Nep A Live

Chapter 1: P.L.O.T. Device

One day Neptune and all her friends had been called to the Planeptune basilicom by her little sister Nepgear who had been quite busy as of late.

The avid tinkerer and CPU candidate had been working nonstop for weeks in both her lap and the local dungeons to accomplish something she promised would be "Game Breaking".

At first Neptune paid her sister little mind and just continued on with her busy schedule of naps and eating pudding with Compa until one day she had been paid a rather unpleasant visit by the other CPUs who demanded to know what the hell the two of them were planning.

It turned out that Nepgear had been grinding quests for the guild like mad building up Planeptune's shares to almost astronomical levels.

This had rightfully upset the other nations who had watched their shares drop to the point where Planeptune now sat at a significant 44% share value.

It wasn't like Nepgear to act alone or for Neptune to begin hoarding shares so the CPUs from the other nations quickly began to suspect something was wrong. Thankfully they chose to just ask Neptune about it (She was a friend after all) before going with Blanc's first plan to capture her and torture her until she revealed what she was planning to do with the shares.

The questions of the CPUs had been met with a surprising revelation; Neptune hadn't helped her sister at all! She didn't even know what she was up to!

Nepgear had started collecting the shares by herself for some unknown reason and today it appeared they would all finally find out what was going on with the semi-mad scientist.

Once everyone was inside her lab at the Basilicom Nepgear had done the big reveal.

"So you built a what again Nep Jr?"

"I've created a P.L.O.T. device! This is going to change everything!" she announced while showing off the giant machine that took up half her lab

Even with the obvious pride in her sparkling eyes and the dramatic tone of her voice Neptune still couldn't figure what her sister was worked up about "Ok Nep Jr it looks all sciency and smarty and stuff but what does it do? Also, P.L.O.T.? What does that mean?" the goddess asked, her head tilted to the side in confusion "Does it have something to do with a horse's butt?"

Nepgear was more than thrilled to explain her scientific swan song to her befuddled big sister "It stands for Prism. Lancet. Oscillating. Transference. Device and for that matter the better question is what can't it do?!" replied Nepgear who was almost dancing around the room with joy as she swayed from control panel to control panel

"Um…mind if you could run that by me again? I feel like I'm trying to understand the story of one of those Quiet Hill games Blanc keeps getting me to play"

The silent bookworm who stood in corner looked up from her newest novel "Don't blame me if you can't understand the story of any game more complex than shoot the bad guy" Blanc commented, sounding both annoyed and impatient "Besides those are hardly that confusing compared to the Alloy gear series"

"Oh! I know that game!" shouted Peashy who grabbed a large steel crate and threw it across the room while poorly imitating a rock song with her mouth "Rules of Nature! braow! braow! braow! Rules of Nature!"

The yellow haired child then reached into Compa's nurse's bag and put on the eye patch she found inside.

"Ah! Peashy! Please don't throw things in the lab! You'll break some of Nepgear's super scientrific stuff!" begged the nurse while in pursuit of the fleeing girl

"Rules of Nature! Memes! Jack is back! I'm F**king invincible!" Peashy cheered while swinging an imaginary sword

Noire put a hand to her forhead "Ok who's been playing inappropriate games in front of Peashy again?"

"We shall settle that another time" reasoned Histoire who was more interested in finding out about this machine that needed almost half the world's shares to operate "Nepgear what exactly is the purpose of this device? You claimed in your message it could help protect all four nations in the event of catastrophe correct?"

"Yes! You see Histoire I actually modeled the machine after you and your powers!" Nepgear explained

"My powers?"

Nepgear turned to the fairy-like Oracle she had been secretly studying for months now "You have limited powers to change reality am I right?"

"I was there when Arfoire used her to summon Momus out of thin air" confirmed IF who found it hard to forget seeing something like that happen right in front of her "She used that power to create a god, or at least what she claimed was one, from nothing more than some lies and rumors. That's one hell of a power to have"

Neptune put on a huge smile"Yeah then Iffy, me, and Compa made him go SPLATOON!" she recalled "He was no match for our super overleveling powers!"

"Well after hearing about that I decided to find a way to mimic that power based on thousands of passive scans I took of both Histoires. Once I had the scans I began to reconstruct the magical prism matrix inside Histoire's tome and calibrated the…."

"Holy Deus Ex Machina Batman! Hold up with the technobabble Nep Jr! We get it! You made a plot device that can do anything we want it to! No need to explain the details!"

Nepgear's enthusiasm wasn't diminished "So you DO understand then! This is huge! With the power of the shares and this device we can change reality at will whenever the world is in danger! No more relying on legendary weapons, ancient prophecies, or old relics! We can make anything we need to save Gamindustri just happen!"

With that understood Neptune seemed just as pumped as her sister "Sweet! We no longer need Histy to act as the series plot device dispenser then! She can get even more of my…her! HER! work done!"

