The Reality Vortex: Red Reputations

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"Right. I won't waste any time then." Bage didn't seem to notice the impressive size and complexity of the command center due to his face looking over all his previous notes and findings he had jotted down. He turned to the others, setting down each of the colorful bottles down onto the table before continuing. "My investigation started as a rescue for the people who had been disappearing in the Metropolis. As my team dove deeper into the mystery, I had discovered this single glove left in one of the areas of investigation, I believed it to be a glove from one of the victims but it moved like a living creature and attached itself to my hand. I haven't been able to pull it off since then." As Bage mentioned the glove, he raised his right hand and demonstrated that the glove was in fact stuck to his hand by tugging on it with his left. "I then later found out that this glove was a key to opening these bottles specifically. This bottle collection is a series of messages from a man who had first discovered and studied the Red King from the vey beginning. Logs of it wandering in a wasteland all the way up to it creating the Xy'pher army that attacked us. It learned and adapted, using telepathy and other psychic abilities to average at least 200 new soldiers in the span of 2 days as the record shows."

The junior detective stopped his pacing for a moment, turning to Cayde and coming back to the point he mad about the little goblins. 

"As you mentioned before, Cayde, those little buggers are the reason for this fast paced creation. It even used the abandoned vortex coins for the the experimentation with black crystals in creating the even stronger Xy'phers that we know as Elites and Berserkers."

Bage sighed, finally coming back to the elite that they had faced in the Metropolis city. "Which brings us back to the one we met back in the Metropolis. Like I had mentioned to Spawn before, this Xy'pher mentioned it had a sister that had also been raiding other cities in the name of the King. He mentioned that his sister saw two of the members of the Breakers in another city that are believed to have been Cuki and another unidentified member as well. But none of that information confirmed whether they were captured or not, but based on the numbers we had to deal with, its likely that they have been taken."
 
Rogue City

“If I wanted your personal opinion, I would’ve asked. Your words are laced with shortsighted understanding, and clearly lacks vision.” Lucifer paused for a second. “Obviously, no pun intended.”

Lucifer was not surprised that Zenta offered this kind of reaction. That kind of response was all too common among his journey back in his original universe, so he did not expect anything different. Certainly, the angel was not here to argue his case about the matter because there was no need. Instead, he carefully listens to Zenta’s wording which prompt him to smile and stopped walking.

“But you are entitled to your opinion.” Lucifer lowered his eyebrows. “Which, I wonder, if you speak from experience. And that is odd because it goes against what that purple man said. Your universe was caught in a disaster whereas it fails to evolve due to Gods’ interference and the monster cast off to the abyss. Which, again, I find it absolutely pathetic.”

Placing his index finger and thumb underneath his chin, Lucifer’s smile continued on. It was the combination of curiosity and pride beaming through the angel; his blue eyes glistering towards Zenta upon preparing his next response. “For someone that claims to know nothing about your own universe, and simply interested in fatherhood and training, you speak with authority on the matter. Tell me, were you a “bigger fish”, Zenta?”

Rogue City Command Center

“Clearly, this King has been planning this for a while.” Detective Spawn said. “I’ve always wondered what ugly mug will think of the great idea to take over this place. But why?” He asked, but he already knew the answer. Rather, the phrasing of his question spoke more with why risk something that could had enemies that can stopped him in his tracks. Based on Bage’s reports, the Red King is seemingly moving at a pace to drown out cities and kidnapping people using, of what Spawn described as, “little shits”, to bloat his forces even further.

“Tsk… psychic abilities?” Spawn said. “Argh... those are the powers I find to be an absolute pain in the ass… but that explains how he’s making those things. Definitely explains the Black Crystals… though I’m surprised he didn’t kill himself as he did that.” The Detective thought, turning to Bage when he said he could not take off the gloves, but did allowed him to find bottles left behind by the author.

What really stuck out was that they had captured two of the Breakers. “Cuki… and Cross?” He said, noticing that he was not around as well. “That is a problem if he already got his hands on them.”
 
