Perry's PoV
"So, Lori, Deadeye," Perry started, "ya told me yer gonna show me how to use an E-liter today?"
Deadeye nodded. "That's right," she confirmed. "Lori'll teach you how to use the vanilla version, while I'll teach you how to use its scoped version."
"It's good to get the basics down, first," Lori added.
"So, what are we waitin' for?" the purple-haired boy teased. "Let's go to the shooting range!"
The two girls nodded, and the group walked into Ammo Knights, hoping to ask Sheldon permission to both borrow an E-liter 4K and to use the shooting range. Instead, they were met with three female inklings—Alexis, alongside two inklings some years older than her.
"I told you, I don't have it!" one of the older inklings, a lady with long black hair and hot pink tips, persisted.
"If anyone stole it, it would be Four," the other older inkling, one with short grey hair and lime green tips, remarked, bringing a hand to her face.
"Why would I have it?" Alexis questioned. "I only use it in-"
Perry interrupted their conversation with an 'ahem,' and the group turned around to face him, Lori, and Deadeye. Sheldon walked in front of them.
"Ah! Hope you didn't hear anything important!" the black-haired inkling fretted. Her eyes were covered by black shades.
"Uh... What's going on?" Deadeye asked, raising an eyebrow.
"My new-and-improved Hero Roller has gone missing," Sheldon explained. "It's very valuable, and I can't let that baby fall into the wrong hands!"
"We're the ones testing it, so he came to us first," the grey-haired inkling elaborated. She was wearing a lime green baseball cap that obscured her eyes, alongside a white face mask.
"Wait, Alexis," Perry's purple eyes glanced over at the bronze-skinned girl. "I didn't know you test weapons!"
"Yeah, I do," she confirmed. "It's noth-"
"Is that how you got the Hero Dualies?" he quickly followed up.
She nodded. "Please don't tell anyone about this..." she whined.
"But why would you keep such a fresh thing from everyone?"
"Because it's supposed to be secret!"
"And we're not lookin' for new members right now," the grey-haired inkling added in jest. "Sorry."
"Aight, aight! I won't tell!" he conceded. "Promise!"
"Tentacle promise?" Alexis turned into a squid and dropped to the floor, where she lifted herself up and held out an orange tentacle.
Perry sighed and turned into a squid himself, wrapping a purple tentacle around hers. "Tentacle promise." The two kids reformed, and instead of tentacles, their pinkies were wrapped around each other.
When they let go, Sheldon looked up at Perry, Lori, and Deadeye and asked, "So, how can I help you on this fine day?"
"We need two things," Lori started. "One: An E-liter 4K. Two: To use the shooting range."
"An E-liter 4K? Are you looking to buy one?" he asked.
"Probably not." Lori patted Perry on the head, leading him to blush a little. "Perry here wants to learn how to use one, and we're gonna teach him."
"Ah, I see." The horseshoe crab walked over to an empty version of the aforementioned charger and handed it to the pale-skinned boy. Upon touch, the tank of the E-liter became filled with purple ink. "Well, of course you can use my shooting range. Now, have fun!"
"Don't worry." Deadeye smirked. "We will."
The three walked out the back of Ammo Knights, to the shooting range. Some squid bumpers were set up, ready to be shot at. Perry and Lori changed their ink color to match Deadeye's—pink—and revealed their weapons.
"Alright, first lesson," Lori announced. "How to hold an E-liter."
"How...?" Perry blinked. "I've used chargers before; it can't be that different."
"How well did you do?" she asked, placing a hand on her chin.
"Not good," he replied.
"Then you either have a bad aim, or, more likely, you're not holding it correctly." The boy with spiky bangs held up the E-liter 4K, though he didn't dare press down on the trigger just yet. He pointed towards the nearest squid bumper to the entrance. "Lower." He followed her instructions.
"Lori," he started, clenching his teeth, "I think I'll pull a muscle if I keep holdin' this."
"Like I said, you're not holding it correctly. Relax your shoulders."
"Relax... my shoulders?" The girl with the ends of her hair cut off walked over to him and pushed down on his shoulders. Perry didn't bother to resist, and his shoulders fell.
"There. Without the tension, it should be much easier."
The pale-skinned boy stood there for a few seconds and realized the previous shoulder pain was indeed, gone. "Hey, you're right!" He looked over at Lori and smiled. "Thanks!"
"No problem." She returned his words with a smile. "Now, let's see..." She examined the E-liter he held once more, moving his hands to fix his grip when needed. "There. Now, drop it."
His purple eyes blinked. "Drop it?"
"Just drop it," she groaned. Perry released his grip, and the E-liter 4K dropped to the ground with a thud. "Now, pick it back up." He picked it back up, remembering to relax his shoulders. Her grey eyes squinted at him. "Hmm... Higher." He raised it. "That's too high. Lower it." He lowered it. "Alright, that's good. As for your hands, move the non-firing hand up a little."
"The 'non-firing hand'?"
