Warning: Contains trauma (minor)
Alexis's PoV
The Splatfest had arrived, but this theme...was a rather unusual one. Though she was no stranger to food-related Splatfests, this one asked the question of which dipping sauce you preferred—salsa or guacamole?
Well, to Alexis, the answer was obvious—salsa. Guacamole was far too mild for her liking. Salsa just seemed to make everything better, didn't it?
Luckily, the majority of the Rainbow Squids seemed to agree with her.
"I can't believe we're on the same team..." Geneva groaned, digging her face into her hands upon sight of Inigo's green Team Guac tee.
The boy with the ponytail lowered his head, sighing. "Well, if that's how you want to do it..."
The long-haired girl lifted her head and looked over at Bonnie, who also belonged to Team Guac. "Say, who are you gonna come with? Me, or Inigo?"
Bon-Bon looked between the two, thinning her lips. "Um..." She frowned, fiddling with her fingers nervously.
"Really?" Via huffed, crossing her arms. "Don't make her choose!"
"I'm not battling with Inigo," Geneva insisted. "No way."
"And I'm not battling with Geneva, if she's gonna be so stubborn," Inigo added, furrowing his brows.
As they argued, Alexis frowned, pulling out her phone and looking through Squidsagram. Did they really have to argue now? It was a Splatfest; why couldn't they come together for this special day?
She supposed there were some things she just wouldn't understand.
"Please!" Bonnie butted in, causing both of them to fall silent and look towards her. "I can't stand to see you two argue like this! Can't you just get along?"
"Yeah, it's messin' with the vibes," Perry agreed.
"Still, though," the long-haired girl started, "what else would we do?"
"I dunno, make up," Roy suggested, narrowing his eyes.
"Not in a million years," Inigo rejected.
"Let's at least get the team thing sorted out," Yuri brought up. "So... There's five of us on Team Salsa, and three of us on Team Guac."
"Yeah, duh," Octavia interjected.
"As I was saying," the spiky-haired boy continued, "one of us is gonna to have to go solo for a bit." He pounded a fist into his hand. "So, who's it gonna be?"
A silence settled between the Rainbow Squids, with Color Pulse continuing to blare in the background. The squids on Team Salsa looked between each other, while the squids on Team Guac merely stared at them. At last, Alexis let out a sigh, averting her orange gaze.
"It's gonna be me, isn't it?" she muttered, disappointed.
"Well, uh..." Via rubbed the back of her head. "You don't have to. I can go-"
"No, it's fine," the short-haired girl insisted. She pushed out her chair and stood up, standing tall as she clenched her fists shut. "I'll go ahead."
"I..." The wavy-haired girl reached out a hand at first, but she soon lowered it. "...Alright."
Alexis dipped her head. "See ya later."
"See ya," Perry called, saluting goodbye. The other inklings proceeded to wave goodbye as well.
She waved goodbye back before heading off to the Deca Tower, squeezing through the crowd of people gathered around Off the Hook's performance. Soon enough, she was met with the crowded lobby full of inklings, funneling in-and-out of elevators. Looking towards them, she took a deep breath. She's been by herself before. There was no reason to be nervous.
Then why did she feel upset?
It didn't matter. What mattered was that she fought for Team Salsa, and that she would make sure they would win. She detoured over to the side of the lobby, where a panel was located. She quickly typed some information in and opened up the Rainbow Squids' storage room, and she ran down the stairs, grabbing her Hero Dualies off a table pushed up against the wall. She climbed up the stairs and closed the room before heading off towards a lobby.
She stepped into one that was nearly full, with her being the last team member they needed to start the match. She scanned the people in the room. Thankfully, half of the room was on Team Salsa, while the other half was on Team Guac. With that worry out of the way, she stuck close to the wall, spinning one of her dualies around on her finger.
The door closed shut, and immediately, one of the people on Team Salsa approached her, staring at her with wide brown eyes. A quick glance at her clothing told Alexis that she was a newbie, wearing cream basics and a white headband. She then looked up to meet the stranger's eyes, though almost immediately afterwards, she was drawn to her hair. It was poufy, much like the hair of the octolings she had fought over in Octo Canyon. The giveaway was the suction cups on the top of her hair, running down each tentacle.
She gulped. An octoling. What could she possibly want?
"Wow," the octoling murmured, reaching out towards the dualies. "Fresh."
"Uh... They're just dualies," she pointed out, swiping her hand away from the octoling. "Nothing more to it."
"Yes," she acknowledged, "but color new."
