Sting
Chapter 1 Best of friends, kinda…
I wish I could be alone, from everybody, forever…
I was sitting down. Next to other colors. As usual… Not like I cared anymore. Although deep in my head I knew I still did. I knew I still wanted to run off. Or just punch someone in the face. Maybe they wouldn't notice my absence?
"Hey, Yena." I looked up. Reed, a red pikmin, was at the edge of the cliff. He was looking down at something.
"What is it now?" I got up, pushing aside some others. When I got to him he pointed.
"Over there. Green. Haven't seen something like that in awhile huh?" He said, pointing over at a distant spot. I looked where he was pointing. The tan ground suddenly stopped dead in its tracks at one point. And it turned green. A beautiful deep green. I stared at it with envy.
"Yeah, but that means more danger. And that means being closer together." He sighed.
"Yena, really. There's nothing wrong with being around your own kind." I ignored his words. The scorching heat beating down against me. Maybe we should…
"And there will be more food sources too." He added. I shook my head in disappointment over my own hopelessness of winning this argument.
"Fine, we'll head out..." I paused. "Tomorrow." He nodded.
"It's settled then." I sat down on the edge of the cliff. The wind was blowing over here, although there was no shade. The reds had no trouble here. Luckily for them they were immune to high temperatures. Unfortunately for me, along with the other yellows and blues, we felt like we might melt in a matter a seconds. I tried to think back to a time I was actually happy. But I didn't trace a single feeling like that.
"Yena, it's getting dark. We have to find shelter." I sighed. The stupid sun had to make all the rules. When it's up, we walk around in the heat. When it's down, we find shelter. The sun told us what to do. Like it was boss.
"Yena." I jumped up.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm going." I turned around and followed everyone as we walked over to the cave we found some time ago. Maybe the cave just appeared to annoy me. Because I would rather sleep outside. But no, I had to stay close to everyone. I would rather jump off the cliff than do this every day. The scorching heat. The bossy sun. The annoying, freaky, pikmin. Everything sucked. That included my life. We turned the corner and went inside the cave. The dark, unpleasant looking, creepy, cave. The one with the drops of water. Ugh. Only the blues seemed satisfied with it. The yellows, we had no business even being in this stupid sandy land. Everything seemed revolting. Not a single speck of happiness filled our heads. The only reason I decided to leave this place. We went to the very back where the cave thinned so we could only fit through. Maybe… But there was one species that could get through. The ones that made me shiver, even through the scorching heat. A single thought of them made me nervous.
Luckily, the cave was colder than outside in the smoldering heat. So it made the night a bit easier to sleep through. Although barely any of us could get to sleep anyways. After what happened… We got to the part of the cave that grew again. And we all shifted apart and layed down. Although I was never alone. Even at night. Reed always layed right next to me. Best friends forever… The thought of that saying made me mad. I wanted to be alone. For just once… But the world had certain distaste for that. So it kept us together… Forever.
"Good night Yena." Reed said quietly.
"Yeah, sure." I turned my back from him. But he was used to my doing this. I closed my eyes. And went to sleep soon after.
I was standing under our onion, doing my best to keep as far away from the others as possible. And then I heard it. Something that was going to change my life completely.
THUMP
I stood up and looked around.
Patter, patter
I had heard that noise before. The sound of those spotted bugs.
THUMP
My stem stiffened, as if it knew what it was, but it was keeping it a secret from me. My ears stood erect. And my claws formed to fists. My eyes scanned the area while my feet stood stiff. There was no sign of movement.
A small bark echoed through the air, which just made my body get stiffer. My ears twitched slightly. As if knowing where the sound was coming from.
YIP
I jumped. The sound came from somewhere close. But then…
GRR
My face paled. And my stem seemed to lose hope, as it went limp. My ears turned slightly toward where the noise was coming from.
Right behind me.
I turned my head. But immediately regretted it. A giant spotted monster stood there, fangs out. But it wasn't red and white. It was black and red. And its lips were wrinkled and coated in multi colors. One that made me the most nervous was the yellow. The color of a friend. Or… the same color as my own blood. I took a step away from it. My fists tightening. My claws cut at my own skin because of how tight my fists were. I ignored the pain though. For I would feel much more pain if I didn't get away. The beast knocked the onion to the side, as if it were just a meager, useless, object that had no meaning. I stared in horror at the onion, which was tumbling out of the way. It twirled its flower to keep from toppling over onto its side. The beast noticed my worried look and stopped, its fangs still bared. The little ones behind it eyed the bigger one with confusion. Then the beast did something I never expected them to be smart enough to do. It walked over to the onion and head butted it. When the yellows nearby heard some noise they ran over. But it was too late to help. The beast had already knocked the onion to its side. And there was a sudden feeling of pain. A pain I would never forget. The pain was physical, yet mental at the same time. The pain of something very important is lost. But it was not the end of it. The beast was pleased when it heard whimpers. So it raised one stubby, yet powerful foot up above the innocent onion. A brave yellow walked forward. His fist clenched.
