...
(*stares*)
Eh… heh heh… heyyyy…
(*sigh*)
Okay, so, this took QUITE a lot longer than I would've liked-
(No kidding! It's been, like, at least two or three MONTHS!)
Yeah, uh… well, y'know… life and stuff…
…
…
Ah, well. No use looking back on that.
Hello hello dear readers! Welcome back to the (heavily belated) third chapter of the story.
Let's not waste more time, shall we?
Chapter 3: Discovering the Ultimatum
The three Dogoo's hopped forward towards Neptune, Cameron, and Compa. They each held their weapons firmly at the ready: Neptune with a firm double-handed grip on her wooden sword, Compa with her massive syringe ready to go, and Cameron with a one-handed grip on his own sword.
"Oh boy, here we go…" Cameron sighed. For some reason, this felt rather familiar to him, as if he'd been in this exact situation before…
…
Oh well.
(Oh well indeed.)
"So… how's this work, exactly?" he wondered aloud, nervously shuffling about with his blade at the ready. "We doing it like an actual turn-based thing, or a 'just-spam-moves-until-it-dies-before-it-kills-you' deal?"
"I don't see why we can't try both!" Neptune yelled, charging forward at top speed. She started slashing away at the nearest Dogoo, and actually managed to defeat it as well. "The story can adapt to whatever the author makes it, after all!"
Cameron, taken aback, sighed a bit, and then pulled himself together. "Okay… here goes nothing."
He charged forward and slashed a few times at one of the Dogoo's, not quite managing to defeat it before it hopped away ('Slippery little bastard…' thought Cameron), but quite close.
Fortunately, Compa came in for the assist, and with a few quick jabs of her syringe (and a cute little slap here and there), the small goo monster fell.
Unfortunately, that was the exact moment the remaining Doggo decided to wiggle and then launch itself directly at Cameron, catching and then sticking to his face. The so-called 'hero' started running around in a circle around Neptune and Compa, unheroically shouting something that sounded like, "GEFF UFF MEH! GEFF UFF MEH!"
"Hold still!" Neptune shouted, jumping towards Cameron. The three of them all toppled over, and the Dogoo finally fell off, looking a tad woozy.
"Hiiiii-ya!" Compa yelled, coming from nowhere and jabbing straight down with her syringe. Between the combined force of the tumble it just took and a sharp needle stabbing it to the core, the Dogoo finally fell, disappearing to wherever fallen monsters go to.
Neptune stood up, looking absolutely fine for having just toppled over a guy more than a head taller than her. "Victory!"
"Oww…" Cameron grunted, Neptune standing on top of his back.
Neptune glanced down and immediately jumped off. "Why are you on the ground instead of celebrating! Our first battle! We won!"
Cameron slowly pulled himself off the ground and dusted himself off. "I suppose that's true… but it's a little hard to celebrate when you're being stood on, so…"
"Then get better at not falling on your face! Let's go!" Neptune joyfully shouted, gleefully skipping further ahead.
"W-wait up, Nep-Nep!" Compa called out, pursuing her purple-haired friend.
Cameron sighed. He was both in amazement and full of nerves. Neptune's unyielding optimism was certainly not a BAD thing, per say, but Cameron still felt that it might land them into serious trouble down the road…
Regardless, he followed after, catching up to the pair again as they delved further in.
Monsters were quite plentiful here, and although they weren't very strong ('gotta have that low-level grind fodder for the start,' Cameron thought smugly), they made up for it by being constant nusicences. In addition to the Dogoo's, other strange monsters called this forest home, such as literal walking Tulip flowers, weird little monsters that seemed like boxing robots, and other slime-like creatures.
Even with all of these creatures, Neptune and the gang were perfectly capable to deal with them. Although, there was a fair bit of conflicting interest among the two protagonists: Neptune wanted to run right through, fighting everything that moves, while Cameron prefered to take the slower route, trying to find everything that was hidden. He seemed to have a knack for finding the objects Neptune and even sometimes Compa would flat-out miss. So far he'd already found many an interesting object, which he would then shove into his bag, taking even MORE time.
The conflict of interest didn't affect them too heavily, at least for the moment, but it was slightly irritating when Cameron called everyone back to look at something, or when Neptune charged into battle without giving the others proper time to prepare.
(I gave everyone enough time to prepare! If I can be ready in three seconds for a battle, then so can everyone else!)
Somehow, though, they all managed to keep it together and even get a little stronger along the way.
Compa grew more confused as they delved deeper. "Umm… it should've been around here somewhere…"
"We haven't been here for that long, though." Cameron reasoned. "And, well, it was really dark when you found us, right? Maybe it's just further back than you remember."
"Keep the faith!" Neptune yelled happily, skipping around. She turned a corner, and then…
"Oh… I think I found it." she mumbled, suddenly much more quiet. "That… that is a really big hole."
Cameron and Compa came to Neptune to find…
"Holy shit, that's a big hole." Cameron swore in amazement.
