"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" Jason screamed.

"Doing what?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'WHAT'?!'" Jason cried as his arms burned, barely holding the knife's edge away from his face. It shakily hovered mere centimeters from his eyes. His heartbeat pounded and sweat dripped down his face. His sore knees scraped on the rough concrete floor. "AHHHH MAKE IT STOP!"

"What am I doing, exactly?"

"I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON!" Jason tightened his grip on the handle of the blade as his sweat caused it to slip more and more. No matter how hard he pulled, the knife wouldn't move from his face. His back ached from being hunched over for what felt like hours. "WHO THE SHELL EVEN ARE YOU?!"

"Is someone else here?"

Jason pulled his eyes away from the polished blade to glance around him. He was alone in the darkness. Yet the knife didn't back down and Jason wouldn't risk easing his grip.

"PLEASE! MAKE IT STOP!"

"Only you can make a difference here, Jason."

Tears flowed down Jason's face. His muscles were on fire. His throat was parched, and his lips quivered. He screamed and pulled with all his strength. Yet the blade did not move from his face, and he did not dare ease up.

Suddenly, the ground beneath him gave way, and Jason was sent tumbling down into even bleaker darkness. His senses overwhelmed, he flailed in vain, struggling to make sense of up and down.

Then he saw the ground.

Jason jolted awake in a panic, his heart racing. He felt his pyjamas clinging to his skin, drenched in sweat. He curled into a shivering ball under the sheets. He forced himself to breathe slower and clutched his chest, reassuring his body that he was still alive. The familiar sight of his messy bedroom and the sun's golden rays piercing the curtains brought him a little relief. Another nightmare was finally over.

"Damn, those are happening a lot these days."

A sudden clanging sound from outside his door followed by a hushed yelp caught Jason's attention. He shakily pulled himself out of bed. The growling in his stomach made him regret putting so much syrup on his pancakes the previous night. He then noticed that the room was unnaturally warm, which wasn't helping with the sweaty clothes. "Cod damn thermostat." He smiled at the memory of his accident on the morning of his birthday. It seemed so petty now.

After changing into fresh clothes, a grey t-shirt and blue jeans, Jason stuck his head out his bedroom door. The sunlight streaming in through the main window told him it was well into the morning. The couch in the middle of the lounge was covered in sheets, but no one was in the makeshift bed. Across the lounge, he spotted Thea in the kitchen. She didn't notice him. She was busy rummaging around the kitchen, making a bit of a racket. Her blue tentacles were tied into a messy bun behind her head, and she was wearing a loose, white singlet.

Jason watched her movements around the kitchen. She frantically switched between watching a sizzling frying pan, monitoring a boiling pot, cutting fish on a chopping board, tossing dirty utensils in the sink, and grabbing clean plates and cups from cupboards. He nearly snickered when she yelped and hissed at touching hot water from the running tap.

Jason finally walked across the room to the kitchen and cleared his throat. "Morning!" he chirped.

Thea jumped and dropped a bowl of assorted vegetables against the counter, making a loud clang. "Cod! Sorry, I didn't know you were up!" she said, very flustered.

"Sorry to scare you." Jason chuckled. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I woke up before you and decided to make us breakfast to surprise you. I was rushing to get it done before you woke up." Thea said as she began cleaning up the spilled vegetables back into the bowl. "You're always the one making me food, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's only fair since you made us dinner last night."

"When did you learn how to cook?"

"I read a cookbook in immigration and asked the kitchen there if I could try making a few recipes. They let me make a few dishes and most of them were edible."

As Thea spoke Jason noticed the pot of boiling water starting to bubble over behind her. "Woah!" He rushed over and turned the stove element off, then carefully moved the pot off the element.

"Uh…yeah. I'll need some more practice." Thea said bashfully. "And maybe some lessons from a professional."

Jason smiled, flattered. "What are you making?"

"I'm trying to make dumplings filled with fish and vegetables. The fish needs to be fried so that it's nice and crispy."

"That sounds delicious. How about I give you a hand?"

"Yes, please!"

"Ok, I'll clean up a bit in the sink to make space. You can continue preparing the vegetables and we'll leave the stove alone until we're ready." Jason said. Thea nodded and got back to work.

Jason turned around and began stacking dishes and utensils to empty the basin. He also reached over to the thermostat controls on the wall and reset it for what seemed like the thousandth time. "Did you sleep well? Normally I'm the one waking you up."

"Ha, yeah!" Thea laughed as she mixed a bowl of sauce. "Yeah, I did sleep well last night. Did you?"

"Oh, well enough." He shrugged. "Do you still get nightmares?"

Thea paused her stirring. "Actually, now that you mention it, I haven't been having any nightmares recently." She beamed.

"Oh, since when?"

"Probably around the time of the, uh…the thing, with Harry." Thea said while mixing the vegetables into the sauce.

"Oh, that's good." Jason said as the memory of his own nightmare sent a chill up his back. "I'm glad you're feeling better then."

"Mhm!"

Jason grabbed a bottle of oil and spread some of its contents onto the still-hot frying pan. Next, he carefully laid out several pieces of fish onto the pan, causing it to sizzle and pop. The air was infused with a salty aroma. His stomach growled and he felt a wave of nausea. "Ough, I think I'm still full of syrup from last night!"

"Haha, yeah! You used so much!" Thea had started pouring out the vegetable mix into a muffin tray lined with the dough for the dumplings. "And here I thought I was the one obsessed with pancakes!"

"I wasn't thinking straight. I was just so excited to see you."

"Yeah, because you're obsessed with me?" Thea smirked at him.

"W-well, I-I…" Jason blushed. He then turned to see Thea with a smug look on her face. "Oh, s-stop it!"

Thea giggled. "No, it's funny!"

"I know." Jason turned his attention back to the frying pan, laughing off his embarrassment. "B-but also, yes…obviously."

"Mhm!" Thea hummed smugly.

Once Jason was satisfied the fish wouldn't fall apart inside the dumplings, he pulled the pan off the glowing element and over to where Thea had prepared the dumplings. He used a pair of tongs to pick the fish off the pan and carefully place a piece into each dumpling, between the vegetables. "You didn't mind going back to a couch for a bed?" he asked.

