Chapter Text
Even she got bored, especially since salmon run wasn't open all the time. She was actually waiting for it to open up now, but had gotten bored just standing there. It should open up soon though, she had roughly enough time to watch another match or two of this tournament before she had to be off. By her calculations, she’d have to work the entire time to have enough for her rent, since it won't be open again till after it was due, but that was ok, she could zone out and it would be over quickly. She'd always been able to keep on her feet for hours, the missions she'd had before. She was used to it.
She shook her head to get out of that train of thought. She’d heard the inkantation, she was free now. It didn't matter that it had caused her suppressed memories of the ‘before’ to come back. She couldn't help her brother right now, the bunker was too secure for her to break in. right now, she had to settle for surviving. This city had a lot of twists and turns, afterall. Learning the way of the inklings and the few octolings (the number growing each day!) here was,,, an adjustment for sure. She could only hope she didn't stick out too much, being what she was.
She took her seat in the stands and hugged her roller close to herself, she knew she couldn't use it for salmon run, but she didn't feel comfortable being anywhere unless her ink tank was strapped to her back and her flingza roller was in her hands. She even slept with it by her bed and the ink tank still on her back.
It wasn't long before the annouser started to call out the teams, and she did pause, looking at the one team. Clearly, three of them knew each other, joking around and playing before the actual match started. Two inklings and an octoling. The male inkling with the charger seemed to have a thing for the female inkling it seemed, judging from the way he looked at her. She had a pair of dulies in her hands, and the octoling smiling next to them had a brella. The random fourth person wasn't interacting much with them, and he seemed to have an ink brush. It was clear the ‘team’ was the three of them, the forth only there to round things out. She frowned to herself, the other team was clearly a team team, and she had a feeling that this team, the blue team, would lose.
And she was right. She was absolutely aghast at the display before her. The orange team was a well oiled machine, whereas the blue was an absolute mess. The octoling was left off to clean up the mess his two friends left, the charger main kept jumping to the dulies one the moment she seemed to be in even a little trouble, leading them both to get splatted. She wasn't surprised to see the ink brush user shaking his head often, he seemed to be the only one doing anything really. The other octo tried to help cover him since his friends just kept messing up. He was sending his brella off too often though, leaving him no defense himself since there was no charger to cover his back.
The map was painted orange.
She stood up from her seat, marching down to the lobby. She wouldn't stand for this mockery of a team. They either needed to shape up or go their separate ways, she could see how frustrated they all got towards the end, this could break friendships easily. It wasn't long before she came upon them in the lobby, that random forth person actually yelling at them himself
“That was the worst match I've ever been a part of! It was like it meant nothing to you guys! Never call on me again for a favor, got it?”
He then stormed off, leaving the others looking a little confused.
“I was taking it seriously though,”
The octoling said softly, a little sadly.
“Yes, you were, but at the same time none of you work well together.”
She said, walking up.
“Who are you? Did you watch the match?”
The same octoling asked, the others looking at her with some suspicion. She noted how he didn't though, which she found strange, she was covered pretty much from head to toe, afterall. Sneaky beanie, zeeko hoodie, and punk whites.
“I am… Lily. And yes I did. It's no surprise the orange team wiped the floor with you guys, there's no teamwork here at all. and -”
“Yes there was! Who do you think you are, a judge? Whenever Emily was in trouble i jumped to her to-”
“AND that's problem number one! You're a charger! You stay to the back and snipe the other team, that's how you help her, help your team. You paid absolutely no attention to your other teammates, only her. You left them in the dust while you jumped forward with a gun meant to be charged up, not shot fast, and it was no wonder the two of you got splatted so much!”
She cut him off, deciding that was the perfect moment to get the ball rolling. Maybe she could help these hopeless squids. And octo. The girl, Emily, just looked at her for a moment.
“You're no better, Emily, I take it. You use your dodge rolls to go into combat, those are meant to help you out mid to late combat engage. You go in, attack, use those to dodge or flee to regroup. Using them to go into the fight means you've little in the way of an exit plan. It makes it easier to take you out. Move side to side, jumb, back up, you need to move around as you shoot or you'll be easy to take out. If you must use them to go into combat, use one and save the other.”
She then turned to the octoling.
“Honestly, you're the best out of the three here, but not by a lot. Stop sending out your brella so much, you can shoot to ink turf, no need to lose your defense to cover more. It's not even that fast while it’s forward. You and Emily here should be on the front lines together, covering each other. Hard to do that when you're missing a key part of your weapon. Now, I'm not saying never shoot the brella off, but be careful about it. Strategic. Don't panic and send it off, it's easy to dodge. Send it off and swim up being it, for example, so it's easier to get close to splat the person yourself.”
