Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.
Just as an aside, this arc is not going to be anywhere near as long as the Lastation arc was.
...
Or at least, that's how I PLAN on doing this arc. We'll see.
Chapter 78
"Lady Uni..." Steamax said softly as he and Uni walked down a street. "What should we do? It is getting late."
Uni nodded and lightly bit her lip. "Getting Nepgear away from her sister kind of fell through, so I don't..." She trailed off as she heard a ringing coming from her pocket. "Huh?" Reaching into her pants pocket, she pulled out a cell phone and answered it. "Hello?"
"Hey!" She heard Neptune's voice on the other end. "I'm glad you answered. I have Histy and was wondering where you were at."
"Um..." Uni had a confused look on her face. "...How did you know I have a phone on me? And how did you get this number anyway?"
"I took one of Iffy's cellphones before we left the ship and put it in your pocket." Neptune answered her. "Iffy knows that you have one of her phones, so don't break it, she'll get mad at me."
"I'm tempted to break it now." Uni deadpanned and smirked as she heard Neptune's cry of dismay. "I'm neither that insensitive nor that careless with other people's stuff, so don't worry."
"Well, if you say so," Neptune didn't sound completely convinced, but she let it go, "so I called you first and I was wondering..."
"Well, I ran into someone named Nepgear," Uni pulled the phone away from her ear as Neptune let out a loud squeal. "HEY! That hurt, you know?!" She was glad she wasn't human, otherwise she would probably develop Tinnitus from that sudden and loud yell that was reverberating in her skull.
"Sorry, sorry." Neptune sounded apologetic at least. "I've been missing my Nep Jr. so much so the fact that you met my sister made me really happy."
Uni's face became solemn and she shook her head. "Neptune... I don't think that you'd like what we saw." She then described what she and Steamax had seen while they were out.
"...I see." Neptune sighed over the phone. "Nep Jr. wearing a maid outfit doesn't surprise me, even my Nep Jr. sometimes does that when I'm over-worked, but I never made her walk like that."
"...Hey, Neptune..." Uni said softly, "is this what Voids are really like?" She had heard what Rom, Ram and Filyn had said about the Voids they knew but had thought that they had been exaggerating somewhat.
"...Yeah." Neptune answered her and Uni sighed. "Hey, Uni, I..."
"It's okay. We should meet somewhere."
"Yeah, but... Is there a guild in Planeptune?" Neptune asked and there was a sound like someone talking on the other side next to Neptune. "Ah! Histy says there is one and we should go there."
"Histy, huh?" Uni said and nodded. "Okay. Where is..."
"Histy says we should use the transporters to get there quickly." Neptune answered her.
"Alright, we'll see you when we get there then." Uni nodded and hung up the phone. "Come on, Steamax." The robot ninja nodded and the two took off in search for a transporter.
(-)
Ten minutes later...
Uni walked into the main area of guild and looked around. The place was wide open with some papers on the wall with announcements and quests that people had put up, along with some computer terminals and Uni wondered why they would have paper on the walls explaining quests when they had terminals to do that stuff but shrugged it off as unimportant. The area with quests was like a hallway while the larger room that was connected to it had lots of large, circular tables, stairs on the sides and what looked like rooms upstairs for people to rest in.
"Lady Uni," Steamax spoke up, "the people in the other room seem really tense."
"Yeah, I noticed that too, it's like when..." Uni's red eyes widened as she saw Neptune, Chrome, some small fairy she didn't recognize sitting at a large table with Rom, Ram, Filyn and Peashy. "Well, I think I know why everyone's so tense."
"Indeed," Steamax nodded and the two walked over to the table. "Lady Neptune, Lady Chrome, I take it that this fairy is one of the objectives?"
"This is Histy." Neptune smiled as Uni and Steamax sat down. "Histy, this is Uni and her bodyguard."
"The CPU Candidate of Lastation?" Histoire asked and Uni noticed that she wasn't looking at anything in particular as she saw how Histoire's eyes looked like they had been removed.
"That's right." Uni answered Histoire, who turned to look in her general direction. "I've heard about you. You're the one who records everything in the world?"
