Roy's PoV
A few days before the end of November, jellyfish everywhere started handing out fliers to inklings of all shapes and sizes, each promoting the same thing—the first ever Deca Tournament, a contest where teams of four battle it out through ranked battles, and the ultimate winner will get a special prize. As these fliers became more and more abundant, Inkopolis's youth started to wonder if the tournament was legitimate. Not many people bothered signing up for it until a special news segment came on the jumbotron plastered on the front of Deca Tower.
"December 5th, don't miss it!" Pearl exclaimed. "Yo, the first annual Deca Tournament is in town!"
"And Off the Hook will be commentating on it," Marina added.
"So don't miss it, ya hear?"
"Yeah, don't miss it."
Octavia pulled out the crumbled-up flier out of a bag she had and unfolded it, examining the details. "It really is real," she muttered.
"Then we gotta join!" Yuri chimed. "Off the Hook's gonna be there." He winked at Perry. "We don't wanna miss it, right?"
A faint blush bloomed on the purple-haired inkling's face, and he scratched the back of his head, looking off to the side and repeating, "Right."
"How are we gonna organize the teams, though?" Bonnie brought up. "There's seven of us, and each team has to have four people in it. There's not enough to make two even teams."
"We could invite Asher to join us," Inigo suggested.
"But Asher hasn't joined us since in forever," Via argued. "He'd be rusty."
"And he hasn't even done any turf wars recently, either," Roy noted.
"It still wouldn't hurt asking," the fair-skinned inkling reasoned. "No one would turn down a chance to battle!"
"Unless you're old," Perry snickered.
"Well, old people can't battle anymore," the beige-skinned girl countered. "They've been run dry."
"…Just let me have my moment, OK?" he grumbled.
"Well, Asher's not old. He's like, 21 or something," Yuri pointed out. "I'd say we ask him."
"Alright… let's go," the red-haired inkling finally conceded.
The Rainbow Squids got up from their table and started traveling to Geneva's apartment. Some time later, they all packed into the elevator leading upstairs. Though the mass of inklings garnered some strange looks from the apartment complex's residents, their trip went rather smoothly as they all excitedly sped towards the apartment their friend once resided in.
Roy took the initiative and knocked on the door, and a few seconds later, a green-haired inkling opened the door, his eyes widening once he saw the teenage inkling. The ponytail he normally wore was currently hidden by a Takoroka mesh.
"Woah, Roy, you've gotten tall!" Asher exclaimed. He stood on the tips of his toes to try to match his height, but he was still just a little bit short. "Very tall, in fact." The red-haired boy smirked at the remark. One advantage to his height was that he could brag about it. Geneva's brother looked pass him and then said, "You're all here, in fact."
"Yeah, that's because we have something to ask you," the blue-haired girl chimed in.
"Which is…?"
"So, you see, there's a tournament in town," Bonnie started to explain, squeezing in next to her tall friend.
"The Deca Tournament! The very first one, that is!" Yuri interrupted.
"And Off the Hook will be commentating it!" Perry added on excitedly. "The freshest idols there makes this contest the freshest of all!"
"A tournament…" Asher murmured. "Sounds fun."
"We have to sign up in teams of four, and with Geneva gone, there's only seven of us, so it won't be even without another member," Bonnie then continued.
"So, our point is…" Octavia proceeded with their request.
"Will you be our final member? Just this time?" Inigo finished.
"Are you sure you want me? I haven't battled in a year." The green-haired man scratched his head. "And I know how much ink battles have changed since then."
"The tournament doesn't start for another week," the indigo-haired boy then pointed out. "You can practice then."
"Well, I'd look out-of-place, too," Asher argued. "Most squids battling are 14! I'm several years older than them!"
"Oh, c'mon; don't let that stop you," Yuri protested. "You're never too old to have a battle!"
Asher sighed. "Alright, I'll join you."
Yes! Roy cheered silently. "Do you still have a weapon?"
"I have my Splattershot Jr., yes," he replied.
"Then let's go test it out."
