Chapter 6: A Day Out with New Friends
"This new Candidate... this could prove to be a problem," a deep, male voice spoke in a dark room.
"What should we do about it?" a female voice responded.
"She needs to be eliminated, before she becomes a problem."
"So then, is it time?"
"No. We are not ready yet. But the time will come. For now, send the U-nits to deal with her."
"Ngh..." Neptune groaned. "Isn't it a bit early to go out quests, Venus?"
Venus turned to her big sister. "Well, there's nothing to do at home!"
"Have you... tried playing any games? We've got a lot of them."
"No, I haven't," Venus said with sudden interest. "But Nora told me about them, and they sound really fun!"
"...Yeah..." Neptune said nervously. She didn't play games too much nowadays, but there was a time she found them fun. "...Gaming is normal for CPUs, you know," she added, but only in a half-truth.
"But aren't you a CPU?" Venus asked in confusion.
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"You never play games, so... if you're a CPU, why don't you play them?"
"Uh..." Neptune was caught. She didn't know how to defend herself. And if Venus talked to the other goddesses about this, then she'd never live it down. Hoping to change the subject, Neptune realized where they were. "Oh look, the Guild!" she announced.
Looking over at the building, Venus cheered, "Oh, yeah! I can't wait to try out my new shield for real!"
"You know... you bounced back really quickly after what happened in Lowee," Neptune noted.
Venus was suddenly looking a bit down. "...I don't know if I want to go back there."
"Blanc and her sisters... they're really nice people, I promise. It's just that... Blanc gets angry a lot, and the twins are just kids, so they don't know any better. Let's just... give it some time, and we'll see how you feel about it later."
"O-okay... let's go!" Venus exclaimed.
Yeah, she bounces back quickly, Neptune thought.
Neptune wasn't sure what she'd run into today, but apparently, it was going to be meeting some old friends. Once they got into the Guild, they ran into two girls that Neptune knew.
One was rather short, and yet she was well-developed. She had red hair that was held in a side tail in a style similar to a ribbon, by an actual ribbon with gold beads on the ends, and her right bang had white highlights, and she had nearly-black eyes. She had a Chinese-styled outfit with a dark-gray and black vest with a light-blue curved gem on top (a magatama, Neptune knew) just above a small opening revealing the top of her cleaves. She had red detached sleeves with flower patterns on them, a red skirt shaped into five petals above tight black shorts, and red shoes with wooden bases. Also, she had a golden Chinese dragon wrapped around her waist, its head resting on her right shoulder.
The other girl was taller, with short orange hair, orange eyes, and she had an earpiece microphone on. She wore a white button-up shirt with a black trim that only had one button actually buttoned up, so her mid-riff and generous chest were on full display. She also had red ribbons around both her neck and right wrist, cuffs on her wrists that matched her shirts, same with her shoes, and she wore a black pleated skirt with a gray jacket wrapped around her waist. She also had a pair of sheathed swords carried on her left side.
These girls immediately noticed the Planeptunian CPUs, the taller, orange-haired one exclaiming, "hey look! It's Neptune!"
"Yeah, and her new cutie sister!" the shorter, red-haired girl replied.
Neptune cheekily smiled. "Hey, gals... long time no see!"
Venus, however, was, as usual, confused. "Um, big sis, do we know these girls?"
"Uh, I do. But I think you haven't met them yet. They are more of my Maker friends, like IF and Compa!"
"Oh, cool!"
The taller, orange-haired girl walked up to the sisters and introduced herself. "Hey, you're Venus, right?" Venus nodded in response. "Cool! My name is MarvelousAQL!"
"Marvel... Marvleh... Mar-Q..." Venus tried pronouncing.
"S-sorry," Neptune spoke up. "My sister has a bad time with names."
"Oh, that's okay, you can call me 'Marvy'," 'Marvy' said to the young Candidate. "That's what most of my friends call me."
