Octavia's PoV
"Kissing booth!" someone yelled. Today was the Valentine's Day fair, and many of the youth had flocked to the fairgrounds, located in Deca Wings, following school. "One kiss for the low price of 100G?"
"100G?!" Octavia stuck her tongue out, making a sound of disgust. "A kiss should be free!"
"It's a disgrace it even costs money!" Alexis complained.
"Hey, you-"
The younger inkling interrupted her sister before she could finish. "Besides, who wants a yucky kiss anyways?"
"Wait, don't tell me..." Via did a dramatic gasp. "You chose Team Money for the next Splatfest!"
"That's exactly what I did," she confirmed. "I can't stand the thought of attaching myself to someone for the rest of my life."
"What about loving someone as a friend? Family?"
"Well, yeah, I love you, I love Mom and Dad, I love my friends, but..." She shrugged. "Not a boyfriend or a girlfriend."
"Didn't you ask Inigo about kissing Geneva one time?" Speaking of Inigo, tomorrow, the 15th, was his birthday. Octavia still needed to by a gift for him.
"I did?"
"Huh. I could of sworn that happened." She shook her head and started walking towards one of the lines for the kissing booth. "Alexis, even if you did choose Team Money, you're greatly underestimating love!" she shouted.
"And you're underestimating the power of money!" the short-haired girl called back, smirking after she finished her declaration.
"You squids all chose Team Love?!" Alexis cried out in disbelief. Right now, the Rainbow Squids stood outside the Deca Tower, near where Judd and Li'l Judd usually resided.
"Aw, not all of us," Perry comforted. He walked up to her and threw an arm around her. "Ya got me."
"I guess..." she grumbled.
"This situation is familiar..." Bonnie mused.
"Like..." Via put a hand on her chin, thinking. "Oh!" She turned to face the others. "The Mayo vs. Ketchup Splatfest!"
"I still can't believe Team Mayo won back then," Roy commented.
"Well, now we know mayo is the superior condiment," the girl with the double-bun bragged.
"Ketchup's superior in my heart," Yuri fired back with a smile.
Everyone laughed. "But, Alexis," Perry started, "it's times like these that I'm glad you're part of the Rainbow Squids."
"So you won't be alone?" Alexis snapped.
Purple eyes widened at the comment. "W-Well..."
"Hey, Perry, look at it this way," the boy with spiky hair spoke up. "If Geneva was here, she mighta picked Team Money, and she could have joined you."
Recalling the talk she had with Alexis at Shellendorf Institute a while back, Octavia pointed out, "Yuri, that's not helping."
"It's not my fault she went on a super-long vacation!" he argued.
"It's no one's fault!" Perry blurted. "She just decided to leave for some reason, and she hasn't come back."
"I should have stopped her," Inigo admitted. "I could have convinced her not to go on this vacation!"
"But she said we couldn't do anything to stop her!" the tan-skinned inkling pointed out.
"We still could have tried!" Yuri noted.
"No, we couldn't," Bonnie murmured. "She seemed pretty set in her ways."
"Guys, stop..." Alexis whined. "I just wanna do some turf wars." Everyone stopped arguing and turned to face the short-haired girl. "It's a Splatfest; we're supposed to have fun." She frowned. "But you squids are so caught up in the fact that Geneva's gone."
"She's not gone!" Roy declared. "S-She'll come back; she has to!"
Octavia sighed. "I dunno..." She frowned. "She's been on this vacation since August, and we don't know when she'll come back."
"Do you ever wonder..." the beige-skinned girl started, "...If she just used the vacation as an excuse, and she really just wanted to go back home?"
"To the farm?" Inigo questioned. "She wouldn't do that; we're her best friends."
"There's gotta be another explanation," the dark-skinned inkling insisted. "Like, what if she meant to come back sooner, but something happened and she can't?"
"That..." Via looked over at her friend. "...Actually makes sense."
"That still doesn't explain why she went on it in the first place," Bon-Bon remarked.
