Chapter 17: Catty in Lastation
"Neptune, I'm not sure about this," Merci said.
Uzume had just gotten a call from Histoire, asking her if she could meet with Noire in Lastation. The black goddess had something important she wanted to discuss with the other CPUs.
Uzume had planned to just transform and fly there, but Neptune decided that she wanted to come, and figured that she could use Croire to get there quickly. Umio agreed, and noted that since Neptune first met the dark fairy in this dimension, she might already be familiar with the nation in this world.
There was just one snafu...
"Come on, I'm sure Nepgear would it!" Neptune explained. "She loved Lowee, I think she'd love Lastation even more!"
"I wouldn't disagree," Uzume mused.
"Even still, I'm not comfortable with this," Merci replied. "For one, I don't trust your 'friend' and her abilities. I know that your Nep-Note puts the control of her power in your hands, but going through portals of darkness? That sounds terrifying! Not to mention... what if she tries to make Nepgear upset again?"
"Well, Croisty's power is not that bad, and I can get her to play nice!" Neptune assured.
"Even if that was true, what about Nepgear herself? You know she's hard to control. I can't come this time, I put in a lot of effort to get time off for Lowee. Also, last I checked, Lastation is a cyber nation. That might make her overexcited."
"I'll be sure to keep an eye on her! Big sister is on the case!"
"Big sis! Big sis!" Nepgear cheered, as she listened in.
"Alright, now explain to me this," Merci started. "This is business with the CPUs. Do you think that this is an appropriate situation for a kid like your sister to be a part of?"
Neptune just looked away, nervously starching her cheek.
"That is a very good point," Umio chimed in. "Uzume, did Histoire explain why Noire wanted to see you?"
"No, but, uh... she didn't mention anything dangerous," Uzume replied. "I'd think she'd tell me if it was, and be a lot more urgent about it."
Merci sighed. "Neptune, I don't think she should go."
That's when Nepgear herself piped, crying, "I wanna go! I wanna go!"
Neptune put her hands on her sister's shoulders to get her to calm down. "Come on, I think it'll be fine! It'll only be for the weekend, and I'll make sure she's before the school night."
Merci stopped to think about it, and then conceded. "Fine, you can take her. But make absolutely sure that you two behave and keep out of trouble. And if this CPU business seems even slightly dangerous, you stay out of it!"
"Of course! Don't worry, your oldest daughter is on it! Let me grab Croisty." And Neptune ran to her room.
Uzume smiled. "So, Lil' Gearsy, you ready to see Lastation?"
"Yeah! Yeah!" And Nepgear hopped up and down in excitement.
"Wow," Uzume exclaimed, looking up as they arrived. The city they found themselves in was impressive, a cyberpunk city with a metallic, cyber-grid-like roof with glass panels fixed in them. The Basilicom of the national city was designed to look like glassy wings, shining in the daylight.
"So cool!" Nepgear exclaimed, as she ran over to look over the mechanical fencing spanning the raised walkway they appeared on.
Coire groaned. She wasn't super happy, but at least she was out. She had lost count of the days that the group had arrived in the Ultradimension, as she was mostly stuck locked in Mercury's desk. Neptune came by every so often to let her out, and give her some food, since she knew the d*** book she was trapped in drained her energy. But it also came with her trying to convince her to be nice to her sister.
The dark tome didn't want to be nice to the stupid brat, but at this point, she didn't have the mental energy to argue. Even still, she was not looking forward to the upcoming "reunion".
"Well, Noire is waiting, so we should get going," Umio said.
"Yeah. Come on, Nepgear," Neptune called out.
The kid hopped down and followed, as the group tried to find their way to the Basilicom's entrance, which didn't take long.
Coming inside, the receptionist asked, "hello, do you have an appointment."
"Oh, uh, I'm Orange Heart, the visiting CPU," Uzume answered. "Noire wanted to see the CPUs?"
"Orange Heart? Yes, I've heard of you. I thought the CPUs... Hang on, let me call her."
The receptionist quickly dialed presumably Noire. There was a brief conversation, explain who was there. She then lowered her phone quickly to ask, "can I ask who your friends are?"
"Oh yeah, Neptune and her sister, Nepgear," Uzume replied. "And of course, Umio, my closest companion."
"Yep, this Nep is Neptune!" the older purplette proudly exclaimed.
"Nepgear! Is... uh... Nep...gear," the little purplette tried to add.
"How adorable," Umio replied, before turning back to the receptionist. "I am Umio. I know, my... appearance is odd."
"Oh... I see. And uh, do you mean Purple Heart and Purple Sister?" the receptionist replied. Then she whispered to herself, "I thought Purple Sister was supposed to be older."
"Um, no, hold on for a-" Uzume tried to correct her, but the receptionist had already put her phone back up.
"Yes, it seems she brought Purple Heart and Purple Sister," she said into the phone. "Uh huh. Okay, I'll send them up."
Uzume and Neptune looked at each other. Whelp, too late to correct her now.
The group was led to the elevator, and they were sent up, and then further guided to Black Heart's office.
Inside, they met the Ultradimension's Lastation goddess, this time, fully clothed, in her gray top showing her midriff, detached sleeves, black pleated skirt, blue knew socks, and dark gray boots.