Bernkastel rubbed the back of her head, shuffling her feet a bit from Avalon's praise. She still wasn't used to hearing anyone give her their thanks. "You say odd things..." she then gave a small shrug and a quiet hum of acknowledgement at the last part. Like she wasn't sure of that anymore; only for a few moments her gaze moved towards Gogeta before staring ahead once more. "Who knows? Maybe with this Xy'pher business we'll find out sooner or later who's been brought here."

Berserk's eyes widened as Spina suddenly came through the wall of fire, practically parting the stream with his arm. The second he did it, the flames instantly disappeared into thin air. For only a moment she stood staring back at Spina in silence, mouth open with residual smoke seeping out. Shocked, Berserk grasped her throat as if something invisible were strangling her. The air around her became a vacuum.

Bernkastel stared with the same surprise; she realized this was the same technique he had used on Gogeta. Gogeta was quick on his feet at the time but he was only buying time. Berserk couldn't possibly survive this attack without a similar trick. She wore a grim expression. "What's she doing just standing there? She'll die if she doesn't move..." the witch stepped forward thinking she would have to break it up, but stopped when Berserk shook her head defiantly.

"'No'?! Are you a fool?" To Bernkastel, it looked like she would collapse any second.

Berserk didn't say anything, or rather she couldn't. Continuing to struggle for breath, Berserk fell onto her two knees in front of Spina. Then with a sudden speed she whipped her head up to look Spina right in the eyes with a playfully conniving smile.

"Just kidding!"

Without missing a beat, she stood up and fired a bright red beam from her eyes into Spina's right shoulder through his arm. "Cute trick, old man-- but I don't need air!"

Bern stood in disbelief at the sight before shielding her eyes from the brightness of Berserk's eye beam. "I can't see a thing! What just happened? Spina?!" she called out.
 
Hyperbolic Vortex Chamber

“An Saiyan who lack the instincts of battle don’t deserve to live. Consider yourself lucky that I don’t want to lower myself to dispose trash like you.”

A sentence ringing Spina’s head upon seeing Berserk’s smile, seeing that his Oxygen Destroyer had completely and utterly failed. As a wall of red splash in front of him, his right arm was seemingly ripped off from his body. Everything around the man was complete silence until the sounds of his right arm hitting the ground reaches his ears.

Spina is a complicated man with conflicting events regarding his life. Throughout his adventure so far with the Breakers, he’d hardly ever express his feelings that isn’t overly nonsensical. Furthermore, he started to experience something “new”, that he doesn’t understand or want too. Friends was an “out of the world” concept in his eyes, even accounting for Kai, and despite his own words, the way he sees it as mere beneficial to his cause or righting the wrongs to atone for his mistakes. He would constantly try to hold them back, and when it slips, he either downplays it or it is usually loaded with absurd meanings because he does not know how to properly express them without hurting the others. His interaction with Bernkastel, Cuki and Gogeta highlighted his confused stances and positions.

Seeing Berserk successfully countered him, the Saiyan darted his eyes to the right to see his missing arm as pool of blood started to squirt out. His body shivered upon seeing it but not out of fear, but excitement. Taking a few steps back, the Saiyan fell on his knees as his wound still critical as he took another look at Berserk. Grinding his teeth, Spina let out a blood curling scream as his pressure around him spiked significantly, letting out how exactly he felt from that attack.

Lilith slithered in between Avalon and Bernkastel, positioning her body in a way to focused on the battle between Berserk and Spina. There, from her snake eye, she will see it clearly. Her eyes narrowed upon the “dangerous pressure” that just spiked.
 
Zenta listened to Lucifer until he began to mention and talk about him being a bigger fish. The question itself involved a slight reaction from the beast and made his fur rustle briefly. Even when Lucifer stopped walking, Zenta continued forward just a few steps and kept his back to the Angel. There was a long silence between the two as a smile formed on Zenta's face. It was hard to tell if he was just smiling or if he had a smirk. Either way, he did not let Lucifer see his face, at least not right away.

"Perhaps you are right, Lucifer, I may not understand a few things, at least compared to you. As for my universe, well, it is quite unfortunate that it suffered at the hands of a monster, but I was not focused on silly legends that may or may not have happened. Even if I was, what was I to do?" Zenta chuckled before turning back to face Lucifer directly, his smile never leaving. "Authority? Experience? You mean my view on anarchy and chaos? Ohoho, you are mistaken, Lucifer. I speak not from experience but from an idealistic view. I simply assume that with no order to keep anything balanced, the universe would be a bloody one."

