Maize had made his way down out of the apartment complex that had become fire and water damaged, but he was happy to have helped save the day. The yellow inkling arrived outside the still cheering crowd, but they assumed the hero was on the rooftop. The anonymous hero had to give in to being anonymous again. He went and grabbed his box full of the splatterscope parts.
"Maize!" he heard, smiling as he went through to the back of the crowd. He saw his familiar friends, Octoronia and her robotic sister ECO. The two seemed enthralled to see him again.
"Hey there, you two," he greeted Agents 4 and 5, when he got pulled into a tight hug by ECO, feeling her arms crushing his back and making his injuries hurt.
"Ow-ow!" he cried.
"You saved the day before we could even get here!" Octoronia laughed, seeing her robotic sibling's warm greeting to the inkling. The two of them had come here immediately when they heard a fire broke out, not as a mission from the Special Squid Services but they had originally planned to get here when they heard about the fire. Their friend however beat them to the punch.
"Can't… breathe…!" Maize gasped. ECO let go of him, finally letting him catch his breath. She looked embarrassed, not meaning to have brought him any harm.
"What brings you back to Mollusk Metropolis? Are you on a mission?" ECO asked. He quickly regained his composure, rubbing his head, presenting the box to her.
"No, I came to visit you two! I need some help building a new splatterscope," Maize answered. He didn't want to make up a horrible lie that he only came to see them when he had no idea where the two even lived. The octoling took the box, peeking inside to see the tiny parts and pieces.
"Well… yes, I can put this together with ease, but me and ECO have a mission," Octoronia apologized. She had to focus on the mission that she and her mechanical sibling had accepted. The light on ECO's chest was blue, indicating that she seemed upset about this topic.
"Err… well, I can help you two out. What kind of agent would I be to not help out?" Maize offered his assistance. This sounded like a big deal, but for some reason, he had a feeling that it was related to the fire that had broken out here. Something felt so unnatural about the blaze. The three began to walk along the streets, him following along.
"So what's going on?" Maize asked them to explain. Octoronia was fiddling around with the contents of the box, leaving it to her sister to do the talking.
"There have been a number of fires in the last two days. Five fires have broken out. It's complicated, but it's beginning to cause a lot of damage to the southern metropolis area," ECO elaborated. Maize was surprised to hear about the chain of arsons. He never could imagine that these raging infernos kept escalating and getting worse with each one.
"The problem isn't the fires themselves. Well no, they do cause a lot of damage… but the problem is the arsonist who's doing this," Octoronia added, continuing to lead their squid friend, planning on taking him to their home. They loved having him around as a guest. He made things slightly more cheerful and relaxed to know they had help.
"What? So you're telling me there are arsonists that aren't problems?" Maize jokingly retorted. The two of them seemed to share the same straight faced reaction on the matter.
"The arsonist is the one who gave us a mission," ECO claimed. Now Maize was completely lost. Could he go one mission without something crazy or hard to understand, they all got so confusing. Nothing was straight forward or simple. The simplest mission he assumed to ever have was finding Bondi's parents, and that still was a confusing matter to investigate. His cellphone suddenly began ringing.
"Y'ello?" he answered.
"Hey Maize! We, uh, need some help," Callie's voice chimed up. She didn't sound too good, which worried him. Agents 4 and 5 stayed quiet to let him handle the call.
"What's going on?" Maize requested her to go on, only to hear the sound of an ink grenade exploding, followed by the struggled grunts of some poor squid being splattered brutally.
"Well, me and Marie accepted some missions. We got the first few done easy, but the sixth got out of hand," Callie explained what been going on. The famous squid was stuck alone at Blackbelly Skate Park which was normally used like a turf war hot spot, but now she was just trapped there holding a roller, wearing her disguise. His eyes went wide hearing this.
"Wh-what?! What kind of mission is it you're on?" Maize asked in shock, hearing another explosion of ink as Callie was moving to a new position to take cover behind. She wished she had brought Marie closer to her, but right now her cousin was stuck behind a half pipe, trying to snipe with her charger, but they were being pinned down heavily.
"This old squid's most valuable collection got taken from him. They were antique moustache combs," Callie responded. ECO and Octoronia saw Maize facepalm hard. Of course being an agent for the Special Squid Services meant helping out any squid in need, Maize knew that much, but he could not believe what he had just heard. His best friends were in danger over a collection of moustache combs. He was about to pop a gasket, but he could not abandon the octolings when this kind of matter was going on. But Maize recalled his promise to always be there whenever the Squid Sisters needed him. Suddenly, he had an idea.
"Callie! Just hang on…" Maize reassured, before hanging up. He began to see a house nearby that belonged to Octoronia and ECO. The yellow squid quickly pulled up his contact list, smiling as he hit the dial button. He heard it ringing, just hoping they will answer.
"Hello! This is Fallow!" a very happy voice rung in response. Maize smirked, hearing that cheerful tone.
"Hey! Sorry to bug ya, but I need a favor," Maize claimed. This Fallow girl was very close to him. He did not like to bother her if he could help it, but this was a matter he had no chance to aid in. He was miles too far away from Inkopolis to be of use.
