In a darkened room where the source for the cold is the drawn curtains blocking out the rays of sunlight attempting to infiltrate, the owner of the room tried her hardest to bury herself under the sheets and sandwich her head between two fluffy pillows to drown out the agitating pounding on her door, hearing her brother's voice call her name repeatedly. The poor girl tosses and turns from side to side with an angry face trying to keep her eyes shut and retain the comfort and warmth she felt prior when she sunk into the mattress. She grits her teeth the moment she heard her phone buzz in addition to her brother's continuous pounding and with resignation finally woke up. Groggily answering the call, her fuming brother who shouts for her to wake up and get dressed since she running late for her own appointment. Pouting her lips and puffing her cheeks, she gets up and heads to the bathroom to get ready...

"Don't lock the door next time!" Kappa's steamed like a cucumber as he sat in the back of the cab with her, his ears puffing smoke glaring out the window; "We're running late as is because you continue to lock your door at night and forget to set your alarm. Honestly, why did you have to take so long to get ready too? Hey! Are you even listening!?" he shouts noticing she's already dozing off.

Kippy's sleep bubble pops, "It's not my fault, I'm not a morning person." she whines, wagging her hand on his face to block him.

"Why you-" he grabs her hand and is right about to pinch at her cheek and pull.

"Shouldn't you be with the team right now? Why are you coming along?" Kippy rubs her eyes followed by a yawn, her strength far superior than her brother's as she clutched his wrist and prevented him from grabbing at her cheek.

Kappa lets go of her hand with resignation, "Captain Zepp gave me the day off. He had a feeling you'd be a handful with everything going on and advised that I accompany you."

"Ugh, why does it feel like I'm being babied?" she groans.

"For starters, you act like one at times."

"Not true!" she exasperates feeling disrespected.

He rolls his eyes, "Yeah, yeah…"

A break from their conversation, they both take a look outside the car and view the buildings and people they pass by. Deep in the city, the pair were on their way to meet with a very important host who invited Kippy to join their radio show. With her emergence as a superstar for Kalebrough and an icon in the making, everyone was eating at the hype she serves with great expectation that she can not only become special like the "Hero" Jin Ika, but perhaps even rival the "Emperor" and "Street Queen" as the star of her generation. Despite giving his sister a lot of flak, Kappa was proud to see how far she'd grown and looked forward to seeing her blossom into something special in the upcoming tournament; more than anything, he simply wanted the best for her as a brother and hated to see that she wasn't handling her newfound responsibilities with the deserved attention. With a focused stare, he remembers how much of a handful she was when they were younger, and when she first arrived, she could barely make any friends. Now, she's the starlet of the country and everyone wants to be her friend, and in all this time, she only had her sights set on one goal, and on one specific person; the entire time, Kippy felt his stare but pretends to look away since she felt a little guilty about causing him such trouble, but after seeing his reflection in the window she felt irritated.

"What are you looking at?" Kippy narrows her eyes, annoyed by her brother's presence.

Kappa's forehead wrinkles with a disgusted look, "Are we really related?" Kippy answers by punching him in the arm.

The pair arrive at a large building deep in the city and check-in, receiving permission to pass through and head in the elevator; neither of them utter a word to one another on the quiet ride up to the top, that is until Kippy mumbles an insult under her breath-still hurt from his comment earlier, to which Kappa responds with an insult of his own. As the doors opened, the two were continuing their bickering like two siblings would and ceased the moment they stepped foot onto the floor, both deciding to keep their differences between them. After being led to the room where several radio hosts were gathered live on air, they welcomed Kippy to the Krakendown Radio Show, a popular show that aired throughout the day and brought on several guests daily, especially famous ones, Kippy was the most anticipated guest for the week since all the talk around the nation was about her and Nationals. A little rocky on the opening few seconds, she introduced herself in such a bashful manner that they couldn't help but poke fun and call her adorable in response. Easy to read her, they knew the best way to get her out of that shell was through talking about the one thing she loved the most, and following her introductions, they went straight to business. Asking her questions about turf wars and what led to her becoming a player, a light shined in her eye when she explained that her inspiration for coming this far was none other than a rival in the tournament. She wanted to keep his name a secret, but from the way her voice came to life and her body shook off the reluctance and engaged with them, they all knew the person she was referencing would soon get their name dropped. As a follow up, they asked her about rivals and what she thought of them. Her passion showed immediately as she called two names to mind: Azule of Squid Academy, and Janice of the Yermozani Fangs. When she mentioned Janice, she spoke of her like a close friend with a smile on her face, recalling the fun battle she shared in Cobeale and expressing that she'd love to face her again at Nationals. It was when she mentioned Azule that everyone could read her feelings as she didn't hesitate to praise him with a smile so wide her cheeks redddened; several of the hosts joked that she had the eyes of someone in love when she talked about him, but Kippy shot that down swiftly and expressed that she a had a strong fondness for him since he was the reason she was even there today. The attitude he carried when he debuted inspired her, and as she continued to go into further detail about what it was she admired about him, she capped it off by wishing that she could face him-a dream of hers to go up against her idols. She understood that it was unusual for fellow players to look up to their rivals, but she didn't view him as a rival as much as the mirror of her, basing her entire style off of his. As she continued the interview with a clear mind that the jitters were gone, Kappa gives a sigh of relief in the next room and takes a seat, worried that she might've tensed up on air but glad that the interviewers knew what to ask to bring her out. A look up to the ceiling, he wondered if there was anything else he could do to support her now that she'd become a super talent; when they started out together, they were a tandem that teams had to fear, but with Kippy exploding into a different level she not only left the competition in the dust, but her brother as well, who despite being quite the talented individual himself was overlooked by everyone. This is the harsh reality of talent, he believed. No matter how good someone is, there will always be someone better, and in this case it was his sister. Rather than focus on himself and bettering himself, he felt he should focus on bringing out her true potential, believing her to be the key to a deep run.

