/Exterior damage sustained... Assessing...
/Systems Nominal
/External shell 75.34654% undamaged
/Assessing Internal damage...
...
...
/Circuitry FUNCTIONAL
/Sensory Systems FUNCTIONAL
/Organic Components FUNCTIONAL
/Communications Systems OFFLINE
/Water Shield PERMANENT DAMAGE, REPAIR IMPOSSIBLE
/Heavy Artillery Shield PERMANENT DAMAGE, REPAIR IMPOSSIBLE
/Memory Banks 82% CORRUPTED
/Storing Corrupted Data for recovery...
...
/Storing Complete
/Partitioning Temporary Memory Banks...
...
/Partition Complete
/Rewriting Necessary Files...
...
...
...
/Rewrite Complete
/BIOS Check FUNCTIONAL
/Motor Skills FUNCTIONAL
/Boosterpak Module MISSING
/Partner Uplink OFFLINE
/CPU running at 100% Efficiency
/Auto-repairing Damage
/Rebooting...
...
...
...
...
/Welcome back, Quote.
A pair of dark blue eyes soon booted up from the spot on the ground as the figure, wearing a black tanktop and red pants with black boots and a green scarf tied around his neck, collapsed there slowly started to move, slowly starting to shift his body as he sat up where he was, holding his head in pain. Slowly his eyes would scan across the area of his surroundings; he appeared to be in some sort of small cave, a pool of water below the platform where he was. Off to the side was a small monitor with a red LCD screen glowing with a heart symbol on it, some strange piping running through the wall next to it as well. There appeared to be a few lamps attached to the cave's walls leading up and around to a location unknown.
The figure got to his feet, albeit a little shakily as his glowing eyes looked around his surroundings. He seemed confused; why had he been placed here of all places? He then tapped a hand to the comm units on the side of his head, a small screen forming in front of him with information dotted across it.
/Scout Model Q-429
/Codename "Quote"
'Quote?' The figure thought to himself. 'Right... right, that's my name. I-I remember.'
/Original Manufacturer DATA STORED FOR DECORRUPTING
/Last Signal before Sudden Shutdown: December 3rd, 2042
'That long ago?' Quote asked himself again, before continuing to shuffle through the rest of the information his screen until a small ping came and a new notification came up
/WARNING! HIGH LEVELS OF ARCANE ENERGY NEAR AREA! PROCEED WITH CAUTION!
"Well at least that's good to know..." Quote muttered to himself before shutting off the screen, taking a look around. Seeing the small LCD monitor with the heart on it piqued his curiosity, and he soon walked over to it, minding the gap between the platform and the small edge. He looked at the monitor quizzically, before placing one of his hands to the device. As soon as he touched it, a red glow came off from his hand and from his eyes, catching him off guard but his curiosity was still holding firm when the glow then died down. A message then seemed to be sent to him:
/VITALITY REFILLED
With that out of the way, the boy figure then noticed out of the corner of his eye a hat lying on the ground on the platform he had woken up on. Moving back over there, he had soon picked it up and dusted off the front metal plate on it. A scrawled text was on the front, not one he could make at the moment so for the time being her had put it on, covering his brownish-black hair. Now turning his attention to the pathway leading up towards the upper area, he saw that the gap between the path and the platform was a bit larger than the one to the heart monitor. Quote backed up, took a deep breath, then ran forwards and used the servos in his legs to jump as best he could.
He ended up conking his head on the ceiling and face planting onto the ground on the other side. Ow.
The boy gripped his head in pain, slowly getting to his feet as he made a mental note to be more careful with his jumps. After a few seconds of recovering, he got up and continued up the pathway, reaching what appeared to be a worn metal door. Quote pressed his shoulder against the door and gave it a sharp push; the old door creaking open as the boy stepped into the new surroundings; more cave.
Unsurprised, Quote closed the door behind him as he scanned the new surroundings. Off to his right he could see what would appear to be some kind of wall with odd shapes adorning it. Walking over to the wall, Quote lightly rapped his fingers on the surface. A echoey sound came from the other side of the wall, confirming his suspicions; it was hollow. Drawing a fist he took a punch back, only for the wall to not give and cause his arm to sear with pain. He made a mental note to not try to physically break through these types of walls unless he had some sort of armament. Turning around and heading off the other way, he was rather surprised to find that the cave was sloping deeper into the ground. Though he was almost in for a nasty surprise when he nearly landed on a set of spikes near a drop he didn't see, red in color. He breathed in relief before continuing further down.
Coming to a where there would be a steep drop-off, he would be surprised to see what was wooden scaffolding and lanterns along the area, leading to a lower cavern path. Stepping easily onto the stairs to make sure it would hold his weight, which he wasn't 100% sure of, he slowly but surely made his way down the stairs before noticing what appeared to be an alcove to the side of the stairs, holding a small container with a glowing red heart in it. Quote picked up the capsule before a digital prompt came up in front of his eyes.
/Life Tank detected in possession. Add to current Vitality? Y/N
Quote was confused at first, but then realized it must have been a self security measure. Tapping the 'Y', a large slot arm opened up on his arm as a new prompt appeared in front of him.
/Insert Tank into slot on forearm.
