Authors Note: Hi all! I got you all a special longer chapter today. Enjoy!
Maize was in his bathroom, which seemed like the best place to try and clean the stump of his now severed tentacle. He never expected to lose either of his tentacles, especially by a vicious bite. Inkling teeth were quite sharp. The only type of teeth sharper in existence was probably a shark's teeth, and he never had met a nasty shark before. They all seemed pretty nice, from what he remembered.
"Grah…" Maize groaned. There was some blood on the tiled floor, but nothing that could not be mopped up easily. He planned on just burning his blood soaked shirt that was resting in the sink, doubting he could clean that up or pass it off as red ink. He was rubbing the wound with hydrogen peroxide. Each touch stung like crazy and made his whole head hurt. There was also a sewing kit resting beside him. He never imagined they would get used like this. The yellow squid's mother taught him how to sew so his favorite clothing would never be ruined.
Maize heard a knocking from his living room. He initially ignored it, trying to continue cleaning his wound before he heard another set of knocks.
"Maize! …hello? Got-a delivery here for ya," Captain Cuttlefish called out. Maize sighed, knowing that this was about his splatterscope. He was surprised by how fast the octoling agents were able to build the weapon. He got up, going to the door. At times like this, he wished he lived in an apartment instead of a house, just so he could have a peephole. Instead, all he had was a very thick door to protect against burglars.
"Hey, cap'n! Just leave it out there and I'll get it in a bit!" Maize called out, hoping for his captain to leave.
"Squiddo, I don't plan on leaving a weapon unattended out here to be taken," the elder inkling declared. Agent 3 sighed, wondering what to do. Maybe he could put on a hat and just fake his way through it, but then he would just get blood on another piece of clothing, and he was frankly getting sick of the ever increasing mess.
"I can pick the lock if you want," a familiar voice rung out.
"Octoronia?" he muttered, surprised.
"Here, let me do it," ECO chimed up. Apparently both of the octolings came. They had no fear of being seen in Inkopolis or any hesitation. He wondered why they had not just gave the package to the captain like he requested. Suddenly Maize saw his doorknob fall off and clatter onto the floor. The robotic octoling was able to dismantle that quite fast. The yellow squid groaned in irritation, taking a step back and letting the door open slowly. The two octopus sisters were standing alongside the old inkling, wearing helmets to hide their tentacles. They all had the same reaction to seeing him.
"Come on in…" Maize welcomed them half-heartedly. Captain Cuttlefish was the first to get his composure back on the situation. He had a pretty good feeling about what happened.
"Can't escape the past… can ya, squiddo?" the captain coughed. Agent 3 knew that as no joke. The elder was the only one who knew about this history thoroughly, mostly because he especially had a hand in saving the yellow inkling from having his entire life ruined.
"W-we wanted to deliver your splatterscope personally… oh, Cthulu!" ECO stammered. The blood was overwhelming for her, the light on her chest flashing between yellow and blue erratically like she had lost control of her emotions. That emotional cortex of hers was as advanced as her sister made it.
"It's not even been a day, and already you've somehow gotten a botched amputation?!" Octoronia exclaimed, the newly assembled splatterscope resting on her back. He stepped aside, letting the three of them enter his home. She laid it by the doorway.
"I didn't let it happen on purpose. I just got chomped by another squid," Maize retorted. That did nothing but add onto their already stunned mindsets. To hear that it was bit off sounded agonizing.
"Where's your first aid kit?" ECO requested. He pointed toward the bathroom.
"In the bathroom. Everything is laid out in there," Maize claimed, letting the robotic octoling go off to grab the supplies. He knew those two were going to do their best to treat the injury. He plopped down onto his couch, Octoronia taking off her helmet and resting it on the coffee table.
"Can you two let us in on what's happening?" Octoronia requested, wishing to not be kept in the dark about this. Captain Cuttlefish however was on his cellphone and sending out a text.
