"Gee thanks, Gust." Finally, Neptune had acquired the perfect gift for Nepgear with the help of her alchemist friend Gust. They even got it wrapped up in fancy paper and stuffed in an appropriately sized box, almost like a birthday gift. She was practically beaming with joy and already wondering just how Nepgear would react to such a gift, though she already had a pretty good idea of what would happen. Gust on the other hand…
"It was Gust's pleasure, now about our agreement." The small alchemist swiftly reached into her huge hat and pulled out a very… unique looking potion. It was all pink and bubbly, it was like a really girly-looking health potion.
"So all I have to do is drink this right? Are you sure that's okay? I mean you did help me find this gift and all."
"It is perfectly fine, Lady Neptune. All Gust needs is for you to test it and tell me about effects as soon as you can."
"Okay then, here goes." Neptune proceeded to start drinking until the whole thing was soon gone and… she felt nothing. "Huh, I don't feel any different. Aww, I thought it was gonna be like one of those potions that fully heals ya and doubles your attack power or something like that."
"Doesn't that also apply to soup?" Indeed, nothing could ever hope to match the love of grandmother's home made soup, just make sure you give her a fairy to make sure she's alright first. "But more importantly, it may take few hours for potions' effects to kick in. For now you should go home and call me if any changes occur."
"You got it, Gusty." With a mock salute and quick wave goodbye the purple-haired CPU was off to see the wiz-I mean off to the basillicom… Pay no attention to the narrator behind the curtains.
In fact, as she headed home she started feeling better already, maybe the potion had already started taking effect. She felt so good in fact that she couldn't help but break out into dance as she made her way downtown, walking fast, faces past cuz she was home-bound.
It didn't take very long before she found herself at the doors to the basillicom. She was really really excited and couldn't wait for tomorrow to come. Now if she had only paid attention she might have noticed that people were filming her dancing, in which case she might've understood why Histy and Nepgear greeted her with such gleeful expressions (the videos had quickly gone viral and caused a fair increase in Planeptune's overall shares). But nobody cares about pointless stuff like that, what matters is that Neptune was quickly starting to feel rather strange.
"Welcome back sis." Really really strange.
"Welcome back Neptune." In fact, it was starting to feel kinda hot… really hot
"Sis? Are you feeling okay?" Nepgear's answer came in the form of her older sister passing out and falling to the floor. "SIS!"
"Neptune!" The tiny oracle quickly floated over to the now unconscious CPU and putting a hand to the girl's forehead as Nepgear rushed to her side as well.
"Is she okay?" Gear was suddenly feeling very small, her voice felt strained and her eyes were trembling.
"I believe she may have caught a fever, though I can't be too sure. For now we need to get her to bed."
"Right!" Without wasting any time, Gear quickly lifted up her sister bridal style and ran off to their bedroom, all the while she couldn't help but feel a strange sense of deja vu."
-~-~-~- Purple Lovers -~-~-~-
To this day, nobody knew how long it would take for the console war to end. It had been going on for a long time, longer than most people could even remember.
"Rainy Ratnapura!" Even the CPU's themselves weren't sure how much longer it would take. As it stood, lady Green Heart was slowly losing interest in the console war altogether, hoping to put an end to it soon.
"Ein Shlag!" On the other hand, the ever proud lady White Heart wouldn't stop fighting until she was the only one left, regardless of how long it took.
CLANG CLANG
"Paralyze Fencer!" The only one who could hope to match White Heart's determination was lady Black Heart.
"Blaze Break!" Even lady Purple Heart had no intentions of backing down.
CLANG CLANG
At this point, things were getting nowhere fast, though considering how stubborn a goddess can be, only two of them could understand that.
"...huff huff… It seems as though we've reached an impasse." Growing ever tired and barely able to hold her spear, Green Heart didn't have any intentions of dragging things out longer than they needed to be.
"huff… huff… what're you talkin' about? I can still take all of you." As usual White Heart was feeling rather stubborn.
"She has a point… huff… none of us have enough energy to keep going." Luckily Purple Heart was actually using her brain and not letting her ego get the better of her.
"Speak for yourself… huff." Apparently Black Heart was feeling especially not give-up-y today. Translation: She was feeling cocky as all hell with Lastation's steady share growth.
So what happened next? Well the four ended up in another argument (which might as well have been a tradition considering how often they had them after battle) until eventually they agreed to return home and pick up where they left off in a few days so they could heal, and since you don't care about what happened on Neptune's trip back to Planeptune let's just cut to her walking in through the planeptower's balcony.
