Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, thank God for that because I doubt I would've made it as awesome as it is.
Summary: Despite some problems, Lucas was adamant about enjoying his weekend but everything changed when a girl named Neptune crash landed in his backyard with delusions of a place called Gamindustri only they weren't delusions. Now in another world, Lucas struggles to find his place among Neptune's party. Rated T for language and certain themes, will be M later.
Chapter 03: The Basics of a Dungeon
Lucas blinked, wondering where he was when he woke up the next morning, but he gained a frown when the events of the other day replayed in his head, causing him to groan.
He was really hoping everything that happened was just a long, convoluted dream and he would wake up back home. In hindsight he should've known better than to hope for that.
Laying there for a few seconds, Lucas found himself a little bored.
He didn't want to get up though.
After all, he didn't have any of his game systems to play and he didn't want to be rude and look around the house considering he was only a guest.
But what else could he do? Go back to sleep?
Sighing with some slight frustration, Lucas got up and opened the curtains, wincing from the bright light as he gazed out at Planeptune.
"Have to say, the city looks pretty cool." Lucas couldn't help but say, intrigued by it.
He didn't know how long he spent looking out over the city, but eventually he heard light footsteps as the door was opened. "Oh, morning Lulu, I didn't realize you were awake," Compa's voice made him turn to see the Nurse giving a kind smile. "How are you feeling?"
Blinking the rest of the sleep out of his eyes, Lucas smiled politely at Compa, a bit happy that she wasn't as rude as Neptune was, even if he did despise the nickname.
"A lot better than yesterday, thank you." Lucas said to her.
If anything, Compa's smile got bigger with her looking to be in high spirits. "That's great, if Nep-Nep is healed up too we'll head out to the dungeon today." She said and just like that the smile fell off of Lucas's face.
Oh right, he forgot about that.
"I'm not going to a dungeon."
Compa looked at him with a quizzical expression, a brief look of panic in her eyes as she began to speak frantically. "But you and Nep-Nep are a party right?! Party Members are practically soul mates. Abandoning your party is asking to be punished by the Goddess!"
Soul Mates?! Punishment from the Goddess?!
"But I haven't joined Neptune's party in the first place!" Lucas protested, wide-eyed at the thought of being punished by a Goddess. "She won't take no for an answer."
On hearing that, Compa crossed her arms, tilting her head to the side. "But you were with Nep-Nep right?"
Lucas gave a nod, not getting at what Compa was talking about-oh no.
Does jumping through the portal count as joining Neptune's party?
Did he really unintentionally join Neptune's party despite not wanting to?
His shoulders slumped as he realized unless he wanted to risk divine punishment on the off chance that it did happen, he didn't have a choice.
"It won't be so bad Lulu, I'll use DungleMaps to find a Dungeon with weak monsters only, we're only Lv. 1 after all." Compa reassured him, taking a cell phone out to show the app, thinking he was panicking over being scared of strong monsters.
'There goes the term level again, do we really have levels?' Lucas thought unsure if he really wanted to know that.
… Wait, DungleMaps?
They literally have a phone app to find dungeons?
Blinking in thought, Lucas checked his pocket, happy that he grabbed his phone before leaving the house and checked the apps.
Every app that he had ready to download originally was replaced by apps from this world.
DungleMaps. Basilicom Blogs. Planeptune News. Status?!
"Huh, how about that." Lucas muttered to himself, now putting his phone up.
He'll have to see about looking into them whenever he has the time. Especially that Status one.
"Ah found one," Compa said with a cheer, turning her phone to show Lucas the screen. "It's a nearby abandoned factory filled with very weak monsters, perfect for beginners."
"Abandoned Factory?" Lucas repeated a bit in disbelief at how this app works.
She might say that this place had weak monsters, but they were still monsters and he was weaponless.
"Yessy~!" Compa answered with a bright smile. "I'll go wake up Nep-Nep and we'll head out there after Breakfast."
Lucas had no chance to say anything else as she left the room. with him placing a hand on his face in frustration.
