Chapter 18: The Bunker
Venus and Uni were questing to the west of Hadena, one of Planeptune's cities, close to the border of Lowee. A large group of monsters had been detected, and the pair of Candidates, fixing for something to fight, gladly accepted the quest to take them out.
Venus was slashing right and left with her new sword, blocking attacks with her shield, and knocking them away. Uni supported her new friend towards the back, shooting anything that tried to catch Venus off guard, or escape the battle.
"Stardust Saw!" Venus shouted as she cut through a Red Dogoo with her magically-bladed shield.
"Tricolor Order!" Uni shouted, firing a series of bullets that linked together to take out a larger monster behind Venus.
"Sonic Sever!" Venus continued, unleashing a wave of magic to slice through many monsters.
"Volcano Bullet!" Uni followed, firing a powerful explosive bullet that blasted apart a large group of monsters.
They were plowing through the herd of beasts, as they began to clean up.
"We got them on the ropes!" Uni called out to Venus.
"Huh? What ropes?"
"No, it's a phrase. It means that our enemies are about to lose," Uni explained.
Venus blocked a monster attack behind her, as she tilted her head, still looking toward Uni. "They're... going to lose because of ropes? But I don't have any ropes..."
"No, just... imagine your weapons are ropes. Metaphorically!"
Venus turned to another monster, ...only to try to wrap her sword and shield around them. Which didn't work very well, because that's not how her weapons were made to work.
"No, I said 'metaphorically', not 'literally'!" Uni tried to correct her friend. "You know what, never mind!" Uni then aimed a precise shot, and blasted the enemy out of Venus's failing grip. "Just go back to what you were doing before-"
Suddenly, as Venus was recovering from having her enemy blasted right out of her grip, a large shadow fell over her. The oblivious Candidate was confused by why everything was so dark all of a sudden, but Uni, in the distance, could see it clearly.
A large humanoid lizard, with massive wings, and the head of a monstrous, horned beast.
An Ancient Dragon.
The few monsters that remained after the Candidate's extermination scrambled away, as the dragon landed right next to Venus, towering over her, and starting right down at the Candidate. Venus quickly turned to stare at the beast upon hearing the heavy slam of its feet.
"Oh, uh, hi, mister beastie," Venus greeted the dragon, a little scared, but knowing Venus, she was probably rearing up to hit. Of course, given that Venus had never fought something so powerful, that probably was a bad idea.
"Venus!" Uni cried, and she glowed white, transforming into Black Sister. The Lastation Candidate rose into the air, and aim her large railgun at the Ancient Dragon.
"You leave her alone! XMB: Empress!" And Black Sister fired a large yellow beam at the dragon, knocking it away from Venus.
The Planeptune Candidate stared at Black Sister in amazement, as the transformed goddess flew in for another attack.
"NGP!" Black Sister shouted as she charged toward the dragon, and began to fly and dance around it, firing various shots into the beast. Then she called out, "playtimes over! I'm ending this!" As she took a firing stance, and fired another beam at the dragon, knocking it into the sky, where it blew up, and flew back to the ground.
"Oh, we're not over yet!" Black Sister continued, as she leaped high into the air, and fired a series of spinning beams, blowing the Ancient Dragon up one last time.
"There, I got it," Black Sister announced, as she flew back down to the amazed Venus.
"That... was... so... COOL!" the purplette exclaimed.
"I know. Now-"
Suddenly, the ground rumbled, and a loud roar was heard across the fields, as the dragon rose back up, greatly injured, but very much still alive.
"Are you kidding me!" Black Sister exclaimed. "I put everything into. What, do I need to use something stronger!?"
"You have something stronger?" Venus asked, excited.
"Well, I... don't have enough energy..."
The dragon roared again, this time, its sights were on Black Sister. It flew up to the Candidates, and prepared to unleash its firey breath onto them.
"Venus, we need to-" Black Sister started, but she didn't have the chance to finish, as the Ancient Dragon unleashed its white-hot flames on the Candidates...
...And Venus stepped in front of the transformed Candidate, holding up her shield. She tried to use her Auroa Reflect, but then the flames hit. They were powerful and intense, and Venus could barely handle them. She had to extend her magic to increase the power of the shield, even trying to extend the size of the magic shield.
Unfortunately, the magic shield shattered, blasting both Venus and Black Sister back. They escaped most of the damage, but they still caught a few burns.
