Hyperdimension Neptunia Third Sister: Darkness

by Somedudeonline

WARNING: This a direct sequel to 'Light', read that first if you don't want to be confused. After having died, Bios is reborn with the energy of Despair running through her, now the opposite of a Goddess. In spite of what fate demands of her, she gathers a group of vigilantes to save Lowee from a sinister group of organisations known as, SCJP

28. Chapter 22-1: All of Our Effort

Hyperdimension Neptunia

Third Sister; Darkness

Chapter 22.1-POV Uzume

All of our effort.

I can't believe it.
In no time, the few that got up are blown away by the many explosions unleashed by this mecha. Suno, or her evil counterpart ends up crashing just in front of the mountain. I look behind to see if she's alright. She reverts back to human form…I think I see her move.
That's a relief.
I look up as I see Gill walk back onto the ground, his power cracking the ground open and making many platforms rise towards him.

I got caught up in the attack as well, my arm got mostly hurt, but that's it. I have little SP left, so I can only heal myself for now.
"Your friends have fallen, Goddess of orange. I am in a pretty good mood right now. Leave. I will kill that false Goddess and be on my way.", he says.
"Like hell I will!", I shout back. Uzume will never abandon her friends. It would be totally cool and awesome if they got back up and fought. Can you imagine?
"Hmph. As expected of unworthy Goddesses. Oh well. Shall I eliminate you then?", he asks.

"You think we'd let you?", I hear the distorted voice in the air. Relaxing on top of string, he is on the floating platforms sounding overly confident.
"You thought you could just defeat us like that? You underestimate us.", another voice close to that guy, a naginata wielding warrior leaning on her staff in a relaxed pose.
"You think you've overcome Leader? She will get back up, it is up to us to give her time.", a large individual flies towards the platforms as he speaks.
Lion walks by me using her staff as a walking stick.

"Even you…Aren't you hurt?", I ask her, I know I would feel the same, but are these guys really going to keep fighting?
"Leader always got back up…I have faith in Leader…So I want her to have faith in us.", she says before teleporting up there.
I look around, but I don't see Evo on the ground either. She's up there.
"I may be new here, but I absolutely love a sense of shared determination.", she speaks in a whimsical tone.
These guys. They woke up without needing a revive spell. They got back up in no time. They could've even ran. But they got up to fight and are acting like this is a casual event! How cool is that? They are considered criminals. But they are putting everything on the line for this moment. To save us!

"Are you guys ready? If we beat him, SCJP is done for.", That silly guy says.
Claimer chuckles for the first time he's been around. "It's been a long journey, friends."
"This really is exciting!", Dragon says clutching her Naginata.
"Leader and us are the same. If we don't lose, Leader wins. If we lose, Leader wakes up and wins for sure…", Lion says.
Evo just giggles and says something as morbid as, "At least if we lose, we die in glory!"
Hueh…? I thought the silence was because they felt the same as me, but they just start laughing.

Their platforms reach close to each other as they get up to Gill.
"What makes you worms think you'll make a difference? You are not a Goddess or anything special.", he asks them.
I hop my way over to the top. Now I should say something cool.
"You will never understand! We fight for our lives and the lives of others. What do you even fight for? Your dreams are nothing compared to our wish to live!", I say. Was that cool?
"Lowee will reign supreme, by the hands of MY invention! MY power! How is that not the greatest goal?!", he asks.

"You ignore the lives of others.", Lion says.
"Like, who cares about ruling over ruins?", Silly guy asks.
"It is inconceivable to me that you feel satisfied winning with fake power.", Acclaim comments.
"Totally agreed. It's even more cheating than a Goddess' power.", Dragon says.
"We've all lived lives and made friends and have gone through hardship. I can't say what you have done with yours, but it sure as hell isn't important enough if you can't value life over some stupid ideal of world domination.", I tell him.

"Hmph! Ignorant fools! You can never understand wanting to be more than just a mere-", he gets interrupted by dozens of magical circles floating around the mecha with the words, "Archive of Magic." I look over to Lion as the guy gets a colorful compilation of magic spells.
"I hate your voice…Stop talking.", Lion says, completely unamused.
"Ah, you made her mad! Better be careful!", Silly guy says, making fun of him…Kinda funny.

"DIE!", Gill reacts with a punch towards Lion, but it is stopped by Silicon as he pulls out red string. Wait, how is he able to stop that fist?!
"Red String!", he says, the red strings actually carving into the metal.
"How could a mere mortal, no, how DARE a mere mortal t-", he is interrupted once more by Claimer and Evo shooting him with various special attacks. Gill doesn't even speak, he just launches more projectiles.
I shout at the rockets, which causes them explode in the air, Evo works on other projectiles. She also taps away at her computer.
"Hey, guys. That last EXE Drive skill disabled his stronger abilities! Get him!", Evo shouts.

