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

So if you can't figure out MAGES.'s hairstyle, look up Mashiro-tan dance on Youtube and see for yourself.

Chapter 69

As the ship touched down on a large stone rooftop, everyone sighed in relief that there hadn't been any really crazy incidents. "Who would have guessed that there was a place for flying ships to land?" Neptune asked rhetorically.

"I guess they had people show up at one point." Chrome muttered. "Or maybe they have an air force of their own and expect to land planes and ships at some point."

"Not with that storm out there they don't." Uni pointed out as the group left the cockpit.

Linda was the last one out as she flipped switches and pressed buttons to shut down the ship.

(-)

As they got out of the ship, the group looked out at Planeptune and Neptune was both amazed and dismayed by what she saw.

Instead of buildings and skyscrapers that were way more advanced than anything else in the world, she saw stone and metal everywhere. The place was a multi-layered maze just waiting to be explored. "I know a few people who would love to visit." She muttered as she looked at the city-state more closely.

While there were corridors between the buildings, every single building was connected by arches and sky-ways and the city was just massive in size. "I thought brick buildings couldn't be stacked up this high since brick walls become unstable and fall apart."

"I'm surprised you knew that." Chrome commented, since even she had no idea about that.

"I wanted to make a big castle in my first year as a CPU." Neptune giggled as she remembered that incident. "I built it up really, really tall but then it started wobbling and it fell apart. Histy wasn't amused and made me clean it up."

"Neptuna's silly." Peashy giggled while Uni nodded, amused at the story.

"There's a lot of magic in the air." Rom commented as she closed her eyes. "It's like the whole nation is saturated with magic, but that shouldn't explain..."

"Who knows?" Chrome said as she looked back and saw Linda coming out of the ship. "It shut down?"

"Other than the automatic systems, yeah." Linda nodded as she got off the entrance ramp and hit a remote to cause it to close up.

"So, like..." Neptune stepped in front of everyone and smiled at them. "I've got an announcement." Everyone looked at her in confusion. "I think, since this is the last nation, we should all split up into small groups."

"Huh?!" More than one person voiced their confusion at the same time.

"Well, it's just," Neptune smiled and winked at them while holding up her index finger, "you've all come a long way since we first teamed up." She nodded at Uni. "You too, Uni."

"...I have?" Uni asked, confused.

"Uh huh..." Neptune nodded at her. "So, I was thinking we could try to go in small groups while exploring Planeptune." She noticed Ram was looking nervous and walked over to the smaller girl. "What's wrong, Ram?"

"The last time we split up..." Ram fidgeted, "I nearly hurt big sis," her eyes watered up and she hugged Neptune, "and I nearly hurt Compa and I got a spanking and I don't want that again!"

"Good to see that I'm remembered, chu..." Warechu muttered, though he could understand the nervousness that Ram was feeling.

Neptune smiled and hugged Ram back. "It's okay, Ram. You'll be fine." Ram started to protest and Neptune grabbed her by her shoulders and gently pushed her away so she could look the CPU Candidate in the eye. "You, Rom and Uni came up with that awesome attack against the giant monster, remember?" Ram nodded and Neptune's smile increased in size. "So don't tell me that you think you can't handle something that comes up, okay?" Ram nodded and Neptune looked at the group. "That goes for all of you."

"But if you think you can't handle a situation, try to run away." Chrome pointed out and sighed as she looked at the group and smiled softly as they looked at her. "Neptune's right, all of you have grown since we started." She looked at Linda, IF, Compa and Gust and nodded. "After all, I doubt you four would have tried to help the CPU Candidates back in Lowee, yet all of you helped save them from being brainwashed in Lastation."

"I didn't." IF muttered and Chrome rolled her eyes.

"But you would have if you weren't hurt." Chrome told her. "I think I have to agree with Neptune on this. By now you've experienced enough, both personally and what you've seen others going through to know what to do in plenty of situations."

"So who's going with who?" Compa asked.

"I'll be going with Neptune." Chrome told her. "The two of us have business with that voice here in Planeptune."

"I'll be with Lady Uni." Steamax spoke up and looked at the CPU Candidate, who fidgeted and blushed softly. "Unless you'd rather..."

"No! No! It's fine!" Uni stammered, not minding it at all.

"I'll with with Rom!" Ram went to her twin and grabbed her hand, smiling at her sister. Rom smiled back and squeezed her sister's hand. "We'll be good together."