She looked over, and sighed. "I should've known that I wouldn't be so lucky. Though, this might be better."
"...What do you mean?" Uzume asked.
"I thought that it was the other Neptune and Nepgear," she explained.
"Oh, yeah, we tried to correct your receptionist, but she was already calling to tell you it was Purple Heart."
"Why are they here? And where is Plutia? I thought you were in Planeptune?"
"'Cause we wanted to come," Neptune told Noire. "And we used Croisty to get here."
"Croisty?" Noire replied.
"Yeah." And Neptune pulled out her Nep-Note to show the twin-tailed CPU the dark fairy.
Noire was in shock for a moment, and exclaimed, "you!"
"Hey," Coire replied, disinterested. Yeah, this was going to go as well as she thought.
"You know each other?" Neptune asked.
"Yes, she's caused us trouble before."
Neptune sighed. "Yeah, that makes sense."
"Don't worry, miss Croire is trapped in the book, and can't easily get out," Umio told her. "And the book allows Neptune to use her powers, so that's how we got here."
"Oh right, Croire said she could travel between worlds," Noire responded. "I guess that explains how you got here so quickly, and... you used the reception. ...Can't see why you didn't just come straight here... well, that might've been a bad surprise... Anyway, normally the CPUs will arrive on my balcony. So... I'm guessing you didn't leave with Plutia?"
"No," Uzume said. "Were we supposed to?"
"Well, you know how she is..." Noire trailed off. "Regardless, I hope you're right about Croire being stuck in there."
"I agree," a voice replied behind them.
Everyone jumped in surprise, and turned to find Blanc standing there.
"Blanc! Wh-when did you get here?" Noire cried.
"I arrived on the balcony, like you were expecting," the Lowee goddess replied to Noire. "The door was open, and I've been here since you started talking about Croire."
"'Sup Blanc," Uzume greeted with a smile. "How ya doin'?"
Blanc smiled back. "Much better, thank you."
"It's Blond, it's Blond!" Nepgear exclaimed as she ran up to the goddess.
That caused Blanc's eye to twitch as she was instantly annoyed.
"Have you guys... met before?" Noire asked.
"Yeah, we just recently visited Lowee," Neptune replied.
Noire huffed. "Really, you guys meet me first, and yet you go visit Lowee before my nation!?"
"Well, to be fair, it was more a familial visit," Umio explained. "A lot happened."
Noire sighed, "whatever. We're just waiting for Plutia now."
"You were saying?" a voice spoke up.
Looking over, Plutia had arrived, along with Peashy and Histoire, who was the one who spoke.
"Hi, everyone~!" Plutia greeted.
"Oh, hey Plutia! Histy!" Neptune replied.
Nepgear and Peashy started glaring at each other, but Neptune pulled her sister closer to herself, and Histoire told the blonde kid to go play with some toys she brought.
After some quick greetings and re-explaining to the new arrivals about Croire (since Histoire also asked about how Uzume got here so fast), Noire asked, "so... did you get a response from Vert? She's the only one who has yet to say she was coming."
Histoire shook her head. "It would seem she's busy today."
"I bet you she's just playing games," Blanc remarked.
"...I guess that Vertsy is just like the Vertsy from my world," Uzume replied. "Still, it's kind of disappointing. She's the only CPU from this world we've yet to meet."
"Eh, well..." Blanc looked away nervously
"Hm?"
"It's nothing."
"Well if Vert's not coming, then we should get started," Noire interjected. "Mister Badd, bring it in?"
Blanc scoffed. Uzume noticed and raised an eyebrow.
That's when a middle-aged man with thinning gray hair, wearing thick-rimmed, square glasses, a navy-blue business suit with a black tie which was patterned with blue circles, and black dress shoes. And he was carrying a briefcase.
"Lady Noire, as you requested," the man said.
"'Mister Badd'?" Neptune asked. "Was he a 'bad guy'? Like, literally?"
"Yeah, I agree. That is an odd name," Uzume agreed.
"He was that traitorous advisor I told you about. My previous Prime Minister actually," Blanc explained.
"Baddy! Baddy!" Nepgear exclaimed
"I have reformed!" Mister Badd defended. "I live only for my family now. Though I understand why Lady Blanc might have a low opinion of me."
Blanc looked as if she wanted to berate the man, but Uzume got in the way. "Whatever happened, it looks like everyone's moved on."
"Thank you," Mister Badd said. "You must be Lady Uzume, the visiting goddess. And you two must be the other Neptune and Nepgear. Noire has spoken to me about you at length."
"Aw, we must've left an impression!" Neptune exclaimed.
"So, Noire, what is it you wanted to discuss with us?" Histoire stepped in.
"This." And Noire opened up the briefcase, revealing a partially-dismantled raygun device.
Uzume was the first to react. "...That's a gun. Sorry, that's more of Uni's thing, back in my world. I don't know anything about this stuff."
"Wooni!" Nepgear exclaimed.
"Uh, yeah, her..." Uzume said, confused by the... pronunciation. It wasn't like the little purplette had met the Candidate, and Nepgear was pretty good at speaking, for the most part.
"So, did you just bring us here to show your new line of weapons?" Blanc asked, annoyed.