"Okay, Marvy!" Venus replied. "That's a, um... marvelous nickname!"
"Uh..." Marvy responded.
"What?"
"You got my name right just now..."
"I think she got right unintentionally," Neptune said. "When she wasn't using it as a name."
"But, that sounded good..." Venus replied.
"...So, she tries too hard with names, is that it?" Marvy asked Neptune.
"I honestly don't know," Neptune answered. "Haven't really thought that much about it."
At this point, Neptune's other friend came up to greet Venus. "Hi, I'm Red!"
"Oh, hello Fred! I'm Venus!" Venus greeted.
Red sweat-dropped. "Uh... what...?"
"Venus, do... do you do this on purpose?" Neptune asked.
"Do what?" Venus asked.
"Uh... you know that Red's name doesn't have an F in it, right?"
"No... what do you mean by 'F'?"
"Oh, man..."
Red, however, smiled. "Aw, you're super cute, like in a clueless way! That's it, you are now my new wifey!"
"Wait... so I'm married now?" Venus asked.
"No, it's a thing Red does," Neptune explained. "She likes to pick out lots of 'wifeys'."
"So, does that mean I have lots of wives? I'm married lots of people?" Venus asked, only more confused.
Neptune sweatdropped. If Venus actually thought she now was married to several other people because of Red's "wifeys", then she didn't want to know how her sister would react when she found that Neptune was also one of Red's wifeys. She had to correct this now. "No, being one of Red's wifeys isn't actual marriage. It just means that she really likes you."
"Yeah," Red spoke up, "you're all my wifeys!"
"But I'm not actually married to you...? ...Or, am I?" Venus replied, before realizing, "wait, do you mean big sis is also your wifey!? Am I married to my sister!?"
"Oh boy," Neptune said, exasperated.
"Well, your sister is certainly charming, if anything else," Marvy replied. She turned to Neptune to ask, "so, I'm guessing that you're here to do some quests?"
"Yeah, Venus wanted to come out and do some with me. She just got some new equipment from Lowee, and has been wanting to try it out. Plus, she seems to think it's a good way to bond with me."
"Well, if it's about sisterly bonding, have you tried playing some games with her?"
"...No..."
"Really? Don't you like playing games? I figured you would've already done that?"
"I... haven't been in the mood," Neptune admitted.
Marvy was about to say something to that, before realizing what the real reason might've been. "...It's about... her...? Isn't it?" She didn't want to give away Nepgear's name, since she didn't know what the situation was in regards to what everyone was handling her loss.
"Yeah... It hurts, you know."
"Listen, I understand. I've lost people too. But they told me I should keep smiling. I think that maybe you should, too."
"Y-yeah..." Neptune replied, trying to do just that.
"There you go. Now, what was my question again? Oh right, Red and I were going to head out on a quest together. Did you and your sister want to come with us?"
"Oh, sure, we'd love to." Neptune turned to Venus and Red, who had begun their own conversation. "Hey, Venus, we're going to join Marvy and Red on their quest today! Okay?"
"Yeah, that sounds fun!" Venus replied.
"Yay, I get to hang out with so many wifeys today!" Red added in.
"Eh... I'm not sure if I'm ready for marriage, Fred..." Venus told the short redhead, who just cheerfully smiled in return.
They had traveled to the mountainous region of Planeptune, near the borders of Lastation and Lowee.
"So..." Neptune mused, "what are we hunting?"
"A couple Dragon Knights... and a Land Whale," Marvy replied.
"Ooh, some toughies. Venus, you're still a newbie. Think you can handle that?"
"Hm... what?" the young candidate replied.
"You weren't listening, were you?" Neptune commented.
"Uh..."
"Oh, we got it!" Red replied. "Big lizard monsters! Punch them in a face!"
"Yeah!" Venus exclaimed. "Hit them really hard!"
"Eh, I think they got the right idea," Neptune said, sweatdropping.
