Ruins of Reflection City
Before stepping through the portal, Spina halted his movements after sensing a familiar presence lurking behind him. With Bernkastel, Gogeta and Zenta already departing from the scene, the old Saiyan turned his head slightly to take a gander of the figure; much his surprise, it was Null Knight. He waited a couple of seconds for the favored hero to speak, but the Knight simply stood there.
“What do you want?” Spina asked. “
“I didn’t have the chance to say this during our last encounter in the café.” Null Knight raised a finger. “You need to leave the Breakers. They will simply hasten your development further.”
Spina furrowed his eyes, but he was confused on what the Knight was talking about. “What are you talking about—”
“You heard it, did you? Even caught a glimpse of it once or twice in your dreams and such? That monster that lurks in you; with it multiple eyes. It’s even filling your body with its energy.”
Spina paused when Null Knight specified further. He was aware of seeing something in his mind once or twice before but justify it as mere trickery from Roya’s technique.
Seeing that Spina knows about the strange monster, Null Knight nodded once before removing the helmet. Her short brown hair flow lightly due to the slight breeze of wind; the edge of the hairs indicates that it was badly tore and hasn’t grown evenly. Her vivid colored, cracked eyes stared at him with intensity; it was no doubt that it was Hart Kimber. There was glimpse of Dark Energy etching on her face. “I’d advise you to leave; otherwise, it’ll simply pave the road for your ruin, as it did for me. Get away and find solitude; at least, you’ll fine. If anything, you could always join the Atomic Flare.” Her eyes sharpened, before placing her helmet back on. “That’s the warning I wanted to say.”
The old Saiyan didn’t fully comprehend everything she was talking about, but he understood the aspect of isolation. He took another peak of his left arm before returning his eyes towards Hart. “Hmph. Thanks for the warning, but I still need to fulfill something first. Besides… I’m waiting for a battle with a rival… a friend.”
Seeing that Spina have no intentions of leaving the Breakers, Hart nodded once. With no other words left, both parted ways; Hart disappearing and Spina entering the portal to Rogue City.
Ruins of Rogue City
Clark stood there as he watched Vegetto imploded once again. After resisting any attempts to be reasoned with, the Kryptonian’s heart ached with sadness. It was one thing that Vegetto missed the point of his teaching on being a hero, twisting it as a mere ego-boost to appraise his name. It’s another that this supposed toxic energy he felt earlier could spilled over the others, and perhaps could explain a few things of his behavior; and he was not completely aware of its effects. But what truly hurts him the most was the distorted view Vegetto held towards his “friends”. Friends are the clear bastion; in his mind, it was completely unacceptable for Vegetto to treat them in such manner.
His eyes trailed away from the fusion and eyed Cayde reaching for his gun. A sight that the android is preparing for the absolute worst left Clark hurting even more. He doesn’t know the Breakers too much aside from maybe an occasional blip here and there, but nothing at this point justifies Vegetto’s behavior. The Kryptonian furrowed his eyebrows to decide what’s needed to happen.
Things intensified even further when Zenta swipe up the Xy’pher and crushed it with ease. Any further vital information was gone; they were left with mere crumbs of what they could’ve used as an advantage over the Red King.
Detective Spawn clenched his fists in anticipation of Zenta’s sudden outburst and murderous intent. “Finally shown yourself…” Most of his strength recovered, the Detective pulled out chains coated with green energy out of his cloak. He was ready to strike against him after seeing Zenta literally dragging his physical energy out of Vegetto but stopped after Avalon managed to talk some sense into him. Despite Zenta apologizing to the others, Spawn was unconvinced and still held onto his chains to react to anything else that would descend this further into chaos.
