It was an early spring afternoon. Birds were singing, bees were pollinating, and on this day there were two young kids eating lunch in their school cafeteria.

"Hey, Johnny!" said one to the other, pointing finger guns. This kid was slightly younger than the other, being eleven years old to the other's twelve. He had a short stature and round face with curly brown hair that came down to the middle of his neck.

The other kid, Johnny, turned. "Yeah, Dave?" Johnny had a flatter, slightly older looking face with neat blonde hair that was cut short.

"I dare you to stay in that cave next to your home for a night!"

"Huh? Uh…" Johnny paused, surprised by how sudden the dare was. He lived in a house that was not very far from a cave, and oftentimes he considered going into it, but never really bothered to.

He considered it. It was the weekend tomorrow, so he wouldn't have to worry about oversleeping and missing school. He wasn't even afraid of the dark, so it would pretty much just be a boring night in a cave.

"Sure, but that sounds way too easy. You just want me to stay in that cave overnight? I'm not a little kid, Dave. It's not like I'm afraid of the dark or anything; it's just a cave! Is there anything in it for me?"

Dave thought for a moment. "I bet you ten dollars for it! If you can, I'll give you ten dollars. If you can't, you'll give me ten dollars!"

Johnny smirked. "I'm in, then."

"Awright!" Dave exclaimed. "Make sure you're there by six tonight!"

"O~kay!" Johnny replied.

Johnny stayed true to his word and made sure to go to that cave right at six o'clock. Dave was sitting right outside of the cave. He looked half-asleep and was impatiently glancing every other second at a watch he was wearing.

Johnny walked up to Dave. "Hey."
"Nkh-huh?!" Dave uttered. "Oh, Johnny… I was almost starting to think you wouldn't show up."

"Why would you think that?" Johnny asked. "I'm right on time, aren't I?"

"Um…" Dave looked at his watch. "Yeah. You are…"

"Well then," Johnny said as he stepped into the cave. "Guess I'll see ya tomorrow."

"M-hm," Dave said, yawning.

Johnny pulled out a flashlight from his pocket and turned it on. He walked through the cave, thinking about how this would be the easiest money he would make in his entire life.

He was also a bit curious about the cave. He actually used to be afraid of the dark when he was really a kid, but over time he faced his fears and managed to lose his nyctophobia. But still, this was actually the first time he'd really gone more than a foot into the cave, so his interest was very much piqued.

Johnny had been walking through the cave for a few minutes when he stumbled upon something weird.

There were seven brightly-colored flowers in a small, circular section of the cave. They were arranged in a circle, going clockwise in the order: red, yellow, blue, purple, white, gray, and pink. The gray and pink ones stood up in a cup-like shape, unlike the other ones which laid close to the ground.

The flowers were large enough to sit on, which was quite interesting considering the fact that there wasn't any light to support the growth of such massive flowers.

"I feel like I should show Dave these…" Johnny said to himself before walking back to the entrance of the cave.

Dave was still sitting next to the cave, leaning against the outer walls and clearly asleep.

"Hey Dave!" Johnny yelled.

Dave startled awake. "Huh?! What happened?" he stammered.

He looked at Johnny. "…Johnny? What're you doing?" he asked before smiling slyly. "Don't tell me… you're too much of a wuss to do it?"

Johnny scowled. "No," he said. "I found something weird in here, and I wanna show you it."

Dave ruffled his brow. "…Really? That's it?"

"C'mon," Johnny said, beckoning Dave to come with.

"Well, I don't really have anything better to do…" Dave mumbled as he stood up.

"…OK, I'll go."

Johnny smiled and led Dave over to the flowers.

"…Whoa," Dave uttered as he saw them. "These are weird."

Dave walked over to the red flower, which was his favorite color. He hesitantly sat on it, seeming to not expect it to hold his weight. But it did, and very well, too.

"Huh," they both said.

Johnny sat on the yellow flower, his favorite color, and gently set his flashlight on the soil.

Dave yawned. "Man, I am really tired…" he mumbled.

He lied down on the red flower.

Johnny realized his eyelids felt a little heavy too, and also lied down.

It was weird sleeping on a flower in the middle of a cave, but it was kind of soft, so he didn't really mind.

He fell asleep.


Dark.

It was dark.

A dark sea of nothing.

Johnny felt like he was both asleep and awake at the same time.

It was that weird, abstract feeling you get when you force yourself to sleep when you're not really that tired and then you wake up thirty minutes later but you can't really muster up the energy to get up and you're drifting in and out of consciousness in a phosphene-filled haze.

He didn't really know what was going on, but he vaguely felt like he was upright and surrounded by something that also kind of merged with him.

He couldn't move, but it still felt like he was moving slowly, somehow.

…Recollection.

Johnny remembered what had happened the previous night.

'Dave dared me to stay in that cave, and I did, and he came along, and then I went to sleep on a weird flower, and…'

He paused in confusion.

'Is that why I'm… here? Just kinda in a dark void? Because I slept on a flower?'

