Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Chapter 55

Linda ran around the Basilicom's grounds as fast as she could. She jumped over a parked hover car and slid behind it before jumping on top of another one and sliding over the hood on her hips. "...You know, this would be cooler with explosions behind me."

When a car flew into the air and exploded, she sweat-dropped heavily. "Well, ask for something cool..." She trailed off as another car went flying into the air and exploded. "And get a terrifying little monster after you!" She yelled and ran over another car as more cars went flying into the air and exploding.

"Come on! Let Pea play with you!" Peashy yelled as she held onto Linda's pipe and used it to smash cars into the air, where they exploded.

"I just HAD to try and face the one with stupid strength, didn't I?" Linda groused as she got over the last car and kept running. "Crap! Think, Linda! Think! You have a little girl with stupid levels of strength, she's pretty stupid and..." Her eyes widened as a thought came to her. "She's still a little girl, right?" She slid to a stop as a car flipped over her and exploded as it crashed into the ground. Slowly turning her head, she shuddered as she saw Peashy running towards her with a big grin on her face.

"Yay! Now Pea can play smashy smashy with you!" Peashy's grin got wider as she ran forward at full speed.

"Wait!" Linda yelled while holding up a hand. "Wait! Please?" She sighed in relief as Peashy stopped. "Why do you want to play smashy smashy? That'll hurt!"

Peashy pouted. "But I like smashy smashy!" She swung the pipe back and forth a few times. "It's fun!"

Linda shuddered at the thought of getting hit by that pipe with the little CPU Candidate swinging it around. "But why me? If you hit me once with that, I'll go splat and then we can't play anymore." When Peashy pouted, Linda gulped softly. "Wouldn't it be more fun to not make me go splat?"

"But Pea wants to smashy smashy!" Peashy whined while swinging the pipe back and forth.

"Uh..." Linda gulped as Peashy got a gleam in her eyes. "Please don't?" She took a step back. "I still need to make sure that IF is okay."

Peashy blinked and tilted her head. "IF? Who's that?"

"She's kind of short, brown hair, tough girl, lots of scars on her face and body, skin that's four different colors, wears a large blue coat. You know, IF!" Linda yelled at Peashy.

"I...F..?" Peashy blinked a few times before her eyes widened as a flash of memory entered her mind.

*Flash*

"Huh?" Peashy looked at a girl who had yellow, red and blue streaks on her darkened skin. "Who are you?"

The girl, who had weird disfigures on her face, now that Peashy took another look, smiled at her. "I'm IF. You must be Leanbox's CPU Candidate, huh?"

"That's right!" Rom smiled and put her hands on Peashy's shoulders. "She's Peashy and big sis beat Green Void, so now she's with us."

"That's neat!" A girl with short, strawberry-blonde hair and two hooks for hands, smiled at Peashy. "I'm Compa. This is IF, but I call her Iffy." She gestured to a mouse. "This is Warechu," then to a blue-haired bunny girl, "that's Gust, and this," she motioned to the tallest girl, "is Linda. We're all good friends."

"Wow." Peashy smiled at them and looked at IF. "...You got weird skin."

Everyone winced as they heard her say that. While it was true, there was no need to be so blunt about it.

Peashy spoke up again before anyone could say anything. "It's so cool! I want to have skin with lots of colors on it too!"

*End flash*

"AH!" Peashy yelled, her pupils shrinking as she shook her head. "No! I don't know anyone named IF! I don't know Leanbox! I'm from Lastation!" She gripped her head as memories of swimming in the ocean flooded her mind. "NO! I never went swimming!"

Linda frowned at that. "No! You did! I have..." Whatever more she was going to say was cut off as several progbots landed near them, circling them.

"Eliminate!" The progbots pointed their cannon arms at both Linda and Peashy.

"H...Huh?" Peashy looked at the progbots with some fear. "But I'm Lastation's CPU Candidate. Don't shoot me!"

"Irrelevant."

Linda's eyes lit up suddenly. "Hey! Peashy! If you want to play Smashy Smashy..." She pointed at the Progbots while Peashy's eyes lit up while looking around. "They want to play."

"Really?" Peashy gasped happily. "YAY!" She threw the metal pipe in her hands into the air and ran towards one progbot, avoiding cannon shots while Linda ran away from the ones who shot at her, before grabbing it and slamming it onto its back. "Now! Smashy smashy!" She yelled and jumped on its chest before punching the head as hard as she could, shattering it into pieces. "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU LOSE!"

She jumped off the Progbot as several blasts ripped right through where she was and landed on one before bouncing off of it to the closest one while blasts ripped through the progbot she was on, laughing the whole time. "You can't catch me! Neener neener neener!"

"Halt in the name of the law."

"You want to shoot me!" Peashy countered as she jumped on the progbot that spoke and punched its head clean off of its shoulders. "Bad robot!"

Not far away, Linda was on her butt as she got surrounded by four progbots. "Um... Can you not kill me?"

"Enemies of the state must die."