The boy did as instructed, slotting the small tank into his arm. It fit like a glove as soon a soft cool red glow coursed all over his body, a new prompt coming up in front of him.
/Vitality upgrade complete.
Quote didn't exactly know how to feel as he continued his descent into the cave, soon coming across what appeared to be small ponds of clear water in ruined structures, which he was able to tell due to the lanterns. Backing up and taking another jump, he thankfully didn't hit his head on the ceiling this time as he landed on the other side of the small liquid body. At this point he was merely following the lamps until he seemed to come to a larger space opening, a small wooden walkway across the water as a giant stone head of some sort of beast rested in the water a bit aways from the wooden platform. The boy felt unnerved from the presence of the large statue, so he made his way across the platform to what appeared to be an opening. A sign hung over the entrance, the text faded and hard to make out.
Quote took a step inside of the new area and looked around. It appeared to be a normal sized room, held up a bit by wooden bracing. A lantern hung in the center of the room, showing what appeared to be a table and a couple chairs, a workbench off against the far wall with something laying on it. Asleep at the table appeared to be an old dark skinned man with white hair, snoring quite loudly and not looking like he'd be woken up easily.
The boy decided it would be best not to disturb the old man as he soon had his attention drawn to the workbench on the far side of the wall. Walking quietly to make sure he didn't accidentally wake up the man, he moved over to the workbench and checked to see what was on the workbench. It was a gun; a cobalt gun with a small white star near the front of the barrel and darker metallic grooves along the gun itself. He would notice the cylinder on the gun itself, but it didn't seem like the gun would take bullets. A scanner would activate as his eyes glossed over the gun.
/PS-204 POLAR STAR
/Pistol Class Weapon
/Model No. 00001
/No Registration Found
/Case Color Cobalt
/No Warranty Applied
Seemed like a standard pistol to him. He continued the scan.
/Energy Bullet Module
/Fires energy bullets to reduce the need for regular lead bullets
/Energy Bullets capable of piercing Brimstone rock
That last point piqued his interest. That rock up near the room where he woke up could very well be the Brimstone rock, and would be no problem for this gun to break. Looking to the asleep gunsmith one last time, he made a mental note to himself to return the gun here once he finished with his exploration. He left in silence and returned back up to the strange marked wall near the top of the cave.
"Alright..." Quote breathed, gripping the pistol with both his hands and taking aim at the wall. Taking a sharp inhale to his breath, he clamped his eyes shut and pulled the trigger. A thick white blast shot forward and smashed into the wall, cracking it severely and causing it to crumble, but the gun also recoiled a bit as Quote stumbled backwards. It's clearly been a while since he had last wielded a weapon. Breathing a sigh of relief, he holstered the gun as he mover onwards to find the cave didn't go much further than where he shot the wall open. Stepping forward a bit, he could make out that there was another doorway exit at the far end of the room, but the door had since rusted and fallen off its hinges, leaving the passageway open. Quote moved through the door into the next room.
The next room was rather dark, and quite different from the rest of the cave. It appeared to be more of an old abandoned storage shack, filled with old crates and bags and the like. The only source of light seemed to be filtering from a section cracked in the floorboards at the far end of the room. Quote could hear something sounding like a struggle going on below, he put his head next to the ground and listened in, curious as to what it was...
"Toroko, just give me the key!" King growled, trying to wrench the object out of the smaller Mimiga's hands.
"N-no, King, I-I can't!" Toroko cried, holding firm to the key.
"Why do you continue to trust Sue?!" King growled, his hand slipping and falling backwards, as did Toroko. "Can't you see nothing good has come to the village ever since her outsider nature came to here a week ago?! And the fact those goons of the Doctor are constantly kidnapping the rest of the village until they find her?!"
"Sue's a good person at heart, I can feel it!" Toroko countered, clutching the key tightly to her chest. "I can't betray her like this!"
"Toroko..." King sighed. "What if the Doctor's henchmen come again? They might take you if we don't hand over Sue!"
"B-but..."
"Just hand over the key!"
Quote grew interest from the argument. Someone called the Doctor was kidnapping people? The one Mimiga was wanting to turn in Sue so they would be left alone? What was going on?
He was about to stand up, but then the floor started to crack...
"...oh no."
The next thing he knew, the floor gave out from under him.
King's ears perked up when he heard the breaking wood. "What was that?"
"E-eh?" Toroko said. But soon both Mimigas would be shocked as a figure crashed down right inbetween them along with several planks of wood. King recoiled in shock and fell over as Toroko fled in panic to a different part of the village...
"Nnnnnnngghh..." The figure moaned, sitting up and holding his head in pain... until he felt something sharp pressed to his forehead. He opened his eyes to soon find that King had placed the tip of his sword to his forehead.
"Who the hell are you and where did you come from?" King growled. "And if you're one of the Doctor's henchmen you're not getting off scott-free."
Quote swallowed hard, shaking his head. "N-no sir, there's a misunderstanding. I-I don't know who you're meaning by this Doctor!"
King narrowed his eyes. "Then where did you come from?" He growled.
Quote merely pointed up, indicating to the hole in the shack's floor that was high above them.
"Oh yeaaaah, forgot about that thing..." King muttered to himself as he sheathed his sword. "Well, sorry for the hostile greeting. Can't necessarily trust new faces in here ever since that Sue girl came here a week ago."