"I can't," Maize simply said, not wanting to sound mean to his friends and fellow agents, but he did not want anyone else involved if he could help it.
"You'll learn in due time, but first we need my grandsquids to come," Captain Cuttlefish stated. He had texted the Squid Sisters to come straight over. That seemed to strike a nerve with the male inkling.
"What?! No way! Now look here, I don't want anyone involved with this! Everything is in the past now, and it is not going to get anywhere remotely near me!" Maize furiously stomped. Octoronia watched another bit of blood come from his wound. She always had a phobia of getting her blood drawn, but this was ridiculous. ECO returned, carrying all the medical supplies she needed. Maize got bashed over the head by the elder's cane.
"Squiddo, if it weren't for me, you'd still be in jail, and be banned from turf wars," Captain Cuttlefish reminded him. Maize, all in all, was in debt to the elder. The boy grit his teeth before another stinging pain rung out from ECO trying to clean his wound.
"Ack! At least warn me before you do that!" he requested in surprise, being forced to sit back down. His tentacles were really sensitive. Pain was never good for any of the inklings' tentacles. Having only one now also meant that whenever he turned into his squid form, it would be a struggle to move.
"I saw no need in warning you," ECO said. Once she finished with that, she simply began trying to get the sewing needle prepared, trying to thread the string through it. But the robot's hands were unsteady from nervousness, so this was going to take some time and going to hurt a lot. Maize had to accept the fact that all of the agents would soon be in his house and the past would be made public. His troubles he caused would rear their ugly head once again, and his mind was elsewhere.
It was another mission for Callie, Marie and Fallow, and a simple one of course. They were stuck, looking around some old squid's neighborhood in an attempt to find his pet, but he had not told them what this pet was. But it had been missing for over a few days.
"Callie… you look ridiculous," Marie said to her cousin. She was wearing a harness on the front of her chest, carrying Bondi in it. She had seen it on a mannequin through a store window, and she just simply had to buy it. Her squishie was asleep, having decided it was naptime for him. She was very thankful her son was not hard to get to sleep. He was a very content squid.
"Aw, c'mon Marie! You know I'm pulling it off with this outfit," Callie argued. Fallow still saw no sign of any form of animal at all, though when they passed by one of the many lawns, there were a couple of trees in there. She saw some of the leaves rustle, and there was too much movement for it to be from a bird either.
"I'm starting to be bet, up there is the pet," Fallow rhymed in her usual happy matter, though the two cousins were looking close to having a disagreement.
"Are you worried I'm going to gain fan preference just for being a mom?" Callie quirked. The squishie had appeared on television due to that one cameraman not knowing the meaning of cut to commercial.
"The adult audience won't care anymore about us than before, just because you have a squishie…" Marie sighed in frustration, rubbing her head sorely. That cameraman got a severe pay cut for showing Bondi on live television. However she could not deny that she was happy they have Bondi. It felt more fulfilling than she expected, even if she was just the aunt, helping take care of him.
"Here, I'll go see, but don't you dare, leave me alone if the pet's up there" Fallow stated in her rhymes. The Squid Sisters only seemed to half hear her. Fallow sighed, going over to the tree. She made sure her oxygen mask was hooked up well before she grabbed onto the side of the tree and began to pull herself up, getting higher up. Agent 6 never noticed it until now, but being so high off the ground, even if it was only a foot high, was making her afraid.
"Oh! A text from grandpa," Callie hummed, having pulled out her cellphone upon hearing it chime an alert tone. Marie smiled, glad to know that once again their grandsquid had somehow contacted them at the perfect time to interrupt another fight. He had done this quite a lot before. It was almost like he knew whenever they were close to arguing.
"What's it say?" Marie requested her to read it. Neither of them were paying attention to Fallow nor her fear of heights that even she had no idea about. The black squid presented her phone to her cousin.
