*Inkopolis Police Department*

“Chief please you don’t understand. I assure you I can solve this case.” The dark skinned inkling insists looking at her commander from behind the desk.

“Camille I get what you’re saying, but you’ve been at this for months now and you found no new leads so far,” her chief says leaning over his desk. “Look just take a break from all this; in fact why not use some of your vacation time.” She looks up at him and clenched her fists together and furrows her yellow brows, straightening her back.

“Sir please I’m this close on finding the guy who has been making most of our murder cases disappear. Plea–”

“Camille Ekhoes! Just… take the day off,” he sighs leaning back in his chair. “What would your father think of the way of you acting?”

Camille tenses up, rises from her seat, and walks out the door slamming it shut behind her. “Don’t ever bring him up. He’s no father of mine,” she murmurs under her breath leaving the Inkopolis Police station to Sheldon’s training fields. The giant squid huffs kicking a pebble with her shoes running a hand through her tentacles with still a frown. “Of all the squids, the chief had to bring him up. I’m not like him,” she growls under breath as she walks into Booyah Base waving at the horseshoe lad behind the counter. “I’d like to practice with the N-zap ‘85 please.” Sheldon nods and points her to the door while Camille took the mono weapon and cocked it. 'Better let off some steam then,’ she thoughts as she fires the first target. ——————————

*Unknown location to the armory*

Walking upstairs, out of the basement, Fynnion sighs and goes to take a shower to clean off some blood. He then got dressed and decided to take a stroll, humming a soft tune to himself. He grabs himself an icy treat and takes a few bites, watching inklings walk about.

After a while, Fynnion walks to Sheldon’s shop and pays for some practice time. He walks out and sees the officer, deciding to hold onto his Aerospray. “Easy lady.” He said as he noticed her rage. “Save some for the rest of us.”

Pausing her practice she looks over and lowers her weapon. “Oh sorry about that I got a little carried away didn’t I?” she says with a small smile as she relaxes her body. “My boss pressed my buttons today. Um which section do you want to use? The cluster square or here the distance range? I can totally move to the other area.”

He waved his hand and walked to the back. He began to shoot, doing spins and rolls. He hit all the targets perfectly, never missing a single shot. When he was done doing 20 kills straight, he sighed. “Too easy…”

Camille lets her shoulders lax after tossing a few bombs at high and low as she took a sip from her water bottle watching at the other squid pop every dummy. “Wow that’s some good firing Tex,” she comments with a Southern accent as she leaned against the wall. “Practicing up for a few Ranked matches I’m guessing?”

He paused and shrugged. “Uhh, yeah.” He replied and put away his gun and walked past her. “Well, just gotta practice and let off some steam. You can go crazy if you want, I’m out of here…” He said and walked out of the place and returned the gun.

She chuckles and waves him farewell and goes back to her target practice a little more until she feels her body slack from the weight of her gun setting in. She decided that she had her fill and hands the firearm back to the shopkeeper and walks out, taking in a deep breath. ‘I should get a bite before I head home or something,’ she says to herself as she walks over to her cousin’s café and heads inside. “Evening boys~!” The twins behind the counter look up and smile at the brown squid, waving back. “The usual please and family discount,” she jokes and sits near the counter.

——————————

After a while, Fynnion walks into the closet café and sits down. He sighs and orders himself a coffee and a BLT. He looked around and then spots the girl from the shooting range and waves slightly at her before taking a seat himself to retrieve a journal from his bag. Noticing the same squid from earlier wave from the corner of her eye she nods her head in acknowledgement and smiles, taking a sip of her drink. “Oh? Is that your boyfriend Camille?” Greg asks setting her plate of food down, making the other giant squid blush and glare at him.

“W-what?! Heck no I briefly saw him at Sheldon’s and besides,” she takes a bite of her curry, “I’m way too busy solving my big case for a relationship. Oh! Speaking of relationships, how are you guys doing?” Greg blushes and laughs talking to her.

