Chapter 30 -Oh shit, back to Lastation

The two returned to where Neptune, IF and Compa were at, only to see them fighting against what looked like a four-legged black and blue futuristic robot-like Monster, its main weapons being its twin Cannons mounted on top of it. Neptune, whom had taken on HDD form, was zipping through the space above it, raining down energy strikes from above while Compa provided fire support and IF was remaining close to keep its attention from Neptune.

However, the Machine was fast, its four legs allowed it to be very agile and fast, making it difficult to attack for someone like IF. It would jump about, using the walls to its advantage to keep her away from it while it bombarded Neptune with energy lasers from its cannons. "Hey would you look at that?" Noire mused, smirking smugly at her friend. "I was right."

"Yep, you were..." Nico remarked as well, hiding an evil snicker as he realised that Noire had fallen for his trap. Sometimes, he thought that Noire liked being teased, to the point where even he couldn't help it. The teen then adopted his 'game face' or what could be seen thanks to his Mask. He then began walking forwards, intending to join the battle as he summoned Rebellion to his back's sheath. "Anyways, let's lend these ladies a hand, shall we?"


"This one seems to be the evasive one, isn't it?" Neptune remarked in light annoyance as she clicked her tongue, sending a barrage of homing rays at it. However, like before the Machine would blast them out of the skies with its cannons before jumping to another section of the wall to avoid an attack from the brunette.

Said brunette growled in irritation. "You could say that again. We haven't got time for this nonsense, where the hell is-?!" she began to say before noticing Nico and Noire heading for them. Her irritated scowl deepened at the sight of them. "And THERE you two are. Where the hell have you guys been, we've been getting our asses beat here!" She shouted at them, pointing her Qatar at the enemy, which didn't take that too lightly when it blasted at her position.

Fortunately, Nico reacted in time, his Instincts saving the two of them as he quickly grabbed her by the waist with both arms and jumped backwards, preventing the beams from attacking her. The beams hit, making a large crater to showcase how much power they held when firing from their Cannons. "Well, I'll just say we talked a bit about ourselves, we never got that chance before. Anyways, what happened, who activated the Disk?"

At his question, IF gave him a dry look, like she was dissing him just for asking that. "Who do you think?" she responded, gesturing to the transformed woman above them. Noire and Nico shared a look, both of thinking the same thing. 'Called it'. Noire then smirked at him as she held a hand before him, but then Nico smirked back, much to her confusion. She looked at him oddly for a moment, wondering why he was smirking at her like he had won some sort of great battle against her or something, before her eyes lit up with horrified realisation as she realised what he had said for their bet.

IF could watched as Noire glared at him in anger for playing her, before reluctantly bringing out 20 Credits and handing them to him. "uhhhhhh, am I missing something?" she asked them to make the two face her. "Why you giving Credits to Nico, Noire?"

"Let's just say I lost a bet, alright? Now let's hurry up and beat this monster."

Drawing her HF Blade, Noire growled at the Monster, getting its attention as it aimed its Cannons at her. When Neptune made to warn her, she realised she was too late when the weapons already fired on her ass. Swiftly, Noire dodged by sidestepping to the side before she ducked under another blast. Noire's agility allowed her to perceive and dodge the attacks with relative ease, much to everyone's surprise.

"Noire's movements are so elegant and graceful… she's like a ballerina." Compa commented in awe as Noire swiftly swung her HF Blade and cut a few lasers in half, each one being reduced to sparks that flowed past her harmlessly. Her eyes remained clear and focused on the target as she closed in.

An idea then flashed through her mind as Noire raised her HF Blade when the monster began charging a more powerful blast within its cannons. The interior was slowly glowing blue to indicate this, and everyone wondered what Noire was doing. Compa tried to tell her to move, however she remained firm in her stance.

When the blast was fired as a continuous stream, Noire held her sword and blocked it, being forced back a few metres before digging her heels into the ground, stopping her movement. "What comes around goes around…" Noire mumbled, her eyes closed before they opened into a fierce glare, one that Nico recognised from earlier. "Let's see how you like it you techno freak!"

While angling her sword, the beams bounced off the surface and she moved it so that the beams wound up slicing through the Monster. She saw the beam slice it clean through, severing two of its legs and causing it to fall to the ground. Her HF Blade steamed from the heat that the attack had given it, but otherwise it was fine.