"If you say so," Marvy said. Then suddenly, she stopped everyone. "Wait here!" Then she dashed ahead.
"Wow..." Venus mused. "She's super cool."
"Ah, yes!" Neptune replied. "She's a ninja, you see. She's got that ninjer magic!"
"Cool... I wanna see it!"
"I actually tried it once. ...Didn't end well for Marvy's clothes."
"Ooh, I would've liked to see that!" Red exclaimed.
Venus was confused. "Why...?"
"Aw, can't you see it? It's SO obvious!"
"No, no she really doesn't," Neptune said. "And I don't know why either."
Both Red and Venus tilted their heads in confusion, both for different reasons. Red, because she had a hard time believing Venus couldn't understand what she was talking about, and Venus because she didn't understand what Red was talking about.
Unsure of how to explain everything to the confused girls, Neptune nervously scratched the back of her head, and kicked the ground. Though she actually kicked something, which bounced over to Venus.
"Hm," Venus mused. "What that!?" She bent to pick up the object from the ground, which turned out to be a pale blue stone.
"Uh, I think that's a normal rock," Neptune explained.
"B-but... it's so pretty...!"
"Uh..." Neptune took a close look at the object. It looked rather bland to her, but if her sister liked it then... "okay... I guess..."
"Are there other cool things I can find!?" Venus asked with excitement
"Well, yeah, if you look hard enough, you probably will... if you think it's cool, at least..."
"Okay! Here I go!" And Venus put the little rock in her inventory, and began poking in a bush in search of something.
Neptune was about to ask her sister to maybe do this at a later time, but then Marvy returned from the path ahead. "Okay, I found the monsters. They're up ahead. Get ready everyone!"
Venus jumped out of the bush, smiling as she summoned her weapons and ran after Marvy, who seemed confused as to why Venus was in a bush in the first place.
"Well, I guess we can't let them have all the fun, now can we?" Neptune asked Red.
"Nope! There is no way I'm leaving my wifeys alone on this!" the redhead exclaimed before rushing after Venus. Neptune just chuckled, and chased after them.
Coming over the mountain path, the group could see several mechanical lizard-like enemies with round bodies, wings, and wielding a battle ax, and shield, and a single large, purple whale creature with long wing-like fins, and horn, and a pair of antennas.
"Hey!" Venus huffed. "They're stealing my style!"
"Uh, okay," Neptune said. "...You do know that you're not the only one to use a shield."
"Yeah! But I wanted to feel unique... You even gave me a special shield, sis!"
"Um... I'm sure you're unique, Venus! No one's going to be like you!"
"Yeah!" Red joined in, "all my wifeys are!"
"Uh, guys," Marvy spoke up. Apparently, the monsters had noticed the group.
"Well, guess it's time to beat some Dragon Knights up!" Red shouted, and she jumped down, rushing at the first of the rotund lizards. "Swift Strike!" She pulled out a frisbee and threw it, where it flew around the monster, while Red rushed towards the creature. Then she grabbed the frisbee as it flew back towards her, and uses the momentum to spin around, and swing at the enemy. After passing the enemy, she made a pose, and a magic slash appeared that stuck the beast.
"Reckless as always," Marvy said.
"Well, I guess we have no more time to mope around," Neptune said she summoned her katana, and followed Red. "Critical Edge!" Neptune performed her quick slashing attack on another Dragon Knight.
Marvy turned to Venus, and nodded. Venus didn't understand what that meant, but when Marvy dashed towards the monsters, she figured it was fighting time. And boy, was she excited.
Marvy charged down, calling out "Ranbu!", drawing one of her swords, and unleashing a series of slashes on a Dragon Knight.
Then Venus, coming after Marvy, followed up with "Comet Drive!", performing her magic-enhanced forward-stab dash that she came up with on her last quest, plowing down and defeating all of the Dragon Knights that her comrades had already attacked.
"Wow, nice attack, Venus!" Marvy called out.
