First story, first chapter jitters! Is it too late to hide this in the closet? Pretty much, huh? Alright, I'm sucking it up now. For anyone who reads, do you think you please comment and critique? I want to know how bad, or good this is...

O course, I do not hold any rights to Pikmin.

Prologue - Captain Olimar's 'Vacation'

"Good news, Olimar! I have decided to give you a long, one month vacation!" The President of the Hocotate Shipping Company told him. Olimar was less than pleased.
"But…. But sir… School for my son and daughter are in session, and my wife wouldn't even hear about either taking them out or leaving them with relatives for a whole month!" He said weakly.
"Well then, the choices are to go on the vacation yourself, convince your wife and compromise, or lose the vacation time and keep on working until the next time." The President said dryly. Olimar sighed, being trapped in between a rock and a hard place: The President rarely gave vacation time, and he knew. Knew that he needed off-time. The pay was good, but the schedule was brutal. He excused himself from his boss's office and went to the nearest phone to make a call home…

Olimar sighed in space's dead silence, alone in his cockpit, tapping on the end of the metallic panel before him as he looked out at the stars and cosmic beings around him as his ship, the S.S. Dolphin, carried him through the expansive darkness. He was already half-way to the planet that his vacation was supposed to be on; his wife had told him to take the trip. She'd been miffed as he had expected, but was surprised to find not at him. The President had been the target of her rage this time. Either way, he was bored now, with the new auto-piloting system doing its job… Where was he anyway? He'd never been in this specific quadrant of space before. He looked at the coordinates, and blinked at his observation; he'd never been there, but he knew things that had been passed through the space industry; it was an uncharted dead zone. One exploration team had gone in, but they hadn't returned, making the area a place to be cautious in.
He soon saw a planet. A very large, blue and green sphere hanging in the emptiness's grasps. It seemed that the auto-pilots course was to go passed the planet and cut straight through the area. The space captain frowned, not liking this. He looked down and started to put in the sequence to disable the specific system. He was about halfway done when something caught his eye. Alarmed, he quickened his pace, for what he'd seen was a large, fast approaching meteor, and he need not be a rocket scientist to know that they were on a collision course. Just as it was upon him, the auto-pilot disabled and with both hands on the wheel, turned hard, making the Dolphin go a hard left…
…Wait …Left? No! He felt his heart sink in the instant that he realized that he just made his worst mistake; rather than away, Olimar had just turned full into the meteor's path.

The captain was flung back with such force from the hit that made him later be amazed that his helmet hadn't chipped. Everything after came in flashes due to his disorientation. The S.S. Dolphin was now on a course for the large planet, and metallic pieces were scattered before his cockpits vision, for which ideally should have still been attached to the ship. The atmospheric pressure blasting against the hull of the ship when they entered the planet's air space. The few seconds before the Dolphin hit the ground…

And then, blackness…

Day 1 – Candy Apple Red

Stars. He saw stars… Had it just been a dream he had? Hitting that meteor? Seeing the S.S. Dolphin being pulled apart piece by piece? Plummeting onto a probably hazard-filled planet? No, it just had to have been a dream, if it wasn't why was it that he saw stars in a black backgrou-
Then he opened his eyes, and saw that he was under a blue sky, with no stars. He was on his back in a grassy landscape. Sore as he was, he hoisted himself up off of the ground and gave a look around. Everything was overly large, the flowers being double his own height! He was stunned, and then he did the 360 degrees look… And came face to face with his ship… Or, more to the truth, what that remained of his ship.
"Oh no… No no no no!" Olimar whimpered as he went over to the S.S. Dolphin's hollowed out remains, checking over the damage. On a whole, there was no chance of him flying in it. Off the top of his head, he counted about 10 parts that weren't there, including the main engine. On closer inspection, however, he found out that he was actually missing 30. And what was even worse, as he went to examine the equipment that was with his space suit, he made the horrific discovery that the air on this planet was composed of oxygen, a toxic gas, and that his life-support system would only run for 30 days.

30 parts missing. 30 days to do it. If he couldn't do it… He would suffocate horribly. He took a little time for this to soak in, and turned away from his rocket ship and stare off at that… Strange environment and…

…What the heck was that? Olimar slowly got up and waddled cautiously to this alien object that lay on the ground. It almost looked like a large, dark red onion with three side protrusions, with a strange, triangle pattern running between them. It was thoroughly intriguing and all, but should he really waste precious time to examine this unusual plant bulb? He scanned the area. Sadly, he saw none of his parts around the area, only this space bulb, and an oversized rectangular object that seemed unmovable, even from this distance away. He pondered, and then decided that the inspection of this Onion, as he will call it, will aid him. He went closer to the object, and then… The top popped, and a white flower came out, it also changed into a much brighter red.

