When he finally came to, he was on the resting on a dirty shore, unaware of just where he was for the moment. He was laying face down, both palms grasping fistfuls of the rich soil, his lower body still soaking lazily in the water. He groaned as he tried lifting his head from the dirt, his head absolutely throbbing in the back and his eyes itchy and saturated with dirt and sand. His whole body ached from the experience: his arms were bruised; his ankles were twisted; his fingers and toes each felt broken.
Slowly pulling himself up from his prone position – he'd been knocked out or otherwise fallen unconscious far too many times in this cave already – he slowly lifted his head against his stiff, sore neck, attempt to catch a glimpse of his whereabouts and see what new surprise the island had in store for him now. The rock he was kneeling on was a familiar, welcoming off-yellow, with the occasional healthy patch of green grass dotting the ground in places. The far walls were an easy, sturdy blue, and the room he found himself in was considerably small, filled with a distilled pond of water. There was a marked opening in the centre of the open ceiling, where a small trickle of water fell.
He pulled himself out of the water, each of his limbs being markedly uncooperative. Once his ankles got onto dry land, he pushed himself onto his back, sitting up to get a better perspective of the room. His stomach cramped with the action, but the room he was in was immediately recognizable as the reservoir in Mimiga village. The Mimiga that gave him the silver locket was sitting in his exact position when he first met him. The Labyrinth ended right on top of the village.
Taking no solace in the fact that he was back in the closest he could call to 'home' in this place, his thoughts quickly drew to Curly and her safety. He looked around the shore; her body hadn't washed up with him. He pulled himself to his feet, as painful as it was, and looked around the room, standing as tall as he could. Still no sight of her; in desperation, he jogged back into the water, the device on his neck quickly activating once his head went under. Maybe she had landed in the water and just sank there? He'd brave the embarrassment of having to drain her body of water a hundred times over if it just meant she'd be safe, but, to his admonishment, she wasn't in the reservoir. She could still be in the waterway above him, cycling around ceaselessly in the rapids for all he knew. She could also be on the other side of the entire island, wherever that was.
He cursed to himself as he pulled himself back out of the water. He felt responsible for Curly, and he felt an attachment to her that he didn't feel with Toroko or King or Sue or Kazuma. The burden of not knowing where she was and if she was safe was crushing to him, but it was all the more reason to continue scouring the island. And if he happened to run into the Doctor while he looked for her, well, that'd be one less lose end.
He took inventory before heading back out into the village. All of his clothes, including his trusty hat and scarf, were still dutifully on his head and around his neck. Each of his weapons – his machine gun, his empty missile launcher, and King's sword – were all there and accounted for. The guns weren't waterlogged at all, and the sword didn't seem the least bit rusted, miraculously. The silver locket was still wrapped tightly around his belt, and Jenka's small jar of red goo was still tucked securely into his pants pocket. While Curly hadn't washed onto the shore like he had hoped, the tow rope that was used to secure her to him was lying in knots just a short ways away; he picked it up and wrapped it around his waist several times, clipping back onto itself like a second belt. He seemed to have everything all accounted for.
He walked back out of the reservoir and onto the ledge overlooking the entire village. There was a giant spire of stone jutting straight out of the ground, reaching up for several stories with at least one visible alcove for shelter etched into its side. Off in the distance was a large building sitting precariously on an unsupported ridge, nearly exactly opposite from him. Under that building was another; Toroko once hid in that building desperately, to avoid being captured by King. Sitting on top of the stone spire in the centre of the village was the iron cage that Sue was detained in, still untouched. Directly underneath him was Arthur's two-story house, the largest of them all, sitting safely on the solid ground. Straight above him was another, tiny ledge with a door; he fell out of that door once. He plummeted right on top of King and Toroko.
It all seemed so long ago. He had gone through so many trials since he found himself here, with nothing on him but his Polar Star and the clothes he woke up with. He remembered King standing next to him on this very ledge, looking out over the village after Toroko had just pushed him over in a mad attempt to escape. If you hurt her, I'll break you. Just so we're clear. He still remembered that command, clear as crystal.
He walked all through the village, easily clearing the wide gaps between platforms suspended high in the sky, across ridges jutting out of the walls, his aching muscles and joints slowly breaking back into the action. He remembered having difficulty climbing these things and tumbling over himself whenever he tried to land from a jump; and now he was scaling the spire and vaulting the obstacles with only half a thought. He looked all through the village, searching for anyone still remaining. King said that he was the 'number one' in a village of six. Well, seven, counting Sue, but King didn't like to, since she was an outsider. But out of even those seven, there was nobody. Nobody maintaining the farm on the upper corner of the caves; no fisherman in the reservoir; no 'number one' to lead the ghost town. The Doctor had taken them all away.
