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Cod, why do I even play these damn weapons!?
Three yelled, angry at themselves for their less than stellar performance in turf. They loved brellas, they really did, but the frustration from how low performing the weapon class was at times was certainly making them consider if it was really worth it.
Despite their anger, they were about to queue for another match of turf, only for a tap on their shoulder to stop them. Turning around, they saw that it was Kaori, a concerned look on her face.
Hey… Three? I think we should stop.
She was right. Playing when they were frustrated would only make things worse. Sighing, Three opted to leave the turf war queue. The two inklings walked out of the lobby, when Kaori started to speak.
I've got an idea of something we can do, just to take your mind off things, does that sound alright?
Three shrugged, but nodded. A distraction from their frustration sounded nice. Letting Kaori take the lead, they followed as she walked to the recon guide. Upon their approach, the recon guide greeted them.
Going out for recon?
Kaori nodded. Yeah, um… Any openings for stages around here, in the Greater Inkopolis area?
Wincing slightly at her voice, the recon guide looked down at their tablet, searching for openings.
As it happens, Inkblot Art Academy was just freed up. Is it just you two?
Nodding once again, Kaori turned to Three.
We're doing some training. Grab your headset and a weapon that's good at inking, I'm going to teach you how to dodge charger shots.
Three gulped in fear, having seen Kaori's aim with a charger firsthand. While probably not as much of a crack shot as Marie, (was anyone, really?) she still was scarily accurate.
The spawning machines flew into position, Three and Kaori both popping out of their respective machines. Three tried their best to make out just what charger Kaori was using, but she was too far away to get a clear visual. All they could make out that part of it was blue, and that scared them.
They knew Kaori owned an E-liter 4K, and getting hit with one of those never felt good.
Hopping back into the spawners, they launched towards the stage. Upon landing, Three quickly inked a path towards the center of the stage, wanting to get as much ink down as possible. They weren't going to be firing back at Kaori, so they could focus purely on having a good field of movement.
Unbeknownst to them, Kaori had already positioned herself, her charger's laser centered on Three's back. Opting to spook Three, she took the shot, hitting Three square in the back. Three yelped in surprise, quickly placing a shot at their feet and swimming away.
Okay, that definitely was not her E-liter, or I'd be a stain on the floor right now.
Composing themselves, they quickly realized she was using a Snipewriter 5H. In hindsight, it made sense: Five shots in quick succession, and not an instant splat.
Perfect for this kind of training.
Feeling the soothing relaxation of the enemy ink being washed away by the friendly ink surrounding them, they swam to the other side of the central exhibit before leaving swim form and turning on their headsets microphone.
That one was just plain unfair, Kaori!
Laughter echoed back; Kaori was clearly amused.
It's what you get for not checking your surroundings!
Three rolled their eyes, a smile on their face.
So that's how she wanted to play, huh?
Three took a quick glance at the area around them. The shot had come from Kaori's side of the stage, at the drop down into the lower side areas. She had likely dropped down already, planning to push their cover.
Breathing in, Three leapt out from their cover, only to see a swath of blue ink across the floor, the origin of which was a sprinkler attached to the wall. They cursed to themselves, not considering the possibility that Kaori would use her sub weapon to reduce how much they could move around.
They raised their weapon, planning to destroy the sprinkler before aiming at the floor to recover some ground. They didn't get very far however, as they were quickly splatted by two clean shots from Kaori.
Cheeky laughter from above was the last thing Three heard before respawning. Honestly, they had deserved it for immediately disregarding the advice given to them not even a minute ago, from the person who splatted them no less!
Opting to take a different path, Three went to the left instead, dropping down into the lowered section on their side of the stage. They opted to quickly go up the ramp into the center courtyard, as being caught in the side areas would spell their doom due to lack of cover, beyond the stack of crates and the tree. Mercifully, Kaori had opted to not ink as much on this side, with only a thin strip of blue ink sitting amongst the orange.
Cautiously, Three advanced. They weren't going to let themselves be caught off guard again if they could help it.
