Today was the day of the Octo Valley festival, a celebration of Octarian cultures for the day with food, music, and games; Azule and Sky attend the festival with Fuchsia and Shiva. There were a ton of octolings that were in attendance, like they could have their own country with this kind of crowd alone. The festival was being in the throughout the entire valley, with many little shops opened up.
"Fuchsia, why don't you take Azule on a tour of the festival, we'll meet up with you guys in a bit." Proposed Shiva, eating a sandwich with Sky; the two girls disappear like the wind and leave them on their own.
Fuchsia stood there with Azule, agitated, "uh... sorry, this is my first time at this festival too."
"I don't mind…" in a kind tone, keeping a slight distance from her after what happened yesterday."We should look around and find something that we can both enjoy together. There must be something we both like, right?"
Fuchsia looks around, "I guess we could try the concert field over there…do you like music?" pointing towards a large field where High Tide Era performed before a huge octoling crowd.
"Yeah, I'll go…"
They walked over and listened to some good music for about 3 songs and then went over to try some of the foods and stopped at little shops. Many octolings were giving them a distant stare, Inklings weren't usually welcomed unless they were someone very famous. They went over to the arcade and played some games and afterwards headed over to the basketball court to shoot some baskets and play a couple rounds.
Dribbling the ball, "Hey Fuchsia, could you tell me why you want to go to school outside of Octo Valley? It's quite nice here!" she looked at him with her eyebrows pushing up and her mouth wrinkling at the side.
"School...? Here? You're funny!" stealing the ball from him and making the shot; Azule looks at her sideways.
"Why? Don't you like it here?" tying his shoes; Fuchsia takes another shot, but misses.
"I don't hate life here, it's my home after all, it's just..."-pausing and looking at the ball for a moment-"My parents, they've always forced me to do things because of my heritage. I never got the chance to make my own decision because of them, they're way too suffocating! Only big sis Shiva has ever stood by me and my decisions..."
"Well, it sucks that you couldn't get the opportunity to make decisions on your own, but now you can make one that you're happy with. I'll support you too!" looking at the basket and mimicking her jump shot.
Clutching the ball tighter, "But am I really making the right decision?" turning to him with her Lemon-lime eyes, "it feels like I'm being selfish, I always got amazing things from them, I never had any real problems with them. It feels like I'm turning my back on my people… on this race..my family..."
"My people?" that's a high mighty thing for her to say." he held his hands out for a pass; she passes him the ball and he drained the shot.
"Say Fuchsia…are you a princess?" putting her on the spot; Fuchsia studders.
"N-no..! What would make you think that!?" oh my! How'd he figure that out so soon!? This guy's sharper than I thought…
"Oh ok…I thought you were since you said something about your people…but sorry for jumping to conclusions!" beaming as he scratches the back of his head, embarrassed for making such an error.
"Nah, it's cool." Breathing a sigh of relief as Azule takes another jumpshot. "but Azule, why are you supporting me on my decision to go your school…you're an inkling right? Wouldn't be weird for an octoling to show up...?" looking away, expecting a negative response.
Azule chuckled, "Because, everyone has that moment in their life where they want to take control of something and make a choice. Good or bad, I feel that you should get a chance to do what it is that you want to this your chance to go out and explore the world. I'll be more than glad to support your decision if that's what makes you happy…everyone should be able to be happy with the choices they made if it's what they opted for. Live your life with no regrets and keeps smiling…kind of like you are now. You have a great smile…smile more!" taking another shot, but missing this time; kind of lame after he gave such a good statement.
Fuchsia looks down at her arm and clutches it tightly-blushing, what's this? What am I feeling…? Only yesterday I hated this boy and now…he's beginning to seem different. Why's my heart beating faster? Am I anxious for something, scared? What could it be…?
"Also...you're going to join my club when you get to our school." Slipping in after he makes a shot; Fuchsia picks up on his plan.
"Whoever said that I'd join your club?" lashing back at him playfully.
"It's a given, friends should always join clubs together." taking another shot; Fuchsia looks at him with skepticism and then laughs.
"You're weird, you know..." tilting her head back and looking up at the sky. Maybe I'll join your club…seems like it'll be fun to be around you…
"Its boring otherwise." passing her the ball; she receives it and laughs again.
"Well, I can't simply join your team; you're going to have to earn it!"-Grinning-"Best two games out of three, first one to score 7 for each, wins. If you win, I'll join this club of yours." bouncing the ball; Azule was on board with the stipulation.
"But if I win, I won't have to join! And then you will be one member less!" sticking her tongue out at him.
"Oh? But I'm not losing this game!' he shouted, stealing the ball from her and scoring the opening layup.
