Aiden was wearing a jubilant smile on his face. As he stood frozen with his randomized team, the match over. His team was in Frank's base, having all of the turf in the stage. Now, they were spawn camping them. Miraculously, he ended up with three people who were once associated with Frank. Two young inklings, a boy and a girl, and Hank.

"No way in Octo Valley," Frank sighed, clearly frustrated as the other inklings who battled with him backed off.

"Ha, the meanie got beat," the younger girl inkling exclaimed, mockingly pointing at Frank.

"That's what you get for ditching me, Frank!" Hank yelled at him. "I've gotten better and more experienced than I used to be."

"Looks like you lost," Aiden smirked.

"Well it's not fair that you got paired up with them!" Frank complained.

"Well it's not fair that you got paired up with random people!" Aiden mocked him.

"Well it's not fair that you SHUT UP!" Frank yelled in frustration as he stormed away. His teammates shrugged their shoulders and dismissed themselves.

Aiden shook hands with the other three. "I hope to see you all again someday."

"Likewise," Hank nodded. He proved to be a better person when not associated with Frank.

"Thank you, mister!" the inkling boy shook his hand and went off with the other girl back to another kettle.

Aiden sighed. He was all alone now. Grinning to himself, he thought how lucky he had been to have such a relatable team, and a strong one at that. Exiting the tower, he looked at his phone. It was almost three. At four, the group had planned to sleep until Splatfest. Just then, the trucks for the Splatfest decorations arrived in the plaza, catching the interest of most inklings. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sean's brown hair and Chloe's bright pink hair. As he turned around more, they seemed to be deep in conversation. He listened to them under a tree.

"You really are smart, Sean," Chloe's voice said.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about the way I treated you when we were dating," Sean's voice sounded strong. "I realized how wrong it was."

"But you can't date me, I'm dating Aiden," Chloe said questionably.

"You are right about that," Sean said, "but if I could go back and change everything I did to mess up, I would take the chance." Aiden raised an eyebrow. He was surprised at this.

"Then why did you join up with all the others?"

Sean was silent for a while. "Frank said he knew Aiden and a girl name Chloe, so from then we befriended, and then there were these other two who knew Silver and Sapphire. You already know how popular those two are and how word spreads about where and who they hang out with."

"You shouldn't join with those other three. All I see in them are your past self," Chloe said.

"...Maybe I still will, just because it's a matchup," Sean stated.

"...What do you mean?" Chloe questioned.

"Y'know, like Aiden and Frank, you and me, Silver and Clarisse, and Sapphire and Luke..."

"Oh, right... ...Hey, Aiden!" Chloe spotted Aiden from under the tree.

Sean grew silent. "...How long were you there?" Chloe questioned.

Aiden walked out from under the tree. "About a minute."

"...Sorry, Sean, I gotta go," Chloe said disappointedly.

"No, I want to hear more on this conversation," Aiden interrupted with a smile. "Sean seems so different now."

"He really changed, Aiden," Chloe said encouragingly. "And by the way, did you duel Frank?"

"Yup, I did," Aiden smirked. "You would never believe what teammates I got."

"With how you said it, I think I might already have an idea of who they might be," Chloe said, turning to Sean. "I guess that leaves you and me to duel, Sean."

"Oh, okay..." he said quietly, his voice diminishing.

Chloe and Aiden noticed this. "What's wrong, Sean?"

"...It's just that I'm talking to my ex when her boyfriend is right here," Sean spoke out, scratching his shoulders.

"I promise I won't make it awkward for all of us," Aiden gave a warm smile. "And even though it seems that you've changed, who said it's wrong for you to do that?"

"...Society."

The trio shared a hearty laughter. After the laughing died down, Aiden stuck out his hand towards Sean. Chloe was in between them, looking to see what Sean would do. Without hesitation, Sean took Aiden's hand in his and shook it firmly. Chloe cheered silently.

"Ha, I never thought I would be doing this," Sean murmured.

