As sky gave Marie and Callie of the squid sisters another drink they both politely thanked her .

"Your coffee is yummy in my tummy ." Callie said giddily followed by her slurping down more.

"Yes it is of a high quality what is your secret?" Marie questioned before taking a drink of her own.

" Well quality is our secret ingredient. here at sky's café we uphold the highest of standards for what we use to make each cup . It's a little hard to get the best ingredients but we treat our customers like family so they are worth it . " sky said cheerly as a camera panned around her café.

" And it most certainly shows that you put family first in this extra hot chai tea leaf you've made for me." Marie said raising her cup to sky to signify a job well done.

"Yeah, and my iced vanilla bean coffee is the tastiest thing ever. You're coffee and tea are both super amazing how long have you been a barista ?" Callie asked.

" Well I've always had a passion for coffee an tea. Although I didn't get my first real world experience till several months ago . It was from a little wild café known as Beverly's Brew ,but after I got my experience I quickly got out of there and opened my own coffee spot. " sky answered surprisingly calm .

Not only were her two favorite idols drinking her products and not only were they infatuated with them but they were also promoting them live as the news featured her shop for everyone to see while she was cool as a cucumber .

" And you're much better for it " Marie said while nodding her head . " rumor has it that Tucker Roland and Preston all got fired for being jerks ."

" Yeah I've heard that to." Callie added. " it's what they deserve for abusing sky and making her work while they go out and play turf war leaving her to do the hard work ! Speaking of hard work managing this all alone must be impossible . How do you do it ?"

"I'm not alone. I stole the new worker who was more than willing to work for me."

Flames then appeared out of nowhere and refilled Marie's drink.

"Hey, I'm a huge fan ,that's why the rooms so cool." Flames said while laughing at his own joke.

"Well that's all the time we have for today on inkoploisis better business segment with Sky's café if your thirsty come down and have a drink. Its recommended by us the squid sisters." Marie announced.

"Please stick around for the normal battle rotations announcements with Off The Hook until next time."

"Stay fresh!" The duo announced doing their signature poses while holding up there cups and sitting at the table.

"That's a wrap lets pack it up." the producer announced causing the crew to start breaking down the recording and broadcasting equipment.

"Don't forget to have a free drink for working so hard." Sky said then turned to flames who took that as a hint to get started on making the news crew drinks. Without a word he gave her a mock salute and went to get to work.

"Oh sky before we leave." Marie chimed. " Callie and I had something we wanted to ask you. "

Sky turned to them wondering what they could possibly want from her but really hoping she could accommodate them.

"Yes anything for you guys what can I do for you?" She said with a smile.

"Well" Callie continued." Normally on these segments there is a lot of us making things sound better than they are ."

"Oh." Sky said thinking they were doing the same for her .

"Don't get the wrong idea we aren't faking when we said your coffee is the real deal." Callie clarified ."in fact we get a lot of recommendations on which businesses to spotlight but your café had thirty suggestions come in one day !"

" Really?" Sky said surprised not realizing her technique would yield such results.

"Yes it was enough to get us to send our assistance to get drinks from here and we just knew we had to come down after tasting it our selfs . It made our producer mad because we have a lot of places paying for our good words but we knew you truly deserved it."Marie said proudly.

"We wanted to know when do you open and close because we have to come by whenever we are in town but we can't afford to fight the crowds." Callie said pointing outside to all the fans who were outside the café trying to get a look at the famous duo.

"Well umm do you want my contact information? if you call I can come in early or stay open late for you guys to take care of you ."

"That's awesome !" Callie shouted excited by the offer.

As sky reached for her shell phone the duo began singing an Acoustic version of the incantation. Sky swayed to the music and couldn't believe how prefect everything was going . The praise from her idols , her coworker serving drinks to the hard working crew, the huge influx of business she was going to have after this ,and the fact that her idols were singing her favorite version of their hot song. In fact sky had love the version so much she had set it as her alarm in the morning .

Sky then awoke well rested after having such an amazing dream . This dream was quite common for her to have and she looked forward to one day making it a reality. It was the reason she put up with her terrible coworkers . The addition of flames to the dream was new but she took that as a good sign of the hard work he will be willing to do in the future. She quickly got out of bed and shut off her five am alarm. Looking down at her phone she noticed the time was now six am. The café didn't open until seven thirty but it normally took her several hours to open the shop and get everything ready to the high standard placed on her. After a quick scramble she was out the door making her way to the café. With a quick sprint she had to stop around the corner being completely out of breath. Panting hard she looked over to see her destination close. Looking back down to the time she noticed it was now six thirty. panic set in as she realized realizing she wasn't going to be able to get everything ready in time. As she looked up from her phone to the café she then saw flames leaned against it in his uniform with a golden toothpick in his tentacles instead of the hat durag and glasses he was wearing yesterday. As she approached him she noticed his gaze concentrated on something else. His attention quickly snapped to her faster than she expected. For a split second she could see he was worried about being approached out of the dead of the morning but once he saw it was her he seemed to relax as he waved.

