A/N: Anything that is bolded means that they are talking through their headsets in this chapter.

Chapter 2:

Quinn sighed as they stood in the lobby, waiting for them to be spawned onto the battlefield. She at least knew what map they would be playing on. Frogfish Airlines. This map wasn't knew to her personally, but it didn't come up in rotation as often as other stages due to the fact that there were planes taking off and landing a lot. It was more often seen during the rare splatfests. They weren't as popular in the hub as they were in the square and plaza. This was just due to the Hub still being in development in places and Under Sea Bottom Rock had never done them before so they weren't sure how to go about announcing them. Even after two splatfests, they still seemed rather awkward announcing them.

"Is something wrong, Quinn?" Roxan asked as she looked over at the other squid. Quinn looked over at her and shrugged.

"I'm fine. Was just doing some reading and Shawn interrupted me."

"You're so weird. I find reading so boring."

"It's not for everyone but I like it." Quinn looked back at the map before they were ready to begin. They stepped into the spawn portal and they headed off. When they appeared on the battlefield, they were in the Botanical Leafy Sea Dragon. The area they were in was surrounded by the different plant life that had been found to be a rare species. To keep everything from being destroyed, there were glass barriers to keep ink, inklings and octolings from stepping on them. The spawn points were high above the area and there was only one way down. Forward. They heard the sound of the countdown going on before the horn sounded for the battle to begin.

The four of them headed off into the battlefield, splitting off in different directions. Each of them had a different category of weapons. Shawn with his Grim Range Blaster, Quinn with her L-3 Nozzlenose, Ziyad with his 4K E-liter scope charger, and Roxan with her inkbrush. Not many squids went with such a variety, but each was well versed in their main weapon.

Through their headsets, they spoke to each other.

"I'm moving in!" Roxan commented over her headset as she inked some of the turf in front of her before diving into the ink and swimming forward in the dark blue ink their team was colored. She smiled as she got closer to the middle, Ziyad painting a nice path for her with his charger. It was a lot easier to get in without being seen. Ziyad would move a bit little by little and make the path. Quinn and Shawn painted their own paths as they moved towards the middle, but going through the back areas that they could go. The two moved on opposite sides behind the glass.

The three close range weaponed users continued to move closer and closer to the middle. As they were close, Shawn stopped and hid behind one of the glass cases, but had his Grim Range Blaster ready. As he raised it, he smirked as he saw an enemy octoling approaching a bit hastily. He waited for just the right moment, firing a shot and hitting him dead on.

"Alright, Shawn!" Roxan exclaimed as she came out of her ink for just a moment, only to be shot by the enemy's charger. Shawn shook his head as he went back into his ink, swimming to a different location.

"Hiyah!" Quinn yelled as she used her nozzlenose to hit an enemy, hitting them several times before they went down. Quinn frowned a bit. This seemed a little too easy, but she quickly went to hide again as she barely dodged the shot from the enemy charger. Quinn looked around as she went to hide and narrowed her eyes. "Oh great…"

"What is it?" Ziyad asked through his headset.

"The enemy has two chargers and they're keeping an eye on everything," Quinn stated. They weren't going to win at this rate. The enemy team must have been seeing what weapons they had with how easy it was to pick the other two off.

"Don't worry! I can do this!" Roxan commented before a small squeak could be heard, making Quinn sigh. There went their ditziest player. Why couldn't she just stay in her ink before attacking?

"Roxan, stop fooling around!" Shawn angrily said in a whisper.

"Sorry…" Roxan's voice sounded disappointed a bit as she headed back towards the center. Shawn also went into his ink and swam and got a bit closer, seeing a nice ink trail for him. "Don't get too close, Ziyad."

"Don't worry, Roxan," Ziyad commented in a low voice. "They're chargers aren't long enough. I can get a bit closer before I have to stop or try to do other thi-" Ziyad said before he grunted as he dodged an attack from his left side. He was still splattered with paint but he had avoided being knocked out at the moment. He quickly dove in their teams colored ink, quickly swimming off. He panted a bit as he emerged a bit away from where he had been. He looked around, softly cursing. He was closer than he wanted to be but he didn't have much of a choice.

"Ziyad! Are you okay!?" Roxan softly asked with concern.

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"Good. We can't lose you as our main base of jumping to," Quinn commented as she hid behind another glass tank. "Just try to lay low for the moment."

"Right," Ziyad murmured as he slid back into his ink to stay hidden for the time being. Quinn smiled a bit before she went ahead. She popped out of the ink to attack a player before hiding and swimming again. Just as she emerged from the ink, she felt herself shot and, not long after, respawning back at their spawn point.

"Ow… those chargers are an issue…" Quinn looked ahead and frowned as she watched everywhere being filled with dark yellow ink and covering their dark blue ink. What were they supposed to do? Those two chargers were camping really badly and, unless they could get to the upper half of the garden, they didn't have much room to move.

"Quinn," Shawn's voice came as he respawned next to her. Quinn looked at her twin brother, looking at him curiously. "Think a distraction is in order while you get behind one of the chargers."

"Who's going to be the distraction?"

"Roxan and I."

"...Are you sure?"

