"Ah, life is good~."

Nepgeo had a dream one day, a dream to revive ASIC and insure their dominance to Gamindustri. She recalled fondly when the Four Felons were at the top of the world, with the CPU bitches captured in the Graveyard nobody could stop them..., until they all got freed and everything went to shit, but that's besides the point!

Nepgeo was a rather ambitious young lady, and kinda creepy when you realize where she gets her looks from, when it came to these sorts of things. She told everybody, everybody being Underling, that ASIC was going to make its grand comeback. She told Underling of all her evil plans and whatnots, and what did Underling do?

She just gave a "Good luck with that." message and carried on with her life.

Well, a spot will still be open for her when it happens!

"Anyway, let's see the damage..." Nepgeo pulled up her trusty Share chart and, as expected, Leanbox was in the very bottom. She grinned. "Man, people will believe anything I throw at 'em, eh?"

To Nepgeo, everything was going according to plan. When the last of Leanbox's Shares dried up, that would be one less Nation for her to deal with. "Hm, maybe I should hit Planeptune next... Nah, I'll go with Lastation, they deserve to be taken down a peg." She grinned again. "Who knew a few white lies could do so much? Ha!" Nepgeo clearly felt proud of herself for thinking this up, and it was working too! That's always the hard part! "Well, nothin' left to do now but to finish this sentence uninter-"

CRASH! "HALT!"

"... Well, shit."

Like Underling before her, Nepgeo found herself pinned against a wall in her apartment. It was quite painful, mind you, but Geo didn't have time to complain as she had a scissor blade pressed against her neck. Oh yeah, and Cave was giving her a very scary look.

Needless to say, Nepgeo was scared.

"Do not even think about resisting. We know you are guilty." Cave gave her an icy stare.

"U-Uh..." Quick, Geo, think of an excuse! "I-I don't know wha-" The Nepgear lookalike had the blade pressed closer to her neck when she tried to deny. "H-Hey, isn't this against s-some kind of law!?"

"Against civilians, yes. Criminals on the other hand..."

"At ease, Cave..." IF walked in through the hole Cave made, looking positively amused. "With that level, she couldn't even stand up to a Dogoo. She ain't going anywhere."

Begrudgingly taking her friends word for it, Cave let Nepgeo go. She scrambled on the floor and backed up against a wall, fearful.

"H-Hey, what the hell is-"

"Save it." IF shut Nepgeo up. "We know you did it, so there's no reason to say you didn't."

"H-How can you prove it? I-I could just be an innocent bystander!"

Cave growled, but IF kept her at bay. "Your friend, Underling? Yeah, she spilled."

Nepgeo's eyes widened, but she tried to save face. "Y-You're seriously gonna believe h-her!?" She had no problem throwing Underling under the bus.

"As a matter of fact, we are." IF looked smug.

"Underling had supplied vital evidence..., her cellphone." Cave shared the smugness. "As it turns out, you were very talkative on Yipe."

Nepgeo's face fell, knowing full well she had been caught. She also felt very, very betrayed. She couldn't really think about it though, for IF's smug nature had doubled.

"Oh yeah, and you're under arrest." IF pulled out a pair of handcuffs. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll look great in prison orange."

"... Well, shit."

JAIL TIME!

In a matter of one scene change, Nepgeo was literally thrown into a jail cell, courtesy of Cave.

"Ow! My face!" Nepgeo whined. The cell closed and locked.

"Let's see. Cyber terrorism, 10 years... Endangering a small child's health and safety, 15 years... Purposefully sabotaging and endangering a CPU, one life sentence..." Cave was going over her sentences, enjoy herself very much as she watched Nepgeo's face contort into horror.

"Wait, you can't do this! I'm too sexy to be put in jail!"

"You should of thought about that before you decided to mess with a CPU." said a wicked and amused IF. "Well, see ya when you get out. Oh wait..." IF laughed, and the two made their exit. Nepgeo was left putting dents in the handlebars with how hard she was gripping it, silently swearing revenge...

"You bitches are gonna regret this, mark my word..."

"You there! No plotting diabolical schemes after noon!"

"... Sorry, ma'am."

To say Vert was anxious would be a heavy understatement. When she got word from IF that she and Cave had apprehended Nepgeo and gladly put her in prison, she had been pacing back and forth in anticipation. She was wearing a groove in the floor with all of her pacing.

"U-Um, Lady Vert?"

"Yes, Lyrica?"

"Y-You've been pacing for the last ten minutes. I-I think you need to calm down..."

In truth, Vert could do anything but calm down. With her fellow CPUs promoting the hell out of Leanbox, along with Nepgeo being arrested and the rumors being deleted, it was only a matter of time before Vert would get her Shares back. She was already feeling stronger, though it was in increments. It was only a matter of time...

Vert cast a look towards Verna for what had to be literally the millionth time. Undoubtedly, Vert was waiting for the moment when Verna would open her eyes and wake from this nightmare. She wanted to hear her voice, see her smile again. It had only been several hours, but to Vert they could have been centuries. That Dogoo of hers was still beside her, like the loyal pet it was. Chika had shared Vert's anxiety, impatiently tapping her foot while she stared at the sleeping Verna. Time seemed to stand still, and Vert had half a mind to whack time with her lance repeatedly until it decided to move again.

