It was yet another day in the Nep household. It's been over a week since they arrived back home in the Ultradimension. Merci and Nepgear had gone out to pick up some stuff from the store, while Neptune tried to recount to Uzume and Umio some places in this dimension's Planeptune that she remembered, ...which wasn't much.
"...There was this arcade, I think it is called..." Neptune tried to remember what she was talking about, but it was lost to her.
"Oh, don't worry about it," Umio replied, "it's been a long time since you were here, it's okay if you don't remember. I'm sure you will recognize it if we go looking."
"Yeah, Umio's right. I'm sure you'll remember at some point," Uzume added.
"Heh, heh, heh... Yeah..." Neptune replied, sheepishly rubbing her back.
"For now, let's just head over there and enjoy playing the games they have," Umio smiled.
At that moment, Merci and Nepgear had returned home. Nepgear proudly held something up, exclaiming, "I got a backpack!" It was a purple and pink bag with blue straps, made for Nepgear's tiny size.
Merci walked in behind her, carrying bags full of various other stuff.
"Wow, that's so cool!" Neptune said. "So... what's this for?"
"You don't know, Neptune?" Merci asked. "Nepgear is going to kindergarten tomorrow. With everything that has happened, I just forgot to pick up school supplies for her."
"Kindergarten? She's going to school?"
"Yes. You should know, you used to go, too. And I bet you never finished after leaving on your prolonged adventure," Merci replied in subtle disappointment.
"Well..."
"Your mother is right, you know," Umio chimed in. "Perhaps you should consider taking night classes to get caught up."
"What, you want me to work? Come on," Neptune cried.
Merci sighed. "You never change, do you." She thought about this for a moment longer. "You know, you're an adult now. You should be doing something with your life, Neptune. If not school, you should at least get a job."
"I mean..."
"You know I'm right. And as for your friend," Merci turned to Uzume, "weren't you going to go find a CPU Memory for yourself?"
"Well, yeah, but... you know... Lil' Gearsy," the redhead tried to defend herself, in her sunshine voice.
"Well, maybe since Nepgear will be gone all day tomorrow, you two can go out and find work!"
The two girls both got sheepish expressions with sweat drops.
"If I may, perhaps it would be beneficial to do Guild work," Umio said. "Both of you are skilled fighters, so it would be work both of you are capable of doing. Plus, it would be a good chance for Uzume to search for the CPU Memory she wants, and Neptune is more of the outdoors type of person, so she'd be more reliable in that regard."
"Wait, they're fighters?" Merci said. "I mean, I guess it would make sense for Uzume, if she is a goddess, but Neptune?"
"Well, I've been traveling dimensions, collecting new specimens, and well... You tend to run into monsters a lot. That's why I carry my twin swords and pistol wherever I go," Neptune explained.
"Wait, excuse me! Do... do you have those weapons on you right now!?"
"Yeah. But, don't worry, they're in my inventory, so Nep Jr. can't get to them," Neptune continued, referring to the pocket space people had access too, so they could summon whatever they needed to their side when they needed it.
"Yes, that would be good, especially given the little one's immense curiosity," Umio said.
"Yeah, no matter what we give her to distract her, Nepgear's curiosity always gets the better of her, and she always seems to find the thing she wants to look at and tries taking it apart," Uzume added.
"I'm sorry, you're right, but..." Merci sighed. "Girls, don't you know that weapons aren't allowed on the premises? Not unless you're registered with the Guild."
"Oh... well, I..." Neptune sheepishly said.
"And you! I bet you're carrying weapons, too? Hm?"
"Just my megaphone..." Uzume answered.
"Mega- megaphone. You fight with a megaphone?" Merci replied.
"Yeah..."
"I see. No wonder you are so loud."
"If I may, Ms. Mercury," Umio interjected. "They honestly didn't know. Trust me, even I was unaware. And they have been doing a good job with keeping them out of the little one's hands. Besides, I just mentioned that they should go to the Guild, so if they do that, they should be getting registered regardless."
