Chapter 4: Assaulted! The Mistress and Love Angels Strike!

"Whooooaaaa…" Neptune's eyes sparkled with excitement as she went from setpiece to setpiece to inspect this fancy church. "This is a Basilicom? It's so big and towering and stuff!" she was clearly enamored with the splendid look of the holy facility, though as soon as her curiosity reached its peak, she realized something. "Where is everyone?"

The stoic Treasure Hunter was busy looking at a bust of a being from long ago. "Hiding from monsters." IF stated as she and the party walked up to her. "Planeptune seems more ravaged by them compared to the other lands. Anyways, go talk to the Basilicom's staff. They'll communicate with a diferent one and we'll be on our way." IF pointed out.

Suddenly, the leader of the Mews had a brilliant idea. "Wait, Neptune." Zoey asked, "How about we go with you?" She suggested.

At the point of hearing such great words, Neptune was filled with love and joy. And hunger. "Oh, sure thing, Zoey!" the purple-haired girl smiled cheerfully as she and the otherworlders entered.

They saw a man in his mid 50s wearing high pope clothes checking something. "Excuse me; I wanna go to other landmasses! Is that okay?" Neptune bellowed; such a blunt entrance, yes?

"Geez, what a loud mouth…" Fate muttered, a hand on her head.

The elderly man looked down at the Heroines, looking rather bored, though still keeping a professional façade. "Ah, hello there. Applying for Terraportation? Can you ladies and gent state any reasons and how long you will be traveling?" The staff official asked.

"Um…" Neptune scratched her chin nervously, "To… travel the world and beat the crap out of monsters and bad guys!"

"Yeah," Ryoko agreed, hoping this explanation will settle, "We want to explore this world."

The elderly man gave them all a strange look, his mouth never changing form, thus leaving him with a stern appearance. "Adminable for young ones. Okay, so… long-term… salvage areas attacked by monsters. There you are," The staff official smiled as he finished and gave Neptune a permanent Travel Pass. "Or should I say volunteer work? That'll look good on your resume!" He joked.

However, the girl that often cracked jokes was in no mood right now. "Whatever. Hurry it up, our party is waiting for us!" Neptune moaned.

"Be more civilized Nep-Nep." Miyabi scolded. She had to wonder how on Earth (or whatever this planet was called) they were going to get anything done with this weird girl.

The old man finally gave an emotion on his face. "You have some friends? Can you write their names here please?" Neptune wrote their names on the paper he gave them. "…That's it. Thank you very much. Safe journeys, now!" The staff official smiled.

It looked as though everything was all good, and the party was ready to leave the fine establishment. Everything was going great, and sooner or later, Histoire would finally be freed from wherever she may be held. Unfortunately, it seems that our party completely neglected the original fact of why they came to the Basilicom in the first place. "Wait, we don't know much about Basilicoms. Can you explain it to us?" Bridget asked politely.

The man, who was attempting to finish his book, grew angry, though he hid it with a smile. "Basilicom newbies, huh? Let me tell you a bit about our origins and give a small history lesson." The staff official cleared his throat and began.

"Long ago, Basilicoms were created by CPUs, or the Console Patron Units you call goddesses. We assist them in governing this world. On the other hand, we perform missionary work to spread our beliefs. That's the gist of it, really. Did that help?" He asked.

The news of what the place actually did made Neptune rather bored. "Hmm… No, I was expecting weird cult people here, but you guys seem normal enough." she smiled nervously.

The staff official sighed. "Well, it's different everywhere. Some Basilicoms may be construed as weird. I really shouldn't say such things, though," He hesitated.

Finally, her interest grew to profound levels once more. "So there are weird ones? Nice. Are there people too?" Neptune's ears perked with delight.

"Uh…" The Staff official sweat dropped, "Why not? Why don't you go back to your friends?" He suggested.

"Good idea." Tsukune nodded, hoping to get out of here; the Basilicom gave him the creeps.

Neptune felt sad over leaving such an awesome looking place, but she decided it was for the best. "Cya!" she smiled as she and her friends exited.

