Neo arrived at the refugee area of those who lost their home to the point that it cant be recovered. He saw a lot of people in a building filled with either tents or sleeping bags on the floor. Though he was expecting the area to be colder but perhaps the joyful people makes it slightly warmer. Neo walked around seeing Uni helping Nepgear hand out supplies to the people. He walked over to them with Uni finally noticing Neo.
"There you are." Uni greeted Neo walking away from Nepgear. "What have you been doing, I've been here all the time."
"I've got the permission from Lady Blanc to gather some Ice Crystals." Neo answered surprising Uni a little bit with Neo gaining the permission from Lowee.
"Should I go now? I can gather the crystals myself." Neo asked seeing how busy Uni was helping with citizens. Neo noticed Nepgear from the crowd knowing who she is he just nodded and smiled at her.
"No no I've been sent here for the Ice Crystals I'll be going with you." Uni insisted dropping the sleeping bag she was holding. "Besides as far as I've heard you didn't know anything about the crystals or even elemental affinity until my sister told you." She added while Nepgear walked towards Uni.
"Uni who is he?" Nepgear asked looking at Neo noticing how calm he was. "Is he perhaps a new friend?"
"No He's just a quest taker from Leanbox that my sister asked to collect some Ice Crystals." Uni answered turning to Nepgear who was currently looking at Neo from Head to feet.
"Is something on my face?" Neo asked making Nepgear flinch.
"I-Im sorry, it's just rare for me to see a boy who's not an old man, a mech, a weird fish or a silhouette." Nepgear explained with Uni looking at her though she thought about it. What Nepgear was saying was true it was rare for them to be with a noticeable. "I'm sorry!" Nepgear apologized again.
"I don't really know if that's something to apologize for." Neo said with Uni just sighing over to Nepgear's reaction.
"She's usually like that." Uni walked over to Nepgear "Just calm down for now Nepgear it's not like he's a robot man or something." She whispered.
"But you realized it too didn't you?" Nepgear whispered back. "I've seen a lot of people around but the close to male that I've seen is Kei." Nepgear said.
"Kei is a girl." Uni corrected Nepgear. "And it's just her style that makes him look more like a boy, sure some people argued over her gender but I repeat she's a girl."
Neo looked over the two who's currently going off topic just laughing a little bit from the two. "They're very close huh?"
"W-what are you saying we were just talking it doesn't mean that we're that close!" Uni shouted in embarrassment after hearing Neo walking away from the two after seeing Neo looking at her with doubt.
"She's much more of a tsundere like her sister huh?" Neo said to Nepgear with Uni going over the line of people giving out the tents and sleeping bags again.
"You can tell?" Nepgear asked while Neo nodded to respond. The line was shorter even when Uni was working alone. Nepgear and Neo talked with each other passing out some of the supplies that they have. "But Neo where we're you when the battle was on going, I didn't see you anywhere in the area... and you couldn't have gone to Basilicom."
"Did you see that blue light above Lowee just earlier?" Neo asked Nepgear with her nodding to respond to Neo's question she then stopped after hearing this.
"Are you telling me that was you?" Nepgear was surprised when Neo nodded seeing how devastating the power of Neo was she now understnds a little bit why Neo was special than most characters that she met in her life. "Are you perhaps a CPU too?"
"Not at all." Neo responded handing out a supply box to a nearby elderly. "I'm a little different I think?"
"You think?" She asked curiously when Neo was about to answer Nepgear was called by a familiar voice. "Sister?" Nepgear turned her gaze to an area seeing Neptune and Plutia walking over holding a few boxes of supplies,
"Yahoo, the protagonist has arrived!" Neptune cheerfully greeted with the people around her smiled from her aura. "We're here to give the people some supplies Blanc couldn't come because she was to plan repairs on Lowee." She said while Plutia was hiding behind her after seeing Neo.
"Is there something wrong Plutia?" Nepgear asked seeing looked at Line-X different from her usual carefree attitude she seemed more cautious than normal. "Did he perhaps did something wrong?" Nepgear wondered. Neptune pulled Nepgear to the side while Plutia looked up to Neo angrily and while Neo remained unconcerned by Plutia. "What's up with Plutia Big Sis?"