Calling the hole 'big' didn't do it justice. It completely filled in the clearing, going almost twenty, thirty feet down from the surface level. At the very center, at the bottom, two indentations that looked full of loose dirt were present, and Cameron had a sneaking suspicion that that was were he and Neptune were stuck.
"Yes… this was where I found you." Compa replied, relieved to have finally found the place. "Nep-Nep, Cameron… does this place make you remember anything?"
Cameron and Neptune stared at the crater. They were quiet as they gazed intently. "Um… Nep-Nep? Cameron?"
Neptune was quickly growing frustrated, while Cameron was getting upset that he was drawing blanks.
"Grr… I can't remember a thing!" Neptune finally exclaimed, turning towards Compa with a desperate gaze. "Compa, are you SURE I was stuck here?"
"I'm positive." Compa agreed. "You both fell from the sky like shooting stars, and the trails led right here."
"Like shooting stars, eh…?" Cameron responded, kneeling down and looking at the bottom carefully.
"Yessy… ah! That's right!" Compa suddenly shouted.
Neptune blinked in surprise. "Woah, Compa, what's wrong? Why'd you shout?"
"I wasn't paying much attention last night, I was too busy getting you guys to safety. But there might be something around here that can help! An ID or something, or some other personal item." Compa responded, starting to look around the edge of the hole.
Cameron, purely out of instinct, reached for his back pocket. He quickly noticed something. "Hey, Compa, you might be onto something… my wallet isn't here. I know I own one, but it's not here anymore."
Compa grew more excited. "If we can find that, maybe we can get a clue about your memory! What did it look like?"
"Err… like this, I assume?" Neptune asked.
Cameron looked over. Neptune had a black wallet in her hands, and was currently thumbing through it.
"That's… HEY!" Cameron shouted, quickly dashing over and snatching the wallet out of her hands. "Seriously, keep ya hands off my personal stuff."
"Whaaaat?" Neptune asked with a sly grin. "I was just making sure it was yours."
Cameron grunted and opened it up.
He blinked several times before growing confused. "Wait… what?"
The entire thing was empty. No ID, no cash, nothing. Not even a library card or some mundane extra item. As far as Cameron could tell… if anything was in this, it wasn't there now.
And yet, Cameron WAS sure it was his. Why?
Because his name was stitched into the inner lining, right behind the clear plastic where an ID card would go. You wouldn't be able to mistake it for someone else's, even without an ID there.
"Neptune, did you take something?!" Cameron angrily accused, pointing a finger at Neptune.
Neptune looked flabbergasted. "Me?! I was just looking through it! That's harmless! I would NEVER take anything!"
(I do have a code, you know! I only take things that aren't important to someone! Assuming that someone is good, of course…)
"Grr…" Cameron grumbled, slamming the wallet shut and jamming it in his back pocket again. "Then there's really nothing in the thing."
"Well, at least you found it. Maybe something fell out of it at some point, and we just need to search." Compa reasoned. She turned her attention to Neptune, asking, "Nep-Nep, what about you? Did you lose something important?"
"I wish I could say yes, but I can't really be sure. Memories on the fritz, you know…" Neptune replied.
And just as suddenly, she snapped her fingers and started looking quite startled. "Wait a minute! I just realized!"
Cameron and Compa had their full attention on Neptune at that point. "Really?! What?" Cameron asked excitedly.
"Isn't it obvious? I just remembered something verrryyyy important that I've lost." Neptune replied.
"Obvious…?" Compa asked, stars in her eyes.
"My memory!" Neptune replied cheerily.
The silence that ensued was so thick that, although cliche, it could be felt. Even the forest around the trio seemed to be quiet at Neptune's absolutely awful joke.
Cameron was the first to break the silence. With a facepalm.
(Are we still going to have that as a defining character trait for this guy? Really? Alright, whatever…)
Compa started looking at Neptune with a sort of sadness. Neptune took a half-step back, her face now showing worry. "Er… wasn't that… funny?"
"Nep-Nep… I don't think this is the right time to be kidding around…" Compa hesitantly responded.
"Wait, what? I thought YOU were joking when you guys asked if I remembered anything!" Neptune explained quickly.
"*sigh* Well, whatever." Cameron interjected. "Let's just look around and see if we can find anything…"
Compa took to scouring the edge of the crater, searching in the loose rubble for anything to help. Neptune started searching the very edge of the clearing, with the thought that if something had been lost from the pair, it may have flown off from the impact. Cameron, meanwhile, slid down to the very center of the crater, and was digging around in the loose dirt at the bottom. He was certain there would be something in there: after all, it was where he and Neptune were stuck, and it is VERY easy to lose something and then have it get lost in dirt, especially in places like this.
For a minute or two, the group searched, but came up with nothing. But just as Neptune and Compa had searched about halfway around the hole each, and Cameron was moving to the second indentation… they heard something.
Cameron was the first to react. He stood up and called out, "Does anyone else hear that?"
Compa and Neptune came to the lip of the crater, and Cameron started climbing out. "I've got a bad feeling…" Neptune murmured, glancing from side to side as the sound slowly grew louder.
