*&! #% 9: !# %&(#)% !
Orange Heart opened her eyes to find herself floating in space. Bright stars could be seen everywhere she looked and colors flowed through the scenery. Large clouds of gas could be seen behind her and far down beneath her was a blackhole that seemed to look like the size of a moon from where she was.
Orange Heart lifted her head forward and saw a large purple humanoid figure. The figure still had four arms and a body shape that partially suggested it was female. It's three eyes and mouth remained closed as Orange Heart was floating in front of it.
The figure was giant from where Orange Heart was, nearly 10 times her height and it's head was tilted downwards. Orange Heart anticipated for it to move, but it didn't.
She looked around again and continued to see all the bright shining stars around her. She tried to walk, or move at all, but nothing she did helped her move. She attempted to activate her processor unit, but failed to do so.
Suddenly she was covered in blue light. Orange Heart squinted her eyes, then looked up to see the figure's right eye wide open and glowing blue. Orange Heart stared as it's eye slowly closed, then it's left eye opened glowing yellow.
She continued to stare as the figure's right eye opened again. It stared down at Orange Heart with both it's yellow left eye, and it's blue right eye until Orange Heart looked down to see that the black hole had reached them.
She attempted to do anything to get away from it, but nothing she did helped as she was sucked down into the black hole. She fell through the darkness as gravity pulled on her. She expected the black hole to painfully tear her apart, but nothing came. She simply continued to fall down and down.
Orange Heart eventually felt herself slowing down and saw rainbow light highlighting her body. She was placed on her feet and despite being unable to see anything at her feet, she was standing. Orange Heart looked around and saw Histy staring right at her with a worried expression.
"Orange Heart, where are we? °Д°" Histy asked.
Orange Heart opened her mouth, but then a bright light engulfed the whole area she was in. She covered her eyes as the light swept through the area and felt a gust of wind hit her body.
Uzume blinked as she lowered her arm. She was standing by the table at her camp. She looked around and saw everything in the camp was just as she remembered it. The tents were still up right, the fireplace was put out, the laundry Neptune was supposed to do was still a mess, the only thing different was that Histoire's book was sitting on the table in front of her.
"What the hell…" Uzume said to herself.
Uzume turned to face one of the tents and saw Neptune and Nepgear exit it.
"Still, it sounds more like a story Ambi would write instead of something that actually happened." Nepgear said. "Remember, she and Blanc are in the same book club."
"But Ambi knew so much about you when she first came, didn't you find that suspicious?!" Neptune asked.
"Remember how much about me you leaked into the internet?"
"Oh em… Oh hey Uzume, you're up! Wow, usually Junior's the first one awake, whatcha up to?"
"Oh hey girls, uh, I… uhm… I don't know, what- whatcha up to?" Uzume asked.
"Oh nothing, we just decided to head out to the incredibly convenient mana spa right next to camp, real coincidence that we found it after you mentioned it huh?" Neptune asked.
"Yeah, speaking of, it is really weird isn't it. Like, what if my ghost decides to wish for a ton of enemies?"
"Uhm, Uzume, we already know it's just your goddess form." Nepgear replied.
"Dah tch- come on Gearsy, don't remind me."
"You're really embarrassed about your CPU form huh? That's fine, Blanc's embarrassed about her form too. She really wishes she grew big bonkers like the rest of us." Neptune said.
"Breast size is really nothing to be ashamed about- wait a minute how did we get to this topic?! Nep- Neptune!" Nepgear exclaimed.
"Relaaaaaaax, what? Would you rather talk about gritty dark edgy stuff like yesterday? Let's try to keep a light tone k? It's so much more fun when everyone's happy instead of depressed and stuff."
"We should really take things seriously…"
The Nep sister's looked around, then looked at Histoire's book that was on the table.
"Ooh, you got a head start into Histoire huh? You totally should have woken us up." Neptune said.
"Wait… wasn't the book in our tent?" Nepgear asked.
"No, that's impossible. There's no way she snuck past you, that's just ridiculous."
"I- uhm, it was here when I got here." Uzume said.
"That… no that's not right, I remember bringing it into our tent before we went to sleep." Nepgear stated.
Nepgear stared at the book for a while and Uzume sighed.
"Look, you two were talking about the spa? I'm in, let's just focus on this later. I had a rough night last night."
"Sure sure sure, but after that what are we having for breakfast?" Neptune asked.
"All we have are apples and the cookies Uzume found." Nepgear stated.
"Cookies for breakfast!"
Uzume took a deep breath and re-entered her tent. Meanwhile a drone was watching through a bush and Anonydeath was tapping the metal plated chin of the robot suit.
"Curious, not even the idea of Neptune enjoying herself is enough to… excite Arfy." Anonydeath commented.
Rei sat at the opposite side of the table and was forced to constantly readjust Arfoire. Rei stared at Arfoire, worried, as Arfoire held a blank emotionless expression.
"Guh…" Arfoire said.
"What a weird way to react to trauma, chu." Warechu said. "That's what she gets for being an old hag."
"She's- she's not actually that- that old…" Rei said.
"Hmm? Did I hear something, chu?"
"No- nope! Nothing at all!"
"Huhuhu, feels good to feel superior to a human for once." Warechu laughed.
"Hmm, this is a problem. Only Arfy is capable of taking care of herself in there." Anonydeath said. "Copy will need a little bit of time to be rebuilt, she needs a companion. I don't suppose you have tricks up your sleeve to get an easy power boost little Rei?"
