Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“And in other news, today marks the 42nd day that the Great Zapfish has gone missing. Local authorities are still in confusion over how such a large fish could disappear without any witnesses. City leaders have told CZLA that if the Zapfish is not recovered soon, they may be forced to close regional turf wars from the lack of power. Any citizens with information is urged to contact the police tip line.”

The inkling woman walking into the living room sighed. “For heaven’s sake, you’d think they would have found the Zapfish by now. The thing is the size of a skyscraper!” she said, looking exasperated as she flung herself onto the couch.

Her husband looked over at her and turned the volume down “Honey, I’m sure they’ll find it soon. You know the citizens won’t take well to the turf wars being cancelled. If the officials want to be reelected they’ll have to find it.”

Sudden movement and a pressure on his leg made him look down to see one of his daughters hugging his leg tightly, looking as if she were about to cry. She had gotten up off the floor from where she and her twin sister had been playing. She was not yet fully developed for an inkling. She had a hominoid shape and could stand on two feet, but her charcoal black ink had not yet fully retreated from her skin. It seemed that her parent's conversation had frightened her.

“Oh Ella sweetie, don’t worry!” her mother soothed, pulling her up onto the couch and hugging her. “Everything will be okay even if they don’t find the Great Zapfish.”

That only seemed to scare her more, as tears poured from her eyes. “B-b-but wh-hat if the pow-wer g-g-goes out f-for g-good,” she sobbed, and hugged her mother even tighter.

“There are plenty of mini zapfish to keep the power going. Even if the turf wars have to be cancelled, we’ll still be okay,” her father reassured her, scooting over on the couch so he could rub her back.

Ella’s twin sister, Kris, jumped up off the floor . “Yeah! I saw one at school! It was all bright and glowy, and it was the cuuuutest thing I ever saw! I wanted to hug it!” Her arms mimed hugging the little zapfish. Her sister actually giggled through her tears.

“Kris…” her mother warned, “You know how dangerous that is.”

Kris pouted, “I know. I said I wanted to not that I was actually going to try.”

“Yes, well you better keep your word, or your going to be grounded until your twenty,” her mother replied. She looked up on the clock hanging above the television “Now off to bed you two. You two have things to do in the morning.”

“But I don’t wanna! I wanna stay up late and watch TV with you,” Kris protested. Ella, on the other hand, got up and headed towards the hallway, stopped only by her mother, who kissed her on the cheek and wiped away the last of her tears. She left Kris to battle it out alone with her parents.

“Don’t you want to be big and strong when you get older so you can win some turf wars?” her father asked.

“Yeah! Yeah! Just like big sis!” Kris shouted, bouncing around again.

“Well then you need to get proper rest to be just as good as your sister,” he replied.

Kris knew she’d been tricked and with a disgruntled, “Alright…” trudged down the hallway after her twin sister.

They both changed into their nightgowns and straightened their hair before heading to their shared room. Being identical twins, the only difference in their appearance was their hairstyle. Kris wore her hair in pigtails, which suited her bubbly and childish nature. Ella, on the other hand, liked hers short, making her look shyer and more serious than her twin.

As they brushed their teeth, Kris made funny faces in the mirror, trying to make her sister laugh. Most nights she succeeded and would cause her sister to spit toothpaste all over the mirror, warning a lecture from their mother. But tonight, Ella barely seemed to notice what Kris was doing. Her thoughts had returned to the Great Zapfish.

Kris fell asleep rather quickly that night, but Ella did not. She tossed and turned trying to get comfortable. She tried counting, deep breathing, and listening to music, but nothing could stop her thoughts from returning to the Great Zapfish. What would happen to the city if it wasn’t found? Would school close? Would her family have to move to another city? She really didn’t want any of those things to happen.

Finally, she got up from her bed. She had worked herself up into such a state that only one thing could calm her down. Grabbing her blanket and her squid plushy, she quietly snuck down the hallway. She really didn’t want to be caught. Her mother would only lecture her about being a big girl now and send her back to her room. After a couple tense moments sneaking past the living room, she reached the door at the end of the hall.

“Addie?” she whispered softly, pushing open the door. The room on the other side on the other side was very bright and full of color. The walls were a sky blue, and a large pastel pink rug lay over the wood floor. There was a desk covered with notebooks and a bookshelf on the wall that shared the door. Squid Sister and Chirpy Chirp posters lined the walls. In one corner lay a huge roller and an aerospray gun. And on a bed facing opposite of the desk, lay the person Ella most wanted to see at that moment.

The girl, Addie, looked up from her phone to see her little sister staring at her from the door. Ella was in tears again, with one hand on the doorknob and the other clutching her plushy close to her. Addie was older than her younger sisters by two years and was already a fully matured inkling. She had long black colored hair that she currently had twisted into a braid. She too had inherited her family’s black ink color. However, due to her age, her ink had fully retreated to her hair line. “What’s up Ella?” she asked, patting a spot on the bed next to her.

Ella ran over to her, nearly tripping on her blanket. Jumping on the bed, she hugged her sister tightly and tried to explain her worries through the tears.

“W-w-what i-if it d-doesn’t c-come b-back and we have to m-move?” she sobbed.

Addie patted her head before getting up to close the door so her mother couldn’t hear them talking. “Ella, please don’t worry so much. I promise the Great Zapfish will be back soon. And even if we move, we’ll still all be together.”

“B-but n-nobody even knows where it is.”

“Ella, I know some people who are looking, and I promise you that the Great Zapfish will be back before the summer is even over.”

“P-promise?” Ella asked. She had stopped crying now, and she was beginning to look a little more hopeful.

“I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die.” She replied, making Ella smile.

“Thanks Addie. Can I sleep with you tonight? You always make me feel better,” she asked hopefully.

Addie was unable to resists her younger sister's bright hopeful eyes. “Okay, but don’t tell mom. You know she doesn’t like it when I let you.”

“Promise,” she said smiling. She was already starting to feel drowsy after all the tears. And being with Addie always made her feel more at peace. It wasn’t long before she was asleep.

Addie got up carefully to turn off the lights and get herself ready for bed. Looking over, she saw that Ella had transformed into her squid form, like many young inklings did at night before fully developing. When she climbed into bed, she pulled Ella closer to snuggle.

Before going to sleep, Addie pulled out her phone again and sent a message to someone.

“How much longer until we find them?” she messaged.

The response back was quick. Agent 2 must not have been too busy.

“Soon. Maybe a few days.”

Addie put her phone down and looked at Ella’s calm squid form.

Soon. she thought before she too fell asleep.

Chapter Text

“Hurry up you two!” came a call from the living room, “We’re going to be late!”

Loud thudding came down the hallway as Kris bounded towards her mother’s voice, nearly running into Ella at the end of the hall.

“Hey!” Ella yelled indignantly and staggered out of the way. She nearly fell over trying to steady herself.

“Sorry!” yelled Kris over her shoulder, but she did not stop to see if Ella was okay. She was too eager to head out. Ella sighed and muttered under her breath before pulling on her remaining shoe and following her sister out the door.

As soon as they had reached the front door, their mother hurried them out and slammed the door to the house behind them. The summer heat bore down on the three of them as they half-ran to the bus stop on the corner. They stood sweating before the bus pulled up moments later. Their mother payed for their tickets and hurried to a set of seats in the back. The bus pulled out onto the street with a groan and began to head deeper into Inkopolis.
“I can’t wait until you two get approved to use inkline and super jump transportation. It takes so much time to get anywhere by bus,” their mother said, fanning herself with her hand and pulling out her phone to check the time. “Looks like we’re just barely going to make it to your appointments.”

Kris stared excitedly out the window. Besides school and the occasional errand with their mother, the twins rarely got to see the rest of the vast city. She oohed and ahhed at all the colorful buildings and the newest clothing shops she saw, her nose pressed almost against the glass. Ella, on the other hand, was staring gloomily at the dirty bus floor. She didn’t seem to be interested in the people on the bus or at the sites passing by the window. She was lost in thought and filled with anxiety. This was the day she had dreading for weeks.

Two whole years had passed since Great Zapfish had disappeared and just as mysteriously reappeared in Inkopolis Plaza. And those two whole years had led the twins to one of the most important days in any young inkling’s life, their fourteen-year-old checkup. If the doctor determined that they were fully matured, the two would be allowed to participate in turf wars.

Although many a young inkling would like to challenge this rule, it had been decided long ago by an expert team of doctors and scientists who had researched inkling development. Turf wars required a lot of stamina, dexterity, and transformative skills, so to be able to participate without hurting oneself, an inkling needed to reach a certain point of development. After careful studies, it was determined that that age was around fourteen for most inklings. In response, the government had passed laws many decades ago restricting underage participation, and these had been fairly effective since turf wars were government run. Only those who had approved by a physician and had met the age requirement would be issued a pass to participate.

Kris, of course, had been waiting for this day for years. Ever since Addie had started playing turf wars two years ago, she had wanted to play too, going as far as to plead with her older sister to teach her. However, Ella was nervous. She really wasn’t a squid who enjoyed running around outside, and she was terrified of getting splatted. Everyone she knew had told her it didn’t really hurt, but she wasn’t so sure. And despite her protests, her mother still insisted that she would participate. “Turf wars are good for your physical and social development,” she would say and the matter would be considered settled.

After fifteen minutes the bus reached a stop not far from the school the twins attended, and the three of them bustled off and into a small brick office building. They climbed the stairs to the third floor and entered an office with a sign that read “Inkopolis Pediatrics.”

“You two go take a seat, I’ll get you signed in,” their mother said, walking up to the front desk.

Kris lead Ella over to some chairs with a pile of magazines next to them. She began shuffling through them until she reached one with a title that read, “Tae-kyu: The Next Inkling Heart Throb?” She flipped eagerly to that article and began to read. Ella sat next to her and glanced around the familiar office, trying to find something to distract her. She’d been here many a time as a young child both as a patient and to visit her mother, who was a doctor here. It was still bright and cheerful as always, with the same pictures of bright cartoon characters hanging on the wall and nostalgic toys lay on the rug in the center of the room. Ella watched her mom chat with the secretary for a while before growing bored. Her eyes roved on and finally settled for staring over her sister’s shoulder to see what she was reading. After reading a few sentences, she grimaced and turned away. She hated gossip articles. They were so cheesy and substanceless. She’d wished she’d brought her book to distract her from her growing unease.

Kris noticed her sister gaze but missed the grimace. Mistaking Ella’s stare as interest she began to gush about the idol. “Tae-kyu has the best music! It says he writes all his own music, and you can tell he really sings from the heart. Lots of other idols his age are all artificial. Ya know singing whatever their manager gives them...” Ella tried and failed to interrupt her sister’s idol rant. There was no stopping Kris once she had begun.

“Girls!” They both turned to see their mother waving them over. Ella sighed with relief at the interruption. “The nurses are ready. There’s no wait today.” They both hurried over to the door into the back of the clinic.

The back of the clinic was just as bright as cheerful as the front. A long hallway lined with doors stretched before them as they were led by a nurse towards one of the rooms.
“Hello you two! You’ve certainly grown much bigger since last year!” the nurse said smiling over her shoulder. She had her tentacle hair tied up in a very practical bun and was wearing a pair of pink scrubs. Ella squinted at her as they were lead down the hallway, trying to remember if she actually knew this nurse. The nurse ushered the three of them into a room and moments later was joined by a second, ponytail-haired nurse.

The second nurse spoke as soon as she finished closing the door “We’re going to have to take a lot of measurements today, so we’ll need some patience from you.”
“But it’ll all be worth it in the end, right?” said the first, winking at them.

“Just tell me what you need, and I’ll do it!” exclaimed Kris. “I want to start turf wars as soon as I can!” Ella just nodded in response.

A flurry of activity began as each nurse began to take measurements on each twin. The ponytail nurse took charge of Kris, while the bun-haired nurse took care of Ella. They measured the normal things, like height, weight, and blood pressure, but they also took new measurements they’d rarely taken before. They measured limb development, eye mask shape, and total body ink coverage. Some measurements even involved physical activity, such as how long they could remain in squid form without changing back. They asked the twins and their mother questions about their eating and sleeping habits, school life, and behavior. All of these results were carefully recorded on official looking documents that were laid out on the counter. After about an hour, the nurses left, saying the doctor would be in very soon.

“You think we’ll pass mom?” asked Kris. She vibrated in her chair next to Ella with excitement. Ella sat scuffing her shoes against the floor.

“Of course, you will. I’d have brought you in sooner if I were worried. Besides, it’s rare that someone doesn’t pass,” she responded before grabbing one of the magazines on the wall rack.

As the nurses had promised, they didn’t have to wait too long. After about ten minutes, there was a knock on the door, and they all turned to see Dr. Patricks, the twin’s doctor from infancy, enter the room.

“Hello Ann,” Dr. Patricks said, looking over at the twin’s mother, “Funny seeing you here on your day off.”

“You know how it is with kids, always having to take them somewhere or another,” she replied, putting her magazine away. The two chatted for a bit as Dr. Patricks spread the official looking documents on the counter and looked them over. Both had known each other from their own childhood turf wars.

Kris’s excitement had hit the breaking point when Dr. Patricks had entered the room, and the adult’s conversation only dragged out the anticipation she was feeling. She couldn’t stop herself from getting up to get a peek at the paperwork to see if she’d been approved. Unfortunately, she ended up tripping over Ella’s feet in her eagerness and knocked over a jar of cotton balls that were sitting on the counter. It was only her mother’s quick reflexes that prevented the jar from breaking.

Her mother broke off their conversation to force Kris to sit and give her a very stern lecture, interrupted only by Dr. Patricks laughing and saying, “Come on Ann, give her a break. Remember how excited you were to be approved for turf wars?”

“Yes, but I’m afraid our nice clinic will be in pieces if I don’t stop to correct her.”

Dr. Patricks scoffed and waved her hand. “We’ve had many a jar shattered by an over excited kid, and we’ll have undoubtedly have countless more.” She turned so she faced the twins better. “But back to business, since I know you two are dying to know the outcome of your tests.”

Kris nodded and leaned forward in her chair eagerly, stopped only by her mother’s warning arm in front of her chest. Ella stared harder at her shoes.

“I’m happy to announce that I can approve both of you for turf wars. You both are developing very well for your age group, and I am very pleased with your squid transformation skills. I’m sure they’ll only get better once you start battling.”

Kris broke past her mother’s arm and ran over to hug Dr. Patricks. “Yes! Yes! I’m so psyched! I can’t wait to win battles and play splatfests and…” she gushed. Dr. Patricks looked a bit startled by the hug, but Kris was soon pulled away by her mother and forced to sit again.

“I’m glad to see someone so excited by a doctor’s appointment,” laughed Dr. Patricks. “But on to more practical stuff before I let you go. Now that you both are fourteen, you’ll be entering puberty. Your growth is going to change in a lot of ways now…” She talked on for a while, informing them of the big changes they would be experiencing over the next few years. Kris zoned the information out, day dreaming about all the fun she’d be having on the battlefield in the upcoming days. Ella too didn’t pay much attention, feeling miserable by her results. Normally she’d be fascinated by this conversation. Unlike her younger twin, she’d always been fascinated by how young squids developed and the science behind it, but she was too distracted by the thoughts of being splatted.

Dr. Patricks’s voice came to a stop, and both twins were startled out of their revere by the sudden silence. She smiled. “I can tell not much of this is getting through to you with your exciting news, so I’ll leave it to your mom to explain when you’re less distracted. I’ll submit your paperwork later today, so you should both be set to participate tomorrow morning. But before you head out, wait for the nurses to come back. They should have your official turf war kits from the government. And luck you to you both!” She waved to the two of them before heading back out into the office.

A few minutes later, one the ponytail nurse bustled back in with two boxes. She gave one to Kris and one to Ella before guiding them back out into the lobby.

The route home was a lot shorter than the route back. Now that the twins were officially approved by a doctor, they were allowed to travel around the city using super jump points. Like turf wars, they required a lot of skill that younger inkling did not possess and were restricted by law. Both twins were nervous taking their first jump. But they took their mother’s advice and simply focused on where they wanted to jump too.

Once home, Kris eagerly ripped into her box, pulling out a pair of cream basics, a basic tee, a white headband, a splattershot jr, and a small book that contained information on how to participate in turf wars. She flipped quickly through the book before tossing it aside and running outside with the splattershot to practice. Ella didn’t open her box. She knew it contained the same items as Kris, but she wanted to pretend turf wars weren’t happening for a little bit longer. While Kris played in the yard the rest of the afternoon, Ella helped her sister Addie pack for camp.

Much to her family’s surprise, Addie had been invited to what seemed like a very prestigious summer turf war camp for inklings. The camp was supposed to host the best of the best turf war players for different age groups and was taught by an ancient expert, Craig Cuttlefish. While Addie was fairly good at turf wars, her parents were shocked to hear she’d been invited, much less invited with all expenses paid. It was such a good offer and could provide Addie with so many opportunities, that her parents hadn’t really looked much into the rest of the program. Ella was happy for her sister, but she would be very lonely the next few months. No one quite understood her as much as Addie did.

Dinner that night was very animated. Addie and her mother chatted about what she might learn at summer camp, while Kris was getting advice from their father about turf wars. Ella jumped between the two conversations, feeling the pit of anxiety growing in her stomach. It was getting harder and harder to ignore the fact that she would be participating in her first battle tomorrow. She hardly touched her food, and before she knew it, it was time for her and her sisters to clean up the dishes. But before the twins could pick up their plates, they were stopped by their father thrusting a package at each of them.

“Here you two. Consider this a present from your mom and I for passing your physicals today,” he said, winking at them. Ella and Kris looked at each other and then at the silver paper wrapped gifts. They tore into them. Inside each box lay a brand-new squid phone. Kris squealed in delight, jumping up and down, yelling “thank you” over and over. Ella actually recovered enough from her funk to smile broadly.

“You’re both welcome,” their mother replied, “Now that you can compete in turf wars, we’re going to start trusting you more to be alone on your own. So use these to let us know where you are okay?” Both girls nodded.

“And of course, you’ll need them to hook up with any good teammates you find,” their dad advised.

After their chores were done, the twins spent the rest of the evening playing with their new phones. The first numbers they programmed in were their mom’s and dad’s with assurances that they would keep them updated with where they would be. As soon as that was done, Kris ran off to download any and all apps about turf wars. Ella sat and chatted with her sister for the rest of the night, occasionally glancing down at her new phone and smiling. As soon as they had finished cleaning up, Addie had entered her number in Ella’s phone so they could message each other. She’d informed Ella that they should be able to text while she was at camp, and Ella was thrilled. The summer would be a little less miserable now that she would still be able to talk to Addie. Enough so, that the pit of anxiety she felt lessened enough that she could sleep that night. For tomorrow, the real summer battles would begin.

Chapter Text

“Ella! Wake up! Wake up! It’s time to get ready for turf wars!” A sudden bounce at the foot of Ella’s bed sent her flying up into the air, startling her awake. When she landed, she groaned and pulled the blankets up higher over her head in attempt to muffle her sister’s voice. Not taking the hint, Kris continued talking and bouncing on the bed. “Come on sleepy head, Mom made us pancakes!”

“I’m not going. I feel sick.” Ella lied, pulling her pillow over her head. She could feel her anxiety from the day before returning full force. She would give anything to miss out on today’s festivities.

Kris, however, was not fooled. She gave her sister a disgruntled look and placed her hands on her hips, for once setting aside her childish nature to lecture her younger twin. “Come on Ella, you’re not sick. Mom’s gonna make you go anyway. You might as well just get up.”

“I don’t wanna,” Ella whined, refusing to look at her sister. She knew she was being unreasonable; Kris was normally very patient with her, so to be lectured by her meant she was being silly. But she just did not want to give into her sister’s demand. She’d rather spend her summer at home reading, not running around battling.

“Come on Ella just-”

“Just leave me alone!” Ella shouted, sitting up to glare at her sister. Now that she was no longer covered in blankets, Kris finally got a look at her sister. Her tentacles, which were normally a shade of black, were an intense shade of lime green, a sign that she was really anxious.

While Kris wanted to argue further, she would be no use with her sister in that state. She wished she could help her sister, but it would be better for her to leave Ella to her mother or Addie right now. They always seemed to know how to soothe her. She got up and sighed, “Well I’ll tell Mom but she’s not going to be happy.”

