Dinner was over and just as she promised, Neptune and the six entered the room. Upon entering, Neptune locked the door, momentarily causing panic for everyone else besides S-Sha. Meanwhile, Histoire was on standby outside just in case anything happened in the lab.
"Relax, I'm just locking the door so people can't just rush in like summer sale. Histy's waiting outside just in case anything happens to us as well."
Everyone else took a deep breath to calm down. They had initially thought something was going to happen when Neptune locked the door. After all, none of them thought locking the door was necessary.
"So, S-Sha, what made you so interested?" Neptune asked, still sceptical of S-Sha's reasoning.
"This." She brought out a bottle that the three humans immediately recognised.
"Isn't that the bottle from that time when you tried to heal big Nep?" IF asked just to be sure.
"She woke up instantly from just a drop." Compa commented
"Do you always carry one?" B-Sha was curious.
"It is, and I always carry one."
"Huh? What's that drink?" Neptune asked. Due to the fact that at the time, Neptune and the other HD CPUs were captured, she never got to see what the drink was.
"It's an energy drink with several different herbs and energy drinks mixed into it." S-Sha briefed.
The drink itself didn't sound too bad from what Neptune had just heard but more than that, Neptune wondered why someone like S-Sha would even care about other people's complaints, but the answer was shown immediately after.
"I Kept telling you, those herbs don't mix well with the energy drinks." E-Sha explained, seeming a little disappointed or annoyed.
"But then the drink wouldn't be as effective." S-Sha replied flatly. Looking back at Neptune, she continued.
"This is why. Is it possible to make a potion that is just as effective without the taste?"
"Hmmm… You are going to need to explain in more detail about the drink. But since I'm giving a tour right now, you are going to need to give me the details later."
With that, Neptune began the tour, explaining all the potions the group was curious about, slowly leading up to her bench with all the equipment. Looking at all the technology that was never seen anywhere else, everyone but S-Sha were intrigued and to some degree excited but were also concerned due to the sheer size of the machines.
"Neptune. What are those big machines attached to the ceiling?" Nepgear asked while pointing at said machines. They looked like some powerful machines capable of instantly liquify or even evaporate solid objects. However…
"Those are just holders."
"Holders?" IF ask, very much disappointed.
"Yeah. I used to make a lot of potions, so I needed ways to make multiple at once. The big ones over here were used to hold things that are really heavy. Turns out, some of the potions I made were super dense and weighed a lot more than they seemed. You see the small one over there?" Neptune pointed to a test tube behind the group. On the bottom level of a shelf next to the bench, there was tube that appeared almost empty. The small amount of liquid that was there, looked similar to that of liquid metal that was tinted in light blue.
"That little thing weighs about half a kilo."
"What!? That doesn't sound believable." IF dismissed Neptune's explanation.
"You can go lift it if you want. The potion doesn't do anything unless consumed, and all it does is harden your skin by fixing the positions of all the atoms in your skin cells relative to the atoms around it. The duration of the hardening is based on the amount consumed, and that only lasts for 5 minutes. By the way, because of the way the skin hardens, it also stops you from moving as well."
"Right." As IF replied, she grabbed the potion off the shelf.
"Wow, it really is heavier than it looks."
While Compa, Nepgear and S-Sha were watching IF hold in a test tube with a surprised face in amusement, B-Sha and Uzume were looking around until Uzume found a potion that gained her interest. It was a tube mostly filled, with colours slowly changing.
Uzume found the changing colours so pretty, which prompted her to take a closer look.
"Wow! This looks so pretty! Sis, what's this one?" Uzume pointed at the potion and asked the question with a bright smile, excited to know what the potion could do. The question had also gotten B-Sha's attention.
"Huh? Oh, be careful Uzume. That's a chameleon potion. Anything the liquid touches will alter its appearance to be transparent. The effects are permanent too, and if you drink that, the only thing others will see are some floating clothes, including your underwear."
Hearing the explanation, Uzume quickly retreated to Neptune's side. B-Sha on the other hand, wondered how the test tube was still visible.
"Wait, then how come we can still see the tube?"
"Ah, there's a plastic foil in the tube, so the liquid isn't touching the tube itself. You can't see it, but there should be some-" As Neptune was moving her arm to point at a location, she hit an invisible flask that tipped over. Luckily the flask didn't fall off the bench or break, at least from the sounds of it.
"Oops."
The group spent a hour and a half looking around the lab, before Compa remembered a question she was meaning to ask earlier, before everything went to chaos with everyone shouting and crowding around Neptune to enter the lab.
"Oh, that's right. I forgot to ask, but Nep-nep. What got you interested in making potions?"
Hearing the question, the rest of the group looked at Neptune with varying degrees of curiosity.
"Well, it's not much, but it was from one of our fights. It was after the four of us fought for over half a day. We ended the fight because we were all too beat up to continue. We fought just outside of one of Lastation cities, and I had it the worst because they decided to gang up on me near the end. Thanks to that, I couldn't even stay in HDD to fly back, and I was too beat up to risk fighting an ancient dragon on the way while limping. But at the time I had read somewhere, I forgot where, but the thing was about making a potion on the go or something like that. So, I tried that, healed myself and managed to come home safely. But making it was so interesting, I asked Histy to if I could have a lab to make potions. There were lots of problems since I was just starting out but seeing the effects of all the potions I made was just so exciting I ended up going a bit overboard."
