("Happy New Year! Here is a new chapter, and this is a really big one. I'm actually happy to have finally gotten this far in my initial outline for this story. How much more is there? Quite a bit, but I do hope you readers enjoy it. As per usual, I appreciate any feedback on how things are going. It's great to know that people are still reading this even after such a long time. At the rate I'm going, I expect a few more Neptunia games to be finished before I'm done. How many, exactly? Place your bets now! Haha, ah... I'm kidding.

Anywho, brace yourselves." - the author)

Another day rose on Leanbox, as very little happened overnight. True to their plan, both groups of CPUs headed out and left southwards just as daylight broke, first thing. This left Pelican Farm with IF, Compa, Thomas, and Uzume to stay behind, in case the robots attacked again. However, with the turret nearby repaired and upgraded, it would be quite a task for the robots to overwhelm such defenses.

It had been a while since the CPUs left, and Compa was spending some time in the dining room, resting and having some more tea to go with the small breakfast she had. During this time, she was listening to the mother of the family talk about how she and her husband met.

Compa had a look of surprise on her face, as she had difficulty believing what she heard. "He gave you corn every day?" Compa had to be certain her ears weren't playing a trick.

"He did," the mother replied, sitting herself down across from Compa with her own tea cup, "As a young girl, I used to love having corn on the cob, and he heard about that being one of my favorite foods. Next thing I knew, it was part of his daily routine at the farm. After he was done with his farm work, he would dash over to where I was, holding corn right above his head. A gift from him to me, he declared."

"And he did this every day?" Compa blinked a bunch of times in disbelief, "My grandmother once told me the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but I found it works for girls too."

The mother laughed a bit, "It depends on the person. My husband was a pretty active charity case then, giving people things they liked. Gave some other girl gifts too... not sure why her favorite thing was rocks, but I'm not going to judge. Eventually, he focused a lot of his giving towards me, and yes, every day it was corn. Baked corn, big corn, giant corn, corn stew, creamed corn, corn salad, corn bread, shrimp and corn..."

"And you didn't mind one bit?" Compa said as she swirled her spoon in the tea cup.

"I didn't mind at all," the woman responded, "He always tried to add a bit of variety, but made sure the corn was the best in quality. I could tell he put a lot of love making each recipe, too."

Compa blinked once more, unsure of what to say next. The mother smiled to her, "He cared a lot for the people around him, and me in particular. He just kept it up until one day, he offered a ring instead... a strange proposal, but, I suppose he did win my heart through my stomach."

"Ah, so that's the story of you two, huh?" A new voice piped in from the stairway, as IF walked into the dining room and walked over to take a seat beside Compa.

"Morning, Iffy!" Compa turned her head to beam a happy smile to her best friend.

"Morning," IF nodded, before adding to the conversation, turning to the moth, "So, if I get this right, miss, your husband gave you your favorite food to raise your affection levels before popping a ring on you? Just like that?"

The woman laughed, a bit of a blush forming on her cheeks, "I suppose it was just that simple."

IF couldn't help but smirk, casting a side glance at Compa, "Pretty amazing."

Compa blinked, noticing the weird look, "Uh, Iffy?"

"Hah," IF's smirked widened into a grin, "Someone giving someone their favorite food, raising their affection level. Does it remind you of anyone?"

Compa tilted her head, not quite sure what IF was getting at. "Uhhhhh," Compa said blankly.

IF's eyes rolled upwards. Nonetheless, she pressed on with her tease, "Tell me, Compa. When are you planning to propose to Nep?"

There was a little pause, before Compa's eyes widened, "Oh, you meant me! Ahahahaaaa..." She then flustered, stuttering, "P-p-p-propose?"

IF's expression remained, finally getting to tease Compa, "I'm sure all that pudding's raised her affection level to as high as it'll go, Compa. So, when's the big day?"

Compa's eyes shut, and she rocked from side-to-side while turning a bright shade of red, "Th-th-this is not the same thing! D-d-don't read too much into it! I like to see N-N-Nep-Nep happy, that's all!"

IF chuckled, "I didn't expect my best friend to start acting like Lady Noire all of a sudden."

"Iffy, you, you big teaser!" Compa pouted, lacking a witty counter.

IF looked rather pleased with herself, "Consider it payback for the times you teased me. Don't worry, Compa, your secret's safe with me."

Compa grumbled in defeat, though the mother was quick to help out, "I am sure miss Compa was simply showing how much she appreciates her goddess, much as a mother would her child." She laughed a bit, "Hehe, it's alright, miss. I like to spoil my dear Sara."

Compa's blush faded, smiling weakly. It was true enough that Compa loved spoiling the lazy goddess. She certainly wasn't thinking of taking that kind of step.

IF nodded to the mother, "That does seem more like Compa's thing. Speaking of which, Sara is still sleeping upstairs, just to let you know."

"That's fine," the woman said, "She got a little excited from seeing all the goddesses yesterday. I'm glad she was able to get to sleep."

"I kinda get that," IF said of Sara, "It must have been nerve-wracking for quite a while, with the robots attacking and kidnapping people."

The mother's smile faded a tiny bit, while she checked her tea to see if it's cooled down, "We've had issues with monsters in the weeks prior, but nothing to the degree like this. The barriers and communication problems made it difficult to get any outside support."

IF hummed a bit in the affirmative, looking over her phone over some things. Compa pondered this briefly, and asked a question to the mother, "Were there any adventurers or Guild members nearby?"

The woman shook her head, "We usually have to fend for ourselves around here. Adventurers mainly show up around here whenever there was a monster nest to clear, or big quest to undertake. They come in, do their quest, and leave. The Guild doesn't really send many people our way, either."

"There's only the one office in Leanbox's main city," IF noted, still looking over her phone, "It's not like the mainland where there are chapters or smaller cities to go to."

"This region is sparsely populated, and we all knew the risks involved with working out here," the mother continued, "Still, this has been rather difficult."

IF nodded slowly, scanning something on her phone before looking back, "I'm trying to re-establish contact with the mainland to see if we can get help from there. Do you know much about any cellular sites around these parts?"

The mother tried to recall anything, before gesturing behind her in a direction, "I think I remember there being one site along the cliff, not too far away. You still have to do a bit of walking, though."

IF got up from her seat, putting her phone away, "Okay. I'm going to check out this cell site. If I can fiddle with it, I might be able to reconnect with Planeptune's network and get in contact with Histoire.

"Communications are still not working?" Compa asked, putting out another question afterwards, "Do you think the captain of the Noirina managed to get a message out?"

IF shook her head, idly fixing her jacket and checking her weapons, "I'm sure the captain's sent out a message back home by now. We have no confirmation of this, though, and I think if we're going to keep going, getting Histoire's input would be vital."

"She must be getting worried and trying hard on her end to contact us," Compa muttered, before standing up suddenly, setting aside her tea, "Wait, you're going alone?"

IF raised her eyebrows at Compa's sudden, urgent tone, and said, "This shouldn't take too long. However, you're free to join me. I don't wish to stop you."

"We should be fine so long as the turret stays up," the woman said, "My husband is out there, and I'm sure he'll be keeping an eye out at all times. Also, I am certain that Lady Uzume can hold the fort here."

Compa smiled, "Of course! That is why I have to go with Iffy, even for a while." She then blinked, "Uh, where are the others, anyway?"

"Little Sara is still upstairs, last time I checked," IF said, jutting a thumb upwards, "As for Uzume, she's outside at the moment, though I think she's checking out on Thomas."

"Ah, yes, the man was to sleep in the storage shed last night," the woman recalled, "And he is.. um..." She tried to remember what role this person was, but struggled.

"Uh, well, he's with me, though he should be fine over here," IF stated.

The mother nodded, as Compa wondered about this. "Pack mule?" Compa said aloud to IF, recalling a much earlier conversation where they tried to pin down Thomas' role with the group.

"Maybe a bit more than that," IF muttered, "Let's be a little more generous."

Outside of the farmhouse, Uzume briefly watched the head of the household get to work, making sure his crops were tended to. While he was confident that the robot invaders wouldn't attack this time around, he kept looking back towards Leanbox in between his going through a few patches.