There was a beat of silence before the octo nodded, taking the criticism. The others, however, not so much.
“No offense, but who do you think you are, coming out here and pointing out ‘flaws’ like that in our teamwork? I think we do good, we were just up against a team we couldn't beat,”
Emily asked, staring at the strange octoling in front of her.
“Who do I think I am? Well, that's easy to figure out, really. How about this, the three of you versus me. We set up on a practice stage, and i'll explain the rest once there. Won't be a turf battle, it will be a test of your teamwork.”
She shifted, hoisting her foil flingza roller onto her shoulder. She rolled her back a little, then smiled under her mask, although it couldn't be seen. She'd have some fun if they agreed, afterall, she was confident they wouldn’t beat her. Shed a reputation to uphold afterall, even if no one else but her kept track of it. And she'd get to use her roller! It had been a hot minute, as she normally did the grizzco stuff.
“I'll give you a minute to decide. I am Lily, by the way.”
“I'm Luke, that's Dan and, as you heard, Emily.”
The octoling, Luke said. She nodded before taking a few steps back to let them talk amongst themselves. It wasn't long before they had an answer for her.
“We will do it, but what are the terms?”
Dan asked, eyeing her. She could tell he was the most suspicious of her, whereas Luke seemed to be the most open. Maybe because she looked like an octoling? She wasn't sure. Dan had a right to be so suspicious, however. She did take a moment to study his face, something was off about the right side. It took her a moment before she realized there was a scar there, one that was covered up by concealer. A hefty one at that.
“I need to splat the three of you, three times each to win. If one of you can splat me once, you win. If you win, I'll take back everything I said. If I win, well, it proves what I said is true, doesn't it? After All, one roller shouldn't be able to take out an almost full team, should i? Especially with the weapons the three of you have. Disadvantages and all that.”
“Those terms are ridiculous! Of course we are going to win!”
Emily said, flabbergasted. Luke looked thoughtful, however.
“You've been through a lot, haven't you? Confidence in your skills. Were you a commander? A teacher? You seem keen on teaching us, not just beating us. Why else would you try to point out flaws?”
A commander of octolings in the octo army, she bet he meant. Or one who trained recruits. The words hidden, the meaning easy to see, however.
“I was a leader of my own team, and trained others. They disliked me in the moment, but appreciated the skills I gave them afterwards.”
The truth, but not the whole truth, it would never be the whole truth. She couldn't easily trust anyone with that. She didn't know these people well enough yet for that.
“This won't be easy then.”
A statement. The others looked at him, a little shocked, but they felt confident as well.
“Oh, I bet it will be Luke, don't worry. It's one versus three. She'll eat her words.”
Luke sighed softly, but just nodded to what Emily said. There was a knowing look between them, so Lily knew there was… something else connecting the three then. More than just a friendship. Alright, but it wont prevent the butt kicking they were about to receive.
.
.
.
The buzzer went off. She'd even let them pick the map.
She flung ink fast in front of her, swimming up to the middle, and covering what she could. She made herself plenty of paths. Plenty of places she could hide. She was up against a charger, she needed to be careful after all.
It wasn't long before Emily dodge rolled up and over her, looking around the middle. Luke was following her a bit more slowly, looking around. Lily popped up and crushed her, dropping back into the ink as Luke turned to see his teammate down.
“Emily has 2 more lives before her splats don't get counted anymore.”
Lily called out, before popping up. She flung a suction bomb behind luke then flung ink at him, a distraction. He shot his brella out at her, but the explosion behind him plus a well placed fling splatted him as well.
“Luke has 2 more lives before his splats don't get counted”
She dropped into the ink, and narrowly dodged a charged shot at her. Seeing Dan, she knew he'd be the hardest to get at, being a charger. He was on a perch, but knew he wouldn't be for long. Once Emily was back down here she could easily lure him out. Especially since Emily just rolled into the ring once more. Lily smiled to herself, well, this would be easier than she thought.
Once more, she popped up and crushed the inkling from behind, then turned and activated her special. Tenta missiles. She locked onto Dan and fired, before turning suddenly. Luke was shooting at her and hit her a bit before she dropped down and swam away. That had been a little close but she was ok. She just slid past him, going close to where Dan had gone after being flushed out. She popped up and then splat!