"OK." Asher disappeared inside the apartment momentarily. When he reemerged into the doorway, he was holding an empty Splattershot Jr. in his hands, and he now wore shoes: punk whites, in fact. Nodding, all the inklings left the apartment complex and headed down to Sheldon's Shooting Range, back in Inkopolis Square. Soon, the young adult was holding a shooter full of ink in his hands, standing around as the Rainbow Squids, with their ink colors now matching that of Asher's, watched. Hesitantly, he pressed the trigger and fired at the target dummy until it exploded. The teenagers clapped at his achievement.
"Try activating your special," Inigo suggested.
"Don't I need to cover more turf, though?" the green-haired inkling pointed out.
"Yeah, that's what he meant," Roy replied.
Asher proceeded to ink much of the entrance hallway before his hair started to glow. "Alright, watch this." He walked up to the teenagers, and suddenly, a bubble-like barrier surrounded him. It was passed on to the other Rainbow Squids, who were pushed around thanks to the Bubbler's properties. The inkling with hair swept to the side glared at him, unamused from him using the special weapon.
"You know they banned Bubbler, right?" Bonnie spoke up after the initial shock.
"They did?"
"Yeah, they did. You'll get banned if you use it in the tournament," Octavia confirmed.
"So, what do I do now? Get a new Splattershot Jr.?"
"You can trade it in to get the updated version," the girl with the double bun informed. "It works with literally any weapon—even the ones whose new versions aren't in store yet."
"Fresh." The Bubbler's timer wore out, and the barriers around everyone disappeared. Asher proceeded to call for Sheldon, and the horseshoe crab came running over to the group of inklings. He handed the Splattershot Jr. to him and asked, "Can I get a new one?" The green-haired inkling smiled. "Please?"
"Sure thing! Just wait one moment!" Sheldon ran off back to his shop, and a few minutes later, he came with an empty, but brighter-looking Splattershot Jr. "Here it is! The new-and-improved Splattershot Jr.! Instead of Bubbler, it comes with Ink Armor, which you can use to support your team or make an aggressive push towards the enemy!"
"Alright." Asher picked up the shooter, and instantly it became filled with green ink. He ran over to the other section of the shooting range to cover it with ink. The Rainbow Squids followed him and watched as it quickly became covered in green. Once his hair glowed, he yelled, "Ink Armor!", and a green mist surrounded all the inklings. Quickly, they became covered in the hardened ink, their fierce eyes illuminated. The young adult proceeded to chuckle. "Reminds me of some old human thing."
"I dunno, I think it makes us look pretty intimidating," Inigo remarked.
"Nah, we look fresh in this, squids," Perry then mused. "I'd love to have this all day."
The Ink Armor wore off, and then the green-haired inkling started walking towards the exit of the shooting range. "Alright, I'm gonna go do a few turf wars." He waved goodbye. "Don't forget to sign me up!"
"That's the spirit!" Roy encouraged. At last, their problem regarding an eight member was solved.
On December 5th, hundreds of inklings flocked to Deca Wings, a park owned by the same people who own the Deca Tower. Located not far from the tower and shaped like a ray, it became a popular place to walk, hang out, or simply just relax following the renovations to Inkopolis Square. Notoriously, it is home to tons of pigeons that like to land on inklings' hair and bite them. The fact that people often bring food here does not help. Roy himself had only been Deca Wings a few times, though it had been primarily with his baskfishball teammates.
It was also not an ideal place for turf wars. It only contained one spawn point in the very middle of the park, and nature overtook much of the area. Despite the park rangers' best efforts, weeds still infested the sidewalks sometimes. Currently, a stage was set up behind the spawn point, where Off the Hook was singing. Several screens were set up behind the duo, and the central, largest one currently displayed a close-up of them. Spectators poured into the bleachers, while all the teams were directed to their own special bleacher.
As Roy sat down in his designated spot, he spotted a few familiar faces. "The Splatteruplets and that dualie team are both here," he whispered to the group. He also spotted some of his baskfishball teammates sitting together. He knew they formed a team of their own, called 'Poppin' Baskets', but none of them mentioned joining the tournament, not to him at least. He felt a little upset at this fact, but it was nothing to lose his temper about.