Uzume watched in curiosity to see how it was done, before turning around towards the barn. She pushed herself, partly to avoid dipping into a farming-related daydream, but also to get to her objective. Moving past the barn, she stopped at the large doorways of the nearby storage shed.

"Okay, Uzume, let's do it to it," Uzume quietly told herself, trying to assure herself. Despite this, she was initially hesitant to grab onto one of the door handles. Internally scolding herself, Uzume began to slide one door open, slowly peeking her head inside.

There wasn't much lighting in the shed, but the opening door allowed sunlight in, giving Uzume a better view inside. The first things she could see was a little section to the side with a couple of tools and a few other bits and bobs. She could make out some ladders and even a couple of fishing poles there. Turning her head slowly, she made out several sections and a whole lot of hay. Despite the divisions, the shed mainly stored hay, most likely for the cows and ran-pigs that lived nearby.

It was here that Thomas spent the night, as Uzume could see a bit of movement from the back, with some hay being scrunched. The sounds of hay and grumbling from a familiar voice confirmed it for Uzume, who slid the door open a little more to let more sunlight in. She stepped inside the shed, casually looking around some more, as she spoke calmly, "Hey there. Tomsy? Are you up right now?"

There was an incoherent murmur, though Uzume correctly guessed that he was saying he was, judging by more sounds being made afterwards.

Thomas shook his head a little more once he sat himself up, not only shaking some of the grain from his similarly-colored hair, but also from his hoodie, having slept with all his clothes on. Some of the hay slipped into some of the gaps, and Thomas was still groggy, so there were a few times where he would try and fail to pull the hay off.

Uzume, seeing this, smirked and quickly teased, "Do you need any help with getting that?"

Thomas mumbled a bit, with the last, more coherent words being "on my own." Thomas' eyes crossed together, seeing one bit of straw sticking out in front of him, sitting atop his head. After a few missed grabs with a hand, Thomas pulled the strand off, muttering, "Eventually."

Uzume made her way over to the corner area where Thomas had been sleeping, watching his slow progression with some amusement. "I didn't expect you to sleep here alone through the night."

"I wasn't alone," Thomas blinked a few times, groggily looking between Uzume and the corner opposite his, "Least, I didn't think I was. I remembered Plutia taking a nap way over there... she left already?"

"I'm surprised she didn't try to wake you before heading out," Uzume said, also surprised the two managed to sleep across from each other without disturbing each other's sleep. The empty space between the two sections was enough to separate the beds.

Thomas shrugged a little, a bit groggy, but managing to speak more clearly, "I suppose we just didn't bother each other's sleep schedule? I do not know." He stretched his arms, "Oof... haven't really hit the hay so literally."

"Oh?" Uzume seemed surprised by this, while she bent her knees to meet with Thomas' eye-level, "Never slept in hay before?"

Thomas pondered a moment, "I guess not. I would've loved it as a kid, but never really had much hay or straw back home."

"How was it?" Uzume asked curiously.

Thomas blinked a few more times, "Uhh... at least I slept? That's good, right?" Thomas wasn't really certain he could give a review right away. He was still busy trying to shake some of the hay off of his hood.

Uzume hrmed, before noticing another bit of hay sticking out from one side of his hair. Taking the initiative, Uzume reached out and grabbed the piece sticking out with her claw-like grab. "Lemme help a little!" The more-awake Uzume exclaimed.

Thomas flinched a little as he felt a pull, and Uzume stopped to check. Sure enough, she managed to grab onto a bit of hair in addition to the hay. "Oops, my bad," Uzume said quietly.

Thomas sighed softly, and reached one hand up to help, "I-it's alright. Thanks, anyway."

Uzume chuckled, and soon stood back up and left Thomas to deal with the rest by himself. She turned away to look outside, standing in a moment of thought.

She would wait for Thomas to be a bit more awake before telling him.

While this was going on, the first CPU team reached their destination. Upon landing close to Flower Bud Farm, Uni's team changed back into their human forms and slowly walk to the front yard. They hadn't seen any monsters or robots in the vicinity, or anyone else during their trip, and the silence struck the group as a bit odd. Or, in Rom's case, creepy. Because of this, Uni, Blanc, and the twins had their weapons at the ready, cautiously looking about.

Uni pulled out a standard rifle for this. The farm was quite small, certainly compared to the farm they were at moments ago. From what they saw, the farm consisted of a small house, a shed, and a couple of basic crops that looked like they haven't been tended to in a while.

Uni held her gun comfortably, but was ready to aim it at a moment's notice. The silence seemed to have followed them here as well, and the house did not appear to have any lights on or people. "Empty?" Uni pondered quietly.

It wasn't long before she turned her attention to the turret, or what remained of it, as the wreckage was spotted just a bit away from the crops. Uni finally spoke to her team, solemnly stating, "Looks like no one's here." She thought for a second before continuing, "Let's take a look around to be sure. I'm going to check on what happened with that turret."

"Rom," Ram said to her sister, "Let's check around the house together."

"Right!" Rom exclaimed, "Detective work, go!" She said this as a way to push herself to going along with this plan.

"Alright, you two be careful," Blanc said, loosening her grip on her giant hammer, "I'll be with Uni to check on the turret."

"We will!" Ram said confidently, before the twins ran ahead to look around the house.

Meanwhile, Uni lowered her rifle a bit more, walking close to the broken turret. Blanc followed suit, before turning a little and taking a more guarded position. "I'll cover for you if any villains show up."

"Uh, thanks, Lady Blanc," Uni nodded, kneeling down to check on the wreckage.

Blanc nodded slowly, maintaining her guard, while turning just a little to watch Uni investigate. Uni examined the wreckage, first examining how such damage was inflicted. While Uni was pondering this, so too was Blanc, as she noticed something was off. Blanc quietly spoke, "How did it get that close?"

Uni grimaced, as Blanc was quite observant, "You noticed too, huh?"

"Considering what we've faced so far," Blanc noted, "The robots don't shoot blade-like projectiles. Unless this was something else entirely, this enemy got up real close to do its job."

Uni frowned a bit, "Yeah, that's what I was thinking." She noticed that there were many slashes on the former turret. "These were awfully precise attacks as well," Uni remarked, "Whatever did this acted quickly to disable it."

Blanc hummed quietly, before dryly joking, "I didn't know our adversaries employed ninjas."

"Heh, I doubt it," Uni shook her head, "Those mindless drones don't appear to be the negotiating type."

Blanc shrugged a little, "You're right. Maybe it's a new kind of drone we haven't encountered yet."

"That's a worrying thought," Uni said with a frown, trying to get a better look at the wreckage, "It doesn't help that they appear to know exactly where to slice."

Blanc furrowed her brows, "Those bastards are fairly accurate with their weapons, even if they don't pack a lot of damage."

Uni sighed, "No, some of those weapons can hit pretty hard, especially those snipers. If anything, Lady Blanc, it just shows how strong you really are."

"O-of course," Blanc was taken back a little by Uni's compliment, "I guess that would make sense." She quickly tried to get the discussion back to the turret, "Still, they must have figured out a way to get this close without being noticed."

"Unfortunately, this is all I could make out of this," Uni grumbled, "I wish I could say more, but we'll have to search for more clues elsewhere."

"Don't beat yourself up over it, Uni," Blanc said, her eyes already looking around while she kept her guard up, "We managed to get one clue already."

"I know," Uni stood back up from the wreckage, turning around to look at Blanc, "I guess I am a little impatient. Something about all this doesn't sit right with me."

"You too, huh?" Blanc's expression soured, as she hoped that feeling she was trying to put in the back of her mind would go away.

Uni nodded, moving a little closer to Blanc's side, "Y-yeah. Maybe it's just this strange calm. For a place that had an uptick of monster attacks before the firewall, we haven't seen any. No robots, either."

Blanc hrmed, "My thoughts exactly. I was expecting at least one random battle, but this is a bit too easy." She paused, briefly setting down her guard, "I certainly don't think the robots and monsters are cooperating."

"Right, so something else must be up," Uni said, readying her rifle once more. "You know, Lady Blanc," Uni added, "It's remarkable that we've been on the same page so far since we started this."

