"Wh-what?!" Quote responded.
"I'm not lying!" Curly said. "This place... it's like a true cultivation ground for the hibiscus! They're everywhere!"
"If there's hibiscus, more than likely there's going to be trouble." Quote spoke. "Keep your guard up."
"A-alright..." Curly swallowed, gripping her gun tightly as she proceeded towards the metal door across from her, a shiver going up her spine from the skull marking above it. Pushing the metal door open, she'd soon find herself in an open verdant cavern, still filled with the Hell's Hibiscus and dead grass. A wave of dread and unease filled Curly as she stepped into the unholy garden of the flowers, feeling tense...
And then she heard what could only be described as crunching. Freezing her eyes would dart between the area until she slowly crept forward, peeking around a stone structure to look at the source of the sound... and almost immediately she felt she was going to be sick.
There was a rabid Mimiga, large and swolen as if it had eaten the hibiscus. It was completely feral, only making snarling and hissing sounds as its head twitched violently, ghawing on what its unfortunate prey was; the corpse of a Sky Dragon as it laid there, motionless. Feeling a tightening in her chest, Curly kept herself as quiet as possible until the rabid Mimiga had left the area. Once she heard the lumbering footsteps walking away, she sighed in relief, stepping out from behind her cover and looking around the area. She'd soon see that the garden path would start splitting off into multiple different passageways, each one with a skull overtop it engraved in stone... however, one of the markings would be red in its eyes, seeming to set it apart from the others...
Not knowing which path to choose and trying to keep her caution up, Curly slowly started down one of the non-red skull paths in the room, walking into a darker and darker corridor... before she soon found herself coming back to the beginning of the room. Dumbfounded, she looked towards the pathways again. She could have sworn she was walking straight the entire time...
"Hey, Quote?" Curly said over her headset.
"Yeah Curly?"
"Something weird's going on in here... I tried going straight down one pathway and it just looped me back to where I was before..." Curly said. "If this kind of progress is just gonna keep leading me in circles, I don't know what I'm gonna do..."
"Hmmm..." Quote spoke. "Can you describe your surroundings?"
"Well..." Curly spoke, looking around. "What I can definitely see around me are several dead grass tunnels... they're leading to other areas... or potentially in circles... one of them has red eyes in the skull above it while-"
"While the other ones don't?" Quote asked.
"Yeah?" Curly spoke.
"Then that might be your answer right there." Quote spoke. "This area you're at seems to be testing you in a way. Try looking for anything out of place, it could be the way forward."
"Alright..." Curly said. "I'm a bit worried though... there's rabid Mimiga here... feral rabid Mimiga..."
Quote was silent a bit before he spoke again. "...if there's feral rabid Mimiga in there, chances are they'll already be beyond saving. As much as I hate to say it... if they attack you, just relieve them; they're probably more in pain how they are now."
"..." Curly was silent, looking down at the floor.
"Curly?"
"Y-yeah..." Curly swallowed. "A...alright..."
"...I know its hard for you Curly. It was hard for me too." Quote spoke. "But I know you can get through this."
"...Okay." Curly said, cocking her Machine Gun. Soon enough she started down the path of the red-eyed skull... and soon found she was finally making progress in this twisted botanical maze. Her surroundings were still similar, but now arranged in a different way as the grassy paths were now twisting off in new directions. She'd hear more snarling; more of the feral Mimigas. Keeping her Machine Gun steady, she slowly start to move forward through the dead grass, feeling it crunch underneath her feet...
And then a loud thump would come from behind her, followed by hot breath going down her neck. She'd freeze in place, glancing behind herself at what was nearby...
Only to see a large, red-eyed Mimiga glaring her down.
Curly whirled around and opened fire on the rabid Mimiga, blasting it away as the gunfire started to draw in the other rabid Mimigas towards her. Curly kept her fire up as she lept back away from the rabid Mimigas, making sure her energy bullets were on point and colliding with the gigantic white creatures...
...and it wasn't long before a pile of the rabid Mimiga was nearby the female robot, blood now splattered across her. Curly would pant heavily, her arms shaking a bit as she held tightly to her Machine Gun, glancing left and right across the area in case of any other rabid Mimigas would come nearby...
