Hello! ButterHunter here, with another chapter!
Shall we continue?
Chapter 2: A Second Chance
In the HDN universe...
Late in the middle of night, when most of the common folk were fast asleep, one girl stayed up late. She stood on her balcony, looking across the beautiful night sky.
Suddenly, she noticed something odd. Two indistinct objects were streaking across the sky, like shooting stars.
But shooting stars never looked that close before. And as she stared at the figures streaking across the sky, they started looking less and less like shooting stars.
The figures soon landed nearby, in a large forest. The silence of night suddenly was interrupted by a large *BOOM* sound as both figures crashed.
The girl kept her eyes trained on the scene. She tilted her head and asked herself, "What was that?"
She quickly dashed off towards the forest, following her gut instinct more than anything.
As she entered, she noticed that monsters weren't around. Maybe they had been scared off by the crash, or perhaps they had simply gone to bed for the night.
Regardless, she kept her guard up while wandering in further.
She parted a few branches in her way, and then gasped.
"It… it's people!" she breathed, and she quickly ran to their aid.
As if the day hadn't already been strange enough. First, the girl had been having strange dreams, then she'd been feeling like she was beaten up by a truck, and NOW when she woke up, she was in a dark space with no idea where she was at all.
"Erm… hello?" she called out blindly.
Nothing. If anyone heard her at all, they made no sound otherwise.
"This place is really creepy… where even am I?" the girl asked, glancing around.
"It so dark here… ohhhh, did I get caught in a short circuit again?" she asked herself, looking around harder.
The area around her SEEMED to be an… area of some kind, though what kind of area was far beyond even her. "Erm, hello?! Anybody? I'd really hate to accidentally step on some fingers right now!"
Silence. Complete, utter silence.
The girl, though weirded out quite much, started walking around. "Seriously though… where even-"
And then she stepped on something soft and warm, which made a loud, sickening *squisssh* sound. "EWWWW! What did I just step in?!"
(I still have no idea what I stepped in to this day.)
After scraping her shoe off on the ground, and giving up on trying to figure out what the strange substance had been, she wandered off. "Man… I'm bored."
She continued walking further along, wondering what exactly she was waiting for.
But just like she had woken up, and found herself in this strange land…
Another figure was stirring, roused from a deep sleep.
It was a man. He slowly opened his eyes and rolled over onto his back, blinking.
"The… hell did I do last night…?" he asked himself.
He looked around. He didn't recognize the scenery one bit.
And then something very peculiar happened.
He tried to remember what he had been doing before this…
But somehow, he couldn't remember. Like… nothing.
Confused and concerned, he sat up, thinking hard.
Nope. No memories came back. He had no recollection of… well, anything.
Except for a bunch of video game references, he couldn't remember anything about himself at all.
(Seems like he didn't lose the anything vitally important, then.)
All he could remember for sure was that he DEFINITELY didn't pass out in a black limbo-stance.
He almost started panicking - because let's face it, that's a pretty good reason to panic - before calming himself. "O-okay… okay. So my memory is gone. That's not good. But… maybe it'll come back…!"
And then he added in, "...right?"
He looked around, trying to get any bearings he could.
"Huh… nothing but inky blackness…" he murmured.
He stood onto his feet, shouldered the backpack he was carrying, and started slowly wandering forward, unsure of what else could be done.
As he walked, he kept thinking he heard noises and such. Like… another person was walking too.
He was confused at this, and kept looking around every directly he could…
Until suddenly, he heard something. A voice.
It sounded like a young girl, and it appeared like she was growing closer.
"Hey! Anyone there?" the man yelled out.
The voice paused for a moment, before shouting back, "Hello?"
Now having a destination in mind, the man started dashing around the area, occasionally calling out to determine his next direction…
"Where are you?!" he yelled out once more.
"Right back at ya!" the girl yelled back, now sounding almost on top of him.
He turned to the left slightly and started dashing forward, but just as he reached a corner…
He suddenly slammed into the owner of the voice at full speed.
It was total confusion for a moment while the pair fell to the ground, completely losing sense of which way was up for a moment until they settled.
Groaning a bit, the man looked up.
The voice he had been chasing after belonged, like he thought, to what appeared like a young girl. She had fair skin and appeared on the small side. She appeared to very much enjoy the color purple, given that her clothes, hair, and even her eyes were all a light purple color. Her large, almost baggy jacket almost completely covered her mini-skirt. Her legs, from the knees down, were covered in long stockings that were white with baby blue stripes, that went down into her rather oversized tennis shoes. In her previously mentioned spiky hair, she wore hair-clips shaped like the directional pads on video game controllers.
