The Reality Vortex: Red Reputations

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"Still sleeping like a log. What an oaf." Bernkastel let go of Gogeta's tail as her own flicked irritably. "Alright then, don't say I didn't warn you. Maybe I'll throw in some bats for good measure." With a delighted glint in her eye, Bern reached over to lift a gap in his pants and conjure up the creatures with her magic. She stopped in the midst of her devious prank, however, as she heard the various sounds going on around them. Like cracking from the start of a small earthquake.

"Where is that coming from?" Bern asked aloud, confusion on her face before her eyes widened from the sudden outburst of explosions coming from another floor. With no idea what prompted it or what was causing the noise, Bern looked around the room in alarm before throwing herself underneath a nearby piece of furniture. Were they under attack? Did the Xy'phers manage to get to them already? But just as quickly, the noises had ceased. Cracks were all over the ceiling and so were the windows, but the building didn't crash into rubble like Bern anticipated.

"... is it over? Just what the hell was--" Sensing something strange flare up from the same place the explosion came from, Bern bristled as she refused to move from under the table. "What is that? What's going on?" She continued talking aloud without knowing or checking if Gogeta had woken up.

==========

"Not again! I just cleaned this!" Berserk wiped at her face, having gotten debris and wayward healing tank fluid on her clothing. She was mostly unharmed due to already having been floating, but it still blew her back. Coughing and waving the smoke away, she furrowed her brows. "Whoa, check it out, the old man looks even older than before! And is that a new-- aw come on!" Berserk shut her eyes in disgust. "What's with you guys and not wearing enough clothes?! A-anyway, we're all fine like Mr. Zenta said! Veggytoe said we don't have to worry about anyone finding us while we're here."

She turned toward Vegetto and Cayde. "What'd your eggheads put in that healing juice?" Now that she thought about it, the entire time she was around, Spina's missing arm seemed to be a normal thing for the Breakers. Which in itself was unusual, she was certain most people could regenerate given enough time. She was unaware of the permanent damage Dark Energy could do in the absence of White Energy.
 
The detective worried as the mention of no vital information on the leader of the Breakers. A scowl formed on his face as Lucifer uttered his "joke". There was never a dull moment with the angel. But Bage decided not to let it rile him up, especially since his attention was shifted suddenly at the shaking of the room. He barely had time to react before the medical tank had exploded before all of them. Bage covered his face with his arms and skid back near where Lucifer was safe behind his barrier, only lowering his arms when the flying of debris subsided.

"Spina..!?" He opened his eyes slowly but then widely when the smoke cleared, seeing the older Saiyan with his new arm and all. He could feel himself breaking into a cold sweat at this intimidatingly new spur of energy that emitted off Spina. He seemed completely different, there was no doubt about that. What was this transformation? As the others greeted the leader like normal, he shook the thought off and waited for Spina to answer Zenta's question while still examining the changes in his features. Only turning his eyes away when Berserk mentioned Spina's body was bare and the disappearing smoke confirmed the statement. "Right... Are you feeling okay?"
 
Spina slightly turned towards Zenta. From the old Saiyan’s perspective, everyone in the room briefly looked like scribbles, their bodies violently going outward and inward as they stare at him; with Avalon, it was like seeing a mixture of two individuals on top of each other. Blinking once, their bodies changed back to normal, to something he recognized.
 
“Yes…” Spina responded to both Zenta’s and Bage’s question. “I am fine. I see that all of you have survived as well.” He paused for the moment as he closed his eyes as if he were sensing something. “So, we aren’t around Xy’phers.” He seems a little off in terms of his mannerism.

Lucifer’s eyes widened with a gleeful smile on his face. It is hard to grasp whether the angel was surprised or excited upon what he just saw when Spina emerged from the tank. Just like Berserk, he had assumed Spina always had one arm, and was lost at some point back at his home world. The fact that it regrew is completely new information to him and continues to pique his curiosity. Did the healing tank regenerate his arm, or something else entirely is going on in the background? There were questions that Lucifer thought of, but there was information that he knows based upon Spina’s sudden change of appearance.

Opening his eyes as the redness continues to shine, Spina turned back to the group. “Where’s Cross?”

“He had to check on something personally…” Lucifer said, still standing behind the group. “We don’t know when he’ll be back, but he’s fine.” The angel squinted his eyes, his smile still present. He went ahead and asked a straightforward question. “How does death feel?”