"Naturally," Blanc replied bluntly, "We are both good with our research and can approach this all calmly. Although, having one of the Planeptune girls interrupt this silence with their wild imaginations would be almost welcome."

Uni laughed a little, "Hehe, almost being the key word." Blanc nodded once more, and Uni smiled, adding, "Let's keep that between us."

"Yes. Let's," Blanc agreed, as she continued looking across the ground, "Think we can spot some prints around here?"

Uni glanced back to the turret wreckage, taking a lot at the print of her feet in some of the dirt, "We might. The robots sometimes hover, but there may be some indication they were around here. We can get a better idea of what happened."

The front yard hardly had much grass, and so there was much more dirt around the farm. Blanc traced her own footprints, as well as seeing where Rom and Ram ran off, seeing their prints go around the house. Uni, meanwhile, spotted a couple of old footprints that could barely be seen. She couldn't tell when exactly these were made, but they certainly were not human.

"Good thinking, Lady Blanc," Uni said, "I don't recognize any of these other prints. Something was around here long ago."

Blanc squinted at some of the dirt, thinking it was another set of footprints, but it was too small to be anything. Blanc, after hearing Uni, spoke, "Can you make out anything from it? Trace where they were?"

"On it already," Uni began following the weird prints, turning towards the southeast. Eventually, she stopped moving, seeing the prints on a steady pace from a nearby section of a forest that separated the farms from the rest of Hyrarule Plateau.

"Strange," Uni observed, before turning back towards the farmhouse. She disregarded Rom and Ram's obvious footprints, and saw a few older prints scattered around the entrance, stopping just short of the turret. It was here that Blanc stopped as well.

Blanc put a hand on her chin, pondering this, "Anything peculiar?"

"Yeah," Uni said with a small tilt of her hand pointing in the direction of the inhuman prints she spotted, "I can only guess, though."

"Sometimes it's good to have a hypothesis," Blanc said, "What is it?"

Uni slowly pointed her weapon at the prints, "Whatever this was, its footsteps were very steady, and firmly planted. It was not in any rush coming from the south, over there." She lowered her weapon and pointed in the direction of the nearby forest. "If that's the case, then how come the turret didn't react at all?" Uni asked, "Either whatever approached was impervious to attacks, or the turret didn't fire for whatever reason. Sensor problems?"

Blanc frowned, "That's not good. Either possibility sounds bad."

"Agreed," Uni winced. This didn't put either CPU at ease.

It was only a little bit later that Nepgear's group reached Raguna Farm. Surrounded by a few mountain regions, the farm was home to Leanbox's lone tea plantation. Unlike the smaller Flower Bud Farm, Raguna's plantation had several rows of the tea plant, adding to the farm's natural beauty. There were even a few trees scattered and planted in the area. The farmhouse was to the east of all this, overlooking a little forest that separated it from the ocean beaches. The forests stretched south and went along the more mountainous region surrounding the farm.

Much like Uni's trip, there were no monsters or robots interrupting Nepgear's group. No random battle. For Noire, the non-Planeptune member of the group, this was a small relief, but the quietness of both the trip and the farm itself made her feel a little uneasy.

It didn't help her that she and Nepgear had to drag the others up for this. Both Neptune and Plutia were wanting a few more minutes to sleep, and it took a little coaxing to drag them out. Nepgear managed to stir Neptune up, while Noire somehow got Plutia to get up. Noire was surprised Plutia even relented at all, and wasn't too grumpy until she made it outside the shed. It was only then that Plutia wanted to rest and needed more convincing.

Once the group landed near the plantation and changed back into their human forms, the four made their way in, looking for any sign of life around the farm. Halfway through the plantation, though, both Neptune and Plutia dropped out of sight of both Nepgear and Noire, leaving them alone to get to what looked like a damaged turret.

"Neptune? Plutia?" Nepgear blinked, realizing the two dipped into the vegetation, "What are you two doing?"

"Already? Ugh, seriously," Noire said to herself, her patience already thin. She stomped one foot and called out, "Neptune! Plutia!"

Surprisingly, Plutia's head popped up from where she was, already a good distance between the two standing CPUs and the farmhouse, "Aah! I'm here, Noire! You don't have to yell."

Noire blinked at how quickly the usually-slow Plutia moved since dipping down, "Nowa? Plutia? W-where are you going?"

"Oh! I should have told you earlier," Plutia admitted, "Buuuut I'm gonna do some sneaksies! Gonna look around the home, see if I find anything neat. You know, stuff!"

"A-ah, okay, Plutia," Nepgear answered for a confused Noire, "Let us know if you find anything."

"Yay!" Plutia clapped her hands together, "I will! Later!" Just as quickly as she popped up, Plutia dipped back down into the vegetation.

Noire glanced over at Nepgear, asking, "Are you sure it's a wise idea to let Plutia go off like that?"

"I understand your concern, Lady Noire," Nepgear said politely, "However, I feel like she will be fine. She'll take care of herself."

"True," Noire said quietly, well-aware of Plutia's ability, "That's not the issue I'm worried about."

"Oh, chillax, Noire," said the voice of Neptune, who could be heard just around Noire, "We know this is all serious and stuff. We'll find that next part of the plot in no time at all!"

"There you go with that meta stuff again," Noire sighed, before coming to a realization. "Neptune!" Noire quickly swiveled around to see her crawling around one of the nearby tea plants, "Do I have to ask what you're doing?"

"Oh, hey Noire," Neptune chirped, "I'm doing some super-sleuthing!"

"By what? Sniffing the ground?" Noire said sarcastically, "I didn't take you for a bloodhound, Neptune."

"Silly Noire, I'm checking if I can find any footprints, or if anyone dropped something," Neptune noted, "Though I could follow my nose. The tea leaves do smell nice."

Nepgear perked up, "I agree, Neptune. It does make me want to stop and enjoy the scenery for a little while."

Noire pouted a little, crossing her arms, "We're not here for some sightseeing, you know?"

"I know," Nepgear said quietly, "It doesn't stop me from enjoying the sights."

"That's my sister," Neptune said happily, "Let's go strolling through the tea leaves together!"

"Okay!" Nepgear cheerfully exclaimed.

Noire huffed a little, "Nepgear, there's a turret that needs examining. Priorities."

"Oh, right!" Nepgear said without skipping a beat, "Let's see what we have there first!"

Noire sighed out of some frustration. It was going to be tough to keep the group from getting completely distracted. Thankfully, Nepgear still had some sense to take a look, as she and Noire made their way to the damaged weapon. Oddly enough, Neptune hung around, casually watching the two all while rolling around on the ground. And super-sleuthing, I suppose.

After some tinkering and examinations, Nepgear hummed aloud. She looked at the turret with a bit of concern on her face. Noire, noticing this, asked, "Something on the mind, Nepgear?"

"Yeah," Nepgear replied, moving a bit to show Noire where the turret had been damaged, "These were very precise and swift cuts through the armor. Whatever damage this was at close-range. They also knew exactly where to hit, to disable it as swiftly as possible." It was a mirror of what happened at Flower Bud Farm.

"To get this close without getting noticed or hit by the turret?" Noire pondered this, before turning her head to the house. The feeling in the back of her head continued, and she grew more concerned for leaving Plutia alone, in spite of her ability. "Please excuse me, I'm going to go check on Plutia," Noire said to Nepgear.

"It's okay, Noire. I'll see if I can find anything else around here," Nepgear nodded. With a quick nod back, Noire began her walk through the plantation towards the farmhouse.

Neptune popped up beside the turret, close to Nepgear, "Oh, Noire. I can tell she's worried. It's all over her face."

"I don't really blame her," Nepgear said, casually dusting off some dirt off of Neptune's shoulder, "I can't help but feel a little off too."

"Yeah, even my ol' Nep senses are tingly and whatever," Neptune said while shaking her head, "You think we have enough foreboding going around?"

Nepgear winced, "I think it might be the fact that everything's so quiet." She then asked of her sister, "Any luck on the ground?"

"Lots of steps, but I can't make much of it," Neptune admitted, scratching a little dirt off of one of her cheeks, "Whatever happened was sudden. I see some of the plants were damaged here and there, so obviously there was an attack. Can't say exactly what did it."

