"I can't believe Compa of all people managed to beat all of us fifteen rounds in a row!" Neptune complained as she, Nepgear, Compa, IF and Peashy left the arcade. After Nepgear had practically dragged Peashy to play with her and the others, they had spent the full two hours of their time at Quarter-Less on the one game; Super Bash Sisters. As it turns out, the first round, the round where Nepgear had left to find Peashy, had Compa as the victor. By quite the landslide too, as she had only lost one life out of five and had 75% of the kills. Needless to say, Neptune, and more surprisingly, IF were far from amused and immediately demanded a rematch. However, even when Peashy, though a bit reluctant, and Nepgear joined in the battle, the result was always the same. Compa would win.
"Beat? More like destroyed! No, eviscerated! No, annihilated! All four of us teamed up on her yet she somehow managed to beat all of us and not lose a single stock!" IF lamented as she ruffled her brown hair in frustration. Shockingly, she seemed more annoyed than Neptune, and considering how serious the purple CPU took her games, that was certainly impressive.
"Well, I can't exactly say I'm not good. Don't worry though, I'm sure you'll be able to beat me soon, Iffy!" Compa assured happily, though her tone sounded a bit too cheery.
"Still, you managed to beat us pretty badly." Nepgear acknowledged.
Peashy chuckled. "Yeah, really. The Compa and IF from my dimension seem to be incredibly similar to yours, so this is as much a surprise to me as to you." While she did end up sitting out a few rounds due to her 'rule' involving games from other nations, Peashy had admittedly a lot fun when she was playing. Even if she did lose every round to Compa, she still felt enamored by the characters, fighting system and charm. And while the sense of jealousy still burned inside of her, Peashy managed to push that aside while she continued to play the game with everyone.
Neptune blinked, her own frustration disappearing. "Uh, Pea? IF and Compa are in your dimension, too?"
"Well, yeah. I guess I forgot to bring it up when I first saw them, but Iffy and Compa exist in my dimension's Planeptune. They don't seem to act all that different though. However, if they are like my dimension's Iffy and Compa..." Peashy suddenly glanced at IF, before quickly moving her eyes to Compa. "Are you two...?"
"Are we what?" Compa asked, tilting her head to the side in slight confusion. Peashy continued to look at both the Guild member and nurse before she let out a loud and, for some reason, disappointed sigh.
"Guess not. Well, it doesn't look like it and I'd rather not ask directly in case it ruins anything." Peashy said, grinning cheekily. "Maybe one day though."
"W-what are you talking about? What are you implying!?" IF practically demanded, her eyes lighting up in anger as she stomped over to the yellow CPU, who put her hands in the air as if she was at gunpoint. However, Compa looked even more confused.
"Huh? Why are you getting so riled up, Iffy? Was it something that Pea said?" Compa asked, her curiosity only growing as moments went on.
"N-nothing that concerns you, Compa!" IF quickly replied, her cheeks taking a light pink tinge, to both Neptune and Peashy's inner laughter. Suddenly, the sound of a phone ringing went off; its source being the blue-clad Guild member. IF coughed, presumably to get rid of the embarrassment in her voice.
"E-excuse me, I need to take this." IF stuttered, the blush on her face slowly disappearing as she grabbed one of her many phones from her pockets, pressed the green icon and put the device to her ear. "Hello? IF, the Wind Walker of Gamindustri here... Huh? But I thought we agreed that I didn't have to do a quest for the next hour or two... It's an emergency? Okay, I'm on my way there." IF closed the phone and put it back into its proper pocket before turning to face the other four in the party.
"Sorry everyone. Turns out the Guild needs me to take on a quest. Probably a pretty challenging one too, considering they said it was an emergency and had to bring me in early." IF informed them, putting her hand in her pocket. "I won't be able to stay for your tour around Planeptune. Sorry Pea."
"Not much to apologize about Iffy, especially since I'm coming with you." Peashy revealed, casually putting both of her hands behind her head. In contrast, everyone seemed rather shocked by her answer.
"Uh, are you sure Pea? I mean, I'm pretty sure Iffy can take care of herself. Besides, we were supposed to tour you around my awesome nation today!" Neptune inquired. Peashy shrugged.
