Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.
I just want to remind everyone that this fic is rated "M" for a VERY good reason.
And not just violence and swearing. There will be stuff that will disturb you. Not in this chapter exactly, but in later chapters.
Chapter 2
"What was with that yelling earlier anyway?" A slightly disgruntled female voice asked no one in particular as the person the voice belonged to plucked an eggplant off the vine.
"Don't worry about it, Chu," a large black rat said as he carried out a basket. "It's probably another refugee who managed to get this far. I mean, that's how you got here, Linda."
Linda, a green haired girl with grey eyes, a fair complexion and lithe body was wearing a tube top around her very small chest and green working pants. She snorted at the rat. "Whatever, Warechu, I'm surprised you're not with Compa."
"Ah..." Warechu blushed and rubbed the back of his head, "she was helping some people who got hurt and my arms aren't long enough to be of any help to her or the other nurses."
"Plus you're a dirty rat." Linda smirked at him, knowing that the other nurses in the area hated dealing with Warechu because he might have a bunch of diseases on his body.
"I'll have you know that I took a shower just four days ago!" Warechu yelled and crossed his arms, huffing in annoyance.
"I suppose for your kind that's pretty good." Linda said and looked up as Chrome walked into the field. "Hey, boss lady, took you long enough."
"Sorry, there was a problem with the Horsebirds that needed my immediate attention, something had them spooked." Chrome answered her. "So what did you need me for?"
"Yeah," Linda pulled out a cloth rag and wiped the sweat off of her forehead, "look, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news or anything, but the coolant units are going bad. They've been basically held together by bubblegum and paper clips at this point."
"And if they break down all the food inside the storage silos will quickly rot." Warechu added, though both already knew that.
Chrome bit her lower lip softly. "Is there anything that can be done?" When Linda shrugged helplessly, she sighed. "Great... Alright, I guess we'll be making a trip North then." She nodded at the looks she was given. "It's not like we have a choice. There's not much in Lowee between here and the Northern city."
Warechu sighed at that. "Well, at least the boats are in right now. Otherwise we're looking at a three week trip one way. Who's all going to go with?"
"I'll discuss it with the others tonight at dinner." Chrome shook her head. "Probably the same ones as usual though."
Warechu and Linda nodded and got back to work as Chrome left them. There was maybe eighty people at the outpost and the ones who usually went with Chrome when she went on long trips hardly ever changed.
"Hey, rat..." Linda looked at Warechu. "You ever go to the Northern City?" She asked while pulling eggplants free from the vines.
"Nope." Warechu shook his head as he helped Linda pluck eggplants. "How about you?"
Linda sneered, "I'm lucky to be alive, so no." She sighed, as did Warechu. Even if they hated the CPUs for allowing the world to get this messed up, there wasn't anything any of them could do about it.
After all, they were just regular people, not super heroes, what could they do against an evil Goddess?
(-)
Neptune had wandered around the compound. It had been more than four hours since she had talked to IF and had seen other children and adults around the compound. They looked a little dirty and some of them looked at her in fear, but for the most part none of them looked as bad as IF had been. Sighing, she put her hands in her pockets and continued to wander around, listening to any snippets of a conversation around her.
Most of what she heard were kids asking who she was, some people wondering what was for dinner and some were just fussing over each other.
Seeing a woman who was obviously pregnant with two young children playing near her made Neptune stop and look at her mind wandered back nearly twenty years ago to when she took IF, Compa and Peashy to a park when they were old enough to walk around without needing diapers. A small smile came to Neptune's face as she remembered the fun that she had that day. Mini-Histy hadn't been too happy that she had ducked out of work, but Neptune didn't care, between the three little girls and all the parents and children in the park that day, Planeptune's shares in the Ultradimension had increased quite a bit after people had seen that one of the CPUs not only loved kids, but also took them to the park to play with them. 'Yeah, that's what CPUs are, we make people happy, we don't do things like scar people horribly.'