(Yeah, that description is good.)
She too was recovering and taking her first look at the man that just plowed into her like a runaway train. He was tall, almost scarily so, and his body looked slightly muscled, though still a bit plump. His ruffled brown hair matched the color of his brown eyes, just behind a pair of silver-framed glasses. He wore a simple shirt with a design from some video game or another, ordinary blue jeans, and a large pair of black tennis shoes.
For a moment, the pair only sized each other up, not saying anything for the time being.
Finally, the man figured he should apologize and hastily spoke up, "E-erm… sorry about, ah… running you over."
The girl blinked at him, intrigued. "Who… who are you?"
"I'm… I'm…" the man started to respond, before stopping. He blinked rapidly, feeling confusion start to bubble up in his chest. "I… I can't remember…"
The girl's eyes widened. "Wait, you forgot your memory too?" she asked.
"I-I know I should know it, but I can't-" the man started to say, before stopping. "Hang on, what? You lost your memory?"
"Oooh! This is so exciting! We both lost our memories, like we're main characters!" the girl excitedly stated, jumping up to her feet. "Fear not, guy-to-be-named-later! We shall embark together on our journey to forgotten lands in search of the lost memories of our past!"
The silence that followed was so thick you could cut through it. The man stared at the girl, understandably lost at her line of thinking. "Should… should I be worried? I mean, like, are you alright?"
"Never better, dear friendo! Now come along! We have a mystery to solve! Away!" she giggled, skipping off towards who knows where.
As much as the man would've liked to sit and stare, he knew that sitting down wasn't going to get him anywhere. Besides, as strange as the girl was, she appeared friendly. That had to count for something.
(It does! At least in my case.)
So he stood back up and jogged after, keeping pace with the girl as best he could.
She eventually noticed him behind her, and slowed down to a reasonable walk so that he could keep up. "But really - you don't remember your name?"
The man shook his head, thinking hard. "It's on the tip of my tongue, hang on… Cole? No… Carter? Sounds closer… maybe Corey? I don't-"
"Cameron, perhaps?" the girl offered.
The instant she said that, the name clicked in his head. "Y-yeah… yeah, that's it! Cameron! How'd you know?"
"I looked in this thing." the girl responded, holding out a black leather wallet. "Had your name written in bold letters right up front."
The man, Cameron, felt his back pocket. "How'd you- give that back!"
He swiped the wallet out of the girl's hands, shoving back into his pocket. "Rifling through another person's wallet - who does that?"
"Thieves, people who like to snoop, warriors in need of cash…" the girl started firing off.
(He DID ask.)
"Oh quiet. Besides, you never told me YOUR name yet." Cameron responded.
"Well that's because the great and mighty Neptune hasn't REMEMBERED her name yet, huh? Think about that smart guy?" the girl asked, glaring at the taller man.
Cameron blinked. For a moment, the girl waited for a response.
Until she realized what she just said. "Oh. Erm… well, I think I remembered now."
"Neptune…" Cameron murmured aloud. "Haven't heard THAT one before."
"Oooh, so I'm original?" the girl, Neptune, asked, stars in her eyes.
"C-can we please go back to the topic at hand?" Cameron asked, not wanting to get even further derailed. "We have no idea where we are, or how we even got here in the first place. That is a MUCH more pressing issue than names."
"I mean, I guess it is. Sure makes the author's life easier though." Neptune commented to herself.
Cameron didn't even skip a beat at the mention of the author. "So? Who cares if it makes his life easier, I'm more concerned about what our missing memories means."
(...huh. Honestly figured that Cameron would have a bit more, what's the word… confusion about the fourth wall. Glad to see I was wrong!)
The pair stayed in silence for a moment, before Neptune sighed. "Ugh… who's prompt are we waiting for? Seriously, SOMETHING should've triggered by now, right?"
And that's when another voice finally spoke up.
"Apologies. I was trying to summon my energy as fast as I could, but it was difficult." the voice responded. "Have you been here long?"
Cameron whipped around the area, as did Neptune, as they tried to find the speaker. "Who was that?" the tall man called out.
"I would not waste time looking around. I am not… there, per say." the voice responded. Cameron couldn't ever remember hearing a voice like that in his life. Though to be fair, he couldn't really remember much of that life right now.
"A voice I can't see…" Neptune murmured. "N-no! That can only mean one thing! I'm dead! I'm dead and I'm in the afterlife!"
