The Surface: a New Life

Turf War

//y/n pov//

As we waited for the place to be selected, it was a bit of an awkward silence. Then Pearl broke it.

"You know, Agent 8, I'll go easy on you since it's your first time," grinned Pearl.

"..." I just stared at her with a look saying "I'm not dumb."

"Okay! Fine, I'll go full on MC Princess on you, you asked for it. No turning back now!" teased Pearl.

"Pearlie.." sighed Marina.

"I-" started Pearl. 

Then the match started. The ink colors were blue and pink. Pastels.

The map was Piranha Pit, and it looked kinda odd. There were conveyor belts and.. More conveyor belts. It was a 2v2: Marina and Pearl and me and Agent 3. 

"Cover the sides and I'll cover the middle," suggested Agent 3.

"Okay!" I responded. I quickly started shooting ink and swam to the right side. After I executed a few bombs and shot some ink, it was covered well enough. Right done! I mentally noted. I lobbed a bomb and swam to the left, and a little bit of pink ink got on me. I glanced over and saw Agent 3 splatting Marina and covering turf. I also spotted Pearl going toward the direction I was going, so I shot ahead and snuck in the ink. As pearl was shooting ink, I jumped out, threw a bomb and shot ink, while shaking. She was splatted. I quickly shot some ink around, and then went to the other side, and filled up some ink. I used tenta missiles, and they spotted someone in the ink in the right side (i was on the left now) so I used them. 

The round ended, and we saw the results. We'd won! By, like.. 3.2%! Um..

"We did good!" I said, kinda happy. 

"Mhm," murmured Agent 3 in response.

As we got back to the crib, Marina got an "oh no" expression on her face.

"Ah!! I forgot my weapon at Piranha pit. Y/n, can you get it? You can explore, just call us with this Octophone if you get lost," exclaimed Marina.

"Sure," I responded. I'd be able to see Inkopolis more, so it was a benefit.

When I was on my way, I saw the girls with the sour expressions again. And they looked at me like I was a thief who'd gotten out of jail that was still kinda on the edge.

But, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and kept walking. Then I remembered I'd forgotten something there too, my backpack! Good thing I was already headed there, or I could've been in trouble.. That had my contacts, extra gear from Iso Padre, and my golden toothpick. All of those were valuable to me, and I'd kept them in my backpack so I'd never misplace them. Maybe I should put them in a big ol suitcase instead, because I'd lost even the backpack.

While my brain was on autopilot, I quickly snapped back to reality.

I was right outside Piranha pit! There was actually a lost and found right by it, with 2 big bins of stuff. After a lot of digging, I found my backpack and Marina's weapon. I headed back, and my head was just in the clouds the whole time. You'd think I'd gone this way many times before.

When I finally arrived at Pearl's crib I gave Marina her weapon and went through mine. Phew, everything still there. Then I realized I hadn't tried the stuff Iso Padre gave me, so I decided I would.

I asked where the bathroom was and tried on the outfits. First, the Null outfit! It looked really cool, and I liked the big old helmet. The boots were also nice.

Second, the Old-Timey outfit. Wasn't really for me. I didn't like the slip-ons with socks, or.. Anything really. 

Then the conductor hat. It looked cute and small. I think I might wear it outside sometime.

Now...

I got kinda shaky and sweaty. I wanted to try it on but..

The memories..

I tried shaking it off. Now the.. Neo octoling set.. How had he even gotten a hold of this? Y'know what, it's just an outfit replica, I'm.. Fine. I tried it on, except the shades. Too many terrible memories for that. Besides that, I thought it was okay. It kinda reminded me of the Deepsea metro one, but more.. I don't know. Surprisingly, it looked kinda fine. But.. The thought of him was too much, of that.. So I sprung out of that outfit. 

I walked out back to the others with my bought outfit on.

"What took you so long? We bought Lactose-Intolerant King, you were in there for like an hour," complained Pearl.

"Pearlie.." groaned Marina.

"Oh, sorry. Anyways, we thought you would like the drizzle, so we got a Choco Brownie Extreme one, along with a Bacon Cheese FreezeBurger, and a Sierra Mist," explained Pearl.

I gasped. "Thank you, Pearl and Marina!" I happily said.

"And me," said Captain Cuttlefish. Kinda forgot he existed.

"And thank you," I added.

We ate and it was delish. I felt like everything had a weird name, but whatever. I mean, Lactose-Intolerant King?? Anyways. Marina went to the bathroom and came back 2 seconds later.

"Why are there outfits all over the floor," she asked. 

"So you were having a fashion show, y/n?" whispered Pearl.

Then Marina's eyes lit up. "Wait, can I see? I love outfits," gleamed Marina.

"Okayy..." I dragged my voice. I went to the bathroom. I decided the same order as I did while I was alone.

First, I went out with the null outfit. 

"Woah, thats a really cool outfit! I love the boots and the helmet," exclaimed Marina.

Then, the old timey one.

"Wow! It's.." trailed off Marina. She glanced at Captain Cuttlefish.

"It looks a lot like one of my outfits," remarked Captain Cuttlefish,

I gave a quick "mhm" then threw on the conductor's hat.

"Aww, it's so cute and tiny!" exclaimed Marina.

I wanted to skip the last one for obvious reasons. 

"But there's one more?" pointed out Pearl. 

Marina immediately noticed and agreed with pearl.

"I'm not comfortable with wearing the last one," I quietly said.

"Oh! It's fine," said Marina.

We cleaned up our lactose-intolerant king stuff and headed out. We went to the Inkopolis Plaza and hung out. I could still feel a 2 pairs of eyes looking at me...

Author's note: This is ongoing so no this doesn't end on a cliffhanger