Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Sega, Idea Factory and Compile Heart and whomever else worked on it.
Chapter 14
IF sighed as the mysterious heroine Presto Mask, who was really just B-Sha wearing a mask over her eyes, stopped Warechu after he made a child cry. 'Well, there's one good thing about her antics at least.' Sure, B-Sha gave her a headache for all the stuff she pulled, but the girl meant well. 'At least she keeps the peace.'
"Wow..." Neptune's eyes started to sparkle. "A real super hero?! And not a weird one too!"
"No, I'm pretty sure anyone who runs around proclaiming themselves to be a hero is a weirdo." IF muttered while Compa just giggled.
"Oooh! I should get an autograph!" Neptune giggled and ran towards Presto Mask with Compa following right after her. IF sighed and followed after them. Once they crossed the street, Presto Mask spun around and struck a pose.
"Halt! Oh! You don't look like evil-doers." Presto Mask said as she looked at Neptune, Compa and IF.
"Well, that depends on who you ask." Neptune scratched her cheek. "I'm sure there's a few people who would call me evil. But then again, most of them are bad guys, so..." She shrugged while Presto Mask tilted her head in confusion. "Oh! Can I have an autograph?"
"That will be twenty thousand credits." Presto Mask said, causing Neptune's eyes to go blank and white in absolute shock. "You can pay up now or we can set up a payment plan."
"What?!" Neptune pointed at Presto Mask with a shaky finger. "You're just as bad as some Demons! I bet you work for the government and need to be bribed and then you'll still try to vote against the proposal in front of you!"
"...What?" IF, Compa and Presto Mask all asked at the same time.
"Nep Nep must be tired." Compa smiled nervously. "Well, we should go then." She grabbed Neptune and pulled her away while Presto Mask scratched her head in confusion.
IF sighed and looked at Presto Mask before walking closer to her. "If you find a girl named B-Sha, could you let her know that she's wanted at the Basilicom?"
"Of course." Presto Mask gave IF a thumbs up. "Thanks for letting me know, I know where she is and will get her."
"I'm surprised you aren't charging me for this." IF smirked and looked at Warechu. "Oh yeah, almost forgot about this thief." Grabbing Warechu's tail, she dragged him along with towards the Basilicom.
(-)
Neptune sighed as she, Compa and IF walked into the Basilicom. 'Sheesh, nearly everyone forgets about me and now Planeptune has weirdo super heroes running around demanding money for stuff that should be free? What's next? Vert creating clones of me and Nepgear to have fun with in the bath or something?'
Compa and IF both looked at Neptune as she started to giggle. "Should we be worried?" Compa asked IF, who shrugged.
"Maybe, anyway, I'm going to take this rat," IF held up Warechu, who let out a weak moan, "down to the holding cells so we can get some answers out of him."
"Okay." Compa smiled as IF walked off to do just that and turned back to Neptune. "Nep Nep..." She trailed off at seeing Neptune's shocked expression. "Nep Nep?"
"Nepu!" Neptune started waving her hands up and down and blinked rapidly. "There aren't any clones of me or Nepgear or Iffy are there?"
"...Uh... I don't think so..." Compa tapped her chin. "Then again, Ge Ge was saying something about wanting to clone herself, so maybe there are, why do you ask?"
"Nepu!" Neptune suddenly pointed dramatically. "We must stop my well meaning but misguided sister! Clones will only end with some of them being of the opposite gender and then there will be no virgins anywhere for miles!"
"...Huh?" Compa gawked at Neptune. "...Did that happen to you, Nep Nep?"
"That mirror was evil!" Neptune suddenly yelled and started walking in circles around Compa. "Making clones of anyone who looked at it and I couldn't help but keep looking at it and there were suddenly three male clones of me and they all wanted to lewd me and everyone else..."
Compa sweat-dropped as she listened to Neptune. "Uh, Nep Nep... There's no evil mirror here."
"LIES!" Neptune was suddenly in front of Compa, clutching the nurse's shirt as her eyes teared up. "Did the mirror clones get to you, Compa? I know that I looked really good as a guy, but..."
"Nep Nep..." Compa tried to calm Neptune down and when Neptune started to go on and on about clones grabbing her, she sighed. "I'm sorry!" She yelled and swung her arm back before slapping Neptune on the face so hard that Neptune found herself on her butt, blinking in confusion and rubbing her face. "Are you okay?"
"Oww!" Neptune grimaced and rubbed her face. "Yeah, but, oww! That hurt!"
"You were talking about evil mirrors and clones and..."
Neptune looked at Compa before nodding and standing up. "Sorry, I was thinking Vert would try to make a clone of Nepgear and me and have fun in the bath and then I remembered a time I found this mirror that made opposite sex clones that wanted to do lewd things."
"...A male Nep Nep?" Compa gawked and Neptune nodded. "...Could they transform?"
