AN: Hoo boy. I finally got this bad boy finished. If you guys were wondering why there seemed to be a delay in updates for HD Adventures, you can blame this lil' sucker. Well, this and me being both busy with stuff as well as a lazy ass.
So yeah, doods. It's a Halloween Special for HDA. Shame it's a week late, but eh, better late than never. This thing is also what I like to call an OWP – an Original Written Piece. In other words, it's the written version of an OVA. As to its canonicity to HDA, as well as its timeline placement, well, I'll leave that up to you guys. ;)
Enjoy, doods!
-XO[]/\-
OWP Special – A Hyperdimensional Halloween – Start!
-XO[]/\-
"Yay! It's the night of the living candy, everyone!" shouted an excited Neptune on the morning of Halloween in Gamindustri. She was currently inside the kitchen of Planeptune's Basilicom, along with IF and Gear.
"Yes Nep, you've made that perfectly clear. Several times." Iffy said exasperatedly. "We're glad too, now calm down."
"But I can't, Iffy! I really wanna get lots of candy and go to haunted houses and stuff!"
"You'll live until tonight."
"But I wooon't, Iffyyyy!" Nep whined.
"Um, Neptune," Gear spoke up, "Maybe you should go outside for a while. You know, to alleviate your, uh… stir-craziness."
Nep paused for a moment, and then, "I do believe that there's a crackerjack idea, Nep Jr! I'mma get some fresh air!" Nep bounced out of the Basilicom and into the city.
"That girl…" sighed Iffy, before looking around, "Say, where's Compa, anyway?"
"Goodness, I'm not sure…" Gear looked around as well.
"U-Um, Iffy, Ge-Ge…" came a somewhat dejected voice.
Iffy and Gear turned to find Compa, who was… tied up in a mess of thread. Apparently she had been attempting to make a costume for later on.
"A…A little help, please?..."
-XO[]/\-
"Danananana, nanananana…" Nep hummed as she strolled around the futuristic streets of Planeptune, working off her anxiety. All around the city, various decorations had been set up, depicting skeletons, ghouls, witches, and generally all manner of Halloweeny stuff, to celebrate All Hallow's Eve, Samhain, or whatever equivalent thereof. In Gamindustri's case, it's more or less a celebration of the survival horror genre.
"Cha, cha, cha, ha, ha, ha… I wonder what costume I should wear…" Nep wondered, passing by a store selling pumpkins. As she pondered her attire for the night, however, a gust of cold autumn breeze blew by (she's still wearing her normal outfit by the way, which kinda makes you wonder…).
THWAP!
"Ack! Who turned out the lights?-!" Nep looked around frantically, unable to see anything but a wall of white. A few moments later, after calming down from her panic, she pulled what was obviously a sheet of paper off her face.
"Stupid paper…" she huffed, but then the contents of the paper caught her eye. "…Haunted House… nearby Virtua Forest…opens tonight... huh. Sounds coolios!" She hummed. "I think I'mma get my party to go here. It sounds awesomesauce." Then proceeding to put the paper in one of her hoodie's pockets, she continued on her stroll.
…Or she would've, except…
"Hu-Oof!" She bumped into someone. A little girl, to be exact, knocking her over in the process. "Oh, uh, sorry. My badsies." She helped the little girl up. Or rather, she tried, stretching out her hand for the girl to grab, but the girl just kind of… stared at her, with her single, left, eye, her right one being covered by her long black hair. Combined with her white dress, it made her look rather eerie.
"Uh…"As the girl was unmoving, just staring at Neptune, the goddess was unsure of what to do. "Um… okaaay then." Nep, a little spooked by the girl's intense stare, just opted to run off. If she had looked back, she would have noticed the girl's emotionless gaze following her…
-XO[]/\-
Nep's outside stroll having done wonders for the lavendette's anxiety, the wait for nightfall to come was quick and bearable. Nep told everyone about the flyer for the haunted house, and calls were made to our heroines' friends. In the end, the party that had decided to go consisted of Nep, Gear, Compa, Iffy, Noire, Uni, Blanc, Ram, Rom, Vert, and Nisa, who by some odd stroke of coincidence that totally wasn't plot, were all free. Gust had been busy selling (read: ripping off) people with seasonal products, 5pb had a concert to prepare for, with Cave acting as bodyguard, and Falcom had to do a fetch quest for someone. And the Oracles, of course, had their work to do.
Time passed, costumes were donned, and eventually night – and Trick-Or-Treating time – had come. The time to head over to the house Nep discovered was at hand.
-XO[]/\-
"Maaan, when are they gonna get heeere…" Nep, dressed as fairly generic zombie, complained. Her clothes, which were a black version of her normal outfit, were tattered and stained with 'blood', and she had some make-up on to give her a deader look.
"Hold your horses, Nep, they'll be here soon," said Iffy, who had on a long-sleeved red shirt with a white cross on the front as well as a black skirt and stockings, and having added an extra side-ponytail to her hairstyle. She'd said she was dressed as a 'magus', which Nep took to have pretty much meant 'magician', even having asked her to pull a rabbit out of a hat. Iffy had responded to that by thwapping the ditz on the head.
This duo, along with Compa (who was dressed as some kind of evil surgeon, complete with 'blood'-stained frock) and Gear (who had opted to dress in her knight cosplay outfit – you know the one) were waiting for the rest of their group a fair distance away from the haunted house. Speaking of which…
"…Are you sure about this, Nep?" IF asked, "Because this place looks… sketchy…"
"Y-y-yeah, i-it d-does…" Compa shivered, hiding behind the Guild member.
"G-g-goodness, yes…" Gear shivered, also hiding behind the Guild member.
They had good reason to do so, though, because the house was… hamming it up, to say the least. It was dark, ominous, ancient, massive, imposing, and just generally sinister. There was no plant life around it save for some dead trees, the monsters that should be roaming around the plains and forest seemed oddly silent, and the area around the house was darker than it should have been, even considering that night had already fallen. Oh, and there was a localized thunderstorm over the house. And just the house.
"Ah come on, Iffy, it's just special effects an' stuff!"
"…I find it hard to believe someone could conjure up a thunderstorm as a 'special effect', Nep… and besides, I'm pretty sure that thing wasn't there yesterday."