So much for not going to this Dungeon. While he wasn't sure if this Divine Punishment thing was for real, he wasn't planning on risking it in case it was. Having a Goddess pissed off at him was the last thing he needed right now.
With that in mind, Lucas tried to look on the brighter side. He whined enough the other day and he didn't want to make it a thing that happens while he was stuck here.
One good thing was that Lucas doesn't have to deal with Henry while he's here, though now he has to deal with Neptune in response to that and he wasn't sure if that was better or not.
This world worked like a game if he was understanding things correctly so he could treat it like he was playing one of his video games perhaps?
… Okay that just sounded stupid.
Man, it's hard to look on the bright side here.
Closing his eyes, Lucas muttered to himself, leaving the room before snapping his fingers.
No school for as long as he's here, that's a main plus.
A rather vindictive smile crossed his face at another thought, since he's here that meant that Henry won't be getting the 'work' he forced on him. So he'll get in trouble and be unable to do anything to Lucas in retaliation.
Now he was cheerful.
"Nep-Nep, come on wake up." Compa huffed as she tried to shake Neptune who was asleep as the girl was currently hugging a pillow, nibbling on it as if it were food.
Her attempts were ignored as Neptune shrugged the hand off of her, turning to get more comfortable with Compa huffing in response, crossing her arms in thought.
Looking around the room, Compa's eyes lit up as she saw her combat needle nearby, an idea going through her head as she grabbed it, using this method plenty of times during her studies when she had to wake someone up to do a standard medical check-up.
This way Neptune won't try to shrug it off.
"Nep-Nep, it's time for your shot." Compa said using a free hand to violently shake Neptune this time.
As Neptune resisted, trying to get comfortable again, her eyes cracked a little and the sight of Compa with the giant needle was enough for her to panic as she literally jumped out of the bed.
"No shots!" Neptune shouted as she ran out the door, barreling into Lucas who was just exiting his room, nearly knocking him over while she quickly latched onto his back as if he would be of help. "Run Lulu! Run like the wind!"
"What am I, a horse?!" Lucas shouted in annoyance, not getting what she was worked up about while Compa left the room without the Needle. "Compa, what did you do?"
Seriously, he's never seen Neptune like this before.
"Oh that's a Compa Secret." Compa said smiling slightly at how well that worked. "Now let's eat and head to the Dungeon."
Just like that Neptune stopped panicking and perked right up. "Alright, finally we're getting to the good stuff!" She cheered, throwing a fist into the air. "Adventure here we come."
"Will you get off of me?!" Lucas finally shouted given how Neptune hasn't moved off of him.
Seriously, his back was starting to hurt.
Neptune just tilted her head before saying a simple. "Nope."
"Nope-what do you mean nope?"
"Nope," Neptune repeated as if that answered everything when it really didn't. "Onward Lulu!"
Lucas was seriously contemplating murder at this point.
"This the Dungeon you found on Dunglemaps?" Neptune asked curiously a good hour later as the party was outside of some sort of rusted out Factory that was practically overgrown with weeds. "You think this has some pretty strong monsters?"
A pretty old wooden katana was showing on her back that Neptune literally dumpster dove for on their way to the Dungeon, saying something about finding a starting weapon.
At this point, Lucas was learning to tune out some of the things she says as he had a freaking pipe that Neptune gave him saying that he needed a starting weapon as well.
Given how they were going up against monsters, Lucas didn't disagree, though he was pretty sure that this rusty pipe would break on the first hit.
Compa shook her head at Neptune's second question much to her disappointment. "No strong monsters, I searched for weaker monsters only," She was carrying her Syringe in both hands, looking around curiously. "We're not ready for the strong ones."
"What?! That's boring." Neptune protested waving her arms back and forth not seeing Lucas duck to avoid getting smacked by the old katana she had. "Who wants to fight a bunch of weaklings?!"
"Geez you're like a child." Lucas grumbled to himself at her temper-tantrum.
Compa was trying to play damage control by pointing out their level while Neptune said she would wait outside until they find the stronger ones where the Nurse panicked trying to tell her about the whole party rules.
Lucas just ignored it due to being told about them earlier, being the one keeping his eyes open in case they're attacked.
