Chapter Eight:

Popstar Hang Out

The coffee shop in Inkopolis Plaza was just down the street from the Squid Sisters' studio, only a couple buildings down from the Turf War lobby. Saiko and Alex chatted with the shop's manager, a lavender-haired Inkling, and bought a couple cups of sweet Zapfish-flavored coffee for each of them.

'I can't believe I'm having Inkopolis coffee with a cute Inkling boy.' Saiko thought, she made sure not to let anyone see her face blushing as she thought about the green-haired squid next to her.

Meggy bought some coffee for herself and let Mario have a small cup of Calamari Cappuccino, which Jeeves cautioned against as he dreaded that the fat Italian would get loopy. Even in Inkopolis, there were types of coffee with certain levels of caffeine that could affect people's behavior, just like with human coffee in other regions in the world.

"You wanna sit near the shop or have the coffee in the studio?" Saiko asked Alex.

"Honestly, I see no harm in drinking it in the Squid Sisters' studio..." The Inkling replied.

"Yo, Saiko!"

A purple-haired Inkling in a red shirt with a purple squid symbol on the front approached the slender anime girl, he was accompanied by another purple Inkling male wearing yellow sunglasses. Alex flashed a casual smile and waved to the approaching Inklings.

"Name's Frinj." Frinj said, "We've heard some of your music and it's an honor to see you here."

"Great to have a fan." Saiko remarked, "And it's nice to see a friendly face."

"We also heard about what went down with that Senbo fella, pretty crazy stunt he pulled by faking Tari's death. Heck, we saw that kid several days ago."

"No way!" Meggy exclaimed, overhearing the conversation, her eyes went wide as saucers.

"Mama mia!" Mario quipped, "I didn't see that coming, Mario never thought we'd be hearing about Senbo again after we took care of him."

"Golly gee." Shroomy said in his piper tone.

"Senbo was here?!" Saiko asked, she was a little more concerned than surprised since the anime girl hadn't forgotten the trouble that Senbo was capable of after he and Aibo had put her through when they faked Tari's quicksand death, just so that kid could get into Saiko's house and play her guitar.

"He and his family were vacationing in the city." Frinj explained, "And he did a Turf War with us, kid volunteered when one of our members got sick, and you should have seen him when we went up against Team Green Pea. For a newbie, he was a fast learner and said that he learned from watching Meggy during the Splatfest."

"And he didn't cause any trouble?"

"Nope, he was quite friendly, but we were shocked when the Squid Sisters did their Turf War highlights broadcast and they recognized Senbo in an instant. You may not have heard, but his face was all over the Inkopolis news channels when you busted him and his girlfriend."

Just then, Cap'n Craig Cuttlefish stepped forward. "I recognized the feller the day he showed up in Inkopolis Plaza..." The elderly Inkling said, "Unlike almost everyone else in the city, I didn't forget the sight of him in the news and made sure he knew it. In fact, I even told him about your revised reprisal of Darkest Hour from the Grammy's."

"Least the kid didn't stir up some carp, amirite?" Alex quipped before sipping some coffee.

Saiko drank some coffee as she processed what she'd heard. Even as memories of her encounters with Senbo and the grief of Tari's supposed passing bristled their way through her mind, the pink-haired guitarist felt some relief that Senbo didn't cause any trouble around Inkopolis. And yet, she didn't expect to bump into him or Aibo again, not for a very long time anyway.

She thanked Frinj and his associate, San, and the captain for telling her, then she and Alex helped themselves to their drinks while they, Mario, Meggy, Shroomy, and Whimpu walked to the Squid Sisters' TV studio with Jeeves accompanying them. Getting inside the studio wasn't too much of a hassle, the group found the door and the Squid Sisters' agents let them inside.

It was rare for anyone other than the Squid Sisters or those close to them to go inside the studio, but Meggy had been in there a few times when she was an Inkling and she knew Callie quite well. In fact, they knew one another so much, they were practically BFFs.

Mario had been inside the studio before, during his first day in Inkopolis, right after he saw Callie and Marie's broadcast about the Turf War Tournament, the same one where Meggy failed to beat the Ink Brigade the following day. And the first time the Squid Sisters met Mario, they were weirded out by his behavior, but they eventually warmed up to him.

Of course, you had the Glitchy gang's efforts on Anime Island to thank for, along with the Splatsquad's massive history-making, mind-blowing Splatfest victory, even though Mario was still a silly trouble-making spaghetti-loving Italian goofball.

The group found Callie and her cousin Marie waiting in the studio, wearing their trademark costumes, sitting around that pink table, and accompanied by Off The Hook i.e. Pearl Houzuki and her Octoling associate Marina Ida, a former Octarian army engineer.

"Hi, guys." Callie said in a bubbly voice, almost channeling her inner Steve.

"Hiiiiii, Callie." Meggy quipped with a happy demeanor.

"Konichiwa." Saiko and Whimpu chimed in, speaking in Japanese.

"Mario's-a so happy to-a see your baby face again!" Mario piped up, gesturing to Pearl.

"Yo, who are ya callin' 'baby face'?!" Pearl shouted as her face flushed furiously.

Everyone else in the room started to laugh at Mario's nickname for the light-pink female Inkling rapper. It was no secret that Pearl's head was big and her face did remind some people of an infant's face. On the plus side, nobody had forgotten the sight of Mario knocking Pearl into a Salmonid-infested sewer after he and Meggy encountered Desti for the first time.