"…Maybe they got prinnies to build it?"
"Nep, the only prinny for miles is that annoying author avatar, and you couldn't get him to do genuine work even under threat of torture."
"Oh…um…" The purplette pondered, "Uh, yeah. I got nuthin'."
Iffy turned to the duo hiding behind her, "And for Goddess' sake, cut it out you two. We've fought off the Four Felons and the Deity Of Sin, I'd think you'd be able to take this over-hammed crap."
Gear and Compa just giggled a little nervously, and tried to gather up some courage; Iffy was right, after all. As this was going on, Nep noticed the rest of their party coming along.
"Heeey! Over here, guys!"
"…Nep, I think they can find us just fine without you shouting…" Iffy sweatdropped.
Not too long later…
"Wow Noirey-nyan, you look cute." Nep said.
Noire, dressed in a black schoolgirl uniform, blushed, and said her tsundere piece, "O-Of course, naturally."
Accompanying Lastations's CPU were Uni (dressed as a soldier), Vert (dressed as some kind of Amazon; probably something related to her MMOs…), Ram and Rom (who were dressed in matching blue dresses and hairpins that made them seem oddly creepy), and Blanc (who probably had the most elaborate outfit, wearing a sleeveless brown robe and a brown pyramid-shaped helmet with the front opened so she could see, as well as purposely dragging her hammer around). Nisa was still absent.
It didn't take long for her to show, though. As the group conversed, and Gear and Ram tried to get a frightened Rom to calm down a bit, the heroine made her entrance.
"On All Hallow's Eve, the night that spirits come back to roam the earth…" came a voice from an unknown location.
Iffy sighed, "Here we go…"
"There must be someone to stop them from harming the living! And that someone is-!" With a flash of smoke and a BANG, Nisa made her flashy grand entrance, striking a pose and shouting, "NISA! Gamindustri's Defender Of Justice!"
"Yaaay!" Nep clapped for the girl, who was dressed in a skintight blue bodysuit (with a red and yellow 'N' logo on the front), red boots, red, uh… outer underwear, and red cape.
"Great," Iffy said, "Can we go now?"
After a bit more screwing around, Iffy's wish was granted as the party began heading towards the haunted house that was still a fair distance away.
-XO[]/\-
"Welp my homies, we're here," Nep said as the group arrived at the house, which now looked even more sinister and imposing now that they were near it. Lightning crashed nearby, and thunder roared along with it. A wolf howled in the distance somewhere.
"I'm scared…" whined Rom, hiding behind the other Candidates.
"C-come on Rom, don't worry, I'm here…"reassured Ram. Not that it was terribly effective, since her legs were shaking.
"…Bring it the hell on." Said Blanc rather plainly, hefting her hammer over her shoulder.
"You know…" Iffy wondered, "Now that we're close to it, there seems to be something…off… about this place."
"Yeah," agreed Nisa, "My justice senses are tingling quite fiercely. This house is exuding a rather strong evil aura…"
"Hm. If this is a haunted house, then where are the employees or the other customers?" asked Vert. And it 'twas a sensible question, being that their group seemed to be the only people around.
"Um…" Nep wondered, then noticed someone kneeling on the ground a little ways away from the group. "Hey, maybe they know," the goddess said, walking over to the person to ask them.
"Say, uh, do you know where the guys that work here are? Or everyone else?" asked Nep to the person, putting a hand on their shoulder. The person turned around to reveal that it was the little girl Nep had bumped into in the city earlier.
"Oh, heeey. It's you." Nep said with some surprise, her eyebrows raising. "So, uh… do you know?"
The girl stared at Neptune for a moment, before silently turning back to what she was doing. She appeared to be drawing something in the dirt with a stick. Nep gazed at the odd-looking drawings for a minute, before heading back to the group.
"Did they know?" asked Noire.
"I guess not. She didn't say anythin', she just kinda… ignored me." Nep said a little dejectedly, looking back at the girl, who had gotten up and was now dragging her stick along as she walked away.
"…Well, I think it's safe to say we shouldn't go in this house. At least, not for entertainment," Iffy said, analyzing the situation. "But now it seems like this place needs some investigation… and possibly extermination."
"…So no haunted house fun?" asked a saddened Nep.
"I'm afraid not."
"Aww… darnies…" the lavendette turned to her girlfriend, "Noirey-nyan, will you give me a hug?"
Noire paused for a moment, then said, blushing slightly, "S…Sure. Stop calling me that, though."
"Thankies, Noirey," Nep said as the two hugged. "…You do know I'm not gonna stop callin' you that tho', right?"
Lastation's goddess sighed, half-exasperatedly and half-affectionately. "Unfortunately."
"Alright you lovebirds, come on. We have an investigation to conduct." Iffy said, walking into the house. The rest of the group soon followed.
"…Let's kick some butt-ugly monster ass." Blanc bluntly added as an afterthought (garnering a big 'YEAH!' from Nisa), seeing as the house was almost certainly supernatural anyway.
-XO[]/\-
As the group of would-be ghost – hang on, I wanna see if I can do this without referencing something – uh, busters? Nah… hunters? Nah… whisperers? Nope… sweep- oh, forget it… Anyway, the group walked into the foyer of the extremely creepy house. Fittingly, it was also extremely creepy. Everything was covered in dust and old sheets, save a couple of paintings, which, aside from being unnerving to begin with, I'm pretty sure one's eyes just blinked.
Iffy decided to go ahead and take charge, turning toward everyone else. "Okay guys, first things first, no one goes anywhere by themselves. Always take at least one other person. We don't need to be falling into clichés in what is rather obviously a rogue set from a crappy horror flick."
"Oh, oh!" Nep shouted, raising her hand and jumping around, "Then we shouldn't do drugs, be lovey-dovey, be jerks, or do anything bad in general, right Iffy? People always get axed in horror movies when they do bad stuff!"
"Sure, fine, whatever."
"Also Iffy, shouldn't this be more survival horror gamey instead, not horror movie-ish?"
"I don't think it really matters all that much, Nep. Besides, staying in groups or at least pairs is just a good idea in general anyway. Now, who wants to partner up with who and explore where? We need to find who or whatever's pulling the strings here and put them back in their graves where they belong."