He ended his own tour with Arthur's house, where, in essence, everything had truly begun. The house was just as he had left it when he left for the Sand Zone, except there was no Kazuma tick-tacking away on the monitor's keyboard; there was no Sue or Professor Booster discussing how they were going to retreat from the island on the back of a winged dragon; and there was no plotting King, silently working out his own plan to rescue Toroko and burn the red flowers. The monitor and the teleporter it was linked to were totally untouched; the monitor was still displaying text, and the teleporter was still silently humming to itself idly.
He slowly walked through the hallway, eyeing over the blackboard with all the complicated drawings and mathematical equations that he only glossed over earlier. It still didn't make any sense to him. There wasn't much for him to do here, but he didn't know where else to go to. There was nothing waiting for him in Grasstown or in the Sand Zone or in the Egg – wait, the Egg Corridor? Kazuma and Sue might actually be there. One of the eggs was ready to hatch, after all.
As he approached the teleporter, it immediately began to buzz to life. Its many lights began to flash as the inside of the glass tube began to twirl and vibrate as a form began to assemble within it. He slowly drew his machine gun, unsure of what to expect but ready to fire with just a thought. He didn't know of any possible threat that might know how to use the teleporter, but he wasn't in the mood to think before acting right now.
Slowly from inside the teleporter, starting with the top of his white Mohawk, was Professor Booster. His stout figure, his long (for his body) white lab coat, and those rosy red glasses were all totally unmistakable, although now he was wearing an odd backpack-like device with a peculiar metal pedal secured to his right foot. He looked totally unharmed, as if he had only gone out for a walk instead of fall down a stone shaft several hundred feet high. Quote was immediately dumb-struck, and suddenly felt elation when he realized that he wasn't dreaming when Professor Booster stepped off the teleporter.
Professor Booster stepped forward, towards Quote, without saying anything. Quote put his machine gun back onto his shoulder, now realizing that the person coming through the teleporter was certainly not an enemy. They stared at each other for a moment: the Professor was totally unreadable behind his glasses. Quote couldn't begin to think just what this guy was thinking. He couldn't even sort out his own thoughts; Professor Booster really shouldn't be standing there, but there he was, looking fit as a fiddle.
"Only you, I see," the Professor said, ignoring Quote's goofily-happy expression at seeing him okay. "I'm just fine, and I appreciate your concern," he continued, seeing right through him. "I'm way too tough for a little fall to hurt me, you know. My safety was guaranteed the moment I rematerialized over something to land on. Not so much as a bruise on my hardened, chiselled body. In fact I started climbing back out only a minute after I landed." He smiled at Quote, who found himself grinning at the exaggeration. Professor Booster was dry-heaving after a walk back from Grasstown.
"But onto more serious matters," he pressed, his smile waning quickly, leaving Quote to try and figure out just how he managed to survive the drop himself. "The Doctor has acquired the red flowers. All the island's Mimiga have been captured and taken to his Plantation high in the mountains of the island. So there's no way to avoid another tragedy; it's a sure thing now." He turned back towards the teleporter, staring off into space as he lamented their position. "I should have allowed Sue and Kazuma to escape when I had the chance." He removed the backpack and stepped out of the metal strap down his leg, walking up to Quote and silently handing the contraption to him. He looked confused as he accepted the device. "This is a jetpack, to put it in layman's terms: the Booster Version Two-Point-Oh. The product of many hours of hard research and development. Wear it, and it'll allow you to soar through the sky like an awkward, upright bird. Fuel won't be an issue as long as you wear it, but it will overheat very quickly, so you only have a few seconds of constant use in the air. Just put your foot through the pedal's cufflink and flex your foot in the direction you want to go: up or down, side to side, forward or back. Couldn't be easier." Quote looked uneasy as he accepted it. "You'll have a better use for it than this old man. I've done all I can for this island.
"Although," he continued as Quote removed both his machine gun and his missile launcher temporarily to make room for the jetpack's straps. His right foot fit a little snugly into the clasp for his leg, but the device had a pair of adjustable leather straps along it for just that sort of purpose. "Please heed my final request. If you see Sue again, I want you to take her and flee this island. Now that the Doctor has both the red flowers and the Mimiga, there is no chance of defeating him. Sue is Momorin's daughter, and she never wanted to come here in the first place. She hates the island, and she hates everyone and everything involved with it. But we couldn't just leave her all alone; her brother and her mother were all she had left. She doesn't deserve any of this. She doesn't deserve to be transformed into a Mimiga like she has. Please, just…take her and flee."
