The Reality Vortex: Red Reputations

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"Huh? What are you talkin' about?" Avalon tilted his head towards Gogeta's statements. "Why would I want to be like Vegetto? He's nothin' but a lyin' egotistical loser who only cares about himself. I don't even want to be a hero, so what on earth are you even ramblin' about now? Maybe, if you paid attention to Spawn, Cayde, and May, you would know that the reason they are even here is to send the people to safety. Did you zone out, or are you actually that stupid, Gogeta?"

Avalon crossed his arms, taking a brave step towards the Fusion, and counter mocked his gesture and his voice.

"But I get it; you wanna be the 'vain warrior'. You want them all to fear you because you're jealous of Vegetto gettin' the attention, so you’d rather create a bigger problem and whine about how this is everyone's fault but yours. Hey, you're the big, strong warrior pickin' on little kids. Ooooh, scaaaaary!"

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"What about the two Breakers captured by the Xy'phers? Don't you even care about Cuki and what she might be goin' through? That poor girl is in a world of crap with these Xy'phers, and she probably doesn't even know why. I'm tryin' to help her by fixin' this mess one step at a time. You heard what Brainstorm said about her and what she was doin' here, right?" He then laughed. "No, of course not, because you don't give a damn about her. All you care about is Vegetto, and you're jealous of him the same way Cuki was jealous of you. Bah!"

Avalon rolled his eyes.

"Wake up! Cut the conspiracy crap and wake up! You got every single one of the Breakers, even Cuki, in your pathetic lil' squabble, and now we all suffer the same fate. We are in this mess because of you! Everything you did lead up to this, and now you're bitchin' and complainin' about it. Too bad! Accept it and move on like the rest of us! Everyone has given you a second chance, so quit playin' victim. Stop being a whiny cringy kid and grow up, it's embarrassin', honestly."


"Perhaps if you paid a little more attention to what Avalon said earlier, instead of putting him down, then you would know he mentioned a lack of Xy'phers in the city, Vegetto," Zenta added after Vegetto's question, stepping forward and talking to the President. "Avalon mentioned that he suspected the Task Force being responsible for it. He also had a little canary fly around the city where it mentioned to us that people have been disappearing then returning with little to no memory of their abduction."

Zenta then took another step forward, but the guards were quick to put their guns up and aim it at the beast. They seemed to be anxious about him getting too close to the President and took extra precautions in protecting him. Zenta stopped in his place and held up both hands, one holding the scroll, to show he meant no harm.

"Halt! Don't take another step towards the President, Beast!" one guard ordered. "You have associated yourself with the Blue Devil, Bernkastel, and because of that, you will be treated the same as her." The one guard then pointed at the scroll in Zenta's hand with his gun. "What is that object in your hand, Beast?"

"It is a scroll. It holds valuable information recorded by Avalon in his Scroll of Truths. He has been quite diligent of recording things many people tend to ignore, and very adamant about showing people the truth."

"And why should we believe you? What if it's all a lie?"

"Even if you do not believe my word, the Scroll of Truths has been proven not to tell a lie, verified by Detective Spawn and Bage." He held the scroll out to whoever was brave enough to get it. "I believe this scroll has all the events recorded by Avalon's little bird, as well as everything he was scribbling down earlier. He mentioned that it is important you take this information and show it to your people, as well as Vortex, so everyone knows the truth about the dangers they may face. Whatever is in here will 'make him sleep easier for a while', according to him."

The guards looked at each other, debating whether or not to touch the scroll.

"Should we trust it?"

"I don't know, he is Bernkastel's bodyguard... What if it's a trick..?"
 
The Reality News Network Headquarters

Vegetto’s eyes turned to Zenta as he moved forward towards the President, remaining silent at the quip posed. His eyes narrowed at the Scroll mentioned, the immediate notion of simply downplaying the importance of the object as his first instinct due to his overwhelming ego. However, Vegetto remained silent, sating the ego with the thought that shooting down the Scroll provided no advantage to him from his understanding.



The Plaza

Gogeta grunted, his eyes still narrow at Bage’s advice and comments. However, he held his tongue in the comments; the threat of conflict avoided for the first time in Bage’s acceptance of the fusion’s aggressive and destructive methods to a degree.

However, the threat of it being undone spilled through once again when Avalon spoke, Gogeta’s eyes turning to the ninja. He listened with a clearly frustrated stare for the first couple of sentences, but after the direct insult of stupidity, Gogeta’s expression lifted in a smug smirk.

