Neapgear, IF, Compa and a red headed girl are heading towards the airport where the Nep force one is located, their mission at Lastation is now over and now they are going for the next one…
"Where we are going now?" The red head asks
"We are going at Lowee to find the next mascot there, I already met the oracle there with Bethesda."
"The scientist girl you talked with yesterday? I would like to met her and also make her my wifey!"
"Uhm, RED actually Bethesda is a man." Compa corrects her
"What? But... it sound like a woman name."
RED
THE WIFEY HUNTER
IF leaves the group and join the crew of the Nep force one
"The author wanted to make him a male OC to make a running gag with Nep-nep."
"That's stupidly blunt."
While the others girls are talking If is talking about the crew
"What's going on?" IF asks
"It seems at the Vehicles got sabotaged. The technician are working on it We won't be able to takeoff until the next day."
"You know who did it?"
"We don't know but the basilicom of Planeptune and Lastation are aware of the situation and they are thinking about a solution."
IF sighs and returns to the group who are still talking
Compa speaks "Sorry if you think I'm blunt but I must be direct as possible."
Nepgear notice IF "IF, whats wrong?" She says, Compa and RED turns to IF
"The Vertidragon as been sabotaged, we are stuck here until tomorrow."
"That's sucks." RED says
"Who did it?" Compa asks
"That's the neat part, we have no idea." IF responds
"But... we can't just stay here! We have to get moving or they are gonna out run us again!" Nepgear says
"We don't have choice but to wait for the directives."
BEEP BEEP BEEP
IF phone rings, she pick it up.
"Lady histoire?" she asks
"Hello, I'm aware of your trouble at Lastation, we had the attention to send another Vertidragon to transport your group to Lowee but bad weather prevent them to take off."
"How bad this is?"
"Uhm…" Histoire looks outside, there is a violent hailing outside "Very bad. We are sending them when it the hailing will stop."
"Fine."
Histoire ends the call
"Great. They can't send help since there is hailing."
"Maybe we can take an airline jet?" RED asks
"They require that you to buy tickets at least days in advance." Compa responds
"Maybe, I can help you." A masculine voice say to them
The girls turns back and see a tall (around 1,82m) black skinned man with a short Afro black hair, he wears a white jacket, it open and he is wearing a yellow shirt with a white star motive next to a R on the center of the shirt
"Who are you?" IF asks
"You don't need to know who I am but my name is Rockstar."
ROCKSTAR
A SUSPICIOUS BUSINESS MAKER?
"I heard you got a problem with your ride, since you are the candidate of Planeptune, you are probably in a big hurry. I have a car business and I can make you a good price on the one you might want to get."
"That's sound interesting..." Nepgear says and then thinks "Wait a minute..."
"Hey, that's sound like a scam!" RED says
"Or not, he might just want to help us." Compa says
IF speak up "I don't think so. The guild got records of him. He got a quite large criminal record which includes robbery, drug trafficking and of course car theft. Which is quite weird since his mom is rich."
"Oh, maybe not."
"Why we would follow you then?" RED says
"I know that I did some illegal things and in some way still doing it, but the reason why I am not in prison its because I cooperate with some officials, why I would attempt to risk my business or even my life by scamming you or worse?"
"Yet you can't prove what are you saying."
"Hang on!" Nepgear exclaims, everyone turns at her "Do you know someone named Bethesda?"
Rockstar put his hand on his forehead and then start scratching "Bethesda… it remind me someone..." He thinks for a few minutes and then… "Oh yes! I knew him but it was form very long ago! He was visiting Lastation with his father for business reasons of my mom company if remember correctly. We got to play and we got along pretty well."
IF looks at Nepgear "Wow, Gear, I literally just quickly told yesterday that Bethesda knew someone who the name and you guessed it was him he was talking about?" she asks
"Uh-i his name started by R he said so I just randomly thought that it might maybe be him..." Nepgear responds
"And you guessed right." Rockstar says while looking at the candidate
"I was thinking that... maybe he can be trusted… for now."
"Fine. Not like we got any others fast option anyway." IF says
"Follow ladies then." Rockstar says to them and start walking away
The girls follow him but IF checks the surroundings in case, RED sundenly have a question that pop up in her head...
And she asks it "Uh… Rockstar?"
"Yes?"
