Visor flip: Hell, it's about time.

I'm sorry that this took so long, but I've not been in the right state of mind to write. In fact, this chapter had been sitting, 3/4 completed, in my documents folder for the past two months. I can't promise faster postings, but I can only say I hope that this new year is less depressing, and more mentally stimulating.

Keep holding on, everyone.

Immediately, I leap upon the creature, just in time to intercept its lopsided strike. Two blades punch through its midsection, reducing it to goop and data, but it's not enough - as it falls, it lets loose a gurgling wail, more than loud enough to break the fragile silence of the calm night. However, one part of it remains, a twisted, lopsided limb that looks a lot like a weapon.

Two flashlights are immediately upon the location of the scream's origin, beams of brilliance which tear through the darkness like little else. Although they don't have a direct line of sight to me, the cabin I'm hiding in has no other exits. Once I move, they'll see me, no doubt about it.

So, with no other option, I stash my grim new chunk of loot, take a deep breath, and decide to go loud. After all, these are mooks. And when we were all together, we ate mooks for breakfast.

Smirking like a madman, I pull out my bastardized and overpowered pistol and sprint out of cover, taking aim at the origin of the leftmost light.

"Who goes the-" begins my unfortunate target, before the report of my shot drowns out anything the criminal was going to say.

Whoever I hit emits a nice, confused squeal as they're knocked through the air by the force - likely somersaulting several times - before finally hitting the surface of the ocean with a hearty splash.

"W-what the fuck? Oh shit, Jimmy!" yells the other goon, and the light is turned away from me. Seems they might be prioritizing grabbing their buddy. Their loss, my gain. I'd get them too, but I'm trying to escape, not take prisoners.

With the light off of me, I hop the ship's railing, and quickly hustle down the boardwalk. I'm certain to reload my expended bullet as I go, just in case.

Already, I can see more lights running towards the disturbance, but sadly, they've made a mistake.

I'm wearing dark clothes, it's a dark moon, and they're carrying lights. While they can't see me from where they are, I definitely can see them. And while I'm staying relatively quiet, I can definitely hear cries of panic and fury about the shipment of ASIC contraband I just sapped.

Grinning to myself, I rush forwards to meet them.

Back on earth, a group of six or seven armed people would be a death sentence to charge, but here? In a world of concrete rules, of levels and of magic? Where some weapons are just straight up better than others?

While I might not be a magician or a goddess, I have the element of surprise, more than enough to deal with this.

Grinning wildly, I squeeze off one, two, three shots into the crowd, two hitting, and the third colliding with the waves. But sadly, that's not the end of it for the enemy reinforcements: As I rush past the now disoriented crowd, I drop a final burning, short-fused present.

And so, as I flee the scene, I hear a final, muffled bang, as well as yet more splashes of goons hitting the water. I pump my arm in triumph.

All in all, a damned good job, if I do say so myself.

With a wide, proud grin, I stride into the Planeptune Basilicom, clutching my gristly prize in my offhand. Sure, at a glance it looks like a weapon, but what kind of normal monster would drop such a strange thing? Its stats are okay, according to a scan from an identifier machine, but even if they were good, there'd be no way I'd use this thing in battle. I still have limits, even if they're a bit more flexible than the usual person.

Now just comes the hard part: Finding a busy CPU, and getting her to take action.

Well, the first part of that task was definitely anything but hard. I mean, finding her was. She definitely isn't busy.

"Wahchu whan?" asks the purple-haired Goddess, as I poke my head into the sitting room. Really, it's the first place I checked. She's got herself a plate of cookies piled high, all resting upon a purple-colored ottoman to her right. Right now, she seems to be playing some kind of side-scrolling platformer, and has a chocolate chip cookie gripped in her lips, leaving her hands free to play.

"Oh, uh! Hello, Neptune." I begin, thinking about how I'll word my proof. "I… Well, I just broke up an ASIC thing, and look at what I got!"

I hold out the severed monster arm. Neptune stares at it for a moment, eyebrow raised. I'm tempted to shake it, but I hold back the urge.

