Chapter 3

Rome had that dream again.

That dream of being in a city's crowd but being stuck in place. Watching thousands of folks pass him by. It wasn't a city he recognized, and most paid no attention, but others had things to say to him, in weird, distorted voices.

"Join us!" Some would say.

"You don't fit in!" Others would proclaim.

"Traitor!" Some accused.

The last one always changed the scenery. No longer was the city vibrant and colourful under a clear blue sky. Every time the accusation was heard, the buildings became drab and in disrepair, the sky became blotted out by fog, and the entire crowd changed to familiar Octarian faces, jeering loudly at him. Faintly at first, but every accusation made them louder and louder, more of them turning on him.

And just like every dream before, once it got too loud he'd try to move, try to escape, but solid barriers would trap him in place, bombarding his eyes with threats in glowing red text. He kept bashing against the barriers to no avail, the threats burning into his eyes and into his brain, the jeers rising into deafening screams until suddenly everything went black and silent.

But only for a moment.

"YOU CAN'T HIDE FOREVER!" Someone, or something, screamed with the intensity of a thousand Killer Wails.

And then he awoke with a jolt.

The nightmare had happened so many times over the past six months that it no longer woke him to a cold sweat and his own screams, but he followed the same routine he had established since it became a recurring event.

First, pat himself down. Make sure he was still in one piece. Check.

Second, turn on a light and make sure he was in the same place he'd fallen asleep in. His phone's flashlight sufficed, and he was still in his room, clean, orderly and sparsely decorated as it was. Check.

Third, get out of bed and make sure everything else was as it should be. The front door was still closed, and nothing had been taken. But there was still a light in Adelaide's room.

Silently nudging the slightly ajar door further, he slunk in to see her seated atop her bed, head resting on her raised knees, conked out in a deep sleep to the faint glow of her laptop screen.

'Movie night'. Rome thought. She sometimes fell asleep watching silly movies with Geneva, and that seemed to be the case tonight.

He reached up and closed the screen, which caused the lights in the stubby little hands of her zapfish plush to glow ever so faintly.

It seemed to make her happy despite still being fast asleep, since she smiled and made a quiet giggle, hugging the plush closer to her chest. Hard to believe she was 16, she carried herself with so much youthful energy and innocence.

A faint smile crept across Rome's face. Her habits were endearing, her energy was seemingly boundless, and she cheerful in the face of so many adversities life threw at her. Truly, he was happy to have her in his life.

'Don't get too close.' He warned himself. 'Don't forget. She doesn't know anything about you. And you're not supposed to stay for long.'

His smile faded after that. He took an empty wrapper from her side and went to throw it away, leaving her to sleep in peace.

Everything else was as it should be. Check.

He didn't get much more sleep, but he must have dozed off at some point, since both he and Adelaide woke up later than usual. And nothing got the alarm bell ringing more than the prospect of Adelaide attempting to use the coffee kettle.

Fortunately for them both, she hadn't gotten her hand on it, nor on much else but a can of ginger ale and her trusty N-ZAP, so well-loved it even had her bite marks on everything from the barrel to the stock. How it still passed inspection was a minor miracle.

"Morning!" She called in a typically chipper mood.

He raised a hand slightly in greeting, making his way to the kettle. After he'd remarked that the terminal entrance in the Battle Lobby looked like a coffee kettle, Adelaide had slapped a battle sticker on theirs. At least it didn't break the appliance.

"It's Friday, which means qualifiers are tomorrow!" Adelaide continued. "Come on, you have to be a little excited by that!"

The Octoling boy reached for his usual mug and a blend of coffee. He was looking forward to another battle, but it was hard to get excited for an open qualifier, given the format and the kinds of teams he'd likely be fighting.

"You're playing N-ZAP?" He asked.

Adelaide nodded. "Geneva and I talked a little about it last night, she said I should go full support to better match my playstyle."

"Mm?"

Adelaide laughed and shrugged. "You know me, I'm a painter and my aim is better with throws than guns. Better to play to my strengths than do something different."

"Suction bombs are good kit."

"Yeah, I really should have been using them more, huh?" Adelaide admitted sheepishly. Sheepishly. What even was a sheep and were they always self-conscious and embarrassed?

"Always helps being less reliant on your main." Rome agreed. "More options."

"More opportunities to yeet stuff too!" She added, her choice of word making Rome groan deep inside. That word had been spat out by that infernal fax machine and he wished that word had stayed 12,000 years in the past where it belonged. Adelaide said it every time she threw anything, from trash to bombs to the giant Ultra Stamp.

"Wanna practice support, then? Dallas should be available." He offered her as the kettle chimed, its coffee waiting to be poured out. And it was like someone had poured coffee into Adelaide as well, because she lit up with excitement.

"Yeah I do!" She grinned, practically jumping in place. "What better way to spend the day?"

Rome took a cautious sip of his morning brew, mulling that question over. There was probably better people to practice with, but Adelaide already had her heart set and he didn't want to crush her expectations now.

Her influence over him was too strong. Just like his coffee. He just hoped he never left a bitter taste for her.

"Okay, your teammates are respawning, and I've got you pinned down."

Rome leapt into the air, tilted his borrowed Flingza Roller sideways, and swung it in an overhead arc, sending a volley of green ink in Adelaide's direction, twenty or so feet away. The other Octoling, hiding behind cover out of his view, was boxed in by all the opposing ink, all that green rapidly eating away at the lake of pink around her.
She leapt out right as Rome launched another vertical swing, throwing the canned Tacticooler towards the middle of the arena, and getting tagged with a splash of ink in the process.
"Yeet!" She shouted, the 'Cooler decompressing and popping up to full height, playing a cheerful little jingle as its four packaged beverages were ready to be instantly consumed.

