The day has arrived; it's the first day of the fall splatfest. The entire county of Flounder was packed with numerous Inklings and Cuttlefish swarming to see the Squids Sisters introduce the lineup of events for today. The events would be obstacle course challenge with 64 people entering the heats and only 8 advancing to the final; Sally would be competing in the event, the 4th heat to be precise. The event right afterwards would be the 15 man sword battle royal with Cobalt of the Tokugawa clan highlighting the event as he was the son of the legendary sword master. The audience bopped up and down as the Squid Sisters began playing their new hit song; it would be releasing next week.
Over at the Flounder Heights Flounder's stadium, the place was beginning to fill up as everyone filed into their seats. The members of Kidvel, Squidcom, and the Elites all sat together, talking about general things as the chatter around them grew louder and louder as the first heat was ready to begin. "The way the Obstacle race works is quite simple. Our competitors are dressed in gear suited towards achieving the highest speed possible." Callie said from the announcer's box pointing down at the track, with Marie sitting next to her with a content facial expression.
"They will swim in their Ink, swimming over a total of 4 walls that are placed on the turns-1 on each turn, 6 barriers-3 placed in a row on the straightaway, and a section of general Black enemy ink splattered across the homestretch right before the finish line." Marie added, showing the layout of the obstacle course.
On the track, each lane was covered in the competitor's color ink with a total of 8 lanes open. 4 super tall wooden logged walls were clearly visible with 6 chain barriers also visible. The first heat had a couple of Inklings that looked like they were prepared for the competition, with more than half the competitor's outfit being speed gear.
Backstage in the locker room, Sally relaxed in her seat-waiting. Sally had her studio beats on, cranking up her music as she observed her fellow competitors getting themselves pumped up for the event. Only one person can win their heat…so right off the bat, people will already get eliminated… She thought as a couple girls walked pass her, exchanging eye contact with one of them.
The girl was the same blond girl that had interest in Reice, the leader of the police club, Bianca. Bianca stopped in her tracks as she recognized Sally-waving her fellow competitors to leave without her, approaching Sally with excitement.
"How may I help you…?" Sally asked, taking her headphones off and resting them around her neck.
"I just noticed who you are from the distance…you're Sally of Squidcom..?" Bianca answered, taking a seat next to Sally on the bench; both girls didn't know each other of course, but they both were brought together simply by chance. "I'm quite the fan of your club; it was very impressive that you guys got to the semi finals in the playoffs without your captain…by the way how is he doing? Has he recovered?"
Sally seemed exasperated with Bianca, mainly because she was already focused on winning that she was in no mood to make any friends, but she couldn't help but notice that there was something a little too nice about Bianca, "Is there a reason why everyone in here looks so intense?" Sally interrupted, looking to kill the conversation quickly; Bianca is unfazed by Sally's obvious disengagement.
"Yes, indeed there is. You see, this event is the only real chance for these girls to get noticed on a national level. Since the track events don't get coverage like the turf wars do, this is it…there is the Inklympics…but that's a whole different type of pressure for anyone to compete in. for many of them, getting out of the heats is enough of a challenge."
A few seconds of awkward silence passed as more girls left the locker room. Sally lowered her eyes, looking at Bianca's left hand; it had a burn mark on it. "What happened to your hand?" Sally said in curiosity, raising an eyebrow as she studied Bianca's face, seeing the scar on her cheek; Bianca looked stunned by Sally's sudden question and began to get tongue tied.
"Oh…this is nothing…"-covering her hand, and turning her head a little, just enough for her scars to be out of visibility-"It's just something I got a long ti-"
The intercom came on and called for all girls competing in the second heat to head out; Bianca got up, breathing a sigh of relief-as if she might be hiding something. She gave a nod of the head to Sally and went on her way. "We'll talk later!" she said as she waved goodbye to Sally. Sally began to think about her, for some reason, it seemed as though Bianca was very familiar, but it wasn't like Sally knew her personally, but as though she'd seen her somewhere before, somewhere important.
The 8 girls competing in the second heat appeared out of the tunnel, each decked out in their speed gear-representing their respective teams, coming out to a round of applause and a standing ovation from the roaring audience. Reice got wide eyed as he saw Bianca, shocked that she would compete in an event like this.
"Bianca's in this event!?" Reice blurted, saying his thoughts aloud; Sky's mischievous grin made its appearance.
"Oh? You didn't know?" Sky said with a mischievous tone setting in, "Bianca's one of the fastest Inklings in Inkopolis. She may not look it, but she is incredible on the track."
"I thought she was just the leader of the Police club…" mumbled Reice, resting his head on his hand and hunching his back.
"She is…but her first love was track. She was the fastest junior high recruit when she arrived at school. We both had the same homeroom and became best friends in our first year, going to each other's practices. It was there that I saw her incredible speed as she burned the competition."-Sky stretches her arm and back-"But, a couple things happened that caused her to give up on her dream of becoming an Inklympian on her first year, which was the last time we had the Inklympics. She became the leader of the Police club shortly after, even joining the actual police force. "
"What were they?" Violet asked.
"Oh…well, one was from a mistake she made at the splatfest of that same year. She was competing in the final; she had been leading the entire race when she suddenly began to slow down. The race came down to a photo finish with her finishing in second place. It wouldn't have been too much of a big deal…except that later that week, her team lost the splatfest by just a little, with that race being a key component for the lost. She was so devastated by the loss that she retired, knowing that the event was nationally televised-with many Inklympic scouts and mentors watching. She felt like she lost her one chance to get noticed by the big leagues…"-Sally lowered her head as she remembered how depressed Bianca was after the defeat-"But as the Police club's leader, she's been excellent. I know for sure that her future is bright." Sky began to smile as she saw her close friend about to compete, so you've finally worked the courage to come back to this stage huh? Better do your best…everyone in Inkopolis is watching
The 8 girls took to their positions as the audience silenced. Cameras, phones, and the eyes of thousands of Inklings and Cuttlefish in the stadium, and in their homes, had their eyes on this heat. It was the heat that contained 'the Bolting Bianca' as the headline. All the other girls gave Bianca a pre-match hug and shook her hand, knowing that they would be running up against a modern day legend in the eyes of the younger audience and current generation. She had been undefeated in her entire lifetime, braking so many records at a young age that she was shaping up to become the greatest track athlete of all time, winning at every imaginable level except the Inklympian level. She'd worked so hard in her first year at SAHS, winning all the divisional competitions and even the national competition. But it was the splatfest that year that mattered the most to her, if she could win, she'd easily earn a spot on the Inkopolis Inklympian team. Unfortunately she failed, retiring later that week before anyone could recruit her; it was heavily rumored that a load of Inklympian recruits were ready to sign her, but because of her retirement, they all backed away-fearing that she might be mentally ready for the stresses of that event. I gave up this event because of one loss…one single loss ruined my entire life and dream. I turned to becoming a cop because of it…I'm fine with that now, I'm a sheriff after all…but, I want my closure! I want to leave this all behind; knowing I had what it took to be the best and represent this great country!
The 8 girls take their spots, getting in position for the start of race. Everyone's eyes stay glued to Bianca, "It's been almost two years since that name appeared on this sheet." Callie said with excitement, remembering the times that Bianca destroyed her competition. Bianca's in the last lane all the way at the top, her head down as her hands are propped on the ground, her knees in the proper position; she's ready to make her comeback.