Nepgear's hand touched the floating box with the number two on it. She closed her eyes briefly before opening them and turning towards Caster. "There is nothing left for me here. If I leave then I know they are safe from any threat I can pose and maybe I can try to find my own happiness out there." She said, explaining her reasoning for her choice.
Caster just nodded."Very well, I might have an ideal destination in mind for you; whether I hang around or not I am not yet sure." He replied as he took out a notebook and pen and started to write something down. "Also it will take a while before we can leave, my travel method is for one person but I have an idea on how to adapt it to two."
"Is there anything I can do to help you out?" Nepgear asked as her mind tried to think through the scale of this endeavor.
"Not at the moment, first you need to recover and get used to your new powers, then I may have some parts I need you to gather for me." He answered after a few moments of contemplation.
Nepgear nodded and looked at Gehaburn. "Could you get me tools and paper? She politely asked. "I want to try and make a new weapon, one less conspicuous than Gehaburn."
"That is easily doable plus I imagine Being stuck in bed would get annoying after a while." He replied playfully as he turned around." We have a busy time ahead of us so you should get your rest while you can Lady Nepgear." With that he left the room presumably to get what she requested.
Nepgear just nodded, let out a sigh and finished her breakfast before laying down. "I just hope the dimension we are going to is better than this one." She muttered as she closed her eyes to rest as she waited for his return. Unfortunately rest eluded her and she was left bored as she stared up at the dilapidated ceiling. "This is so boring... he told me to get some rest but I don't feel tired." She muttered as she rolled over the edge on her weathered blanket.
Suddenly Nepgear sat up with a smile on her face, her eyes bright and sparkly for the first time in years. 'I know what I can do to pass the time.' She thought As she started to think about her new pet project, whether her weapon would be sleek or bulky in design, the weight of each individual part, the sharpness of the blade, its conductivity and how it would emit energy blasts. After thinking about it for a while she made a quick mental list of the materials she needed to craft her new and improved weapon.
After an hour or two of preparation Caster returned with a toolbox, a protractor, some pencils and several sheets of paper. "Ah I thought you would be resting so I took my time, I guess I was wrong." Said said in an apologetic tone as he set the supplies down by the desk.
Nepgear just shook her head. "No it's fine, I tried to rest but I guess being out of it for a few weeks was all I needed." She replied politely as she walked over to the desk. "Thank you for the paper and protractor." She added as she sat down and started to write down the list of supplies she would need.
Crystals needed
17 Data crystals, 7 Diamond Crystal, 7 Erde crystal, 7 File Crystal, 7 Fire Crystal, 7 Ice Crystal, 7 Storm stone, 7 Wind Stone.
Electronics needed
3 Electric Switch, 10 Energy Pack, 10 Illegal chip, 30 Illegal Conductor, 17 Illegal Memory, 17 Illegal Rom.
Magical objects needed
1 demonic tome, 1 Dragon soul, 7 Gale stone, 1 God soul, 17 Magic stone, 15 Magical Fragments, 1 old Dragon orb.
Ores needed
30 Copper ore, 7 Fierodite, 7 Frostimadite, 30 Iron Ore, 30 Mithril ore, 30 Orichalcum.
Caster's eyes traveled down the list and he raised an eyebrow. "That's quite a lot of material. I hope you have some of them on you or it might be rather difficult to gather them in a short time span." He commented.
Nepgear nodded and pulled out her N-gear, inspecting it for damage and discovered it was still in working order. She quickly activated it and went to her inventory to check what she had stored up over the years. "Looks like I have most of what I need. I might need to get a few more ores but that is about it." She replied as she set her N-gear down.
Her eyes widened as she came up with an idea and she turned to Caster. "How are you at combat Caster?" She asked curiously as she turned to face him.
Caster smiled at her. "Abysmal." He answered and caused her to face a plant on the desk. "In a straight One on One fight I would lose to most people, my fighting style requires preparations and my enemy not to see me at first, throw that off and I am as good as gone for my main style."
Nepgear looked at him in shock and confusion before her eyes widened and she leaned in and whispered to him. "You're an Illusionist. You cast magic but your main field is illusions."
Caster smiled and nodded. "Very good, there are two to three other fields of magic I specialize in but that is my primary and and the others and just as non direct as the first. This is also why I did not attempt to fight you or attempt to get my stuff back from ASIC; it was too risky." He replied.
Nepgear nodded and turned her attention back to the paper. She picked up the protractor and pencil and slowly started to draw out the design for her new and improved weapon. Minutes quickly blended to hours as the only noise that could be heard was the scratching of pencil to paper and Nepgear occasionally muttering a comment as she drew out the base design, making out notes about its materials and weight and soon there was a completed blueprint before her.