Ella watched her walk across the room and close the door with a soft click. Almost immediately, after Kris’s departure she was overwhelmed with guilt. She shouldn’t have yelled at her sister, especially on the day that Kris had been looking forward to for years. For Ella too, had caught a look at her sister, and saw that her tentacles were a bright sunny yellow due to her excitement.

With a sigh, Ella got out of bed and shuffled towards her dresser, pulling out a skort, leggings, and the basic tee she had received the day before. She slipped them all on and then straightened her tentacles in the mirror. She grimaced at the green color, but could do nothing about it, before heading off to the kitchen. The least she could do to make up with Kris was to get breakfast so they could leave on time.

Ella entered the kitchen to find her mother and sisters gathered around the table, enjoying the feast their mother had prepared. There was a huge stack of pancakes on the table surrounded by dishes of scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, oatmeal, and cut up squid oranges. Their mother had even made fresh apple juice for them that morning. They all looked up at Ella as she entered the room, but no one made any comment about her argument with Kris or her lie about being sick. Her mother seemed a little relieved to see her out of bed and dressed for turf wars. Perhaps she didn’t really feel up for an argument first thing in the morning.

“Hey sweetie,” her mother said, getting up to get a clean plate for Ella, “I hope you’re hungry. I made a bunch of food to keep you feeling energized for today.”

“Um just a little bit…” Ella mumbled, reaching for the plate. She really wasn’t feeling hungry with her nerves, but she didn’t want her mother’s hard work to go to waste.

Scooping up a little bit of everything on her plate, she sat down next to Addie. Addie’s fingers were typing rather quickly on her phone. She wondered who she was texting, but as Addie noticed her gaze, she quickly closed the app.

She smiled at Ella, and asked, “You feeling okay today?”

“Fine...just a bit...nervous,” Ella responded quietly. From the look of her tentacles, they could all tell this was an understatement, but no one called her out on it.

“It’ll fine Ella,” Addie said, patting her on the shoulder, “I was nervous my first day too. In a few hours, I’m sure you’ll be feeling a lot better about turf wars.”

Ella wasn’t sure if she really believed her sister,but she hoped it was true. In an attempt to distract herself, she returned her attention to her food. This was a mistake, however, because her stomach had begun to feel queasy. She wasn’t sure how she’d be able to eat half the food she’d taken. She picked up her fork and began to pick at her food.

“Where’s Dad?” Ella asked, taking a tentative bite of scrambled eggs. They seemed to sit okay in her stomach.

“His boss needed him to come in a bit early, so he’s already left. But he wishes the three of you good luck,” her mother replied, retaking her seat. “Now that you’re all here though, we need to talk about the plan for today.” All three girls stopped eating to give her their full attention.

“I’m going to leave for work soon, so I can’t take Ella and Kris to Inkopolis Square. So, Addie, could you take the two of them to the Square before you leave?” she said, looking over at her oldest daughter.

Addie nodded, “My bus doesn’t leave until 5 o’clock, so I was planning on playing a couple matches with Coral anyway before leaving.”

“Perfect,” her mother replied, and then turned to look at the twins. “Now, I’m trusting the two of you to come home together all by yourselves. I want you home by 6 for dinner, and if you’re running late or have a problem, make sure to call me, okay?”

“Yes Mom,” they responded together.

“Good. Then I’m going to get ready for work. I’ll leave the dishes to you three to do before you go,” she said, getting up. She kissed the three of them on the cheek and muttered a good luck to the twins and a goodbye to Addie.

On her way out of the room, she paused and looked at Ella, “Ella sweetie, all I’m asking today is you participate in three matches today. If you’re really not having fun after that, you can sit in the square and read until Kris is ready to go home.”

Relief flooded Ella. Her mother did seem to understand somewhat how she felt about turf wars. Three battles were something she could knock out easily in about an hour. She gave her mom a small smile and nod. Her stomach strangely felt better, and she was able to wolf down a few more pancakes.

After their mother left, Addie hurried the twins through their chores and packing up what they would need for the day. Their mother had left them lunches to take with them, but the twins still had weapons, water bottles, towels, and phone chargers to pack. And Addie too, had some last-minute packing to do for camp. When the last shoelace had been tied and subway pass pocketed, the three of them hurried out the door to catch the train into the city.

The train ride to Inkopolis Square didn’t take them that long. It seemed like one moment they were getting onto a crowded subway car, filled with adults of all species on their way to work, and the next they were hopping off. The twins’ yellow shirts gained a lot of attention from the adult inklings on the train, who all knew they what they meant. The adults all smiled and wished the twins good luck, reminiscing in their heads about their own first turf battle. Kris responded to these comments with a huge smile and bragging about how well she would do, while Ella simply gave a shy smile.

After getting off, Addie walked them over to a line of lockers, where she could stow her suitcase until it was time for her bus to leave. Then she carefully weaved them through the crowds towards the back entrance of the train station. This confused the twins greatly. They had been to Inkopolis Square a few times before, and they had always taken the front entrance, which opened almost directly onto the Plaza.

“Hey Addie, why aren’t we going the normal way into the square? Isn’t that where check in is?” asked Ella.

“Well that’s how you normally get in, but we’re going to go in the back way today.”

“Why?” asked Kris, “Isn’t it faster the normal way?”

“Yes,” Addie replied, stopping just before the door, “but it’s a secret rite of passage for new squids to take the back way. If you can make it all the way to the square, then you’ve proven that you have what it takes to compete in turf wars.”

Kris’s eyes widened in an excitement when she heard this, while Ella gulped nervously at the idea.

“It’s not that difficult,” Addie said, giving a reassuring smile after seeing the look on Ella’s face.
“Plus you have me to guide you. I had to do it all by myself the first time.”

“But wasn’t Coral with you?” asked Kris.

“Yeah, but she didn’t know how to get through either. Now come on, the sooner we get through the sooner you can compete!” Hearing this, Kris sprinted out the door, knocking over a jellyfish in the process. Addie and Ella righted the little fellow before following at a much slower pace.

The street they exited on was more of an alleyway then anything. Both sides were lined with the back entrances of apartment buildings and businesses. There were a few vending machines, ticket machines, and bicycles right by the exit of the station. Despite a little graffiti, the area appeared fairly quaint.

Jogging down a small ramp, Addie and Ella caught up to Kris who was bouncing excitedly. She seem to impatiently be waiting for Addie to her instructions.

“Ok now, get your splattershots and ink tanks out,” Addie panted, trying to catch her breath. The two complied, while Addie rummaged in her backpack. After a few seconds, she found some bright green and blue balloons and began blowing them up. “All set?” The twins nodded. There was a few minutes of silence as Addie checked to make sure they had attached their ink tanks properly.

“Alright, try and pop the balloons with your ink when I throw them in the air. Ella, you’re green, so you’ll go first. On the count of three, ok?” Ella nodded nervously and placed her fingers on the trigger of her splattershot.

Her sister began to count, and at three, the balloon was thrown high into the air. As it floated gently downward, Ella closed one eye and aimed, shooting a little wildly.
The balloon popped.

“I-I did it,” she gasped softly. Kris whooped and clapped a little bit.

“Good job Ella,” Addie smiled, “Next time though, try to keep both eyes open, it’ll help you aim a little better.” Ella nodded.

Kris took her turn next, and also managed to hit her blue balloon on its first pass through the air.

The trio continued the routine for a couple more minutes before Addie encouraged them to move forward, tossing balloons as she went.

“Good guys!” she encouraged, as they turned around a corner, “You’re starting to get better at aiming while moving.”

“Is it really ok that we’re in here?” asked Ella nervously, for she had just noticed that they had entered a construction site. All around them, they could hear the sounds of banging and the creak of objects on cranes. Above them, Ella could see jellyfish on steel beams, hammering away at nails.

“They’d have closed the gate if it wasn’t or tried to stop us,” Addie shrugged. “I think they get bored and like to see young squids like us playing around. They’re super careful about it.”
Ella looked at her older sister skeptically, but she supposed she was right. Any one of the workers they passed could have yelled at them.

“Just swim away real quick if you hear them yelling at us,” Addie added, “Anyway, see that wooden wall there?” The twins turned to see where she pointed. “We need to climb that.”

“But how, it’s completely solid,” asked Kris curiously.

“Like this,” Addie said, pulling out her aerospray gun. She shot black ink at the fence until it was covered, then turned into a squid form, climbing to the top.

“I wanna try!” Kris cried excitedly, and ran straight at the wall, transforming last second. She slipped downward a couple times, but eventually made it to the top.

“Come on Ella, your turn! You can do it!” Addie cried encouragingly down from the top.

Taking a deep breath, Ella stepped closer to the wall and transformed, climbing up. At first, she tried climbing slowly, but only found herself slipping downward. It seemed she would need speed to climb all the way to the top. Closing her eyes, she put all her effort into climbing. The next thing she knew, she was slipping over the edge at the top.

“Great!” cried Addie, “You two are really good at this!”

“Now, did you also notice, that your ink tanks are a little fuller now?” she asked, “They’re designed to absorb the ink from already inked turf.” The twins looked turned their heads, and sure enough, their tanks were a little fuller. “But they only pick up your team’s color, so don’t try and swim through enemy ink.”

Addie put an arm around each twins’ shoulders and turned them around to face the area on the other side of the wall. They had stumbled upon a road that led back out to the alleyway. But due to the construction it was blocked by uneven boxes and construction equipment.

The twins looked unsure about how to get through the area, but Addie simply shot ink all over the area. “Come on, let’s get past these obstacles by swimming. But don’t forget to shoot the balloons I throw up okay?”

They nodded and gave her a quick head start, before they swam across the big metal containers, popping balloons all along the way. It was starting to get a lot easier for them to transform and move around in their squid forms.

Addie stopped them in front of a series of metal fence blocking the exit to the construction zone. It was short and sturdy enough they could climb over it, but she still stopped them.

“You can swim under it,” she said simply, before demonstrating for them. In squid form, she slipped effortlessly through the metal links.

Kris followed quickly, but Ella hesitated a little. Although her sisters appeared fine on the other side, it looked like it should hurt. But she had made it this far, and she knew Addie would never mislead her. She took a deep breath and followed her sister’s lead.

The sensation of passing through the metal felt odd, like being tickled in a sensitive area, but it wasn’t painful like she had thought. And almost as soon she felt the sensation, it was gone, and she reached the other side.

The three of them jumped through one more fence and climbed up one more wall, before finally reentering the alley behind the apartments.

“We’re almost there!” Addie encouraged, as they exited the construction zone, “You two are doing so much better than I thought you would. You’re going to do great in turf wars.”

Despite her feelings about turf wars, Ella couldn’t help but be pleased by the compliment. To receive one from Addie really meant something to her, and gave her hope that she wouldn’t be as horrible at battles as she thought.

“Now all that’s left is to perform a super jump on that launchpad around the corner. Then you’ll jump right into the square. Ready?”

“Yes, yes!!!” cried Kris.

“I-I think so,” mumbled Ella.

“Alright, you two go first then, and I’ll follow. Wait for me when you arrive, and I’ll show you where registration is.” They nodded. “Then off you go!”

Kris went first, of course, swimming up to the pad as a squid before being launched. Ella, on the other hand, chose to walk onto the pad before transforming. They both shot off in an inky blur towards the plaza, Kris surrounded by sunny yellow ink and Ella in a slightly lighter green shade of ink than when she woke up.

Addie stood smiling after the two before she jumped, looking at the view. She was proud of her two sisters and was reminiscing about her own journey through the alley to Inkopolis Plaza. While the location had been a little different, she had still felt the same mixture of nervousness and excitement that both Kris and Ella were feeling. The two would do well, especially Ella, after she got over her nervousness.

Her smile faltered a little though, as she remembered the long journey she had ahead of her after she dropped off her sisters. It wouldn’t nearly be as fun as the lie she had told them. But after a moment she transformed, launching herself towards Inkopolis Square.

Chapter Text

With a small splash, Ella landed at the entrance to Inkopolis Square. She nearly bumped into Kris who was gawking at the scene in front of them. Turning to see what her sister was looking at, she too couldn’t help but be dazzled by all the colorful young inklings and flashing billboard ads.

To one side of the Square she could see shops lining the plaza, and on the other, an arcade and a television studio. A gigantic turtle and a huge paper crane stared down at the crowds of inklings from the roofs of the shops. And there, at the tippy top of the central tower was the Great Zapfish that Ella had worried about so long ago.

There was another small splash and this time, both Ella and Kris got knocked over as Addie super jumped right on top of them.

“Oops sorry guys,” Addie said, grabbing their hands and pulling them up off the ground. “I forgot it was your first time in the Square.” Addie stared around at the crowd for a couple seconds.

“Sure is different from Inkopolis Plaza where I first started.”

“Why’d they end up moving over here?” asked Ella.

“Well after the renovations a year or so ago, this place became really popular for the shops and hang out spots. The government was looking for a place to move matches for our age group since the Plaza was getting sort of old.”

Addie seemed to come out of her revere and shook her head a little. “Anyway, come on you two, we have to go get you registered before you can compete.” She grabbed both their hands and led them back down the street away from the tower. At the shoe store, they took a right and came across a little window behind which an inkling woman sat. She seemed to be about in her mid-twenties, and when she heard them approach, she looked up at them.

“Here to register?” she asked staring at the three of them.

“Yep!” Kris said with a huge smile, “We just came of age this month!” Ella gave a small nod and stared nervously at her feet.

The woman smiled, “Congrats! Let me see the papers you got at the doctor’s, and I’ll get you two registered.”

Kris frowned and dug around in her bag frantically, but it was Ella who pulled out both of their papers.

“Mom thought you’d lose yours,” she mumbled to Kris, as she slipped past Addie and slid both of their forms through the window.

“Alright, let me start filling out your information,” she said, turning back to her computer and began to type loudly.

“Hey Addie!” came a call behind them. The three turned to see a girl Addie’s age waving over at them.

“Oh it’s Coral!” Addie waved back, excited. “I’m going to go talk to her. Come on over when you two are done.” She waited for the twins to nod before running over to her best friend.

“Alright which one of you is Gabriella?” the woman behind the counter asked. The twins heads snapped back around quickly to face the window.

“Um…that’s me,” Ella replied, stepping up to the window.

“Alright, please stand against the black poster next to the window, so I can get your picture.” Ella obeyed, and the woman came out the door next to the window with a small camera.

“Ok, on three. 3…2…1…say cheese,” the woman said, and Ella forced a nervous smile.

“And next, is,” the woman pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket, “Krystal, right?” Kris nodded and ran eagerly up to the black poster. Her smile was so huge that her eyes squinted closed for the photo.

“Give me a few more minutes, and I’ll have your IDs all printed for you,” the woman said, as she reentered the windowed room.

While they waited, the two looked back out onto the plaza, to see that a news report was playing
on the big tv on the tower.

“Ya’ll know what time it is!” called the spunky looking white-and-pink-haired inkling on the screen. She was incredibly short compared to the more mature-looking, black-and-mint-haired girl to her right.

“It’s Off the Hook, coming at you LIVE from Inkopolis Square!” the mature-looking girl replied.

Ella squinted at the mature-looking girl. Marina, as the captions had informed her, seemed a bit odd to Ella. She didn’t really look like an inkling to her, but she wasn’t sure what other kind of creature she could be. She had seen quite few different species in the city, but none looked quite like this girl. If she had to guess, she looked a lot like the octolings from her history book, but they were supposed to be extinct.
“Here are the current Regular battle stages,” cried the white-haired girl, Pearl. Her cry interrupted Ella’s questions about Marina, and she returned her attention to the broadcast.
The two went on to talk about the different stages up for the different battle modes. The information went right over Ella’s head. She was still too new to know the differences between the stages. Some of the places she had visited, like Arowana Mall, but she had never competed or even been to many of them.

Kris on the other hand seemed psyched by the stages. “Ooo I’ve heard that The Reef is such a fun stage!” she squealed. She continued to ooo and ahh as the girls continued to announce the rest of the stages.

“And that’s all the time we’ve got! Until next time…” Pearl called.

“Don’t get cooked! Stay off the hook!” the two said in unison while moving their arms into hook like poses. The show faded out.

“Who are they?” Ella asked, turning to Kris. If anyone knew, it’d be her.

“Don’t you know?” Kris gasped, looking a little shocked at her sister’s question. “That’s Off the Hook, they’re only one of the coolest, bestest music groups around. They got hired up to do the news show so they could promote their music.” Kris blathered on and on about the group until the woman at the window interrupted her. Ella was secretly relieved. She wasn’t sure how much more she could take about Kris’s gushing. The two turned to face the woman.

“Here’s your badges you two,” she said, handing them out the window. “Make sure you have them on you at all times down here. They’re used to scan in for battles, get into locker rooms, keep track of your battle winnings, and the like. Oh and here,” the woman handed two keys out the window to them. “These are for your lockers to store your gear in. Do you know where the locker rooms are?”

They both shook their head, but they both responded in unison, “Our older sister can show us.”

The woman smiled back. “Alright, just a few more things and I’ll let you go. If you’d like to change your photo, you can do so every time you go up ten levels, and if you prefer rollers or charges, come back here and I can give you a key for a bigger locker. Understood?”

“Yep!” said Kris. Ella nodded.

“Okay off you go then! Good luck and if you have any questions, feel free to come ask!” The woman gave them one last smile and returned to her computer. Kris squealed in glee, staring at her badge, before sprinting off towards Addie and Coral to show it off. Ella followed behind at a slower pace, still staring around at her surroundings.

When she reached them, she could hear Kris going on about her new badge. But as Ella joined the group, she asked, “Is it time, can we go have our first match now?”

Coral chuckled, “You don’t even know where the locker room is silly. Let’s give you a quick tour and then you can go.”

“Yeah Kris, just be patient a little longer,” Addie said, patting her sister on the top of the head.
“All good Ella?” she asked, turning her head to see her.

“Uh huh,” Ella’s nerves were coming back now. Her hair was changing back to the lime green shade it had been that morning. Addie pulled her over and gave her a quick side hug before leading the group off around the square.

Addie and Coral pointed out where all the important stores were and what level you had to be before you could buy gear there. They showed them the food truck in the back of the square, the arcade, and all the nice hang out spots they had found before they led them to the locker room next to the café.

The locker room was huge. Rows and rows of lockers stretched out across the room, and Ella could see other girls talking with friends and digging around in their lockers. Each locker was the perfect size for holding extra weapons and gear. And along the back wall was row of two dozen changing rooms, where they could see other inklings showing off new gear to their friends.
Coral and Addie led them down rows and rows of lockers until they reached row 14, where the twin’s lockers were supposed to be located.

Coral whistled when she saw their lockers. “You guys are lucky, you got some of the bigger lockers.” She looked a little envious as she stared at the metal row. The lockers were a few
inches taller than those they had seen at the entrance.

“I think a lot of the seniors aged out recently Coral,” Addie commented, taking Ella’s key and opening her locker, “And they had first picks when they moved turf wars over here.”

Ella’s had a top locker in her row, and it was completely bare, with the exception of a few forgotten magnets on the back wall. Kris had the locker beneath her and was already shoving all her stuff into the locker and trying to slam it shut.

“Hey hold it!” Addie cried, before Kris shut the locker door. “You’ll need to keep some stuff on you.”

“Like what?” Kris asked, looking at her stuff quizzically.

“Like your splattershot first off, silly,” Coral replied, pulling it out from under Kris’s bag.

“You should also keep your phone on you, in case you need to find some friends or if mom calls,” added Addie. Obediently, Ella and Kris grabbed their phones and their splattershots before slamming their lockers shut.

“And here,” Addie said, pulling out two keychains from her pocket. One was shaped like a cat’s head, and the other had the idol, Tae-kyu’s, logo on it. She gave the cat keychain to Ella and Tae-kyu’s logo to Kris. “Use these to hold onto your locker key and id tag. It’ll be harder to lose them.”

Kris squealed in delight at the present, and Ella gave a soft smile and thank you. They both hugged their sister before slipping their keys onto the ring.

“Now come on,” Coral said, “Let’s get you guys off to your first match! Addie and I want to watch.”

“Yes! Yes!” Kris shouted in excitement, startling a few of the girls in the neighboring row of lockers. She grabbed Ella’s hand and dragged her out of the locker room. Ella nearly tripped over one girl’s shoes on the way out.

Addie and Coral led them both into Deca Tower in the back of the square. This was where most of the young inklings were congregated in the plaza. The young tweens and teens stood watching matches on screens, texting, or looking for friends to team up with. The four of them waded through the crowd until they finally made it to the entrance.

