Disclaimer: I don't own the Hyperdimension Neptunia or Power Rangers franchises. Both belong to their respective owners (Idea Factory International and Saban Brands).

Chapter 1: Day of The CPUs (Part I)

"*Pant*, *Pant*, *Pant*..."

Thoughts and fears were racing through Uzume Tennouboshi's head as she frantically zoomed through corridors and hallways of what appeared to be the ruins of an old basillicom lost to the elements. Not daring to look back, she could faintly the footsteps of several monsters chasing after her as she slid down a flight of stairs before making a mad sprint towards the other side of the old shrine.

Not much to anyone's surprise, her pursuers soon followed suit, as they also made their way down the same stairs before an ominous figure rose among the rest of the group walked in front of the others.

"Find her," the mysterious figure said in an eerie voice. "She must not escape the Dark CPU's grasp."

The small horde of monster soon began to spread out throughout the building to search for the person.

'Not good, not good,' she thought to herself before turning a corner and vaulting over a small ledge, leading her into another room.

The small open area within the palace was slightly ravaged by plant overgrowth and moss, but was relatively intact nonetheless. Survival supplies and gear were scattered all over the room along with paper notes, journals, books, and mechanical devices littered on the large central table. Among this also included her lifelong companion, a floating fish-like monster with an unusually human face, who appeared to be monitoring one of the computer-like displays before noticing his partner's sudden arrival.

The red-haired girl quickly began to slide everything across the table into a small bag she picked up off the ground.

"U-Uzume?!" the sentient fish-like creature said in shock to its companion. "What's going on? W-What happened?!"

"No time to explain Umio. We need to get out of here," Uzume replied as she continued cleaning off the remaining contents on the table. "How much energy is left in that share crystal?"

"Enough for one more portal jump before it shatters," he replied, somewhat concerned at her question. "But, the sharite hasn't been restabilized yet. Who knows if we'll return the right di—"

Immediately, three shadow-like creatures suddenly appeared right before the two travelers

"Uwah—!" Umio cried out as he attacked one of the enemy monsters using his fins followed by tackling it in the face.

Dropping her bag, Uzume immediately pulled out a large megaphone from her hips and whacked it upside one of the remaining goons before delivering a roundhouse kick to the latter.

"Set off the charges, now!" she shouted as she slung the dropped bag over her shoulders, beginning to notice several more monsters approaching down the ledge.

At his partners request, Umio then detonated on a switch that set off a series of pre-planted explosives chained throughout the abandoned building complex, causing several old pillars, walls, and entire rooms within the basillicom ruins to come crashing down. The shockwave these charges caused were more than enough to distract or stagger the nearby monsters, allowing the red-haired girl to quickly grab her fish friend and the glowing crystal on the table before running off towards the large balcony overhang on the other side of the building.

"Not good," Uzume said to herself as she noticed many more monsters trailing them as she and her partner made their way towards the end of the tall high-rise.

As the chain of explosions, along with the swarm of creatures quickly approaching, she had no choice but to focus her entire mind on the mysterious crystal before tossing it towards the edge of the balcony.

The share crystal immediately shattered, creating a portal right bellow the balcony's ledge small enough for only herself and Umio to enter though.

Still holding on to the bag slung across her shoulder as well and her friend, Uzume proceeded to make a leap of faith of the edge of the building, diving headfirst into the mysterious wormhole before disappearing altogether along with the portal itself.

The sudden warp soon collapsed on itself before and pursuers could follow suit along with the incoming blast radius, as the rest of the old basillicom was engulfed in flames and explosions.

Some Years Later...

It was a bright and early morning at Gamacademi high. The clear and sunny sky gave a great start to the new school year among it's students; with feelings ranging from the first-year freshmen who were both scared and excited about starting in a completely new chapter of their life to the seniors who were excited that this was their final step toward adulthood and complete freedom.

A familiar face sighed as she parked her off-road truck into the nearby faculty parking lot before hopping off with a duffel bag which had her trusty megaphone and other materials along with her trusty companion. The duffel bag itself appeared to have a large power-button symbol to it.

The sanguine-haired girl appeared older, or attempted to appear older, at least; no longer with her usual attire of an unbuttoned white jacket and short grey skirt attached with a pair of black suspenders along with lacking an unusual pair of black boots and leg warmer/socks as well as her fingerless gloves.

Instead, she was wearing a straight, cuffed, jacket-like uniform that might have looked one-too-many-sizes larger than her, in white with an orange-colored trimming. She also appeared to have a bit more of a longer modest skirt and dark leggings/pantyhose on as well. Topping it off were the pair of thin, teal glasses she wore in front of her face as well as pair of black triangle hair-clips on the side of her head and an orange tie that had a large black swirl design on it. Despite having her long hair tied up in knotted pigtails flowing at the bottom, her entire appearance almost gave off a 'professional' aura to it.

Uzume made her way towards the school's front entrance as she looked around and observed many of the various students entering the building from all directions, adjusting her glasses and sighing before turning towards her partner inside the duffel bag and saying.

"Never thought I'd imagine myself doing something like this, being a teacher..." she said to Umio. "I wonder how Nepsy and Gearsy would react to seeing me like this. You think we'll ever return back to the others?"

"Don't worry, I'm right by your side," He gave her a 'thumb,' or 'fin'-up. "I'm sure we will soon enough," the fish-companion assured her.

Meanwhile, at loop driveway in front of the school, a small white limousine pulled up, getting ready to drop-off a student for her first day in the second-year. Inside the back passenger seat was a young petite girl with dark blue eyes and short, light brown hair along with her maid, who appeared to be fixing the girl's uniform last minute.

"Lady Blanc, are you sure you'll be alright on your first day of school?" the young maid asked as she adjusted the small tan bowtie and whitish-sweater from her even younger mistress' outfit, along with straightening out her kneesocks and lightly polishing her shoes. The young high-schooler's chamberlain appeared to have long, slightly curly, elbow-length, sandy-colored hair that matched her light brown eyes and wore a short-sleeved red maid dress along with a white apron and bonnet atop her head. "Do you have anything you need?"

"Yes, Financier, I'll be fine," the short schoolgirl assured her caretaker in a soft, quiet, almost detached voice as she tilted her head, still focused on reading a small novel in her hands despite her maid's distractions and movements.

"I know, but..." her maid, Financier lightly huffed as she brushed a speck of lint or dust off the girl's collar. "It's my duty as a servant to care for you and rest of the household, especially since your parents are out of town on a business trip."

"Don't worry," Blanc replied in dryly, her eyes still glued onto the book in hand "Rom and Ram are already in daycare with Mina; nothing's going to happen to any of us—"

"Lady, Blanc!" Financier lightly snapped as she held the petite teenager's head and looked at her straight in the eye. "Don't you remember what happened last year?" she continued, with a look of genuine concern before releasing her grasp on the young mistress' face and extending a pinky finger towards her. "As the future heir and pride and joy to the household, promise me you won't start any trouble and will get with people starting today, please?"

Blanc let out a small sigh as she closed the book in her hand before linking her finger with Financier's pinky-promise, attempting to muster a more sincere voice as she could.

"I promise," Blanc answered, now giving her family's must trusted house-servant a small hug before grabbing the rest of her textbooks in a small backpack and exiting the limo.

"Have a great day at school, Lady Blanc," Financier said as she held the door open for Blanc before bowing and waved at her departure as the second-year high student walked into the building.

As the limousine drove off and out of sight, Blanc's face returned to a slightly frowning expression as she heard the first school bell going off.

"Sigh... let's just get this over with," she said to herself in her usually neutral voice.

As Uzume was walking down the main hallways, a woman wearing a very professional, beige, administrator suit along with a pair of glasses that screamed with 'super-strictness', approached her.

"Dr. Tennouboshi, I'm vice-principle Randall," the woman said with a sharp glare at Uzume.

"Oh, well it's nice to finally meet you," Uzume replied, extending a hand out in greeting as the two walked down the hall.

The woman simply ignored her handshake offer as she pulled out a binder and skimmed through it. "Yes, and I'm still trying to figure out what one of the world's most successful wildlife experts is doing here at Gamacademi-High?" She said in a suspicious tone. "Or rather, why she's happening to teach general biology to a bunch of high-schoolers down here."

"Well... guess I'm just trying to looking to settle down from all the excitement of traveling and exploring lately," Uzume sighed.

"At such a young, youthful age as yourself? Hardly," the vice-principle sarcastically replied as she closed her binder and blocked the way in front of Uzume. "That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, now does it, Dr. Tennouboshi?"

"What can I say, even the youthful ones like myself need to rest," she joked to her new supervisor, only making her appear more annoyed.

In her mind, Uzume bit her lip to the woman's interrogation-like manners. This lady really didn't seem to be too fond of her presence as a teacher here at all whatsoever.

"You know, I was thinking," she said to Randall, in an attempt to avoid the question further and ease the tension. "Maybe we should have a staff meeting along with the other newer staff; that way, you can kinda fill us in here on what you expect of us."

"I expect you and the rest of the faculty to make it hard for them; painful, if at all possible," she grinned sadistically. "If they smile, you know you've done something wrong," she continued.

'Ouch,' Umio thought to himself as he overheard the what the two were saying through the duffel bag.