"Good morning Flames you're here early." Sky said cheerily getting her keys out to open the café.

"I can say the same to you. Sun is barely up and here you are. That's not common for inklings. " Flames said while following her inside ready to get to work.

"Well I am normally here way earlier I just was having a really good dream and slept in ." She explained.

"Wow really? Then why you tell me to get here at eight ?" Flames questioned while following her inside.

"Well it takes me a while to get things ready for the day and I figured id have you come in when It was time to start working." sky started explaining while turning on and inspecting machines.

Flames not wanting to stand around began helping her get things ready. This worried sky because she didn't want to over work the only help she had but she also had no choice but to use him if she wanted to get things ready in time. Flames noticing the amount of work they were doing just to set up came to a realization.

" You normally do this by yourself huh?" he said figuring out more about the job.

"Yes" sky said while chopping fruit for smoothies.

"Ok so you are going to have to explain to me those guys situation and why they don't help. Like last night after they figured out the big boss guy had left they had dipped as well and that's not cool." flames said getting heated.

"Its fine for now what can you do." Sky said trying not to sound like it bothered her but flames could tell by how her cheery toned dulled that it was.

"Why don't you tell that boss guy ? He seems like he trusts you more than the three stooges. " flames pointed out while getting out more cups.

"It kind of is but as you can see he put them in charge for a reason and its fine cause I'm getting the experience I need to open my own café one day." sky said thinking about her dream.

Flames still didn't like how this was sitting with him. He could tell from how nice sky was that she wasn't the type to like confrontation and he knew with himself being new that he wouldn't have much grounds to stand on to combat this. Well as long as they stay out the way I guess we can make it work flames thought to himself .

"Why did you take the job here flames?" Sky questioned trying to think about something else.

"Hmmm? Oh well I guess cause ….. I need money like the rest of us ." He said quickly moving away from the question.

"That cant be the only reason or you wont have fun."Sky said remembering old advice.

"Yeah true I guess but ill have a lot more fun not starving and junk. "Flames explained ending the conversation .

Flames then remembered what had lead him here

As raphe backed into the door he called out.

"We got the last of them." While plopping the two boxes he was holding on the ground.

Strangely no one called back to him as the new apartment had a weird energy in it . Flames following behind raphe brought in the six boxes he was holding and said.

" That might be the last of it but we still can't leave it in front of the door."

He then Continued to carry the boxes deeper into the place into his two friends Erica and Eric's room.

" Yo yo this is the last of it but bro did you really need to bring all your gear ?" As flames set the boxes down and looked up to the twins he could tell there was something causing them to be on edge with one another . " whoa come on now you two said you won't fight like this after we got the squad apartment . Now it's moving day and y'all looking ~ "

"We're fine flames just ….. Give us a second ."

"Oh." Quickly looking them over he could tell that Eric was angry at something while Erica was on the fence about whatever they were talking about it . This seemed like something they would have to work out themselfs . " ok cool well me and raphe are gonna move stuff into his respected room then maybe we can set up the kitchen together ." Flames said then left them to the rest of their conversation .

As flames hit the hallway he saw raphe opening his boxes in the living room . He quickly ran over to stop him by saying

"No bro you gotta carry the boxes all the way to where they go before you open them that way it's faster to sort out. "

" I'm well aware of that flames but these boxes are really heavy so I want to lighten them." Raphe said annoyed and exhausted.

As raphe said that flames folded and lifted the four boxes he had in the living room and started down the hall .

" urrrgh so heavy !"flames said mockingly

" oh haha ." Raphe said not amused . " Help the weakling unpack will ya ?"

" yeah sure. I finished my room already and got nothing better to do . "

Raphe surprised by flames speed went down to see flames room and couldn't believe it . The furniture his parents had bought for flames was all set up . His collection of gear put away neatly . His bed made with precision and his strange gold tooth pick next to the picture of all of them at a splatfest .

"Hey come on I said I'll help not do it for you !" Flames said from down the hall.

Raphe laugh and went down to his room he wouldn't be surprised if flames was already halfway done . They then started emptying box after box laughing and joking with one another until Eric came to the door with a sour expression on his face.