He knew from the beginning that he couldn't simply do that the moment he found Sue. He still had to find Curly; she hardly deserved to be on this rock either. And he couldn't simply run away from the Doctor, either, not after the stories he heard from the Gaudi and from Jenka, and not after he had seen what the flowers do to Mimiga with his own eyes. He had a mission ever since the storehouse in the Sand Zone, and he had to carry it out, to prevent anything like that from ever happening again.
Professor Booster was looking at the computer monitor linked to the teleporter, to see if Kazuma had left them a message, or a sign, or something. "There's a message for you here," he said, grabbing Quote's attention again. "It seems like Kazuma wants you to go to the Egg Corridor. I imagine he and Sue had hatched that egg they were talking about, but it doesn't say anything to that effect. I'll adjust the coordinates to the Egg Corridor for you." Professor Booster only stood as high as the keyboard, and he had a little bit of trouble seeing just what he was typing, but managed to get the teleporter to hum to life once again. "It's ready. You know how to work it from here, I assume."
Quote didn't need another invitation; with Professor Booster's leave, he pressed in a few confirming commands on the control panel just outside the teleporter, and allowed himself into the tall glass tube as its lights began to whir and vibrate into action. "Don't worry about me," Professor Booster said before Quote vanished. "I have my own plans for the future. You just get Sue and Kazuma out of here." And then, in an instant, he was gone.
He rematerialized in the familiar glass tube safe and sound, although the entire contraption was lying on its side, and the safety glass was cracked and broken all around its circumference. Quote quickly checked himself over once he realized that the machine was in a state of disrepair, just to be absolutely safe that his molecules came together in the proper order, and that he hadn't fused with his weapons or anything like that. No, everything was still where they should be, thankfully, and he wasn't missing any part of himself.
He looked around the Egg Corridor and realized that hardly anything was where they should have been: each of the sixteen eggs were either hatched or shattered from the weight of their destroyed cages, the dried draconic embryos having long since oozed out of their shells and across the ground. He felt like he was going to be sick when he saw the dead ones. The structural stability of the room was in shambles, with bits of rocks and debris strewn all over the floor and the ceiling, and nothing like the clean and orderly professionalism of the Corridor when he first arrived in it. The teleporter he was resting in was underneath a layer of solid stone itself, although thankfully he could still crawl out of the open door to the teleporter with ease.
Outside of the machine, he stood back on his feet, looking the room over some more from his higher perspective. He could see the steel door leading to the room with the egg marked zero-zero on the far side of the Corridor, but between it and him were at least eight winged baby dragons, each alive, but none of them healthy: they appeared bloody and torn, as if they were fighting recently, or they had otherwise gotten into a bloody skirmish. Some of them were even fighting each other, their teeth and claws digging into each other's scales ferociously, using only with their primal instincts as their weapons. They were likely fighting over food; whoever kept these eggs in their cages obviously hadn't thought of feeding the babies when they hatched.
But whatever had caused them all to hatch at the same time had also done a number on the Corridor itself, to cause so much collateral damage. He guessed that maybe an explosion had done this to the room, but he couldn't begin to guess what would have caused it, or why, or where in the Corridor it could have detonated. Or maybe the premature hatching of the eggs were the main purpose of the explosion. Hopefully Kazuma might have an answer – Quote began his steady jog towards the far room, marked zero-zero. He had no desire to fight the baby dragons: they each had teeth, however small, and claws half as large as his entire body. Some of them could even breathe fire.
It was a difficult walk, getting from one side to the other, because of all the unsafe debris littering the Corridor. There was no way he was going to climb any of them: none of them looked stable enough, and he couldn't jump over them entirely since he might be jumping right into more rocks, or worse, a dragon, and he didn't have any experience with the Booster to try and do anything fancy. So he had to walk around all the piles, and that was even harder because of the same dragons constantly roaming the floor. They would make painful wails and cries whenever they saw something moving, and one of them had taken to chewing the skin off its own tail for nourishment. They wouldn't be as analytical as the Gaudi and ignore him just because he was a robot. Whenever he was forced to get past one, he would walk slowly, and walk as far around it as he could. It was a difficult maze in the perfectly straight Corridor to navigate.
He managed to reach the metal door without firing a shot, although his nerves were tested with each step. He gripped the familiar metal knob on the door and gave it a firm pull, allowing him into the room for the second time.