"Cause you see here Nep Jr. Plutia is kinda in a dilemma with Neo right over there..." Neptune whispered her gazing at Plutia who's pouting in front of Neo who not even noticing her.
"I don't like you..." Plutia spoke slowly between the words in a relaxed manner. She hugged a Neptune doll while Neo just looked down to her smiling. "Quit it..." she said thinking that Neo was insulting her.
"I dunno what's with you..." Neo said handing out some supplies to the people around him. Though Plutia has no choice seeing that she was the only one to help Neo reluctantly she carried one of the boxes while Nepgear and Neptune observed.
Meanwhile Uni was getting impatient waiting for New to arrive after she finished her duty over her side. "Where the heck is that guy now?" she tapped her foot waiting over her stall.
Neo arrived at the area after a few more minutes. "Sorry I'm late so shall we get going?" Neo said while Neptune and Nepgear arrived at the scene
"Hey where's Plutie?" Neptune walked looking around Neo seeing no sign of Plutia. She did expect her to disappear around Neo after the event in the basilicom. "Well to search for her." Neptune left to search for Plutia in the crowd.
Nepgear stayed for a little bit "Please be careful on what you're going to do and if you can visit Planeptune if you want." Nepgear then turned chasing after Neptune while Uni was just crossing her arms because of Neo being late.
"We don't have all day, I have a bad feeling that Lastation will also be in a bad shape if we delay the quest longer." Uni walking ahead of them the two of them walked outside of Lowee a dungeon entrance. "It should be here." Uni said walking inside the dungeon. it was probably because of the previous riot in Lowee but the monsters we're nowhere to be seen. Neo and Uni walked within the dungon searching for any possible sources for the Ice Crystals. After a while Neo found an extremely cold room with the walls covered with a few light blue coloured crystals. "There it is!" Uni shouted trying to grab the crystals but Neo quickly stopped her from doing so.
"Wait..." Neo then a rock from the ground throwing it at one of the crystals. The rock dropped on the ground it the side that hit completely covered with ice. "They will freeze you on contact huh?" Neo said observing the stone. "Well I guess that's why you call them Ice Crystals."
"How are supposed to take those?" Uni asked knowing that one touch will freeze her completely. Uni noticed Neo tapping the walls around the crystals. "What exactly are you doing?"
"Why do you think this stone is not frozen?" Neo asked with Uni thinking for an answer. She shook her head after a few moments having no idea what Neo was getting into. Neo summoned his gauntlets on both arms digging through the stronges and carried a large chunk of it while the crystals remained untouched. "The best way for harvesting is to take everything." Neo said walking pass Uni with chunk of stone larger than himself.
"He's really a crazy guy..." Uni watched Neo walking away with the chunk. Neo arrived near the Basilicom dropping the stone in front of the building.
Neo looked around seeing the people from the Basilicom looking at him. "Is that perhaps an Ice Crystal Neo?" Neo heard a very familiar voice looking at the door of the Basilicom Rest walked with a smile. "A good quantity of it too." Rest placed his hand on the stone the crystals glowing brightly.
"What did you do?" Neo asked Rest with him simply taking a step back from the stone.
Rest then walked towards Neo "I simply removed the freezing effect from it... It's simple procedure that I know." Rest said tapping Neo on the shoulder. "But aren't I glad to see you?" Rest was one of the refugees from another area of Lowee. During the attack he led everyone in the basilicom and those around it to a safe area.
"Same here." Neo answered nodding to Rest, Rest noticed Uni behind Neo looking at him. He nodded and smiled at her before leaving towards the Basilicom again. "Is it really safe to touch now?" Neo tapped one crystal with it only glowing slightly. "Well it is now huh?" Neo smiled taking stance tapping the stone a little with it cracking turning the stone except the crystals into dust. Neo grabbed the crystals with it disappearing from his hand.
