The Reality Vortex: Red Reputations

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Bara was roused from her slumber the moment she was picked up, but alerted right away as she listened to what Bage said, nodding as she turned to May to see what her instructions were. 

It should be noted that Bara was now back in her normal form and that neither Brachi or Jize were to be found within her at least, but it appeared there was still some kind of personality shift within the Majin.
 
Avalon floated in the air, still half asleep before he realized that he wasn't in bed anymore. With a sudden yelp, he quickly wiggled and flailed in the air, trying his best to grab something to keep himself from 'falling.' In the process, he tangled himself in the sheets before looking towards Nia.

"H-Hey! You shouldn't pick up people without permission, y'know!" Avalon then turned to Berserk and gave her a friendly wave. Something was a bit different about him, but it was hard to tell exactly. "Heya Berserk! Man, if this is how you folks feel like when you fly, you can count me out! It makes my stomach all woozy and jumpy… Anyway, I hope you're ready to blow some stuff up, we're gonna need your best explosives for today."

Zenta, in the meanwhile, was seen trying his best to cling on to the wall by digging his claws into the concrete. As Nia pulled him, the beast left behind a trail of claw marks on the wall, clearly not liking being picked up by Nia's psychic powers. From the looks of it, his mood was much better than yesterday and he was not as grumpy or sour anymore. When Nia realized that most of the people she helped were either upset or uncomfortable, she frowned and released her psychic hold on them. Avalon fell face first to the ground while Zenta elegantly landed on all fours.

"I'm sorry. I should've just knocked." Nia then turned to Spina and stared at him for several awkward seconds before turning away and covering her eyes. It took her a moment to realize what she saw and how awkward it was for everyone. "A-Ahh... Anyway, we should be heading out quickly. The girl with the ribbons [Berserk] seems eager to unleash chaos and mayhem." Nia blushed slightly as she turned back to the Breakers. "I know it's weird for me to say this, but let's wipe out some Xy'phers."

"Ooow ow ow!" Avalon groaned as he rubbed his face. Walking by Berserk's side, he sniffled slightly and shook his head free of the pain. "Right... give us a warnin' before you just drop us face first... Some of us don't got cat-like reflexes."

Zenta rose to his feet and dusted himself off as he walked towards Bernkastel's side. He dug the dirt out from between his nails and gave the Witch a gentle smile, almost a complete 180 from yesterday. He did not feel as hostile or deranged as yesterday, so it was safe to assume he got the worst of it out of his system. Just like his usual self, he gave the Witch a very humble bow at the waist followed by a nod to her statement.

"Yes, my Lady. I made a vow to behave myself and keep a much better control." There was a slight pause before he cleared his throat and spoke a little softer. "Perhaps we can destroy the Xy'phers together? Errm, for Cuki, that is..."

"Ahhh! My map!" Nia shouted as she floated above a table. "I left my map here for you guys so we can use it."

"Aw crap... don't tell me we can't go after all this time?" Avalon frowned. "We got to stop this mess and you lost the map!"

"Oh, I know the way, Purple Man. I assumed that the others need a map to travel, like pirates. Sorta like gasoline and a car."

"...What?"

"Never mind, it's an Earth metaphor." Nia turned to the other Breakers. "Alright, I can lead everyone to the area in question. The Small-Cat-Child can create portals at will, so her powers will be useful to travel long distances. It is north of Reflection City, so it isn't that far off." There was a small pause in her voice. "Please be careful, Breakers, even if it's just a small hive, it's still extremely dangerous. I will try to move swiftly with Team Stealth. Although we never sleep, the hive should be least active around dawn, so take advantage of it! Beware of the Recon Xy'pher and try not to spill out information."

"Right-O! We should get goin' before the sun rises anymore." Avalon yawned slightly. He turned to look at Zenta who was watching him silently. The beast seemed a little distracted, more preoccupied by destroying the Xy'phers and heeding Bernkastel's words. "Uhh, you okay, Zenta?"

There was a long pause before Zenta shook his head. "Oh! Yes, yes. Please pay no attention to me, I still have my mind in the clouds. Rest assured, I meditated long and hard to rid myself of the impulses I had."