She'd slowly start taking steps forward to the next set of tunnels, seeing the stone skull sets again above the tunnels. Her eyes quickly scanned over the tunnels before she located the skull with the red eyes, heading down that path... before she started to feel the grass disintegrating below her, like dust. She soon slid down a slope before coming into a new area; the grass had turned to a dull sand, stone ruins starting to jut up from the dust, depicting ancient stone tablets and other runes of sorts. Along the walls were blue flame torches, along with several stone murals...
Curly soon realized what those murals were picturing.
It was of the events of the island; including her and Quote.
A chill ran up her spine as she looked over the murals; they dictated of the events of the island that had happened over the years, Ballos's imprisonment and rage, the creation of the Crown, the past rulers...
...even up to the events of last year...
She swallowed hard. How did this place know?
Trudging through the sand, gripping tightly to the Machine Gun as she proceeded through the sandy tunnels... before coming to a large sandy room, several metal houses lying half-buried in sand with doorways leading into them. Small trickles of sand would be flowing in from the top of the room, bloodied chains hanging down from the ceiling... along with vines of the hibiscus.
Curly tensed up as she looked at the doors; there was no indication to which one was right like the last set of the grassy tunnels. She looked between the doors, and then approached one of the buried houses. Steeling her nerves, she'd slam the door open and look inside... to see it pitch black. Gripping her gun tightly, she'd slip into the doorway... before she emerged from the other side in the same room... in another doorway. Confused and frustrated, she'd start checking the other doors and end up popping out of the other houses in the room, only to keep popping out of other doors in the room. Starting to get angry and frustrated, she'd approach the last door... only for it to open an eye and look straight at her! Curly, already sick of going in circles, just blasted the door to ash as she stormed through it... and soon found herself into a new sandy room, more metal houses surrounding the area.
"What..." Curly shook, before she realized.
She shot a door possessor before she entered into here. The house with the door possessor must be the tell!
Gripping her Machine Gun, she'd slowly start checking each of the houses, looking for the door possessor, before she found it on one of the houses at the back. Blasting the door apart, she'd proceed deeper into the gardens... as the floor changed again, from sand to metal and stone. Looking ahead, she'd see the room was in a cross shaped formation of crossroads, a series of identical ruined pathways leading to several different shutter doors. At the center of the crossroads was a glass tube, filled with hanging vines of the hibiscus vines...
Curly tensed up, gripping her Machine Gun as she started towards the glass tube at the center, giving her a chance to look down all the other corridors... and she noticed they were all looking exactly identical. And not just as similar in build, as in they were exact carbon copies of eachother. Curly felt unnerved at the deadly accurate symmetry of the cooridors... and she then realized that this would make things easier to spot anything out of place in them. She smirked; if the last few rooms were having minor differences to set aside the way forward, this should be no problem at all!
Looking down each corridor, she'd start to examine each one carefully, keeping her eyes open for any sort of difference between the corridors... and soon she found it. It was really subtle, but one of the panels on the north corridor was peeled back a bit, showing more circuitry. Smirking, Curly would head through the shutter door and ended up in a similar looking crossroad corridor, but she knew for a fact this time she was advancing. Again she started scanning over the corridors to locate the out of place object... before she found it by a few hanging hibiscus vines in the east corridor. Smirking, she went through the next shutter; this was gonna be easier than she expected!
Curly would enter into the next crossroads and start looking around them for the next set of out-of-place objects in the corridors... but her search was starting to become harder and harder to track down any sort of differences. Gritting her teeth, she'd keep looking between the separate corridors, looking for any sort of difference... before she found a minute difference in the corridor she just came from; a few hanging sparking wires hanging from the ceiling.
"No... it can't be that ridiculous..." Curly spoke, opening the door to where she just came from... only to find herself in a new corridor, once again grassy like the first one she had stepped in when she had entered into this maze of gardens.
"How..." Curly sighed, dumbfounded before she gave up. "Fuck it, this place is already making no sense whatsoever, why am I trying to apply logic now?" She growled, holding tight to her Machine Gun as she continued onward through the grassy corridor, before reaching another door, adorned with black stone and a skull overtop the entryway. A sigh above, rotted and cracked read 'Abandon all hope who enter in here.'.
Curly rolled her eyes. "Riiiiight... like this is gonna be anything bad." She spoke to herself, gripping tightly to her gun as she threw the door open...
...and her heart nearly stopped from what she saw.
"N... no..." Curly breathed, nearly dropping her Machine Gun. The painful memories were flooding back to her...
It was the Sanctuary.