And then, Olimar suddenly got whacked and was flung a little ways back from a long, tan 'leg' from this plant as it flew up and stuck its tripod-like structures into the ground. He stood up again and watched as the onion shone a red, pulsing light from its center and with a 'pop', released something from its flower. A red seed fell into the Captain's view as it fluttered to the ground. He watched as this red seed took quick root into the soil, and watched as it grew in front of his eyes from a speck to leaf stem. The red stemmed leaf started to emit an alluring, pulsing glow. It called to him, 'Pluck me, pluck me…' And after a while longer, he just couldn't refuse anymore, though by then, its leaf had performed a strange transformation from leaf to a white bud. He waddled over, gripped the red stem with his equally red space gloves and pulled. And he plucked that sprout right out, but what was on the other end surprised him.

For it was not just a plant. It was an animal too.

The stemmed bud was connected to a large head and a smaller body, it all red. Side-turned, eclipse-shaped eyes slowly blinked at him, the creature's long, slightly upturned nose almost touching the glass of his helmet. The staring contest continued for a minute, and then, the odd creature slowly lifted up its three-digit hand, and put it on his helmet's smooth surface. Olimar blinked, then slowly set the plant-animal hybrid on the ground. He watched as the carrot-looking creature walked around him, curious to him as he was to it. Carrot…. Pik-Pik brand carrots… That's what it looked like to him… Small little Pik-Pik carrot men… No… Min, that sounded better instead of men to him. Pik-Pikmin…. Pikmin? …. Pikmin.

"I'll call you a Pikmin, little guy…" Olimar said to it, even thought he knew that it understanding him was very slim. The red 'Pikmin' looked up at him curiously… And then the gaze strayed to a nearby plant. It made a happy noise, and ran over to it, starting to whack the stem with its bud. The Space Captain watched, confused, as the creature attacked the flower until it flattened, and left something behind. It was a circular, red pellet it seemed, with the number one on it. It looked like it was of a sugar-based element to him, but he couldn't look at it long, for the small hybrid picked up the pellet and started to carry it. Olimar blinked as the small plant-animal carried an object that was probably two or three times its size. As the pellet was right under the mother ship's light, it was sucked up into the Onion, and a reaction occurred inside its hull. The flower on the top twirled as two colored seeds flew out and landed to the ground. That is when it dawned on him why the Pikmin had looked so happy about seeing the flower at first; it had seen it as the possibility for new friends. When the two new sprouts surfaced, Olimar went over and plucked those ones while the first Pikmin went somewhere else. The newly plucked Pikmin stared up at him after they were taken out of the ground, as if waiting for him to give them an order. Perplexed that these two weren't as independent as the first, he pointed towards a few more flowers and they seemed to get the idea, as they nodded and raced to the flowers to chop them down.

When they had finished, the two new Pikmin stood by the pellets and just looked up at him as if to ask if they should pick them up and carry them back to their red mother ship. The Captain was slightly sullen to find that it seemed that these couple would need his approval on everything as he nodded. They took the nod in the right direction at least, and they both lifted up their pellets and both headed for the Onion. Olimar took another glance at the red Pikmin ship and realized that there were already two new sprouts waiting for him in the spoil, and he saw his first Pikmin wander off away from the alien craft to find more nutrient items to create new sprouts of its kind. The Space Captain tool a second to ponder this little mystery. The first offspring from the Onion craft was doing much better off than the second and third, and possibly the ones there after. Maybe, it was because it had been created by another, richer source of nutrients to produce the first? It was inconclusive at the time, and since his time was able to be counted by days, not important.

The Captain wandered over to the six sprouts that now waited for him and he plucked them out one by one. As they popped up, he noted their reactions and what they did afterwards. Nope, not any of them did what the first one did. He sighed, and gathered them all up and counted as he did. Olimar had eight in his command, and then the free-lancer. He looked around, trying to see just what had happened to the budded Pikmin, and spotted it looking up at something over on the other side of the area. Now curious, the Space Captain walked towards it, the other vibrant red beings followed him step by step. It had heard him coming, as its white bud lifted high into the air and looked over. When Olimar got there, it simply pointed up the small ledge to the pellet-flower. He turned his head back to the Pikmin, and pointed to the pellet, to tell it to go collect the prize. However, the Pikmin shook its little head. Confused, and just maybe a little but annoyed, he instead turned to one of the others and pointed up the ledge to the pellet. This Pikmin acted, and ran up to the ledge and tried to climb up it. To the Captain's dismay, the climbing Pikmin fell to the ground, not gaining any progress. It seemed the first Pikmin had been right when it had shaken its head; they couldn't climb up.