"You... make a good point, Umio." Merci thought about this for a bit. "Okay, seeing as you are my daughter, and that I own this building, I'll let you off the hook just this once, Neptune. BUT... tomorrow, when Nepgear leaves for her first day at school, you and Uzume need to go and register yourself for the Guild, AND complete a quest. Understand?"
"Understood!" Neptune responded.
Nepgear, who this entire time, has been simply watching the adults talk, lifted up her backpack, and says, "big sis, do you want to help me put stuff in my baggy?"
The older Nep sister looked down and smiled. "Of course! Let's go do that now, and then we can have some fun before your big day tomorrow."
"Yay!"
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
The next day, Neptune and Uzume were preparing to head to the guild, getting everything together, and checking their weapons (keeping them out of reach from the tiny Nepgear). Merci was helping Nepgear get her school bag ready, while said girl jumped up and down in excitement, before having the backpack's straps placed over her shoulders and hoisted onto her back. Once that was done, she ran into the kitchen, and showed the backpack off proudly to Umio. "Mr. Fishy, look at my cool backpack!" she chirped.
"My, you look like quite the strapping young lady," Umio replied.
"Yay! Thank you mister fishy."
Merci smiled as she watched her youngest jump around with boundless energy. Then Neptune and Uzume came out, ready for a day out doing quests.
"So, it seems you two are already," Merci noted.
"Yep, we're all set to go take down some monsters," Uzume replied.
"Will big sis be okay?" Nepgear asked softly, her jovial rampage coming to an end.
"Oh, what? Come on, I'll be fine, little sis," Neptune responded. "Just worry about having fun today, okay?"
Nepgear nodded.
"And, more importantly, Nepgear, promise me you'll make lots of friends, alright? Because friends make people happy, and you should make people happy. Can you do that?"
"Yeah, I will!" Nepgear responded, beaming.
"Okay, well we best be going," Merci said, taking her youngest daughter's hand. "Good luck, Neptune, Uzume."
"Of course!" Neptune responded.
"You know it!" Uzume added.
The mother and daughter then left the apartment, waving goodbye, and then the pair of Neptune and Uzume began making any last-minute preparations.
"So, do we have everything?" Uzume asked.
"Weapons, check! Nep-Note, check!" Neptune responded, having just re-obtained her beloved item. "Snacks, check!" she finished with Umio getting a sweat drop on his face.
"Seems everything is in order. Let's go!"
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
"Okay, have a good day Nepgear!" Merci said as she waved Nepgear goodbye. Nepgear waved back, and turned to her teacher, a young, short woman with red wavy hair, blue eyes behind bejeweled glasses, and colorful.
Looking at her and the other kids in the room... already, Nepgear was missing her family.
"Hey, don't be sad," the teacher told her. "Why don't you go and talk to the other kids? I'm sure you can make a few friends."
Nepgear thought about it. Big sis did tell her to make lots of friends today.
The little purple-head nodded. She knew what her mission was. Make friends, and find something fun to take apart!
Walking deeper into the colorful room, Nepgear looked around, trying to find a new friend. Some of the boys were messing around, to the point that the little girl was too scared to approach them. And the girls were too shy to approach her.
Then she found a girl who was off to the side, not really paying attention. She had found a pad of paper and crayons and was busy coloring. This little girl looked a little shorter than Nepgear, with black hair in side-updo twin-tails and wearing a black and white dress with black mary-jane shoes.
Nepgear decided that she will be her friend!
The little purplette ran up to the twin-tailed girl. "Hello!"
The other girl looked up from her drawing, staring at Nepgear with big red eyes. "H-hi..." Nepgear noticed her voice sounded... a little strange to her, but she couldn't figure out why.
Nonetheless, she had a mission to complete! "I'm Nepgear, and I want you to be my friend!"
"F-fwiend!?" the other girl replied. "Wh- why would you want to be mah fwiend!?"
"Because friends make people happy and you want to be happier, right? I wanna help you be happy and we can be happy together!" Nepgear explained.
"B-but I am hawppy!" the girl retorted.
"But you're all alone," Nepgear told her.
The girl didn't have a response to that, and looked away. "Uh, okay. Do you... do you wanna wook at mah pictuwe?"