Zenta paused briefly before looking up at the sky.

"Bold of you to assume I was a bigger fish at one point, Lucifer, though, I should not be surprised. I suspected as much that you would hold some doubt to my words, but it is true. My past was nothing special, at least prior to meeting Cuki. I lost my wife and child and ventured off after I lost my vision. I crafted my skills and regained a new type of vision. I was truly nothing special compared to others," Zenta took a step closer to Lucifer, facing him directly as the Angel's face reflected off of the beast's visor. "Still, I know my dull words do not fancy that creative imagination you hold. Instead, I will be direct with you, Lucifer; Do you think I am capable of being a 'bigger fish'? What are you implying I am..?"


Whoa, Berserk's a lot tougher than I gave her credit for! Kinda makes me a bit jealous...

Avalon continued to cheer for Berserk until his look matched Bernkastel's. Upon the Witch mentioning that Berserk would die, he instantly grew cold and immediately rose to his feet. He watched her suffer until she fell on her knees, something that brought a hot sensation from the center of his gut. Images began to flash in his mind as he saw a ghostly image of his younger sister in a similar position to Berserk. When he turned his head to Spina, he saw Talis, the man who took his sister away. His breathing began to quicken as he reached for his scroll in an attempt to help Berserk. His vision started to blur out and falter until...

Just Kidding!

The elf snapped back to his senses upon seeing Berserk pulling a trick on them, and he gasped as he nearly intervened with her fight. For a brief second, he remained completely still to take back his surroundings. Pulling his hands up he realized that he was shaking and even sweating. Glancing back at the fight, he noticed Berserk fire laser beams from her eyes which blinded him for a few seconds. When he came back to witness the fight, Spina's arm was completely gone!

"Gwah! Berserk chopped Spina's other arm off!" Avalon cried out. "He's back to having one arm again! A bit overboard, don't you think?!"
 
"What're you yellin' for, it ain't like he'll die or anything! If I wanted to do that I woulda just gone for his head," Berserk turned towards Avalon and pointed over to Spina as she yanked her sword out of the ground. Unlike Bern and Avalon's alarmed demeanors, she wasn't very concerned about how dangerous the match was actually getting. "Also he started it! It's still there, we'll just put it back on. He can practice using his new arm, no big deal!"

Bernkastel stared blankly at Spina's dismembered limb while the younger ones bickered with each other. His screaming rang in her head as the sight unearthed more unpleasant memories of the Doom battle. The arm was still there, on the floor. Or was it not? Spacing out at the severed arm, the witch covered her ears to block out the screams.
 
Rouge City

Lucifer chuckled once after hearing Zenta’s response. “It was merely a question, since I doubt someone that truly live an uninteresting life would hold such views. So, if it was just an observation from your part, then so be it.”

The angel was amused when Zenta approached him face to face to ask the question. “Don’t misunderstand my wording, Zenta. I don’t need to have doubts on a person’s word; those speaking such already done so.” Lucifer stared directly onto the beast’s visor. “And you assure me that you have no doubts behind those statements, right? Then there should be no problems.”

Lucifer rubbed his chin. “Like you said. You live an uninteresting life, so you being a bigger fish seems incompatible with you. So, don’t worry about the implications. I don’t mean to imply. That’s not my intentions.” The angel turned around and let his wings spread out for a little stretch. “But I do want to know though.”

The angel turned his head towards Zenta with a devilish smile on his face; eyes beaming with curiosity. “How did you enjoy the agonize sounds of living things dying in your wake? And how long did it took you for you to drown out those sounds, Zenta?”

Hyperbolic Vortex Chamber

Veins erected across both sides of Spina’s face as his left arm closely reached over the right side and held a tight gripe on his shoulder. After a few moments, Spina’s screams cease as he stared blankly towards the white void in the sky.