"I-it's fine..." Quote said, getting up. "I'm Quote."
"Name's King." The Mimiga responded. "I'm the number-one of this village... not that it means anything at this point."
"Why's that?" Quote asked, confused.
"There's only six of us left in the village." King responded. "Well... seven, counting Sue, but she's an outsider. One that I don't necessarily trust."
"I see..." The boy responded. "Sorry for the unexpected drop-in."
"Eh, it's fine." King spoke. "Feel free to look around, but I got my eye on you..." He said, before turning and starting to leave the square before he stopped. "One more thing, if you see a Mimiga wearing a green vest, let me know, alright?"
Quote didn't even get a chance to answer as the Mimiga walked off into the other parts of the village. He sighed, getting to his feet as he began to look around the village, before noticing what appeared to be a rather large Mimiga, wearing a green sweater and munching on... something. Quote couldn't really tell what it was and last thing he wanted to do was try to scan it and freak the Mimiga out, so for now he just played it casually.
"Hello there, fellow living being!"
Well... about as casually as a robot with next to no social skills could play it.
The Mimiga looked at him funny, raising an eyebrow, but just decided to roll with it. "Uh, hi?" He spoke. "Caaaan I help you?"
"I'm looking for a small Mimiga, about yey high?" Quote put his hand at the appropriate height. "Female? Wearing a green vest?"
"Ah, Toroko!" The Mimiga responded. "Haven't seen her recently, but ya could try the Reservoir! She usually likes going there to see what Kanpachi likes to fish up."
"Alright. Thank you Mister..." Quote trailed off since he didn't know the Mimiga's name.
"Mahin." The Mimiga responded. "Just call me Mahin." He then proceeded to take another bite out of his food as Quote would walk past to head for the Reservoir.
After a short trip through a passage over a river, Quote soon found himself at the edge of large body of water, expanding rather far in the area. A few waterfalls were pouring from above as light seemed to filter in from an unknown source above. A dock itself in the reservoir seemed to hang from chains attached to the ceiling. While he didn't inherently trust the chains, Quote lept to the first dock and felt the wooden platform rock a bit. He stabilized himself before jumping to the next dock, though that seemed to upset someone.
"Dagnabbit, and I was sure I had that Chinfish this time!" Kanpachi complained before looking back to see Quote.
"Sorry..." The boy said, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm looking for a Mimiga girl? Green vest?"
"Ah, Toroko." The Mimiga responded. "Ya just missed her. She dropped off something in the water here and headed back for the village."
Quote was curious, so he peered over the dock a bit to look in. Indeed, there was something glimmering in at the bottom of the water.
"Here, lemme try to fish it up for ya." Kanpachi said, soon casting his line again where the glimmering spot was. Soon enough he reeled it in slowly and pulled out the object; a silver fish-shaped locket.
"Eh?" Kanpachi said. "That's a bit odd to throw in here... ah well, take it." He said, Quote taking the locket after that. He looked it over a bit before heading for the exit back to the village... before catching sight of Toroko coming up the hill.
"E-eep!" She squeaked, turning tail and running away from Quote. The boy would soon follow after her before being confronted with a scene just outside the exit.
"The key Toroko, now!" King growled.
"N-no, never!" She squealed, soon runing and knocking King off his feet as she fled back into the village. At this point Quote wondered how King, number-one of the village was being overcome by a little girl, before storing those thoughts for later and going over to King.
"You alright?" He asked, helping the number-one Mimiga to his feet.
"Sorta..." King said. "She must be spooked a bit on the sight of seeing you. Try to get her comfortable first."
Quote would nod, trying to discern where Toroko had fled off to, before King made another comment.
"She might have hid in the Storage shack..." He mumbled to himself. "She's been known to hide in there before..."
Quote didn't waste another second as he went for the large building near the base of the tree...
Upon opening the door to the building, Quote would find the room to be rather spacious and not a lot of stored goods inside, mainly a hanging crossbeam from the ceiling as it extended towards the walls. Scraps of paper were strewn about the floor as Quote closed the door behind him, the only light now coming from his eyes and the one lantern on the wall. The boy slowly walked forward, unholstering his pistol and keeping it ready to fire in case something tried to jump him...
"Y-you jerk!"
The next thing Quote knew his head had been whacked by a stick as he fell forwards, hitting the floor hard as he flipped over, seeing Toroko holding a stick close to her as she ran at him again... before slipping on one of the loose pieces of paper on the floor and hitting it hard, dropping the stick and cowering in fear.
"P-please don't take me away..." She whimpered.
Quote silently approached the Mimiga and set his Polar Star on the ground before sitting down on the ground next to her, and lightly rubbed her head to attempt to calm her down. The Mimiga would slowly stop cowering as Quote continued to rub. He doesn't exactly remember why he would know how to do this, but to him, it felt appropriate to try and calm the panicked Mimiga down. Soon enough she was calmed down enough to speak.
"I-I'm sorry..." She spoke. "I-I thought you were with the Doctor..."
Quote merely shook his head. "No need to worry. I have no affiliation with this Doctor figure." He spoke, before taking out the pendant. "I found this in the Reservoir. Is this yours?"
"Oh!" Toroko said, looking at the pendant. "Sue gave me that pendant..." Her mood would fall again. "But King gets bent outta shape when he sees me and Sue getting along..."
