Cambridge and Celesio found themselves in a more back part of the mall, having decided that searching the southern part of the damaged mall was a good place to start. They passed by an area made for guests, where a heavily cracked water fountain lay in the center filled with fish. The long dirt pots were meant to hold foliage. The place itself was overgrowing with nature now.
"I'm surprised someone has actually cared to put the plants and fish here," Celesio commented, imagining that the plants being so small would not survive as easily in most of Inkopolis. The fish were nothing special on the contrary, but random medium sized fish. She could even see a goldfish or two in the fountain turned fish tank.
"It might've been someone's hobby or their job…" Cambridge suggested that they find her father first and nothing else, though the blue squid wondered why he had no cellphone reception or where his mother and Detective Granite were. Surely they would have been here by now to help.
"Looks like we have guests," they heard, looking to the top of the nearby stairs, one of many sets leading to the second floor. There were several random inklings who looked to have just came back to the mall themselves after losing a turf war. Cambridge could tell that by the looks on their faces. The spider crab stepped forward.
"I demand that you all escort us to my father!" Celesio declared without any hesitation. They were likely working for the Amabile family if they were in here. The squids laughed between themselves.
"What's so fu-funny?" Cambridge hesitantly asked, confused, trying to sound as confident as his fiancée, which he was doing better than normal.
"Nothing… we'll gladly take you to your father, Celesio," one tanned squid spoke. That sentence was quite a surprise to them since beforehand it seemed like any of the Amabile family who worked for Zaiton were out to splatter them.
"You will? Oh, thank goodness. I'll make sure you receive a nice compensation gift once this is all over…" Celesio stated with a bright smile, seeing one of the squids approaching down the steps. When he got close, Cambridge's eyes widened, realizing that the squid had a syringe in his left hand.
"Celesio! Get back!" he called out, the squid lunging at the pinchling, only to be splattered by a slash of saltwater. Celesio held her mopbrush in her hand.
"Hmph! I'm not a complete moron," Celesio glared at the other four squids. They felt their hearts skip a beat from the surprise attack. Cambridge had a feeling something had been off, only just now getting confirmation of this. Cambridge pulled his custom inkbrush off his side and quickly flicked it out of its compact mode, prepared to battle alongside his fiancée. It was only two against four, and not a too unfair contest.
"If you won't tell me where father is… then I'll torture it out of you," the red spider crab smirked. Two of the squids pulled out inkbrushes before the other two went off to get into different positions. Cambridge got in front of the spider crab, when one of the enemy squids slung pink ink from his brush. Cambridge began spinning his custom inkbrush, rapidly bashing aside any ink that came toward them and sending it splattering on the stairs around them. He was glad that Kreon had forced him into practicing his defensive move. It really paid off a lot lately.
"Please qu-quit threatening people with torture…" Cambridge requested. It never ended well when she threatened people that way, even if they deserved it. He remembered how horrible Jelek looked when he first invaded the warehouse Celesio hit the button on her mopbrush activating its special ability watching it transform and bend into a more spherical claw shape on her left hand and wrist.
"Crab cannon!" Celesio fired two bursts of salt water and splattering the two squids who were planning on attacking them at a range. She aimed at the two at the top of the steps who were frozen in fear. The two were blasted by the salt water, falling flat on their backs, one of them splattered but the other only hit by the splash, leaving him lying there, his eyes closed.
"See how easier things are when you're aggressive?" Celesio asked her fiancé. He shook his head, not seeing it at all. Suddenly they felt a rumble beneath their feet, though it stopped in a short second, but neither of them enjoyed the miniature earthquake.
"Wha-what was that?" Cambridge nervously broke the silence. The spider crab picked up the saltwater soaked squid from the floor, hearing him groan in pain.
"Tell me what is going on," she demanded, before they felt another rumble again. The green squid she was holding was trying his best to get himself together, feeling the saltwater melting him a little.
"Th-the tons of earthquakes that happened in Inkopolis the other day… this mall was really unstable to begin with, bu-but those earthquakes have finished it off… we-we only were here because we respawned here," he explained. Zaiton had ordered the squids to capture his daughter, but it was a big coincidence that they met here. Cambridge did not like the sounds of that. He knew that the monster in the weapon facility had created tremors, but he did not imagine that they had caused too much damage.
"What?!" Celesio gasped, surprised.
"Uh… co-could we get you to tell us where Zaiton is, please?" Cambridge requested, not wanting the thought of the mall collapsing with them inside of it. There was another rumble.
"I-I didn't know… the first guy you splattered knew, he said so-something about an underground facility," the squid coughed. Celesio huffed in anger, hoping that the others had found her father at least. The two felt another rumble.
"we ne-need to get out! There is a gas line under the mall," he added. Cambridge saw some of the cracked floor before them. When the engaged couple had looked away, the squid pulled a syringe out of his pocket. Celesio's eyes widened, feeling that stab her neck in half a second. She dropped her weapon and was on her knees, beginning to fall unconscious.
"Celesio!" Cambridge turned around and swung his inkbrush, but he had to stop when the other squid used his unconscious fiancée as a shield.
"Sorry buddy! Boss's orders!" he laughed. Cambridge could see another squid across the way who was aiming an inkzooka at their way. The blue squid wondering where his backup was that he had requested a long time ago. He wondered if something else had occurred to delay them. In a millisecond, the other squid already made a run for it, carrying the pinchling. The other squid fired his inkzooka in that moment. He felt his world being crushed, the yellow ink blasting into the ground in front of him, knocking him down onto his back.
"Ugh…" Cambridge held his head, covered in the stinging ink. He felt a lot more rumbling around him. The yellow squid had then taken the opportunity and gotten very up close. He looked like a hunter, with three different pocket knives on his side hanging loosely. The ground began to shake more violently and frequently.
"Sorry," the enemy squid aimed his inkzooka in Cambridge's face and squeezed the trigger. Only a few drips of ink came out. He raised an eyebrow, looking down between his ink tank and weapon.
"Just my luck," the enemy sighed. He had used all of his ink with that last shot and forgot to refill anytime sooner. Cambridge's eyes focused on the inkbrush underneath the enemy's feet. He grabbed the custom inkbrush that the foe was standing on and yanked it out from under his feet, causing him to fall down, two of his knives falling off and sliding nearby the blue squid. Cambridge swung upwards, hitting him with a slash of blue ink and splattering him into a puddle of blue goo.
"I really do have terribly good luck myself…" Cambridge groaned, looking around for his fiancée but saw no signs of her or the kidnapper. A big explosion noises sounded, and below him, the ground from where he had come from collapsed. He hurried back up the steps, but tripped in his panic.
"Ah!" Cambridge screamed, falling flat on his face. The ground began to crumble behind him. He used his tentacles on the floor in front of him. He tried his best to pull himself up, but there was nothing he could grab beyond the dusty and loose tiled floor. There was nothing but the terrifying darkness below him. Suddenly the tiles broke loose.
"Someone help!" Cambridge cried, having gripped onto the bare ground his fingernails and clawing desperately, but his tentacles lost their strength as he began to fall. The mall was caving in and collapsing on itself with rubble falling after him. If he was lucky, he would fall into the underground parking lot, but from this height and the darkness surrounding him, he did not think he would make it out unscathed. As the long fall kept going, the only thoughts in his head were his family and friends and memories of all they had done together. He closed his eyes tight and braced himself.
"I love you all…"