Another World

Mandy’s senses slowly began to return to her, the first thing she felt was a pounding sensation in her head, she began to gently open her eyes to a lovely blue sky with traces of leaves sticking out from the distance.

“Urgh… holy crap my head.” Mandy grunted as she slowly sat up rubbing her head, she looked around to see her new surroundings.

Blades of grass reaching up to four feet tall and mountains covered with moss surrounded most of her except for what was in front of her which was a large opening. This was completely different compared to where she was last time.

Mandy rubbed her head slightly. “What happened? Where am I?” her eyes widened slightly. “Oh right… I think I remember now… Boogey got his hands on Scythe 2.0 and tried to make a fear machine… we went to the Underworld to put a stop to him… I think… yeah, Boogey and Grim’s scythes both clashed and struck the fear machine creating some sort of massive blast…”

She slowly stood up and looked around. “Guess that was an inter-dimensional blast of sorts… so I think I’m in another dimension.” Mandy slowly sighed as she walked forward towards the opening.

After walking past the opening, she saw more of where she was. She was almost impressed by the gigantic open field that stretched before her, a massive river shot across the middle of it with no signs of any bridges to go across, more mountains on the other side and what impressed her more was the gigantic tree that towered up to the top of the sky, this tree was three times the width of any building she could think of and was much taller.

She looked to her left to see a gigantic cracked flowerpot with a strange looking flower blooming from it, it held five big red berries on it. With the flower pot and the trees, Mandy looked around more and began to think.

“Giant trees and flowers… I… I think this is earth… but… almost a hundred times bigger… or did I shrink? Either way it feels so much like it. But… is this our earth, or a completely different one?”

She soon paid attention to the flower with the berries in it, realising that she was hungry, she felt a bit hesitant but she knew she had to eat something, she saw a large flat rock next to the flowerpot, so she climbed up onto it and then jumped up grabbing the edges of the flowerpot, she struggled to pull herself up but she did in the end, and there she saw her prize. Unfortunately she had to climb the flower if she wanted the berry, she jumped and grabbed onto the stem and began to shimmy up until she reached the berries, she reached as far as she could with her free hand and batted the berry a bit making it shake, she then threw a strong punch and knocked it down.

“Perfect.” She muttered as she slid down the stem and picked up the berry. She looked at it from a few angles examining the berry, it didn’t look too different from a regular one apart from that it was the size of a basketball, it felt quite soft so it should be easy to bite into. She shrugged her shoulder and bit into the berry, so far it tasted ok, somewhat gooey. But she began to feel something else.

She gasped out a large cloud of red smoke as she dropped the berry, her mouth felt like it was on fire. “WH… WATER! WATER!” she screamed as she jumped off of the flowerpot and ran directly to the river and dunked her entire head drinking as much water as she could.

She pulled her head out of the river gasping for breath, the force of it caused her to stumble back and fall onto her backside. That was literally the spiciest thing she had ever had, and she had quite a good spice tolerance, her mouth felt quite burnt, she went onto her knees and crawled up to the river to look at her reflection, she then opened her mouth wide and stuck out her tongue to see the result. And it was as she suspected, her tongue was bright red and although it was difficult to tell how bad the inside of her mouth was, the feel of it being quite hot was a good enough hint to know how burnt it was.

Mandy sighed as she stood up. “Ok, first I get knocked out, find myself in a strange gigantic world and I turn my mouth into a volcano.” She looked across the river seeing the giant tree, she tried to look at the top but it was out of vision it was that high. “Reckon I might be able to find the others if I look from that tree… let’s see… who else was with me… there was Billy, Grim, Irwin… then there was the Underfist… that’s Hoss, Mr Skarr, Jeff and Fred Fredburger, so plus me that’s eight in total.”

So she had two objectives, find the others or at least Grim, and do what it takes to survive. Right now her fist plan was to see if she could get across the river, but this posed a problem, the river looked thirty feet wide, she could never jump it, and it looked too strong to swim across, she wasn’t that good of a swimmer compared to the others anyway. So her only option was to make a bridge, she looked around to see if there was anything she could use.

Something grabbed her attention as she turned to the right, there she saw a large round circular object with a flower head on top, it was a very dull pink colour. Mandy walked up to it, it looked like a vegetable of sorts, she felt as if she could make a meal of this but wasn’t entirely sure, it that red hot berry was any indication, she shouldn’t trust everything that looks like food. But she gently grabbed it anyway to see if it could be edible.

Upon touching it, suddenly it changed to a bright pink colour making Mandy jump back a bit, the bulb-like object then jumped up high sprouting three yellow stem-like legs, it now stood at five times the height of her. “What in the-“ she was cut off suddenly when the bulb-like object shot out a large pink seed and landed on the ground quickly burying itself.

Mandy felt at a loss for words, she had no idea what was going on. Her attention drew to the bit of ground which the seed dove into, then it suddenly sprouted a small pink stem with a green leaf tip. It actually looked somewhat like a vegetable, like a carrot of sorts. She had no idea what it was but she knew she had to eat something soon, Mandy walked up to the stem and grabbed onto it and tried to pull it out of the ground. It was a bit difficult but she managed to yank it out of the ground making the stem let out a squeak of sorts.