"Come on, let's talk while we go to the lobby to battle," Aiden said warmly as he started off towards the lobby, Chloe and Sean following him. He already knew that he had nothing to be afraid of, even Chloe said it herself to Sean. That she would still be dating Aiden. Aiden smiled at that. At how he and his girlfriend could make things less tense and point towards positivity.


"Just once?" begged Luke, not caring that Sapphire's boyfriend was standing right beside her. "Pleeaase?" he begged again, eyeing her up and down.

"Oh, suuuurrre," Sapphire said, turning and giving Silver the "I got this" face. Silver backed off onto the sidewalk, closer to the apartments.

"Oh yeah..." Sapphire murmured, slipping off the jacket she had on to reveal her tight black undershirt, an undershirt that nearly everyone had to use under their gear. "Do you like it?" she said, sexily, though trying to feel around for her N-Zap '89 in her jacket pocket.

"Yeeeaaahhh..." Luke moaned. Silver shook his head and sighed.

Splat

Sapphire had both her hands on her orange weapon, aimed towards where Luke once stood, a smirk curved on her lips. Picking up her jacket, she motioned to Silver.

"Come on! Before he respawns in the apartment and comes back!" Sapphire called him over. Again, Silver shook his head and chuckled at his girlfriend's antics. After they ran a distance away from the area, they slowed their pace, deciding to go back to the plaza. They assumed that Aiden and Chloe were there. Silver wrapped his arm around Sapphire and pulled her closer as they walked, her jacket slung over Silver's opposite shoulder.

"Wow, that was… interesting," Silver said, turning to Sapphire.

"Aww, thanks!" she responded cheerfully. Silver raised an eyebrow.

"You're weird," Silver commented.

"Yes, but you're weirder," she said. "You're still a perv."

"What?!" Silver was surprised at what she called him.

"But you're my perv. You are mine," she looked straight at him and giggled and leaned against his shoulder.

"...Okay...?" Silver said, not really knowing what to say afterwards.

Beep beep

Sapphire slipped her phone out of her pocket and read her notifications.

"Silver, look!" she said, showing him her phone. "They want us to meet at a cafe near the plaza; they finished their duels."

"Okay," Silver said quietly, still a little bit speechless.

"Why are you quiet, Silver," she asked him, taking her jacket off of his shoulders and slipping it over her undershirt.

"I-I don't know," Silver stuttered.

Sapphire posed sexually and winked at Silver.

"Okay, THAT is not going to help. We're going now, come on," Silver stuttered.

Sapphire erupted in laugher as she swiped her jacket and followed Silver out the door.


As the pair walked into the cafe, they could easily spot Chloe waving frantically for them to come over to their table. Surprisingly to them, Chloe was sitting beside Aiden AND Sean.

"...What's he doing here?" Silver questioned Aiden.

"Just sit down, and we can talk about it as we get some coffee," Aiden calmly responded.

As the pair sat down, the group quickly discussed what they wanted to order. When they were finished, Chloe offered to order it for them.

"Aiden, I already know the story," she explained. "And you're better at explaining than I am." She slipped out of her chair, heading towards the counter to order.

Sapphire spoke up. "So what happened?"

"So, this is Chloe's ex-boyfriend, Sean," Aiden started, motioning to Sean. "Basically, he was mean to her when they were dating, but he really changed significantly. He even let her win their duel."

"Really?" Sapphire turned to look at Sean.

"I used an Inkbrush, and I felt bad that I had an advantage over a slow sniper," he said.

"...If you have that mindset, then why are you with the other three?" Silver questioned him.

"...It's just that the other three associated themselves with you, Sapphire, and Aiden, so I decided to tag along since it would make it complete," he said to Silver. "Ever since Chloe left me, I felt broken. I felt really, really sorry that I treated her like that, and I realized it was me who caused it all."

Chloe came back with a tray of five cups of juice and chips, after all, it was almost time to sleep until Splatfest. She smiled warmly at Aiden and Sean, for she was happy Sean had changed. She set the tray in the middle of the table, taking her seat next to Aiden.