Her hand shaking, she slowly reached a hand up to her comm unit and contacted the others. "Q-Quote?"
"Yeah Curly?" Quote spoke.
"This is possibly the worst possible path the island naturally laid out..." Curly spoke, fear rising in her chest.
"What?" Quote asked, confused. "What do you mean?"
"Th-this..." Curly swallowed. "H-how can I explain it... are you able to look through my eyes with our linkup set?"
"I... think?" Quote asked. "Why?"
"You... you just need to see this..." Curly breathed, getting the link set up for Quote to see...
The male scout was slightly concerned to know exactly what had Curly encountered, but he sighed. Not like he was going anywhere right now with his current leg repair work...
"A-alright?" Quote said, shifting as bit. "Go ahead and show me..." There was a bit of silence as Sue was working on his legs.
"Let's see... a bit more of reworking these wires..." Sue muttered to herself before she could feel Quote tense up. "Huh?"
Strewn across Quote's face was a wide-eye horrified expression, his body trembling slightly.
"Wh-what..." Quote breathed. "N-no... nonono..."
"Q-Quote?" Sue asked, concerned a bit. "Are you okay?"
"Something tells me what Curly is showing him is not something he wants to remember..." Professor Booster spoke, looking at the male scout robot.
Indeed he'd be right as the painful memories would start flooding back to Quote, the screams of Curly's pain on her impaled arm ringing in his ears once more, the pounding pain of the screeching trapped souls... he'd grip his head in fear, artificial tears starting to flow as the painful thoughts started to come back, causing him to start shaking.
"Sh-shut it off Curly." Quote whimpered.
"Quote?" Sue asked, worried.
"P-please, make it st-stop..." Quote was shaking uncontrollably now. "Stop..."
Sue was seriously starting to get concerned now; there was not telling how Quote was going to react at this rate...
Curly swallowed hard, deactivating the optic link out of fear of Quote's reactions getting worse. She could already tell from his initial reaction his mind was starting to give, but thankfully his breathing was starting to return to normal.
"I-I never wanted to see that place again..." Quote muttered.
"Are... are you gonna be okay Quote?" Curly asked.
"Just... never show me there again..." Quote muttered. "I don't need to be reminded of that hell..."
Curly would be in silence as she started to trek through the ruined sanctuary. Her nerves flared up as her feet slowly moved throughout the ruined corridor, feeling the heat of the lava that had burst through the first time was slowly seeping into pools in the ground. The heat particles were rising upwards towards the cracked ceiling, the blood splattered across the walls and floors of the area. Small piles of ash were strewn across the area, possibly the remains of the cherub-like creatures from the first run through the area. Curly gripped her Machine Gun tightly as she moved closer towards the end of the corridor, feeling her nerves flaring up as she neared the small altar room where she and Quote fell...
The hole was still there from where Heavy Press had fallen the first time, just caving in from the center of the room. Small trickles of lavafalls were pouring down into the center hole, down towards the statue room of the old Plantation. Swallowing hard, Curly tightly gripped the wall and slowly started to climb down the rocky hole, keeping her hands tightly to the wall just in case something would fall by...
And then the rock broke out from under one of her hands. Curly's fear spiked in her chest as she gripped hard with her other hand, glancing downwards at the bottom of the pit below. She swallowed hard when she could see the wreckage of Heavy Press at the bottom of the crater, several red spikes now popping up down there where she didn't remember. Swallowing hard, she slowly continued down the pit's rocky wall, keeping as close as she could before she slowly stepped down at the mouth of the corridor to the statue room where Heavy Press had crashed through the first time. Remembering there was a doorway to the Plantation, she'd look behind her to see if it was still there... only to be met with a collapsed corridor, the doorway behind several tons of rock. Looking down the pit more, she'd see the scrapped Heavy Press up close, large red spikes stabbing out of the metallic frame. Swallowing hard, she'd climb down and step down to the side of the large wreck, avoiding the spikes as far as she could. Her heart racing a bit, she'd look over to see the doorway to the corridor to the Seal Chamber, cracked and ruined as if it hadn't been moved in years. Swallowing hard, she'd push open the door.
The door caved in, showing Curly the corridor to the Seal Chamber, in even more ruin than before. Large chunks of rock were torn away, showing the outside sky and sea of clouds below. Curly would swallow, slowly starting to approach the upper corridor as she approached the entrance of where the Seal Chamber once was, seeing a solid stone wall immediately behind the door. Pressing her endoskeleton hand against it, she'd get a painful shock as she stumbled backwards, a reading coming up in front of her.
