In the breathtaking blue skies high above the world, where pure white clouds come and go...
...one certain purple-haired goddess was falling from it.
"Yep! Totally a normal day! Clear skies and all! Nothing wrong here!"
She smiled as her body continued to fall down like a crashing meteor.
"Still, I must have been falling for a while. Pretty hard to tell what's below me at this long ride."
She looked down towards the ground, except that all she saw were oncoming clouds passing through her with a fluffy, moisturizing feeling, only to be met with more oncoming clouds.
"Y'know, now I wonder how I got up here. Just a minute ago, I was running away from Blanc like it was some kind of a party game..."
Then her eyes opened up in a comical fashion.
"And then, POOF!"
She smiled again while still feeling the winds brushing through her hair.
"Crazy magic trick, though! Didn't look like it had some of that flashy style, though, but it was neat-looking."
Finally she frowned as she came across something in her mind.
"But I'm super offended. Playing dirty with little ol' Neptune when she isn't looking, huh? Once I get down from here, I'm gonna..."
Hilltop Heights – Prologue
On the breathtaking blue floating ruins not high above the world, where rainy clouds came around...
...one certain blue-haired person in a top hat was standing on it.
"Three... two... one..."
Like a black meteor that came unannounced from the skies, one falling person met with the blue roads of the open temples with such force that it may have very well left a crater in its place, with the dust on the ground sprinkling all over the area. The person in the top hat barely moved from his spot, considering how the impact was quite a few meters in front of him. All he did was keep his eyelids closed to keep the dust away from his eyes.
When he opened them, the results he saw in front of him were well-received.
"Jaackpooot~," he sang along, smiling.
"Bleeegh..."
Right in front of him was the goddess of Planeptune, looking as pristine as ever. Well, save for some messy clothing, she was still pristine-looking. Neptune was definitely the person he needed for this certain task of his, and he wasn't going to let this chance slip away. That's why he summoned her, in this world, to help him out in his favor. And it sure looked like the result of her summoning was good.
Even if it resulted in the fierce burying of her head. Oh well. Her head was always intact.
"Um, downsides here and there, but it worked anyways," he muttered to himself before walking towards the body of the goddess. "Here, lemme help."
Grabbing a hold of the two legs that happened to be the only pieces of her not stuck in the asphalt, he pulled with only little force necessary to throw her up above. Looking at her next landing spot, she landed gracefully with her feet planted firmly on the ground, the only thing she felt being the pain of landing like so. She still appeared to be at a daze from the earlier impact, and he could not blame her.
"Bleh..." She only said.
"...You're welcome," he sighed, scratching his head a little with his left red arm. Upon hearing from him, she suddenly jolted up to give him her thanks.
"Oh, thank y—"
...And then realized who she was talking to.
The boy in the top hat with that odd red arm.
"Y-you!?" Neptune stepped back as her surprise gave her a clearer view of the world around her, along with him in the picture. She desperately hoped the person in front of her was only a mirage her eyes were seeing, all the while going through a mantra of, "Please, no, don't let it be him, don't let it be him, don't let it be him..."
"Yes, me," the person in the blue top hat responded. "Me, me, me, myself, and I, and me." He then smirked. "Oh, and did I mention me?"
She shook her head violently, trying to deny the existence of the person in front of her. "No. No. No no no no."
"That's an odd way of saying 'hello'."
...Why.
"What the crackers do you want with me!?" She retorted at him with a heated glare.
"I dunno."
...
...
Her glare faltered to disappointment.
"Oh, um..." He began to fix his own words, then stared back at Neptune. "I kinda want you to handle a request for me."
A request? Nice! Maybe he summoned her just to let her in on one kind of wacky adventure to claim one of the most awesome prizes of them all! It'd be kinda hard to say no, especially since he chose her! One problem though. It was him making the request.
"That's a big job, mister," Neptune argued back, her glare returning. "I think you didn't check your head on the last time I was with you."
And last time, it was just for a promotion that he wanted, or some fad. Both, maybe. Either way, he seriously didn't treat her well towards the end, or so she thought.
"Didn't I tell you to blame Dr. Cone for having to ride the missile?" He sighed. How was it his fault if it wasn't his idea in the first place?
"You never wanted to tell me the missile was a nuke at all!" She shot back. Why was there a nuke, even?
"Well hey, we needed to put you on a ride and stuff."
"Then why would you go bonkers and suggest to some evil doc to build a missile for me to ride on!?"
"I dunno."
...
...
"You got a perfect score of 100 in the end," he argued in the most brilliant way possible while pointing at her. "There's no room for complaints," he continued.
"Oh, sure," Neptune folded her arms, giving a look of disapproval. "A perfect score of 100 that makes it sound worth blazing through the large explosion."
"A perfect score that gave you an S-Rank," he added, giving a smile that was very out of place in the argument.
"Anyways," she decided to lay down her law, "I'm totally not accepting any special requests from you of all people. Pick another goddess."
Not that he was going to take no for an answer, so he may as well convince her otherwise.
"And don't you try bribing me, bozo!" She exclaimed hotly, almost as if she read his mind. "You're talking to an improved Nep-"
"A year's supply of pudding and cookie products from the best brands."
"When do we start!?"
Neptune easily sprang up to his bait, even literally getting close to him with pure excitement. Hook, line, and sinker. He didn't let his victorious smirk be shown, however.
"I need you to go east and look for a person over there," he instructed in the most simplistic way he did. To where he was pointing, it was a batch of multiple floating ruins very much like the ones they were on, though his arm pointing lower suggested it was below them.
"Sure!" Neptune excitedly shouted, sounding ready for the thrills of her new adventure. "I'll get it done pronto!"
...
"...Dude, seriously, like I'm falling for that." And all of a sudden, Neptune glared at the person in the top hat. As if getting hired by this guy wasn't enough, now she was getting tricked! "What kind of person do you expect me to find in the middle of the woods?"
"Some girl named Noire, of course," he simply said.
"Yeah, right, like Noire could be..."
Neptune's thoughts screeched on their tracks.
"Noirey's here too?" Was this guy for real? Why was she here?
"Yes," he confirmed for her with a nod. And... that's all he did.
...
"Still not falling for it."
Maybe not too easily, even. He sighed. It wasn't even a trick against her, yet she still didn't trust him. Must have been the likes of karma after all he had done, but he didn't want this to go to waste.
"I'll go with you."
Something cracked inside Neptune's head. She wasn't taking all too kindly of him at all, was she...?
"Um... no." Neptune slowly shook her head in wonderful disbelief. "No," she repeated. "I'm sorry, but I'm not open for any proposals from you to start raising flags. Party request canceled." And she certainly didn't want the likes of him circling around her the entire day.
He shrugged as he chose to ignore that second-to-last statement. "Fine. Don't come running to me if it's a trick, though." He fixed his hat. "Of course, if it is a trick. I won't be around to confirm it for you, you know..."
She gulped. He was never going to take no for an answer, was he?
"Alright, fine, you can come along," she decided before sagging.
Judgment Waltz joined the party!
"Noooooo!" She suddenly screamed skyward in despair. "I thought you would just take the role of an NPC! Why are you—wait a minute, your name is Judgment Waltz, now?"
"Yeah, that's right," he snapped at her, "my parents hated me!"
