AUTHOR'S NOTE

Alright, so, this is a Neptunia/Knight Rider crossover AU. On the Knight Rider side of things… it's an AU, so it's not pre- or post- anything. On the Neptunia side of things, it's post-Megadimension.

Since this is a reimagining, you can enjoy this even if you're not familiar with Knight Rider, since the story doesn't expect you to already know… well, anything. Just know that Knight Rider is an 80's action series about a badass talking car named KITT. Like lots of action shows from the 80's, it's partially "genuinely good" and partially "so bad it's good".

Full honesty here- I've never actually played a Neptunia game (at least, not yet- I'm currently saving up). I've seen clips from Re;Birth, Victory, Action U, and Hyperdevotion Noire; I've seen some of the anime; and I've watched parts of Lets Plays of both Megadimension and Megatagmension. However, I have not yet played any of the games myself. Most of my knowledge of it comes from fanart (including fanfics), discussions, and from looking stuff up on the wiki when I was curious about something. At this point, I'm pretty sure I've got the setting down right, but, you know, I'm not certain. If this were a more serious fic, I'd wait until I had more experience with the series, but since this is a silly little Knight Rider AU, I figured I can get away with this level of familiarity.

I'm not usually fond of harem stories. I used to be, but I kinda grew out of them. However, Knight Rider introduced a new love interest for Micheal nearly every episode, so I decided that this fic would be a harem story. Besides, more harem stories need to not be a generic guy who makes every woman he meets fall in love with him. And, as a girl myself, I can just relate better to yuri harems than I can to straight ones.

This first "episode," Knight of the Phoenix, closely follows the plot of the Knight Rider episode of the same name- season 1, episode 1. This is because I want to establish Michelle and KITT the same way they were established in canon- I want them to very definitely be Michael and KITT in spirit. For that reason, it'll only be this first episode that completely copies a canon Knight Rider episode- future episodes may take inspiration from Knight Rider episodes, but I'll be more original in the future so I can take more advantage of the fact that… well, it's Neptunia.

KITT is still a guy. He's not human, so he still fits the Neptunia pattern of "all guys are evil, ugly, or not human". KITT is also not completely accurate to his canon appearance (though he is mostly accurate). For details, check out the Knight Rider Re;Birth stuff I have on my DeviantART and Pixiv. At some point, I'll be uploading a design sheet for this version of KITT.

Finally, each episode begins with an OP, and ends with an ED. Each chapter that doesn't end the episode ends with a "commercial bumper". I've got a link to the YouTube playlist that has each after the disclaimer. I custom-made them all, so I'd appreciate it if you took a look. Keep in mind that the Michelle we see in the OP and ED (as well as the picture for this story) is the Michelle from the second chapter onwards- in this first chapter, she looks more plain and NPC-ish.

Let's begin.

DISCLAIMER: Hyperdimension Neptunia belongs to Idea Factory and Compile Heart. Knight Rider belongs to Universal Studios and NBC.

/playlist?list=PLG9dZK2zNZXmUn_O_SN23VWNqL5z3mrYP

Add that to YouTube.

Knight Rider Re;Birth- a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a girl who does not exist.

Michelle Knight- a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless- in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

Michelle Amanda Long was a proud citizen of Lastation.

She didn't exactly have much respect for most of Lastation's representatives- Lady Uni always came off as a childish Noire ripoff to her, and Oracle Jinguji was an unfeeling machine who had no humanity to speak of, as far as she was concerned.

But Lady Black Heart was the picture definition of a Goddess to her. Green Heart, White Heart, and Purple Heart had nothing on her. Michelle couldn't understand why anyone would live anywhere else.

So, Michelle dedicated herself to her Goddess twofold. Just worshipping her alone gave her shares, but Michelle wasn't content with that. It wouldn't give Lady Black Heart an edge over her rivals. That's why Michelle was just about always accepting quests under the Lastation banner. She accepted so many quests on a regular basis that it was basically her job- in a way, Oracle Jinguji was her boss, even though she'd never met the woman.

Michelle was not the only person like this in Lastation, let alone Gamindustri as a whole. There were plenty of people like them. Enough so that there was an unofficial chain of command between them.

For two years, now, Michelle had been partying with a man named Muntzy- he was a Leanbox native, but he moved to Lastation the first chance he got due to his admiration of Lady Black Heart's work ethic. Of course, they didn't do the typical kill or gather quests- they did the more esoteric quests, the ones that bordered on law enforcement.

