Well, this was one of those times where I try to write something for another story and draw a blank for days. This story opener, was written to get things going again. And so, this story branches off from Victory's Prologue and into its own adventure of shenanigans.
Disclaimer: Neptunia franchise is owned by Idea Factory/Compile Heart.
Chapter 1: Derailed Prologue
It was another normal day in Gamindustri. The CPUs had just gotten kicked out by Histoire from Planeptune and back to their own nations while Neptune and Nepgear went to get some work done. Now, as per the usual routine, they still decide to goof off even after Histoire's lecture and go visit the other nations instead. First, they went to Lowee, where Neptune got attacked by books. Well, it was more like Ram threw books at Neptune, but after a short greeting, Nepgear went into another room to read with Blanc and Rom while Neptune was stuck with Ram.
After avoiding many books thrown at her, Neptune finally sat down and breathed easier. It was no fun trying to entertain Ram this way, but with Nepgear busy with Rom and Blanc in the other room, this was all that was there to do in the Lowee basilicom. Picking up one of the books that were thrown at her, Neptune read the title on the cover, "CPU Biology huh, what's this about?"
"Hey wait! Gimme that!" Ram said, while running over and forcefully grabbing the book away.
"Oh I get it! You studying about how CPUs grow up right? Hmhm..." Neptune asked, knowing what this might be about.
"Ugh, you weren't supposed to read that."
"Does it have something to do with Blanc getting angry or jealous at a certain feature of Vert's? Because I've seen plenty of those."
"I guess you know huh... Well, I am doing this for myself though."
"For yourself? Are you trying to outgrow Blanc? That shouldn't be too difficult, hehe."
"I have to think about my future. I realised there can only be one CPU for Lowee, but I think Blanc might favour Rom, so I gotta do something to make myself look better, and there's nothing better than to get something that they don't have."
"That's a good idea, still, I think I know what you mean..." Neptune said in response, peering over to the room that Nepgear, Rom, and Blanc are in all in their own world while she and Ram are out here.
After a few moments of silence, Ram had an idea, and stood up ready to act. "All right, since we're stuck out here, why don't we actually solve this?"
"Huh? How are we going to do that?" Neptune asked, unsure of what they were going to do to figure out the conundrum of how a CPU might get "bigger".
"Duh, we're gonna go off to the other nations and find information from their books too."
"Oh! That's a good idea! Better than waiting here all day long. Nep Jr. is out by now and we'd be off visiting other nations and then eventually finishing the Prologue, but since she's taking so long, we may as well derail the story!"
Deciding to go on a different adventure, Neptune and Ram headed out the Lowee basilicom and closed its doors, while Nepgear, Rom, and Blanc are still in the inner room engrossed in reading. Since Neptune and Nepgear visited Lowee first, Lastation and Leanbox's visit events have not been triggered yet and now leaving Nepgear behind and taking Ram, Neptune figured it would be easier to head to Lastation and then Leanbox. Since going back to Planeptune without Nepgear would only spell trouble since Histoire expected work to be done. "Oh right, one more thing..." Neptune said, while taking control of the scene.
Nepgear has left the party.
Ram has joined the party.
Even though it was an odd sight for the two to be travelling together, they arrived at Lastation without much trouble and went straight into the Lastation basilicom and into the library. Inside, everything was neatly categorised and arranged for easy access, so this was quite expedient for the two to find what they wanted. Of course, normal people would ask a receptionist or other employee for specific information, but give the topic they wanted to research, they decided to look on their own.
Thankfully for them, Kei was not around because she went off to start her business in time of peace. However, there was one person in the basilicom who was paying attention to Neptune and Ram's intrusion into the library. In another room was Uni, recognising the rather unusual sight on one of the cameras from the monitor screen. Of course, if it was Neptune and Nepgear maybe it would not be a problem since the two Planeptunians liked to goof off quite often. Today though, seeing Neptune and Ram of all people, only raised suspicion, for it must be an espionage mission by Planeptune and Lowee, conspiring to bring down the future-proof Lastation.
After rummaging through the library and making a big mess (There was nobody really minding the place, so Neptune and Ram did as they pleased), they found a few books that hinted at how CPU could grow, but in reality most of them were just "facts" made up by Noire.
"What a waste of time, this won't help us to get our answers we are looking for," Ram said, knowing full well of the facts from previous reading to differentiate from Noire's bogus information.
"Yeah, her writing indicates that hard work will increase your size, but... that would mean Uni will probably be twice as big as Noire right? But instead she shrinks when she transforms." Neptune responded, knowing what Noire truly does in her free time to appear "busy."