Neptune could already imagine how many more games and naps she could enjoy with Histoire never having to run around looking for some old ancient thing in her book to stop whatever villain of the week was causing problems.

"We develop a way to guarantee Gamindustri's safety forever and all you can think about is ditching more work on to me" moaned Histoire, a hand to her forehead "(Sigh) I wonder if Plutia's world is looking for any new Oracles?"

"This is quite the accomplishment Nepgear" completed Vert with a few light claps

Nepgear took a small bow and thanked her for the kind words as the rest of the CPU's and everyone else in attendance rushed the candidate with a series of questions.

Most were about using the machine for petty stuff (Unlimited pudding for her sister, A bigger bust for IF, A little sister for Vert) but the CPU's from the other nations did ask when they could work to get their shares back. Understanding the importance of the shares Nepgear had prepared for that question to come up and assured them everything would be fine.

"It'd be wrong and even a little dangerous to leave the device powered all the time so after this we can let the shares go back to normal" she explained " It takes 42% of all the shares to operate the machine and (in theory) any land could use it in case Planeptune is lost to the enemy" Nepgear opened up a metal case on a nearby counter containing four crystal keys and began handing them out to the CPU's "As a matter of trust and security I've made these four keys to operate the machine. This way no one nation can just decide to use it for their own purposes and unless someone could steal all four keys without noticing none of our enemies should be able to use it either.

The CPU's examined the color coded keys (Purple for Planeptune, Green for Leanbox, White for Lowee, and Black for Lastation) and continued to listen to Nepgear's carefully laid out security measures "Take your key and guard it however you want. If something happens the keys can be brought out of hiding and shares can be gathered to activate the device. Don't lose them!"

"Wait a sec Nep Jr! You mean to tell me in order to use this thing to beat the bad guy we still need to gather four of something, get all the CPU's together, and collect a ton of shares in one place?" Neptune asked

"Yes"

"Um….how is that any different than what we normally do in each game?"

"Oh! It's easy! It's different because…because…" Nepgear's eyes became white circles as she realized 'My goodness I've done absolutely nothing to make things easier!'

"It really does sound like the same to-do list we normally get" Neptune continued to grind her sister's feelings of accomplishment to dust under her arguments "I mean you could replace those keys with seals or chaos emeralds and the machine with some ancient weapon and we'd have the plot to the first three games all over again"

"I did nothing…weeks of work…dozens of quests…spying on Histoire…countless hours of late night bug fixing…I did nothing at all" said a dead-looking Nepgear in shock

"Aw don't feel bad Nepgear!" said Rom who got in closer to the device with her sister to inspect it "This is still really impressive" she said with one hand on the side of the machine

Ram knocked on the metal hull to test how though it was "Yeah! This is super cool! Even if it's a paperweight, it's a very awesome paperweight!"

"A paperweight? I created a… giant paperweight?" repeated Nepgear as she fell deeper into her depression

Nepgear has unlocked the Soul Destroying Misery Affinity!

"Darn it Nep Jr! What did I tell you about unlocking that type of stuff!" complained Neptune "Ugh! I finally get her EV's right and her nature is all wrong! Now I have to go back to the daycare for more Nep Jr. eggs!"

"Um Nep Nep? I don't think Nepgear is a Pocketed Monstrosity" said Compa who finally returned holding a sleepy looking Peashy in her arms.

"I'm a failure…so much effort…wasted…curl up…want to die…"

As Nepgear continued to wallow in self pity Blanc overheard something she never EVER wanted to hear one of her sisters say.

It was a series of words that could only invite disaster when uttered by a child surrounded by dangerous machinery.

"Hey! What does this button do?"

"Shit…"

Click! Bzzzt! Woooooooommmmmmmmmmmm!

"Ram I don't think you should have pressed that!"

"You little shits!" screamed Blanc who could see the twins standing next to machine as it sprang to life in a flurry of flashing lights and a cacophony of various mechanized noises.

"Momma Mia!" exclaimed Neptune "Thing one and thing two just turned on the Plot Device!"

"P.L.O.T. Device Nyu" corrected Broccoli "Also I would recommend moving Nyu. That thing looks like it's about to blow" she added as she, Gemma, and everyone else besides Blanc and the twins headed for cover.

"No! I never inverted the polarity field and triple tested the output optimizer!" shouted Nepgear who was dragged behind a counter by Vert "No time for that now dear!"

As the device kicked into gear and began to thrum with share energy the twins stood right next to it and continued to watch it with fascination. "Move you suicidal morons!" their sister screamed as she ran towards them, determined to kill them if by any chance they survived this.

When bolts of energy began to wildly shoot out of the machine and cause fires around the lab Rom and Ram finally realized they were in a bad place but by that point it was too late.

With a great whooshing noise a massive ball of energy appeared where the twins stood and engulfed them as they screamed.

