Author's Notes: Wow. I managed to take four months to publish something that should have taken me about two weeks to do. I should get a medal for that.

Or a smack in the face.

Or maybe a smack in the face with the medal…

Still, I'm actually surprised (and glad) I got such a healthy dose of followers/good reviews with just the first chapter. It'd be a shame to just drop this story with all the feedback I got. Hell, I already figured out the major events in each of the areas (Sweet Mountain, Planet Wisp, etc.), so I personally want to see this through.

Also, for those of you who like to listen to background music while you read, you'll see music suggestions in curly braces scattered about the chapter (and maybe even the rest of story). They're purely optional, but give it a try anyway. Or don't. Your choice.


Chapter 2: Neptunian Space Odyssey

{BGM: Sonic Colors—Options Screen (extended)}

After about a minute of accelerating at a rate of holy crap per second, there was another announcement over the speakers in the elevator:

"Ladies and gentlemen…"

"But there are no gentle—"

"Shh!"

"…at this point in time Eggman's Ultra-Accelerating Space Elevator has stopped accelerating and will gradually slow down over the next 10-15 minutes. It is now perfectly safe to float about the elevator."

"Float? Wait, does that mean tha—huh?" IF stopped herself when she saw Plutia hovering out of her seat and seemingly sitting on nothing…while completely asleep.

"Is she seriously asleep already?" Noire said, appalled that her friend's habit has reared its ugly head yet again, "We've only been here for a few minutes!"

"Maybe the hum of the elevator put her to sleep…" Blanc wondered.

"I blame Neptune…" IF added. "…though Plutia would probably sleep on porcupines if they couldn't skewer her."

"Cool! I wanna fly, too!" Peashy yelled as she launched herself out of her seat and blindly started doing barrel rolls, "Weeeeeeeeee!"

"Wait, Peashy!" Vert called out, "Please be careful! You might—" She couldn't finish her sentence in time as Peashy smacked into Plutia's side, "Oh dear…"

"Ow! My head!" Peashy yelled while holding her head in pain.

"Wha…!?" Plutia was jolted awake and turned to the cause of her shortened nap, "Oh hey, Peashy!" She then noticed that Peashy was floating around aimlessly next to her. "How come you're flying like that?"

"Huh? But aren't you flying, too?" Peashy pointed out. Plutia then looked around and saw that she was farther away her seat than she probably should have been.

"Wow…I am flying! That's sooooo cool!" Plutia exclaimed. She then turned her attention to IF, who was now almost right below her, "Hey, Iffy, come fly with me!"

"I don't know if that's such a good idea. I mean, you two are having trouble moving around as it is." IF looked at Peashy, who was trying to swim around the cabin with little success.

"I know…but this is the first time we've ever been in space…so we should have some fun while we're here…right?"

"Yeah, but as much as I'd like to float around aimlessly like a drunken fish, I'll pass."

"Aww, Iffy…don't be such a party-pooper…"

"Party-pooper!" Neptune yelled from right behind IF while doing a handstand on her seat.

"Gah!" IF yelped and jumped up a bit in surprise. She then angrily turned towards Neptune, "D-don't do that! How did you get behind me so quickly, anyway!?"

"CPU skillz, yo. But if I were you, I'd be less worried about how I got here and more worried about where you're going to go." She told IF with a cunning smile.

"What do you mean—?" IF realized too late that she was dislodged from her seat thanks to Neptune's scare tactics. IF grabbed the armrests and tried to pull herself back onto it when Neptune suddenly started to push her away from it. "Hey! What do you think you're doing!?"

"Come on, Iffy! Why don't you want to fly with us?"

"Because this elevator is too big and I have nothing to propel myself with. I'll just wind up flailing around like an idiot."

"That's what makes it fun!" Neptune retorted, pushing even harder, "Now join us!"

"No!" IF tightened her grip in response.

"Please? What if I gave you some of my precious stash of pudding?"

"I'm pretty sure your 'stash' expired two months ago."

Neptune then remembered something, "Well, I'm your ruling goddess, and as thine goddess that doth rule o'er thou, I commandith thee to bond with us in our activities."

"Nice try, but it's still a no."

"Pretty please with expired pudding on—"

"I said no!"

"Come oooonn!" Neptune now had her feet on the heavy-duty (hopefully) glass wall and was pushing off against it as leverage, "One of us! One of us!" she started to chant.

"Would you knock it off already!?" IF was surprisingly strong, able to resist Neptune's entire body strength with just her arms. That could explain how she was able to hold her own even when dealing with supernatural beings or other CPUs. Or maybe Neptune's constant slacking off has caused her to lower her stats and lose EXP again.

It's most likely the latter.

"I heard that!" Neptune barked at the Fourth Wall. She then noticed that someone to her left was trying to push her away from IF, "Compa?"

"It's not nice to force someone to do something they don't want to do, Nep-Nep." Compa stated. She was kneeling on her chair, leaning over and using both her arms to try and push Neptune away. She isn't all that strong (unless that giant syringe she carries around secretly weighs 500 pounds), but you can't say she's not trying.

With it now a two-against-one, IF was winning the reverse tug-of-war and Neptune knew she needed help fast, so she pulled out her trump card: "Hey, Nep Jr.? Can you come over and help your poor sis out?"

"Umm…o-okay." Nepgear complied. She pulled herself over the tops of the chairs to get to where Neptune and IF were, but when she got to Nisa's seat, she noticed that the seat was empty. "Huh? Where's Nisa? Wasn't she just here a moment ago?" She looked back and saw that Uni was pointing to where Nisa was. Apparently, she took the liberty of practicing her superheroine skills and started "flying" around the cabin like a certain superhero from Krypton. She even got Peashy doing it, too. "Oh, I see."

"By the way, Vert," Blanc called to her, trying to ignore the fiasco on the other side of the room. Vert, using her right arm and hand as a headrest, was too busy ogling Peashy's cute flying technique to pay any attention to Blanc, "Vert?"