"Me first!", Silicon shouts as he jumps over the arms, shooting out more red string and avoiding his laser eyes. Then he jumps off and pulls out a whole plate of armor his red strings have cut through. Gill was about to punch him, but when Silicon shoots a single strand of red string vertically, he pulls back, only a finger getting cut off. Silicon dodges a flamethrower by pulling himself over it with string. "Red String Cutter.", he shouts as he does a sword swing in the middle of his jump that cuts a deep part into the neck of the machine. Gill tries to gab him with both arm, but that is when he uses his, "EXE Drive Skill!"

Red Strings tie up the mecha whilst many more whip it out of nowhere faster than I can follow. Suddenly it all vanishes, this guy's sword covered in string until it becomes a crimson red color. He thrusts it into him creating a red razor cyclone. Finally, he does one powerful swing that creates red flash as he slashes into Gill, even forcing him to step back to keep his balance. Afterwards, this Silicon guy laughs weakly, he doesn't move a muscle. Gill punches him into the ground followed by eye lasers to make sure he stays down, and there wasn't anything I could do to stop him. My HDD hasn't recovered yet.

Suddenly, some generator looking thing breaks out of the armor, red strings attached to it.
"Hehe…It's a good thing I figured where his generator for electric attacks lied.", Evo says.
"Good job, Silicon. We'll take care of the rest.", Claimer says.
I see. Even if he recharges from his EXE Drive, he can't teleport now. But if we don't keep up the attack, could he regenerate that too?
Either way, Gill is trying to cover us all in flire using his flamethrower.

"Wind…Remove all oxygen. Element Take over.", Lion says as she somehow makes fire vanish, only winds without oxygen are shot into us. While the winds we endure got us stuck in place, he brings out a huge freaking sword ready to slice us. His sword strike is stopped by Claimer turning one sword to light and the other into Noire's "Tornado Sword" I've been told he can copy anything, but is still feels bizarre to me to see someone else use this move.

Crossing his blades, he's pushing himself to make sure Gill's sword doesn't go through. To make it easier for him, Lion and Dragon go in to attack Gill. Dragon jumps onto Gill's arms and runs around slicing metal while Lion shoots various spells.
"Lionhead flames!", she shouts as she casts flames that form into the shapes of lion heads. They go through the mecha a few times before biting him.
"Liongate!", she shouts as she creates this fire wall turned into a gate. Once opening the gate, a giant flaming lion head comes forth with a dozen smaller one, all combusting upon impact against Gill.
Dragon is just constantly using wind magic to increase the range of her Naginata as she runs around. Projectiles are shot her only to be split apart as she jumps around.

Gill retracts the blade and instead does a trick jump before attempting to kick Dragon after she falls off him. Claimer uses this white flame of light from under his feet to quickly get to Dragon and fly away, the winds disturbing his flight. Good thing he falls on one of the platforms. All of us move around now, he bashes through platforms while Dragon and Acclaim athletically dodge his crazy movements. He jumps with his punches and kicks and constantly shift around, it is super annoying.

Claimer is in the air while Dragon is hopping over the platforms as they agree on something.
"The time is now, Dragon.", Claimer says.
"Yeah. No way around it but to use our strongest attacks.", she replies.
"EXE Drive Skill! Unlimited Arsenal!", Claimer shouts, opening his arms to launch every ranged attack he can use, he flies around with his infinite ammo beating Gill with many types of attacks, including my Megaphone attacks.
Then he finally reached for the sky, he activates jet thrusters on one arm, which its hand turns into a drill he rotates at high speed.

"Armory Combustion!", he shout flying down on Gill, creating a big explosion around his head with that punch. Claimer himself is forcibly flipped backwards from recoil, unable to avoid getting punched into the ground below.
Next, Dragon jumps towards him and shouts, "EXE Drive Skill!"
She creates a giant tornado that she eventually blows over to Gill, enveloping him within it, the tornado turns into a green dragon.

She jumps on and off the body of the serpent dragon made of wind as she slices Gill multiple times whist slowly ascending above him. Eventually, she gets high up into the sky, the wind dragon fusing with her Naginata before plunging down with it.
"Kami Kazeryu!", she shouts, thrusting a naginata with the serpent dragon tailing behind, she thrusts it into Gill's chest, the dragon piercing through him. As much damage as the two have done, all it takes for Gill is to jump back on one leg before smashing his kneecap into Dragon, crashing her into the wall of a mountain.

