Arc 2 Chapter 19
Cassie, Blake, and the squid sisters were on the rear deck ready to get into a turf battle with Camper and three of his gang members. Cassie had come out of cover with Blake behind her to her right side. Callie and Marie jumped down off the tank and walked over to Cassie's left side holding their weapons.
Camper came out of cover holding the charger from the splatted inkling on the catwalk with three of his crew members next to him. Camper smirked as he looked Cassie and her friends on the opposite side of the deck.
"You really believe you four can beat me in a turf battle, don't make me laugh, you may have the fossil on your side, but let's face it, the human is a sitting duck with that old bamboozler he's carrying. This is going to be too easy," said Camper arrogantly as he held up the charger.
Cassie and her friends got ready as they waited for Camper and his team to make a move. Cassie clenched her Hero shot as she stared at Camper watching his body language. Then all of a sudden Camper pulled out a splat bomb. He jumped back and lobbed it toward the group. Cassie jumped away from the splat bomb as well as the other three did. They all got behind the nearest cover to evade the blast.
Cassie opened fire on Camper and his three teammates squatted down to return fire on Cassie and her team. When Cassie and her team shot back the three inklings squid formed and got behind the nearest cover they could find. Marie was lining shots on Camper's gang while Cassie leaned behind cover as she had a roller and would be at a disadvantage at the moment. Blake was crouched down behind a crate, lining up shots at Camper and his crew at every given opportunity.
Unlike your typical turf war, each team has its own color, but in this case, each person had a different color. This made things a lot more difficult as the teammates could not utilize each others ink. This put both teams at a disadvantage and both Cassie and Camper could see that. After their small skirmish Camper had his guys huddle up. "You three need to shift your color to mine, so we can use the same ink, this isn't working and we need to get the upper hand on them, especially with the fossil on their team," said Camper. The three nodded and changed their tentacle color to red, the same color of Camper's.
On the other side of the deck, Cassie saw what Camper and his team were doing. "Camper's got the right idea, We all need to change our ink to the same color, that way we can rely on refilling our tanks and hiding in the ink. I think we should change our ink to lime-green since me and Marie have the same color ink," said Cassie.
"That's a good idea Cass, we would work better as a team if we carried the same colored ink," said Marie. "Cal, I need to change your color to the same as mine and Cass's," said Marie turning to Callie.
"O...ok, I'll try Marie, but what about Blake?" asked Callie as she concentrated on changing from magenta to lime-green.
"I've already thought about that, Blake come here," said Marie.
"Yeah, Marie?" asked Blake.
"Let me see your bamboozler," asked Marie as Blake handed her the weapon. "I hope this works," said Marie as she held the bamboozler and closed her eyes concentrating on the ink inside it. After a moment her eyes opened back up and she looked down inside the weapon and saw the ink changed from pale yellow to lime green. "It worked, I wasn't sure if it would or not," said Marie in relief and gave the bamboozler back to Blake.
Blake was surprised and looked over to see Callie and her tentacles were Lime-green and Black. "I didn't know who guys could change color like that, that's amazing," exclaimed an amazed Blake.
"Yeah, when we compete in turf wars the two teams are the same color so they can utilize each other's ink," explained Marie.
The group gathered up and were ready to take on Camper and his crew. All four of them could now shoot lime green ink allowing them to refill each other's tanks, except Blake of course who was still limited on how many shots he could use.
Camper and his gang came out of cover and readied their weapons. Camper still had his charger from the slain inkling. The other three had in possession a splattershot jr., a splattershot, and a splat roller.
Cassie still had her Hero shot while Blake had his old bamboozler. Callie had her hero roller and Marie with her hero charger. Both teams were ready for round 2 as they both had their own team color officially making it a true turf war.
Meanwhile on the main deck of the rig. Sergeant Maxie was embroiled with the scar-faced elite that was once her mentor. The sergeant rushed up at the elite with her knife drawn. She took multiple swings at the elite as her opponent dodged the attacks and blocked the last one with her knife. The two knives sparked when the made contact. The sergeant recoiled and jumped back from the failed swipes. The elite just smirked and pulled her knife up for an attack. She then decided to rush the sergeant and swung her knife vertically down toward the sergeant with strength.
