With the horrid Ding! The elevator doors opened letting me and Foxie out into the Basilacom top floor.
"I need to look into changing the noise on that elevator" I muttered
"Noted but unlikely to occur" Foxie replied as Noire walked in from an adjacent room.
"Oh Thomas you're here" She said before noticing Foxie sitting beside me "um... What is that?"
"Foxhound's new body. Well one of two" I shrugged before walking away from the window over to her. "Why are you up here? I thought you'd be chilling with Neptune"
"I was but she left with the others to the roof. I was waiting for you so we could go up together..." Noire slowly trailed off finding a sudden interest in the city below us.
"Aw thank you my sweet wifey~" I chuckled as her cheeks brightened up upon hearing that. "Well shall you lead the way?"
With a small, almost unnoticeable, nod she began walking to a door located to the side and with a short chuckle I followed behind her; using my lanky legs to catch up with her and quickly kiss her on the cheek resulting in a squeak of shock.
"W what's with the teasing!?" She half squeaked, half whined.
"Like I said before your reactions are cute" I winked pulling her by the hand towards the door. "And I like you so it's natural"
This just resulted in some incoherent mumbling from Noire but I could guess she was happy with what I said.
Pretty sure I can hear a fabulous robot screaming in less than fabulous fury too..
Within a couple seconds of making that thought we came up onto the roof of the Basilacom where everyone was waiting.
"Noire stop trying to steal my man!" Neptune exclaimed when she saw us holding hands.
"Neptune your jealousy is showing" I spoke up. "I'm open to anyone remember?"
"With three goddesses vying for your attention I am surprised you are still alive" Blanc's monotone voice cut in "I hope you have a plan to tell us apart from Plutia's versions of us"
"I have a plan to tell Noire apart from the others" I replied, lightly squeezing Noire's hand. "You and Vert will just have to do something to make it obvious that you're from my dimension"
"So how will you tell Noire apart from her counterpart?" Vert smiled a dangerous smile. I can never let my guard down around her after she started teasing both me and Noire.
"I shall be calling my Noire darling if the other Noire is around" I chuckled and Noire's reaction was immediate, her cheeks flared up once more.
This caused everyone to laugh, even Neptune, who was looking a little jealous.
"They'll be arriving soon" Histoire spoke from behind us almost forcing me to turn just to see her.
"So how will this occur?" I asked before the air suddenly got warmer as a purple portal slowly began to form in the sunny sky.
"Like that" Histoire replied taking a sip of her tea.
From the portal I could see the outline of Plutia's Black Heart, Green Heart and White Heart flying down. I must admit that they look exactly the same as the girls from my dimension. Hopefully I'm gonna be able to tell them apart soon or this is going to get very confusing.
"This is what it's usually like?" I asked Noire after I stopped hugging her.
"Usually yes. Last time was... Different" She trailed off, a faint smile on her lips.
"I wonder why..." I smirked to myself.
Soon enough the girls landed on the roof and the greeting started. You don't know how weird it is to see Noire hugging Noire, two Verts exchanging jokes and laughing in a similar way and Blanc speaking to Plutia's Blanc. Both in a monotone. It's rather scary hearing them talk like that. You'd think they were terminators or something.
"Ah hello Thomas!" A small voice spoke up bringing me back to reality; looking around I was able to spot the smallest fairy on a book in my life. Like she could probably sit in my hand and use it as a chair.
"Histy?" I couldn't help but sound shocked. I knew she was small and I've written about her in my other story but this completely blew my mind out of the water about how small she was.
"Yes it's good to see you on your feet. Last I saw you; you were in a coma" Histy gave a small, apologetic smile "I'm sorry we couldn't meet sooner"
"No no it's fine" I replied waving my hand in dismissal "it's not your fault, blame the dragon who put me in the coma"
"Of course" she smiled before floating over to Histoire and they started their greetings.
It's weird being perfectly honest. These girls have just arrived and they know my name and what has occurred with me. But I know nothing about them. It's like when you go and meet family members and they just know everything about you but you have no memory of them.
"Foxie tell me something about your new body before I feel any more awkward" I looked down at him, hoping he had something interesting to talk about.
"Within this new body I have varying weaponry and modes which can be utilised" Foxie replied, his purple eyes reflecting the sun. "As for levels with this new form my level is linked to your own so I shall get stronger as you get stronger"
"Well we should get some quests going at some point. We're both going to need to get stronger to catch up with the girls" I mused "so what weapons have you got?"