"Hmm?" Vert finally responded, looking right at her,"Yes? What is the matter?"

"Remember when I said I'd smack your stupid face and you just mocked me?" Blanc's expression got noticeably darker.

Vert knew that nothing good could come from Blanc mentioning something like that, especially with the face she was making. "Y-yes, but why are you bringing th—KYAH!" Vert ducked at the last possible moment as Blanc suddenly lunged herself at her. "Please calm down! There is no need to act—" Once again her sentence was cut short as she had to jump out of her seat to avoid Blanc's second attack. Vert could have just fought off Blanc, but fighting in the middle of space in an elevator with glass walls that were definitely not goddess-proof was a catastrophe waiting to happen. All she could do is try to avoid getting hit and hope that Blanc doesn't transform at some point.

"Things have really gotten lively, huh, sis?" Uni sweat-dropped and asked her sister.

Noire looked around. The Nep Sisters were trying to push IF away from the seats while frail little Compa tried to stop them. Vert and Blanc looked like they were playing an intense game of tag. Plutia looked like she was half-asleep again (maybe the stars are putting her to sleep?). Nisa and Peashy were bouncing around like kids in a zero-gravity bouncy castle. All Noire could do is just shake her head and sigh at the chaos. "Why is it that every time we do anything together, something ridiculous has to happen? Sometimes I wonder why I still hang out with these people."

"Well, wanna go flying around together?" Uni suggested, "I mean, may as well, right?"

"Why? We fly all the time while we're transformed. What makes this so special?"

"Well…" Plutia started, who had somehow made her way toward the sisters, "In here… we can fly around without the need to transform and burn energy…so we can just relax and have fun! Besides…I don't get to fly as much as the others because none of you let me transform…" Plutia pouted at that last sentence.

"We don't let you transform for a good reason! We all know how you can be when you're like that."

"You basically treat friend and foe the same way," Uni added.

"That's not true!" Plutia contested, "I don't hurt you guys…much…umm"

"You whipped me, Ram, and even poor Rom that one time, remember?"

"What?!" Blanc immediately snapped her attention towards Plutia instead of straight ahead, her right eye glowing red out of sheer anime-style fury, "You intentionally hurt my lit—" she roared as she consequently slammed into IF, dislodging her from her seat. The Neps rejoiced with glee.

"But…!" Plutia again argued, "That was in an alternate ending route…so that doesn't count…right?"

Blanc, surprisingly, calmed down and thought about what Plutia just said, though the throbbing in her head made it a bit hard to do so, "Well…I guess that's true. Alternate routes and endings aren't usually considered canon since they're not part of the main storyline, so you could just say it never actually happened."

"The Good Ending was not that well received, if I remember correctly," a muffled voice said.

"I-I thought we promised to never mention the Good Ending again!" Nepgear complained. Then she realized something, "Wait a minute…was that Histoire just now?"

"I think it was," Noire confirmed. She looked over to Histoire's seat and noticed she wasn't there anymore, "Come to think of it, where did Histoire go? Wasn't she in her seat a while ago?" She started to scan the whole elevator to see where Histoire could have gone to. Maybe Neptune forced her to get up, too?

"Actually, I still am, but…well…" the seat spoke. Wait a minute, seats don't speak. Well, unless they became sentient by some sort of witchcraft, in which case you kill them immediately.

Noire took a closer look at Histoire's seat and noticed that there was an indent with a tiny foot and hand wiggling out of it. Putting two and two together, she went over to the seat and reached in to grab whatever was lodged in there. Lo and behold, she wound up pulling Histoire out from her impromptu prison.

*insert jingle of your choice here*

[You found a Histoire! Now you can give Neptune longer lectures!]

"Oh, thank you, Noire! I was worried about how long I would be trapped in there! (っ´□`)っ" Histoire told her savior.

"You're welcome," Noire kindly responded with a sympathetic smile. It's not easy being a book-fairy-thing, especially with what Histoire has to put up with on a daily basis. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that you sunk into the seat because of the liftoff, right?"

"That is correct…u-unfortunately. It seems as though this lift was not designed with those of my size in mind. (^_^;)"

"Name one that is." IF challenged. Floating around wasn't as bad as she initially thought, but she still didn't like how she was put in this situation. She was currently hovering next to a wall so she can launch off it and get revenge on Neptune when the time is right.

"Touché."

"Okay," Noire resumed, "but why didn't you just call for help? It's not like any of us would have refused."

"Well, at first I tried to escape on my own, but…truth be told, the cushions on this seat are very comfortable…and…well… (;^~^)"

"You didn't want to leave," Noire finished the sentence with a deadpan expression, "That sounds like something Neptune or Plutia would do. I hope they're not rubbing off on you."

"Aww…don't say that…" Plutia said. Apparently she wasn't sleep—oh, never mind.

"Yeah, we're not contagious!" Neptune added, who now joined Peashy in flying all over the place, "Besides, procrastination isn't a virus!"

"Nobody said anything about procrastination, but it's nice to see you admit to your own problems," Noire stated with a very snooty-looking face.

"I know, right? You should try it sometime. It's good for your conscience," Neptune shot back, mimicking Noire's expression.

"I don't need you of all people to tell me how to act!"

"Agreed," Histoire added, "You should work on your own flaws before you try to work on someone else's."

"Yeah, what Histoire sa—" Noire paused and glared at Histoire, "Hey!"

"Don't worry about it, Noire. We still 'heart' you even if you're not perfect," Neptune assured, "and if you're always being a snooty-patooty."

"Okay, I get it," if Noire wasn't already annoyed, she was definitely showing it now, "You didn't have to—"

"…and if you're always such a try-hard…"

"Okay! Enough alrea—"

"…and if you're a tsundere otak—GAH!" Neptune yelped as a red-faced Noire suddenly bolted towards her. She managed to leap away in time, but that also put her on a collision course with Blanc. She leaned backwards and flapped her arms like an eagle in a futile attempt to stop herself, "Hey! Beep beep! Look out!"