The first bell then rang, saving Uzume from the awkward conversation further.

'Saved by the bell...' the young professor thought to herself.

"Now then, I'm off to find my first troublemakers of the day. We'll talk later," Randall said with a glare before walking off.

Uzume simply shook her head as she headed towards her assigned teaching classroom.

Excited laughter, flying paper, various conversations, and blaring music filled the classroom as a red-eyed, raven-haired girl with twintails tied with a pair of greyish-purple ribbons entered into the room. She had a tall slender figure, wearing a black-colored school uniform trimmed in dark purple and plaid red skirt that matched her tie along with knee-length thigh-highs.

But right as she was about to take a seat next to a girl who seemed to be busy writing something into a notebook, a tall blonde girl suddenly got up from her seat and approached her.

The preppy blonde wore a tied-up short ponytail along with white and pinkish-white uniform and a long tan dress. Holding a pen and small memo pad on her hand, she was ready to interview the ravenette, much to the latter's annoyance.

"Noire, there's a juicy question that the school has been dying to know," the girl said ecstatically, wearing a smile that the ravenette considered way too perky; almost reminding her of another fellow classmate who has yet to arrive. "As a member of the student council, do you have any comments regarding the rumors surrounding Class President Vert's money-laundering scheme?"

"W-Why are you asking me?" Noire scoffed, fighting hard to hold back her annoyance. "G-Go ask her yourself, Cassidy!"

"New headline: 'Vice-president of the student council actively denies classroom scandal', alright..." the preppy blonde said, writing down her own notes, much to Noire's annoyance, before blocking the ravenette's way once again. "Can you also care to confirm the romantic relationship between you and the classroom delinquent Neptune as well?" she said with a grinning smile and pen ready to write any details down.

"W-W-What are you talking about?!" Noire's face flustered in a bright red felt glow as she grew angrilly at the pestering reporters question.

But before she could say anything else, however, the late bell suddenly rang and a young woman, whom appeared to look somewhat older than the students, with long sanguine-colored hair and was wearing glasses walked into the classroom.

"...Hey, everyone, settle down," she said in a normal voice, not much to the rowdy classroom's attention.

The noise in the lab-like classroom simply grew more chaotic as Uzume began to pull out a large megaphone from her bag.

"Looks like I'm going to have to use this, aren't I...?" she said to herself and Umio, still in the bag, as she adjusted the controls on it without anyone's awareness before taking a deep breath and using it.

"*AHEM!*" she shouted with a loud voice echoing through the megaphone, catching the entire room's attention before placing down her oversized speaker. "Now that I have your attention, take your seats, please," she called as everyone stopped what they were doing and began to settle down as she smiled. "Thank you."

"My name is Dr. Tennouboshi, and welcome to first period biology," she announced herself, examining the students in the classroom; some with relatively familiar faces she's came across in her previous travels, others, not so much.

Right off the bat, she could spot a few noticeable figures among the 20 or so seat classroom. One was a young teen with curly, dirty-blonde hair and almost punk-like eyeliner wearing a navy, short-sleeved blazer uniform with a yellow undershirt and plaid skirt along with full leggings, who was still busy writing lyrics or music notes on her notebook. Sitting along side her on the far left table was Noire, a face familiar to the professor throughout her several travels and adventures. Still flustered from the 'reporter's' earlier comment, she appeared to still be fuming with frustration.

Sitting in the front of the classroom on the opposite end, away from the preppy blonde that 'harassed' Noire earlier, was a short brunette girl with a leaf-green bow hair tie on the side of her hair and wore a blue and red-colored uniform along with a sweater that also appeared a tad bit too large for her. Next to her was her friend, a tall, cheerful girl with waist-length and wavy pinkish hair who happened to be wearing a cream-pink color of medical scrubs. Perhaps she might be working or training as a nurse's assistant while on campus, which might explain why she's out of normal dress code. Luckily for Uzume, they both seemed to be giving professor their full attention, at least.

Another figure that caught her eye was a young man with dark skin and wore a bluish-colored gakuran button-up uniform with long sleeves and matching pants; he appeared to be intensely focused on his laptop screen. While Uzume knew that it was normal for students to bring their own device to study or take notes with, she was pretty sure that he wasn't exactly going to participate in class. Judging by his hand movements, at least he didn't appear to be playing video games or worse in the middle of class, at least. Still, why is he lurching over so much, as if he was trying to hide something. If it was something that important, possibly for another class, she'd rather not call him out in the middle of a bunch of other sophomore students.

"But, before we start," Uzume continued. "Are there any questions?"

At that, a raised hand suddenly jumped up in front of the classroom. It was none other than the same jumpy blonde that pestered the ravenette twintails moments ago.

"Yes?" Uzume said.

"Cassidy, local anchor and field reporter for the school's TV station—" she smiled perkly.

The majority of her classmates simply groaned and rolled their eyes with irritation as she got up and introduced herself to the new Biology teacher.

"Anyways, Dr. Tennouboshi," Cassidy frowned, then smiled again at her new teacher. "I'm sure our viewers are wondering, aren't you a bit too young to be a teacher?" the bubbly reporter said before nudging at her nearby partner, who appeared to be holding a camera. "Devin, are you getting this? C'mon, we need to get this story before either Famitsu or Dengekiko do!"

Uzume simply furrowed her brow and shook her head in annoyance as she saw the girl's partner getting up and trying to film her.

"Cassidy, I promise you I'm old enough," Uzume assured the two, giving the pair a smile. "So let's put the camera away, okay?"

"You missed it!" Cassidy scolded her friend with a whisper as they went back to their seats. "The rest of the newspaper club are going to catch up with us at this rate!"

"For now, let's talk about you all, and what you expect to get from this class," Uzume said with a confident grin as she looked around the student in the classroom. "Cause that's what really matters."

As the biology professor eyeballed the rest of the room, an empty seat at one of the front tables suddenly caught Dr. Tennouboshi's attention.

Make that two, actually. Each from a different table.

A frown instantly formed on the new science teacher's face, as her eye slightly twitched in a tinge of frustration.

"Are we missing people?" she asked.

Most of the class secretly shook their heads with smirks, knowing exactly who the missing student(s) were and where each of them were hiding at the moment. After a full year, the students more or less learned what to expect among some of their peers.

"Iffy, did Nep-Nep run off to play video games in the empty classroom again?" the nursing student said to her friend.

"Sheesh, on the first day of school too?" the brunette rested the side of her head on her hand. "You'd think Nep would know by now, Compa."

'Wait, Nepsy—, Neptune is here too?' Uzume thought to herself, overhearing the pair's front-table conversation, before shaking off the thought in her head. 'No, I have to focus on this first,' she thought to herself before continuing.

"You know what, how about I take attendance first?" she said, picking up the clipboard on her desk and began reading down the roster. "Kira?"

"Here," the dirty-blonde musician said, raising her hand as she was still writing down on her music sheet, it appeared.

"CC2? Falcom? Marvy?"

"Here!" A girl with green eyes and wolf-like ears answered, followed by a red-haired girl wearing a long ponytail, soon followed by an orange haired girl with short-hair and a uniform that appears to be a tad bit smaller than her bust.

"Ethan?"

"H-Here!" the dark-skinned young man stammered as he quickly closed his laptop and faced the teacher.

'If I'd known any better, his face is glued to that screen just as much as Gearsy would have been' Uzume thought to herself before snapping back to reality.

...

As she went down the attendance roster list containing an evenly mixed ratio of males and females in the classroom, she noticed two names that were still missing...

Meanwhile, in the soccer fields outside the main campus,

"You're sure this is a good idea?" A flat chested girl with tied up blue hair wearing a red scarf along with black and orange googles asked, easily catching an incoming ball with her bare hands. "It's the first day, after all. Shouldn't you be in class instead of morning varsity practice?"

"Look, Nisa," a tall young man with short, brown hair wearing a red soccer outfit said to the upperclassman as he began to dribble another ball with his feet. "If anyone says anything, just tell them all-star JV-captain Conner gave himself permission to be out here," he assured her.

"It's you I'm worried about," she replied in an annoyed expression. "Plus, didn't you hear about the new administrators on campus? I heard one of them was even in a curator of the lost archives—"

Conner lightly chuckled as he gestured his hands to calm the upperclassman don't.

"Histoire? You mean that tiny pixie-midget on a flying book is the principle?" he joked. "Don't, worry. What's the worst she could do? Bore me to sleep with reading Shakespeare?"

Nisa nudged/gestured her head to the side as she noticed a certain assistant-principle approaching them, much to Conner's ignorance.

"Don't even get me started on that new biology teacher I skipped class this morning for either," he said mockingly, referring to Dr. Tennouboshi. "She'll probably just be roaming on and on about some cute little dogoo's she saw last weekend or whatever," Conner continued, kicking another ball back and forth between his feet. "Or what about that other new lady in 3A? Mrs. Ryghts, I think? Wasn't she kicked out've business school or something?"

"Conner..." Nisa shook her head in disapproval as vice-principle Randall stood right behind the unfortunate junior-varsity player.

"As for Randall," he confidently nodded. "She's a washed-up crazy woman. Do I even need to say anything else?"

"I think you said enough, sophomore..."