Cameron stared at Neptune. "Uh, Neptune, I highly doubt-"
"I KNEW I should've erased my backlog and wiped everything off my HDD!" Neptune moaned, looking like the end of the world was coming.
Cameron and the voice both were perplexed by Neptune's outburst. It was a good minute before the voice spoke again. "Well then… just to put that to rest, no Neptune. You have not-"
"You both don't understand!" Neptune continued to blubber. "I can't just calm down after this! Someone can go into my files and look at my 'special' HDD collections!"
Cameron blinked three times before returning attention back to the voice. "Erm… anyway… so, then… who are you voice in our heads?"
"My name is Histoire. I am, what you would call, a tome." the voice, now named Histoire, explained, seemingly grateful that Cameron was at least trying to hear her out.
But of course, Neptune wouldn't be left out just yet. "T-TOMB?! Like a grave?! I knew it! We're both dead!" she moaned.
Cameron sighed irritatedly. "Neptune, lemme see your arm really quick."
Neptune paused her monologue briefly to curiously hold out her arm. Cameron responded by quickly pinching her arm between her elbow and shoulder.
"OW!" she shouted loudly, pulling away. "What the-?"
(That actually hurt, just so you know…)
"There. You felt pain, so you're not dead." Cameron explained. "Now, Miss Histoire? Where were you?"
"As I was saying, I am a tome. Neptune, you have fallen from Celestia, and now I need your assistance." Histoire explained.
Neptune finally seemed like she had calmed down and accepted that she was not dead. "Okay… so I'm NOT dead. That's a relief… so, Miss Heavenly Voice, how exactly do you need my help? Oooh, you wouldn't happen to be my fan, would you?"
Another pause followed. Cameron finally couldn't take it anymore and facepalmed.
"I record the history of all of Gamindustri with the goddesses." Histoire explained further, at this point just completely ignoring Neptune.
Neptune looked honestly a tad annoyed at the snubbing. "Sure, don't respond then… don't need to worry about my feelings, after all…"
(I am a delicate flower! My feelings matter too!)
(*sigh*... I'm starting to regret letting you comment on this new version…)
Cameron gently flicked her nose. "Be quiet and listen already. Histoire, I apologize."
"Thank you, Mister… Cameron, you said? I was getting rather tired of pointing everything out to her." Histoire sighed.
"Oh great! So now others are tired of me! Just what I want!" Neptune sarcastically responded.
"I do not have much time, so I will get to the point." Histoire quickly started to explain. "Neptune, please l… you… ers…"
For some reason, Cameron was starting to hear Histoire less and less, as some kind of noise was starting to block her out. "Wait… what?" he half-yelled, trying his best to hear.
Neptune was having the same problem. "Huh?! What was that? There's to much chatter on my end!"
"Please stop… foire… end to… sole War…" Histoire's managed, her voice now barely understandable over the noise.
Slowly, Histoire's voice continued to fade, and then it simply disappeared altogether. The noise, however, was still growing louder and louder. Cameron kept turning around over and over, trying to stop the noise…
"Enough with the noise…!" he tried to shout over it, covering his ears. It kept ringing…
Wait… ringing? Was it… an alarm?
"SHUUUUT UP!" Neptune's shrill voice cut through the air.
There was an audible punch, and then the noise finally stopped. And then followed the sound of something smashing into the ground.
"Oops. Might've overdone that one…" she mumbled.
It was then that Cameron realized he wasn't in the same blank area anymore. His eyes were simply closed, and he was on his back lying on a bed or cot of some kind.
He opened his eyes to find himself… in a room. A room with cream colored walls, and several windows with frilly pink curtains. Shelves dotted the room, with books, picture frames, and even one or two plushies. Hanging on the wall was two hangers, one with a woolen, sleeveless sweater, and another that vaguely made him think of a nurse outfit. Leaning in the corner of the room was a massive, almost cartoonishly so, syringe filled with some kind of purple substance.
Cameron was off to the side, lying on a cot near a small coffee table and a cushy pink couch. Neptune herself was on said couch, tucked in with a small blanket, and was also looking around the room. "Wait… where even am I?" the purple haired girl asked aloud.
That's when the pair locked eyes. They both were hit with sudden realization: they had both seen each other in their dreams. Or maybe they had shared a dream, somehow?
(I like to think that we simply were so awesome we just transcended time and space for a moment, and met each other in a distant plane of reality. But who really knows?)