Sadly, the warning came too late, for as soon as Blanc turned to see what was happening, her face met Neptune's feet, knocking off her hat. Blanc, of course, was a little displeased about that, "Dammit, Neptune! You piece of shit!"

Just a little bit.

Unfortunately for Neptune, Blanc abandoned her chase with Vert as she became her new target, much to Vert's relief (now she can focus on more important things like giving Peashy her undivided love and attention!). To make matters worse, Noire was still going after her despite her failed attempt, and now even IF was hunting her down. Neptune fled away from them, but she was truly between the proverbial boulder and rigid location. How was she going to get herself out of this one? Maybe she should transform…?

Yeah, she thought as she launched off a wall, when I'm HDD'd up, I'm not only super-fast, but I can fly around freely instead of waiting to hit a wall or something! And even if they got me, they won't do as much damage to me! It's flawless!

Flawless…except for one thing. If Neptune transformed, Noire and Blanc would probably transform in response, and the last thing anyone wants is an angry White Heart chasing after them. Well, angry Iris Heart would be worse, but at least she doesn't hit like a rocket-powered 18-wheeler on PCP. Maybe.

Well, Neptune thought as she kicked off another wall, there's always plan N. "Hey, Nepgear! Could you be a dear and—"

"She's not helping you," Uni spoke for Nepgear, both of whom were "sitting" on the tops of the chairs next to each other, "You brought that on yourself, so get yourself out of it."

"Yeah, like she'll listen to you over her own—"

"S-she does have a point, though," Nepgear pointed out, "Sorry, Neptune," As much as she wanted to help out her older sister, her survival instincts were telling her not to do it. She knows how IF and Blanc can be sometimes.

"What!? Nep Jr., you traitor!" Neptune cried as she barely dodged IF. She couldn't call anyone else because they were either pre-occupied or unable to do much anyway. What could Histoire do, tickle them?

Speaking of Histoire, she was currently floating along the edge of the cabin towards Compa (with ease, thanks to her natural flying ability); partially because she noticed that Compa had her knees on the chair and was staring outside for a while, partially because every other spot was becoming a serious health hazard for her. When she got next to Compa, she politely poked her in the shoulder to break her from whatever trance she was in, "Compa? Hello? ( ? ●_●)σ"

"Huh?" Compa turned toward the source of the poking and gave a heart-warming smile upon seeing who it was, "Oh hi, Histoire! What's up?"

"A lot of things, actually," Histoire said, briefly looking at the chaos behind her, "I've noticed that you have been staring outside for quite some time now. Is something the matter? (´・v・`)"

"Not at all! I was just busy looking at all the stars out there. I've never seen this many when I look up to the sky back home! Aren't they beautiful?"

"Yes, it is quite spectacular. ( 。^‿^。)" Spectacular was probably an understatement. There where millions if not billions of stars out in plain view, much more than you could see in an urban, or even rural environment. It was one thing to see pictures of space taken by GASA (short for Gamindustrian Aeronautics and Space Administration, for you uninformed plebeians out there), but the chance to personally see the surrounding galaxy in its full glory was a priceless opportunity that many astronomers can only dream of. Even Nepgear and Uni were staring outside in awe while talking between themselves. Histoire could see that there was a lot to take in, even when she looked straight down below. She could see the radiant totally-not-Earth below them, the massive yet skillfully constructed elevator system, an elevator cabin moving back down to the entrance, something else moving up in-between the elevator tracks, the plethora of stars surrounding the planet…

Wait a minute…

What's that thing moving up between the tracks? It wasn't the other elevator, that's for sure. Besides, this object was blue and way too small to be an elevator. She thought that this lift-on-steroids was fast, but whatever—or whoever—this thing was actually outpacing them and was getting closer ever so slightly. As it got closer and closer, Histoire noticed that this creature was definitely one-of-a-kind. First of all, it seemed to be running toward them. What freak of nature could possibly run straight up anything? How was it even breathing? It can't be anything human, that's for sure. Actually, upon closer inspection, it looked more anthropomorphic than human. Also, this thing appeared to be a male (he had that "male" vibe about him), and he had big eyes with green irises, red shoes, black nose, white gloves, blue spikes on his back…

Maybe she's being affected by cosmic radiation. After all, that tends to screw with anything involving circuits or flesh or whatever. Yeah, that has to be it. "Compa, could you look downward and tell me if something is coming towards us? (。_。)"

"Sure," Compa looked and saw pretty much the same things Histoire saw, including the strange object that was coming towards them, "Wow, sometimes I wonder how he's able to run up things like that…"

"Perhaps he inhaled heavy water vapors or bathed in electrically-charged chemicals like one of the superheroes Neptune talks about." Yeah, she's definitely affected by cosmic radiation. "Wait, what do you mean by 'sometimes'? Do you happen to know him?"

"Well, not personally, but I know from one of the games Neptune plays that he's—"

"Hold it, Compa." Vert commanded as she suddenly appeared between Histoire and Compa—because she can—causing both to almost jump off their book and seat, respectively.

"Eeep!"

"Heavens! How did you get here so suddenly!? Σ(゚Д゚;)" Histoire asked.

"I have my methods," Vert stated with a cunning smile, though she quickly became serious, "In any event, you should not reveal the character's identity so quickly." She grabbed Compa and helped her get back down.

Nepgear also noticed the blue streak speeding by (well, about to) and overheard Vert's statement, "Um, to be fair, his identity is pretty obvious considering…you know…his features and the setting of this story."