"Don't say things like that!" Cameron called out, feeling nerves creep into him as he picked up his pace. "That'll just cause whatever's happening to happen-"
He didn't get to finish his sentence before the noise, now identifiable as a deep rumbling of the very ground beneath the trio, started breaking away. Had Cameron not started climbing, he would've already been sent down into who-knows-where.
The color of Cameron's face quickly reached a tint of milk. He started scrambling to get up the hole as fast as possible, the ground very steadily caving in towards him.
"I DIDN'T SIGN UP TO BE PLAYING SPLEEF TODAY!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, almost losing his footing due to the constant rumble.
Compa was already on the ground, hand out, trying to grab Cameron before he slipped in. Neptune was nearby, also ready to grab Cameron.
Cameron just barely managed to get to them, and he lunged for the girls hands just as the ground gave way where his feet had been.
"Shit! Shit!" he swore loudly, accidentally looking down. Wherever the ground was, he couldn't see it: it just opened up to pure darkness down there.
"Hold on bud! We got you!" Neptune grunted, pulling as hard as she could. Even with Compa helping, there was a lot of Cameron to pull up.
They tugged, and Cameron desperately tried to get a foothold, but to no avail. In fact, it almost felt like…
He looked where he was kicking at. There was no ground. Just air. The closest wall was five feet past the lip where Compa and Neptune were laying on.
'This tiny piece of ground… is trying to hold up all three of us at the same time…' he suddenly realized.
And that's when he noticed the ground was cracking again.
"OH FU-"
He didn't even have time to swear before the ground gave way, sending him, Neptune, and Compa tumbling into the abyss.
"We're FALLLLLLLING!" Neptune and Compa shouted in unison, as the trio descended into the depths…
…
(Huh. That's… a creative take on how we fell.)
Neptune was the first to come to.
She slowly sat up, muttering, "Ouch…" under her breath, and realized that she was now in a cave. Somehow, even after falling what had to have been almost thirty feet, probably more, she felt reasonably fine, if not a tad banged up. Her fall had been cushioned by something soft, which she felt very grateful for.
Then she noticed Compa to her left, appearing passed out but also pretty much unharmed. Neptune quickly started shaking Compa awake, murmuring, "Well, that was something… Compa, wake up! Are you okay?!"
Compa slowly opened her eyes and sat up, dizzy and slightly bruised, but otherwise unhurt. She must've had a soft landing too. "Y-yessy… I think I'm okay…" she replied.
Then they both realized Cameron was nowhere in sight. "You'd think a guy his height would be EASY to spot. Cameron! Where are you?!" Neptune called out.
Compa started whistling, calling out, "Cameron! Where are you? Come on out, Cameron!"
"That makes it sound like he's a dog." Neptune butted in, before calling out again, "Cameron, say something if you can hear us! Anything!"
"O-oww… l-look down, then…" a wheezy, very weak, muffled voice called out.
Neptune and Compa both froze in fear, as they both simultaneously looked down.
Turns out the thing that had cushioned their landing had been Cameron, who was currently face-down on the hard stone floor. His glasses were about a foot in front of him: either they had fallen off when he hit the ground or he tossed them off before hitting the ground. But regardless of that, he looked like he had been rung through the ringer.
"Oh cod!" Neptune swore, her face turning white and she and Compa instantly got off Cameron and rolled him to his back.
"Cameron, are you okay?!" Compa asked, immediately pulling a first-aid kit out of seemingly nowhere.
"C-could *cough* could be better…" he weakly responded, feeling faint…
It took about five minutes of medicine, water, and rigorous application of Band-aids, but eventually Cameron was able to sit up and talk semi-normally, although he probably still had something broken on the inside.
(I feel bad about Cameron and all that, but when you think about it, it's kinda good that he did break our fall. I mean, I'd rather have one really injured party member than three moderately injured ones, right?)
(... when you put it like that, it does make some sense… kinda.)
Once the group was mostly back to normal, they all stood up and looked around. From what they could see, the cave was very, very large, with a river running at the very bottom. Crystals of several vibrant, lovely colors were just about everywhere you looked, and they all gave off a faint glow, illuminating the cave in a shade of blue.
Cameron immediately grew cautious. "Where… are we?" he asked, glancing around.
"It has to be beneath the forest… but I really don't like the way this place feels…" Compa murmured, her legs slightly shaking, be it from nerves or the fall.
"Yeah, I'm getting a lot of mega-bad vibes here… we should probably find an exit…" Neptune responded.
Cameron and Compa agreed, but just as they started looking for one…
"Hey… what's this…?" Cameron suddenly piped up.
He moved for the wall nearby where the trio had crash-landed. Hidden rather well behind a crystal, on a pedestal of some kind of purple metal, sat… something. The best way Cameron could describe the object was a stone rod, about the thickness of a hearty sausage and roughly the size of his hand. It looked almost normal (as far as strange items on pedestals go, at least), but this piece of stone had what looked like blue veins, spider-webbing along the entire thing like cracks, and on either end the rod was chipped, as though it had been broken off of something much larger.