"...How much of a lie is that, and what the heckles are you even talking about? And why are you still in the party like a freeloader!?"
"I dunno."
...
...
...
"When are you starting, Neptune?"
"Gaaah. I wanna go home..."
Hilltop Heights – Act 1
Hilltop Heights, a beauty of mystical teal ruins that belonged to an unknown civilization lost long ago. To this day, it floats in the skies with unimaginable power, only useful for its everlasting levitation abilities. There didn't happen to be any records of it left behind, nothing of the sort to keep its memory. The only thing around was that odd portrait of a blue hedgehog, but it was only placed there recently.
There happened to be a daily set of storms rushing in. It wasn't impossible; this area was located around the minimal cloud levels, and there were plenty of lakes around the small mountains. It might even be considered lucky for a wanderer to locate a place that had no storm, not even the smallest drops of rain, along with having broad daylight surrounding the area, and even then, it might only last for an hour before the rain would settle in again.
"How are you feeling, Neptune?"
It wasn't even two minutes and already he had asked that. Neptune groaned as they walked around the floating ruins above the clouds. She didn't know how the heck did she get involved in this, and she didn't know why was she involved in this. And why was he involved in this.
...Maybe. Knowing his track record with her, it was probably just to mess with her. Again.
"I feel positive! All A-Okay!" She cheerily spouted before mumbling, "Now can you ask me that some other time?"
He only hummed to himself as he fixed his hat. He was seriously tormenting her in the most subtle way, and she didn't like it.
"Knowing you, Neptune," he spoke up, "I actually expected you to take this adventure with some excitement. It isn't often you get to explore new places, right?"
"I don't mind about that," Neptune huffed, "but I preferred if it's not from you. I mean, an adventure is cool beans and all, but you're not the first guy I should go to if I want one."
"You ask people for one?" He surmised amusingly. "Like who? The antagonists? The villains? You just walk up to them and say, 'Hey, go destroy this town so I can save the day,' and expect it like so?"
"Don't stuff words in my mouth. And if that's the case, I wouldn't hear the end of it from Histy. Besides, I only want an adventure, not cause one. And it doesn't mean I'll be totally lucky to get one right away."
"You have one."
"From you."
"It's still considered one."
"Is Arfoire the final boss?"
"...Maybe not."
"Then I declare your adventure to be not so dope. Where's all the fun in it? With all the radical rides and the tough-looking bosses and all those plot twists that happen from time to time?"
"You're just being impatient."
"You shouldn't keep a girl waiting, then."
He only shrugged at her. She frowned. He never had an appropriate response to her, let alone a positive one.
"...Why am I in this adventure, anyways?" Neptune wondered. That was something he never explained before. For now, it was just seeing Noire and all of her wonders and blunders, expected of her character, but there was definitely more to this journey. Like a mission out of a hundred, and the hundredth mission was the final boss, followed by some extra boss, or whatever.
And that would be a scary thought. How long would she last if he was giving her that many missions?
He smirked. "That's classified information."
"...Of course," she sighed. Leave it to him to even cover up the story...
One small cloud quietly appeared in its path and was headed towards them. It wasn't the first time Neptune once felt clouds, to be honest. Falling down from the skies seemed to be a thing for her, and before all that, she did wonder how the clouds felt. Considering that her transformation could only get her so far, those chances were very rare.
They weren't as puffy or soft as she imagined once she found out, though.
That's not to say it wasn't pleasant. It almost felt like a cool breeze with rivulets and trinkets of water flowing around her. And she liked it all the same.
As they left from the cloud that enveloped them, with their sight moderately restored, they came across a road that led downward, to the hills just below the mess of clouds. There were sounds of harsh raindrops dropping hard to the ground.
"...We're going in there?"
"Where else, Neptune?"
Hilltop Heights – Act 2
"Totally a bad idea!"
"Still an idea."
Neptune ran around through the woods in slight panic to quickly find the nearest shelter found anywhere. Contrasting to her panicking was her sole ally, running in the same speed yet not showing that he was bothered to the heavy rain at all.
Must have been the hat. Damn hat.
An opening in a hill immediately suggested paradise to the one who wanted to escape from the harsh rain, and Neptune couldn't agree more. Diving into the entrance with no consideration, she felt she was safe in this damp haven of a rain shelter. He strode past her landing point, finally slowing down to a simple walk.
"Come on, we have to keep going," he urged her, to which Neptune pouted.
"No way. Can't we just take a breather in here?" She protested cutely as she leaned close to the cavern's walls. "All this mucky rain made me a wet sponge. It's not gonna do me good if I go on troopin' like this..."
"Don't worry about it," he responded with a small smile. "You won't get sick under this heavy rain."
"Huh?" Why wouldn't she after all those raindrops?
He shrugged. "The plot demands if you get sick or not," he said without much of a care. "So if the plot doesn't demand you to be sick, then you won't get sick."
...Despite how illogically odd and insane it sounded, it made sense.
"Well, yeah," she murmured. "If you put it that way, then it makes sense why we can take our sweet time sleeping before we beat the final boss of a game. Hot springs, arcade, whatever you groove into, the final boss will still be waiting with the patience of a saint."
"Yes, only if the plot demands, and the plot demands that you fight now."
Her head snapped up to him. "It is?" The plot actually does that?
"Yeah, the random encounter monsters right here won't wait for you."
Right on cue, and to Neptune's annoyance, one monster stepped forth to greet its new adversary. A Dogoo. Nothing too special about it. Just a normal, run-of-the-mill blue Dogoo bopping right towards them. Not long afterwards, another Dogoo emerged from deep inside the cave, coming along to assist its partner.
...
"Don't I deserve a break?" She whined. "Why a battle after the downpour I've just been through?"
He only shook his head. "This is your first fight here. Get it together."
What a perfect way to start the adventure! With a very bored tormentor standing right beside her! And very unwilling to help her, to boot!
...Wait, he is a party member.
"Hey, wait a second." She turned back to him and glared. She wasn't letting him off that easily! "You're a party member too, you help out."
He actually looked surprised for once, a rare expression from him that's hardly seen often. The only way she could tell was that his mouth was slightly open to her response, and he was indeed rendered speechless. There's no way he could actually come up with an excuse to that.
And finally, he spoke up with his right hand covering up an eye.
"Well I did join the party willingly... but on second thought..."
Judgment Waltz left the party.
"H-hey! What gives!?" She shouted at him with blank eyes.
"Eh, you handle it," he responded with such a bored tone that it made the situation strangely normal to him. "Neptune Solo, go go go."
"T-traitor! A backstabber among backstabbers! Why are you leaving poor Neptune like this!?"
"I dunno."
...
...
Why.
Whatever, she mused, fighting with him wasn't really going to keep these monsters at bay.
Neptune was impressively quick to draw out her gleaming sword. The nearest Dogoo was first, with Neptune taking one leap forward with a clean smile.
"Sorry! A Nep's gotta do what a Nep's gotta do!"
The sword rushed through from the ground to the monster with an upper. Following that were two slashes connected with a spin, along with a direct thrust. With a mere simple combo, the first Dogoo vanished within a second. The next Dogoo made its way towards her, bouncing onwards to smash her with its weight. Not even that caught her as one swift sidestep landed a miss. The monster was then met with a barrage of slashes Neptune was all too giddy to inflict.