"Now, this might prove a problem..." He muttered to himself. As he thought of how he might get his plant-animal hybrids up there to get the pellet, the budded Pikmin went over to the green-leafed Pikmin that was trying to climb up the ledge and struck a small talk. After another moment, the Captain was poked out of his thoughts. He blinked and glanced down to see the first Pikmin. It had seemed as though it had figured something out, as it pointed to the ledge with a happy bounce. Olimar tilted his head, and the creature tried to start its explanation. It gestured to itself, the ledge, and then himself, and some sort of action. Olimar watched as the Pikmin paused, and then repeated its explanation to him. He did not make sense of its movement until he slowly mirrored the Pikmin, and then it clicked.

"Ah! For you to get on the ledge... I must throw you?" He asked. The Pikmin tilted its head, and the Captain realized his mistake; He had forgotten the dialect barrier. Feeling somewhat foolish, he grabbed hold onto the Pikmin's long, red stem. The creature allowed him to pick it off the ground and take aim at the pellet-flower... And then, he tossed it up high into the air. It made a few flips through the air before it landed on its feet... Up on the ledge.

The bud Pikmin made a happy trill, seemingly unharmed from the throw, and the other Pikmin down below made familiar sounds of 'ooh!', along with other burbles that he could not identify. Olimar could not help but to teak a small smile, he had seemed to do well for his first throw. The red creature on the ledge finished its job and brought down the flower, picking up the red sugar nutrient pellet left behind and started to carry it back to the Onion. As this happened, he did not waste any more time, and started to scour the available areas for any more Pikmin food. Him and his little group only found two more laying around.

When he got back to the Onion and plucked the remaining few, fifteen red Pikmin stood at his side.

"Alright," Olimar said, "Now that I've done that, it doesn't seem like I can proceed in this area..." he liked to the large obstacle in his way not too far off; a large brown box. The Space Captain went up to the obstruction and looked at it more closely, discovering a peculiar reaction to the Pikmin creatures. The ones who became close enough to touch the box began to try and push the object. What an amusing, vain act on their part. One or two of these small creatures could not possibly—And then another thing occurred; the first Pikmin took some charge. It pointed and guided more Pikmin into the challenge, until there was ten pushing on the obstruction. That was when the unfathomable happened—the box began to move! Olimar watched with utter disbelief as the ten creatures moved the box until it was well out of the way of the path that had been revealed. He stood there, too stunned to move for a moment, and then came to his senses. The ten Pikmin that moved the box were now resting beside it, their color paled a light pink that his young daughter would've just loved. Olimar went over to them, the five that hadn't pushed the box trailing behind him. When the Pikmin were together again, the budded Pikmin talked with them in jibbers, and then half of the creatures split up and followed it around to a stone, up the slanted stone and moved across the box that now formed a bridge to a large tree stump.

"Hm, there must still be stuff up there..." The Space Captain said to himself. "Well, if there's quite a bit, they probably need more help..." He then looked at the Pikmin that stayed, and motioned that they should follow the rest. With blank expressions, they slowly moved accordingly and followed the others' path. The Captain nodded to himself, and started to look around the area when... He realized he could hear a familiar noise. A machine's hum and the sound of gears. He looked around, and moved towards the sound. To the right of the slanted stone, there was something that he was overjoyed to see.

"It's... My ship's engine! Oh what luck!" He almost yelled in happiness as he rushed over to the bustling fire-engine-red machine, the turbines pumping in and out of its surface. It was still functioning! Amazing! He stared at it, enamoured, by it until he realized something critical. It would take more than just little him to carry it back to his ship. How was he going to do this? As he started to feel his hope starting to slide away, he felt something tug at his suit sleeve. He looked down to see the white-budded Pikmin. It looked at him, and then at the engine, seemingly curious.

"This... This, is mine. This, fell off... from my ship..." Olimar told as gestured to the engine, himself, the engine and then pointed towards the area where his ship.. The hull of his ship, lay broken. The Pikmin stared at the explaination.

Suddenly, the Pikmin nodded, as If it understood something. It then tugged at his suit again, before running out to the open area. Curious, the Space Captain followed. They went over to the red Onion, and had another pleasant surprise. Ten new sprouts were waiting for him. The already plucked Pikmin were still standing the red glow of their home. All except the budded one, of course. With having nothing else to do, Olimar went over and started to rip the new sprouts up from the ground. The budded Pikmin went to the inactive crew and seemed to rally them up. When Olimar was half-way done with plucking, the leader Pikmin rallied those that had been plucked and then raced off. He finished, and then went to search for the rest of the group.

"Now where did they-?" He started to say, but then he stopped when he started to hear a faint 'hup-two three four' sounding chant, although it was in a different language. The Captain followed the sound, until he found his engine in front of him... Moving? The twenty Pikmin that had run off had went to his ship's engine, and were carrying it for them! He was astonished as he watched. The budded Pikmin, the one in the lead of the pack, turned its head and called at the remaining five with Olimar, which stood up to attention and ran to help. Without much else to do, the stunned space man turned on his heels and just started to walk with them towards his ship hull.

