Better Eight Than Never

Chapter 2: Back in the swing of things

"No no no!!" Simon growled. They'd just been splatted in their current match at Blackbelly skatepark, and had respawned just in time to see an echolocator attempt to come at them, only to fizzle when it came into the spawner's radius.

They were up against a Splatterscope, an Octobrush, an N-zap '85, and a Rapid blaster, and doing horribly. The splatterscope had made herself at home in the center of the map, The Octobrush was ambushing people left and right, the Rapid blaster was leaving inkmines in the most annoying locations, and the N-zap was doing what N-zaps do best, covering turf and activating echolocator after echolocator. Together this team was quickly overtaking the map, and heading toward their base alarmingly fast.

Toda and Bato were working around down the alleyway to the right... from what they'd last seen of enemy positions, that spot was wide open for a siege if they could just get the splatterscope away from the middle. They squidded and super jumped, landing right next to Bato. Toda was up above them, on the little out-of-the-way ledge that sometimes didn't even get inked in a battle. "Alright, I have a plan. First off—" They stopped for a second, seeing that Bato had a special charged. "New plan! Bato, inkstrike the middle, we need to drive out the sniper. Toda, as soon as it touches down claim the tower and don't let ANYONE take it. Once that's done Bato hook around to the left, I'll take the right. We have to drive everyone out."

Bato nodded, pressing the button on his brush and pulling out the tablet used to aim.

"Understood!" Toda said, ducking down as the inkstrike was fired.

Simon squidded and carefully edged around a corner to watch the inkstrike land. The splatterscope was splatted as she was attempting to get out of the way, perfect. They were about to make a charge when Toda jumped down off the platform, directly into enemy fire. They quietly squeaked in protest, seeing the N-Zap still standing there. They must have been on their way over here to take out both him and Bato after being spotted with the echolocator. Plan C. Simon sprang forward, sloshing ink at their adversary.

Revenge was swift, the N-Zap hadn't even known what hit them. Simon glanced over their shoulder to see Bato looking for Toda. "Bato! Change of plan!" They gestured at the tower. "You go up top and protect it, I'll go around the base and clean it out!"

"Got it!" Bato said, squdding and swimming towards the center platform.

Simon nodded a bit, continuing around to the left in hopes of flushing out anyone attempting to storm the base. As they jumped over a small wall and over to the ramps, they heard a *BEEPBEEP* underfoot. "SON OF A—" *SPLAT*

"UUUUULLLLLAAAAAAAUGGGGHHHHH!!!!" Simon screamed as they respawned, opening their eyes just in time to see Jill get splatted by the Rapid Blaster. They'd made their way extremely close to base by now, and they had less than a minute to turn things around. Cursing a little under their breath, they squidded, swimming forward to ambush. They were well aware that screaming like they'd stubbed their toe wasn't exactly stealthy, but they were so frustrated!

Simon stopped at the lowest point close to spawn, keeping a wary eye out. Where had they gone? They were right around here a moment ago. They heard some swooshes through the ink, but it was probably Jill... or maybe even Toda or Bato, they'd completely lost track of them. Stay focused.

There was a thud above them as someone landed after super jumping. Close enough! They desquidded, sloshing two quick globs of ink up onto the deck above them. They were met by a satisfying yelp. *SPLAT*

They felt a blaster shot graze their back and squidded, swimming up the slope onto the deck, making a beeline for the center of the map. They squeaked loudly as they felt a shot hit them from behind, swimming into enemy ink and being forced to revert into their humanoid form. They braced themselves for the next hit, but it never came.