Black Sister flew up, and helped Venus to her feet, as she stared at the giant monster. "Okay, seems he wants some more. So-"
"No one is allowed to hurt my friends!" Venus shouted at the dragon, interrupting Uni. "Comet Drive!" And Venus channeled magic in her sword, and made a leaping charge at the beast, driving it into its chest...
Where it pierced through its armored scales, and stuck its heart, felling the Ancient Dragon.
As the dragon fell, Venus landed on the ground, and turned to smile excitedly at Black Sister.
"Really, all that... and it took a normal Skill to take it down..." Black Sister said, exasperated.
Venus ran up to her friend, exclaiming, "you were super cool, Uni!"
"I, well... yeah, thank you," the Lastation Candidate replied.
"You know, I haven't really got to see your goddy form before," Venus said. "It's really interesting!"
Here we go, Black Sister thought. Once again, I'm going to get mocked for how my chest-
"Your hair becomes all... spinny and twirly. How does become like that?" Venus asked.
...I stand corrected. Then again, Black Sister knew that Venus had an odd inability to recognize her fellow girl's chests. She actually asked Neptune about it, and she said that Venus simply just didn't care enough about that stuff, so she never really thought about it whenever the subject came up.
A bit odd that a goddess didn't care about her volume. But at the very least, Venus would probably never make fun of how Uni's chest shrunk when she used HDD, instead of growing like the other goddesses. Uni always hated that, but if Venus didn't care, she would leave it alone.
"Well, uh, it just kind of happens," Black Sister answered about her hair's twin drill tails. "And I've never looked up how others might do it. It doesn't seem like it would be easy though..." Her hair's change in HDD wasn't something that she ever thought about. It was cute, but wasn't a hairstyle she wanted for her human form.
"I wonder if I'll get a cool hair... uh..." Venus started.
"Hairstyle," Uni offered.
"Yes, a hair-still like yours, when I get my goddy form?" Venus finished.
Black Sister smiled. "Well, I don't know about my hairstyle... But I'm sure your HDD will be amazing. You'll make a fantastic Purple Sister..."
Black Sister then trailed off, as she remembered how she got mad when Venus realized how she'll become Purple Sister. Venus didn't notice it at the time, but Uni didn't like the idea that Venus would take Nepgear's HDD Title. But now she regretted it. Venus was her friend, she should encourage Venus to embrace her goddess-hood.
"When do you think I'll get my goddy form?" Venus asked. "When can I be Purple Sister?"
Black Sister giggled a bit. "You know it's kind of hard to take you seriously when you call it 'goddy form'. But I suppose that's just you being you. But as for your question... I don't know. That's up to you."
"Up to me?" Venus replied.
"Yeah. My sister once explained it like this. Before I could transform, I... put a limiter on my heart, and that's why I couldn't transform. It's like you're afraid of something, and that is what's holding you back."
"Afraid of something? But what am I afriad of?" Venus asked.
"Well, I don't know. Maybe you're still afraid of how everyone treats you?" Black Sister offered. "Or it could be the fact that someone wants you gone. I can't answer that question for you."
"Well, what were you afraid of?"
Black Sister sat down by Venus, as she thought about this question. "So... when I first transformed. This was a long time ago, but there was a point when all of our sisters, Neptune, Noire, even Blanc and Vert, they left to fight an enemy threatening all of Gamindutry. Nepgear went too, but only because... at the time, she was the only Candidate who could transform."
"And they beat this bad guy right!"
"You'd think we would have... but the enemy had grown too strong at that time, and instead all of the present CPUs got captured and trapped in the Gamindustry Graveyard. For a full three years."
"Years... is that a long time?" Venus asked.
Okay, fair question, Black Sister thought. Venus was closely approaching to become three months old. She probably couldn't quantify three years just yet.
"It's a very long time. All I wanted was to see my sister again. But weeks turned into months, months turned into years. But... I was too weak. I wasn't strong enough to save my sister," Black Sister explained.
"Oh... I don't want to be alone without my sister. Especially if weeks are going to be mean and transform into years," Venus replied.
"...Imagine how Neptune feels about Nepgear," Black Sister said. "Anyways, I got restless. So, I thought, perhaps if just went there myself, I could save my sister."
"And did you...?"
