Chapter 64: The names Lead Black Lead (Part 3)
Yeah I do not like where I am at all alright. The chopper itself is black, old and in quite a bad shape. The seat isn't even particularly comfortable to say the least. We're flying in the air and I look outside to notice lots of large chimneys and factories, with various metallic bridges that connect one building to another. There's smoke everywhere as well as smog, black suffocating smog. There are also plenty of pipes and cooling towers too. The place is incredibly dirty and full of decay. I can't even see any greenery or anything that appears to be full of life at all.
I try to see who is flying the aircraft hoping it's not some villain I despise, but it's a shadow. Am I in Neptunia's horrible Lastation then? I hope not but my gut tells me this to be the case. In that case I'm probably in one of Neptune's nightmares again, oh my goddess will this ever end? I wish she'd quit this propaganda nonsense, no one buys it. With that said at least it gives me a challenge and I like a challenge. Though despite how much I really hate it here already I will not give in to her, she can try and exploit my weaknesses all she wants, but she should know I will not break. As a method of making the most of the situation I'm in. I speak to the pilot.
"Excuse me pilot do you know where we are?" I ask this unknown shadow politely.
"Have you forgotten who I am? I am Ganache. And have you forgotten already we're in Lastation? Oh OK in case you have forgotten I am escorting you to our Lady Black Heart, she has high hopes for you." He replied in his usual "friendly but reason to be suspicious" tone, and while he may not sound it, I do wonder whether he's irritated with me.
Yep I certainly don't like it here and his confirmation makes the situation worse. To see this Lastation looking like this, to see this land so awful, so undesirable. There's nothing new here, it's all old and smoky, and there is nothing pleasant to see for miles. All I can think about right now is how I am not enjoying it here in this awful depressing place. It's definitely fake, and it's certainly not the Lastation I know. What kind of nightmare is it? One that is of significance to me, to be in the Lastation from the series which I despised so much.
No, I may not like it here but I cannot show weakness to my enemy, I need to keep calm and cool and bear in mind that this is just one of her stupid nightmares. I just need to see this out. Think positive Black at least you're going to see Noire. Yeah going to see Noire. I can already guess that this Noire in this nightmare of mine is a Noire I don't want to see. Someone that's portrayed as a villain, arrogant, someone that's bound to fall flat on her face. And worse of all a tsundere and a horrible one at that. I really don't like that trait, and I remember how her trait never did her any good. It made her look nasty made her look like a hypocrite as well as a joke. I suppose I can at least have a conversation with him and maybe at least I'm still on Lastation's side, even if it's not the Lastation I want to fight for. And so as a desperate attempt to get this off my mind I speak to the shadowy pilot.
"Why is it so smoky hasn't she attempted to reduce pollution? What about the people down there suffering with asthma from foul air? Not to mention what about all the people that are unemployed, struggling with a lack of food, accommodation, electricity. Has she made any attempt to make her land a better place? I thought she's proud of her nation." I ask with much shock in my voice, playing along in the nightmare.
"She hasn't nor will she ever will, we thrive on our industry and we need to be at our best for when Neptune arrives. Our people don't matter; all they need to worry about is ensuring they do not displease Lady Black Heart. They need to understand that the mass unemployment, Avenir and the economy is necessary to bait Neptune as well as how our industry always comes first." He replied in a cold tone with no emotions of any kind whatsoever.
I figured he'd say something like that. Ah now I remember him supposedly worshiping Noire, though I do find myself questioning his motives. It certainly does make me feel sick in remembering how the original Neptunia was full of villains that are based on aspects to do with the consoles I love. Avenir is especially it with it meaning future, it being a massive corporation and it being about technology and machinery a futuristic concept. Despite the probable outcome I decide to protest going along with the nightmare.
"How is it necessary? Don't you know you're supposed to care about your subjects? There are people down there that are poor and starving, suffering with mass pollution and yet you won't do anything about it…. You know what just take me to her; I'll say it to her personally." I speak with anger, while knowing that as far as the nightmare is concerned, it would in fact be pointless to speak to him any more with regards this issue.
I know the real Noire is not like this, and I am confident I won't be seeing the real one here despite what Neptune will no doubt make out. Back in the real Lastation there is no pollution or poor economy or starvation and despite having lots of high tech machinery there is no unemployment as there is plans in place to find the people either other work in new work and it's sorted out quickly and with no issues. What frustrates me, is that there is nothing I can do to change this place to get back at Neptune, or even get out of here. All I can do is just simply wait and see what happens as we head to where this so called Noire lives. Thing is I don't even know where it is as I just sink in my chair demoralised in my current limited abilities. At least there's no danger but I am really sick of these nightmares where that witch Neptune tries to brainwash me. She's persistently trying to get me to turn on Lastation and trying to frighten me with how Lastation is actually like how it was in Neptunia. I just know she's full of rubbish.