The centrepiece of the room – the enormous egg with the words 'No. 00' tattooed onto its shell – was shattered open, and the dragon that was supposedly incubating healthily inside it was nowhere to be seen. Sixteen of the seventeen monitors that surrounded the egg were all flashing red, each saying the same thing: that the egg it was monitoring had been 'compromised' and that safety measures should be taken immediately, either to save the creature inside it, or, as a 'recommended recourse', to perform euthanasia as soon as whoever was supposed to be watching over these eggs could. It caused him to shudder.
The final monitor resting right in front of the large shell in the room was displaying a perfectly black screen with some friendly news in green font, for a change: Hatch Successful. He could see that, plain as day, although it also told him, in less words, that Kazuma was nearby, and that he had figured out the password to the egg's life support and got it to hatch. Had he already escaped the island on it, though? Was it even capable of flying, right out of the egg? He noticed that there was a large trap door etched into the side of the wall behind the egg, assumedly for the dragon to fit through.
A door opened in the far wall of the room though the darkness. He quickly turned away from the monitor and towards the far wall, where the lights didn't easily reach, and began reaching for his machine gun. He didn't yet make a move to use it, however. The corners were so pitch black that he had no idea how anyone could have found the door. A cold chill burst through it, and a faint light came flooding into the room from the opening. Howling wind was whipping into the room from the door, right behind the figure that came in through the doorway.
"Hello?" he heard a familiar voice call from the far shadow. "Who's there?" the voice called again. It was clearer the second time, and he had an easier time recognizing it, but it was always better to be safe than sorry and did not drop his hands from his weapon. He backed up slightly, his eyes trained hard on the opening but the lighting was too poor to make out a face. "Oh!" the voice said, clearly recognizing Quote right away. "It's you! The robot soldier that helped me out of that shelter in Grasstown!" The tall figure shut the door behind him and quickly allowed himself into the light – the tall stature; the tan complexion; the green hair; and the squinted eyes were all easily identifiable, and Quote relaxed when he finally registered that it was just Kazuma.
"I'm glad to see that you're still alright," he said happily, rubbing his arms to try and get some heat back into them. He was shivering from head to toe. "The wind-chill out there is pretty nasty," he said casually, trying to open with some light-hearted chatter, although it wasn't working well with Quote. "Right, business. I'm the only one here." His expression dropped suddenly as he relayed the events, having to live through those experiences a second time. "After you left for the Sand Zone, the rest of us hurried here, to crack open this egg and get us a way off this island. But then Misery showed up." Quote's own expression suddenly hardened – that woman was an enormous pain in the neck, going after everyone he cared about. "We put up as best a fight as we could, but we were just a girl-turned-Mimiga and two scientists; we hardly stood a chance. Sue was taken, and I have no idea where the Professor is…I managed to duck and hide in the confusion before she made me disappear too."
He paused for a moment, deducing to himself why Quote would be here now. "I suppose," he said slowly, walking himself through his scenario, "that the Doctor was able to obtain the seeds in the Sand Zone?" Quote nodded once, his shoulders slumping when he remembered that he had failed at his task. "Oh, no, no," Kazuma said lightly, trying to cheer him up. "I'm not blaming you. The Doctor's victory was assured the moment he got his hands on that Crown, really. By now, it's only a matter of time before his army of wild Mimiga is ready to storm the surface. After that, nobody's got a chance to stop him."
Kazuma walked back towards the door in the far all, his back to Quote. "We don't have a lot of options," he said resentfully. "We've got no choice but to flee. I figured we might be able to escape, if only we had a Sky Dragon. That's why we're here in the Egg Corridor, after all. And now," he continued, spinning back around to look at the broken remains on the egg shell, "my dragon has hatched. In case you didn't realize." The sarcastic statement was oddly devoid of any humour, and he paused before continuing. He was obviously thinking hard on something, as if he had to make a difficult decision.
"Would you like to escape with me?" he suddenly asked, shocking Quote a moment. Kazuma's face was totally solid: he was clearly very serious. "Hey, I know what I'm asking of us both; don't give me that look. I know that's my sister I'm leaving behind, and maybe even my own mom. But I know what I am and am not capable of; if Misery just swatted me aside like a fly, then what chance do I have against the Doctor? I'm a scientist specializing in computer sciences, man, I don't even know how to hold a missile launcher like yours." His expression looked more and more pained as he spoke, practically on the verge of tears. He could hardly believe he was just going to run away either. "So, I'm gonna ask again…do you want to run?"
