It was 10 am. The room was brightly lit with sunlight. Uzume opened her eyes slowly as she used her left arm to block much of the light coming in through the window. She was lying on her bed in her pyjamas. She grabbed her head, trying to massage it. She was having a headache.
"Ugh… My head hurts, I must have bumped my head while sleeping. And why do I feel so tired, I doubt moving some furniture would make me this tired."
Followed by the comment, Uzume made a loud yawn before getting up from the bed. Still slightly tired, she began changing her clothes. After dressing into her usual attire, she slowly wobbled her way for the kitchen.
Meanwhile
Nepgear and Neptune had both just woken up. It was the first time for as long as Nepgear could remember, to wake up around the same time Neptune would. She was climbing down the ladder, but both due to her headache and exhaustion, she slipped. Luckily Neptune had managed to catch her before she could get a second headache.
"Ow… Wha-!"
"Whoa! Careful there Nep jr. You ok? You don't look well."
With a loud yawn, Nepgear replied "I'm fine, I'll go prepare breakfast."
With that, Nepgear got up from Neptune's arms and started wobbling out of the room and towards the kitchen. Neptune following behind, getting ready to catch a falling Nepgear.
"Oh. Hello Uzumeaaaah" Nepgear's greeting was interrupted with another yawn.
"Hey Gearsy, Neptsy. You seem very tired Gearsy, you ok? First time seeing you waking up this late."
Although Uzume didn't see, considering that they all arrived at the same time, she could tell that Nepgear had only woken up not long ago.
Uzume also let out a loud yawn.
"You don't look too good yourself there Uzume, with you yawning that loud and all" Neptune commented with concern evident on her face.
"Nah, I'm good. By the way, where's Histoire? She's usually up by now as well."
"No idea" Neptune shrugged turning towards the kitchen to grab some cups and drinks.
"Thanks Neptsy." Uzume grabbed a cup from Neptune then poured it with some orange juice. Chugging down the entire cup in a single go.
While walking towards her console, Neptune managed to catch the presence of the floating Histoire, who flew in inconsistent height, clearly drowsy.
"Whoa there Histy! You look like you are going to crash at any moment!" Neptune quickly dashed to Histoire, holding her up so that she doesn't crash both like a computer and a plane.
Quickly following behind, adult Neptune showed up, as energetic as all Neptunes are. "Ooooo! Your guest room bed was really comfy."
With that, the 5 seated themselves down for breakfast. "By the way Histy, you looked busy last night, is there something on today?" Neptune asked.
"No, but it seems the others decided to visit today. Whether it is just to play around or for work I do not know."
"Well, there's nothing happening so it's probably to play."
"Well that is fine for them, but I will still have you working today Neptune."
"Whaaaat? The host can't leave the guests behind!"
"Uzume, Nepgear and I will be the hosts, so you can go and do these quests."
"Egh. Fiiine." Neptune replied with an annoyed tone. She knew that once Histoire has made up her mind, changing that would be too much of a hassle for what it's worth.
2 hours later, the other CPUs have arrived. All gathered in the living room.
"Hey Neptune, Uzume and Nepgear."
"Hey Nepgear." "Hello. Ms Nepgear." "Hey!"
"Hey Uni, Rom, Ram"
"Heya everyone! Did Ya miss me, Lonely Heart?"
"Is this how you greet someone who came to visit?" Noire walked over to Neptune and began twisting her fists against Neptune's head.
After that short greeting, everyone began doing their own thing. The four CPUs sat down on the floor and began playing a 4-player fighting game brought by Blanc. While Uzume and adult Neptune sat on the couch behind them, conversing with the CPUs. The candidates on the other hand, were playing their own monster hunting co-op game on their Ngear.
After an hour passed, Histoire interrupted their (more specifically Neptune's) play session.
"Alright Neptune, please go and do those quests I gave you earlier."
"Ugh… Ok… Here you go Uzume" Neptune handed over her controller to Uzume, however the other CPUs put down theirs.