"You know." Lori spun her hand around, moving her fingers. "The hand that's not on the trigger."
"Oh! Got it." He moved his hand up the charger, only for Lori to tell him to move it a little further back. Once it was finally in the perfect position, she gave a thumbs-up before telling him to drop the E-liter again.
"Don't ya think you're being a little too strict?" Deadeye asked her companion. "He's just starting to learn this weapon, after all."
"Deedee, trust me." She winked. "I've got this covered."
The wavy-haired girl blushed. "Y-Yeah, but you can't expect him to have the perfect position when holding it."
The girl with the ends of her hair cut off sighed, then smiled. "You know? You're right." Her grey eyes returned to face Perry. "Pick it back up," she demanded, and he did as instructed. Without checking his positioning, she continued, "Now, aim at that dummy over there." She pointed at the squid bumper in the back of the shooting range. "Press down on the trigger... and when that light glows and you hear a beep..." She tapped the back of the charger's tank. "Fire!"
Perry took a few steps towards the dummy and watched as the beam emitting from the E-liter 4K got longer and longer. When he heard a beep, he let go of the trigger, and a huge stream of pink ink flew out of the charger, piercing the squid bumper and making it pop.
"Good, but that's expected—still targets are easy," Lori proceeded. "Let's try it with a moving target." They walked over to the other side of the shooting range, which featured squid bumpers moving back-and-forth, on a set track. "Pop at least one of them."
The boy with spiky bangs charged up a shot, aiming it at one of the dummies, and fired, but he missed. Frowning, he tried again. Once more, he missed. He fired, then missed, fired, then missed... He had to refill his ink tank at least twice before he finally managed to pop one.
"That took a while," Lori commented.
"I don't understand why I keep missin'," he admitted. "My aim is usually fresh, but now, for whatever reason, it sucks."
"You main the Sloshing Machine, right?" Deadeye inquired.
"Yeah, what about it?" he replied with a question.
"Well, a charger isn't a slosher," she pointed out. "It needs more precision. You absolutely need a direct hit to splat someone, unlike the Sloshing Machine, where you can just throw ink all day and get a splat without trying."
"Ah..." The pale-skinned inkling looked back at the squid bumpers. "Then I'll just have to keep practicing." He charged up the E-liter 4K again, and somehow, he managed to hit one of them. "Ha! See? I can get one first try!"
"You just got lucky," groaned Lori. "Do it a few more times."
"Now, before that, I have something to tell you." His ultimate plan for asking Lori and Deadeye to help him with his E-liter 4K skills was to ask the former out on a date. He had been building up a plan for quite some time, now, and finally, he was going to execute it.
"Oh?" the girl asked. "What is it?" Perry pulled out his phone and began playing some trap music. Setting it against the wall, he then grabbed a traffic cone to use as a microphone. Lori raised an eyebrow and looked over at Deadeye. The wavy-haired inkling whispered something to her, and she proceeded to grab her hand. "This won't end well," the grey-eyed girl murmured. There was a pause in the music, and then Perry began rapping.
"Hey, hey! Perry in da house! Now, let's go! / Lori! The name that rhymes with glory! / Glamorous, fantabulous, glorious! / These words are the ones I use to describe Lori! / It's time to be victorious! / But wait, let me stop ya right there. / Why would I end it there? / The song's just beginning, I swear. / Lori, you're just so rare. / There's no other girl like ya. / Who else has superb skills? / Not me, that's for sure, ha! / But who else gives me the chills?"
The music got more intense as he got to the bridge. "There's no one like you. / Really no one like you. / So, if only you knew. / How much I love you!" The volume peaked at its chorus. "O-oh, Lori! / Tell a, story! / Make me laugh and cry! / 'til you say goodbye! / I'm the one, I'm the one. / For ya, for ya! / Let's go have lots of fun. / Lori, la la!" As an instrumental played, Perry started to dance, mimicking the moves he had seen playing Squid Beatz 2.
As the beat calmed down, he stopped dancing and proceeded to rap the next verse. "Please, will ya go out with me? / I would really really like that. / As beautiful as the sea. / We can go out and have a chat. / We can go eat at a restaurant. / Or maybe a café! / And then we can hang at a resort! / Or Inkopolis Bay! / Which do ya like? / It doesn't matter to me. / Will feelings spike? / We'll be as busy as bees!"
The purple-eyed boy proceeded to sing the bridge again, then the chorus. After the chorus ended again, there was a much longer instrumental this time, in which he proceeded to show several more dance moves. The beat dropped, and he proceeded to sing the chorus again, all while dancing.
"Oh yeah!" he finished the song off with. After the music ended, Perry struck a pose and glanced over at Lori. "So, what do ya think?"
She simply blinked. "It's a nice song, but there's one problem."
"What?"
"I'm already dating someone." Lori and Deadeye glanced at each other and smiled. The former gave the latter a kiss on the cheek, causing her to blush.
It was then Perry realized just who Lori was dating. "Oh..." He frowned, lowering his shoulders. "You're dating Deadeye."