Before either of them could say so much as a word to the other, however, a third figure stepped in from behind a corner. Another girl, wearing a very similar wool sweater like the one on the wall, with creamy pink hair, long and loopy. A cute, if not a tad short, red flannel skirt was placed just below a rather oversized black belt with a big C badge-type accessory attached. Black leggings with a frilly pink top was paired with white boots, with little poms attached to the laces.
But perhaps the most noticeable part of her, at least in Cameron's mind, was her bust. For a girl that didn't look very old, she was quite well-endowed, and if Cameron had any less control of himself, he would've stared at them for hours on end.
(Introducing: the perverted side of Cameron!)
(Oh, yeah, like it's just SUPER EASY for a man to NOT stare.)
(How would I know?)
"Oh! You're both up!" the girl happily noticed, approaching. "Morning, sleepyheads."
Cameron was the first to speak up. "Ummm… good… morning?"
"Well, actually, more like good afternoon!" the girl cheerily corrected.
"Erm… where exactly is here? Is this your room?" Neptune asked. "And… why was I so snuggly tucked in?" she added, kicking at the blanket still around her feet. Indeed, it looked like the blanket had been tucked VERY tightly into the couch itself.
"And… who exactly are you?" Cameron asked.
The girl closed her eyes thoughtfully. "Oh, it was just last night! I saw a shooting star, and it headed right into the forest! That was both of you."
It took a good five seconds of silence to realize that this girl had finished her thought. Neptune offered a chuckle and replied, "That was a rather short answer…"
"Erm… think your missing the bigger picture here." Cameron quickly interjected, turning back towards the third girl. "You said… we fell out of the sky?"
"Yes!" the girl agreed, then added with a giggle, "She was actually stuck into the ground like Soul-Sword, you know."
"Not really. Kinda was unconscious." Cameron dryly remarked.
"Soul-Sword?" Neptune asked. "Pretty sure you got that confused with Soul-E***... or, wait… wasn't it the Excalibur that was stuck in the ground?"
The third girl thought about for a few seconds, then nodded. "Oh, right. I don't know why I always get the two confused. But anyway, you both were knocked out cold. I tried to wake you up, but that didn't happen, so I simply brought you back here."
"Wow, by yourself?" Cameron asked, rather impressed. He was a pretty big guy, and this young woman managed to not only carry him but a second girl on top of that.
(I mean, yeah. That IS actually kinda impressive.)
"Yep! I had to keep taking breaks every thirty seconds to catch my breath, but it was worth it!" the girl responded cheerfully. "Moving bodies is part of my training, after all. I'm a nurse."
Cameron had to think about that. 'I… guess that WOULD be training… in a rather morbid kind of way.'
"Actually, where are my manners? I completely forgot to introduce myself. My name is Compa." the nurse responded.
"Very nice to meet you, Compa! I'm Neptune!" Neptune also introduced.
"Cameron." Cameron nodded.
"It's very nice to properly meet you, Cameron and Ne… Nept… Neop…" Compa murmured, for some reason struggling to get Neptune's name properly.
"Eh, Neptuna, Nep-Nep, Nepper, all the same to me. Call me whatever you want!" Neptune happily replied, seeing the poor girl struggle. ('Nepper?' Cameron couldn't help but question.)
"Okay then, I like Nep-Nep!" Compa happily agreed. "It's nice to finally speak to you, Nep-Nep."
It was then that Compa must've looked at Neptune's body. Her purple jacket was open a fair bit, and although most of her body was covered by a small purple dress, what was being shown was covered in several cuts and bruises. "Oh dear, you still look a bit bruised. Here, let me take a look at those…"
Neptune also seemed to suddenly be aware of her physical condition. She checked herself over too, seeing the darkened parts of her skin and cuts accompanying them. "Woah… I did get a bit banged up, didn't I?" the purple-haired girl asked. "Kinda feels like I got smacked around like a sandbag."
Cameron, seeing this, checked over his own body. Apart from a small scar on his right wrist, there didn't seem to be much wrong with him. It DID feel as though he was on the tail-end of recovering from running head-first into a tree, though.
"Okay… let's see here…" Compa slowly murmured. She suddenly remembered that Cameron was still there, checking over himself. "Ah, Mister Cameron? Could you please turn around a little? I have to, um… do some private things on Nep-Nep."
(WOW, that could've been taken WAY out of context very easily.)
Cameron hesitated for a moment, before understanding. "O-oh, right. My mistake." he apologized, quickly turning around.
