Me: "Hey there, readers. Well, the Lastation Key Fragment search is almost over, but I wanted to throw in a little something that I thought of after looking back at Chapter 12. It's a filler chapter, but one that I hope you all appreciate."
Black Heart: (Enters IC from Lounge) "The more time spent in Lastation, the more that our readers will see the beauty of the greatest landmass in all of Gamindustri.
Green Heart: (Enters IC from Right Entrance) "Please, with all of that smog hovering over it, Lastation is far from being the best landmass. If you want the best, you need look no farther than Leanbox."
Black Heart: (Narrows eyes at Green Heart) "Get over yourself. Leanbox isn't as great a landmass as you make it out to be. You're lagging so far behind in the technology department, you can't even offer adequate safety for your people. I could go on about what your landmass is lacking to be as great as mine, but you get where I'm going with this."
Green Heart: (Frowns at Black Heart) "What nerve! You dare belittle my Leanbox?"
Heero and Neptune: (Enter IC from Break Room) "Hey, it's the Newtype and the big boob lady! What are they doing here? Probably come to try and steal my lover."
Me: "Nope. They're arguing over which landmass is better; Lastation or Leanbox."
Black Heart: "And Lastation is clearly the better of the two!"
Green Heart: "Hardly. Leanbox is much better than your overly industrialized landmass."
Heero: "I suppose the real question is what exactly is their criteria for determining the best landmass?"
Me: (Looks down at watch) "You two can save the argument for the chapter. We got stuff that needs doing, and we can't burn all of our time here." (Points toward cast) "From the top!"
Heero, Neptune, Black Heart and Green Heart: "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: "Ugh… I hate hearing about how I don't own these franchises. Time to drown my sorrow in some sweet soda and work on the next chapter while our readers enjoy the next chapter."
Black Heart: (Glares at Green Heart) "This isn't over, you know. Lastation is superior to Leanbox in every way."
Green Heart: "What nerve. For you to think that Lastation, with such heavily polluted air, is as marvelous as Leanbox is."
Me: "Give it a rest you two. You can continue this later."
Me, Heero, Neptune, Black Heart and Green Heart: (Leave IC)
Ch. 28 Black vs. Green
Having won the Tech Expo the previous day, the party was invited to the Lastation Basilicom by the landmass's CPU Lady Black Heart. As soon as everyone was up, the party left their safe house for the Lastation Basilicom for their appointed meeting with Lady Black Heart.
As the group walked down the street to the Basilicom, Neptune was humming to herself and skipping, "Can you guys believe it? We're gonna see the goddess! We'll say hi, maybe eat some good food, and find out about some dungeons with strong monsters. Oh, maybe we can get her to party up with us!"
IF cocked an eyebrow at the party's leader as she went on, "You do know who we'll be talking with, right? You can't expect Lady Black Heart to stop doing her job as Lastation's CPU just to help us. We're just going to talk about the whole Avenir and Basilicom situation, and ask about any dungeons where we might find the Key Fragment."
Compa was thinking about what kind of person the CPU would turn out to be, "What do you think Lady Black Heart is like? Will she be a really beautiful lady? Or mean and scary?"
Lyrica ran her fingers along Mr. Guitar's strings as the party walked down the street, inspecting it for dust, "All I want to know is if she likes music."
Heero and Gust were behind the four girls, watching as they talked about their imminent meeting with the highest figure on Lastation, "We should focus on asking relevant questions pertaining to our mission. You can ask personal questions at a later time."
It took five minutes of walking before the group finally made it to the Basilicom. Neptune ran up and knocked on the heavy doors of the building, which was opened shortly afterward by a member of the Sanctified, who had taken back their positions in the Sanctuary, "Hiya! We're here to see the goddess cuz she invited us over."
"Ah, yes. We've been expecting you. Right this way, please."
The party followed the member of the Sanctuary as he led them to the back of the Basilicom where Lady Black Heart was. Upon reaching the door to Lady Black Heart's room, the member of the Sanctified turned to the party, "Wait here for one moment."
After telling the group to wait the member of the Sanctuary disappeared behind the door to Lady Black Heart's room. The man walked halfway across the room before stopping and addressing the goddess. "Lady Black Heart, they've come to see you."
"Thank you. You may step out, now."
The Sanctuary staff member turned and headed back toward the door. After letting the party in the man left the room so that neither the party nor the CPU of Lastation would be disturbed. Once in front of the goddess, Compa gave a polite bow out of respect for the landmasses highest figure, "It's nice to meet you, heavenly Console Patron Unit of Lastation! It's an honor to be here."
Stepping out from behind the veil surrounding her bed, the goddess introduced herself to the party. "…Nice to meet you. I'm the CPU Black Heart, the guardian goddess of Lastation." Black Heart paused the moment she caught sight of Heero, her mind immediately went on a tangent. "(Heero's here…? He's actually here?! And he came to see me?! Wh-What do I ask him? What does he ask me? C-Calm down, Black Heart. No need to get worked up. Try to keep things professional.)"
The party was quite surprised to see who Lady Black Heart was, none more so than Neptune, as they were looking at a familiar raven haired girl that they had met on the landmass before, "Whoa, hey, hey, hey! You're that injured girl! I woulda never thought a goddess could be so young."
IF couldn't help but stare at the Console Patron Unit, "I've heard your voice before, but I'm kind of surprised… You look no older than us."
Black Heart could see why the brunette was so surprised, then gestured to herself, "We don't age in Celestia, so that's probably the reason. This is living, so they say."
Compa just watched the goddess, noticing that she wasn't talking in the same manner as she had when the party first entered the room, "Um, you're not talking quite like a goddess anymore…"
The CPU waved the nurse in training off. "It's just you guys. Plus, we're not strangers or anything. No point in acting stiff and formal."
Neptune inclined her head to one side as she looked at the girl who had once been an amnesiac like her, "Isn't it tough being a goddess? I mean, you gotta protect all of Lastation!"
Black Heart turned around and looked out one of the many windows that surrounded the room. "The work isn't exactly demanding, but it's kinda suffocating since I'm the symbol of Lastation." The raven haired goddess looked over her shoulder at the group, "You're all seeking the lair of a strong monster, right?"
The purplenette assumed her thinking position, remembering the main reason the party wanted to meet with Lastation's goddess. "Yeah, that's right! We're looking for Key Fragments but we got all wrapped up in that Avenir dealie."
"What is it, anyway? Is it really so important? I've never heard of such a thing on Lastation."
Neptune linked her arm with Heero's as a broad grin spread across her face, "We gotta get it to save Histy. Someone locked her up and she can't get out!"
Seeing the purple haired girl in such close physical contact with Heero caused Black Heart to wince, but she was able to maintain her composure, "Histy? Still doesn't sound familiar. I can't help you there, but I can point you to where you might find something useful." The CPU of Lastation turned back around to face the purplenette. "But you have to tell me if you find out more, okay? I'm still the goddess, after all."
Heero was able to get his arm out of Neptune's grasp as he watched the CPU, "We apologize for any inconveniences this meeting may have caused you, Lady Black Heart. You most likely have work to do, and we will be on our way once we know where we need to go to find the Key Fragment."
Almost instantly, Lady Black Heart flailed her arms out in front of herself in a dismissive manner, "Oh, I-It's no trouble at all. Actually, I wanted to thank you in person for what you did at the Tech Expo, Heero. I heard you worked really hard to make sure that no one got hurt during the whole affair."
The Gundam pilot didn't see why the CPU was thanking him when really all he did was help Neptune fight off Avenir's weapon. Compa, IF, Lyrica and Gust were the ones that handled getting the civilians to safety. "…I was only doing my job. I don't need to be thanked for it."
Black Heart eyed the Gundam pilot for a moment. "You're rather modest. Whatever, I'll have one of the Basilicom staff members give you a map of the dungeon you guys should search."
Neptune grabbed Heero's hand and began to pull him toward the door, her excitement at finding the third Key Fragment driving her to get the party moving, "Let's go bag us another Key Fragment!"
As soon as Neptune grabbed onto Heero, Black Heart's eye began to twitch. Lyrica looked at Neptune in disbelieve as she pulled Heero toward the door, "But we just got here. Are we really gonna walk all the way back to the house already?"
IF let out an exasperated sigh as she followed after the purplenette, "You could at least let us take a break, you slave driver."
Gust quickly gave a bow to the CPU before running off after the party, "Gust knows we have important things to do, but doesn't like all this walking around."
The party left the room to find the Basilicom employee that would give them the map needed to find the location of the dungeon where they might find the Lastation Key Fragment. After the door closed, Lady Black Heart stood in completely silence for three seconds before she stomped her foot on the ground and began to vent, "That miserable little brat! Where does she get off throwing herself on Heero like that?! If it weren't for the fact that there were humans watching I would have kicked her sorry ass all over the place! Heero shouldn't have to put up with this. He should be staying here with me and-"
Black Heart paused before covering her mouth, her cheeks flush from embarrassment. "I-It's not like I care about him or anything! I just think Heero shouldn't have to go through the indignity of being forced around and groped by Neptune. Since they're here on Lastation, maybe I should do something about Neptune. After all, this isn't like that little mishap on Leanbox. What could go wrong?"
Little did the CPU of Lastation know that Neptune wasn't the only person she would have to contend with for the Perfect Soldier that day.
Xxx
The Sky Harbor was open, connecting the Land of Black Regality with the Land of Green Pastures, and a certain green haired CPU emerged from the connecting bridge. Green Heart stopped just outside of the Sky Harbor to observe her surroundings, "If the information I received was accurate, Heero should be here."
Green Heart shifted her gaze toward the sky and looked at the dark clouds overhead. "Why in the world would Neptune drag Heero to this landmass? The air quality is so pitiful. I don't even know why the inhabitants of Lastation insist on staying here with all this smoke in the air."
After sticking her lance into the ground next to her, Green Heart pulled a flier out from behind her back seemingly out of nowhere. The flyer was for a game tournament on Planeptune that was scheduled to take place in a few days. The tournament in question required teams of two in order to enter. "Normally I would just find some random gamer and have them partner up with me for this sort of tournament. I could do that, but the hassle of having to carry someone through the tournament is more than one can bear at times. Now, if Heero were to be my partner… I have little doubt we would claim first place in no time."
A frown made its way onto the voluptuous CPU's face as she looked toward the capital city, "Now, getting Heero away from Neptune will pose as a bit of a problem. Knowing her, she will most likely stay close by him and that will make talking to him somewhat difficult. Not to mention this is… HER landmass. Whether or not she has an interest in Heero, if I cross paths with her it will greatly complicate things."
Pulling her lance back out of the ground Green Heart set off in the direction of the city to find Heero.
Xxx
Once they had gotten the map to the dungeon where the Key Fragment presumably was, the party went back to their safe house to make preparations for the trek into the dungeon… At least that's what they had planned to do. Unfortunately, the search wasn't going to happen at that moment, as Compa filled the party in on some of the job requests she had taken on without the group's knowledge. The irritation on IF's face was plain as day as she looked at the nurse in training, "…You what?"
