Chapter 12: Double the Nep! Part 1
It was the day before the weekend. Mercury had come home with Nepgear a few hours ago, and put her to sleep for a nap, when the pair of Neptune and Uzume had returned in a heated debate.
"...I mean come on! How hard is it to catch some bird?" Uzume said as she was walking inside. "I mean, isn't it supposed to be huge?"
"Yeah, but it's fast, too," Neptune replied, following behind her friend. "Lightning fast."
"How are you both fast and huge at the same time, while also being a bird that flies?"
"So... what's this all about?" Merci asked.
"Oh, so uh, there's this high priority quest at the guild right now," Uzume answered. "We haven't taken it, because we haven't been going to that area recently, but it's been up for the whole week. We ended up talking about it on the way back."
"Yeah, apparently there's been this large bird that's been hunting around the southwest of Planeptune, and it's been stealing people's livestock," Neptune added. "Apparently, it's super quick, too. According to the guild clerk, Plutie and Peashy went after the thing, and THEY couldn't catch it."
"So even the CPUs couldn't stop it?" Merci replied. "This really is concerning. Do they know where it's nesting?"
"Unfortunately, no," Uzume said.
"Well, maybe you should consider helping out. Perhaps they could use a little extra help from another CPU."
"Yeah, we should totally help!" Neptune replied.
Uzume thought about it for a second, and nodded in agreement.
"Well, I'm going to let you two talk about it," Merci said. "This guild business is yours, so..."
"Yeah, we got it," her daughter told her.
As Mercury left, Neptune turned to Uzume to continue the discussion. "So, what SHOULD we do? This bird sounds like it'd be tough."
"Well, you're at a disadvantage, since you can't fly..."
"Well, yeah. So the first thing we got to do is knock it out of the air..." Neptune started to think. "What about your megaphone. Maybe it's sensitive to sound, or the soundwaves might disrupt its flight?"
"Maybe, but it doesn't cover THAT much distance. If it's too fast, I might have a hard time catching it. Could you maybe shoot it?"
"...Maybe, but... I don't think my gun has that much range. And again, I can't fly..."
"Right... Maybe we should ask for help. From the other CPUs, perhaps!"
"But... Plutie and Peashy already tried," Neptune reminded her.
"Yeah, but they use swords and claws. Close combat weapons," Uzume explained. "I'm talking about someone more suited to deal with this. Perhaps our Candidate friends back home?"
"Yeah, great idea! Nepgear's got her gunblade in HDD, Uni's a sniper, and Rom and Ram can cast spells at a distance. They could totally handle that giant bird!"
"Yeah, so we just need to head over and-"
Uzume was interrupted as the doorbell rang.
"Huh, I wonder what that could be about?" Neptune asked as she answered the door.
And standing in the entryway was none other... than Plutia.
"Oh, Plutsy!" Uzume greeted. "What bring's you here?"
"Oh, I want to show Nep-mommy something," Plutia said cheerfully.
"Um, you mean my mom...?" Neptune asked. "...Sure. Hey, mom, it's for you!"
Merci walked back in, saying, "honey, quiet down. Your little sister is nap- Oh, lady Plutia, what brings you here?"
Plutia then giggled and announced, "I found her!"
Plutia stepped aside into a presentation pose as someone walked into view.
"Woah, hey there, big me!" the short Hyper Neptune called out as she saw her Ultradimesional counterpart. She was in a different outfit than they saw before. She had on a white mini-hoodie with blue and purple linings and drawstrings with plug-shaped ends, over a purple dress, though the rest of her outfit was the same, with her D-pad hairclips, striped knee socks, and purple shoes.
"Woah, hey, tiny me!" the taller Ultra Neptune responded. "Watch'a doin' here!?"
Plutia gasped. "Big Neppy is here too! Wow!"
"...Well, not the home dimension goddess we were thinking about, but okay, not bad," Uzume said silently and jokingly to herself.
Mercury, however, was having trouble trying to process what she was seeing. She ended up just pointing to her daughter... then to the small purplette who looked like her daughter... back to her daughter... back to the look-a-like... "Okay, what's going on!? Why are there two copies of my daughter!? Am I dreaming!? Is this reality!?"
"W-w-well..." Plutia started, suddenly nervous. This wasn't the reaction she was expecting (though she wasn't really paying attention before, so she really should have). "You wanted to find Neppy... So, I found her and brought her here...!"
"U-uh, what's going on?" Uzume asked.