"Why your skin is so dark?"
everyone turns towards RED in a shocked expression, of course also including Rockstar who have the expression of someone thinking "Did she just say that?"
"RED! Its not questions that has to be asked!" Compa scolds her
"I was just finding it weird… its the first time I see someone that dark skinned!"
"Sorry but as you can see she can be quite
"No you are not wrong… Well… how I should explain it."
"N-No need to do that." Nepgear says
"Well, RED if I remember. There is people born with white, red or even green haired. Its quite the same thing with me but the difference is on my skin color that instead of being light, like most of people on Gamindustri is rather dark. And its that difference that make the humans beautiful instead of just all being the same, right?"
"I guess that make sense." RED says
"Well since you girls know Bethesda you might want to ask him. I heard he became an inventor so he might know about these thing in details."
The group then arrive to what it seem to be a garage
"Here we are. Pick the model you want and I will make it at a reasonable price."
The girls wanders around the garage, there is a large variety of vehicle: Sports, Micro, Mono-spaces, pick up trucks and even a Limousin!
Nepgear looks around "Wow! So much vehicles there's! I would like to come back here and buy one so I can disassemble it and discover how they works!" she thinks in complete awe
Not far form Nepgear something else happens...
"Hey! Stop doing that!" Rockstar yells
"Why?" RED is walking on a moving tire
"You are gonna explode it! Get the fuck down now! I wont say it again!"
"What are you talking about? Its a solid th-"
BAM
The tire exploded and RED got thrown up in the air and lands on her back
"Ouch… That's hurt."
Nepgear rushes for her "Are you okay?"
"I think I'm fine... I think."
"Why it exploded?!" Nepgear asks to Rockstar
"This tire was overloaded with air."
Compa looks at one of the car, a mini-car made for the city "This one looks like the one I got at Planeptune." she then continue walking away she see IF looking at one car in particular
"Iffy, what you are looking at?"
IF pays attention to Compa on her side "Well that one seem quite good for what we are gonna do."
The car she is talking about seem like 4x4 or a jeep
"Uh, what are the particularity of this one?" IF says while looking at Rockstar who is carrying the destroyed tire
Rockstar put away the tire and goes to see the two girls "This car? This is the Mesa, A rather cheap but effective model of all-terrains vehicle."
"That sound promising, we will take this one. How much it cost?"
"2,770,630 credits in full cost."
"We don't have that amount of credits."
"And that why I told you that I would make you a better price, how about 60% discount?"
"Its still pretty expensive, we can't just rent it?"
"Oh, you can. But make sure to return it in good state or I will make you pay more."
"We will try. What the tarif for the rent?"
"3,000 credits for a day."
"We will take that option."
[Later.]
The garage open its main door and the Mesa leaves the garages with the girls inside it, Compa is driving it and IF is on the front seat, Nepgear and RED are behind, and the vehicle roll out, going at the north. While Rockstar watches, he then returns inside of the said garage and close the vehicle door he verify if there is not others clients or visitors and he get his phone
"Kei." He says "I rented them a car as you wanted."
"Good."
"So you are going to erase my criminal records?
"Not yet. You will have to do other tasks until I erase it."
"Jeez, okay then."
[A hours later]
NORTH-WEST LASTATION
NEAR OF THE LASTATION-LOWEE BORDER
18H00
The mesa is rolling trough the forest at the North of Lasation. IF is still driving
"Iffy, that was 6 hours we are driving non-stop can we take a break?"
"..." IF thinks "Sure."
"We can stop by that city." RED says while looking at something trough the window
The girls looks and see a city afar near a mountain range
"You are sure that's a city?" Compa asks "These buildings are strange."
"It sure looks pretty industrial." IF comments
"We could stop there. I wonder what kind of city this is?"
IF sighs "I needed coffee anyway." and she turns the wheel
The car now heads towards the city a panel on the side of the road can be seen, written on it "Welcome to the mining town of Veldin"
VELDIN CITY
18H20
(On Veldin form rachet and clank starts playing)
IF park the car on a parking of a market in the outskirt of the town, the girls get out of the car
IF walks towards the mart "I will get some coffee or Nepbull, whatever."
"Iffy, you know I can drive the car if you are that tired and it will avoid us to pay extra."
IF blushes a little "Thanks Compa… But I will still buy some food in case."