"I accepted some of the job requests from the civilians. They looked like they really needed help. I just couldn't say no."
Neptune looked as though all the energy in her body had just been sucked out of her upon hearing the news about Compa accepting job requests, "Y'know, I was planning on just hopin' on over to the dungeon that has the Key Fragment, grabbing it and then enjoying some more of my pudding once we got back. This kinda sucks."
Gust had collapsed on the nearby couch with a tired look on her face, "Gust must rest. Too much running."
Lyrica had crashed onto the couch next to Gust, stretching her legs out as she made herself comfortable, "I have to agree with Gust. The idea of running around after just getting back already has me exhausted."
Compa looked around at the other party members who clearly didn't want to go taking on other job requests when they already had the dungeon that may have contained the Key Fragment, "B-But… if we don't complete these job requests, who knows how much it will affect the civilians?" The nurse in training began to tear up. "I know finding the Key Fragments is important… But we should also help the people of Gamindustri."
No one in the party really felt like listening to Compa lecture and cry to them. Heero heaved a mental sigh as he watched the nurse in training, "(She has a way of manipulating others… albeit unintentionally.) Perhaps Compa's decision to accept the job requests can be seen as a blessing in disguise. It will give us time to prepare for our search tomorrow."
Neptune still wasn't all that enthusiastic about having to go take care of job requests instead of finding the Key Fragment, "Fiiiiiiine. We'll do these little jobs, but once we're done we're staying here at the house and you have to cuddle with me, Heero."
"I'd rather not."
Lyrica, who had just sat down, got back up and began to trudge toward the door with a weathered look on her face, "This is so exhausting…"
Compa ran out the door with a smile on her face, "You'll feel much better after we take care of these job requests. It feels good to help people."
IF shook her head before pulling out her pink cell phone, "The only thing we're gonna feel after this is sweat and exhaustion. I just hope my cell doesn't run out of power before we're finished."
As the other girls made for the front door, Heero turned to Gust as she began to set up her test tubes and beakers, "Gust, it's up to you to hold down the fort while we're out."
The young Alchemist gave a salute to the Gundam pilot, "Leave it to Gust!"
With the plan to complete the job request that Compa had accepted at the top of their list, the party reluctantly left the safe house with Gust to look after it in their absence.
Xxx
After leaving the safe house, the party's first stop was the center of Lastation's capital city to determine which request they would start with and where they would need to go. Compa pulled out three cards from the small pouch on her belt, "We have three job requests to do. One is to clear out a dungeon that's full of monsters. The second one is to rescue a puppy that got lost in another dungeon. And the last one is to get some items for a gaming company."
Neptune was sitting on a bench eating an ice cream cone she had bought just moments ago… and the ice cream was melting rather quickly. The purplenette looked up from her dripping dairy treat, "Let's just pick one and get this over with! I wanna go home and relax-"
Suddenly, the single scoop of ice cream on Neptune's cone fell and hit the ground. For the purple haired girl, it was as if the world was coming to an end. "Ahhh! Noooo!" Neptune got down on her hands and knees as she looked at the ice cream that was starting to melt into the pavement, "I can still save it! I gotta!"
Just as Neptune was about to eat the ice cream off of the ground, Heero grabbed her by the back of her hoodie and lifted her off the ground. The leader of the party flailed her arms as she looked at the Perfect Soldier. "Put me down Heero! I gotta save my ice cream!"
Heero shook his head at the purplenette, "It's a lost cause. There is no need for you to degrade yourself over a frozen dairy treat."
Neptune could only watch as her ice cream turned into a small puddle on the ground. Heero set the purple haired girl back down and she immediately began to pout, "Boooo! I can't ice cream here cuz' its melts so fast. This place blows!"
As he watched Neptune pout, Heero actually felt bad for her, "…If you behave yourself and focus on the task at hand, I will buy you another one once we move to another landmass."
The purple haired girl looked at Heero with a starry-eyed expression on her face. "Really? You promise?"
"Only if you behave yourself and focus."
With new-found energy, Neptune turned around and pointed toward one of the islands surrounding Lastation, "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go get this stuff taken care of already!"
IF looked at the energetic girl with a weathered look on her face, "We're waiting to figure out which request we're going to start with. Where have you been?"
Compa looked between each of the cards, a perturbed look on her cute face, "I really want to take care of all these requests today. But which one to do first?"
Lyrica was groaning as she sat on the nearby park bench, as she really didn't want to be out doing job requests at the moment, "Just pick one so we can get this over with. I wanna go home, work on the lyrics for my new song and sleep."
As the party was deliberating on which job request to undertake first, Green Heart entered the park area. As soon as she caught sight of the party, the CPU took refuge behind a tree so as to watch the party without revealing herself, "There they are. And just as I suspected, Neptune is next to Heero. The moment I go up to Heero with my one little request, she will most likely start making wild accusations about my motives for being here. I will need to find some way to get Heero alone so that I can ask him to be my partner for the tournament." A blush began to creep onto her face as she looked away bashfully. "Not to say that asking him to be my partner for the tournament would be the ONLY thing I ask him. After all, Heero deserves to be with a woman who truly understands his worth."
Not far from where Green Heart was, the white haired sword maiden of Lastation was also spying on the party, though she was unaware of Green Heart's presence, "Looks like they're going to be doing job requests for the civilians. I'm sure it was it was Heero's idea. This works out for me… I can get rid of Neptune now and save myself the trouble of doing it later. Who knows? Maybe I can get Heero to become MY bodyguard after I dispose of Neptune.
Black Heart had to stop for a moment and process what she said. After taking a few seconds to think, the white haired beauty looked off in another direction, her cheeks turning a light coat of pink. "N-Not that I need a bodyguard or anything. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I just think it would be nice to have someone reliable help me now and then."
The party began to leave the park, having decided on which of the three requests they would deal with first, and both Green Heart and the swordstress that called herself Black Heart followed after them, still completely unaware of the others' presence.
Xxx
Heero had recommended that the party first complete the request to rescue the dog, as there was no telling whether or not it was still alive or how much time they had left before the unthinkable happened to the animal if it was still alive. The party found themselves in an abandoned storage facility among other places as they searched for the puppy with Neptune scoping out the front of the building, "So where do we find this little fur ball anyway?"
Compa still had the request card in her hands to verify the location of the request, "Well, the person who placed the request said that the puppy was here."
IF looked over the nurse's shoulder before her face contorted in irritation, "Would it kill them to at least give us some kind of description of what the dog looks like?"
Heero scanned the area, but saw no sign of the party's target, "We can only assume that the dog is further in the building, which will require us to conduct a thorough search of the area."
Unbeknownst to the party they were being watched by Green Heart, who was hiding behind a stack of crates and was listening in on the party's conversation, "They're here looking for a dog? I could use this to my advantage… If I find that dog first, I can offer it in exchange for a non-aggressive, friendly little talk with Heero."
The CPU of Leanbox made her way further into the dungeon, taking care not to alert the party of her whereabouts. As soon as she was clear of the party, Green Heart began a frantic search for the lost dog they had been sent to find. "I only have to find the one dog. It shouldn't be too much trouble to find."
Green Heart quickly made her way down the corridor of the storage building and just as she reached the corner, the CPU collided with something… rather, someone. Both the CPU of Leanbox and the other individual fell to the ground as a result of their collision, "Oww! Watch it!"
As soon as her senses came back to her, the green haired lancer looked over at the person she had unintentionally collided with and was moderately surprised to see who it was, "I hadn't exactly planned on running into you here."
The person that Green Heart had ran into was the white haired swordstress who called herself Black Heart. The sword maiden was just as surprised to see the CPU of Leanbox, "Just what are YOU doing here on my landmass? Whatever it is, I'll bet it's nothing good."
"My reason for being here is anything but nefarious. I merely wish to see Heero."
Black Heart narrowed her eyes into a glare as she watched the CPU of Leanbox. "And just why is it that you want to see Heero?"
Green Heart held up the flier for the Planeptune game tournament, "The upcoming video game tournament in Planeptune, of course. I need a partner in order to enter, and considering how good he is Heero is the only natural choice. Though, before I can talk to him, I need to find a lost dog so that I can ask for a non-aggressive chat with him." The voluptuous woman saw movement behind Black Heart's legs and could see a dog sitting behind her. Green Heart imagined that it was the missing animal that Neptune and Heero had been sent to find. "Ah, I see that you have found the dog that I'm looking for..."
The sword maiden cast a glance over her shoulder at the dog behind her that was scratching its ear, "I came here to get rid of Neptune and figured I might as well take care of this little issue for my people. I can't afford to be lazy, you know."
Green Heart returned her attention to the snow haired girl as she put away the flier, "Well, you can consider your little job request to be complete. I will be taking the dog now."
Black Heart lifted her sword and pointed the bladed weapon at the lancer. "Why should I? You're just going to turn around and give it to Heero so you can coerce him into helping you with your selfish goal of winning some petty game tournament on Planeptune."
"Who says I'm being selfish? I plan to show Heero my appreciation for helping me."
The sword maiden of Lastation eyed the CPU, not liking the tone in her voice, "What exactly is that supposed to mean?"
Green Heart's cheeks took on a soft pink hue as she shifted her gaze away from the girl in front of her, "I don't think an immature little girl like you should know. After all, the way I plan to show Heero my gratitude is of a rather… physical manner."
Almost immediately after Green Heart was finished speaking, Black Heart swung her large sword at the lance wielding woman. The green haired CPU raised her drill lance to block the attack, an audible *clang* filled the air from the sound of clashing metal.
Both women experienced a brief deadlock before forcing each other away, with Black Heart casting a glare at Green Heart, "Like hell am I going to let you do anything 'physical' with Heero!"
Green Heart questioned why the sword maiden had become hostile so quickly. She kept saying that she did not like or care about Heero, but her actions were clearly a contradiction to her statements. "Have you perhaps fallen for Heero? That's the only plausible explanation for you to be so aggressive."
Black Heart's cheeks turned a light shade of red as she looked away from the green haired lancer. "Where do you get that idea?! Me? Falling for a human? The idea is preposterous! I mean, sure Heero is a great guy, but he's not THAT great." The swordstress looked at Green Heart out of the corner of her eye. "Out of curiosity… What would you do if I said I did like him? Not that I do or anything. I just wanna know what you would do about it."
As if to answer the sword maiden's question, Green Heart thrust her spear at Black Heart, who repelled the attack with her blade. The second clash lasted as long as the first before both girls forced one another back. Green Heart pointed the end of her drill lance at the white haired swordstress, "Then I shall do to you what I will do to Neptune; I will rid myself of you."
Green Heart's threat didn't faze the snow haired teen one bit, as was evident by the way her lips formed a smirk, "Do you honestly believe that you can defeat me? You're all talk. Now, if you want to beg for your life, all you have to do is get down on your hands and knees."