“I see. At least Cross is safe.” Spina’s eyes drifted to the right, mainly towards new people like the doctors and Cayde. He paused for a second when Lucifer asked a question. Not looking at anyone in particular, he uttered one word: “Underwhelming.” Spina then noticed Vegetto was among them. There was no apparent expression nor reaction upon seeing someone after so long, lowering his left arm.
 
Brachi chuckled a little at this exchange, but her ear also caught [font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Berserk [/font]initial complaint about the way the group was dressed.

"Well, Berserk, I have to point out that all of us got woken up rather violently because a CERTAIN someone decided to play gunslinger in our vicinity," She said, "had we not been attracted to the news of Spina's condition I am certain we would have the time to dress up more properly."

Jize chuckled.

"I can use my magic to generate some proper clothing for you all if needed; that takes little effort for me to do." She said.

Bara tilted her head at Spina, as if studying him, clearly mesmerized with the way he was staring at them in kind, wondering what had happened to him.
 
Vegetto immediately narrowed his eyes, his right arm yanking the doctor near him back by the shoulder a bit.

"Get down!"

He crouched down, his arms flying out in opposite directions just as the immense pressure began to boil over.

"Barrier!"

A white half dome shot out from around ten feet in diameter around Vegetto, shielding himself, Cayde, and the doctor that had fallen on his rear. The energy radiated under the debris slamming against it, Vegetto's arms initially trembling to keep the shield strong throughout the display before stabilizing. When the dust settled, Vegetto lowered his arms with the white energy receding in tandem with the motion. He stood up slowly, his eyes narrowed.

Cayde grunted, dusting himself off a bit from the smoke that had accumulated in the now shattered room. He turned to the doctor, nudging him slightly towards the only visible and intact exitway out of the building itself.

"Go on, get everyone out of here."

The android grunted, his eyes turning slightly to the side for a moment in hearing the complaints from Beserk and Brachi.

"Unngh...really? The whole building almost came down and you're still on about my trusty alarm clock waking you u-"

Cayde's eyes were turning in the midst of him talking, but like the others in protest, he immediately stopped speaking at the sight of Spina standing naked only a few feet away.

"Woah!! That is NOT what I wanna see first thing in the morning! Can someone get this guy some pants?!"

Cayde walked slowly out, staring widely around the room and trying to find a member of the staff still present despite having dismissed them all despite Jize's offer due to mostly shock and simply wanting the situation to be handled immediately. While he widely kept proclaiming and asking for anyone to grab Spina a pair of pants, Vegetto stood with his arms crossed with narrowed eyes in studying the change in Spina. The more hostile nature and strange change in pressure surrounding the man was enough to raise concerns, but Vegetto's lips slowly rose into a small smirk.

Despite the ominous change to Spina's energy, the hostile nature of the situation only inspired a long buried memory. In Vegetto's eyes, the room had morphed back into that strange restaurant where he shared a meal with Cross, Cuki and Bernkastel for the first time. The memory had escalated to the standoff upon Spina's arrival, where Vegetto had been lied to by the Voice and was told that Spina was the man carrying the tools that could grant Vegetto the freedom to return home. Nearly standing in identical positions, Vegetto kept his smirk in staring down Spina at eye level as he reminisced on the demand for the other older Saiyan to hand over the tools before their first battle. He stood in silence for a brief moment before letting out a heavy sigh, maintaining his cocky smirk.

"Welcome back to the living."



Gogeta let out a heavy screech, vaulting up out of the bed with the various snakes all curling and coiling inside his pants. He jumped around as the entire building began to shake under Spina's explosive entrance, bouncing around the room and his energy flaring in an attempt to yanking everything out of his pants.

"Gah!! Ackk!!!"

The fusion blasted to the side, however, slamming into Bernkastel and tearing through the entire foundation of the wall with various snakes flying out in every direction while he blasted away with Bernkastel towards the medical bay.



Vegetto's smirk vanished, however, after greeting Spina. He rolled his eyes with a heavy sigh, turning slightly to his right. The fusion cocked his left arm back, no visible signs present to give reason for the others to see why the man was doing such a thing, until Gogeta suddenly tore through the wall behind the Breakers and shot overhead with rubble raining down on them.