/WARNING! ARCANE CORRUPION DETECTED! INITIATING RECOVERY-PURGE DIAGNOSTICS...
Curly gripped her endo arm in pain, wincing from the electric pain coursing through it as she stumbled back, falling back onto her back. Groaning, she'd try to sit up, only to feel another harsh tremor; the island was shaking again, this one even worse than the last time. Gripping hard to the ground out of fear she'd be thrown out one of the holes in the sides of the hall, her heart nearly stopped as she felt the ground give out from under her, feeling herself fall before hitting the ground hard, clenching her eyes shut.
"A-aaahhnnn..." Curly moaned, sitting up before looking around. She'd look up at where she fell from, finding herself having fallen into a corridor underneath the chamber. "Wh-where..." She spoke to herself, before rolling over and looking over the edge of the corridor.
She had narrowly dodged a bullet; she had fallen into the corridor on the Outer Wall.
Swallowing hard, she shakily got to her feet and stumbled towards the door to where she remembered there being a storage shack from Quote had told her. Upon opening the door, Curly would find a much different sight; The room was much more expansive, a large runway opening at the far end of the room as if it were fit for a plane to land in. A deactivated teleporter sat near the wall of the left side of the room, looking like it hadn't been used for quite some time, as well as a large cylindrical generator, its turbines motionless as it sat there. Several ammunition crates and storage containers were strewn about the area, papers scattered across the floor like the place was abandoned. Curly approached the teleporter, looking over it as she tried to find the power switch on it as she activated her comm unit.
"Quote, are you there?" Curly said.
"Yes, everything okay?" Quote asked.
"Yeah, I'm at the Observatory now." Curly answered, still working at the teleporter. "It should be on any second. How's your legs coming?"
"Sue got them finished about five minutes ago." Quote answered. "We'll be through once that teleporter's up and running."
"Roger that." Curly sighed, ending the comm as she finally found the power unit, flipping it on. The teleporter slowly whirred to life as it booted up, a green energy sparking within it before it fully powered on, whirring as it waited for the next user to teleport.
Quote and Sue were the first ones to come through, Sue shivering a bit as she stepped into the Observatory. "Y-yikes... it's a lot colder in here than I expected..."
"It might be due to the open hatch." Curly said, indicating to the large opening in the room, before looking to Quote. "How's your legs?"
Quote would stretch them a bit. "A little stiff, but noting a little walking won't loosen up. What about you?"
"A little battered and bruised, but I'll live." Curly spoke as the teleporter brought through it's next two passengers through; Misery and Professor Booster. "Everything okay with you two?"
"We'll be fine." Misery responded. "We just need a bit of cover for the time being so we can get to the Balcony."
Booster nodded, fixing his glasses. "Now then, the helicopter will need to be landing on the upper Balcony, while Kazuma will be able to land through here. Quote, Curly, your current objective is to go through the passage leading up to the Balcony and get rid of any sort of hazardous obstacles that may stand in our way; with how the caves are laid out and how the creatures are starting to grow hostile, it could be too dangerous to try and escort all the Mimiga through."
Quote nodded, gripping the Spur tightly. Curly pulled out her Nemesis, cocking it and readying her trigger finger. "We'll take them out." Quote said. "You've got our word."
"Good." Booster spoke, looking over to another door up a flight of stairs. "The Plantation should be right through there; head for the top and you should be able to find your way to the Balcony."
Curly smiled. "We got this." She said. "Ready Quote?"
The male scout nodded, gripping the Spur tightly. "Let's go." He said, the two entering through the door into the Plantation.
The sight on the other side was not what the two were expecting to see. The grassy fields and spiraling spires of the original large cave had been long since abandoned, dead grass now strewn about and ruined planting fields and destroyed sprinklers. And if that wasn't enough of a bad sign, Quote and Curly's scanners were going haywire.
/DANGER! ARCANE LEVELS DETECTED IN HIGH AMOUNTS! PROCEED WITH UPMOST CAUTION!
"That can't be good..." Curly said, gripping her Nemesis tightly as the two slid down from the doorway and to the ground. Slowly stepping out into the Plantation, Quote and Curly's grips tightened on their guns, their optics darting between every corner of the cavern...