While the two girls had been belittling one another, the dog they had been fighting over had taken off and was, coincidentally, heading right toward the party. It didn't take long for the team to spot the mass of fur heading their way, and Neptune was thrilled that they had found the dog, "Would ya believe our luck? The little fur ball came right to us. And we didn't have to go lookin' or fight any monsters to find 'em."
Compa picked up the small animal, gently cradling it in her arms, "I'm sure the owner will be happy to know that their dog is alive and well."
IF was too busy checking her phone to look at the dog Compa was holding, "Can we hurry up and leave? If our job is done, then there's no sense in us staying here."
Black Heart and Green Heart stopped their fighting the moment they heard the voices of the party. The two girls looked at the ground behind the white haired swordstress where the dog had been before poking their heads out from behind the corner that kept the party from seeing them. And sure enough, the dog was with Neptune and her party.
Green Heart could only watch in silence as the party walked away with the dog she had been hoping to use to get Heero to help her with the upcoming game tournament. Black Heart's eye began to twitch before looking at Green Heart and pushing the lancer into a nearby stack of crates, causing the wooden boxes to collapse on top of her, "Now look what you've done!"
The voluptuous lance wielder pulled herself out of the pile of crates, a frown on her face as she directed her gaze toward Back Heart, "Me? None of this would have happened if you had just given me that dog. If anything, you are the one at fault here."
Black Heart rolled her eyes out of irritation. She did NOT want to deal with this woman anymore, "It would be clear to anyone else that your stupidity is what caused this to happen." The sword wielding maiden cast a glare at Green Heart as she turned to leave. "Stop following Heero. He wants nothing to do with you."
With no other important reason to remain in the dungeon Back Heart took off to find another exit, leaving Green Heart in a bad mood, "Stop following Heero? I will do no such thing. What I want to know is, why is she getting in my way? If she really isn't interested in Heero, then she has no business meddling in my affairs here."
Green Heart retrieved her lance before making her way toward the nearest exit. "…This does complicate things. I may be forced to deal with her before I can get close to Heero."
Xxx
Having finished their first job request in a very short amount of time, the party immediately set out for the site of their second job request. The team entered a cave on one of the many small islands floating around Lastation for the next job; clearing out the monsters that had made their nest in the cave. Heero looked over the request details to make sure the team was at the right location for the job, "Our next assignment is to eliminate all enemies in this cave. Since the job description doesn't list any sort of restrictions, we should be able to handle this mission in a timely manner."
As they stood outside of the cave, Neptune noticed Lyrica looking down at the ground as if in contemplation, "What'cha thinking so hard about, Lyrics?"
The songstress was pulled out of her train of thought by the bubbly party leader, "Well… don't you think we finished that first job a little too quickly?"
IF looked at Lyrica as thought she was crazy, "Are you complaining about finishing a job early? I thought you of all people would be happy to get back to the safe house early."
"I-I'm not complaining or anything. It's just… what if it was those weird ladies again?"
The party just looked at Lyrica. Where exactly the cerulean haired girl got the idea that the Neptune stalkers were responsible for the party finishing a job request early was anyone's guess. Compa put her hand on Lyrica's forehead, "Are you sick, Lyrica? Maybe we should take you back home."
Lyrica's cheeks swelled as she looked at the nurse in training, "I'm not sick. You guys haven't even let me finish yet."
With their attention focused on the underground celebrity, the team waited for 5pb to speak her mind as to what was bothering her. "I know you guys might not believe me, but… What if two of those stalkers were in the dungeon with us when we went to find the dog because they wanted Heero? One of them had the dog, and the other stalker didn't like the one stalker, so they fought each other for the dog so they could use it to get to Heero. And while they were fighting the dog came to us."
The way the teenaged singer described their short job was rather confusing and unbelievable. IF had to cover her mouth to suppress the sudden urge to laugh that came over her, "That's a rather farfetched idea. Too unbelievable if you ask me."
Neptune just started laughing at the notion that two of the stalkers could have been responsible for the party completing a job, "Yeah right! If those stalkers were really there, they woulda crawled out from under a box or something and demanded that we give Heero to them like they always do. Nope, we're just really lucky today."
Lyrica wanted to believe that the party's success was attributed to good luck, but she couldn't help but feel that the mystery females that they had come across on their journey to find the Key Fragments were partly responsible for the short job request, "…You might be right. Maybe I'm over thinking it."
Not too far away, a certain white haired sword maiden was spying on the party from behind a tree, her eyes narrowed at the party's leader, "I am NOT a stalker. Sure, I may follow you around while you're on my landmass, but that's because I want to get rid of you before you become a real nuisance. And when have I ever demanded you give me Heero? I'm only trying to save him from you're evil clutches. I can only imagine what you force Heero to do when I'm not looking, you miserable little…"
Of course, Neptune wasn't the only thing the snow haired girl had to worry about. Green Heart was hiding behind a boulder near the cave entrance, making sure that she was close enough so that she could hear the party and not get caught. A frown graced the CPU's face as she heard how Neptune referred to her as a stalker, "How rude. I am not a stalker. It only appears that way because Neptune will not allow me to talk to Heero directly while she is present. This is all her fault for treating Heero as if he were a possession."
Heero didn't know, nor did he care whether or not the woman who had been targeting Neptune were here on Lastation or not. All the Gundam pilot could think about was finishing this job, the request they would have to do afterward, and, if need be, protect Neptune, "We should remain focused on our current task, instead of variables that may or may not have resulted in our completing the previous objective. Once we are finished, we will have only one more job to complete. To speed up the process, we will split up. Neptune and Compa will form one group, while IF and Lyrica comprise the other. I will take another route on my own."
A frown immediately made its way onto Neptune's face at Heero proposed team pairing, "What? But you gotta be in my group, Heero! It's like an unwritten rule between lovers and stuff. Let Iffy go off on her own, and Compa can take her place."
IF shot a glare at the purplenette, "Not that I wouldn't be able to take care, but why should I be the one to go off alone? If anything, you should be the one to go solo, Nep. After all, you're the one that likes to charges right in without thinking things through."
The Gundam pilot watched the exchange between the two girls for a moment before continuing, "…This is a major reason as to why I volunteered to operate alone on this job. To reduce the amount of arguing between you two."
Neptune and IF had the most deadpanned looks on their faces. THEY were the reason he wanted to go off on his own? Neptune sat down on her knees as she began to draw shapes on the ground with her finger with a very disheartened look on her face, "I think I just lost love points with Heero… This sucks."
IF was facing a wall while muttering things to herself in a near inaudible tone of voice, "What could I have done wrong…? I'm certain it was Nep's fault… This has to be a mistake…"
After observing the two girls for a few seconds, Heero began to regret his choice of words. Thankfully, Lyrica was on hand to fix the problem, "C-C'mon now, you two. Heero didn't mean it like that. He just knows that we all want to get back home and relax, right? Neptune, you want to eat that pudding you have in the fridge, don't you?"
Drool began to seep out of the corner of the purplenette's mouth as she thought about her sugary treat. Neptune wiped her mouth as her lips curved into a big smile, "Yeah! I got delicious pudding waiting for me in the fridge!" Neptune frowned at Compa. "I couldn't get any of it, cuz' Compa got us to do all these dumb jobs."
Lyrica looked over at IF, who was still facing the wall, "And Iffy, you have things you want to do when we get back, right? Like charge your phone?"
IF snapped out of the trance she was in before pulling her cell phone out of her jacket and flipping the hand-held device open, "Well, I do need to recharge my cell. It's running low on power."
"What I'm trying to say is that Heero wants to get back home as much as you guys do. He wasn't trying to be mean or anything."
Neptune got back on her feet and dusted herself off, "I should have known Heero wasn't being serious. We're talking about ME after all."
IF stuffed her cell phone back into her pocket before folding her arms and looking at the party's leader in a questioning manner, "I don't think it's so much that he's talking about you of all people. I'm fairly certain that Heero's trying to motivate us to finish sooner and didn't mean that we're the problem. I just wish he wasn't so blunt about it."
On the contrary, Heero was quite serious about what he had said. The Gundam pilot had learned from experience that whenever the girls got into an argument, be it amongst themselves or someone outside of the party, it could turn into a very time consuming affair, "The teams have been assigned and we have our mission. We will reconvene at this location in five minutes."
Despite the fact that they had only just entered the dungeon, there were already three paths for the party to choose from. Neptune linked arms with Compa and began to lead the nurse in training down the middle path, "C'mon, Compa. I betcha if we finish early, Heero will get us cookies as a reward!"
Compa gave the purplenette a blank stare as she proposed the idea of receiving cookies from Heero for finishing their job, "I don't really think we'll be getting cookies for doing this job, Nep-Nep."
"Not with THAT attitude! Now, c'mon! We got monsters to beat up!" Neptune looked over her shoulder at IF and Lyrica. "You get the meat shield watch, Iffy!"
Lyrica shouted at Neptune as the purplenette and Compa disappeared from view, "Would you stop calling me that?! I'm not a meat shield!"
IF began to push Lyrica toward the path on the left, "Come on, meat sh- I-I mean, Lyrica. Let's just get this over with."
The cerulean haired singer made a face as she looked back at the Guild Moderatist, "Even you're calling me that?! IF, you're mean."
Heero could still hear Lyrica's voice as IF lead her further into the dungeon, "(…I am beginning to question whether or not placing them into two small groups was a good idea.)"
Having already split up, it would be a waste of time to try and call the girls back. More importantly, the party needed to finish their current job request and then the assignment afterward as quickly as possible, so that they could finish their preparations for the following day.
The Gundam pilot ventured into the dungeon, following the only remaining path that the girls didn't take. Heero's eyes quickly darted from one spot to another as he looked for monsters, as the group's job request required them to completely clear out the dungeon.
As he walked further into the cave, Heero could hear the sound of a sword cutting through the air, followed closely by assorted groans and screeches, "These monsters are so weak. This isn't even a warm-up for someone like me."
A familiar voice came from beyond the wall ahead of the Perfect Soldier, a voice that he and the girls had heard more than once during their time on Lastation. Heero could have simply ignored the voice and gone down the path straight ahead, however, his current assignment required that ALL of the monsters were to be dealt with. And while he knew that the girl behind the wall could easily deal with the creatures, it never hurt to check.
Before the boy had a chance to make it around the corner, a Minotaur ran out from behind the wall. The ax toting monster appeared to have been trying to get away from something, or rather 'someone'… And that someone was right behind the large monster. "Hold still!"
It had only taken three seconds for the swordstress to cut down the fleeing monster, its body falling to the ground with a resounding *thud*. After making sure that the Minotaur was dead, the snow haired girl stuck her sword into the ground and dusted off her hands, "These monsters are so weak. The only thing that makes them a problem is that there are so many of them."
"…I'm going to assume that you accepted the same job request as us again."
Black Heart was momentarily startled, as was apparent by the way she jumped at the sound of Heero's voice. The sword maiden swiftly turned around to see the Gundam pilot, an invisible blush coating her cheek. "Heero? Wh-What are you doing here?"
