The early morning air blows through the campus of SAHS, students continue their morning, unaware of the events that happened overnight. Squidcom enters the classroom with stone faces, ignoring their classmates' morning greetings. They all sit at their seats; Tangie takes five blue-stitched bracelets and hands them to the others.
"Fuchsia and I stayed up the whole night making these."-Handing the bracelets out, "I think we should show our unity with them."
"Thanks, both of you." Said Sally, putting on the bracelet.
"I know we'll make him proud today." Smiled Reice, admiring the craftsmanship of the bracelet; Tangie glanced at Cobalt's chair-empty.
"I see Cobalt's not here today…" with a disappointed look, hiding a special bracelet that she made for him.
"Yeah, he wasn't at the dorm either." Responded Reice-locking eyes with Todd, who was walking over to them. Reice tightened up his position, ready for whatever was about to happen.
"What's going on? Where's the Blue shrimp and the Cobalt one?" Asked Todd, towering over Reice.
"Azule's not here. I don't know where Cobalt is, and don't refer to them as shrimp!" barked Reice with rage; the class turns their attention to them; Reice wasn't the kind of guy to lose his cool.
"Anyway, I hope you don't plan on competing against us with only three people. We'll send critical blows to the head if you're not-" Sally exhales loudly, glaring at Todd and clenching her fist so tightly that her hand began shaking.
"Go away…" muttered Violet in a wavering tone, looking down at her desk with tears dropping one by one onto them; Todd looked confused.
Todd walks back to his seat at Violets request, sensing emotional pain from them. Principal Telfin came over the intercom:
"Students it is with great regret that I must inform you that one our very own is currently in the hospital"- The students begin looking at each other, trying to figure out what was going on; Squidcom keeps quiet, holding back tears. "The student of ours is Azule Royale, first year of class 1-A. He was admitted into the hospital late last night, currently in Critical Condition with a coma." Some students gasped at the news, others simply didn't care; Violet buried her face in her bag, Sally storms out the class, and Reice covers his face with hand. "He was shot directly in the forehead, the perpetrator hasn't been found as of yet. I ask that you all keep yourselves safe."
Silence struck the classroom; Todd sat in his chair puzzled at the news just heard. Coma? He thought, still trying to grasp a hold of the situation. The rest of the morning was bleak around the campus, many students were gloomy, dragging their feet; no one thought something so bad would happen to him.
The Rank Wars got under way later that day; everyone packed the surrounding parking lots, cheering for their respective teams. The Rebels and Squidcom entered battle area to a crowd of cheers for the Rebels; no one reacted to Squidcom.
The storyline for the match was the 3 on 4 disadvantages that Squidcom would be dealing without their motivational captain, the tension between the two rivals and the current status of Azule Royale- public enemy of SAHS.
Squidcom stand firm on the spawn point looking dead ahead, blocking out all distractions, all the trauma that they experienced within the past 24 hours, all the anxiousness fades away as they set their sights on one goal: Win the Match.
Squidcom burst out at full speed on the offensive-Reice inks the back turf and extends a help forward, Sally inks everything in her sight, and Violet finds a comfortable spot to snipe. Todd and his team begin their attack- Dustin, the charger user of the team with his classic squiffer, takes aim at Sally; Violet mercilessly splats him in one go. Phillip, one of their two rollers, engages in a one on one with Reice-attempting to steal turf. It's two on one for Sally as she deals with Todd and Corey, the shooter and roller users, as they bombard her with ink mines from Todd's Aerospray RG and a sprinkler from Corey's Inkbrush. Corey sneaks behind and Splats her, securing the middle area; 70-30 to the Rebels.
Squidcom's disadvantage kicks in, Violet gets double teamed from behind and Reice gets splatted after losing the one on one battle. They struggle to gain any turf for about 50 seconds; 30 seconds remained. Sally launches her Inkstrike and, with the help of Reice, rush to retrieve some turf. Sally splats both Corey and Phillip, heading straight to Todd. Todd throws out another ink mine before him, hoping she'll fall into his trap again, but she swims around it and throws up her splash wall- charging up her Heavy Splatling. Dustin sneaks behind her, hoping to splat, but is instead splatted by Violet and Reice. Todd holds down the fort long enough for his teammates to respawn, and dogfight begins with 15 seconds left.
Sally fires at Todd, who barely dodges the attack. Dustin drops down and splats Reice, Violet Splats both Dustin and Phillip; Corey appears from behind her and splats her. Sally finally splats Todd, but the bell rings, when she looks up at the scoreboard with light in her eyes-hoping to see the desired result, instead got a big heartbreak; 51-49, Rebels victory.