Vegetto grunted in a quick, blunt punch; slamming his fist into Gogeta's nose just as the fusion came up on the four. Effectively stopping Gogeta midflight with extensive force, the move dropped both Gogeta and Bernkastel on the floor at Vegetto's feet. Gogeta writhed in pain, gripping his face while a few snakes landed outward on the ground and started to slither around near Bernkastel. A high pitched scream that sounded like a little girl erupted next from Cayde, the android jumping audibly and shaking visibly.

"SNAKES!!!"

Cayde screeched and panted in a frenzied fever, yanking his hand cannon from his holster and violently shooting his gun with loud heavy bangs that rung out inches from Bernkastel. The man shot in a frenzy, attempting to blast and kill every snake that coiled and slithered around Bernkastel's feet without remorse.

The tense and panicked scene did little to sway Vegetto's expression, the Potara fusion sighing heavily in watching the whole scene unfold while Gogeta yelped in fear of potentially being shot himself.
 
Berserk looked on in bemusement, pouting at the odd atmosphere going on between Lucifer, Vegetto, and Spina. "... I don't get it." Before she could ask further on what they were talking about, she stopped and glanced towards the wall as the rumbling noises began from elsewhere. "Do you guys hear something?" Floating away from the wall, Berserk moved out of the way for Gogeta and Bernkastel to bust through the wall and onto the floor.

Bernkastel held her head and coughed breathlessly as though she had just been clotheslined by a quarterback. The wind was evidently knocked out of her, but she barely had time to recover as Cayde screamed next. Flinching from the sudden noises of the revolver going off at her feet, Bern flicked up her wrists to put forth a force field. "Who do you think you're shooting at, you bucket of bolts?!" She shouted angrily as the snakes dematerialized soon after being shot and killed by Cayde's bullets. "They wouldn't have hurt you even if they tried-- you're entirely made of metal!"

Berserk broke into laughter at Gogeta and Cayde panicking, placing a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughing. "Haha, I'm sorry, that was just PRICELESS! 'Eeeeek, snayyyyykes'!" Whoo, I almost busted a lung!" Berserk grinned as she imitated Cayde's reaction, completely forgetting the off-putting air due to the comedy of it. "Where'd they come from?! Your pants?! Wahahaha!"

Bernkastel let a grunt of annoyance as she brushed herself off to stand up. "Well! We had to wake him up somehow-- but I wasn't counting on getting tackled through three different hallways on the way here." As the ruckus died out, Bernkastel noticed Vegetto's gaze before feeling that strange energy again-- except it was right before her. Cautiously, she stepped back into an unoccupied side of the room as if expecting an unknown attacker to ambush them. But everyone seemed fairly unbothered.

Bernkastel locked her eyes on Spina's, silently like she were looking at a stranger. The most apparent change was the new arm on him and Bern stared at it for several moments. Rather than looking relieved or elated about it, she felt suspicion instead-- but did the others feel the same way? Quickly masking her surprise, Bern cleared her throat. "... Pardon my rude staring."
 
While Vegetto bask in the nostalgic memories of their first meeting, Spina; however, remain apathetic. His eyes held Vegetto’s in a head-on stare without saying a word in response to his comment. Perhaps if Spina met Vegetto beforehand or under different circumstances, things would be different, and he might had more to say on the matter. Now, the old Saiyan was seemingly void of expressing himself.
 
Even among the ruckus and chaos that ensues afterwards, with Gogeta and Bernkastel abruptly appearing before everyone after slamming through several walls. As Cayde shrieked in fear and killed all the snakes materialized by the Witch, Spina’s eyes darted away from Vegetto’s, briefly leaving a trail of red streaks, and stared down both Bernkastel and Gogeta. His eyes narrowed upon seeing the two and prompted the Saiyan to speak.

“You are alive as well, Bernkastel.” Spina po-faced as he crafted his words in a harsh manner when Bernkastel apologized for staring. From his perspective, Bernkastel and Gogeta looked like violently scribbles like-figures before returning to their form he had recognized, just as it occurred earlier.

Lucifer smiles once again that Bernkastel, and especially Gogeta, had arrived now. “Oh, arriving in an unusual manner as always.” The angel said. “Come Gogeta, please say hello to the man you so desperately want to defeat and accomplished. Look at the glorious craftsmanship you did on his body. Come, as you recovered your little pain, say hello~!”

Standing firm in his position, he had towered over the Witch and Gogeta easily before making another statement. “Not necessary. These are nothing more than just small remainders.” Body filled with scars, Spina remained unprovoked and unfazed as he waits for a response.
 