"Yeah, I'd rather sleep..." Plutia chimed in.
"No. This is not the work of my engineers," Noire corrected. "I was involved with the taking down of a small criminal group recently. This was recovered during the takedown, and it seems that they were trying to develop the tech themselves."
Norie put the weapon down on the table, before continuing, "I've had it partially dismantled here, for our safety, but I was just going to have it fully dismantled, and just forget about it. But my engineers, as well as Mister Badd, once he heard about this, had concerns. It's possible that the group we took down was just a small sect of a larger problem, and that this weapon could resurface, and that could be bad. So they wanted to figure out what it's supposed to do. And well, who could disagree with that?"
"So, what does this have to do this us?" Histoire asked.
"I concur," Umio added in. "I understand that might want us to be made aware of this, just in case we might encounter this ourselves, but then why did we all have to be gathered here?"
"Because," Noire sighed, " I need your help. See, we can't figure out what it's supposed to do. Before dismantling it, we tested it, and... well, it 'worked', it fired beams of something. But it had no effect."
"And you're positive that it just wasn't finished?" Blanc inquired.
"Maybe, but the design is intricate. And it LOOKS done," Noire replied. "I would like to be sure."
"What did you test it on?" Histoire asked.
"Dummy robots," Noire answered.
"Well... maybe it only works on living things," Neptune offered.
"Oh, yeah, that's super smart, Neppy!" Plutia agreed.
"And that's the problem. I don't WANT to test on anything living," Noire exclaimed. "I don't want to put anyone in harm's way, and what if it does something horrible!?"
"Did you consider asking for volunteers?" Blanc asked.
"...There are just some things you should never consider," Noire replied, almost harshly.
Blanc's gaze turned away. "Yeah, I can see why that was stupid. Forget I suggested that."
"So, um, maybe we could ask Gearsy?" Uzume offered.
The little girl walked over to pull herself to look on the table, to look at the gun. "It goes shooty!"
"Hey, that's really smart!" Uzume congratulated the kid, trying to make her happy.
Nepgear smiled at her success.
"We are not seriously going to consider the opinions of a child!?" Mister Badd exclaimed. "Do not misunderstand, I love my daughters, but I know better than to rely on a child's intellect."
"I think she meant the Nepgear from our world," Umio said. "As in the CPU Candidate. Technology is her forte, after all."
"...Oh, that makes more sense, forgive me."
"So, that it then," Blanc said. "You need a different goddess, so we came here for nothing. I mean, I certainly can't figure this kind of thing out."
"Yeah, I'm bored," Plutia said.
Noire was starting to get annoyed. "Well, I was hoping you could help."
"Look, I got Croisty. I could just go get my sister from another world," Neptune offered. "Plus, I'm sure the little one would love to see her bigger self again!"
Defeated, Noire said, "okay, let's go get Nepg-"
Suddenly, there was a bright flash, and Noire got knocked over.
In shock, everyone looked over, finding Nepgear, holding the now put-back-together raygun, its lighting glowing softly.
"I fixed it!" the little girl proudly exclaimed.
Blanc summed up everyone's feelings about this sudden development. "F***..."
Neptune, nervous about what her sister might do, approached slowly and softly said, "Hey, sis, why don't you give me that."
"No!" the girl excitedly said, and she ran off!
The only person in the way was Mister Badd, but he was too slow to catch the little purplette as she escaped the room.
"...This is not good," Histoire exclaimed.
"Oh, mom is going so mad," Neptune said. "She's only allowed to be here if she behaved."
"Noiresy?" Uzume said, showing concern for the dropped goddess.
The twin-tailed CPU started to get up. She didn't look hurt, but... something was off.
As she got up, Uzume noticed a pair of... furry triangles on her head. And there a something long, black and furry sticking out her back, swaying slightly.
"Uh... Noiresy? You have a... um..." Uzume stumbled.
Blanc looked over, and immediately sweatdropped. "What the f*..."
"What!? Is something on my face, nya?" Noire exclaimed.
Everyone else then looked over, wondering why Noire would say "nya", and was surprised. It was Mister Badd who explained, "Not your face! The top of your head!"
Upon hearing this, Noire felt the top of her head. ...And the triangles that were standing proud.
The black goddess started to freak out as she felt her new appendages, and that's when noticed the tail that began to brush against her furniture.
"Wha-wha-wha-huh!" she cried out.
Neptune gave a nervous smile. "You... became a cat girl."
"A cat girl, nya!" Noire screamed.
"I guess that's settled. The gun just makes... cat girls," Uzume nervously replied.
"Ahem!" an annoyed voice interrupted. Everyone looked over, seeing a fuming Histoire. "May I remind all of you that NEPTUNE'S SISTER IS GETTING AWAY WITH A GUN THAT COULD TURN PEOPLE INTO CAT GIRLS! Not only is this dangerous for a child, but think of the pandemonium that this could cause!"
"Right," Uzume said. "It's not like she could get out the Basilicom, but Noiresy's workers might be in trouble."
Uzume began to make her way out to find the office, quickly followed by Neptune and Umio.
"Well, we can't leave them hanging," Blanc said.
"I- I can't go out like this, nya!" Cat Noire complained.