Seeing Her chance, Noire ran towards the robot, intent on finishing it off herself. "This is the end for you!" along the way, her sword began to glow as she activated her Skill LACE RIBBON DANCE. When she was close enough, Noire backflipped, her foot kicking it in the chin as she landed into a crouch. She then jumped again and double kicked it before bouncing into the air again with a horizonal slash that left an energy slash mark over its body.

Once her skill ended, the robot made several noises that indicated malfunction, before the sound of something deactivating was heard as it slumped onto the ground, defeated as it began to vanish into particles. Noire turned to them, huffing as she flicked one of her ponytails at their awed expressions. "Of course, I won. What do you expect?" she boasted haughtily with a matching smirk to boot.

'Wow... Noire has a right to brag, that was good. And since she's the CPU I guess that's to be expected, although I feel that she's holding a lot of her power back.' Nico thought to himself as he studied the girl closely. Noire obviously noticed that he was studying her, and couldn't help but feel weird with his gaze on her like that. Luckily for her, it wasn't long before Nico saw that she was becoming uncomfortable under his scrutiny, to which the teen quickly stopped and made an apologetic face towards her, getting a forgiving look back.

Sometimes, he thought about trying to minimise that habit of studying people... but then remembered how many people he'd saved by doing so.


Landing beside them, Neptune caught the looks that the two were giving each other, and her eyes narrowed as something disconcerting rose within the pits of her stomach. 'What is this? Those two are looking at each other strangely? Why do I feel weird when I see them this way? I don't like it, not one bit.' She thought to herself.

She didn't know why, but seeing Nico acting so familiarly with another girl, made her feel really bad inside. It was like her gut was clenched in an agonising manner, and she felt like something was ripping itself in two inside. What the heck was going on? Even in HDD form, Neptune still didn't know what these feelings revolving around the male were, and that was something that frustrated her greatly. she was supposed to be more intelligent in her HDD form, so this sucks balls!

What she didn't realise was that Compa was looking and feeling the same way as she was.

Quickly pushing her thoughts aside for the moment, Neptune looked to where the monster lay before and smirked cockily. "Looks like it was merely a grunt that should've come in numbers." she boasted, holding her hands over her hips in a manner that eerily resembled that of her human form, a triumphant expression forming on her face. It distracted her from those other thoughts, so that was something at least.

'I'm not so sure about that, Neptune…' Nico remarked in his mind while glancing at her and then at Noire. He was sweat dropping the whole time, as well, at the thoughts running through his mind about the HDD form of the preteen he called comrade. 'You had trouble taking it down until Noire intervened…'

Compa meanwhile, didn't know who to thank out of the two of them. Thus, she went with the next best thing, she praised both Neptune and Noire for a job well done, patting them both on the back. "Yay, Nep-Nep, Noire! You were really cool!" she exclaimed, stars twinkling in her eyes to show her admiration for the two ladies.

Seeing as she didn't need to maintain her transformation any longer, Neptune returned to human form in a brief flash. When they saw the human Neptune take the place of the purple-haired sword maiden, they saw how she put her hands on the back of her head while beaming at the Nurse-In-Training. "Well, nothing that I can't handle, you know?" she boasted, before sweating bullets under the glares of both Nico and Noire. "Oh, and Noire too, I guess."


Now that the monster had been taken care of, it was time for them to do what should have been done long before this mess ever had the chance to start. IF turned to face the wall-mounted disk and walked towards it with the intent to kill in her eyes. This thing had caused them a lot of trouble, so destroying it sounded freaking therapeutic right about now. "Okay, lets break this Disk already." Just when she was about to slash it though…

"Wait!"

A sudden weight fell on her back as something wrapped around her arm and gripped her hand to stop her from moving it. IF had made a startled sound when this happened, only to regain her balance before she could fall to the ground. The culprit? A pouting angry Neptune as she glared at IF's head from behind her. "I thought I said I wanted to break it! No fair!"

IF looked behind her and met Neptune's glare with an annoyed glare of her own as she responded with. "You just told me to break it a while ago."

'That must have been when I took Noire away to have our little talk…' Nico thought while searching through his memories for that little titbit of information. He glanced a Noire, who gave him a knowing look to show that she agreed with his thinking. Looking over to Compa, Nico opened his mouth to speak. "Did something happen before? I wasn't around before."

