Cave Story - The Written Tale

Written by Lord Darkrai

Original game/story by Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya

I myself own nothing except the words written here.

Chapter 3 - Part 1: On to Grasstown

Did you know that the witch-woman Jenka once had a brother? His name was Ballos. Like his sister, he wielded powers far beyond those of mortals... He used his magical powers to help and guide people, and the people loved and trusted him in return. Even more than they did their own king...

Jumping off of the teleporter, I took in a deep breath, noticing how humid and warm the air was, perfect for sustaining all kinds of plant life. I wondered how I knew that warm, humid air was good for sustaining plant life, then how I knew what a plant was, then how I knew what the word humid was. Shrugging it off as some random fact from my past, I thought nothing of it, then kicked myself, trying to remember more. Nothing was shaking loose, so I stopped, figuring it would come around at a later time. Gathering my strength, I leaped upwards, finding a small house. Seeing nowhere else to go, I tried the door, but it was locked. When i turned around, I saw a mimiga approach me. He seemed normal enough, so I lowered my gun. He spoke with a slightly lower pitched voice then other Mimiga. "Ho, traveler. I lost my key a ways back, and locked myself outta ma house. Think you could get it for me?" I nodded. he pointed towards the wall of vines. "It's back thataways. Thank you very much, young'un." He sat down at the doorstep of his house. Pushing my way through the vines, I wondered why he talked different then all of the other Mimigas I had met before. I realized Sue spoke differently too. Shaking my head and deciding to wonder about it differently, I pushed my way through the vines. There were creatures everywhere, some normal (yet hovered towards me instead of jumping) and some nearly eight times as large in size (that also hovered.) I leaped under them, blasting some of them with my missiles, but mostly using my Polar Star. (Missiles: 38) I found his key on some stone, underneath some bats and several Jellyfish. As I was laying waste to the jellies, I missed and shot at the ceiling. The light from the shot lit up a large, circular shape on the ceiling. After I killed the rest of the bats, jellies, and what not that could harm me, I fired at the large shape again. It came rushing down at me, so I fumbled and dropped the Polar Star. Cursing, I pulled out the machine gun, and fired five or so rounds into its underbelly. (Missiles: 33) I picked the Polar Star back up, and wandered over to the creature, which I now noticed was a large jellyfish. It had a small box on its head that had a note inside, as well as three small, glass jars. I read the note, which said Congrats if you killed the big Jelly! Take these jars and scoop up a bit of the jellyfish juice that should have come out of it, it's really useful for putting out fires and such! I did as the note said, being careful to place the note somewhere where it wouldn't get broken. Wandering over to the Mimiga from before, I handed him his key. He sat up very quickly. "Thank you very much, young'un! Come inside, if you have a mind to!" He opened his door and went inside. Shrugging my shoulders, I followed him inside.

Santa's House

I looked around. The house was smaller than Arthur's, and had a door with the words "DO NOT OPEN! DANGEROUS, IMMORTAL PLANT GROWING!" written in messy, scrawled letters. As I stared at them, however, I had no idea what they meant. I was about to open the door when the Mimiga came out of nowhere and smacked my hand. I turned towards him. He yelled, "Whoa, careful young'un! Those plants are dangerous!" I looked through the hole on the door, and saw a group of plants I decided I did not want to touch. They were large in number, and in size, viciously sharp, and dripping with what seemed like venom of some kind. I shuddered. The Mimiga said, 'Those are Venom Fangs, highly toxic and dangerous!" I nodded. He smiled. "By the way, young'un, here." He handed me a small, yellow and orange pistol. "This here's the Fireball! If you're wanting to get to the other side of Grasstown, remember to go through Chako's House. You'll need some Jellyfish juice, though." I nodded and slid it into my pocket, waiting to test it out on some enemies. Before I could leave, however, he said, "By the way, my name's Santa! What's yours?" I shook my head.

"No idea." He smiled.

"Well, 'no idea', you take care out there, okay?" I nodded.

Pretty soon, I was back to where I was before. Testing out the Fireball, I found out it shoots bouncy balls of flame, but only four at a time. The fires were blue and white in color, so I knew that they were very hot. How, I don't know. I walked forward, leaping over some Venom Fangs along the way. Before long, I came across another, smaller house. Inside, I jumped upstairs and saw a purple Mimiga. She was sleeping on her bed, but when I approached her, she sat up and yawned. She saw me and smiled. "Why hello there. Are you a traveler?" I nodded. She looked at the Polar Star at my side. "That's a mighty big gun you have there. is it safe?" I shrugged.

"In the right hands, I suppose." She giggled.

"Say something else."

"Uh, why?"

"I like the way your voice sounds, silly." I shrugged.

"Uh, Okay. What do you want me to say?" She smiled.

"Whatever you want to." I frowned and said,

"Uh, okay. Are you Chaco?" She nodded.

"Yeah, that's me." I nodded.

"A Mimiga named Santa told me that i'd need to go through your fireplace to get to the other half of Grasstown." She nodded, and got up to wander to the fire. I followed her.

"Santa, eh? Is he okay?" I nodded.

"Good. That one other fellow on the other side... Morson, I think, he's so strange. Haven't heard from him in a while." I shrugged.