However, before any selections could be made, the house had other ideas…
SLAM!
"EEEK!"
The more skittish members of the group shrieked as the front door suddenly slammed shut, and to make things worse…
BZT!
"Ack! Wh-Who turned out the lights?-!" Nep asked, responding to the blackout that had just occurred, leaving everything in total darkness.
However, the darkness lasted but a second, and the lights suddenly clicked back on. But when they did, Neptune and Noire found themselves alone, everyone else having vanished.
Nep had also leapt into a now-blushing Noire's arms during the commotion, and was currently being held bridal-style.
"…N-Neptune, g-get down." Noire deadpanned. Or rather, tried to deadpan. You could tell she was trying quite hard to resist Nep's… hmm, let's say charms.
"Do I hafta?" The lavendette asked, looking at her fellow CPU, "It feels really comfy and safe in here."
Noire responded by unceremoniously dropping Neptune on her butt.
"Owwies… Meanie girlfriend…"
Noire blushed at the remark, but declined from saying anything. There were more important things to worry about than fluff at the moment.
"Come on, Neptune. We have to find the others." Lastation's CPU said, walking off into a corridor.
"Righty-o Noirey-o, I'm right behindja!" Nep hopped up and followed her partner.
-XO[]/\-
As Noire and Nep looked around for their compatriots, they too were doing the same…
"…Compa, do you have to cling to me like that?" Iffy sighed as she and Compa, who was holding on to the brunette very tightly, made their way through a hallway.
"W-Well I-I d-don't want to lose you too, Iffy…" Compa shivered.
"Fine. It's better than the alternative of this place pulling another fast one on us."
As if jinxing it, something darted out from a room the duo had just passed, into another room, almost unnoticed… almost.
"Eep!" Compa jumped, "Iffy, I think just saw something move!"
" 'Thought' nothing. In a place like this, you never think you see something move. Be on guard." Iffy savvily responded, holding up a katar, as if daring some creature to try something…
Behind a wall, a shadowy figure smiled…
-XO[]/\-
"Geez Nepgear, will you let go of me already?" Uni sighed.
"S-Sorry Uni…" Nepgear apologized, before somewhat reluctantly complying. Amazing how a person can do something so great (in this case defeating a genocidal deity), and yet still be scared of comparatively mundane things, isn't it?
Anyway, we find two of our four Candidates stuck in what was once possibly a thriving ballroom. Now it was eerily empty and dead.
"U-Uni, am I hearing things, or…?"
"No, I'm pretty sure that's giggling we hear."
And giggling it was, disembodied and unnerving. Soon it turned into laughter, louder and louder, building into a tremendous crescendo, and then - !
…Silence.
Uni cocked her gun. The lights went out again. Upon coming back on, the duo of girls was joined by a duo of mysterious dancers, one male, one female, clad in red masks and tattered rags.
As much as their curiosity was piqued, they knew full well that curiosity would almost certainly kill the cat in this situation.
"…Let's get out of here." Uni muttered, still brandishing her gun in the event that the ghostly dancers tried something. Nepgear nodded, taking out her sword as the two left the room.
The two dancers continued to dance to an unknown beat, seemingly oblivious to their exit.
-XO[]/\-
"B-Blanc, those things' eyes are following us…!"
"Scary…!"
"Stay close. Any ghost that tries something funny on us would have to have died from being a braindead tard anyway."
Blanc's show of confidence (probably justified, given her weapon of choice and anger issues) seemed to inspire a bit of confidence in her sisters, who had been stranded with her.
The pictures on the walls paid no heed to the threat, perfectly content with staring after the trio.
-XO[]/\-
"Those foul beasts! How could they do this! Cowards!" Nisa raged, not too terribly happy with the house's foul play.
"Heavens, calm down Nisa," Vert chided her companion, "There isn't really anything we can do about it now. Let's just find the others."
Trapped in another of the mysterious house's many hallways, the somewhat odd duo trekked through what may have once been servants' quarters, a fact only really evidenced by the presence of a few skeletons dressed in butler's garb crumbled against the floor, most of which were evidently killed in gruesome ways, judging by the lovely images that things such as knives through their skulls or charred outlines against the walls seemed to imply. One even had a spear through the area in their pelvis where their groin would've been… blech.
Making their way through this decrepit place, Nisa suddenly halted.
"Wait. Lady Green Heart, did you feel that?" Nisa said, bracing herself and eyes darting about.
"Hm? What?"
A low rumbling began to surge through the area.
"…Was it that?" Vert asked.
"Uh, yeah, that'd be it!" Nisa shouted over the noise the rumbling began to cause.
Suddenly, some sort of… wave… went through the area.
"What was that?-!" Nisa shouted once more.
Vert shrugged, not knowing the answer. She felt a little odd after that wave of… something, hit, though.
-XO[]/\-
Vert and Nisa weren't the only ones subject to this bizarre quake. All the other groups felt it as well. From Rom, Ram, and Compa clinging to their companions once more, to Gear and Uni bravely bracing themselves, to Neptune taking another opportunity to leap into Noire's arms, they all felt it.
And all the CPUs and Candidates couldn't help but feel that something was… off, after the tremors had ended.
"…" said a blushing-once-again Noire, dropping Nep again, before examining herself to see why she felt odd.
Nep, after getting up, stared at her hands in a similar gesture of checking. "Whatcha think happened Noirey? Ya feel that weirdo feelin', too?"
"Yeah, I do… I don't know what it is." Noire was befuddled.
"Wow. We both have it… maybe it's, like, some kinda bizarro virus or somethin'…" Nep said absently.
Noire paused for a moment, a thought striking her. 'Virus…' "…Neptune, go HDD."
"Huh? Why?"
"Just do it." Noire crossed her arms.
"Uh… okay." Nep complied, closing her eyes and attempting to transform. The key word being 'attempt,' as she just wound up looking constipated, scrunching her eyes shut and such.
"I… can't." Nep said, confused.
"Hm…" Noire closed her eyes and tried to as well. "…I can't either."
"Sooo… did that weird rumbly thingy do this?"
"Most likely… it must be affecting the others, too."