"Need to meet up at Maize's house. It's very important," Callie read. It sounded like an emergency family meeting. Callie hated to go dragging Bondi everywhere, but with no one to watch over him, she really had no choice. He so far did not seem to have any problems with exploring new environments. That was if he was awake at the moment.
"Hey, Fallow! We have to postpone the mission for a little while," Marie tried to call out before they heard a sudden startled squeal, and saw Maize's sister fall out of the tree and flat onto her back, holding something in her arms. The Squid Sisters approached, intending to help her up, though they both froze when seeing what she had on her chest.
"Here he is…He was a tier above the first branches!" Fallow coughed another rhyme, happy to have found the pet.
"That's a raccoon!" Marie said in surprise. It was just a simple ring tailed raccoon with a red collar around its neck that read 'Rummage'. The pet sure looked pretty calm for just being jerked out of a tree with a rough fall.
"Aw. It looks hungry," Callie commented, wishing she had a treat of some kind to give it. To her, the pet looked adorable. Fallow groaned, getting back up and picking the raccoon up. She was not wrong that it looked starving, but that was because it had been missing for three days.
"We need to go to your brother's, so let's drop the… pet… back to its owner before we go…" Marie hesitantly explained, still unable to understand how the raccoon was even considered a pet. Fallow looked upset, being reminded of her brother. She was aware of what had happened to him, hoping that maybe he would tell the truth to them. The three squid girls began to make their way off to return the pet.
Things had somewhat gotten less tense in Maize's home at the moment. ECO was carefully suturing his wound. He was thankful that she had some medical knowledge, though while she was sewing what was left of his tentacle up, he had a thought.
"Hey, Octoronia? You never told me what that invention was… you know, the one you needed for the contest? Did you win?" Maize wondered. The inventor octoling was trying to clean up for him, not wanting to tolerate the blood around her any longer. Meanwhile, Captain Cuttlefish had fallen asleep in the other chair.
"Oh, err… yes, and no," the inventor stated. Maize helped her rescue ECO, because she exclaimed how only the robot would know how to rebuild the important machine needed for the competition to be funded and researched further.
"What do you mean?" he insisted.
"You see, Maize, I have a unique doubling power source. During the day I'm charged with solar power," ECO started. Her older sister had a grin, remembering assembling this important invention when creating her. Recreating it for the competition was a bigger pain than she expected.
"She's also the only machine in existence that can be powered by moonlight! I made a new complex reflective material to enhance all incoming light sources, though as a backup, she still has two emergency batteries storing power in case the power converters get damaged," Octoronia tried to explain it in the simplest way possible. Maize presumed that the lunar and solar panels were why ECO's metallic tentacles were so shiny. They made any light source viable for recharging without worry.
"Wow! You must have gotten first, right?" Maize grinned, glad to have been able to help. However, both of the octarians looked embarrassed, now having to explain why they didn't actually win.
"You see, I tried to simply hook up six car batteries to a big lunar panel. The problem was the competition was at 1pm," Octoronia explained, looking completely embarrassed admitting it.
"So we got disqualified for inventing something that already existed," ECO finished for her ashamed sibling. The lunar panels charging in the day were nothing more special than solar panels, and the judges of that competition did not tolerate or give lengthy time tolerance. Maize wanted to facepalm from hearing this.
"So what did win the competition?" the yellow squid wanted to know.
"A… a yogurt dispenser won…" Octoronia muttered, feeling angered and looking ready to punch a hole in the wall.
"That only dispensed trout flavored yogurt…" ECO added sadly. Octarians all had the same love for consuming trout. The judges were wooed by it and the investors saw it as a cheap and easy way to earn money, perhaps millions of it, or even billions. Maize only had a twitch in his eye. After all that, they wound up losing the contest anyway.
"There's always next time…" he tried to be positive about this, but he could understand easily why the two of them were not happy at all about this, but they had a lot of plans prepared for the next competition. ECO finally finished stitching closed his wound. She made sure the stitches were fine before she bit off the string, detaching the needle.
