The next day, Azule got unexpected news from his sister: they'd be going to Octo Valley for the weekend. Azule had no idea why she wanted to drag him along and he didn't even know anything about Octo valley other than the fact that Octolings inhabit the area. He met up with the others, whom were heading to Inkopolis plaza to begin competing in some local turf wars and potentially, the ranked matches.
"She said to be ready to get picked up by 10 Am. but honestly, I don't have a clue why she's bringing me along…" explaining why he couldn't join them for the turf wars; the others didn't seem bothered by it.
"Go with your sister there, maybe you might make some friends there too." said Cobalt, eating a chocolate bar; he's a glutton, always eating, because of him, Azule and Reice had to do extra shopping-the reason why they're looking to make some quick cash in the local turf wars.
"Don't worry Azule, we'll get better so that by the time you get back. We'll be super good and ready for the season to begin. So go and spend time with your sister." Declares Sally with confidence.
Sky rolls up in her gloss black stingray and Azule hops in and waved to the others and drove off, leaving behind a cloud of smoke; the others stare off into the distance, knowing the long day ahead of them.
"I hope he'll be safe…" worried Violet, putting her hand to her chest.
"He'll be fine as long as his sister is with him." reminded Reice, to what happened yesterday at Urchin Underpass.
They all exited the train station and arrived at Inkopolis plaza, the center place for local turf wars in Inkopolis; each country in Inkland had their own center for turf wars, but Inkopolis had the best one being the capital of turf wars.
"OK! So there's five of us, who here has experience at turf wars?" guided Sally, leading them towards ammo knights, the arms store. She stares at Cobalt expecting him to join since he has excellent swordsmanship, he swiftly rejects the idea.
"I have no prior experience, I'd only bring you down." putting his hands up; Reice and Violet raised their hands.
"We have some experience…" they said simultaneously; Sally definitely showed satisfaction knowing that they already have a roster to compete with in the turf wars.
"Only three?" teased Sally, hoping that Tangie would join.
"I'm sorry, I've never had the chance to participate because of my illness." with deep regret.
"I guess we'll compete for the day with this line up, hopefully a random 4th player will join or if anything we enter into a 3-on-4 handicap, I guess that'll help us improve in handling disadvantageous situations."
They all walked into the store and Sally headed over to Shelldon to talk; the store was small but it was filled with loads of guns and weapons to select from and many other gadgets.
"Pick whatever you want; it's on me okay guys?" Sally was rich after all. They tried out different types of weapons from Sloshers to Paintbrushes; but after a little time passed, they all decided on their weapons. Reice chose a Carbon Roller, a lightweight roller type that gives its users more speed and handling but less power than other types of rollers; Violet chose the Kelp Splatterscope, A splat charger with a scope, one of three weapons to only have a scope and this edition provides more range but less mobility. Sally chose the heavy splatling and got it in her own color too instead of the deco design: Salmon pink, the heavy Splatling is the equivalent of a M134 Mini gun. They decided to start off in casual matches to help them get a feel of playing together as a team and then work their way to ranked matches where they can compete and earn rep.
They entered the battle station and warped to Kelp Dome, one of the two stages that they would be rotating between: Walleye Warehouse would be the other. Their color for this match was Yellow, their opponents was Pink; their team was up by a team of a Dynamo roller, Splash o Matic, Slosher and a Luna blaster. The match started, The Pink team rushed immediately to secure the middle area and was led by the roller, who inked all across the floor, and the other three secured the middle area around the central area and splatted Sally and the others in the process
"These guys are some try hard dweebs!" commented Sally, annoyed with how hard the opposing team was trying to secure victory so early into the match, "Let's show them what we got!"
They all split and took a different route to combat the pink team: Reice takes the straightforward approach and challenges them head on; Violet supports him from the high catwalks and snipes the inklings from the other side. Sally explores the other areas inking the turf to earn them the lead; the pink team looked confused to the situation. Only one minute was left in the match, the goal became simple: Guard the lead, but it'd be difficult to do since they were in a 3-on-4 handicap. The pink team began an onslaught of offensive attacks, Overwhelming Reice and Violet and splatting them in the process, leaving Sally to hold the fort while they respawn. It was too overpowering, Sally immediately falls victim and gets splatted, the match was over in no time, Judd came out and gave out the results: Pink team, 86, Yellow team, 24,
"They were absolutely destroyed in the end, but they did put up a good fight." Tangie said to Cobalt; they were sitting at the coffee shop right next to the battle station watching the match on the TV screen.
"Well, at least they got a match with the start they had…" responded Cobalt with slight enthusiasm, "As long as they can improve after each casual match, they'll be ready for ranked battles in no time, they were decent given their disadvantage."
Their second match began, they were now in orange while their opponents were in teal; they played with a better pace than previously and the best part was that they were playing the same team as before.