"Well, shit, how..." Before Linda could contemplate anything more, there was a swinging sound through the air and all four progbots suddenly had their heads removed from their heads and fell down in a heap. "What the hell?"

"My apologies, but I do not think you wanted to fight them without a weapon." A male voice said behind Linda. The green-haired girl jerked and turned around to see Steamax standing with his back to her and a large ninja star in his outstretched hand while he looked over his shoulder. "You are an associate of the CPUs that came to Lastation, correct?" Linda nodded, a look of awe and fear on her face as she looked at him. "Then I shall assist you. After all, if Lady Noire is working with those other CPUs, then you are an ally."

"How do you figure that I'm an ally?" Linda asked, though she wasn't going to turn away someone who was strong enough to do that to the robots that attacked them.

"I don't, as far as I know, you could be an enemy, but if that was the case, why would you be lined up to be executed like Lady Noire was?"

"Fair point." Linda muttered and jerked as an explosion happened and Peashy landed not far away. "Um..."

"All the badbots are broken!" Peashy yelled happily as she grinned at Linda. "Now Pea wants to smashy smashy you!"

"Uh..." Linda gulped and blinked as something was given to her. Looking down, she saw a pipe in her hands. "Wait, what?"

"I caught it as I destroyed the progbots around us." Steamax told her as he slid to the side of Linda and took a stance. "I suggest that you go for body blows with her."

"The only place to hit would be her back or stomach." Linda commented and sighed. "I don't feel good with the idea of hitting her."

"Even if she's as young as she looks, she's still a CPU Candidate." Steamax commented to Linda. "She's far more resilient and durable than a regular human, even if she looks like she should be just entering school."

"...It's easy to forget that she's not human." Linda said softly. "Okay, let's go." She really didn't want to hurt Peashy, because of what it would do to Rom, Ram and Neptune, but she didn't want to die and leave IF, Compa and the others alone.

"Can we play now?" Peashy asked and ran forward at Linda, only to have the other girl jump to the side while Steamax thrust his leg out at Peashy, who took the hit and went flying towards a tree. "Owwies!" She yelled as she hit the tree and slid down. "That hurt!"

"I see what you mean." Linda muttered as she realized that such a strike would have taken her out. "Any suggestions?"

"If we beat her enough, I can put her to sleep. CPU Candidate bodies are similar enough to humans that I know various techniques to make her sleep. After that we can figure out how to undo what happened to her." Steamax said and jumped away as Peashy jumped at him like a rocket. "She is fast."

"Hey! Brat!" Linda yelled and Peashy looked at her as she swung her pipe at Peashy, who grabbed it and stopped the swing cold. "Um... Mercy?" She gulped when Peashy grinned at her. "Smashy smashy?"

"YAY!" Peashy yelled and lifted Linda up and over her head and slammed her on the ground, or would have had Linda not let go of the pipe when she was at the highest point and realized what was going to happen. "Aww!" Peashy pouted as Linda landed behind her. Turning, she found Linda's foot in her face, sending her tumbling away. "Oww!"

Linda panted, grateful for all the times she had to fight various monsters in the Lowee forests while she ran from the city to live away from White Void. Sure, the cuts, bruises and small scars that she had endured in her life sucked, but right now, she wasn't complaining about the fact that going through such things had toughened her up and taught her how to move and fight to survive.

"GRRR!" Peashy growled as she got up and glared at Linda. "Pea will smash you really bad now!"

"Distract her." Steamax told Linda, who nodded and ran in a circle around Peashy, who watched her and ran at her.

"Pea MISSILE BOMB!" Peashy yelled and launched herself at Linda so fast and hard that when she drove her head into Linda's stomach, somehow there was an explosion of energy that erupted into a dome of fire that surrounded the two of them while Peashy walked out of the explosion unscathed.

At least that's what it felt like to Linda as she was on her back, her stomach screaming in pain while the little girl grinned at her. Opening her eyes, she stared in fear as Peashy held a hand up. "Wa..."

"Smashy smashy time!" Peashy declared and punched down at Linda's head.

Linda stared in absolute horror as the fist got closer and closer. Just as it touched her nose, it stopped and Peashy went slack on her.

"Sorry for taking so long." Steamax said as he held his hand in a position that people sometimes referred to as a knife-chop position. "She was smaller, so making sure that I hit the right nerve cluster with enough force to knock her out was tricky."

Linda nodded and flopped her head back. "Just tie her up so she doesn't try doing that again."

"Of course." Steamax said as he lifted Peashy off of Linda and tied her up. "Are you okay though?"

"I will be when my stomach stops hurting, I don't feel like I'm going to die because I'm worried about my head getting split open and I know that IF's okay." Linda's eyes widened and she blushed at admitting that. "I..."

"I will not pry into your personal life." Steamax told her. "If you worry about this IF person, I'm sure that he or she knows that you care about them and are very lucky."

Linda smiled softly at that. "Thanks."

To be continued...

Smashy Smashy time is a terrifying concept.