So, here's chapter 3. And the story is still not finished, there will be a chapter 4. I was writing this chapter, and noticed it was getting a bit long, and I wasn't even halfway done with it. Hopefully that next chapter will be the last.
Anyway, enjoy. And leave a comment if you have time.
The last day on the planet
Early the next morning Alph stood outside the room they had given Olimar and Louie. He was, for some reason, feeling somewhat nervous, even though he had no real reason to be. But, he had to wake them for the day, so he steeled himself and knocked on the door.
Just a couple of seconds later it opened, and Alph found himself face to face with Louie. Or rather, face to chest. Geez, he'd almost forgotten how tall the blond Hocotatian was. Though Alph was no stranger to people being taller than him, since he was pretty short, it still took him off guard. Louie was about as tall as Brittany, and she was the tallest person Alph knew! The Hocotatian was wearing an obviously hand-knitted, dark green sweater and baggy, black pants.
"…" Louie raised an eyebrow, staring at Alph with an unreadable expression, making him realize he'd been just standing there for a good several seconds.
"Um…" he started, not really knowing how to talk to Louie. "We're meeting up at the main room in about half an hour before going down to the planet," he eventually managed.
Louie didn't say anything in response, just nodded curtly before shutting the door. Alph managed to glimpse the inside of the room, seeing Olimar bundled up under a blanket with only a turf of hair and the tips of his pointed ears sticking out at the top. The red pikmin was sitting at his feet, looking curiously over at Alph. That was all he saw before the door shut.
"Okay…" Alph wasn't really sure, but he assumed it meant Louie would wake Olimar and meet them at the main room, so he headed there himself.
Brittany and Charlie were already waiting, somewhat tired and trying to wake themselves up. Brittany was doing some stretching while Charlie settled for splashing some cold water on his face. They both looked over at Alph as he entered the room.
"Are they coming?" Charlie asked him, referring to the Hocotatians.
"I think they should be here soon," Alph replied, going to get some water for himself. He sure hoped he had read Louie correctly, or he'd probably have to go try again. Luckily, he didn't have to, because Olimar and Louie chose that moment to enter the room, pikmin in tow.
"Morning…" Olimar mumbled, obviously still half asleep. His already surprisingly deep voice was even deeper in the morning. Apparently, he wasn't much of a morning person, Alph thought, as Olimar helped himself to a glass of water. He was wearing a knitted dark red sweater that looked much like Louie's, like they were made by the same person.
Olimar may have been half asleep, but didn't fail to notice Alph's eyes going between him and Louie, probably noticing the matching sweaters. It had actually been a gift from Louie's grandmother, given to him sometime after visiting Louie for the first time after the whole fiasco with the carrots, and the debt and everything else. The old lady had been so happy when Louie brought Olimar to visit, claiming the boy had never had a friend before. Sometime later he had been gifted the sweater.
"How soon are we landing?" Olimar asked, looking over the others. Louie had produced his own glass of water and the red pikmin was trying to hop up to reach the counter, curious as to what everyone was getting from up there. Olimar picked up the pikmin with one hand and set it on the counter, presenting it with its own glass of water, despite knowing it probably wouldn't need it or understand it. True enough, it just stared curiously at the glass, turning it around in its hands. Eventually it poured out the water and placed the glass on its head, upside-down. He took the glass from it and placed it in the sink.
"About fifteen minutes," Brittany informed him. "Better get your spacesuits on," she pointed out, looking at his and Louie's worn sweaters. She, Alph and Charlie were already fully dressed and ready to go.
"Yeah, you're right," he admitted. As he turned to leave to get his spacesuit, he waved Louie with him, since the he also needed to get his on. They were done in ten minutes, or so.
"It looks like we're all ready to go," Charlie announced after everyone had gathered in the main room again. "Alph, land the Drake!"
"Yes, Captain!" And soon they've landed in the Tropical Wilds, with all its water and greenery.
Olimar was holding on to the red pikmin, carrying it until they were out of the ship, at which point he put it down on the ground. It immediately ran over to the onion, squeaking excitedly, hopping around a bit, and waiting for its friends to be called out.
There was at first some debate on how many pikmin they needed and how many of each type. In the end they settled on twenty reds (including the one they had on the ship), fifteen blues, fifteen rocks, thirty wings, and twenty yellows. A hundred pikmin total.