It seemed that he was being the one keeping an eye on their surroundings.
"Nep-Nep, enough banter." Compa's tired tone told Lucas that she was starting to get tired of trying to talk some sense into the amnesiac girl. "The sooner we do this, the sooner we find stronger monsters."
That did it with Neptune grinning and before long they were inside the Factory.
"Lulu, are you alright?" Compa asked after a few seconds of them walking through the place, seeing Lucas turning and twisting with each step they took. "You're pale."
"We're three teens in a monster-infested, abandoned factory," Lucas deadpanned to them watching the shadows. "We're practically in a horror movie, forgive me for being freaked out."
The second he said that, Lucas swore that Neptune gave a shout on purpose, making him scream and jump only to realize her shout was one of excitement as she ran past the group towards a freaking treasure chest.
"Um Lulu, are you sure you're a boy?" Compa asked given how high pitched his scream was.
Lucas obviously pretended not to hear the question, instead just looking away with some shame at how easily he screamed, before he glared at Neptune for scaring him.
Neptune was in the process of opening the chest rather eagerly. "Oh is it a new weapon? Item? It better not be a mimic." She muttered that last part before she went silent.
She pulled out a wooden katana that was obviously in much better condition than the one she got from the trash.
"Da-da-da-da! New Weapon obtained." Neptune cheered holding it up.
A loud smack was heard as Lucas did a face palm, regretting that a second later but right now he didn't care.
Throwing the old wooden katana away, Neptune secured the new one before giving a peace sign towards the other two with a grin.
"Nep-Nep seems to be having fun." Compa said smiling at how she was being.
"She's annoying." Lucas muttered to himself.
Though there was less heat to it compared to how he felt the other day. If anyone was paying attention, they would of heard a hint of fond amusement, even if Lucas didn't realize it yet.
"Alright let's move out!" Neptune exclaimed taking the lead, most likely declaring herself to be this party's leader.
Compa didn't argue with that, just humming while Lucas sighed wondering if this was going to be how he died.
He could just imagine his grave.
'Here lies Lucas who died following the insane amnesiac.'
He's pretty sure that's what it was going to say-.
"Look out, monsters!" Compa called out, making his head snap up, only to stare.
These 'monsters', if one could call them that, were two blue teardrop creatures, not too different from the Slimes in Dragon Quest, only they had dog-like faces and black dog ears.
"I give up, what am I looking at?" Lucas finally asked as the dog slimes bounced in place while both Neptune and Compa got into a fighting stance both two handing their weapon leading for him to prepare the pipe with one hand.
"They're Dogoo's, very common Monsters and they're not that strong, perfect for starting out." Compa explained her hips swaying back and forth as she stood in place.
Common and not that strong, so basically tutorial monsters, that was what Lucas was assuming.
Then he realized he was comparing this to a video game.
The Dogoo's gave a cry and began to hop towards the trio as Neptune quickly shot in there, bashing one with her sword before doing a kick to send it back while Compa aimed her syringe and it fired like a gun to finish it off.
Lucas barely had time to stare as the second Dogoo came for him and he swung the pipe, watching as its body morphed around the pipe upon impact before being knocked down, showing how gelatin its body was.
He followed through by punting it as far as he could, which wasn't really that far before it gave Lucas a death glare and lunged-.
Bang.
Lucas jumped at that loud noise and turned as the Dogoo he fought died to see Neptune with a gun of all things, grinning while Compa was doing something to the monster corpses with some vials.
"Alright first fight done, see Lulu was that so bad?"
"You have a gun." Lucas said in an oddly calm tone, his mind trying to process that.
Never mind Compa using her Syringe like a gun, he'll get to that later.
"Yepperoni." Neptune confirmed still grinning.
"And how long have you had a gun?" Lucas asked still in a calm tone, but when Neptune shrugged he lost it. "HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW?!"
His voice echoed around the area making him clamp a hand around his mouth, praying that he didn't just attract more monsters.
If Neptune was bothered by his yelling she didn't show it. "I just have it, don't you have one?"
