Neptunia Heart Souls- CHAPTER 11

 Even though Nepgear was happy and felt safe with her sister, she still couldn’t help, but feel uneasy. “Sis is the strongest girl I know, but she was almost… I don’t want to think about it. I just have to step up my game and help keep her safe!” Nepgear thought, as she made her way back over to her N-Gear.

“How are we looking over there?” Asked Neptune, eager to travel deeper into the facility.

“Almost finished.” Nepgear said, trying to hide her nervousness. “All those DQN zombies really surprised me. I understand that the people in this facility were studying them, but what happened? Did they escape or what?”

“What if the people from this facility were those DQN zombies?” Neptune said, in a scary voice. Neptune’s eyes went wide. “Whoa! I scared myself there for a second. I’m sure the people who worked here fled and those DQN zombies were left behind, you know?”

“That’s true. DQN zombies don’t need food, water or anything really. They could throw their heads at high velocities and are physically strong. Even if they were locked up, given enough time I’m sure they could have broken their holding cells and escape.” Nepgear said.

A few moments later and Nepgear had unplugged her N-Gear from the computer tower and started looking it over. “Alright. Were finished here. I’ll go through this data while we walk.”

“Alright, but watch where you’re going. Nothing hurts more than walking head first into a wall.” Neptune warned.

“Right.” Nepgear said, nodding.

Nepgear and Neptune made their way to the open door. After taking a few deep breaths they stepped through the threshold and started walking.

The only sounds the girls could hear were the sounds of their footsteps. Nepgear’s heart was pounding loudly in her ears. The sound was so loud that she wondered if her sister could hear it.

“This place is spooky…” Neptune breathed.

“It is.” Said Nepgear, closing her eyes for a moment and shaking the thought out of her head. When Nepgear opened her eyes back up she looked down at her N-Gear and started going through the information. “Alright… According tot his the reason why the people in this facility were monitoring the Fairy Tower is because they were trying to unlock the secrets of it’s regenerative powers.”

“What does that mean?” Neptune asked.

“Remember when we touch the Fairy Tower our wounds heal? That’s basically it.” Said Nepgear. “One researcher in particular wanted to say magic was the cause, but they thought their colleagues would scoff at the idea.” Nepgear said.

“Sounds about right. Scientists are all business all the time.” Neptune said.

“They did hypothesize that nanomachines could be the cause as well.” Said Nepgear. “They thought about taking the Fairy Tower apart to find the real reason, but it looks like Histoire stopped them.” Nepgear read.

“So she was aware of these people, but forgot?” Neptune asked.

“It looks like it.” Nepgear said.

“I see… What about the monsters?” Asked Neptune.

“I’m still looking for information on that.” Said Nepgear.

Neptune and Nepgear walked side-by-side down a long hallway. When they reached the very end, the girls found themselves standing in another hallway that split off from the main one. “Where do we go?” Neptune asked.

Nepgear looked at the hallway on the left and then the right. The hallway on the left had about four closed doors while the hallway on the right only had one large door. “I don’t know. Maybe we should split up?”

“No can do little sister!” Neptune said. “We can’t split up! If we do, who’ll I bug when I get scared?”

Nepgear giggled a little. “Good point.” She said. “Alright, let’s head left first.”

“Sounds good to me!” Neptune said, and with that the girls turned left.

Nepgear’s fingers became a blur as she searched for more and more information about the base. A lot of the information she saw involved supplies for people, materials to build the facility, computer equipment and other things that didn’t really help them find out what the people in the facility were trying to accomplish.

When Neptune and Nepgear reached the first doorway, Neptune opened it and peered inside. The room beyond was enormous. It was filled with empty tables and dozens of other doorways. “This is getting old.” Neptune said, sighing deeply.

“I think this is a cafeteria.” Said Nepgear. “If I had to guess…” Nepgear made her way to one of the closed doors in the room and opened it. Beyond the door was a bed. “Yeah, this must be where the workers here at the facility ate and slept.”

“Do you think we might find anything interesting here? Secret documents? Flash drives? Dirty magazines?” Neptune asked, as she opened a door herself.

A loud growling noise erupted from the room Neptune had just opened. Located inside the room was a large dog. Most of the creatures flesh was missing and large bones were exposed.

“I found someone’s puppy.” Neptune said, giggling nervously.

The dog suddenly lunged at Neptune, but the girl was able to leap out of the way just in time.

The dog landed several yards away from Neptune, who had the tip of her sword aimed at the creature. “Bad doggy! No tummy rubs for you!” Neptune said, narrowing her eyes at the creature.

The dog snarled at Neptune and exposed it’s fangs. Suddenly the creature rushed forwards. Neptune leapt at the creature and swung her sword, however the creature leapt out of the way avoiding Neptune’s strike by mere inches. “This things fast!” Nepgear said. Nepgear had activated her energy sword and was now standing beside her sister.

The dog snarled and snapped its jaws at the girls as it slowly inched forwards. “I have an idea sis.” Nepgear said, in a low voice. “I’ll attack on it’s left side and when it dodges, you strike.”

“Got it.” Neptune said, a determined smile appeared on her face.

Nepgear took a deep breath before she launched herself at the dog and swung her energy sword. Nepgear watched in amazement as the dog leapt over her blade to avoid the first strike, but couldn’t react as Neptune suddenly appeared in front of it and slashed the creature cleanly in two.

With a bright flash the monster vanished before its two halves could hit the ground. “Got it!” Neptune said, as she started humming a catching victory tune.

“Probably too early to celebrate. I doubt that’s the only monster in here.” Said Nepgear.

