Trigger Warning:

Blood, gore, deaths, graphic scenes—all up to your imaginations.

"I think it's better if we just attack now." Nepgear decided to choose the quick but risky approach. She was almost confident in their abilities, and given her history with her partner, it's safe to say that they had dealt with much worse foes, so this should be a breeze, to say the least.

"Besides... we're both completely broken when we're paired together." IF was super fast on her feet, while Nepgear could act both as offense and support. Combining the two girl's abilities is a recipe for disaster—in a good way, of course.

"Heh, true to that." The agent let out a chuckle before she wiped her katars, which were tucked under her sleeves—don't ask how. She also modified her sharp weapons, and by modify, I mean that she filled the tips with poison. It's strong enough that it can take down large monsters. "I'm totally onboard with going loud; those bastards won't know what hit 'em until it's too late."

"Alright, here's how we're going to do this..." The agent began forming their next course of action. "I'll head down and try to lure the guards on the top into one place where you can easily take them out with your gun from this vantage point."

"Okay, that sounds good." A white light flashed for a few seconds before it slowly faded as Nepgear appeared yet again in her CPU form while wielding her trusty Gunblade. "Good luck down there, IF."

"Don't worry, I can handle it." Both exchanged acknowledgement looks before Nepgear watched her friend make her way down the cliff with her gunblade ready. She followed the girl's movements until she got close to the warehouse. "Alright, I'm in position. Try not to miss if you can." She heard her friend's voice transmitted over her N-gear.

"Okay... it's showtime." The agent cleared her throat. "This is the special agent force; you're all under arrest!" She heard her friend yell out, and soon after, a group of four people quickly rushed in and aimed their guns at the agent. They wore helmets and armor vests with military weapons, although they were paid people who lacked training, as evidenced by the way they were holding the guns.

"Shit, it's the damn agency! What do we do?"

"Come out with your hands up! If you surrender peacefully, we'll take you alive."

"Ha! There are four of us here, and even more inside. So why don't you... turn around before you get killed, shortie?" They all shared a laugh among themselves. Big mistake, as they will soon see.

"Well... I guess we're doing it the hard way." Although she couldn't see it, Nepgear could tell by her tone that a smirk had formed on her face.

Nepgear took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and took aim at the four guards while her finger rested on the trigger. Everything slowed down for Nepgear as she focused on her targets. She felt the wind on her face. In a swift motion, she fired four rapid shots. The four easily went down, as they barely had time to react.

"Good shooting. Now, meet me down there quickly."

"I'll be there as soon as possible."

Nepgear wasted no time and quickly flew down before landing beside the brunette. "They always chose the hard way. Alright, probably every bastard inside is armed and ready for us to come bust in at any moment."

"There's no going back now."

"Yeah, let's crash this party." IF took cover next by the front entrance with her katars already out. "I'll take the front, and you take the back; that way we can catch them from both sides." Nepgear nodded and moved to the back, positioning herself by the back entrance as her friend had instructed, and she is now waiting for the girl's signal.

"Ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

"Okay, on my signal... NOW! "

Nepgear wasted no time and slammed the door down before rushing in. Instantly, all eyes were set on her, with their weapons already up and ready to fire. Soon a lot of shots were fired as it was raining bullets everywhere—a bullet hell, if you will.

"Shit! It's the g-goddess! The goddess is here!"

Nepgear's reflexes quickly kicked in as she aimed her gunblade at the ground and fired a shot that launched her way up in the air. She then quickly dove down towards a group of armed enemies, and before they could react, she knocked them all in the air before quickly aiming her gun up and shooting them mid-air. They soon dropped dead like ducks. She then quickly flew up as the bullets were still raining, effortlessly and gracefully dodging them as if she were dancing in the air. She then used M.P.B.L. to blast a line-up of enemies. She took a moment to adjust herself to the blast's force.

IF soon came busting down from the other side, and the others were so occupied with shooting the CPU that they didn't notice her until it was too late. IF managed to get the jump on three enemies from behind. She swiftly slashed the first with her Kartars from behind. The second one tried to aim her gun at her, but she managed to grab the gun and disarm it. She then quickly took hold of them before knocking, and she sliced her rapidly with her katars. The last guy was about to fire his shot, but due to IF's quick reflexes, she threw a dragger at the guy's throat before he could fire a shot. The poor bastard never stood a chance, as he fell like a sack on the ground while choking on his blood.

All of this happened in a fraction of a second, before anyone could blink. She could feel the adrenaline rush through her body, but this battle was far from over, as there was another armed person across the room who was about to fire. Thankfully, Nepgear came to the rescue by using a nearby wall and shooting her gunblade to launch herself before crashing down with her blade on him.

