Marie and Sandbar arrived at the Ammo Knights store moments after the call. The owner, Sheldon, was ecstatic over the massive sale he had just made.

"Haha! This is wonderful! I have just made the most amount of cash in a single day! Let's see those uppity weapons salesman laugh at me now!"

"Say wha?" Sandbar interrupted the small horseshoe crab's ramblings. "Whatcha on about Shelly?"

He was startled, his helmet rattling atop his head as he turned to face the pair that entered his store. "Ah! Oh it's you. One of my regulars, and Marie! Nice to see you!"

She gave a small sigh and removed her sunhat, now dropping the 'Mary' persona. "Darn it, Shelldon. You're lucky no one else is coming in here." She then looked at Sandbar with a hint of confusion. "You aren't surprised?"

"Pfff! I knew who ya was soon as I heard ya speakin' earlier. I'mma fan of yours Marie. I even chose yo side in the last fest ya did."

"Oh wow...great..." she wanted to shy away from the subject, "anyway, I got your call, Shelldon. So you're saying everything in your shop was-"

"Purchased! By one mysterious buyer. No name given, just dropped off this massive bag of cash here, and requested everything!"

Marie's eyes narrowed to slits. There was something fairly dubious about this in her mind. "Mind if I see this cash they left?"

"Uh, sure I guess?" Shelldon pointed to the bag on his counter. "Don't do anything weird."

"I just wanna look..." Marie peeked into the sack of 'cash' and sighed. "I knew it. They played you, Shelldon." She grabbed the bag and tossed it on the floor. "These are chocolate coins. Not real at all."

Sandbar knelt down and picked one up. "Blech. And it's dark. They got me messed up, yo. I'mma 'bout to tear 'em a new one."

Upon hearing that he was conned, Shelldon froze. Still as a statue with a dead expression on his face.

"Uh...you alright m-"

"Shhh." Marie stood in front of Sandbar before he could approach the weapon salesman. "He gets like this when he's really upset. I...suggest we leave." She grabbed the bag of chocolates and put her sunhat back on.

The two exited, leaving Shelldon in his frozen stupor.

Marie was walking down the sidewalk and barely noticed the bright yellow squid with the cowboy accent until he made himself known.

"Chocolates? Well that's all well an' good I guess, but now what?"

"...You're still along for the ride? I thought you'd have bounced by now."

"Now hang on, missy. Don't sell me short or nothin'. I'mma find out what's goin' on mahself if I have to."

Marie looked at him and then out at the city. "Well, our best bet would be to find where this candies came from, question who they sold these to, and go from there."

"There's a candy shop down the road, now. Maybe that's where these came from!"

There was a mild look of interest on her lips. "Hm. If you're so sure, then I guess you should lead the way."

"Alrighty, follow me. I gots a shortcut." The journey to the candy shop began with the yellow boy hopping over a nearby fence that led through an alley.

"Oh boy..."

After a trek through Inkopolis, the pair found themselves at the candy store. That's where Sandbar's level of eagerness ended, however. Entirely due to the sight of the store itself.

"Gross...Valentine's prep, ya'll."

Indeed, the candy shop was prepared for next month's majpor holiday with heart boxes of chocolate displayed in the window, pink and red balloons floating above the signs, and an influx of pink cards that seemed to fill the store.

Marie had a cheeky grin on her face. "Heh. Yeah, it's why I decided to accept the Team Money leadership for the Splatfest we did a few years ago."

"Oh yuh! I remember that. I couldn't participate yet, but I was too young to decide anyway."

"Don't get me wrong, love is an important thing and it should be expressed all the time. But this? It just feels like an exploitative greeting card holiday used to shame boys into giving things while glorifying girls for doing absolutely nothing. Unless you're in school where it's more or less mandatory for everyone to give everyone a Valentine."

She stopped and watched as a nearby Inkling recounting how much cash they had for a gift...four times.

"...But let's face it, a lot of us aren't. So you end up with a lot of frantic boys who bust their ink sacs trying to find a Valentine gift while girls just sit back and gossip to each other about who's getting the better gift. If you ask me, this holiday is overrated at best, and manipulative at worst."

Sandbar had been listening to her entire speech. It came as a shock to hear a girl say such things about Valentine's Day, as evidenced by his thousand-yard stare. "...Huh."

"What?"

"I ain't never heard nothin' like that from a chick. I thought all ya'll just enjoyed bein' catered to like queens."

Marie took a pause before laughing. "Pfff! Please! I've been through enough of that sort of treatment. I'm just looking to chill nowadays. So long as my cousin stays out of trouble."

"Righty, righty. That's all well and good, but now we need to head inside."

And in the amount of time they spent chatting, the line into the candy store had tripled! Now leading out of the door where impatient squid and octopus boys were hoping to get their hands on gifts early.

Sandbar threw his arms to the sky in frustration, while Marie laughed. "Son of a mother hubbard!"