"Why?" Quote inquired, curious.
"He's thinking Sue's the cause of why the Doctor's men are coming to the village to take all of us..." Toroko said, looking up at Quote. "Please, keep it."
At that moment a dull thudding would come from the door, drawing the attention of the two. After a few thuds, a voice would speak.
"Yeeesh! How hard can it be to get into a shed like this?!" One voice said, and another voice sighed.
"Would it just be easier if I just warped us into the shack Balrog?" The female voice said, causing Toroko to freeze up.
"O-oh no..." She whimpered. "Th-that's them! The Doctor's crew!"
Quote almost immediately got to his feet, picking up the Polar Star and gripping it tightly as he aimed at the door. "Get behind me." He spoke. Toroko complied without a second thought and hid behind the boy's leg as another thump came from the shack's entrance. He felt his grip tighten and his eyes narrow as he kept his sights trained on the door...
"For god's sake Balrog!" The female voice growled. "Just let me warp us in there!"
"I got this!" Balrog said. "Lemme try one more thing..."
"And what is that?" The female voice said.
"HUZZAH! EMERGIS EXMORTIS!" Balrog yelled before the front door exploded towards them, smoke billowing into the room as Quote was thrown off his focus, shielding his eyes as Toroko was coughing harshly. When the smog cleared, Quote would soon see the box-thing and the witch in full form, now that there wasn't a door separating them.
"Found you!" Balrog said. "A Mimiga like you can't escape me! I've got the nose of a bloodhound!"
"The brain of one too..." Misery muttered under her breath. "Either way Sue, there's no running this time."
"Wait, what?" Toroko said. "B-but I'm not-"
"Hush." Misery said, casting a bubble towards Toroko. Quote gripped the Polar Star tightly and shot at the bubble, but it only seemed to absorb the shots as it soon wrapped around Toroko.
"L-l-lemme go!" She squealed.
"Balrog, cleanup duty. Now." Misery said as she warped out of the shack with Toroko.
"Not AGAIN!" Balrog groaned. "I found her first too!" He then noticed Quote glaring at him. "What's your problem? You wanna fight me with that little toy?"
Quote's hands tightened and vision narrowed as he fired off a round right inbetween Balrog's eyes, singing the spot.
"I'll take that as a yes then!" Balrog responded, soon charging at the boy. He barely had any time to respond as he dodge-rolled out of the way, soon firing another three round burst into Balrog's back. From there his body seemed to be on autopilot, as if he knew how to gun combat before even though he had woken up not that long ago.
Balrog went for another charge, going to tackle Quote again, only for the boy to vault the box-thing and unload another three shots into his back. He seemed to only be charging, so Quote readied another burst fire as Balrog drew near for another run towards him, but the box threw him for a loot as he then lept up and folded his limbs in, dropping straight onto Quote. The boy had his lower half caught under the crushing attack, so he pointed the Polar Star right at Balrog's face and unloaded an entire cylinder of shots into the space inbetween his eyes. That seemed to set him off, as he lept off Quote and stomped angrily.
"NOW you made me mad!" Balrog yelled, charging for Quote again. The boy held tight to the pistol as he unloaded another cylinder of energy bullets into Balrog's back as he rolled out of the way. Balrog then lept to the far side of the room, inhaling deeply and starting to swell up like a balloon. Quote kept on his guard as he kept unloading cylinder after cylinder of energy bullets at Balrog, but then a warning came up on his vision.
/WARNING! HIGH ARCANE ENERGY READINGS DETECTED! AVOID DAMAGE AT ALL COSTS!
Quote tensed up as Balrog soon fired off a massive energy beam straight for the boy. Quote lept up and grabbed onto the overhanging beam and held onto it until Balrog stopped the beam, where he was heavily panting. Quote took this opportunity to unload another cylinder into Balrog's face before the box-thing itself burst into smoke, a frazzled look on it's face before it lept up through the ceiling of the shack. "You won't get off so easily about this!" He yelled as he disappeared.
Quote sighed in relief... but then tensed up as he heard cracking coming from around the building. Seems like that fight with Balrog did a bit more damage than he expected; the entire shack was starting to collapse in on itself. The boy quickly dived for the exit as the entire ceiling of the building came down behind him, the shack being reduced to merely rubble and splinters. Quote was panting hard as King, Jack and Mahin came running to the site.
"What in the world?!" King said, looking at the collapsed shack.
"Now what in san hill happened here?!" Jack said, before seeing Quote. "And who are you?"
"He was looking for Toroko earlier." Mahin spoke. "Didja find her?"
"A-about that..." Quote spoke. "I did find her... but..."
"But. What." King growled, staring down Quote.
"Something came. What looked like a giant bar of soap and a mage girl." Quote answered. "The mage girl took Toroko and then the soap thing fought me, an-"
"No more words." King spoke. "So my fears were true; they took Toroko."
"King, what do we do?" Jack asked. "With Toroko taken, who knows who's going to get nabbed next!"
"..." King was silent. "We should find Sue. Maybe if we offer her in exchange for Toroko, the Doctor will finally leave us alone."
"But King..." Mahin started before King interrupted him.
