Maize, Callie and Marie had all been walking through the rain for a short time. The umbrellas they had were doing a decent job at keeping them dry. The Squid Sisters seemed happy to share their one umbrella. Those two always were perfect when they were on the same page, and were in great sync, but Agent 3 had seen the other agents whenever they had a disagreement; the two were an unpredictable force. The rain was not showing any signs of letting up anytime soon. It was pouring hard and running off their umbrellas. The trio were arriving to Windfish Street which looked like a relatively nice neighborhood, but was indeed a distance away from the main plaza.
"There's the place," Callie pointed her gloved hand. Maize saw address on the mailbox, which read the number 3911. This home looked like a single floor house, but the outside appeared to be in alright shape. They walked up the stone path to the front door, Maize knocking hard. It only took a moment before they saw the main door open, only leaving the screen door. Standing behind that was an older inkling who had purple tentacles for hair, which were tied back behind his head, and was wearing an orange coat. He looked very tired with bags under his eyes.
"Who are you lot?" the purple squid asked. Callie and Maize looked pretty happy, though Marie was a little bored. She was going to let her cousin and their friend handle the conversations.
"We're the agents from the Special Squid Service you requested. Can we come inside?" Maize requested humbly. He would prefer to get out of the cold rain, but was aware that being an armed inkling asking to get into others' homes probably came off as a bit suspicious.
"Oh, yes. Come on in," he opened the screen door for them. The three stepped inside, closing their umbrellas and resting them by the door. This home looked like it had not seen a real cleaning in weeks. Callie felt unsure of this place, seeing all the mess there was, from damaged furniture to occasional trash lying on the floor.
"I'm Mauve. I'm a construction manager for Hammerhead Bridge," Mauve introduced himself. The word Hammerhead Bridge rung all too familiar bells. That was a turf war location and a popular one at that. Marie and her cousin had been waiting forever for that bridge to be finished just so the commute would be a lot shorter, so they could get to work, but that bridge had been under construction for several years, especially from what the yellow inkling had heard. The Squid Sisters decided not to approach the topic and focus on the mission.
"Glad to meet you! I'm Maize, and this is…" Maize caught himself mid-sentence, not wanting to expose who was under the disguises his friends were wearing.
"Oh! Uh… I'm Caitlyn," the black tentacle haired inkling lied with the first name she could come up with in her mind, but she had nervous sweat running down her head.
"And I'm Mar… Mario," Marie coughed, feeling an awkward atmosphere being draped over her and her friends. She swore that she could hear them both snickering at the name she had went with for the disguise. Normally the two cousins never had to care about names with disguises.
"Mario? Now that's an honest worker's name," Mauve stated. Marie did not know whether to take that comment seriously or not, but was appreciative.
"So, Mauve… you said you were having problems with some strange noise. Do you think you can go into more detail about it?" Maize requested, ready to begin this mission the proper way and like how they all seemed to start, as was an interrogation with his phones audio recording feature on. The three wondered if this was going to be complex to solve or be a waste of time. The construction manager nodded, glad to do so, beginning to walk them through his home.
"It started the other night like I said in the message. Every night at random times, I hear some kind of noise. I don't know how to describe what it sounds like. I always go out to investigate, but there is never anything there," Mauve repeated the information. He presented the group a window in the hallway. The rain was pattering against the glass and running down. Maize came over and looked around. There was nothing much outside but a deep ditch full of junk. Behind that was a fence, and beyond that was the home of the neighbor who claimed to also hear the noise.
"You always go to try and find it?" Marie chimed in. It sounded torturous to not only have a sleep schedule damaged, but to be spending what little rest he could get, that he couldn't, going outside to try and investigate the source of the noise.
"Last night that noise came back five times in the span of two hours. One time I lost all control of my patience and just dove out the window to find it," Mauve admitted, coming off as embarrassed to be admitting his short mental breakdown. Agent 1 giggled, imagining it.
"Alright. Well don't worry, Mauve. I promise we'll deal with the noise for you," Maize swore. Callie always liked how the boy, whenever he made a promise, whether it be big or small, would do his best to see it completed. They had seen him fail a few promises, and it always wound up greatly depressing him. But they never understood why.
