Yuri's PoV
"Booyah! Splatfest time!" the yellow-eyed inkling cheered, pumping a fist as he donned his Team Flight tee.
Currently, the Rainbow Squids were at the usual table, watching as Pearl and Marina performed on the stage hanging above the entrance to the lobby of the Deca Tower. Blue and green jellyfish danced everywhere, while inklings joined along in the celebration. The inklings at the table did a toast with their drinks and began to drink.
"Sometimes, I forget how much I like Crusty Sean's drinks," Octavia remarked. She was wearing the lime green t-shirt of the Invisibility Team. "But it's still a grease trap."
"And I forgot how much we argued at the last Splatfest!" Alexis added, her snark directed towards her own sister. "Seriously, we chose opposing teams, again. I'm Flight, you're Invisibility." She groaned. "I wonder if it'll be the same way next time."
"Maybe it will be, maybe it won't," the wavy-haired inkling said, waving her drink around.
"We'll see," Inigo commented. "The future… well, that's not set in stone." Like Octavia, he was on Team Invisibility.
"So… when we gonna go, y'know, fight?" Perry asked. "It's kinda boring just sittin' here."
"It is," Roy agreed. "But, I do wanna finish my drink."
"Why don't we talk until then?" Yuri suggested. He put down his drink and threw his hands down on the table. "So, who do ya think is gonna win? Flight or Invisibility?"
"Invisibility, of course!" Octavia replied. "I have to support my team!"
"Nah, Flight's gonna win," argued Perry. He tugged the blue shirt he was wearing. "I know it will."
"I think it's pretty obvious we all support the teams we chose," the inkling with the ponytail pointed out. "So, why are we even asking this question?"
"I just wanted to pass the time…" the spiky-haired inkling pouted. He picked up his drink again and started to drink it once more. Unsurprisingly, he was the first one to finish, so while he waited for his friends to finished, he sat in his seat, anxiously holding the empty cup. He pulled out his phone to see Squidsagram notifications. Most of the pictures were of his classmates participating in the Splatfest, much to Yuri's dismay.
The next person to finish was Roy. He tossed the cup into the trash can and stretched out his arms. Perry finished shortly after he did and did the same thing as the inkling with his hair slicked to the side. He was followed by Alexis, then Octavia, who decided to throw their cups into the trash at the same time to see if they would make it or not. Alexis did, while Via did not, causing the former to cry out in triumph. At this point, Yuri decided to throw away his cup, too, simply tossing it into the bin.
"Everyone on Team Flight is finished," commented Roy. "Everyone on Team Invisibility is not." He stood up and pushed in his chair. "Which means, me, Yuri, Alexis, and Perry can all go to the lobby together."
"What about us?" Bonnie questioned, gesturing between her and Inigo. "Just because we're slow doesn't mean you all can speed right along without us."
"Yeah, let's wait for them," Yuri agreed with her.
The red-eyed inkling sighed. "…If you say so."
After the two inklings finished their drinks, the Rainbow Squids walked to the Deca Tower and entered the lobby. Like in all Splatfests, it was packed to the point where it can be hard to breath sometimes. A claustrophobic friend of Yuri's stopped attending Splatfests after the Squid Sisters' first one due to this. Everyone went down to the storage room and grabbed their weapons.
"Y'know, I've been meaning to ask—why is there an Inkbrush in here all of a sudden?" Bonnie asked while they were in the dark room.
"Oh, that's mine," Perry replied. "I bought it a week or so ago." The purple-eyed inkling picked up his Sloshing Machine. "I've been meaning to take it home, but… I haven't."
"…Okay, then." The inkling with the double bun picked up her Classic Squiffer, and the group walked back up to the main floor of the lobby. They entered the elevators, with the ones in Team Flight in one and Team Invisibility in the other. Inside the elevator, Yuri set the barrel of the splatling to the floor and started to fiddle around on his phone. Perry sat on his Sloshing Machine, while Alexis twirled around her Splat Dualies and Roy fiddled with his Luna Blaster.
Soon enough, a group of girls, all holding some dualies, entered the elevator. The spiky-haired inkling noticed that they all wore matching outfits, with only their skin and eyes to distinguish them. Of course, this group wore the tee denotating them as part of Team Invisibility. On their heads were lime green backwards caps, and on their feet were squid-stitch slip-ons. They all huddled together, speaking about things Yuri did not really care about.