She finishes her current cookie, before pausing her game and reaching forwards to poke at the monster arm. "Whoa… Ew, it's slimy! That's mega grody… Where'd the heck did you get that?"

I can't help but make a connection between her and Nepgear's reaction to strange things. Poking at them is definitely not a common, nor safe response.

"What did you expect?" I sigh, shaking it softly, causing the alien arm to flop around bonelessly. "Look, is this good enough proof that ASIC is still around? Normal monsters don't drop weird, gross stuff like this. At least, I hope they don't."

Neptune thinks for yet another moment, as confusion, and then worry, and then understanding march one by one across her face. She nods slowly, as she opens her mouth to say something.

But of course, that never gets to happen. Because of course it doesn't. I go all of this way to get proof -

When suddenly the floor is the raging ocean, writhing and roiling. Around us, furniture is rattling, the air is full of screams, and I can barely keep my footing. Panic taking over for a moment, I find myself moments later under a table, holding on for dear life. The wide-screen TV, on its easy-adjust hinge, bounces around frantically, before finally building up enough momentum to smash itself against the wall in a crackle of electricity and acrid smoke. I'm forced to throw my hands over my head, to block potential shards of glass and sparks. Its final image before its untimely destruction is a picture of a nearly-complete level, with Neptune's character mere pixels away from a checkpoint.

Neptune immediately shoots to her feet and transforms in a flash of light, allowing herself to hover over the carnage. She quickly shoots me a questioning glance, but I shake my head back at her - I'm probably going to be fine unless the building itself gives up. The now-transformed Neptune quickly glances around the room one final time, but her gaze lingers for a moment more than needed on her abandoned, likely about to be lost-in-the-chaos cookies. It seems there are always casualties in war.

"I'll be right back! I need to get a better look at what's going on!" the goddess yells, before immediately shooting out of the room fast enough to leave an afterimage. There's a crash of glass breaking, probably a window as a speeding Goddess rushes through it.

And as soon as the quake starts, it stops. The Basilicom groans as the foundations resettle, and I stagger to my feet, shaky and unbalanced. I wobble about, trying to fight back the urge to hurl.

The sitting room's a mess - not only is the TV gone, but the bookshelves have all emptied their contents onto the floor, the sofa has been overturned - and the other rooms in the Basilicom are likely just as damaged. The consoles at the back are badly bounced around, but they're probably fine, or at least the gamecube-looking one should be.

Shakily taking a breath, I brush myself off, before hustling out of the building. I don't know if there'll be aftershocks - or even what aftershocks feel like in person - so I want out, as soon as physically possible. Flat ground is safer, right?

I'm finally able to meet up with the others outside, on the front lawn. It seems everyone has got out safely, but that's just an estimate. I don't actually know how many staff members work here.

Nepgear and Purple Heart hover over the grass, still transformed and in a serious-looking discussion, while IF sits on the ground, wincing and holding the head of a distressed Compa in her lap. A bit further away near the rest of the staff, Histoire hovers, frazzled, but looking fairly good for a person caught up in a sudden quake. I suppose there's a benefit of never needing to touch the ground after all. She's busy giving orders to the staff, who all are huddling around, likely scared for their families. I'd be too, in their position.

"So… What the hell was that?" I ask, as I get close enough for the four Basilicom VIPs to notice me.

There's a pause, as Purple Heart sighs. "I did a flyover of Planeptune and the surrounding area. It seems the entire nation has been hit by a medium-magnitude earthquake. There is minor structural damage, but it seems that the skyscrapers and Basilicom were hit the hardest. Several streets have collapsed into the sewers."

"So that's what that was?" growls IF, running her unoccupied hand through her frazzled bed-hair. "I was asleep! I thought the world was ending! The entire building was shaking."

Compa whimpers, before whispering out, "S-scary…", but careful stroking from IF helps console the panicked nurse.

Nepgear pauses for a moment, before immediately pulling out a phone. With a blur of motion too fast for my eyes to follow, she enters in a number, before bringing her phone up to her ear.

"Hey-" she begins, before the voice on the other side yells out loud enough to be clearly heard by the rest of us.

