Maize had walked the whole distance to Bellyleech Avenue. It only took him an hour to get to there. This area was mostly an apartment block for housing. A lot of inklings lived in the general area. He approached the first apartment building that was only three floors high in size. The yellow inkling had walked up to the second floor, seeing the hallways. He hoped this auburn person wouldn't mind him coming at this late hour.
"Door 203… well, here we go," Maize muttered, seeing the door before him. He knocked a few times. The young inkling was unsure how he would be of use here, though. He heard the sound of the door unlocking and saw it open partway.
"Who are you...?" he heard a light voice ask. The darkness made it hard to see the person herself, but he only could make out her eye color, which was a light shade of pink.
"Maize is the name. I got your message about your brother," Maize introduced himself. This seemed to get her to open the door. He assumed this person was Auburn, surveying her darkish red tentacles for hair that was long and reached her knees in length. She was wearing a yellow shirt that had a white stripe pattern running along it vertically.
"I'm Auburn. Please come inside," the red inkling welcomed him inside. Maize stepped into the home. The apartment looked pretty clean and neat. There was a very long couch that looked like it could seat eight people at once. It reached a corner and turned with a coffee table in front of it. A flat screen television stationed across from that which held a few game consoles underneath it.
"Wow… you have a nice place," Maize commented, but the atmosphere came off more depressing. He could safely assume why. He took a seat on the couch, Auburn sitting nearby.
"Thank you," she nodded. It appeared he would have to be the one to get this conversation going.
"So what happened to your brother?" Maize requested while pulling out his phone, glad he had an audio recording application. He turned it on, wanting to record this conversation in case there was anything important he needed to remember later. The yellow inkling was trying to handle this professionally.
"Well… It's like I said in the message. We had a fight a week ago and he stormed out the door. I've never saw him since," Auburn explained, repeating the same information in the request, but she looked almost ready to break down in tears.
"What did you fight about?" Maize chimed in. He hated pressuring someone like this. It made him feel like a police officer cross examining a possible criminal. Captain Cuttlefish was not kidding when he said that squids needed help.
"I-it was… a stupid subject. Just me and Cobalt were not agreeing on what to vote for this splatfest, and be-before I knew it, we were both shouting," Auburn stated. She paused for a moment. Maize raised one of his eyebrows, confused. The next splatfest was soon, but the theme was cars versus planes, from what he could recall. The yellow inkling decided not to try and force her to tell the truth.
"Don't go blaming yourself. Do you have any idea where he would have gone?" he requested, wanting to know of any hangouts that she had not investigated herself. He doubted she would spend a week sitting around crying instead of searching for her brother.
"I checked m-most of his places out. All of his friends haven't seen him, and he hasn't participated in a turf war lately either. The only place I couldn't look into is some club in the back part of Mudskipper Street," Auburn explained. Maize knew of that place. Inklings needed a special membership to get inside, but it sure felt like no one knew how to obtain said membership. So many tales and rumors of that club existed, to the point no one knew what to believe. The yellow tentacle haired boy stood up.
"I'll go see what I can trudge up. I know someone who might be able to help," Maize claimed. He knew just the person who could help get into this special club, but as he was heading toward the door, he heard sniffling.
"I… I don't know what I'll do without him if anything's happened. I would have to go back to our old home. I can't face our parents…" Auburn exclaimed through her choked sobs. Maize switched off his audio recording and pocketed his phone.
"I will find him for you. I promise," the yellow inkling swore to her. Auburn wiped her eyes, thankful to him for doing all this for her. With the interview over, Maize made his way out of the apartment. He needed to go visit this special friend of his if he wanted to get into the club. He hated knowing that he had to walk all the way back to Inkopolis Plaza. At times like this, the young inkling really wished he had a better way to get around, at least some form of transport. The squid hurried off to get back to the plaza.
After another hour long rush, and after having burnt up most of his energy, the young inkling reached the plaza, which was still as active as before. Everyone here was enjoying the night. Maize was making a note to try and join in on the fun tomorrow. He approached a small alleyway that was right beside a café. He walked into the alley that led to a dead end that was all but empty.
"Ya back, mate. Here to get your gear rerolled?" he heard, looking over to a corner. Maize saw a partial friend of his. He was a slightly older man who had black and purple spikes covering his head and part of his face. He was wearing a very colorful poncho as well. Surrounding him for the most part were a lot of small adorable creatures in shells that had tall beady eyes.