Fynnion ignores the conversation and Mika walks up to him and places his order down in front of him with a smile. “There you go, enjoy~” She sung and walked over to Greg before kissing his cheek. “Come on my teddy bear, we got some baking to do.” She said as she pulled him away from his cousin. Fynnion took a sip of his drink and a bite of his sandwich before took some notes.

Camille chuckles at the couple’s affection and gets back to eating her meal as she looks down at her phone looking through the case files she uploaded from her computer, skimming through it and thinking of possibilities on what to do. 'Maybe if I ask around squid A’s area? No that won’t do,’ she thinks then mumbling to herself, “maybe squid B..? Ugh that won’t work either.” She sighs and rests her forehead in her hand.

From time to time, he would look up at the Inkling girl and continue writing. ‘Sheesh…wonder what her deal is…she looks more stressed than me.’ He finished writing and closed the journal. It was entries of his little “friends” downstairs.

Finishing her meal, the giant squid walks up to the counter and pay her cousin for her fill. “Oh Camille, before you head off I have some letters from… you know at that place,” Nick says pulling the few letters from his pocket, “He still misses you.” She narrows her green eyes at the envelopes but doesn’t take them.

“Just burn them Nick. He lost my love and trust long time ago,” she says and turns away. “He’s no longer a father in my eyes, just a killer.” The tan squid tries to argue but frowns sadly and watches her storm out the door of the café.

The next day in front of the Tower Lobby... Fynnion went to play a few matches with his team, sweeping all the matches and getting on the top of all the scores. He waved goodbye and walked down to the center part of Inkopolis, looking around to see if any certain Inklings were on his “list”.

“Freeze IPD! Fugu Spines, fins on the ground now!” Camille shouted as she ran down the streets chasing a surprisingly fast puffer. She believed this guy was her only source for her case but it wasn’t easy tracking and finding the guy once he started bolting away. The cop growled under breath as she ran on his tail fin as the two were now running in an alleyway. She reached a dead end to see no suspect in sight, keeping her n-zap ready. “Where did you go…” she breathed darting her green eyes left and right. ”I know you’re he-“

——————————

Noticing a chase, he followed them and then spotted a suspicious looking puffer. He grinned and chased him, getting to his level and knocking him out. He then noticed the officer and waved. "Haven’t I seen you before?” He asked.

Clutching her temple with one hand to apply pressure from the blunt attack, she looks behind her shoulder to see the teal colored inkling standing over the puffer fish. “Oh it’s you from the training grounds,” she says walking over to the unconscious fish before pulling out a pair of cuffs. “Thanks for knocking him out.” She kneels down and cuffs the fella.

Fynnion nods and backs up a bit. “Yeah, so you are a cop?” He asked and eyed her up and down. “You sure don’t…look like the part…” He frowned and looked to the side.

She wearily chuckles, walking out the alley to her police car and put the apprehended suspect in the back. “I’m just an investigator and I tend to wear casual when undercover,” she says pulling out a first-aid kit and applies a bandage on her temple. “But one thing’s for sure. I’m going to prove both my cases, hopefully.” Frowning at the last part she swaps it with a smile and looks at him. “So why were you here? At the alley I mean.”

“Simple, I hate men like him.” He said, looking at the puffer. “So, what is this case you are doing?” He asked. He was curious, thinking he might have some fun.

“It’s kinda classified but it never really is with the news poking their noses into these sorts of things. I’m solving the disappearances of A to S rank criminals; such as Stan the Thresher Shark for example,” she shrugs summing up her case and glanced in the back, “And this fella, Fugu Spines, is going to answer a few questions.”

He looks at the man and then grits his teeth. “So that’s Fugu….” He muttered. He sighed and heard the other thing and smirked. “Sorry to hear that miss. Well then, I guess I should be on my way.” He waved and began to walk off, tossing something in the car with her not noticing.

She nods him a farewell and gets in her car, driving back to the station to write up her day with the puffer and sends him to the interrogation room. “Okay Spines let’s see here. According to your record you’ve been quite a trafficker of Jellyfish,” she says reading his file, “You’re gonna be put away for a long while but first I just want a few questions answered about your friend Thresher…” The huffing puffer fish glares at her then at the photo and spits at her. “Heh I haven’t seen that fool in a month but as if I’d tell you where he went last, you Ekhoes,” he smirks then shrinks seeing her stare at him dead in the eyes like daggers pressed against his very soul.

