Chapter 4: Reassignment
DISCLAIMER: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS EXTREMELY DISTURBING CONTENT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
*Pit pat*
The puddle of blood from the ceiling hit the ground, drip by drip, bit by bit.
*Pit pat*
Each drop echoed throughout the vast chamber.
*Pit pat*
An elevator at the end of the hall opened, a peculiar woman blissfully walked toward the restraint bed. Humming a famous tune.
*Pit pat*
She teased her finger across the leg of the naked, lifeless corpse that lay bare.
*Pit pat*
Her finger curled through, up, and down the girl's faded pink her, she drifted it across her forehead, past the gaping bullet wound that coalesced, and was covered by a headband.
*Pit pat*
"I wonder… will she remember anything…?"
The woman pulled down a nearby lever, the table under the corpse shined a bright neon blue that radiated throughout the dark hallway. Suddenly, thousands of volts accelerated throughout the lifeless body, her veins glowed like shining circuits. At first, there was a twitch, then a jitter, then some basic movement, and then violent seizing. The body contorted in ways that weren't humanly possible. The corpse's arms twitched back and forth, the head rapidly twisted left and right. The lower part of the leg bended forward past the knee.
"Yes! YES! YES!" the screams of devious fortune bounced through and back across the metallic, blood-stained, walls.
Somewhere in Lastation, 2 days after the incident.
Uni slumped down at the newly fixed table, a bottle of wine in one hand, a cigarette in another. The picture of her girlfriend and her felt like poison, yet she couldn't let it go. The longer she stared at the image, the more it burned at her heart, the more it felt like ripping at her mind. Taunting was the only way the feeling could be described, its as if there was a completely different world within the image, a world that Uni was denied.
*Creaaaaaaaak*
The candidate's head slowly turned to her right. An older white haired woman entered the room, her face was bitter as usual. She was donned in a military uniform that was complimented with a trench coat and beret. The up-tight woman walked right next to Uni. Her armband of Noire's covenant glistened under the kitchen's florescent light. In her other arm, a cast masqueraded an injury.
"Kei… what the hell are you doing here…? Also that armband is illegal to wear now."
The general pulled up a chair from the ground and sat next to Uni, a face of sorrow covered Kei's demeanor as she put her hand on the depressed candidate's shoulder.
"Kid, there's been a-" Uni immediately batted her hand against the General's empathetic gesture.
"Stop calling me that!"
"Calling you wh-"
"I'm not a goddamn kid anymore!" Uni smashed the bottle against the table, the red wine splattered all over the table and ceiling, bits and drops smattered against Uni and Kei.
Kei brushed off the alcohol and straightened up her collar. The furious oracle approached the candidate and grabbed her by the hair.
"You really think that you little shit? Throwing a goddamn tantrum throughout your goddamn house!? Crying over what? Some bitch that-"
Uni pulled out a handgun from her coat, she immediately cocked the hammer and pointed it directly at Kei's neck.
"Don't even go there…"
A bending of marrow and grime gritted from the General's teeth, she lifted Uni by her one arm, causing her to fire and graze the general's face, just under the eye. Kei lifted the candidate into the air and smashed her into the table, breaking it in half. The general had taken the handgun during the throw and pulled off the slider with her teeth and ejected the magazine with her one hand.
When Uni's vision came to, Kei stood in front of her with a lit cigar in her mouth.
"Compared to your older sister, you're a goddamn disappointment"
The general dropped the cigar on Uni's leg and caused a slight burn mark, the candidate wincing in pain from the impact.
"An assassination attempt was made on me today, I got back from visiting Noire in Celestia, and I couldn't even enter the damn basilicom before a sniper bullet went through my arm!
"Cry about it to someone else asshole… also are you really surprised when you're dressed like that?" The young candidate smirked as she pulled out her own cigarette while looking down.
"The only one here that's crying is you, I didn't think you'd care about me being assassinated, but witness reports indicated a suspicious person entering a hotel room with a conspicuously large bag."
"Some people have weird hobbies, others like to pack like assholes for trips, what's your point?" a huff of smoke was released from the candidates mouth.
"She had purple hair and a d-pad on the left-side of her head… strikingly similar to a certain criminal you and I both know…"
Uni took out her cigar and spit at the general's foot. "Cosplayers can be real assholes sometimes, ya know?"