His next target was Lion, she already set up a teleportation circle a while ago, said circle was only floating in the air now because we all had to run from his destruction of platforms. The beam he shoots from his fingers only hit empty platforms as Theresa descends from the circle. New platforms had risen that Lion lands on. For her next trick, she teleports Gill a distance away into the ocean. She had prepared a full party teleportation just for him.
"EXE Drive Skill.", she says afterwards. Creating orbs of fire, wind, ice and lightning, they orbit around Gill doing elemental damage constantly until they combined together with a pillar of light that shoots out of a magical circle below him. The merge casts him into pure darkness.

"Meteor Extinction!", Lion shouts as she waves her want down, summoning a giant meteor that crashes into Gill. Whaaaaa, that magic is super scary! It makes Uzume think of when she first saw Rom and Ram do their crazy ice spells. Uzume can just totally not think of someone so small doing crazy big destructive attacks like that!
Even so, a quarter of Gill's head may be gone, his shoulders torn and his armors cracked, he is still fine and slowly regenerating. He runs forward at a pretty fast pace.

"Giga Drill Breaker!", he shouts, thrusting his drill towards Lion, she jumps away from it, but then the drill instantly turns back into a hand that is about to fire a laser at her, she teleports away with short distance teleport. With no time to spare, She immediately jumps away from an upper swing kick Gill does with his right leg, but that was also a fake out, for he had already pumped up his right arm. A Hydro Cannon is shot against Lion, her barrier shattering instantly. She is shot off the platforms, her robe and a bit of her one-piece torn. Evo flies to catch her so she doesn't fall to her death.

"Hey, Lion! Are you okay?", she asks her, but she doesn't respond.
"…Her vitals are mostly fine at least.", she says. Evo can only heal her to keep her alive.
Damn it! If only we still had someone around to revive people. We can only heal them when they haven't been hurt too much, but this guy can down us in one shot.
Gill is looking at me, I think he wants to knock me down next. But I see something in the distance…What is…Are those…Mecha? Tch, are they really going to use an army right now.

That is what I thought, but I see they surround Gill instead.
"They are finally here! Every GT 1080X unit I've ever made! This was the height of engineering back in the day, take all of them!", Evo shouts. I didn't think a weak robot could stand up to Gill, but together they really get to mess with him. His full power explosive wave doesn't hit all of them as they fly away from him in time. Most manage to avoid his rockets and punches as they gather around and barrage him with fire power. Many took their sword out and cut his metal armor apart. Even when it looks like he was going to destroy most of them, they all gathered up and exploded into him.

He shouts angrily as he tries to reach me, but now Evo flies straight towards him with her machine glowing.
"It's all or nothing!", after shouting that, she screams as she manages to hold Gill back, her mecha glowing bright and brighter. She ejects herself before it detonates into a large explosion. Evo still gets hit by its residue, I see her limp as she falls down.
"Crap!", I shout as I go down the platforms desperately trying to catch her. I can make it…! Come on…! Got her! I get off the platforms and run back. Gill chases after me, he doesn't need to run to catch up either.

Marvelous and Kagura run past me, their flames still active.
I blinked a few times before I even realize what is happening. I look back and words come from my mouth, "You guys…?"
"We've been preparing! Get her to safety!", Marvelous shouts.
"Whatever happens, we will beat this guy!", Kagura shouts. The two move in, he tries to hit them with his fists, but they push him back as their flames expand with the words, "EXE Drive Skill!"

"Flame Transmogrify!", they both shout as their flames transform. Marvelous's flames gets shaped into a turtle, some of her flames turning black, on the other side, Kagura's flames turn white as it transforms into a tiger-like shape.
"White Tiger of the West, Byakko!", Kagura shouts.
"Black Turtle of the North, Genbu!", Marvelous shouts. The two beasts are strong enough to push Gill back. Byakko claws some of its armor off whereas Genbu shoots a beam of flame through his shoulder.

Even with their powers combined, they end up getting pushed back, but not before doing their final attacks. Marvelous with Genbu spins around at high speed and destroys its shell so she could do one final slash as she is launched into the sky, cutting part of Gill's side and amputating his right arm. Kagura's Byakko bites into the left leg before combusting into a giant flame, ruining his mobility.
I really hoped this would stop him, but he just grabs Marvelous with his left hand and throws her across the ground like a pebble over water until she finally crashes into the mountain side.

The right leg has its cannons aimed at Kagura hits her a few times until Gill shoves her away with a beam, that he then drags said beam across the surface and mountain blowing up the landscape. That's it, they are knocked out too now. I lay down Evo. I was about to move, but I hear her voice. "Uzume…His treasures haven's merged with him yet. With enough damage done, they can't move around the body anymore, if you take out the treasures, the body can't function." I nod to her. Knowing what to do, I run towards Gill, he aims his hand at me, but energy didn't come from his hand. He took too much damage to attack me for now. But I see wires coming out of his right shoulder and left leg. He is already repairing his major damage.