Compa looked at him in confusion, obviously wondering what he had meant by that. She didn't notice that Nico had left with another member of their party since she was so focused on the squabble that had occurred between IF and Neptune. Deciding that wasn't important right now, she went to answer his question. "Nep-Nep and Iffy were arguing over who broke the Disk, when that monster came out. Nep-Nep transformed and said that in that state, she said the transformation cooled her down a bit so that she didn't care anymore."

"Okay, that must have been painful to watch…" Noire muttered with a sweat drop. Nico had to agree with her there, if he saw that Nico didn't doubt he'd be scolding Neptune's indecisiveness.

"Well, but that's me transformed. Different persona, right?"

"Not this again…"

The argument between Neptune and IF gained their attention once again. None of them opted to go in and solve the issue as they didn't want to get swallowed up by Neptune's crazy antics. Though, Noire looked like she wanted to explode right now, something which only Nico noticed.

Unaware of what was happening behind them, Neptune spun around so she was in front of the Disk, preventing IF from going further. "So now that I'm my old self again, I wanna break the Disk!" she would have just continued trying to persuade the brunette to let her do what she wanted, but the sound of something shattering into pieces reached their ears, stopping her rant. "Huh?"

Surprise crossed onto IF's face too as she looked to the source, only to find that the object they were arguing over, and a certain someone had already broken it with a fist, since she was the closest one to it and her fist was just leaving the remains of the Disk back to her side. "Ah…"

Looking back at them, Noire huffed as she crossed her arms under her chest and turned her head away. "I broke it. No way I want to fight more of those again." She said before turning to walk onwards.

Everyone watched her with surprise, too much shock running through their systems to register what she was doing so they could follow. A short distance later, Noire realised that there hadn't been any footsteps and turned to see what the problem was. Her gaze fell upon the others, who were staring at her in a mixture of surprise and deadpan. Nico and Compa were the surprised ones, while the other two were the exact opposite. "Wh-What's with that look in your face?!" she asked the purplette.

She got an answer when Neptune spoke with a dull, disappointed tone of voice. "Wow, Noire. Way to break the Disk and the mood there." She held a hand over her forehead and sighed in disappointment.

And if Noire thought Neptune was disappointed, she wasn't going to expect the disappointed look on IF's face either. "Yeah, that was… not cool."

"What?!" Noire shrieked as she stared at the two in bewilderment. She couldn't believe these two, why were they giving those looks to her when she had solved their petty argument? "I'm in the wrong now?! You girls are the ones who were arguing!" She retorted, defending her actions, although she was confused on the notion why.

IF closed her eyes and shook her head, her face becoming one of someone who was conflicted as she stared with perplexed eyes at the blackette. "Yeah, but…" she began, but didn't say anymore.

Neptune went and finished off her sentence. "Still, that wasn't cool, Noire. Maybe that's why you don't have friends."

Noire's face reddened as she heard their comments. She took a breath and, like a certain teacher at a certain academy in a hidden village, her head enlarged to ten 10 times its size. "I-I have a lot of friends! Okay! I'm S-O-R-RY. There. Satisfied?!"

Neptune and Noire continued the squabble, much to everyone's confusion as Compa looked to the brunette to see she was hiding a small smirk under the sleeve of her Coat. Her eyes widened as it clicked in her mind what she had done, before a giggle escaped her lips. "Oh Iffy, you're horrible." She said in between giggles. Nico raised a brow, before looking to see the same thing Compa had seen on the brunette's features which made him roll his eyes.

IF, noticing that the two had figured it out, lowered her sleeve and smirked evilly back at them. "Heh, I kind of enjoy seeing them argue, so I just went with the flow." she explained as they turned and watched the two girls argue with one another.

'Well, honestly if they were serious I would have to agree with Noire on this one. However, since they were joking about and teasing her like usual, I'll stay out of this one, this time. Though, there's a lack of intensity in Neptune's teasing, and the threats that Noire gives out have lost their edge to them. I guess Compa had a point, that these two were warming up to each other. Heh, bet that they, or at least Noire, never thought that they'd get past this point.'