The last group to arrive featured a team of funny-looking inklings, but then he recognized one of the members. Giovanni! These must be octolings, then! The green-haired octoling was not wearing the Octoling soldier uniform he wore when he first met him. Instead, he wore a green short beanie, a lime easy stripe shirt, and punk blacks, a familiar outfit. His team sat in the row in front of him, causing him to groan.
"Is that Gio?" Perry asked.
The aforementioned octoling looked over his shoulder to glare at the purple-haired inkling. "My name is Giovanni," he grumbled.
"Ya really don't like nicknames, do ya?" he teased.
"A nickname is not a name," the octoling argued.
"Is so!"
He sighed. "This is my team, the team that will defeat you," he introduced the three other octolings with him. "Their names are Oscar, Yvonne, and Iris." He twirled around the Octo Shot in his hands, confident.
"I am Oscar," said one octoling with an orange afro. He wore a black FishFry bandana, a Chili Octo Aloha shirt, and Annaki tigers. He had bronze skin like Octavia and Alexis, and though his afro made him seem taller, he seemed to be the same height as Giovanni in reality. He wielded a normal Inkbrush. "It is a pleasure to be meeting you."
"Greetings! My name is Yvonne," greeted another octoling with yellow pigtails, her fingers forming the shape of a heart. On the top of her head was a camping hat, around her body was an eggplant mountain coat, and on her feet were sunny climbing shoes. Compared to her teammates, she was considerably shorter than then, only being a little taller than Alexis. Interestingly, she had dark skin like Yuri, and she also wielded a splatling, hers being the Hydra Splatling.
"At last, my name is Iris," greeted the final octoling, who had poufy, indigo hair and fair skin, much like Inigo. Wrapped around her head was the squash headband, and she also wore a Takoroka galatic tye dye tee and violet trainers. She appeared to be Perry's height, and she wielded the Krak-On Splat Roller. "We win," she wished, her brow becoming furrowed. "No losing."
"Nice to meet you all!" Yuri greeted, waving. None of them waved back, instead giving him blank stares. He let out a nervous chuckle in response.
Before any more words could be spoken, Pearl let out a loud, "Ahem," tapping on the microphone. Everyone turned their attention to the idol with pink-tipped hair. "Y'all ready for this?" The entire crowd started to cheer. "Good, 'cause the first ever Deca Tournament is here!"
"Yeah, it's here right here, right now," Marina added, adjusting her headphone. "Already, Deca Tournament has broken records, with a total of 56 teams participating!" The crowd cheered even more. "To start, there will be 24 matches. Some teams will be sitting out until the second round." She snapped her fingers, and a huge bracket appeared on the screen behind the duo, displaying all the matchups for the first round. Reading it, Roy learned that the Warm Rainbow Squids, consisting of himself, Octavia, Yuri, and Alexis, would be facing off against 'Poppin' Baskets' first. He smiled. Knowing the team, he was pretty confident they would win.
"And after that, it'll be cut down to sixteen matches next round," Pearl continued. "Then eight, then four, then two, and then the final match to see who gets the cup once and for all!"
"If you want to watch, we provided screens here that rotate between matches every-so-often."
"Or, you can jump onto a specific launchpad and watch one match live. Booyah!"
"We'll let the teams go their specific matches first, and then you guys can jump in and watch."
"With that all out of the way…" Pearl turned to face the bleachers containing every inkling, and by extension, every octoling, participating. "The first round's mode is Tower Control! Let's go!" She did a loud clap, and 24 launch pads appeared nearby. The Rainbow Squids separated and headed to their respective launchpads. Roy looked over his shoulder to see the other team not far behind. He smiled and raised his arm to wave, but Octavia grabbed it, whispering to him that they had to go. He sighed and turned into a squid, super-jumping to their match.
The red-haired inkling sat in the darkness for a bit as he awaited his emergence from the spawn point. In the meantime, he starting thinking about what he could do. If all the stages were available for this tournament, then that meant he could be playing on any stage. Tower Control was his favorite mode—he loved jumping out at squids on the tower and quickly disposing of them with one shot of the Luna Blaster. However, some stages, like Snapper Canal, made it trickier to do so due to barriers like tight spaces and water.
