Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.
Chapter 42
Sitting at her desk, Noire narrowed her eyes at Kei. "I'm beginning to lose what little patience I have left, Kei. If Anonydeath can't track those CPUs down, I may have to rethink a few things within the organization." The tone of her voice left no doubt what she meant when she said that.
Kei gave her a disarming look. "It's been two days since Uni was rescued," privately Kei wondered just where Uni had disappeared to yesterday. She knew she could just call Anonydeath to find her, but Kei decided that it wasn't important. "And we've managed to find something interesting out..."
Noire raised an eyebrow as Kei gave her an unmarked folder. Opening it up, she felt her eye twitching. "Some OTHER practical joker decided to use the Basilicom for their billing address? I'm not a fucking charity, if they can't pay for services, it's their own damn fault."
"Yes, but look at the next page." Kei responded and smiled as Noire saw the still image of Chrome. "And if you must know, we've located where that CPU is currently staying." Noire gave her a sharp look. "The Divine Dragon Hotel."
"...If she can afford to even get through the front door..." Noire narrowed her eyes. "Well, either way." She stood up and a small grin came to her face. "I think I'll pay her a visit. Any other information I should know?"
"There's others there with her. Possibly even the Planeptune CPU." Kei answered her. "Progbots and security forces are en route right now."
"And why wasn't I told?!" Noire yelled at her before running to the window and transforming while flying in the direction of the Divine Dragon Hotel.
"Because we needed time to get everything set up." Kei said softly and flipped open her phone before making some calls. "Everyone? It's time. Move into position."
(-)
At the Divine Dragon Hotel...
It was a subtle change, but Chrome nodded to Neptune as the two ate breakfast with Rom, Ram, Peashy and Filyn in the hotel room. Gust and Warechu had left to go to the hospital to be with Compa and Linda while checking on IF. While she had gotten out of the emergency room the doctors had insisted she spend a night for observation, just in case things went bad as none of them had ever seen someone with such burn damage on their bodies and survive.
When the walls to the hallway and the outside suddenly burst open and several progbots surrounded them, the two knew they were in for a fight. Neptune, who was looking outside, also noticed a bunch of flying security forces with their sirens blaring.
"SURRENDER! YOU'RE ALL UNDER ARREST!"
"What did we do?!" Rom yelled as she looked around, trying to figure out what to do next.
"This is obviously Filyn's fault." Neptune countered as she mentally counted the amount of enemies around them.
"How is this MY fault?!" Filyn yelled, her pigtails standing on end as her good eye went white and blank. "I've been with Chromey the entire time we've been here!"
"Your name rhymes with villain! So they obviously thought you were a bad guy." Neptune countered without looking at her.
"Stop joking around, this is serious." Chrome told them. 'Neptune, you REALLY need to work on your timing.' She mentally thought and flexed her fingers as her razor wire formed around her hands. "Neptune, I don't think..."
"Yeah, too small." Neptune nodded. "Even Pucchiko couldn't fight in here." Neptune looked around and pouted. "So not used to her not being here to correct me on her name."
"So..." Chrome began slowly as she shifted closer to Ram and Filyn slowly.
"...RUN!" Neptune yelled as she grabbed Peashy with one arm and Rom with the other and ran, full sprint, towards the burst in wall while sending out digital blades at the progbots in the air. Jumping from one to another, she landed on a patrol car while letting go of Rom and Peashy before turning and catching Filyn with her body. "Oooof!" Neptune grimaced and let out a cry of pain as Ram slammed into Filyn. "Chrome! Watch out!"
"No time!" Chrome yelled as she bounced off another progbot and did a dive-kick into the flying car, slamming through the front window and knocking out the driver. Before the other driver could react, Chrome kicked him in the head so hard that he slammed against the hard metal door and was out cold. "Sorry." She muttered and sat on the lap of the main driver before taking off with Neptune and the others holding on the top for dear life.
In one of the other cars, the officers looked at each other and back at the fleeing patrol car. "That was fast." The driver said.
"Fifteen seconds."
"Yeah..."