"Sadly, in my current state, that might be impossible." Histoire told Uni. "Still," she smiled gently, "the fact that all of the CPU Candidates of the other nations are here, alive and in one piece fills me with hope for the future."
"You asked big sis Neptune to help us and bring us here, right?" Rom asked, getting a nod from Histoire.
"Yes," Histoire said softly.
"Anyway," Chrome, who was sitting next to Neptune, spoke up, "what did all of you do while you were out?"
"We met this crazy magic lady." Peashy said. "She had blue hair and acted really silly, but she kicked me really hard and beat Rom and Ram in magic."
"...Crazy blue haired magic lady?" Neptune had a contemplative look on her face. "...She sounds really familiar somehow."
"Sadly I do not know." Histoire shook her head. "I don't know anyone outside of the CPU of Planeptune."
"Her name is MAGES.," Ram spoke up, "she was really strong and scary."
Neptune snapped her fingers as she recalled who that was. "Ah! Right! MAGES.! I haven't seen her since she showed up in Plutie's world and hung out for several years."
"...Hung out for years?" Chrome muttered softly in confusion. "What..?"
"Ah!" Neptune smiled at her. "I was stuck in another dimension for over twenty years, remember?" Chrome's eyes widened as she recalled the conversation she and Neptune had awhile ago. "It was something like one year in Plutie's world was like a day in my world until Nepgear, Plutie and I did something crazy with shares and linked Plutie's world and mine together and now we can visit each other whenever we want."
"I assume it also fixed the time difference between your worlds?" Steamax asked, getting a nod from Neptune. "Interesting, I had no clue you CPUs could do something like that."
Neptune just grinned while giggling. "So, what else happened?"
"We went into the catacombs to go monster hunting." Filyn answered her. "There was a boss monster of a really deep floor on a higher floor, so we had to go kill it."
After Filyn, Peashy, Rom and Ram finished explaining what they went through, Neptune tapped her chin. "Huh, how come you didn't use a Holy Hand Grenade?" They gave her a blank look and Neptune sighed heavily. "Don't worry about it, just watch out for knights who want a shrubbery from now on."
It didn't take long for a waitress to come over to the table, she looked at Neptune nervously and smiled as best she could. "So, what can I get the CPU of Planeptune and her guests?"
Neptune gave the girl a confused look. "You look familiar to me." The girl had long, shaggy blue hair, a really petite body and blue eyes. She was wearing a waitress outfit and trembling. "Don't be so nervous, I won't bite you."
"Ah heh heh..." The waitress gulped heavily. "A...Anyway, c..Can I get your orders?"
"Ah, miss," Steamax spoke up, "while I know that she looks like the Void of Planeptune, please, rest assured that she is just someone who looks like her by random coincidence." The waitress looked at Steamax, a hopeful, but timid look on her face as she looked at Neptune. "Believe me when I say that this girl is not the person that you know."
"I-Is that so?" The girl started shaking and giggling. "I-I-I'm so-s-sorry, it's just..."
Neptune sighed and smiled gently at the girl. "It's okay, can we order then?"
"Oh!" The girl's eyes widened. "Y-y-y-yes, of course!"
Neptune sighed heavily and wondered why the girl seemed so familiar to her.
After getting the order written down on her data pad, the girl smiled, still obviously nervous and left the table to head to the back.
"Hey," one of the other waitresses said as she went into the kitchen, trembling. "How bad was it?"
"N...Not bad." The girl smiled, still looking like she was about to pass out. "They said that she just looks like our CPU, but I'm still worried that it is her."
"Hey, NISA," the other waitress smiled at her softly, "just relax, you're okay now." NISA nodded, panting heavily. "Why don't you take a few minutes and relax, okay?"
"Thanks." NISA smiled at her friend and walked into the back office, sitting on a chair to try and relax.
No one bothered to get her until the food for that table was ready.
To be continued...
Hey! It's NISA! The only Maker I hadn't gotten into the story yet. She drop-kicked me for not having her in the story yet.