Fortunately, IF and Cave came through the door just then, and Vert stopped her pacing for once, hoping for good news.

"With that Nepgeo locked up tight, it's only a matter of time before Leanbox gets its Shares back.

Vert sighed. Though she was hearing what she had been told before, it relieved her when she saw the Share chart steadily go back up for Leanbox.

"How did this 'Nepgeo' manage to evade being spotted?" asked MAGES. "Surely someone could have tracked her down..."

IF held a device in her hand, which basically looked like scrap metal. "Jammer. She wanted to make sure she wasn't being followed, plus, she used a lot of different Chirper accounts, so nobody could trace the rumors back to her.

"I suppose I have Underling to thank for being cooperative..." mused Vert. "Heavens, I'd never thought I say that."

"Nobody did..." IF sighed. "All that's left now is..." All eyes trained on Verna's sleeping form. Vert always struggled to keep her composure whenever she looked at the comatose Verna, even with Chika comforting her the way she was.

"All we can do is wait, I'm afraid...," said Vert, "... and pray that she wakes up soon."

And so, time decided to mess with Vert and move as slowly as humanly possible. No amount of foot tapping or pacing could speed up the very long minutes ahead of them. For Vert, every second where Verna wasn't awake was pure agony. She still felt so weak...

"WOAH!" 5pb's sudden yell broke the tense silence in the room, making Vert jump in her seat. "Look at the Share chart!"

Everyone turned their heads towards said chart... and saw something very surprising.

"Oh!" It was at that point Vert felt a sudden surge of power and strength flow through, no longer feeling weakened or fatigued. "A-A sudden surge!?"

"Yes!" One minute Leanbox was crawling up to 5%, now they sat at 50%! "T-The other CPUs must be doing one hell of a job!" said IF

"I highly doubt getting our Shares at a record high was their intention..." said Cave, "but their efforts were successful, nonetheless."

Vert didn't care how it happened, she was thankful anyway. Which meant...

"W-What's ev'ryone doin' here...?" A very tired and very young voice came from Verna's bed. "Is ther' a sleepov'r...?"

All the occupants in the room, trained their shocked gazes towards the bed. Sure enough, there was Verna, looking much healthier and rubbing her eyes. She did look very tired, and confused when everyone stared at her.

"What...?"

"VERNA!" Vert was the first to run up to the tiny Candidate and embraced her. She was crying. "V-Verna, o-oh thank Goddess... y-you're..."

"S-Sis...?" The still sleepy Verna looked up at her older sister. "What's wrong...?"

"N-Nothing's wrong, my darling sister..." Vert cradled her. "If anything, everything is right..."

"Okay..." Verna, being the little kid she was, accepted it. "Sis...?"

"Yes, Verna?"

"I'm hungry..."

There was a collective chuckling around the room. "Of course, you can have whatever you want."

"Yaaaaay..."

The other occupants, particularly Cave, kept their emotions in check as the watched the Leanbox family head off to the kitchen. Chika had taken to hugging her now, both women clearly happy beyond belief. For Cave, there was plenty of time to celebrate later. It helped that Verna didn't seem to remember being in a coma. It was like it never happened, and Cave preferred to keep it that way.

In the kitchen, Verna was going through the cabinets, looking for her favorite snacks and drinks, while the pair of Leanbox women watched fondly.

"I really wish she wouldn't eat so much junk," said Vert, "but I'm too happy to care right now."

"Likewise." commented Chika. "We'll have to go shopping again."

"Indeed."

You would think that this would signify a happy ending for the Leanbox family, but fate had one last twist for Vert. For example, Vert heard footsteps come from down the hall to the right, where the room where her Sharicite was located. Okay, that was odd, Vert hadn't seen anyone enter or leave there...

It got even weirder, when a girl Vert had never seen before walked down the hallway, appearing to have just woken up. Vert was about to ask Chika, or even Verna, if she had invited someone over, when the CPU noticed some... very frightening similarities.

The girl had blonde hair tied in two thin pigtails, with blue eyes and appeared to be Nepgear's age, but her chest was bigger. She wore a classic, formal Leanbox outfit that Vert herself would have picked out for the girl, if she had known her. She looked... lost and confused, and her D-Cup breasts jiggled slightly whenever she moved her body or turned her head. The most concerning thing, however, was that she looked scarily like Vert...

No...

It couldn't be...

"Darling, do you see her too...?" A flabbergasted Chika spotted the mystery girl, and she too noticed the eerie similarities.

Vert was stunned. She had a dream about this once, a dream where she had two little sisters, instead of just Verna. She knew it made her look greedy and ungrateful, even though she was far from being either of those, and thus never brought it up. But now, when she looked at the girl, when she noticed the similarities and put the pieces together...!

Vert only whispered. "It can't be..."

The girl looked towards the pair. Verna was still unaware, entirely focused with her snacks. The girl blinked in confusion, then waved meekly.

"Uh... Hi."

To be continued...