"Wowzers. Now this just became more survival horrorey. I mean, stripped of our power, having to resort to other stuff to fight against some kinda nasty evil undead army, and all without a chainsaw or badass lines!… Brrr!" Nep shivered.
"I wonder what exactly could've caused that quake…" Noire muttered, thinking to herself.
A moment passed.
Another moment passed.
And yet another… before, in a rare moment of insight, an idea struck Neptune like a jackhammer to the skull.
"Ding ding ding! Lightbulb!" She shouted.
"Huh? You have an idea? That's a first."
Nep grabbed Noire's hand and began running back the way they came. Blushing, the tsundere shouted, "H-hey, what are you doing Neptune!-?"
"Just follow me Noirey-nyan!"
"L-Like you're giving me much of a choice!"
-XO[]/\-
Back in the foyer, Nep let go of Noire's hand and attempted to bust down the door.
SLAM! SLAM!
"…What are you doing?" Noire asked again, somewhere between genuinely curious and deadpanning.
"Just trust me on this, Noirey-nyan!" Nep shouted as she readied herself to ram the door again. Dashing forward, the house apparently decided to comply with the goddess' wishes, as the door swung open suddenly and Neptune wound up charging straight through the new exit.
As this unsurprisingly caught her off guard, she tripped and rolled over herself a time or two before sliding to a stop in a heap.
"…Ouchies." Nep said, before leaping up and continuing forward.
"H-hey, wait for me!" Noire shouted, trailing behind her fellow CPU.
Still running, Nep was blindsided a second time as-
SLAM! "Owwiiiies!"
…as she crashed into some kind of barrier.
Noire came to a stop beside her. "…What the hell?" She tentatively put her hands on the barrier Nep had unveiled.
Peeling herself off the invisible wall, Nep looked down. "Ah-HA! I thought so!"
"Hm?" Noire looked down as well, seeing magical glyphs and runes drawn into the ground in a circular formation. Looking a little ways to the left and right of these, she saw long lines presumably connecting to more sigils, curving around the house and likely making a circular shape.
Bringing her gaze back up, Nep actually looked somewhat serious for once. "…So it was you, huh?" Noire once again followed Nep's gaze.
Upon looking up, she saw the same person Nep had gone to talk to earlier. That same mysterious little girl, sitting on a rock not far from the barrier's edge. She slowly raised a hand and waved at the duo, almost mockingly.
"…We have to find the others Noirey. Now."
Noire turned to Nep, surprised at the actually-serious tone in her voice, and simply nodded. If someone like Neptune of all people gets serious, you don't question them. You just don't. It's generally a good sign that some serious shit is going down.
The two goddesses ran back into the sinister mansion, the creepy little girl watching them go, silent and unmoving.
-XO[]/\-
"Blaaanc… make those dummies stooop…"
"Creepy…"
Ram and Rom were once again clinging to their big sister (Rom keeping her eyes as tightly shut as she could) as the portraits around them appeared to begin giggling and snickering. Now that was bad enough on its own, but then they started dripping blood from around the edges, and developed demonic faces.
None of this was helped by how the Lowee sisters were currently at a dead end, with their only means of exit being sealed off by a wall of floating paintings with limbs composed of their dripping blood.
"Grrr…" Blanc growled. "If you so much as lay a cold, dead hand on either of my sisters, you'll be begging to be tortured in hell for all eternity when I'm through with you!"
The surrealist (or were they Gothic?) paintings' response was to lash at the goddess with a tendril, which she dodged by moving her head to the side.
Blanc gazed at the dead end behind them. "Tch… this won't stop me!" Hefting her hammer, Lowee's CPU swung it at the wall with all her might.
CRASH!
"…You have got to be f-cking kidding me!"
Did the wall break? Why yes, yes it did. So what was Blanc swearing at? Why, that would be the massive wave of blood and guts that promptly flooded out of the opening and proceeded to sweep the trio away.
"THIS IS SO DISGUSTIIIING!" shouted Ram.
"Icky…!" squeaked Rom.
"I'LL KILL ALL YOUR GODDAMN UNDEAD FAMILIES! YOU HEAR ME YOU RAT BASTARDS!-?" Yeah, this one should be obvious.
-XO[]/\-
Several minutes later, the flood had petered out and beached the three Lowee-ans in a wholly different area than before.
"Ew ew ew ew…" Ram whined, "This is so gross…"
Rom just sobbed a little. "I… I wanna go home…"
"Not until I kill each and every one of these undead asshats personally." Blanc ground out. Considering the crap she and her sisters were put through that night, she is understandably quite pissed.
Not that this mattered to the denizens of the house on haunted plain… or would it be more accurate to say the haunted house on the plain? Either way, a spirit snuck up behind Blanc, unnoticed until…
Ram gasped. "Look out Blanc!"
"Guh!"
It was too late. The spirit had forced itself into Blanc, who was now standing stock still.
Several seconds passed.
"Uh… Blanc?" Ram tentatively asked.
As if on cue, the now-possessed Blanc swung her hammer at Ram and Rom, with intent to kill.
Gasping, Ram hurled herself into her twin and the two rolled out of the way just before Blanc's hammer smashed the floor they'd been standing on.
"Oh geez… come on Rom, we gotta go!" The Candidate grabbed her twin's hand and they ran off.
Gazing after them blankly, Blanc's helmet, which heretofore had been open, suddenly slammed shut, as she began chasing after her sisters, hammer dragging behind her.
-XO[]/\-
"…Dammit. I don't think they're giving us much of a choice."
"It certainly looks that way, Uni…"
Gear and Uni had, quite savvily, been refraining from speaking or even acknowledging the ghostly dancers that had joined them. However, after attempting to leave the room and go somewhere else, they somehow had looped back to the ballroom. So then they tried again. Ballroom. At that point, Uni decided to blow a hole in the wall and go out that way. They still wound up back in the ballroom. She even blew a hole in the floor and after jumping down it, well, it shouldn't take a genius to figure out where they ended up.
It was pretty clear that they'd be stuck in an infinite loop until they did what the house wanted them to do. Which was, apparently, to interact with the masked dancers.
"So… what should we do?" Uni asked.
