I've been sitting here listening to the sounds of the river for a while now. A twofold soundtrack, the actual river and the recording of the river that Curly is playing back.

The doubled sounds faded into one another a while ago and all I'm hearing now is white noise.

I'm still feeling tired, from the river, from the fighting, from everything. But I think Curly is going to wake up soon and I want to be awake.

Suddenly Curly's recording of the river cut out and she was silent.

There was an odd buzzing sound that emanated from her lips, then her eyes opened and she began to speak.

At first it was just a wordless moan, then she sat up and looked around the room. I could see a look of confusion creasing her face, unsure of where she was and how she got to be here.

"Curly," I said with relief in my voice, "You're awake."

Her head snapped to my direction and she smiled lightly, letting her guard down. "Oh it's you, where are we?"

"A cabin I found. I don't think we're in the labyrinth anymore. It's different, some kind of underground river now. I think we're almost out."

"That's good," She said, "I was starting to get sick of this place anyway."

I laughed, "Yeah, it's good to have you back. I was starting to get worried." I paused for a moment, "Why did you do it? Give me your air tank, I mean."

She didn't say anything for a few moments, seemed to be searching for the right words.

"I, when I saw you there. Unconscious, drowning, probably about to die. I started to panic, and I just did anything I could to make sure you were okay. I guess it worked."

"Yeah, I guess it did." I muttered, thinking about how I'd felt when I saw her in the cave. I would've given her my air tank if things had been different.

"We should probably keep moving, "I said, "I don't know how long we've been down here, but I'm worried about the Mimigas."

"Yeah, me too." Curly agreed. She started to get out of the bed, but her legs collapsed beneath her as soon as she put her weight on them.

I jumped forward out of the chair and caught her before she hit the ground. Lifting her back up to her previous place on the bed I said, "It looks like you're still pretty worn out. I guess we're gunna be stuck here for a little bit longer."

"No," She said, as if to herself, "They need us, the Mimigas. Is there any other way?"

Pulling the tow rope out of my pocket I said, "Well I carried you here with this. I could carry you out with it too. Would that work?"

"Yeah," She said, "Anything that can get us back to the Mimigas"

"Okay," I said, "Well, turn around."

"Uh, okay." Curly said, rolling over on the bed.

I grabbed the hook of the tow rope and started to attach it when Curly said, "Umm, what are you doing?"

Suddenly cheeks started to burn when I realized what I seemed to be doing.

The place where the tow rope connected was in the middle of Curly's back, and I was reaching my hand up her shirt.

I quickly attached the hook then withdrew my hand, "Its, that's where the, umm, hook attaches."

"Oh," She said, starting to laugh, "I thought you were, uh, doing something else."

"Uh, yeah" I murmured, embarrassed, "Sorry about that."

We stood in silence for a moment, neither of us sure of what to say.

"Umm," I said, "There's two sides to the hook, I think there might be a place to attach it on my back too."

"Uh, yeah maybe, "Curly said, "Wait, I thought you used it before. Don't you know?"

"I don't think I used it right. If there is a place to attach it to me, I couldn't find it so I kinda just carried you and held onto the rope with one of my hands to make sure you didn't float away."

"Oh," She said, "Well turn around, let me check."

I did that and then tensed as I felt Curly's hand slip up the back of my shirt. Wow, that must've been weird, especially since she wasn't expecting it.

"Found it," She exclaimed, "Now hand me the hook."

I gave her the other side of the rope and felt her slip the hook into my back. Sometimes it's really weird being a robot.

"Okay, so anything else before we head out?" Curly asked

"No, I don't think so. If you could just hold onto my back and shoot over my shoulder or something that would be great."

"Oh okay" She said resolutely, then suddenly her resolve wavered, "Wait, my gun exploded, and anyway I don't think you brought it with us."

"Oh, well take one of mine." I said, reaching into my backpack and pulling out a couple of my backup weapons. "I've got the bubbler, the fireball, and a blade."

"Well, the other two kinda sound stupid, so I guess I'll take the blade."

I sighed, "Yeah, I figured you'd choose that. I guess I'm stuck with the bubbler." Then I smiled, "But as soon as we get a chance, you're getting a new gun so I can get my sword back."

"Yeah, okay." She smiled, "Well, let's get this over with."

I squatted down next to the bed and felt Curly climb onto my back.

It took a second to regain my balance, but soon we were out in the waterway.

After a cautious 1 2 3, I jumped into the water and started to swim into a nearby tunnel.


For the most part I didn't have to worry about the monsters in the tunnels since Curly took care of them. I still had difficulty in navigating the powerful current and the sharp rocks, but at least I was rested, and Curly was safe this time.

Walking along the gravelly floor, I felt the strong arms of the water flowing over me, but I knew that I was safe due to Curly's air tank.

At some point in the future, I should probably give that back to her.

But not until after we get out of here.

The floor gave way beneath my feet and I found myself slipping and sliding down a steep precipice and into a gaping void below.

I watched the abyss approaching and found that I was powerless to avoid its hungry mouth. The hole swallowed me and spat me out into another waterlogged tunnel.

The current in this one was strong, sucking us forcibly along with it toward an unknown destination.

"Where are we?" Curly said to herself.

