This story arc starts with "Chapter 6: Bravery".
Chapter 9: Meeting at Long Last
"Oh... you misunderstand... I don't take no for an answer," Iris Heart stated.
Trick glared at the goddess. "I am so tired of you goddesses... Just leave me be with my cutie pies!"
"And we're not cute enough for you?" Iris Heart countered.
"Yeah, look at my bouncy-bouncies!" the blonde goddess behind her, Yellow Heart, said.
Little Nepgear, who had peaked from behind her big sister, looked at Yellow Heart after hearing her mention "bouncy-bouncies", and when she saw them, she was like, "those are big pillows..."
"Yeah, yeah they are..." Neptune replied, though those weren't the things she was concerned about at the moment.
Trick just huffed in disgust. "Those things? They'll just sag someday."
Iris Heart raised an eyebrow, before readying her sword. "Then I'll just have to teach you to enjoy them for what they are now."
Trick finally had enough. He wound back, and yelling "licky, licky, licky!" shot his tongue out at Iris Heart.
However, the goddess responded in kind by whipping her sword out, literally. The weapon was revealed to be a whip-sword as its jagged segments split apart, connected together by a thin cable. Iris Heart used her blade to lash out at Trick's tongue, cut a deep gash along the side of it as she forced it to her side, which of course, caused Trick to cry out in immense pain.
Nepgear immediately hid back behind Neptune as this happened, and the big sister couldn't blame her. It was rather hard to watch.
"Peashy, if you don't mind," Iris Heart cooed.
"Yay! Guard Strike!" the yellow goddess cheered as she quickly flew up, and punched Trick square in the belly, knocking him back. He even exploded on impact (just not latterly. There was an explosion, but he was still standing).
"...I think these gals have got it," Neptune sheepishly said. She picked up her little sister, who was still trying to hide herself from the view of Iris Heart, and the older sister began to make way to the unconscious Uzume.
Iris Heart was preparing for another attack when she noticed to the side, Neptune was running away from the fight... but something was off about her. And in her arms, was that...?
She didn't have much time to think about it as Trick rushed towards her, and unleashed a gas breath attack on her. The goddess flew above the attack, and announced "Fighting Viper!", delivering a double slash in a V formation. Once she flipped back from him, the energy from the attack burst.
"My turn! Valkyrie Claw!" Yellow Heart dashed in and unleashed a series of slashes with her claws, before flying up and delivering a final powerful swipe.
"Grk!" Trick sounded.
Neptune reached her redheaded friend, and pulled out a Nep Bull VII she had made, and tried to get her to drink it. A lot of it dripped around her face, but enough got in for the drink's magic to do its work.
Uzume began to cough and open her eyes. "Nepsy..." she said in her girly voice.
"Hey, you feeling alright? You got quite the knock on the head," Neptune said.
"You were really pretty!" Nepgear told the renewed goddess.
"Oh, uh, thanks," Uzume replied.
"Um, you do realize... that you're not-" Neptune started, and Uzume then interrupted as she finally noticed what was going on.
"WHAT IS THAT!?" Uzume screamed as she saw the fight in front of her between CFW Trick, Yellow Heart, and of course, Iris Heart. And it was Iris Heart that was causing her to freak out, seeing the sadistic goddess laugh as she cruelly attacked Trick.
"Uh, I think those are goddesses... here to help... I hope..."
"That's a goddess!?" Uzume exclaimed. "She's more like a demon!"
Nepgear looked over for a second to see what Uzume was talking about, and when she saw Iris Heart again, she immediately turned away and buried her face in Neptune's chest. "Scary!"
"Yeah... I agree. What should we do?" Neptune said.
Uzume tried to move, but she groaned in pain. "Ugh, Uzume stilled isn't totally healed. And she's out of SP!"
"But you're Uzume," Nepgear pointed out, briefly raising her little head.
"Yeah, I am-" Uzume finally noticed that she was been talking in her valley girl voice the whole time. She cleared her throat, and said, "that's embarrassing. Kind of thought I was still in HDD. But yeah, I'm going anywhere for a while."
"Then, um... I'll protect you!" Neptune summoned her swords and got up. ...With Nepgear still hanging on her front.
"...You look ridiculous like that," Uzume said.
Neptune smiled awkwardly. "Um, little sis, you want to hang with Uzume for a bit?"
