Lacey's POV

*Beep beep, beep beep. Beep beep, beep beep* I yawned and hit the disable button on my alarm clock. I yawned as I read the time 6:45 am. I thought back to when the orange inkling wanted to meet us by this one grate thing in inkopolis at 7:45 am. So that means I have an hour to get ready. I rolled out of bed and walked over to my drawers and started looking for an outfit to wear. What kind of outfit am I even supposed to wear to this? I continued looking for about 10 more minutes before finally deciding on Fake Contacts, a Grape Tee and Pink Trainer's. I figured wearing my normal gear wouldn't be the brightest idea.

I got up and went to the kitchen to get something to eat before heading out. I mean if this whole thing isn't a scam it's best we have some energy in us. So I decided to just make some toast cause it's quick and easy.

After a while I finish the toast and Jaxon finally walked out into the kitchen. He wasn't wearing his normal Octoglasses, Baseball Jersey and Red slip-ons. Instead he was wearing Fake Contacts, Choco Layered LS and Gold Hi-horses.

"Are you sure you want to do this Lacey?" Jaxon asked taking a seat at the counter, still looking uncertain about my decision.

I playfully rolled my eyes. "Yes Jaxon I'm sure. Now eat!" I said while sliding a plate of toast and berries over to Jaxon. "We are going to need it-"

"If it isn't a set up" Jaxon said finishing the sentence for me. Even though that's not what I was going to say.

I sighed. "Yes, as long as it isn't a set up, Now eat child!" I laughed and taking a bite of my toast after.

"Hey I'm older than you! You can't call me a child" Jaxon laughed and started eating his food. "Son las siete de la mañana" Jaxon chuckled.

"Jaxon you know I don't Spanish!" I laughed.

"I know, your reactions are just funny when I say words in Spanish" He laughed. "I said It's 7 o'clock in the morning"

"OoOoh Okay" I laughed. "That makes more sense" I said just finishing my toast. And shortly after  Jaxon finished as well.

"Are you ready to go?" Jaxon asked. "We should head out if we want to get there on time"

I nodded my head. He was right the walk to inkopolis was at least 15-20 minutes from our apartment complex and we have a bunch of stairs to walk down since the elevator is down. Great...

After what seemed like an internity of walking down stairs [7 minutes] we finally made it out of the apartments and started walking towards inkopolis.

"I really hope this isn't a set up Lacey" Jaxon sighed.

"Jaxon you have said that's hundreds of times and my response is still the same" I replied rolling my eyes.

Jaxon's POV (Suprise!!)

"Jaxon you have said that hundreds of times and my response is still the same." Lacey said rolling her eyes. Which hurt a bit but I understand where it's coming from, I have been a prick trying to convince her not to go to this. But i'm just worried about her... The yellow and orange squid kids are the fiercest squids in inkopolis.. And some of the things they have done in the past to Lacey is not okay at all. The constant bulling and abuse... I mean yeah it wasn't every single orange and yellow squid, but after that I just can't trust them. I'm just so worried about Lacey and the possibility of her getting hurt cause of this. But right now I kinda have to shake my feelings aside.

I know it's wrong because if it was anyone with a different tentacle color I wouldn't care as much as I did now... And the Orange squid kid from last night didn't look like she was lying.. But what else was I supposed to think? Lacey and I's past makes it almost impossible for me to think otherwise. I mean Lacey still trusts her, but Lacey has always had a heart of gold. She always trusts people into they turn on her.

"Okay okay, I'm sorry I'll stop now" I answered. But I couldn't stop thinking about this whole situation as we finally approached the entrance to inkopolis*

"Thanks Jaxon, and now we're at the plaza.." Lacey said looking around. She was right, we were in the plaza. Which of course I had mix feelings about but for Lacey I'm just gonna keep that opinion to myself.

Lacey's POV

After sometime of walking we finally made it to inkopolis plaza. The Plaza looked very different than what it usually did during the day. The stores and the battle dojo are closed. There aren't many people around, I actually only see one. A inkling girl. She was standing by the cafe playing on her InkPhone 6. She had green tentacles, pink eyes and was wearing Fake Contacts, The Rockenberg Black Shirt and Black trainer shoes.