Nepgear closed a hand and held it close to her chest, even as she used her hand to pat her sister on the head, "I suppose we'll have to keep looking. Goodness, what could have happened?"

Uzume was curiously looking over the corner of the shed that wasn't stuffed with hay. She noticed a small electrical switch, allowing for some indoor lighting inside. She was doing this to pass some time while Thomas got up from his sleep. He stood in the middle corridor, removing bits of grass and leftover hay from the rest of his clothes.

"Are you almost done over there?" Uzume said aloud, from her spot, teasing Thomas.

Thomas laughed weakly, "Haha, almost! Just gonna find my shoes. They should be where I placed them... ah, there they are!"

"I'm surprised," Uzume said lightly, "You actually took off something before going to sleep."

"I hope that wasn't too offensive, to see my feet without shoes on," Thomas joked.

"Totally indecent!" Uzume went along.

"My apologies," Thomas said with a small flourish, "I shall get my shoes on, post-haste!"

Uzume chuckled to herself, slowly making her way to the doors. She could see Sara coming outside to check on her dad, who was pulling out a couple of weeds around his crops. Seeing that everything was going on smoothly, Uzume went back to her own thoughts.

Thomas put on his shoes as quickly as he promised, and did a quick check around his person to see if he missed a spot. Just as he finished, the sunlight that shone down at his face was cut off by the shed doors closing, leaving only the lights inside to keep the place from being pitch black.

Thomas arched an eyebrow, seeing that Uzume had closed the doors behind her, looking away and deep in her own thoughts. "Hmm?" Thomas stopped to tilt his head at the pensive CPU, "Uzume?"

Uzume blinked, caught a little off-guard by the question, snapping her back to reality. "Ah, ahem," clearing her throat, Uzume stood back up, going back into her more confident demeanor, "Tomsy, we need to talk."

"Talk?" Thomas grew a bit worried hearing this. Although his socializing skills were lacking compared to others, 'we need to talk' never sounded good, at all. "D-did I do something wrong?" Thomas asked hesitantly, "Was I actually being indecent?"

Uzume looked puzzled, "Uh, no, that's not it. You're in the clear. I wanted to talk about something important."

"Oh," Thomas felt his growing tension ease, though now he was more confused than anything, "Talk about what? It's not 'The' Talk, is it? I know about the birds and the bees."

"I'm pretty sure you're not that young," Uzume shook her head with a small smile, "Idiot."

Thomas politely shrugged in jest, before putting his hands in his pockets, waiting for Uzume to tell him whatever she was getting at. It was another awkward moment, as Thomas wasn't sure of what this was about, and Uzume still tried to formulate her own thoughts.

"For someone who can be so impulsive or stubborn sometimes, you can be awfully patient," Uzume mused.

Thomas glanced down, "Ah, well, I guess it depends on the context." He then murmured a little to himself, "I try to be patient, anyway."

Uzume hummed softly, "I see." She spoke up, "Right, so, I like to take this moment to apologize."

"Apologize?" Thomas blinked repeatedly, "What for?"

Uzume smiled at Thomas' genuine confusion, "I feel like I've known more about you in the time we've spent on this adventure. All while keeping to myself, you know?"

Thomas thought about it for a moment, then shook his head, "I didn't think you kept to yourself. You shone as brightly as any of the other goddesses in the party." He smiled happily, "I'm glad to have met you."

Uzume's smile grew wry, "That's sweet of you to say. Not what I meant, though. I was referring to your history."

Thomas' smile faded a bit, "Is that so?"

"Yeah, that is so," Uzume countered, "You may be no pirate, but that story about wandering the sea, being saved by Gearsy, and slowly becoming a servant of the goddesses... I'm a bit jealous."

"Jealous?" Thomas asked incredulously, "Why be jealous of that?"

"Are you freakin' kidding me?" Uzume scoffed at this, "You got to travel around the world, meet with all sorts of people, eat some delicious food, and even got to meet with most of the goddesses! I didn't do this much traveling until recently. Even my little grassroots campaign didn't go all around Gamindustri."

"S-seriously?" Thomas said, still a bit perplexed by Uzume's supposed jealousy, "My history wasn't all that rosy, though..."

"Neither was mine," Uzume once again countered, "And I feel like it's about time you know more about it. I think it's really important since we need to work together on figuring out what caused this firewall in the first place."

Thomas blinked at this, as it reminded him of the conversation he had with the LSS Noirina's captain. Wary, Thomas asked, "What brought this on just now?"

Uzume flinched a little, and relented, "Well, to be honest, I've been thinking a lot recently. If I'm going to be a CPU again, I need to be clear about everything. I can't let that past haunt me anymore. I need to let people know what happened, who I was, and what I did."

"What you did?" Thomas echoed, his mind not fully registering.

Uzume smiled a bit, "That was the past. As a reborn CPU, I am going to dedicate myself to fulfilling the dreams of everyone on Gamindustri. I owe them so much..." Uzume trailed off briefly, before bringing herself back in, "Right! So you better sit your butt down for a while, because Uzume Tennouboshi's got a long story to tell."

It took a while for all of that to finally sink in, but once it settled, Thomas nodded slowly. Finding a spot on the ground, he sat down, before looking to Uzume. His smile returned, however faint, as he responded, "Looks like my patience has paid off. I have been looking forward to this, Uzume. Please, tell me about yourself."

This was enough to make Uzume break character, flustering, "H-h-hey! This is quite serious!" Jittery, Uzume continued, "I-It's taking me some effort to even make it this far."

"I meant no disrespect," Thomas quietly said, "Please, take all the time you need."

Uzume pouted a little, but inside, she was happy to finally get this far.

Plutia peeked inside the window of the farmhouse at Raguna Farm. She hoped to see a flicker of life or anything inside, and yet all she could see was an empty room. Plutia frowned at this. She may have slept through a lot of what was said during her stay at Pelican Farm, but she knew this was not good. People were taken from outside Leanbox's main city and back for captivity. She heard a bit more about it from Neptune before her trip here, and it made her pretty angry. She knew too well that feeling of people she cared about getting kidnapped, isolated from their friends and family.

Plutia furrowed her brow, trying to set aside the nasty thoughts. Even if those drones couldn't feel emotion, she would deal her punishment, in due time. She assured herself mentally, before continuing to walk around the house, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

"Phooey," Plutia grumbled. Her search had come up empty as she made her way to the backyard. There was a small garden of flowers close to the back door, and Plutia took a moment to enjoy the scent. She didn't mind tea at all, but it was nice to get a different scent. She smiled weakly at the flowers, which looked alright despite not being tended to for who knows how long.

It was here that something finally caught Plutia's eye. She turned her head towards the forest, noticing what looked like a sweater sleeve. "Hmm?" Plutia focused her attention there, slowly walking in that direction. As she took a few steps, she could make out a figure, a person, standing with its back turned.

Plutia immediately perked up, her eyes widening, "Oh hey, a person! Heyyyyyyy!" Happy to see any person around, Plutia waved her arms to try to get the person's attention.

"Hello! Mister? Uh, miss? Whatever you are? Fellow creature? Hello?" She waved a bit more, puzzled that the person has yet to move, or even react, to Plutia calling out.

Plutia frowned, "Heyyyy? Can you hear me?" She soon stopped her waving, more concerned about whatever she was seeing. She could make out the outline of a person, wearing rather ordinary clothes. She could even make out some hair in the distance. At the very least, this was some minor character or NPC, right?

Despite Plutia's calls, there was no response. Plutia had to stop a moment to rub her eyes, as she was starting to wonder if she was still sleeping, dreaming, or having some sort of illusion. This actually didn't help, as even after, she wasn't too sure if the person was even there, with the outline growing hazy.

"Arrrrre youuuuu stillllll therrrrre?" Pluta asked slowly, emphasizing each word. Once more, no reaction. Plutia started to get a little irritated, "Awww, why are you ignoring me?" She grumbled to herself, muttering, "Not even reacting to a cute girl? I'm disappointed."

Frustrated, Plutia got closer, passing a few trees as she entered the forest. "H-hey? Are you okay?" Plutia was a bit more hesitant getting any closer. Just in case, she gripped onto her plush weapon. After all, the figure still looked rather hazy even as she got closer.

