Chapter 3: Ghost party.

Iffy awakens from her slumber to see Comp shaking her hips. Iffy blinks several times and then rubs her eyes. She looks at Compa again and see's that Compa is still dancing and shaking her hips. "Compa, what in all of Gamindustri are you doing?"

Compa stops dancing and turns to Iffy. She smiles nervously, "Oh, you are awake, Iffy! Hehe, I was talking to a jelly monster apparently they communicate by dancing, particularly the shaky kind."

Iffy was grinning with eyes closed in disbelief, "You know that monster is a pervert if it is doing that."

The gelatin monster was just a hunk of jello shaking the Cha Cha as it oozed on by them to go on its merry way. Iffy just stares at it as it ventures away and says slowly, "Okay, then. I will just assume you were awake before me."

"Yessy!" Compa replied as Iffy stood back up to her feet

"This place is getting weirder and weirder by the day," Iffy commented as they began to walk.

Compa could not help but laugh, "Nep-Nep would have so much fun down here!"

Iffy raises her eyebrow, "Minus the fact of a psychotic murderous weed that tried to kill us when we got down here, and the fact these puzzles are strange, and goat monsters make pie. Yeah, talk about a swell place to live."

Compa shrugged. As they walked, they heard something like " Z."

"What the hell? Now what?" Iffy looks around the room.

"Hey, Iffy, look!" Compa points at a ghost laying in their way. The ghost was repeating the letter Z, over and over again. Trying to pretend it is asleep.

The ghost lies there and continues, " Z…. Are they gone?"

Iffy sweats and lets out a confused smile, "What is this guy's deal? Why is he just laying down there saying Z on and on? Does he really think that's how sleeping noises sound?"

Compa asked politely, "Mr. Ghost, could you please move?"

Suddenly both Compa and Iffy glow and see's their crystal heart shape in their chest. Iffy clenches her teeth, "Oh really? A ghost attacks us when we tried asking politely?"

Compa closes her eyes and laughs, "I don't think this ghost has a sense of humor."

"Oh, I am real funny." The ghost timidly replies.

Compa was taken aback, "Sorry, Mr. Ghost!"

Iffy rolls her eyes, "Think his name is Napstablook. Seriously I am not Metta gaming, I swear! It is like a name popped into my head, and I was sure it was his."

Napstablook timidly spoke, "Not used to Determination trait, are you?

"Determination, what now?" Iffy questioned.

Napstablook looks down, tears streaming down, "Oh, I just confused you didn't I? I am sorry?" The tears were also flying at them.

Iffy frantically dodges them, "What the hell? Toxic tears on a depressed ghost? That's a recipe for disaster!"

"I am sorry! I am sorry!" Napstablook is calling his eyes out and making his tears even harder to dodge.

Compa frantically screams as she dodges, "IFFY! I think you hurt his feeling!"

Iffy realizes she insulted an emotionally sensitive ghost and made her life much harder. She dodges the stream of toxic tears and apologizes, "Okay! Okay! I am sorry I yelled and hurt your feelings; I was not paying attention to my big mouth for once."

Compa smiles while she tries to dodge for her life and reassures the ghost, "It is ok, Mr. Ghost, we did not mean to hurt your feelings."

"Heh," Napstablook replies, and his tears start subsiding more.

Iffy sighed in relief, because the absolute barrage of tears stopped, "Sheesh. Hey, you want to talk about it, Napstablook?"

The Ghost sighs, "Really not feeling up to it right now, sorry."

Compa looks at Napstablook sympathetically, "Awww, poor Mr. Ghost is sad."

Iffy was catching her breath, as she walked up to Napstablook, "Look, I don't understand what your feeling right now, but I will say one thing. Everything will turn out fine in the future just trust me."

Napstablook let out a small chuckle and spoke Softly, "I want to show you two something."

Iffy and Compa nod. Napstablook chuckles softly once more and cries his tears though they strangely go upward and form what will be a top hat. Iffy could not help but comment, "Ok, now that is freaking cool!"

"I call it 'dapper blooky!' Do you like it?" Napstablook says, and then he waits for their response.

Compa giggles at the hat, "It's cute!"

Iffy shrugs and chuckles, "I said it once. I am going to say it again. That is really freaking cool."