Realistically, Kaori could be anywhere on the stage, due to the ease of access being on top of the middle exhibit granted to both bases. All they had to go off of was her tendency to take the fight straight to the enemy, often in their own bases, likely a spill-over from her years of experience doing fieldwork as an NSS agent.
Deciding to go with a risky move, they inked the side of the central exhibit, swimming up on top. Kaori would have a clear line of sight on them, but it'd also make her far easier to locate. Sure enough, glancing at their own side of the stage, they spotted multiple lines of blue in their base.
They couldn't see Kaori anywhere, but that quickly changed when the barrel of a charger peeked out from behind the cube located on Three's right. Their eyes widening as the laser found its mark on their chest, Three quickly swam off the side of the exhibit, though not without a scratch; Kaori landed a shot on them before they could scramble behind cover.
Sheltering behind the outwards facing portion of the exhibit, Three thought to themselves.
I need a plan, or else I'm just gonna keep getting splatted.
After a brief moment, one came to mind. They smirked, knowing that as long as they could pull it off, it would have the exact effects they wanted.
Popping out from their cover, they looked at where the shot had originated from, and sure enough, while closer than before, Kaori was there. Three quickly inked a small line, and swam around another corner of the central exhibit. All that was left was for Kaori to take the bait and give chase. And sure enough, they heard footsteps slowly approaching.
She likely didn't want to release her charge, which was fine by Three. Making themselves known, they quickly swam directly towards Kaori. Pain stung through them shortly after, as Kaori had managed to land a clean shot during their approach. But that didn't stop them.
Suddenly, Three leaped out of the ink directly at her and pecked a short kiss upon her forehead.
A grin spread across their face, their plan had worked! Got ya!
they exclaimed before quickly rolling off towards her side. They readied their splattershot to ink a path and swim away, happily laughing all the while.
After a short period of silence, Three's headset crackled to life. All that came across was a jumble of words and glitched computer noises. Kaori was clearly flustered.
Three let out a chuckle, Hey, all's fair in love and war, and I think this qualifies as both!
Wasting none of the time that they were given, they quickly made sure they had adequate ink coverage to move around. If they were going to be doing that again, they needed ample space. Hearing approaching footsteps, they quickly hid in the ink, swimming slowly enough to not leave any disturbances that would give Three's position away.
The signature rapid-fire of the Snipewriter rang out three times, alerting them to an ink trail forming on their right.
Orienting themselves for another charge, they waited for Kaori to approach. Her laser danced around the yellow ink, looking for any trace of Three. Seemingly finding nothing, she spent the last two shots of her charge on painting, prompting Three to start their advance.
Now's my chance!
Caught off guard by the sudden appearance of Three speeding towards her, Kaori was unable to charge her weapon in time, with Three leaping out of the ink once more, this time leaving a quick peck on her left cheek. Love ya!
They exclaimed, before making their retreat.
Swimming around the corner where the ramp up into Kaori's base was, Three got yet another idea on how to sneak in some quick affection. Making sure their ink tank was topped off, they very visibly chucked a bomb over the wall.
The suction bomb flew up, landing on the other side of the wall. The signature whine sounded, followed by an explosion… and a distorted, horrifying semi-synthetic screech that was only cut short by the very distinct sound of someone being splatted.
Three froze in place and looked up, a horrified expression on their face.
No… Did I just…?
Sure enough, floating above the wall was a squid-shaped ghost, with one side… glitching out? No, even the rest of the ghost was glitching as well, albeit only a slight amount.
But it was clear: in their attempt to simply broadcast their position, they accidentally managed to splat Kaori, with a suction bomb of all things.
Shit, she's that out of it from being flustered?!
Flicking on their headset microphone, they quickly let out a panicked storm of apologies. Sorry! Agh! I didn't intend that at all! Sorry! I'm so sorry!
No response came in return, but Three could hear the distinct sound of the respawn machine firing off in the distance. They looked around for any signs of Kaori's approach, but were unable to find anything…
Until a laser was aimed squarely on their chest.
Oh, shit!
Three panicked, scrambling for some sort of cover. They had messed up. Bad. Now they were in trouble; Kaori was not playing around anymore.