The sergeant managed to block the swing with her left arm with the knife in hand pointed downward. The elite put more strength in her arm making her knife come closer down on the sergeant's face. The sergeant gritted her teeth as she was losing strength to the elite's and then after the struggle she attempted a leg sweep on the elite only for the elite to pull off and jump back out of range. "Hmpf, you're getting better sergeant, but we both know who's winning this fight," sneered the elite holding her knife out towards the sergeant.
The two soon walked in a circular pattern keeping their guards up watching one another.
"Don't let your overconfidence cloud your judgment, Major, I'm not the same octoling that was under your wing years ago, I've trained for this moment since then and I intend to defeat you," said the sergeant.
"We'll see about that old friend," said the elite as she broke off her movement and charged at the sergeant. She flipped her knife and grabbed it to deliver a finishing blow on the sergeant. The sergeant jumped up to do a flip and landed behind the elite to deliver her own knife swing. The elite reacted quickly and swung her arm with the knife around to counter the blade, like before causing them to spark again.
The two broke off and got back into fighting stances. They both locked on to each other waiting for the next move.
"You're losing your focus, Major, in a hurry to end this sparring match of ours? Worried I'll beat you?" asked the sergeant gripping her knife.
"Ha! You beating me?! I don't think so, I'm in a hurry to catch that human and to end an insignificant little twirp like you for butting into our operations," said the elite snidely before she took another charge at the octoling. "Now die!" she shouted.
She swung down the knife on the sergeant like before, except instead of the octoling evading the attack she blocked it and aimed her knife upward to attempt to counter the other one expecting the elite to catch her off guard like when she repeated her movement from before. Their arms met and both of them had their blades aimed at one another. It was now an arm-wrestling match to see who had the strength to stab the other. The elite was slowly winning as her knife was getting closer to the sergeant's face.
The elite smiled ready to do in her old friend's life as her blade got closer and closer. The sergeant was gritting her teeth, struggling to keep the knife away, but she bent her knees and downed her head getting ready to break free from the pin. She rapidly looked back up and locked on to the elite's conniving face and jerked forward as she broke free. The elite was utterly shocked by the sudden strength the octoling had and didn't have time to react.
The sergeant took the opportunity to deliver her own attack and thrusted her knife toward the stunned elite. Her knife meet one of the elite's tentacles cutting the bottom of it off as the elite broke out of her trance from the blow, The elite at the last second tried to evade the blade but it was too late. She screamed and the bottom of her tentacle dropped onto the deck. She held the bottom of her cut tentacle to stop the bleeding and bared her fangs hiding the pain she was in.
"GAAAHHH! YOU LITTLE..." yelled the elite holding her tentacle as she gave the octoling a death stare.
"Be lucky it was just your tentacle Major!" exclaimed the sergeant with ink dripping off her knife.
"Hmpf, you win this round sergeant but here, let me give you a parting gift!" shouted the lieutenant as she jumped up and lobbed another splat bomb at the sergeant.
The sergeant with quick reflexes jumped back out of range of the bomb. While it exploded the elite retreated and octo formed away from the main deck living her piece of tentacle behind. The sergeant landed and saw the major slither away, but it was too late for she had disappeared and didn't have time to catch her. "Hmpf, coward," sneered the sergeant when she heard footsteps behind her. She jolted and turned around with her knife up to one of her octoling soldiers.
"Whoa! It's me Sergeant!" shouted the octoling soldier.
The sergeant shook her head out snapping out of her combat trance and looked at the octoling.
"Don't sneak up on me like that, Corporal!" shouted the irritated Sergeant.
"Sorry Sarge, but I'm here to report that most of the rebels had been killed while a few of them managed to get away. We also have wounded we need to get back to base, fortunately, no one was killed from our unit," said the octoling still startled from having the knife toward her neck.
"Good work, Corporal, call in the octozeppelin for pickup," said the sergeant placing her goggles back over eyes and putting her knife away.
The sergeant turned as the corporal looked back at her with concern. "Sarge, you ok?" asked the corporal.
"It's nothing," said the Sargeant hiding regret in her voice.
"It was the major, wasn't it?" asked the corporal seeing the cut piece of black tentacle laying on the deck.
