Maize had went to another room of the store that had been presumably robbed. They were planning to check the security cameras. But when they got to the door that would take them to the next room, it was locked. A chair rested nearby with metal legs, and there was a small glass window that they could see through.
"How do we get in?" Maize wondered aloud. This was how they needed to view the security footage, if they wanted any hope of finding out the one controlling the strings behind the causes of these fires. The longer they waited, the more likely Humboldt will receive another demand to go torch a new location. It was a lot of pressure to have on them for a mission. He hoped the octoling agents had not had to deal with this kind of stress thus far.
"Well I can try to find a key to get inside," Octoronia suggested, "The manager's office might have…"
A loud shattering noise stopped her. She and Maize turned around to see ECO, who was holding the chair and standing in shards of glass, having used it to bash in the window. She dropped the chair and reached inside, unlocking the door.
"It was an emergency," ECO claimed, seeing the looks on her sister and friend's face. Maize just brushed it off, hoping there was not any silent alarm alerting authorities to the break in. They entered the room, where there was two small televisions that looked out of date in front of a wooden chair, and were hooked up to a VHS player.
"Wow. I haven't seen one of these in forever," Octoronia had an odd gleam in her eyes like she had taken apart tons of video tape players in the past. She took a seat she began to fiddle with the controls to rewind the tape. Maize let her do it, having no idea how she and ECO would not want to risk breaking the only chance they had to view the possible stalker.
"Hey! Something's there," Maize pointed to the security monitor. After the tape was rewound forty-eight hours, or in which case two days, Octoronia stopped it and hit play. There was one male octoling and a female octoling on screen, both of who entered through the very tree like they had done earlier. The girl octopus was beginning to fill up one of many bags with the stolen store supplies. However the male seemed to only fill the bag with that very fruit mush for young ones. When he turned his back on screen, ECO spotted something.
"Pause it! Look at his back," ECO pointed out, her chest light being blue in concern. Her sister stopped the tape. They all could see what the robot had noticed.
"Oh… gosh," Maize said. The male octoling had a harness wrapped around his body, and on his back was a very cute and round looking newborn blobbie. It was playing with something in its tentacles. This was a good thing that Octon the blobbie was unharmed.
"What is he playing with?" Octoronia tilted her head. The blobbie had a small piece of paper in its tentacles like it was its entertainment during the movement. However he let it slip from his grip and watch it fall on the ground. It only took a short time after for the two pilferers to leave the same way they came bags filled with the items. They needed to make stronger ignition timers. Maize left the security room, heading back to the same aisle that was shown on the footage.
"It was somewhere down here…" Maize went onto his stomach, reaching under the shelf, feeling layers of dust being left unclean. A few roots were growing through the tiled floor. He finally got what he was searching for.
"There it is!" he pulled out the piece of paper, looking at it. The paper seemed to be a piece of a map that was wrinkled crumpled up. He did his best to smoothen it, Agents 4 and 5 coming to see what had gotten his attention. He noticed the two behind him and presented it to them.
"Hey, where is this map of?" Maize asked, ECO taking the piece and looking over it with her sister.
"I think it's five miles north from that apartment you helped put out," Octoronia claimed. Maize could notice random X marks on the map at certain buildings, and a big circle around a depiction of a factory in the center.
"You think this is their hideout?" ECO quirked. The factory was the only place without an X mark on it. If that was true, then maybe they got lucky with the blobbie grabbing the map piece like it was a toy.
"Even if it isn't this is our only real lead, we'll take it… c'mon," Maize took the map back and pocketed it. He went over to the tree growing from the center, and then grabbed onto it, beginning to make the effort to climb out.
"Is blind hope really the best motivator?" ECO questioned her sister. Octoronia shook her head, claiming that was not what motivated him.
"I don't know why, but promises are all he needs to keep on going," Octoronia explained to the robotic octoling. It was cheesy, but inspirational. The two of them began to climb up shortly after he reached the rooftop, but this time the inkling had no intention of helping them up and dislocating his arm again. Once all three of them were outside of the store, they proceeded to run back to the southern part of Mollusk Metropolis, wanting to investigate the factory as soon as they could.
Agents 3, 4 and 5 ran all the way back to the southern part of Mollusk Metropolis, having traveled far past the burnt apartment complex. The two octolings were feeling quite unsure how to feel to have a practical leader, even if it was only temporary, but they were happy to have their friend around.
"What did this factory use to make?" Maize asked as they were nearing the factory. By the looks of the area, it was not running anymore.
"I believe it was set to produce a variety of furniture and other products, but the workers hated having to adjust constantly to new mass productions," Octoronia answered. Maize could understand why those factory workers quit. It would be easy to find another factory job, and one that would be less taxing on its employees.