"GET YOUR A** MOVING!"
Noire groaned. "Fine..." She turned, asking, "are you coming, Plutia? Plutia, nya?"
And Plutia was asleep on the couch.
Noire sighed. "PLUTIA! GET UP, NYA!"
Plutia shifted and began to look up at Noire. She didn't want to move, but then something off. "Noire, you look funny~"
"This isn't the time for comments. Up, nya!" And Noire pulled Plutia up.
And thus the remaining trio ran after Neptune and Uzume including an ornery Plutia.
Histoire sighed, and looked over to the last remaining member of the group, Peashy. "So, are you going to go with them?"
"I don't wanna play with Nepgear!" Peashy exclaimed.
Histoire sweatdropped, and looked over at Mister Badd. "Well, looks like we're left to watch her. You're familiar with taking care of her, correct?"
"Yes, when we had... um, 'custody' of her," Mister Badd replied, referring to when he was a member of the Seven Sages, who had kidnapped Peashy, and resulted in her becoming a CPU. He knew Histoire was aware of this, but it didn't make it any less awkward.
Blanc, Noire, and the tired Plutia caught up to Neptune and Uzume, who were standing by the elevator nervously.
...There was a concerning scene around them with several workers knocked over, by many fallen decorations, and a few of them were turned into cat girls and cat boys.
"She didn't, nya..." Noire stated.
"She did," Neptune replied. "She made them trip, crash into things, or made them... catty."
"And you know how I just said there was no way she could get out the Basilicom," Uzume said cheekily.
Blanc and Noire leaned over to look past the Planeptune duo, and noticed that the elevator was just starting to ascend back up to their floor.
"...How did she reach the buttons, nya?" Noire asked.
"Maybe she brought a chair into the elevator," Umio noted. "This is a waiting room, after all."
Then a bright light surrounded Blanc as she transformed into White Heart, and summoned her battle ax. "Well, we can catch her if us goddesses fly down outside, and surround her."
"Woah, woah, woah!" Neptune exclaimed. "What's with the battle ax!? Are you going to attack her?"
"No! Just scare her a bit."
"No! Don't do that! You should never scare a kid intentionally, even if she's doing something bad!"
Looking to stir some chaos, Croire said, "Do it, I DARE you."
"Coire, please don't egg her on," Umio countered.
Plutia sharpened up a bit to glare at White Heart and well, Neptune's pocketed fairy. "Are you really going to make Nepgear cry? 'Cause if you do, I'll hurt you." The intensity radiating from her washed over everyone, and White Heart got the idea and put away her weapon.
"Can we just use Croire to open a portal right next to her?" Noire asked. "You said that your book can force her to open portals for you."
"Yeah, why did I think of that? Great idea!" Neptune replied.
"Well, I don't know EXACTLY where the brat is!" Croire explained. "This Nepgear isn't a CPU, so she doesn't have any Share Energy for me to track."
"Well, here's what we do then," Uzume stepped in. "You can use Croire to get the reception. We can start there. Hopefully, Nepgear went straight to the bottom. Meanwhile..." and Uzume transformed into Orange Heart, "Uzume and Blansy will fly down outside, and be the eyes in the sky." And she giggled.
"Okay, that sounds like a plan," Blanc said, a little annoyed.
"And no weapons!" Orange Heart added.
"Alright! Alright, I got it." And the two zoomed off to find a way outside.
Neptune pulled out her Nep-Note to use Croire to open a portal, and the still sleepy, but now slightly irritated Plutia, and the feline Noire joined her, as well as Umio.
In the elevator, Umio began to feel... as if something was off. He looked over to the girls, and they seemed fine, though Noire was looking at him weirdly. He didn't say anything, but was weirded out.
Getting to the bottom floor, it was chaos. Lots of people were freaking out, because of course, they got turned into part-cats.
The receptionist from before was hiding behind her desk, but she noticed her goddess appear, and climbed to see her. "Lady Noire!"
Noire sighed, and shouted, "Everyone! Calm down, nya!" She kind of winced at saying "nya", but she couldn't drop it. It was like an automatic tick.
Everyone stopped and turned to their CPU. Norie huffed, "I know this is sudden, but that's no reason to stop acting civilized, nya." And she walked over to the receptionist. ...She too got turned into a cat girl.
The woman also noted that her goddess was turned as well. "Oh, I'm so sorry, nya. I didn't know what to do. Lady Purple Sister-"
"She's not Purple Sister, nya," Noire interjected. "I know this is hard to explain, but that girl is Nepgear, but not... Purple Sister. She's her dimensional counterpart, not a CPU, nya."
"And she's just a kid. She doesn't know any better," Neptune added.
"Oh, that's even worse, nya," the receptionist said. "We were all freaking out about her having a gun, nya, and then shooting us, and turning us into... this." And she motioned to her new cat ears. "Not to mention, I can't stop saying 'nya'!"
"We know, do you know she went, nya?" Noire asked.
"Outside. I think she went... left, nya?"
"Left, nya. Great, that could mean anything," Noire remarked.
"Hey, we'll stop my sister, okay?" Neptune replied. "Come on."
Luckily, people outside were not panicking as much, but they were clearly on edge. And they noticed a few people who were changed, and being comforted.