"No- no, not… not after Iris Heart destroyed the lab. Even then, seeing what it did to the children and Planeptune's captain, I don't think I would have been able to handle it." Rei said.
"Tis a shame. Oh well, will Baddie be here soon?"
Arfoire slumped her head down and Rei quickly pulled her head back up. As she did, a blue halo shone light down in front of the thrones and the table and Mr. Badd appeared in front of them with a grumpy expression.
"Oh Baddie, you came!" Anonydeath said.
"Welcome- welcome back!" Rei said. "Is- is something wrong-"
"Is something wrong?" Mr. Badd quoted. "Heh, funny you ask that. I'm sure your robot husband over there can show you everything."
"He's not- we're not- anyway- anyways what's the matter? Could… could it be our recent failures?"
"Hmph, not really. I completely understand… er, Arfoire was it? I completely understand her failing to defeat that bitch Iris Heart. The problem I have now is… well, let's say my eyes have been opened."
"What could you mean Baddie?" Anonydeath asked.
"For a while, I thought I was doing the right thing. Funding this research of yours, bringing children up as… "negative goddesses" we'll call them for now, all for the good of getting rid of goddesses. But after I heard their screams and saw how painful the process could be, I can't do this anymore."
"Oh Baddie, but what will we ever do without you?"
"Hmph, you should have more than enough information. I can already see the headlines, "Rogue goddess forces experiment to go wrong, causes children to turn into monsters." I'll still uphold my end of the contract, I'll raise the children as if they were my own. But I will not force them to fight the goddesses.
"Well, that makes things more difficult doesn't it? Now the only thing we have even comparable to killing the goddesses is Arfy, and look at her."
"Mr. Badd I- I thought you were a true believer of our- our cause." Rei said.
"I am, I would give all the money I have to get rid of those goddesses. But it's not worth it if people like us rule afterwards. It's not worth sacrificing children."
"True Lowee blood I see. I should have expected this sooner. Well Baddie, our time together was fun. Say hi to the kids for me!" Anonydeath said.
"Goodbye, and good luck. Don't make me get involved again."
Mr. Badd leaves.
"Well… there goes my business partner…" Rei mumbled.
"Knowing Abby, she will definitely leave for the same reason." Anonydeath mentioned. "Such a shame, I was hoping our little secret wouldn't have been exposed so soon. The new goddess is quite the problem, isn't she?"
"What- what now?"
"It's your call little Rei."
"Hmm… well… we're getting pretty desperate now aren't we? Since- since Iris Heart is now a bigger problem than we expected I- I think it's time we… make a deal with the devil…"
"What? This new goddess beat some old hag and hurt an old man's feelings so now you're planning on selling us out?!" Warechu asked.
"No- no of course not! But…"
Rei looked at Warechu, Anonydeath, then focused her eyes on Arfoire. She sighed, then took out a business card with Kurome's face on it.
"I… I think we're gonna need a little more help." Rei said.
Anonydeath took another peek at the screen to see Uzume, Neptune, and Nepgear walking back to camp carrying their wet towels. Neptune sighed as she looked around the place.
"Hmm, I was expecting the author to write something about our time in the tub." Neptune commented.
"Maybe… maybe it's because you still look underaged." Nepgear said.
"Whaaaaat? Noooo when has that stopped anyone before?"
"So, what's the plan girls?" Uzume asked.
Neptune smiled, then dramatically turned to point at Histoire's book with a determined expression.
"We gotta find the weakness of that giant!" Neptune announced. "Histoire's gotta have something for us!"
"Right, at least something. Nothing else was found in the Basilicom, this is our last hope." Nepgear said.
"Or- or we can just go to the giant and punch it in my sharing field." Uzume suggested.
"Nah, that's boring. It's more fun to think of something completely OP that'll come in clutch at the climax of the fight. I mean, why would we do anything else?" Neptune asked.
"Let's… focus on the book…"
Nepgear walked over and flipped to the first page. She looked at the table of continents and placed her finger on her cheek.
"Hmm, it seems like the book is divided into ages. First it was the JAMMA and MAME age, also known as the Arcade Age… Arcave Age? That sounds like a pun… Alongside it is the Age of the Blue Rainbow, also known as Tari's Reign. After that, it's the White and Orange Era… huh, interesting."
Nepgear turned her head to see Neptune and Uzume already sleeping on the table.
"Neptune! Uzume! Come on, we should focus!"
"Nah sis," Neptune started. "How bout you give us a call when ya find anything interesting while we go out and try to find some loot!"
"Hmm, Uzume when did the giants first come down?"
"Huh? Like uh, 3 years ago? 4? I'm not sure, but it was a really really long time ago." Uzume said.
"Damn girl, you've been livin like this for 3 whole years? That's crazy!"
"Well, the first year was mostly war against the giant and monsters, then we lost. The first year went like a blur, but I lost a ton of resources carelessly. Man, now I'm starting to have regrets."
"That helps a lot, thanks Uzume." Nepgear said with a smile.
"Huh? Uh, no problem?"
Nepgear flipped through the pages and proceeded to read. Uzume sighed as she stretched her arms up.
"Ya know, I feel kinda bad for leaving Gearsy to do all the boring hard work." Uzume said.
"I don't! Let's go!" Neptune exclaimed.
"Aw come on Nepsy, let's at least try to give her a hand."
