Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.
A shorter than usual chapter. Sorry, just couldn't continue this one, you'll understand why.
Chapter 34
"So this is AZL?" Uni asked as K-Sha led them into an unmarked building. "Looks a little small..."
K-Sha smiled softly. "Oh, it's only small so no one pays attention to it." She said as she walked in and nodded at the guard, a rotund man who was laying on a couch, lightly dozing. "Anyway, come on in." She pushed a button and the door opened, revealing a glass elevator.
Stepping in, Uni looked out as K-Sha pushed a button and the elevator started to descend. "Oh wow!" Her eyes widened as she saw how large the place was. "What is this place?"
"A place that takes in strays like me." K-Sha said softly. "Hey, Uni..." Uni turned to look at her. "I'm sorry."
"Huh?" Uni asked before she started to cough and her vision started to blur. "Wh...What is this?"
"This elevator is filled with a gas agent as soon as someone pushes the down button if they don't use the key." K-Sha said, looking unaffected and Uni's eyes widened as she felt her body going numb. "It's just a sleeping gas. But everyone who's part of AZL is immune to it."
"K...Shla...Wh..y?" Uni slurred out as she slumped to the floor.
"Because," K-Sha walked over and leaned in close to Uni, "you and your sister are a problem that needs to be dealt with. AZL will help deal with you."
Uni felt her eyes tearing up as her mind started to slip into unconsciousness. 'Noire... You were right... I'm so sorry.'
K-Sha nodded as the elevator hit the bottom floor and several members of AZL stood there, armed with weapons and pointing at Uni, who wasn't responding. "She's out."
"She's the CPU Candidate, huh?" A redheaded man in a dark suit asked as he stepped forward and grinned at K-Sha. "Excellent work, K-Sha."
"Thank you, Master Enzo." K-Sha smiled at him. "What do you want done with her?"
"Move her to the lab." He said to the guards, who quickly moved to do just that. "It's time to see just what makes a CPU tick." If she didn't survive, that wasn't his problem. 'Besides, I'm sure that he'll be thankful for any data that might be useful for putting that redheaded attack dog on a proper leash.' Enzo chuckled softly.
K-Sha watched as Uni was dragged off and smiled softly. "I'll never forgive you lousy CPUs for letting my parents die." She grinned darkly as she chuckled.
(-)
Meanwhile in another part of Lastation...
"Well, well..." A male voice spoke up as several muscular men wearing leather jeans, leather short-sleeved jackets, boots, far too many piercings to be able to get into airports and weird hairstyles of all colors, walked out from a dark alley. "We got a couple of pretty girls here..."
In other words, the people were nothing more than punks in IF and Linda's opinions.
IF rolled her eyes and stepped forward, a smirk on her face as she saw some of the men jerk in surprise. "I dunno if I'm that pretty. See these burns? The discoloration? The scars?" She gestured to her face before running a hand down the rest of her body. "The rest of me's worse. Unless you want to see what a human body of jerky looks like, just leave us alone."
Much to IF and Linda's shock, the lead man laughed at her. "Oh man! It takes some balls to stand up to us like that." He smirked at her. "I'm impressed with ya girlie."
"I don't suppose you'll let us go then?" Linda asked and sighed as the men laughed at her question. "Stupid question, huh?"
"Yep." The leader said as his friends pulled out a bunch of guns and knives. "You can come with us quietly, girlies, or you can just..."
"Freeze." A voice that was obviously synthesized spoke up. The punks all paled and turned as they saw several Progbots walking towards them. "I suggest you use your right to remain silent. Before I show your punk ass some Lastation violence."
IF sweat-dropped heavily and leaned in to Linda. "...Is that thing... Trying to rhyme? At this time?"
Linda nodded at IF's question. "I guess things are a little weird here. We should probably try to steer clear."
Both IF and Linda gave each other a look of utter horror and wondered how they got caught up in the robot's flow.
The punks sneered at the Progbots. "This is our turf, bots."
