Chapter 9: Patching Up Differences
It was another bright and early day in Lastation, everything appeared to be as normal as one can be in a world full of goddesses, monsters and goodness knows what, but for one particular person nothing was going well, in fact their day as a whole so far was in utter shambles. As a cool breeze blew into the large office of the CPU of Lastation the prideful CPU herself was sitting in her large office chair, she was leaning forward with her hands on her face, her elbows were on the table, piles of paperwork littered the table and all around her. It was a busy day and it had not even struck midday yet, not to mention that she had another problem that was under her roof: Mars. The young man was an endless source of trouble for Noire.
"Urgh, why does Mars have to spend so much money on Nepsi and gun mods?" Noire asked herself, groaning in annoyance. "He's even worse than Uni when it comes to these sorts of matters. What the hell am I going to do?"
"What ails you, Lady Noire?" Kei ask as she approached the table, a large pile of paperwork was in her hands.
"Mars again, he's been spending a whole lot of money buying Nepsi and gun mods, he's spent so much money that he has resorted to borrowing loans off me." Noire groaned and leaned back into her chair. "Not only that but Neptune and Vert keep coming over to say hello, mainly to him. It's been making my work time a mess."
"Doesn't Mars go on quests? I thought he would have had a lot more money if he did."
Noire shook his head. "No, apparently there aren't any quests that interest him. I had a check at the Guild and it turns out that the only quests that are available involve fetching items and search for missing things. No fighting, no hunting or anything alike, just plain old boring quests, so basically rank D quests. Sheesh, now I'm starting to sound like Mars."
Kei placed the paperwork onto Noire's table and chuckled at the grumpy CPU. "I should not worry about it if I were you, I'm sure that there will be some quests to his liking in the near future."
"Well I wish it would hurry up, I've barely got any work done because of him and his antics!" Just then Noire's computer screen lit up, she turned her attention over to it and clicked on the video message icon, the screen was covered by the face of a blonde and blue eye girl, she was wearing a wide white hat with a purple N in the centre, light blue and purple pieces were attached to the sides, two blue and white tips of a set of wings could be seen on the screen. "Hello there, Histoire," Noire greeted as best she could. "Was there something you needed?"
"Just a heads up: Neptune and Nepgear are heading your way, I even believe Vert might be heading over as well, although I am not overly sure," Histoire informed Noire, she appeared concerned when the Lastation CPU groaned and bashed her head against the table. "Is something wrong, Noire?"
"Of course something is wrong! Those three have been coming over a lot more lately and that has been stuffing up my work schedule, I'm barely getting any work done as it is because of their interruptions." Noire sighed and rested her chin on the table, her gaze directed towards the computer screen. "Well, thanks for warning me anyway. Was there anything else you needed to discuss with me before I return to my work?"
Histoire nodded, affirming Noire's question. "Yes, there was one last point of discussion that I need to speak to you about. How is Mars coping?"
"Don't even get me started. He's an utter pain to live with and I can't wait to see the day he moves out, not to mention he owes me some money, and I intend to make sure he remembers it."
Histoire sighed. "I see, so you two are in some sort of rivalry, are you?"
"No, it isn't like that, we just… hate each other I guess." Noire glanced away with a depressed look on her face. "Although, I wouldn't mind if we got along like he does with Uni."
"Hmm? What was that last part?" Histoire asked, the tome fairy had failed to hear what Noire had mumbled about after she informed the Planeptunian Oracle about her thoughts of Mars.
"Wh-What?! Oh, nothing at all, don't worry about it." The Lastation CPU flailed her arms around and sat up straight in her chair, attempting to cover up what she had mumbled. Histoire did not looked convinced while Kei simple chuckled in amusement, resulting in Noire turning her gaze away from them and towards the large glass door and window panels to her right, she attempted to look for the flying figures of Purple Heart, Purple Sister and Green Heart, yet none came into view. I'll admit, even though they ruin my whole work schedule and play antics against me with Mars, I guess I'm… I'm happy about it. Them being here, it makes me feel happy and less lonely, sorta I guess. A small smile crept onto her face.
"Hmm? Why the smile all of a sudden, Noire?" Histoire asked.
