Annie Cuts Loose

Author's Note: I do not own Splatoon or its characters, they all belong to Nintendo. The only character I own is my OC. Also this is my first fanfic. Leave comments on what you think. P.S. this is set post-game

Chapter 1

Asking Annie

It was a relatively calm and early Saturday morning in Inkopolis. The city was far from as bustling as it usually is. Even the Booyah Base was almost empty save for the one or two Inklings hanging out and a few Octolings. Just now, the train had pulled into the Booyah Base station and a single fiery-orange haired Inkling stepped off. This Inkling's name was Mark, though most of his friends called him Squirt. He was dressed in a blue sweater and black shorts, and he also had a pair of aviator goggles perched on his head. He was looking a bit tired as he walked across the mostly empty Booyah Base crosswalk, until he bumped into someone.

"Oh, sorry," Mark apologized, shortly before realizing who he bumped into, it was Callie Cuttlefish, one of the Squid Sisters.

"Oh, hey Squirt," Callie greeted before high-fiving Mark. "So what are you up to?" Callie asked. Mark blushed and said, "Oh I was gonna-."

"You're planning on trying to ask Annie out to the party at DJ Angel Fish's tonight, aren't you?" Callie asked as she crossed her arms and smirked.

"Yes," Mark answered, his face growing pinker. "Speaking of plans, do you and Ninko have anything planned today?" Mark asked.

"Yeah, later on this afternoon, he and I are gonna go see a Turf Wars movie down at the theater, then tonight we're gonna head down to Angel Fish's for the party," Callie answered.

"Huh, I did not have you pegged as someone who took interest in the Turf Wars saga. Which one is it?" Mark asked.

"Episode 4: A New Ink," Callie answered.

"Cool," Mark answered. "Well, I'd better run, I need to go wake up Marie before news time," Callie said.

"Marie fell asleep in the studio after Splatfest again, didn't she?" Mark asked while trying hard not to laugh, trying being the keyword. Callie nodded in response, and with that, she started walking toward the studio.

"Stay fresh, Squirt," Callie said.

"Don't I always?" Mark asked with a chuckle. He turned on his heel and began walking toward the Cooler Heads headgear shop. He peeked into the shop to spot Annie, who was looking a bit tired herself and was currently opening up shop. Thankfully for Mark, Moe was not swimming about in Annie's anemone hair, as Moe was not really much of friendly guy. Annie usually put Moe in a fishbowl before she went to bed. Mark could only assume Moe had not woken up yet.

"Hey Annie," Mark said as he walked in.

"Oh, uh, hi…..morning, Mark," greeted the shy shopkeeper that was Annie. Mark's face was slowly starting to go pink again.

"Hey Annie, I was wondering, I mean since the party at Angel Fish's is tonight, would you perhaps like to…you know, go with me?" Mark asked Annie, his face growing pinker with each word. Annie felt the heat rise in her cheeks.

"Oh, um…sure, I would…really like to," Annie answered shyly while fiddling with the bangs of her anemone hair.

"Cool, I'll see ya tonight, Annie," Mark said with smile.

"I'm…looking forward…to it," Annie replied, blushing even more.

"Meet me at the train station at around 6," Mark said before taking his leave. Annie gave a nod before resuming opening up shop. Mark was doing a brief victory dance over by the Miiverse mailbox.

"Nailed it!" he quietly exclaimed.

"Hey, Squirt," said a voice behind him, startling him. Mark turned to see that he had been startled by his friend Ninko.

"Oh, hey man," Mark said, greeting his friend.

"I got some big plans tonight," Ninko said with a smirk.

"You mean your hot date with Callie?" Mark asked.

"How'd you know?" Ninko asked raising an eyebrow.

"Callie told me. I ran into her on the way to Cooler Heads," Mark answered.

"Oh. Speaking of Cooler Heads, didja ask Annie out to Angel's party yet?" Ninko asked.

"Yep, and she said yes, oh and speaking of Angel's party, I hope Mike doesn't order the algae soda again after what happened last time," Mark said.

Ninko laughed and said, "Yeah, I had never seen Marie laugh so hard before, all because of Mike's 'Great Squidholio' impression."

"Yeah that was hilarious and ridiculous at the same time," Mark said.

"That stupid Fawful voice you do isn't much better, Squirt," Ninko laughed.

"'I have fury!'" Mark said while pulling his best Fawful impression and mock angry face he could muster.

