Chapter 10: Compile Hope

The sun hovered over buildings as it flirted with the horizon, bleeding into the night. Ambulances raced through the streets, their sirens assaulting the senses of any pedestrians and drivers who were unfortunate enough to be nearby. The ambulances lined up and poured out their "wounded" passengers, who were then being hurried into the Emergency Room for treatment. Within that busy area was IF, tapping her feet feverishly as she waited for the elevator.

When the elevator door finally slid open, a stretcher and some doctors pushed their way in and filled the elevator. IF sucked her teeth and looked around for another elevator. Her sights locked onto a door to the stairwell, and she quickly walked up to it and pushed her way inside.

IF sighed. "Why does it have to be on the tenth floor?"

Unnamed alleyway, Planeptune

Nisa's eyes fluttered open as she regained consciousness. The sound of someone's voice filled her ears...

"W...e ...up!"

"Ngh… Spi…?"

"Wake up, already!"

After blinking a few times and rubbing her eyes, Nisa sat up on the ground to find a pair of gray eyes staring right back at her, a mere inch away from her face. "Whoa! Going right for the sugar! Hot!", the owner of the eyes said, "No need to rush! We've got all night, baby!"

Nisa's eyes grew wide in surprise and she slid herself back, away from the person in front of her. She felt her cheeks flush as they turned almost as red as the hair of the girl squatting in front of her. Her hair was completely red, save for a stripe of white going along one of her bangs. Some of it was tied on one side, forming what looked to be the shape of an "R" on her left side. Her red hair matched her red and gray outfit, red sleeves, and red footwear. A golden dragon was also coiled around her waist.

Nisa blinked a few times and shook her head to collect herself. "Who… are you?"

"I'm RED!", the girl winked.

"Red?"

"No, not 'Red'! 'RED'!"

"...If you say so!", Nisa smiled awkwardly. She pushed herself up and rose to her feet, being shadowed by RED, who rose up from her squatting position. "What are you doing in this alleyway, anyway?"

RED gave Nisa another wink and pointed at her with confidence. "Because I sensed a potential wifey, of course! Don't worry, I don't mind that you don't have a set of knockers!"

Nisa closed her eyes and her eyebrows twitched furiously. She clenched her fist and her eyes shot open. "I'll have you know that…!" Her eyes eased up when she looked past RED towards the end of the alleyway.

"That's right! The mob!", Nisa exclaimed, "Excuse me, RED! I, Nisa, Keeper of Justice, am needed elsewhere!"

And with that, Nisa ran off into the streets to follow the angry mob. Well, she would have, if it weren't for RED grabbing onto her scarf before she was able to even leave the alleyway. "Yoink!"

Nisa was yanked back and coughed as she felt her scarf being pulled into her neck. "H-hey! Let go of that!"

"No way! I'm not gonna let a wifey slip away that easily!", RED replied, a smile of determination painted across her face. Nisa backed up towards RED to create some slack in her scarf so she could breathe.

"A 'wifey'? ...I have no time to play house with you right now! Someone started an angry mob and I have to go help!", Nisa pleaded.

"Angry… mob? ...Who cares about that right now? We'll have plenty of time to talk about it over dinner!", RED nodded.

"D-dinner? Listen, I have no problem with girls getting together, but I'm not interested! How about… I introduce you to someone else!", Nisa said.

Something seemed to click in RED's head. "My, a wifey exchange? Not my thing, but this could lead to an upgrade… I'm listening."

"Here's my number… just give me a call later and I'll arrange for a meeting with another potential waifu!", Nisa said as she handed RED a piece of paper from her backpack.

RED took the paper with hesitation and looked over the number herself. "Alright… but remember! I call dibs on her! That wifey is mine now!"

"Yes, of course! Now would you please let me go now?", Nisa said impatiently with a forced smile.

RED's smile somehow grew even bigger. "Alright! That's one wifey for me! Now, I'm off to find more wifeys in this fanfic!", she said cheerfully. RED finally let go of Nisa's scarf and ran off in the opposite direction of the mob, leaving Nisa alone in the alleyway.

"There goes the fourth wall...", Nisa smiled worriedly. She turned around and faced the direction of the mob. "...Sorry, IF", she muttered before running off.