Of course, Uni would hear that last comment as she was hiding just outside the library door while waiting for the chance to catch the mismatched pair. As flattering as the last comment may be, Uni was not going to let these two go, she was ready to catch them and maybe even throw them out. However, now that Uni has heard a little bit about the topic they were looking into, she was a bit curious too. After all, Neptune was right, why does she shrink when she transforms while people like Vert grew even biggger? There was hope for an answer, as Neptune found a little tip from one of the books they took (And one that is obviously not influenced or written by Noire).
"Look at this, it says that it is theorised that CPUs do grow up, but at a slow slow slow pace..."
"Hmm, slow pace huh... Where's the source for that..." Ram replied, while looking at the reference to the text and in the back of the book. There she discovered it was from another book, which was authored by Chika H.
"Oh! So there must be a secret to CPU growth, but I'll bet Vert hid most of it so that she can always stay the biggest..."
"There seems to be other information within this book as well, but we should go to Leanbox to find out the real hidden stuff," Ram finished, while taking the book and hiding it in her blue handbag.
"That's a good idea, at least we have a lead, maybe once we find out the secret, we can increase in size too."
"Hehe, you think you think we'll ever match Vert?"
"We may have to catch up, but I am sure we can do this!"
Uni wanted to stop the two of them right now. Sure, it was most interesting there would be a secret how to make a CPU grow especially in "that" area, but Ram had just taken a book from Lastation and this was definitely espionage. Still, she could not bring herself to do it, the topic was simply too interesting. After all, there was always the issue of why she shrunk in size when she transformed, and if there was some way to prevent that (So that Nepgear would not ask if she was "stuffing them"), and also maybe if her size was to increase, Noire would take notice of her more.
As Neptune and Ram exited the basilicom and walked towards the terraportation terminal, they could clearly feel that they were being followed, and when the uneasiness grew, Ram spoke up.
"Hey Neptune, does it feel like we are being followed?"
"Yeah we are, but it's only Uni hiding behind that corner," Neptune replied while pointing to the exact spot that Uni was watching them. Immediately Uni let out a surprised reaction, confirming her presence and proving Neptune right. Of course, since Neptune somehow knew she was there, it was no use hiding and so she slowly emerged out right where the two could see her. "Hello little Noire, how are you?"
"How did you know I was there all this time?" Uni asked, she was sure that she hid herself well and also went unnoticed.
"Oh you know, even back in the library you were hesitant to arrest us and also listened to our findings too."
"She was eavesdropping way back there?" Ram asked, unaware that Uni was there listening in already.
"Yup, I kinda knew because Noire does it all the time, looks like Uni takes to her sister in this way."
"Right... So is that the reason you two came into library? And where is Nepgear?" Uni asked in response, still trying to grasp how Neptune knew all about what she did for the last little while.
"Yeah, it's always strange why Vert seems to be growing but all of us stays the same..." Ram said.
"Yuppers, so there must be a secret about this somewhere, besides, is it really all right if Noire is always bigger than you?" Neptune added, knowing this fact would definitely catch Uni's attention, while ignoring the second question on where Nepgear was.
"O-of course not! I... need to find out the truth too."
"That's good then, let us all go to Leanbox. And also let me do this as well," Neptune finished, before taking control of the text again.
Uni has joined the party.
"I don't understand how you did that, but fine, we'll go to Leanbox. Just return that book to Lastation later." Uni said in response.
With the ragtag party assembled, they boarded the next ship from Lastation to Leanbox. Along the way, they sat down and wrote down some notes from Lowee and Lastation's books. Of course, while size and growth were still a mystery, there was also another factor to consider: HDD form. Naturally, the thought would bring up the next topic because HDD either increased, stayed the same, or... decreased a CPU's size.
"So... Neptune, how come when you activate HDD, you grow bigger?" Uni asked.
"Well, I had Nep Jr. look into this one before, and I think what we found out was that it all has to do with the processors we have equipped, although there are not that many core processor parts to equip with in the first place, but I think that's what affects things." Neptune replied, unsure herself why she seems to grow a couple of sizes when she transforms.
"(So is there something wrong with my processor parts?)" Uni thought, thinking maybe somebody tampered with her processor units, maybe that was the reason she shrunk a size when she transformed, and whoever did it was probably a horrible person.
"Aw, you're lucky you increase a few sizes when you transform, even with my new powers, I never did..." Ram added in, realising that no matter what processor units she wore, she was always the same.
"Not exactly, because of that though... Vert and Noire seemed to look at me like I am a threat sometimes. Also, due to that, Blanc would also get really pissy too, it's actually one of the reasons that the three of them teamed up against me several times in the past."
"What? They did that?" Uni and Ram replied, even though they knew that the four CPUs fought before in some battle history called the Console Wars, they had never heard of the event of three teaming up against one of them for that reason at least.