The inside of the tower was very sleek and modern. Shiny black and white tiles were spread below their feet and the white walls were dotted with windows every few meters. Ahead of them lay a couple dozen turnstiles, like the ones you would see in a subway station. The older girls led the twins up to one of the stiles.

“I know match pairing is gonna seem a bit complicated. But you’ll get the hang of it,” Addie said, “Here, hand me your ID Ella.”

Slowly, Ella pulled the ID out of her pocket. Her tentacles were now a neon shade of lime green now that the impending match was so close. Unwillingly, she handed over her ID. Addie scanned it, and Ella’s name appeared on the screen attached to the turnstile.

“So now you want to select regular battle,” Addie said, tapping the touch screen. The twins moved in closer to see what she was doing. “And before you select ‘Ready’ you need to hit the ‘Friend’ button. Kris, I’ll need your ID now.”

She held out her hand without looking up from the screen. Kris slipped her ID into Addie’s waiting fingers. Addie scanned her ID too, and her name joined the screen along Ella’s.

“Now you can select ‘Ready,’” she tapped the screen again. “And then one at a time, scan your badges and pass through the stile.” They both obeyed, Ella going first and Kris shortly after.
They both stood waiting on the other side, as Coral and Addie scanned their own badges.

“I took care of it this time, but if someone’s going to spectate, make sure to give them your badge ID,” Addie explained as she passed through the stile. She led both of them up to a huge new television screen directly in front of the turnstiles they had just passed through.

“Your room number is on the screen. All you have to do is find your number and then go to that room.” Ella squinted at the television until she found her name beside the number 27.

“So-o d-d-do you go with us?” she stammered nervously. She really hoped Addie would be able to, but already she could see Coral and her heading off to the right towards rooms 80 to 90.

“Sorry Ella, spectators go to the stage before competitors so we have to go to a different meet-up room,” Addie said sympathetically. Seeing the look on her face, she gave her sister a hug and went on “Don’t worry, you got Kris with you!” They both turned to look at Kris, but she had already run down the hallway towards the meet up room in her excitement.

At this point, Ella looked close to tears, so Addie hugged her once more and pulled the cat keychain out of her sister’s pocket. “This cat’s supposed to bring good luck, so I know you’ll do well in your first match.”

She stood up and hesitated a few seconds, not wanting to leave Ella alone. But the timer on the screen was showing her that it was almost time for her to leave. She gave her sister a last pat on the head before pushing her gently in the direction towards room 27.

“Good luck!” Coral cried over her shoulder. The two of them waved and headed off.

Ella nervously hurried down the hallway to room 27. On the screen next to the door she saw Kris’s and her name, along with six other people. She swiped her ID quickly and entered the room.

The room she entered was rather small. It had a carpeted floor and plain white walls. Two comfy couches sat on the left and right of the entrances, making the room feel even smaller. On the wall facing opposite of the door, there was an inactivated inkline rail that led down a small tunnel and a tv screen with all the names that Ella had seen outside the door.

On the left couch, huddled together, Ella saw a bunch of girls talking to each other, as if they knew each other. On the right couch towards the far corner sat a nervous looking boy, who seemed to be avoiding everyone’s eye. And on the same couch towards Ella, sat Kris who was eagerly talking to an inkling girl Ella had had never seen before.

“Ella!” Kris cried, waving her over. “This is Alex! I just met her and she was telling me about her first ever match today!”

“Hey,” Alex said, giving Ella a half smile and a small wave.

“Hi…” Ella replied nervously. “Um does anyone know how to tell when our match starts?”

Alex pointed at the screen, “There’s a timer there that tells us how long. Looks like five minutes or so. They just have to finish up the previous match before we can play.” When Ella nodded but said nothing else, she and Kris resumed their previous conversation.

Ella’s legs felt shaky, so she sat down on the couch. It was so cramped, she ended up sitting pressed rather close to the boy at the end of the couch.

“H-h-hello,” Ella said quietly to him, as she sat down. He gave her a nervous, almost panicked look before responding.

“Hello,” he replied after some hesitation. Seeing her tentacle color, he asked, “You okay? You look really nervous.” Ella blushed.

“I-it’s my first match.” She looked down at her knees. “I’m a little scared of matches to be honest.”

He seemed to take some pity on her, “Well if we’re on the same team, stick close to me, and we can work together. Maybe it’ll be a little less scary.”

“R-really?” she asked, looking up hopefully.

“Sure.”

“Thank you!” she exclaimed Nervously, again, she continued, “Umm, my name is Ella, what’s your name?”

This question seemed to startle him and he seemed to grow more agitated. He looked into her eyes closely for a second, as if trying to determine why she wanted to know.
“I-i-if we’re going to be t-teammates, it’d be nice to k-know your name,” she stuttered, looking back town at her knees. She felt guilty for stressing him, even if she didn’t know exactly why. “I-if you d-don’t want to, it’s f-”

“It’s TK,” he interrupted. “It’s ok, I don’t mind telling you. It’s just…well I’m still sort of figuring things out.” He didn’t elaborate despite the strange excuse.

The two talked quietly about other things while they waited. Ella was in the middle of describing the book she was reading when a loud buzzer went off. Startled, everyone in the room looked at the television screen to see that they had been split into teams.

Looking carefully, Ella stared at the teams. She, Alex, TK, and one of the chatty girls would be on team pink. Kris and the rest would be on team green. Ella’s heart sank a little. She really didn’t want to fight against Kris, but she didn’t really have a choice.

“Excellent,” TK said, looking at the line-up. “We get to be on the same team.”

“But my sister, she’s-” Ella waved at the screen helplessly.

TK seemed to know what she was getting at. “It’s alright, I’ll look after you just as-no better than-your sister would!” He said smiling and slapping his hand on his chest proudly.
Ella gave a weak smile, but before either of them could say anything else, there was a small pop. The inkrail in the room had activated.

Everyone all looked at the inkrail confused, until Alex stood up. “we all need to hop on and it’ll take us to the stage. When the rail splits, just hop on the rail that matches your team color.” She transformed into a squid and hopped on the rail, zooming off. An excited Kris followed.
The chatty girls went next. They all seemed a little disappointed at being separated. Finally, TK waved Ella forward, and she reluctantly followed. When the rail split, she followed the pink track just as Alex had told her.

Finally, she emerged out of a deep well of pink ink, into the sunlight. Just before falling through the grate back down the well, she transformed back into a human. The well had been so deep that her body had absorbed the color, and her tentacles had taken on the bright pink of her team. Alex and the chatty girl stood waiting for her at the top of the grate. Moments later, TK joined them.

The four of them looked out onto the stage in front of them. It was the same stage, The Reef, that Off the Hook had announced earlier. The stage was surrounded by stores and apartment buildings, that looked onto the concrete stage. A few cars were parked in the area, and a large bridge that separated team pink’s and team green’s side stood before the four of them. Music blared from speakers around the stage.

Despite being able to see the stage, the four of them were stuck behind a glass wall that a timer displayed on it. As they all nervously prepared their weapons and ink tanks, the time was going down on it.

Ten seconds.

“Good luck everyone!” Alex smiled, looking at the other three. “I know we’ll do great.”

Five seconds.

“Just stick by me Ella, and we’ll be fine,” smiled TK, with a gentle pat on the shoulder.

Three seconds.

Ella’s gut felt like it was tied in knots. Her legs were so shaky she wasn’t sure if she’d even be able to run around the stage.

Two seconds.

She hoped being splatted didn’t hurt.

One second.

She took a deep breath.

There was a blare of a horn and the glass sunk into the ground. And the four of them rushed off the spawn platform onto the stage.

Chapter Text

As soon as she stepped off the platform, Ella felt adrenaline course through her body. She stood paralyzed for a few seconds, before TK grabbed her arm and pulled her off towards the central bridge.

“Come on, let’s go!” TK cried. Ella caught a glint of excitement in his eyes as he dragged her forward. Once she started moving, her brain seemed to wake up, and she started spraying ink all over.

“Good jobs guys, keep it up!” Alex winked as she ran off to their left. Their other teammate gave them a nod as she passed and went off towards their right.

As the two of them finally reached the bridge, they saw movement coming towards them from the opponent’s side. The two of them stopped shooting and aimed towards the enemy’s side of the bridge.

“Ah ha!” cried Kris, jumping at the two of them.

Ella froze on the spot, looking like a deer in headlights as her sister came at her. But TK was faster, and with a simple dodge, hit Kris square in the chest.

“Uh eh!” she cried, and Ella saw Kris sink back into the ground in squid form and disappeared.

TK came up and gave Ella a quick pat on the shoulder before beginning to shoot ink again. “Told you I’d protect you,” he said with a smile. And for some reason, that smile seemed really familiar to Ella like she had seen it before. But as he moved away, she remembered where she was and returned her focus to the battle at hand.

“But that was…a little too easy,” TK said, leading them across the bridge, Ella following behind, guarding his back.

“She’s…just like that…she’s just a little…over excited,” Ella remarked. She shot some ink over the bridge and noticed some enemy ink down below.

“Hey TK, look down there,” Ella pointed, showing him the ink trail. “Should we go try and cover some turf down there?”

“Good eyes,” he replied, “Let’s go!” He transformed into a squid and jumped down to the level below. Ella took a deep breath and followed.

Down below it was strangely quiet, and the two of them moved cautiously around the area. As they moved around the tree, Ella could have sworn she saw movement at the base. But when she looked again she saw nothing.

The two of them covered the area as quickly as possible before moving off towards the ramp that led to team green’s side. But as soon as TK turned his back on the tree, one of the green team girls jumped out from the ink at its base and shot ink directly at TK’s head.

Ella’s shouted warning came seconds too late, and she could see him collapse into squid form. In fear and surprise over the attack, Ella took aim at the green inkling before she could even turn around to face Ella. Using all of the tips that Addie had told her this morning, she fired. The girl collapsed into squid form under Ella’s shot.

Despite the success of taking down her opponent, Ella stood over the spot panting and on the verge of tears. She had done it, she had splatted someone on the other side, and given her team a little advantage. But she had let TK down and now she was all by herself. She should have warned him about the movement earlier.

She shook her head. Even if TK was gone for the moment, she needed to carry on for the team. Standing there in self-pity would not help her team win. She pressed forward, moving up the ramp onto the other team’s side.

Ella moved with extreme caution. She knew she was a huge target on this side. The other team could come at her at practically any angle. But she pressed on, shooting pink ink and doing her best to stay up against the wall.

She was just starting to think she was safe, when, out of nowhere, Kris and one her other teammates jumped down off the ledge right next to Ella. Neither of them seemed to notice her pressed up against the wall at first.

Thinking quickly, Ella threw down a splat bomb before either of them noticed her behind her. The clanking of the bomb caused the two girls to turn, but as they glimpsed Ella, the splat bomb exploded and the two disappeared back into the ink.

Ella gave a huge sigh of relief, and moved carefully back down to the middle area. She couldn’t help feeling a bit proud. Even without TK, she had made it this far all by herself. Maybe she could survive turf wars

All of a sudden, a small pink circle appeared on the ground next to Ella. Squinting at it, Ella thought it looked a lot like a super jump point. But just as she was trying to figure out what the circle was, two of the girls for team green were heading straight at her and the circle.

Ella quickly transformed into a squid and swam stealthy through her ink. The two seemed so intent on shooting the circle that they didn’t seem to notice her swim behind them.

Looking up, Ella could see a pink blur moving through the sky towards the pink circle. She may not have known who or what was jumping towards her, but it was in her color, and she knew she had to defend whatever was coming. Without any hesitation, she jumped up out of her ink and started shooting at the two girls. Surprised, they squealed in shock and sank into the ink just as TK landed.

Seeing the scene in front of him, his eyes widened in shock. Looking up from where the girls had been splatted, he saw Ella in front of him, gasping and pointing her splattershot point blank at him.

“Yo-you saved me,” he said, startled, “Thank you.”

“It-it’s no problem,” she panted back. “H-how did you jump here?”

“Oh your phone let’s you super jump to anyone on the map. But I’ll show you later, there’s only 30 seconds left.”

The two sprinted off together around the stage, but the only uncovered area seemed to be the enemy side that Ella had been in earlier. It seemed Alex and the other girl were fairly good at defending their territory.

With 10 seconds left, they headed up the ramp back into the enemy territory. Ella could see Alex splatting Kris near the bridge again, and she gave a small smile as she hurried on. She and TK ran up one last ramp right under the other team’s spawn point and began covering the area as quickly as they could. But the enemy team kept jumping down off the spawn and trying to splat them.

Ella tried her very best to avoid being splatted, but as the timer ticked down to zero, a splat bomb exploded next to her, and it was her turn to sink back into the ink.
She winced as she slid back into squid form, expecting pain. But instead, she felt like she was being tickled as she sunk down through the enemy ink. Her body was stunned, but not in pain. While she wouldn’t describe it as fun, her mother had been right about it not being painful. She could feel some of her tension from the day ease as her fear of splatting slipped away.
When she was able to move again, she found herself in a small sewer pipe system that carried her straight back to her spawn point. She waited there, trying to regain movement and hoping that her team was doing well. She heard the match timer end, and one by one her teammates returned to the spawn platform. The glass partition slid back over the spawn to prevent them from leaving the platform.

“That was great!” Alex cheered, “I think we won!”

“How can we tell?” the chatty girl asked.

Alex pulled out her phone, and clicked on an app, showing them a map of the terrain they had just covered.

“Your phone probably has the app. Most come preinstalled nowadays. But it shows you the remaining match time, battle stats, and connects to the spawn so you can super jump,” she explained. “But look, the results are in.”

The three of them gathered around the phone and stared at a huge bar on the screen. For a few seconds, the bar wavered around, building suspense. But with a bang, the bar filled almost entirely with pink.

The result was in, team pink had won, 84.5% vs 11.3%.

“Yes!” Alex cried, throwing her fist into the air.

The chatty girl gave a small smile, but looked a bit disappointed that her friends had done so poorly.

Ella turned to look at TK with a small smile on her face.

“We did it Ella!” he said smiling back at her. He raised his hand for a high five, and Ella high fived him back.

As she stepped back, she felt an appreciative slap on the shoulders from Alex.

“It’s all thanks to you Ella,” Alex smiled, leaving her arm around her shoulders.

“M-m-me?” she asked, startled, “But I hardly did anything!”

“But you did!”Alex quipped, “You were on the green side all by yourself and took out at least two of them before I ever got up there.”

“And you saved me when I super jumped,” TK added. Ella thought she could see pride in his eyes, but perhaps she was imagining it.

“You’re a natural,” Alex remarked. And before Ella could protest, she said, “Let’s head back. It’s exactly the same as we came.” She slipped into squid form and disappeared through the grate. The rest of them followed.

The four of them returned to find the green team waiting for them in the room. Ella noticed that the team color was slowly fading from their hair and returning to their natural ink color. Glancing at her reflection in the dark tv screen, she could see her hair fading back into her natural black ink color. It was no longer neon green from nerves.

The chatty girls left the room quickly, but the rest of team pink and Kris lingered.

“That was so exciting!” Kris squealed, running over and throwing her arms around Ella. Ella nearly fell over, not expecting such a reaction.

“But you got splatted a lot and lost?” Alex asked, confused.

“It doesn’t matter!” Kris replied, “I just had so much fun competing!” She gushed on and on about the match.

Alex and TK looked at Ella, who rolled her eyes, still caught in Kris’s embrace. Choosing to ignore Kris for the moment, she turned slightly to face the other two better.

“That…umm. That match was f-fun,” she stammered.

“Yes it was amazing!” Alex said, “My first match wasn’t nearly that exciting!”

“It was pretty cool,” TK mumbled.

Ella steeled her nerves. She wasn’t sure if she should ask, but she did have a great time with the two of them.

“Uh-um…do you wanna exchange numbers so we can play again some more?”

“Sure!” Alex said whipping out her phone. TK nodded with a nervous smile. Ella had noticed his hair had faded down into what she assumed was his natural lemon-yellow color.

At this, Kris finally let go of Ella and pulled her phone out too. “Yes let’s all play together again! Wanna do another round?”

“Sure,” the other two responded.

“But Kris,” Ella said, “We need to see Addie and say goodbye first. She’s got to leave soon. And fess up, you’re hungry, aren’t you?”

Kris sighed, “But Ella…” She stopped herself. Ella was right. She was hungry and she did want to see Addie to at least talk about the match.

“I’m a bit hungry too,” Alex interrupted. “Maybe we all get lunch together? What about you TK?”

“That’d be great, but I forgot to bring food,” he replied looking a bit disappointed. “I’ll probably have to go home to get some.”

“No worries,” Alex replied, “Why don’t I take you to Crusty Sean’s food truck while the two of you talk to uh…who was it?”

“Our sister Addie,” Ella responded.

“Sound good TK?” Alex glanced over at him. He nodded.

Alex grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the room behind her. “Text us when your all done, we’ll save a table for you!”

Ella and Kris waved goodbye and followed them at a slower pace, while Ella texted Addie. But once they had exited the turnstiles, they heard someone call their names. They looked over to see Addie and Coral waving at the two of them.

They hurried over and were met with a big embrace from Addie.

“You two were great! Especially you Ella!” Addie cried and released them, “Was it as bad as you thought it was?”

Ella looked down at the ground. “N-no,” she replied. She felt a little silly for making such a big deal over today.

“I’m so glad! And it looked like you made some friends,” she smiled back.

The three of them chatted about the match for a few minutes before Coral approached.

“Hey Addie, if you want to get in a match before you go, we better hurry,” she interrupted. She turned to face the twins and gave them a thumbs up, “You two did great!”

The two twins thanked her, and gave their sister one more hug goodbye.

“Now be good to Mom you two,” Addie lectured, “And make sure to stay safe especially since you’re going to be left alone more often.”

“Kris don’t stress out Ella too much,” she continued, giving her a gentle shoulder squeeze.

“And Ella, if you need me, I think I’ll have signal at camp if you want to talk,” She patted her sister on the head.

“Now go have some more fun matches! See you before school starts!” she finished and waved goodbye. The twins waved goodbye too, as she hurried off with Coral to join a match.

Ella sighed, a little sad. But Kris grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out the door.

“Come on we gotta go get out lunches and meet up with the others. This is no time to be sad!” Kris proclaimed.

For once, Kris was right, so Ella hurried along after her sister into the bright summer sun.

Chapter Text

As the twins rushed outside, they were again confronted with the noise of the crowd. It seemed to have grown since they had entered Deca Tower. Ella quickly felt overwhelmed without Addie to lead her through the hustle and bustle of the crowd, but Kris seemed to be in her element and led them through the packs of inklings and back to the locker rooms to grab their lunches.

“Hear anything from Alex?” Kris asked as she squeezed back out of the locker room and squinted around at the bright metal tables outside, looking for their new friends.

“Lemme check,” Ella replied and pulled her phone out of her pocket. Unlocking her phone, she could see that she had a message waiting for her:

Got a table at edge of the square by shoe store. See u soon

“Did they find a table?” Kris asked, giving up her search and trying to read the message over Ella’s shoulder.

“Yeah, it’s this way,” Ella replied and guided her sister farther from the crowd.

They spent a couple minutes winding their way through tables before they found Alex and TK sitting at the most isolated table in the square. Upon seeing them, Alex stood up and waved. Her long, straight cut tentacles bobbed around her face.

“Did you have trouble finding us?” Alex asked, as the twins settled into the two empty chairs.

“Not really,” Ella replied, “But I’m still trying to get used to where everything is here.”

“Same,” said Alex.

“Uh, sorry for choosing so far out,” TK piped up, he seemed a bit anxious again, like when Ella had first seen him in the lobby. “I don’t really like crowds.” He blushed a little and rubbed the back of his head, brushing the edge of his bowl cut tentacles.

“It’s ok,” Ella remarked, “There’s fewer people here, so we can actually hear each other.” She began opening her lunch box to see what her mother had packed. Kris had already torn through her bag, looking for the yummiest food first.

“Ah ha!” Kris cried, thrusting a bright yellow food into the air. “Mom packed us squid-fin lemons!”

“Squid-fin lemons?” TK asked, clearly confused at Kris’s excitement over such a sour fruit.

“Didn’t you know they’re supposed to be good luck?” Alex asked him.

“Uh not really,” he replied nervously, “I grew up in the country, and no one ever talked about them being lucky.”