"Not bad if I do say so myself." She said with a small smile, as she looked over the plan checking for any errors or mistakes she could have made in her first pass. After a few corrections and additions she set the plan down and turned back to her N-gear to look at her supplies. "Looks like my list is actually correct, I should be able to begin now and get more materials later if I need them."
Just as she was about to retrieve the materials from her inventory she stopped. "Wait, I will need a forge to melt the ores down." She said as her face turned a little bit red. Quickly she grabbed the toolbox and her plan and she left her room, eager to find a forge so she could get started.
The next few days were very busy for Nepgear filled with smelting ores, the soldering of wire and metal as she started work on her brand new weapon. Her..Friend?... partner?... Acquaintance?...she not sure what Caster was to her has provided her with the forge he was using to make some sort of frame but overall she had the run of the place.
It did not take her long to finish the frame of the weapon but she had to slow her pace down when she got to its innermost workings. She had to be careful grounding herself when working with the circuitry, moving every so slowly and precisely as she worked to get everyone exactly in place. It was some of the hardest technical work she had done in a while but is was worth it in the end as she end up her new long sword, not as smooth and sleek as her usual beam sabers but it was far more powerful by comparison (it is the N-Zapper from rebirth 2 but the green strips are Lilac.)
As she looked over she heard clapping coming from behind her and turned around to see Caster standing in the doorway watching. "Wonderfully done, good construction and design. He said with a specific tone that made it hard for Nepgear to tell if he was being serious or sarcastic.
"Umm thanks...I think.." she replied as he stepped into the room his way over to her.
"If you would like I can add some enchantments to the blade to enhance it further for you or we can just go straight to business." He said as he inspected her new weapon, nodded as he did so.
Nepgear thought about this for a few moments before shaking her head. "Thank you for the offer but I will have to decide for now." She replied in a polite tone and a slight bow.
Caster just shrugged."Eh, understandable, but the offer is open if you change your mind." He said as he slowly reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a neatly folded up piece of paper. "Since you now have a new weapon I figured you could go hunt down some materials I need for our escape.. Don't worry, their location should not be too close to any civilized area of Gamindustri." He explained as he held out the paper.
Nepgear looked at her for a moment before nodding and unfolded the list, her eyes slowly traveled down it to make sure she knew where everything was. Once she finished reading she put the list in her pocket and nodded. "Ok I will be back as soon as I can." She said and started to walk out but stopped and turned to Caster. "You said you were the monster and magic expert of ASIC, what exactly did that role entail?" She asked inquisitively.
Caster just smiled and twirled around to face her. "It was my job to try and modify the monsters or find ways to make them better or other ways of transporting them." He explained simply as he looked back at Nepgear.
Nepgear thought about this answer for a bit before speaking up. "One more question, could a single monster be changed to drop a special item that you or someone else made?"
Caster looked at her for a moment and up at the ceiling as he tapped his chin in thought. "It should be possible, though again it would be a one time thing unless you mass produced it and the monster, good luck on the latter, gathering the data alone is tricky enough..." he answered but seemed deep in thought for a few moments and muttered to himself before he turned his attention back to Nepgear. "Why do you ask?"
"No real reason yet... just something I might do before we leave." She replied and left the room, leaving Caster to his thoughts.
"My oh my is she ever interesting... too bad our business together will likely end once we leave this place." He thought out loud before he too left the room to continue his own work.
It took Nepgear a long while to make back to Planeptune territory. She was wearing a cloak over her usual sailor outfit to disguise herself in case she came across any adventurers or civilians. "Strange.. I don't feel as tired from all this walking, I wonder if that is a benefit of my change?" She muttered to herself as she finally reached her destination. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the list, looking it over again. "Let's see, the materials I am looking for should be over... there" Nepgear muttered as she looked around before deciding on a direction and heading off in it, carefully putting the list back in her pocket.
As she made her way to her destination she spotted several monsters in her way. She drew her new weapon and took a deep breath. "You got this, it's just like your first few quests." She whispered reassuringly to herself. After calming herself down she charged the nearest dogoo and sliced it in two however what she did not expect was to cause a air slice from the speed and strength of her attack that hit the next one ten feet behind it slaying it as well. Her surprise did not remain however as she then turned to defend from the others attack and quickly counter attack, slaying three more when she was aiming for just one. 'HOW MUCH STRONG DID I GET!?' She thought as she looked at the now emptied clearing. "I might need to practice a bit when I get home." She muttered before continuing on her way.
The next few hours were filled with harvesting items and carefully slaying monsters as she tried to hold back. "Ok I think that should be enough, let's head back." She muttered before she made her way back through the forest. About a quarter of the way back she heard something that made her body freeze.
"Iffy, not so fast, my legs are tired..." a familiar voice called out.
"No Compa I promised Historie to keep an eye on her while she is on quests and I can't do that when she is out on her own!" Another scarily familiar voice replied.
