Re;birth Hacker

Reload: Staring Down the Barrel

The Dark Aura disperses, as we've officially arrived in Lastation, Nepgear immediately taking a liking to the sights. "Wow, Lastation is chock full of nifty gadgets and machines...!" Compa looks to Nepgear. "Is this your first time coming here, Ge-Ge?" ~ "Yes, but I've heard stories from Neptune about it. She'd bring me baggies of gears sometimes..." 'You know, now the name makes sense...!' "Oooh, this place looks like so much fun for tinkering...! It'd be great if we could look around a bit..." IF pats Nepgear's shoulder. "Cool your jets. We have more important things to deal with right now." ~ "Y-Yeah, you're right. We have to do our best, or Lastation will be in danger... Must. Not. Window shop." Compa looks to IF. "Iffy, do you know of any leads?" ~ "Well, we should head to the Guild first. We can get intel and take on quests to recover Shares there, too."

(Time Skip, because why not)

We arrive in the Guild, which looks like every other Guild in this Gamindustri... There was a minimal amount of people, so... about two or three others, which Compa notices as well. "Not much foot traffic here today..." IF nods. "This place must be pretty firmly under ASIC's control. Hmm... I hope we can get legit intel..." Nepgear looks to IF. "Oh, while you gather information, allow me to go and accept a few quests." Nepgear goes up to the receptionist counter, just as another girl steps up, as they both say in unison, "Excuse me, I'd like to see what quests are available." Nepgear looks to the girl beside her. "Huh?" ~ "Hmm?" ~ "(She looks to be about my age... Should such a young human girl really take on such dangerous work?)" ~ "You're here to do quests, too?" ~ "Huh? Me? Y-Yes, that's right." ~ "Huh. Are you sure about this? I mean, you're still just a kid." ~ "Huh? B-But, you're a kid, too..." ~ "I'm an exceptional exception. You have no idea how tough I am. But I need to get stronger, so I can..." ~ "So you can...?" ~ "Uh, nothing. Why are you looking for a quest here, anyway?" ~ "I wanted to help the people of this nation, and try to regain Shares for the CPUs." ~ "Wow, aren't we serious? That speech makes you sound like a goody two-shoes honors student." ~ "Wh-What the goodness is wrong with being serious about a serious problem?" ~ "Hahaha! Sorry, sorry. I haven't talked to a girl my age in a while." ~ "Come to think of it, it's been a while for... No, I've never met a girl my age before. Everyone's older than me." ~ "Uh-huh... Well, my name is Uni. What's yours?" ~ "I'm Nepgear. I hope we can become friends, Uni." ~ "Nepgear, huh? All right then, Nepgear, since we're acquainted now, you wanna team up and complete a quest together?" ~ "You mean...you and me?" ~ "Yeah. I always do this stuff alone, so it might be a good change of pace to try working with someone else." ~ "Okay, yeah! That sounds like fun. Let's go together!" Nepgear looks around the Guild, then to IF. "Hey... Where did Dorian go?" IF looks down from her phone. "Oh. He had to go somewhere and pick something up. He said to go on ahead of him." Uni looks to Nepgear. "Since I'm nice, I'll let you pick the quest." ~ "I-I'll pick a good one!"

(Location Update: Rebeat Resort)

The four of them walked down the glass pathway of the resort, Nepgear explaining the situation to Compa. "Wow, so you made a cute little friend while we were at the Guild?" Uni looks over to Nepgear. "Oh. So you weren't doing quests all by yourself. I guess that's to be expected. I mean, those arms of yours are like, paper thin." ~ "N-Nuh-uh! I'm not weak... Well...okay, maybe a little, but..." IF steps in between the two of them. "Yeah, yeah. Enough already. Don't start that self-deprecating nonsense again." ~ "Yeah. Cause that's my job." I appear behind the group, causing Uni to jump. "W-Who are you?!" ~ "Calm down, I'm with them." Nepgear looks to Uni. "He's our bodyguard." 'Is that all I'm good for?!' Uni nods. "Oh, okay. In any case, if there are five of us, this quest will be a joke. Let's get it over with quick, all right?"

(Meanwhile)

"Tch! They already made it here... At this rate, they'll totally be getting in my way... Fine. I'll finish them off this time, and I'll do it before they know what hit 'em."