Both of them suddenly stiffened and looked at each other with blank, white eyes with black circles around them. "HEY! ALL UNITS! FOLLOW THAT PATROL CAR AND SHOOT IT OUT OF THE SKY!"
"WAAAAAGH!" The CPU Candidates all yelled out as they were shot at while Neptune fired back with several digital blades at the progbots.
Bobbing and weaving to try and avoid blasts, Chrome grimaced, both from the fact that her head was pressed up against the roof of the vehicle and the fact that sitting on this man's lap was quite... Uncomfortable at the current position. 'If I live through this I'm going to have to...'
"CHROMEY!" Filyn yelled out in fright as a spray of bullets were emptied into the patrol car they were on, rupturing the engines and sending the car plummeting to the ground below.
"WE'RE FALLING!" Neptune yelled as they disappeared to the city below.
(-)
Sighing as she walked through the lower levels of Lastation, Uni wondered just what she was going to do. She knew that she had to talk to K-Sha again, though it would most certainly be at gunpoint, to find out just why the other girl would betray her.
"Well, well, well..." Some rather... Ugly punks came out of an alleyway and Uni sighed as she found herself quickly surrounded. "A cute girl all alone? And in our territory no less."
"I'll ask you now..." Uni began, her vermilion colored eyes glaring holes into the punks, "will you let me go willingly or will you try to cause problems?"
"Oooh!" One of the other punks said and Uni found herself surrounded by them. "We got a tough girl here. Maybe we should rough her up to show her where she stands?"
Uni suddenly smiled sweetly. "Well, golly gee, it looks like you won't let me go willingly. Oh well." Before they could react to her sudden change of personality, Uni crossed her arms over her chest and an Uzi appeared in each hand. Uncrossing her arms and pulling the triggers, she let out a spray of bullets as she spun around in place while twisting her body and moving her arms while filling the gang members full of holes.
As the last one dropped to the ground dead, Uni scoffed at them and blew on the barrels of her guns before putting them away. "Pathetic. At least TRY to show a girl a good time when you want to have fun with her, huh?" She winked and stuck her tongue out.
As she put her guns away, Uni walked off, knowing that there would be some people around to clean up the dead bodies soon. Sure, it was cruel and cold, but Uni wasn't feeling particularly merciful after being betrayed, captured and experimented on. 'Well, I could have been dissected or turned into a cyborg.' She shuddered at the thought of losing her sense of self. People who had cybernetic implants to replace lost limbs or fix failing body parts like hearts, eyes or ears were one thing. That was pretty tame and wasn't bad. However people who had their whole bodies remodeled and turned into cyborgs bothered her.
Not only was it not natural, but there were plenty of documented cases of people who were turned into cyborgs who lost all sense of self and free will.
Personally, the CPU Candidate of Lastation couldn't imagine anyone who would want to turn into a cyborg.
After walking for several minutes Uni stopped and looked around in confusion as she heard loud thunder and a creaking sound in the distance. "What the hell?" She asked, looking around.
"Move! Move! Move move move move!"
"HUH!?" Uni's eyes widened as she turned and looked up a moment before something crashed into her at high speeds and flattened her to the ground.
"Oww, oww, oww..." The person that crashed into her groaned and pushed herself up. "Jeez! Chrome needs to watch for air turbulence when we're crashing." Hearing a groan, the person looked down and jumped back and off of Uni. "Nep wha?!"
"...That hurt you know." Uni groaned as she slowly sat up. "What's the big idea, crashing on me like that? And who are you?"
The girl in front of her blinked a few times before smiling and suddenly laughing. "Man! I keep crashing onto tsunderes for some reason." She laughed while Uni narrowed her eyes in annoyance. "Sorry, sorry. My name's Neptune and I..."
There was a sound of a falling object as a flying patrol car, which was on fire, crashed onto the street and slid several feet away from them.
"Chrome!" Neptune yelled and ran to the patrol car. "Rom! Ram! P-Ko! Filyn! Are you all okay?"
"Nnngh!" A blonde girl groaned as she slid off the top of the patrol car. "Neptuna, that wasn't fun." Two brown haired girls, one with long hair and one with short hair followed after her.
