And we're back with the continuation of last chapter! Let's not waste any time and jump in now.

Hyperdimension Neptunia belongs to

Idea Factory and Compile Heart


Chapter 8.5: A Week in Lastation! Dogoos and Crystals and Guns, Oh My!

This is just perfect. . . My two teammates are getting overrun by Dogoo, and I can't give any cover fire thanks to this Metal Dogoo standing between us.

"What do you want!? I can tell you're not with these other Dogoo?" I asked the it. Kinda stupid, I know.

"Dog dogoo. Dogoo dogoo!" The Dogoo was saying, sounding sad then angry.

I'm lost, along with everyone else behind me not fighting. This Dogoo was trying to talk to me. But I think I have a hunch about something.

"That Metal Dogoo we defeated was your parent, wasn't it?" I asked. The Dogoo bobbed its face up and down, looking sad.

"Umm Noire, did Garland just talk to a. . ." Uni was asking her sister.

"It appears so" Noire looks from me, to the jumbled mess where Neptune and Nepgear were.

"Hahahaha, stop it. That tickles you silly Dogoos" Neptune laughs out loud.

"No, don't go there!" Nepgear exclaims, trying to shake the Dogoos off.

"Jeez, why didn't she use her HDD form. . ." Noire said before summoning her sword and slashing all the Dogoos that were attacking(?) the sisters.

While all that was happening, Uni runs over to me, readying her rifle. She pointed it towards the Dogoo until I held my hand up to stand down "Garland, what are you doing? I know you were just talking to it, but. . ."

"You don't understand Uni" I told her, looking at the Metal Dogoo "That Dogoo is a pup" she looks at me like I was crazy "And. . . Nepgear and I slayed its parent" Uni's eyes widen at my words.

"Are you serious? How could you come across an accusation like that?" she asks me "That could be any Metal Dogoo" the Metal Dogoo growled before launching itself at us "Look out Garland!" Uni told me. I didn't move.

The Dogoo made contact with me and sent me to the ground with a heavy thud "Guh. . ." I uttered, wincing from the impact.

"D-Dogoo dogoooo!" the Dogoo howls, looking at me with sad but angry eyes. It tried attacking, but it was doing minimal damage.

"Garland, get it off of you! You could die!" Uni yells at me. All I did was look at the pup's struggle.

"I know I can't make it up to you. . ." I started saying. The Dogoo stopped its struggle and looked at me "But I'm sorry for what I did" The Dogoo shuddered.

"D-D-Dogoo. . ." It muttered. Uni couldn't comprehend what was going on.

"I'm. . . I'm completely lost right now" Uni said, scratching her head.

I sat up, catching the Dogoo that was still on my chest "I'm just as lost as you, Uni. But, I can't kill it. I can't muster the heart to do it. . ." I said, holding the Dogoo to my chest. It stopped struggling.

"Garland" I turn around at the sound of my name to see Black Heart with her weapon out "Let go of the Dogoo. You know what needs to be done"

I look at her, then to the Metal Dogoo pup in my arms. I put it down behind me then extended my arms out "No, I will not" Everyone looked at me in shock.

"Garland, that is a mob. If we let go, it could cause trouble in the future. Now move" Black Heart demanded. This caught Neptune and Nepgear's attention.

"Whoa, is Garly really going against Noire over a Dogoo?" Neptune asks.

"Don't take another step Black Heart. If. . . You do. . ." I hesitate, then raise my rifle "I will shoot. . ."

"Like hell you would fire upon a potential ally" Black Heart says. I lowered my weapon slowly "Ugh, I'll finish this last quest to let off steam" she said before flying away.

"I'm really sorry Noire. I'm sorry. . ." I said, looking down at the Dogoo. Uni and the others walked up to me soon after.


Noire is inside a nearby cave finishing up the last quest. She sliced through the last mob before sighing "That idiot. I can't believe he let his heart get wavered like that" she was getting ready to leave when she felt the area around her shake "What the hell?" Out from the shadows, a giant dragon stomps out, looking at her "An Ancient Dragon!?" she exclaimed before it attacked.