"Lulu can take good care of herself. We made sure of that plus there are only dogoos here." Compa answered back.
"S-still I gave Historie my word I can't let some happen to another Planeptune CPU. By anyone's hands" IF said her voice shaking slightly.
"Iffy..." Compa muttered, unable to say anything else or just unsure of what to say. "Did we do the right thing?..."
IF remained silent for a while. "I don't know...and I think that is one of the worst things about it."
Nepgear's heart was torn, part of her wanted to go out and see Compa and IF again another part wanted to yell at them l but most of her was afraid and wanted to remain hidden out of fear or run away in case they saw her. Soon she shook her head to clear her thoughts gathering what little courage she had left and slowly walked forward, her body trembling more and more with each and every step. Just as the clearing where the voices came from came into view a third unknown voice spoke up.
"Hey IF, Hey Compa." A very energetic voice called out to Nepgear's former friends. The girl appeared to be around nineteen years old with a rather attractive but not overly so figure. She had messy purple hair that went down to her shoulder blades. She had dark purple eyes and pale skin. She was wearing a white dress shirt tucked into a dark blue mini skirt. Over the shirt she wore a purple vest with the Planeptune symbol on the sleeves. On her belt were two scabbard that held two daggers.
"Hi Lulu, you gave us quite a scare running off like that." Compa replied.
"Hehe sorry about that bit I got so excited to do my first quest and to fight some Dogoos I couldn't help myself." The stranger replied with a chuckle.
IF let out a sigh.. "Luna your the CPU of Planeptune, you need to be more careful. If something happened to you it would harm your people."
Hearing this Nepgear freeze, any further part of the conversation was lost to her as she tried to comprehend this. 'S-s-she is my replacement?' She thought as her eyes started to water. Sure she had been told that new CPUs had been born but actually seeing your replacement in their role was a whole other ball park. Finally her body unfreeze and she darted away from the three as fast as she could, hoping they did not hear or follow her. 'Why?! why?! Why did I have to run into them out here!?' She thought as tears ran down and along her face.
She ran for another three hours before she tripped and fell to the ground crying her heart out to the sky and forest around her. She did not know for sure how long she stayed there crying but when her mind came into focus the sun had set and it was night time.
Soon the sound of crying ended and was replaced with sad chuckling. "What a sad Goddess I turned out to be..." she muttered as she looked at the ground. "I can't even stand being near my former friends or replacement."
Several moments passed before Nepgear shook her head and wiped her tears out of her eyes. "Enough of this... I have to move on...just like I did back then..." she said with a sad smile as she slowly stood up and brushed herself off. Looking up at the night sky she let out a sigh.
"I really wish I could transform and fly." She muttered. Her eyes then widened. "M-maybe I can." She added before she closed her eyes and focused looking for power just like she did when she was a CPU. Then she felt it. It was the same yet different, reaching out she tapped into that power and she felt a surge around her.
If anyone had been near Nepgear they would have seen a purple and black orb of energy surrounded in numbers engulf her. Soon the energy dispersed and she opened her eyes and took in her new form. Her appearance had changed drastically. Her hair was now a dark purple while her eyes were a light blue. Her outfit was a form-fitting black bodysuit that showed off her legs and arms which were a lot more toned than before. On her form arms and shins were guards that each had two small detachable pentagonal guards . On her back were two Dragon-like wings though the flaps were made of purple energy while the bones had four small dagger Fang-like drones on each of them. Her weapon had not changed minus a purple aura flowing around it.
After checking herself out, Nepgear couldn't help but smile."Not too bad." She said before she turned her attention to the sky and took off back to her and Caster's base.
As she approached the Gamindustri Graveyard she could feel herself starting to get tired, her back arched, her legs and arms started to shake and shiver and her eyes started to struggle staying open. "Is this because I am not powered by Shares anymore?" She muttered tiredly as she picked up the pace and landed just outside their rundown hideout. Nepgear quickly deactivated her HDD and felt her legs give out underneath her, with a sigh she got up and slowly walked inside the building, using the walls to hold herself up.
She eventually found Caster in a large room full of old control panels, wires and computers. He was standing in front of what seemed to be one-fourth of a ring tapping his foot on the ground in contemplation. "I have the first batch of materials you wanted." She called out as she emptied the supplies from her inventory onto a nearby table.
"You were gone a while, did you have any trouble?" He asked as he glanced back at her, taking a brief break from whatever he was working on.
Nepgear paused for a few moments before shaking her head. "No, it was just a long walk and some painful memories." She answered.
Caster nodded. "I see, for what it is worth, I am sorry, hopefully they will not crop up during the next runs." He said in what seemed like a sincere tone.
Nepgear nodded her head in thanks. "I am going to grab a bite to eat then call it a night. I will hit up the rest of the material spots tomorrow." She stated in a calm tone that was a little bit forced.