Planeptune Central Hospital, 9th Floor

Panting echoed throughout the stairwell as IF reached the end of her climb. She was completely out of breath by the time she finally reached the tenth floor. So much, that she had to hold onto the rail so she didn't collapse just then and there. Her body felt too heavy to carry itself much further. She exited the stairwell and stepped into the 10th floor hallway, leaning onto the wall as she slowly crept towards her destination.

IF regained some of her energy and was able to pick up the pace, pushing off of the wall to walk at a somewhat normal pace. Sweat slid down her forehead as she approached the door with a sign that read "Director" on it. She stopped when she was right in front of it, and took a deep breath. "It's now or never!"

IF grabbed hold of the door knob and slammed the door open. "Stop! Compa's innoce- huh?"

"Huh? Iffy? What are you doing here?", Compa responded.

"Er… I was…", IF stammered, "Wait, you're not in trouble?"

"Trouble? Why would she be in trouble? ...Oh, you mean that article", the director stood up from his chair with a smirk and walked around his desk to stand next to Compa, "Do you have any idea much hospital bills go for? Thanks to Nurse Compa, we're rolling in it! I'll be able to buy my son another yacht thanks to this incident. We were actually just discussing her raise."

IF looked on in disbelief. "But I heard her boss threatening to fire her!", IF spoke up.

"What, that grumpy lady? She doesn't sign the paychecks, girl!", the director snickered.

"I'm glad you were this worried about me, Iffy, but I'm A-OK!", Compa smiled.

"Yeah, no. Mr. Director, she's getting way too overworked!", IF began, "She's been working overtime non-stop!"

The director crossed his arms. "I see. Nurse Compa, is this true?", he asked.

Compa turned to face him and nodded. "I do wish I had more time to myself, but I can't complain!", she smiled.

The director mumbled something to himself, then spoke up so the two girls could hear him. "Well then, I'd say you've earned yourself a vacation by now!"

"Huh? Do you really mean it, Mr. Director?", Compa asked.

"Why, of course! At this rate, we might as well be printing money! Don't tell anyone I said that, of course!", the director chuckled.

"If you say so!", Compa smiled, then turned to IF, "Let's go then, Iffy!"

After they exited to the hallway, IF took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Compa. I really thought you were gonna get fired."

Compa nodded. "That would've been really bad, huh. Good thing Mr. Director is nice to girls!"

"That aside, it's great that you finally have some time off. You've really been slaving away here, lately", IF shrugged.

"I'm gonna miss patching up people's wounds, though. All the guinea pigs I could've had…", Compa's eyes shined.

"You seem a bit too excited about that part", IF smirked. "Oh, hold on. I've got to let someone know everything's fine", she said as she took out her phone.

"Oh, you mean your new 'mentor'?", Compa asked.

"Yeah, Nisa said she was on her way here. I better tell her not to rush", IF replied. She dialed Nisa's number and after a few rings, was greeted by Nisa's voice with muffled shouting in the background.

"IF! SORRY, BUT I HAD TO MAKE A DETOUR!" Nisa's voice blasted through IF's speaker.

"What the HELL, Nisa? I would've been death in one ear if I weren't using the speaker instead!", IF barked.

"Sorry, it's just that it's really loud here! IF, someone gave weapons to protesters and now they're headed for the Basilicom! I need your help containing them!", Nisa explained, a hint of panic in her tone.

"Whoa whoa whoa, slow down. You want me to go help you stop a bunch of protesters? We can't exactly just fight them. Besides, the Basilicom has its own guards for this kind of stuff", IF replied.

"Not fight them! We have to convince them to lay down their arms!", Nisa exclaimed.

"That's crazy! There's no way they'd listen to a random pair of girls telling them to give up!", IF blurted out.

Nisa paused for a moment. "It's our duty to maintain Peace and Justice in Gamindustri! Things could get bad here, so I'm going to go ahead and try to get them to calm down! I'm currently on Retro Street and Emerald Avenue!" The line cut off after after that.

"Nisa wai- damn it!", IF sighed before putting her phone away.

"Iffy, wasn't she on her way here?" Compa spoke up.

IF nodded. "When I told her I was coming to the hospital, she said she was gonna come, too."

"Shouldn't you do the same for her then? She went out of her way to try to help you", Compa said with a smile.

IF winced. "Fine, fine! I'm just annoyed I have to leave now that we finally have time to hang out."

