Orange had an incredibly day at the Octarian Festival. After trying his hand at a few carnival game stalls, he gave up (saying they were rigged and arguing with the game operator to try and convince Blue he was right until the operator played the game and did perfectly) and got some food. All of the different sights and smells overwhelmed Orange and Blue, who eventually decided to try everything. Immediately once they finished off their food, Callie and Marie announced, over the big TV screen in the plaza, that the turf wars were beginning right then, and Orange and Blue headed over to the Team Chargers line. Though not strictly using chargers, most of the weapons on the team relied more on high damage and lower fire rates, with blasters to cover more turf. Orange personally had his trusty Splatterscope. He had once gotten a 15 game winning streak with it, (just ask Blue, he had heard the story enough times to recite in word for word), while Blue had a Luna Blaster.
Meanwhile, over in the other line, the two friends spotted quite a few rollers. The freshest inklings had Dynamo Rollers, while others had the lighter and quicker Carbon Roller, or a high fire-rate shooter like the Aerospray MG. Searching through the line, Orange didn't see too many people he knew, but was somewhat outraged to see one of his classmates who had promised to be on Team Chargers holding a shiny new Aerospray RG. "I'm going to get you, Pink," he said through gritted teeth, referring to the girl who always ended up being his rival in everything. The smirk on Pink's face as she walked into the lobby seemed to show she had heard Orange's comment, and, knowing their past experiences facing each other in turf wars, doubted she would lose.
Unfortunately for Orange's ego, though perhaps fortunately for his success, he didn't end up in a match with Pink the whole day. With awards planned at 8:00, Orange began fearing he wouldn't get to defeat his rival and her team. Between each match, he checked the clock in the lobby, growing more and more worried and the time ticked past 7:15, then 7:30, all the way to the final battles at 7:56. Scanning the opponent's player list desperately before the match, he was overjoyed to see Pink on the other team. Finally, he though. I can show her I'm the freshest Inkling at school! By now he was on another 15 match win streak, and he wasn't about to let one annoying Inkling get in the way of a new personal record.
The maps for the day were Kelp Dome and Blackbelly Skatepark, with him currently standing in the former. With a lot of rolling terrain that you couldn't walk up, Orange was at a disadvantage at first as opposed to the inklings with shooter type weapons, who could ink the walls, swim up them, and get to the action quickly. However, once Orange made it to the center of the stage, he planned to put himself in the best position possible, at the top of the tall, main tower. From there he could ink the turf around him, as well as shoot any members of the opposing team trying to invade his team's side of the arena. It had worked well previously, and Orange couldn't see any way this time would be different.
"READY?!" echoed the loud mechanical countdown. "GO!" Quickly charging up his weapon, Orange fired a straight shot close to the base of the nearest wall. Several other inklings, one with a Blaster and one with a Kelp Splat Charger, swam through the trail, then up the wall in the ink from one shot by the inkling with the Blaster. A clear path all the way to the main area now created, Orange zoomed in it past a female inkling with a Luna Blaster like Blue's inking the area around their base. A charged shot by Orange made it possible for him to climb the tower's side, and he was pleased to find he had gained that area first. As all of the members of the other team had either been splatted and sent back to spawn by his teammates already or were covering ground around their base, Orange set to work covering the ground and tops of platforms around him with his team's lime green colored ink. Most of the turf around the tower had already been covered by his teammates, so Orange jumped off of the tower for a few seconds to search into the other team's purple ink, looking for somebody to shoot.
After blasting a path into Team Rollers' territory, Orange saw some darting movement out of the corner of his eye. He whipped around and started charging his Splatterscope, letting spray a long stream of ink. He heard a loud sound, and a little ghostly squid rose out of the ink. "Yes! Direct hi-!" Orange clapped a hand over his mouth, not wanting to give away his position by yelling. But it was too late to take back his exclamation. Orange fled the area, swimming as fast as he could in his own ink, just ahead of an inkling wielding a Dynamo Roller. Finally, he made it up the tower and peered through the scope attached to his weapon to locate his tormentor, but they had already fled, robbing him of the chance to splat them.
A quick glance at the display floating high above the arena revealed that only 30 seconds remained in the battle. 30 seconds?! But I've only splatted one person! Orange thought incredulously. The map next to the timer displayed an incredibly close contest. A path of purple ink was making its way down one of the side pathways. I'll go deal with that. Swimming in an older path already in place, Orange closed in on the opponent he had spotted on the map. He was pleased to see that Pink was going to be his victim. Standing up and hiding behind a corner, Orange charged his trusty Splatterscope up, then jumped out and fired. Yet somehow, Pink wasn't there! Where could she be?
"Looking for me?" Pink's voice taunted from a few feet behind Orange. He quickly tried turning into a squid to escape through the path he had taken earlier, but found he was stuck in a puddle of purple ink! He leaped as far as he could, exiting the purple ink for his own color, But before he could land, he got a face full of ink and poofed out of the competition.
With a feeling of dread in his stomach, Orange watched the map as he waited to respawn. Pink kept pushing on into green ink, claiming the turf for his team. After the required five second wait time to re-enter the competition, Orange started making for the area newly taken by Pink. I'm going to make it! I'll be able to get that turf back! He was only a few feet from Pink and the purple ink when the game-ending buzzer sounded. NOOOO! Orange's mental shout of anguish was so intense, he got a headache just thinking it. Dejected, Orange meandered to the judging area, while Pink skipped happily next to him. The members of Team Chargers, all feeling significantly better than Orange, lined up on Judd's right side, while Team Rollers were on his left. Studying the large electronic map sitting before them, though, Orange drew some happiness from his team member's efforts. They had managed to claim the middle area, and even push close to the Team Rollers base. If there can be a 50/50 split, Orange observed to himself, this would be it.
Judd held up two flags, one colored lime green, the other a deep, royal purple. To build suspense, he spun them in his hands, around and around each other, until the colors seemed to blend together. "And the winner is…" Judd announced in a meow that all inklings learned to understand, "the purple team!" Judd dropped the green flag and swung the purple flag to his left, at Team Rollers. "Congratulations!" Orange studied the map, which now displayed that the purple team claimed just 1% more turf than the green team. Orange looked up and surveyed the arena, thinking that if only he had stopped Pink, he could have been the hero to his team. When Orange looked back down to his teammates, he found he was receiving a lot of angry stares. He didn't know why, they couldn't have known I didn't stop Pink, until he looked back to the screen.
What?! I barely got 100 points?! Orange wondered how this could be. He always was the best, yet there he was, sitting at the very bottom of his teams point list. Then a realization dawned on him. I was too focused on trying to get Pink to claim any turf! He was angry with Pink, angry with Team Rollers, but most of all, angry with himself.