The confused Mandy looked at what she pulled out, only to be greeted by two large blue eyes. She jumped back letting out a quick “AAAGH!” as she let go of what she held. “It’s… it’s ALIVE!?” what she had pulled out of the ground was a strange living creature.

It was a bright pink colour, one-third of Mandy’s height, had a large round head with a small round body, stubby arms and legs, a set of Bee-looking wings, big round blue compact eyes and darker pink stripes across it’s body, the stem with a leaf was actually an antenna of sorts.

Mandy was completely and utterly dumbstruck, a bulb-like object letting loose a seed of an actual plant-creature hybrid. “What kind of freaky world am I in?” she muttered as she stared at the pink creature, who simply stared back with its wings buzzing. She felt like she had been staring at this creature for hours when it’s only been a minute.

She slowly shook her head trying to pull it together, she then stopped looking at the creature and looked further to her right to see another opening between two large rocks, perhaps she’ll find someone else or maybe something she can use as a bridge. She took one last look at the pink creature, then walked towards the opening. She still heard that quiet buzzing sound.

She looked behind her and jumped to see the pink creature right up in her face, the creature was following her. She took a few more steps backwards only to see the creature was indeed following her.

She gently placed her hand forward. “Ok, look Pinky, I don’t know who or what you are…” the creature stared at her open hand. “But I’m not in the mood for any games, now will-“ the creature suddenly pressed its face into her open hand making her jump, she stared at this creature who was now rubbing it’s head against her hand like a cat, seeing it’s closed eyes and making little squeaks shown that it quite enjoyed rubbing it’s head against her hand.

Mandy sighs as she grabs the antenna. “Beat it!” she shouted as she threw the creature about twelve feet away, it used its wings to stop falling and stayed right next to a large odd looking pink flower with a number ‘1’ on it. “Weirdo.” She muttered as she turned to walk away, but she heard more squeaking sounds as well as the sound of something being hit repeatedly.

Mandy turned back around to see that the creature had latched itself onto the flower and was smacking it with its antenna. The confused Mandy watched for a moment as the flower broke into pieces and disappeared, leaving only a large pink pellet that was the head of the flower. The creature lifted it up, flew right towards the bulb-like object and placed the pellet under it. Mandy’s eyes widened to see that the bulb shot a light down onto the pellet, it glowed a bright pink before being sucked up into the bulb, then after a few seconds, it shot two more large pink seeds out which dug into the ground, then more stems appeared.

“I… see… so that bulb thing is some kind of nest…” Mandy noticed the creature just staring at the two stems. So she walked up to it, the creature kept staring at the stems, paying no attention to her. “Uhh…” she muttered as she tapped it gently, she jumped slightly as the creature jumped a bit, it turned to her and then kept staring at her again. “You’re weird, you know that?” the creature kept silent.

Mandy began to think, the creature seems to want to follow her, and it fed the bulb to make more of them. “Maybe I can make of some use to these flying things?” so she grabbed one of the stems and pulled out another one of the pink creatures, looked exactly the same in every way as the last one, she then pulled out the other one. Now she had three pink flying creatures following her. The three were silent as they just stared at her, she then looked over to where that destroyed flower was and saw another one that looked exactly the same. Pink with a number ‘1’ on it.

She looked at the pink creatures, then pointed to that flower. “Ok, go destroy that thing or whatever.” The creatures kept still, continuing to stare at her, she sighed a bit feeling annoyed. “I said… destroy that flower.” They still remained where they were. “Maybe I should lead them to it.” Mandy walked closer to the flower with the creatures still following her. Once she got close, she then pointed to the flower, but they still did nothing.

“Idiots.” She grabbed the middle one and threw it at the flower, the creature then began to attack the flower. Mandy pondered for a moment. “So these creatures won’t leave my side unless I throw them huh?” Mandy grabbed another one and threw it far from her, it wasn’t near anything so it just floated there harmlessly. Mandy walked up to it and touched it slightly, the creature jumped a bit and then flew next to the other creature. “And touching them will make them follow me again.”

The one creature separate from Mandy took the pink flower head under the bulb, it sucked up the pellet and spat out two more seeds like before. She walked up to the seeds, touched the pink creature to make it respond to her and then thought for a moment. “Those flowers had a ‘1’ on them, yet they made two seeds… is it because if they’re the same colour as the bulb, it doubles.” Mandy realised something. “If that’s the case, then there could be more than one variant of these little bug-things.” She then grabbed the stems and plucked out two more creatures, now giving her a total of five.

Mandy looked around to see that there were no more of those pink headed flowers. So now her only option was to head to the new opening she saw, with five pink creatures following her, she walked through the opening, going through a long narrow corridor of rocks, she felt somewhat claustrophobic but at least there was no roof, only the sky.

She made it out of that narrow passageway and made it to a much more open area with a small lake and more of those pink headed flowers, five of them had a ‘1’ on them and there was one that was bigger and have a ‘5’ on it. Mandy took attention to the flower with the ‘5’ “So if my theory is correct, this should make ten of them right?”

