Chapter Text
Gold closed the door behind him, finally dropping his fake smile and taking a deep breath. He stepped away from the door, beginning to quietly mutter to himself.
“I need to get some air, maybe a round or two...Ack, but Cyan’s inside…! It’d be weird to just grab my stuff and leave…”
He checked his wallet for a moment. He still had a good bit of cash in it, likely enough to afford a new weapon. Gold turned to his right and started heading down the hallway to the elevator of his apartment complex. Once he was back on the main floor, he left the building and started heading to the city’s train station. There was a train going to Inkopolis Square, though he had to hurry to make it on to the train, which he did, only bumping into two people.
Gold headed to Crusty Sean’s after the train arrived, ordering a Sub-Saver Berry drink, then walked across the square to Ammo Knights and headed inside. He was mostly just browsing for the sake of it when a certain charger caught his eye, it was a jet black rather sleek looking charger with a clip attached to one side. Gold immediately picked it up and rushed to the counter- He didn’t even bother listening to Sheldon’s explanation of what it was before he paid for it. To him, a charger was a charger. After paying he ran out of the shop and over to the battle terminal in hopes of catching a game so he could test it out. The only other person at the terminal was an immense, nearly 7 feet tall inkling or octoling wearing a gas mask, pair of black gloves, custom-made Black Inky Rider with a hood, long black sweatpants and a pair of Neo Octoling Boots, which had a metal heel and metal soles- Not to mention they were high heels. You couldn’t see any of their skin… Odd. Whoever they were barely acknowledged Gold, leaning on their carbon roller. Gold grinned upon seeing them, grinning even more when they entered a half empty lobby.
“Aha! Perfect!”
He immediately cued for the match the masked person went into and followed them into the lobby, which was a turf war at Manta Maria. That would be an excellent place to test his charger… And leave the Roller user at a disadvantage. Two inklings were sitting on the bench talking to each other, the masked person sitting at their side. A bright blue-haired octoling was on the other bench, completely absorbed in this phone. Gold sat down next to the octoling to wait for the 3 others needed for the match to start. While he waited, he realized that the mask-wearer was likely an inkling, he’d never seen an octoling with that much gear...
The wait wasn't long, within five minutes another octoling and two more inklings showed up and the match began. Gold rose up from his team’s spawn dripping pink ink, on his team were both octolings and an inkling. Each octoling used a pair of dualies, specifically regular Splat Dualies, and the inkling was using a Flingza Roller. On the opposing team was whoever the hell was wearing that mask, and the other three inklings. The masked one was using a Carbon Roller, the inkling to their right using a Tenta Brella, the other two were using a Splattershot Jr. and a Squiffer. The moment the air horns blared, the masked octoling rushed off the respawn, the rest of their team following. Like clockwork, Gold charged a shot, heard the signature ‘beep’ of a fully-charged Charger and let fly, using the ink trail to get to the nearest vantage point. Once there, he charged another shot and took aim before popping the Splattershot Jr. user. The mask wearing inkling was already in the middle of the map, inking everything. Gold quietly murmured,
“Without Cyan, I’m on my own this time…”
To himself. He then counted to 3, firing on 3 and taking out the Tenta Brella user who was trying to get to Gold. The mask wearer took notice of this and glanced at him, before promptly following the Brella user’s ink trail towards Gold, popping out of the ink to slam their roller down and continue making their way towards him at frightening speed. Gold realized they were coming for him and hurled a sprinkler into their path, before making a hasty getaway. He was relying on ninja squid here to get away safely. The roller simply crushed the sprinkler and continued to home in on where his vantage point was. Gold circled around and headed to the middle of the map, where the others on his team were trying to claim the center. He picked an out-of-the-way corner and hid himself in the ink, waiting for the masked inkling. He didn’t have to wait long, once they realized he was gone they rushed back to the middle to help their team. Gold let himself be smug for a moment, thinking.
'Just as planned…'
Before swimming to a nearby ledge and popping out of the ink and charging a shot. The roller turned at the noise, being met with a midair Gold firing a shot at them. They ducked into their ink before the shot could connect, letting the shot hit a wall. They surfaced once the shot was passed, then hurled an autobomb over Gold’s cover and to just behind him, before rushing his position. Gold heard the beeping of the autobomb and threw down a sprinkler, retreating to another ledge, thinking again.
