Chapter 27: Encore Performance
Callie was standing backstage in Tina's Cafe, wearing the same pink flowing dress from Sunday, ready to perform for the crowd in the cafe again and was happy to see a bigger crowd than usual. However, she saw that some of them had camera's and, while she didn't have stage fright, she was nervous about being recorded. She was doing this for fun.
"After that news report I don't want any more proof of me being here. I thought Tina put out a no video recording rule or something."
"Yo," a voice spoke up from behind her. Callie turned around to find a strange Inkling boy looking at her, with Clair trying to restraint him with no success whatsoever.
"How did you get you get back here?" She looked at him nervously. "You need help, Clair?"
"Asshole won't move an inch. It's like he's metal or something."
"That I am" The boy replied.
"Adstrum, Clair needs help!" Callie quietly shouted.
"What?!" He ran backstage and looked around ready to beat someone. "What's up?" He noticed the strange inkling and calmed down. "Oh, hey...Livewire." He said after a slight pause of thinking.
"Sup" Livewire greeted, "Iris wanted to hide so people wouldn't freak out.
"Iris?" Callie looked at the metallic inkling confused. "Where is she?"
"I ate her." The metal inkling unzipped his jacket and Iris was hanging on to him.
"Hah. Funny." Adstrum nodded and leaned down toward Iris. "Thanks for coming, Iris. How ya been?"
"It was great, I never really get to go out. Hehe sorry if Livewire scared you. I made sure he looked realistic as possible, but he just walked through security. She broke so many brooms over his head." Iris pointed at Clair.
"Heh. Try using half a motorcycle, Clair. That seems to break them." Adstrum chuckled a bit and looked at Iris. "Again, I'm sorry about that."
"Hey no sweat. If not for us someone would be dead."
"Yeah. Oh, hey, I just finished a new weapon. It's a new ink bomb. Just need to lower the explosive power. I got slammed against my back door."
"Oh, can do." Iris got off Livewire, and turned back into her humanoid form. "Right so what you wanted me to do what today?"
"Could you please find a way to prevent news people from recording me?" Callie spoke up.
"I can either destroy the devices, or just jam the signals."
"Jam the signals." Adstrum spoke up. "Don't outright destroy them. It would just end up attracting more attention."
"But they would still be able to record you…."
"I guess I'm fine with that." Callie muttered.
"I have an idea…." Livewire smirked, "Leave it to me."
"Alright." Callie smiled before she got a text from Anna that read, 'Tina will have you perform in half an hour.' She put her phone away and looked at everyone. "Guess we should get ready."
Adstrum nodded and walked out from backstage while Callie went to the kitchen to get ready for the show, leaving Livewire, Iris, and Clair alone backstage. Clair pulled out her phone and immediately got angry.
"WHAT?! What did you to my phone you creep?!" Clair looked at her phone.
"A virus." Livewire replied.
"There is nothing but dancing cats and I can't use it at all!"
"Yup. Everyone's phones, computers, and/or cameras."
Iris hid behind him when Clair raised her voice.
"Calm down lady…" Livewire nonchalantly replied "Yeesh, this was what you guys wanted right? Is there a brain in there?"
"You are playing with fire there, Livewire!" Adstrum's voice came from somewhere near the stage. "Let me make some popcorn and come watch!"
"I'll fucking kill you…" Clair was bubbling.
"Iris, you should probably go with Mister Tenebris."
"How the hell did you find out my name?"
"I googled it. You are the owner of Carti Ridge's Turf wars."
"Good point…"
Clair was about to leap at the robot, but Annabelle came out of nowhere and grabbed her sister's shirt.
"Clair, let's not mess with him… He is cocky, but he is right." Annabelle suggested.
"Yes, I am." Livewire replied, "But I'm down for a fight. Maybe later though."
"I wanna kick his smug little ass!" Clair growled.
"...Let's go…" Annabelle pulled her sister away.
About twenty minutes later Tina was standing on the stage holding a mic in her hand.
"Welcome to Tina's Cafe, is everyone ready?" Tina greeted the crowd.
Most of the crowd were looking down at their phones, either nervous or freaking out at what was happening. The few that did look up were actually from the performance from Sunday and were dying to see Callie again.
"Okay, I assume you all are ready anyways. Please welcome her back, Here she is... Callie!" She walked back stage.