"Oh," Napstablook said. Suddenly, Iffy and Compa stopped glowing, and the hearts vanished. Napstablook continues to speak, "I went to the Ruins to be alone, but today I met two nice people." Napstablook looked down and realized, "Oh, I am sorry, let me get out of your way" Napstablook disappeared in front of them.

"What a cute ghost," Compa commented.

Iffy could not help but smile and nod, "He was cool, though I don't think he is aware of his toxic tears."

"Be Nice, Iffy!" Compa demanded.

Iffy holds her hands cautiously in front of her, "Compa, I am just stating what I was thinking. Anyways, hey! Look right there! It is a sign that is saying bake sail. Hey, could use more food, right, Compa?" Iffy looks at the sign but turns to see Compa with a slightly nervous smile, "Uhhh, Compa, what's up?"

Compa let out a squeaky voice as she spoke, "Spiders. Spiders are in charge of the bake sale, and Compa not like spiders. Nope! No way, Jose! I don't like spiders! I don't like spiders! I really don't like…"

Iffy stops Compa, "Okay! Okay! I get it! I forgot you don't like spiders! I will just go and see what they have, ok!? You can stay here if you want ok!" Compa's response was a slight nod, and Iffy could not help but sigh in slight frustration as she headed to the spider bakery sale, "I swear she is such a baby when it comes to spiders. She has no problems smashing the big ones, which makes one think she could with the small ones," Iffy groans in annoyance as she goes to the bake sale.

Iffy looks at the sign that says, "Beatrice Spider bake sale! On behalf of Muffet, I sell for the Ruins. Please, pay upfront, then take your pick."

Iffy shrugs and looks to the donuts on the web, "Fair enough, might as well get one" She pays up front, and a bunch of spiders goes on the web and to a small, easy bake oven. They worked together to pull out the freshly-made donuts, then gave one to Iffy, "Ok, this is definitely something you do not see every day. Well, food is food." Iffy takes the donut and leaves the bake sale eating the donut.

Compa seeing Iffy eating a donut and thinking she got it from a web, made a cringy face, "Iffy, you are going to get sick!"

Iffy shrugs, "The spiders make these things from an easy bake oven."

"Iffy, you do realize you sound a bit crazy right now?" Compa added.

Iffy blinks and shakes her head "Compa! I swear that is the truth! Let's keep going the sooner we find a way out of here! The sooner we can get to Planeptune and get a good meal, the sooner all is handy dandy."

Compa scrunches her face as her stomach growls, "My tummy is hungry! I don't want to eat a donut made of spiders. Let's just hurry up and find some food that does not involve spiders!"

As they walked, Iffy laughed at Compa's sour expression "Compa, what is with that expression? You know, you could have come with me."

Compa rolls her eyes and talks through gritted teeth, "NO SPIDERS!" A phone rang, and Compa's demeanor went from angry to cheery, "Oh, Ms. Tori is calling us."

Compa answers the phone and puts it on speaker, "Hello, girls? I just realized that it has been a while since I have cleaned up. I was not expecting to have company so soon. There are probably a lot of things laying around here and there. You can pick them up, but do not carry more than you need. Someday you might see something you really like. You want to leave room in your pockets for that" And then the call cuts.

Compa shrugs, "Guess this is how our inventory works."

Iffy chuckles as they enter a puzzle room, "I swear it is kind of scary how your demeanor can change so quickly at times." She looks ahead and reads a sign, "Ok, there is only one switch, and oh come on another, damn floor puzzle! Guh, I hate these puzzles already!"

Compa gets distracted by a ribbon, "Wow, look a pretty ribbon!" Compa rushes over to grab the ribbon, not knowing about the fragile floor and goes tumbling down through the breaking floor as soon she grabs the ribbon.

"COMPA!" Iffy shouts as she jumps after her, and they both land on a pile of leaves.

Iffy lands on poor Compa again, and she falls exactly onto her chest this time not breaking bones. "Iffy you, ok?"

Iffy face went beet red, "I landed on your boobs again" She suddenly got off of Compa, "I swear I am not doing that on purpose!"

Compa laughed it off, "It was an accident." She looked around because she heard something, "Iffy, did you hear something?"