"No that's okay. It's actually more distracting if Neptune is around when I do work with Histoire." Nepgear said.
"Hey… you two think we can find something useful in Lowee?" Uzume asked.
"If it doesn't help us with a weakness, I don't think it's worth the time."
"Yeah, and even if we're goddesses, we can't fast travel there!" Neptune stated.
"Huh? Fast travel?"
"Oh, it's incredible. One of the goddesses, while making processor units, implemented a function where goddesses can fly at incredibly high speeds as long as they 100% guarantee that they'll land safely. It's pretty awesome."
"Ah, so that's where processor units came from? A goddess made them? That's pretty neat, must be related to you Gearsy." Uzume said.
Umio swam out of the large tent with a smile on his face.
"Good morning you three." Umio greeted.
"Ah, good morning Umio!" Nepgear replied.
"Mornin!" Neptune said.
"Good morning." Uzume said.
Umio smiled, then swam over to boil some water. Nepgear took a deep breath and faced Neptune and Uzume again.
"Anyways, a goddess… kind of made them? Like, all goddesses always had them, but they managed to give them a… stable physical form if that makes sense. Speaking of which, Uzume, how did you get your processor unit?" Nepgear asked.
"Huh? I was just born with it. Why?"
"Well, this book has no mention of any goddesses besides you and Blanc, and Blanc definitely didn't make the processor unit… stabilizers I guess. Hmm, odd."
"Maybe they were made in a super secret lab where the goddess was like "hmm, I'm gonna use my time to make totally awesome super cool wings and armor for all future goddesses cause I'm such a cool girl!" Bet it was Nera, nah actually probably the goddess before her."
"Secret lab… ah! Good idea Neptune! How about you two explore the secret lab I came out of all those years ago?" Nepgear asked.
Uzume and Neptune looked at each other, then looked at Nepgear.
"Uh, Junior? I'm pretty sure the records said that you were made for Mars, and Mars doesn't exist yet." Neptune said.
"Uhm, since when were you the one to bring up good points?"
"Hey I make good points! You just never listen…"
"Like the time you brought large color coded bears into our-"
"MOVING ON! I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist yet."
"Actually, there were rumors of spies and people from another nation establishing a base or something here. Never got around to dealing with it cause of the giant, but there's that if it rings any bells." Uzume mentioned.
"I guess it's worth a shot. Here, I'll draw a line to the place for you two." Nepgear said.
Nepgear took out the large map and Uzume tossed her a marker. She pinned a location close to Planeptune and tapped her chin with her marker.
"So… it seems like only forest is in between us and the lab. Is that right Uzume?" Nepgear asked.
"I guess so, I dunno. I don't remember going that way, but maybe I did and I was running away from monsters? Dah, this is making me feel dumb."
"Don't- don't say that, your contributions are incredibly useful."
"Finally, someone gets to be the dumb character besides me!" Neptune said proudly.
"Neptune! That's-
"Oh yeah?" Uzume asked. "How- how bout we go check if that lab's really there? Bet you still think it doesn't exist cause Mars or whoever doesn't exist yet."
"Oh yeah? Are you really gambling against me? Meptune? Well, how bout we raise the stakes a little? Loser's gotta cook breakfast!"
"Well now I wanna lose this gamble." Uzume said disappointedly.
"Wow. Rude."
"Dah nevermind, you're on! Oh, but just to make things clear, if my ghost makes things happen in my favor, I'm still the winner."
"I eat cheaters for breakfast!... that sounds weird given the context. Anyways, see ya!"
Neptune grabbed the map and quickly grabbed her sword from the side of her tent before running off in the direction given on the map. Uzume quickly ran after her and Nepgear smiled as Iffy and Comp slowly stepped out of their tent.
"Is Neptwo being stupid again?" Iffy asked.
"Well, she's being… normal."
"So that's yes."
Comp smiled bright and waddled over to Nepgear for a hug. Nepgear smiled as she hugged Comp tightly while carrying Histoire's book. Meanwhile, Neptune and Uzume ran through the forest jumping over roots and pushing through branches. Eventually they reached the main dirt road and they stopped. They looked to their right to see the entrance to Planeptune while on their left was the road down the Uzume's old base.
"Darn, we forgot to pack water…" Neptune said.
"It shouldn't be that far right? Lemme see the map."
Uzume took the map out of Neptune's hands and looked at it. Neptune peeked over and Uzume pointed down a direction directly in front of them.
"Yeah… just keep going straight and it should be there somewhere." Uzume said.
"Ya think monsters are gonna be there?" Neptune asked.
"I wouldn't doubt it. I mean, monsters kind of just go wherever they want and do whatever they please."
"Hmm. Eh, I'm sure it'll be fine. Let's go!"
Neptune excitedly ran down the direction Uzume pointed at and Uzume sighed. She ran after Neptune through the thick dark forest. As they were running through, Uzume heard her watch ring and she answered the call.
"Hey, is it Gearsy or Umio?" Uzume asked.
"Hi! Nepgear here! I found everything I need to know from the book, it's very interesting! I will share with you and Neptune once we have a chance to talk in person. For now, I'll be heading over there with the kids okay?" Nepgear asked.
"Dah uhm… fine…"
"Thank you Uzume, I'm sorry if this makes you uncomfortable bringing kids to battle. By the way, where is Neptune?"
Uzume stopped to look down and saw an open trap door along with no Neptunes to be found anywhere near her.
"Hey Uzume! You gotta check this out!" Neptune called from underground.
