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


Chapter 31

Uni panted as she saw Steamax slumped against the far wall, looking dead. "There."

"I'm surprised you killed him." Nepgear said, looking at the ninja in worry.

"Killed him?!" Uni exclaimed, her eyes white and blank. "Are you insane? I just shot him with a tranquilizer bullet."

"I'm surprised robots in this world are advanced enough to be affected by that." A voice that the group didn't recognize spoke up and they turned to see Neptune, Vert, Blanc, who had a bloody hand and Noire, who looked burned, battered and beaten while walking with a bit of a limp, walking into the room with two girls, one with rainbow hair and one with gray hair who was standing just behind Neptune.

IF sighed as Compa immediately went to Blanc and wrapped her hand up, though she, thankfully, stopped before she wrapped up Blanc's hand so much that it would be a mitten rather than the wrappings she needed to stop the free bleeding. Compa then turned her attention to Noire to use her skills to heal the injuries that Noire had taken.

"Noire?" Uni ran over to her sister as Compa started to heal her. "What happened?"

"I blew myself up." Noire replied, sighing in relief as Compa's healing skills made the injuries disappear. "I have to admit, Neptune, your daughter hits as hard as you do."

Neptune just stuck her tongue out as Stadia's cheeks turned red and she looked away. Uni saw that and stormed over to Stadia, looking at the girl in anger. "You did that to Noire?"

Stadia leaned back and gave Uni an annoyed look. "We were fighting, she got caught in one of my attacks, I got caught in her attack, what more do you want?"

"Well, everyone's fine." Neptune smiled as she got between Uni and Stadia. "Noire's fine, so no need to get all over-protective sister on anyone." Uni gave Neptune a flat stare. "Hey, come on, calm down, okay?"

"Fine, I guess Noire is okay." Uni huffed in annoyance and walked off with a huff.

Meanwhile, Ouya walked over to Nepgear with a look of trepidation on her face. "...Are you... Aunt Nepgear?"

Nepgear blushed as she saw the small girl in front of her. "Goodness, you're really cute and even shorter than Blanc."

"Not by much." Ouya protested, knowing that she was rather tiny. "But..." She smiled nervously. "I know we might have to fight in the future, but can I call you family?"

Nepgear blushed and nodded. "Y-Yeah, it's nice to have..." She trailed off as her eyes went white and blank. "Wait, you're Neptune's daughter and the other girl is Neptune's daughter and that means... AHHH!"

Stadia stared at Nepgear weirdly and turned to look at Neptune, who had an exasperated look on her face. "Mom, I thought you said that your little sister was super reliable and awesome. She seems like a giant flake to me."

Nepgear suddenly got a depressed look on her face and poked her fingers together. "Aww, am I really that unreliable? I know that I'm not always the most remarkable person in the franchise, but I was a main character once, you know..."

"She's meta like you are though." Stadia conceded and Neptune sighed.

"Maybe it was because I was comparing how I was when I was sent to the other world?" Neptune shrugged, wondering if maybe she was wrong about Nepgear's supposed reliability. "Compared to what I was like before, she was super reliable." Both Ouya and Stadia gawked in surprise. "I told you I was a lazy good-for-nothing before you two were born."

"But I liked the lazy and cute you." Nepgear pouted, causing both Ouya and Stadia to sweat-drop heavily.

Groaning as she ran a hand through her hair, Uni gave Nepgear an annoyed look. "And this is why I get so frustrated with you!"

Ram grinned and leaned over to Rom to loudly whisper to her. "Maybe this is why she wanted a boyfriend?" Rom nodded while Uni's face turned bright red.

"Yeah!"

IF hung her head and sighed. "This frustration is what I get for having to play babysitter for a bunch of CPUs."

"We're not all that bad." Blanc and Noire both protested and IF gave them a flat stare.

"You disappeared for three days at the cosplay convention and Uni had to request my help in tracking you down." IF deadpanned while Noire turned bright red and Neptune put a hand over her mouth to hold back her snickering. "And you," she pointed at Blanc, "spent almost a month writing a novel and I had to help Rom and Ram drag you away from your computer to go on quests to deal with monsters that were running rampant about a year before Nep got back home."

Walking over to her sister, Ouya sweat-dropped. "They really are like our aunts back home, aren't they? They really get caught up in their own world unless mom drags them into hers." Next to her, Stadia nodded.

Neptune clapped her hands together loudly. "Okay, ladies," she smiled at everyone, "now that we've got our funny interactions out of the way, let's go face the big boss and deal with his machine that caused the changes to Gamindustri." She noticed both Ouya and Stadia fidget slightly, but decided to ignore it. "Because we don't want to be here for ten chapters when we have a final boss to take down."