Mandy threw one of the creatures onto the flower and it started to attack it. She then turned to the other smaller flowers. “Only one of them gets to live… for a little while longer at least.” She threw the remaining four on one each and began to wait.

As the creatures were busy, she looked around at her surroundings. Seeing the grassy hills and feeling the gentle breeze, it felt quite nice to be here, perhaps this land isn’t that bad to her, she actually had ideas to make a kingdom out of this. If these pink creatures are loyal to her, then she could use them to her advantage, yet she doesn’t know how loyal they are. She looked over to the river again, keeping her from the tree she believes will help her in finding the others, she then noticed a hill not far from her, perhaps it will lead her to something she could use as a bridge. She was about to walk to it until her attention was diverted to the creatures.

She saw four of them flying back through the passageway, but the fifth one was not with them. She looked back over to the fifth one to see it was struggling to even lift up the big one, she walked up to it and took notice of the number ‘5’ on it again. “So… does the number mean it’s weight in these things? I better go get the other four.” She walked away from it and made her way down the passageway.

Mandy made it back to the bulb and saw that they just finished transporting the flower heads, there she saw eight seeds fly out and bury themselves. “Now that’s thirteen total.” She walked up to the four, gave each of them a light touch to make them follow her, then she proceeded to pull out the others. “I swear I’m gonna pull a muscle if I keep doing this.” She grunted.

Making it back to the previous area, now with twelve creatures following her, she noticed the thirteenth still trying to carry the big pellet. But something else, a largish, two legged ladybug like creature with eyestalks marched up to the creature, Mandy didn’t like where this was going so she walked up to it preparing her fists, but she felt a bit worried now, realising she was only a head taller than this thing, but she still made it as the new creature opened its mouth. Mandy threw a punch to its side knocking it back. “Hey! Beat it you overgrown ladybug!” Mandy quickly grabbed the creature and pulled it away from the pellet. “These things are really not too smart, don’t they know a threat when they see one?”

The ladybug creature opened its jaw wide and attempted to bite onto Mandy, but she quickly jumped back and threw an uppercut knocking it back slightly. “Get back!” Mandy took a few steps back making the creatures fly backwards a bit too, she then noticed the creature she still held onto. “I wonder.” Mandy suddenly threw the pink creature on top of the ladybug creature, Mandy grew surprised to see it actually attacking the ladybug like the flowers, but felt worried to see the ladybug throw off the creature and dived down to it, Mandy quickly punched the ladybug before it could bite the pink creature. “One’s not enough.”

Mandy grabbed another and the one she saved and threw both of them onto the ladybug and both of them began to attack. She then grabbed two more and threw them on making the four attack, then six and then eight. Suddenly there was a blue flash of light and the ladybug creature roared before falling to the ground motionless. Mandy raised an eyebrow. “It’s… dead?” A slight smirk grew onto her face. “So these things can kill too huh? Either way it seems I need to get used to throwing these things.” She muttered as she crossed her arms. But became surprised to see six of the eight creatures she threw pick up the carcass and carry it back to the passageway. “They’re not are they?”

Mandy grabbed the other two and ran back through the passageway. Arriving at the bulb once again, she saw to her shock, the bulb sucked up the carcass, then three seeds shot out not long after. “So these creatures are both predator and prey, they can be feasted on by the wildlife and yet, they can use that wildlife to increase their population. These creatures are getting more and more intriguing by the minute.” She pulled out the three seeds and increased her count to sixteen. She had also decided to make this area her main base, always return here when needing to rest and set camp.

She arrived back to where the big pellet was. She threw five of them onto it and they managed to lift it up and carry it back to the bulb. She then threw one more onto the last flower with a ‘1’ on it and let the creature do what it needs to. She looked back down the passageway, she didn’t need to go back right now, she was certain they would be safe and she doesn’t need the additional creatures right now. With the one flying back to the bulb with the ‘1’ pellet, she had only ten left following her. Now all was left was that hill area that got her attention before.

She began to walk up the hill with her creatures following, as she made it to the top, she saw a much larger open area than before. There were three more of those ladybug like creatures minding their own business, a single flower with a ‘1’ on it and something else that got her attention, a pile of large metal plates. The metal plates could probably be used to make a bridge if there was enough and they could be secured. But she needed to be careful, it took at least eight of these creatures to kill one ladybug creature, she has ten and there’s three of them, even if she could risk losing some to them if it means being able to make more, she’d rather not lose any anyway if she can help it, and she can’t fight them alone since they seem to be quite durable to her punches.

“I need to pick them off one at a time, but I need to find a way to separate them.” She looked behind her to see the ten pink creatures, then she had an idea. She grabbed one of them and walked forward gently. “Hey you.” She whispered, one of the Ladybugs looked over to her gently waving the creature. That ladybug then ran forward after her without the others noticing, Mandy went round a corner making the ladybug chase after her, but it was quickly overpowered by all ten pink creatures and dropped. Three of the creatures carried the carcass and flew back to the base.