"Ahem." Octavia looked past Perry and Alexis to see Giovanni standing behind them. In one hand was an Octo Shot Replica, filled with pink ink, and in the other was a green squid-shaped phone. Though he kept a straight face, his eyes suggested he was feeling something else, though she couldn't place a finger on what emotion. "Hello."
The short-haired girl turned around and made a yelping noise on sight of the octoling. "You were eavesdropping?!"
"Alexis..." Via whispered to her sister. "Be nice." Louder, she greeted Gio, "Hi."
The boy with the mohawk nodded. "I was eavesdropping, yes," he admitted, "but not for very long."
"What did you hear?" Roy asked him.
"About Geneva," he replied.
"Gio." Inigo pushed his way through his friends to face the octoling. "You said you knew something about Geneva. What?"
"Do you think I will tell you?" he sassed.
"Please?" Yuri begged. "I'll give you one of my Squid Sister CDs!"
In a sudden change in demeanor, Giovanni excitedly asked, "Does it have the Calamari Inkantation?"
His yellow eyes blinked. "Yeah, why?"
He snickered. "Fine. I will tell you what I know." Everyone leaned in closer to listen to him. "Geneva has a secret." His green eyes glanced down at the phone in his hands momentarily, then back to the inklings. "I cannot tell the secret."
"What?!" Roy cried. "Why not?!"
"Augh, you set me up," Yuri noted.
"The secret is dangerous," he explained, "and to tell will lead to bad things."
"C'mon, it can't be that bad," Octavia encouraged.
The octoling sighed. "I learned that the inklings live happy," Gio mused, "and they cannot realize the truth. They prefer to change the truth because they do not want to realize the dangers within."
"You're making this too deep," Perry stated. "Can't we just go do some turf wars and have fun today?"
"Hmph. Fine." He put both items in his hands away and crossed his arms, staying where he stood.
"Remember, Gio. One day," Inigo started, "I will get that secret out of you." He then backed away, towards his other friends on Team Love.
"You may try," the fair-skinned boy challenged with a smirk, "but I will not give up easy."
A silence settled between them, until Alexis broke it by asking, "Why are you still here?"
"My friends choose Team Money," he replied.
"I didn't even know ya had love in ya," Perry joked.
"You are assuming I do not have the feelings," Giovanni lamented, throwing his arms down. "I love to battle, especially against the inklings."
"Ehh, fair point," the pale-skinned inkling remarked.
"Alright, first point of business," Octavia spoke up, pounding a fist into her hand. "We've been sitting here long enough, and there's five of us on Team Love, not counting Gio." She looked between her friends and asked, "So, who's gonna team up with him?" No one answered. The wavy-haired girl turned to the octoling. "Guess I'm going with you."
He sighed. "Fine. I do not have anyone else to battle with."
"Fresh! Let's go!"
After they grabbed their weapons from inside the Deca Tower, the Rainbow Squids said their goodbyes and went into separate elevators. The entire time, Via kept a close eye on Gio, making sure he didn't wander off when she wasn't working. Fortunately, he stayed by her side. He even seemed annoyed by her constant check-ups on me. They stepped into an empty elevator, and a few moments later, two new inklings walked in, holding hands.
One inkling was a boy with light brown skin and blue eyes, wearing a headlamp helmet that made his haircut unclear, along with Annaki Arachno boots on his feet. In his free hand was a Splat Brella. The other inkling was a girl with mocha-colored skin, long hair, and orange eyes, wearing some splash goggles and custom trail boots. Like the boy, she also wielded the Splat Brella. Both inklings wore a pink tee that marked them as members of Team Love.
"You two dating?" Octavia asked the first thing that came to her mind when she saw them.
"Yeah," confirmed the girl.
"We got together on Valentine's Day," noted the boy.
"That's what I thought," she said.
Next, their opponents walked in, and they happened to be familiar faces—Octa Prisma. Oscar, Yvonne, and Iris were all present, wearing golden tees marking them as members of Team Money. The fourth person with them, however, was one she did not recognize. He had tan skin and hair styled into a sidecut, falling on the same side Roy's hair was swept to. Judging by his resemblance to the group of octolings, Octavia could only assume he was an octoling, too.