"Yeah, I'm confused too," Hyper Nep replied. "Plutie just said that I had to meet someone, and now... I'm here."
"N-Neptune, who is this!?" Merci asked her daughter, still freaking out.
"Well, I'm Neptune," the smaller purplette replied.
"How!?"
"W-well..."
"Um, mom," the bigger Neptune spoke up. "You remember how was dimension-hopping before...?"
"Yes..." Merci replied.
"Well, I actually met this person before, and she... is me! She's the me from Uzume's dimension. I call her 'tiny me'!"
"Yep, I'm tiny Nep, and this is big Nep!" the smaller Neptune chimed in.
"T-two Neptunes, huh?" said Merci in disbelief. "O-okay, that's... unexpected. A-and, why did you want me to see her, lady Plutia?"
"Well... you said you wanted to meet Neptune, so I brought her here!" Plutia explained again.
"She... did...?" both Neptunes exclaimed at the same time.
"Um... d-do you mean when I was searching for my daughter six years ago?" Merci asked.
"Uh-huh," Plutia answered.
"Y-you do know I was talking about her," Merci pointed the bigger Neptune, "and not her, right?" she then pointed to the other Neptune. Pointing back to big Nep, she finished with, "she's my daughter. She was the one I was looking for."
Plutia went wide-eyed. "Well- well- I didn't know what Neptune you were talking about. I only found out about big Neppy a short while ago!"
Ultra Neptune just looked down nervously. While her reunion with her mother had gone over well enough, deep down she still felt a little guilty about leaving without a word. And now, the guilt had come back ten-fold, as she found that her mom had asked Plutia about her, and the CPU had confused her with tiny her, long before they had ever even met. Sure, it wasn't like Plutia could find her, even if she knew to look for the right Nep, because she was off in other dimensions. But it still hurt to think about.
This is when Uzume chimed in again. "So, okay, I get it, you confused the two Nepsies. I did too, when I first met big Nepsy. But this whole thing happened six years ago, right? You've been friends with tiny Nepsy this whole time, why only bring her now?"
"Uh... I forgot," Plutia admitted.
And everyone else facepalmed.
"Yep..." Hyper Neptune replied. "Should've known Plutie would've done this..."
"You're mean!" Plutia complained.
"Well..." Hyper Neptune said, shifting towards Mercury. "I have wanted to meet big me's mom since I heard about her." And she held her hand out to the confused mother. "Glad to meet ya!"
"Y-yeah... you too," the mother replied. "My name is Mercury, but most people call me Merci."
"Neat! Do you mind if I call ya 'Nep-mom', like Plutie did?"
"...Sure, but what about YOUR mom?" Merci asked.
"Don't have one!" Neptune replied. "Well, I guess I could consider Histy as a mom... she is strict enough."
"I know, right?" Uzume chimed in. "By the way, we were just talking about getting some help from your sister?"
"Wait," Merci interjected, "you have a sister, uh... tiny... Nep?"
"Yeah! Nepgear! I think you'd love her."
"Oh, I see, I just... I'm still trying to take this all in..."
"Hey..." Ultra Neptune sounded, "yeah, hang on tiny me! I have something to show you! Give me a moment!" And she ran towards the bedrooms.
"Uh, Neptune! She's taking a nap- ...And she's gone," Merci exclaimed.
"What was that about?" tiny Neptune asked.
"You'll see," Uzume replied.
"So... what's your sister like?" Merci asked. She was curious what this... other Nepgear might've been like.
"Oh, she's super smart, and loves robots," tiny Neptune explained, "but she's also super kind and genuine. She might not look it, but she's my younger sister, and SUPER CUTE!" Then she went wide-eyed, and pointed behind everyone. "But not as cute as that!"
Turned around to look, they saw that Ultra Nep had returned with a ball of purple fluff wearing black pajamas in her arms. The fluff, who had been trying to rest on her big sister's voluptuous chest, lifted her head, revealing an adorable, tired-looking face, who was still trying to jumpstart her tiny brain and process everything around her.
...And once she took notice of the additional purplette, she pointed at her while looking up at the young lady holding her, and said, "big sis... why are you over there?"
The bigger Nep giggled at the response, while the smaller Nep walked over to check out the smallest Nep.
"Who is this cute little thing?" Hyper Neptune asked.
"Who do ya think?" Uzume replied as she walked over with everyone else.
"Nepgear!" the little girl announced proudly.
"Woah, so you've got a Nepgear, too?" Hyper Neptune replied. "She's so much smaller than mine?"