Above, Neptune saw Orange Heart and White Heart in the air, supposedly looking around.
"Okay, so where did she go?" Neptune asked.
"Left, nya?" Noire exclaimed incredulously.
"No need to berate her," Umio replied. "Perhaps these nice people know." He quickly asked a couple of people, and got some directions. "Well... she seems to have gone down that way," Umio said, and started guiding them down the street.
They soon a group of people in a circle, all looking tense. The girls pushed past them, and found Nepgear in the middle, excitedly pointing the cat gun at everyone, who were just trying backing to back away.
"Nepgear!" Neptune called out.
"Big sis!" the little girl replied. "I'm a shooty girl!"
"That's nice..." Neptune replied, smiling nervously as she slowly approached.
Umio joined her. He figured that there was at least a chance he wouldn't be affected, given he already wasn't human. Possibly... hopefully. "Excuse, Nepgear?"
"Mr. Fishy!" the girl cried in joy.
"Yes, that's who I am. Do you know you're scaring a lot of people?"
"I am?"
"Yes. Now if you don't mind, please hand that gun over to your big sis."
Seeing that someone was here to handle the situation, along with Lady Black Heart's presence, they started to briskly walk away, not wanting to get any more involved. So the area began to empty. Orange Heart and White Heart noticed and began to descend on the group.
"I don't wanna... I wanna play with it!" Nepgear exclaimed.
"Please, this is very important and-" Umio started...
But then something pounced on him, knocking him to the ground.
"Huh?" Neptune cried out, looking over to find Noire having grabbed Umio and taking him down.
"Noire, no!" Plutia cried. She couldn't let friends attack friends for no reason. So she ran to push Noire off.
This sudden turn of events also freaked Nepgear out, so she did the only thing she could think of to stop this... was fire the gun.
So she did. And she got Plutia... right in the chest.
Plutia, along with Noire, got knocked away, and Umio flew back up, and he'll he couldn't fly very high, he did his best to keep away.
"Hey! Woah! Nepgear!" Neptune called to her sister, but now she was running away again.
Before Neptune could give chase, she heard from above, "seriously! Noire, the f*** are you doing!?"
White Heart and Orange Heart dropped next to them, while Orange Heart added, "Why did Noiresy attack Umio!?"
"I- I just felt that- I don't know, nya!" Noire stumbled on her words.
White Heart grunted and went to check Plutia. She too now had a pair of cat ears, and a cat tail. And she was sleeping again.
"Are you kidding me? She goes to sleep after getting hit by an attack!?" White Heart exclaimed. "Come on, get up!"
The CPU began to prob Plutia with her foot, but then the newly transformed cat girl did something unexpected. Instead of groaning in annoyance, she opened her eyes a bit to glare at, with enough intensity to instill the fear of Iris Heart, despite not being transformed.
White Heart quickly backed up, worried that continuing to prod make cause her to transform. And this was a very bad time for that.
Neptune wanted to chase after her sister, but she couldn't look away as she took notice of everything that just happened. And that's when she figured it out.
"They're becoming more like cats," she said.
"Uh, yeah, I think we all noticed, moron!" White Heart shouted back.
"No! Well, yes, but that's not what I meant. They're starting to act like cats," Neptune explained. "One, don't cats like fish? Well, Umio is a fish, and cat Noire here... maybe she couldn't help herself?"
"...That makes sense," Umio agreed. "...Should I remove myself from this mission?"
"Maybe...?" Neptune replied, then she turned to the sleeping cat girl. "And as for Plutia, cats don't like being woken up from their cat naps, right?"
"Great, as if getting Plutia to wake up before was difficult," White Heart remarked. And Plutia of course, had gone back to sleep, right in the middle of the street.
"Well... this wouldn't be the first time we found her sleeping in weird areas, nya," Noire added.
"Kitties are light sleepers, right?" Orange Heart asked. "Maybe this is an improvement?"
The other goddesses just glared at her.
"...Or maybe not?"
Noire huffed. "Okay, this is starting to get ridiculous, nya!"
"Agreed, let's catch her already!" White Heart said.
"Umio, maybe you could watch Pluty," Neptune said. "Just try to make sure she doesn't eat you if she wakes up."
"I can do that," Umio replied. "You know this isn't the first time I've been in dangerous situations."
Orange Heart looked over to where Nepgear was running to next, thinking about something. Then she said, "Uzume has an idea. You guys chase her, Uzume will be back!" And then she flew off.
"Wow, thanks for the help, nya," Noire complained.
"Let's just get that d*** little girl!" White Heart shouted back.
So, now down three members, the remaining trio quickly began to track down the five-year-old once more.
Nepgear wasn't hard to track down this time. She had slipped into an alleyway, but was making a lot of noise. Hopefully, she wasn't attracting any unsavory attention.
The trio began to approach her slowly, but the little girl turned, saw them, and pointed her stolen gun at them. "Go away!"
"Hey, I'm your sister. I'm not going to hurt you!" Neptune replied.
"She hurt Mr. Fishy!" Nepgear shouted back.
Noire pointed to herself. "Me, nya?"
"Yeah!"
"H-hey, okay, I'm sorry... but I couldn't help myself, nya. I- That gun you have made me do it, nya!"
