Authors Note: Hi all, I just thought I'd say I'm glad you guys love this fic so far! But I wanted to ask, if you wanted me to make the updates not daily and instead making updates every other day. I just want some feedback on this.
Maize had followed Octoronia for a short time through Mollusk Metropolis. So far from what he could see, this city had no cars at all in it. Nature was blooming everywhere, and it was just beautiful. He wondered where they were going until they came to a stop.
"Ah, the shop's over there," the female octoling giggled, sounding all too eager to go into that store. They both saw a small building with a sign dangling outside that read "Catfish Baits". That did not sound too appealing for a store that supposedly sold weapons. They stepped inside the shop, which was somewhat empty, but there was someone here.
"Evenin' there, octos. Welcome to my humble store," a deep calm voice greeted them. Maize could see an anthropomorphic catfish standing behind and polishing the counter, and he appeared very obese. He had two long whiskers on his face and was wearing a red vest with a black coat on top of that.
"Hi there, Catty! How are you holding up?" Octoronia greeted the store owner called Catty. He came off as a lot more intimidating to the disguised inkling. His octoling friend treated the merchant as if they had known each other for a long time. He guessed that this was just her preferred weapons shop.
"Business has been slower than a scuttlecrab in a mud pit, darlin'. But the tide changes with the river's flow," Catty answered. It made her giggle in glee at hearing his analogy. She pulled out her coin card that had a red color to it.
"Me and my friend want to get some weapons," Octoronia claimed, Maize nodding in agreement. The weapons shop owner looked toward the disguised inkling with a questionable look.
"Darlin', I ain't the type of fish to turn down business, but'cha tiny friend there sure doesn't seem crisp at all," Catty retorted, criticizing Maize. He felt a little cut by the words that he had been declared not even remotely fresh here.
"Hey! He's the crispest person I've ever met! We really need these!" Octoronia responded angrily at the wild accusation. The fat catfish appeared unfazed by her fury. He was twice her size and probably four times an average octoling's weight.
"H-hey, octo, calm down," Maize insisted, not wanting her to dive over the counter in some desperate attempt to thieve the weaponry. He appreciated the compliment from her at least but he was not ashamed to tell the truth that he was not even that fresh in Inkopolis. There was no such thing as easy achievements.
"Mhm…. lemme see your hand, shrimp," Catty requested. Maize now was afraid to be even near that big mouthed shopkeeper. It felt like at any second, they were both going to be eaten, but he did his best to stay calm and approached the counter, presenting his hand to the oversized catfish. Octoronia stood aside, impatiently tapping her foot.
"Y'see, my father always told me that'cha can always tell how someone is by simply lookin' at their hand," Catty claimed while tilting, looking at the palm and each individual finger and the back of his hand. Maize did not feel that comfortable by this.
"Th-that's a handy trait in your family, I bet," Maize chuckled nervously as his hand got let go for some reason. The catfish smirked.
"Well darlin', you ain't wrong 'bout this one here. Those hands bear nothing but the looks of a hard worker, and an honest person, s'rare to find someone crisp in that way," Catty declared. Octoronia felt relieved, though Maize was only hoping that he was crisp enough to actually see the better weaponry. They watched the shopkeeper slide a panel on the counter open before hitting a button, which opened up part of the counter in front of the two. There was a small screen within it displaying all sorts of weapons.
"Ohhh! I always love seeing the touch screen," Octoronia said. It was always magical in a sense.
"Pick your weapons from'ere, young'uns. Touch what ya want," Catty explained how it worked. Maize was sliding through the weapons stock. He had a decent amount available to him, but he had never seen any of the ink based weaponry in here. The Mollusk Metropolis had its own line of designs and unique traits that made him all too excited to try one.
"I'll go with this, I guess," Maize tapped the screen of a charger based weapon named the Bird's Grasp. It was purple in colour, and its statistics showed decent range and power. He then selected that he also wanted a yellow colored ink tank to go with it. Octoronia had picked a standard slather blaster a greyish tool that had a paint job on it to mimic a menacing face, and she requested a pink ink tank for it.
"Comin' right up," Catty pulled out the weapons they requested and handed them over. Octoronia smiled, handing the coin card over, letting him swipe it through a machine to get the payment. He returned it the card over afterwards, and he pulled out two empty ink tanks that were both filled with the colors they wanted. They both tossed the ink tanks onto their backs.
"Thanks a lot. I've never held a charger like this," Maize said, looking down at it. A simple laser pointer was how this weapon was aimed. It was impressive quality.
"Well, I'unno if I've ever seen an inkling with this tech in the first place," the catfish stated. That comment stunned them both. They froze in place. The disguised Maize did not know what to do now, and judging by the look on the octoling's face, neither did she.
"I ain't got a single clue why you're here, but'cha seem trustworthy enough," Catty reassured. The secret was safe with him. He laughed, enjoying the reaction he gained from them.
"Th-thank you. We'll be leaving now," Octoronia bowed before she grabbed Agent 3's hand and rushed out the door. The shop's bell jingled loudly as they left the catfish to go back to his cleaning.