"Flames we need to talk in private."

Eric then stormed off towards flames room.

Raphe not knowing what that was about said .

" you must have scuffed his gear or something . Go ahead I'll be here ."

Flames having more of a understanding walked into his room to see Eric next to fuming .

"Bro you good ?" Flames asked not understanding what would lead him to feel like this .

"Yeah I'm fine I just find it strange that you never take off your helmet." He said obviously still mad.

" that's not entirely true raphe has seen me without it ." Flames rebuttals back quickly.

"He said it was dark then amongst other stupid things ." Eric snapped

This irritated flames because raphe had shared personal feelings that night. "What is this about Eric ?" Flames said now annoyed.

"Take off your helmet flames ."He said with venom in his throat .

The room grew silent as flames pondered for an excuse.

" I rather not." He said boldly .

" then admit the truth . You're an octoling aren't you ." He said with anger and fear in his voice. His eyes barreling down on to flames.

Flames didn't say a word he had never answered this question straight which is why Eric assumes this now he has looked down to the ground as he tried to come up with something not wanting the silence to go on for too long . Before coming up with something to say eric had charged over and grabbed the helmet. When flames felt him tugging he quickly placed his hands on the helmet to keep it on his head. He and eric then started struggling against one another .

"Come on man let go of the helmet." Eric said yanking

In a panic flames had moved one hand from the helmet to around Erics neck quickly lifting him and tossing him into the wall. Eric made reached for the blaster he had with him but flames had already put the barrel of a NZAP in his face. As he looked back up to flames he saw he wasn't in a joking mood and would have killed him if he moved to quickly. Flames seeing the fear in his friends eyes knew that this wasn't going to help him and if they were to live together he was going to see him without the helmet anyway. So he lowered his weapon and started undoing the helmets straps. Eric looked up at him confused until the helmet was off then he looked at him in disgust. The obvious suckers on the outside of his tentacles and his eye mask that didn't connect confirmed his suspicions.

Erica, who had watched this from the door, quietly mumbled out. "why."

This snapped flames out of his contemplating mode as he asked.

"what?"

"Why are you here?" She said loudly afraid now pointing her dualies at him. Flames looked around the room again and saw raphe getting out his shell phone to call the authorities.

"I'm ….." Flames said pondering his next words. The weight of the silence piercing the room as flames had his head hung as low as he felt." I'm just trying to kick it." He said earnestly telling the truth.

"Don't give us that Crap." Eric said now reaching for his blaster." we know octolings always have evil plans."

" I don't have one!" Flames said while holing up his hands trying to defuse the situation. "Look I left the army a long time ago and~"

"You were a part of the octarian army?" raphe question now just as scared as the rest of the group.

Flames looked and saw the fear in his eyes. This caused a great deal of pain to flames as now all of his friends were ready to kill him.

"You guys." Flames sputtered but he came to the realization there was no way out of this so he grabbed his golden toothpick, Place it in his tentacles then said. "goodbye"

Before any of them could register what he said he quickly grabbed Eric's forearm and squeezed it in causing him to shoot flames enough to splat him. As they all realized what he did they became confused. As flames was brought back to live out of the public spawn for the apartment he quickly left knew he needed to leave his new life again. He quickly walked while holding back the emotion he felt about being discovered as he headed to cooler heads to buy a new disguise.

Sky looked over as flames made another drink while still silent . She noticed he had gotten quiet after she asked him the question earlier as if there was more to the not wanting to starve answer. As they finished the earlier morning work rush tucker Roland and Preston finally came to work. Flames being was to entranced by his thought to notice them as sky greeted them like she normally would.

" good morning guys." Sky called out in her cheery fashion.

Not paying attention to her both Roland and tucker took a seat at a table as Preston got behind the counter and walked towards flames . Flames not paying attention didn't see him as he approached him until it was too late . Preston placed a hand on flames and said .

" don't think~"

Before Preston could continue flames was snapped out of his trance and immediately flipped Preston over his shoulder onto the ground and went into a battle stance. After realizing what happened he quickly helped Preston up to his feet and went back to the drink he was making . Confused Preston then yelled .

" what the F~"

Before he could finish what he was saying the door opened and there entering was the owner . Roland and tucker being caught off guard quickly jumped up to get to work .

" oh sir we were~"

He waved his hand dismissing there words. He started remembering the good work they used to do .

"I'm bringing my son in tomorrow to start his summer and I want sky and flames to train him ." he quickly explained

The room was silent for a second until Sky questioned him.

"Wouldn't you rather have one of the superiors train him for the best results ?"