There was a sound of clothes shuffling around, like Neptune was taking off her jacket and stuff. "So… why am I taking these off again?"
"Because, silly. We can't apply bandages to cuts that are covered with clothes." Compa explained.
"But why do I have to be the only one who goes nude?!" Neptune replied indignantly. "Why doesn't Cameron over there have to undress?"
Cameron was about to make a really bad joke here, but thankfully Compa swooped in by saying, "I already looked Mr. Cameron over. He was in much better shape. Besides, you were speared into the ground, so that can hardly be good for you."
"Well, yes, I understand that, but-" Neptune started to interject.
"Here we go…" Compa murmured quietly, the sound of a tape-like substance being stretched apart gently. "Loop it this way, around the bend, over this way…"
Neptune started making very small gasping sounds, like she was being violently squeezed. Cameron was starting to wonder what the hell was happening.
(What, should I have made a sound like a teddy bear getting squeezed?)
(That actually would've been funnier, to be honest.)
'Is everything alright back ther-' he started to asked in his mind, glancing over his shoulder.
When he saw the scene before him, his brain seemed to be refusing to understand what the eyes were seeing. Compa was on top of Neptune, fumbling with a literal tangle of some kind of medical gauze/tape bandage. Neptune herself looked almost in pain, gasping in pain every so often. Compa was wrapping just about EVERY INCH of Neptune she could find a cut or bruise, and it was clear that she was wrapping it rather tightly.
Thankfully, Cameron wasn't seeing anything TOO naughty, as Compa had already covered Neptune's chest and around her lower region, but that didn't make the situation much easier to process.
"A-Ack! C-Compa, I-I… I think these are too tight…!" Neptune breathed.
"They have to be tight, otherwise they'll keep hurting!" Compa responded, grunting. "Just be patient now…!"
"I… I can't breathe…!" Neptune gasped, indeed sounding like she was struggling to breath. Suddenly, with an even louder gasp, Neptune suddenly grew slack, as though she had passed out.
"Nep-Nep? Are you alright?! Please come back!" Compa shouted, gently shaking the small girl. "Nep-Nep? NEP-NEP!"
'What the actual hell?' Cameron thought, turning back around very quickly. 'What did I just witness…?'
(Fanservice.)
(Fanservice.)
Thankfully, Compa was quick to react. In moments, she had loosened the bandages and safely woke up Neptune.
Neptune looked like she had come back from the brink of death - and considering the circumstances it probably wasn't far off. "Th-that was… awful. T-the coldness… almost stole me… I could see the light…"
Compa was still all smiles. "Aw, you're over-exaggerating. I only made the bandages a wee bit tight."
Cameron slowly piped up. "Not to interrupt here, but is it safe to look back now?"
"Oh, Mister Cameron, sorry! I almost forgot you were there." Compa apologized, turning towards the large man. "Yes, Nep-Nep is dressed now."
Cameron turned back towards the group and stood up, stretching. "Well… so whatever THAT was happened… so now what do we do?"
"Well… ahhm…" Compa slowly hummed, looking curious. "If I can ask… why did I find you and Nep-Nep stuck in the ground in the first place…?"
"Beats me." Cameron responded.
"I have no idea. My memory's drawing up a blank." Neptune responded.
"Wait… so you can't remember anything?" Compa asked, her eyes widening.
"Nope." Neptune and Cameron both replied at the same time.
Compa looked even more surprised, before clapping her hands together. "Oh! I know! I read about this once in my medical book! You both must be suffering from amnesia!"
Cameron tried again to remember ANYTHING at all. But nothing came back to him. Nothing other than random video game references. Nothing more.
"Huh." Neptune sighed. For having just been told she had no access to her previous memories, she looked remarkably calm.
"I really want to help you, but… I don't think I have anything to treat amnesia…" Compa muttered, small tears starting to well up in the corners of her eyes.
Cameron immediately found himself trying to console the girl. "Oh, Compa… don't be upset…" the tall man cooed.
"Yeah, Cameron's right!" Neptune chirped. "You don't need to beat yourself up about it."
Compa looked a tad better, but she still seemed upset.
At the perfect moment, Neptune's stomach suddenly rumbled. "O-oh, you know… I'm actually kinda hungry right now. Do you have any food?"
Compa seemed a bit more at ease. Food was something she COULD do. "Oh, let me look…"
She ducked around the corner. Cameron glanced back to see that Compa actually had a small kitchenette with the same kind of style as the rest of her room.