"Just take a look at this, smartass" a laminated image was taken out of the general's inner pocket, the glare of the image shined from the light, off the image, and into Uni's vision. The image revealed a young woman, barely older than Uni walking down a hallway with a large bad heaved over her shoulder, she had the same purple hair and d-pad of a certain candidate she once knew.
"Okay… how about a publicity stunt?"
Kei shook her head and dropped the picture onto Uni. "I don't have time to argue with you, its your call whether you want to pursue the bastard or not… we don't exactly have a military left to chase after her anyway, so you're on your own."
~The next morning~
Uni donned on her usual dress, she put on her gun holster over her shoulder, strapped on her boots and put on her coat and gloves. One of her bows had been lost during her rampage so she decided not to wear the other one. She grabbed a few extra magazines and shoved them into her coat pocket.
"The Solid Hotel huh? Great, looks like I'll have to deal with rich elitist scumbags, my favorite."
The freshened candidate kicked open the door to her garage and turned on the switch. As she got on her bike, her heart dropped for a moment when she saw a pair of helmets to her left, sitting alone on the dusty table. One of them was marked with a purple visor. The image struck at Uni's heart, she banged her hand against her motorcycle's ignition startup.
"I don't have time to sulk…"
The kickstand lifted from the floor and a small burst of flames emerged from the exhaust. She revved up the bike, put on her sunglasses and inched forward the bike out of the car's garage. The sun tried its best to cram what little smatterings of light it could through the mass and desolate smog of Lastation, the tall, tinted-glass skyscrapers pierced through the ash and clouds in the distance. She pulled out another cigarette and stepped on the gas.
Her hair and the smoke trailed behind her as she dashed and passed through the all the traffic, since she was the country's acting lead CPU, she had the right to force all vehicles to yield the right of way, to her, the road was another escape from her life, where she could drift away from all her problems. But not today, she had a job to do, and it was personal.
A swift and cold breeze flew through the young candidate, her coat and hair flew in the air before setting back down. The receptionist and a few nearby aristocrats bowed down to the young leader.
Uni tapped her holographic sunglasses and the image retracted down to the sides of her head.
"Excuse, I believe this image was taken in this hotel"
The receptionist looked down at the photo and almost jumped at the sight of the corrupted candidate.
"I-isn't that-"
"I know who it is, just tell me if you know where her room is, any aliases she may have used, what time she checked in, anything!"
The receptionist swiped at the computer screen a few times before looking back at Uni and shrugging.
"Sorry, no dice."
Uni leaned back and hanged on the table, letting a long and exhausted sigh.
"Well… um… judging by the pattern of the carpet, she has to be somewhere near the upper 50 floors, and floor 51-54 are all booked up from residents before Kei's attempted assassination."
The candidate nodded and went to the nearest elevator. The lights of the elevating room flickered for a second before turning off. The room was shrouded in darkness for a good moment before a surge of light flooded the room. The candidate turned around to see a breathtaking sight. Past the window were Lastation's skyscrapers. The concrete monoliths burst through the clouds from below and continued on upward as far as the bare eye could see. Uni put on her sunglasses to see the sun rising in the distance, its melancholy glow slowly rose over the depressing smog that filled lower Lastation's sky.
Uni took out another cigarette, the view had clenched at her heart for a good moment, but only sorrow and remorse had enveloped the candidate's spirit. "If only she was here to see it…" She thought to herself.
The room was enveloped in darkness and the florescent lights flickered back on.
*Ding*
The elevators doors opened, Uni pushed the LED buttons on her decoy flip phone
"Is this the receptionist?"
"Yes"
"I need to know which rooms are currently checked out on the 55th floor"
"Well… about that…"
~30 minutes later~
Uni sighed after kicking open her 30th door open.
"How the hell does this place not go out of business?"
The candidate kicked down every door in her path, briefly searching for any trace or evidence she could find, thankfully she had digital contact lenses that could detect objects of importance throughout the room.
"Nothing… Nothing… Nothing…"
Uni kicked down another door and immediately reddened
"I-IF!? Compa!?"
The couple were laying naked on-top of each other, their faces immediately flushed with red as Uni kicked down the doorway and saw the wedded couple.
Uni sighed and holstered her handgun.
"Oh-uh… Uni… how are you doing today?" the peach-haired nurse asked.