Such dive to further the travesty in this attempted interrogation, Vegetto had struck Zenta from behind in retaliation and Bernkastel rushed to the beast’s aide. “Now or never… Soul Destruction—”
Spina stepped in front of the Detective, stopping the latter from issuing his attack. No words were exchange, but Spawn didn’t continue his attack further as the old Saiyan walked forward. After hearing everything, from the information Nia provided to now, Spina crouched down, placing his hand on Bernkastel’s shoulder. “Calm down.” A rather blunt and firm comment. In a span of a few seconds, a burst of insensible and unknown presence from Spina’s body; outright negating the volatile toxic energy that was spilling out of Vegetto. There was a moment of life in Spina’s left arm, but soon went numb right afterwards.
No words were uttered from Spina to Vegetto. There was no need. No reaction, no comment, not even a hint of emotion towards him. Just sheer indifference as he left both Bernkastel and Zenta off the ground. His eyes trailed away, eyeing Clark for a second before returning to the duo.
Clark’s eyes sharpened when he met Spina’s gaze. He knew that Vegetto wasn’t going to take this lightly after Zenta nearly attempt to kill him; his mindset was far too gone at this point to back down. The Kryptonian was familiar with Zenta since both of them were working with Doctor Doom for various circumstances. And based on what he saw and felt, Zenta was quite a formidable foe that held an outstanding power; something that interested Doom to recruit as a means to delay, or kill, the Breakers for a while at the time. And from that, from their brief exchange with one another at the time, Clark knew bit about Cuki since Zenta talked a lot about her. He’d assumed, since he didn’t see Cuki nor Cross, that they were on vacation. If what the Xy’pher says is true, he could understand the sheer frustration Zenta had when Vegetto asked the dreaded question. To forget someone like that… is extremely painful.
Fearing that Zenta and Vegetto would fight, resulting a dangerous situation, Clark realized the meaning behind Spina’s gaze. He turned to Cayde, looking at him one last time before furrowing his eyebrows. Tightening his muscles, the Kryptonian dashed forward and tackled Vegetto. It was so fast, that it looked like they completely vanished into thin air. Clark, holding onto Vegetto, dragged the fusion against the snowy terrain away from the ruined city towards the mountain ranges.
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Once they were far away enough, Clark jumped over Vegetto, looking down on him with sadness and anger shown clearly on his face. More, it was a sheer disappointment that was the most expressive of them all; like a disappointed father towards his children when they messed up something huge that can easily be solvable. He exerted his pressure; so much that it forced the fusion to lay on the ground to a screeching halt: he’d knew that Vegetto would attempt to move out of the way or attempt to battle, but he wasn’t interested in a fight; it was a scolding.
“Vegetto… being a hero is more than just you. It’s more than just a title nor something for people to praise you. It’s about being an inspiration, and I think that, because of what you went through, will not only make you feel better. It’ll honor your wife’s memory tremendously to see how far you come. It’s a long road and you’ll make a lot of mistakes like I did… but when you get there… you’ll see what I mean!! And when you get there… I’ll be waiting…to truly show you my true power as a hero.”
Such memory flooded Clark’s head as he raised his fist and slammed against Vegetto’s chest. A single punch generated enough shockwave to force all snow around him to jump 1000 feet into the air. It can still be felt all the way to Rogue City.
“Be careful… when you fall down the rabbit hole of heroism, the concept of hero turns into a very toxic mindset. Where you no longer become an inspiration, but rather than embodiment of fear. Sure, it could work—but then, it’ll consumed you until you’re nothing more than paranoid, unpleasant and untrusty person. I know a guy like that…”
Another memory as Clark came down on the fusion with another punch. Over and over again, Clark repeatedly punched him as tears ran down his cheeks. He didn’t utter a single word to him; instead, letting his punches do the talking.
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Lucifer didn’t utter a single word throughout this entire situation. He never had the chance for asked his question. Instead, he stood there with a wicked sneer on his face. He turned to the others; most notably, Detective Spawn and Zenta. Based on their interactions alone, the angel’s suspicions are seemingly confirmed. “Dearest leader; our intel had perished by the hands of this beast, but we got something out of it. What shall be our next objective? What would be those that are clearly detrimental to the mission?” He asked but there was something malicious behind it.
