"I think it's better if we wait until night." Nepgear chose to go with the safer option. "That way we can sneak in and catch them off guard. What do you think?"
"Fine with me; not usually my type of M.O., but... we'll go with your plan." IF was a bit disappointed despite her best efforts not showing it, but she didn't complain. She is more of an action girl. "Too bad neither of us brought any cardboard boxes; that would've made a lot of things easier. Anyway, I guess we're gonna sit here until then."
"I'm not tired, so I offer to take the watch." Nepgear had slept through half the day, so she was the suitable candidate compared to IF, who looked the total opposite. "You can rest if you want; it looks like you need it."
"Yeah, I'll rest my eyes for a bit. Thanks." The two went further down from the cliff; IF went and leaned against some tree on her back in the shade while Nepgear took out her beam saber and kept watch through their surroundings for any possible threats, whether be it monsters or some patrols; you can never be sure.
Hours seem to pass by slowly...
" Are you ready?" The agent whispered. It was currently dark, and the two were hiding at the forest edge where the base lay up ahead. All they have to do is get past the guards and sneak inside without alerting them—easier said than done, and if it goes the other way... they could always switch to plan B.
" Yeah. " Nepgear was currently in her human form to avoid blowing their cover at this time, plus she could probably take them out without ever going to HDD; she had IF with her as well.
" Okay, follow me; we need to avoid and get past the spotlights." The base had four spotlights on each corner from the top that were patrolling the areas around them. The two waited until they passed them before they made their move. They sprinted carefully so as not to make too much noise that could give them away. They reached the wall of the building with ease, where the spotlight couldn't reach them.
"Okay, here's the plan: I'm going to climb, take two guards at the front, then I'll throw you a rope so you can climb from there."
"Good luck; I'll wait for you here."
"This won't take long." The agent began climbing the wall and slowly made her way up. She apparently now had the ability to climb walls, which was a game changer... kinda. She learned a lot of new things when she became a special agent. She received a special training from Kei, which was brutal from the sound of it. One of the training sessions included, you guessed it, wall climbing. Oh yeah, she was also equipped with a handgun, which she kept hidden at all times.
There was a guard standing at the edge of the building, unaware of the girl who was now hanging on the railing. IF quietly whistle to get his attention, "Huh?" The guard was confused, and when he took a glance down to find the source of the noise, IF quickly launched herself and grabbed him by his vest and sliced his neck before he could react and alert the others. She threw his dead body off the building before she climbed over the railing. She took out her dragger and slowly made her way towards the second guard. Once she was close enough, she leaned her hands up before she whispered yet again and immediately threw the dragger when he turned, which led to it being hit right between the eyes, or "bullseye", as they say.
"Two down." IF whispered to herself before she took out a rope, tied it, and threw it down for her friend. "Climb on, quick." After a few moments, Nepgear came up and regrouped with her partner. " Thanks. "
"Don't mention it; we're still not done yet." The agent went and retrieved her from the dead body. "I'll take the guard on the left; you're on the right. Do it quick and silently." Nepgear nodded before the two stealthily snuck behind the two guards who were standing next to each other.
Ugh, I hate this... Why do we have to stand here and guard this dump again, bro?
Because. It's literally our job to do so, bro .
I know! But it's not like we're guarding anything! They just threw us here in the middle of fucking nowhere.
It does not matter, so stop complaining and focus on the job, will ya? You're starting to piss me off.
Nothing ever happens here; I'd rather get shot, attacked by a monster, or anything else than standing here watching grass grow all day.
WILL YOU SHUT UP ALREADY!
Okay, Okay! Jeez... just tryna lighten up the mood, dude.
Sigh... Why am I even paired up with you of all people?
That's cold, dude.
"On my count... one, two, three!" IF was the first to strike, she kicked the guard's back knee, which made him kneel, then she stabbed him in the back with her dragger. Nepgear then quickly followed by grabbing the other guard's head and slamming it at the railing, which instantly knocked him cold.
"Good job, we're clear so far." IF dropped the whispering, seeing there weren't anymore enemies nearby. She went and slit the other one's throat before she wiped the blood from her dragger. "Come on, let's find a vantage point." They didn't have to look hard since there was a glass window in the middle of the rooftop; the two peered through the glass.
"It looks like they're just moving stuff around." IF observed the scene under her, there were many groups just moving heavy boxes from point A to point B. "There were also a dozen of them, about 25 or more."
"The other one said something about how they weren't guarding anything of importance... Maybe they are using this area to load supplies of some sort."