A bit unexpected was that one Horsebird that suddenly barged in the area, bum rushing her when she was least expecting it. Neptune winced, yet the pain she felt was no more than a slap. Smirking slightly in anger, she only brought her sword forth and relentlessly attacked, almost looking as if she was flailing wildly, despite her attacks being well-coordinated. Just a number of slashes was enough to destroy it, and it joined its cohorts in the digital afterlife.
And... that was that.
"...Boring," Neptune groaned as she put away her weapon. "Man, I got all worked up for nothing..."
"There shouldn't be any more in this cave," he spoke up by her side as they began walking deeper inside. He then glanced at her a moment later. "You did well against the Horsebird, by the way."
She screeched on her tracks.
Did he just praise her!?
...
"Yeah, but it was just a low-level Horsebird." Why was he praising her for that? There were a lot more tougher enemies around, and that Horsebird wasn't one of them.
"I know," he said, still moving on. "Still a nice recovery, though."
And just like that, he left without another thought. Neptune was still in shock from his words. Praise, from him? That's weird. He never was one to praise when it came to her. All the other goddesses, he gave his own thoughts, but never explained his towards Neptune. Then again, she didn't really know him that well. He was still a jerk to her, even if most of the time it was for amusement, but...
"Wow, is he getting loco all of a sudden?" Neptune hummed to herself as she recounted the times he ever did anything good for her. "I swear, that was totally not him at the moment..."
"I heard that." Was the response she gained from deep inside the cave. Neptune staggered back. Well, at least he's still paying attention.
She only wished he was more considerate in their lives...
Hilltop Heights – Act 3
"The exit should be over there. Let's go, Neptune."
"And how do you know that, Top Hat?"
"Because I said so."
"The story doesn't say so."
"Look, I see pure sunlight over there, coming from that opening. Now the story says so."
"...Are you sure the light's not the entrance to Celestia? Because that would be a very bad end for me."
"Stop whining and let's go."
Placing their hands on their foreheads in a position to make sure their eyes didn't burn out from the sun after seeing the shrouds of darkness for a while, they both traversed to the exit of the tunnel. The trip to here wasn't that eventful, much to Neptune's dismay. Just three monsters that she fought earlier. That's it. He sure was feeling pretty out of it to make this journey so far to be so short and boring...
Her expectations were switched around a little when she peered out.
No rain. She figured it out the moment the sound of raindrops were quickly being dissipated as they continued onward, and it was a blessing that she no longer had to suffer for the consequences of not having an umbrella. She welcomed the reflecting dewdrops all around the valleys when she exited the hill. Despite the sunlight filtering through, there were some drops coming from the sky, only being barely noticeable to the touch compared to a storm. Sun showers, then.
The long-lasting trees and the grassy plains were not what surprised her the most, however.
"Whoooaaa..."
A lake. Pristine blue, clear as glass when looked closer, and even reflecting the sun's rays over the horizon. A beautiful, large lake, almost as comparable as the wide ocean, with even actual fish flopping about inside the waters while jumping up for joy. Above the shining lake was a large rainbow, all majestic colors from it available to the eye. The rainbow continued to stand there, perfecting the scenery with its vivid, colorful presence.
He smiled. She only gawked at it.
"Um... wow," Neptune tried to form sentences to compliment its divinity. "Like... wowsers. Scenery powers right there. Total beaut."
"I think so, too," he softly replied before tipping his hat. "It's too bad most people are often distracted with their own work that they tend to ignore things like these."
Neptune pouted. "That's a real shame. They miss out on stuff like these from time to time. I guess that's what happens when they only care about the stuff they have to roll with."
She stretched around a bit and relaxed, taking in the atmosphere.
"But this is too awesome for words, you know! It's not wrong to stop on by and check out the view once in a while!"
"Do you plan on taking a selfie and brag about it?"
"Yeppers!" The N-Gear she just waved around confirmed it. "This beats Vert's scenery any day of the month!"
"I figured as much..."
He sighed. Oh well, let her have her fun. It's not often she'll run into this world, let alone stay here for as long as she wanted. Might as well make the most of it.
"Aaaaaand... done!"
He smiled. He didn't mind seeing a cheery Neptune every so often. If anything, it helped add to the beautiful scenery as well, in some way.
"Alright!" She jumped up in excitement, throwing a fist to the air. "Now, once we're done rockin' this adventure, I'll bring my complete party over! And you're not saying never to it!"
He chuckled, which happened to be a rare moment for him.
"I wouldn't."
Hilltop Heights – Boss Act
The lower levels continued to carry that lake in the horizon.
Neptune felt bad that she had to leave from that spot, with all the majestic views and the variety of colors it held. She had made him promise about their return to the lake when their journey was over. He was still holding his promise, but she wasn't sure if he was serious with it. It didn't matter now. They had a certain objective to complete at this point.
Walking around while admiring the rest of the scenery was Neptune, lollygagging around the area feeling very appreciative of the nature. She wasn't Vert, but seeing the full-grown trees even give a reflection of the color of the lake was just 'super radical!', as she thought. He followed her, being very mindful about this world's vibrant fantasy life, while still keeping a bored face. Was he having fun? Neptune didn't know.
Their walk in the park came to a close when they stumbled on something. Or, rather, someone.
"Huh? Hey, is that...?"
Neptune trailed off, the scene in front of her being a bit hard to take. The person standing motionlessly in front of them was indeed the same person they first sought out. He wasn't wrong, but he never explained about what happened to her.
"Noire? But..."
She blinked. Noire stood stiff, with no sign of movement from her, almost as if she was a statue. He wouldn't blame Neptune if she did assume the Noire standing there was a statue at first. Not only was Noire completely frozen solid, some kind of... visual effect was on her. Static, as it seemed. Monochromatic static was placed all over her, which contrasted greatly to the entire, vivid area of Hilltop Heights.
"Wait," the purple-haired goddess began to point it out, "why is Noirey here looking like she's inside an ancient television?"
She walked up to her frozen friend, examining her for anything else that stuck out, but one light bulb popped out of her head after a few seconds. And then, she carried a large grin, very sincere of its mischievous side.
"Hey, you think she wouldn't mind if I grabbed a marker and drew on her face?"
He sighed. Best if he put off her plans before she did anything crazy.
"She is in a sealed state," he pointed out while fixing his hat. His explanation gave way to Neptune paying attention. "Whatever happened to her, her inner clock appears to have been stopped."
Inner clock? The terms used together made a terrible implication.
"W-wait," she turned back to him, having a distressed face. "What do you mean she's stuck in time? She's seriously frozen?"
"It's the seal's effect, yes," he answered with a nod. "And of course, unless it's broken, she'll literally be stuck like this."
She turned back to Noire again with a sigh.
"Noire... they sure must have got you good if you got sealed so easily..."
"I wouldn't be sure about that."
Now she was confused. She didn't understand what he meant, and he noticed.
"This seal's probably made through an actual force of nature," he clarified for her, despite still being unsure himself of what he was even saying. "It's just that it might have been controlled by someone else... but the answer right now is unclear."
"Hey..." She gave a broken smile. "There is a way to fix this... right?"
"Hm..."
He snorted, almost as if he expected the question. Then he looked onward, past Neptune and the frozen body of Noire.