Iffy cautiously grabs her blades and scans the area. Suddenly the noise got louder, and a vegetable monster popped out of the ground screaming, "VEGETOID!"

Iffy raised her weapon, ready to attack "Flowey! No, you are not going to hurt us again! I won't let you this time you damn weed!"

Compa quickly grabs Iffy arm, "Wait! Iffy! That is not Flowery!"

Vegetoid smiles and says, "Part of a completely balanced breakfast! Haha!"

Compa blinks, "Plus, I don't remember Flowery being a carrot."

Iffy looks at Vegitoid with a confused expression though still keeping her blades in her hands "What the hell?"

Compa pats her stomach with a sad expression "Mr. monster, you're making me hungry."

"Eat your greens!" Vegetoid throws vegetables at Compa and Iffy.

Iffy slices the vegetable that was thrown at her, "Hey, watch it!"

Compa catches a stock of broccoli and looks at it, shrugs as she took a bite "Bleh, no flavor? Oh well, at least it is food."

Vegetoid seems happy until Iffy says, "Hm, I wonder what this weird monster tastes like?" Then Iffy proceeds to take a bite out of Vegetoid.

The plant monster screams in terror as a hunk of him is bitten off, "VEGETOID!" It then flees back underground and Iffy eyes light up.

Iffy says with a bit smile, "It tasted just like carrots! I freaking love carrots!"

Compa scratches the back of her head with a nervous smile, "Iffy, I think you should have asked Mr. Carrot monster before you did that."

Iffy just shrugs and gestures for Compa to follow her through the conveniently magic door that takes them back to the floor they were on before they fell, "Well, let's try this again. I will try this one while you stay…"

"I am going to try another one!" Compa interrupted with excitement.

"Guess there's no stopping you. Fine, just be careful, Compa," Iffy warned.

Compa runs up to the next hollow floor, and knowing there are leaves below, she jumps through it shouting, "DEEESSSUUUUU!"

Iffy chuckles, "on the way down, I saw other rooms with lots of leaves to break your fall" Iffy pulls out one of her katars, she runs, and jumps up. She comes down on the hollow floor slashing the floor open with her weapon and dives into the leaves below. She crawls out the leaves spitting some the leaves out her mouth; she looks around to see Napstablook again, "Huh, Napstablook? What are you doing here?"

Napstablook says in a worried and frantic tone, "I fell down a hole, and now I can't get up! Go on without me!"

Iffy puts her weapon away and facepalms with both hands, "You got to be kidding me, dude. You are a ghost!"

Napstablook blinks in realization, "Wait, ghosts can fly, can they?"

Iffy lets her hands down in bitter defeat, "Yes, ghosts can fly." Napstablook response was a nod, and then he disappeared. Iffy scoffs and says, "I can not believe I just had that conversation. What next Compa solves a puzzle."

Iffy goes through the magic door, and she meets Compa on the same floor with a big smile saying, "I FOUND IT!"

Iffy scoffs and facepalms, "Me and my big mouth, well then, let us continue on our merry way, right?" She gestures to go ahead with an embarrassed laugh.

They went through a room with a puzzle already done and, walk into another room with a goofy-looking monster with one eye. The monster approaches them, and Compa and Iffy began to glow their corresponding colors. Compa giggles, "What goofy Mr. monster!"

"Loox… his attack is six, and his defense is six," Iffy said as if she was doing an info check on him.

Compa complains out loud, "Hey, how come I only see your stats and not Mr. Monsters!"

Iffy looks at Compa and shrugs, "I don't know what to tell ya. Maybe a different class system we have?"

"Please don't pick on me!" Loox pleaded with them while gazing upon them.

Iffy holds back a giggle while saying, "We won't."

Aw. Why would someone pick on a cute monster like you? You seem nice." Compa said with a sympathetic and reassuring smile.

Loox gives a toothy smile, "Hey, thanks, kind lady! Oh, let me get this puzzle for ya," Loox pulls a switch which reveals the path forward, "Off with ya then, now I am going for a jog!" He jogs away, and Compa and Iffy stop glowing.

They continue going through the rooms, and Iffy chuckles as she saw the required colored switch, "hehe, these rooms are much easier than the last one." She flips the switch and heads straight to the last puzzle room with Compa.