"I'm coming with you."
The Agent and the Nurse goes to the market, while the Candidate and the Wifey Hunter are still there.
"So what do we do?" RED asks
"Let's look around the city." Nepgear responds
The two girls start to wander around, not too far to avoid getting lost. But while everyone is away form the car, a small humanoid rat appears
"I'm gonna teach them he he he." He hop on the car and enter inside of it trough a window that was left open, he then modify the coordinates of the GPS
[Meanwhile.]
RED and Nepgear are looking at the town, there is some spherical habitations, form far away there is also tall cylindrical pillars
"I wonder what these pillars are." RED says
"Probably some apartments."
"They are not actually." A feminine voice says on their right side
Nepgear and RED looks at the direction of the sound and see a girl who seem a bit older than them with some cyan colored leather helmet with some strange long triangular ears shape on it, there is orange strip on the ears, she seem also to wear some leather gloves, some boots, some Grey pants, and a tank top with a circular blue motive on the top of it, she also have some welding glasses that she wearing over her hat, she also have a long bright blonde hair and a pair of green eyes
The girls continues "They are mining drills used to extracts ores."
"Oh." Nepgear responds
"Okay… By the way you live there?"
"Of course its my hometown. And I guess you are not form there."
"Yes, we are just passing by, we are going at Lowee."
"I knew you were not tourists. There is never tourist there usually."
"I get why." RED says "Whats your name?"
"I'm Insomniac, I work as a mechanic in a lot of industrial infrastructure that belong to Lastation, like these drills."
INSOMNIAC
THE MECHANIC
"Hey! We are finished!" Compa says form afar
"We have to do thanks for this small explanation, its an interesting city, I might come back here someday."
"Come a Sunday. I don't work the Sunday I could show you around. Until we meet again."
Nepgear start to return to the car, RED is still with Insomniac
"By the way do you want to join my wi-" RED Gasps as she gets dragged away by Nepgear
[Later...]
Compa is now driving the car, RED fallen asleep and Nepgear did soon after, IF are looking at the arroundings, there is only a taiga
"Are you okay IF?" Compa asks
"You didn't change the coordinates don't you?"
"No. I don't remember to."
"That's weird, we should see Lowee Basilicom form now."
"I can't see it either. The trees prevent me to see it"
"Wait…trees?" IF looks more and notice the pines… "We are in a taiga!? We are not longer supposed to be in a forest!"
"I think so."
"Do a half-turn quick!"
"Why? Its just a forest. We are probably at Lowee but we didn't realize yet."
"We are not longer at Lastation for sure but we took a wrong turn. We are in the MOD territory!"
"Oh."
As the moment Compa was about to do a half-turn to get back at Lastation, they notice a truck blocking their path with border guards with firearms pointed at them. A soldier make a hand signal to tell them to stop the vehicle
"Too late. Its the changers." IF says
"Wait we could just kindly explain them that we took a wrong turn." Compa stops the car
"Fine but seem natural." IF says, she get her phone and quickly sends a message to Histoire
One of the guards move towards the vehicle, Compa open the widow of the car
"Papers please." the guard says
IF handles over the passports and Id cards to Compa who herself give it to the guard, another guard come and take them and look a them
"We are gonna control the vehicle and also what you are carrying on yourselves."
"Okey Okey." Compa responds
"Wake up!" IF says to the girls while shaking their shoulders
Nepgear wakes up and RED shortly after "What's going on?" Nepgear asks
"Just a border control." IF responds
Shortly after, they get outside of the car a female guard pat them in case they are carrying something else, after finding nothing important on them she comes back to her commander.
"They are not carrying weapons on them."
"Use the inventory detector." The commander responds
The guard get a strange device looking like a super market scanner but with a holographic screen on the side, she first point it at IF, some data appears on the screen:
-2 Katars
-1 Handgun
She then proceeds to scan the other girls and returns to the leader of the guards
"They got weapons on them."
The leader nods
"Reason of the visit?"
"We actually were going at Lowee but we took a wrong turn." IF says
"And with weapons?"
"We have to find the Lowee mascot." Nepgear responds
The guard looks at the candidate, his eyes widens "Uhm… Please wait."
He returns to his squad
"So apparently, they want to find Lowee mascot but there is the Planeptune candidate among them. They might be enemy of the ASIC."
