This story occurs after the best ending, the one where Curly, Quote, and Balrog all decide to live in a place with a view.

I do not own Cave Story.

Chapter 1: Awakening

There was a slight beeping noise, and the phrase 'back-up initiation complete' flashed in front of his eyes.

He woke up in a small cavern that had a tunnel leading out of it. Frowning, he tried to remember how he got there. Frowning even deeper, he found out that he couldn't recall anything: his family, friends, name, or even his gender.

At that thought, he looked down at his body. There wasn't much to tell from it. He was wearing jeans, a red T-shirt, hiking boots, and gloves.

This wasn't going anywhere. Looking around, he realized that he shouldn't have been able to see. There weren't any light sources that were visible. There was a small pool of water (He was surprised. How could he remember the name of a random liquid, but nothing specific about his past?) and he went over to it, glancing at his reflection.

He was obviously a boy, and he had short, dark blonde hair and strange green coverings over his ears. Or were they his ears? He decided not to mess with them.

Looking at his clothes, he decided that the gloves were an inconvenience. He needed all the grip he could get if he was in danger, somehow. He didn't know where he was, why he was here, or even his name, but he knew that it would be no good to block his reflexes with gloves.

Taking them off, he realized that he had something tattooed onto his pale skin.

Au-

Ro-

Ch-

It looked like it was an acronym for something, but whatever it was had been mostly rubbed away- it looked like something had cut that part of his skin off and it had healed.

However, the letters on his hand suggested a name for him, and he took it willingly. A.R.C? He would be known as Arc.

Now he turned his attention away from his identity. He could figure out something later. For now, he needed to get out of here.

Arc ran out of the small cave, through the tunnel.

Flying around him were bats, and jumping out of nowhere were strange, lumpy, gray creatures. He dodged these as best as he could, for he did not know how they would affect him.

Arc reached a crossroad. To the left, he couldn't see anything, not even with his excellent vision. The black just went on forever. To the right, he saw a strange statue. It was shaped like a giant tiger's head. It was huge, and there was an opening in its mouth, suggesting that it was a dwelling of some sort.

Arc was excited. If it was a house, there would be people there! Maybe they could tell him what he was doing there!

Arc went into the tiger's maw.

There were people in it! They didn't look like Arc, but they were people, nonetheless!

There was a very old man and a chubby boy. They were both fast asleep in their chairs.

Arc tried for at least half an hour (he didn't know why he knew precisely the amount of time that had elapsed) to wake them up. He tried yelling, he tried smacking, and he even tried dumping water on them.

The two could probably sleep through an earthquake, a hurricane, and a nuclear bomb if they all went off in this cave all at once.

Arc was a little disappointed. Where they on some sort of sleep medication? He shook his head, and in doing so, he spotted a wooden chest in the back.

Arc guessed that there were probably clothes inside it, but he was still angry at the old man and the fat boy for sleeping when he was in need of their help, so he went over and opened it up.

The only thing that was inside of it was a strange-looking gun.

Arc stumbled backwards. He didn't know whose voice was going through his head, but he heard it clearly. "…guns are the most dangerous thing ever! Why… when I was younger, I nearly destroyed the floating island with a tiny pea-shooter!"

It was a memory, albeit an incomplete one, but it did provide a bit of information. He knew someone who had told him about the dangers of guns (what in the world was 'the floating island?'). However…

Arc looked at the gun in the chest. If he was going to get past the gray things and the bats, he was going to need to learn how to shoot.

Arc picked it up and looked at the barrel. It was a pistol. Hmm… there didn't seem to be a place to put ammunition in, anywhere. And besides, there wasn't any ammo in the chest.

Arc pointed it at the entrance of the dwelling, and pulled the trigger once.

Two beams shot out, zigzagging towards the entrance and making a pht noise.

Arc smiled. This thing's clip was infinite. This would be very useful to use on those critters.

There was a word on the handle. Arc read it. 'Polar Scatterspray.'

The Polar-S, as Arc called it, was very useful. Every time a gray thing jumped towards him, he pointed and shot. The two beams that shot out every time crisscrossed back over each other repeatedly like many XXXs, making it very difficult to miss. The bats and small jumping animals didn't stand a chance. The only thing he didn't like was the short range.

He went back to the fork and this time went left, down the dark place.

When he had gone no farther than one hundred feet, he spotted a door. It was just a regular door in a wall to the side, but it wasn't at the end of the long passageway. Nevertheless, Arc went in.

It was just a small room that had a platform hanging over a pool of water. It didn't look all that important.

So he went back out, wondering what the room could possibly have been used for.

Just slightly beyond the empty room's door was a large group of gray creatures in front of a door that was at the end of the tunnel. Arc shot his Polar-S at them and destroyed them, one by one.

He walked up to the door, all confident.

The door opened and hit him in the face.

"OW!" The door had opened by itself, and hurt him!

Getting angry, he shot the door with his gun. The wood burst apart in a jiffy. That was one way to make an entrance.

Beyond was a cliff, made out of a slightly yellower stone. Arc walked to the edge and looked down. Below was a bustling village, with at least fifty houses.

