The day was dying. Shadows bled into the world as the sun drowned beneath the horizon, stripping the land and sky of their friendly colors and instead shrouding them in a smoky gray.

It was a sight Olimar didn't want to see.

Pikmin pushed though the grove of grass in a panicked frenzy, tripping and crawling over one another in a mad dash to reach their Onions. Growls and roars filled the air as if the planet itself was stirring awake to dine on those who dared walk its surface at night.

Though he tried, Olimar soon lost track of how many Pikmin returned in the midst of all the confusion. "Louie!" he called as the last Pikmin, a pink one with an injured wing, scurried by. "Do you know if that was all of them?"

His bumbling co-worker startled as if he had been disrupted from a daydream. "Uh... Well, it was a lot of them..."

He didn't even know why he bothered to ask. Turning away, he listened to see if anymore Pikmin were coming.

Grass rustled all around him.

Leaves were crushed underfoot.

He didn't know who was causing it. Under the mask of night, every noise heralded the approach of a predator.

"Uh, Olimar? Shouldn't we be lifting off now?" Louie asked, shuffling closer to the ship.

Olimar took a deep breath, trying to recall his movements during the day. Did he remember to gather up the Pikmin he left to harvest berries? What about the ones at the bridge? Or the electric gate? There was also that bulbear attack near the pond...

The breeze carried with it the low growl of a bulborb. He was certain it was nearby.

"Louie, get on the ship. We're leaving," he said, and Louie, visibly relieved, rushed to get on board. Olimar's steps were a lot heavier.

His ship took to the sky with a thunderous boom. Before he could breach the clouds and lose sight of the surface, some force seemed to urge him to look back at the landing site. When he did, he saw them. Three lone souls staring at him with wide scared eyes, a red, a blue, and a yellow. All around them he could see the creatures of the night moving in on them.

He turned away, tightening his grip on the wheel until his fingers went numb.

Olimar woke up shivering. The fatigue from the past day hit him first, followed by the weight of that dream. He stared at the wall of his ship, torn between the need to sleep and the fear of it. Memories like those haunted his sleep at times. Despite his precautions and his careful planning, he'd very rarely return at sunset with the same number of Pikmin he set off with. Nature was cruel and unpredictable he had learned over and over again. Yet the deaths that stung the most were the ones he could have avoided.

He knew full well why he dreamed of that incident in particular. It was all thanks to those glowing green eyes that watched him long after he had closed his own. That one knew me... The more he thought about it, the more the uncomfortable truth began to sink in. That one hated me.

Another shiver passed through him and this time he realized his blanket had gone missing.

Munch... Munch... Munch...

Peering over his bed, he found the source of the noise to be the sheargrub from before. Innocent and unaware, she was nibbling away at the pile of threads formerly known as his blanket.

He tore it away from her. "Stop that!"

Unperturbed by his shout, the sheargrub scooted off in search to destroy some other belonging of his.

If only I could remember Louie's recipe for sheargrub quiche... He hauled himself out of bed to stop her, only to immediately regret it as every one of his muscles lit on fire, begging him to go back to sleep.

A pile of boxes sat in one of the corners of the room, housing the supplies he kept for upcoming voyages as well as leftovers from previous ones that he never got around to cleaning out. Digging through cans of veggie soup and tattered books, Olimar found an old collar and leash left behind from the time he took his dog along with on one of his family vacations. He remembered that incident clearly. His children had insisted they bring little Bulbie with for once, saying he was a part of the family and it wasn't fair to leave him behind. Well, Olimar didn't think it was fair that he had to be the one to clean up after him and that he had to be the one to pay for all the furniture he chewed up at the hotel they stayed at. And that was after they had to smuggle him in! Next time they had an idea like that, he'd have to put his foot down and tell them firmly that 'no means no'. They had a way of making him waver, though...

While he was reminiscing, the sheargrub had wandered over to Brittany's bed in hopes of making a meal out of her blanket as well. Olimar went over and scooped the grub up, slipped the collar around her, and tied the end of the leash to a metal pipe on the wall. With that problem solved, he turned to his bed, ready to get whatever sleep he could before morning, when he just happened to glance at his alarm clock.

