Me: "Hello, peeps! So, summer is here, and I hope to get more done on this story during that time… Maybe even start working on the next one."
Heero and Neptune: (Enter IC from Lounge) "Good, now get crackin'! I'm long overdue for an M Rated scene with Heero."
Me: "Would you leave me alone about that?! I'll get around to your M rated scene eventually, so get off my case. Damn..."
Heero: "I would rather refrain from sexual activity if at all possible."
Neptune: "Why're you still bein' all shy about it, Heero? You and I both know we want it."
Compa and IF: (Enter IC from Break Room) "Nep-Nep, why do you always have to try and get Heero to do an M Rated scene with you when we're not in the room."
IF: "She's probably doing cause she doesn't want us to catch her going behind our backs on the matter."
Me: "And... I think we're gonna cut this segment of the IC short so I don't have to put up with this crap. Let's read off the disclaimer and get going." (Points to cast) "From the top, and try to look happy."
Heero, Neptune, Compa and IF: "HeeroUzuki does not own Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Hyperdimension Neptunia, Super Robot Wars, or any work pertaining to any of the franchises. However, he does own the idea of crossing over Gundam Wing and Hyperdimension Neptunia."
Me: "Now, let us leave so the readers may enjoy another chapter of our story... Maybe."
Me, Heero, Neptune, Compa and IF: (Leave IC)
Ch. 26 The Plan to Bring Down Avenir
The party turned in for the night at a hotel not too far from their safe house. After having received their false job request from Ganache and Chian losing her factory, the team was quite exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go to bed. Because of Ganache's deception and his conspiring to destroy Passe, the Avenir employee had effectively been put on the team's Shit List.
The party got back to the hotel that they were saying at from a job request that, thankfully, wasn't false. The reason why the party wasn't staying at their safe house was that apparently the washing machine malfunctioned after being used and began to leak all over the laundry room floor. Thankfully the laundry was finished before the malfunction and nothing of value was damaged, however the party was unable to use the safe house until the floor had been cleaned.
Neptune plopped down on her bed with a tired look on her face, "I'm so pooped. I should take a bubble bath and zonk out early." The purplenette looked over at Compa, who was sitting on the bed across from her. "Wanna tackle the bath tub together, Compa?"
Compa was rather hesitant to get in the tub with Neptune, "U-Um, no. I think I can do it alone. Go ahead, Nep-Nep."
Neptune hopped over onto Compa's bed and grabbed her breasts, "You don't gotta be so shy! You've got like, a totally bombshell body!"
IF entered the room from the hallway and saw the awkward display that was making Compa so uncomfortable, "Hey, don't grab someone's breasts from behind!"
"What the?!" Compa looked past IF to see someone standing in the doorway to the room, causing the pink haired girl to start screaming, "Aghhhh!"
The brunette turned around to see the intruder, "H-Hey, who the hell're you? Who sent you?!"
"I'm… I'm so sorry! I've got the wrong room…!"
"Oh? Fine."
As soon as the stranger turned around, he soon found himself looking down the barrel of a gun. The owner of said gun was none other than Heero, who was glaring at the man standing in front of the party's room, "Who are you, and why are you trespassing in our room?"
Neptune hopped off the bed she was sitting on and ran over to the Gundam pilot and presumed trespasser, "No need to shoot 'em up, Heero. You probably won't get any experience points for beating this NPC." Stepping past the NPC, Neptune stood next to Heero to get a better look at the individual that had entered their room by mistake. "He seems kinda cool, though… H-Hello, my name's Neptune! The really cool guy here is Heero. Who're you, what's your job and favorite kind of pie?!"
The NPC was able calm down once Heero put away his gun, "Um, my name is Zach Unfair. I'm unemployed, but I want to be a game creator. I enjoy peach pie."
The bubbly girl assumed her thinking position as she tried to mentally visualize the stranger as a game creator, "A game creator, eh? Sounds like a pretty bright and happy future!"
"I hope so. I want to find a job soon so I can start making games like GG7!"
IF was still standing at the doorway as the conversation went on, and the talk of games piqued her interest, "Oh. Yeah, GG7 is a pretty good game."
Neptune had a flabbergasted look on her face as she looked at the brunette, "I didn't think you'd know about GG7!"
IF folded her arms and shot a questioning look and Neptune, wondering how the purplenette could think that she wouldn't know about GG7. "Why wouldn't I? It's one of the greatest games in history. I can see the opening movie in my head…"
Zach was growing more and more excited as the topic went from him and entering the party's room to GG7, "Yes, It's got such an epic, gripping story! The part where they revealed the main character's past was done so nicely.""
IF nodded her head in a sagely manner, "Mm-hmm. I agree."
"…Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to take up your time."
The brunette just stood where she was, watching Zach. "Right."
"Sorry for the intrusion. Have a good night."
IF watched the aspiring game creator in silence as he walked away, presumably to look for his room. Neptune suddenly delivered a swift karate chop to IF's head and started ranting, "What the heck, Iffy?! You two seemed like you hit it off and had a good little chat! Why not seal the deal?!"
Having been karate chopped on the head, IF responded in kind by punching the purplenette upside her head and folded her arms over her chest, "Sh-Shut up! It's not like that. Just get your rubber ducky and take your stupid bath…!"
IF was about to walk away when she suddenly turned back to look at the purplenette, "Wait… Why exactly did you want me to 'seal the deal' with some NPC?"
A grin spread across Neptune's face as she rubbed the spot on her head where she had been hit, "Simple! If you fall for some other guy and go off with 'em that means I have less competition for Heero."
The brunette didn't say a word. All she did was hold up her right arm and extended her middle finger to the purplenette before turning around to go to her bed. Neptune turned on her heels and faced Heero, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "Hey Heero, what about you? Wanna buddy up with me and hit the bathtub together?"