"Yeah you need to be at your best for when Neptune arrives, I bet she's already here and your best is just to ensure that Lastation falls just so she can come here. I'm not even convinced you actually serve Noire like I do." I speak again my voice showing nothing but utter contempt for him, once again playing along.
I kinda expected the pilot to try and put me in my place, and speak of how he's truly devoted to Noire. But she already seems to be here alright, as suddenly Ganache has received an electric shock causing him to scream in agonising pain as he then dies afterwards. Now I'm trapped as the helicopter appears to do a dive towards the ground, as I hear the aircraft quickly go down. It even sounds distinctive, in fact I remember it being like a Stuka bomber behaving like a kamikaze ready to destroy the target on the ground. I hold on inside as tightly as I could, as the thing goes down.
Even if I honestly feel sort of relieved, I am curious to know who killed Ganache. I'm not sure, though I do have a few possible suspects in mind including the Noire in this nightmare. All I can worry about now is ensuring I get out of this helicopter, but how? I can't get to where the pilot is due to there being a partition in the helicopter separating the front seats and the back seats. All I can do is just hold on as though to brace and prepare myself mentally for what seemed inevitable: my death via the helicopter crashing.
Mercifully though or maybe not from the perspective of the controller, the helicopter stops diving and is now steady, only for me to hear laughter from one Plutia. Oh great I'm now at her whim and mercy. I can only hope that this is merely temporary.
"Good afternoon Mr Black, don't concern yourself with the pilot. One of my less useful people." She said in her evil sadistic tone.
I look at a speaker next to me to find her voice coming from there; she's probably got CCTV of me in here, no doubt enjoying the situation that I'm in and how I'm coping with it.
That's just great so not only I'm in a nightmare version of Lastation, I'm now trapped in a helicopter at Plutia's mercy, what's next? At least we can agree on something, and maybe perhaps now at least I know how I could potentially combat this nightmare of mine. I should think positive, at least now I have to deal with Plutia who I've dealt with before. I no longer have to deal with this fake Lastation and Ganache; he didn't half talk some utter rubbish.
I can tell that she's trying to unnerve me, as she drives close to various obstacles be it pipes, industrial buildings, chimneys etc. But because I can tell she intends to taunt me before killing me, I'm a bit more relaxed and I can hope that her taunting will be her undoing just like with any other evil villain. But I'm only a bit relaxed, as I still need to find a way to the front pilot seat. As I try to get out she is constantly laughing as she tries so desperately to scare me with her flying.
Eventually after some struggling with a hint of panicking, I manage to open one of the doors as I step onto the landing skid with one foot. The height I am at right now concerns me greatly, but I do not let it stop me, I simply cannot. I just need to keep cool and calm. Grabbing on to whatever I can hold, and with much care, I then manage to get my other feet on to the landing skid.
"Think twice Squirtle it's a long way down." She laughed manically but calmly.
Tell me something I don't know, though I'm probably better off ignoring her as I manage to sit down and with care I shut the door. Now I need to move to the front of the helicopter, but Plutia's flying does not make this easy as she tilts the helicopter. She flies it near obstacles in an attempt to frighten me, not to mention flying pretty fast. I do not let it deter me though as like a toddler I cruise along the helicopter towards the front holding onto anything I can to help support me.
With luck I manage to get to the front of this contraption, now I need to get Ganache out of the chopper where with luck, I can commandeer this flying death trap. I manage to open the window and attempt to unfasten the pilot's seat belt, but the helicopter flies really close to a chimney. I end up sitting down as securely as I can, as I try to move myself away from the smoky chimney of doom, full of black thick polluting smoke. I look down and standing on the roof of a building is Plutia with a large controller enjoying herself ever so much. I can't help but notice on the floor next to her is one of her stuffed animals though it is of me. I wouldn't be surprised if she strokes that thing constantly like a white furry cat. There's another thing I notice as well. It's some sort of rocket launcher, I need to be careful when I am able to control this helicopter by myself. I am fully confident I will control this thing soon and once again I'll give her the punishment she truly deserves.
"I looked forward to this moment Mr Black; I intend to enjoy it to the full." She laughed in her sadistic tone.
