Omnidimension Neptunia

[Mami Tomoe]

Upon emerging from the gate, I recognize the settlement sprawling out before me. Deciding that, since I can now fly, it might be best to not disturb it, I take to the skies. The oohs and ahhs fade as I distance myself from the people strolling about far below, though a cheer from Compa remains prominent. I exhale and clear my throat, then notice Histy point in a direction. "That way," she chimes in, and I turn, a smile crossing my face. "Ooh! Do a barrel roll!" Compa suggests, and almost immediately I hear our new companion - Adam, was it? - yelling NO, NO, NO over her. "Maybe when it's just us," I reply.

Deciding I've put off an explanation long enough, I let my hands hover down to my sides. "When I was brought to this Omniverse, I was deprived a significant amount of my power. Right now I'm looking to gain it back. That's the short explanation." One look at Histy tells me I might have said too much, but I feel no reason to distrust this Adam, and so I decide not to keep too many secrets. "Will that be enough?"

"So," he responds, "basically like everybody else who got here." Hearing that comforts me a bit. As long as it wasn't just me that ended up this way, as improbable as that would be, I'm fine with working my way back up to being powerful. EXP progression was never a horrible thing.

The power buttons in my eyes twirl as I squint my eyes, surveying the waters below. Distantly I can recognize it - the Fallen Angel, or at least the peak of one of its mountains. I begin to dip down a little as we approach - it's so much faster getting to something you've already seen than it is to find it for the first time, I think. "Remember how hard it was to find this thing?" I comment, knowing Histy will remember.

"It was... certainly something," she responds, dusting her tome a bit. "My tome's still a bit sandy..."

I then hear, in unison, Adam and Compa. "What thing?" Compa lets out a sound like surprise and awe, and I get the feeling it's explanation time again. "The Fallen Angel, they call it. It's an old island that was once floating, but then it sank. Aside from that..." the corners of my mouth perk up. "It's going to be our new Planeptune."

Immediately Compa chimes in again. "Isn't it a bit small?" Adam groans, and I hear a slapping noise. I can determine it's probably a palm being applied quickly to a face, likely the owner of the palm's own face.

...For a moment I wonder what's gotten into me. "It's small, yes, but that's because it's mostly underwater. Once we raise it, there should be plenty more land to work with. And if we're lucky," I continue, "I can do most of the work with Dumdeediddlydum."

Adam responds, "what in the FUCK is a dumdeediddlydum?" I feel Histy shift, and then another groan escapes Adam's lips. "You mean Omnilium. Right. Well, you can make your, uh, 'Planeptune' or whatever you said with it if you've got enough. It'll just take a really, really long time." I can feel Histy shifting more as she takes notes in her tome, no doubt still intrigued by the Omniverse. I then hear her say, "would you mind talking with me a bit more sometime? I'd like to learn as much about this Omniverse as I can, and if you can help, it would be much appreciated."

"Pointless facts? I think I can help with that," he replies, "but it all depends on whether or not it gets boring really fast." As the peak of the Fallen Angel draws near, I slow myself down and half-land, hovering just a foot or so off the ground. Everybody hops off, taking their place on the small ledge on the side of the peak. At last I hover a little bit upwards and twirl forwards, landing on my feet as I stop floating. I lead ahead into the crack in the peak, bobbing and weaving to make my way around rocks and things.

"Careful, everyone-- I remember there being a hole in the ground up ahe--"

I feel myself fall and a scream escapes my lips.

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When I land, I find myself in the familiar land of pillars and unsecured waterfalls of lava. Lavafalls still remains a weird word, I decide, so I don't use it. I notice hitting the ground took me out of HDD, but it's nothing too bad, I think. "Yo! C'mon down, it's fine down here!" Immediately I hear Compa respond "okay" and hop down. A few seconds later, she lands on the ground in front of me and an 'oof' comes out of her on impact. A few moments later, I hear protests up above, then see about fifteen seconds later, see Adam hovering down shakily with Histy holding him up by two of his fingers with both hands. As he lands, Histy lets out a loud gasp, and I notice her face is bright red. "Woah. Histy's tough," I comment, then look to the ring of pillars.