Compa checked her fridge, and came back with a curious smile. "Well… I don't have much right now, but, how about some pudding?"
"Ooooh!" Cameron approved, clapping his hands together. "You wouldn't happen to have a chocolate one in there, would you?"
So that was one thing Cameron could remember. He liked chocolate. Food is always a good thing to remember.
Neptune tilted her head, confused. "Um… what's a 'pudding?'" she asked.
(Had I said that today, with full knowledge of what I was saying… there might as well have been a record scratch.
Both Cameron and Compa turned towards Neptune as though she was crazy. "No… Nep-Nep has never had pudding before…?" Compa breathed, almost in disbelief.
"That… that's a no. Never heard of it before. Is it good?" Neptune asked.
Cameron turned on his heel towards Compa. "Compa, get this girl a cup of pudding STAT!"
Compa didn't need telling twice. She quickly prepared two bowls of pudding - a chocolate one for Cameron, and a nice banana one for Neptune.
Soon enough, Cameron was already digging into his, and Neptune had her own bowl in her hands and was carefully stirring the foodstuff with a spoon. "So, this is 'pudding?'" she asked, giggling at how jiggly it was when she poked it.
Compa started looking very concerned. "Did… did Nep-Nep lose all memory of food too?!"
Neptune shook her head. "I remember 'cake' and stuff… I guess I really don't know what this is."
She looked over at Cameron, who was still going to town on his own. He must've been pretty hungry too.
"Well, here goes nothing!" Neptune shrugged, and raised the spoonful to her mouth and taking a large bite.
And that was the trigger.
(=D)
(Did… did you really just make one of your comments a simple emoticon?)
(Yep.)
Neptune's eyes widened, as though she just got a sense of double vertigo. She was in a state of apparent shock as the flavor hit her like a thousand trucks.
All of that happened in milliseconds. "T-the tantalizing sweetness just melts away on my tongue…! Th-this is amazing!" Neptune breathed, her voice softer than velvet.
And then she started digging in.
Somehow, even though Cameron had already been almost halfway done when Neptune took her first bite, she still managed to finish first while he had a third of the bowl still to go. She looked like she was in total ecstasy. "Compa! THAT. WAS. AMAZING."
"Was it really that good?" Compa asked, her expression growing happier.
"Absolutely! I had to be made by the finest chef in the world!" Neptune reasoned, still staring into her bowl with love.
"Well, actually, I just made it myself…" Compa admitted, shyly rubbing the back of her neck while still smiling.
"Amazing… Compa, you are a genius!" Neptune praised, looking up at Compa like she was some kind of god.
"Oh, stop teasing me Nep-Nep! Wait right there, I'll go get more." the nurse responded, returning to the kitchen.
A good twenty minutes passed. Neptune was eating pudding after pudding almost faster than Compa could bring them out. It almost looked like Neptune was inhaling them rather than eating.
(I think I actually was at one point… probably not good for my health, but I don't care.)
By the time Cameron had only finished his second bowl, Neptune had easily finished her EIGHTH. "That was SO good, Compa… thank you!" the purple-haired girl thanked. Cameron also thanked Compa as well, saying it was lovely.
"I'm glad you both liked it." Compa gushed with a smile. Her expression, however, soon turned to thoughtfulness. "By the way… what are you guys going to do now?"
Cameron thought about that. "I… honestly don't know. I hadn't thought that far ahead yet…"
Neptune, however, offered an idea. "Well, I want to see if I can find out what exactly happened. So I want to go where we were found."
She turned to Cameron. "You wanna come with?"
Cameron nodded. "Totally. I can't think of a better plan, anyway."
Compa clapped her hands together. "Ooh! I can take you both there, if you want." she offered, eager.
The other two thought that was a good idea. Five minutes, everyone was up and ready to head out. Cameron shouldered his backpack and sighed in preparation.
'Here we go…' Cameron thought quietly, as the whole group slowly left the fluffy house…
And the adventure truly started…
A few minutes later...
The trio soon found themselves in a large city, with Compa taking a lead to guide Neptune and Cameron. The pair was looking around the area with a sort of wide-eyed splendor.
"Holy wow. This place is massive!" Cameron quietly exclaimed, looking around at all of the tall buildings. Even without his memories, he felt as though he'd never seen a city this big or impressive before.
"What is this place called again, Compa?" Neptune asked.
"This is Planeptune, the city that Lady Purple Heart resides over." Compa explained. Neptune seemed to think about that a bit.
"Planeptune, huh? That sounds really familiar." she mused, thoughtful.