"You wouldn't." He said, with a shaky, yet determined voice. The beast, though not understanding a single word the yellow said, slowly put its foot the onion. There was a shriek of terror. And then suddenly some more yellows appeared from the grass. They looked around at everything. Then their eyes set upon the onion. And they were suddenly overcome with fear.
A loud sound of metal being crushed could be heard. Though we didn't care about the noise. It wasn't the noise that made any difference. It was the knowing that our lives were going to end. Because of a monster. And the sheer pain. The pain we knew the onion was feeling. And the thoughts buzzing through our heads. The monster took a step away from the, now crushed, onion and towards us. Me, and the ones who were actually standing on their feet started to run. Though most had gone into a state of pure thought. Not caring at all about their death. Because they knew it was over. They knew we would die eventually anyways. And so they lay there, thinking their lives over. It was a state that was common when pikmin lost something so important. And I myself was not caring about anybody around at the moment, said thank you to the onion. For giving me life. For giving everyone life.
Everything went quiet. And the soft humming flickered before stopping completely. My feet ran faster. I had to get away from here. Before it found us.
I was shaken awake… Reed was staring at me worriedly.
"You all right?" I looked around; the light from the sun was barely shining. It was early morning.
"Yeah, I guess. It was that dream again." He shook his head.
"You need to forget about that, get on with your life. We might just find another group of yellows. Then you won't have to worry anymore." He whispered.
"It's not the same." He sighed.
"I bet you'll feel a bit better if we do." He whispered, looking around at the other pikmin.
"You have no idea what it's like to lose something that important." Tears welled up in my eyes… not again… He wiped them off.
"Oh really? You don't think losing a friend is bad?" I shook my head.
"Not as bad as what happened to me. I don't think things will ever get better again." He stared me in the eyes.
"Don't say that. It just makes me lose hope. You know that." I pushed him back.
"You need to lose hope. We have no hope." I hissed.
"Ugh, really, if you're gonna act like again I'm just gonna leave you alone." This happened before. My stubbornness. It always got in the way.
"Fine, I don't need you anyways." I wiped away the oncoming tears. He got up and walked to the opposite side of the cave, before he sat down, staring at me with annoyed eyes. I layed down on my face, so I couldn't see anything. And layed there until morning. Or, later in the morning I should say. And one of the blues shook me out of my trance.
"Hey, we've got to get going. I know you're upset and all, but let's go." The blues had their way of knowing the unexpected. It spooked me. How did they know so much? It's like they could read your mind sometimes.
"Yeah, sure, another horrible day." I said, though a bit muffled. I got up and followed everyone outside. Trying my best to not look at Reed, who was still eyeing me?
Outside was hotter than ever. The sun seemed be in a good mood, by the way it was shining, I would call it a bright mood. The heat seemed to be attacking everything. A lone bulborb was panting while walking along… How I wished to be alone, than I could make my own decisions.
"It's hot out here. I wish the sun would just stop shining for once, and then maybe we could actually have peace for once." I turned my head to see another yellow standing next to me.
"Yeah, it would be a perfect world, but what would be better is if we were alone." The yellow seemed confused.
"I wouldn't say that. Being with other pikmin makes me feeling… safer. Although after what happened… I don't think I'll ever feel safe." I nodded. Not about the part where he likes to be with others. The part where we would never feel the same again.
"Others just don't get it. They think we got it easy. We didn't. We got it tough. Tougher than tough." The yellow laughed a little.
"Yeah, they just don't know what it feels like to not have your mother." He said. I shrugged.
"Not like they care… Why did they even want to help us?" The yellow seemed lost in thought.
"I don't want to talk about that anymore. It makes my stomach spin." I looked ahead. The sunlight nearly blinding me. I hoped that today would end quickly. We made our way down the side of the cliff. Looking for a way down. And I saw it. Up ahead… A slope.
It was a good distance away. It would take about half of the day to get there. That was all right though. I really didn't mind wasting this day. This would make the day go faster… Or so I hoped.
About halfway there disaster struck. The ground exploded from beneath our feet. And we were all knocked back, nearly all the flowered pikmin lost their flowers. I looked around, ready for a fight.
Then I saw it. The bomb shooting monster, with an iron shield in the front, and two eyes poking out on its sides, staring at us as we scrambled to our feet. It had a blue fan-like tail that swayed side to side as it walked our way, making odd sounds as its legs moved. A pikmin to my left wasn't moving, or breathing. And I knew whoever it was had to be dead. A large spark was flying through the sky.
"RUN!" A blue screamed. And we all started to run as fast as we could from the flying thing. But it was coming down too fast. And we didn't have enough time to get away. We all went flying through the air, some flying off the cliff side. And then I saw Reed flying off the side. And I knew I had to do something.