"Hey, I could come!", Compa suggested, "I may not look like it, but I can defend myself just fine!" As she said that, she pulled out an oversized syringe and held it at the ready.

"R-right! Just watch where you're aiming that thing, alright? Ideally, you won't have to defend yourself at all", IF said warily.

Compa gave a thumbs up. "Aye aye!"

IF gave one final sigh before they set off. "I can't believe we're doing this…"

The street was lit by streetlights and storefronts, providing good visibility for the protesters marching through the streets. The protest caused traffic to be backed up even worse than before, with vehicles everywhere being completely unable to move an inch at this point. When you ignored the sounds of the horns honking and the screams of colorful language, it almost seemed like a painting.

From above, it was like a bunch of metal ants surrounding a group of smaller ants. One such ant was blue, and weaved its way through the stream towards the front. Nisa found herself getting walled several times and had to shove her way through until she was finally near the front. She leapt out in front of the crowd and ran forward a few paces before raising her palm up to try to stop the crowd.

"Fair citizens! There are better ways to go about this! Cease this quest for anarchy at once!", she called out.

Nisa's request went about as well as you'd expect. Her words didn't even have the chance to fall on death ears- they were drowned out by the crowd's chanting. Chanting, which grew closer and closer to the heroine until it enveloped her and kept going forward, drowning the girl herself in the small stream of people.

Luckily, you can't actually drown in a stream of people. Nisa was merely being bypassed by the group of armed protesters. A normal person would probably be disheartened by this. But Nisa was no normal person. She ran through the crowd once more and stood in front of them with her arms stretched out as if she were trying to give the air a hug.

"Halt in the name of love! Violence is not the answer here!", she shouted.

Once again, she was ignored. But Nisa was not discouraged. She knew that the way to beat ignorance was with persistence, understanding, and reason. She was prepared to keep at this all night long. With her AAA energy, she very well could.

"Think about this!"

"Lay down your arms!"

"We can talk about this!"

Further behind the group, IF and Compa were just about catching up. When they reached the back, IF looked around. "I don't see her. Stay close!", she said to Compa. Compa nodded, and they both dived into the crowd. After a few minutes, they made their way to the front and found Nisa walking backwards, continuing her faulty attempts to persuade the crowd. IF sprinted up towards her.

"Nisa!", she called out.

"IF! I'm glad you could make it! Maybe these people will listen to me now!", Nisa smiled.

IF turned around, finding nothing but the approaching crowd. "Huh? Where's Compa?"

A look of concern spread across Nisa's face. "Compa?"

"Iffy, help!", Compa called out. When IF and Nisa caught sight of her, she was, somehow, drowning in a sea of people.

"She's my friend!", IF responded, "We have to stop this crowd!"

"I was trying to do that before you got here, but I've had no luck so far…", Nisa said with a wary tone.

"Let me give it a try, then!", IF said.

She turned to face the crowd and took out her gun, firing it into the air several times before stopping. To this, the crowd finally halted. A moment afterwards, Compa came stumbling out. She walked up towards the flat pair with her hand on her forehead. "Phew… that was scary..."

IF sighed. "Compa, you really need to be more careful."

Someone with a megaphone called out to the trio. "What the hell do you want? Get out of our way!"

Nisa spoke up to the crowd. "Citizens! Tell us what ails you!"

The megaphone voice boomed once more. "We just want to see Lady Purple Heart! How're we supposed to believe in a Goddess we can't see?!"

"Um… can I say something?", Compa asked.

"Spit it out, tits! We've got a Basilicom to destroy!", the megaphone boomed.

Compa stepped forward to address the crowd. Whispers could be heard being exchanged among them before she began to speak.

"I know… life can get hard. About how hopeless things can seem sometimes. I've had to skip out on hanging out with my bestest friend to work several shifts at a time. It gets… hard to believe that there's a Goddess out there who's supposed to make good things happen for us. But you have to believe good things can still happen! In the hope our Goddess gives us with her actions! I know you can't see them, but… just look around you! Our city is here because of her! And it's all thanks to our faith in the first place… but without faith, it's like she doesn't exist at all! So please, believe in the Goddesses! In Purple Heart! ...In hope!"

Everyone remained quiet as Compa spoke. The silence persisted for a few painfully long moments after she finished, until it was broken by a voice in the crowd. "You know what? This is crazy. Storm the Basilicom? What were we thinking? To hell with this, I'm going home." A clang could be heard, and a young man could be seen walking away from the crowd.