After a rinse and repeat method, all three ladybug creatures were now being taken back to base, Mandy only had one pink creature following her, and then Mandy threw the last one onto the pink flower and it began to attack it. With none following her now, it was time to return to base. She decided to go with the last pink creature as it carried the last pellet. She had no idea how she was going to move those metal plates, but she would definitely feel safer with an army just in case she gets attacked.

She returned to base with the last pink creature as it sent the pellet into the bulb and two more seeds shot out. She had a lot of seeds buried into the ground, twenty-six, this would definitely become a pain to pick out every last one of them. She then noticed something odd.

“Wait a second, those spotty things produced three seeds, the 1 pellets produce two… I sent six of those 1 pellets and three of those ladybugs, that makes twenty-one, but I also sent in a 5 pellet, theoretically it should give me ten because it’s a matching colour. So I should have thirty-one, or… does the 5 pellets only produce five total and not ten. I’ll have to assume that unless someone stole some.”

Mandy began to count, she had twenty-six underground and sixteen right now. That’s a total of forty-two. She was definitely getting a big army. But she didn’t feel like she needed all of them yet, so she walked up to the sixteen above ground, touched all of them to make them follow her and she walked back to where she found those metal plates. She had an idea.

Upon arriving, she looked at the metal plates and then back to her pink creatures. “These little guys can carry food to their ship and fight monsters… can I…?” she grabbed one of them and threw them to just in front of the metal plates. She was surprised to see that it actually picked up one of the metal plates and flew off back to base. She smirked a bit and then decided to throw all her creatures to them and they all grabbed a piece and flew back to base. “Perfect… but let’s see if they are indeed building a bridge.”

She was glad to see that they were indeed. She saw that the creatures arrived at a small metal area in front of the base, dropped a plate perfectly in place and flew back to the passageway to presumably grab another piece. A bridge was definitely starting to form, she felt a bit relived that she was getting somewhere, and despite these creatures not understanding her fully, they know what needs to be done. She now thought that this was a good time to get the remaining ones out of the ground, she may not be looking forward to it, but the more there are with her the faster she can get things done, so she began to pluck the remaining twenty-six out of the ground. But stopped before she started, she noticed that some of the stems now had flowers instead of leaves. “Huh… so leaving them in the ground will change their leaves into flowers… not sure what that means but it might be good.”

As she finished plucking them, she noticed something was off, the bridge was only halfway finished and no more pink creatures had return. Either they have gotten tired or something happened to them, Mandy had seriously hoped nothing happened to them, so she immediately ran through the passageway with the creatures trailing behind her. As Mandy made it back to where the metal plates were, she saw that the creatures were just floating there, nothing wrong with them at all. “So they’ll return to the place where they started taking the pieces.”

Mandy noticed something, right below them were five small yellow card shaped objects. She picked them up and took a good look at them, they looked a lot like memory cards for computers. She began to look around. “Who would’ve left these behind?” She began to suspect that she and the others might not be the only ones around here. She soon placed them in her dress pocket, touched the rest of the creatures and began to look around to find something else she could use to build the bridge. She saw that to her right was a large tree with an opening, so she took her forty-two pink creatures and made her way to the tree feeling somewhat cautious.

Upon entering the tree, she saw that it was completely hollow with several slopes which anyone could walk up to go higher, she had no intention to yet. Right now she examined the ground floor, there to her shock, she saw a ladybug creature that was five times bigger than the last few she came across, this one slept peacefully instead of marching around. “A grown-up one? So those little ones were infants…” she thought for a moment about what she did, but she then shook her head realising she didn’t care. “No one said the laws of nature were fair or forgiving.” She had a look around seeing that there were three of those flowers with 5s on them, that would make fifteen, and she was willing to bet that the big ladybug would give her more than three. But she began to think, she had serious doubts her army could handle it since they don’t seem to be good at fighting. So she decided to go up a level.

The second level out of four. There she saw her real prize, more metal plates for the bridge, but there was a weird gate in the way, from the looks of it, it can be lifted up. She put two and two together and threw ten of her creatures near that gate and as she suspected, they all lifted it up high enough for her and the others to walk under, and she did. She then began to think, there were two more floors and she had plenty more creatures, so she decided to only throw ten near the metal plates and pick them up later. As she walked back under the gate, she saw that the creatures flew over the wall the gate was connected, so she could bring the ones holding the gate down, but she couldn’t reach them, she hopes to find another method of making them follow her other than just tapping them. She decided to go up another floor, now with only twenty-two.

The third floor had more of the smaller ladybug creatures, five of them to be exact. She had twenty-two and they were more spaced apart so she felt confident in taking all of them out with just brute force. Moments later she had done so with just throwing them and kicking back any enemies that got too close, with all five dead, Mandy was about to make them carry the carcass, but suddenly a green blur shot past her and snatched two of her creatures. “What the!?” she saw that it was a round green insect with tiny wings, red compound eyes and long arms. “Why you! Give them back!” Mandy threw more of her creatures at the insect and they all latched onto it and began whaling on it, Mandy was almost overwhelmed by the fact that the insect was completely covered in all of her creatures all beating on it rapidly.