"Well, I don't really think talking to them is a good idea…"
"…Should I… shoot them or something?"
Gear just shrugged, unsure what to do. Uni sighed.
"Hey, um… ghost dancer people. Could you… I dunno, let us go or something?" Uni attempted. 'Wow, I can't believe I just said that…'
The two dancers appeared to finally acknowledge the Candidates, stopping their haunting waltz and turning their crimson-masked faces towards them.
There was a short standoff. Uni began to sweat, gripping her oversized gun tightly. Gear had a similar death grip on her sword.
Then, the two dancers tilted their heads to opposite sides, and held out their opposite hands to the walls. A pair of grandfather clocks on the walls began to shudder, before their pendulums ripped themselves out and placed themselves in the dancers' hands.
SHINK SHINK
And that's when the pendulums each sprouted blades out of both of their sides, and the masks' bottom halves fell off to reveal gnarled, twisted grins.
And that's when the dancers charged, screeching demonic notes not meant to be heard by the ears of man.
"Damn!" Uni shouted as she and Gear braced for battle.
-XO[]/\-
"Can't that bastard just come out already!-? The suspense is killing me…" Iffy grumbled as she and Compa cautiously moved along. The shadowy figure had been stalking them for several minutes now, always remaining just on the edge of their peripheral vision… taunting them.
And as if to make things worse, a low, buzzy, static-like noise had slowly been growing louder as the minutes passed. IF took this as a sign that the figure was ever-slowly edging closer to them, and it was making her antsy.
Then, as the duo passed by another room,
SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM
All the doors in the hallway suddenly began slamming open and shut several times, startling the two childhood friends. Unfortunately, this caused Compa to jump away from Iffy ever-so-slightly… and the shadow took its chance, wrapping a tendril around the nurse and jerking her away.
"IFFFFY!" she screamed.
"COMPA! Dammit!" Iffy sprung into action, chasing after the tendril and the terrified Compa, who was being dragged towards a door at the end of the hall, an evilly grinning, featureless face floating in the darkness beyond it.
'Al… most… there!' Iffy thought as her hand inched ever-closer to Compa… but then, with a sudden sinister snigger, the tendril jerked the nurse away at twice the speed it had been going before, spiriting her away into the darkness behind the door, which proceeded to slam shut.
"NO!" Iffy shouted in despair and anger as she reached the closed door. Slamming an enraged fist against it a few times, she then stepped back and gathered up some energy.
"LEDELPHINUS!" the guild member shouted, unleashing a large beam of blue energy at the door and busting it down.
CRASH! BOOM!
As the dust died down, IF ran into to the room, only to find it empty save for a few ancient pieces of furniture.
"NO!" She shouted dejectedly, hitting the wall.
Then came the eerie notes of an echoing snicker. Iffy turned around, extreme, unfathomable rage in her eyes, to find a shadowy, fairly humanoid figure with a wide, unfriendly grin on its mostly featureless face and gangly arms and legs more akin to tentacles standing just at the edge of the entrance to a room a short ways down the wall.
"You…" Iffy ground out, "I'll kill you… I'LL KILL YOU!" Dashing in the direction of the apparition, katars drawn and murder on her mind, tears could be seen falling through the air as the guild member made her way to Compa's abductor.
The figure's grin appeared to widen.
-XO[]/\-
Despite all the things that had been happening elsewhere in the house, things had seemed rather quiet on Vert and Nisa's end of things. Nothing seemed to jump out to attack them.
Though, Nisa couldn't get this bad feeling out of her mind… lost in thought as she was, however, she wound up slipping in a puddle and fell backwards.
"Gah! Ow…" Nisa groaned.
"Oh my. Are you alright Nisa? You really should be more careful…"
"Yeah, I'm fine…" Nisa paused for a moment. "… That was a puddle of blood I just slipped in, wasn't it?"
Vert took a closer look at the puddle. She placed a hand over her mouth. "I… I believe so…"
"…Ew." The heroine deadpanned, but then, as she was lying on the floor, something caught her eye. "Lady Vert, am I imagining things, or are there skeletons walking towards us?"
Vert looked to the area behind the two and gasped. The skeletons they'd been passing earlier had indeed gotten up and were shambling after them, eyes glowing red and weapons raised to attack… and they brought friends.
Having registered that the duo had noticed them, the army of skeletons screeched out a monstrous, unnatural roar and charged towards the women.
Leaping to her feet and brandishing her laser sword, Nisa shouted, "Bring it on, you vile monsters! We'll teach you to mess with Gamindustri's defenders of justice!"
Vert smiled serenely, remaining calm and bringing out her spear. "Indeed. Do not underestimate us."
However, in a cruel twist of fate, a pair of undead hands burst out of the floor beneath Vert and dragged the goddess under.
"Huh? – AAAAAH!" Vert screamed.
"Damn! Lady Green Heart!" Nisa shouted, attempting to help; unfortunately, the hole in the floor closed itself up before she could get the chance.
"…Guess that means the heroine of justice'll have to go solo for now…" Nisa said somewhat solemnly, turning to face the skeletal army charging toward her.
-XO[]/\-
"Oof… where am I?" Vert asked herself as she looked upon her new surroundings. She appeared to be in the basement of the house.
"Well, I don't suppose it really matters. I need to help my friends." Looking for a way out, the CPU was unsuccessful for several minutes.
Vert sighed in exasperation, then prepared an attack. "Synthet Spear!" She shouted, launching a beam of green energy at the ceiling. It had no effect.
"Hmmm…" the goddess hummed to herself.
"..g…ter…" came a nearly-silent whisper.
"Huh?" Vert jumped slightly, whirling around and scanning her surroundings, trying to locate the source of the whispering. "…Who's there?"
"…ig…ister…" came the whisper again, slightly louder and oddly more… numerous?
Vert gulped, a slight shiver running down her spine.
"…bIg…SiSteR…" it came again, yet again louder, yet again more numerous, and now with a chilling demonic edge.
Then they began appearing. Several beings that appeared to be young girls, but most certainly were not… at least not anymore. Hair stringy and bodies mutilated, they chanted out in a twisted chorus.