'Well, crap,' Conner cursed to himself as he placed up a 'good-student' facade and turned to face the vice-principle with a completely different tone of voice.

"Vice-principle Randall..." he said with a cheerful voice and fake smile on his face. "I have heard such good... good... good things about you."

"Vicious rumors, I can assure you," she said in an annoyed voice, not falling for the soccer player's pandering. "AP's office, now."

"Aww... you gotta' be kidding me," Conner mouthed to himself as he followed the uptight vice-principle.

At the end of the fourth bell and very start of lunch period, Noire began making her way to where she knew the other 'missing' student was , the lunchtime bell would be a welcoming half-way sign for most students drugging through the day. But unlike most students, however, the sight (or lack of, in this case) of a certain individual only managed to make the student-council teenager even more irritated.

She was ready to give this 'someone' a piece of her mind, especially with the rumors surrounding the two's supposed 'romantic squabbling,' of which Noire would vehemently deny.

In a vacant classroom not too far from the Noire's location, a certain lilac-haired girl wearing a long-sleeved bright purple blazer that matched her eyes, a pair of white d-pad hair clips, and a plaid magenta skirt was lazily lying on the corner of the room. The girl's full attention seemed to be engrossed on the handheld she was playing with; her arms stretched out holding a portable gaming device, at least, until she heard a knock on the door.

"Neptune!" Noire shouted from the other side of the door. "I know you're in here, open up!"

"Has the loner vice-president come to suck the fun outta' everything again?" the girl now known as Neptune jokingly asked, knowing fully well that this was the usual same routine as any other day for the two. "Actually, I got my foot stuck on something again," she lied. "You mind giving me a hand?"

"For the love of—, why am I always the one having to take care of you," the twintailed student council member shook her head before turning the doorknob. "Hold on I'm coming in..."

Little did Noire know she was walking into a trap. As she entered the room, a small contraption attacked to the door was set-off from above, dropping a muddy bucket of water, carton of eggs, and bag of feathers on the poor girl's head.

"What the—?" Noire shouted as soon as she heard the rigged contraption go off above her head before a slew of content fell on top of her.

"I gotta say, Noire..." Neptune giggled with the occasional snickering and "—Pfffffft" noise, trying her best not to break into a hysterical laughter. "I'm really digging the new look , on your first day of class. It's pretty... EGG!-cellent on you! Ahahahahaha, am I right or what?!"

The lilac-haired schoolgirl violently rolled around beginning to laugh maniacally as she wiped a tear on her eye, not noticing the soaked teen standing completely still as she slowly began to shake her fist.

"Get it?! Cause you're covered in eggs and al—"

"...I'M GONNA KILL YOU NEPTUNE! " Noire suddenly shouted in utter outrage, eyes on the break of tears as her voice pitch picked up, catching the not-so-laughing-now prankster student's attention.

"Uh-oh," Neptune said to herself as she quickly got up and broke into a dash. "I think I just broke her..." the rebellious teen added as she hopped through the open window and into the school's courtyard before making a mad sprint across the field, only to Noire soon following right behind her. "Help! I'm being chased by a maniac that wants to kill me! HELLLLLP"

"Oh, when I get my hands on you Neptune," Noire growled as she chased after the young lilac-haired girl.

"She's gone mad I tell you. MAD!" Neptune shouted, not to anyone in particular.

At the other side of the courtyard, Kira sat on a small wood table singing and playing on her acoustic guitar as a small crowd gathered around the light-music club member.

"...Oh, can you tell me where, tell me where you're at...—"

"...Freak you out, freak you out, freak you out...—"

"...Freak you out, freak you out, freak you out, freak you out..."

Among the small audience was another slightly taller female student listening to the Kira's singing while enjoying her small lunch with a cup of tea from a distance. The girl had long, wavy, elegant, waist-length blonde hair with a small part tied back in a braid as well as deep, beautiful dark-blue eyes that could melt anyone's heart. She wore a sizeable emerald-green blazer that complemented her well-endowed figure along with a black, pleated skirt and full leggings for her uniform.

As the small crowd began clapping and cheering at Kira's performance, vice-principle Randall walked through the circle to students and approached the young musician.

"Miss Kira, I'm afraid you'll need an authorized permit to perform on school grounds," Randall nonchalantly commented as she wrote in her personal binder, not even bothering to look at the girl. "Let's go."

"Are you aware that students who play instruments a fifty-percent higher chance of getting accepted into their first college of choice?" Kira confidently sneered at the vice-principle.

"Well now," Randall turned to face Kira and lowered her glasses with a cold glare. "You're no 5pb at all; what makes even you're college material either?" she said, slamming her binder before turning away.

"Vice principle Randall," the spectating other blonde stood up as she handed the woman a small note. "As class president of the student council, I can assure you that she has written permission to play on school grounds."

"Do you now, Miss Vert?" she asked sarcastically, examining the tiny permission slip right before tearing it straight in half. "Then why am I not surprised that you spent the student council's entire monthly budget on... such obscene material?" she asked before suddenly tossing down a stack of magazines tucked in her binder which appeared to also include a receipt containing the class president's name on it.

"Whoa... BL?" Kira thought to herself while staring at the magazine covers as a few others curiously picked up the risque reading material off the ground, only to have it snatched out of their hands by the vice-principle again.

"As far as I can tell, you're in just as much trouble as well," the vice principle said with an annoyed look. "Now, both of you come with me."

Kira and Vert's jaw dropped in shock as the two followed the strict woman along with Conner, whistling at the now awkward situation.

"...At least you tried," Conner sarcastically remarked.

"But seriously, you bought that to school? With their own money?!" Kira quietly whispered to Vert, who simply shook her head blushing. "Just... why?!"

Just then, the four suddenly heard a cry from a certain lilac-haired knucklehead, who appeared to be running straight towards them frantically.

"It's just a prank bro! Calm down!" Neptune shouted aloud, holding on to dear life from the messy-looking ravenette catching up to her. "It's just a prank, c'mon!"

"Neptuuuuuuuuuuuune!" Noire said as she blindly chased the panicking trickster who appeared to be flailing her arms around like a madman. "I'm gonna get you!"

"Is that—?"Vert asked as she held her hand above her eyes blocking the midday glare, wondering as to what her second-in-command was dressed in and why she was chasing someone.

But before any of the four could move out the way, Neptune was suddenly caught and tackled by Noire as the momentum sent the two smacking right into Kira and soon after Conner, breaking the former's instrument in the process.

"My guitar!" Kira shouted.

"Noire? What're you doing here?" Vert asked, confused as to why her friend and fellow student council member was dressed like an abstract art exhibit gone horribly wrong.

"Need to get away, need to away—" Neptune mumbled to herself as she got up, only for Randall to her and Noire by the back of their uniforms.

"Public disruption and horseplay?" she said to Neptune before turning to the dazed Noire. "Disorderly conduct AND clearly violating dress code? Hell hath' no fury for what's in store for you two troublemakers..."

Upon entering the main hallway, the vice-principle along with her now line of five troublemakers were suddenly greeted with a release of the emergency fire sprinklers, dousing everyone in the building.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Kira shouted as she and the others covered their heads and got away from the main sprinklers.

'This is just great,' Conner thought to himself as he and the other five noticed the sophomore student smiling with a grin as he held up a blue umbrella to protect himself.

"Mr. Ethan, I should've known..." vice principle Randall said to herself with a scowl as she rounded up the boy who appeared to be completely unaffected by the sudden water shower.

Soon after the sprinkler system began to taper off, Randall and the others continued to make their way towards the AP's office. As the six students and their new assistant principle were around a corner outside their destination, a door suddenly kicked wide open with a loud thud and flew across the room, breaking into splinters.

Barging out of the classroom lacking a door was a soaking wet Blanc holding a novel in her hands, clearly ruined due to water damage from earlier. Unlike her previous demeanor from this morning, however, she had a completely different expression on her face. A look of utter rage filled her eyes, as if as was ready to murder someone at a given moment.

"WHICH ONE OF YOU PUNKS DID THIS?!" she shouted out into the hallway while pointing at her book and giving off a deathly glare, her voice seething in anger and volatility.

All the students looked in horror at this petite schoolgirl's sudden outburst similar to what they had observed the previous year.

...Well, all but one, at least.

"Oh hey look," Neptune grinned mischievously. "It's the angry washboard pipsqueak!"

"WHO SAID THAT?!" Blanc yelled with a booming voice, turning directly towards Neptune and the other's direction.

'S-Scary...' Ethan, Kira, and the others thought to themselves as they gulped nervously.

"Oh my," Vert commented, lightly covering her mouth in a mix of fear and curiosity. "So much anger in such a small package."

"IT WAS YOU WASN'T IT!?" the short brown-haired schoolgirl screeched. "YOU BLONDE BIMBO!" her eyes in a demonically red expression as she flung the soggy book in a fit of anger towards Vert.

Although Vert somehow managed to dodge the incoming projectile flying at her with a comedically dangerous speed, the book itself seemed to have left a rather large dent on the lockers behind her, now lodged right in the metal. Safe to say, nobody was going to be pulling that one out anytime soon, not even King Arthur.

"Wow! 15 inches!" Neptune shouted in genuine surprise (or unintentional innuendo) as she gazed at that desecrated locker. "That's a new record!"

