, but she quickly reminded herself that this was not a date. This was day one of a three day combine that would designate her entire future as a ink slinger. "Do you think the others here are nervous, too?" Marcie asked.
"I'm sure they are," Angel nodded, glancing towards the line of Squid and Octo kids still making their way into the venue. "Just gotta stay confident, you know?"
Marcie nodded in agreement, even though if she could be confident right now, she would have made it so, but it wasn't that easy. All she wanted at the moment was a few minutes to sit in a quiet room and collect her thoughts, maybe formulate a course of action for the next three days, even though she had no idea what to expect...Now she felt even worse.
"Hey, I forgot to ask at IPC HQ," Jamie said, eyeing Marcie for a moment as he spoke to Angel. "What's your weapon preference?"
Angel raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "You scouting me?"
Jamie stepped back, waving his arms. "Oh. No no no, I was just curious."
Angel chuckled, shooting Marcie a smirk. "You'll see my preference once we get to fighting."
Marcie felt a lump form in her throat at the glint in Angel's eye. She looked almost...devious, like she knew something that they didn't.
They heard what sounded like a school bell ring.
"All Draft Academy participants, please gather in the staging area. You ought to know where that is."
The three glanced at one another. "Well," Angel shrugged. "Guess it's that time."
Marcie sighed, rubbing her sleeve on her eyeglass lenses once again. "Okay, let's do this." She let her hand fall to her side, only to see that Angel had already walked away. "What? Where..." She turned in time to see her walking away, the Octoling's ponytail teasingly waving back at her.
Jamie leaned over to speak in Marcie's ear. "She's suspicious, I'm telling you."
Marcie felt a chill throughout her body from Jamie speaking directly in her ear. "Stop with your conspiracy theories about Angel," she scolded before following Angel's path. "Let's get there before they start."
Jamie scoffed and followed her, crossing his arms and muttering under his breath. "Just because you're freaking out doesn't mean you have to be all snappy."
They returned to the aisle of velvet ropes and followed it down a staircase to the staging area. It was a plain-looking room that was sort of a locker room/waiting room. There were lockers usually used by Amateur Turf Warriors to put away their belongings and other weapons while battling, and seating areas for those waiting for their next battle. But at the moment, the room was more crowded than Marcie or Jamie had ever seen it. All of the seats were occupied, and the rest of the free space was filled with Squids and Octos standing. Marcie and Jamie could barely cross the threshold into the room before almost bumping into people.
Jamie leaned over to Marcie and murmured, "This isn't exactly the best place for this meeting thing. Like, couldn't we have done this in the stands of the twenty thousand seat arena?"
Marcie sighed. "Thanks for the insight, Mister Obvious," Marcie quipped.
"Welcome, everyone!" A booming voice spoke through a megaphone, startling quite a few of the people in the room, including Marcie and Jamie. They looked around, but the room was too crowded for them to find the source of the voice. "Today, you will begin your first steps toward a potential career in the Inkopolis Pro Circuit. My name is Will Willis, the Vice President of Recruiting for the IPC. I'm going to run through some ground rules for this event, and then I will turn it over to my colleague."
"Can you see him?" Jamie asked.
"Not at all," Marcie shook her head, standing on her toes but having no luck in locating the so-called Vice President of Recruiting.
"The IPC is proud to host this monumental event in association with Squidforce, the overseer of Amateur Turf War, and we once again want to thank Goby Arena for hosting us once again."
"This must be on TV," Jamie whispered to Marcie. "I feel like this is the same thing they say before every Draft Academy on TV."
"This is going to be on TV?" Marcie asked, shooting Jamie a glare.
"Not the training stuff. It's kept private for only the scouts to see, remember?"
Marcie sighed and nodded. "Right."
"And now," Will Willia uttered. "Without further ado, I will now turn things over to the Head of the Draft Academy and President of the IPC Scouting Association, Frank Lo, Head Scout for GTW Memorial."
Marcie and Jamie glanced at one another. "Frank Lo?" Marcie asked him.
Jamie shrugged, only to flinch at the new, very grating voice that spoke. "Alright, you kids." A few of the participants murmured in unease. "I am going to break the tough stuff to you right off the bat."
"The tough stuff," Marcie chuckled. "Yay."
"This is the most we have ever had registered for the Draft. There are one hundred and eighty of you here," Frank Lo said, his voice rumbling like a Dynamo Roller that's run out of ink. Several voices chattered at the reveal of the attendance. "Therefore, this is far more than I and the 29 other scouts here can analyze, so today, Day One, we will be sending one hundred of you home."
