Maize had slept the last few hours of the night quite peacefully, even if he had to share the couch with Judd. The young inkling was snoozing away for the early hours of the morning on the Squid Sisters' couch, his chargers lying nearby. He felt a hand on his back that was trying to shake him to wake him up.
"Ooh… I really need to quit staying out late," Maize groaned. His head was aching and his body felt like it was fighting against him. He looked up to see Callie standing before him. She was wearing her usual favourite disguise outfit. He reached over to the coffee table, grabbing his glasses and putting them on.
"How'd you sleep?" the black inkling quirked. Her blonde friend smiled lightly as he began to move the blankets off himself. He presumed Judd was off going to help get ready for the Splatfest this afternoon.
"Better than I have in a while! …I wish I had an imported sofa," Maize admitted. That couch was softer and better than his bed by a long shot. Then again he did get his mattress from Spyke, and for free. The more he thought about it, the more worried he became since that urchin never gave anything away for free.
"You look so cute when you're jealous!" Callie claimed, clapping her hands together. It was pretty obvious how jealous he was of the lap of luxury that his close friends had entirely to themselves almost for being rich. But at least the Squid Sisters did not act as snobby and rude as most millionaires were. He was glad they had their heads on straight in that sense anyway.
"Thanks… I think," Maize chuckled in response. He then saw Marie enter into the hallway stretching. He noted that neither had the squishie with them, which worried him.
"Is Bondi still asleep?" the yellow inkling quirked. The three were planning on investigating the threat that was anonymously made toward the Splatfest and everyone involved. He was more confused why those two were not in their usual disguises for today.
"No, squiddo, I'm here," he heard, seeing Captain Cuttlefish coming from the kitchen, holding Bondi in one arm. The blue squishie was happily drinking a bottle of formula. Maize did not expect him to be here, but he guessed that someone needed to watch the newborn squid, and who better than the great grandsquid himself.
"Oh, hi Cap'n! I got the mission done," Maize saluted nervously, acting more army-like than he normally was. Callie and Marie were personally enjoying watching the terrified performance of his. Their grandpa took a seat on the couch.
"I heard, and great work. But Squiddo, when Callie first told me you gave her a squishie, I wanted to hurl you out the window in your sleep," Captain Cuttlefish stated while rubbing the squishie's stomach. Bondi appeared very content at the moment, having quickly gotten attached to his great grandfather.
"Oh… is that so?" Maize gulped, aware that misunderstanding or not, that was the truth. He remembered by heart that he was the one who had offered Callie the option of adopting the squishie.
"Heheh, yeah, but… this old squid's got no strength to do things spur of the moment anymore, and I'm grateful you all are dedicated to helping out everyone, so I decided to take it easy on you," the old squid explained. Maize looked to the Squid Sisters. Those grins that showing their sharp teeth did nothing but add onto his nervous feeling, but apparently the website as of the last mission had been even receiving more praise. Even though the recent praise had been coming from outside of Inkopolis, it was great, nonetheless. It meant that Octoronia and ECO had already started on their new agent responsibilities.
"Thank you, Cap'n… and I'll talk to you before I think of giving Marie a squishie," Maize joked, only to get smacked in the back of the head by Marie.
"Don't even joke about that! Come on, we're going to be late for our meeting," Marie insisted they had to get going. She did not enjoy the joke as much as he did, since the circumstances for Bondi's adoption were not ideal. Maize rubbed the back of his now sore head, aware they had mentioned last night about the Tentatek Corporation partially expanding their own investigation. They now had to just see if they had any new information. Maize still appeared unsettled about going anywhere near the manufactory.
"Ready when you two are," he nodded in agreement, Callie going over to her son quickly and planting a small kiss on his forehead.
"Mommy will be right back. You be good for grandpa, Bondi," Callie spoke. Captain Cuttlefish was happy to see his grandsquid all grown up like this. It was a new side of hers that he had never witnessed before, and it warmed his heart. Maize grabbed his splatterscope and tossed it over his shoulder, before the three inklings all began to leave the apartment, the door closing loudly behind them. The captain watched them all go before turning his head down to Bondi.
"Now then, squiddo. Let's see if I can't show you a trick or two with sewing," Captain Cuttlefish smiled, getting out of the chair and beginning to head toward the hall, Bondi still happily snug in his arms.
"So who are we meeting with?" Maize asked as the three were heading into the elevator. He hit a button to take them to the ground floor. The disguised agents still seemed to share similar lacking energy like him.