"Why don't we ask that giant dinosaur genie doll over there?"
"Giant dinosaur genie doll?" What kind of crazy talk was he-
Her purple eyes snapped open.
"Stupid orders... stupid luck... stupid hag..."
Using Noire's own, frozen body as cover ("Huh, looks like she grew a little..."), Neptune peeked from above the shoulder and feared for the worst while trying to stay undetected. Her apathetic partner wasn't kidding. Heading in their way was a giant, yellow figure with that horrendously long tongue, along with a large ring accessory perched on his back. His entire appearance, as he coined, was like a giant dinosaur doll, and an ugly one at that. The yellow giant was blabbing about something with his long tongue flailing about.
"Why didn't I just choose which area I should stay in?" He complained to the nonexistent heavens. "Oh, wait, that's right. I don't get jack to make my decisions! Now I'm stuck with a boring old windbag in a boring world here! Where are my beautiful, sweet maidens when I need them!?"
Neptune sighed. The boy sighed as well. A nuisance was reborn, and neither took kindly to it.
"Well, look at the bright side," the bored boy suddenly addressed to the giant as Neptune blankly stared at him for his crazy decision, "at least you still have a long life ahead of you if you do well."
"Yeah," the giant mumbled, barely acknowledging the person's existence, "maybe once this is over, I can snatch a few princesses and head straight to a castle resort for about..."
...
"Hey!" The giant snapped to his senses and roared back to the boy. "This is a restricted area, you old fart! What are you doing here!?"
"I dunno."
For once, Neptune smiled at his mocking catchphrase.
"And besides," he continued with a yawn, "I don't find this place restricted-looking. You don't have a sign up saying 'No entry', or something."
Neptune bubbled up, pushing herself away from Noire's cover while giving up the rest of her reasoning to stay hidden. "Though, if CFW Trick here did put up a sign, I'm sure we'd still explore it since it's basically telling us to check it out, in a way."
"Well, there's that," he smirked, raising his right arm in a gesture.
"Gaaah!" Trick yelled in frustration. Another person in here!? "How did you even find this spot!? I thought you would never find us here!"
When the giant asked that, the two active travelers both gave a flat stare. Meanwhile, the boy in the top hat looked around the area around Hilltop Heights, full of large lakes and a few teal-green trees, before he answered to the giant's question.
"You know, if there were even less trees around, I'd question your eyesight on the world..."
"Hm... maybe he should have got in a totally empty cave or something," Neptune gave her thoughts with a drop of sweat. "It works as a dungeon. Not too out in the open. Perfect for even finding hidey holes and all."
"Eh... I probably should have relocated a little," Trick sheepishly mumbled... then he got angry to them again, and even more frustrated. "Hey, wait! You guys still stumbled on this spot here! You're still considered intruders!"
"Still not our fault~," the purple-haired goddess sang a bit.
"And since you're not leaving quietly..."
The giant pulled out a remote of sorts, with an antenna attached to it. After flipping and pressing through a number of switches and buttons...
"...you're gonna have to deal with this one!"
Strolling just behind Trick was a robotic vehicle, rushing into the scene. A large buggy, painted in a cyan color with the headlights resembling large eyes, possibly saying it was even sentient. To them, it looked like a very stylish buggy, but Neptune found it at least a little plain compared to the other vehicles in Planeptune. At least this was more shinier compared to what Lastation had to offer.
Wow, what kind of engineer made this toy just for CFW Trick to hold?
"And as a special feature for you windbags here," Trick mumbled, with a pointy finger hovering over one final button, "I'll put this thing on auto-pilot!"
"Sounds like a cool feature," the boy mused sarcastically. Neptune merely rolled her eyes at that.
Once the giant pressed the big red button, the large machine started up... very akin to how an automobile did, as it shook for a moment before its engines were revved up. They saw that the angry headlights blinked for once, and there was... smoke being emitted from his front? It even sounded like it was growling with the humming engine.
"Now to scram from you oafs! Good-bye!"
And Trick bounced away to the horizon, leaving behind a very angry-looking cyan-painted buggy. And the machine was still glaring at them.
...Ah.
"Wait, this is our first boss?" A bewildered Neptune spoke up. "We're gonna fight a giant car?"
The cyan buggy revved up at that question to imply its agreement. It really was alive. Just what was this buggy, and where could Neptune get it?
"Well, if it's the first boss, we're bound to go somewhere in this story," the boy tipped his hat.
"You mean beating this boss might save poor Noirey?" Neptune suddenly theorized. This boss actually had the key to unlock the seal? Well it made sense. It was a story boss, and didn't seem optional at all.
"I dunno."
She glared at the boy for his usual response. "Get real. You're the author of this story! Aren't you gonna answer like a man?"
The blue-haired individual only stared back. "What if I felt like not knowing how these story elements work?"
"Dude, you and your messed-up—"
HONK!
Neptune was easily startled by the horn of the sentient buggy. Oh, it was annoyed. It was about to fight them, but then all of a sudden their conversation left to different topics elsewhere. She wanted to blame him, really, for having them go to other tangents while forgetting the main event here. So, first boss. A large, cyan automobile that happened to be sentient. Not a tank, of course, but it was one heck of an enemy. A buggy as a boss? At least creativity was going somewhere. Sort of.
Neptune readied her sword, got into a stance...
...and remembered something very important.
"Hey Judgment, you're in the dog pile this time."
"No."
Neptune glared at him again. First boss! It's the first boss, and he's not interested!?
"You are so in, you lazybones. Help me out!"
"I refuse."
"Can I make a super duper deal with you if you agree?"
"You can try."
"How about a tea party? I can invite you, maybe have Compa and ol' Histy cook up some rad snacks and meals, too!"
"Denied."
"What about if I buy you lunch and dinner? I'll get you whatever you want on the menu! Prices be damned!"
"Not interested."
"We can always go to the beach! I'll invite everyone else in their swimsuits, too! Who knows, maybe I'll say 'cowabunga' when surf's up!"
"Boring."
"You can have dear Nep Jr. go out with you! Well, maybe I can't allow secret smoochies, but hey! Dates! How about it?"
"Some other time."
"Gah! There's seriously no reason for you to not fight! Come on!"
"No."
Well, just her luck. Neptune groaned in irritation, still not believing how he refused to join no matter the cost, and then turned to the buggy. Neptune solo, then. Bad enough that she had to include him in her adventure, but he's not even being a reliable member to the party—
Judgment Waltz joined the party!
She blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice. And then, she turned to him, who happened to have a sword, built like a mirage in appearance, ready in his right hand.
"Okay. Why are you joining now?" Neptune blankly stared at him. He basically refused every single one of her deals and trades and all those knick-knacks. What's with the sudden change in his decision?
"I feel like it."
...
...
She sagged. Never a good response. "Eh, better than what you always say, anyways." She then turned to the giant vehicle, anticipation of a good battle gleaming in her eyes. "Alright! As a valuable party member, I order you to help me out here!"
"Nah, I'll just stand near the border of the battlefield and watch you get run over."
She twitched a hand before narrowing her eyes as the boy began to walk away from the area. That did it...
"...Wow, Judgment. I can't believe you're letting a party member get KO'd to the first boss of the story."