"Relaaaaaax," Conner said in a patronizing voice to the angry teenager, only making the situation worse. "It's just a book—"

"Just...a...BOOK?" Blanc said as the vexxed halfpint stomped towards the ignorant soccer athlete with a raised fist. "That "book" so happened to be my one and only exclusively signed first edition copy of the original Ordinal Scale novel. Whoever caused that sprinkler to go off is going to get a foot shoved so far up their as—"

"Ahem!" Randall tapped at Blanc with an unamused expression.

"What the hell do you want, lady?" Blanc turned to face the woman before suddenly realizing who it was.

"Extensive damage to school property, assaulting/threatening another student, AND disrespecting staff..." the vice principle stated as she wrote a few notes in her binder. "I'm sure you're parents must be quite proud of their eldest daughter this early in the year, now aren't they?" Randall smirked before ordering in a hiss. "Go!"

Blanc was about to open her mouth and argue back at the woman, but the attempt quickly died with a swift, even wetter glare from the new vice-principle. Sighing, Blanc adjusted her had and quickly followed Randall along with the other rounded-up students.

"Sit!" Randall barked upon reaching the chairs outside her office as the seven students quickly did what they were told, not speaking a word to each other.

"Ms. Randall," Ethan spoke up earnestly, clearly hoping for compassion from the new vice principle's scorn. "I'd just like to say that there's absolutely no hard evidence linking me to that unfortunate sprinkler incident."

"Save it for Phoenix Wright, wiseguy..." she glared with an annoyed expression before turning her attention to the other six students as well.

'Because you just so happened to be holding an umbrella indoors at the perfect time too—,' the tattered and messy Noire thought to herself before getting interrupted.

"The seven of you have detention! For one week, starting today!" Randall stated angrily as the student's jaws dropped in shock. "Now if there are no further questions—"

The seven students protested quickly, each saying their own complaints simultaneously in a jumbled cacophony of sounds .

"But I have soccer practi—!"

"Why am I getting detention just for playing musi—!"

"I have computer club!"

"Oh come on!"

"It was all Neptune's fau—"

"Oh go to hell, you d—"

"What about the magazi—"

"I didn't think so!" Randall shouted, ignoring them before storming into her office and slamming the door shut.

...

"Okay, someone seriously needs a hug," Kira huffed in annoyance after a short pause, still holding on to her broken guitar.

"Kinda like the loner here?" Neptune smirked, leaning over her chair and prodding the disgruntled Noire before slipping down face-first. "I'm sure not going to give her one—UWAHH—!"

"This is all your fault Neptune!" Noire angrily cried out, still clearly upset from Neptune's earlier incident.

"Ah relax," Neptune sarcastically replied as she picked herself up off the floor. "Now we can spend more time together. Isn't that all you wanted; to spend time with little-ole'-me?"

"A-As if!" Noire snapped back, "I can't believe I'm stuck in a week of detention thanks to you," she added, before suddenly fully realizing her current situation and breaking into a panic. "Wait a second... detention?! No! No! No!"

"...Welcome to the club..." the musician commented off to the side, clearly observing the poor twintailed girl's denial and panicking.

"This is just terrible, how can I send such a bad example to my little sister?" Noire shrieked in shamefulness, lowering herself and covering her face with her hands as she shook her head. "Not like this, not like this..."

"Aww cheer up Noire," Neptune grinned smugly. "I'm sure Uni will still grow up perfectly fine knowing that her onee-san is a delinquent."

"D-Delinquent?!" Noire stammered as she turned to Neptune yet again. "Wha... W-Why you—! How could you say such a thing?!" she screamed. "You're being a terrible influence to your younger sister, you know that?!"

"Little sister?" Kira curiously asked the ravenette. "You mean the middle-schooler that always ended up bringing lunch to Neptune last year?"

"Oh right, I heard she wanted to join the Robotics club this year too," Ethan added, before suddenly getting outspoken by Neptune. "I think her name was Nepgear or somethin—?"

"Oh puh-uh-leese!" Neptune waved her hand in a flickering motion towards Noire. "My sweet, innocent, lovely angel of a little sister would never pick up my bad habits. Nep Jr. is super-responsible and always takes care of everyone; she's like the Robin to my Batman!"

"More responsible than you, that's for sure—" Kira retorted, much to Noire's delight.

"Will all of you SHUT THE HELL UP PLEASE?!" Blanc suddenly snapped as everyone outside the office went quiet from the unexpected interruption.

...

A few seconds of awkward silence passed among the room before everyone began speaking again.

"Dude…Computer club?" Conner leaned forward and raised his eyebrow at Ethan, who just shook his head with an annoyed eye roll. "Seriously?"

"She's not keeping those magazines to herself, is she?" Vert curiously asked out of the blue, as the rest of them simply facepalmed.

As the first day of school came to an end, the seven unlucky teenagers stood silently outside a classroom waiting for the new vice-principle to find an unfortunate soul to be in charge of their punishment. It didn't seem to take long to find one, unsurprisingly.

"Dr. Tennouboshi," Randall approached the new science teacher as she walked up the staircase. "How was your first day?"

"Oh the kids were a blast. No problem at all," Uzume assured her. "In fact, one of them in my second period class even made me this cute little plushie as a gift," she said with a gleeful smile, showing off the small sewn doll with button-eyes to her new supervisor.

"Right..." Randall replied with a slightly annoyed expression. "Well you're gonna be seeing more of them in detention? ...The students, I mean."

"Mind telling me what I did?" Uzume said in a lighthearted attitude in order to ease any tension between the two.

"No, I mean that you're in charge of them today..." the vice principle said impatiently.

"Uhh wait, I actually have plans to visit the zoo-quarium outside town today" Uzume declined with a nervous expression. "I don't think I'll be able to—"

"Perfect! You can bring the little demons with you..." Randall insisted to Uzume as they showed up in front of the seven students standing outside the hallway. "That should be sufficient torture for them..."

By the looks of it, Dr. Tennouboshi didn't appear to be too fond of the situation she got dragged into either.

"You've all met, I trust?" she asked with a sadistic smile, glancing between all of them before turning towards Uzume again. "Well, enjoy your little outing." she said with a smirk before walking off, leaving the eight alone together.

Uzume thought to herself as the eight looked at each other in awkward silence. She knew that four of the students standing in front of her were the equivalent (or at least looked remotely identical) to the Blanc, Neptune, Noire, and Vert back on her world. The other three; not so much, or at the least, didn't resemble someone's she met personally during her many travels.

"So..." she said to the seven with a weak smile, scratching the side of her face nervously before continuing. "How do you girls— err... and guys like zoos and aquariums?" the new science teacher shrugged.

"Whoa! Check out the sick Lion!" Ethan exclaimed, pointing at the large statue as they slowly pulled up to the zoo-quarium's empty parking lot.

"It's... so lifelike," Noire added.

"Lion order!" Neptune shouted as she pointed at the other nearby statues surrounding it before exiting the back of the off-roader. "King of the jungle!"

"You're sure she isn't mentally damaged or something?" Blanc whispered to Noire's ear as everyone got out the truck.

"H-How would I know?" Noire replied in shock. "What do I look like to you, a psychiatric? We've only known each other since childhood!"

"Well, you two sure seem close," Kira joined in, overhearing the conversation. "Didn't seem to have a problem with busting my acoustic guitar at all, now did you?" she asked sarcastically.

"R-right..." Noire shook her head nervously at the musician's comment sheepishly. "Sorry..."

The group stopped at the front of the building's entrance, which appeared to be blocked by large metal bars with a 'CLOSED' sign in front of the doors.

"Hey what gives!?" Neptune pouted. "Why aren't they open?"

"Hmm, that's weird," Uzume said to herself with a frown as she examined the sign. "I could've sworn that today was their grand opening..."

"Oh well, no field-trip for us I guess," Conner shrugged, obviously trying to hide his happy grin.

"Great, let's go home," Kira nodded, giving two thumbs up.

"It's about time," Blanc said bluntly.

'Yes!' Noire and Vert thought to themselves.

"Hold on a moment," the biology teacher commented aloud, interrupting them before they could celebrate any further. "I've got an idea—"

The seven scoffed and groaned as soon as they heard the new science teacher trying to stop them.

"Wait, wait, wait... Just hear me out, okay?" Uzume raised her hands in a stop-like motion to reassure the students. "Why don't you all take a look around the grounds? If any of you girls and guys find something that looks remotely scientific, I'll cancel detention for the rest of the week, for all of you" she told them with a slight grin.

"Sweet!" Ethan smiled happily.

"Too easy!" Neptune confidently boasted. "We'll get this done in a jiffy!"

"I'm liking this new teacher already," Conner added.

"Uhh... Dr. Tennouboshi," Noire approached the biology teacher with a curious expression. "Will it be taken off our permanent record too?"

"Seriously? You still believe in that?" Conner jokingly grinned at the girl, only to be met with an annoyed expression from her.

"She takes her things reeeeeeeeaaaaalllly seriously," Neptune added.

"Uh, wait what? Yeah, sure," Uzume shrugged, answering Noire's question before continuing. "I'm going to go see if I can find someone who can explain what's going on... see when they're opening up."