"Tentatek's CEO. She wanted to meet up with us and talk about what her side of investigating had turned up," Callie exclaimed. Hearing about the CEO sent an unsure look on the yellow inkling's face, something that he did not hide well at all. The Squid Sisters looked to one another for a brief moment.
"Hey, uh, if you have a problem with Tentatek, you can wait outside during the meeting," Marie suggested worriedly, but she understood if he hated that brand of products immensely. Tentatek was fine, but there just were those squids who hated a certain line of weaponry and gear.
"N-no, this is a mission for the Special Squid Services, and last time I checked, I am an agent for it," Maize tried to jokingly brush past the realization that had previously caught him off guard. Callie hated to have him so worked up before they had even discovered if this was a prank or not. She hoped it was a mere prank, but sometimes it was best to prepare for the worst.
"Just try and relax and let us do the talking, please?" Callie requested of him. Any information they could get from the CEO would be great for a start to this investigation. The yellow squid was happy hearing that the two of them would start interrogating squids from now on for missions. That was becoming quite a pain for the inklings in general.
When they stepped outside, Maize could see a taxi there, having parked and been awaiting for the three of them. Marie had called it in advance to save them a long time walking. She had no plans on walking twenty miles today just to meet up with one person who might not even have any information to share to begin with. They climbed into the back.
"Where to?" the driver tossed their newspaper aside into the passenger seat.
"3921 Eeletric Avenue," Marie answered. The taxi driver put his foot on the gas, beginning to drive off. The yellow inkling felt a lot better, knowing he could relax since they had a taxi for once. The exercise for his legs was great, but he was losing nearly all his energy just on the many missions he had lately, from the many walks to meeting some of these troubled squids.
The group had relaxed for the ride for a good while, at least up to one hour. Marie was looking over her phone, checking out all the reviews that had been appearing on Squelp. The positive feedback for the website was quite grand.
"Wow. With this many requests, we may have to start taking on one mission each," Maize said in awe. There were quite a number of requests that had fell in, aware that none of them liked the idea of working alone, considering how insane these tasks tended to get unintentionally.
"That or get more agents," Callie giggled, gaining a smirk from her dear cousin. That pun struck particularly close to Maize. He thought plenty of squids would volunteer to be agents for a blooming website like this, and the only agents they had were ironically octolings.
"Ey! Squids we're here!" the taxi driver exclaimed as they came to a stop. Maize looked out the window, seeing a decently sized building nearby that did nothing but pile onto more of that nervous feeling. He had Marie let the driver swipe her coin card before they climbed out, letting the taxi drive off. The weather was looking good today, perfect for a Splatfest like usual.
"That's where we're supposed to meet her," Callie pointed ahead to a building that had quite a beautiful color design. Maize could see that for himself, which made him feel more nervous than he wanted to be.
"Let's get inside," Callie was eager to go in. She enjoyed seeing these factories, where weapons or clothes were made, and occasionally meeting the CEOs occasionally was a normal thing, since a lot of the corporations invested into the Splatfests. Being the main singers for each competition garnered them quite a few connections and very high up friends.
"Yeah… let's," Maize sighed. That enthusiasm of his was not able to get kicked in. He dreaded meeting the CEO. All he could hope was that maybe he would go unrecognized, but there was not much odds of that happening. The three of them entered the building. The inside looked a lot nicer than the outside, impressively. Quite a few people were lined up, and it looked like job applicants trying to get some form of work.
"We're here for our meeting," Marie told the worker at the front desk who looked absolutely swamped, but he nodded, pointing toward the elevator.
"Fifth floor," he quickly instructed to them.
Maize was glad that even if they were disguised, at least the schedule did not get interrupted for his good friends, but each step toward the elevator made him feel more uneasy. Once in the elevator, he leaned against one wall of it.
"You're not looking well…" Callie worriedly commented. Maize did not mean to make them worry over his well being, but he presumed Marie had been just polite over the matter. This seemed a lot more than simple hatred toward one specific company.
"To be honest, I'm not fine. But I'll get over it," Maize reassured, not wanting Agents 1 and 2 to pay this any mind. The Squid Sisters did not like to initially do this, considering they saw him like a little brother to them. Callie pushed a button to the fifth floor, the elevator's doors closing as it began to slowly go up. For Maize, the atmosphere felt firmly tightened. If his fears were correct, this meeting was going to be long, tiring and annoying.