"Where did it go?" Uni asked with Neo poiting at his left hand. "In there?" She asked noticing a clock like devince on Neo's hand. "Wait isn't it a lot different now?"
"Beats me." Neo said noticing more changes from his once bracelet. "It's more of a device now isn't it?" He said looking at a thinner version from the previous. "Looks like whenever I use the OS versions it slight change..." Neo thougth to himself. The bracelet now possesses several other buttons which has the mark of the options in Neo's Interface.
Neo looked around him preparing to depart to Lastation. He looked around with Uni disappearing all of a sudden. He noticed her going inside the Basilicom. Neo followed her inside the Basilicom the first thing he saw was the obvious damage after the previous attack. He saw the scholars arranging a lot of things within. Most are carrying boxes moving from place to place slowly. Neo noticed Rest directing the scholars with him holding a book in his hand. Neo noticed Uni going up to Blanc's home. Neo followed her once again seeing at her stop at the balcony seeing Nepgear beside her.
"What's on your mind?" Nepgear asked looking at a slightly depressed Uni they both looked out to Lowee seeing multiple construction being done at the same time.
"It's nothing really." Uni answered with Nepgear looking at her, Neo hid behind a pillar to avoid being seen by Nepgear or Uni. "It's just that I wasn't able to do much about what happened here... being able to reduce the damage should have been easy."
"Come on now, don't think like that." Nepgear tried cheering Uni up. She knew that there was not much option even Neptune, Plutia and herself arrived late to help Lowee. She was even surprised to see Uni in Lowee in the first place. "With the magnitude of those mosnters... This was to be expected."
"If my sister we're here She would have done a better job." Uni said sighing over the fact. Neo then walked straight up to them while Nepgear noticed him she didn't say a word. "I wonder if I'm even a valid CPU..." Uni added.
"Is that something a CPU candidate would say?" Neo asked making Uni turn with a surprised expression. "Who says that's it's your very limit? Who decides that someone is only capable of doing things at a certain level?" Neo asked making Uni think for a few moments.
"I didn't manage to prevent the destruction." She answered after a few making Neo look at her with a questioning gaze.
"And how I ask you can you save something that was already destroyed when we arrived?" Neo asked stopping Uni, She realized what Neo was saying. "Damage can't be prevented no matter what we do... no matter how skilled one can be it's still a big risk in battle."
"But..."
"You yourself should know that." Neo said, Uni tried to answer but was quite annoyed seeing Neo's face look like he's already prepared an answer before she could even talk. "You see... candidate or not that fact that you helped is more than enough, if you want to be more capable from the current you I suggest that you aim to go beyond what your sister can do."
"But there's no way I can do that." Uni answered. Nepgear meanwhile had no idea what she must do. She knew that Uni will be angered if Neo said something wrong. But so far Neo has been on spot with his replies.
"And that right there is your limit... the limit you've set to yourself," Neo said smiling turning and walking back inside. "I'm going check on Lady Blanc we will be leaving for Lastation soon if you're prepared just search for me."
Uni and Nepgear watched Neo left the area. "What's up with that guy?" Uni asked.
"I think he's quite a good guy though..." Nepgear said thinking even though Neo looks a little bit calm and uncaring he does care for those around him, she thinks that Neo actually helped Uni with her doubts more than she did. Uni just looked at her while they looked over the construction.
Neo walked in the hallway searching for Blanc. The first place where she would be in is her office and thus Neo walked towards the area, while he was walking Neo heard footsteps of someone running behind him. "Hiyah!" He heard a shout from behind feeling something approaching Neo quickly turned around catching a large black book thrown towards him. He saw Ram standing not too far with quite an upset expression on her face. "Where we're you?!" She shouted throwing another book from a sack she was pulling behind her with Neo simply catching every book that she threw walking towards Ram. "You said you'll come and visit every now and then!"
"Yeah..." Neo said kneeling down to look at Ram. "I got a little bit busy... Sorry." He apologized while Ram's expression didn't change at all.
"Apologies won't cut it." Ram said her expression was serious. Neo sighed pressing the inventory button on his device.