'I suppose chargers aren’t short range for a reason.'
The roller quickly gave up the chase and moved back to the middle, inking everything and quickly splatting anyone who got within their roller’s reach. Gold moved his way up to another vantage point, inking a bit of turf and picking off the Splattershot Jr. again. The masked inkling moved towards him then paused, staying just out of his reach. They were being more cautious, dancing out of his range if they had to cross it, always moving through cover or dodging around whenever possible to throw him off. Gold noticed and smirked, tossing a sprinkler over at them to mess with them. They didn’t react beyond immediately breaking the sprinkler with a roller hit before pushing to Gold’s team’s spawn, which was a bad sign. The last thing anyone wanted was to be camped in their spawn… Gold muttered a quiet “Alright, no more messing around.” And tightened his stance, waiting for the familiar ‘beep’ of the charger. 3 shots rang out from Gold, and 3 of his enemies splattered. The masked inkling dodged a volley from one of Gold’s teammates and promptly retaliated, slamming their roller into them, splatting them instantly. Gold shouted,
“NOW!”
And turned, the moment his sights were over the roller user, he released the trigger. They stepped to the side and the shot hit the wall next to them. They paused for a moment, staring right at Gold, before going back to inking up his spawn. Gold sighed and rolled his shoulders, muttering.
“What is this guy…? Ah, no time…”
He chucked a distraction sprinkler over at them and began to reink his team’s side. As he did so the roller slowly approached him from their ink, making sure not to leave a single ripple or sign they were there. When they were just too far away to slam their roller into him, a familiar jingle played and the song playing changed, signaling 1 minute left. Gold dropped a sprinkler, submerged and swam away, thinking to himself, in mild irritation,
'One minute already? What a shame.'
The mask wearing inkling popped up where he used to be and started covering the ground where he just was, shattering the sprinkler. Gold heard the telltale noise of the sprinkler breaking and moved his way back to the inkling, hiding in his ink then emerging behind them, activating his special as he did so. They whirled at the noise, met with the sight of Gold rushing towards them in a Baller. They hadn’t anticipated the Baller, leaving them with two options. Flee or stand their ground… They stood their ground, shifting stance and readying their roller. Gold smiled, ready to take the first hit then detonate. He held down the detonation trigger as he neared them, the inkling swatting him away with two roller hits, their arms and weapon a blur. This was shocking for lack of a better word. No inkling should have been able to hit him that quickly. As the Baller swelled, they desperately took one last step back. This was just before the airhorns went off again, marking the end of the match. The baller detonated not even a second after the match ended, harmlessly splattering them with pink ink. The inkling just stood there for a moment, before sighing and slinging their roller across their back and turning. Gold chuckled then moved to their side.
“That was sure to give you a scare, huh?”
They merely nodded, the only noise audible being their slightly heavy breathing. Gold put his roller back across his back as well.
“Well, uh… My name’s Gold!” They turned their head slightly to look at him, before murmuring,
“My name is Seris.”
Their voice was very soft and quiet, almost gentle.
“Seris… That’s a nice name!”
Gold paused near the exit, checking his splats to splatted ratio. It was 7 splats and 0 times splatted. Meanwhile, Seris had 12 splats and 0 times splatted. Gold sighed in mild disappointment.
“I must be adjusting to this new charger, oh well!”
Gold’s team still won due to that final 1% from the Baller explosion. Seris nodded slightly to Gold.
“You still performed… Admirably.”
Gold chuckled.
“Heh… You did too! Though… Do you want to spice things up a bit?”
Seris tilted their head.
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s go for another round! Neither of us managed to splat the other.”
The mask wearing inkling nodded slightly.
“...Would this be a one on one duel, or another standard match?”
“One on one! First one to splat the other wins, loser owes the winner a seanwich!”
They tilted their head the other way, then nodded.
“...Deal.”
Gold grinned in response.
“Hell yeah! How about you pick the map?”
“Blackbelly Skatepark, then…”
Their voice was surprisingly even the whole time, showing no real emotion. Gold chuckled again.
“Ha! A classic! Alright, see you on the battlefield.”
Seris nodded again, remaining quiet. They then turned and exited the lobby, immediately requesting a duel with Gold with the terminal, which he accepted. They both moved back into the lobby, and immediately stepped through the door, Seris letting Gold go through first.