SNF 1.4
"The Tallest of Mountains"
The Nepmobile drove the deserted streets of Planeptune, barreling towards the anomaly Alex and company detected. Within the vehicle, IF was fiddling with some phones as Compa piloted. Meanwhile, Hotaru had fallen asleep in the vehicle. Letting out soft snores, the sleeping girl slid to the side and plopped onto Maya's shoulder. Startled, Maya turned to look at Hotaru. After a second, the girl slowly shifted herself so that Hotaru would be comfortable. Once she saw Hotaru make a smile, Maya turned to Hotaru's bag and fished out a random comic. The manga was untranslated, yet the cover was familiar to her. Specifically the busty blonde with a green dress. She returned the book to the bag, and looked out to the window in boredom instead. Alex had lent Lara her new N-Gear. Unfortunately, the Planeptune Network is down due to the anomaly and she instead took a selfie with everyone inside the car.
As they were getting closer and closer to the anomaly, Alex felt a chill run through her body. Shuddering for a second, Alex looked around and her vision blurred for a second. She grasped her head and blinked her eyes, her vision clearing immediately. Confused, Alex wanted to talk to someone about what she felt, but the Nepmobile suddenly slowed down.
"We're here!~~" Compa chimed. Maya woke up Hotaru as everyone else climbed out of the Nepmobile. They were at an intersection near Central Planeptune. Because of the monster infestation in the capital, Compa had moved the Nepmobile a little bit aways from their destination. The girls were surrounded by buildings.. After the quick scan, IF motioned for everyone to gather into a circle.
"Okay, then." IF started, "We gotta see what's stopping the flow of share energy to the rest of the city."
IF produced two cell phones she had been working on. She turned to Alex and Lara.
"Alex, take Lara go investigate the north of the city," IF ordered while giving Alex a pink cell phone, "Compa, you and Hotaru check the southeast. Finally, Maya and I will head southwest and look there. Both of these phones have my main number on them so call me if you find anything." IF reached the white cell phone towards Hotaru.
Hotaru took the white cell phone and nodded along with everyone else.
"We'll see you later, Iffy!" Alex said, "We'll call you if we find something."
Compa then waved goodbye to IF and Alex. "Bye Iffy! Bye miss Lexi!" she then held Hotaru's hand and headed towards their destination.
Breaking off into their pairs, they broke off to find the source of the anomaly. The car then drove itself back to the base, as IF instructed it to do.
Hotaru and Compa partolled Planepark, which was once a very colorful theme park filled to the brim with people. The famous Green Hill Coaster is now abandoned and the colors are faded out. The Jet Set Skatepark is now littered with small dogoos, and the like. Even their premier motion simulator, the Journey of Dreams was being raided by Z-Bots and Poxvaders.
"Hotaru…" Compa began, while they were walking through the theme park.
"What is it, Miss Compa?" The smaller girl looked at her companion.
"What is your world like?"
Hotaru paused in thought, "Well, for starters, we don't have any goddesses or monsters. We don't have Share Energy, either."
Compa nodded, making a smile. "It must be nice to not have to deal with monsters."
Hotaru glanced at the area around her, seeing all the destroyed stands and street lights.
"Miss Compa, If you don't mind me asking, what was this world like before that Sin Monster arrived?"
Compa sighed, stopping in place. "It was a peaceful world. Of course, Nep-Nep and the other goddesses found ways to make it interesting." Compa made a sad smile at the thought. "Each country was amazing in how they ran themselves: Planeptune always looked so futuristic and shiny, Lastation had a lot of hard-working people making a lot of neat weapons, Leanbox always held itself like a nice countryside, and Lowee was a winter wonderland where it looked like it was always Christmas." Hotaru's blinked. Then her eyes began to shine as the images that Compa described appeared in her head.
"It sounds like something from a Fantasy Novel."
Compa tilted her head to one side, "Do you read a lot, Hotaru?"
Hotaru nodded, "My family moved around a lot, so I read a lot of books to pass the time when we would travel… I guess that's why I don't really know much about my world…."
The two walked quietly for a while, looking for anything strange.
"Miss Compa?" Hotaru started, "What were the Goddesses of Lowee like?"
"Say, Miss IF... Is your name really like that? Only two letters?"