Thea grabbed two small containers of seasoning and lightly sprinkled each dumpling with salt and spices as Jason continued along each row and column. "No. It's less comfortable than the bed I had at immigration, but I like your couch all the same."

After the dumplings were filled, the two cephalopods started folding the dumplings into shape, twisting the ends of the dough at the top. "Perhaps we should get you a proper bed." Jason mused.

"It's fine, Jason!" Thea laughed. "You don't need to spend so much on me. Besides, we'd have no space to put it, unless we got rid of the couch."

Once the dumplings were all prepared, Jason hauled the tray over to the simmering pot of water and used the tongs to carefully drop each dumpling in. Thea followed up by sprinkling some more seasoning into the pot.

"Then maybe we should get a bedroom." Jason put a glass lid over the top. "I won't allow you to sleep on the couch forever." He said with a cheeky smile. The two of them stepped back and leaned back on the counter to admire their handiwork.

"Should only take a few minutes before they're ready." Thea said, taking note of the time on the clock hanging on the wall.

Jason smiled and breathed a sigh of contentment. "So, Thea, today is a new day. Your first day of true freedom. What do you want to do with it?"

Thea thought about it for a moment. "Maybe we could do some turf wars. We used to have a lot of fun doing that, and it's been weeks since I've swam in any ink.

Jason didn't reply at first. He nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh…I don't know if I want to."

"Why not? I thought you loved turf wars." Thea glanced at the scar on Jason's arm. "Are you still in pain?"

"Oh, no it's not that." Jason moved his arm around a bit to show it had indeed healed. "It's just been a while since I've even held my blaster. I don't think I'd be any good."

"It's not about winning, though. I just thought it would be fun. But, we don't have to do it if you don't want to."

Jason bit his lip as he thought about it some more. "No. We should go do some turf wars."

"Do you really want to?"

Jason sighed. "Not really. But you shouldn't have to do it alone. Besides, it'll be good exercise. Heck, we might even meet some people we haven't seen in a long-"

Jason was cut off by the sound of his phone ringing on the counter. He snatched it up to check who was interrupting their talk. He sighed when he saw the name of the caller.

Thea leaned in to see as well, then saw the reason for Jason's frown. "You still haven't talked to him?"

Jason hesitated to answer. "No." He tapped the big red circle to decline the call. Then he scrolled through the new messages he had received that morning.

"Hey! I saw the news about the trial! Congratulations! Can I call you?"

"Im so happy for you btw!"

"Let me know when ur free to chat k?"

"Jason-" Thea began.

Jason put his phone on silent and stuffed it in his pant pocket. "I-I'm not ready yet." He said, looking away.

"It's been months. You need to talk to him." Thea pleaded. "You can't let it go on like this. He's your best friend."

"Was…my best friend." Jason sighed. He stared out the window at the busy city beneath the clear, blue sky. "I'm not sure I want to see him again."

"Why not? Things have changed."

"Yeah, things have changed, Thea. We've changed." Jason scoffed. "But Sam doesn't change."

Jason hung his head and ran his fingers through his messy morning tentacles. "I've been friends with him for so long now, I don't even remember a time where I didn't know that cheeky basstard. But I feel like I've moved on. I know he didn't mean to hurt us, but he did. And he'd do it again because that's who he is. And I'm not sure I want to hang around with that kind of a person anymore."

Thea turned her eyes down. "Well…I would still like to see him."

Jason looked back at Thea. In the three months that he had ignored Sam, he hadn't considered that Thea might want to talk to one of her only other friends on this side of the border. Of course, she didn't have a way of contacting him. Jason suddenly felt guilty and stupid for not realizing it sooner.

"U-uh, I'm sorry. Maybe you can use my phone to call him later." Jason said.

"Ok." Thea nodded, not looking in his direction.

Jason watched the steam condensing on the glass lid of the boiling pot as he thought of a new conversation topic. "How's your Inkling writing going?"

"Good, good actually." She pushed herself off the counter and walked around to the small table in front of her couch, where she had dumped her belongings the night before. She snatched up a piece of folded paper and made her way back to Jason, failing to hide a big smile. "Take a look." She stretched over the counter to hold the paper in Jason's face.

Jason raised an eyebrow and accepted the slightly crumpled paper presented before him. Before he even unfolded the paper, he saw it was covered in writing. Short words like "love", "kindness", "happy", "sky", "friends" and many other pleasant words were all randomly scattered around the page in different orientations. All the blank spaces were filled with sketches of simple shapes like squares, stars, circles, squiggly lines, and hearts. Then Jason noticed something about the words.

"You learned calligraphy?" he asked, surprised.

"Recently, yeah." Thea beamed, "I can write more complicated things in regular font, but I wanted to learn how to link the letters like you."

Jason nodded. "This does look pretty good. Nice and clean strokes." He unfolded the page to see the inside. More handwriting and doodles, but he froze when he saw what was written in the middle of the page. "No way…"

Thea's face bore a huge smirk with pride. "Yeah, way."

There in the middle of the page, written in Jason's own handwriting, was the phrase: "Don't give up, Thea! I believe in you!"

Jason's jaw dropped. "You've kept this…ever since my birthday?"

"Yup. It was my motivation to practice." Thea said, still beaming with pride. "At first, I just wanted to know what you had written, but then I wanted to surprise you with a reply."

"A reply?" Jason mumbled as he scanned the page again. Then he noticed the small font underneath his own writing.

"Thank you for believing in me, Jason. I love you."

Jason's heart fluttered "Awww, thanks!" He scanned the whole page once again. "Wow, you've improved a lot. A few months ago you thought it was impossible."

"Yeah, it was hard going at first. I used to hate it, but the more I was able to read and write, the more I wanted to do it. Now I kind of enjoy it."

Jason snapped his finger as an idea came to light. "Maybe if you keep practicing, you could write books!"

"Oh, no I don't think I could do that!" Thea chuckled shyly.

"Oh, sure you could! You could start off with something simple, like a children's book." Jason said, excitedly. "Maybe you could write about your experiences underground. I'm sure lots of people would find that interest-" Jason cut himself off when he saw Thea staring into space rubbing her finger on her chin. "Ah…maybe not. I-I'm sorry-"

"No, no. It's fine. It's just that's actually not a bad idea." Thea mused.