"We should make plans first. Get the rest of the Mimigas to the Assembly Hall, what few still live here." King spoke, elicting a nod in response from the other two Mimigas. Quote was about to walk off before King stopped him.
"Listen, kid, I..." He sighed. "I at least appreciate your attempt at trying to defend Toroko. You're welcome to stay here, but please... try not to destroy anything else." King finished his sentence as he walked off towards the Assembly Hall.
Quote stood there for a bit, staring off in the direction King walked, until he noticed something out of the corner of his eye; a small gleam in the pile of rubble. Upon walking over to investigate it, he soon found out it was a key. His mind then recollected back to the argument earlier between King and Toroko; King had mentioned something about a key. Glancing over to the other large building at the base of the tree, he walked over and tested the door; it was locked.
"Let's see..." He muttered to himself as he inserted the key into the lock and twisted it, the sound of a clinking inside the door told him all that he needed to know. Twisting the knob, he opened the door and stepped into the house. It was well kept, a desk with a computer right next to a teleporter along with a billboard containing countless scrawls of other incoherent jumble, and a staircase at the far back leading both up and down. Curious, Quote took the stairs down to find a small pool of water and a boiler at the far end of the room. He would walk over to inspect the boiler, only for his foot to crunch on something; he lifted his shoe to see what appeared to be... red petals? Why would they be down here of all places? The boy was mildly baffled as he brushed them off his shoe, soon taking note of another Life Tank on the shelf of the wall. Grabbing it, the on-screen prompt came again;
/Life Tank detected in possession. Add to current Vitality? Y/N
/Y
/Insert Tank into slot on forearm.
...
/Vitality upgrade complete.
With that sorted out, Quote made his way back upstairs to the computer, soon checking it. There appeared to be an IM Chat open, which Quote decided to gloss over.
KAZUMA: Sue?
KAZUMA: C'mon Sue...
KAZUMA: SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUE!
KAZUMA: ...
KAZUMA: sue plz
Quote was... feeling odd about reading the messages, but his curiosity kept him reading.
KAZUMA: Ive barely managed to evade detection from the doctor, where are you?
KAZUMA: please...
Seemed like the person was in trouble. Quote checked the other program on the computer, which appeared to be a coordinate locator with an IP of another teleporter linked in; 'Egg Corridor'. Seeing as he had no other leads to go to, he decided to establish the link with the coordinates and fire up the teleporter. A low hum came from it before he got up, stepping onto the teleporter as he was whisked away...
Feeling a bit disoriented from the teleport, Quote stepped off the teleported before blinking his eyes a bit, getting a better look at his surroundings. He'd find himself standing on what appeared to be solid ground in a bronzish-yellow corridor. The green rocky wall on either side of the corridor would be mostly covered up by technological glubbins and vents, some flashing odd colors. The most interesting point he would notice is the larger rectangular containers lining down the corridor at regular intervals, the first one being numbered at '16', and Quote would conclude that the numbers would go down the further he went down the corridor.
"You're a new face here!" A synthetic voice said from behind him. Quote turned around and was met with a cobalt colored robot. "What brings you here?"
"Uhh..." Quote stalled a bit. "I-I'm looking for a Mimiga?"
"Oh! One just came through here not too long ago." The robot responded. "She's probably gone further into the corridor."
"Thanks, I guess." Quote said, turning to leave before the robot stopped him.
"Hey, hold up before you head out!" The robot responded. "Be careful of some gaps in the floor here! We've got a whole team of Basils runnin' under the entire thing to power the place! One touch of those things and you'll be short-circuited into next week!"
"Thanks for the heads up." Quote responded, before leaping down to a lower ledge, a large amount of clear paneling overlooking the base floor of the corridor. True to the cobalt robot's word, there was a whole row of odd-looking electric creatures zipping back and forth across the base floor, lighting up the floor section as they whizzed by. Feeling unnerved and not wanting to get zapped, Quote kept moving down the corridor, passing a couple of egg containers, and was dumbstruck by the size of the eggs themselves. He was curious as to what was exactly in these eggs, his mind wandering... before a reading came up in front of him.
/WARNING. ARCANE ENERGY READINGS DETECTED. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
Quote quickly unholstered the Polar Star, gripping tightly to the gun as he proceeded with caution down the corridor, his eyes darting from shadow to shadow...
...then heard the sound of flitting leathery wings as he spun around and quickly unloaded a cylinder in the direction of the noise. Turns out it was a massive flying jade beetle, accompanied by two smaller ones as they seemed to approach the boy, the singes in the massive one's exoskeleton evident. The bettle growled before firing two green pulsating shots right at Quote. The boy dodge-rolled to the side before blasting two more rounds at the massive beetle, causing it to growl before the two smaller beetles dive-bombed at the boy. Quote took aim, tensing up and firing at the beetles, the energy shots essentially disintegrating the beetles entirely. The large one roared before charging Quote directly, pinning him to the ground and knocking the Polar Star out of his hand. Its mandibles would mash as it tried to snap Quote's face off, the boy trying to hold his face away from the mandibles, desperately trying to grab for the Polar Star... and just barely managed to grab the gun as he shoved it into the massive insects mandibles, blasting the trigger and blowing the massive insect's head clean open as the entire body went limp.