Nodding, she turned and walked off, needing to see Chrome. She needed to correct the misunderstanding people had about CPUs and... "ACK!" Neptune cried out as she tripped over a rock and went stumbling forward before she crashed into a person and landed on them. "Oooof!" Neptune could admit at least her face was on something soft.
"Um, excuse me." A familiar voice spoke up and Neptune lifted her head to see this dimension's version of Compa looking at her with confused eyes. "Could you get off of me?"
"I'm sorry!" Neptune jumped off of Compa and giggled nervously. "I tripped and fell on you." At least Compa looked normal, same mini skirt, same sweater, same big boobies, same hair color and eye color. Her hair was quite short, looking more like a boy's haircut than what she was used to, but after seeing IF it was far less of a shock to her.
"Oh, that's okay then." Compa smiled and raised a hand up. "Can you help me get up?"
"Oh, sure, I..." Neptune trailed off as she grabbed Compa's hand... Or what should have been Compa's hand. Instead she saw was two hooks where her hand should have been. "What the Nep!?"
"Huh?" Compa blinked and looked at her hooks. "Yeah, I don't have my hands or forearms anymore, please help me up?"
"ACK!" Neptune yelped and grabbed Compa's arms to help her up. "Are you..." She trailed off and saw that Compa's other arm was the same as the one that she had grabbed.
"Don't you know it's rude to stare?" Compa pouted at Neptune and raised one of her hooks up to Neptune's face and Neptune looked as the hooks spread apart before closing back together. "Be nice or I'll squeeze your nose with these."
Neptune held her hands up and grinned nervously. "I'm sorry, Compa, I just never thought I'd see you with arms like that."
"Huh?" Compa blinked in confusion. "I never met you before. Did Iffy or Chromey tell you about me?"
Neptune slapped her forehead, that was twice now she had been like that. "Ah! No, sorry." How would she explain that she was from another dimension to the people here? She had told Noire in Plutia's world and the Tsundere hadn't believed it until she had seen the Histoire from the Hyperdimension who confirmed that Neptune was from another world. "Just a lucky guess?"
"Oh, okay then." Compa smiled at her. "What's your name then?"
"I'm Neptune, C..." Neptune instantly stopped and coughed a few times, "C-c-curious person extraordinaire! Yep, that's me, certainly not someone you would misunderstand to being a bad guy, I'm the main character after all!" Neptune giggled nervously as Compa blinked a few times before smiling and giggling back at her.
"You're a silly girl, Nep Nep."
Neptune smiled at that. At least that was something that was normal. If Compa actually got her name right for once, she would actually freak out and start looking around for the four Horsebird riders of Armageddon. "So, um, Compa, what do you do here?"
"Ah!" Compa's eyes lit up and if she had her hands she would be clapping them together at that moment. "I'm the head doctor that treats everyone here." She pouted and looked at her hooks. "Though it's hard to do more than just paperwork these days, the most I can do is make sure that everyone else does it right and read over the results."
"...Can I ask..?" Neptune stopped as Compa's expression darkened significantly.
"I'd rather not talk about it." Compa said, getting a nod from Neptune. "It's getting close to supper time, you wanna come with and get some food?"
Neptune grimaced slightly. "Um... I heard there was eggplants for dinner, I really..."
"Oh!" Compa nodded, instantly understanding, "you're allergic to them, huh? Don't worry, we have carrots, lettuce and potatoes tonight too."
Neptune sighed in relief, she was glad that she wasn't going to have to skip out on food at least. "Sure."
(-)
As they walked into the food hall, Neptune was surprised as she heard a familiar voice suddenly yell out. "Compa!" Warechu cried out and bounced into Compa's chest, hugging her as best he could and nuzzling her. "I missed you! Working with Linda is the worst! She just doesn't have your charm!" Compa just giggled and hugged him back, seemingly very happy that there was a giant rat hugging and cuddling her.
"Hey, rat, keep this up and I'll shove a carrot up your ass next time." Linda scoffed, her hair damp from a recent shower and wearing short and a light t-shirt over her body. "Huh?" Linda blinked as she looked at Neptune. "Haven't seen you before."