The door closed, beginning the ascent downwards. The dark-skinned inkling slid his phone back into his pocket and started leaning on his Heavy Splatling Deco.
"Fist bump?" he murmured, holding out his hand. His teammates nodded and they bumped fists, with Yuri giving a thumbs-up afterwards. Soon, a grate opened up beneath their feet. Heaving the splatling up, he then slipped into the grate in his squid form. Next thing he knew, he was in an unfamiliar place. Shifty Station, he assumed. This time, he started off on a high platform, with the steps going down until it reached the middle of the stage.
"Let's ink this place up," the dark-skinned inkling muttered, holding the trigger of the splatling down. While Roy and Alexis rushed towards the center of the arena, Yuri stayed behind, inking the turf that remained. Perry helped him at first, but he abandoned him for the center soon enough. Once the area was decently inked, Yuri started to advance towards where the other inklings were.
He caught the first hint of blue on the opposite side of the pit, a girl with Dualie Squelchers was dodging Roy's fire, using the sliding it brought to her advantage. Her long hair seemed to flow in the wind as she rolled around him. To his surprise, the red-eyed inkling was holding up his own pretty well. She must have bad aim, he thought. Yuri started to charge up his Heavy Splatling Deco again and walked towards her. Once he was within range of her, he started to fire. She continued to dodge the blaster attacks, ignoring him, but Roy seemed to have notice, as he stood in place for a little bit. Alarm shot through his body as the girl splatted his friend. In a flash, he fell as well.
Yuri respawned and started to swim back to the pit. On the edge of it, he noticed Alexis exchanging fire with another girl that wielded Enperry Splat Dualies. Her enemy threw a Curling Bomb down to the ground, which started bouncing off the walls. As it headed towards him, the spiky-haired inkling set up a Splash Wall in front of him, hoping it would bounce off of it. He ran away soon afterwards. He reemerged from the ink and started charging up his splatling again when the platform he was standing up suddenly moved upwards. He gasped, but continued to charge it up regardless. Using the elevation, he started firing down towards the ground, hoping to splat someone along the way. He did, splatting a girl who had plain ol' Splat Dualies.
There was always something so satisfying about splatting someone with a splatling. Like with chargers, it had to be charged up, but the rapid-fire of a charged-up splatling was much more effective in inking turf in a wide area. However, it came with the disadvantage of a splatling being rather hard to aim in his opinion. Years of practice have improved this, but regardless, the feeling of satisfaction was still there. Yuri remained on the platform, since no one could really reach him without a charger. The platform lowered again soon enough, so he went off it to find somewhere else to stand and fire.
Yuri now stood in the very most center of the stage where he continued to ink the area around him. In the corner of his eye, he saw globs of ink rain down upon the girls below every-so-often, leaving him to assume that Perry was up on a higher platform somewhere. As a girl with Dapple Dualies ran towards him, often rolling with lightning speed, he had to back up to make sure he did not get hit. The girl, who had honey-colored skin and cyan eyes, used this speed to dodge the bullets he fired, though it was not that effective, as he was able to splat her with the downtime she had between each two rolls. Unfortunately, he was splatted soon after by an unknown perpetrator, since he was heavily damaged from the exchange.
The dark-skinned inkling respawned, and soon after him was Alexis. "You got splatted, too, huh?" he muttered.
"Yeah. I found the girl with the Enperry dualies again, so we fought again, and then she splatted me." She stepped off the spawn point and looked off into the distance. "Look, they're coming up here," she said, alerting the older inkling of lime green ink creeping up the hill. Without saying another word, she ran off towards the center once more.
Guess it's my job to splat whoever's coming up here, then. He dipped into the blue ink and started swimming to the start of the lime green ink on the hill. On the way, he saw rings of blue speed towards the ground, exploding on compact. Looking up, he saw Roy run past him, inking a path through the sticky ink to get to the unknown inkling. On the other side of his vision, he saw green pellets fly past him, aiming at Roy. He reemerged and began to charge up his splatling again.