Along the way, however, he saw something on the ground. He paused and scooped it up. It was a green cloth. He recognized this from his glove compartment. He'd stashed a multitude of colourful bandannas in there and now he had quite a large collection. Had they all escaped from the compartment? He wondered, and then kept walking when the engine got closer. It was little to no time longer before they arrived at the ship. The Pikmin moved the piece until they were in the ship's circular ring of rainbow light. They then looked at one another, and then put the piece in place, with the help of Olimar of course. They all then made the ship upright again. After this was done, the Pikimin jumped up and cheered, their high-pitched voices sounding in squeals and yells.

Olimar breathed a large sigh of relief. This was a good start, finding his engine the first day of his wreckage. What luck he had.

What luck...

He then felt another tug, and it was again the budded Pikmin. Now that there were more of them, he was getting a bit confused as to which one was which. The only thing that differed was the white bud on the top of this one's head... Olimar was then struck with an idea. He faced the red Pikmin.

"You know what? I'm going to give you two things, little one." He said to it. "First, will be this..." He then bent down a little, and presented the green cloth to the Pikmin. It looked at the fabric curiously, as if not first getting what it was supposed to do with it... And then, it slowly put it around its neck and tied a bow in the back. "Good. And now the second thing... A name." The Pikmin tilted its head at him. "Well, you look all the same, I have to make sure I can distinguish you from the others..." A blink from the creature said that it still didn't truly understand his meaning. He sighed. "Okay... I'm going to call you... " And with that, he pointed the Pikmin. "Ollie." There was a pause. "Can you remember that? Ollie?" As he said the name, the creature paused, and then pointed to itself. Olimar nodded.

It was then that the other Pikmin seemed to become nervous. Ollie looked over, and seemed to get the idea; the sun was setting quickly. Out in the distance, they could all hear the faint cries of animals... Animals that didn't sound small, or friendly... Ollie turned to Olimar, pointed to the ship, and then moved her hand to the sky. He got this as a signal to lift off. He nodded, and then hopped into the S.S. Dolphin's cockpit. He looked back to see the Pikmin, lead by the green-bandanna wearing one, towards the Onion. With a few pushed buttons and pulled levers, he concluded that the engine was correctly reinstalled into the ship, and started lift-off procedure.

3... 2... 1... Olimar then pulled the last lever.

With the ship sparking to life, dark exhaust left the bottom, along with flames, as the Dolphin slowly and slightly unsteadily, rise up from the ground. The barely working craft slowly raised higher into the atmosphere, away from what might be awakening on the planet...

Olimar's First Log

I am Captain Olimar, esteemed space captain of the S.S. Dolphin. I was supposed to be on my way to a vacationing planet to spend a month of relaxing when my ship made a violent collision with a high-speed space rock. My ship and myself was then bashed off course and crashed onto a planet of large-scale compared to myself. While taking in the lush green ground and the brilliant sky above, I realized that my ship had taken heavy damage. Thirty parts had been missing, most likely scattered around this planet like those metal jacks that my son likes to scatter across the floor, only to be picked up with a ball, or left to be stepped on by myself. To make the matters even more challenging, my space suit's life-support capacity was only charged to last for thirty days. This wouldn't have mattered much, if the air on this planet was breathable. However, it is toxic to my kind, and so, the odds state that if I do not retrieve all my lost ship parts in thirty days, I will meet a horrible end indeed...

Although, not all of this day has been bad... I discovered a seemingly friendly species on this planet, whom I've called Pikmin. The first of these odd, animal-plant hybrid, Pik-Pik brand carrot-looking creatures has the most promising intelligent skill. It seems that we've come to a symbiotic relationship in this short span of a day-If I grow their numbers, they will reciprocate by helping me by obstacles on this planet and carry the heavy ship parts that I've lost.

Today, the First Day, the score is 25 Pikmin, and one, but very important, ship part—my engine. If they had not helped me, I would still be on the planet's surface, not sure just what would be lurking in the shadows...

The Onion, what I have called the Pikmin's home ship, had flown up along with me into the final levels of atmosphere, seeming that it will follow me into the vast unknowns of this new planet. The first Pikmin, to distinguish in future times, I have given a green bandanna and given the name Ollie.

The next area that I plan to visit is a forest that I noticed when I was flying upwards. In hopes that I will find lots o my missing parts, I'm calling it the Forest of Hope.

Besides this log, I will also be recording information that I will collect on my new allies, the Pikmin. They are a curious, curious species indeed... This day has been exhausting though, with what all has happened in such a short amount of time. I shall put my pen down and try to get a little rest...