Alexis raised an eyebrow. "Is there something else you wanna say?"
"Yes," the octoling replied. "Where you get?"
"They're, um, the Hero Dualies Replicas!" the short-haired girl lied. "You buy them from Ammo Knights!
"Oh," she simply muttered. "I need more fresh."
"Well, uh, if you wanna be more fresh, just battle." She smirked. "Then you can be the freshest squid on the block! Eventually."
"I know," the octoling pointed out. "That what friend tell me."
The elevator then came to a sudden stop, startling the octoling. She brought her tan-skinned hands up to her face, pouting as worry etched her features. "W-What?" She let out a squeak and lifted her feet as the paneling beneath their shoes began to slide open, revealing a grated surface. The inklings around them proceeded to turn into squids and slip through it, quickly disappearing.
"Do...uh...transform?" she asked Alexis.
The short-haired girl nodded. "C'mon. The match's gonna start soon." She proceeded to turn into a squid and fall through the grate, swimming through the darkness. She just had to hope the octoling would listen to her. Enemy or not, she didn't want her team to be down a member for this match.
Once she emerged on the spawn point, she blinked, staring up at the sky. Stars dotted a dark background, strange structures hanging from the top. They were shaped like giant stars, glowing gold as they dangled from the ceiling. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized where she was. A Shifty Station. Why did it have to be a Shifty Station?
A few moments later, she transformed into a kid, spinning her dualies around. She glanced over at her side, checking to see if the octoling was present. Indeed, she was, frowning as she kept a Splattershot Jr. clenched closed to her body. A few seconds later, the match started, and Alexis held her Hero Dualies out in front of her, holding down the trigger and spreading red ink as she walked down the ramp. She reached the end of the platform and hopped down a level, where she looked over her shoulder. The octoling followed her and started shooting a bumper, the ink sliding off of it uselessly. Alexis sighed, shaking her head and continuing onwards.
Jumping down another level, she saw something flash red in the corner of her eye. She watched as a fair-skinned inkling boy fired at it with his Mini Splatling, red ink erupting from the device moments later, rising into the air. Like a fountain, ink started to fall at its peak, splattering onto the ground. The boy turned into a squid and rose to the top of the column, laughing as he reformed, ink dripping off of him.
"Hey, Aaron, check this out!" the boy on the gusher called, looking behind him. Another inkling boy, this one having almond-colored skin, ran over to him, lowering his New Squiffer and planting his face into his hand.
"Focus," he scolded his friend. "We gotta win."
The fair-skinned boy scowled. "You're no fun sometimes."
"What?!" the almond-skinned boy blurted. "Seriously?"
The gusher expired, causing the boy with the splatling to fall to the ground, his weapon falling out of his hand. He quickly grabbed it again and stood up, rubbing his back. Alexis snickered before continuing onwards. It wasn't her place to get involved.
Down on the lowest level of this Shifty Station, she spotted a few more gushers. So that's the theme of this one, she deduced. However, she bumped into the wall, rubbing her head shortly after impact. She scanned the device next to her. To get up to the central area of this stage, she would have to activate it.
Before she could, the gusher suddenly shot up, catching her off-guard. She stumbled and fell to the floor, groaning. The octoling from earlier appeared on the top of the geyser, jumping down to join her. She helped her up to her feet, and the poufy-haired girl proceeded to bow.
"You're welcome," she said.
"Uh... Thank you?" Alexis responded. She turned around to face Team Guac's side of the map. Two green gushers shot out from the sides of two tunnels, one for each tunnel, preventing anyone from going through either of them. She spotted an inkling with green hair flailing about in one of them, trying to push through the powerful blast of the gusher. But of course, she couldn't get through them.
Soon enough, the gusher subsided, and the inkling previously trapped in it rubbed her face, green ink dripping off of her dark skin. She turned to face Alexis and the octoling, proceeding to aim her .96 Gal Deco towards them. A few seconds later, her hair began to glow, alarming the short-haired girl. The girl on Team Guac ran up to them and proceeded to activate Splashdown, leaping up into the air as ink began to gather around her fist. Alexis grabbed the octoling and jumped out of the way of the Splashdown, green ink from the impact flying onto her, pain shooting through her body. Their opponent stood up, smirking. She readied her weapon once more and began to fire. Alexis rolled out of the way, causing her shots to hit the octoling instead, splatting her. She stood up and continued to fire, rolling out of the way of her shots. Soon enough, she stepped behind the dark-skinned inkling and fired her Hero Dualies, splatting her and causing an explosion of red ink around where she once stood.