~moments later~
"It's an investigation, didn't expect you two to be here" Uni took out another cigarette as she leaned against the wall of the room with her arms crossed.
"Really huh? Usually information like that doesn't fly under my radar, especially if it involves the CPUs." The guild agent said as she put on her grey dress.
*Huff* "How's Neptune?"
Compa, still laying in the bed naked with the sheets over her body, looked down and shook her head. "She wants to be alone right now… she hasn't said anything other than that"
Uni kicked off the wall and headed towards the doorway.
"Hey wait! Did you think you could just tell us that and leave? We want to help you Uni!" IF wrapped around her gun holster, "Whatever your searching for… we can help"
Uni knew she couldn't involve the two into this, if she could truly be alive, then Neptune would know as well, the entire situation would cascade into chaos. She had no choice but to do this alone.
"It's a private investigation, Lastation personnel only, whatever's left of us at least"
"Uni wai-"
Compa had grabbed the Guild agent by her prosthetic arm and shook her head. "Let her go Iffy… she's a big girl now…" IF looked back at the candidate, she had grown a few inches since the fight with CFW Magic and her demeanor was drastically different than when the group had first met. Her naivety had been replaced by bitterness and angst.
"All right, stay safe…"
Uni nodded and closed the door behind her and continued to kick down door after door before arriving at the last empty room. "all right here goes nothing…"
A sting of disappointment hit the candidate as the room seemed empty, anger started to fill her body until she saw a glint of light reflecting off a small metallic object sitting on the wooden top, fright in front of the television.
"Is that…"
Uni's Heart had dropped, she kneeled down to see a lighter, complimented by Planeptune's logo. She flicked the switch and the LED light turned on just as she expected.
"What are you doing here…?"
Uni relit a new cigarette with the hand-made lighter, the purple flame felt nostalgic, like a distant fire dying away into a dark and desolate void.
"What the…?"
The LED logo of Planeptune started to flash on and off repeatedly, a slight beeping rang over and over.
"Oh Fuck!" Uni tripped back and threw lighter against the wall; a dark gas filled the room and the candidate felt her strength drift away.
"What… what the hell is this…?"
Her lungs started to feel ragged, her vision blurred, and her limbs felt like bags of static. She used whatever little strength she had to flip over and turn to crawl toward the exit door, only to see a figure standing at the entrance, a d-pad in her hair and a very familiar pink sailor outfit was all the candidate cold make out in the cacophony of poison. The candidate reached out her hand toward the girl.
"Nep… Gear…"
Complete darkness consumed the room, there was nothing, not even a hint of sound.
~Hours later~
A metallic jangle rustled around.
A crinkle chinked at the candidate's feet.
At first, when Uni had opened her eyes, she was in too much of a daze to even recognize that she had not woken up in her house.
"W-what… Nepgear!"
Uni's eyes scrambled right and left, she started to pull at the chains that held her, she shifted her feet forward and backward, only to be met with constant resistance.
"Where the… where the hell am I!"
An audio scratched peaked at an intercom which Uni could hear directly in front of her.
"Rise and shine skank!"
A white florescent light exposed what Uni could perceive as the center of the room. A tinted window with a silhouette behind it sat smugly with her head resting at the top of her hands.
"If it isn't the midget from Lastation…"
Uni's further attempts to break free from the chair caused the wooden structure to fall on its side.
"Aww… lil itty candidate fell on her side, do you need big sister to help you… oh. Wait…"
"What the hell do you want with me dammit!" Panic and anxiety filled Uni to the chest, her vision was shrouded, and her movement was limited.
"Take a look to your left, well, actually move your head up, which was originally to your left. Your left would be the ground, and that wouldn't let you see anything."
Another white florescent light exposed the latter end of the room, under it was a girl, naked, and chained on all limbs, a bandage covered her forehead, she look nothing short of emaciated and her eyes were the textbook definition of soulless.
"Nepgear? Nepgear!" Uni screamed the candidate's name over and over as she fought against the chains. Despite her efforts, the wooden bondage wouldn't budge a bit.
The other candidate looked back up at Uni, her eyes looked like there were about to collapse on itself.
"Nepgear! What the hell happened to you!? How are you still alive!?"
Another audio mic peak pierced both of the candidate's eardrums. Uni winced at the screeching startup.