6:59 a.m. Just a minute before the alarm would go off.

Life was cruel.


A veil of morning mist cloaked the valley below, obscuring any view Alph had of the area. He guided the Drake on a meandering course above, waiting until the white vapor thinned enough for him to land safely.

Felicity sat next to him on the armrest, prim and proper like a tiny fluffy princess. Her fur was soft to the touch and groomed to the point where it shined. Earlier, Charlie had decided to give her coat a good combing using the brush he normally reserved for his rubber duck (why and how you'd need to groom a rubber duck, Alph had no idea and was too afraid to ask). While he combed her, the other fluffs began to gather around, clamoring for their turn. Amused, Charlie directed them to form a line and wait their turns which they did so with eager anticipation. Now, the fluffs were enjoying some pampering, Charlie was enjoying the attention, and Alph, well...

"Ha... HA-CHOO!" Alph was not enjoying it at all.

He sniffled and rubbed at his itchy eyes. Felicity looked at him in concern and edged closer to see what was wrong.

"I-I'm fine!" Alph said, shifting away from her. "Just... Just stay where you are, okay?" He sniffled again. Of course it was just his luck he ended up being allergic to Pikmin fur. When he first started noticing he was feeling off, he went to go find his helmet to get some relief. As it turned out, Charlie was unknowingly using it to dump any loose clumps of fur in. Alph had cried a bit when he found out. Because of his allergies, of course.

"You know, Alph, maybe I should open a pet grooming business when we get back," Charlie said to him with a lighthearted grin. "I seem to have a knack for this!"

"That's real great, captain..." Alph hadn't meant to sound so insincere, but between his lack of sleep and his watery eyes, the morning's found him in a bit of a bad mood. Luckily Charlie didn't seem to take any offense and went back to his brushing. By then the mist had cleared up a bit allowing Alph to gain some vision on what was below. A slow moving river winded out of the veil like a great, milk white serpent and slithered on some ways before being swallowed by the mist again. He followed it upstream until he came across a grassy mound overlooking it. That would do. "Captain! I've found a place to land!"

At some point, Charlie had already walked up to his side. "Good, and I just finished brushing the last one, too. Oh, and by the way..." He handed Alph his helmet. "Sorry, I only just noticed I was using this to dump all the fur in. I tried cleaning it out, but it looks like there's still some stuck in there. Well, if anything, at least it'll help keep you warm!" he added with a laugh.

Alph wanted to cry again. Because of his allergies, of course.

After he settled the Drake down and the whole crew disembarked, Alph wandered over to the side of the mound facing the river. The sun was peeking over one of the hills that helped shape the valley, its light cutting through the mist and sending it fleeing. Now he could make out the flowers that coated the lowlands and crept up the lower slopes of the hills, painting the land with every color Alph cared to imagine. Spectralids were beginning to wake up and flutter about. A rare dandelfly even passed by, tempting the fluff Pikmin with the golden orbs of nectar it carried.

"I'm going to have to hand to you, Alph," Charlie said, "You picked the perfect spot to begin our search. This place looks like a Pikmin paradise!"

Alph beamed at the praise. "Aw thanks, captain." He sniffled, trying to hold back a sneeze. "So where should we head first?"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, now. We still have to wait for the others."

"Oh. Right. That'd be a good idea," Alph responded bashfully and perked up his ears to listen. Somewhere in the white smoke, he could make out the churning of an engine. That only meant one thing! "Here they come right now!"

Olimar's shambling ship was easy to make out in the fading mist. Both he and Charlie waved to it as it flew towards them, right over them... and kept going.

"...And there they go," Alph finished, watching as the glowing tail of the ship disappeared into where the mist was still thick

"Well, I suppose that answers your question, Alph," Charlie said, his hands dropping to his sides. "...We'd better go see if they're okay."