Quote knew his answer was no, but he considered it from Kazuma's perspective anyway. If Quote were a human, he'd probably have been killed several times over by now, and only managed to get so far with as few injuries as he had because of his manufactured strength and endurance. He could jump straight up nearly a story, and land without so much as a second thought to it. Kazuma was made of flesh and bone; he was right to be worried over falls higher than a few metres and fighting frenzied Mimiga and witches that can turn other robots into enormous frogs. He couldn't blame him for wanting to run, but all the same, he shook his head to Kazuma, refusing to simply leave everybody behind like that.
"I see," he replied, not the least bit surprised. He turned back towards the egg shell, his mind lost in thought once again. "You know," he said slowly, "there's one other way one might return the Mimiga to their natural state. You could destroy the island's core." Quote remembered the fight with that beast in the flooding base in the Labyrinth. Misery called it 'the Core' of the island, and that it was the only thing that was keeping it floating in the sky. "If you did that, however, the island would most likely crumble and fall. A dangerous choice, huh?" Quote knew the consequences of his decisions, and Kazuma was not helping.
"Either way, though, we don't even know where the island's core is. But if you're willing to risk it all and go after the core, and thereby go after the Doctor, then I'm willing to wait." He turned back towards the door, reaching for its handle. "I'll be here," he called over his shoulder, "tending to the Sky Dragon, and waiting for you to come back, or some kind of signal. But if things get too rough, I gotta fly without you." And he opened the door, walking out into the open air, leaving the door ajar for Quote to follow.
Just past the door was a never-ending expanse of dark-blue sky, reaching as far out as he could follow until the clouds joined with the sky above him in the horizon. He stood on a metal platform that reached out for three dozen yards, and below it, simply nothing – deep blue clouds blanketed the sky underneath the island, hiding the ground underneath them and not giving him a clear idea of just how far down the distance was between the island and the mainland. Even through the odd patches of missing cloud dotting the otherwise perfect cover, the ground underneath them was nowhere in sight.
Above him was a perfect vision of the unobstructed night sky. There wasn't a cloud above them – obviously – and he could easily see the thousands and thousands of brilliant stars shining down on him from above, illuminating him and the island in their eloquent light. The pale white moon hung lazily in the sky at a high angle above him, perfectly full, its solemn beauty enchanting him as he found himself staring dumbly at it in the sky. He had never seen anything like it.
Kazuma was off in the distance, speaking to an enormous, green, winged dragon that towered over them both. It looked much like the hurt infant dragons in the Egg Corridor, although its scales were a healthier, richer green, and it apparent complacent and docile compared to the feral ravenousness of the others. It sat there calmly; its head – easily larger than Kazuma's body – lowered to look the human in the eye and to hear Kazuma's naturally soft voice over the rushing winds. It made no movement other than the pulsating of its chest as it took its breath. Its wings, reaching a span farther than Quote could accurately guess, were folded neatly against its sides, and its four-foot-long tail laid peacefully against the steel ground, its very tip occasionally swaying left and right in content. It had a flattened snout and narrow yellow eyes, much like Kazuma's own, and a pair of dull, bony horns jutting up where its ears would have been. It had two incredibly large flat feet with small, hooked claws, and two smaller 'arms', each only a foot long and rather underdeveloped, though equipped with the same terrible claws as its brothers and sisters. It listened to Kazuma as he spoke, although Quote doubted the dragon could actually understand the words, and instead had simply imprinted onto Kazuma as a mother figure.
Kazuma turned away from the winged dragon and looked back at Quote, who couldn't help but keep stealing glances at the moon. "What's with you?" he asked over the roaring gusts of wind. It was difficult to walk in a straight line with the wind constantly pushing him to and fro. "You act like you've never seen the moon before." His breath was a little short from the lack of oxygen so high up, but he was fine. Quote looked into Kazuma's eyes, unable to put his feelings about the moon into words: this was the first time he had seen it. His earliest memories were from when he woke up in the cave some time ago. In fact, this was the first time he really felt fresh wind and the first time he breathed clean, cold, crisp air.
"Anyway," he continued, his hands vigorously rubbing his arms to keep his heat, "directly above us is the Plantation. It's where me, Sue, Professor Booster and mom all worked for the Doctor before we managed to escape. I can guarantee that that's where he's keeping all the Mimiga." Quote looked straight up from where they were standing, and saw that the craggy, uneven wall of the island curved in a broad C-shape, ending with a small jutted ledge that seemed to lead into the island. This wall was several hundred stories tall, though. He had made tall climbs like this before, but this was ridiculous, and he could even see his destination this time. "The only teleporter that I know about that goes straight there connects directly to the Plantation's jail, and it's in that shelter you rescued me from in Grasstown. Besides, even if you blasted your way out, you'd be overwhelmed in minutes. The only real way into the Plantation is through its back door, which is right above us." Kazuma trailed his eyes along the wall as he looked up, noting all the footholds and armrests the soldier would have to use if he wanted to make the climb. "I'm afraid I don't know the coordinates for the Plantation, either, so the teleporter in the Mimiga village is useless. You'll have to start climbing."
