Ok, my last chapter wasn't nearly as lengthy or story-bound as I would have liked it. Now, if I had stuck to my schedule, you would have been able to read this last update, but sadly, I'm late. Good news is that it's here now. So… Enjoy!

Oh, I almost forgot. I don't own Pikmin or any of the titles related to Nintendo.

RED landed on the ground with a loud thud. Above him, a weakened Fiery Bulblax was shaking all Pikmin off, or at least trying to, as 100 red Pikmin swarmed it by surprise. Gill was here too, hanging on to the bulblax's left eye as it tried to shake him off. It was unsuccessful, and Gill continued to attack, causing a significant amount of harm. Well, all red Pikmin were strong and caused the most damage, arguably beaten by Purple Pikmin. But, they were not here right now to take their strength back.

Right next to them, Captain Olimar and his former-counterpart Louie were having the fight for their lives, against each other! Olimar was currently taking control, lifting Louie off the ground and throwing another punch into his chest. He then whirled him around and tossed him towards the ground, letting the blue-suited pilot lay there for a moment. Olimar's eyes glowed red, and it wasn't just because of the Fiery Bulblax's reflection. He was angry. Louie had caused him a lot of pain and Pikmin death, and each day Olimar was more and more certain that the previous incident with the Titan Dweevil had been rigged.

Louie had yet to admit to this, if the theory was true or not, but the pilot was now simply trying to put thoughts together and fight back.

Olimar's family was shouting, not only for him to focus on the giant flaming monster next to him, but to not kill Louie. A death here would lead to imprisonment there, but that was something they worried about. Olimar was not worried about prison any more than Louie was worried about cookies at the moment.

But he got his chance. Louie rolled over and threw a hard kick into Olimar's midsection(They both knew a punch at their helmet would not do anything. Each helmet was designed to take massive damage without cracking.). Olimar flew backwards, landing on his back on the ground in seconds. Louie jumped. His enemy rolled to the side moments before Louie came down where he'd been lying a second ago. Olimar rolled to his feet and grew more and more infuriated. Both stared into each other's blazing eyes a second more before resuming their physical duel.

Both charged at the same time, but Olimar had much more experience fighting. When they were only a few feet away, Olimar jumped, kicking his legs in front of him and he spun several times. His kick landed on Louie's helmet, which knocked the victim down. Olimar landed on his feet and grabbed Louie's suit antennae. He yanked as hard as he could, but the line did not snap. Instead Louie was pulled backwards violently.

Another flurry of red Pikmin was thrown off their giant adversary. The Bulblax had managed to eat several Pikmin. Had Olimar stopped to look at the Pikmin count, he'd have seen a total of 83 Pikmin still remaining. The Pikmin numbers may have been diminishing, but the bulblax's strength was fading much, much faster. RED jumped back on to the beast and threw his stem past the raging fire and at the beast's hide, causing significant damage, as all the Pikmin were doing.

Finally the beast fell over. It was not dead, but had lost its balance. As it tipped over on its right, Pikmin beneath it jumped out of the way, Pikmin on its back gripped onto something for support. Olimar dove out of the way and barely felt the monster's hide brush against his ankle. As he rolled back to his feet, Gill got back up and jumped back on. RED had managed to hang on the entire time. The battle between both species continued.

Finally, Louie got up and did his own stylish kick, jumping off one foot and throwing the other straight into Olimar's chest. As the captain keeled over, Louie grabbed him by the helmet and thrust him towards the angry Bulblax. The monster opened its mouth, barely missing the dazed captain, instead chomping on a group of red Pikmin. The total count was now at 78.

Finally, after that final meal, the Bulblax was finished. RED and Gill and the other 76 red Pikmin there let go of the giant monster and relaxed. Their first instinct was to lift the monster, and twenty of them instantly stopped to do so, even though they were in an enclosed space. They really had nowhere to go.

Olimar got back up to his feet once again and looked around. He spotted Louie scrambling out of the enclosed arena. The Captain blew his whistle as loud as he possibly could and all surviving Pikmin ran to follow him as he bolted after his former friend.

Louie's antenna was breaking, already blowing a few sparks out of its blue tip, but it didn't matter right now. He was running as fast as he possibly could to cover or shelter of some sort. He noticed that the Pikmin count was lower, if he could just make it to the blue onion and get help…

No, that was not a good idea. He would then reveal to Olimar just where his current "base" was. Even in his state, that was a waste of the advantage.