Curious, Cameron plucked the strange curio off the pedestal and showed it to the girls. Compa and Neptune gazed at the rod with curiosity as the tall man allowed the piece to fall into his palm.
Suddenly, the rod started softly glowing. Cameron nearly dropped the piece, but he recovered and watched in fascination. The cracks slowly started growing wider and wider, until suddenly, Cameron was now holding a rod of some kind of pure blue metal, still with chipped ends. Now INCREDIBLY interested, Cameron turned the piece around in his hand. It softly glowed blue, but other than that it seemed unremarkable.
"I've never seen anything like that before…" Compa murmured, slowly touching the fragment.
"Oooh, maybe it's a piece of some kind of medallion or something, and once we fix it we'll turn it into a king for a grand reward!" Neptune reasoned, smiling at her own brilliant idea.
Before anyone could tell her off, however, a loud growl came from somewhere rather close by, which immediately made everyone stand back to back.
"Wh-what was that?! Where did that plot-advancing growl come from?!" Neptune shouted, looking around wildly.
That's when Compa pointed, her face fearful. "Nep-Nep! Cameron! There's a giant monster over there!"
"Wha-?" Cameron shouted, turning.
His eyes widened as he looked at a giant, and that means GIANT, creature. It resembled some kind of half man, half spider creature, sorta like a spider-centaur type deal or something like that, and it looked heavily armored. It's sword was in it's right hand, and was easily two or three times the size of Cameron.
And before anyone present could properly react, the thing charged with surprising speed and grabbed Compa with it's free hand, quickly making her unable to move.
"Ahhh! N-Nep-Nep! Cameron! Please, help me!" Compa screamed.
Neptune started panicking, shouting, "Oh no! Compa's getting *censored* and *censored* by that thing!"
"Not the right time, Neptune!" Cameron yelled angrily, pulling out his sword. But he knew well enough that his wooden blade would do very little, if anything, towards… whatever THIS thing was.
"Oh relax, just trying to do some fan service." Neptune responded, pulling out her own sword. "Well, perhaps it's time I get a little more serious, then."
She started running full tilt at the monster, who at the moment was being distracted by trying to keep Compa from squirming out of it's grasp.
"Don't worry! I'll save you Compa!" Neptune shouted, sword at the ready. "Taaaaake THIS!"
For some reason, Cameron swore he heard words that sounded like, 'Neptune's Attack.'
She slashed her sword across the monster. *Bam! Bam bam!*
'No effect.'
"What the…?!" Neptune started to say, before pausing. "Wait, hang on… who commentated on my attack?"
"I am sorry. I did not wish to surprise you, but I could not stop myself," a very familiar voice announced.
"Wait… that voice sounds familiar… have we met?" Neptune asked aloud. Cameron would've probably told her off at this point, but it was clear by the expression on his face that he heard the voice as well.
"It is me, Histoire. I thought I explained this to you and Cameron in your dreams, Neptune…" Histoire casually remarked.
"Wait… Histoire? So that dream WAS real?" Cameron asked, very confused. Seems like he DID have some kind of linked dream with Neptune.
Compa was still doing her best to struggle out, but it wasn't working quite well. "Nep-Nep? A little help up here, pretty please?" Compa asked, sounding surprisingly nonchalant about the whole deal.
"Ah, Compa!" Neptune shouted, surprised. "Err, Miss Heavenly Voice? Can you please help Compa? My strikes are doing zip!"
"I cannot, but you can, Neptune. If you activate your Hard-Drive Divinity, you should be fine," Histoire replied.
"Hard-Drive what?" Cameron responded, looking rather confused.
Neptune apparently felt the same. "Err… I kinda lost my memory, so… do you mind taking it step-by-step for me, pretty please?"
"Oh… so that was why our last talk went every which way, then…" Histoire mused.
"Um, if I use that Hard-Drive Thingy, it should help me save Compa, right?" Neptune asked hesitantly.
"It should, but…" Histoire gently started, sounding unsure. "Now I'm not sure if you can actually access your Hard-Drive Divinity…"
"Oh, I'll be able to do it!" Neptune replied indignantly. "I'm Neptune! I go beyond the impossible and kick reason to the curb!"
(Words to live by, amiright!)
Cameron couldn't hold back a very audible snort at those words, but Neptune didn't seem to notice. "So… please help me! I want to save my friend!" the purple-haired girl pleaded, her voice suddenly surging with strength.
Histoire's voice hesitated for a few seconds before finally speaking up, and she sounded serious this time, "...I will force run Hard-Drive Divinity from you. Are you ready?"
Neptune backed up, her face full of steely determination. "Born ready!"
Histoire began to chant, but it didn't make any sense to Cameron. As far as he could figure, she was suddenly speaking in another language.
Then, suddenly, Neptune's form was starting to shine. Histoire suddenly switched back to English, and Cameron heard her plead, "Neptune, may your power arise…"
The light shining from Neptune suddenly grew brighter. A great big column of light rose from the ground at her feet, completely encasing her. What looked like purple lines of pure data were either rising with the pillar, entering said pillar, or otherwise exiting it…
Cameron had to shield his eyes using his offhand, unsure of what was going on. "What the hell-"
And then the light faded away in a bright flash.