Quote kept looking straight up the wall, daunted by the sheer size of it. He looked back down, through the gaps between the huge, sturdy platform they were standing on and the rock surface it was connected to, to the clouds passing obliviously underneath them. If he fell at all while he was climbing this thing, he wasn't positive if he'd ever stop falling. "Don't worry," Kazuma said, patting Quote on the soldier in an attempt to reassure him. "You have Professor Booster's jetpack on you. I've seen his earlier versions of it, and believe me, it works like a dream. I'm sure you can handle it."
He took another look up the enormous wall, his earlier resolve a little shaken from knowing that the slightest slip and he could find himself plummeting for hours, for all he could tell. And just to make sure he was nervous enough, another huge burst of wind washed over them both, briefly unbalancing Kazuma. "I have to get back inside," he said, defeated by the stinging cold of the high altitude. "I'll freeze out here if I stay any longer." He walked back to his winged dragon, the beast never taking its eyes off its 'mother', and instructing it to follow him back into the Egg Corridor to warm up.
He was understandably nervous about making the climb. As he stepped towards Kazuma and the dragon, he felt the tight leather straps grind against his leg, reminding him that he didn't need to rely only on his own power to climb it. He looked down his leg, noting the small metal 'pedal' his foot was clipped firmly to; Professor Booster said that he just needed to point his foot in the direction he wanted to go, and the jetpack would sling him in that direction? He uneasily shifted his right foot up a little bit, expecting the Booster to hum to life and to shoot fire down his back, propelling him into the sky effortlessly…but it didn't work, no matter how far he craned his foot. He rotated it from side to side, up and down, forward and back, just like Professor Booster said he could, but it wasn't operational. It wasn't like Professor Booster to give him something faulty.
As he began to flail his entire leg up and down – the metal brace easily flexing and rotating along with his leg with each movement – Kazuma was gently leading his winged dragon back into the room with the egg shell, his left hand on the bridge of its snout as he slowly walked ahead of it, to lead it. "It's not on," he said as he walked past, causing Quote to stop in his tracks. "I'll switch it on for you," and, with his other hand, he flipped a small metal switch on the side of the jetpack. Immediately, it began to whir and buzz to life, its circuits and gears working madly to warm the Booster up to working capacity, before calming back down and humming gently, awaiting a telltale twitch from the pedal.
Kazuma's dragon walked past him next, paying Quote absolutely no attention other than being careful not to step on him, and soon he was left alone on the metal platform. Now that the jetpack vibrated with activity on his back, he lifted his ankle upward once again, and this time, he got a response. It only lifted him slightly, corresponding to how high Quote lifted his foot, but he was eventually lifted right off the ground under just the jetpack's strength, the light sound of something like a fire stoking behind him flaring and rising with the pressure put onto the machine to perform. The tight straps wrapped over and under his shoulders were the only thing securing him to the Booster as he rose, much to his apprehension, but he was otherwise thrilled with the concept of flying with this device.
Taking it slowly, he pointed his foot up a little sharper, and the jetpack responded by lifting him straight up higher and faster. He slowly levelled his foot, and the Booster, rather than gently setting him back down, instead simply shut off, causing him to plummet back down the few feet he had risen. He managed to keep his balance; his mind raced and he felt panic in his chest when he landed, understanding just too well what would happen if he got too careless on this platform. He walked in towards the island, not entering the eggshell room but still under the shelter of the overhanging stone and overtop more secure footing to resume his practice.
He tilted his foot up again, gently easing himself into the air. Easy enough so far, but Professor Booster did say he could move in any direction, so he tried tilting his foot to the right. Surprisingly, the Booster shifted its weight slightly in compliance and began carrying him to the right, still facing forward. He tilted it to the left, and he began floating to the left. He extended his entire leg forward slightly, and his body inched forward in the air, no problem. He bent his knee, bringing his foot back, and he began floating backward. He tilted his foot down, and he was sent flying forcefully back onto the platform, quickly knocking him onto his hands from the thrust. Aside from that last one (he'd have to be very careful with it), it was a thrill and a marvel; he would continue going in several directions numerous times, lost in the entertainment and nearly forgetting his priorities. Like Professor Booster said, the jetpack overheated awfully quickly the longer he stayed in the air, but the heat seemed to dissipate just as quickly; as long as he left it off for less than five seconds, by his count, it was ready to fire up again.