"Possible; we're still going to check and conform." IF took out her phone and quickly snatched a perfect picture of the place; given that they had the best view from the top, only one picture was sufficient.
"If you say so."
"Now we need to find a way inside, and I think I've found one." IF pointed at their ticket inside an air conditioner unit. They tore the mental part, which led to access to the ventilation system below. "So, you wanna do the honors and go first this time?"
"Sure, here goes..." Nepgear climbed inside before dropping down; the space was so tight that she had to force herself to crawl. If she were to gain a bit of weight, she would most certainly be stuck here. That thought alone made her body shiver, or was it the cold air that was flowing? Eh, probably both, but now is not the time to devolve into claustrophobia. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself and clear her mind before continuing.
IF soon dropped down, and unlike her, she had an easier time crawling since she was fairly skinny, which made Nepgear wish that she let IF go first. Not like it's going to change anything, but still. "Ugh, it's narrow in here. Come on, let's move along before these things collapse or we both freeze." The two began crawling slowly while they both felt their hands start to get frostbite from the cold surface. After some crawling, they both stumble on a cassette.
" What do you see? " Her partner asked from behind as soon as they stopped. " I see a room with a lot of servers and a computer, and There are only two guards present. "
" Great, I bet they have valuable intel stored in there that we can grab. Find a way to get us in. "
" I'm on it. " Nepgear tried reaching for her pockets, which proved to be different due to the enclosed space; eventually, she took out her trusty tool. Nepgear brought with her a bunch of useful gadgets, and one of them is a screwdriver. She began working on unscrewing the nails for a bit. " Hey, could you hurry this thing up? I'm about to freeze my ass off here. " IF teeth were chattering. " Remind me to bring gloves next time... brrr... "
" Almost done... there! " Opened the vent and carefully dropped down with IF following right behind. There was one sitting on the computer and the other was doing some checks on the machines. "Take out the guy in the back; the one sitting is mine." Her partner signaled to her before she took out her dragger and stabbed him in the back before she knocked his body off the chair. At the same time, Nepgear slowly walked towards her target, and once she was behind him, she bashed his head against the machine. Down for the count.
She was about to regroup with her friend, but a peculiar object caught Nepgear's eye. What the... Nepgear couldn't contain her disbelief. " Is that a game console? " Of all the things she expected to find, this certainly was not one of them.
Nepgear picked it up and began examining it; upon closer inspection, the console was white with a logo of an orange swirl on the top, and it had four control slots on the front. " Strange... It seems rather old and not any kind of game console I've seen before, that's for sure. " She mused to herself. I'll have a look at it more once I get back and do some research on it. Histoire might also know a thing or two.
" Hey, Nepgear! What's the hold up?"
" Uh, sorry, I found what looks like a game console. "
" A game wha-? Ugh, dammit Nepgear, you know the drill: if it doesn't have any value or uses, leave it. "
" I know, I know, but I can't help but feel that something is off about it. Also, don't you find it rather bizarre that they have a game console of all things stored here? "
" I guess, but I wouldn't be surprised; those fools are a bunch of clowns, so probably some might be just slackin' off ." IF's face then turned serious. " Listen, we don't have time; go to the computer and collect the intel before we get caught. I'll keep a watch here. I hope that you're as good at hacking as you are with engineering. "
"Sadly, no, but I might have something that should do the job." She rummaged through her pockets before she took out a small pink USB that was provided to her by Kei for this kind of situation. She went and inserted it into the computer before she sat down and began typing on the keyboard. " Let's see… using the software that's installed on this USB, we can hopefully bypass their security, but it will take some time. " Hopefully before they get caught, that is.
Nepgear waited until the software she installed cracked the system's security while the agent was keeping guard by the door. After a while, the software was done breaking into the system. " Got it! We're in ." She instantly began copying the data that was stored on the machine. Unfortunately, the progress bar was moving ever so slowly, so they waited and waited and... you get the gist.
"How's the progress going?" She heard her friend's voice across the room.
"It's going to take a while, I'm afraid."
"Damn it, is there anyway to make it go any faster? It won't be long until someone checks the room." IF slightly peeked through the door's window.
"Let's hope that doesn't happen until then."
Suddenly, the screen fades to black. " Huh!?" Nepgear tried pressing the power button multiple times, but to no avail. " No! not now..."
"The hell happened?"
"The power went off for some reason. I'll have a quick look and try to fix it as fast as I can."
"Damn it... We can't afford to waste more time. Do what you must." Before she could do anything, the screen suddenly switched to an unfamiliar person wearing a green cloak with a silver mask with two black holes and a stitched mouth, which gave it both an ominous and sinister look. "What the...?"