"If my memory is correct monsters didn't exist back where I'm from, so why would I have one?!" Lucas asked making an effort to keep quiet.
"Alright, got the Reflex," Compa's voice interrupted them as she came towards the two with quite a few jars filled with green liquid. "With these we can heal any injuries we get."
Lucas stared blankly at the jars and then past Compa where the dead Dogoo's were and had a feeling of what that was before he just turned around and walked away, thinking he should just nod and move on from here on out.
Probably less stress that way.
For the next few minutes, the group has done nothing but fight monster after monster with them being Dogoo's or something called a Pixelvader that looked like a thing from the Space Invader game.
It was because they kept popping out of nowhere and Lucas had to say he was really surprised by how weak they were. Sure Compa said that this Dungeon had weak monsters, but this wasn't what he was expecting.
Neptune groaned after the seventh encounter while Compa gained more reflex. "These guys are way too easy, how are we going to get stronger with them?!"
"Well we are leveling up." Compa pointed out with Lucas pausing as he pulled out his phone, remembering the Status App.
Hesitating for a second he pressed it only to see a Lv. 2 on the page for him along with stats making him stare.
'Name: Lucas
Lv. 2
HP: 1130
AP: 33
STR: 9
VIT: 11
AGI: 10
INT: 40
MEN: 45
LUK: 34
EAD: (F) 0% (W) 0% (I) 0% (E) 0%
PDF: 0%
MDF: 0%'
Actual Video Game Stats.
At this point he was having more of an existential crisis.
But hey his Stat's weren't half bad if he does say so himself-.
"Wow those are some bad stats." Neptune's voice said from next to him making him jump as she was looking over his shoulder.
"Okay first off personal space," Lucas said side stepping a bit away from her. "Secondly what do you mean bad stats?!"
"Lulu can I see?" Compa asked before Neptune could say anything and after a few seconds of hesitation, Lucas obliged with her looking them over. "Well your Intelligence and Mentality are pretty high, but your Strength, Vitality and Agility are low. Your Luck is average though."
Lucas opened his mouth to say something only to shut it in thought.
So half of them were good while the other half were horrible?
Though he's not surprised about his bad stats given how inactive he was back home.
Handing him back his phone, Compa asked for Neptune's with Lucas staring, wondering why she didn't use said phone to call for someone she knew only for him to see Neptune's stats with her Strength being pretty damn high in their 40's along with her Vitality and Agility.
"Compared to Nep-Nep your physical hits don't do much damage."
Feeling his shoulders slump, Lucas realized something. "Wait so what does my Intelligence and Mentality increase?"
Does that mean there's Magic in this world? Would he be able to use them?
Neptune stopped listening about halfway though, instead just looking around before seeing another chest that she moved towards with haste.
Compa smiled as she knew that one. "It increases your bullet damage silly." She said while Lucas fidgeted considering he didn't have a gun. "Mentality also increases your defense against magic so it doesn't affect you as much."
So he'll have to be a ranged attacker? He's certainly in the worst possible position out of everyone here in terms of weapons.
"Da-da-da-da!" Neptune cheered drawing their attention to see her holding two items above her head from the nearby chest.
They looked to be a sledgehammer and some sort of bell on a stick.
"Hey Lulu I think we found you a new weapon." Neptune said twirling the hammer like it was styrofoam.
Lucas quirked a brow before thinking it would be better than the pipe as he walked over and grabbed the handle that she was holding out to him.
Though when she let go, the weight of it made him slam to the ground showing how incredibly heavy it was with it cracking the floor.
"What is this Mjolnir?!" Lucas managed to cry out, trying to lift the damn thing before Neptune easily picked it back up.
"I guess it's too heavy for you." Neptune said with a shrug with Lucas feeling his eye twitch at how easy it was for her when he nearly throw out his back trying to make it nudge.
"What's a Mew-mew?" Compa asked completely butchering what Lucas said.
Lucas just sighed, not wanting to get into that.
Instead he pointed at the bell. "So what's that for?"
"Dunno." Neptune said placing the bell behind her where it disappeared.
… Lucas had so many questions about that part.