'What's going on here?!' Johnny thought as he started to try and move. Immediately, he felt resistance from every angle he tried to go.

'Nngh… Why is it so hard to move?! It's like I'm covered in dirt or something!'

Johnny struggled more.

After what felt like an eternity of struggling, he felt his head finally move.

'!' he thought. 'Yes!'

He struggled a bit more and managed to dislodge the rest of his body from the stuff around him and move more freely, but he was still stuck in it.

He tried lifting his arms up, and it hurt because of how heavy the stuff was, but he stuck through it and eventually, he felt his hands cleave the surface of whatever he was in and touch cool air.

Johnny would have sighed if his head were exposed to air, but instead he just relaxed slightly with the knowledge that not only was there a surface, he was pretty much right under it.

For a moment, he wondered why he wasn't choking to death considering he had no air, but disregarded it and started to try and lift himself out.

He placed his hands flat on the surface and pushed. It was hard, but he managed to get his head out, when he realized something.

'Holy crap, that "it's like I'm covered in dirt" thing I thought earlier was accurate.'

Yes, Johnny was stuck in some dirt.

He seemed to be in some sort of large cave, and could just barely see from some light coming from some weird mushrooms growing near him. They were pink and blue, and gave just enough light to see his surroundings

The dirt was just the right shade of brown to look like any generic soil from any place, and the walls and ceiling were yards away from him and looked like unfocused gray blobs.

Johnny quickly realized a second thing.

'Holy crap my skin's yellow.'

His skin was yellow and his arms looked like a green bean if green beans were neon yellow beans. It was smooth and curved, ending in a smol paw-like hand with three pointy fingers.

Johnny looked at it in awe and confusion. He moved it a bit, flexing and stretching.

"…Unh," he uttered in a high-pitched voice, surprising himself. It sounded somewhat like a human voice, but squeakier. It wasn't like someone who had inhaled helium; it was naturally high and cute-sounding.

Johnny noticed something moving from his peripheral vision.

He looked up and saw a red stem coming from the ground a couple feet in front of him.

"Huh?" Johnny pushed himself up out of the ground and started to walk over to the sprout.

He fell on his face.

"Guh—!"

Johnny slowly stood back up and looked down at his body. It was yellow like his arms, and it was noticeably shorter than a human body. His legs were short and looked like his bean noodle arms, as they also were smooth limbs that ended in a three-branched appendage.

Slowly, Johnny walked towards the stem, getting used to walking in this weird new body. He stood in front of the stem.

It was bright crimson like an apple with a green leaf on its tip and it swayed gently on its own back and forth, back and forth.

Johnny inquisitively poked the stem.

It seemed to flinch a bit at his touch, before going back to calm swaying.

Something about that swaying… It made Johnny really want to pull it out of the ground.

Johnny grasped the stem with his hands and pulled hard. Immediately, he uprooted it, and fell backwards from how forcefully he pulled.

"Yahoo!" a new high-pitched voice exclaimed as the sprout Johnny uprooted spun through the air above him.

It landed behind him, and as he turned around, Johnny noticed yet another interesting thing.

This was also a weird bean-looking creature.

It was red instead of yellow, but other than that it looked just about identical to Johnny's body.

Looking at it, Johnny realized the stem was coming out of the top of its head. He put his own hand to his head, and he felt a stem also growing from his head.

"Woah…" Johnny murmured.

The creature he pulled out looked around, seeming to be confused. It slowly turned around.

It and Johnny stared at each other for a few uncomfortable seconds.

"…Hi?" said Johnny.

The creature looked surprised for a moment before blinking and replying, "…Hello."

Johnny ruffled his brow, thinking of what he should even say.

'So this thing knows English… I guess I should ask it…'

"Um… What are you?"

The creature looked down at itself.

"…I'm a Pikmin," it stated.

"A… 'Pikmin'?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah," the Pikmin replied.

"So…"

Johnny hesitated.

"Do you know what's… going on?"

The Pikmin put a hand to its chin. "No… No, I don't."

"By the way," it continued, "who are you?"

"I'm Johnny," said Johnny.

The Pikmin gasped. "Really?!"

Johnny blinked. "Uh… Yeah?"

"I'm Dave!"

"Holy crap!" Johnny exclaimed.

"What in the world?!" Dave yelled.

"Seriously, what?!" Dave repeated himself, looking at his hands. "How did we become Pikmin?!"

Dave worriedly looked around.

"…Why are you just now freaking out?" Johnny asked,

"I don't know!" Dave shouted. "I guess I just thought this was like some weird cryptic dream but then you told me you're Johnny and I just… I dunno."

"OK, so… Mind telling me what a Pikmin is?" Johnny asked.

"Ah!" Dave uttered. "Right. Well…"

Dave paused.

"…They're these little plant dudes from a game series also called Pikmin. They're about an inch tall and are kinda like ants. In the games they follow a leader who can command them to do things, like attacking enemies or breaking down walls, stuff like that. You're a Yellow Pikmin, which is lighter than the other types and shock-resistant, and I'm a Red Pikmin, which is stronger than the other types and fire-resistant."