Olimar woke up with a gasp as a loud buzz sounded next to his ear. He looked up and saw a rock approaching him faster than any normal rock should. Startled, he veered the ship to the left, narrowly avoiding it. Once their flight smoothed out, he shook his head, trying to pull himself together. Better land now while I'm still awake... Spotting a flat dirt patch in the shadow of a rocky cliff, he started to drift towards it.

Meanwhile, his ship decided it was a perfect time to start nagging him again. A broken voice box would not stop it, Olimar learned; it would just find other ways instead. There was a grid of light bulbs to his left that would light up every now and then when he was piloting the ship. He never really knew what they were for. Right now a group of them had lit up to form a horizontal white oval. The bulbs blinked a few times before shifting to an exclamation mark.

This had to have been the third time it did that. "I told you I tied the sheargrub up already! It's in a corner where it has nothing to chew on." Olimar guided the nose of the ship skyward and began the landing sequence. "I'll get rid of it when I get when I get back, I promise."

Three bulbs lit up in a row, one right after the other. Dot dot dot.

Olimar huffed. The ship was doubting him! "I'll remember. Now let me out of here. We have a lot of ground to cover today, and I want to get back to the others within the hour." He glanced over his shoulder, finding Brittany snoozing peacefully away in her seat.

Well, not for long, Olimar thought as he felt his own seat tremble. The glass dome covering him popped open and he was forcibly ejected out of the cockpit. He somersaulted across the ground several times before coming to rest on his rear. And the president wonders where my 'sudden back problems' came from...

"Ow... What was that for?" Brittany demanded. She was sprawled face first on the ground with a very dizzy Brambles on her helmet. "I was having such a nice dream..."

"Take it up with the ship. Every single piece of it is broken in some way." He had tried to fix those seats multiple times, yet somehow they always ended up busted by the next day. The ship, the snark machine that it was, told him it was because of his weight. The nerve!

"You need to get a new ship," she grumbled as she got up. "That thing's a hazard."

Believe me, I've been trying. "Are the thorn Pikmin up yet?"

"Brambles barely is." With her hand, she beckoned the sleepy thorn to crawl down to her shoulder. "I don't have high hopes for the others."

"No harm in trying." At least, he hoped there wasn't. Olimar walked up to his ship and whistled for the thorns like he used to do for the purples and whites. Once the shrill noise died down, the only sound was the chugging of the engine. Not a single Pikmin answered his call. "I had a feeling they were going to be difficult..."

"Well, they're not the only ones who had to pull an all-nighter!" Brittany said, marching up to him. She turned to her Pikmin and pointed at the ship. "Brambles, go drag those lazy carrots out of bed."

He blinked drearily at her before leaving to crawl up one of the exhaust pipes. The muffled sound of squeaky voices soon echoed from inside. Gradually, the voices got louder and louder until it sounded as if a full blown argument was breaking out. A few minutes later, the pipe shook and Brittany had to step aside as Brambles got launched out in a puff of smoke. Another thorn poked its head out. It shook its fist at them, rambling something angry sounding, then disappeared back inside.

"Okay, now what?" Brittany stepped around Brambles to take a look inside the pipe. "Should I try to keep whistling until they come out?"

"No, it's best we don't overstep our boundaries with them. The last thing we need is to have them turn their claws on us." Truth be told, Olimar was a little relieved to be leaving them behind.

"I suppose. At least we have-ack!" she stumbled forward as Brambles jumped on her back. Like some sort of green, spiky cat, he circled around on her life support pack before curling up in a ball and dozing off. "W-Wait! You're not going to sleep, too!"

He sighed. "Seems like it's just going to be us, then. In that case, we'd better hurry and regroup with the others." Olimar pulled out his computer and gave it a quick glance. "It doesn't look like they're that far away. I must have accidentally passed over them because I was aslee-" he cut himself off.

Brittany blinked at him. "What were you going to say?"

"...Because the mist was so thick. I didn't see them."

"...Right. Sure."