Finally, it seemed to click in the smallest purplette's mind... that there were two Neptune's. "Wait... there's two big sisses!"
"Yeah, this is me from another world," Ultra Neptune replied.
"Another world?" the little Nepgear repeated, and her older sister nodded. "So she's... 'little' big sis?"
"Little big sis! I love it!" Hyper Nep replied.
Nepgear giggled happily. "Little big sis! Little big sis!"
"Yep, Lil' Gearsy knows how to capture everyone's hearts," Uzume noted.
Nepgear then took a moment to fully take her "little big sis" in. "You don't have pillows," she told the smaller Nep.
"Um, was I supposed to?" Hyper Nep asked. "I mean, I liked napping, especially with Plutie from to time, but I wasn't planning it when coming here."
"That's... not what she meant by 'pillows'," Merci informed her... middle daughter? Is that what she was supposed to be?
"Then what's talking about?" Hyper Nep asked.
"Our boobs," her counterpart said as a matter-of-factly.
"Neptune!" Merci exclaimed. She sighed, but knew that, well, it was true, and no one could deny it. Nepgear was just simply too young to understand.
"Oh! Wow, I wonder what my... other sister would think of that. I'm pretty sure she loves big boobs, too."
"Other sister?" Nepgear asked. "Little big sis has more sisters?"
The smaller Neptune was thinking of a response, when Plutia spoke up. "You know... if Nepgear likes pillows, I could transform and-"
"No!" Everyone shouted at her, with Nepgear covering her little ears.
"You're mean," Plutia complained.
"I mean, Plutsy, you know that Lil' Gearsy prefers you in this form, right?" Uzume informed her.
"Oh... yeah, that makes sense," Hyper Nep said nervously. She began to wonder if something happened between Plutia and the little Nepgear, and got a bit concerned about it, considering that she knew what happened to the Ultra IF years ago. But she decided it was probably best not to ask.
"Perhaps we should discuss something else," Merci interjected. "Tiny Neptune... uh..."
"If you want to call me something else," Hyper Nep intervened, "then you could call me Nep, Neppy, Nep-Nep, whatever. I don't mind!"
"Okay, um, Nep, are planning on staying?"
"Well... I would like to hang out in this dimension for a while, and hang out with you guys. But I'll probably stay at Plutie's." Then approached her friends." It's been so long since I hung out with you guys. And I want to get to know the other me's family."
"Hey, it's only been about a month or so," Uzume claimed.
"Yeah, but you know, you're me, right?" Ultra Nep added. "So my family is your family!"
"Yay! Little big sis!" Nepgear cheered.
"Oh my goodness..." Merci said exasperated. She wasn't sure how to take all of this. She did at least understand why her daughter said that, the two of them were very close friends, and they were, of course, basically the same person. And she didn't hate the idea, she just didn't how to handle it. "So... perhaps we should have a... family outing while you're here."
"Yeah, that sounds SO fun!" Hyper Nep exclaimed. "What should we do!?"
"We should go to my water park~!" Plutia offered.
"Huh?"
"Well, yes, I have heard that a new water park opened up near the southern edge of the city," Merci explained. "I suppose lady Plutia here must've requested its construction."
"Yep! It sounded super fun, so I wanted to try it out!" Plutia explained.
"Of course it's going to be super fun!" Hyper Nep replied. "That was an excellent choice. We should totally go!"
"Yeah, it definitely sounds like a good time," Uzume added.
"What do you think, little sis?" Ultra Nep asked the girl in her arms.
"Water park! Water park!" she cheered.
"Wonderful! We should go tomorrow, then!" Merci said.
"But I wanna go now!" little Nepgear pouted.
"Honey..." Merci said softly, "we're not all ready to go right at this moment, especially me. I have some important stuff I need to do today. Besides, you need to finish your nap."
"But I wanna play with big sis and little big sis! And Uzie! And Mr. Fishy!"
"Hey, we can hang out tomorrow," Hyper Nep told her.
Merci sighed, because if this Neptune was like hers, then she thought she would've encouraged her youngest to stay up. But quite the opposite. "You must be good with kids, Nep."
"Yeah, I love kids. And I have some experience taking care of them, too. Well, anyway, I'll see you guys later, big me, Nep-mom, Uzume. I got to go get myself a cute swimsuit! Say hi to Uzume to me!"
"Bye!" Plutia said as she left with the smaller Neptune.
Big Neptune smiled. "Well, I ALSO need to get a cute swimsuit, too!" she exclaimed as she began to grab her stuff so she could go shopping. "Coming, Uzume?"
