Last Chapter - Rouge and the CPUs discussed their findings!

Enjoy

Italics represent thoughts.

Rouge's POV

An audible "New Move" jingle rings my ears and I grab Nessui's hand from the excitement. She jerks back from the startle but soon places her free hand over mine.

"This is it! Our brand new special move!" I grin.

"Awesome, Rougey! The power of Aurora is flowin' through us and now we're here to take center stage!" Nessui cheers.

I look into my hands, "All of my exhaustion seems to have just drifted away. I feel like I can take on anything in this state!"

"Awawawawa! Rougey, with this power you're a million times cooler! We can raise all sortsa hell this way!"

I blush and rub the back of my neck, "Aw... thanks. You're so cute, I can never get enough of you."

She pounds onto my chest out of excitement, "I'm pumped for this. Our epic a cappella. And it's all to Aurora and Gamindustri!"

I lightly pull her cheeks and she giggles. We take some more time to celebrate and we start making our way back to Aurora, each step we take being more cheerful and full of hope than the other. Nessui and I lock arms, hardly being able to contain so much exhilaration.

I can't wait for tomorrow! That Next-Gen Mecha is gonna feel the Wrath of the Red CPU!

The Next Day At the Virtua Forest...

"Roooouuuuuge..." Neptune cries for the millionth time.

I contain my aggravation, "Yes, Neptune?"

"I'm so sleepy! Why are we doing this in the morning? It is way too early..."

"You told us to wake you up no matter what!" I snap.

Noire glances at me, "You know, Rouge, I'm surprised that you aren't as pissy as Neptune. I expected you to act the same way since her irresponsibility has rubbed off on you."

I jerk back and pout, "Noire! How rude! I totally was going to take this seriously from the tip top."

I turn back to Neptune, "And you! Wake up! This is our job as CPUs and more importantly, as older sisters!"

"Riiiight. I mean, it's not like we care if you're here or not."

Neptune immediately perks up, "Too bad. I'm a-comin', ya see? I gotta set the big sister example for Nepgear. I'm not tired at all."

"So when your sisterly pride is at stake, you'll wake up, eh? Speaking of "sisterly pride"... Where's Vert?"

"What's the point of dragging her along? She isn't an older sister to anyone." Blanc says.

I hang my head and look at Blanc with eyes of sympathy, "That's so cold..."

"I can very much agree, Rougey. My feelings have been hurt. I should still be invited, the concept of if I have younger siblings or not, irrelevant." Vert says from behind us.

"Why are you up so early, Vert? How could you have found out about this?" Noire asks.

"When I was half-awake, I heard you girls plan your little secret meeting. So, I decided to follow you." The girl smiles.

Neptune cheers, "I expected nonetheless from you, Vert! Besides, it's always a blast when all five of us are here, ya?"

"Did I hear the magic number? Finally, 'tis about time I gained recognition as a CPU." I grumble.

Nessui's POV

There's a million Rougeys frolickin' in Nessui's Wonderland. Look at all of 'em. I wonder which one is my favorite, ehehe.

I start chasing the various Rougeys and I find myself shrouded in bliss. I tackle one and I giver her a big hug. Rougey doesn't stop me and the other Rougeys start piling on me. I giggle and blush, feeling as if I have died and have gone to a place better than Celestia could ever be.

Rougey~... Rougey~... Gotta love a Rougey~... Aah... So many... I can now die happy...

I sit up as a Rougey places her hand on the wrap of a present that has my name on it. My eyes watch eagerly as I await my Rougey to grant me whatever present she has for me. Just as the box is about to be unwrapped, I hear a familiar voice yell...

"GET UP EVERYONE, NOW!"

The Rougey Wonderland disappears from my vision and instead of my big sister, I'm greeted by a frantic Uni. I yawn, barely being able to keep my eyes open and I groan from the bad taste of morning breath.

"Uni... heyyyy...? Can we do this tomorrow? I was in the middle of hard... ethics... or something..." I wipe the drool from my chin.

"Goodness Uni, what's the matter? My eyelids don't want to stay open..."

"Too sleepy... Zzz..."

"Uni... More playing... Zzzz..."

The unsightly Uni disappears and my lovely Rougey appears once again. This time, the present is already unwrapped and all she has to do is open the box.

My heart... Rougey's present...

She slowly reaches for the lid of the box, lifting it up slowly. I drool myself a river when the lid is literally one small tug away from exposing the present she got me. Unfortunately, my beautiful sister dissolves and I'm met with an even more frantic Uni.

"GET THE LEAD OUT GIRLS! OUR BIG SISTERS ARE GONE!"

