Octavia's PoV
As Octavia exited her room with her fresh new Splatfest tee, she posed in front of Alexis, who was sitting in a chair playing a phone game. She knew her sister would not like her taste in condiments, but hey, she chose her favorite. She even bought a Seashell Bamboo Hat to have a more matching outfit.
"Alexis," she said. "I'm ready."
The red-clad inkling looked up at her older sister, and then her jaw dropped open. "You chose Mayo?!"
"Well, yeah. I like mayo," Via argued.
"Mayo's disgusting! It's all icky and gross and… ugh!" she groused. "Ketchup is clearly the superior one!"
"No, mayo is!"
"Ketchup!"
"Mayo!"
"Ketc-"
"Girls?" their mother called from downstairs. "Are you okay!"
"Yeah, we're fine!" Alexis called back. "It's just that Octavia likes mayo instead of ketchup!"
A sigh could be heard from their mother, but she made no other comment. Octavia shrugged and took this as the initiative to leave. She started to head down the stairs, and when her sister notice, she raced after her. They said goodbye to Mom and walked out of the townhouse. The streets were busy as fellow inklings rushed towards the square to participate in the Splatfest. Roy had texted Octavia to meet the Rainbow Squids there as well. Thus, they joined in the crowd squeezing through the streets to participate in the highly anticipated event.
Eventually, the two inklings arrived at the square. Indeed, it was crowded, as inklings everywhere partied alongside the jellyfish. Octavia looked around for her friends, and eventually spotted Perry, who was wearing his signature hat, of course, at one of the tables. The siblings ran to them, causing everyone to look behind them. To Via's dismay, the only other inkling that chose Mayo was Bonnie.
"So," Roy started, who was drinking an apple-flavored drink from the Crust Bucket, "you also chose Mayo."
"There's nothing wrong with that," the cream-clad inkling protested. "What if I like mayo? It's a Splatfest, we always choose sides."
"To be fair," Perry chimed in, leaning in his chair, "I was gonna choose Mayo, just for the joke, but it took some convincing from Yuri to choose what I actually wanted instead."
"Trust me, it was hard, but it worked," added the spiky-haired inkling.
"Well, if Via's on Mayo, then I have a partner now," Bonnie spoke up. "I was worried no one else would choose it."
"Are we still going to do the matching outfits?" asked Octavia. "Even though we're not all on Ketchup, isn't that what we agreed on."
"We were going to do matching outfits if we all chose the same team," Roy clarified. He finished his drink and threw it towards a trash can. It missed. "We can't do that now."
"When have we ever all been on the same team?" Perry wondered.
"Uhh, remember Early Bird vs. Night Owl last year?" Yuri pointed out. "We all chose Night Owl!"
"Right, right," he muttered. "But still, we can all be Variety Warriors!" The inkling straightened and threw his hands up in enthusiasm.
"I like it better when we're all matching," Octavia murmured quietly. She often felt that they were more coordinated when they had matching outfits. And, it was usually her to plan all of these outfits, even if Roy and Perry weren't a big fan of them at times.
"Can't have everything," Alexis teased as she stepped next to Inigo. "Let's go, Team Ketchup!"
"If you say so," the ponytailed boy said. Everyone except Bonnie got up from their chairs and raced towards the tower. Even with new hosts, inklings were always enthusiastic when a Splatfest rolled around.
Bonnie walked up to Via, hands clasped. "Well… it's just you and me now."
"Maybe we could match," the wavy-haired inkling suggested. "Sure, it'll just be the two of us, but at least we'll have style!"
Bon-Bon adjusted her glasses. "Looks like I'll have to get my contacts out, then."
"Or I can just buy a pair of retro specs and pop the lenses out."
"That's a waste of glass."
"Whatever. It's more convenient."
The inkling with a double bun let out a long sigh before saying, "Do you want matching outfits or not?"
"Well... It's not required."
"It's a yes or no question."