Alexis pumped a fist and proceeded to activate her own special weapon—Tenta Missiles. She locked them onto another member of Team Guac running towards the middle of the map and fired, red missiles shooting up into the sky. At their peak, they turned downwards and crashed down on her target, red ink shooting up into the air. She heard someone scream, and with that, she cheered, happy that she had managed to splat someone with her special for once. She ran towards the two tunnels, preparing to pass over to the enemy's side of the Shifty Station.
She stopped to study the gushers. If activating one could trap an inkling with the same ink color as the ink gushing out...could it splat an inkling with an opposing ink color? Before she could decide on what to do, she felt a shot pierce through her body, her eyes wide as she proceeded to splat.
She respawned, rubbing her chest. Her earlier aches had disappeared, but the charged shot she had been faced with still lingered. She couldn't let that get in her way, though. She super-jumped to the boy with the New Squiffer, who she found hiding behind a wall. She stepped out to see a myriad of green covering the turf below her. Her eyes drifted down to an inactive gusher just in front of a grated ledge. She threw a burst bomb at it, and it shot into the sky, red ink gushing out. She jumped on it, quickly turning into a squid to hide and observe her surroundings. She spotted another person on Team Guac, this one wielding a Firefin Splatterscope. His slicked-back hair began to glow green, and he proceeded to start throwing suction bombs around the area, especially towards the platform she was previously on. As one flew towards her, she jumped off the gusher, watching as the bomb blew up into green ink on contact with the flowing red ink. The column proceeded to shrink before it was no more, leaving the gusher inactive again. She glanced up at the boy with the charger, his yellow eyes narrow. He returned his attention to Alexis and charged up his weapon again, the short-haired girl barely dodge-rolling out of the way. As he charged up his next shot, she thinned her lips. How was she supposed to get rid of him? She couldn't back down now—if she did, then Team Guac could push forward and into Team Salsa's territory.
The boy fired another shot, with Alexis dodging that one as well. Turning her attention towards the boy with the New Squiffer again, she super-jumped back to him, much to his annoyance. He shoved her out of the way and jumped down to where she was previously, aiming at the boy with the Firefin Splatterscope. He took a step back and set up a splash wall, blocking the almond-skinned boy's shot. The boy on Team Salsa sighed and shot the splash wall again, breaking it before the boy on Team Guac could set up another one. He threw an autobomb up at him, startling him and causing him to fall backwards, into the abyss. Alexis could see traces of green smoke rise from where he fell as he proceeded to disappear.
She approached the grated ledge again and was about to jump off when the octoling super-jumped to her, falling through the grate and onto the ground, plopping into the ink. Alexis jumped down and turned around to face her, putting her hands on her hips. In the background, she spotted two red gushers flowing sideways. She had been above the tunnels, apparently.
The octoling emerged from her puddle and frowned. "You no like?" she questioned, rubbing the back of her head.
"I mean...why super-jump to me?" the bronze-skinned inkling pointed out. "You should be helping out the splatling boy."
"Should I?" she challenged.
"Well, I, uh..." Alexis sighed. "Alright," she conceded. "You can stay here."
"Booyeah!" she cheered. "You fresh! I like follow you!"
"Yeah, I am fresh," she said with a smile. Moments later, it fell, and she started frantically shaking her head. "Wait! Don't follow me! Make your own path!"
"But...what if splat?" she asked, clenching her Splattershot Jr. tighter. "I no want splat."
"It's just a game," she reminded her. "You'll respawn. No need to worry."
"But...it hurt." She slumped against the wall dividing the two tunnels. "I almost splat forever once. One year ago." Alexis raised an eyebrow at her comment. "The Dauntless."
At that word, she took step a back, time seemingly slowing down. If this octoling found out she was the Dauntless...would she try to splat her? After all, for a long time, she went around Octo Canyon, splatting whatever Octarians she came across. That included octolings. She stared at her, her orange eyes wide. For a moment, instead of the newbie intent on following her around, she saw the ominous black shades of an octoling soldier, a red light blinking as she flashed a malevolent grin. She could see her pointing her weapon at her, fingers resting on the trigger. She clenched her teeth, expecting the worst.
But instead of a blast of ink bullets to her torso, she felt nothing. Instead, the octoling grabbed her hand, and she let out a startled cry, immediately pulling it out. She blinked a few times, and once again, innocent brown eyes looked back at her.
"Friend?" she puzzled, her tentacles drooping. "Why you scream?"