"Heh, thanks. Some of my co-workers are starting to call Hammerhead Bridge 'The Cursed Bridge', because it has brought nothing but bad luck so far," Mauve thanked them while exclaiming that the main reason Hammerhead Bridge took so long was because ever since they began work on it, there was nothing but one problem after another, all of which earned it the joke nickname of Cursed Bridge.
"…I don't know if I want to commute across a Cursed Bridge," Callie muttered. Marie put a hand on her back, trying to get her to calm down, not wanting to have her cousin terrified of a bridge every time they crossed it. Agent 3 turned to the others.
"Well now, it's our turn to investigate the noise. If we turn up nothing, we'll talk to the neighbor. Sound good?" Maize spoke the immediate plan that came to mind, while stopping the recording and pocketing his phone. His partners didn't have any objections on this, but they were aware that this was going to be a search in the rain, and they would just have to tolerate it.
"Thank you so much. If you need anything, just come back inside," Mauve said. He was really appreciative for this. He had tried everything, but no matter what, that noise kept waking him back up. He had taken medicine and tried sleeping in different locations. It was to the point that he was ready to clear out. That was, if he did not get fired first.
The three agents had regathered their umbrellas, including an extra one for Marie so that she and her cousin would not have to worry about sharing an umbrella and searching simultaneously. At least now their search capabilities were larger. The group had stepped outside the building and all made way through to the back part of the home.
"Do you think this mess is also because of his lack of sleep…?" Callie wondered aloud, seeing the huge pile of trash lying in the ditch that made a quite ominous stack.
"I'm leaning toward so lazy that he throws his trash out the window," Maize laughed, pointing to the window they had viewed this very ditch from. The Squid Sisters giggled over the joke as Maize went back to the task at hand.
"Right, Callie. You check around here since Mauve has been out here each time the noise happens. This place probably has been checked out really thoroughly. Me and Marie will go look on the other side of the fence," Maize described the plan. Callie was uncomfortable being alone, but nodded, agreeing to it. With that done, the group split up, Agents 2 and 3 heading off to get to the other side of that fence, hoping the neighbor wouldn't mind them investigating in their yard.
"You sure do a lot to try and make everyone happy," Marie commented from what she had seen so far. Ever since she met the yellow inkling, he had done nothing but nice things for them and other squids, not mentioning the great zapfish rescue he had a major hand in. He looked at her confusedly.
"Is that a bad thing?" Maize quirked, "We are the Special Squid Service for a reason. We have to…"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm glad you are like this, though. It makes me feel better knowing there is someone else there to make Callie smile when she needs it," Marie hushed him and claimed so. Maize knew she loved her cousin, but the white inkling always had a worrying fear that one day she would just be gone, and would have done nothing but left Callie with all the pain to burden. Marie had talked about this on a few occasions with her friend.
"I've said it once, and I'll say it again Marie. I plan on making sure you and your entire family is strong and safe. I promise this," Maize swore. He wasn't a bodyguard or anything, but he knew that sometimes, just knowing another squid was there was all the reassurance one needed.
"You are way too cheesy. You know that?" Marie sarcastically joked, but clearly was thankful for his support in this matter, giving a smile to him.
"Am I really like that?" Maize sighed. That was the second time someone had called him cheesy today. He really wasn't sure how to interpret that, all things considered. The two got to the neighbor's yard. Everything looked normal. That was when they started hearing some creepy noise. It sounded like a wobbly whine of an echo that came off as quite eerie and surprisingly loud, which surprised them both.
"Alright! Look all throughout the yard," Maize ordered. Marie nodded, hurrying off to try and investigate the big yard with him. They had to cover quite a lot of ground to find out where the source of the noise was coming from. It was loud, but it sounded like it was coming from multiple directions.
Callie on the other hand was still in Mauve's backyard when she heard the noise begin that had almost made her drop her umbrella in fear. It did nothing but terrify her, but almost as fast as it came, it began to end. She looked at the pile of junk in the ditch, noticing that one of the pieces of it fell off randomly. She approached it, resting her umbrella down. She would have to tolerate the rain hitting her, if she were to use both hands.
"I hope the others find the noise before I do… oh my gosh!" Callie gasped when she finally got some of the junk moved aside. She had found something inside the trash she didn't want to find remotely. She reached into the pile of junk and pulled out something wrapped into a small blanket. Callie worked her way out of the ditch, leaving her umbrella behind. She had to get inside to get Mauve's help urgently. Whatever it was she found had gained her undivided attention.