"Rom!" Neptune ran to the girl as she saw the cuts on her hands and side. "Hold on." She reached into her inventory and pulled out a small bottle. "This is a healing drink, it'll heal your cuts."
"Thanks, big sis." Rom smiled as she drank it and sighed as the cuts vanished. "I'm fine though. It didn't hurt as much as when that monster hurt me before."
Neptune pulled Rom into a hug and patted her. "Rom, it's never okay. If you're hurt, it's okay to cry about it, okay?" Rom nodded. "And I won't let you get hurt like you used to ever again, okay?"
"Dang it." Chrome muttered as she pulled the unconscious officers from the burning vehicle.
"Here." Uni offered Chrome as she helped her get the officers away from the burning vehicle. "Rather unusual for people who aren't security forces to be driving one of their vehicles." Uni casually commented to Chrome. "Unless you happen to be criminals of some sort."
"If we were, why would we bother pulling them from the vehicle?" Chrome countered. The next thing any of them heard was the sound of something ripping through the air as several things struck the downed patrol car, causing it to explode and sending everyone flying away from it.
"Oww!" Uni groaned as she sat up, shook her head and looked up to see dozens of Progbots swarming their position from the sky. "Uh... This isn't normal."
"Really?" Chrome asked as she stood up and she snapped her arms to the side as wires formed around her fingers. "Feels like that time when I accidentally walked into a Griffon nest." The worst part about that was those Griffons were overly aggressive and needed to be put down.
It hadn't made the resulting fight for her life any easier or better though.
"Aw man!" Neptune cried out as she saw the flaming wreckage. Standing up she pointed at the Progbots! "Hey! Watch it, buddy! You could have really hurt someone like that!"
"Talking to them won't help matters any, Neptune." Chrome muttered as she looked around. "...This is a lot more than I had anticipated."
"YOU ARE ALL UNDER ARREST. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN TERMINATION." One of the progbots told them.
"But I don't want to go back to jail!" Neptune whined. "The last time I went to jail I got molested and the time before that I was thrown in prison because the country was taken over by baddies!" She tapped her chin. "Should I count when I died? I ended up in Hell, does that count as prison?"
"Now's not the..." Chrome began before a black and blue streak zipped through the air and slammed into the ground, silencing them and causing the Progbots to stop moving while the security forces themselves seemed to get still at the introduction.
When the dust cleared, everyone stared at the CPU in front of them. Eyes that glowed vermilion in color, white hair with red tips, sclera that was as black as her upside down power symbol in each eye, a rather revealing body suit, several wings and a tell-tale hole in her chest above her breasts. "Well..." She spoke, her voice rather regal and dripping with arrogance. "About time I met the CPUs of Eden and Planeptune."
"Woah, Noire?!" Neptune gawked at what Noire was wearing. "Okay, I know you wear some pretty skimpy cosplays when you think no one's looking, but this is something I'd expect from Vert, not you." She certainly wasn't complaining about seeing Noire's bare thighs, shoulders, sides and her under-boobs though.
"You're the CPU of this nation, I assume?" Chrome asked as the CPU nodded and pulled out a large sword.
"CPU Black Void." She took one look at Uni and then turned her full attention to Neptune. "I wonder, what would a CPU from another nation be doing here. But then it occurred to me... You're probably here to assassinate me."
Holding up a finger, Neptune shook her head. "That's not..." Neptune trailed off as she slowly lowered her finger. "I mean..." She sweat-dropped as she thought about what happened in Lowee and Leanbox. "Um, Chrome..?" She turned her head and looked at Chrome. "Are we the bad guys here?"
Chrome slapped her hand to her forehead. "Neptune!" She pointed at Black Void. "Void! Bad thing!"
"Oh!" Neptune giggled and slapped her forehead. "Right, sorry."
"Big sis, please take this seriously." Rom sweat-dropped heavily. She loved Neptune, but the CPU had some seriously bad timing with her comedy routines.
Ram and Peashy were giggling at Neptune's antics, especially with the way that Black Void was looking at Neptune oddly, as if she couldn't believe that she was like this.