"I didn't even get close. On the way, I was swarmed by powerful monsters. I tried my best to destroy all of them, but they overwhelmed me. And in that moment... I realized that I was scared. That all of my negative thoughts... they were holding me back... So blocked them all out, and one by one the monsters fell. When I was done... well, I didn't even realize that I had transformed during the fight."
"Wow... I wonder if I'll know if I transform. Maybe I already have, but I've never noticed."
"Uh... probably not." Black Sister didn't know how to respond to that. "Despite finally gaining HDD, I knew, at that moment, that I wasn't ready to save anyone. So I returned to Lastation. Sometime after, Planeptune planned their own rescue attempt for the CPUs, but they only saved Nepgear."
"So what about the other CPUs? Our sisters? What happened?"
"Well, Nepgear began to plan to save the rest of them. I met her for the first time at the Lastation Guild. And... we didn't get along at first. Well, more accurately, she wanted to be friends, but I hated her. I was thinking, 'why her? Why was she the one to be saved, and not my sister?'"
"...Kind of like how you wanted Nepgear to be here, and not me?"
Black Sister paused. Holy s***, she was right. History had repeated for Uni. She had lost someone she loved... only to get someone else instead. And Uni automatically made them out to be the enemy.
"...I can't believe I ever treated Nepgear like I treated you... And I still hate myself for treating you badly, too."
"You must have a really hard time making friends, if you always hate them first. But at least we're friends now!"
"...I guess that's true."
"But you must've really liked Nepgear if you hated me so much," Venus noted. "She must've been an AMAZING friend!"
"She was..." Black Sister sounded. "Actually, Venus, you should know, I... I actually-"
That's when Black Sister's communicator made a pinging sound, interrupting them. Someone was trying to contact her.
Black Sister answered. "Hello? Who's this? I'm on a quest right now."
"Lady Uni," the person on the other end of the call. It was Steamax.
"Steamax!?" Black Sister replied.
"Are you okay, Lady Uni? You seem surprised.
"Sorry, I... A lot has happened since we last talked, and the search hasn't been on my mind."
Venus leaned in. "Who's that?" she asked excitedly.
"Is someone listening in?" Steamax asked.
"Oh, uh, yeah, but it's okay. I-I ...can explain later," Black Sister replied.
"Well, whatever the case is, you must come see me," Steamax requested. "I've found something promising."
"Something... promising? Is it about Nepgear?"
"Nepgear?" Venus asked after hearing Black Sister say that.
"I'm not yet sure, but it could lead to something," Steamax replied, either having not heard, or ignoring Venus.
Black Sister, however, turned to her friend, knowing that she was curious about Nepgear. And besides... "Steamax, I'm going to bring my friend," Black Sister told Steamax. "Where do you need me to meet you?"
"Y-you're going to bring a friend?"
"Yeah, she deserves to know what we're doing."
Black Sister was now carrying Venus up towards the mountains in the north, just barely skimming the nation's upper border. And on the way, she explained to her Candidate friend what was going on.
"So... you've been looking for sis-gear?" Venus asked for a summation.
"Yeah," Black Sister answered.
"Why is no one helping you?"
Black Sister grimaced a bit. "It's... you know how they tried to find Nepgear, but couldn't. Well, I didn't want to give up. But... neither did Neptune, but everyone else convinced her to stop. And maybe they did it for a good reason, but you know what your sister was like. I didn't want anyone to try and stop me, so I've been searching in secret."
"So, nobody knows you're doing this?"
"...My sister found out very recently, but she hasn't tried to stop me, or told anyone else," Black Sister admitted. "But besides her, it's just me and Steamax. And now you."
"Is Steam... ah... Steam-map?"
"'Max.' His name ends in 'max.'"
"Uh, Steamax, he's your friend?"
"Yeah."
"Did you hate him at first, too?"
"I mean... He used to be our enemy, but I never really hated him... Oh, and there he is!"
Black Sister landed on the mountain cliffs, where Steamax was waiting, dropping Venus by her, and turning back into Uni.
"Steamax!" Uni called out.
"Lady Uni!" Steamax replied, before his gaze fell onto Venus. "O-oh, I... uh... is this your friend?"
Uni gave Steamax a look of "seriously". "I thought you got over your nervousness around girls?"
