Arriving back to Nepgear's workshop it was oddly quiet, not completely silent but quieter than normal, a generator was humming from somewhere while Foxie's vanguard body stood tall and proud. Now that I wasn't being held by it I could see the girls had added a power symbol onto the side of its chassis, it was a nice touch to add a bit more character to the already huge death machine.
Nepgear stood at a small workstation close to the foot of the titan with her back facing us, as we approached I could faintly hear her humming a faint tune to herself as she worked on something. She heard our footsteps and turned around; a wide smile spreading across her face when she saw us both with Wolf Fang at my side.
"Ah welcome back!" She grinned and walked over to us,
"Heya Gear, I cannot thank you enough for this new weapon" I patted her head as I spoke resulting in a jealous "Hey!" From Neptune.
"I'm glad you like it, it took us a while to just decide on the first form before we thought of making another form as well" She hummed before she looked at it with a bit of worry in her eyes "Were there any mistakes or problems?"
"Not really any problems per say but there was something we were both surprised about..." I trailed off, remembering how the blade had gotten bigger, who knows how much stronger that could of made it. "We, as in I, twisted the hilt three times by accident. The weapon went absolutely berserk but when I swung the sword the blade was bigger"
Nepgear was quiet for a moment before she gently pulled the blade off my hip and immediately turned back to the workstation and began doing... things. With her back to us we couldn't see what was going on and honestly with the amount of sparks and weird sounds coming from her working on it I was too scared to move forward to check on what she was doing. Eventually she turned back with the blade and held it out.
"So yeah uh apparently a idea I hadn't meant to put in the blade was there... heh... well I've done a few edits to the weapon to properly incorporate the Exceed function so now we shouldn't have any risks of it exploding" She laughed awkwardly as I picked up the blade before what she said fully hit me
"Wait explode?"
"Anyway you came at a good time I just finished the second part of the set!"
"No no no you said it could explode"
"Come over I'll show you what I was working on"
Without a single regard to my complaints or if we were following her (Neptune flicked the back of my ear to get me moving) she stepped to the side when she reached the table and waved a hand towards the table revealing what lay on it. A large pistol lay on it, the sleek black metal parts contrasted with the silver underneath. On the side close to the barrel a gold skull with a single wing was etched onto it.
"This design was labelled as critical inside the tablet" Neptune explained as I picked up the firearm "There were a few notes about other designs linked to it but they weren't as critical as the pistol"
"I can understand somewhat.. but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this isn't as powerful as what it is actually based upon right?"
"Well... yeah you're right on that fact. But at the same time wrong"
"Uh... care to explain for myself and the readers?"
"The weapon can link with one of the designs we had sent to Lastation which will increase the pistols power"
"Oh. So you've somehow made an adaptive absolver bolt pistol... "What is the design at Lastation?"
"We've sent designs for a-"
Before Nepgear could finish the doors to the elevator opened and out came Histoire who once she spotted us hurried over.
"Ah I knew I'd find you here" Histoire greeted us, although for some reason she looked... stressed "You need to get moving to Lastation immediately, I received a broken up message from them and it seems like the siege is beginning to ramp up. Annonydeath seems to be intent on taking Lastation and if this keeps up he will take it over in a couple days"
If there was ever a moment to hear a pin hitting the floor it would of been then. Everyone was shocked by the sudden news that no-one knew what to say.
"Where is Foxie?" I asked looking around for the mechanical hound.
"He's on his way back already, he was out patrolling the area when we got the message"
"How long?"
"It'll be thirty minutes before he is back so if you have anything that needs doing before that you need to do it now"
With a curt nod I turned back to Nepgear "Nepgear do you have a holster for this pistol?"
"I'll get started on it now, its almost done so it'll be done by the time you got to go"
"You aren't coming?"
"I have too much to work on and someone has to make sure the Basilacom stays safe"
"Alright what about you Neptune?"
"I'll be coming with you, I'll help out getting everything together"
"Alright perfect, I'll go get Plutia"
With that we all went our separate ways, Histoire and myself getting into the elevator while Nepgear moved over and began working on the holster and Neptune went and did her thing. The elevator ride was silent until I got off.
"Thomas, if I don't see you before you go" Histoire called over stopping me from shooting off "Good luck, I know with the others you can save Noire and help us in this dark time"
"Thank you Histoire, keep Nepgear safe while we're gone okay?" I replied with a smile
She smiled in return and nodded as the doors closed. With that I continued on, it didn't take me too long to reach the room Plutia was last in. Opening the door I found her sitting on the bed, it looks like she just woke up from another nap.
"Hi Tom Tom" She smiled sweetly
"Heya Plutia, we are going to be moving to help Noire soon. Are you coming with us?"
"Suure, I haven't seen Noire in a while" She clambered off the bed and came over for a hug, which I gave her. "Where will everyone be meeting?"
"We're going to be meeting down in the hanger, we'll be getting Foxie to carry us over as we gotta get there quickly... also you know we are going to save Noire right?"
"Yeahh but I haven't seen her in a while still" Plutia grinned "Walk with me?"
"If you give me a moment I'll be ready to walk down with you."
Moving past her (resulting in a rather cute sound of disapproval as I stopped hugging her) reaching the closet I looked inside and sure enough the same trench coat from before was hung up. Quickly removing my hoodie I picked up the coat and put it on before returning back to Plutia and holding out an arm for her to grab.