"Uh oh. Gearsy ya gotta get here quick, we might be in trouble."
Uzume turned off her watch and hopped towards the opening.
"Hang on Nepsy! I'm coming down!"
Uzume grabbed the pillar of the ladder to ease her fall, but her hand hit the steps of the ladder.
"ACK-"
Uzume slammed onto the ground and groaned as she slowly sat up straight. She saw Neptune standing in front of the ladder and she got up.
"Ugh, what- what's up Nepsy? Don't- just ignore what just happened." Uzume said.
"Here." Neptune said while handing her a small bottle with the words "Nep Bull" written in marker on it.
"Thanks… Ugh it tastes disgusting! Where did you get this?" Uzume asked.
"Made it myself!"
"Does it actually heal?"
"Nope!"
Uzume tossed the drink in a corner and groaned as she looked up at what Neptune was looking at to see a giant mantis hissing at them with it's pincers forward and it's wings stretched out and flapping.
The mantis' wings were nearly hypnotising to look at as all the colors of the rainbow were flowing through them like waves. Uzume quickly looked away and readied herself.
"AH! Nepsy, why didn't ya-"
"Attaaack!" Neptune announced.
Neptune drew her heavy blade above her head and ran towards the mantis. The mantis snapped it's pincers at Neptune who dodged and backed up along with a downwards strike. The strike was weak, but the mantis recoiled instinctively and took a defensive stance making itself appear as tall as possible.
Uzume was about to whip out her microphone, but then she heard the sound of bones fall down behind her. She turned around to see a pile of bones take form into a large turtle with a spiky shell and glowing eyes. It stared right at Uzume who had her back right up against Neptune's.
"We got trouble behind us Nepsy." Uzume said.
"Uhm… em… man I wanna make a joke but nothing comes to mind right now." Neptune said.
Neptune took a quick peek at the turtle, then refocused on the mantis and placed her finger on her chin.
"Hmm, what to do in this situation, what to-"
Neptune quickly leaped into the air with a smile and slashed a pincer down to the ground. The mantis shrieked in shock, then quickly threw it's other pincer at Neptune. Uzume kicked the pincer away, but was hit directly by a small fireball from the turtle causing her to stumble backwards and quickly put out the fire on her clothes.
"Ow! Ow ow, crap, damn it!" Uzume yelled.
"I got this my girl!"
Neptune rushed towards the mantis. The mantis quickly attempted to grab Neptune with its pincer, but Neptune pushed her sword up and the mantis grabbed onto her sword. She then proceeded to punch the mantis' torso.
The mantis looked down at Neptune, then dropped her sword and reached for her. Neptune dodged the first pincer, but was grabbed by the second one. Neptune struggled to break free as the mantis hissed opening it's mouth revealing large sharp teeth-like jaws.
"Ah damn it! Why do we have to still be level 1? I would have totally rekt this guy!" Neptune exclaimed.
Uzume grabbed her microphone and brought it up to her mouth. She screamed into it shaking the entire lab. The turtle skeleton was unphased by the noise, but the mantis shrieked and fell on it's side while Neptune plugged her ears as best she could. Uzume then dodged a fireball that came from the turtle and took a deep breath.
"You alright Nepsy?" Uzume asked, dodging another fireball.
Neptune, seemingly ignoring Uzume, grabbed her sword and rushed to the mantis. She dragged the sword along the ground with her, creating a scratch on it, then slashed it upwards slicing the upper half of the mantis' torso. The mantis was knocked against the wall as it shrieked and squirmed, kicking and throwing its arms around, then went limp.
"Hey! Nepsy!" Uzume yelled, bumping into Neptune while dodging a fireball. "You good?"
"Huh? What? Oh, are you asking if I'm alright? Sorry Uzume, I can't hear nothing." Neptune replied.
"Dah, whatever, how do we beat this turtle? I am not punching that shell."
Neptune looked at the turtle, then dodged a fireball with Uzume as the turtle shot two smaller ones at once.
As Neptune and Uzume dodged more fireballs, they heard the loud sound of the mantis getting back up. Neptune and Uzume took a peek behind them to see large white spiky bones thrust out of the cut Neptune made and split the torso open like a second mouth. An ear piercing scream came out of the cut as Uzume and Neptune peeked back at the turtle to dodge another fireball.
"Nepsy, can ya hear me now? What's the plan?" Uzume asked.
"Here comes a new challenger!" Neptune exclaimed.
"She can't hear me, can she…"
Green liquid oozed out of the cut and a sizzling sound could be heard coming from it. The mantis corpse jumped at Neptune and she quickly grabbed onto Uzme's collar to dash to the right.
"Ack! Warn me next time Nepsy!" Uzume yelled.
"Wow, it's never been so quiet before." Neptune commented. "Usually I have people yelling at me all the time to get to work and stuff, this is a nice change of pace! By the way, you okay Uzume?"
Uzume sighed, then nodded at Neptune.
"Great, now, hmm, what do we do?"
Uzume jumped out of the way to dodge another fireball and saw the green liquid on the mantis ribs causing steam lines to float above it.
"Oh! Nepsy! Look!"
Uzume gripped onto Neptune's shoulder after dodging another fireball to point at the mantis' goo.
"Uhm… yeah I see the mantis… oh, the acid could be useful, you- ooohhhh use the acid to kill the turtle! I gotcha Uzume, see? I can be smart too." Neptune said.