Nepgear whined a bit, but she let go, landed on the ground, and stumbled over to Uzume, where she buried her face into HER chest.
"This is awkward," Uzume replied.
Back at the fight, Yellow Heart just parried one of Trick's tongue attacks. "Grr, you stupid old hag! Go a-GAH!" The yellow creep cried as Iris Heart drove her sword in his tongue, and pinned it to the ground.
"You're calling my little Peashy an 'old hag'?" the sadist exclaimed. "Where do you think you get to do that?"
"She's... she's not a cutie pie..." Trick replied in tears.
"Oh, you've never seen her in human form, have you?" Iris Heart replied, when she finally figured out Trick's deal. "Oh, I get it. You like children, don't you? Well..." Iris Heart landed on the base of the creep's tongue, and stared down at his face. "So do I. But the way you talked about us, I think you like them in the wrong way. Allow me to fix that."
The dominatrix goddess raised her foot, and began stepping on Trick's face. HARD. Trick cried in pain as the Iris Heart continued to grind her foot in his face. "Oh, this is only the start," Iris Heart said in response.
Suddenly, a shout was heard. "I got your tongue!" Yellow Heart called out in a playful tone.
Iris Heart stopped as she turned to her partner CPU, with Trick looking over too. "P-please let my tongue go, it's only for little cutie pies!" the owner of the tongue cried.
"And for big cutie pies!" Yellow Heart replied excitedly. Before Trick could complain, the child-like CPU began to pull his tongue up. Iris Heart had to fly off, and then she pulled her sword out of Trick's tongue (which got a loud cry of pain as Trick felt the jagged blade get ripped out), as the blade got dislodged from the ground thanks to Yellow Heart.
"Peashy, dear-" Iris Heart started, but she couldn't continue, as she had to get out of the way as the yellow CPU pulled Trick into the air via his long tongue, over her head, and slamming him into the ground behind her, merely feet away from Neptune, who shrieked in surprise.
But no one had the chance to react to this, as Yellow Heart continued her swing out, first pulling the massive robot off to the right, slamming him into a wall, then off to the left into another wall, before the goddess began spinning around.
Trick screamed in terror (and in pain from having his already damaged tongue pulled on by so much force) as Yellow Heart spun faster and faster... before letting go. Trick shot upwards with so much immense speed and force, that he broke open the ceiling and disappeared far into the sky. And fireworks went off for some reason.
"...Okay..." Neptune sounded, "I stand corrected... The iris-haired goddess isn't the scary one... the blonde one is!"
"She is?" Nepgear asked, since she missed the entire finale with her face buried in Uzume's chest.
As for Uzume, she was just staring in disbelief. She had no words for what just happened.
Iris Heart flew by Yellow Heart. "Peashy, I wasn't done giving him lessons."
"Boo. Pea wanted to make him go flying!" the blonde CPU replied.
Iris Heart just sighed... and then turned her attention to Neptune. She landed and started walking towards her.
As the goddess approached, Neptune began reevaluating everything she ever said, done, and thought about in her whole life.
Iris Heart stopped a few feet from Neptune, and said, "Neppy?"
"Are you here to take away my virginity?" Neptune replied in fear.
Iris Heart got confused. Neptune acted as if she didn't know her friend. Also, why was she so big in her human form?
"B-big sis, what is 'virginity'?" Nepgear asked.
"P-p-please forget I mentioned that," Neptune replied.
Iris Heart then leaned over to the side to find some redhead girl and a five-year-old that looked like Nepgear, Neptune's younger sister. Now she was even more confused, ...and a little disappointed. She did kind of want to play with this version of Neptune, but... not around a kid. She didn't want a repeat of what happened with IF.
Yellow Heart came over, and got just as confused as her fellow goddess when she saw Neptune and Nepgear. "Neptuna...? Nepgear...? Why do you two look so weird?"
"So wait... Nepsy is a tuna now...?" Uzume replied. She snickered and said, "Wait 'til Umio hears about this!"
"So, wait, are you Neptune and Nepgear?" Iris Heart asked. "Or not?"
The little girl was too terrified of the iris goddess, so she decided to answer in hopes she would go away. "Nep...gear," she said pointing to herself, then pointed to her sister, "Nep...tune," then to Uzume, "Uzie!"