While Kippy is hard at work being a superstar celebrity for Kalebrough, Janice is a star in her own way for Yermozani. A team that was hard at work in preparation for the upcoming tournament, that didn't stop them from doing more than focusing on just sports. With a captain who was a big believer in being there for the community, she dedicate the last couple days of her efforts to helping out the community of Yermozani, and following in their captain's charitable service were the rest of the team who felt inspired to see her dedicate every last of her strength to helping those in need, crashing at the end of the day and having to fall asleep with a towel over her face. From cleaning up the streets and parks of any litter to building homeless shelters and providing meals for them to even hosting a community cookout to encourage everyone to come and join, Janice was doing everything she could to make Yermozani a better place, having understood what the place was like. Her efforts were appreciated by everyone as even the resident thugs and gangsters put aside their differences to show their support for her. The grace of Yermozani, her courteous deeds don't stop there since today was yet another day to show goodwill. While her teammates Hector, Nantes, and William were at local foster homes and facilities to assist the workers there, she is at an assisted living care facility for the elderly helping them out in volunteer work.

"Hey are you listenin' to the radio, Janice?" one teammate said who had a little free time.

"What is it?" she responded, her hands full with helping someone out of their seat to a table to get food.

"Marcellus stop botherin' the cap!" another one said with an angry fist, noticing that Marcellus was clearly up to something by talking with the captain.

Marcellus growled, "Got a problem, Jamaal!? I'm talkin to the cap, alright!"

"Tryna get in her good books! She don't want you!"

"She don't want you either!"

"Say that again, buddy. I'll kill ya!"

"HUH?"

"YOU HEARD ME!"

Janice found it hilarious that boys were fighting over them, since she was scary and rejected them harshly, she appreciated that there were at least some who still had a backbone and wanted her attention, though in this case she couldn't imagine what the others would do if they saw that their fellow teammates were trying to put the moves on her, finding it amusing at their potential reactions.

"Would you two hush it!" a girl shouts, storming over to them; "You're agitating the elderly you idjits!"

"Paige…!" the boys shuddered, following her orders.

"Sorry about that, captain." Paige said coming over, her hot pink tentacles done up in pig tail style.

Janice wanted to laugh but also found Paige to be scary at times, "N-no problem. Thanks for your help..." she said, which Paige nodded and went on her way.

"Hey, what do you think?" another teammate whispered after Paige turned her back.

Janice looked to him-now free since she helped the elder to the table, "About what?"

"Everything. You've become a voice for the voiceless of Yermozani, and you've done all you can to play your part in bettering the community. I speak for everyone when I say that I greatly appreciate all you do for us."

"Oh stop it, I'm doing what anyone in my shoes would do. I admit the extra attention can get unnerving at times, but it's nothing compared to growing up in poverty, you know? I'm glad I can make a difference no matter the scale. In the end, it's much bigger than just sports-people's lives are dangling by a thread every day. If I can win and bring some exposure to this place, then no doubt the troubles will go away. I know that if Yermozani got a chance to develop, it'd become a wonderful place."

A selfless spirit who fought for everyone, she might carry an imposing look but deep down was a genuine as they come. A will to improve not just for her school but for her community as well, she faces Nationals with her best foot forward, and much like her are the other teams of Inkopolis, especially Squidops, who've somehow become a forgotten name among the bunch. Where Kalebrough have emerged as the breakout team and Special Forces remain the class of the country with the most success, Beacon Hills is looking to establish themselves on the world stage as a true threat and an equal, Yermozani stands at the surprise team to watch and considered by many to be the dark horse among the higher ranked teams, and where Squid Academy have become the ultimate underdogs, there hasn't been much talk about the team in black that once stood among the top four of Inkopolis.

"Everyone might be sleeping on us, but they will soon see why the team in black must be feared..." Carbon said, holding up his black jersey peering at the emblem on the front and recalling the many defeats he suffered in recent memory; "If everyone thinks we'll just roll over and let everyone else get the spotlight, then they got another thing coming! At Nationals, I'll show them! We'll show them! Nothing suits a dark horse like the color black, and we'll be a swarm the tournament will never forget."