"Agh man! thish ish shooo good!"
"Neptune, don't speak with your mouth full!" Said Vert to Neptune, who was stuffing her mouth as if there were no tomorrow.
"Neptune, that's bad table manners!" Said Nepgear in a hurry as she removed the food stains on her mouth with a handkerchief.
Alex and the Planeptune Sisters, along with the other CPUs and CPU candidates, were invited to Vert's mansion to eat together.
Unfortunately, Neptune was being Neptune again and made sure to show it to everyone around the table.
"Ugh, green peas. Maybe if I move them over here, no one will notice." Said Noire quietly while picking up the peas one by one with her fork and putting them back.
"Noire, don't be a picky eater. You'll set a bad example for Uni."
While Leanbox's CPU scolded Noire, Uni simply sat next to her sister and smiled while sweat dropping. She was already aware of Noire's picky habits regarding food, but never really put too much thought about it.
"And you too Blanc. Reading on the table is not polite at all."
"Just give me a second, I'll reach a good stopping point soon." Answered Lowee's CPU without taking her eyes off of the book's pages.
"Seriously, you three are so troublesome sometimes." Said Vert while lowering her head and sighing with her eyes closed before raising again and opening her eyes to look at Alex. "What's wrong, Alex? You haven't even touched your food yet."
Not only his food, the young boy wasn't even paying attention to the ruckus around him. His mind was somewhere completely different right now.
"Alex!"
"Huh!?" Said the young man as he quickly looked at Vert.
"Your food."
"Ah...Yeah, it's good..."
Leanbox's CPU looked with some concern at Alex, who answered quickly about a meal he had yet to take a single bite out of.
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, why?"
"You seem distant today"
"I was just thinking about stuff..."
Even though it's been days since that incident, Alex still remembered clearly that battle. If he hadn't gone all out from the start, the young man could have kicked the bucket within seconds.
"Alex, you shouldn't worry about the difference of strength between you and CFW Magic. The fact you managed to hold your ground on your own against her and made it out in one piece is amazing enough in itself."
The young boy didn't say a thing, he simply looked at her with a surprised expression. He was amazed she could figure out what he was thinking so well just from that vague explanation.
"Are you surprised?" Said Vert with a smile.
Although her accurate guessing skill did surprise him, trying to know how she figured it out wasn't really one of Alex's interests at the moment.
"I just, didn't like how she didn't go all out on me. For the first time, I felt like I was the prey."
What bothered Alex the most was that CFW Magic played around with him during the entire fight, despite him taking it seriously and going all out on her.
"That's what bothering you?"
The young boy didn't answer this time. He simply looked down with an expression that showed how displeased he felt with that battle. Vert could only smile, as she had seen someone similar making that expression before many times years ago. And for a very similar reason too.
"…You know? You're a lot like Neptune was back then."
"Back then?"
"We might not look like it, but us Goddesses are actually hundreds of years old."
"Really?" He said before looking at the CPUs, then at the CPU Candidates.
"Don't get confused, I was referring to us the goddesses. The Candidates are actually as young as they look."
"Oh...Okay then..."
"You don't seem very surprised about it."
"After seeing Neptune's transformation, anything can hardly surprise me by now." Admitted Alex while sweat dropping.
"Well, I guess that's a fair way of thinking." Said Leanbox's CPU while sweat dropping with a weak smile. "But as I was saying before, you resemble her a lot."
"How so?"
"Around a hundred years ago, Neptune was a lot worse than now."
"Worse?"
Alex could tell there was something wrong with Neptune sometimes, but imagining she was a lot worse than this was quite a terrifying idea.
"Of course, worse in a different way…" Explained Vert to clear the misunderstanding. "Back then she used to be in her HDD form all the time. She was mature, confident and determined, but also extremely arrogant and prideful. She loved fighting and solving everything with her sword rather than her words and hated losing with a burning passion."
The young boy took a quick look at Neptune again. It would be hard to believe the childish girl could have been such a person in the past. Then again, a lot of things regarding Neptune defied common logic, and if you considered her HDD form, it didn't seem like such an unreal possibility.
"What about the other two?"
"Noire's arrogance made her much more like a dictator than a leader and Blanc...well, you'd be lucky if she didn't chop you in half...I can't deny I had my temper too to be honest, but at least I tried keeping things relatively calm." Said Vert while recalling the past. "Those were very chaotic times indeed."
"Things don't look that good if you ask me."
"True. Noire is full of herself, Blanc can't get her nose out of her books and Neptune is...well, Neptune. But you weren't around back then. Things were truly chaos. Fights would constantly break out and I would barely be able to keep them under control most of the time."
After hearing Vert's story, the young boy tried picturing in his mind the events that she talked to him about. Constant battles breaking loose everyday between the CPUs. All of them arrogant and angered, wishing only one thing.
To defeat the other CPUs and claim control over everything. Alex didn't really have a hard time imagining it, considered that the CPUs were still pretty violent when angered.
"Wait. If they really were that crazy back then, then why are you the way you are now?"