"First boss of the story!?"
Then he ran over to her side in a split second, Neptune noticed in amazement, and his left, red arm pointed to the large, cyan-painted buggy, a form of anger flickering brightly in his red and blue eyes.
"Fudge crackers and buckets of walrus tusks! You're going down!"
Neptune simply had no idea what the hell did he mean by that, so she only rolled with the bizarre declaration. Finally, they both turned to the buggy as it waited with just enough patience before it blew some more steam, showing that it was finally all prepped up for battle.
Warning! Warning! Warning!
Boss – Steam Breaker
"Maybe I should get an award for making the best names out there," he quipped hastily, the sarcasm not lost in it.
"I'll probably vote for you as runner-up." Neptune shrugged. "Well, if you're into that kind of thing. Bozo."
Vrrrmmm, vrrrmmm...
She blinked for a moment when she saw the tires spinning. "Wait, is that thing charging at us?"
He shrugged. "What else do you think? Break!"
With as precise timing as a quick-time event, both Neptune and Judgment safely rolled out of harm's way as the Steam Breaker released its brakes. It accelerated pretty quick, but it was still slow to catch the two, or either of them. Unfortunately, the buggy wasn't stopping anytime soon as it successfully made a steep curve, and began to charge right at them again.
"Hey!" Neptune called out to him. "You know the strategy to this boss!?"
"I actually do!" He halfheartedly shouted. "Jump on its cockpit for massive damage!"
"...Huh?" Neptune rapidly shook her head. "What genre did you land on!? This is an RPG, not a platformer!"
"No it's not!" He argued back. "It's a fanfic!"
"You treat it like an RPG, though!"
"How else am I supposed to treat it!? You're the one that set the series as one!"
"Then why are you making excuses when you're the almighty auth-"
Thunk!
Neptune blinked the moment she saw a large blur of blue smashing right onto him, the Steam Breaker driving through without hitting its own brakes. As it was, the boy was being carried away by the brutal bum rush of the machine, up until a good fifty meter stretch, where the Steam Breaker pulled a stop on its brakes. The moment it did, the boy was flung away from the force physics it left on him, sending him through a distance longer than where Neptune can hope to see with an eye.
She smiled.
"Well he deserved it... but still..."
Then she gulped when she noticed the large buggy making an 180-degree turn and looking right back at her. Okay, so maybe the battle wasn't completely done, she realized. Now with Judgment at a distance, she had to at least wear it down... or maybe she might wear herself down if she tried for too long? Weaknesses, then. Just a weakness she needed to find and make use of...
"...The cockpit?"
Vrrrmmm, vrrrmmm...
Neptune idly wondered to herself if he was making a stupid joke, or his stupid joke actually had the best insight here. Regardless, she didn't have any other lead on how to deal with a runaway boss, sans the one he just slipped for her. Alright, then.
The moment she heard the tires screech again, Neptune raised her sword, and got herself in a stance.
"Let's see if I can score high..."
Once the blue bull started to sprint, she slightly crouched to prepare her next course of action. Forty meters away, the boss was still rushing onward. Thirty meters away, she firmly squeezed herself for the jump. Twenty meters away, the engine was increasing in volume.
Ten meters away, Neptune smirked.
"Aha!"
Neptune fiercely sprang upward and executed her plan. Within a good altitude to make sure she wouldn't get hit anywhere by the oncoming buggy, she drew an arc once the boss was just right below her. As the hit landed, the buggy suddenly began flashing white with the headlight-eyes looking like they were widened. A carefully-planned dodge with a well-timed hit.
Neptune landed with as much grace as a cute child and threw a fist in the air as the buggy tried to slow down.
"That's one hit down."
She almost tripped on over when he suddenly appeared right behind her, but she didn't have much of a reason to be angry with him yet. Still, one hit?
"How many hits do we need to land?" Neptune wanted her curiosity fixed.
"For the first few bosses in this fanfic," he tipped his hat, "six."
"For the first few bosses?" Neptune spouted, exasperated, before coming to a groan. "So there are other bosses that can take more hits, huh?"
"It's actually not that difficult," he sighed as he leaned closer to her. "You only need to do something as simple as this."
He grabbed her leg with both hands.
"Hah—!?"
And then he unceremoniously threw her up high to the air, hearing her melodic and beautiful screams of agony getting low in volume as she flew straight up. Her figure would get smaller for the remarkable distance he threw her was high, but not to the point of disappearing in the eye.
Now it was the buggy and him.
"Let's see..."
Another mirage sword appeared at the palm of his hand, and he gripped it tightly. Meanwhile, the Steam Breaker revved up for a few seconds, preparing its next attempt to flatten the blue-haired boy. And then, it released its brakes, dashing onward again to meet the boy.
That was when it noticed a sharp sword stuck to its cockpit before it vanished, and the buggy flashed in white again. He had simply thrown the sword in quick succession and was rewarded for it.
"That's two."
It spun out of control a little as the damage was getting to the boss, leaving the boy to smirk slightly. As it tried to meet with him, only for the damage to its system ensuring a miss, he only altered his position a little by sidestepping, letting the buggy zoom on by with nary a scratch on him. He only felt the force of winds it left behind from spinning wildly.
Next step.
"—Whoa whoa whoooaaa...!"
The purple-haired goddess made her reappearance by doing her habit of falling from the sky. Once the buggy regained control and glared back at the boy, Neptune, with a good velocity speed, smashed headfirst into the cockpit and gave another hit to the buggy before bouncing right off, leaving the boss flashing in pain.
Where Neptune landed next after bouncing off the crash was next to where Judgment was.
"You look okay."
Neptune stood straight up and gave him an accusing, pointing finger, but the way her body was wavering a little, where her arm pointed, and how her eyes were shaped like swirls showed that she was facing in the wrong direction.
"Shut up, jerk."
"I'm right here," he sighed behind her, hoping to fix her direction.
"Yeah, I know you're right in front of me."
"No, that's a tree, Neptune."
"I know you're a tree!"
Honk honk!
She finally snapped out of her dizziness thanks to the boss catching their attention. Oh, the battle was still on.
"Three more hits," he mentioned.
Neptune sagged as she gave a stare at the machine before smirking to herself. "That's cool. Looks like things are going well for now. This should be easy-peasy!"
A cold air descended upon them.
"...You moron!" The boy suddenly yelled, his unexpected outburst almost throwing off Neptune's balance. "Just... why!? You're not supposed to say anything that tempts Fa-"
That was when the machine cranked a few sounds. As the duo turned to it, they noticed a pair of gadgets unfolding from its sides, elevating higher than the cockpit, and each looking about half as large as the buggy itself. So the buggy happened to have large laser cannons installed, too?
"Yeah, stuff like that happens," he quietly muttered. It seemed that Fate was still giving these effects even when she wasn't around.
"Wow," she whistled. "Like, I knew you could bring up bad luck after saying something like 'everything's okay', but..."
A radiant, blue light began to shine from the large projectile weapons. Could they dodge fast? But what if the boss was able to rotate the projectiles around? Then...
"Hey! Over here!"
Neptune blinked once before turning to the blue-haired boy, who was waving around frantically (albeit with that very out-of-place smile), trying to get the attention of the boss. She wondered if she should get involved in the craziness he was planning. After looking back to the buggy that was shifting its aim to the boy, she decided not to interrupt the boy making himself as the target.