He could hear an army of footsteps behind him, he knew Olimar and his Pikmin were right behind him. Olimar reached back and grabbed the first Pikmin he could reach, and tossed it. The Pikmin landed right next to Louie and began chasing. Olimar threw another one. This one wasn't as close. He grabbed RED for the third throw. He tossed him, and the sprout landed right on his target. Louie landed with a thud, and RED rolled off of him as the other two soldiers reached him and began to peg him first.

He responded by grabbing the two of them, banging them together, and tossing them into the water nearby. He then ran into the water for safety. But had he thought of the past, he would have remembered that Gill could still chase him. He forgot.

Olimar dismissed his army and dove into the water to save the two drowning reds. He brought them back to shore and then watched Gill attack the blue pilot. He was ready to run in to join, but then turned around and ran the other way.

Louie and Gill were both thrown off their feet and landed on the ground. They looked up, out of the water, and towards the sky only to see the Beady Long Legs from a few days ago standing over them. Louie got to his feet and jumped from one of the legs crashing down near him. He rolled to avoid the second. Gill stood there aimless, confused and a bit worried. Olimar called him to safety, but it wouldn't last long. But for now, Olimar still had to worry about his main objective. He grabbed Louie and tossed him out of the water. They began yet another duel, the Beady Long Legs pounding after them.

----

Shacho opened his eyes, slowly, painfully. The first thing he realized was that he was looking at a metal ceiling. The second was that he was lying down perfectly straight. There was a faint hum nearby…

He got up to find himself on a metal floor. He was in a tiny room, barely big enough to contain him. It took him a moment to understand that he was in the Research Pod.

A small lid came off of one side of the coned wall. Behind it was a tv monitor, showing the last recorded footage of the event the Research Pod had seen. There it showed Shacho and his team of Yellow Pikmin, some of them carrying Bomb Rocks, the Titan Dweevil behind them, the two dead Helmeroc birds, the gathering, and the Titan Dweevil stepping into the middle of the group, crushing a bomb-rock. The instant reaction was a huge explosion. The camera entered a moment of brief static, and then showed what happened next.

The Titan Dweevil was shrieking. The camera couldn't get a good look at its leg, there was still smoke, but the Pod entered the cloud and found Shacho lying on the ground, his helmet cracked and his suit ruined. His life support pack was showering sparks. The president was only seconds from breathing in the planet's toxic oxygen. The pod engulfed the president, filtered the inside's air with breathable chemicals, and began repairing the suit.

That was the story the Research Pod had recorded and logged. Shacho was lucky to be alive. But all that went through the president's mind was the Pikmin. All of them, YELLOW, the ones carrying the bomb-rocks, they were alive and following his every order, and that one moment killed them all. It was…. Awful. There was just not a feeling of guilt like it. It was near impossible to explain. It WAS impossible to explain…

The Research Pod stayed in the air, and would eventually call for the rest of the ship to come to their location. The Yellow Onion would follow. Shacho recalled the thought he'd had when he first entered that cave that started this entire adventure. 55 Pikmin… "Sure, he'd survive." Now they were all dead, and he'd barely survived himself, and for what? He'd discovered absolutely nothing.

----

Serbol was in a nightmare. Half of his Pikmin had mutated! No, they had changed. No, wait…. What on earth had just happened? One minute the Puffstool was running for its life and now all of a sudden half the Pikmin were defending it?

GREEN was in a nightmare. Half of his brothers, the Pikmin he'd fought side by side with for the past few days, who were his brother, literally!, were attacking him and his remaining brothers. They were confused, but at least it wasn't hard to know who to attack. The mutated Pikmin had changed to an ugly purple color and had mushrooms on their heads as opposed to the natural budding flowers or leaves the healthy Pikmin had.

GREEN was more than happy to see the mushroom Pikmin he'd hit head on fall to the ground, lay for a moment, and then spring back up, slowly returning to normal. The mushroom had disappeared and the Pikmin was regaining its color fast! This was working!

But the battle between Pikmin kept the Puffstool unchallenged. Not on Serbol's watch! He pulled a lever he'd placed in the hull to ignite the firing mechanism. The bottom half of the hull came down and the cannon barrel lowered and took aim. The tiny little targeting light was on the puffstool's "head" when it fired. The gunshots echoed across the entire Forest Navel. When it finally ended, the Puffstool was dead. There was no doubt about it.