Uzume sighed and nodded again as they ran around the corpse to try to get to the turtle. The corpse attempted to drop it's sharp bones and goo on them, but Uzume stopped, grabbed Neptune's collar, and yanked her back while back stepping.
"ACK!"
Uzume leaped over the mantis corpse as it rose up again and Neptune waited until it rose high enough, then jumped through above the acid on the ground. The turtle saw them, blasted at Uzume with a fireball, but Neptune blocked it with her sword.
"HOT! AH! Quick, on the other side of the turtle! One of us has gotta grab it's tail!" Neptune announced.
"On it!"
Uzume jumped over the turtle and landed behind it. The turtle saw, and quickly all the bones hid into its shell. Then bone plates covered it up entirely leaving no entrance.
"Dah, whatever. I'll just pick it up and-"
Uzume placed her hand underneath the turtle, but then felt heat on her hand, similar to that of pressing your hand on an oven.
"AH! GOD- Damn… Frick! Ah sshhhoot!" Uzume yelled.
Neptune looked at the mantis screaming again as more liquid formed from the cut, then smiled at the turtle as she slid her blade underneath it and lied down to place her elbow on the ground and lift up the sword with her hand making it look like a lever.
"Quickly Uzume! Stop being hot and jump on this handle thingy to launch it!" Neptune shouted.
"You think I'm- dah it's probably another one of your jokes, alright!"
Uzume jumped forward and landed on the sword handle on her two feet. Neptune cried out from the pain a little bit as the turtle was launched up. Due to its weight, it landed down into the mantis corpse causing them to fall over with the sound of bug bones cracking.
Uzume stumbled forward and quickly regained balance as she looked at the two monsters slowly melting from the acid.
"Oh- oh! Haha! It worked! Great job Nepsy!" Uzume said.
"Owowowowowow OW!" Neptune said as she held onto her arm. "We are not doing that again! And no I did not say owo."
Neptune looked at the monsters melting and smiled proudly.
"But we did it! Great job Uzume, high five!"
Uzume saw Neptune raise her hand up and she gladly high fived her. Uzume then heard someone coming down the ladder and looked to see Nepgear slowly making her way down.
"Phew, I made it." Nepgear said. "Hi, I'm here, did something happen?"
"Oh you should have seen it Gearsy, we completely destroyed a big turtle fire skeleton monster thing and a giant zombie mantis! Well not completely destroyed, we kind of got hurt a little." Uzume said.
"Lemme see your boo boos." Comp said.
"Hah, no thanks."
"Junior! I didn't hear ya coming, oh right I lost my hearing by the way so uh, oopsies." Neptune mentioned with a shrug.
"Huh? How did that happen?" Nepgear asked.
"Yeah… sorry bout that Gearsy." Uzume apologized with a guilty expression. "She got caught by the mantis, and I panicked and used my mic in this tight small space to get her free. Forgot you two ain't immune to it like I am."
"Neptwo got caught? Idiot." Iffy commented.
"Haha! Iffy, you probably insulted me just now, but jokes on you! I can't hear you no more!"
"Good… I don't have to waste my breath anymore."
"Nepsy literally just lost her hearing, how is she so okay with this?!" Uzume asked.
"That's… well, you know." Nepgear replied. "Let's hope it's temporary."
Nepgear sighed as she watched the monsters finish melting and fade into experience.
"Neptune really lost her hearing huh?"
"Yup."
"So… she can't hear your screams?" Nepgear asked, smiling at Uzume.
"Sh- Gearsy?!"
"Hee hee, I'm joking, I'm joking. Uhm, sorry, usually it's Neptune who makes the pervy jokes. I instinctively thought of it."
"Pervy? That's dark humor Gearsy, what are you talking about?"
Neptune placed her hands on her hips as she watched Uzume and Nepgear talk to each other, and Comp looked at Neptune's body with her small medical pouch.
"Starting to think this whole losing my hearing thing has been a bad trade off." Neptune said.
Comp smiled as she hugged Neptune's arm and kissed it.
"Aw, thank you Compa."
Comp smiled as Neptune patted her head. Uzume, Nepgear, and Iffy walked over and they looked at the door attached to a wall.
"So, we should get into here right? Good stuff is in here?" Uzume asked.
"Aye, yup. There are some other things I want to talk about, but let's discuss after we explore the lab. The thing I want to show, uh, needs to recharge. Yeah."
"Right, got it. Just tell me what we're looking for once we get in."
"Aye."
The group proceeded to surround the door and Nepgear tried opening the door. She failed to turn the doorknob all the way, then pressed some buttons on a number pad beside it.
"Ah, it's locked and there's no power." Nepgear stated.
"Lemme guess, it's locked?" Neptune asked. "Step aside girls, I got this! Dunmaghlas! Kryfja hann!"
Neptune gripped her sword with two hands and swung it downwards from over her shoulder. Her blade smashed into the door and caused a small dent, but the sword bounced back and Neptune waddled a step backwards to regain her balance.
"D'oh!"
"Let me do this one Neptune…" Nepgear said.
Nepgear ignited her beam sword and sliced the door in half. She turned it off and pushed it down revealing nearly a meter in length of nothing but metal as the door.
"Wow! I- I mean I guess my memory isn't perfect, but the- the door was this big?" Nepgear asked.
"Geez, who gave permission to make this thing? I sure didn't, what a waste of metal." Uzume said.
"Yup, I miss hearing things already." Neptune said.