"Yeah, Uzume's going to find the cutest swimsuit," the redhead replied in her cutesy voice, getting overly excited with the idea of finding nice swimwear.
"I hope you two have fun shopping!" Merci said as the girls left. Neptune had handed her little sister to her mother before leaving, so she told her youngest daughter, "time to put you back to bed."
"Okay... mommy..." the little girl replied. She was too young to fully understand, but she was feeling tired.
The next day, everyone who had made their way had gathered together in their swimsuits, from Uzume and the Neptunes in bikinis (much to Merci's annoyance), to Plutia and Mercury in their one-pieces. Plutia had also brought Peashy and Histoire, while of course, Uzume brought Umio, and Big Nep even brought Croire along.
While Mercury was trying to get floaties on Nepgear and Peashy, Big Nep and Umio had to explain to Plutia and Histoire about Croire. Apparently, Croire had a history in the Ultradimension, and while Histoire could figure that the Neptune who originated from this dimension probably met the dark fairy shortly after they had last seen her, given what she had been responsible for.
But Ultra Neptune had promised that Croire was fine. ...As long as she played nice.
"...And no making my little sister upset!" Ultra Neptune finished. "I especially don't want you to be facing any bad words around her."
"Geez, I should've known Darksty would've been so mean to my little sister," Hyper Neptune added in.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it..." Croire replied. She wasn't planning on getting on everyone's bad side, because, A. She was trapped in that desk for so long, she was just happy to be out, and B. If she made Nepgear upset... then everyone would be upset...
...Including Plutia. She was still stuck in the Nep-Note, and she knew an angry Iris Heart would stop at nothing to get her hands on the book. She didn't really want to get her pages wet, but this was MUCH better than that other possibility.
"Okay, as long as you get it," Ultra Nep said.
"I'm not sure how I feel about a Neptune keep an eye on something as important as... her," Histoire replied. "But at least she's stuck in that book."
"I think you can trust her," Umio told the tiny fairy. "She's been... 'friends' with Croire for a while now."
"Yeah, you can trust big me, Mini-Histy!" Hyper Nep added. "She's super trustworthy."
"Coming from you, that doesn't make me any more confident," Histoire countered.
"Aw, come on. You're not trusting her JUST because she's me!"
"Yes, yes I am."
At that moment, Nepgear and Peashy came running over with their floaties on.
"Big sis, big sis! I got swimmies!" Nepgear cried out. She had purple floaties on her shoulders with a black one-piece swimsuit with a little skirt.
"Pea's are better!" Peashy countered. She had blue floaties with a flowery yellow swimsuit.
"Yeah, well you're pee!" Nepgear replied with little kid snark.
"Yes I am!" the young goddess replied, not understanding what Nepgear had said.
The Neptunes then began snickering. "Ooh, I get it," the smaller of the two noted.
"What so funny!?" Peashy shouted.
Mercury sighed. "Nepgear..." she sounded as she glared at her daughters.
"H-h-hey, it's not my fault! I d-didn't say anything like that to her!" Ultra Neptune replied between chuckles.
Merci continued to give her unhappy look, but she did at least acknowledge that it might've not been her daughter's fault. "Fine."
"Come on~!" Plutia then called out. "Let's go swimming!"
"Yeah!" the little kids shouted as they began to follow the sleepy goddess.
"W-we should probably go after them," Histoire said. "We don't want the kids... or Plutia... to... drown."
"I get the kids, but why are you worried Plutia drowning?" Uzume asked. "What, do you think she'll fall asleep in the water?"
Histoire just looked at her, eyes narrowed.
"Yeah, we should make sure they're alright," Uzume decided.
As Uzume and Histoire ran after the kids, along with Mercury and Umio, the Neptunes stayed back to chill and talk a bit.
"...So," Hyper Nep started. "what's... you Nepgear like?"
"Well, she's super cute, a real sweet and innocent girl," Ultra Nep replied. "Though, she's very curious. Too curious for her own good. She's taken many a toaster and such, and tried taking them apart."
"Oh, so she likes tech. Yep, she sure sounds like my Nepgear, just a lot younger."
"Oh yeah, I'm sure she'll love robots when she gets older."
"Has she watched any cartoons with robots?"
"I... don't know. But I'm sure she'd love them! I'd have to find some for her. ...Gosh, now that I think about it, I don't know what shows are popular in my world."
"Eh-heh-heh... we should catch up with everyone..."
"Definitely."
