Once upon a time I had so much time on my hands it was hard for me not to update this story three times a week. I had everything written down a week before I posted it! Then, school started, and I'm finding it harder and harder to keep up with the promise to finish this story. But I will finish it! If I wasn't going to, then I probably wouldn't be here writing right now.
Notice: Who here likes Yellow Pikmin? Who here skims most of the text when they read? If you're either, or both, and the story somewhat matters, read the end of Shacho's section, just after this Olimar/Louie scene.
Olimar guided his 99 Pikmin across the Distant Spring, searching for Louie and the Blue Onion, wherever he was. Olimar looked at his chart again. Yep, Gill, wherever he was, was still in the Distant Spring and obviously avoiding attention, for he was nowhere to be found.
Louie could say the complete opposite, and would have given anything to get Gill away! Gill was on his helmet, whacking away endlessly, ruthlessly attempting to down his target! Louie looked at his suit stats, his suit was taking damage, slowly, obviously not a threat to him yet, but this was just annoying!!
Louie ran out of the water and grabbed Gill by the stem and tossed him off, throwing him several yards away. Louie turned around and ran towards a group of trees, most of them stumps, where he remembered a Fiery Bulblax sleeping there during his last adventure here with Captain Olimar.
Louie's throw was just far enough to be significant. Olimar's radar picked up the red Pikmin on the edge of the screen, just enough to grab his attention. Of course, Gill disappeared a second later as he got up and ran after Louie again, but Olimar was still curious as to what it was. Intrigued, he turned around and headed in that direction.
The novice pilot jumped off the tiny cliff and landed in the tiny space that the sleeping Fiery Bulblax called home. He turned around. Yes, Gill was coming back. He waited, and then extended his arm. He grabbed Gill's stem and tossed it towards the Bulblax and then climbed back up the tiny cliff, intending to leave the red Pikmin alone with the fiery Bulblax in the tiny arena.
Gill landed on the creature's flaming back and slipped off again. But it was enough to wake the monster up. The Bulblax stopped snoring and got up to its feet, turned around, and eyed the lone red Pikmin with the same hunger almost every creature had nowadays.
Louie got up to the top of the cliff wall, and looked back with satisfaction. The red Pikmin would be eaten in no time! He turned around to walk away triumphantly, but before he could even look in the right direction, something slammed into him and knocked him back into the arena. When he opened his eyes again, he found a red Pikmin on his chest. This one was RED, and 98 more Pikmin were jumping down to join RED. Last was Captain Olimar himself. As they landed in the arena, both the army of Pikmin and their leader looked at the giant Bulblax with terror.
Olimar's family screamed loud enough for even a Pikmin to hear it through the captain's helmet. Olimar was scared stiff for a split second, and the red Pikmin, who hardly remembered to be afraid, instantly began to attack. Louie tossed RED off of him and dashed towards the arena wall again, only to feel Olimar grab his ankle and pull him back down. Olimar was furious now, and wanted Louie to feel that hatred. He pulled Louie down and swung him around twice before letting him go, sliding him straight into the Bulbax's feet. The monster nearly tripped over him, but got its balance back just in time to take a huge bite, snatching seven red Pikmin from the ground. Gill and RED bumped into each other. They looked at their leader. Olimar was a bit busy gaining control of the chaos and keeping Louie in the arena, so they jumped onto the Bulblax's back on their own. Many of their "brothers" followed. It was quite a sight to see.
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Shacho and his eleven Pikmin saw a golden gleam in the dirt, and knew it was the Research Pod. It shined in the sunset light to be extremely attracting. Any Breadbug, if they were to see it, would head for it first. Luckily none were nearby.
They reached the pod, leaning on one side in the dirt. While it could get up at anytime, it decided that the Flare Cannon was not the best weapon for now, seeing as last time three Pikmin burned. Instead, since the Titan Dweevil was slowly stomping through the trees and getting close and closer, the Pod ejected about fifteen metallic spheres into a seven yard radius around the pod, the president, and the Pikmin.
Shacho distinctly remembers what the spheres were for and got down. He knew the Pikmin wouldn't be affected, but he might be. The Shock Therapist fired a huge blast of electricity through the spheres, a huge protective barrier of energy and power flowing around them. The yellow Pikmin were in no danger, either, which went well.
While the electricity burned the already burnt trees and destroyed them, it also kept the Titan Dweevil at bay. When it tried to walk across, the energy latched onto it's legs, which held traces of alloy and other metals, possibly radiation or maybe even scrap metal that it had come across in some point in its life. It was possible even the shuttle crash that happened a few days ago was the cause of this radiation.
Whatever the cause was, it certainly helped. Each time, the Dweevil roared in pain and agony, only to try again and again.
While this was a rather nice effect, it did happen to make a very bright light in the burnt forest. This included those in the sky. Instantly, three Helmeroc birds, all of which searching for a meal, were suddenly interested in the large circle of yellow light. They dove down to investigate.
