A Casual Turf War?

On the other side of the doors was a dark room with flashing, neon lights and a bunch of Inklings; my new friends referred to this place as the Lobby. Located within said Lobby was a small computer that the two instructed me to make my digital profile with. After activating the device, a message appeared that read, "ENTER YOUR NAME IN THE BLANK SPACE." I found the heavy use of capital letters strange, but I accepted it and inputted the moniker of my online persona, which was OctoBB42, the same nickname as the one I had in Marina's chatroom. Upon completing that task, I was shown a bland, green interface displaying only my moniker and the number one. According to Lumiose, that number indicated my experience level, which was at the bottom due to me having the status of being a newcomer. Despite this term being new to me, I knew a case of outranking when I saw it; I could not let it stand. As a result, I was eager to begin my first bout. I reached into the collar of my Null Armor and retrieved my stashed Octo Dualies before walking towards what looked to be a cylindrical elevator, where I was told to go if I wanted to participate in a Turf War. Upon me entering through the open space, however, the lights inside flashed red as a female voice stated, "Unauthorized gear detected. Please return with a legal weapon and ink tank before proceeding." Lumiose looked over at me and said, "Yeah, sorry about that. That equipment you brought with you hasn't been approved by the officials for use in games. For now, you're going to have to take a free Splattershot Jr. and ink tank from that crate over there." I looked towards the front of the Lobby to notice the mentioned storage container, from which I retrieved the required items. I looked between my sophisticated, sleek-designed Octo Dualies and the basic, rectangular Splattershot Jr. I did not particularly enjoy the idea of giving up my superior weapon for this lowly one, but I knew that such an act was necessary to proceed. So, I swapped my gear around, connecting the lesser gun to my ink supply, which was now being powered by a simple, cylindrical canister. After preparing myself, I made my way over to the illuminated elevator to wait for Lumiose and Angela, who joined me alongside 5 other Inklings. I could not help but smirk at how much taller I was than all of my peers as we were transported to our destination.

Halfway through the trip, the eight of us met a fork in the path with 2 smaller elevators on each side. Lumiose instructed me to get in the one on the left with him, Angela, and some short-tentacled, female Inkling. I complied, squeezing myself in with my 3 associates before we were moved along a different track. Upon reaching the end of said line, the elevator opened to reveal a wholly different place than where we were previously. "Woe," I said while looking at the long, overarching, metal bridge above us, "We are where?" Lumiose responded, "This is Snapper Canal. We're having our Turf War here. Speaking of that, you have to change your ink color; all the rest of us are green." I looked at him and the two other Inklings before stating, "Ah, apologizing. Excus-e me." I closed my eyes and triggered a color change, converting my deep purple afro to a light blue one. Once I did that a male voice appeared out of the blue that boomed, "Hellooo, everyone! Ya'll ready to get started?!" I looked around in confusion as I asked, "Was? Where is person?" Angela rolled her eyes and replied, "That's the announcer, doofus. He's talking through some speakers." I laughed in embarrassment before saying, "Ah, obvious! Apology for asking dumb question." By the time that I finished talking, the masculine voice concluded, "On your marks, get set, GO!" With that, fast-paced music of a genre that I never heard before began to play, and my peers ran forward into battle. Because the music was foreign to me, I did not feel as excited as my peers, but I was still ready enough to join the others. Unlike my teammates, I was intent on taking this battle seriously. If this was truly a war, then I was going to put my training as a soldier to use.

To that end, marched my way uniformly across the slightly rough, concrete terrain, my Splattershot Jr in hand as I adamantly trekked forth. As I progressed, I began to ponder about what my objective was. To my knowledge, the Great Turf War of old involved Inklings and Octarians battling over territory, where ownership of land was determined by whose ink covered the ground the most. "Well," I said to myself, "I suppose that I should begin doing that at this moment." So, I got to shooting the area around me, spraying blue ink all over the place as I went. Then, I spotted an Inkling with orange tentacles standing atop a concrete wall, ejecting her fluids through the air with her grey Aerospray gun. I quickly darted behind a cubic protrusion before the enemy could notice me. I began to formulate a battle plan. The squid did have the high ground, but she was also extremely vulnerable, being as out in the open as she was. I shook my head and smiled to myself. Had this girl even heard of the art of battle? I fished out a Splat Bomb from my Splattershot Jr as I said, "You poor, innocent squid. I shall make this quick." I then hurled the explosive towards the young female, who cried out and jumped off of the wall after seeing the blue bomb. I laughed quietly in accomplishment; my opponent was out of position! I ran over to execute punishment only to find that the squid had already been splatted by something. I followed the line of blue ink that extended from the puddle that was the Inkling girl to find that Lumiose had stolen my splat with his medium-ranged Squiffer. Although I felt a tad bit bitter about this, I was willing to accept this reality for now. I gave my teammate a brief thumbs-up before continuing with my patrol.