"Hm?" IF turned to Maya, while still walking through the destroyed part of Planeptune, "Well, it's actually short for Idea–... You know what, just call me 'Iffy'. Everyone else does."
Maya chuckled, "Alright, Miss Iffy, whatever you say." IF rolled her eyes at the comment, making a sound of disgust at the same time.
"Don't call me 'Miss', I'm not an old lady yet."
Maya chuckled again. The two both walked the city for a while, Maya climbing through the various rubble and cracks with ease.
This district was one of the Ground Zeroes of the monster breakout shortly after the CPUs met their demise. The city's Share Shield collapsed, enabling the monsters to invade this town and other parts of the Planeptunian border. The residents were evacuated towards Central Planeptune, before ultimately moving out to the Ultradimension. Collapsed buildings, ruins, destroyed vehicles and various monsters were scattered throughout the area. Maya and IF were travelling away from said monsters, as they didn't want to grab its attention.
"You're pretty good, there, Maya." IF complimented.
"Thanks, Iffy. Freerunning and parkour really helps. I do this all the time back home. Anyways, do you do stuff like this sometimes?" Maya asked.
"Yeah, but I often go in my garage fixing my bikes."
Maya's eyes lit up, "You ride!? Aw, man, we gotta ride together sometime!"
IF stumbled in surprise, but got similarly excited, "We totally should! I even have an Extra… Bike…" IF suddenly trailed off. "On second thought, maybe we should hold off on that."
"Aw come on, you can't just tell me you have an extra bike and leave me hanging!"
"Trust me, if you saw my extra bike, you would know it would need a lot more than just a tune-up."
They then moved towards the next part of the abandoned town, and continued their search.
"Lara?" Alex asked suddenly.
"Yes, Alex?"
"Have you ever dreamed of somebody else's life as if it is your own?"
Lara raised an eyebrow, "Can't say that I have. Why?"
"It's weird… When I sleep, I dream about Nepgear's life and I even think that I am Nepgear. This isn't the first time the Deity of Sin attacked this realm. I even remembered defeating it so vividly."
"And that'll happen to all of us..."
Alex nodded, "Yeah, It's all so overwhelming. ASIC, Ultradimension, Zerodimension, The Gold Third, even Heartdimension… I remember it all like it was yesterday…"
"Do you experience hallucinations?" Alex shook her head. "Is there anything else you got from Nepgear aside from her memories?" Lara asked out of concern for her friend.
"No, but I think I picked up all her skills at some point." Alex stared at her hands, as if they weren't hers. "I even used her Beam Saber as if I had trained with it for years. It's really weird..."
"That's… I don't know how to feel about that." Lara curiously thought.
"At least Nepgear's nice," Noticing Lara's thoughtful stare, Alex put up a smile.
"Does she talk to you?" Lara asked.
"When I'm sleeping, she tries to remind me of who I am. When I'm awake… It's like... I can feel her reactions to things. Like right now she's apologizing for my dreams."
A faint red glimmer caught Alex's eye. She looked in that direction and sprinted to the red patch. Laying on the ground in front of her were red X-shaped crystals. Alex went to pick one up but paused upon feeling an ominous aura coming from the crystal..
"Alex, what's wrong?" Lara asked. Alex stood up, stepping away and grasping her hand. A small droplet of sweat rolled down her face as she looked at Lara.
"Anti-Share Crystals. Everything in my mind tells me to not pick it up…" Alex explained.
Turning back to the item, Alex stared at the crystal. Even with the memories in her mind that told her not to touch the Anti-Share Crystal, she reached down picked up the dark eerie crystal anyways. Quickly squeezing one eye shut, Alex blinked in surprise when she didn't feel that pain and weakness that Nepgear felt when the CPU Candidate had tapped one. Worried, Alex took out the pink phone that IF had given her earlier.
"I need to contact the others. I don't know who's planting these, but they're bad news!" Alex exclaimed as she dialed IF's main number. Alex's worry slightly vanished when she heard IF's voice over the phone.
"Hello, IF? There are Anti-Share Crystals here. I'm not affected or weakened by it." Alex explained to IF. "Please do. I need everyone in here, and I don't know what it contains. Thanks, Iffy." Alex hung up after the call, letting out a sigh of relief. Turning to Lara, Alex smiled.
"And so we wait for the others to arrive." Unbeknownst to the two girls, they were being watched from the shadows. Dark blue eyes, burning with contempt and a hint of sadness considered the two Champions.