"Maybe, but it is proper storytelling technique to show, not tell," Vert smiled again, put her left hand on her hip, and pointed her right index finger up as if she was a teacher going through a lesson, "It is better to have the narrator gradually reveal someone's identity or have new characters reveal themselves, usually indirectly, than to simply have someone blatantly yell out everything about—"

"HEEEEEEY, IT'S SONIC! SONIC THE HEDGEHOG! HE'S FROM THOSE SONIC GAMES I LOVE SO MUCH! IT'S ACTUALLY HIM!" Neptune yelled out as she zoomed towards the giant window to get a better view. Vert remained smiling, though her eyebrow and mouth were now noticeably twitching. After a short while, though, she just shook her head and sighed to herself. Neptune will be Neptune, after all.

"Figures…" IF murmured to herself. She gave up the chase and went to see what Neptune was shouting about. She wasn't as enraged as the other two.

"Hey, get back here!" Noire called out, "We're not done with you yet!"

"Aww…leave her—*yawn*—alone, you guys…" Plutia groggily pleaded. Neptune's yelling probably woke her up.

"But she—!"

"You guys shouldn't be fighting so early in our trip…it ruins the mood," Plutia scolded.

"Well, I guess it does a little bit, but…"

"Besi—*yawn*—besides…we're gonna be at the park for the whole day, right? They'll be plenty of opportunities to punish Neppy later!"

"Fair enough, I guess," Blanc relented. Egging the conflict on would just make Plutia upset, and that's not a smart thing to do.

"Huh? Did you guys say something?" Neptune looked back.

"Nothing~" Plutia said with a false smile (or is it?).

"Oh. Okay, then," Neptune went back to admiring the speedy mammal that, at this point, everyone seemed to be looking at, "Hey Iffy, your phone has a camera feature, right? Take some awesome pics of the blue dude with attitude for me."

"Doesn't your phone have a camera feature, too? Just use yours." IF suggested.

"I can't! There's not enough memory left on my phone to keep HD photos, and this shot needs to be in HD!"

"Then delete the old games that you don't play anymore."

"I would never delete a game, no matter how old it is! That's, like, dissing the developers or something!"

"Ugh, fine, whatever, I'll take the picture," With uncanny speed, IF whipped out one of her cellphones, punched in the password, and got into camera mode. She aimed at Sonic's head and waited for the camera to get into fo—

"WAIT! I want him to give a thumbs-up and smile right at us! It'll look way cooler!"

"Okay, but how are you gonna—"

"HEY! SONIC! HEY! LOOK THIS WAY! HEY!" Neptune yelled with her face practically against the glass. Unsurprisingly, Sonic didn't even do a glance-over.

"Oh, geez…" Noire sighed as she shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose, "That's not gonna work, you know. There's no air in space, so sound can't travel anywhere."

"Stop trying to ruin things with your logic!" Neptune shouted at Noire before turning back to Sonic, "HEY! OVER HERE!" Nope, still not looking.

"As much as I don't like agreeing with her, Noire is right," Blanc stated, "How about you save us all a headache and…oh great, she's not listening."

"HEY! HEY! LISTEN!" Did it work? Take a wild guess.

"Did you seriously just make that reference?"

"SOOOONIIIIIIC!" she whined. Neptune was now knocking on the glass and seemed close to her breaking point.

Meanwhile, a certain goddess of Lowee was dangerously close to their own breaking point, "If you don't shut the hell up—"

"HEEEEEEEEEEMMRRFF—" Neptune yelled from her mouth before Blanc's hand forced it shut. Said hand also pulled on Neptune's mouth to face Blanc, whose piercing eyes were now almost an inch from her own.

"Stop. Now," Blanc commanded with as much cold fury as you could possibly squeeze into two words. She then let go of Neptune's mouth, but kept it close in case Neptune continued.

"R-roger that, Com-m-mander Blanc. Proceeding to s-stop now," If there was a Ten Commandments for Gamindustri, "Thou shall not anger White Heart" would be somewhere on there, right above "Thou shall not steal pudding from Purple Heart" and "Thou shall not delete Green Heart's save data". Neptune forced a smile on her sweat-drenched face, desperately trying to get back to her good side.

"H-hey!" Nepgear angrily shouted, "You can't treat my sister like that!"

"Whatever," Blanc said as she dropped her hand and started to move away from Neptune, "She stopped her screeching, so—"

"Got it!" IF suddenly yelled as a shutter-like sound played from her phone. Apparently, as luck would have it, Sonic had got curious as to what was near him and looked right the passengers while Blanc was dealing with Neptune. Some of them (obviously not Neptune and Blanc) waved at him, causing Sonic to smile and strike a pose mid-run. IF didn't miss a beat and got the shot Neptune wanted.

"Huh? Got what?" Neptune asked as she saw IF doing something on her phone.

"You wanted a shot of Sonic's face, so here you go," IF showed her the pic of Sonic posing for the camera.

Neptune stared right at Noire, "Ha! And you said it wouldn't work!" She crossed her arms with a triumphant look on her face.

"I-it was just a coincidence! It had nothing to do with your hollering! Most likely…" Noire defended, "Why is he even running up the stupid thing, anyway?"

"Because he's Sonic, that's why."

"That's a terrible explanation!"

"Well, why don't just ask him why he's running up the thing?" Neptune suggested while pointing towards Sonic with her thumb, "I'm sure he'll…" Neptune turned back to the outside and saw that Sonic was now almost out of sight above them. Neptune, who apparently learned nothing from what just happened two minutes ago, went right up against the wall with her hands cupped around her mouth and yelled, "HE—"

"Neptune…" Blanc growled.

"Oh, whoops! I almost forgot," She sheepishly said (with fear) as she backed away from said wall. She then realized something, "Wait a minute! Since he's going to the same place we're going, we'll run into each other again, right?"

"That would be nice," Nisa said, "He must be a very interesting guy to be around if he can just run up walls like that. I wonder if he's a fellow hero like me…"

"Of course he is! He's been fighting for peace and saving the environment before the hippies made it cool! He's been doing hero stuff before you were even born! I think…"

"Really?!" Nisa beamed up at the prospect of meeting up with a veteran hero, "Well then, we should definitely meet up with him the first chance we get!"