Comp happily held Neptune's hand as they walked down into the dark room ahead. Nepgear took out a flashlight from a small pouch on her leg and turned it on to see what was around them. They saw columns of large file cabinets with tape on their fronts. On the tape were words such as biology, engineering, and chemistry separating the folders into categories.
"Hmm, this place definitely looks abandoned. Hey wait, I thought I broke that flashlight." Uzume said.
"Ah, I spent all night fixing it and used some batteries we grabbed along the way back." Nepgear said.
"Man are we lucky to have someone like you. If it was just Nepsy and I we'd be sitting ducks by now."
"Ehehehe, well if it was just you and Neptune I think you would have just fought the giant together. Maybe you would have won, who knows."
Neptune looked around on a long table nearby with computers attached to the wall. She pressed an on button and saw that nothing happened. Comp and Iffy took a peek while Nepgear attempted to open the cabinets.
"Ah, lock as expected. Maybe we'll find a key somewhere." Nepgear said.
"If there are so many files here… how do you know so little about your past and everything?" Uzume asked.
"Well, the lab was mostly empty when I was activated. It was very strange, everything in the room suggested I had just been born as a CPU Candidate. But then that begs the question, who was keeping my room neat and tidy until I woke up?"
"Maybe there's some old scientist guy in your world that came by every once in a while." Uzume said.
"Maybe… I'd like to meet someone who knows about it."
The group walked through a different door and down a hallway. They looked to their right to see tons of shattered empty glass containers with liquids and what looked like human corpses all over a huge room. Containers were placed on top of each other as if they were boxed dolls on a shopping mall shelf and the room was about three times as big as the fairly decently sized room Uzume and Neptune fought the monsters.
"Wow… what a sight. Uhm, cover your eyes kids." Neptune said.
"It's okay, I'm used to seeing dead people." Comp replied.
"Same." Iffy said.
"Geez, this must be hard for you to see, huh Gearsy?" Uzume asked.
"Not… well, when I saw this room tons of them were already released into the world. They're called Gamer Gears, and they were how the old goddesses dealt with declining population."
"Yeah… I remember that topic came up once or twice. Weird, if they're exactly like humans in every way then… I guess nothing's wrong? But then… augh, there- what- what's the point of thinking about something complicated like this right now? Let's just get what ya need and head out, we can talk ethics all we want once the world's saved."
"Sounds like Neptune. But you're right Uzume. Let's go."
Nepgear led them down the hallway and into another room with more computers, file cabinets, and a mini fridge with bottles of water inside.
"Does… does water go bad?" Uzume asked.
"Uhm, no. It should be fine." Nepgear said.
Uzume took a water bottle and started drinking. She handed one to Neptune, Iffy, and Comp as she walked over to Nepgear who stared at a computer screen pressing buttons.
"Take this, what do you think happened to the power? I mean, my old base still has it." Uzume said.
"Oh thank you. Well, my best guess is that this place had its own separate generator and since it's been abandoned for-"
"Hey you two! Check this out!" Neptune called out.
Neptune opened an old rusty tool box to reveal fairly clean, dusty tools sitting inside.
"Ah, perfect!" Nepgear said happily. "This is amazing, thank you Neptune."
"I'm gonna take the silence and your happy face to assume that you're thanking me!" Neptune said.
Uzume nodded and Neptune looked proud as Nepgear picked it up and held it in her hand.
"Okay… let's try to find anything… Mechanical I guess. Small devices, machines, anything. I could use some time to tear out some parts from the computers here, so can you two find anything in any of the other rooms?" Nepgear asked.
"Sure, uhm…"
Uzume looked at Neptune and Neptune faced Uzume. Uzume pointed at Nepgear, then pointed down at the floor they were on. She then pointed at herself and Neptune, then pointed at the hallway and the door in the corner of the room.
"Junior stays here, we go exploring. Got it!" Neptune said.
Uzume smiled.
"Alright, you kids stay here with Gearsy in case she needs help. No arguments, I'm already pushing myself letting you two even be in here." Uzume said.
"Fine." Iffy replied.
"We'll be good." Comp promised.
"Oh, wait one second!"
Nepgear tossed Uzume another flashlight from her pouch and Uzume took it. She elbowed Neptune, then took her into another room. The room they entered had a wall and another door separating them from the other half which had various potions and chemicals inside of them. Most of them were untouched and sat in small tubes while some were spilt all over the floor.
"Yeah… let's not go in there." Uzume said.
"I would make a joke about lab safety, but I never went to school." Neptune commented.
Uzume took Neptune by the wrist and brought her out of the room and down the other hallway. They took a peek into the large room again and noticed that the window on the hallways separated all the glass containers in half.
"Wait a second…" Uzume said. "Something must have gone in there to destroy everything. There's… well, maybe a scientist did it before leaving but I honestly doubt it. Did the mantis do it? No… no, if the door was locked then…"
"Hey Uzume, wanna see something cool?" Neptune asked.
Uzume nodded. Neptune smiled and started to spin in circles. As she did, she leaned forward in a 90 degree angle and took off her sweater. While still spinning, she waved her sweater around like a flag, then quickly slid it back on as she stopped spinning and posed in front of Uzume.
"Hey, that was pretty neat Nepsy." Uzume said with a smile and while nodding.
"Aw yeah! Neptune's still got it!"
The two of them reached the other end of the hallway and opened the door. Inside the room were more computers, file cabinets, and a large full body mirror.