"Honestly, just from walking here, I can tell that your Planeptune looks almost exactly like mine, so besides a few minor differences here and there, the only thing really different is that arcade we were just in and the advertisements, since they now have your's and Nepgear's face plastered on them instead of my Neptune's face." Peashy admitted. "Either way, I'd much rather spend my time helping Iffy out with her quest then anything else right now, to be honest. Especially if it means I get to beat up some monsters." Neptune groaned at the lost opportunity to show off her nation but smiled almost immediately.
"Alrighty then! If Pea is going to help Iffy with her quest, then so will I! I promised that I'd make you have a good time, and gosh Nep it I'll be there the entire time!" Neptune exclaimed with determination, pumping her fists into the air. Nepgear and Compa nodded as well in silent confirmation.
IF smiled. "Thanks guys. We should probably head off for the Guild now, though. If they considered it an emergency it's probably important." With everyone in agreement, all five of the party members quickly set off for the Guild.
Everything considered, the Guild looked rather normal despite the fact that there was apparently an emergency. No damage had been done to the building, no panicking or worrying by anyone outside or inside the Guild and no signs of an enemy at all. However, the highlight of the Guild at that moment was a single table surrounded by people. People that everyone in Peashy's party, including herself, recognized.
"Oh! I certainly wasn't expecting to see any of you here of all places." Nepgear remarked, going up to the table with a smile on your face. Suddenly, one of the people at the table, RED, glomped the CPU Candidate with a hug, sending them both to the floor.
"Nonsense! I'll go anywhere as long as I get to see my precious wifey!" RED proclaimed, pressing her head against Nepgear's chest, to her embarrassment. Neptune quickly intervened, grabbing onto the short crimson haired girl by her waist and pulling her away from her sister.
"Hey! You can't just push yourself into my sister's bosom like that! That's Vert's thing!" Neptune reprimanded RED, who just stuck out her tongue. "Well, technically, Vert would be the one pushing other people into her boobs, but that's besides the point!"
"That's one way to greet her, RED." Falcom, who was sipping a glass of water, stated in exasperation. "Besides, wasn't IF the one that you were after?" RED shot her a playful glare.
"While Iffy will always be my wifey, it never hurts to have more!" RED reasoned, grinning ear to ear. Falcom sighed while the Guild member in question simply rolled her eyes.
"Onto more important matters, nyu." Broccoli announced, sitting next to her gema, the yellow creature that she usually sat on. "I'm guessing that you all are here for the same reason that we are? The emergency quest, nyu?"
"Yeah, but how did the Guild come into contact with all of you? I mean, I'm a certified Guild member so they could call me at any time and I just so happen to be with Nep and the others, but how exactly did they find you?" IF wondered, pulling out one of her phones for them to see.
"Coincidence, really." A different, smaller Falcom, specifically Falcom's Ultradimension counterpart, answered simply from the table. She closed her eyes as she smiled. "Me and my older counterpart decided to go over to the Guild to take up some quests for training purposes." Peashy raised an eyebrow but didn't interrupt the younger Falcom's explanation. "When we made it, all of the quests were gone besides the emergency one. It told us the details of the quest like we expected, but there was also a note saying that they wouldn't allow us to accept it until IF made it to the Guild." The young Falcom pointed to the wall, which had a few sentences projected onto it. " It didn't mention Neptune or anyone else, though."
"From there, me and my counterpart just decided to spar until more people came. Which they did. RED, Brocolli and B-Sha came here looking for quests to do but ended up just waiting here like us since it took you all a while to get here." The older Falcom concluded, finishing her glass of water and placing the empty cup down on the table.
"By the way, that'll be 1000 credits for the late arrival. For each of you, of course." B-Sha, the final person at the table, winked at the group with stars imaginarily sparkling next to her. Neptune groaned in response.
"Come on! We didn't even know that any of you were here waiting for us! Therefore, this payment cannot go through! I demand a recall!" Neptune argued, staring directly at B-Sha, who chuckled.
"I'm kidding, Nep-Nep." B-Sha assured, though she sounded a bit disappointed. "Anyways, who exactly is this girl next to you? I've never seen her before. Although she does look at bit like Peashy." The Gold Third member asked, recounting the time where the said Ultradimension CPU had visited her dimension's Planeptune and they had met for the first time.
Peashy looked over to Neptune in confusion, this time with the intention of speaking up. "What's this about? How does B-Sha recognize me? I mean, I know who she is since she's in my dimension, but you never mentioned a 'me' from this dimension. Unless you're saying this B-Sha has also gone to another dimension like you apparently have?" Peashy questioned rather seriously, to which Neptune chuckled disheartedly.