Nothing much really happened except for finding a few other chests with them getting more Reflex's as Compa called them.
Though they did fight a few more 'monsters' with Lucas actually nearly getting killed as they did the most damage to him whenever he was hit which really made the whole ranged fighter thing sink in.
And that lead to this argument.
"I'm just saying you don't need a damn gun." Lucas has been trying to get Neptune to let him borrow the gun so he could keep his distance. "You practically tear through them with a wooden sword."
"Get your own." Neptune held hers protectively while sticking her tongue out at him. "As the main heroine, I need to keep my equipment at its best. I just got the Fire Bullets and I want to use them."
"You have a katana and a gun, I have a freaking pipe." Lucas tried to make her understand.
Compa was actually ignoring the argument by humming to herself with a wide smile and he wasn't bothering her about it because her 'gun' if one could call it that was her Syringe which was also her melee weapon.
How she managed to have that work, Lucas will never know.
"Again, get your own."
Lucas was really resisting the urge to pull his hair out as Neptune wasn't listening to reason before he sighed. "Fine, if I die because you wouldn't give me a gun I'm haunting you."
"Oh our path is blocked." Compa's voice made the two look ahead to see a steel wired fence blocking their way forward.
"So do we climb it or what?" Lucas asked only for Neptune to walk forward with a grin. "Neptune what are you-?"
"Just leave it to the Heroine." Neptune said pulling out the hammer, twirling it.
Lucas just grumbled at that, being reminded of how much weaker he was in comparison. "Show off."
"Great thinking Nep-Nep." Compa complimented right as Neptune reached the fence and raised the hammer up to slam it down.
But doing that made another problem.
Lucas stared wide-eyed before covering his eyes and turning around now red in the face while Compa gave a small eep with her turning the same color.
"There we go-what's wrong?" Neptune turned to be confused by what they're doing. "Are you guys getting sick?"
"Getting sick-?! Why aren't you wearing any pants?!" Lucas demanded as Neptune seemed to only be wearing a hoodie and the thigh-high socks.
He thought she had short shorts on this whole time which was why he didn't say anything until now as when she slammed the hammer down she ended up flashing both him and Compa with her white, blue striped panties.
"Because they're uncomfortable." Neptune said with a shrug, not getting why it was such a big deal. "Besides I can move more freely like this Lulu."
She emphasized that by kicking the air a bit.
Lucas opened his mouth to try and explain why it was a problem before shutting it, with a headache forming as he didn't want to get into this with her.
If he can't convince her to give him a gun or call him Lucas, there's no way he'll be able to convince her to wear pants.
So he turned to Compa. "Any chance you can convince her?" He asked in a slightly pleading tone.
Compa didn't seem to hear him, still red in the face which frankly confused Lucas before Neptune called out. "Times a wasting you two, we have a dungeon to complete."
Seeing that, Lucas placed a hand on Compa's shoulder shaking her out of her daze. "Huh? What?" Compa asked sounding a bit dizzy. "What's going on?"
"Neptune is running ahead." Lucas explained with her eyes widening as she went to catch up, shouting about the rules of a party which Neptune probably ignored.
Lucas just placed a hand in his hair, thinking that he'll never understand those two.
But he made a mental note to make sure Neptune gets some damn pants in the future.
"Well I'm stumped." Lucas said as they were at what had to be the furthest point of the factory where they stood around some sort of glowing purple circle. "Any idea what this is?"
Neptune gave him a weird look. "Why are you asking me Lulu? I have amnesia remember?"
"I was asking Compa." Lucas said with her going 'oh' while Compa approached it with a curious look, poking the circle. "Uh is that a good idea?"
Compa said nothing just walking around before standing up with a smile. "I have no idea what this is."
Lucas pinched his nose and sighed at that.
As that was happening, Neptune blinked with a bit of a glazed look as she could hear Histy's voice explaining something like how she did in her dream before meeting Lulu and after a moment she grinned and walked over to the purple circle, pulling out the bell she found earlier.
That action made Lucas and Compa give her a curious look. "Nep-Nep?" Compa asked following her. "What are you doing?"