"Let's see..." Neo waved through a list of items in his inventory. He looked at every item on the list that he collected during his quest and travels.
"What are you doing, did you finally lose it?" Ram asked seeing Neo only moving his fingers through thin air as she was unable to see the interface that Neo was looking at. Neo then grinned making a press gesture. Neo's hand suddenly glowed with a bright light while pixels collected in his palm. "What is that?" Ram asked seeing two pieces of necklaces on his hand with a deep blue diamond shape object in the middle. There was a spiral shaped design on it.
"It's a Blue Ancient Dragon Scale." Neo answered showing Ram the necklaces. Neo was quite relieved to see Ram smiling looking at the item he gave her. "Thank goodness that I saw that new Crafting System..." Neo then gave Ram her necklace along with another. "Give this one to Rom all right?" he said while Ram nodded with a smile. "Now that you mention it... where is Rom?" Neo looked around; usually the twins are always seen together.
"Well..." Ram said looking away from Neo. A flying black book towards Neo having no time to react he hit at full force with it sticking on his face for a few second. "Hahahahaha! That was a head shot!" Ram shouted running away from Neo.
"These kids..." Neo said with a red mark on his face. He saw the two running away from him. He looked at the direction of Blanc's office. "Well since I'm here..." Neo turned chasing the twins.
Blanc was in a room with Plutia and Neptune. "The repairs in Lowee are going well..." Blanc said looking at a few paper on her desk. "What are you two still doing here anyway?" She asked seeing Plutia and Neptune eating on a nearby table that she doesn't even know was there.
"Of course we're relaxing." Neptune said eating a spoonful of pudding. Plutia for a while was eating a few biscuit on the table. "Fixing a nation ain't an easy job."
"Yeah, that is if you're doing any work." Blanc answered, She has been in her seat for few hours while Neptune was playing around the area during that time. "I would like it even if you just arrange some things in this room."
"But that's too much work." Neptune answered laying her head on the table lazing around. Blanc then heard the twins laughing outside the door hearing them run around. Blanc was about to shout telling them to be quiet but as from the previous attack it was the best scenario that could happen.
"It's... fun isn't it?" Plutia said slowly stretching out from her seat. Blanc looked around her seeing how much worse it could have been. The door opened with the twin running through Neptune and Plutia watched as the twins ran towards their sister.
"Look look!" Ram said cheerfully showing Blanc the Blue Ancient Dragon Necklace. "Neo gave it to us." The twins showed a similar necklace to Blanc.
"It's good." Blanc said examining it. While the twins smiled at her. "Though If I may ask where's mine?"
"Huh?" Neo responded he didn't make one for Blanc in the first place thinking that she wouldn't even ask for it. Neo noticed Blanc's staring at him waiting for him to do something.
"Don't tell me that I don't have one." Blanc said while Neo opened his console to create a new necklace but he saw that the scale required for the necklace was not enough to create another necklace. He panicked a little bit searching the list for a good replacement. "I'm waiting you know." Blanc said while Neo eyes moved through his list of material.
"Wait just a moment." Neo made a few press on the interface creating items from his list. Neo hand glowed for a little while in his hand we're three figurines of a snowflake. "Here you go." He said handing over a figurine no bigger than his own index finger. Blanc looked at it seeing it flow with a silver color. He then walked over the table we're Plutia and Neptune we're placing two of the figurines over. "And here's yours." He said.
"Oh wowie, this is some cool stuff thanks Neo." Neptune thanked looked at the figurine while Plutia just ignored Neo looking away. Neo though he understood why still doesn't really understand why Plutia is acting up around him the same thought ran through Blanc and Neptune's head.
"Neo are you here?" Uni was standing on the door seeing Neo handing the items. "It's time to go back to Lastation." Uni said responded with a nod.
The twins looked a little disappointed over Neo's short visit but Neo again looked at them. "Don't worry; I'll be back when I have some time."
"You told us that last time!" Ram shouted remembering the last time Neo left Lowee.