Even more unsettled muttering followed that reveal, and Marcie and Jamie were left frozen. One hundred of us won't even make it to Day 2, Marcie thought to herself. Oh my cod.
"That will narrow the field to eighty, which is a number we can definitely handle," Frank Lo continued. "So for those of you who signed up just because 'I dunno, I guess I'll give it a shot, I probably won't get drafted, I'm just curious about what it's like,' well," The man chuckled at his own high-pitch impression of a teenager. "You should really just leave now."
Everyone in the room looked around to see if anyone would leave, but it seemed like they all were staying put.
"Great," The Head Scout for GTW mumbled. "So, let's get to why you're all here. You're here to prove yourself, well we're going to get down to that with some ol' Ink Battles. Does that sound good?"
A few of the participants shouted "Yeah!" with far too much enthusiasm, while others seemed to be trying to shake off their jitters. Marcie noticed one purple-haired Inkling boy nervously fidgeting with what looked like a half-put together Autobomb. Kind of an odd thing to bring to the Draft Academy.
"Alright. We'll start off easy," Lo said. "We will randomly select participants, randomly assign weapons, and randomly assign battle types until everyone has had a battle. There will be 23 battles in total, all of them Ranked modes, as you Amateurs call them. Four of you lucky squishes get to go twice. This will take about two hours, so for those of you who have to wait around, I recommend warming up. Now, for battle number one..."
Jamie looked over at Marcie. "How much you wanna bet we're gonna be waiting to the very end of this?"
"Or if one of us is gonna go twice," Marcie retorted. She took a deep breath. "I just hope I don't have to go right away."
"Participant numbers 108, 46, 150, and 9, you're on one team," Frank Lo announced. "And facing them will be the team of numbers 109, 13, 3, and 70."
Marcie's heart sank when she heard her number, 3. She felt like falling over. "Seriously?" She groaned, putting a hand to her face.
Jamie stepped over and gave her a pat on the shoulder. "It's alright, just remember what this is. It's just another battle, no special objectives, just score points, you know?"
Marcie sighed, looking at her friend. "Yeah, but this is my first impression, I don't want to end up going home after one day."
Jamie scoffed. "You're Marcie Freakin' Tyler. Come on."
The girl chuckled, shaking her head. "That dumb nickname isn't gonna help me."
"I'm just saying you've come this far and achieved so much, I mean...you were born ready for this. Come on," Jamie reiterated, smiling at her.
Marcie huffed another laugh, but nodded. "Okay, better. Thanks."
"Don't mention it," Jamie shook his head and waved her off. "Now go cook some fools. I'll try to save you a seat if I can find one in here."
Marcie smiled at him, then turned to try to navigate her way to the entrance to the battle stage. She squirmed her way through the crowd until reaching the open doorway that led out to Goby Arena, the vast open dome and sea of seats laid out before her.
She also encountered Angel. "Hey, Marcie," She greeted, stepping up to her. She was smiling, though admittedly appeared to be a bit nervous. "What number are you?"
"Three," she answered as they both began to walk out into the battle stage along with six others.
"Oh," Angel chuckled. "I'm 108. Guess we'll be on opposing sides to start, huh?"
SERIOUSLY? Marcie had to do her best to hold back a groan. Not only was she in the first group, but she'd have to battle against her newfound crush, too? How could this possibly get worse?
As they began heading down the staircase that would eventually lead them to their spawn points, attendants stood by the entrance to the stage, handing out weapons. As Marcie walked by, she was handed...an N'Zap 85. At least it wasn't the worst weapon she could have asked for but...she didn't like short range shooters.
Meanwhile, Angel was handed a Slosher. She spun it on her finger a few times, before flipping it and catching it with ease. She waved at Marcie as she went on her way with her team to their spawn. "See you out there," she said before turning away.
Marcie tried to stay calm, even though it was so very obvious that this battle would not be like anything else she had ever experienced. Sure, she had battled in Goby Arena before, and the battle stage was no different from what it always looked like, but the fact that it was so late at night, she was using a weapon she never used, and the only people in the stands were thirty representatives from the thirty Pro Clubs, all there to judge her, along with every one else...it was completely different from what she was used to.
She had hoped she would calm down by the time she reached the spawn point, but she hadn't. She could see the scouts, all spread around the perimeter of the arena intheir own sections, laptops and video cameras set up.