It was true though, these people, opposites of each other in personalities, styles and mannerisms, have progressed a long way from what they once were, from being in a love/hate relationship as strangers at first, to eventually developing a mutual trust and friendship like this. It just didn't happen very often, even with the saying 'opposites attract' which doesn't happen often.

Sometimes fighting isn't always the answer, sometimes people should stop fighting, and start talking.

'… Huh? What?' Just when the male had thought that, a surge of something flashed in her chest. It was hot, piercing him through like a blade, before it vanished as soon as it came, leaving him baffled and confused as to what it was. Nico didn't know why, but for the briefest moments, the male had thought he'd sensed something within that sensation, something he had felt before… familiarity.

In the next moment, it was gone, the male blinking as his surroundings returned to the Factory like what had happened hadn't happened at all, like it was some form of illusion conjured by his frantic mind. However, Nico was too observant to think that, he noticed that his body's reactions were the same as the other times he would have such dreams. Or rather, Nightmares considering what they were usually about.

Why was that? Was that just now… something that reminded him of his forgotten past? Before the male could ponder any further, a call from IF reached his ears. "C'mon, Nico, we're moving on! get your butt moving or we'll leave you behind!" she yelled, getting Nico to shake his head to stop his thoughts as he ran after them.


"Yay! We're outside!" It was over, at last. Relief spread through the Party as they finally made their way outside through a backdoor in the factory. The door had been locked tight like the other door, however unlike that one there was a control console which took a bit of Hacking on Nico's part to get the access codes to open it. Once the doors were open, it was Neptune who first jumped out and landed on the ground outside, feeling the warmth of the sun's rays bearing down on her petite body. it was a surprising thing to feel relief over something so trivial, and yet having just spent some time in that horrid place, the sun's rays felt like the best thing to grace her skin ever, like swimming into a pool of Pudding.

Following suit was Compa, with Noire, Nico and IF following suit. The cream haired girl hopped along until she was a little ahead of Neptune, basking in the warmth of the sun. Like Neptune, she too dearly missed the warmth of the sun, especially after that ordeal. "Being under the warm sun feels so good…" she swooned like someone immersed in pleasure. "Perfect for taking a nap!" Neptune exclaimed while tilting backwards and letting gravity do its job, landing on her back with her arms and legs spread apart, a relieved sigh escaping her lips as she felt the tension leave her body. She and Compa, who had done the same as her, looked at each other, before exploding in a fit of giggles.

Compa grinned dreamily after the giggling fit as she looked up at the skies above. She could see that the skies weren't as cloudy right now, so the rays of the sun were much better than normal. She mentally was surprised that she found this normal, attributing it to having stayed in Lastation for so long that she had grown used to it. Though she knew, that once she returned to Planeptune Compa would visit all the picnic spots she could think of, she missed the warmth of the sun that Planeptune allowed her to have.

Nico watched them as they basked in the sunlight and the joy of finally escaping the abandoned factory, having used his Bracer to seal the door shut behind them so they wouldn't have to look back. Joy filled him at seeing their happy smiles back on, as back in their while their smiles contained happiness, there was a certain intensity that accompanied them, born from their situation. Even Neptune, the one who provides the comedy for the group, had it though she had hidden it well from the group. It was only due to having experience in those situations multiple times that Nico could see it.

The minutes passed, and the girls all began to enjoy the basking of the sun, enveloping themselves in the relief of having escaped that awful factory. They didn't bother thinking about anything right now, just focused in basking in the sensations rolling around their bodies right now, expelling the built-up tension in their bodies.

Unlike them though, IF wasn't so happy, or rather, she was looking thoughtful about something as she held a hand under her chin while cupping the bottom of that hand's elbow. "Hmmm…" she hummed thoughtfully with an intense, downward gaze that drew Nico's attention.

Though before he could inquire as to what was bothering her, Noire beat him to it. "What's the matter? You've been quiet." She remarked. It was true, while Neptune, herself, Compa and Nico were sitting down and resting, IF was still standing, having not joined them as she pondered something.

Looking up from her pondering, IF looked to see that they were all giving her curious and confused looks. She had been pondering something that had been bugging her for a while, but given the antics that they had gotten into, she hadn't much time to think on it. Only now did she have the time to do so, but she should have expected someone like Noire or Nico to see that's he wasn't enjoying the sunshine like they were. "I was wondering what Ganache was trying to accomplish." She finally admitted to them.