"I don't know, that's a hard question to answer. On one hand, I would prefer matching outfits, but on the other hand, I just want to fight already."
"I'll flip a coin, then." Bon-Bon pulled a coin out of her pocket and set in the palm of her hand. "Heads or tails?"
"Heads," the orange-eyed inkling replied. "Brains can be better than brawn, sometimes!"
"It's just luck, you know."
"I know, but I just wanted to let you know why I chose heads."
"I didn't need to, but thanks. I'll flip this now." She threw it into the air, and it landed with a cling on the ground. Octavia kneeled down to see the result, and it was on the reverse side. "Looks like it's tails."
"Does that mean we're fighting now?"
"Yes." Bonnie picked up the coin and put it back into her pocket. "Let's go."
Via smiled. "Sounds like a plan." The two started heading towards the tower, having a brief conversation along the way. It took a while, considering how many inklings were crowding into it. When they arrived, Octavia found the interface to open up the room their weapons were stored in. The panel slid open, and the two crawled down it.
"Have a flashlight?" Bonnie asked.
"No," she responded, "but it isn't too dark in here." She squinted, making out three dark shapes in the room. "Looks like the others were already here."
"But Geneva's Splattershot is still here." The inkling pushed her glasses up and walked over to the shooter and picked it up, examining it. "I wonder why she didn't take it."
"It's a vacation," Octavia queried. "Why would she need to defend herself?"
"It's still a good idea to take one just in case."
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now." She grabbed her Octobrush Nouveau. "Let's go."
"Alright." Bonnie grabbed the Classic Squiffer, and they headed upstairs. As soon as both of their feet was on the main floor, the panel slid right back over the opening. They gave a fist-bump to each other and headed to the elevator. Via leaned on the wall while waiting for more inklings to enter. A group of red-clad inklings squeezed their way into the elevator, and then a boy wearing a headband entered. The wavy-haired inkling did a head-count of them. Seven inklings, and they only needed one more.
Eventually, a girl wearing a jungle hat entered, and at last, the elevator began to descend. The familiar grate opened up beneath their feet, and everyone transformed into a squid to enter the arena. Shortly thereafter, she emerged in a strange-looking stage. Shifty Station, did Marina call it? It was nothing like she had ever seen. Soon enough, everyone started their advance. Octavia and Bonnie decided to go separate ways for their strategy.
Via went down a back alley, and jumped onto a platform. Her eyebrows raised in surprise as it started moving. She judged the best course of action was to move towards the edge of the platform to jump onto the mainland. She put the bristles to the ground and started running, stopping before she could fall. She went into squid form to hide, and once the platforms reconnected, she started swimming. She reemerged in the center and started spinning her brush around.
A cream beam formed beside her and quickly did globs of ink replace it. Via turned around to see Bonnie, aiming her Classic Squiffer at the turf. When she noticed the bronze-skinned inkling, she winked. Via winked back and turned her attention back to the main area. She put the bristles to the ground again and ran up the ramp, hoping to advance towards the enemy team. Her hopes were shattered when a dualie-wielding inkling popped out of the red ink and shot her until she was down.
She respawned at the beginning and decided to take the route Bon-Bon took the first time. Soon enough, she was met with another moving platform. She placed a Squid Beakon just before the moving part and hopped on, hiding in the ink. However, someone with a charger was splatting the ink onto the moving platform, noticing that Octavia was resting somewhere there. She reemerged and started moving, covering the red ink back up. The red beam marking the enemy's aim swung around widely, and a shot of ink fired every few seconds. Must not be a good player.
Octavia made her way onto the mainland again, where she found the dualie-wielding inkling shooting down below. She decided the best course of action was to attack him from behind. He might notice, but she would still have a pretty good shot at splatting him. She flicked the brush back and forth, covering the ramp back up in cream ink. She slipped through the ink and up the ramp, where she then placed the bristles down on the ground and started running. Unfortunately, the inkling with the dualies noticed her coming and rolled out of the way before her brush could hit him. He continued to rapid fire, and eventually Octavia had to retreat. She inked a path from where he was standing beforehand and jumped off the ledge.