"What in the name of the True Goddess was that!?" shrieks a familiar voice on the other end. "Nepgear, if that quake didn't happen to you guys as well, we will have serious words about your luck later!"

Alright, so if it hit both Lastation to the east and Planeptune to the west- oh who am I kidding. There's only ever one source of bad things in this world at this point in time.

I sigh, and rub my nose. Of course. "Great… So if it hit both Planeptune and Lastation, then where would it have come from?"

Immediately, all eyes are on me. There's a moment of silence, as those words sink in.

"Ohno." murmurs Nepgear.

"Oh no." echoes Purple Heart.

IF doesn't continue the chain of ohno, instead choosing to follow my spiritual example, and just cuss quietly. This is immediately followed by an annoyed shush from the ever-'innocent' Compa.

It's at that moment that Histoire floats over, a grim expression on her face.

"I-I regret to inform you all tha-" she begins, but IF cuts her off with a raised hand.

"We already figured out it's from the Graveyard." sighs the agent, looking down. "Gear just called Uni, and it happened in Lastation too."

Histoire pauses for a moment, gathering her thoughts, before nodding slowly. "I have just contacted the Oracles of the other nations as well… And they can confirm your guess. All four nations have been hit by this unnatural quake, and it seems to definitely originate from the Graveyard. If my guess is correct, and I truly hope that it is not, then we could potentially have less time to counter the Deity of Sin than we originally believed."

"B-but.. Planeptune…" begins Purple Heart, looking at the mess coating the city streets. It'll take some time to repair the damages of the hellquake, even with the help of a Goddess. On my way down I definitely saw a few wrecked cars, fallen power lines, sunken streets, and the like, and that was just the stuff clearly visible from the tower. It's probably even worse closer to the east side of Planeptune.

Nepgear takes a breath, before putting in her two cents. "But what about us? Can Sis and the other CPUs focus on repairing the nations, while us Candidates try to help slow down ASIC? That way we don't give up our advantage!"

Histoire seems to think about that for a moment, but she doesn't get to retort - she's cut off by a different voice.

"Yeah! We should totally do that!" cheers the voice from the other end of Nepgear's phone. Right. Nepgear didn't hang up, nor turn off the speaker, it seems. "I'll be over there soon! You better wait for me, you hear?"

Quieter, in the background I can hear annoyed shouts from a much deeper voice. Probably Noire, if I were to guess, but it's drowned out by the sound of rushing air.

Nepgear stares blankly at the device for a moment. "U-uh, sorry, Uni! I'm gonna hang up now so I can call Rom and Ram. See you soon!"

Beep.

For a few moments, there's just silence as everyone takes in the situation.

IF just slowly shakes her head. "Ugh… If that was the Deity of Sin turning over in her sleep, then I don't want to know what'll happen when she actually wakes up."

"Certainly nothing good." states Purple Heart grimly, looking out over her bruised Nation. "It's a race against time then."

I can't help but feel slightly offended at the sudden urgency. "Hey! I was trying to get everyone moving a few days ago, and you all snubbed me!"

That gets an embarrassed look back from the Planeptune CPU.

"Oh… Uh… I am sorry, Derek. I sincerely believed that I had another week to recover."

"You just wanted to eat cookies and sleep, didn't you." I reply, eyeing her suspiciously.

The mouth of the CPU opens and closes a few times.

I sigh, walk closer, and pat Purple Heart on the back. "I can't pretend that I wouldn't do the same, but let's clean up this crisis first, alright? We can party however long we want after the world's not at risk of just going to Ragnarok."

"Ragnarok?" parrots Compa, head tilted. She hasn't moved from her position in IF's lap, but neither of them seem particularly rushed to change that.

"Oh, just a saying." I shrug. I don't know the Norse mythos anywhere well enough to properly explain. "It's a cultural thing heard of in legends where I come from. Even if it doesn't mean anything here, in this context, it's the equivalent to some very bad things happening to this world."

That gets a few awkward nods in return. With the conversation ended, I get up, and go to help the Basilicom staff clean up. After all, I'm another pair of mostly intact arms, and they definitely need all of the help they can get.

Well, at least the plot is moving again.