"Hmph, Leave the Underling in charge for one minute and look at what happens…" She crossed her arms and walked deeper into the shadows, "These champions have no chance against the power of delusion."
"Alex!"
The other two teams met up with Alex and Lara at Virtua Forest. The grass surrounding them was a dull brown. The trees were barren, missing their leaves and a pale gray color. The once fertile land had dried up and lost all its luster,small patches of sand picked up from the dirt and flew with the wind. The clearing they were in looked like it has been struck by a plague, and terrifying the girls, especially Hotaru, with its eerie look.. Alex was still holding the Anti-Share Crystal on her hands. Lara waved over to the girls as they approached the two.
"Hey, IF. Compa. We've been waiting for you guys."
IF held out her hand, prompting Alex to hand the crystal over. IF then inspected the crystal.
"Definitely an Anti-Share Crystal," IF confirmed, "How are you holding it? These things are outright deadly for CPUs!"
"Maybe because Lexi is still human even though she can transform into Ge-Ge..." Compa theorized.
Alex picked another crystal off the ground, inspected it, and then crushed it in her hand. The red dust blowing away in the wind. Lara, Hotaru, and Maya did the same.
"Hey, it isn't so bad. Now to destro–"
A red flash erupted from the dark mist that formed out of the destroyed crystals. When it died down, a Fenrir stood in front of the girls, ready to attack.
"What is that?!" Hotaru exclaimed in terror of the massive hound.
"I totally forgot about a monster spawning when you destroy a bunch of Anti-Share Crystals!" IF shouted. IF turned to Alex. "Alex!"
Alex nodded, "Right!"
She activated her transformation, however this time the share code seemed glitchy and out of control.
"Processor Unit Co–... Wait, why is my voice the same? I should sound like Nepgear by now!"
Lara fished out a compact mirror from her pants and handed it to Alex. Alex looked at her reflection and saw her own face and hair instead of Purple Sister's. The only things that remained of Purple Sister were the light blue eyes and the power button irises.
Alex inspected herself further and found that she didn't exactly fill out the leotard like she used to. While it was still skin tight, the outfit brought out how… small she was.
"W-what? Why do I look like this?" Alex said as she inspected her semi-transformed state.
"I guess it's because of all of the Anti-Share Crystals in the area," IF concluded, "I guess 'Lex just 'half transformed' or something. You feeling alright?"
"I… Guess so…"
The Fenrir lunged and swiped at Alex. The girl braced herself and tried to block it. The monster's claws grazed off her weapon and scratched her hands. While she was able to take the attack, it hurt more than the other attacks. Grunting as she stepped back, Alex held her blade close to her and waited for the Fenrir to lunge again. Once the monster began rushing towards her, Alex dashed at the monster. Alex's sudden movement startled the Fenrir and caused the monster to stumble. As the monster tried to regain its footing, Alex unleashed a Mirage Dance on it. As her blade flew towards the monster's fur hide, the Fenrir tensed its side and threw its paw outwards. Both claw and blade clashed, sending Alex to the side. The Fenrir swung the same paw at Alex, forcing her to block again and knock her back a few meters. Alex grit her teeth as her hands stung from the scratch marks. Sliding to a halt, Alex leaped into the hair and dodged the Fenrir's lunge once again. Holding her gunblade in both hands, Alex dropped down and plunged her weapon into the monster's back. Alex's gunblade made a loud clang as it bounced against the Fenrir's hide and slid to the side. Startled, Alex flew away from the monster as it thrashed about in an attempt to throw her off of it. Flying high enough to catch her breath, Alex turned to IF.
"Okay, maybe I'm not at a hundred percent. Although I can still fly." As Alex was huffing, IF held up a thumbs up.
"Keep it up, Lex! You still have Gear's powers." IF encouraged.
"We have faith in you, Lexi!" Compa added, "We have faith in all four of you... The four of you are the champions that will save Gamindustri!" Alex turned to the sounds of her friends. All of them were far to the side, safe from harm.
"What are you doing over there?!" Hotaru, Lara, and Maya were holding small red flags that have "ALEX" written on them in white, waving them around.
"Don't ask us where we got these," Lara commented with a deadpan on her voice.