Taking a deep breath, they quickly took time to think, realizing the best course of action to defuse this situation was to simply continue smooching their way to victory.
Unfortunately, catching Kaori off guard again long enough to get a quick kiss in would likely be a lot more difficult now.
They could hear the sound of a sprinkler starting up, followed by the tell-tale jingle of a tacticooler being deployed. This gave Three a general indicator of where Kaori was, but they had seen her carry the ‘treasure’ of Alterna. She likely could've thrown that thing from anywhere with that amount of strength. Still, it was worth investigating.
Any lead is better than no lead at all… right?
Swimming over to the opposite side of the central area, Three quickly found it absolutely covered in blue ink.
I know she has a knack for inking with chargers, but damn!
Three readied their Splattershot and started to re-ink the area, only for a charger shot to land right next to their feet. Whipping around in surprise, they spotted Kaori down in the lowered area, peeking out from behind a tree, her charger raised and ready to fire.
Composing themselves as quickly as they could, Three opted for the fast and aggressive approach. Alternating between swimming and painting in front of them, they approached Kaori, making sure to weave through her shots, the two participating in a lethal dance. Once the fifth shot rang out, Three saw their opportunity.
Now… C'mere, you!
Getting as close as they could, Three swam forward and leaped out of the ink with all their might, and tackled Kaori down to the ground. Their body atop her legs, they gripped the ground on each side as they slid upwards until their eyes met squarely with her face.
And then Three laid down a drawn-out kiss directly upon Kaori's lips.
She resisted for a split second, her body still working up reacting to an attack. But that resistance didn't last long, as the tension in her body simply melted as Kaori reciprocated. She wrapped her arms around them, and then she wrapped her legs around them as well, for good measure.
Three wasn't going to get away now. As if they even would want to. Neither squid wanted this moment to end.
Observing the training turned romance from the stands was none other than Callie and her girlfriend Ahato. They were originally made aware of the impromptu training session when Kaori had called Marie, asking to borrow the Snipewriter from the latter's collection of chargers.
Marie likely would have been there too, if it weren't for her being occupied with paperwork. Deep Cut's paperwork.
They're so gay,
Callie said with a chuckle before stuffing another handful of popcorn into her mouth.
Totally,
Ahato agreed, as the pair leaned into each other.
After what felt like an eternity, the two slowly broke apart, a smile on their faces. Three's expression quickly turned mischievous, Third time's the charm, yeah?
Kaori chuckled, taken off guard by their sense of humor yet again. Silly…
she said, before quickly pushing Three into the blue ink on the ground. They let out a quick sound of surprise that quickly dissolved into laughter. Hey, what was that for?
They asked, in between bouts of laughter.
That,
she began, was for splatting me, cutie.
Three raised their hands defensively, a blush making its way to their face. I apologized, didn't I? I was just trying to make my location known, not blow you up!
Kaori laughed harder than Three had.
Do you even know where you landed that suction bomb?
Three tilted their head, confused. Did it not just land straight on the other side of the wall? I arced it pretty high.
It did land on the other side,
she had started, taking a dramatic pause before she would continue. You landed it right on my face!
Three stopped laughing briefly, confused. Wait, as in it attached to your face? Suction bombs don't work like that. It should've just bounced off before attaching to the ground.
Three scratched their head, thinking.
Yeah, normally,
said Kaori, with a hint of sass in her tone. But you hit me on the right with it. I guess it only bounces off living competitors.
Wait, what?
Three was confused. What does that… mean, in this context?
It doesn't matter,
she dismissed, I'll just have to say something about it to Sheldon.
Kaori rolled her eyes for a moment, before muttering something that Three couldn't quite hear.
Ugh. Not in the mood to deal with him. Not today.
Three shrugged, trusting their girlfriend. Pushing themselves off the ground, they stood up, holding out their hand towards Kaori. As comfortable as sitting in ink that isn't my own is, I think we should call our little training session here, yeah?
Kaori agreed. Yeah… Let's go,
she said, taking Three's hand as she was helped up to her feet.
Though, they didn't let go after that. 💛💙