White Heart gave Noire a raised eyebrow. "...That was THE most childish thing you've ever said. 'Nyas' notwithstanding."
"Well, it's true, nya!"
"Noire, maybe you should step back. Let me handle this," Neptune told the twin-tailed goddess.
"Yeah, go away, meanie goddesses!" Nepgear shouted.
Before Neptune could respond, White Heart, starting to lose her cool, exclaimed, "what? Did you say that to me, too!? Okay, that's it! Come here!" And the transformed CPU flew at the girl.
Now, White Heart didn't intend to hurt the girl, just grab the f***ing gun. But Nepgear saw this, freaked out, and blasted White Heart point-blank!
The white goddess got blasted onto her back, and Neptune just looked down at her in disappointment and a little annoyance at the display, watching as a blue-furred tail actively sprout out of the back of White Heart's outfit, the transformed CPU going through a further change.
Though if this gun made every act more cat-like, then White Heart, a.k.a. Blanc would be...
She quickly got back up, blue-ish cat ears poking out on top of her head, and actually hissed at Nepgear.
The immediate thought in Neptune's head was, uh oh. She saw White Heart, not even bothering to fly, tense up, as if she was going to pounce on the younger purplette, and the older purplette wasn't about to let happen.
Neptune bravely lunged at White Heart, and grabbed onto her before she could jump at Nepgear. Blanc was known for her strength, but that didn't seem to matter to her right now, as she, now the aggressive cat, tried clawing up Neptune, but she would not budge.
As the two struggled, Nepgear just watched and then panicked, and, being a kid and not super wise, started firing, hoping to blast White Heart again, and not thinking about the chances of her hitting her sister instead (or realizing it might not work a second time on someone already transformed).
And of course, Neptune became the final victim of the team. As she was struggling with White Heart, she had spun around, putting her back facing Nepgear, just as she fired, so she got smacked in the back. The force had knocked both of the girls down, and Neptune fell on top of the CPU, both face down.
Neptune could feel the ears pop on her head, and a tail pokes out from her hoodie. She was glad that's where the tail came out of, and didn't just slip out from under her hoodie dress. She didn't want to flash her panties just because her new tail raised her skirt.
White Heart angrily pushed herself off, forcing Neptune up too. However, Neptune actually managed to get on her feet, and easily rebalanced herself.
The furious CPU glared at Neptune, and... summoned her battle ax. She made a quick spin and swing at Neptune, but the purplette leaned back, completely doing the limbo under the ax, completely dodging it, and then effortlessly bending back up into a normal standing stance.
"Wow! I've never felt so flexible before, nya!" Neptune exclaimed.
White Heart just growled and pulled back to swing again. But Neptune summoned her twin sword, and blocked the strike with them.
As the blades began to clash, Noire just stared, not sure what to do. Like, this felt like an actual cat fight to her. And Nepgear, scared, had stopped firing, fell on her bum, and began to scramble back, still holding the cat gun.
And as White Heart made a heavy downward swing, and Neptune blocked it with a cross formation with her blades, they both heard...
"WOOF!"
And this wasn't a normal shout. The two of them were blasted with soundwaves. It was an attack, but if that wasn't bad enough, with their new feline ears, this caused both of them to drop their weapons, fall to the ground, tears in their eyes as they clutched their new ears in pain. Even Noire had to back away, her ears starting to ring.
And that's when Orange Heart descended to the ground, megaphone weapon in hand, and now, oddly, sporting a part of brown dog ears and a muzzle.
"Uzume goes BARK!" she shouted, this time not using her megaphone, luckily, but it was enough to scare the cat girls and scramble back.
With some distance between them and Nepgear now, Orange Heart simply said, "I'm sorry, Nepsy and Blansy, but I had to do it, for your sakes and Nepgear's." She then turned to the little purplette, saying, "and you! Uzume is not happy with you!"
The little girl looked down in sadness. "Did I do a bad?"
"Yes. Now give me the gun."
Nepgear didn't want to argue, so she gave the CPU the gun. Orange Heart then took both her hands, and snapped the gun in half!
This caused Nepgear to start crying, not just because her new toy broke, but because she knew did something back, but didn't know why it had to be broken because of that.
Orange Heart just sighed, turned back into Uzume, and turned to the others. "The other Gearsy should be able to fix this, and then use that to reserve your changes."
After recovering, Noire looked at Uzume, and asked, "when did you get the dog ears, nya. And a muzzle? I thought the gun-"
"Oh, these?" And Uzume took off the FAKE dog ears. "There are a shocking number of costume and material shops in this nation. These even LOOK kind of real. Crazy right? I bet you didn't even notice the muzzle wasn't moving." She then took that off next.
Noire immediately looked away nervously. She didn't want ANOTHER person to find out about her secret hobby. It felt like her whole nation knew, and it was embarrassing!
White Heart was starting to calm down now, but this still made her annoyed. "Are you kidding me, nya?"
"Well, the way things were going, I figured everyone was getting turned. So, I thought this could help. Lil' Gearsy was making an army of cat girls, so maybe a dog girl might scare them off!"
The others looked at each other, trying to understand her logic. Cat Neptune merely shrugged her shoulders.