"Wrong!" She also shouted at her own placement.

Rome paused, stopping his follow up move. "Specifically what?" He questioned, already identifying all of her mistakes.

"I broke cover and set it too far forward!" She pouted, stomping her foot and trying to wipe ink off her visor, her two-tone Tentatek Tandem shirt, and her Hunter Hi-tops.

"Did you have ink?"

"Not enough for a suction bomb! I was out!"

Rome shook his head. That last point wasn't a mistake, it wouldn't have been worthwhile to recover ink if the opponent was charging fast. Her other two observations were correct, and both were big mistakes in the middle of combat.

It was hard to explain them to her, though. He wished Dallas was here, he talked to her better, not to mention also needed the practice. But he wasn't answering his phone, so there was nothing for it but to keep practicing instead.

"Let's give this another shot." He advised, clicking a button on his rental equipment. Not much could be seen with the naked eyes, but that button released a swarm of airborne microbes that swallowed up the ink splattered over the floor almost instantly.

Adelaide hoisted her N-Zap once again and started spraying ink, painting the floors of the practice room under the Ammo Knights store, charging up her special with relative ease. Once she close to full charge, Rome started to pressure her, using his roller to throw as much ink her way as possible.

Adelaide morphed into her octopus form, and darted to cover through her ink. This time, she threw not the cooler but a large, cylindrical container mounted on a suction cup, lobbied right at Rome, forcing him to dart sideways out of its explosive range. Then, while he wasn't looking, she threw the tacticooler back towards her base, in the path of her theoretical teammates, to the tune of another successfully placed dispenser.

The suction bomb went off, and as Rome turned back to catch eyes on her, he got a face full of pink paint as she charged at him, getting two shots in before stopping abruptly.

"Oops!" She apologized, lowering her shooter. "Was just trying to get close, didn't mean to hit you."

Rome wiped some of the ink off with one swipe of the hand, then just smirked at her.

"Don't apologize, that was good." He responded. She had forced him to take cover and then gave chase. Good move.

He paused and eyeballed the distance between them before further commenting. "At this range, you could probably splat me before I get a flick in, or at least trade. Not bad."

"Yay, I did a thing!" She cheered, both fists raised in the air. Her delight was infectious, matching the big toothy grin on her face.

"You sure did." Rome agreed, before clapping his hands together once with authority. "Now, let's keep practicing."

Adelaide picked up techniques pretty quickly. But her problems were the same as ever. Rome kept reflecting on those as he jotted down notes.

The horseshoe crab who ran the store, Sheldon, only let new and returning customers use the training room for 15 minutes at a time without advance notice, which made sense for business. The only problem was that chatterbox could easily absorb half that time going over the rules and spilling out weapon data that went over everyone's head.
Rome always wondered how he did it. That crab could outtalk Adelaide, and she already could be a handful when she got going.

'Nevermind.' He thought, focusing back on his notebook, leaning against a bollard near the general store. Masked up and wearing a padded Barazushi Anorak, he definitely looked out of place on a bright and hot day, but the heat and curious looks never really got to him.

Back to Adelaide. She was a smarter fighter than she let on. Her throwing arm was great, she liked to try attacking from different angles, and she had no fear.
That last advantage was also a disadvantage, since she didn't always have the instinct to fall back if she was about to be overwhelmed. And annoyingly, that was her most consistent characteristic, because for every successful play she did, there was an unsuccessful one, and she caught tunnel vision way too easily.

After listing everything down, he switched out his pen for a bright red one, and wrote a final note 'Protect on the field' under everything else. Numbers always made a difference in a 4 versus 4 match, keeping Adelaide safe could make all the difference.

'Keep her safe.' He repeated to himself, before a sudden memory hit him, a memory of being hit not in the turf sense, but in the very physical one.

He shook his head, blotting out any further detail. No. The past would not catch up to him, not while he was conscious at least.

He looked over to the split set of stairs leading up to the Battle Tower's front lobby, just an empty intersection away from him. Inklings, Octolings and jellyfish all hung around this popular social spot throughout the day. Watching matches, partaking in the daily rotations (aside from the jellyfish), and just catching up with friends or showing off for onlookers. He could spot Adelaide among the crowd, cheerfully talking with a tired, teal-haired Inkling and a somewhat confused blue-haired Octoling, probably talking about how silly Rollers were and why she liked using them so much. That was his guess at least, since the Inkling just looked more and more tired the longer Adelaide kept talking.

Rome closed his notebook and tucked it into his jacket pocket. Tomorrow was going to be a challenge, but if he did his part and kept his friends on the field, they'd be fine. Worst case scenario, Geneva could carry the team and lead them to the next round.

'She's too hotheaded in battle, though.' He counter-argued inside his own head. 'You should lead, like you did in your past.'

"No." He refused, shutting down more memories before he could dwell on them. Leading was something he wouldn't do again, not even for Adelaide. And she had told him the same, that he had the traits of one.

But she didn't know what had happened the last time someone trusted him to lead, nor did he ever want her to. That, she was better off not knowing.

From the distance, she turned to him and waved, big toothy grin and all. That got him to stop dwelling. It was a sunny day with a sunny friend calling out, a time to relax instead of worry.

'Don't overthink. Even if you don't stick around for much longer, enjoy the time you have.'