Quote struggled as he hoisted the dead exoskeleton off him, the massive body unmoving as he got up, wiping the green gunk from the exploded head off of him. "Eugh... that's disgusting..."
"You think you can take me on?!" A female voice said that caused Quote to jump. Curiosity took over him as he advanced down the corridor, ducking behind a stack of crates as he peered around the edge of the stack, seeing a Mimiga in a blue sweater and weaking a brown backpack yelling at... something that could only be described as a swollen Mimiga with blood-red eyes and clothes with a tie that looked about two sizes too small for him.
"Bring it you lard bucket!" The small Mimiga yelled. "Not even my brother Kazuma is able to beat me in a fight!"
"..." The massive hulking Mimiga would say nothing before lumbering forward and slugging the smaller Mimiga in the face.
"Aaack! Okay, uncle!"
Another hard slug. Quote would flinch from the punching, even though he wasn't on the receiving end of it.
"I SAID UNCLE!"
A final punch, sending the Mimiga sprawling backwards towards Quote on her back, her eyes dizzy. She would then look up at the robot.
"Huh...?" She asked, dazed. "Who... are you?" She didn't get a chance to hear Quote's answer as she sqeuaked in shock; the giant Mimiga had grabbed her and was holding her up with one arm as the other one slugged her in the face, knocking her unconscious. The giant Mimiga then slunk away, dragging the smaller one behind it as Quote came out from behind where he was hiding.
"That might be Sue..." Quote muttered to himself as he kept his Polar Star unholstered as he gave pursuit to the larger Mimiga, but would soon find it went out of sight. The boy silently cursed to himself as he holstered the pistol, moving further down the corridor. Moving past about 4 more eggs, he'd come to a upright-looking building inbetween two of the Egg Chambers. He gave it a loon, and was about to turn away when a reading came up on his scanner.
/LIFE TANK DETECTED IN VICINITY.
"Of course." Quote silently cursed to himself before going into the odd building. The inside smelled damp and musty, it actually almost walled Quote from the thickness of the musk alone. The boy coughed a bit before he looked around inside, scanning the area. It appeared to be a mostly vertical climb, most platforms unnaturally jutting out of the wall as at the top a Life Capsule was seen on a small platform. Quote sighed, getting ready to make the climb... when he felt a scaly hand touch his shoulder. Quote literally froze in place, disturbed by the touch before whipping around and aiming the Polar Star at the figure who touched him. A green cloaked figure would come out of the shadows, staring at him through its blank white eyes.
"...this is quite the interesting development." The hooded figure said, tilting his head a bit. "You're a soldier from the surface, aren't you?"
'Huh?' Quote thought to himself, tensing up as he kept his gun steadily trained on the figure. "Who are you?"
"MY now, young one, there is no need for hostility." The figure spoke, merely holding his hands out to the side. "I am merely known as Cthulhu."
Quote's figure loosened up a bit, but he still kept the Polar Star in his grip. "Why are you here?"
"This is merely one of my humble abodes." Cthulhu responded. "However, I should ask you the same. What are you doing here? And where is your blonde pal?"
"Blonde pal?" Quote questioned. "What are you talking about?"
"...amnesia, how peculiar." Cthulhu spoke, soon showing a toothy grin. "All will be revealed in due time, young one..." And with that he backed into the shadows and out of sight. Quote went after the being... only to find that there was no one there. Not even any sort of fake walls or trap doors; it's like the enigmatic creature was never there to begin with...
The boy felt uneasy as he soon scaled the interior of the building, grabbing the Live Capsule at the top before heading back down and out of the building.
Continuing down the corridor, Quote would notice the bottom of the Egg No. 06 chamber having a hole open in it. That... didn't seem right to him, as most other of the Egg chambers he passed were completely sealed off. As curiosity took over him, he went over to the Egg chamber and climbed into inside of it. It felt rather humid inside the entire case, which would cause him to sweat... if he actually did. He seemed to be fine as he shrugged, soon moving around the massive egg before seeing a corridor leading off to the side. Following it, he soon came to a small room with a desk and a small computer, and what appeared to be a small card laying on the desk. He picked it up, seeing it was some sort of ID passcard with a Mimiga's face on it; the same Mimiga that took away that smaller Mimiga. Quote noted this as he pocketed the card, figuring it may come in handy later as he exited the Egg chamber and headed back into the corridor.
His entrance back into the corridor is immediately followed up by an attack from another set of attack beetles going after him, opening fire of the green energy shots. Quote silently cursed to himself as he dodge-rolled out of the way, gripping tightly to the gun in his hands as he unloaded cylinders of white-hot energy shots onto the beetles, which only seemed to agitate them more this time as they both rushed for the boy. Quote rolled out of the way again as he holstered the Polar Star and continued running down the corridor away from the beetles, soon seeing another building, much larger in scale from its entrance. With the two hulking beetles hot on his tail, he dove through the front entrance of the building as the doors sealed behind him, the sounds of thumbing and insectual screeching heard from the other side. Quote sighed in relief before getting up, dusting himself off and looking around.
This building seemed to be larger in scope compared to the last one, housing what appeared to be a small bed and a rather large computer terminal, with a large monitor and several data banks whirring away at processes elsewhere in the corridor. Curiously, Quote approached the large computer terminal and flipped it on, seeing the massive screen whir to life before text came up on it.
