AN: Ladies and Gents
i may have cooked
Location: Septent Resort
"CPU Candidate of Planeptune" the man acknowledges the lilac haired girl in front of him
"Black Guardian of Lastation", Nepgear acknowledges him, "what's a century old relic like you doing out of the grave?"
"Trying to rid Lastation of the worthless fake behind you"
"That so-called 'Worthless fake' has a name" Nepgear says with narrowed eyes, "her name is Uni, CPU Candidate of Lastation and Noire's precious baby sister!" she declares with a surprising amount of conviction
Behind her, Uni's slowly lifts her head and looks at the Lilac haired girl as some light returning to her eyes
"Lastation has no need for weaklings like her" Black Guardian readies himself for combat
"she was born after the console wars was over, after the peace treaty between nation was signed" Nepgear pulls out a pair of 64-bit swords out of the ground, "She's barely 21, basically a toddler as far as CPUs are concerned"
With a twirl Nepgear places one of the swords on her shoulder, "what Lastation doesn't need is a century old, out of touch, relic deciding what it does or doesn't need"
"Nep…gear…" Uni mummers to herself, 'why…? Why is she… helping me? What does she get from… defending me…?' Uni's insecure thoughts raged in her mind
Black Guardian charges at Nepgear and swings his sword at her
Nepgear parries the on coming sword with the ethereal sword in her left hand and thrusts the ethereal sword in her right at him
The man jumps away and shoots a few shots of his buster at Nepgear and Nepgear deflects them with her ethereal swords
Under normal circumstances, Black Guardian's buster shots would shatter Nepgear's ethereal swords due to the fact that Nepgear has to use a powered down version of her 64-bit weapons in order to keep her sync rate from going down too quickly
Thankfully (for Nepgear), due to the damage done to the buster from Nepgear's entrance, the power in the buster shots aren't as strong as they could be
Seeing that her Ethereal swords can handle Black Guardian's buster shots, Nepgear rushes at him with the intention of keeping the fight up close and personal
"Trink" Brin growls with a fierce glare aimed at Black Guardian
"Everyone, i'll drop the barrier for 5 seconds" Trink says, "everyone that wants to join the frey get out of the barrier in that time frame"
Brin, Magi and IF gets ready to rush out at that notice
From the look on Compa's face, she's going to stay with Uni
RED wanted to join in on the fight, but as gung ho as she can be about protecting "wifes", she knows when she's severely out matched
Especially since the Lilac haired Candidate that just showed up on a tsunami that she made entirely of ethereal weapons
She ultimately opts to stick close to Uni
Trink, seeing that everyone has made their minds on what they'll be doing begins her count down, "3, 2, 1, NOW!"
Brin, Magi, IF and Trink spring forwards into the fray to join Nepgear in the battle against Black Guardian
Nepgear breaks away from the deadlock that Black Guardian caught her in
"Demon Inferno!" To her surprise, almost immediately after she broke away from the deadlock, IF jumps over her and unleashed a wave of fire at Black Guardian
As soon as he lands, Black Guardian charges his sword with magic and swings his sword down "blade beam"
The energy slash that he released cuts through the wave of fire and hits IF, launching her into Nepgear
However, before he could exploit the opening, he was attacked by Brin from above
"Helm breaker" Brin slams her sword hard on the ground
Black Guardian jumps back to avoid being hit
'Why? …Why is everyone… trying so hard… for me?' Uni's thoughts raged, 'what… did I do… to deserve this?'
"Hang in there, Uni-uni" Compa said, "everything will be ok"
"Why?" Uni whispered
Compa and RED looks at the candidate in surprise
"Why go… so far… for me?"