Heero walked past Neptune and entered the party's room, "I'll respectfully decline."
As one could imagine, Neptune followed the Gundam pilot over to his bed with the intent of persuading him to join her in the tub. Lyrica and Gust emerged from the bathroom with towels around their necks and clad in their night wear. Gust was happily drinking a bottle of tea, having finished her bath, "Gust is all clean now."
The cerulean haired songstress next to Gust gently wiped the side of her face with her towel while looking out the window in the back of the room, "You know, that creepy guy yesterday said that building we were in was gonna explode, but it didn't. I think that guy was full of-"
Just then a loud explosion erupted on a neighboring island that drew the party's attention… as well as that of everyone else on Lastation. The group had congregated over by the window to see the large cloud of smoke where the facility the party had been trapped in earlier was. Neptune looked from the island to Lyrica with a cold bead of sweat running down the side of her face, "Uhh, you were sayin', Lyrics?"
Lyrica just stood at the window staring wide-eyed at the raging inferno on the small island while a special news report about the explosion aired on the T.V. Heero went over to his laptop and looked over a list of explosives that he had bookmarked, "The fact that it took so long for the explosives to detonate means that those were delayed charges. Either our number one most hated individual on Lastation used explosives that took a considerably long time to detonate, or he is a fool with no experience in handling explosives."
IF took off her jacket and collapsed onto her bed, ready to pass out, "Who cares? His incompetence just made getting out of that dungeon less stressful. We're probably going to have a busy day tomorrow, so we should get to bed early."
And so the party began to make themselves comfortable and prepared for bed. It didn't take long for the girls to fall asleep, with Heero staying up one hour longer than them before turning in for the night. There were only four beds in the room, forcing four girls to double up in two of the beds; Neptune and Compa in one, and IF and Lyrica in the other, leaving Heero and Gust with their own beds.
The party slept in relative peace for most of the night, though Compa was abruptly woken from her sleep a few times by Neptune's kicking and Lyrica had been hit a few times by IF, who believed she was hitting Neptune in her sleep... Something about her trying to strip Heero or the like.
It was 3:00 in the morning when Heero heard a noise that woke him from his sleep. When Heero tried to sit up he found it slightly difficult, and found the problem was right in his face… literally. Neptune was sleeping right on top of Heero. Obviously she had gotten up at some point during the night and crawled into his bed. HOW she had been able to do it was beyond Heero.
Heero slipped out from under Neptune's grasp and made his way over to the door leading to the hallway, believing the strange noise came from there. The Perfect Soldier grabbed his gun and put his hand on the doorknob, slowly twisting it until the wooden door began to open.
A few seconds after opening the door Heero poked his head out of the room and looked down the left side of the corridor, and then the right side… There was nothing out in the hallway. The Gundam pilot assumed he was just imagining things and quietly closed the door.
As soon as Heero turned around, he was surprised to see a pair of green glowing eyes outside the window that were looking into the room. Heero quickly took aim at the creature and was about to pull the trigger of his gun when the light from the moon, which had been obscured by the clouds in the night sky, shone down on the object standing outside the room.
To Heero's surprise, the 'creature' standing outside was the Wing Gundam. The Gundam stood where it was as it looked into the room, then began to walk away after a few seconds. Heero bolted out of the room, waking Neptune in the process. The preteen fell out of bed before looking toward the door in time to see Heero leave, "Whoa… What's goin' on?"
Heero came running out the front entrance of the hotel and arrived in time to see the Wing Gundam emerge from the alleyway on the right of the building. The mobile suit scanned the area in front of it before turning left and walking past the hotel's front door, not even bothering to look at Heero, "Hey, what's going on out here?"
Neptune came out the front door of the building and saw both Heero and the Wing Gundam. The preteen had a confused look on her face as she alternated between looking at Heero and the mobile suit. "Wait… Heero, you're right here… but you're also over there. But that can't be, cuz' you're right here! But then why are you over there? What's goin' on?"
The Gundam pilot looked at the purplenette as she massaged her temples in an attempt to figure out was going on, "Do you think I know what has caused this? I'm still trying to figure this out myself."
"You SHOULD know, Heero. After all, you're the one who summoned it."
Neptune looked up to the sky as she usually did whenever she was talking to Histoire or Zero, "Heya, Z! Whatcha' up to this late at night? You stargazing or something?"
"I was working on something until I noticed… THIS. So I have been monitoring its movements for a while now."
Heero was trying to decipher what Zero meant when she said that he had summoned the Wing Gundam, but wasn't coming to any concrete answer, "Zero, what do you mean I summoned it? I recall everything I did before going to sleep, and none of it involved this."
"The suit was summoned while you were unconscious… Sometime after Neptune snuck into your bed. It has been moving in the same manner ever since while periodically checking your room."
The Perfect Soldier raised a questioning eyebrow. "You knew that Neptune snuck into my bed. Why didn't you tell me?"
"I'm going to assume that's a rhetorical question, but I'll humor you. There are two main reasons why I didn't wake you up to tell you about Neptune sneaking into your bed; one, she doesn't kick when she's sleeping with you, which means Compa can actually get some sleep. Two… that should be obvious. You two just look so cute together, like a real couple."
Neptune's cheeks turned pink as she grinned at the Gundam pilot in front of her, "Did you hear that, Heero? Even Z thinks we're great together! More proof that we really are Destined Lovers."
Heero could not believe what he was hearing. Zero had no doubt heard this topic a number of times, and despite being his partner, she was siding against him on the matter? "Zero, don't do this to me."
"Of course, that could be said about any girl you've associated with during our time here."