"Uh huh. But... after a few times of that happening, I finally came through with a secret technique and actually won against all three of them."
"Secret technique? Is it something cool? I wanna learn it too!" Ram said, excited at what could be a new way to annoy Blanc.
"You won? That means even Noire?" Uni asked, interested in the fact that Neptune defeated Noire along with Blanc and Vert.
Neptune hesitated in responding, this was not a technique that was easily replicated, and things could end very badly when used. "Well, to be honest, it is more that I found a weakness to each CPU that I was able to win like that."
"A weakness? Is it something that we can learn?"
"Yeah! I want to know Blanc's weak point too!"
Neptune leaned closer to the centre of the table they were sitting at, obviously the two CPU candidates will not let up until she told them what she did, and so she really had no choice but to tell them. "Ok listen closely, but don't really try this out, because then they will know it is me who taught you guys this and they will be flying over in a raging vengeance against me," Neptune said as she prepared to tell them of the tale of the battle. Ram and Uni leaned closer and Neptune whispered the whole event in detail and described the process as well as the result.
Ram flew back in laughter while Uni was stunned, how could she have not thought about that before? Still, they understood why Neptune was hesitant to tell them all this, because it really was that bad.
"Ahahaha! Blanc was reduced to that state! I cannot believe it!" Ram continued to laugh, even though it was so bad, she still found it hilarious.
"Well hey, it was three versus one, so please cut me some slack and also do not use it against your own sisters, especially with Blanc..." Neptune warned, hoping that Ram and Uni would be wise enough not to pull off what she did. Though Uni most likely would not do it, Ram would definitely do it as a prank, which worried Neptune greatly.
Thankfully for Neptune, the ship arrived at Leanbox, and so the party took their minds off Neptune's crazy story and continued on their quest. Now, because Chika is absent, the party was able to freely walk right into the basilicom and go wherever they wished without resistance. Neptune also knew that Vert would most likely be caught up in more gaming that she would not even know if something was stolen. Heading straight to the library, they began to search through all the books that could be of interest to the topic at hand. Just as expected, in Leanbox there were plenty of books on the subject, but most of them were about how Lady Green Heart is better than the other CPUs because of the "Bigger is better" idea.
After a short while, there was a book about CPU growth that not only theorised but outright confirmed that CPUs do in fact, grow up in body sizes, even though it may take a long time. However, what was most interesting is that there were also hints that the process can be sped up or at least growth can be controlled. Reading at the text closely, the three discovered that there was a certain secret potion that did indeed helped grow, which probably explained Vert's size.
"I knew it, she was hiding something all this time!" Neptune said, excited to crack the secret.
"So the question remains, where do we get this thing?" Ram asked, knowing that if such a thing existed, there must be the knowledge to create something like that.
"Let's look further down where we found this book, it will probably lead us to our answer," Uni pointed out from where they picked up this book. When they looked in the deeper part of the library though, there was a large green door that was locked, and also looking very suspicious.
"We need a key for this huh? No problem! I'll get it from Vert's room!" Neptune said, knowing that Vert would definitely have the key.
"Wait, you're just gonna go inside and take it from her?" Ram asked, knowing full well that Vert would not be that careless with security.
"She's probably just busy her games, I'll just greet her and take the keys, it'll be fine..."
With that, Neptune backtracked to Vert's room, and opened the door without knocking. Just as expected, Vert did not even realise the door was opened, as Neptune scanned the room and located the keys just on the corner of Vert's desk. Moving to the desk, she quickly greeted Vert, diverting her attention.
"Hi Vert!" Neptune said, while taking the keys in plain view.
"Hello." Vert replied, not even knowing who was in the room, being very busy fighting a boss monster in her game.
Without saying anything else, Neptune left the room and even closed the door behind her, stealing the keys was just that easy. Ram and Uni was surprised to see that Neptune did exactly as she said she was going to do and with such fluidity, almost as if Neptune had done this many times before. Still, it did not matter, they got their key, and now they would finally find out how to make a secret potion that supposedly will help CPUs grow.
Heading back to the library, the key fit perfectly in the slot, and the door opened flawlessly. Stepping into the room, the three found just one lone book placed on a pedestal, with nothing much else in the room except some dust and dimmer lights.
"No doubt this is the secret recipe..." Uni said, looking at the pages that listed ingredients and other descriptions for synthesis.
"But they all sound so foreign and... hey! Somebody ripped out the next page for the actual synthesis!" Ram noted, looking at the remains of the next page only still barely attached to the binding of the book.