"What? Oh, nothing important, don't worry about it," Noire responded as she kept her composure. "Anyway, I've got a lot of work to get done while also getting ready for some uninvited guests. Was there anything else you needed to tell me?"
The tome fairy nodded. "Yes, there was one last item of discussion that I need to talk to you about: is there a chance in the near future for Mars to come over to Planeptune so I can run some tests on him?"
"Tests? What sort of tests?"
"Nothing major, just a blood sample is all as well as a demonstration of his power. From what Nepgear has told me it seems that Mars may be on a whole different level than I previously anticipated, the power to regenerate one's body after being almost obliterated has never been heard of before, not to mention the peculiar growling that Mars is prone to issuing from what I heard. Does Mars have any free time?"
Strangely enough Histoire seemed a bit concerned, this did not escape the attention of Noire and Kei, who were more than eager to question why that was the case. "Are you feeling alright?" Kei asked Histoire. "You look a lot more worried than usual."
The fairy sighed, confirming Noire's and Kei's suspicions. "Yes, I'm afraid about this whole matter with Mars and whatever he may posses. I fear that we may discover something that we are not ready for and events may spiral out of our control, at least that is what I fear, judging from what descriptions I have received about Mars' behaviour and power, or powers, this may be something that I have not encountered before. I worry for the future of Gamindustri if Mars turns out to be more dangerous than we previously thought, especially if some rogue organisation goes after him."
"You shouldn't worry about it, Histoire," Kei said with a small smile and a hand on her hip. "So far Mars has kept himself out of trouble, well, sort of anyway, the butler incident down in Leanbox was concerning enough."
"Yes, I heard about that," Histoire sighed. "What possessed him to even agree to do that?"
"Vert won at a game, plus he never goes back on his word," Noire explained. As the CPU gazed in the direction of the balcony entrance to her right she saw three specks flying towards the Basilicom, the uninvited guests were in sight. "I can see Neptune and co in the distance, I better get ready for them. Was there anything else you needed to discuss with me, Histoire?"
The fairy shook her head. "No, that is all for now, just remember to convince Mars to come over to Planeptune some time in the future. Farewell for now."
The video call ended and Noire was left staring at a blank screen known as her desktop, she saw her own reflection and noticed how tired and worn out she was. Wow, I didn't know that I looked so tired. Damn it, Neptune is going to make fun of me for this isn't she? He thoughts were interrupted when the nearby elevator opened and two figures walked out and into Noire's office, when they stepped in the Lastation CPU recognised them: it was Uni and Mars. The Candidate was holding her N-Gear in her right hand and smiled at her older sister while Mars failed to show any sort of interest in the slightest, Noire guessed - correctly - that they were in her office to see Neptune, Nepgear and Vert.
"Looks like they're right on time," Uni said as she took her eyes off the electronic device.
"Tell me again why those three are coming over?" Mars asked, clearly not in the right mood to entertain guests, which was something that Noire could relate too.
"They just like coming over, I guess you must have made a good impression with them or something. I never seen Vert come over here so many times though, guess you must have made her quite happy with that butler cafe incident. Oh, did she also make you her 'little brother'?" Uni sniggered with delight as Mars growled at her, his fingers clutching around each other.
"That was over two weeks ago, you think they might have forgotten it by now, but no they just had to keep mentioning it whenever I'm around, especially Vert. And… well, yeah, she did, that Vert is one hell of a loner if she wanted me to be her little brother. She sounds even lonelier than Noire." Fortunately for Mars the senior Lastation CPU failed to hear him. As he looked out the office he saw the three flying figures approach the balcony at an astonishing speed. "Actually, come to think of it I haven't seen Neptune in her HDD form before. I've seen Nepgear's and Vert's but not Neptune's. Funny, after all these weeks I should have by now. What does she look like after she's transformed anyway, Uni?"
"You'll find out, I don't want to spoil the surprise for you."
