Maize, ECO and Octoronia had all gotten pinned into a standoff with the ones who had forced Humboldt into starting these fires. Occi was firing an endless supply of ink. It made them wonder how many ink tanks these bad octarians had.
"Try and keep'er busy. I'll try and sneak up on her," Maize told ECO. The robotic inkling nodded, opening fire and spraying purple ink, making the other octoling immediately return to her protective cover. Maize began to move along one of the sides of the assembly lines, his slather blaster ready. He then noticed Octoronia in the near distance, that crying started again from the blobbie.
Maize made his way toward her, beginning to sneak up on Ocoto who was preparing to throw an ink grenade. He was about to toss it when the yellow squid grabbed his arm, making him drop it before he slammed him against the assembly line.
"Grah!" Ocoto's ink tank got smashed by Maize. The ink grenade was about to blow so he kicked it away, letting it blow up harmlessly over to the side. Now that she and the blobbie were safe, Octoronia stood up, approaching while the blobbie who still kept his tentacles tightly on her. She did not mind though.
"I'll make sure he doesn't go anywhere," Octoronia claimed, her weapon aimed right for Ocoto. The enemy sighed, just sitting on the floor and admitting defeat. He didn't ever seem truly interested in anything more than taking care of the blobbie, so the Special Squid Services agents were going to take it easier on him if they could. Maize made a rush back to try and help ECO.
"Where'd she go?" ECO wondered, her chest light being green, thinking Maize had gotten the surprise on the other octopus. The robotic octoling stood up from her cover when she suddenly heard footsteps. She turned around to get smashed in the face, falling onto her back.
"Ow! That's dirty fighting!" ECO whined, aiming her weapon at Occi and firing, but she saw no ink coming out. One look underneath her and there was a puddle of purple ink. Now she realized she had cracked her ink tank on the fall.
"That's the only type of fighting here, bolthead!" Occi grinned, firing. She hit the robotic octoling with multiple ink blasts, though there was no way for ECO to really be splattered. She began to shut down from being hit too much. Octoronia had programmed that to make it fair in games, never really taking into consideration that she and her sister would wind up in these kinds of situations.
"Get off her!" Maize shouted and fired his yellow ink, hitting Occi in the leg and arm. It burnt and forced her onto one knee. She tried to aim at him and fire, but he threw himself to the floor, landing on his stomach. He did not want to splatter either of the real arsonists. He blasted the weapon out of the octoling's hand. Although she tried to grab for it, Maize got back up onto his feet and quickly charged at her, tackling her from behind and onto the ground.
"Agh…! I think you broke a rib…" Occi coughed, aware she had lost. Maize stood up and kicked her ink tank, breaking it into pieces and letting the ink pour out onto her. He felt embarrassed to have caused that kind of mess. He saw Octoronia coming over, Ocoto in front of her with his hands tied together with his own tentacles. Thankfully they were long, but it still hurt.
"Whew… you did great," Maize gave a thumbs up. Octoronia nodded, smiling. She could not return the thumbs up as the blobbie was limiting her left arm's movement a lot. Thankfully his crying had stopped, now that everything had calmed down.
"Uhh, can you reactivate her? I have my hands full…" the inventor octoling requested, keeping her weapon aimed on both of the arsonists, having made them just take seats by the nearby wall. Maize approached the non-functional robotic octoling, going on his knees beside her with his weapon on his side.
"Alright… err, how do I turn her back on?" Maize asked doubting it was as simple as flipping a switch.
"Open her chest and spin her emotional cortex. It'll get everything going," she explained. Maize felt awkward already, not wanting to go feeling around in her chest like surgery. He already felt like a pervert for considering lifting her shirt.
"Maybe we can trade places…"
"Oh for- you have my permission. Just do it," Octoronia rolled her eyes.