"I see that you've been trying to lurk in the shadows, huh, Nepgear... or should I call you the CPU of Gamindustari? Hmhmhm." The mysterious individual spoke in a deep voice; it was probably done so the person wouldn't get recognized if she had to guess, which made it weird since all of the villains they came across never hid their identity, which was new to her. "But you see, I already knew that you were coming, so it was all useless in the end."
"Who are you?" Nepgear recovered after a moment of shock passed and asked the first logical thing that popped into her head. IF then joins besides her.
"Who am I? Hmm... I guess you can say that I'm the puppeteer who's pulling the strings behind the scenes."
"So you're the mastermind responsible for taking over Leanbox and the one who's leading this group?" IF spoke slowly and leaned in.
"Hmhmhmhm, bingo."
"Why the hell are you doing this?! What's your end goal, huh?" It took the agent all of her willpower not to burst out and shout at the mysterious figure, though she feels it's already useless since the two were already found out and the leader would most likely send their goons to them soon after.
"I'm afraid I can't say that. It would be spoilers, you see." The figure began taunting them. "And no one likes spoilers."
"Damn it! Stop toying with us and just answer the damn question!" She felt her blood boil from how much the figure played the cryptic game.
"So impatient... Soon, Leanbox would not be the only nation free from CPU. We will rise soon and liberate all nations; it's only a matter of time."
"What do you mean by that?" Nepgear tried to press more to get information out of her.
"Uh, uh, ah... now where's the fun in that if I just tell you? It would spoil the surprise that I have spent time preparing. For now, enjoy this little gift that I have made... just for you, hmhmhmhm." The screen went black once again, and smoke began appearing, which only meant one thing...
"Shit! Get down!" Nepgear quickly grabbed the flashdrive before the two ran before the computer behind them exploded, knocking the two off the ground and the dead body, leaving a large crater of smoke behind. The two were coughing after the smoke cleared. The dead body landed on top of Nepgear; she pushed it off her and turned her gaze to her friend and asked, " Cough, cough... Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just about... cough ."
"Who was that?"
"I don't know, but that doesn't matter right now." Nepgear was confused for a bit before she began hearing voices getting louder and louder from outside. "There goes the element of surprise; I guess we're fighting our way out." IF took out her gun while she materialized her beam saber in her hand. Well, I guess it's time for plan B. What's plan B, you may ask? Simple.
Just fight and don't die.
"Come on, let's not give them time to prepare." IF rushed and kicked down the door, which let the smoke out of the room, which gave them an advantage since it blocked the vision of the enemies from them momentarily, like without the need for a smoke bomb. IF took this change, and she leapt from the railing and onto the unsuspecting foes below. She fired a couple of shots while in mid-air at some enemies below, which she managed to hit. Once she hit the ground, she switched to her katars before she engaged in close quarter combat. One tried to stab her with a knife, but she evaded the attack with her dagger as well. The two exchanged blows before the enemy mangled to grab the agent's arm with the dagger sitting a few inches from his face. She tried to struggle to break free and stab the bastard, but to no avail. She then did something that he didn't expect, which was dropping the dagger from her hand and catching it in her other arm. The enemy's eyes widen, but it is too late as she drives her dagger deep into his neck.
Nepgear immediately jumped once her friend jumped, and she raised her beam saber above her head while free-falling. As soon as her feet landed on the ground, she stabbed her blade on the ground, which created a shockwave that knocked everyone standing in front of the blast down. She didn't take any time to rest and immediately took out her blade and ran while she blocked bullets with her weapon. She used her skill Mirage Dance and began spinning around while slashing all nearby enemies as if she were performing a ballet—a deadly one, that is. This time she didn't feel as dizzy as she did after performing this tedious skill due to her mastering it, which made her able to do it twice as well as before.
IF was running around super fast, like a hedgehog on steroids, which gave the enemies quite a hard time keeping up with her and landing a single hit. She then performed a wall run before she delivered a kick to the enemy's face before she slid between two enemies while she slashed both of their knees with her katars.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Someone charged behind her, ready to tackle her. She reacted quickly before she took hold of his machine gun and pushed it, and then it became a battle of struggle between the two to take control. IF then used her foot to kick him, which made him loosen his grip on the weapon. She took this opportunity and grabbed the front of the gun before she used the butt to knock him on the face. She then quickly aimed her gun at the two enemies behind her and shot them before they fired. She continued firing with the gun at the other enemies; soon the weapon made clicking noises. She threw the empty gun away and quickly switched to her handgun and dagger, shooting multiple enemies and stabbing with her poison-tip dagger. She noticed a red barrel with a couple of enemies surrounding it. She fired the barrel a couple of times before it exploded with flown body parts and agnusind screams, leaving nothing but a big creator behind.