Luckily for Pearl, Marina and everyone else, she'd only suffered a few injuries, and Marina had just managed to rescue Pearl right after Mario headed into the Deep Sea Metro, although Pearl still had to undergo medical treatment following the incident.

It took some time to get over the whole buzz of Mario's "baby face" remark, but the gang managed to chill out and sat down together, making sure they got perfectly comfortable. Callie, Marie, Pearl, and Marina were fine with Alex's presence, even though the green-haired Inkling wasn't a member of Saiko's band.

Thankfully, neither of them made remarks about him being Saiko's boyfriend, which made the anime girl feel relieved. After hearing Mario and Meggy bring up his relationship with the handsome squid, Saiko would rather be around Alex without being hounded with notions of them dating.

At the moment, as far as everyone else was concerned, they were just friends, but she did find the Inkling to be handsome and he was a fan of Saiko. And yet, the two of them having coffee together felt refreshing in a special way. Saiko didn't want to admit it, but she and Alex may as well be having a date.

Saiko drank the rest of her coffee from her cup, Alex did the same, even the others sipped their coffee, while they casually talked with the Squid Sisters and Off The Hook, both of whom didn't mind the presence of the green-haired, tan-skinned Inkling boy in the studio.

"How long did it take for you to cover the news about Tari?" Saiko asked Pearl.

"We were out signing autographs for our fans..." Pearl told the anime girl, "Then we saw the Squid Sisters' broadcast and knew we had to cover it as well, most people in Inkopolis Square don't see Callie and Marie's broadcast. Until we heard that Tari wasn't, well, y'know... we were shocked."

"Did you think of attending the funeral, like you did with Desti?" Meggy asked Callie.

"Sorry, Meggy." The peppy Squid Sister remarked, "But we had our hands full with weather reports, Turf War highlights, and a week's worth of other news stories. Plus, we, well, hadn't known Tari for as long as you had. Not to mention, we didn't get the funeral notice, but some of the Inklings held a little service. A couple of blue Inklings actually called their own Turf War team 'Turf-Tari'."

"And when we received word that Tari wasn't dead, we were relieved..." Marie remarked, "...mostly because we wanted to see her again at some point. I'll say this, that Senbo kid was quite petty to pull that stunt, just because he wanted to play your guitar and you wouldn't let him."

"It could have been a lot worse or even weirder." Shroomy said warily.

"Well, thankfully, it didn't." Marina chimed in, "You busted Senbo and Aibo, and made them face justice. Let me tell you, we had Inkling reporters there, covering it extensively, and we discussed it in our broadcasts until the verdict was announced. Both me, Pearl, Callie, and Marie all hoped Senbo and Aibo would get the justice they deserved for their actions."

Meggy nodded. "Yup." She said, "No matter how hard you play the Karma Houdini card, anyone who behaves badly and causes trouble or bullies someone can't avoid the consequences."

"Speaking of trouble." Callie raised a hand, "We're concerned after hearing that you were attacked at the hotel by an unknown Inkling assassin not long after you guys arrived. Its even more alarming that Mario was attacked in the square just a short while ago. In all fairness, I'd suggest delaying the concert in the event of another attack, until the assassin is caught."

Just then, a chime went off and the group heard Mario's piper voice; "It's-a me, Mario. I'm-a going to fly for you."

Without warning, Mario ran over to the group, picked up Pearl and started running around the room with her in his hands. Pearl shrieked, all while Mario made airplane noises. A blue Inkling in a suit protested, telling Mario to cut it out, and that was when people noticed a red light on one of the cameras.

"CARP! HE'S DOING A BROADCAST!" Marie exclaimed.

"Mario, what are you doing?!" Marina protested.

"Buh-bye..." CLICK!

Mario ran back over to the table and put Pearl down. The fat Italian flashed a goofy grin and giggled, Meggy face-palmed, Jeeves was annoyed, and Alex was snickering as he snapped a picture of Mario next to Pearl. It was unbelievable, while everyone else had been talking, Mario had started messing with the equipment and did some wacky broadcast.

"How many people saw that?" Pearl asked as she rubbed her head.

"Dunno, but I just photographed Mario's antics and I'm sharing it on Twitter with some friends of mine." Alex said as he clicked away on his phone.

Marie pulled out her squid phone and looked at it, then her eyes widened and she remarked, "Wow! Mario's little game lasted 25 seconds, but it's already viral. It's gained a million views on Squid-Tube and there are people in the comments section laughing, some of them think it was fake. I see one comment saying 'Fly woomy fly'."

"What the heck were you trying to do, Mario?!" Meggy protested.

"HOW MUCH COFFEE DID YOU DRINK, YOU BUFFOON?!" Jeeves shouted.

Callie waved her hands in a calming manner. "Now, now..." She said, "Let's take it easy. But we should be careful, it could attract unwanted attention, especially trouble from those who are out for your heads. Hopefully, your situation can't get hairier than it already is."

"People try to lethally harm Mario all the time." Mario quipped, "I'm-a sure that it'll be alright. Are you okay, Pearl?"

Pearl groaned, then she slumped back in her chair, and seemingly fainted, sparking worry from Marina and Meggy. Saiko glared at Mario again, that crazy Italian knew how to get up to all sorts of mischief, and he'd caused some trouble in the city during previous visits.

But there was a chance his antics could have attracted the attention of the group's attackers...