"Huh?"

"Writing about what was going on underground…It might be a good way of raising awareness." Thea said excitedly. Jason could almost hear the cogs turning in her head. "Now that the government is going to shut down the facility, we might have a lot of new kids who want to immigrate to this side of the border. Maybe your people here would like to know about what really happened to us back there."

"Uh, yeah." Jason contemplated, relieved that Thea liked his idea. "You might have to wait until the government releases information about it to the public before you can, but you've still got a lot to learn first."

"Yeah." Thea sighed. "I'll have to work really hard to get better at writing. Would you be willing to help me?"

"Of course, you can count on me to help you!" Jason crossed his arms and puffed out his chest. "I'm no Inkling language scholar, but I'm sure if we work together we can do it!" Jason stuck his hand out for a handshake. "Deal?"

Thea smiled and shook his hand. "Deal."

"Then it looks like we've figured out what you'll do now with your freedom."

"Ha!" Thea threw her head back. "Ok, but now what are you going to do?"

"Hmm." Jason hummed as he gazed into the steam rising from the pot on the stove. "I need to think about that. I've spent the last few years of my life just cruising, taking each day as it comes, with no real plans for the future. But you've shown me how to strive for more out of life, so I need to figure out what I want to do."

Thea slowly moved toward Jason. "Well, how about I stay here and watch the dumplings…" She stopped once their faces were just a few inches away from meeting. Jason's face turned beet red again. They were both transfixed on each other's eyes. "While you go think it over," Thea wrinkled her nose. "in the shower."

Jason's eyes widened as he realized that he still stunk like sweat. "Heh, heh." he nervously chuckled. "Yeah, I'll go do that."

"Great!" Thea smiled smugly.

Jason started to move toward the bathroom, but before he could step away, Thea gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Jason froze momentarily in bewilderment, before continuing on, looking back at her with stars in his eyes, and she did the same.

A colorful mixture of sounds filled the air at Blackbelly Skatepark. The sounds of ink splatting against walls and the floor. Bombs exploding and spreading color in all directions. Excited yelling and teamwork.

"Thea! Charger, up there!" Jason called out to the Octoling running behind him.

"Ok, cover me!" Thea nodded and dived into the yellow ink to swim towards the tower in the middle of the turf arena.

Jason's head swiveled at the sound of blaster fire. He whipped out an autobomb and threw it in the direction of the hidden enemy. The bomb activated as it hit the ground and casually walked towards the Inkling submerged in the pink ink, forcing him out of cover. Jason timed his own blaster shot perfectly and a moment after he had pulled the trigger, the enemy was caught in an inkplosion.

Thea leapt out of the ink and sprayed the wall of the central tower yellow with her splattershot. She caught a glimpse of the charger's targeting laser sweeping towards her unsuspecting teammate out in the open. "Mac, charger!"

Mac's pointy ears perked at Thea's call out and he whipped his brella canopy around just in time to deflect the charger's shot from above. "Thanks!" He grunted as the force of the shot sent him off balance slightly. Satisfied that her teammate could handle himself, Thea dived into the ink again to begin climbing the tower.

Jason swam over to Mac to back him up, narrowly evading a splash of ink thrown by the enemy's roller user. Mac opened fire on the roller as Jason inked the ground behind them to make up lost turf.

Thea made it to the top of the tower and leapt into the air with her weapon poised to send the charger back to their spawn. The charger had anticipated her move however, and had leapt off the tower towards their base leaving a trap behind. Thea barely had time to react before a splat bomb blew up in her face, showering her in pink ink and knocking her back off the tower. She transformed into her octopus form and plopped into her team's ink at the base of the tower, relieved that the bomb hadn't splatted her. Then the enemy roller rolled right over her, sending her back to the spawn point.

"Agh, clamnit!" Mac swore. The roller-wielding Inkling continued spreading pink ink behind it, faster than Mac could re-ink turf and chase him down. "Hey, can one of you take care of this guy?! He just took out Mia!"

"Thea!" Jason corrected him. He ducked as a stingray beam narrowly missed his head.

"Right, sorry!" Mac yelled back just at the stingray beam swept in his direction. He deployed his brella canopy to block the stream of ink, but not before taking a hit to his chest.

"YAAAAAARRRRRR!"

All heads turned towards the origin of the blood-curdling battle cry.

"EAT THIS!" Lisa screamed as she revved her spattling gun from her perch on the outskirts of the stage. The roller's little turfing spree was quickly put to an end as Lisa unloaded the gun's charge into him. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!" She raised her splatting above her head in triumph. Her victory pose was short-lived however, as inkjet rounds raining from above sent her back to her spawn too.

Jason regrouped with Mac after seeing he had survived the stingray attack. "Let's move up to reach the sniper's new position! I have my own inkjet ready to go!" Mac gave a simple nod with a devious grin. Jason equipped his inkjet, and a stream of ink propelled him into the sky, ready to rain ink and mild terror down on any unsuspecting cephalopods. Together, they started making their way into enemy turf.

Back at the yellow team's spawn base, Thea had been inking uncovered ground to charge up her special ability. She turned her attention to the respawn pad when she heard Lisa arrive. "Welcome back!"

"Woooooo! Did you just see me end that roller's whole career?!" Lisa fist pumped repeatedly as she bounded over to Thea.

"No, I didn't sorry!" Thea laughed at the giddy Inkling's passion.

"Ah, well. I avenged you anyway." Lisa waved her hand in dismissal. She looked around their team's spawn. "Great coverage here, girl, but let's go back up the boys!"

"Ok!" Thea nodded.

As the two girls set off, painting over enemy ink as they went, the boys were struggling to push into the pink team's side of the stage. Jason was keeping the pink team at bay with his blaster's ranged shots while Mac provided cover with his brella canopy. Their advance into enemy turf was slow going as neither of them had the ink coverage to give them room to move around. They were restricted to taking cover and fending off attacks from all sides.

"Ok, this push is going badly!" Mac yelled.