"I remember Chaco telling me there was some sort of reason this place was evacuated and sealed off..." Quote spoke, keeping his grip tight. "And I'm a little hesitant as to see why..."
Curly swallowed hard, keeping her Nemesis close as her boots trampled over the dead grass. Her ears would keep open for any sort of auditory cue, feeling tense at any sort of sound coming from the area.
And then Quote would notice something. Something... off about the area. The red puddles...
Quote would hold his arm out, causing Curly to stop dead in her tracks as she started looking at what Quote was looking at. Gritting her teeth, she'd ready her Machine Gun at the dripping red puddles as they started to form...
"I shoulda known that sunovabitch wouldn't stay down after the first round a year ago..." The female scout growled, keeping her weapon trained on the blob starting to morph into the gigantic hulking red figure, it's eye opening up and staring down at the two.
Quote's nerves steeled as he took aim with the Spur, soon opening fire on the massive creature. The large red blob let out a roar before lunging for the two in an attempt to crush them or drown them inside itself. Both Quote and Curly would dodge to opposite sides out of the way of the attack, right as the massive goo creature came down and crunched the ground, splashing into a large goo wave.
"Split up!" Curly yelled, the two going their separate ways and fleeing into the different parts of the Plantation, leaving the goo monster to itself. The creature let out a roar before diving after Quote off in the direction he took off in.
"I've got it distracted!" Quote contacted Curly over his comm unit. "You find the route towards the top of the island, and I'll catch up with you then!"
"Got it!" Curly said, leaping up to a higher ledge as she rushed on ahead. Quote kept his focus on the creature as it chased him downwards from the center area of the Plantation, the massive creature sliding down the massive crevasses with it's goo-like composition. Quote gritted his teeth as he took aim at the goo creature, firing off a Spur shot at it. The goo would splatter into a large splash, large gooey chinks flying around the area. The robot dodged out of the way of the splattering goo as he soon lunged and rolled onto a small island in the middle of the large reservoir of the Plantation, gritting his teeth as the large red blob slammed onto the island, letting out a roar as red spikes slashed up around the edges. One way or another, only one was leaving after this battle.
Quote gripped his Spur tightly as the massive creature reformed into the creature it is now. The eye rematerialized in its eye as it let out a loud roar, lunging for Quote, intending to swamp him. The male scout would roll out of the way, opening fire with the Spur on its gooey body, but it didn't affect it at all. The male scout growled to himself as he dodge-rolled to the side as the goo creature brought one of its hands down right where Quote would have been. The male scout retaliated with another shot of the Spur, but the body just kept absorbing the shots. Gritting his teeth, Quote would grip tightly to the Spur and took aim at the creature's eye, soon opening fire on the point. The massive creature would screech in pain as it reared back, gripping over it's eye for protection.
Quote smirked; he found what caused this thing pain! Keeping his fire up on the eye, he'd continue to try and shoot through the goo hands at the eye. The hands were protecting the weak spot a bit too well; soon enough the beast would start lumbering forward towards Quote, ready to bring it's fists down onto the male scout robot. Quote tensed up as the large creature brought it's hands down, smashing the ground where he once was, before its eye sunk into its gooey body and reappeared somewhere else on it, looking directly at Quote.
The goo creature roared before its eye glowed brightly, firing off a large beam straight for Quote. His sensors went off like mad; that beam was nothing but pure condensed arcane energy, meaning it would more than likely fully kill him if he even touched for more than half a second. Swallowing hard, he dodged to the side as the beam starting tracking him across the ground, scorching it as it went. The robot, gritting his teeth, juked hard to the side before opening fire on the eye once again, causing the creature to roar in pain once again.
Seeing his opening, Quote would grip hard to the Blade before slinging it forward, unleashing a flurry of slashes straight for the eye of the massive goo creature. It roared in pain more and more before the gigantic creature exploded, sending the red corrosive goo everywhere. Quote ducked down as it splattered across the ground and into the water, hearing the sizzling of the goo on the ground as the spikes retracted back into the soil of the small island. Wasting no time, Quote activated the Booster and lept of the island, hovering back over to the shorebank of the reservoir.
Tapping a finger to his comm unit, he spoke. "Curly, you alright up there?"
"I'm still searching." She replied. "What about you?"
"That creature's dead now." Quote spoke. "I'll be coming to regroup with you shortly."
"Alright." Curly said as the comm cut out. Readying the Booster again, Quote took off up the slope and started making his way towards the top of the island...