"Zero…"
Zero could detect the irritation in Heero's voice as the conversation went on, "Oh, relax a little, Heero. I was only teasing you… Though I was serious about you being a good couple. Anyway, after monitoring the Wing Gundam, I believe this new ability you have could prove invaluable to the mission."
The Gundam pilot was intrigued by Zero's idea, "I will need you to elaborate. In what way will this help our mission?"
"Think about it for a moment. You're standing right there, but the Wing Gundam is currently moving around on its own… 'Sentry Mode' as I like to call it. Normally, you've had to actually be inside of the suit in order for it to move, but now both you and the Wing Gundam are operating independently of one another, such as when I have operated the Wing Zero while you focused on combat while on foot."
Heero was deep in thought, clearly this was something that he could make use of. "The ability for you to use the Gundam independent of your person will give you new ways of not only conducting battle, but ways of scouting out areas without subjecting either yourself, Neptune, or any of the others to needless risk."
As Zero continued with her explanation Neptune began to look more and more confused. The party's leader just smiled and nodded in an attempt to look like she understood what the disembodied voice was saying, but Zero was using terms that Neptune had never heard before, "Uh… Z? You mind explaining all this in a way that doesn't hurt my brain?"
Zero let out a light laugh at Neptune's request, "Very well, since you asked. What this means is that Heero will be able to fight more effectively, and it shouldn't take as long to dispatch with a group of enemies as it has before… Not to say it took long before. And of course, Heero can do an even better job of protecting you now, Neptune."
Neptune had a starry eyed look on her face as she heard Zero said how Heero would be able to better protect her. "While the Wing Gundam is currently the only mobile suit you have summoned, this new ability you have developed may be applicable with the others. Given time, it may be possible to utilize more than one mobile suit at a time."
Heero could definitely see the benefit of developing this new ability, "(The ability to deploy multiple Gundams would prove beneficial to our mission.)"
"Unfortunately, I have discovered a drawback to the use of this ability. While you may not be utilizing the suit yourself, summoning a Gundam through this ability will constantly drain your energy just as if you were operating it yourself. If in the future you develop the ability to deploy multiple suits, I can easily imagine that the amount of energy needed to maintain them will also increase."
…There just HAD to be a flaw to this new power. Still, even with the flaws, the pros of using and developing this new ability outweighed the cons. "You only JUST acquired this new power. For now, just focus on using it to summon the one Gundam and study its functionalities. One thing you should verify is whether or not the Wing Gundam has still retained its other functionalities. If memory serves, the Wing Gundam utilizes Mobile Armor technology, and can transform into a high-performance fighter. You can focus on developing your new ability later. Now then, I believe you two should get back to bed. From the looks of it, you're going to have a busy day tomorrow."
Having explained what was going on with the Wing Gundam walking around the outside of their hotel, Zero went back to her work. As the Perfect Soldier began to mull over this new development, he could feel Neptune staring at him, "So, now that you've got this cool new power and stuff, you're gonna work harder to protect me… right?"
"That was the idea. Still, having just obtained it, there is still too much I don't know about this ability." Before he could return to his train of thought, Heero felt himself being pulled toward the door by Neptune, who had a tired look on her face, "You can think all you want about it tomorrow. Right now, we're gonna do what Z said and catch some Zs. I'm super tired."
Xxx
It was late in the evening the following day and IF had been looking on her cell phone for something while the rest of the group took care of their own business. As IF looked at her phone she suddenly held it with both hands, "…No, no, no! The Sanctuary group driven out by the Parliament… I can't find them anywhere!"
Neptune assumed her thinking position as the brunette shouted at her pink phone, "The Sanctuary serves the CPU and goes on missionary quests, right?" The purplenette hopped off her bed, her eyes reflecting the excitement she was feeling at that very moment. "Oooh, so if we find 'em, we might get to bump fists with the goddess directly!"
IF slipped her cell phone back into her jacket pocket while casting a glance at Neptune "You just thought of that? Well, it doesn't matter because despite my efforts, I can't locate them." Folding her arms, the Guild Moderatist sat down on her bed. "We might have to speak to another heretic to get some answers…"
Neptune tilted her head to the side as she looked at the brunette, who didn't seem thrilled with the idea, "You think a heretic would really know anything?"
The Moderatist Guild member blew a stray strand of hair out of her face and fell on her back on the mattress. "People can't be oblivious to all this information-snuffing by the Parliament. The heretics don't care about that, right?"
As the two girls were conversing, the door to their room swung open and Compa walked in, "Girls, it's time for work. I heard an old, helpless man is being attacked by creatures outside of town!"
Neptune had a surprised look on her face as the nurse in training barged in with their next job. "Another old geezer needs savin', huh?"
Heero closed his laptop before standing up from where he was seated, "It would be best for us to finish this task as soon as possible. Any information we can get about the Lastation's Parliament, the Expo, or even Avenir would be useful."
Lyrica was tuning the new strings she had put on Mr. Guitar as the party began to discuss their plans and what they hoped to learn from the heretic, "So, we need some really incriminating evidence or something?"
Gust's face was blank as she sat next to the songstress, "Avenir very bad. Chian suffered greatly because of Avenir!"
The party's purple haired leader stood up with her arms pumped and a look of determination on her face, "So, all we gotta do is dig up some dirt on Avenir, and we can expose them for the bad guys they really are."
Since there were no job requests available, the party decided to look for more information, and what better source than a heretic? The group gathered their equipment and made for the location of the 'helpless old man'.
As the party came out of the hotel and began to walk down the street, Compa saw something in the sky that grabbed her attention, "What's that? A bird?"
Gust looked up at the objected that Compa was focusing on, "Doesn't look like bird. May be something else?"