"Sorry, Spyke, but maybe my shoes later," Maize apologized. This was Spyke, a sea urchin, a more than shady worker around the plaza. He would order gear that were replicas of clothing other squids were wearing if requested, or change the bonuses the specific gear gave. Everything he did was quite costly, too. Surrounding him were super sea snails, a somewhat rare creature, and he took care of all of them.
"So wot are you here for then?" Spyke requested him to cut to the chase. Maize visited the sea urchin quite a bit mostly for chatter, but the other shop keepers got along fine with the shady dealer.
"You know that club on Mudskipper Street? I need you to get me proof of membership," Maize explained what he required, hoping the sea urchin could be of some help. Spyke had a slight grin in his face.
"You want in there? Wif all the turf wars you've lost lately, ya sure you're in your right mind?" Spyke asked, aware of the horrid streak of luck that also had cost him a lot of his rank. The yellow inkling chuckled lightly, appreciating the concern.
"Turf wars are fun. Running around, spraying ink, seeing all those people's faces brighten up, and hearing them laughing in joy… all of which are able to make any day brighter, and all the squids I meet are great. If I let just a single letter bother me, I don't deserve to be allowed on the turf," Maize responded. Again, he was happy to just have fun that it didn't matter if he won or lost, he could earn his rank back with enough effort. The shady urchin patted the shell of one of the super sea snails.
"I can respect that, I 'spose," Spyke nodded, leaning back a little and poking one of his own spiky hairs. The yellow teen felt silly at his own practical speech.
"Sorry mate, but havin' a nice moral code doesn't mean I'll give ya a discount," the sea urchin added. Maize gained a grin on his face.
"I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Spyke," Maize dug around in his pockets before he pulled out a small card that was gold in color. On it was a picture of himself and a serial bar. When turned sideways, there revealed a huge number of digits along it. The amount of money on it was 60,573 coins, the currency of inklings. They made money from jobs and turf wars. These cards were how they carried the coins. He handed the card over to Spyke.
"Alright, mate. Just come back in 24 hours and you'll be set," Spyke declared. It wouldn't take long for this to be done in one day, as this was his usual length. But sadly, the young inkling did not think waiting would be good right now.
"Er… can you actually rush it to get it done really soon? I'm trying to find someone and that club is the only lead I have," Maize asked. Spyke looked at him. The inkling was aware of how ridiculous of a request this was. Putting all other orders aside from dozens of other squids for his own needs was somewhat selfish.
"Mate, you really have lost ya mind lately. Give me a reason why I should rush this," Spyke retorted. Helping someone he did not know remotely wasn't much of a motivator. Maize tilted his head back, closing his eyes. He was going to hate himself later for what he was about to say.
"I'll pay you 60,000 coins to get this done quick," Maize offered nearly all of the coins he had saved on the card. The sea urchin's attention was garnered quite well. He stood up, looking at his super sea snails.
"It looks like we'll be dining nicely tonight. Give me ten minutes," Spyke said. That surprised his young friend.
"Wa-wait! It only takes you that long to get one of those memberships?!" Maize irritatingly asked. Spyke laughed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small golden medal that had a sand dollar pattern imprinted on it. Apparently, the shady merchant was a member of this club.
"It's easier to duplicate when I don't need to work from scratch," Spyke smirked. The yellow squid buried his face into his hands, just stepping out of the alleyway to let the sea urchin do his work. He waited, patient but irritated.
Those ten minutes flew by very fast. Before he knew it, he heard something rattling along on the ground. Maize felt something tugging on his pants leg. He looked down, seeing two of the super sea snails. One had been using its mouth to get his attention, while the other was carrying his coin card in its mouth that was balancing the duplicate club membership coin.
"Thanks, little guys," Maize smiled, picking them both up. The proof of membership looked perfectly identical to Spyke's, and he was happy to have it now, but he then saw his coin card. There was only 573 coins left on it. The yellow inkling felt greatly disheartened, seeing how poor he now was. He hoped this club would be worth the effort and cash.
"Tell Spyke thanks for the help," Maize said. The super sea snails made some cute noise before crawling off back toward the alleyway. Once gone, he pocketed his personal possessions before making his way off. Now all he had to do was make another long walk, hoping whatever in this special club better be worth the money, so he could come back to it again if he ever needed to.
"Maybe the cap'n will pay me back?" Maize sighed. This was going to be a long night. The young inkling headed back out onto the streets, leaving Inkopolis Plaza to begin his walk to Mudskipper Street hoping, he could help Auburn and find her brother Cobalt there. Otherwise, he was following a wild fish chase to a dead end, which meant a first mission gone tragically wrong. Agent 3 already felt quite stressed out from imagining it.