"Giovanni!" Yvonne exclaimed. "I no do know you will be here!"
"Octavia is with you," Iris mused.
"Enough!" the fair-skinned boy demanded. His green eyes drifted towards the new octoling. "Who is this?"
"Brayden," the octoling with poufy hair responded. "He is my friend."
"Oh, him," he deadpanned.
"She came to me," Brayden spoke up, "because she said you had joined the other team."
"Huh." Giovanni lifted his Octo Shot Replica, pointing it towards the blue-eyed octoling. "This does not mean you are the member of Octa Prisma, Brayden."
"I know," he acknowledged.
The elevator door closed, and they started to descend into the tower. As always, a grate soon opened beneath their feet, and by transforming, they were able to slip through it and travel to the stage they would battle on. Moments later, Octavia emerged on the spawn point of the stage, allowing her to examine it quickly. It was most certainly a Shifty Station—in the center of the valley was a glowing cannon, not unlike the ones she would find during a Cohock Charge.
Quickly, the battle began. Putting the bristles of her Octobrush Nouveau to the ground, Via immediately charged towards the central cannon, wishing to try it out. Just as she was running up the hill, however, someone had beat her to it. With an inkling—or octoling, in this case—inside, the artillery shield glowed a golden color. The bore turned to point directly at her, and anticipating a missile to fire out of it, Octavia jumped out of the way, a projectile soaring past her and exploding into a pile of gold ink further down the slope.
"You know what's weird?" she put the question out there. She put the brush down to the ground again and swung around the cannon. "Being attacked by one of these after using it in Salmon Runs for so long!" Before the person inside could answer, she swung her brush back-and-forth at the shield, and a few seconds later, she heard a masculine scream from within as pink ink splattered around the cannon. Seeing as the cannon was free now, she cheered and hopped inside.
In the cannon, her vision was rather limited. She spun around, looking for a target. Towards the enemy base, she could just barely see ripples in the ink, getting closer. Realizing that she was their target, she shot a missile towards them. It missed as the person dipped into the valley. She looked down the slope. Her next opponent revealed themself to be Brayden. He fired a shot from his Rapid Blaster Pro, and the resulting blast managed to hurt her a little bit. Before she could slip out of the cannon to attack him, he threw a vial of Toxic Mist at the cannon, surrounding her with a golden cloud as she popped out of it. She crawled out of the mist, coughing, but she quickly returned her attention to splatting the tan-skinned octoling. She made the mistake of running straight towards him, however, as two blasts later, she splatted him.
When Via respawned, she noticed another cannon towards her team's side of the map. It was glowing pink, indicating someone was inside. Curious, she decided to swim towards it anyways. As she travelled there, the boy with light brown skin popped out of it and swam away. With the cannon free now, she positioned herself inside it again and started firing. The girl with bronze skin simply shot at the ground, aiming to ink some turf, until she noticed that the central cannon was colored gold again. It then occurred to her that she could possibly hit whoever was inside from where she was standing. She aimed at the center and waited until the bore pointed away from her. Then, she fired. She had to emerge from the shield because she ran out of ink, but she heard the sound of a direct hit all the same. Someone screamed in the distance, and she let out a cheer to show her victory.
Octavia ran back towards the hill, where she joined up with the girl with mocha-colored skin. They looked at each other and nodded to acknowledge each other's presence. Together, they started inking the hill. They reached the empty cannon and started debating who would go inside it. Before they could settle on a decision, someone from the other team popped into the cannon, but sprung from it moments later. Iris launched herself at the two inklings, roller in hand. The girl with the Splat Brella immediately opened her weapon's canopy and rammed it into the roller's wheel. The canopy broke, and both girls were sent flying back. Via's teammate fell down the hill, while Iris barely managed to stay on the top. While she regathered herself, the wavy-haired inkling saw this as a chance to strike. She flung herself at the girl with poufy hair, swinging her Octobrush Nouveau back-and-forth until she splatted.
