Chapter 3: Judgements Past

~June 25 29XX, 2:00 PM~

"Ummm…. Histy? Is Neppy going to be okay? She's been passed out for a couple hours now…"

Plutia was resting her head on Neptune's lap, the CPU had slept – at least for what Plutia felt – for an eternity.

"She should… the fight you described shouldn't have brought down Neptune as much as it did… that weird crystal must have really done a number on her, didn't it? I'll contact the information guild."

"Umm… maybe… I think I'm going to go out for a bit…" Plutia stretched herself out and swung on her bag.

"You? In the city alone? I don't think so."

"Well Neppy is taking forever to wake up and I don't want to sit here doing nothing…"

"*Sigh* fine, but you are responsible for everything that happens that you do out there, so you better not cause a mess, okay?"

"Okay Histyyy, I'll be gooood"

The eager narcoleptic slowly walked out of the basilicom, wandering aimlessly in the city streets of Planeptune.

"Goodness, what am I going to do with these two?"

~August 8th 28XX, 9:00 AM~

A younger Neptune wandered around the halls of her Mansion, it was vast homestead, without a seemingly infinite number of rooms, and infinite number of passageways. The place was practically a maze. It wouldn't be long until the young CPU found herself lost, growing worried and anxious for her parents. With no one in sight, and no one to help comfort her, the young CPU slumped against the wall and began to cry.

But before her sobbing could continue, "Neptune! There you are! I've been worried sick for you!" Neptune's mom had found her weeping daughter. "I told your lousy father to keep an eye on you! He's so busy making with his stupid experiments he never spends time with bloody family!"

"Momma!" Neptune ran into the arms of her mother; the cold and empty hallways were immediately brightened by the sight of her warming mother.

"Its okay Neptune, mom's here to care of you…" Neptune's mom carried Neptune in front of her, allowing the young CPU to rest her head on her mother's shoulders. "I need to speak to your father, this unacceptable.

As her mother carried her across the halls, Neptune couldn't help but stare in awe at the size of her house, it was practically like its own city, filled with maids and servants as its residents. But the warm interior of the manor started to fade, as Neptune and her mom entered an elevator and went down. When the two reached their desired floor, Neptune found herself in a completely different area. The sleek and shiny walls of the manor were now replaced by solid concrete. The light that shined from the sun then seemed like a distant memory, as purple florescent lights seemed to be the only thing that made the room visible.

Upon entering an even larger room, Neptune saw her father busy at a bunch of computer screens. Among the digital screens were hundreds upon thousands of lines of code that were incomprehensible for the young CPU.

"Umio! What the hell did I say about watching Neptune!?" Neptune mom didn't hesitate to pull her father away from his computer screens, interrupting whatever discoveries he was happening upon.

"Uzume! She is not my responsibility! I left her with the servants, take it up with them!"

"That's your daughter you dolt! Is this crap your doing more important than…-"

Neptune didn't want to listen to the ear-grating argument that her parents had started. She simply did what she always done at home and sat in the corner, willowing in sorrow as her family continued to rip itself apart.

~ June 26 29XX, 12:00 PM ~

Neptune lifted her eyelids. The last thing she remembered was passing out in Virtua forest into Plutia's arms. She felt relieved when she finally realized that she was back in the basilicom. Histoire hovered over the forwaken CPU.

"Good morning Neptune, you've finally woken up."

"Yeah, no shit. How long was I out?"

"A full day."

"Full day? Are you kidding me?"

Neptune reached for her phone which had its battery close to dead due to it not being charged for almost a full day. "Goddamn, you're right… well, nothing I can do about it now. What's for breakfast- err, lunch?"

"I'm afraid we'll have to hold off on that for now, there are more pressing matters to attend to."

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Neptune smugly scoffed.

"The council demands a meeting with you." Histoire showed no concern, emotion, or hesitation in her statement. The council had hijacked Histoire operating system.

"You guys? Geez… the hell did I do this time?"

~ 6:00 PM, Council Room ~

Neptune and Histoire walked toward the center stage of a wide auditorium. The place was a solid 30 miles underground and it was a couple hundred kilometers wide. Hundreds of Planeptune's government officials sat in judgement of the CPU, who – in appearance – contrasted greatly with her superiors. The sea of business suits and military uniforms made the casually clothed CPU catch eyes of suspicion and contempt. When the lights of the auditorium faded, five highly detailed holograms of Planeptune's logo appeared before the CPU, each a different color ( Red, Yellow, Purple, Pink, Blue ), representing each member of the council. One council member was placed in the middle of the stage, along with two on her left and two on her right. The three in the middle were female while the rightmost and leftmost members were male. The council members were also listed by number, the right most (from Neptune's view) being number 5 and the leftmost being number one.

The general of Planeptune's military walked in front of the holograms and performed Planeptune's natural salute, an upright stance, with one's left hand bawled into a fist and placed knuckles upward on their own heart and their right hand on their back, followed by: "All hail our glorious and democratic council!"

"All hail our glorious and democratic council!" the hundreds of Planeptune government officials, Histoire and Neptune repeated.

"At ease!" The general returned behind the stage as all the lights in the auditorium were turned off, only leaving the holograms of the council to light the room.

