Cave Story---Surface Story
Chapter 1---Crash Site
Quote woke up. He was lying face first in a grassy plain, or what was left of it. Quote looked around slowly. Most of the plain was replaced by a large, no, humungous crater. Quote could see the Balcony, where he fought the Doctor on the Floating Island, before it fell out of the sky, just sticking out of the hole. It's that big, he thought to himself. Quote could barely take in what he was seeing. The whole island, smashed into the ground. Ground. The Surface. He slowly walked over to the edge of the crater. In it he could see a distant cave, way at the bottom, one that led into the island. He began to make his way down to the opening. I hope Curly and the others are OK, he thought with a shiver. On a cliff, just metres below him, he saw a small white rabbit, lying still. He was wearing a blue top that was torn in many places, and there were patches of red on his white fur. He didn't look very good. Mimiga, Quote recollected. He made his way down to the Mimiga, who groaned and looked up.
"Hey, you're that robot that rescued us from the Doctor," he said weakly. Quote picked him up and put him over his shoulder, and continued down the crater. The Mimiga didn't complain. Quote got to the opening, and it was really dark, but fortunately he could see. He walked forward uncretainly.
"You're not actually going in there, are you?" the Mimiga asked with a groan. Quote simply looked at him. Let me remind you that I did kill the Doctor, Quote thought. The message seemed to get across to the Mimiga, who had begun to say something, but he stopped. Quote sighed inwardly and walked into the cave.
Inside, Quote could see how much damage had been done when the Island crashed. There were so many large rocks on the ground that avoiding them was almost impossible. Quote weaved through the rocks and came across a pack of Critters. Damn, I don't have a gun, Quote thought desperatley, before quickly moving out of the way of some of the Critters as they flew over his head and tried to crush him. He ran as fast as he could, the Mimiga weighing him down. Soon enough, the Critters stopped chasing him and retuned to their hole. Quote looked around. This cave looked... familiar? He kept going, and came to an open door. He peeked inside. He could see an old man lying on the ground, sourrounded by bats. Quote leaned the Mimiga against a wall and rushed towards the bats. He punched and kicked at them, and they fled, flapping through the door, shrieking thier disapproval. The old man looked up at Quote in thanks, which then turned into a look of recognition, then surprise, then anger, then releif.
"Hey you, ain't you the one who came barging in here and stole my Polar Star a few months back?" he asked accusingly.
Quote nodded.
"Well lookie here, you ain't gettin' another one if thats what yo' here fo'. Speakin o' which, you don' happen to have the Spur I gave you, do you?" he asked slowly. Quote shook his head.
"Dang it, the only thing I have left is this Polar Star, but its broken." He handed it to Quote. There was an electrical sound and Quote looked at the familiar gun that he had grown so acustomed to so long ago. Hermit Gunsmith understood.
" You have one mighty special gun there mister. And to think that I made it. Looks like it'll work only fo' you boy."
"Ummm, not to annoy you or anything, but I am lying against a wall, really sore and hungry?" the Mimiga moaned from the floor.
"And just who are you sonny?" Hermit Gunsmith asked, slightly annoyed.
"Well," he said slowly, " the names Ricky. Most people call me Rick." Rick said painfully.
"Well, "Rick", you and yo' attitude can git from this here house, you see?" Gunsmith said. Quote looked at him.
"OK OK, I'll look after him, but he better not give me any trouble ya hear?" Gunsmith asked. Quote nodded.
"Also, found this in the rubble. Looks stuffed. Maybe you can find a better use for it." He handed Quote a Map System. Quote turned it on, but he only got static. He turned it off again, and put it in his pocket.
Chapter 2--- Learning Where You Are
He walked out of Hermit Gunsmith's "house", dodged some rocks, and shot some critters, whom exploded in puffs of smoke, and left behind glowing triangles, which Quote the inserted into a slot in his gun. A metre flashed and showed the guns current energy capacity. Almost full, Quote registered. Good. He traversed past some more rocks, and encountered the bats he had scared off earlier, fortunately, they flew off. Quote passed a couple of star rocks he couldn't resist shooting at. They crumbled into tiny peices, and he stooped down to pick one up and pocketed it. He looked up, and saw a door. Actually no, a door frame, the door lay some ten metres to the right, and in two peices. Quote wondered what caused it. He cautiosly stepped through.
Almost instantly, he recognised where he was. He was in the Mimiga Village, and almost nothing had happened during the crash, it looked normal. He took one step and something hurtled out at him.