Another person spoke up as well. "Yeah… maybe things aren't so bad."

"You guys are leaving? Well, no point staying here, then…", another man said.

"What? Where are you going? Get back here, you freaking idiots!"

People began to chatter among themselves, and soon, more clanging could be heard and the crowd began to dissipate. Soon, all that was left was IF, Compa, Nisa, a bunch of weapons lying around, and a girl with a megaphone standing among them.

"Damn minions! I'm here for the riot, dammit! Riot! Raaagh!", the girl growled. She slammed her megaphone into the ground and stormed off.

"She seems like the kind of person who would be extremely toxic online", Nisa commented.

"I'll say…", IF shrugged. She turned to face Compa. "Compa, that was amazing!"

"It was no big deal. I just said what came to mind", Compa replied.

"That was truly something! I couldn't get them to even acknowledge my existence!", Nisa butted in.

Compa scanned Nisa for a moment before responding. "Oh, you must be Nisa. Nice to meet you! Thanks for taking Iffy under your wing!"

Nisa put her hands on her hips and smiled proudly. "The pleasure is all mine! IF has been an extremely reliable pupil so far!"

IF crossed her arms. "Hold on. I think by now, I deserve to be promoted to something better than 'pupil'."

"Patience, my apprentice! You still lack experience!", Nisa answered.

"I wouldn't argue with her there", Compa interjected.

"C-Compa, not you too!", IF said with a surprised look on her face. Compa smiled at her and Nisa began to chuckle.

IF shook her head. "Well, if everything here is resolved, then we should report about what happened here. We're going to need some help gathering all these weapons up."

From that point, guild officials came to assess the situation and the weapons shop workers stopped by to pick up their weapons. As Nisa and IF made their report, the subject of the identity of the culprit came up.

"She was certainly the underling of an evil mastermind!", Nisa declared, "There's no way someone such as herself could've come up with such a dastardly deed on her own!"

"Wait a minute. I think I might've run into the same girl. Green hair? Purplish gray skin? Wears a hoodie?", IF butted in.

Nisa nodded. "Exactly! Where did you meet her, IF?"

"I met her when I was kidnapped. She certainly came off as the underling type", IF shrugged.

"Kidnapped?", Compa said in a worried tone.

"Oh, don't worry about it, I got out of it fine", IF said nonchalantly, "I remember her pretty clearly. She was quick to try to backstab me when money was involved."

"Wait, you worked together before?", Nisa asked.

"Yeah. In the end, she was pretty useful. I guess she bumped into the wrong boss if she got wrapped up in all this", IF answered.

"Maybe she really needed lots and lots of money fast or something like that", Compa suggested.

IF shrugged. "Eh, who knows. We won't be finding out unless we run into her again, anyway."

"Let's keep our eyes peeled for Ms. Underling from here on out. Who knows what kinds of trouble she'll be stirring up if we don't watch out!", Nisa commented.

"Leave it to me! I have to watch patients like a hawk, so I'll find this Ms. Underling if she ever shows up!", Compa said confidently.

IF nodded. "We should call each other right away if we find her."

Nisa gave IF a thumbs up. "Good thinking! She is quite the tough cookie. I was even caught by surprise when I tried to apprehend her earlier."

The brunette sighed. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

Nisa tugs at the neck of her scarf. "A-anyway, I think we should call it a night here, if we're all done here."

Compa butted in. "Wait, I have an idea! Why don't we have a sleepover!"

"A sleepover?", IF repeats.

Compa gave her a nod. "Yeah! That way we could spend time with each other again, and I could get to know Nisa better. I'll even make pudding for everyone!"

"Sure, but that's up to Nisa to decide", IF replied.

Nisa nods. "Sounds fun. I'd be happy to go to a sleepover."

"Yay! Let's all go to my apartment, then! Let's meet up by the park in an hour before we go", Compa declared.

With their meeting spot in agreement, the three separated. IF returned the shopping center to get her bike before going to her own place to get her stuff, while Nisa went to her "hideout" to get her own. After about an otherwise uneventful hour, they all met up with Compa at the park. From there, they left to go to Compa's apartment.

In the bushes, however, a certain redhead was tailing them…

CHAPTER 10… COMPILE HOPE... END.