"I'm Neptune..." Neptune trailed off as Linda tried to pronounce her name and was struggling with it. "You can call me Nep, Nep-ko, Neppy, Nep Nep, Nepsy or something else. I know my name's hard to say." She wasn't sure why her name was pronounced the way it was, but that was just how it was.
"Nep, huh?" Linda smirked at her. "Well, that's a lot easier to say."
"So, uh..." Neptune looked at Warechu and Compa as they walked off with Warechu walking besides Compa. "...What's up with them?" She remembered that the Warechu of her world had the largest crush possible on Compa while the Warechu of Plutia's world had never developed that crush. Then again, Compa had only been five years old at the time. 'I wonder if he's even still alive, do rats live very long?'
"Huh?" Linda looked at Warechu and Compa. "They came to the settlement at the same time, apparently they're pretty close."
"...How close are we talking?" Neptune's voice was a little strained as she asked Linda who shrugged at her.
"Close enough that he helps her get ready for bed some nights since she has trouble getting in and out of her clothes." Linda wondered why Neptune suddenly face-planted into the ground. "Are you okay?"
"Just... Kind of surprised." Neptune muttered and wondered if there was something more there. Sure, it wasn't her Compa, and it really wasn't any of her business, but the thought of the two of them being that close felt... Wrong. 'Then again, this whole world feels wrong if IF has scars and Compa's missing her hands.'
Looking around the food hall, Neptune could see several long tables spread out with chairs around them. 'Kind of looks like that school cafeteria I once walked into by accident when I first became the CPU and got hungry on a walk.' Neptune giggled softly, that had been pretty embarrassing when she had to ask for directions back to the Basilicom. Some people thought she had a parent that worked at the Basilicom instead of her being the CPU. Neptune idly wondered what happened to some of those kids before shrugging, it wasn't too important at the moment.
"What? Surprised we have a meal hall?" Linda asked, scoffing as Neptune nodded. "This place can barely sustain us as it is, if everyone had to cook their own meals we'd be short on power and water constantly."
"I guess..." Neptune wondered why the technology out here was so... Limited. Whenever there was a new city or town that popped up in one of their nations, the CPUs always made their ways out to the new city or town to make sure that everything was working right and if they needed anything to make their lives easier. "Um..."
"Oh, right, never told you my name." Linda muttered. "Name's Linda, jack of all trades farm hand. I fix the machines, take care of the crops and help the boss lady out when she needs it. Don't ask me to take care of kids or animals though, I suck at that."
"Linda, huh?" Neptune had a confused look on her face. "Huh, I don't know why, but I feel like I'd know you if you had a different name."
"Well, whatever," Linda shrugged and jerked her hand over her shoulder. "Come on, let's get some grub, I'm starving."
"Ah, sure." Neptune smiled and followed Linda. She may have felt like she knew the girl from somewhere, but at least this Linda seemed nice enough.
After getting some mashed potatoes, carrots and lettuce and something to drink, Neptune walked around until she found an open spot at a table. "Yum! Time to eat!" She smiled and dug into the food.
"No way!" IF's voice was heard and Neptune turned her head to look at the table behind her where Chrome, IF, Linda and Filyn were sitting at. "You can't be serious, Chrome!"
"Unfortunately, I am." Chrome sighed softly. "We need new parts for the coolants and the only place we can look for them is in the Northern City."
IF snarled at her. "And risk running into that bitch of a CPU again?" She couldn't believe that Chrome would do this. Sure, if the crops went bad they would all suffer, but if something happened to Chrome, they would all suffer even worse!
After taking a few bites of her eggplant slice, Chrome gave the burned girl a serious look. "You think that I want to risk it? Besides, the CPU will probably be busy with whatever catches her fancy and we're not going to be going too far into the city. The boats are in, so the trip won't take too long and I'll call Artisan ahead of time to have her find the parts we need so we can just go there, get the parts we need, do some quick trading and get back here."
