Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Sega, Idea Factory and Compile Heart and whomever else worked on it.

Chapter 7

The days turned into weeks, which turned into months and before anyone really realized it, the festival had arrived. The first day had gone off without a hitch, drawing in a lot of people as lots of people had submitted various floats to go on parade to show off the things they loved about Gamindustri. The concert that happened to close off the first day had been widely successful as well and the second day had gotten off to a good start as well with lots of people showing up to partake in the festivities.

One of those people was walking through the crowd while finishing off a chili-dog. "Man, this was a lot of fun today." A young woman with long purple hair smiled as she finished her food and looked around. "Good food, fun games and now there's a play later?! I'm looking forward to this!"

A voice came from the pocket in her black parka. "You idiot, we need to find that console, or are you going to let her down?"

The woman smiled upon hearing the voice. "Oh come on, Crostie, she told us that she lost it years ago, she can wait a couple of days, right?" She giggled as she held a second chili-dog in her hands. "Besides, I'm hungry."

"You're ALWAYS hungry, Neptune." Croire grumbled from inside the Nep-Note. "If you don't watch it, you're going to get fat."

"No I won't." Neptune said, her eyes white and blank. "I'm always exercising!"

"Yeah, but for how long? Or do you want to end up like the old woman you were making fun of?" Croire asked with a smug tone.

"Eww... I don't want to think about it." Neptune shuddered. "Can we just enjoy the festival? There's supposed to be a play later."

"Fine, but you'll have to tell her why we're late." Croire said and went quiet.

Neptune smiled and walked through the crowds, humming a tune that only she knew while she ate her food.

Not far away from where Neptune had been, were two girls, both young looking with the smaller of them having a funny hat on and a balloon in her hands while the taller one walked around with slippers on her feet while wearing pajamas. "Mmm... This is fun..." The taller of the two had a vacant smile on her face. "Hey, Peashy, what do you..." She frowned at the sad look on Peashy's face. "What's wrong?"

"Can we just get Neptuna, Ploot?"

Plutia shook her head and sighed softly. "Not right now, we need to help Uzume first. The other Neppy said that Neppy will be here and we can see her."

"Let's go see the play then." Peashy said and Plutia nodded.

"But that won't be till later, right?" Plutia asked no one in particular. "Well, let's go try those strength games, okay?"

"YAY!" Peashy cheered happily. She wasn't allowed to play the strength games back in Ultra Dimension. After breaking five of them by accident in HDD, Peashy was permanently banned from ever playing those games again, even if they happened centuries ago.

The two walked around until they found one that had a bell on the top of a pole. "Let's try this one." Plutia smiled and looked at the person who was manning the station. "Can we play?"

The guy grimaced as he looked at Plutia and Peashy. While he knew that there were people who were stronger than their size indicated, namely the CPU of Lowee, but these two didn't look too strong. Still, he had a job to do and just because they didn't look that strong didn't mean he couldn't let them play. "Yeah," he nodded and bent down to look for something, "let me get a hammer that you can..."

There was a ringing sound and the guy straightened up and turned to see Peashy punching down with her bare hand so hard that she sent the metal weight all the way up the pole.

"...Or you could just punch it really hard." The guy stared in absolute shock. "How did she..?"

Plutia smiled at him in a way that had him pausing in worry. "Don't worry, Peashy's reaaaaaalllllly strong."

The fact that was said as if it were a matter of fact actually bothered the man, but he decided to not question someone who was walking around with a tiny girl who had enough strength to do that. "So... What did you want..?"

"That one!" Peashy pointed at a large teddy bear that was done to look like Purple Heart. It was almost as large as Peashy was.

"Are you sure?" He asked and Peashy nodded and he nodded. "Well, I guess so, I personally would go for..." He trailed off as Plutia gave him a smile that seemingly froze him to the bone.

"Neppy is the best CPU you have ever known," the tone in her voice was absolutely terrifying for some reason, considering that it never changed, "riiiiiiight?"

For some reason, the look she was giving him, tone in her voice and the pouting that the child had on her face made him start sweating. "R-right... Sorry, if you want it, here you go."

"Thanks, Mister!" Peashy smiled and hugged the large Purple Heart teddy bear. "Come on, Ploot! Let's go have more fun!"

"Sure!" Plutia smiled and walked off with Peashy.

The man watched them leave and gasped after they were gone. "Dear gods, I thought I was going to die! How can a tiny girl be so scary!?" He panted and tried to get his breathing under control when he realized something important.

"They never paid for the game!" He proclaimed and slapped his hands on the counter, preparing to chase them down when he felt some slips of paper under his hands. Looking down, he realized that they did, in fact, pay, just not when he was paying attention. "...Oh."

(-)

Later in the day...

"I can't believe they roped us into helping." IF muttered as she prepared to go on stage. It hadn't taken long for the long-haired brunette to learn her role, as she had taken over the bodyguard role for this play.