Ignoring her doubtful tone (why was everyone so quick to doubt him this morning?), Olimar set off downhill. The mist was nothing more than a ghost lingering in the air now, transparent and fading. A shadow dancing across the ground alerted him to a spectralid passing overhead and he slowed to watch it drink from a flower. Sometimes, he longed for a chance to return to this planet with no debts or extinctions looming over his head and just observe the wildlife. Even after the crash, the harrowing encounters with giant beasts, and even the plasm wraith, Olimar found that he had grown fond of this world. This dangerous, cruel... yet strangely beautiful world.

"Olimar, what are you waiting for?" Brittany called from ahead. She must have passed him during his ponderings. "Let's hurry to the others."

"Yes, yes, I'm coming..."

It wasn't even a few minutes later when they found themselves walking along the pebbly bank of a river. A school of blinnows knifed through the water, some trailing after their shadows as if daring them to come in. Bushes rattled up where the river changed course, and Olimar motioned for Brittany to stop.

A green antenna popped through the stems, soon followed by none other than Captain Charlie. When he saw Olimar, he called out a greeting and hurried to meet him. Behind him, an entourage of what seemed like walking cottonballs fumbled out of the grass. Olimar was perplexed for a moment, then quickly noticed their stems, gray-white and tipped with golden petals. Pikmin!

"Olimar, they're adorable!" Brittany gushed.

"It's a new species we found where we crashed," Charlie explained once he reached them. "Or at least for us, they're new. I don't know if you've already met them, Captain Olimar."

"No, I haven't seen these before," Olimar said, bending down to get a closer at one of the fluffy Pikmin. It blinked owlishly at him, tilting its head. Temperament-wise, it seemed similar its peaceful, non meat eating cousins, thankfully enough. Its fur was thick and white... likely suited for arctic environments, he deduced. Their appearance reminded him of another plant he saw once, though he couldn't recall it's name at the moment. "Did you find an Onion as well?"

"...No," he answered after a moment. "Not their Onion, anyway."

Judging by his heavy tone, Olimar had a feeling he knew what they had found. The picture of the bleeding Onion in space burned in his head.

"Captain?" Brittany began uncertainly. "Was that Onion..." She stopped and shook her head. "Actually, no. I don't think I want to know. Where's Alph? Why isn't he with you?"

"What? He was just behind me..."

A thump caught everyone's attention. "I'm over here..." Alph said, picking himself up in front of the bushes Charlie had passed through.

Brittany lit up when she saw him. "There you are, Alph! I was really- Oh gosh! Are you okay?!" she exclaimed when he got closer.

"Hello, Brittany. Good to see you." Alph sniffled. His eyes were red and watery. "I think I'm allergic to their fur..."

She leaned in and put her hands on his helmet, turning it as she examined it. "Looks like there's some stuck in there. Here, you can have mine. It should be fine if we switch here. Our space suits will level out any excess oxygen that gets in, right?"

He looked away. "Y-Yeah."

"Oh, don't be embarrassed! I'm sure pink will look pretty on you!"

"So, Brittany!" Charlie interrupted them loudly. "I've been wondering. What exactly is that you're carrying on your back? Looks like a dried up twig."

"Oh, that's Brambles. He's a new species, too." She turned to let them have a better view of him.

"We had an unpleasant encounter with his kind where we landed," Olimar said. His brows furrowed as he added, "They're predators. Dangerous ones. We must be careful when we're working with them."

Alph took a step back. "Predators?! You don't mean these Pikmin eat meat, do you?"

Disturbed by Alph's outburst, Brambles lifted his head to see what was going on. Focus sharpened his eyes once he spotted the others and he crawled to the ground. An uncomfortable wave seemed to pass over the fluffs. Only one broke out of the ranks, curious about the new green Pikmin. A silence fell over everyone as it offered its hand in greeting. Brambles stared at it before raising his own.

Olimar watched the scene with baited breath. Was it possible for these Pikmin to coexist?

Brambles' hand stopped just shy of the fluff's, a thoughtful expression passing over his face. Then, quick as a striking snagret, he swiped at the fluff's body, hooking a clump of fur in his claws. It shrieked in pain and ran to Charlie for safety.

"F-Felicity! Are you okay?" He picked her up and tried to smooth out her ruffled coat. "And I spent all morning brushing it, too..."