"So you feelin' better?"

"Oh yes, absolutely. Personally, I wish to have gone on my own and take the hive on myself, but I doubt Lady Bernkastel allows such reckless behavior, especially after yesterday's display." Zenta turned away from Avalon and cleared his throat. "Now then, we should hurry, as Nia said. My Lady, if you will be so kind to grace us with a portal."
 
May takes out an orb and floats down once Nia replaces the group. May says looking at Nia "Got it, you Nia got point of team stealth." May thinks "I have a feeling that Nia can be a bit air heeded."

07 lands on her feet and looks slightly annoyed.
 
Quietly sighing in relief of Nia's psionic weight fading away from around her body, Bernkastel outstretched her feet to land nimbly. Berserk landed on her butt, quietly yelping before rubbing her lower back.

"Heh, I guess you're better off flying on your paper bird huh?" the Powerpunk quipped at Avalon before standing from the floor. "Usually I'm floating 'cause I wanted to. Only time it's ever happened outside of that was when I was a kid and couldn't control my powers yet. Let's just be happy we didn't get pranked and wake up with drawings all over our faces." Laughing it off to keep the atmosphere lighthearted, Berserk made her way to her own work spot and began picking up the gear she spent all night assembling.

She couldn't quite tell if his slightly different behavior was the nerves or he seemed impatient about the mission. "If it weren't for working on all this, I'd have been way too fired up to get any sleep. But I learned my lesson from the unicorn granny (Roya)-- no going without sleep!" Hooking the belt around her hips, Berserk carefully stowed away most of her supplies and detonators. "Too bad we won't get to team up like yesterday right off the bat. Wouldn't want to accidentally set your paper stuff on fire! But don't get all worked up about Nia losin' the map, she's got it memorized! I wouldn't blame her, we were working between giant junk piles from the mess the Xyphers made."

Berserk was joking with her typical energetic disposition but her expression got a bit more serious. "...Just be careful, Avalon. I got your back, but yesterday was a close call."

Bernkastel stared up at her reflection in Zenta's visor as he approached her, brows slightly raised upon noticing his demeanor was much closer to his usual self. It seemed he stayed true to his word and reflected on what happened. A small smile graced her lips and she gave an amused chuckle at his suggestion.

"Of course; we'll make sure you have Cuki returned to you by the end of this. I don't doubt she fought to her last breath valiantly even in the cracked state her body was in," Bern replied. "So it's only right we honor her tenacity by matching our own. Besides, once we make our way into the hive, I think destroying the core of that Dark Xy'pher will be quite cathartic for you. It will boost our morale enough to continue pressuring the Xy'phers at least," she smirked.

"Yeah! Then when we go up to the King, you give 'im the ultimate ass-kickin!" Berserk chimed in. "That's what I'd do. And you don't even gotta feel bad, Nia's even gonna join in on the head-smashing with us!"

"That's right, there will be no room to get careless. We want to be smart about how we do this mission. If you went alone, who's to say the Recon Xy'pher takes my form and catches you off guard?" Bern stated rhetorically. She paused to listen intently to Nia's instructions. Nodding, she held an arm outstretched as the portal began materializing.

"Speaking of which... since we're splitting off early into groups, should we have a way to tell ourselves apart from an impostor for sure? Especially if the Recon decides to take on Nia's appearance." Bernkastel turned to Spina.
 
Rogue City Command Center Ruins

“What a strange comment, Zenta.” Lucifer descended towards the ground once Nia lightened her psionic abilities. “While its absolutely detestable that you’re tossing aside your will for another, shouldn’t your reasonings be more inline of not contributing to the continuous interference of the Breakers as a whole? Perhaps that’s a quirk from your universe—zeroing in on a singular person.” Lucifer smirked. “But don’t worry, I’ll personally keep a watchful eye on any possible reckless behaviors, young man. Otherwise, vengeance for Cuki might be for naught.”

The angel joked, turning his attention to Spina’s wardrobe issues. “It is problematic. A proper attire is needed.” Raising his right arm; blue lights flash around his fingertips of his hand. In a sudden flash that blinded everyone, once its died down, Spina had a new attire.