Mars raised an eyebrow at the Candidate as the three guests arrived on the balcony, Uni walked out to meet them along with Kei, Noire and Mars stared at each other for a moment before sighing. Both made their way after Uni and Kei onto the balcony where they were met by the CPUs of Planeptune and Leanbox, all three were in their HDD forms. Mars recognised Green Heart - which he found to be an eye opener - and especially Purple Sister, the two of them had spent quite a lot of time together due to her friendship with Uni. The third figure, however, was a complete mystery to the young man, he guessed that it was another CPU, possibly from Planeptune due to the purple hair and colour of the outfit she wore. Who the hell is this woman? Where is Neptune? She should be here, she usually is. Mars thought to himself as he eyed the strange, large breasted woman in front of him.
The purple haired woman was wearing a one piece, black swimsuit with purple and blue lining, a collar connected the swimsuit-like attire to the neck, a white N was visible on the collar, two black hair pieces with a blue '+' were in her hair, her eyes were light blue. She was looking at Uni and Purple Sister as they conversed in a conversation before turning her attention towards Mars, she smiled and approached him with the intent to greet him. "Hello, Mars. How are you so far today?" the strange yet friendly woman asked, it was as if she knew him.
"Um, I'm fine, thanks for asking. But who the hell are you? I haven't seen you before," Mars responded.
It was Noire who answered his question as soon as she walked up next to him. "That's Neptune in her HDD form, she's a lot more tolerable like this if you ask me. In HDD she is known as Purple Heart" The stunned expression that Mars had made the Lastation CPU realise that he had never seen Neptune in HDD.
"Seriously? That's Neptune?! Really?!" Mars shouted. "But she… but she's all boobified! How does that happen?! I can understand Vert's and Nepgear's situation while Uni's transformation is too confusing, but this is not what I was expecting from Neptune!"
Purple Heart raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms while Purple Sister and Green Heart chuckled, Noire sighed and shook her head while Uni unsure about whether to join her friends in their giggling or just get a little bit pouty at Mars. If he got this surprised at just seeing Neptune with breasts like that I can only imagine what his reaction would be if he saw me with large assets in HDD. Geez, he is kinda like a pervert now that I think about it. Uni thought to herself, watching Mars unleash his thoughts.
The CPU of Planeptune, despite her expression, was having too much fun with Mars. When she realised earlier in the morning that the young man had yet to see her HDD form she knew there was no better time to reveal it, after all, she knew how different she was after transforming and that was definitely going to get a reaction out of the young man. The reaction the CPU received was exactly what she had expected, and she was enjoying it. Soon enough her expression changed from a distant and lifeless look to one that resembled a mixed seductive and pleased expression. "Like what you see, Mars?" she asked in a soothing voice as she neared the young man, leaning down slightly which gave him a good view of her cleavage.
Mars stopped his rambling and stared sternly at Purple Heart, he looked at her breasts, hips and thighs, he hummed quietly and stuck his right thumb up in approval. "Yep, I like what I see," Mars replied, nodding his head.
As Purple Heart laughed she took notice of Uni from the corner of her eyes, she noticed how the Candidate was paying attention to the conversation, she did not look to be in the best of moods. Purple Heart grinned mischievously at Uni as the Candidate approached her and Mars with Nepgear at her side. "Hmm? Feeling jealous, Uni?" Purple Heart asked, grinning away as she placed her left hand on Mars' right shoulder.
The Lastation Candidate growled at Purple Heart as her cheeks flushed red, her annoyance overcoming her thoughts and emotions. "I'm not jealous, Neptune!" Uni responded loudly. "Dammit, why does everyone make fun of me whenever something like this happens?!"
"Welcome to my world, Uni," Noire said knowingly, her arms crossed before her.
Vert shared no further interest with the conversation after that, instead she walked up to Mars and wrapped her arms around the young man tightly, his head was forcibly buried into her bosom. "We haven't had our greetings yet, my dear little brother," Vert said to Mars, her expression was full of happiness. The young man, however, was unable to respond with words, instead he slightly knocked Vert on the head, signalling her to release him before he suffocated to death. Vert, suddenly noticing Mars' situation, let go of him and chuckled. "Feeling any better? I sure hope so."
"Yeah, don't worry about it," Mars responded, he appeared to be fine despite being nearly suffocated on accident. "Just give me a warning before you go doing that again to me."
"Very well. Now come along with me, we have got to catch up on our gaming time." The bountiful goddess looked over at Nepgear and smiled at her as well. "Come along now, my dear Nepgear, you're coming with us too."