Caster looked at her for a moment before letting out a sigh and nodding. "Very well try to get some rest, you pushed yourself quite a bit today." He replied in a kind tone before he turned back to his project. "I have a few more things to do before I call it a night as well."
Nepgear just gave him a nod and left the room quickly. After a quick dinner she returned to her room and laid down on her bed and curled up into a ball, hugging her legs into her chests. "...I'm sorry everyone..." she muttered as her eyes started to close. Suddenly her eyes snapped open and she rushed over to her desk, setting up her N-gear to record her.
Nepgear took several deep breaths as she tried to collect herself and finally opened her mouth to speak. "..H..h-h-Hi.. Hi.." she then stopped the recording. "I can't do this." She muttered and picked up her N-gear and shut it down after deleting the video. "I will try again tomorrow." She muttered as she climbed back into bed and closed her eyes, finally drifting off to sleep.
The next few days were a rush to Nepgear as she traveled around Gamindustri gathering supplies for Caster, luckily she did not run into any more of her former friends or of the new CPUs during these trips. Every night she would try to record the video she wanted to make but every time she was left speechless, unsure of what to say. So a month had passed, a month of material gathering and construction work but they were finally done.
Nepgear hit the stop button on her N-gear as she dried tears that were running down her face and popped a small memory card out of it. She pocketed both the card and her N-Gear and made her way to the gate. Upon entering the room the once one-quarter arch was not a full circle and was now hooked up to four makeshift power generators. Caster stood in front of a control panel typing something into it as she walked up. "Is it time?" She asked in a quiet voice.
Caster nodded at her. "Almost just need to finish adding the dimensional coordinates and start it up." He replied before he glanced up at her. "Have you finished all your business, once we leave there is no guarantee you can come back."
Nepgear nodded and handed him the memory card. "Give that to a high level monster and send it to Planeptune, make sure it would purposely kill anyone and drop it on its death." She said as she held back tears in her eyes.
Caster nodded and took the card from her. "Very well, your luck you asked me to make that thing a month ago or we would not be leaving for another week." He stated as he finished inputting commands into the console. "Ok we just need to give it time to power up, I will handle your request and return." He then turned and left the room.
Nepgear let out a sigh and closed her eyes. She quickly looked over her gear and inventory to make sure that she had everything before leaving. By the time she was done Caster returned.
"Your request is done and on its way." He said as he walked up to the panel doing a quick check on how the get was progressing. "Looks like we are ready. Is there anything you want or need to do before you go?" He asked.
Nepgear took a deep breath and shook her head. "No, I am ready." She said in a steady but nervous voice.
Caster nodded and gestured for her to walk up to the gate. "Once you're through I will destroy the gate and our base before teleporting over to join you." He explained
Nepgear nodded and took a deep breath. "I am ready." She said in a firm tone.
"Very well activated in three... two... one..." Caster called out and Nepgear was blinded by light; she felt herself being pulled forward by some unknown force; it felt like her body was being pulled apart and compressed at the same time. Soon her vision returned to normal and she found herself in a forest.
Her whole body ached, so she gave herself a few moments before trying to move. Then she heard an odd energy noise. "Ahh, good you made it in one piece." Caster said.
Nepgear slowly stood up and opened her mouth to speak. "That was so painful..." the voice that came out did not sound right and looking around trees seemed much taller. Then they should be. "What happened to me?!" She shouted.
Caster developed a mischievous smile. "Oh did I forget to tell you? I added a spell to get to de-age you to 10, after all you have to disguise yourself somehow. This way as long as you don't run into someone who directly knows Nepgear you should be fine, plus you still have all your powers so you can protect yourself."
Nepgear glared at him. "YOU JERK CHANGE ME BACK!" She shouted and stomped on the ground.
Caster opened his mouth to speak but then rustling was heard and he just smiled. "Maybe later, I do hope you enjoy your new life." He said before he vanished in a small flash of light.
"CASTER! GET BACK HERE AND CHANGE ME BACK!" She shouted at the sky in rage, half tempted to transform to try and hunt him down.
But before she could even try, she heard a very familiar voice. "WHAT THE GOODNESS!?" The voice shouted and Nepgear turned around to see a normal version of herself staring at her in disbelief. "A Child version of me?" She said in shock.
Here is chapter two
I was debated back and fourth on whether or not to de-age Nepgear mostly because I wanted a extra way of differentiate the Hyperdimension one and this one. I might put a prefix letter in-front of the Fanfic one T (for Thetadimension) meaning when she is mentioned it would be as or just have Neptune go and force a nickname, I already have one in mind
I may do a one-shot for Option 3 at some point and present it as a challenge for anyone who wants to take it because I have a interesting idea for it that I want to roll with but I don't want do a full story with it at the moment.
Luna = Roman goddess of the Moon and Moon/Lunar was apparently the Project name of the mega drive mini