Shacho looked around, realizing that this barrier of electricity would only last so long, and once it was gone, not only would a giant spider be attacking, but huge birds would be as well! He called the Yellow Pikmin and ran to the edge of the electric wall, waiting for the last possible moment of protection before the power went out and they were vulnerable again.
The instant it did, Shacho took off, the Pikmin not far behind. One Helmeroc got lucky enough to extend its talons and snatch one Pikmin from the back of the group. It infuriated Shacho, but there was nothing he could do about it now…
YELLOW, running like the devil was behind him(which, in a technical form, could be true, since the Titan Dweevil was their biggest problem on the planet), looked behind him to see the second Helmeroc reach for him. He ducked, receiving only a scratch on the back of his neck.
As he ducked, he noticed something off in the distance just a bit ahead of them. Were those…
They were! Shacho had spotted them too and was running for them. YELLOW couldn't wait to use these things again!
The third Helmeroc swooped down but missed. As it flew around to take another pass, it lost sight of the prey. So did the other birds. One of them flew low enough that the Titan Dweevil snatched it out of the air and held it tight until something snapped. It then dropped the corpse, where eventually Sheargrubs would get to it if a Burrowing or Pileated Snagret didn't get it first. The food chain on this planet was pretty stable, if not bizarre.
Regardless, the Pikmin and shacho had just disappeared. The Research Pod was taking the liberty to fly low below the tree branches, just out of sight, while keeping contact with Shacho. The ten Pikmin had found odd objects and were ready to use them. Shacho tossed YELLOW out first.
The yellow Pikmin landed in the open, when the two remaining Helmeroc birds spotted it instantly. They raced each other to eat him, the first one winning. Instantly, YELLOW tossed the bomb-rock he held towards the bird's face.
BANG!!! The bird was dead. The second bird squawked and panicked at the loud noise, but had no way of escaping. Shacho let two more Pikmin attack, tossing the bomb-rocks at its wing and lower torso. The bird fell to the ground.
The Titan Dweevil was not afraid, and stepped over the two dead birds. Two bomb-rocks were tossed towards it, but neither one reached its face. It stomped onto the ground, inches for YELLOW. Shacho called all the Pikmin back to him. It was a bad idea. The Titan Dweevil stepped right in the middle of group, landing on one certain Pikmin that was carrying a bomb-rock. The large shelled leg came down on the Pikmin, crushing the bomb-rock. But the chemical reaction inside the bomb had already been triggered. There was less than a split second for Shacho, YELLOW, and the other Pikmin to realize what was about to happen. BANG!!!
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Serbol had 100 Green Pikmin at his side and a Man-at-Legs that just needed a pilot. He felt prepared for whatever was coming. But whatever it was, it wasn't moving too fast. It was moving slow enough for Serbol to have time to get into the Man-at-Leg's body, turn it on, and still get the whistle working so that the Pikmin knew that this machine was still their leader!
By the time they were organized, though, the creature, a Puffstool, and arrived. It wasn't running towards them! It was running from something, but Serbol didn't realize that, and he commanded the Pikmin to attack.
On the trip to the Distant Planet, Serbol was in charge. This was his operation he was running here, and while it hadn't gone the way he'd planned it, he had memorized the Ship's catalogs and Shacho memory docs on the planet itself, its terrain, and the wildlife. He'd never read Olimar's original logs, which was the only document that had information on the Puffstool. So, he was new to the subject.
As it happened with Olimar the first time, the Puffstool tipped over. The Pikmin seemed to have the upper hand. For some odd reason, the Puffstool could see these green Pikmin. They could see it, too, though, so it was an even fight.
The Puffstool jumped onto its feet again. It breathed in a large amount of oxygen, and then exhaled, over fifty of the Pikmin attacking being within the range of the exhaled poison.
----
Another explosion blew snow everywhere as Cehla's fellow pilots and their Pikmin fought as hard as they possibly could against the confused and irritated Dirigibugs. Cehla could feel the snow start to freeze through her suit, and it was getting soaked enough that it was getting harder and harder to move properly.
The communications suddenly went to static, and no one could communicate with each other. The link was disrupted, but it didn't stop Cehla from fighting. She grabbed WHITE by the stem and tossed him up to yet another bug, bringing it down and then swarmed it with the remaining eight Pikmin she had under her command. Her original total of ten had been diminished by only one, which made her happier than most of the pilots here, some of them having been in the middle of the battle and lost most of their Pikmin.
Another explosion blast WHITE away from the battle. When he landed in the snow, a few yards from the outside of the battle, he was dazed and disoriented, but his distinct red eyes, seeing straight through the thin layers of snow, spotted something buried only a few feet away. Seeing as the Pikmin heard no whistle or form of leadership anywhere near, it began to dig the object up.
The static disruption every pilot heard was a bomb-rock blowing up the SOS antennae the scientists had built. A Careening Dirigibug had made it through the mob of destruction and assaulted the delicate camp, blowing up the large antennae first. The scientists took cover, but two of them ran for a weapon.
Most ships now carried a Nova Blaster much like the one on Olimar's Dolphin. A few of the models had survived the crash largely intact. Two of them fired a minimal power blast at the Dirigibug. Instantly, the bug was gone, disintegrated, destroyed.