She dodges the oncoming claw and slashes at it a couple times before jumping back "Eat this, Lace Ribbons!" She flies towards it launching it upwards accompanied by a series of kicks and a final slash. When she looked back, the Ancient Dragon was still standing. And it looked pissed. "You're still standing?" Noire looks at it before she went in for one more attack "Eat this!" She was about to strike down on it before a Delinquent Cat jumped on the dragon's head. She didn't have enough time to react to the Cat sending a blast at her sending her flying into the cave wall. When she made contact, she felt a strong sense of weakness before her HDD deactivated suddenly. "Wh-What happened? My HDD. . ." she was in shock at what happened.

The Ancient Dragon stomped its way over to Noire's position. She looked up at the monster, getting ready to strike her down with its claws. She closed her eyes tightly before she heard a loud bang followed by a pained roar. Noire opens her eyes to see the Dragon's arm disintegrating.

"Whoa, I didn't know that shot would be that powerful!" she heard a familiar voice say.

"Variable Edge!" Noire heard another voice say, before seeing the monster's wings get sliced off "Come on Noire, now's not the time to sit around" Neptune turned Purple Heart said.

"Dogoo!" Noire heard, then looked to her side to see a Metal Dogoo looking at her.

"Noire!" I yelled, running over to her "Are you okay?" the Dogoo jumps towards me.

"G-Garland, what are you doing here?" she asks me, still shaken up a bit.

I sigh "I came to apologize. I shouldn't have raised my weapon against you. So, I'm sorry"

"Dogoo. . ." the Metal Dogoo nods, as if trying to say sorry too.

The Ancient Dragon roared in pain once more from a Critical Edge from Neptune. It started running towards Noire and I. I got my weapon raised ready to fire before yelling "Metal Slugger!" the Metal Dogoo with me jumped up and went into my weapon. I pulled the trigger and a bullet the size of a shotgun's flies out and rips through the dragon's leg, sending it to the ground. I helped Noire up from her position while the Dogoo comes bouncing back "Go and finish it off Noire"

Noire nods, then grabs her weapon "This went on long enough. Time to show you the power of Lastation's CPU! Tornado Sword!" Noire yells, her sword growing in size and changing colors. She reaches back, then slashes through the monster, killing it.

"Yeah, and that's how it's done!" Neptune cheers, running up to me for a high five.

Noire breathes a sigh of relief, then turns towards Neptune and I "Let's get out of here you two" she said. We both nodded our heads and followed behind Noire with the Metal Dogoo in tow. She looks back at me, seeing the Dogoo bouncing by my side "Hey Garland"

I look at her "What is it Noire?"

"Umm, I also want to apologies with what I was forcing you to do. And, why is that Dogoo following you?" she asks me.

"Well, I forgive you. And how should I put this. . ." I scratched my head "I'm sorta. . . Keeping it. . ." I said looking away.

"He's doing it because it's just a little puppy and he wants it to get stronger before releasing it" Neptune butts in.

"Hmm, I see. Well I can't stop what you're doing. But!" she pauses for a second "You're taking care of it, got it?" she tells me. I nod in confirmation "Good. Now, let's head back. Everyone is waiting"


The rest of the day was spent getting back to the Basilicom, watching Neptune and Nepgear head back to Planeptune, and getting things settled with the addition to the group. The next day, Uni asked for some of my time and brought me to this futuristic looking range. There were floating targets everywhere.

"So Uni, what brings us here?" I ask her.

"Well today. . ." she says, twirling her rifle "We'll be shooting targets to get your aim precise. Yeah you got that companion and three burst, but you'll need to learn to take your aim in a millisecond in any situation" Uni explained.

"Alright, sounds good enough for me" I said, getting my weapon ready. I watched as Uni walked to a control panel and press a couple buttons.

"Are you ready Garland?" I heard her call out. I give a thumbs up "Alright, here we go!" she pressed one more button, then all the targets began zipping around me.