They divided themselves into the groups they had planned the day before. Olimar took ten reds, five wings, five blues, five rocks and ten yellows. As he was starting to leave, he looked over to Louie to make sure he was following, only to notice the blond staring of in another direction, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"What is it, Louie?" he asked. Louie shrugged and pointed of in the direction he was staring. "There's something else you want to explore?" He got a slight nod in response. It was a good thing he'd learned to understand Louie's unspoken language by now, letting him understand what he wanted. "All right, then." It would do no good to force Louie with him, if he didn't want to come. "But at least take a few pikmin with you." Louie looked over to him, shrugged and took five of Olimar's reds with him before disappearing somewhere in the foliage.
"Looks like a change of plans," Olimar told the Hocotatians, who had been watching the exchange in silence.
"I suppose one of us will accompany Captain Olimar and the other two handle the other two fruits on their own," Charlie suggested.
"I can go with Captain Olimar," Alph volunteered.
"Then I will go to the waterfall, and Charlie goes to the cave," Brittany decided.
"Right," Charlie muttered. "That's what I was just going to say."
That decided, Charlie and Brittany split the remaining pikmin between them. Charlie took the remaining five reds and ten wings, while Brittany took fifteen wings. The blues, rocks and yellows were divided evenly, five each. Then they all set of toward their destinations.
"What is it Louie wanted to do on his own?" Alph soon asked Olimar, somewhat curious, and even a little worried over the tall Hocotatian. He didn't like Louie, but still didn't want him to be hurt, or anything.
"I don't really know," Olimar replied truthfully. "He works well alone and sometimes likes to do his own things without having anyone interfere. Maybe he found something edible he wants to try out in a new recipe. Don't worry about him," he reassured Alph as he noticed the young Koppaiates looking somewhat nervous. "He's pretty good at staying away from dangerous creatures."
"If you say so…" Alph tried not to be so doubtful, after all, Olimar knew Louie a lot better than he did. "You know him better than I."
"I know Louie can be a bit difficult," Olimar said, turning to Alph. "It took me a while to get used to him." Hearing that came as somewhat of a surprise to Alph. Olimar had seemed to understand Louie perfectly fine, at least from what he'd seen.
"Really?" he asked, having trouble believing it. "Because he doesn't talk much?"
"Yes," Olimar confirmed. "At first it was strange and even a bit irritating, but after a while I came to appreciate his quiet nature." He didn't seem like he was going to elaborate on that, but after a few moments he added "Trust me, Louie is just as awkward with other people, as other people are with him. He also jumps to the worst possible conclusion very quickly."
"So, when he ran of with all our food…" Alph was starting to get it now.
"It's possible he thought you were kidnapping him and tried to escape," Olimar finished for him. Then shrugged. "But even I don't know what he's thinking."
"Okay," Alph took a few minutes to think about things. Brittany had been so certain Louie stole their food because he was a thieving thief who stole things because he was a thief. Maybe he really just got scared and ran of because of that. What would Alph had done if he suddenly woke up on a strange ship with people he'd never met before?
"I still think Brittany kind of wants to slap him for stealing our food," he ended up saying. "And the Captain isn't too happy his rubber ducky was stolen." Olimar shrugged and smiled apologetically, but didn't say anything. Well, it wasn't like Olimar was responsible of what Louie did. They walked in silence for a few moments before Alph couldn't help adding, "It's a good thing he didn't drink any of the juice, or Brittany would have actually slapped him."
"She's a tough woman, eh?" Olimar didn't even look back. "Not afraid to say what's on her mind?"
"Yeah," Alph had to almost jog to keep up with Olimar. "She's great."
They kept walking in almost complete silence, the pikmin behind them in a mixed group of all different kinds mixing in together. Sometimes one or two of them noticed something interesting that caught their attention, making them separate from the others. In these cases, Olimar was quick to whistle them back so they wouldn't get left behind. He seemed to be keeping a constant eye on all of the pikmin, obviously used to this kind of behaviour. Usually he had whistled the pikmin back before Alph had even noticed they had strayed from the group.
Alph knew the pikmin sometimes wondered of when they saw something interesting, but even he'd not been here long enough to react so quickly.
