Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Sega, Idea Factory and Compile Heart and whomever else worked on it.
Urgh, I got *SO* tripped up while writing this chapter. Nothing was coming to me.
Chapter 55
"Oh lookie!" Gray Assassin laughed as she used razor wind to cut through a building. "Everyone goes splat now!" Her laughter increased in volume as Gray Heart glared at her. "They would, if there was anyone there!"
"...You aren't good at doing memes like mommy is." Gray Heart pointed out as she swung her yo-yo around.
"What?" Gray Assassin scoffed at her. "The widdle wallflower is trying to stand up for herself?" A chakram disk appeared in front of her and she grabbed it, spun around and threw it at Gray Heart, who frowned as she spun her yo-yo faster and faster as energy built up.
"Yes, yes I am." Gray Heart said as she flew straight up to avoid the chakram and snapped her yo-yo forward, launching a torrent of electrical power and energy at Gray Assassin. She snapped a second yo-yo down and behind her, slamming into the chakram that was coming up at her. "You think I wouldn't know how to fight that?"
Gray Assassin leaped off of the building as the power washed over where she had been, destroying the top two floors of the building. "Hee hee hee, I was hoping you forgot how to! Oh well!" She shrugged as she bounced off the buildings before landing on the ground and due to her momentum, she ended up sliding for over a city block before coming to a stop. "Come on! Come on! Come on!" Stomping her foot down, sending out a surge of power that caused several cars, pipes, manhole covers into the air. Grinning, she spun around with her hands and arms held to her side as though she was grabbing at something while spinning, as she completed a circle, she swung her arms out in an arc, sending all the floating debris straight at Gray Heart. "Don't think you'll be able to fly away!" Gray Assassin called out as several of the pieces of the destroyed building suddenly surrounded Gray Heart while Gray Assassin did various hand movements.
Gray Heart looked around and saw that she was surrounded from all angles. "...So this is what it's like to be on this side of that attack." She muttered just before all the debris rushed in to crush her.
Gray Assassin grinned while giggling. "Aww, was that it? Such a weak, waaaah!" She let out a yell as a pillar of energy erupted from under her feet, engulfing her and sending her flying up and away where she crashed hard on her back. "Owwies!" She gawked as the debris sank into the ground, which cracked and collapsed apart. "What the..?"
The very air itself seemingly turned gray as all color, outside of black and gray disappeared. "What's going on?!" Gray Assassin asked as she got up and looked around in fright.
"If you had my memories you would know." Gray Heart said from behind Gray Assassin, who turned and got hit in the face with a yo-yo so hard that it sent her crashing to the ground as the color returned to normal. "I never did tell mom about this skill I learned from someone I killed while working for the Frozen Queen." She paused and tilted her head. "...Well, I guess I learned it while killing people for mom, but, bah!" She shook her head as Gray Assassin groaned and clutched her cheek.
"...You never used it against her though." Gray Assassin glared at her other self. "Why?"
"...I'm supposed to fight mom and the other CPUs, my genetic coding doesn't say I have to go all out." Gray Heart pointed out, causing Gray Assassin to face-fault. "Besides, I've always needed to level up a couple of levels before I could learn the skill."
"And when did you get the opportunity to level up?" Gray Assassin asked as she got to her feet.
Gray Heart just smiled happily. "Well, I was in mommy's party when she fought against Affimojas and got lots of exp when they beat him."
"...Cheater." Gray Assassin muttered before flexing her fingers and causing chunks of the buildings, ground and even cars to erupt outwards and fly at Gray Heart, who spun and used her yo-yo to crack, destroy and parry the debris before it got too close. "What's wrong? Why don't you just teleport out of the way?" Gray Assassin asked while grinning at her other self. "Or maybe you can't?"
Gray Heart didn't answer her other self as she struck down another piece of debris. The truth was, while she was capable of using her teleport ability again, she didn't have control over where she'd end up when she teleported. 'I'm lucky that I'm not stuck in a wall with my butt hanging out.'
The next thing she knew, a tree stump came rushing in and slammed her in the stomach, causing her eyes to bug out and her mouth to open up as some blood escaped her mouth and she was launched down the street at high speeds, hitting the ground and bouncing a few times before sliding and rolling over and over until she came to a complete stop. "Urgh, that hurt." Gray Heart groaned as she clutched her stomach and pushed herself to her knees. "Felt like one of big sis's headbutt greetings."
A giggling sound caught her attention and she looked to her left and her eyes widened as she saw Rainbow Heart pinned to the ground. Grimacing, she pushed herself up and extended her wings, flying in as fast as she could as the large energy sword plunged down at Rainbow Heart's body. "LEAVE HER ALONE!" Gray Heart yelled as she lashed out with her yo-yo, striking Rainbow Assassin in the head and knocking her off balance enough that the blade didn't plunge into Rainbow Heart, but rather, the ground next to her. Gray Heart then did a diving kick into Rainbow Assassin, knocking her away. She then wrapped her yo-yo around Rainbow Assassin's body and spun around a couple of times before snapping the yo-yo straight and launching Rainbow Assassin over two blocks away. "You okay?" Gray Heart gasped as she saw how her sister was pinned to the ground.