Watching the remaining fluff Pikmin and even Alph back away in fright, Olimar knew he had the answer to his question. Though it was unfortunate Felicity got hurt, perhaps it was better they found out this way. He shuddered to imagine what might have happened had they brought the whole group of thorns with them. Fur would have been flying everywhere, most likely...

Aware of everyone watching him, Brambles retreated back to Brittany's shoulder. Making eye contact with Felicity, he cruelly waved at her with the hand her fur was caught up in, making her flinch.

Finally recovering from the shock of the scene, Brittany snatched the clump away from him. "No, Brambles! Bad boy!" The thorn ducked his head in response, unsure of what he did wrong.

No one said anything, but Olimar could tell by the Koppaite's expressions that they were thinking the same thought he was: was this an alliance they could afford to keep?


After a bit of discussion, the explorers came to the conclusion that splitting up would be too risky given their low Pikmin count, so they decided to stick together and sweep through the valley as a single unit.

Charlie led the charge through the grassy hillside. Dew still clung heavy to the green strands, causing even the slightest brush against one to result in a shower of beads raining down on them. The fluffs got the worst of it, their fur soaked through and clinging to their small bodies. A scent oddly reminiscent of wet dog began to permeate the air as a result.

Alph had filled Olimar and Brittany in on their current situation with the strange field surrounding the planet, neither of whom were very pleased to hear about it. To lighten the mood, Alph ended up sharing some of his other discoveries. Right now he was off to the side with Olimar, excitedly rambling on about something. "I swear it's true! It was like a perfect blend between the two species. Could you ever have imagined a creature like that existed?"

"No, Alph. Never in my wildest dreams." Olimar was wearing an amused smile. "If only I had been there to see it myself."

Bringing up the rear was Brittany, whom none of the fluff Pikmin wanted anything to do with, least of all Felicity who was keeping unwavering vigilance on her from the top of Charlie's helmet. That thorn was back to snoozing on her life support pack again. She kept glancing over her shoulder at him as if worried he'd wake up and wreak havoc. Maybe this could be a good opportunity to reassure her...

"Do you hear that?" Olimar asked out of the blue.

Charlie listened. A loud, squishy sound came from ahead, similar to that of someone relentlessly chowing down on a piece of fruit.

Olimar passed by him. "I know I've heard that sound before."

"Is it danger?"

He pushed a blade of grass out of the way, then turned to him. "For once, no."

Everyone gathered around to see what was in the clearing. At least a half dozen burgeoning spiderworts grew in a circle, boasting not only red berries, but a new variety of blue ones, too.

...As well as a tangle of squirming, orange larva gorging themselves on the plant's bounty.

"Ravenous whiskerpillars," Olimar explained. "Completely harmless."

"Not to those berries, they aren't!" Brittany said, impressed by their appetites. "You know, we could really use some of those."

They watched as a whiskerpillar fell from one of the spiderworts with a thud, leaving it picked clean. It rolled onto its stomach and began to inch its way over to another plant to get a second helping. Before it could get very a far, a familiar yellow beak speared though the ground with a horrendous caw, soon followed by white feathers and blue scales. The snagret stabbed the the larva clean through its abdomen and dragged it screaming into the black depths of its tunnel.

Its surviving kin kept on snacking away without a care in the world.

"...Nature's so scary," Alph said after a long moment.

Brittany stared at the hole it left behind in annoyance. "I'm really getting sick of snagrets."

"With that thing there, harvesting those berries is too much of a risk," Olimar said. "We'll just have move on without them."

"Where exactly are we supposed to go though?" Alph asked him. "It's not like we have a signal to follow."

He brought up a good point, Charlie had to admit. They needed some focus to their search, otherwise they'd be better off finding a needle in a haystack. "Pikmin could be wandering anywhere during the day, but if they're going to survive, they'd need a place to hunker down for the night, wouldn't they?"

Olimar thought about this and nodded. "Yes. So we should pay extra attention to any caves, hollows, or anything that could be used as a shelter. It'll be much easier to find clues in those areas than hoping we randomly stumble on them in the field. Keep a look out, everyone."