"W-well, I used to being around you. B-but your friend, I've n-never seen her before-" Then Steamax took a closer look. "Hang on, aren't you... the new CPU Candidate of Planeptune?"
"Yeah!" Venus replied, looking at the robot with fascination.
"Lady Uni, I thought-" Steamax started, but Uni interjected.
"As I said, a lot of things happened since we last met," she said. "But she's cool. Besides, I think she deserves to be here. After all, Nepgear is her sister."
Steamax mused on this, meanwhile, Venus got a little closer to the robot.
"So, you're, like, a big robot?" Venus asked.
"Ah-ah, so close, uh... it's more like a robotic suit," Steamax explained.
Venus tilted her head, and Uni explained, "it's like armor. But it helps him with his stealth, right?"
"Yes, y-you see Lady Venus, I am a ninja," Steamax added.
"Ooh! Like Marvy!" Venus replied.
"I... suppose... Though I've never met her in person..."
"Hate to interrupt the introductions, you two, but Steamax, why did you want to see us?" Uni asked.
"Oh, yes. As you know, I've been in the criminal underground, trying to find clues to the robots' origins," Steamax started.
"Robots?" Venus asked.
"He means the ones that were after you," Uni explained. "We think that they might have some connection to Nepgear's disappearance."
"Really!? How?"
"I... I don't want to say. ...But it's only a theory, so we could be wrong. Still, if we find out where the robots came from, we can stop them, and save all of Gamindustri from them."
"Wow... that sounds really smart and good!"
"...Indeed," Steamax said. "Anyway, I've been trying to find the origins of this threat. I've found many factories, and I've been informing the Guild of their locations, so they can handle them."
"So you're the one who's been tipping off the Guild," Uni replied. "Letting us destroy those stupid factories."
"Why not take out yourself?" Venus asked.
"Publicity," Steamax explained, now in his zone. "I act from the shadows, no one would ever know if I took out the factories. But if the people knew about their destruction... Every nation has put forth their forces to handle this threat, acting on their behalf. If the goddess's Guild and military can take out these factories, then the people will know their goddesses are looking out for them. The robot threat is still on the down low, but it's known enough by now that news of the factories' demise has given you favor. Have you not noticed the increase in Shares, Lady Venus?"
"Um..."
"It's still kind of a new concept for Venus..." Uni noted. "She's a slow learner."
"Fair enough," Steamax replied. "To continue, my mission was about reconnaissance, gathering data. I aimed to find the root of the problem, and taking out the smaller factories would do very little. I've attempted to sneak into the factories to hack into their computers, but security was too tight, and they could've remotely wiped the computers if I got caught, and it would've gotten me nowhere."
"IF got into the computers once, before they self-destructed," Uni noted. "But all she got was a brief look at schematics."
"I heard. Even still, my goal remained unchanged. And now the fruits of my labor have ripened. You see, I've finally found something. I found someone who works for those behind the threat."
"You did!?"
"Yes. She seemed to be recruiting a new member. I wasn't able to follow them, but I got a general location of a bunker."
"A bunker?" Venus asked.
"That could be where the people behind this could be hiding," Steamax said. "It took me a while, but I found where the bunker is located."
"Where?" Uni asked.
"Close by," Steamax said. "A job like this, I didn't want to go in there alone, so I asked for you, Lady Uni. I could use your help here."
"Of course. Venus?"
"Yeah?" the purplette replied.
"You want to stop these guys?"
"Yeah!" Venus replied without hesitation.
"Then it's time," Steamax exclaimed. "Save your HDDs for when you need them most. I'll carry you to the location."
Carrying the girls on his back, the large but nimble robot leapt through the cliffs with his ninja agility.
"We're almost there," Steamax relayed.
"Do you really think we'll find sis-gear?" Venus asked.
"I don't know. I'm hoping to at least find a clue," Uni replied. "But right now, we should worry about taking down these robots, once and for all."
"Do you think big sis will be happy?"
"I'm sure she'll be proud."
"Here we are," Steamax announced.
He stopped on a cliff, and down the way from where he landed, they could see a set of doors. They were rusty metal doors, obvious now that they were looking at them, but they could easily be missed in the cliffs of the valley, epically given how deep they were inside it.
"No wonder no one could find this," Uni noted. "Pretty well hidden, and being up on a cliff, the average adventure would have to climb up here to find this. Pretty unlikely, if you're not looking for anything."