"Phew," Octavia breathed, wiping some sweat off her forehead. "That was close."
"Easy for you to say!" the other girl exclaimed, emerging next to her. "I did most of the work."
"You saved me, though," she praised. "If you didn't block her with your brella, I would have been splatted for sure!"
"Look, my back hurts from falling down the hill. If that's a noble sacrifice, I don't see the appeal."
"We... have a better chance of winning?"
"We still have like, two minutes left. Things could change quickly."
"Well, we're winning right now, I think, and we're keeping it that way." After she finished speaking, Via pulled out some Tenta Missile launchers and looked around for targets. Locking them onto two people near the cannon on the opponents' side of the map, she pulled the trigger, firing several missiles towards them. Pink streams rained down on them, though she was certain no one was splatted. The girl with long hair followed up by pulling out an Ink Storm, throwing it towards where the missiles had landed. A pink cloud formed in the air, drifting towards the edge of the map.
Suddenly, a golden circle surrounded them, and the girls looked up to see Yvonne, preparing a Splashdown. Octavia started to flee, but her teammate simply aimed her brella up at her and fired a few shots, splatting her before she could complete the special attack.
"Wow," was the only thing the wavy-haired girl could say.
"You make this difficult," she remarked. "C'mon, let's splat another squid."
"That is not needed," added a new voice. Giovanni walked up beside them, his hair glowing pink. "I will splat for you." He swam down the hill, and halfway down it, he emerged from it with an Inkjet. He flew towards their opponents' cannon, firing projectiles down at the ground. Someone threw a splat bomb up at him, but he simply deflected it using the Inkjet's gun. As he battled, Via noticed someone swimming up to the landing marker. From the ink emerged Brayden, who had a vial of Toxic Mist in his hand. As soon as she saw him, she immediately started running towards him with her brush. As soon as the octoling noticed her, his blue eyes became filled with alarm and threw the vial towards her instead.
Octavia took a sharp turn to avoid the cloud that formed, but she swooped back down after it had landed. Brayden tried throwing out another vial to no avail. He was forced to resort to just his blaster, backing up as he attempted to get out of the Octobrush's reach. It was then Gio had returned, throwing a splat bomb at his feet as soon as he landed. Together, the two charged towards Brayden and splatted him, creating a puddle of pink ink where he had exploded.
"Booyah!" Via cheered.
"...Booyah," the octoling with the mohawk grumbled.
"I thought you said you love battling," she remarked, turning to face him.
"I do," he confirmed, "but it is different when I battle friends."
"How so?"
"Normally, I am on the same team as friends," he explained. "I battle against them... I know the tricks of them." Gio opened his mouth to say more, but before he could finish, a splat bomb was launched towards them, forcing them to scatter. Charging towards them was Oscar. He stopped where his bomb had landed to ink the area around his feet with his Inkbrush. Giovanni swam around him and ambushed him, easily splatting the boy with the afro. "Do you see?" he queried at last, green eyes focusing on Via's orange ones.
"No...?"
"I am not surprised." He huffed and turned around to start pushing into enemy territory.
Via sighed. "I swear I'll never understand that squid," she muttered under her breath.
The wavy-haired inkling continued inking turf without interruption. No one even attempted to splat her! Eventually, her hair began to glow again, signifying that she could use her special once more. She super-jumped back to the spawn to survey the stage. Shock crossed her features as she learned that most of the area was covered in pink ink. Did one of them leave? She activated her Tenta Missiles to see how many targets there were. Still four. Odd... She fired her Tenta Missiles on the target closest to her and began swimming towards the target to check it out.
Climbing the incline was Iris. She pushed her Krak-On Roller along, stopping to place a squid beakon from time-to-time. Via hid in the ink, waiting to see what would happen. Oscar super-jumped to one of the beakons and began swinging his Inkbrush furiously. Together, the two octolings managed to create a line of golden ink, separating her team's base from the rest of the stage. The line grew bigger and bigger, and soon, Via realized their attention—they wished to claim some turf while the other team was distracted.
