Chapter 17: Across the Wasteland

Author's Note: Late response to a comment made a few chapters ago, Quote's hat does say "Curly Brace" in early artwork of Cave Story. I decided to have it say Quote mostly for convenience's sake, so he would at least know what to call himself since the beginning.


Quote couldn't say he was surprised that the Sand Zone lived up to its name, but he was caught off guard by the degree to which that was the case. Thinking back to when he'd first entered the area through the teleporter, he realized just how foolish it was to have considered that small area was aggressively sandy. The route to Jenka's house had him constantly stumbling and wavering in the unstable ground, at several points even falling onto his face. Getting back up from that was always a chore, not helped by Curly's amused giggling every time.

It only took him five minutes of the walk before he'd decided that he really didn't like sand. It was coarse, and rough, and-

"Not used to it, huh?" his fellow soldier commented after he'd collapsed for the fourth time.

He was admittedly jealous of her in that regard. Having spent the past three weeks in the Sand Zone, she'd clearly adapted to traversing the environment and could steadily walk without fear of falling. Every time Quote tripped over, she would good-naturedly tease him about it and help him back to his feet. Jenka's house, contrary to what she'd said, didn't appear to be "a short walk away" at all, so he was bound to suffer through that humiliation more. At least her injuries were slowly but surely repairing themselves from what he could see, and they had yet to come across any monsters. Things weren't all bad.

"I'm sensing rough vibrations in the ground below you. It could be trouble," Malco announced into both their receptors.

Fantastic.


Curly felt a little bad about finding the sight of her new ally struggling with the sand so amusing, but she couldn't help it. Anything to help raise her spirits after the kidnapping of her children was welcome by that point. The incident was still fresh on her mind, filling the robot with a burning motivation. She had to get them back, and if that witch got in the way again she'd tear her limb from limb.

As she watched Quote fall over again, she realized that she couldn't afford to lose herself to rage. She felt she was more than justified in being furious, but allowing it to overtake her would only be a bad idea in the long run. For the sake of the Colons, she had to keep her spirits as high as possible.

Curly smiled down sympathetically at her companion as he dusted himself off.

"Not used to it, huh?"

He gave her a look of mock-irritation that only caused her grin to widen. At least he was being a good sport about it.

As little of a talker as he was, she supposed there could have been worse company to have. Quote had the air of a fighter about him- he was a soldier just like she was, after all- and the subtle confidence he showed as he determinedly trudged through the sand helped boost her own morale.

She also found Malco's omnipresent voice (from what she could tell, he was holed up in some other part of the island until further notice) to be a good companion. Curly had been worried at first that he'd be able to tell what she and Quote were thinking by connecting to their heads, but fortunately that wasn't the case. Perhaps to make up for that, the excitable robot would instead talk about anything on his own mind. Had the memory of the kidnapping not been so strong at the moment, she suspected that she and Malco could get into long conversations about nothing in particular. It was a nice goal to work toward, at least.

"I'm sensing rough vibrations in the ground below you. It could be trouble."

"Perfect! I need to warm up my trigger finger… you ready, Quote?"

The male robot drew his pistol, or "Polar Star" as he'd called it at some point during the walk, and kept a close eye on the sand beneath them.

"You know the area, right? What are we dealing with?" he asked.

"If I had to guess, sand crocs. They tend to burrow around here."

"What are sand-"

Curly threw herself into a sideways roll as the ground directly under her burst open. Where she had been standing moments earlier, an enormous green reptile was thrashing around and snapping its jaws. The thing's long mouth was open to reveal hundreds of teeth that could rip her apart easily.

"Quote, aim for the eyes!"

Her shout had drawn the sand croc's attention, and it was sinking back underground to attack again. Before it had a chance to escape, the other robot blasted the side of its head with his gun. Its tough hide went relatively unscathed, but a lucky shot into the beast's eye caused it to roar in pain as it disappeared.