In fact, right now, the two were working on two quests at once- one of them was undercover, and the other was that cover.

The Basilicom itself had quietly put out a quest to ensure that the work of famous game designer Charles Action stayed in Lastation's hands. Conveniently, Mr. Action's staff put out their own escort quest- Mr. Action was on vacation to Lastation's capital (he normally lived in the countryside), and his usual security wasn't enough in the hustle and bustle of the city.

Of course, it wasn't that simple. The reason the Basilicom was so convinced that Mr. Action's work was in danger of leaving Lastation was that they had received an anonymous tip telling them that a certain member of his staff was secretly on the payroll of a game company from Planeptune- the same staff member who put out the escort quest in the first place, Mr. Action's chief of security, Fred Wilson.

Unlike kill or fetch quests, which could be finished up in an afternoon, Michelle and Muntzy had been working on this quest for six months. Michelle was working the escort quest as a member of Mr. Action's security, while Muntzy worked from the shadows.

All the clues pointed to tonight being the big night. Charles was going to hit Lastation's most popular casino, Jak & Daxter's, and Wilson would make his move. Michelle and Muntzy had already uncovered Wilson's sidekick- a woman named Lonnie who, despite having no connection to Charles Action, always seemed to be in the vicinity. No surprise, Lonnie was a native of Planeptune who was supposedly in town as a tourist.

And now, things were heating up. The casino was loud, busy. Everywhere you looked, people were gambling, drinking, and generally having a good time. But at the same time, everywhere you looked, people were gambling, drinking, and generally having a bad time. The dichotomy between the winners and the losers was painfully obvious. It was why Michelle never could stand casinos. She tolerated their presence, since they brought Lastation's shares up, but actually being inside just made her feel guilty for not protesting their existence.

"Ha-hah!" Charles laughed loud enough that he could be heard even over the noise of the casino. "I can't lose!"

"Don't say that," his chief advisor, Tanya Walker, chuckled. "It's bad luck."

"I don't believe in luck," Charles reminded her, rolling the dice again. "I only believe in Lady Black Heart!"

Michelle chuckled in agreement from across the room, before turning to Wilson. He was staring at Charles with hate in his eyes- probably due to his announcement of loyalty to Lady Black Heart. Yeah, suck it up, pudding-worshipper.

Before she got too off-track, Wilson put his hand up to his wrist-mounted communicator. Michelle instantly looked for Lonnie- and soon found her nodding and heading for the nearest elevator.

Michelle pulled the inside of her jacket up to her face, pressing the hidden button.

"Muntzy," she whispered. "Get ready. Wilson just sent Lonnie to the elevator."

"If she's coming, I'll have a front-row seat," said Muntzy, who was in disguise as an electrician at the casino's hotel. "Let's get to it."

Michelle continued to scan the casino for any signs of danger. She didn't honestly expect anyone to want to hurt Charles, but just to be safe.

"She's here," Muntzy responded. "Headed right towards Action's suite."

"Keep me posted," said Michelle. "And be careful."

"Hey, remember, I've got ten years on you, Lieutenant," Muntzy reminded her. "If anything, I should be worried about you."

Michelle shook her head slightly, then continued searching. She started to walk in Charles' general direction, noticing slightly that Wilson was, too.

"Lonnie just left," said Muntzy. "Should I tail her?"

"Sure," said Michelle. "I'll deal with Action."

When she got there, Charles- carrying a pile of chips- was walking towards the elevator with Tanya, and Wilson stopped her.

"Stay with him," he ordered, as if he weren't a double agent. "He's worried that someone might try to take his chips."

Michelle just nodded and followed the pair. They were stopped at the elevator, arguing.

"Really, Charles," Tanya chided. "I really would feel much better if you took these to the cashier first."

"No, no, no," Charles started, before being interrupted by Michelle.

"Actually, that's great advice, sir," Michelle explained. "It'll be safer in your wallet than in your room."

Charles looked annoyed for a moment, then sighed.

"I suppose you're right, miss Long."

Charles headed over to the cashier- who thankfully wasn't far- while Michelle kept watch. Soon, Lonnie and Muntzy both came out of the elevator and headed for the exit.

"Stay alert, Muntzy, we still don't know who's with her," said Michelle. She continued to stand watch for a few seconds, until she heard Muntzy grunt over the radio. Her eyebrows furrowed.

"Muntzy?" she asked. "Muntzy? Muntzy?!"

To hell with the quest, she needed to check on her partner.

"Mr. Action, wait here!" she patted him on the shoulder and ran off.

