Chapter 12

Quote and Balrog touched down on the balcony of the island. In the distance, Quote could hear an almost rhythmic smashing, and he detected stone dust in the air.

"What is that," he said, hopping down to the grass.

"Oh, that?" Balrog smiled. "It's Misery! She's smashing blocks right now." As soon as he said it, the smashing sound ceased. Quote looked around. The balcony was just as he remembered it. Well, minus the rabid Mimigas and falling debris everywhere. Suddenly, a small figure materialized in front of them.

"Balrog, what is the meaning of this?!"

"Misery!" Balrog almost ran over to his friend and embraced her in a massive hug.

"Bal-oof!" She could barely make out words. "B-Balrog, get... Get off me, you big oaf!"

Balrog let her go. "Sorry, Misery. But look! I brought an old friend!" He pushed Quote in front of him. Misery glared at the android, who glared right back at her.

"Why did you bring him here?"

"Yes," said Quote. "Why did you bring me here?"

Balrog turned to the android. "Well, how many weapons do you have now?"

Quote looked down to his side, observing his Polar Star. He sighed. "Just the one."

"And why is that?"

"... Because I sold the other ones to pay for the house." Misery snickered at this, which agitated Quote. "What, why is that funny?"

"Let me get this straight," Said Misery. "You pawned off all your weapons, your powerful tools of destruction, so you could... buy a house?"

"Yes."

Misery busted out laughing. "Holy Hell! Are you really that stupid?!"

"What was I supposed to do, punch trees with my hands?! I needed tools!"

"You could have held up the carpenter with that arsenal..."

"I would never do that!"

"That's because you're an idiot!"

"That's enough," said Balrog, who was for some reason still smiling. Was he... Amused? Quote couldn't tell. "We're here to get back Curly, remember?"

Quote sighed. "Right." He looked to Misery. "I don't have time for this. Have you seen a Hermit Gunsmith around, anywhere?"

Misery laughed again. "Of course not, why would I of all people require a gun?"

Quote covered his face with his hands. "Wonderful. We're here without direction, and it could take days to wander around this cave system. We're never going to make it in time."

"That's not entirely true," Balrog interjected. "If you can remember where you got some of your weapons, or where you could get more, Misery could teleport us right there!"

Misery stopped smiling. "Excuse me?"

Balrog turned back to the witch. "You could do it, right?"

"Well, yes, of course, but,"

"Then where's the problem?"

Misery scowled. "I don't remember ever agreeing with this plan! I don't even know what this plan of yours is!"

Quote nodded, reluctantly. "For once, I agree with you."

"Oh, shut up!"

Balrog was starting to become exasperated himself. "Come now, don't fight! It's been such a long time since we were here last, can't you put your differences behind you?"

Both Quote and Misery turned on Balrog.

"She almost drowned Curly and me!"

"He nearly sunk the Island!"

"She killed Curly's children!"

"He killed my Uncle! And my master! (Even though he was a tremendous pain in the rear...)" Misery was clutching at straws at this point.

"But you slaughtered innocent people, like King and Toroko!"

"Excuse me?" Misery turned to Quote. "You're talking about those two whelps, the mimigas, am I right? If memory serves, you killed the girl, Toroko."

Quote ground his teeth, his chest began to hurt. He even felt... What were they, tears? Really? "... What I killed... It wasn't Toroko. Not anymore. She died because of you."

"Actually," said Balrog, a puzzled and reminiscent look upon his face. "Wasn't I the one who fed her the petals?"

Quote once again covered his face with his hand. "Balrog, you aren't helping."

Misery smirked once again. "I'm impressed. You have emotions now? When on earth did that happen?"

Quote rolled his eyes. "It's a long story, one which I don't feel obligated to tell you." He sighed and wiped his face. He didn't want to show weakness, but he still refused to reign in his emotions... perhaps he would need to keep them in check if interacting with this witch was necessary. "Look, are you willing to help or not?"