After grabbing all her creatures again, she threw three on each of the six carcasses and watched them fly away with them. Eighteen gone, now she only had four left. She felt somewhat worried, thinking maybe she should go back, there was nothing on this floor anyway so she wasted time. She decided to see what was on the fourth floor and make a plan then.

The fourth floor was empty, all that was there was a small lake and more metal plates, no monsters. This pleased Mandy as she threw her last four on the pile and made them carry them off. Mandy rubbed her forehead. “There… I’d better go pick up the ones on the second floor.”

As she went back to the second floor, she noticed that the pink creatures had finished with the metal plates and just hovered over where they used to be. But she did notice something else, one last square object, she walked up to it about to pick it up, but she realised what it was.

“Wait a second? Is that Irwin’s laptop!?” she picked it up and examined it, it indeed was. “It is, so… is Irwin nearby? Hope not.” She did have an idea however, she still had those memory cards, she was hoping that the laptop can read them. So she sat down with her legs crossed, opened the laptop and turned it on, she was thankful it still worked. She then placed one of the memory cards into the slot and waited for a moment. She then became surprised to see that they did indeed work. “Lucky.” She muttered.

All it had was a small bit of information. “Winged Pikmin may be cute and super useful but they are quite hard to reach when going so high up, luckily whistling them brings them back to me instantly, it’s convenient that I learned about the whistling function during my first time arriving on the Pikmin Planet.”

“Wait a second…” Mandy looked up to the pink creatures. “Are these creatures… called Pikmin? So this is called the Pikmin Planet huh?” she closed the laptop, placed it under her arm and looked up to the creatures supposedly named Winged Pikmin. “Whistling huh?” she placed her index and middle finger in her mouth and gave off a loud whistling sound. The Pikmin all suddenly flew right to her and followed her again. “Well that saves time.” She walked back under the gate, gave another whistle to the ten holding the gate, they then dropped it and flew back to her.

She made it back to the fourth floor where she saw the four Winged Pikmin who had finished. She gave a whistle calling them and made it back to the ground floor, with twenty-four, following her. Upon entering the ground floor, she saw the giant ladybug and the three big flowers. She personally wanted them to increase her numbers, but she had doubts that her twenty-four Pikmin could help since they don’t appear to be strong.

She sat against the slope and opened the laptop again, she removed the first memory card and inserted the second one, hoping it will provide any information.

It had a picture of the big ladybug creature and some information. “I’ve encountered many Bulborbs in my time, I remember when I would lose so many of my precious Pikmin to these polka-dotted monstrosities. But I am thankful those days are over, now that I have Purple Pikmin to stun them and deal massive damage, and if that’s not good enough, I learned that Bulborbs’ eyestalks are their weakness, throwing a few Pikmin onto them will stun them for a moment, but I still must be cautious, they don’t stay stunned for long this way so I must always bring Purple Pikmin when dealing with any Bulborbs… especially those freaking Bulbears!”

Mandy looked over to the big ladybug again. “Bulborbs huh? So their eyestalks are their weakness? Kinda wish I had these Purple Pikmin like this guy said but…” she took out the memory card and inserted the third one.

“CHARGE! Nothing is more satisfying than being able to unleash a charge attack, any and all predators fall helpless in seconds if I have enough Pikmin, heck even the Winged Pikmin – which are the weakest in ground-based combat – can still take out massive threats when done correctly. My colleague Louie is always getting the charge technique wrong however, I can’t blame him since I’m still somewhat new to it myself. But all it takes is a more forced and louder whistling while pointing at the target. Speaking of Winged Pikmin, Louie is always insisting on renaming them to Pinkmin. I appreciate his cute creativity but they will remain as they are, though I don’t mind him calling them that as a nickname. I often call them little Buzz Bombers myself to be honest.”

Mandy was very intrigued by this charge technique this man mentioned. She looked up to see her twenty-four Winged Pikmin. “If I want that Bulborb and those flowers, I’d better go grab the rest.” With that she closed the laptop and made her way back to base, surely the Pikmin had made more seeds with those carcasses.

She was right. She did have forty-two, the six carcasses made eighteen more now bringing her up to sixty Winged Pikmin, she had a load of confidence now to take on the big Bulborb. “Ok… eyestalks… and charge… let’s see… it was a more forced and louder whistle while pointing at the target… here goes something…”

Mandy gently walked up to the sleeping Bulborb, she certainly had no shame in attacking it while it slept. Mandy began to throw at least seven or eight Pikmin onto its face and they started attacking the eyestalks. The Bulborb suddenly got up looking angry as it shook it’s head. Mandy then ran to its side hoping for a sneak attack. “Here goes!” Mandy took a deep breath and whistled as loud and forcefully as she could as she pointed at the Bulborb, the Pikmin suddenly jumped and all of them charged in at once and began to attack the Bulborb all at once. Mandy had a slight smirk seeing this battle, it looked more like the Pikmin were having a party on its back.

There was a sudden flash of light and the Bulborb dropped to the ground. Mandy gave a quick whistle and the Pikmin all flew back to her. “To the victor goes the spoils.” She then threw five Winged Pikmin on each of the flowers and then done a charge onto the Bulborb making all of them fly towards it to pick it up, only twenty of them actually carried it and began to fly back. Mandy gave a quick whistle to call back the others and then threw five more on each of the flowers giving them ten each to speed up the work.

