The Reality Vortex: Red Reputations

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“G-Gwaahh…” Avalon coughed out saliva as soon as Spina punched his stomach. He fell to his knees, coughing and hacking at the pain. “W-What was that for, jerk?!” Avalon gasped for some air before slowly rising up to his feet. His body shivered slightly, but he managed to shake it off after a while. A low snarl directed itself to Spina as he turned to face Spawn and answer his question.

“Yeah, I'm alive... So let me explain a bit.” Avalon cleared his throat. “The Avalon that traveled with you guys was a clone. I left about an hour earlier than you guys did from Rouge City, taking Nia's map in the process. I wanted to try to find the Hive on my own.”

“...Why?” Zenta grunted.

“Because I wanted to be useful to you guys… I feel like I hold you guys back a lot, so I thought if I can find it before you guys, I could lead you to it. Whelp, that didn't happen. I tried entering this house, but something was blocking me from entering it… That's when I saw the Xy'phers.” Avalon sighed and showed the cuts, bruises, and scratches on his arms and body. “I got captured along the way by the Xy'phers and taken to the hive. I fought back, but I was outnumbered! They kept me in a crystal cocoon, debating if they should kill me now or later.”

Avalon then pointed towards the ceiling.

“That's when you guys must've made your entrance. Whatever you did upstairs got their attention, and they scattered up the walls right to ya'! Fortunately, I was able to use my hands and escape the trap I was in when I was alone.”

“How were you able to stay hidden for so long?” Nia questioned.

“I turned myself into a lizard and climbed the walls to slip in between the cracks. That's when I found this place.” Avalon tapped the table in the room. “And I saw her! The Gravity Girl Xy'pher-thing! She was talkin' to the King usin' this hologram thing.” The ninja pointed towards the beautiful crystal centerpiece on the table. “I didn't get what she was sayin', but it seems that there was a disagreement between her and the King. Next thing I know, she smashes the crystal off the table, chipping it. If we know anythin' from that Eleki fight, that's not a good sign.”

“It seems that the Dark Xy'phers are more unstable than I thought. For her to bravely argue back with the King… it would normally be a death sentence. So why does she continue to breathe?” Nia turned to Berserk, nodding at her question. “Berserk raises a valid point. Technically, this hive is cut off from the Central Hive without the Recon Crystal, but why would the King allow this?”

“Maybe the King has more plans for her and the hive?” Avalon shrugged before pulling out a piece of paper from under his scarf. It was elegantly written, and the paper had traces of crystal pieces on it. The language was obviously Xy'pher. “I managed to nab this from the room before the Xy'phers took everythin' away. What's it say, Nia?”

Nia took the piece of paper in her hand and scanned it first with her eyes before looking back at the wall with all the photos.

“It is a… battle plan from the King. It reads: 'Invade the confines of Reflection City and gather as many civilians to execute. Bring the coins to the confines of the Manor where they can be converted and sent back to Reflection City, blending in with the people. Rinse and repeat until numbers vastly overwhelm the city 1000:1. Locate Hart Kimber and capture her to instigate battle from Ultraman. Once Ultraman is fighting, his distress will alert Superman. Upon seeing Superman, begin immediate invasion with Detective Goku as your lead.'”

“So his target was never the city or Hart...” Zenta said softly. “It was Superman.”

“He was planning to use Hart and Ultraman as bait for Superman?” Avalon took a step back, almost in shock. “Man, I thought he was just lookin' to increase his numbers, but this guy is more strategic than we gave him credit for… He's always one step ahead.”

Nia instantly looked back to the wall and floated before it, trying her best to understand the layout of what she saw. The only thing that confused her was the single question mark in which everything connected to, the picture of the moon next to the ripped face of the man's portrait from earlier, and the barrier that separated the two. The gap between the single question mark and the moon was large, and the only information the group got from the barrier was a picture of a white bunny.

“So if you guys met this Voice person… and claim he lives on the moon.” Nia trailed her finger to the picture of the bunny and the question mark. “Who, or what, are these two?”

"The barrier can be the one that keeps us trapped in Vortex, but I'unno about the bunny or that question mark." Avalon said, looking at the wall. "Is there something stronger than the Voice? Do you think that's the King tryin' to put himself above the Voice?"
 
May says in a flat tone "Chances are high there is something stronger than the voice; but at this point even the Voice is above our paygrade. With that in mind we should think of our next move with this new information. As far I see it, we still need to resolve this hive and get out hear." May thinks "I gest we got a better idea of threats."

