Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Sega, Idea Factory and Compile Heart and whomever else worked on it.
I felt this was getting too long, so I cut it off when I did.
Chapter 27
Histoire floated into Neptune's office and shook her head as she saw Neptune actually doing her CPU duties. "You should take a break." There was a loud bang as Neptune face-faulted in her chair and slammed her head onto the desk. "Neptune?!"
Neptune sat up and gave Histoire a look of complete shock. "Who are you and what did you do to Histy?!" Neptune pointed a shaky finger at the book fairy. "Not even Mini-Histy ever told me to take a break when I was working!" Then again, things were different in the other dimension. "Besides, I've only worked for the past twenty minutes."
Histoire gave Neptune a skeptical look but shook her head. "Neptune, I just mean that you've been working really diligently since you got back, at least compared to what you used to work."
"Well," Neptune stretched her arms above her head and grimaced as she felt her shoulders pop, "relaxing's important, so what's up?"
Histoire tilted her head, there was a flash of guilt that had passed on Neptune's face when she mentioned relaxing, but Histoire decided to ignore it. "I think it's time to gather the others." Neptune gave her a confused look. "I've contacted everyone and it seems like the situations in their nations are stable now."
"That's good." Neptune smiled. "So we're ready to go after the trouble-makers?" Histoire grimaced softly. "Histy?"
"We've been... Having some trouble locating where the AffimaX base is." Histoire admitted, looking troubled. "So..."
"Ah, don't worry about it." Neptune said and stood up. "I think we need to meet up, plan and have a little fun downtime before we face the boss." Histoire gave her a flat stare and Neptune shook her head. "I'm not talking about playing games all the time, though we might, but it would be nice to have everyone over and cook some food and share stories."
"Well..." Histoire trailed off and tapped her chin, nodding. "Yes, even with everyone here it will probably take me at least three hours to finish my search."
"Right." Neptune nodded and ran to the door. "So I'll go and get the others and, WAGH!" She yelled as the door opened and she slammed into someone, knocking both of them to the floor. "MMMPH!"
"GAH!" Someone yelled and Neptune blinked as she realized that her face was buried against something that was soft, though she knew that it wasn't a pair of boobs, the surface was too hard for that. Pushing her hands on the ground, Neptune pushed herself up and blushed as she realized that she had crashed into IF, knocking both of them down...
...And Neptune's face had ended up planted right between IF's legs. "Sorry, Iffy, I didn't mean to knock you over." She stood up and helped IF to her feet.
IF blushed and turned away, sputtering the entire time.
Neptune scratched her head. She knew why IF was embarrassed, but decided to not bring it up, since IF would only get upset and, really, it was pretty embarrassing for her as well. 'Not like it's the first time that's happened to me.' Neptune thought to herself, though most of the time people landed with their faces buried in Neptune's lap. "Well, we need to go get the others now!"
"We're finally making a push against AffimaX?" IF asked, glad Neptune didn't make a big deal about what happened.
"Well, maybe?" Neptune smiled nervously. "Histy says she needs more time, but it would be nice to get everyone here and we can talk about what happened."
"Sure, let's go." IF nodded and the two ran out, meeting Compa as she was walking up to the Basilicom. After explaining things, the three left and went South of the city to the beach. Neptune sighed as she looked at the ocean. "Nep?"
"Nothing, just realizing that there's no boats to Leanbox..." Neptune muttered and transformed into her HDD state. "All aboard the SS Purple Heart."
Compa giggled as she climbed onto Purple Heart's back. "Can Nep Nep turn into a boat like she does a fighter jet?"
Purple Heart laughed as she grabbed IF's arms and flew over the ocean. "I don't know, I never tried to do that. Besides, knowing how things work, I'd turn into a rowboat."
IF and Compa both laughed at the thought of Purple Heart as a rowboat.
(-)
Meanwhile...
Neptune smiled at Stadia and Peashy as they walked out of the ramen shop. "That was good." She nodded at a random guy, who got an evil glare from the girl who was next to him while Neptune, Stadia and the ran pig walked down the street.
"Ran ran." The ran pig nodded.
"I'm kind of surprised that they didn't react when you said she was a cursed pig." Stadia muttered and Neptune shrugged as a portal opened in front of them and they walked through it.
"And we're back!" Peashy yelled as they returned to the Heart Dimension. "Oh! It's Ploot and Ouya!"
Plutia stared at the older-looking Neptune before walking off.
"...Did I do something wrong?" Neptune asked Peashy.