IF had to squint to see the object, but couldn't see any more than the other two girls, "Whatever it is, it looks like it's headed this way."
The object in the sky began to descend toward the party at an alarming rate. After five seconds of falling, the object crashed into the ground a few feet in front of the group, kicking up a large cloud of dirt and scaring off all passerby in the area.
Once enough of the dirt cloud faded, the party could see that the object was in fact the Wing Gundam. Compa looked at Heero, then the Wing Gundam, and then back again, "Wait, what is Heero doing over there when he's right here? This is really confusing."
It was then that Neptune remembered what had happened last night, "Oh yeah, Z said that Heero unlocked this awesome new ability where he can summon his cool looking transformation and be two places at once. Now he can do all kinds of stuff he couldn't before, and work twice as hard to protect me."
Compa, IF and Gust looked at the purplenette in confusion, "…What?"
Lyrica felt it was necessary to translate Neptune's definition of the new power Heero had obtained into a definition that the three girls could more easily understand, "I think what Neptune is trying to say is that Heero got a new power sometime last night that allows him to summon his transformation without having to actually use it himself. That means that it moves independent of the human component, allowing Heero to do more things at one time than he originally could and even do things that he couldn't before."
When Lyrica was done explaining, she noticed that the rest of the party was staring at her. "Wh-What?"
Neptune was quite surprised with the way the songstress had worded what she had said, "Whoa, Lyrics, when did you turn on the smartness? Were you struck by lightning and suddenly got smart or somethin'?"
Gust continued to stare at the cerulean haired idol, "Very intelligent definition. Most suspicious."
IF eyes Lyrica for a moment, "…Are you really 5pb?"
Lyrica's cheeks began to swell and turn red as she looked at the girls, "You aren't going to tell me you all thought I was stupid, are you? I couldn't come up with the lyrics for my songs, let alone do my job if I was dumb!"
Neptune walked over to the Gundam and knocked on its torso, "So, what was it doing anyway? It was flying pretty high up."
Heero walked over to inspect the mobile suit, "Performance tests. I need to check to see what limitations there are on this ability such as whether or not there is a maximum effective range that I can control the mobile suit."
The purplenette had a blank look on her face as she looked at the Gundam pilot, "Uhh… you're using words that I don't understand."
As Heero glanced at the preteen, the Wing Gundam vanished in a brief flash of light. "Don't bother wasting time on thinking about it. Just know that I am trying to determine whether this power will really be of any benefit to us. We should focus on getting to the mission area now, so that we don't waste any more time."
Xxx
It took them a few minutes, but the party eventually arrived at the location where a helpless old man was being attack by monsters… which, ironically enough, was a cave. Blue luminescent crystals littered the walls, providing plenty of light with which to see by.
Neptune was looking everywhere in front of the entrance, but could find no sign of the old man that was supposedly here, "You sure an old guy is here gettin' attacked by monsters, Compa? I'm not seeing anything."
"Well, that's what I heard from the people in town. I hope that poor old man hasn't been eaten."
Heero actively scanned the area near the entrance and listened for any movement, "I question whether or not we need to worry about the rescue target being in any danger. There doesn't appear to be any sign of enemies in the area."
Lyrica peeked around the corner of the rocky wall near where the party was and could not see any monsters or any indications of there ever having been monsters, "That's a good thing, right? We don't have to worry about fighting or getting hurt."
Despite the lack of monsters in the immediate vicinity, the party advanced into the rocky cave with caution. Heero scanned every possible location that a monster may have been as the trek into the dungeon progressed, though nothing turned up. Even Gust was starting to become a little unsettled, "Lack of monsters is troubling. Perhaps monsters waiting further in?"
Another minute passed by as the team searched for the elderly man in the dungeon, and with each passing second Neptune began to grow more and more bored, "Ugh, this is soooo boring! Why don't we just leave? There's nothing to do here."
It wasn't that Neptune didn't want to help the elderly man, she just didn't like that there was nothing to do, "This is uber boring. Can't we actually do something? Like not look for old guys who hold up in caves?"
Before IF could give a witty, sarcastic remark to the purple haired girl she heard someone mumbling close by, "Did you guys hear that?"
The girls waited a few seconds before hearing more mumbling, "Hmm… Sounds like some old fart complaining."
"Nep-Nep, that has to be the old man that's in trouble! We have to help him!"
Since the sound of the mumbling old man was close by, the group didn't have to travel far in order to find its source. In fact, they had just arrived at the room in the cave that the voice had originated from. The old man that the party went in to find was sitting against the wall grumbling to himself, "Uhh… Is that old guy the person we're looking for? He doesn't look like he's in any danger, Compa."
The old man continued to mumble to himself until he saw the party advancing toward them, to which he started to get up on his feet "Who might you be? You're not here to sightsee… What do you want?"
IF analyzed the elderly man for a moment before determining that he was a heretic, "Another heretic. I'm glad you seem able enough to carry on a normal conversation."
Neptune popped out from behind the Moderatist, having already assumed her thinking pose, "We're looking for the Sanctuary group who got the boot by Parliament. Whatcha know about them?"
"I heard they relocated to Colline, where the old Basilicom used to be…"
The purplenette turned to the party as a broad smile spread across her face. "What a convenient answer! So easy! We got all the info we needed right off the bat."
Compa turned to the heretic, concerned with him being in this cave, "…Are you not thinking of returning to the town?"
"Returning? No point. The messenger isn't revealing itself. We've all been forsaken."
The nurse in training tilted her head to the side. "The… messenger? Why are you waiting for this person? What will the messenger come and do, anyway?"
"The messenger would have taught us the way to salvation, away from Overlord Momus's clutches… but it's useless now." The elderly man waited a few seconds to see if the party would inquire further. "…Is there anything else? Leave if you're done."
