A few notes to my wonderful reviewers:

HAL-9001: I noticed the POV-change problem after I uploaded the story, so I added better page breaks. Thanks for alerting me.

Peanuckle: Fortunately, I don't plan on doing either of the things you're worried about. Ridley is much too cool of a villain to reduce to a joke character, and Samus/Olimar would indeed be way too weird. (There's the species difference, not to mention the fact that the Captain's already happily married.) The most they'll become is good friends.

And thanks to everyone else who reviewed. Here's another chapter!

Sylux studied the monitor containing Ridley's memories closely. There had to be a clue to Samus's destination somewhere.

He had his computer scan the craft that had crashed into Samus's gunship. Hocotatian Cargo Ship, it beeped. Piloted by Captain Olimar. Developed as a means of transporting goods for the renowned space trade company Hocotate Freight. Destination: Unknown.

Sylux tapped his long fingers on the dashboard. He zoomed up on the image of the cargo ship until he could see inside the cockpit. Then he almost laughed.

A small screen near the cargo ship's steering interface read: Destination: Planet of the Pikmin, temporarily dubbed "Erff." Coordinates: 1456-5467, Milky Way Galaxy, Sector 4.

That had been way too easy.

--

Samus tried to move her legs, but they were trapped under a large rusty beam. However, as with the majority of Samus's problems, this was most easily solved by shooting it to bits.

Once she was free, Samus stood up. The normal exit to the room was covered by debris, but after some careful searching she managed to locate a small hatch in the wall.

Samus converted her paralyzer gun into energy whip form, then lassoed the handle on the hatch door. Ripping the door off its hinges, she leapt agilely up to the rim of the opening and crawled out.

She was met with one of the most beautiful sights she had ever seen.

The ship had landed in a forest of some kind, but it was like no forest Samus had been to. The trees towered up into the heavens, and the air was filled with slowly falling flower petals. Sunlight shone down like a stream of molten gold, drenching everything in its glow, and there seemed to be no sign of any technology whatsoever.

It was one of the more alien places she had been to in her career, but if there was such a thing as paradise, Samus Aran imagined it would look something like this.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" said a voice softly.

Samus whirled around, brandishing her gun, but it was only Olimar. She let her arm drop, and then turned back to the gorgeous scenery. "Yes…definitely. Where…Where are we?"

"The Awakening Wood," said Olimar. "One of the more peaceful places on this planet."

"I feel like I could stand here for hours," breathed Samus. "Are there any hostile inhabitants I should be aware of?"

"Well, there's the Bulborbs," replied Olimar, gesturing behind her.

Samus turned around to see an enormous red spotted creature with bulging eyes, only a few feet away from her. "Holy sh…"

"Don't worry, it's asleep," said the Captain calmly. "And it could stay that way through a hurricane. There are many kinds of Bulborbs, and that one's the least dangerous."

"Oh." Samus frowned. "What about the most dangerous?"

"Best not to talk about that," replied Olimar cheerfully, and not at all comfortingly. "We should devote our attentions elsewhere, to finding the Pikmin!"

"What exactly are these Pikmin like, anyway?" asked Samus, a tiny bit nervous.

"You'll see soon enough!" chuckled the space captain, and started walking away. Samus noticed he had a greater spring in his step than usual. Remembering something she had once heard about the current derelict state of Hocotate, Samus guessed that Olimar probably liked "Erff" a lot more than his home planet.

She followed the captain through a small grove of large red fruit-bearing plants, down a cobbled pathway, and through a small, cold stream. Finally, in a large pool of water, they found one of the oddest objects Samus had ever seen.

It was big, round and blue, and was held up by three long leg-like protrusions that must have been sturdier than they looked. A triangular pattern ran along the side of it, and a flower-shaped propeller spun on the top. It looked like something out of a small child's imagination.

"Er…what is that?" Samus asked warily.

Captain Olimar clapped his hands in delight. "That, my dear, is an Onion!"