"Are you sure you're willing to work with me?"

"Honestly, no," said Quote. "But I'm willing to give it a try, If it'll save Curly."

"My goodness," Misery was enjoying herself now. "You really are desperate to save that girl of yours, aren't you?"

Quote sighed. "Yes. I'm... not sure I could live without her."

"You are just brimming with emotion! Balrog, really, whatever you've done to him is quite terribly amusing."

"Of course!" Balrog seemed proud. "Isn't he better this way?"

"I should say so."

"Alright!" Quote was becoming annoyed. "Are we going or not?!"

"Calm down, loverboy." Misery put her hand on her hips. "We can go whenever you tell us where we're going."

Quote stood for a bit before he nodded. "Well, first, we should go to the Mimiga Village."

"Why on earth would we go there?!"

"Well..." Quote looked up. "There are some people I should go see."

It had been about an hour since Curly had first woken up in the dark cave. She knew that, of course, If Quote wasn't here as well, he would come to save her. Perhaps... Perhaps that was part of their plan? Was he really strong enough to fight the dark figure? And what about Pound? Her head began to spin, and she wasn't sure if it was because she was hooked up to these devices, or because she was having trouble accepting reality. Curly opened her eyes, only to be greeted by the twisted, rusting remains of her kind. Was Pound still reading her thoughts?

...

Maybe not. She tried again.

Pound is a stupid bolt-brain!

...

Nothing. Perhaps she was safe. For now, at least. Curly tried to run a diagnostics check, but found that her permissions had been overridden. She couldn't do anything, really, and she wasn't technologically savvy enough to hack the machines... God, what was she even good for?! She felt useless, absolutely useless. She was stuck here, while Quote was out doing probably everything he could to save her. And Balrog, too. She was sure of it. But what was she doing? Nothing. She was sitting here, opening herself up and being useless. She didn't deserve to be saved by Quote.

Curly sensed motion. Something was behind her. Was it Pound again? Please, don't be him... She heard a click.

"I don't want to die," she found herself saying. She quickly shut her jaw. She could speak! She wouldn't let this go to waste. "Please, let me go," she said. "I promise, I'll work for you, I'll do whatever you want! You don't need to get rid of my emotions, in fact, I heard they're quite advanced, and it'd be a waste to-"

"You know, your thoughts betray your words quite blatantly," a man's voice said behind her.

Curly stopped and closed her mouth. She did not recognize this voice, but it was probably right. She would never work with them, and she knew that. "Who are you?"

"A friend," the voice replied. "That's all you need to know for now."

"What do you mean? A friend? What does that mean!?"

"Calm down," said the voice, soothingly. Curly found herself trusting the man, but she did not know why. The man stepped closer, and Curly could feel him looming over her.

"What are you doing? What do you want with me?"

"Calm down, please," said the voice again. "I'm helping." Curly then felt something being pulled out of her. It hurt, and she winced. "Please, bare with me. It'll be over soon."

"What are you doing?!"

"Quiet!" The man spoke in a hushed tone. He didn't move for a while, and neither of them said anything. The man continued his work. "I'm removing these wires from you."

"W-wires?!" Curly spoke quietly, but with a sense of panic.

"Yes, take a look." The man rummaged around and produced a mirror. He held it in front of Curly, whose eyes widened.

"O-oh," she said, trying to stay calm. "And they're... connected to me?!"

"Yes, but don't worry, I'll get them off." The man took back the mirror, and Curly saw a brief glimpse of his face. He seemed to be an older man, with graying hair and worry lines on his forehead. His hair was shaggy, as if he cut it himself. He seemed... familiar.

"Where are... Where are the wires connected?"

"Wherever that bastard could stick them, to be honest."

"What? What the hell does that mean?! Who are you talking about?"

"G. The big dark robot. You know, glowing red eyes, deep voice, no discernible gender or race basis. He had that android he created wire you up to these machines."