"Just, gather up the troops!" shouted the sergeant when she turned toward the octoling baring her fangs.
"Yes, Ma'am!" said the frightened corporal.
The sergeant turned away toward the direction where the elite had retreated. She narrowed her eyes behind her goggles and rushed toward the right side of the rig in an attempt to catch the elite before she got away.
As she ran toward the pier where the rebel submarine was, she had thoughts running through her head. "I hope that human is ok and makes it back like he said he would. I owe him a lot of gratitude for saving me from that inkling with the roller a while ago," she thought to herself as her mind started to drift into other emotions she shook it off and continued to focus on pursuing the rebel leader.
She made it down the catwalk and looked over to the ledge to see the elite rushing over to the submarine with two other octoling rebels rushing over to talk to her.
She pulled her octo shot out and aimed at the group ready to take down the major once and for all.
Thirty minutes earlier on the rear deck of the Saltspray Rig, Cassie and her friends were getting ready to battle with Camper and his "team". Cassie and her team's ink color was lime-green while Camper's was red making it a true turf battle. The arena was comprised of the rear deck and surrounding platforms. Obstructions and cover littered parts of the deck such as crates, tanks, and barrels.
"You ready to get your squid butt kicked, Ross!" shouted Cassie holding up her hero shot.
"Bring It! I'm going to enjoy splatting you and that little posse of yours!" shouted Camper holding up his charger.
Both teams were ready to battle, waiting for someone to make the first move. The two teams stared down at each other watching each other's movement, after a while Camper gave a smirk and looked at butch, who then gave him a nod. Butch turned and nodded back, turning his attention back to Cassie and her team. Camper grunted and squid jumped in the air on a balcony behind them and readied his charger. Butch and the two other inklings fired at Cassie and her team while they dove for cover. The inkling with the roller squid formed and hid in his ink while the other sprayed in the middle of the deck before Cassie and her team could cover it giving them an advantage over the ink coverage.
"Oh, Carp! They're already starting to cover the turf. We need to start covering as well to even the playing field," said Cassie as she started covering the area around them.
"I'll get to higher ground like Camper did and try to keep them pinned down while you guys move up and remember there are no spawn pads! So be mindful and watch each other's backs!" reminded Marie as she squid jumped on a platform in the far corner of the arena.
"This isn't good! Marie what if one us..." said Callie in fear as she was cut off.
"Don't Cal, I think we'll all make it through this, especially with Blake on our team since he fought alongside gramps," said Marie over their radios.
"I think you're giving me too much credit, that was years ago and I haven't shot my bamboozler since then," commented Blake as he was taking shots from Camper.
"Blake! Hold on! I'm the only one who can get a shot on him from this distance," said Marie as she aimed down with her scope.
Butch and the inkling with the splattershot jr. pushed up when they saw the opportunity. They took shots at both Callie and Cassie as they squid formed and dove behind cover.
Cassie got behind a crate and Callie dove in her ink until they stopped. "I've only got my roller! What do I do?" asked Calling fretting over her disadvantage.
"Callie, focus on tracking the roller user, I'll worry about the shooters, make you way up and to the right far side to try and flank the roller user, he's hiding in the ink somewhere!" suggested Cassie as she turned back to her opponents and fired shots at them. They both squid formed and hid behind their cover again refilling their ink.
"Dang it! I need to get the drop on them, but how?" growled Cassie as she looked around. Her special was not activated yet and she wasn't carrying any splat bombs.
Callie was slithering from cover to cover avoiding detection in her squid form from the ink path she made with the roller. She stopped when she saw a hump in the red ink that was ahead of her and insinuated that it was the roller user. She turned back to her humanoid form and hunkered behind a crate with her roller ready. She pounced out of cover and swung down on the hump.
Eyes popped out from the hump and jettisoned out of the ink and landed further back to avoid the roller smash. "Shoot!" shouted Callie as she realized the roller user got away. The roller user bent down and picked their head up glaring at Callie. He swung his roller around and readied for an attack on Callie. Callie turned toward the roller user and got ready for any kind of attack he would counter with.
