Hyperdimension, a place where four (originally five) goddesses reign, backed by the faith of their citizens, they have persisted through threats from within their past and outside their dimension. Once again, the nations of Planeptune, Lastation, Leanbox and Lowee will face a new development.
Scientists within several major NATO countries developed an interdimensional transportation system, originally sending drones into unknown worlds, searching for life. This private organization is headed by ex-government officials. The researchers engaged in this project include veterans hailing from many parts of the world, from the ice cold tundra of Nunavut to the sweltering deserts surrounding Ayers Rock.
Six researchers, two from the aforementioned areas, volunteered to survey one such location which currently holds life. They are armed with five custom-made pistols, a C19 scout rifle, TAC-50 sniper rifle, Remington 870 shotgun, and a tomahawk. All weapons are legally obtained.
In addition, they are well-versed in linguistics and understand several foreign and not-so-foreign languages. They are of course well-versed, breadth and depth, in at least one scientific field.
Donning suits and entering the portal, they take their first steps into a new, highly uncomfortable reality.
"Ugh, seriously, what the hell! The whole place is saturated with electromagnetic signals! Not very strong ones, but still… I don't see a single radio tower out here for miles, and we are apparently deep underground, so why are we getting this much noise?"
That noise came from Pauline Redjacket, a physicist. She's the one carrying the TAC-50 and is currently holding a compact device that measures radio signals and holds up to 2 terabytes of data.
Her secondary priorities involve maintaining the team's weapons. She's good at keeping the team's pistols in excellent condition.
The team already set up a marker to indicate the position they spawned from. They so far have been attacked by a large wolf-tiger hybrid creature. It was incredibly fast but quick thinking on the part of the guy that carries their ammunition enabled them to cripple the animal before it could harm anyone.
Deciding to get out while the going's good, they left it alone. They aren't planning on staying longer than a single day anyways, since they are only going to use the time to study the place's biology.
Or they would have, if not for the fact that they heard an ear-raping scream behind them. They didn't expect anything close to a human, but considering they did, they concluded that something is deeply wrong and decided to follow that noise.
What they saw was something beyond their understanding. A flat, panel-like object that looks like a screen with a text box, swinging at nothing other than a human woman in a skin-tight, flashy suit. Even then, it didn't look completely human. Enlarged, glowing eyes, with a power symbol burning inside, and an engine-like apparatus floating on her back.
Suddenly, the figure moved, breaking the sound barrier and slicing the two-dimensional monstrosity no less than ten times, before taking a backflip. The box split into multiple, disappearing pieces.
What they are witnessing is the console patron unit of Planeptune beating the shit out of a sentient frame of a virtual novel. This is the team's breaking point, and they immediately headed to the portal.
"I had my body camera on the whole time we been in this place, and everybody's going to look at us like we altered the footage or some shit! I can't believe my eyes and I want to just do anything, ANYTHING but be here anymore. Oh god oh fuck notgoingtogetcaughtby-"
That rambling is courtesy of David Windich. He's the guy that brought the shotgun, and his experience is centered around forensic science and sociology. His Australian heritage didn't stop him from learning not only his hometown's native languages but also Japanese, Inuktitut, and Mohawk. The latter two languages were very recent, learned with great difficulty on the request of the team's boss as to improve sensitive communication between team members.
"David, quit using the codec chip for transmitting an SOS signal. We're all here and we don't need that racket frying our neurons. Not to mention the mere idea of that thing being able to listen to our comms sets my hairs on end. We need this pathway clean so we can find the portal, so shut it."
And we introduce Takeshi Minata, the team's communications officer and the person that set up the portal's beacon. Like David, he had to learn Inuktitut, and he's terrible at it. Everyone knows of the preference to use English unless secrecy is required. He's moderately good at both hardware and software, which is convenient because if something breaks here then he's the one to fix it.
Nearing the portal, the Fenrir decided to wander back into the path that they engaged in the last time.
And right behind them, Purple Heart readies her blade…
I guess I should introduce the last three people in this group.
The woman carrying ammunition, the tomahawk and the C19 sniper rifle goes by the callsign of "Ranger", which is both enigmatic and intimidating to everyone else on the team. She's totally, completely fluent in the languages that the project supervisor required the team to know, which fuels conspiracy theories among the above two males. Which is good in terms of the group's stability because they can't stand each other otherwise. She seems to have investigative expertise and mirrors Takeshi's cold, calculating personality. She's also the only one on the team that isn't carrying a pistol.
