Day ? - Sublevel 3

"Hey! Let me down!"

"But we wouldn't want you to break your leg a second time, now would we?"

Just as Keith was about to land on the ground, Ping and a few other winged Pikmin caught him just a few feet off the ground. Keith was grateful that they cared, but he was also a bit annoyed. He was sure that he was going to land correctly this time. The winged Pikmin gently let him down. Keith saw that the others were watching him. Was that a snicker from Brittany? Keith turned red from embarrassment. He was glad that Ping and the others had saved him, but he didn't really like being babied in front of others.

"Um, so why didn't you catch them?" Keith asked.

"Well, you weren't very good at landing, but the others were, so..." Ping responded, not finishing her sentence, which was unlike her.

"What'd she say Keith?" Alph asked.

"Uh, nothing! Let's just move on..." Keith quickly said. Alph gave a quizzical look, but dismissed it. In truth. Keith just wanted to change the subject.

"So, where could we be now?" Charlie said quietly out loud. The others looked around too. What shocked Keith this time was that this sublevel seemed nothing like a cave at all. The floor was wooden, and the entire surrounding area was also wooden and colorful. It seemed like a... a toy room to Keith. It also wasn't pitch black like the first sublevel. Instead, the light, while still quite dim, provided just enough luminosity that Olimar almost didn't need his light bulb. As usual though, there were walls surrounding them in a maze-like design. These walls though seemed a bit... shorter than the ones on sublevel 2. These walls could be easily traversed by jumping over them.

"This doesn't seem like a cave at all..." Alex commented, voicing what everyone thought. Olimar, being the cave pro, once again seemed unfazed.

"All caves are like this," Olimar assured, "many times, there are things in cafes that you wouldn't expect at all! In fact..." Olimar talked on, but Keith wasn't really listening anymore. He was hearing something that he thought he should bring up.

"Guys, be quiet." Keith said. Soon, everyone went quiet.

Once they were quiet, the noises sounded terrible. It... it was a multitude of monsters that could be heard. Squeals, cries, roars, all sorts of monstrous sounds could be heard, and yet, they sounded distant. They could only hear the echoes of these cries. Keith strained his eyes in all directions, but he couldn't see any monster anywhere.

Suddenly Keith felt very unprotected. He was having that feeling where you feel as if someone's behind you, but you turn around and no one's there.

The creepy feeling... Keith thought.

"Um... let's go find the exit. Like, right now." Brittany said nervously. Everyone else also felt chilled by hearing all these noises, but how there was no visible source that the noises were coming from. They seemed like they were coming from... everywhere.

"Alright then, let's go." Olimar stated, trying to sound confident, although Keith could hear the quiver of fear in his voice. They headed off in what Keith hoped was the right direction. At this point, Keith just wanted to find Louie, and escape now.

That parent Bulbmin said that there were four sublevels. Maybe Louie is still on the third sublevel. It was wishful thinking that Keith thought, but Keith desperately held on to that hope. While we're here, maybe I should learn more about the Bulbmin.

Keith went up to one of the Bulbmin (they're so small!), and said, "Um, hi." The Bulbmin looked in Keith's direction.

"Hello!" the Bulbmin cheerfully replied back. Keith could tell that it was a male if he listened closely, but it was kind of hard to tell for sure if he wasn't listening closely.

"What's you name?" I gotta start somewhere. Keith thought, I might as well ask what his name is.

"My... nay-im?" the Bulbmin unsteadily replied.

"Your name. Y'know, what you call yourself?"

"What I... call myself?"

"You... you guys don't have names!?" Keith exclaimed. At that, the Bulbmin began to uncontrollably cry.

"I-I d-d-don't what you're t-talking about! W-What's a naym!?" the Bulbmin whined. He simply plopped down and refused to go on. The Captains looked questioningly in Keith's direction. The Pikmin that were close to Keith though, looked accusingly at him.

"Shh! I'm sorry!" Keith quickly said, "I-I didn't know that you guys didn't have names. Please stop crying..." Keith begged. Eventually, the Bulbmin stopped, and he unsteadily stood back up.

"Keith, what's with the hold up!" Charlie asked with an annoyed tone.

"N-Nothing!" Keith yelled back, "just something with the Bulbmin..."

"Well, just make sure it doesn't happen again! Who knows what could have heard that?" Charlie accused.

"... Okay..." Keith quietly responded. The Captains slowly went back to walking on. Alex went to Keith though. He seemed interested in knowing something.

"So, what happened with the Bulbmin?" Alex asked as the group continued to walk forward.

"The Bulbmin don't have names," Keith replied, "and when I tried asking them, they uh... sort of broke down."

"Let me try talking to them." Alex said. He went up to the same Bulbmin that Keith upset, and simply said,

"Uh, hi there."

"What do you want!?" the Bulbmin retaliated, "I hate you! I hate all of you! You made me sad!"

They act like five year olds... Keith thought to himself.

"No, wait! He didn't mean it." Alex quickly assured, "He was just unsure of how he was going to call you little guys. Like, you see that blue Pikmin over there?" Alex pointed to female Aqua, "Her name is Aqua, and that's what we call her whenever we need her."