"Ahem, I don't believe it is time for you to be asking questions miss CPU candidate."
"Who the fuck are you! What have you done to Gear!"
"I didn't do anything to lil ol miss Gearsy over here, she did this to herself in all honest- Wait, why am I answering your goddamn question?"
A raspy, almost drained, voice spoke out from the chained up CPU candidate.
"Uni… what… doing… here?"
Uni continued to fight against the metallic links that bound her to the chair.
"Geez, stop fighting you stupid kid, you aren't going to break to that, ever."
"Whoever the hell you are! I'm going to FUCKING KILL YOU!"
Uni back and forth, the chains started to pull and drag against her skin, her legs started to bleed from torn skin.
"Nepgear… I'll save you! Dammit I Will!"
Another light turned on and exposed the other of the room, a singular door.
"You know what time it is Nepgear…" The person behind the window smugly said. Nepgear moved her head, only to let out a single tear.
Uni looked down and saw the door at the end open up, multiple men, all of them were investors ranging from Lastation, to Lowee, mostly Leanbox, and even some from Planeptune. The black haired candidate immediately knew what was going to happen.
"No… No! NO! STAY AWAY FROM HER DAMMIT!"
The suits and ties ignored Uni's pleads, the chains that held Nepgear were unlocked, she collapsed to the floor as the cacophony of perverts and greedy business men surrounded fragile CPU.
"No Please! Use me instead! She's suffered enough dammit!" Uni desperately pleaded.
The insidious brigade looked back at the black haired candidate, only for another voice to interrupt them.
"You know the rules boys, only one girl is available"
The group immediately pulled down their pants and assaulted the candidate, Uni screamed in agony as she saw her girlfriend defiled and used like trash. Multiple men used her at once, relentlessly and brutally. Nepgear could barely even breath. The group continued to beat and abuse the girl for what felt like an eternity. Her dried out hair was pulled at and body was covered in semen.
Uni couldn't look, she closed her eyes and buried her head into the ground. Embarrassment, shame, disgust, disappointment, all of them ran through her mind and she couldn't handle the emotional rape. She broke down. A lofty puddle of tears surrounded the black-haired candidate, when she managed to look back up, the men had left. Nepgear was limp, she looked absolutely horrific. Her eyes looked even more soulless than before. The tortured candidate curled up into a ball, a slight bulge had rose over the lower stomach area.
"Nepgear… oh my god… I'm… oh god!" Uni's crying worsened. The door opened up again.
"Geez you two are soooooo melodramatic, calm down, geez."
Uni started another useless fight against the chains again, only to freeze in fear at the sight of the woman who entered the room.
"CHIKA!"
"Surprise! Surprise… its me…" The green haired oracle flicked her hair and walked toward Uni.
"You enjoy the show lil miss?" Chika smugly said as she towered over the collapsed candidate.
"Fuck you! What's wrong with you! What did we do to deserve this!"
Chika scoffed "Pfft, are you kidding me, well actually, maybe you didn't deserve this, but that bitch over there? You remember what she did right? Human trafficking… forced prostitution? How many times do you think that slut had sex with other women in that club, why do you really even care about her anymore?"
Uni looked down in shame. She couldn't even respond.
"That's what I thought"
Chika sauntered over to Planeptune's candidate, looking down at the defiled candidate with a look of disgust on her face.
"Please… no more…" the dried out candidate look up at the corrupted oracle. Chika licked her lips and stood directly above the used girl.
"Tch, how pathetic. You know… you could've easily just fought off those men, but you didn't… why's that? You think letting yourself get used and thrown around will redeem yourself, you think this will set things, right? No, nothing will. You tried to run away down to the depths of hell, but I pulled you straight back from the brink. You will suffer for what you've done! You will cry and live in agony for hours on end until your body withers away in pathetic atrophy, I DENY you the sweet release of death."
Chika continued to look down at the candidate with disdain, and she noticed a light bulge just below her stomach and above her crotch. She lifted her foot in the air and slammed it against the candidate. The resulting impact caused a flood of fluid and semen to burst from her folds, she profusely vomited blood all over the floor. Another tear slid down the side of her face.
"How disgusting…"
Chika exited the room and all the lights of the room were turned off.
The two candidates laid down against the metallic floor, the darkness was so deep they couldn't even see each other.
"Nepgear… I'll get us out of here… I promise…"