"D-Don't worry 'bout it!" she insisted, picking up her dualie. "Let's keep going!"
"OK," the octoling simply murmured.
They stepped out into the open area, a red geyser of ink shooting into the air once more. The boy with the New Squiffer rode on top of it, throwing autobombs whenever he could. He threw one down next to Alexis and the octoling, the bomb simply hopping in place before proceeding to expand and blow up. She glanced up at the top of the gusher to see that the almond-skinned boy had submerged inside of it, refilling his ink tank. He popped out of the top a second or two later, tossing out another autobomb before the gusher expired, bringing him down to the ground. He paid no attention to the two girls on his team, instead reactivating the gusher and continuing his method...up until a charged shot pierced through his body, splatting him. His New Squiffer hit the octoling on the head before falling to the ground and disappearing along with his gear. As the gusher expired, Alexis spotted the boy with the Firefin Splatterscope again. He had returned, and he seemed to be angrier than ever, firing shots as soon as he could. He didn't seem to notice the two girls...for now.
Much to Alexis's dismay, green markers began to surround the two of them. Tenta Missiles. She grabbed the octoling's hand and fled into one of the tunnels, waiting it out as the missiles crashed down above them. They stepped onto the side of Team Salsa, where the octoling proceeded to activate the gusher in front of the tunnels, leading up to the grated ledge. They swam up to the top of the gusher and landed on the grate, looking out on Team Guac's side of the stage once more. With one minute left, the match was too close to call at the moment. Now, they just had to make the push that would ensure Team Salsa's victory.
She lifted her head, staring down at the boy with the charger. Once he spotted her, he grumbled and charged up another shot, firing it towards her. She dodge-rolled out of the way, the trail of ink instead shooting past the octoling.
"Use a splat bomb," she directed her. "That might force him down there."
She reached behind her and pulled out a splat bomb, poking it as its contents jiggled around. She turned her attention to the boy with the charger and stepped out onto the grated ledge, tossing it towards him. It landed on his face, a curse escaping his lips as it bounced off of him, onto the ground. It began to expand, and in a panic, he dropped down to the ground, quickly scrambling to the gusher to activate it. Before he could, Alexis jumped down to face him, rolling towards him and splatting him.
"Booyah!" she cheered. She turned around to face the octoling. "See? We did it!"
"Yes," the octoling remarked. She smiled and pumped a fist. "Booyeah!"
Alexis nodded, gripping her Hero Dualies. "It's not over yet."
A new inkling—a pale-skinned boy with a Foil Flingza Roller—jumped up from the top of a gusher, preparing a vertical swing. A second later, a wave of green ink crashed towards them, and the two jumped in separate directions in order to avoid it. He curled his lip and started to swim towards them using the path he had created. He emerged and slammed his roller down on the octoling, splatting her. Alexis's mouth fell open as she aimed her weapon towards him. The boy looked over his shoulder, red eyes gleaming. He lifted the roller again, once again preparing a vertical swing. She dodge-rolled out of the way, the wave landing a few feet from her. He dove into the ink and swam towards her again, popping up from it as soon as he reached the end of the trail, preparing a vertical swing once again. Alexis avoided that swing, though she nearly tripped, regaining her balance just in time to avoid his next swing. She rolled away, now shaded by the tunnel. He had managed to form a circle with his swings, and if she tried stepping in there again, he would splat her for sure.
The gusher next to her then activated, the force of the geyser pinning her to the wall. She closed her eyes and shielded her face, feeling the ink push against her. She couldn't get out! She peered an eye open to see the boy with the Foil Flingza Roller running towards her, preparing a suction bomb. She closed them shut again, preparing for impact. A few seconds later, she felt the force of the bomb tear through her body, splatting her.
She respawned, wobbling and groaning. For painful splats, that one ranked near the top of the list. She stumbled off the spawn point, hiding in the ink to heal the pain away. Her heart pumping in her chest, she emerged a few seconds later, her breaths heavy. She wasn't going to give up yet. She had to persist until the very end.