"So you are Neppy?"
"Um, yeah, this Nep is called Neptune," the older sister replied.
"Pea is confused!" Yellow Heart exclaimed.
"So am I, so am I," Iris Heart replied.
Suddenly, they heard a voice calling out, one that sounded familiar to Neptune and Uzume. "Plutia, are you here?"
"Uzume? Neptune?" another voice called out, this one they recognized as Umio.
"Mister fishy!" Nepgear cried out as she left Uzume's arms and ran towards the sound of voices, being sure to give Iris Heart a wide berth.
Umio and a twin-tailed, white-haired CPU in a gray processor arrived in the area, as Nepgear reached them and tried jumping for Umio. "Mister fishy! Mister fishy!" she cried.
"Oh, thank goodness, you're alright," Umio said. But he noticed Nepgear seemed distressed. "Are you alright?"
"Scary goddess!" the little girl pointed to Iris Heart. Umio looked at the CPU, and was definitely disturbed to see a dominatrix-like goddess floating there.
The goddess who joined him, Black Heart, however, was more concerned about the little girl and the older purplette over by her CPU friends. "No way... When Mercury said her daughters were Nepgear and Neptune, I thought she was crazy, but..."
"You... met my mother?" Neptune asked. "Also, what are you doing here, Noire?"
"I... I don't think I am exactly who you're thinking of," the white-haired goddess noted.
"Noire, do you know what's going here?" Iris Heart asked.
"Kind of. But what are you doing here? What happened to the town?"
"Well, when Peashy and I got there, it was already saved," the iris goddess explained in her sultry tone of voice. "They said someone called 'Orange Heart' and her human friend came to save them."
"Orange Heart, you say?" Umio noted. He flew over to find his red-headed friend. "Uzume, did you regain your powers?"
"Yeah, I found that memory thing before you got back to the cabin," she said. "Also, I'm still kind of in bad shape, so if you have anything that could help-"
"Hyper Heal," Iris Heart chanted as she cast a healing ability on the redhead, healing her remaining wounds.
"Oh, thanks!" Uzume began to get up with some help from Neptune.
"So you're saying that this is Orange Heart?"
"Yep!"
"Show me," Iris Heart demanded.
Uzume looked nervously at Neptune, and once she got a nod from her friend, she suddenly glowed brightly, before being replaced with her goddess form of Orange Heart.
"Oh, my," Iris Heart cooed, "aren't you cute."
"U-uh, Uzume's is sacred..." Orange Heart responded.
"Plutia, maybe we should be exiting our HDD forms, not entering them," Black Heart told her friend. "Besides, you're scaring... Nepgear."
Iris Heart gave Black Heart an amused look. "So, we should all leave our HDD forms, you say?"
"Yes, we shoul-" Black Heart stopped as she realized what Iris Heart was implying. "You little..."
"Yes, show off what you've got in front of a kid," Iris Heart was both mocking Black Heart and being sarcastic in a "why would you even do that?" kind of way.
"What are you talking about?" Umio asked, unaware of what was going on.
"I think she just doesn't want to show off some skin~," Iris Heart explained, still being vague and taunting about what she knew.
"I- I- You can still turn back yourself! I don't need to turn back! You do!" Black Heart countered.
"Um..." Neptune interjected, "if you need to cover up... I've got a blanket you can use. I don't mind."
"Wh-wh-what- How did you know!?" Black Heart cried out.
"Uh, lucky guess? I don't know, I've been caught having to go fight immediately after a shower one time, so... I'm guessing that's happened to you. But honestly, I want you guys to stop scaring my sister."
Everyone looked at the little Nepgear, who looking back and forth at everyone, especially at Iris Heart and her sister, unsure of what was going on or what to do.
"Well, I'm sure it's Iris Heart causing the problem, so I'll just-" Black Heart started, but Umio interjected.
"I think you should take up Neptune on her offer," he said. "I know that staying in HDD for long periods of time can be exhausting. It would be better to cover yourself in a blanket than to fall unconscious from over-exerting yourself."
"I- I- I- Ugh, fine!" As prideful as Black Heart was, Umio was unfortunately right. She had been in HDD for a while now, and she was starting to feel a little tired. "Give me that blanket!"