"Maybe later. It's a long story." Neptune said, scratching her cheek with her finger, before turning to B-Sha. "Anyways, since you wanted to know who Pea is, I'll tell you!"
"Shouldn't I be the one to explain since, you know, I'm the one she wants to know about in the first pla-"
"One day in Planeptune, myself and Nepgear were doing a quest, we found Pea under a tree, yada yada yada, and here we are!" Neptune explained, with everyone who had not known Peashy's story beforehand forming an 'o' with their mouths in complete understanding of the situation.
'If you can explain all that in two seconds, what's the problem with you explaining the different dimension thing to me!?' Peashy thought in deadpan.
"I see, nyu." Broccoli said before climbing up her yellow gema and sitting on it. "Now that IF has arrived, I believe we now start the quest."
"That reminds me. What exactly is the quest all about, anyways?" IF asked to no one in particular, slipping her hand back into her blue coat's pocket.
"The quest is simple enough, Iffy." RED began, looking as though she were trying to remember the details. "Apparently, a large horde of monsters have appeared on the northern part of the outskirts of Planeptune, and they want us to beat them up." Peashy's eyes lit up.
"A lot of monsters? Finally! I've been dying to beat something up!" Peashy exclaimed, grinning while cracking her knuckles. Nepgear and Neptune giggled.
"She really is just like P-ko." Neptune whispered to her sister.
"Yes, she really is."
"But what exactly makes this an emergency quest?" Compa inquired. "I mean, monsters appear all the time on the outskirts, right? Is there just a lot more than usual or is there something else to it?"
"It's not the monsters themselves. Well, not really." The older Falcom said, standing up and grabbing what looked like a instrument case. "Neptune, you said that both you and Nepgear went on a quest to clear out some monsters on the outskirts yesterday. Is that right?"
"Yepperoni! We cleared all of 'em out! Of course, most of them were Dogoos, but the point still stands that me and Nep Jr. got rid of all of the monsters there!" Neptune answered, before realization suddenly struck her and everyone in her party.
Ultra Falcom nodded. "Exactly. Since you two got wiped out most of the monsters, there shouldn't be that many of them on the outskirts, much less an entire horde of them and in such a specific place. From what I can tell, the reason why the Guild is calling this a emergency quest in the first place is because they believe that there is a source to these monsters' sudden appearance. A villain, perhaps."
"Villain? But who would that be? I mean, there has been next to no ASIC activity as of late. Well, besides Underling, but I don't think she's trying to 'revive' the ASIC anymore. Besides them, most of the villains we've defeated are either gone for good or reformed." Nepgear realized, counting off all of the criminals they had battled.
"Destroying all of the monsters that have appeared on the outskirts is our main priority, nyu." Broccoli stated, approaching the CPU Candidate. "However, we should keep an eye out for whoever or whatever could have possibly spawned all the monsters there in the first place."
"Okay then. If that's all, we should probably head out now. We've already wasted enough time as is with the time it took for us to get her and all of the talking." IF said, before stepping out of the Guild building, until someone interrupted her by grabbing her hand.
"Do you even know where exactly the monsters are?" Peashy asked, even though she was sure on how IF would answer her question. The slight embarrassment that showed up on the Guild member's face moments after confirmed it.
"Oh..."
B-Sha practically jumped over to them in excitement. "Well, I happen to know where the monsters are. However, I charge 2000 credits per person for my guiding services." The look everyone gave the Gold Third member was more than enough for her to get the hint. "Ha... I suppose I can give you all a free trial..."
"And here we are!" B-Sha announced to all of her companions. After about an hour of traversing Planeptune, they had finally made it the outskirts. Green grass made up a majority of the area along with some rather big rocks. The blue cloudless sky was more visible now that it wasn't being blocked by skyscrapers and clear water flowed through small crevices in the ground. Compared to the technological marvel that was Planeptune, its' outskirts looked like the pinnacle of nature's beauty.
"Wow, this place has changed since I've last been here!" Neptune remarked, looking around in awe at her surroundings.
"But Nep-Nep, weren't you and Ge-Ge here yesterday?" Compa questioned the purple CPU, who widened her eyes at the reminder. The nurse couldn't help but laugh at her reaction.