Lyrica let out a huff as the party began to make their way back out of the dungeon. "He was rather rude. He could have asked us to leave a little more nicely."
Heero didn't care one way or another how the old man asked the party to leave, they had the information they needed, "It doesn't matter. For now, we need to follow the lead we have and see if we can find the members of the Sanctuary."
Xxx
By the time the party had made it out of the cave and back toward civilization, it was already night time. It was the price to be paid for having to wait on information from the Guild and whatnot earlier that morning, as well as the wait for information on the old Basilicom that the party had just learned about.
The team had congregated in an open field far outside of the capital city near what looked to be an abandoned Basilicom. Everyone waited on IF as looked everywhere she could through her cell phone to find any information on Colline, the place they were at. "People seem pretty knowledgeable about the old Basilicom. Kind of weird Iffy failed to find any info about it…"
IF shifted her gaze from the LED screen of her cell phone to Compa, "I heard nobody lives near it. Maybe that's why information was scarce for me."
Compa turned her attention to the Basilicom, which looked rather rundown. "I just hope someone is really here. This place looks way too haunted for normal people to live…" The nurse in training continued to look at the religious structure, noting that there was no indication that anyone had was using it, "I d-don't see any lights… Maybe Mr. Heretic was wrong. I think we c-can still go home!"
Lyrica and Gust were just as scared as Compa was, as was indicating by the rapid clicking of their teeth, "Compa's got the r-right idea. Maybe we should l-leave."
"Gust agrees. Sh-Should leave now."
Before the three girls could turn and run, Neptune pushed them closer toward the doors of the Basilicom, "Don't even think about running away with your butts between your legs! You've got me here." The preteen stepped out in front of the party and shouted at the Basilicom. "Excuse us, we're coming in!"
As Neptune burst through the doorway, IF slid her cell phone back into her jacket pocket and folded her arms as she watched the purplenette, "…I like how she seems to be forgetting that if anything goes wrong, it's Heero that's going to be stuck bailing her ass out."
Heero advanced into the Basilicom after Neptune, and was followed shortly after by the rest of the girls. Once inside, it was pretty obvious that it was an old Basilicom based on the interior design. Instead of stain glass windows and pillars, the inside of the Basilicom was made up of bricks and the main room was smaller, resulting in fewer pews on each side of the room.
Someone, presumably a member of the Sanctified, was already standing at the front of the Basilicom and turned to face the party as soon as they entered, "Stop! Are you part of Avenir, or are you from the Parliament?!"
Neptune was taken aback by the question the party had been asked, "Whoa! Wh-Wh-What's up with this? Do we look like bonanza sisters or something? Heero would totally take offense to that, being a guy and all."
Heero shot a glare at Neptune out of annoyance as the man relaxed. "…Oh, just a few little girls. Im sorry. We're not used to visitors. Are you selling cookies?"
Compa peered out from behind Heero and scanned the room, noticing that there were other members of the Sanctuary present, "No… You all seem so tense. Is someone trying to hurt you or something?"
"Very much so. Avenir's automated weaponry have already paid a visit to a few of us."
The mentioning of the name Avenir had Neptune peeved, "What? Why would Avenir be such a bully? The Parliament got their cake and ate it when they took over the Basilicom, right?"
Heero narrowed his eyes as he thought about what Avenir stood to gain by attack the members of the Sanctuary even though they no longer held their positions in the Basilicom. It was then that Heero realized that it came back to the Parliament, "…They're tying up loose ends. It comes back to the give and take relationship between Avenir and the Parliament. With the members of the Sanctuary removed from power the Parliament now has complete control over the Basilicom. However, as long as the members of the Sanctuary are still alive, there exists the possibility that they will regain their position. The members of the Parliament must have made a request to have Avenir dispose of the members of the Sanctuary to prevent that from happening."
Judging by the silence in the room Heero guessed that he was right in his analysis of the situation, "They'll never rest until every last one of us are dead. Even after being driven out, the public eye still believes we're part of the Basilicom's system." The former Basilicom employee noticed that they were still outside more or less, as they were standing in a dilapidated portion of the Basilicom where they could see the trees outside, and gestured for the group to pass through the door in the back. "Oh, come on in."
After passing through the doorway, the group found themselves in the inner portion of the Basilicom, which was not in a state of disrepair. Compa looked around the room in awe as the party made themselves comfortable, "Wow! The outside looked like it was about to collapse, but inside it's no different from other Basilicoms."
Having actually been in Lady White Heart's room (and in the case of Heero and IF, Lady Green Heart's room), the party knew that the room they were in was supposed to be for the goddess of the landmass. The member of the Sanctified that had been conversing with the party upon their arrival entered the room after them, "We remodeled this room. We couldn't possibly welcome the goddess in such a filthy place. We typically don't use this room for guests, but I'll make an exception."
Lyrica was looking around the room with an envious look on her face as she hid behind Heero and IF, "I wish I had a really nice room like this."
Gust was also rather envious of the spacious room as well, "If Gust had this room, Gust would not have to go outside to conduct tests."
Neptune raised her hand into the air to get the former Sanctuary member's attention, "Question! Is the CPU gone right now?"
"Not just now. We've not seen her for nearly three years. We're concerned something's happened to her."
Compa began to contemplate what the party was supposed to do at that point in time, since she clearly wasn't there… possibly not even on Lastation at all, "So we can't talk with her about Avenir…" The nurse in training turned to look at the former Sanctuary member. "Is there anything else we can help with?"
"We'd like the assistance, but we have no solid proof of Avenir's activities due to… many reasons."
The party's purple haired leader was becoming more and more upset as the conversation about Avenir's wrongdoings went on, "What about Chian's factory? It was totally crushed by Avenir. That's a whopper of proof!"