The team's medic is taken by Edward Fleming. His pistol is none other than a Walther PPK. If anyone didn't notice, he's an avid fan of the James Bond series, and loves fictional espionage. He has a job to do right now though, and that's monitoring the test group's response to the environment, as well as getting relevant samples of the ecosystem itself. He's been crushing on Miss "Ranger" for a rather ridiculous amount of time now but her stoic responses only makes his *ahem* resolve harder. He's fluent in Greek and Latin simply because of his background but taken up the prospect of learning new languages well.
Then there's Ayrton Carlos, who decided to bring a fucking revolver because he likes breaking his hands. Hailing from Brazil and having extensive involvement with the petroleum industry, he often receives hostile looks from the team's ammo bag. He wonders why "Ranger" is on the team instead of what her identity really is, considering that everyone else has a clear technical role. His role on the team is derived from his extensive chemical knowledge, being able to synthesize and separate numerous compounds. His masculinity is as toxic as anyone's could be, but at least it doesn't translate to sexism or racism. Yet.
With a hop, skip, and a leap, the six, masked and rather heavy humans trampled the Fenrir blocking their way. "Ranger", the fastest and heaviest, jumped over the beast's swiping claws and landed on the poor thing's backside, throwing it off balance. David used its face as a foothold and sprinted right down its spine. Takeshi and Edward practiced parkour on its shoulder blades, causing its front paws to skid on the ground. Ms. Redjacket did a wall-run instead of taking a direct route into the animal. Finally, Ayrton ran across the side of its face and delivered a roundhouse kick to its tail, careening it to Purple Heart.
"Goddammit Ayrton quit showing off!" David squawked into the codec. He continued his sprint. "You know, things could get really, really bad if that thing comes across our portal. We should find a place where that thing can't get us and move on from there."
"I remember a crevice we passed by earlier." Ranger decided to use the comms for the first time in the mission. "It's really cramped but it should be enough for that monster to not follow us in. Thankfully I'm faster than all of you even with all this gear. Follow my lead."
As she said that, she jumped down into a river below. Transmitting video feed to the rest of the group, they followed her exact path where she waits to soften their fall. They all clambered underneath a bridge, large enough to hold four lanes of vehicular traffic. Under that bridge there lied a cavern large enough for a human to pass through, but far too small for Purple Heart in HDD. As if on cue, everyone climbed into the cramped space and waited.
Ranger, coming in last, quickly changed her parka's and backpack's colors to reflect the surrounding cavern, shifting from an earthy brown tone to a dark grey, disruptively patterned one. Purple Heart didn't even attempt to move down the river, just looking over the edge and assuming the worst.
Edward noted the recent development. "Okay David, you can stop pissing yourself now. We just need to wait this out. Two hours. What do we do until then?"
"99 bottles of beer on the wall! 99 bottles of beer! Take one-"
"Ayrton we are not doing that!" Takeshi protested about Ayrton's choice in idling activity.
"Unable to control the smoldering passion that he kept deep inside for her he decided to-"
"Redjacket, we are not doing that." This time Ranger wasn't a fan of what was about to transpire.
"Forget it. I'm going to catch up on some reading. If anyone wants me just give me a poke."
"Sailor Moon? Manga? I thought Mr. Minata was into video games. PAYDAY, Destiny, Rainbow Six." Ranger was genuinely intrigued at this new development. Even so, she kept a calm, neutral tone.
"Eh, more likely a fan of SCP shit. Last Chance Diner was fucking hilarious. Either way, I decided to read up on the most ridiculous and dangerous shit the imagination could take us to, and I already read Superman. Anyways, quit reading into my logs before I start thinking of new administrator privileges."
"Okay, okay, chill out. I was just asking."
As time passed, the six observed two purple-haired girls approaching the riverside. They seem to be discussing something important. The shorter one giggled and choreographed with her hands something that appears to be (and in fact was) the researcher's final experience with the Fenrir that they shot.
"And then the last one just ran across the side of its face and went PSCHEEW-BOOSH! and landed a roundhouse kick to its backside! They didn't even stop and do a pose for how good that looked, they just kept running as if they saw a ghost or something!"
"Onee-chan, that's awful. Still, high-level adventurers that not even the guild knows about?"
"I know, right?! I even asked Histy and she was all like 'abababababa'"
"Neptune, don't lie about stuff like that…"
"Aw c'mon Nepgear, let me have a little bit of fun, I'm not lazing about like last week this time!"
As if on cue, Nepgear got a video call from Histoire.
"Nepgear, have you discovered the source of the spacetime distortion yet?"
"Not yet Histoire. It seems likely that whatever Neptune found was related to that."
"I understand. I'll be in contact again once you leave Otori Caverns. Please be careful."
"Of course! Love you too Histy!"
"Neptune, I-"
And just like that, Neptune disconnected from the radio call.
"Onee-chan!"
"Hehe! Gottem!"