"Quote! You're okay!" someone yelled. Quote looke up too see Curly. He smiled happily, and Curly returned it. She looked slightly different, although Quote couldn't figure out what. Then he realized she had cut her hair. Curly saw him looking at it and said, "Looks good, don't you think?" Quote nodded.
"Come on, I've got to get you back to the others." Curly lead Quote to the meeting hall, and he looked around at all of his old friends. Curly began to explain what happened.
"When you defeated the Doctor, and the island began to fall, I gathered up the Mimigas you rescued and brought them here. Jenka, along with Kazuma, Sue, Itoh, Momorin and Booster, also came." "Unfortunately, Kazuma didn't catch you in time and you fell to the surface. We thought we'd never see you again. But here you are, barely a scratch!" "Jenka used her magic to hold this part of the Island together, while the rest of it fell apart. We all waited, and when the island hit the Surface, we tried to look for you, but all the ways were blocked. So we waited in here."
Quote looked around again, no injuries, no tears, no sadness. everyone was happy to see him again and for that, he was happy too. Booster came up to him.
"Looks like my Booster V 2.0 needs work. I'll leave you with the Booster 0.8, no doubt you'll be able to find a use for it."
Quote took the Booster from him and put it on his back.
"I've also modified it so that any energy crystals you find, you can use them to increase the flight time."
"Cool! Where can I get one of those?" Curly asked.
"Sorry Curly, I only have one." Booster said.
"Alright you guys, we're running low on food, somehow, it just keeps dissapearing." Momorin said. Quote saw Mahin in a corner with his back turned to the rest of them. "We need you guys to go to the graveyard and get us some Pignons. Be careful though. Scouts have reported increased actvity outside the Village."
"We're going to be a-okay!" Curly excliamed, and proceeded out into the village. Quote followed.
Chapter 3---Glance
On the way there, Quote picked some flowers for Curly.
"Aww, thats sweet of you Quote," Curly said, blushing somewhat. Quote nodded. Curly put them in her hair. They found a door. A crooked sign next to it read: Graveyard. Curly tried to push the door open, but it wouldn't budge. Quote joined in and eventually the door began to move with a deep grating sound. They walked through the door and were greeted by a scene of carnage. Here and there, they could see the odd gravestone, sometimes crushed by fallen rocks. There were a lot of Pignons around. Curly kicked them until they stopped moving, and Quote shot them. They put them in Quote's backpack, and continued. Eventually, they found a Giant Pignon. Qoute and Curly dodged around it and Curly hit it and Quote fired. Soon, it was immobile.
"We're going to have to carry this one," Curly moaned. They continued, and came across Arthur's grave, and Toroko's next to it. Quote felt a pang of guilt. He was the one who killed her, when the Doctor had Balrog stuff her full of Red Flowers and she turned into a monster.
They had some writing on them:
On Arthur's grave:
Here Sleeps The Noble Arthur,
True Hero To The Mimigas.
On Toroko's grave:
Here Lies Toroko, Arthur's Sister,
Who Was Loyal To Our People.
Curly looked sadly at the graves. She put down the Giant Pignon, and took the flowers out of her hair.
"The war took so many lives,"She said sadly. She laid some flowers over Toroko's grave and then some over Arthur's. Suddenly, the ground over Arthur's grave began to crumble, and Curly fell in.
"Ahhhh!" She screamed. When the dust cleared, Quote saw her sitting next to a skeleton with it's hands over it's chest. Curly got up.
"I'm okay." Then she turned and saw the skeleton. She screamed again, then got a grip on herself.
"This place is scary," she said. Quote saw something held in the skeleton's hand. He pointed at it. Curly looked, it was some kind of cube, about as big as the Map System, and it looked very old. Quote loked at Curly, then at the cube.
"What? No, I'm not taking that! It would be theft! And it's just gross..." Quote kept staring. "Okay then, I will." She reached for the cube.
"Eww..." she said, while prying the cube from the skeleton's hands. When she pulled it out, Quote held out his hand and helped pull her out of the hole. When he did, he went and put more dirt back into the hole, re-burying Arthur. Curly picked up the Pignon and they walked back to the exit. Something moved above them. Quote looked quickly. It looked like someone was up there. Quote nudged Curly, and pointed, but whoever it was was gone.
"What?" Curly asked. Quote shook his head. They kept going and left.