"That should hold, but you lost a good ounce of blood, so try and take it easy," ECO requested. The light on her chest was blue, displaying concern. Maize thought he saw a flash of a different light for a second, but he ignored it, thinking he was just not paying attention and now he felt just rude for staring at the robots chest so much.
"I'll try, but I don't think I'll be getting much rest, though," Maize admitted, aware that the rest of the agents were going to be here soon. It had been at least an hour since Captain Cuttlefish texted the Squid Sisters, and he knew that the truth was going to be spoken if he wanted to get beyond his past. But as long as Fulvous held a bloodthirsty grudge toward him, he doubted he would ever be able to move on. However there were two more squids involved with this who were long since gone from the yellow squid's life.
"Wuh?!" Captain Cuttlefish suddenly woke up, hearing the sounds of knocking at the door. The door opened on its own from the light tapping. The knob being off it completely made it unable to keep itself closed. Maize made a mental note to get the octolings to fix that.
"Uh, I think your doors broke… what the?" Callie gasped, seeing Maize and Captain Cuttlefish near those two octolings. Both she and her cousin were sent into defensive mode, Marie pulling out a lunar blaster she had stashed away in her bag for emergencies. Fallow was awkwardly in the back, not sure what to do. ECO and Octoronia were caught off guard by this, and Captain Cuttlefish was still too groggy to get out of his seat. Maize stood up and got between the two groups.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Girls, calm down! …Callie, Marie, Fallow… ahem, meet Agents 4 and 5, Octoronia and ECO," Maize introduced them after he got in the way of Marie's small weapon. What choice did he have to stop the octolings from being slathered? Now that all the agents for the Special Squid Services were in the same room, he realized that he was the only boy out of them all, since Captain Cuttlefish was just the founder of the operation and not a real agent.
"…I swear, every time you're not in our sight you do something crazy," Marie rubbed her eyes, Callie approaching their dear friend to see the stitched up wound of his. She could only cover her mouth, trying to process the sight. His sister came over and hugged her brother.
"We came in peace. We're the agents for Mollusk Metropolis," Octoronia stated, aware that octolings did not have a good reputation with inklings at all due to the history they had, but since DJ Octavio got taken out of the picture, octarians had not made any aggressive attempts at the squids. They had in some way gone into hiding just for their personal peace.
"What happened, Maize?" Callie upsettingly asked, emotionally struck deep in her heart from seeing the damage on him. Bondi was still sleeping peacefully in the harness. Marie could not deny that this was an unsettling sight for them both. The yellow squid assumed that he would be gaining these types of looks for a while. The only other squid he ever saw in his life with one tentacle was that insane club owner, Rose, from his very first mission under the Special Squid Services.
"My tentacle was bitten off during that turf war we were at. By the angry sibling of someone I murdered," Maize simply stated. Complete silence filled the air. Captain Cuttlefish seemed to just wait to let Agent 3 handle the talking as all ears and eyes were on him now.
"Please… tell us this is a joke. Like that time me and Callie pretended to be cannibals last April…" Marie requested.
"Nope. It's not a joke," the blonde squid shook his head, though he could not help but grin from recalling that April fool's prank the Squid Sisters played that had all of Inkopolis in an uproar for the day. They had pretended to go crazy, and eat a cameraman on live television. That was a pretty good prank to say the least.
"Around when I was fifteen I had gotten cut off from all my friends. Aero was off training to be prepared to become CEO, and all me and Fallow had was our dad. The squid I killed was named Cyan," Maize started the tale.
"You see, during a turf war, he hurt my sister. He damaged that machine that keeps her heart pumping," the yellow squid added. Fallow could not help but feel some guilt for that. This Cyan squid was quite the aggressive roller and did not hesitate to crush anyone in his way instead of simply splattering them by throwing ink.
"I wound up with another operation once they found out what was wrong," Fallow stated for him, aware this was hard for him to talk about, but he was doing it because everyone here other than Fallow was so close to him that he considered them a family already.