“Well TK, the bigger and more symmetrical a squid-fin lemon, the luckier they’re supposed to be,” Ella explained. She looked rather quizzically at her own lemon for a few seconds, turning it this way and that way.

Finally, she gave the biggest smile that any of them had seen on her face all day. “Mom chose good,” she said, “These ones are so symmetrical that they gotta be super lucky.”

“You think so?” asked Kris hopefully. She really hoped they were lucky so that she could win a few matches this afternoon.

“Of course,” Ella said, peeling her lemon. When she was done, she split the fruit in half, and gave one of the halves to TK, who looked surprised.

“Take it,” Ella said, waving the fruit in front of his face, “You helped me win my first match and get over my fear of turf wars. You deserve some luck this afternoon, too.”

“T-th-thanks,” TK replied with a small smile. Both he and Ella bit into their squid-fin lemons at the same time and immediately puckered up.

“Here,” Kris said to Alex, handing over half of her own lemon. From the look on her face, Ella could tell she was sharing because she felt a little left out from the group.

“Thanks!” Alex said and took the lemon gratefully. She raised it up in the air and cried “Let these lemons lead our group to victory this afternoon!”

“Here here!” the other three called before they all burst out laughing. As they finished their lunches, Kris and Alex eagerly speculated about their upcoming matches for the day, while Ella and TK quietly talked about books and music they had been listening too lately. When the four of them had finished, they cleaned up their table and headed back into Deca Tower for some more thrilling battles.

(Credit to rees-bees for this doodle. Check out the links in the author's notes for more of her art)

The rest of the afternoon passed by in a whirl of battles, and Ella slowly began to become more and more comfortable during matches. It seemed no matter what team she was assigned to, she was always paired with Kris or one of her new friends. Whenever she and TK were assigned to the same team, they were an unstoppable force, winning nearly every battle together.
When four o’clock came around, the four friends exited the tower back into the square and retreated back to their table. They were all exhausted from the exertion of their turf war matches.

Ella plopped down into her chair immediately and rested her head on the cool metal table. She was still trying to cool down from all the running she had done in the last match. Kris, on the other hand, still seemed to have energy, and was bouncing around Ella, going on about their victory in the last match.

Alex laughed. “Come on Kris, leave your poor sister alone, and let’s look up our battle stats.”
She sat down in the chair next to Ella and began to mess around her phone. Ella raised her head a few inches and gave her a small smile of thanks, which Alex returned.

“Oh yeah!” Kris exclaimed, “I wanna see what level I’m at now.”

After a few minutes of silence, Ella finally sat up fully and looked around. “Where’d TK go?”

“Hmm?” Alex said, not even looking up from her phone, “I think he said something about getting something.”

But just as she responded, TK had returned with four drinks, all stamped with the Crust Bucket logo.

“Hey, I got us all some drinks,” TK mumbled shyly, handing the cups out to the rest of the group.

“Wow TK! Thanks!” said Kris, taking the drink he handed to her. She took a sip. “Mmmm berry is my favorite!”

“Thanks TK,” Ella smiled, taking her own drink.

“Yeah thanks!” Alex joined in.

“So what’s the plan for now?” TK asked, taking the remaining chair beside Ella.

Ella checked the time on her phone. It was 4:30 pm. “Kris and I should probably go in a little bit, so we’re not late for dinner.”

“Yeah same here,” Alex replied, finally setting her phone on the table and looking at the rest of the group.

“Awww…” Kris whined, “I don’t want to leave yet.”

“We’ll be back tomorrow though Kris, it’s only for a little bit,” Ella replied. Out of the corner of her eye, Ella could see TK look a bit disappointed.

Ella turned to him, “What’s up?”

“Uh-uh nothing. I was just having fun today too. I don’t want to go home either,” he replied sheepishly.

“Well then, do you want to come over for dinner?” Kris asked. She leaned towards him, to get a better look at his face. “That way we can hang out just a bit longer?”

“Uh…um…well sure if it’s not any trouble…” he replied. TK was blushing a little, whether pleased at being asked or surprised by the sudden question, Ella wasn’t too sure.

“Sweet! Lemme text mom,” Kris squealed, whipping her phone out.

“If you don’t want to, you don’t have to,” Ella whispered, “I know she’s a little forceful.”

“It’s fine…it’ll be nice to…actually have a good meal with people,” he whispered back, and gave a small, reassuring smile. Ella pondered this statement for a moment, wondering what he meant by this, but was interrupted by the ding of Kris’s phone.

“Mom said you can come!” Kris said, “She says we’re having spaghetti for dinner.”

She turned to Alex, “Do you want to come too? Mom said you could come too if you want.”

“Nah, not tonight, my mom wants me home so we can celebrate my first turf wars. Maybe another night.”

“Aww alright,” Kris replied sadly.

“But guess what!” Alex said, smiling at them. “We all made it to level four! That means we can finally go shopping for new gear. We should go before we all go home.”

“All right!” TK cried.

Ella smiled and asked, “Where should we go first?”

“Weapons!” Kris cried.

“Headgear!” TK called.

“Shoes!” Alex exclaimed.

They all three looked at each other, and then at Ella.

“Guess you get to break the tie Sis,” Kris said. They all looked at her with pleading eyes.

“Uh…umm…uh…headgear I guess?” Ella replied hesitantly.

“All right!” TK grinned.

They finished up their drinks, and rushed over to the headgear shop.

“We should have just enough time to visit up the shops and still catch the super jump point to get home on time,” Alex called as they hurried up to the shops.

Before they entered, they all stared into the window at the hats on display in Headspace.

“Ooo that one’s so cute!” Kris cried, pointing at some pilot goggle on display.

“I like these,” Alex mused, staring at a bunch of baseball caps.

“Well then, let’s go in and try some on,” TK said, interrupting their musings. He grabbed Kris’s and Alex’s arms and gently pulled them into the store, with Ella following behind.

The inside of the store was neat and earthy. Hats, sunglasses, headphones, and masks all stood at neat attention on wooden models or tucked away onto shelves. Tapestries hung on the walls and the little extra shelf space was covered with plants. In the corner by the cash register sat the owner, a sea slug named Flow, who dressed much like a hippie.

The three of them searched through the store, trying on hats and other pieces of headgear and staring at their reflections in one of the many mirrors.

Ella started off trying on a few different hats. The blowfish bell hat, fishfry bandana, and yamagiri beanie all caught her eye, but when she tried them on, they didn’t seem to fit quite right. Either they didn’t fit well with her hairstyle or they felt too tight on her head. She put them all back with a sigh and continued to search around the store for something better suited to her.

But after a couple minutes, Ella gave up and looked over at her friends to see how their progress was going. TK seemed like he had found a nice facemask that he liked, and Kris was trying on different headbands. Alex was perusing the baseball caps in the back. Ella sighed and went back to half-heartedly search the store. Perhaps she’d have to wait another day to find a hat that worked for her.

TK, on the other hand, had found what he wanted almost immediately. He wanted a simple facemask to make himself less noticeable, and the firefin facemask had fit perfectly. But now that he was finished, TK checked up on the others to see how they were doing, and noticed almost immediately that Ella seemed to be struggling. She kept trying on hat after hat and frowning at each one in the mirror.

“Doing okay Ella?” TK asked, approaching her.

“Hmm? Oh…I guess…I’m not really sure what hat suits me,” she sighed, placing another rejected hat back on the shelf.

“Need some help?” he asked.

“Umm sure if it’s not too much trouble.”

He winked. “I already got myself some new gear, so let me help you.”

“O-okay,” Ella stuttered. She followed him around the store as he picked up pieces of gear and looked at them. Sometimes he would hold the item just above Ella’s head as if he were trying to picture it on her before shaking his head and putting the item down. Finally, he seemed to settle on a straw boater hat that he found on a shelf in the corner.

“Try this,” he said and handed her the hat.

Gingerly, she placed it on her head and looked in the mirror. To her surprise, it actually seemed to fit her style. It was cute and stylish, and light enough that it wouldn’t weigh her down in battle.

“What do you think?” TK asked. He too stared at her, with his arms crossed and seemed to be considering her reflection.

“I-I love it!” Ella cried, while a huge smile spread across her face. “It’s perfect! Thanks TK!”

TK seemed a bit embarrassed by the gratitude. “Aw it's nothing. Least I can do for you guys having me over for dinner.” He looked around, “The others seem ready, so let’s go check out.”

The four of them tried to check out quickly, wanting to get to the next shop, but Flow’s slow voice and even slower checkout process slowed them down. She insisted on checking all their levels before they bought their gear, and Kris had to go back and get a different headband because she wasn’t ‘fresh enough’ for that level of gear.

By the time they got out of there, they had to rush through the other two gear shops so that they had time to look at weapons. Luckily, Ella was able to find gear in these shops rather easily, and left with a pearl tee and a pair of blue sea slugs.

Finally, they entered the last shop, Ammo Knights. Inside, there was a long glass counter with various weapons displayed behind the glass. On the walls hung a variety of other weapon types, all arranged by what level they could be sold to. The four of them congregated near the section of the wall for level fours and stared up at the colorful and diverse weapons types.

Next to these weapons was a sign that said, “Testing area out back. Try any of the weapons out there.”

The four looked at each other.

“Should we?” asked Alex.

“Yeah let’s go!” Kris enthused.

With a shrug from the other two, they headed out into the test area. They each picked up different weapons, tested their weight, and fired a few test shots before moving on to the next weapon.

After a couple minutes, they all seemed to settle on a new weapon. Alex had chosen a splat charger, Kris a splat roller, TK a set of splat dualies, and Ella a splattershot. Each was particularly fond of their own choice for a different reason. Alex liked the skill and accuracy the charger provided. Kris liked the versatility of the roller with its ability to both splash and roll. TK liked the dodging ability of the dualies and the feeling of speed they gave him. And Ella liked the simplicity of the splattershot and its improved fire power.

With smiles of pleasure on their faces, the group went back into the shop to purchase their weapons. Those smiles slowly faded as Sheldon blabbed on and on to them about the weapons during then check out process, but they finally exited the shop with full new sets of gears and weapons for tomorrow’s splatting. The girls headed off to their locker room and TK to the boy’s so that they could stow their new gear and grab their bags.

When the girls exited the locker room, they could see TK waiting on one of the benches outside of Deca Tower on the phone. He seemed to be arguing with someone on the other end, but as they approached, he gave them a smile and hung up.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

“Sure, but if you need to finish that conversation, we can wait,” Ella replied.

“Nah it’s cool. I just had to tell my bod-guardian where I was going.”

“Then let’s go!” Kris proclaimed, “Mom’s making spaghetti, and I’m starvingggg.”

“See you tomorrow Alex?” Ella asked.

“Yep, text me when you get here, and we can play some matches.”

“Bye Alex!” Kris called.

“See ya,” TK said.

Alex waved goodbye and headed out of the square towards the subway station.

Ella led the remaining group towards the nearest super jump point. Addie had told her that this point would drop her off only about a block from their house. There was already a crowd of inklings growing around it, also trying to go home. They waited their turn in line, and then the three of them super jumped into the evening sky.

Chapter Text

Addie had been right about the super jump point. When the three of them had landed, they were only a block away from the twin’s home.

“Come on, this way!” called Kris, leading TK down the street towards their home. She stopped outside the white door of their house and pulled out her Tae-Kyu keychain to unlock the door.
The three of them shuffled inside.

In the small entrance way lay two pairs of adult-sized shoes. Kris’s face lit up instantly. “Dad’s home!” she cried and flung her shoes and bag haphazardly across the floor before sprinting out of the room.

Ella and TK could hear her shouting in the neighboring room. “Dad you’re home early! I can’t wait to tell you all about my day!”

There was a chuckle, and her father replied, “That’s why I came home early. I couldn’t wait to hear all about your first day. But where’s your sister and friend?”

“Oh, they're taking off their shoes they’ll be in in a minute.” The two of them continued to banter back and forth while Ella and TK took their shoes off in the entry hall. Every now and then they could hear the twin’s mother cut into the conversation.

Once her own shoes were taken care of, Ella picked up Kris’s things and began to put them away neatly. She could see out of the corner of her eye TK reluctantly taking off his new mask. But with their things stowed away, Ella finally led TK into the kitchen.

Upon entering, Ella gasped in surprise at the huge round cake sitting on the table waiting for them. She was shocked that Kris hadn’t ruined the surprise by shouting about it, but her mother must have signaled for her to be quiet.

The icing was a rainbow of colors that looked like inkblots from turf war matches with little inkling figurines scattered across the surface in different battle poses. And in the center was written “Happy First Turf Wars Kris, Ella, and TK,” surrounded by three unlit candles. TK’s name looked a little sloppy like it had been added last minute, but from the look on his face, Ella could tell he didn’t really care. He seemed a little lost for words with how happy he was to be recognized.

“Ah you must be Ella’s and Kris’s new friend, TK,” their father said approaching and holding out his hand to shake.

TK took it and briefly shook. “Yes sir. Ella and I were teamed up on our very first battle.”

The twin’s mother smiled, “Well, we really appreciate you helping Ella on her first day. She was very nervous about turf wars.”

She was interrupted with a yell of “Mom!” TK could see Ella blushing in embarrassment from what her mother had said.

“Oh sorry Ella!” she said with a small smile to Ella. “Anyway my name is Mrs. Campbell, dear.
I’m afraid dinner isn’t quite ready yet. But once the girls set the table, we should be all set.” She gave the girl’s a quick look, and they scurried into action, pulling out silverware. Mr. Campbell, in the meantime, seemed to have wandered off upstairs to change.

“I can help,” he offered to Ella, holding out his hand for her to hand him something.

“Oh but you’re a guest dear,” Mrs. Campbell replied, turning back around from the pot she was stirring. “I couldn’t-”

“I insist,” TK said.

“Oh you’re too kind. Well, I’m sure the girls can find you something to help with.” Ella handed him some silverware and whispered him a soft thanks.

There was a whirl of silverware, bread, butter, and parmesan as the twins and TK set the table as fast as they could. All three of them were starving after their afternoon matches. Thankfully, the ding of the kitchen timer sounded and Mr. Campbell had reappeared by the time they had finished. They all served up and said a quick blessing before digging in.

“I’m sorry it’s nothing fancy,” Mrs. Campbell said, once everyone had been served. “Work ran a little late tonight.”

“But it’s really good!” TK replied, “I don’t get to eat meals like this too often.” Ella could see a faint blush on his cheek as he finished, as if he had not meant to say that.

“Oh, does your family not cook much?” Mr. Campbell asked.

“Uh…no not that. I just live on my own right now,” he replied. His pauses sounded to Ella as if he were thinking of a story to make up, but the rest of her family didn’t seem to notice.

“Alone? At your age? How come?” asked Mrs. Campbell.

“Well not really alone…” he paused, “I live with my…uncle, but he’s away on business a lot. My parents sent me to the city because…they wanted me to have a better education.”

“That’s very understandable,” Mr. Campbell replied, “What school do you intend to go to?”

“I’m not really sure yet…There are so many options.”

“The girls are starting at Inkopolis Academy in the fall. It’s one of the better schools in Inkopolis. And out eldest daughter, Addie, loves it there,” said Mrs. Campbell, “In fact, have Ella give you her study guides, I’m sure they can help you study for whichever entrance exam you end up taking.”

“Um sure if Ella doesn’t mind.” Ella shook her head. “Thanks then!”

The conversation drifted off into a lively discussion about their turf war matches that day. Ella could tell TK preferred this conversation much better.

Finally, it was time for cake, and all three candles were lit up, illuminating the three inklings faces.

“Now all of you come up with a wish. It’s not everyday that you start your first turf wars, so make it something really special!” Mrs. Campbell exclaimed, turning off the lights so that only the candles lit the room.

‘I wish I was less nervous about battles,” wished Ella as hard as she could. She peeked over at Kris and could see from the look on her face she was wishing to win more battles. TK’s face was a little harder to decipher, but whatever he was wishing for, Ella could tell he wanted it with all his heart.

Then on the count of three they all blew out their candles. The two parents clapped and cheered for them. Then Mrs. Campbell began cutting the cake for everyone, making sure everyone got one of the cute little figures on top to keep “for luck.”

“Now you all shoo and have some fun,” she said, “Your father and I will take care of the dishes tonight.” Kris ran out of the kitchen with her cake without protest. Ella and TK looked at her as if to be sure, but Ella’s mom gave them a reassuring nod and they too retreated from the room. Being mindful of her cake, Ella led TK up to her and Kris’s room.

The twin’s room was fairly large compared to Addie’s room. In the back corner, two beds were squashed together at right angles, with a small end table resting between the two headboards. Desks sat at the end of each bed. And in the corner closest to the door was a small futon, TV with a few game consoles, and some bookshelves stuffed with books, cds, magazines, and video games.

“Wow!” TK said, looking around, “This room’s really cool.” Ella looked around, but to her it looked the same as it always had, boring and a little crowded. She gave him the benefit of the doubt and made herself comfortable on the futon, where TK joined her. Meanwhile, Kris shuffled around trying to find a cd to play.

TK nearly choked on his cake the second the cd Kris had selected started playing. Ella thumped him a could of times on the back but after a few seconds he seemed to regain breathing. He waved Ella off with a little ‘I’m fine,’ but Ella could see that he looked really shaken and nervous, just like he had looked in the match lobby when she had asked his name.

Determining that the music must be what the problem was, she got up to find the cd case Kris had thrown carelessly aside.

“Kris, you should ask TK what he wants to listen to. I’m sure he’s not too interested in all your pop idols,” Ella lectured, finally finding the case.
“Aw, but Tae-kyu is the best,” Kris whined.

Ella could see TK getting more nervous from the corner of her eye. She popped the disc out of the player and placed it back into the case.

“Even so, it’s still polite to ask what everyone wants to listen to,” she replied. The removal of the cd seemed to have calmed TK somewhat. She wondered why. Flipping the case over, she glanced down at the cover for a second and then did a double take.

The boy on the cover, Tae-Kyu, looked awfully familiar. The bowl cut hair, the grey eyes, body type, and even the age of this boy all looked really familiar. Almost like…

She looked up rather cautiously. If she was right, she didn’t want to startle him. Thankfully, TK was distracted once again by his cake. And Ella got a good look at him. TK looked exactly like the boy on the cover of the cd.

TK seemed to finally notice her staring, “Something the matter?” he asked nervously.

“Nah,” she said. If TK was really Tae-Kyu, he was probably keeping it a secret for a good reason.

“I was just thinking of what kind of game we could all play together,” she mustered, “I must have zoned out a bit, sorry.” She gave a faint smile of apology.

TK looked relieved, although he hid it well. “Oh, that sounds cool. Any suggestions?”

“Squid Beatz!” cried Kris. Ella was suddenly really thankful for her obliviousness. Her excitement seemed to direct TK’s attention away from her odd behavior.

“Sound like fun,” TK replied, “Is that what you were thinking Ella?”

“Sure, that was one idea,” she said, “Kris where’d you hide the game?”

The search for the game went on for a while. Ella couldn’t help giving occasional side-long glances at TK to continue to support her suspicions. But eventually Squid Beatz was found under the futon in the wrong game case. They played for nearly an hour before they were interrupted by a ring on TK’s phone.

He sighed, “It’s my bo—uncle. He’s waiting for me outside.” He looked upset to leave.

“That’s okay,” Kris said, trying to cheer him up, “We can see you tomorrow! And I’m sure mom wouldn’t mind you coming over for dinner again.”

“Yeah!” Ella continued, “Besides we all need some rest after running around today.”

TK gave a small smile, “Thanks guys. I’ll do my best to see you for turf wars tomorrow. I got some things to do in the morning.”

“It’s no problem,” Ella replied, “Kris sleeps forever in the morning.”

“Hey!”

“Come on you know it’s true.”

“Nu-uh, I woke up before you today.”

The two continued to playfully bickered as they walked TK to the door, with Ella remembering last minute to grab the study guides for TK. Their bickering stopped suddenly short at the sight of the fancy looking car outside.

“Oh,” TK sighed, “My Uncle’s sort of rich…Well thanks for having me over and thank your mom for me…” But before he could finish that thought Mrs. Campbell raced out of the kitchen and handed him some Tupperware of leftover dinner and cake.

“I figure you’d like some leftovers for when your uncle’s gone,” she said to TK, “And do come again for dinner sometime.”