"Thanks for that." Before she could respond, there were shots fired from above them. IF ran super fast and easily evaded every shot that was thrown at her while also firing back at them with her hidden gun at the enemies located on the second floor before she got behind some barrels as a cover from the bullets.

"Above us!" IF shouted, Nepgear quickly launched herself yet again at the enemies above. Once she was up, she did a complete spin and fired at every target in all directions with pinpoint accuracy. Soon, the number of enemies began decreasing as the two girls had an easy time talking them down one by one despite their odds. They weren't all that tough against a CPU and a special agent. Soon the sound of the battle came to halt the dying, and the place was scattered with bodies all over it.

There was, however, one person who was limping on the floor, trying to get away. A foot struck him in the head, which knocked them out. "It seems that's the last of 'em assholes." The agent did a quick scan to double check, and soon she took a breath after verifying but still kept her guard up just in case.

"That went as well as I expected; they weren't all that strong, like I predicted." IF her holstered weapons while still keeping her guard up. She went to retrieve her dragger that she threw earlier at the baddie. "Come on, let's search this dump and see if we can find anything discriminating. Let's start with these crates they've been moving." She first took out one of her smartphones and took a couple of pictures of the place from various angles. It's late to mention this, but IF loved her phones like her own children, unless, of course, a new one drops and she switches to an upgraded one. Back then, she used to have flip phones. How time flies. Anyway...

Nepgear transformed back to her human form as she was running low on energy. "Sure, let's wrap this up."

"Just like old times, eh, Nepgear?"

"Yeah… I've missed this a lot. You, me, and Compa, fight evil together." She began reminiscing about the old days when it was just the three of them on a mission to save their world and their sisters... Look how that turned out in the end.

"We make quite a team, don't we?" Nepgear paused for a moment. "Speaking of Compa... How is she doing, anyway? It's... been a while since I last saw her." She noticed IF began shifting uncomfortably when she asked, which wasn't a very good sign.

"Compa... she..." IF unable to find the words, before she let out a sigh. "Well... she's not doing too well, that's for sure."

"She's been exposed to sights that she's not used to seeing, like missing body parts, mangled bodies, blown parts, and so on. I can tell that it's really taking a heavy toll on her mental state since she's got a faint heart and all. But despite that, she tries her hardest to ignore it and not let it affect her since she's now an official nurse. I just wish I could've been there more to help her, but after becoming a special agent, I barely have time myself." IF swore under her breath.

"Poor Compa... " Nepgear then began pondering for a bit. "I got an idea... What if the three of us have a nice dinner together in my Basilicom like we used to so we can make up for lost time?" Ever since their departure, no one has 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.

"Maybe that could also help take things off Compa's mind, even for a little bit."

"Maybe. I missed Compa's cooking a lot. I'll try contacting her later when I have the chance." IF began inspecting one of the crates. "It looks like they were indeed smuggling weapons to Leanbox."

"What are we going to do about them?"

"I'll send a team later to seize them." IF closed the crate lid. "Okay, let's check upstairs; we haven't looked there yet."

"Right behind you." The duo made their way to the second floor while avoiding most of the bodies on the floor before they stumbled on a door with the words 'Server Room' at the top. IF took out her hidden gun before she slowly cracked the door open. She rushed in and quickly scanned the room with her gun, while Nepgear was right behind her, equally ready at the first sign of trouble.

After a moment, she lowered her gun after verifying that there weren't any threats present. Nepgear followed right behind her.

"Heck yeah! It looks like we hit the jackpot." The agent went and examined one of the computers that had a lot of screens. "Hmm... It seems functional. I bet all my money this is where their precious intelligence is." The agent turned to her friend and asked, "Can you hack it?"

"Sadly, my knowledge field doesn't extend to this kind of stuff." Nepgear was more of a hardware type. Software? Not so much. "But I might have something with me that should do the job." She dug around in her pockets and pulled out a tiny pink USB that Kei had given her for this kind of situation. She 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."

"Good, I'll take a look around to make sure there aren't any more surprises." Nepgear waited until the software she installed cracked the system's security while the agent was scouting the room. After a while, the software was done breaking into the system. Suddenly, she heard noise from behind her. It turns out there was someone who was hiding. They tackled IF to the ground. But she was quick to reverse and kick him off her, disarming his knife in the process.

"IF!" Nepgear ran towards the commotions.

"I'm okay. Bastard jumped on me." She got up and gave him a kick in the head before pinning him to the ground with her foot. "I got this son of a bitch. Now I suggest you start talking."