In the meantime, Bonnie had remained undefeated. The beige-skinned inkling fired her Squiffer rapidly, covering a lot of ground. Her latest victim was an inkling wielding an Aerospray MG. She was caught in her line of fire and was splatted almost immediately. However, she didn't go unscathed. A suction bomb stuck to the side of the platform Bonnie resided on, and she ended up getting severely damaged by it. In an instant, she was gone into the ink, only ripples marking her retreating self.
The main battlefield was in complete chaos. The inkling with the charger kept aiming their shots, the dualie wielder kept firing below them, the inkling with the Aerospray returned, and an inkling with a slosher made her presence well known with her attacks on one of the moving platforms. The boy on their team—he wielded a Custom Splattershot Jr.—was having a hard time keeping up with the barrage the two girls on Team Ketchup were sending at him. To help out, Via charged towards them and slammed the slosher-wielding inkling with her Octobrush. Cream ink splatted around them as she went down, and the girl with the Aerospray had to wipe some ink off of her. The inkling with the headband took this change to splat her.
"Good job," Via complimented.
The headband inkling looked towards her and gave a nod. "Thanks," he replied, giving a friendly smile. "But now's not the time for chat."
He was right—a red beam appeared between them, and the two inklings moved out of the way. The inkling with the charger finally made himself visible, with a Splatterscope in his hand. He closed one eye to peer into the scope, the red beam indicating his aim. The boy made his way to the mainland and started to shoot at him. It was not very effective, as he went down with the inkling's next shot. The girl with the jungle hat then arrived—she held a Jet Squelcher—to take him down. She threw a flask at him, and suddenly he was surrounded with a cream mist. He moved away to avoid the toxic mist, but the girl started to shoot at him. The dualie wielder moved in to cover him. That was when Via went in.
Putting the bristles on the ground, Octavia ran up the ramp, circling around the two inklings. The charger wielder was aiming towards her, but the movement threw off his aim. Her vision started to spin a little bit as she became a little dizzy, but she had to do whatever she could to win. She lunged for him, and with a few swipes of her brush he splatted at last. With cream ink hitting the other inkling's back, he turned around to attack her instead. She swung her brush again, and the two splatted at the same time, red ink overpowering cream ink.
When she respawned, Octavia set out to find Bonnie. She quickly found her on the grate, aiming at the moving platform. The inkling with the slosher was trying to hit her.
"Go somewhere else," she commanded. "I'll take over."
"One thing first." While Via flicked globs of ink at the ground below, Bon-Bon stopped, and within a few moments, she was surrounded by a cream fog, and now, looking at her body, she was completely covered in hardened ink. Ink Armor!
"Booyah!" she cheered. "Thanks a lot!" The bronze-skinned inkling dropped down onto the platform and started to swing her brush around. The enemy inkling landed a hit on her, causing the ink armor to break, but while she frantically swung ink at her, Octavia started flicking her brush. Fortunately, the slosher wielder splatted, causing her to let out a sigh of relief. She painted the surrounding area, and decided to put her special weapon to use.
Octavia pulled out the Tenta Missiles Launcher and locked them on two inklings on the enemy's side. She pulled the trigger, and the missiles were sent flying towards them. She saw an explosion of cream ink in the distance, alongside a scream. She fist-pumped upon hearing it, and moved on. They had to be winning, right? She hid in the ink to recharge it, but the inkling with the Aerospray MG arrived once more. Ink spat out of it faster than anyone could ever think of, it was ridiculous. Sometimes she wished the blueprints to it were never found.
The inklings continued to duel until a whistle blew, and everyone stopped in their tracks. Octavia looked around for Judd, but alas, he had not arrived yet. It was to be expected, since it is a Splatfest, after all. Via leaned against a box while she waited for the two cats to arrive. She looked behind her to see a cream squid leaping from a platform next to her. The squid reformed into Bonnie.