"Same thing over and over again." Uzume commented.
They looked at the other end of the room to see a large metal door with a drawing of a skeleton taped on it.
"Let's check that out!" Neptune said.
"Right, yeah. Let's do that."
Neptune skipped forward towards the door. Uzume walked forward as well, but then stopped and looked over at the full body mirror to see Kurome in the mirror where she was supposed to be.
"Hey- hey! It's you!" Uzume yelled, pointing at the mirror.
"Good morning, how's it been?" Kurome asked.
"What the f- hey asshole! Is all this your fault?"
"Mmm, it's complicated."
"So it is! I'll kick your butt, come here and-"
"Yo, Uzume, what's the hold up? You good in the hood girl?" Neptune asked while walking towards the mirror.
Neptune saw Uzume yelling at herself in the mirror as she checked herself out.
"Hah, well I'm as cute and spry as every I see! Dunno what you're yelling at, don't you see your own reflection in ponds, or your dark watch screen?" Neptune asked.
"Ah- does she not see you?" Uzume asked.
"Yeah, I'm just messing with you." Kurome responded. "I'll let you get back to your job. Have a good day."
"Whoa, wait a minute! I-"
Uzume blinked and she saw her own reflection in the mirror instead of Kurome. She blinked a few times, then moved around to see that it was indeed her in the mirror. Neptune tapped Uzume's head with a concerned look on her face.
"Yo, I can't hear nothing so ya gotta talk to Junior about it when we get back." Neptune said. "But until then, let's check out this room!"
"Yeah- yeah, yeah…"
Uzume sighed, then nodded at Neptune who smiled and walked into the skeleton room. Inside they saw a large deactivated machine that had arms assembling a human skeleton. It was half finished with everything from the waist above. All the bones were made of a certain metal with them being perfectly identical in shape and size to a normal human's bones.
"Welcome to the Bone Zone!" Neptune announced.
"Uhm… if that's a meme from the future or something I don't think it's been made yet." Uzume said.
The two of them walked around the room. Uzume looked at a computer that wasn't attached to the wall, then picked up a folder that showed pictures and diagrams of all the bones that were being built along with everything inside.
"Hey… if Gearsy didn't know she was a robot until much later, what if I'm actually a robot too?" Uzume asked.
"Let's take this bone back to Junior!" Neptune suggested carrying a femur.
"Why not a hand? I was expecting you to make a joke about giving Gearsy a-"
Uzume walked over and picked up the palm bone. The bone wasn't attached to any of the finger bones in any way so she only picked up a palm bone.
"Ah." Uzume said to herself.
"Forward! Let us proceed!"
The two of them walked forward and down another hallway. They looked into the large room in the middle of the lab once more before approaching a room. Inside the room were more computers, and two more doors. One had the word "generator" on it while the other was unlabeled..
"Gee, wonder what's in this room." Neptune said sarcastically.
"I dunno, maybe a dragon's nest or a supermarket." Uzume responded.
Uzume laughed to herself a little as they entered the room. Inside were more computers attached to the wall and a large machine with dials, levers, buttons, and small screens. There were pipes and wires attached to the machine, and went into the wall.
"Welp, let's just tell Junior bout this. We got another room to explore!"
"Hold on Nepsy…"
Uzume walked over to one of the walls and pulled a lever that was attached to it. The wall flipped over and large assault rifles were hung on hooks attached to the wall.
"Whoahaho! Now that's what I'm talking about!" Uzume said happily.
She picked up one of the rifles and had a closer look at it. A bayonet knife was attached to the end of the rifle barrel while on top of the rifle barrel was a bigger shotgun barrel with a hole at the top for shotgun shells. Two triggers were placed on the handle, one for the middle finger and one for the index finger, and a small screen was on the side of the gun. Uzume pressed a small button for the screen to reveal that both the rifle and the shotgun parts had a full clip.
"Aw yeah! Just wait till that giant gets a load of this!" Uzume said.
"Uh, Uzume? Remember what we said about gunpowder poisoning? Yeah, it ain't worth it sorry."
"Aw what? Really? Man… Well, I guess you're right. I suppose some soldiers did try shooting the giant and it didn't do anything."
"I'll guess from the disappointment on your face that you weren't too happy that I reminded you." Neptune said.
Uzume sighed, then nodded. She took off the knife at the tip of the rifle and placed the rest back on the hook.
"Guess I'll just take this, wouldn't hurt I suppose."
The two of them walked out of the generator room and into the other unlabeled room where they looked down to see a long hallway. They walked down together opening door after door. There were two bathrooms and the rest of the doors were offices until they reached the end of the hallway that had one more door.
"Wow, that hallway was a lot longer than I expected." Uzume said looking back.
Neptune opened the door to reveal an elevator waiting room. Two elevator doors were at the wall and buttons were placed in between them.
"Just elevators? Well this place doesn't have anymore power so I guess we should just go back to Gearsy." Uzume said.
"Welp that's it, time to head back to Junior." Neptune announced.
"I just said- oh right."
The two of them walked back to Nepgear who was sitting on the floor while pondering with parts and tools in front of her.
"Hey Gearsy, we're back!" Uzume announced.
"Ah, welcome back!" Nepgear greeted.
"Ey look what I found! I found a bone!" Neptune stated.
"Yeah, we found a small factory room thing that made mechanical bones, and the generator room which had these huge awesome rifles. Too bad there's that gunpowder poison you talked about earlier." Uzume said.