Soon enough Quote had gotten back to the mid-point of the Plantation with Curly as she was looking up the large shaft where the elevator original was to take them up to the top of the island. Lightly tapping her foot, she'd be looking up at the sealed shaft before looking to the male scout.
"I think I found our way up, but those doors are still sealing it off from our last ascent..." Curly said. "There's gotta be some way to disable the locks on them..."
"Chances are there must be a backup generator somewhere in the Plantation..." Quote spoke, activating the thermal scanner in his good eye. "There's no telling where it might be in here though, and there's also no telling how many hostiles there might be here."
"We need to be careful then..." Curly spoke as Quote got a reading.
"Got it." The male scout said. "There's two of them, off in separate corners of the Plantation."
"We split up and get those?" Curly asked.
Quote nodded in response. "Keep your comm links open; there's no telling what might still be here."
Curly nodded before the two bots went their separate ways off into the upper parts of the Plantation, both keeping their guns at the ready as Curly pulled herself up to a higher ledge. As she continued through the Plantation, the nagging thought of their dire situation only grew in her mind, as well as her doubt. Was it truly their fault Jenka was like this? Was... was it their fault the island was collapsing the way it was now?
The thoughts started to plague her mind more as she soon slowed her pace, merely only walking before just full-on stopping altogether, soon slumping against the rock wall near the side of the Plantation, looking down below. Her thoughts were now swarmed in an emotional cocktail whirlpool inside her processors as she contemplated the multitude of the events...
"Maybe..." She whispered to herself, her interior hurt growing more and more. "Maybe it's best... that Quote and I don't survive after ending this mission..."
"Showing yourself doubt, are you?" A voice said, causing Curly to tense up a bit, but she didn't dare move. "Why the cold shoulder? This can't be the same blonde I've met before..."
Curly clamped her eyes shut, not even moving from her spot as she remained silent. "If I don't give him a response, he might just go aw-"
Curly's thoughts were interrupted as a familiar clawed hand tapped her on the head. "...dammit..." She thought. "What do you want?" She growled at the now-present Cthulhu, seeming annoyed by his presence.
"Nothing more than checking up on how you and your little soldier boy are doing." Cthulhu spoke, grinning that familiar toothy grin. "However, it seems you two are a bit... 'misguided' as of right now."
Curly glared at the hooded figure. "What is that supposed to mean?" She spat.
"Something I cannot reveal... now."Cthulhu spoke, starting to slide back into the shadows. "All will b-" He was suddenly interrupted by the strike of a plasma bolt hitting the wall mere inches from his hooded head.
"I don't want it eventually." Curly growled, the smoke curling from the barrel of her Nemesis. "Tell me. Now."
"You'll get nowhere with a tongue like that, young one." Cthulhu spoke, his grin faltering as he spoke in an annoyed tone. "I highly suggest you leave the topic alone for now and not pry into things you don't understand."
"Then make me understand it." Curly growled, aiming the Nemesis directly at Cthulhu. "Now. Or else I'm gon-"
She didn't get the chance to finish that sentence as she was harshly thrown against the wall, held in place by some sort of arcane power as she struggled to move. Barely being able to open her eyes, she'd see Cthulhu with his hand out, the same red glow adorning it, an angered scowl twisted across his face.
"I said, leave the topic alone." Cthulhu spoke, a new acidity in his tone that wasn't there before. "The next time you try to pry into something you don't understand, it will cost you your life, understood?"
Curly's fear started to spike as she started to squirm severely, afraid to find out what Cthulhu's bad side would be like...
"UNDERSTOOD?!" Cthulhu barked, causing the female scout to squeak.
"U-understood! Please!" Curly whimpered, her mechanical heart beating almost a thousand times a second.
Cthulhu's anger seemed to dissipate as he dropped the scout to the ground. "Good." He merely spoke, before melting into the shadows and out of sight.
Curly was panting heavily as she tried to internally calm herself down, but right now her mind was rapid-firing questions in such an incoherent manner she was almost scared to learn any of the answers to them.
"Wh-what the fuck was that?!" She silently mouthed to herself from the experience as she quickly reached a hand to her comm unit...
...but she never got the chance to contact Quote as something sharp swung into the back of her head.