Noire just sighed. "Whatever, let's just get this over with, nya. It's clearly starting to affect how we think, nya. I mean, look at how aggressive Blanc and Neptune were. Plus, now we're all saying 'nya'!"
"Hey! She was aggressive to my sister before she turned, nya!" Neptune argued.
"I was just trying to get the stupid gun out of her hands, nya. I told you, I didn't want to hurt her!" White Heart countered.
"STOP!" Uzume shouted. "Don't make me put the ears back on and take out my megaphone.
That shut them up.
"Okay, Blanc, I want to be friends with you, but seems like you did instigate that fight, and you also probably scared Lil' Gearsy. And I don't like that. And Neptune, I know you well, and that you just wanted to protect your sister. But now is not the time to egg anyone on. Right now, your responsibility should be to take care of your sister!"
As Uzume said that, Neptune looked over. Her sister was still crying. She immediately got up to go comfort her.
"Hey, Nepgear," Neptune calmly said, as she picked up her sister.
"Am I in trouble?" she asked with tears in her eyes.
"...Yeah. Yeah, you are, nya. But right now, just get those tears out of your system."
Neptune then put Nepgear down, letting her stand, and looked right into her eyes. "Listen, Nepgear, first of all, you tampered with and stole something that didn't belong to you. That's bad enough, nya. But what you stole, that gun, it does scary things to people, and most other guns, those can hurt people, nya. I carry one, I know, and I only use it on monsters. You do not want to, ever, scare or hurt people. Do you understand, nya?"
"I just wanted to fix it... And it looked like a toy..." Nepgear said.
"I know it did, nya, but do you understand what I'm saying?"
"Yeah... I'm sorry!" And the little girl cried harder into her big sister's chest.
White Heart turned back into Blanc, cat ears and tail now brown like her hair. "Hey, Nepgear, I'm sorry. I just... I'm not good with kids, nya. I've never had sisters. I was forced to help babysit one time, and it was not fun, nya. But... as a goddess, I had no right to scare you."
"I'm sorry for scaring you, too," Nepgear replied.
This surprised Blanc, but she just took it on the chin. She understood that maybe the little girl thought the transformation might've been scary for HER.
Then Nepgear asked, "big sis, where did you get the kitty ears?"
Everyone was dumbfounded. She didn't even realize what she was doing? However, Neptune started laughing it off, with soft chuckles from everyone else.
As Noire recomposed herself, she said, "We should get back. And pick up Plutia, nya. Hopefully, she hasn't tried to attack like... I did, nya."
"...We should hurry," Uzume noted.
Everyone agreed, Neptune picked Nepgear up again, and they left.
"And that should do it," Hyper Nepgear, as she finished creating a semi-orb device to reverse the cat girl transformation. And with a flip of the switch, a bright light bathed over everyone, and when it faded, everyone had turned back to normal, no cat ears or tails to be seen.
Once everyone had been reconvened in Noire's office, Neptune wasted no time in using Croire to take a quick trip to the Hyperdimension, right next to CPU Candidate Nepgear, who a completely surprised by her sister's counterpart's sudden arrival, and then furthermore by her... "new look".
Neptune quickly explained what happened, and asked if she could help. Nepgear wasted no time in coming along, and taking a look at the cat gun Uzume snapped in half. Histoire promised to call her counterpart in the Hyperdimension to make sure she knew where the CPU Candidate was.
And with Hyper Nepgear's knowledge of technology, it took her no more than three hours to put the gun back together and start reverse-engineering it, and creating a reversal device.
Meanwhile, Mister Badd had brought everyone tuna. Neptune said that she thought he was teasing them, but he countered by saying that all he was doing was trying to placate their new urges. Neptune wasn't convinced, but she did end up eating the tuna with everyone else.
Upon turning back to normal, Noire immediately looked over herself and sighed in relief. "Thank goodness. I liked the idea of dressing up as a cat girl, but not literally becoming one. And the 'nyas' were so annoying!"
Uzume raised an eyebrow, and opened her mouth to say something, but Noire shot around and shouted, "you don't say anything!"
So Uzume shut her mouth.
This is when Umio slipped through the office door. "Is it safe for me to come back in now?"
Uzume replied, "yeah, pretty sure they're not craving Umio anymore."
So, Umio came back into the office, and took everything in. Blanc was softly patting her head, happy to no longer have cat ears, Plutia had... gone back to sleep of course. And Neptune was sitting by the corner next to her sister.
Little Nepgear's head was down, disappointed in herself.
"How long am I going to be in trouble?" she asked her big sister.
"I don't really know... probably for most of the trip. I still want you to see the new Nation, back right now, I don't think I can do much for you," Neptune told her. "What I do know is that mom's going to be mad at BOTH of us when we get back."
Histoire then spoke up. "Well, given the incident, a report has to be made. And this will have to get back to your mother. However, given that you are trying your best to handle this responsibly, especially considering that she is too young to be placed under direct legal trouble for what she caused. And please, let the CPUs handle the report, you've done all you need."
"Oh, you don't understand. She told us that if the business with our friendly CPUs here looked even a bit dangerous, then to keep her out of it. The gun looked innocent enough, considering it was dismantled... but I greatly underestimated my sister's abilities."