Heero shook his head. He knew that normally if someone committed such an act, the perpetrator would be dealt with for what they had done, but that wasn't to be the case with Avenir, "Under normal circumstances that would be true, but the Parliament will most likely cover up the entire affair so that they don't lose Avenir's support."
Another moment of painful silence dominated the air before the member of the Sanctified continued, "The Parliament will go and conceal the entire incident. If anyone defies them, they'll be driven away, like us. Their military and political might is engulfing Lastation from both sides. We're thinking of a countermeasure. As soon as we can find a connection between Avenir and the Parliament…"
IF folded her arms over her chest as she remembered some of their job requests from Avenir, "…We worked with Avenir a few times. I remember a Basilicom member substituted once to explain our job to us."
Compa had to think for a moment before remembering who the brunette was talking about, "Oh, that's right. They were saying scary stuff like 'dead or alive!' for some monster tissue and stuff!"
"If that's true, the equipment made from the monster's tissue could be our proof. If only we could get such a thing."
Neptune had assumed her thinking pose and started brainstorming a possible solution until she came up with one that the party was rather good at… force, "All those mechanical meanies are Avenir's product, right? I'm sure they'll poop one out if we keep bustin' 'em up!"
IF cocked an eyebrow as she contemplated the success of such a plan, "I don't know the odds of such a peculiar drop, but that's the only way to go about this."
Lyrica already looked as though she was exhausted just thinking of the idea, "That sounds like a lot of work… Isn't there an easier way to find proof?"
Compa, unlike Lyrica, was brimming with confidence, "It sounds like a lot of work, but if it's for justice, I'll do it. Even small efforts can be the seeds of great success!"
The member of the Sanctified felt a glimmer of hope as the party offered to undertake the task of finding proof connecting Avenir and the Parliament, "Thank you for this invigorating discussion. We'll await your return with the hardware and expose those cretins."
Having heard what had happened, as well as how they could expose both Avenir and the Parliament, the party left Colline to return to the city. As the group made their way back to the city, Neptune came to an abrupt stop and faced the party with a nervous smile on her face, "I know I said we could get the proof by beating up monsters, but… How are we gonna get the stuff from the monsters?"
IF stared at the purplenette before throwing her hands into the air in frustration, "You came up with the idea, and you haven't even thought it all the way through? Why did you even open your mouth? Can you not go five minutes without talking?!"
Gust decided it would be a waste of breath to talk to the two bickering girls, and instead conversed with the other members of the party, "Plan is no problem. Problem is finding monsters that carry proof."
Heero himself was trying to figure how the group was to obtain the evidence they needed… Provided they went along with Neptune's proposed plan, "The real problem will be determining which of Avenir's robots actually make use of monster tissue. For now, we should return to the city and turn in early for the night. We will need to be well rested for when we begin our search."
Neptune let out a tired yawn as she stretched her arms over her head, "Yeah, I'm pretty tired from walkin' and talkin'. At least the washing machine is fixed and our nice little home is all clean, so I can have a snack before getting some sleep."
The walk back to the city was just as uneventful as the rest of the day had been, with no monsters or completely random people stopping the party along the way.
Xxx
Since they had turned in early the previous night and already planned out what they would do for the day, the party set out early in search of Avenir manufactured robots. The plan was to incapacitate a few of the machines and search them for any monster tissue that they might have.
The particular area the group was in was surrounded with thick vegetation. As they ventured into the forested area, Neptune realized that she was somewhat familiar with the party's surroundings, "Haven't we, uh, been here before?"
IF had her face in her cell phone before Neptune started talking. The brunette kept her face focused on the LED screen as the party continued their walk through the forest, "It's near the facility Avenir asked us to work at before. I thought they'd release a robot if we walked around suspiciously."
Heero, as well as the other members of the party, could see the Avenir owned factory through the foliage and it was not too far away, "Whether any of the robots Avenir manufactures will actually be sent out here after us remains to be seen."
Neptune looked around to see a few monsters roaming around, though none of them were coming after the team, "There are way more bad guys than before. Hopefully we won't get bonked before we can get what we're looking for."
It wasn't until the purplenette brought up the monsters that IF decided to pull her face away from her cell phone screen to see the creatures, "I didn't think about that, really." The Moderatist knew it was a little late to take the monsters into consideration, now that they were already there. "Well, whatever. I'm sure we'll be fine."
The party waited for a robot of some kind to come out of the factory, and took care of getting rid of nearby monsters so that they wouldn't have to worry about being attacked from behind.
Five hours had passed since the party had arrived outside of the factory, and while the group had taken care of a few robots, none of them had what they were looking for, leaving Neptune disheartened, "We didn't find it…" The purple haired party leader turned to IF, a less than enthusiastic look on her face as she grabbed the brunette by her shoulders and began to shake her. "Do we have to, like, backtrack to all the previous dungeons on this fetch quest? Say it ain't so, Iffy!"
IF swatted Neptune's hands away and covered her mouth, letting out a tired yawn before folding her arms over her chest, "Uh, it ain't so. Let's go back for today. I'm… tired."
Lyrica was leaning on a nearby tree… or rather, she was slumped over a tree branch, "I've done a lot of performances before this, but at least my job has never left me THIS tired. I'm gonna collapse."
Gust was sitting down on a rock and the ears of her bunny cap looked as though they were drooping, "Fetch quests before this not so difficult. Gust requires rest."
Heero was more irritated than tired, having not achieved the results that the party was hoping for. A few moments later, the Wing Gundam, which Heero had sent out to look in another area close by returned, though the mobile suit came back empty handed, "It would appear that Wing was unable to find the target as well. What a troublesome task we've been given."