With that, the seven nodded and made their way towards the nearby forest surrounding the zooquarium.

"Wait, so let me get this straight," Conner asked, looking at Ethan, whom again just shook his head with an annoyed eye roll. "All you guys do is mess with computers? What about video games?"

The seven teenagers traveled silently through the woodlands, hoping to catch anything good enough to give them a free ticket out of detention.

"So... anyone here heard about how this place used to be a cursed burial ground?" Ethan asked, deciding to break the monotonous silence.

"No, but wasn't there a story a few years ago about some crazy lady living up here and fell into a giant sinkhole?" Vert replied, somewhat intrigued by the forested area.

"Nope, must've missed those two stories, thankfully," Kira said, clearly not interested in the conversation as she wandered through the woods.

"Seriously! It was all over the urban legend websites," Ethan said, walking in front of the pack.

"Fake news!" Neptune jumped up and shouted mockingly.

"Dude, you know this isn't computer club, right?" Conner added, rolling his eyes. "We don't need to hear any of your crazy conspiracy theories."

"Oh, I mister big bad macho ain't afraid afraid of anything, huh?" Ethan countered. "Well, what do you in your spare time? Kick a ball?."

Conner looked at him, wearing an over cocky smile.

"Me? I go out with girls," he told him. "You know? They're one's at school that you ask out, aren't glued to a computer screen all day? With the long hair and the make-up."

"It's like that is it?"Ethan stopped and stood in front of the jock, glaring intently.

"Yeah, it's like that," Conner frowned, glaring at the computer geek just as intensely. "If you gotta' problem, why don't you just say it to my face?"

The height difference between the two boys was clearly shown as the soccer player towered Ethan. Despite this, the two equally starred at each other dead in the eye, either of them ready to land the first strike.

"Ugh! Whatever!" Noire groaned as she walked away from the two, followed by Neptune giggling shortly behind.

"Are those two always like this?" Vert quietly asked the musician, clearly seeing the tension between the two only males of the group.

"Don't know, never really talked to them until today," Kira shrugged as the two walked around them. "Thought they were with you, honestly."

"You idiots," Blanc bluntly stated as she shoved past the two boys despite her even shorter stature. "The sooner we find something that isn't a pile of dog crap, the sooner I don't have to talk to any of you buffoons again."

"See? Told you the short ones are always the grumpiest of the group," Neptune whispered over to Kira, who actually found the remark rather funny for a moment.

"I heard that," Blanc quietly said in a cold glare, cracking her knuckles.

"Look, all I'm trying to do is give you guys the heads up," Ethan interrupted, watching Conner also walk away to follow the girls. "Stuff happens out here!" he added, following from behind as well. "Just don't come crying to me when you fall right into a pit—!"

No sooner had he spoken the words, Ethan along with the others, suddenly felt the ground beneath opened shake violently before swallowed them up.

"Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—" Conner shouted as he fell through the pit.

"Aaaaaaa—!" Kira shouted at the same time.

"You jinxed ittttt—!" Noire cursed angrily at the computer nerd student as they plummeted down the collapsed hole while shouting in fear.

...

Somehow, Neptune was the only one that didn't seem fall through with the other six. At least, initially.

Standing besides the edge of the gaping sinkhole, Neptune began to boast in a comedic manner.

"Ha ha! Neptune beats the RNG game yet again!" she danced in victory.

Just then, without her acknowledgement, the ground began to crack underneath her as well

"I'm the luckiest girl aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!" she shouted, before suddenly slipping an falling into the cave-in along everyone else.

"AffimaX...?" Uzume mumbled to herself as she examined the logos and sponsors pasted throughout the building's exterior. "Hmm... why does it sound so familiar"

She then began to pull out a small phone as the lens of her glasses began to flicker in light; her eyes still focused on the distinct logo that caught her attention.

"Umio, you getting this," the young science teacher asked through the speaker, but with no reply. "Umio, are you even there?" she asked slightly louder this time.

Still no answer from her fish companion, just static noise.

"Blasted thing must be broken again," Uzume grumbled to herself, rattling the device in her hand before turning around and heading back to her truck.

As she walked around the corner, the biology teacher noticed the lion statues she caught a glimpse of earlier had gone missing.

"That's weird," she said under her breath, scratching her head. "Where'd it go?"

She then heard the ground shake as her 'phone' began to off. It has to be Umio; he must be in trouble.

"UZUMEEEEEEEE!" Dr. Tennouboshi heard upon picking up the device to her ear again.

Upon turning around, she saw a group of large lions roaming around the parking lot; one of them in particular holding the strap of Uzume's duffel bag in its jaw.

"Hey, hands off the fish, you overgrown feline!" Dr. Tennouboshi shouted as she charged at the beast, delivering a roundhouse kick to its snout. As it flinched and pulled back its head from the strike to the face, the biology teacher was able to catch the bag that fell out of the creatures mouth.

"Got'cha now!" Uzume shouted as she caught the duffel bag midair that contained her best friend before landing gracefully.

Her eyes widened from noticing the lion even angrier than before, now with a few more nearby it, as she then made a mad dash to her truck and locked the doors once inside. After a moment of thought while starting the car, she berated herself for the stupid decision.

"Yeah, great job Uzume. Lock the door why don't you? Because that's gonna help," she faceplanted to herself before flooring the gas pedal and pulling out of the lot just in time, as the living creature was about to pounce on the vehicle.

The pack of lions were chasing the off-road truck as Uzume raced down the driveway to evade them.

"What do we do," Umio panicked upon exiting out the duffel bag inside the vehicle? "What do we do now!?"

"Switch seats with me, I have an idea!" Uzume shouted as she swapped places with her fish companion and slip onto the hatchback before pulling out the same megaphone from earlier this morning, this time to use at the large lions.

'Here goes nothing,' the new science teacher thought to herself as she adjusted the dial on her megaphone to what appeared to be a fireball symbol. She then took a deep breath and aimed the weapon towards the car's pursuers before activating the device, unleashing a plume of flames that engulfed the entire pack of creatures in fire before collapsing.

Umio stopped the off-roader both him and Uzume looked back at the carnage behind them. Instead of seeing a bunch of charred corpses on the pavement, however, the two were confused to see melted metallic bodies that revealed artificial wiring and machinery inside the mechanical creature.

"Just what in the world is going on..." the awestruck biology teacher stood as she shook her head wondering if the kids were alright.

"You girls okay?" Vert asked, carefully getting up and brushing the dirt off her clothes. The other's nodded as they did the same as well.

"Never been better!" Neptune exclaimed cheerfully. "I'm just glad something here broke my fall," she added, getting a feel of her surroundings.

"Mmpphhhhf!— get your fat butt off me, Neptune!" Noire shouted in anger as she tried to push Neptune off her face.

"Oh hey Noire, how'd you end up down there?"

"You fell on top of me—mmmhphhhhf!" Noire barked in a muffled voice, still under the lilac-haired girl's bosom.

"Aww, I didn't know you bent that wa— UWWWAH!" Neptune teased shortly before finally getting tossed over.

"Alright, you ladies stay here where it's safe. I'll climb and get help." Conner told them, checking out how far he had to climb up to the hold in the ceiling.

"You're joking, right?" Noire replied in an annoyed stare.

"Uhh... I don't think that's such a good idea," Vert warned the foolish jock, clearly noticing how unstable the rock wall was to climb.

"Don't worry. I got this," Conner assured her overconfidently as he began to climb up. "This is just PE class all over again!"

"Yeah, you go do that..." Blanc quietly said, facepalming at Conner's stupidity as the idiotic highschooler fell down with a loud thud and groan in pain.

"Back already?" Ethan sarcastically remarked before he and others helped him up.

"Everyone, this way!" Neptune suddenly shouted on the other side of the place pointing towards the path direction.

"Better than staying here," Kira shrugged. "That's for sure."

"Sure, let's all follow the brain-damaged girl, what could possibly go wrong?" Blanc rolled her eyes as she and the others followed down the cave with Neptune.

As the seven students navigated through the winding cavern, Kira began to hum shortly before being interrupted from behind by Conner.

"Babe, can you keep it down? I'm trying to focus here," Conner quipped to the musician before walking ahead of the group.

"Did you just call me babe?" the shocked Kira said aloud as she turned to some of the others and pointed at the soccer player. "Did he just call me babe?!"

"I think he did," Neptune answered with a mischievous grin on her face, wanting to see what would happen next.

"I don't know, I wasn't listening!" Ethan said with a confused expression, clearly trying to stay away from this argument.

"What?" the athlete asked as Kira ran up to and confronted him. "Just chill out why don't yo—"

"Listen here, my name is Kira," the musician growled at Conner before angrily storming off. "Maybe you should write it your hand or something, so you can remember?!"

"What'd you all do to piss someone off this time?" Noire whispered to Ethan in irritation as she finally caught up along with Vert and Blanc, glancing at the slight stunned soccer player.

"He called her babe, or something. I dunno," Ethan whispered back at the three, not intending to deal with the backlash.

Noire walked over to the slightly taller red teen and lightly slapped him in the face.

"You don't call a girl babe," she said with a sharp glare before walking off.

Hmph!" Vert grunted with a scowl towards the teen before also walking ahead.

Blanc soon followed behind as she shook her head in disapproval, as Neptune simply walked past Conner with a snickering giggle.