It was strange to her. Ganache had trapped them in that factory, but for what purpose? Obviously, he knew, or rather assumed that they wouldn't be able to escape that horde of Zombies and that Ogroman, and even If they did they would have had those other Monsters spawned from those Enemy Disks to think about. However, something in the back of her mind kept nagging at her, something that she hadn't paid much attention to in all that drama.

Sitting up with his arms behind him as support, Nico frowned behind his Mask as he processed IF's words. It was true, there had to be some goal to taking them down with that horde of Infected and monsters, but what? The first thing he came to was a distraction, to keep them from stopping him from doing something, something big most likely. "Now that I think about it, IF's got a point." He began, cupping his chin in thought. "Ganache is a smart individual, so he had to have had other motives."

Noire gave a raised eyebrow at the two Guild affiliates. "You mean about trapping us there?" she asked them, getting nods from the two.

"Yeah." IF replied as she looked back at the Factory, remembering everything that had happened back there. "Was it really to get rid of us?" she wondered, her suspicions rising through the passage of time. Something was screaming at her that something was amiss, that they had forgotten something crucial. An image flashed though her mind, one of the Enemy Disks, the first one that Neptune found and the second one that was encroached into the wall. "With the Enemy Disks there, maybe there was another motive…"

Nico agreed with his fellow Agent's theory. "That would make sense, not just for the previously stated reasons, but there being multiple Enemy Disks in the same place… felt more like an insurance policy than anything. I get the feeling that Ganache was trying to keep us there for an extended time-period." He told them, the atmosphere having turned to one of deliberation not enjoyment. This had caused Neptune and Compa to sit up and listen to their conversation with frowns on their faces. They didn't get involved since they had no idea what to contribute.

"Another motive…" Noire mumbled, trailing off as she soon got the same suspicions as the two Guild affiliates. Now that she thought about it, their points made sense. Ganache had to have had other motives for trapping them there instead of just simply killing them when they least expected it. he could have after all, when they were entering the Factory, simply pull out a gun and shoot. They likely wouldn't have expected it and would have gotten killed by it. Though with Nico's instincts she doubted he would be killed by something like that. She thought back on it, and for some reason she got the feeling of being noticed when she remembered that man. 'It seems like he knew who I was, so it was probably meant for me… and with his words, Nico as well.'

That realisation dawned on her shortly after the first. While she was stunned that Ganache had found out her identity as Lastation's CPU most likely, it baffled her to learn that he was treating a non-CPU with the same mannerisms as her, like he was just as much of a threat to them as she was. It made her confused, and more than a little concerned for Ganache's motives, motives she wouldn't have thought much of in this situation since she would be too focused on the fact that they had escaped that Factory with their lives. Still, even with this, the fact that she had gotten them involved with her affairs made guilt soar through her body like an aeroplane through the air. 'I have to apologise to everyone later for getting them involved…'

Finally, Neptune saw her opportunity to jump into the conversation and took it. She crept up behind her and then draped herself over her, head on IF's shoulder as she rubbed an index finger on her cheek teasingly. "Oh, Iffy, you're such a worrywart. You're thinking too much…" she said, getting an annoyed stare from the brunette for violating her personal space, though it wasn't as strong as before since she was getting used to Neptune's… clinginess too others. "We came out in one piece, so all is good!" she then stood up and walked towards the direction of Lastation's Capital city. She got about 20 steps before twirling around on one leg and flailing her limbs about lazily. "Let's just go back to Chian."

'Chian… Chian, Chian… oh… OH SHIT!'

"Wha…?! That's right, Chian! She's in danger!"

Both IF and Nico bolted to their feet with matching expressions of horrified realisation, their faces turning pale as skin colour drained from them. The sudden urgency from them startled the others, Neptune jumping a bit, Noire gasping and Compa squeaking as she nearly fell over, recoiling at the loud volume and intensity of IF's shout.

When she recovered enough to speak, Compa asked while holding a hand over her accelerating heart. "What do you mean, Iffy?" She quickly stood up with a concerned look on her face, a tightness swelling in her gut at the intensity on IF and Nico's faces.