“Th-thanks,” TK replied, startled by the kind gesture. The twin’s mother waved goodbye and headed into the living room to let the kids finish saying goodbye. With a final wave, TK headed out the door towards the car.

Kris ran back upstairs, but Ella stayed and watched. TK seemed to be having an argument with his ‘uncle.’ Whatever it was about, it ended quickly, and they both climbed into the car and drove away.

Ella lay awake that night thinking over all that had happened that day. She was happy turf wars were not as bad as she had thought and excited over having met some new friends. Inevitably though, her thoughts returned to TK.
She wondered if he was really Tae-kyu. His nervousness today would make a lot of sense if it were the case, and his reluctance to tell her his name when they first met would seem less confusing. The fact that he lived alone with his ‘uncle’ was also very strange when combined with everything else.
In the end, she decided he was Tae-kyu, and he probably just wanted to be a normal kid playing turf wars every now and again. She could see that if people knew who he really was they would all flock to him and try to use his friendship for fame and personal gain. Plus, he had helped her out a lot today, and she really wanted to be friends with such a nice and understanding person. She would keep quiet about him for now, especially from Kris. And with that, she rolled over and fell asleep.

Chapter Text

While Addie and Coral were not the most known players in their age group, they were among some of the most talented players in their division of turf wars. No matter what mode they played, they won over 80% of their matches, and when they were paired together, that stat was even higher. So, it came as no surprise that their afternoon was spent winning match after match. But as the afternoon began to blend into evening, it was finally time for Addie to set out on her trip.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to see you off?” Coral asked, leaning against the wall as Addie pulled her suitcase out of her locker.

“Nah, I’ll be fine,” Addie replied, “Plus if the bus is late, I don’t want you missing out on matches.”

“Sure?”

“Positive,” Addie replied, really hoping Coral would leave. She didn’t want to be late for her trip, and she had to be absolutely sure Coral would not see her leave.

“Alright then, but send me a message when you get to camp,” Coral said, “And teach me any new techniques you learn when you get back.”

“Promise,” Addie grinned. She gave her friend one last hug and watched her walk back out of the locker room towards Deca Tower.

Addie’s smile faded as Coral left the room. She took a deep breath and then dug around in the back of her locker looking for her hero headset and jacket. She stuffed them quickly into her bag so no one would see.

She was not actually going to camp as everyone believed. Instead she’d be going on a top-secret mission with the New Squidbeak Splatoon into the depths of Octo Canyon. Their goal was to sneak in and destroy any Octarian technology that could be used to harm Inkopolis in the future.

Addie had been fairly surprised at how quickly everyone had believed her story. She supposed the made-up letter from Marie and Cap’n Cuttlefish had helped. They had gotten every last detail down, including making a fake packing list. But now that it was time to go, Addie wondered if she really wanted to go on such a long and dangerous trip. She felt as nervous as Ella had about her first match. Except that this was real, and if anything happened to her, she might never come home.

She slammed her locker shut and left the locker room, heading off towards the small manhole outside of Deca Tower. There was no use dwelling on these feelings. She had made her choice long ago and that was that. She had chosen to protect Inkopolis, to protect her family and friends. And to never have to see that terrified look that had appeared on Ella’s face when she had heard the news that the Great Zapfish was missing.

Standing over the manhole, she watched the crowd, waiting for a chance to pass through the grating without anyone noticing. After a few seconds, the plaza cleared of inklings waiting to enter the tower and the remaining few were all staring at their phones. Addie took the opportunity and slipped through the grate. On the other side she was greeted by three other inklings who had been waiting for her.

“Ah Agent 3, ya all ready to set out? I packed us some crabbie cakes for the voyage,” asked the elderly inkling, Cap’n Cuttlefish.

Addie nodded.

“Don’t worry Agent 3, we’ll keep an eye on things here!” cried Callie.

“And I’ll help keep things hidden from your family if it’s needed,” added Marie.

“Thank you,” Addie replied. She handed Marie the suitcase she had brought. She wouldn’t need it on this trip and settled her backpack on her back. She nodded to Cap’n Cuttlefish to lead the way.

“Good luck!” yelled Callie.

“Don’t worry, Agent One and I will take care of Inkopolis!” Marie called.

Addie nodded again, feeling a little queasy from nerves.

The walk didn’t last for too long. After a few minutes, the two stopped outside a small sewer line that looked like it led deep into the canyon. Cap’n Cuttlefish went first, descending down the pipe rather clunkily.

Addie took one last deep breath before she followed him. She would be fine. The mission would be tough, but it wasn’t for very long. And what could possibly go wrong in Inkopolis in the meantime, with both Agent 1 and 2 on watch? Little did she know that dark times were coming for the entire Squidbeak Splatoon.

Chapter Text

Two weeks had passed since Ella’s and Kris’s first day of turf wars, and the two sat outside Deca Tower with Alex, waiting for TK to show up. The four young inklings had become fast friends and even better teammates in the short time that they had known each other.

Alex and Kris were becoming a dynamic duo together both on and off the field. Kris’s enthusiasm and skill with her roller helped her get her team maximum points. And with Alex and her charger for protection, she got splatted way less often. Off the field, both could be seen with their heads together coming up with new battle strategies.

For their level group, they were rivaled only with Ella and TK, whose strategy was to stick together. With the two of them watching each other’s backs, they rarely got splatted and could cover a stage within seconds. But they were also the least concerned of the group about their success. Winning was fun and all, but they had better fun talking about books and games off the field than strategy. Regardless, except when paired on opposite teams, the four were practically inseparable.

Ella had still not asked TK if he was really Tae-Kyu or mentioned it to anyone. But as the days passed, she became more and more sure of his real identity. TK often showed up at odd hours to play with them and on some days was not available at all. In fact, on a day that Tae-kyu was scheduled for a concert, TK did not show up for turf wars at all. Alex and Kris didn’t seem to notice much at all. His excuses about enrolling in school and having a strict uncle seemed to assuage their curiosity

But today, TK was running very late. He had texted them earlier promising he would be able to come in the afternoon but had yet to show up. Kris and Alex had started to grow bored of waiting and were talking about strategies for the afternoon to distract themselves. Ella, on the other hand, had pulled out her book, but was barely paying attention to it, preferring to people watch as she waited.

As the clock struck 1 pm, the Inkopolis news report started up. Kris and Alex perked up to hear what the stages would be for the afternoon. But as soon as Pearl and Marina had declared the regular battle stages, they returned to their discussion. Ella kept watching, waiting for the duo to perform their sign off pose, but the two kept talking after they announced the stages. It seemed there was more to announce today than just stages.

“THIS JUST IN!” Marina cried, “The Great Zapfish has…disappeared?!”

She and Pearl both seemed a little shocked. So much so that Pearl seemed to speak off the prompter. “Wait, like, for reals?!”

“There’s more!” Marina interrupted, “Pop superstar Callie of the Squid Sisters has gone missing!”

“Noo! Not Callie!” Pearl gasped.

The two continued to jabber on about the subject, but Ella was no longer paying attention.

She couldn’t believe the Great Zapfish was missing again. She was suddenly filled with the same fear she had felt two years ago. Fear about the power going out for good and the big changes that go with it.

“Did you hear that?” she asked the other two, “The Great Zapfish has gone missing!”

“Really?” Kris asked, “Again?” Neither she nor Alex seemed too shocked by the news.

“I wonder if they’ll find whoever mysteriously brought it back last time,” Alex said.

“I bet it was a secret agent or something,” Kris replied.

“Hmm possible…but wouldn’t the government want to say they had found it if that were the case? Last time all they said is it ‘mysteriously returned’ like they didn’t know who returned it,” theorized Alex.

“I suppose…” Kris said thoughtfully.

“Aren’t you guys concerned that it's missing?” Ella interrupted, “Isn’t this like a really big deal?”

“Nah, someone brought it back last time, I’m sure they will again,” Alex said.

“Yeah Ella, don’t be such a worrywart,” Kris added.

Before she could press her case, Alex changed the subject, “Anyway, have you heard anything from TK yet?”

Ella glanced at her phone and noticed she had a new message. “Oh he just said he’ll be about an hour late.”

“Do we want to go play a few rounds then before he gets here?” Alex asked.

“Sure!” Kris said, springing up from her chair and taking a last big chug of her drink. Alex got up too, brushing off lunch crumbs from her legs.

“Nah, I think I’ll read until TK gets here,” Ella responded.

“Aww Ella come on…” Kris whined. But she noticed her sister’s black tentacles had a slight greenish hue in them. She supposed the news of the Great Zapfish had scared her sister a bit.

Alex could see Ella needed some time alone. “Come on Kris, let’s go. Ella probably wants to save up her energy for when TK gets here.”

“Fine…” she said, and she didn’t bother her sister again. Despite the disappointment, she knew if she made her sister play, she would only play half-heartedly and lose. “Text us if
you change your mind.”

“Sure, good luck!” Ella called to them and waved them off.

She tried to focus on her book after they left, but her thoughts kept returning to the Great Zapfish. With an annoyed sigh, she slammed her book shut and got up to walk around the plaza to try and clear her head.

The movement did seem to help release some of the stress, but every now and then a thought like ‘What if the city runs out of power?’ slipped into her mind, and she had to walk faster.

These thoughts were so persistent that she didn’t even notice a kimono-clad inkling staring at her from a corner of the square. In fact, Ella didn’t even notice her until she tripped over some uneven pavement. As she caught her balance, she caught a glimpse of the young inkling woman staring at her.

The inkling staring at her looked strangely familiar with her green and white colored tentacles. Ella knew she didn’t know the squid in person. It was more like she had seen her somewhere, like on TV or in a magazine. But she couldn’t quite place where she had seen her. The strangest part about her though, was that she was staring at Ella like she was evaluating her. The two held eye contact for a minute, before the strange inkling gave her a tiny nod like she wanted Ella to follow her, then slipped straight through the manhole cover she was standing on.

Despite her cautious personality, Ella was curious about what the young woman wanted and why she seemed to think Ella was the person she wanted. In the end, her curiosity won out. She slipped her book under Judd’s pillow then quickly walked over to the manhole. When it seemed that no one was watching, she took a deep breath, and sunk into the sewer line.

The strange inkling was waiting for Ella on the other side of the pipe.

“Hmm…The Octarians…” she said ominously before turning dramatically around to face Ella.

“Hey…You showed up! As soon as I saw you aimlessly wandering around the square, I knew you were the one. I’m Marie. I know you’re probably a bit starstruck, but I need you to get over it,” the inkling said, sounding a little stuck up.

Ella looked at her confusedly. Did she know a Marie? A famous Marie? One of Addie’s favorite idol groups, the Squid Sisters did have someone with an M in their name. Was it Marie? Or something else like May or Mary or Margret? Before she could ponder much further, Marie interrupted her train of thought.

“Yes I’m THAT Marie. You know…from the Squid Sisters.” Ella simply stared at her harder trying to determine if she was lying to her. This random person from the square couldn’t be someone famous, right? Famous people didn’t just wander the streets with ordinary inklings. But then she remembered TK. Perhaps it was true.

Marie seemed to misinterpret the look on Ella’s face. “You’ve never heard of me? For eel?” she said, shocked. She regained her composure quickly, “Well, you obviously aren’t very cultured, but you’ll have to do.”

Ella opened her mouth to call her out on that rude statement, but Marie didn’t seem to notice and plowed on.

“See I’ve got a little…thing I need help with. By now you’ve heard the Great Zapfish that powers Inkopolis is missing. Well, it’s not just missing-it’s been squidnapped by the Octarian menace!”

Ella narrowed her eyes in distrust. How on earth would she know what happened to the Great Zapfish? Not even the news or government seemed to know. And she was claiming a species that had long since been extinct had stolen it?

As if she could read Ella’s mind, Marie continued, “How do I know this? Well on the surface, I may just look like an absurdly talented pop star…but in truth…I’m Agent 2 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, a secret society of heroes who save the world from the Octarians!”

Mistrust still must be apparent on Ella’s face because she continued talking, more in a rush than before.

“Now, I’ve been busy trying to keep an eye on the Octarians in my downtime, but I’m a busy girl,” she paused for a second, lost in some thought or another. She shook her head as if to clear it before continuing, “I need YOU to get the Great Zapfish back from those slimy Octarians! What do you say? Are you in?”

Ella considered this for a minute. If what she was saying was true, perhaps Ella should help. And if she succeeded, the Great Zapfish would be returned, and she wouldn’t have to worry about running out of power. But then she could be lying, the evidence didn’t really seem to line up with her story. Plus why would she want someone like Ella for help instead of someone way more talented or smart?

Before she could say anything one way or another, Marie spoke, “Sooooooo…I”ll take your awkward silence as a yes. Welcome aboard! You are now Agent 4 of the Squidbeak Splatoon.”

She shuffled around in the small decorative shed next to her and pulled out a strange gun and a stack of clothing that she handed to Ella. “I even bought you a brand-new Hero Suit as a signing bonus. And look at that, it fits like a glove!” she exclaimed as Ella slipped the jacket on.

That seemed to startle her out of Marie’s hypnotizing words. She opened her mouth to protest, but Marie was once again not paying attention to her.

“Now go get those Octarians!” she cheered, “There should be an entrance to one of their lairs over there.” She pointed back past the rock wall behind the shed. She grabbed Ella by the arm and gave her a little push towards the rock wall.

The area behind the rocky entrance was very strange looking. The structures all around her were of a bizarre mixture of stone, random construction equipment and giant metal tea kettles. She wasn’t even sure if this area was safe to be in.

Ella examined one of the giant tea kettles out of curiosity. It seemed to be an entrance of sorts, just like the manhole she had passed through earlier. She was pretty sure this is where Marie wanted her to go.

She gave a little sigh as she looked around, she wasn’t sure why she was doing this at all. But she supposed she could at least try to help this Marie once, and if she was lying, she could leave. So with a deep breath, she once again sank through a grating to a mysterious place.

While Ella knew the kettle was an entrance of some kind, she had still expected to fall straight through to the metal bottom of the kettle. But when her feet landed on solid ground, she opened her eyes to find she was in an even stranger place than before. Above her was a giant sunset colored dome, with rock descending from various parts of the dome. Giant mason jars seemed to be floating from the sky. From a point so far below, she couldn’t tell where they started, sky scrapers and rock pillars rose up from around the platform she was standing on. And if that wasn’t strange enough, the platform she was on didn’t seem to have any support structures. Like the mason jars, it simply seemed to be floating in the sky.

Ella gulped. She didn’t know what she had gotten herself into. She would have never come here if she had known it would be anything like this. But from the looks of things around her, it was clear to her that the only way out was forward. So, she took a deep breath and swam to a super jump point ahead of her.
The super jump took her to another small platform with a huge puddle of purple ink with a single wall in the middle. And on the other side was some strange creature Ella had never seen before.

Ella squinted hard at the creature trying to figure out what it was. Was this one of the Octarians Marie was talking about?

But she didn’t have much time to think about what the creature was. The second it saw her it started shooting purple ink at her. Ella squealed in protest and dodged to the side behind the wall. It took her a couple of seconds to catch her breath before she paused and let her turf war instincts take over. She jumped back out from behind the wall and started sending a few shots of her own towards the strange creature. The enemy, which seemed unable to move in its contraption, got splatted.

She moved on to the small passageway behind it and continued pressing forward, taking down more and more of the strange creatures before her. The closer a look she got at them, the more she noticed how they looked like the Octarians from her history class. Though rudimentary ones at that. They looked nothing like the elite octolings that had played a huge role in the Great Turf War.

By now, Ella was in the zone, taking out enemies and pressing forward. She had just reached an area with a large cylindrical container that was being guarded by a number of Octarians.

“Hey you need to find the key to that vault to move forward,” Marie said right into her ear.

Ella nearly got splatted by one of the Octarians she was so startled. She hadn’t been aware that the ear protectors Marie had given her were communication devices. But taking Marie’s advice, she moved on to check the little warehouses on each side of the vault for the key. There were a ton of boxes inside each, with more than a few hiding enemies waiting to attack her. But she was able to out-speed and outwit them, and found the key hiding in one of the boxes, allowing her to super jump to the next area.

The rest of the platforms were much the same. Tons of enemies guarding super jump points and doing their very best to stop her from moving forward. She supposed this would stop many a curious inkling from exploring the area, but Ella was just so scared that she didn’t care about the number of enemies. She just wanted out of there.
But almost as suddenly as she arrived, she had reached what seemed to be the end of this strange area. The last platform held a small little zapfish trapped inside a yellow sphere.

“That’s one of the zapfish the Octarians took!” Marie exclaimed into her ear, “Bust the shield and take it back!”

Ella did as she was told and shot her gun straight at the shield until it burst. She jumped forward to grab the zapfish and was surprised at how much cuter and cuddlier it was up close. She could imagine why her sister had always talked about cuddling with one when she was a child.

Just as she had grabbed the zapfish, a super jump point appeared where the shield had been. Holding the zapfish close, Ella took the super jump point and found to her relief that she was back on top of the kettle in the strange construction area she had been in before.

“Great work Agent 4! Inkopolis might not be doomed after all.”

Ella turned to find Marie standing elegantly with her umbrella out to protect her from the sun.

“I’ll take that zapfish from you,” she added, holding out an arm for the small creature. “I can get it back to where it belongs without anyone noticing.”

Ella stood there a little dazed. She supposed the little zapfish was proof Marie hadn’t been lying to her.

“Agent 4, the zapfish?” she asked again.

Ella shook her head a little to wake herself up and handed over the zapfish.

“I suppose that’s enough for your first day Agent 4. Run along back to the Square. But be sure to come back soon, there are many more areas to explore for the Great Zapfish. And whatever you do, don’t tell anyone.”

Ella nodded and hurried back off towards the sewer line she had arrived in. She stripped off her agent outfit and placed it in Marie’s hut before putting her own clothes back on. Within seconds, she was back in the Square.

Back in the square, Ella was a little dazed by the sunlight after being in the darker Octarian lair. As her eyes began to adjust, she could see TK in the distance looking around for her. He must have just arrived. She quickly grabbed her book and her phone back out from under Judd’s pillow and snagged the closest table she could find. She had just ripped open her book and was looking as immersed as possible when TK caught a glance of her and hurried over.

“There you are Ella! I’ve been looking all over for you,” TK exclaimed, collapsing into the chair next to her. Ella pretended to jump, as if she hadn’t noticed her arrival. “Have the other two started already?”

“Oh…um yes,” she responded. She was still in too much shock from that strange Octarian landscape.

“You okay?” TK asked, looking concerned. Ella seemed really zoned out to him as if something was wrong.

“Oh sorry!” Ella said, coming back to reality. She needed to pull herself together so that no one would suspect something was wrong. Being Agent 4 and the strange canyon was a secret, and she wasn’t sure that anyone would believe her. She forced a smile on her face. “I’m just still thinking about this book, it’s so thought provoking!”

“Really? Well let me borrow it when you’re done,” TK responded with relief. He was concerned something was really the matter.

“Sure, but let’s go find Alex and Kris now before they forget you’re even coming today.”

The two hurried off to the locker rooms to get ready before an afternoon of intense battles.

Chapter Text

While Ella had spent the last two weeks making friends and becoming a secret agent, Addie had been busy exploring Octo Canyon with Cap’n Cuttlefish. So far, they had made it fairly deep into the Octarians’ lair without being detected. It seemed that most of the army was above them causing some sort of mischief.

The farther they traveled into the Octarian domes, the more decrepit the buildings became and the darker it got. In many areas, the lights flickered or were off completely. From just observing the domes, she could see why the Octarians were constantly trying to steal the zapfish from the inklings. The place seemed miserable, and Addie felt more than a little guilty about their purpose down here. But she had to protect Ella and her family, so she pressed on.

But just as Ella was entering Octo Canyon above her, Addie and Cap’n Cuttlefish had finally reached their destination, the top secret octoweaponry lab. Their goal here was to go in and destroy as many blueprints for Great Octoweapons and other weapon-based technology as quickly possible.

Addie scouted around the building, looking for guards and trying to find the best way in while Cap’n Cuttlefish rested. This building too was starting to fall apart, but was much better cared for than some of the others they had passed on their way down here. It was huge, and loud construction noises came out from some cracks in the wall. Octoling guards stood at each entrance, though they looked much younger than those that Addie had faced up above.
After a few minutes of prowling, Addie found a small gap in a wall towards the rear of the building that both she and Cap’n Cuttlefish could slip through in squid form. The corridor it opened into also seemed deserted when she slipped a small camera through.