"Histoire, I'm… back?" As Purple Heart walked in she noticed that Histoire wasn't the only one there. Whoever their guest was they quickly ducked behind a chair at the sight of Purple Heart. "Who's our guest?"
"Welcome back, Neptune." Histoire turned her head to look to their "guest" as she cowered behind a chair, giving her a soft smile as she spoke to the frightened girl. "Don't be scared, she wont hurt you, why don't you go say hello?"
It took a few seconds, but after a while the small girl had worked up the courage to move out from behind the chair. As she did, Purple Heart's eyes widened, she was utterly dumbfounded at the sight of the little girl that stood before her, the reason being that she looked almost identical to herself in human form. The only real difference was that she had longer, neater hair, she was a little shorter and wearing a little sailors uniform too.
"H-hello." The tiny girl looked so scared, but then again it made sense when she was looking up at such a strong-looking CPU who was apparently also her new older sister.
"H-hello." Neptune waved at the girl, still trying to figure out how this happened before turning to her oracle. "Histoire, what's-"
"Well you see, after you departed for celestia the sharicite began to glow far brighter than I had ever seen before, by the time it died down this little girl was standing in front of it." At the very least, Histoire's answer seemed to alleviate most of Purple Heart's confusion. "If I were to take a guess, this was most likely caused by the sudden rise in shares. I suppose that that would mean that this little girl is your little sister in a sense."
"My sister. What's her name?"
"I figured that I would leave that for you to decide. Now if you'll excuse me." And with that, Histoire left the two sisters to their own devices in the same way one might expect from a flamboyantly colored lion with a bow-tie, meaning: Exit, stage left. Heavens to murgatroyd! How impressive! Spectacular even!
"Uhhh… So… I guess I'm your big sister now, Nepgear." As one might expect Neptune wasn't quite sure what to say seeing as how she just found out she had a sister and all.
"Nep...gear?" On the other hand, the little girl was looking up at her, obviously unsure of what that word meant.
"Y-yeah… that's your name. Do you like it?" The smaller girl gave a reassuring if only a little hesitant nod in approval of her new name. She actually kinda liked the name, but she wasn't sure what else to do now-
"Eh?" Suddenly a light enveloped around her sister and as soon as it vanished Nepgear was left in awe of what happened… HER SISTER SHRUNK! "S-sis?! What happened?" Her eyes widened, shock clearly visible on her face as she stared at the now smaller, but still taller than herself, form of her big sister. She had heard from Histoire that her sister was strong, but she didn't realize she could shape-shift too! What other amazing things could Neptune do that she wasn't aware of?
"It's cool Nepgear, allow me to explain how transformations work." Neptune waved a hand dismissively as she prepared for a very special lecture. "What you're looking at right now is my normal form." Once again a light enveloped her body as she changed back to the majestic Purple Heart. "And this is called Hard Drive Divinity." Inwardly, Neptune was disappointed that she didn't have any other transformations to show off so she could go into one of those cheesy anime monologues so she could look cool. Outwardly, she just smiled as she picked up her confused, yet starstruck little sister into her arms, but not before turning back into her human form of course. "Geez that takes a lot out of me. Hey are you hungry, Nep Jr?"
Then came another slow nod from the mini Nep sister.
-~-~-~- Purple Lovers -~-~-~-
A few days later
"Whee! Faster Faster!" The young purple sibling was in the midst of an intense horsebird riding session. Except instead of an actual horsebird, she was riding on her big sister's back. Neptune was busy doing her best horsebird impression, making whinnying sounds and galloping about like she did the last few times they had done this.
It had only been a few days, yet the two were already inseparable. Nepgear may have gotten a bit clingy, but it was still nice to see her looking so happy.
Only a few feet away, Histoire watched the spectacle with a smile on her face, but she couldn't help but wonder… why was Nepgear so small? Even Neptune wasn't that small when she was born, CPU's don't really grow very much after they're born so Histy just figured Nepgear was just going to be small for the rest of her life, well at least Histy wouldn't be the only tiny being in Planeptune… if only she knew.
"And now for the Nep special!" It was time. Time for Neptune's greatest horsebird maneuver of all… which apparently meant that it was time for feeding. With all the speed of a raccoon, Nepgear hopped off of her sister's back and quickly went to the fridge grabbed a pudding along with a spoon and with the precise motions of a surgeon she grabbed a makeshift feed bag and dumped the pudding into it. It was a truly breathtaking sight to say the least… to Neptune, but more than that she noticed something else as her sister brought over her favorite dessert.
