The corridor was rather aptly named: it was a giant stretch of room, reaching several hundred metres straight in front of him. There were more boxes stacked one on top of the other all over the place, though what the most interesting feature of the corridor was the eggs. Gigantic eggs, each almost as large as Arthur's house, lining either side of the corridor, giving him only a short berth to walk between them. What massive creature could have possibly laid them, and what was supposed to come out, he couldn't even begin to fathom.
Each gargantuan egg was kept securely in an iron cage-like container, lined with bars that would prevent whatever happened to hatch from them escape while allowing others to look in. Each cage had a number assigned to it; the egg closest to him was adorned with the number sixteen. Eight eggs lining either side of the room, going straight down, the 'catwalk' the teleporter stood on one long walk away from a door going into the wall on the other end.
It was quite a sight to see; he was even a little anxious about seeing what kind of creatures would hatch from these eggs. There was no telling when they would hatch, of course, and he had other priorities. Seeing them hatch would have to come second; right now, he had to find Sue.
The corridor was fairly alone, other than himself and the eggs: there wasn't anyone to monitor the eggs, or anything. There weren't even any rats or other vermin infesting the corners. Maybe someone just looked after them on their free time, like, as a hobby or something? After all, somebody had to have brought the eggs here, and number them, and cage them, and everything. His footsteps echoed off the walls – still unprocessed stone, so they were still underground. What lived underground, laid eggs, and was two stories tall?
"I'm not afraidda you!" he heard a young voice, brave and daring, though obviously girlish. Could it be Sue? Another voice came in reply: this one quite a bit deeper, possibly not even Mimiga. It had no speech, communicating in one long groan. It sounded large, but it didn't quite have the volume to be whatever could have laid those eggs. "What's that? You wanna bring it?" The girl was beginning to get pumped, raising her own voice and bolding her tone. "Go ahead and try. Not even my brother's been able to beat me!"
A few thunderous steps reverberated throughout the hall, followed by the 'whooshing' sound of something large cutting through the air. A heavy 'thwump' later, and a small Mimiga came flying out from the left side of the corridor, between the eggs labelled zero-twelve and zero-ten. She hit the ground softly, but rolled and tumbled over and under herself a good few yards before finally coming to a rest in the centre of the hall.
He was only coming up to egg zero-fifteen, so he had some running to do. That could have been Sue that was getting pulverized, after all! He broke into a fevered sprint, needing to get to this girl before she got beat up any more than she was.
Thumping between the eggs the Mimiga was thrown from, a large beast came into his view, looking down at its victim, its mouth agape in a not-quite-a-snarl. It walked on two feet; it was covered from head to toe with silky white fur; its large hands and feet resembled paws, much like those of a rabbit and its ears were large and floppy, reaching down to its neck. It could pass for some perversion of a Mimiga, only its mouth was larger than the girl's whole body, and was lined with vicious, sharp teeth, ready to rip almost anything apart. Its eyes were wide and red, looking almost like King's, down to the slits in their pupils. Peculiarly, it wore a necktie, looking several sizes too small and wrapped almost overpoweringly tightly around its neck. It also wore a pair of green sweatpants, now shorts, and ripped all along its lining.
The beast drew closer to the unconscious girl, and reached down with one of its huge hands, about to get a grip around her. He was still only between eggs zero-twelve and zero-fourteen, but he couldn't let the thing walk away with her. He quickly pulled his Polar Star from his belt, and, aiming at no part of the beast's body in particular, took several shots. The weak windy noise the gun made, like an empty water-gun, didn't exactly fill him with a lot of confidence, but the shots the gun fired were at least having an effect on the beast as they hit.
It reared its hand away, making a pained groan as it felt the light from the gun sear through its fur and onto its skin. It quickly drew its eyes away from the girl, and locked fiercely onto him. He suddenly didn't like this plan; the Mimiga was safe, at least, but this would be his first real test with the Polar Star. He just hoped he hadn't bit off more than he could chew.
The beast made a deafening roar as it charged at him, its mouth wide and its arms craning from side to side as its thunderous feet collided with the paved floor over and over. There weren't many places for him to run and hide, however; he stood his ground, firing at the beast continually, his hopes dropping with the sound every blast made, and rising with every slowed step the beast made. As it got closer, he began to step backward, trying to put more room between him and it, but before he could realize it, it was already in striking distance; as soon as it could reach, it flung its right arm forward, unhindered from all the shots and burns it had taken, and hit him square in the chest with all its remaining might.