"I went and hunted him down. I sabotaged his roller so early on in the next turf war. He entered at Saltspray Rig with his sister when it stopped spraying ink. So when he was alone, I hit him as hard as I could and then I kept him on the ground and stayed on top of his chest with my hands around his throat… until he stopped moving," Maize continued the tale of Cyan's murder. The reason the turf war officials got involved with his trial and got him banned from turf wars was because of that sabotage he did on the roller. The murder to them was the second most important thing which was quite horrible in retrospective, but that was how the turf war officials operated. They cared only about the turf wars and nothing more.
"I got a forty year sentence of course in jail, so the officials gave a six month ban since they didn't think I'd be getting out anyway," Maize looked over to the captain. Everyone but his own sister and the elder squid became more afraid the more they heard.
"Then the cap'n here showed up, thinking that something was off with the evidence. Sure enough, my luck was with me and he was right. The next thing I know he's vouching for me and wanting to reform me. In trade, I had to become his personal helper whenever he needed me. Time passed and the ban got lifted in half the time, thanks to the cap'n pleading I had learnt from my mistake," Maize explained the captain's role in this rehabilitation and how he got out of prison a lot sooner than he should have.
Callie and Marie looked at their grandsquid, seeing him keeping that same straight face and showing little emotion. They never had seen Maize before the great zapfish went missing, and yet he had been around their grandsquid for a number of years. It really made the Squid Sisters wonder why they kept this such a big secret. Admitting to murder was not something one would actively want to bring up in a casual conversation, but Maize had so many chances to tell them about his past, but the only times they heard anything was whenever that past forced itself around, like when the two first met Tentatek's CEO, or when his sister appeared to help the two on a mission.
"Over the years I wound up marrying Aero and becoming Agent 3 officially when the great zapfish went missing," Maize finished his lengthy explanation. His sister appeared to have something to add that he forgot.
"Fulvous was quite ferocious! She saw it all and became the one and only witness to bring his downfall," Fallow added. Fulvous's testimony had made the trial completely one sided. It was horrifying to remember how each courtroom gathering felt like. It lasted forever, only to be delayed to further the investigations for both sides to try and settle the trial once and for all. ECO's chest light was very brightly yellow in surprise. It seemed to just keep getting brighter the longer they listened.
"Of course, it's no mystery that when she found out I got out, she went nuts. I guess all those years of anger built up made her go crazy," Maize claimed, aware that Fulvous was going to want more than just his tentacle. Next time she saw him, he will probably have every limb he had left torn off.
"Just… why… why not tell us?! I thought you trusted us…" Callie sobbed. Imagining him as a murderer struck deeper. Even if it was not for the gruesome detail and the captain's silence, it seemed like it was all true. Fallow's addition to the story was also there adding to the proof.
"Is that why you're so determined to help others? Is this some kind of retribution junk?" Marie asked half-heartedly. Maize had done a lot of nice things for their lives and they had a lot of fun and great memories, but if she had trusted a murderer with where they lived, she felt like she had made nothing but huge mistakes. But when she thought about it for a second, she was now asking herself why she felt nothing from his admittance to murder. That immediate surprise and irritation was gone, her nerves beginning to make her tentacles start tingling. She never had this happen before. She was having a lot of doubts about their best friend being a murderer.
"I… I just don't have anything to say," Octoronia said. He was one of the nicest murderers she ever met and she mentally hoped that he would be the only one. She looked to her robotic sibling for her opinion on it. The robotic octoling seemed to be deep in thought. Her eyes snapped open as her chest light turned purple. That was a light Maize never saw before. The inventor octopus looked nervous seeing it.
"I don't believe it. You do not house the regret of a killer. You make these promises because they're what you believe will help change lives. You never intend to ruin even one," ECO exclaimed what she believed everyone in the room had to keep reminding themselves. She was a robot, it was how organic her personality and actions were that kept making them forget that.