"Shall we go my lady?" I asked in a fake posh accent causing her to giggle before she held onto my arm
"Let's go~" she grinned and we began making our way back to the elevator.
Looking out of the window gave me a fresh reminder how badly Planeptune had suffered, buildings while not always having obvious damage like broken windows or holes in them; all of them seemed devoid of life or the same colour as before. The grass was dying, nearly every patch of grass I could see was brown or even black while trees, if they were still standing, had no leaves and the bark had a sickly colour to it.
Only a few birds were around still and even they seemed to be devoid of the usual bright and joyful colours that I saw before. These were black and the sounds they made were anything but happy.
It was heartbreaking, this city, maybe even this whole world has lost its life and colour. All thanks to Arfoire and whatever plan she has. And that isn't going to keep up, she may of gotten rid of me but I'm back and she is going to wish she had used a more permanent solution.
"Dude I know the world has gone to hell but you don't need to be so edgy about it" The author whispered
Rolling my eyes at his comment I began pondering if I was actually becoming one of those edgy anime protagonists but before I could begin to ponder it too much we had gotten off the elevator and already reached the workshop. Guess the elevator didn't want me to brood too much.
The time before we were ready to go passed by in a blur, between getting passed between people for hugs and helping Nepgear make sure the holster fit perfectly I was kept busy.
"So how does it feel?" Nepgear asked as I twirled the bolt pistol around and holstered it, feeling like both a cowboy and Han Solo at the same time.
"Perfect, no need to make anymore edits hopefully" I chuckled, quickly pulling the pistol out and putting it back in again.
"Excellent, well now we have to finally do the check if your bond with Neptune and Noire still holds and how strong it is if it does" She replied, turning and beginning to go through the contents of a few boxes
"What are you looking for? Before you used a big machine with needles?"
"Well yes we did have that before but during Neptune's fight with Arfoire it got destroyed so I have had to remake it but this time smaller and easier to use"
She eventually found what she was looking for and stood back up holding out what looks like a scanner. Only difference was the needle underneath the screen. A needle she was pointing at me. Like a gun.
"Uh.. Nepgear?" I asked worriedly, backing up a few paces.
"Now just let me get a small sample of your blood, it won't hurt much I promise" The mad scientist began giggling as she began her approach.
So began the chase, starting off with me backpedalling while she slowly advanced before it turned into a full sprint. A sprint that was interlaced with having to vault over boxes and rails due to how cluttered the place was at times. Then the chase had someone else involved, Neptune thought we were chasing me because it was some game, a game in which she would win something if she caught me. Now I never told her this and neither did Nepgear.
So now I was running from Nepgear and Neptune.
We had managed to go around the entire workshop a couple times with Plutia clapping slowly and giggling at the whole affair before they caught me. Neptune had made a heroic leap and managed to wrap her arms around my waist slowing me down when Nepgear jumped on me as well pushing me onto the floor. A sharp pain came from my arm while I faintly heard Neptune calling out that she won the game.
Eventually I was able to get up, Nepgear having finally gotten off me after understanding that she can continue researching without sitting on my back and Neptune was pried off my waist. A few moments after I had stood up Nepgear had finished her research.
"Well I have good news and bad news" She started with "Good news is that you do still have that bond, while mainly being with Noire with only traces of Neptune's but it is still there. Bad news is that any power from this bond is going to be at best a small shield that'll let you resist a few hits"
"And at worst?" I asked fearing the answer
"It won't be dedicated to defence at all and you will need to get to Lastation and hope Noire managed to get the designs completed"
"So what is the design?"
"Well its a-"
But before she could finish speaking Foxie came bounding in coming to a screeching stop in front of me. The sound of his claws scratching against the metal floor drowning out what she said. I was tempted to ask her again but it seems like the universe, or it's the author being a dick, doesn't want me to know.
"It is time" He said ominously
"To duel?" I replied, I'm pretty sure I could hear Ethan face palming at that.
With a few quick jumps the mechanical wolf was on top of the titan and seemingly connected with it, causing the "eyes" of the titan to flash brighter and look down at everyone.
"Pilot please embark with miss Neptune and Plutia" The titan's voice send a shiver down my spine as memories of our first meeting passed over me.
Reaching down he opened a palm and I got on immediately with Neptune and Plutia getting on board as well. Nepgear looked at us with worry but she managed to stay silent and wave as Foxie picked us up, placed us on top of him and took a few steps forward towards the remains of the door before stopping.
"Miss Nepgear I request the predator cannon for use" He asked politely, within a few moments a mechanical arm came down shakily from the ceiling and attached the predator cannon to Foxie's back within easy grabbing distance. With Foxie armed and ready he turned back to face Nepgear.
"Good luck Big sister! Good luck Plutia! Good luck Thomas!" Nepgear called out waving "I'll tell Ethan you've gone on ahead and he'll meet up with you later!"
All of us waved a goodbye before Foxie turned back around and moved out of the workshop and then began moving towards Lastation at a decent pace that didn't cause too much discomfort with us sitting on top. We had a siege to break, a CPU to save and hopefully it'll go so well we'll be done before anyone gets too badly hurt.