Neptune had given Black Heart, now in her human form of Noire, her blanket, so she was wrapped up, covering her nude body so Nepgear didn't have to see. Iris Heart and Yellow Heart returned to their human forms, Plutia and Peashy respectively.
Neptune and Uzume were shocked to see their human forms. Plutia was just a young, sleepy girl in her human form, compared to her dominatrix HDD form. She seemed so innocent, they could hardly believe it. Peashy was even more surprising. While the pair had seen a change in age from a goddess's human and HDD forms, particularly with Hyper Neptune's forms, and as they just witnessed, Plutia's as well, Peashy went from a fully developed adult in HDD to being the same age as little Nepgear in human form.
"Geez, if that creep knew about this..." Uzume mused, after they had some time to recuperate. "Boy, I don't even know."
"At least Nepgear is more comfortable with these forms," Neptune replied.
Indeed, Nepgear was more comfortable with Plutia's human form, and wasn't super scared around her. Though, right now she was talking to her fellow kid.
"Where did you're big pillows go?" Nepgear asked Peashy.
"Huh? I don't have any pillows," Peashy replied.
"I'd like some pillows..." Plutia sounded sleepily.
"Well..." Neptune spoke up, "she's talking about..." and she pointed to her massive chest.
"Oh, you mean bouncy-bouncies!" Peashy said excitedly. "Yeah, when I transform, I get all big!"
"Those do look like nice pillows..." Plutia said as she began to snuggle up against Neptune, resting against her chest.
Neptune, however, pushed her away. "Sorry, you need to go on a date with me before I let anyone snuggle with me."
"Aw... But you're so soft..." Plutia complained.
Nepgear also looked worriedly disappointed. "But... I want to snuggle with you too, big sis..."
"Aw, Nep Jr., you're family. You're an exception!" Neptune picked up her little sister, and let her snuggle in her chest, which she happily did.
"Aw... Neppy Jr. is so lucky..." Plutia whined.
"Okay, can we stop and focus here!" Noire spoke up. "I want to know what's going on here, Neptune. Mercury told me she was your mother, but that doesn't make sense! You told me goddesses in your world were born straight from Shares. Also, why did your and Nepgear's human forms change so drastically, especially with Nepgear's... age degression."
"If I may, I believe that I can explain what's going on here," Umio intervened. "So you are acquaintances of... Purple Heart, correct?"
"Yes...?" Noire replied, not understanding where he was going.
"Well, so are we. In fact, Uzume is originally one of her predecessors in the Hyperdimension. But this here..." Umio motioned to Neptune, "...is not Lady Purple Heart. She does not originate from the Hyperdimension. In fact, this is the dimension where she was born. Also, she, along with her little sister, are not goddesses, hence their drastic difference in appearance and their relation to Mercury."
"So, this is a different Neppy and Neppy Jr.?" Plutia summed up. "Ones from our world?"
"Yes," Umio replied. "I also believe this is the same case with you, miss Noire. Me, Uzume, and Neptune are acquaintances of all the goddesses in the Hyperdimension, including Black Heart. But when we met back at the cabin, you didn't recognize me. So, either you forgot me, which given my... unique appearance, seemed a little hard to believe, or you were a different Noire, one from this world."
"Oh, well yeah, I know about the Noire from the other world. Actually, aside from Planeptune, each nation in this world has the same goddess as the counterpart nation in the other world."
"So there's a Blansy and a Vertsy in this world, too?" Uzume said. "That's cool! Can't wait to meet them!"
"And you're... Orange Heart, right?" Noire asked. "Neptune's... Hyper Neptune's friend? The Histoire from there said you came here to visit."
"Yeah. Also, we refer to the different Nepsies as 'tiny Nepsy' or 'big Nepsy', if that helps."
"Whatever," Noire brushed off. "You're also the goddess who wanted to challenge Iris Heart, right? After you regained your powers."
Uzume smiled nervously. "I did say that... didn't I?"
Noire glanced to Plutia. "You're regretting that, now that you've seen her in HDD, aren't you?" she said to Uzume.
"So, wait..." Plutia spoke up. "Are you the surprise present that Neppy sent to us with Orange Heart?"
"Well, I don't know about 'present'," Neptune replied. "But yeah, tiny me wanted to surprise you with a Nep from your world!"
"Yeah! Our very own Neppy!" Plutia cheered.