He wasn't flung quite as far as the Mimiga from the hit, but he still landed a good distance away. He couldn't waste any time, though; sure, the hit hurt, but if he stayed down, they'd both be done for. Once he stopped rolling, he sprang right back onto his feet, glad he didn't drop the Polar Star from the collision, and resumed firing.
The beast was moaning and making sickly noises with each hit it took from the pistol, though it wasn't about to fall yet. It picked up the pace after the hit, charging back toward him, ready to do whatever it needed to stop him from firing that thing. A lucky shot managed to get it in its left eye, but even then it only faltered for a moment before charging again.
After so many volleys, the beast still hadn't been downed; the Polar Star was obviously hurting it, but wasn't killing it. What did it take to put this thing down? His trigger finger was working hard, squeezing that lever over and over, but other than slowing it down, it just wasn't doing anything to stop it.
Just as it was about to get into striking distance again, it opened its mouth to roar once more. A lucky shot managed to get it in the back of its throat; the beast stopped its charge abruptly, falling harshly to its knees, both hands at its throat as it struggled to make a cough. After a few wheezes and odd, rough breathing noises, drool and blood began to leak out of its huge, open mouth.
Curiously, the beast began to shrink, unable to make any more noise, its eyes watering and turning bloodshot. Its stretched tie easily slipped down its body and onto the floor, followed shortly by the torn, charred green pants it wore. Its claws and teeth dulled and shrank with the rest of it; its fur receded and its ears decreasing. Eventually, it took a more familiar shape of a Mimiga, looking no larger than Toroko, still holding its throat as it finally collapsed on the floor, unflinching.
That thing was a Mimiga?! And he just killed it, with a lucky shot…he wasn't exactly certain what he should think. It was self-defence – it probably would have torn him and the girl apart, or worse, if he had given it the chance. But still, he just watched one of them die in front of him.
That's right, the girl. Sue? Was she alright? He had nearly forgotten about her.
Looking down the hall, the Mimiga that had landed between eggs zero-ten and zero-twelve wasn't there anymore. There weren't many places she could have run to, other than the door at the end of the corridor. Replacing his Polar Star and giving another solemn look for the felled Mimiga, he ran down the hall, towards the room.
His run was long, but fortunately uneventful. The door, marked zero-zero, was unlocked, and was recently opened, judging from the dust marks along the floor in front of it. Grabbing the metal handle and giving it a quick twist, the door pulled open easily.
The girl Mimiga – wearing simply a deep-blue shirt – was standing at a computer terminal, one of seventeen, that was placed in front of yet another egg, labelled zero-zero. It didn't physically look any different from the other eggs, but this one was hooked up to several wires and machines all around it. Perhaps they were life-support systems? This one egg must hold some kind of significance, to have so much more attention than the others. Were the others failures, or abortions, and this one was the only living one remaining?
"'Egg-condition is normal'!" she said to herself enthusiastically. "That's what I like to hear!" She continued reading the message farther down the screen, where the status of the egg stopped suddenly. "Hm?" she hummed, "a password? I don't know of any–" She stopped speaking when he took a step forward; the sound of someone else's footsteps alerted her immediately. She spun around, her fur standing on end, when she realized that it was only him, and not the beast that she stared down earlier. She exhaled. "Did you save me?"
Knowing that he had killed a Mimiga to save a Mimiga didn't exactly sit still with him, but he nodded his head once. "I didn't need your help!" she immediately decried, suddenly rather irritated, causing him to flinch. "He was gonna eat it next time! I would have handled him myself! Somehow!" She spun back around to her computer, grasping either side of the terminal. "Ugh, I hate this stinking island, and I hate every living thing on it!" She took a few deep huffs of breath, then calmed down. "You really helped me out this time," she said calmly, turning back around, putting on her best smile. "So you can't be so bad. My name is Sue, just so you know. But those bats, and those Mimiga, and that Doctor guy, ugh! I just want to get away from here!"