"…cOMe PlAy WiTH uS BiG sISteR… HEheHe…"
A bead of sweat rolled down Vert's face as the ghosts around her giggled in an eerie harmony.
-XO[]/\-
"Crackers crackers crackers crackers!" Nep shouted in panic as she and Noire ran about the house as fast as they could, doing their damnedest to find their friends before it was too late.
"Of all the times to not be able to poof into my HDD mode! I seriously don't sound serious enough as my normal self!"
Noire rolled her eyes as she ran. Not that she didn't appreciate Neptune being serious for once, mind you. "Just keep running!"
"(ROOOOAR!)" A massive roar sounded from somewhere in front of the two goddesses, causing them to skid to a stop as a hulking monster suddenly crashed through the hallway in front of them. When the dust cleared, it revealed some kind of vaguely humanoid… abomination, with unnaturally long arms and legs (which strangely lacked toes, only having bloody stubs), which appeared to be so because its bones had elongated to nearly twice their original length. Unfortunately, the skin on the thing's arms and legs apparently didn't grow with the bones, and blood continually dripped into a puddle beneath the beast. To complete the horrific package, its face sported a lipless mouth with mangled teeth and blank white eyes. Oh, and it looked hungry.
"Wow, a wendigo. You don't see those often." Nep commented, and, despite her somewhat joking comment, she'd already drawn her katana. She isn't that stupid, you know.
Noire, who had also drawn her weapon, stiffened as she heard a hissing noise. "…I think he brought friends…" Lastation's CPU said as she turned to find an enormous cobra slithering toward them from the other direction.
And then a large mass of thorny vines exploded from a nearby wall before revealing a flower with a distorted human face in it.
"…Whoa." Nep said.
And then a giant spider with backwards human hands on the ends of its legs and several baby spiders crawling all over her back scurried forth along the ceiling.
"…You have to be kidding me…" Noire said, somewhere between a deadpan and fear.
And yet several more monsters showed up to confront the two goddesses, causing them to eventually back through a nearby door (that they were almost certain wasn't there before) and into a large room with quite a big clock sitting at the end of it, which seemed to indicate that it was a scant few minutes before midnight.
"Seems like as good a place as any to have a monster mash." Nep said as she and Noire braced themselves to battle the horde of monsters.
-XO[]/\-
"Waaah…" Rom sobbed.
"Shhh… be quiet Rom… she'll hear us…" Ram warned.
"I'll… I'll try…(sniffle)"
Ram and Rom had been being chased by Pyramid Blanc for several minutes now. Needless to say, being chased by their possessed and murderous older sister wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world. They had lost her for the moment, and had hidden in a room, hoping she wouldn't find them.
"Shh, shh, I hear her…" Ram whispered fearfully.
THUMP… THUMP… THUMP… Footsteps sounded as Pyramid Blanc walked somewhere nearby, a low groaning noise being emitted by her hammer as it was being dragged along the floor.
Going absolutely still, the twins waited. The steps grew louder, louder, louder still. The groan of the hammer ever closer and closer. The twins sweated, making not a single noise.
Closer… closer…
The sounds seemed to come from just outside the room they were in now. Ram's breath hitched, her heart nearly skipping a beat…
And then the sounds began to get quieter, quieter, farther and farther.
Calming down a bit, Ram waited until she was sure her possessed sister was gone.
"…Phew-"
CRASH!
"HERE'SSS BLANKYYYYY!" Pyramid Blanc shouted as she began tearing through the door with her hammer.
"EEEEK!" the twins screamed as their possessed sister began breaking down the door.
Hmmm… you know, there's something funny about this situation, but I can't quite put my finger on what… I mean, it's just an insane psychopath tearing down a door to get at a pair of identically-dressed twins (who are technically supposed to be creepy, being that they're in their Halloween costumes), right? Eh, whatever…
During that odd little monologue, and perhaps as a result of adrenaline, Ram thought of something.
"Rom, we need to get to the sides of the door!"
"Wh-Why?"
"Just do it! I have an idea!"
Several seconds later, Pyramid Blanc burst through the door. "GRAAAH!" she shouted.
"Now, Rom!" yelled Ram.
"Eh!-?" Pyramid Blanc grunted.
The Candidate twins quickly closed in from both sides in a pincer move of sorts, and whacked Pyramid Blanc's helmet as hard as they could with their staffs.
GOOONG!
The force of the twin blows reverberated through the possessed girl's helmet, disorienting her, and after a few moments, expelling the now-dazed evil spirit from her body.
"Yes! It worked! Take that, you dummy ghost!" Ram yelled triumphantly.
"Yay!" Rom joined her.
"UuUuHh…" Blanc dazedly groaned, lifting up her helmet and revealing her face once more. Shaking her head a little to get her bearings, an aura of pure, unadulterated hatred and utter rage began to emanate from the CPU, so thick that it was literally tangible.
"You…" She growled at the spirit, who actually jumped a little from the sheer amount of anger Blanc was exuding. "Trying to hurt my sisters… that's already a death sentence for your sorry hide…" Her grip on her hammer tightened to the point that not only did her knuckles go white, she actually began bleeding from her hand.
Turning her head toward the spirit, it began somehow sweating when it saw the demonic – nay, Satanic look in her eye, and continued, "But… trying to force me to do it…" Blanc stomped on the floor which cracked under the pressure. Her aura began to cause bits of wood to rise from the ground beneath her feet. "No pain… no suffering… no torment… nothing, and I mean nothing, will ever compare to the eternal, never-ending HELL I'LL PUT YOUR RETARDED, UNDEAD BASTARD OF AN ASS THROUGH! RAAAAGH!"
Gulping in fear, the spirit turned tail and ran as the true Pyramid Blanc chased after it in hot pursuit, her sisters following behind her.
Not long after, the trio encountered a gigantic wall of spirits, among which was the spirit that had possessed Blanc. It was now looking rather victorious.
Looking upon the group, aura of rage still swirling around her, Blanc simply said, "Bring it on, bitches."
-XO[]/\-
"Ungh!" Nepgear grunted as she blocked a blow from the female masked dancer's pendulum blade. The being screeched in the Candidate's face as it began slashing, again and again, with unearthly force. Nepgear parried every blow, but damn did the thing hit hard.