Sean continued. "Their battling style was legendary, but their ideals, the way that they put things into their perspective, were the worst," he explained. Silver and Sapphire nodded as some of them took their drinks and ate chips. Then, the Inkopolis News Time theme sounded, and the TV inside the cafe changed to a different scene.

Contrasting the cheerful and upbeat tune were Callie and Marie's attitude on screen.

"This period's stages are the bridge, the warehouse, the mall, and the underpass," Marie mumbled, looking worn out and tired on screen.

"Staaaay fressshh..." they signed out tiredly. After that, the TV turned back to the regular Inkopolis news. Most of the people around in the cafe grew either worried or confused, for it was very unusual for the Squid Sisters to appear like this.

"...They were like that earlier," Sapphire said. "We should see if they're okay."

"I bet they're fine," Sean responded. "They just need to rest before Splatfest."

"Speaking of resting, we were planning to sleep now before Splatfest, because we didn't sleep last night," Aiden explained, standing up from his chair. Sean nodded in understanding.

"Okay, I understand."

"We'll see you around during Splatfest, right?" Chloe asked Sean.

"Of course!" he responded. "The Splatfest is for everyone!"

"Okay, see you later!" Chloe got up, following Sapphire, Aiden, and Silver out of the cafe.

"Best wishes!" he saluted nicely, left alone in the cafe. He slicked his brown hair back as he randomly took out his phone.


It was almost four, and Silver, Sapphire, Aiden, and Chloe were standing at a walkway intersection. They have been chatting since they departed from the plaza.

"So our team pulls through at the end, winning every duel, an extra thanks to Sean," Aiden said to the others. Chloe smiled at how Aiden did not disrespect Sean, even though he was her ex-boyfriend. Silver and Sapphire smiled.

"So what Splatfest team are you guys on?" Sapphire asked the others as they stopped at the intersection where they had to split ways.

"I'm Team Art!" Chloe said. "When I was younger, I used to squid around on a big piece of paper and make pink drawings with my ink," she explained. Aiden raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, I know it was my body ink and not ink from a tank! Geez," she sighed. Aiden chuckled.

"Well, Chloe, I'm Team Art, too," Silver spoke up.

"Really, you draw?" she responded with a question.

"No, I don't draw. I like listening to music and playing musical instruments. The tenor saxophone, the clarinet, and the piano were pretty cool to play," Silver explained.

"Art isn't just about drawing. I believe it includes language arts, the art of literature and writing, and the art of music," he continued.

"Hold up, since when do you play music instruments?" Sapphire interrupted.

"Since I was waiting for you to turn into a human at fourteen," he replied.

"Oh..." Sapphire muttered. "But anyways, I'm team Science. I'm always fascinated about how things work."

"Oh, cool. I'm with you," Aiden said. Silver looked around and realized it was time to split up.

"So, I guess, I look forward for tonight, our first Splatfest," said Silver, taking Sapphire's hand and crossing the street.

"See you later!" Sapphire said, waving at the other couple, who waved back while going their separate way.


It was four, the afternoon light streaming in through the windows, making the room lighted up decently. The door opened as Silver and Sapphire came in. Both were wearing their black undershirt and their shorts, having returned from Sapphire's apartment room to drop off stuff. Silver jumped into his bed while Sapphire went into the bathroom, to search for any leftover supplies that Clarisse left. Immediately spotting Clarisse's empty, cheap shampoo bottle, she snagged it out of the shower, marching into Silver's bedroom.

"This doesn't deserve to be in your trash can," she said tossing it out of the window.

Down below the apartment builings were Luke and Clarisse walking and chatting.

"They don't deserve to be together. They should go fu- OWWWW!" Her tiny, cheap, empty shampoo bottle dropped from the air. She picked it up and looked above, seeing Sapphire dying of laughter.

"Fuck you!" she said enraged, throwing her bottle into a window on the ground floor of the building, shattering it.

"Hey! What's the big idea? Frickin' teenagers, COME HERE!" said a deeper voice. Out of the shattered window came an adult who held his Rapid Blaster.