She didn't assume it was done fighting yet and continued to monitor the sand all around them. Another brief vibration- this time very close to Quote- signaled impending danger. Worryingly, he appeared not to notice it and put his gun away.

"Look out!"

Curly dashed forward and shoved him aside as the croc surfaced again. Recalling the strategy she normally employed when dealing with them, she waited for it to get closer before stomping her boot down on its snout. The beast, despite its powerful downward bite, had very little strength when it came to opening its mouth. Pinning it to the ground with her foot, the soldier unleashed several rounds from her machine gun directly into its face and put it down for good.


Their brief scuffle earlier had already hinted at her competency in battle, but now Quote could say for sure that Curly knew what she was doing. She'd been able to tell where the sand croc would appear and almost single-handedly defeated it whereas he had been clueless about handling it. As he was watching her finish off the beast, he hadn't even noticed a second creature coming up behind them until it was right on top of him. Malco, whatever he was doing at the moment, gave no warning of an impending attack.

The monster tackled him to the ground from the rear. Quote rolled over to get a better view of what it was, being greeted by something he hesitated to call a lizard. Like the sand croc, it had an overall reptilian look to it, but this new threat appeared to consist entirely of bones. No blood, organs, muscles, or even skin could be seen on the walking skeleton as it reared back to strike again.

Curly had been preoccupied at the time with another sand-dwelling monster, leaving Quote to fend for himself against the skeleton. He narrowly avoided its clawed foot smashing on the ground and fired off a few shots with the Polar Star, which didn't harm it in the slightest. Muttering a silent curse, he switched it out for the Bubbline. While the swarming projectiles it generated were capable of confusing the skeleton, it wasn't suffering any damage. Finally, Quote did what he admittedly should have from the beginning: he readied the missile launcher and unloaded it into the skull of his opponent. The explosion was clearly enough to take it down, as bone shards flew in every direction and whatever was left of the thing noisily collapsed.

His weapon didn't need to be reloaded between each shot, so he could use it on a dime again if necessary. The only downside was that its ammo count indicated he only had two missiles left, and no viable way of getting more for the time being.

Quote slung it back over his shoulder and stood up. Nearby, Curly was finishing off her own battle.

"Hey Malco," he asked aloud, "why didn't you tell me that thing was coming?"

"Hm? I'm sorry… keeping watch on the two of you is very stressful on my system. Not to mention I can't see through you both and monitor my own environment at the same time. Please bear with me."

"It's no problem," Curly replied as she joined Quote. A few scratches were visible on her exposed stomach- leaving him to wonder why she was built to have a midriff, and if he did as well- but aside from that she was fine. "If you can't handle it, then don't worry. Just do your best."

"Thank you. You are a nice lady."

She rubbed the back of her head with a chuckle.

"Don't mention it. Jenka's house should only be a few minutes away, so let's hurry up."

"I'm detecting a strong magical force, almost on par with Misery. Whoever this witch is, she must be enormously powerful."

"How do you know her?" Quote asked his fellow soldier.

"She passed by my home with the Colons a few days after I woke up… seeing how minimal our food and water supplies were, she magically generated some for us. After that, she promised that if we ever needed anything we could drop by her house. I would've liked to go see her again sometime, but I couldn't just leave the children alone. As for them coming with me- well, you know how dangerous this place is."

"What about your machine gun? Did she give that to you too?"

She shook her head with a grin.

"Nope. It was sitting right next to me when I woke up, and somehow I knew how to properly use it."

Another lucky break for her. She hadn't had to wander in dark caves for half an hour before stumbling across a feasible weapon.

Inwardly, Quote thought back to that old hermit he'd taken Polar Star from. He wondered how the man was doing, and if he knew his gun had been stolen. If he ever got the chance, he would make his way back to that first cave and return it.

"Here we are!" Curly said happily after some time. "We've made it to Jenka's house."

At last, they could really get somewhere.