The remaining bout of criticism did nothing to change his confident stare and stance, an aire of superiority in his expression forming rapidly in seeing such a visceral reaction from the ninja, especially at the mention of Cuki. Yet that was all the man gave, Gogeta merely chuckled to himself at Avalon and turned his head away from him in a bid to clearly disrespect the other in another childish mock.

The communications device on Bage soon rung up with a loud speaker volume of Cayde’s voice, cutting in midway to Avalon’s criticism.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re up and running! I-wait, you guys all good over there?”


The Recon Hub

Meanwhile in an open room in an apartment like building, Cayde stood by with Emilyn and May. A massive holographic image appeared from a large projector on the floor, spanning nearly the entire room with a miniaturized map of Reflection City in real time. He tapped onto the comms unit while he spoke, glancing towards the others before continuing off his conversation with Bage.

”Well, detective, just wanted to let you know we’re up and running over here. This thing’s got limited range though, so you guys really gotta be careful not to knock out any buildings when the fighting starts. I know we talked about it already, but just saying it again for you hooligans that like messing things up for people.”
 
The Reality News Network Headquarters

The moment Vegetto spoke in confusion in reaction to the Task Force already dealt with the Xy’phers few months prior, the President began to doubt their reasoning. Hero or not, that was extremely concerning and threw a wrench that whether or not he should take their claims seriously.

“He’s already fucking up.” Detective Spawn thought to himself. “I knew I should’ve had Brachi do the deed.” The Detective realized that he needs to ensure that the President is comfortable of listening to their findings and hear them out. Otherwise, all of this would’ve been a waste of time. Just as Spawn was about to speak, Zenta had already beat him to the punch by trying to preserve the conversation.

President Beard narrowed his eyes when Zenta started to approach them. That alone already made him uncomfortable since he moves on his own accord without regard of the situation around him. “At this point, I could care less of what findings you have. There’s seems to be a lack of confidence lurking among this group, and you’re telling me that one of you was spying on this city? I might as well call the Task Force right now for admitting to such. Whoever this “Avalon” is, perhaps I should put a story about his actions then?” He twirls his giant mustache. “For all I know, you could’ve just lie like the guard’s said and give me a blank piece of paper.”

Detective Spawn, placing Spina on the floor since he wasn’t going anywhere, grabbed the beast by the shoulder and brought him back. “Stay fucking put, beast. You’re not making things better.” He turns to the President Beard. “Listen, this thing is right. We have actual evidence that they’re coming to various cities to take over. We want you to send out a warning so that they’re prepared. They’re mostly likely the culprit behind the kidnappings and—”

Raising his hand to stop the Detective from speaking further. “I’m sure you have quite the evidence, I don’t doubt you. In fact, you wouldn’t be here for the sake of it. But my issue here is the laughable idea that the Breakers are here to save us? Mere seconds ago, everyone was falling apart, even with the great hero Vegetto standing amongst them.” President Beard furrowed his eyebrows. “And don’t think I don’t know some disturbance that happen earlier. I’m sorry, but the lack of confidence is apparent and there’s no leadership here. At all. And you want me to stick my neck out there and say, “don’t worry everyone, the blue devils and Breakers are here to save the day? After this abysmal presentation? Come on, now.”

Spina slowly started to open his eyes.

“I’m sorry Detective, but—”

“Hold it.” Brainstorm interrupted President Beard. “Give me 20 seconds.”

First, Brainstorm approached the guards and forced them back with a shove. “Get back you bunch of nobodies. You’re in my way.”
Seeing a few instances of herself, and background knowledge, Brainstorm had a feeling that Vegetto being put in a position would cause him to possibly lose it. Especially when he seems very agitated when Avalon gave Zenta a scroll to take for the President to see.

But it was not needed right now. To ensure Vegetto and make sure he’s in controlled, the spunky lady placed both hands near his cheeks and give one hard slap to get his attention and take him out of the confusion. “Get a grip and focus. You’re the great hero, remember?” Brainstorm told the fusion with praise in her sentence. “So, act like it. Don’t get your mind scramble in nonsense that doesn’t warranted right now. This is the opportunity to show off your leadership quality and your good side to the President of the RNN and bring some stability for the Breakers. Other things can wait, this is your time to shine. Maintain your focus and sharpened your confidence towards the President. The confidence that you are known for. The confidence I wrote about in your contributions in my articles; otherwise, it’ll make me look bad.” She joked with a smile.

“Now go out there and tell him what’s going down.” She turned Vegetto around and slap his behind as her method of encouragement. “Go get’em tiger.”