My eyes ignore my brain's command and they spring open. I look at Uni, feeling way too tired to do anything. I look at the other Candidates and they are as equally tired and startled as I am.

"No way... Rougey always wakes me before 7:00!"

"Huh? Oh you're right... Neptune never gets up before me. Not by at least six hours..."

"Did they leave us behind?" Uni asks.

"'Course they did! Always trying to leave us outta the fun! Sucks a junk if you ask me..."

"Blanc... Why...?"

"Ugh! They always do this whenever they think something's scary or dangerous. So lame."

I rush to Rougey's bedroom drawer and I reach for her stick thingy that shakes. I feel the top of it and it's oddly warm and wet.

Hmm... warm and wet at this hour... that could only mean one thing...

"They must've left recently! We still have time to catch up! Let's go!" I shout as I slap on my boots.

The girls follow behind me as we race down the stairs. I catch myself before I can trip and I run passed the sleeping Savoire. For once, she's actually sleeping at a decent hour... We burst through the doors of the Basilicom and we head towards the Virtua Forest, just like my sister had said.

Rouge's POV

"They're here. That was faster than I thought." Noire suddenly says.

"I guess this shows how much stronger they've become. " Blanc adds in.

A group of Candidates dash to our feet and once they halt themselves, they are panting heavily. I can't help but giggle at how tired they are when they could've easily flown to find us. Oh well, sometime's you can't think on the spot, I guess...

"Not cool, guys! We're gonna fight too! Ya can't leave us behind, ya idiots!" Nessui grits her teeth.

"Easy, Nes. This was all...a test!" I smile.

"And you passed!" Neptune adds.

...

"What?"

"We wouldn't refuse the help of our very capable, strong CPU Candidates." Blanc says.

"But... You did. Numerous ti-"

"Shh. All of that doesn't matter now." I grin.

"OK...? Then why'd you leave us behind?" Uni asks.

"I think a better question would be, how did you know we didn't already beat the Mech?" Noire asks.

"I touched that thingy Rougey always keeps in her drawer!" Nessui yells.

What thingy?

The other CPUs all freeze and a drop of sweat runs down each of their faces. They then turn to me and give me cold looks with deadly eyes. I jerk back and raise my hands, avoiding their bad auras.

Am I missing something?

Uni hangs her head, "How could you be so cruel and leave us behind...?"

Rom and Ram tear up, "Why, Blanc...?"

"We want you to rely on us more, and we want to protect you for as long as we possibly can." Noire says.

"You two, no matter how mature you become, I'm always going to act like your older sister." Blanc says.

"Alright. Everyone pipe down. Cheesy bit over. Now Boss Fight time."

Shortly afterwards, Famitsu and Dengekiko run up to us. They give their "good morning" smiles and we start to converse, unfortunately. Let's not ask how they knew about this... Please...?

"Oh. You're just in time. We're bout to whop some boot, care to join?" I say as I do my morning stretches.

Famitsu nods, "You bet! Sadly, this isn't apart of our article, but tagging along definitely wouldn't hurt."

"Yep. This will be surely be something that would be a crime not to witness for ourselves." Dengekiko crosses her arms and also nods contently.

"Then let's go. We'll end this for good!"

A Couple Of Minutes Later...

My boots skid across the ground as I take my stop. This place gives me the same eerie feeling it gave me when I first entered this dungeon. The others stop as well and we look into the large circular pit in the middle of the floor. We equip our weapons and we await the arrival of the current threat of Gamindustri. A spherical light appears in the center and Next-Gen Mech appears, looking exactly as how I remembered.

The Mech raises its arms and fires a lethal blast from its palms. We all successfully avoid the attempted attack and we transform immediately. We fly to the sides and back of the Mech as it continues to fire its projectile.

I decide to charge in first and I slash it's back with my Chain Blade. It knocks me back and then the others start to charge in. I jump back and I do a backflip, creating a decent amount of space between us. The others are knocked back as well and we nod to each other.

We go in as a single unit and attack it from all angles. When we think we have overwhelmed it, it fires another blast, this one a little weaker than the first one. Catching us off guard, we're caught in the blast and our clothes begin to tear.

RIP! SHRED!

"Dammit!" I stop myself from falling and the others do so too.

"It wasn't much, but we got a little damage on it." White Heart says.

I smirk, "Then we'll have to put more force into our attack!"

I kick off the ground and I raise my blade. The Mech looks up at me as I begin to crash down, attempting a vertical slash.

"We won't lose to you!"

...

Authors' Note:

Next Time! - ...

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-Rosemarie "Skull" and Nero "Pop"