The little break that were given to the newly found couple came and flew by as if it were only yesterday.
The two agents were soon back on their feet, apparently there was recent activity of Octarian forces in one of the stations of the Deep Sea Metro. They were to arrive in early in the morning. Marie wanted them to get a head start as soon as possible.
The subway halted as it approached the destination, the familiar sound of the metal wheels screeching against the tracks. Coral and Kai exited as the door of the train slid open.
Coral yawned and stretched, her eyes still tired. She was never a morning person. Kai gazed at the invasion of graffiti that was sprawled across every wall of the station.
With a worried tone, Kai whispered, " You sure this is the right station Coral? It seems pretty sketchy to me."
She nodded, " Marie pin pointed the location to this station, it's one of the only stations that's been built on the bad parts of Inkopolis. It's been treated fairly poorly over the course of years."
"...I can see that, let's just go look around as we were told," he said and then turned to Coral,
" this time—together."
She beamed at him and pecked his check with her lips, she received the sight of a tiny blush immediately after. The two giggled and then walked further into the station.
It reeked of piss and the posters that displayed ads on the walls of the station were covered in graffiti and partially shredded. Why the hell would DJ Octavio want to ever be here? Most importantly, what did the Octarians need from a low maintained station? Perhaps some old parts of the rusty wrecked subway train that sat on the other side of the tracks of the boarding area?
The two stayed close, no other Inklings were in the station. Despite being open to the public 24/7 , many have said that this station is never used when the sun is down or merely rising for an unknown reason.
As they made their way down a tunnel that led to escalators that barely worked, there was a suspicious dried tiny splatter of ink on the tiles of the floor. It was magenta.
Kai had spotted it first, he kneeled down and observed the puddle of ink, " Come take a look at this Coral..," he called her over.
She was not too far from him, she had been scavenging through a random pile of newspapers that must have been left without being recycled.
She scrunched her face as she made her way over to Kai, " Ooh..definitely Octoling ink. We know for sure that they were here then. Most likely from a few days ago by the looks of it."
" We'll have to look around some more then," Kai muttered as he stood up from his kneeled down position.
They sprinted up the stairway that sat beside the escalators. No use of using the escalators since they often groaned of rusty metallic sounds.
They circled the station for an hour, Coral began to loose her patience, she abruptly heeled to a stop and turned her head back to Kai,
" It's been an hour! I don't understand, what's so important here!?"
He brushed this hair back, " I don't know, I wish I knew but my best guess is that they must have used this station as a route to escape Octavio ."
Coral paced back and forth, determined to find out the answer," Yes..that would make sense.. but how?"
" I say we start heading back to the boarding area before this place begins to pack with random citizens, you said this is the bad part of town, is it not?" Kai said as he took her hand.
" Yes it is and your'e right, we should. We don't wanna get caught up in unnecessary situations with citizens. I don't want to disappoint Marie but truth be told, we couldn't find much except that speck of dried Octoling ink. We can at least confirm that they were indeed here," Coral said a she let Kai lead her back to where they had gotten off the subway.
A few minutes later, they made their way through another tunnel. It's lights were in need of new ones and they flickered every second.
" H-Hey Coral.. I don't remember this area, I cannot recall ever passing through..," Kai worriedly stammered, " I-I'm sorry I think I got us lost!"
Coral waved off his apology, " It's fine Kai, I can use the GPS system that's built in my headgear ."
She fumbled with the GPS, it refused to cooperate.
" Damn it!" Coral cursed, " It's not working, it can't reach any signals!! I swear this isn't supposed to happen, it only uses the signals specifically for the agents! It doesn't work using regular cellular data."
The sudden feeling of another presence immediately alerted Kai, he withdrew his hand from Coral's and threw it in front of Coral to stop her from proceeding any further,
" Stay back...there's someone else here with us."
Both looked around, watching and alert. Sandy footsteps scrunched the station's floor, an Inkling stepped from the shadows.
The Inkling smoothed his hair back with his gray gloved fingers, a tattered Black Inky Rider wrinkled every footstep he took.
The two agents kept their gaze averted on the suspicious Inkling. It was no doubt that he must have been from this part of Inkopolis, greasers were rare these days but would exist upon gangs.
The Inkling then spoke, crisply " What's uh—fellows like you guys doing ere'?"
Like a predator, he circled them, " Folks like you don't come ere' often ya know? Ya dress too fancy..nev'r seen that kinda fancy weapons ya got there.."
Coral watched every movement the Inkling took. Something about this guy was wrong. He looked..different. Most Inklings didn't have the possibility to have such hair that curled like the tentacle of an Octolings.
Other Inklings began to emerge from the shadows and gathered around Coral and Kai, completely surrounding them.
Coral spoke, her voice calm and careful, " We mean no trouble, we just happen to be passing through this part of town."
Clearly amused, the Inkling came closer and he smirked. His cold beet red eyes searched the two agents. The Inkling spoke again, voice cold and icy,
" I don't think so hon, we don't let folks pass our territory..especially when the sun isn't up."
"Oh, so the station is empty due to gang related stuff. That's just great. If we had only known before.." Coral thought.
The Inkling then moved on and abruptly stopped and observed Kai. Kai and the Inkling's eyes burned through each other's gaze.
The Inkling then said something, Coral couldn't understand but Kai clearly could and he didn't look pleased. The Inkling sneered and spoke once more,
" Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Your weapons you got are clearly worth some bucks. Just give us your fancy weapons and we'll let you two go on.."
Kai turned to Coral, his eyes looked of worry. He waited for Coral's approval.
" We have to." She mouthed.
The Inkling impatiently urged, " Well what is then? We don't got the whole day!?"
" Okay..," Kai muttered, " we'll give you our weapons..".
The Inkling smirked as he began to make his way to Kai, " Excellent choice.."
With wide eyes, Kai quickly wrapped Coral in his arms and sharply dodged what seemed to be the sudden shot of hot lasers.
" W-wha?" Coral stammered.
" I should've known. These guys work with the Octarians! Weird that I would somehow remember now but Octavio would secretly work with gangs from Inkopolis back when I was a soldier. He must have offered these guys wealth in trade for an escape route which this place happens to be!"
The Inkling roared in what must have been Octoling language." Bastard..,"
" KILL THEM!! KILL THEM NOW!!"
It wasn't much of a surprise since the gang would need someone to communicate with Octarians forces in their native language. In fact, maybe.. the leader wasn't just an Inkling. Perhaps he was mixed, an Octoling and Inkling. Other than that, there wasn't much of any other explanation to why he knew the language, maybe he just learned it.
Coral shot two of the gang members that blocked the exit, Kai then quickly pulled Coral towards him, he was able to get the both of them through other gang members who scattered towards the exit. His arms swiftly and roughly shoved others who were making their way towards the exit to block it.
Their shoes squealed against the dirty tiles of the station as they sharply turned a corner, a rush of anger could be heard far behind them. Coral dropped a splat bomb behind as they quickly treaded down the stairs and to the boarding station.
It was as if the gods were on their side today, the subway had stopped by the station merely seconds after they arrived. They boarded it and the two quickly took a seat. The two agents both breathed a sigh of relief as they gazed at each other. Others looked at them, most likely wondering how or why they were covered in sweat and almost loosing their breath.
Kai closed his eyes and leaned his head back, with a tired and raspy voice he spoke to Coral between breaths, " Tell Agent 2 ..that we're on..our way back..".
" Alright.." Coral replies as she tiredly proceeded to call Marie.