Once everyone had caught up with the kids and Plutia (who was definitely about to fall asleep in the water), the kids immediately ran up to the Neptunes.
"Big sis! Big sis! Swim with me!" Nepgear called out.
"Um... which one...?" Hyper Neptune asked.
"Both!"
"No! Pea wants a Neptuna!" Peashy called out. "Pea wants the big one!"
"Wait, wha...?" Ultra Nep replied. She really didn't want to play with the crazy strong kid.
"Hey, P-Ko, maybe she's not tough enough to play with you," Hyper Nep said, not aware that her counterpart was a little afraid of the kid CPU.
"No, I want little big sis!" Nepgear cried.
"Geez, why don't all four of you just swim together," Uzume called out from the other side of the pool with an almost teasing voice. She was swimming with Umio, who was now, truly in his element.
"Yeah, let's do that!" And the smaller of the Neps began swimming by the little kids. Ultra Neptune just smiled nervously and shrugged, placed her Nep-Note in her inventory (so it couldn't get wet. She'd have to find something fun for Croire to do a bit later), and followed her doppelganger, little sister, and... uh, Peashy, into the water.
As the older purplette caught up, the others began playing in the water. Nepgear at some point jumped on her "little big sis's" back, and shouted, "swim, sea-horsie!"
Hyper Neptune just took this in stride, and leaned down, ready to rocket off in the water. "Okay, but you better hold on!" And then the two of them zoomed.
Ultra Neptune giggled at the sight of her sister enjoying time with the other her...
When Peashy decided to follow suit and jumped on the older purplette.
"Go! Go! Go!" Peashy shouted, but Ultra Nep was too freaked out to do anything.
"Hey, hey, calm down!" she countered back, as Peashy was being very rough.
"Hey! Peashy!" Uzume called out. "Why don't you come play with me!"
Oh, thank goodness, Uzume is here to save the day!
"NO! I want a Neptuna!" Peashy replied.
"Um... then..." Uzume wasn't sure how to respond.
No! you were so close!
The smaller Nep swam by, with Nepgear still on her back, and whispered in the redhead's ear. Uzume nodded, and came over...
To start tickling Peashy!
"No! St-stop!" Peashy cried as she got tickled off of the Neptune she climbed onto. "Pea's t-t-ticklish!"
"No! You're bothering big Nepsy! So Uzume's gonna tickle until you promise to stop bothering her!" Uzume said in her cutesy voice, partially on purpose.
"N-no! P-pea wants big Neptuna-a!"
"Then Uzume's gonna keep tickling!"
As the two were still in their one-sided tickling match, Ultra Neptune slowly swam away.
"Be careful, L- Uzume!" Merci called out. "Don't let her fall under the water!" Then she turned to her daughter. "She's quite the kid, isn't she?"
"Yeah..." Neptune replied, as she turned to watch her counterpart paddle around with her little sister. "Honestly, I prefer Nepgear's curiosity and need to take things apart compared to Peashy's rough play and... crazy strength."
"I personally don't agree. The stuff Nepgear takes apart is expensive," her mother replied. "...But I can see why it's preferable to the strength of a literal child CPU... who would just break everything instead..."
"You're trying to defend her because she's a goddess, right?"
Merci sighed. "Hard to do when certainly acts like a kid. I wonder how difficult it is for Lady Histoire to keep her under control normally."
"Good thing Nepgear hasn't tried to grab Histy again."
"I think she's too enamored with there being another you. I know I'm still trying to process that. But once that interest wears off..." Merci trailed off.
"Maybe her interest in the 'book fairy' will fade too..." Neptune replied. "Besides, she's not going to be a kid forever."
"True."
At that moment, Umio swam up and exclaimed, "um, there is something that I can't do myself, and..." He pointed over to Plutia, whose eyes were closed and was slowly slipping under the water.
"Plutia!" "Lady Plutia!" Ultra Neptune and Mercury respectively shouted at the same time, as they immediately swam over to rescue the sleeping goddess.
After a good swim, and then going to get a nice meal (which Croire appreciated), everyone decided to split up. The Ultradimensoin CPUs wanted to go try some of the rides, while Nepgear wanted the Neptunes to take her to down some of the slides, and Uzume, Umio, and Merci decided to join them. (Peashy almost changed her mind, but at that point, Histoire had said that she had to go with her and Plutia.)
As the group approached the slides, they could only be impressed. "Wow, Plutia did not skimp out," Hyper Neptune exclaimed.
