Chapter 8: Sue Sakamoto
After spending enough time observing the dead Mimiga, Quote finally wrenched his eyes away from him and walked toward the building it had thrown Sue into. Things were suddenly dead silent in the Egg Corridor, which gave him an enormous sense of discomfort. He just hoped he could get the answers he so badly needed before anything else happened.
The unconscious girl was crumpled on the floor just beyond the room's entrance. Various monitors displayed the vital signs on each dragon egg in its incubator, and while flashing red warnings on two of them indicated that something was wrong with those respective eggs, the others seemed to be in good condition. A door at the end of the long hallway was wide open, as if asking to be inspected.
Quote knelt beside the fallen Mimiga and gave her the gentlest poke he could manage on her side. That was evidently still too rough, as she jumped to her feet with her small paws in fists.
"Rrrgh! Alright, this time I'll really get you! Come here, you ugly- huh?"
Her angered threats died down immediately upon seeing that it wasn't the feral beast next to her. She looked him in the eyes with a confused expression, though she had to slightly crane her neck to do so. Even when kneeling, he was still taller than her.
"Who are you? Did you save me from that thing?"
He silently nodded at her, the thought of killing a Mimiga still fresh on his mind. To his surprise, she didn't seem grateful at all. Quite the opposite in fact.
"That wasn't any of your business! I can take care of myself, got it?! I'd have beaten him on my own if… if… ugh, I hate this stupid island and everything on it!"
He recalled the fishing Mimiga saying that she wasn't fond of others, and now he could tell that was true. Regardless, he'd come all this way to meet her and wasn't about to give up.
"You're Sue, right? I'm Quote. I'm a…"
His mind came up short when searching for a way to finish that sentence. What was he exactly? The hooded person calling himself Cthulhu had said he was a "soldier from the surface," but didn't specify anything other than that.
"…I came here to find you," he eventually said. "I was hoping-"
She had already stopped listening to him by the time he'd said his name and was now making her way toward that mysterious door at the end of the room. Suppressing the urge to growl in annoyance, he walked after her.
As Quote followed Sue, however, he noticed something else in the room with all the computer monitors. A small bed was tucked into a corner haphazardly, with the name "Igor" on a sign posted to it. Upon closer inspection, dozens of tattered red flower petals were strewn on top of and around it. The sight made his heart sink when he remembered the gardener in Mimiga Village explaining that red flowers could kill their species if consumed. Inwardly, he wondered if Igor was that mutant he'd just fought, and if those flowers had something to do with his transformation.
"Ah, perfect!" Sue cheered from the next room over.
Shaking aside those thoughts, Quote finally caught up with her and saw what she'd been so excited about. Another huge dragon egg with "No. 00" printed on its shell was hooked up to a series of wires, possibly life support. Sue was inspecting its computer terminal with a wide grin on her short snout.
"Condition normal! That's what I like to hear. Let's hatch this sucker- what? A password? Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!"
She sighed in exasperation and turned her head to look at Quote, who was standing in the doorway feeling a little lost on what he should be doing.
"What's with the confused puppy look? Don't you realize what this is?"
"A dragon egg?"
"Yep! And it's my ticket off the island… if I could hatch it that is. Ugh, if my big brother were here he'd know what to do… what'd you say your name was? Quote?"
He nodded again, seeing her grow less tense and frustrated.
"Not that much of a talker, huh? Well, like you said, I'm Sue. Sue Sakamoto. What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to see you. A few hours ago, I woke up with no memory, and… well, you sounded like someone important based on what they were saying-"
"Whoa whoa whoa, what who was saying?"
Quote awkwardly rubbed his arm.
"King, and Toroko, and the other Mimigas… I guess I figured you'd be a good start if I wanted to learn who I was."
Her scowl returned.
"They've been talking about me, have they? Those jerks… most of them, I should say. Toroko's the only nice one out of them all. Well, sorry Quote, but I can't say I know anything about you. Maybe my brother, or my mom, or Professor Booster…"
"Wait a minute! Toroko- she was kidnapped before! Some people named Balrog and Misery came and took her, thinking she was you!"
Sue's eyes widened in shock.
"What?! Oh god, that's awful! We have to…"
Just as quickly as her outburst had started, it faded away.
"No… I have no idea how we'll be able to help her. She's with the Doctor now, and he's the cruelest person imaginable. Fighting him's impossible, that's why all we can hope to do is escape this island on a flying dragon."
"Yeah, about that. Why do you need to fly away? Can't you just build a boat or something?"
She gave him an odd look.
"You really are clueless, huh? We aren't surrounded by water- we're in the sky. Seven miles up, to be exact."
That news hit him like a ton of bricks. While he'd initially assumed that he was merely deep below the surface world that Cthulhu had mentioned, suddenly the hooded man's message took on an entirely different meaning. If his skin was any less pale he would have likely blanched at the thought of the rocky caves being the only things between him and a seven-mile drop to his death.
Sue rolled her eyes at his stunned expression.
"Hey… if you saved me from that monster, maybe you're not actually so bad. Wanna come with us when we get outta here?"
Truthfully he had no idea what he should do next. She'd mentioned knowing other people who could potentially help him, so he supposed that was a start. But leaving behind the Mimigas to suffer at the hands of this "Doctor" didn't sit right with him for some reason. Sue seemed to notice his hesitation.
"Well, I guess you still have some time to figure out what you want. For now, I could probably use your help in meeting up with my family. Can you come with me back to Mimiga Village? I need to contact my brother as soon as possible."
Quote silently nodded for the third time, and Sue flashed him a grin.
"Awesome. We're gonna escape this place in no time."