She slowly walked backwards until she felt her back hit someone. She turned and saw it was her purple-haired friend. The two exchanged a quick look. Not long after, more enemies began appearing before they all surrounded the two. "More are coming in; it looks like we're not done yet." Nepgear tightly gripped her blade and adjusted her foot.
"I'm getting real tired of this already. Say, Nepgear? How about you and I finish this?" She grinned at her friend, before Nepgear nodded as she smiled back, knowing what her brunette friend was thinking. The two prepared their couple skill attacks; Nepgear used Slash Wave and swung her blade, which knocked a dozen enemies in the air and also flung IF up as well. If she swiftly slashed multiple enemies with her katars, Nepgear soon joined in and began slashing wildly using Panzer Blade.
Soon, they managed to take out the remaining enemies with ease. The place turned quiet, with dead bodies scattered all around the two.
"Hoo... that was intense, but somehow we've made it alive." IF her holstered weapons while still keeping her guard up. "Great teamwork there, Nepgear. We totally kicked their asses."
"Well, we've faced worse, and we do make a good team together, don't we? It almost reminds me of the old days..."
"Yeah, it does... Well, let's check the crates we saw earlier, shall we?"
"Sure." Nepgear put back her weapon before letting out a tired sigh. The two searched every single crate and found that they were all filled with ammonations. "Guess you're right about them using this place to offload supplies; these are all ammos."
"What are we going to do about them?"
"Well, I'll send a squad to come take away their ammo supplies. Without them, it should slow them down a bit. We're still a long way from reclaiming Leanbox, but that's a start."
"What about their masked leader?"
"I don't know." IF rubbed her chin together. "But what I know is that we need to gather as much information about them as soon as possible. They seem to be a big threat, so we need to act accordingly and take them out."
"I need to go and report our discoveries to Kei as soon as possible. Oh, and I managed to save the USB from being destroyed, but we still need to decrypt the data; it might take a while." Nepgear handed IF the flash drive, which was pocketed safely. "Sadly, we didn't grab all of the data before they blew the computer. But let's hope there's at least something useful in there."
"There's hoping; I'll give it to Kei once I see her. There's no doubt that she'll call me soon to send me on a mission involving finding more information about our new mysterious friend here." IF stretched her body. "And here I thought I'd be visiting Compa soon..." She closed her eyes and let out a sigh.
"Speaking of Compa... How is she? I heard that she has finally become an official nurse now." She noticed IF cringing when she asked, which wasn't a very good sign.
"Yeah... well..." IF tried to find the words before she let out a sigh. "Well... she's not doing too well, that's for sure. Lately, there've been a lot of cases that she's not used to seeing, like missing body parts, mangled bodies, blown parts, etc. I can tell that it really messed up from witnessing all of it, but she tried her best to ignore it since she's now an official nurse. I just wish I could've been there more to help her, but now I won't have time as I'll have even more missions now." IF swore under her breath.
"I'm... sorry to hear that." Nepgear didn't know what to say, but then she got an idea. "I was thinking... after we settle things out, the three of us could hopefully have a nice dinner together in my Basilicom like we used and have a chance to catch up." Ever since their departure, no one really had the time to properly take a break. It was all work after work, so a nice break with friends is just what they need. "It's been a while since the three of us hung out."
"That's... not a bad idea." IF began pondering for a bit, muttering, "Hmm... This also could help alleviate Compa's mind."
"I'll contact Compa later so we can arrange our schedules. Heh, it's been a while since I last ate one of her signature dishes." They both made their way out of the building soon after while they talked.
"Well, I'd better be going. It was nice seeing you again, IF."
"Likewise, it was fun fighting alongside you again like we used to."
"Yeah, how I wish things could go back the way they used to."
"Me too, but that's wishful thinking." IF put her hand on her shoulder and patted it. "Take care of yourself out there, okay?"
Nepgear smiled at her friend. "Thanks; the same goes for you as well." Both exchanged acknowledging nods before Nepgear transformed into her HDD form. "Farewell, IF." The agent waved as she saw her friend take off. Nepgear made her way towards Planeptune through the dark night, with the moon's reflection on the sea as her guide. I need to contact Kei once I get back.
AN is the same as the last. What? you thought things would play differently? How navie, choice is just an illusion.