The school audience roars in satisfaction, cheering Todd and the rest of the Rebels with joy. Sally drops to floor in exhaustion, covering the frustration on her face, Reice sits down next to her with Violet following right behind. Tangie and Fuchsia, who were sitting at the very edge of the front row, rushed down to the battle area. The three sat there, covered in the Rebel's Orange ink; Tangie and Fuchsia help them up and the five of them huddle up.
"We…lost…" panted Sally, gripping the back of Reice's shirt, beginning to cry.
"Sal, don't cry. We gave it everything we had; we'll get them next time." Comforted Reice, wiping away her tears.
"But, Azule! This one was for Azule!" crying louder, unaware of the camera and microphone on them, "It's our first game back without him and we lose to his biggest Rivals! How do you he'd feel!?" screamed Sally, with tears overflowing.
The whole school body looks at them, stunned by what they're hearing-some even shedding tears themselves. Principal Telfin enters the battle area and escorts them out to a quiet area, wanting to give them their privacy. The school body gives applause to them as they walk off, showing respect for the hard effort that Squidcom exerted in the heavily entertaining match.
Sky and the Elites approach them; Sky gives everyone a hug, and then rushes over to her team.
Looking back, "You guys played great! Hold your heads up high!"
They all gazed at her, amazed. She had the same vibrance in her tone, the warmth in her smile and the same fearlessness in her eyes as Azule. That's something Azule would say, they thought.
They spent the rest of the night checking on Azule at the hospital, getting no rest and losing energy as well.
"No updates on his health, seems to still be in that coma." The doctor said, looking at her clipboard. "But if you want to go in and check on him, you're more than welcome."
They all entered; Sky sat at his bedside holding his hand and praying. She looked up and saw them staring at her.
"Uh….can I help you guys?" she asked, resting his hand back on his chest.
"Sky…we didn't expect to see you here is all." Said Tangie, taking a seat next to her.
Sky and Tangie stare out the window, Sunset came. They all sat around Azule, everyone kept silence and focused their attention on him. Sky took a deep breath and got up, grabbing her purse and heading for the exit.
She turns back looking at them, "Azule hasn't told you anything about himself has he?" They all look at each other and shake their heads.
"That's good, when he wakes up. Make sure you learn everything about him from him specifically, I think it's time he opened up." Giving a two-fingered salute and exiting.
"Come to think of it…Azule's never told us about himself has he?" opened Reice, turning to Fuchsia, "You haven't told us about yourself either!"
Fuchsia jumped back surprised, "What? I'm sure I've told you all…" looking away from them, twiddling her fingers and whistling a tune.
"Fuchsia." Sally crossing her arms and raising her left eyebrow, "What are you hiding from us?"
"Don't you now we must all share our secrets-no matter how dark or embarrassing it may be." Added Violet, scooting closer to her; Fuchsia sighs.
"Fine…" Fuchsia sits upright, "I'm the princess of the Octarians." Closing her eyes in anticipation for the worst.
"That's all?" asked Sally.
"Pretty cool if you ask me." Added Tangie.
"Does Azule know?" inquired Violet, moving closer towards her; Fuchsia looks away with shame.
"No…I never told him, I was planning to tell you all sometime this week before this incident happened." Grabbing her left arm with discomfort, her face turning bright red with mortification, "I'm sorry for keeping you all in the dark. It's just…I've never met such kind folks before, I still have trouble getting used to you all."
Sally gives a jolly laugh, "Well, no worries, you're family to us. So no need to be so tensed up anymore."
Reice gets up-stretching, "When Azule wakes up-we can all be a family again. Until then, Sally, you should act as leader, don't you think? You could add one more person for the rank wars too."
"I-I play a little bit of turf wars!" declared Fuchsia, "I used to play with my older sister a little. I think I could be of great assistance."
Sally's happy expression fades, "I couldn't possibly take Azule's spot like that. I'm fine with the way it is now, I do thank you Fuchsia for offering to assist but…" looking at the wristband Tangie gave her, "I want to see us overcome this obstacle as-is."
Fuchsia understood loud clear, seeing the resolve Sally has to want to stay at such a disadvantage; they all gave a prayer and left afterwards. The weekend they spent at the hospital each day, Watching Azule lay on the bed-lifeless. Meanwhile Cobalt had spent the last week adventuring across Inkopolis, searching everywhere for the perpetrator and now found himself in Flounder Heights. He arrived at Frankie's house, an information broker's office that the Black Urchins were a client of when he was an assassin working for Spyke.