I trip over. I don't have the strength to walk. I slam my fists into my leg saying, "Come on! Move! Move!" In the end, if I can't transform, I am done for. Gill as well, he can't move until his arm and leg are repaired, even after, he sustained so much damage. We are so close.
His arm is already reattached. And his leg is about to be fixed…
My eyes widen! I can feel it! I bring out a share crystal and shout, "Transform!"
Orange Heart is here! I fly up into the sky, ready for another round! Let's go!
Uzume flies straight towards Gill, punching him with "Dream Smash Fist!" creating an orange energy drill around my fist as I punch him in the midriff…He pulls himself back and pushes me with thrust of his belly together with a shockwave attack. Uzume shakes her head, that was a headache inducing attack.

Looking at Gill, he has repaired his arm and leg enough to move well. But it isn't fully recovered yet.
Uzume shouts into the megaphone as hard as possible. hoping it would push him back, but he actually pulls himself through the soundwaves, even if his metal is slightly bending, he runs through, throwing his fist towards Uzume. Uzume barely avoids it by flying to the right, but then he swings his arm into Uzume, Uzume falls down onto the ground. It hurts a loooot…

It hurts. But Uzume doesn't want to lose we got so far. Uzume ges on her knees. Uzume tries to get up. Gill is hurt so much. His body is torn and broken. But I can't do enough damage to destroy him. Uzume isn't strong enough on her own. Just a little more. It would only take a little more if we were together again.
Looking around. Seeing everyone down on the ground still asleep…Uzume is alone.
Gill walks towards Uzume. Uzume stands up, even if it hurts, Uzume wants to save everyone!

"Victory Slash!", Uzume hears a new voice. A Goddess in purple flies forward, only detected at the last moment, but Gill's arm is too weak to block a double slash. Nepsy flies by and a V shaped slash cuts the arm's metal off.
"Nepsy…", Uzume almost tears up.
"My, are we crying? I told you, the protagonist always appears late.", Nepsy says.
"Damn it! Are you Planeptune Goddesses cockroaches?! Do you all appear together?!", he shouts trying to hit Neptune back.

His left arm is pushed down by "Fall Down Slash!", as Noire flies by joining the fight.
"She's not alone! We all came to beat you!", Noire says, confidently facing Gill.
His head gets drilled by many spears before Vert blasts past him, blowing another hole through his head.
"I suppose the head isn't his weak spot. What a shame.", she says.
"Just bash everything until it is dead, it's stupid to even think about it!", one angrier sounding voice comes from the sky. Blanc smashes down into Gill with her axe. As she gets below his chest taking the recoil for her attack, she summons a bunch of light before an array of bullets could hit her.

"Gefahrlichtern!", she shouts, shooting the magical ice bullets through the lead rounds of Gill, slightly damaging his torso. He pauses right after.
"L-lady White Heart?! You would betray me too, my goddess?", he stumbles on his words as he spoke.
"Betray? I don't remember being your friend, dumbass! You dare call me a traitor after you hurt my friends, huh?! I'm gonna beat the shit out of you!", Blanc reacts angrily.
"Ueh…Blansy is as scary as always.", Uzume says out loud.

They see wires repair his body, Vert reacts to it, "Girls, I hate to say this, but it seems we have to deal with another enemy that regens."
"Tch, what a pain. I'll just beat him faster than he can heal.", Blanc says.
"We'll just be faster.", Noire comments.
I shout to them, "EVERYONE!", and I get their attention.
"Uzume…", I hear Nepsy. I tell them, "Do you see those orange lights! They are pulse waves I set up! Attack the things inside his body!"

"I see. That is simple enough to understand.", Blanc says with a smirk.
"I sense great power from him. Let's go all out, everyone!", Nepsy says.
"Uzume! Help us!", Noire demands from me. I fly into the air.
"Sharing Field! Activate!", I shout, knowing that with these four, my sharing field will work perfectly.
"Not this again!", Gill says. He points to Blanc and says, "White Heart, for your own good I'll stop you. You will understand why Lowee must dominate."
"Screw that!", Blanc replies, angrily explaining, "I only need to release another great console! I don't need your freaking help, idiot!"

"I think we can do it. We have enough share energy inside here.", Nepsy says.
"Yeah. All these events have made us strong again. It's quite exciting.", Vert replies.
Blanc smiles too, saying, "It's been a while. Since we transformed further."
"I bet we could do it without. But I don't feel like wasting more time on super bosses like this. I'm in.", is what Noire has to say.
"NEXT FORM!", the four shout, transforming beyond their Goddess forms.

Purple, Black, Green and white lights spread out and explode inside the Sharefield. Uzume can't see them very well from down here, but their glowing auras are easily visible. With their power combined with the share field and the damage done to him over time, they easily move around him and damage him until their EXE Drives were ready.