"...Are you for real?" Black Void asked, frustration creeping into her voice. "You call yourself a CPU and this is how you act?"
"Well, if I try to take things too seriously, people get worried about me for some reason." Neptune answered her.
"Besides..." Black Void narrowed her eyes at Neptune. "If I'm a bad guy, what does that make someone who threatens security officers and sends medical bills to the Basilicom to get out of paying for treatment?"
Both Neptune and Chrome sweat-dropped at that.
Uni just looked around at the whole thing in confusion. "Wait, what's going..?" Her question was left hanging as the sky darkened. Looking up, her pupils shrank as she saw a large flying ship overhead. "The C.I.D.?" It was a massive battleship that had been built only in the past few months and Singe had boasted its ability to transverse large distances with no problems while keeping a large force of progbots and other weapons inside and ready to go.
"Well, this stinks!" Filyn muttered as she looked at it and felt like death was crawling all over her. "What's up with that thing?"
Black Void, meanwhile, looked up at the C.I.D. with her eyes narrowed. "I didn't ask for that." Scoffing, she turned to look at Neptune and pointed her sword at her. "You, weird one, I think I'm going to have to deal with you now."
Neptune looked at Black Void and saw the look on her face. "I guess so, huh?" There was something about those eyes. While they bothered her and the feeling of wrongness that she felt around Plutia, Vert and Blanc was still there...
Black Void's eyes felt almost empty. White Void's eyes had been full of rage and hate, Green Void's eyes had been so full of lust that Neptune still felt a mixture of arousal and disgust whenever she thought about them and Iris Void's eyes had a gleam of pure psychosis in them.
It was as if this Noire had stopped caring about almost everything since becoming a Void.
"...I know it doesn't matter now..." Neptune whispered softly, "but I'm sorry, Noire. Sorry that I couldn't save you." A white light bathed her body while tears rolled down her face.
"What the hell?" Black Void jerked in surprise. "Since when do CPUs transform with a white light?"
"That's because," Purple Heart said as she finished her transformation, "I am CPU Purple Heart of Planeptune." She pointed her katana at Black Void and narrowed her blue eyes at her counterpart. "I'm kind of surprised that your eyes are red even in this form."
Black Void said nothing as she rushed at Purple Heart, who charged her and their swords clashed.
"What the hell is going on?" Uni asked Chrome, who gave her a neutral look. "What's with another CPU in Lastation? What's this whole "heart" stuff? Why are they fighting?"
Chrome looked at Uni and then back at the two CPUs fighting as they took to the air. "Tell me, what's your relationship with Black Void?"
"She's my sister." Uni answered automatically. "She's kind of distant, she doesn't try to get close to me, but she's..."
"Does she abuse you?" Chrome asked and looked at her. When Uni gave her a confused look, Chrome bit her lip. "She doesn't?"
"No!" Uni glared at Chrome. "Why would she?" She looked at the Progbots and was wondering why none of them were moving to arrest anyone, instead they just seemed content to hover in the air. "What's going on?" Uni asked, wondering why they weren't moving.
"When we met the CPU Candidates of Lowee and Leanbox, all three were being tormented by the Voids of those nations." Chrome said as she felt her body tensing up for some reason. "I have a bad feeling."
"YOU have a bad feeling!?" Uni snapped as her Uzis appeared in her hands and she pointed one of them at Chrome. "Some random CPUs show up in this nation! Fight my sister! And there's an army of Progbots everywhere!"
Not far away, Rom and Ram were both casting defensive spells over themselves, Filyn and Peashy in case the robot people took shots at them.
"I don't like this." Filyn muttered as she held her staff in one hand while Ram cast some offensive supports onto her and her staff.
"Me neither." Ram said, shivering as she looked at everything that was happening. "This is scary."
(-)
As she flew through the air and twisted around digital blades that were sent her way, Black Void spun around and launched herself at Purple Heart while batting the blades away. The two locked blades again and Black Void found, to her annoyance, that Purple Heart was not only capable of blocking her attack, but not even flinching at it.