"If I had to say, I think it's because of the people around us." Said Vert after putting some thought into it. "At time we didn't care about anything other than going at it against each other and getting all the shares, but after the CPU Candidates were born and people like the oracles appeared, things began changing. Slowly, the way we saw things began to change and before realizing it, we gained something far more precious than shares."
"What's that?"
According to what he heard from the CPUs so far, shares were priceless. Their life and power depended purely on them, but to hear there was something far more valuable than shares. This, without a doubt, caught his interest.
"Simple, that would be-"
"Big Sister Vert!"
Before Leanbox's CPU could give Alex an answer, Chika made her way into the room while calling out to Vert.
"Chika? What's wrong?"
"It's an emergency! Leanbox is under attack by the ASIC's forces!"
Everyone looked at the oracle while Leanbox's CPU quickly got up on her feet.
"What did you say!?"
"An army of robots invaded the nation just a few moments ago, they're rampaging on the streets as we speak!"
"No way, why would they attack like this all of a sudden?" Asked Nepgear with widened eyes.
"They're probably getting desperate. The ASIC's influence plummeted since the destruction of their factory." Answered Noire.
"Everyone, I'm sorry but I must go."
"What'cha talking about Vert? We're going too!" Said Neptune with determination while getting up.
"She's right, we want to help!" Added Nepgear.
"Neptune, Nepgear..."
"Don't forget about us." Said Noire with a smile.
Blanc then lowered her book at looked at Vert too.
"This struggle is probably out of desperation. Defeating them here would probably put an end to ASIC for good."
Just like the other CPUs, Alex got up from his chair as well.
"Alex?" Said Vert while looking at him.
"Kicking some ass might help me clear my mind a bit. Besides, I'm getting real tired of those ASIC guys making a mess out of everything."
"Everyone...thank you."
Leanbox's CPU was grateful to have the support of her fellow CPUs and the young boy in her time of need.
Deciding to fight together, the group left Vert's mansion and headed into Leanbox's streets. As they ran through them, they could see the destruction left behind by the ASIC army.
"How dare they harm my nation!? I won't forgive them for this!" Said an angered Vert.
"There!" Said Uni as she spotted the enemy.
It was an endless swarm of robot enemies counting on the dozens, or probably even hundreds. Immediately upon spotting them, the robots faced the CPUs and headed right towards them to attack.
The group didn't hesitate to transform and dodge the incoming attacks. While Black Sister provided long range support along with the White Sisters, Purple Sister and Alex assisting the four CPUs on the front lines.
Green and White Heart took care of the flying enemies along with Purple Sister while Purple and Black Heart mowed down the ones on ground level along with Alex. Despite their constant swarming around them, the CPUs were able to easily dispatch their enemies. As the fight began to drag on, something began bothering the young boy.
'Why aren't there any strong ones?'
Defeating multiple weak enemies with one slash wasn't rare for CPUs, but among the hundreds of robots swarming them, not a single one was powerful enough to be considered above cannon fodder. More than a desperate last attempt, this felt like if they were trying to make time for something else. Once the final wave of enemies was finally dealt with, the CPUs gathered.
"We did it! Those ASIC baddies are done for!" Said Ram while celebrating.
"Don't get comfy yet Ram, this ain't over yet."
Ram then looked at White Heart with curiosity.
"Eh? What do you mean?"
"Those guys were way too easy to beat"
"Indeed..." Said Green Heart with a stern expression. "If they really attempted a last attack, they would have used far more powerful monsters, and Magic would be here as well."
"Then why did they attack?" Asked Ram.
"Beats me…."
The group tried thinking about it for a moment or two before going to the basilicom, where they were received by Chika, Mina and Kei. The last two being in a computer screen.
"Chika, we're back."
"Big Sister Vert...I'm afraid I made a terrible miscalculation" Said the Oracle with an apologetic tone.
"What happened now?"
"While you were fighting off the ASIC forces attacking Leanbox, Magic has invaded Planeptune using a large army and took over it." Said Mina.
"EHHHH!?" Said Neptune with widened eyes.
"No way, and what about Histoire?"
"It seems she has been captured by the enemy." Answered Kei.
Having heard what happened at Planeptune, Alex quickly turned around and was about to leave, until Noire placed a hand on his shoulder and stopped him.
"Just where are you going now?"
The young boy turned his head and looked at Lastation's CPU over his shoulder while all eyes were now set on him.
"I'm going to Planeptune."
"And what do you plan to do once you get there?"
At that point, Alex could only sigh as he knew that Noire was right.
It'd be a death wish to head on over there without a plan.
"Alex, there's no need to be rash. I'm sure we can find an answer to this problem by working together." Said Vert while approaching him.
The young boy didn't like staying put, but he couldn't go against the CPUs at that moment.
"Fine. We'll do it your way." He said while turning around.
Vert smiled at him after seeing she managed to make him cool down a bit, and then turned around to face Chika and the other two oracles.
"Now then, let us proceed in making a plan to recover Planeptune."
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Chapter 35: Complete