"Formation EXE Drive Skill!", they shout.
Vert and Noire Fly around at high speed, piercing through Gill many times, both of them grabbing one of the treasures and crushing them. Charging all of her power, Blanc smashes against the machine. She grabs one treasure after breaking through the metal with one hand. After pulling it out, she falls and shouts, "Neptune! You better finish this guy off!"
"This attack will end everything.", Nepsy says before piercing through Gill, trapping him in a purple energy cube. She lands, having already destroyed the treasure. All their energies combines together leaving an X shaped explosion behind that finally destroys Gill as he screams, "I am the strongest in the Universe! You can't possibly….! AAAAARRGH!"

The Sharefield fades. Uzume is overjoyed. Wait. What about the Phantom Crusaders? They can't be seen by them, right? I revert back to my normal more level headed form. I look around, but I see none of their bodies. Inside one of the many holes put through this mountainside, I see some lights. Falcom pokes out of it and gives me a thumbs up. I feel relief. I look around and see that everyone else is slowly coming to.

Looking at the aftermath of their fight, I see Gill's mecha without an arm and leg, falling over to the ground. Lifeless.
My four friends have reverted back to their human forms.
Nepsy stretches as she says, "HMMM! How many times do we have to beat a final boss? I haven't eaten a single pudding all day you know!"
"Is pudding all you ever think about?", Blanc asks her.
"Listen! I don't show up in this fan fiction often, I have a pudding quota in my contract, both eating one AND talking about it for every chapter I show up!", Nepsy replies to her.

"You could do that after we've talked. This final boss must've been hard to fight without us, and it was already beaten. We should make sure everyone is alright, we're busy.", Noire says.
"Eh…Noire is stingy.", Nepsy replies looking down.
"Don't call me stingy! This is a serious situation!", Noire says.
"I for one think it is unfortunate we reverted back so quickly. Our Next forms had been unavailable for so long, I wonder if we just have to get used to them again.", Vert comments.

"You'd think main characters like us would keep cool transformations and get even newer ones, right?!", Nepsy says, she sounds like she's kind of goofing around.
"I have to agree for once. I would prefer we'd get to use Next form more.", Blanc replies.
I guess I have to explain something to them…Uh…I'm not so good at that. Blah blah won't help in this situation I think.
Cave sneaks up from behind me, making me freak out! I scream, but then I compose myself, because that is not cool.

"Lady Uzume. I want to tell you do not mention the Phantom Crusaders' involvement in this event at all.", she tells me. What?!
"They prefer not to be known at all. They especially seem to not want the Goddesses to know they are on their side.", Cave says.
"But that's total Bullsh-", I say, then I cough and shake my head, I reply, "That is totally not cool. We can't just pretend they didn't help. They were the ones fighting the hardest!", I tell her.
"I agree. And despite that, they prefer the Goddesses viewing them as criminals.", Cave says.

I cross my arms. This doesn't make any sense.
Can they really not be friends?
"I get it. I don't like it, but since they did so much, we'll just have to respect what they ask for.", when I say that, Cave nods. We both turn to Nepsy and the others as she stands before us.
"Yo, Uzume…Are you alright? You look pretty beaten.", Neptune asks, looking at me with a concerned smile.
"Heh. You think a giant idiot can beat me?! I have never felt better.", I say, a random arm movement hurting me forcing me to end it with a silent, "Ouch…"

I turn around, can't help but feel bad. The others are carrying each other.
"As you can see, that guy was crazy strong.", I say.
"I did kind of sense he was way more powerful than how he actually fought…I think.", Nepsy says.
"I am impressed with how broken he looked beforehand. You did that much damage to it?", Blanc asks me.
"It took all of us. All of our effort. Everyone was fighting till they collapsed, and even then, they got back up to fight again! But I don't think we could've made it without you.", I tell them.

"It must have been troubling. Sorry we couldn't come sooner.", Vert tells me.
"You guys were fighting a bunch of strong guys, too right? Don't worry, I don't blame you at all.", I tell them.
"Still… Who was this guy. How did he gain so much power…It didn't sound like Blue Screen.", Blanc points out.
"He sounded way too aggressive. And he called you his Goddes, Blanc.", Noire comments on that.
"I don't get it either…", Blanc replies, still thinking about it.

"Um…Gill Bates was his name, I think.", I tell them.
"Heh?! The guy from ComputementCorp?!", Vert says, shocked.
"I see. Another one of those assholes…", Blanc says, almost sounding angry enough to transform, she barely keeps it in…Scary.
"But wait…Last time I checked, his company merged with Justit Invo B.V, the Lowee news organization that made the treasure hunting event. So…", before Vert finishes her sentence, I say, "Yeah. They got the four treasures to make that robot, Gill was absorbed into it."