He stood silently, letting her rant and blow off some steam without interruptions. "You see this egg here?" she said, making a grand gesture over her shoulder towards it. He gave a wry smile at her; it was the centrepiece of the room. How could he have missed it? "Yeah, okay, dumb question," she said, answering for him. "But you know what? This egg could very well be our ticket off of this island." She immediately began fuming again. "But the systems regulate when and how it hatches. It's ready, it can hatch whenever…but, we need a password first. That's so stupid, you know? We're busted until we get it." She tried typing in a password, and hit the 'Enter' key – the following line that appeared on-screen was Password denied. She tried again, stroking a different set of keys; same result. "Well, crud. If only my brother were here, he'd set things straight."
She sighed, stepping away from the computer to get a better look at the egg. "I've done all I can," she said softly, mostly to herself, "so it looks like I'm done here." She walked past him, heading towards the door, before stopping and turning to face him again. "Are you from around here?" she asked. He wasn't sure how to reply; his earliest memory is waking up in that cave some time ago, but he doubted he was born there. "Doesn't look like it, does it?" He couldn't argue with that; he hadn't seen anyone like him at all since he woke up. "See the words on your cap? That's not a language they have on this island." He hadn't forgotten since he had seen them; the image of the words burned in his mind's eye, clear as day. "Are you lost?" Now, that was a question he could answer certainly: he nodded his head.
"Hey, that's okay. You can come with me. We can get off this dump together; you, me, and Kazuma, my brother. But in return, you gotta do help me do something, okay?" She placed a hand on the knob to the door. "You must have gotten here by that teleporter, right? Take it back to the village. I'll see you there." Then she pushed the door open, and was on her way back.
He was left alone, in the giant room with the single egg, and seventeen monitors. He figured he might as well take a look around while he's there; he had no idea what to expect.
Fifteen of the seventeen monitors said roughly the same things: they were all checking the statuses on the eggs: the sixteen in the corridor, and the one in this room. They were all reading normally, the eggs in fine condition, and some even ready to hatch, once their respective passwords were put in. Two others, however, monitoring eggs zero-six and zero-one, were reporting fatal abnormalities in their own eggs: something had gone wrong with their incubation several days ago, and as a result, whatever was in both of those eggs had passed on.
In the far corner of the room was a bed, without a mattress. That was odd enough, but scattered all over and around the bed were wilted red flowers, not unlike the ones he had seen in Arthur's house. What an odd coincidence…was there some connection to the Mimiga and these red flowers?
Next to the bed was another chest, almost exactly like the one he had seen when he got the Polar Star. Kleptomania wasn't his thing, necessarily…but if he ran into anything stronger than that frenzied Mimiga he had killed earlier with just the Polar Star, he might be in trouble. Plus, it didn't look like that bed had been slept in for ages; if anybody lived here before, they've probably been gone for a while, and they would have taken whatever was in there. Right?
Reasoning that there was no harm in at least looking, he walked up to the chest, and pulled the lid open. Inside was a weapon, a huge one: it had a shoulder-mount, with a scope and several buttons lining its top. On its rear end were missiles; more than he could count at a first glance. It had a shoulder-strap along its bottom, meaning all he had to do to carry it was sling it over his shoulder, then rotate it on top when he wanted to fire.
Who keeps a missile launcher in a chest, right next to their bed? Someone who was prepared, evidentially: the weapon was fully loaded. Just a flick on the lever, and it'd be armed and ready to fire. He considered the implications of appearing in the village with enough firepower to level several houses and destroy their stone pillars and spires, but weighed the risks of not taking it. This island didn't exactly seem like the safest of places to be; it might be a better idea to take this weapon in the long run. Having to make no promises this time, he lifted the missile launcher from the chest, and slung it over his right shoulder. It was surprisingly light-weight…or maybe he was just stronger than he realized? He still had no idea how high he could jump, after all.
Having looked the room over once more, just in case there were any other surprises to be found, he left the room, beginning his long walk back down Egg Corridor and to the teleporter that will take him back to Arthur's.
The chat program on the computer had been idle for a good while, now, and had disconnected from the network as a result. An easy fix, though; Kazuma had taught her enough programming language to execute basic commands, like how to run a program, for example. A few quick keystrokes, and the line Connecting to network… flashed on the screen, before idling for a few seconds more as it worked. Logged on, it finally displayed. Executing chat algorithm.