"Plutia! Get back!"

Noire's voice was enough to give Plutia a good ol' jump scare, and the spooked CPU hopped back a good distance. This was for the better, as well, since the figure finally reacted, lashing out a long blade, attempting to slash Plutia's midsection. Thankfully for her, the slash missed just enough for her to counter with a swipe of her plush. The swipe connected with the figure's 'head', at which point the illusion broke away, revealing a rudimentary robot design, armed with a pair of blades.

While Plutia's strike was enough to damage it and remove its holographic illusion, the robot was still operational. The robot regained its footing, and attempted another slash with one blade, opting for quickness instead of a precise attack.

Plutia blocked the attack with her plush, somehow. However, this exposed her other side to the robot's second blade, aiming once more for Plutia's stomach. Before it could connect, fortunately, Noire made the save, parrying the blade and forcing the robot back.

"Drop Crush!" Noire flipped back, her feet launching the light robot in the air, before she quickly recovered and launched an overhead smash to finish the robot off.

"Yay!" Plutia was overjoyed by the save, "Noire came to save me! Thank you!" She was so overcome with this emotion that she immediately embraced the Lastation CPU, surprising Noire with the sudden hug.

"Wah!" Noire gasped at the tight grip, "P-Plutia! Now is not really a good time to show appreciation!"

"Aww, why not?" Plutia pouted a bit, though was content holding Noire close to her.

Noire grew red, but pointed out with her free sword hand further ahead, "There's more to deal with!"

Sure enough, beyond the trees, both Noire and Plutia could make out more and more robots coming out of the woodwork. Unlike the recently-debuted "Infiltrator Bot", these were more of the garden variety that our heroines have faced so far, mainly basic fighters that at least had more armor than the infiltrator.

Plutia, seeing this, sighed as she let go of Noire, who got into a guarded stance, ready for battle.

Noire flustered a bit, "Sorry about that, Plutia."

Plutia huffed, though it was more at the robots, "I guess we have more baddies to smash."

"Oh, right!" Noire's eyes widened, "Neptune! Nepgear! Get here right now! It's an ambush!" She yelled this out behind her in the hope they would get here soon. If not, the sounds of battle nearby would clue them in.

Plutia grew more irritated, and wasted little time in invoking her transformation sequence. Noire winced as now she was standing beside an angry Iris Heart, who unfurled her swordwhip and stared down the new wave of robots.

"Such a shame, you all had to show up too," Iris Heart seethed, "Let me reward you for ruining such a precious moment!"

Noire sweatdropped. She appreciated that Iris Heart would help out here, and yet, "Why do the other CPUs have to be so..." She stopped herself before going further with that, for fear of being overheard. Besides, she had enemies to deal with.

At Flower Bud Farm, Rom and Ram circled around to the back of the farmhouse. In a mirror of what had happened at Raguna Farm, the twins did not find anything inside the house, but soon noticed a figure standing still in the nearby forest.

Rom poked her sister on the shoulder, before pointing out the figure, "Sis, do you see that?"

Ram nodded, "I do. Don't you think it looks kinda funny, though?"

Rom hummed softly, squinting a little at the figure. Sure, at a first glance, it looked like a generic human that was standing there. Yet, there was something off about how it looked, given how hazy and kinda blurry it was compared to the surrounding foliage. "Yeah, it does look funny," Rom admitted, "Blanc did warn us never to go talking to strangers."

Ram smirked a little at Rom quoting her Big Sis, "Yeah, this one is a bit fishy." Pulling out her staff, she spoke in an aside to her sister, "I'm gonna check something. Get ready."

"Okay!" Rom said quietly, pulling out her staff, and following behind as the twins slowly got a little closer.

Ram wanted to move closer just to be in range of her magic. To be sure that she wasn't going to accidentally hurt an innocent, Ram decided to try a non-damaging spell, but one that would cause a reaction. With a wave of her staff, she summoned a thin cloud over the figure, above the trees. The cloud slowly widened but didn't have much volume otherwise.

Eventually, Ram initiated the next part of her spell, cause the cloud to begin a light but visible drizzle. The rain drizzled over the trees and the surrounding area, but most notably started to disrupt the holographic projection that the figure had over its robotic frame. In addition, the rain also gave away the position of other robots nearby, hiding among the trees and dimming their lights to preserve energy, and to set up this potential ambush.

"It's a trap!" Ram grinned excitedly at her discovery, recognizing the other robots as the bad guys they've been fighting, "Time for a welcome gift! Rom?"

Rom nodded, and the two wielded their staffs to cast their spells, sending lightning to give the ambushers a little shock. Wordplay aside, their electric attacks jolted the enemies off of their hiding spots and caused significant damage, destroying a a few, including the Infilitrator.

The sounds of rain and lightning on a very sunny day didn't go unnoticed. "Rom? Ram? What are you doing back there?" Blanc's voice called out.

"Just destroying a robot ambush, Big Sis!" Ram called back, as the twins saw more robots show up from the nearby forest, "You and Uni better hurry here, or you'll miss all the fun!"

"This is fun?" Rom asked rhetorically, as she was not so eager for the upcoming battle as Ram was.

Although the two CPU groups were battling robots, it was still far away for the people of Pelican Farm to notice. It was still too far from where IF and Compa headed, stopping by a section of the forest that wasn't infested with robots. Instead, it was eerily quiet, as IF looked over her phone while trying to find the exactly location of the cell site.

"It's a little strange that we have to go out of the way to find this thing to fix it," Compa observed, though it came out as a mild complaint considering they had to walk here.

IF smiled to Compa, "I can't say I agree, much as I want to." She glanced down at her phone once more, occasionally looking around at anything nearby. It didn't matter if it was a tree, a rock, or a shrub. "Sometimes these cell sites get taken down by monsters or vandals looking to cause any damage," IF continued, "So, in some cases, people install these sites in hidden spots to not attract much attention. Spots like the one we're coming to."

Compa blinked, "Oh? Did you find it? Where is it?" She looked around herself in the hopes of finding a big electrical tower. Nothing, however, stood out, much to Compa's confusion. "Uh, I don't see anything," Compa admitted.

"Sometimes it can be hidden in plain sight," IF remarked, turning off her phone and looking up, "Up there, Compa." She pointed along a long tree. Further up, Compa could see some wiring leading up to an inconspicuous but visible cell tower.

"Woah, Iffy, I wouldn't have noticed if you didn't point it out!" Compa said in awe. Anyone would've likely missed it casually passing through this area. Places like Virtua Forest would have technology attached to bits of nature like this. Sometimes even monitors would be displayed on the nearby trees. In a world like Gamindustri, this was fairly common, so a cell tower would just be another bit of technology.

IF took off her coat, handing it over to Compa, "Could you please hold onto that while I check on that thing? I promise not to be too long."

"Uh, okay," Compa said, holding the surprisingly-hefty coat. As Iffy turned towards the tree to begin her climb and maintenance, Compa oofed, struggling to keep her back straight as the coat weighed her down.

"Iffy, how many things are inside your coat?" Compa asked, moving over to a nearby rock to place the coat save her back.

"Too many," IF said dryly as she scaled the tree, "I can't have the coat's sleeves in the way of my work here, though. I got what I need in my personal inventory."

Compa closed her eyes, shaking her head as she tried to get a feel of how heavy the coat really was, "This coat must weigh over a thousand pounds!"

"Really? In that case, nice job, Compa," IF joked, "Being able to lift, let alone move a thousand pounds is no easy task."

"Very funny, Iffy," Compa said with a huff.

IF made her way to the tower, being extremely careful as she started trying to tweak with it, "Think of it as weighted training, Compa. Or I have a lot of things stuffed in there. Don't you have a lot in your inventory?"

"Well, yes, but not literally on me!" Compa exclaimed, as personal inventory's a separate thing from having it on your person. It would be awkward for Compa to carry all her old weapons along. So many needles.

"Weighted training, Compa," IF said with a smirk.

"Wait, you're already pretty fast and strong," Compa's mind caught onto something, "Does that mean, if you take off the coat during battle, you become even stronger? So fast, you can go even further beyond? A Super Iffy?"