"Yeah, I thought it was obvious."
"You won't change your mind?"
"Nah, I'm pretty happy right now. Besides, if I did, I would be dating another girl."
"Oh..."
The wavy-haired girl recomposed herself and asked, "So... do you still want E-liter lessons?"
He nodded. "I'm not abandoning this."
"Alright," Lori started, "remember what I said earlier?" The inkling with spiky bangs picked up the charger again. "Keep taking down the dummies with your E-liter, until I give the OK." He proceeded to follow her instructions in silence, the rejection still heavy on his mind. "OK, that's good. I think you got the basics down."
His purple eyes met her grey ones. "Are we learning more advanced techniques now?"
"Not for today."
Deadeye looked over at her partner and inquired, "Do I get to teach now?" She nodded. The red-eyed girl stepped up, pulling out a Custom E-liter 4K Scope. She placed the weapon in Perry's hands and informed, "I'll let you borrow mine for today."
"Wow." He studied the charger. A heart-shaped charm hung off one of the beams connected to the tank. "Thanks."
"No problem." She cleared her throat and began her explanation. "Scoped chargers aren't much different from normal chargers. There's three main differences—it has a scope, obviously, it can't store charges, and it has a slightly better range than a normal charger."
"I never knew about the range thing," Perry remarked.
"It's a slightly obscure fact," Deadeye noted. "Now, let's get you used to that scope. Still or moving squid bumpers?"
"Moving!" He was quite confident he could hit even more moving squid bumpers.
"Alright. Now, aim your E-liter." He held up the charger, with the instructor changing his positioning if needed. "Now, press down on the trigger, and look into the scope." Closing one eye, a purple eye peered into the scope, and he watched as his field of view became more and more limited. "Don't lift your head; that messes up your aim," she warned.
"How will I know where to shoot, then?" he asked.
"You have to be aware of your surroundings. Using scoped chargers takes a while to get used to. For now, just judge where to shoot based on what you see in the scope." Once the beam emitted from the charger crossed one of the dummies, he fired, but he ended up missing. He lifted his head and made a groan. "Try again," Deadeye encouraged. He charged up the Custom E-liter 4K Scope again, and after a few more tries, he finally managed to hit one of them.
"Booyah!" he cheered.
"Yes! Do it again!" He proceeded to hit another squid bumper. "And again." Two more tries later, he hit yet another squid bumper. "And again." The instruction repeated until the wavy-haired inkling said, "Now, stop."
Perry looked over at the two girls. "Is that all for today?"
"That's all for today," Lori confirmed.
"If you want to learn more, we can do this again another time," Deadeye added.
"I think I'll prove my skills on the battlefield," he declared, smirking.
"Eager..." the girl with the ends of her tentacles cut off muttered.
Changing his ink color back to normal, the purple-haired boy marched back inside and called Sheldon's name. "I want to buy an E-liter!"
Sheldon came tumbling out of his office, holding a stack of papers. "Ah, so now you want to buy one!" he exclaimed. "Well, which one? There's the standard E-liter 4K, whose pressurized polymer construction gives it a remarkably long range. Though it's more compact than the original, it still has plenty of reach! You can use the Ink Mines to cover your tracks and then use the Ink Storm special to expose anyone hiding from you!" Perry started to tune out the horseshoe crab's explanation, becoming a little bored from it.
"...Hello?" He waved a small hand in front of Perry's face. "Are you still there?"
"Oh, yeah, yeah. I'll buy the E-liter 4K, plus the scope."
"Both of them? Well, that's marvelous!" Sheldon cheered. "That comes up to a grand total of 28,600G!"
From his wallet, Perry pulled out the silver debit card his dad had given him all those months ago. "Fresh."
They walked over to the POS system. "You know what to do, I hope," the horseshoe crab stated. The purple-haired inkling swiped his card, entered the PIN, and proceeded to sign off on the purchase. Sheldon ran to the cash register and gave Perry his receipt. "Enjoy your splatastic new weapon!"
"Ya bet I will!" Perry started walking towards Lori and Deadeye, who were waiting for him near the entrance.
"Wait!" the vender suddenly shouted. He hurried up to the three, papers in hand. "If you see this weapon, could you tell me?" He handed each of the inklings a paper that depicted a fancy roller. The Hero Roller? Perry guessed. "Please, it's really important!"
"The weapon you were talkin' 'bout earlier?" the pale-skinned boy asked. He nodded.
"The Hero Roller..." the grey-eyed girl pondered.
"You can count on us, Sheldon," the red-eyed girl promised.
"Great!" He waved to the group as they exited the shop. "Come back to Ammo Knights some time!"
"Don't worry, we will," finished Lori.
As they headed to the Deca Tower, Perry stared down at the paper, bewildered. The situation was just so odd. A new Hero Roller? Were there other new Hero weapons, just like it? There were so many questions!
Well, they're not important. Only bringin' home that roller is!