At this point everyone had began moving inside where I can only assume is when the real questions will start. More than likely aimed at me.
"I come equipped with multiple throwing daggers designed to melt metal surfaces and the claws on this frame do the same" Foxie replied as he began walking inside, I followed close behind him. "Though I think the L.R.P.S will be more interesting to you"
"L.R.P.S?" I parroted half imagining Foxhound tearing robotics and monsters apart with his claws. Hey dogs are cool and robotic dogs capable of destroying tanks are even better.
"Long Ranged Propulsion System" Foxie explained. "By attaching to you through your armour I am capable of granting you long periods of flight. Basically I can turn into a jet pack"
"Jet packs.." Upon hearing that word my brain just completely melted. The word "Overpowered" started coming forward until I remembered that the both of us were still a pretty low level.
"Pilot now is not the time to start drooling the CPU's are awaiting you" Foxie barked pulling me from my daydream.
With a nod I walked into the room to find all the girls were spread out across multiple chairs and beanbags. All as pairs. So Darling and Noire were together, the Vert's etc.
"We've been expecting you Mr Fletcher" Neptune spoke up, putting on her evil mastermind tone while she petted Plutia as if she was a cat.
"You expect me to talk?" I chuckled going along with the James Bond theme she had going.
"Of course Mr Fletcher, you must answer all of my friends questions" she chuckled and like that the questioning began.
Most of the questions were simple ones of what has been happening, what's with my robotic dog, games I played etc. Though after a while a really good question came up. It was.. Wait why am I telling you like this? Erm... Flashback drama? Fine fine I'll take us back to it. No more questions now.
"Did you just really do that?" Neptune asked, a slightly confused smile on her face.
"Shush I said no more questions" I waved her off.
"Okay... Anyway I have a question regarding your adventure in the grove" Vert asked trying her best not to think in what me and Neptune were talking about.
"Go for it" I replied, idly patting Foxie on the head. He probably wasn't feeling it but it gave me something to do beside daydream.
"The tree said that when the witch returned her captain would attack. Or something like that" Vert's tone had changed to a very serious one. "You do know who this "witch" will most likely be right?"
"Yup Arfoire, old hag etc." I replied. "You know if I have knowledge of everyone surely I would know who she is?"
"That wasn't the real question" Vert replied dramatically "the real question is: what are you going to do about it? She will easily be a higher level than you and if she does something soon before you are a lot stronger we cannot bring you along"
There was a bit of a pause as I contemplated this before I came to the only answer I could.
"I need to go" I announced standing up and making for the door.
"Where to?" One of the Blanc's asked.
"A quest or fifty. After picking a few things up" I chuckled "it's time for a questing montage, because I am not missing out on the big fight with the big cheese"
Stepping through the doors I could hear Neptune ask the others who the "Big Cheese" was and I couldn't help but chuckle to myself as went down a floor and stepped into the elevator, Foxie getting in as well.
"Pilot there was an elevator in the previous room, why did you go down a floor to just take an elevator?" He asked.
"Well I was closer to the door to make my badass exit" I simply replied, pushing the button that took us back to Nepgears workshop.
"While that is true I do not believe it was as badass as you wanted" Foxie stated.
"How was it not? I left the room after declaring I would get stronger while accompanied with my robotic dog" I retorted gesturing to myself and Foxie.
"That only works in an anime and the main character usually is wearing something a little more badass than cargo trousers and a top"
"And what about you? Are you going to tell me you aren't badass?"
"Pilot I can be three separate things; a Titan, a robot dog and a jet pack. Being badass was and still is one of my prime directives"
"Watch out we've got sass over here"
Eventually the doors opened revealing the workshop was how we left it. A mess. But a good mess. The kind where your mum screams at you to clean it but you won't because you know exactly where everything is and cleaning it will result in stuff being lost.
Walking around the corner to where we left Nepgear we found her still asleep just how we left her.
"Should we wake her up?" I asked.
"I would advise it. We need her to make sure this body is ready for combat and it will give you time to finish the design work on your armour" Foxhound replied.
"True" I replied before I started poking Nepgears cheek "Nepgear wake up"
There was no response.
"Nepgear quick one of your machines is going haywire and is about to destroy everything!" I whisper-shouted to try and scare her into waking up and it worked like a charm.
It worked too well in fact. As she jerked upwards when she woke up so her forehead smashed into mine making me stumble backwards.
"Ow that hurts.. Thomas what are you doing here?" Nepgear asked looking at my confused while rubbing her forehead.