"Keep your hustle and secure the middle!" said Sally, continuing forward to the enemy's turf.
Reice splatted every attacker that dare try to ink the home turf, "it's safe to say that Reice is controlling this match, he's holding down the defense and leaving the offense to Sally and Violet…" said Cobalt with approval.
Violet gave Sally support splatting everyone in Sally's blind spot with her Splatterscope, the match was over and they'd won with ease in a surprising 75-31; Cobalt and Tangie both looked stunned by what they'd just witness, they won a match with ease and with a huge disadvantage at play.
Azule and Sky were on their way to Octo Valley, a valley in the mountainous region that stood on the outskirts of Inkpolis. Azule sat in the passenger seat looking out the window; Annoyed that Sky didn't fill him in on why he had to come along.
"Sis, why am I even on this weekend trip, and why to Octo Valley of all places?" He still wants an answer, but she wouldn't give him one. "sis look, I haven't seen you for two years and when I finally do, all this crazy stuff happens and now seeing you and Pearl with your weapons despite it being illegal has led me to believe that you're hiding something from me…" she glances over at him and then returns to looking at the road and driving.
She takes a deep breath, "Zule, if you must know there's a festival happening tomorrow and we're going with some very important people."-Still keeping her eyes on the road- "And now's not the time to talk about that stuff." she added putting on her shades.
The sun was bright, filled with promise of a new day. The sky was clear with the city's skyline in the background behind them; the mood in the car was quiet.
"Do you know anything about the Octarians' history? Like why Octolings are densely populated in Octo valley alone?" he asked, looking to liven up the mood in the car; she looks pleased to see his effort to change the mood as well as his curiosity with Octarian history.
"Well, it goes back to the first great turf war, it was the beginning of the mollusk era and both us and the Octarians fought for the uncharted lands, after we won the war we exiled them to live underground. They tried many methods to get back at us and led by DJ Octavio, the Octarian king stole the great Zapfish many years back and although it was only for a night, it led to a 2nd great turf war. The 2nd war was far worse than the first with way more casualties and both sides agreed to call a truce, this led to Octolings, the elite Octarians, being able to live among us, but not all Octarians were given that liberty, so many are still exiled underground with no source of light. So many Octolings aren't very friendly towards Inklings or the Cuttlefish or any other race for that matter. Quite frankly, tension is growing between both sides again…"
"But it's a shame that we can't coexist on a greater scale, race just doesn't matter to some of us, we all share the same world and should stand unified as one and hopefully that day will come soon." she said smiling again; Azule could see the beautiful and lively look and realized that he hadn't seen her like that since their days at the orphanage when they would go out and adventure the playground and sneak around at night.
They arrived at their destination, a big and modern looking house with toxic green and maroon red colorway in the middle of a hilly area just on the outskirts of the village below.
An Octoling came out, she had Black tentacles with Green tinges on the end, wearing a tight black Octoling brand t shirt that made her bust bigger than it already was with a silver necklace that had an Octopus pendant around her neck, Black yoga tights and Black high tops; Azule felt his heart race and immediately blushed and looked away, he'd never seen an Octoling, only hearing about them back at the orphanage, hearing that they were the most beautiful creatures on the land. She had a wonderful figure with an extraordinarily beautiful face to go along with it. Sky got out of the car and rushed out to hug her, giving her a long and warm embrace; Azule stayed in the car frozen.
"Azule, don't be shy, come on over here!" Waved Sky for him to get out and come over, but Azule wouldn't budge. The Octoling walked over to his side of the car and he got out, his face still bright red.
"My, you look flushed, cutie." placing her hand on his face and gently feeling his cheek; she had a cute voice. "Have you never met an Octoling before? We don't bite… too much." flirting with him.
"It's rude to flirt with your guest…" shouted Sky jokingly.
"Whatever MOM!" she responded, mocking her for being so overprotective.
The interior was also very modern with a state of the art design as well as technology; Azule was impressed. They walked into the living room and sat down, she served them tea, and it had a warm and homely smell and taste to it.
"My name is Magenta Yeshiva Rose, but you can call me Yeshiva or Shiva, since I think we'll be great friends…" shaking Azule's hand; Sky kept a good eye Shiva, Shiva's known for being a seductive one, always infatuating the boys in the village.
"Azule, your hands are soft!" with a sweet look towards Azule, who was speechless.
"How old are you?" gently resting her head on her fist.
"I'm 15, turning 16 this March." he answered; Shiva raised her eyebrows with interest.
"He's almost legal Sky! Can I have him afterwards?" with excitingly with beady eyes; Sky coughed, nearly choking on the tea she was drinking.
"Shiva, why'd you call us here today?" quickly changing the subject.
"US!?" interrupts Azule, with an annoyed look on his face since he never asked to come along to begin with.