"It closed only a year ago," ECO added as they could see it in the near distance. Those smoke stacks were inactive, but still aimed up high. The three could see many kinds of oddities around, but they tried to ignore it. The factory had a huge door at the front of it, as well as vines growing around it. Maize tapped his chin, trying to find out how to open it. Lately he had been messing up a lot, and he was aware of that, but he did not want to give up on his luck yet.
"Side window," ECO quickly said, going to one of the many windows on the side that were there in a row. She put her metal fingers together. Maize grinned, putting his foot in the palm of her hand. She lifted him up high enough so he could reach the window. He jumped up and grabbed on, gritting his teeth. He panted once he got inside.
"There we go," Maize sighed in relief, having been worried that he would have falling down. He saw Octoronia get tossed up next. She groaned once inside, but then went back to the window, reaching down and helping pull up her metallic sister. Maize crouched down, beginning to carefully sneak around, hearing the sound of loud banging.
"Slow down!" ECO chimed up as quietly as she could, drawing more attention to Maize. He put his finger over his mouth to be completely quiet.
"Sorry. Just worried about all of this," Maize apologized for almost rushing it, then felt Agent 4 pat his back. She was aware of how annoying it is to know that these horrible igniter timers were being made and could harm so many while ruining part of Mollusk Metropolis. He did not want the octolings inhabiting it to be terrified of their home's environment, the very nature they actively worked with daily to live in harmony. This factory was big in size on the inside. They had to be a bit slower than usual. The sound of that loud banging was still going on, but they were beginning to get closer to the source of that noise.
"Hey! Occi! Can you stop with that for a bit?" they heard a deep voice ring out from around the next corner. The three agents decided to take a peek. It looked like they were right about the hideout of this team of arsonists. They saw the same octolings they had witnessed on the security camera. When the loud noise stopped from attempting to construct more fire igniters, they could hear the sounds of crying.
"Ocoto, what is it now?! We could've had this done two days ago if you'd just help me and not make me stop," Occi replied, throwing one of her tools on the ground in anger. For a team, the two of them weren't working very well together at all.
"Well I'm sorry! But someone has to take care of the blobbie," Ocoto retorted. They witnessed the argument just go on and on. It seemed like an almost normal thing to come from them. Octoronia got out from their hiding place while the two were distracted. Maize let her go off toward the sound of the crying to try and get the blobbie so that it would not be hurt.
"Ready?" Maize asked ECO.
"Ready…" the robotic octoling got out her weapon. They both got ready and took aim at the arguing octopi, and they began to fire yellow and purple ink at them. They missed a lot, but they landed a couple of shots on them.
"Ow! What the-!?" Ocoto jumped over one of the assembly lines and took cover. Occi grabbed her own slather blaster with an ink tank nearby, beginning to fire back, forcing Maize to take cover as he watched pink ink land across from them. ECO had taken cover. Now they were stuck, hiding until they had an opening, a position the yellow squid had felt all too often. Ocoto meanwhile was moving and switching positions.
Octoronia had slowly walked while crouching behind many of the big pieces of machinery. She felt like the crying kept getting louder and echoing throughout the factory. Finally she came across a table flipped upside down with a blanket wrapped around the legs, and pillows padding the bottom of it like a makeshift crib. The octoling girl lifted up her goggles so they would be on her forehead, looking into the makeshift crib where the crying had been coming from.
"Aw… hey there little guy," Octoronia greeted, seeing the very blobbie who had been abducted from its home. She saw the poor snivelling baby octopus, reaching inside and picked him up. She felt his tentacles wrapping onto her arm and her chest, and he nuzzled into her, calming down a little.
"Hey, hey, it's alright now… your dad sent us to save you," she spoke, just before she began to hear footsteps. She kept Octon close while grabbing her weapon, but he seemed to be doing a good job keeping a grip on her.
"Keep away from that baby!" Ocoto's voice rung out as he approached, opening fire and spraying purple ink at them. Octoronia kicked up the makeshift crib and took cover behind it, watching it get stained with ink. The blobbie began crying once more, being startled by the shouting.
"Sheesh… I hate to imagine what your dad puts up with," Octoronia told the blobbie jokingly. She raised her arm over the table, firing blindly and missing horribly. Now all three of the agents were stuck in rough positions, they couldn't just take the blobbie and run. These people were trigger-happy maniacs, and if these enemies left this building, who knew where they would go to. They had a lot in mind for these fires. Maize, ECO and Octoronia had to get their bearings on this situation before they could do anything. Maize himself had no intention of letting any of them get away.