"Waking you up silly" I replied doing the same action in a attempt to calm the pain jolting through my head. "We need you to give Foxie a check to make sure he's combat ready"
"Oh of course!" Nepgear's eyes flashed with energy and she stood up. "This way Foxie"
As Foxie followed behind her, after throwing me an uncertain look or something like that; it's impossible to tell when he can't really show emotions, I moved back to my armour.
Thankfully the white paint I had put over it had dried allowing me to add purple to it resulting in a awesome mix of white and purple.
"This is going to look so badass" I smirked when I heard footsteps behind me causing me to turn around revealing Noire. "Oh heya Noire"
"Hey what are you on about looking badass?" She looked at me with the same head tilt everyone here does apparently.
"My armour, just gave it a paint job" I replied before the thought struck me. "Are you Darling?"
There was no response beside her cheeks flaring up.
"So you are my Noire" I replied "Good to know my plan works"
"I wish you thought up a better plan to tell us apart" She muttered looking around at anything but me it seems.
"Ah but my plan is better, anyway why are you down here? I thought you would of stayed with the others"
"We couldn't let you go off by yourself so we decided that at least one of us should go with you"
"Ah so you're the one?"
"One of two actually"
"Two? Who's the second?"
"She's waiting outside for us when we are all kitted out, she told me not to give any hints to who it was"
"Well as I'm pretty sure it won't be Linda as she's in Leanbox I have two guesses but I shall withhold from guessing"
"Probably best"
"Pilot" a familiar yet different voice called out.
Looking past Noire's shoulder I could see Foxie return with Neptune beside him.
"Did you change your voice Foxie?"
"Correct, I thought it would be best as my new body has been finished"
"So you've picked Cayde-6's voice?"
"He is a robot and I liked his voice so I chose it. Is there a problem?"
"Nope it's good, we've got Noire and someone else joining us for our questing montage my the way"
"The way you said that indicates you don't know who"
"I have a few ideas but I won't be guessing"
"Affirmative, this body is combat ready so we can leave when you are ready Pilot"
"Yeah sure I've got to let the paint dry first. Noire can you go convince Nepgear to go get some sleep in her room? She's starting to fall asleep standing up again."
And like that we all started moving. And by "we" I mean Foxie came over to me and sat down, Noire escorted Nepgear to the lift and went up with her to Nepgears room while I just sat down and narrated what was happening.
-ten minuets later-
"Pilot the paint will have dried by now" Foxie's voice brought me back to reality.
"Thanks for the heads up" I replied standing up and picking up the helmet gingerly.
He was right, the paint had hardened onto the helmet and after running my hand along it I couldn't even feel the paint on it. "I guess even the paints in this world are different"
"Indeed" Foxie replied as I placed the helmet back on the table.
"Right time to suit up" I muttered kicking my shoes off and sliding into the boots.
Soon enough I was almost finished, just leaving the helmet to put on. I must admit I still wasn't used to wearing this armour, probably due to the fact I have only worn this once before.
"Pilot, Noire has just arrived" Foxie announced his head turned to where the elevator was.
Turning round I remembered that Noire hadn't actually seen this armour before and it was pretty obvious on her face.
"Hey my eyes are up here" I smirked.
"Yes I know that" Noire rolled her eyes as she walked over and touched the chest plate "you don't need armour yet you still equip it. Why?"
"Instincts, you got to remember I didn't use to have this kind of power before so armour was the only way of taking a hit and surviving" I explained "it also just feels better if I have armour on"
"I suppose those are good reasons" she muttered almost to herself.
"Come on we should get going and meet our fourth party member" I turned and picked up my helmet, slotting it over my head. Within a few seconds I could see from it and gestured for Noire to lead the way.
It was a tight squeeze getting all of us into the elevator back up to the Basilacom ground floor. But we eventually made it. Sitting on a chair in the lobby was none other than the most dangerous and dominating goddess that ever existed. If you couldn't guess who that was then you clearly don't know the characters of Neptunia.
"Hi Tom Tom! Hi Noire!" Plutia exclaimed jumping out of her seat and waving.
"Heya Plutia, I'm surprised it's you not Neptune" I replied walking up and gently patting her head.
"Histoire said she had to stay as it wasn't polite to run off, leaving her guests behind" Plutia giggled.
"That does sound like Histoire" Noire spoke up from beside me. "We should get going if we want to get some of the better quests"
"True enough let's get going" I nodded walking forward towards the door. "Next chapter: Level grinding"