IF was blushing softly since she was wearing a metal-looking bikini for this role, when asked about it, Neptune pointed out that was what the alien female guards all wore. At least it wasn't as bad as what the actual alien guards had been wearing, as there were strips of long cloth that covered her bikini bottom and kept people from staring too much at her butt.

Though it only made them stare at her legs more.

When IF had complained about it to Neptune, she pointed out that the original outfit had been V-strips that would have given her butt a slight lift upwards and people would have stared at her butt the entire time instead of her legs.

The fact that Vert was the captured princess was probably the only thing that kept her from having an atomic blush on her face. Neptune had tried to convince both Vert and Noire to make the outfit more modest, but both of them had insisted on it looking more... Revealing. Neptune had given up and told them to do it how they liked, even if she was trying to go for some sort of historical accuracy or something.

Walking onto the stage, IF grabbed the sword prop that was strapped to her side and pulled it out as she walked up to a prop cage that was designed for parrots, or in this case, people. "Princess Obby, it's time for your execution." She bit back a mental groan and still wondered how Neptune had come up with a name like that for an alien princess.

"What?" Vert, who was dressed in a tattered black with blue trim princess outfit that showed off her legs and creamy thighs while her top was modified to accentuate her breasts, gasped in horror. "But I thought that I was to have more time before the execution?"

"It doesn't matter if it's today or a week from now, does it?" IF asked and grabbed the door to open the cage. "Now, you can..."

"Hold it!" A voice came out and a new person walked onto the stage. A young woman with strawberry blonde hair wearing a blue body suit walked onto the stage. "I won't let you hurt Princess Obby! I, Star Voyager, will not allow it!"

In the back, Neptune felt the urge to slap her face and groan. While she had explained that the name of the ship was Star Voyager, not the name of the hero who saved Princess Obby, Compa had insisted on keeping it Star Voyager. 'Whatever works, I guess...' She had forgotten how much of a ditz Compa could be at times.

Still, watching them had her smiling at the scene fondly. 'Reminds me of the plays that those two were a part of for community theater.'

Uni leaned over to Neptune and whispered to her. "Hey, Neptune, how did you come up with the name Princess Obby anyway, you never told us."

Neptune covered her mouth to stifle a laugh. "Because," she whispered back, "I couldn't pronounce her name. When translated to our language, it comes out as Obbalobbamou." She nodded at the surprised look on Uni's face. "That's why I call her Princess Obby. She thought it was the cutest thing ever and made me her sister."

"Wait, so you're alien royalty?" Noire, who had been close enough to over-hear had a shocked expression as Neptune nodded. "...That explains so much." She smirked at Neptune, who stuck her tongue out.

Histoire had to quiet them down before a fight broke out so that they wouldn't distract the actors on stage.

IF let out a fake yell and staggered backwards while gripping her stomach as Compa pulled out a prop gun and fired it, hitting her in the stomach with a light beam, causing people in the audience to gasp at the horror of watching someone getting lit up on stage. Especially since the ray of light looked like an actual and powerful laser light.

Compa would have been one of them if she hadn't known that what she was holding was nothing more than a fancy flashlight, but none of the people in the audience could have known that. "Hold on, Princess Obby." She called out and pointed her gun at the cage door, blasting it with light and some in the audience cheered as the door opened.

"My hero!" Vert called out dreamily as she walked out of the cage. "I must thank you for your help. But we must stop the evil ruler and restore me to the throne."

"Of course." Compa nodded and she took Vert's hand and led her off stage as the curtain closed on act three of the play to the applause of the audience

Noire nodded and motioned to the stage hands to hurry up and move stuff around for the fourth stage of the play.

"You ready for your part?" Histoire asked Neptune softly as the book fairy floated over to her. "How come you let Compa be the hero?"

Neptune just smiled at her. "I've been the hero for a long time, Histy, why not let someone else be the hero for once?"

Histoire just stared at Neptune and nodded. It wasn't something that she expected from Neptune, but then again, Neptune had changed a lot since disappearing three years ago. 'Just what kind of things did you go through, Neptune?'

(-)

As the curtain rose for the final act, the audience was treated to the stage looking like a throne room with Noire, her hair down and tied into a single ponytail behind her head, dressed in a suit and tie with gloves on her hands, sitting there with Rom and Ram both in clown outfits, juggling white balls in their hands. "Mwhahahaha!" Noire laughed in a slightly more gruff tone of voice than those who knew her were used to hearing. "With my loyal subordinate taking care of the princess, I will rule this planet for the next fifty years!"

"Not so fast!" Compa called out from off-stage before she walked onto the stage. "I've freed the princess, now stand down before I... I..."

Back stage, Neptune felt like face-palming. "Compa forgot her line. Noire, give her a hand in this." She whispered, hoping that the scene could be saved.

"Before you what?" Noire asked as she got up, her voice full of arrogance. "Stutter and stand there looking pretty?" There was a chuckle from the audience and Noire snapped her hand to the side. "Enough! Court wizard! Come out here and deal with her, I'll personally deal with the princess once she's gone."