I attempt to get up on the skid and try again at unfastening the dead pilot's seat belt. It's not easy from where I am but I refuse to give in.
For some reason as if to show off she flies the chopper quite close over her, as if this is her own toy laughing as she does it. Now if I can just make a mental note of her location, when I become free of this predicament I will find her and punish her. In fact I'll punish her so severely that she'll wish she never did this. By then she'll probably be wishing she killed me when she had the chance, though I like to think it's impossible. With that said I still need to get the pilot's seatbelt off.
I must admit I'm amazed that I'm able to hold my nerve being up there in an unsafe position, it's certainly not easy, but now I've opened the pilot's door, as I've now realised I should have done that instead of opening the window. Though that was no matter, as with the door open I manage to unfasten the seat belt, which thankfully was at the centre and I just needed to press a button. With that action Ganache's lifeless body fell out of the chopper quickly.
Now all I need to do is to get in the pilot seat which despite the stability or rather lack of it, I finally manage to get inside. As soon as I'm in, the first thing I do is shut the door and put my seat belt on as quickly as possible.
Whew, after being outside for what felt like a long time and being exposed to such a huge risk of dying from falling, I'm safe now and I'm in the driving seat at last. Oh who am I kidding she's still driving the thing and I reckon she's going to crash this chopper with me in it the sadistic joke, hoping to ensure that all that effort was for nothing, and was taunting me, frightening me before giving me the killer blow.
"Goodbye Mr Black. I trust you had a pleasant… fright?" She laughed in the same way as before, speaking like the real sadist she is.
I look through the cockpit to see various bridges quite close to us. She eventually goes through a large hole in what appears to be an abandoned factory, full of broken down decaying machinery, rusty chains everywhere. I try to steer the joystick but it's no use, she's in control of it and she's laughing at me more loudly and longer for that. There's gotta be a way to stop her controlling this thing.
"You're fading from my picture Mr Black but the end is very near." She laughed her loudest and longest yet.
Thankfully I notice a set of cables connected to the cockpit. This has to be how she's controlling the helicopter. I hope it is, I attempt to yank the cable but it is quite difficult. Fortunately as if at the last moment, I was able to yank it off.
I try to steer the joystick and now I can. Now I'm fully in control of the helicopter. Though she doesn't say anything, I can sense her frustration. I'm surprised I'm able to fly this thing like a natural; I don't remember ever doing this before. I certainly wouldn't think my abilities as a gamer would apply here that's for sure. Now to find Plutia and to kill her once and for all. Fortunately, I have my G Con 45 in the same place where I holstered it before going to bed, pleasing me that like before, I can take weapons to my nightmare. I fire this weapon out the window to confirm it's working, in which it does, and with the knowledge of her location, I head out of the abandoned ruined factory, via a large hole on the opposite side.
Oh how the tide has turned now, she is in the predicament and I'm the confident one. After leaving the abandoned factory pretty quickly I sneak up on her location as best I can despite the noise of the helicopter. When I'm there I rise up peering out of the window with my gun ready to fire at her and take her down.
As soon as I reach her rooftop she has back turned to me, she quickly turns around almost panicking as if to shoot me down. But before she can fire her Stinger missile, I quickly shoot at her hands. This causes her to drop the weapon, which in turn causes her to yell in serious pain. I reload and fire some more bullets though this time it's at her knees, causing her to fall to the ground before she is able to reach her side arm.
After being satisfied that she's lying in her natural position, which is to be on the floor in excruciating pain begging for my mercy. I decide to land the chopper on the roof, while the engines are still running with its rotor blades still spinning very fast.
I get out crouched opening the pilot door and back passenger door. I run towards her wounded body as quickly as I can.
Despite being in severe agonising pain she barely managed to reach for her pistol in a desperate attempt to shoot me, but I just shoot the gun of her hands again just in the nick of time. After which she falls to the floor as she struggles to crawl towards her weapon, leaving a small trail of her blood. I rush to her gun and I tread on her crippled hand kicking the gun away. She lets out a loud scream as I crush her poor hand. I wouldn't be surprised if she's unable to use her fingers for a long time as I see her moaning and perhaps even a few tears.
I let go of her hand only to kick her very hard in the ribs causing her to flip on her back, only to lie there with her legs and arms far apart. I stand on both of her knees causing her to yell in immense pain, as well as for her to cry her eyes out a lot as I look at this pathetic excuse for a woman. I decide to shoot her in the chest, but most of my shots are directed at her stomach. Every shot causes her to scream loudly, as her bullet wounds ooze plenty of her evil blood out.