"Welcome," says the booming voice from before. "The emerald... I sense you have returned it. Place it on the center pedestal, and this angel will return to the heavens with its new Goddess."

Immediately I'm filled with questions. "So who are you?" Adam asks, looking to me. "More importantly, the hell's up with the disembodied voice of spookiness? THERE IS SO MUCH YOU HAVEN'T EXPLAINED."

Deciding the plot's not gonna advance until I put the Sharicite on the pillar, I remove it from my hand and do just that. A purple light matching the gemstone's colour flashes, blinding everybody for a moment - or at least I can only assume it does, because it blinds me and WOW is it bright - then shaking. A lot of shaking.

I get a falling feeling in my stomach, but… reversed. I feel my legs give out beneath me, and soon everybody else is on the floor, too. "HOLY SHITBALLS WHAT IS GOING ON I SWEAR TO GOD NEP IF YOU BROKE IT I’M GOING TO--"

A humble ding fills the room. "Welcome to Angel Island, home of Planeptune," goes the voice from before, boomy as ever. "You will like what you see outside."

From a storm of binary, I emerge as Purple Heart, wings sprouting from my back. I sweep up Compa, Adam and Histy and speed through the hole to the surface… and--

"Incredible," I whisper to myself. "It's… Planeptune, just like home."

[Mami Tomoe]

“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”

I begin to gently glide forward, floating ever closer to the distant neon-glowing monoliths that dominate the floating continent before me. I’m almost captivated enough not to notice Adam squirming and flailing about - I then realize I’m responsible for people other than myself at the moment and shift so I’m flying with my back to the sky. Adam and Compa get as comfortable as humanly possible on my back, and then I hear Adam say, “I’d love to talk about how incredibly ‘what the fuck’ it is that a city just popped up here, but I’d also love to not be thiiiiis close to falling and breaking every bone in my body except my tongue. PLEASE LET ME DOWN.”

Just as I notice Compa open her mouth to make a comment, I pipe up before her. “My apologies. It’s just…”

I look back to the newly-formed city. The words feel wrong in my mind, because it’s all so familiar. “...I feel like I haven’t been home in ages, and to be here now…”

I feel a big, silly grin spread across my face as I drift ahead and down to the ground.

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The moment I touch down, I let myself return to human form, releasing a cloud of zeroes and ones that disperses and floats off into the sky. As I take in my surroundings from the ground, I look back to where the mountain peak once was - in its place stands the Neptower, just the way I remember it. “Ooh! Compa, look-- I can see our house from here!” I joke as I’m positive I have numerous times before, but Compa still laughs a bit.

“So where’s your house OH MY FUCK,” Adam shouts as he turns around to look at the Neptower. “WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE. WHAT IS THIS PLACE.”

Histy perks up over my shoulder, swiftly flipping through pages in her tome. After a moment or two, she holds the book she normally floats on up for the three of us, and as she speaks, numerous comparisons between Planeptune back home and this one appear on pages opposite one another. “This is Planeptune, just as we know it back home. As we were flying, I decided I would survey the area to the best of my ability - and from what data I have relating to our Planeptune, which is more than substantial, I can determine this is in fact ours, or at least a very well-made copy of our Planeptune. It remains a metropolis which dominates a floating island, surrounded by forests and what are commonly referred to as ‘dungeons’. Prominent buildings such as the Neptower and the Adventurer’s Guild still remain, but…”

I squint and look around some more. “Nobody’s home.” As my line of sight passes Adam, I notice him glaring at me. “Don’t take a genius to figure that one out,” he shoots back.

“Yes, about that,” Histy continues. “There appear to be no truly sentient creatures on the Fallen Angel at the moment, what with it having been deep underwater only a few minutes ago. However, it does seem as though there are monsters here in the aforementioned forests and dungeons. I hate to say it, Neptune,” she frowns, “but you’re not going to get much of a chance to rest before your people need you again.”