Fuchsia shrugs her shoulders, "Not bad, I admit that you got me there. But you won't be scoring again!" driving to the basket and scoring; the score is 1-1. Azule has possession, he takes a jump shot from the three point line and misses; Fuchsia gets the rebound and dribbles back to the three point line, so that her possession was legal. She immediately brushes passed him and makes another layup; 2-1 to Fuchsia. Azule retaliates with another shot from the three point line, and misses again. Fuchsia quickly takes advantage and does a one handed floater; 3-1 to Fuchsia. Azule fires a quick shot from behind the three point line and makes it! Sadly it would only count as two points since it was street ball; 3-3 all tied. Fuchsia dribbles in front of Azule and pulles off a mean spin move to get around him and makes another layup; 4-3 to Fuchsia, the first match was a dogfight. Azule tries to dribble the ball between her legs, but she reads it and steals possession. Fuchsia steps back and drills a two point shot;6-3.
"Can you feel the sting from that dagger?" snorted Fuchsia; Azule kept focus on making a comeback.
"I'll win this series..." pulling up for a two-pointer, and making it; 6-5 to Fuchsia.
"Nice try Inky!" she mutters, pulling a crossover move on him and making the shot; 7-5 to Fuchsia, winning the first game of the series.
Two Inklings appear before them, one wearing a pink beanie with a star on the side with sunglasses in a pink shirt, the other, wearing a green hat with a white and green shirt; they sat down on the bench and watched them play basketball. Game 2 was about to start, Azule and Fuchsia didn't speak, they'd let their actions do the talking. Fuchsia gets the ball first since she won Game 1, she squares up and takes a two point shot for the opening possession and makes it; 2-0 to Fuchsia, she winks at Azule letting him know he was going to have a hard time playing against her. He quickly drives past her for a quick layup and the score becomes 2-1. Fuchsia makes another quick two pointer to stretch her lead 4-1; Azule was in trouble. The Inkling girls started rooting for Azule to make a comeback, cheering him on when he got possession of the ball.
Azule's attitude changes, he charges straight into Fuchsia and then quickly backed out for a two, before pump faking her into a quick layup; 4-2, Azule still trailing her. She drains the two-pointer to extend her lead to 6-2; Azule doesn't waver though, he continues to have that focused look. Azule powers through and lands a two-pointer after a post fade away to bring the game back to a contest, 6-4; Fuchsia only needs one more basket to win the game, but fear flows into her mind when she gazes into Azule's stone cold eyes, she feels paralyzed just from his stare. Such intensity…is he really the same person I was talking to just now...? Azule steals the ball and quickly drills a two pointer to type up the game, 6-6; the two inkling girls were on their feet cheering for Azule. Fuchsia drives to the rim and then steps back to shoot, Azule blocks her shot with authority and steals the ball, leaving her on the ground and making the game winning layup; Fuchsia couldn't believe her eyes, she just lost the game with Azule answering back scoring 5 consecutive points.
"You good?" helping her up; she was still stunned.
"Y...Yeah, I didn't expect you to play me so hard." still trying to understand what happened; Azule's light expression changed.
"We're being watched." he mumbles, looking around alert; she looked at him, thinking he was a screw loose.
"Yeah silly, the two girls that were cheering you on, right?" pointing at them; Azule shook his head no.
"I feel someone else watching us, one with evil intent..." still looking around; the two girls walked over.
"So you could feel someone watching you too." spoke the Pink one; the Green one was looking around too.
"We came here when we sensed something dangerous, then we got caught up in your game." Said the green one; staring at the bushes.
"I don't believe it's safe to be over here anymore…" said the Pink, pushing them away, "It's isn't safe one bit…"
Azule stops her, "What do you mean?"
Suddenly, a crowd of ninja's appear from the nearby bushes; they all wore Black except for the leader, wearing Forest green attire with matching green boots and a black headband. He took out 4 shurikens and dashed towards them; the two girls whip out their Hero shot blasters and start shooting down other the ninjas that follow behind him, unable to pinpoint the leader. The ninja turns and charges at Azule.
"Run to a safe spot and call Shiva and my sister, they'll help us!" directed Azule, turning to Fuchsia, and pushing her away from the fight.
"But Azule I can help…" trying to explain.
"GO!" he yelled, quickly turning around receiving a critical blow to the abdomen from the shurikens that the ninja threw.
"Aghh!" he cried in agony, falling to his knees; Fuchsia hesitates to leave as the ninja approaches Azule.
"GO! I'll handle this!" ordered Azule, grabbing the ninja and throwing him across the court.
"Whoa!" awed Fuchsia, taking out her phone to call the others.
"I'm not leaving you behind Azule!" running over to assist him with his wound; the two girls rushed over to help Azule after they finished dealing with the other ninjas.