"To think they had such power. If only I had time to research them. I can't even get a team ready since the Basilicom's take over.", Noire says.
"Gamindustri is in a period of chaos. I was almost thinking I was lucky to not have too big of a problem. Then one organization after another is revealed to have committed so much crime.", Blanc spoke normally at first, then she frowns and silently says, "It pisses me off."
"The Phantom Crusaders usually operate in your nation, am I mistaken?", Vert says.

"Yeah. But honestly, in comparison to Blue Screen, Planeptune's dimensional rifts, Leanbox's machine and monster invasion, and Lastation's cult, they are practically a none-issue.", Blanc says.
"I was under the impression you hated them?", Vert asks her.
"The first time addressing them and saying I'd kill them was because I was told they were responsible for the explosions of some buildings. I was further told that they were terrorists. Then the list of criminals was released. And constantly, I get reports of their actions. Vigilante as a crime is only really an offense when it causes chaos or when it gets in the way of our own anti-crime work. They did kind of cause chaos…But I want to know more, first.", she explains.

"I'm sorry, Blanc. I actually ran into them, but couldn't get them to talk at all. They may not want to side with us either, since they were pretty adamant at fighting me.", Noire says.
"I had heard there were two members in the jungle looking for the treasure. But is that true for you as well?", Vert asks Noire.
"Exactly the same situation. Two of them. One of them wasn't as strong as the other. But not only did they work together perfectly, but they are just too persistent. They can fight for hours. I was so close too…Then another member showed up with a surprise attack and they fled.", Noire answers, she closes her eyes and whines a little in the end of her speech.

"Um…", Nepsy interjects, looking nervous, "I'm sorry. Who are the Phantom Crusaders again?"
Everyone sighs.
"Neptune, would it kill you if you paid any attention to anything at all?", Vert asks.
"Seriously. There's trouble everywhere, don't you look at the news or anything? I mean, what do you do when there are no spacial rifts, game?", Noire responds.
"Ah!", Neptune reacted to the suggestion she just plays games all day.
"I knew it.", Noire says looking at Neptune like she's trash.

"Nooooo! I watch the news sometimes!", Nepsy says.
"I think I got it.", Blanc saying that got everyone confused, looking at her in anticipation.
"Neptune. Remember the smoke guys you see on TV? That's them.", Blanc says.

"AH! The smoky super heroes?!", Nepsy answers.
"There you have it.", Blanc says like she's trying to prove a point or something.
"You call them super heroes in Planeptune, huh?", Vert asks.
"I mean. If you wear masks and go over buildings to capture criminals…Yeah, that is a super hero.", Nepsy answers smiling.
"The line between super hero and vigilante is thin after all…But most super heroes work with law enforcement if they have the chance, do they not? That may be the difference.", Blanc says.

Cave walks past me and brings attention to herself saying, "I do not wish to interrupt, but I do believe I am better suited to report. Uzume came late in the party.", Cave says.
Her eyes shift to me. I can kinda tell she knows I am just bad at complicated stuff so she wishes to fill in instead.
"My, if it isn't Cave. I trust you have all the necessary information?", Vert asks.

Cave nods. Now all eyes are on her. She does explain most of the events that she has gone through, a lot of things I didn't even know.
"The crux of the issue is, SCJP is a group of four organizations that have ruled Lowee's underground for longer than we may know. They were also behind this event to get these treasures and make this almighty mecha you have slain. The Phantom Crusaders were unable to gather the treasures, but after fighting them enough, I had realized they knew the danger and didn't want their mortal enemy to take hold of them. Right now, Dream, Justit Info BV's leader is still at large.", Cave reports.

"To think that has been happening under my nose…", Blanc says, sounding kind of down.
"Blanc, don't worry about it. You were too busy helping us, you couldn't have known! If you want to, you can go back to Lowee for a while.", Nepsy tries to cheer her up.
Blanc is silent for a few seconds. She must be thinking. Now she says, "I will…After I am done helping you and Nepgear set up countermeasures. Then you can spend more time helping Noire and Vert. It is the most logical decision.", Blanc says. As strong as she sounds, I feel it hurts her to not return right away.

Cyberconnect2 joins the conversation having heard SCJP, "I would like to add something to Cave's report!"
"Oh, Cyberconnect2, long time no see!", Nepsy says.
"Have you bee well?", Noire asks.
"Well, before fighting the Mecha, I was pretty good. But I'll get better.", she replies with a smile.
Now she gets serious for a second and says, "Cave said SCJP attacked her and others stealing the treasures, right? Rom and Ram had joined me, Broccoli and Marvelous to hunt down the Thunderbird. They attacked us as well, but stopped immediately when noticing Rom and Ram were there. We told the two to chase after. I believe one of us called C-Sha as well.",

"In other words, C-Sha may have some information as well.", Cave says.
"I'm not sure how I feel about those two getting involved…But I suppose with C-sha, everything is fine. I have to rely on them to keep Lowee save for now. I will call them later.", Blanc replies.
"There is one more thing I need to mention, Lady Vert.", Cave says.
"Yes. What may it be?", Vert asks with her usual pleasant smile.