"Answer me this, Black Void," Purple Heart spoke up as she pushed Black Void away from her, trying to knock her off balance, but Black Void went with the momentum and spun around enough to get her sword back into position to block Purple Heart's downward strike. "What's your malfunction?" Black Void gave her a confused look. "I've faced three other Voids." She said as she pushed against Black Void's sword, both of their arms trembled and shook as they exerted force against each other. "White Void was an angry and hateful monster that beat her sisters, Green Void was a perverted mess that was going to execute her sister and Iris Void was so psychotic that she not only killed her sister but all the people of her nation." Whatever reaction she was expecting from Black Void, she didn't get.
"The fuck?!" Black Void gawked at Purple Heart and stopped pushing against her blade and instead let Purple Heart's strength push her away. "What kinds of idiots would do something like that?"
Purple Heart hovered there, blinking at Black Void in surprise. "...I, uh, was kind of expecting you to say you beat puppies or something."
"Waste of time." Black Void countered and flew up into the air. "I'm too busy dealing with gangs, criminals and other scum to do crap like that."
Before Purple Heart could ask her what she meant, Black Void's sword started to glow brightly. 'SHIT!' Purple Heart swore as Black Void swung her sword at Purple Heart.
"Cyclone Strike!" Unlike Black Heart's Tornado Sword, which was a strike of energy, this Cyclone Strike was a blast of wind that lashed out at Purple Heart and sent her flying into a nearby building. Letting out a huff, Black Void rushed in at Purple Heart, who was pulling herself off of the building.
'You knew she'd be hard to beat.' Purple Heart thought to herself and launched herself at Black Void. "Cross Combination!" She had to admit, she was impressed as Black Void parried and blocked her flurry of attacks before twisting around her final part of the attack to kick her in the stomach, sending Purple Heart flying back.
"Is that all you've got?" Black Void narrowed her eyes at Purple Heart. "It makes me wonder how you survived against the other Voids of the world if you can't handle me."
"Not at all!" Purple Heart threw her hand back as she righted herself and launched two large digital blades at Black Void, who scoffed at her as the two floating USB connectors suddenly turned and pointed at Purple Heart before letting out two streams of energy, blasting the swords and turning them into particles of energy.
"You look so surprised." Black Void casually commented to Purple Heart. "Did you think that I wouldn't have any sort of long-range capacity?"
"A little, I admit." Purple Heart said as she floated forward, a small smirk on her face. "Though I would be far more disappointed if you didn't have some way to defend yourself at long range."
"Feh..." Black Void sneered and zipped towards Purple Heart as stabbed forward with her blade, only to have it parried by Purple Heart.
"Blaze Break!" Purple Heart declared as her sword lit up in flames.
"Frozen Order!" Black Void countered as her blade was covered in ice.
When their blades clashed with a dull ring, much like with Iris Void, their elemental powers were blasted back at the user.
While their elements were blasting them in the face, Purple Heart twisted her body and spun while getting behind Black Void and drove her foot into the small of Black Void's back, sending her flying into another building, kicking up dust and dirt, obscuring her vision of the other CPU. "I have to admit, Black Void, you're not bad." Purple Heart smirked, which increased as the dust cleared and revealed Black Void, completely unharmed.
'Hate to admit it, but...' Black Void felt a small grin coming to her face. "I'm kind of enjoying myself." Pulling herself free from the building, she launched herself at Purple Heart again, their swords clashing in a test of skill, speed and over-all ability once more.
'It's strange...' Purple Heart thought to herself as she twisted out of the way of a stab to her chest.
'...I feel so free right now.' Black Void thought to herself as her hip blasters fired quick and rapid shots at Purple Heart to make her dodge.
"But still..." Purple Heart began, fiery determination in her eyes.
"I can't lose." Black Void whispered to herself as the two flew in circles around each other, trying to find the best vantage point to attack.
"I will win!" Both CPUs yelled as they charged each other again.
To be continued...
Hey! It's about time these two finally meet and fight. Noire isn't in a mood to talk right now. Let's hope she can be reasoned with.
Also, gotta love Futurama references.