Roy said nothing as he charged it up to its full potential, releasing a barrage of blue ink in the end. At the end of the walkway was the girl with the Dualie Squelchers, shooting at him as he walked towards her. They managed to splat at the same time, leaving puddles of green and blue ink behind. Once he respawned from that defeat, Yuri returned to the area, where the green puddle was already covered up. Shrugging, he decided to swim again, lurking the area for another inkling to try and splat. Later, he noticed that two of the side platforms had raised again. Like he had expected, Perry was on one of them, hurling blue ink out of his weapon.
Thus, Yuri decided it was time to emerge from the ink once more and fire. He charged up the Heavy Splatling Deco and let it fire, giving a toothy smirk. He was confident that they would win, despite the girls closing in on them earlier. The girl with the Dapple Dualies had appeared again, rolling towards him. Gasping, he inked the side of the hill that led to one of the raised platforms and swam up it. He hopped onto it and started charging up his splatling again to try to splat her. Before it finished, however, a blue ring exploded behind her, causing her to explode. A few ripples appeared in the ink before someone emerged from the puddle where she once stood, revealing Roy.
"These dualie girls are fast," the tall inkling remarked, running a hand through the tentacles sitting on his head. "Sometimes I wonder what went through the producer's mind when they made these things."
"Well, they exist now." Yuri started to fire off his splatling, aiming towards the center. "Personally, I think they're cool, but I just can't figure out how to use them well." His smirk fell, leaving behind a straight face. The last time he used dualies was during a Salmon Run. Much to his dismay, he rolled into the water on accident, causing a crew wipe. He had not bothered to tell his friends, and he certainly would not tell them now.
"I hate them," he muttered, starting to shoot again once another girl, the girl with the Enperry Splat Dualies, approached them. Within a hit or two, he managed to splat her. "They're annoying and they keep dodging my fire."
"Woah, hate's a strong word," the spiky-haired inkling remarked. "You might not want to say that in front of Alexis… or any of the girls on the other team, in fact."
"I think that Enperry girl already heard me," Roy growled. "Whatever, I know what to say and what not to say. Don't have to worry about me hurting feelings anytime soon." As he walked back towards the center, he turned around, moonwalking. "But for now, we have a fight to win."
"R-Right!" he stammered, a little wary from his friend's outburst. He turned his attention back to the area, and the platform he stood on lowered once more. In contrast, the middle area had risen up above him, giving leverage to those on it. Lime green ink now launched towards the ground. He looked up to see the girl with the Splat Dualies shooting down at him, little expression present on her face. Roy climbed up to the top of the crate and started shooting at her. Due to the short range, the girl was able to hear the bursts of his blaster and quickly jumped off the platform. The girl with the Dualie Squelchers then joined her at started shooting at the tan-skinned inkling.
However, another girl managed to save her friend. From the shadows emerged Alexis, rolling into the battlefield and shooting the pale-skinned inkling with the Dualie Squelchers. She let out a scream as she was ambushed, causing the girl next to her to turn around. From there, Yuri caught a glimpse of her purple eyes, which matched her beige skin quite well. The girl with the Splat Dualies started shooting at the bronze-skinned inkling, who dodged her attacks.
"Hah! Can't catch me!" she taunted, sticking out a tongue and winking. Alexis rolled again and started shooting at her, but the other girl rolled out of the way.
"Allow me to help," the dark-skinned inkling offered, charging up his Heavy Splatling Deco. He soon released the trigger, and yet another barrage of blue ink flew out of the barrel of it. The other girl flinched as soon as the ink hit her, and soon, she splatted from the combined efforts of Alexis and Yuri.
"Booyah!" the short-haired inkling cheered. "She's down!"
With that, the whistles blew, and everyone stopped moving. Yuri slumped down to the ground, letting out a sigh of relief. Finally. It was over. His splatling fell on its side, making the bottom of it sticky with the blue ink. He started to hug it, a smile spreading across his face. Alexis shrugged and joined him, sitting down with her legs crossed. Soon, he was joined by Roy, who sat next to the younger inkling, and at last, Perry walked up to them and sat down, putting his Sloshing Machine next to him. With smiles, the four lied down and looked up at the artificial stars.
"I never thought Shifty Station could be so pretty," Yuri muttered.