"Yes and they were HOT in HDD!" Neptune blushed and shivered. "I almost found out what it meant to go screw yourself." She giggled at Compa's confused look. "It's a good thing that Blanc was with me and took care of them for me."
Compa nodded and the two went inside the Basilicom.
(-)
"Ah, Neptune." Histoire smiled as she saw Compa and Neptune. "Where's..."
"Sorry about that, I was just dropping the rat off down in the holding cells." IF said as she walked into the room while dusting her hands off. "So, what's going on, Histoire?"
"Just wait a moment, there's... Ah! B-Sha!" Histoire smiled as a young girl in a bright yellow outfit and blonde hair in twin pigtails walked in.
"Hello, Histoire." B-Sha smiled at her and then looked at Neptune nervously. "Ah, um..."
"So, what's up?" Neptune smiled at B-Sha but ignored her to look at Histoire. "Did you just want to introduce us or something?"
"Or something." Histoire admitted. "Neptune, B-Sha is... Well, she has been running the nation since the day you fought against Gold Third."
"Oh?" Neptune looked confused and then looked at B-Sha, who was looking at her with concern in her blue eyes. "Is that all? I should be thankful it's not a fake of me running the nation this time."
"Indeed." Histoire nodded. "Now, I need you to go to Harada City. There's a wave of monsters that have invaded and they need to be stopped."
"Uh oh." Compa's eyes were wide. "Monsters in the city? That's bad!"
"Yes and Harada City isn't far from here either." IF pointed out. "We should hurry."
"Well, good luck." B-Sha chuckled nervously. She yelped as Neptune grabbed her hand. "W-w-w-what are you doing?"
"As the ruler of Planeptune, you need to fight monsters and protect the people." Neptune pointed out and B-Sha tried to stutter that she wasn't the ruler of Planeptune. "Oh, don't worry about that, there were three CPUs running one nation when I was stuck in the other world."
"Wait!" B-Sha yelled as she was dragged out of the room. "What if something happens when I'm gone?"
"Oh, don't worry about that." Neptune told her. "If a nation fell apart because the ruler wasn't there, then it's a pretty weak nation and Planeptune isn't weak at all."
Histoire smiled as she watched Neptune take off. "Good luck everyone." She said to the door. "Hmm, I don't recall Neptune ever being that eager to do a job before."
(-)
A couple of minutes later...
"Wow!" Neptune and Compa both gasped as they saw Harada City over-run with monsters.
"Let's hurry and get rid of them! This isn't a game!" Neptune said, getting a sharp look from IF, who nodded. "What?"
"You've never acted this seriously before." IF pointed out and Neptune blushed and rubbed the back of her head.
"Well, the sooner we get done, the sooner we go home, have pudding, play games and can lay around in our underwear." Neptune stuck her tongue out at IF.
"THAT sounds more like you." IF nodded at Neptune. "Alright, Nep, let's take care of these monsters."
B-Sha squirmed and took a step back. "I'm SORRY!" She yelled as she spun around and ran away.
"HUH?!" Compa gawked as B-Sha ran off. "Why would she do that?"
IF sighed and shook her head. "Let's just deal with these monsters, okay?"
Neptune looked at where B-Sha had been and nodded. "Yeah." Something was wrong with B-Sha, and Neptune didn't like what she had seen. 'I'll deal with it later.' She had monsters to deal with, her personal feelings could wait.
(-)
It was nearly fifteen minutes later that the three girls found themselves surrounded by monsters. "So these are the last ones, huh?" Neptune asked. "Okay then! Time to get serious!" She closed her eyes and allowed herself to become engulfed in power as she transformed. "Time for these monsters to go."
IF and Compa both smiled as they prepared to fight along side Purple Heart.
It didn't take long, even with Purple Heart stabbing one monster and throwing it into the air to turn it into sashimi just to show off.
Though IF personally wanted to do that some time. "Hmm, that could be pretty cool. Now if only I knew someone who could throw a monster like that for me." She muttered to herself and put it on the back-burner in her mind.
"It's Lady Purple Heart!" One of the city guards gasped as he saw Purple Heart. "I knew you hadn't abandoned us."
"Huh?" Purple Heart gave him a confused look. "You... Remember me?"
"Of course we do." The other city guard said and gave Purple Heart a thumbs up. "We've been deeply devoted to you for a long time now, I'm glad you're back, my lady, we really missed you."
Purple Heart could feel her cheeks heating up. "Well, I'm sure that you're just exaggerating..."
"No way!" The first guard shook his head. "We love you!" Purple Heart jerked in surprise as her blush increased slightly. "We wanted to be part of the Basilicom, but we failed the test because we're idiots."
"But because of that, we got to meet you directly." The second guard smiled brightly. "C...Can I shake your hand?"
"Yes, of course you can." Purple Heart smiled as she held her right hand out and shook the guard's hand, repeating the process for the other guard. She chuckled softly at the way they acted like a fangirl over meeting her. "Would you like to take a selfie with me?"