A microphone emerged from the table, and the rightmost council member began to speak. His voice sounded like a rather raspy, middle aged man. Someone you would hear announcing a military plan while killing his lungs with a cigar. "Neptune… its has come to the council's attention that your ability to maintain shares for Planeptune has stagnated if not downright regressed in the recent months, an all-time low considering your rather satisfactory portfolio. Perhaps you have a reason for such a situation, perhaps something we can help with or create a compromise…"

Neptune flicked her messy hair back and crossed her arms on the table. "First off, I'd just like to say that this whole aesthetic you got going on here is pretty impractical, I mean c'mon! An underground auditorium hundreds of kilometers wide, a large-ass auditorium bigger and wider than some of the damn buildings in Planeptune itself, and these ginormous holograms to display your raggedy asses. Please, there is no way this crap is cost efficient, let alone helping to "Maintain shares". Only a crappy writer like 90k9 would come up with crap like this.

"Silence! Your uncouth and rebellious nature may bring you favor among Planeptune's populous, but it will not act as a boon for any of us. We at the council have been democratically elected by Planeptune's people, the people who you serve under, not the inverse. You will respect our authority, and show proper restraint in both you attitude, and your diction. Understood?" Yelled number 4.

"Whatever…" Neptune propped up her legs on the table. "Where was I… oh yeah! You know… maybe providing tax cuts for big budget corporations and financially crushing the lower class - you know, more than 60% of Planeptune's population – is probably going to help reduce people's faith in the nation, juuuuuust saying."

"Your cynical and pessimistic view of Planeptune as a country worries the council… we've placed faith in you as your combat abilities have shown exemplary feats and awarded you many accolades among the people and government, but your lack of tactfulness and optimism – we feel – to be a major liability to both the moral of Planeptune's people but also to integrity of the basilicom.

"Annnnnd completely ignore my statement about taxes, you sure there are humans inside those cases? I'm not talking to robots, am I?"

"Neptune!" 4 of the holograms decreased in size, the main leader of the council, number 3, rose prominently, almost touching Neptune. "Our tax cuts for corporations help them establish better working conditions and provide public services for the Planeptune's people! It's called trickle-down economics, and your lack of knowledge disturbs us."

"Better working conditions? Public services? Trickle Down economics? That's a load of dogshit." Neptune slammed her fist against the table, the government officials far behind her gasped at the CPU's very outrageous statements.

"Is that so? You propose that by taxing those who provide Planeptune security and defense of our country would vastly improve your retention of shares?"

Neptune stood up from her chair, without a hint of her typical sarcasm or zaniness: "Undoubtedly." Her voice and demeanor was almost that of a different person.

The hundreds of politicians and lobbyist that sat behind the CPU, frowned upon her. Soon, screams of rejection and disgust were thrown and slammed down at Neptune "Scandalous! Wrench! Harlot! Judas!" they yelled. These lobbyist were paid by corporations to promote lower tax laws for corporations and to push the financial burden upon the lower and middle class, the latter of which was slowly being dissolved into the former. If Neptune's ideas were exacted, the lobbyist would lose their "Influence" money and would have to get jobs that didn't involve licking the boots of the ruling class.

Neptune sat smugly in her chair, she had nothing to lose. The council couldn't replace her, at least not without much difficulty and devastating financial loss. "You guys can build as much of a military you want, but it won't matter, you could drop a rifle in the hands of every man, woman, and child in this country, and it'd be useless compared to a CPU at full strength. You think any amount of tanks and cannon fodder you throw at Noire and Vert is going to stop them?"

The council stood silent from Neptune's callout. They turned to each other for a good bit before looking back at Neptune. "The CPUs of the other countries are irrelevant. To fight other CPUs is to be your job, maintaining and controlling land can only be done by an assertive and authoritative military."

"Assertive and authoritative? I think the cracks are starting to spill." Neptune then grabbed the mic on the table on jumped onto the table to look back at the lobbyist behind her. "None of ya'll care about a "Democratic" and "Glorious" country, you only caring about taking advantage of economic freedoms in order to monopolize and subjugate the lower class to pay for your taxes."

Histoire sat dumbfounded by Neptune's outrageous actions. Half of her wanted to to knock out the near insane CPU, but the other half of her agreed. She had seen the ghettos, the terrible state of people, the rampant crime and poverty. But Neptune realistically couldn't do anything, if she went against the wishes of the council, her HDD would be revoked. Sure, could call them out on their egregious actions, but that was all that she could do. Like a soldier trapped in a cage, unable to fight his enemies that surrounded him.

*RING*

Histoire's tablet started to flash red "There's been a breach in Planeptune's outer wall! Hundreds of monsters have invaded and are creating chaos in the outer wall."

Neptune didn't waste any time activating her HDD and transforming into Purple Heart. "Well, you assholes can circle jerk about your bullshit policies all you want, I'm going to actually help the people of this country." She darted out of the room in a flash with her processor wings, and in a matter of minutes, she was in the battlefield.

The council turned to each other; they had their own plans instead.

"I believe its clear that we need a new source of management, we had taken in Neptune as our only choice left from Uzume's treachery, but now it seems she has her own agenda, separate to that of the will of Planeptune's democracy." Number 3 spoke with slight remorse.

"Not to worry mam, project NEPGEAR will surely be underway."