"Yeah. What else do you suggest?" Shawn asked as he looked ahead, seeing the desperate struggle Roxan was giving to keep the other two players from advancing. Even though she took one of them out, the other player knocked her out since she had too much ink splatter.

"Roxan," Quinn said as she looked as the inkling spawned back into their base.

"Hm?" Roxan looked at the other girl.

"Are you willing to be a distraction with Shawn?"

"Sure! If it means knocking out those snipers!" Roxan said with much determination. "Let's do it!" she quickly splashed into their blue ink and swam off. Shawn looked at Quinn and nodded to her. She nodded back as they both swam off in different directions.

Quinn snuck behind the glass tanks covering the plants, slowly making her way into the enemy base, making sure to try and not make too much ink. She hopped from one ink blot to the next, slowly listening as Shawn and Roxan distracted the other players. Just as the two were splatted, Quinn smirked and quickly killed one of the chargers.

"Ha!" Quinn cheered. Just as she was about to dive into her ink, she felt herself get splatted and respawn at base. She cringed, holding her chest a bit. "Why did that hurt more than usual?"

"Quinn! Are you okay!?" Shawn asked through the headset, concerned.

"I… think I will be, but that shot hurt way more than it usually did…"

"What?" Shawn stopped and hid, looking around a bit before his eyes widened as he saw his friend, Ziyad. He had changed from the blue color their team was to the yellow of the enemy team. "How is that?"

"What is it?" Roxan softly asked as she popped up next to her friend, looking in the direction he was looking. "What?! Why is Ziyad-"

Shawn covered her mouth as he glared at her a bit. "Sh!" he waited for her to nod before looking back at their other friend, turning his headset back to speaking mode. "Quinn… the odds are against us somehow."

"What does that mean?" his twin asked with a confused tone.

"I don't know how, but Ziyad is the enemy ink color and is firing at us."

"What!?"

Just as Quinn popped up, she felt the sharp pain from before as she was splatted by Ziyad once again. She respawned and stayed put, confused by what was going on. This sudden color change didn't make much sense. Just when they thought things were going to continue, a loud siren blared. Everyone stopped and looked around before gushing water came down on them. All of them were splatted and, when they respawned, they were in their locker room spawns.

"What the-?" Quinn looked around with confusion before frowning as she saw Ziyad laying next to them.

"Ziyad!" Shawn and Roxan exclaimed in unison as Shawn carefully picked his friend up. "Hey!"

The octoling groaned as his eyes slowly opened, looking around the room a bit with his bright, silver orbs. "...Shawn?" he asked before looking at the other two. "...where are we?"

"We're in our locker room we started off in…" Quinn quietly informed him. "We were somehow kicked out of the turf battle and we ended back here."

"Yeah! Water just came down on us all of a sudden!" Roxan exclaimed. She knew they could usually spend time in water outside of turf wars, but not inside of them. "We were all splatted I'm sure, but don't know why."

"Hey!" a voice came as a couple people rushed into the room. "Is everyone okay!?" The four looked confused for a moment but then realized they were doctors. They weren't thin by any means, but their shells on their backs made them fierce and sturdy in their field.

"Can you check on my friend!?" Shawn asked, concern still present in his voice. The three doctors came over as fast as they could and started checking Ziyad, but also checking the other three as well.

Everyone was silent as the doctors checked them before the three conversed and looked at them.

"We're not sure of the cause, but your friend needs a lot of rest. We need to get him to the clinic to run further tests," one of the doctors stated, which only caused Shawn to frown as he felt his friend tense up a bit.

"What kind of tests?" Shawn asked darkly as his eyes narrowed.

"Ink tests," another doctor commented. "We just need to draw some of his ink to test and then he can go home and rest."

"...only if I come with."

The doctors looked at each other before nodding to him. Shawn nodded back as he carefully lifted Ziyad into his arms and followed the doctors. Roxan frowned as she watched them leave.

"Wh-What's going on?" she asked nervously, slightly shaking.

Quinn gently placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled a bit. "It'll be okay. Maybe his ink changing color suddenly just caused him some pain. I'm sure they'll figure out what is going on. Just stay positive." As much as she found Roxan to be annoying, she also didn't want to give in to her own fears that something could be really wrong.

Roxan sniffled a bit as tears welled in her eyes, but nodded. "R-Right. I'll stay positive." she stood up and looked at Quinn. "We'll talk later, okay? I want to follow them and make sure Ziyad's okay."

"Of course. Let me know how things go."

Roxan nodded and quickly ran after the party that had left. Quinn was the last in the locker room, taking deep breaths as her hands shook. She still felt some pain, but it wasn't too bad now. They told her she would be alright, so hopefully the pain would disappear as well. She slowly stood up, grabbed hers and Shawn's things, and walked off towards her apartment. She was exhausted now after all of that and just wanted to rest.

Eventually, she arrived at their apartment at Xiphias Flats. She pulled out her key and opened it. She walked in, closing the door behind her and heading to her room. As she opened her door, she froze as she saw the strange girl in her room. She had been gathering the scrolls that were sprawled on her bed.

"Ah… excuse me?" Quinn was a bit unsure of what to think, her mind turning a bit blank. After everything that happened today, she was confused on why someone was standing in her room. "Who are you!?"