And the figure in the light was revealed.
(Hard to think that the last story actually ended it's chapter here, huh? Oh well. Now, you better go about describing me good, Author!)
Cameron's immediate impression was of a Neptune that had suddenly matured several years. Neptune's hair was now much, much longer, so much so that she actually had braided twin tails, the hair that framed her face was much longer as well, and it even appeared a shade darker than before. She had also grown quite a fair bit, both in height and body type (yeah, Cameron WOULD notice Neptune's improved 'assets', wouldn't he?). Her clothes were different too: instead of a purple hoodie and skirt, it was now a skintight leotard with purple and silver detailing. Her shoes had transformed into boots and some kind of leg armor that rose well past the knee. And as she looked at all of these new changes to herself, Cameron noticed her purple eyes were now a bright, piercing blue.
(... I approve of this description. Good job.)
(Sucking up to me isn't going to get another pudding out of me, Neptune.)
"W-woah…" Cameron murmured, taken aback by Neptune's sudden transformation.
"Nep-Nep, you're glowing!" Compa called out. Even the monster restraining her seemed to have been distracted by this new Neptune.
Neptune looked down at her hand, seeing that she was indeed glowing slightly. She felt… stronger. Powerful.
Unstoppable.
"Is this… me…?" she asked. Her voice had changed. Now it was deeper, much more mature.
"Y-yes…" Histoire responded, and Cameron couldn't fail to notice that her voice was much more strained, as though the transformation had taken a lot out of her. "This is your true form, Neptune."
Neptune glanced at her hand once more, and it curled into a fist. "This power… it's coursing through me… there's no way I can possibly lose with this!"
She drew her sword, which had somehow grown as well, now being almost the same size as this new Neptune and made of metal. "Don't worry, Compa! I'll save you!"
And she charged, leaving a very dumbfounded Cameron behind. "I don't… how am I supposed to respond to that…?"
Fortunately, he didn't have to. The sounds of Neptune striking the monster were enough to jar him back to reality. He chased after, hearing Compa's shrieks...
The battle was pitifully short. Try as it might, the monster couldn't hope to do much damage towards this powerful new Neptune.
As she delivered the final strike, the monster cried out in agony. It finally released Compa, but Cameron had already anticipated that and was ready to catch her.
And the monster collapsed as Neptune stood there, sheathing her sword and looking quite pleased with herself. "Well, that should do it."
Compa leaped out of Cameron's arms and gave Neptune a great big hug. "Nep-Nep, that was super! You were amazing! You beat the nasty like it was nothing!"
"That was… something." Cameron responded, regarding this new Neptune like he was seeing her for the first time.
Suddenly, in a bright flash, the grown version of Neptune was transformed back into her normal form. She looked rather winded, but still managed to smile as she panted, "Whew… I'm beat…"
"Well done, Neptune. And are you okay, Compa?" Histoire asked.
"Yessy! Nep-Nep saved me, so I'm all okay now!" Compa responded happily, but it didn't take long for her face to become rather confused: she had just spoken to a voice that had no visible owner. "Erm, wait… Nep-Nep, Cameron? Who is this voice and where is it coming from?"
Neptune immediately responded, "It's Miss Heavenly Voice, AKA Miss Histoir… what was your name again?"
"Histoire. You were only off by one letter…" Histoire murmured.
"And not only that, but the SILENT letter, too. I mean, that literally doesn't make audible sense?" Cameron asked.
"Ahh, right! Histy-Histy!" Neptune responded. Leave it to her to come up with the simpler nicknames.
Apparently Histoire actually didn't mind the nickname, as she spoke again, "You can call me Histy. Now, Compa, I am Histoire. It is nice to meet you."
"Can I call you Histy too? It's nice to meet… erm, I mean hear you." Compa asked.
Just then, a flicker of movement behind the two girls caught Cameron's eye. "Uhh, girls…?"
And before anyone else could say anything, the monster that had remained still for so long suddenly let out a deep roar, and was slowly getting up once more.
"IT'S ALIIIIIVE!" the two girls shouted, holding each other in fear.
"ALL ABOARD THE NOPE TRAIN TO FUCKTHATVILLE!" Cameron shouted, grabbing each of the girls by their hands and sprinting away at top speed. He honestly didn't care if WHERE they ended up, so long as they put as much distance between them and the monster as possible…
The trio didn't stop running until they burst through the door of Compa's home. All three of them were caked in sweat, and each was nursing some sore part of their body: Neptune was rubbing a stitch in her side while leaning heavily against the wall, Compa was collapsed into a chair and started massaging her poor feet, and Cameron… well, his injuries from falling and then having two people land directly on top of him hadn't exactly made the run any easier, and he could barely breathe while clutching his sides, lying faceup on the cot.
"At… *pant* at least… we *pant*... managed to lose it…" Neptune breathed, barely able to stand.