They were fairly tall for water slides, many different tubes and half-tubes weaving into and around each other, all opening up into a large pool at the end. One slide even had a loop-de-loop. Their name was "Hydro Velocity Slides".
"Are they safe?" Mercury had to ask.
"I'll go first," Uzume offered. If something's wrong, I'll just transform and fly to safety. Besides, if it is dangerous, then awesome, I like danger!"
"Fair enough," Umio replied, as the group began to climb the stairs up.
"So... who do you want to ride with?" Merci asked the little Nepgear.
The young purplette turned back and forth between everyone, and decided, "I want little big sis!"
Ultra Neptune laughed. "I guess she's super enamored with you!"
"Yeah, I just want to gobble her up!" her counterpart replied.
They got to the top, and as they agreed, Uzume went first, along with Umio.
"See ya at the bottom!" she said, as she slipped down the slide.
She seemed to enjoy herself as everyone watched. And it definitely looked safe.
Two more slides opened up for turns, and the Neptunes turned to each other.
"Race?" the smaller one asked.
"Race," the bigger one agreed.
"Um, are you sure that you really can-" Merci started, but her daughters were already choosing their slides, Nepgear going with the Hyper Nep.
"Ready..." Ultra Nep said as she sat down, ready to ride.
"Set..." Hyper Nep continued, getting Nepgear well seated in her lap.
"Slide! Slide!" Nepgear excitedly exclaimed, fully ready to go down.
And the Neps shot down the tubes. The three girls screamed in excitement and joy, as they slipped-n'-slid down the waterways. The tubes twisted around each other, and the girls made their way to the pool below.
And Hyper Nep and little Nepgear shot out first, laughing as they submerged into the water.
As Ultra Nep exited behind them, she looked over with accepted defeat and amusement. "Man, I thought I had the advantage."
"I guess we picked the right slide," the counterpart Nep replied.
"Was it me or the length of the slide? Honestly, we were pretty close."
As the Neps discussed their "race", Nepgear made her way out of the water. As fun as it was, falling under the water wasn't as fun, and the little girl just wanted to get out of the water for a moment.
She swam out with her little floaties, and climbed out the pool (not hard, since the was a slope gently going up and out). She found herself next to a couple of other kids, young boys who were playing around a bit, being a bit rambunctious.
Being the friendly girl she was, Nepgear waved and said hi to the boys.
They looked over, and seemed to look annoyed. "Why do YOU get cotton candy!?" one of them cried out, pointing in her direction.
Nepgear was confused. There was cotton candy? She wanted some! She turned around, where the boys were pointing... and found there was no cotton candy to be seen!
"Where is it? Where's the cotton candy?" the little girl asked, wanting to know where the snackies were. And instead, she found the kid boys running towards her. "Huh?"
And the boys reached her... and began pulling on her hair!
"Ow! Owie! Stop!" Nepgear cried.
"Give! Give us some!" the boys shouted, only confusing the distressed girl.
Nepgear tried to push them away, only to find herself tackled to the ground by the rambunctious boys.
"Help! Help!" Nepgear cried as her hair was continually pulled on.
And then... by Plutia's grace, the boys were pulled back. And Nepgear's heroes were, indeed, her bigger sisters!
"Geez... we look away for one second," Hyper Neptune said to herself, but directed to the smaller purplette.
"So, what do you two think you were doing to our little sister!?" Ultra Neptune demanded.
"She has cotton candy! We want some!" one of the boys angrily shouted.
The Nep's looked over to Nepgear, and, of course, the little girl had no cotton candy.
"What cotton candy!?" Hyper Nep exclaimed, trying to not let her growing hunger take over. She really wanted cotton candy now.
"That purple stuff!" the other boy replied, before looking closer at the girls. "You have it too! Give us some!"
The two girls just held the boys away from them as they looked at each other.
"Do you think they're talking about our hair?" Hyper Nep asked.
Ultra Nep took a deep breath. "Okay, that 'purple stuff?' That's our hair, not cotton candy. I mean, it's on our heads," she explained. "It's might look tasty, but it's not food."
"I eat my sister's hair!" one of the boys countered.
"Geez, okay," Hyper Nep responded. "Can we agree that these boys must be just the worst?"
"Yeah, their parents must be so stressed, dealing with these little obnoxious brats," her older counterpart replied.
The two girls began calling out for whoever the kid's parents were, just as Merci came out from the slides herself.