"Wrong answer." The progbot said and before IF, Linda or the punks could react, the progbots revealed several machine gun cannons in their arms and opened fire, eliminating all of the thugs in a red spray that painted the streets and walls red with blood and ichor. "Targets eliminated, threats contained, innocents saved, Black Void's priorities reached, notification of clean-up crew confirmed, resuming patrol."
"The fuck?!" Linda yelled at the Progbots. "You just murdered them!"
"Criminal scum must be eliminated." The progbot replied and the group marched on, ignoring Linda and IF.
"...Let's go." IF said, her voice soft. "I'm not feeling good." Linda gave her a worried look, but nodded. Both Linda and IF knew that there were people who weren't savory out there, the Voids were perfect examples of that. Both of them knew that such people tended to do bad things if they weren't stopped.
But seeing people gunned down in such a quick, brutal and vicious manner had disturbed both of them in ways they couldn't even begin to describe.
It was one thing to see a CPU brutally murdered right before their eyes as CPUs were nothing more than monsters that needed to be put down. But seeing humans murdered like that? Even if they were scum?
It was troublesome to them.
(-)
Elsewhere...
"Hmm, this must be the nice part of the city." Chrome said as she and Filyn got off the elevator and stepped out onto the sidewalks. They were very wide and capable of having three or four people capable of walking side by side comfortably, but they still eventually ended and there was no street for at least fifteen to twenty stories straight down. Chrome shivered as she walked to the edge of the sidewalk and looked down to confirm that it was basically a straight drop down. "How do people avoid falling to their deaths?" She asked no one in particular as she turned while holding Filyn's hand to keep her from falling down when she saw a young child stumbling towards the edge while trying to get a ball that was rolling towards the edge just ahead of the child. "Hey! Watch...Out?" She had been prepared to go after the child when the ball hit an invisible wall and stopped. "...Well, that answers that question." She said in relief, grateful that there wasn't a bunch of falling bodies to splatter all over the lower grounds.
"There's a barrier?" Filyn asked and took a step towards the edge of the sidewalk. Chrome held her hand to keep her from falling in case there wasn't one. When Filyn's hand was stopped by something that neither of them could see, both of them sighed and Chrome let go of Filyn's hand. "Well, that's useful, Chromey."
"I suppose when you're up this high you either have everything inside buildings or you have some other way to keep everyone from falling to their deaths." Chrome wasn't sure what to make of this kind of set-up, but at least people weren't falling to their deaths so easily. "At least the Void of this place has this set up." She muttered and the two walked down the sidewalk. When they got close to the corner, they noticed that there was some sort of actual tunnel for people to walk through from one corner of the current block to another. "...I'm actually impressed." The people didn't look like they were being traumatized, brutalized, sexually abused or anything else that they had seen so far. "...So what's the catch, I wonder?"
Chrome knew it wasn't likely they'd find anything in the nice part of the city, but at the same time, she wanted to see just what was in this country.
Besides, while the slums often told more of what the society was going through, the nice places of society told their own story as well. 'After all,' Chrome thought to herself, 'those who think they're better than everyone else tend to live in these parts of a nation.'
She wondered just what she would find while in this part of the nation.
Filyn just found the transparent tubes they were walking through to be neat. "It's like I'm flying!" She giggled, getting an amused look from some of the others who were crossing as well.
(-)
At an unknown location...
"Lady Noire..." A male voice spoke into the communicator. "I have lost contact with Lady Uni."
"...Steamax..."
"Do not worry, Lady Noire." The blue robotic ninja said as his eyes glowed red. "I shall locate and ensure that no harm comes to her."
"You better. I'd hate to have to erase your personality and recycle you for computer parts."
"NNNGH!" Steamax stiffened as his eyes stopped glowing. "L-l-lady Noire... There will be no need to do that." His eyes glowed again as he relaxed. "I guarantee you that Lady Uni will be returned in one piece."
"See to it." Noire said as the communication turned off.
"I will not fail." Steamax said while nodding before seemingly disappearing from reality.
To be continued...
Well, this stinks.
Also, I couldn't help but want to do that rhyming progbot ever since I thought up Cyberpunk Lastation. If you saw the Epic Rap Battle between Robocop and Terminator, you know what the progbot sounded like. XD