I ran over and jumped off the side, not having a single clue what I was doing. And so I was soaring down with him. And we held hands, staring at the ground. That's when I realized my mistake. We were both going to die. I wasn't saving anyone. I looked around at the ground. Looking for something to land on.
A small little blob of red. It was moving, but I had no choice but to try to land on it. Because it was bigger than a pikmin. I had to take chances, risky enough, for my life. I eyed the blob, and positioned myself, and Reed, to land on the blob. As we got closer to the ground I could make out the blob.
It was a group of pikmin. Not just one, but a group. I had no time to move out of the way, and landed dead center on them.
A pikmin tumbled to the ground from the impact. And many others fell over as well. They helped a lot, there was just enough bounce to keep us from dying, and I landed lightly on my feet. Reed, however, landed flat on his face. I reached down to help him up. And then turned to face the shocked, yet curious, group of reds. A small change of color could be seen, and it caught my eye. A black pikmin was in the back, lying on the ground. He was shorter than a regular pikmin, and instead of a leaf, he had a ball. I stared at it. He got up quickly and looked around. Then two red pikmin turned their heads and looked over at him. The black pikmin backed away slowly. And the red pikmin quickly ran forward. But then I saw something I never expected. His ball thing started to glow; his eyes were wide, but with a hint of relief. Then he spun around and began to dash away faster than any pikmin I ever saw. The two reds stopped and turned their heads towards us. The one in the front sighed in frustration.
"So it's raining pikmin now?" I nervously looked up at the top of the cliff.
"Well, uh, you see, there is a monster up there," I pointed up at the top of the cliff. "And it blew us down here." I put my hand down.
"I see." The one in the front said, nodding. "But you let our, uh, captive get away, you see. He killed a few of my troops. And when we finally managed to get him well, you know." He said with a sigh.
"Oh, sorry, we just had to find somewhere to land, and you so happened to be the only place." He crossed his arms.
"Sure, I understand. But will you please move? We have an important matter on our hands." I looked down at the ground in thought.
"Do you need any help with this… errand?" I asked, surprising myself by how generous I was being. He smiled.
"Actually, you might just be able to help. Not a lot, but a small bit." I smiled.
"Thank you. This will make up for my, um, injuring one of your men." He looked over at one of the pikmin, lying on the ground. He wasn't dead, just lying there. The red pikmin in the front seemed like he was about to laugh, but kept a serious face.
"Actually, you have no idea what you're actually getting into. This is serious business. If you want to risk your life then go ahead." He said. I really had no idea what I was getting into. Even if it didn't involve risking your life, I still wouldn't have known what I was getting into. I thought I wanted to be alone. What was wrong with me? I wasn't myself… Did the blow from the beast hit my head? Still… I wanted to be alone, but my head was swirling, and it wanted me to help. I tried the best to ignore the fact I was going nuts.
"Could you move?" I quickly walked out o the way. Reed followed me with a confused face. I knew why he was probably confused. I wasn't acting like myself. Well, although the inching to the back and trying to keep as far from everyone as possible.
"What's your problem?" Reed asked.
"What do you mean?" He crossed his arms.
"Being… nice." I laughed.
"Um, I really don't know. Maybe it's a side effect?" He glared at me.
"Side effect? What do you mean?" I looked into the air.
"I think those clouds look a bit grey… Don't you?" He waved his hand in front of my face.
"Hey, you all right? You don't look right… You look… Funny..." I blinked.
"My head is spinning, it's not my fault." He nodded in understanding, but stopped shaking, only to have his face be replaced by skepticism.
"Spinning? What do you mean?" I shrugged.
"My head is… Weird, like something is asking me to come to them. And it makes me want to go that direction… It's too hard to describe." I said. He gulped.
"Uh, did you know that your color can sense things better than others?" I stared at him.
"No, does it make a difference about anything?" He stared at me worriedly.
"It makes a big difference. Do you have any idea what direction it's asking you to come?" I blinked. It was coming from the direction we were going.
"Who?" He stared at his feet.
"You know what. Which direction? It makes a huge difference." I looked ahead.
"It's coming from-
Suddenly we stopped. Reed and I both looked ahead. And then gulped. There it was… The mushroom... The one that many pikmin whispered in fear.
That's… who I was talking about." Reed said in a shaky voice. My head felt weird… It was spinning with faint voices. But of who? And what were they saying? I took a step back.
"And that… was also what was making you act weird…" Reed finished.
"Uh, why does this make any difference about my attitude?" He grabbed my arm.
"Because the air is filled with its… spores." I knew what he was talking about. This was the one… that did that thing…
"Why aren't we… you know what then?" I asked.