With this realization, the wavy-haired girl emerged from the ink and called, "This way!" She placed a squid beakon where she stood and started running down towards Iris and Oscar. The former quickly spotted her and ceased her actions to attack her. Just as Octavia emerged from the ink, Iris slammed down her roller, splatting her instantly.
When she respawned, so did the boy with light brown skin. "Please help me!" she begged before he could step off the platform.
He stopped and turned around, blue eyes facing hers. "With what?"
"We need to get the other team out of here," she explained, "so we can win!"
"Aren't we already winning?" he questioned.
"Just help me!"
He sighed. "Alright..."
The two traveled down the incline, towards Iris and Oscar. Well, she could only see Iris. The cannon on her side was glowing gold, and Octavia could assume Oscar was occupying it. A missile fired towards them. The boy with the Splat Brella opened its canopy to block it. He was successful, but his shield broke. Growing impatient, Via grabbed the boy's hand and dragged him down towards the poufy-haired octoling.
Her indigo eyes drifted down towards the brella, then at the two inklings. "You no have a shield," she remarked before laughing. "Will the brella to protect now, Octavia?"
"We'll beat you," the bronze-skinned girl declared. "I know it."
"Try." Iris widened her stance, gripping her Krak-On Roller tightly.
"Umm..." The boy tried opening the canopy, but only the frame opened up. While it was open, however, the shield regenerated, and it ended up launching off of the brella, towards the fair-skinned girl. Iris jumped out of the way, causing the canopy to crash into a wall. She jumped up into the air and prepared a vertical swing, of which both inklings rolled out of the way. Some gold-colored ink brushed Octavia's shoulder, causing her to hiss in pain. After the vertical swing, the boy threw a sprinkler at the octoling. It bounced off her shirt and landed in front of her. She was not safe from harm, however—blotches of pink were found on her body from the initial impact, and now the device was spraying more harmful ink onto her. Using this distraction, Via launched herself at Iris and splatted her in one swipe.
"Booyah!" both of them cheered. In the distance, Octavia heard someone else cry out. She looked over at the source to find the mocha-skinned girl spinning her brella in front of the base cannon.
"Aria!" the boy exclaimed, running towards her. He drew the girl into a tight hug. "You did it!" At his sentence, the whistle blew, and fire ceased. The couple began making out by the cannon, causing Via to look away.
After a few minutes of waiting, Giovanni super-jumped to her, much to her surprise. "Gio!" the wavy-haired girl gasped. "You scared me!"
"Sorry," he apologized. "I had needed a good way to come back here."
She tilted her head in confusion. "...Why?"
"Perhaps I should apologize," the octoling started. "I said battling against friends was not fun." With a rare smile, he finished, "I was the wrong. I found the battle fun."
Via smiled back. "Hey, you love battling after all."
Giovanni sighed, exasperated. "That is your only comment?"
"No no! I'm glad you had fun!"
"Good."
It was then Judd and Li'l Judd landed right on the central cannon. They took a few seconds to position themselves on it, and then they began their signature dance. Judd struck out a pink flag, while the smaller cat fell off the cannon with a yowl. Li'l Judd immediately climbed back up it and gave a thumbs-up to show that he was OK.
The octoling with a mohawk looked over at Octavia. "Do you want to do battle again?"
"Since you're asking..." She smiled. "Sure."
A/N: HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO THE RAINBOW SQUIDS! Thank you, everyone, for reading this story, and be ready for more to come. Honestly, I'm surprised myself I could keep up weekly chapters for this long. Well, there was the hiatus, but... that doesn't count ;). As we head into the second half of Season 2, things will only get bigger from here! If my calculations are correct, we should be at the end of Season 3 by the time the second anniversary rolls around. Assuming my plans stay the same, it's crazy how much more you'll know, how many more secrets will be revealed... Well, I can't just tell you what secrets yet, because, well, it's a secret! And telling the secrets would be spoilers. Anyways, once again, thank you all for reading The Rainbow Squids, and here's to another year of their adventures! Branchwing, out!