"So, where were you all this time?" Noire asked. "And what about... Nepgear?"
"Well, I made a friend who let me travel to different dimensions," Neptune answered. "Though she's kind of mean, so I like to keep her in my Nep-Note."
Noire raised an eyebrow, and Umio told her, "we'll explain later."
"As for Nepgear," Neptune continued, "she was actually a surprise for the two of US when we got here. I'm pretty sure that tiny me doesn't even know about her."
"So, tiny Neppy knew about our world's Neppy before us, but not our Neppy Jr.?" Plutia asked.
"Crazy right?"
"I think for now," Umio spoke up, "it's time for us to return home. I offered to join this Noire to search for you, but Merci is waiting for you and is very worried."
"He's right," Uzume chimed in. "Gosh, you've caused us a lot of trouble, Lil' Gearsy!"
"I'm sorry..." the little girl replied in Neptune's arms.
"It's okay. You're safe now," Neptune said. "But mommy must be incredibly worried, so let's head back, and set her heart at ease. Okay?"
"Okay."
"I guess we'll see you guys later," Neptune said to the Ultradimensoin goddesses. "Especially now that Uzume is Orange Heart again."
"We'll see you later, big Neppy, and smol Neppy Jr.!" Plutia waved goodbye.
"Aw, I wanted to play with Nepgear!" Peashy exclaimed.
"Maybe later," Uzume said.
"...Just don't play too rough with her," Neptune added, considering her final move with Trick earlier.
"Oh my gosh, my little girl!" Mercury cried out as Nepgear returned with her big sister and friends. She picked up her youngest daughter in a loving hug!
"Mommy! I'm sorry!" Nepgear cried.
"Where did you go...!?"
"I..." the little girl began to sniffle. "I wanted to watch big sis... I wanted to be brave...!"
"From the sounds of it, she followed us to town," Uzume explained. "But we didn't see her, and by the time we were done, some giant creep robot with a large tongue kidnapped her, so he could... lick her."
Merci went silent with an awkward expression after hearing that, while her young daughter sobbed in her arms.
"Yeah... we didn't like that either..." Uzume said.
"But we were able to stop him!" Neptune added. "We managed to free Nepgear from his clutches! ...Though I wish his grip wasn't so tight... She might've been hurt trying to free her."
"Are... you feeling okay, sweetie?" Merci asked her little girl.
"Yeah... Robots are better without big tongues," Nepgear replied with childish sharpness.
"Agreed," everyone else said together.
"So... Umio, what happened to Black Heart?" Merci asked.
"Oh yes, she returned with her comrades. It seems after Neptune and Uzume freed Nepgear, Iris Heart and Yellow Heart arrived and took over. The fiend was defeated by the time we got there," Umio explained.
"You got to meet Lady Iris Heart?" Merci replied excitedly. "I've only ever met her once, and I've never seen her in her true form."
"She was scary..." Nepgear responded.
"Yeah..." Neptune and Uzume replied together.
Merci wasn't sure how to take this response. ...Perhaps they were simply intimidated by her divine form...? Then again...
Umio leaned towards Neptune and Uzume to whisper to them, "by the way, I haven't told Mercury about the other Neptune and Noire. While we all know that she's aware of the other dimensions, I didn't think it was the right time to discuss another world's goddesses."
"Okay, thanks for letting us know," Neptune replied.
"Um, whatever you're whispering about, is it important for me to know?" Merci asked.
"No. You mind if I hold my sister?" Neptune replied, trying to change the subject.
"Oh, of course." Nepgear was handed to Neptune, as the two sat down in a nearby recliner.
"By the way," Uzume spoke up. "I... found that CPU memory I was looking for!"
"You... you did?" Merci replied in shock.
"Yeah. I actually found it before we left to protect the town, but it certainly helped during the fight."
"Uzie was so pretty..." Nepgear said while resting her head on her big sister's chest, calming down.
"So, you didn't... become a monster?" Merci asked.
"Well, I don't look like a monster... so I'm pretty sure that I'm fine," Uzume replied.
"Could... could I see you're... uh..."
"My HDD form? Sure." Suddenly, Uzume was enveloped in a bright light, transforming into Orange Heart.
"Incredible... I got to see two goddesses today. I feel so blessed," Merci said in awe.