Having been hiding outside the dungeon when the party arrived the snow haired girl knew exactly what Heero was doing there, she was just trying to make it seem as though she didn't, "We came here to take care of a job request that Compa had accepted without our consent."
Black Heart looked away from the boy for a moment and began talking to herself, "That friend of Neptune's forced them to do this? She seemed harmless…"
From what she knew about Compa, the nurse in training didn't really seem like the type of person capable of forcing anyone into doing anything. Sweet, wholesome and innocent were words that came to mind when describing the cute girl. It wasn't until she remembered the incident at the party's safe house regarding Heero's clothes that Black Heart began to suspect that the pink haired nurse might not be as innocent as she seems. "(On second thought, she may not be harmless at all… Considering how corrupt she is…)"
Returning her attention to Heero, the sword maiden answered the question he had asked, "I'm here to get rid of the monsters nesting in this dungeon. A lot of the people in town have been complaining about an increase in monster attacks."
After answering the Gundam pilot's question the sword maiden looked past him, clearly looking for a certain purple haired girl. "By the way… Where's Neptune? I expected her to be clinging to you like she always does."
The way Black Heart had asked about Neptune, Heero could tell that the mere sight of the party's leader would be enough to start a fight, "In order to cut down on the amount of time required to complete this job, we split into smaller teams. I'm functioning on my own for this assignment."
Heero had her at 'on my own'. Black Heart felt that despite her run-in with Green Heart, today was her lucky day. "(Heero all alone? Here? No Neptune to interrupt?)" The swordstress was fighting to contain herself. "(C-Calm down, there's no need to get so worked up. I only want to ask him one harmless little question, that's all. Besides, I have a job to do here.)"
As Black Heart was processing her situation and what she should do, Heero began to walk past her, "I have a mission to complete, so I will leave you to whatever it is that you're doing."
"W-Wait!"
The Perfect Soldier only took ten paces from where he was when the swordstress stopped him. When he turned to face the girl, he noticed that she was looking away and was fidgeting. "S-Since you're already here and we have the same job… I was thinking that maybe I could let you join me. It's not like I need help with such an easy job or anything… It's just that we would finish a lot faster if we work together."
Heero raised a questioning eyebrow. Had this girl forgotten that he was the bodyguard of the girl that she was asking about? Of course, shortly after Heero contemplated the sword maiden's proposition to work together, the Gundam pilot began to question just why it was that he hadn't already started to attack her. Heero knew that as soon as this girl saw Neptune that she would immediately attack, and possibly kill Neptune. Perhaps it was because of her numerous failed attempts, as well as the manner in which she had been defeated that Heero just could not see her as being a serious threat, "…Is your proposal to join forces really to cut down on the mission time? Or do you have some sort of hidden agenda?"
Black Heart flinched before stomping her foot and pouting in an attempt to reassert that she was only interested in finishing the monster hunting job, "I-I don't have any ulterior motive if that's what you're thinking! I honestly just want to finish this job so I can take care of other more important things!"
Observing her body language and eye movements, Heero watched the swords-woman carefully to determine whether or not she was telling the truth or lying. "(She is either telling the truth, or she is very good at lying. Either way, so long as she doesn't catch sight of Neptune, we may be able to complete the mission ahead of schedule.) …Very well."
To say that the sword maiden was relieved would be an understatement. While she wanted to ask the Gundam pilot the one question that constantly plagued her mind, Black Heart pushed the thought aside, remembering that she still had a job to finish. "J-Just remember, I'm letting you join me because you asked. It's not like I really need any help. I could handle this quest just fine on my own if I wanted to."
Heero wanted to ask the sword maiden where in their entire conversation had he asked to join her, but the Gundam pilot refrained from asking said question in an attempt to save time, "I would like to finish this mission in as quick and orderly a manner as possible. I still have to complete another job after this, and would like to save time where I can."
Having decided to work together for the moment, Heero and Black Heart made their way further into the dungeon. Both teens walked in silence with Heero facing forward, while Black Heart looked in the other direction, though she occasionally stole a glance at the teenaged soldier next to her. She may have told herself that she needed to focus on the job request she had accepted, but the burning desire she felt to hear the answer to the one question she desperately wanted to ask the boy was eating away at her. Of course, she also knew it wasn't a question she could just spring on Heero, "(Okay, play it cool, Black Heart. Just talk to him and gradually work your way to asking him. I mean, its one harmless question, right? It shouldn't be too hard to ask.) So… What kind of food do you like?"
The boy next to Black Heart raised a questioning eyebrow to her question, "…For what reason do you want to know?"
"W-Well, if we're going to be working together than I have to be able to trust you. Asking simple questions is supposed to build trust, so… J-Just shut up and answer the question, jeez!"
While Heero could not begin to understand why this girl wanted to build trust with him when she knew what his job was, he did want to trust Black Heart enough not to shove her sword into his back when his guard was down. "I will generally eat anything, though I do prefer simple food."
Black Heart was somewhat surprised as she looked at Heero. She had honestly expected him to be a picky eater, "You don't ask for much, huh? You sound kinda low maintenance."
Heero shifted his gaze toward the girl next to him. "I try to use as little in the way of resources as possible. Is there a problem with that?"
The swordstress looked away from the Perfect Soldier as soon as they made eye contact, "N-Not at all. I was just a little surprised with your answer, that's all. (So I could cook pretty much anything and he would eat it. Not that I'm saying that I WANT to cook for him or anything! I'm just saying I could make anything and he'd be fine with it.)"
Another five minutes of silence ensued as both teens ventured further into the dungeon to find the monsters they had been sent to get rid of. Black Heart suddenly came to a stop, prompting Heero to look back at her, "What is it? We can't afford to waste any time."
Taking a deep breath, the snow haired girl looked at Heero, "I have one more question I'd like to ask you. What kind of…" Black Heart hesitated for a moment before steeling herself to ask her question, her cheeks turning bright red. "What are your preferences in-"
"There you are. I was wondering where you ran off to."
Black Heart almost fell over as she was interrupted by a familiar green haired woman. Green Heart paid no attention to the swordstress as she made her way over to the Gundam pilot, "I have a very important question that I've been meaning to ask you, but something ends up getting in the way. Now that I have your attention-"
As Green Heart was talking to Heero, Black Heart balled her hands into fists as her anger began to build, "(Where does this cow get off interrupting me when I'm trying to ask a very important question?! It's just an innocent question I want to know about him!)"
The snow haired girl refused to just stand there and take it. To her, the CPU butting into her conversation with Heero was an insult and it would NOT go unpunished. Green Heart on the other hand was quite content, she was finally able to ask Heero to be her partner for the game tournament on Planeptune… and perhaps more than that. However, she was so focused on Heero that she didn't notice Black Heart readying her sword, "...But enough about that. The question that I've been meaning to ask you is-"
"Will you shut up and die already?!"
Green Heart was startled by the sudden outburst and turned in time to see the large blade of Black Heart's sword coming right at her. Leanbox's CPU narrowly evaded the attack aimed at her and retreated from the furious sword maiden as she gave chase. "Get back here!"
As the two girls disappeared out of sight, Heero stood where he was. Staring at where the two had been just a moment ago, "...I'm starting to suspect that Lyrica might have been right about our previous job assignment."
That said, judging by how the two acted toward one another it was unlikely they were helping the party because they wanted to. Most likely it had been an accident that had led the party to finding the lost dog so quickly. That was, of course, just the one job. The likelihood of the two aiding the party in finishing this job were slim to none. Even still, Heero went after the two girls, since he still had a job to finish before he could leave.
Both girl's came to a stop in a large room, that was common for… well, any dungeon in Gamindustri, apparently. Rocky walls, luminescent crystals, things that were the norm for caves in this world. What was also in the room were several monsters that had been rudely awoken by the two girls and their arguing.
Of course, Black Heart and Green Heart were too busy arguing with one another to worry about the monsters. Green Heart was glaring at the girl across the room from her, having foiled her plans to ask Heero to be her partner for the Planeptune game tournament for the second time, "I am starting to get very angry with you. Why do you insist upon getting in my way? You claim to have no interest in Heero, but your getting in my way again. Which is it?"
Black Heart's glare matched the intensity of the one Green Heart was sending her way, "Why should I have to explain myself to you? You're just some shut-in who enjoys goofing off in her room more than anything. In one of the rare instances that you do come out of your cave, you decide to drag Heero off to win some stupid tournament for you in Planeptune when he has more important things to do. You have no room to talk here."
The monsters in the room began to advance toward the two woman that were busy taking verbal shots at one another. Unfortunately, the monsters had no idea what they were getting themselves into as both super powered girls were about to go back to exchanging blows once more.
Green Heart leveled her spear as she prepared to charge the snow haired girl, "You are becoming quite a nuisance. I believe it is high time I got rid of you."
Using the inhuman speed that she as well as the sword maiden possessed, Green Heart dashed toward Black Heart while thrusting her lance with the same remarkable speed that she had used against the party during their first battle.
Rather than wasting energy blocking the attacks, the sword maiden dodged each individual attack, leaving the monsters to be the victims of Green Heart's onslaught, "You're going to get rid of me? How do you plan to do that if you can't even land one hit?"
"Simple… by doing this!"
Green Heart reared her arm back once more, only instead of thrusting her lance at the snow haired swordstress in rapid succession like she did before, the green haired lancer kept her arm cocked back until the air around her lance began to wrap around it. Without warning, Green Heart thrust her arm out and the energy that had gathered around her lance was sent rocketing toward Black Heart.
The swordstress knew she wouldn't be able to move out of the way in time before the mass of energy hit. As strong as she was, Black Heart knew that a direct hit could result in serious injury to her person. With no other option available, the sword maiden held her sword out in front of her so that the flat side of the weapon would take the brunt of the oncoming attack.
Once it hit, it became apparent that Green Heart had put all of her strength behind the attack. The blast of energy immediately started to push the snow haired girl back. Black Heart dug her heels into the ground as she tried to figure out a way out of her predicament, though it didn't help that a few strands of her hair kept getting in her face because of the wind generated by the attack she was trying to block, "(How could I have been so careless? Had I known she was holding back, I would have started off with full force!)"
Taking the time to look over her shoulder, Black Heart notice that she was getting closer to the wall behind her… which happened to have very sharp rocks protruding from it. "(I'll be in serious trouble if I don't do something…!)"The swordstress turned her attention back toward the cause of her situation, "If I could just..."
Using her left hand, which had been pushing against the other side of her sword, Black Heart began to turn her sword so that the actual blade was against the mass of energy, and not the flat side of her sword. Once she had shifted her swords position, the sword maiden gripped the handle with both hands and began to cut into the concentrated ball of energy that had been thrown at he by Green Heart.
With a burst of strength, Black Heart cut through Green Heart's attack, splitting it in two smaller spheres that shot past the sword wielder. One sphere slammed into a monster that had been only a few feet behind Black Heart, resulting in a small explosion that engulfed the creature. The second sphere detonated against the wall, causing a few of the stalactites hanging from the ceiling to fall and impale the monsters underneath.