When they left, the staff official said "Neptune. A nice name for a nice girl…"

When the group left the Basilicom doors, the other half waiting outside finally sighed in relief. "What the hell took you guys so long?" IF grumbled.

The leader of the Mews rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry, got hold up all of a sudden. So what's up?" Zoey asked.

IF checked her cellphone. "I hear there is another Sand Worm in the Terraportation route. We should get a move on and take care of it."

"Another Sand Worm?" Compa gasped. Certainly, this couldn't be true!

"Oh boy!" Neptune rubbed her hands excitedly. "Another excuse to kick butt and gain levels! Let's go!"

At the area…

"I know I'm the newest party member here, but shouldn't we get a move on already?" IF grumbled as the party entered the cave.

The purple-haired girl patted her chest with an impressive fist. "We can't ignore people for help! We gotta destroy all the monsters on Planeptune, y'know?" Neptune begged.

"Yeah. 'Slow and steady wins the race!' Collecting Key Fragments is important too, but we can't leave troubled people alone!" Compa nodded.

With those facts thrown out there, the rest of the party outweighed the hunter… eh, a lot-to-one. "So don't be a party pooper Iffy!" Kikki stated.

A red face soon appeared amongst the crowd. "My name is not Iffy! Jeez!" IF grumbled as she folded her arms.

The party fought and explored the dungeon, taking out all of the recolors you could find. The enemies were actually original, really; we had green dogoos, red dogoos, blue dogoos, big blue dogoos, and even a beetle. They all leveled up to Lvl 4, with the exception of IF, who remained below them at Lvl 3. After spamming for twenty minutes and attempting to work out the healing aspect, the party finally found the Sand Worm.

"Okay, time to go medieval on it!" Neptune got out her wooden sword and shouted "Jumping Arts!" She used three slashes to give the monster some medium damage. IF scratched the monster three times with her daggers, still complaining that her sleeves were much too long (shouldn't she leave the jacket, then? Or, I don't know, tie it around her waist?).

"Heart Arrow!" Corina used Heart Arrow on it to unlease some damage. The Sand Worm hit Compa, but she jabbed it with her syringe three times. Ryoko slashed it (you guessed it)three times with her sword, causing that word "damage" to appear again, making the beast rather angry. Miyabi lashed her hair at it for greater damage. The monster was weakening, too tired from the fact that its turn was skipped twice.

"Time for the big kadoosh!" Neptune grinned as she slashed it one more time. The Sand Worm screeched as it disappeared.

"That's that!" Moka closed her eyes and smiled. The smile ended quickly, though, as the party suddenly heard a familiar evil laugh.

"I finally found you! Neptune and Mew Mews!" The voice said with a guffaw evident at the end.

That was certainly hammy. "W-Who's there?" Neptune looked around. "What's with that melodramatic laugh…?"

Right in front of the group, a dark portal appeared, and out stepped…

"The Mistress!" Tsukune gasped. This is not a good thing, readers.

"Don't mock my snickering!" She looked angry, "You haven't changed a bit, pushing people's buttons… This time I will take the Mew Mews' Ultimate Magic and destroy Neptune… Killing two birds with one stone! Love Angels! Arise!" The Mistress snapped her fingers, causing four dark portals to appear. Rising out of them were Wedding Peach and the Love Angels.

Though they were supposed to be the ones filled with love and justice, the Angels were completely devoid of all life, making them appear to be zombies. "It's Wedding Peach and the Love Angels!" Corina gawked, repeating what I just said.

A sinister laugh was heard. "Don't worry, Mistress!" Wedding Peach got out her rifle, "We will get the Mew Mews' Ultimate Magic!"

"Nep-Nep…" Zoey whispered to the ditz. Neptune turned to her, completely unfazed. It made Zoey admire either her tremendous bravery, or outright stupidity.

"Now is a good time to transform." Neptune nodded and did exactly that. Soon, the transformed girl appeared to the world once more."I don't know what's going on, how you know my name and why you want Zoey and her friends… But I won't let you get away with it!" She slashed her sword to prove her point.

