This story arc starts with "Chapter 6: Bravery".
Chapter 7: From Bad to Worse
After having reached the town, Neptune and Uzume found just how bad the situation was.
Monsters of all sorts were all over the place. People were trying to get to safety, but they were struggling.
"This looks bad," Neptune exclaimed.
"Yeah," Uzume replied.
"Everyone this way! Get behind us, we'll protect you!" Neptune called out, while raising her swords.
Unfortunately, no one could hear her over everyone freaking out and screaming.
"Dang it! We need to get their attention," Neptune said. "Can you use your megaphone?"
"Got it!" Uzume raised her megaphone and shouted into it, "HEY GUYS! THIS WAY! LET US HANDLE THEM!"
The people looked over, and saw the armed girls, both of them ready to fight. Then they started shuffling their way over to them, trying to avoid the monsters.
Which was easier than they thought, but only because, of course, the monsters noticed them as well, and decided that Neptune and Uzume were more worth it to attack.
"Ready?" Uzume said, reading her megaphone for combat
"Yeah!" Neptune replied, and the two of them charged into the group of monsters.
Uzume shouted into her megaphone, taking down monsters in large chunks, while Neptune covered her back, slicing down monsters while helping people escape.
Once Neptune got the last person out, and running to safety, she turned to the monsters. "Geeze there's a lot of them!" Neptune exclaimed.
"Yeah, I know," Uzume replied. "Hey! You got that AoE move, right?"
"Yeah, but I can't get them all while they're all over the place," Neptune replied as she sliced a Dogoo in half.
Uzume blasted away some monster with her megaphone, while thinking about a solution. "Okay, I think it's time!"
"Huh? Time for what?"
Unbeknownst to them, Nepgear had arrived from following them, and hid in spacing between two buildings, hoping her sister and friend didn't notice her. ...That, and there were scary monsters all over the place.
She watched as Uzume pulled out a tiny, shiny stone.
"Is... is that the stone you found before?" Neptune asked, thinking about what happened earlier.
"Yep, and I think I know what it is," Uzume replied.
"What? Are you sure?"
"Well, only one way to find out." Uzume then focused on the stone, which started to glow brightly, before Uzume was surrounded by light.
Nepgear watched as this happened, and once the light died down, she saw the most amazing thing!
In place of Uzume was a floating woman, with orange hair pulled into pigtails which were looped, and blue eyes. She wore a white one-piece outfit with orange trim, a skirt-like bottom, and a circle of blue, transparent fabric revealing her cleavage. She also had long gloves past her elbows, and puffy boots, both in a similar style to her outfit, a hat with ears of some sort on the sides, and a large circular disk-drive-like device on her left arm. Her megaphone was now more high-tech with orange and white coloring, and she had orange, almost butterfly-like wings.
This was the first time Nepgear ever saw a goddess, she was amazed, especially by how pretty she was.
"Good to be back," the newly remade goddess said in Uzume's girly voice. "Now, let's end this stylishly!"
"Awesome, Uzume!" Neptune exclaimed. "You're Orange Heart again!"
"Nepsy, I'll fly around these meanies, and blow them together, then you use your big Skill!"
Neptune nodded, and watched as Uzume, now Orange Heart, flew around, constantly blasting enemies into one area.
Eventually, they were all squeezed into one area, with some even piled on top of another.
"Now, before they go away!" Uzume shouted.
"Right!" Neptune replied.
Nepgear was still watching, and her attention was pulled to her sister as suddenly her swords were replaced with oversized spoons. Neptune announced "Pudding, Pudding!" in a jovial tone of voice, while jumping up and slamming her foot on the ground. Then, with no discernable explanation, a gigantic custard pudding fell from the sky, squishing the poor group of monsters below.
"Woah..." Nepgear said, super impressed by... whatever her sister did. And boy did that look delicious to the little kid.
Unfortunately for her, the massive pudding disappeared, but the monsters underneath were super weakened. And with that, Neptune and Orange Heart were able to finish up the monsters.
