Chapter 3:

What to do? What to do? Leo thought as he watched Squidtube videos on his phone.

Leo was still sitting around, when he got a notice from the academy he'd be going to. It read 'Welcome back, or welcome to Coral Academy. We are hosting an event this Saturday for all inklings coming to take a tour and meet new friends.'

"So I know what I should do, but it is four days away," Leo mumbled.

Leo tapped the notification, bringing him to the school's page. Leo tapped the resources tab, seeing that there was a chatroom for new inklings coming.

Leo didn't like socializing, but he was a kid who would want to get it done with as soon as possible. He pressed the button, seeing a long list of posts.

'Hi,' Leo said, his full name, Leo Herring, came next to the message.

''sup,' came a reply from Ryan Burns.

'Hi!' was another reply from Ashley Burns. Leo figured from the amount of exclamation marks that she was energetic.

'what are you guys up to?' Leo asked.

'Ashley and I were about to go do a turf war, wanna come with?' Ryan replied.

Leo was surprised, these kids were outgoing, 'uh… sure…'

'Meet you in front of Inkopolis Tower, 15 min from now.' Ashley replied.

Leo looked at her message and then noticed right underneath that there were messages saying they'd left the chatroom.

Grabbing his splattershot jr., starting gear, and his inktank, Leo ran out the door.

Leo ran out from the alley into the plaza. He didn't take any chances with getting caught in anything shady.

Two inklings were sitting on a bench in the back of the plaza, near the train station. Their faces matched their profile pics.

"Ryan and Ashley?" Leo asked walking up to them, wiping sweat from his cheeks.

"Leo?" Ashley asked.

"Yeah."

"Nice to meet you," she reached out he hand and Leo shook it.

"Always nice to meet new friend," Ryan stated as he got off the bench.

"Soooo," Ashley trailed off, "We have three people. Play with a rando or call another friend?

"Rando?" Leo asked.

"Someone we don't know. We usually can make friends with them. Or Ashley scares them away," Ryan answered, "She's a bit hyperactive."

Ashley playfully punched Ryan in his arm.

"I say we call Minky, it'll be her first match and we haven't seen her in a while," Ashley declared, pulling out her phone.

"It's my first match too," Leo stated.

"Perfect, we can show you the ropes," Ryan spoke as Ashley called Minky.

"Okay. Okay. Meet you there. See ya," Ashley said into the phone as she talked to Minky.

Ashley slid her phone into her pocket, "She'll meet us in the lobby in about 5 minutes."

They walked into the green tower and headed to the changing rooms.

Leo walked out with the headband on, his basic tee, and the cream basics. He was wielding his Jr. two handed, one hand on the trigger, the other holding the gun up. His inktank was tight on his back like a backpack with a tube connecting it to the jr. He saw a girl, probably about 58 inches and had abnormally short light blue tentacles.

"Hey? Are you Minky?" Leo asked the girl.

"Yeah," Minky replied, straightening her glasses.

A minutes, Ryan walked out, holding a splat roller. Ashley then appeared, holding a tentatek splattershot. Minky stumbled out, the inktank was seemingly too heavy for her. She held her splattershot jr. at her side with one hand, the other trying to get the ink tank strap to stay on her shoulders. Ashley ran over and slid the strap over Minky's shoulder and tightened it.

"Thanks," Minky said quietly.

"Ryan and Ashley will be out soon, they're changing," Leo told Minky as she walked to the changing rooms.

Leo looked at the screens showing the maps, Camp Triggerfish and Ancho-V Games.

Ryan walked up beside him, "Haven't played these two yet. Wanna stick together? Cover each other's back."

Leo nodded, "and you can teach me how to play."

"Pull the trigger, cover the ground in your color, simple as that."

"Yup!" Ashley exclaimed, pulling Minky behind her.

An opposing team walked in, they had an E-Liter 3k scope, two jet squelchers, and a splattershot pro.

"Ready to lose?" The leader, the one with the splattersot pro, said in a strangely kind manner.

Ashley was about to lose it, she hated jerks like him, but Ryan spoke instead, "Doesn't matter if we lose, we're new after all."

Ashley took a deep breath and calmed down as the warp pads activated. They jumped in as squids and were transported to Camp Triggerfish. The large screen where Judd was sitting showed them appearing and the opponents appearing.

Minky whispered, "They all have long range and slow weapons, get close up and splat them quickly."

"Kay," Leo replied as a whistle blew.

Leo ran down the map, spreading his lime green ink, heading for the middle. Ryan was rolling behind him, covering parts he missed. As Leo arrived at the middle, the E-Liter climbed up on the wall to snipe him. He heard a ding as the charge was ready. Purple ink shot at Leo was he dived out of the way. He tried to run but another ding from the E-Liter came and a light was on him. Within a second Leo was splatted.

Ryan ran up behind Leo as he exploded into purple ink. He tried to flick his roller at the charger, not even bothering to think about his lack of range. Ryan panicked and accidentally threw a suction bomb. The charger exploded in lime green as the bomb blew up. Ryan let out a breath, thankful that he pressed the sub weapon button.

Bing. Bing. Bing. Came from behind Ryan. A holographic circle appeared as Leo superjumped to Ryan.

"Let's go!" Leo exclaimed as he ran towards the enemy's gates.

Meanwhile Ashley and Minky were trying to cover up the large area to the left of their spawn. As they finished they noticed Leo reappearing in the spawnpoint, frantically tapping his splatwatch to superjump. Minky and Ashley covered the wall at the end of the small alley that overlooked the middle.

A purple inkling with a jet squelcher took the place of the charger. The two other purple inklings were running down the lane, spraying their ink.

"Stand back Minky!" Ashley exclaimed with a smirk as she active her inkzooka.

Ashley shot the squelcher perched on the wall. Ashley launched another shot at the two inklings on the ground as the recoil launched her off the wall. Ashley looked at her watch, one name popped up then another.

Minky swam up the wall and jumped onto the middle path across the opponent's side. She swam as fast as she could onto the grate and threw a splatbomb. The splattershot pro user jumped back in surprise, but not far enough. Minky smiled, showing her fangs as he blew up into lime green.

Ashley jumped down, looking at the clock on the larger screen. 2 minutes left.

Hi guys. I hope you've had a good week/day or will have a good day/week. Thanks for reading. I wanted to get this up so I'll be a two part chapter. Second part will finish off the first battle.

Again, Thanks for reading!