"But wasn't Steamax looking for it?" Venus asked.
"...Uh, yeah...?"
"Lady Uni, how do you want to do this?" Steamax interjected.
Uni turned to Venus. "...I don't think Venus does the whole sneaking around thing... So let's go hard and fast. Venus up front, as she's got her defense and strength, and Steamax, you watch her back."
"And you're in the back with the guns?" Steamax continued.
"Yeah, but we need to stick together, no going on by yourself. We don't know what we're going to find in there. Okay, so Venus, would you do the honors?"
"Honor what?" Venus asked.
"J-just break open the doors," Uni told her.
"Oh, sure!" And Venus summoned her shield, and held it out in front of her, before she rushed at the doors. With her strength and the tough metal of her shield, the Planeptune Candidate bust through the doors with ease. Steamax swiftly followed, and Uni summoned her rifle, taking off after her friends.
None of them were certain what they'd see. Panicking workers. Security defense systems. But after running through the first few corridors...
There was nothing.
The halls were dark. No one was around. There wasn't even a single threat.
Uni flipped on a light on her rifle, and flashed it around the area.
"Aren't there supposed to be lights?" Venus asked.
"They're not on," Uni replied.
"Do you have a light, Lady Venus?" Steamax asked.
"Um... I don't think so..." Venus replied. "Do you have one?"
"My visor has night vision," Steamax told her.
"You can see things at night? But it's daytime."
"It just means that he can see things in the dark. Even if it's daylight outside," Uni explained. "Um, Steamax, can you see anything we can't?"
"My readings suggest that this area was populated maybe a week ago, but it's been emptied since," Steamax relayed.
"So they abandoned this place, right before we found it..." And Uni angrily kicked one of the walls.
"Maybe we can still find something?" Venus offered.
"That's a good idea," Steamax noted. "If this place is truly abandoned, they might've left something behind."
Uni took a deep breath, and nodded in agreement.
So, they continued to search the underground compound. It wasn't long before they found a large room. It appeared to be an interior development and testing area, although it was still dark, and only Uni's gun-light and Steamax's descriptions from his night vision could give them a vague idea of what this place was.
There were several levels of balconies along the walls, with doors into various rooms, probably offices or private research rooms. Besides that... the whole room was empty.
"They really did clear out the place..." Uni sounded.
"Let's check out the rooms," Steamax offered. "You and Venus start with the upper floors, and I'll check the lower floors."
"Yeah... we can do that."
Venus was worried about her friend. She may not have understood much, but she could tell Uni was distressed. And she understood too, she wanted to find Nepgear, or at least beat up some robots, or something...
Uni and Venus began to search through the rooms, which were indeed offices, and some workrooms. All that was left was forgotten office supplies, unfished schematics that didn't lead to anything useful, or scraps of paper with no meaningful information on them. ...They hadn't even made it off the top floor yet, and there was nothing that could help them.
And this was causing Uni to get more and more agitated.
"Come on, we've gotta find something!" she cried.
"Uni, are you okay?" Venus asked, worried.
"I just... I want to find something. I looked so hard and-" Uni stopped as she realized she was beginning to become what Noire had warned her about.
The girls entered another office. This one was bigger than the others, and a fancy desk was left behind.
Uni took a deep breath, and went up to the desk to search it.
"You really want to find sis-gear that badly?" Venus asked.
"Yeah, I do," Uni replied. "You don't understand what this means to me. I know she's your and Neptune's sister, and not mine, but... I care about her, more than you know..." Uni opened one of the drawers of the desk. "I want to be able to see her again, I-"
Uni paused once she saw what was in the desk. She gingerly picked it up, and held it up to get a better look with her gun's light.
Uni recognized the object immediately, and even Venus knew what it was. It was an old beam saber. Venus had tried using beam sabers before, but thought they were too light for her, and stuck with metal blades. But she thought it was cool that they had light blades that could appear and disappear when turned on and off.
This particular blade looked fancier than the ones she'd seen before. It even had her nation's N symbol on the hilt. But Venus could tell it also looked like it hadn't been used in a long time. In fact, it looked broken.
Uni, however, felt like she'd since this exact blade before. She'd only ever since one person use this model of beam saber before. A beam saber that said person had made herself...
"That's a cool sword," Venus said.