"I came from the Mimiga Village, so I don't really know many Mimiga's here." She nodded. She must have thought I looked tired, because she said.

"Hey, you should get some rest before you head over." I shrugged my shoulders and laid down, closing my eyes.

When I woke up, Chako was next to me, sleeping soundly. I wondered why she was there, when I felt an object in my pocket that felt like it wasn't there before. Reaching into it, I found a stick of some red substance, but I wasn't sure what it was. Placing it back into my pocket, I felt something like paper as well. it was a note from Chaco.

"Something to remember me by 3

~Chaco"

Folding the paper up, I put the object and note into my pack, thankful that she had written in the language I could read, and not the one that was written on Santa's door. Remembering his advice, I looked at Chaco's fireplace. There was a roaring fire still, but I had a solution. I threw one of the bottles of Jellyfish Juice on the fire as Santa had told me, and the fire disappeared. As I crawled through, I felt bad about leaving Chaco's fireplace unlit, so I sparked it back to life with a careful shot of the Fireball. Heading onwards, I found a whole crap ton of bats, which were easy enough to get rid of using the Polar Star. There were many new enemies, including frogs and some strange fungus that shot out a red circle of energy when I shot it, but didn't kill it. I got hit the first time, but it didn't hurt much. After that, I laid on the ground and shot them, careful to avoid the energy circles. Onwards I found several buildings, and exploring around, found one that had a slightly rusty lock. There were several empty rooms as well, including one that had large blocks that, when the ground was shot out from beneath them, crushed anything and everything in their path. As I wandered around, I at some point heard a voice call, "Hey!" I glanced around, and listened to the impatient calls and their source. A crack in the wall seemed to be the source. As I approached, I heard the voice say, "Hey! You there, boy! Mind helping me?" I crouched next to the widest part of the crack and nodded, assuming he could see me. "Hey there! I'm kind of trapped inside here, the doors locked. Think you could try to unlock it?" someone from inside handed a key to me from within the crevice. I attempted to unlock the door, but it wouldn't budge. I walked back over to the crack, and said,

"It's wouldn't turn." The voice said,

"Damn! Well, try it on some other doors. I have another key here as well, it's labeled "Gum Base". Try that one and if it doesn't work, see if you can figure out where it will."

The key didn't work, so I let my wander, absentmindedly shooting the occasional bat that flew by. I thought of the room that had a slightly rusted lock, which reminded me of the first, rusty key. I tried it, and the door creaked open. Inside was a dimly lit room with several robots behind glass doors, and one laying on the floor and plugged into a wall. There was a hole in the floor, seemingly caused by some sort of explosion. On the other side, I saw a switch and a computer screen, offering more light than the lights in the room. On the screen were words that said,

TURN ON POWER?

[ ] YES [ ] NO

I clicked on yes, and new words flashed across the screen:

FAN POWER: ON

MALCO POWER: ON

AUXILIARY LIGHT POWER: ON

The room started to get brighter as the lights gained power. I could also hear small motors turning here and there. Suddenly, there was a slight crash and a flash of light. I turned, and the robot from earlier stood on two legs and looked at me. It pointed and said, in a slight, metallic voice, "INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT! DESTROY AT ALL COSTS!" Suddenly, a new voice called out:

"HUZZAH!" There was a crash, and the creature from earlier, Balrog if I remembered correctly, appeared. He landed on the robot, and turned towards me. He smiled. "Oh! It's you again! Did you know that the Mimiga we took wasn't Sue?" I nodded, getting angry at his offhand reference to Toroko. "That's right! She wasn't! Misery got a real beating by the Doctor because of it! She sent me here to break you for good!" I looked up, ready for a fight. "And no holding back this time!"

The fight began with him jumping. I thought I knew what he was doing, but before I could do anything, he started flying (it appeared he was straining to stay aloft) and tons of energy spheres bouncing towards me. I fired a few missiles (Missiles: 34/50) and most of them blew up. I ran towards the pit, and turned to see Balrog land with a crash. I whipped out my Fireball and shot several flames towards Balrog, and he landed on the last one. To my surprise, the spheres behind him bounced against the walls, and burned into his back. He groaned, and jumped again, and I ran underneath him and fired several missiles into his underside (Missiles: 31/50). He fell sooner than before, and there were less energy spheres this time. Turning around quickly, I fired more shots from the Fireball at him, and they seared his face. He groaned one more than time, then jumped back through the ceiling, and on his way up, he yelled,

"What ARE you?"

[Author's Notes] Hey guys, Lord Darkrai here, and Happy new years! I've been working on this one for a while, and I hope it shows. I did get some small writer's block towards the end, but I still got it done, and already have some prepared for the next part of the chapter! Speaking of, leave me a review if you want me to make a brand-new story that i'll work on alongside this one, that is similar, and will be telling the story of the generation of Pokemon with most of my favs, Generation Four: Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum! I won't do it unless I see it's wanted, so leave a review with any criticisms of this story or ideas as to what to do with it in the future! If you have ANYTHING you want to say, just put it in a review and I promise i'll read it! Thanks for reading this, and have a great day!

~Lord Darkrai

[End Note]