Finally having his fill of practice with the device, he stepped back onto the platform, feeling ready to conquer this mountain. Quote kept his eyes glued to the wall, noting each notch that he could wrap his hands and feet around, and all the tiny ledges and plateaus he could use to rest and recuperate. Just to his side was a larger ledge that he'd have no problem jumping to; he started with that, easily clearing the height and landing safely on the rock, preferring his own abilities over using the jetpack, just in case he panicked and wound up tilting his foot in the wrong direction. From there he leapt onto another, and then another, carefully timing his jumps between gusts of wind and aiming precisely just how high he needed to leap to clear the next edge.
Eventually the rock face became too steep to simply keep jumping up, and he was forced to begin climbing it the traditional way: hand and foot. The starlight and the moonlight showed him the way, making finding notches and footholds to grab onto an easy task. The gusting winds, the biting cold, the longevity of the climb, and the sheer fear of being so high and relatively unsupported made the climb much harder than he had anticipated, and with each pull and step, his numb fingers and tired arms and legs would waver and wobble. His jetpack would begin to flare whenever his right foot searched for something to grasp onto, pressing his nerves further. Each ledge broad enough for him to stand on without needing his hands for support was a blessing.
His mind wandered while he climbed the outer wall, to Curly and her safety, and to Sue and Professor Booster's request to run. He didn't know what he was going to do when he found Sue; there was no place left on the island for her to hide from the Doctor, but he couldn't just leave the island alone with him so close to his ambitions to world conquest. He could try and get her back down to Kazuma and his winged dragon and convince them to leave that way, but, after twenty minutes of climbing and he was only halfway up the wall (he was keeping track with the digital clock in his missile launcher's scope), there was no way he could take the same way back down. Climbing down by himself would be next to impossible, and Sue, in her unfamiliar Mimiga body, definitely wouldn't have the strength to pull it off either. Maybe he could find that teleporter Kazuma used to warp himself to Grasstown and start walking back.
He held himself still when the wind picked up, and moved as quickly as he could between bursts. With each small break area, he'd gaze out over the infinite sky, counting as many of the millions of stars as he could and gazing at the moon, admiring its pale grey and numbering its visible craters from his bald eye. The angelic silver moonlight reminded him of Curly; her skin was coloured the same white as the moon. But he shook off the thought as quickly as he brought it up, thinking to himself that the comparison was a little too absurd for his liking. The steel platform that he had left was a mere divot underneath him, and the clouds underneath that sprawled out as far as the sky, blending seamlessly into the horizon many miles away without ever offering the slightest of glimpses through their thick cover. It was almost romantic, like a dream, between his long hauls up the wall.
Getting near the peak, the tears in the rocky wall thinned as he climbed, forcing himself to pulse upwards in short hops with the Booster until finally, after over half an hour of just rock climbing, his right hand, and then his left, pulled over the final ledge of the wall, offering something sturdy and solid to stand on, far away from any fall, as his reward. With some effort, he managed to pull his tired and stretched legs over the side, and, relieved and triumphant, he lay on his stomach, basking in the accomplishment. His destination was in a small, hollowed out section of stone atop the high wall, and in the far side of the section was another unassuming wooden door with a brass knob. The feeling of seeing something so mundane after such a task was rather lifting to his spirits.
After only a short break, he pulled himself to his feet and entered the door, feeling invincible. He felt like he could run circles around whatever minions the Doctor had in the Plantation, and he kept his head high as he walked past the wooden frame, hearing the rusted hinges creak around him as he pushed on the–
"Whoa!" he heard to his left once he stepped into the room, startling him. He jumped in surprise as the noise, causing the jetpack to flare up, lifting him off the ground slowly while he quickly reached for his machine gun, but the Booster's sudden movement caused him to flinch again, sending him straight up when he meant to press downward. Before he could calm down, the jetpack slammed him into the low ceiling of the room, bruising his head badly but he kept his consciousness. His foot going limp and dazed from the sudden bonk on the head, he fell back down to the floor lopsidedly, landing on his left arm. His invincibility was totally gone now.
He groaned, placing his hands on the ground as he began to draw himself upward again, in considerably more pain than last time just a minute ago. He didn't know who or what had made that sudden noise, and he wasn't sure if he was in any immediate threat. He could hear panicked rumblings and digging through some boxes just a short distance away, like someone was trying to hide as quickly as possible, paying no heed to how much noise they were making.