"It has to deal with my younger sister, Fuchsia." turning to a pretty girl, who was outside shooting hoops, "you see, I'm a third year now and captain of the school Turf war team here and I've been waiting for Fuchsia to attend our high school so that I can pass the team off to her when I graduate, she's been a prodigy at athletics from the time she was just a little kid, especially turf wars. But, she's never been very fond of the Octarian culture, she's always tried to rebel against our customs and traditions and now she's told me that she doesn't want to attend Octo Valley high."-Sighing-"Honestly I'm not upset about her choice but it'll be difficult to get her into any other school given whoshe is, and that's why I've called you here."
Sky doesn't seem bothered by Shiva's request, "Leave it to me, I'll look after your little sister."
"But she's never talked to any boys her age since all the male Octolings are absent…"-turning to Azule-"do you think you could take care of her, I bet she'll absolutely fall in love you, you cute little squid, so lucky your sister is here right now or else I don't know if I could control myself…" biting her lip and flirting yet again in front of Sky; Fuchsia walks through the door and sees them.
"Ah Fuchsia, you remember Sky right? This is her adorable little brother Azule, you two are the same age." Fuchsia glared at Azule.
"If you need me I'll be upstairs, I'll soon join you in a bit." Politely walking upstairs; she's cute like her older sister too… He thought, quickly dismissing the thought afterwards.
"So…" transitions Shiva, directing her attention back to Azule, "I hear you're looking to compete in turf wars at your school? Do you think you can make it out of there?", closely observing his answer.
"I think my club will get the job done when it comes time for the rank wars, I have absolute confidence in them; the four of us will do great things!" beaming with confidence.
"I see…" seeing out the corner of her eye, Fuchsia, peeking from upstairs and then running back up."Azule, do you mind if you sister and I speak alone, we have plenty to catch up on. You can go upstairs and get Fuchsia if you want, but be careful, she's not comfortable around boys, Inkling or Octoling."
He walked upstairs; leaving Sky and Shiva alone to their conversation downstairs. Upstairs looked quite nice with a pool table and pictures of the family off to the side, there were 7 doors with signs on them; he walked up to the one with her name on it and knocked on the door, but no answer, he let himself in.
"Pardon the intrusion…" he whispered, seeing her in a Black tank top with short tights on, sleeping on her bed with her headphones on playing music; he walks over to wake her up.
Back downstairs, Sky and Shiva continued conversing on many subjects when it shifted back to Azule.
"Sky, I'm glad that you brought Azule along with you…" -smiling warmly- "as you know, we've been searching for proper suitor for Fuchsia; I think Azule would make a great husband for her and an even better brother-in-law." pulling on Sky's leg again, "but in all seriousness, I'm truly glad I got to meet him, he's everything like you've described…"
"Whoa, I understand she's princess and all but, they haven't even met yet, how could you possibly think they could work out?" trying to keep him from getting forced into a marriage, it's possible since Azule's family history would definitely be a good pairing for the Princess of the Octarians.
"Azule is the first Inkling boy I've met that didn't lust for me after he saw me; I saw honesty in his eyes, the perfect boy for Princess Fuchsia."-with joy-"besides, Fuchsia's not the only princess in need of a suitor."-biting her lip-"Should those two not work out, I'll happily make him mine!" with a fist.
"And what if he doesn't like you in that way…" Remained Sky not amused, knowing Shiva is more than capable of getting him.
"Oh, he'll LOVE me!" taunting Sky; Azule tumbles down the stairs, Fuchsia jumps on him, ready to throw a punch.
"What happened?" asked Sky, helping Azule up as Fuchsia gets off.
"What happened is that your brother is a pervert." in disgust at Azule.
"I only went to wake you up!" replied Azule, defending his case.
"Now, now, let's brush this misunderstanding aside. Sky and Azule will be going with us to the festival tomorrow, so best be nice." Shiva wagging her finger at Fuchsia, "you'll also be attending school with them starting Monday." Fuchsia didn't look thrilled to hear any of the news.
"We'll also be staying the night." Said Sky; shocking Azule, who was now terrified of what Shiva might do to him in his sleep, her eyes had twinkled like stars, knowing if he didn't have his guard up, she'll turn him into a man real quick.
"Is this true?" asked Fuchsia, angry that she'd have to see Azule's face in the morning.
"Yep" she smiles, "And if you continue to whine, I'll put the two of you to sleep together in the same room, so stop It." with authority.
"Yes Big sis Shiva…" responding in an obedient tone; Azule chuckles a bit.
That night, Azule slept in the guest room, keeping himself awake for the whole night to be on guard in case Shiva walked in to try any funny business. The next morning was a bright one for a Sunday, the sunrise over Octo valley was perfect. Azule got up to see this beautiful sunrise, he observed Fuchsia taking pictures of the sunrise and could hear Sky and Fuchsia chatting downstairs.