"You go do that," Blanc said with closed eyes.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the same voice form before suddenly said over the speakers, "we know that we said that the elevator will be gradually slowing down, but it appears that we will be arriving ahead of schedule. Therefore, we ask that you please return to your seats, as it will now be necessary to use heavier braking systems."

"'Ahead of schedule', hmm? Seems like those V.I.P tickets came with their own beneficial perks," Vert remarked.

"I would hope so! Otherwise, I'd storm into their little headquarters or whatever and demand a refund!" Neptune exclaimed.

"We didn't buy anything…" IF pointed out.

"Shh! They don't know that!" She whispered.

"Uh…"

"In any case, we should return to our seats before the elevator starts to brake (  ̄^ ̄ )っ" Histoire told everyone. And so, everyone…flew…back to their original seats.

"Are you all back in your original seats?" the voice asked.

"Yep!" Neptune happily answered.

"They can't hear—"

"Good," it responded, "the elevator will begin to brake in 10 seconds…"

"Um, there appears to be a slight problem," Vert warned.

"Huh? What's up, Vert?" Neptune asked.

9…

"These seats do not have seatbelts." As soon as she said that, Blanc quietly pushed herself off towards the ceiling, then half-back-flipped so that her feet were on the ceiling. She then turned around so that she wasn't facing outside.

"So? Safety is for wimps. Besides, we didn't need them before." Neptune said as Blanc "sat down" and then turned away from Vert to signal the others to follow her lead. Histoire didn't have to do much since she could just cheat with her magical flying book-carpet.

7…

"Yes, but that was because we were accelerating upwards. Did you learn nothing from the physics classes Histoire made you take?" Vert accused Neptune as more and more people repositioned themselves to match Blanc.

"Well, honestly, it was all too complicated and had way too much math involved, so I slept through most of it..."

4…3…

"Indeed, which is why you will go right back and make up those classes once this trip is over 눈_눈," Histoire reminded her from above.

"Aww, do I have…wait, why are you all…hunkered-down, upside-down, all-around like that?"

1…

Suddenly, the elevator made a loud screeching sound as both Neptune and Vert were launched towards the ceiling. Vert reacted quickly and flipped backwards, landing hard on her feet, but with all the grace of a certain Montague fighter from another game. Neptune attempted to out-do Vert with a double-back-flip, but she undershot the second flip and landed face-first onto the metal roof.

"Mrf...Mmrfrrmfmrfrmrf…" Neptune whimpered, sprawled out on the ceiling and unable to move no thanks to inertia. Peashy tried to help her out by pointing at her and laughing. Soon, most of the others started to laugh with her.

"Goodness, Neptune! Are you okay?!" Nepgear cried out. Out of instinct, she tried to lean over to offer actual help to her sister. Physics were having none that, and Nepgear had to go back to sitting upright and using her arms as supports to keep herself from smacking into cold steel (or whatever space elevators are made of).

"No worries, Nep Jr., I'm alright!" Neptune turned her head and assured with a smile. The incessant noise from the brakes made it somewhat difficult to have a normal conversation…not that anything normal was happening lately, "I kinda blew my moment of awesomeness, though…"

"That's okay, Neppy! I thought that flip you did was really cool!" Plutia said with a warm smile, "You're still pretty cool in my eyes…even if you did make yourself look stupid!"

"Aww, thanks, Plutie…wait, what was that last part?"

"She always makes herself look stupid," IF pointed out.

"Oh, really? You've always made yourself look stupid?" Plutia innocently asked Neptune, "I didn't know that..."

"Yeah!" Peashy spoke for her, "She's a real dummy!"

"No!" Neptune pouted, "I mean, yeah, I act silly and stuff, but I'm not just some dumb blonde! The main character has to be likable and respectable, ya know!"

"About as respectable as a door mat," Blanc muttered to herself.

Thankfully, the brakes were starting to ease up, so not only was the screeching noise going away, but it was actually possible to stand up and move around, though they still couldn't leave the ceiling. Everyone could feel this and decided to stand back up, since they knew at some point the elevator would stop and drop them back down.

"We would like to take this moment to point out that the wonderfully engineered seatbelts currently restraining you all have been donated to us by the magnificent Hirokazu Yasuhara and—" the announcer stopped as a faint voice in the background seemed to be talking to him, "What do you mean 'they don't have seatbelts'?!" Now he was arguing with whoever was in the background. "They were supposed to be installed onto the seats already! I gave them to you two to do just that!" A second voice spoke up. "NO, they weren't for you to wear! Why do you think they're called seatbelts, you imbecile?! Grr, I knew I should have had some of my Egg Pawns handle it instead of you two dipsh—huh? My what is still on?"

"Oh…"

The announcer cleared his throat after the very awkward pause. "If any of you would like to donate some high-quality seatbelts for our beautiful elevators, please report—"

The speakers made nothing but sparks and static noises as Blanc's sandals were now embedded into both of them.

"What kind of stupid-ass crap is that!?" Blanc roared, speaking for everyone and, apparently, doing all the raging for them, "How do you forget to put something that'll stop people from getting a friggin' concussion!? We wouldn't even have to do all this bullshit if they had just done their job!"

"Yeah, you tell 'em, girlfriend!" Neptune cheered.

"SHUT UP!"

"…sorry…"

"Um…" Vert cautiously spoke up, "As much as I agree with you, Blanc, I am pretty sure what you just did will get as all arrested."

"What!?" Neptune piped up again, "But, don't we have, like, diplomatic immunity or something? You know, like that dude with the metal face that can shoot lasers from his fingers?"

"No, we are not like that comic book character ( ; -_-)," Histoire shot down, "Even if we did have diplomatic immunity, committing vandalism will do nothing but cause people to question our integrity, and that would surely hurt our shares."