Meanwhile, Peashy walked up to the base of a healthy-looking tree. It was incredibly large and casted shade in a ten-meter radius. She touched the trunk of it. "I'm guessing that this is the tree you found me under? It seems to fit the description you gave." Nepgear approached the yellow CPU.
"Yes. We found you leaning against the trunk of this tree unconscious." Nepgear answered, pointing to a part of the grass near the trunk of the tree. Peashy approached the said patch of grass and kneeled down to examine it more. However, after a few moments of hard staring, Peashy sighed.
"Well, this doesn't answer any questions involving the way I got here at all. Luckily, it also doesn't bring up any more questions, so there's that." Peashy said, standing up, pulling away from the patch of grass and walking back to the group. "Thanks, Nepgear. Let's go ahead and meet up with everyone."
"No need to thank me." Nepgear replied, smiling warmly as she jogged up to the blonde girl. Though, in the back of her mind, she may have felt a little... light-headed?
Unbeknownst to the CPU Candidate, Peashy also felt a little strange.
Back with everyone else, IF pulled out her weapons of choice: a pair of steel qatars. "So, where exactly are the monsters? I don't see any."
"Hmm... That's a good question, actually." B-Sha said, putting her hand on her forehead to better watch everything around her. "I'm sure that this is the place the Guild said most of the monsters would be."
"This is the place, I'm sure of it." RED assured, pulling out what looked like a giant toy hammer. "I wonder where the monsters are..." She trailed off as she too began to look around the area. Suddenly, everyone in the area heard something cry out. It was faint, but they all recognized it.
"Dogoo..."
Immediately, everyone, including Peashy and Nepgear who had joined up with them moments ago, snapped their head to the north, the source of the noise. They saw a small blob of blue in the far horizon. And it was growing.
"Dogoo..." The cry got louder. As the party prepared themselves, Neptune grinned fiercely as she summoned her weapon.
"Is that some Dogoos, I see? Well, time to bring out the good ol' Mecha Nep-Swor-" She began, before she paused in shock. Instead of feeling the cool metal of her admittedly overpowered purple weapon, Neptune felt something wooden in her hand. Slowly tilting her head downwards to view the item she had summoned, she saw that it was a wooden katana. Now in even more alarm, Neptune quickly checked her level, hoping for the best. It wasn't the best.
"Oh come on!? Why am I level one again!? It can't be because I was lazy! I did quests sometimes! Well, only when Histy put me up to it, but still! Who did this to me and stole my awesome weapon!? Was it you, author guy!?" Neptune groaned in annoyance, glaring at her wood weapon, a clear downgrade from what she was expecting.
"Well, let's just roll with it for now, Neptune. I'm not doing much better, myself. Besides, don't you like that wooden katana?" Nepgear patted her sister's shoulder as she showed her Beam Saber; still impressive, but ultimately the weakest variation of the CPU Candidate's weapon.
"Yeah, of course I do! But I grinded so much for my Mecha-Nep Sword! And this doesn't even make sense story-wise! We both went on that quest yesterday and we both had our best gear! How did we suddenly lose it overnight!" Neptune exclaimed, actually raising up a great point. Nepgear couldn't even argue that since she agreed that it didn't make sense at all. However, Peashy interrupted their small complaining session.
"You can talk about that later, but we sorta have bigger things to worry about." Peashy said, pointing towards the small and ever-growing blue blob that was approaching them. Or rather, the now large and still growing blue mass that was moments away from nearing them.
"DOGOO!" Its cry now sounded as if it was being amplified at full volume with how loud it was. The only ones who didn't flinch at the loud noise was the older Falcom, though that was most likely due to her experience as a musician.
"Finally, time to beat up some monsters!" Peashy yelled in excitement, summoning her own weapon: a pair of claw gauntlets in the shape of yellow cat paws. "Let's go!" Peashy rushed forward and jumped towards the wave of Dogoos, ready to attack... only to be grabbed by Ultra Falcom at the last second as the wave of Dogoos crashed on the ground and scattered everywhere.
Ultra Falcom landed on the ground near the group and let go of the blonde CPU. "Are you crazy!? Why would you just rush in like that!? That was suicidal! There's no way you could have stopped that many Dogoos at once!"
Peashy pouted. "Well, I'm sorry for trying to help." She said sarcastically, before becoming serious, though retaining her smile. "Anyways, we don't have time to talk. Let's hurry up and get rid of these Dogoos." Ultra Falcom nodded in agreement before turning to face the large amount of Dogoos that were approaching them. They were no longer combined in a giant blue mass, but they made up for that by having numbers in the hundreds upon hundreds.
