Disclaimer: I do not own any Klonoa characters… The others are mine, though.

Chapter 1: Weird Creatures

"So?"

"What do you mean 'so?'"

"I mean 'so what.' Big deal. A few colorful rocks fell from the sky. I mean—these aren't even good photos. They could be fake."

"Fake?! But I took these last night. I remember—it definitely happened. Just—Just asked anyone!"

A large man sitting behind a chair motioned for a boy carrying a stack of newspapers to come over. "Sir?" The boy asked. "Did you see, last night, three comets?"

"No, sir. I didn't," the boy replied, looking confused. "But it must've been midnight, or something! You were probably sleeping!" The brown haired woman quickly defended.

The boy didn't deny this. The large man dismissed him with a wave of his hand and the boy left. "Listen, Madison, I don't want to fire you. But we're losing money. I need people with more… creative minds," the man said.

"Creative? Are you saying you want people who can lie to the public?" The woman asked. "Not 'lie,' exactly. Just stretch the truth. Enough so that a boring story is interesting."

"It's lying."

"It's not!"

The woman seemed taken aback by the boss' sudden anger. "Don't think I can't fire you just because you're the mayor's daughter, Nikki Madison! I can do whatever I want to my employees. Now…" he leaned over his desk, "get me an interesting story by Sunday. I don't care if the whole thing is a 'lie.' Just get it to me!"

The woman nodded slowly and left the office. She entered her own small office and sat at her chair, staring at the pictures she had taken the other night. There was no way it hadn't happened. She remembered it so clearly.

Nikki sighed for probably the fifth time that morning. Now what? She couldn't lie to the public. It was wrong. She put her hands on her face. She needed another sign.

---

The streets of New York City were at one of their busiest times of the day. School was just letting out. Buses drove slowly through traffic, stopping every now and then to drop off the excited children. They ran across the sidewalk and streets carelessly. It was, one would say, an accident waiting to happen.

A little girl carrying a lunchbox and a small backpack calmly, but cutely, walked out of a bus and headed for the street. She looked both ways before crossing. She was barely halfway across when a truck came turning from a corner and headed her way. The driver was listening to a blasting radio and clearly wasn't paying attention to much.

By the time he saw the small girl in front of his large truck, just stomping on the brakes wasn't going to save her. There was a loud screech and only a few people even bothered to look. The girl, just seeing what was happening, dropped her belongings and flinched.

There was a quick crash noise, but that was it. The girl, surprised that she was still standing, opened her eyes. She widened them and gaped at what she saw. A tall, round creature was standing between her and the truck.

The orange creature's arms were spread out and its back was facing the truck. It had large scales on its head, arms, and back. It was, humorously, wearing green overalls and black shoes.

The creature, overall, looked somewhat like a giant pangolin. It looked down at the girl after wincing for a second. "You okay, little girl?" It asked in a friendly, masculine voice. The girl nodded slowly. By now, everyone was staring.

"You should be very careful on the street." The creature smiled. It then turned around to look at the driver, who had been stunned with awe, but then twitched. "And you should be more careful, too. Especially when driving such a large vehicle," the creature lectured, still smiling.

The man only gapped. The pangolin-like man turned around again and looked at the girl. "Now, you should go home, little girl," it suggested. The girl suddenly smiled back and collected her belongings. "Thank you, mister armadillo man," she said quietly, and ran to the sidewalk.

The creature scratched his head. "Armadillo?" He simply shrugged it off and walk away from the truck. The people moved aside, staring at the round animal-man with incomprehension and doubt.

In another part of the city, a different awe-striking event had occurred. It was quite similar, actually. A woman had been driving a car and was just starting to pass a green light. Something suddenly ran in front of her car and she hit it.

Like before, no one really bothered to look until someone made an exclamation. What had actually been hit was just as weird as the pangolin man.

"What is it?"

"Is it dead?"

"Is that a costume?"

"It looks like a video game character!"

"Yeah! It looks like something from Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"No! It looks like a Loony Toons character!"

"No way!"

"Poke it."

Most of the people muttering were children. A boy grabbed a random cane leaning against a wall and reached it out toward the laying creature. He poked its furry, black and white head quickly. When it made no reaction, he poked it again.

The boy poked the creature's face with the cane until it moved slightly. When he pulled away, it limply fell back into its original position. "Yep, it's dead," the boy said simply.

"You think that's a costume?" A woman asked. "If it is, it's really well designed. And it's well put together, too. Not a rip anywhere, despite all the blood," a man replied.

Blood was smeared on the bumper of the car that had hit the creature, soaked in the creature's blue shirt, and spread out on the road. No one tried to help it, too busy trying to figure out what it was.

The creature had ridiculously long ears and a somewhat feline-like face. It wore a light blue shirt and dark blue shorts, along with red sneakers. It had a short tail and wore yellow gloves on its human-like hands. A little ways away from its head lay a blue hat with a yellow symbol on it. In its hand was gripped a large ring, despite being unconscious or dead.