"Attention," a voice over the sound system spoke. "The following battle is a Tower Control battle. All Amateur rules apply. Win by points or 100 for KO. Overtime if necessary."
A few crew members placed a tower in the center of the course. The battle course was set up to accommodate every type of ranked battle. The outlines for Splat Zones were set up, though switched off. The goals for both Rainmaker and Clam Blitz were in place, but they wouldn't interfere in a Tower Control fight.
In a final attempt to focus, Marcie began to think up strategy. The key to a successful Tower Control battle is winning the opening gambit. If her team could get a numbers advantage early, they could advance the tower, perhaps far enough for a permanent lead or even a 100-to-zero KO. Her team just had to utilize their weapons...
Marcie hadn't even checked what weapons her teammates were using.
"Battle start in ten seconds," the announcer spoke.
Her team's color was yellow. Her teammates consisted of a Inkling boy with a Splat Roller, an Inkling girl with a Squiffer, and an Octoling boy with a Splattershot Pro. Okay, it would be best for me to take the tower while the others provide support. The person on the tower should have a high-rate weapon like my N'Zap. I just hope our charger knows what she's—"
A horn sounded. The battle had already started!
"Carp!" Marcie cursed as her team took off ahead of her, leaving her behind. The boy with the roller glanced back at her and yelled for her to come on, but it took Marcie a moment before her mind actually caught up with the situation. She shook her head to clear it and dove into her team's ink in squid-form, quickly swimming ahead towards the center of the stage.
She chose to go the left route from spawn, since she was already too far behind to get to the tower first. She figured she would sneak to the side and try to catch some of her opponents off guard while they were focused on the tower, but—
"Pink team has the tower," the announcer proclaimed.
Already? Marcie had just leaped from the Inkrail to the left side path. Now that the other team had the tower...actually, she could work with it. A quick glance up at her Splatwatch told her two of her teammates, the girl with the Squiffer and the boy with the Splattershot Pro, had been splatted. She advanced with caution, hoping none of her opponents would notice—
"Hey, Marcie," Angel quipped as she leaped from behind the corner, sparing a wink before hurling a bucket's worth of pink ink at her.
Marcie was easily splatted and was sent back to the spawn.
Dang it! Marcie mentally smacked herself in the face for losing focus. How did she know I was there? She soon emerged from her spawn just in time to hear her opponents had reached the first checkpoint. She sprinted out from the spawn, swimming toward the tower. She chose to abandon her sneaking plan. Priority number one was stopping their opponents' advance.
She took the middle path, up the wall to the platform in the center of her team's half of the stage. The tower was to her right, and whoever was on it was hiding in their ink. Marcie charged forward, pulling the trigger and sending a flurry of ink globs toward the tower. She muddied up the tower with her team's ink enough to reveal the positions of two opposing inklings. They both turned their weapons, a couple of Splattershots, toward her, but from behind them, Marcie's teammate with the roller dropped in and flattened them both.
"Nice!" Marcie cheered for her teammate, who flashed a thumbs up. Now she felt she was getting into the zone. Her team had the tower, two opponents splatted. This was their chance to get some points back.
Marcie almost forgot about Angel.
Just as Marcie dropped from the platform to the ground in the center area to defend the tower and ink the surrounding area, she saw her again. Angel was in a shoot-out with Marcie's teammate with the Splattershot Pro, who was getting cornered behind on one of the basketball goals. As much as Marcie did not want to attack her, she knew it was important to take out any threat to her team's advance. Marcie raced over, glad to see Angel had her back to her, and Marcie took aim and fired at her in a single quick burst. She splatted Angel within a second, saving her teammate in the process.
"Thank you," The boy with the SSPro said to her before diving into their ink. Marcie then turned her attention to the tower, which was still occupied by the boy with the roller as it crossed the midway point. Her team's score began to tick away.
Her team managed to maintain their advance at full strength until reaching the first checkpoint. That was when the other team began to counteract their gambit. Roller boy got splatted, forcing Squiffer girl to get on the tower, but seeing how inexperienced she was with a charger, she was cooked soon after. Marcie knew it was up to her now to get to the tower to maintain their advance, but she saw Angel once again, and this time, she stood on the tower, taking it back for her team.
They made eye contact for a split second before Marcie thought better of attacking and retreated to regroup with her soon-to-respawn allies. SSPro boy did not seem to have the same idea. He tried charging the tower and managed to get on it, but he was quickly dispatched by Angel and her bucket.