The ground gave away beneath Arc's feet. Oops.

"Jack, I'm telling you, there's no way that we can reason with the guadi! Too many mimiga have been eaten to even consider reasoning with them!"

The green-goggled mimiga sighed. "And I'm telling you, Roxil, that cooperation between all of the races: mimiga, gaudi, greencloaks, humans, robots, and even whatever the heck Balrog is, is essential! As sad as I am at my villagers' deaths, I am not going to make King's mistake and cut off contact with outsiders!"

Roxil didn't look happy at this statement. "Maybe you're too influenced by King's death to see the proper path of-"

Arc made a nice distraction by landing right between them. "Ow…"

Roxil panicked. "Argh! A gaudi!" He fled.

Jack jumped, but remained next to the fallen person. "Um… huh?"

Arc looked up. This person looked very strange, nothing like the two in the lion's head. He was wearing an aviator's jacket and green goggles, and had bunny-ears and white fur all over his body. "Um… sorry for dropping in…"

Jack smiled. "Haha! That was like the time King told me about when Quote dropped in on King and Toroko!" The mimiga started to chuckle heartily.

Arc was confused. A king? A quote? Somebody named Toroko? What was this strange person talking about?

Jack looked at Arc's expression and grinned. "I'm sorry. You must be new here. I'm Jack. I'm the number one in this village."

Arc nodded. Finally, someone in charge! "I am Arc… I think."

Jack tilted his head. "What? You don't know your own name?"

"Well… I…"

There was an explosion in the center of the village.

Jack turned around quickly. "What was that?"

A man came out of the blast center, clutching a blue helmet-type object. "YES!"

Jack gasped. That was… that thing that the Doctor had ten years ago!

Arc remained confused. "Why is he excited by a weird hat?"

Jack was still frozen in shock. It didn't make any sense. Quote and Curly had destroyed that thing when they took out the sorcerer Ballos!

Jack ran to a strange looking device on a building wall, and put it up to his mouth. "Emergency code 0001! Destroy the human in the center of Mimiga Village at all costs!"

Mimiga ran out of their houses, clutching spears and swords. There were about two hundred mimiga to the one human in the village square.

Now Arc was really bewildered. "What's going on? Why are…"

The human waved his hand, and instantly the first wave of attackers was blown away. Arc gasped. He didn't know what was going on, but the man was showing overwhelming power just by moving his arms!

The human teleported now, appearing in front of Jack. "It tells me that you're the leader. If I take you out now, know what that'll mean? Chaos, destruction, ruin. Beautiful pandemonium. So, Jack, why don't you die?"

The man moved his hand at Jack and there was an audible crack. Jack fell down dead, his neck snapped.

Arc was furious. He raised his gun, intending to strike down this man for killing a potential friend.

The man was wearing the helmet, now. "You think to kill me with such a device? I think I'll come back later, then." He teleported, and Arc shot too late.

A dozen mimiga were carrying Jack's body on a stretcher held above their heads. Arc didn't understand it very well, but he knew that this was a funeral procession.

They carried Jack through a hole in the wall, which had a sign posted that said, 'Mimiga Cemetery.'

All of the mimiga followed behind, and Arc followed too, seething. The way that guy had just removed Jack made him mad. He was going to take down that guy. That human had no right to destroy anyone's lives…

Arc was close when the mimiga set down Jack. One of them, Roxil, was muttering to himself. Arc could see a few tombstones, and he read off the names and descriptions.

'Here rests the true mimiga hero, Arthur.'

'Here lies the hero's sister, may she rest in peace. Toroko.'

'Here is a brave mimiga who died to stop the doctor. Here is King.'

King's grave had a sword resting on it, causing Arc to wonder how this 'mimiga' was different than the rest.

The mimiga were already leaving. A couple of them stayed, and started to dig a grave. Arc left.

The man appeared in the throne room, smiling. This was the place where his predecessors sat, and the place where the Demon Crown wished to be. It was here that he and his servants would take over the surface, as that was what the Crown was for.

Each one of the Demon Crown's wearers had tried to take over the surface in the past, but he was the one who would succeed, and not through such means as force-feeding little bunny-men flowers.

"SERVANTS!"

For a moment, nothing happened. And then, a blue-haired teenager appeared out of nowhere. "What? Huh? What's going on? What are you…?" She stopped as she looked at the Crown on his head. "No… that's not… no…"

The man nodded. "Yes, girl. I am your new master. But wasn't there supposed to be one other?"

A giant brick-shaped thing dropped from the sky. "Oh, yeaaaaaaaaaah!"

Then Balrog looked at the Crown. "Oh, noooooooooo!"

The man smiled. "Welcome, Misery, Balrog. It's nice to know that the Crown's control is still intact."

Misery shivered. The nightmares had started up again. She was a slave once more. "Eh… what might we call you?"

The human laughed. "Master, of course, but if you want my name, it's Darius."

This is the story of Arc. This first Chapter seems a little short to me. This may be very reminiscent of Cave Story, but it is different.