"Hold still, you bastard!" Meanwhile, Uni was busy trying to get in a shot on the male masked dancer, who kept darting around and dodging her blasts while occasionally dashing in and trying to dismember the girl, at which point she would block his slash with her gun. Good thing it's so friggin' huge…
This was more or less how the battle had been going for several minutes, though the two dancers would periodically switch targets. However, at this present moment, the undead couple had apparently decided to change things up, as they both jumped back a ways away from the Candidate duo.
Giving a glance at each other, the male one began spasming, something seeming to come up into its throat. The female one followed suit, doing the same thing.
"Wh…what are they doing?" panted Gear.
"No…nothing good." panted Uni.
After a few moments, the male dancer spat out a raven. Then the female one did. Grinning at each other, the two suddenly released a massive flock of ravens into the room from their gullets, the black mass of avians cawing up a cacophonous storm.
Gazing at the ravens, Gear said, "…This kind of reminds me of a book I read once."
Uni glanced at her partner and deadpanned, "…You've read a book that features people with demonic red masks wielding pendulum blades as weapons that have the ability to barf out ravens."
Gear paused for a moment, blushing, as well as sweating a little. "Um, let me rephrase that… this kind of reminds me of a mishmash of books I've read…"
"Okay. Did any of those books happen to have a happy ending by any chance?"
"No, unfortunately…"
"Damn." Uni muttered, before reloading her gun and then unloading a gout of flame at the cloud of birds that began closing in on the duo. Gear joined her, slashing away at the ravens as they attempting to claw the girls.
The masked dancers screeched in the background, almost unheard over the noise of the ravens, appearing to be in twisted merriment.
-XO[]/\-
"GET BACK HERE AND FIGHT ME, DAMN YOU!" IF, still crying at her failure to protect her friend, shouted angrily as she slashed at the shadow, who continuously floated away from her, always just out of reach, and always dodging any long-range attacks she attempted to use. The roar of static that seemed to come with proximity to Compa's kidnapper should have been nearly unbearable to the guild member, but in her despaired rage, she hardly noticed it.
The shadow continued to taunt her, continued to back away, cackling in an inhuman tone contrasting its humanoid appearance.
And IF continued to chase it. She would never stop. Not until she got Compa back. Not until she was safe and sound…
…Not until she killed, no, annihilated this bastard, in the most painful way she possibly could!
-XO[]/\-
"Oh yeah! Hail to the heroine, baby!" Nisa shouted as she took down the last of the skeletons that had been accosting her (it went down after a rather fierce NISA PAWNCH), which laid in a massive, crumpled heap all around her.
Panting a bit, the heroine, who looked a little worse for wear, but was okay overall, stopped to catch her breath. "…Alright, now that that's done, I need to go help Lady Vert…"
As she turned to leave however, a crackling noise caught her attention, and she turned back around. Her eyes widening, she said, "…Ah, man…"
A valid reaction, considering that the skeletons were rebuilding themselves and getting ready for round two.
Nisa cracked her knuckles. "Well, if you villains want more…"
"Come and get some!" She shouted, leaping into the nearest group of re-reanimated skeletons and began slicing and punching away.
-XO[]/\-
"CoMe PLay wiTH uS bIg SiStEr… fOrEvEr AnD EvEr AnD EvEr… hEhEhE…" the large group of ghostly girls chanted as they closed in on a trembling Vert.
"I… I always wanted a little sister, but… but not like this…" The goddess stammered, jabbing out her spear in an attempt to keep the phantoms away. They merely giggled in eerie unison at her, ever slowly getting closer… closer…
Closer…
-XO[]/\-
"Hah! Hiyah! Haaah!" Neptune shouted as she slashed her katana at the various monsters accosting her and Noire. Hacking away at a thorny vine and parrying a blow from a large wolfman, she turned to Noire. "Yo Noirey! How're ya holdin' up over there!-?"
Stabbing a oversized mosquito through its head and trusting her blade at some demonic clowns, she answered, "I'm alright, for the moment anyway." Blocking a blow from the wendigo, she stabbed it in the gut before pushing it away. "You?"
Nep responded, beheading a few zombies, "I'm hunky-dory. Well, more or less."
The two goddesses stood back-to-back as the swarm of monsters that seemed to come from all manner of horror movies and games undulated before them.
"…Noire, you know I love ya, right?" Nep said, rather solemnly. It was… unsettling, to say the least, to see her like that.
"Y-Yeah." Despite the current situation, Noire found herself blushing. "I… Well, I lo-love you too, Neptune…"
Nep hacked at a unearthly tendril that had tried to jab her, cutting off its tip and causing its owner to screech in agony. "…Sorries for getting' everyone into this mess… Meanie flyer…"
Noire cut off the arm of some sort of devil, who recoiled in pain. "Well, your friend IF was the one who suggested we investigate this place, you know. But it's not like any of us knew it'd be this bad."
Nep laughed a little as she got a killer snowman to back off. "Yeah, I guess… say, if we get out of this alive, we should totally, like, throw a massive party and have some wild monkeh sex, ya know?"
Noire blushed again, even as she caused a giant octopus' tentacle to be replaced with a fountain of blood. "J-Jeez… idiot…" She didn't object, however.
Nep smiled. "It was a pleasure servin' with ya Noirey. If we're gonna go out, let's do it with a big bang!"
Noire smiled back, and nodded.
Suddenly, the clock in the room began going off, its tone not unlike a bell in a bell tower, just as the mass of monsters decided to surge at the duo all at once.
GONG. One.
"Neptune… Break!"
"Infinite… Slash!"
GONG. Two.
-XO[]/\-
The mass of ghosts closed in on the raging Blanc, who batted them away, Ram and Rom supporting her.
GONG. Three.
Blanc grunted. "Hard… BREAK!"
"Rom, let's get 'em!"
"Yes…!"
GONG. Four.
-XO[]/\-
Nepgear slashed at some ravens before parrying a blow from the female dancer.
"Ugh… Celestial… Severance!"
GONG. Five.
Uni sprayed gout after gout of flame at the black birds of death, blocking blows from the male dancer's blade.
"Gh…! NGP!"
GONG. Six.