Neo knew this and he's not exactly sure about his free time due to the attack from the OS's. "How about this then... whenever I come I'll bring some cool new things for you two." He said to the twins though reluctant and a little bit suspicious then just nodded to Neo. "If there's any trouble here in Lowee I'll try my best to help."
"I'll be counting on you next time then." Blanc said waving her head looking over to Neo.
"Visit Planeptune every once in a while we'll have a great time if you do." Neptune said waving her arms goodbye to Neo. Uni and Neo left the room walking outside of Basilicom with Blanc looking at the figurines Neo gave her. She stood up from her seat and gently placed it over the shelf near her smiling at the item before going back to her work.
Neo and Uni reached an open area changing into their OS and HDD form. floating slowly upward to the sky. "We'll be travelling through flying this time so we can reach Lastation quicker than last time." Black Sister said flying away quickly. Line-X hovered for a while feeling a like someone was staring at him from the Basilicom. He turned his head seeing Plutia looking through the window. Line-X winked at Plutia surprising her but a little moment after Plutia was glaring at him. Line-X opened his thrusters and flew away at high speed. "You're slow what we're you doing?" Black Sister asked seeing Line-X catching up to her.
"I was just messing with someone." Line-X said with a smile on his face. Black Sister wondered why he was smiling but didn't want to be bothered asking him. "You're pretty fast yourself... that's is some impressive flying."
"This isn't even my full speed." Black Sister looked ahead of then. Line-X noticed a slight speed increase from her flight. "How about this then, then let's have a race towards Lastation." She said while Line-X thinking of the challenge as not half bad accepted. "Know this I won't be losing to you." Black Sister suddenly moved a lot quicker.
"Not bad at all." Line-X smiled opening his thrusters releasing large amounts of particles boosting his speed. Line-X was nearly catching up to Black Sister the two of them dashed through the skies and the ground flashed through their sight. Seeing that Black Sister's speed was a little bit faster than his normal form Line-X didn't want to lose as he saw that Lastation is near. "OS update... Centos." Neo's speed boosted further. "Equipment Change: Strata" Line-X equipped a two additional larger variant of his thrusters. "Weapon Change: Gauntlet, Weapon Change: Thrust Boot, Additional Equipment: Stratos Reacher." Neo's equiped a boot and arm equipment showing two large thrusters and from the middle of his back another booster was equipped.
"Huh?" Black Sister heard a loud booming sound from behind her she saw next was Line-X passing through her at an incredible speed parting even the clouds as he passed through.
Noire was working in her office noticing a quick movement from her radar that seemed to lagging because of it moving at a great distant in just a few second the second thing she noticed is that it was on the path of Lastation's Basilicom. She quickly walked outside to see the object was. from a far She saw a flash of light. "What the heck is that?" Noire asked as Line-X closed his distance unrecognized by Noire. but one thing Line-X didn't consider was how will he stop. the distance and his speed wasn't enough to come to full stop. "Whoa whoa whoa whoa!" Noire panicked seeing Line-X dashing at full speed.
"Crap..." Line-X tried to stop but his speed wasn't enough he crashed on the balcony of the Basilicom rolling on the floor showing damages and finally crashing on a wall damaging it greatly.
"Eh?" Noire saw Line-X sitting within the damages, while Black Sister arrived at the scene transforming into Uni quickly.
"What the heck we're you think it's a race!" She shouted while Line-X turned back into Neo. His whole body was bruised from the crash he suffered.
"I thought I could use it for horizontal movement." Neo laughed having troubles standing up. Noire was still surprised only think how stupid Neo was to suffer such injury for a friendly competition.
Neo sat down. on a chair dabbing a few towels over his bruises. "Moron." Noire whispered with a smile on her face finding Neo's stupidity funny. "Well how about your quest did you manage to get the Ice Crystals?" She asked with Neo pressing a button dropping a bag of crystals in front of Noire. "Excellent at least you're competent on this quest," She said looking in side the bag. "Hmmm I was expecting them to freeze the bag why aren't they freezing?"