I wonder what she is doing out here so early. Usually nobody is in the plaza unless they have a scheduled turf or ranked battle against the opposing team. But none of those have been scheduled recently... I wonder if she is here for the same reason we are...

"We were supposed to meet the orange hair inkling at the little grate thing by the trash cans right?" Jaxon asked looking over in that direction.

"I think so." I nodded. "Should we head over there?"

"Yeah probably" He paused and took some time to think when he noticed. "What do you think the Green squid kid is doing here?" Jaxon said looking over.

"I don't know" I answered. "Do you think we should ask?" I said looking over at the green squid girl on her phone.

"Maybe.. I mean whats the worst that can happen? The green squids are known to be one of the more kind squids. So I don't see harm in asking since no other of our teammates are here" Jaxon shrugged.

He had a point, I mean we were both curious and nobody was around so asking her wouldn't hurt.  "Okay, yeah sure. Let's go ask." I said starting to walk towards the green inkling girl.

As soon as we approached she looked up from her phone and put it away. When I expected her to walk away she actually started walking towards us. Surprisingly she was also the first one to break the silence.

"Hey, are you guys here, because of.. you know..." This unknown green squid started.

"Here because of an orange inkling girl?" I finished. Since she didn't look too comfortable about sharing it.

"Yeah that!. Do you think it's real what she said?.. About being able to save the great Zapfish?" She questioned.

"We don't know for sure." Jaxon answered. "But it could be." I was surprised we were all actually taking and associating okay. I mean Jaxon is super picky when it comes to taking with other inklings.

"Huh, well let's hope it's not a setup.." She said looking a bit nervous.

"Wait your worried about this being a setup too?" Jaxon asked.

"Of course..  let's just say I have terrible history with the orange and yellow squid kids..." She said looking down.

"Yeah same here.." I said feeling sorry for her. "A-are you one of Maria's victims as well?..." I said avoiding eye contact.

She looked up at me in suprise. "Y-yeah.. Your one too?" She said now looking a bit in disbelief.

I nodded. "Y-yeah" I shook my head, I wanted to switch conversation topics. Quickly. "Moving on... I'm Lacey, and this is my friend Jaxon!" I said trying to lighten the mood. "What's yours?"

She smiled and held out her hand. "It's nice to meet you both, I'm Luna."

I shook her hand. "Nice to meet you Luna"

Jaxon chuckled. "Luna huh? Where's the blaster?" Jaxon joked.

Luna and I both giggled. "I get that a lot, and actually got my name from that weapon. My   great great great grandfather invented the first ever Luna Blaster during the great turf war."

"Woah that's super co-" Jaxon tried to finish but got cut off by an Orange inkling popping out of the grate thing by the trash cans.

"You guys showed up!" Said the orange inkling girl that ran into us last night. "I thought you would bail cause you guys would think it's a setup.." She sighed.

"Not gonna lie we thought it was for a while" Jaxon said.

"Well, I'm glad you showed up even though there was a chance of this being a setup. Now come on, we have to get you caught up since all of the inklings Blue talked too are already starting bro learn the basics." Even though we have no clue what she was talking about we all nodded.

"Umm before we go to where that grate thing leads us, can we at least know your name?" Luna asked the orange inkling.

She giggled. "This grate thing is known as the manhole. And the name is Autumn" She said smiling. "Now let's hurry!" Autumn said as she turned into a squid and jumped down the manhole. After sparing each other one last glance, we turned into squids as well and jumped down the manhole.

// End of Ch. 4 A Set-up? \\

Heyy guys it's Athena here! I actually got another chapter out with out you guys having to wait a month! XD Also last chapter I asked you if I should do a character contest, and some of you said that would be a good idea. So I decided to do it! So if you want to make a character for the story, it's simple. Just fill out this form in the comments and it's entered :)
Form;

Name:
Gender:
Tentacle Color:
Skin Color:
Gear;
  Weapon:
  Head:
  Shirt:
  Shoes:
Bio/Backstory:

So that's it for this chapter. Thank you so much for reading and I will see ya in the next chapter! Bye! ~Athena