I sigh and I’m right about to respond, only to hear Adam say, “but there ARE no people. There’s some buildings some people might be able to live in, but there ARE NO PEOPLE.”

Then Compa, who looks like she’s just been wandering around the nearby area, decides to join the conversation. “How are we gonna get people here, Nep-Nep?”

Suddenly the only four people in the whole city of Planeptune were reduced to hums and hahs, trying to think of something to do - then Histy chimes in. “I’m currently working on putting something up for Planeptune on the Dataverse. Hopefully we can catch the attention of a few people with it.”

Someone taking in a really long breath of inspiration catches my attention, and I look in the direction of the sound - Compa, her mind whirring behind her eyes in a way unlike it usually does, raises a hand. “Ooh! What if you made a video talking about why people should be here? We can write you a big, fancy speech and everything!”

Suddenly I notice Adam looking very bored. “If you guys are gonna be… writing a speech or whatever, I’ll just be going,” he says, then turns around and starts to walk away.

After a few seconds, he turns back and runs over again. “Nevermind, we’re really fucking high up - but is it really a good idea to advertise…” he goes quiet for a moment, looking me up and down.

“...a candy-haired child who can fly and owns a floating pile of dirt that has a bunch of kinda neat skyscrapers and shit on it?”

“I also have a katana,” I add. Adam’s head falls into his hands. “THAT IS NOT THE POINT.”

Histy flips through a few more pages in her tome and, suddenly, I see something I recognize - a big, bulky-looking dark brownish dragon, standing upright and looking… pretty menacing. On the page opposite that, I see what looks like the same dragon, but it’s flying and it’s from a different angle. It’s pretty far from whoever was taking the picture, and it looks like it’s over a forest near some kind of cave.

“My suggestion is this: you and our new friend go deal with this Ancient Dragon, and I'll record it.”

[Roger Smith]

"......hold up a second, and then put it back down and hold up about a hundred more of them. I think I have something stupid in my ear." Adam held up both hands in the international 'hold the fuck up' gesture, shaking his head. "Because to me, it just sounded like you just said your big plan is to go hunt a dragon and record it, and turn it into some big promotional stunt video to draw attention to your fancy new island-thing that you just pulled out of the ocean and which may or may not be inhabited by all manner of crazed animals and beasts of questionable sentience and danger level, but which clearly make the entire place uninhabitable for anyone without sufficient combat capability and strength to back it up or a very well-equipped guard force for each settlement, OR outright genocide and clearing the island of hostiles."

He paused for breath after his massive run-on sentence, letting his hands drop as he closed his eyes. "....that about the size of it?"

"Dragon hunting. Yep!"

Adam's hands slowly went to his eyes, the arms they were attached to trembling in some bizarre cocktail of exasperation, anger and sheer unfiltered disbelief. "I am currently trying to process how this entire situation could be even more random and dangerous, but I just can't. Barring quite literal divine intervention — WHICH, much as it really, really ticks me off, I am no longer capable of, therefore ruling it out quite nicely, barring, of course, the whims of some capricious possibly-deity that may and or may not be composed entirely of marshmallow fluff and stolen teeth — I just can’t fathom any way this could possibly be any more of a harebrained scheme than it is at current.” He spun on one heel, turning his head skyward as he stared at nothing in particular. “And I do stress ‘scheme’ because of the hilarious irony of this entire thing actually being very systematic and with a clear goal in mind but being completely ludicrous in going about reaching said goal.”

“And now. There are dragons involved. Because every adventure needs dragons.” He turned slowly to look back over his shoulder. “I did not expect to have my day involve dragons in any way, shape, or fashion when I was kicked out of bed this morning.” There was a dull gleam on his glasses, hiding his eyes from view, but the nondescript frown on his features spoke volumes about what the look in them might have been. “Never dealt with them before. Never had the chance. Never really WANTED to have the chance, really. Fought some dinosaurs, though. Quite a few dinosaurs, really….entirely too many, if I’m being honest.” A thought seemed to occur to him. “Dragons anything like dinosaurs, by chance?”

