Lina was quickly scribbling down notes, trying hard to keep up with what the teacher was saying. Every time she looked up, the glare from the open windows shone right in her eyes, so she had resigned herself to just staring down at her paper the whole time. The first Splatfest in prehistoric times, she wrote, was fought between George Washington and Emperor Nero. Though the festival's teams are unknown, most scholars agree that… her thought process was interrupted by a gentle knocking noise. She looked around to see where it came from, finally realizing it came from outside.

After giving her eyes some time to adjust to the light, she saw Cobalt frantically gesturing through the window. Lina rolled her eyes, and mouthed "later." That boy doesn't know when to stop, she thought, resuming her writing. Soon enough, however, the knocking sound repeated. Outside the window now were Cobalt and what she recognized as a tired looking Marie, flailing their arms around and mouthing either "Octavio on the loose" or "Horatio with a noose," it was hard to tell. Understanding the severity of the situation, she turned into a squid and quietly slinked her way out of the school.

"Alright," she said, meeting the boy and the girl outside, "something tells me you weren't talking about a guy named Horatio."

Marie and Cobalt looked at each other in confusion.

"So, Octavio broke out?" The two Inklings nodded. "How?"

"How?" Marie replied sternly. "I'll tell you how; Romeo over here tried t- OW!" She was interrupted by Cobalt kicking her shin.

"How it happened doesn't really matter," the boy said, glaring fiercely at the Squid Sister. "What's important is that we stop him. With… this," he continued, glancing at the clunky weapon in his hands.

Lina was confused. "I'm not too sure what's going on, but… we beat him once before. How hard can it be to do it again? It's not like he got stronger or anything, right?"

The boy chuckled awkwardly.

"Here," said Marie, giving both of them the Hero headsets. "We'll communicate with those. Good luck." Walking back towards the studio, she started mumbling to herself. "Kick me in the shin, huh? I could… sue you for that…"


Despite the sounds of Octavio's whirring machinery, Urchin Underpass was quieter than usual. Normally, the bustling noises of passing cars or the cheers and groans of Inklings battling filled the air, but the area wasn't currently in the rotation for any games and it wasn't even close to rush hour yet, giving the map an odd sense of calm.

"Where is everyone?" the Octobot King snapped, slamming his tentacles against the controls of the machine. In doing so, he unwittingly launched an Inkstrike that flew far into the distance. "Well… I wish that crab wouldn't have gotten rid of the DJ equipment, or the giant fists, but," he grinned and grabbed the controls, "this'll do quite nicely. I just hope he didn't mess with the seat settings."

The two Inklings slowly creeped up behind a wall. Cobalt glanced around the wall, seeing the strange floating machine shoot all sorts of purple ink in every direction. The trees had been uprooted, debris littered the ground, and the surrounding area was damaged very haphazardly. "Alright," he said, turning to Lina, who was helping him carry the heavy device. "Let's see what this can do."

Octavio was still testing out his modified vehicle when he noticed them sneaking up behind him. "Oh, it's you two again."

"We had a deal, Octavio!" Cobalt yelled, shaking his fist.

The Octarian merely chuckled. "Are you kidding me? I'm a leader. I lie and break promises for a living!"

"But… what about your wife?"

"Ha! I've never been married in my life! But I must thank you for giving me that Zapfish so easily; this floating fortress would've run out of power by now without it."

The boy was agitated, the girl was bewildered. "Cobalt, what… what's going on?"

"Never mind, Lina. Let's just splat this guy to bits!" Cobalt pressed the button on the tube, and it started vibrating and whirring. The Octarian crouched and hid inside the machine. The gun kept sputtering, until finally, a small bit of blue ink was shot out of the weapon's nozzle and landed a few feet in front of them. Lina glared at the boy in dismay.

"Well then, now it's my turn." The Octarian slammed a button on the dashboard, doing nothing noticeable. "Huh… I just felt a little bit warmer. Well, let's try… this?" As he pulled a lever, a powerful Inkzooka blast shot out from the front of the ship, just barely missing the Inklings and leaving behind a purple trail. As soon as he noticed their terrified faces, he grinned and started to frantically pull the lever up and down, sending shots in every direction. Cobalt and Lina bolted away just in time, still trying to shoot the weapon Sheldon gave them just in case it could help.