"So," IF began, backing away from the army of blue blobs, as did everyone else. "Did we ever make a plan or a strategy or something like that?" Compa shook her head.
"Not that I remember." Compa said, holding her giant syringe close to her.
"Since we don't have a strategy," Peashy said before entering a battle position, her two cat paws facing the Dogoos. "I guess we just charge in!" The blonde CPU suddenly ran ahead of the group and towards the Dogoos. She then raised her arm and clawed downwards, hitting all of the Dogoos unfortunate enough to be in the path of her weapon and wiping them from existence. Peashy looked behind her to see everyone looking at her.
"Come on, don't just stand there and watch!" Peashy yelled at them, before quickly swatting away a Dogoo that had jumped at her. Nepgear nodded with determination.
"Alright! Let's get serious!" Nepgear exclaimed, gripping her Beam Saber tightly as she ran towards a large group of the Dogoos. Upon seeing the CPU Candidate, the blue monsters jumped at her, but Nepgear managed to slash them all out of the air before they could even come near her. However, behind her, a larger Dogoo prepared to attack.
"Dogoo!" It cried out as it leaped forward. By the time Nepgear turned around, it was already too late. Or rather, it would have been too late had Broccoli not knocked the Dogoo from it's path towards the CPU Candidate with her gema, it disappearing as it landed on the ground. Nepgear sighed in relief.
"Thank goodness. I almost got hit there." Nepgear said, wiping off a bit of sweat from her forehead.
"Be careful, nyu. We have to be wary of our surroundings when we're on the battlefield." Broccoli warned in an almost sage like tone and closing her eyes... only to be cut off by a Dogoo squealing in pain as it presumably disappeared. Looking behind her, Brocolli saw Peashy smirking at her with her right cat paw raised in the air in a striking motion.
"That goes the same for you, Brocolli." Peashy suggested, leaving the small girl to connect the dots of what had just happened. It didn't take her long.
"Shut up, nyu." Broccoli replied simply, to which Peashy laughed at.
"Anyways," Peashy said, approaching Broccoli and Nepgear. "Everything considered, this shouldn't be too hard. There may be a lot of them, but they aren't that strong. Even then, there aren't that many near us." Peashy said, staring at the area where she and Nepgear had taken out some of the Dogoos. "Either way, let's finish this up." Nepgear smiled.
"Alright, I've got your back!"
In a different part of the outskirts, Falcom, Ultra Falcom, B-Sha and RED were holding up fairly well against the Dogoos. Not only were they overall not confronted with that many of the blue creatures, but they were also four fighters and not three.
"Power Smash!" Ultra Falcom yelled, charging up power in her sword before unleashing it on her opponent. "Good thing we practiced before this. This definitely would have been a bigger problem if we didn't." Ultra Falcom commented to her counterpart, who nodded.
"Definitely." She answered, before she began to concentrate on her blade. It began to glow. "Hyah!" Falcom swung her blade to the right, shooting out small blue projectiles and hitting the nearby Dogoos.
B-Sha, her bazooka in hand, fired three shots at a pack of the Dogoos. Upon impact, they exploded and left no traces of the dog-faced monsters that were there previously. "Ha ha! No monster could ever defeat Prest-" She almost immediately caught herself. "I-I mean me! No one can beat B-Sha!"
"Uh, I think we've all figured out that you're Presto Mask." RED told the Gold Member, before bashing one of the Dogoos without even looking at it. "I thought it was kind of obvious." B-Sha immediately turned her head to face the crimson haired girl.
"That's funny, RED! There's no way I can be as cool, as heroic, as confidant and all around as awesome as Presto Mask!" B-Sha said, putting her hands on her hips, proud of the quick reply she managed to give. However, everyone there just stared at her with deadpan expressions.
"Right..."
Meanwhile, Neptune, Compa and IF weren't having as easy a time as everyone one else were. As it turned out, the Dogoos seemed to be a lot more aggressive towards them then with anything or anyone else.
"Nep! What the hell did you do to piss these Dogoos off! Did you do something to them during that quest yesterday!" IF yelled, striking down what was possibly the fiftieth Dogoo she had defeated in that minute alone. As soon as she did, however, another Dogoo managed to tackle into her and starting to melt on her body. IF quickly shook it off of her before kicking it away, however some of the blue glob still remained on her.