"How long do you think this is gonna take?" she asked.
"I don't know. Maybe ten minutes, if we're lucky."
"Well, what will we do until then?"
"We sit here and wait." Octavia slumped to the ground and groaned. She hated waiting.
The two other inklings on their team approached them, weapons still in hand. They were disabled as a result from the match being other, but they were still good battering weapons.
"Have room for two more?" the female inkling asked.
"Of course," responded Bonnie. The two strangers sat down next to them. The boy twiddled his thumbs while the girl started up a conversation. They found out her name was Debbie, which caused them to press the name out of the boy. Eventually, he confessed his name to be Will.
"Doesn't Octavia rhyme with Octavio?" Will pointed out. "You know, that one Octarian in the history books. I heard some girl did something to that guy, too."
"You found the reason why I go by Via most of the time," she said without much enthusiasm. Being named Octavia was more than a coincidence than anything, but people still pointed out her name for the aforementioned reason. It was not something she was very proud of, so she rarely, if ever, referred to herself as Octavia. Her friends still did so either way.
He sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Must be a touchy subject, huh?" He placed a hand on his chest. "Alright, I'll make sure to call you Via if I ever see you again."
"Are you and Bonnie friends?" Debbie asked. "You look like you know each other."
"We are, actually," Bon-Bon confirmed. "Our friend group is called the Rainbow Squids."
"The Rainbow Squids… That name sounds familiar," the inkling wearing the jungle hat pondered.
"We were a group, even back when people still hung out at Inkopolis Plaza," Octavia added. "Turf wars have only helped us grow even closer."
"Oh, Inkopolis Plaza!" Debbie exclaimed. "I remember that place. I remember being so excited when I was old enough to participate in turf wars. I turned 14 a few days before the Past vs. Future Splatfest. That alone made me eligible for participation."
"…I just turned 14," Will muttered.
"Hey, guys!" a female voice called. Looking up at the platform, it was the girl with the slosher. "Judd and Lil' Judd are here!"
"Finally!" Octavia exclaimed. "It felt like forever!"
"..It's only been about five minutes," Bonnie pointed out.
"My point still stands."
The inklings looked up at one of the neon signs, where Judd and Lil' Judd were standing. Exhaustion had made its mark on the larger cat, but the little one was as energetic as ever. They began to dance, and Lil' Judd struck out a cream flag, leaving Judd to gape.
"Booyah!" Will cheered, with everyone else following him. "We won!"
Octavia and Bonnie exchanged glances. "Hey, we really did win," the former said.
"Don't get cocky," the latter started, "we could end up on a bad losing streak after this."
"We can look for the others after we leave. Maybe they'll be waiting a little bit before their next match."
"Kinda doubt it, but I guess it doesn't hurt trying."
Soon enough, they all transformed into squids and super-jumped back to the lobby. A map popped up on the interface, showing the coverage. Though most of the inklings on the opposing team were upset, one of them, the one with the charger, studied the map with curiosity.
"We were so close," he concluded. "In the end, it all came down to chance."
"Good advice, Dan," the inkling with the dualies started, "but we still didn't win."
"Well, you guys had fun, didn't you?" Debbie interrupted. "We all tried really hard to win."
"And we won instead!" Will added.
"Still," said the the girl with the Aerospray, arms crossed with a grimace across her face.
"Moving on," said Dan. He pressed a button, showing the stats. He turned his head to face the girl that just spoke. "Why am I not surprised you covered the most turf on our team?"
"Because, that's the way I roll," she argued.
"Enough with you," Octavia butted in. "I want to see how my team did." She stepped next to the inkling with the charger and looked at her own team's stats. She covered the most turf, no surprise there. She was a little surprised that Debbie did not cover much turf with her Jet Squelchers, but it did not matter. They still won either way. She stepped back. "I'm done there. Elevator, take us down to the lobby!"