As they were having their conversation, Ranger was listening intently. Noticing the fact that they speak fluent English, and are using Japanese honorifics, she was thinking of bringing up the issue with the rest of her team. Unfortunately, one particular member has noticed that they aren't alone in the cave they decided to vacate to. David, turning on his flashlight, looked backwards and saw a blue gelatinous body, two beady eyes and a dog-like snout staring them down. He backed into Edward.
"What the fuck was- oh. Guys? I don't think that camo would do us much good anymore…"
"Another one of these weird, mutant things? What is this, a slug?"
As if it was offended by such a description, it started to roar "DOGOO" slowly, but multiple times. It was squeezing through the cavern as if the cave itself was giving birth. Overhead they observe bats and insects lodged inside its body, all of which are obviously dead.
Everyone came to the same conclusion – this animal was a predator, and it's looking for its next meal.
Ranger immediately decided that this was no time to be stealthy.
"David! Shoot the damn thing!"
BANG! BANG! SPLAT!
The noise attracted the attention of the two girls. Fortunately, the underground nature of their location made that noise sound like it was echoing from everywhere. Unfortunately, the cave below became filled with blue dogoo jelly, covering the research team and leaving a visible mark of where that sound came from. The half-digested bats and insects littered the entrance behind them, and the slime stinks, like a man without deodorant returning from an intense workout at the gym.
It would have caused serious discomfort, at least to Takashi, if it not for the fact everyone is wearing environmental isolation suits. Well, maybe not the goddesses, but they're used to this sort of thing.
"A goddess flying under a bridge? Don't you know that's ten years of bad luck Nepgear?"
"Come on Neptune, I'm not going to come home telling Histoire that you decided to stay outside of a little bit of water again. Access!"
Just like that, Nepgear transformed into Purple Sister, and swooped downwards to the cavern's entrance. Neptune decided to follow suit just to avoid another lecture from Histoire.
"Neptune, does this remind you of anything?"
"Yeah, it reminds me of Steamax."
"Why does it remind you of Steamax?"
"Well when he was running away from us, he decided to cut up a few magazines."
"You know what? I shouldn't have asked. Well, we're here."
The cave was completely empty. The only things they could find were dead animals no bigger than Violet Heart's left wing.
"Nepgear, you go first."
"What?"
"You wanted to be here, you go first."
"But Neptune, your human form is smaller and has a weapon that doesn't cause injuries if you just poke things with it!"
"My human form doesn't have boots."
"You just don't want to do work again!"
"Fine! You're doing laundry tonight then."
Transforming back into her human form, she wandered inside, holding the N-Gear out to emit light down the path in front of her. Finding nothing, she heads back out.
"Nothing. Anything that could have been there is gone now. So much for reversing my transformation."
"Otori Caves, huh? So that's our starting location. And if we're lucky, it would be where we leave this place. Don't want to find out what happens when one of those things gets unleashed on Earth."
"Still, it's nice that we aren't getting any dangerous types of radiation outside. The sun emits just the right amount of ultraviolet, and no higher frequencies are coming in. Still, the air content… Ayrton, what can you say about that?"
Ayrton is silent. His face furrowed into a serious frown.
"These air samples, I don't know what this blue shit is, but the compounds inside are definitely as complex as a strand of DNA. Hook up enough of this stuff to a couple of wires and a lightbulb, and it starts glowing. I don't want to know what happens when you start breathing in this kind of battery juice but… my suit's been compromised."
Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and looked at the man with shock.
After a long and awkward silence, Edward moved up to Ayrton and noticed something.
"Okay seriously, that shit isn't funny. We thought you could have died there. On a related note, we really need to avoid violent confrontations and focus on making sure our suits don't break down. Secondly, we need you, Ayrton, to test if any medical drugs bind to this stuff and allow us to pass it through our urinary tracts. We can't have this shit run amok in our bloodstream."
"Guys, seriously, how do we get back home?"
Ranger asks that question as everyone else was washing out the dogoo crap from their camouflage. She's looking back at the cave where they came out of, realizing that Purple Heart and Sister were scanning the waterways for them. Redjacket offers her thoughts on the present situation.
"So, we need a new hiding spot. It seems like they don't have anything fancy like thermal goggles or heartbeat sensors, otherwise that cave would have stayed dark. They're looking for us below, so perhaps this time we should try above?"
"You saw those things, they can fly, we can't. So unless you have a good hiding spot in the cave's ceiling, we should probably get ready to start running again."
Redjacket points to a small underground plateau, overlooking the stream winding inside. It's in the general direction of where the portal should be.