"I didn't do anything, I swear! I may have slaughtered most of their kin, but besides that I don't know why they're only being so aggressive towards us!" Neptune answered, before she promptly fell onto her back and promptly began to laugh uncontrollably, as some of the Dogoos that had landed on her had started to lick her.
"It's certainly not helping that we're missing our best weapons. I had to sell so many Sonic Blades for the Mysterious Liquid, too..." Compa lamented as she tried her best to hold off the horde of Dogoos. While she was able to defeat most of the dog-faced creatures, Compa was not able to keep back all of them. The worst part was the fact that the Dogoos that did manage at tackle into Compa usually ended up liquefying and going in places... she was far from okay with, let's just say.
"That's what I'm sayin- Ha ha ha ha ha!" Neptune tried to say, but was cut off by her own laughter as more and more Dogoos began to lick her.
"Dogoo! Dogoo!" The blue dog-faced monsters seemed to be cheering as they attacked the three girls.
"Hey! Stop crawling up there and get off of me!" IF yelled, taking her qatar and slashing at a Dogoo that had somehow gotten to her legs. However, the moment she slashed the way the Dogoo, ten more jumped on her. "Hey, get off!" The Dogoos ignored her yells as more and more of them jumped up onto the Guild member. So many that she wasn't even visible in a moment's time as she was covered in Dogoos.
"Iffy! No!" Compa yelled out in concern, stabbing a Dogoo with her syringe and injecting it with some sort of poison that resulted in the creature disappearing immediately. Suddenly, as if responding to Compa's cry, a scream erupted from the spot where the mountain of Dogoos covering IF was. Mere seconds afterwards, the area where the Dogoos where exploded, sending them all flying upwards and more importantly, revealing the Guild member that was trapped beneath. Almost immediately, IF extended her hand towards the sky.
"MY BLOOD IS BOILING!" IF chanted in fury. "DEMONIC INFERNO!"
Suddenly, a pillar of fire appeared around the Guild member and spreaded. It completely annihilated all of the Dogoos that had been sent into the air and any that happened to be close by. When the fire died down, IF was smiling like a maniac and her eyes were twitching.
"YOU DAMN THINGS THINK THIS IS FUNNY, DON'T YOU!?" Neptune's laughing in the distance certainly wasn't helping with IF's collapsing sanity. "I'LL SEND YOUR SOULS STRAIGHT TO HELL FOR YOU!" IF then quickly shot forward at another large group of the Dogoos, her qqatars glowing as she prepared to attack.
Compa smiled at the display, ignoring her friend's obvious signs of insanity. "If Iffy can beat them, then so can I!"
After at least ten minutes, all of the Dogoos had either been cleared out. Although most of them were killed after they had attempted to attack the party, they were in fact a few that had decided to retreat. However, IF apparently wanted all of them dead as she chased any that tried to escape and personally erased them from existence, to the shock and somewhat horror of everyone else present, including Peashy, who was having the time of her life clawing away the Dogoos.
The said Guild member stood in the middle of all the field, looking up at the sky with no emotions on her face. The blobs of blue gel on the grass were a reminder of the genocide she had just committed. But she didn't care. All IF did was promptly fall to the ground in exhaustion and groaned loud enough for everyone to hear. Compa walked up to her best friend and patted her on the back.
"It's okay, Iffy. You did a good job." Compa congratulated, smiling and tilting her head. IF only replied with another groan.
"That was just Dogoos, yet it still took a good amount of effort." The older Falcom remarked, sitting next to her counterpart and putting her blade back in the instrument case. "I highly doubt that that's the end of it though. While that was difficult to an extent, I don't think it would be worth being called an emergency quest. Neptune and Nepgear didn't even need to use their HDD."
"Yeah... that was a hard fought battle." Neptune gasped, laying sprawled out on the ground. The grip on her wooden katana loosened to the point where it rolled out her grasp. Nepgear crawled up to her sister, just as exhausted as she was.
"But Neptune, all you did was get tickled by Dogoos and laugh." Nepgear chuckled.
"Yeah, but do you know how hard a job it was, distracting all of those Dogoos with my loli body? They would've have done lewd things with me, you know..." Neptune moaned, hugging her body before erupting into a fit of laughter, her sister joining in as well.