"Do we really have time for this?" IF asked as she put her hands on her hips and she sighed, deciding that she could let it go since Purple Heart was already taking some selfies with the guards.
"There's always time to ensure the happiness of your citizens, Iffy." Purple Heart said as she finished taking selfies with the guards. "Thank you for your hard work, gentlemen." She smiled and floated over to IF and Compa, bending over to pick them up so she could fly them back to Planeptune City.
The guards looked at each other and quickly pointed their camera phones at Purple Heart as she bent over and picked her friends up. They snapped several pictures before Purple Heart flew off.
They might have loved and respected Purple Heart, but they were still people and Purple Heart was known for having a very lovely rear end. The chance to take a picture of it didn't come up very often after all.
(-)
As they got back to Planeptune City, Purple Heart put Compa and IF down and sighed as she transformed back to her human form. "Phew! Sometimes I forget how tiring my HDD form is."
"You don't look too tired." IF pointed out and Neptune laughed and rubbed the back of her head. "But if it's that tiring, why did you fly us back here?"
"Well, I wanted to get back here quickly and report in for one." Neptune smiled at IF. "And for two, I wanted to show off a bit." The small CPU giggled and blushed softly while putting her hands on her cheeks and squirming. "I haven't had anyone tell me they loved me that wasn't related to me in a long time, I was kind of embarrassed."
"And yet you let them take pictures of your butt?" IF asked and Neptune nodded. "...Why?"
"Why shouldn't I let people enjoy looking?" Neptune asked as though it was the most normal thing in the world. "Even if they were taking pictures of my butt, it's not like they were doing anything else."
IF sighed and nodded. "I suppose so."
"Um..." Compa spoke up. "Does Nep Nep like people taking pictures of her or something?"
"Well, I often did Gravure modeling back in the other world for pin-ups and advertisements." Neptune told IF, who gawked at her. "Hey, it was very tasteful, I've seen bikinis that show more skin than I was showing for that!" She sweat-dropped at the look of scrutiny that IF gave her and gulped softly. "Well, except for the sling bikini, that was basically floss."
IF sighed and hung her head. "Just... Don't go that far, okay?" She gasped as Neptune hugged her. "People are watching!"
"It's okay, you're my best friend!" Neptune cheered and let go of IF.
Compa giggled. "Okay, let's go back to the Basilicom." Both IF and Neptune agreed and the three walked towards the Basilicom.
'I wonder why B-Sha just ran off like that. Did she get cold feet?' Neptune knew that not everyone could handle a monster attack and she had known more than a few people who froze up when facing down a monster for the first time. 'Heck, didn't Nepgear get really nervous the first time I took her out for a monster hunt and she couldn't transform?'
As they turned a corner, Compa let out a yell as she ran into someone and she fell on her butt. "Owwies! Who put that wall there?"
"You okay?" Neptune asked and helped Compa up before looking to see who she ran into. "Are you o..k..ay?" Neptune's face went pale as she took a step back when she saw who it was.
The person in front of them had short, gray hair, bright pink eyes and was wearing a gray t-shirt and black shorts with gray shoes.
"Gee, someone's feeling pretty dull." IF muttered, though she got tense as she looked at Neptune's reaction. "Who are you?"
The girl ignored her and looked at Neptune. "Come with me, please? You know what will happen."
"Don't do this." Neptune gave the girl a pleading look. "Please... Ouya, don't do this."
"Ouya?" IF and Compa asked at the same time.
"You know it's not my call." Ouya sighed softly. "You really should have done what Stadia asked you to do... What Noire and Plutia both told you to do."
"You know why I can't!" Neptune protested and Ouya sighed, shaking her head.
"Your soft heart will only cause more problems." Ouya said as she walked past IF and Compa, stopping as she stood right in front of Neptune. "Stop trying to find the best ending in everything. There isn't a good ending for us, you know that."
Neptune's eyes teared up and she shook her head. "I won't give up until I can fix you two." She reached out and grabbed Ouya's hands, giving them a squeeze. "I promised you that I'd find a way to fix this."
"So you'd leave us sealed away for the rest of time then?" Ouya asked softly and pulled her hands away from Neptune. "No matter what you try, you won't be able to save us."
"I won't give up, no matter what." Neptune said softly. "I can't abandon you any more than I could abandon any of my children."
The two looked at each other sadly and Ouya sighed. "You should have killed us, because no matter what, Stadia and I will always be your enemies."
With those words, Ouya walked off, leaving Neptune to slump to her butt on the sidewalk while Ouya ignored Compa and IF's calls for her to stop and get back there. Ouya turned a corner and IF was tempted to chase after her but decided that Neptune was more important as she and Compa tried to help Neptune out as she sat on the sidewalk with tears coming out of her eyes.
To Nep is to suffer, huh?