GREEN whacked yet another Pikmin into his sense. Slowly, the tide of the battle was turning. 50 healthy Pikmin turned into 60, which increased their strength and diminished the poisoned Pikmin's forces by even more even faster, until the last of the enemies had been defeated. It was over.

No, it wasn't. Without warning, the Man-at-Legs' machine gun whirled around to where the Puffstool had come from. From the darkness rose a Smokey Progg, dashing at full speed. Serbol recalled reading about this mutant, also another monster only mentioned in Olimar's journals. This was thought to be a malformed Mamuta, but there was no real proof supporting this theory. Although it made sense.

It didn't matter. The monster was poisonous and was nothing but poison and danger. The Man-at-Legs fired so many bullets that Serbol was knocked out of the machine. The bullets did nothing but dissolve as they got close.

The monster got closer to the Pikmin. Serbol had the wind knocked out of him and couldn't blow his whistle as the thing got closer to them all. He grew angrier, but he saw that the Smokey Progg could see the green Pikmin! That was not good at all!

The beast ran right through the majority of the Pikmin army, no doubt killing them all, and stomped down on Serbol with one foreleg. It looked down at him with its glowing blue eyes. It rumbled, no doubt its way of growling. It raised its other foreleg, bringing it down for the kill. Serbol saw his suit take massive damage. It could only take so much more. One more hit like that and Serbol would die!

GREEN wouldn't let that happen, nor would any of the Pikmin! Serbol thought they were dead, but no way! They leaped onto the monster, running straight through the poison that leaked from its body. Where all other Pikmin would have failed without a chance, green Pikmin stood easily! They ran through the monster's acidic trail and began eating away at the monster's life. With 100 Pikmin doing the work, Serbol watched in awe as the Smokey Progg, a monster he'd learned to fear, was defeated in seconds.

GREEN leaped down and returned to his leader's side. All the others did the same. Serbol looked at them in awe. They were immune to its effects! Whatever poisonous chemical that was in the Smokey Progg that killed all known Pikmin in an instant, these Pikmin were immune to!

----

Cehla, all her fellow pilots, and all of their Pikmin, plus the Careening Dirigibugs, were heading one direction, away from the new player in the fight.

WHITE had discovered a beast commonly referred to but unseen, the Burrowing Snarrow. The monster was much longer than its cousins, and had tan feathers. The monster exploded out of the snow without warning, and began eating away at Pikmin and careening dirigbugs without giving them a change to fight back! The monster was going to win this fight, an Cehla had called for them to retreat. No one had to be told twice.

Cehla found herself near the White onion. She grabbed WHITE and any other Pikmin she could see and commanded that they return to their onion, where they would be safe. She then returned to the camp, where all the other pilots had gone to for refuge. It was the only place with any sort of defense, as the nova blasters positioned as turrets there were still working, firing at careening dirigibugs getting too close to them.

The blasts disintegrated the monsters quickly, but they knew that their shots might not do so much on the Snarrow. Its hide was obviously much thicker, and it was much bigger, which meant more power would be needed. One of the turret operators flipped a knob, bringing more power to the nova blaster. A much brighter shot could shoot and travel even after destroying three dirigibugs. It would probably kill the snarrow in one hit.

The shot was fired, and the snarrow, a mouthful of dirigibugs, easily spotted the shot just before it passed by, slamming into a mountain, rock, snow, and ice flying out of their original resting place, scattering across the Valley of Repose. The energy was mere inches from burning the monster's hide when it passed, but it was enough to scare the beast off. The monster swallowed its prey and returned home, disappearing into the snow.

The remaining dirigibugs had fled, being smart to avoid the turrets and the burrowing snarrow. Cehla waited until silence had returned before finally letting out a sigh of relief. Every other pilot and scientist beside her had done the same.

One of the scientists stopped to see what had remained of the mountain they had just blown to pieces. After the snow and dust had settled, the visor in his helmet zoomed in to what had remained of the mountain's base. What he found was something that sparked memory of Shacho's database logs of this planet during the most recent adventure here.