The trek through the dead and abandoned tunnels of the ruined Plantation had been mostly uneventful for Quote, aside from a few hostile creatures here and there, but nothing too serious. His nerves were a bit on edge however; even if that goo monster was dead, letting his guard down would be the last thing he wanted before being attacked.
Skidding down a steep slope, he'd continue onwards through the caves of the Plantation, before seeing what appeared to be a ravaged shack, not that far off from him. Keeping his Spur close, he'd get close to the door before he broke it down, entering into the house SWAT style, keeping his eyes roaming to every corner possible. When it appeared there were no hostiles in the area, he'd loosen up a bit, checking across the ruined shack for anything. Disturbing were the messages scrawled across the walls of 'IT'S TOO MUCH MAGIC" or "WE HAVE TOILED IN HIS DOMAIN".
Quote became rather unnerved from what he could only describe as the scrawls of insanity as he investigated the shack... and found a ravaged chest near the back of the place with a note, much like the other ones he found; signed by some sort of 'Pignon'.
There was that name again! At this point Quote was getting more annoyed than anything else so he just left the note as he left the shack and continued down the corridor before coming to a giant room, a large machine sitting against the back wall, inactive as though it hasn't been run for a while.
"Alright, there's the generator..." Quote said, stepping down into the room and moving over to it. "Now, let's just get this thing up and running..." He'd fall silent as his mind worked at trying to repair any sort of damage the generator might have sustained during its inactivity. Once he turned a final gasket on the side of the machine, he's pull the lever on the front on the machine, sparks flying as the level latched into the on position. Soon enough a low hum started to whirr across the cavern as lights would start to boot up all across the ceilings, artificial light now flooding into the larger cavern as a loud bellowing sound came from the main cavern. Smirking, Quote started to head back out of the tunnel before he got to the center cavern, looking up to see the gigantic steel doors at the top of the cavern starting to slowly open.
"Alright... that's one generator..." Quote spoke. "Hopefully Curly has found hers..." He said, reaching for his comm unit. "Curly, you there?"
No response.
"Curly?"
Still nothing. Quote was starting to grow concerned at the lack of response, trying his set again.
"C'mon Curly, th-this isn't funny..." Quote said. "Please, say something..."
Yet again, silence. At this point Quote's fears were starting to be confirmed; something was wrong with Curly. Something had gotten her. His thoughts were rushing as soon something new came to him.
"Quote, you there?!"
The male scout was jumpscared as he fell backwards onto the ground in shock, shaken a bit from the sudden voice. The vision in his eye cleared to soon see what appeared to be a virtual screen of Sue about a foot in front of him.
"W-wait, Sue?" Quote said. "How did..."
"Found this old 'ConTracker' tablet in a crate pile in the Observatory here." Sue spoke. "Managed to modify it a fair amount so that way I could link up to you guys. That's beside the point though; Curly's in trouble!"
"What?!" Quote said. "Where is she?!"
"I've got her tracked to somewhere deep within the Plantation." Sue said. "I'll upload her tracked coordinates to you right now; just hold on!" Quote held himself in place as he soon felt the data uploading into his memory banks, his internal GPS honing in on her location.
"Got it!" Quote said, rushing off to find Curly...
"Nnnngghhh..." The female scout moaned as she slowly regained consciousness, her optics refocusing into finding herself... strapped to some sort of large machine in a spacious cavern. She'd struggle to move any sort of her body, but she'd find that her limbs weren't responding at all. She felt... wet. Like there was some sort of liquid surrounding her, except for her mouth and nose...
Her vision would start to blur again, and she'd try to squirm more and more, trying to break free of whatever containment she was in...
"C-can't... move..." Curly thought, starting to lose consciousness...
Quote panted as he slid down the grassy tunnels towards the bottom of the island; of all the places Curly had to be tracked to, how the hell did she manage to get taken away to here?! He shook his head; save her first, ask questions later!
Skidding out the hole near the bottom of the cavern, Quote's boots would skid to the halt on the hanging scaffolding below the island, feeling the wind whipping through his body as he took off across the series of hanging platforms, feeling the wind whipping through him as he lept from platform to platform about the sea of clouds.
His sensors would soon pick up what appeared to be a faint buzzing sound, which initially confused him. Soon enough he'd look down to see what appeared to be a set of helicopters coming towards the island...
"The Sakamotos!" Quote thought to himself. "Momorin must be coming to evacuate the Mimiga!" That fact made him realize he had to hurry and get the route cleared for them, but he needed to get to Curly first!