A little later, Roy found himself on the spawn point and transformed into a kid, his eyes looking down upon Musselforge Fitness. In the distance, he could see the tower on top of the most prominent hill of the map. A few seconds afterwards, his team started shooting deep blue ink towards it. Via in particular had put the bristles of her Octobrush Nouveau down to the ground, and she started running. The rest of the team swam in the narrow ink trail she created, following her.
When they arrived at the tower, the tan-skinned inkling emerged and started firing his blaster at the tower. He noticed a lime squid jump behind the pillar, and the track turned green as it started moving down the hill. The aforementioned squid transformed back into a boy with spiky hair and stuck out a tongue at Roy, patting his Custom Jet Squelcher.
"Hey," he greeted, smiling. This boy was Liam Thresher, a baskfishball player in the grade below him. Fittingly, he wore a home B-ball jersey and a jogging headband.
"Hey," the inkling with hair swept to the side greeted. "I didn't expect to see you here."
"We wanted to surprise you." Before Roy could reply, he swiftly received a blast to the back, splatting him. And what a surprise that was.
When he respawned, he immediately super-jumped to Yuri, who was firing his Heavy Splatling Deco at the tower from one of the vantage points. He noticed Liam popping out of the ink on the top of the tower, who promptly started to fire at the dark-skinned inkling. Both Rainbow Squids dove behind the box to avoid getting hit.
"I'll take over from here," Roy whispered to his friend, twirling his Luna Blaster. This is my favorite part. He dove into the ink and swam closer. As the tower approached the box, the tan-skinned inkling ambushed the boys on the tower and fired a shot of his blaster before putting a splat bomb on the tower to finish the job. Another member of Poppin' Baskets, Carter Saw, managed to avoid the blast of the bomb, but soon he was pelted with blue ink, splatting him. He quickly realized which teammate splatted Carter—Alexis. She climbed up onto the tower, changing the track to blue and moving it away from the checkpoint. Roy decided to join her.
"Nice," he complemented, patting her on the head. She made a face at him, but said nothing more as they both hid in the ink. Octavia soon joined them on the tower, making it a little crowded. He assumed Yuri was not far behind. If they kept up this steady pace, it would be golden. They would have a KO as quickly as he can splat people with his Luna Blaster.
As they rode the tower, Carter soon appeared near the first checkpoint, Clash Blaster in hand. Once it was in-range, the boy with the ponytail began firing it, its rapid bursts catching the team off-guard. In response, Roy threw another splat bomb at his feet, causing Carter to stop his barrage and retreat momentarily. Wiping some green ink off his jacket sleeve, he dove after the opponent and easily splatted him once more. It was then a new figure appeared from the shadowy alley—Sebastian "Seb" Squal, a senior and one of the star players of the baskfishball team. Armed with the .96 Gal Deco, he threw out a splash wall and quickly followed with bullets. Already injured from Carter's attack, it only took one hit before Roy exploded into a puddle of lime ink.
Once again, the red-eyed inkling super-jumped to his yellow-eyed friend, watching the track turn the enemy's green as he flew by. With his splatling ready, Yuri stood on the middlemost hill, backing up as the tower approached it. From what he could see, it seemed like the sisters were splatted as well. He cursed under his breath and submerged into the ink, awaiting the tower's arrival. As it neared, he snuck around it and splatted the two inklings on it as part of another ambush. The tower track turned orange as they were splatted, signifying that no one was on the tower. He climbed on top of it, and the trail turned blue once more as it headed in the right direction. Via soon joined him on the tower, and they kept watch as it passed the first checkpoint.
"Wow," a new voice suddenly commented as they dipped down towards the lowest level.
Leaning against the wall was a tan-skinned inkling with hair slicked to the opposite side of Roy's, patting a Luna Blaster Neo. Like Roy, he wore a varsity jacket, though instead of a skull bandana and red hi-tops, he wore Squidfin hook cans and Annaki Habaneros.
Roy emerged from the ink on the base of the tower just to growl, "Wyatt." His cousin Wyatt Requiem had been his rival since childhood, imitating him in quite a few ways. They wielded the same type of blaster, they normally possessed the same ink color, and they were both on the baskfishball team. Wyatt was the hot one, but Roy was better in every other way.
"Nice seeing ya here," he jested, aiming his blaster. "It would be a shame if you lost."
