Shard event: vs Stream

<Gamma>

"Gamma? Hey, Gamma! Come on, get up!"

I awoke slowly, groaning. Feels like someone thwacked me in the brain with a wollywog. Pushing myself up from the sand, I looked around slowly before my gaze landed on a relieved Orbin.

"Finally, I've been trying to get you up for like five minutes," he said, pulling me up by my right arm. I rested on him for a moment before standing fully.

"Where... is this Perplexing Pool?" I asked, taking another look around. We appear to be on the southeast end, near the Shower Room. "How the heck did we end up here?"

Orbin shrugged. "I woke up over on the other side of the Shower Room not too long ago. Couldn't port back to HQ, so I decided to look around and found you."

"Well, if <I>we're</I> here, some of the others might be. Let's have a look around and see if we can find anyone else."

Fortunately I have wings to simply fly over all the water here and Orbin is a blue Pikmin, so moving around wasn't too hard. A quick flight to the west, and my attention was drawn by a sharp whistle. I looked down to find Orvtre floating up to meet me.

"Well there's one of you. What happened? Why are we suddenly in Perplexing Pool?" I asked as Orvtre pulled up alongside me.

"Some kind of time fracture. We're mostly likely in either the past or the future, and if the pattern holds there's a 'shard' somewhere around here we'll need to find," shi explained.

"Time fracture? Does that mean Chi is involved in this somehow?"

"Maybe," Orvtre admitted, "although I haven't seen him yet... this may be because something happened to him."

"Hey! Over here!" Orbin called from a bit to the north. We flew over and found him next to-

"Is that... Omicron?" I asked as we descended. Yellow Pikmin, orb at the end of his stalk, wearing... a bunch of gear. Notably not made of metal.

"Oh, interesting! You have an orb like me! And you stand upright, most green Pikmin don't do that!" Omicron said upon spotting me, moving surprisingly quickly to examine me from head to toe. I turned, very slowly, to give Orvtre A Look.

"Ah, this isn't the first of these fractures I've been to. We uh... recruited this one in the first one I was in," Orvtre explained sheepishly.

"You found. <I>Another</I>. Omicron," I demanded more than asked.

"He's <I>real</I> skedaddly," Orbin interjected, as Other Omicron shifted from examining me to very intently examining the bark on the nearby tree stump, with precisely as much interest. "He fired like thirty questions about the shard in my chest in ten seconds when I found him."

"Oh, hello! Who might you be? Are those barbs natural?" Omicron's voice drifted over. He'd moved a fair distance and was now beside a scaly Red Pikmin who was laid out on the ground like we'd been. Spotting the hero band on his stalk, I realized he was one of the Bloodseeders that had joined us. Which one was this...?

"Dimetrodon head hurt..." he groaned as he sat up. Ah, that one.

Orvtre got the others caught up on what was going on, finishing hir explanation just in time for our attention to be drawn by some commotion to the north. As the group set off, I flew up to get a bird's eye view of it.

Immediately visible was all the water being flung about by whatever altercation was occurring. As I flew closer, I was able to pick out Hydross amidst the waves, having a go at another Blue Pikmin. I'd assume Beta is around as well, but she'd be effectively disguised in the water around here. Their opponent, on the other hand...

... immediately revealed their identity when they snapped shut the pincer on their left arm, firing a high velocity air wave that Hydross only barely avoided. I dove down to the others.

"Beta and Hydross are fighting someone, and I think I know who," I called out as I came down just above the rest of the group.

"That's Stream, some guy that attacked them a few years back. I'm pretty sure they killed him, actually, Beta told me a bit about it once. So it seems you're right, Orvtre."

"I'd place bets on him having the shard, then," Orvtre replied, "In which case he may be more dangerous than he originally was, and that means Beta and Hydross need our help. Let's go!"

"Dimetrodon Fight!" Dimetrodon loudly agreed, flames catching on his fists. The fight's happening in the water, though, so that kind of restricts his ability to help for the moment...

But it doesn't restrict mine. Whirling into a quick forward surge, I flew overhead and let loose my venom breath over Stream.

"What in the... hey! Back off!" Stream yelled, aiming his pincer at me. That took his attention off of Hydross long enough for him to advance and jab at Stream with his reef spear, forcing Stream's attention back onto him. That was swiftly followed by Orvtre sniping at Stream from the shore.

"Who are these jokers?!" Stream raged, retreating underwater for a moment. This was shortly followed by a burst of air, carrying frothy, high temperature water at Orvtre. Orbin stepped in front and summoned his shield, blocking the attack.

"I'd ask the same question..." Hydross called out, backing off as another air burst fired at him from the water. A blob of water poked up in the distance behind him, Beta waving at me before dropping back in.

"Happened to be in the neighborhood," I gave as my lame explanation, "Need some help with this guy?"

Hydross growled, tilted his head, and nodded. "Whatever, this guy's aggravating enough that I'll take it. Just don't get in my way."

Any response I had was interrupted by another air burst... this one <I>much</I> stronger than the others, slicing its way through the sky, singing one of my wings. I pulled myself into a glide to get back to shore as the air beam descended towards Orbin and Orvtre, who despite putting up another combined shield were actually shoved back this time.

The air burst did, however, briefly push the water away from Stream, and Dimetrodon took full advantage, rushing out through the parted waters to slam his fists against Stream's shell-covered arms.

"How dumb of a Red are you? The water's coming back in!" Stream commented as he deflected Dimetrodon's blows. As the waves closed in, however, they suddenly came to a stop in a circle around the two of them, Beta hopping out of the water behind him to shoulder tackle him in the back.

"Sure about that?" Beta taunted, as Dimetrodon socked him in the face. A growl from Stream was followed by a downward air burst, blasting both of them back, Dimetrodon only avoiding being pushed into the water by Hydross catching him.

"Come on then," Stream sneered, clacking his claw.