"Of course, I just had to pick the one with the loop-de-loop!" She exclaimed as she took a moment to recollect herself, and then climbed out of the water, noticing her daughter and daughter's counterpart talking to some parents about their kids for something. "Hey, what's going on here?" she asked the duo as the parents went away to discipline their kids.
"Those boys were pulling on Nepgear's hair!" Ultra Nep replied.
"They thought it looked like cotton candy," Hyper Nep added.
"Oh, I hope she's okay. Um-" Merci replied before stopping, realizing something.
At that moment, Uzume and Umio came up. "Hey, guys! Sorry we skipped off," Uzume exclaimed. "The slide was pretty safe... and I figured you could tell... so I wanted to go explore a bit. Did you know they have cotton candy here?" And the redhead lifted up her fluffy treat, taking a bite out of it.
...And the Neps both facepalmed.
"What!?" Uzume exclaimed
"Nothing, just... some bad timing," Hyper Neptune replied.
"Um, girls, where is Nepgear?" Merci spoke up.
Immediately, everyone began looking around. And sure enough, the smallest purplette was nowhere to be seen.
"Did she wander off again!?" Uzume exclaimed.
"I thought she would've been on the ground crying," Ultra Neptune replied. "I guess you really can't predict kids."
"Does... this happen often?" Hyper Neptune asked.
Ultra Neptune tried to formulate an answer, but could only come up with, "...Yeah."
"Well, we best find her before she gets herself in trouble again," Umio exclaimed.
"Yeah, she couldn't have gotten far," Ultra Neptune added.
And with that, everyone ran off to find the youngest purplette of the group.
While the confusing boys had made Nepgear very upset, ...she really wanted cotton candy more, and had wandered off in order to find the elusive treat.
And... the little girl managed to get herself lost.
She was wandering among lots of other people, playing around in the water attractions, or just moving about.
It didn't seem like she'd be lost for long, as she heard her sisters, mommy, as well as Uzie and Mr. Fishy, all of them calling her name.
She turned to dash after her family, but then a large shadow briefly fell on her. She looked up, but whatever it was, it was gone again.
The little purplette tilted her head as she wondered what it was that cast that shadow. She looked around trying to find whatever it was... and she then found something interesting...
"There she is!" Uzume called out, pointing towards the little girl so her friends could see her.
"Uzie! Bird!" Nepgear shouted back, pointing upwards.
"Yeah! I get it. There are lots of birds around... maybe," Uzume replied, realizing that she hadn't seen a lot of birds around here. Maybe because it was very loud in the park, or water was flying everywhere. But what she failed to realize is that it was more than just some bird...
Uzume reached out her arms, saying, "okay, come to Uzie, Nepgear-"
Suddenly there was a massive blur of feathers, a scream, and then Nepgear was gone.
Uzume remained still with her arms still outstretched for about five seconds, before falling to her knees and shouting, "the F***!"
Everyone else who had been following Uzume, both Neptunes, Mercury, and Umio, were equally stunned, just starting at the large creature that just kidnapped the youngest member of their family. Meanwhile, the other park-goers who just happened to be around at the moment began to freak out, as they hadn't failed to notice that a large monster just appeared out of nowhere and stole a kid.
"What the nep, dude..." Hyper Nep finally exclaimed in disbelief.
"The FIRST time Lil' Gearsy wandered off, she got kidnapped by a giant beastie!" Uzume shouted in a mix of shock and anger. "We did NOT want or NEED a repeat of that!"
"Wait!" Ultra Neptune spoke up. "Isn't that... the bird from that high priority quest?"
Uzume blinked, and responded as she realized... "well, s***!"
"Can... you guys fill me in?" Hyper Neptune asked.
Ultra Neptune tried to give her counterpart the short version, since this was an emergency, but despite that, Mercury... who had just been staring in the direction of the bird, like the rest of them, suddenly got an angry and determined expression...
And then she suddenly just started running with immense adrenaline in the direction of the massive avian!
"Huh- mom!" Ultra Neptune exclaimed as her mom just ran off suddenly.
"Nep-mom, what are you doing!?" Hyper Neptune shouted towards Merci.
"I've already let my little girl get kidnapped by a monster once, and couldn't do anything about it!" the mother shouted back as her voice started to fade in the distance. "I'm NOT letting it happen again!"
"Wh-what...?" Ultra Neptune sounded.
"I suppose it's good to have the initiative here," Umio said. "This really isn't the time for deliberation."
"B-but she doesn't have any weapons... or really know how to fight..."
