It was a rather quiet and peaceful night, the crowds of cephalopods in Inkopolis Square had left for home leaving the huge square to be rather abandoned. One attraction however, was still open. The Shoal, the arcade where you could come to play alone or with your friends. The Shoal was opened 24/7 and like any arcade it drew in quite a bunch of clientele during the day, but at night a different crowd shows up.

Not many come in at night, only those who are looking for a fun time do.

You happened to be one of them, you were probably the most outgoing and active cephalopod out there. You loved ink parties a lot that you didn't even play a single game of Ranked at all, you didn't like competitive play unless it was a dance match on Squid Beatz.

One of your favorites.

You loved the feeling of dancing to your heart's content. You only came in at night because very few   cephalopods would come, so it gave less attention to your addiction to this dancing game.

You came in every single day, not one day you missed coming into the Shoal just to play Squid Beatz, unless you were sick or some other random excuse.

Your goal was to achieve the total score on all the songs on hard, you have completed almost all of them except for two.

Spicy Calamari Inkantation and Splattack (Octo).

No one has ever completed the perfect total count for those songs.

You walked into The Shoal and went over to the counter with your card of Shoal stamps in hand.

"Hello (Y/N), back again I see. " You were greeted by the same store employee, who was a Jellyfish with headphones, her name was Jellanie.

She grabbed your card from your hands and stamped it. She gave one last look at your card, "Looks like you have two more slots left for your next prize (Y/N). " She handed back your card.

You took it and smiled at her, "Yup, I've been eyeing that huge Judd plush for a long time now and I've been hoping on winning it soon."

Jellanie's eyes gleamed," Well it is only won by getting the total perfect score on all songs on Squid beatz."

You rolled your eyes, "I know! " You leaned over the counter face slamming your head on it, "I've work so hard trying to finish those last two songs...but it's just so hard to get a perfect score. "

You exhaled deeply at your memories, many nights of tireless efforts lead you no closer to beating those songs.

Jellanie patted your shoulder in comfort, "At like least you have the high score on those two songs, I've never seen anyone get that high a score. "

You smiled slightly lifting your head up from the counter, "Yeah I know, but the perfect score is what I'm after."

Jellanie shrugged, "Well looks like you have a lot of nights ahead of you then. Perfection is hard to reach on that game in particular. "

You smirked, "Maybe, maybe. But not impossible. " You left with your Shoal stamps and headed to your usual spot in the arcade. The far back corner on the left side of The Shoal.

You walked through the small aisles of Arcade Machines, the colorful flashing lights and loud sounds made you feel happy. It gave you a sense of joy and reminded you of your youth when your folks would bring you every once a while to The Shoal.

At that age you weren't able to play Squid Beatz cause of your age, but now that you have more formed limbs-and of older age of course, you had the chance to play and accomplish your childhood goal.

To get that damn huge Judd plush.

As you approached the Squid Beatz machine, waving your childhood memories to the side, back to reality you saw inklings at the machine. You had not expected anyone be playing on it. Usually you came late in night, cause no one out there in this city would want to exercise at such a time.

Guess you assumed wrong.

"I didn't know you had such cool moves! " An inkling with purple glasses complemented whoever was on the dancing game. Your curiosity was now creeping in. You noticed next to the inkling with the purple glasses were two female inklings cheering that cephalopod on, from what you could distinguish from your position.

You couldn't see who was dancing, but you knew it was someome who could potentially ruin your Squid Beatz cred. You clenched your fist and decided to make contact.

You slowly approached the group from behind and quietly stood next to the inkling with glasses. You saw who was dancing and it was a male inkling with green spiked tentacles, wearing a black shirt with gloves.

You then peered at the screen, he was currently trying at Spicy Calamari Inkantation. One of the songs you had trouble at getting a perfect score. You looked at his score and your jaw dropped as he was several points away to pass your score.

"Come on Gloves!  You can do it! You can do it! " The three inklings cheered him on giving him motivation to keep on doing his thing.

You analyzed his moves and saw how he just went with the rhythm so perfectly. In your slight awe of his moves, he quickly glanced your way noticing you were staring at him, and by his utter distracted mind he accidentally took a misstep resulting in him falling onto the metal dance floor butt first.

You blinked at him emotionless as he fell on the dance floor.

The three inkings, on the other hand gasped in unison, "Gloves! Are you okay?!"

'His name is Gloves, hmm. ' You deduced.

Gloves lifted himself up and dusted off, "I'm fine guys. " He winked with a finger pointed up. He then looked at the screen as his score was being tallied up.

"Score: 491/544!" The machine said.

The inklings sighed in disappointment that Gloves wasn't able to get a perfect score, but he did do something.

Something that made you furious, he beat your high score by 1 measly point.

"You have reached a new high score for this song please enter a name. " The machine called out.

"Whoa! " All four green inklings gleamed in awe.

"Sweet!  High Score!" Gloves fist pumped. Quickly with his fingers, Gloves typed in his name and pressed Start to confirm that he was the beholder of the high score.

You began to slowly clap for him, holding back your angry interior.

All four inklings directed their attention towards you.

"I see you passed my high score, congrats. " You said coldly with a dead expression.

Gloves smirked and came towards you, "Someone doesn't sound so amused about me getting the high score, am I guessing right? "

You snickered, "Maybe, maybe. "

You both looked at each other straight in the eyes.

"I challenge you to a dance off, Gloves. "

Gloves raised his eyebrow, "You want to challenge me to a dance off?" He placed his hand on his chest as he said that.

You nodded feeling the competitive side of yourself awaken, "Yes. " You answered bluntly.

Gloves smiled, "I accept. "

~~~~

Hope you enjoyed!