"Yeah!" And then the girl did just that, showing Nepgear what she drew. It was a picture of a girl, holding a small water gun. Or at least... Nepgear thought it was a water gun. Still, she thought it was awesome. "It's super cool!" Nepgear replied.
"Th-thanks," then the girl nervously introduced herself with, "I'm, uh, Wooni, by teh way."
"Nice to meet you, Wooni! Ya know, your voice sounds kind of funny."
"It is nawt funny! Mah voice is vewy nowmal!"
"Awe, but it's cute," Nepgear shyly said.
"Wooni" blushed and looked away again. From the other side of the room, the teacher watched this, and smiled. "Looks like those two already became friends!" she said to herself.
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
"And there it is!" Neptune said, "Planeptune's Guildhall! ...Well, the one in the Ultradimension." She was making a show-off pose, as if presenting the building they were in front of.
...Which of course took them three times longer to find than it really should've.
Due to the situation, Uzume scratched the back of her head, and cheekily said, "yep, hours later, and we finally found it."
"Well, let's not stand around like a bunch of NPCs. Let's go," the adult Neptune exclaimed, rushing into the building.
Uzume just shrugged and she followed her friend.
Once inside, the receptionist asked (a little taken by surprise from Neptune's enthusiastic behavior), "Uh, hello there! May I help you."
"Yeah, me and my friend would like to register for the Guild and go out on a quest!"
"Geez you're very excited, aren't you?" Uzume replied.
"Yeah, think about it. We don't just have to fight monsters. Think about all the bugs we can find!"
Uzume just sweatdropped. She would've figured Neptune would've already gotten all the bugs in her home dimension, or at least in her Planeptune. But apparently not (or maybe she forgot).
Whatever the case, it wasn't a big deal to Uzume. She was just a little surprised that Neptune also wanted to find her favorite bugs while fighting monsters.
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Later in the day, come recess time, Nepgear and "Wooni" went over to the playground area, wanting to try the slide.
"That's vewy high..." Uni noted.
"Yeah," Nepgear replied, before getting excited and saying, "I'll go first, Wooni!"
"Y-you'we saying mah name wong!" Uni replied, a little upset.
"But... you said it like that..."
Uni wanted to make a retort, but couldn't. She wanted to be able to talk normally, but it was so hard!
"Do you know how to write your name?" Nepgear suggested, handing her new friend a stick. "Try to write your name in the sand, okay?" she continued, pointing to the sand below them.
"O-okay..." the little girl said, trying to remember how her name was written. It was... three letters, yeah.
Figuring it out, she wrote U-N-I.
While she struggled a bit, using her limited reading smarts from reading with her mommy, Nepgear was able to say it out loud. "Uni."
"Yeah!" Uni replied. "That's how you say it!"
"And this is my name!" a squeaky voice interjected. Suddenly, Uni's stick was taken from her, and as the two little kids looked over, they saw a young girl, younger than them even, about three years old, writing in the sand. She had short brown hair, blue eyes, and was wearing a blue sun hat, small blue dress, and blue shoes. In the sand, she wrote R-O-M.
"H-hey!" Uni complained from having her stick taken.
A little more curious about what she wrote, Nepgear read, "Rom... you're Rom!"
"Yeah! Me Rom!" the girl screamed, before running off to hide behind a nearby cement pillar.
"Come back!" Uni cried out.
Uni ran after Rom, with Nepgear following behind, trying to catch the little girl. As they approached, someone tackled Nepgear.
"Hey, get off," Nepgear complained. Once they got off her, the purple-haired looked over, and... "Huh, how did you get over here? And... how did your clothes change?"
The girl somehow passed them to tackle Nepgear on the other side, but now her entire outfit was pink, and her hair was longer somehow. Even Uni, who had looked over, was confused.
The girl giggled and ran behind another pillar. But just as Nepgear and Uni could give chase, she reappeared behind the first pillar, calling out, "hi!"
The two girls turned in surprise, finding that Rom had gone back to wearing blue. She popped back behind the pillar, and then, reappeared behind the second one. "Over here!"
This girl continued to pop out from and back behind objects rapidly, leaving Nepgear and Uni very confused.