"That's still going to take almost two weeks round trip." IF grumbled, but she conceded the point. "But I'm coming with."
"No way," Chrome shook her head, "I know you're strong, but I've been watching you, IF, you can't even help in the fields because of how low your stamina is. Your skin cracks when it gets hot and you have to be careful with what you lift."
IF winced and deflated. "But I can help. At least let me come with, we need new clothes around here for everyone."
"Among other things," Chrome muttered softly. "Fine, you can come with if you want, maybe taking a boat trip will do you some good with the water that will splash all over you."
"I'm coming too!" Filyn suddenly yelled from her spot next to Chrome and crossed her arms over her chest. "You aren't leaving me behind."
"Filyn..." Chrome sighed softly and shook her head before kneeling so she could look the small girl in the eye. "Please, I don't want you to go with, because I don't want anything to happen to you."
The girl narrowed her uncovered eye and pouted. "But Chromey! I already lost Poofy! I don't want to lose you too!" She knew Poofy would probably be okay, but she still didn't like the fact that Poofy was gone.
Chrome sighed and hung her head. "Filyn... Fine, you can come with." Filyn gasped and her eye lit up before she hugged Chrome, thanking her over and over again.
"You gave in quick." IF smirked at Chrome, who rolled her eyes while hugging Filyn.
"I'd rather have her with me so I know where she's at than have her sneak on board and not be prepared for it." Chrome answered as she broke the hug with Filyn. "Or worse, go the wrong way and get lost and almost eaten by a giant dragon again." She smirked as Filyn blushed and looked down. "Alright, so that's three... Who else..?"
"I'm coming too!" Compa spoke up as she walked up to the group while holding a tray that had all her food on it. Sitting down with Warechu next to her, Compa smiled as IF and Warechu helped her set her tray down. "Thank you. Anyway, we need medical supplies and I know which ones we need."
Chrome didn't even bother arguing and looked at Warechu. "Well?"
"...I don't know if I want to go with, if we run into the CPU, who knows what she'll do to us." Warechu shivered before stiffening as he felt something cold and metal touch his cheek. Turning, he saw Compa smiling at him sadly. "Compa?"
"Won't you please help us?" Compa leaned in and gave him a small kiss on the forehead. "Please, Warechu?"
Chrome rolled her eyes as Warechu stood straight up and proclaimed he'd do anything for Compa. It wasn't her place to judge the two of them and if they got along, who was she to say no? "So is that it?"
"No."
Chrome blinked and turned her head to see Neptune standing there. "You want to come with?"
"That's right." Neptune nodded at her. "...You don't even need to bring me back. I have things I need to do there."
Chrome shrugged, if it was a one-way trip at least she wouldn't have to deal with this girl at all. "Fine, we can give you a lift that way." She looked at Linda, who was ignoring everything while eating. "Linda!"
"MMMPH?!" Linda choked on the food for a moment before coughing and turning to look at Chrome. "Boss Lady?"
"Get ready, you're coming with tomorrow as well."
"Aw man!" Linda groaned and hung her head. "I get seasick, you know that!"
Chrome smirked at her. "Tough it out, you're the only one who knows what we need to fix the coolant units." That was a lie, she knew how to do it too, but there was no need to tell Linda that, the girl took pride in the fact that she was pretty good at mechanical stuff.
"Fine, fine..." Linda grumbled as she ate while other people came into the dining hall.
"Ah! Chrome!" A new voice spoke up and Chrome turned to see a small girl with bright blue hair, green eyes and a bunny costume ran up to Chrome. "Gust is done looking at the phone you gave her. It can call again, but Gust is confused." She pulled out a large cell phone from her pocket and gave it to Chrome. "The inside was very advanced, more circuits and wires than Gust has ever seen before."
"Ah," Chrome nodded and turned the phone on. "Well, now that it's working again, let's see just what's on here." Chrome touched the screen and started pressing icons. "Hmm? There's two contacts? Basilicom and Nepgear?"
