Chapter 6: Hostile Encounter

Frantically waving to clear the sudden dust cloud from his face, Quote tried to get a better understanding of what was going on. Toroko, cowering behind him, gave a few short coughs to clear her lungs. That caught his attention, namely because for some reason he felt no need to do so. He had bigger issues at hand, though, and gripped the Polar Star.

"Huzzah!"

The loud, cheerful yell came from whatever had just burst through the door. Admittedly it was an unexpected sound, but that didn't make Quote drop his guard. He finally cleared up his vision and took aim with the gun at… at…

Seeing the intruder baffled him to no end, as he struggled to comprehend what exactly he was looking at. The large, box-shaped thing was colored a dull gray save for two vertical brown stripes on its front and its short triangular arms (which seemed to extend from slits in its main body), with round feet supporting it. A pair of eyes, each roughly the size of Quote's face, peered at him with an unreadable expression while the thing's mouth was tightly closed. Its overall appearance looked like someone had attached stumpy arms and legs to a suitcase. Was it a machine of some kind? Whatever the case, it was a good head and shoulders taller than Quote and three times as wide.

"Ahaha!" the unexplainable creature laughed in a booming voice. "I've found you at last!"

His gaze was on Toroko, still nervously hiding behind Quote. The thing's mouth widened in an almost comical smile, revealing a dark hole inside him that offered no further clarity as to what he was.

"Did you think you could hide? Oh, absolutely not! I've got the nose of a bloodhound, you see!"

Before he could process that- not helped by this thing's apparent lack of a nose- he was cut off again.

"That is correct," another voice came from nowhere in particular. It was a woman of unclear age, but to Quote's confusion there was nobody else around.

At least, not until the speaker seemed to pop into existence without warning between him and the large intruder. It was indeed a woman; dark-blue haired, about his height, and looking almost human but with something about her suggesting otherwise. She slowly descended from her point levitating in the air until her feet touched down. Her deep red eyes locked onto Quote and Toroko, with an unpleasant sneer crossing her pale face. She clutched a wooden staff in her slender arms, while the rest of her body was covered by dark green robes.

"You surprise me more and more, Balrog. I didn't know you had the nose and the brain of a dog."

"Misery!" the box-shaped thing said aloud, to Quote's confusion. Was that really this woman's name? "I found her first, hands off!"

She didn't respond to Balrog, just staring at Toroko. The young Mimiga shrieked in fright.

"Y-you two… you're with the Doctor!"

"We are," Misery affirmed. "And he has called for you, Sue. Come along."

She aimed one end of her staff at the girl and muttered an incantation. Immediately after, Toroko was enveloped in some kind of bubble, floating high in the air.

"Huh?! W-wait, I'm not Sue! I'm-"

Her words fell on deaf ears as Misery vanished into thin air just as quickly as she'd appeared, bringing her along. Before leaving, she had said one last thing to Balrog.

"The rest is up to you. Don't take too long to report back."

With her and Toroko gone, Quote (who barely had any time to process what was even happening) turned his attention to the suitcase-looking being. He let out a massive groan.

"Not again! Why am I always getting stuck with cleanup duty? I found her first after all!"

Balrog returned the stare after a few seconds. His face was completely devoid of expression as the two sized each other up.

"Uh… hey you," Quote said, suddenly realizing that Toroko could be in danger, "You'd better bring her back, or else."

The larger being just laughed.

"Oh? Or else what? You gonna take me on with that little pea shooter there?"

While he didn't feel confident about this in the slightest, he knew that he had to at least do something. Quote may not have had any particular connection to the Mimigas, but right now they were the closest things to allies he had.

"Yeah, I am. Tell your friend to bring her back, or… or she's in for a beating too."

He hoped that he sounded more intimidating than he felt, but Balrog's smirk suggested otherwise.

"Is that right? Well then, if you want a fight you've got one!"

Quote had no idea what he'd expected, but the giant creature rushing straight at him faster than his size suggested wasn't it. He just barely managed to sidestep Balrog's charge, firing the Polar Star at his back several times. The shots left noticeable singe marks on his metallic exterior, causing him to growl and try again. Once more, Quote dodged around him and took the chance to shoot him from behind. When his opponent readied for another attack, however, he realized that the much larger being had him in a corner.

"Ha! Got you now, punk!"

There was no room to move aside as he barreled forth. In an act of desperation, Quote tried to jump before he was flattened against the wall.

"Huh?!" the two combatants said in unison.

Not only had the jump been sufficient to avoid the charge, it had also cleared Balrog by a noticeable distance, with Quote landing on the other side of him unharmed. Neither had expected a ten-foot leap into the air.

"Wow… have I always been capable of this?"

Seizing the opportunity, he fired off more shots into Balrog's back until he let out a frustrated growl from the harsh sting of the gun.

"I'll remember this!" he shouted, springing through the roof of the shack with an even larger leap than Quote's. There was no way to tell where he'd gone; after his destructive exit Balrog appeared to vanish like Misery had. Sighing, the now-lone occupant of the room holstered his gun and tried to collect his thoughts. More questions than ever filled his amnesiac mind, and he was starting to get tired of not making progress in learning who he was.

Quote happened to notice something sitting on the floor nearby. It was a key labeled "Arthur," inconspicuous in design. He recalled King mentioning that Toroko had the only means of entering the house Sue was holed up in. She must have dropped it after hitting him on the head before Balrog arrived.

His heart sank at the prospect of telling King that his fellow Mimiga had just been kidnapped after a misunderstanding. However, there was also some hope. He could finally meet Sue and perhaps learn a thing or two about himself. Rescuing Toroko was also on his mind, but there wasn't any obvious way to do that at the moment. Clutching the key in his fist, Quote set out toward Arthur's house.