Neptune looked at the others, wondering how they would do stuff. Seeing Filyn looking somewhat sad, she looked at Peashy, who was looking around with sparkling eyes. "Hey, P-Ko." The little blonde girl turned to look at her. "Why don't you and Filyn go exploring?" Peashy looked at her with wide eyes and Neptune smiled. "You look like you want to go smash something, grab something or just have fun. So why don't you?"

"YAY!" Peashy threw her hands up and hugged Neptune tightly. "I love you, Neptuna!"

Neptune giggled and looked at Gust, Compa and IF. "Hmm, you three, Linda and Warechu... Um..."

"I'll go with IF." Linda said and then looked at Compa. "Why don't you, the rat and bunny go together?"

Gust sighed heavily. "Well, Gust is good at running, but Gust hopes that we won't need to run."

As the group started to spread out and went down the stairs at the corners of the room, Chrome looked at Neptune. "Are you sure about this?"

Neptune sighed and shrugged. "I dunno. I think they'll be okay. But they have to go out on their own soon, right?" Idly, Neptune wondered if those Candidates could ever achieve HDD, since they were born from Fearicite and not Sharicite. "...Hey, Chrome?" She asked while giving Chrome a look of uncertainty.

"Yes?"

"Do you think that they'll be able to go HDD?" Neptune asked and Chrome twitched. "What?"

"You ask that NOW?!" Chrome bopped Neptune on the head, causing Neptune to let out a yelp of pain and rub her head. "As for if they can or not... I don't know."

"...Let's find Histy, she can probably tell us."

Chrome nodded and the two left the rooftop.

(-)

In another part of Planeptune...

Cave grimaced as she swished her mouth again. "Blasted teleportation." She really hated how she couldn't handle it, even if she got sick to her stomach after each teleportation, the amount of time needed to recover was still less than the length of time it took to travel to distant locations on foot.

Taking a deep breath, she opened a large stone door and walked into a dank, dimly lit room.

"HMM?!" A voice that was distinctly male, but obnoxious. Cave shuddered as she saw the large, fat and yellow robot with a eyes that just screamed creepy and a mouth full of sharp, jagged teeth. "What do we have here? Bah!" He scoffed as he looked at Cave. "Some old woman with flabby tits?"

Cave felt her eyebrow twitching. "My breasts are not flabby, sir. I take good care of them, there's no sag."

"Not yet." The robot chuckled. "Now if you were like this little cutie, I might care." He shuffled to the side and turned and Cave fought the urge to shudder as she saw a brown-haired girl who looked like she was eight years old, who was chained up to the wall and completely naked while covered in slobber.

The girl raised her head in a slow, jerking motion. "H...Help me, nyu..."

"Sir Trick," Cave gave him a pleading look. "Please, let her go."

"Now, now..." Trick said while slurping his tongue. "I have to make sure that this cutie is completely clean and safe."

"What did I do, Nyu?" The little girl asked, confusion and hurt in her voice.

"Hmm..." Trick tapped his chin. "Actually, that's a very good question. I think I've had enough fun anyway. I'll let you go now."

The girl gave him a grateful smile. "T...thank you, Nyu. Broccoli will never do bad things ever again."

"No..." Trick's voice suddenly deepened. "You won't."

Cave winced as Trick's tongue lashed out and snapped the restraints holding Broccoli up while his tongue wrapped around the little girl's body. "Please! Sir Trick! I beg you! Don't!"

Trick chuckled as he threw his head back and his tongue unfurled while launching Broccoli up into the air. "Because you won't have a chance to do anything bad ever again!"

Broccoli's eyes widened in fear as she fell down, straight down, into Trick's open jaw. "NOOOO!"

There was a slamming sound of metal, followed by a sickening crunch and Cave screwed her eyes shut as she heard a grinding and crunching sound for the next minute.

"MMMM!" Trick turned to look at Cave, who opened her mouth and nearly threw up at the brown hair stuck between Trick's teeth and the blood coming out of his mouth. "Little cuties taste the best!"

"Yes... Well... The CPU has a job for you." Cave said while trying to not piss herself in fear. She was typically pretty brave, but compared to this monster, she knew she was just cannon fodder. "It involves some cute girls who are invading Planeptune."

"...Reeaaaaalllly?" Trick asked, his voice showing far more enthusiasm than Cave would have liked. "HOHOHOHOHOHO! I can't wait to meet them!" He bounced around happily as Cave took the shaking of the room as her cue to get the hell out of there. "Just wait for me, cuties! Papa Trick is coming for you!"

To be continued...

...And I thought Trick was creepy AF in canon. o.o

On a more serious note, I somehow managed to get a cyst that got infected and I got sick because of it. While it's gone now, I lost 4 days of writing because of it. Not going to post much (if at all) the rest of this week because of it.