Mandy arrived back to base just after the Pikmin with the supplies, she saw the three 5 pellets and the big Bulborb get sucked up into the bulb and after a few seconds, out came a whopping twenty-five. Now she had eighty-five, she definitely feel a slight proudness as she was plucking out her new Winged Pikmin. After doing so, she arrived at the bridge, only to see it was still incomplete. She sighed and walked back to the bulb, she sat down and placed the fourth memory card into the laptop after opening it again.

“I gotta hand it to Louie, if it wasn’t for him disbanding his Pikmin to go goofing off finding some food, we would have never discovered that Pikmin will burrow into mudded hills and pull out all sorts of things, we found Bomb Rocks in one and even bridge pieces in another, this definitely helped our expedition, and no Pikmin died while he goofed off, so I think just this once I’ll let it slide, normally I would’ve given him a good talking to for leaving his Pikmin in uncharted areas but I think he lucked out. Though I will ask him to be much more careful, I don’t care if we can make up more of their numbers, they’re still living creatures who put their lives in our hands, sometimes I feel obliged to make as many Pikmin as I can just to say thanks for the help.”

Mandy had to admit, whoever this guy was, he certainly knows a lot, a local perhaps? Or an explorer? Either way, she now knew to find any mudded hills, she assumed they would look like large anthills. She looked over to the opening she went through many times, she didn’t recall seeing anything looking remotely like that. She then looked over to where that flower with the spicy berries were, now that she thought about, she hardly explored that area much, it might have more to it.

She was right, after walking past it, she saw a large open area just around the corner, to her surprise, she saw that there were only two things. A muddy hill like she had hoped for, and what surprised her more was a giant apple handing from a large branch, she was glad to finally find some food, Mandy slowly licked her lips remembering that she was really hungry. She didn’t hesitate in throwing some of her Pikmin up there, they latched onto the apple and they began to shake and pull it. “C’mon, bring it down.” She muttered.

With a loud snap, the apple dropped to the ground fast, hitting it with a loud thud, Mandy felt a bit of tremor from it actually. She felt glad to see that she finally had some food, but was surprised to see the Pikmin lift it up and was about to carry it off. “Hey! No!” she whistled making the Pikmin drop it and return to her. “You don’t need anymore, eighty-five is more than enough for now.” she directed herself to the muddy hill, and then done a charge whistle making all of them dive into the hole of the hill and start digging. While they did that, she turned her attention to the large apple sitting before her, she immediately sunk her teeth into the side of it and took a big bite.

A few minutes passed and Mandy had taken several bites but wasn’t even a quarter done, not that it mattered since she was starting to get full anyway, it was a giant apple after all. She looked over to see there was at least twelve of those metal plates next to the muddy hill, another one was quickly thrown out shortly after. Soon more came at a slow pace, she did feel a slight boredom from all this, she would’ve expected that eighty-five of them would speed things up tremendously, now that she thought about it, it must be incredibly cramped in there.

Soon enough, the Winged Pikmin all climbed out and half of them picked up the bridge pieces and flew back to base. Mandy sat up stretching a bit, finally she was getting somewhere. She gave a quick whistle to the rest and they flew back to her, then she began to walk back to the base to get the others. As she arrived, she saw that the Pikmin were about to fly back to where they found the pieces, but she whistled to them calling them to her side and she walked up to the bridge, now finished, it was safe to walk across to the other side. “One small step for mankind.” she muttered as she began to walk across it.

As she made it to the other side, she saw that the field was much bigger than she thought, finding the others would take longer than she thought, but now her top priority was to get to that giant tree, so she began to walk forward, but she kept cautious, this was new territory and who knows what was on this side of the river. So far everything had been quiet, she stopped walking for a moment and looked around, it was indeed quiet, almost… too quiet.

It was just a giant grassy field that stretched for miles, she could see the curvature of the planet it was that flat and plain. There was no flowers or any sort of wild life, just grass and one giant tree that surpasses all buildings in height and width. Mandy started to feel a chill down her spine, she looked back to base seeing it was lovely and colourful with all sorts of plants and insects, but this side felt so… unnatural, almost as if all life had fled to the other side, all that was here was grass.

Mandy slowly made her way forward to the tree, she felt like she was going for a long time now actually, she looked behind her to see that she was indeed getting further away from base, but didn’t look like she was getting closer to the tree. She shook her head a bit feeling a bit flustered from all this, she looked behind her to see her Winged Pikmin hardly seemed affected by this at all, then again they looked as if they had the staring into space look almost all the time, as if they couldn’t do any other emotions.

She looked back to the tree and continued walking forward, now she felt as if she was making progress as the tree slowly began to get bigger. She felt incredibly uneasy however, she felt like the closer she got, the more inclined she was to get away, but she kept going anyway, she knew she would feel more secure now that she had an army. As she got closer, she discovered that there was a hill surrounding the tree, this didn’t really bother her, it was to be expected, after all, the ground would rise where the roots take place. She simply just had to climb up a bit in order to reach the tree.