"Thanks!" Venus responded, before she noticed a Dragon Knight descended on her. She swung out her sword at the beast, but it blocked the attack with its shield. It then retaliated by trying to swing its ax down at Venus, but she caught on to its tactic, and blocked the attack with her own shield. Then she swung out her sword again, where it was once again, blocked.
This continued on, with the two sheilders going back and forth with the same strike, block, strike, block motions. The other girls all sweated drop as they watched the momentous pattern go on.
"So... does anyone want a crack at the Land Whale?" Marvy asked.
Red nodded, while Neptune decided to watch her sister, just in case something went wrong.
Which didn't happen, as Venus managed to grow wise the Dragon Knights actions. After blocking a strike, she then immediately pulled her shield-arm back, then channeled magic into her shield. The energy took shape into curved, triangular blades, which spun around, effectively turning the shield into a buzz-saw. Venus then swung her shield out, striking down the monster.
"Wow... nice!" Neptune called out. "Did you just come up with that Skill?"
"That was a Skill?" Venus replied.
"They... could be," Neptune said. "If you practice them, and give them names. Like you're last one."
"Uh..."
"We'll brainstorm later."
Meanwhile, Red and Marvy had engaged the Land Whale, and they were not planning on holding back.
Red threw her disc, which enlarged, as she jumped onto it. Then she pulled out a yo-yo and a kendama, before spinning around, and dashing past the monster with a few strikes, followed by spinning around the beast, damaging it repeatedly, before leaping off. Then Red summoned a fireball, which blasted at the Whale in a large flare. And Red wasn't done yet. "Time to show you my stuff! R.E.D.!" With each letter called out, Red spun her arm upwards, holding her enlarged throwing disc, and then finished with a powerful swing.
"My turn. Secret ninja art! Midaresaki!" Marvy drew both her swords, which alit with flames, before dashing forward and delivering numerous slashes in a dance, finishing with a swirling flourish. Then with a scroll in her mouths, she summoned several fireballs around her. She then redrew a single sword, the flames condensing on them, before flying forward in a blazing cross, and performing a final swing. And as she landed and sheathed her sword, the flames behind her enlarged, finishing the Land Whale.
"Yeah! We did it!" Red cheered, as she leaped up and gave Marvy a double high five.
"We're still stronger than them!" Marvy replied as she returned the high fives.
Neptune and Venus walked over. "So, are we all done here?"
"Yep!" Marvy told her.
"Nice. That was easier than I thought it would be. But hey, Venus learned some new tricks!"
"Yeah. I'll still be unique, no matter what!"
All the girls laughed at this. They won, they were having a good time, and Venus was being Venus.
However, something had to ruin their fun.
"Um..." Red spoke up, "do you hear something?"
Everyone went quiet, and cocked their heads to listen. "Yeah..." Venus said. "What do you think it is, Red?"
"I don't know."
Then, instead of turning towards the source of the noise, Venus started to deliberate with Red what the sound might be.
"Uh... maybe now is not the best time for this," Neptune said to them, though they didn't hear her.
That did hear Marvy say, "Uh, guys. Are... those robots?"
Everyone looked up to see mechanical beings flying towards them.
"There's a lot of them..." Red said.
"About a dozen," Marvy added.
Venus, however, tilted her head, then pointed and counted them. "No, there's ten! That's two less than a dozen!" she exclaimed.
"Uh..." the other three girls sounded together.
"She's... not wrong..." Neptune said.
The machines finally got close enough to make out their details, to which they were all the same model. They were humanoid in shape, and had a sharp, hard look to them. They were gray with purple accents, and they had blue visors. Their left arms were a long, rail-rifle weapon built in from their elbow joints, and their right arm had hands, but above them, energy blades were placed and ignited. They all flew by a metal ring on their backs which had six blade-like wings built into it.
The robots all flew into range of the girls, and aimed their guns at them.
"Wh-wh-what!? I've never seen robots like these!?" Marvy exclaimed.