"She's tewepohting!" Uni cried.
"I have an idea!" Nepgear said.
"Whut?"
"I go one way, you go the other!"
"O- Okay!"
And so they did. Nepgear ran in the direction where Rom was blue, and Uni went after where she was pink.
And after a few seconds... "I got he'w!" Uni exclaimed.
"I did, too!"
"Wait, huh!" The girls walked out, revealing that they had both gotten the same girl... at the same time... in two different places.
"We caught..." the blue Rom said.
"Game over..." the pink one added.
"Huh!" Both Nepgear and Uni cried at the same time, in surprise at how the one girl was somehow two separate girls.
"Theiw cwoning themse'wves!" Uni continued.
"No! We twins!" the pink girl told Uni.
"Twins?" Nepgear asked.
"Yeah, me Rom," the blue girl repeated.
"Me Ram!" the pink girl added, revealing her actual name.
"Wom? Wam?" Uni repeated.
"Yeah! Wam!" the pink girl said excitedly, smacking Uni in the face.
Uni, of course, began to sob. "You... hit meh!"
"Run!" Ram cried, and she and Rom ran off.
"Uni!" Nepgear cried out, "are you okay?"
"Mah face huwts," Uni complained.
"Um, can I kiss your boo-boo better?"
"O-okay..." And Nepgear kissed Uni's cheek, hoping to make it feel better.
"You okay now?"
"Y... yeah..."
"Okay!" Nepgear stood up, and looked over to where the twins ran off. "I want to find them, and make them apologize."
"Why?"
"Because that was mean." And Nepgear ran off.
Someone had to be the grown-up in this conversation, even though Nepgear was still a kid, she was also still older than the littles.
"Rom!? Ram! Where are you!?" Nepgear called out while she ran. Halfway across the playground, near the swings, she found Ram. "Ram? Where's Rom. I want to talk to both of you."
"Because?" Ram chirped.
"Because you girls need to say sorry for making Uni cry. That was very mean."
Ram looked like she was thinking. "I just want play..." she muttered in a guilty tone.
"Well, you played a little too hard. You need to be nice, okay?" Nepgear said.
Ram nodded. "I'll go find Rom," she said quietly.
Nepgear followed and gave the other little a similar talk about playing nice and not hitting others.
Uni, meanwhile, was trying to make herself feel better by playing with small sticks and pretending they were guns. She was pretending to shoot little ants she found nearby. "Pew pew," she sounded off.
The three girls came back and Nepgear gave Uni a hug. "Rom and Ram want to tell you something."
Ram went first. "Sorry we hit you," she said bashfully. She then copied Nepgear and gave the girl a hug. Rom walked up after and hugged Uni as well.
"I sorry," Rom said.
Uni hugged the two girls back. "Thank wou, I... I fowgive wou."
"We just want play," Ram explained.
"Yeah, play," Rom added.
"Well, if you play nice with us, we'll be your friends," Nepgear told the twins.
"Friend?" Rom asked.
"You be friend?" Ram added.
"Yeah! Right, Uni?"
"Uh, okay," Uni replied. "But no hitting! Ah don't wike it!"
"Okay! No hit! We promise!" the twins replied together.
At that point, they heard a whistle. "Okay, time to come back inside everyone!" a teacher called out to all the children on the playground.
"We'll see you later!" Nepgear exclaimed, as she and Uni walked off back to their classroom.
"Bye!" Rom called out.
"See again! Play again!" Ram added.
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
"So, that's what we're looking for?" Neptune asked, hiding behind a bush with Uzume. Looking over, there was a large creature, a bipedal dragon with bronze scales, large horns, and massive wings.
"An Ancient Dragon. Yep, that looks like our goal," Uzume replied. "That's what we signed to take down." Uzume summoned her megaphone. "So, what's our play?"
Neptune summoned her twin swords. "Go hard and fast!"
"I like it. Nice and simple!" Uzume got up. "LET'S GO!"
The Ancient Dragon heard Uzume cry out, but didn't have much time to react as Uzume made the first move.