"Oh shoot, RUN CLARISSE!" Luke called back to Clarisse, already a few blocks ahead of her. Quickly, she ran through the streets, trying to escape each blast of the adult's blaster.

"Ha, I heard everything! That's was funny!" Silver said from the bed, giggling.

"That's what she gets," Sapphire said, shutting the window, shutting the blinds to make the room darker, and plopping into bed next to Silver.

"Promise you'll wake me up?" she looked at him.

"Okay," he responded.

Silver had his arm wrapped around her waist, hugging her close to him. Turning to him, Sapphire gave Silver a soft kiss on his lips. She smiled afterward, as a way of saying goodnight, snuggling into his chest. Silver blushed and smiled too, falling asleep along with Sapphire.


"Eight hours until Splatfest," the leader said. "Send some of the unexperienced ones to the plaza to spill the clear substance on the ground. Have them disguised as inklings."

"Yes, sir," an admin said, leaving the group.

"Give the most experienced ones the real, ancient weapons, and have them settle at the entrance of the valley and at the back near the base," the leader instructed.

"Got it," another admin said and left.

"What about us, sir?" one asked out.

"...I am general of this army and this plan. You'd better trust in me as your leader," he said intimidatingly.

"..." the worker shut up.

"We will all stay here, weapons ready just in case something happens while the Octarian army surges through Inkopolis and the cities around it," the general explained. His headset ringed.

"Sir, we are sending undercovers out to Inkopolis to release the substance," the static voice of an admin came through.

"Good," the general said as he turned off the headset. "Now, we can just wait for the plan to unfold. I will activate the release of the army at 12:05 A.M., after the first battles of Splatfest, and for now, I only need a scientist, and two highest ranking admins." At that, most of the Octarians at the table left, leaving three.

"General," a voice came out. The leader turned to the voice. "It is because of you that this had any chance of a remix happening." Out of the darkness, came an Octoling in human form. His eyes were purple with a twinkle of cleaner green. His gold headgear was minimized to a simpler, but silver one. On his slightly colored arms were neon green highlights glowing from inside his body. Clipped at his belt were Captain Cuttlefish's Bamboozler 14 MK 1 and a Custom Dual Squelcher. He looked less ugly in his human form.

It was DJ Octavio.


"Sapphire, wake up," Silver said, standing over her sleeping body, sprawled over the bed.

"Kiss me, Silver..." she murmured, her eyes still closed. Shrugging, Silver leaned in and pressed his lips onto Sapphire's and started kissing her. Her eyes then fluttered open.

"AHH! ...Oh, so it wasn't a dream," she smiled dreamily at Silver. "That was nice..."

He only smiled. "Come on, it's 11:20."

"Okay, Silver," she said, getting up and out of bed.

The two went into the bathroom, Silver taking a quick shower while Sapphire brushed her teeth and vice versa. When Sapphire got out of the shower, she wrapped the towel above her chest and stood next to Silver, looking into the mirror.

"You're only like two inches taller than me," Sapphire observed, standing on her toes to be taller than him.

"That's good, so I don't have to bow my head when I kiss you," he replied smartly.

"What's wrong with that?! Are you saying I should be shorter?!" She whipped the towel off of her torso, forgetting she had no clothes on.

"...S-Sapphire?!" he yelled out in surprise, his cheeks burning. Stretching her towel back, she whipped it on Silver's back three times.

"OWW! STOP IT!" Silver yelled, trying to block the towel with his arm. Sapphire circled around to behind Silver, wrapping her towel around his head to cover his eyes. Silver blushed into a dark shade of red.

"I like being tall. I gives me at least SOME superiority over you," she whispered in his ear. "And don't take the towel off until I'm done changing." Quietly, she exited the bathroom to find the change of clothes she brought into Silver's room that she would use when she woke up.

"You're so weird, geesus," Silver muttered as he wiped the remnant water droplets that Sapphire rubbed off on him.

Rrrrrrriiing

Silver exited the bathroom too, stumbling over things, trying to get to his phone through hearing. Sapphire spotted him while she was still changing.