The Plaza

“Oh, I do like an appetizer before the big show.” Lucifer added on, seeing Avalon exploded in anger towards Gogeta. A battle was coming forth and wonders if the whole thing was about to blow over now that Vegetto wasn’t in the way to control him. “Perhaps we’ll see the Heroes come out and put a stop to this? Hey, Lilith, do you want to take a bite out of Gogeta? Oh oh ho oh.” He said with a light chuckle, not really favoring either of them. To the angel, both sides seem to be stuck a mindset where they can only see from their own perspectives—perspectives that can be detrimental to solving actual problems. Although as intriguing the events unfolding in front of him, his attention shifted elsewhere.

A hand was placed on Gogeta's shoulder. “I see… you’re still a troublemaker as usual.” A familiar voice was heard towards the Breakers; especially Gogeta and Bage. “I would think Vegetto… would’ve straighten you out, but even that wasn't enough, huh.” Detective Goku said, adjusting his glasses. "...What's the situation... Bage?"
 
The Reality News Network Headquarters

Vegetto blinked once in confusion in seeing Brainstorm approach, staring down at the woman with a furrowed brow while she raised her hands to his face. His eyes widened dramatically, his pupils losing a bit of color from the sudden and intense smack that caused his head to whip to the right. He blinked hard in confusion, slowly turning his head down and lightly touching the side of his cheek that was struck.

Yet the demanding urge to focus from the spunky woman illicited a slow frown to form on Vegetto's expression; his eyes lifting a bit in determination. A surge of pride welled within the man; a desire to capitalize on his fame once more surging within. However, the momentary rise crashed as swiftly as it began from the immediate swirl of horrible memories within Vegetto's mind. His desire to block them out gave way to the crashing waves; an unwinnable situation in his ability to save his image and be exactly what Brainstorm expected of him crashing together. It was only a matter of time before news broke of the "great hero" utilizing a power that marks him as the same class as Gogeta, and sure enough, he knew that losing enough control in a need to use Super Saiyan Blue to contain the other fusion meant his new found philosophy on strength had finally shown its true limitations.

His solemn stare met Brainstorm's eyes, his own shame building in the wordless admittance of defeat to her while he momentarily remained silent. The horrible words and prospects of attempting to salvage his image finally bore down on his mind in the realization of his failure. He glanced down, a desperate attempt to think in his contorted expression.

What do I do? Everyone's counting on me...and I failed them again.

Vegetto raised his head a bit once more after a few seconds of thought, his eyes finding Brainstorm again. A weary, yet firm stare soon replaced the defeated and lost eyes of the fusion. He gently raised his hands up, gripping onto Brainstorm's shoulders and lightly moving her off to his side. He lowered his dual voice in a whisper, a tired tone barely audible for only her to hear in the room.

"I'm sorry...I'm not who you think I am."

His narrowed eyes lifted back up, focusing on President Beard as he stepped forward once more near the guards. Vegetto kept his firm, tired stare while he spoke; his dual voice commanding in its delivery.

"I won't lie to you, President Beard. But this situation isn't about you or your...reputation..."

Vegetto swallowed hard, the firm stare and pause indicating his words might be meant for another despite speaking directly to the President.

"These things number beyond the millions, and this entire city is in grave danger. If you don't send out that warning, there won't be a Reflection City anymore by tomorrow's sunrise. No more heroes, no more praise...only all of us being consumed by the Red King."

He sharpened his eyes slowly.

"When they strike today, and they will....there will be destruction. People are going to die, and some of them may die by the very hands trying to save them. But that has to happen, because that power can beat those Xy'phers. They may torch some buildings, and people will be lost in the crossfire by their destructive actions. But when its over, Reflection City will still be standing and the population that survived will be safe. And that's more important than my reputation or yours...let alone your whole news station."

Vegetto's frown grew, the solemn yet firm dual voice remaining.

"But if you're too worried about that image to do what's right and warn these people, then I'll give you a headline to remember. One where you and your guards will get to see what a real Blue Devil looks like up close."
 
RNN Headquarters

Bernkastel's gaze slid over to the guards crowding around Zenta and uttering their suspicions of the scroll. She kept her arms crossed and let out a scoff of contempt, glaring at them once they raised their guns at the beast.

"If you suspect me that much, then don't open it. It makes no difference to me. But this conversation is going nowhere..."

Beyond her remarks, she fell silent once more. No matter how she could cut her words, there would be no way to have her rationale win the President over. In this instance Spawn was unfortunately correct that her direct and cold demeanor would be of no use. What way could they convince Beard that things would go down well at all in their hands? Bern looked out through the window and contemplated if they could just go on ahead without the President's approval anyway... but that Task Force would be a problem to deal with on top of the Xy'phers.