Keeping his head level, he activated the Booster v2.0 and jetted across the larger gaps in the hanging scaffolding, using his boosts effectively as he skidded across each platform. His audio sensors would pick up buzzing as he'd soon look to his sides; Gaudi were now swarming out of the island and straight for him.
"Figures that they'd start targeting me..." Quote mumbled to himself, getting his Spur ready as he opened fire on the swarming cockroaches. The shots would disintegrate the exoskeletons as they started dropping out of the sky. Gripping hard to the Spur with one hand, Quote would leap and activate his Booster, gripping straight onto the chain ahead of him as the torque angle shot him straight into a hole in the ceiling, out of sight from the rest of the Gaudi as he landed on the hanging cave interior. Panting heavily, he held tight to the Spur as he pressed onwards into the hanging cavern. Leaping over a bed of razor red spikes, Quote would grab the wall and start climbing, feeling the wind whipping around him as he scaled the wall. Reaching the top, he's soon see the hanging scaffolding of stone ahead of him, security devices adorning them.
"Great..." Quote muttered to himself. "No one ever said this was gonna be easy..."
Taking a deep breath, Quote would rush across the scaffolding the island, soon the defenses activating as twin Sentry guns popped out of the ground and opened fire on the scout robot. Ducking behind the wall, Quote holstered the Polar Star before getting out the Snake from his other holster. Tensing up, he'd turn to face his cover, firing off the phasing shots through his cover as they soon snaked and collided with the Sentries, causing them to spin violently out of control, opening fire on eachother before simultaneously exploding, kicking up a fair amount of smoke.
Blaring sirens would echo across the scaffolding as security drones dispatched from hatches and started flying in on Quote's position. The scout robot gritted his teeth, soon making a rush out from his cover as the drones opened fire on him. The robot would soon grip his blaster tightly as he had his Spur unleash hell on the other drones, blasting apart them as the scrap metal fell into the sky. Quote swallowed hard as he soon launched himself upwards and gripping onto the hanging ceiling above. The drones would soon open fire on the monkey-barring Quote, the shots barely missing him as he soon ducked up into the opening above right as a metallic hatch sealed shut behind him.
The scout robot would pant heavily, feeling his synthetic heart pounding in his chest as he slid down against the wall. His mind was racing as he soon tried to get to his feet, gripping tightly to the Spur as his lone eye would dart around the dark metal corridor, slowly moving past the tube capsules, holding something inside them...
Suddenly, one would shatter from behind him, shocking the robot as he whirled around and aimed the Spur at what figure had collapsed out of the capsule. Hands shaking, he pointed it as the figure that had collapsed had slowly gotten to its feet to reveal... Curly?
No... no, there was something very wrong with the Curly in front of him, stark naked as the day she was created. It could barely stand, its legs trembling under its own weight as it's blonde hair obscured its face. When the hair fell to the side a bit, Quote would see its eyes wren't natural... they were blood red. The fake Curly moaned as it lumped forward towards Quote like some sort of zombie, looking to latch onto him... before Quote blasted its head open with the Spur, the robotic corpse falling to the ground.
Quote's metal skin began to crawl, a pit forming in his stomach as he soon proceeded further down the corridor, soon shooting down more of the fake Curlys that tried to attack him before he reached what had appeared to be the inner sanctum of the fortress. Along the far side of the wall was a massive machine, a large screen at the top and several large pipings soon funneling through the room. Quote swallowed, slowly proceeding into the room as his lone eye darted around.
"Curly, please be okay..." The scout said to himself as he soon laid eyes upon the capsule attached to the large machine, the naked form of Curly inside the capsule with nothing more than a breathing mask over her mouth and nose, the capsule filled with a liquid as she remained suspended in it, unconscious and unmoving, her clothes in a pile on the floor beside the capsule...
Without another word, Quote would hurry and activate the shutdown process on the machine, the capsule soon draining as Curly collapsed inside it before it opened, the android girl spilling out onto the ground as Quote soon scooped her into his arms.
"Curly!" He exclaimed. "A-are you alright?!"
"Mmmmmgghh..." The robot moaned, slowly opening her eyes. "Q-Quote...?"
Quote would hug the girl tightly. "Thank god you're alright..."
洞窟物語: ジェンカスの悪夢
Cave Story: The Demon Crown Saga
Jenka's Nightmare Arc
Chapter 5 End