Heero arrived in time to see the aftermath of Green Heart's attack, as well as the monsters that were still present in the large room. Taking one look at the monsters that had been crushed by the rocks that had fallen above, the Gundam pilot suspected that the fighting between the two girls was starting to escalate.
Black Heart rubbed some dirt off her cheek as she faced Green Heart, "That was a pretty good attack… I mean, for someone as weak as you. But if that's all you've got, then you might as well give up now."
Green Heart was breathing heavily as the swordstress brushed herself off. The lancer had exerted a great deal of energy with her last attack, and there was no way she would be able to reproduce such an attack without running out of power, "You can make a brave face all you like, but I know you weren't able to expel my attack without using a great deal of your own power. We're on equal footing."
Unfortunately for the CPU of Leanbox, while Black Heart did use a large portion of her strength to defend herself, she had used less energy in doing so than Green Heart did in producing her attack. The snow haired girl smirked at the obviously winded lancer, "I may have used some of my strength getting rid of that flimsy attack, but I still have plenty of power to spare. I hope you didn't use up all your power with that one attack, otherwise this won't even be a challenge."
Before Green Heart even had a chance to completely recover from using her attack, the sword maiden of Lastation charged at her. The lancer of Leanbox could only block so many attacks with what little energy she had at the moment, dodging whatever she couldn't stop and leaving the monsters to take the attacks for her.
After a good three minutes of exchanging blows, all of the monsters had been slain or fallen victim to falling rocks courtesy of the two girls. Despite panting and gasping for air, the two girls stood ready to fight should the other attempt to attack, "You… ready to...give up yet?"
Green Heart offered a defiant smile as she tried to muster what little strength she had left, "Hardly… I will give you credit… for lasting this long… But now I shall end this charade!"
Just as the two girls were about continue their bout, a set of familiar voices filled the air and were drawing closer, "Hey Compa, d'ja hear something?"
"I think so. It sounded like it came from that way."
Black Heart and Green Heart flinched upon hearing those voices. What's more, another set of voices came from the opposite direction, "Come on, Lyrica. Keep up. I wanna finish up this quest so we can take care of that other job."
"Don't rush me, IF! I'm not use to doing so much running."
Almost immediately Green Heart began to panic. She was almost out of power, and simply being in the same room as Heero would be enough to cause Neptune to jump to conclusions and attack her, "I have had quite the run of misfortune today. I will have to retreat for the moment."
The lancer from Leanbox left as quickly as she could do elude Neptune and the other girls of her party, leaving Heero and Black Heart, the latter of whom was shouting at the retreating Green Heart, "You got lucky this time! If Neptune hadn't decided to show her chubby little face, I would wipe the floor with you!"
Heero watched the swordstress as she berated the retreating Green Heart, questioning just why she wasn't running away herself, "Shouldn't you retreat from the area? You know what will happen if Neptune sees you here."
Black Heart scoffed at the idea of retreating, "Are you telling me to run away from Neptune? I'm not afraid of her. In fact I'll challenge her to a battle right now!" Black Heart staggered for a moment from exhaustion before regaining her composure. "...At least, that's what I want to say. I will admit that after fighting that nuisance, I am a little tired. But only a little. Besides, I have other things I have to do. I simply don't have time to waste on Neptune."
With that, the swordstress took her leave of the area. Shortly after she left, Neptune and Compa entered the large room and saw the numerous dead monsters lying on the ground. The party's energetic leader began to pout at Heero, "Heero, you didn't have to beat up all the monsters by yourself! Don't be an exp hog!"
Compa didn't really seem to have a problem with Heero clearing out the monsters, "Why are you getting upset, Nep-Nep? Now we can start on the other job request.".
IF and Lyrica enter the room as Neptune continued to pout about Heero killing all of the monsters. "Oh, everyone's here. All of the monsters are dead, too. Guess that means were done."
Neptune began flailing her arms as IF commented on the monsters being dead before they even got there, "Yeah, but Heero got all the experience points and left none for us! He's totally gonna go full blown exp obesity on us at this rate!"
Lyrica's face paled at the thought of becoming obese from fighting monsters, "Y-You mean I'll get fat from fighting monsters? I-I don't think I want to fight monsters anymore."
IF shook her head at the girls, "You don't get fat from fighting monsters. And Nep, I would think that you would be thrilled that the monsters were killed so quickly. After all, you keep going on and on about that pudding you're going to eat when we finish up these job requests."
And just like that, Neptune had ceased being upset over Heero killing all the monsters as a big smile made its way onto her face. Her mind immediately going to the cups of pudding she had sitting in the fridge, "Yeah… that's right! The sooner we beat up all the monsters, the sooner I can have my victory pudding!"
Heero heaved a mental sigh. It was rather easy for people to manipulate Neptune's thoughts with food, "While the targets were eliminated, I was not the one that dealt with them. Two of the women who have been after Neptune are responsible for our short stay in this area. They are also responsible for finding the dog from the previous job as well."
Lyrica's cheeks began to swell as she looked at the other three girls of the group, "I told you they had something to do with our short job! You guys just didn't listen."
Neptune did not say a word and that smile she had on her face was still there. Heero had thought that she just hadn't been listening, but that thought had been put to rest when Neptune pulled the Mech Sword Armas out of her hoodie pocket. The smile on the purplenette's face didn't go away, even though she began to exude a rather menacing aura, "So… the stalker ladies came here to steal Heero again, huh? We should give 'em what for, right?"
The other girls seemed to have similar thoughts as the brandished their weapons while muttering incoherent thoughts that were no doubt aimed at the two girls that had left. Heero needed to get a handle on the girls before they did something they would all regret, "Before you all go off and start looking for them, they didn't come here for me."
Neptune put the Mech Sword Armas back in her pocket before putting her hands on her hips while giving a half glare out of irritation, "Heero, the only reason those crazy ladies ever show their mugs is so they can stalk me, or try and steal you. There's no other explanation. I don't think I can forgive you if you're gonna defend those plug suit wearing ladies."
"Yes, there is another explanation, you are just quick to jump to conclusions." Heero walked over to the fuming girl and placed his hand on her head, slightly ruffling her purple locks in the process. "I know that you only have my best interests at heart, but you need to stop and think before you act. If they really did have any intention of coming after me, I would deal with them myself."
Neptune's lips spread into a grin as she looked up at the Perfect Soldier, "Well, I guess I can forgive you… If you pet me on my head."
Heero looked at the girl in front of him for a moment, "You want me to what?"
The purple haired girl began to move Heero's hand in a forward and backward motion across the top of her head using her own hand. "C'mon, it's not like I'm askin' you to kiss me or have an M rated scene. But you should know, those are still on the table."
It wasn't exactly a request he was expecting from Neptune, though Heero would it admit that it wasn't the most outrageous. In fact, it was actually fairly reasonable… And that's what surprised him. As the Gundam pilot rubbed the top of Neptune's head, a slight feeling of jealousy came over the other three girls. Compa and Lyrica stepped in front of Heero with expectant looks on their faces, "Heero, pet me on my head, too!"
"Me three!"
Heero had expected Compa and Lyrica to ask for similar treatment, though he still couldn't believe they were actually asking for it. Teenaged girls asking to be pet on the head? Still, Heero founded himself complying with their wishes. Heero retreated into his thoughts as he rubbed Compa and Lyrica's heads, "(I must be getting soft...)"
As soon as the two girls were satisfied, IF cleared her throat to get the boy's attention. Heero looked at the brunette who had her gaze focused elsewhere. "...Am I to take that you want something?"
Despite having visibly reddened cheeks, IF tried to act cool in the face of the Gundam pilot, "Well, I just don't want to be the odd one out. So… you know..."
After watching the brunette for a moment, Heero found himself stroking the top of IF's head. The Guild Moderatist looked rather content as she stood next to the teenaged soldier as he pet her head, "(You know… this isn't so bad. It actually feels kinda nice.)"
Once he had finished stroking the brunette's head, Heero wasted no time in steering the party back to their original plan. "Our third job requires that we gather a list of items for the client. For that reason, I recommend that we return to the safe house and gather some of our medical items. Any job that requires us to obtain a list of various items and components can turn into a long-winded affair, and I would like to prepare in case such a scenario arises. Since I know that Neptune will want to grab one of her snacks, I will leave it you girls to gather the supplies. I will wait for you by the cities north exit, as it is the closest to the mission area."
Neptune began to rub her stomach, a blank look on her face, "I could use a little sweet and sugary snack. Compa, Iffy and Lyrics can get our stuff, while I enjoy a cup pudding."
IF gave the purplenette a look of disapproval, "You're gonna help us carry the supplies. Don't think for a moment we'll let you get out of it."
The party made for the dungeon exit so that they could return to the city in preparation for their third job request.
Xxx
Just as he had said, Heero was waiting near the north exit of Lastation's capital city. To be more precise, he waiting in a park near the north exit. He had been sitting on a park bench for the better part of five minutes as he waited for the girls to return with some of the medical supplies they had on hand for the last job they had for the day, but really it shouldn't have taken this long for them to get things ready, "...Perhaps I should have gone back with them to supervise. They are taking longer than I had originally planned."
Heero was about to close his eyes and take a short nap when he suddenly heard gunshots coming from behind him. He immediately got down and knocked the park bench over to use as cover. The Gundam pilot waited for whatever or whoever had been shooting to come out from wherever they were and continue firing.
Instead, Heero heard someone groaning, followed by more gunfire and then shouting. Throwing caution to the wind, Heero advanced into the trees behind the park bench, following the groaning and gunshots to their source.
The teenaged soldier arrived in a clearing to find a young girl stomping her foot on the ground and talking to herself, "Grrr… Why can't I hit it? I saw it in video games, manga and TV shows, so why isn't it working?!"
The girl in question was light skinned with raven colored hair that came down below her shoulders, with some of her dark hair pulled into two pigtails with black and light blue ribbons. Her attire consisted of a black dress with a fairly short skirt, a rather odd belt that didn't loop all the way around her waist with a bow fitted around the back, and a large circular object on her chest connected her dress with her slightly frilly collar. Along her arms were long black sleeves that cut off below her wrists and left her shoulders exposed, and she wore a pair of short black boots. Dangling on the left of her skirt was a small black object that looked like a cell phone, but without taking a closer look at it, Heero couldn't accurately identify it. In the girls hands was a rifle, of what type was difficult to determine, though it looked like an assault rifle.
Raising the rifle, the young girl fired at a red and white target that she had set up on one of the trees. Each and every bullet that was fired failed to hit the target, either veering off completely or striking the area below the target. Once the clip was empty, the girl lowered her rifle and began to stomp the ground in frustration.
Heero watched the girl before making his presences known, "What exactly are you trying to do?"
For a moment the girl had been startled, not expecting anyone to bother her. When she turned around, Heero could clearly see her irritation in her deep crimson eyes, "What do you want? I'm busy right now."