"Yeah!" Jason grunted as he hurled an autobomb over the top of the wall he was pressed up against. He spun his head around at the sound of a sudden, loud horn. It rang out across the whole skatepark. There was only a minute left on the clock. "Maybe we should jump back to spawn, meet up with the others and try again."

"Hold on!" Mac yelled. He inked the wall next to Jason and swam up the side. At the top, he leapt out of the ink to splat the blaster user who had dodged Jason's autobomb. He dived back down into the ink at Jason's feet and leaned against the wall with him. He wiped the pink ink off of his face. "Let's just wait until the girls get here. If we can keep these guys here, they won't be able to stop our backup."

"Ok!" Jason nodded, but then a frown grew on his face. "Over there! The roller's getting through!"

"Ah, squit! Not again!" Mac took off after the breach in their defense, holding his brella up to deflect incoming fire.

Jason moved out of cover in the opposite direction, hoping to draw some attention away from Mac. A stream of ink whistled by his face and he barely had time to catch a glimpse of the sniper in his perch before another shot hit him square in his chest. Fortunately, the shot was not fully charged, and Jason dove back into his ink. He leapt from puddle to puddle of yellow ink, trying to shake the sniper's laser pointer, but he was quickly running out of room to move. "Now would be a great time for some backup guys!"

As Jason narrowly dodged sniper shots and frantically tried to ink a path out of the hot zone, he failed to notice the sniper had driven him into a corner. "Clamnit!" Jason cursed as he hit an un-inkable wall. There was no way out. He watched the sniper's laser pointer pan across the ground toward him and braced to be splatted.

Suddenly, Jason felt the ink at his feet start to creep up his legs and then his torso. Before even a second had passed the ink had completely covered his body. It rapidly hardened, forming a protective shell that encased him. The sniper's high-powered stream of ink bounced off the armor surrounding Jason. The armor shattered as the energy in the shot was absorbed, but Jason was still in the fight.

"YAAAAAARRRHAHAHAHA!"

Jason looked up to see Lisa slowly approaching the sniper's perch. Her own ink armor glowed brightly and her splattling spewed out yellow ink onto the sniper. Her maniacal laughter at the sight of seeing her enemy return to spawn rang out across the battlefield.

"Jason!"

Jason spun around to see another armored teammate rushing in his direction. As they drew near their ink armor faded revealing Thea's beaming face.

Jason couldn't help but laugh. "Cut it a bit close on activating that armor, huh?!"

"Just in time, though!" Thea winked.

"Hey, quit yapp'n!" Mac yelled from the platform above them. "We're in their base and the clock's ticking! It's now or never!"

Realizing how little time was left, Jason and Thea sprang back into action. Thea focused on spreading ink over enemy turf with her rapid-fire splatershot, while Jason backed her up by keeping the opposition at bay with his longer-ranged blaster.

Hearts beat faster and muscles fueled by adrenaline worked overtime as both teams scrambled to cover the most ground in their own color. Sniper shots whizzed past heads, ink bombs rolled along the ground before detonating, and missiles blasted color in every direction. In true Inkopolis fashion, it was the definition of chaos.

"10…9…8…7" a voice counted down over loudspeakers.

"Jason, break left!" Lisa barked.

Without hesitation, Jason dived to his left and into the ink, narrowly missing an exploding blaster pellet. He swam behind cover and popped out to return fire with his own blaster.

"6…5…4…

Thea spotted Mac getting splashed by the roller's spray. She took off to retake the ground the roller had spread over.

"3…2…1…"

"Come on!" Jason shouted. He wound his arm back before swinging it forward, launching a last-second bomb.

A shrill whistle rang out across the skatepark. The competition was over. All the participants' weapons were deactivated. The air became deafeningly silent save for the sounds of frantic panting and the splatters of the last few timed ink bombs. It was time for the results.

…

The lobby doors glided open and the victorious team yellow waltzed out into the bright, noonday day sun, shining down on Inkopolis Square. There was excitement, celebration, and laughter on every member's face as they walked shoulder to shoulder towards the seating area in the middle of the square.

"Holy squit, that was the craziest one yet!" Jason exclaimed as he wiped sweat from his tentacles.

"Did you see Thea's face when that bomb exploded in her face?!" Lisa wheezed. The rest of them laughed harder.

"At least I saved it with a pretty good dive off the tower!" Thea fist pumped.

"Yeah!" Jason pipped in. "Right into a roller!"

Thea's face flushed. "Oh, that happened? I forgot!"

"Ok, ok, but Jason's face..." Mac gasped for air. "…when the sniper's laser was between his eyes takes the cake!" He made a goofy, shocked expression in front of them. The rest nearly doubled over in laughter.

"Lisa, when you were taking on the sniper…" Jason struggled to breathe as well. "I didn't know you could make a face like that!"

"Ha ha, yeah!" Mac's eyes lit up. "You looked like the Exterminator! Aaahhhhuuuuggggaaaa!" He mimicked Lisa slowly walking forward with a whirring splattling gun. "Splat! You've just been…exterminated!" he said in a deep voice.

Lisa giggled. "I've been working on my impression. It makes me feel more powerful on the battlefield."

The four teens found an empty table and plopped down in their seats around it, sighing in unison, relieved to finally be sitting down after hours of games. "Oh boy, I've missed this." Jason said. "It's great to finally get some exercise. Need to work off the instant noodles."

"I knew you would like it!" Thea said, playfully swinging her feet under the table.

The square was alive with activity as teens and young adults stood or sat around to discuss turf war tactics, shop for clothes and gear, and relax in the bright warm weather. Jason looked over at Mac and Lisa. "Thanks so much for joining us, guys. It's been great to hang out with you again.

"Yeah!" Thea agreed.

"It's been a pleasure, my dudes." Mac stretched his balled fist out across the table and fist-bumped both Jason and Thea. "We'd be happy to have you on our team anytime."

"Yeah, you guys are really fun and are good teammates." Lisa said. "I'd love to try out as an official team with all of us in the leagues."

Jason's nose wrinkled. "Oh…"

Thea's brow furrowed in confusion. "What are the leagues?"

"That's where things get serious!" Lisa said, leaning forward with wide eyes.

Mac leaned back in his chair. "That's where the pros play and where the real money is made!"