Compa appeared to agree. "It sounds awfully like your name, Nep-Nep. Perhaps you were born here!"
Cameron looked around. "We should get moving, who knows what we'll find at… at…" he paused. "Compa, where are we going again?"
"It's just outside the city. There's a park nearby that I found you both in." she explained politely.
Neptune breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good. I don't like to carry-"
Then she stopped. The group was right outside of what appeared like some kind of apartment home. "Hmm? What's this…?"
She was staring at the trash cans just to the side of the building, and something about them… Cameron also saw it. It looked odd.
(It's the protagonist sense. We can see important things that no other can see! That's why even ordinary trash cans can be suspicious to us!)
The pair of them moved to the trash cans and started sifting through them, looking for something that felt… odd.
"Umm… why is Nep-Nep and Cameron rifling through someone else's trash?" Compa asked quietly, clearly confused.
Then, the pair found something rather interesting. "Ooh, Compa look! Swords!" Neptune exclaimed, fishing out a rather well-preserved sword. Made of wood.
Cameron, too, found one that was shorter than Neptune's, though not a lot. "Why would someone throw away a sword? I mean, yeah, it's made of wood, but still…?"
Compa shrugged, and looked at Cameron's sword closely. "What do you plan on doing with these?"
Neptune hesitated, then quietly suggested, "Erm… LARPing?"
Cameron facepalmed. Compa offered only an awkward little smile as she looked back towards the path. "Ah, okay Nep-Nep… whatever you say."
Cameron was about to drop the wooden sword and move on, but then Neptune was in front of him. "Halt, sir! Say your prayers now, or else I will end you!"
"Neptune, we don't have time-" Cameron started to argue.
And that's when Neptune stopped listening and threw a large overhead slash towards Cameron.
The moment he saw it, instinct took over and he raised his own blade to protect him. He grunted as he put force back against Neptune, throwing her back.
Neptune looked genuinely surprised, but soon became even more playful. "So you fight back! Face me, knave!"
The two started doing a mock battle right there. Neptune's movements were precise and accurate, but Cameron wasn't half-bad either. He wasn't exactly the strongest fighter, per say, but he was able to study Neptune pretty closely and was able to find weak points.
"Where did I learn to do this stuff?" Cameron asked, backing off after blocking a particularly hard swing from Neptune. He was about to return the favor with his own flurry of strikes…
Then Cameron suddenly noticed Compa off to the side, casually smiling at the pair.
He sheepishly lowered his stance. "Oh, right… erm, we seem to have forgot about Compa, Neptune…"
Neptune looked to the side too, suddenly reminded of Compa too. "Oohh, right. My bad, Compa."
Compa giggled. "It's fine. Besides, you both looked like you were having fun!"
(Hey, don't knock it until you try it. Mock sword-fighting is really fun.)
After quickly cooling off, Neptune suddenly realized that there was something else in the trash cans: a pair of sword sheaths. She took the one that allowed her to hang her sword on her belt, while Cameron got one that put his sword safely behind his back. It was a bit of a struggle to get it to work, what with his backpack and all, but he managed to do it in a way that didn't look completely dumb and was reasonably comfortable.
As the group kept moving along their way, Cameron nervously kept glancing around, trying to see if people were staring at him. It's not every day you walk around with a sword on your back, after all.
Thankfully, no one gave him or his friends as much as a second glance. The trio soon was well on their way towards the park Compa had found the two amnesiacs in.
As soon as they arrived, Neptune took a deep breath. "So, this is the place where I was elegantly lodged into the ground, huh?"
Cameron looked around. "Not really sure if there is a way to be 'elegantly' lodged into the ground." he replied, before looking a bit confused. "Isn't this supposed to be a park? Where's the people?"
Indeed, the 'park' was completely devoid of people. Despite it being a rather beautiful day, there barely seemed to be any sign of life. Just quiet rustling deeper inside.
"Well… erm, the actual site is a bit further back, but… ah…" Compa explained slowly, shyly twisting in her foot around. "Well, the monsters look like they're here now…"
The moment the words passed by her lips, Cameron noticed movement along the treeline. And then a… thing… passed into the area.
All Cameron could equate the creature too was a slime with a dogs face and ears. Had he NOT been wondering what the hell he was looking at, he might've considered the creature kinda cute.
"Like… that?" Cameron asked, pointing at the strange creature.
"Yes… they showed up a while ago, and now they're just about everywhere… not many people go outside because of that." Compa murmured, looking a tad worried.