"Ohhh!" the Bulbmin replied, "that's what you meant! Well, maybe you call me..."

"AAAAHHHHH!" That piercing scream cut off the Bulbmin. Keith looked in the direction of the scream, which was at the front of the group.

"Brittany! What happened to you?" Keith heard Alph say. Keith and Alex ran back up to the front of the group, and saw that Brittany was lying on her knees. Was she... crying?

"I... I saw..." Brittany couldn't go on though. "I... I don't remember!

Charlie tried lifting Brittany up, "Here, let me help you Bri-"

"No!" Brittany quickly said, pushing aside Charlie, "I-I'm fine. Let's just keep going." She lifted herself up, and walked on, "Well? C'mon! Let's just find Louie and get out of this stupid cave..." The group hesitantly followed.

"What was that all about?" "Is she crazy?" "Maybe she saw a ghost..." Keith could hear the Pikmin talking amongst themselves. Most of the conversations had a hint of confusion, but the atmosphere was thick.

Keith could feel the fear within the group. He took another glance at Brittany. She had the semblance of a person trying to be brave, but Keith could tell that something was bothering her.

Grrraaaggghhhhrrrrr...

The entire group froze. It wasn't a roar, but more like a sort of growl. It wasn't loud, but it was audible enough for the entire group to hear.

The question though, was where the growl came from, and from what. It sounded like it came from somewhere really close, but there didn't seem to be any sort of monster near the group.

"Let's quicken the pace. It feels like we've been in this sublevel forever." Olimar said anxiously.

"Go away, GO AWAY!" Charlie began to scream. He was clutching on to Alph, who gave him a confused look. "Get away from us! Just. Go. AWAY!"

"Charlie! What's gotten into you?" Olimar inquired. Eventually, Charlie calmed down, and released himself from Alph.

"Didn't all of you see it?" Charlie said, whipping his head to look around the group, almost maniacally, "A... A thing. It.. it looked like..." Charlie shook his head in confusion.

Thing...? Keith thought. The group looked around, but they couldn't see anything dangerous. Brittany, on the other hand, was beginning to hyperventilate.

Just what is getting everyone on edge? Keith closed his eyes, and let out a sigh. Everything just seemed confusing in this cave. Keith opened his eyes...

And screamed. He was so terrified, that he simply fell onto the floor and curled up into a ball. What he saw what so terrifying, that Keith couldn't bear to open his eyes again.

"Keith. Keith! What happened to you!?" "Get up!"

Keith could hear the multiple voices around him. Some were from the Captains, and some were from the Pikmin. Keith slowly sat up, still keeping his eyes closed.

"Keith?" Olimar said. Everyone was now quiet. "Can you open your eyes?" Keith slowly opened his eyes, and was relieved to see that the terror he had seen before was now gone.

"You saw it too? Didn't you Keith?" Brittany asked quietly.

"Y-Yeah." Keith responded.

"What did it look like?" Alex asked.

"It looked like..." That's weird, Keith thought, I don't remember what it looks like! "I... I don't remember..." Keith quietly said.

"Nothing? Are you sure?" Alex asked, "What about shape? Basic appearance? Color?"

"Color...?" Keith asked. Keith thought hard about it...

And something suddenly clicked in his memories.

"The color!" Keith exclaimed, "I... I think it was a shiny yellow sort of color."

"The Plasm Wraith?" Olimar asked with uncertainty.

"But... but I don't remember that!" Brittany exclaimed, "Well, I do remember something golden, but I also remember that there was another thing. That other thing was the thing that scared me, not the Wraith..."

"Let's just drop this, okay?" Keith snapped to the rest of the group, "I don't know why this is happening. Maybe the Wraith is just playing with is, but we need to find Louie, and get out of this cave now. This place is giving me the creeps..." The rest of the group slowly, but surely, agreed.

"Alright then. We'll be exploring at twice the pace now then." Olimar concluded, "and if anyone sees something... traumatic, then make sure to tell one of us right away." With that, Olimar looked forward, and walked on.

Keith hated the cave now. The darkness was suffocating, threatening to encase Keith in its pitch black coffin. The fear was eminent now. The entire group was dead silent, and everyone only had one thing on their minds: to get out of this cave ASAP.

"There! There there there!" Alph eagerly exclaimed, pointing to a faint silhouette just a few yards away. The group quickly ran up to the mound, and saw that it was, as the group hoped, an entrance.

To the last sublevel of this cave.

"Let's not waste any time in this blasted place." Charlie said angrily. He jumped into the hole, and was quickly followed by the rest of the group, everyone eager to escape the darkness of the toy room.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pikmin and do not work with Nintendo of any kind. I also do not own Alex, Flame, Daisy, Aqua (female version), Rocky, Ariel, Muscles, or Toxic. Those characters belong to kingalex1234. I do own Keith though, and the other Pikmin from Flare's Onion.

Note from Author: I honestly don't know what to say about this chapter. Oh, and sorry kingalex, for not taking that suggestion you gave in your previous review! I wanted to add my own twist, but as you can see, I'm not really the best with caves... Anyways, reviews would be greatly appreciated as always, and I would also greatly appreciate constructive criticism, so I can get better as a writer. Thanks for reading!