"Well, there doesn't seem to be any cameras in here, so it'd take a while for a staff member to take notice. It'll also be impossible for any scandalous videos to leak into the Internep. If anybody does ask what happened, we'll just say it was all Blanc's fault. I sure as hell won't go down for what she did." Noire declared.

"I...don't know if they would just let the rest of us off the hook that easily…(´・△・` ; )"

Blanc mumbled something under her breath as she walked over to one of the speakers and started to pry out her left sandal, "I don't understand how they made an elevator durable enough to make round trips to space, yet made the speakers weaker than papier-mâché." When she (eventually) pulled out the sandal, she inspected it for damage and, satisfied that there wasn't even a scratch, put it back on. Her footwear must be made out of pure Nintendite or something.

"Well, to be fair, it just seems like that because of your strength. I mean, you are pretty strong, especially when you're angry," Uni pointed out.

"Damn right, I am." Blanc said with pride as she went for her other sandal. Before she could reach down to get it, however, the elevator finally reached its destination and was slowly coming to a stop. As it was doing so, the passengers felt lighter and lighter until eventually they started to fall back down (gently, this time). Blanc tried to rescue her sandal quickly, but her own strength came back to bite her as this one was deeply lodged and refused to go anywhere. While everyone landed back down safely (with Neptune impressing Peashy and Compa by doing acrobatics and striking a pose on the way down), Blanc was stuck dangling several feet high, whose infamous temper was starting to act up again, "Come on, you stupid…!" As the elevator finally came to a stop, the speakers made more static noises in a futile attempt to tell them something unimportant.

{BGM: Whatever hotel lobby music you want lol}

"Oh look, we've arrived!" Nepgear announced as the elevator doors open, leading into a station that seemed to be huge for the sake of being huge. The best way to describe the entire room would be a long, metallic hexagonal prism with blue and red circuit-like lights all over. The top half was completely see-through, allowing for a partial view of not-Earth. While the front and back walls were nothing special, the sides looked like they were taken straight from a Las Vegas hotel, with their bright, warm colors and rows of flowers and palm trees. There were more of those funny-looking orange robots from before scattered about; some of them were watering the plants (wearing straw hats for whatever reason), others gave friendly waves to the newly arrived guests, who politely waved back. The left side also had two massive golden doors that were partially opened by some tuxedo-wearing robots, leading into a plaza of sorts.

"FREEEEEEDOOOOOM!" Neptune didn't even wait for the doors to completely open as she bolted out and started running around, mostly because she got bored of being in an elevator and wanted fresh air, but also because of how much room there was to begin with. Peashy quickly followed suit, chasing Neptune around the whole place for a spontaneous game of tag, almost knocking into some robots.

"Um, is Blanc going to be okay? Should we help her?" Compa wondered.

Noire looked up at the struggling Blanc before looking at Compa, "Don't worry about her, it's not like she'll hurt herself…maybe. Let's go."

Most of the others, unlike Neptune and Peashy, walked out like normal people and headed for the giant doors, with Noire and Histoire telling Neptune to knock it off and stop acting so immature.

"I suggest you hurry up if you do not want to be left behind~" Vert teased before joining the others. Blanc gave her the universal "piss-off" sign as she resumed her struggle. Only Nepgear, Uni, and…well…Blanc actually stayed behind. Blanc could have sworn that the sandal was getting looser, but nothing she did actually got it out. She let out a long sigh as she seemed to be unable to reunite with her footwear anytime soon. Using her hammer on the thing would just make it worse, anyway. She didn't want to bust a hole into something that's supposed to bring them back home.

"Um…do you want some help?" Nepgear offered.

"No…I can…get…" Blanc grunted as she squirmed around for leverage, but to no avail. She paused for a bit, "…this sucks…"

"We could jump up and pull down on her. That might help," Uni suggested to Nepgear. Nepgear agreed, and both of them positioned themselves underneath Blanc on either side.

"If you're going to jump up here, try not to—" Blanc turned her head to see what was going on, only to get face-to-face with a jumping Nepgear. Both Uni and Nepgear were able to leap several feet straight up thanks to their powers of a CPU (Candidate). They latched onto Blanc's body, and with their combined weight (and Blanc's own strength) they were able to remove the sandal…and part of the speaker with it. All three of them landed hard on their backs, but Blanc's fall was cushioned by the other two, which was all that mattered.

"Owwie…maybe that wasn't such a good idea…" Nepgear whimpered has she tended to her sore back. It didn't help that Blanc landed on top of her. At least she kept some of her stats from her last adventure, so she didn't take too much damage.

"Well, it worked regardless. Now I won't have to walk around half-barefoot like a hobo," Blanc said, back to her quiet self again, as she got up and put on her right sandal, tapping the tip of her foot to make sure it was secure.

"I guess so," Uni grunted as she stood up. She then realized something that would have been very helpful moments ago, "Hey…why didn't we just transform? Wouldn't that have made things a lot easier?"

There was an awkward silence as the three looked at each other. Why didn't they transform? Blanc shrugged as she tried to come up with an explanation, "Didn't need it. We shouldn't activate HDD and waste energy for trivial stuff, anyway."

"Yeah, Histoire mentioned that to me and Neptune a while back, after sis used HDD so that she'd be tall enough to get onto a rollercoaster ride," Nepgear recalled, remembering how angry Histoire looked when she found out about it, "It was a long and…well…unpleasant lecture."

"It figures she would try and do something like that. Gotta give her points for creativity," Blanc said as she walked out into the station, followed by Nepgear and then Uni. If only I could get bigger when I transform, she thought to herself, subconsciously looking at her own chest before snapping out of it. Nepgear noticed this but didn't say anything, which was probably for the best. They walked casually towards the now-closed golden doors so they didn't attract unwanted attention. "Oh, by the way," Blanc added as she turned her head back to look at the other two, "Thanks for your help. I know I kinda…had a…tantrum…back there," She started to blush and faced back forward to try and hide her embarrassment.