"Agents!" a voice spoke through the headsets. "It sounds like you're being shot at."

"REALLY?" they groaned in unison.

"Alright, go easy on me, guys. I can't see what you're doing, I can only hear it. Listen, you two should know this map better than Octavio, he's never even been here before. See if you can hide somewhere."

The two dashed back in the direction of the spawn, scrambling up ramps still in their humanoid form seeing as they couldn't throw ink down quickly enough to swim. Octavio was behind them, yet he was slowly falling behind. "Okay, let's see," he mumbled. "I remember… the turbo button was… here!" As he pushed another button on the control panel, he winced. "OW! Oh, come on! Why are there two buttons for the seat warmer?" By the time the Octarian managed to get things back to how they were, the Inklings were out of sight. He yelled in frustration.


"Alright," said Cobalt, slumping down to a sitting position in a narrow corridor. "He… he shouldn't be able to find us here."

Lina was panting. "Cobalt… I feel something's going on here that you're not telling me."

"W-what gave you that idea?"

Marie's voice sounded through the headset. "Tell her, Agent 3. I think she deserves to know."

Cobalt sighed and started talking. "Alright, I'll be honest… I was the one who let Octavio out."

"Why?"

Cobalt looked up at her bright blue eyes, then turned his head down. "Because… we had made a deal that we could stage a fight where I beat him. That's it."

Lina scratched her head. "I don't get it, though… why would you want to win a staged fight?"

His face turned a bright shade of blue, the same color as his ink. "Because… I was trying to impress you."

She opened her eyes wide in stunned silence.

"It's just that… since the day I first met you," he said, struggling to find the right words, "I… I really liked you. You're beautiful, and smart, and… I really wanted to ask you out for this Splatfest, but… I couldn't think of a good way to do it. Then what I thought was an opportunity backfired, and… well here we are." Cobalt chuckled nervously, still not daring to look up. The silence continued for several seconds. "I-I mean, if you don't wan…" as the boy slowly looked up, he noticed the girl in front of him had started to cry. "Lina! Oh, no no no…" he went over to her, wiping her tears away. "Listen, I'm really sorry…"

"Don't be…" she replied, ink stains around her eyes. "You're a veteran at battling and you're older and you were an agent first and everything… I didn't think you would be interested in some newbie like me… But… I love you too."

Cobalt froze, then he smiled wide. "Hey, it's alright, don't cry. You look even prettier when you're happy."

Lina smiled too, staring into the boy's eyes. She leaned in closer to him.

"Agents," sounded a voice through the headsets. "Listen, I really hate to break up this moment, but Octavio's still at large and if we don't act fast he might get bored and move onto more populated areas of Inkopolis."

The message snapped the two back to reality. They realized that they were now inches away from each other, so they nervously shuffled back a few feet.

"Oh… th-thanks for the heads up, Marie," said Lina, blushing.

"W-well then, let's fix this situation," Cobalt said with determination. He took the gun and started firing away, inking the ground around them. "I have a plan."

"Alright!"

"I'm going to use you as bait."

"Alri… oh…" Lina's enthusiasm disappeared as quickly as it came. "Can… can we go back to ten seconds ago?"

"Come on, we have to finish this first. Now then, I think my special is… just about ready. All you have to do is get Octavio in range, and the Inkzooka will take care of the rest."

"…Fine, but you owe me one."


At this point, Octavio had tried every switch, lever, and button on the ship. None of them, apparently, activated an Echolocator. He was silently cursing himself for not being able to find those Inklings, but to be fair, the whole map was practically a maze. He was about to give up when he heard a voice behind him yell, "HEY! OCTO… uh… FACE!"

Turning the ship around, he noticed a familiar girl standing alone and unarmed. "Well, well, Agent 4. You and that boyfriend of yours splatted me all that time ago, and I figured it's time to… return the favor." The machine charged straight at Lina, sounding like it was charging up a Killer Wail.

"Alright, Cobalt… any second now."

"About that… you know that thing that happens sometimes when you think you have your special ready, but you don't?"

"WHAT? Just… just ink something quickly! Anything!"