"Go go Alex! Go go Alex!" Compa was waving glow sticks around while IF had a foam finger in one hand with Alex's name and another glow stick in another.
Alex started to glow, "I feel… warm… My wounds are healing!"
IF smirked, "That's share energy for ya!"
Alex nodded as she discovered another aspect of her powers. She then called out to the girls, "The rest of you should destroy the rest of the Anti-Share Crystals. I'll handle this beast!" As Alex prepared to fight the Fenrir, IF grinned.
IF dropped her glow stick and foam finger, summoning her qatars in their place. "I'm not letting you have all the fun, Lex!" IF rushed into the battle with Alex, drop-kicking the wolf monster as it tried to swipe at Alex.
As the two fought the Fenrir, the others fanned out and tried to shatter as many crystals as they could. In doing so, more Fenrir's were summoned from the remains of the shattered crystals. Compared to the first Fenrir they accidentally summoned, the newer Fenrir's varied in size. However, none of them were close to matching the first one. As they appeared out of the shards, the monsters rushed towards Alex and IF, knocking Compa and Maya to the ground. Lara had pulled Hotaru out of the way. When the duo dueling the Fenrir turned around, Alex quickly picked up IF and took to the air.
Without missing a beat, IF summoned her pistol and began firing at the monsters. While the first Fenrir ignored the bullets, the new ones actively flinched and moved out of the way. Emptying her clip, IF sent her pistol away. "Lex!" gestured Alex to the spot she made nearby. IF's flying companion nodded, depositing her and landing onto the floor.
Once on the ground, IF turned to Alex and give a smile and a nod. Alex returned the gesture and sped towards the original Fenrir. Using her body and the momentum she had, Alex tackled the Fenrir out of the way and into a wall. Both Alex and the Fenrir made a hole in the wall, but Alex flew out of the hole without a scratch.
IF stared down the brand new monsters, brandishing her weapons. "Alright you mangy mutts, let's go!" A handful of Fenrir's raced towards the girl. IF smirked, dropping to her knees. Slamming her palms onto the ground, IF glared at the monsters. "Demon Flames!" A large magic circle appeared ahead of the Fenrir's. As they reached the center of the circle, a pillar of flames erupted from the circle. IF got to her feet as the flames flew high into the air. Another Fenrir was charging IF from the side and she shifted her leg, raising a blade. As the Fenrir leaped at her, IF sidestepped and plunged her Quatar into the Fenrir's neck, dragging through its body as the monster moved past her. Blood gushed from the monster's wound as it landed on the ground. The Fenrir staggered before slowly turning around and collapsing onto the ground.
The howl of more Fenrir's caught IF's ears. She turned around to see a handful of Fenrir's jumping and leaping after Alex. The girl rose and dipped through the air, slashing at any Fenrir's that got close. Many of the newer Fenrir's exploded into code after Alex cut them up, but the original one had burst out of the wall and began harassing the duo..
However, with each Anti-Share Crystal destroyed, more Fenrir's appeared and joined the fray. Maya, Lara, Hotaru and Compa practically had to leap out of the way when a Fenrir ran towards Alex and IF. At the same time, every Anti-Share Crystal destroyed gave Alex a bit of strength back. By the time Compa and the others had destroyed a good chunk of the crystals, Alex was able to kill many of the Fenrir's with relative ease and parry the original Fenrir at the same time.
IF moved to the side and was using her pistol to gun down any monsters that moved near her. Suddenly, the original Fenrir roared and turned it's head to IF. As IF tensed up, ready to dodge, Alex slammed into the giant lupine beast. The girl dug her blade into the Fenrir's side, pinning it to the floor. Letting out a loud yell, she pumped the Fenrir full of blasts from her gunblade. The lupine beast fell limp and exploded into Share Code.
"This is the last one!" Maya shouted as she crushed the last Anti-Share Crystal with her foot.
"Thanks, Maya!" Alex said as she started to glow.
Suddenly, Alex exploded in a wave of Share Energy. The monsters that surrounded her were pushed back, and the girls witnessed something amazing.
Alex's face morphed, and her hair lengthened, changing color to pink. Her hands became daintier and her arms became slightly toned. Her legs filled out the tight boots, her waist pulled in and her hips widened, giving her an hourglass figure.
Her shoulders became more pronounced, and her chest grew, filling out her skintight suit.
"Pretty…" Hotaru intoned, full of wonder.
