After Zaffre had informed him of what happened, the currently in his squid form Cambridge cried into his mother's chest while being carried by her ever since, Kreon walking beside them. The blue squid's mother felt horrible for her son. No matter what they believed, they had no way to prove otherwise that Alizarin was not a murderer.
"Quit crying you big squishie. Seriously," Kreon was irritated from his crying. Losing her coins once again was another anger inducing issue in her mind. She had a huge headache from all the stress lately getting to her head that it would make it explode.
"So your best friend is going to jail for life. Big deal. Just move on and get another. It's not that hard," she added. His choked sobs didn't quiet down. The mother cast a very scary glare down at the dragon squid.
"How many friends did you lose today? All of them?" Zaffre retorted in her son's defence. He was not up to the task of fending for himself. He felt like the world was collapsing around him. The thought of his best friend being behind bars for the rest of his life was horribly devastating. Kreon paused for a moment.
"I've lost everything in these last few months a lot more than my friends… friends can be replaced, but my money and rank? Those are nowhere near as easy to reobtain," Kreon claimed, though she was wondering why Cambridge was in his squid form when upset. She guessed he either lost control of his transforming ability or he found being a squid a lot more comforting when upset than being in his inkling form.
"Now look here. I don't care about you, or about your life! All I know is you've made my son's life a nightmare ever since he met you! Now get away from us. I'm probably going to be missing work tomorrow," Zaffre wished to call in sick so she could take care of her son. He lost his father and was going to lose his best friend, that he could not handle. The mother began to walk off to get back to their apartments.
"Hmpf! Fine! I'm the only dragon squid in Inkopolis! You should be thankful that I graced you with my presence for so long!" Kreon stormed off the other direction, upset. However, her movement began to slow down when she passed by an electronics store with rows of televisions outside of it. She leaned against the brick wall of the building with her arms crossed. She was emotionally messed up from the news of Alizarin being accused of murder. She had no idea why she was affected so harshly by it either, but she had done a good job hiding her emotions thus far.
"I feel like I've been corrupted…" Kreon hit the back of her head against the wall before sliding down it and sitting on the concrete sidewalk, bringing her knees to her chest. She heard an odd noise from the many televisions combined inside.
"It's Inkopolis news time!" she heard familiar voices, turning around and stepping in front of the many televisions. Callie and Marie were live in front of a wide screen TV, giving their normal broadcast for the time. This was going to be the last one for today since they had a schedule for these. The dragon inkling had to admit that she did not anticipate to fight the most famous pair in Inkopolis today, but she was more impressed that they somehow had all this energy to always have these news reports ready every couple of hours on a daily schedule.
"The first of the two stages on the next rotation are Moray Towers. look at all that fog down there! I can't even see the ground," Callie exclaimed.
"Oh! That's called draw distan… cough! I mean, yeah, that is a lot of fog..." Marie coughed. The two cousins always were on sync pretty greatly.
"And the other map is Saltspray Rig! I hear this place is very romantic for dates," Callie hummed, her cousin raising an eyebrow confusedly. That statement still came off as weird, even it was what the script said.
"Well you'll need some water to wash the salt out of your mouth once you lose here," the white inkling replied, both laughing from that.
"…I've got it," Kreon began to wander off with her bag over her shoulder, heading straight for the main plaza. She had an idea in mind, and the Squid Sisters were only people who could help her. They were friends to Cambridge and Alizarin after all. Kreon had been informed by the two all about Crion and that coin deal with her former close friend Jelek. She did not know what was going on here, but now her money was not the main focus on her mind anymore.
Callie and Marie had just ended their broadcast, and after televising, the two were sitting at their table in their recording studio, where their single cameraman was working on the camera to make sure it was well maintained. Their table had small chairs set up on both sides and big lollipops in a small container between them. There were a few squids outside the huge glass wall, which the Squid Sisters occasionally waved to their fans from, who were content and happy to watch them. It was a lot more disturbing when they watched most of their actions when they weren't live on air. The two Squid Sisters suddenly heard knocking at their door.
"Come in!" Marie called out, after a brief moment, they saw their security guard open the door, leading Kreon inside. The dragon squid looking exasperated from the long rush over to the main plaza just to catch the two before they left work, because she was not up to hunting them down at their homes and this really did seem too important to wait until tomorrow she doubted that they had even heard the news though this was naturally a very awkward situation for the three of them.
"She said she's here to see ya," the guard stated, closing the door and leaving them in the room. The security staff were all supposed to not allow people into the studio, but that guard was the laziest one out of all their staff who would wave people in that just asked nicely. That kindness also made him quite the favorite in the studio manager's eyes, so there was nothing they could do. The room was enveloped in silence.
"Um… would you like a lollipop?" Callie offered, hearing Marie snickering. Kreon turned down the offer, not even sure if the lollipops on the table were real.
"No. I'm not hungry. I know you two hate me and all that, but I came here to talk about something important," Kreon requested them to listen. She would understand if they told her to buzz off. The Squid Sisters looked quite confused by the sudden personality difference. The last time they saw her, back in that turf war, she was a merciless ink brush wielder until they all got arrested by the turf official worker.
"We don't hate you at all," Marie claimed.
"Really?" Kreon was surprised, considering their first impressions.
"We've dealt with a lot worse… and I do mean a lot worse!" Callie added. With the help of their best friend and grandfather, she and her cousin had fought an entire army of octarians in secrecy who stolen the great zapfish and tried to take all of Inkopolis's power. Thankfully the octolings were freed of their mind control and saved from being forced to create a catastrophic second great turf war, not that many knew this tale.
"I'll cut to the point. Alizarin has been arrested, Cambridge is having a mental breakdown, and I'm next to bankrupt and lost my rank," Kreon stated. The Squid Sisters looked to each other, naturally stunned at these announcements.
"What? But why? What is going on?!" Callie looked ready to panic, Marie getting out of her chair and trying to reassure her it was alright.
"The police are claiming Alizarin went insane and murdered his father. Cambridge couldn't take it all in at once and now he's just a sulking squid," Kreon explained in better detail.
"What does this have to do with us, though? There's nothing we can do to help. We're just famous squids. That's not gonna be enough to clear him of a murder charge," Marie's feeling of shock wasn't alleviated.
"You can help! My ninety million coins has been stolen, but the thing is, Alizarin had it! Someone had to have been there but left no trace. They killed his dad, framed him and made off with the money. If we can find the thief, we can help clear his name," Kreon elaborated. From what Cambridge and Alizarin had told her, it was either Crion or one of his shady associates to blame for it all. After all Crion was recruiting so many people for high costs of coins.
"…wow. I've never heard someone sound greedy in a good way before," Callie had to admit. Alizarin was their friend, and now that the red squid knew who they were behind their disguises, they did not have any reason to hide. Marie had a smile on her face.
"I know the perfect person that can help us too. His nickname is Agent 3. Do you think he's still working in his studio?" she quirked. Agent 3 was the one who had a big hand in fighting off the octarian army.
"He always works late! Come on, we just have to be careful not to interrupt a scene," Callie insisted they go recruit their other dear friend to help. Kreon was relieved to know she had their help on this matter. Agent 3 had become a fellow actor in the course of a year and worked at the studio as well. The dragon inkling followed the Squid Sisters out the door, feeling grandly relieved to have them here to help.
"Something really is wrong with me… I hope this Agent 3 is worth his weight…"