Returning to Cap’n Cuttlefish’s hiding place, she gave him a small nod to indicate that she had found a place to enter. With that, they both sneaked back around to the entrance Addie had found and entered the small corridor.

The inside of the building looked a lot nicer than the outside. While it was clearly old, the hallway was very clean and well-maintained. Addie pulled out her hero shot in preparation in case they ran into trouble, while Cap’n Cuttlefish stared closely at the map he had stolen from some unsuspecting octoling.

After a couple of seconds, he pointed to the door they should go through. With a combination of small cameras and stealthy squid form, they made it slowly through the facility, avoiding guards until they reached a door labeled ‘Development Room.’ They had finally made it to their destination. Now the hard part could begin.

Addie stuck one of the cameras under the door again to be sure no one was in the room. It seemed that most of the octolings, besides the guards, had left for the day to go back to the barracks and rest, but Addie wanted to be sure. From the looks of things, the room was empty, so she slowly and quietly twisted the doorknob so they could slip inside.

The second they slipped into the room however, Addie heard some shuffling and immediately whipped around to see an octoling boy sitting in a corner her camera could not have reached. Luckily, he had not heard them enter. She said a silent curse in her head and quietly pointed him out to Cap’n Cuttlefish. He mimed to her to go capture the boy and gag him so no one would hear him. She nodded back, and tiptoed her way over to the boy.

Right as she was about to strike and knock the boy out, another door next to him burst open, and a young female guard entered. She looked annoyed and had started speaking in a firm tone in Octarian to the boy, almost as if she were lecturing him. But her voice stopped when her eyes fell upon Addie.

Immediately, the girl jumped in front of the young boy and pulled out her octoshot, starting to fire ink straight at Addie. Addie dodged and retreated back to Cap’n Cuttlefish.

“Let’s get out of here!” the Cap’n called, and the two of them hurried back out the door they came in. But the octoling girl followed them, shooting shots of ink at both of them as they raced through the passages. Addie was sure that the boy had called reinforcements by now.

Unfortunately, the two of them in their hurry had taken some wrong turns and ended up on a side of the building they did not know. It was older and not as well taken care of as the other side of the building, and every now and then they had to jump over doors and parts of the roof that had caved in. But thankfully there were no guards down this way. They turned around one more corner and found themselves at a dead end.

“Agent 3, take care of her while I try to break down this wall,” the Cap’n ordered, pushing behind Addie and pulling out his own weapon to fire at the wall. Addie nodded and stepped forward, preparing to shoot at the octoling when she came around the corner.

But when the girl came around the corner, her ponytail bouncing, she jumped, causing Addie to miss. She fired some ink back at Addie and hit the unprepared inkling in the arm.

Addie gave a hiss of pain but recovered quickly for fear the girl would take advantage of her momentary weakness. The two circled each other, firing shots at each other and dodging. The fight was so intense that Addie had begun to pant with the effort. This girl was almost as good as she was at fighting

None of them, though, could have predicted what happened next. Between the age of the building and the combined damage from all three of their ink, the floor could no longer support them and gave out. And with a tumble, all three fell through the floor. Falling deeper than even Octo Canyon itself.

Chapter Text

As the hot afternoon sun blazed down on Inkopolis Square, Ella sat peacefully at a shady table reading her book. It was an exciting tale about two inkling knights setting off on a journey to fight a giant kraken.

She was just reaching the climax of the story when there was a loud thump next to her, startling her out of her book.

Looking up she saw Kris, looking utterly dejected.

“Wahh! I’m all out of money for new gear!” she cried dramatically, slamming her face down on to her folded arms, so she couldn’t see the Square at all. She continued to whine quietly under her breath, while Ella sighed and closed her book. She wasn’t going to get much reading done with Kris in this mood.

“Well maybe you should start saving up some money Kris,” Alex said, from behind Kris. She took a neighboring chair at the table and settled a shopping bag under her chair before continuing, “You always spend your money on silly things.”

“Do not!” Kris whined back, looking up, annoyed.

“Then what about those band keychains you bought last week?” Ella asked, leaning back in her chair to get a better look at her sister.

“Or all those arcade games you played yesterday?” Alex added.

“That’s not faaaaaaairrrrr,” Kris protested, looking annoyed, “You guys spend money too!”

“Yeah, but not like you,” Ella replied. Kris glared back at the two of them as they started to giggle at her ridiculous behavior.

Kris gave a huge dramatic sigh and returned her head to her arms, this time staring moodily out at the crowd. “Anyway, when’s TK going to show up. If we all play together, I bet we’ll earn more money.”

“Any minute now,” Ella replied, unlocking her phone to double check her messages. “He texted me while you guys were in the shop.”

The three of them stared out at the crowd, trying to pick their friend out from the throng of flashy young inklings wandering the plaza.

“There he is!” Alex called, “Hey TK! Over here!” She stood up and started waving her arms in the air to get his attention. After only a few seconds, he noticed Alex and waved back, heading towards them.

“What’s up guys?” he asked, taking the last chair at the table, “What do you guys want to do today?”

“Well Kris wants us all to play together so she can earn some money,” Ella said, “She spent her last quarter at the arcade yesterday and doesn’t have enough for new gear.”
“Hey!” Kris jumped up, outraged.

“Come on Kris, it’s true,” Alex said, trying to push her back into her chair.

“Fine, but you guys don’t have to be mean about it,” she pouted.

“Well if you're looking for money,” TK interrupted, amused by Kris’s antics, “I hear the best way to get some is by working part time at the salmon run.”

“The what?” Alex asked.

“The salmon run. It’s run by this strange fellow named Mr. Grizz. I hear he hires anyone and pays really well. All you gotta do is collect salmon eggs for him.”

“I dunno, that sounds sort of sketchy…” Ella protested.

“SIGN ME UP!” Kris shouted, jumping up eagerly. “Where is it, TK?”

“To the left of Deca Tower, but hold up Kris,” he said, grabbing her arm, “I hear it’s better to go in groups of four. It makes it easier to collect the eggs.”

“Well come on then!” Kris said, pulling on his arm that held hers. “Let’s all go!”
Alex and TK gave each other a bemused look, but they both stood up to join Kris. Ella, on the other hand, hesitated.

“I’m not so sure about this Kris…” she said.

“Oh come on Ella, pleassssse. I really need that new shirt,” she begged. When that didn’t work, she added, “You’ll probably get enough money to buy a whole bunch more books.”

Ella frowned and crossed her arms to consider it for a minute. She was almost done with her story, and there were still plenty of books in the series. Finally, she sighed, saying “Lead the way TK.”

The four of them made their way to the shady looking building to the left of Deca Tower. Kris raced inside eagerly, but the other three entered more hesitantly. The inside of the building was fairly dark, lit only by a few fluorescent bulbs and the flashing of television screens in the corner. There were buckets, coolers, and barrels everywhere, overflowing with strange red and golden orbs. They made it difficult to navigate the room, but after a few minutes of struggling, the four found a path to the center of the room. They looked around but could not see or hear anyone in the room.

“Hello?” Kris asked, “Anyone there?”

“Hey, kids. How’d ya like to help shape the future of Inkopolis?” The four of them jumped, looking for where the voice came from, but they couldn’t see anyone but themselves.

“Welcome to Grizzco Industries. I’m Mr. Grizz.” Ella looked around for the source of the voice, and her eyes finally settled on a strange wooden bear sitting on a cooler. She noticed an antenna coming out of its back. Perhaps someone was talking to them through some sort of radio frequency the bear could read? But how would they know they were even there in the first place?

Mr. Grizz continued, “Here at Grizzco, we’re trying to make the world a better place, see? And we need fresh young talent like you all to do it. Yeah, it’s just your run-of-the-mill, manual-labor type of work, but it’s for a good cause, and we pay well.” Ella looked up, thinking, and stared directly into a security camera. So that was how Mr. Grizz knew they were there. Ella pointed her discoveries to TK and Alex quietly, and they both nodded at her. Kris meanwhile was engrossed in Mr. Grizz’s speech.

“So whaddaya say? The next boat is headin’ out now.”

“Yes, yes! Let’s go,” Kris replied, before any of the others could protest or ask questions.
“Great!” the bear said, “Go out back and gear up before the boat arrives.”

“Wait but-” Ella tried to protest but the radio bear had gone quiet.

“Krissssss, you can’t just agree for all of us!” Ella protested.

“But don’t you all want to earn money too?” Kris asked confused, “And what about helping Inkopolis?”

Ella sighed heavily. There was no use arguing with her sister when she was so entranced with Mr. Grizz’s speech. She gave an apologetic look to Alex and TK as they exited out back. What had Kris gotten them all into?

The boat ride was quick but bumpy, and the farther they got away from land, the more concerned Ella got. The waves became choppier and the small islands along the way began to look more and more like abandoned concrete buildings.

After a couple minutes the boat finally landed on one of these islands. It seemed to be a large abandoned ship surrounded by an old concrete dock.

“All right rookies, listen up. Vicious, unfeeling Salmonids will approach from the water. Your job is to splat ‘em with ink to make them drop their power eggs,” Mr. Grizz explained through their radios as they disembarked. “As a Grizzco Industries employee, you are contractually obligated to collect as many power eggs as possible. The first wave of Salmonids will appear any minute so grab those weapons and get moving.”

Ella shifted uncomfortably in her uniform, and grabbed a splattershot on her way off the boat. The rubber overalls and boots felt hard to move in, and the old Grizzco t-shirt she had been given smelled sort of funny.

She was so focused on how bad her uniform was that she didn’t immediately notice a strange creature appear from the water until Alex yelled.

“What the heck is that?!?” Alex yelped.

Startled, Ella turned toward the sound of Alex’s voice and saw that a fish-like creature that came up to her waist had emerged from the water. The fish had a grey upper body with a bright red fin and a yellow lower body. Its teeth were barred at them, and it held a small frying pan threateningly. It was the ugliest creature that any of them had ever seen.

“It’s a Salmonid!” Kris cried, “I’m gonna go splat it!” She rushed forward and smacked it with her roller, dodging a swing from the frying pan. The creature splatted rather easily and power eggs rolled down to the ground by Kris’s feet. She slid them quickly into her bag.

As she did so more and more of the Salmonid were appearing at the shoreline.

“Guess that’s our cue,” said TK. He grabbed some dualies and raced off the dock towards the Salmonid.

As soon as they had gotten used to it, the work started to get rather easy, and Ella stopped feeling so nervous about what Kris had gotten them into. It had a sort of rhythm to it. Dodge, splat, grab eggs, repeat. She almost felt bad for thinking so suspiciously of Mr. Grizz. There was no way he would send children off on a dangerous mission. That would be preposterous. That was until a giant steel fish emerged from the water right in front of Ella.

She let out an ear-piercing shriek, causing the others to jump. They sprinted over trying to figure out why she was screaming and immediately understood.

A giant steel fish with crazy-looking eyes and a strange, slightly deflated-looking bag on its head was staring directly at Ella. The scream only seemed to enrage it, and it was looking like it was about to attack.

“Ah, right on cue. A boss Salmonid just appeared. Go hunt it down,” Mr.Grizz called cheerifully from the radio. How he could even see what was around them, TK couldn’t understand. He would later theorize that they all had cameras in their hats which was why they had strange metal on them to act as antenna. But right now, all he could focus on was helping Ella.

Kris, seeing in her sister in danger, jumped down off of a platform to help her. She tried attacking its giant steel body with her roller. But no matter what she did it didn’t seem to do anything besides annoy the giant steel creature.

Just then the giant bag on the creature’s head began to inflate. Ella regained her senses upon seeing it and dodged out of the way. Kris, however, was not so lucky, the giant bag exploded right in her face, splatting her instantly.

“Kris!” Ella screamed.

“I got her Ella!” Alex called from her perch, already taking aim with her rifle where Kris had fallen. “You two take care of that thing!”

TK and Ella nodded and began studying the steel fish. It was clear their ink wouldn’t get through the thick armor. Just as the bag on its head began to inflate again, Ella had a sudden inspiration hit her.

“TK aim at the bag!”

“What?”

“Just do it, trust me!”

TK hesitated for one second but then did as she said. He trusted Ella wholeheartedly, and he didn’t have any better ideas.

With his dualies, he had to jump to reach the bag, but with the two of them shooting it, the creature began to seem agitated. The bag slowly turned the color of their ink and right before the steel beast could fire it at them, the bag exploded, taking the Boss Salmonid with it. All that was left behind were three golden eggs.

“The Boss Salmonid dropped its perfect Golden Eggs. Grab them,” Mr. Grizz shouted in their ear.

The two of them grabbed two of the eggs and turned around just in time to see Alex revive Kris from being splatted. She seemed a little dizzy from the sudden revival but seemed okay otherwise. Ella shoved the last egg in her hands and led the three of them up to the egg basket Mr.Grizz had instructed them to take it to.

The rest of their time on the strange island passed quickly and without too much trouble. They took on a giant eel that was chasing Kris, saved TK from a Maws, and knocked the tin cans off of a Stinger. All the time, they collected the precious golden eggs that Mr. Grizz seemed so fond of. Ella wondered why he wanted them so badly.

Finally, just as they were starting to feel exhausted Mr. Grizz called them back to the ship. The trip back passed much faster than the trip there. They were all too exhausted to pay much attention to anything besides changing clothes.

Upon arriving back, they were greeted once again with Mr. Grizz’s voice.

“Good work team. Grizzco is a results-based organization. More work like that, and I’ll give you all a promotion.”

They all gave a tired cheer and trudged outside to collect their reward from the window. The mysterious person behind the dark window thrust out a collared shirt, money, and a Crust Bucket meal ticket out at each of them.

“So what’s the verdict Kris?” Ella asked, tiredly. “Do you have enough money for the gear you wanted?”

“Yes, yes! Thank you guys so much!”

TK laughed, “It was no trouble Kris. That look on your face when the eel was chasing you was more than worth it.”

Alex and Ella laughed, and Kris began to sputter and protest at his remarks. Had he not been wearing his face mask, Kris would have seen the wicked, teasing grin on his face. But Ella, on the other hand, could tell even with the mask on, since they were such good teammates.

The four of them spent the rest of the afternoon in turf battles, only stopping when the twin’s mom called to ask if anyone was coming over for dinner. Both Alex and TK took up the offer, and the group super jumped back home as the evening light began to fade.

Chapter Text

Beep! Beep! Beep!

A loud groan was heard from underneath a pile of blankets, and after a few sleepy seconds, a hand emerged to slap the alarm. Slowly, TK emerged from the pile, stretching and rubbing his eyes. He looked at the clock again to see the glowing numbers of 6:00 AM. With a sigh of regret for leaving his warm blankets behind, he got up and began to shuffle around the room getting ready for the day.

Once ready, he dragged himself out of the room and collapsed onto the couch in the living room with his legs hanging over the side. He was almost back in his restful slumber when he was interrupted by an ‘ah hmm’ from his bodyguard who mercifully was holding his green tea latte. Without it, TK would never be fully awake for the day.

“Tae, you have a very busy day ahead of you, so it will be best if you wake up soon,” said his bodyguard.

TK responded with a groan but sat up to take his latte.

“So what’s on the agenda today?” TK responded after a couple of sips.

“Well,  this morning, your tutor is coming over to help you study, and when that is over, you have dance practice for the rest of the morning.”

TK nodded, this is what he had come to expect from his mornings.

“Then you’ll have to eat a quick lunch in the car because we have to squeeze in a meeting with the principal of your new school.”

He nodded again before the importance of the news hit him.

“Wait did I get in to Inkopolis Academy?!?” he cried. His heart pounded. He’d not only be going to a very prestigious school but he’d get to have classes with two of his best friends from turf wars, Ella and Kris.

“No need to shout so early in the day. It’s very bad for your voice. But yes, you will start there this coming fall.”

Normally comments like that annoyed him, but he was so excited by the news he let it slide.

“Anyway, back to the agenda,” his guard continued, “You will have two hours for turf wars. And I really must emphasize the two hours, Tae. You have an autograph event to attend afterwards, and you really can’t be late for that.”

“I understand,” TK sighed. Some of his excitement diminished. He was glad he had time to see his friends but it really wasn’t all that much time. And the autograph session made him nervous. He was just starting to hit it big, and the crowd would likely be much bigger than he was used to handling.

“Good. Then after the autograph event, you’ll have a little free time after dinner for songwriting and whatever else you need to wrap up. Any questions?”

“No, sir,” TK replied.

“Very well. Then I’ll go make you your morning protein shake before your tutor gets here,” his bodyguard said, walking off towards the kitchen.

TK made a face behind his back. He hated those things, but being an idol, he had to limit the amount of unhealthy foods he ate. Like waffles. And bacon. And…

He shook his head to try to dispel the thoughts of breakfast foods. Thinking about yummy food would only make the protein shake taste worse. Instead, he picked up the history book on the end table and tried reviewing in preparation for his tutor. But his mind was still caught up on the events of the coming day, and all the excitement and nervousness that came with being a pop star.

Of course, his tutor started with history when she arrived. TK was terrible at history, and while he appreciated her spending the most time on it, it always sunk his spirits to start with something so frustrating first thing in the morning.  Today’s topic was the Great Turf War, and TK fidgeted nervously as he stared at the quiz before him.

What was the biggest factor that led to the Great Turf Wars?

A. The diminishing zapfish population
B. Rising sea levels
C.Political differences
D. Arguments between leaders of both species about limb superiority

TK stared at the question. They all seemed like good answers, but which to pick? He had a feeling the last one was nonsense, and he did seem to remember it had something to do with a lack of resources. So maybe A? Or was the lack of resources due to answer B? He sat mulling this over for a while before answering and moving on.

Why did the Octarians win the first few battles of the Great Turf War?

A. Lack of superior weaponry
B.  Weak military strategy
C.  The Inkling Army kept oversleeping
D. Too few zapfish to power Inkling weaponry

Again, he was stumped. If it were him in the Great Turf Wars, it’d would probably be C. But then again, that felt like a silly answer. At random, he placed an answer down. Hopefully, he’d guess right.

TK squirmed nervously in his chair as his tutor graded his quiz. He had a feeling he hadn’t done too well, and with each mark of the red pen, he felt more and more upset.

After a few minutes, though,  his tutor looked up smiling.

“You did much better than the last time,” she said, holding up the exam. It had a big red 70 at the top.

TK flushed and looked down at the table they were working at, embarrassed by his grade.

“Hey, don’t look so down,” the tutor said. “I don’t think it’s because you don’t know the material. I think you're just second guessing yourself.”

“I dunno…” he replied sheepishly. History was his worst subject, and he couldn’t fathom how he had passed that part of the entrance exam to Inkopolis Academy.

“Alright then, let’s look at question 1 then. Why did you put A for an answer?”

“Well I knew the War was caused by some sort of shortage, but I couldn’t remember what kind,” he answered.

“Good, you’re thinking along the right track then. The answer is really B, the rising sea levels, which caused a shortage of land. But see how you knew about the shortage? It means some of this is sticking,” she explained.

TK gave a small nervous smile at her. He hoped she was right. He wasn’t too sure he was doing well, but if she said so then it gave him some hope.

After they reviewed the exam, the two of them had just enough time to move on and study about squid culture after the Great Turf Wars before he was rushed out the door for dance practice. The drive gave him just enough time to text his friends about their plans for the day.

TK: Hey guys I’ll be able to play from 2-4pm today

Alex: Sounds good to me. See u then

Ella: Okay!

Kris: That’s perfect cause I got something to go to today after battles

TK: Oh, what is it?

Ella: This is the first time I’m hearing about this. Did you tell mom?

Kris: Of course I did! Sorta...

Alex: Sort of?

Kris: Well she knows I’m going shopping. But not where I’m going shopping

TK: Are you going to end up grounded again?

Kris: No!

Ella: Yes…

TK couldn’t help but laugh at Ella’s response. She and Kris were a great comedy duo without even trying.

Kris: Oh whatever Ella! Alex and I are going to go play turf wars by ourselves

Alex: Are we?

Ella: Good. I’ll have some peace at long last to read my book

TK: Good luck you two!

The two of them hopped off to go play, and TK had just enough time to tell Ella about his history woes as they pulled into the dance studio parking lot.