"Fu… We were playing for an hour straight, and immediately after we arrived too. Time for some break." Noire stated, relaxing her body from all the tension that was built while competing with one another in the game.
"Oh please Noire, surely this is not all you can do."
"Well, sorry for not being a gaming maniac like you Vert." Noire retorted sounding rather harsher than she meant to. Luckily the other person was Vert, who simply laughed it off as if she was proud of that fact.
"Well anyway, I'll be back real quick!" With that, Neptune left, leaving a gust of wind behind.
"Oh yeah, I got a new room now. It's really cool want to see?" Uzume invited others as a way for them to take a break.
"Oh, cool. Ok" With the agreement from Noire, Blanc and Vert also nodded in agreement.
"Ow… I think nature's calling…" Adult Neptune replied while she covered her own stomach in pain, and left for the bathroom.
"I told you it wasn't a good idea to eat those wrapped foods. They were obviously past the expiration date. Especially right before sleeping too. I'm surprised you didn't wake up in the middle of the night." Croire commented with a sigh.
Of course, being that it was simply a room, it didn't take long to show everything. The candidates were invited too, and you could say, it only took as long as it did because of the twins.
Now the entire gang (apart from Neptunes and Histoire) was walking down the hallway back towards the living room. And of course, with this many eyes, the bookshelf had once again caught the attention, but this time it was Blanc who found some of the books on it rather intriguing. However, that attention was quickly moved towards the abnormally large gap between the shelf and the wall behind it.
"Huh. Why is this moved so far out?" Noire questioned as the twins moved in to peak behind it.
"Well, duh, it's obviously because it's hiding something!" Sure enough, the twins found the metal door behind it. With a loud gasp coming from Ram, the twins tried to move the shelf, soon joined by the rest.
"What is this door? I've never seen it." Uzume stated in amazement.
"What's this? Password?" Nepgear looked at the screen placed at the centre of the door.
"This looks like some secret door you would see in some science fiction anime or movies." Uni couldn't help but comment about the comical look of the door.
A second later, Histoire appeared to the scene, questioning what everyone was doing.
"What are you all doing?"
"Oh, hey Histoire. Say, what's this door about?" Noire turned towards Histoire as she asked.
"This is just an old storage room I sealed up to make sure Neptune couldn't access it."
"But why? It's not like there is anything dangerous inside right? Not to mention, I doubt Neptsy would be THAT careless." Uzume interjected.
"Unfortunately it is something dangerous. And while no, she wouldn't go around carelessly with them, if they were ever used, the damage could be catastrophic."
Normally, such warnings would deter one from doing anything rash. However, the fact that it was sealed up inside a basilicom, in the CPU's living quarters no less, and Histoire's reasoning had further intrigued the group.
Noire requested with her eyes firmly on Histoire.
"Nepgear, please open the door."
"Huh? Oh, ok…"
With that, Nepgear began hacking the door, causing Histoire to panic.
"Please Nepgear, stop!"
"You are sounding awfully suspicious there Histoire." Blanc interrupted Histoire. Standing between Nepgear and Histoire.
Histoire, realising the kind of trouble she was in, quickly flew away towards the sibling's room. At the same time, messaging Neptune.
Neptune was already down at the guild. Along the way, she had run into Compa and IF, Neptune's long-time best friends. IF had to go fetch a quest she had planned to do alongside Neptune's. However, upon her leaving the building, she found Neptune staring intensely at her Ngear.
"Sorry Iffy, Compa. I need to go, it's an emergency."
"Huh, what em-"
Before IF could even finish the question, Neptune had transformed into Purple Heart and flew off at maximum speed towards the basilicom, more specifically towards her room.
It only took a few seconds and upon near arrival, Purple Heart could see her room window open, presumably by Histoire. Flying straight in, histoire quickly instructed
"The door now, go!"
With almost no loss in momentum, Purple Heart dematerialized her wings and sprinted to where everyone was.