Further along in their expedition, Alph indeed ended up spotting the mouth of a cave hidden behind some flowers. Its entrance was far too small to accommodate most of the planet's predators, making it a hopeful prospect for any traces of their friends. With Olimar leading the way, Charlie and Alph filed in behind, followed by their Pikmin and finally Brittany, who still brought up the rear. Thin tan roots dangled from the roof of the cave by the dozens, sometimes catching someone by the stem or antenna. Sheargrubs burrowed in and out of the dirt. Aside from them, the place showed little signs of life.

They eventually came across a wide open space with a much higher ceiling. Halfway up, Charlie saw another tunnel leading deeper into the cave, though it looked impossible to reach. The only path to it stretched out across the upper perimeter of the room and lead to a dead end. A metal grating now replaced the ground, concealing beneath it four rusted blades. Olimar tested the grating's stability, nodding to the others to follow when he decided it was safe.

Alph walked in with shaky steps, wincing at each metallic creak he caused. "What in the world is that contraption down there?"

"Reminds me of a juicer..." Brittany responded. She shivered right after at the thought.

Olimar pondered the contraption for only a few moments before turning his attention to the rest of the room. "No signs here, either..." he said more to himself than the others.

With this discovery, Charlie wouldn't blame any Pikmin for not wanting to stay here. While the blades were flat and rounded at the edges, they still lingered below like hungry jaws waiting for a meal. He knew he wouldn't sleep easy with those beneath him. Glancing around just in case, he noticed an odd sight poking out from behind a protrusion of rock. He didn't know how else to describe it other than it looked to be a floating ball of stationary fire... But that's crazy! "I'm going to go investigate over there," he told everyone.

An unnatural glimmer seemed to pulse through the frozen fireball as he drew near it. Felicity hummed, curious about the strange object in front of her, but Charlie felt uneasy. He turned the corner, looking up.

A pair of eyes stared down at him.

He stumbled back with a startled yell. "G-Giant! It's a giant!"

The others ran over to see what was wrong, only to utter similar cries when they saw who was waiting.

The giant's body was clothed in blue overalls and a red shirt. A hat embroidered with an alien symbol sat on its head, matching his shirt in color. In front of it, the fireball trailed along as if guided by its hand. It stood still, not staring at him like Charlie first thought, but determinedly ahead at something unseen from on top his golden perch. Statue. It was just a statue.

"I've collected a lot of artifacts from this planet," Olimar started once the realization hit him as well, "but I've never seen one like this."

"Look! There's another one up on the cliff," Alph pointed out. The statue in question stood off to the side of the tunnel and looked about five seconds away from falling over. Clothing wise, it was similar to its brother, only wearing green instead of red. This outfit obviously must have held some cultural significance to these people.

"That one really lacks the presence its brother has," Olimar said. "I didn't even notice it when I came in. Probably not worth as much." He ran his hand across the red statue's base, disappointment falling over his features when he realized it wasn't gold. "It's still an important discovery, though. This could be our first glimpse of what the natives looked like before they presumably died out."

"Since they're just statues, it's probably safe to say they're not to scale," Brittany added in. "Imagine if they really were that big!"

The mystery of the statues captured the curiosity of both the Pikmin and explorers. Two fluffs stood on its base, one pointing out the fireball and chattering about it to the horror of its companion. Meanwhile, Alph was busy taking pictures of them, telling Brittany about how his siblings had gotten mad at him for not taking enough during his last trip. Charlie walked around the red giant, taking in its appearance. Though Olimar said otherwise, he thought he rather preferred the green fellow on the cliff. He has a respectable taste in fashion. And that mustache! That is a mustache of a man who's not to be trifled with. He was almost jealous of it.

He found Olimar standing behind the statue, examining a sort of switch embedded into the ground. It was a white square, hardly reaching past his feet in height, and nestled into rectangular hole that looked specially made for it. "Do you think that's part of that contraption down there?"