"They look tough!" Red added.
Neptune started up at the mechanical enemies, taking notice of where they were aiming. Anger flared on her face as she suddenly transformed, and flew at one of the enemies, sword drawn.
But despite flying at blinding speeds, when she came in for the swing, the robot she targeted disengaged its gun and blocked her attack with its blade.
"What...?" Purple Heart replied in shock. Then the robot began to spark, and then unleashed an electric burst that knocked the goddess back. And if that wasn't bad enough, the robot immediately took aim and blasted Purple Heart with a high-impact beam from its gun, which sent her flying into the cliffs.
"Big sis!" Venus cried.
"These guys mean business," Marvy said.
"How dare you hurt my wifeys!" Red cried as she jumped towards the robot that countered Purple Heart.
The robot slashed at Red, but she used her throwing disc to block it, bounce up over it, and then announcing "Disc Barrage!" and delivering a series of swings with the disc, which knocked the robot to the ground.
"I guess we're going now," Marvy said as she drew her swords, and leaped to another robot. "Rensen Raiton!" She immediately evaded the mech's counterattack, and unleashed several lightning-infused attacks.
Venus wanted to join in, but since she was still a newbie when it came to fighting, she didn't know how to jump like that, so she couldn't reach the flying robots. And she didn't have any other way to attack them. Unless...
Marvy and Red landed as they watched the robots fall. But the robots got up. They were damaged, but still going strong. And there were eight others still in the air.
"This isn't going to be easy, is it?" Mercy said.
The robots once again took aim. The Makers took a defensive stance. ...But then hit one of the robots got hit by something at sonic speeds, which caused it to spin out of control, and flail into another bot.
The Makers looked back... and found Venus picking up a rock. "Go away!" the CPU Candidate shouted as she threw the rock at a bot. And she threw it with such force that you could almost hear the sonic boom as it shot away. The targeted robot aimed to return fire, but never got the chance, as the rock knocked its head clean off!
"Wow... my wifey is so strong..." Red exclaimed.
"I don't want to be married, Fred!" Venus shouted back.
The robots, however, were not messing around. They took aim, and fired at Venus. She quickly raised her shield to block the shots, but got pushed back by the force of the blasts, only barely keeping her stance.
Marvy and Red started to freak out, and readied themselves for another round of attacks, to protect their friend. But the mechs were already charging up for their next volley.
But Venus... she thought that maybe she could use the trick she learned while in Lowee. A dangerous move, but she went for it.
About three of the robots fired their lasers, and with impossible timing, Venus swung her shield out, striking the beams in motion... and managing to force them back at the bots, which completely obliterated them.
"No way..." Marvy said.
"That was so cool..." Red added.
Suddenly, all the girls heard a shuffle behind them. Looking back, they could see... Purple Heart had gotten back up.
"You blasted machines...!" she shouted angrily. "How dare you threaten my friends... my sister!" Suddenly, Purple Heart started glowing brightly, until she was covered in a sphere of light. And then something burst out of the sphere, and shot past the robots.
That thing... was a black and purple fighter jet.
"Woah... big sis summoned a jet?" Venus said in amazement.
"Um... I'm pretty sure your sister IS that jet," Marvy explained.
"What! B-but... how!?" Venus couldn't process the idea that her sister could turn into a jet!
Purple Heart the Fighter Jet flew around, and fired off two large missiles, with brokes open their tips, and fired off several smaller missiles. They flew out and blasted all but one of the remaining bots. The jet then flew at the last robot, turned back into Purple Heart proper, and delivered a single slash.
She stopped just past the bot, which was left with a large gash in his chest. The poor mech fell to the ground, lifeless.
Purple Heart dropped back to the ground, behind the robot she sliced through, and turned back into Neptune.
"Big sis!" Venus cried as she ran to her sister and pulled her into a hug.
"Oof...! You're... crushing me!" Neptune tried to say.