Chapter 4---Magic
When they got back, they found Kazuma chasing Mahin around the room. Mahin was holding a sandwhich, and Kazuma was chasing after him, shouting "Give me back my sandwhich!" Quote smiled. Next to him, Curly began to laugh. Practically everyone else was laughing at them too, ecxept Momorin and Booster, who sighed. Quote stuck out his foot and triped Mahin, who stuffed the sandwhich into his mouth at the same time. He fell over and Kazuma ran into him and tripped up as well. Everyone was laughing so hard they were wheezing. Even Booster chuckled a bit. Curly dropped the Giant Pignon in front of Mahin and said "There's plenty of food here Mahin."
"Gimme, gimme!" Mahin said.
"Not until you work off 100 sandwhiches!" said Kazuma loudly.
Later, when everyone had calmed down, Curly showed Jenka the cube.
"We found this in the Graveyard. We don't know what it is, but I think you might." Jenka thought for a moment.
"Ahh, yes. A Puzzle Cube. They are used to hide rare and valuble things, and they do it well. Such well crafted Puzzles as this are almost as rare as the contents they carry."
"Well, could you open it?" Curly asked, slightly impatently.
"One of the many great things about magic is that you can use it for almost everything. There are almost limitless possibilities and I'm sure that this Puzzle can be opened easily. Nope, can't open it."
"What? Why not?" Itoh butted in.
"Because, it is impervious to magic." Jenka explained. "Whoever made this is clever indeed. It is most likely that only two people know how to open it, the creator, and the person it was made for. I will hold on to it, and try my best to find out what it contains. Until then, you're going to have to wait."
"Cool, I wonder whats inside it?" Curly said to herself. Quote nodded and smiled. He then walked over to Booster and pulled out the Map System. Booster took it from him and said, "It's broken? Oh dear, first, you're going to need a new battery. Second, it's going to need reconfiguring, because the shape of the Island has changed. I will be able to fix it and maybe make some modifications so you can input data, and use it on the Surface." Quote nodded. "Take Curly with you to Grasstown, I beleive the teleporter is still working, and find Malco. He should have some batteries in the Power Room. While you are there, try to see if there are any Mimigas still there, and bring them back., Okay?" Quote nodded and turned to Curly. He beckoned for her to follow. They walked over to Arthur's house, and opened the door. Inside, it was gloomy. Quote found the lightswitch, and turned on the lights. Curly gasped at what they saw. Almost the entire room was covered in moss and lichen. The teleporter, although operational, looked as though it had been there for years. The computer screen read:
Connected to Grasstown
"Great, we should get going," Curly said. She hopped into the teleporter and faded away in a blue light. Quote jumped up too. Blue lights flashed in his vision, and then he found himself in Grasstown, Curly in front of him.
Chapter 5---Grass Stains
They walked up the stairs and were almost immediatly assaulted by Critters, of the Power variety. They began to fly over Quote's and Curly's heads and the two only just dodged in time, nearly being crushed. Quote shot at them and they exploded in a puff of smoke.
"Man, I really need to get a gun," Curly moaned, as they dodged yet more Critters. Soon, most of the Critters had been defeated, and they found Chaco's house. The door was open slightly, but nobody was in there. Something moved in the shadows, and they saw Chaco come through the fireplace. She was panting.
"Hey, whats up?" Curly asked. Through much huffing and puffing, Chaco managed to say,
"There's an Enraged Mimiga out there!" she said quickly. "It can't fit through the fireplace though."
"Seriously? Let's go Quote!"
They ran out of Chaco's house, but instead of taking the fireplace, Curly held on to Quote, and he used the Booster to get them up the side. The Mimiga's back was turned to them. Quote shot it and it turned and roared. They ran backwards quickly, as the beast began to charge. Quote shot at it's head, but it didn't seem to be doing anything. It's not powerful enough, he thought. Meanwhile, Curly had dodged round behind the Mimiga, and holding a stick with a sharpened end, jumped onto the Mimiga's back, and plunged the stick into it. The beast roared again and tried to shake off Curly, but she held firm. The Enraged Mimiga then backed quickly into a wall, disloging Curly, and knocking out the stick. It then lunged at Quote who rolled sideways, jumped backward to avoid it's claws and rolled again. Curly was lying motionless on the ground. Quote jumped sideways again, to avoid a dangerous strike. He rebounded off a rock, and flew over the Mimiga's head, and aimed at the hole in it's back. He fired and the Mimiga roared once, then fell.
Quote ran over to Curly, and shook her.
"I'll go shopping later, the place is packed," she moaned. Then she opened her eyes. "Did we win?" She asked weakly. Quote nodded. She closed her eyes again. Quote carried her back to Chaco.
"I'd leave her here if I were you, She'll need rest." Chaco said. "You can continue through my fireplace." Quote nodded.