I finally decide to drag her by the hair along the floor, causing her blood to stain the roof. She yelled very loudly in pain as I pulled her by her horrible hair. I can't help but enjoy doing this to her, it's only fair being as how brutal and sadistic she has been to her own victims that have done nothing wrong.
"OWWWW Let me go!" She pleaded, crying for mercy.
"Not so cocky now are you Plutia, you'll never get the best of me and now I'm going to take out the trash." I snapped back with much menace.
I place her in the passenger seat at the back quite close to the edge; her body is just lying there now as though she's dead. She has no means of moving even a muscle due to being in such pain. Her face shows severe sadness, despair along with large amounts of pain as she is now at my whim. I then get in the pilot seat and close my door but not the passenger door.
As I ascend the chopper she then starts begging, pleading, and moaning at me:
"Mr Black! Mr Black!" She whined while struggling to speak due to her agony, and she's ever so tearful.
"We can do a deal I'll buy you all the cuddly toys, in the world." She proposed screaming in pain and tears.
I just said nothing, I am amused she really think I'd agree to that deal, hah she must be completely deluded. I just head for a large chimney with smoke coming out and just focus on ascending towards it. She notices this too and she knows her fate is sealed.
"Please!" She begged, while still groaning in immense pain, no doubt her cheeks are covered in her tears.
"Alright keep your phony hair on." I said to her trying to calm her down.
Oh I wish I can shave that ugly hair of hers off gah she looks so much better bald. It's then she starts to bawl ever so loudly, while aching in agony.
"How can you be so cruel?" She cried, her crying really affecting her ability to speak.
"Well I'm not very cruel at all, only to those that are extremely cruel to other people themselves. Maybe you should have thought of that before commandeering the helicopter, and trying to crash it with me inside. You stupid slut." I speak casually with a hint of menace in my voice.
Despite her fate being certain she still begs some more.
"Put me down, put me down!" She pleaded sounding even more teary, and in more pain.
"Oh you want to get off; it's not nice being driven around like this is it. Sure I'll grant a condemned person their last request." I say with much sarcasm in my voice.
When I'm finally over the smoking chimney I tilt the helicopter sideways towards it, forcing this joke to fall out of the chopper and into the chimney of doom.
"Mr Black!" She screamed really loudly for a long time with massive tears as she fell down.
It's not long before I hear a great thud from her life-less body. Though I'll probably be encountering her again and no doubt in one piece as if she's never been injured just like all the other times, I can at least celebrate in how I've defeated her once again. Although I hate to think what will be their next attempt be in trying to defeat me, but I have to see it as a challenge and an opportunity to add that to my numerous victories. It's only fair considering what I remember happening in that dreadful series.
But even with this success I've just had here, there is yet another challenge, which is getting out of this terrible place and awful nightmare. Though apparently as if on cue the scenery changes drastically, as before I knew it I'm now in Noire's Black 2 Bomber with Noire, Blanc and all of their sisters. But as if this isn't enough we are now flying over our own Lastation, full of nice black clean skyscrapers that are full of all the various wonderful grand high tech features that are impressive and awesome, along with various breath taking views of forests, jungles and beaches. A much more pleasant sight, and a nice contrast to being in a dirty, rotten helicopter with views of smoke, pollution, dirt and decay.
It's now I see the sun rising as I wake up providing a beautiful sight in the sky. It's good to be back in much more pleasant surroundings with my loved ones, after having my nightly nightmares which fortunately I have been able to combat recently.
I enjoy watching the varying colours of the sky that I see in the fantastic views forming lovely picturesque patterns, as I wait for my friends and family to wake up. They are certainly breath taking, I look forward to them waking them up so we can watch this spectacular view of our real spectacular magnificent Lastation together and perhaps dare I say, have breakfast in bed.
I now feel the warmth of my wife Noire as well as her best friend Blanc who's lying next to her. And I certainly feel our bodies being coiled around together, it's very comfortable. I then notice the both of them opening their eyes with a smile, as well as moving their heads, so that they can take in their familiar warm and pleasant surroundings. In fact both of them turn to face me and Noire even kisses me on the cheek in a loving pleasurable way.
"Good morning Black. Are you alright my husband?" Noire asks soothingly and caringly while at the same time flirting with me as usual. She has a large flirtatious smile on her face, clearly pleased to see me.