My first base of action was to fire on my three burst. I was able to destroy a couple until the targets started to dive bomb into me. I had to be careful right now, one wrong move could land me in a world of hurt. I did my best at dodging, jabbing some targets that got to close or were about to get a hit in. I got to a safe distance where I could concentrate fire. I took up a firing position and began firing at the targets, destroying them one at a time at a quicker pace.

"Good job, he's learning fast" Uni said, nodding at my progress "I think it's time to stop" she said, pressing the shutdown button. But the light didn't go off "Huh, what's going on? Why won't it shut off" she pressed it some more until the panel sparked and a siren went off "Oh no, Garland!" Uni called out to me.

I went behind cover and looked in her direction "What is it!? Gah!" the targets that were flying around earlier started to kamikaze into my position, exploding on impact.

"I'll cover fire! Get out of here!" Uni yells, firing on the rampant targets. I ran to her position and began firing upon the targets myself "What are you doing!?"

"I will never leave a fallen comrade! That's in my warrior ethos. It's what every soldier goes by, so there is no way in hell I'm letting you take these on your own! Even though you haven't fallen!" I said to her with a big grin.

She looks at me wide-eyed, then her face slightly flushing a light red "You could've said that differently, but I can't really complain. . . It makes me sorta happy" Uni said whispering that last part, smiling to herself "Let's finish them off Garland!"

"You got it!" I said before we started glowing. We went back to back with our respective rifles raised "Let's do this!"

"EX Bullet Storm!" we both called out. Our weapons let loose a hell-fire of bullets, well for Uni it was beams of light that encircled us. Every target that was around us got destroyed by the attack. A couple stray bullets hit the panel, making it explode. The attack died down and we were both left looking rather tired.

"That. . . Was awesome!" I yelled, looking at Uni "I can't believe we did that!" I had an excited smile on my face.

"Yeah, that was something" Uni looks at her weapon, then at me "Is that what we did. . . I'll ask about it later, lets head back, I'm tired"

I nod, then let out a sigh "I agree, let's head back" We looked around the area to make sure nothing was left, and headed back to the Basilicom.


The next couple days were spent recovering from that battle and doing research on the move Uni and I did. We found out it was a pairing move based off the level of "affection" between two paired characters. I'm still kinda confused about it, but Noire told me not to think too hard about it. Then, my final day in Lastation was here. I made sure everything of mine was with me and that Meta was with me. We were waiting on the balcony for Blanc to get here.

"Well, I had a lot of fun here. Thanks for having me" I said to Noire.

"It was nothing really, so don't mention it" she told me.

Uni looked saddened for some reason. I turned to her and asked "Hey Uni, you alright?" she jumped at my question.

"Wh-What? I'm just fine!" she said, her face turning red. Noire looks at her with a confused look.

"Are you really okay Uni? Lately, your performance has changed since you two came back from the range" Noire says, giving her sister the 'I don't believe you' stare.

Uni fidgets in place before breathing in "Alright, I'm not okay. The reason why I've been like this is from what Garland. . ." she was explaining until we heard someone land.

"Hey Garland, do you have all your shit? We're leaving immediately " White Heart says, holding her hand out abruptly.

I look towards Blanc, then back to the sisters "Well, I guess I'll see you two later" I said gathering my belongings and grabbed her hand. We were off right when I was comfortable.

Noire looks at us leaving, then looks at Uni "So, finish what you were saying"

Uni looks at her sister, then sighs "He said. . ." and she went on explaining the entire situation to Noire.


Author's Notes

Lastation has been cleared! Onward to Lowee.

So, I'm going to try and input the "Lily Rank" system somewhat into this story. And I was planning to have Uni's be a tad bit higher that the others since Garland also uses rifles. The others I will explain in another chapter. If you have suggestions about what has happened so far that should play into the "Lilly Rank", throw it into the reviews. I always read them and still love hearing feedback.

Anyway, that is all for now. I shall see you all later.