"SCJP were behind the machines attacking Leanbox as well. I'm certain they wanted to blame it on Lowee to cause war. It is likely they were going to do the same to other countries.", Cave says.
"Hmh…I figured Blanc wouldn't send some robots to Leanbox to fight.", Vert says, she almost looked disappointed.
"I question their intelligence. Are they that unaware of our relations?", was Blanc's response.
"Didn't this happen once before? Why do people think we would just incite wars through sneak attacks?", Noire asks.
"I told you, all villains read from the same guidebook! That's why they are so stupid!", Nepsy says.
"So…Can I explain your lack of smarts by you reading the protagonist guidebook?", Blanc asks.
"No! I don't need a guidebook because I was born for this role.", Nepsy replies strongly, her fists on her sides.
"…Sure.", all of them replied with doubt.

Cave whispers into my ear, "I have purposefully left out Avenir, their parent company. The Phantom Crusaders wished to deal with them themselves. I do not think it is okay to let them be the ones in charge in fighting Avenir…But you'd agree that their contribution to this fight warrants a chance, right?",
I look at her and say with a smile, "Yeah. I believe those guys will win no matter what!"
They were on the subject of SCJP for a while, that is when two bodies dropped close to us.
All of us were taken aback, they came out of nowhere. But looking now, they are Dream and Lisa tied up and squirming.
"What the heck is this?!", I couldn't help but shout.
"Isn't that…Dream?", Blanc reacts.

Before us, a ninja appears out of smoke.
She kneels before Blanc, "Lady White Heart. As family of the former Master of Ninja, I, Maone of the Yellow Flame present you two criminals of the highest priority."
"You are…I see.", Blanc looked a bit surprised as well, but she calms down and tells her, "Good work. Can you tell us what lead to you arresting them?"
"Yes, my Lady!", she responds.

"The truth is, the ninja had been reforming after the war caused by SCJP. We have dealt with traitors who were their followers. Along the way, we have been investigating Justit Info BV during the event. My sister took part in it and it helped be find Dream. Her flame ability would've been troublesome, but fire does not affect me when I use the Yellow Flame. I managed to capture her here. I also spotted this woman with a lab coat after a large explosion had occurred. I knew she was part of SCJP and found out she is the one making anti-Goddess weapons, including the large scale Mecha that I can see has been destroyed.", Maone reports.

"Oh…I see. There's going to be a LOT to talk about, huh?", Blanc says, staring the two down angrily.
"We'll leave them to you, they are your problem after all.", Noire says with a smirk.
"Hm…I do believe Dream is an idol, right? Wasn't she much younger?", Vert asks.
5PB. came forward. She tells them about Dream's ability to change her age.
"So this is her true form…I can't believe I got catfished.", Vert says.
"…You were dating her?, Both Noire and Blanc asks the question whilst Nepsy looks at her with the iconic "Wut" face.
"I bought all of her albums and merchandise…*sigh* Why do my favorite idols real or virtual turn out to be super villains?", Vert says to herself.
"I think you should pick better idols…", Blanc says quietly with Noire snarking back at her, "Isn't she your nation's idol, though?"

Everything is calming down. Nepsy and the others came with healing items. Everyone is slowly getting better as we kind of take our time here…Heh. It's practically a picknick now. They even brought nice things to eat. I guess they had food on hand. Sitting down on some stone, Falcom sits next to me.
"They already left. When I wasn't looking, they've gone far from us.", Falcom says.
I couldn't help but laugh. Falcom smiles at me and asks, "Was that funny?"
"Yeah. These guys escape a Goddess. Go all over the world. Fight the strongest monsters and help us save Gamindustri from an anti-goddess mecha with almighty strength…And then they leave and refuse to let us celebrate. What a bunch of crazy guys.", I say.

"You like them, don't you?", Falcom asks me.
"Yeah. There's no way I can't. I hope we can all be friends one day.", I say, looking out in the distance…I can't help but daydream. How awesome would it be, if we could befriend each other one day.

Epilogue-Bios

I…I can't move…Give me a little bit of time…I will save…? I sense…Something. Maybe I can sleep.

The next time I open my eyes, I see the makeshift roof of our base. I have awoken at night.
I get up with everyone calling my name. "What happened?!", I ask.
They tell me the story. After bringing Gill close to his defeat, the Goddesses appeared to destroy him. Falcom helped them get me out of this location. I was asleep the entire time they moved back to Lowee.
"You shouldn't move too much. I healed your wounds but that fight must've taken a toll on you.", Evo says.