"Go to hell!"

"Wrong answer." She delivered yet another jab. "Take it from here, Gear."

"What are you ASIC doing here? Why are you here?"

"I ain't talking, especially to a damn CPU!" This earned him another hit.

"I suggest you show some respect. Let's see you say that when you get broken fingers or missing teeth."

"Do you really want to die for some nobody's organization?" Nepgear tried to reason with him.

"..."

"Maybe this will change his mind." IF stepped on his hand and slowly twisted it. The man let out a pained scream. "You'll talk; it depends if you want to keep your fingers or not. Your choice."

"Okay, okay! We were paid to smuggle weapons inside Leanbox to the other ASIC groups and the Libertarians."

"By whom? Who gave the orders?" Nepgear pressed.

"We don't know, honest! We don't know who controls ASIC; nobody does. We're only in for the money, that's all." Nepgear, sensing that the guy didn't hide anything, nodded to her friend.

"Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" IF knocked the guy out with the butt of her gun "Go grab the flash; I got this one."

"On it." She went and plucked the flash from the computer and brought it back to her partner. She was finished with tying the person.

"Here, there might be some useful information on that USB that we can use to take ASIC down." Nepgear handed IF the flash drive, who pocketed it safely.

"Here's hoping. I'll have it delivered to Kei later. Let's call it a day here." Both made their way out of the warehouse soon after. IF grabbed a blue potion from her pocket and took a sip from it. "Here, catch."

She threw the potion that she took a sip of to Nepgear, who easily caught it with her hand. "Take a sip of this; you must be low on energy after staying in HDD for so long. This should cover your flight home and more."

"Thanks." Nepgear quickly drank it without a word; she felt her energy refill instantly. "And speaking of Kei... she would be pleased with how the operation went. Thanks for the potion."

"Don't mention it; that was a good workout today." IF began stretching her body.

"Still... I can't believe that ASIC is still around; I thought we'd dealt with most of them, especially after defeating the Deity of Sin."

"There are still some ASIC members who remain. As long as some exist, eventually another asshole will just take over. The only way to get rid of them for good is to wipe them out completely."

"And how do you do that?"

"That's the fun part; you can't. In a way, they're very existence is why we agents exist in the first place. Justice is a prerequisite for peace."

"Where did you get this quote from?"

"Eh, from some random guy on YourTube." IF shrugged. "Well, that was fun, but we should be going now. Take care of yourself out there, you hear?"

"Thanks. The same goes for you as well, IF." Nepgear smiled at her friend before she transformed into her HDD form.

"See you around." The agent waved as she saw her friend take off. She made her way towards Planeptune. The sun was about to set as the sea turned red. By the time she reached Planeptune, it was already dark...

Author's Notes

That took a long time to write since this is my first time writing a fighting scene ever, so I hope it's good. It took me a lot of time to come up with and brainstorm it. What do you think of this addition to the split, two-choice chapters? This won't be a choose-your-own adventure type of story, don't worry. It's more like a branching path that returns to its own original course. The story won't change as a result of the previous two chapters, and the subsequent chapter will be as usual. The previous two chapters both ended similarly but slightly differently, so you can look at the other chapter if you like and try to find the differences. This is experimental, and I've yet to see a story do it; feel free to correct me. I won't be doing them as much since they don't add to the story and they take a lot of time to do, but they could be a nice change once in a while. I got the idea from video games, where some games often give you the choice of how you want to approach an object, but no matter what you choose, the object is still the same.

As for the game, I'm almost about to finish it; I reached the 300-hour playtime. The game becomes so much easier when you level your characters above level 99, which makes you defend all kinds of powerful enemies. While the chapter may take a long time to write, at least during this time, a lot of unique ideas and inspiration come to me, which motivates me to write. If I forced myself to write, I would miss out on a lot of ideas, and the quality of the chapter wouldn't be as good.

Oh yeah, one last thing: since I've yet to play MK2, I'm basing my knowledge on Victory since I don't know if they have the same skills from the two games or not. Once I play MK2, I'll change any inconsistencies, and for the time being, don't mind if the characters feel a bit out of place.

*Note: I'll be putting trigger warnings on some chapters that include graphic scenes, which saves me from changing the whole story rating to mature, which is a bit inconvenient since most of the story won't be centered or focused on those, and not to mention, the site filters the story from the search by default if its put to mature.

Next Chapter: The Genesis of Dreams

Nepgear gets another report about sightings of hordes of monsters spawning near Planeptune's border. She has to fend them off and prevent them from reaching the city, although monsters aren't the only thing that Nepgear has to worry about.