There were two monsters in the room A beetle-looking monster, and the other is Vegetoid. The beetle says, "join the hive mind."

Iffy draws her blades, "Apparently, this one might be a threat."

As soon as Vegetoid saw Iffy it screamed, "VEGETOID!" The plant monster flees for its life.

The beetle monster's demeanor changes to a happy tone, and it starts dancing, "Nothing like alone time! Mmm cha! Cha! Cha!" The little happy beetle monster accidentally flipped the right switch while dancing.

Iffy laughs, "This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder, and that's saying something given the monsters we fought."

Compa chuckles and kneels towards the silly beetle as she greets it, "Hi there, what's your name?"

The beetle responds with a smile, "Hiya~ I am Migosp, and being me is the best!"

Compa giggles as she watches Migosp dance, "This is so cute~"

Iffy beckons Compa to follow, "Come on, Compa, let's get going."

Compa waves bye to the Migosp, "Bye! Bye! Migosp"

"Bye~" Migosp continues to dance like there is not a care in the world.

Iffy says as they walk, "These Monsters are very weird," Iffy absentmindedly kicks a toy knife, "Oh, what's this." Iffy picks up the toy knife.

Compa commented, "Guess the kids here have lots of chef toys."

Compa and Iffy went to a room with a tree in the middle of the room and they hear Toriel say out loud, "Oh dear, that took longer than I thought it would." Toriel picks up her phone and tries to call Compa and Iffy.

"Ms. Tori!" Compa shouted, startling Toriel and making her put her phone away as she rushes to them with what seemed to be excitement.

Toriel runs up to them, worried for them, "Children, how did you get here? Are you hurt?"

Iffy slumps her arms forward and had her mouth agape, "Children? We are not children!"

Toriel examines the girls "Not a scratch, I see, Impressive, but still I should not have left you alone for so long."

Compa nudges Iffy, "Hehe, we are fine, right, Iffy?"

Toriel sighs, "It is irresponsible to try to surprise you like this."

Iffy eyes narrow with a weak smile and a sigh, "I think it is because I am flat isn't it? The world of flat with me." She finishes that sentence with a sniffle.

Toriel looks to the side with an awkward smile, "Err, well, I suppose I cannot hide it any longer. Come small ones, I got something for you." Toriel walks ahead of them, and Compa and Iffy follow.

Iffy sobs "Small ones… like my chest."

Compa let out a nervous smile, "Come on Iffy, I don't think Ms. Tori meant that, Though I wonder if she really does think of us as kids."

Iffy seeing a cute and tidy house in the middle of the ruins fills her with determination, "yeah, you might be right, Compa. What am I even worried about? How silly of me thinking of stupid things" She touches the save point feeling its warmth and comfort; it almost assures her everything is fine.

Compa asks as she tilts her head in bewilderment, "Iffy, what are you doing?"

Iffy looks back at Compa, and points to the save point, "You seriously do not see this, Compa? The glowing light right here?"

Compa smiles and giggles, "Iffy, I think you are just tired and need a nice long rest."

Toriel nods, "Iffy, your friend is right! You need a long rest after going through the ruins." She then walks inside.

Iffy sighs as she follows Compa, who was also following Toriel inside. Toriel turns and greets them with a big smile while a sweet buttery aroma is coming from this place. "Welcome to my home! Do you smell that? Surprise, it is a butterscotch-cinnamon pie! I thought we celebrate your arrival. I want you to have a nice time living here."

Iffy leans into Compa and whispers in her ear, "I hate to burst Toriel's bubble, but we are not living here! Our home is up there in Gamindustri!"

Compa was distracted by the aroma of the pie, "mmmm Pie!"

"Are you even listening to me?" Iffy asked Compa.

Toriel continues, "I will hold off on the snail pie for tonight" Turn turns and beckons for the girls to follow her down a hall, "Here I have another surprise for you!"

Iffy chuckles at the place, "Talk about hospitality for once!"

Toriel stops at a door and gestures toward it with a warm smile, "This is it! A room for both of you girls; I hope you like it."

Compa jumps for joy, "Thank you, Ms. Tori!"

"Hey, thanks! Toriel!" Iffy said.