"I rest my case," Ninko said. Mark retorted with a light slug to Ninko's arm. "And I can certainly do the impression better than you," Ninko added. Mark was about say something until- "Narwhals, Narwhals. Swimmin' in the ocean, causing a commotion, 'cause they are so awesome!" The narwhals tune rang out from within Mark's left pocket. Mark reached into his pocket and pulled out his ringing InkPhone.

"You seriously chose the Narwhal Song as your ringtone?" Ninko said while trying to force back a laugh. Mark ignored him and answered his phone. It was Mike.

"Hey, Mark," Mike said. "Hey, dude, where are you?" Mark asked.

"Down at the Arowana District train station, waiting for the next train," Mike replied over the phone.

"Squirt asked Annie out to Angel's party," Ninko said loud enough for Mike to hear over the phone.

"Really?" Mike asked.

"Yep," Mark replied while smirking.

"Huh, looks like Marie won her bet, then," Mike said.

Mark pulled a mock hurt tone. "You bet against me asking the girl of my dreams out? Some friend you are," he said with the mock hurt tone.

"I didn't think you would actually go for it, dude," Mike replied.

"I'm just teasin' ya, I'm not hurt," Mark said as he and Ninko burst out laughing. "So are you taking Marie to the party?" Mark asked.

"Yep," Mike answered.

"Looks like it's gonna be a triple date at the party," Mark said as he switched his InkPhone to speaker mode.

"I can't wait for the party. We're gonna party till we're purple!" Ninko exclaimed with a fist pump.

"Provided Mike doesn't go nuts on the algae soda again," Mark muttered to Ninko while covering the speaker end of his phone. Mark then removed his hand from the speaker only to hear a loud sound ring out from the background.

"Train's here. I gotta go. I'll meet you guys at the Booyah Base in a few," Mike said.

"Ok, see ya then, dude," Mark replied before Mike hung up. Now all they needed to do was wait. To try to pass the time, Mark started playing a game called "Swimmy Fish" on his InkPhone. Ninko did the same, except he was playing "Angry Squids". It wasn't long before the news started to play on the large screen above the Squid Sisters' studio. Mark looked up from his phone and he and Ninko both looked up at the screen. Callie and Marie both appeared onscreen, but Mark couldn't help but notice that Marie looked more tired than usual.

"Hold on to your tentacles…," Callie began.

"It's Inkopolis News time!" Marie exclaimed, looking less enthusiastic than Callie as usual. "Now let's unveil the current regular battle stages!" Callie began.

"Alright!" Marie exclaimed, still sounding deadbeat tired. A screenshot of the Arowana Mall appeared onscreen.

"First up is the Arowana Mall, speaking of which, I heard this place got some new outfits," Callie said.

"Which reminds me: don't window-shop during battl-." Marie didn't get to finish due to face-planting on the floor and falling asleep. You could actually hear her snoring. Every Inkling and Octoling who was watching burst out laughing. Callie quickly rushed over and attempted to wake her sister, but to no avail. While looking panicked, Callie faced forward and rapidly made a slashing motion across her neck with her hand, most likely signaling the cameraman to go to commercial. With that, the image of an Inkman (adult male Inkling) attempting to repair a filming camera that was splattered with ink captioned, "INKOPOLIS NEWS IS EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES PLEASE STAND BY" appeared onscreen. Mark and Ninko were busting their guts laughing from seeing the broadcast. Ninko couldn't help but feel bad for Callie, though.

"Mike's gonna be psyched to hear this," Mark said while wiping a tear from his eyes and trying to catch his breath.

"I do feel sorry for Callie. She must be embarrassed from that. I wish I could have helped," Ninko said.

"You can tell her that at the party," Mark responded. It wasn't long before the next train pulled into the Booyah Base train station. Mike, a dark-blue haired Inkling, soon came walking out the station doors and over to his two friends.

"You just missed the best thing ever," Mark said to Mike.

"What happened?" Mike asked.

"Marie passed out during Inkopolis News," Ninko said while laughing. Mike couldn't help but laugh at this piece of news. After the laughter died down, the three friends began to chat and it wasn't long before more Octolings and Inklings gathered and hung out throughout the Booyah Base.

"You guys wanna go do some turf war battles?" Ninko asked. Mike and Mark nodded. With that, the three friends drew their ink weapons and headed into the turf war building under Inkopolis Tower.

Author's Note: I'm going to be uploading this one chapter at a time; the next chapter will take place when the friends and their dates are on the train and heading to the party. Please leave suggestions for conversations between the Inklings in the comments, since I'm running my ideas dry.