"Okay, fine…!" he groaned, lifting up the robot's shirt, keeping his eyes closed until he opened up her chest, seeing the many complicated wires and gadgets. He looked close to the core at the center. No lights on it at all. He grabbed the sphere and spun it gently, watching the many colored lights appear for a brief moment before vanishing. When the ball stopped spinning, nothing happened.
"You've got to do it harder than that," ECO's sister chimed. That did not help with Maize's flushed cheeks. He hated this kind of feeling. He used to be married over a week ago, it felt wrong to be in this kind of position, but he constantly kept reminding himself that she was a machine.
"Alright, please stop talking…" he requested, grabbing the ball and spinning it harder, watching the lights glow. He spun it again, seeing the sphere begin to spin on its own, the bright colored lights showing. He watched ECO open her eyes, the light turning to green. She seemed happy to be operating again until she saw the inkling over her, the light changing to pink.
"…am I supposed to thank you or slap you?" ECO questioned.
"Your choice," Maize just covered his eyes, letting her close her chest and fix her shirt back to normal. Octoronia snickered at the scene, finding it quite cute.
"Now then… we gotta take these two to the authorities," the inventor octoling stated, seeing the two arsonists giving the same annoyed look. They had plenty of evidence that these two were behind it. The security tape at the store and Humboldt himself would be pretty decisive on that matter.
"Before we go, I gotta ask why. What's the point of burning these places down? You're ruining the beauty and the land," Maize demanded an answer, now that they were past that awkward moment.
"The buildings were just what we had to do. Mollusk Metropolis is connected everywhere with nature. Every tree considered to be cut down has to be discussed with a judge legally, and every apartment is a pain to get approved," Ocoto started, looking to Occi for the matter. If either of the arsonists started blaming each another for starting to do this much damage, Maize was going to splat them.
"It's a lot easier to burn things and claim it as accident. On top of that, when a buildings destroyed, we get new jobs to build for," Occi continued. They did this out of nothing but self-gain. Maize felt his anger intensify. Nothing but greed; that was all that drove them nuts. He approached and grabbed the male octoling by his shirt.
"You're an idiot! There's a reason this place has nature! There is not a lot of the world left! You're helping damage what remains!" Maize threw him back, slamming him into the wall.
"He is correct. You are the type that seem too self-destructive," ECO claimed. The inkling was not wrong. The world had been flooded. What little land remained had been populated and fought for immensely. Things were settled between octarians and inklings somewhat and the water was lowering some, and more land was beginning to appear as such, but as for the extent of nature or what other types of beings were out there in the world, not many knew how much was left. No octolings nor inklings could survive in salt water, which was most of the ocean now. If they landed within it, they would be splattered in seconds.
"You brought a blobbie and his father into danger too! You two aren't going to get out of prison anytime soon for this," Octoronia exclaimed, keeping Octon close to herself. Ocoto looked regretful for the matter, yet his partner in crime did not.
"I'll tie her up. Can one of you call the cops?" Maize requested. ECO nodded, pulling out her cellphone. He wondered if they had made their phones. They sure looked like they had been put together out of spare parts. The yellow inkling meanwhile began to tie up Occi, making sure she or her criminal associate could not escape. The arsonists looked aggravated.
"Huh?" Maize heard his cellphone ringing that familiar tone for the Squid Sisters. He finished tying Occi up before pulling out his cellphone.
"Y'ello?" he answered.
"Maize! Hey," Marie spoke up. He walked away from the four octolings. Now all they had to do was wait for the police.
"Hey, Marie. Did everything turn out alright?" Maize asked.
"Yes, it went great! We met your sister. She's certainly, err… interesting" Marie claimed. The yellow squid chuckled happily.
"Yeah… she likes to have any reason to get out and about," Maize claimed while taking a seat on one of the assembly lines, taking the first well needed break he had gotten in some time. Marie did sound slightly tired herself.
"Well, wherever you are, can you drop by soon? She's hanging out, but Callie and I feel really horrible for making someone sick come and save us," the famous squid explained. Maize quirked an eyebrow, wondering what she meant by sick. The last time he talked to his sister, she was not infected with any form of disease.
