Disclaimer: I'm not Pixel, and as such, I'm not the wonderful man responsible for creating this game. Do enjoy the little fanficlet, would you?
Chapter 2
It was yet another beautiful day, a sign that somewhere up in the heavens there was a deity pleased with the three travelers making their way across the skies, looking for a home. While they didn't make much progress on the previous day, they felt that they'd learned enough from that trial-and-error session to be able to find a good spot soon enough. So, along they floated, riding the air currents over the rolling hills.
Suddenly, a loud growl sent Quote and Curly into alert, both of them readying their firearms and scanning the area in an instant.
However, it wasn't much to worry about. "Sorry, 'bout that," muttered Balrog. "I haven't eaten anything since we left the island."
It was only then that the realization hit one Curly Brace. "Oh...I don't think I thought this one through too well..."
To this, Quote inquired, "What do you mean?"
"Well, I was just so excited to be out of that flying dungeon that I didn't plan our next objective too thoroughly. For one, we've got no supplies. Two, we've got no food or drink. And three, well, we're both rather high-maintenance people."
"High-maintenance?" asked Quote, somewhat baffled. "You seem pretty easy-going to me."
She barely repressed a giggle at that one. "No, no, I meant that literally. Exactly how are we going to fix ourselves if something were to happen?" After all, between the two of them, only Curly stood a chance of knowing any of the proper procedures, being the only one with any memories extending beyond the last week. So, if something happened to Quote, she might be able to do something, but if something happened to her...
Well, she didn't want to imagine Balrog trying to summon the engineering know-how for that. She supposed that she could try to teach Quote what to do when it came to robotic repairs, as he only really knew how to drain a robot, but that could take quite a while, and she wasn't entirely sure just how well she knew the subject matter, either.
So, she came to a conclusion. "I think we need to find civilization."
Balrog nodded, almost flinging Quote into the air in the process. "You make a pretty good point, Curly. But...uh, did anybody see any cities in the last two days? I haven't."
"Maybe we should track down the Sakamotos," suggested a now re-situated Quote. "I think they may be the only allies we really have."
"From what you've told me of them, that sounds like a good idea. But, do you have any idea where they went?"
"Well, not really. Their helicopter was already gone by the time I reached the prefab building, and I didn't see where Sue ran off too." He paused for a moment, and bowed his head a little. "Really, I don't even know if they made it. The copter may have been crushed under a ceiling block, and Sue, too." At this, he fell silent for a while. However, just when his companion was about to speak up, a thought dawned on him. "Kazuma might be fine, though. He left before I even got to the plantation."
"Kazuma...he was the one who left on the dragon, right?"
Quote nodded.
"Well, then it looks like we're in luck," stated Curly, who began to wave vigorously at something over Quote's shoulder. Confused, he turned around to see what exactly had her so excited, not really expecting to be just as excited once he saw what it was.
A baby dragon was heading their way, carrying a rather tired looking Kazuma Sakamoto.
"Ah, you have no idea how glad I am to have found you guys." The group of them had landed once they'd seen each other in the air, finding the closest habitable location which happened to be a small clearing in an otherwise dense forest. Kazuma only wasted a second to stretch, having spent far too long on the back of the young sky dragon, before getting right to the point. "At first, I was heading home, but then after a while, this little guy," he said, patting the green lizard for emphasis, "just started heading off in the other direction."
"So, how'd you get him under control?" asked Quote.
"Er, well, I didn't. He kinda took me straight to you."
At this point, Quote, Curly, and Balrog all stared at the ridiculously adorable dragon. The two robots were unable to formulate any sort of answer to this curiousity, but suddenly Balrog inquired "Was this one in Egg 00?"
Kazuma scratched the back of his head, trying to remember. "Uh...yeah. Yeah, that's the one."
By now, the dragon had begun nuzzling up against Balrog's side. "That egg was the only one I was able to take care of before the Doctor told me to stop wasting my time down- wha...HEY! Stop nibbling on my hand!" The dragon backed off a bit, but still stood nearby staring at the large, boxy being like a lost puppy.
Curly seemed to find this funny. "Aw, he likes you!"
"I guess he is kind of endearing. In a dumb sort of- OW!" Balrog quickly removed his hand from the dragon's mouth again. "What? Do I look like food or something?"
"Well," quipped Kazuma, "I always thought you were a giant toaster."
"Jerk."
The group decided to camp out in the clearing for a few hours, so that Balrog and the sky dragon could rest up for the return journey in the opposite direction. Curly was shocked, and a little bit disappointed, to find out that they had originally been headed towards a huge desert, days from civilization. However, Kazuma was more than willing to lead them back to the nearest city.
While they waited, Quote questioned the eldest Sakamoto child about the whereabouts of his family. Kazuma told him that Sue had just fallen out of nowhere when he first took off, and the dragon barely caught her by the back of her shirt. He managed to catch up with his family's copter, and together they landed about a mile from the island, which had stopped falling by the time they set foot on the ground. Exhausted, they decided to recover from their recent ordeal by resting inside the vehicle overnight, but while Kazuma attempted to feed the sky dragon a few hours later, it broke free of it's rope, and all he could to was leap on it in hopes of calming it down. Surprisingly, it worked, and the young man went back to sleep. The next morning he told his family that he'd follow them on the sky dragon, saying that he enjoyed the open air. Twenty minutes into the flight, though, the lizard abruptly changed course and brought him to his current location.
Quote theorized that the dragon followed Balrog because it thought he was its mother, a thesis that Balrog was quick to dismiss.
After they felt rested enough, they all boarded their respective aircraft, a dragon and a large...whatever Balrog is, and headed on their way.
"Commander, what do you make of this situation?"
"I can't say for sure, but, we do know that the Island hasn't moved an inch in decades. Whatever happened up there had to have been monumental."
"Do you think that research team was involved, sir?"
"That may very well be the case."
"What are your orders, sir?"
"Send a scout party to the Island. I can't shake the feeling that we may have finally won this fight."
"Right away, sir." With that, the communications officer signaled the outpost of their new orders.
Hurried footfalls echoed through the halls of the Second Northeast Outpost. This was rather unusual for the near-abandoned station, as it hadn't been fully staffed in almost a decade. Instead of the two hundred it could support, it was only occupied by six. And currently running through the base was Lieutenant Hiroko Yamagata. Though her pace was rushed, her face remained calm, focused, and almost aloof. She maintained a tight grip on the documents she carried as she quickly turned one last corner before making it to the office at then end of the hallway.
"General Sakamoto, we've just received word from HQ," informed the lieutenant, placing the paperwork she carried down on the desk in front of her.
"Go ahead," replied the larger officer behind the desk.
"The research team from the Island has returned. They say that it almost crashed to the ground."
"Is that so? Hmph, took them long enough," mused the General while stroking his beard in an absent-minded fashion. "What else?"
"We're being sent in to investigate, effective immediately."
"Alright, alert the team. We leave in an hour."
"Yes sir."
To be continued...
Notes:
Normally I'm not one to leap all over the random Japanese names, but, considering how the research team and the Doctor had Japanese names, I figured it'd make sense if others associated with...uh...where ever they came from had similar names. So...yes. No worries, this isn't gonna degenerate into fangirl Japanese. Especially not the fangirl part.
...desu forever.