"Well, then, what are we waiting for!?" Uzume exclaimed, recollecting herself, getting up and addressing her distressed friend. "Your little sister is in trouble! Your MOM'S going to get herself into trouble! There is absolutely no reason to just stand around!" and the redhead charged off after Merci.
"W-wait, what about our plan to get some Candidate assistance!?" the older Nep shouted back to her friend.
"No time for that!" Uzume shouted back as she kept running.
The two Neps looked at each other, nodded, and then they, along with Umio chased after their friend and mother, planning to save their little sister!
...A few moments later, as the park-goers were starting to calm down and access what happened, a sleepy Plutia came onto the scene, having no idea what was happening. "What's going on...? Why does everyone look freaked out...?"
Author's Note: So I want to start really quickly to apologize to Plutia. On the writing level, I feel like such a bully to her this chapter! Honestly, I'm just writing her character in the best way I think to make sense, but... she's not the brightest character (outside her HDD form), so I ended up writing her just being completely oblivious. The plot point of her failing to realize which Neptune Mercury wanted was planned this whole time, but everything else... I came up with all that while writing this. So, sorry Plutia, I'll try to be kinder to you in future chapters.
(But, no, she and Peashy will not be helping out next chapter. That was the point of Plutia popping at the end of the chapter, not knowing what was going on.)
So, the original Neptune has finally met the Smolgear! As for the original Nepgear... eh, she'll appear sometime later. Not for the big bird fight.
If you think that my mention of the Candidates was a tease for their appearance... it wasn't. It was nothing more than logical thinking. They could be a help, but they won't end up doing that. It's not that they won't appear in the story, just not during this mini-arc.
But back to the Neps. I just want to say, the sentence "The bigger Nep giggled at the response, while the smaller Nep walked over to check out the smallest Nep"... I am super proud of this sentence. It is an excellent sentence!
But I will say, writing "Hyper Neptune" and "Ultra Neptune" a lot was starting to get on my nerves. In post-editing, I shortened most of them to just use "Nep", but still... pretty annoying. But eh, that's what you have to deal with when writing.
Going to the water park, let's go to Peashy. I just had to bring back up that Ultra Nep, while she doesn't hate Peashy, is still nervous around the ludicrously strong child. As for the little rivalry between Smolgear and Peashy, I don't know where that came from. I mean, Peashy calls herself "Pea", and another kid could easily make fun of that. But really, I wasn't planning on that, heck, I barely even considered it after writing it.
Going to the water slides, honestly, if you think they were too dangerous, particularly for a kid... really, you're not wrong, but in this series, doesn't really matter. Weird, out-of-this-world happens all the time in this series, and everyone finds themselves in wacky and often dangerous situations, regardless of their age. So I don't think it matters. Plus, it's Planeptune, with its sci-fi level technology, so maybes it's safer than it seems. Really, I just wanted to make a brief Sonic reference, with the loop-de-loop and zone name. (by the way, I actually pronounce it Hydrocity, like Velocity, but I don't care how others pronounce it. Tomato, tomoto, I say.)
Neptune and Nepgear's hair... honestly, tell that does NOT remind you of cotton candy. I mean, who wouldn't want to eat that. Well, okay, I'm an adult, so I'm old enough to know not to eat hair, and for me personally, I don't like cotton candy. I don't like the texture. But Neptune's hair DOES look like cotton candy. I just wanted to make a scene about that (even if it meant making some bratty kids).
Also, you want to know something I find funny. So, Neptune, she's named after the canceled SEGA console, right? Well, that's obviously named after the planet, which is then named after the Roman god of the sea (his Greek counterpart being Posiden). It would make sense that this would make HDN Neptune a good swimmer, and she is! You can see it in the manga and stuff.
But Neptune also is made to represent SEGA, whose flagship character is Sonic the Hedgehog. And his weakness is that he can't swim! So, Neptune represents someone who can't swim, but she herself is an excellent swimmer! That's just funny!
And lastly, that giant bird. Why a giant bird? Eh, I kind of wanted to add one. Kind of got the idea from the Kirby anime, which I watched as a kid (and, yes, I know that bird, Dyna Blade, is from the Kirby games, I just haven't really played classic Kirby, mostly the modern games. As a Sonic fan... that's kind of weird to say...). The main reason wasn't to set another Nepgear kidnapping just for the heck of it, but to set something up for the next chapter.
And what is that? Well, consider this. Mercury has met Hyper Neptune, but there is something that she has yet to see...
Welp, you'll just have to wait to find out what in the next chapter! (Oh, who am I kidding, everyone already knows what I'm talking about.)