Authors Note: Hi all, I hope you're enjoying this fic. I'm trying to update it daily, let me know what you think in the reviews. Have a good day, and take care!
Maize had headed downstairs to the basement of the club. It was a pain to him, for certain. He had just vowed to save someone from blackmail. Now he just had to figure out a way to do that himself. He arrived to the basement, where he could see that this was used heavily for storage. There were stacks of labelled crates. No two crates appeared to contain the same items.
"Please let this boss be friendly…" Maize said to himself. He was wishing for a lot. This girl was a blackmailer, but he still could have hopes. He had wandered through an open door in the basement, until he found and entered a room that looked like a small office, where he saw a desk with two chairs in front of it that did not match remotely. Otherwise, this room was just as crate filled.
"Hey! Didn't your parents ever teach ya to knock?" he heard, looking to the left. Maize followed where the voice came from. A squid was standing on some of the crates, high enough to be near the ceiling. She was in a vibrantly bright red business suit, looking only slightly older than him. She had a long pink tentacle for her hair and her eyes were green in color. Maize presumed her to be the boss, but he was confused by the sight of her one tentacle strand.
"Um… no, not really," Maize answered, watching her jump down from the crates and land in front of him. She walked over to the other side of the desk and plopped down into a swivel chair.
"I can't tell if you're dim or painfully honest. Guess there's no harm to be had in either. Name's Rose. I'm the manager of this establishment," Rose introduced herself. Maize was getting an odd vibe from her. He really did not feel safe, but he couldn't let his nerves get the best of him.
"I'm Maize, a new member. I wanted to talk to you about cobalt," the yellow tentacle haired boy stated. The boss looked annoyed as she laid her head on her desk, her expression changing from irritated to bored pretty quickly.
"What about him? He's practically a family member here," Rose responded. Maize could tell that the part about feeling like he was family was a lie, unless she was really messed up in the head, but so far the teenage inkling had not gotten that far in the conversation to be able to decide yet.
"I heard about his little 'cheating' incident and wanted to get some info on it," Maize lied, acting like he was an investigator. Rose gained a grin, showing her sharp teeth. The yellow inkling quickly felt her tentacle smack his face.
"I'unno. I can't tell just anyone that information. What would you give me?" Rose asked. Maize was struggling to get her tentacle to let go. It was stuck to his face and uncomfortably forcing his glasses against his skin. Finally the yellow squid got the tentacle off his face with a loud pop. He only had an immediate thought come to mind.
"…I'll give up my membership if you talk," Maize offered, reaching into his pocket and presenting the golden trinket that had a sand dollar imprinted onto it. The pink inkling took it from him, viewing the medal. They weren't cheap to make, after all.
"Well, I guess you're a sweet squid and all, and you caught me in a good mood… so I'll do it," Rose agreed, pocketing the proof of membership. Maize swore that he could feel his coin card crying in his pocket. It was 60,000 coins straight down the drain for a one time access to this club.
"Thanks. Can you tell me how cobalt cheated?" the yellow teenager requested for her to begin. She looked pretty content, leaning back into that swivel chair that looked like it was ready to fall apart at any second.
"Well, I was fighting him, ya see, and me and my team noticed that he had been using a lot more ink without swimming in it to refill for most of the match. After I did some searching after the round, I found this," Rose explained. Maize had a bad feeling about whatever it was that she was looking for. He saw her vanish from her chair for a moment while getting under the desk, seeing it rattle. This really was a very messy office, Maize thought to himself.
"There we are!" she reappeared from beneath the desk, putting something on the desk. Maize recognized it easily. It was an ink tank that filled up when the inklings changed into squids and swam in the matching ink color. They would automatically refill, of course. Some weapons used more ink than others. The ink tank had a little bit left in it, and the color inside it was green. Already, Agent 3 found an oddity in the claim.
"So you have no proof he cheated?" Maize grinned, though that confidence was hard to keep up. It felt like he was talking to a mob boss, or just a mentally unstable inkling. He still was trying to decide which it was.
"This is proof! A near empty ink tank found in the same area after the turf war," Rose retorted. Maize put two fingers on the strong cylinder. He tipped it over watching it fall onto its side. The remaining the green ink sloshed around.
"Unless he was helping you paint the turf, then it isn't. His team used pink that round, according to Judd," Maize pointed out the contradiction. Things seemed to go silent from there. The suited inkling stood up from the desk, going behind herself to one of the many crates, ripping the lid off.
"Look, I don't know why you did all this, but Cobalt has to go. He has his own life to deal with. Let him go, and I won't say a word about what you did," Maize spoke while fixing his glasses, presuming that the pink inkling had set this all up in some way. He had no idea why this club did not appear to need any workers, yet he could care less. He proved Cobalt's innocence with ease with just the smallest contradiction.
"Oh no, I'll make sure this gets fixed. All I have to do is clean the container, then refill it with the right ink color," Rose hummed while being half inside the crate. She was short in size, so it was hard for her to get anything out of these big boxes. Agent 3 did not like the sound of that.
"Wa-wait! You're not talking about making fake evidence? The turf officials will be more angered about this than an actual cheater," Maize claimed. He wondered why she cared so much about losing one regular turf war. Rose pulled a full ink tank out of the crate and slumped it onto her back, and she pulled out a small orange and white weapon, which Maize knew as the N-Zap '89.
"That's why I'm going to make sure no one knows I made it. No one will believe you were here, after I splat you!" Rose laughed, turning around and aiming the weapon right at him. Maize gasped, seeing her open fire. Pink splotches of paint went flying at him like speeding bullets. Maize let his reflexes take over. He kicked the desk and knocked his chair over with himself in it, falling flat on his back groaning in pain. The ink went flying over him and splattered all over the wall.