“Or maybe I can hurry this up and make it short.” He whimpers before telling her what he knew.

——————————

*Outside IPD*

Tracking the location, Fynnion reached a spot where he could see the puffer fish and the giant squid through a window. “How convenient, keeping a window for me.“ He aimed his sniper rifle and fired, penetrating the bulletproof window and hitting the puffer in the head, killing him instantly. He smirked before quickly holstering his weapon and running off.

——————————

Camille jumps as the fish’s blood sprayed on her shirt watching his head hit the table and looks at the direction it was shot. "Shit!” She hisses, running out of the room with a handful of others following in suit. “Attention all units we have a C-49 and are in pursuit! Shooter was last seen heading east from the station,” she says through her walkie-talkie as she chased on foot knowing the shot was still fresh. “Units 3 and 5 try to intercept.”

——————————

Fynnion got to a hiding location and removed his clothes and switched it back to his normal ones. He hummed a tune and went to a café to get something to eat. He saw cops running about and trying to find the killer, taking a bit of sip of his drink.

After a few hours of searching to only find the trail had gotten cold, the giant squid wasn’t pleased and slams her fist against the wall, cursing loudly. “Dammit I was so close. So fucking close!” She growls fighting back sour tears as her colleagues looked at her in concern.

“Camille I’m sorry you lost your potential lead but at least we have one criminal gone,” one of the cadets reassures nervously, “If lieutenant Ekhoes was here he would totally–”

“Shut up! I don’t care what he would’ve done. He’d just kill them upright!” She glares, but then sighs at the now shaking cadet and walks away from the group. “I’m gonna go home now…”

Fynnion noticed the cop and finished his meal, following her. “Hey, how’s it going? You seem kind of down.” He said as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

She tiredly stares at him and quietly shrugs his hand off. “I lost my source this evening,” she growls with a strained smile, “I almost felt myself closing the case and bam, it drops dead in front of me,” she mutters looking down at her feet then weakly laughs. “Chief was right… I wasn’t cut off for this case.”

Hearing that made his eyebrow twitch. “Maybe…I can help…” He replied. “Tell me, what kind of case are you doing? You can tell me, because it seems like you want to know about those missing killers.”

She looks at him little confused at his offer, blinking a few times. “I’m actually trying to solve four- now five connected murders and missing cases of high class criminals,” she explains, “But why do want to help me?”

“Cause, I can’t have a sad woman be in my sight.” He simply replied and spun around. “So you are trying to know about killers, rapists, and traffickers?” He took out his journal and gave it to Camille. “Here”

She takes the journal and opens it reading it through and through, her eyes growing wider and wider. “T-this can’t be… these are all of them…” she whispers then looks up at him. “You did this? You’ve been capturing and torturing them to death this whole time.“ Her hands shook as her mind tried to connect all the puzzles together.

He grinned and tilted his head. "So what if I have, they get what they deserve…but let me tell you something, tell anyone this…and you will end up like that puffer.” He said as he took the book back. “On the bright side, you got the one thing you wanted.”

Feeling her dark face drain of color, the yellow squid wanted to punch him and arrest him right then and there, but her body was stiff like a pole. “You son of a bitch…” she whispers as her knees gave way as she stared blankly at him.

He gave her a calm smile and turned around, walking off. He had no time for someone like her. ‘Might as well let her go home and relax,’ Fynnion mused to himself.

——————————

Exhaustion eating away at her, Camille checked out of her shift and decided to head straight home. As she tried to unlock her front door, she couldn’t help but see her hands shaking. She tried to clench them but failed to calm her body. ‘I spend so long trying to figure out those cases. And now…?’ She finally managed to get into her home before slamming the door behind her. ‘That guy…. He’s worse than my old man…’ She couldn’t help but laugh as she felt tears stream down her eyes, leaning against the front door and continued for another few minutes. Eventually the ordeals of the day took their toll on her as she passed out, the last of her tears dripping onto her lap.

TBC.....