Entering the office, he saw the place was still a mess from how he remembered it. Papers scattered on the floor, coffee half full-the rest on all over the carpet, half eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich with Squid Sister's live! Playing on the TV in the background. Frankie lies on the couch with crumbs all over his face, his entire body spread out on the couch with his blanket on the floor and his glasses uneven on his face.
"Yo! Frankie get up you lazy no-good!" slapping the back of Simon's head with great force; Simon wakes up immediately, falling off the couch.
"Wha? Cobalt? W-What are you doing here?" in a yawning voice, "I thought you stopped doing work for Spyke? What are you doing here man?" fixing his glasses.
"I'm not working for him anymore, but I do have some business to discuss with you." Sitting on the couch, waiting for Frankie to get up.
"Well, you know you shouldn't be here…I'm still affiliated with the Black Urchins, I know everything about your incident with Spyke and of the accident that happened to you friend." Getting back onto the couch and staring up into space.
Cobalt wasn't surprised by his response, "I know you won't rat me out, anyways, I also had a suspicion that it was someone from the Urchins that pulled the attack…Who was it?"
Frankie sighed, reaching over for a cigarette and lighter, "Look, ever since your departure from the Urchins, things have gotten from bad to worse."
"I don't care about them; I only worked for Spyke to find a cure for Tangie." Responds Cobalt.
"I know…Ok look, when you left, some new blood showed up with the big boss. He was a high schooler-think he attends your school, he's the new right hand man now."
The smoke from the cigarette is strong and very unpleasant; Cobalt coughs a bit. "Don't you know those things aren't good for you?" asks Cobalt, putting his hand over his mouth and nose.
"Yeah, but it's a force of habit." Inhaling the smoke with pleasure.
"Continue on Frankie, who is the new blood? Is he the one who gave the orders to assassinate my friend?" pressed Cobalt.
"Aye, but it was the wrong one." He said nonchalantly.
"Wrong one?"
"Aye, you see, you had three big fish with you. Two girls-Inkling girl with violet hued tentacles and an Octoling; you also had a boy with Yellow tentacles with you too." Flinging the cigarette in the ash tray across the room.
"What about them?" Cobalt asks with concern.
"Turns out one of them is the daughter of a Mafioso, the other is the princess of the Octarians. The boy is a son of an influential drug lord that runs the underground of Beacon Hill."
Cobalt didn't faze from the news, he learned of Reice and Sally's past from them upfront on a random day when everyone was hanging out together-it was Fuchsia's that he wondered.
Why is the princess of our rivals living among us? Why hasn't she told any of us about this secret? Are those Octarians planning something? Questions continued racing through his mind as he holds his head, trying to find an answer.
"The new blood wanted to assassinate one of those three targets. They targeted the mafiosa first, but it looks like your friend saw it coming and took the bullet for her. The man who fired the bullet was given those orders by the new blood and was told to flee and he hit the wrong target." He got up and walked over to his kitchen, which was over in the corner near the same hallway that'd lead to his bedroom and bathroom.
"Who's the new blood?" rushed Cobalt.
"I can't say his name, but I can give you a clue since we're friends. He is a 2nd year at your school; your teammates faced his team last week and suffered a loss."
Cobalt pieced it all together, "Cameron!"
Frankie shakes his head yes, "Looks like you weren't a top assassin for nothing."
"Where is he right now!?" demands Cobalt, with a vicious aura beginning to manifest itself.
"Whoa calm down! You won't stand a chance against him! He's a ninja, a very skilled one too; he'll be an absolute mismatch for you." Settling Cobalt down on the couch, attempting to calm him.
"Ninja?"
"Yes, he is the leader of the Hayama ninja clan, the biggest in Inkopolis." He exclaimed with anger, "You'll get murdered before you even reach him!"
Cobalt grins with evil intent, "Who said I'd go in there alone?" Cobalt gets up and heads for the exit, tossing a roll of 1000 dollar bills at Frankie, "We never had this conversation." He winked.
Cobalt exits the building, night befalls him. He walks over to a Black Stingray and enters the passenger side. He looks over and sees Sky next him, snoring loudly.
"Wake up, I got the information we need." Shaking her.
"Huh? Oh…cool." She starts the car, and they drive off; Frankie stands by the window, suspiciously watching them.
"So what did you find?" asks Sky, still sleepy.
He explains everything that he learned from Frankie, telling her everything she needed to know and then-some.
"So looks like we can plan our attack!" giving him a fist bump.
"But, with our forces, we face a massive disadvantage…" he looked at Sky; her scary expression.
"So, Cameron's the one who caused all this! And he's targeting our friends too!?"-Grasping the steering wheel tighter-"I'll end his worthless life myself!"
"Guess he'll be in for a rude awakening…" added Cobalt as they drove back into the city.