Quote looked up, eyeing the room over. It was very small, almost like a closet, but it had two doors leading in and out; one of them was still open, going outside and onto the outer wall of the island. The second must have lead into the Plantation. Also in the room was a series of metal containers, exactly like the ones he had seen in the warehouse in the Labyrinth, complete with the crudely-drawn missiles plastered on their sides – that was a good sign; he hadn't had any missiles on his missile launcher since the fight with Balrog, and hopefully these containers were just as stocked. Hidden in between the containers was an obvious Mimiga, facing away from him and hiding its eyes behind his paws, as if that would somehow help it hide itself. It was shaking badly, apparently scared out of its wits.
Quote pulled himself to his feet, approaching the containers silently. The Mimiga's ears perked with each footstep, and before Quote could even get close, it whirled back around, its arms extended and its eyes practically tearing up already. "Please don't kill me!" it hollered, trying to somehow push Quote away by gesturing towards him in an exaggerated 'go away' manner. "I'm a human! I just got magically turned into a Mimiga! I'm a human!"
Ignoring the potentially hilarious defence of blaming magic for his form, he backed away from the containers, not wanting to scare or pressure the Mimiga, and gently lowered his hands, trying to signal to the Mimiga to calm down. His expression visibly changed to show that he was just as surprised as it was – he had the aching head to prove it. The Mimiga seemed to understand and calmed down a bit, but not enough to gather up the courage to come out of the container.
"You're not one of those killer robots?" it asked. Quote didn't know how to answer that one; he was equipped with at least three different weapons and he'd had his fair share of fighting during his short stay on this island. But he did know that he meant the Mimiga no harm, this one included, so he nodded. "Well, you scared the pants off me, just bursting through the door like that!" Still apprehensive, it emerged from between the containers, its eyes glued sternly to Quote, noting the slightest movements he made. It had an elongated face with no snout, indeed looking more human than Mimiga. It had fair, brown eyes and a pair of thick, ugly eyebrows, unique only to this one Mimiga he had seen so far, and it wore a blue collar with no tag, as if it were someone's pet. It had two single whiskers pointing straight out from either side of his face, and its ears were quite a bit longer than King's or Sue's, going down to his collarbone. It had a small, bunny-like tail on its backside. Comparing this one Mimiga to every other one he had seen, he couldn't help but believe that he was once a human, and whoever turned him into this didn't seem to quite grasp what a Mimiga looked like.
"As long as we're getting acquainted," the Mimiga continued, obviously feeling more and more comfortable around him as time passed, even going so far as to offer Quote a paw to shake, "My name is Itoh. I was one of the humans who came to this island to do some research." Quote accepted the paw and they shook twice. "I'm sure you know the story about the Doctor, since you have Professor Booster's jetpack. Once he got that Crown of his, he had that witch Misery turn me into this…I managed to get away before I could get wrapped up in this whole business with the flowers, but look at me." He huffed in frustration, looking around the cramped room. "And now I'm stuck here! They haven't found me here yet, but I'm running low of provisions. I don't know how much longer I can stay."
Itoh took a breath, noting that the open door leading to the outside was still open. "You climbed up from the outside, right?" he asked as he went towards the door to shut it. The cold air drove right through his fur and chilled his skin, and the wind howled mercilessly through the open door. "I'm an engineer," he said, shutting the door tightly, and he sounded rather proud of the title. "One of the best in the business, I'd wager. But I'm deathly afraid of heights, myself. I don't know why I signed up for an expedition to a floating island tens of thousands of feet in the air."
Quote was listening, but rather than stand still, he had taken the opportunity to loot through the metal containers for their missiles while Itoh shut the door. Like he had hoped, the containers contained crates and boxes, and in them were dozens of missiles each. Enough for him to unload his arsenal several times over, although, being so close to the Doctor, he felt that he wasn't going to have to come to that. He was happily clicking in all the missiles he could carry – Mark Three missiles, too! What luck! – while Itoh kept talking. "I don't know what or who you're here for, but the Plantation will be the place to find it. I hear the Doctor managed to round up every last Mimiga on the island, and they're all here, working to the bone trying to grow his red flowers. Sue's in there somewhere, but I wouldn't know where."
As he placed in the last of his ammunition and hefted the launcher back across his left shoulder – the weapon felt considerably weightier than just a few minutes ago, and he liked knowing that he was fully stocked – he turned back towards the only other door leading out of the closet. "There's not much more I can do to help you," Itoh lamented. "I'm no action hero, myself. But if you need something built, you'll know where to find me. I have no plans to go anywhere." What with the only exits being into the Plantation and over a several-thousand-foot drop, Quote wasn't surprised. He waved to Itoh as he grasped the knob of the other door, and with a quick twist and a strong push, he was in the Plantation.