"Because that meanie is wrong!" RED said passionately, she didn't like how Black Guardian's words affected Uni
Sure the ravenette wasn't the best but she did her best regardless
"Wifey did her best"
There's an explosion from the battlefield and Nepgear get thrown into the barrier
Thankfully the barrier that Trunk had thrown up wasn't an absolute defense barrier like the Refle-Gear is so allies can slip in and out of it without consequence
Nepgear backflips before she lands and lands on her feet
"De-Sync 62%" Nepgear murmurs to herself and shakes her head, 'i need to finish this fast' Nepgear thinks to herself with a grimace
"My best… wasn't enough…" Uni speaks softly from behind her
Nepgear looks towards Uni and sees that there's tears welling up in her eyes
"So what if it wasn't?" Nepgear says loud enough for Uni to hear, "us CPUs, we may be goddesses but we're far from perfect"
Uni looks at Nepgear as she continues to speak, "if we were, our sisters and I wouldn't have lost to CFW Magic and be trapped in the graveyard, you wouldn't be bothered by anything anyone says" Nepgear looked like she wanted to say something else but shook her head and continued
"point is, you did your best and no one in Lastation speaks badly about you for it, no one expects you to be the second coming of Noire the moment something happens to her, but that's just my opinion based on what I've seen, do with that what you will"
Nepgear, now done talking, jumps back into the frey without so much as another word
In Uni's head she see images and memories from over the last three years, sure enough, no one that she's encountered expected her to do more than she's able to
Everyone she's interacted with treated her with respect, heck, some of them even stated that they're proud of her for stepping up when her sister is unable to be there
"Nepgear…" Uni murmurs softly as light fully returns to her eyes
Uni squeezes her eyes shut and shakes her head
She stands up but is still visibly shaken
"Uni-uni?"
"C-can you help me with something" her hands were still shaking yet there's a heated determination in her eyes
A determination to do something, anything
Looks like Nepgear's words had a positive impact on her
RED grins, "what'cha need?"
"Eruption Dive" Black Guardian declared as he punched the ground after leaping into the air
A variation on Noire's Volcano Dive, IF had vaguely recognised
The ensuing explosion had sent the five of them flying with IF landing the closest to him
IF didn't think he would be this strong, sure Nepgear said that he's level is a bit high for them to handle, but she didn't think that the difference between their strength was this big
"Hurricane sword" he declares as he powered up his sword with magic, making it bigger and have a lot more power behind it
Her legs were burnt pretty badly from the previous explosion, getting away wasn't really an option right now, but she couldn't fight in this condition either
She was for all intents and purposes, out of the fight
Unfortunately the fact of the matter is that Black Guardian is targeting her, if he hits her she'd probably die, at best she'd be stuck in the hospital with major injuries
she doubted she could continue to be a guild agent after recovering from something like that
The man swings the sword down at her
IF squeezes her eyes shut, her body shaking with fear, 'I'm sorry, Compa, I'm sorry Gear, this might be the last time I get to see you' she thinks with tears forming in her eyes
"Cyclone blade!"
*Clash!*
IFs eyes snap open at the sound of the clash
She sees Nepgear with her own magic enhanced magic sword holding his blade in a deadlock, she also sees the Lilac particles from the teleporting thing she can just do now
She feels a tug on her clothes before she was pulled away from where she was by gravity that just decided it wants to do its gravitational pull on her horizontally rather than vertically how it would normally function
Next thing IF knew she was next to Trink in a healing field, courtesy of Trink
'This isn't good' Nepgear thinks to herself as she's currently on the defensive, blocking and parrying strikes from Black Guardian's Hurricane Sword with her Cyclone Blade
The problem she's currently facing isn't the weirdly mechanical way Black Guardian is fighting, if anything she's grateful for that as it makes him easier for her to predict
No, the problem that she's facing is her De-Sync being as high as it is, as it makes going on the offensive extremely risky, especially against a foe like Black Guardian
'We need something to push him just enough over the edge enough for him to retreat' Nepgear thinks as she blocks a heavy blow from him which sent her skidding back
As she came to a stop something interesting caught her eye, 'well, that can work' she thinks, 'that can work really well'
She opens telepathic comms between her and her familiars, 'Brin, time bubble him! Magi, restrain him! Trink, freeze his feet to the ground!' she quickly barks out her orders
'Understood' 'yes, My Lady' 'roger that' came their swift responses
"Stand Still!" Brin says as a magic bubble forms around Black Guardian, holding him in place as though he's trapped in time
"64-Bit Heavy Rain Blade!" Nepgear summoned a whole bunch of her 64-bit swords to rain down on him, a few of them hit him, however majority of them around him are positioned in a way that will make moving around difficult
As soon as the swords are impaled into the ground, frost forms on his feet before they were quickly encased in ice
By this point Brin's time bubble has dissipated, opening up the perfect chance for Magi to step in
"Shadow Restraint", Magi says in an eerily calm tone as her off hand is covered by shadows before she sends out tendrils of shadows to restrain Black Guardian
"LACY RIBBON DANCE!"