"Histy just explained what this is," Neptune said surprising them as they didn't realize this Histy could still contact Neptune while she was awake. "By using this bell in the circle we'll be calling out the Boss of this Dungeon."
"Oh I see." Compa said with Neptune giving her the bell, both of them ignoring the terrified look that Lucas was sporting.
"So give the bell a ring."
"HOLD IT!" Lucas shouted right when Neptune said that, barely stopping Compa from following the order, seeing that out of the three of them he had to be the voice of reason.
"What now Lulu?" Neptune actually sounded annoyed, wanting to fight the Boss now.
Making sure that Compa wasn't ringing it first, Lucas spoke. "I don't know about you, but shouldn't we make sure we can at least survive when we do this by upgrading our equipment?"
He was already learning that trying to talk Neptune out of this was a lost cause, so he was trying to delay it for the moment and to do that he had to use video game terms that Neptune would understand.
Because he was pretty sure the equipment they had wouldn't be enough.
"It's a Boss of a tutorial dungeon, how hard can it be?" Neptune didn't see what the problem was while Compa fidgeted a bit.
"Tell that to Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Demon Souls." Lucas said listing the three games where it just throws you to the wolves from the very beginning. "A boss is a boss, we need to be ready."
Neptune quirked a brow, wondering what those three things Lucas mentioned were. "Lighten up Lulu, we're ready. The monsters here are a joke, so the boss should be as well."
"Um Lulu, Nep-Nep is right." Compa interjected not liking to hear them arguing like this. "We can take down the Boss together."
"See? Compa is ready, as long as we stick together we can beat anything." Neptune said raising her katana with a grin, like she was giving an 'inspirational' speech. "After all we're a party."
'Yeah a party of idiots.' Lucas thought with a sour look.
And yes he was counting himself on that list because he was an idiot to somehow get involved in this whole ordeal.
With that said and done, Compa began to ring the bell as everyone got ready right as the glowing circle disappeared and the air around them changed.
The pressure was making it hard for all three of them to breathe as the shadows seemed to enlarge before they heard movement from above. Slowly the party looked up to see the monster called forth right as it roared and dropped, leaving for them to scatter in order to avoid being flattened like a pancake.
That was when they got a good look at the monster and Lucas paled from seeing it looking like some sort of giant spider with crab legs, with some sort of humanoid upper body that carried a huge freaking sword that was the size of a damn tree.
"Why does it have to be a spider?" Lucas muttered in annoyance, trying not to think of the range this thing would have due to the sword while Compa actually looked terrified. "Freaking spiders."
"G-G-Guard Vermin." She managed to get out showing that she knew what this monster was while Neptune twirled the Katana and got in a stance.
"Pretty and Mysterious, Neptune of love and justice," Neptune declared as if she was making some sort of grand entrance. "In the name of the Basilicom, I'll punish you."
"... We're screwed." Lucas said in a calm tone to avoid freaking out again.
The Guard Vermin roared and shot at them, effectively separating the group as they had to keep their distance to avoid tripping over each other while Neptune and Compa began to use their ranged attacks to annoy it.
Lucas just kept his distance not exactly willing to get close with a rusty pipe against the giant sword it was wielding. "Neptune, if we survive this I'm going to kill you!" He shouted while Neptune didn't seem too worried about the supposed death threat.
His shouting however caught the Boss's attention as it made its way towards him, easily crossing the distance and it was only luck with Lucas tripping that he managed to dodge the blade swing as he could feel the air of it right behind where his head used to be.
He might need a new pair of pants.
"Lulu!" Compa tried to get its attention by using the fire bullets in tandem with her syringe, effectively gaining its attention.
But now it was focused on her only for Neptune to act suicidal and jump on its back to wail on it with her sword before being thrown off and colliding with Lucas.
"I think I coughed up my third lung." Lucas grumbled into the ground from the pain of having her collide with him.
"Wait we have a third lung?" Neptune asked not getting that it was a saying.
Lucas didn't dignify that with a response as he got up, ignoring the pain only to have Compa toss him one of the Reflexes she stocked up while the Guard Vermin actually backed off and began to climb the wall.