Compa looked very shaken up, and her aching feet weren't helping. "We got really lucky…"
Cameron really couldn't offer much more than a feeble groan of agreeance from the cot.
"I still cannot believe it was still around, even after such a lashing…" Histoire mused.
"Oh, Histy is still here?" Neptune asked, finally catching her breath, although she still sounded a bit sore. "How are you talking to us, now that I think about it? Why couldn't you have done so before?"
"Simple: the fragment you found allows me to communicate with you." Histoire responded.
Cameron finally sat back up and fished around in his pocket. He pulled the small metal piece out of his pocket, staring at it rather dubiously. "This… this thing? How does… that even work?"
"That is a Key Fragment. It is a piece that will release me from my seal. Now that it's in your possession, I can communicate through it… though not for very long." Histoire explained.
"Wait, seal? You're sealed away?" Neptune asked.
"Yes, and… well, I see no reason to beat around the bush. I need to ask you to help release me. One Fragment is located in each Land, but even I don't know where…"
Cameron couldn't help but notice that, with the last sentence, she had sounded… rather desperate. She needed them.
"I mean… I'm all for helping, but… won't I have to fight a ton of monsters?" Neptune asked, and for the first time she looked rather concerned about that. Before the thought would have never even crossed her mind. But with how they could barely handle the giant bug-man thing… it was giving her second thoughts.
(Hey, that's a reasonable thing to think, isn't it? I'm all for helping, but not if it is going to be near-impossible.)
Histoire hesitated, then continued on, "Yes. I won't pretend that your life will be in danger while doing so. But… should you manage to free me, I can help you in turn. Your memory, for instance. I can restore it, Neptune."
Neptune's expression suddenly grew excited. "Really?!"
"And mine?" Cameron asked, hopeful.
Histoire hesitated again. "...I think so… maybe."
Although he didn't like how hesitant Histoire had sounded, it was still the best news he had heard all day. Now they had a goal. That was much better than blindly guessing where to go.
"Besides, I really do need Neptune to have her memory back." Histoire continued.
"That settles it! Good ol' Neptune will search far and wide for those fragments, just you wait!" Neptune excitedly shouted, just as thrilled by the possibility of getting her memory back.
Compa stood up too, and she seemed confident as well. "I want to help, too. It wouldn't be right to stand by with Cameron and Nep-Nep's brain loss."
"'Amnesia,' Compa. Not brain loss. Two very different things." Cameron corrected. "But, I thought you had nursing school? Won't it be a problem if you don't go there?"
"Not a problem. It's closed due to the monsters, so I have time." Compa replied.
"Thank you…" Histoire thanked, her voice suddenly much softer. "Thank you… ve… ry… mu… ch…"
Neptune was straining to hear. "What was that? I think the static is starting to catch up to you, Histy!"
"I… using… Fragment… time… up…" Histoire's voice came, softer still and only getting weaker. "Please… look… Key… Frag…"
And then it was cut entirely. Cameron tried gently shaking the piece in his hand, perhaps hoping to get a little bit more out of Histoire, but no such luck. "I think she's gone, at least for now."
"But now we know what to do!" Neptune responded, suddenly looking restored and raring to go.
"Yessy! We should get going now!" Compa responded, starting to move for the door.
"Hold it!" Cameron yelled.
The two girls looked at him as he got to his feet. "Look, I'm all about getting going myself, but… we're tired, it's late, and I heavily doubt we could outrun another monster a SECOND time. We should wait a little. Rest up and get ready to go tomorrow."
The other two glanced at each other, but they did agree with Cameron's logic. They all agreed then to settle in for the night, recharge, and then get going first thing when they woke up.
"After breakfast, of course." Cameron chuckled.
(I certainly hope that breakfast was implied! You can't fight evil on an empty stomach, after all!)
The sun slowly continued to set off in the distance. It touched the horizon, continuing it's slow slog towards nighttime.
All well and good, except now Cameron was starting to doubt his own thoughts about saying behind. Sure, it made sense BEFORE, while he was tired and sweaty and whatnot, but now that he was reasonably back in order (amazing what a hot shower can cure), he was starting to think maybe it hadn't been the best idea to wait.
Sighing, he resigned to the fact that it was much too late now: no point in it but to just be ready to go again tomorrow.
Deciding that he should use the downtime while he had some, he moved to the kitchen and laid his bag on the small counter. The canvas bag wasn't much itself, being just a simple gray with a multitude of zippers and compartments.
However, he started to dig around inside of it. He hadn't paid much attention to it beforehand, but it was clear that there were other items inside that had been there before the party's excursion.
At least half a dozen books, well worn by the looks of things, were tucked carefully into a side compartment. On the other side, there was a small collection of what appeared like hotel toiletries and a single unused toothbrush. In the frontmost compartment, there were a few empty, crumpled bags that must've contained snacks of some kind. And in the main pocket, there were several electronic devices and chargers, which Cameron took a keen interest in.