They both take out guns and shoot out sound waves that hinder the green ninja's hearing, forcing him to pass out from the electromagnetic waves; Another ninja appears, this time dressed in White with a chrome katana blade similar to Cobalt's. The two inklings helped aid Azule by taking aim at the ninja with their weapon, but the ninja simply reflected all their sound wave attacks with the blunt side of his sword and then focuses his attacks on them; but Azule stops them all, grabbing both of the ninja's arms.
"I'm your opponent, leave them out of it!" he grunted, trying to draw away the White ninja's attention from the girls.
The ninja draws out shurikens that surrounded the perimeter, trapping Azule; the two girls backed up to give them more space, respecting Azule's resolve. The ninja charges at Azule and Azule jumps on his head to escape the shuriken trap as well as any kind of slash that he would've received.
"My, you certainly are an impressive one…" remarked the White ninja in a coarse and worn voice.
"So you can talk?" getting into attacking position, holding both his hands in a fist, ready for a brawl; Fuchsia's on the phone, explaining the situation to Shiva.
"I don't usually speak unless I deem a situation necessary…"-bringing out 3 shurikens-"But you've caught my interest…"
"So, what business do you have here, why are you attacking us?" demand Azule in an angry tone; the ninja doesn't respond.
"Guess you don't find it necessary to respond, huh?"-Closing his eyes and shaking his head- "Fine, I'll beat the answer out of you!" charging into him-head first. The ninja throws out his shurikens but Azule dodged each of them, as soon as Azule got within striking distance, the ninja swung his sword -scratching his face- but that didn't faze Azule one bit as he delivers a critical hit-punching him right in the face, sending him 5 feet far; The ninja staggers to his feet and looks ready to kill, he doubles his speed and began surrounding Azule, leaving him trapped again. Before the ninja could make his big attack, ink from a sniper shot and nearly hit him, if he hadn't dodged. When he looks up, he sees two girls on the roof of the nearby building: one with a sniper and the other with gauntlets; Azule immediately recognizes them: Sky and Shiva.
"Damn, missed by an inch…" shouted Sky in frustration with a disturbingly vicious look in her eye, ready to kill; the same look in her eyes that Azule had when he fought Spyke, only Sky's had experience in hers.
"Hey Han, is there a reason why you're attacking our little siblings?" said Shiva with a stern voice, "Depending on your answer, you will either leave here in a body bag or with minor-to no scratches…" sincerely; the ninja drops his weapon .
"I am sworn to secrecy, I must not speak name of the one who sent me here." keeping his eyes on Azule; Sky had her gun ready and aimed at him.
"Although I must say, this is quite a turn of events, Black Gauntlet and Sky Sniper, you two are a nightmare to deal with." lightly laughing, but the girls stare at him trying to signal him to stop talking about their side jobs, since it's supposed to a secret; Han finally recognizes the situation when he saw the confused look on Fuchsia and Azule's faces; seems like he's a friend of Sky and Shiva. "And agents 1 and 2, quite a surprise to see you here as well, perhaps you are all on recon?"
"Pure coincidence…" jointly said by the four of them.
"So you won't tell us who sent you here!?" hissed Sky, returning to the previous subject.
"I'm afraid not. All I can tell you is, you shot their little brother in the legs." taking off his mask; Sally sighs and realized it was Spyke and the Black Urchins. She whispers to Shiva, filling her in on why he was attacking them. Shiva smiles and turned to Han.
"So that's what's going on?"-Turning to Han-"We'll be in touch; I have some business to discuss with you and Sky…" both of them of them nodded and Han exited with his men.
Agents 1 and 2 stand there, awkwardly staring at Azule and Sky; the two siblings return the awkward stare.
"Do we…know you from somewhere?" asked the pink one; the green one observes them intently. "You both resemble Agents 3 and 4…perhaps…"
Sky halts her quickly, "No! We don't have any affiliation with the military or government! You're simply mistaken!" rushing off with Azule and the Octoling girls.
Agent 1 looks at Agent 2, "there's no doubt…it's them, huh?"
Agent 2 nods, "that kind of scary face in a situation like this…only Agent 3's kids had that kind of look. It's amazing to see how big they've grown."
"Yeah, I bet Lime and Verde would be so excited see them…they haven't seen them since the war began…" replies Agent 1; taking out her phone.
"Then, maybe we should arrange something…like a meeting." Proposes Agent 2, also taking out her phone.
They both take their leave, scrolling through their contacts to find Lime and Verde.
The rest of the day was spent enjoying the festival together, the four of them. It felt weird with everything that happened, and Fuchsia didn't know if to ask her sister about her connection to the ninja dudes; Azule and Sky went home afterwards. Tomorrow would be Monday, a new week for school and a new member to Azule's "Family".