"Hey! I'm still-"

"I'm not peeking, okay?" he interrupted her as he tripped over the corner of his bed to get to his phone.

"Hello?" he said, answering the call.

"Agent 3? Hi! We just called to say to have a lookout for anything suspicious," a familiar voice said through the phone. Silver looked at the caller ID.

Callie Cuttlefish.

"What? You'll be on the lookout while you'll be singing and dancing in the plaza?" Silver asked them back. "You're not even using the walkie-talkie, Agent 1."

"I didn't know what side was up or down, so I switched to a cellphone," Callie said.

Silver chuckled. "So are you and Marie okay?"

"Yeah, I'll tell you about it, have Agent 4-I mean Sapphire listen in, okay?" Callie said.

"What's up?" Sapphire joined Silver, whipping off the towel around his head. She was fully changed, but he still wasn't. He still had to out a shirt on and replace the towel wrapped around his waist with his shorts. But he still listened.

One explanation later, Sapphire and Silver's mouths were wide open.

"Callie... I'm really sorry that you lost your grandfather," Silver said sorry for what happened.

"I'm really sad, but this is important. Just watch out for anything around the pothole to Octo Valley before you go into the lobby," Callie explained.

"Okay, we can do that," Sapphire said. "See ya at the plaza."

"Bye!" They both hung up.

Sapphire started to follow Silver. "Can we take your bike?"

"Yes, we can." he said, closing the closet door behind him. Immediately, he heard Sapphire cheer loudly.


"Sir, the octolings have managed to get into squads in the Squid's Splatfest," the admin said through the leader's headgear.

"Great, that will make the spreading of the substance easier," he replied.

"The substance affects, but doesn't hurt the target, general. Those octolings will be completely vulnerable," the admin informed.

"Well that's why I said weak, not experienced. They're just there to put the substance in effect," the leader responded irritably.

"..." the admin shut himself up.

"Thirty more minutes, general," DJ Octavio informed. The leader grinned.

"The best thing about it is that Silver and Sapphire, the two who imprisoned you, are not on complete patrol, for they are also competing in Splatfest," the leader smirked and chuckled to himself.


"So that's it?" Aiden said while he kept glancing at the pothole. Many inklings were filing into the lobby while Sapphire, Aiden, Chloe, and Silver were standing outside until the very last minute.

"Yep, and if anything goes wrong, you guys can help us," Silver said, leaning against his bike, parked beside Ammo Knights.

"We will," Chloe said determinedly. Glancing up on top of the trucks, Sapphire and Silver saw Callie and Marie nod at them and salute to them. In return the saluted back and turned to their friends.

"Let's go." The group of friends walked into the lobby, not realizing the clear, practically invisible substance that they tracked in their shoes.


11:59 P.M.

Twenty more seconds until Splatfest. The group was in the same virtual room, though Aiden and Sapphire were on Team Science while Silver and Chloe were on team Art. For some reason, there were heavily dressed inklings holding a weirdly shaped Tentatek Splattershot among the different rooms, but no one cares, because Splatfest was there for everyone, no matter how different they were.

"Ten," Frank, Clarisse, and Luke said, still wondering where Sean was.

"Nine," Sean said, in his own room with random players.

"Eight," Hank counted, luckily in the same room as Sean.

"Seven," Callie and Marie whispered to themselves, their excitement building for Splatfest.

"Six," said many other random adult inklings who looked forward to any broadcasted highlights of Splatfest and all the inklings who participated in it.

"Five," Aiden stated.

"Four," Chloe said nervously.

"Three," Sapphire said determinedly.

"Two," Silver counted down.

"One," DJ Octavio murmured.

"Zero. Let Splatfest begin, as well as our plan to destroy the Squids," the Octarian general/leader declared as he readied the army to charge into Inkopolis after the five-minute interval while all of the participating and highly doomed inklings were whisked away into battle.


~AuraMasterADV13

Originally published on Wattpad on September 15, 2015.

Republished on Wattpad and Fanfiction on October 20, 2018.