"Ah, good thing that worked out," Neptune said.
"Yep!" Orange Heart replied. "But there may still be some monsters around."
"Yeah, let's go check the rest of the town!"
Nepgear had to slink behind a trash can to avoid being seen, as the duo ran in her direction. They passed right by without noticing, though, continuing their conversation.
"So, there's a lot of monsters here, but why?" Neptune asked. "Why would so many beasties gather around here? Something doesn't feel right."
"You think that maybe somebody made all these monsters attack?" Orange Heart responded.
"Probably. But who?"
Nepgear wasn't listening. In fact, she would've tried to follow her sister, if it weren't for the fact that she found something she just had to check out: a microwave!
She was insistently focused on this new toy, and wanted to take it apart. To hide, just in case her sister came back around, she dragged the old kitchen device to behind the building. Because it was the edge of a small town, it was an open area in the back, with complete access to the open plains and then forest, but in Nepgear's young mind, she wouldn't be found by her sister this way, because she was on the other side of the buildings (simple logic of a kid).
Time passed as the little girl messed with the microwave (with only a few scratches, not too bad to Nepgear), when she heard something in the distance. Looking up, she saw that something was bounding its way out of the forest, something big.
Nepgear got up, and tried to get a closer look, and as the large thing approached, she realized that... "a giant robot! A real robot!" She had always seen robots in cartoons or as toys, but she never got the chance to see an actual robot!
She wanted to get a closer look at this incredible thing, so she did what any innocent kid would do, she excitedly ran towards it without a thought of care.
"Thank you, miss," a citizen said to Orange Heart, shaking her hand. "You saved us all!"
"Aw, you're welcome," the happy-go-lucky goddess replied.
Neptune and Orange Heart had managed to clear out the remaining monsters, and had come by to make sure the people were okay. Several were injured, but with medical treatment and Uzume's healing, they'd be okay.
Of course, the people did not fail to notice the unrecognized goddess floating by the purple-haired swordswoman, in place of the redhead that was there before.
"So, are you a new goddess?" someone asked.
"Sort of..." Orange Heart replied. "I'm a goddess from another world, but I used a CPU Memory to regain my powers so I could save you!"
"Oh, thank you, Lady...?" another citizen replied.
"Orange Heart," the goddess answered.
"Thank you, Lady Orange Heart! Praise to you!"
"Praise to you!" the rest of the people chanted, bowing to the CPU.
"Wha- No no no no no! I'm only visiting this world! You don't need to praise me, I don't want to steal your faith from your actual goddess! You should still put your faith into Iris Heart!" Orange Heart complained.
"Oh, come on, Uzume," Neptune told her friend, "you were the one who saved the town, so you deserve the credit!"
"This is more than just credit," the goddess argued. "Besides, we both saved the town together, Nepsy! You deserve as much credit as I do."
"Yeah... but I'm not the goddess who actually needs their faith to be strong. Which reminds me, didn't you want to have a dual with Iris Heart? You could totally do that now!"
A bright flash appeared around Orange Heart, and once it died down, she was back in her redheaded human form. "Yeah, but, I just want to have a sparring match with her, not steal her citizens."
Before any more could be said, a loud, but distant scream was heard coming from the town, one that sounded like it belonged to a child.
"I thought we got rid of all the monsters!" Uzume exclaimed.
"I thought we got all the people out!" Neptune replied.
The two of them raced back into town without another word, while someone called out to them, "good luck, Lady Orange Heart! And good luck to you, miss..."
"Just call me Neptune!" the grown woman shouted back.
As the pair ran off, the person who called to them said, "Neptune... why does that sound so familiar?"
Neptune and Uzume ran towards the sound of screaming, which was quickly becoming more and more distant, fading away. They were able to get themselves behind the town buildings when they saw the shadow of something rather large bound into the treeline. Unfortunately, the sun was starting to set, so they couldn't make out any details from the distance in the orange light of the sky.