"Ram! Rom!" Blanc called out in genuine fear as her sisters disappeared within the white sphere that then exploded and sent her and half the lab flying through the air.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

A half second after the blast the sound of a thunder clap ripped through the air along with a flash of brilliant white light.

Once both the noise and light vanished things finally began to calm down as everyone worked to regain their senses.

Slowly CPU and human alike began to stir and dig themselves out of the rubble of the lab.

"Ouchie!" said Compa as she was helped up by Peashy who appeared to have lost her eye patch in the blast

Next to them Plutia shoved the remains of a metal shelf off of her feeling dazed but unhurt "What a boom! That kinda hurt in a good way…"

Noire began helping those the most affected by the blast as she had been the least hurt. Ironically in her efforts to help everyone she totally stepped over and missed her own sister who had done her best to shield Historie's tiny body

"Thank you Uni"

"No problem" Uni groaned with a hand to her side

With a flip Neptune easily leapt to her feet and began dusting herself off. To most people being exploded by one of Nepgear's machines was a big deal, to Neptune it was par for the course "Man why do all mysterious super devices have to explode!?"

Nepgear removed her face from a smiling Vert's giant boobs "I never completed the last few safety checks! It wasn't ready to turn on!"

"Hey someone check on the kids!" ordered IF who ran towards the back of the room to see how Blanc was

"On it" obeyed Neptune who began to dig through the rubble nearest the machine

"You ok Blanc?" asked IF

The CPU of Lowee had been thrown against the wall hard enough to leave a goddamn outline in it so naturally IF was worried for her.

Blanc's eyes were disoriented and she appeared weak, almost fearful "Rom and Ram? Are they….dead?"

"We don't know" answered IF with one hand of Blanc's shoulder "I'm sure they're fine"

"They better…(Cough) They better…."

"Hey I found someone over here! Actually I found two someones!" shouted Neptune

"...They better start SCREAMING!"

Healed through her sheer rage alone Blanc shot up to her feet and began sprinting towards where Neptune had discovered the twins buried with her hammer drawn.

"First I'm going to hug them then I'm going to beat them till they forget what not being in pain feels like!"

"Want some help?" Plutia offered with a metal pipe in her hand

"Huh? Um Blanc?"

The enraged CPU paid Neptune no mind as she stepped towards the most severe beating in the twins young life.

"Kill…Kill…"

"Blanc something is wrong here..."

"Time to die you little abominations!" screamed Blanc with her hammer held high over her head.

There was a pause as Blanc noticed something "Who the hell are you?!"

When she had reached the place Neptune was she wasn't greeted by the sight of her soon to be pummeled little sisters. Instead she was treated to the visage of a terrified young girl with sapphire blue hair and eyes wearing a white sailor outfit and a rabbit puppet on her right hand.

The mysterious girl looked up towards the hammer held above her like it was a executioner's axe and was shaking her her shoes.

"Please….don't hurt me!" she begged with tears in her eyes

Blanc dropped her hammer with a heavy thud "Where did this bitch come from?! Ram? Rom? Where are you?!" she called out across the room

As Blanc wandered away in search of her sisters Neptune bent down and greeted the new stranger with a handshake "Greetings there soon-to-be friend! I'm Neptune! Who are you?"

After seeing the scary girl with the hammer the blue haired girl was still scared but couldn't sense any hostility at all from Neptune and cautiously replied "Y-Yo-Yoshino. I'm Yoshino and this is Yoshinon" Yoshino lifted up her puppet to Neptune's face.

"Greetings! Never thought I would meet a planet before!" said the puppet who offered Neptune a handshake with it's little felt paws which the bubbly girl naturally accepted "Well I never thought I'd meet a Yoshinon before so this day is special to the both of us!"

"Ram? Rom!?" A terrified Blanc continued to look around the room for her missing sisters only to keep coming up empty."Where the hell are you two?!"

"I don't think they're here anymore Nyu" said Broccoli "Gemma can't sense them anywhere around here"

Compa gave the squishy ball a poke "Gemma can act like a bloodhound Broccoli?"

"Gemma has a great many skills Nyu"

"Well then where the fuck are they?!" roared Blanc

"Think them disappearing has anything to do with that girl over there?" IF asked while pointing to Yoshino who was being hugged by Neptune who found the girl irresistible

"Aw! We needed another animal themed Loli around here! Truth be told Broccoli was getting kinda old after Re; Birth 1"

(With ovaloid eyes)"...You bitch Nyu"

Blanc didn't care about any of this and grabbed hold of Yoshino by the shoulders

"You!"

"Ahhhh!"

"I want to know who the hell you are, where the hell you came from, and how the hell you ended up here!? NOW!"

After screaming in her face Blanc dropped the terrified girl to the ground "Th-There was a fight!"

'"And?!"

"I got hit!"

Author Note: Made a few small edits. Turns out 3:30 A.M. isn't the best time to do final checks on a new story before posting.