Sorry for the delay! Chapter 20 is finally done!

...

CHAPTER 20: The Distant Planet

Captain Falcon stood frozen as the rodent dashed towards him.

"I... what-"

Sumia suddenly dashed in front of him and prepared to jab her lance at the approaching creature.

"Wait! The electricity-" Falcon warned.

The lance stabbed the rodent through the eye, and it fell to its side, dying.

"But... how did you avoid getting shocked?"

Sumia held out the lance. "It's a Shockstick. It's a magic lance that creates electricity, so the electricity from the thing wasn't anything new."

Chrom nodded. "That's our last one, so don't overuse it."

Falcon grimaced at the dead body of the creature. "But what even is this thing?"

"I don't know," said Chrom, "But we should probably find somewhere safe."

...

"Gods, have the Risen spread this far?"

The three humans stood on a humongous tree stump overlooking a large riverbank, where Risen were attempting to kill a giant birdlike creature that was sticking out of the ground.

Captain Falcon sighed. "Will anyone have even bothered trying to take to space? I mean there's Samus and Fox and all, but what are the odds that they'd come here?"

"Well, we should still check. It's getting dark though. We should try to find shelter somewhere."

"What about the Pikmin?"

Chrom turned to Sumia. She'd grown fond of the stemmed creatures and had plucked every one she could find. They stood behind her, chasing each other around, carefree.

"I'm not sure. Don't they live underground? When we found them, only their stems were above ground."

"Nah," said Falcon, "I'm pretty sure that's just how they grow. I think they live in a thing called an 'Onion'."

"Where can these Onions be found?" asked Sumia.

"I dunno. I'm pretty sure they just follow Olimar's ship around."

Chrom looked around. "Well, I don't see anything that resembles a ship, so he's probably not here."

"Well, this is a forest. There could just be trees blocking the view. We should go look around tomorrow." Falcon suggested.

"Right."

...

Falcon sat at the edge of the giant stump, keeping guard over the other two and the Pikmin.

"So if Olimar did escape to here, he'd likely be in a safe spot." he said to himself, "But where exactly is safe on this planet?"

He glanced at the sleeping couple as if asking for their input. Chrom mumbled something about wind and swords.

Falcon sighed. "This is unfair. Robin and Pikachu get to search a singular Pokemon region, and what do I get? An entire planet."

He felt a poke at his back. He turned his head to see a red Pikmin looking up at him.

"What?"

The Pikmin pointed in a direction. It seemed to be trying to tell him something.

"Hm? What's over there?"

The Pikmin squeaked something in its language.

Captain Falcon stared. It appeared that it was pointing at a rock. Not very useful.

"What, that rock?"

The Pikmin shook its head and pointed again.

Captain Falcon sighed and peered. There was absolutely nothing in that direction but the rock. But... was it a rock?

"Wait... That has writing on it! That's no rock..." But what could it be?

Falcon stood up. "Nothing better to do than investigate."

...

The Blue Falcon sped over the treetops, heading to the distant 'rock'.

Chrom yawned. Sumia was half asleep, her head using his shoulder as a pillow. The Pikmin sat on their laps, humming to themselves.

Captain Falcon landed the ship and stepped outside.

The 'rock' was actually a ship. On the outside read the words "S.S. DRAKE". One of Olimar's friends, maybe?

"What should we do?" Chrom asked tiredly.

"Knock, I guess?"

Chrom did so. No response.

"Maybe they're not here..."

Falcon shook his head. "It's like 3 in the morning. Whoever it is is probably still asleep. Try again."

Chrom knocked again. 7 seconds later, a beam shone out of the ship, and a figure materialized.

The figure wore a spacesuit, similar to Olimar. However, he seemed to be an entirely different race than Olimar. He had round ears (as opposed to Olimar's pointed ears), blue hair, and larger eyes.

"Who is it?" he mumbled.

"Uh, hey. I'm Captain Falcon. Have you seen a guy named Olimar?"

That woke the kid up. "Oh, you mean Captain Olimar of Hocotate? Yeah, he's a friend of mine!" He held out a hand. "Nice to meet you, I'm Alph, engineer to the S.S. Drake and citizen of Koppai!"

Falcon shook his hand and turned to Chrom and Sumia. "These are Chrom and Sumia, from the continent of Ylisse."

They exchanged greetings, and Alph began speaking. "I'm not 100% sure, but I might have seen his ship falling towards the Forbidden Oak yesterday. I could take you there if you want!"

"Hey, thanks kid!"

Alph nodded. "I'll be right back." He went back to the spot where the beam had appeared, and he was beamed into the ship.

5 minutes later, he emerged again, a large container of some sort of juice on his back.

"Alright, almost done! Let me just get some Pikmin..."

He ran behind the Drake, where a tall Onion was hidden from the trio's view.

"Oh, are you a Pikmin user as well, then?" Chrom asked.

Alph nodded as he blew a whistle. 20 of each color (except white and purple) of Pikmin swarmed out of the Onion and surrounded Alph.

"Oh I see you have some Pikmin as well!" Alph remarked, noticing the Pikmin at Sumia's feet.

The 5 Pikmin joined the 100 Pikmin that Alph called.

"Alright then, let's go!"