"It doesn't work like that," IF said, muttering a disappointed, "Unfortunately."

While these two bantered, IF continued to tweak with the cell site, hoping to connect it to the networks on the liberated mainland. During this time, allow me to remind you that there are many health risks and hazards associated whenever dealing with sites like these. So please, whatever you do, do not try this at home. For one, you are not a video game character.

Compa smiled, cheerily stating, "Two, Iffy is a trained professional! ... I hope."

"Don't encourage the narrator," IF rolled her eyes as she finished her tinkering, and made her way back down the tree.

Compa giggled, offering the coat back to IF, though not lifting it fully, since it was still pretty heavy. IF had no trouble at all lifting and putting on the coat, reaching into her pockets and getting her cellphone back.

Compa, realizing the ease IF put on her coat, remarked, "Maybe I should do some weighted training."

IF hummed innocently, turning her phone back on and trying to reconnect, "Let's see... okay, the closest I can do is try to reconnect via the networks at Lastation... got it! It may take a while to get to Histoire, but we should be up and running."

Compa beamed at her friend for working so hard. She was then surprised to see IF fiddling some more with her phone, "What now, Iffy?"

"I'm trying to get in contact with our teams," IF said, "Though getting a line to the south is harder than I thought." Tapping some more on her screen, she eventually established a connection, "It's faint, but I got someone. Putting on speaker."

There was some mild static, but soon the audio cleared up with the voice of Uni, "-is that you calling? IF?"

"Hey miss Uni!" Compa was first to make the greeting.

"Uh, yeah, me and Compa managed to connect with the network back home, and communications is back up," IF said, before listening in on the background noise. There seemed to be a lot of crashing and clanging about. "Did we call in at a bad time?" IF said.

"Sort of," Uni explained, "My team had to transform to deal with this ambush of robots. Rom and Ram found them out first, but we still have a mess to clean up."

"Ambush?" IF blinked, "Are you all okay?"

"Doing good so far," Uni said, "I'm taking a few shots here and there, but we're nearing the end. I think Blanc's having the most of it right now."

"Get back here, you bastards!" IF and Compa could definitely hear White Heart at work.

"And there she goes," Uni said, likely through some sort of speaker if she was engaging.

IF glanced southwards, then asked through her phone, "Uni, other than a bunch of robots, did you find anything else over there so far?"

"I spoke with Rom during the battle," Uni continued, as a few shots could be heard, "They spotted a new kind of robot, able to make a holographic projection of an ordinary human. It's possible that thing was responsible for taking out the turret here, seeing as it was done with a close-range weapon. Must've fooled the people and sensors long enough to get close."

"The turret was pretty effective on its own," IF noted, "So take that out, and it'll be much easier to capture everyone."

"Unless they're CPUs or adventurers, but I think even the people living out here aren't as battle-hardened," Uni responded, "Also would explain the lack of monsters anywhere here."

Compa grimaced, "They wiped all of them out?"

"I can't say, but they certainly aren't around here," Uni replied, "Wait, how'd you fix the network?"

"Me and Compa headed out a bit away to-"

IF's explanation was cut-off by the sound of White Heart's voice, "Uni, who the hell are you talking to? IF?"

"Yes-"

Uni could only get one word in before White Heart exclaimed, closer to where Uni's speaker was, "Crap! We have to go back now! If they attacked us here, they might've done the same at Raguna! We got to warn Uzume, Tom, and the others!"

Compa's eyes widened, and IF grew more concerned. IF cursed, "Damnit, didn't even tell Uzume or Thomas that we headed off." She immediately turned back as both she and Compa started a quick walk back towards Pelican Farm.

"I heard that!" White Heart's voice shot out, "This is bad. I'm heading back!"

"Wait," Uni tried to calm Lowee's CPU, "We still have to deal with-"

"Like hell I'm staying!" White Heart finished, before the sound of a CPU blasting off could be heard.

"I agree with Blanc, Uni," IF explained, "You all need to head back, now!"

"Y-yeah, will do," Uni relented, "Rom and Ram are following their sister anyway. No point staying here."

"Understood," IF explained, "IF out." She hung up quickly, and began trying to dial another number.

"Trying to get in touch with Uzume?" Compa said, doing her best to keep up with IF's quick pace.

"Yeah," IF grew frustrated, "But now communication's getting all messed up again. Those robots must be messing with our signal even after the fix. Come on, pick up." IF waited for a response, but the line cut off, "Can't connect. I'm gonna try Thomas' number."

Tapping the screen quickly, IF impatiently waited as she tried contacting Thomas, "It's not working. Of course. Those robots are messing with our signals now, somehow."

"Maybe we should back to the cell site again?" Compa asked IF.

"No, we really need to head back to Pelican Farm as quickly as possible," IF said while scrambling to get any contact on her phone. Despite the mess with communications, she was able to get a weak connection going with Nepgear. IF sighed a little in relief, "Oh thank goodness for Nepgear's tech skills."

There was a lot more static this time around, as Nepgear's voice barely cracked through, "Hello? ... is that... IF? Can you... hold on..." The signal became stronger, and Nepgear's voice became clear, "I did what I can, but we're getting some interference."

"Nepgear, you're amazing!" IF said, thrilled at the better connection, "I'd kiss you if you were here right now."

"Wh-wh-what?" Nepgear flustered over the speakers, clearly overwhelmed, "I didn't do anything special."

"Never mind Iffy," Compa cut in, "Ge-Ge, is your team alright? We need your help back at Pelican Farm."

Nepgear quickly recovered from earlier, "Hmm? I was going to contact you. We just had an enemy ambush. Plutia's handling most of it now. Lady Noire mentioned one of their new robots having some holographic projector, enough to fool the sensors. I think it was most likely responsible for-"

"Sorry to cut you off there, Nepgear," IF interjected, "We talked with Uni's team earlier and they said the same thing on their end."

"Then we'll hurry right away! Neptune actually flew off the moment we mentioned the possibility they may attack Pelican Farm next," Nepgear explained, "She was in a real hurry."

"Okay," IF nodded, "All of you get back here as soon as possible. Who knows when-"

Her phone call is abruptly cut short with the sound of an explosion coming from Pelican Farm's direction.

Let's roll it back.

Returning to Pelican Farm, Thomas was comfortably seated, casually holding one knee close and waiting for Uzume to tell her story. He waited patiently, as he wanted Uzume to take her time, feeling that it must have been something really important. If her rebirth was what happened around the end of the last crisis, there must have been a story to go along with it. I imagine Thomas must have thought about this at least once as he watched Uzume pace back and forth.

Uzume thought about how to approach this. Eventually, she started with a question to Thomas, "What do you know about the creation of a new goddess?"

Thomas tilted his head, glancing up while he was trying to think, "Umm... I only know what I've read, and honestly, there wasn't a lot of detail on that." He then winced, "Oh crap, this is 'The' Talk!"

Uzume grimaced, bending over and deciding to give Thomas' forehead a little flick. "Ow!" Thomas fell back a bit into the hay behind him, rubbing his forehead afterwards.

"Idiot. Quit it," Uzume complained, before leaning back up, "Where was I? Oh yes, the creation of a goddess. It's true that there isn't a lot of detail on that. Even us CPUs don't understand what happens exactly. All we do know is that it revolves around the use of Share Energy."

"Yeah," Thomas leaned back up, still rubbing his forehead, "The general positive feelings somehow coalesce into this."

Uzume nodded, "Right! The best we can assume is that when enough of it comes together, there's a chance of a new goddess being created. Sometimes, it happens on its own, like when the first few goddesses appeared. Other times, it happens when lots of people together, like with Lastation and Leanbox. Sometimes, though, it can happen in nations that may one day need a new goddess, like with the CPU Candidates, or... say, a troubled nation like Planeptune."

"Planeptune," Thomas said with a wry smile, "A pretty colorful nation that survived so far."

"Haha, yeah," Uzume said with a slight blush, rubbing the back of her neck, "It's a lot more stable nowadays, but back in the early days, it was struggling to stay afloat. People were still unsure of what goddesses can do, or how important gaming was, or how Share Energy worked. Lowee was one nation able to hold up, but others weren't so lucky."