Marcie found an out-of-the-way spot and Superjumped back to the spawn just as her teammates were beginning to emerge. Her leadership instincts kicked in as she began to relay strategy. "Stay above them on higher platforms, try to splat the ones off the tower before the ones on it, and don't get into a shoot-out on the tower! We can't afford trade-offs right now!"
Her teammates seemed to take note of her points, heeding her advice about taking higher ground. Marcie raced ahead to see the tower approaching their first checkpoint, and she knew it wouldn't stay there long. Angel's team had a narrow lead, but it would soon grow.
Both teams were at full strength, and they clashed just as the tower passed the checkpoint.
Marcie chose to go down the right side and found a spot on a high platform to rain down on the tower. She set her sights on an opponent wielding a Splattershot who was slowly trailing the tower, and she fired toward the Inkling girl. She evaded and returned fire, but Marcie was high enough to be out of range. The opponent foolishly maintained her efforts to fight back against Marcie, and after a few more seconds, Marcie splatted her.
Marcie spared a glance to see her team was down to three after the Squiffer got splatted, but they had a three-to-two advantage at the moment. Marcie decided to set her sights on the tower itself now—
An opposing player sneaked up behind her. Before Marcie could even think to wonder how her team had allowed someone to get behind them, she dodged the boy's initial splat attempt. She fired back, knowing she had had no time to refill her ink tank after splatting the girl on the ground, but she couldn't run from this dual. Her opponent dodge rolled every now and then and tried to catch her off guard with his Dualies, but Marcie was a quick aim and was able to land enough hits on him to splat him. Now Marcie could make her way to the tower, which was just beginning to near the second checkpoint.
She knew Angel was on the tower, and Marcie figured she had no other choice but to attack head on. Defending the tower alone was never easy, regardless of what weapon the defender used.
Marcie shot toward the tower and forced Angel to show herself. She emerged and began slinging ink at Marcie. The tower continued to glide toward the checkpoint, so Marcie had trouble maintaining a constant rain of ink on Angel and the tower. She was running out of ink but she had no time to waste, or else she could miss this chance to stop her opponents' advance. Marcie charged forward, knowing that she had to splat Angel as quickly as possible.
She swam up the side of the tower and landed on it's platform. She realized that she was ignoring her own instructions to her team about not getting into shoot-outs on the tower, but it was too late to turn back. She began firing as Angel tried to counterattack, but they were both missing because of one another's movements, almost revolving around the pole in the center of the tower at the same time. Marcie turned on her heal to suddenly change direction as the tower moved through a narrow path flanked by high walls. Marcie was quick enough, and she had an off-guard Angel prone to attack.
But Marcie had run out of ink.
Angel turned toward her as Marcie's N'Zap clicked repeatedly, refusing to fire. Angel reared her bucket back, about to splat her. Marcie panicked, knowing she was two hits away from getting sent back to the spawn and giving up even more points. She had to do something evade.
The first thing to come to mind happened to work. But it was also against the rules.
In a split-second impulse, Marcie stepped toward Angel just as she fired her first wave of pink ink towards her. The feeling of enemy ink covering her was awful, but Marcie was already in motion. Before Angel could ready another sling of her bucket, Marcie lowered her head forward and shoved her shoulder against Angel. The Octoling yelped in surprise as she was knocked backwards and fell off the tower.
Without thinking twice, Marcie dipped into a bit of her own ink to refill her tank just enough to almost immediately emerge with enough to splat Angel. Marcie aimed at the Octoling, but just before being splatted, Marcie realized the expression Angel's face. She looked almost...betrayed. Marcie felt inclined to say sorry, but she splatted Angel instead. Before getting dispatched, Angel yelled something. It sounded like she had tried to yell "Foul!"
"Yellow team has taken the tower," came the announcer.
Marcie looked around for a moment as the tower redirected course. She was still among the high walls. The judge must not have seen her shove Angel. If they had, Marcie's team certainly would have been penalized for her intentionally shoving an opponent.
Marcie's blood ran hot as she realized she had just gotten away with a very illegal action. For a moment, she wondered if she should fess up to it, but...she couldn't out herself at a time like this, at the Draft Academy. If there was one thing worse than having a bad first battle, it would be committing a penalty, which was rare even in Amatuer fights.
Marcie had to keep it to herself, at least right now. She had to win her first battle, or risk being one of the one hundred to go home after Day 1. She could deal with whatever repercussions came her way later. For now, she maintained control of the tower, hoping her team could coordinate a successful counter advance.