"Sorry, ECO, but it's true. I don't know whether Marie's right about the whole making up for my mistakes deal, but still it doesn't change that I know I did it," Maize retorted. They suddenly heard a loud tapping on the floor, Captain Cuttlefish banging his cane on the ground.
"Alright, squiddos. Enough drama. It's time for the truth, Maize. You told me one thing you did not tell them," Captain Cuttlefish declared. He bit his lip, hesitating.
"I… don't know when, but I promised Cyan I would take care of his sister. But it feels like it was after he was dead," Maize added. He had no idea when he did it, though he never got along with Cyan. He had the motive and everything. It all made sense in his head, but whenever he thought back to years ago, all Maize could draw was vague memories of him with his hands on Cyan's throat. He suddenly got hit in the head by another bash of the cane. Captain Cuttlefish was not happy with him. He only hit others with that cane whenever he was immensely displeased with them.
"Squiddo, I vouched for you not because I needed help, but because I knew you were innocent. I got one of those reports from your old defense lawyer to help get you out of jail, and you know why? Because the evidence did not add up," Captain Cuttlefish took off his hat, rummaging around inside of it. There were a lot of items stashed away in his hat. He pulled out a small folder before turning it over, Callie taking it and looking it over.
"…the fingerprints on Cyan's neck were upside down? And his chest was not hurt at all?" Callie read it aloud. That made no sense. Maize claimed he had pinned down the blue squid by getting on top of his chest, but this report claimed otherwise. Contradictory evidence messed up so many trials, but they were the key to finding the truth anyway.
"Now then, squiddo. You don't know the truth yourself either, but you can't slip much past this old sea dog," Captain Cuttlefish reminded that he was not as senile as he appeared, "Just because I spend a lot of time lately alone in a valley with a very angry octopus trapped in a snow globe somehow beating me in board games, doesn't mean I've lost my good ol' sharp mind."
"…I have to go with ECO," Callie admitted. She agreed with ECO, unable to believe that Maize was a murderer despite the gruesome detail. All he had done for every squid, were things that no ordinary inkling would do which was why they were the Special Squid Services after all. They had all began to adopt his motto to do everything they could to help out everyone they could. The squishie asleep in her harness was one of the best things that had happened to her in her life, and Maize was the one who helped the adoption happen.
"They're right. I have an idea that can help though," Marie grinned, her sharp teeth showing agreement with her cousin. The two once again synced up with the same thoughts once again. Her words however scared their dear friend somewhat.
"Is it a good one?" Octoronia quirked. Fallow kept her hand tightly in Maize's, trying to find some support, but her usual cheery mindset was having immense trouble getting back up.
"Hypnosis! It's getting fresher every day. People are able to find things they've lost years ago by getting someone to access their mind. Though truth be told, some hypnotists are being sued for stealing coin card information," Marie happily exclaimed her idea. Maize did not know how to feel about this. It was not like he had much money. He had only fifteen-thousand coins, so if that got stolen, he did not care. However Maize did not know how to feel about letting someone go through his mind.
"Well, I guess if you think it'll help uncover the truth," Maize nodded, agreeing to the hypnosis attempt now that his wound was treated, and hopefully it was healing up as they spoke. He hated knowing that whenever he turned into a squid, it would be harder and quite painful to move around.
"Then it's settled! We'll all go with you!" ECO volunteered everyone without hesitation, that purple light not changing slightly at all. The other agents agreed happily, but were annoyed at how the robot had voiced their opinions for them. Captain Cuttlefish chuckled, watching all five of the female agents support Agent 3, a nice sight to his old eyes. It reminded him of some of his long deceased friends from the Great Turf War. He just hoped however that whatever this truth was to this murder, it would be good for Maize and not against him, because if it was, then there was a good chance the yellow inkling could end up right back where he was years ago, behind a set of bars and possibly with an extended sentence. The old squid put his faith in his grandsquids to be able to help him find out the truth, no matter the outcome.