"You're insane!" Maize shouted. He immediately got up and made a run for it. Rose continued shooting, but he was able to outrun the ink. Maize made his way out of the room, turning around and slamming the door shut. He had no way to lock it from the outside, so he yanked one of the smaller crates out from a nearby pile, watching it collapse and block the door. He continued his escape from her fury. He couldn't be splatted right now. When another type of ink that did not match the inkling, or when the enemy team of an inkling hit them enough times, they inevitably explode into that color of ink. Yet they would be fine and reappear at the closest medical facility to wherever they were splatted at, or in a turf war, they would reappear at their starting point.
When Maize got upstairs, he returned to the main area of the club. Everyone looked unchanged, but the young squid could hear the sound of boxes being bashed and breaking. For a short inkling Rose sure had great strength when angry.
"Sorry! Sorry, sorry!" Maize apologized profusely as he rushed by the front door guard, heading toward the area where his weapon had been stashed away.
"Hey! If you wanted your weapon, you just had to ask," the guard huffed, finding the behavior quite rude. No one was patient enough to just wait. Maize found a pile of various weapons. It was like a treasure horde. He could even see some ink tanks as well in their own pile. Some inklings carried their tanks around with them in case.
"My luck hasn't let me down yet," Maize grinned, grabbing the first ink tank he could and tossing it over his shoulder. Even if it wasn't his color, it was better than battling empty-handed. He began hooking the tank up to his charger, just when he heard that all too familiar voice.
"Where is that yellow squid!?" Rose roared, finally having gotten out from the basement. There were quite a few yellow inklings in the club tonight, but none of them were the ones she was looking for.
"Here goes," Maize took in a deep breath, finally emerging from his hiding spot. He squeezed the trigger of the splatterscope and began to charge it. He aimed and fired, watching a straight strong burst of orange ink spray across the room, coating some of the tables. Rose moved out of the way, but her left hand got grazed by the orange ink. It stung like a bee on contact, but Rose retaliated, opening fire, spraying pink ink everywhere.
"Uh oh!" Maize ducked under one of the tables that club members were hanging out around. Rose had splatted at least four others by the time she let up on the trigger. The room had giant splashes of pink ink covering it. Agent 3 got up from his hiding spot and ran to the counter, Rose firing after him. He got hit in the side of his face as he dove over the counter and took cover.
"Oh hey. You want that sandwich now?" Maize heard, looking over to see that friendly chef he met a short while ago. They watched the counter get covered in the bright pink goo, as well as a few of the patrons. Screams rung out as people were panicking at the start of a fight inside. Maize felt horrible to let such a scuffle happen, and it did nothing to help his fear. He did not want to splat random inklings on accident. He paused, thinking of a new ideas.
"Hey...! Can I see that knife?" Maize requested the chef's favorite culinary tool, that was resting underneath the counter on one of the small shelves.
"Uh… I-I guess," the chef gave him permission. Maize quickly grabbed the knife and stabbed it into the wood floor. Tugging hard, he ripped out the entire piece of the floor. The nails were thankfully loose. No one had attempted to repair this club at all since it had been around for a long time.
"Come on out!" Rose demanded. The chef looked afraid of the menacing tone of the manager. Maize had to act fast. It was time to put his plan into action. He fired a fully charged splatterscope shot into the area underneath the floorboards. He quickly changed into a small yellow squid before crawling underneath. Rose climbed up on the counter, aiming into the area the chef was hiding in.
"Bo-boss, you're really scaring me and our club!" the chef exclaimed. The only response he got was a splatter shot in the face by a pink ink ball that knocked him onto the floor. Suddenly the floor behind Rose began to crack open and rip apart. Maize appeared, his finger squeezing the trigger of his splatterscope.
"Knock it off!" Maize demanded before he let go, the splatterscope firing a nearly fully charged blast. Rose had just turned around. She got hit in the chest by the orange burst of ink, which was strong enough to knock her off her feet. The pink inkling was sent sliding across the counter and falling off onto some of the stools, breaking a few as she landed.
Rose did not have a chance to react or move before Maize had come over and stomped a foot on her weapon, keeping his splatterscope aimed on her.
"Alright… go ahead. Splat me already," Rose gave up. She was defeated. Another good shot and she was done for, and with nothing to stand in the yellow inkling's way. Maize shook his head.
"I'm not the type to hurt squids without reason… even if you tried to splat me, I'm not going to do it to you," the yellow inkling stated. He did not hesitate on the other hand to kick her ink tank, shattering it and sending the pink ink oozing onto the floor. Now her weapon was worthless.
"But… but why? Are you really that dim?" Rose chuckled, finding it hard to believe he wouldn't hurt her. She wondered why he refused to.
"In a way. It's my duty to help out as many squids as I can, when I can," Maize declared. The room was beginning to calm down. Rose could only stare in silence, feeling ashamed. Cobalt was standing at the stairwell, having come from upstairs upon hearing the noise. Maize dropped the orange ink tank off his back, disconnecting it from his splatterscope before he put it on his back.
"Cobalt, are you ready to get out of here?" Maize questioned while approaching the exit. Cobalt ran up to him in seconds.
"You know it! Let's roll" Cobalt insisted they get out of here now. So the two of them forced the exit open and made their way out. As soon as Maize knew it, it was a mission accomplished. He had found Auburn's brother and saved him from the blackmailing effort, having kept true to his word. For a first mission, it was difficult for him and was a true test of sacrifice, losing his membership and nearly every one of his coins that had paid for said membership. All Maize could do was escort Cobalt home, and hope that Captain Cuttlefish would be proud of him.