Transparency

Chapter Twenty-Two

When the theme was good and the music was hopping, Mesonii loved the Splatfests. If she made any sorts of bonds with her teammates, it was here- she often stuck with her randomly jumbled group for a while if they played well and worked together.

As she strolled into Inkopolis Plaza, however, she noticed something was different about the atmosphere of the people, the fireworks, most likely everything around her and with everyone, too. A general bout of fear was hovering over like an infectious gas, the fallout from Squidforce's influence on the party.

All the inklings and jellies danced around to the music, normally, bobbing up and down and having a good time. None of that here yet. It was the early afternoon, though- people wouldn't be seriously getting into it until later, right?

Mesonii looked at Callie and Marie up on their performance trucks. They didn't seem affected at all, doing their moves and singing along to the beats from the speaker.

Uninterested, she looked around to the walls near the train station and saw a lone bench housing one user who looked almost as frightened as she was the first time she did battle at a certain camp. Sankra!

She couldn't bound over fast enough to go to the bench, as Sankra had already made a walking start and was soon enough close to her once again.

The formerly-red-but-now-mint inkling didn't put her initial focus on her friend, however. Using her Splat Charger as a pointer, she aimed it at Marie's truck. "Look, Mesonii. Look at Marie."

"It's just Marie. What about her?" Seeing that Sankra meant something beyond that perimeter, she regarded the white-haired Squid Sister as her pose cast in the light. And just that movement gave it away- the move was transparent and it was the light that created the image. "She's a hologram!?"

"Callie, too. It really stinks. I was looking forward to seeing them."

Mesonii fidgeted with her gun, empty of ink. "You like the Squid Sisters a lot?" She then glanced again at the holograms. Their moves went a little static as they repeated to the strut they cast at the beginning of the song before. "Where do you think they are now?"

"That guy- Mr. Cetacea, said on TV they were on 'other endeavors'. I hope he didn't fire them," Sankra moaned. Not knowing what to do, she stretched while thinking of her next response. "So, who's in the squad with us?"

Mesonii began to feel sick with fear. She forgot to tell her that in the phone call! There was no way she was going to throw her in like this, almost ready to go and not having any option to leave.

"Well, um. The thing is, Sankra... Our other guys are-"

"Hey! Mesonii! Ready to do battle?"

Perfectly timed but flagrantly unexplained, Delpha strutted with her Zink Mini Splatling in hand, with Peppie, Guppi, and their weapons trailing behind her. On the outside, Mesonii thought, the female inkling looked as if she was trying hard not to crack.

As she tried to hide her own fears, Mesonii outfitted a fake smile. "Delpha? Hey. I didn't expect you to be here this early."

"What's there to do, go have lunch?" It was almost as if she inherited her manner of jokes from her mother. "Who's your fr- Sankra?"

A short whine came from Sankra's throat, evidently from fear. How could Delpha recognize her?She cowered behind her friend and pretended not to exist. "I told Sankra maybe she could join us. Would you be fine with that?"

All of a sudden, Guppi brought himself into the conversation. "We do need a charger. Y'now, they are pretty fun to have."

With his response, Delpha considered it for a long while before that smug beam returned to her face. "Yeah, sure. I don't think it would be too bad, wouldn't it?"

-

This second bus to Kelp Dome was crowded, to keep it concise. People were certainly averting the awkwardness of the plaza to just turf, as things had changed once again and they simply wanted it to be back to normal. At least, that's what Mesonii thought.

Delpha and Guppi opted to take the first bus, as they were yearning more to get there early and save a spot in line than stay together. Yeah, hope they like getting smushed!

Mesonii noticed that her ponytailed friend was uneasy in her seat, hands clammy as they clutched onto her charger. "What's bothering you, Sankra?"

"D-Del-" she initially muttered, noticing that Peppie was eying her. "She's here! She called you that name and then she didn't listen after you tried to tell her how bad it felt! Doesn't that bother you?!"

Peppie let his thoughts out, too. "Yeah. Even though she was the one who brought herself into this, I know she isn't happy about it. At all."

"Maybe she's testing the waters," Mesonii objected. A gut feeling inside her lingered.

The youngest inkling scanned the area out the window, to the highway. The Dome was in sight, and the buildings here and there were progressively getting more agricultural-focused. He turned back around to present the response he formulated. "I wouldn't be so sure, Mesonii."

"She can't be that bad," the once-mint-always-mint inkling rebutted. Her cause was lost in their eyes, but she had to try.

He leaned back into the seat. "Guppi told me he told you that I was lying, right?"

"Yep. Why?"

"Because I think I am. Delpha's gonna do something, but I don't know what. It isn't good, though."

Sankra took her turn and attempted to drive away to something else. "The only thing we can really do now is wait and see what happens. Anyway, I've only played on Kelp Dome once. You guys?"

"There's a lot of grates and you can flank easy." Peppie looked out the window, and the bus halted to a stop. The three of them gripped onto their weaponry and prepared for a night they couldn't expect.