“Well duh little sister! I’m sure there are all kinds of zombie type monsters here. As long as we stick together we’ll be fine!” Neptune said.

“True.” Nepgear said. The girl was starting to gain some confidence now thanks to her sister. “Should we explore the rest of the rooms, or should we leave?”

“Let’s leave.” Said Neptune. “I’m sure we’ll avoid a lot of unnecessary fights if we do that.”

“That’s true.” Nepgear said. “I think once I figure a few more things out, we should leave this facility and head back to Histoire.”

“What’s next on the docket?” Neptune asked.

“I want to find out about that liquid and HachimaJin.” Said Nepgear. “Even though this facility was studying all kinds of monsters, it was HachimaJin that took up most of their attention.”

“Really?” Neptune said, furrowing her brow. “How do you know?”

“Well…” Nepgear began, as she brought her N-Gear over to Neptune. “I just found some information on that dog, but look how they named it.”

“HachimaJin Number 3?” Neptune read the information. “That’s weird. There’s more than one HachimaJin?”

“I don’t know. It’s weird how they’re naming these monsters. I mean look at this.” Nepgear said, finding another piece of information.

“HachimaJin Number 2?” Neptune read. Nepgear scrolled down on her N-Gear’s screen until a picture appeared. “Wait! That’s a DQN Zombie! These scientists are such goofers!” Neptune said, giggling.

“I don’t think it was a goof though.” Nepgear said, shaking her head.

Neptune could tell something was bothering Nepgear. “What’s going on little sis?”

“Neptune… How did we know what those monsters were called?” Asked Nepgear. “We never fought DQN zombies before. We’ve never even seen them until just now, but for some reason we knew what they were called! It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Well… Uh…” Neptune began, but she was drawing a blank as well. “Now that you mention it, I don’t remember.”

“Exactly. This whole thing doesn’t make any sense.” Nepgear said, her shoulders sagged.

“Maybe were thinking too much about this. Maybe we should head to the surface now?” Neptune said.

Nepgear shook her head. “I’m alright sis. Let’s just keep going for a little while longer. If we don’t find anything then we can leave.”

“Alright, but you better tell me if you start feeling weird or anything.” Neptune said. “If you don’t, I’ll have to give you a scolding!” The girl warned.

Nepgear nodded. “Thanks sis.” She said.

Nepgear and Neptune headed out of the cafeteria and back into the hallway. Making their way to another door they opened it and peered inside. The room beyond looked like a gymnasium.

“I don’t have to guess what this room was used for.” Nepgear said, closing the door.

The next door led to a locker room and shower and finally a storage facility. The storage facility was enormous and filled with crates, barrels and other containers. “I wonder if there’s pudding or…” Neptune began, but a look from Nepgear told her to drop the subject. “Uh never mind…”

“I don’t think we should bother with this room.” Said Nepgear, closing the door and turning towards the large doorway located at the other end of the hallway.

The two girls made their way towards that doorway and pulled it open. The girls gasped. Located on the other side of the door was an enormous circular device that hovered several feet above the ground. The device had dozens of cords connected to it and a giant monitor located directly behind it.

“This is incredible!” Nepgear said, touching her chest. “But…”

“Yeah.” Neptune said, breathing hard. “I feel kind of weird too. What is that?”

Nepgear closed her eyes and thought for a moment. “I don’t know. I feel this way sometimes when I’m fighting a monster, but there’s nothing in here, right?”

Neptune glanced around the room, but the only living things inside were themselves. “I don’t see anything.” Said Neptune, shrugging her shoulders. “So what is that giant thing anyways?”

Nepgear looked through her information. “I… Whoa…” Nepgear breathed. “This is some kind of portal device.”

“Portal device?” Neptune said, her shoulders sagged. “Portal device to where?”

Nepgear tried to find information on that, but nothing came up. “I don’t know, but this device is a portal generator. It creates a portal in its center. According to this data, HachimaJin came out of the portal.”

“Cool, cool.” Neptune said.

“According to this information. HachimaJin appeared and basically attacked the researchers. The creature was weak and they were able to contain it using energy barriers. However, the creature summoned monsters from its body.” Nepgear read.

“Neato!” Neptune said. “If I had to hypothesize, those creatures were the DQN zombies and doggies, right?”

“Yeah, but there are other creatures we haven’t seen yet.” Nepgear said. “A lizard monster and even dogoos.” Nepgear said.

“Dogoos, huh? We can’t get away from those things can we?” Neptune asked. The girl almost sounded bored.

“Oh! And according to this data, the portal generator had a habit of overheating and they would have to flood it using the water tanks above.” Nepgear said, pressing an onscreen prompt on her N-Gear. After Nepgear pressed the button, a large panel in a nearby wall opened and a small room appeared. The room was located nearly ten feet overhead and a metal ladder led up to it.

“Whoa! Did you do that Nepgear?” Neptune asked.

“Yes. I also hacked into this facilities systems and can control certain parts of it.” Said Nepgear.

“That’s it!” Neptune said, strolling over to her sister and placing a hand on Nepgear’s head. “You earned another head pat! I’m so proud of you!”

Nepgear blushed heavily and giggled. “Thanks Neptune!” She said. “We should probably leave now.”

“Alright, but watch out Nepgear! I might just have to give your head another pat!” Neptune said.

Nepgear giggled once more. “You don’t have to spoil me so much.” She said, though she secretly hoped that her sister would keep spoiling her like that.

The two girls headed out of the room, but stopped in their tracks. All the color drained from their cheeks. “Oh goodness!” Nepgear cried.