Cambridge and Alizarin had entered the maintenance room to follow Kreon's friend. The maintenance room was long and looked more like a tunnel with a few ladders on the walls along the way. They weren't kidding with that safety advisory on the sign at the entrance for how to escape in case all exits inside were cut off somehow.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Cambridge asked while they began to walk. The only lights were dangling from wires on the ceiling quite poorly, looking ready to fall at a moment's notice. The young squid felt afraid of this almost pitch dark connected area.
"Have I ever had a bad idea?" Alizarin retorted as they continued down the confusing path, where the only guide they had were the few arrows along the way that were labelled to help them escape, or name another door to get back into the mall whenever need be. They were looking around blindly to find the mean jellyfish.
"I don't know," Cambridge sighed. His friend always had ideas, but even if they were good, they usually would go wrong in some sense of the word. Alizarin stopped suddenly, holding his hand behind him and stopping his friend as well. They could hear a voice over there.
"Hi sorry I'm late," that familiar high pitched voice from the jellyfish spoke up. The two made their way sluggishly around the corner, hiding behind a forgotten empty box. They could see a room up ahead, where there dangled a light above, and lay a long table with trash and tools around, feeling like a janitorial staffs attempt at making a hidden club. They watched as the jellyfish tossed the briefcase onto the table and jumped up onto the chair, though it was too short for him, so he wound up getting a few books off the nearby pile of garbage to use as a booster seat
"Why did you put them in a briefcase? That just makes you look conspicuous," a somewhat rugged scratchy voice asked. They could not see who it was. He was in the shadows of this dark room.
"Because it looks more dramatic!" the jellyfish happily answered. A frustrated sigh sounded from the shady stranger. The two squids could not see any more of Kreon's gang, or Kreon herself. The shadowed man opened up the briefcase, and inside were ten coin cards.
"Here you are! Ninty million coins! Jackpot, am I right?" the jellyfish jumped a bit. Each coin card could only hold five million coins each. If a card reached its maximum capacity, the owner could go request an upgraded platinum card which would be costly, or they could simply get another duplicate coin card. Most usually went with the latter.
"Whoa…" Cambridge gasped. He and his friend were shocked. Alizarin was wide eyed and already focused on that case intensely. The coin cards inside had no pictures on them, as if someone had removed them intentionally to hide the true owner's ID of the cards.
"Think we can nick one?" Alizarin grinned, wanting to steal any amount of coin cards from that briefcase that they could. Cambridge shook his head.
"N-no. I don't want to steal from… Ali?!" the blue squid gulped, too late to stop Alizarin from changing into his squid form and quickly sliding along the floor through the darkness, making his way slowly toward the two conducting the deal.
"Ali, no, don't! Your dad will kill you, and then he'll tell my mom and she'll kill me!" Cambridge whispered pleadingly. His mother's punishments made every last muscle in his body sore by the end of it all, and it could occasionally span over the course of a week. He didn't want this at all, but he knew he would get in trouble just by association.
"You work fast, Jelek. You couldn't have possibly done this alone, could you?" the other dealer asked. As Alizarin got under the table, still in his squid form, he carefully reached up though. Just as he was about to reach a tentacle into the case it got pulled away by the shady man, without noticing the tentacle.
"Nope. I didn't want to be late for the payment, so I asked the others secretly if they wanted to join, and they all gladly signed up to help me with my plan," Jelek saluted. For a serious transaction, he sounded like it was a walk in the park to get the millions of coins. Any inkling had bundles of money, and it was easy to get them from playing turf wars or working, but jellyfish weren't allowed in turf wars for their inability to transform or use ink based weapons. It would be greatly unfair toward them. Thankfully the jellyfish of Inkopolis understood completely and gladly did not start a riot over it.
"Ah… so I take it you and they want to join our crew as well?" the man's voice cackled a little while closing the briefcase and putting a lock on it to keep it shut. Cambridge could see an annoyed look on his best friend. Just by hearing the sounds of the coin cards being locked away made Alizarin determined to steal this.
"Yeah! Me and the other four are all begging to get in… don't tell me we gotta get more money, do we?" Jelek nervously questioned, looking like he would have a heart attack if he was right.
"Ehh… normally I would say yes, but considering you are the first person to ever meet the deadline for the payment, I'll let you and ya pals in. Here is the address for our place," the deep voice handed over a card with writing on it. Jelek squealed happily, jumping on the table and hugging the other person of this deal.