Compa suddenly caught sight of someone a short distance away from the party, "Wait! I see someone over there!"
The individual that approached the party was a certain someone that the party was not too fond of at the moment… Ganache, "Greetings, little ladies. Fancy meeting you here."
IF was not at all thrilled to see the backstabbing Avenir employee, "…This is no coincidence. Avenir's solicitor and a robotic sidekick." IF had to cross her arms to keep herself from strangling the Avenir employee. "You know, it's probably difficult to have completely automated robots throughout Lastation."
"You're keen, as usual. All of our larger-scale machines are controlled remotely."
Neptune had assumed her thinking pose, genuinely curious about the robots being remote controlled and how they fit into what had been going on, "Then, you've been controlling the robots? All this time and forever and ever? Is it… a motion controller?"
"Yes. Also, yes, all this time. But from now on? Hmm. That's up to you."
Each passing second that she had to look at him only served to anger IF, "Remembering what you did to us last time is pissing me off. We're taking you to the Basilicom to confess your wrongdoings."
Even Compa was somewhat angry with having to see Ganache again, but not so much that she had forgotten why the party was even there outside of the Avenir factory, "We haven't found that hardware yet! We should interrogate him about it."
Heero nodded his head in approval. It would be a lie to say that Heero didn't want to torture the man for his treachery, "A sound idea. We stand to find out more from an actual employee than from salvaging a robot."
"I'll chat more this time around. It's why I'm here. I've started to question the motives of this company. I've come to help you take Avenir down."
This was a shocking twist to be sure. No one in the party expected to here Ganache say that he wanted to help them take down the very company he worked for. It was no surprise, however, that the party was more than a little skeptical of the man's intentions. Lyrica hid behind Heero and poked her head out from behind the Gundam pilot, "I-I don't believe you… after all the mean things you've done, why sh-should we believe you?"
Compa watched Ganache, and was just as suspicious of him as Lyrica and the rest of the party, "This is too good to be true. If you're trying to help, why did you attack us with your robots?"
Ganache shrugged his shoulders, "To see you without seeming suspicious. I'm still an Avenir employee. Great benefits. I had to look like I was following orders."
Neptune pumped her arms, believing that the Avenir employee was being honest about his claim about wanting to help them, "Well whatever, said the blind man to his deaf dog. You're gonna bring Avenir down, and that's that, right?"
Heero on the other hand, was not quite so forgiving, "I fail to see how you can be so quick to forgive him for what he has done to hamper us."
IF allowed her arms to fall to her sides as she looked at the party's leader, "We can't forget what he did to us." The brunette returned her attention to the otherwise untrustworthy Ganache. "How did you hear about Neptune? Why did you try to get rid of us?"
"That was the company's order. I was told to keep you girls busy while they raided the Passe factory."
While she became slightly more relaxed, IF had not let her guard down just yet, "Your story makes sense, but that doesn't mean I'm convinced."
"I'll give you the hardware you're looking for as proof. You want it, right? I'll even testify against Avenir."
Neptune was excited not only because they were going to get the item they had been literally searching for hours to find, but now they had a better chance of bringing down the source of Lastation's problems, "Awesomesauce! That'll give us a fightin' chance against Avenir. Still not convinced, Iffy?"
IF cast a questioning glance at the purplenette, "You know what happened before. This is just an odd turn of events. Can we really trust him?"
Lyrica was holding onto Mr. Guitar with a very tight grip as she looked down at the ground, "I'm still getting some bad vibes from him… I don't think we should trust him."
Gust was also not ready to trust Ganache, as was apparent by the stern expression on her face, "Gust still finds him untrustworthy. He cannot be trusted."
Heero trusted the man about as far as he could throw him… which was to say he didn't trust him in the slightest, "Need I remind you that he attempted to kill us?"
Despite the protest of the others (minus Neptune), Compa was willing to give the Avenir employee the benefit of the doubt, "There's no reason to assume otherwise for now. Why not leave it up to the Sanctuary?"
"Sanctuary… Those people are at the old Basilicom, right? Please take me there. I'll tell you everything then."
With no other recourse the party decided to take the employee with them to the old Basilicom, Colline. All the while, Heero, IF, Lyrica and Gust could not help but think that Ganache was still plotting something behind their backs.
Xxx
After dropping Ganache off at Colline, the party went back to the city and stopped at Chian's home. As they were chatting amongst themselves, a familiar individual that the group had recently met approached the table they were sitting at, "Excuse me. Am I at the right place?"
Neptune and the others turned their attention to the newcomer who turned out to be the member of the Sanctified that the party had met the previous night, "You betcha! It's a small place, but please, scootch yourself on in."
The party's particular table was a booth in the corner of the small café, and it was already a tight fit for them as it was. In order to make room, Neptune decided to sit in Heero's lap, much to the Perfect Soldier's annoyance. Neptune's idea to make room for the member of the Sanctified garnered envious glares from Compa, Lyrica and IF, the latter of whom had been on her cell phone since the group had sat down, "I wish Chian could hear you say that. (There she goes, scoring more points with Heero… little bitch!)" IF turned her attention back to the newcomer. "Anyway, what did you do with the solicitor? Kick him out?"
As soon as he was seated, the member of the Sanctified addressed the question regarding Ganache, "No, he told us everything. We also got the hardware. We're still wary, but we've gained something we've been searching for. We'll require your help on the day of the raid."
Neptune grew excited, hearing that Avenir's downfall was close at hand, "For real? I mean, it's the enemy base and the most important day, y'know?! I guess, like, why wouldn't the heroines be there?!" The purplenette leaned back against Heero, a big smile on her face. "Well, you really only need me and Heero. We're Destined Lovers, there's no way we would lose to the bad guys."