"I don't know," Alexis admitted. "It reminds me of something. Something bad. I can't remember where, it was just a bad thing."
"But you gotta admit, those panels do a dang good job at making stars," Perry agreed with his dark-skinned friend. "It also has that special Marina flare," he said while throwing his hand out, spreading out his fingers. "I wonder where she learned how to make stages."
"I think we'll never know," Roy commented, resting his Luna Blaster on his chest.
"Aw, don't say that," Yuri chirped. "Maybe we will find out! …Someday."
"Yeah, someday," Alexis agreed.
"Well, our main focus right now is the Splatfest, and right now, we're waiting for the Judds to come on over," the red-eyed inkling pointed out. "Which might be a while."
A few minutes later, the two cats had appeared on the top platform, right on the block in the center of it. It was one of the girls who alerted them to it, so everyone stood up to watch Judd and Li'l Judd judge the match. Yuri watched in anticipation as they started dancing, and then, Li'l Judd pulled out a lime green flag from behind his back and struck it outwards, causing the bigger cat to fall on his back.
"We lost?!" Perry cried out. "I thought for sure we were doing great in the last few seconds there!"
"Actually," started a new voice. The group turned around to see the girl with the Splat Dualies walking towards them, with her finger on the trigger of one of them. "Tati and Erin inked most of your side while you guys were busy inking the center of the map." She pressed down the trigger, which did nothing, and folded her arms. "Well, Reia and I kept you busy, which was a good thing." She smirked. "Because we won!"
"That's not a good thing!" Roy snapped. "We lost! You sneaky little b-"
"Not in front of Alexis!" Yuri cried, covering his friend's mouth.
The purple-eyed girl rolled her eyes, followed by her dualies. "You squids are sore losers." She turned around and started walking back to her teammates. "Come on, ladies. Let's go back."
"That means we better get back, too," Perry pointed out. With that, all of the inklings in the arena prepared to super jump, and they launched into the sky, out of the Shifty Station. When they transformed back, they were back in the tower, with the map displayed on the screen. As fate would have it, the girl with the Splat Dualies was right—most of the Rainbow Squids' side of the map was spotted heavily with the lime green color of the enemy team.
"See?" the aforementioned girl sneered, a cocky smile plastered on her face. "We won."
"We already got the message, thanks," Roy growled. He pressed a button, displaying everyone's stats of the battle.
"Oh, I splatted a lot of people," Yuri commented, leaning in to see the screen.
"Hey, let me see," the girl with the Dapple Dualies butted in, pushing past Yuri and Roy. She looked up at the top of the screen and bit her lip. "I didn't splat as many squids as I hoped."
"But you were the best this time around," the girl with the Dualie Squelchers pointed out. "And look—I'm right below you!"
The Rainbow Squids gave each other nervous glances. "…Should we go, now?" Alexis asked.
"Yeah, that might be for the best," Perry replied. He patted her on the back, pushing her to leave the room they were in, back into the lobby. Yuri and Roy soon followed them, and soon enough, they found themselves back into the crowded lobby. The dark-skinned inkling looked around for his other friends, in hopes of spotting them.
"Can you see them?" Alexis asked, jumping up and down.
"No, can't see them," Roy admitted. "It's pretty hard when everyone's hair colors are just blue and green."
"What about hats?" Yuri pointed out. "Via's wearing her straw boater, Bonnie's wearing the retro specs, and Inigo…well, he has nothing on his head. Like usual."
"Well, a lot of people wear the same hats as them," the tan-skinned inkling pointed out. "It would still be pretty hard to find them regardless."
"So, we should just play another match?" Perry asked.
"Yeah, another match wouldn't a bad idea," the bronze-skinned inkling agreed.
"Then, let's go!" Yuri exclaimed. He promptly marched into the elevator once more, with his friends not far behind. Once again, they were waiting for yet another team into enter the room with them, Invisibility or not.
"Think we'll win this one?" Alexis pondered.
"Don't worry, Alexis," the dark-skinned inkling assured, winking. "Win or lose, it's the effort that counts!"
A/N: Another chapter down! Thank you all for reading, and here's a reminder: next chapter will be a Hero mode one. Hoped you like this chapter, and Branchwing, out!