Meanwhile
"Ah, it's open now." Nepgear signaled to everyone.
The group entered the room looking around in amazement. The room was a medium sized laboratory. It was also really cold, almost as though the entire room was a freezer (Of course, the Lowee CPUs were fine). The lab had shelves on both sides of the room full of test tubes, all filled with all sorts of coloured liquid and sealed. Further down at the back of the room, was a large table with all sorts of equipment, some recognisable, others not so much.
"My, what is all this?" Saying that, Vert looked over to a nearby shelf, taking out a test tube for closer inspection. The tube was half filled with some sort of green liquid, with a cork seal on top. However, after a few seconds the tube's liquid had turned to gas, filling the tube completely with a green fog.
Unfortunately for everyone, their time of awe was cut short with a loud bang coming from the doorway. It was Purple Heart standing there as if she had just stopped running. Her right hand was against the door, making it evident the banging noise just now was from her slamming her hand against the door. What's more, everyone could tell that she was absolutely furious.
"Get. Out." Purple Heart said, she spoke with authority.
The group quietly left the room like children in a classroom and moved to the living room.
If you thought Neptune would only be on the receiving end of a lecture, you were in for a ride. For the next Hour, everyone was forced to sit on their knees. Neptune, still in her Purple Heart form, stood near the windows and began lecturing about the dangers of those equipment and how foolish they were to go around carelessly touching things they had no idea the dangers of.
"Really. I thought you were all smarter than this…"
Histoire floated in with a statement "I'm sorry Neptune, I tried to stop them. But unfortunately, the explanation I gave only made them more eager…"
"It's alright Histy. It's not like you could really do anything, that paralysis spell is only effective up to 3 people at most anyway."
Neptune transformed back letting out a big sigh. However, she saw Vert holding onto the test tube filled with green gas.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING STILL HOLDING ON TO THAT!"
Everyone was in the middle of standing back up, but the sudden shout from Neptune had startled all of them. Everyone jolted in surprise, which only made things worse as that had caused Vert to drop said tube. Now, the floor being carpet should have made this into a none-issue, but due to the fact the tube was filled with gas, the pressure from the inside and the shake that occurred due to hitting the ground, pushed the cork out.
"Phew, that was one heck of a stomach ache… Hmm? What's going on everyone? Why is everyone screaaaaaaah!" Adult Neptune had just returned to the living room after her nature business. She had no idea what was going on and began to scream as green gas had filled her vision.
Neptune immediately grabbed two people that was closest to her. Luckily Vert was standing at the back of the group and was far away from Neptune. This had given just enough time for Neptune to grab two people and transformed. The gas quickly spread, filling the room, but not before Purple Heart had managed to break open a window as she flew out with the two people she grabbed. The two coincidentally, happened to be the twins, who transformed once they were outside.
Looking back, Purple Heart screamed in frustration. The citizens below could hear the sudden scream coming from above. Looking up, they could see their CPU making a mess out of her hair. It was a surprising scene that one would never expect coming from Purple Heart.
A minute later, the ventilation created by the broken window quickly dissipated the gas. The three escapees re-entered the room. Histoire with a gas mask, quickly flew next to Neptune. For the twins, it was like the world had turned upside-down. In front of them were kids, looking no older than 5~6 years old.
"Cough cough. What was that!?" It was Noire who shouted with a lot more childish voice. Then, realising her voice had changed, Noire looked down at her own body. She realised her body had turned to that of little kid, and her clothes were oversized for her, resulting in everything sliding down.
"Ahhhh! What happened to me, where is this? Who did this!?" As she screamed, she grabbed her clothes to cover herself up. She turned to look around only to find that Blanc and Vert were also in the same situation.
Hearing Noire's screams, Uni who had also turned, looked at Noire. "What happened to you Noire!?" Noire turned towards the voice calling her. She found a black-haired girl same height has her looking at her in shock. But there was one problem…
"Who are you?" Noire asked.