Blanc, wearing a blue and white robe, with a big book in her hands, prop glasses on her face and a square hat on her head, walked out from the opposite side of the stage. "It can't be helped." She said in a soft voice that was still heard by the audience. Opening her book, she started chanting. "Come forth! Ancient Abyss Monster!"

The lights dimmed and smoke came from the sides of the stage before two spotlights were put on the stage just in front of Blanc where a figure in a red bikini top, black pants and blue hair rose up from under the stage. "Who dares to summon me, the great Overlord!?" A female voice that some people recognized as Neptune's voice, was heard.

"I, the court wizard, summon you to deal with this pesky hero." Blanc said and pointed at Compa.

"I don't appreciate you summoning me, but it's the duty of the Overlord to defeat the Hero after all!" The blue-haired Neptune said while grinning and moving towards Compa, who pointed her gun while shaking. "I shall defeat this hero here and now." She then pointed at Blanc, "and after that, I'm going to show you why you should never summon an overlord when they're enjoying their snacks!"

"I'll stop you!" Compa clicked her "gun" and fired light rays at the Overlord, only to find that they were doing nothing. "What?!" She gasped in horror as the Overlord crossed her arms over her chest. "Impossible!"

"Haa hahahahahahaha!" The Overlord laughed at Compa. "You think a simple ray gun will stop me? It's time for you to fry!" She snapped her fingers and a red ball appeared in her hands. "Time to fry! Overlord's..."

"Wait!" Vert yelled as she bounced onto the stage, causing the Overlord to stop and sputter. "I won't let you hurt this hero!"

"GAH!" The Overlord yelled and pointed at Vert. "What's with those monstrosities?!"

Privately Blanc agreed with what Neptune was doing, even if Neptune was just doing it in-character. "Who cares about that? Destroy them both!"

The Overlord turned back to Blanc and growled. "You never said anything about women with big boobs!" The Overlord turned around, only to have find Vert right in front of her. "GAH!"

"Awww... Don't you like big breasts?" Vert cooed while there was laughter from the audience.

"I'm not putting up with this!" The Overlord yelled, turned and grabbed Blanc. "I'll show you what happens to idiots who summon me to deal with large boobed monsters!"

"HELP!" Blanc cried out as she was taken off stage. After getting off stage and put down, Neptune pulled the wig off and giggled while Blanc gave her a flat stare. "Was there a reason for that part?"

Neptune nodded. "Yeah, the original wizard summoned a Demon Overlord named Laharl and the princess stopped him by falling on him and squishing his head under her boobs." Blanc raised an eyebrow and Neptune just nodded again. "Princess Obby's boobs were about as big as Vert's boobs are."

They were also a lot of fun to play with, but only Neptune knew that.

"Great, just what the world needs, more Thunder Tits." Blanc grumbled and ignored how Neptune said that she and Laharl would have been best friends.

The two watched as Compa blasted Noire with the "gun", hitting Noire in the leg and getting a cry of pain from her while Nepgear and Uni, both dressed as guards, ran onto the scene.

"Princess Obby!" They both proclaimed at the same time and looked at the downed Noire. "We were told you were dead." Uni told Vert.

"As you can see, I'm still quite alive, but there was a coup attempt." Vert huffed and looked at the downed Noire. "And this sleaze was the person in charge of the coup attempt. Detain this one and I shall meter out punishment later."

"Yes, Princess!" The guards nodded and grabbed Noire, dragging her off by her arms.

"You won't stop me! You can't stop me! One day the people will rule this planet, princess! I swear it!" Noire thrashed and squirmed as she was dragged off stage until her voice was no longer heard.

"Is it over?" Compa asked and Vert smiled at her.

"Almost, my brave hero." Vert said. "I must thank you somehow, if there is anything I can do for you, please, do not hesitate to tell me."

Compa smiled at Vert. "I need fuel and food for the trip through the stars. I have to liberate the galaxy from the conqueror."

"Of course." Vert nodded, smiling. "I shall see it happen."

A new voice was heard, belonging to Histoire, as she began to narrate for the audience as the lights dimmed. "And so, the Hero freed the people of the planet Oroobos and left to find more worlds that were in need of her help. But that is a story for another time."

The curtains fell as everyone started to clap. The curtains rose again as everyone, dressed in costume, showed up at the end and bowed again to the crowd.

As she looked out into the crowd while smiling, Neptune blinked a few times as she thought she saw two familiar faces in the crowd. 'Is that..?' When she blinked again, they were gone and she wondered if she had seen them at all. 'No, it can't be them, they're in Ultra Dimension and there's no way they could get here.'

Still, something told her that she was wrong.

After all, the last time she had seen Ouya and Stadia, the two were sealed away in stasis under the Planeptune Basilicom. If they had gotten freed from their stasis and were walking around, things were likely going to get bad and soon.

I bet you thought it would be Plutia and Peashy there, huh?