The scientist, Cehla, and 4 other pilots ran to examine what they had found. What remained of a once-red flag was in the debris, and right next to it was a specific hole in the ground, obviously not simply a Snagret or snarrow's home. No, this looked exactly like the images of the subterranean areas Captain Olimar and President Shacho of Hocotate Freight had explored, along with Private Louie of the same company.

According to the geographic records, this sublevel was known as the Frontier Cavern, a deadly cave known best for its overrunning population of the bulborb family. But it didn't really matter at the moment. Cehla returned to what WHITE had dug up before the snarrow's untimely appearance, a metal box, Serbol's orders, to be precise.

Before the incident of the crash here, Serbol had been the commander in charge. He had sent orders to most of the pilots here with instructions, but these commands never reached their destinations, due to the crash. Whatever he had wanted them to do, the memory of the orders was inside that box. Cehla brought it to a scientist, who plugged it into a surviving monitor, and all 23 survivors of the crash listened to what their leader had to say.

----

Shiyo landed on a Careening Dirigibug, one of the residents of the Cavern of Chaos's sublevel 1. PURPLE landed a few feet away. Shiyo and the dirigibug both landed on the metal floor hard, but the green pilot didn't stop to finish the fight. He called PURPLE and ran. This place was not the way Shacho's records had described it to be. The walls were collapsed, partly, and there was an extremely large amount of twisted and broken metal here, which was once the solid floor. Clearly the earthquakes that had attacked this planet had done a great deal of damage in this part of the world.

Shiyo and PURPLE ran a large distance, until he found a way out of the cave. He didn't know how deep down he was (but Olimar's records would say it was sublevel 5), but he found a geyser on the ground, leading straight to the surface, and he was going to get out of here.

A certain species of bulborb had other ideas. The monster stomped forward and took a bite, tearing off Shiyo's green antenna. He panicked but managed to turn around and see a creature he'd never expected to see, a mother bulbmin, with 20 children following.

----

Squash! Another group of red Pikmin was crushed by the Beady Long Legs' metallic legs. In all of the lush Distant Spring, or when it was called the Perplexing Pool, never did Olimar remember losing so many Pikmin in one day.

Louie stumbled as every crash of the Long Legs threw him off balance again and again. Olimar was facing similar difficulties, and his family was screaming for him to get out of there and to safety. But he wasn't listening to them. He would not let Louie get away. He leaped into the air as another leg came down hard, crushing another Pikmin. He tackled Louie and the two landed hard on the ground.

RED dove again, Beady Long Legs stomping where he had been just a second ago. The crash vibrated through the ground and knocked over anyone nearby, and the pounds could be heard all over the Distant Spring, even underground…

Gill was thrown back Once Again. He landed next to RED, who was staring at the orange mechanical monster's legs with a plan in his mind. They could climb the legs of their onion, wooden logs up a huge distance, and the berry plants, why not a Long Legs?

RED ran for the nearest metal leg and began to climb. Beady didn't notice. Gill and several other red Pikmin followed. Soon every living Pikmin, 52 in total, were scaling Beady Long Legs. From a bird's eye view, it looked like a bunch of tiny ants were assaulting a large spider.

As all the Pikmin were leg to the head of the machine, Olimar and Louie were having their own problems as giant metal feet came down by them and they were also having their own death match. Louie's antenna sparked again, setting fire to Olimar's left arm. The Captain heard his family scream again, even though the suit wasn't going to burn for very long. It still had the upgrades it had received from the previous adventure. The fire would spread across his suit and die out quickly, but while he was still on fire, although he felt no pain, he knew he looked intimidating.

As the fire began to spread all over his suit for the few seconds that it would, he made sure Louie could see him. Imagining Louie's impression, he charged.

Louie, personally, just saw a Captain who was literally on fire charging to kill him, which was something he'd rather pass on. Louie turned around and tried to run, but was pinned down. Olimar grabbed him by the antenna, which was still showering sparks every now and again, and pulled him up. By some luck, the antenna didn't break, but that was the least of Louie's worries. It was also Olimar's last focus.

RED, Gill, and the other 50 Pikmin showered down to the ground as the Beady Long Legs stopped functioning and collapsed. Pieces of the orange metal came raining down, one large pipe coming between Olimar and Louie. As all Long Legs family members, the pieces of Beady Long Legs slowly disintegrated as the pieces came down. RED watched the shell casing of the head crumble to dust as it landed in the soft soil. All of the Pikmin, idle and waiting for orders, easily drew their attention to their flaming leader and his losing opponent. They drew their attention to Louie, hopping onto him and doing what damage they could.

