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Chapter 8
Alph was falling.
He could feel the rush of air, and see the rapid movement of the leaves and sticks, but it hardly registered. There was also a faint pulsing sensation in his head, likely caused by the explosion.
Suddenly he hit something. A pool of water. He lay submerged for a moment; then the air in his helmet carried him up again.
He blinked, still processing everything, when the S.S. Drake went flying over him, smoke gushing from its sides, and crashed somewhere, shaking the earth.
"I-I'm alive," he said quietly, just as reality hit him like a car.
He jolted upright and thrashed out of the water, shaking himself to get it off his suit, and stood up, breathing heavily. He'd made it to PNF-404 - but at what cost? The Drake was clearly in poor shape, and he couldn't see Charlie or Brittany anywhere. Were they...
*No! If I survived, surely they did as well...* Trembling, he analyzed his surroundings. He was in a muddy, leafy place, with plants taller than him and a tiny red creature just in front of him-
*Wait!* His gaze whipped back to the red thing, which made a 'huh?' sound, tilting its head at him curiously. Alph yelped and jumped backwards, alarming the alien life-form and sending it scurrying away.
He felt bad. "Hey! Come back! I didn't mean to scare you-AAAAAAA!" he cried, stumbling over a ledge. He dusted himself off and tried to climb the tiny cliff. It was no use - the ledge was just high enough to prevent him from going back to his crash site.
Grumbling about the inconvenience, Alph continued through the path the strange thing had taken, hoping that he could at least find help. The trail led to an open clearing, where the red creature, along with two others of its kind, stared up at an even larger red bulb, which sputtered and vibrated, stuck in a branch. The plant people jumped up to try and reach it, but to no avail.
He felt a pang of sympathy. Being unusually small for a Koppaite, Alph had had plenty of height-related problems - limits on amusement park rides, assumptions that he was a child, and stacking dishes on high-up shelves. And it seemed these three were having similar troubles.
"Uh, hey," he said, walking forward. They turned and stared at them, which was mildly unnerving, but not enough to stop him. "Okay. It looks like you're having trouble, huh? Well, as a short person myself, I can say I've gone through stuff like this before, and I want to help. Shall we get down that red thing together?"
This excited the small creatures. They rushed towards him, eager to participate in his offer. Now that they were so close, he could see some slight differences - one was a darker shade than the other, and the third had a shorter nose.
"Alright. You and you, get on top of my hands, and you, stack yourself up on top of them. Y'all got that?"
They nodded, chirping excitedly. Alph bent down and held out his hands for the brighter and short-nosed ones to climb up, then waited for the darker one to scale its buddies. Eventually, after a few stumbles, the highest one finally got a grip on the strange bulb. Him and the other 2 pulled back, until it finally came loose, landing with a paff in the soft dirt.
"Alright! Yeah!" he whooped as the three creatures surrounded their treasure, trying to push it in one direction. Suddenly, they froze, fixated on something else, eyes wide with fear.
A fourth of their kind was approaching. It was a bit taller, with a nasty scar on its side and eyes burning with hostility. It squeaked angrily at the ones surrounding the bulb, who looked away, guilty.
Then it turned to Alph and kicked him. Hard. On the kneecap.
"Ow!" he yelped, falling back on his rear and rubbing his knee. He stood up, faced the defiant creature, and picked it up by the stem, alarming it. "You're not being very nice right now, mister," he snapped, pointing at it. "I'm just going to hold you like this until-"
A victorious cry, and a loud whirring. Alph turned and watched as the red bulb flew up in the air and extended three long yellow arms from its body, resting them on the ground. In his excitement, he dropped the aggressive red leaf creature and joined the friendly trio, staring at the large bulb with wonder in his eyes.
"What is this?" he asked the brighter one, amazed. It just chirped something in its own language, while the one with the shorter nose began vocalizing frantically, pointing at something just across a deep trench...
*My KopPad!* Alph could recognize his planet's technology from anywhere. He ran towards it, only to fall down from an incomplete bridge. The scarred Pikmin laughed as he landed face-first in the soft dirt.