"Kazuma," she said aloud as she typed; it was such a stupid habit, she knew, but she couldn't help but pick it up while she worked with her brother. "Are you there? Are you alright?"
Locked in his shelter, Kazuma could only find so many things to do – sleeping was his favourite pastime. He would tinker with the teleporter next to the desk, or count the tiles on the walls, or see how fast he could run from one end of the room to the other, or bang on the door and cry for help. At the moment, he had been pacing back and forth across the room, keeping his mind on random topics, anywhere from comic book heroes to astrophysics, to keep from losing his mind. He would glance at the computer occasionally to see if the chat algorithm had picked up any activity. When he saw he had finally gotten a response, his heart nearly stopped, although his fingers were typing a mile a minute. "Sue?!" he nearly shouted, thankful that she had finally responded. "Is it really you?"
"Yeah, it's really me," she typed back. "Sue Sakamoto. You must have gotten away, too, then? Where are you right now? I found some Dragon eggs. Is Mom with you?"
"Whoa, Dragon eggs? That's some very welcome news. But the door is stuck, and I can't get out. I'm still in this shelter-sort-of-place. The sector code is 'Grasstown'…see if you can run a scan on it from there."
Still? She scrolled back up, looking through the received messages, and read Kazuma's frantic and pleading messages for food and company. Eating cockroaches? She thought, reading that line a second time. Is he really that hungry! That's so stupid of him!
"By the way, Mom's not here", Kazuma continued. "I think she might still be with the Doctor. But hey, Dragon eggs, huh? Do any of them look immediately hatchable?"
She'll scold him for eating bugs later. "At least one of them does. But its life-support systems won't hatch it without a password. Do you think you can do anything about that?"
The algorithm suddenly printed out a new line on its own: Retrieving information from user 'Kazuma', it read, and a separate window opened alongside the chat, showing a monotone progress bar that filled almost immediately. Complete, it read, almost redundantly, as the bar filled. Location: Grasstown structure D. Scanning for operational teleporters. The glass tube that the computer was connected to quickly hummed to life, its many lights flashing as the machine completed its assignment. The control panel, separate from both the tube and the computer, printed the same lines as the monitor as the machine did a search on the given coordinates. Only a moment later, and the machine quieted itself again, having accomplished its task. Preparing for connection to teleporter 'Grasstown'…done.
The algorithm was inaccessible as the computer did as it was told, so Sue continued when she was able. "Well, anyway, I'm coming to help you. Just wait right there, and I'll be there before you have to eat any more bugs."
Kazuma laughed at her humour. "Yeah, I almost forgot that I was as hungry as I was! You wouldn't be able to bring some food–" Before he could send the message, Sue had disconnected from the network. Oh, well…at least he had something else to think about. "Dragon eggs, huh…?"
Sue faced to teleporter, scratching her chin in thought. "When is that other boy getting here? He's sure taking his time." She was considering going back to look for him, when the front door to the house burst open. She turned to see who had let himself in: King stood in the doorway, with Jack following close behind. King looked none too pleased to see her – that was no surprise, though.
"You're back," he said coldly. It wasn't a welcome. "We've been waiting for you, Sue."
She wasn't too thrilled to see him either. He always treated her like dirt, after all. "Oh yeah?" she asked, putting on a bored expression. "What now?" He'll likely just yammer on about how she wasn't welcome there, and how she's an outsider, blah blah blah. "I'm kinda busy, so if you don't mind, can I hear your 'we don't need your kind here' speech later?"
"Toroko's been kidnapped by the Doctor's henchmen." Sue certainly wasn't expecting him to say that, of all things. He quickly got her undivided attention.
"What did you–"
"And we're holding you responsible!" Jack interrupted, and before Sue could defend herself, King had grabbed her.
In just another blink of the eye, he was back in Arthur's house, exactly where he had left it. Teleporting had an odd, unsettling feeling to it; he didn't really like it. He hoped he didn't have to use it too often in the future.
He had expected Sue to be somewhere close by, though. There was a chat program open on the computer, probably meant for her, since she was the only one living here. He thought that she'd be busy typing away on it, talking with whoever was trying to get a hold of her. But no; instead of Sue, Jack was standing on the other side of the room, looking rather tired. He seemed to be out of breath, and he was rubbing various spots on his limbs, as if trying to soothe them.