"I'll be right over," he agreed to head straight over, concerned. His mission was complete, and if he recalled right, the Squid Sisters did a total of six missions, even if most were simple. That was a nice amount to start with today.
"Thanks… oh! And Maize… does she always talk in rhyme?" Marie requested. The tone of her voice sounded like she was begging for a no. Fallow was nice, but the constant rhyming did get a little irritating, at least for Marie, but Callie and her child didn't seem to mind at all.
"Yes… sorry, it's her brain's adaptive coping mechanism. I'll see you soon," Maize said, before hanging up. Marie was confused when he meant adaptive mechanism for the brain. She did suspect mental issues from his sister, but didn't have a hint toward it until now. She and Callie were not going to press her to talk about her medical condition or mental wellbeing.
"They'll be here in five minutes" ECO stated while coming over to Maize, seeing him resting there.
"That's good. Sorry, for… y'know…" Maize apologized for what he did when accessing her emotional cortex. The robotic octoling put a hand to her chest.
"No one is permitted to touch my cortex. I feel like you touched a lot more than just my cortex... I still feel your hands on my heart," ECO claimed. Maize looked at her, unsure how to take that. He still was amazed that a robot could feel anything at all, but the mention of a heart made it all the more reminding that she was one of a kind. He was glad ECO and her sister trusted him enough to touch her emotional cortex.
"Well, your heart is beautiful," Maize complimented. The emotional cortex did look pretty to him. All of those lights were vibrant and flourishing the supply of life through the mechanical octoling. He felt her hug him. Apparently, saying that had brought nothing but joy to her.
"Uh… I gotta head to Inkopolis," Maize claimed, not breaking the embrace. He wrapped one of his arms around her.
"What about your splatterscope?" ECO quirked, aware that he had come here to get his weapon built before he got pulled into their mission. Octoronia was watching subtly from nearby. The two arsonists weren't going anywhere. She was glad the two interacted perfectly together.
"Have the cap'n bring it to me. I'd love to stay, but I have to go see what's going on with my sister," Maize explained. If his sister was sick, he was more worried about her than anything. Who cared about a weapon when he had to go make sure a member of his family was alright. She broke the hug, letting him get up.
"We'll make sure your splatterscope is built tough enough to survive anything!" ECO reassured. That was just what he wanted to hear, chuckling. He knew it would probably only take a day for them to get it done after they got this arsonist situation explained and sorted to the police.
"You two take care! And tell Humboldt I wish him the best," Maize bid his octoling friends farewell before he began to hurry out of the factory. Octoronia had a devious smirk, seeing her sister approaching. The blobbie was now starting to fall asleep within the inventor's arms.
"I've never seen you so embarrassed before. Do you think that sixth emotion is activating itself again?" Octoronia giggled, teasing her robotic sibling that made her chest light turn pink, feeling embarrassed.
"Sh-shut up! Or I won't help when your next invention blows up!" ECO retorted in threat. This sixth emotion had been kept hidden easily. It had been shut off a while back for certain conflicting reasons, and just bringing it up did nothing but immensely send her nerves overboard. She just wanted to move on now and wait for the police to apprehend the arsonists.
Maize was heading back to the way towards Octo Valley. He was glad to be of use. He had saved who knew how many of Mollusk Metropolis's population from the uncontrollable raging fires that could have broken out, and helped Humboldt's family out at the same time. It was a good day for him. It was around one in the afternoon, but he was more than glad to drop by the Squid Sisters' home to help formally introduce them to his sister. He hoped she was fine. She had enough problems, but being sick does not sound great at all. He tried to ignore any bad thoughts and focus on the positive. Maybe the siblings and the Squid Sisters could tackle a mission together. He would be proud to have his sister as an agent for the Special Squid Services. More members meant more squids being helped out.