A moment of silence filled the air as the member of the Sanctified stared at the preteen and Heero felt a headache coming on, "(Not again…)"
"Destined Lovers? You two? I was under the impression he was perhaps seeing your friend next to you."
Lyrica let out a squeak as the man motioned to her. She immediately looked down at the floor as her cheeks turned bright red, "I-I-I don't know what t-to say…"
Neptune frowned at the member of the Sanctified, having just said he thought Heero was in a relationship with Lyrica, "Yeah, well, Heero is MY lover, so there!"
Thankfully, the man was able to return to the topic the group had been discussing before shifting to the irrelevant topic of who Heero's lover was, "I doubt they're heavily armed, since the main building is in the city's center. Still, we should take precautions. We'll start on the day of the Tech Expo. Most employees will be there, but the rep, Singe, won't."
Compa's face paled slightly. The Sanctified planned their raid for the day of the Expo and would need the party's help to carry it out, but there was a slight problem, "The day of the Expo?! We can't do it then! We've already promised Chian we would help her."
"Don't worry. We should have it all wrapped up by the time the Expo starts. So you'll help us, won't you? We're counting on you girls. Well, you and your non-female companion."
With their business concluded and their plan set, the party parted ways with the man. The group still had time to kill before turning in for the night, and Neptune was leading the party by her stomach, "We should get something to eat. My stomach is growlin' like crazy."
As the party followed their hungry leader, Compa noticed Heero as he kept his gaze fixed on the ground. Clearly the Gundam pilot was thinking about something, "Are you worried about what's going to happen, Heero? I know I am. I just hope we'll be able to help Chian."
Heero kept his gaze fixed on the ground as the party continued to follow Neptune, despite the fact that they had no idea where she was going, "I'm more focused on this raid that has been planned. Unless every factor has been taken into consideration, seldom does a raid such as this go according to plan. (I also question whether or not that employee can be trusted. There is the possibility that is another trap set by Avenir, and he is merely the tool sent to lure us into it. There is also the possibility that he may be playing both sides.)"
Neptune rubbed her stomach and followed her nose to a nearby restaurant, "All your worrying isn't gonna solve nothin' Heero. We gotta think about this, and we can't do that on an empty stomach."
The group entered the restaurant behind their leader, who licked her lips the moment she caught the scent of food coming from the kitchen. "Ugh, I'm so hungry! I've been craving peace pie for a while now…"
IF saw a familiar figure sitting at one of the tables, "Huh? That person looks familiar."
Neptune turned her attention to the person IF was looking at. It took her a moment to figure out it was before it came to her after assuming her thinking pose, "Isn't it Zach? The aspiring game creator? He looks kinda serious. I wonder what's up."
As the party approached the table Zach was sitting at, they could hear a heated argument going on between the aspiring game creator and someone he was talking to on his phone, "Huh? GG10?! Right. Like we could possibly make a game like that! Within the GG series, 7 and 10 stand out among the rest. A crapshoot company like us could never create such masterpieces! All we need is money! It's all about money in this industry, no… in this world!"
Neptune watched Zach as he finished his little rant and quickly left the restaurant, "He's turned into a hopeless, dreamless, passionless shell of a man…"
IF folded her arms and shook her head, "…I wish I hadn't seen that."
Compa watched Zach leave, slightly worried about the young man, "I wonder if he'll be alright. He didn't sound too happy."
"Maybe we can-" Lyrica stopped in mid-sentence as a low growling noise emanated from her stomach, causing her to look down in embarrassment. Neptune pat the songstress on her head, "I know that feeling, Lyrics. We should get a table and get somethin' to eat."
The party sat down at a table, waiting to have their order taken by one of the waiters. Heero immersed himself in his thoughts once again, and no matter how hard he tried the Gundam pilot just couldn't shake off the feeling of unease that had fallen on him, "(…Neptune does make a valid point, oddly enough. Simply thinking about the problem will not change or solve it in anyway. All that we can do is make whatever preparations we can today, and hope that we can take care of this raid on Avenir's main building since the Tech Expo is tomorrow. That said, I can't shake the feeling that something is off…)"
Xxx
Me: "Finally got this chapter done. Not really any action in this chapter, just something to help move the story forward… didn't want to try and force any action so late into this one, we're gonna save it for the next chapter."
Heero and Neptune: (Enter ACCC from Lounge) "This chapter was kinda boring. Hopefully we get all kinds of action next chapter where we beat up monsters and expose Avenir for being big jerks!"
Zero: (Appears behind Heero and Neptune) "Yes, well, considering where exactly this chapter ended, one can assume that that would be the case for the next update."
Me: (Looks around ACCC) "Hey where is every- …Oh yeah… they said they got some cheesecake… That would explain why the others aren't here."
Neptune: "What? They got cheesecake and didn't tell me about it? What is this?!"
Heero: "They most likely didn't tell you because you would have eaten all of it."
Neptune: "Not true! I would've shared! …Some of it."
Zero: "Case and point. That aside, I do believe everyone got some, so you might try looking in your room later."
Me: "Okay, before we do anything else, let's recap. We furthered the plot in Lastation, decided that the major turning point in the battle against Avenir would take place next chapter, unveiled a new ability for Heero, which consequently means I'm going to have to edit the prologue for the sequel… am I missing anything else important? If not, let's have Heero and Nep wrap this chapter up."
Heero and Neptune: (Turns to readers) "Please read and review this chapter." (Bored expression appears on Neptune's face) "And let's get some action in the next chapter. Seriously, this chapter was kinda boring."
Me: "I know, I know. Let's get to work on the next chapter already."
Me, Heero, Neptune and Zero: (Exit ACCC from Left Entrance)