She refocused hearing the sound of Brainstorm's voice as she attempted to snap Vegetto back into his 'heroic' persona. The sight made her stare at the fusion with a stony expression, wondering what his next move would be. She expected some sort of elaborate and inspiring speech that one would expect from a Hero, but the delivery was mostly the opposite. Direct, no-nonsense, and to the point. A little threatening, but perhaps that was far better than any saccharine white lie he could falsely promise them.

Bern's cold expression lightened up just a bit at that. With a small nod of the head, she gently placed her hand on the scroll Zenta was holding to indicate for him to await the President's response first. The Witch stared at Beard expectantly.
========

"I guess you're right about that... these guys probably would just wait on one of those three heroes to show up instead. Ah well." Berserk sighed, perking up at the sound of Detective Goku's voice. 

"Huh? Hey, it's you! We thought you were a goner! Spawn did, anyway..." she exclaimed in surprise before mild confusion took part in her tone. Berserk could have sworn Spawn said he was taken out at the Agency.
 
Bage's expression lightened at seeing Gogeta give a hint of cooperation at his apology, only to grimace once his taunting returned with Avalon's retort at Gogeta accusing the group of acting like Vegetto. He opened his mouth the intervene and try to resolve the situation once more, but his thought was interrupted as the detective's communicator rang with Cayde's voice. 

"We're... as ready as we can be. Just waiting on the broadcast and Spawns signal." He paused and looked up at the others around him as Cayde continued by reminding them to limit the damage. he looked back down at the communicator to reply back. "No worries. Understood on this end. Minimal damage to buildings, and once this area clears out, there shouldn't be any casualties-"

At the sound of the familiar voice, Bage felt a terrifying chill run up his spine. His eyes turned up, passed Gogeta and to Detective Goku who had seemingly appeared from nowhere. The Saiyan didn't bother continuing his conversation with Cayde or even acknowledging the senior detective's question, having been startled by his sudden appearance. all while the communicator captured the background conversation. "G-Goku...? How did you-? The Metropolis explosion..."
 
Both Jize and Bara also blinked upon hearing the name, before spotting Detective Goku too.

"This is quite a surprise." Jize commented, "someone must have saved him in the nick of time and must have healed him, at least enough to be able to be here..."
 
While Zenta tried to speak, he felt Spawn pull him back and put him in his place. He was not upset, but the action annoyed him a little. The beast obeyed the Detective and stepped back as to not provoke any reaction from the man, however, he wondered if Spawn had something out for him. However, his mind was distracted by Vegetto speaking up. As Vegetto spoke his piece, Zenta nodded at his performance. He lowered the scroll and placed it in one of his pockets before letting out a little playful clap for Vegetto followed by a smile. The guards seemed confused but unimpressed.

"Well Mr. President? What should we do? If this threat is real, then we should take their word..." One guard spoke. "We can set up an emergency broadcast here in this room."

"Vegetto has a point, Mr. President," Another guard said. "Maybe warning the city isn't such a bad idea..."




"W-Whoa... this... this is amazing." Emilyn said quietly, genuinely shocked at how accurate the map of Reflection City was. "You guys really are awesome..!"

She moved to a corner, making sure to keep out of Cayde and May's way in case they needed to move around, and made sure to not talk much as to not distract them. The woman was true to her word and seemed very devoted to see the Breakers succeed in their plan, whatever it may be. She wrote down everything she heard and saw. It was cute watching her giggle and blush, whispering to herself her feelings and her usual praise of the Breakers. Her devotion to them was admirable.

"Gosh, I feel like I'm in a theater! Cayde and May are just too cool, I swear..!" Emilyn continued to be in awe of the room, her eyes wide with fascination. "Look at this awesome tech, I've never seen anything like it. I bet only the Breakers are the only ones smart enough to build this. Soooo cool!"




As the tension between stirred between Avalon and Gogeta, the ninja shrugged and perked up upon hearing Detective Goku's voice. He stared in disbelief that the Saiyan was still alive when Spawn said he had perished trying to save him. Yet, Goku was right in front of them. But how?

"Detective Goku? How... What? How are you here? Detective Spawn said that you..." Avalon struggled to get his words out, confused at what he saw. "How are you even... alive?"

Hang on, how can he be alive? Spawn said he was stabbed through the chest... What's goin' on..?
 