"Oh that can't be good." Lucas muttered taking a chug of the reflex after saying thanks to the Nurse In-Training.
Hm, it has a minty taste to it, and here he thought medicine always tasted horrible.
"If it jumps down I might be able to block it and leave it open to a counter." Neptune said prepping her sword with a grin showing that she was having fun. "Or was it called a parry?"
"Neptune, you have a wooden sword." Lucas slowly said trying to reason with her. "If you try to counter that it'll slice through the sword and then you."
Hearing that made Neptune frown. "You have a plan?"
"Yes, live."
"Um, that's not a plan Lulu." Compa managed to say as she got to them, looking rather tired, not taking her eyes off of the Guard Vermin that seemed to be watching them from the ceiling.
Why wasn't it attacking?
"It's a plan to me."
As they were talking, Neptune gained yet another glazed look as Histy contacted her.
"So is there any chance we can escape-?" Lucas went to ask only to see how Neptune wasn't paying attention to anything. "Oh great, Neptune has left the building."
"Nep-Nep?" Compa asked in concern and that was when the Guard Vermin made its move, dropping down towards them with the sword ready to impale the three.
Eyes widening they made to move only to remember that Neptune was out of it, so they quickly grabbed her by the arm and ran, half carrying-half pulling her right as the sword stabbed where they were with the shock wave of the attack knocking them off their feet.
"Owie." Neptune muttered as hitting the ground broke her out of whatever trance she was in.
"Welcome back, don't do that again." Lucas said without missing a beat, barely hearing anything else from how his heart was pounding.
"Nep-Nep what was that?" Compa asked still showing concern. "Did you get a concussion?"
"No, Histy contacted me."
"Okay, I don't know who this Histy is, but can't she wait until we freaking survive?!" Lucas asked in annoyance as this was the 'third' time this Histy contacted Neptune from what he knew.
And the second time was what got them in this mess in the first place.
Was Histy trying to get them killed?!
Neptune however frowned as she looked down at her sword, remembering what Histy told her and decided to give it a try as she closed her eyes and focused.
What happened next made Lucas's jaw drop as green energy exploded out of Neptune, the force of it pushing both him and Compa back due to how uncontrollable it seemed.
It would be later that Lucas realized that this green energy was actually data streams while Neptune's body glowed and was she getting bigger?!
The glow disappeared and someone else was in Neptune's place.
Besides being taller, her hair, which was now a dark lilac color, was even longer, kept in two twin tail braids, while her purple eyes were now bright blue irises and she seemed to wear a black form-fitting bodysuit that resembled a freaking leotard while she had on armored gauntlets and boots. Finally she had holographic wings that didn't seem to be attached to her body.
More than that, she also seemed a bit curvier too, something that Lucas quickly avoided looking at due to the shock of what was happening and that was before he noticed the giant dark katana that she was carrying.
"This power." For crying out loud, even her voice sounded more mature than what Lucas was used to. "Is this me?"
Neptune looked from her armored hand back towards Compa and Lucas who were staring at her in both awe from the former and shock from the latter, something that seemed to amuse her.
"What's wrong? Is my new form too much for you?" Neptune asked in a teasing tone.
Once more Lucas felt his brain shut down from disbelief.
"Nep-Nep you've gotten bigger." Compa managed to say as the Guard Vermin roared making them remember it was still here.
"Compa. Lucas. Leave this to me." Neptune said with Lucas giving a start at hearing his actual name instead of the usual 'Lulu'.
This was the first time she seemed to call him by his actual name. Was Neptune being serious?!
In the last two days he's learned that Neptune and Serious never went together, so this was new territory for Lucas.
"Are you sure?" Lucas asked remembering how strong this thing was given how it was keeping them on the defensive.
More than that, Neptune sounded a bit… Arrogant just now, more so than usual.
The question seemed to amuse Neptune however before she became a blur and slammed into the Guard Vermin sending it into to wall.
"Wow, Nep-Nep got a power up." Compa cheered as the monster tried to swipe at her but Neptune just flew around it, dodging with ease.