"Michelle, wait!" Tanya called. When Michelle didn't stop, Tanya ran off after her, leaving behind a confused Charles Action. "I said wait, Michelle!"

Once the two got outside, neither Muntzy nor Lonnie were anywhere in sight. However, Muntzy's health bar was dangerously low, and Michelle could still make out his icon on her minimap, so she ran to where he was.

"Muntzy!" she yelled, finally finding him lying on the ground bleeding in a parking spot. "Muntzy! Quick, Tanya, get help!"

"Wait… Michelle…" Muntzy coughed up blood. "Don't worry… get them…"

His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he stopped breathing. Michelle's grief was quickly overtaken by anger.

"Tanya, you get back with Charles, I'm going after them. We're technically in the same party as Wilson, so I know where he's headed," she growled as she got in her car.

"I'm coming with you!" Tanya disagreed, getting into the passenger's seat.

"Michelle, how could you do that?!" Tanya cried. "You were hired to protect Charles, and you just left him behind!"

"These people don't care about your boss anymore, Tanya," Michelle growled as she drove out of the city. "They got what they were after."

"What do you mean?" asked Tanya.

"I mean game designs!" Michelle yelled. "He had all the files on his latest game design with him. He's too paranoid to let it leave his side. But they got it anyways, and now, unless we stop them, Planeptune's gonna unwittingly commit plagiarism!"

"...Do you expect me to believe that crazy story?" Tanya raised an eyebrow.

"Would you believe that dead Guildsman back there?!" yelled Michelle. "He was my partner! I was supposed to cover for him!"

Before long, they pulled up behind two cars. Wilson, Lonnie, and an unknown third man with a gun- likely another member of their team- were standing around them. Wilson watched them pull up in confusion.

"Everybody, freeze," said Michelle, stepping out of her car and holding up her own rapier, ready to cast a long-distance skill. "Drop the weapon."

The man hesitantly dropped his gun, then kicked it towards Michelle as Tanya stepped out of the car.

"Tanya, get his gun," Michelle ordered.

What happened next made all the blood drain from Michelle's face.

"No need," Tanya chuckled smugly, pulling a gun out from her coat. "I have my own."

"...Tanya?" asked Michelle, her voice shaking. "Y-you're with them?..."

"More like they're with me," she admitted as she sidled towards them. "They're my henchmen. Covered up my tracks pretty well, didn't I?"

"Y-you don't have to do this," Michelle choked out. "You don't have to hurt Lastation just to support Planeptune."

"Oh, Michelle, ever the loyalist," Tanya chuckled. "Goodbye, Michelle."

There was a flash of white, then everything went black.

When Michelle next awoke, she found herself covered from head to toe in bandages, and restrained so tightly she could barely move. Her jaw was even forced shut. All she could tell was that she wasn't alone in the room- she could feel the soft touch of the nurse fluffing her pillow and adjusting her IVs, and she heard shuffling elsewhere.

"How bad is it?" she heard a kind, older voice ask.

"Well, sir," a professional voice- likely a doctor- answered. "She's the only person in Gamindustri who's in worse shape than you."

"...Is she going to die?" the older man asked matter-of-factly.

"Should've," said the doctor. "She got shot point-blank in the face with a very powerful skill. The only thing that kept her alive was a plate in her head- likely an enhancement to make fighting monsters easier. It deflected the bullet, protecting her brain… but wrecking her face. We'll never know what she looked like."

Upon hearing such an intense description of what happened to her, flashbacks started to fly through her mind. She began to struggle and moan in pain.

"Goodbye, Michelle."

"Good," the older man said, his voice suddenly much closer, as if he were looking over her. "Keep fighting. Keep surviving. Just like me…"

Michelle's consciousness began to fade once more.

*Commercial Bumper*

Michelle's opinions are not necessarily my own. You know how Michelle doesn't like Uni because she considers her a "childish Noire ripoff"? Not my feelings. I can appreciate the differences, but Michelle is blinded by her worship of Noire.

"Jak & Daxter's" is a reference to the Naughty Dog series Jak & Daxter. I chose it because it was the first Playstation title I could think of that sounded like it could be the name of a casino.

I've already got chapters 2 and 3 mostly done, and they're both longer than this one- I just put the commercial bumpers in at the same points they were at in the original episode. I also think that chapters 2 and 3 read far better than this one, most likely due to the fact that, in the original episode, we didn't really know what was going on during this first part, which makes it a bit harder to transcribe it. I am very proud of that opening narration, though.