Taking one look at the failed attempt at target practice, Heero could guess that the girl was trying to do some target practice, though how she was missing so often was a mystery, "Clearly you're having trouble hitting the target."
The girl looked over at the target she had set up, as well as the various holes in the tree and the lack thereof in the intended target. A look of embarrassment crossed the girl's face before she let out a huff while looking away, "W-Well, I'm just having an off day, that's all. Why? Are you saying you could do better?"
Heero nodded his head once, though with what he saw of her failed attempts even Neptune was a better shot than this girl, and that was saying something. "Yes, which is why I'm offering to help you with your problem in regards to this matter."
A few seconds passed as the girl eyed Heero with suspicion before folding her arms and looking away from him, "Fine. I guess I can let you help. So, show me how to be a better shot."
"Before I show you anything, I want you to fire at the target again. I need to see what I'm working with."
Doing as she was instructed, the young girl took aim at the target again, only now Heero could see what she was doing wrong... the girl was holding her rifle at waist level. Before he could say anything she had already pulled the trigger and began to fire at the target until the clip in her rifle was empty.
Once she was finished, the clip fell out of the rifle and onto the ground. Despite the fact that she knew the outcome was going to be the same, the raven haired girl was still frustrated with the results. She turned to face the Gundam pilot once again, "There. Are you happy? Now hurry up and show me how to get better."
Heero walked over to the girl, finding it difficult to believe that she hadn't figured out her problem, "I will show you the appropriate way to hold your rifle, and then I want you to shoot at the target again. Now, face the target."
Once again, the girl turned around to face the target she had set up and aimed at the target with the rifle at her waist again. However, the girl was taken by complete surprise when Heero grabbed her wrists and lifted her arms up away from her waist. "If accuracy is what you are going for, then you need to lift the rifle so that the stock is resting against your shoulder. You also need to make sure to keep the rifle leveled so that you're looking down the sights. Finally, you need to tighten your grip so that the recoil from firing doesn't cause the rifle to come back and hit you."
After making sure the raven haired girl was holding her rifle correctly, Heero let go of her, "Now try firing at the target."
The girl paused for a moment. This wasn't how she had been firing off her rifle, so she wasn't exactly use to it. Nevertheless, once she felt comfortable enough, the girl slammed another clip into the rifle, took aim at the target and fired. Because she wasn't use to the way she was holding her rifle, the raven haired girl didn't go through the entire clip all at once as she had done before, instead firing in controlled bursts.
As soon as the clip was empty, the girl lowered her rifle and stared at the target for a moment. Unlike with her previous attempts, she had actually succeeded in hitting the target this time with only a few of her shots failing find their mark, but were still quite close, "Whoa… that actually worked?"
"The reason why you failed to hit target before was due to the fact that you were doing what is commonly referred to as 'firing from the hip'. It reduces recoil, but comes at the cost of accuracy."
The girl turned to face the Perfect Soldier as he explained the reason for her failed attempts. "So… I should just stop doing what I did before?"
Heero shook his head. "Don't be so quick to dismiss your previous attempts as failures. As I'm sure you have noticed from your last attempt, it takes time to line up a shot, and you're not likely to fire off your weapon in full automatic. You may find yourself in situations where you don't have time to line up a clean shot. While it may not be the most accurate stance, an automatic weapon such as the rifle you are using can still be used to suppress a target long enough for you to either retreat, or take an accurate shot. Such a situation is only present during a battle, so you should really only focus on accuracy for now."
After looking at her rifle for a moment the young girl scratched the back of her head and looked down at the ground for a moment, "I'm… sorry about how I acted before. I've been practicing for a while now, but haven't really gotten anywhere and… sorry for taking it on you."
Truthfully, Heero hadn't been bothered by what had transpired before he instructed her on proper aiming, "Irritation is expected during practice. I'm not one to allow such a thing bother me."
"Anyway, thanks… for helping. What's your name?"
Heero couldn't understand why the girl was suddenly being so friendly, though after some thought attributed the change in demeanor to her sudden stroke of success with her target practice, "Heero Yuy."
On a whim, the girl pulled a branch off of a nearby tree and wrote Heero's name into the dirt and stopped to look at the lettering, "Hey, if you take out an E it spells hero. Are supposed to be some kinda hero?"
It was another instance where based solely on his name someone assumed that he was a hero, "I am nothing of the sort. I have done many… questionable acts. I am a soldier and nothing more."
Of course, like every other person who brought up the subject she did not seem to see it the same, as was evident by the way she was staring at him. "Whoa… a tragic hero. Those are really rare."
Heero heaved a mental sigh before the girl went back to the original topic of introductions, "Well, whatever. My name's Uni. Nice to meet you." Uni looked up at the sky and noticed that it was starting get darker… well, darker than usual as it was normally a fairly dark landmass due to the clouds overhead. "It's getting pretty late, so I better get going."
Uni turned around and was about to take off when she suddenly stopped. The girl turned back around to face the Gundam pilot, scratching her cheek as she did. "Hey, so… If I run into you again, do you think you could help me with my target practice again?"
"So long as I am not busy with anything else, I don't see a problem with that."
Uni grinned before turning back around to leave, "Great. Catch ya later!"
As the raven haired girl disappeared from sight, Heero found himself thinking about Uni, more specially, her resemblance to Lastation's highest figure, "Uni… that girl bears a striking resemblance to Lastation's CPU; Lady Black Heart. Is it possible that they are related?"
After taking a moment to think on the matter, Heero finally shook his head. "...It's doubtful. If she were to be related to Black Heart, then she wouldn't be able to go anywhere without someone looking for her."
The Gundam pilot made his way back out of the cluster of trees and into the park in time to see Neptune and the others entering through the west entrance. Neptune was rubbing her stomach and licking lips, a grin plastered on her face, "Nothing beats a cup of pudding after all that dungeon crawling."
Lyrica was giving the purplenette a questioning look, "Neptune, why didn't you just eat the pudding you had back at the house. You know I don't like being around strangers, and there's nothing but strangers in a grocery store."
IF was quite upset as well, "You dragged us out of the house so quickly, I didn't have anytime to charge my cell. Not only that, but I ended up leaving most of the others in my room. What if my phone runs out of power while were in the dungeon and we get stuck?"
Compa tried to calm down the fuming brunette before she started hitting Neptune, "Please don't get upset, Iffy. We only have to do complete one more job request. We'll be finished in no time."
"That's hardly reassuring, coming from the one who signed us up for these jobs without our consent. I should have just stayed at the house with Gust."
Neptune ran out in front of the girls and latched onto Heero's arm, "Did you miss me, Heero? I know you can't stand to be away from me. We got our goodies from the house like you asked, so how about a smooch?"
Heero looked at the purple haired girl as she stood on the tips of her toes, expecting a kiss from the Gundam pilot, "...No."
As expected, Neptune began to pout after being turned down. "Aww, its not nice to say no when your lover asks you to kiss her."
The teenaged soldier shifted his attention to the other three girls of the group, who were each giving their leader a questioning look, "Now that we have what we need, it would be best to head to the mission area. The sooner we finish this last job, the sooner we can return to the safe house and relax."
IF arched her back as she stretched out her arms, "You'll get no arguments here. And I know we don't like either of them, but it would be nice if those two stalkers could help us with this last job too. I mean, without coming after Heero or Nep."
Neptune stuck her tongue out at the idea, "That's a really bad joke, Iffy. They're just gonna come after Heero like they always do and try something perverted. We'll be fine on our own without 'em."
With their healing items packed, the party left the park through the north exit and headed toward another of Lastation's smaller islands for their third job request.
Xxx
The third and final job request that Compa had signed the party up for was at another factory, though that was to be expected, as all the items they were sent to find were all machine parts. While Heero was surveying the area ahead, Neptune had gathered the girls for a pow-wow, "So, the moment we see either or those crazy ladies, we give 'em what for!"
Compa nodded her head in agreement, "Yes. We can't let either of them take Heero away. He's our lover!"
Lyrica had a blank look on her face as she listened to the two girls, "But… are we really gonna go look for them? Can't we just do this job and leave so that they won't take Heero?"
IF was still undecided at this point, "While we should be prepared to deal with them, we should focus on our job first. If they come after Heero again, we'll deal with them then."
The girls dispersed once they were done, and Heero rejoined them once he had finished surveying the immediate area, "Given that there are only three items that we need to find, and only two paths available, we should split into two groups. Neptune; you and-"
Neptune began pushing Compa, IF and Lyrica toward the right most path, "Yeah, I know, we're all gonna go this way, right? Meet back here when we're done? Gotcha."
Compa looked back at Neptune as she pushed her and the others away from the Gundam pilot, "N-Nep-Nep, what are you doing? Shouldn't we stay with Heero?"
The purplenette stopped pushing the girls to explain the reasoning for what she was doing, as clearly they thought she had lost her damn mind, "Those weird ladies keep showing up wherever Heero goes. But what if we go the way that he normally goes instead? We'll run into those Destined Lover stealing weirdos, beat 'em up, and Heero will probably give us a reward for saving him!"
IF was very skeptical of the party leader's plan and what she hoped to get out of it, "I don't know. What if they had the idea of coming after us this time and end up going the way we usually go?"
Unfortunately, it didn't seem like Neptune was willing to entertain the thought. "We don't gotta worry about that. They're not smart enough for that."
Lyrica heaved a heavy sign, "That's not exactly reassuring, considering just who it is that's telling us this..."
The four girls were gone before Heero could say anything. What he was going to say was that both he and Neptune would form a group and go one way while Compa, IF and Lyrica would make up the second group and go the other way, "Still, this works out just as well. Group deployment won't matter so long as we acquire all three items. Besides, they might have started another argument if I had said anything."
Of course, Heero then took a moment to try and figure out WHY he would have suggested that he and Neptune form a group. The Gundam pilot shook his head as he walked down the other path leading into the factory. "I MUST be getting soft..."
Further down the path Heero was heading, Black Heart was pacing back and forth as she waited for something, or possibly someone. The sound of footsteps caught her attention, prompting her to duck behind a stack of wooden crates, "(Okay, Neptune and her little friends should be coming this way. If I can beat them down first, I'll be free to talk to Heero without any interruptions… so long as that cow from Leanbox doesn't come here.)"
A few more seconds passed and the source of the footsteps was close. Once close enough, Black Heart jumped out from behind to stack of boxes to intercept of she believed to be Neptune, "Prepare yourself, Neptu-"
The sword maiden stopped when she noticed that rather than who she intended to run into, she found herself face to face with Heero. Black Heart just stared at the Gundam pilot, while he stared back. Ultimately, Heero broke the silence between them, "...May I ask, what you are doing?"
Black Heart averted her gaze from the teenaged soldier, "W-Well, I have another job request that I need to take care of. What are YOU doing here?"
"Same reason. We would have gotten here sooner, however Neptune decided that she had to buy more snacks, so it took longer for us to get here."