She super-jumped to the boy with the Mini Splatling. A green squid-shaped ghost floated away from a pile of gear a few feet in front of him, and he began to cheer, hugging his weapon. She surveyed her surroundings. He must've been the one to activate the gusher earlier—it wasn't too far from where she stood. However, the gushers in the tunnels now spat out green ink, much to her dismay. There was only one to the other side now—go above them. She activated the gusher and climbed up it, leaping over to the grated ledge. She ran across the platform and dropped down to the clearing on the other side, inking back up whatever turf Team Guac may have claimed in her downtime. Soon enough, her hair began to glow, and once again, she summoned some Tenta Missiles and fired them as soon as she could, several missiles launching into the starry sky. While some crashed down on the enemy's spawn point, others landed in other places, causing a group of inklings to scattered. The girl with the .96 Gal Deco from earlier barreled down to the clearing Alexis was located in, allowing her to throw a burst bomb at her, splatting her before she could act. Another round of Tenta Missiles flew through the sky, though they were not from her. She looked behind her to see the boy with the Mini Splatling running through the tunnels, charging up his weapon. The inkling with the New Squiffer then super-jumped to him, his hair glowing as he proceeded to activate Baller. Avoiding the gushers, he ran down the corridor, denotating the special weapon as soon as the area opened up. As soon as it exploded, a whistle blew, bringing an end to the match.
At the same time, the octoling had super-jumped to her, landing beside her. A smile on her face, she posed with the Splattershot Jr.
"We win?" she asked Alexis.
"Maybe," she replied. "We'll see when Judd and Li'l Judd come around." The octoling tilted her head in confusion. The short-haired girl sighed. "The cats? They were dancing in the square earlier?"
"Oh!" she realized. "Them! Cute thing is judge? Fresh!"
Alexis walked over to the inactive gusher in front of the grated ledge and sat down on it, looking down at her Hero Dualies.
Good work, she told herself. But...she wished the Rainbow Squids were here. That would've made it even better. Heck, even if Callie and Marie were here, this would've been better! Instead, she was matched up with an octoling and a bunch of people she didn't even know.
"Friend," she heard the octoling's voice speak up, footsteps walking over to her. She lifted her head, staring into her brown eyes. "I ask...your name. It is...?"
"Alexis," she answered. After some hestiation, she decided she might as well be nice. "You?"
"My name?" She blinked, surprised. After a few moments, she bowed. "Skylar Bimac." She met the bronze-skinned inkling's orange eyes again.
"Bimac..." she repeated. "That sounds familiar."
"It common," she revealed. "Many...people like me, have it as last name."
"Oh," she simply said. "Well, uh, nice to meet you, Skylar."
"Nice to meet you," the octoling echoed. She helped Alexis up to her feet. "I happy...to play with you."
Alexis gave a simple nod. "Let's hope we win."
She turned around to see that Judd and Li'l Judd had arrived, scanning the area. After a few seconds, they began to dance, and the former revealed a red flag, revealing Team Salsa as the winner.
Skylar gasped. "Win?"
Alexis nodded. "Right you are!"
She turned to face her. "Play again?"
"Uh..." She scratched her head. "I gotta go."
"But-"
"Bye!" Alexis turned into a squid, and before the octoling could grab her attention again, she super-jumped back to the Deca Tower, into a room displaying their statistics. She didn't bother to look at them before running out of the lobby she was in, into the crowd of people. She lowered her weapons and looked around, trying to spot the Rainbow Squids. When she couldn't see them, she frowned. Another match alone, it seemed.
Heading to a different elevator, she might as well fight for Team Salsa some more. The Rainbow Squids would show up at some point...right?
After many, many more battles, Alexis pulled out her phone to check out what time it was. She frowned. It was past midnight. And yet, no one from the Rainbow Squids had asked how she was doing. In fact, she hadn't even gotten a single text from any of them. Including Octavia!
"'For a little bit,'" she recalled scornfully. She put it away and for the first time in a few hours, she stepped outside of the Deca Tower, taking in the fresh air. Though the instrumentals of Color Pulse was present, she didn't hear any singing. She stepped out to join to the crowd, looking up towards Pearl and Marina...only to find that they were absent.
'BRB,' a sign read. They were taking a break, Alexis supposed.
She stepped out of the crowd and looked towards the table the Rainbow Squids normally sat at. Empty. She ran a few more feet to check on Octa Prisma's table. It was empty as well. Exasperated, she pulled up an empty chair and sat down on it, throwing her hands down. Of course they had abandoned her. They had Geneva back; what would they need her for.
...In fact, why was she still part of the Rainbow Squids? Every passing moment, she felt like she overstayed her welcome. And today proved it. They wanted nothing to do with her, did they?
She stood up and quickly sent a text to Octavia. She took a deep breath and started walking towards the manhole leading to Octo Canyon. She stopped just in front of it, looking down the black void resting underneath the grate. It was now or never.
Her resolve stronger than ever, she turned into a squid and dived inside.