"Oh, Ultimate Magic…" Zoey chanted again and the otherworlders were in their powered-up forms again.

"Whoa…" Compa gasped in awe, still having a hard time believing in these transformations.

"Interesting…" IF said with dull interest as she got out her daggers.

Boss: Mistress and Love Angels

"Hah!" The Mistress shouted as she charged at Neptune. They clashed weapons for about 1 minute until the apparent Magical Girl got the upper hand and slashed the blasted woman three times with her sword. However, this was not enough to take the powerful girl down. "Not bad…" The Mistress frowned as she hit Neptune three times with her swordstaff.

Wedding Peach fired shots at Kikki, but she dodged it. "W-What the!" Wedding Peach growled as she continued to fire at her. Compa fired shots from her syringe to help Kikki and gave Wedding Peach some damage, though not a whole lot, unfortunately. IF blocked some hits from Angel Daisy, and when she used Saints Rolling Boomerange, IF dodged it and gave Daisy a devasting kick, though it once more did not prove to be the most potent attack.

Ryoko clashed swords with Salvia, attempting to repeat what Neptune was able to do. Unfortunately, Salvia just smirked as she slashed our poor heroine six times with her deadly blade. "Hang on, Ryoko!" Renee lashed her whip to hold Salvia down.

"D-Damn you!" Salvia growled as she struggled to break free, but Ryoko managed to slash her thrice with her sword of light. With that, Ryoko was able to escape, while Salvia attempted to regain her bearings, however that was possible.

Lily lashed her whip at Miyabi, though she blocked and managed it with her hair. Miyabi shouted "Hair Tornado!" as she spins like a tornado, and managed to get Lily a few times, knocking the possessed girl out. Moka charged at Wedding Peach who fired shot after shot at her, but she dodged it and punched her in the gut. Have to say, the battle is going surprisingly smoothly.

Back to Neptune, the Mistress managed to hit her 10 times with her swordstaff, plus a dark energy ball attack, which is never a good combination. "Not bad… but not good enough!" Neptune yelled as she delivered a kick to the Mistress eight freaking times, followed by a potent slash attack. Over at the other corner, IF managed to strike Daisy with her weapons and got out of the way right as Bridget launched a Tidal Wave Rush at her, giving the Love Angel some major damage.

Saliva finally regained herself, and tried to get Fate, but she slashed her with that Bardiche of hers. As this was going on, Zoey rushed up to help Neptune and they kicked the Mistress three times psychically, though I am not sure how that works.

"Not bad… Time to power up, Love Angels!" The Mistress snapped her fingers as the Love Angels were surrounded by the dark energy, and were soon powered up. Hoping to take advantage of their, well, "not-moving" status, Risa launched a dark energy ball at Wedding Peach who didn't have time to dodge it, and was hit directly. At least powering up left them vulnerable!

Suddenly, golden energy surrounded Zoey and Neptune. "Zoey!" Neptune called out.

"Right!"

The two closed their eyes and began to concentrate. "What the…" The Mistress gasped, unaware of this move. Both of the heroes hummed as energy exploded all around them. Soon, they opened their eyes and shouted "Rose Neptunia!" The two used their weapons to deliver a devastating blow to the Mistress and Love Angels, a move so powerful, I can't even begin to describe it. The Love Angels screamed in agony as they were knocked out on the ground. The Mistress held her arm in frustration.

"D-Damn it… How could this… Wait, that's right! This is Planeptune, Neptune's home turf… This isn't over, I'll be back!" The Mistress swore as she and the Love Angels disappeared by a blinding flash.

Wow, that was a highly elaborate fight scene, but at least it is over now. "Who the hell was that woman?" IF raised an eyebrow, still new to all of this.

Unfortunately, while the battle was won for the day, there was still a major flaw in their battle strategies. "We failed to save the Love Angels…" Fate looked down as the others reverted to normal.

Who is the Mistress? What new schemes will she unleash?

To be continued…

Next time- Chapter 5: The IS: Onward to Adventure!

A/N: Next time, the gang from Infinite Stratos will join Nep-Nep and the gang after getting sucked into Gamindustri, see you then!