His left-hand soaking with the blood, Spina began to let out a rough, dry laugh. “You should have.” He responded to Berserk’s remark. The Saiyan furrowed his eyebrows as he let out another blood-curling scream. From his upper torso and above, there was a clear presence of veins spreading around, bulging as his energy spiked even further until a pulse of black energy emitted from his body. The pulse of energy spread across the Hyperbolic Vortex Chamber, changing the environment to a “grayish” scenery. Spina’s eyes darted to multiple different directions until his pilpuls vanished; both corners of his mouth have saliva turned into foam as he continued his screams and his body started to distort radically.

Immediately, Spina releases several pulses of energy that continue to change the environment: from dark green, to dark yellow, to dark purple. His hair started to rise, changing from black to pure gold and his body tighten to have a more muscular tone. The final pulse did not expand but rather stuck in the vicinity of Spina as it billowed around him. The dark aura briefly took a strange shape: a gigantic figure that let out a scream of its own, unleashing a thunderous presence, hurling sparks of lightning everywhere.

Soon, the chamber returned to its original colors and the aura vanished with Spina standing on his feet in his transformed state: Super Saiyan. His eyes rolled back into the correct position, sporting a red glow rather than the cyan color. Raising his head, the Saiyan stare towards Berserk with a malicious smile. Suddenly, his right arm regenerated as opposed to merely reattaching it. Spina let out a cackle as electricity sparks around his body. A wave of "dark presence" was all that can be felt from the old Saiyan: murderous intent was on full force. He let out a deep breath as a wave of fire erupted from his mouth as he bear his sharpened teeth.

“Let’s continue our brutality, Berserk."

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As opposed to his signature move where he created 24 orbs, hundreds of them appeared behind him instead. The old Saiyan observed Berserk’s blade, prompting him to raise his left arm. Most of the orbs smashed together around his arm, forming a giant blade in similar to that of Berserk. “Rising Star! Brutal Blade.”

Spina dashed forward, headbutting Berserk against her face to push her back. "Arghhh!!! Hahahahaha!!!" He out a devastating scream before it turned into a laughter as he chased after her. Dragging his blade against the ground, leaving a trail of fire in its wake, he zig-zagged around, attacking Berserk in multiple directions before leaping in the air. He spins around before swinging down his blade towards her, aiming straight for the neck as he laugh manically.
 
Bage shook his head at the suggestion that Cross could have been captured. "Cross was with us the time that the Xypher mentioned anything about the 2 Breakers and he had left the group after that battle. I do hope he's fairing well... At least surviving." Bage ran through his notes, not having any information about this other missing breaker. "Maybe the Elite had something wrong. Cuki is the only other Breaker. Unless it could have mistook Ultraman or some other 'superhero' for a breaker, which may not be too farfetched. All we can do his anticipate the worst and hope for the best unfortunately. This trainingnis really the best we can do for now...?"
 
Rogue City Command Center

Cayde rubbed his chin, staring on as Bage finished his explanation and presented his theory.

"I don't know...those things seem to be replicas of the people they've taken. Every single one of them had faces; they even looked like real people under all that weird crystal stuff going on. Sure there were a lot of them...but if they managed to turn a couple of Breakers, then we wouldn't have made it out of there alive."

He paused for a moment, leaning forward and tapping through some key inputs on the table.

"Cross wouldn't ever get captured either; the guy is too smart and has too many people working for him to get caught out like that. So let me pull up some stuff here...one second..."

Above the holoimage of Reality Metropolis, a sudden rectangle image of a video feed began to play for the four gathered in the command center. It appeared to be a camera angle from a building near Cuki's apartment, turned down towards the city street. A crowd of onlookers had gathered in front of the apartment, and in the center of the group were three notable individuals. Standing in a face off were Gogeta and Panich, preparing to lunge into combat while Ultraman could be seen silently yelling and protesting the injustice of being denied a battle with the Breakers.

Cayde turned his head up, soon freezing the image frame on the Saiyan princess and zooming in to give the others a closer look at her face.

"This video came from awhile ago; probably about a day or so before the Breakers made their return and started ransacking Metropolis. The boss wanted to get some insight on that Gogeta fella, since they knew each other apparently from a different universe. But I remember recording this video awhile ago, and there was another person who came out to see the Breakers with Gogeta and Ultraman."