"S-sorry!" Venus said as she let go.
"Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah! I blew up robots with my shield!"
"Wha...?"
"She deflected their beams back into them with her shield," Marvy said. "It was pretty cool."
"Oh, wow. I knew you could do something with that move you learned in Lowee... just didn't think it would be THAT good of a Skill," Neptune replied.
"Yeah, but what about that jet transformation you did?" Venus asked.
"Um... I honestly don't know... I just kind of do it," Neptune admitted.
"Well, what I know is that my and my wifeys can't be beaten when we work together!" Red exclaimed. Venus became noticeably uncomfortable (she really didn't like the idea of being "married").
"It was really Neptune and Venus who handled the robots. ...But, I guess, if you count the fight before..."
"You guys really helped. I'm sure that-" Neptune said before she noticed something. "Hang on, give me a sec." She leaned down to look at the back of the robot she sliced through.
A string of letters was painted on the back, likely its model number: "U-NIT 135". But above it...
"What did you see?" Marvy asked the goddess.
"I- I- It's nothing," Neptune said quickly. "Let's head back, and tell them what happened here. We're going to need to look into these robots."
"Yeah, we really should."
"It was fun hanging out with you," Venus said as they began to walk back. "Beating up monsters and robots! It was super cool! And, I learned some super cool new tricks today!"
"Yeah! I can't wait to see you again!" Red replied.
"You're pretty nice, Venus. I'm sure you'll be a strong CPU someday," Marvy said.
Venus giggled as they continued on back to the Guild. If anything, Neptune was happy that Venus at least found this whole ordeal to be fun, and made some friends along the way. ...But that encounter with the "U-nits", it really bothered her, and she needed to look further into it.
Marvy noticed the look of concern Neptune, and got worried. She lost people before, but made an effort to better herself. But Neptune... to her, it seemed like she'd do whatever it would take to protect what she still had, and while that was good... she was worried she's eventually snap and go too far.
Histoire had become concerned about the report from the quest Neptune and Venus completed. She had come to Neptune's office to ask her about it. What she didn't yet know was that Neptune was already looking into it.
Histoire knocked on the door, and got a "come in," from Neptune, and the tome found Neptune on her computer.
"Neptune, I wanted to talk about today's report," Histoire said.
"You mean the robots?" Neptune replied.
"Yes. We've recovered the wreckages and-" Histoire stopped when Neptune turned her screen to the fairy. On it was the schematics for a robot.
"I saw something on that... 'U-nit'. There was its model name, but above it... I saw the Planeptune N, Histy," Neptune explained.
"You mean the symbol of the nation?" Histoire asked.
"Yeah. And I've been looking at our robot schematics since we got back. But our own engineer's approved plans, designs we've imported from other nations, even Nepgear's old projects! Nothing I've looked at matches the robots we fought today."
"So, someone has put our nation's symbol on unapproved machines," Historie summed up. "Do you think this is an attempt to deceive everyone into thinking our nation is engaging in shady business, and cause us defamation?"
"I don't know. Maybe. But, Histy... those robots..." Neptune took a deep, shaky breath, "they were aiming at Venus."
"Are... are you sure?"
"I saw as clear as day where they were pointing. I don't think anyone else noticed. They just saw a bunch of robots threatening the group. But I know they were after my sister."
"This... this is disturbing to think about. Venus is still a new candidate. She has yet to make an impact on Gamindustri as a whole, so she shouldn't have any enemies. Why would anyone want her specifically dead?"
"I don't know! Histy, I'm... scared. I already lost a sister. I don't- I can't lose another sister!" Neptune cried.
"I know. I'm going to order an investigation into who may have made these robots. Also, I'm going to inform the Guild and the other nations about this, so they are aware that someone is attempting to use our symbol for fraudulent actions, so whatever these 'U-nits' are being used for, they know that Planeptune neither approved of or oversaw their creation and use. But what about Venus?"