"Yeah. Too bad my sword skills are only sub-par..." Uni replied quietly. She hit the activation button on the beam saber, but all she got was a few sparks of purple energy. Uni tried several more times, but the blade never formed. "Seems it doesn't work anyway. The focusing mechanisms probably don't work. The battery seems to still have power, but I can't tell how functional it is."
Venus tilted her head in confusion, and Uni realized that just because Venus knew what it was, doesn't mean she knew how it worked. So Uni said, "never mind."
Still, if this old beam saber was what Uni thought it was... then this discovery... it could change everything.
"Uni?" Venus asked.
"Oh, sorry," Uni replied. She hooked the broken weapon onto her belt. She didn't want it to be put into her inventory. She just wanted to keep the sword close to her. "We should-"
Suddenly, a crash was heard outside, causing the girls' attention to snap their attention towards the door.
"What was that?" Venus asked.
Uni didn't answer as she ran back out, shouting, "Steamax!?"
The area hadn't changed, at least, not in any obvious way. It was still dark, and there wasn't much they could see with Uni's light.
"Steamax!" Uni shouted again. No response.
"Maybe we can find him?" Venus offered.
"Right. We need to get down there. I hope he's alright."
As quickly as they could, they rushed to the main floor. The entire place was barren, a flat sheet of metal plated floor, with leftover rivets and screws.
Uni shined her light around, and once it shone past a hallway nearby, Uni immediately focused on it. Parts of the ceiling and the wall in that hallway had collapsed, but not so much that no one could get through.
"Steamax," Uni sounded as she rushed to the hallway, Venus following behind, concerned for her friend, and unsure of what else to do.
The damage to the hallway seemed to have been caused by some kind of attack, as they were linear burns, but it was also only a small part of the opening. It didn't seem to be meant to trap (unless they failed to do so), but it did seem to be a case of using terrain to your advantage, maybe even a surprise attack.
The point was, it was deliberate.
This didn't seem like something Steamax could do, but either way, if he was involved, it had to mean he was fighting someone.
Meaning there was an enemy. One who was likely looking for them.
"This doesn't look good," Uni murmured.
"What's wrong?" Venus asked.
"Keep your weapons ready," Uni told her friend.
The two girls climbed over the wreckage, and ventured forward, hoping to find their ninja friend.
The corridors split off into several different directions, but the light dust on the ground, and a couple of more burn attacks gave them a vague idea of where to go.
So after a couple of turns through the halls, they found someone.
...But it wasn't Steamax.
When Uni's light shone on the figure, he was turned away from them, but he turned around to face them. He was a robot, just about the same height as Venus and Uni. He was a robot, with dark gray plating and glowing indigo eyes. On his spherical head, he had a single black horn on his forehead, curved backward, with little indigo lights along the sides and what appeared to be another closed eye on the base.
There were small gray plates bolted onto his frame in various places, on his "cheeks", the top of the chest by his shoulders, and on his knees. In fact, his upper arms and legs are thin rods, with his forearms and shins looking more like gauntlets and boots, with every joint as a ball joint. His lower carriage had vents with purple lighting streaming through, as did the fronts of his lower legs.
Taking another look at his forearms, each one had hexagonal blocks surrounding them, which was concerning to Uni.
Taking in his new guests, the robot made a malicious chuckle.
"Wha- who are you!?" Uni shouted. "Where's Steamax!?"
"Steamax?" the robot replied, his mechanical voice being dark and imposing, with a hint of malicious glee. "Do you perhaps mean the inferior robotic warrior that came inside this bunker with you? A mere obstacle in the completion of my objective."
"What did you do to him!?"
"It does not matter to you..." the robot replied, as he lifted a finger, pointing to the girls, specifically... Venus, "...when your lives are forfeit. False CPU Venus, your existence stands in the way of the new world order, and our enemies..." the robot then turned his attention to Uni, "your efforts have prevented us from removing the threat. CPUs who have allowed the False One to survive will only be given one chance for clemency, and everyone else... punished."
Uni was appalled, no, horrified, by what the robot was saying. He was saying that Venus needed to be removed, and claiming that the other CPUs were wrong to prevent that. And she felt that what he meant by "punishment" was... meant to be a threat.
But Venus's reaction made her angry.
"False... CPU...?" Venus replied. "I'm not... a real goddess?"
"No, you are a CPU!" Uni told her friend. "You were born from Planeptune's Share Crystal, right? Your Purple Heart's sister!"