He gestured up to the picture of the woman.

"I'm not sure who she is; we only got a few recordings of her. But she is a Saiyan...so she'll probably pack a pretty mean punch if we have to run into her in that Xy'pher army."

Cayde paused for a moment, and without waiting for the other detectives to comment, he switched the image next to a far away panel shot of the Breakers moving about their daily lives.

"Both of those girls are pretty tough; that Cuki and this other Saiyan would be a major problem for us to deal with. But there's one more Breaker we don't have any account for."

The final still managed to freeze on a very blurry and far away shot of Whis; the man's hair style adding feet to his already tall height and long orb staff being the only two points recognizable in the still. The image taken showed him in a city street not too far from Kuzuki's card shop during the first encounter with Blank Guy, yet his attention was focused entirely elsewhere from the ensuring chaos and the Breakers nearby.

"Vegetto tried to have me follow this guy for awhile, but the big thing is that I could never pick him up on the simulation generators that mapped out the city for us. So I tried getting stills, but the guy moved way too fast for me to follow."

Cayde glanced around.

"Boss told me his name, but it sounded like a code designation I used to use in the army and I forgot what his name was, so I just call him 'Whiskey'. Apparently this guy trained the boss and Gogeta to be as strong as they are, and even fought one on one with Doom for awhile during the final battle. So if this guy is as strong as Boss says he is and he's the final Breaker under the King's control, then we're gonna have a serious problem on our hands."

He glanced between Spawn and Bage, his hands gripping onto his utility belt.

"I also don't know much about the undergrounds; the generators don't work below surfaces so I couldn't pick anything up down there. But if we can get into Reflection City without being noticed, I can start setting up some generators to get an eye for the city sooner than later. They've got limited range so I needed a total of seven to cover Metropolis, and if Reflection City is bigger, then I'll need more time to get some stuff out there to set up so we can plan this fight. We can trust those Breakers to be our muscle, but it's not gonna make a damn difference if we don't start using our brains to plan out a way to thin out the army coming for us."

Cayde nodded back to the image above.

"Especially not if we're gonna have to expect Elites and a couple of Breakers that the King already has."



Hyperbolic Vortex Chamber

Vegetto crossed his arms, nodding in reply. The energy distortion of Spina's transformation began once Vegetto spoke again, his eyes narrowed with his back to the ensuring battle while his hair and gi rippled under force of the winds.

"Good. Then the first thing you should know is that Ultra Instinct relies on your ability to feel the flow of combat around you. In every conflict, even magical ones, you will notice there is an energy to it that you can sense. You may not have experience with it, but if you search for it, you can find anything as everyone fights with some tool to enhance themselves."

He raised his right hand up, a finger pointing to the sky.

"That is why this technique is so effective; in battle, you can avoid any danger if you sense your opponent properly. So the first thing we're going to do, is feel out the flow of combat between these two. I want you to do your best to sense and understand everything that both fighters are doing, not just one or the other. If you can do that, then you'll be ready for the next step."

Gogeta frowned in reply; the idea of studying combat less than ideal for what he expected the training to entail. He blinked for a moment, seeing the level of damage having been exerted on Spina, and turned back to Vegetto with a raised eyebrow.

"Shouldn't we try and be ready for it on a physical side first?"

"No."

The curt and quick response from Vegetto caught Gogeta off guard, the Potara fusion's eyes narrowed heavily onto the other fusion.

"You don't need more physical training. You need to practice discipline; close your eyes and try to sense out this fight."

Gogeta kept his frown, but slowly shut his eyes at the command. Vegetto's attention turned to Brachi next; a small nod to the latter as a silent command to begin the training as well.
 
Listening to Lucifer explain his wording and he wondered if there was anything deeper to what he meant. Trying not to overthink his actions, Zenta's ear perked up slightly when he listened to Lucifer's final words. A slight chill went up his spine, but not from anger or fear. More like annoyance. In a way, he seemed offended and confused that Lucifer thought that way about him, but then he remembered that this was Lucifer he was talking to. Suddenly, his mouth opened to let out a loud laugh, louder than anything he was previously known for. It was humorous to see Zenta laughing as hard as he did, despite him trying to hide it. Either way, Lucifer's words genuinely confused him, mostly because he had no idea what he was talking about.