"I- ...I don't want to scare her. Let's just let her... carry on as normal. But if she leaves the Basilicom, make sure someone is there to watch her, okay?" Neptune requested.
"Of course." The only thing Histoire knew is that whatever was going on, Planeptune was, once again, at the center of another threat.
"Hey, Histy, big sis! Come check out the cool stuff I found!" Venus called out from the other room.
Histoire looked at Neptune in confusion. Neptune simply responded with, "...Venus seems to have picked an interest in random... things."
"Well... at least she's curious to explore," Histoire said. "Let's just hope she keeps it in a... healthy way."
Author's Note: So, to start, if it wasn't clear by the ending, Nepgear wasn't involved with the robots that attacked this chapter, or at least it wasn't clear if she was. But I'm sure you're all thinking that the shadowy organization that must be involved in her disappearance. I'm, of course, not going to tell you what's going straight out, and just leave you to theorize on what's going on here. Just wanted to make sure you consider ALL possible angles. That's what makes this fun!
As for the robots, I was going for a generic-looking but dangerous mech design to challenge the CPUs. But I came up with them on the fly, just so you know. In fact, the name "U-nit" just came from me wanting the guy to say "send the units", and then later deciding to go back and make them the name of the robots.
And you know, I'm writing this story by the seat of my pants. I know the plot I want to write, I just haven't finalized all the details and events yet, and I'm working on them in motion. I haven't even finished the evil organization for this story yet, nor who is in charge (but I do know what their evil plan is). So it's going to be fun trying to finish those while writing (he said somewhat sarcastically).
And lastly on the mysterious group, serious, all of my current stories now have a mysterious, unnamed, and undescribed scene in them or planned in the future (whether or not you can actually tell who they are or not). There's one in this chapter, there was one in both "Sapphire the Hedgehog" and "Undertale Fallen Determination", and there is now one planned to appear in the next few chapters of "Ultradimension Neptunia: Big Nep and Smolgear". And they're ALL used for different plot points. Does this count as a lack of creativity, because didn't think about this until fairly recently.
So, I've said before that like I think the Makers are great characters, I don't think much about them. But I wanted to add a few in this story to help flesh out the world, plus lot's of people like them. Well, for this chapter, I'm glad I did so, particularly with MarvelousAQL. I choose to add Red and Marvy on a whim, but since I didn't know as much as I would've liked about them, I looked them up on the wiki. And I found that MarvelousAQL had a backstory where her friends were lost. It fit so well for the plot of this story, so I was able to set up a kinship between her and Neptune. I don't know if I'm to bring Marvy back for future chapters, but I'm glad I added her here.
Also, writing the interaction with Red and Venus was fun. You just knew the Venus would misunderstand Red's whole "wifey" thing. Also, Venus continues to get names wrong. Oh, and I finally got to introduce one of her quirks: she likes to find things, little trinkets or whatnot, that she finds interesting.
Also, her new skills are known as "Stardust Saw" and "Aurora Reflect".
Stardust Saw was a cool idea I came up with, but its name... is pretty much the one Sega CD reference you might get, being a nod to Sonic CD's Stardust Speedway level. Keep in mind, I didn't originally intend for Venus to represent ANY console, I just sort of found the Sega CD might work. When it comes to Sega, I am a Sonic fan, I grew up with the games, and despite the roller coaster of quality, Sonic is my favorite game series. But know just about nothing about Sega's other franchises, except for maybe Knights into Dreams, because Sonic references it a lot, and it's really popular among the fans. So I can't offer many Sega CD references that are good, sorry.
And Aurora Reflect is the BotW Shield Parry maneuver that was mentioned that Venus learned in Lowee last chapter, made into a proper Skill of hers. In fact, the whole laster parry thing she did, I got the idea from parring Guardian lasers in the game. I thought it would be really cool!
Anyways, keep an eye out for the next chapter! Venus is going to Lastation at long last!