"Its true that they told us about that." The commander of the guards says
"We should capture them." The guard says
"It might not be a good idea since it might cause us problem with Planeptune." Another guard responds
"Let's just hold them captive for the moment, we will ask to the leadership to decide."
one of the guards go back to the girls
"Follow us please."
"Sorry but we are really in a hurry! an-"
"I'm not asking for your opinion." The guards raise her weapon to them "You are all coming with us."
IF quickly looks around and she see that they are surrounded by guards holding them a gunpoint
"W-What do we do?" Nepgear asks
"If we do any sudden movement or we summon our weapons we get shot… It might be better to surrender." IF says and puts her hands up
The group does as same…
[A few hours later at another place…]
GAMINDUSTRI GRAVEYARD
21H00
"So you are telling me that you modified their GPS to make them drive into the CSS?" Magic says while talking to a humanoid rat
"Yes, They visibly didn't noticed that I changed it, shortly after I placed it I hidden near a tunnel that lead to their country to verify if that worked and it did!"
"Good, good. And now that they are captured, I will just ask for them to give us the Candidate to us."
"Uh how you will know that they are gonna give you the CPU?"
"Let's say that I few weeks ago I helped some sympathizer to organize a coup against the old government who was too hostile toward us even if we helped them to get their independence."
"What a bunch of ungrateful idiots! But by the way you are sure that Planeptune won't try to do something?"
"They will but well I prepared something for them. Dismiss I will give you another task soon."
Shortly after the rodent left the room, Magic get a phone and says "Post the article."
[The day after.]
PLANEPTUNE
BASILICOM
IN THE MORNING
Histoire attempts to call IF…
"Hi! This is the wind walker of Gamindustri, I'm not available for no so leave a message and I will recall you." She ends on an answering machine, which its quite usual in general
Histoire waits around 3 minutes, IF didn't call back, so she tries again but once again its answering machine
"So they are now captive… She was on the MOD I must attempt to contact them."
Someones open a door
"Histoire." Bethesda comes inside
"Oh! Hello Bethesda. That's not usual of you to come without knocking."
"I have a reason to. I attempted to call IF yesterday in the evening has usual but I got no response."
"Uhm, I will attempt to explain you what happened, or actually its more proper to say what we know form it."
"Tell me."
Histoire tell the integral of what happened to the group yesterday
"And after she send me that message that told me to call for her in the morning, it was written that if she don't responds then they have big problems or being held captive."
"They couldn't even use a GPS properly?"
"Now I have to contact the MOD and I will attempt to ask them to release them, but this might to work as attended."
"That mean the ASIC will find and destroy the mascot before we do."
"Unfortunately its what might happen..."
"We should contact Lowee oracle and tell her search for it and send a team to secure it."
"Nepgear wouldn't be able to be powered by it if someone else."
"The Lowee candidate powered up? Even if its not Nepgear we might eventually convince them to join Nepgear group and its still better than just it getting destroyed."
"You are right on that point. Since it s you that was sent to help them during their war. They might listen quite easily to you. But it there is odds that they refuse, as I told to Nepgear, the nations got their own troubles and objectives."
Id enters the room
"Bethesda?! You are here?" She says
"Yes." Bethesda responds and notice something "You are alright? You look worried."
"I just wanted to ask you something."
"What is it?"
"Did you really put some prisoners of the ASIC in forced work?"
immediately after the news form the slayer, the Tome and the Inventor stand in visible confusion for around a minute of awkward silence ensues…
"What!?" both of Histoire and Bethesda responds
Looks like it not longer go as planed
An inventor tales Vol4: Winds of changes
THE END
I took more time making this chapter and the previous one because I was at the same time working on a new cover art for the Fanfic: I wanted to draw one by myself instead of just using someone else art, even if its quite meh. I might modify it someday.
I also made a poll that you can find on my profile page to know your opinion on this, im going on vacation the 1st august so there won't be chapters during that month so im gonna close the poll the 30 july so don't hesitate to vote
Literally first time I used a drawing software on my computer (yes I firstly drawn it on paper but I after decided to remake it on GIMP which took me some time since as said previously: its the first time I used it. I might re-use it for the wattpad version)
The next volume will start to have even bigger divergences compared to the game, this volume stayed relatively on the game story, on the next one i will probably take even more liberties...