"Yeah, but you have to have really tough skin." Jason said with a frown. "I've played against pros in regular turf war and they're frustrating to play against. I get splatted so much that it feels like they're always cheating! I've lost my cool with those guys so many times that I've lost count." Lisa and Mac shared a knowing glance.

"If we make an official team, do we get a cool name?" Thea asked.

"Huh?" Jason looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah! We get to register a team name and get matching badges!" Lisa said with growing excitement.

Mac raised his finger. "And we can buy matching hats with our names on them!"

"Ooooh!" Thea bounced in her seat a little.

"Thea." Jason said. "Are you sure you want to try taking on the leagues? The competition is fierce, and we might not win many games."

"I know." Thea said nonchalantly. "But as long as I'm with you guys, it will be fun. We don't have to win any games to have a good time."

Jason stared at Thea for a few seconds. Her wide eyes gazed back into his own with wonder and excitement. He couldn't stop a smile from forming. "Alright. I'm willing to give it a shot."

"Ok, great!" Lisa quickly threw her hands in the air. "We need a team name!"

"Hmm…" Jason rubbed his chin in thought. Mac leaned even farther back in his chair. Thea lowered her head, racking her brain for an idea.

"Oooh!" Jason raised a finger. "'Loose Anchor'?"

"Maybe…" Lisa nodded, staring into space. "But how does 'Fresh Freaky Friends' sound?"

"Ehhh…" everyone murmured.

"'Sucker Punch'?" Thea posited.

"I like that one." Lisa said.

"Heh heh." Thea chuckled. "Jason should have experience with those already."

"Hey!" Jason smiled smugly at her and shook his head. "I'd rather not." Another few seconds of silence passed as they all brainstormed.

Mac snapped his fingers and leaned forward with his elbows on the table. "How about…" The others leaned in too. "Fish 'n' Ships?" The other three looked at him with deadpan expressions. Mac threw his hands up. "What?"

Lisa face palmed. "Ok, maybe we can leave the name for later. And you just reminded me, I'm starving! What are we going to do for lunch?"

"I'm feeling like something from Crusty Sean's." Mac said.

"Yeah, same." Lisa shrugged. She got up and stretched her arms out.

Thea looked at Jason, expectantly.

What?" he asked.

"Do you want pancakes?"

"Ohhhh…" Jason groaned. "I don't think I could even look at another pancake for a week." He said patting his stomach. Thea giggled at him. "Yeah, a box of loaded fries for me and Thea, please. I'll give you the cash."

Jason stuck his hands in his pockets to grab his wallet and phone. He opened his wallet and shook out some coins to hand over to Lisa. "Thanks!" Mac stood up and together he and Lisa made their way to the food truck.

Jason turned on his phone for the first time in hours and was greeted by a dozen messages and missed call notifications on the home screen. At first, he was confused. No one had messaged and called him that obsessively before. Then he read who the sender was and instinctively stood up.

"What?" Thea stood up too to look at the screen. "Oh."

It was Kepton.

Jason hesitated for a moment before he turned around. "Umm…I need to make a call." He began walking quickly away from the table. He tapped the icon to turn his phone off silent mode, then began reading each message and dismissing each notification. "Ah!" He only made it a few steps before bumping into someone's back and nearly toppling them both to the ground.

"Ah! Hey!" the girl Jason had run into yelled. She steadied herself and pushed Jason off her.

"Oh my cod, I'm s-so sorry!" Jason regained his balance but noticed that had dropped his phone. He looked down at his feet to try to find it. "I'm sorry, I was just busy-"

"Hey, wait a minute…"

Jason looked up to see a strangely familiar, and very irritated Inkling girl. Her friends, a small group of Inkling and Octoling girls stood up from their table behind her to see what the commotion was. Jason squinted at the girl's face, trying to remember if he had seen her before.

The girl gasped. "It's you!" She pointed her finger in Jason's face.

"What?"

"You're the dumbass with the note on his back!"

"Huh?" Jason muttered in utter confusion and embarrassment as the girl and her friends also recognised him and started snickering and giggling.

"Cod it's been ages since we've seen you!" the girl made out between laughter. "And-Ha ha! And where's your little date at?"

"Jason, what's going on?"

Jason turned around to see Thea approaching. "I-I don't…know?"

The girls, now seeing Thea, broke into even louder laughter. Around the square heads started turning towards them.

Jason sighed as he finally recognised these annoying girls and their irritating giggles from the day he met Thea. He began glancing around the ground to find his phone. After a few seconds, he saw it on the ground next to the feet of the girl he had bumped into. He took a step forward and reached out toward it. "Um, excuse me."

The girl followed Jason's gaze and crouched down and picked up his phone before he could. She turned it around in her hand a few times, pretending to inspect it. "This yours?"

"Uh, yeah. Can I just-" Jason stepped forward again and reached for the phone but the girl pulled it out of his reach.

"Nuh uh uh! Where are your manners?" she said, the inflection of her voice rising as if she were talking to a child. The other girls in her group laughed again.

Jason was taken aback by their mockery. In his mind, these girls had upgraded from being annoying to just plain awful girls. He took a step back as the girls laughed at their prey. He looked around him at the faces of strangers at nearby tables staring at him. His face was turning red from embarrassment and from the frustration building in his chest.

Jason felt a hand gently grab his shoulder. It was Thea. She moved closer to his ear. "You don't have to take this, Jason." she whispered.

Jason looked again at the mocking girls. A few of them had brought out their phones to film him again.

"Don't let them get to you." Thea said.

Jason looked at her and nodded. "I'm cool. I'm cool." He stepped toward the girls again.

Jason closed his eyes, sighed, clenched his fists and teeth, and cleared his throat. "Give back my phone." he said in the most commanding tone he could muster, which in reality, wasn't very intimidating. The girl holding his phone raised an eyebrow as if expecting him to beg for his phone. Jason furrowed his brow and put his hand out with an open palm. "Now."

The girl scoffed, disappointed that Jason wasn't playing along. "Fine, whatever." She stepped forward and placed the phone in his hand, but before stepping away, she flicked her hand up Jason's face, bumping his nose on the way up. As soon as the sense of mild pain reached Jason's brain, it flipped a switch in his head and all the frustration that was building up inside him boiled over.