Toriel smiles, "You are very welcome! You both are such adorable girls" She pats both of them on the head, earning a giggle from Compa and Iffy. Toriel perks up and sniffs the air, "Is something burning? Um, make yourself at home!"

"What a nice lady." Compa comments

They enter the room Toriel provided for them, and got a look at its surroundings. There was a box of cool toys in front of the bed and another box filled with different sizes of shoes in the corner of the room. There was a dusty old empty picture frame on the nightstand next to the bed, which was the only thing that interested the girls. Iffy stretches and jumps into the bed, "Finally, a nice soft bed."

Compa yawns and climbs into bed with Iffy, "Hi, Iffy!"

Iffy went beat red with Compa suddenly got into the bed with Iffy, and begin to cuddle her "C-Compa? What are you doing?"

Compa yawns as she hugs Iffy closer "You are a life-size body pillow, and I wanna cuddle!"

Iffy nervously smiles, "I don't know if that was an insult or a compliment." Iffy hears a slight snore coming from Compa, "You already deep asleep again? I swear you fall asleep faster than Nep." Iffy sighs and goes to sleep herself.

Meanwhile, in Gamindustri...

Neptune is laid back on a recliner with her controller in her hand in utter defeat. Noire was heard laughing in the speaker in the coop game she was playing with Neptune. "Noire! That game is too hard! Why do you even play it?" Neptune Complained.

Noire was laughing from the speaker, "This game is easy if you pay attention to what you're doing."

Neptune pouts until she hears a knock at the door. "Oh, that's for me. Guess we play again, a different game another time. K bye~" She shuts off the system and sighs, "I officially dislike Dark Souls." She walks up and answers the door. Histoire, Nepgear, and Red were at the door, "Oh, heya Gearsy Gears of Gearsiness! Histy and uhhhh, Red was it?"

Histoire writes in her notebook, "That is the seventh nickname this week." She looks up at Neptune and continues, "Why don't you go back to what you usually call her."

Red giggled like a mad woman, "Oh, two of my Waifys in the same place oh, is this heaven!"

Neptune scratches the back of her head with a bewildered expression, "Uhhh, Were you not there when we defeated Arfoire, The Deity of Sin?"

Red scratches her head and nods no. Nepgear sighs and says, "It is because it has been a while, and the writer has not gotten that ending yet. Before I break the fourth wall even further, It has been five years since we defeated The Deity of Sin."

Red adds, "And I have not been around many of my CPU Waifys since then because of the workload."

Histoire does a time-out hand single, "Ahem, let us get back on task here. Yes, we know this story is post Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth 2, and yes, I just broke the fourth wall again, but I record all the History and what goes on in Gamindustri. However, what is irritating is this mount Ebbot for I have no data I have yet to find, for it is not in any Indexes I put it in, which means it will take an incredibly long time for me to find it."

Neptune adds, "Because you take forever to get anything done."

Nepgear taps her index fingers together, "Well, we could go Lastation, Lowwe, and Leanbox for answers as well as the neighboring towns."

Neptune skips outside, "Then that is the plan! I go fly to visit the other lands and see if they know anything about this mount Ebony!"

Histoire corrected Neptune, "You mean Mt. Ebbot Neptune."

Neptune repeats, "Right, Mt. Ebbot! Well, See you later!" Neptune transforms into Purple Heart and flies off.

Histoire sighs, "Red, You are going to go around Planuptune and ask about the last whereabouts of IF and Compa, While Nepgear helps me look more into Mt. Ebbot's location."

Red interjects, "Would that make me a stalker?"

Histoire and Nepgear looked at each other then, they look back at Red both saying, "You're already a stalker."

Red giggles shyly, "Guess I got caught peeping at you. Anyways My waify gave me a mission, so I must go and achieve this mission," Red runs off giggling to herself.

Nepgear sighed, "I hope Iffy and Compa are alright."

Histoire smiles, "I am sure they are fine. They are brave girls and strong as well. Now let us get to a library database and find anything about this Mount Ebbot they were exploring. Hmmm, Mount Ebbot, why does it sound so familiar." Histoire goes deep into her thoughts as she returns to the Bacilicom. Nepgear fidgets with her hands in worry during the entire journey back.