He pulled out the largest object, a rather large, somewhat bulky laptop, likely an older model of some kind. What was curious about it, though, was that there was a small, bullet-sized hole right in the center. It passed through the entire laptop (both the screen and the base) and out the backside, and yet as far as he could see on his backpack, there was no similar hole in the fabric.
He attempted (knowing very well there was no chance of it working) to turn on the laptop, and unsurprisingly, the laptop didn't even attempt to run. Setting the broken device off to the side, he felt around in his backpack one last time.
It was empty, completely empty. Although he was a bit upset that his backpack hadn't had anything immediately useful, he nevertheless shook that off and started picking through the rest of the items he had found.
He started poking around with some of the other electronics he pulled out, such as a rectangular, thin box with a screen on the front. Cameron suddenly realized that he was looking at a phone. HIS phone.
Eagerly, he attempted to turn on the device. The screen lit up, and as he stared at it the screen showed a lock, which quickly unlocked.
He swiped up, and everything was open to him. He quickly noticed a bunch of little red circles with numbers inside them next to several of the square icons.
He selected the first one he saw, which was a blue icon with an envelope on it, labeled 'Email'.
The screen was now listed with a ton of emails that he had recently received: fifteen, to be exact. He attempted to select one.
And then the screen went black.
(Ruh-roh.)
Startled, he tried to turn the phone back on, but was only met with a faint picture of a blinking battery. Out of power.
Groaning gently, Cameron searched through his bag once again and the stuff he had scattered about, hoping that the charger might be among his things.
He found one that looked likely, but there was a problem: the end of it was rather frayed and bent, showing off a lot of exposed wiring. Cameron eyed the cord nervously. He was desperate, but maybe not THAT desperate yet. He'd find another charger, or a way to fix the one he had.
He set those things aside and would've continued to rummage around, but he was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of Neptune.
"Whatcha doing?" Neptune asked, leaning in front of Cameron's face.
"GAH!" Cameron yelled, so absorbed in thought he hadn't heard Neptune until she was literally in his face. "Neptune! Personal space!"
"Can you blame me? I was practically shouting your name just a minute ago, and you hadn't heard me." Neptune responded, sitting opposite Cameron with a rather keen interest in the stuff in front of her.
"Well, next time just, like, tap my shoulder or something…" Cameron breathed. "What do you want?"
"Why do you even have this stuff?" the purple-haired girl asked, staring through the hole in Cameron's laptop.
"Wish I knew…" Cameron murmured. "Half the stuff is just random junk, and the other half is electronics that are dead or broken… I still feel like something's off, though…"
"What, like you've missed something?" Neptune asked, picking through the books in the stack.
"Exactly." Cameron agreed. "There's something that I just can't pin…"
Neptune was still rifling through the many books that Cameron had pulled out. "Why do you have so many books, anyway? It's not like you could read all of these in one day, after all…" she asked.
She found yet another, identical-looking book, with a glossy title on the cover. It read, "The Art of Making Money". She almost put it aside, but something about the cover made her pause.
"Hey… there's no author or anything on this book." she realized, showing Cameron. Indeed, apart from the glossy title words, there was nothing else on the book cover. No author name, no publishing company, not even one of those '#1 Bestseller' labels on the top. In fact, now that Neptune had pointed it out, it was hard to NOT notice.
(Small details NEVER go over the mighty Nep-Nep's head!)
"Huh… odd." Cameron agreed, taking the book and attempting to open it.
It… wouldn't budge.
"Uhh… *grunt*... i-it… it won't open…" he managed, struggling to pry the pages apart.
"Lemme see that…" Neptune demanded, swiping the book from Cameron and pulling on each side of the book. Still nothing.
Not willing to give up that easily, Neptune carefully looked around the entire book, feeling around.
"A-ha! Look at this!" Neptune suddenly shouted gleefully, showing Cameron the spine of the book. The title of the book was printed again on the side, and Cameron noticed, Neptune was pointing at the word, 'Money'. In the center of the 'o', just barely visible, was a small dot that looked like it was meant to be part of the title.
"Uh… I don't follow." Cameron responded honestly.
"Look at the cover. There's no dot there, is there?" Neptune explained.
Cameron glanced over. Now that she mentioned it, the 'o' on the front cover didn't have the dot.
"You don't think… some kind of hidden switch?" Cameron asked, taking the book from Neptune again.
"Push it and see!" Neptune replied, bouncing in place in excitement.
Cameron reached over and gave the small dot on the spine a push.
*Click!*
A soft clicking noise sounded, and the top cover of the book suddenly popped up a little bit.
Growing excited, Cameron opened it up.
His eyes grew wide. "No way…! It's a fake book!"
"Fake book?" Neptune asked.
"It's a book that, normally, looks like any old book on a shelf, but when you actually open it, it has a hole in it that you can store things inside." Cameron explained, reaching into the hole in question.
"Well?! What's inside?" Neptune asked.
Cameron first pulled out a small, white charger cord. He immediately recognized it as a charger, and judging from the small plug on the end, he guessed it was a spare for his phone. "Soon as we get done here, I'm plugging that in…" Cameron intoned, setting the charger off to the side.