"What? Oh, alright then, wait for me," Purple Sister responded as she reverted back to human form, the CPU Candidate then followed Vert and Mars into the Basilicom, the young man was being literally dragged into the building by the blonde goddess who was more than excited about playing a few rounds of one of the available games.
Uni quickly followed the three of them and reentered the Basilicom alongside them, even Kei - who had been excused by Noire - followed them, as they made their way to the gaming room Noire and Neptune entered the Basilicom and stood around Noire's desk in her office, the Lastation CPU sat back down in her chair and got herself comfortable while the pudding obsessed goddess skipped around the office. Noire sighed and shook her head at the sight. "Do you always have to be full of energy, Neptune?" Noire asked, clearly he was slightly annoyed or just overall grumpy. "It's getting rather annoying just watching you jump and hop around like that."
Neptune stopped and walked over to Noire, peering down at her with a cheeky grin. "Aw, looks who tired. Are you jelly that I'm full of energy while you're just like an old woman?"
"Grrrr! Why you little… grah! Damn you!" Noire bashed her head on the table and groaned loudly. "Why am I the one who is always being picked on?"
The Planeptunian CPU patted her counterpart on the back, a caring smile spread across her face. "Ah don't worry 'bout it, my dear tsundere, you'll be fine."
Noire would have grumbled and chewed Neptune out just for calling her a tsundere, but the Lastation CPU was too grumpy to respond, plus she was appreciating the fact that Neptune was actually being caring for once. Noire lifted her head up and rested her chin on the tabletop, her eyes were dropping low and Neptune could see the dark shades of skin underneath Noire's eyes, indicating that she had stayed up late with working on the paperwork for the last two weeks. Yet even Neptune, for all her antics and overall an incompetent goddess, could tell that there was more to Noire's problems than just a work overhaul. "So, what's wrong with ya, my fifth favourite CPU?" Neptune asked, her grin widening as Noire reacted.
"What?! Fifth favourite?! Who are the other four?" Noire asked quickly and without hesitation. She had always thought that she was at least either number one or two on Neptune's favourite CPU list, however, to hear that she was listed as fifth was an utter disgrace to her.
"Easy: me, myself, I and Nep Jr of course," Neptune replied, counting the numbers on each finger on her left hand.
"Why do you count as three people? And why are you even on the list to begin with? I can understand Nepgear being on it but why you three times?"
"Technically the number should be infinite due to how many versions of me are running around in other dimensions, the authors of the fanfiction site absolutely love having me in their fanfics. But just for convenience's sake I trimmed it down to three."
Noire sighed and facepalmed, her annoyance was plain to see. "Stop with all these stupid fourth wall breaking shenanigans already, Neptune," Noire growled, her eyes glaring at the CPU of Planeptune who was giggling away like a little kid on a sugar rush.
"Can't help it, Noire, just gotta do it, you know. Now come on, you haven't answered my question yet. What's gotten your panties in a twist?"
The Lastation CPU sighed, finally relenting to Neptune's question. "It's Mars, that idiot has been getting on my nerves lately. Again." Noire crossed her arms and sat up straight in her chair, her stare was directed at Neptune who was now sitting on the corner of her desk, much to the tsundere's chagrin.
"Ah don't worry about it, I'm sure you'll be a-okay."
"I wish, but he also owes me money and I doubt he has even considered paying his debts me, not to mention that he gets along with everyone just fine except me. Even Uni gets along with him just fine, well, most of the time anyway. I just don't get it sometimes."
Neptune stared at Noire for a short moment before breaking out in a bout of giggles. "Oh, so someone is lonely after all."
"What?! No! It isn't like that at all!" Noire looked away and sighed deeply. "It's just, well, all we ever do is argue over and over again. I don't mean to do it, but our personalities clash too often, sometimes I don't think he even means to do it, it just happens."
"Does that mini-tsun of yours clash with him all the time as well?"
Noire shrugged. "Sometimes, but not all the time, lately they have been staying out of each other's ways. Guess they only get together when a promising quest appears or if Mars needs something, or maybe even if they feel like playing a few games when you, Nepgear and Vert come over. I think Uni is mainly just staying out of his way just to keep me happy. I don't hate Mars, but he is damn annoying at times."