He smiled, lowering his arms. "Yeah, that's right! Come at me, bro!"
Neptune pointed to him while she still stared at the boss. Better to have him as the target.
"Yeah, that's right! Come at him, bro!"
"You still missed, though!"
"Yeah—wait, what?"
The dual laser cannons fired, decimating and incinerating anything that could be in its way. Neptune shielded her eyes the moment the giant lasers were fired as the intense brightness overtook her vision. Even though she wasn't standing that close to the large beams, she still felt strong heat being emanated from them. He had to have a special surprise attack if he was crazy enough to direct a strong attack towards him!
The intense light dimmed, and the whirring sounds of power calmed, easily telling her that the light show was over. Neptune lowered her arm and peeked to see what kind of result did he manage to get.
...
He still stood there. In the same exact spot. With the same, relaxed stature. The craters from the attack were located just by his sides, and he still showed no sign of any pain. Did he only stand still in the middle of the two lasers? Well, there was a bit of a gap just between the cannons. On the other end, the buggy had quite a fume lit up, though the rising smoke was not of anger, but more like... exhaustion?
Of course, the attack overheated its systems!
Then the blue-haired boy turned to her with a small frown. "Hurry up! It's cooling down at the moment!"
"Huh!? Oh, right!"
The beam sword that belonged to the purple-haired goddess was raised, and Neptune immediately sprinted with a gleeful smile.
"Three more hits...!"
The Steam Breaker watched helplessly as the childish goddess ran onward to claim her next strike. Much like last time, Neptune made a large leap over the boss and drew a curve on the top of the cockpit with a gleaming line. The boss flashed to white and back in pain, having its stamina drop a bar.
"Two more hits."
Judgment created a sword. He had simply no idea what kind of stylish attack could he do with the sword at the moment, so he turned away and flung the sword back while sighing and crossing his arms in boredom. The spinning sword made contact, blade-first, with the cockpit as well, and the buggy flashed in pain again.
"Grand finale!"
Neptune raised an arm up as she allowed a stream of power to surge forth, the ethereal light rising up and taking shape right above her. Once piece of faith she attained in her lifetime as a goddess materialized into one of her more powerful attacks, its form becoming a huge, light-condensed weapon aimed at the stalled buggy.
"Flashy finish!"
The large 32-bit Mega Blade came crashing down on the boss in a virtual blaze.
Hilltop Heights – Epilogue
The wreck of a boss was lying down, unmoving and inoperable. The headlights of it were permanently stuck to the appearance of widened eyes, almost as accurate as a dead person. The laser cannons it brought out earlier were dropped to its sides, sparks emitting from the broken circuits. Its defeat was as clear as day. Well, it's only clear around the lake they were in.
Neptune hummed, feeling satisfaction about the defeat of the boss, yet disappointment for some reason.
"I know it was the first boss, but that felt like... nothing. No dice for some fun."
Judgment turned his head away, carefree. "I think its berserk mode was left off. Maybe that's why it settled for laser cannons instead..."
"It had a berserk mode?" The purple-haired goddess asked incredulously. "Like, the whole 'lower its HP to make it super-ticked-off' mode?"
"Well it was in a beta stage, but I think it would have worked out a lot better. Probably should have looked for the switch while we were fighting..."
...
"...You know, Top Hat," Neptune gave a look of disapproval, "when you get hungry for some tough guys to beat up, I might worry about myself from the madness you'll turn into."
"Hey, lately, I've been playing the games where you summon your inner self for more than a hundred hours. At the highest difficulty setting. I think I'm fine for the most part."
"Right... well, I still can't cut you some slack. Aren't you gonna worry we'll lose it in hard mode? I mean, fanfics can put you in saves anyways, but it's not that fun dealing with game overs all the time when we're actually doing this."
He smiled. "Relax. We're not gonna do hard mode in the main story."
"Well, that's a relief... wait, 'main story'?"
Quickly ignoring her disbelieving response to avoid an explanation and ruin the surprise, he turned to the wreckage of the boss. "Anyway, the key to unlock the seal on Noire should be in there." He tipped his hat. "Don't ask why it's in there, we just make sure it's conveniently stuck with the boss in order to advance the story."
"Shouldn't it have been with CFW Trick to—" She shook her head almost immediately. "No no, never mind. I get you." She frowned when she came to another problem as she observed the remains of the boss. "But how the heckles do we find it under a pile of robot ribs? I mean, it's gonna take forever to move the hunks of metal out of the way, and my poor arms are gonna turn into jelly, and—"
Suddenly the pile of broken metal and ripped circuitry shone with rays of light peeking out, until it unceremoniously exploded in a blaze of defeat with its pieces flying everywhere. Neptune quickly stepped back with a yelp when the explosion occurred, though Judgment didn't seem all that fazed by the sight or the sound.
Not even fazed when a piece of metal slapped on his forehead.
"...That hurt."
She couldn't tell if he was serious while hiding his pain, or if he was being plainly sarcastic. She turned back to where the wreckage was, and found something shining a bit bright on the ground, having her walk closer to it. It was black, and... shaped like a key? Wait, this was the key to unlock the seal on Noire?
"And it lived through the explosion. Sturdy stuff, right?" He chuckled playfully.
"Hey, I'll take 'em where I can get 'em," Neptune beamed at the opportunity as she snatched the key from the ground. Humming a nameless tune, she strolled over to the visibly-static CPU with the pristine key being twirled around in her hand. Within a dramatic movement, she readied the seal's key in front of Noire, and—
...and a myriad of thoughts came to her about the possibilities of a frozen Noire...
"Hm... I so have the urge to whip out a marker..."
"Neptune..."
"Easy, buddy. I only draw on her face when she's just like sleeping beauty. And I forgot to bring one anyways."
Ignoring the rest of his concerns about her next step, Neptune left the key to float next to the black-haired goddess and watched on. The object soon began to shine a white aura, with shapes of stars radiating from it as the key moved into the sealed CPU with a blinding yet warm light. The two that were bearing witness to the light had to shield their eyes from the thick shine.
Once the light disappeared...
"Wha...?"
Thud.
"Gah...!?"
The moment Noire was free from the seal that kept her frozen in time, she had accidentally tumbled forward once her footing felt extremely unfamiliar. With a faint groan towards her strange misfortune of falling to the ground, she started to get herself back up...
"Ow... huh?"
Were it not for two hands to swiftly and gently caress her back.
"Huh!?"
Her perpetrator smiled blissfully as she watched her friend steam up. "Hey, hold still, you feel so much warm when you're right next to me..."
"N-Neptune!? What are you doing!?"
"I dunno, I just have this beautiful~ temptation to hold you just like this... and you feel a little softer, too..."
"What... get off of me!"
"Uh, isn't it the other way around?"
"What do you—eek!"
The black-haired goddess quickly rolled away from the upbeat girl, standing up and dusting her clothes like a prideful royalist in a fit of embarrassment. It's not like Neptune would ever live this one moment down, but compared to those other mischievous times, this one was mostly tame, she assured herself. Meanwhile, her 'somewhat' loveable friend gazed at the bright blue sky in disappointment before shrugging and getting herself back up.