Getting a nod from Ranger, she started to scale the rock face. Subsequently Ayrton, not wanting to be shown up by someone else, followed her alongside the top of the stream's cliffside towards the plateau's rock face. Redjacket remained ahead however…
A bit of a running start and a leap of faith later, and her arms secured their grip on the ledge at the top. Afterwards, the rest followed suit. When David, the last man on the ledge, was being boosted up by none other than Ayrton, Takeshi noticed two different girls, not even of the age of 15, approaching their portal. Freaking out, he helps Ayrton up and pushed David into their direction.
Immediately noticing what Takeshi is going to do, Ranger makes for a sprint right at the two girls. Pushing past them, she delivers a roundhouse kick to the side of a girl dressed in a blue jacket, followed up by clocking the one in a pink sweater, straight in the face, and sending her towards the other five with a judo throw. The one in blue brandished two daggers hidden under her cuffs and started to charge at her. David interrupts her attack with a tackle and dismantles her weapons.
The pink one started screaming but Ayrton covered her mouth and brandished his revolver. He was not going to be cut up by some purple mutant in a skintight suit, not now, not ever.
Pauline retraced the two's steps to see if they could have discovered the portal. After making sure the pathway was clear, she relayed that information to the rest.
Rummaging through to find something that could be used to gag the girls, Takeshi applied electrical tape to their mouths and bound their wrists. Then, they pushed the two to the center of the plateau and escaped back into the portal, taking their beacon with them. 25 seconds later, the portal closes.
They returned home with bodycam footage, airborne particulate samples, and David screaming-
"Why the fuck is my pee blue?!"
Immediately after hearing his protest, Edward summoned himself to the bathroom. The toilet water taken on a rich, indigo hue, not unlike the color of the particulate matter Ayrton found. He decided to take the urine sample and run David through some tests.
Everyone else's urine was a deep golden color and showed no anomalies that couldn't be explained by their engagement in vigorous exercise. David's isolation suit was found to be breached.
In the meantime, the other four get some much-needed rest.
IF and Compa finally broke through their restraints.
It taken them 45 seconds to do that. By now, the portal is already closed, and nothing is present that could trace where they would have moved to.
That doesn't matter, because Compa was bawling her tits off.
Nepgear and Neptune heard the noise while scouring the riverbed, almost approaching the dungeon's entrance outside. After hearing that, they flew back into the dungeon and circled overhead, finding the two on the same rock face that the six left them at.
"Oh wow, you look bruised Compa. Here."
Nepgear used a healing spell on the beleaguered nurse. Neptune instead opted to offer up a Nep Bull to IF. She drank it without saying much, and both goddesses transformed into their less imposing forms.
"Nep-nep it was horrible there was this guy with a huge backpack that sprinted past us he kicked Iffy and punched me in the face and-"
"Woah, slow down Compa. I don't know what you are saying when you talk that fast."
"Then there was this other guy that put his hand over my mouth and pulled out a gun and I thought I was going to die but-"
"Okay, I think we should all go back to the Basilicom like, right now. Neptune, Nepgear? If you would do the honors, I want to go home."
Nepgear got a message from Histoire again.
"Nepgear, that spacetime anomaly that I sent you to investigate? It's gone now… I don't know what happened but if you can find something…"
"Does a beat up IF and Compa count as something? It looks like they had electrical tape plastered over their faces, IF has broken ribs and Compa looks like she regrew some teeth."
"Oh goodness, that's frightening!"
"Indeed. I don't think it's safe for people to be waltzing around here but, how long ago did the spacetime anomaly close up?"
"A minute, approximately."
"Compa was crying for, a minute, approximately."
"IF, I didn't know you were capable of sass."
"Chalk that up to the broken ribs."
"Either way, I noticed that there's now a share energy fluctuation there, so I'm wondering if that's connected somehow. Either way, IF? Compa? Can you stand?"
Compa immediately stood up and walked over to where she was going before. She overshot by just a bit though and immediately turned her head left.
"Nep-nep, you might want to look at this."
The ground surrounding the portal was stained yellow by a fluorescent, unknown particulate. Nepgear was still holding the N-Gear and IF was even starting to approach the dust.
Histoire broke the silence with a simple command.
"Neptune! Get out of there, now!"
The yellow particulate reacted to Neptune's form, metamorphizing to a clone of her HDD form, radiating pure bloodlust. IF, Compa, and Nepgear grabbed Neptune and started running. Escape button still in IF's hand, Neptune slammed her fist down into it, turning the red button into a hole in the box itself.
Radiating bright, cyan-blue energy, the item warps Neptune and co. out of Otori Caves.
Histoire reels inside the Basilicom, noticing that Planeptune's share energy dropped significantly from that stunt. She decided to make a call to someone important.
"Uzume, Planeptune needs you again."