"You were saying about the whole 'going out with girls' thing?" Ethan asked Conner in a mocking tone.

"The ones that aren't downright crazy," Conner elaborated with an annoyed sigh. "Or the ones that don't have a temper tantrum. Or also the the ones that can count up their age."

After walking a little bit more through the tunnel, the group found themselves staring at a large dinosaur skeleton embedded in the rock wall.

"Well that looks scientific-enough," Blanc commented. "What're we waiting for?"

"This seriously screams Jurassic Park to me,"Kira commented with a shrug.

"Really, cause it screams more like Un-Goro if you ask me," Vert replied as she examined the skeleton carefully.

"Oh, maybe its like a point-and-click adventure?" Neptune suggested.

"Well whatever it is," Conner grinned, slowly reaching out for the skull's jaw. "This'll get us out of detention forever,"

"Hey wait a second," Noire protested as the foolish jock had already tugged on the skeleton. "Don't you think we should—?"

They all jumped as the wall in front of them had suddenly started to move, revealing a mysterious, underground room that was filled with machines and holographic screens. Along the walls appeared to be unusual, alien-like engravings on them as well as power-button symbols, similar to the one found on Dr. Tennouboshi's duffel bag.

"Woah!" Ethan said in astonishment, as they walked inside.

"Wow, looks like something straight out sci-fi novel," Blanc said calmly. "Let's hope Rom and Ram don't touch this place," the short teenager joked to herself as she recalled her two younger sisters' affinity towards 'breaking things'; this room not being any exception.

"I could shoot a crazy video in here!" Kira squealed, looking around the room.

"This looks like the final boss room of my guild's dungeon raid!" Vert grinned with glimmering eyes as she wandered around the room.

"Sweet! Nep-Jr. would love to have a room like this!" Neptune shouted in surprise, imagining her little sister's almost unhealthy obsession with robots and gadgets.

"This must be like, the mothership, for you, dude." Conner said jokingly as he pat Ethan on the shoulder.

"Normally I'd be insulted," the computer nerd replied. "But when you're right, you're right. This is so cool..."

Neptune looked in the center of the room and saw a large pedestal with 7 unusual rocks, each of different colors, on top of it.

"Hey guys, I think I found something..." she told them in a surprised expression. "Come look at these!"

"Nice! One for each of us too!" Conner added as he was about to reach one of the gems. "Dr. T is gonna love it when she sees these."

"Yo'! Don't touch that!" Ethan suddenly shouted before the easygoing soccer player could touch the mysterious crystals.

"Why not?" Conner shrugged as Vert and the others soon walked over to them.

"You're really taking this dumb jock thing to a whole new level," Ethan shook his head at Conner incredulously before turning to the ditzy lilac-haired classmate.

"And you," he said to Neptune, who also appeared to be trying to take one of the rocks as well. "You're taking this whole clueless-idiot thing way too far."

"I'm a simple lady," Neptune grinned while shrugging. "I see a something that looks nice, I take!"

"A retard, more like it," the sharp-tongued Blanc said as she approached closer to the pedestal.

"You're sure we should be taking these?" Vert asked out of curiosity. "I mean, they look beautiful, but I don't think they're supposed to be removed."

"Vert's right," Noire added with a raised eyebrow. "How do we know they're not rigged to blow or something?"

"Look, I have sat through enough lame science lectures to know that, thing, looks fully scientific," Conner shrugged towards Ethan, Noire, and Vert. "Plus, it means I don't have to miss practice," he pointed out, gesturing his hands at the gemstones.

"I hate to agree with him. Really, I do," Kira sighed, then looked at the three with pleading eyes. "But I've already miss one rehearsal. I can't miss another."

"And it means we don't have to bother each other ever again," Blanc stated coldly. "All the better to me..."

"Fair enough," Vert shrugged. "Noire and I need to make it back to a student-council meeting as well, so..."

With slow movement's, the seven teens each lifted the gems, which strangely started to glow in their hands.

"Well, what are they?" Kira asked, staring at the glowing yellow crystal in her hand.

"I'm not sure," Noire replied, looking very closely at the glowing black crystal in her hand. "But they sure don't look like anything I've seen before."

"This does make for some lovely jewelry at least," Vert suggested, holding her bright green gemstone very carefully. "After it's been cut, of course."

"Might be some kind of rare unobtanium Macguffin we got here," Neptune smirked as she scratched her chin and squinted her eyes at the vibrantly glowing purple gem now in her possession.

"I can go online later and find out," Ethan told her, examining his glowing blue gem.

"You in front of a computer?" Conner let out a low chuckle while holding a glowing red gem. "Wait, let me put on my surprised face," he said sarcastically.

"You know, ten years from now, when your hairline's receding and you're playing pick-up soccer in the park cause' your dreams of turning pro never quite worked out," the computer genius mocked as he began to fantasize his own possible future, nodding. "I'll have my own multi-billion-dollar software business... yeah."

"...Or be stuck as a lowly script kiddie for the rest of your life," the short Blanc remarked rather rudely, noticing the white colored crystal in her hand beginning to glow too. "I'm going," she said, adjusting her small hat before walking off.

"She's right, let's get get out of here," Kira told them, walking away along with the young, short bookworm.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ethan said, raising an eyebrow at singer and small duo heading towards the exit.

"I don't want to think about what kind of a freak of nature lives in a place like this. And I sure don't want to be here when it comes home." Kira replied as everyone else began making their way towards the exit.

"Don't you realize we just stole someone's property? We're thieves!" Noire cried out in protest, breaking into a shrieking panic. "I'm too young to go to jail!"

"Don't worry Noire," Neptune smirked as she patted the ravenette on the back and proceeded to catch up with the rest of the group. "The cute, uptight, ones always get captured first."

"Ugh!— why you!?"

"Hey! At least it wasn't a booby trap that blew us all up," Neptune joked as she slipped the purple crystal into her pocket and skipped along merrily.

Meanwhile, at some unknown location...

She could sense their movements. The sharicite crystals she so terribly desired had terribly desired had awoken from their dormant state.

"My lord..." an eerie voice said, coming from a hologram. The figure that had contacted her appeared to resemble a large reptilian humanoid. "Have you also sensed the gems moving?"

"..." she silently nodded, knowing fully well what the next step in their plan was. Despite not speaking a single word directly, the reptilian creature, now known as Mesogog, could fully understand what it's creator, a bluish-purple figure shrouded in mist, wanted before the hologram was turned off.

"Go..." Mesogog turned around and waved a hand towards his minions. "Retrieve them at once," he commanded as the small army of creatures were sucked through a dark, swirling portal.

"This way!" the group rushed through the tunnel and toward the cluster of light that was ahead of them, and found themselves outside a small grassy knoll.

"Compass, does anyone have a compass?" Ethan asked, trying to catch his breath.

"Compass? Who still uses a compass?" Conner rolled his eyes as he whipped out a smartphone before frowning in disappointment.

"No signal?" Vert turned to Conner and asked as the teenage jock nodded in frustration.

"Let me try!" Neptune said as she pulled out a flip-phone, with similar results to Conner's. "Aww shucks!"

As all seven climbed up to the surface, a bone-chilling gust of wind rushed past them, causing the students to come to a sudden stop and check their surroundings.

"W-What was that?" Noire asked tensely, not liking the bad feeling she had one bit.

"The wind?" Kira asked hopefully.

"That ain't the wind," Ethan gulped nervously, unsure what to expect next. "As much as we like it to be, it ain't..."

"You're all overracting," Conner responded to the group in an attempt to reassure them. "I'm sure it's just a small breez—"

About a dozen black scaly creatures suddenly appeared out of nowhere and surrounded them.

"Yikes! Well, those aren't the typical pixelvaders and dogoos you come across every day..." Neptune jumped in shock.

"Don't. Move," the soccer player whispered nervously, hoping that these creature wouldn't discover them...

"Smart. Let's make it easy for them why don't you!" Kira hissed back as the creatures slowly approached the group.

"You were saying about a rigged booby-trap?" Noire sarcastically asked Neptune as she turned to face the small crowd of monsters. "How about we just put back the gems where we foun—"

"You outta' your mind?" Blanc blurted angrily, eyeing at on of the monsters with a sharp glare.

"Alright, new plan... RUN!" Ethan shouted as the seven took off as fast as they could, trying to get away from the strange dinosaur like creatures.

"Hey, what the—?" Blanc shouted as Vert pulled the petite schoolgirl away from the creatures and ran alongside the others.

"Now's not the time to be overcompensating," Vert replied as she began to scratch and rub her eyes in discomfort. Did a chip of wood or dirt happen to get stuck in her eye as she ran for dear life, causing her to have to rub her eyes profusely?

As they continued to run through the forest, Conner and Ethan, and Neptune leapt over a ditch, closely followed by Noire and Blanc. But as for Kira and Vert, their attempt to follow the other seven failed as they missed the edge and slide into the ditch, the latter being too blind to see where she was going, as her hands still covered her eyes aching in pain somehow.

"Oh no!" the other five shouted, as they ran back to pull the singer and class-president out of the small pit.