"Maybe it's an alien."

"An alien?!"

"We come in peace!"

"Cut that out!"

"Maybe we should take it off the road…"

"I ain't touchin' that thing!"

"Um…"

"Hey, it just moved!"

Everyone stared at the creature again. It was twitching slightly and its face tensed in pain. Slowly, it began opening its large eyes. Murmurs began all around the people circling the creature. It looked around slowly, before making an effort to get up.

"That is no costume!" someone said loudly. "Watch out, it might bite!" a kid teased. "Bite?!" A woman replied fearfully. The black rabbit-cat creature lifted its body slightly with its arms, but they soon gave out underneath it and it fell in front of the woman.

She suddenly screamed, jumping back. The creature's eyes widened and it staggered back in alarm. "Did it bite me?!" the woman asked quickly. "I think it did!"

The murmurs became louder.

"It's some sort of mutant!"

"It's a monster!"

"Someone call the cops!"

"No, the pound! Call the pound!"

The creature, hunched over slightly, back up. "Get away from me!" Another woman suddenly screamed. The creature turned toward her and backed away. A man shoved out his foot and kicked it to its bloody side. "Back off!"

A woman found a broom and swiped it at the creature as if it were a raccoon. The crowd spread apart, almost everyone yelling. The creature immediately jumped to its feet like a human and found a space in the crowd to run off.

It ran on the sidewalk as fast as it could. Almost everyone it bumped into either gasped loudly or screamed. The creature was fast, though. It was out of sight in a matter of seconds. All it left behind was a trail of blood and a hat lying on the street.

---

"Nikki!!"

Nikki jerked up from her thoughtful, hunched over position at her desk. She jumped to her feet and made for her boss' office. She dared to wonder what he so urgently had to tell her. "S-Sir?"

"Look at the TV," her boss said simply, not looking at her. Nikki looked up at the flat-screen TV hanging on a top corner of the wall. She gaped. The TV reporter was speaking.

"I don't believe words can explain what is being shown here. According to this video, which was taken on a cell phone by a teenager nearby, a large animal-like man came out of nowhere and jumped between a moving truck and a little girl. The truck was forced to stop and was damaged a little. Then the strange man just walked off without saying a word… It is unconfirmed whether the man was wearing a costume… or if it was real."

"This is your chance, Madison. I want an interesting article about this today," the boss began, turning off the TV. "But, Mr. Smith, it's already—"

"Today!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Well, then, get to it. 'Large armadillo monster destroys truck,'" the boss said. "It looked more like a pangolin to me," Nikki replied quietly. "Pango-what? I don't even no what that is. It was an armadillo!"

Nikki didn't object. "I'll start on it now, sir," she said halfheartedly. She returned to her office without another word and sat at her desk. This wasn't the kind of sign she was looking for. "Well… beggars can't be choosers, huh, Nikki?" she asked herself.

---

Night time seemed to fall quickly that day; probably because of the early disappearance of the sun shielded by gray storm clouds. Rain in New York City never was a good thing, though it matched its gloomy atmosphere.

Cars ran along shinning streets under streetlamps. Headlights were blinding as they passed people walking hurriedly on the sidewalks. Sewer drains gurgled loudly as they greedily drank up all of the water rolling on the streets.

Currently, a figure stood near a streetlight. Its bright glare only struck the surface character's hood-covered face. A furry muzzle stuck out of the hood, though it was mostly hidden when the figure looked down.

A few teenaged girls huddled under one umbrella gazed at the character curiously. They were under the overhanging roof of a building, waiting for the bus, while the figure was standing in the rain at the corner of the sidewalk.

The stoplight above turned red and the cars stopped, but the figure never moved. One of the girls took notion to what looked like a black tuff of fur near the figure's rear. A pathetic joke amongst them made them giggle, but the mysteriousness of it silenced them again.

The figure still didn't move. Under its hood, two pale blue eyes stared at the street ahead of it. They were locked on something. On the street lay a sodden dark blue object. It spun around and floated in the air slightly with every car that past it. Eventually, a car drove right over it, plastering it to the ground. Its ends twitched slightly with the breeze, as if it were trying to get up again.

The figure stared at the object for the longest time. Finally, at possibly the worse time considering how long it had been standing there, it moved forward. The girls watched wide eyed as the figure ran onto the street just as a green light shone, grabbed the object off of the street, nearly got hit by a car, and ran down the sidewalk out of sight.

Poor Klonoa... Getting hit by a car and poked like road kill. He sure isn't getting a good start on this world. Pango seems to be taking it all nonchalantly, though. Guntz seems to be the only one being smart around here; lurking around only at night and hiding his face. Anyway, stay tuned for Chapter 2: Contact!