"I don't know," I answered as we shot through the subterranean Jetstream. "But something tells me we won't be here long. Maybe this is the end of the road.

"Yeah, I hope so."

Movement caught the corner of my eye and I struggled to turn toward it. Suddenly something massive shot past us and disappeared from my view.

"What was that?" Curly exclaimed.

"I don't know, but we should have our weapons ready just in case."

"One step ahead of you." Curly said. I could see the blade hovering on the edge of my vision.

"Yeah, be careful with that." I laughed, trying to lighten the situation, "I've got enough to worry about without you chopping my head off from behind."

She let out a small chuckle, "Yeah, yeah, I'll do my best. But if I do, you know, accidentally kill you. You'll forgive me, right?"

I smiled, "Yeah, sure. Let's do this."

I pulled out the bubbler and gratefully realized that it was at full charge, no single dangling bubble today. Well, hopefully.

I stopped swimming and felt myself start to sink to the bottom. As I looked up, I saw the creature swim over us.

Some kind of massive fish with a metallic helmet covering most of its head and face.

Raising the bubbler, I pulled the trigger and watched the barrage of deadly bubbles approach the fish.

Such a stupid weapon.

I watched the bubbles pop and release the damaging shockwaves toward the creature. I felt Curly's weight shift and just moments later the blade was flying toward the fish.

The shockwaves struck first, doing little more than drawing its attention and creating a few small bruises. The sword came close to landing in the creature's chest, but at the last moment the fish moved out of the way and received only a slim scratch on its side.

With a massive flap of its single tail fin, the creature barreled toward us and before I could react the heavy metal helmet smashed into me and sent me sprawling across the gravelly floor.

Clambering back to my feet, albeit unsteadily, I raised my gun again and fire on the creature. A few of the shockwaves tore gashes when they hit the already beaten skin. However, they were only small wounds and couldn't possibly incapacitate a creature of this size.

Curly threw the sword again and this time it gouged a deeper wound and blood began to leak from the gash.

Suddenly Curly grunted with pain and surprise, "What the heck was that?"

She swiveled around, trying to get a better look. I turned around curiously just in time to catch a speeding porcupine fish with my face. The barbs dug into my skin and tore several gashes. Then the fish was gone, swept away by the thunderous current.

A moment after that, I saw the incoming storm of porcupine fish. "Uh, Curly. There's more."

"Yeah, I see them." She muttered.

"What do we do?' I murmured, mesmerized by the quickly approaching wave of pain.

"How about I take care of the shark," Curly said, "And you keep these things off of me."

"Uh, yeah. Good idea."

I loosened the tow rope, giving Curly more room to turn around so she could face the shark. Then I readied myself with the bubbler and began to fire.

I watched the porcupine fish easily pushed aside by the comparatively powerful shockwaves of the bubbler. Well, at least it was good for something.

I became so engrossed with the task of vanquishing the small fish that I was completely surprised and shocked when the shark rammed me from behind.

I flew down to the ground and rolled over several times.

Sitting up I searched around for Curly, and found her laying just a few feet away from me thanks to the tow rope.

I started to stand up, but found that something jerked be back down almost immediately.

I floundered around for a moment, exclaiming, "Agh! Something's got me!"

"Relax!" Curly said, "It's the tow rope, it got caught on something."

"Oh," I said, running my hands along the rope and searched for the knot or tangle that was holding us down.

"Uh," Curly moaned, "The shark, its coming."

I looked up from the rope and saw that the steel headed shark was charging directly toward us.

"Uh oh, hurry." I exclaimed, "Help me get this undone."

We both frantically searched for the place where the rope was stuck, but to no avail.

It seemed as if the rope disappeared at one point then reappeared a few feet later.

Curly glanced up at the shark and saw that it was substantially nearer now. In only seconds it would impact.

I watched her grab both ends of the tow rope in one hand, then hold the sword high with the other.

"Hey Curly! What are you doing!" I cried out.

Pausing in her task, Curly looked up at me for a moment and said, "If it hits us here, we're both goners. I'm saving our lives."

I started to panic. At his point she was probably still too weak to walk on dry land, let alone fight the current and traverse the underwater tunnels. Plus she didn't have her air tank.

"No!" I shouted desperately, "There's gotta be another way. You'll drown! Here, let me give you back your air tank."

She smiled and shook her head, "Can't. We don't have that much time."

I looked back at the shark and saw that it wasn't very far away any longer. We only had seconds before the collision.

Curly cut the rope suddenly, but before the current tore her away I managed to grab her by the shoulders and anchor her to the ground if only for a moment.

All I was able to say was a murmured "No…" I couldn't think of anything except the fact that I'd just gotten her back and now I might lose her all over again. And I might not be able to help her this time.

"Don't worry," She said, "I'll be okay."

"But…"

"Goodbye,"

Finally I was able to squeeze more than a single quivering word out.

"I'll find you," I said.

"I know, and I can't wait." She said with a smile. Suddenly she leaned and placed her lips on mine, before suddenly pushing me away and letting go.

I watched as she floated away, until the view was blocked by the immense shark that had narrowly missed crushing me.

With a resolute glare on my face I pulled out the bubbler.

I wouldn't be able to go after Curly until I took down this monstrous creature.

And I was going to let this shark get in my way.

I wasn't going to let anything stop me until I found her.