"What in Gamindustri was that!?" Uzume exclaimed.
"I don't know, but it sounds like it got a little kid!" Neptune replied. She was about to run after the shadowy being, when she noticed something on the ground.
"Nepsy? You okay?" Uzume asked as she noticed her friend bend down and picked something up.
It was a tiny screwdriver with a purple handle. A very familiar screwdriver.
"That looks like... Lil' Gearsy's," Uzume said.
"That thing... it has my little sister!" Neptune exclaimed.
"Wha- how!? Why would she even be here!?"
"I don't know! Maybe she followed us, or maybe she was taken from the cabin, and they passed by here!" Tears filled Neptune's eyes. "It doesn't matter! That thing kidnapped my little sister! And I'm going to... get... her... BACK!"
Neptune ran off, chasing down where they saw the shadow, fierce determination burning in her eyes.
"Nepsy, wait! Agh!" Uzume groaned in annoyance. At least her friend was was right that they needed to act, but she was worried. They didn't even know what they were facing!
But they couldn't back down now. Nepgear was possibly in trouble. So with that, Uzume ran to join up with her friend.
Sometime later, at Mercury's cabin...
Mercury was upset. While watching the news about the attack on the town, she and Umio only just realized the Nepgear had disappeared!
They had looked all over the cabin, and even partway into the woods, calling out her name, but they found nothing.
Merci was undoubtedly worried. "I can't believe that I lost another daughter!" she eventually cried out.
"It's okay," Umio said, trying to the upset mother. "Perhaps she ran after her big sister, to watch her fight monsters. Perhaps once Neptune and Uzume return, Nepgear might return with them."
"I'm a horrible mother!" Merci continued. "I was so worried about my oldest daughter, that I forgot about my youngest and most vulnerable!"
"It will be okay. Once the girls come back, we'll figure this out!" They hadn't been able to see the news that the town had been saved, or that Uzume regained her goddess powers, but Umio was confident that they were or will be victorious, and thus okay. And so would Nepgear.
At that moment, there was a knock on the door. "Perhaps that's them now," Umio said reassuringly. Merci got up, and opened the door. And she was surprised by who was there.
At the door, was a white-haired goddess in a gray processor outfit.
"Wha... a-are you Lady Black Heart!?" Merci exclaimed.
"Noire?" Umio responded, as he got a look at the very familiar goddess at the door.
"Yes, I am, and-" Black Heart looked inside to see who it was who spoke up... and well, she had a trying day. First, there was the fiasco in the morning, then she had to go look for Plutia and Peashy, was took longer than it should've, to get them to go defeat some monsters.
But she wasn't expecting her day to go from stressful to weird... Not until she saw the floating fish with a man's face, who seemed to recognize her when she swore she'd never seen anything like that! And somehow, Neptune wasn't involved in all this!
"...S-sorry, do I know you?" Black Heart asked the fish.
"I... well..." Umio realized the possibility that this could be different Noire, one from this dimension, just how there was a Neptune from this world, and one from his. "I suppose not. My name is Umio."
"I'm Mercury, though most people call me Merci," the woman greeted as she bowed. "It is an honor to be in your presence."
"No need for formalities right now, miss Mercury" Black Heart replied, trying to recompose herself. "I am here on behalf of Iris Heart and Yellow Heart. There has been a monster attack in the nearby town, and while your goddesses fight them off, I am here to make sure that those in the outlying buildings are safe."
"Yellow Heart...?" Umio mused. He had heard the name occasionally while out with Merci, but he still didn't who she was. He figured that perhaps she was a goddess of another nation in this dimension, but after seeing another Noire, he only grew more curious.
"Well, for the most part, we're fine," Merci told the goddess. "Actually, my daughter and her friend went out to help protect the town themselves."
"Oh, good, then Iris Heart and Yellow Heart will have some help. ...Unless afterwards, if Plutia..." Black Heart stopped that train of that to say, "okay, I'll go make sure your daughter is safe ma'am."