"OH!" Neptune's eyes widened and waved her arms. "That's my phone! I was looking for it!" She stopped waving at the looks of anger being directed at her. "Um... Why is everyone looking at me like I ate the last pudding in the fridge that they were saving for themselves?"
"Basilicom?!" IF yelled and stood. "You're a spy for the CPU, aren't you!?" Snarling, she pulled out her katars. "I bet you're here to find out all you can so that you can tell the CPU where to strike."
Linda sneered as she pulled out a metal pipe and stood up. "News flash, even if you're buddy buddy with the CPU, it won't save you from her in the future when she decides you're expendable."
"What?!" Neptune jumped back and shook her head while extending her arms and waving them up and down. "No! No! My sister made that phone so I could call her in case I get lost in another dimension again!"
Suddenly the anger on everyone's faces turned to confusion.
"Um... I wasn't trying to keep it a secret, it just kind of never came up." Neptune giggled nervously.
Chrome sighed and took the phone before pocketing it. "We'll talk about this later. IF, Linda, both of you, calm down and eat your meals. Neptune, follow me, we need to talk."
Neptune nodded and followed after her, her food mostly uneaten.
"Hmm, if no one's going to eat that, Gust will." The bunny girl said as she sat where Neptune was and started to eat. "No point in letting good food go to waste."
(-)
Standing outside the dining hall, Chrome gave Neptune a stern look. "Why didn't you tell me that this was your phone?"
"I didn't know I had lost it." Neptune said to her. "I woke up naked on a bed and you gave me lewd panties!" She pointed at Chrome, who felt her eye twitching from that.
"Okay, enough about that, but what's this about another dimension again?" Chrome asked her.
"I told you, I'm Planeptune's CPU, at least in my world I am." Neptune answered her, "and my sister, my CPU Candidate, Nepgear, made that phone for me because apparently I keep getting lost in other dimensions and I can use it to call her." She blinked as Chrome suddenly held her phone out to her. "Um..."
"Prove it. Call her right now." Chrome watched as Neptune took the phone from her. "Just so you know, if this is some sort of trap to hurt any of us here, I'll kill you where you stand."
Neptune gulped and pressed the number for Nepgear's phone. "Well, let me just..."
"There is no signal, try again later."
"Try again later..." Neptune sighed and hung her head. "I guess I can't call across dimensions right now."
"...You really are serious, huh?" Chrome asked softly, getting a nod from Neptune. "Alright. I'll tell you what," Neptune looked up at her, "you'll come with tomorrow, but I want you to stay out of sight. I doubt either IF or Linda will trust you after knowing that about your phone."
Neptune nodded. "Um, can I ask you something?" Chrome nodded, "how come everything seems so..."
"Primitive?" Chrome asked, getting a nod from Neptune. She sighed and shook her head. "More like simple and efficient. This is a settlement of people trying to live away from the CPU and as such our lives are more difficult because of it."
"Oh." Neptune said softly, not really sure how to answer that.
"We have running water for sinks, showers and toilets among other stuff." Chrome shrugged at her. "We're working on modernizing stuff, but it takes time."
"Right." Neptune nodded, she could understand. After all, even Planeptune in her world hadn't always been as advanced as it was in the current age.
"Is that all then?" Chrome asked, getting a nod from Neptune. "Come on, let's get some food." Chrome would have to deal with Linda and IF on her own, but at least she didn't think Neptune was a spy of some sort.
Sadly for Neptune, by the time she got back, most of the food had been taken and even the food she was going to eat was gone.
Fortunately, there was food left.
Sadly for Neptune, it was just eggplants.
(-)
A little bit later...
IF sighed as she entered her small apartment and dropped her jacket off on the couch and kicked her shoes off before wandering into her bedroom and flopping face first onto her large bed. There was only her bedroom, the large living room with a television in it and a bathroom. There was a small refrigerator in her room that had drinks and her ointments for her burns, but that was it. "Lousy..." She hissed as pain ran up her back. "Fuuuuck!"
When she felt a hand push up her shirt before another hand put something cool on her back, she sighed in relief. "Nnngh..." She turned her head to look at the person with gratitude. "Thanks, Linda."