The rest of the crowd looked up at the stage as soon as Callie was mentioned, their attention now grabbed. Almost immediately the music started playing and Callie walked onto the stage, already dancing and moving the the music. She was singing the song that would play during Splatfest battles, everyone clapping and cheering to see the Ex-Squid Sister was back.
Adstrum was sitting near the front of the stage, his back to the stage and facing the crowd to keep an eye on them. He had a pair of headphones on and was listening to an entirely different song, as he couldn't stand anything Splatfest related. Even with the music turned all the way up on his Squid Beats player the Splatfest song was still able to be slightly heard, causing him to have a scowl on his face and his eye to twitch every now and then.
Callie's show continued as the famous squid sang her heart out. She danced and sang to her heart's contents, an absolutely huge smile on her face. She heard the song coming to an end and looked at the crowd.
"How is everyone doing?" Callie asked cheerfully. An uproar of cheers came from the audience, "Fantastic!" She brightly smiled.
"Encore! Encore!" The crowd chanted.
Meanwhile backstage, Livewire noticed Iris sleeping on him.
"Is it past your bedtime already?" Livewire petted her, "Wakey wakey… You can't sleep right now."
Iris whined and groggily looked at him.
"Hahaha… I'll get you some sugar. Wait here." He got up and walked towards the back.
On his way back to Iris with a plate of cookies in his hands he noticed Adstrum's sour face. "Hey you okay?"
Adstrum didn't answer. His eyes were twitching more and his was gripping his chair tightly with one of his hands.
Livewire poked his shoulder, to which Adstrum's hand shot up and grabbed the robot by the throat. He looked up and saw who it was before releasing his grip. "Don't talk to me right now. Not while this song is playing."
Livewire shrugged and walked away. He walked backstage and placed the plate of cookies in Iris's lap.
"Seriously, wake up Iris…" Livewire gently moved her.
Iris nuzzled into him and slept some more.
"Iris… Look cookies. Wake up"
"...mmm?" Iris sleepily stared at him.
"Cookies."
"Oh thank you..." She started nibbling on the cookies.
A few minutes later the music stopped and Callie bowed to the audience. She walked behind the curtain, a huge smile on her face, and was about to head to the kitchen when Livewire tapped on her shoulder.
"Yo what's up with your boyfriend?" Livewire asked.
"Boyfriend? Who? Adstrum? He's just a friend." She smiled nervously. "And what are you talking about?"
"I don't know. He looked uncomfortable"
"He did?" She pondered for a moment before it hit her. "Oh...the song was a Splatfest one...Oh, I hope he's okay."
"By the way is this yours?" He pointed to a bucket, "They were apparently in a bucket."
"Zzzz…." Cici snored.
"Eh, she's my friend." Callie took the bucket and tilted it, Cici sliding out and starting to sleep swim around. "She sleeps a lot."
"Zzz…." Cici climbed up Livewire and nuzzled up in his metallic tentacles.
"Hmm…." Livewire seemed intrigued.
"Heh, she likes sleeping on heads." Callie smiled and shrugged.
"Ah… but isn't it uncomfortable? Wait, you guys are squishy…."
At that moment Adstrum walked backstage and Callie turned to face him. "Hey Adstrum. Sorry about the song. I didn't know it would be that. I just went along with it."
"It's fine." He said as he shook his head real quick. "It's over now." His eye twitched one last time. "Stupid Splatfests were a mistake." He pulled out his phone, finding it working again.
"Hmm do you not like that song?"
"I can't stand anything Splatfest related. Makes me very uncomfortable and very mean." Adstrum answered the robot.
"I'm ready to go home." Callie spoke up. "I'm going to go thank Tina for letting me perform again. Thank you Iris and...Livewire for helping with the news and video recording prevention." She walked toward the kitchen, Adstrum following behind her.
"Iris, I will be coming by tomorrow to test the new ink bomb, okay?" Adstrum told her.
"Uh huh, I'll see you tomorrow" She smiled.
Livewire watched them walk away, a thought entering his mind as a smirk appeared on his face.
Author's Note: And here's the next chapter. I wasn't as limited in my time on Wifi as I thought. So, thank you The Bowser Monster for leaving a review. And thank you ThePizzaLovingTurtle for also leaving a review. I greatly appreciate them. Thank you so much.
Alright, next chapter will be in four or less days. Look forward to seeing it. Thank you all for reading and I will see you all next chapter.