Olimar nodded. "And I think I understand what it does. The blades are attached to that device in the middle... Most likely designed to rotate them... Hmm." Glancing at the fluff Pikmin for a moment, he whistled to get everyone's attention. "Get off the grating, everyone. I'm going to test something." He waited until all feet were on solid ground before putting both hands on the switch. Ignoring the inquisitive stares on him, he pushed it as far as it would go.

The room shuddered. Below the grate, the metal blades spurred to life with a terrible creak. Dirt slid off their surfaces as they began to turn, rapidly increasing in speed until it produced an air current with the strength of a hurricane. Charlie struggled to keep his footing as the ground rocked beneath him.

"Olimar, what are you doing?!" Brittany yelled over the roaring wind.

He hardly seemed to hear her. "Too much force. Maybe if I adjust it a bit..." He went over to the other side and pushed it back a few notches. The blades slowed in response, weakening the current until it was nothing more than a gentle breeze. "That should work."

"Work for what?!" Her voice was still high with incredulity. Brambles crawled on her shoulder, glaring at the Hocotation. Whether he was mad at him for disturbing his sleep or for upsetting Brittany, Charlie wasn't sure.

"When I saw those Pikmin for the first time, they reminded of a native plant I saw once." Seeing that he had Brittany's attention, Olimar continued, "The seeds they bore were attached to fluffy white tufts. When the wind picked up, they'd dislodge and get carried far away, floating on the breeze."

"So you wanted to see if the Pikmin could ride the wind current?" Alph asked. "It could work. They are pretty light."

This time, Charlie decided to take initiative and test the grating. He couldn't help but note how much hungrier the metal blades looked now that they were awake. "It's shaking a bit from the vibrations, but otherwise it feels stable."

The Pikmin only looked on as the three leaders left to join Charlie. Felicity waved over to them, giving them some words of encouragement. One fluff came forward to test the waters. When its foot touched the grating, its eyes squeezed shut as the force of the wind met its face and ruffled its fur. With each step, it took all it could not to be blown away. The little fluff held strong though, and soon the whole group was following the leaders to the ledge on the other side of the room. Olimar was the first to give one a toss and, just as he suspected, the wind propelled it up and up, farther than even a yellow could be thrown. Once it safely landed on the ledge, the rest of its kind followed behind it. After the last one had been thrown, Olimar directed the Pikmin to join hands and lower themselves down to give them a way up. Everything seemed to be working out smoothly.

Until the chain of Pikmin stopped halfway down the cliff.

"We don't have enough..." Alph said.

Olimar gave a weary sigh. "It was worth a try. Brittany, could you turn off the device? We need to get them down."

"Wait!" Charlie cut in. "After all that, we're just giving up?"

"There's not much else we can do, is there? And it's not like this cave was holding much promise to begin with. There hasn't been a single sign of habitation, from Pikmin or otherwise."

Still, Charlie hated the idea of leaving the cave half way in. What if there were Pikmin waiting for them further in? The thought would bother him to no end. He looked around for any other way they could get up there. Eventually his sights fell on the leaning man in green. "We could use him. Look at the way he's standing! If we have the Pikmin push him off the cliff, he'd form a ramp for us to get up. We'd be able to reach them easily then."

"Push him off? That would probably damage the treasure! There's no reason to break it when the cave's proving to be a dead end."

"Is it the treasure you're concerned about or the Pikmin? I say if there's even a small chance we could find them here, then we should keep investigating! Isn't that right?" he asked Alph and Brittany, his loyal crew whom he knew he could always count on to stand by and support him.

They both took a step back, not wanting to have any part in it.

...Okay, he was really going to need to have a talk with them one of these days.

"The treasure isn't my main concern. I just don't think there's any reason to waste what little time we have exploring this cave." Olimar's voice was hard. "But if you insist, we can keep going."

Maybe he had gone a little too far, but it was too late to take it back now. Instead Charlie put his plan in motion and directed the Pikmin over to the statue. The green man's leaning posture only served to make it that much easier for them to tip him over. As he leaned further over the edge, Charlie thought he saw a small glitter escape from the man's eye. The next moment, the man was lying face first on the grate, the resulting impact breaking his nose off and sent it rolling to a stop in front of Olimar's feet.