Now Emily was down to one more splat and the others 2. She was getting a bit of a workout but it wasn't bad. She'd been the leader for a reason, and she watched the flow of battle well, planning for things in advance. She knew she wasn't perfect, but she was confident she was good enough for this.
.
.
.
In the end, Luke was the last one with a life left, Emily and Dan watching closely. Lily and Luke danced around each other for a bit, lily actually having a farther distance she could fling ink then luke, if she flinged it vertically. He almost got her, but she managed to get close enough to crush him after he’d sent his brella off.
“Match!”
She called out, folding her roller and leaning against it. She waited for Luke to come up from the spawn before saying anything else, the three others standing before her.
“So, I did notice you three had taken what I said into consideration as you fought, but it was still painfully easy to lure you off your perch Dan. Harder than I expected though, considering I figured you wouldn't listen to a word I had said earlier. The three of you did do good, though. There were a few close moments, especially at the end there.”
“Yeah but we still were no match for you! Are you as proficient with other weapons as you are with that roller?”
“Kinda? I'm by no means as good with them as I am with my roller, that's why my weapon is the foil fling, but as a team we all needed to become good with the others weapons. I didn't like them, there was Glooga with his glooga dualies, they were a bit too bulky for dualies in my opinion, but he was a tough guy, he made it look easy to wield them. Scope had his e-liter 4k scope, that's a tough one to use but it's got amazing range, and then Explosher loved his ink hurling hot washing machine thing. That's unwieldy but I can make it work, it's not too hard. So although I don't have experience with your specific weapons, I've got experience in the general area. We also had to test and practice with other weapons before we went out to get our own. I've experience with every class, but I'm not good with most of them. Rollers were a clear winner for me. I don't have the best aim when using a shooter class.”
“Wait, your name would have been foil then?”
Lily froze, eyes wide for a moment before she looked away. Was that the major thing he'd taken away from that? She had blabbed a touch too much anyway. Maybe she should be worried about Luke, he was observant but in different ways then Dan.
“Was.”
“That's not how things are normally done for us octos, we did have somewhat normal names. Why were you all named after your weapons? And what were you a part of exactly? It sounds like it was really rigorous? Even I didn't have it quite like that, you know?”
“You're also heavily covered up, which is why I still don't trust you fully.”
Dan added after Luke had finished. Luke looked over at the inkling, but Dan just shook his head. Lily surprised them, because after a few beats of silence she chuckled. She then tugged on the neck of her hoodie, pulling it down to reveal a tattoo etched into her skin, it said simpy “1-i1’
“Ah, well, there's a lot about me I'm not comfortable talking about yet. For starters, this brand. It's also very easy to identify me otherwise because I'm literally covered in colorful ink scars. Think blotches all over me, neck to toe. I was, once, a part of the octo world but, well, I was weak. I was very smart and strategic, a good leader, but I wouldn't hold up too much stuff and got sick way too easily to be of much use. Couldn't even go to what they called a school. My parents shipped me out. It's who I ended up with that I ended up working for, he'd brainwashed us too however. Experimented on us as well. I did a lot under him, I'll admit, and a lot of it I never would have done if I hadn't been brainwashed, just like it is for most of the octolings I knew, like my brother…..”
She trailed off after that, any thought of her brother made her sad. She'd sworn to protect him, afterall, and she hadn't. She'd been prevented from doing that. In all honesty, that was her main regret, out of all of this. That she'd never been strong enough to keep him safe.
“I've done a lot of carpy stuff because of that thing. Called himself the Professor. And with what he did to us, he erased any memories we had before we landed into his hands. I didn't even realize I had a brother until after I heard the inkantation, and now know that, well, he's got my brother trapped as I once was. One thing at a time though, you know? Need to fix the bad shiz ive done, even if it wasn't truly me who did it. The guilt doesn't go away easily in all honesty. Doubt I can fix the main thing I did though, she's already back and safe. Doubt I’d ever get a chance to apologize to her too.”
She paused, seeing Dan turn away. She cocked her head to the side, confused.
“Are you ok Dan? Why did you-”
She paused as she saw his shoulders shudder a little.
“You understand,”
He said softly, causing her to walk over to him till she was standing behind him.
“I understand what?”
“What it's like,”
He said softly, turning back round to face her. He'd taken his glasses off, and his eyes had some unshed tears in them. His one hand was up by his eye, where that faint, hidden scar was.