"Evo? …I see. All of you accepted her as a member?", I ask.
"After our last fight? Absolutely!", Sili-san says.
"She sacrificed her great machine for us. And stood by us in our last stand.", Acclaim tells me.
"She stood next to us in our final stand.", Dragonette says.
"I like her.", Theresa tells me.
Evo rubs the back of her head saying, "Stop, you're making me blush."
"Welcome to the team. As you can see, we just have some shabby base.", I tell her.

"Don't worry. I can work with it. I am preparing a work station. I am also very impressed with your proxy server! I mean, I can do better, but it is a work of genius that has codes that even I don't think I could've thought of!", Evo says.
"I see.", I say, giving them a smile so they stop worrying. Now I can stand back up.
"We should celebrate…But before that. I need some alone time.", I say.

Before anyone could say anything, Evo stops me and says, "Wait. I have some important information first."
I stop moving and stare at her, waiting for her next words.
"I have successfully hacked the data-base of that mecha, plus, my 1070X and 1060X units have found a few hard drives that survived the blast of the underground lab.", she tells me.
I cross my arms. All of us are hoping she has some info about Avenir.

"Avenir's leaders are two men called Singe and Ganache. They were the heads of multiple Lastation technological weapon advancement projects, but it would seem they were really fans of Lowee and have Lowee's world domination as their goal. The giant Mecha was their plan A, but they have a plan B. I don't have the details for plan B. I do have a location. It is an area in Lowee that seals off a portal that summons large machines infinitely. They are planning to use them to make an even stronger robot. Other than that, I have a few locations of offices and secret bases, but not their HQ unfortunately.", she tells me.

"I understand.", I say before reaching my elevated platform. On top, I speak to everyone, "Guys! This is it! We've reached our goal of defeating SCJP! Now we have one final enemy left! Avenir is our last target! For now, rest and celebrate! Because our next campaign will free Lowee from its shadows!" Everyone raised their fists and shouted with glee.
"Please excuse me. I need some time to reflect.", I say.

I take my leave and go to the hidden area where ancient Lowee was located. Back to that building as the night sky shimmers with lights made by stars. I drink some coffee sweetened with milk and sugar. I try to relax.
We're so close… Not just to winning. After this is over…I…
Accept the other me…Huh? I guess we are both frustrated.
We couldn't beat the Mecha. Even if we won in the end, I just wish I could've been there. I feel like I lost. I place my cup on the table and watch the moon.
I refuse to lose. We will defeat Avenir by ourselves.

To Be Continued…

Afterword

It's been a while. This was originally going to be one chapter, then I had made the decision to do chapters instead of volumes and spread said chapters out more. I had also made the decision to change POV to other characters and it all led up to this. I was hoping to finish Darkness the last year, but it was not to be. Even if I don't reply because I often blank out on what to say, I appreciate every review, though I can't help but think some I've gotten are artist commission scams, lol.

I advise anyone who is a genuine artist to at least say something specific about the work, because just saying general compliments and "I am a big fan" before trying to strike an art commission deal sounds a bit shady. My favorite one was the one that puts the full title into brackets to make sure he can easily copy and paste any work into it, not suspicious at all.
I hope the one with the good taste Hibiki profile picture is happy I provided with an Uzume POV, unfortunately, she was banned from saying how cute Bios was so I have to do it instead.

She is so cute my guys, oh ma gawd. Quiet and reserved with a dead-pan look until you give her sweet food, then she smiles brightly and gets lost in another world isn't that adorable?!
Writing Uzume's POV honestly seemed too difficult to me. On one hand, the characters are essentially logging the happenings right now, but Uzume may have slightly different inner thoughts then how her human form acts. She is a cutesy girl on the inside after all, but I don't think anyone could take the chapter seriously if it was all written in UWU speak, or some other weird way of talking. I saved that for the Orange Heart bit, and even then held back because I almost made that section go full UWU speak.

So her true inner thoughts are still cutesy, but in the narration she knows we're reading so she acts cool, yeah, let's go with that, the 4th wall is a myth after all.
I wasn't planning to have so many people join for the last few chapters either. It was only going to be the main six and Uzume. The other characters were only going to be cameos, but then I thought, Why wouldn't they work together in the end?
It made far more sense for them to team up. The only thing I missed was a Tekken cameo and rematch with Bios, oh well. That was planned waaaaay back but in the end I have enough characters crammed in.

We are reaching the end. I finished writing all of it, I just take some time every week to proof read it before releasing it. So this entire January shall be the end of Darkness, then long break till the next story part. I am going to focus on video editing for the coming next month.
The next three chapters are the last. I thank everyone for reading and I hope everyone will read more. I do hope in the future I'll write something a bit more then 10 year long fights though, lol, I just can't help myself.