They managed to quickly grab Kira out of the gully. But before Noire and Neptune could drag Vert out, the class-president suddenly opened her eyes at the approaching monsters before unleashing a beam of focused, green light out from her eyes, instantly piercing through the creatures. As the intense rays of energy had begun to dissipate before fading completely, Vert's vision returned to normal without any pain or swelling.

"Whoa!" Neptune and the others shouted as they say gazed at the nearly vaporized bodies.

"Oh my," Vert opened her mouth in surprise as she examined the small stream of scorched bits lying in front of her. "Did I do that?" she asked herself before suddenly pulling out the green gem in her pocket and examining it, which appeared to be glowing even brighter than earlier. Just then, an image of an emerald-colored unicorn suddenly appeared in her head.

"C'mon!" Conner shouted as more of the monsters began to chase towards them. "We need to go, now!" he said as the seven students ran for dear life.

With an injured foot from earlier, Kira soon tripped on a small snare as they made their way through the forest, the monsters right on their trail, ready to lunge at her. As the group turned around to help the musician back up, Neptune and the others were forced to cover their ears shut with a groan when Kira suddenly let out a loud, blood-curdling scream of yellow pulsating waves at her pursuers, surprisingly pushing them back with a few even sent flying by the sonic attack.

"Whoa, Black Canary!" Neptune commented in a baffled expression.

"Okay, what in the world was that?" Noire asked as she and the others helped her up again.

"I have no idea!" the musician admitted shakily, before looking down at the glowing yellow gem in her hand and blinked as she was hit with the image of a yellow banshee.

"Uh-oh," Neptune nervously commented as she observed a patrol of monsters surrounding them. "Looks like we need to fight our way out..."

"Good," Blanc said with a vicious glare at the monster in front her before cracking her knuckles. "I've been looking to take my frustration out on these ugly bastards!" she shouted, slugging one in the face despite her short stature. Instinctively, the seven then split up and ran in different directions before getting stopped a group of two or three monsters each.

Running frantically, Noire skidded to a stop as a pair of creatures instantly charged at her. The twintail ravenette kicked one in the shin as she barely managed to dodge the other's attack. Unfortunately, one of the monster managed to catch her fist as they pinned her to the side of a tree, tightly gripping her arm.

Tears began to form in Noire's eyes as she stared in horror before closing her eyes, waiting for the creature to finish her off with it's scythe like weapon. But before it could, however , the girl's body suddenly shifted to a transparent shade of black; in which Noire phased behind the tree and escaped the monster's grip. Another creature then jumped from above and prepared to strike at her from above. Instead of slashing her, it's claws simply went through her, now having its claws stuck on the ground.

"Huh—?" Noire's asked herself as she lowered her arms, prepared to brace for the attack that never came. Her jaw then dropped in complete surprise as watched her cloudy body before returning to normal. "Did I just survive that?" The ravenette tsundere pulled out her glowing black gem and blinked as she got hit with an image of a black-shrouded phoenix.

...

Neptune swerved and weaved her way through the wooded grounds, tossing twigs, ducking under branches, and simply doing whatever she could to get away from these fiendish creatures. An idea then popped up in her head...

"Waiiiiit!" she suddenly turned around and shouted before pulling her handheld from earlier this morning in her pocket and holding it out in front of her in desperation, pleading. "Please don't hurt me— Huh?!"

As she offered it to the blindly approaching monsters, however, the device began to surge with purple electricity arcing from her fingertips, catching her surprise. The sudden burst of energy then caused her gaming handheld to shatter into a million pieces, sending a scattershot of charged improvised shrapnel lodged in the monster's heads.

"Holy shit! I'm like Static Shock!" Neptune shouted aloud in joy as she tossed the remaining scrap of metal in her hand towards the sole survivor of the purple onslaught, electrocuting it instantly. Soon after, a vision of a might purple skydragon flashed before her eyes.

...

"Oooof!" Ethan was knocked back coughing as one of these... whatever they were, punched him in the gut. Two of the monsters grabbed him by the back as the helpless computer geek tried to kick another in front of him, only to have his foot caught before getting tossed to the side. He got up and winced in pain as the monsters tried to charge him, their claws at the ready. Ethan nervously raised his arms out of instinct to brace for the incoming attack, only to have their strikes completely bounce off him with a loud clink; his forearms covered in a metallic blue coating and completely unharmed.

Ethan painlessly tossed back one of the creatures, staring at his own transformed skin as he pulled out the glowing blue gem in his pocket, suddenly filling him with the image of a large blue behemoth.

"Now this is awesome." the computer geek said in amusement as he began to beat the incoming creatures senseless.

...

"I can do this all day you pieces of crap!" A slightly bruised and battered Blanc spat out in a bloodthirsty shout towards the mass of creatures. Considering all the mess she's gone through already today, this simply felt like the best way to release her pent-up anger from all day. Beginning to feel exhausted, part of her almost wished she didn't become the first one to charge into combat, part of her.

"G-Get off me! Get off!" the short highschooler bookworm violently shouted as she headbutt one of the footsoldiers, only for another one nearby to grab her arm as she tried to sucker-punch a third. Struggling to free herself, the white gem in Blanc's pocket began to glow intensely as a blast of frigid, cold air shot out of her hands, turning one of the nearby monsters into a frozen popsicle.

"Ice-powers?" Blanc asked herself as she noticed the creature grabbing her glazed in frost before suddenly shattering like glass. "A girl could get used to this," she mumbled, placing her arms in the chest of two others goons, intensely focusing on the vision of a white frost giant that suddenly appeared in her head; the two monster's body instantly became solidified in ice.

...

"Is that the best you've got?" Conner taunted as one of the monsters knocked him towards the ground. As he groggily struggled to get up from the ground, the red gem slipped out of his pocket and into his hands. Upon gazing at the intense red light emanating from his gem, the soccer athlete was suddenly met with a vision of a swooping red griffin as time began to slow down around him with a loud pulse.

When one of the footsoldiers begun to charge at him, Conner suddenly sprung up and quickly jump-kicked the creature before noticing that they were moving much slowing than motion before. Though in actuality, they were moving at their normal speed; it was Conner that had suddenly much quicker with sharper reflexes.

"Hah, you guys aren't so tough!" shouted the rejuvenated jock with his newfound power, as several move monsters proceeded to slowly rush him. This time, however, Conner had easily overpowered them, taking on several at a time and swiftly knocking each one down in the process before time around him began to return to normal.

...

"Over here!" everyone heard the red-outfit soccer player shout as the monsters began to flee and run away.

The entire pack of seven students managed to regroup together as they held onto the mysterious crystals in bewilderment; each of whom had just fought off a horde of monstrous goons, in their own right. And judging from the looks on their faces alone, something majorly freaky must have happened to them too

"Did anyone else just suddenly get freaky super-powers out've nowhere?" Neptune asked as everyone but Noire appeared to walk out with satisfied smirks on their faces.

"Wait, how did y—"

"—Cause' I can shoot lightning out of my fingertips like a Sith Lord, silly!" Neptune replied to the curious Blanc, tossing her purple crystal around before continuing. "Kinda like how Kira here can scream like an angry housewife or how Vert can fire friggin' lazer beams outta' her eyes!" she shouted.

"I was able to see their skeletons as well" Vert clarified, looking at the green crystal in her hand. "Maybe this gem allows me to see through objects, like that truck over there driving behind the hil—"

"X-ray vision! Even better!" Neptune interrupted.

"Yo, how much do I love detention or what!" Ethan exclaimed, happily holding his blue gem out.

"Who knew detention would be this stress-reliving?" Blanc quietly shrugged with a blank expression while she held her white gem, in contrast to the small scrapes and bruises scattered on her face.

"This isn't a joke, everyone. We shouldn't even be having these in the first place," Noire protested."Let's go back and put these back where they belo—"

"Sheesh, no need to be such a party-pooper, Noire," Neptune teased. "I bet your power was something boring too, like invisibility. Since you don't have any friends and all..."

"S-S-Shut up! My powers don't have anything to do with this, Neptune!" Noire screeched with a completely flustered face in embarrassment. "And I'm not a party-pooper; I do have friends!"

"Little sisters don't count as friends," Neptune told her with a smug grin. "And I was right, you do have a boring power too!"

The others couldn't help but laugh at the humorous banter between the two.

"W-Why you!" Noire said to Neptune, getting even more flustered and embarrassed.

"Quick," Kira interrupted the entire group. "Someone's coming," she told them, hearing footsteps from a distance as the seven teens quickly pocketed their gemstones before anyone else could see them.

"Hey!" the students quickly looked up and immediately spotted Dr. Tennouboshi rushing towards them before continuing. "You guys alright?"

"Yeah, we're totally fine," Vert replied with a fake smile, then turned to the others. "Right, everyone?"

"Couldn't be better," Ethan agreed, smiling nervously.

"Fine and dandy," Kira nodded.

"Peachy keen," Neptune added with two thumbs up.

"Nothing out of the ordinary happen?" their new teacher asked.

"No, no... just your typical hike in the woods," Ethan insisted, as the rest nodding in agreement.

"With dogoos, cuberials, and some furry creatures..." Vert added, nodding with a smile.

"And a few scaly ones too," Kira muttered, earning a confused look from the science teacher.

"...with some rough terrain..." Blanc said with a blank stare, as Uzume noticed the short schoolgirl having a few minor cuts and bruises on herself.