"Hmm, it doesn't matter actually. These ingredients are just composite materials and I know what kind of synthesis this is just by looking at the ingredients, though it may take a little time, I think I can make it as long as we have everything..." Neptune explained, recognising the order of which the ingredients were placed while scribbling on the required items in brackets:
1. Growth Booster x3 (2 Rainbow Petal + 5 Dolphin Tail)
2. Gelatin Base x2 (10 Dogoo Jelly + 5 Red Seed)
3. Wishful Growth x1 (1 Orange Jelly + 1 God Soul + 5 Moonlight Shadow)
"It's going to take awhile to gather up everything, maybe we should just take this book with us too," Ram said, making a note of where to find the ingredients while stuffing yet one more book in her bag.
"Yeah, we should be able to go around and gather up everything no problem now that we've know what we need to get. So what do you guys think? Excited?" Neptune asked, knowing this adventure was about to get exciting, especially with their breakthrough.
"Yeah... I just don't know if those ingredients are something we'd want to drink though..." Uni commented, seeing as how some ingredients are... well, probably gross.
"Oh com'on, we can finally match our sisters, it's probably worth it! Though where are we going to make this? If anybody catches us while we're busy, it might be bad." Ram said in response.
"Well... I guess we can head back to Planeptune, I've got a nice place that can safely make this recipe. Though, to be safe, let's do some quests and take some shares from Vert so Histy won't get angry..."
"Ok, that sounds good. Hehe... the day will come when I will be bigger than both Rom and Blanc combined!"
"(Hmm, Noire might notice me if this works!)"
Leanbox did not have too many shares, so when the party did quests for their respective nations, they just did the easy quests and leaving Leanbox with some 5% of shares so it does not collapse and leave poor Vert in too much trouble.
Since all the nations have been visited at this point, the party is now able to quickly jump to wherever they wished without having to take the boat back to Lastation and such. Even though it took some time, they were able to go around the various places in Gamindustri and gather the items with relative ease. The only problem was the God Soul that was from an enemy in the Gamindustri Colosseum, which sunk when everybody went through the True Ending of mk2, but thankfully there were leftovers of said material from beating the foe previously, so the party just took it from their old inventory (How Vert managed to get this item before mk2 is a mystery, most likely she used hacks though).
Also because some of the enemies they would hunt were not actual dungeons in Victory, all the hunting was taken care of by way of events. Finally, after a long hunt, the party returned to Planeptune and hid away in one of Neptune's synthesis labs, where they had all the items ready for the creation of the unnamed potion (The name of the potion was scratched out on Vert's secret recipe book, probably to prevent anybody from looking for it online or spreading rumours. Neptune just dubbed it Verty's Secret Busty Potion just because).
"Well, that narration sure went on and on, but we're finally back and ready to go on this!" Neptune said, while looking over the ingredients and having the recipes in front of her.
"Yeah, hurry now! You think we'll grow to a C with this?" Ram asked, unsure of just how effective the VSBP would be.
"We don't know if this will even work, especially with those ingredients..." Uni said, a little skeptical, seeing up front how it was made, but still interested.
Neptune started up all three work stations, one for creating each of the 3 composite materials, and in a short while they got their 9 Growth Boosters, 6 Gelatin Base, and 3 Wishful Growths. Now the real test begun, as they got each set of items ready to create 3 VSBP they started up the work station to full power and began with lighting up the Wishful Growth under heat. After the item changed colour and form from the heat, they added in the Growth Booster, and the synthesis looked like a sphere with swirling matter around the outside. Finally, pouring in the Gelatin Base, the whole thing melted into a liquid form and had settled a bit.
"All right, from here on we just have to wait a bit, we'll sit outside for now, that sure was interesting!" Neptune said, while taking a break outside with Uni and Ram.
"We've been out for quite awhile, I hope our sisters aren't worried." Ram said, realising that they had been on this adventure for quite some time now.
"That's right, I hope Noire is fine back home." Uni added in, also realising that Noire might be in a panic soon.
"I don't think they would really notice us just yet. After all, Nep Jr. is there with Blanc, and Noire... well, she's too preoccupied as always. At least we're all out here and having some fun while discovering the biggest secret in history!" Neptune proudly stated, knowing that it was true, making a potion to help with CPU growth is definitely revolutionary, even if this adventure was with people she does not usually journey with, it was all in good fun.
There was little that Uni and Ram could disagree with Neptune. After all, there are times when their own sisters are too busy, they probably could not remember the last time they journeyed across Gamindustri for something like this. The synthesis was almost complete now, and soon the three could potentially match Vert in a certain department, and that itself was exciting.
But as with all things in the world, nothing ever goes smoothly all the time. Knowing that the once Vert finds out her secret recipe is stolen, chaos would ensue, so Neptune stood up and headed in the direction of the general store. "I'll be right back." Just a few moments later, Neptune came back with a pouch in her hand, knowing it would come in handy just in case if something happened later on.
To be continued once other story is finished.