The group nodded and walked out of the room, except for Uni, who stayed behind for a bit and waited. "...Okay, you can stop faking it now."

Steamax twitched as his eye glowed and he looked up at Uni, who was standing over him. "Why did you not out me?"

Uni gave him a neutral look before offering him a hand to help him stand up. "Because I didn't want the others to hurt you." She said and turned to walk off. "But, Steamax..." She stopped and looked back at him. "Don't run off, I want to talk with you when this is over. I don't care if we're enemies, I don't like it when people lie to me."

Steamax nodded at her. "Y-yes, of course. L-Lady Uni, you need to be careful. The general is much tougher to defeat than I am."

"I will." Uni told him and ran off.

(-)

As the group ran onto the bridge of the ship, they were greeted by a giant robotic person.

"Woah!" Nepgear's eyes widened in shock. "You're huge!"

"Indeed, my name is Affimojas." The robot said with a deep voice while he stood proud in gray colored knight armor with spikes on the feet, his helmet and shoulders with a large cloak on his back and a large sword in his right hand.

"Goodness, I guess getting stuff off of the top shelves at the supermarket is easy for you." Vert said as she realized that he was much taller than even she was, and she was the tallest of the CPUs.

"So, Affimojas," Neptune smiled at him. "I get that we're going to fight, but can you at least show us where the machine is?"

"Machine?" Affimojas asked in confusion. "What machine?"

"The one you used to warp reality." Neptune pointed out. "Listen, if we win and don't know where it is, Nepgear and I will take this whole ship apart and take it home with us while we look for something that could warp reality."

Affimojas chuckled at her. "If you think that I'll just tell you and trust that nothing will go wrong while we fight, then you're wrong."

"Alright," Neptune shrugged as she, Noire, Vert and Blanc transformed, "you leave us no choice. I'll beat you down myself."

"Mom sure if full of herself." Stadia shook her head as she stepped back and looked at IF, who fidgeted under the weight of her gaze.

"What?" IF asked.

"...So you're the legendary IF then?" Stadia asked and IF blinked in confusion. "Mom always talked about you and Compa, saying lots of good stuff about the two of you."

"...Nep did?" IF asked and Stadia nodded.

"Yeah, I mean, it was about the you in our world, but..." She smiled at IF, "it's nice to finally meet my big sister in person and not just in a video file or a picture."

IF smiled back at her. "Thanks, I guess."

In the center of the bridge, Affimojas let out a yell as he swung he large sword in a circular motion, knocking Purple Heart, Green Heart and White Heart away from him. "What was that? I thought you were going to defeat me?" Affimojas taunted Purple Heart, only to jerk forward as Black Heart got behind him and struck him in the knee. "Oh ho?" He spun around, smacking Black Heart with his cape as he smirked. "Did you seriously try to cripple me like an arrow to the knee?"

"Now who's the one doing random dead memes?" Purple Heart gave Black Heart an amused look while Green Heart and White Heart both rushed in strike at Affimojas from different angles. Purple Heart narrowed her eyes as she realized that even though Affimojas was getting hit, he wasn't taking any real damage. "What's going on?"

"That tickled." Affimojas chuckled as he punched Green Heart away before spinning at a speed that his massive size didn't indicate he could move at and grabbed White Heart by the leg before throwing her into Black Heart, causing both to slam to the floor hard. He held up an arm to block Purple Heart's katana strike. "Is that all?"

"Not at all." Purple Heart exclaimed as she flew up and came back down. "Meteor Fall!" She yelled as her sword glowed with energy.

Affimojas chuckled as he jumped back from the attack, which shattered the floor where it hit. "That might have hurt." He stiffened as several spears and small magic bullets hit him in the back. "Ngh, that didn't."

"Noire! Now!" Purple Heart yelled as she threw her arm in the air as a sword formed in the air.

"Heh, this old trick, huh?" Black Heart smirked as she held her left arm out an energy blade formed in it. "Tornado Sword!"

Affimojas grunted as Black Heart struck him twice, only to cry out in pain as several swords from the air slammed into him, forcing him to his knees.

"That wasn't too bad." White Heart smirked as she, Green Heart, Black Heart and Purple Heart approached the downed Affimojas.

"Indeed," Affimojas said, "you fell for my trap."

"What?" The CPUs gasped as Affimojas stood up and struck out, his sword striking them and knocking them down.