"Then why don't you try to patch up your differences with him?" Neptune suggested, being surprisingly helpful.
Noire stared at Neptune, wondering if she was actually being serious or just joking around, but the idea did not sound too bad, at least it gave the opportunity to clear the air a bit. Although, the CPU knew that even if she were to go along with Neptune's idea there would still be a large obstacle in the way: Mars himself. "Well, I suppose I can give it a try, after all, I don't want to live under the same roof as him if we can't at least attempt to get along," Noire said as she stood up out of her seat, the haughty CPU walked out of her office with Neptune following closely behind her, eager to see what would happen next.
When Noire and Neptune arrived in the gaming room they saw Mars, Uni, Negear and Vert sitting on the couch side-by-side, the four of them were holding console controllers in their hands and their attention was focused on the game they were playing, Kei was nowhere to be seen however, although Noire guess that the Oracle was in the kitchen. Uni was the first to notice their presence, she looked up and a small smile appeared on her face, her concentration both on the game and her sister. "Hey there, Noire. Finish doing paperwork for the day?" Uni asked before turning her full attention back to the game she was playing with the other three.
"Yeah, just for the day though," Noire replied. "Hey, Uni, mind if I speak with you for a moment?"
"Sure thing. Neptune, you take my place."
Neptune swiftly, and enthusiastically, took the controller and took Uni's place on the couch as the Lastation Candidate stood up and followed her older sister out into the hallway. Once they were out of the gaming room Noire leaned up against the wall and looked at Uni sternly. "Uni, tell me, how are you and Mars so close?" she asked her younger sister.
"We aren't close, it's just mutual respect I suppose," Uni replied, unsure about where the conversation was heading. "Why are you asking me this?"
"Well, it was suggested to me by Neptune that I should try to mend my problems with Mars, and his problems with me. I just thought you would have some good ideas is all." Noire scratched the back of her head, somewhat anxious about the whole endeavour.
"Hmm, well, I'm going to be checking the Guild for any quests in three days, hopefully they would have something of interest by then, at least I hope so. Want to come along? If there are any quests available that happen to be interesting, by interesting I mean quests ranked from B to S, then I'll let you know. It could help with you and Mars with your teamwork. How about it?"
Noire rubbed her chin thoughtfully, from how Uni described it the idea was not half bad, the senior CPU finally nodded in agreement after mulling it over for a around a minute, resulting in Uni to smile brightly. "Very well, Uni, I'll go along with your idea, but it's only because it is the only idea that has surfaced so far, not because it's the best. Besides, it'll hopefully fill Mars' pockets with enough credits to pay back all that money he owes me."
Uni tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "Mars owes you money? But last I saw he had plenty of money hidden away in his room, and that was only yesterday afternoon when I went to retrieve one of my gun magazines that I lent to him."
Noire was flabbergasted and merely stood by the wall in shock, surprise and anger, the rage within her was slowly building up until she could no longer contain it. Noire's rage burst out of her system "WHAT?! Are you being serious, Uni?! Mars actually has money?! So he didn't need to ask me for money at all?!"
Uni nodded, she was starting to be a little afraid for her own safety now that Noire had lost the plot, although she knew that her older sister would do no harm to her no matter how enraged she was. The Lastation CPU managed to control her words, but instead chose to march off back to her office in silence, hoping to catch Mars off guard one day so she could exact her revenge. Uni, meanwhile, sighed and shook her head as she returned to the gaming room. Overall it was just another day in the Lastation Basilicom, yet the CPU Candidate could only wonder what would happen in three days time, if there were any suitable quests to be completed.
A/N: 'She's all boobified!' Yeah, that's what I thought the first time I played the games. For today this is all just a fluffy chapter that involves the complex, yet not so complex, relations between Mars, Uni and Noire. This was as short chapter overall, but it sets the stage for the next chapter, and that will be out whenever I get the time to do it. If you readers have any suggestions, ideas and/or requests then please inform me, I'll read just about everything you guy – or ladies – have. Thanks for reading this and have yourselves a great day, or try to at least.