Peashy sighed as she put away her cat paws. She got up from the ground before dusting off any traces of the Dogoo she could have had left on her body. The blonde CPU then began to walk in the direction the wave of Dogoos initially came from.
"Hey, where are you going?" RED asked the departing CPU between her own breaths. Peashy waved her hand in dismissal.
"Nowhere; I'm just going to scout up ahead. I'm not as tired as you all seem to be so I'll just make sure everything is good. I'll probably be back in like ten minutes or something." Peashy replied, before continuing to walk, her pace picking up slightly.
"Alright, but you better not be late! I'll charge you 100 credits per minute late!" B-Sha's voice yelled to her. Although the intentions seemed cheap, Peashy could tell that the Gold Third member's intention were good. Peashy smiled before running off.
Peashy ran ahead for about five minutes before she crashed onto the grass in fatigue. Her whole body ached. Quickly, she dug her hand into one of the pockets on her belt and pulled out the medicine bottle containing the yellow crystals and ingested one of them, ignoring the bad taste.
"That fight drained me way too much and way too fast." Peashy muttered to herself, putting the bottle away and sitting up. "I didn't know they were going away that fast. I woudn't even have to be dealing with this if it weren't for dumb cheating CPUs." She sighed and leaned her head into her hand as she talked to herself. "It's only been a day and I have three months to go, yet I feel this weak. This probably means I won't be able to fight as much." She groaned loudly. "This sucks!"
Suddenly, Peashy saw a speck of blue in the corner of her vision. It wasn't big or growing, so she was sure it wasn't another wave of Dogoos, but it also definitely didn't have a human form. Peashy sighed as she stood up and summoned her two cat paws.
"I don't feel nearly as excited as I should be. Oh well." Peashy noted, before running up to the blue monster. Upon approaching, Peashy saw that the monster was in the form of a fish. However, it did not stop the blonde CPU'S intentions. She raised her claw and prepared to strike.
"Take this!" Peashy cried out just as she was about to get rid of the monster. However, the monster in question quickly backed away before turning to face it's attacker. Oddly enough, the fish had a very cartoonish and simple, yet human face. Even more oddly, the blue fish began to speak.
"Uh, p-please put your claws away." The blue fish stuttered in a strangely deep voice that didn't face his appearance at all. Nonetheless, Peashy complied, though still shocked at the creature in front of her. "Thank you for that. Now, allow me to introduce myself. I am Umio." Umio greeted, giving a small bow. Peashy was still shocked, if not even more.
"Well, um, sorry about trying to attack you. Oh, a-and for stuttering a little, too. I'm just not exactly used to talking with a... well, a talking fish." Peashy apologized, nodding her head down slightly.
"Ah, that is no problem at all." Umio assured, waving one of his fins. "I am quite used to others not being used to my form. This is nothing new to me." Peashy nodded.
"I see. Anyways, what exactly are you doing here? There's apparently a bunch of monsters that have appeared here. Assuming that you aren't one of them because of your lack of hostility towards me, you should probably run away before monsters come and attack you." Peashy warned, pointing in the direction the Dogoos came from. However, the fish shook his head.
"That is not much of a problem, either. I'd like to say that I'm even somewhat used to fighting. Even then, I believe I will be leaving soon. I just need to find a friend." Umio said, crossing his fins like one would their arms. "I came out here to look at the area, is all. My partner should be in that direction." Umio pointed his fin to the right.
"Alright. Do you mind if I accompany you? I'd like to meet this friend of yours." Peashy asked, the thought of going back to everyone else at the back of her mind at the moment.
"I see no issue with it." Umio answered, before he began to make his way towards the direction he pointed to seconds prior. "Follow me."
Peashy had to honestly do her best to try and withhold gasping at the area she and Umio were currently in; a secret garden. If the outskirts of Planeptune were the pinnacle of nature's beauty, than the garden would be where Mother Nature herself resided in. Flowers of all sorts of colors and sizes were in full bloom. Trees were big and healthy and casted just the right amount of shade. There was a small flow of water in the middle of the garden and the grass look even greener than it was on the outskirts.
"Wow, this is beautiful..." Peashy commented in awe. Umio chuckled.