That unfortunately wasn’t the case, she was in complete shock to see there was a twenty-foot chasm in between the hill and the tree, what was even more shocking was that the tree delved much deeper underground, the bottom couldn’t be seen, nor could the top. This tree would be considered gigantic even if the entire planet was normal sized. “What kind of tree digs deep into the ground? It’s almost as if it touches the centre of the earth.”

Mandy felt massive chills, almost as if her own body was forcing her to get away from this tree at all costs. She turned around readying to leave, but she realised that she saw something. She looked up to see something that had latched itself onto the side of the tree. To her surprise, it was a strange looking machine of sorts, she felt as if she could use it to her advantage. So she done a charge whistle making all her Pikmin fly up to it and grab onto it, they struggled to pull it out but they had done so, but they all quickly fled as a massive gush of green liquid shot out, some got a bit damp from it but they all fled before the strength of it could drown or push them into the chasm.

Luckily the machine landed just on the grass and not into the chasm, but Mandy paid no attention to it at all, just the green liquid that bled all the way down the tree. But it suddenly began to bubble violently making Mandy step back as her Pikmin flew further back watching. The liquid bubbled so much and then it suddenly dried up and changed into a green crystal-like substance, it was somewhat similar to how human blood would dry out and become hard so as to protect the skin from more open wounds, but this felt so unnatural, the way it frothed up and then turned into a crystal-like substance.

She finally noticed the machine on the ground, she thought it might come in handy so she threw about twenty of her Pikmin to it and they all lifted it up and began to fly back to base. The best idea she heard all day, she began to quickly walk back to base with the Pikmin.

Some time had passed. In fact the sun was starting to set, luckily the Pikmin didn’t put the machine into their bulb, they just left it next to it. Mandy had no idea what to do, she was pretty much trapped here, she didn’t know how far the open field surrounding that weird tree went, but she couldn’t help but think she was still trapped. The only thing she could do was survive and hope that someone finds her, she sat against the bulb’s leg quietly watching the Winged Pikmin float around aimlessly, likely waiting for their next order.

She looked to her left to see the giant apple she had her Pikmin bring closer, she had a few more bites but that was it, if she was going to be here for a while then she had to be sparing with her food. Luckily she had eighty-five of these Winged Pikmin and she can use them to do whatever she needs them to, fight off monsters, bring food and important items, heck even the company enough feels nice, they might not be smart but they weren’t annoying and they were very loyal. And she hated to admit this, but they were kind of cute. She saw the sun setting further, she had to find a place to sleep soon. She stood up and began to think.

But she quickly dove out of her thoughts at the sound of something she didn’t like. Various tones of growling and snarling, she then began to realise why there wasn’t many living things around here. “They’re noctournal…”

The Pikmin suddenly jumped and all flew past the shocked Mandy, she saw that they all latched onto their bulb’s legs and climbed up it until they went inside the bulb itself. Mandy was amazed all of them could fit, but she suddenly started to feel very worried when she saw the flower on top beginning to spin wildly, the legs folded into the bulb and it actually began to float. “No… no don’t!” she said feeing panicked. But it did, it suddenly flew off high into the sky leaving Mandy behind. “COME BACK HERE!”

Now Mandy was worried, the creatures were nocturnal and they all fled, leaving her alone. She suddenly heard a familiar  squeaking sound, she turned to her right to see only one Winged Pikmin flying from the area where the giant apple and the muddy hill was. Mandy felt surprised, she realised that when she called the Pikmin to her side when exploring the tree, she only had eighty-four, one wasn’t called back. The Pikmin looked up into the sky where the bulb disappeared, then to her surprise, it slowly floated down to the ground and stopped flying, it just sat there. She had never seen the Winged Pikmin do so, she then realised she still had Irwin’s laptop next to her, and one memory card left, she opened it and placed it in, hoping it will explain something.

And it did. “It’s horrifyingly sad, I saw that when a Pikmin is left behind, they just sit there and wait for death, the once cheery plant-hybrid loses every last bit of hope and falls prey to the nocturnal creatures. Therefore I vowed that if I have left even one Pikmin behind, I would keep it secure for the night by staying down with it. At least that was the idea, I spent one night down there and it was an absolute nightmare, almost everything and their mother attacked me, even several species I had never seen before. But these Pikmin have saved my live, if it wasn’t for them, I would’ve died, so I will make sure no Pikmin ever get left behind again, and any that do, I go back down to the planet and protect them like my children.”

“Loses every last bit of hope…” she muttered as she turned to the Winged Pikmin that just sat there. Her attention was then drawn to the thundering sounds of giant footsteps coming from all sides. “Oh crap!” she looked over to the Pikmin and whistled at it, but it didn’t respond, she whistled again, it still kept still, it didn’t even look over to her. The thundering sounds got louder. “C’mon you stupid Pikmin, I’m here to help you.” She whistled again and again, but still nothing. She grew angry. “Fine, just sit there and die. I gotta find a safe place for myself.” Mandy was about to walk off, but she slowly stopped.