/Please insert Identification Card.
Quote would grab the identification card out of his pocket and insert it into the larger computer terminal, causing it to open up a profile and showing an entire schematic layout of security cameras, egg monitors, lifeform scans, and so much more. One thing caught Quote's attention out of the corner of his eye, however; one security cam was pointing towards an active barrier at the end of the corridor. An option would be visible to disable the barrier, and Quote hit the button to confirm, shutting down the barrier as access to two more buildings at the end of the corridor opened. Seems like Quote would be heading to the end of the corridor after all. His ears wouldn't be hearing the scratching from the large beetles anymore, meaning he inferred they were probably gone from loss of interest. Gripping his Polar Star tightly, he lightly pushed open the door and glanced outside, the beetles nowhere near the building.
Taking a quick breath, he soon bolted out of the building as he ran for the area with the barrier, soon diving past it right as it seemed to have come back up right behind him. Getting up from where he dived, he had soon heard growling as lumbering footsteps grew near. He got to his feet as he gripped his gun tightly, glaring at the lumbering figure coming at him; the giant Mimiga from before.
"NNNGGGGHHHH..." The Mimiga moaned. "PROFESSOR'S EGGS. VERY IMPORTANT! NO ONE TOUCHES THEM!"
"I'm not here for the eggs." Quote grunted. "I'm here for the Mimiga girl. Now-"
"NOOOOOOOOO!" The Mimiga belted. "SHE TOUCHED EGG! PROFESSOR WILL BE UNHAPPY!"
"...I'm wasting my time here." Quote spoke, his personality almost shifting instantaneously as he took aim with the Polar Star. "The girl. Now."
The Mimiga roared before charging the boy. Quote tensed up as he dodge-rolled out of the way, aiming at the enlargened Mimiga's back as he unloaded three shots into it, but that didn't seem to do more than to just singe the fur and the shirt of the beast. The creature roared before leaping and slamming his larger fist paws on the ground, soon causing larger blocks to fall from the ceiling and crash into the ground. Quote tensed as he dodged out of the way of the larger blocks, soon ducking behind one of them as the larger Mimiga lumber towards his general direction.
"SMALL METAL BOY CAN'T HIDE FOREVER!" The Mimiga growled. "ME FIND YOU, AND ME BREAK YOU!"
Quote would think to himself as he thought out a possible battle strategy of dealing with this gigantic foe. Outside penetration was clearly not a viable option; its skin seemed to be too durable to penetrate with the Polar Star's energy bullets. If there was only some sort of opening... and Quote got a thought. What if...?
He took a chance, diving out from behind his cover and firing off another cylinder into the larger Mimiga's face. It roared in anger, soon opening its mouth to charge up what appeared to be some sort of energy blast. Quote took this chance and open fired on the open mouth, the white hot energy shots going straight down the massive Mimiga's throat, causing it to rear in pain before it fired off a volley of white energy shots at the boy. Quote dodged out of the way, but felt one of the shots collide with his left arm, causing a system warning come up in front of him.
/WARNING. ARM HAS BEEN DAMAGED 74.92%. AUTO-REPAIRS SYSTEM STARTING...
Quote silently cursed to himself, not being able to feel anything in his arm as he watched the massive hulking Mimiga charging up for another mouth blast. He took aim and opened fire, but the lack of stability from the other hand holding on the gun's handle increased its recoil, causing the gun to kick back with every shot he took, making accuracy a lot harder for him. Only two shots managed to shoot down the throat of the giant Mimiga before the next energy burst spewed forth from it towards Quote. The boy dodged the barrage of shots as he hid behind the fallen block.
"Would really like an update on that arm..." Quote gritted his teeth as the screen came up.
/AUTO-REPAIRS TO ARM AT 13.76%.
Quote cursed to himself again as soon the gigantic Mimiga had now pounced onto him, pinning him under its massive body.
"METAL BOY WILL GO SQUISH NOW!" The large Mimiga growled loudly, soon charging up another mouth blast at point-blank at Quote's body. The boy tried to squirm one of his hands free as he could still feel the Polar Star in his hand. He desperately tried to wrench his good arm with the gun out from under the hulking Mimiga, the energy shot in its mouth growing larger...
With a last wrench Quote wedged his arm free and fired the Polar Star directly into the giant Mimiga's face, causing the Mimiga's head to rear up, staring straight up at the ceiling before the beast collapsed backwards off of Quote, unmoving as what appeared to be a few red petals spewed out of its mouth as it hit the floor. Quote would sigh as he got up, tring to brush himself off with his good arm... when he'd notice the Mimiga shrinking back down to a normal Mimiga size. Quote checked it's pulse... and it was unmoving. The Mimiga was dead.
Quote had a small silence of sympathy for the small figure before noticing the red petals that came out of the Mimiga's mouth. Picking it up, he saw that it was like the same petals from Arthur's house, which concerned him. He then decided to make a quick scan of the plant...
/ERROR. DATA FILE CORRUPTED, ONLY 27% DECORRUPTED. ATTEMPT TO READ ANYWAYS?