After a quick change in the locker room, TK entered his practice room and began his warm up stretches. As he did so, he glanced around the room to see what his classmates were up to. His entire class was made up of other idols from his agency. Their fame ranged from the high-profile young popstar, Lani, to up and coming idols like TK. Since it was a free dance day with no instructor, most had already started dancing, either making up dances on the spot or practicing moves for their next performance.

TK continued to stretch, moving from his legs to his arms. He was just about finished when he felt a slight tap on his shoulder. With an arm still stretched across his chest, he swiveled around to see his friend Koto smiling at him.

“Hey Tae! Want to dance with me today? My manager says I need some more practice dancing with other people,” she asked. She looked cheerful today in her bright blue dance outfit and her short ruby tentacles pulled back into a ponytail.

“Sounds good to me. Are you all warmed up?” he replied.

“Yep!”

“Then what do you want to practice the most?”

“Hmm…” she said, placing a hand on her chin tilting her head a bit as she mulled it over. “I suppose I need practice on coordinating with other and like figuring out subtle cues.”

That seemed to make sense to TK. She was part of a small girl pop group, so she would need

to get really good at that kind of dancing really fast.

“Alright, how about I lead for the first part of the song, and you have to figure out when it’s your turn to take over and lead?” he suggested.

“Sounds good to me!”

The two of them found an empty corner of the room and struck a pose to start the dance. TK waited just a few seconds for the next song on the speakers to start, then started moving.

His first moves were simple, a couple of steps away from Koto, a spin, a few steps back toward her. The first few moves, Koto had to rush to keep up. She hadn’t expected him to move when he did and had no idea what move he was going to do. But she soon began to notice subtle cues of his, like the directions of his hips and the speed going into a move, and began to keep up with him. They spun, posed, and pranced around their corner as the song gradually grew more intense.

There was a brief lull in the song, just before it would pick up to the last verse and chorus, and TK knew this was the best time to switch roles. He struck one final pose and held it. Koto, too, followed him and froze for a few seconds before giving him a slight look of confusion out of the corner of her eye. It took her a few seconds to realize it was her turn to lead.

Then she took charge, leading the two of them through more spins and dance steps. She quickly learned that leading was a pretty hard task. Not only did she have to come up with the moves, but she needed to make sure that TK could also reasonably perform them at the speed they were going. By the time the last chorus started, she had gotten the hang of it, and the two of them glided across the floor in perfect unison. As the last note played, the two of them struck their final pose.

They heard clapping as soon as they finished. At some point or another, Lani had come over to watch them dance, but they had been too focused to even notice her.

“Congrats you two!” she said, with a small smile, “That was pretty good coordination for two beginners.”

“Th-th-thank you!” Koto cried, blushing a little. TK knew she was a huge fan of Lani, so the compliment meant the world to her.

“Thanks, Lani,” TK replied with a grin, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

“If you’d like Koto, why don’t you practice a bit with me? I have some good tips for you based on that performance. If you don’t mind,” she asked, turning to TK.

“Nah, go ahead. I have some other routines I should be practicing,” TK said. He gave Koto a little wink and slipped off to get his water bottle. He could tell from the look on her face that she was trying not to squeal.

When the two hours was up, he shuffled out of the room with the others. He could see Koto chatting eagerly with Lani. He smiled at that. He hoped she had made a nice new friend who could give her the advice she needed to be great idol.

Chapter Text

As soon as TK had reached the parking lot, his bodyguard practically hustled him into the car, mumbling about a traffic accident and being late. TK rolled his eyes at this, but obeyed. His bodyguard was never late. Even if he had to speed the whole way there, he made sure TK was where he needed to be on time.

In the back seat, TK found a salad waiting for him. He looked at it sadly, dreaming about the delicious food at Crusty Sean’s. One of the few regrets he had of being an idol was the diet. But he dug in anyway. He was starving after practice.

A quick buzz from his phone interrupted his lunch. It was a text from Ella.

Ella: Omg TK that book series you recommended is so good! It was almost worth that Salmon Run with Kris to buy it.

TK: Oh the Kingdom of Atlantis series?

Ella: Yes! I love the squid knight protagonist. She’s so amazing!

TK: I knew you’d love it! Have you gotten to the part with the prince yet?

Ella: Yeah he’s such a jerk to her. I hope he regrets it

TK couldn’t help but grin. He was so happy Ella liked the books he recommended her, and he loved her enthusiasm. She was one of his few friends who liked reading fantasy books like him, and one of the few people he could talk to about them. They chatted about the book a little more before the car pulled up at the Inkopolis Academy. Just a little bit early, like TK had predicted.

TK looked out the window at his new school and couldn’t help but gasp. It was massive. There was one huge main building made of grey slate and lined with windows, with a huge entrance arch that had ‘Inkopolis Academy’ carved neatly into it. The grounds outside were also big. There was a small pond surrounded by a flower garden that seemed like a popular lunch attraction. In the distance, he could see a greenhouse and plenty of sports fields farther out, including a turf war zone. He knew the school was prestigious, but he hadn’t expected a school like this. He felt kind of shabby in the sweater vest and nice shirt that he had changed into. How even did he pass his entrance exams to get into this school? How had Kris even passed hers?

As his bodyguard led him through the huge iron fence, TK couldn’t help but stare wide-eyed at everything. And if anything, the inside was almost as impressive as the outside. The floors were made of smooth marble, and the walls were painted a beautiful tan color with mosaics lining the bottom half.

Upon entering, he noticed a huge wooden staircase immediately in front of him and two halls leading off to either side. His bodyguard seemed to know exactly where they were going and led him right up the staircase and into an office.

“Can I help you?” asked the secretary, when they had entered.

“Yes, this is Tae-Kyu, and I am his guardian, and we are here for an appointment with Principal Jones,” he replied.

The secretary looked down at her schedule and smiled. “Of course, he should be ready now. Let me escort you.”

She ushered the two of them down the small hallway behind her desk and led them to a door.

Knocking, she said, “Principal Jones, your 2 o’clock appointment is here.”

The door opened, “Ah yes, welcome you two! And thank you Mrs. James. Do come in.”

The short, pudgy inkling gentleman that greeted them, ushered the two of them in.

“Do sit down,” he said, waving to a few chairs in front of an intricately carved desk.

The man smiled at TK and said, “I’m Principal Jones. It’s nice to finally meet you Tae-Kyu.I have been working on your case extensively these past few weeks.”

“It’s, um... nice to meet you too,” TK replied nervously.

“Just so you know, your agency and I have been in great communication lately, trying to make arrangements for you coming here.”

“Thank you,” TK mumbled politely.

“It’s no problem,” he replied, before moving on, “Now, the agency and I have both agreed, to the best of our abilities, that no one will know about your celebrity status while you are here.”

TK sighed with relief he had been a little afraid of how he’d handle school if everyone knew he was an idol.

Principal Jones smiled again. “I thought you’d be glad to hear that. While you are here, your official name will be TK Kim. With the exception of my secretary and myself, no other staff member will know about your idol career either. Rest assured, we will be very careful not to reveal your identity. Not only would it be difficult for you, but it would be distracting for all the other students here.”

TK nodded.

“As for the absences you will likely have to take, the agency and I have come up with the excuse that you are rather sickly and therefore are out fairly frequently. If any staff member has a problem with this excuse, please send them to me.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now we do expect you to keep up here, no matter what happens outside school or how many absences you take. Understood?”

“Of course, sir,” he replied, a little intimidated.

“Well then, I have a few more things to discuss with your Manager here, but in the meantime I do need you to choose two elective classes from this list, as well as one sport you wish to take for gym class,” Principal Jones said, sliding a clipboard across the desk towards TK.

TK took it and began to look down the list, while the two adults talked. There were so many choices! There was at least a full page of electives to choose from, and another half page for gym sports. He wasn’t sure how to choose.

He glanced through the sports first since that list was shorter. Track. Basketball. Baseball. The list went on. Dance was definitely out. That was a surefire way to arouse suspicion. He remembered Ella had said something about Kris and her taking volleyball. Well it was better than nothing, and at least he’d know people in the class. He circled volleyball.

Now back to the electives. Creative writing caught his eye immediately. That sounded fun, and it could help him become a better songwriter. But what else to take? He stared vaguely at the rows and rows of electives before giving up and choosing home economics. At least it would be useful someday?

By the time he was done selecting, the two adults had finished conversing.

“Ah good you’re done,” Principal Jones said, taking the paper. “One last thing and then I'll let you get going.”

He handed TK a thick, paper-filled folder and an Inkopolis Academy backpack that was filled with school uniforms.

“Your agency sent over your sizes so hopefully everything fits. If not, give my secretary a call. But that folder is the important part. It holds everything you need to know about the school. Including a school supply list, dress code regulations, school rules, emergency contact information to fill out, the school song, etc. Make sure you take a good look at it before school starts because some of that paperwork will be due the first day of classes.”

“Yes, sir,” TK replied, opening the folder and flicking through the paperwork he was talking about. He was right. There was a copy of the school song in it!

“Well then, it was nice to meet the two of you. I hope the school year goes well for you!” Principal Jones shook both of their hands and escorted them out of the office.

Then TK was rushed back into the car by his bodyguard. But TK didn’t mind so much this time. He was heading off to turf wars next, and he really wanted to see what his new uniform looked like.

He pulled the clothing out of the backpack. Inside were a few white button-up shirts with the Inkopolis Academy logo on it, a couple grey houndstooth slacks, two ash-grey button-up sweater with the school logo on the pocket, a pair of brown loafers, and a pink and green necktie.

TK was ecstatic. His home town school had been so small that they hadn’t had a school uniform. This would be his very first time wearing one. And he had to admit, it did look pretty snazzy.

Carefully, he placed the uniform back in the backpack before pulling out his phone to text his friends about his impending arrival.

As usual, TK had his bodyguard drop him off in a small alley a block away from Inkopolis Square, so no one would be suspicious of him. Both TK and the agency had agreed that it was best to keep his identity a secret to avoid paparazzi and mobs of fans.

“Remember Tae, I need you back here no later than 3:30, so we can be on time for the autograph session. Alright?” his bodyguard said, as TK unloaded his gear bag from the back.

“Yes, alright,” he said sighing. He set an alarm on his phone, and without another word, ran off towards the Square.

Inkopolis Square was packed when TK arrived. Groups of friends meandered between the stores or grouped up at tables. Jellyfish skateboarded around on rails. Hungry inklings crowded around Crusty Sean’s stand, loudly clamoring for food. TK stared longingly at the Crust Bucket, but hurried away. The line was pretty long, and he would get a big lecture from his bodyguard for eating such greasy food so near a concert.

Squinting in the bright sun, he looked around for Ella, who had messaged him that she had a table somewhere in the Square. After a few seconds, he caught sight of her sitting at a table near the arcade, her nose buried deep in her book. Even after approaching and sitting down next to her, she didn’t even seem to notice him.

“Soooo I’m taking it you like my recommendation?” he asked, leaning back in his chair and smiling.

Ella jumped and whirled her head around straight at him, nearly knocking her book off the table.

“Wh-what?” she asked.

He laughed. “I take it your liking the Kingdom of Atlantis series then?”

She giggled back at him. “Of course, I am, silly. The heroine is amazing, and the author is such a great writer. Plus,” she added, digging in her bag for her bookmark, “it does help you recommended it.”

Ella missed TK’s sudden blush at this comment, but she seemed to have known that he was pleased by it. For when she finally sat back up, she gave him a big smile.

“Anyway,” TK said, clearing his throat, “should I text Alex and Kris to let them know I’m here?”

“No need, I let them know when you messaged me that you were on your way. They said they’d come find me after their next match ends.”

“So, you notice a text message when you're reading, but not your friend arriving?” he asked dramatically, “What a cruel world we live in where I have to compete with a phone and a book for the attention of my dearest friend!” He collapsed dramatically against the back of his chair with an arm over his forehead.

Ella slapped him lightly on the shoulder, laughing. “Oh stop teasing. You know you're more important than either. They can’t watch my back during a turf match!”

The two went off laughing and teasing each other for a few minutes before returning to their discussion of the book.

Not long after, they were joined by Alex and Kris. Both looked a bit sweaty but happy from their last turf battle.

“Hey guys!” Kris exclaimed, “We’re on a huuuuuge winning streak today!”

“Congrats!” TK replied.

They all let Kris gush on about their last battle for a few minutes before Alex interrupted. “How long do you have today, TK?” she asked.

He looked at his phone. “About an hour and a half before I have to go. I have something at 4 o’clock today.”

“Hmm okay,” Ella said, thinking, “What would you like to do today? I doubt we'll have time for a Salmon Run, but we could do turf battles or go to the arcade or something.”

“I’d actually like to do turf wars, if you guys aren’t too tired out already,” he said, looking over at Alex and Kris. After the morning tutoring and the appointment with the principal, he had some stress he wanted to get out.

“I’m fine for that if I can get some water first,” Alex replied.

“Yes let’s keep up that streak!” Kris replied, “Anyway, I have to leave around 3:30 too, so this works out PERFECT!”

“Wait is this what you were talking about earlier?” Ella asked, confused, “You never told me where you were going.”

“None of your business!” Kris replied, sticking her nose in the air and crossing her arms. “You’d only tease me about it.

“Does Mom really know about it?”

“Of course, she does! I asked her while you were too busy reading that book this morning.”

The two bickered on for a while. TK and Alex both smiled and rolled their eyes. Alex mouthed that she was going to get a drink, and TK nodded.

When she returned, they were still arguing. In fact, they didn’t break it up until they got into the matchmaking room and found that they were on different teams.

The afternoon matches went pretty much how they always did. TK and Ella teamed up when they were on the same side and were an unstoppable duo. He thought he got a couple good splats in while guarding Ella’s back. And despite one frustrating splat against himself, he was still ready to keep going. And of course, there were always Kris’s silly antics and splats during the match to keep him laughing.

By the end of half a dozen matches it was almost time to go, he was a little upset at his lack of free time but was very pleased with how he had done. He knew he had an obligation and was at least happy he had some time to spend with his friends.

Just as he was saying his goodbyes and getting ready to leave, Ella stopped him.

“Wait, I have something for you,” she said, “I need to get it from my locker though.”

TK looked at his phone; he was getting a little too close to being late for comfort.

“It’s okay, I’ll get it tomorrow,” he replied.

“No, stay right here! I’ll be fast,” she said, before taking off at a full sprint towards the girl’s locker room.

He, Kris, and Alex all looked confusedly at each other. It was very rare that Ella was forceful like that, and none of them really knew what she had for him. But their confusion was cleared up in a few minutes when she came sprinting back with a notebook in hand. She shoved it into TK’s hands and then bent over with her hands on her knees, panting.

“I-I-it’s my no-notes o-on th-the g-great turf w-wars,” she gasped. “H-hope it h-helps.”

TK gave a huge smile. “Thanks Ella!” he said and gave her a quick hug, startling her.

His phone alarm went off. He grumbled under his breath.

“See you all tomorrow!” he said, before he too took off in a run towards the alley.

Chapter Text

Despite his bodyguard’s complaints that he was late, they managed to reach the music store where the autograph session would be held in perfect timing. TK was whisked into a back room by a stylist where she worked on straightening his tentacles and picking the perfect outfit for him. Before leaving, she stuck a small patch on his shoulder that would turn his ink color a light mint green.

While TK waited for the patch to take affect and turn his hair minty, he paced the room to try and calm his nerves. This was his very first autograph session, and he didn’t want to disappoint his fans. Besides the one or two concerts he’d done, this was his first time meeting any of them.

He didn’t have long to wait, though. As soon as his hair had changed colors, his bodyguard was rushing him out the door and towards a table surrounded by a throng of young female inklings.

One of the employees stood behind the table, announcing the event to the crowd in front of him and trying to organize the group into a line. But upon TK entering the room, his voice was drowned out by the shrieks of joy from the fan girls.

TK smiled and waved at all his fans, hoping that was the right thing to do in such circumstances. He took the microphone that the employee gave him, and opened his mouth to speak. The room went silent as all the girls strained their ears to hear what he would say.

“Hey everyone! It’s me, Tae-Kyu, and I’m so happy to have all my fans here to support me!” TK said, feeling nerves deep in his stomach and desperately trying not to let it show. He cleared his throat slightly and went on, “I want to thank you all for purchasing my new album, and I am so excited to meet all of you, but let’s try and keep it orderly. Please listen to the employees, and I’ll be sure to sign everyone’s copy of the album.”  He set the mic down and gave one of his winning smiles, setting all the young inklings heart a flutter.

A line quickly formed, and it wasn’t long after that the first fans from the line stood in front of TK, holding out their CDs to him.

“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m finally meeting you!” squealed the first girl, with tentacles in a long pigtail.

Her short-haired friend elbowed her gently before handing her album, giving her a look that clearly said ‘calm down, we've got to look cool.’

“I’m very glad to meet you Tae-kyu,” the short-haired girl said, “Your music is so amazing! I really hope I can see you in concert sometime.”

“I’d love for you to come see my show too,” he replied a bit robotically, as he scribbled his signature onto the album books. He winced internally at his tone. He was hoping to sound more natural but his nerves were still high.

The two girls thanked him, and the line moved on. TK found his nerves easing as he got into the rhythm of the event. His tone began to even out, and he found he could relax a bit more and get to know his fans a bit. That was, until Kris showed up.

He froze up in shock when her short, black pigtails approached the table and heard her cry of joy. There was no doubt it was her, from the tone of voice to the soccer band she had been wearing at turf wars today.

It’s all over now, TK thought, Kris can’t keep a secret, and soon the whole squad will know. Then they’ll all be treating me different or maybe even tell all their friends.

“Omg! Tae-kyu!” Kris shrieked, as she finally reached the table, “I’ve been waiting so long to meet you! I’m, like, your biggest fan. I’ve been listening since your first single, and I just can’t get enough!”

“H-hello,” he replied nervously, trying not to meet her eyes. But Kris didn’t seem to notice as she babbled on about her obsession with him.

As she babbled on, TK signed her CD; the same CD that he had in fact seen in her bedroom only a few weeks ago. But as she talked, it became more and more apparent that she didn’t know it was him. She never once said a thing about him looking familiar or anything. In fact, she even mentioned that her three friends hadn’t been able to come with her. Which seemed like an odd thing to say when one of them was sitting in front of her.

But how could she not recognize him? Sure his hair was a different color but that wasn’t so unusual among inklings. Could she really be that dumb? Was she just trying to be nice and pretending she didn’t recognize him? Or was she messing with him? Whatever the case was, he scribbled his autograph faster than before, hoping to end the encounter.

After a little more babbling, Kris walked off, hugging her album to her chest with a huge smile on her face. TK hoped that she really didn’t recognize him. But he had to refocus for now; there were more fans waiting in line. All he could do was wait until tomorrow to see whether Kris realized or not.

The autograph session wound up ending rather late, so TK ended up eating a light dinner in the car as they returned to the apartment. The day was not over, however. TK still had to work on songwriting a bit before he could even think about free time or sleep.

Thankfully, TK didn’t really see song writing as work. It was his favorite part of the job, and the true reason he had even moved so far away from home in the first place. He loved music and making it his own. It didn’t matter how many fans in the world he had, he would always love music.

His bodyguard didn’t even need to remind him that it was music time, either. As soon as they were in the door, TK went straight to the piano sitting in the living room, stopping only to set a quick alarm on his phone.

He started off playing some classic tunes on the piano to warm up, before gradually shifting into his own style and experimenting with the beat of the song. Every now and then, he’d swivel around to a small table next to him, write down some notes or lyrics, and return to the piano. After finally getting a melody he wanted, TK began to hum a long to the piano, occasionally throwing in a few attempted lyrics here and there.

He only came out of his music haze when his alarm went off. He stared at his phone for a second, coming back slowly to reality before remembering why he had set it.

It was time to call his parents.

He had been waiting for a few weeks now to finally talk to them. With his busy schedule and their work schedule, it had been really hard to find a time for them to call. But finally, it was time!

He rushed off to his room and threw himself on his bed, while he quickly tapped on his mom’s name in the video chat. She must have been just as eagerly waiting as his because she answered on the first ring.

“Tae!” she cried, excitedly, once the phones had connected. TK’s mom was a small inkling woman, with his bright lemon hair and orange eyes. She had a few laugh lines that framed her mouth and appeared to be a very lively woman.  Upon seeing her eldest son, she gave a huge smile and called the rest of the family over to join in.