Meanwhile, Blake was hunkering behind a crate evading shots from Camper. Marie was shooting back at Camper keeping him pinned down as much as he could. Blake was unable to get a shot lined up on Camper. Blake had to make each of his shots count since he was limited and didn't carry an ink tank. He was getting frustrated and had to do something.
The squadmates were doing their best to move in on Camper and his team, while a figure was watching the turf war going on. The figure was Loppy with her cyan tentacles and eyes crouched down behind some equipment watching the battle between Camper and the agents. She looked around and spotted Blake hunkered down behind a crate on the other end of the deck. She went wide-eyed unsure how to make the human involved in a turf war carrying a weapon but it looked like he was in trouble.
Cassie moved up closer to Butch and the other shooter and inked the area around them. The two of them saw what she was doing and butch directed the splattershot jr. user to try and flank Cassie while he stayed and distracted her. The inkling nodded and dove into the ink out of sight and swam behind a pile of barrels. Butch stayed behind his cover and shot at Cassie when he had the opportunity.
Callie and the roller user were locked in a sparring match, swinging their rollers against each other trying to knock one or the other down. Callie was getting frustrated as she took a powerful roller swing against the inkling but to no avail, he squid jumped out of the way and landed behind Callie. He changed back and grinned at the vulnerable Callie and swung his roller on to Callie's back. She didn't have time to dodge it or counter it and she flew across the floor and landed on her stomach in pain from the impact.
Blake took the opportunity to move ahead to different cover and try and line a shot on Camper. He fired the bamboozler but missed with two more shots remaining. "dammit!" jeered Blake as he was getting irritated. "Ha! Fossil! Can't hit me with that bamboo shute of yours!" shouted Camper snidely. Blake just glared back at the inkling while Loppy watched from behind her cover contemplating how to help Blake.
The battle had reached a stalemate as both sides couldn't make any headway on winning the match. It seemed things were even and Camper and Cassie were determined to beat one another and prove who was the better turf war player.
Marina had returned to the studio, luckily Pearl was still asleep. She took the time to get on her laptop and look at her chatroom. She hadn't heard from her contact for a while and she typed in a message. She sent it and waited for a reply. It had been 5 minutes before she got a response. Marina opened the message and soon read it.
Hello DJ_Hyperfresh.
I'm sorry I haven't sent any more messages but I've had to stay out of sight for a while, I've almost compromised the mission and I soon worry that I will be found out if we keep this up. He may have to think about going into radio silence. I'm still trying to dig up why the octo rebels needed the human.
Indigo_Agent.
Marina got done reading the message and typed in another to send.
I understand Indigo_Agent, I haven't heard anything on the whereabouts of the subject. I'll keep in touch. Don't get cooked. DJ_Hyperfresh out.
Marina turned her laptop off and put it away. She heard footsteps behind and saw Pearl rubbing her eyes looking half asleep. "What's going on Rina?" asked Pearl as she yawned.
"Pearly, we've got less than an hour until the lobby opens. You need to get ready for the broadcast we're supposed to give," said Marina.
Pearl's eyes lit up as she realized that today was the day that the square would finally open. "Oh Shrimp!" shouted Pearl. "I need to get ready! Rina why didn't you wake me up sooner?!" questioned an annoyed Pearl crossing her arms as she glared at Marina.
"Well you did party hard last night while I went back to the studio and I know how you get when you don't get your beauty sleep," explained marina.
"Hmpf. still, you could've let me know something, gosh Rina!" exclaimed Pearl as she threw her arms up.
Marina chuckled and Pearl just rolled her eyes. She stormed off to get ready for the news broadcast and Marina got up to finish getting ready herself. She started to walk off as she looked back at her laptop on the table and then thought about Blake.
"I hope the squidbeak finds him soon, for all of our sakes," said marina as she gave a sigh.
Almost an hour later Marina and Pearl had sat down at their stations getting prepared for the square opening. The cameraman and studio crew got to their positions for the news broadcast. Pearl was sitting in her chair and Marina was standing behind her turntable. They both smiled and waved as the camera finally came on.
"Y'all know what time it is!" started Pearl giving gesture with her hand.
"It's Off the Hook coming at you LIVE from Inkopolis Square!" said Marina rubbing her turntable.