"...Just lovely, can you break me out of this?" Rainbow Heart asked, groaning in pain as Gray Heart nodded and smashed the energy blades with her yo-yo, shattering them. "Oww, that fucking hurt." She groaned and sat up, only to see Rainbow Assassin and Gray Assassin coming at them. "...Lovely."
Gray Heart frowned as she looked at the two assassins. '...Can we win?' She couldn't imagine beating them, the two had most of their moves and even if she and Rainbow Heart had new moves, she didn't see how it would help. 'How can I beat myself?'
"Hey..." Rainbow Heart spoke up. "Remember the Ancient Dragon mission?" Gray Heart gave her injured sister a confused look and Rainbow Heart pointed up, causing Gray Heart to look up, her eyes widening as she saw the giant Share Crystal. "That thing's lighting the place up, right?"
"What are you talking about?" Rainbow Assassin asked and Rainbow Heart just smirked at her.
"You said you were made from mom's memories, well, she wasn't with us for all of our lives." Rainbow Heart smirked as she continued to point up. "It just so happens that we have some moves that she never saw before. And Ouya's better at channeling energy than I am."
Gray Heart grinned as she wrapped her yo-yo around her fingers until she created a cat's cradle. "Ready when you are."
"A rainbow is nothing more than refracted light after all." Rainbow Heart said as she started to glow and fired a beam of light up into the air.
"No you don't!" Rainbow Assassin growled and rushed forward with Gray Assassin right after her. She snapped her arms out to the side, creating energy blades before throwing them forward. Gray Assassin jumped onto Rainbow Assassin's shoulders and pushed herself forward, creating energy wires to wrap around the handles of the blades and she pulled back, swinging her arms around in random motions as she moved as fast as she could towards the two CPUs.
"That old trick, huh?" Gray Heart asked, knowing that trying to dodge was impossible, not because the move that she and Rainbow Heart were pulling off made it impossible for her to move, but because the attack that Gray Assassin was doing was a literal blender. "Any time now."
"Heh, it should be... Right now." Rainbow Heart said as they were bathed in prismatic light. "Go!"
The yo-yo strings started to glow brightly. "This is our..." Gray Heart began.
"Prismatic BURST!" Rainbow Heart smiled as she held her hand out. "OHOHOHOHOHOHO!"
Both Rainbow and Gray Assassin stared with wide eyes as a rainbow colored beam of light erupted from Gray Heart, engulfing the two of them, the street, the cars, trees, buildings and much more in a blinding light that created multiple explosions, kicking up wind and debris, sending everything, except for the two CPUs, that was on the edge of the attack flying far away at high speeds.
When the attack ended, all that was left was a large groove in the ground that glittered as it had been turned into glass and several buildings were either completely destroyed or looked like they had been cut into with a knife.
Gray Heart smiled before slumping down and falling onto her side. "That... Was tough."
"...Yeah." Rainbow Heart nodded as she flopped onto her back. "Oww!"
"You okay?" Gray Heart asked as she moved slightly to look at her sister.
"My hands and feet have holes in them, my shoulders were cut into and I just hit the back of my head when I hit the ground! OWW!" Rainbow Heart grimaced while gripping the back of her head. "Dammit, that last one hurt more than the stabbing!"
Gray Heart looked at her sister weirdly before she started to snicker. "Th...that's what's bothering you? Bwahahahaha! You got mom's hard head. You've fallen head-first out of the upper floors of the Basilicom before and came out fine."
Rainbow Heart pouted as her sister laughed at her before she started giggling as well. "Never hit my head when I'm this tired though." She looked at the glass grove and gasped as she saw both Rainbow and Gray Assassin.
Both were on their backs, groaning and not moving.
This took a bit longer than I would have liked to write.
But seriously, at one point I was just STRUGGLING to get anything out while writing. I'd write like several paragraphs and then go "this isn't working", delete it and then try again with something else.
Over and over again. Not 100% happy with the chapter, but I hope it's good.
...I'm going to leave an Omake here that my beta reader came up with.
Purple Heart stared at Delusional Orange with a raised eyebrow. "Okay, author jokes aside, why did you turn Ouya and Stadia's assassins selves into Joker-wannabes?"
Delusional Orange giggled and smiled happily. "Well Nepsy, don't all baddies always need a super silly-willy psycho-for-hire in their ranks? It's a tradition!"
Purple Heart thought about it and nodded in agreement. "Good point."
"Nepsy, is there a reason that you and other me are having a silly conversation?" Orange Heart asked Purple Heart.
Purple Heart shrugged at her. "Well, Uzume, it's really simple, being meta just runs in the blood of Planeptunian CPUs."
"Uzume suddenly understands why she thinks there are people looking at her when she's taking a shower even though no one's around."
"Oh, that was me!" Delusional Orange smiled and waved at Orange Heart. "Uzume just loves how KYUTE her other self is when she's naked!"
"EEEK! Nepsy! Help! Kurome is a pervert!" Orange Heart gasped in horror, her eyes white and blank.
"Being a pervert ALSO runs in the blood, even across dimensions." Purple Heart said with a somber tone.