"It is, isn't it? Myself and my partner just so happen to be passing by when we found this marvelous garden." Umio explained. "Speaking of which, my partner should be right over there." The fish pointed to a patch of flowers. When Peashy looked, she saw a woman with fairly long red hair wearing a white uniform with an orange tie and gray pleated shorts. She was currently picking up some of the flowers, delicately pulling them up from the ground so as to not rip any of the roots before adding them to the small collection she had formed in her left hand. She picked up a red flower, smelled it and sighed happily.
"Ah! Uzume just loves this garden! This flowers are just so pretty and smell super nice! The trees are really big and feel really good to sit under and the grass is so comfy I can sleep on it! There's even a river for Umio to splash around in! Oh, this is just the best! Uzume wants to live here forever!" The red haired woman said in an incredibly cutesy voice. Peashy had to stifle a laugh. Umio coughed to get the girl's attention.
"Uzume, I'm back." Umio said, waving his fin at the girl. Once the girl noticed him, she waved back and ran to him.
"Umio, you're finally back! I know it's only been a few minutes since you left but it feels like it's been days, ya know? Anyways, look at all of these pretty flowers I picked! They look and smell super ni-" Uzume rambled, still retaining her cutesy voice, until Umio cut off.
"Uh, Uzume? Your speech. There's someone else here, in case you didn't notice." Umio stated. Upon realizing her mistake, Uzume turned around to see the other person there trying her best not to laugh at all. Now blushing intensely, she began to cough madly; her voice dropping as she did so. By the end of her coughing fit, Uzume sounded a lot more mature and cool.
"U-uh, sorry about that." Uzume said, her blush slowly but surely dissipating. Peashy blinked in surprise at the sudden change of tone, but quickly replied.
"It's nothing to apologize, really. Being honest, I've seen something like this happen before, so I'm used to it." Peashy replied, putting one of her hands on her hip.
"You've dealt with something like this before?" Uzume's eyes widened, before she shook her head rapidly. "Gaah! Never mind that! How do you know my name, who are you and why are you even here!?"
"To answer all of your questions, I'm Peashy and I just decided to accompany Umio to make sure he wasn't meeting with anyone suspicious. Luckily, you don't seem to be." Peashy answered, before smirking. "To answer your first question, you were speaking in the third person." Although Uzume would usually growl at such a jab, and trust her she really wanted to, she felt more curious than angry.
"Wait, you're Peashy?" Uzume asked questionably. "Looking at you now, you certainly look like her, but Peashy looks like she's like ten years old. You're like seven or eight years older." Peashy stayed silent as she processed this information for a few moments before she spoke up.
"Thanks for that small confirmation, Uzume. I'll be sure to bring that up with Neptune and Nepgear later." Peashy said, to Uzume's surprise.
"Nepsy and Gearsy? You know them?" Uzume asked, smiling at the mention of her best friends' name.
"Yep. Me, them and a few others are taking on a quest right now." The blonde CPU confirmed, tilting her head in the general direction of where her party was.
"Okay. Make sure to tell them I said hi! I'd go say hi and help them with their quest myself but me and Umio can't stay in one location for too long! Besides, Big Nepsy is probably getting impatient waiting for us." Uzume requested, before she ran towards an entrance between two trees. "Bye Big Peashy! Hope I'll see you soon!" Umio quickly followed his companion, waving a fin at Peashy before he too left her sight.
Peashy began to walk back to where she had initially came from, questions that had popped up in the last conversation running through her head. 'So apparently, this Uzume girl knows who I am even though she hasn't met before, just like B-Sha. I doubt it's because she met my counterpart from this world, since no one has even mentioned a me in this world. That would mean that the most likely explanation is that Uzume has traveled different dimensions along with Neptune and possibly B-Sha. But that just seems a bit too unlikely. And there's also this 'Adult Nepsy' that Uzume brought up. I don't think it's my Neptune, since my dimension's Neptune doesn't really look like a adult... actually, I'll just explain all of this to Neptune and Nepgear when we finish the quest. My head's starting to hurt thinking about all of this.' Peashy decided internally, before she smiled. She put her hands behind her hand and began to talk to herself.
"Thinking about it now, Uzume sorta reminds me of Kurome. They look the same, sound pretty similar, they even both have personality change thing. Is it possible that Uzume is Kurome's counterpart? No, I'm sure of it, actually. There are way too many coincidences for it not to be the case. I'll probably meet Uzume again, though." As she walked, Peashy stared up at the cloudless blue sky. "But... I do wonder how Kurome and the others are doing right about now..."