"Y'all know today is the day the square will finally open and the new Deca Tower will be the new spot for turf war players. As you can see the great zapfish has moved on top of the tower confirmin' that the square will be finally powered as well as the lobby," said Pearl.
"I can't wait to see the new turfers in action and the new arenas that will be posted here shortly," said Marina conserving her excitement.
"Speaking of new, I'm starting to see new tentacle styles on some of the turf war players, and not to mention new turf weapons that I've heard bout'," said Pearl.
"Yeah, I heard that Sheldon was going to sell new turf weapons in the new store he's opening here in the square," said marina.
"I wanna try out those new, I think he called them dualies, just imagine splatting your enemy with those things while doing cool poses and jumping up in a jet of ink, that would be so awesome," said Pearl giving another hand gesture.
"Well maybe you should compete sometime Pearly," said Marina.
"What! No way! I got better things to do than that, besides I would wipe the floor with those new turfers, don't want to send them back to their mommies crying about it," said Pearl snidely.
Marina shook her head and gave a sigh. "Oh, Pearly, you can be such a kidder," said Marina covering her mouth trying to cover her chuckle.
"Oh yeah Rina, I love to see you out there kicking squid butt!" said Pearl with an irritated look crossing her arms.
"Well, I've never been the one for confrontation, even if it is for fun, I'm a lover not a fighter," said Marina getting her composure back.
"Ha! That sounds like two topics that we can use for a future match, Lover Vs. Fighter, I'm going for the fighter," said Pearl as she punched the air.
"I guess that would make a good turf match, well I guess I'll go for Lover," said Marina as she blew a kiss at the camera.
"Well anyway, you squids ready!" shouted Pearl.
Outside the studio, the inklings were watching the broadcasting screen cheering and shouting, anxious for the tower to open and turf battles begin.
"Alright everyone, get ready in..." started Marina beginning the countdown.
"5...4...3...2...1!" shouted everyone in unison even Off the Hook.
The lobby finally opened and the great zapfish gave a glow with its whiskers sparking as the tower finally opened up. The inkling crowd gathered up in teams and awaited the coming matches.
"Alright, everyone! Here's today's first match," said Pearl as she pumped her arms up with her crown bouncing.
Outside the studio the inklings were waiting for the first match to be broadcasted but one inkling stood out to the side and watched the screen. She thought about what Marina had said and thought about Cassie. She had a gloomy look on her face and turned away heading to the tutorial area to practice. Part of her didn't care whether she would get better or not. At this point, her mind was divided into competing in turf battles or not. She slowly made her way to the tutorial area with her starter kit and her mind was clouded by other things not focusing on the square and tower opening.
Round 3 of the match had commenced as both sides pushed against one another to ink the most turf and defeat the other team. Cassie was still sitting behind her cover waiting for the two inklings to slip up. she was steadily spraying ink ahead of her adn tying to hit two of Camper's teammates. Cassie was hoping either Blake or Marie could get a shot on Camper as she focused on the other two inklings. The inkling with the splattershot jr. got frustrated. tired of sitting behind cover while Cassie was shooting at them. His impatience got the best of him and jumped and charged at Cassie blasting away with his weapon.
"You idiot!" yelled Butch.
"I'm gonna splat you squid!" shouted the inkling as he got in front of the crate Cassie was sitting behind. He hopped on the crate and looked down aiming his splattershot jr. only to see Cassie wasn't there but only a big puddle of ink. "What? Where is she?!" shouted the shocked but angered inkling.
"Dumb squid! You shouldn't have left your cover!" shouted a female voice.
"Huh?" said the inkling confused. He turned to the direction of the voice and saw Cassie aiming her Hero shot at him behind another crate.
"I knew I'd bait you thinking you could get the jump on me!" said Cassie as she shot the inkling. The inkling went wide-eyed and covered himself with his arms only to be splatted in a puddle of green ink.
"Dumbass!" shouted butch. "That's what that trigger-happy squid gets!" he continued.
"You're next!" yelled Cassie at Butch. Butch ducked back down with an expression of fear seeing the inkling getting wasted by the agent.
Callie was lying on the left rear corner of the deck. She struggled to get up from the hit she took from the inkling's roller. Her roller was laying in front of her. She crawled to grab it but was stopped by the roller using inkling when he stepped on her hand. Callie yelped and looked up to see in the grinning inkling. "Nice roller you got there, It'll make a fine addition to my collection," sneered the inkling.