TK’s father was much taller than his wife, with lime green hair and his son’s white-grey eyes. He seemed to have just as cheerful of a personality as his wife, but seemed a bit more serious. He, too, was glad to see his son, but it was TK’s younger brother that took over the conversation.

His brother, Hyung-min or Hyung for short, was a young inkling of about six years old, with his father’s lime green ink and his mother’s orange eyes. Being young, he was halfway in his development between squid and humanoid form, but was leaning just slightly towards the humanoid side.

He had snatched the phone from his mother’s hands and began bombarding TK with questions about being an idol.

“Tae, what it like living in a big city, huh? I bet it’s cool and awesome and amazing, isn’t it? Is it cool to have fans? I bet it is. Mom says you get to play turf wars! Those sound so cool, I’m jealous-”

“Whoa Hyung! Calm down,” TK interrupted, laughing, “Let me answer your questions first before you ask another.”

“Oops,” his brother replied sheepishly. He slowed down a bit so TK could reply. His parents were very patient, but after ten minutes, they stopped him and proclaimed it was bedtime.

“But mommmmm!” Hyung whined.

“Hyung-min, we promised to let you stay up for Tae, but now it’s time for bed. You can always talk to him another day,” their father said.

“Fine,” Hyung pouted, “G’night Tae. Make sure to tell me all about the adventures you're having.”

TK grinned. “Alright, but only if you listen to mom and dad. Deal?”

“Deal!” Hyung responded, before slowly trudging out of the room.

Now that his brother was in bed, his parents began to ask him questions about his new life. TK told them all about starting turf wars, getting into school, his excitement on getting a school uniform, and the autograph session. He talked about his worries too. Like his nerves over an upcoming concert and about others learning who he was. But most importantly, he gushed to them about his three new friends.

“I’m so happy you’re making some new friends Tae! I was very worried you’d be lonely up there,” his mother said, “But tell me more about them! What about this Kris girl you mentioned at the autograph signing?”

“Yes, tell us more about them,” his father joined in.

“Well Kris is…well she’s sort of naïve and silly and can be a bit too much sometimes. But she’s very funny and super supportive of me in matches. She kind of reminds me a bit of Hyung. Like the other day she fell off a ramp during turf wars and fell right into enemy ink, it was just so funny!” he laughed, recalling the event.

His parents laughed, too. “She seems like a good person to have around to cheer someone up,” his father replied.

“She certainly is. Most of the time she doesn’t even realize she’s doing such a thing, but she’s always good for a laugh. She and Alex make an amazing team on the field though.”

“Oh yes, tell me about Alex, you haven’t really told me much about her,” his father said.

“Well, compared to Kris, she’s calm and very well put together. She’s very easy to talk to about problems and gives good advice,” he replied.

“That’s great!” his mother exclaimed, “Everyone needs a friend like that!”

“But how’s she in turf wars?” his father asked.

“Well, she’s kind of like our group leader. She’s very skilled with her splatterscope and is a tactical genius on the field. She deserves a lot of respect for having Kris’s back in matches.”

“But Ella is really my partner on the field,” he continued, “We make a dynamic duo together. Like, we always seem to know what the other will do without saying anything.”

“Ella seems to be a really good friend from what you’ve emailed me, what’s she like?” asked his father.

“Well she’s super shy and serious. And she’s very nervous about certain things, like when she first started turf wars, but I think that’s what helps me get along with her better. Cause we both get super nervous about things. Plus, we both love the same kind of books, so we always have something to talk about.” He paused in thought for a few seconds before continuing, “She’s my best friend here.”

His mother and father both smiled brightly at him. He could tell they were both really happy he was adjusting so well to Inkopolis and his new life.

“But enough about me, how’s the store?”

His parents, who owned a small convenience store in the country, talked about what had been going on lately in the shop and about some of their regular customers. They told him how everyone in town was so proud of him, and they all had bought his new CD to support him. They told him more about what his brother had been up to over the summer, and how he missed TK even if he wouldn’t admit it.

After some discussion, both his parents could tell that TK was starting to get tired. After such a long, stressful day, they both understood that he needed his rest, even if all of them would like to talk longer.

“Goodnight, Tae,” his mother replied, “Make sure you go to bed after we hang up. You look about ready to fall asleep on your feet.”

“Yes, good night, son,” his father added.

“And make sure you're eating well enough,” his mother said, a little tearfully.

“Will do mom. I love you guys,” he replied.

“Love you too,” they replied together before hanging up.

TK slowly rolled out of the bed to start getting ready for sleep. He was super exhausted, but very content now that he had talked to his parents. He hadn’t admitted it to himself, but he had been very homesick lately. Just talking to his parents had helped. And with thoughts of his family and friends in his mind, he fell asleep quickly that night.

The next day, TK arrived in Inkopolis Square, nervous about meeting his friends. He still had some fear that Kris had figured out who he was and had told everyone about him. But as he approached his friends at their usual shiny metal table, he realized this nervousness was in vain. Kris was sitting happily at the table, gushing away about her trip to an amused Alex and bored Ella.  When he sat down with them, she began her story all over again to him, getting an eye roll from Ella.

“And then TK, guess what Tae-Kyu did? He said hello to me, and he signed my CD! I’m so so happy I went!” she squealed.

TK laughed nervously, still unable to believe his luck. “I can see that. You never change Kris.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Huh?” Kris asked, a little confused.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” he replied. He still couldn’t see how she couldn’t put two and two together.

Unless maybe she was messing with him? But that was very un-Krislike. Maybe Ella or Alex, could keep it a secret, but not Kris.

Ella, knowing his secret and sensing his discomfort, decided to change the subject. “So, what do you want to do today TK?”

“Turf wars would be great,” he smiled back at her. It was so great to have friends.

(Bonus, here are some in game photos of TK. The yellow is normal appearance, and the mint is his idol appearance.)

Chapter Text

“Come on! Come on!”

With a sigh, Ella rolled over in her bed to see what on earth Kris was being so loud about. She was trying to read more of the book series that TK had recommended, and Kris seemed to have no clue how loud she was being.

Kris sat with her legs crossed and her phone to her ear while the radio next to her blared out the latest pop tunes. It seemed unclear to Ella what exactly she was trying to do, but she could tell no amount of persuasion would get her to turn the music down or stop her muttering. She grabbed her headphones and rolled over to continue reading. The gentle classical music she played on her phone kept the sounds of Kris temporarily at bay.

But only a few minutes later, she was interrupted again with a shriek of joy and loud laughter.

“Yes! Yes! Yes! I’m caller 14!” Kris cried into her phone.

“Would you please keep it down!” Ella exclaimed, rising up on her arms to glare at Kris, “I’m trying to read!”

Kris placed her hand over the receiver of her phone. “Don’t be a spoilsport Ella,” she whispered before talking again into the phone at a lower volume.

Ella again returned to her book but was shortly interrupted by Kris jumping onto her end of her bed. She bounced up and down in squid form, clearly excited about something.

With much patience, Ella closed her book, knowing she wasn’t going to get any farther in it for now. 

“What?” she asked.

“I won! I won! I won!” Kris cheered, still flopping up and down on her bed.

“Won what?”

“The radio was having this contest where the fourteenth caller would get four free tickets and backstage passes to Tae-kyu’s latest concert, and I won! I won, I won, I won! I get to see Tae-kyu live in person and see his concert,” she squealed, finally wearing herself out, and returning to humanoid form.

Ella gave a tiny start, which Kris didn’t seem to notice. She knew TK didn’t want them to know he was Tae-kyu, but this concert had a very high risk of him being found out. But she knew she wouldn’t be able to convince Kris not to go.

“You’ll come with me Ella, right?” she asked, with a look of pure happiness in her eyes.

“Well…” Ella hesitated. She didn’t really want to go, but on the other hand perhaps she could prevent Kris from finding out if she did.

“Please! I went to that library event with you last week when TK couldn’t make it. And I really want you to see Tae-kyu in action. He’s amazing, and I know you’ll like him if you hear his music in person!”

“I suppose I could go…” she replied, figuring it was the best course of action. “But only if Mom says it’s okay.”

“Hooray! I’m going to ask Alex and TK, too!” she said, kicking her legs in the air from excitement.

“I’m sure Alex will want to go, but I don’t think TK is into idols,” Ella replied, trying hard to sound casual.

“Doesn’t hurt to try though!” Kris exclaimed, jumping up and grabbing her phone again.

Kris: Guys guess what?!?!?

Alex: What? Did you get an advance on your allowance this month?

Kris: Huh? Why would you think that?

TK: Well you did spend it all at the arcade last week…

Kris: Stop teasing me!!!!

Ella: You make it to easy tho

Kris: Big meanies >:[

Alex: Aw Kris, don’t be like that. Tell us what happened

TK: Yeah Kris whats got you so excited

Kris: I won!

TK: Won what?

Alex: Is it that mail in contest you entered?

Kris: Nope! It’s even better! I won concert tickets on the radio.

Alex: Oh for who?

TK: Congrats Kris that’s awesome

Ella: Let me brace myself for the scream…

Kris: For Tae-kyu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alex: OMG Kris that’s amazing! I know you love him!

TK nearly fell out of the chair he was sitting in in shock. He knew the radio stations were all giving out tickets but he had never considered the possibility that Kris would enter, let alone win. He let out a groan and lay his face in his palms. How would he manage to avoid Kris noticing yet again? After a few minutes of anxious thoughts, he returned to the conversation on his phone.

Kris: And I won four tickets! So we can all go!

Alex: That’s so exciting this will be my first concert ever!

Ella: I’m only going to keep her from going rabid for Tae-Kyu

TK groaned even louder. Of course, she won so many tickets. Maybe he could trick Kris but Ella and Alex were too smart to not notice. The only thing worse would be…

Kris: And I won backstage passes too!

This is the end thought TK. Maybe he could fool them on stage but upfront and personal in a backstage meetup would be the end.

Kris: So TK what about you? Can you come?

TK: Umm probably not. My parents are coming to town soon

Kris Aww ☹

TK: Sorry about that have fun without me

Alex: Well if that’s all settled, what about matches this afternoon? Is everyone in?

Ella: Maybe for a little bit… I have some errands to run.

TK: I can be there at 3

Kris: But what about salmon runs? I need some money for souvenirs at the concert!

TK took a deep breath. He’d deal with it when it came to it. No use worrying. He had an insane amount of preparation for the upcoming concert and his family was coming too so they could see him live. If his friends found out, they found out, and he would just have to hope they didn’t try to treat him differently and take advantage of his fame.

The day of the concert was a bright and sunny day, and the family could not get Kris to sit still all day. She had barely slept the night before in her excitement and had kept Ella up muttering lyrics to Tae-Kyu’s songs all night long. Ella had finally given up and went to Addie’s empty room to finally get some peace and quiet.

The rest of the day Kris spent agonizing on what to wear to Tae-Kyu’s concert. Ella merely glanced at the mess of clothes on the bedroom floor before fleeing to the backyard to read her book. She finally decided one hour before the concert on a black t-shirt with a neon green image of Tae-Kyu on it, some inky black leggings, and matching green ribbons for her pigtails. To Ella, the outfit seemed very loud, but Kris was very proud of her concert attire.

When she asked what Ella was wearing and received “this shirt I suppose,” she went into a frenzy and started dressing up Ella as well. In a matter of minutes, Ella was thrown into a layered white and purple shirt with Tae-Kyu on it, a violet skirt, matching flats, and a huge purple bow. She was shocked at how quickly Kris had transformed her. Not long after, Alex arrived and Ella found herself shoved into her mother’s car by an excited Kris, off to the biggest concert (to the three of them) of the summer.

The concert venue was packed with preteen inklings and their chaperone parents when they arrived. Girls squealed at concert merch and sang along to the Tae-Kyu songs playing from the overhead speakers. Parents in various stages of amusement and sheer exhaustion followed along behind, shelling out money for souvenirs and trying not to lose their child in the sea of Tae-Kyu t-shirts.

Once the group had made their way past the crowd at the entrance, the twin’s mother pulled the trio aside and shuffled around in her purse for a few seconds before handing each of them their tickets and some cash.

“All right girls, I’m going to find a nice table to camp out and read my book. Here’s your tickets and some money, so go buy something nice to remember the night by. Once I’m settled, I’ll text you where I am, and you can come bother me if you get hungry or need something, okay?”

“Yes Mom!” the twins replied in unison.

“Thanks Mrs. Campbell! You didn’t have to give me any money,” Alex replied a little awkwardly.

“It’s alright Alex, sweetie. You’ve been such a good friend to the girls, and it’s not every day you go to your first concert,” she replied smiling. Alex blushed and thanked her again before slipping the money in her pocket.

“Now girls, stick together and text me if you need something. When you’re ready to go backstage, come find me and we’ll all go together when the concert is over.”

The three of them nodded. Satisfied, Mrs. Campbell waved before disappearing into the crowd.

“Come on guys! Let’s go get some cool souvenirs!” Kris cried, before dragging the two of them into the crowd. Somehow, she managed to guide the three of them through the throng of inklings and pushed their way up to the front of the souvenir booth.

The booth was bright and flashy. Posters lined the back, while t-shirts and bright plastic keychains hung from the ceiling and walls. CDs were crammed into one small corner of the booth. Trinkets of all kinds from jewelry to fans to even plushies were shoved in around the cash registers. The tired employees seemed to be doing their best to create order in the line, but there was only so much they could do with excited young fans.

The three girls stared at the merchandise for several minutes, overwhelmed by the bright colors. Alex was the first to decide, settling for a big poster of Tae-Kyu posing against a wall. Ella, sick of being jostled to and fro, quickly chose a bright wire bracelet with a tiny heart charm that had Tae-Kyu’s initials. She waited impatiently for Kris to finally select a CD. As they shuffled out of the crowd, Kris proudly proclaimed that she was going to get Tae-Kyu to sign it.

“Come on!” Alex shouted to them over the noise of the crowd, “Let’s go find our seats before the concert starts!”

Ella nodded and grabbed Kris’s wrist to drag her along. She had gotten distracted by another booth selling memberships to the Tae-Kyu fan club and seemed on the verge of distraction. The three of them shuffled through the crowd and followed the signs for the front stage section of the concert hall. A uniformed teen inkling checked their tickets before pointing them over to a short row of seats right in front of the stage.

Kris squealed with glee. “I can’t believe we get to sit so close! We’re going to see everything from here, even Tae-Kyu’s shoelaces!”

Alex laughed, “Aw Kris you’re so cute! I can’t wait to see what you like so much about the music.”

Kris began a long rant about Tae-Kyu’s music and the choreography of his music videos to Alex. Meanwhile, Ella looked around the stadium. It was huge, fitting at least a few thousand inklings, jellyfish, and other species. Colorful lights floated across the crowd, and at least a few fans had already pulled out light sticks. The stage was decorated with cardboard props that popped with color and instruments waiting for their owners. Bubbles drifted from behind the stage and out over the crowd. Perhaps it was the atmosphere or even the clothes Kris let her borrow, but Ella couldn’t help but be a little excited for the concert. It was her first after all.

The overhead lights dimmed and thousands of young fans started squealing and shouting with delight. Kris grabbed Ella around the shoulder and shook her shouting, “It’s time, it’s time omg!”

The lights on the stage blared to life and a purple-headed young inkling slid onto the stage, going straight into a dance number and singing his heart out into the headset he wore. The screaming crowd changed tactics and began to sing along. Kris jumped out of her seat and started dancing to the music, followed shortly by Alex. Ella was mesmerized by the boy inkling. Under the costume and makeup, she could instantly tell it was TK on stage. 

After the first number, Tae Kyu stopped to speak, thanking all of his fans for coming and supporting him. “If it hadn’t been for each and every one of you, I’d have never been able to stand up here on this stage,” he said, “And so for all of you tonight, I’m going to make this your best concert ever! Now let’s get on to the fun part!” The music blared up again and Tae-Kyu and the backup dancers started in on the next song.

Ella lost track of the number of songs Tae-Kyu sang. Even though she wasn’t a die-hard fan like her sister, she had fun dancing along and singing the few words she knew of each song. She and Alex enjoyed watching how crazy her sister got for each song. Kris shouted along to every song, waved her cheap glow stick wands in the air, and bounced around. Time flew for the three of them, and before they knew it the final number had finished.

“Already?” Kris cried when Tae-Kyu waved goodnight to the crowd and blew kisses.

“Aw come on Kris,” Alex replied, “Aren’t you even more excited for the meet up next?”

“OMG yes! The concert was so good I almost forgot!” she exclaimed, slapping her hands to her cheeks.

“I’ll text Mom to meet us for the meet up,” Ella said, trying not to laugh at her sister’s now red cheeks.

It took a while to wade through the crowd of young inklings, but by the time they met up with their mom and reached the backstage door, they were being waved in by security. Clearly, they wanted the meetup to be over with so they could go home.

They waited for a few minutes in a lounge behind the stage before they heard a door creak open and out walked Tae-Kyu. Kris, of course, didn’t seem to notice that it was really TK. It was all she could do to suppress a shriek. But Ella wasn’t fooled, and she was pretty sure Alex wasn’t either. Neither brought it up though, and they pretended to play the part of fans for the sake of Kris.

“Well hello ladies!” Tae-Kyu said trying his best to smile and act natural in front of his three best friends. “What did you think of my concert?”

“EEE it was soooooo amazing!” Kris exclaimed, “You played all my favorite songs! And the way you sang Bream City!”

The twin’s mom hid a chuckle behind her hand before excusing herself to wait outside. Kris went on and on about the concert while Tae signed Alex’s poster and Kris’s CD. The longer they talked, the calmer and more natural Tae became.

Before long, their 15 minutes were up, and it was time to say goodbye. Kris thanked him over and over and gave him a small bead bracelet she had made herself to ‘bring him luck.’ Alex thanked him graciously before guiding Kris away.

Ella lagged behind the other two for a moment. Just before Tae turned away, she spoke up, “Don’t worry, she doesn’t know anything. Not sure about Alex.”

Tae stopped, but he didn’t turn around. Ella couldn’t see it but his expression had changed to one of fear and nervousness. He started to sweat. Would things change now that Ella knew? But how did she know? He thought he had been so careful. But then again, Ella was really smart.

“It doesn’t change anything, but if you want, I’ll keep pretending not to know,” she added.

He turned around then to look into her face. She had a small smile on her lips and her eyes seemed to brim with trust and honesty.

In the distance, Mrs. Campbell could be heard calling Ella’s name. She glanced back at the door she had entered. “Got to go! But see you Monday for some matches!” she said, before running off to meet the others.

TK couldn’t believe it. His best friend knew about his double life as an idol, and yet she didn’t care? Not only that, but would she treat him like a normal person too? He had always dreamed of telling his friends, but he’d always feared being treated differently.

Before he could think too hard on the matter, the backstage door he had come through was pushed all the way open, and his little brother ran through.

“Tae! Tae! That was amazing! I knew you sang good! And all those girls screaming! Wow!” his brother, Hyung, exclaimed, jumping up and down.

“Hyung-min, calm down please! Your brother is probably exhausted from tonight,” his mother called, following him in. She pulled Hyung towards her and patted down his tentacles to calm him.

“Thanks Mom,” TK said, smiling at her.

“Were those your friends that you talked about before?” his father asked, coming in behind the other two.

“Umm yeah actually,” TK suprisedly replied, “How did you know?”

His dad laughed, “You left the door open, so we couldn’t help but peek after you told us they’d be coming!”

“They all seem like very nice girls, Tae,” his mother added.

“Was that girl who stayed behind that Ella girl you mentioned?” his dad asked.

“Yes, she is,” he replied.

“Well then, I approve. She seems like she’s level-headed enough to keep you and that excited girl, uh Kris maybe?, in check,” his dad said.

“She seems really kind!” his mom commented.

“She’s great,” TK replied, thinking about what she had said to him.

Before they could say much more on the matter, Hyung piped up, asking when they were going to get that special dinner his parents had talked about. They all laughed, and TK went to change before heading out.

The three girls nearly fell asleep on the car ride back to the house. Luckily for Alex, she was spending the night, so as soon as they got home the three of them promptly brushed their teeth and crawled into bed. Alex took Ella’s bed, while Ella shared with Kris. Before Ella fell asleep, she thought about Tae-Kyu, the popstar, but also her best friend. She hoped he’d take her words to heart and wouldn’t be afraid now that she knew. With one last yawn, she rolled over and fell asleep. Little did she know, TK was still lying awake in bed, smiling at the thought that his best friend saw him as just another normal kid.