Another moment of silence filled the air as the sword maiden tried work up the nerve to ask the question she had wanted to ask Heero back in the previous dungeon, but was unable to. Black Heart was about to ask her question when she noticed that Heero was walking past her, just like he had before. "W-Wait!"
Heero stopped to look back at the snow haired girl, who suddenly began to pout, "You know, it's rude to walk away from a girl when she's talking to you."
The Gundam pilot raised a questioning eyebrow, "What could you possibly want to talk to me about?"
Once again, Black Heart looked away from Heero, "I-I… was just think that you and I didn't actually get to work together last time. So… I thought I'd try asking again."
Heero didn't really see any harm it accepting her offer, mainly because the girl just wasn't a threat to him at all. Also, he knew that she had a question that she had wanted to ask him, but was interrupted last time and was curious as to what this question was, "...If you insist."
As with the previous job, the team of Heero and Black Heart advanced into the dungeon. While Heero was keeping an eye out for any monsters or the items he and the party had been sent to find, Black Heart kept a watchful eye out for Neptune and Green Heart, "(Those two have annoying habit of turning up when they're not wanted. I need to hurry up and ask Heero that question so I'll final know whether or not I'm his ty-)"
The sword maiden stopped her mental train before she could finish. "(N-No, don't think like that, Black Heart! He's just a human! He's not good enough for you!)"
While Black Heart was talking to herself, Heero came across a treasure chest that was hidden behind a boiler. Upon opening the box, the soldier found a set of machine components that matched one of the items on the list, "Two more items to go. If the other items are this easy to locate, this job won't take long."
"So, Heero..."
Black Heart had finally mustered up the nerve to ask Heero her question. The aforementioned Perfect Soldier turned to face the snow haired girl. "Since no one is around to interrupt us… I wanted to ask you something."
Heero waited on the girl as she looked at the ground. Taking in one deep breath, the sword maiden began to speak, "What kind of girl do you-"
"We meet again, I see."
Green Heart appeared just as Black Heart was about to finish her question. Heero looked over his shoulder at the lancer, "(...I'm questioning whether or not she's doing this on purpose.) Do you need something?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact I-" The CPU of Leanbox noticed that Black Heart was standing next to the Gundam pilot. "Oh… You're here as well. Go away. We have important business to discuss."
The moment that the lancer had made her presences known, Black Heart had already began to plot the various ways in which she planned to make the CPU suffer for getting in her way for the third time that day, "(That's it… I'm done. I've tried to be nice. But now? Now she dies!)"
Without any warning, Black Heart attacked Green Heart as she was talking to Heero. The CPU received a small cut on her cheek, but was able to dodge the attack aimed at her. Raising a hand to inspect her injury, Green Heart narrowed her eyes at the swordstress, "You seem intent on getting in my way no matter what."
"Only because you keep getting in MY way!"
The moment that talks had broken down, both girl engaged in combat yet again, there battle taking them further into the dungeon. Heero walked after the two, knowing that he would ultimately end up running into Neptune and the others, "I get the distinct impression that this is not going to end well."
As with their previous battle in the cave, Black Heart and Green Heart found themselves in a large room with entrances on all sides, though only three of them actually led anywhere. The two skid to a halt across from each other, silently staring each other down as they waited for the other to make a move.
A piece of pipe that had been damaged by their fighting was dangling overhead, just barely hanging onto the ceiling. A few seconds passed before the pipe broke off and fell to the ground, acting as the starting bell for the second round for the two women.
The ensuing frenzy of attacks left numerous scars all over the room, destroyed wooden crates, trashed boilers and even resulted in the deaths of a few monsters unlucky enough to get caught in-between the two girls.
Their second bout ended after five minutes, with neither one giving an inch to her foe. Green Heart lifted her lance and pointed the tip at the swordstress from Lastation. "If you have no interest in Heero, then stay out of my way. If however you do have feelings for him, let me know now. It will give me the perfect excuse to pierce your heart with my lance."
Black Heart continued to glare at the lancer as she gripped the handle of her sword with both hands. The moment she had a firm grip on her weapon, the sword maiden closed the distance between herself and Green Heart with the inhuman speed that she seemed to be proud of.
A loud *clang* filled the air as Green Heart blocked the attack with her lance. Both girls were locked in yet another stalemate… And with the way the battle was progressing, Black Heart appeared to be the one who would gain the upper-hand, "It's not a matter of whether or not I have 'feelings' for Heero, which I DON'T. It's my responsibility to protect the people here on Lastation… Everyone except Neptune. Since he is on my landmass, I consider Heero to be one of it's people."
Slowly, the snow haired girl began to overpower the lance wielder, finally breaking the deadlock they had been stuck in for the past few seconds. "...As such, it's my responsibility to protect him from people like you!"
Green Heart jumped back to avoid what would have been a fatal injury to herself, placing her several feet away from the swordstress. The green haired lancer returned her attention to Black Heart after narrowly avoiding her attack, "And just what do you mean 'people like me?' I will have you know I am not planning to do anything evil or nefarious with Heero." Deciding to take the offensive, Green Heart dashed toward Black Heart and thrust her drill lance at the snow haired girl, a wild flurry of strikes flew through the air that were either blocked or dodged entirely.
Black Heart blocked each and every attack aimed at her as the CPU of Leanbox continued to lash out at the sword maiden of Lastation, "I asked whether or not you had feeling for Heero, however I realize now that it is more or less a rhetorical question at this point. Right now you are using any excuse you can to justify your continued meddling in my affairs. Your actions tell me that despite your claims, you are in love with Heero."
The snow haired swordstress found herself blushing as she warded off another attack, "Where do you get off analyzing me?! I said I'm NOT in love with him! You're just as bad as Neptune and that little brat when it comes to listening!"
"Yet your actions have contradicted your claims time and again, which makes listening to you pointless." Green Heart's lance arm began to shake as her anger began to build, "While we may agree that Heero is simply too good for Neptune, I cannot… I WILL not lose him to the likes of you!"
Black Heart tightened her grip on her sword as she stared down her enemy, "What do you take me for?! You make it sound like I would abuse him!"
Venom was seeping out of Green Heart's voice as she snapped at the swordstress in front of her. "Wouldn't you, though? You, a tsundere of the highest order. There is no doubt in mind that you would hurt him verbally, physically and emotionally. I will not allow such an abusive woman to take my innocent Heero from me."
Black Heart charged the lancer and the two wound up in yet another stalemate as they tried to push the other back, while still shouting at one another, "I've had it with you! You, Neptune and that brat keep spouting off this nonsense that I love Heero. I may like the guy, but I don't LIKE like him! And I certainly don't love him!"
Green Heart slowly began to force the snow haired teen back, "Enough! I'm done listening to you, you spiteful, conceited little girl! That day when we banished Neptune from Celestia, I should have disposed of you as well. I shall rectify that mistake here and now!"
Before she could gain the upper-hand like she had before, Black Heart was suddenly shoved back, and Green Heart was already upon her. The CPU of Leanbox thrust her lance at the sword maiden, who raised her sword to defend herself.
Even though she had prepared to defend herself, Black Heart hadn't expected Green Heart's attacks to hold as much power as they did, as was evidenced by the fact that her sword had almost been knocked out of hand from one hit, "I will not lose Heero! Not to Neptune..."
The swordstress of Lastation brought her sword back down to block Green Heart's second attack, only it was even more powerful than the first strike and subsequently knocked Black Heart's sword out of her hand. "Not to that rude, insolent child from Lowee..."
Green Heart reared her arm back to deliver one final attack to the now defenseless Black Heart, who saw no way out of her predicament, "...And I most certainly will not lose Heero to you!"
Just when it seemed that the lancer from Leanbox would claim victory, an explosion erupted from the entrance on the right that knocked the CPU off balance and tossed Black Heart backward. Neptune burst through the smoke, pointing at where both women had been before the explosion, "We totally got ya! I hope you're ready to cry, cuz we're gonna beat you up for stalking Heero!"
IF coughed a few times as she waded through the smoke, "Was this really necessary? It would have been easier to just rush them while they were fighting."
Compa had her arms outstretched as she tried to find her way through the smoke created by the explosion, "Nep-Nep? Iffy? Lyrica? Where are you guys? I can't see anything."
Lyrica was also having trouble seeing through the smokescreen, "Even my own performances never had this much smoke. I can't even see my own hand in front of my face!"
Once the smoke cleared, Neptune saw Green Heart picking herself up out of a stack of boxes, "Ah ha! There's one of 'em! Now, where's the other one?"
The purplenette turned to her left and stopped. She had caught sight of the other girl, but she was in a compromising position on top of Heero. Black Heart was on all fours, while Heero was lying on his back with both of his hands on her breasts.
Heero's mind was drawing a blank as to what he was supposed to do in this situation, the only thing his mind registering was the softness of the girl's chest. Black heart's face turned a deep shade of crimson in response to the boy's hands on her chest, "(H-Heero's hands are on my breasts! A-Aren't we moving too fast?! Is this acceptable? I-I-I mean I know I'm a goddess, and I'm supposed to know what to do in this kind of situation, but…!)"
Behind her, Green Heart was giving her a disapproving look, "And you were accusing me of doing something uncouth with Heero. Yet here you are trying to seduce him. You really can't be trusted."
Black heart stood up and faced the lancer, her face still red. "Sh-Shut up! We weren't doing anything of the sort! Moreover, it's Neptune's fault it happened in the first place! If she hadn't started trying to destroy the place it wouldn't have happened!"
"I don't know what's going on here, but I do know that you two are trying to steal my lover!"
Both Black Heart and Green Heart looked over at Neptune and the other three members of her party that looked ready to commit murder. The duo flinched before Black Heart shook her head vehemently, "You don't scare me! I'll take you all on!"
Green Heart looked at the sword maiden of Lastation with a questioning gaze, "I admire your bravado, but aren't you almost out of power?"
Some of the color in Black Heart's face drained away as she processed what the lancer had said. She WAS almost out of power. The snow haired girl picked her sword back up and pointed at Neptune with her free hand, "You get a pass this time, Neptune. But remember this, you won't get so lucky next time!"
Black Heart took off as fast as she could down the north exit, which lead further into the dungeon. Green Heart let out a tired sigh, "I seem to be running low on power myself. So I bid adieu."
The lancer from Leanbox went in the same direction as Black Heart had, leaving Neptune and the others behind, "Hey! Get back here, you Destined Lover stealing weirdos! We gotta beat you up for coming after Heero!"
Neptune and the girls gave chase to the duo of 'stalkers' with Heero following after them. By the time they had reached the end of the corridor the two women had gone, the girls had noticed that the path branched off in two directions further ahead. IF folded her arms, speaking to the party while keeping her attention forward, "Which way now? They probably split up so that they wouldn't get caught."
Heero caught up with the girls as they were busy deciding which way to go in order to find the two mystery women, "I take it you found the rest of the items that we need?"