Uzume stopped rubbing her neck as looked in the direction of her old nation, reminiscing, "In Planeptune, goddesses came and went early on. Histoire, the first Oracle, was the only constant keeping it going. Even an Oracle like her had much to learn, and she wasn't too sure how everything worked. Still, she did her best, trying to pass her wisdom down on Planeptune's newest goddess. Even today, she tries to get Nepsy to step up to her duties."

"A difficult task itself, considering," Thomas winced a little. He had his own view on Neptune as a goddess. Despite her unwillingness to do the boring work and laziness, he felt Neptune was very different. A strong goddess capable of holding much of Gamindustri together with her friendly attitude and personality. Still, he could understand Histoire's plight.

"Heh, might explain Gearsy showing up if she needed that much help," Uzume joked, before getting back into her story, "Anyway, before Nepsy, there were other goddesses that lasted for a while. I recall Histy telling me of others before I came along." She shook her head, "So, before Nepsy, there was Uranus, one of the goddesses who tried to defeat the Deity of Sin."

Thomas nodded pensively. Uranus, the CPU who used much of whatever power she had left to save him from his fall. The one who gave him this tome and began this adventure. He owed much to her.

"You weren't around at the time, judging by your age," Uzume admitted, "But this is where I come in. Before her, there was another goddess, and for a time, that history was erased from existence..."

"Hmm?" Thomas blinked, "Erased?"

Uzume nodded, "Yeah. It's unlikely you would've read about it when you were working in Lastation, or at Planeptune's Basilicom. It was wiped from memory. All of that history... my story."

Thomas shifted in his seat, curiously leaning forward, "Alright, now you've hooked me into this story. Nice recap so far, Uzume."

Uzume sweatdropped a bit, "Th-this isn't me reading a story. I'm recalling what I can from memory! Geez. But... uh, thanks."

Thomas chuckled briefly, but went back to waiting for Uzume to continue on with her story.

"Let's see, how to approach this," Uzume said as she idly scratched one of her cheeks, "Thinking. Thinking."

"It's thinking," Thomas quietly remarked about Uzume's brain.

Uzume grumbled, "I was on a roll, too." Just as she started to grumble, her brain finally kicked in, "Wait, I got it now! Alright, Tomsy. You noticed some of the CPUs have their own personalities, their own quirks, even when they transform, right?"

Thomas nodded, "They certainly stand out. Honestly, it always surprises me at first." He said, recalling his first impressions of Neptune, Blanc, and Noire, among others.

"Ah, well, this is just my own personal theory," Uzume said sheepishly, "But I think, and I could be wrong, that it's all part of a goddess' own power. Not all of us have the same outlook, after all. That's probably why we compete for Shares, when I think about it."

"Hmm, that is possible," Thomas pondered on this, "When I pray to the goddesses, sometimes I try to be more specific depending on the situation. For instance, I associate Neptune with Luck, or Noire with Work Ethic, or Blanc and her sisters with Magic..."

"Absolutely!" Uzume exclaimed, "Like that! It may not be just those things, but each goddess has their own specialties, their own powers. And, sometimes, that power can be really, really strong."

"Alright," Thomas went along, "So that means you probably have something you specialize in, right?"

"Bingo!" Uzume tapped her nose to note how precise that guess was, "When I was first born, I soon discovered this really strong power."

"Oh?" Thomas grew ever so curious, "What kind of power was this?"

Uzume clapped her hands, proclaiming, "I had a strong power over dreams!"

"Dreams?" Thomas raised an eyebrow at this. There was something in that answer...

Uzume nodded, "Yeah! There was a lot I could do back then with that power. I was able to turn dreams into reality. I could pull from my own dreams, or even go into others' dreams, to be able to do this. It's a bit weird, knowing that you could enter into someone's mind like that to see what kind of world they may want to build, you know?"

"I... would imagine," Thomas said, as his mind slowly brought up something troubling him with what Uzume said. Since this adventure started, he had recurring dreams telling him of disaster or something of that nature. Even now, he has that feeling of restlessness. Furthermore, the voice that came with that warning turned out to be remarkably similar to the goddess standing in front of him now.

"Uzume, did you-" Thomas was just about to ask Uzume about this, when bad luck struck Pelican Farm, as an explosion could be felt and heard close by. Of all the times to interrupt Uzume's story, it had to be here?

Uzume stumbled briefly, managing to hold her balance, "What just happened?"

"We'll have to put off story time for now," Thomas growled, "We gotta check outside!"

Scrambling to his feet, Thomas followed Uzume, and the two opened the storage shed's door...

"The turret!" Uzume pointed out immediately after the door was wide open. There, the two saw the turret had been dismantled, exploding into a fiery mess. Nearby, the unmasked Infiltrator Bot turned its frame towards two different figures. One was the man who looked like he had been thrown back a few feet. His turret's remote could be seen nearby, already smashed into pieces.

In front of the fallen man, Sara had rushed outside to guard her father from the robot, and held out a pitchfork to try and keep the robot away. Despite her bravery, she was still a very young teen against a dangerous foe.

Thomas gasped at the situation, and with no thinking about it at all, went to take out his blade, dashing off to intercept.

"Tomsy! Oh, whatever, I'm going too!" The normally more-impulsive Uzume found herself behind Thomas as they ran towards the scene.

Sara certainly was brave enough to stand up to this figure, but inside, her heart was pounding quickly out of fear. Her hands were able to hold the pitchfork only barely, shaking on occasion. She was nowhere near accustomed to fighting. A pitchfork might have been enough to scare a wild Dogoo away, but not this. Despite this, she glared at the figure, growling briefly to indicate her displeasure.

Just as the robot got closer, both of its blades at its disposal, it swiftly turned to guard against an aggressive strike by Thomas, who must have telegraphed his incoming overhead slash, as the robot held up its two blades to push him back.

This wasn't the end of Thomas' attack, as he took the small opening below to kick the robot close to the abdomen, knocking it further away from Sara and her father. This was enough for Thomas to regain the advantage and slash through the weak frame, destroying it. The robot succeeded in its task to destroy the turret, but it wasn't going to go any further.

Knowing this isn't likely the end of it, Thomas quickly turned to Sara and her father. His tone expressed urgency, "Can your father get up? You both need to get inside the house, now."

"Y-yes," the father replied, slowly being helped up by his daughter. The daughter blinked up at the young man, who despite his show of bravery, also had a look of fear on him. Nonetheless, she hummed an affirmative, as the two rushed as quickly as they were able to back inside.

"They're coming, aren't they?" Uzume got to Thomas' side, pulling out her megaphone weapon and turning towards the west.

"And we're undermanned," Thomas watched to make sure Sara and her father were inside before turning, "Where are IF and Compa right now?"

"I don't know," Uzume admitted, "Looks like we're gonna have to face these guys alone for however long it takes."

Thomas frowned, yet took a few deep breaths to try and calm himself down, "Alright."

"Stay close," Uzume said, trying to sound reassuring, "We need to cover each other's back."

Thomas hummed an affirmative, and got into his battle stance, as he spotted a new wave of robots flying in, similar to the one that flew in yesterday. The Dragons and Jets were out in force for this major wave.

Thomas gritted his teeth, as Uzume invoked her transformation into Orange Heart. Thomas then spoke aloud, to himself, "These robots were attacking and abducting children and families. Of all the things they have done so far, this... I will never forgive them."

"Hmm?" Orange Heart couldn't help overhear Thomas, but also seeing the fear slowly fading from his face. She recognized the new expression Thomas had, given his scowl. Anger.

Orange Heart had little time to react to that, however, as she held up her megaphone, and dashed forward, before blurting out her opening shot:

"Stay awayyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

The opening moments of the battle were a blur, with Orange Heart using her megaphone to yell as much as possible. The soundwave attacks were useful in pushing back the enemies, even if they were not damaged. Thomas, although unable to fly or jump fairly high, followed Uzume, doing what he could to finish off any damaged enemies.

Thomas' anger was visibly seen with each aggressive strike. Even if the strike was not enough, Thomas would wildly slash again until he brought the robot down. Considering that his strength was stilll below-average, it took more than a couple of slashes. This meant that he would be trading blows with some of the enemies, and the robots were none too kind, either.