“What it's like to feel guilty for actions not your own. When your body is forced to keep moving but its something you'd never want to do,”
To the side, Luke sighed softly before going over and hugging his friend.
“Dan it's ok, you never meant to hurt me and I know it wasn't you. You've already apologized more than you ever needed to, you've already fixed things up. You showed me what it's like in the city and introduced me to so much, including agent 4. Agents 1 and 2 whose song freed me. You don't need to keep hurting yourself over this, ok?”
“It's not that easy, it takes time to get over, not words. It doesn't go by logic, although logic can help ease the pain. And for some, it's easier to get over than for others. It can also be easier to ignore for some. It just depends on what happened and who you are as a person.”
A pause
“I'm not even going to mention the agent thing, yet. Use this time to come up with a convincing lie if you want.”
“Oh, shit did i-”
Dan chuckled
“Yeah, you did Luke,”
“Well, as i said you've time to think of a cover, but i will admit i wish to know the truth. I saw a glance pass between you all earlier, so i can infer that emily is an agent too, perhaps 1, 2 or 4 considering the two of you don't have those numbers.”
“Sharp as a tack aren't you? Yes, I'm agent 4, but that's all I'm saying. It's up to 1 and 2 if we tell you more, and the Cap.”
“Emily! Do you think that was a good idea?”
She shrugged.
“Well, what harm will it do? The cover is kinda blown. Besides, I want to know more about her, so if we are open, maybe she will be too.”
“I, uh, am right here. My past is a twisted complicated web I don't want to unravel myself.”
“Ok, but can I at least see some of those ink scars you said you have? They must have hurt like heck to get but i find them so cool to see, it's like a tattoo! But not. I have one myself, we all do here. Dan’s is arguably the worst though, or, huh,Luke’s too but….”
“You know, this is an interesting topic I never expected to talk about, so I'll humor you.”
Lily said, chuckling a little before pulling off her hoodie. She had a tank top underneath the hoodie, and the multitude of scars on her body was clearly visible. Emily paused though, as there was a pink scar on her shoulder. A very, very specific pink. The same pink as someone she knew. Then her earlier words came back to her. ‘Doubt I can fix the main thing I did though, she's already back and safe. Doubt I’d ever get a chance to apologize to her too.’
Oh, oh boy. This was definitely something she was going to have to ask Callie about. Luckly, it seemed she wanted to make amends and not, you know, kidnap her again.
“They're all so bright and vibrant, as if you'd gotten them yesterday. Normally they don't stay that bright unless there's repeated exposure, so what happened to you?”
Luke asked, looking just a touch upset. He could only imagine what that had felt like. Lily only sighed and hely out her arm.
“Get some of your ink on the back of my hand, Luke.”
“W-what? Why? That's going to hurt!”
“It'll also help me explain better. Easier to just show you.”
Luke still hesitated, but after a moment, and Lily raising an eyebrow, he gently shook some drops off his umbrella and onto the back of her hand. It started to hiss softly almost immediately, which startled the three others standing around her.
“Around 5 seconds or so and it's a permanent scar. The longer it's on after that the more vibrant it is. And yes, it stings quite a bit.”
She explained as she took out a rag with her free hand. She waited for about 10 seconds before she wiped it off, and she now had a new, angry looking blue scar on the back of her hand.
“Remember how I said I was weak before? This is part of it. Thin skin. I was always careful to wipe it off fast when training, but out in the field I don't get that luxury. Also how much there is, if it's a thick glop it burns faster.”
“That’s… insane, how can you live like this? Fight us, even! Every drop of ink has to hurt tens times worse than it does to the rest of us.”
Luke asked, misitfied on how the other could even function like this, let alone have been the leader of her own crew and fight. Lily just shrugged at that.
“Well, you get used to it after a while. Doesn't hurt that I was brainwashed as well. Always need to finish the mission and all that.”
“Ah, yeah, I do understand that.”
Luke said softly, scratching the back of his head.
“Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm definitely hungry. Wanna grab a bite at Crusty’s place? I've plenty of the tickets so it'll be on me. I'd like to talk about something else as well but it can wait until we've eaten our fill.”
Luke offered, hoping they'd all agree for food. He loved the food he could get there, it wasn't good for you but it certainly tasted good.
“Yeah, that sounds nice Luke. Will you join us Lily?”
“Uh, I guess I can. I need to split after though, I need to pick up shifts at salmon run once it opens up.”
“Alright then it's settled, lets go!”
Emily said enthusiastically, as the four of them started off to go get food