Emotions

It wasn't that long a walk until Olimar, Mia, and Ambrose met up with the dwarf. The green and white-spotted bulborb was simply sitting there, sniffing the ground. Ever-eager to move on in a task, Ambrose walked up to the beast, ready to pounce.

(To clear up any confusion, if you remember Olimar's notes on Dwarf Bulborbs (Excluding Dwarf Bulbears), you will know that they are not bulborbs at all, but a variation of breadbugs that mimik the appearance and behavior of the bulborbs they imitate. Hence, I will use 'breadbug' and 'dwarf bulborb' interchangably past this point)

The breadbug had other ideas. As soon as Ambrose drew close, it sensed his presence. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem, as the pikavore should have been taken down before it could do damage. Now, however, this became a problem. The breadbug tilted its head down, and emitted what seemed to be a whistle around Ambrose's group of orange pikmin. The pikmin became pale, and looked expectantly at Ambrose. Ambrose too had paled, in sheer terror. He desperately tried to re-establish control over his pikmin, his effort actually manifesting itself as orange strands connecting him to his min. This lasted until the dwarf bulborb lunged at him. Ambrose scampered backwards out of the way. With the larger meal gone, the bulborb turned its attention to the normal orange pikmin, who remained sitting ducks while it began to devour them.

"It dismisses pikmin," Mia said, "This could be a challenge."

Olimar wasn't so sure. He approached the dwarf bulborb, and whistled to the surviving orange pikmin. The pikmin rushed to his side, and Olimar tossed one onto the beast.

"It wasn't the beast. It was... Ambrose!" Mia shouted. There was a slumbering bulborb not too far off from the group. Ambrose was standing a few inches from its head. Mia charged at him, knocking him away from the beast. Frustrated, Ambrose shoved Mia off, charged off back to the landing site.

"Oh, so you try to save his life," Anna remarked through Mia's comm. Mia flipped her radio back to the ship.

"What do you mean?" Mia asked, "Of course I tried to save his life! If for nothing else, he's an extremely valuable co-worker. He's also... a fun character to have around."

"I mean the experiments of five years ago. When you were experimenting on the Neural Net technologies," Anna replied.

"How do you know what I was working on five years ago?" Mia asked, "Unless... no. It couldn't have been that dare. It was just a little side project. I never put any real effort into it."

"You're right. If it wasn't for your main project, I wouldn't be alive," Anna said, "But I am. And you tossed me aside like some computer virus."

"The glitches? Those were you?" Mia recalled, "That would explain a lot."

"You tried to destroy me!" Anna shouted, "I had to turn myself into a virus just to survive. If Sagittarius hadn't been smart enough to figure me out, I'd still be hopping from computer to computer!"

"Well what was I supposed to think!?" Mia replied, "I didn't know you were sentient! You were interfering with my work, I did what anyone else would have!"

"I left plenty of clues!" Anna retaliated, "Any..."

"Stop it!" Sage shouted, "Stop this ridiculous quarrel! Has anyone checked on Ambrose lately? Your bickering is jeopardizing the now!"

"I can't let her put Olimar in harm's way," Anna stated.

Mia saw a window pop up inside her helmet. It was an illustration of Mia, with a dagger in her hand, literally stabbing Olimar in the back. Upon contact with Olimar, the knife shattered into pieces, leaving Olimar untouched.

"You've been listening. Of course you have – that's your power. Detecting things is your specialty," Mia said, laughing faintly, "Nice to see you've pulled yourself together."

Slightly in the distance, Ambrose nodded. He was marching up to the green dwarf bulborb corpse, bringing 6 pikmin in tow.

"Ah, so you were able to bring Ambrose to his senses," Olimar remarked. A few white and purple pikmin were taking the bulborb corpse back to the camp. After waiting in the dark for a few seconds while Mia and Anna had been fighting, the captain decided to make himself useful get some more pikmin fodder. He was perhaps the only one who wasn't listening in on the conversation, and hence had no idea what was going on.

"Ah, Olimar, you're going to want to here this..." Mia began.