The group fell silent. For S-Sha, she wasn't really interested in such a history and had nothing else to say. For B-Sha, she felt sorry for Neptune that such a thing happened. For Compa and IF, hearing that kind of event had occurred to someone they knew their entire life, left them feeling concerned. Concerned of what other kind of history their lazy-yet-lovable friend kept secret. As for Nepgear and Uzume, they were sad to know the four CPUs had that kind of past. For as long as the group could remember, the four CPUs were always competitive with each other, but never hostile. So, hearing that they fought till they could barely even return back home was surprising, to say the least.
Neptune realised the atmosphere was turning gloomy, so she decided to make a little joke from what she remembered in the fight.
"No need to look so sad, I got the chance to smother my face on Vert's chest because of that. Though, that was to hold me while Blanc tried to bat me to all the way to the PC continent."
It most certainly helped lightening the mood, IF had returned to playing the straight man.
"You had such an intense fight that you could have died, but you had enough time to enjoy that?"
"We fought for more than half a day! We were all really tired and they felt as soft as pillows," Neptune's suddenly lowered her voice while blushing red. "I ended up 'massaging' them with my hands as well…"
IF facepalmed hard enough to cause a loud slapping sound.
"But hey, because of that, Blanc got so angry she ended up breaking their alliance trying to take us both out." Remembering what had happened, Neptune couldn't help but start giggling. Checking the time that was displayed above the door, Neptune realised it was nearly bedtime.
"Anyway, I think that's about all there is to show. Let's leave now, it's nearly bedtime." Neptune walked over and unlocked the door, surprising Histoire. Histoire had been busy scheduling the plans for the whole week.
As they were leaving, Neptune thoroughly inspected everyone and everywhere in the room. To the group, this almost paranoid level of care was very much unlike Neptune. But remembering what Neptune had whispered, IF understood the reason why Neptune had to be.
Walking outside the room, Histoire was also inspecting everyone, in case Neptune missed any.
"Everyone, please go get ready to sleep." "Ok." Histoire locked the lab door then left for the living room along with the other seven.
Upon returning to the living room, the group (with the exception of S-Sha) was absolutely surprised at the mess that was created in the living room. There were cloths and cottons everywhere. Following the trail of cloths, they managed to find the source of the mess, it was Plutia. She had decided to create dolls of the HD CPUs and Gold Third members. According to UD Noire, everyone helped Plutia make their dolls. And since everyone was working on their own, it ended up taking up the entire room.
"Were you making plushies again Plutie?"
"Oh, Neppy you're back~! Yep! I made dolls of everyone. There's Noire~…" Continuing on, Plutia started pointing at all the dolls that were being held by the real counterparts and the dolls of S-Sha, B-Sha and Uzume that were on the table. All the dolls had their clothes matching the outfit the real ones were wearing. The group looked at their dolls in awe, however there were two dolls missing, a doll of Neptune and Nepgear. At the time, Neptune didn't really mind, as she was more surprised at how all those dolls were made while she was giving a tour. Nepgear on the other hand, felt a little left out.
The dolls were indeed cute, however the mess did annoy Histoire. The room seemed less a place a CPU lives and more like a child care centre. "Everyone, please clean up this mess."
Everyone responded with an affirmative. Putting their dolls on the couch temporarily. Unfortunately for the Lastation sisters, due to how similar the two looked, it took them some time to figure out which doll was which, until Plutia came in with a clear answer. Everyone else wondered why they couldn't just take them, but for the two, they felt awkward about having a doll of their sister. Saying how 'it could give the wrong message'.
Everyone was in their bedrooms. In Neptune's group, Uzume thanked Plutia for the dolls. However, Neptune did remember one thing.
"Hey, by the way, is there a doll of me?" Nepgear was next to Neptune and stared at Plutia with a little bit of disappointment in her eyes.
"No. You and Nepgear already have one back at my basilicom remember?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. They are with the all the other dolls."
Meanwhile, all the humans were chatting away. Most of the conversation was C-Sha and K-Sha asking questions of what the lab was like. The child Neptune and croire simply listened, most of their questions being asked by the two members.
C-Sha commented, listening to how Neptune started making potions. "So, Blanny and others really did have that kind of past..." Listening to the CPUs' history, the room fell silent. Before C-Sha spoke again.
"They weren't kidding when they said they fought to kill. I thought they were just exaggerating, since they are all so close to each other."
"Yeah, I guess not everything is as happy as they seem." IF said while lying down onto her bed, looking at the ceiling, still thinking of the possible history her friends might be keeping secret.
The mood was getting heavy, no one knew how to reply to that statement, but thinking back to the tour and all the potions Neptune had explained, Compa remembered the reason why the whole tour happened.
"By the way Miss S-Sha. Aren't you going to give Nep-nep the details about the drink?"
"Yes. I have just written up the list of ingredients used." Saying that, S-Sha got up and left the room.
"Wait, what drink?" C-Sha asked.
"The one she used in Zero dimension." IF replied.
"Oh... that one."