"Hey Jr, did you put my name on this?" Nepgear recoiled in shock and nearly dropped her sister's precious pudding. How did she know? It wasn't even very legible and it was in such small letters that no normal person could see it from such a vast distance.
"How did you know?" Truly Nepgear was flabbergasted, but maybe her sister was just even more awesome than she thought.
"Hmhm, don't underestimate my eyes that can spot a girls panties and calculate their bust size from a mile away." So apparently Neptune is good at math… just not in the way most would expect. All the while Nepgear was awestruck and staring up at her sister adoringly like she was some sort of hero from ancient legends. The kind of hero that fights for the sake of making people happy, even if it meant having to fight with a future version of herself that was a way better fighter that could make swords out of thin air (Unlimited Bit Works!).
Histoire on the other hand was busy introducing her palm to her face in a maneuver known universally as the facepalm. Even still, she found a smile making its way to her face as she watched the two sisters looking so happy. She was glad Neptune could still smile, though she couldn't help but be brought back to her thoughts regarding Nepgear's heig-
The phone rang.
Histoire was broken out of her thoughts by the sound of a ringing phone. After a moment to take in what was happening, the tiny oracle made her way towards it while the two Nep sisters paused to look at her.
"I'll go get it, you two just enjoy yourselves." The sight of the two made Histoire feel like she might just burst out laughing. Neptune was scarfing down on her pudding while her sister was combing her "mane" and telling her how much of a "good girl" she was. Even still, Histoire held back her laughter and proceeded to answer the phone while the sisters continued playing.
"Who so you think is calling sis?" Nepgear's voice lowered to very hushed tone as she slid closer to her sister. Neptune took a moment to get the feed bag off of her face before speaking.
"I dunno, but I betcha it's one of my fans." Once again Nepgear's eyes turned into starts as she gazed upon the glory of her awesome older sister.
"I see… I see… Very well then… I will tell her right away." The oracle hung up the phone and turned to face the two sisters with a much less enthusiastic expression than before. "Neptune, it would appear as though the other nation's CPU's have decided to resume battle later today." With those words spoken, Neptune's expression fell to match Histoire's, whereas Nepgear watched on in confusion.
"What's wrong sis? Did something happen?" Hearing Nepgear's voice quickly snapped Neptune back to reality and she put on a smile, forced as it may have been, so as to not worry her little sister.
"It's nothing, there's just something I gotta go do later today, but don't worry, I'll be back before you know it." Hopefully that would be enough to keep little Gear from worrying too much.
"Promise me." The younger girl extended a pinky towards her sister.
"...Yeah, I promise." Neptune extended a pinky of her own and gave the younger girl a much less forced, caring smile.
Once again, Histoire found another smile forming on her lips, yet at the same time… she couldn't help but worry for Neptune's well-being the same way she always did before she left to fight the other CPU's.
At the same time, Neptune had decided that she was going to make gamindustri a more peaceful place. She wanted to make the world a better place for her people, for Histoire, and last but certainly not least, for Nepgear and she would start… by putting an end to the console war!
-~-~-~- Purple Lovers -~-~-~-
After a long battle Purple Heart made her way back to the basillicom, feeling absolutely dreadful.
In fact, as she started heading home she started feeling worse, maybe she could have been more skillful and then this might not have happened. She felt so bad in fact that she almost passed out on her way back, making her way there while fighting off the urge to throw up.
After what felt like an eternity she finally found herself landing back onto the balcony as an excited Nepgear and a worried Histoire went to greet her. Neptune on the other hand was feeling much worse than before.
"Welcome back sis!" Much much worse.
"Welcome back Neptune." In fact, she was having trouble staying on her feet… a lot of trouble.
"Sis? Are you okay?" Nepgear's answer came in the form of her sister transforming back to normal and falling to the floor, unconscious. "SIS!"
"Neptune!" The tiny oracle quickly rushed to the fallen CPU's side as Nepgear did the same and hastily checked on Neptune's condition.
"Is she okay?!" Gear was suddenly feeling very very small, her voice felt strained and her eyes were trembling, threatening to spill tears.
"She's heavily injured, I need to call the hospital." The oracle made her way back to inside as she made a mad dash for the phone. Nepgear on the other hand could only sit at her sisters side, trying to wake her up by shaking her.
"Sis. Wake up."
She didn't like this.
"Please wake up."
She didn't like this at all.