Chapter 3

                                    

                                          
Rider started heading for Arowana Mall. "Did you bring your splattershot?" he asked, glad Aloha was gone. 
"Oh yeah! *GASP* I'M SUPPOSED TO BE PRACTICING WITH MY TEAM AT AROWANA MALL!!" 
"...eh?" Rider frowned. 
"We came to the Square to find my team! (I thought they were here!)" 
"Wait- uh.... maybe we could.. do a team blue against team yellow-green match?" 
"Yeah! Good idea!!" Goggles smiled widely. 
"Okay.. now we just gotta find our teams!" Rider pulled out his new phone. "Let's see.... Bamboo Hat usually answers her phone immediately."
Rider quickly added his teammates' numbers into his contacts and messaged them.
Goggles pulled out his phone, too. "Woah! I have 37 messages? Haha! Guess my phone was on silent!" He laughed. 
"Hm? You got that many messages?" Rider leaned towards him to see. 
"Haha! They're all from Specs!" 
'YOU'RE LATE!!' 
'WHERE ARE YOU??' 
'ARE YOU WITH RIDER AGAIN?!' 
"Tsk." Rider put his hands in his pockets, thinking nothing of it. 
"YIKES!! I'M LATE AGAIN!! (COME ON RIDER!!)" Goggles grabbed Rider's arm and pulled him. 
Rider was being tugged. He sighed and followed along, used to this. 
They arrived at Arowana Mall to find one angry Specs, along with Headphones and Bobble Hat. 
Bobble Hat had fallen asleep next to her slosher. Headphones was practice-aiming with her charger, turning into her squid form, flipping around, "AAAAH-" and pulling the trigger- firing the long snipe at Rider. 
"ACK-" Rider was splatted. "IT'S JUST ME!! (CALM DOWN!!)" he yelled, floating off. 
In her defense, they had suddenly appeared behind her, so she fired out of shock. 
Rider respawned nearby and groaned, wiping ink off his shoulders. 
"EEEIIKKKK-!!! I'M SO SORRY!! (I DIDN'T NOTICE YOU WERE THERE!!)" Headphones apologized, sweating a bit. 
"Haha! That was funny!" Bobble Hat laughed. She woke up? 
"GOGGLES!! I WANT AN EXPLANATION RIGHT NOW-" Specs stormed over to him. 
Rider held onto his dynamo, knees a bit wobbly. He turned over to their conversation. 
"OH! I went to the Square! But then I got lost and hungry!" Goggles nervously smiled, rubbing the back of his head. 
Specs looked at Rider, but didn't seem intimidated at all for making eye contact with him. 
Rider raised a brow. 'Weird.' He tried not to think much of it. 
"I contacted Bamboo Hat. My team'll be here in a minute." 
"Your team is joining us?" Headphones asked. 
"Yay! It'll be so much fun!!" Bobble Hat cheered. 
Specs sighed and turned away. 
"Sorry I'm late, guys!" Goggles apologized. His team was used to it by now, but Specs seemed especially upset this time. 
Rider's team showed up briefly after Rider had told them to, all bringing their weapons with them. 
"You're not wearing pajama pants," Stealth Goggles remarked. 
"Hehe," School Uniform giggled. 
"Hey guys!!" Goggles waved and welcomed them. 
"Glad you could make it!" Headphones smiled. 
"We're gonna have so much fun!!" Bobble Hat jumped into the air. 
"Sounds like it!" Stealth Goggles made a fist and smiled. 
"Let's just start already." Specs grabbed his octo brush and walked away, heading towards the other side of the map. The rest of team blue looked at Specs, confused. 
"Um, come on Goggles!" Headphones and Bobble Hat started following him there. 
"We're gonna win," Rider reassured himself. 
"Oh, you and your reassurances," said Bamboo Hat. 
"C'mon guys!" 
"Right!!" Team yellow-green said, heading to their side. 
Goggles smiled at Rider. "Let's have fun!!" he held up his hand to him. 
Rider put his fist up, then unfolding it. "Whoops, sorry." He gave Goggles a high five. 
"You better not pull any tricks!" he grinned. 
"Hehe!" Goggles closed his eyes and smiled. He turned into his squid form and super jumped to his team. That Quick-Jump Orange drink was really working. 
"Hm," Rider grinned and headed over to his team via walking. 
Goggles landed on his butt. "WAAH-" 
"GOGGLES!? (Are you okay??)" Headphones offered her hand. 
Specs crossed his arms and furrowed his brows, looking down at Goggles. "You need to work on that." 
"Haha! I was flying so fast!" Goggles got up, rubbing his bottom. 
"You were like a bird!!" Bobble Hat said.