In a similar aesthetics to his previous clothes, Spina wore a black-tight shirt with white fur around the collar, baggy navy pants, white fur belt, white boots, and black armbands with fur at the bottom. Although his hair was still greyed out after returning from ‘death’, his hair had shifted back to his original style. On the back of his shirt, there exist a symbol; Lucifer did not create it, rather, it suddenly appeared on its own: 苛

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The old Saiyan examined his new look. “Feels comfortable…” Although he prefers to fight with light clothes, these clothes feel like it won’t be in the way in the battle. He moved his shoulders around to see if the fur would bother him; he was relived that it didn’t; rather, it was rather refreshing to have something to warm on the back of his neck. Especially in a cold environment they were in right now.

Spina glanced towards the Breakers; his eyes filled with determination. “You heard the senior Detective. You got your objectives. Team Distraction will cause a scene and lure them away from the hive, while stealth will use the opportunity to sneak in and take out the core.” He clenched his right fist, smirking as he was getting excited for battle. “There’s a strong possibility that things won’t go as plan, though. We could be walking into a trap as this rock bastard intends to, and if that were to happen, don’t freaked out. Follow our lead, don’t abandoned your teammates, and adapt to any changes in situation.”

When Bernkastel asked a question regarding identity, Spina nodded once. “That’s ideal.” The old Saiyan turned his sights towards Detective Spawn. “You placed a tracker on Zenta and found us here in this city, hmm? You can easily do that again, but this time, for all of us. That way we can identify each other through that in case someone tries to infiltrate us.”

Detective Spawn glanced towards Zenta, feeling disgusted that the beast would make a causal suggestion of going off on his own. “Yes... that’s an easy task to do. I’m recovered enough to be more prominent in battle.” Raising his left arm, he simply swipes forward and tiny horde of green particles spread across, landed on the Breakers. “It’ll appeared once I maintain focus on it, but they will be inactive. Should you get suspicious on anyone, you can just ask me.”

“Hmph,” Spina glanced towards Bernkastel, remembering their conversation from yesterday. “This is the chance to give it our all out there. I’ll be looking forward to see your improvement against those rock bastards.” Although Spina seemingly accepted “friendship” with the Witch of Miracles, there was still some distance between the old Saiyan and the rest of the Breakers. The lack of bonds was undoubtedly still present within Spina, although Bernkastel managed to push him on the path to form “bonds”.

Turning towards the portal, Spina tightened his fist even more. “Let’s not waste anymore time, Breakers.” He grabbed Nia by the collar; although she claims that she knows the location well, her losing the map was seen suspicious by him. So, he’ll keep her with him for now until they arrived at their destination. Just as the old Saiyan jumped through the portal with Nia, once again, his left arm flair into life briefly, with the dark spots grew just slightly.




The Snowy Mountains of Rogue City

Clark’s body tensed, readying himself to fire his eye beams towards the fusion. None had distracted him, even as Vegetto made a thunderous spectacle and shot upwards to skies. Not even the wave of snow flinging to all direction daunted the Kryptonian to glanced away from Gogeta.

Only until Vegetto projectile himself into Clark prevented him from firing at Gogeta. Burrowing against the snowy landscape, his eye beams fired off in a random direction, striking a nearby mountain and completely obliterating it.

Smoke searing from his eyes after the heat vision fired, Clark simply rose to his feet to meet Vegetto directly. The Kryptonian, wiping off the snow from his clothes, looked into Vegetto’s determined stare and that incomplete state of Ultra Instinct. “Minds change quickly.” Clark said. “But only in the heat of the moment.” Clark’s eyes sharpened intensely, as his tone darkens. “Your heart isn’t in it, Vegetto. For that, I am not interested. Stay down.” Clark began walking, moving in the direction to Gogeta’s location. He fired a powerful blue eye beam, Neutron Beam, towards Vegetto to forced him out of the way of his goal.
 
Zenta listened silently to Lucifer and felt his fur bristle slightly. Normally, he would playfully lash out towards Lucifer but he decided to go against it, given how he acted yesterday. Oddly enough, his demeanor around Lucifer was a little different; more cautious to be exact.