"It's okay," Nepgear assured her, "We know why you did what you did. We all got a bit upset at their gross negligence. It's a good thing nobody…" She paused as she remembered her sister's "spectacular" landing, "…uh…most of us didn't get hurt."

"Next time, though, try not to act like an old lady and attack things with your shoes," Uni jokingly suggested.

"The only old lady around here is Vert," Blanc equally joked, causing the three to giggle together. A loud sneeze by a certain Leanbox goddess could be heard in the distance. Their laughter ended when they saw two orange robots, which were holding overfilled toolboxes and wearing hardhats, run past them towards the elevator.

"T-t-they already know…" Nepgear quietly said. They all started to break into a cold sweat and worried about what might happen next.

"Just keep walking and don't do anything suspicious," Blanc advised, smiling and waving at the tuxedo-wearing pair of robots who were welcoming them. Nepgear and Uni followed suit (hah, puns), though they couldn't completely hide the nervousness from their face. The robots gladly opened the doors for the trio, and when they stepped through into the circular plaza, they found themselves looking right an upset Noire. She apparently was forced to wait for the trio and didn't like it at all, as she had her arms crossed under her chest, was deliberately tapping her foot, and had a look on her face that screamed, "I'm waaaaaaaitiiiiiiiiiing." In fact, she seemed to be mimicking a certain blue hedgehog right now. She glared at Blanc, then at her feet, then back to Blanc.

"I see you're not barefoot anymore," Noire finally spoke, still showing her impatience.

"I know, right? My sandals didn't even get a scratch on them! Wanna get a better look at them?" Blanc beamed with false happiness. She donned a fake smile as she lifted her foot up so the bottom was level with Noire's face. She was ready to show her just how unharmed her sandals were. Violently.

"I'll pass," Noire dismissively walked away, arms still crossed. She looked back with a venomous grin on her face, "They're probably smelly and outdated. Like your game consoles." She teased.

Blanc couldn't hide her anger as Noire resumed walking forward, "And so it begins…again," she grumbled, cracking her knuckles.

"Hang in there, Blanc…" Nepgear offered her encouragement as she patted her on the shoulder with an uneasy smile.

"I'll see if I can keep my big sister in check," Uni said as she went to catch up to Noire.

As angry as she was right now, Blanc couldn't help but smile at the two Candidates. It's funny how they can be so similar, yet so different from their older sisters. It kind of reminds her about Rom and Ram. "…Thanks, guys. I appreciate it."

{BGM: Sonic Colors—World Map}

Now that everybody was back together again, they set off to explore the first park of the interplanetary complex, which, according to the giant lettering on the floor and the obnoxious welcome signs plastered about, was none other than Tropical Resort…

{BGM off}

…well, they were, until Neptune called out to her friends from a cotton candy stand on the opposite side of the entrance.

"Hey guys? Why won't this guy shut up and take my money? He just keeps pointing to a sign with a shiny ring on it."


Minutes before…

In some undisclosed location…

{BGM: Sonic Unleashed—Cutscene - Eggman's Idea}

There was large, ovular white room that, aside from the massive screen in the front showing a sea of different camera angles of Tropical Resort, was plain and almost bare of anything. The only things in the room were some sort of command console with a keyboard, a small, geometric robot, and an oddly-dressed fat man sitting on a sleek, white hover-chair. He looked like Theodore Roosevelt's evil twin, wearing a red coat-vest with a white zipper down the middle, a white stripe down the sleeves, yellow cuffs, a white button on each flap, and two pairs of white stripes and yellow square buttons across his chest. He also wore what looked like a black jumpsuit underneath (it could just be pants hiked up to his stomach, but nobody really wants to know what he's wearing underneath his suit), with matching shoes that have a white stripe down the foot, gray heels, and "bolts" on his ankles. Wearing white gloves, he used one hand to groom his ridiculously long brown mustache and the other to adjust the blue glasses permanently attached to his face. He also had goggles on top of his head, but they're about as unused as Nisa's.

Oh, and his body is egg-shaped. Very important fact.

Mustachio over here was busy pressing different buttons on the console and being angry about a warning message that recently popped on screen. "Blasted kids! Where are their parents?!" The man yelled as one of the camera views expanded to full-screen, showing a shot of Blanc, Nepgear, and Uni just as they were walking away from the elevator, "Did you see what that one brat did?!" He pointed right at Blanc, "He destroyed my beautifully crafted and highly expensive speakers! What nerve!"

"Um, boss?" The robot interjected as it hopped onto the console. It basically looked like two halves of a red and black sphere connected by some ball joints and thin metal bars, which also made up his arms. His red hands bore a striking resemblance to his master's own. He also slightly hovered wherever he went, since he had no feet. "I believe that person is a girl, not a boy," it pointed out.

"What are you talking about? Of course he's a boy! You saw how he acted! And look at his slim physique!"

"Well then, why is she wearing a dress?" the robot asked, still unconvinced.

"Maybe he was feeling adventurous today…"

"Boss, I'm certain that there are many other girls who look much like her. Don't you think that you're being a little too insensitive?"

"'Insensitive'? Ha! I am the outstanding and legendary Dr. Eggman, soon to be this world's sole ruler! I don't have time to be a motivational speaker! It's not my fault if they can't handle a little criticism."

"But aren't you the one who can't take a little crit—" the robot again countered before being pressed into a ball by Eggman's angry palm.

"I don't remember programming a 'talk back to your master' function into you, Orbot," Eggman scolded his servant, "I'd start apologizing if I were you." Eggman lifted his palm back up so that Orbot could extend back into his original form.

"Yes, boss. My conduct was unacceptable. I should not display such mannerisms to someone as brilliant and exceptional as you. Your intelligence, ingenuity, and ignorance are truly unparalleled." Orbot apologized with a bow, trying to get back to Eggman's good graces.

"Why, thank you, Orbot!" Eggman beamed with pride, "Wait…what was that last part?"