"Oh, hey," Jack said when he realized the teleporter had finished, looking him in the eyes. "Awesome rocket launcher, man. Is it new?" He laughed, and nodded. "Did you happen to bring back Sue from wherever she was?" He nodded again, his smile slowly waning. He knew King didn't exactly appreciate Sue, but he didn't know what Jack thought of her. "Good job, man. She's locked up in a cage on the central pillar." His expression changed quickly: he didn't expect King to hate her just that much. To lock her up like some kind of animal, as soon as he was able? "She put up a good fight, too," he laughed, rubbing his arms and shoulders. "I'll be feeling these in the morning. We're hoping we can barter the Doctor for Toroko back, in exchange for Sue, you see." Jack saw his face; he looked absolutely repulsed. "Oh, come on, don't give me that look. It's not very nice, I agree, okay? But Sue isn't one of us. And it's her fault that Toroko was taken anyway. This is what you get when you try to act alone, you know?"
He didn't need to hear any more from Jack; he needed to speak to King, and hopefully take him down from this barbaric exchange.
Arthur's house was almost directly underneath the central pillar. A small hop onto some boxes stacked against the house, followed by a titanic leap onto the house, he was already halfway up the pillar, and could hear Sue's loud, defiant voice battle King's deep, commanding one.
"–this instant!" she scolded, rattling the bars of her cage angrily with each word.
"Hold your tongue!" King shouted back, getting right up to the bars of the cage, snarling and snapping with each of his own words. His right eye was bruised from a lucky shot Sue got in when he captured her. "You are the reason Toroko has been kidnapped! And you will help us get her back."
"Yeah, like the Doctor will listen to me," she replied, indignant.
"It was you they wanted, Sue; they mistook Toroko for you when they took her. Our best chance is to turn you over to them, and hope for the best."
She jumped back at the bars, getting right into Kings face, staring him down. "That's so stupid, you creepy-eyed freak!" she spat. "There's no way that'll work! The most you'll accomplish is losing the both of us!"
"I could care less about you." His words were chilling down to their tone. "Heck, if we don't get Toroko back from the Doctor, I swear I'll tear you limb from limb myself!"
He had heard everything on his climb up the pillar. King had made a similar threat towards himself, but towards Sue? He must really have a thing against outsiders if he's willing to just throw her away like that. "Oh, you," King said, seeing him arrive at the peak. "Good job finding Sue for us. If you had half of that skill a few hours ago, we wouldn't be in this mess. If Sue doesn't work, you'll be next." He was about to interrupt, to say his piece, when King decided that he would rather fume in his home, away from the taint of the strangers.
He was about to pursue, when Sue reached out to him, catching his left hand. "Leave him alone," she said softly, although it was obvious she felt nothing but contempt for King and nearly bit her own tongue as she said her words. "He's such a stupid guy, yeah, but I can understand why he wants Toroko back so badly. When I showed up here…when none of the other Mimiga would have anything to do with me, she alone showed any compassion."
She let go of his hand, looking as though she was mulling something over. "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't you go in my place?" He looked at her nervously, glancing around the rims of the cage. "No, dummy, not here. To Grasstown. My brother, Kazuma, is hiding in there somewhere, and he needs someone to help him out. I need you to find him, and bring him here. The teleporter has all the coordinates you need; just tell it to take you to Grasstown, and you'll be set. Okay?" He nodded determinately, and quickly began his fall back down the pillar.
Inside Arthur's house, Jack was still there, nursing his bruises, but was otherwise lazing about. He paid him no mind; rescuing Sue's brother Kazuma before the Doctor comes back to the village was his next objective. Jack didn't look like he had a lot to say, anyway; throwing Sue into that cage must have really done a number on his emotions. It was really eating him up on the inside.
He approached the teleporter, already looking a little queasy as he stepped up to the control panel. Sue was telling the truth: the machine had recently picked up a location to teleport to in Grasstown. Two, in fact, although it said that one of them was offline and was inaccessible because of it. The two locations had a good amount of distance between them – hopefully, Kazuma was nearer to the active teleporter than the inactive one.
Punching in the commands for the machine, the tube began to whir to life once again, and once again, he found himself in a totally foreign area before he could even blink.