Purple Heart grimaced as she felt her power drained out of her in that one hit. "A share stealing power?" She looked at Affimojas, who loomed over them.

"Indeed," Affimojas nodded and looked at the CPU Candidates, who looked ready to jump in and pointed his sword at Purple Heart, holding it just above her prone body, "I wouldn't bother. I can seriously injure and kill her before you can move."

"Mom!" Stadia yelled, looking worried and Purple Heart chuckled. "What?"

"Even when you're trying to kill me or asking me to kill you, you keep worrying about me." Purple Heart smiled at her daughter. "You sure are a confusing one. Leave it to me to have a Tsundere daughter. None of my other kids were as confusing as you are."

Stadia blushed and stammered a few times. "I'm not worried about you! I just want you to uphold your end of the deal, okay?!"

"As amusing as this all is," Affimojas interrupted them, "I have no intention of harming the CPUs should you meet my demands."

"You want me as a hostage?" Purple Heart asked as she rolled over onto her stomach and pushed herself away from Affimojas. "What do you want? World domination? Believe me, it's not as much fun as you think it is."

"Hardly," Affimojas said to her, "what I want... Is money!"

"What the goodness?!" Nepgear gasped as everyone's eyes went white and blank. "Money?!"

"That's right!" Affimojas nodded. "One gajillion credits per CPU."

"Is that even a real numerical value?" Uni asked as she looked at Black Heart, who was gasping and grimacing, unable to move. "Dammit, Noire."

Purple Heart pushed herself to her knees and slowly got to her feet. "Hey... General..." She looked at him while panting softly. "Money is always used for something. What's your end goal? You want a ship that can travel dimensions or something?"

"Not at all." Affimojas told her. "I have a simple wish... Beyond wanting a second battleship like this that is. I wish for images and figurines of every busty blonde in the world!"

Everything went silent for a moment and the Candidates, IF, Compa, Stadia and Ouya all stared at him stupidly.

Purple Heart raised an eyebrow. "...If you wanted my nude pictures, all you had to do was ask."

"But you're not..." Affimojas trailed off as he looked at her. "Then again, you are rather busty like this."

"Dang it, mom!" Both Ouya and Stadia yelled as their faces went bright red.

"Wait, what's going on?" Nepgear asked her nieces.

"Mommy does nude modeling every couple of years to increase Planeptune's shares." Ouya explained, causing Nepgear's face to go bright red.

"Wait, what?!" Nepgear, Black Heart and Affimojas all yelled at the same time.

Purple Heart smirked at Affimojas. "But, you see... That was before you decided to rearrange the world, somehow get my daughters to work for you and threaten my life and the life of my friends." Her legs shook and she slumped forward a bit. "Sheesh, that drain effect was pretty strong, huh?"

"Indeed," Affimojas nodded and took a stance in front of her. "Another shot of this might kill you."

Purple Heart smirked at him. "Well, see, this actually works in my favor." Her body started to glow as lightning crackled around her. "I won't have to worry about a massive explosion or being crippled for a long time like I was last time."

"Um, before you do that..." A new voice spoke up and the glow around Purple Heart died down as she and Affimojas stupidly looked at the door. "I'd rather you not explode and risk Blanny, Rommy or Rammy." C-Sha smiled as she, B-Sha, K-Sha and S-Sha stood there. "Pudding told us you might try to do something stupid and overclock yourself."

Purple Heart twitched, sighing softly. "What are you all doing here?" Behind her, the other CPUs were starting to push themselves to a sitting position and getting up.

"Well, we thought we'd help you out." B-Sha smiled at her. "So, how much was that ransom again? A gajillion credits?"

"Again, not a real amount." Uni muttered in annoyance.

"Indeed," Affimojas nodded to B-Sha. "So? Do you have it?"

"Sort of." B-Sha smiled and looked at C-Sha, who was holding a metal box. "We got this instead."

When the box was opened, everyone's eyes went wide as they felt a surge of shares erupting from the box as four blue crystals with gold fragments were sticking out of them.

"Share Crystals?" Black Heart asked as the crystals floated up and over to the CPUs.

"Not just any old Share Crystals." K-Sha pointed out. "But Share Crystals mixed with C-Sha's and B-Sha's Gold Crystals."

"Call them the Hyper Share Crystals, they'll give you the power to perform miracles."

Purple Heart smiled as she saw the crystal in front of her. "Well then, let's use these. It might be better than overclocking myself after all."

The other three nodded as they were all engulfed in a white light.

"Hyper Share Crystal, activate!"


Just thought to cut it here.