She turned back around to face the Pikmin, she began to think, everything that happened, she couldn’t have done everything she needed to do on her own considering the size and mass of this world. She somehow wanted to save this Pikmin as a way of thanking it for all its help. But why did she want to do that, she’s never even felt this way for her own friends and family. Suddenly there was a loud rustle coming from the grass.

Mandy grew shocked to see a massive orange and black Bulborb jump out from the grass with its jaw wide open aiming at the Pikmin. Her instincts suddenly took over as she ran forward, grabbed the Pikmin and moved it out of the way just in time making the orange Bulborb hit the ground face first. Smaller orange Bulborbs jumped out and ran directly towards Mandy, but she held onto the Pikmin tightly and ran towards the first opening she found.

She began to run through the narrow passageway, seeing several bug-like creatures burrowing out of the ground from in front and behind her, all jumping towards her with force, but she managed to dodge them all by either running faster or stopping. Once she made it out of the passageway, she saw that the bug creatures were still chasing her, but that all stopped when a giant bird-headed serpent burrowed out from under the bugs and began devouring them. Of course Mandy never stopped running, she saw several more of those round bug creatures dive for her, she jumped to the left to dodge one but the other one suddenly grabbed her by the hair and started flying up. “Argh! Let me go!” she screamed as she shook rapidly.

The bug suddenly dropped due to Mandy’s struggling and they both landed on an upper area, one that Mandy hasn’t been on. She quickly got up and shook her head, she looked at the Pikmin she held onto, it looked up to her in amazement. Mandy turned to see the bug flying up, but suddenly a large set of teeth shot out of the grass and tore the bug in two, Mandy’s eyes widened in shock to see such a thing, but then the owner of the teeth reared its ugly head. It was an even bigger Bulborb that was black, had thick lips and red spots on its back, five smaller variations accompanied it.

“CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!” Mandy shouted as she ran, jumped off the higher area and back into familiar ground, she continued to run but unfortunately looked behind her to see the giant Bulborb was chasing her while the smaller ones feasted on the other half of the bug.

She turned a corner to see the giant tree, she recalled a possible safe place so she ran faster, but stopped as a group of black bugs ran towards her, but luck struck as a large white frog with red eyes jumped down and crushed the lot of them, it then began to eat at the bugs. Mandy quickly ran past it just before the black Bulborb could bite at her, the white frog suddenly jumped forward and crashed itself onto the black Bulborb. Mandy only saw this for a split second but she kept running.

She made it to the second floor of the tree where the wooden gate was, luckily there was no predators, but the gate would only open if ten Winged Pikmin pulled it open, she only had the one. There was only one option, luckily the gaps between the wood were wide enough, she shoved the Pikmin through the bars and attempted to squeeze through too, much harder for her unfortunately, she heard the pounding footsteps once more and looked behind her, there she saw the black Bulborb charging towards her with the remains of both the bugs and the white frog in between its blood-stained teeth.

Mandy felt her body shiver and her heart race as she desperately pushed herself further between the bars, knowing just how close to the jaws of death she was. She got much further in but the Bulborb suddenly bit Mandy’s dress and tried to pull her out, she screamed again seeing she was being dragged out, but fate was on her side as the dress suddenly ripped a bit sending her flying through the bars, rolling forward with speed before going onto her backside, she properly sat up gasping for breath as her heart accelerated at what felt like the speed of sound, her body was completely shaken up and she felt on the verge of fainting.

The black Bulborb looked around before marching away, Mandy slowly sighed with relief, that was far too close for comfort, she fell onto her back, that was possibly her scariest moment imaginable. She let out another long sigh trying to calm herself down, she gently sat up looking at the Winged Pikmin she saved, it still sat on the ground looking round in a confused manner. Mandy rubbed her head in frustration, she could’ve just left it, but regardless of what she did, it wouldn’t have made a difference in her encounters, so in a way it was good she saved it because of what they’ve done to help. She stood up and walked up to the Pikmin. “You’d better appreciate what I’ve done for you.” She picked up the Pikmin and walked up to the wall, she sat against it and held onto the Pikmin closely. “Now keep still, I’m getting cold and I need something to warm me up.”

She looked down at the Pikmin who looked back to her, Mandy sighed as she gently rubbed her hand against its head, but she grew surprised to see that it suddenly pressed it’s face against her hand and started to rub it while squeaking. “Y-You!?”

Mandy couldn’t believe it, this was proof. This was the very first Winged Pikmin she sprouted, the one she started her army with, she began to think, if it wasn’t for this single one, she would never have started, she would never have built the bridge, never got any food or the strange machine from the unusual tree, she would have never uncovered Irwin’s laptop and learned all these techniques, because of this, she might have died from starvation if it wasn’t for this one Pikmin from starting her off. And this was the one that was left behind, after doing so much hard work since the beginning, it would’ve died after working so hard.

Mandy held onto the Winged Pikmin tighter, she felt the Pikmin cling onto her as it slowly tipped its head down and closed its eyes, Mandy in return closed her eyes. “Thank you.” She murmured under her breath before the two had fallen asleep, both felt like they would be completely safe within this hollow tree in the dead of night.