After several more minutes of walking, they finally reached the place Olimar and Louie's ship had crashed, atop the giant tree-stump. The place was almost completely different from the last time he had been there, and Alph could almost not believe it was the same place. The corpse of the Quaggled Mireclops they had fought was still there, but now covered in moss, flowers and other greenery. The formerly muddy ground around it was starting to get more solid, though there were still puddles of really wet mud here and there, and grass was starting to grow there as well. Even the remains of the crashed ship was slowly being taken over by nature, vines reaching for it from the ground and the rocks. It would be only a matter of time before the whole place would be just another part of the area, with no hint that anything had taken place.
"What is it?" Olimar asked, having noticed Alph stopped and seemed to be in his own thoughts.
"This looks so different from the last time we were here," Alph answered. "It's a lot nicer-looking now."
"Well, there's my ship," Olimar walked over to the remains of the crashed ship, starting to look over it for salvageable parts. The ship was clearly an older model. In other words, pretty small, cheap and not really much of anything.
"It's... really trashed by the crash," Alph noted unnecessarily. He wasn't sure if it would be okay to critique the ship in front of Olimar.
"It's okay to say as it is," Olimar turned to him from up on the hill where he was checking over the ship. "It was a piece of trash, even before the crash." He talked while tossing over some parts he deemed salvageable, before moving to the inside of the ship, to see if there was any data left. Alph looked over at the pikmin to make sure they were okay, before joining Olimar on the ship, to see if there was something he could help with.
The pikmin had been dismissed and were playing around in the mud and around the corpse of the Mireclops. Only the one red with the chipped leaf stayed close to Alph, looking at him curiously. Oh, yeah, they were supposed to get it some nectar, weren't they? He patted it on the head absentmindedly, before telling it to go with the other pikmin.
"Are you finding anything useful?" Alph asked Olimar, who was digging through some things on the inside of the ship.
"Some," came the answer. "But a lot was destroyed, and a lot is completely worthless." Olimar straightened up, holding some parts he had gathered. "These are probably some of the best things we're going to find here."
"Those are..." Alph recognized the parts, but it took him some time to remember what they were called. The last time he had seen that kind of parts on a ship was several years ago. "Those are Azorta Z8 types, aren't they? I haven't seen those in use in years."
"You seem to know quite a bit about spaceships," Olimar commented, sounding like he wasn't expecting Alph to know something like that.
"Oh, I'm an engineer. I learned from my grandfather," Alph explained, while looking over some things on the ship. It seemed somewhat old and hadn't been in the best shape even before the crash. "He actually designed our ship. It was even named after him. His name is Drake."
"And now you're using the ship he designed to save your planet, eh?" Olimar seemed impressed with the idea. "Your grandfather will undoubtedly be very proud of you. And I'm sure you keep the ship in tip top shape?"
"Well, I try at least," Alph felt somewhat embarrassed by the whole thing, and a bit proud of himself, too, when Olimar said he would make his grandfather proud. He really wanted that, and had been wanting it since his grandfather helped him with his first engineering project. They continued taking the ship apart in relative silence for the next few minutes. The only things to be heard were the sounds they made tossing the metal parts aside, and from the pikmin playing outside.
"Hmmm…" Alph looked over to Olimar at the thoughtful and somewhat irritated grumbling.
"What is it?" Alph asked, not really sure if he wanted to know what irritated the Hocotatian Captain.
"It seems many of my data files have gone missing," Olimar answered, sounding a bit irritated still, but trying to tone it down for Alph, so he would know Olimar wasn't upset with him. "I suppose it's not really that big a deal, but it would be good to not have to re-write them. I could miss some important details I might've forgotten."
"Oh, we found those!" Alph suddenly remembered. He had been meaning to inform Olimar of the fact, but forgotten about it until the Hocotatian mentioned it. At Alph's exclamation, Olimar poked his head out of the ship in surprise.
"You did?" he asked, sounding surprised and almost shocked, clearly not expecting Alph to know what he was talking about.
"Yeah, we found a whole bunch of data files all over the planet," Alph explained, somewhat relieved Olimar didn't seem so irritated anymore. "They were really helpful to us, when we were exploring. It was also good to have some idea on how to handle the creatures on the planet," he added, wanting Olimar to understand his notes had been very important to them. "I can send them to you, if you like?"