"Someone I know in Lowee did something." Neo said explaining while Noire looked at the crystals.
"I see... that someone must be really skilled it requires a lot of experience and knowledge to do such a fine job on these things." Noire said taking the bag "I'll be taking these on the defence development team so that they can develop the new Defences Weapons." Noire left the room going walking in to another area of the Basilicom on her way she saw a short white haired girl, from her looks and clothing most people would mistake her for a boy. "Oh Kei..." She called, Kei was currently keeping track of something writing it in a tiny book. She heard Noire looking up to her.
"Oh Noire..." She said noticing the bag of Ice Crystals Noire was carrying around. "What would be inside the bag?"
"Oh these?" Noire pulled out a piece of the Ice Crystal showing it to Kei. The blue gem gleamed as it was shown. "These are the Ice Crystal for the Anti-Air Weaponry development." Kei seemed surprised by this knowing the capabilities of a single shard of the Ice Crystals.
"Isn't it supposed to freeze anyone who touch it?" Kei asked looking closely at the crystals. "It should have been impossible to harvest purely without the covering."
"Oh? Someone from Lowee apparently did something to it that it can be touched like this." Noire explained while Kei had her doubts on the matter thinking of the Crystals as fake. But after analyzing the crystal itself she figured that it should have been impossible to fake out such an item.
"Theoretically... you can undo the freezing effects of the crystals while it's functionality will be activated when it's exposed to extremely high level of heat." Kei explained though Noire could only understand most of it. She herself only knew what the crystal is but the capabilities are beyond her knowledge. "To be able to remove the side effect of the crystal it would require drastic amounts of energy and such... and that's only a theory."
"Yeah yeah... The thing is we got the required item to prevent the weapons from exploding after the first use." Noire walked away while Kei continued her observation.
"I wonder..." Kei whispered proceeding with her previous task.
The development of a new defence weaponry proceeded with ease. Neo was sent to multiple fetch quests for materials for development though at times Uni will accompany him in the quest. Accordingly he got close to both sisters a little bit. For Neo though the wosrt parts is when Noire would test the weapons on him whenever she was upset or stressed out, though the Ice Crystal was enough to keep it running.
"Hm." Noire looked at a screen showing the design of the weapon. "It's rather difficult... The cooling was the only problem that I saw at first, but now I can see another problem the Operating Systems on these things are faulty and inaccurate, they won't be able to properly shoot down the targets or determine collateral damage. If I deploy them now it will be disastrous."
"But what do you propose to do?" Neo asked "A predicted airborne wave will come at any time soon, you can't really just ignore the Operating System either."
"The development is very... slow." Noire said Neo looked at the development rate but as he was no expert but all he can say it is really slow. "If we can just find someone who can actually work through their way for a program."
Thinking of it Neo just realized that there is only one person who could do such a feat. "Well there is someone who could help greatly." Noire wondered who Neo means. Perhaps his friend back in Lowee or someone he met in his journey. Neo just looked at little in doubt.
Noire face slowly changed knowing that there since she met Neo there was only one person who could possibly pull off a crazy programming requirement. "No way in hell I'll allow that." Noire objected greatly realizing who it was.
"Unless you want Lastation to end up like Lowee... it's your only option." Neo explained. Noire thought about it for a few more minutes. On the other hand it would be greatly beneficial for Lastation to ask for help but on the other hand it would be very annoying especially for Noire herself. "Well what's your option?"
"And what makes you think that he would help without any trouble?" Noire asked Neo while he smirked.
"I did prepare a plan for that you know." He answered while Noire was still in doubt she sighed and agreed with Neo's plan. The two of them proceeded to leave Basilicom going a part of Lastation.
"I already hate this idea." Noire whispered following Neo into the town. The two arrived at a building in a far off place covered with security. Entering the building the only thing they saw was a guard behind a counter. He quickly let them enter realizing who Noire was.
Author Notes: (Recap Line-X)
Form Centos
High speed form.
Form Debian
High Firepower form, Multiple range weaponry.
and The meaning of OS is... I dunno I never thought about it. I think?