"Dream Roar!" Uzume cried, leaping into a dive kick, and then leaping off the beast, and in the air, screaming into her megaphone, releasing a powerful sound blast that shattered the ground. The dragon staggered, and nearly fell on the ground, only for Neptune to make the next move.
"Slash Raketen!" Neptune performed three powerful slashes on the beast, following with a dashing cross slash with both blades, and finishing by spinning around while switching to her pistol, firing a high-powered shot.
In response, the dragon got up, and raised its clawed hand, bringing it down towards Neptune.
"Woah!" Neptune barely dodged out of the way of its attack. Uzume then came around for another attack, tossing her weapon behind her.
"Dream Smash Fist!" She wound up for a punch, her fist being surrounded by spiraling orange energy, then dashing forward, striking the dragon with her drilling smash.
"Okay, my turn! Aerial Shot!" Neptune ran forward, charging energy on her pistol, then leaping over the dragon, flipping upside-down, and firing multiple into it. Neptune landed next to Uzume.
After that, the dragon spun around, and breathed in, heat filling its lungs.
"Uzume! Look out!" Neptune cried.
"Don't worry, I've got a cool idea!" Uzume smiled, then resummoned her megaphone in her hands, raising it up.
The dragon then released a large blast of flames from its mouth, while at the same moment, Uzume let out a massive yell into her megaphone, releasing her own blast of sound. It connected to the flames, not just blocking them, but pushing them back into the dragon's face. It roared in annoyance from having its own attack forced back into it, its vision getting messed up.
"Wow, that was cool," Neptune replied, before saying quietly "...and maybe a little reckless..."
"Uzume is light-headed," the redhead responded in her high-pitched voice, pretty woozy from her action.
The dragon started to stagger, reaching its limit of damage.
"You ready?" Neptune asked Uzume.
Uzume shook her head to regain focus, then nodded. "Yeah!"
"Now!" the two said in unison. "Special Dream Team Combination!"
Uzume jumped up while Neptune threw her swords. While the swords spun around like boomerangs and struck the dragon, Uzume launched a megaphone-enhanced roar, causing multiple sound bursts around the beast. The swords flew back around, struck the monster not once, but twice each, and Uzume tossed her megaphone in the air, and dashed in for a rapid punch combo, while Neptune grabbed her swords. Uzume leapt back, grabbing her own weapon, and summoned to magic circles at her sides, while Neptune charged in for one more dual slash with swords, and Uzume finished with a roar into the sky, causing the magic circles to fire twin bass lasers, finally ending the dragon.
Defeated, the Ancient Dragon fell to the ground.
"Well, that was easy," Uzume commented as Neptune made her way back to her friend.
"Yep, wasn't the toughest dragon we've fought, right?" Neptune replied. "We didn't even get hit once!"
"Yeah, but it was close at points," Uzume said, while using her sleeve to wipe off her megaphone, lifting it up a bit... "Still, either we're really good, or maybe that was the runt of the family." Turning her head from looking towards the dragon to looking towards Neptune, she began speaking...
Failing to realize that her megaphone was just high enough to catch her voice, and also failing to realize where it was pointed.
"...so wHERE DO WE GO NOW!?"
Uzume's voice blasted into Neptune's face, blasting her hair back, even almost making her D-pad hairclips fly off.
Uzume quickly stopped and pulled her weapon away. "Oh, sorry..."
"What the Nep, dude," Neptune cried, holding her poor ears.
"Hehe, oops... You okay?"
Neptune didn't respond.
"Um, Neptune, are you okay?" Uzume spoke a little louder.
"Did you say something!" Neptune shouted. "Everything's ringing!"
"...Maybe we should skip out on the bug hunting today..." Uzume said, "...and maybe the rest of the quests we got..."
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
As the school day was over, Merci came to pick up Nepgear.
"Mommy!" Nepgear called out.
"Hey there, sweetie!" Merci responded, letting Nepgear jump into her arms. "Did you have a good day?"
"Yeah!"
"And did you make any new friends?"
"Yeah! There's Uni! She's awesome! And Rom and Ram! ...Though Ram hit Uni..."