"So! Rise and shine, Noire!" Planeptune's CPU gleefully greeted. "With these fair skies and all, I think it's a perfect place to set up another date, don'tcha think?"
"Okay, first," Noire grunted with narrowed eyes, "you're supposed to apologize when you touch someone in broad daylight."
"But I thought you liked it..."
"Second," she quickly interrupted to avoid whatever excuse Neptune would have come up with, "weren't you being chased around by Blanc? What are you doing right..."
Noire trailed off when she took hold of their surroundings, to the large, reflecting lakes and the teal-green trees, along with the many steep hills that were surrounding them. If anything could describe this sensation about this world, it was unfamiliarity. Thought, lofty could also describe this scenery...
"Where... are we...?"
Neptune excitedly threw a fist in the air. "We're on a new adventure, of course! Except I don't know what it's supposed to be," she ended sourly, still holding a grudge against that blue-haired weirdo.
Noire sighed at the unhelpful answer. "Yeah, that's great. Now about the location of where we actually are..."
It was at this moment that he chose to speak up.
"We're on the outskirts of Horizon Hei—"
He slapped his forehead.
"Ah, damn it, redo!"
Neptune voiced out a bewildered "Bwuh!?" before—
Beep!
"We're on the outskirts of Hilltop Heights," he informed the CPU of Lastation, earning a look of surprise from her. "We ran into you while you were sealed, and we found the key to unlock the seal that was placed on you."
" 'Hilltop Heights'?" Noire worded out, confused. "Which landmark is that...? No, which city is it next to?"
"Come to think of it," Neptune folded her arms, shooting a displeased look at him, "we never got any dirt for where this place is supposed to be. You're gonna tell us, right?"
"I dunno."
...
...
"...Okay, fine," he sighed, giving in to their impatience. He fixed his hat a little before glaring at them. "Don't blame me if this turns into a plot exposition, though."
"Heh, 'plot exposition'," Neptune chuckled. "As if there's any plot to..." She suddenly felt a jolt of danger running in this situation. "Oh, wait, plot. We're working with a plot? There's a story behind this?"
"There's supposed to be one." He shrugged. "I think. Maybe. I dunno."
Noire frowned. "That's not much of a reliable answer, you know..."
He mockingly smiled. "Well, that's Neptune's decision at this point if we want some backstory here."
"You said it was classified information three Acts ago," the purple-haired girl accused, annoyance leaking subtly. "What makes us think you'll actually reveal something for once?"
He delightedly pulled a section break.
And Neptune backpedaled in complete fear. "W-wait, you can take that ba—"
"So, uh, there's this world I just ran into, that's this world we're in by the way, and it actually looked pretty cool to sightsee. There was this one other plot going on while I was on vacation there, and wow did it look cool. Anyways, I decided to rework this place because it was good-looking and I was able to come up with a story about it, except I needed to borrow some people for the story to work and it wound up being you guys.
"This is an entirely new dimension, by the by. I'd like to call it the MetaDimension, because it seems to be the kind of world that draws people from other worlds closer. Currently, we're sitting on top of the BTS Lands, a large island located next to the ATS Lands. I wasn't gonna deal with the ATS Lands right away, so I decided to get you guys over here instead.
"Except something happened along the way. Actually I don't know what, it might have been Fate unconsciously messing with me. Either way, almost all the summoning plans went bad, and Neptune happened to be the only one summoned with minimal problems."
"Yeah, define 'minimal'. Since when was summoning me from the skies above the best way?"
"Shut up, you're used to that gag. Anyways, Neptune was the one I successfully brought along. I'm not too sure about what happened to the others, but hey, at least the party keeps on forming as you go on. So, you're pretty much here to do recon, save the rest of your friends, and, well, beat the final boss or something."
Neptune's expression could not be any more fitting for his outrageous 'tale', if only because it wasn't even considered a story.
"That's... the plot?"
"I dunno."
...
...
"You know," Noire placed a hand on her temple, "I want to question about your writing abilities if you think this is what a 'plot' would sound like."
"Oh please," he shot back, "I can make a tale of giant puppies, chocolate magical girls, overpowered quarters that can fire laser beams, some guy named Bob, and a giant bag holding a star that harnesses the power of cellphones. I think this is fine by everyone's standards!"
"...Huh—"
"Anyways," he interrupted before either of them could get a word in, "while I'm not actually sharing much of the plot in detail, it shouldn't be hard to figure out some things going on in the background."
"I figured out part of it, at least," Noire hummed while placing a hand on her hip. "For one, we're not in our world, or our dimension, even. The fact you called this the MetaDimension should say a lot."
Neptune tilted her head in curiosity. "Wait, really? I guess that answers our first question. But you didn't have to keep it a secret early on just to keep the suspense," the purple-haired goddess complained.
"I try. Anyways, there's another thing that got revealed already." He nodded to Neptune. "Trick was here before, remember?"
A light bulb popped out of her head. "Oh yeah, that's..." Then her brows furrowed in confusion. "Wait, he didn't say why he was here, right? Isn't that... what, a bad way to start guessing the plot? Or the pieces of it? Whatever?"
"Trick... CFW Trick?" Noire asked for confirmation, feeling a drop of cold sweat run down. "He's actually back?"
"He's so back!" Came the heated response from the childish girl. "He was the one guarding the key to your seal. Or, well, his car was." There was quite a lot of context Noire missed that she decided not to ponder on it.
"But why was I sealed in the first place?" The black-haired goddess continued to wonder. "It might be because of whatever went wrong with our summoning here, but..." She shook her head, disregarding that puzzle for now. "No, never mind. What matters is, if Trick is here, then that means the rest of ASIC is back as well."
"Didn't we trash their party some time ago? I mean, this is before Victory happens and after mk2 is played, so unless if some weird magic somehow revived them, I think it's as confusing as Blanc's large books."
He coughed to get their attention and raised his right hand. "Um... spoilers?"
"...Oh, right." She rolled her eyes. "Spoilers. The reason why stop signs exist. Still," Neptune continued to ride on their train of thought as excitement welled up, "if they really are back, then Arfoire's gotta be involved, too! So she's the final boss after all, right?"
"I dunno."
...
...
"Calm down," he sighed after seeing them go for facepalms. "If you really want the story that badly, just go running through the rest of the Zones here."
"Hey, bozo," Neptune glared heatedly. "I get it. No plot. No spoilers. And even I sometimes don't roll with the plot. I get that. But what I don't get is why we're here in the first place."
"Isn't taking down a possible, second coming of ASIC a good-enough plot to work with?"
"...That works, but isn't that a teensy bit simple for a plot? Especially since it's coming from you, of all people..."
"Is he actually that bad as a narrator?" Noire wondered, feeling a form of dissatisfaction creeping up.
The purple-haired goddess shook her head. "No, he's just... weird. And he likes to demotivate me."
The blue-haired individual ran a hand through his head. Did he have to try to convince her through bribery again?
"Fine. Do you want me to make up for you?"
"Last time I checked, you didn't want anything when I tried giving you—"
"I'll make you a snippet of the love shenanigans between you and Noire."
"Sold!"
"Wha—!?"
Neptune had near-instantaneously appeared by his side, looking no different to how he tried to bribe her the first time. In doing so, she passed by Noire with such incredible speed that just the sudden dash had her twirl around in a bit of a daze before looking back to them in surprise... and then the black-haired girl remembered the point of this topic.