"Not today!" Octavia leaped off the tower and swung her brush at him. He dodged the swipe and placed something on the ground as he made his escape. The wavy-haired girl continued chasing after him, the device lighting up as soon as she stepped on it. It exploded behind her, lime ink splatting onto her back and marking her with the thick black cloud that swarmed its surroundings. Ink Mine.
With his cousin gone, the tower could hopefully proceed without further interruption. It halted for a few seconds in order to pass the checkpoint in the underpass, and once it was clear, it started moving once more. Roy wrapped an arm around the pillar, scanning the area for any incoming enemies. His eyes drifted up to the highest point of the stage, where he saw Liam respawn. He bit his lip. With how great the Jet Squelcher's range is, he could splat him without the red-eyed inkling even laying a finger on him. He could retreat, but doing so could allow the opposing team to take the tower again.
He watched as Liam dipped into the ink, the ripples marking his trail. "This way!" Roy then called, desperate for help. He curled his fingers around his blaster, filled with uncertainty. He risked a look over his back, to see what was happening. More ripples could be seen in the lime ink behind him, and the squid in it soon emerged with a bomb launcher, revealing himself to be Wyatt. He started hurling suction bombs at the tower, hoping to splat his rival. Roy flattened his back onto the pillar, hearing bombs go off behind him.
The bombs were not Roy's only concern, of course. Liam was still progressing towards him, and he was bound to pop out at any moment. The tan-skinned inkling started shooting at the area around him, hoping to garner enough points to activate his special. If anything could save him while keeping the tower at the same time, it was the Baller. Just as the spiky-haired boy hurled a burst bomb at him, his hair started to glow, and fortunately, he managed to activate his special before he could be splatted.
As the tower sped towards the second checkpoint, going up the ramp, he rolled the Baller straight towards Liam, knocking him over. At that moment, Yuri arrived, splatting Wyatt and covering the area in blue ink with his Heavy Splatling Deco. He winked and pulled out a bubble wand, creating three humongous bubbles with the Bubble Blower. He charged up the splatling once more, soon unleashing tons of bullets to burst the bubbles. They showered the entire area with their team's ink, much to Roy's relief. When the Baller expired, it exploded, covering even more turf.
Octavia had super-jumped to Yuri, putting her in action once more. She quickly hopped on the tower and began swinging her brush back-and-forth, creating a barrier of ink that could easily splat someone. Using the newly-gained turf to his advantage, Roy lurked around the area, submerged. Quickly it arrived at the third checkpoint, bringing the Rainbow Squids closer to victory. Carter appeared with his Clash Blaster again, jumping down to the tower. He threw a splat bomb at the tower, forcing Via to jump off it before she got caught up in the blast. Chuckling, he attempted swimming towards it, but then he received a swift blast to the back from the red-eyed squid and exploded into a puddle of blue ink.
The attack wasn't over, though, as Seb arrived and started shooting at the opposing team. It was then Alexis had super-jumped to Roy and started running towards him, pointing her Splat Dualies at him. Seb smirked under his streetstyle cap and threw out a splash wall before diving into his small spot of turf to fill his ink tank. The short-haired inkling sighed and started shooting at the splash wall. Roy looked over his shoulder to see Wyatt climbing onto the tower, turning the track a lime color once more. His cousin looked over at him, his sea-green eyes glowing with satisfaction.
"Get on the tower!" Roy demanded, running towards it. I'll wipe that smug look off your face. He leaped up towards it and fired his Luna Blaster. Wyatt put another ink mine on the tower and fled, much to his dismay. He growled and threw a splat bomb over the tower before climbing up it himself. The track turned blue again, and the tan-skinned inkling watched as Yuri backed up at the wall, firing his splatling towards Wyatt, who was walking up to him, firing the Luna Blaster Neo. With the Heavy Splatling's rapid-fire, though, his cousin quickly went down. With that, Yuri joined Roy on the tower, followed by Octavia.