Without any more complaints, the elevator immediately began to go down, and after a minute or two, the doors opened up, and the two friends stepped out. The other inklings in the elevator waved goodbye as they headed away from the elevators and into the main part of the lobby. No one was exaggerating when they said the tower was bigger in the inside—it really was. Somehow, despite all the chaos, it was able to hold thousands, maybe even a million, of inklings. This only made it harder to search for their friends, as they would all be caught up in the chaos. The two tried calling out their names to see if anyone would respond.
"I heard a Roy?" inquired an inkling with hair in a ponytail.
"Not you," Octavia grumbled, pushing him away.
"What about an Alexis?" asked an inkling with long hair.
"I'm not talking about you, either."
"Via! Bon-Bon!" called a familiar voice. "Yuri is here!" The dark-skinned inkling pushed through the crowd, giving a thumbs up. His headphones hung around his neck, revealing his ears.
"Now, that's the Yuri I'm looking for," beamed Octavia. "Glad to see you."
"Where are the others?" Bonnie immediately chimed in.
"Nice to see you all, too," Yuri greeted. He stepped out of the way, gesturing for their other friends to arrive, except for Alexis. Where was her sister? "We were waiting for Alexis to come out of a match."
"I wonder why she isn't back yet," confessed Inigo. "If you two just finished, then she should be coming out soon, too."
"Hey, maybe she's gonna do some matches in a row," Perry suggested. "Could explain it."
"But why is she out there alone in the first place?!" cried Via.
"We don't have enough room on our team to fit her in," Inigo replied.
"I told her we could swap out after a match or two," Roy added, and then sighed. "I really hope she isn't doing two…"
"It is a solid plan," Bonnie pointed out. The other inklings murmured in agreement.
"…The execution didn't go as planned," Inigo finished. "Ah, well. What can we do about it now?"
"Well, I'm changing this plan once Alexis comes out," the inkling with his hair swept to the side seethed. "This is ridiculous! It'd be even worse if she completely forgot!"
"Look on the bright side," Yuri encouraged. "You'll get what you want eventually."
Roy squeezed the handle of his Luna Blaster, and huffed as he turned his back on the group. He did not say another word. The group now stood there in awkward silence, waiting for Via's sister to arrive. She was not a fan of the silence between them, she still wanted to talk. But what was there to talk about? She was still worried about her sister, and now Roy refused to even talk to them. Think about something else, a voice in her head nagged. You could go shopping after the Splatfest is over! Regardless, the orange-eyed inkling still stood her ground.
A few minutes later, she heard a familiar voice call the Team Ketchup squids' names. Alexis! her mind immediately thought.
"We're over here!" called Yuri.
"Finally!" burst the red-eyed inkling. "I've been waiting for so long!"
Eventually, the short-haired inkling pushed her way through the crowd and popped out in front of them, dualies still in hand. She still beamed in happiness.
"Where were you?" Roy scolded. "We've been waiting for so long!"
Alexis frowned, and lowered her arms. "I'm sorry! I thought you guys were also doing another match!"
"Ha!" Perry chortled. "I was right!" A smirk crept up the purple-eyed inkling's lips. The tanned inkling gave a glare at him, and the pasty inkling then bit his lip, avoiding his gaze.
The ponytailed inkling walked over to the younger inkling and patted her head. "Don't worry," he said, "We understand. Wanna switch out now?"
"Sure." Alexis managed a smile and stepped over to stand beside Roy. He grumbled and walked off, allowing her to take his place. The young inkling looked between the rest of the Rainbow Squids, hands shaking ever-so-slightly. She took a deep breath and then muttered something unintelligible to herself.
"Well, another match, squids?" Yuri spoke up, a big smile still on his face. The others cheered and ran off to the elevator.
Bonnie looked over at Via. "Well, should we do another match?"
"Is that even a question?! Of course!"
The two laughed, and they followed the rest of the Rainbow Squids to the elevator for their next match.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! The next one will come out next Sunday, and all chapters will release every Sunday for a while. I have nothing else to say, so Branchwing, out!