"Uh, you don't need to praise me like that..." Orange Heart said shyly. "You're Uzume's friend!"
"Oh... uh... Lady..."
"Orange Heart! And you don't need to call me 'Lady'."
"Yes, Orange Heart, you're voice..."
"Uzume's voice is normally like this in HDD," Umio explained. "It's actually her original personality."
"Oh... alright. I don't really know... how goddesses work," Merci admitted. "So, what are you going to do now?"
"Uzume's... not sure," Orange Heart said. "I guess I'll stay with Neptune and you until we can visit the rest of this world's Gamindustri."
"So... I goddess... wants to stay with me, an average citizen..."
Orange Heart sweatdropped. Clearly, Merci couldn't properly process that her daughter's friend was a CPU.
"What about your challenge with Iris Heart?" Umio asked Orange Heart. "Are you planning to back down..." Merci noticed that Umio said that with actual concern rather than sarcasm. Did they really find her goddess that scary?
"Uzume is... not sure anymore... Nepsy...?" Orange Heart to her friend to ask for her opinion. However, she noticed that Neptune had fallen asleep, along with Nepgear, who was snuggling in her large chest, snoring softly.
"As... so cute!" Orange Heart cooed.
"How wonderful. I love how close my daughters are," Merci said, taking out her phone to take a picture.
"I suppose they had a long day. Perhaps it's best to let them sleep for now," Umio replied.
And that's just what they did, letting the two sisters rest in each other's embrace.
Author's Note: Starting the new chapter with the same line as the final line from the previous chapter. One of the best ideas I've ever had.
Anyways, I... actually don't have a lot to say about this chapter. It's the end of the four-part arc, but... I've pretty much said everything I could've in the last chapter. The only new thing I wanted to talk about is Peashy's final move on Trick.
So, what inspired that? Well... have you seen Super Mario Bros. Z? Especially that new one? If you've seen the second episode (the third episode in the original), you would know about the part where Mettalix grabs Yoshi's tongue and give him a brutal beating. ...Trust me, what I wrote Yellow Heart doing there is tame compared to its inspiration. Yoshi's beatdown in the remake was so brutal, I actually winced on first viewing. (It might have been that brutal in this chapter it Iris Heart was the one who did it... but I'm pretty sure she doesn't have the strength Yellow Heart has, so yeah.)
And that last bit where Trick exploded in fireworks (at least seemingly), that's based on Sonic Colors's final boss. Yeah, I know the recent Mario games did it too, but Sonic Colors did it first, dang it, so it gets the credit (plus the remake is coming out, so there's that).
And again, remember, Iris Heart likes kids, in the right way. I'm pretty sure that is exactly how she'd react and treat Trick.
So, that's about it for the chapter, just finishing up the arc... But, I do have other news. Remember, I also do art, and I've finished a bunch of stuff for this story. Two major things, to be clear.
First, back in Chapter 4, if you remember what it was about, I wondered if I should've drawn the images the group drew in crayons. Whelp, I've gone and actually done that. They're not the best quality, since instead of vectors, as I usually do, I stuck to the theme of the chapter, and used actual crayons. They weren't the best quality crayons, and I used Microsoft Lens on my iPod Touch instead of actually scanning there into my PC with a printer or something. Hey, my options right now are limited.
Besides that, I already added them to Chapter 4, so you can see them while reading the chapter (except for Fanfic. This site is annoying in that it doesn't allow images or links, so I can't show them there. Instead, I added breaks telling you where you could find the images on my DeviantArt, because that is literally the best I can do).
I also just recently finished drawing Merci (yes, in my proper Vector art style, don't get confused from the crayon mentions), and she is up on my Devi for you to see. The description has a quick blurb about her character, and links back to this story on all my sites. I've also decided to add the image to the start of the next chapter (except for, again, Fanfic), which brings me to...
Yes, I'm putting up two chapters of this story today! (Along with a chapter of Undertale Fallen Determination.) The next chapter was a spur of the moment idea that I wrote up quickly, and it was ready before this chapter was, so it's getting uploaded alongside this one.
There's more detail about it in that Chapter's author's note. Anyways, hope you enjoy! And also be sure to look at "Hyperdimension OCs, Mercury and Little Nepgear" on my DeviantArt, Cobalt-Gemini.