Olimar watched, satisfied, as the army of red Pikmin attacked Louie, until finally he knew Louie would run and called the Pikmin back. Louie ran and stumbled as he jumped into the water, seemingly having nowhere to go. Olimar was convinced and turned around. But Louie knew where he was going. He could make the repairs he could and then call out Pikmin, fast, before Olimar called out any more. This defeat would not go unpunished.

----

Shacho and the Research Pod rendezvoused with the ship's hull and the yellow onion. It was afternoon now, which meant that they would have to land soon. Shacho looked around the ship's database and selected the Forest of Hope, or as his computer knew it, the Awakening Wood. He decided to rebuild his army of yellow Pikmin in a familiar area with enemies he knew he could handle, and this time, he wouldn't take any uncharted routes underground.

----

Serbol regrouped his army. His green Pikmin had just revealed yet another, and their last, natural trait, an immunity to acidic properties, and obviously the malformed Mamuta with a temper. He was rather proud to have all 100 green soldiers with him. He mounted the Man-at-Legs and began to move slowly, just fast enough for the green Pikmin to travel with him. They crossed the Forest Navel, slowly traveling west, towards the Distant Spring.

----

Cehla and her fellow pilots and scientists walked quietly towards the Frontier Cavern. One of them had stopped to grab 100 white Pikmin, WHITE included. None of them said a word. They nodded to each other. They were leaving a couple of scientists behind just to operate the S.O.S. and continue the other half of Serbol's orders. The directions had clearly stated that they separate into two groups.

But it didn't matter. Cehla did not like her orders, but in her current position, being stuck on an alien planet with Serbol's orders being her only way home to her family and friends, she decided she would carry them out. As soon as the 100 white Pikmin arrived, she jumped into the cave. The pilots and scientists, 18 in total, jumped in after her, finally ending with all the Pikmin leaping in after them.

According to the scientists and their hand-held devices, the most recent tremor that vibrated through the Valley of Repose had most likely torn through this series of caves. There was a large chance that one of the walls had collapsed, hopefully connecting the Frontier Cavern to another sublevel cavern leading to where Serbol wanted them to go. When they landed in the first sublevel, they saw nothing but snow, Hairy and Snow bulborbs, a doodlebug, and another hole in the ground. Most of the bulborbs had died either by natural causes or the quakes, and so running through there was an easy task. They dove deeper.

Sublevel two brought nothing new, but the ground was littered with boulders and chunks of ice. Clearly they were getting closer to an opening. The pilots spread out, leaving Cehla to stay behind with the Pikmin, keeping their only real defense safe until they knew where to go.

One pilot walked around a boulder and saw a red monster, a Decorated Cannon Beetle. Right next to it, one of its own had grown to be a fully grown Armored Cannon Beetle. It was a nightmare, in short. Right then, he slipped off the ice and slid out from behind the boulder. Both the Armored and Decorated Cannon Beetles saw him and opened fire. The pilot tried to dive out of the way, having difficulty with the ice.

Both boulders missed and slammed into the wall behind the pilot. Frighteningly, the entire subworld began to shake. Both large beetles began to roar and squeal as the walls around them began to fall apart. Cehla and the Pikmin ran for cover, the pilots slowly reuniting with her. The only opening one of the scientists had discovered in this level instantly caved in, crushing an Armored Cannon Beetle Larva.

As soon as the ground stopped shaking, everyone sighed. Most in relief, but a few in frustration. They would have to dive even deeper now…

----

Finally, Shiyo and PURPLE finished off the mother bulbmin. The thirty bulbmin children panicked for a moment, running around with no direction, until Shiyo called them forth. All thirty of them took a good look at him and his PURPLE friend and joined the sole Pikmin behind the green leader. 31 soldiers, Shiyo felt better! If there were even more bulbmin around this place, he could rebuild his army! But how would he ever make more purples? Purple Pikmin didn't have an onion…

Long chapter, longer than most, at least. I hope you enjoyed. I don't really know what to put here today, but hey! I reached my deadline! I prefer to update on weekends, when I know most of you have no school to worry about. Thanks for reading, everyone! If you wish to comment or complain, I welcome all reviews.