"W-wait!" She stomped loudly with a tint of red showing again. "Isn't a story about us a... a little bit too much!?"
Neptune didn't seem to care. "Why not? People make stories of our everlasting love all the time!"
"B-but isn't this with someone who you can't really trust? You don't know what he'll do!"
"If it makes you feel better," he attempted to calm her down, key word being 'attempted', "I did at least make a short story between Nepgear and that blue-haired Wild Card some time ago..."
"Aha!" Neptune suddenly pointed an accusation finger at him with a frown. "So you were the one who was supporting that pairing right behind my ears!" And why did that pairing exist anyways?
"And that's a story for some other time. So, are you really in? Because if not, we can pretend this never happened. Probably."
"Grr..." Was he really planning to drop every other subject if he didn't get a proper answer? This guy...
Still, this journey he made did raise some concerns. What was ASIC doing here? As a matter of fact, where were the rest of their friends? He didn't summon just her and Noire here; the rest had to be somewhere out there in this world, possibly being guarded by more of ASIC's goons. Not only was there the suspicion that they had to go and save them all, they'd have to foil whatever plan ASIC was working with, and that just might involve reviving Arfoire.
...
In context, that almost sounded similar to mk2...
"Well, can you blame me? The effort of a game's plot in your entire franchise can vary in many different ways."
"Duh, why else did you think we weren't taking our idol spin-off seriously?"
Ignoring his similar ability to read the text above... still, this was a different scenario, and while there was the chance he could still pull the plug on the whole thing, something she preferred a little more, she was still better off on playing along with this adventure for now...
"Alright!"
She pointed onto the road ahead as enthusiasm broke free from her control.
"Attention bad guys, this is Captain Neptune speaking! Do your worst!" Ah, so she accepted his challenge, he realized.
"Hold on," Noire tried to slow her down, worry being shown, "are you sure about this? We don't even know what we're getting into..."
Neptune cheerfully reassured her friend. "And that's the part that makes it exciting! Well, Judgment alone makes a dent on the whole thing, though..."
"Sorry I was ever born, then," he remarked sarcastically with a sigh.
"But you know what?" The purple-haired goddess clenched her hands with a fierce look. "We never get adventures this often, Noire. This is, like, a once in a zillion opportunities to make the adventure of a lifetime!"
Red eyes glared at her oddly, trying to settle the childish CPU down. "Never mind that we had an adventure of a lifetime not too long ago?"
"Hey, no one said we can't have two! Or three!"
"Though, to be honest," the person with the top hat informed with a red finger scratching the back of his head, "I did take her away in the middle of her paperwork by secretly uploading that video in her channel."
The two girls immediately paled for the same reason.
"You're the reason why Blanc stormed in my house like a raging bull!?" Neptune half-asked, half-accused.
"She was like a raging bull?" He seemed very curious about this point for some reason. He shook his head before smiling. "Regardless, you were the one who wished dearly to be away from the stack of papers for a while, so I granted it."
"Ah," Noire articulated at Judgment's assessment, eyes narrowing to the purple-haired girl. "So you're purposely avoiding your work, then." Her voiced theory managed to get Neptune look completely stunned as she blubbered at the thought.
"I am so not!" She stomped cutely. "My cool channel got hijacked, I just got kidnapped by a blue-haired weirdo, I'm forced to do recon because he says so, and it's all because of me talking to myself! You can't fault some crumbs on me for that! How else am I supposed to react with my paperwork lagging behind?"
"You chose to accept his 'adventure' regardless of those facts."
"I... well, um... I'm jogging while I'm kidnapped, and obviously not dodging work! Yeah, that's it!"
Noire, holding an irritated look, quietly restrained herself from further arguments with a wall. A wall that had a drawing that looked suspiciously similar to Neptune, as a matter of fact. She figured that if this somehow kept on going on, Neptune would eventually rile her up to the point that they would get nowhere fast. Still, it was hard to decline the adventure with her if there was indeed something going on, particularly if their friends were concerned, and there didn't seem to be anything else to do here in Hilltop Heights.
So Noire had no reason to refuse. "Oh, fine. I guess it's better than standing around here, anyways..."
Noire joined the party!
"Alright!"
Neptune excitedly gave a peace sign as the member count raised to three, while Noire gave a half-smile in response to the pep Neptune was radiating. Another adventure, one that was rather questionable thanks to this person Neptune didn't seem to like... well, for better or worse.
"Then, let me show you the next Zone you need to take."
He gained their attention for their next move before pointing to the land beyond the main road. The land onwards showed a field of burgundy mountains peaking beyond the tallest hills and ruins of Hilltop Heights, with the highest altitude of its land being beyond the clouds as well. They weren't sure exactly how far did it reach. Still, these mountains looked a lot more steeper than what Hilltop Heights could create...
"Our next stop is Rocky Ride," he informed them. "In our position, we can make it to the Zone after that with minimal time if we go through here."
"Rocky Ride, huh?" Neptune parroted as she observed the mountains, the steep slopes, the peaks that were obscured by the lower clouds, the steep slopes, the strange building stationed there, the steep slopes, the few waterfalls it had, and the steep slopes.
And the steep slopes. Which were surrounded by more steep slopes.
"...Um, I'm having second thoughts about—"
"Too late, we're going." Noire huffed at the purple-haired girl's reluctance as she herself started to move. Neptune could only stare silently as her journey went from dull, to somewhat endearing, to suspiciously torturing. The boy with the top hat sighed, patting on the frozen goddess' shoulder.
"It's okay. It's not as bad as actually falling from a steep slope."
Neptune in turn cocked her head towards him and gave a broken smile.
"You know... you're the best worst person I could ask for to rile me up for a ride."
"I'm the 'best worst person'? I can't imagine the 'worst best', then."
Finally, with a sigh showing great reluctance, Neptune returned to her journey, catching up to Noire on the way as the blue-haired individual followed suit. A new adventure, Neptune pondered to herself. She didn't like it a whole lot, that much was obvious, but she couldn't bring herself to hate it either. She even had this odd feeling it was one to remember in her lifetime. And it was coming from him, of all people who could make such an adventure.
She didn't know why. It just happened to be a pleasant feeling.
For now though, the plan for this part of the journey was pretty clear: rescue the other goddesses trapped in their seals, and drive ASIC out once and for all. So maybe the plot was a little too simple. She expected what, two or three plot twists out of this? Either way, there was definitely something odd about this story since he wasn't talking about it much, even though his justification for that boiled down to 'spoilers'.
Well, live and learn. Maybe it might not be too bad. Maybe she could give a little credit if he pulled off something interesting for once.
Now... to go through this nightmare of a Zone, on the other hand...
Finish!
Something I did (and will get back to doing) since a long time ago. I didn't want to upload it at the time since I was pressured with my other projects, but I felt bad letting it go to waste in Google Docs, so I uploaded it here for your convenience. And hey, if you liked it, that's great! If you didn't care, that's also great!
The only question is, are we ever getting a "Before the Sequel" for Neptunia? I wish I knew...
I'll definitely see what I can do with this one, but I'm not going to ignore my other works as well. I'll see what happens.
Now then...
Until the next moon...