"Oh, dear. I hope she was okay," Merci responded to that.
"Yeah, I kissed her boo-boo better," Nepgear replied.
"Oh... how cute. Such innocence... perhaps when you're older..."
"Huh?"
"Oh, nothing. Let's go home."
As Merci drove them back, Nepgear kept going on about all the things she did at school. Once they got back, they were greeted by Umio. "Hello there, did you have a good day?"
"Yeah!" Nepgear replied.
"Oh, she told me all about it," Merci said. "So, have Neptune and Uzume come back yet?"
"Not yet. They've been out for a while now..." Umio answered.
"I want to tell big sis about my friends!" Nepgear exclaimed. "When will she be back?"
"I don't know, perhaps soon, hope- Oh, there they are!"
At that moment, Neptune and Uzume returned, ...though Neptune was teary-eyed and holding her ears.
"Um, Neptune, are you okay?" Merci asked.
"What!" Neptune shouted.
"Oh, geez, there is no need to yell," Merci replied in shock. "You know that Nepgear hates loud sounds."
"Could you speak up! I can't hear you!"
Umio flew by Nepgear to cover her ears with his fins, while Merci turned to Uzume. "Did a monster hurt her?"
"Well... no... not a monster, but... uh, I may have aimed my megaphone the wrong way..." Uzume admitted.
"What! So YOU damaged my daughter's hearing!" Merci yelled angrily.
"I-I'm s-sure she'll be fine... in a few hours, and with a Nepbull."
This answer did not help Merci's mood.
"I've been caught in Uzume's screams before," Umio told Merci to reassure her. "It wasn't fun, but I got better eventually. I'm sure Neptune will get better, too. She's a strong girl."
"Ooh... I forgot about that..." Uzume said, shamefully.
"What are you guys talking about!" Neptune interjected, still yelling.
"Oh, sweetie, here, let me take you to your room, so you can rest." And Merci did just that, leading Neptune to her room.
"So... I can't tell Neptune about my friends...?" Nepgear asked.
"Sadly, not right now," Umio told her. "Perhaps later."
"Yeah, save it until then," Uzume said.
"Okay..."
"Hey, don't be so glum. Why don't we play with some toys."
Nepgear perked up to that. "Yay! Uzie's going to play with me!"
"Uzie? Eh, whatever," Uzume commented on her new nickname. Now that she thought about it, Nepgear had yet to refer to Uzume by name, so it was nice to hear. And... it was kind of cute.
Unfortunately, Neptune ended up resting and napping for the rest of the night, and Uzume and Nepgear had so much fun playing, the little Nepgear forgot to talk about her new friends with anyone else. (Don't misunderstand, she still was excited to play with new friends again, but no one except Merci knows about them yet.)
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Jacob's Author's Note: IMPORTANT! Sorry this took forever. As usual, trying to meet up with my co-author was challenging, and we just had a talk about why... She's... not really into this anymore. I've always been the one who likes the Hyperdimension stuff, she just enjoyed listening to me, but she's not as much of a fan as I am. And while she was interested in this project before, she's kind of lost interest. Besides, I was pretty much the one doing most of everything anyways, just trying to get her to join in on the writing.
So we talked, and she's going to fall into more of a proof-reader role for me, and potentially for my other stories, too. Simply put, she's going to be more hands-off than she was. But that means that this is now effectively one of my normal stories. This means I need to adjust my project plans (especially with one of my actual Hyperdimension stories about to come out. I'm still working on its Cover Art, but other than that, the story is ready to be uploaded.)
Whether or not Savannah still wants to write Author's Notes from here on out, or whether she'll change her mind, we'll have to see. But I'm not going to push her.
Though, the last thing she wrote for this story was the whole bit with Nepgear looking for the twins, starting from when Uni got hit, to the end of the section (the line break). And I think she did such a good job on it!
Now onto the actual chapter itself. To start, I felt like it should be addressed what little Nepgear's deal with... stuff really is. She likes taking it apart, and as a kid, her curiosity gets the better of her. All the time. (I've been going on about this since reading a review on Chapter 3, and I've been trying to get the point down, it doesn't matter what you give Nepgear, eventually, she'll look for something new. And of course, she gets her hands on stuff she shouldn't as a result. (And honestly, is normal Nepgear any better?) Hopefully, this covers that subject thoroughly.