Moments earlier
RED was spinning with her hammer out to get as much momentum as she could
Uni ran forwards and jumped and landed on the hammer, RED braced her feet on the ground and sent Uni flying in an angle upwards, towards the fight
'i-i'm too shaky to shoot a straight shot' Uni thinks to herself, 'but I need to do something, even if it's punching him in his stupid face'
By some miracle Nepgear seemed to noticed her "flying" overhead
The Lilac haired girl glanced at her then she summoned one of her 64-bit swords and shot it in her trajectory arc
Fast enough that no one will really notice it with her 64-bit heavy rain blade raining down on Black Guardian
But slow enough that Uni would be able to catch it by the handle and catch it by the handle she does
Flashback
Uni and Noire had finished up with Uni's first quests
"Not bad" Noire said, "your shots have gotten significantly better" she said with a small smile and pat Uni on the head
"Thank you sis!" Uni smiling happily at her sister's praise
"Uni, I want to teach you something"
Uni was surprised, her big sister's going to teach her something
Noire ruffled Uni's hair, "its ok if you don't get it, since it's one of my sword techniques and not a gun technique"
Again, Uni was surprised, but she'll give it her best shot
She'll learn this and make her sister proud by learning what her sister wants to teach her
Flashback End
Uni channels magic into the sword
She could see that Black Guardian is restrained, Nepgear's 64-bit heavy rain blade making it hard for him to move, his feet frozen to the ground courtesy of Trink and held in place by shadowy tendrils from Magi
All of this made possible by Brin's time slow ability
Uni spun in the air before slashing with the sword, "LACY RIBBON DANCE!" She yells as she struck him
Not only did the strike sent him skidding back, it also sent the Hematite crystal that he had on his person flying straight into Compa's arms
*Crack*
*Crack*
*Shatter*
Black Guardian's vizor cracked and partly shattered, his left eye that was an emotionless golden yellow eye
"Tch" Black Guardian clicked his tongue as he understood that in his current state he wouldn't be able to win
As such he uses an Eject Button and escapes the dungeon
Uni doesn't move, she is in fact gripping the 64-bit sword extremely tightly, so tight that her knuckles are turning white
Nepgear dismisses the 64-bit sword that Uni has in her hand and starts to walk towards her
"Nepgear" IF calls out to the lilac haired girl
Nepgear gives IF a thumbs up to indicate that 'yes, she knows', she doesn't need IF to tell her that her De-Sync is at a whopping 77%, even is she can make it look otherwise, she has a hard enough time moving around as is and mentioning it wouldn't help anyone
"Uni" Nepgear says to the ravenette
Uni doesn't respond and she's shaking like she was earlier
"Hey, look at me" Nepgear says to her again, this time putting her hands gently on the other girls shoulders
Uni, once again, doesn't respond, if anything she looks down further
"Look. at. Me" Nepgear says one more time, this time with a lot more authority in her voice
Uni quickly looks at Nepgear almost as though by a fear based reaction
Nepgear can see the barely restrained, unshed tears in Uni's eyes
The ravenette was barely holding herself together
Nepgear gives Uni a soft and gentle look, "we're all ok, it's not your fault and you did good" she says, meaning every word
"But why, I" Uni started to say but she couldn't bring herself to continue
Nepgear sighs softly, "The world's not all sunshine and rainbows" she says softly as she cupped the ravenette's face, "it's a very mean and nasty place, it don't care how strong you are and it will beat you down to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it*
There is nothing that will hit you harder than life" the Lilacette moved her hands back to the other girl's shoulders, "but it's not about how hard you're hit. Uni, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, about how much you can take and perceiver, THAT, is how living is done"
"Now, if you know what you're worth than you need to go out and get what you're worth, but you need to be willing to take the hits without pointing fingers at people saying that you're not where you want to be because of someone else, cowards do the latter, and you are not a coward, you are better than that"
IF, who is being looked over by Compa, whistled at Nepgear's impromptu, short and sweet, motivational speech
Uni for her part didn't know if it was the sudden but very real motivational speech or if it was her unstable emotional state or if it was because Nepgear just felt so much like her big sister in the moment or if it was a mix of all three
But Uni tackles the Lilacette down to the ground and starts crying into the other girl's shoulder while clenching tightly on the other girl's sailor dress
No one said anything as this moment was for Uni
The poor girl has gone through so much in the past few days, let alone the past three years
They say that crying doesn't make one weak, it simply means that they have been strong for far too long
And for a girl like Uni who is, as far as CPUs are concerned, still a kid, keeping herself under control and composed for three years is a long time
AN: i love reading a well written fight scene
but gods do i hate writing them
anyways, please review~