"I know the errors of my ways, Lucifer. Because of that, I want to be more useful to the group..." Zenta paused slightly and smiled. "With no other purpose in my life, the least I can do is help the Breakers." The beast then bowed his head to Lucifer. "No need to keep an eye on me, there will be nothing of importance to note. After all, I am but a beast with no purpose, yes? I handled my qualms with Cuki's well-being on my own. When the time comes, I will have to accept Cuki's fate and put her out of her misery. Though... that is the difficult part for me, truth be told..."

"Don'cha worry Zenta, I'm sure thing will be fine. We'll spot Cuki, bring her back, and everythin' will be cool." Avalon quipped. He then smiled. "We'll bring 'er back no problem!"

"Yes... I suppose so." Zenta smiled weakly before turning to the portal Bernkastel made.

Besides, once we make our way into the hive, I think destroying the core of that Dark Xy'pher will be quite cathartic for you. It will boost our morale enough to continue pressuring the Xy'phers at least...

He stared at it intently, letting it reflect off his cracked visor. There was a moment of silence from the Beast as he thought silently of his actions and what he should do once he spots Cuki and the Xy'phers. Even now, despite how calm and collected he was, the thought of hurting Cuki was something even he could not handle.

"Yes, we must do the head-smashing of the Xy'phers!" Nia cheered after Berserk. "If we lower the numbers of the Xy'phers, then you will leave a large dent in the King's army, thus, weakening him. I have fate in you guys!" Before she could say more, she felt herself yanked by Spina through the portal.

"Whelp, there they go. We should follow them before Boss does things on his own." Avalon nodded to Berserk. "Make sure to bring those explosives! Just try not to blow up the whole city."

As Avalon jumped through the portal, Zenta continued to stand still, like a dog sensing danger. Suddenly, he lowered his head and let out a breath of air as he turned to Bernkastel with a warm and innocent smile, almost as if all his worries lifted from his shoulders. As per usual, he stepped to the side, allowing Bernkastel and everyone else to enter the portal before him. With a bow at the waist and a hand behind his back, he made his humble bow to the Witch, showing his usual more tranquil side of him.

"Please, after you, my Lady." Zenta said.



Once on the other side of the portal, the group would see a small town. It appeared to be a traders market and everything looked normal. People were trading with one another, travels came and went, and not a single Xy'pher in sight. No panic or chaos, nothing odd or suspicious. The homes that were nearby were manors that rich merchants lived in and everything look relatively calm and relaxed. One in particular was bigger than all the rest and looked much more elegant compared to the others. The people were friendly to the newcomers that came by and the richer merchants were quite generous to those less fortunate. Could Nia be wrong, or was she leading them to disaster?

As Nia wiggled herself free from Spina's grip, she shivered slightly upon looking at the town.

"This place... it reeks of Xy'pher."
 
Rogue City Command Center Ruins

After Zenta step away to let the Breakers, especially Bernkastel, to go through the portal first, Lilith suddenly wrapped around the beast. “But you do have a purpose, Zenta. And I’ll see to it that you’re capable of doing the act.” Lucifer retort Zenta’s self-loathing comments; his eyes squinted in conjunction with his fiendish smile. The angel let out a light cackle as Lilith dragged Zenta through the portal before everyone else, barring Spina and Nia.

“Lilith seems weary of your body language, my boy. You’ll just have to tolerate being in the front row until you ceased being a threat in her eyes.” Lucifer’s smile continued on. “Now, let’s depart, shall we? Your first successful mission awaits on the other side.” He eyed at Berserk. “From there, I’ll explain the fruitions of what I have in mind for you, my dear. Then, I’ll present you with a choice.”

Traders Market

Emerging first from the portal, Spina inspected his surroundings. No Xy’phers in plain view—just a bunch of people around in this relatively small town. Only thing that stood out was the impressively large manors, especially the largest one.

“This is the place? This is just a bunch of punks wandering around.” Spina questioned. Even though Nia mentioned that this place reeks of Xy’phers, the old Saiyan didn’t feel a sense of present danger. “Hmph, trap is it then. The map suddenly going missing was a clear indicator of such.” His eyes sharpened towards Nia. “Don’t think for a second that you have any leverage of sucker-punching us. Take us to the location to this hive.”