"Hey!" Before the girl could pull her arm away from his face, Jason swung his free hand around and shoved her away.

"Ow!" the girl yelped. She stared at Jason in disbelief. Jason angrily stared back at her for a moment before turning around to walk away.

Suddenly, Jason felt his leg collapse as the girl kicked him in the back of his knee with her boot. "AHHH!" Jason fell against a table and then to the ground, gripping his leg and sucking air through his teeth.

"Jason!" Thea cried. She crouched down at his side and checked if he was ok. Several people at the tables around them stood up.

"You monster!" the girl spat loudly, vying for the crowd's attention. She held her hand close to her chest, pretending to be hurt. "Oh, my cod! Assaulting a girl is such a creep thing to do!" Jason looked up at her, tears welling in his eyes. "I knew you were a perv! I bet you lure in little girls with that meek demeanour…like her!" she said, pointing at Thea. Thea glared back at her with a gaze that could shoot daggers.

"B-b-but you're just a low-life-" The girl paused, struggling to think of something smart to say. "B-basshole!"

"Yeah, you tell him, Macey!" one of the girls in the friend group cheered. The other girls cheered as well. Jason started to get up and Thea helped him up onto his feet. His breathing was quickening, and he clenched his firsts.

The girl, whose name was apparently Macey, continued. "What? You having a cry, little boy?" She cackled. Jason's mind clouded over as his emotions took control. He glared at the horrible girl through blurry tears.

"What are you going to do? Hit me? Hit me like the scumbag you are?"

Jason took a step toward Macey and raised his fist.

"Jason, No!" Thea grabbed his other arm and stopped him from going further.

"Hey!" "Whoa, whoa!" Two Inkling boys moved from their tables and grabbed Jason's raised arm and shirt, holding him back. "Chill out dude!" Jason struggled against them, growling through his teeth.

"Oh my cod, you actually went there!" Macey snickered. "I am so going to report you! My dad knows a cop so you are totally going to jail, you freak!" The girls laughed even more.

As the girls had their petty laugh, Jason started to calm down. He let himself be pulled back, and shook off the hands holding him. He wiped his face, grunted loudly then turned around to walk away. "Yeah, run away, punk! You got no balls!" the girls mocked.

"Go creep elsewhere!"

"You're weak!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

Suddenly, a fist connected with Macey's face, knocking her to the ground. The laughter immediately stopped. Some of the girls backed off and some of them bent down to check on her. Macey looked up to see Thea towering over her, teeth bared, and fists clenched.

"What the fuck is your problem?!" Thea screamed at the girl on the ground. The two Inklings who had stopped Jason moved toward Thea. More people in the square stood up and moved closer to see what was going on. "You have no idea what you're fucking talking about!"

Jason was at a loss. "Thea…"

"You have no idea what he's gone through because of me!" Thea continued to berate Macey, who looked up at her in shock. "Jason is the most kind, most sincere, and most loving person I've ever known, and you have no right to treat him that way!"

Mac and Lisa pushed through the bodies blocking the view of the situation, takeout boxes in hand. "Hey, what the shell is going on here?!" Lisa demanded.

Thea ignored her and continued, "Don't you ever touch Jason again, or I will knock your motherfucking lights out!

Macey slowly pushed herself up to her feet. Her friends tried to help her, but she brushed them off. She stood eye to eye with Thea. They both glared daggers at each other. A small trickle of blood dribbled from Macey's quickly reddening nose.

Thea lowered her voice. "Now, we're going to make a phone call and enjoy our lunch, and you're going to leave us alone!"

Thea turned on her heel and stormed away toward a wide-eyed Jason. "Come on. Let's get out of here." she said once she reached him and continued walking. Jason started walking with her but took one last look at the girls. Macey glared after them for a bit. She wiped her bloody nose with the back of her hand, then stormed off in the other direction with her group in tow.

Thea walked toward one of the Squares exits. Jason quickly caught up and walked alongside her. "Thea...wha…what was that?"

"I don't know." Thea growled without taking her eyes off the pavement in front of her. She rubbed the aching hand she had punched Macey with. She shook her head and arms in an effort to shake off the frustration building up inside of her.

Jason continued to stare at her. "A-and what was that word you used?"

"Huh?" Thea took her eyes off the ground to look at Jason. "Oh. T-that's just an Octarian curse word. I've always wanted to say it." she said with a mischievous smile.

"Oh." Jason said. "Thanks for standing up for me. You didn't have to do that."

Thea sighed. "Yeah, well…I did. I lost my cool." She sighed deeply, still trying to shake the frustration out of her. "I did exactly what I told you not to do."

"Huh." Jason huffed. "Well, then I guess that makes two of us that need to work on anger management."

"Mhm."

The two of them were nearing the exit of the square onto the street. Thea stopped in her tracks and put her face in her hands. "Cod, I've probably just got us in a lot of trouble! I just punched someone and screamed at them!"

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that too much." said a voice from behind them. Jason and Thea turned to see Lisa and Mac had caught up with them. Lisa continued, "We know those girls. I don't think they'll ever bother you again, and they don't have the guts to report you."

"Yeah, and we also know a lot of the guys that were there." Mac said. "We had a quick chat with them just now and got the whole story. I know they won't snitch, and even if someone asked, they would just say you were just defending yourself. Oh! Also, here's your food!" He held out the small cardboard box of hot, salty fries.

"O-oh, thanks!" Thea took the fries from Mac. "Uh…you guys seem to know a lot of people who come to the square here."

"Ah! Well, you're not the only ones we've suggested going into the leagues with." Lisa said with a smirk and a wink.

"Huh?" Thea tilted her head to the side. Jason also gave her a confused look.

"Your aim is good, girl, but you've got a long way to go if you want to stay on our team for longer than the last two numbnuts we had." Lisa said. She took a long sip of her soft drink through a straw. It made a loud slurping sound that lasted for an uncomfortably long time. Finally, she stopped drinking and sighed loudly after swallowing. "So, practice hard and don't stop learning."