"I can't! Everything around me is already blue! I… I'll come up with something, but you're going to have to stall!"

Lina gulped and turned to Octavio. "Hey! Stop!"

Much to her surprise, he slowed down to a halt a short distance in front of her. The Killer Wail looked like it was ready to launch at any second. "What?" he replied gruffly.

"Uh…" she said, looking at Cobalt, who was soaking up the blue ink with his clothes so he could ink it again. "Do you want to talk for twenty seconds about… politics?"

"No." Octavio moved his tentacle right onto the button labeled 'Unleash Wail.' "Any last words?"

Lina started sweating. Suddenly, she remembered how Octavio had reacted when Callie and Marie started playing their song that time. "Um… I think the Squid Sisters are overrated."

The Octobot King lifted his arm. "WHAT?"

"WHAT?" screamed Marie.

Lina threw her headset to the side. "I mean, sure, they're decent TV personalities and all that, but in terms of musical talent, I think they're pretty lacking."

Octavio scratched his head. "Well, I'm… I'm not really a huge fan of the Sisters or anything, you know, but… you probably just haven't heard their better songs."

"Oh yeah? Which ones?"

" I don't know… Roller Coaster?"

"That one's alright, I guess, but at parts it just sounds like they hired a five-year-old to slap a synthesizer."

"What about Clam Out?"

"Marie's vocals ruined that one for me."

Had Lina had the headset on, she would've heard Marie cursing.

"Marie!" Cobalt whispered, having been shocked by the sudden noise, "she's not even wearing the headphones! You're preaching to the choir."

Octavio was racking his brain. "Um… what about their newest single?"

Lina was pleasantly surprised that her distraction was working. "It's… a bit meh."

"How about Splatstreet's Back?"

"I don't… think that was by them…" she glanced over her shoulder and saw Cobalt's hair was glowing. He gave her a thumbs-up.

"What?" Octavio was getting annoyed. "What are you looking at… oh no." Perched atop a high platform, the boy he had conned into letting him free was holding onto an old model of an Inkzooka that Octavio immediately recognized from the Great Turf War. A loud boom resonated through the whole Underpass, shooting the largest inkshot either of the Inklings had ever seen. In a fraction of a second before he was splatted, Octavio quickly pressed a random button in the hopes that it would activate a Bubbler strong enough to protect him.

Instead, the chair underneath him heated up.


Cobalt and Lina were once again sitting on the same bench they had been sitting on that morning. This time, however, they were holding hands and smiling sheepishly.

"Well," Cobalt said, glancing down at his shirt that now had a huge blue ink stain on it. "That's not coming out anytime soon, but I guess it's a small price to pay. In the end, everything worked out fine, didn't it?"

"Yeah!" Lina replied, grinning. "Really, I can't wait to spend all of Splatfest tomorrow with you, uh…" She blushed. "C… Coby… wait, no… uh…"

The boy beside her laughed. "You can still call me Cobalt, you know."

"Sure," she said, giggling.

"Meow," mumbled a tired-looking Judd who walked past them.

"What?" Cobalt was shocked. "Splatfest is postponed?"

"Meow."

"50,000,000 points worth of property damage done to Urchin Underpass?"

"Meow."

"Wha… no, of course this had nothing to do with that inflatable waving arm man!"

Judd started to walk away, and Cobalt turned to the girl next to him. "Alright, well… Splatfest is postponed for a week… but, hey! We can wait until then to be able to fight for Team Cat together, right?"

"Yeah, we tot-" the girl's smile faded. "Wait a second, did you just say… Team Cat?"

"Erm… yes?"

"Well, I'm… sorry, but I'm definitely going to be on Team Dog. This one really matters to me." Lina looked noticeably worried.

Cobalt scratched his head. "Well, alright, I guess. I suppose we could still dance together and… wait, where are you going?"

She stood up and started walking away quickly. "Oh, sorry, it's uh… just look at the time! It's getting… pretty late…"

"You don't… you're not even wearing a watch!"

"Can't hear you, sorry! I'll see you around later!" her voice slowly faded as she got farther and farther away.

Cobalt sighed. "What was that even about… well, today was not my day."

"Meow," mumbled an aggravated Judd.

"Yeah, tell me about it."