"You mean, Pound?"

"That's what he calls himself? Clever. I personally would have gone with Slash, but..."

"Are you nearly finished?"

"Yes, almost there... And done." The man stood up. "Come on, we can't stay here."

"But, I can't move!" Curly tried to pull herself from her rigid position, and nearly fell over.

"I pulled out the wire that restricted your movement about halfway through. I was pretty confused as to why you were still sitting like that."

Curly's face went red, and she stood up quickly. "W-well, you could have told me sooner!" She turned to face her savior, and stopped as soon as she saw him. "You... You're my..."

"Yeah," said the man, smiling. "I'm your father."

Quote looked to the witch. "I need to speak to the number one."

Quote had returned to the island once before this. After flying out to the place where their house now stood, Quote realized he had something which did not really belong to him. He looked down to his hip, where King's blade was still strapped to his side. He could feel it, humming softly with energy.

King's blade didn't react in exactly the same way as other weapons when it came into contact with energy crystals. Most weapons absorbed the energy, merely growing stronger. King's blade was different. As it grew stronger, it changed in physical appearance, growing larger, heavier, sharper. And then, at its peak, it downsized. It became light as air, but sharper than a dragon's claw. Quote could feel the presence of his friend in this blade. In some way, the sword seemed tied to King's soul. The dead cannot return to the realm of the living, that much is certain... but souls can linger. Somewhere, up in the stars, King watched over the blade and whoever held it. And at its most powerful, King returned, embodying the blade. Perhaps it was just a feeling, perhaps it was speculation... but when Quote slashed at an assailant, he swore he could see King, fighting with him, obliterating any enemy in his path. He had been so determined, so adamant to help, and Quote was sure that he had in some way.

"Hey, imbecile! Get your head out of the clouds and tell us where to go!"

Quote came back to reality, and looked around, and then down upon the village. "Right. I'm going to go in and talk to Jack. If you want to follow, be my guest. I have to pick up King's blade.

Misery's eyes got wide. "You can't be serious. You're here for that?"

Quote nodded. "It's one of the most powerful weapons I've ever wielded. I mean, next to the rocket launcher..."

"Look, I knew you were after weapons, but if you're trying to get that, you must really mean business."

"I've never been more serious."

"I can see that," said Misery. "Well, good luck I suppose."

Quote nodded, and turned to Balrog. "Are you coming?"

Balrog closed his eyes and shook his frame. "I'm still not sure they like me too much. And, as you know, I don't exactly fit through the doors there, do I?"

Quote thought about it for a minute, shrugged, and then nodded. "Alright." He turned around. "I'll be back in a bit." With that, he dropped down into the Mimiga Village.

Notes From the Author

Hello there! Welcome to the Tuesday update! As you know, this is not the Monday Update anymore. This This update accidentally spanned two days, because I didn't have access to a computer once I got home, and I was having trouble putting the text into the right document on my phone. But I got it now! I'm not sure about working at home, I'm a bit troubled... However, my friend said he might drop by this week to take a look at my computer. So, that's good. Aaaaaanywaaaay, I didn't want this to be the end of Chapter 12, but it seems as if it is. Sorry.

Also, if you haven't seen it, check out my Tumblr page, Comical Art. I have some cool art there for the story, and I bet y'all will love it. There's a link to the page in my profile. I'm still looking for my old drawing notebook, it seems to have disappeared... It's been gone for some time now. I'm getting worried. It has some cool Cave Story stuff in it. Meh, perhaps I'll find it over the summer.

If you didn't get the Slash comment made by that old dude, it was because on a keyboard, the keys work like this:

} (Curly Brace)

" (Quote)

/ (Slash)

At the time, I just thought pound would work, but Slash is kind of more sinister. I wish I would have done that! So, once again, thanks for sticking with me. I really appreciate it. Don't forget to check back next Monday!

Sincerely,
Alaystus