"Because it's not enough, but if we get anywhere under that thing… Let's just say it will have enough to do you know what." Something was trying to pry into my mind, killing one thought at a time, but it stopped at a point. Like it couldn't go any farther. Like it was too weak. Too puny, just like me.
I shook my head. No, I couldn't let it get into my mind again. I had to kill it. And then I could leave them and find somewhere… alone. But I just stood there. Waiting for something to happen.
And something did happen… The red in the front took a step forward. And the mushroom took two steps back. What a coward… It had the guts to do something many pikmin feared, but didn't have the guts to stand firm in its place. The red pikmin, seeming entertained by this, took two steps forward. The mushroom started to dash away, but it didn't take long at all before the mushroom tripped and rolled over onto its head.
"NOW!" He screamed. And all the red pikmin (not including Reed) ran forward, and then jumped up on it. I hesitated for a second, gathering my courage, and ran forward as well. Reed followed close behind.
It felt awkward when I grabbed onto it. Like I shouldn't be doing this. But I was doing it anyways. What my inner instincts wanted me to. Because they told me to…
My personal feelings however were being ignored. I wanted to run away and hide. The knowing someone could get… changed. I wanted to have just left. Not asked to help… But Reed said that wasn't my fault. What if it was? What if I was just nuts? If I was losing my mind.
Suddenly I was shaken off, not landing far away, and looked up at the structure of the mushroom, as it stood there. Maybe it wasn't such a coward… Maybe it wasn't at all. Maybe it was. It confused me to think about this. And didn't notice when I was being pulled away.
"Yena! Get up and run! Listen for god's sake!" I was pulled away from my thoughts. I quickly got up and looked over at the mushroom, which towered above us. Standing boldly and proudly. It curled up its mushroom top and held it like that for just a second. And finally released a large purple smoke. It drifted closer and closer. I started to run. He looked at me worriedly.
"We've got to get out of here. Who cares about them?" He said.
"No." I put my hand over my mouth and nodded. He grinned.
"Alrighty." We started away from them, but suddenly we were knocked backwards. A… explosion?
"Hold on… Is that thing following us?" Reed asked, pointing up at the beast. The one that got us down here in the first place. I held up a fist.
"When I get done with that stupid thing… it'll wish it had never even seen us." I said, shaking my fist at it. Reed sighed.
"We can't even get up there. Unless we keep going all the way to the slope. But that's pretty far away now. It would at least require all night if we don't stop." I hadn't even noticed what time of day it was. But it was dark, and it made me a bit nervous.
"Let's turn around." He stared at me like I was a moron.
"That thing's back there." Suddenly a bright light shot through the air. We rolled out of the way as it hit the ground, dirt flew into my eyes.
"Can I ever find any peace?" Reed shook his head.
"One day, but for now. Let's put that question aside." Another light shot through the air, but we were already scrambling to our feet and running. Where were we running you ask? We were running the direction of the mushroom. Because we weren't thinking at the moment. We were just running. In the direction… that we just so happened to be running in. But then we stopped soon. And knew one thing… Running this direction… was a pretty bad idea.
The two monsters were ready for their moment. The one on the cliff… It had its cannon out. But it wasn't firing yet. The other monster… It had its mushroom top curled up. The reds that had been battling it were backing up. Ready to retreat. Other bodies layed on the ground, dead. Some were not red. But a purple color, with a single mushroom topped on their heads. Body parts were inching forward… An arm grabbed one of the red pikmin's legs. It tried to jerk him to the ground, but, it wasn't strong enough, all it did was make the red start kicking and yelling. A leg twitched on the ground… I couldn't help but be creeped out by this… When a pikmin is still moving, even when it is supposed to be dead, you know that this has someone making it do that… I didn't see the red pikmin I had talked to earlier in their group. And the survivors were shaking with fright. Reed had my arm grabbed and he took a step back…
It was a horrible mistake. The cannon monster from up above shot out a bright light. And I knew what their plan was. Reed had let go of my arm in desperation, and began to run. But I stood there, in a state of shock. And it hit me. Well, not directly on me, just behind me. Although that sent me flying forward. Right underneath the other beast. And purple smoke flew down and covered my body. And everything began to tingle and my body began to shake violently. Then everything began to fade…
Something… Or… Things… entered my head and began to dig themselves in my mind. The pain was unbearable. I searched franticly for something, or someone, to help me in the fog. But I couldn't see anything, and searching hurt my head… My eyes stung, and I gripped at the ground below and screamed out in agony… This was never expected, never… I wanted to hurl all this anger at the monster… But, I couldn't… Not when…
Not when…
Not when I was surly lucky to be changed… Because life before sucked, and now everything was gonna be okay, right? I was gonna have a happy life… And everything was just perfect… I should be glad to be like this…
So, I should just close my eyes, and let my mind wonder… And then… everything will be… okay…
Alright, I can already tell this story is gonna be lame… GRR!