Peashy shook her head. "Nah uh, Ploot and our Neptuna..." She tapped her chin. "It's tricky, okay?" She smiled at Neptune, who nodded and smiled nervously.
"Well..." Uzume spoke up as she appeared behind Neptune. "Glad to see you back." She said while giving the group a disappointed look. "But all of that? I could have done all of that by myself." She shook her head and walked around Neptune, who turned to look at her. "But with what you did, it did give me more time to prepare for the next phase of my plan." She was about to say something more when Neptune pulled out a warm box and handed it to her. "...What's this?"
"Take out ramen." Neptune smiled at her. "I thought you might be hungry."
The blue-haired girl raised an eyebrow and was about to knock it away when she shrugged and took it. "Fine." It wasn't like she needed to eat in this world, but it had been awhile since she had eaten any food. "Anyway, the next part of the plan will kickstart in..." She chuckled softly, "to borrow a phrase from Histoire, three days." Uzume walked off, leaving the group alone.
"So..." Neptune clapped her hands. "How about..." She trailed off as Plutia walked off. "Um..."
"Just ignore her." Stadia scoffed and looked away.
Neptune saw how Ouya looked troubled and Peashy didn't even bother going after Plutia before sighing. "Sheesh, you all have some serious baggage, huh?"
"...Blame mother." Stadia said and walked off. "She's the reason we're all suffering."
Neptune watched as Ouya and Peashy walked after Stadia and sighed, slumping. "What the hell happened between them and Tiny Me?"
Not that she would get any answers from anyone. "ARGH! This sucks!" Neptune yelled in dismay when she was sure she was all alone.
(-)
In Hyper Dimension...
"And we're in Leanbox..." Neptune smiled as she, IF and Compa walked around the city. "I wonder where Nepgear and Vert are at."
"I'm sure we'll find them soon." Compa smiled as they turned a corner. "Oh! Look! It's Ge Ge!"
Not far away, talking to Vert, was Nepgear. The two were laughing over something. Neptune's eyes sparkled and she started running towards Nepgear, yelling her younger sister's name out.
"NEEEEEPGEEEAAAR!" Neptune yelled and launched herself at Nepgear, who let out a surprised squeak before being tackled to the ground in a big hug.
"What the goodness?!" Nepgear asked in surprise, groaning in pain. "That... Neptune?!" She gasped as she realized who was hugging her.
"That's odd, usually Master Peashy does that to Master Neptune, dood."
Neptune blinked as she heard that voice and got off of Nepgear. "Sorry, Nepgear, I was just so happy to see you that I lost control of myself." She laughed nervously and offered a hand to her little sister, who smiled and grabbed it to get pulled up.
"It's okay," Nepgear said and dusted herself off. "Oh! Neptune, we met someone who says he knows you." Nepgear motioned to the penguin that was walking behind Vert.
"Pudding?!" Neptune gasped in surprise. "I thought that was you who was speaking, but, what are you doing here? I thought Celestia would have sent you back to Plutia's world."
"Well, Archangel Flonne noticed you weren't in that world anymore, dood, so she sent me to this world." The Prinny waved its flippers upon seeing Neptune's disgruntled look. "She said it was a free service!"
"If I see any Angels pop up, I'm throwing you at them." Neptune told Pudding, who nodded and saluted her. "Still..." She smiled and hugged the Prinny. "It's good to see you!"
"It almost feels like he's a family member, not a butler." Vert told Neptune, who let go of Pudding and stuck her tongue out at Vert.
"Nah, he cleans my room and the living room, the secretaries organize the paperwork and make it easy to do and I spend time dealing with other things."
"It almost feels like you were using him to slack off all day." Vert said, sweat-dropping at the thought of Neptune having a dedicated butler that wasn't her sibling.
"Trust me, Vert," IF spoke up as she and Compa walked up to the group, "Nep has been working so much that she's wearing me out." Vert and Nepgear openly gawked at hearing that and Neptune just laughed nervously while rubbing the back of her head.
"Hey, I only have humans to deal with and no diplomats from..." Neptune trailed off, her pupils shrinking and her breathing became shallow. "DOGOO MUTATION!" She pointed at the Dogoo Man, who jerked in surprise while Neptune pulled out a flaming sword. "I HAVE TO PROTECT THE LOLIS!"
"What in the world?!" Everyone, including S-Sha, asked as Neptune suddenly launched herself at the Dogoo Man.
"Oh right, that happened about eighty years ago, dood." Pudding nodded while Neptune missed her first swing at the Dogoo man, creating an explosion of flames. "If you don't want her killing your friend, you should stop her."