Linda gave her a small smile and pushed IF's shirt up and off of her while rubbing her back down with IF's medicated lotion. "Why do you want to go with? You could just stay here."
"...I'm tired of being here all the time. I want to at least see new places, even if it will just be a bunch of water and coast lines." IF answered her.
"...Are you tired of me?" Linda asked the topless girl as she rubbed the various burns and scars with the ointment.
IF turned her body and looked at Linda. "If anything, I should ask you that. I just want to travel, but I'm not tired of you." She sighed as she sat up and looked down at herself. "I hate this..." She yelped as Linda's hands went over her small chest. "Hey!" IF lightly protested and shivered as her chest was rubbed.
"You're still badly burned, Iffy." Linda whispered to her. "No matter how much you've recovered or the treatments you've gotten have fixed you up, you're still hurting badly."
IF nodded and sighed. "Fine, rub me down fully then."
As Linda rubbed and massaged her body, IF found herself relaxing and falling asleep, even as she was stripped out of all of her clothes.
Linda sighed as she continued to rub IF's burned skin down. She didn't know why she had taken a shine to the burned girl when she had seen her, maybe it was the fact that despite the pain she was in, she was trying to help out on the farm as best she could, or maybe it was just the attitude that IF had, Linda could certainly respect someone who didn't want any pity for her condition.
(-)
Meanwhile...
Compa sighed as she got out of the shower. Dinner had been interesting after the whole debacle with Neptune and her phone. 'Is Nep Nep a bad guy? But she seems so nice.' Then again, Compa knew of some people who worked for the CPU that were really nice and cheerful as a front.
"Miss Compa! Look! I made you this!"
"Miss Compa! Help! She's puking blood!"
"Miss Compa! Thank you! My sister would have died without you."
Compa felt her lips trembling as she dried herself off with the towels. "I'm so sorry you two, I wish I could have helped you some more." She looked at the hooks that were in place of her arms and sighed heavily. "But now I can barely help anyone."
After drying off, she walked out of the shower room, her towel still wrapped around her and into the changing area where her bra and panties were set up in such a way that it would be easy for her to get them on. As she got her bra and panties on, Compa sighed sadly. They weren't fancy or cute clothes like she had liked when she was living in Lowee City. Grimacing as she felt that her bra was on awkwardly, Compa shook her head and grabbed a robe that had been left out for her and slipped it on before walking out of the changing area.
"Compa," Gust, who had been sitting on the couch, nodded to Compa. "If you're done, Gust will..."
"Can you help me adjust my bra first?" Compa asked and sat down next to her. She sighed in relief as Gust did just that. "Thanks, it's hard to get that on by myself."
"Gust figures," the blue-haired bunny girl smiled at her. "Do you want your arms off?" Compa nodded and shimmied so that the robe would slide down her shoulders and Gust went to work unclasping and removing Compa's false arms. "At least they don't rust, huh?" Gust asked, smiling as she loosened one of the arms up and removed it. She couldn't help but look at the stumps that made up the remains of her real arms, her right one went all the way down to her elbow while her left arm was only slightly past the shoulder.
"Thanks." Compa smiled as Gust helped her get her robe back up over her shoulders. "I'm going to go to bed now."
"Sleep well." Gust said as Compa walked to her room and went inside. While Compa's apartment had been adjusted so that she could live in it more easily, it didn't mean that the girl didn't have troubles. Namely that she needed someone to come over to help her with her arms when she wanted them removed or attached. "Why would that monster hurt Compa so much? Compa was just a nurse and..." Gust bit her lip as the memory of when Compa's arms had been removed started to fill her mind. She shook her head. "No, no! Gust doesn't want to remember." After making sure that the prosthetic arms were placed on the couch, Gust got up and left the apartment for her own small apartment.
To Be Continued...
Oh hey, it's Gust. Why blue hair? ...Why not?
I think I'll just quietly slink away now that everyone's sharpening their weapons to come after me for what I did to Compa.