"Maybe if we don't bother it, it'll leave us alone?" Cameron offered, slowly walking around the edge of the clearing. The slimy dog creature curiously stared at the tall man, but made no moves towards him.
Neptune seemed to dislike that strategy. "Awww, c'mon! We'll should fight it! We could earn some easy EXP!"
"Forget it, Neptune. We shouldn't fight things that don't fight first." Cameron called out.
It was at this point that, upon turning around back to the path, Cameron noticed two MORE dog creatures that were sliding towards him, and the first one quickly zipped forward and joined in with the other two.
They quickly surrounded him, not attacking, but just staring at him curiously as though they were sizing him up FOR an attack.
"H-hey! Back off!" the tall man shouted, a hand on the hilt of his sword.
Neptune had already drawn her sword. "Can we attack them now?!" she excitedly shouted, not waiting for a response. She quickly targeted the closest of the dog slime creatures to her and slashed as fast as she could.
BAM! Critical hit!
'Wait, what.' Cameron asked himself. 'Are we really TYPING this out like it's an RPG?'
(Only for a few visual gags.)
Compa looked worried as Cameron and Neptune slowly backed up, the Dogoo's now fully aware of the party and starting to slowly approach. "See, I told you!" Neptune called out. "You'll never be a good sidekick to the protagonist if you NEVER fight anything, bud!"
"Hold on, I'm a sidekick now?!" Cameron asked indignantly. "I'm the hero of this story and you know it!"
Compa seemed worried. "Guys… are you sure you both can fight?"
"Of course I can! I'm the heroine, after all!" Neptune smuggly responded. "Besides, I got my skills and my sword (wood), so this shouldn't take that long at all!"
"Not sure… but there's not much of an alternative." Cameron responded, sword out and at the ready for a fight.
Compa still seemed worried, but she steeled her nerves and put on a brave face. "Then, if you're both willing to fight, then so am I! Just need to pull this out…"
From somewhere, Compa pulled out what Cameron could easily say was the largest syringe in his life, even larger than the one back at her house. Seriously, the thing was almost the size OF Compa herself. It was so big there was no way she could hold it without using both hands. Inside the thing was a purple-ish pink liquid that gently sloshed around with every small movement the pink-haired nurse made.
Cameron grew a bit wary of Compa's 'weapon.' "Erm… where were you even keeping that thing…?"
"A good nurse is never without her tools." Compa replied, a smile on her face. "And as to the where… that's a Compa secret! *giggle*"
Even Neptune was weirded out. "My mind can't seem to connect the dots either way… and you do know how cliché it is to wield a giant weapon, right?"
"Oh, that's filler-info! No one wants to know that." Compa denied, holding up her syringe at the ready. "Let's just beat the nasties and move on."
(I mean, she's not wrong.)
Finally, it looked like the Dogoo's had had enough looking and were starting to move for the party. Neptune giddily started to announce, "Oh boy! One battle tutorial, here we-"
"Erm, Neptune? Stories don't come with tutorials or whatever…" Cameron reminded her.
"Oh… right… well then… uh, let's get this first battle of the story out of the way so we can further the plot…! Nah, doesn't have the same ring…"
Cameron only huffed as the Dogoo's quickly closed the remaining distance…
And the first fight began…
...
Yeah, that seems like a good place to leave off on.
(WHAT?! On the VERY FIRST BATTLE of the ENTIRE STORY, you end the chapter THERE?)
Yep.
(WHY?)
Because I can and will. And besides, it's been long enough. This second chapter should've been out a month ago, but I kept holding back due to finals and whatnot. At least the readers will know I haven't forgotten about this story already.
(That still seems like a low blow…)
Oh, believe me, if you think THAT'S a low blow… you're in for one WILD ride, my dear.
Anyway guys, I hope you all enjoyed. I apologize for taking so long to get this out! When I started writing this, finals week at college last year kinda came out of nowhere with, like, twenty different assignments due in a span of about three - four weeks, and I only just managed to stay on top of them all. And then my winter break was also busy because of a new job and the holidays and all that stuff.
But, the good news is: IT'S 2019! YAY!
A brand new year of writing and gaming is ahead of us! And this year, I hope-
(MOAR WRITING, LESS TALKING!)
I'm almost done, shush.
If you guys have any questions for me, please PM me and I'll do my best to answer. And that goes double for Neptune, too. She loves to answer questions!
Until next time, guys, there's only one thing to say…
Stay awesome! =D