The Reality News Network Headquarters

Brainstorm tilted her head in reaction to Vegetto’s comment but didn’t change her facial expression. Her eyes fixated on Vegetto, focusing on his every move as he’d approach the president.

As silence came forth once Brainstorm controlled the conversation to allow Vegetto to take the floor, President Beard, at first, seems unmoved. Indeed, Beard really have no reasons to doubt Spawn, Brainstorm and Vegetto since they went out of their way to forewarn them of an incoming threat. But out of all the people that can potentially save them; it was the Breakers? He simply could not shake such belief that they will suddenly turn to a new leaf in a few months. Especially after all the damages they’ve done.

However, upon Vegetto’s final words to finish off his piece, President Beard felt a sense of dread. He started to sweat a bit about the mere mention of the Blue Devil. His eyes trails to Bernkastel for a second before returning to locked eyes with Vegetto, wondering if he mentioned her or something else entirely. He notices that Gogeta was not among them and began to panic as his mind started to scramble with two possibilities: the Breakers are genuinely trying to warn them and simply wants to help. Or. The Blue Devils is simply looking for a new battleground to unleash their rage.

President Beard wasn’t an idiot. Detective Spawn wouldn’t bring in the Breakers for the sake of it, and notice that Detective Goku wasn’t around at all. The Red King and an army of millions really does seems dangerous, and if they are attacking the city… perhaps the Task Force and the heroes here won’t be enough. It was a gamble that he didn’t want to take a chance on. Weighing the options, he had come to decide.

“I cannot deny my bias here. I don’t see any benefit of Breakers helping out… But… it is my duty as a journalist to get the story out there. I’ll shall use my company to warn this city and others about this looming threat.”

Detective Spawn let out a deep breath because judging from what Vegetto said by his last statement, it sounded like a legitimate threat since he was referring to himself there. “That’s all I needed to here. It’ll be wise to inform the Task Force and the local heroes here about this threat as well. I have another Detective, and two others that will ease the process of helping the citizens, so there won’t be a panic.”

“… Very well…” President Beard wasn’t so sure if that was the right decision. He tried to avoid eye contact from Vegetto, his final words still ringing in his head. “You can give me the evidence, including that scroll, so I can prepare relay the information to the Task Force. Can you stay here… and give me a second when I make some calls?”

“Fine.” Detective Spawn said. “We’re at the final stretch here… need to contact Cayde and May to make sure everything is good on their end.” He pressed a device on his ear to get in contact with them. “Everything alright on your end?”

Brainstorm patted on Vegetto’s back. “Good job, Vegetto! See? Once you get your mind out of your gutter, you can actually do amazing things. People say pride is a negative thing, but I think it’s a opposite, because it shows that your confidence.” The woman grabbed hold onto Vegetto’s right hand. “Just know that even if you feel like the whole world is crumbling, there are people out there for you. Besides, I can’t write more articles about you if you’re in a state like that.” She gave out a warm smile and once again, placed her left hand on Vegetto’s cheek, but this time, was a gentle touch rather than a hard one. “I study you a long time, so it’ll be a shame you end up like that. Perhaps you need another buddy to talk too.”

The Plaza

“… I’m sorry… Bage. It seems that it … took longer than expected. I’m not surprised that… Spawn thought I died… I would’ve thought the same… as well.” Detective Goku said to Bage. “Composite beings are a lot tougher than regular folks, so I managed to survive after all… though the wound is still there.” He answered Avalon. To further emphasized such a wound, the Detective opened his coat just slightly, revealing a large wound in shape of a fist before closing it. “I... tried searching for you, but I couldn’t find you until… I sense your presence here…”

Detective Goku observed each of them. “Where… is Spawn… and the others…?”
 
"O-Oh, right. Well, Detective Spawn is at the RNN with the rest of the Breakers right now. They're trying to get a warning out about the Xy'phers." Bage came to Detective Goku's side, becoming worried about the small pauses throughout his sentences. And after seeing the wound from Goku's battle, the junior detective worried he could be in harm's way yet again. "But Goku, you shouldn't be here. The Xy'phers will be here as soon as Spawn gives the signal and you can't afford to get caught in another fight like before."

Bage couldn't help this uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach as he looked at Goku. But for a brief moment looked back at the communicator, realizing that he was still on the line with Cayde.

"Cayde, I need you to find me someplace hidden safe space... or anything before the fighting starts. You're not gonna believe this but Goku just showed up. It'll be bad if the Red King manages to capture him as injured as he is now. And we can't guarantee his safety if we keep him here with us."
 
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