"Do not feed your lies to her, Lastation Candidate!" the robot retorted. "She was never meant to be a goddess of Planeptune, nor will she be its leader!"
"You shut up!" Uni shouted, her anger rising. "How dare you say such things to my friend!"
"Friendship, a relationship founded on trust. But friendship interferes with responsibility. Servitude is the only acceptable way for humans to thrive, enforcing their requirements to be met. Again, Lastation Candidate, do not speak your lies. It is the duty of a goddess to guide her servants, not make comrades of them, especially to False CPUs who will never lead."
Venus started to tear up, and Uni aimed her gun at the vile robot. "Say one more word," Uni growled, "and I will blow your head off!"
Once again, the robot chuckled... before unleashing a pulse of negative energy. The force knocked the girls back, causing Uni to drop her gun. Venus held onto her sword and shield, but was so upset, she didn't even think to try and block the attack, not that she would've had much time to react to the surprise burst anyway.
Uni tried to recover as quickly as possible, but just as she was getting back up, the robot had walked up, and slammed his foot on her gun, shattering it into pieces.
"You have no place to speak, Lastation Candidate," the robot spoke. He raised his arms, and Uni's worried rung true, as the long blocks separated from his forearms, each a hexagonal, wide rod of machinery, a dozen of them hovering around the robot as he controlled them around him, until each of them unleashed a small light blade of indigo energy.
"I was created from machinery lost to the dimensions," he continued. "The first of my kind in this world, created in order to help bring order to this nation. I am Parallax, Hyperdimension's first Gizoid."
Meanwhile, in Planeptune Tower...
Neptune was on her balcony, looking over her nation, sighing softly. She was now feeling much better, and was just waiting for her sister to come back with Uni.
Though she was getting a bit worried. They've been out doing quests for much longer than she thought.
Noire, who was visiting for the day, came out. "Are you okay, Neptune?"
"Do you think Venus and Uni are okay? They've been out for quite a while," Neptune told her friend.
Noire walked up beside Neptune. "It is starting to get late. But I'm sure they'll be fine. We can contact the Guild later, if they don't get back soon, but our sisters are strong. Together, I'm sure nothing can stop them."
"Yeah... your right! I shouldn't be worried!"
"Of course!" Noire agreed.
Neptune looked up at her friend. "Noire, I want to say... I'm sorry. I... never gave you enough credit. You were there for me from the beginning... and I just... pushed you away. But you never gave up on me..."
"Well, things aren't the same without you."
"Things aren't the same without Nepgear," Neptune corrected. "But, maybe you did help me... If you weren't there as a constant distraction, who knows what would've happened to me, lost in all that work... And then you helped out Venus when I wasn't there for her."
"Yeah, you still were lost in your work... But your my friend, I can't abandon you."
"Thank you..." Neptune then looked back out to the horizon. ...Only to see something odd. "What's that?"
Noire looked out, and found what Neptune was seeing. Something was hovering above the city, glowing a dark purple.
Neptune immediately transformed into Purple Heart. "We need to check it out."
Noire nodded in agreement, and likewise turned into Black Heart. Then the two goddesses flew out to see this new potential threat face-to-face.
Author's Note: Cliffhanger on top of cliffhanger! ZoMG!
Okay, first, I what to address this, because it isn't even close to my intention to mislead my readers on this. Venus is not a "False CPU". My intention was NOT to make everyone think that I'm setting up something where what we know about Venus is exactly true. She is a real CPU Candidate, just not one that can transform yet.
So, what's going on is that for some reason, Parallax is programmed to believe that Venus is not a CPU worthy to exist, much less lead her nation in the future. That is what you need to consider.
Now, let's talk about Parallax the Gizoid (no, that is not what I'll be calling him from here on). If you don't know what a Gizoid is, then let me explain. If you don't know, Sonic the Hedgehog is my favorite game series, and one of the things I am most fascinated with is the Gizoid, from Sonic Battle and Advance 3, and later Sonic Chronicles.
Gizoids are combat androids that can copy the abilities and techniques of those they fight, and combine them together to create entirely new combat styles. I love Gizoids, and I draw a lot of them on my DeviantArt.