"So, did you get into the zoo-aquarium thingy?" Conner chimed in asking, diverting the attention away from the singer, and injured-looking girl.

"They're apparently still under renovation or something," she lied to them, then nudged her head towards the car. "We'd better get you guys back, come on."

"So are we still getting out of detention or what?"

"Uh... sure, why not?" Dr. Tennouboshi shrugged as she continued towards her off-road truck.

"Yes!"

"Don't you all think we should tell her?" Noire whispered, as they started walking.

"As if!" Neptune told her, pouting. "This cute little rock is mine and mine alone," she added, petting the pocket that contained her crystal. "My precious... my precious..."

"I'm pretty sure she's talking about the powers," Kira commented.

"Not an option," Vert added, shaking her head. "Do you have any idea what would happen to us if anyone found out about this?"

"You mean like how Randall found out about your dirty magazines?" Kira sarcastically jeered at the class-president.

"I don't know about you, but I've got about a million sci-fi DVD's," Ethan nodded in agreement. "And you wanna know how many times the guy with the superpowers ends up in some government lab, lying on a table with wires prodded in his head?"

"...and turned against his will into a killer assassin?" Blanc merely added.

"Even I know that," Conner agreed. "Last thing I want to be captured by some evil government thingy and have needles sticking out of my head."

"Hey, you guys coming or what?" Uzume called them, already inside the car and honking the steering wheel. The seven glanced at each other with a sigh before catching up.

"Okay, so we all agree?" Conner asked, as the seven of them walked together through the school campus. "No one talks about this, not to anyone, no matter what?"

"I can do better than that," Kira quickly stepped in front of the group, making them stop as she handed the soccer player a yellow gem. "I'm out. Just forget I was here, and I'll do the same," she told them.

"Same," Blanc quietly nodded before dumping her white gemstone into the same hand. "If this is like any of my light novels, the hero with superpowers always gets screwed over..."

"Wait, how come he gets it?" Ethan whined.

"Yeah, why don't I get one too?" Neptune added, as the other five rolled their eyes in annoyance.

"Well, here!" Kira grabbed the two gems from Conner's hand then placed one in Ethan's and Neptune's hands each; both of whom couldn't help but smirk.

"Now both of you can have one. Problem solved." Blanc said with an annoyed glare.

The seven went on to argue with each other for several moments before both Kira and Blanc finally snapped.

"You know what? I give up!" Kira threw her hands up in the air before storming off.

"Screw all of you," Blanc exclaimed as she walked away. "I never asked for this crap goddammit,"

"Ugh—! Don't just walk away from this! We have a responsibility!" Noire shouted in protest at the two angrily, then handed her black gem to Vert. "Hold on to this. I'm going to talk some sense into those two," she said to the class president before chasing towards Kira and Blanc.

...

"So... do you wanna trade for the white one?" Neptune asked Ethan curiously out of the blue. "Purple and white don't really match together..."

Before the computer geek could decline her offer, the five suddenly heard a scream from Kira, Blanc and Noire crying out; the exact same monster's that had attacked them in the forest earlier surrounded the three girls.

"Get away you freaks!" the singer shouted as she and the other two struggled to escape their capture.

"Oh no!" Conner yelled as him and the others raced to rescue the girls. But just as they were about to reach them, the scaly black creatures suddenly disappeared into a dark vortex, taking Kira, Noire, and Blanc with them.

"They're gone!" Ethan panicked, picking up Kira's backpack lying on the ground.

"Oh, this is so beyond bad!" Neptune also stated as she held Noire and Blanc's bookbags in distress. "Who am I supposed to tease now?"

Conner, Ethan, Vert, and Neptune sped down an empty street in the soccer player's muscle car.

"Hey, I thought I called shotgun!" Neptune complained as she sat in the back with Vert to her right.

"And annoy me even more? I'll pass," Conner joked as he rolled his eyes in annoyance along with Ethan and Vert, then turned towards the two. "So, where're we going?" he asked them.

"Hmm... Dr. Tennouboshi's place?" Vert suggested with a weak shrug.

"What's she going to do?" Conner and Neptune both shouted in confusion.

"She's a biology professor, she must know what these things are!" Ethan exclaimed, pulling out his Laptop. "These things are dinosaur-ish, sort of! I think?"

"Alright, where does he live?" Conner asked, hand gesturing the the two to hurry up.

"Uh, 271 Grove Street?!" Ethan read out loud from his computer screen.

"Grove Street?" Neptune scratched her head. "Dr. Ten-new-bow-she lives in the middle of downtown?"

"Wait, wrong address," Vert suggested as she reached over and clicked the correct address on Ethan's laptop. "It's 907 Fairway Palmer-Lane."

"Fairway," Conner muttered to himself before making a sharp U-turn towards the place. "That's way out in the woods isn't it?" he frowned.

After an quick drive, the four had found Uzume's house and quickly got out of the car before rushing over to the front porch.

Ethan knocked loudly on the door as Conner, Neptune, and Vert checked the windows checked the windows for any sign of the science teacher.

"Helloooooo!" Neptune shouted. "Anyone in there?!"

"Knock again," Conner told Ethan after he didn't get a response from the first one.

Ethan knocked again. Still no response.

"Now what?" Ethan asked, looking at the jock in annoyance.

Conner quickly walked over and lightly pushed his hand against the door, which slowly opened.

"Someone already broke into the house?" Neptune asked quizzically.

"What are you doing?" Ethan demanded, as Conner moved to slowly walk inside.

"Well why would he leave it unlocked?" the jock shrugged, pointing toward the opened door.

"Probably cause' she doesn't have any neighbors," Ethan pointed out, and Conner just grinned slightly.

"What? You never heard of the three bears?" he asked, and walked inside.

"Is that the last book you read?"

"Gentlemen please," Vert frowned as she passed in between the two boys. "This isn't the time to argue," she told them in a slightly stern voice before the two stopped.

They carefully walked into what they were pretty sure her study room, calling out for their science teacher, but still no answer.

"There's some stairway behind that wall over there," Vert's eyes began glowing green as she pointed to the bookcase on the other side of the room, obviously using her newly-found x-ray vision powers.

"Yeah, so how do we get through it?" Neptune asked the hime-cut blonde before examining underneath the tables and stools for any clues. "We can't just go blasting holes throughout this room. We open it with some magical key that—"

"Found it," Conner stated as the others gathered around a small vintage videogame console with its cartridge not fully placed in. "Ladies, come check it out," the soccer player smirked as he was about to jam the blank game cartridge in.

"Hey, remember the last time you did that?" Ethan warned, catching the jock's hand before he could press down on the device.

"Relax," Conner scoffed at the computer nerd, sliding the old component in with his other arm. "The guy's a science teacher not—"

As soon as cartridge fit in with a satisfying 'click', the bookcase ahead of them slid open, revealing a small, narrow staircase going downwards.

"...Batman?"

"Or a Professor Xavier, in this case," Vert suggested.

"But she's not bald or crippled yet," Neptune argued as they made their down the flight of stairs.

The four carefully walked down the stairs and found themselves staring at the same exact room they had been standing in only a few hours ago.

"This is the same place!" Vert hissed as they looked around in frustration.

"Anyone freaking out right now?" Conner asked.

"Not really," Neptune giggled. "But I did find a blue floating fish," she told them before lifting up Umio, who appeared top be struggling to get off.

"W-What are you all doing here?" the fish-like creature asked in a mix of confusion and surprise, tail-slapping the lilac-haired girl's arms in order to free himself before continuing. "You all shouldn't be here!"

"Why not?" Conner raised an eyebrow asking.

"Crazy lab? Weird fish with a human face? Scooby-Doo trap-doors? Yup, I'm definitely freaking out!" Ethan muttered.

"If you're all looking for extra credit," the four students instantly spun around to see Uzume standing in front of them, looking at them completely unimpressed. "You've come to the wrong place."

A/N: Well, that's a wrap everyone. Nearly 15,000 words for just a single chapter? Sheesh. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the intro chapter to this AU Power Ranger x Neptunia crossover fic so far. Since this is an alternate universe setting after all, instead of getting the Bio-Zords like in Dino Thunder, they'll be getting new zords based off legendary/mythical animals.

I tried coming up with these to sort've fit/matcht their civilian-powers and personalities, or (also) in the four Neptunia character's cases specifically, their CPU/NEXT forms as well? (If anyone has a place to talk about Power Rangers zords ideas, be sure to let me know, I suppose...) And don't worry, I do plan on adding Trent down the line as a '6th ranger', just not exactly as the white one. Rest assured, I don't intend on doing any harem pairings or hack/slash-pairings either, just like my other crossover story.

Speaking of Among Titans and Goddesses, I apologize for the long delay for its next chapter. Along with juggling others personal tasks and side stories, I'm currently doing a re-playthrough of Re;Birth1, trying to recall all the other monsters they used in that game (specifically all the machines used by Avenir and whatnot...).

That being said, I hope you all enjoyed this intro-chapter so far. Part II will be coming real soon, revealing a bit more of Uzume's past (possibly involving the events of VII?). Please be sure to rate and review, as it boosts my ego and allows me to see what to focus on more/less. Thanks again!