Trigger Warning:

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

"I think it's better if we wait." Nepgear chose to go with the safer option. "This way, we can sneak in in the dark 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'll take the watch." Nepgear had slept through half the day, so she was a suitable candidate compared to IF, who looked the total opposite. "You can rest if you want."

"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...

(N)

"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 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 down the two guards at the front, then I'll throw you a rope so you can climb from there."

"Okay, good luck; I'll wait for you here."

"This shouldn'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. She learned a lot of new things when she became a special agent. She received 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.

There was a guard standing at the edge of the building, unaware of the girl who was now hanging on the railing. IF quietly whistles 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, grabbed him by his vest, and sliced his neck before he could alert the others. She threw his dead body off the building and 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 not done yet." The agent went and retrieved her from the dead body. "I'll take the guard on the left; you take 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 they just threw us here in the middle of fucking nowhere. I'm bored as hell.

Stop complaining and focus on the damn job, will ya? You're starting to piss me off.

Nothing ever happens here; I'd rather get shot than stand here watching grass grow all day.

WILL YOU SHUT UP ALREADY!

Okay, Okay! Jeez... just tryna lighten up the mood, y'know.

Sigh... Why am I even paired up with you of all people?

That's cold, man

Whatever, the only reason I'm putting up with you is the money.

"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 good so far." IF dropped the whispering, seeing there weren't any more enemies nearby. 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 leaned and 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 are a dozen of them, about 25 or more."

"Maybe they are using this area to store illegal stuff."

"It's highly possible. We need to find out what they're loading." 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."

"We need to find a way inside, and I think I've found our ticket in." IF pointed at the 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. The thought of her being stuck inside the vent made her body shiver, or was it the cold air that was flowing? Eh, probably both, but now is not the time to develop 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 went second. "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. Nepgear took a peek through it.

"What do you see?" She heard her partner ask from behind. "Uhhh... I see a room with a lot of servers and a computer, and there's only one guards present. "

"Great, I bet they have valuable intel stored in there that we can grab. Find us a way to get us in."

"I'm on it." Nepgear tried reaching for her pockets, and 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 while. "Hey, not to sound rude or anything, but... could you hurry this thing up? I'm about to freeze my bum off here." Her teeth were chattering as she spoke.

"Just a sec, I'm almost done... there!" She opened the vent and carefully dropped down, with IF following right behind. There was one sitting on the computer. IF took out her gun and pressed it against his head.

"Try anything funny, and I'll happily paint this wall red." The guy held his hands up slowly. "Now, what are you ASIC bastards doing here? And don't even think about lying to me."

"We were paid to smuggle weapons to Leanbox, that's all."

"Who gave the orders? Who's your damn leader? Spill it."

"I got no clue." IF looked annoyed for a second before she smacked him with the butt of the gun. "Somehow, I don't believe you."

"I swear, I don't know; none of us do! We've got the job for the money; no questions asked."

"That's a shame." She grabbed him before she knocked him out cold with her firearm. She began tying him up to bring him in. "Okay, we don't have time to dilly-dally. Let's hurry to the computer and collect the intel before we get caught. I'll keep a watch here." IF took cover by the door while holding her gun.

"I just hope that you're as good at hacking as you are with working with machines, Gear."

"Sadly, no. But I might have something that should do the job." She dug through her pockets before pulling out a tiny pink USB that Kei had given her 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."

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!" She instantly began copying the data that was stored on the machine. Unfortunately, the progress bar was moving ever so slowly.

"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 eventually checks in." IF slightly peeked through the door's window. "Hey, while this thing loads, why don't you check the back for anything we might have missed?"

"Okay." Nepgear made her way to the back to check for anything, as instructed by her partner. Unfortunately, she got a nasty surprise in the form of someone tackling her on the ground, but she couldn't shake him off quick enough as she was caught off guard. She saw something shining in the corner of her eyes. Nepgear quickly brought her arms up and grabbed hold of the guy's arms before it was too late.

"DIE, DAMN CPU!"

Both began fighting to take over the other. Nepgear was gritting her teeth as she tried her hardest to fend him off, but the knife was slowly descending until it was only a few inches away from her neck. Suddenly, there was a loud bang. The guy suddenly froze before he slowly fell over. Nepgear pushed the dead body off her that had a hole in his back. It was safe to say he wasn't in the land of living anymore, thanks to the shot.

"Are you okay?" IF was holding her gun, which had smoke coming from the barrel. "You shouldn't let your guard down in an enemy's territory."

"I'll keep that in mind next time. Thanks for saving me."

"Don't thank me yet." 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."

Nepgear quickly grabbed the USB before she materialized her beam saber and joined her friend. 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. The agent 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 to drop the dagger from her hand and catch 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 using the butt to knock him in 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 them 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 that it was her purple-haired friend. The two exchanged a quick glance. Not long after, more enemies began appearing before they all surrounded the two. "More are coming in." Nepgear tightly gripped her blade and adjusted her foot.

"I'm getting really 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.

"Well... 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 ass there."

"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 sure 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 went and inspected one of the crates.

"These are weapons." IF closed the crate lid.

"What are we going to do about them?"

"I'll send a team later to seize them. You got that flash?"

"Here, the USB might have contained useful information to take ASIC down." Nepgear handed IF the flash drive, who pocketed it safely.

"Here's hoping. I'll have it delivered to Kei." Both made their way out of the warehouse soon after. "Well, at least we didn't come out empty-handed. There's no doubt that ASIC remnants are still active and probably have more hideouts set up around here. Sigh... and here I thought I'd be visiting Compa soon..." She took out a blue potion from her pocket, gulping it in one, and throwing the empty bottle away.

"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.

"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, 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 now I won't have time as I'll probably 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. "You know, I was thinking... 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. 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. "And speaking of Kei... she would be pleased with how the operation went. And thanks for saving me earlier."

"Don't mention it. Ah, 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 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

*You can skip this end note if you read the last chapter, as they are the same. What? You thought things would play differently? Choice is merely an illusion.

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.