Chapter 26

"Yay! I finally beat sis!" Nepgear beamed the happiest smile to me.

I smiled. "Good job."

"Man, I can't believe I lost!" Neptune flopped onto the nearby couch.

"Why aren't you playing, Tolise?"

"Hm?" I looked over at Nepgear. "Well, it's because—"

Neptune pointed at me. "It's because this guy's a cheater!"

I sighed. "That's why I'm not allowed to play."

"I'm sorry," Nepgear apologized.

"I don't mind," I walked towards the door. "I'm going to go get some fresh air, okay?"

Nepgear waved me goodbye and I exited the room. Truth was, I wanted to go spend some quiet time with Blanc because she seemed to enjoy the quietness like me. I walked back over to the door where she had gone in earlier and cracked open the door a bit to see what she was doing. I looked in to see her sitting in an armchair, reading a book. When she heard the door open, she looked over at me with a doll-face look. "What do you want?"

I walked in the room and closed the door behind me. "I just wanted to have some quiet time," I sat in an armchair. "What're you reading?"

Her blank face was filled with a bit of pink color. "J-just...a...novel."

"Yeah, but what kind?"

"…..Just don't worry about it."

"Well, can I read with you?"

She nodded and pointed to a nearby box. "Just take something out of there."

I walked towards the box and looked in to see millions of copies of the same book. I picked one up and looked at the white cover. It read in shiny red letters: The Adventures of The Red and Green Plumbers. "Hey, Blanc."

She peeked up from her book. "What?"

I flashed the book for her to see. "Mind if I read this?"

She instantly froze and dashed towards me. "Give me that, you ass!"

*CRACK!*

I fell to the ground the instant she punched my face. "Shit!" I clutched my throbbing cheek. "Why'd you hit me?"

She scooped up the book and held it to her chest. "This book isn't meant to be read," she handed me a copy of the book that she had been reading. "Here, just read this."

I looked at the cover and instantly frowned. "Um...is this the only other option?" I looked at her doll-like face. She nodded her head and I let out a sigh. "Alright, let's start re—"

*Bang!*

Blanc and I turned to the door to meet two little girls. The one on the left has short sandy-brown hair that touched her shoulder, pale skin and maroon blue eyes. She wears a white and light blue winter jacket with puffed sleeves and a frilled center with gold buttons. She also wears a cap similar to Blanc's except it was just a plain blue and white cap. She also wears a pink messenger bag and blue winter boots.

The girl on the right looked almost identical to her. She has long sandy-brown hair that reaches her back, pale skin and maroon blue eyes. She wears a jacket identical to the left girl's except her colors are hot pink and white and she has several puffballs dangling from her jacket, her cap's colors are pink and white. Her look-alike messenger bag is colored blue and wears a pair of pink winter boots.

These two were definitely twin sisters. The girl on the left pointed to me. "Look Ram, there's a strange man with Blanc."

The girl on the right, supposedly Ram, pouted. "That's not fair!" she flailed her arms. "How come big sis won't play with us, but rather this big dummy?!"

The girl on the left looked over at Ram. "But Ram, we were told that Miss Nepgear and her friends would be coming today."

Ram looked at her sister in surprise. "Ehhh?!" She kept jabbing her finger in my direction. "But he's a boy! Boys are totally gross, right Rom?"

The sister, Rom, gave her a puzzled look. "Huh? Why?"

"Because! That one creepy sicko that licked us was totally a dude!"

"But, he doesn't seem like that bad of a person."

Ram squinted her eyes and examined me. I was more curious about what they had meant by some guy that licked them. "…"

She stepped back. "Well, I guess he's fine."

Blanc sighed. "Why are you two here?"

"U-um, Miss Nepgear told us to get you guys to help us find her friends."

"You mean IF and Compa?"

"Yeah! Those people!"

I quickly pulled myself up and became serious. "Take me to them as fast as you can."

"Okay!" They said in unison.

I began to follow the sisters out of the room when I heard a voice coming from behind. "Hold on!" I turned around to see Blanc following us. "I'm coming too."

Rom and Ram stared at her in disbelief. "Really?!"

She gave a small nod and walked out of the room, leaving only her sisters and I standing there.

"Alright, let's go."

Nepgear, in her HDD form, set me down on the ground and materialized a blade similar to my own. "Thanks."

I watched as the others landed in their HDD forms. For some reason, not only had Blanc and I been called here, but also Vert along with the Lastation CPUs.

Blanc's HDD form didn't really change her physical body much. However, her sandy-brown hair had changed to a light blue color with messy bangs that resembled Neptune's hair, her eyes changed from blue to a pinkish-reddish color, and she wears a white bathing-suit-like, sleeveless outfit, lined by black and a faded blue. Her weapon is a giant hammer.

Rom's HDD form consists of her brown hair turning into pink, messy hair, similar to Blanc's and her eyes are now a bright blue color. She wears a white one-piece bathing suit with a pink outlining the sleeves, long white gloves and white boots, with pink lining, that connected to her suit. Ram looked practically the same except instead of pink colors, there were blue colors in it's place with the exception of a pair of bright pink eyes. Their weapons consisted each of long silver staffs.

Noire's HDD form didn't change too much either. Her black twintails had changed to long white hair that touched her shoulder blades, her eye color changed from red to turquoise, she wears a black bathing-suit-like outfit with the top chest part cut off and black gloves and boots to reach her knees. She holds a large black blade that had a black sabre-like hilt.

Uni's HDD form consisted of white(similar to Noire's color), drill-like pigtails instead of her usual black pigtails. Her red eyes have changed to a bright green color, she wears a black, bikini-like outfit(which I won't even begin to describe) and tall black boots and gloves(also her chest seems to have shrunken). Her weapon of choice is a giant black beam cannon.

Lastly, Vert's HDD changes her hair color to a leaf green and is now tied up in a braid, her blue eyes change to a light purple, she wears a white bikini-like outfit(with gray lining)that shows the under part of her "chest". She also wears knee-high white boots and gloves, while her weapon consists of a black spear with a green tip.

Neptune, also in her HDD form, looked around. "Well, it seems like we're all here."

Everyone nodded.

I looked around. "Hey," everybody turned their attention towards me. "Why are we all here if we're just here to find IF and Compa."

Noire crossed her arms. "This isn't just about finding them," she pulled out a map that showed our area and pointed at a red dot. "This is where they were last located and also where they reported finding some dangerous man."

"And?"

"And right before they could approach the man, their signal disappeared there."

I nodded. "Which means that whoever that man is probably..."

Nepgear finished my sentence. "Is extremely strong and could possibly pose a threat all of Gamindustri."

Neptune nodded. "Right."

I gulped and whispered into Nepgear's ear. "Do you think it's the cloaked man?"

"I don't know," she looked worried. "Could be."

I gripped my blade. "Then why are we just standing here? Let's go!"

And just like that, I activated Level Two and dashed towards the direction where the danger supposedly stood. I was going to save IF and Compa and stop this dangerous man.

A/N:

I'm probably not going to upload tomorrow, but I'll see if I can. Anyway, I'll end the first arc on an even number and afterwards, I'll start linking both main stories together. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope to see you in the next chapter!