"You're finished!" Neptune had a crazy grin on her face right as she flew above the Guard Vermin and sliced right through the upper part of the body, effectively killing it as it burst into data.
"She did it." Lucas muttered in shock.
Neptune just killed the monster that they could barely touch in seconds once she turned into-what was that?!
Could Neptune do that this whole time?
He didn't seem to notice that the Guard Vermin dropped something that Neptune grabbed, instead he studied her.
Just who was she?
"Hm, that was a bit disappointing," Neptune frowned at how easily that battle went once she changed. "I was hoping it would put up more of a fight."
That snapped Lucas out of the shock he was in.
"More of a-?! We nearly died!"
Neptune's blade disappeared as she turned towards them with a neutral look before allowing a small smile as she walked towards them, the wings also disappearing.
'Wait, even the way she's walking is different.' Lucas realized as Neptune always ran with excited, barely contained energy but now she was walking in a confident, controlled strut.
It's as if she gained a new personality.
Making it towards them, Neptune crouched until she was at eye level with both Compa and Lucas before ruffling their hair.
"Yes you nearly did. But you're both safe now." Neptune promised right when she glowed and suddenly Neptune was back to normal, still grinning despite the unsure looks that Compa and Lucas were giving her, both of them confused on how to take this development.
To Be Continued..
Man this took way too long to type, I am so sorry for the long wait and I hope the trip through the dungeon and the boss fight made up for it. Plus I finally got around to typing about Purple Heart and I think I nailed the dynamic of how different she was, but there's always room for improvement in my opinion.
And now we have a hint on how Lucas will be fighting once he gets the right weapon. I had to replay the game to get back into the swing of things because there was a lot I forgot about.
Just like I forgot how slow the freaking combat was in the first game, damn it was like running through molasses. But it's a fun game, I hope they do remake it someday with better engines and I don't mean the Re;Birth one, just the actual game as they left a lot out of Re;Birth.
Okay I better get the reviews out of the way because I think I left people waiting for far too long on this.
RMarcano321: Yup, Lucas will need all of the luck he can get. No themes for this story.
LightDusk16: A week? That's generous I was going to give him a day at most. Yeah Neptune is great to watch for a laugh at how her zaniness annoys the rest of the characters but actually dealing with it would really be stressful in the beginning. But Lucas is already starting to get used to her due to repeated exposure.
Taiman215: I don't plan to have anyone else from Earth show up in this story, but I do plan to try and have Nisa, Gust and the others join the party.
HunterXKiller87: Heh thanks, I'm happy you're enjoying the start of this story, here's hoping I can keep it up. Not going to lie, I had to look up what Isekai meant when I got this review, I've never seen the word before so it was a bit confusing for me at the time. Yeah I never got why some of the characters never worry about their families when they're in another world. If it happened to me that would've been my first thought. Waifu Wars? As long as it doesn't get too out of hand I think I can handle that. I'll take into consideration about using inspiration from different games as I want to try and make the world come to life in this story, though that might take awhile. Now you have me curious about your OEG fic so I'll look into it and don't worry you don't sound arrogant, I'm amazed to hear you have two million words when I barely have over 100,000 words for some of my stories.
Jeitron 2. 5: Thanks and yes it is weird that they're suddenly in Compa's house but that was how it was in the game as well. Neptune crash landed from the heavens and woke up in Compa's home. I might go back and try to add to it, but for now I'm just going to continue. Thank you, making Lucas-sorry Lulu's character was the tough part because I don't want him to be a pushover but I also didn't want him to suddenly be good at fighting or be a badass out of nowhere, while I do like those types of fics it does get old and I love doing some things differently. He'll eventually get to have badass moments but he'll be building himself up to them over the course of this story.
Carlos: I actually thought about that, but I'm still in the process of deciding how strong I want him to become in this story.
ex555: Wow that does sound badass and the image of Lucas using the weapon is burned in my brain, but I did hint that he wouldn't be a close quarter fighter in the first chapter due to how below average he was in athletics, hinted at when Henry easily caught up to him. He had his own strengths and weaknesses shown in that chapter that went into his stats for this chapter. He just needs to improve them now.