"Ah, what a shame. Hmm, was the generator broken?" Nepgear asked while looking at the bone Neptune gave her.
"Huh? No, I… don't know? We didn't bother trying to turn it on."
"Hmm… ah, I just had a great idea! We could use this lab instead of trying to build a machine from scratch inside Uzume's old base."
"Build what here?" Uzume asked.
"Oh… well… uhm… Iff- Iffy, could you please hand me back the book?" Nepgear asked.
Iffy took out Histoire's book from her large jacket and handed it to Nepgear. Nepgear opened up the book and whipped up her watch.
"I wanted to save the surprise for until later, but here we go." Nepgear said.
Nepgear tapped on her watch, then wrote on it with her finger. After a while a message was shone up in a holographic form.
"We can talk to Histoire with this book and build a machine back- wait really?! Wahoo! This is great!" Neptune announced.
"Wait seriously?! You can talk to the Histoire from your world?!" Uzume asked.
"Yes, I managed to contact her by using the book as a spell catalyst like she does. Take a look."
Nepgear opened the book up and lifted it forward with her arms. Bright rainbow lights came out of the book and a holographic form of Histoire appeared on the book.
"I answer your call Nepgear." Histoire said. "Oh, so it's true! You have found Uzume!"
"Whoa, wait hold on, wait-"
"YO! HISTY!" Neptune called out. "My gurl, how's it been?! We've been stuck here for days but we found this girl here named Uzume!"
"I see that Neptune. This is truly a wonderful occasion, you do not know how much stress was lifted off my shoulders when I saw that Nepgear was writing in the tome from this dimension."
"Uhm, sorry Histoire, but Neptune went a little deaf." Nepgear mentioned
"Ah, has she now? Well, she never did listen to whatever I had to say. But this is no time for jokes, I'll grab a whiteboard to show her what I say."
"Wait wait wait, slow down, what's going on exactly?" Uzume asked. "Like, obviously you two talked before but do you mind catching me up? Like how is this possible and what exactly we're trying to do now?"
"Of course Uzume. One moment."
Histoire picked up a whiteboard from somewhere and wrote on it. She then flipped it over to show Neptune.
"We will build a machine to transport you back, alright Histy! Woohoo!" Neptune cheered.
"Yes, I'm glad you're happy." Histoire said. "I will attempt to summarize as quickly as possible for you Uzume. When the first goddess created me, she built multiple layers of security to ensure Gamindustri's survival. The first course of action was a distress signal to call all the people of Gamindustri to focus their shares on one goddess. To temporarily allow the goddess to have 100% shares as one last resort. That is how Neptune defeated Overlord Momus."
"Uh huh…" Uzume said.
"The second course of action is that if the total amount of shares in Gamindustri has dropped to an unstable and unusable level, then one selected goddess may wield the cursed sword Gehaburn to strike down all other goddesses. This concentrates their power into an unstoppable destructive force, but thankfully we never had to use such a method."
"Okay…"
"Lastly, in an apocalyptic situation such as your own, a tome is to give their life to allow communication to another tome in another dimension. In which case, the survivors of the dying Gamindustri may live on in another dimension. Perhaps coming back to save it again."
"Ah I see where this is going. So I'm getting reinforcements from the dimension you guys are from huh?"
"That's the idea." Nepgear confirmed.
"Well, I'd hate to ask for even more help considering all that you guys did for me, but… I doubt any of you would let me decide otherwise." Uzume said.
"I will give Nepgear instructions on how to build the machine, as I build my own here."
"Aye." Nepgear agreed while placing Histoire on top of a computer.
"Alright, we'll help. Lets go get the rest of whatever was in that Bone Zone Nepsy." Uzume said.
Uzume pulled on Neptune's wrist, but then noticed that Histoire was staring at her.
"Uh, Histy? What's up?" Uzume asked.
"Something is off… I do not remember you looking like this during your time as Planeptune's CPU. I do remember you looking like this during modern times though… and if you truly are from another dimension, where did the Uzume from mine go?"
"Huh… well, I'm pretty sure I would remember if I was ever in your dimension. Also if these are different dimensions, maybe things are just different?"
"Yes, I suppose that is true. More shall be discussed in due time, but for now, it is time to work. Oh, actually, you must all be hungry. Please, enjoy a meal, it would be troublesome if one of you were to faint from exhaustion."
"Oh right, right." Nepgear said.
"So much talking, so much nothing I hear." Neptune complained. "Histy, can ya write something for me again?"
"Of course Neptune, one moment."
Histoire wrote on her little board again and showed Neptune.
"Good… Luck Neptune, we need you back very soon. Daw, you missed me? I'll be back lickiety split! And you better have a bathtub's worth of pudding for me when I get back home!"
"I'll be closing the book now Histoire." Nepgear said. "I'll open again once we come back here."
"Of course Nepgear. Take care of yourself. You don't understand now, but we need you two more than you need us right now."
"I… I don't like what you're implying…"
"In due time. I'll see you again soon."
Nepgear waved as she closed the book and sighed. She handed it back to Iffy as Uzume placed all the tools and parts back into the tool box.
"Let's get moving Gearsy." Uzume said. "Sounds like you got more trouble than we first thought."
"One thing at a time Uzume." Nepgear said. "Build the machine, kill the giant, go back home."
"Right." Uzume nodded.
Nepgear picked up a sleeping Comp as the group walked to the lab exit and back towards their camp.