Neptune pulled two machine components out of her hoodie pockets and showed them to the Gundam pilot, "Yup! Now, WE just gotta find those lover stealing meanies and give 'em what for! I'll teach them to try and steal my Heero!"
Just then, a set of voices began to echo from further in down the corridor. The party followed the voices to the path on the left to find two familiar faces bickering with one another, "This is all your fault! If you hadn't gotten in the way..."
"My fault? Any and all fault lies with you. I'm certain anyone else would see it that way as well."
The party had happened upon an argument between Lady Black Heart and Green Heart. Why they were arguing was anyone's guess, but that didn't stop Neptune from making her presence know to them, "Whoa, Lady Green Heart and Lady Black Heart? Is there a secret goddess convention going on here?"
Both women flinched before turning their attention to the purplenette and her party. IF was quite surprised to see Leanbox's CPU in Lastation, "Lady Green Heart? What are you doing here?"
It took the CPU a moment to figure out why the party hadn't started attacking her when she realized that she was in her that she was in her human form, and as such, was more likely to be able to ask Heero her question without any risk of being attacked. The blonde haired woman pulled out the flyer for the Planeptune video game tournament she had been carrying with her and showed it to the party, "I heard that you all were here, so I came to ask Heero if he would be my partner for the video game tournament on Planeptune."
Heero looked at the date listed on the flyer before returning his attention to the CPU, "I do not see a problem with attending, so long as nothing comes up before then."
Green Heart could not help but smile. "So you'll do it? Wonderful."
Black Heart was giving the blonde the evil eye until Neptune began talking to her, "So, what'cha doing here, buddy? Did you come to beat up on some mean old monsters?"
The CPU of Lastation was momentarily caught off guard before responding, "I, uh… Yeah! I'd heard that some really dangerous monsters were here. I came to find them, but I guess I got lost."
Neptune then remembered just why it was the party when further into the dungeon in the first place, "Oh yeah, did you see two girls wearing skanky outfits come through her?"
Lady Black Heart panicked for a moment before regaining her composure, "Well, I did see two people like that… But they were moving so fast. They must have been in a hurry."
The party knew that they weren't going to be able to catch either one the women at this point and decided it would be best to call it a day. Neptune kicked a nearby rock as she let out a huff, "Those pervy ladies were trying to steal Heero! I'll beat 'em up next time."
Lady Black Heart's eye twitched for a moment before she started shouting, "I wasn't trying to-"
Before she could say another word, Lady Green Heart had covered the CPU's mouth with her hand. The group looked at the two goddesses wondering just what was going on, until Green Heart waved them off, "Oh, don't worry. I think she's just tired from fighting monsters."
Heero pulled out the machine part he had in jacket pockets and held them out to Neptune, "Since we have gathered all of the mission items, there is no reason for us to stay here. Neptune, I want you and the others to take the items to our client and return to the safe house. I will escort Lady Green Heart to the Sky Harbor so that she can return to Leanbox. After that I will take Lady Black Heart to the Basilicom and return to the safe house after that is done."
Neptune let out a yawn as she took the items from Heero, "So we're done now, right? When we get home, I'm gonna eat me some pudding."
IF had a disgruntled look on her face as she looked at her cell phone, "Maybe now I can actually charge my cell. The battery died a little while ago."
Lyrica looked down at herself and was not happy with what she saw, "I need to take a bath. I'm covered in dirt and stuff."
Compa looked over each member of the party, noting how tired they were before a smile spread across her face, Everyone just needs to rest when we get home. You'll all feel better then."
Heero watched as the quartet of girls began to make their way out of the dungeon before turning his attention to the two Console Patron Units, "I presume you two are ready to go?"
Lady Green Heart latched onto Heero's left arm, a bright smile on her face, "I feel safe already knowing that you will be escorting me, Heero."
Lady Black Heart was seething as she watched the CPU of Leanbox hold onto the Perfect Soldier, "(If I hadn't ran out of power, I'd kill her right now.)"
Heero brought a hand up to the side of his head as he walked both girls out of the dungeon, "I will need to talk to Neptune after this..."
Xxx
After escorting Lady Green Heart to the Sky Harbor, Heero walked Lady Black Heart back to the Basilicom in Lastation's capital city. The CPU occasionally stole a glance at Heero as they walked down the streets of the city toward the building in which she resided, "(I don't think I have to worry about anyone interrupting me again. Maybe I can finally ask Heero that question I've been trying to ask him...)"
While Lady Black Heart was busy trying to figure out how she would bring up her question, Heero was lost in his own train of thought, "(When did I become so comfortable around these people that I would willingly make plans for a casual outing when I need to focus on my mission?)"
Heero was pulled from his thoughts when he noticed that they had arrived at the Basilicom. The teenaged soldier looked at the CPU next to him, "If you will excuse me. I need to return to the others."
Just as Heero was about to walk away, Black Heart grabbed onto the back of his tank top, "Umm… Heero?"
The Gundam pilot turned to face the girl who hurriedly withdrew her hand and looked away from the boy as soon as she felt his eyes on her. ""There was another reason I went to that dungeon. I went there to… look for you."
Heero wondered just what could have been so important that Lastation's own goddess would go looking for him herself, "Did you need something from me?"
Remembering that she had an image to uphold, Lady Black Heart took a deep breath before looking at the Perfect Soldier, "Well, I feel that I owe you for saving the civilians at the expo the other day. So, I thought I would offer you something as a reward."
This was the third time he was being given something as a reward from one of the goddesses of Gamindustri, however, like the other two times, he didn't really need anything at the moment… save for some Ibuprofen and a glass of water, but he could get those at the safe house, "Unfortunately, I have no immediate request at this time."
The CPU waved her hands in a dismissive manner, "W-Well, it's not like you have to think of something this instant. If you need time, then don't worry. There's no expiration date on this request, so take all the time you need. But just remember, you can only ask for one thing."
Averting her eyes for a moment, the CPU began to talk in a slightly quieter tone of voice. "Also, there's something I want to ask you." Lady Black Heart lowered her head and spoke in a hushed voice, "What are your preferences in..."
Heero walked over to the girl and stopped right in front of her. With his right hand, he cupped the CPU's chin and lifted up so that she was looking at him, "I will need you to ask your question again. I was not able to hear you."
And just like that, Lady Black Heart's face turned bright red as her mind went haywire and immediately asked the first question that came to mind, "W-W-Would you like to come over to the Basilicom some time and play a game with me?!"
"...I don't see any problems with your request. Very well. I will accept your invitation."
With that, Heero began to walk away, leaving the goddess of Lastation to cool off. She was about to reprimand herself for not asking the question that she had wanted to, until she stopped and thought about what she had asked him, "Wait a minute… I can actually make this work. I mean, sure it wasn't my real question, but it's not like I could have just asked him anyway. I have to be calm and professional. No need to rush into this."
Xxx
Once Green Heart and Black Heart had been taken care of, Heero promptly returned to the party's safe house. Once inside, he went straight for the kitchen for a glass of water and Ibuprofen. After getting the two things he desperately needed, the Gundam pilot sat down on the couch in the living room and nursed his headache.
Neptune came down the stairs with a cup of pudding in one hand and a spoon in the other. As soon as she saw Heero sitting down, the purplenette plopped down right next to him, "Hey Heero, Compa and Lyrics are in the bathtub. What d'ya say? Wanna jump in with me after they're finished and wash each others backs?"
Heero leaned back in his seat as he listened to the purplenette, "I'd rather not, especially when I have one hell of a headache." The Gundam pilot looked at the girl next to him. "Neptune, I realize that I said we would search for the Key Fragment tomorrow, but after today's events I would like to recommend that we take some time off from our search."
The Gundam pilot wanted to focus on their task of finding the Key Fragments, but with a killer headache like the one he had at that moment, he didn't think he would be able to make the trek to find the item they were searching for. As one would expect, Neptune was all for the idea, "I'm always for some time off. It gives us time to snack, play games and have fun. Can't work all the time, y'know."
As the purple haired girl went on, Heero could feel his eyes growing heavy, which did not go unnoticed by Neptune, "You getting sleepy, Heero? Hold on a sec."
Neptune put down her pudding and spoon and took off upstairs. Heero questioned what exactly she was doing, until she came back down with two pillows and a large blanket. The energetic girl slipped one pillow behind Heero's head, tossed the second pillow down on the spot next to him, then draped the blanket over the Gundam pilot.
After making sure that the blanket was big enough, Neptune slipped under the blanket and took her spot next to Heero with her head on his shoulder, "We'll catch a few Zs, then we'll take a bath together, and go to sleep after. How's that? Can't say no to that, can ya?"
Heero couldn't bring himself to argue with the girl. Not because of his headache, but rather something else, "Fine. However, you must agree to where a bathing suit."
A playful grin spread across Neptune's face. "Okie dokey. Just make sure you wash me up good."
When he had first came to Gamindustri, Heero had found Neptune to be rather intolerable. As time passed, however, he began to tolerate her and her behavior more and more. It was during moments like this that Heero actually felt comfortable around Neptune… Perhaps, even enjoyed her presences. The Gundam pilot succumbed to the need for sleep, and Neptune fell a sleep right after him.
Xxx
Me: "About damn time I finished this chapter. I remember why it took so long to get this one out, I've edited and changed it so many times… gah! Whatever! Doesn't matter! It's done!"
Heero and Neptune: (Enter ACCC) "You looked like you were gonna melt in front of your computer, Author man."
Heero: "It is important to have a clear idea as to what a chapter is supposed to be about. Otherwise, it may take more time than necessary to add it to the story."
Me: "Well, it's not like that was the only reason it took so long to update… The flash drive went missing." (Looks through story) "Well, whatever. I've found that our free chapters tend to take more time to write up than any of our other chapters anyway. Besides, I'm sure our avid HDN fans can see who I added in and why I needed a little extra time for this one."
Black Heart: (Enters ACCC from Break Room) "What is Uni doing here? I thought I told her to-"
Me: (Covers Black Heart's mouth) "Shush! They can't know that yet!"
Black Heart: "Sorry… Anyway, where is she?"
Me: "You mean Green Heart? She should be in the new Game Room."
Green Heart: (Enters ACCC from Game Room) "What an excellent gamin marathon that was. I think I was able to make up for the grinding I was able to last week."
Black Heart: (Points at Green Heart) "Listen you, don't think this is over. I've still got a score to settle with you."
Green Heart: "Oh my. The little girl wants to pick a fight with me? And here I thought you were a little more mature than this."
Me: "Can it, you two. The ACCC doesn't need a coat of red paint." (Looks around ACCC) "The others aren't here, and I don't feel like waiting on them. We got another chapter to work on. Black Heart, since this chapter was set on your landmass, you get to wrap up."
Black Heart: "Alright, I guess I can. It's not like I want to, but I do have an obligation to our readers."
Me, Heero, Neptune and Green Heart: (Leave ACCC from Left Entrance)
Black Heart: (Turns to readers) "Please read and review this chapter, and look forward to the next update. Now, if you will excuse me." (Leaves ACCC from Left Entrance)