"Nothing, sir."

"Well, in any case, I'll just send two Egg Pawns to go and do some repairs. It shouldn't take too long to do." Eggman typed something on the keyboard and then pressed a white button labeled "DO IT" in red lettering. After several seconds passed, two Egg Pawns carrying equipment showed up on screen and ran past the girls, who quickly became worried. "I'll worry about suing them later. Right now there are more pressing matters to attend to…like WHERE IS MY LUNCH?!" He suddenly slammed his fists onto the console, somehow making the hovering Orbot stumble and fall to the ground, "Cubot should've been back 30 minutes ago! What the heck is he doing?" Immediately after he said that, the room's sole door slid opened up, and Eggman rotated his chair to see who it was. Standing by the doorway was another small, geometric robot. He looked very similar to his red counterpart, only he was yellow/black rather than red/black, and instead of a sphere motif, he had a cube one.

"Ah, Cubot! We were just talking about you," Orbot told him, "They say that if you talk about someone right before they show up, it's a sign that they'll live a long life."

"Hmph! He won't live at all if he doesn't give me a good reason as to why he's so late," Eggman remarked.

{BGM: Sonic Lost World—Tropical Coast Zone 1}

"Calm yaself, boss man," Cubot advised, who was acting like he was Jamaican for whatever reason, "I got ya your foot-long sandwich, fulla turkey an' erryting, but when me eyes saw dis deliciousness, I tought ta git meself someting, as well."

"What?!" was all Eggman could say. He was baffled at how a robot could get hungry in the first place…and the fact that Cubot was acting like he was freaking Jamaican.

"It's true. I tried ta git some cotton candy for meself, but I couldn't eat it no matta how hard I shoved it in me face."

"Of course you couldn't! I didn't give you functioning jaws! Or a stomach! Or a brain, apparently!"

"Wateva," Cubot dismissed with a wave of his free hand, "Ya wanted a sandwich, so here ya go." Cubot tossed the sub to Eggman, who caught it with both hands.

"Couldn't you have just handed me the thing? You know, so stuff wouldn't spill on my expensively-tailored suit?" Eggman growled. A tomato slice and some mustard were now splattered onto his expensively-tailored suit.

"But ya didn't say ta—"

"Get out and make yourself less worthless! You too, Orbot!" Eggman exploded as both his lackeys rushed for the exit, "And get me more of those aliens! I need them for my master plan to work!"

"Ya got it, boss—"

"Don't speak!" He commanded as the door closed behind them.

{BGM fade out}

A plate and handkerchief ejected themselves from the console onto Eggman's lap. He then put the sandwich onto the plate and cleaned up his suit with the handkerchief. "Why does he even sound like that?" Eggman thought aloud, "Wasn't he yapping like a cowboy an hour ago?"

{BGM: Sonic Unleashed—Cutscene - Eggman's Idea}

He pressed a button on the console and a different camera view went full-screen, this time showing the whole crew hanging around the plaza, though Nisa was curiously absent. Observing the screen, he set aside his meal for now, crossed his legs, and leaned back, elbows on the armrests and fingertips touching each other.

"I was originally going to conquer that meddlesome hedgehog's world, but it seems that this one has its own interesting perks," Eggman mentioned as he went into his obligatory monologue, all the while stroking the right side of his awesome mustache, "If my research over the past two months has been correct, most of these girls are actually goddesses tasked with guarding and caring for their people with their ethereal powers and resource management. My scanners show that they harbor unique energies, the likes of which I have never seen before. All I have to do is figure out how exactly their powers work so that I can use it for my own benefit…" He turned his chair 180 degrees towards someone in a poorly lit part of the room, "…and you are going to tell me everything I need to know…won't you, darling?" He politely yet so menacingly asked. The woman he was talking to was currently trapped inside a red capsule with blue translucent energy for walls. She briefly looked at Eggman before her gaze sunk back to the floor, depression written all over her face and posture.

"…y-yeah…"

{BGM fade out}


Author's Notes: Welp, that's another chapter in the bag. I didn't expect to write as much as I did for this chapter…or to take as long as I did to publish it. I guess that's what happens when you allow college and procrastination to mix.

On the bright side, now that the spring semester is over, I'm (temporarily) free to work on my personal projects, like this one. Hell, the other day I was able to crank out over 2,000 words in several hours. During college, after hours of non-stop typing/programming, the last thing I wanted to do was type some more, so I could only manage to write a hundred or so words per day, if at all.

Also, if you haven't noticed, there are (and will continue to be) some discrepancies between the Sonic Colors storyline and my own. This is intentional, as I didn't want this to be a simple "Hurr, let's copy/paste Sonic Colors but with pretty anime girls instead of fur people" kind of story. I know that this sounds obvious, like "Yeah, of course it's going to be different", but I've seen many a copypasta in my life to know otherwise.

Then again, the Sonic Colors storyline was bare bones to begin with, so it's kinda hard to just copy/paste it without it feeling empty (Zing!).

So, for those who were waiting for the next chapter to show up, I apologize for making you wait so long. I promise that the next chapter won't take another four months to get released.

Honestly.

Probably…

AND NOW FOR SOME FUN FACTS:

Microsoft Word's spellchecker is stupid and incredibly aggravating, especially if you're trying to write anything that isn't an essay about a president or something. It can't even recognize interjections and one-word questions.

Speaking of spellcheckers, Microsoft Word and Google Chrome can't seem to agree on what isn't spelled right and what is. Good. Exactly what I need.

The "Thou shall not delete Green Heart's save data" bit was partially inspired by a real-life incident where my father deleted all of the data on my PS2 memory card for no goddamn reason. Seriously, I asked why he did that and he couldn't come up with a good reason. Jerk.

I'm pretty sure I'm the first person to write ~15 pages describing an elevator ride. Maybe.

REFERENCES. REFERENCES EVERYWHERE.