Then he pulled out a small baggie partly-filled with what Cameron guessed were coins of some kind. However, unlike the credits that he and the other two had found while out adventuring, these coins looked nothing like them. Some were brown, but the rest were all a shiny silver color, with what looked like something engraved on each side.
"Huh… weird…" Cameron mused, setting the bag aside.
There was only one other thing in the false book, that being a small piece of paper, folded several times. Once he was sure there was nothing else in the book, Cameron started unfolding the paper to see what was on it.
Neptune had been looking at the bag of coins Cameron pulled out, but gave him some more attention when he finished unfolding the paper. "Well? What's on it?"
Cameron didn't respond, but instead wore an expression of confusion and flipped the paper around to show Neptune what was one it.
"Do not forget about him… the snake."
Above those words was a crude picture of a suit, much like you might see on a professional businessman. The only thing was that this suit, rather than the usual colors you might expect, was a vivid shade of purple.
(The plot, it thickens… yes…)
"Huh… strange…" Neptune mused.
"Yeah, a lot of this is strange…" Cameron agreed, taking a closer look at the bag of coins.
He attempted to reach in and grab a handful, but the moment his finger touched the first coin, the coins (and the bag they were in) all of a sudden vanished into thin air.
"What the-?!" Cameron shouted, before he suddenly heard the sound of a cash register chiming coming from his pocket. The same pocket that he had previously stored the credits the group had found from their journey.
Cameron quickly opened that pocket, and suddenly found credits that DEFINITELY hadn't been there before. He'd already sorted the rest into a separate pile off to the side.
Cameron and Neptune glanced at each other, unsure of what to say to such a situation. Neptune offered a shrug. "I… guess you found a bag of money."
"..." Cameron remained silent.
The two didn't really say much after that. The unpacking of the bag had clearly left more questions than it answered, and Cameron was starting to feel a strange sense of… foreboding.
'All of these things, and none of them have even given me a HINT of what my old life was…' he mused to himself. 'What I would give to even have a clue…'
Clearly, some of his thoughts must've shown on his face, cause Neptune gave an honest attempt to cheer up the tall man. "Aww, c'mon bud! It's not that bad! I mean, sure, this didn't go exactly as you thought it would, and that whole thing with the coins was kinda odd, and, well, the whole secret book thing was a bit of a letdown, but don't let it get to ya!"
Cameron gave her a look. "Yeah, I feel sooo much better now…" he murmured sarcastically.
Neptune sighed. "But look on the bright side! At least we still have an established goal! And, hey, you've got yourself an adorable protagonist to help you through it all."
"Hey, hold up a tick, I'm the protagonist here." Cameron interrupted.
"Either way, I'm here to help! Leave it to ole' Neptune to fix you up and save the day!"
Cameron stared at her for a moment. "How… do you do that?"
"Eh?" Neptune sounded.
"How can you remain… so chipper? I mean, you're in the exact same situation as me, with no memory or anything." Cameron asked.
Neptune considered her answer. She wanted to say that she just was, but she had a feeling Cameron would find that answer cheap. So, she instead replied:
"Well… I see it like a blank slate, of sorts. Whatever we used to be, however good or bad that was… technically, it's gone. It never existed as far as we know. So, I see this as a second chance at life. Who knows? I may end up exactly the same as I was, or maybe I actually was completely different. But either way, that's behind me for now. Until I get those memories back, I don't see a reason to really stress about them too much."
Cameron had wide eyes. "W-wow… that was… surprisingly profound, Neptune…"
(Well, we all have our moments, no?)
Neptune was obviously proud of that comment, but she at least attempted to mask it, but she couldn't suppress a light giggle.
The pair soon finished repacking Cameron's bag, with Cameron finally having everything sorted into a system that made it so that he could reach in and pull out whatever he needed or wanted in less than five seconds.
Once he was finally satisfied about how everything was sorted, he leaned back into the couch. It had gotten pretty late at this point.
He could only hope that, whatever they went to do tomorrow, things would go better than they had today…
And they would, surely…
Right?
DEAR LORD FINALLY I GOT THIS CHAPTER DONE.
(WOAH! Calm down a bit, dude!)
S-sorry. Just, you know how irritating it is when you are at that awkward point where you are ALMOST done, but just can't seem to find a way to wrap up everything nicely?
That's what I've been feeling.
For months.
I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to say.
I, er… just wasn't sure HOW I wanted to say it, if that makes sense.
(Hmm…. I guess…)
But holy hell, I am SO glad I got this done. I swear, I've read this entire thing over at LEAST twenty times now, so if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes at this point, I'd be surprised.
(Watch, there'll be, like, twenty of them and I'll only notice them after the upload actually hits.)
Either way!
I do hope you readers enjoyed this chapter! I am, of course, SO sorry it took so long, but you know, life has just been kicking me in the ass with a steel-toed shoe lately.
HOPEFULLY, I'll manage to get some second wind out of this, but at this point I can't make any promises.
But, mark my words, I'll keep you guys informed!
This is ButterHunter, signing off, and until next time guys…
Stay awesome! =D