"I feel bad," Big Nepgear spoke up. "I mean, she's... me, and clearly shares my love of technology. But she's also too young to handle this stuff properly. One day, when she's older and more responsible, I'd love to show her a few things, help foster her budding interest."
Little Nepgear perked up at the idea. "You mean I can build robots and stuff with you!"
"When your older, yes."
"Yay!" the little purplette cheered, and Neptune had to hold her down to keep her in her seat.
Mister Badd smiled. "You know, despite everything, you have to love the joyous curiosity of children."
"I agree. I see a bright future for this little one," Umio said.
"Even still, she has to learn to be more responsible," Histoire replied. "Anyways, we'll need to make sure this device gets back to everyone else who got turned."
"I'm wondering, are you going to do anything with this?" Hyper Nepgear asked. "I don't know anyone specifically, but someone might like the idea of being a cat person. After some tuning, it could be safe and fun."
"Well, it isn't officially Lastation technology," Noire replied. "Have at it. I want nothing more to do with it."
"So, can we agree that the criminal group you took that gun from is probably NOT part of a bigger whole, and that they were just a bunch of degenerates?" Blanc mused.
And everyone agreed.
Uzume walked over to the little Nepgear. "Hey."
Nepgear looked up. "Hi."
Uzume then plopped the dog ears on the kid's head. "I think you might like these."
Nepgear got excited and started going, "woof! Woof!"
Uzume laughed and turned to Neptune. "So, are we still going to check out the rest of the city?"
"If someone will watch Nepgear, yeah."
"I'll do it. Much less unnerving than watching a sleeping cat Plutia, I assure you."
"If you're up for it!" Uzume replied. "Well, what're we waiting for!?"
Neptune and Uzume left with Noire, where the black CPU couldn't keep herself from showing off all of the best parts of her nation. Though, the Planeptune duo kept wandering off.
On the last day of the impromptu trip, Neptune decided to let Nepgear come along in the afternoon, so she could see the nation herself, and show off all of the cool places the duo had already seen. But both Neptune and Uzume agreed that it was only so the little girl could have the experience of seeing the nation, and she was still in trouble. So, they decided not to get her anything nice, aside from a good meal for dinner.
Plutia, Peashy, Histoire, Blanc, and Hyper Nepgear had already left the evening prior, but of course, when the Planeptunian tourists were done, they made sure to give their goodbyes to Noire and Mister Badd.
So, with one more use of Croire, Neptune and Uzume left with Nepgear and Umio, coming back into their home.
And there she was, Mercury, staring at the group.
"So, I heard Nepgear made quite the... ruckus in Lastation," she said first thing.
"We can explain," Neptune immediately responded. She knew this was coming. Nepgear looked down.
"Oh, Histoire already called me," Merci told Neptune.
"H-hey, we were able to solve the problem," Uzume said.
Merci sighed. "Did you at least have fun?"
"Oh..." Neptune replied. "Well, yeah. We did. ...I thought you'd be more angry."
"Oh, I'm furious. But Histoire said you at least punished her for what she did. And the CPUs covered everything. Still, for the next week, unless it's for work, you're going to have to stay in this home, watching Nepgear as I am extending her ground for that time. And no, you two can not do anything fun."
"Aw, man..." It was going to be a long week.
Author's Note: Well, this was a fun one! I'll admit, I'm not the biggest cat guy, but this seemed like a fun idea. This story prompt was offered to me by "Atviofan" on DeviantArt, a comment on one of my chapters for this story. It's not note-for-note the original prompt, it was a while ago, the first time I asked for story ideas, and I had time to think about what I wanted to do with this.
It makes sense to me that this would be what happens, Nepgear causing absolute pandemonium without even intending to do so. Even normal Nepgear. I've never watched a full playthrough of the game, but I saw a scene from that Action Unleashed game where Nepgear is trying to make a magic gear that would turn Neptune into "a black hole of cuteness". If it worked, you know the Nep-pocalypse would begin.
Also, I didn't think to add all of the "nyas" until my second viewing. So, I literally just added them in, and I don't yet know how annoying it is to read all of those. I can see how all seriousness is lost with a random "nya" every second sentence, but this was a cat girl based pandemonium, so whatever. And you know what, I have no shame. This is how everyone seems to view cat girls, so here you go!
Also, if you noticed the hidden pun in the story, I didn't intend it, but I'm proud to use it. Please, if you find it, tell me. I want to know if you noticed.
Oh, and the thing about Uzume pretending to be a dog? Inspired by the "Hyperdimension in the Sonic-Style" art pieces I finished a few months ago, where I drew the Hyperdimension characters as Sonic-styled animals. Miraculously, I didn't make any of them cats, but Uzume was a dog, because I thought it fit her, and that came to mind as I wrote this. So, I decided to go for it, no matter how dumb it seemed.
Also, I figured it'd be a good way to jab at Noire's love of cosplay.
Sorry, no Vert just yet. I'm going to hold that off for a while longer. I know you guys want to see this, but I have a plan for this.
I kind of want to bring this cat girl gun thing back later, and get the littles involved, maybe our little Dogoo. But I don't know how, or if I should let this prompt just wrap up here.