"Ahaha! Oh, oh dear! You certainly do have a wild imagination, Lucifer!" Zenta said as he placed a hand on Lucifer's shoulder. "You suspect me of being a killer of some sort? I presume my appearance does me no favor." He removed his hand from Lucifer. His tone turned a little dark and his ears lowered, showcasing a bit of sadness behind his words. "But I will not deny hearing such screams or drawing blood in my past... Rest assured it was not from mindless murder, or whatever your creative mind might conjure up. To answer your question, no, I do not enjoy the sounds of agony that living creatures make. With ears as big as mine, it is hard to drown out that noise..." The beast sighed. "I can still hear the last breath of my wife and child to this day, it is not something you can brush off your shoulder. I just learned to deal with it and, eventually, accept it. It wasn't easy, but it had to be done if I were to move on."

Zenta took a step back from Lucifer and stretched his tails similar to how the Angel stretched his wings. In an odd way, Zenta seemed comfortable around the Angel, or at least confident he wouldn't hurt him. Still, Lucifer's curiosity and motives got Zenta thinking. Each question was meticulously asked in order to gain knowledge about him or his past in some way, and the way Lucifer twisted words ever so slightly to touch at his morals was something he caught on. So far, Zenta answered Lucifer's questions and corrected his statements truthfully but threaded very cautiously at the topic of his background, something he assumed Lucifer to notice about him. He disliked talking about his past, wishing to keep it a mystery to everyone around him.

"I suspect you of trying to dig up information about my past. Does it really interest you so much or is it because you want to confirm your beliefs about...something?" Zenta held up a finger, wagging it no. "I am afraid this is something I will not divulge so easily with you, Lucifer, if at all. I will defiantly stand in your way should you try to stick your nose somewhere it doesn't belong. It is not because I don't trust you, but rather I wish to keep my origins a mystery to everyone. What I did in my past should not matter to those around me." Zenta's tail landed gently in his palm as he casually picked out any pieces of dirt and debris he felt on it. "Though I already assume you think of me as a killer, despite what I say. I suppose I did not make it any better for myself either, ohoho!"

He managed to pluck a small insect that was hiding in his fur and held it between his thumb and index finger. He then crushed the bug with ease as he tossed it to the ground, never taking his gaze of Lucifer.

"I will say one thing, however, I really don't like parasites digging into my fur..." His smile turned to a wide grin, matching that of Lucifer's. He chuckled, cleaning his hand on his pants. "Any who, before we depart, I do have one final thing to bring up. Your student, Naoki the Demi-Fiend, does he share the same god-hating ideology you have? If so, do you believe he would hold a grudge against Cuki and hunt her down? You are aware she holds a special Being within her, yes? Call it whatever you wish, I believe you hate Byakko all the same."


S-Something is really off with the Boss..! He's not usually this angry...

Avalon shivered at the 'dark presence' that came from Spina. Every move the Saiyan made scared him and made him believe that he was no longer the same person from before. While he was skeptical of Spina dying in the first place, there was something about him now that made him reconsider. Just like Bernkastel, he covered his ears upon Spina letting out another roar of excitement. His eyes quickly traveled to Berserk and her confident persona against Spina. Everything around him filled him with uncertainty and worry, yet he believed the Powerpunk would be fine.

Bernkastel is here in case things get out of hand, so everything will be fine, right..? He took a side glance at Bernkastel before turning back to Spina and his animalistic tendencies. But this is something completely new..! What's going on with the Boss? He's so full of... murderous intent!

The form that took shape behind Spina's body caught Avalon by surprise, and he quickly assumed that his energy had a mind of its own. It was so tall and the way it looked down at the people in the chamber sent nothing but dread up his spine.

"Bernkastel! D-Does he normally act like this?!" He then pointed at the dark figure behind Spina. "What the heck is that? I'm gettin' some serious murder vibes from that thing! S-Should we stop this fight? It's not lookin' too good and I'm not liking how this is goin..!"
 
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