"Yeah, and believe in yourself!" Mac chimed in, putting a hand on Jason's shoulder. "We know you'll do great, even if we don't win a single game on any given day. Both of you!" He gave Jason a big smile. Jason smiled back but eyed him with suspicion.

"Have I…played against you guys before?"

Mac rolled his eyes and rocked his head from side to side. "Ah, well, now you mention it, I do seem to recall a pouty kid throwing a tantrum after one of our matches and then…Y'know…getting a note pinned to his back and then getting teased by some girls."

Jason's jaw hung agape. "No way…"

"Way." Lisa flashed a toothy smirk at him. "Inkopolis is smaller than you'd think." She locked eyes with Thea. "And getting smaller by the day."

Jason slowly shook his head in disbelief and smiled. "Thanks a lot, guys. We won't let you down...Or at least we'll try our best."

"That's great to hear!" Mac fist-bumped Jason and Thea. "And don't worry, we'll teach you all our training routines and tricks of the game."

"Yeah! If you thought we kicked your butt, after some time with us…" A devious smile spread across Lisa's face. She rubbed her palms together. "Oh ho ho ho! We're going to make some kids cry!" She then snapped back to a cheerful attitude. "But we'll have lots of fun!"

"And we get matching hats, right?!" Thea asked.

"Yes!" Lisa matched her enthusiasm.

"Nice! Ok, now we-" Mac began, but he was interrupted by a phone ringing.

"Kepton! Oh, shoot!" Jason patted down his pockets.

"Here!" Thea retrieved the ringing phone from her pocket. "You dropped it when you fell."

Jason took his phone from her. "Ah, thanks!" He quickly accepted the call and was immediately met by the sound of a commotion. "Hello, Kepton?"

"Jason! Where the shell have you been?!" Kepton yelled over the ruckus of a kitchen working in overdrive.

Jason winced, thinking he was in trouble. "I-I'm sorry, sir. I had my phone on silent, so I missed your calls. I didn't think you needed me to work today."

"Yeah, that was the plan! Until the paparazzi showed up!"

"What do you mean, sir?" Jason asked, growing worried. The reply did not come for a few seconds.

"What? No, tell him I'm busy!" Kepton said to someone in the background. "Yes, because I really am!" More silence. "I don't know! Just tell them fifteen minutes or something! Oh, and tell Valarie we need her back in the kitchen!" Kepton returned his attention to the phone. "I'm sorry, Jason, it's a circus over here."

"W-what's going on over there?" Jason asked him. He and Thea exchanged a concerned look.

"Business is booming, that's what! The media are breathing down my neck over here and we can't serve all these new customers fast enough!" Kepton exclaimed, although he didn't sound very enthused about it. "Is Thea with you?"

"Uh yeah, she's right here." Jason quickly put the phone on speaker so the others could listen in. Kepton didn't reply. "Hello?"

"Excuse me…hey, you can't be in here!" Kepton yelled at someone in the background. "Yes, I'll be with you eventually! I have a dozen other people to tend to!" Kepton returned his attention to the phone again. "Ok, look. I need you both over here pronto. Most of these journalists want to see you, Jason."

"Wait," Jason was surprised. "They want to see…me?"

"Yeah! Apparently, you're the new talk of the town. Everyone wants to write a story about the brave kid who took down a serial killer! And now we have more customers than ever!"

Thea's eyes lit up. "Does that mean you're famous?"

Jason took a moment to process the idea of being sought after for an interview. "Uh…yeah, I guess it does…Wow." He said, bewildered more than excited.

"Hey! Congrats, dude!" Mac lightly punched Jason's shoulder. "Be sure to put in a good word for me, yeah?" Lisa punched Mac slightly harder in the stomach, causing him to double over, but he grinned at her smugly.

"Yes, yes. You're famous. That's great, but are you two on your way yet?" Kepton said. He sounded irritated.

Jason shook his head to bring his thoughts back to the present. "We're coming now, sir."

"Great. I'll do my best to keep the media preoccupied when you show up so you can get to work undistract-" A loud clang and splashing sound came over the line followed by loud jeers from the kitchen staff. "Oh, dear. I'll see you later."

"See you soon, sir." Jason said, barely containing his laughter.

"Oh, and Jason, Thea?" Kepton said quickly.

"Yeah?" Jason and Thea replied simultaneously.

"It's good to have you guys back. We've missed you."

Jason couldn't help but smile. "Same here, sir."

Thea leaned into the phone a little more. "Thank you, sir."

Jason ended the call and stuffed his phone back in his pocket. He sighed. "Hmm, guess the time for fun and games is over. Sorry about that."

Thea shrugged. "That's ok. I had a good time."

"So did we." Lisa said. "Thanks for hanging out with us."

Mac nodded his head in agreement. "Next time we'll strategize for the league games and think up a good team name."

Jason gave him a thumbs up. "Sounds great, thanks. We'll meet up with you sometime in the next week then?"

"You bet!" Mac shot finger guns at Jason and Thea before turning on his heel to leave.

"Good luck with work, guys!" Lisa said as she followed Mac.

"Bye!" Thea waved Mac and Lisa off, and they waved back.

Jason and Thea started to make their way toward the square exit again, munching down on delicious salty fries from the box Thea held. Thea examined the long, rectangular, and golden slice of deep-fried and salted potato. "I've never seen them made like this before."

"Mmm?" Jason hummed with his mouth full of mash.

"Ours were round…and more pale." She popped the fry in her mouth to savour the taste. "Sweeter too."

"Do you not like these?" Jason asked, worried he had bought the wrong food for her taste.

"No, it's not bad, just…different." Thea said. She held the box out for Jason.

Jason grabbed a handful of fries and inspected them himself. They just looked like normal fries to him. He tried to imagine seeing them for the first time. "Huh…different." he mused before he stuffed them in his mouth to savour their salty flavour.

The two of them walked along the busy streets of Inkopolis as they ate. Humming cars passed by and pedestrians walked by them to their own destinations. Jason's gaze switched from the boring grey pavement in front of him to the beautiful girl walking alongside him. Her gaze wandered all over as she internalized every new thing she had not yet seen. Colourful graffiti on red brick walls, a crane lifting equipment at a nearby construction site, or motorcyclists driving past in black, leather outfits. Eventually, Thea's eyes landed on Jason again and she noticed he had been staring. "What?"

