The pikmin in the red onion hung on tight as the onion rocked in the turbulent air. Those near the windows looked up, following the smoke trail up to where it met the fire spurting from the bottom of the strange onion. The red onion could go no higher, and the blue and yellow onions were stuck too, but the fire onion, with that strange creature who had help them grow so much, continued to climb. No pikmin had ever gone that high, not that they knew of. Some wondered if maybe he was going to the stars. Many thought it would be fitting if he could, as that creature had taken them many places they had never been, so it was only natural that, after leading them to their first ever win against that great big-mouthed monster he called the Emperor Bulblax and making their numbers grow so huge, that he be capable of going there.
Eventually the fire and smoke faded off into the distance, leaving the pikmin to wander to bed to sift through all their recent accomplishments. Through the night they dreamed of how they overcome one danger of their world after another, working with the others whom they had never met before, but whose onions had now joined theirs in the nightly flight. One pikmin was left leaning up against the window to continue staring at where the other craft had vanished.
I wonder if it knew? It thought.
True, every pikmin in the onion knew of everything that had ever been experienced by pikmin from that onion, down to the smallest memory and including the fire-onion creature's first moments on earth—in this dangerous world, you needed that knowledge from the second you were pulled from the ground just to survive—but they still were individual enough to know which memories were theirs, and this one was the first. The onion had spit this pikmin out in response to the creature's proximity, realizing there was something different about it and wanting to further the knowledge of its group mind after drifting alone for so long. It was this pikmin who first met eyes with that stranger and first heard the amazing call the stranger emitted. At the time, it had only been a leaf, but under the creature's guidance, it found nectar and was able to become a full-strength flower, eventually fighting against some of the nastiest creatures the group had encountered. It had thought all that was over when it got wrapped up in the Bulblax's tongue, but in the second before the monster swallowed it, it let off one more scratch along with its partners and the monster died, letting the pikmin free with only a few scrapes and a return to leaf form. Now, looking up at the sky, the pikmin couldn't help wondering if the creature knew that the pikmin that had been first out of the onion had been there the whole time, never missing a day, that it had been there for that amazing battle, and had been the one the creature patted on the head at the end, before they had taken off.
I wonder if it knew?
Dawn came found the red onion floating through dense fog. The spotter pikmin searched through the morning mist, as they had every morning, searching out the strange onion to see where the creature would lead them next. As the fog cleared they could see the blue and then the yellow onion, but the fourth was nowhere to be found. The onions waited, but after the horizon became visible, they were forced to face up to the fact that the creature wasn't there. One by one, the pikmin on board the onion faded to pink as the realization became part of the group. Now what were they going to do? The creature had given them motivation, a reason to take on the monsters that ruled the surface. Could they really continue on without him?
The pikmin from the night before was still leaning on the same window as it listened to the growing fear in the other pikmin's voices. It suddenly remembered something that only the onion had seen. The creature's onion had appeared as a glowing ball of fire falling from the sky, and the creature had scorch marks on it like a yellow pikmin that got too close to a fire. Also, no matter how much food they brought to the strange onion, it never created any more creatures. That's when it realized the creature belonged up there. This planet wasn't the creature's habitat, and it had been trying to leave this whole time. Which meant it probably wasn't coming back.
The pikmin looked up to see some of the other pikmin beginning to run around in circles like they had been dunked in water as this thought propagated. It thought back carefully.
What was that sound it made?
It tried a few exploratory whistles that came out sounding more like a sick blowhog than the strong whistle the creature had emitted. It got a few looks, but those who looked just were annoyed.
"What is that one up to?"
"I think it was up all night."
"Poor thing, it should have gone to bed."
The pikmin was annoyed: at least it wasn't running around in panic. Then one came out clear. The whole onion turned to look as the pikmin stood up. It didn't have much of a plan, but they couldn't just live life drifting through the air. It looked out the window and saw a clearing it had never seen before.