“Weeeeell…..”

“Right yes of course, I figured.” Adam immediately held up one hand in the ‘i get it before you even said it’ gesture, waving off whatever was about to be said. “So. Guess I’m going dragon hunting.” He patted the lightsaber hilt at his side. “Good thing I never go anywhere without at least three implements of horrible bloody murder on me at all times. Because as we all know, the only way to counter horrible bloody murder attempts directed at you, is with horrible bloody murder attempts directed at the horrible bloody murderer trying to horribly bloody murder you.” He paused for a moment, counting on his fingers. “....think I said it enough. Yeah. Right, so. Dragon. Lead the way, aforementioned flying candy-haired child who apparently owns a katana.”

It was only a moment later that something occurred to Adam. “....why is it called an Ancient Dragon, anyway? And why is it capitalized? Is that just a specific type or species of dragon, or...is it just a dragon that’s really old? ….combination of the two? Just bizarre naming conventions? Does it breathe concentrated old instead of fire?” He scratched his head. “....none of that even really matters does it?”

[Mami Tomoe]

Walking was really the only reasonable way to handle this. Compa started complaining about being tired not too long ago, so she managed to wheedle her way into getting a piggyback ride on Adam’s shoulders. A simple welcome to the ‘I have somebody riding on me’ club was all I’d really mentioned of it.

“...So basically, an Ancient Dragon is--” I start, only to hear myself interrupted. “...Why did you wait, like, ten minutes to explain? We’re already on our way, and I’m just about POSITIVE you’d drag me if I didn’t agree to come. So basically, you don’t even have to explain. The scary deadly potentially old-breathing thing will.”

I blink. I don’t think I have any way to really come back from that. So luckily, Histy does the job for me. “Knowing is half the battle,” she responds. “Informing yourself on your combatant can make what might be the most difficult battles become--”

“--Yeah, yeah, fine. Go on, if only to prove me wrong on the ‘breathing concentrated old’ part,” Adam says, finally caving.

Histy’s eyes seem to glow with delight at the invitation to exposition-dump us. “Gladly,” she starts. “Ancient Dragons are a species of dragonkind which are native to Celestia, where the Goddesses of our world used to wage war against one another. However, the Ancient Dragons which moved from the land above to mortal realms like Planeptune seemed to atrophy with time.” I feel her adjust on my head as she waits for the incoming onslaught of questions I know are going to come from our non-canonical friend.

“So what you’re telling me is there are things strong enough to live in a place where LITERAL DEITIES fight each other, and we’re gonna go pick a fight with one,” he chimes in somewhat frustratedly, but with an odd sense of resignation. I’m… pretty sure he’s just gonna go with it.

...Mostly, at this point, I’m just interested in that ‘horrible instrument of murder’ he mentioned earlier. Looks like something Neppy Jr. would think up.

“Not quite,” Histy clarifies. “The two of you - Neptune and yourself - are going to fight it. I have not a doubt in my mind that your powers combined can handle a descendant of one.”

Adam narrows his eyes. “Okay, great, whatever. But what makes you so sure?”

Histy pulls up her tome in front of her. I can just barely see a little bit of the bottom of it. “By comparing the strength of a Dogoo Neptune fought some time ago to the strength of an Ancient Dragon in the Hyperdimension - our home, along with the relative power of Neptune herself, I can gauge the approximate strength of an Ancient Dragon here.” Histy’s tome floats in front of the group, showing off a line graph - a purple line, tipped with a ball that has my face on it, lies just above a brown line tipped with an Ancient Dragon’s face. Beneath that by a longshot lies a bluish line tipped with a Dogoo’s visage. “Wooooow,” Compa breathes. “I don’t know how you do it, Histy…”

Adam looks crooked at the graph in front of him. “So where am I on that?”