Jason snapped his head forwards again and his face flushed a little from being caught staring. "Just been thinking."

"About what?" Thea smiled and probed him further.

"Well…when I first met you, I thought we were a world apart. I'm a boy, you're a girl. I have ten limbs, you have 8 limbs. My suckers are inside my tentacles, yours are on the outside. I have pointy ears, yours are round." Jason grabbed the last fry from the box that Thea held out for him. "Even your freaking fries are round!" Thea giggled at him.

Jason continued, "I've lived my entire life knowing nothing but the open sky, a big city with lots of people freely walking around, and my boring job at the diner. I knew that talking to girls was hard and that your people looked and sounded strange. Then you showed up and made me completely reconsider how I see the world and your people."

Thea looked at Jason quizzically but kept a smile on her face. "That so?"

"Yeah, I think so." Jason said. "The more time I've spent with you the more I've forgotten that you're even from a different species. It just…doesn't even enter my mind when I'm with you. A-and like forming a team for the league games! I wouldn't've ever dreamed of doing that before, especially with a girl on the team. I've always just been so scared of trying new things and making new friends." Jason shook his head at the thought of how naive he used to be.

"But now I see that the differences between people are only little differences. Things like our physical appearances, what food we eat, what clothes we wear, what we like to do for fun or where we come from. Those little differences just don't really matter."

Thea listened to Jason intently and nodded along to what he was saying. "I think that what truly matters are the things we have in common. We're all just people. We're all just trying to make it through this crazy life. We all want friends and family and fun. We all want love. We have struggles and have bad things happen to us. We all get mistreated by other people. We all have our high and low points. We actually have a lot more in common than differences. So now I don't see the little differences as a bad thing. Actually, I think life would be quite boring if everyone was exactly the same."

Jason shook his head. "Sorry, I've been rambling! That probably sounded pretty dumb!"

Thea threw her head back in laughter. "No, no! That was really good!" She gently grabbed Jason's hand and interlocked her fingers with his, causing him to blush, and smiled proudly at him. "And I'm glad you're able to see the differences between us." Jason awkwardly smiled back as they walked hand in hand.

As the two rounded a final street corner and the Nautical Diner came into view, they froze in their tracks. The front of the restaurant was swarmed by customers lined up at the entrance and news crews with microphones and cameras. A few news vans were parked in front of the building. Through the windows, the two teens could see that there was chaos inside as the understaffed establishment worked overtime to serve the hoard of customers and fend off the nosy reporters threatening to disrupt operations.

"Oh, not again." Jason groaned, reminded of the events that transpired outside the courthouse the previous day.

"That's a lot of people." A wide-eyed Thea stated bluntly.

"Uh-huh." Jason nodded. "I don't think we'll get through there in one piece.

Thea rubbed her chin in thought for a moment before snapping her fingers. "We can get in through the back alleyway!" Still holding Jason's hand, she began to tug him in the direction of the alley. "Come on! You can stay in the kitchen, and I'll wait tables and make sure no one bothers you!"

Jason saw the excitement in Thea's bright sapphire eyes and couldn't help but laugh. "O-ok. Let's get to work!"

So, the two teens took off running hand in hand. Having surpassed their greatest obstacles and adversaries these past few months, a small mob of customers was nothing they couldn't handle.

And although one was a squid from the land of bright blue skies, and the other an octopus from deep below ground, they ran together for the same reasons. For all the little differences that threatened to separate them could not make up for all the great commonalities they shared.

THE END.

Wow. We finally made it.

This silly little story I started when I was a bored teenager with some time to kill is finally over. And my god it's finally finished. Wow.

It has been a wild ride getting this done. I wish you guys could see how much I've been through and changed over these last four years. I also wish I could know how much all of you have changed.

I'm actually having a hard time figuring out what I should say here. It feels so surreal to have finally done it. To finally put that little "Completed" tag on this thing. I've been thinking about this story and these characters every day for four years straight. Planning, writing, and re-writing, and hating myself for not getting it done sooner. God, I feel like such a horrible person for making you wait this long for the conclusion.

To this day I still wonder why so many people took an interest in my stupid little story. I've received so many messages of support from people who love it and I'm always delighted to see that I've made someone's day slightly better. I hope that a least a few of them have stuck around to see it end, however unlikely that is.

I want to thank you all so much for reading this story all the way to the end, even if it took me forever to get there myself. You have no idea how much it means to me that someone out there cares about what I care about. Thank you for your time reading and for your words of encouragement when I was feeling like I would never be able to do this.

Now, about the future...As you can probably guess, this is not the end of Jason and Thea's story. There are still a lot of questions you might have. Like, what was really going on in that underground facility Thea escaped from and how did she get out anyway? Or like, what will happen between Jason and Sam now that their friendship has been shaken? Or why is Jason the one getting nightmares now?

Well, I'm going to get to that, but I will save that for its own dedicated chapter that will be released after this one. That's just so that people who don't care about all that can just get this chapter earlier and then move on with their life. Basically, my torment is not over. I will have to continue to think about this story every day until god knows when. And I know that reading that there is more to come may make your eyes roll as you think to yourself that "Ugh, he's going to leave us hanging for years again!" Trust me, the thought terrifies me even more.

For everyone who doesn't care to stick around to wait for my sorry ass, I want to thank you again for at least reading this far. I will forever be glad that you took the time to read my little story.

For everyone else (those who want to see where TLD goes from here), I encourage you to make sure you're following this story, or my profile so you get notified when an additional chapter is published. It will explain a lot of things. I expect it to be up within two weeks but don't count on my track record for that.

I'm also planning an event on my Discord server in the near future. It will be about the future of TLD with lots of behind-the-scenes goodies. I'm finally revealing a lot of stuff I've been working on behind the scenes that I haven't been able to share in these short author's notes. We'll also be having some non-TLD-related fun and you'll be able to chat with me and fellow TLD fans. Shoot me a private message and I'll be able to provide you a link to join us.

Once again, thank you for reading this far. I really appreciate it. This experience has literally changed my life.

Until next time,

Dashanerocket.