Maize and co had all ran for the armory, with Fallow leading them along. It was not far from the ceremonial roam where the Abraliopsis Morisii was pinned down. They needed better weaponry, only having these rubbish ones that were modified to fire oil. They arrived to one end of a long hallway that had a huge door before them, ECO helping Fallow to open it.
"What kind of weapons are in there?" Callie asked, wanting to know if they had a wide variety or a narrow variety that they had to make work with. She hoped that they were much well-kept than the ones the group had stolen.
"If you do not mind, there was a lot we did find," Fallow rhymed in her usual tone. Once they got the door fully opened, everyone was in awe. About each type of weapon from Inkopolis or Mollusk Metropolis were lining the walls. It was astonishing to know how much of a stockpile the cultists had. However, when they entered in the room they saw Fulvous and Violet, and a lot of other robed figures in the room.
"A trap?!" Marie got ready to attack, thinking they had walked into a rigged setup to those insane cultists.
"Wa-wait! Calm down, Marie!" they heard a familiar voice, seeing one of the robed figures step up and remove their cloak, unveiling a familiar blue tentacled squid. The white inkling quickly felt relaxed to see a familiar face.
"Aero? What are you doing here?" Maize asked. He was glad to see his ex-wife, wondering if this was that backup team that his sister had gathered. In which case, it was impressive. They were able to sneak around undetected for this entire time.
"You know me, Maize. I'm the type that loves to have any reason to run out from a very important meeting," Aero smirked cheekily. She was not entirely lying. Dramatically fleeing from a meeting for some reason gave the clients who were attending said meeting a sense of trust in her, as though bailing from the meeting was somehow showing true strength in decisions. All in all, it had synched that one easily.
"And wherever she goes, her trusty bodyguard follows," Onyx's voice rung out as he took off his hood. Frankly he hated these disguises the most, and was glad to finally have a reason to remove them. He was carrying something he had gotten straight from the back of the weapons armory, presenting it to them.
"Wow… that's the new E-liter 3K!" Marie said. The charger was fashioned from bamboo, and it had some tagline about organic junk, but no squid ever cared for the marketing slogan behind any of the weapons. Captain Cuttlefish could see that everyone was trying to take their pick of the weaponry and switch from those oil ink tanks to proper ink. The other agents were mostly letting Maize confront the team his sister had brought.
"And who are you guys?" Maize looked to the group to the left. There were three robed figures, all preparing their weapons. They were glad to disrobe the cultist clothing when they could.
"It's us, dude," Cobalt chuckled. Standing beside him was his sister, Auburn, and between them was someone he did not expect to see here, or anywhere.
"Rose?! You're here, too?!" Agent 3 gawked. He was glad to see Auburn and Cobalt at least. They were the ones in trouble on his very first mission that started the Special Squid Service's road to fame, but Rose was the insane private club owner who had blackmailed Cobalt into remaining there for free labor. However, Maize could not deny that he was glad to see another squid with one tentacle like he had now.
"Dim as ever, arent'cha? Go figure. I wound up becoming a pal to these two after you beat some sense into me," Rose cackled, though that tone did not reassure him at all. He remembered beating her in a fight, but that was about it. He was impressed though that the one fight he had refused to splatter her in, had somehow changed her mindset.
"A lot has changed since you helped us out, Maize," Auburn gave that bright smile. Everyone in this room was here to help. Maize had to guess that everyone in disguise that Fallow gathered were squids he knew.
"Well I'll be… looks like your good deeds have come back to haunt ya," Captain Cuttlefish patted Maize on the back as he saw the other robed figures disrobe their disguises. Thus revealed Basil, Aureolin, Umber, Mauve and Amaranth. Every one of these squids he had helped out with. All of them had come to return the favor and help them, particularly when Fallow came to them and explained the situation.
"Wow… those are a lot of inklings," Octoronia spoke in awe, specifically to Maize about. Maize looked to her and nodded to this, happy to see so many familiar faces. Everyone was here, and they were a lot of inklings that Octoronia and ECO didn't recognize, but they were all welcome as far as they knew.
"Some of us agreed to come, even before we knew of the whole 'Destruction of Inkopolis' deal," Basil admitted. He had jumped the gun in the conversation with Fallow and agreed to participate. Every one of them was armed and ready to go. Altogether, there were about eighteen of them in this room, ready to do battle, all except Captain Cuttlefish. No one wanted the elder to get hurt. The group suddenly heard a loud banging on the door.
"Uh… did you get even more help than this?" ECO quirked. She was impressed at the small platoon that Fallow had gathered. However the brain damaged inkling shook her head. This was everyone, they had grouped up in the armory, when things began to go crazy in the ceremonial room.
"Open it," Marie ordered her cousin while aiming the E-liter 3k at the door, charging the weapon up. Callie nodded, as they had closed the heavy door behind them when they came inside, but it was a lot easier to push open than to pull it open. She shoved the door, watching it slowly fly open before she ducked.