Orange Heart saw this, partly concerned for Thomas' health points depleting, but also worried about his state of mind. This was an unusual ruthlessness she saw, moreso than just simple confidence or 'fire' as Plutia sometimes noted. Nonetheless, she kept an eye on him, using her healing spells to make sure he didn't accidentally fall over.

Initially, the battle was going well for the two, as they focused on defending the farm from the incoming robots. The robots soon changed their tactics, focusing their efforts on the lone CPU, frustrating Thomas as they stayed well outside his attack range.

Orange Heart realized she was being ganged up on, and quickly dropped down to the ground. While this allowed Thomas to provide some cover, the robots now had an air advantage, and the influx of more robots made it difficult to turn the battle.

The presence of the Dragon Bots made things more difficult, as when they weren't engaging in close-quarters combat with their tail swipes and claws, they fired their accurate homing shots. Unlike in the previous battle, Orange Heart and Thomas had less room to run around to avoid these shots, at least not without a Jet or Basic Bot harassing them.

The numbers, tactics, and air advantage turned the battle right in the robots' favor, overwhelming Thomas' fury and Orange Heart's power. The two were separated, unable to cover for each other, and were taking quite a beating as a result. Thomas suffered many bruises, while Uzume was beaten so much that her CPU form collapsed, and her human form was also suffering bruises and cuts.

Sensing the odds of victory were well in their corner, the robots focused their attention on Uzume, with one of the large Dragon Bots ready to snap its jaw on the hapless CPU.

Thomas, who despite his injuries was still in a furious state, mustered up as much energy as he could, "No!" His sudden push surprised the robots that it gave him an opening to lunge at the Dragon Bot's jaw, slashing right at its mouth. Unfortunately for him, the robot clamped its jaw right on the blade, preventing its movement, and halting Thomas' momentum.

Before Thomas could take another action, the Dragon Bot charged its shots from inside its jaw, turning it into an electric discharge, shooting through Thomas' blade and zapping him but good. "Aaaah!" Already weakened from the beatings, the attack was enough to bring him down, and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

"Tomsy!" Uzume tried to intervene, but the Dragon Bot turned and swiped its metallic tail right at her stomach, knocking her back quite a bit and crashing into some of the crops.

The Dragon Bot reached down with its jaw, scooping up Thomas inside its open mouth, as a few robots assisted to make sure he was secured, before the bot took off and headed off in Leanbox's direction.

The heavily-injured Uzume barely pushed her upper body up enough to see Thomas being taken away, and her being unable to transform and stop this added to her despair. "No..." Uzume coughed, slowly pushing herself back to her feet.

"You... bastards..." Uzume seethed, her voice growing cold, "If I am going to go out blazing, I will make sure I take as many of you down with me. Allow me to offer my final performance..."

Taking a few exasperated breaths, Uzume clung onto her megaphone, and let out an extremely loud soundwave attack:

"Thoooommaaaaasssssssssssss!"

The attack severely damaged many of the robots nearby, sending them flying back into their allies for more, and nearly blew off the nearby crops. It did not, however, stop the Dragon Bot, already out of Uzume's vocal attack range, which was too far away for her to catch up to now.

Uzume's last ditch effort wasn't enough to stop all the robots remaining, as they once more surrounded her. Uzume's vision grew a little more blurry. Her performance, it seemed, was insufficient.

At this moment, fortunately, the cavalry finally arrived. White Heart was the first on the scene, slamming down with her hammer and quickly guarding Uzume, "Back off!"

Coming in next was Purple Heart, cutting a line through where she flew in from, slashing as many enemies as she could in her path, and clearing the way for IF and Compa to run in. IF helped Blanc push back the enemies with Neptune, while Compa quickly ran over to the injured Uzume to begin her work healing her.

With the other CPU teams returning, the robots soon pulled back into a retreat, though not without the CPU Candidates getting several ranged shots off on a few of the stragglers. The farm, and its occupants, were safe. But this was no clear victory.

"Uzume? You alright? What happened here?" White Heart shot off her questions quickly, as Nepgear went to check on the turret. Rom and Ram soon followed Nepgear to help cool down the fires with their own magic.

"Uzume's suffered quite a lot of injuries here," Compa stated, "It would be best if she rest-"

"Damnit!" Uzume exclaimed, the rush of adrenaline pushing her back up, "We gotta go after them! They got Tomsy! I can't let them get away now! Not when I was so close!"

"Uzume, slow down," IF started off.

"Where the hell were you?" A delirious Uzume continued, shutting down IF as she would have none of that, "We had to take on the entire robot army all by ourselves, but there were too many! They took Tomsy down, and a Dragon Bot took him off towards Leanbox. We can still catch up with him! Even if I have to claw my way through those waves, I'm gonna get him back! I have to! Even if I have to risk my life to do it, I'll-"

Uzume felt someone wrapping arms around her, holding tightly. Uzume stopped immediately, looking shocked to see that Sara returned, and having felt something bad happened, hugged the injured goddess.

"S-Sara?" Uzume's voice calmed down, as she sat back down.

Sara kept her embrace, humming in a tone expressing concern for the CPU. Though Compa was worried Sara might accidentally squeeze out Uzume's ribs with that grip of hers, it seemed to have brought Uzume down from her rush.

Uzume grew depressed, "This is all my fault. I wasn't strong enough to stop them from taking him."

"It's my fault, Uzume," IF finally spoke after a pause, feeling the same depression wash over her, "I let our forces get too thin, and then went off on my own to try to fix a cell site, instead of helping back here."

"I should have stayed here, too," Compa muttered to herself, feeling just as much at fault as the others.

White Heart remained irritated, mostly at herself, "I promised that I would make sure nothing happened to Tom. Lot of good I did..."

Purple Heart became somber, adding to everyone else's sadness, "I... I just wanted to have another member in my party. A friend. Yet, I endangered him by bringing him along..."

There was a moment of silence with the group, everyone appearing despondent over their loss.

One CPU was not having it, however. "Pathetic," Iris Heart scoffed at the display she was seeing, "I expected a lot more out of the people from this dimension, but I guess I was mistaken."

"Plutia..." Purple Heart mouthed quietly.

"My dear Neppy, I expected far more out of you, as well," Iris Heart said in disappointment, "Are you going to give up that easily? As far as I know, they simply took Tommy with them."

"I have to agree with Plutia on this one," Black Heart added, feeling frustrated by what she was seeing, "I still don't quite understand Thomas' role here, but so long as he's alive, we can still save him."

"Pardon me a moment," Nepgear interjected, having finished checking on the turret for now, "I can't help but overhear. Neptune, Uzume, everyone... I know that Thomas would want us to continue our journey, to save Vert and Leanbox. We can rescue him, too. I believe him when he says he has faith in us."

Uni nodded, "We still have all of us, and that's still enough to take down all those robots. And, like Nepgear said, I'm sure this is what Thomas would want us to do."

"I'm not done teaching him about magic just yet," Ram spoke, jumping in with her sister behind Nepgear, "So I say we get him back! Until then, no more moping!"

"Uh huh!" Rom said as she stomped her foot to take her own stand, "We won't go back! We'll save Tom! And Vert! And Leanbox! Determination!"

Uzume laughed a bit, "Haha, I knew you girls wouldn't let me down. Sorry I went all crazy..."

"It's alright," Purple Heart said, "We all got caught up in the moment. Everyone is right. We can still do it. Together, we'll show these robots the power of the CPUs and the people that believe in them."

"Yeah!" The group exclaimed to pump themselves back up. Only Sara kept quiet, warmly hugging the still-sore Uzume. Despite the setback, and loss of Thomas, the CPUs still had resolve. The mistakes they all may have made couldn't be undone, but it was alright. They knew they were still more than capable. Working together, they will be sure to liberate Leanbox, find Vert, and rescue Thomas. This seems to be shaping up for a daring rescue mission! So join us next time when-

Uzume Tennouboshi has left the party.

Plutia has left the party.

IF has left the party.

Compa has left the party.

Nepgear has left the party.

Neptune has left the party.

Blanc has left the party.

Rom has left the party.

Ram has left the party.

Uni has left the party.

Noire has left the party.

...

Uh oh...