The ledge was rather conveniently unclimbable. He groaned and stomped back up, but something caught his eye - a pile of earth-brown fragments, identical in color and shape to the ones on the unfinished bridge. *Maybe...* He picked one up, careful not to cut anything on the sharp edges, and placed it on the end of his side. It clicked neatly into place.
"Hey, little guys!" he called. "Come help me with this bridge!"
The scarred one rolled its eyes, but saw the other three heading towards the pile of bridge pieces and groaned, joining them. Within minutes, they'd finished it.
Alph ran across, picked up his KopPad, and hugged it to his chest. His mind drifted back to the Drake. "Maybe I can find it with - AHA!" It was emitting a signal not too far from his location.
He turned back to the small creatures. "Come on, little guys! Let's go!"
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They'd run into a problem.
A giant brown square stood in front of them, its form immovable and imposing. The bright and dark red creatures pushed against it, while the small-nosed one stared up at Alph, and the large one watched judgmentally from a distance.
Alph had tried pushing it himself. He'd tried teaming up with his new friends. He'd tried climbing it. He'd even tried talking to it, for some reason.
The red things squeaked with fear. He turned and saw a group of tiny violet grubs digging their way up from the earth, snapping at the little guys, who ran around.
*Those pincers...* The weird insect's mandibles didn't look the strongest, but perhaps...
He grabbed one and picked it up. It writhed and struggled, but miraculously, Alph kept a firm grip on it. He turned around, pointed it at the brown square, and watched.
The grub eventually bit down on the obstacle, and soon, it had chewed right through. He cheered and patted the creature, which was disappearing underground again, when a yellow glimmer from the brown cube caught his eye.
A data file lay in the now-opened cube. He climbed through the hole and scanned it.
Pikminology #1
The Onion is like a nest for the Pikmin. It both gives birth to them and provides them with shelter.
"The Onion," he mused, thinking back to the red bulb. It did look a lot like the thing shown in the data file. And Pikmin... Were those the creatures that had been following him? Sure enough, a red being just like his companions could be seen as well. "Pikmin, huh... Is that what you guys are?" he asked his companions. As if confirming his idea, they sang something that sounded a bit like "Piiiik-meeen".
He chuckled. "Well, now I know what to call you little guys. But I guess I'll give you all names, because you're my friends. You'll be named Berry." The brighter Pikmin squeaked happily. "You look like a Daryl." The darker red Pikmin put its hands on its sides, proud. "I think I'll call you Thorn." The small-nosed Pikmin nodded. "And you're... Flame." The scarred Pikmin glared at him a little less intently.
"Well, looks like the Drake's just up ahead! Let's go!" Excited to find the ship, Alph and his Pikmin continued their journey.
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Finally, they'd reached the Drake. Alph could see it on the KopPad's map, just a little bit away from his location. Flame, Berry, Daryl, and Thorn followed him, humming a strange song.
*There it is!* Just around the corner stood the Drake, sunset light gleaming on its smooth white surface. He ran forward and hugged its leg, overjoyed about finding it, when his KopPad began ringing. He opened the call to see a frantic Brittany.
"Alph? You there?" she asked, nervous, before sighing in relief. "Oh, great! And you've made it to the ship?"
"Yep!" He put a hand against it. "Just got here. How are you holding up?"
She groaned, crossing her arms. "Not well. I landed right in the middle of this weird structure, and there's no getting out for me. Other than that, though, I don't think I broke anything. Get here quickly, though! I'm-"
The video cut off, and a strange beast made a gurgling growl. Alph jumped and sighed. It was getting late. "Well, guys, looks like I have to go." The Pikmin tilted their heads and he turned and teleported into the center of the S.S. Drake.
Luckily for him, it was almost undamaged, and the weird glitch seemed to have gone away. He carefully prepared for launch and lifted off, hovering above the planet's stratosphere.
As he stared somberly out the window, a flash of red caught his attention. The Onion had flew up to join him, hovering around the ship like a planet in orbit. He smiled and looked back down at PNF-404, hope surging through him.
*Tomorrow is going to be a great day.*
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This is such a big chapter. I'm so sorry. I wanted to stuff the whole first day into one chapter. I hope it's still readable :.)