"Actually," Merci called out before Black Heart could leave, "I do have another problem."
"What is it?"
"You see, my second and youngest daughter, she's only five, and she's disappeared. We've looked around, but we can't find her. We're worried that may have followed her big sister, or just wandered off, and that she might be in trouble, especially with all the monsters about. Could you perhaps help find her for us?"
"Of course, miss Mercury. As a goddess, it is my duty to protect the people. So tell me, what does your youngest daughter look like?"
Author's Note: Oh, poor Noire... if only you knew...
Whelp, this chapter ended up feeling a little shorter than I was intending, but it was long enough, so it's still good.
First off, in a review for this story, someone thought that might've set up a bait-and-switch, where the CPU memory could've gone to Adult Neptune, or even Young Nepgear. I sorry, I didn't mean to make it seem that way, that was not my plan at all! I don't know about little Nepgear, but while a CPU Adult Neptune would be kind of cool (I've seen it before, in a story on called "Same Person, Different Entity"), I just wanted to keep Uzume as Orange Heart. This is supposed to be a slice-of-life story, so I don't want to put in that kind of permanent drama. Maybe in a different story, but not this one!
In fact, the only reason I set up the whole CPU Memory thing is because I wanted to stay accurate to the source material. ...Or at least, how I view it. I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but a lot of people wonder how the Hyperdimension goddesses still have their powers when they visit the Ultradimension. My response, how do you know that they do?
I rewatched the true ending of Re;Birth 3 just to be sure, but when the Hyper-goddesses visit the Ultradminension, they don't use their powers. So how do you know that they aren't just dealing with being human while the visit? Sure, Rom and Ram mention being goddesses, but one, they could be referring back to their dimension, and two, they are kids, so it's possible they don't know any better. Also, it's possible that the Ultra-goddesses gathered up CPU memories to give to the Hyper-goddesses once they got there, so that they could keep their powers in the Ultradimension (it's such a simple idea, I'm surprised I haven't heard anyone else bring it up). That also brings up the tantalizing idea that Noire never got one, since she was the one goddess who didn't want to visit the Ultradimension.
To be clear, the only thing that the portal between the two dimensions that was specially mentioned it did (besides being a portal between the two dimensions) was sync the pace of time passing in the two worlds to be the same. It's possible that Share energy could flow between them, the Hyper-goddesses could keep their powers that way. But we don't know for sure, so it's up to interpretation. And this is mine, so I'm writing off of that interpretation.
Now, as for the story itself, I only gave sparse clues as to what exactly took Nepgear, there's enough that I think a few people might figure out what it was. All I'm going to say is... once you figure it out, you're going to be SO mad! And I for one, can't wait to see the reactions.
So, when I wrote the scene with Black Heart (which was a spur of the moment addition, by the way), I started feeling allusions to my other current Hyperdimension story, "Nepsisters: Healing the Empty Heart", where Candidate Nepgear disappears without a trace, and Neptune gets depressed (and a new Planeptune Candidate is born. That's important). I wasn't trying to do that, but it just felt like that. And don't worry, this is a short story arc, so Nepgear will be fine AFTER this is all over (in about two chapters). Nothing will happen to Smolgear like what happened to Nepgear in Nepsisters (these two stories are not connected, by the way).
And yes, I'm pretty sure that Yellow Heart was not mentioned in this story, aside from her appearance in the Basilicom scenes, so I think Umio's reaction to the name was appropriate.
Now, since this is supposed to a slice-of-life, one-shot collection kind of story, I want to mention that I'm having trouble coming up with ideas, so if you want to put anything ideas you'd like to see me take on in the reviews, that would be appreciated.
Oh, and on a somewhat unrelated note, I just started a new artwork series, starting by drawing Neptune and Nepgear in a Sonic-style as hedgehogs, and I'd like you to see it. You can find it on DeviantArt with the name "Neptune and Nepgear the Hedgehog" by Cobalt-Gemini.