"I'm alright; I wish these nightmares would stop. I'd like to be able to have wonderful dreams instead. At least though we're able to fight them, and waking up to surroundings like this with you guys is always a wonderful experience afterwards, and the beginning of the dream was nice." I explain calmly and in a friendly manner.
"I'm proud of you for it. I know that seeing that phony Lastation and Ganache must have been terrible and annoying for you, as well as for all of us. You've done well to combat it as well as in dealing with Plutia, in fact what you did to her was amazing. As for the first dream, yeah it does take me back doing my duty in stopping their antics. It's so frustrating that they never learn and yet now we're in this predicament" Miss Lastation speaks with genuine pride in what I've accomplished.
"Thank you, yeah I wish they'd stop that propaganda nonsense that they do, along with fighting us like this it gets so tiresome, and it's not nice for the people that suffer from these wars. It does make me wonder as to whether Ganache ever existed in this world? It does fascinate me how they manage to create these environments for our nightmares. It's interesting that it's just me against Plutia that time, as well as how I was in a helicopter over their Lastation just as we're in your plane over our Lastation." I think out loud.
"No, I don't think we've ever heard of Ganache in this world. We do know however that he's associated with Arfoire according to their games, so maybe that could be possible here. Though with Arfoire she doesn't seem to exist here either. I do wonder how they create the environments as well as who would be in them. It's odd how the rest of us here must have merely watched this play out. You do make a good point about the helicopter over Lastation, being a similar situation to this." She discusses with me in a friendly manner, her facial expression suggest much thinking.
"Hmmm. I do wonder whether they're both in this world or more specifically Lowee, and if there's a special reason for them not being found. Maybe they're invisible to us. My gut tells me that they have an involvement in this somehow. As for the helicopter that coincidence does trouble me, because I've not experience a nightmare like that before with similar locations albeit opposite designs and circumstances. I wonder if Neptune knows for certain we're going to Lowee, but trying not to give off that they know. I mean I remember how they were able to track us when we're sleeping, I thought us dying then being revived would stop it as it did the brainwashing. Though I'm starting to wonder whether they want us to think that. Another thing that concerns me is do our movements confirm that we're going to Lowee as far as they're concerned?" I speak to them still thinking allowed, trying not to let the concerns upset me too much such that I'm too demoralised or even distracted to fight.
"I actually wonder if we'll see Arfoire or Ganache in future dreams. We know we do our best with regards intelligence and in counter intelligence, as well as to deceive our enemies. But I do have concerns that they probably already know about our liberation plans. I think Team Rocket was fishing for us to invade and it's the next logical step. All we can do is our best and deal with any situation that comes along like before." Noire advised us calmly and in an optimistic manner with a smile on her face.
"That's a very good idea. All we can do is our best, maybe they want us to deal with Lowee as part of their diversion. I wonder if they want me out of the way so that Leanbox can invade. I hate to say it but I do think they know that in recent times, Lastation has not done as well against Leanbox despite your best efforts. And excuse the ego but maybe they know that it's down to me that Lastation has managed to keep Leanbox at bay." I explain to them.
"Don't worry as proud as we must be, we must all acknowledge the truth and the flaws we may have. I too am suspicious and perhaps Leanbox intends to invade Lastation again, but what choice do we have? If we're ever to have any hope in winning this war, we need to take the offensive and now is as good as ever. Lowee needs liberating and if the worst should happen, then we can bring you back here. Hopefully it won't come to that as this time we have the help of the Loweeans and their CPUs. I'm sure we'll be fine we'll use our superior troops and technology to our advantage." Miss Lastation replies in her pleasant reassuring understanding tone, still smiling at me.
As she mentions about Blanc defending Lastation with Noire, I can't help but feel concerned about this. I managed to deceive the enemy into thinking that Noire killed Blanc, effectively winning the war between Lastation and Lowee. But what would happen if they were to work out that Noire and Blanc were working together which was made public in Lastation for morale purposes which is effective, and this is despite our people and media being honourable and trusting enough not to leak it outside of Lastation, along with it all being completely secure thanks to us being second to none in this area? Though what if they already knew that anyway and they didn't want to give that away? But what difference would it make if they did know about our alliance? If they did know they'd try to destroy us, but right now they're trying to destroy us anyway. I can't help but wonder whether we should bother with conceal our forces in the respective nations or not from enemy eyes? It is indeed a confusing world and if you readers were to find it confusing, I'd understand completely.
All we can do today is train and wait, as we spend the last day together before both me and White are dropped into Lowee with a small force in which hopefully it'll mark the beginning of the long road to the liberation of Lowee.