"Yes, thank you," Olimar was very relieved at having his notes back. There were some new enemies here he hadn't encountered on his previous visits to the planet, and having the notes was very good. He would add them to his notes of the other enemies, so if anyone came to the planet again, they would be able to handle themselves. He was kind of hoping others wouldn't have to come here for any reason.
"All right, all done," Alph informed him after a few minutes. When Olimar checked his data, he noticed all his lost notes were now returned.
"Thank you," he said. "This seems to be everything I had written," he told Alph, who was just glad he'd been able to help Olimar.
"We should probably get going back soon," Olimar said, looking up at the sky. "About a quarter of the day is over, and we need to get these parts and that fruit to your ship." The fruit in question was over on the other side of the corpse of the Mireclops. That, as well as the ship parts, would require most of their pikmin to get them back to the Drake.
"Yeah," Alph agreed, but made no motion of going anywhere. Instead he just sat down next to the crashed ship and just looked at the playing pikmin. "They seem to have a lot of fun, huh?"
They did indeed seem to have a lot of fun, enjoying the muddy and rocky terrain. The blues moved effortlessly through the mud, probably because mud contained water, while the rocks seemed to have some trouble every now and then. The wings weren't interested in going in the mud, but seemed to enjoy themselves all the same. The reds and yellows were taking turns tossing mud at each other and taking cover behind the rocks. They all seemed to have the time of their lives.
"They do indeed," Olimar agreed with Alph, sitting down next to him. "While they're very focused and dedicated while 'on duty' so to speak, they can be quite childlike as well," Olimar kept explaining after Alph nodded in understanding. "They enjoy playing around, and they're very curious." As if on cue, some of the yellows started digging their way to underneath the Mireclops corpse, no doubt wondering what was underneath it. Soon several other pikmin had joined them as well.
"And like children, they easily get in trouble by not paying attention to their surroundings." Olimar continued, while carefully observing the pikmin in case something happened. "That's why we must keep an eye on both them and our surroundings, in case something happens."
"Right," Alph agreed. "It took us a little time to learn that, though," he then admitted. "And we've lost several pikmin because we weren't paying enough attention to them."
"It's always sad when pikmin are lost," Olimar said quietly, looking at Alph with understanding. "But it's important to learn from mistakes. I made the same mistakes on my first time here," he admitted. Then shook his head, as if getting rid of the negativity. "But, anyway, why don't you tell me a little about these new pikmin types?" he asked, indicating to the wings and the rocks. As if on cue, a curious wing flew up to them, seemingly inspecting Olimar curiously before landing on his hand.
"Well," Alph started, somewhat hesitantly, not really knowing what he should say about the pikmin. "The wings fly, as you can see," he pointed to the few wings hovering over the digging pikmin. "But they're not very strong fighters, so they're better at carrying things." He paused, wondering if there was anything else he should point out about the wings, before deciding to move on. "The rocks can easily break crystal and glass, and they can't be crushed."
"They also don't seem to be too good at digging," Olimar observed, looking at where the rocks were mostly just standing around. A couple were apparently trying to dig by rolling in the mud, but mostly just managed to get themselves covered in it. He then looked back at the wing on his hand and petted it on the head briefly, before it flew away to join the others.
"Right," Alph agreed. Then he looked over at Olimar to ask something he had been somewhat curious about. "You said you'd encountered other types of pikmin on your other visits. Could you tell about those?"
"I guess I could," Olimar said thoughtfully, before shifting slightly to get more comfortable. "We found white and purple pikmin, as well as -" he was suddenly interrupted by the pikmin squeaking in fear and running out from under the Mireclops's corpse, running around in panic. From the tunnel they had dug emerged a very irritated bulborb.
A/N: Cliff-hanger ending! Ha-ha! (Or, attempted at least) One more chapter to go!
I actually went and checked the heights of the characters. According to Pikmin wiki, Brittany is the tallest of the bunch, at 2.3cm. Louie is second at 2.1cm. Olimar and Charlie are both 1.9cm, and little Alph is the shortest at 1.6cm. I guess to him at least, Brittany and Louie would appear to be very tall individuals.
Olimar seems to be a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, doesn't he? I mean, he's a family man, a captain, an explorer, a mechanic and a biologist. That's pretty impressive.
I also wanted to give the pikmin some personality, and watching the short movies was a good way to do so. They're so darn cute!