Meanwhile, the splash wall Seb had put up broke, and now he was firing with the .96 Gal Deco. Thanks to his poor accuracy, Alexis easily dodge-rolled around him, firing at him with her dualies. Overwhelmed, his aim became worse and worse until she splatted him. After that, she joined her friends on the tower by the time they passed the third checkpoint. More bullets rained down on them, splatting Alexis and Yuri. Roy looked up to see Liam, who had respawned and now attacked with his Custom Jet Squelcher.
However, the boy's final efforts to stop them ended in failure, as the two remaining Rainbow Squids managed to push the tower to its goal, locking it in place. A whistle blew, marking the end of the game.
"Yes!" Roy cheered, giving Octavia a high-five.
"No!" Wyatt cried, joining Liam. He glared at him and scolded, "You should have used your burst bombs!"
"Hey, I didn't have time to think," his spiky-haired teammate argued, crossing his arms.
"I gotta admit, Blacktip," started Seb, walking up to the two and sitting next to him. He held the .96 Gal in his lap. "You and your friends are pretty good together."
"Hmm… I'm still better," Wyatt argued.
"Well, we beat you, so I'm better," the inkling with his hair swept to the side rebutted. As the cousins continued arguing, Octavia sighed, smiled, and shook her head.
Shortly thereafter, the two cats arrived on the tower with their flags. Judd and Li'l Judd danced per usual, and then Judd struck out his blue flag, causing the smaller cat to fall over on his back, marking the Rainbow Squid's victory. Some people cheered in the background.
"Nice!" a familiar voice then cheered. Everyone turned around to see the Cool Rainbow Squids, Asher, Bonnie, Inigo, and Perry, residing on an out-of-bounds staircase. Perry made victory signs with his fingers and added, "We're not down yet!"
"You won, too?" Octavia asked.
Bonnie nodded. "It was pretty easy, actually. We faced a team called 'Bamboozle!'. Everyone on the team had a Bamboozler."
"Spoiler alert: we won," the pale-skinned inkling finished.
"Our team was more balanced, wasn't it?" Asher mused.
The girl with glasses nodded. "Which is why we won."
"And we won as well," added a new voice.
Standing nearby were Octa Prisma. The new speaker had been Giovanni, a smirk on his face.
"Ooh, I do like that jacket," complimented Yvonne, who now held up the green-haired inkling's arm, marveling at the custom painted F-3 he wore. "Where can I find one?"
"I got this from Arowana Mall," replied Asher, an awkward smile on his face. "…But I'm sure you can buy it from the Galleria."
The dark-skinned octoling began enthusing to Giovanni in a different language, presumably Octarian. Gio replied something back in the same tongue, his tone harsh. Yvonne frowned as a result.
At this point, Yuri and Alexis had now joined the rest of the group. "You guys were watching?" noted the short-haired girl.
"We had free time," commented Inigo.
"You're movin' on to the next round, right?" the yellow-haired inkling asked for clarification. Everyone nodded. "Booyah!"
"And do not forget," Oscar started, "Octa Prisma will be moving on, too."
Iris looked up from a notepad and added, "And we will win this. We must."
"A little intense there, aren't ya?" Perry snarked. The green-haired octoling walked up to him and slapped him. He rubbed his cheek and mumbled, "Ow…"
"I am not becoming humiliated again," Gio snapped. "Not by inklings like you."
"Well, Rainbow Squids," started Seb, shifting everyone's attention to the inkling with the .96 Gal Deco. "Good luck."
"Do we obtain luck?" Yvonne asked.
He smiled. "…And good luck to you too, Octa Prisma."
"May the best team win," Liam added.
"Right!" everyone cheered.
"We should be heading back now," Asher noted. "The next round will probably be starting soon."
"Oh, you're right!" Octavia agreed. "We should head back soon!"
"How about now?" Roy declared. He turned into a squid and prepared to super-jump. "Last one there's a rotten egg."
"Hey, that's not fair!" The wavy-haired inkling super-jumped after him.
And with their arrival back to Deca Wings, the next round could commence at last.
A/N: Welcome back to "The Rainbow Squids"! Season 2 makes its debut, now! What do you all think? Wondering what the outcome of this tournament will be? Well... this IS part one of an arc. Part 2 comes out tomorrow, January 4th, while Part 3 comes out on Sunday, January 5th. So, the winner will be revealed Sunday. Stay tuned, and Branchwing, out.