"Okay, now we just gotta save your sister. You said you know where they took her?" Maize requested her to lead the way. Mollusk Metropolis seemed easy to get lost in, but that might be the lack of knowing the layout of the area.
"Near east Barnacle Street. It's only a couple of miles from here," Octoronia pointed to the right direction. Now they were armed and ready to go. Maize followed behind the octoling, somewhat afraid of how this would go. He was going in blind with minimal knowledge what the special ability of his new charger was.
It had taken two and a half hours for them to arrive to their destination, and Maize felt absolutely drained. The octoling girl was completely wrong with it being a couple of miles away east. Barnacle Street was a good ten miles from the weapons shop. Thankfully they had some shortcuts to use through the streets to get there faster.
"Here we are…" Octoronia muttered. They both stood in front of a warehouse storage area, and frankly it came off as disturbing, despite how nature was especially blooming here. The two approached the fifth warehouse from the rear. The octoling insisted they stay quiet and go slowly. Once they got behind the brick wall for cover, the octoling girl got her weapon ready.
"So what should I expect in there?" Maize questioned. There was one big problem here, that he couldn't allow himself to be splattered here, or as the octolings would call it, slathered. If he did get hit enough by an enemies' ink, he would end up all the way back in Inkopolis, since he doubted the Mollusk Metropolis medical facilities had an inkling of care for inklings in mind.
"Err… well, there were a lot of others that are going to compete in this invention contest. I don't know how many there will be," Octoronia nervously responded. When spoken aloud, she was beginning to lose her courage quickly. The more missions Maize tackled, the more he was starting to notice how much he relied on his personal luck. Promises involved or not, he did not plan to leave as a failure.
"I'm sure there isn't that many octolings in there. What does your sister look like?" the yellow inkling asked, just so he would not wind up accidentally splatting Octoronia's sibling. He was attaching the ink tank to his charger, hoping that not many octolings were in there, otherwise literally half the competitors in this invention competition had broken into her workshop, burnt her blueprints and kidnapped her sister, just to get an advantage in the contest.
"You can't miss her! She sticks out no matter what. But if you find her, be careful. She has a problem controlling her mood," Octoronia warned. At least he now had that information, but that sounded semi-useful. Maize was planning on just finding the first octoling that was young and not actively going to shoot back. With that settled, he put his hands together.
"Come on, let's get in there," Maize was ready when she was. Octoronia smiled, appreciative of that straight forward confidence he had. She put her foot in his hands, and he boosted her up to the top of the brick wall. Once atop it, she reached her hand down toward him. He grabbed on, being pulled up on top as well. They both landed on the other side briefly after.
"I'll go to the side. You start this off," Octoronia spoke the first plan in mind.
"Better than what I had in mind," Maize nodded, letting her go off to get to the side of the warehouse. The windows were high up, but a few were open. A few piles of wooden crates lay nearby that had been thrown out. They looked brittle but better than nothing. The yellow inkling, after observing it all, began climbing up one box at a time, getting higher and higher until he got to the fourth one. He peeked up through the window.
"I wish I could use my glasses," Maize muttered to himself. He only was able to see a short distance with these goggles. Peeking into the window instantly, his bravery took another bashing. Octolings were everywhere in the warehouse, up to seven from what he could see. They all were working on their own inventions, varying in size and intimidation.
"Alright, Maize. Captain Cuttlefish taught you how to be smart when outnumbered… I think," Maize spoke to himself, trying to calm himself down. Captain Cuttlefish had taught him a lot of stuff when he became an agent, but that was for situations that were not even remotely possible.
Maize took in a deep breath, aiming his charger, letting an exhale. He had to draw attention to start with, but so far he saw no one that stuck out heavily, assuming that Octoronia's sister was in another room of the warehouse. The octolings in there were heavily armed. This was like some insane workshop, hence tools lying carelessly around, but every octoling looked quite happy with this hangout. He squeezed the trigger on the charger, letting it fully charge.
"Here we go," the inkling bit his lip, releasing the trigger, watching a strong burst of yellow ink spray out and blast one of the octolings in the chest, knocking them to the floor. The blast splattered into a puddle of the bright ink. This charger was pretty good so far.
"Another idiot trying to break in?!" one of the many octolings growled. Maize wondered how many had tried to break in before him. He saw her reach over to the table that had some odd round objects on them. He aimed his charger, but was not able to charge it fast enough. The enemy octoling girl threw a bouncy ball that hit the floor and bounced onto the wall, beneath the window Maize was on.
"What the splat-!?" Maize got startled, feeling the wall break apart. The ball was letting out small explosions of ink at a huge pressure. The wall collapsed, Maize screaming as he fell off his crates that were breaking beneath him. The strange ink bomb was causing a lot of damage and creating a good dust cloud with the debris. Agent 3 knew this was not going to be easy. Octoronia heard the noise from outside, nervously gripping her weapon, planning to attack. The two had to do their best from here on against the other octolings.