Snyderverse Neptunia Snippets

by Derald Snyder

Snippet 42- Femme Fatale Fighters

Timeline- Between 'Ho-Hum and the Alien Visitation' and 'The Robotic Turnabout'.

"Rom! Rom!" Ram exclaimed as she ran up to her sister. "Wait 'til you see this!"

"See what, Ram?" her twin sister asked.

"This! I got a really rare fighter from the gacha on Femme Fatale Fighters! See?" Taking out her mobile device, she held it up so Rom could see the screen clearly...

"Huh?! Isn't that the ultra rare Parace L'Sia?!" Rom gasped in shock. "She's supposed to be one the strongest characters in the game right now!"

"I know, right? And I got it completely F2P!" Ram said with pride.

"That's just because Big Sis won't allow us to spend any money from our allowance on these..." Rom couldn't help but point out.

"Yeah, she thinks it's like that 'play-to-win' crap that Bamo and Regu were doing in that Ultradimension..." Ram grumbled. "But hey, didn't you say you had a really strong fighter too? We should do a VS. match!" One of the perks of Femme Fatale Fighters was that it controlled like a simplified fighting game, so rarity and stats didn't always determine who the winner would be, especially in PvP...

"Um, I dunno..." Rom hesitated. "I mean, yes, she's strong, but I can't use her at 100%..."

"Why not?! Come on, don't be a wimp! It's not like using her's gonna brick your game, right?!" Ram pressured her sister.

"W-well, no, but..."

"What, don't tell me you didn't upgrade her?!" Ram asked in disbelief.

"No, I did! Th-that's how I found out I c-can't use her at 100%!" Rom argued. "Look, let me try fighting with her at a lower level... I mean, you couldn't have upgraded Parace L'Sia fully yet if you just got her..."

"Yeah, I only had enough resources to get her about halfway," Ram admitted. "Okay, deal! Now show me yours already!"

"Okay, okay..." Rom caved, accessing her fighter's roster and scrolling with her fingers until she found who she looking for, bringing up an image of a chibi blonde-haired girl with cat ears and elongated eyes. "Here she is, Neko-Arc!"

"Wha...? That's your ultra rare?!" Ram said in utter disbelief.

"I-I kept her in her base form..." Rom responded, accessing Neko-Arc's menu and clicking an option, the cat girl fading to white and being replaced with an anatomically proportionate blond woman with red eyes, dressed in a white blouse and short blue skirt with matching pantyhose and shoes. "Here's her 50% form, Funny Vampire Arc. I'll fight you with this one, okay?"

"Okay, but no crying when you lose!" Ram taunted, accessing her friend list and sending a challenge to Rom, who promptly accepted, the twins sitting on the floor to get comfortable as the match loaded.

Rom saw her fighter's opponent- a very mature and busty dark-skinned woman wearing a white lab coat over a red shirt and black skirt with matching pantyhose and red high heels, with long white-green hair and wearing glasses over her red eyes. The match then began, and Parace's advantage was immediately clear, throwing several potions in succession and preventing Arc from closing the distance! "Hey, that projectile spam is cheating!"

"Now you see why she's one of the strongest!" Ram taunted, as her opponent's lifebar was depleted in short order. Round 2 went much the same, with Rom's FV-Arc only getting one or two blows in. "Well, that was lame. Maybe you oughta use 100% after all..."

"Actually, she's got one more form before that... hold on." Rom backed out and accessed Arc's status screen again, clicking to upgrade her to her next form, which was the same as before, except she wore a white leotard, had cat ears again, and was wielding an elaborate staff. "Okay, this is her 70% form, Magical Girl Arc! I can use her safely as long as I'm careful..."

"Careful? In a fighting game? Yea right!" Ram teased. "Okay, let's go again!"

"Okay..." And so they started another match. This time, Rom's fighter managed to interrupt Parace with a magic blast before she could start spamming potions, closing the distance and hitting her with a 27% combo!

"Okay, now THAT'S more like it!" Ram said with a grin, managing to execute a counter that teleported Parace to the other side of the arena, jumping over a magic blast and tagging MG-Arc with a potion! She then blocked her opponent's retaliatory kick, before executing a 30% combo of her own! But Magical Girl Arc countered with a close-range magic blast that sent Parace bouncing off the other side, rushing in and doing another 27% combo! "Geez, I might actually lose this!"

"See what happens when you get too cocky, Ram?" Rom teased, managing to block an attempted combo and executing a super move, Parace letting out a death cry as she was blasted with a pillar of light! 'DOWN' appeared on the screen, MG-Arc doing a heroic pose!