Lucifer and Lilith were the next ones to emerged from the portal, the latter dragging Zenta with her. Upon arrival, Lilith immediately released the beast and returned within the angel’s attire. “Now, now.” Lucifer, paying no mind to Zenta as it amused him, responded to Spina. “She did say she only knows the general vicinity of the hive. Perhaps we need to find its exact location. Though, she may be very well taking us to a place for us to get ambush.” The angel cackled. “Admittedly, will be delightful.”

Detective Spawn emerged from the portal. Seeing that this was just a regular town, Spawn grew suspicious of its relaxed scenery. “If I recall, those Xy’phers were able to replicate human form quite well and hide among us, and we wouldn’t know until they attack.” He never been to this town before despite being on the Detective Agency for roughly two years. “At any rate, we need to get these folks out of here—on the safe side that they are just regular people here.”
 
May grabs Nia by the collar and says, "do keep in mind that you're a map." May says "At this point I willing to trust that Nia is just an air head. With that in mind." May puts a tracking device on Nia mostly as a way to keep track of Nia.

May says in a matter of fact "Worst case we play to your group's strengths. If the doom fight was any indication of your group's power, then if things go tits up, we should be able to kill our way in or to the core." May thinks "worst case we just hunt down Nia if she did lead us into a trap." As May starts to drag Nia tords the stealth team.
 
"Oh... right. Yes, I'll make sure of no slip-ups." Bernkastel nodded, unsure whether to take Spina's words as an encouragement or a direct order. Either way, it sounded like he had expectations for her and she was anticipating to do well, oddly enough.

Bern turned as Zenta addressed her and the Breakers, but frowned with disapproval at the way he disparaged himself while doing so. "You really shouldn't say things like that. Troublesome people gravitate towards those sorts--" she cut herself off upon seeing Lilith suddenly constrict around Zenta. Glancing to observe the interaction between Lucifer and Zenta, Bern lowered her eyelids in slight suspicion. Oddly, Lilith was acting strangely cautious towards Zenta. Lucifer didn't exhibit that demeanor, but he clearly was scheming at something. He and Zenta always seemed to have a strange dynamic but lately, Zenta was putting a lot of effort into maintaining his composure around him.

Bern wondered if Lucifer was implying Zenta could be a threat to the mission or something else. Despite being known as the more level-headed in the group, the beast-man had been slipping up little by little recently. She didn't harbor unkind thoughts about Zenta, but she was starting to catch on that he wasn't as inconsequential as he claimed. It was hard not to be curious after the previous day's altercation. Regardless, I ought to keep him in my sights for a while. It won't be any good if I get high-strung in a risky situation again, Bern reminded herself before stepping through the portal.
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"We should think carefully about what to do first... Them hiding in plain sight is exactly how they got the jump on us yesterday," Berserk stated while she took a look around after passing through the portal. "Maybe we can make the distraction phase jumpstart evacuating the normal people from the Xy'phers? But it'd be bad if I accidentally blow up some civilians right? Decisions, decisions..." she turned to Lucifer. "Oh yeah! You said you had somethin' for me didn't you! It sounded important."

Bern held a finger to her cheek upon stepping out to join the others as she paused to listen in on their observations. "If Nia's being truthful, then those Xy'phers might be passing through here quite often indeed. The hive could be right under the ground we're stepping on; after what I've seen with that tunnel system, we shouldn't rule anything out based on appearance." Her gaze trailing over to find Zenta, she casually took her spot next to him. Lilith already had let go, but she probably would do it again just to make sure Zenta wasn't the one watching their backs. 

"Since we lack a map, is it wise to split up here? Not that we need it for our end of the mission, but we would be left searching rather blindly." she asked.
 
With Team Stealth, Bara remained silent again, but her expression was that of concentration...

...in secrets, she was releasing hundreds of thousands of tiny, microscopic parts of herself and was scattering about everywhere... each piece was so small that neither friend nor foe would be able to see or sense them, yet each piece was filling Bara with information about the area, the people and using the intel gained from her comrades to act accordingly... it was as if she was going to prepare herself for practically anything at this point, using her Body Manipulation as an excellent tool.
 
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