"No." He said already knowing about the questioning he was going to receive ." It's an advance baby sitting job so I rather have some one who's not doing much watching him."

He thought about his secret agenda while looking around to see if he could read what everyone was thinking. Being used to having to read people in a matter of seconds he knew that they were buying the explanation. He sighed and then thought about how she would normally calm down people after he did this. Checking the time he knew he had to leave so without a formal goodbye he walked out and just waved over his shoulder. As the boss left Roland and tucker watched threw the window as he drove off. Roland smiling then said.

"Well, I'm glad the boss don't want to put us on baby-sitting duty."

Preston still wanting to pressure flames and get information from him had to turn his focus to what Roland had just said.

"It's not entirely good old man buck is up to something."

Flames now paying attention realized that the old boss must be buck though it sounded like a nick name.

Roland looking over at Preston then asked.

"what makes you think that ?"

Preston then began retelling accounts of the past.

When I had just started here three years ago Buck senior was already losing his steam and losing it fast. The day I noticed it the most is when the big man taught me how to do the finances . As we worked in the back room I noticed he was getting a head ache or something. It was only me and him that night and I knew about the accident and how he probably wasn't doing too hot after that so I asked.

"Excuse me sir are you ok?"

He barely paid me little mind as he rubbed the temple of his head as if it was hurting.

"I'm Peachy get back to work." he snapped at me angry so I put my head down and got back to running numbers. After a couple of minutes tho he had apologized " Sorry young Preston it's just everyone has been asking me that a lot since of late with the loss of my wife and all that I just am running low on energy I guess."

Now you probably don't know much about it but his whole family was in a huge car accident on their way back from Aqua Park and normally this wouldn't be a big deal. Like his son was still synced to a spawn pad at the park so when he died he just came back like it was no problem. However back in the day Beverly was too sweet and that is what got her killed. They were both convicted of war crimes several years ago like way before they had there kid or whatever but you could still hear about it if you asked around. Any way they got caught helping an octoling and that's an automatic war crime. However since the octo was stopped before she could do anything they weren't thrown in jail but they did receive punishment in the form of they weren't able to sync to spawn pads anymore. So after they got hit they were in the hospital for a good couple of months. Old man buck he got better but his wife Beverly. Well as you can see she's not here today to hold him back anymore from being crazy so. I could tell he was going crazy cause he asked me a strange question. After I answered he never got back to work he said he wasn't feeling good and just took off for the night leaving me alone to do the work. Since then he's been coming in less and less focusing on the stocks or whatever.. It was then when old veterans started leaving because they could tell that this place was a sinking ship and they weren't down to drown with am I that's why we will destroy the competitive seen huh guys?"

Roland then cheered while tucker nodded and said.

"Just one question O fearless one. What are we going to do about a fourth ?"

"You just let me worry about that " Preston said with a cocky smile.

Flames looked at sky with an arched eyebrow. She acknowledged it but simply shrugged it off but with flames questioning her she had a question of her own.

"Preston. What was the question that the boss asked you anyway?"

Preston then rolled his eyes remembering how out of left field the question was." Simply put he asked why do I work here? At the time when I answered it was cause my dad was on my case about finding work and not relying on turf wars to support myself but now that im my own man I'll make my own decisions. Speaking of my own decisions " he thought while looking at flames.

Tucker saw what he was focused on and then said." No just leave it alone shes not much the talker and sky seems to have a handle on it."

Preston not able to make eye contact with flames because he had his back turned decided it was a good idea to listen. After a couple more minutes the trio left to practice leaving sky and flames alone yet again. Yet this time they were slow sky looked through a magazine as flames leaned against a wall. Flames being curious then asked.

"Do you know anything about that Beverly situation? Like with the war crime and all that ? "

Sky not taking her eyes off her magazine then said." I know the law and how it's not in effect after the great secret migration so you're not putting anyone at risk."

Flames wasn't surprised sky already knew his secret. The golden tooth pick wasn't a disguise and without the ability to cover his head or face he wouldn't be able to wear one without make up. However it seemed most inklings didn't have an idea what an octoling was. Hiding information from sky at this point would be hard. Flames then said.

"So the Boss would respawn if something happened to him tonight since the law is gone right?"

"No, and the inklings put in prison for the same reason aren't being released. it's something about conspiring against the state cause even though hanging out with an octoling isnt illegal, Plotting to blow up a government building is and since our "great " boss wasn't found plotting anything like that he was given already special treatment."

"Not happy about baby siting are you."

"it's not in my job description so no."

"Makes sense but don't worry I bet the kid will be twice as useful as our professional friends."

Sky chuckled." Yeah hopefully."