"A request? Oh, yours always are the best!" she chimed. Maize chuckled, hearing those rhymes fiddle with his ears, just waiting outside to let Octoronia and ECO continue into their home. They were going to wait for him inside and get prepared to explain it all to him.
"My friends are in trouble at Blackbelly Skate park. Can you bail'em out? I'm tied up at the moment…" the yellow squid explained. Already he could hear clattering and rattling that could only be described as items being gathered hastily.
"The skate park? Oh yes, I'll do it whether it's bright or dark! I'll complete your favor and be their savior!" Fallow happily agreed, sounding all but eager to get in on some action. He didn't even get to say anything more before he heard the phone cut off. He rolled his eyes.
"She better not accidentally splat them," Maize hoped to himself, not wanting the most dependable person he could call to accidentally cause more trouble. He entered into the small home to regroup with the octolings. It was a basic one story house that was big in size, but he had a feeling to be cautious, seeing various parts lying around. Any pictures on the walls seemed to either be blueprints, or photographs of a younger Octoronia, and a few photographs of her and ECO.
"You finally caught up. This way, please," the metallic octoling welcomed him into their home. Maize was glad to follow down the hallway which led to the living room. This place appeared to be more like a workshop, the wall being covered in tools, a lot of which he had never seen before. There were a few chairs resting in front of a television they looked comfortable enough. He set his focus on an octoling in light grey clothing, with blue colored tentacles that looked like they had not been taken care of for days.
"Finally! Maize, this is Humboldt," Octoronia introduced them. The octoling boy stood up, shaking Maize's hand. He looked very desperate, and sleep deprived.
"It's nice to meet you, Maize. I'm grateful you great octopi are willing to help someone as horrible as me," Humboldt bowed. Maize cast a confused glance to his friends, seeing ECO's light change to yellow. She was unsure emotionally on how to explain this, deciding to be straight forward on the matter since the inventor octopus was busy. She was lying the splatterscopes parts out so now they were spread out on the workbench for later.
"He is the arsonist," the robotic octoling exclaimed. If Maize had a weapon on him he would already have splattered this man in a heartbeat, or slathered in octoling terms.
"Err…" Maize had no way of replying.
"Please do not judge me that harshly! I am not proud of it, either. But she isn't wrong. I have been the one that has caused the recent chain of fires and been causing damage to our beautiful city," Humboldt confessed. He seemed quite apologetic for being an arsonist. But Maize was more confused for other reasons, doubting a criminal would turn themselves in so easily, but this fire bug was the one who gave them a mission, so he had to be calm on this matter.
"So why did you do it?" Maize asked, the blue octoling twiddling his thumbs nervously. This was an upsetting topic for him. He was not a criminal at heart, so much so that he just hated to be one.
"You see… I've not had the calmest week. I was worried I was being stalked, and sadly, I was correct. One night, when I came home, I found a note in my blobbie's crib, leaving instructions on what to do, I had left him with a sitter of course. But it had happened without her even realizing it." Humboldt explained, rummaging around in his pockets before presenting a yellow piece of paper. It depicted plans to design a timer device to delay the fires' initial ignition. It sure seemed complex but easy to make.
"Blobbie?" Maize quirked, unsure what a blobbie was. He was not completely adjusted to octolings different choices in words yet. He knew they used crisp instead of fresh, and slather instead of splatter, but he couldn't think of anything that could be like a blobbie.
"Oh! Blobbies are newborn octolings. You see, when an aroused male octoling inserts…" ECO tried to explain, but Maize covered her mouth, hearing her voice box get garbled up.
"Thank you, ECO," he simply said, trying to give a subtle signal to not try and explain reproduction. At least the robotic octoling was not hesitant to be informative.
"Sorry. Her mind wanders a little. ECO and I have been trying to help find out where this stalker took his blobbie, but every lead we find leads us into a dead end, or is ordered to be burnt down by Humboldt," Octoronia claimed. It was really a puzzling situation which was going to be hard to solve. Every time they tried to get closer to finding the stalker, there was nothing, and then shortly after, Humboldt received another plan to burn down the exact location that the octolings had just investigated.
"I implore you, I know I can't be forgiven for what I've done. Without my girlfriend around anymore, all I have left is Octon. I don't think I'll be able to live any longer if I have to start walking into a completely empty home," Humboldt repeated his plight. Maize had no plans of ignoring this. He could not stand idly by and let the older octopus be given yet another target to burn.
"Your son will be safe. I can promise you that," Maize smiled. He could not live with himself if he allowed the last of this man's family to be taken from him, and he sure had no intention to allow this metaphorical fire to go out of control any longer.
"How can someone seem so nervous, yet so brave?" ECO commented, feeling her sister bump her with her elbow. Maize rubbed his head, unsure. The robot octoling was dead on with that comment. He didn't wish rely on his own luck if he could help it. They had to begin preparing and try to come up with a plan on how to handle this problem. Maize felt horrible to have left the Squid Sisters in such a serious position, but he knew Fallow to be reliable. He just had to hope everything will work out for them. The last of Humboldt's family was one problem, but Mollusk Metropolis was facing the unfortunate collateral damage of one insane stalker who seemed all but eager to put someone else to work and make them burn things for them.