As Spina spoke in few words, Zenta kept his unwavering gaze towards the Saiyan, barely shifting his attention to Gogeta and Bernkastel's arrival. He studied everything Spina did, down to his tone of voice. When Lucifer added fuel to the fire, he mentioned an interesting note regarding Spina's scars and his statement regarding how death felt. The beast certainly noticed something different with Spina but it was hard for him to pinpoint what it was, at least as of now. For now, he kept everything to himself, feeling that anything he added would only stress the others.

How did death feel, Spina? Zenta thought to himself, refusing to look away from Spina. This energy of yours... certainly is different. My, my, what secrets will I find in you, Spina...

The beast remained absolutely still, almost motionless as he refused to look away from Spina. Yet, for some odd reason, his fur stood up as goosebumps formed on his arms. He did not understand why he felt a sudden rush but slowly pulled his blind gaze away from Spina, chuckling silently to himself. Without saying a word, the fuzzy man casually made his way to Bernkastel but stopped by Lucifer, placing his hand on the Angel's shoulder. In a very low whisper, similar to earlier, he spoke to Lucifer.

"I would like to talk to you in private, Lucifer," He paused for a brief moment before leaning in closer. "About Spina and those who share bodies... Perhaps it will peak your sadistic interests."

Zenta said nothing more and moved past the angel to eventually make his way to Bernkastel's side, standing to her left with arms behind his back. He returned his gaze to Spina.

"Well then, we should supply Spina with some food, yes? He must be hungry. Perhaps the famous ramen Cayde is eager to have us try will satisfy his needs."

"Welcome back Boss!" Avalon said. "Man, I'm sure glad you're okay! I knew you'd pull through!" He then pulled his scroll to show Spina what he wrote. Inside it, it said: 'Spina will awaken.' The ninja rubbed the back of his head. "I think I'm startin' to figure out how my scroll works. Pops used to say it never records a lie and I think I'm starting to get why. But man, I was startin' to get worried y'know. Even Berserk was worried!"
 
Cayde pouted visibly, the smoke trailing from his gun after emptying the clip.

"Hey! You don't know that; my skin's metal, but one of those slimy things could've taken out my beautiful horn!"

The android groaned a bit, putting away his pistol in its holster while incoherently lamenting about acid melting metal for a few moments. Vegetto's eyes followed Spina throughout the whole scene, however, the smirk remaining despite the ominous changes. The Potara fusion's expression only softened once his peripheral vision caught Gogeta rising up to his feet.

Gogeta stood up slowly, a perplexed stare studying Spina in a similar manner to Bara. He glanced to the side at Lucifer's proclamation, looking around the room as well with a confused stare at the sight of no one acting out at the strange presence radiating from Spina. Gogeta looked on in confusion, the words of 'who is this guy' practically rolling off his body language as the first response to Lucifer's comments. Yet Gogeta's eyes met Spina's once more, and in an instant, a somber stare began to form on his face.

Gogeta stared back for a brief moment, before turning his eyes down slightly in shame. He frowned, glancing to the side in discomfort before slowly turning his head back to Spina with a low dual voice.

"Are you...happy...living like that?"

Vegetto's head lifted back a bit, a confused and condescending contortion of his face forming at an apparent aghast take on Gogeta's question. He kept his arms crossed, opting to speak before Spina could respond.

"What the hell are you talking about?"
 
Bernkastel looked momentarily perplexed at Spina's statement before realizing the last time they had seen each other alive was just before splitting up. Until now, Spina had remained comatose longer than she was. "Shouldn't I be saying that to you? You were in far worse shape when we got here compared to me... though I can't be sure how."

"You're welcome, and you owe ME specifically for not leaving you for dead!" Berserk huffed with her arms crossed. "It wasn't like I was worried for anything other than my own butt, okay?!"

"Right... I'll return your favor somehow, but don't make rescuing cats a habit. It might ruin your image."

"Don't make me look lame!" Berserk stuck her tongue out from Bern's teasing, floating forward to read the scroll's writing. "So you've got a magic lie detector?! Wicked, we wouldn't have to worry about anybody giving us fake intel now." She figured they could test it out on the reports of the person behind the strange bottles.

Meanwhile, Bernkastel in suit followed Vegetto's confused reaction toward Gogeta's sudden question, looking a bit surprised he'd pose such an inquiry at all. "... Seconded. What exactly do you mean 'like that'?" She frowned and quirked a brow.
 
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