"Gruhhh!" they saw one of the non-tentacled octolings who stood there with a small layer of water surrounding their body. They had no look in their eyes at all, as though he had become zombified. Marie let go of the trigger, watching her charger fire. The full blast of green ink hit the possessed cultist in the chest, splattering them instantly. So far she was loving the new weapon.
"Well, I did not expect that," Umber muttered while walking around with his ink brush over his shoulder
"The Abraliopsis… or whatever took over Taupe… that means its taking over everyone who's knocked out in that room!" Maize exclaimed the same revelation that everyone had reached. Those who had gone unconscious in the ceremonial room trying to escape when the ceiling was collapsing, were now being possessed to be used as mindless puppets in its rampage.
"Does that mean it's no longer trapped?" Callie squeaked, just when the ground rumbled and that familiar ferocious roar rung out, followed by a loud crash. The group of eighteen all had the terrified looks on their faces.
"Alright! Let's go, team!" Maize declared, taking leadership of everyone from here. Everyone agreed, all armed to the teeth with the best weapons they could get their hands on. The group began to leave, Captain Cuttlefish deciding to stay behind in the armory to rest his now aching back. However, before Maize could go, he got grabbed.
"Here, I fought a lot, so your weapons could be brought," Fallow rhymed. Her younger brother was confused. She had brought a very large and heavy case along. She put it on the floor and opened it in front of him. He got a big grin on his face, for inside of it were the many mementos and possessions he had gathered of the course of his missions, all kept nicely in the strongest case available to them.
"…Fallow, thank you…!" Maize hugged his sister.
"Go on without me. I'll catch up," he added. His sister nodded, running off to help the others, aware that her brother will catch up.
"Squiddo… I hope you aren't gonna do what I think you're gonna do," Captain Cuttlefish said, seeing Maize grab his glasses and took them off his face before pocketing them. The boy reached into the box, grabbing the pair of octoling goggles he had gotten from Octoronia. He put them on his face, adjusting them so his vision was alright. He was working hard to get everything ready. He got the octoling charger he received from ECO and her sister as a reward for saving the mechanical octoling. He tossed it over his shoulder alongside the Splatterscope, and then he grabbed that earring he had gotten from Auburn for rescuing her brother, pocketing it for good luck. He reached into the case, pulling out the heavy splatling gun named Sasha which he had received from Fulvous as an apology item for what she had done to him. Maize grinned, beginning to slowly walk on ahead, feeling weighted down immensely by the heavy weaponry he was carrying. However he was believing he needed a bit more ammo for all the weaponry.
"Squiddo! Do me proud!" Captain Cuttlefish ordered. He wondered where DJ Octavio was though, he had not seen the elder octopus in a bit of time.
The seventeen members of the group had gone to the ceremonial room, but they almost didn't know about Maize's disappearance. As they arrived into the room however, what they wandered upon was a huge hole in the wall, as well as the sudden disappearance of nearly everyone who had been in this room unconscious.
"How big is this thing…?" Aureolin nervously asked.
"The size of a big bus," Octoronia claimed. Everyone was heading through the chain of holes in the walls, one after another. There were so many huge breaches that it made the facility look unsafe to even inhabit.
"It's gotten outside," Marie groaned. No such thing as a calm moment, she thought. The group saw the light of the early morning sun shining through the last broken through wall. When the group stepped outside, they could see an abandoned shopping center ahead that had failed a long time back. The cultists had just taken it as their personal facility and made some special modifications to it.
"I-it at least looks smaller… kind of," Callie stated with a roller on her shoulder. Every nearby inkling who had been unfortunate to see the Abraliopsis Morisii had been possessed by it, as well. The water monster had every cultist surrounded by a small layer of water around their bodies, possessing them.
"'Ey! Down here!" Mauve taunted as he saw Taupe floating around inside the water creature. The monster looked toward the group, while Aero smacked the construction worker in the back of the head, wishing he had not blabbed. Any form of subtly they had was already lost.
"Here they come…" Amaranth sighed, rubbing his head. He had a few syringes of that pain nullifying medicine on his person, but that was in case things went horribly bad, and they had to fight through the pain. However, the first six possessed robed figures who approached were quickly defeated by a rapid bunch of bursts of yellow ink that dove at them, splattering them instantly.
"Hey, guys. Sorry I'm late," they heard Maize speak up as he was exiting the facility, the weapons on his back and his splatling gun prepared. He had three ink tanks on his back, all filled with yellow ink, and it sure hurt a lot to the point that he felt like his back was going to give out at any minute. He had no real choice but to keep going, not wanting to give any rest as long as the Abraliopsis Morisii was alive. They all were about to be in for what may go down as the second great turf war. There was only a small group of not even twenty, against the almighty thousands year old creature and its possessed puppets. This was the time the Special Squid Services, and those aiding the agents, had to give it their all.