Quote decided against checking the data file as he dropped the petal, soon moving on to the larger building within the nearby area that the larger Mimiga was in front of. Inside the building was a larger egg, much moreso than the previous ones he had seen, with the text No. 00 printed on the side of it. The egg itself was strung up and being suspended a few feet above the ground as what looked like large metal doors were near the egg itself. Near where Quote was was a small desk holding a computer and a lamp, and in front of the desk... was the Mimiga girl from earlier was lying face-down, red patches adorning her fur, seemingly brutalized a bit before being thrown here.
Quote's concerns would immediately focus on the girl as he rushed to her side, lightly feeling the girl's neck; a pulse, she was alive.
"Hey..." Quote said, lightly moving the Mimiga. "Are you alright?"
"Oooooohh..." The Mimiga moaned, slowly moving before she leaped up, rearing with energy. "D-Don't think I lost yet! C'mere and lemme smash... huh?" She would then be looking around confusedly, before seeing Quote behind her, and was just more confused. "Did... did you save me?"
"Well... more like 'found' but..." Quote started, before the Mimiga interrupted.
"Look, I can take care of myself." The Mimiga huffed dusting herself off.
"Like how you took care of that giant Mimiga back there?" Quote dryly commented.
"...shut up." The Mimiga answered, before looking onwards at the Egg. "Oh! This must be the Egg!" She would then rush over to the computer to check the status of it. "Egg Status... Incubation complete! Ready to hatch! Yes!" She would hit the enter key, but then a new window would pop up. "Huh? Password to hatch? What kind of..."
"Is... every-"
"Shoot." The Mimiga spoke. "If I wanna hatch this Egg, I need a password..." She'd sigh. "If only my brother Kazuma were here, he'd know how to get past this thing..."
That name would ring a bell in Quote's head. "Kazuma?" He asked, causing the Mimiga to look at him.
"You know him?" She asked, before fear would come onto her face. "W-Wait! You're not one of the Doctor's men are you?!"
"What? Nononono!" Quote said shaking his good arm. "I'm not associated with him! Honest!"
The Mimiga would fall silent, looking over the boy. "You don't look associated with him... but... how do you know my brother's name?"
"Well..." Quote said. "The teleoprter I took here was linked up to a computer that had an IRC network on it with a username of Kazuma on there, so-"
"Wait, h-he's alive?!" The Mimiga said, before trying to calm herself down. "S-sorry. This has been a stressful week during the time I've been here. I better head back and check those messages though..." She would walk past Quote, before looking over to the bot.
"You know..." The Mimiga said. "The more I look at you, the more I think you're not from this island. The letters on your cap seem familiar from where I live..."
Quote would look confused, looking at the Mimiga. "One more thing."
"Yeah?" The Mimiga responded.
"You're Sue, right?" Quote asked. "I'm Quote."
"Well..." Sue smiled. "Nice to meet you Quote. I'll meet you back at Arthur's house." She spoke, before leaving the room...
It wasn't long before the teleporter fired back up at Arthur's house, Sue materializing back at the house before hopping off and hopping onto the chair near the computer, clicking on the IM Chat and starting to type into the chat.
SUE: Kazuma! Are you there?!
KAZUMA: Sue! Oh thank god you're alive! Where are you?
SUE: I'm stuck at the Mimiga village here on the island, but I have access to a teleporter where I found that Sky Dragon hatchery! We might have a method of escape!
KAZUMA: At least that's good. Is it already good to hatch?
SUE: That's the problem. It's locked up with a password, and I need you to hack past it.
KAZUMA: I could if I would, but I do have some good news on my end. The Doctor hasn't found those red flowers yet, so we may have a chance to get away on said dragons and call in a military strike on the island to stop him!
SUE: What about Mom though? Haven't you seen her at all?
KAZUMA: No. I fear she may already be caught by the Doctor.
SUE: ...
KAZUMA: Don't quote me on that though; she could still be alive.
SUE: Okay, moving on, where did you run to?
KAZUMA: The teleporter I took is linked up to a different network. It looks like I'm stuck in a locked building in a section of the island called the Bushlands, or 'Grasstown' by the locals, if there are any left. Lemme send you the coordinates to the location here...
/RECEIVING COORDINATES...
...
/COORDINATES RECEIVED.
SUE: Got 'em! Once one of my new friends come back, we'll be on our way to free ya! Just hold on bro!
KAZUMA: I will. I know you can do it Sue.
/SUE has left the chatroom.
Sue's attention would turn back to the teleporter, starting to grow impatient. "I thought he would have been back by now. What's taking him so long?" He train of thought was violently derailed as the door to the house burst open, Sue falling of her chair in surprise. Soon ehough she'd feel the tip of a blade pressed to her forehead as she looked up, King staring down at her with a glare of anger in his eyes.
"Welcome back." He growled. "We've been expecting you..."
"Now what..." Sue grumbled. "I'm busy with something."
"You're not getting off lightly this time..." King growled. "Toroko's been taken by the Doctor's men in your absence!"
"Wh-what?!" Sue cried, shocked.
"Yep." Jack said, coming around to King's side. "And you're being held responsible for this."
"Why me?!" Sue yelled. "I wasn't even here when she got kidnapped!"
"Shut up and come here." King growled, seizing Sue by the arm.
"Let go of me!" Sue yelled as King dragged her away towards the village square...
洞窟物語
Cave Story: The Demon Crown Saga
Chapter 1 End