"I guess this is the first time we've seen the transformation this close. " Lara commented.
"I… I guess that could be cool…" Maya murmured, "But wearing that leotard is going to be so embarassing…"
"Welcome back, Ge-Ge!" Compa cheered.
"I can feel the Share Energy coursing through my veins!" Alex exclaimed in her new voice. She pointed her gunblade up and let out a shot, which then split up into multiple beams, and rained down on the monsters. She then slashed the beasts one by one. Share code appeared around them as Alex dealt critical damage.
"Share Code, Digitize!"
The monster burst into data as all of their code flew into Alex's Digivice, clearing the area. The greenery and purple tech went back their normal color as everyone cheered. The entire City of Planeptune erupted in lights as the disused tech started running self repair and diagnostics. Finally, one of the four nations was back to its former glory.
"Umm... Do you guys see a weird girl wearing a gray mouse hoodie?" Lara pointed out.
IF groaned and Compa sighed, they both knew exactly who Lara was talking about.
"Welp, there's another plan ruined by the Goddesses, chu" Warechu said leaning against a tree.
"Ugh, I do not want to be the one to tell the boss!" Linda whined.
"Well, I'm sure as hell not telling her, chu."
Linda looked out and saw one of the girls pointing in their direction.
"Shit, we've been spotted! We need to go!" The group saw that the girl and a black mouse ran away.
"They're going to the city!" Lara shouted.
"Of course they are." IF sighed, "Come on, let's go get them!"
"Who are they?" Lara asked.
"Um… Underling and Warechu, I think." Alex said, closing her eye while she tried to search her memories, "Nepgear and the others fought them before."
"A lot of times." IF added, "Honestly, I didn't think we'd find them here."
The team chased them through the city until the heroes cornered the mouse-themed culprits on an enclosed alleyway. The alley itself was between two abandoned buildings with a dumpster in the middle which IF jumped over during the chase, meanwhile Lara almost tripped over a banana peel which had fallen out of an upturned trash can which was next to a pile of damaged consoles. The walls of the alley itself were covered in graffiti, most of which was of the nations goddess however a few other things were on it as well, such as a yellow circle with a triangular slit missing on the right. At the end of the alley itself was a medium sized scaleable metal fence with barbed wire lining everywhere but the very top.
"Tch, why are we even running?" Underling said, "We know we're gonna lose."
"We're not–" Warechu started and then sighed, "Yeah… You're right, besides nothing these chumps do would be worse than what she's going to do."
IF lowered her qatars, "Wait, you're giving yourself up?"
Underling smiled, "Ya know, it might be stupid of me, but I wanna at least say I tried to fight you guys!"
Suddenly, Warechu attacked IF from behind using a trash can lid he picked up.
"Ngh! You..."
"If you want me and my knowledge of the Lastation Spirit so hard, then come at me!"
"Lastation spirit?" Lara asked.
"You blabbermouth!" Warechu yelled.
Alex raised her sword as Underling did the same with her steel bat. The two rushed each other to start the battle.
Neptune: Nepstation! It's no mystery that I'm your host, Neptune! With me is none other than Alexandra Rose and Lara Strife!
Lara: Alex… what's going on here?
Alex: I think Miss Neptune calls it the "totally non-canon Episode Preview"
Nep: Yeppers! You can talk about anything from the chapter we just presented above.
Lara: Right, so... Who is this "Warechu" anyway? Is that some kind of Pokémon?
Alex: Um.. sort of? He and Miss Underling are sort of the Team Rocket?
Lara: Oh… It's sort of unfair that you have to fight them on your own though.
Nep: That's true. Also, you'll get your sister spirit soon, Lara. Alex won't be the only one fighting anymore.
Lara: Really?
Nep: Yep! But first, we need to talk about Parallel Universes...
Alex: What? Where? We ourselves are proof that Parallel Universes exist. What are you talking about?
Nep: I'm saying that transforming into HDD is a full thing, you can't say you only "half-transformed", Lexi! It's not an "A" Press! How do you expect to be a main character if you can't keep these basic rules of speedrunning straight?
Alex: But... Nevermind. Roll the next chapter preview, please!
Neptune: We're wrapping up the First Planeptune Arc when our four champions defeats Underling and lets her spill everything she knows! Next time: The Road to Lastation!