-XO[]/\-
"Hah! Hah! HIYAH!" IF slashed her katars time and again at the shadow, who continued to dance out of the way.
GONG. Seven.
"(Pant), (Pant)… Alright then you ass, time to go all-out…" IF said as she powered up, the shadow snickering in response.
GONG. Eight.
-XO[]/\-
"Man, evil never rests… but neither does justice!" Nisa shouted as she parried a blow from a sword-wielding skeleton, before suffering a stab to the shoulder from another that managed to sneak up on her in her exhaustion.
"Guh! Damn!" She grunted, batting her stabber away.
GONG. Nine.
The skeletons quickly closed in on the heroine, attempting to take advantage of her weakness. Nisa smirked. "Okay then…" She struck a pose. "Have a taste of my Zettai Hero Legend attack, you fiends!"
GONG. Ten.
-XO[]/\-
"Get… away!" Vert shouted as she beat off (no, not like that, ya pervs) some of the ghostly girls, who continued to giggle sinisterly.
GONG. Eleven.
"Perhaps in a different life, some of you could have been my beloved little sisters, but, as it is…" Vert said, softly, solemnly, "I'm afraid I will have to decline your offer. Spiral Break."
GONG. Twelve.
-XO[]/\-
"…"
"…"
"…Ooof… wh…what happened?" Nep said, blinking blearily, as she sat up. Rubbing her eyes, she looked around. "…The hecksies?"
All of her friends were strewn about the ground, unconscious but alive, and fully healed, to boot. The haunted house, as well as any of its attachments, like the storm, dead trees, and barrier, were nowhere to be seen.
"…I'm way confused." The goddess concluded as she scratched her head. She decided to just wait until everyone else woke up before trying to figure out anything.
-XO[]/\-
Some minutes later, the whole party had come to. Needless to say, everyone jumped for joy (or some equivalent thereof) upon finding they were still alive. IF had gave Compa a massive hug, sobbing. The nurse held her friend and patted her back to calm her down.
Of course, after the celebrations, there came the matter of what the hell had happened.
"…Are you guys sure none of you saw any sort of clue as to why that hellhole suddenly just disappeared and dropped us off out here, completely fine?" Iffy asked.
The group pondered this for a minute, before Noire spoke up. "Well, while Neptune and I were fighting off a horde of monsters, a clock started going off. It was really loud…"
Nep nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, yeah, and it went 'gong' a buncha times! ...Uh, I think it was… twelve times, right Noirey?" The lavendette attempted to count it out on her fingers before turning to Lastation's CPU.
"Yeah, I think so," she responded.
"So…" Iffy thought for a moment, "The house disappeared, and left us out here, at midnight, huh…"
"So…" Compa started, "When Halloween ended, the house did too?"
"It seems that way." Iffy concluded.
"Wow. Weird." Nep said, sticking her hands in her pockets. Upon feeling something in one of them, she pulled it out to reveal a piece of paper. On impulse, she said, "Hey, the flyer! …I still have this thingy?" But then, she took a closer look… "Hey, wait a minnit…"
"What is it, Nep?" Iffy asked.
"The flyer… isn't a flyer anymore." Nep said, puzzled. She showed the paper to the rest of the party.
It read 'Thanks for playing'… in blood.
"…That's… really freaky…" Iffy said, a little unnerved. Nepgear, Compa, and the twins shivered.
A gust of wind suddenly blew by, tearing the once-flyer from Neptune's hands, and blowing it away.
"…" As she watched the paper fly off, IF said, "…I vote we keep a close eye on any strange happenings next Halloween. Any objections?"
Unsurprisingly, there weren't any. Unless that chirping cricket is objecting.
"Oh, oh, Iffy!" shouted Nep. The guild member turned toward her friend. "Can we have a party? I mean, we didn't get to trick-or-treat or nuthin', and then of course all that nasty hizzouse bidness happened… we didn't get to have any fun! We just got nearly traumatized and stuff…"
IF thought for a moment, then closed her eyes and smiled. "Yeah, a party sounds like a good idea. What do you guys say?"
The whole group was, surprise surprise, in unanimous agreement.
Iffy's smile grew a bit wider. "Well, let's go then."
And so the group headed off, the various girls telling tales of what they'd had to go through in the mysterious house. Nep hung off Noire's arm and bugged the tsundere, the Candidates chatted together, and Nisa hammed up her stories to hell and back. The whole group was a far cry from what they'd been a scant few minutes ago. If I had to guess why, I'd say their minds are probably already trying to suppress/repress the memories of the experience.
As they walked back into Planeptune, a figure watched them from a distance, unnoticed. As the paper from earlier blew by it, one of its hands shot out and grabbed the parchment. Upon closer inspection, this figure is actually the mysterious little girl in the white dress Nep kept seeing.
After gazing at the paper for a moment, it dissolved into dust in the girl's hands. Turning towards… the readers, it looks like… the hair covering the right half of the girl's face fell away, revealing a bloody hole where an eye – and much of the rest of that part of the face - should have been. The girl smiled.
"Happy Halloween, everyone…" she said before dissolving into dust, her eerie giggles echoing on the wind…
-XO[]/\-
OWP Special – End
-XO[]/\-
Summer is at its end
Autumn, around the bend
Many a leaf litters the ground
Halloween is celebrated all 'round
And as the undead come back to roam among man
Into houses, cemeteries, cities, and more
No one should be unawares, lest the night end in gore
-XO[]/\-
AN: And there ya go, doods. The Neptunia fanfic section's very first 'Holiday Special' fic (What? Every section inevitably has a few after they get sizable enough)! I hereby claim this prestigious spot! I shall go down in history! HISTORY, I TELL YOU!
Honestly, I wanted to include this as one of HDA's episodic stories at first, but, well, I was kind of in the middle of the Iffy's Harem arc at the time, and I wasn't about to pull a Bleach and stick it smack in the middle of it. And I figured I wouldn't be able to finish the arc before Halloween… I really wanted to write this, though, so it kinda wound up evolving into what you just read.
That poem at the end is something I made up myself. See if you can spot the easter egg in it. ;)
Try to spot all the references, too. There's a few in the costumes, and then of course there are several in the house itself as well. Have fun spotting them, doods~