In response, Histy adds a little icon of Adam’s face - frowning, actually kind of fittingly - next to mine. “I haven’t seen a proper demonstration of strength on your part, and therefore I can only assume - as a Prime - that your position on this graph is somewhere near Neptune’s.” She closes her tome and calls it back to her, letting it lie between me and her.

I turn my attention to the road again. We’re just leaving town right now. I’d go HDD and carry us all there, but I feel weirdly tuckered out. I quickly eye my SP bar - it hasn’t drained a bit - still at 3/3 - but I still feel tired. Weird.

“So the long and short of it is,” Adam concludes, “this thing’s scary, but we’re scarier?” His hand rests on the horrible instrument of murder mentioned earlier, and I STILL WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT IS. I resist the urge to ask loudly and inhumanly quickly, interrupting Histy in the process.

“In a way, perhaps,” she responds somewhat nervously. “Scary is not exactly how I would define the power level of either of you. In fact, you would need to be about three times as powerful as you currently are to be as strong as Neptune once was, and even that isn’t what would be defined as scary in the Hyperdimension.”

Adam’s eyes widen. “Shit. Then what is?”

Histy holds out her tome again and clears her throat. Pictured-- hey, I know them! From left to right, there’s Noire, me, Blanc and Vert. Over our shoulders I can see Uni, Neppy Jr., Rom and Ram. I can even see Peashy and Plutia in the back, waving. Seeing them again makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, but… I can’t help but wish they were here. “Imagine Neptune times ten,” she explains, “but infinitely more manageable. That is what would be considered ‘scary’ levels of power in the Hyperdimension.”

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A long walk began then and there. I remember this walk, I realize as we walk down the bath. I remember whining as Noire dragged me along on a “how to be a better CPU” lesson, as arranged by Histy. As we walk past the cutesy little medieval-style town in a particularly large field-like clearing, I recall me, Neppy Jr., Compa and Iffy fighting off a swarm of Dogoos that was causing trouble.

And, as we approach the mouth of a pretty menacing-looking cave, I remember following Noire here and saving her butt from an Ancient Dragon. “Sooo, you’re sure this is where you saw it?” I ask Histy, and she nods in response. “If there are any preparations you must make before we enter, make them now.”

I dust off my palms and hold my hands out. A heavily-pixelated black line appears before me, which quickly changes to a normal-looking katana with a little purplish bow on its hilt. I grasp at it and thrust it into the air while unsheathing it in one slick motion, causing Adam to jump back and yelp. “LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE!” I cheer.

“Adam, what are you gonna use?” Compa asks curiously. “Ohhh, wait! You have the metal sticky-thingy! You’re gonna have to get really close with it, though. It’s kinda short,” she comments.

In response he produces the ‘metal sticky-thingy’, holding it out in front of him. “Not when I do this,” Adam shoots back, and a red beam appears from the end fortunately not facing him.

The red beam of light reflects off of Compa’s peachy-orange eyes as she marvels at the weapon. “Ohhh… it’s like Ge-Ge’s sword, Nep-Nep!” she observes gleefully. “You two fighting together is gonna be like if Ge-Ge got a little shorter, cut her hair short and dyed her hair black!”

Adam just blinks. “I have no idea how to respond to that.”

My eyes widen. “He kinda does look like Neppy Jr., if you squint at ‘em and turn your head a little…” I add, following my own instructions beforehand. “Soooorta.”

Histy, meanwhile, is just observing quietly, though she decides to mention, “I will remind you to bring Nepgear here when we return to the Neptower.” She then adds, “are we all ready? Getting through this cave may be… quite a walk.”

Adam responds, “if it is, we can just summon stuff when we need it.” He adds under his breath, “goddammit, why’s it gotta be a cave… why can’t it just be out in the field or something?” He pipes up. “Why is a DRAGON in a CAVE? It has wings. It can FLY. YOU CAN’T FLY IN A CAVE.”

He throws his hands up, beam-sword-thing included. “I give up.”

At that we step into the mouth of the cave.