"You won't regret this, boss!" the jellyfish claimed.
"I already am," he groaned. Suddenly, Alizarin just popped up while they were distracted and grabbed the briefcase, turning back into his squid form and quickly trying to escape to his friend who bore witness of it all.
"Hey! The case!" the loud voice roared, Alizarin popping up beside his friend while holding the briefcase.
"Jackpot," the red inkling grinned, thinking he had not been seen. The poor jellyfish got thrown aside, bouncing off his chair and into the floor. They saw the table get stomped in half by a large foot. A body in a business suit was partially revealed, his Z-shaped left eye shining bright yellow.
"Ali, th-this is wrong!" Cambridge complained. Suddenly a blast of liquid hit Alizarin in the back. He fell forward onto one knee, the suitcase sliding a bit ahead of him. His eyes were wide.
"Give it back. Now!" the deep voice continued stomping forward, the light being broken by him ripping it off the dangling thin wire in the ceiling.
"Guh… what's happening...? Cambridge, help…" Alizarin panted.
"A-Ali!" Cambridge saw what was happening. His friend's left leg and side of his chest was slightly melting. He had been hit by a burst of salt water, and he was horribly drained and shocked. Inklings were not meant to be exposed to salt water, or else a fateful splattering awaited them. No one had experimented to see what would happen if one was only exposed to salt water in small amounts.
"Hand it over, you squids, and ol' Crion'll let you leave and forget this ever happened," the mysterious man offered. Cambridge went for the briefcase immediately in an attempt to hand it over.
"He-here! I'm sorry, my-my friend is just… crazy!" he apologized profusely, bowing a little to Crion's presence. He watched a big hand reached out from the darkness, about to grab the briefcase. Suddenly, a wet t-shirt flew into his face.
"Gah! My eyes!" Crion shouted angrily, having gotten hit in the face by Alizarin's shirt which was covered in painfully stinging salt water.
"You're right I'm crazy… and I like to be crazy! Come on, we need to go… and I need you to carry me," Alizarin stated having stripped his shirt off just to try and get the salt water away from him. Cambridge initially did not want to, but at this point, Crion was no doubt going to do something horrible to them both if they stayed. The blue inkling went to his friend, putting the briefcase in his own tentacle's grip. He groaned, struggling to get Alizarin onto his back. He immediately ran off with both his friend and the case in tow, wanting to get as far away as possible.
"When I get my hands on you, I will rip your tentacles off!" the scary big figure called out to the distant runners, Jelek lying on the floor out cold from the hard throw.
"Wow… you're stronger than you look," Alizarin commented while holding onto his friend's back as they busted through one of the maintenance room doors. They were back out onto the second floor of the mall in seconds, continuing forth. The red squid could actually feel small muscles on his friend's body.
"Please save those comments for when you have a shirt on," Cambridge requested, still feeling terrified, even if they had gotten away while bashing their way between the crowded mall, reaching the escalator. The blue inkling just hunched forward, keeping his head down, Alizarin hanging on tighter. They could hear the other locals shout at them for bumping through.
"Hey!" "Watch it!" "Dumb kid! I should've tripped you!"
"Sorry! Sorry! Excuse us!" Cambridge spoke between the rushing, making sure not to lose the briefcase. Once at the bottom of the escalator, they made for the exit, not caring about all the odd looks they were receiving at this point. Safety was all that mattered.
"Whe-where do we go? What if he's following us?" the blue inkling requested some form of guidance from his half-dressed friend, who didn't seem to care. They had the briefcase of questionably obtained coin cards with 90 million coins on them.
"Well, I lost my shirt and you look ready to wet yourself in fear at the thought of some big guy that shouldn't be able to keep up with us. Let's head to the main plaza. We'll have some fun shopping… on me, of course. Once we get the lock off this thing. And hey, we can get Caitlyn and Mario while we're there to have a turf war or twelve," Alizarin described. Cambridge shook his head, still feeling quite horrible for being an assistant thief to him. He didn't care if the coin cards were stolen. Stealing from a thief was just as bad as general stealing, but with nowhere else in mind, Cambridge decided the main plaza was their best option. At least then maybe their other friends could be of help to this matter.
"Fine, bu-but we're using our own money for your new shirt," Cambridge declared while continuing the run far away from pearlymussel mall. His friend had a big grin across his face.
"See how much fun you'll have when you have a backbone?"