IF turned to her before pointing at the Factory with the back of her thumb. "Remember what Ganache said when he trapped us?" she asked them, causing them to think back to that moment where Ganache had revealed his true colours as a manipulative bastard, and betrayed them.


"I already know you are assisting Chian of Passé. I assume you were trying to get information on our exhibit plans, no?"

"Iffy! They knew all along!"

"I can't believe they knew about this…"

"We would win, regardless, but I'm the careful type, you know. Well, I don't have time so I need to go now. Farewell."


"He knew we were helping Chian. That means she's the next target!" IF revealed, growling as she cursed herself for being so foolish not to see it earlier. Ganache wasn't trying to kill them, he was going for keeping them from helping Chian with whatever he had planned for her. Nonetheless, while they didn't know what they were, everyone knew that they weren't going to be good. Noire gasped in shock and outrage. "What?!"

Nico gritted his teeth. "Shit, shit, this is bad. If Chian's the target, she won't stand a chance if we don't get there first!" he cursed, before looking in the direction of the Factory. His instincts were on haywire, thanks to this new information. He didn't know if his plans had worked in time, and that worried him. However, he had to focus on the fact that he wouldn't know for certain until they got to Lastation's Capital.

Neptune released a burst of breath from her nostrils, looking seriously peeved now. "Well then, we need to get back to her, pronto!" Everyone nodded in agreement at that, if Chian is in danger, then it was their job to go help her. They had been helping her, so it was partially their fault if anything happened to her. Noire growled, her rage at Ganache and Avenir soaring to new heights. "What's he thinking, targeting civilians just for the expo?! Now I'm mad! I won't let Ganache or Avenir get away with this!"

The level of intensity in the blackette's words was enough to send shock and fear into their spines, even Nico was caught off guard by the level of fury in Noire's words. Though he could understand why, since this was her land, seeing civilians under her care get used like that would piss her off big time. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Now Noir is REALLY mad!" Neptune shivered, taking several steps back from the fuming blackette lest she take her rage out on her.

Compa was the same as she hid behind the quivering Neptune. Noire's rage was that intense that it reminded her of when her grandfather got pissed whenever she did something wrong, which wasn't often. She could feel the phantom pains on her backside from when he'd put her over his knee and repeatedly spanked her. "Noire… you're scaring me…" Either Noire didn't properly hear them or just didn't care for it beyond the fact that they were talking instead of running, Noire turned her fiery gaze over to them and pointed a finger at them. "You girls, stop with the jibber-jabber! Lets's hurry and save Chian!"

"Y-Yes/Yessie…!" They resolved to get back to the City as quickly as possible, but there was one problem. Transportation. "Well, we wanna get there as soon as possible, so we're gonna have to have some form of transport." IF said to the others, stopping them from making a run for it like they usually would when travelling from place to place.

Travelling from Dungeon to Dungeon, as well as from a peaceful city to a Dungeon, had many perils involved, not just any Random Encounters which the Party had found themselves stuck in more than once on their Journey. The travel distance alone wouldn't be recommended for normal civilians as it is great enough to wind even professional athletes become winded. Not to mention the fighting of the Monsters there, normal people would have been too tired to fight them effectively, hence why only those involved with the Guild or the Military travel those distances. Compa and Neptune were special exceptions, one having Amnesia so there wasn't a way for them to see if she was affiliated with the Military, and the other was a Nurse-In-Training therefore she would be expected to work with them.

"Oh yeah, we could use that. Then we wouldn't have had to walk all those times…" Compa moaned wistfully, sighing. She would have loved it if they had their own forms of transport, then she wouldn't have gotten exhausted so much. Before, Compa never had the need to travel that far as often as they did, only to and from the Virtua Forest to get items there that she used for her daily routine or to take a walk in.

Neptune padded the girl on the back with her energetic smile on full force. "Aw, lighten up Compa! Even if we sweated a lot, we got something out of it, right? Muscle!" she proclaimed, flexing her arms to show her arm muscles… which were barely there. This did serve its purpose of cheering her friend up however, as a smile formed on her face and a chuckle escaped her lips.