"What's going on?" Nepgear asked in surprise as Vert, S-Sha and IF ran after Neptune to try and stop her. "Why is Neptune acting like this?"
"Well, see, some Dogoos mutated in the other world about eighty years ago and ended up looking like that Dogoo Man." Pudding explained as several explosions of flames happened on the streets, cracking them and the sidewalks while the Dogoo Man jumped over Neptune's horizontal slashes and leaned to the side to avoid a downward strike. "And they decided to do lewd things to everyone, but they went after little girls a lot since they were weaker."
"By lewd things, you mean..." Compa trailed off and Pudding nodded.
"Yes, hand-holding, head pats and then doing *censored* and *censored*." Pudding explained and both Compa and Nepgear blushed as they realized that whatever it was that the dogoo mutations had done, it was apparently so bad that it couldn't even be described without censoring it.
Considering that normal dogoos liked to pounce on cute girls, slide into their clothes, under their underwear, lick everywhere possible and there were reports of worse things happening to cute girls, it wasn't hard to figure out exactly what kinds of things that could happen.
Not far away, the dogoo man had tripped over a broken piece of the concrete and was laying on his side. "YEEEK! I don't think my muscles will protect me."
Neptune glared at the dogoo man with her sword billowing fire. "Now! Evil dogoo mutation! FRY!"
"STOP!" A voice that Neptune didn't recognize yelled as S-Sha got in front of her with her arms wide. "Please! I've known the dogoo men and ladies for years and they have never done anything like that."
"That voice!" The dogoo man gasped in surprise. "E-Sha?"
Neptune blinked as she tilted her head at E-Sha, who was giving her a pleading look. "...I don't know..." Neptune trailed off, but she sighed upon seeing the look of pure desperation in E-Sha's eyes. "...Okay." She dismissed her flaming sword, much to everyone's relief. "Um..." Neptune looked troubled and nodded to herself. "I'm sorry... For freaking out like that."
Both E-Sha and the dogoo man nodded, thankful that she had calmed down.
"Neptune..." Vert said in a deathly calm voice. "...What about my city?"
"Huh?" Neptune blinked and looked around, her eyes going white and blank as she realized that the street, the sidewalks and most of the light posts and even a good amount of buildings had a lot of damage to them. "Uh..." She hung her head. "I'm sorry, Vert, I'll send you the money to pay for this."
Vert nodded, though internally she was kind of surprised since she had thought Neptune would have just bailed out and flew off to avoid dealing with this and she would have to tell Histoire and get the money that way. "See to it that you do." She walked up to Neptune and poked the girl in the chest. "And if you ever do something like this again, I won't forgive you."
Neptune nodded and scratched the back of her head. "Alright, I gotta go to the other nations and get Blanc and Noire and we can all meet up at the Basilicom in Planeptune."
"Are we ready to make our move then?" Vert asked, hopeful that they could deal with whatever caused the world to go crazy soon.
"Hmm..." Neptune shook her head. "Histy said she needed more time, but I thought it would be good to get together and plan our move that way." Vert nodded at her. "Oh, hold on." She reached into her inventory and pulled out a tablet before pressing some buttons on it. "Here." She opened a menu in front of her and Vert did the same as Neptune sent the information to Vert's screen. "Just show that to Histy so she knows that I authorized the money."
"Hey," S-Sha said as she walked over to Neptune and loomed over her, though she was surprised, pleasantly so, that Neptune looked at her with no fear in her eyes. "I'll only say this once, but if you ever do that again, I won't forgive you."
"Not a problem, I just..." Neptune trailed off and shook her head. "Bad memories, that's all."
S-Sha nodded in understanding.
"Don't worry about a thing." The dogoo man spoke up, "I can have this place fixed up in no time." Everyone but S-Sha looked at him in surprise. "My muscles allow me to do the construction work of a hundred crews!"
"That will certainly be something to see then." Vert giggled. "Alright, then shall we go?"
The others nodded and left in one large group. After getting to the beach in Planeptune, Nepgear and Vert said their goodbyes to Neptune, IF and Compa, who took off for Lastation while the two, and Pudding, made their way to the Planeptune Basilicom.
"I hope Histy isn't too upset about the bill." Neptune said as she, IF and Compa took the path over the mountains to Lastation.
"I'm sure she'll give you a lecture when you get back." IF smirked as Neptune hung her head in defeat. "You're the one who freaked out after all."
Neptune didn't say anything, knowing IF wasn't wrong.
Well, hope you all liked it.