"Don't you get cocky, either!" Ram shot back as Round 2 began. "My Parace has a comeback mechanic if she's close to losing!"

"S-so does mine..." Rom said in a worried tone, before falling silent as she focused on her phone's screen. Again, Parace found her attempted potion spam being interrupted by MG-Arc's magic blasts, eating another 27% combo for her trouble...

"Come on!" Ram growled in frustration, tapping furiously at her screen, but to no avail, as Ram had adapted to her sister's tactics, comboing her down to 25%! But then, there was a cut-in of Parace LSia's face, her eyes shining white! "Yes!" Ram pumped a fist in joy.

"Huh?" Rom gasped as the screen faded to white... when it came back, Parace's appearance had changed, her glasses gone, now dressed in a white cape with puffy shoulders and a purple underside, long arm-gloves and thigh-high white boots, only a small strip of cloth barely covering her modesty! "Wait, isn't this her final form?!"

"Bingo!" Ram grinned. "Now get ready to lose!" This time, instead of potions, Parace attacked with four gems that rotated around her, at a much faster speed than before! Magical Girl Arc managed to get in a few hits with long-range magic, but couldn't keep up with her opponent's speed and was quickly comboed to death! "Hope you don't whine about how unfair it is!"

"I-I'm more worried about... oh no!" Rom cried as a cut-in of MG-Arc's face was shown after 'DOWN' appeared, the screen fading to white... when it faded back in, Rom's fighter was now dressed in an elegant white ballgown with a blue underskirt, her blonde hair how reaching past her ankles. "Sh-she went to 100%!"

"Isn't that a good thing?" Ram pointed out.

"No! If she goes to 100% like this, I can't control her!" Rom cried. Sure enough, 100% Arc started attacking of her own accord, managing to combo 35% of Parace's health before Ram managed to counter and retaliate with a 30% combo with her gems!

"I'm not gonna lose to the AI!" Ram vowed, trying to press her advantage, only for 100% Arc to teleport behind Parace and blast her with a super beam attack, slowly regenerating her own health! Parace then materialized a crystal around herself to regen her own health, but Arc broke it to pieces in short order! But Parace managed to execute a super of her own, stomping 100% Arc into the ground with a set of four large stone feet! But then there was a cut-in of 100% Arc twirling like a ballerina...

"Nooooo!" Rom wailed in despair, as the entire screen was suddenly swallowed by an eruption of magma, cutting to a view of the entire planet being engulfed in eruptions and firestorms! 'WORLD DESTRUCTION' appeared on the screen, followed by 'DRAW'.

"What the heck just happened?!" Ram cried in disbelief.

"She just destroyed the world! In her final form, Arc becomes an uncaring goddess who could decide to devastate the planet on a whim! It causes an automatic loss in story mode, because you can't continue the story if the world's destroyed! THAT'S why I can't use her at 100%!" Rom explained.

"Ohh," Ram slowly nodded. "Well, at least it only forces a draw in PvP mode... Why didn't you tell me sooner, sis?"

"Well, I k-kinda wanted to see what Parace L'Sia could do..." Rom stammered. "Um, and I didn't think any of my other fighters stood a chance, anyway... I don't wanna do this anymore." She promptly swiped her finger to close the app.

"Okay... I'll wait until you get another ultra-rare before I ask for a rematch with Parace. Deal?" Ram suggested.

"Okay, Ram," Rom managed a small smile, shaking her sister's hand. "I'm just glad no one like this exists in real- MMPH!" She was muffled as Ram put a hand over her mouth!

"Don't say that sorta stuff out loud! Don't you remember what Neptune says?!" Ram scolded. "Saying that kinda thing trips an event flag, and next thing you know, we have to save the world from destruction again!"

"S-sorry..." Rom said after pulling her sister's hand away. "But, there was already that scary virus that tried to blow us up with nukes, and Neptune deleted him! And that Demon Lord Lilymon-"

"Lilithmon," Ram corrected.

"Right, she lost to Uzume and that DB alien, so it should be fine, right?"

"Unless she gets new evil power or finds a new villain to ally with..." Ram pointed out.

*Over in Planeptune...*

"Ah-choooo!" Merlin sneezed, managing to face away from Lilithmon in bed.

"Oh, my, you're not coming down with something, are you?" the Demon Lord said teasingly. "Have I not kept you quite warm...?"

"(sniff) Or perhaps somebody was talking about me..." Merlin grunted as he rubbed his nose. "Most likely Artoria... another reason to kill her later. Now, where were we?"

"Right here," Lilithmon purred, pulling the young mage into a deep kiss... what happened next was definitely NOT 'safe for work'.

*Snippet 42- End*