Johnny blinked.

"Wait, we're… video game characters?!" he said incredulously.

Johnny felt like he was in some sort of bad fanfiction on a free-to-use site, maybe a young author's first attempt at writing.

"Yep," said Dave. "Your guess is as good as mine as to why."

Johnny blinked. "OK… Do you know what those weird glowing mushrooms are?" He pointed to one of them.

Dave looked at the mushroom. "Oh, that's a Glowcap. They naturally emit light and usually appear in dark caverns," he explained.

"That's interesting," said Johnny.

Dave looked around. "…We should get going soon."

"Huh? Why?" Johnny asked.

Dave looked at Johnny. "A dark cave isn't exactly the best place for a Pikmin to be."

They looked at each other silently for a few seconds.

"…OK, you're probably wondering why," Dave continued. "Lemme explain. Basically, this world's got giant nocturnal monsters and for some reason every single one of them eats Pikmin as their main source of food, so it's not exactly a good idea to hang out in a dark place like a sitting goose."

"You know a lot about Pikmin, huh?" said Johnny.

Dave rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I guess so," he said a bit sheepishly.

Johnny chuckled. "Don't be embarrassed about it! In a situation like this, it's good to have someone who knows what's going on!"

"I guess," Dave replied, "but we still gotta get going."

"Ah, right."

Dave looked around the cavern. "Follow me," he said.

They started walking.

It was pretty uneventful, as they just walked in silence.

There were a few Glowcaps and regular mushrooms here and there, but that was just about it.

They wandered around the rocky corridors, stumbling in what may as well have been a giant labyrinth for how lost they were.

Eventually, they came across something that wasn't just plain boringness given physical form.

There was a giant mushroom with a red surface and white polka dots. It was at least twice Johnny's height.

"What's that?" Johnny asked.

"Shhh!" Dave quickly hushed.

Johnny blinked. "Uh… What's that?" he whispered.

"A Bulborb," Dave whispered in response.

"And that is…?"

"It's one of the enemies from the Pikmin games. It might look harmless from this angle, but it is dangerous and I don't want to be on the wrong end of its giant maw! Stay quiet, and don't touch it!"

"OK…" Johnny said a bit incredulously. He trusted Dave, but this sounded really weird. How dangerous could it be? It just looked like a giant mushroom!

"Let's keep going," Dave whispered, beginning to walk again.

Johnny nodded and started to follow, when he tripped on a rock.

"Agh!" he grunted loudly as he fell face-first.

Johnny froze.

Dave froze, too.

The 'Bulborb' slowly started to move, and Johnny could see why Dave was so worried about it.

It lifted itself up on a pair of skinny, peach-colored legs and started to turn. The mushroom-looking part was just a bulbous backside which smoothly transitioned into an angled snout with two big eyes attached on short stems, a little nose, and a giant mouth with two fangs pointing out.

The Bulborb grumbled quietly, clearly disgruntled about the sudden disturbance.

It faced Johnny and Dave, its eyes focused for a moment, then it scowled and opened its mouth.

"RAWRARRURRRR!"

"Oh, ships!" Dave yelled. "RUN!"

Johnny quickly pushed himself up off the ground and ran away from the Bulborb, with Dave close by.

'Oh crap oh crap oh crap run run run run run!'

The Bulborb chased them swiftly, and even after a solid minute of running had passed it wasn't slowing down a bit.

"Crap…! Isn't this thing gonna stop?!" Dave panted.

They ran even longer, and the Bulborb still didn't stop chasing.

Then Johnny tripped.

'Oh fuck.'

The Bulborb closed in on Johnny and leaned downwards, its giant jaws opening wide.

Its spiky teeth and dark abyss of a throat burned into Johnny's vision.

It was too close to run away.

All Johnny could do was wait.

Wait for his death to come…

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Dave screeched and dashed towards Johnny, startling the Bulborb just long enough for him to grab Johnny and pull him away.

Johnny stumbled back onto his feet and ran away from the Bulborb at top speed with Dave. The Bulborb stopped giving chase, seeming to not want to go to such effort to eat two Pikmin.

"Phew!" Dave huffed. "Oh gosh, that was scary…"

"Shit, yeah…" Johnny replied.

"Jeez… Lucky I got you here with me, huh?" Johnny panted. "That Bulborb woulda definitely eaten me if you weren't around."

"Yeah. I'm glad you're OK…" Dave replied.

"…But y'know, we should still keep going."

Johnny sighed. "Really? I'm feeling really tired already…"

"Yes," said Dave. "Yes we really should. C'mon, we can't rest until we've gotten out of this cave."


(AN: …but you can! Thanks for reading this. Really, it means a lot to me. This fanfic is based on an idea I've had for a while, but I've never really written it down until now. I'm going to try to update weekly, but that may change. Check my profile for info. Also, I'm not going to put an author's note on every chapter, only when I find it important. Please make sure to review this, and thank you for reading.)