He gave it a little kick, unimpressed. "Well, whatever value it might have had, it's gone now." Looking to Charlie, he added, "Go ahead and lead the way, then."


Olimar silently fumed to himself during their trek up the tunnel. How dare Charlie insinuate that he cared more for the treasures than for the Pikmin... He just didn't like the idea of damaging them for hopeless endeavors. There weren't any Pikmin living in this cave, that much he was certain. No footprints, no drawings, no nests, no signs of life. At least the path was leading up towards a few thin strands of daylight. He was afraid it would lead even deeper, possibly to a dead end. It would have taken them most of the day to work their way to the beginning again and that was time he didn't want to waste.

Silence had fallen over the group as they walked, outside of the occasional yelp or scolding coming from the back of the line. Alph had slowed down to give Brittany some much needed company, though things weren't going very well for them. Brambles kept lashing out at Alph whenever he got just a hair too close. Brittany would yell at the Pikmin to behave, but her words fell on deaf ears. Whenever Alph got in range, which was often with how cramped the tunnel was, out came the claws. It was all the two Koppaites could do but exchange exasperated looks with each other.

The end of the tunnel came upon them without warning. One moment all was dim with a faint promise of light awaiting ahead, the next moment the sky was sprawling above them, bright blue without a trace of night to be seen. It couldn't have been more than two hours since they first entered the cave, though it felt longer. For some reason, to Olimar time on the surface always seemed to slow to a halt whenever he explored underground, as silly as it sounded.

He saw the valley far below, perfectly flat and nestled in the cradle of the land. The cave had taken them quite a ways up the hillside.

"Looks like there wasn't much to be found in there after all..." Charlie remarked, disappointed.

Olimar didn't say anything. He walked past the other captain, careful to keep his footing on the sloping terrain, and tried to get a sense of where they were. The fanning petals of the flowers made it hard to see, but he managed to find the entrance they went through at the base of the hill. Not far from it was the ring of spiderwort plants, the very sight of which sent an icy chill through him.

Dead in the center of the ring, the snagret stood with its head facing the sky, beak parted in a silent scream, and its body contorted as if in pain. A shell of gray stone encased its entire being, turning it into nothing more than a statue.

Perched on their plants, the whiskerpillars continued to eat their berries in peace.


I'm very sorry to all of you for the wait. This fic will probably be plagued with slow updates given how little free time I have to write these days, but I can ensure that even if it takes awhile for me to update, I have no intention on giving up on this story. If that ever were to happen, I'd let you all know ahead of time. But I don't think it will. I really love writing this fic.

That said, I don't ever want to see this chapter again. I had to rewrite large chunks of it several times until it finally got to the point where I was satisfied with the direction it was taking. Most of what I wanted managed to get in in the end, but we did end up missing out on a new enemy. Originally, there was no cave to explore in this chapter, and Brittany and Charlie ended up with a humorous encounter with a new critter. But since the cave was added and several things were changed, I decided it ended up being too out of the way and cut the scene altogether. Since I don't where else to put it, I might write it as a bonus scene for the piklopedia chapter. Oh, and I've taken to writing animal names in lowercase to make it more in line with how it's written in canon. I'll go back and edit the other chapters later.

Since I haven't done so yet, I'll talk a little bit about our fluffy Pikmin friends. Though here they reminded Olimar of dandelions, my inspiration for them actually came from cottonwood tree seeds. I live near a bunch of them, and when spring comes, you can see dozens of them floating on the wind and coating the ground like snow.

Pikmin flowers are based off of bacopa flowers and their colors reflect this, so the fluff's golden petals are based off... er... bacopa mecardonia yellow, which technically isn't part of the bacopa family but shhhhhh.

Current Pikmin count: 20 fluffs, 25 thorns

Treasures found: Champion of Games (Mario Amiibo) Value: 5000 pokos

Green Guy (Luigi Amiibo) Value: 2 pokos (I'm so sorry, Luigi)