Spying a dry area in the back of the canal, I made my way over to that spot to claim some more land for my team. As I did that, I listened more intently to the music that was playing. Especially in this environment, I could not figure out the purpose of this tune's existence. Were we not in a war setting? What, then, would be the reason for this upbeat, cheerful noise? A more subdued track such as Octo Eight-Step would be much more fitting in this scenario. Also unfulfilling was the combat. When I thought of the term Turf War, I pictured unrelenting, brutal scuffles with advanced weapons and ruthless battle tactics being utilized to their full extent. My opponents, when I happened upon them, did not exhibit these traits at all. I felt as if I were playing with children. Well, to tell the truth, we were all likely on the younger side, but my point still stands. My fellow Octolings had the same status, but that did not stop them from being worthy opponents when we engaged in our occasional scrimmages. "Hmph," I said to myself, "It appears that I was correct in thinking that this activity was heavily simplified. This is incredibly unengaging." As I was saying this, the announcer's voice reappeared, saying, "One minute left, dudes! It's time to pick up the pace!" Following that announcement, music with an even faster tempo began to play. I looked towards the other side of the area as I said, "So, this bout is timed. I presume that I must act more aggressively at this point." With that idea in mind, I marched towards the enemy's part of the map with my firearm at the ready. I was vying for a decisive victory, so I opted to take the fight straight to the opposition. Along the way, I encountered Angela, who was rolling around the place with Dualies of some sort. Seeing that I was initiating a push, she followed after me. I glanced at her out of my peripheral vision, an unconcerned expression on my face. I did not need her help. The enemy team was obviously non-threatening; I could likely take care of them all myself. Still, she appeared to be prepared for action, so I did not object. The following events that occurred were not worth mentioning in great detail; I splatted some squids, covered the ground with blue, and splatted some more. Not once did I ever feel as though my life was in peril of any sort. After that sorry excuse of a finale, a whistle was blown, signaling everyone to cease their movement. "Alright," said our host, "Times up! Everyone mosey on down to the Lobby to hear the results!" I sighed in disappointment, wiped my hands clean of ink, and walked back to my team's base and into the nearby lift.

Once I returned to the Lobby with the 7 other squids, I noticed an obese, black and white creature with strange, fuzzy material covering its body. "Wait a moment," I thought to myself as I stared at the organism, "Have I not seen this animal before?" Thinking back to my history lessons, I remembered that this thing was called Judd; he was apparently a creature called a cat. His judgement skills were critical in determining the outcome of battles in the Great Turf War. It was very strange seeing him still alive and the same as he was many years ago, and even stranger was the fact that he had a younger version of himself standing alongside him. Did he find a female cat somewhere? No, that would be absurd; Judd was the only one of his kind that was ever found. Unless…anyhow, I did not wish to calculate the logicalness of this hairy animal; I had neither the time nor the interest to do so. Instead, I focused on how the two felines inspected a map that was displayed on a screen before then, which represented an overhead view of the match the Inklings and I had engaged in. After a brief moment of analysis, Judd thrust a blue flag towards his smaller counterpart and meowed excitedly. As he did that, a psychic voice (again, something that I was unwilling to investigate any further) worked its way to my brain, and I heard, "Grrreat job, blue team, you win!" The other cat laid on the ground in defeat as Angela and my other, female teammate jumped for joy. I simply crossed my arms in silence. Lumiose, who was also not very enthusiastic, walked over to me and asked, "What's the matter? Did you have a bad time or something?" I passed my Splattershot Jr between my hands as I answered, "Truth. Turf War are boring. Very much easy and boring. Splattershot Jr is two weak, also." Lumiose held his chin in thought as he responded, "So, you don't like the Splattershot Jr? Well, don't worry about it; after that battle, you should be a high enough level to get a new weapon. Just grab your prize money over there by the elevator and I'll take you to the weapons shop." I trustingly did as my friend said, retrieving a sack of coins with my name on it before following the glow squid out of the Lobby and back onto the streets.