"You're...not taking my roller...it was given to me by gramps," protested Callie jeering in pain.
"Well that's too bad for you then, but their's no sense in leaving a perfectly good roller here without an owner," said the inkling as we looked down on Callie raising his roller.
"No, please" pleaded Callie with tears starting to form.
"goodbye, squid," said the inkling with his roller raised.
Marie was horrified by Callie's situation. "Oh no, CALLIE!" screamed Marie as she lined a shot up on the roller packing inkling. She was soon shot in the shoulder by Camper and yelped as she flew back, dropping her Hero charger.
"Marie!" shouted Blake. He soon turned looked toward Callie being pinned by the inkling with his roller raised. "Oh crap! Callie, I'm coming!" shouted Blake as he ran out from cover toward Callie and the inkling. Camper took a shot at him but he dodged it and ran back to Callie and the inkling.
Callie closed her eyes as she knew this was it but all of a sudden the inkling's roller was blocked by Blake's bamboozler. "Huh?" responded Callie as she looked up and saw Blake shielding her with the bamboozler.
Blake struggled to keep the roller from coming down but gained some strength to knock it away with the inkling glaring back at him baring his fangs. "Callie, you ok?" asked Blake as he placed his hand out.
Callie stared at Blake with stars in her eyes. She was stuck in trance seeing the human she had a crush on, save her life. She took his hand a steadily stared at him as she got up.
"Intervening fossil!" shouted the agitated roller user.
Blake and Callie turned toward the inkling who had a malicious intent on his face. He swung his roller back down and grabbed the handle ready to roll down both Blake and Callie. "I'm going to splat the both of you!" shouted the inkling before as he made a move he exploded into a burst of ink. Blake and Callie were shocked but relieved wondering what happened. They both turned toward Marie with her charger aimed down toward where the inkling had got splat concluding she done the inkling in.
"You two alright?" asked Marie.
"We're fine Marie, thank you!" said Blake.
"Thank you for protecting my cuz, looks like she's got a knight in shining armor," said Marie as she smirked at Callie.
"Oooohhh...Marie! Stop it!" shouted Callie as she was beet red.
As the two of them were distracted, Camper looked down seeing an opportunity to shoot the human that he despised. He aimed his charger down pointing it at Blake. He pressurized the charger to its maximum. The charger hummed and the tank on the back of it glowed. After that, he took the shot with a powerful stream on ink traveling down at its target.
In the meantime, Cassie was evading Butch's shots and ducking from cover to cover trying to get closer to Butch. Butch was frantically trying to shoot Cassie hoping that he would hit her or getaway.
"Stand still squid!" shouted the panicking Butch.
"Make me!" shouted back Cassie.
The area surrounding Butch was covered in Cassie's green ink. During they're little shootout, Butch didn't pay attention to his surroundings assuming Cassie couldn't hit him. Instead, she wasn't trying to shoot him but instead the floor around him. She wanted to trick him and use the ink to gain the element of surprise and deceive the inkling. As soon as she got behind cover again she squid formed and swam through the ink.
"Come out! So I can splat you!" shouted Butch as he looked around watching the crates to see where Cassie would pop out from.
He was paying attention to the crates but not the ink that Cassie was swimming through. She got behind Butch and transformed back, swinging her weapon against his head before he could turn and flung him forward into her ink. This weakened him and he couldn't move from the opposing ink. He turned to look up and saw Cassie glaring at him with her Hero shot aimed at him. He bared his fangs and attempted to grab his splattershot, but was splatted before he pulled the trigger.
Cassie gave a sigh and turned back and spotted Blake helping Callie up. She saw Marie and Blake exchange gratitude before Callie got flustered after what Marie had said to her. Cassie smiled after seeing Callie and focused back on the match. "Wait...where's Camper? Did Blake or Marie get him?" she asked herself before she looked up toward the balcony where Camper was perched and saw him aim the charger at Blake.
"Blake! Look Out!" shouted Cassie as she ran toward the two.
But it was too late she heard the charger shot and saw the ink stream headed for Blake.