BANG!!! Another explosion followed, killing seventeen white Pikmin in one shot. The horror the pilots went through was just awful. Cehla saw one of her fellow pilots go flying, no doubt unconscious. His assigned group of Pikmin were probably dead or joined with another pilot.
But already the Pikmin death rate was higher than the amount of Pikmin still in the fight. As much as the scientists tried, they couldn't fire at the mob without using too much energy, which would kill the pilots and the Pikmin as well. Even if they could pinpoint the exact amount of power, they only had a limited amount of electricity. They had no functioning Eternal Fuel Dynamo, and so were running on the limited power they still had.
It didn't matter. WHITE was still digging, but he had uncovered not one object, but two! The first was a metal box, most likely important to Cehla, but the second object was something bigger, and natural to the Distant Planet. Now it would be a race to see who would get away from it faster, the Pikmin and their pilots, or the Careening Dirigibugs.
----
Shiyo did something much unexpected; he woke up.
He remembered a large round stone cylinder rolling over him, killing the purple Pikmin he'd just taken control of, and now they were dead. He was simply astonished that he wasn't! He looked around. His helmet was covered in dust. The feeling of resistance and not being able to move told him he was underground. He looked at his stats to see that he was barely three inches below the surface. It was almost sunset, and in the Wistful Wild, he already found out that it wouldn't be safe, no matter where he went.
He painfully pulled his left arm out from beneath the dirt. He had absolutely no idea how long he'd been out, but all he cared about now was surviving.
He reached the air above his arm. He could feel his glove move around without resistance. He cleared away the dirt on his helmet before digging out his other arm and working from there.
In a matter of moments, he was out. His green antennae light was flickering, and he could hardly move without stumbling, but at least he could breathe normally, nothing was broken, and he had a chance to survive.
He turned around and tripped over something. The impact stung him, and as he lifted his leg to see what it was, he was a purple stem. His eyes widened with disbelief as his mind suddenly flashed back to a small section of Captain Olimar's notes, which he had reviewed on the shuttle before the crash. The famous Captain had stated that in fierce battles or moments that cost many Pikmin their lives, they left behind seeds. Shacho and Louie had never reported this event, for whatever reason, but it had clearly happened here!
He yanked the seed out, the sole Pikmin that would be a memorial of the incident that happened here landed on its feet. This could now be considered the new PURPLE.
PURPLE had all the memories of the previous purple Pikmin who had dropped this particular seed. For whatever reason no other purple Pikmin had managed to get a seed through, so this was a rather impressive, if not frightening, feeling to be the only Purple Pikmin in existence.
Shiyo grabbed the Pikmin and hugged it, an alien motion through PURPLE's eyes. Shiyo couldn't be happier to know that he hadn't completely extinguished a Pikmin species. He silently vowed to himself that nothing would happen to this purple Pikmin.
His first test showed up right away. A Saber Panthera showed up instantly and posed up on a fallen branch, and showed its teeth. It howled, hoping to call forward more of its kind, even though it would also attract other species.
The Panthera came down and slowly pawed its way towards Shiyo and his sole Pikmin, both slowly backing away. The Panther bent its hind legs and was in the middle of a jump when something slammed into it from the side. It was some sort of scorpion, as big as the panthera itself, three times wider and longer that Shiyo. It was dark red in color, its long shelled tail high up, ready to come down at any time.
The scorpion and the Panthera were rolling across the dirt, both attacking whenever possible, but otherwise completely forgetting about Shiyo and his one soldier. The green-armored pilot turned around and began to run.
They ran into a "garden" of flowers, but instantly PURPLE saw two huge problems. One was a Cloaking Burrow-nit, and second was the particular flower Shiyo was standing on.
Shiyo was tossed upwards several yards as a Creeping Chrysanthemum appeared from beneath him. The monster focused on the purple Pikmin and came down to take a bite. But by some random luck, the Cloaking Burrow-nit got in the way and was chewed instead. PURPLE ran towards his leader, who had landed a few feet away.
Both Shiyo and PURPLE ran for their lives as the Cloaking Burrow-nit was eaten and swallowed. The Creeping Chrysanthemum lost sight of the pilot and his sole Pikmin, and so returned back to its hunting ground and reformed into a flower.
Shiyo rounded a corner of a tree stump and found himself just about to step off a cliff. The bottom was completely engulfed by darkness, but PURPLE wasn't so quick to stop. He nearly ran over the ledge, and Shiyo grabbed his stem to stop him. They hung there for a moment as gravity fought against Shiyo's balance. Gravity won. Both plunged into the dark abyss previous labeled by Captain Olimar as the Cavern of Chaos.
It's definitely not as long as I would have like for this update, but it's better than keeping you waiting while I keep putting it off! If you like Yellow pikmin, sorry, but just relax. I didn't get as far towards Serbol's chapter this time, but I'll get to it. Don't worry, this story's not being thrown away, I just have so much to do, it's getting hard to catch up with my deadline. Oh, well. Thanks for reading! Review if you wish to tell me where to improve or what needs work!