"It doesn't look like any onion I've ever seen," said Samus doubtfully.

"No, no, not that kind of Onion," Olimar chortled. "A Pikmin Onion!"

"Well thanks for clearing that up," replied Samus, a tad sarcastically.

"It is a sort of Pikmin mothership," said the voice of the Research Pod unexpectedly from above Samus's head.

"Where the hell did you come from?" shouted Samus.

"The ship," said the red cone in a condescending manner. "And it's nice to see you too, by the way."

"Whatever," said Samus. "So that thing…makes Pikmin?"

"Yes," said the Research Pod. "Please don't ask me to explain that. I'm not so sure how it works either."

"I am!" said Olimar proudly. "After many months of research, I—"

"With all due respect, Captain," said the pod, "please stop talking."

"Oh all right," grumbled Olimar. He was clearly irked at not being able to provide a thorough scientific explanation. Samus was slightly grateful to the Research Pod, in spite of herself.

"Okay," said Samus, thinking she understood. "So…How do we bring the Pikmin out?"

"You simply stand under the green light and tell it how many you want," explained Olimar.

Samus walked hesitantly over to the Onion, and found the stream of greenish light being emitted from the thing's base. She stood under it. "Um…1?"

The Onion jerked and pulsed, and Samus leaped away from it.

"There's no need to be alarmed!" shouted Olimar. Samus drew her gun just in case.

The propeller on top spun until it was a blur, and then a small creature fell out. Samus jumped. The thing was blue, the same shade as the Onion. It had a long antenna stretching out from its head with a leaf on the end. Wide, impossibly large eyes stared at her, and a small pink mouth hung open in amazement. Samus giggled. Was this a Pikmin? It was adorable!

Samus waited for the small creature to make a move, but it continued to stare at her. Holstering he gun, she reached out a hand to the Pikmin. It shifted its gaze to the hand, then it suddenly leapt onto it and clambered up Samus's arm. Seeming to be satisfied with this new vantage point, the Pikmin sat down on Samus's shoulder.

The Hunter laughed again, causing the blue Pikmin to twist its head around in surprise. It wanted to find out what the mysterious noise was. It crawled over to her face and grabbed her nose.

"Hey! Get off!" she said, and tried to pull the Pikmin off her nose. This seemed to make it latch on even harder, eventually just hanging there comically.

She turned helplessly to Olimar, and saw that he was rolling on the ground laughing. The Research Pod continued to float in the air in a bored sort of way.

Samus stared down at the Pikmin. This forced her to go cross-eyed, which made Olimar laugh harder. The Pikmin squeaked indignantly, as if not seeing what was so funny about the situation.

"Here," said Olimar, once he had gotten his breath back. He walked over to Samus and the Pikmin, then tugged gently on the Pikmin's foot. This was meant to make the creature let go, but instead it crawled up to the top of Samus's head and stayed there. Olimar blew into his whistle, but the Pikmin wouldn't budge.

"Wow." Olimar seemed impressed. "He seems to like you a lot. Not even my whistle works!"

"It seems we're stuck with each other," Samus said, looking up at her new passenger. The Pikmin stared back, and yanked hard on her hair. The Hunter yelped, and the creature made a strange gurgling noise, like it was laughing. It reminded her of the Metroid hatchling she had found on SR388. Great.

Olimar was now calling out lots more blue Pikmin, and when they came out, they tackled the Captain in an enormous hug. "I missed you too!" the Captain began to shout, and was smothered by a devoted mob of Pikmin.

Samus gaped. One was bad enough, but now twenty more?

The Pikmin on her head jumped off into her arms, looking up at her adoringly. The hunter sighed, and scratched it lightly on the head. The Pikmin wiggled in delight.

This vacation was going to be more of a handful then she had anticipated.

Wow, I wrote that all in one sitting. Reviews are great motivation. Please continue to tell me what you think!