Going from there, we were planning on putting Neptune and Uzume in some combat situations for a while, and then I found this comic. I loved it so much, I wanted to write it into the story. It's the bit where Uzume accidentally screams into Neptune's ears. Got the whole establishing part and everything.
I believe I found the original artist. It's known as "[HDN] Absent-mindedness" by Men-dont-scream on DeviantArt.
Also, when writing the fight scene, I decided to have Neptune and Uzume do a team-up attack, like what happens in the games. But apparently, they don't have one together. Heck, Uzume doesn't even have one with tiny Neptune (though she does have one with Nepgear, called Dream Slasher, and there is a four-character team-up attack with both of them in it, which is called Planeptune Force). Honestly, you'd think they would have a two-character team-up though, of some sort, but I guess not.
So, I came up with one of my own. It's basically their normal single super attacks (the EXE Skills), but combined (and Neptune doesn't do any shooting). And yes, for the name, I did indeed use "Dream Team" in it. It's so obvious, I'm surprised it wasn't used before with Uzume.
And apparently, I misunderstood something about Adult Neptune. I figured she was just as bad when it came to working, just like tiny Neptune, and that's how we started this chapter. But since writing that... I've seen the "Neptune's Summer Vacation" OVA on Steam, and it focuses on how reliable Adult Neptune was. Since I couldn't easily rewrite it, I instead opted to make her more of an outdoorsy girl. That makes sense for Adult Neptune's character, and I think handles that issue... alright, I'd say.
And finally, Nepgear and, as Savannah put it, the littles. So, we mentioned before that we came up with this idea for a young, Ultradimension Nepgear from a piece of fan art, and thought that no one else had made a story of it, then we found we were wrong, and other stories were already written. Well, this idea, I'm pretty sure, is all me! And that is making Ultradimension kid versions of all the Candidates, not just Nepgear!
Well, I can't take all the credit. I got the idea from other sources. One, there is a chapter in the manga where they all became babies (which is on the same lines as this idea). Second, I mentioned the fanfic "Second Chance Sister 2: New Story" by decode9 on Fanfic.net. Well, in that story, they also had Ultradimension versions of the Candidates, but they were still the same age and actual CPU Candidates in the Ultradimension as well.
Basically, what happened here was that I took both of these ideas, and combined and modified them. They are human children, like Nepgear, and their relation to Noire and Blanc is unknown (but I will confirm that they do not know about their existence. Yet.)
We were planning on holding this idea off until later, but decided to add it as a second parallel story here. As for their... changes, Rom and Ram are toddlers because... well, they already were kids, so we had to make them even younger than that. And as for Uni's lisp, besides being cute, when I hear Uni's actual English voice, it sounds, while not bad, a little high for her supposed age. And somehow that made me think she would've talked in a lisp if she were ever a kid. So there you go.
And one more thing about the littles. When we came up with the "Wam" joke, I sent Savannah this:
Uni: Has a lisp.
Ram: I'm about to end your whole career.
Alright, a couple more things to mention. One, I found another Smolgear story, though this one is recent. Nanya on Fanfic.net has their "Hyperdimension Neptunia One-Shots" fic, and her most recent one-shot was of a little Nepgear. The chapter / story is called "Tiny Discoveries". These short stories are really fun. Along with "Tiny Discoveries", my personal favorites are "One SMALL Change" and its Redux, "Returning Child", and "SMILE". These are great parodies of the game's stories.
Finally, the next chapter is going into the first multi-part arc for the story. And yes, Noire and Plutia will be a part of it. I know, they haven't seen since Chapter 2. This was when they were supposed to come back in.
Savannah's Author Note: I wrote the whole interaction with the idea that Nepgear was the more mature of the four, since she was older. It was also based on her maturity level in Neptunia.
My future notes will most likely be more like "Proofer's Notes'' or something. I was kinda already proofing to begin with anyway, so it's not like I'd be doing anything new.