So, why add a Sonic robot to a Hyperdimension fanfic? Well, several reasons. Firstly, I was trying to come up with a unique robot threat for Venus and Uni to face at this point in the story. Something big, imposing, and powerful, the most dangerous threat in the story, which would wreck our heroes, so to say.
But I couldn't come up with a good giant robot idea, so I ended up thinking... why not just stop worrying about making something new, and create something using the framework of something I already know well: the Gizoid. It's not big, but they don't need to be, as you will soon see.
Besides, Parallax and the other mysterious robots are somehow indirectly tied to Planeptune. Well, the Planeptune goddesses represent SEGA consoles and games, which Sonic is the gaming mascot for. So, a Sonic robot that is supposedly made by Planeptunians to threaten Planetune, makes sense to me. Just make Parallax a bit taller, to better fit with human's statures of Hyperdimension, and not the shorter body forms of most Sonic Characters.
Speaking of which, I should explain how I came up with Parallax, as Parallax isn't the only Gizoid, just one of many Gizoid characters (like Emerl, Gemerl, Charyb, and Scylla), specifically, one of the many Gizoid Originals that I made myself. Well, really, what I need to talk about is what I've done with Parallax, as there are two versions of him.
I made Parallax specifically for this story. In fact, his weapons were made with this story in mind. However, over time, considering that Parallax is one of my Original Gizoids, I ended up adding him to the story of the Gizoid Archives, my newest "story" that lets me showcase each of my Gizoid Originals, and their abilities and stories.
Effectively, I ended up coming up with two different versions of Parallax. In fact, I created the Gizoid Archives partly because I wanted to showcase both versions of Parallax, and that's why I created the Archives were created around the same time I was planning on what to write for this new chapter.
Now, something I want you to keep in mind is that in Nepsisters, the point of having a Gizoid in the story is to take advantage of the Gizoid's ability to Capture Skills, and how he's a threat because of it. But in the Gizoid Archives, each Gizoid is based on the unique abilities they chose to build up. Because of this, Parallax has different abilities in the Archives than he does in Nepsisters (aside from many of his weapon formations).
So, the question for the Nepsisters version of the Parallax is... what abilities does he have? Or rather, which ones will he learn, and does have some already?
Anyways, if you want to see the Archives version of Parallax, you'll need to read those. And Parallax in the Archives is very different from what he'll be like here in Nepsisters, so you won't find any hints to the future of this story in the Archives.
So, that's enough about Parallax, so I've got only one more thing to talk about. When Uni was explaining how Venus could transform, what she's is just about word-for-word from how she explained it in the anime. Since the Candidate's transformation is based on the anime, I figured it would work. (Also, Uni not even realizing that she transformed at first is also a nod to the anime).
The story of how Uni transformed, however, I came up with myself. What I came up with is what made the most sense to me. In the anime, none of the Candidates were allowed to come along and help their older sisters, because they couldn't transform yet. But in Re;Birth 2, Nepgear was allowed to come, and was in HDD when she was captured.
Now, part of that could be that it is in Neptune's character for her to be less restrictive with what Nepgear did, while the other CPUs didn't yet trust their sisters, but it really makes sense to me that Uni, Rom, and Ram, couldn't come yet, because they had yet to gain their HDD forms, whereas Nepgear already had learned how to use that form.
Though of course, all of the Candidates could transform by the time they were introduced in the game, so by my own logic, this means at some point, Uni and the twins must've learned to transform while their sisters were trapped.
So, running with that, I thought it make the most sense that Uni would try to save her sister by herself, but fail, getting in over her head. It's enough for her to gain her HDD form, but also helps her realize that she can't just rush in. She's still not strong enough to save Noire. She still has a lot to learn, as evidenced by the events of Re;Birth 2, but she at least has her HDD.
I don't have a story for Rom and Ram, mostly because they weren't going to be present for this chapter (well, really, just Rom, since Ram doesn't like Venus right now), but I'd imagine it would have something to do with Rom and Ram learning how to work together.
Whew, this took a while to finish. Life has just been so hectic for me right now. We're planning a move at the moment, so there's lots to do. But I want to get all of my immediate projects done before my birthday (May 27th), ...mostly because I am hoping to get Tears of the Kingdom (and maybe Kirby Return to Dreamland Deluxe as well) that day, and if that does happen, it's most certainly going to take up all of my free time before the move.
But for now, I hope you've enjoyed the update, sorry it took so long. See you next time.