As he saw this, Nico gained a conflicted expression on what was visible of his face as he began to ponder on something, which IF noticed. "Hey Nico, something wrong?" she asked him, getting silence for an answer. She glanced to Neptune and Compa, then back at him, before remembering what they were talking about and felt her eyes bulge as she connected the dots. "Wait a minute, don't tell me…"

Looking back at her, the Masked male gave a nod of confirmation as he raised his Right arm to begin interacting with the holographic Interface. "Well, I wouldn't say its conventional, it's still in the prototype stages of development, and I haven't received confirmation about its use for military purposes yet… but there is one thing we can use." He told her while accessing the Void Storage to select the item he was going to bring out.

Everyone looked to him in confusion, except Neptune who was jumping up and down in excitement. "Ooooh, goody-goody! Nicky's gonna show us some more super cool gadgets again!" she cheered merrily while raising her arms joyfully. Compa, realising what she meant quickly followed her example.

"Eh? Am I missing something?" Noire asked them impatiently. She wanted to get to Lastation quickly, and here was this situation developing before her. "Why are Neptune and Compa so excited all so suddenly?" turning to IF, she sought an answer from the brunette seeing as out of the girls she was the most level-headed, while Nico was too busy doing whatever he seemed to be doing.

The brunette smirked as she crossed her arms and watched the scene with barely concealed anticipation. She could understand the feelings that Neptune and Compa were having right now. "Nico is more than just a Spec Ops Agent, he's a beta tester for the Guild's WDD, allowing him to field test prototype weaponry for development for the Planeptune Military. Sometimes he gets to keep the prototypes if they work well enough, so he has a lot of gear for different scenarios."

Humming in acknowledgement, Noire found her interests piqued as she turned her head back to the unfolding scene before her. Nico apparently found what he was looking for, if the smirk on his face was any indication. And from the Void Storage, several vehicles appeared before them, causing the girls to gasp in awe.

IF, Neptune, Compa and Noire lost their breath when they saw what had been brought out of Nico's Void Storage and into reality. Lined up before them, were a series of high tech- looking Hover Bikes, each one adjusted to fit their sizes. Each one was coloured black, with silver frames and polished sheens. What was interesting about these Hover Bikes was that they had specialised armour plating over their bodies, with long pincer-like blades coming out the sides of their elongated 'noses'. They moved through seemingly nothing, since nothing touched the ground as they floated in place. two engines could be seen behind them, facing backwards and constantly spewing small flames. Out their backs, they could see 2 back-mounted Missile Launchers beside several long metal protrusions, while the top of the noses had some Gatling Gun turrets.

"Ladies, may I introduce you to some customised Vulture Bikes." Nico introduced while walking to the one in the centre. As he sat on one of the Bikes, or Vultures as he called them, armour plates slid out onto the handles, wrapping around them and going up to his elbows. More plates slid out of the sides and formed a protective shell over his lower body. "Based off the previous models used by older generation raiders and mercenaries, which lacked the missile launchers and gattling guns, these babies have been weaponised for attack squads who want to employ hit and run tactics. They're fast, offer protection, have similar systems to my Bracers, and come with various weapons."

A chorus of "oooh"s and "ahhhh"s escaped the girls, mostly from the preteen, as they each boarded their own Vultures The Hover Bikes bobbed up and down lightly when the y did, but nonetheless they didn't suffer any damage. Neptune certainly seemed excited, and when she saw the armour form on her body, she Turned her head to look at him. "Hey, I'm getting all armoured up! What's this about, Nicky?" she asked him with excited glee.

"That's just a safety feature installed into them. The Bike makes sure to keep the pilots in their seats, and when they wish to get off they just should think it and the armour would recede into the Bikes once more." Nico replied, already revving the engine which prompted the others to do the same. What he hadn't said was that these models still had the same problems as the ones they were based off of. The bikes can catastrophically fail if the repulsors freeze up, or the fuel cells begin leaking radioactive material. Also, destabilise the reactors inside, and they explode. Normally, Nico wouldn't have suggested using this dangerous technology, however they were pressed for time and they had no other options available.

A quick tutorial was given to them by the male on how to operate these vehicles, their weapons and navigational systems. Most of them took the knowledge in like a sponge, save for Compa and Neptune who needed a bit more help to understand certain parts. Though through Noire's insistence, the tutorial would finish along the way to the City. And so, once the girls were fully mounted on their respective Vultures, they revved the Engines and proceeded to head back to Lastation's Capital with an urgency that their previous visits to it lacked, hoping that they weren't too late.