May says "for those that are marked as converted I think we may need to know of their abilities."
 
The Hive

“Your guess is as good as mine…” Detective Spawn answered Bage. Valeria being absence from the array of photos stood out to him. Her existence is unknown to them. “Good…” He muttered under his breath. One less problem to worry about. Moving on, the Detective took notice of Bage staring at the photo of Atomic Flare. Seeing that she was captured and turned, Spawn also took the probability that she was a Xy’pher the whole time. It would add context to the why she hurried out of there just before Superman appeared before them. And he suspicions held even more weight once Nia read off the battle plans in Reflection wasn’t Hart nor Ultraman; they were nothing more than bait to lure out Superman.

Spina observed Cuki’s photo for a while; there was no doubt in his mind that Cuki is a Xy’pher at this point. “All we can do… is break her coin out of that Xy’pher so she won’t be puppet to another bastard.” When Nia questioned why the Red King would allow such transgressions, the old Saiyan spoke out.

“Because her power is growing at a rapid rate—so much that her mind had evolved beyond mere obedience. She’s forming her own thoughts, desires, and goals. And based on what I heard on the fate of the first Dark Xy’pher, the Red King most likely can’t just causally control her; that’s how extreme Dark Energy can have on someone.” Spina crossed his arms. “She’s probably running this hive as she sees fit.”

Detective Spawn raised a brow at Spina’s analysis.

“What? It just popped in my head.”

“Dark Energy is a deadly mistress, indeed.” Lucifer focused on the question mark above the “barrier” once again, prompting to ask another question. “Did the Voice looked like the man in the photo?”

“No.” Spina shook his head. “He had a machine body. He didn’t look anything like that. And I doubt there’s anyone stronger than the Voice.” When Avalon asked if the King is trying to put himself above the Voice. Spina gave him the stink-eye. “You didn’t get memories from your clone, you dolt? That’s probably his aim right now.”

“Curious.” Lucifer seems to think there’s more than the question mark—and the white bunny was notably strange. Seems like none of the Breakers have any idea what that is. “I supposed we’ll find out eventually.” Since communication was effectively cut off, there was no way to determine the exact location of the whereabouts of the Red King. “Unfortunately, our answers still lie elsewhere.”

“Right. If they did all that to go after Superman, then we need to go back to Rogue City.” Detective Spawn said. “He’s currently in danger.”

“Why?” Spina asked. “He’s plenty of strong, and I doubt Vegetto would give him that much trouble, even with his tantrums. We’ll go to Federation City and make a mockery of his plans. If we’re that low on the list….” Spina shared Bernkastel’s grievances a bit, but also considered it as a badge of honor. “We’ll blow up this place sky-high, first.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that….” Lucifer interjects. “While I agreed that the urgency to usurp any attempts to put a wrench in the Red King’s plans, there may be appropriate reasons to find Kal-El. One being that his life energy had dropped dramatically—and him being coined could prove to be a thorn for our side.”

Detective Spawn stared at Lucifer as if he was speaking in absolute certainty. “Huh? How did you know that—”

“I’d placed a familiar on all of you. Allows me to know when your life energy is verging on the low side at all times. Quite useful to say, nevertheless. Don’t worry, it’s absolutely harmless.”

Spina narrowed his eyes. “Did the Xy’phers get to him?”

Lucifer shook his head. “It doesn’t tell me the situation. Just that their energy levels are dropping. Whatever is going on, it’s apparent that they’re in a hard battle in some fashion.” He held a devilish smile. “One of them already died.”

“Died…?” Detective Spawn said in both shock and confusion. Spina, thinking that Vegetto or Gogeta might’ve perished, was indifferent to it.

Lucifer’s eyes darted over to Cayde, who been quiet all this time and barely gave out any of his opinions nor thoughts of the matter. Cackling a little bit, the angel continued: “So, we’re presented with two options. We go to Federation City and prevent the Red King from starting his invasion. Go back to Rogue City and prevent the Red King from securing Superman.” There were slight tremors underneath the Breakers, accompanied with a dangerous, heavy pressure, similar to that of Dark Energy, was emitting from the crystal walls. This prompted the angel to add one more thing. “Oh? Perhaps there’s a third choice…”


Snowy Mountains of Rogue City

“Valeria…?” Clark asked in confusion but seeing Vegetto freaked out a bit was more than enough to know that this person seems to be problematic. “That would be ideal, yeah.” He stood up, but it was a struggle since his legs kept buckling. “I need at least 24 hours to recharge…” He hacked a bit, spitting out bits of saliva towards the floor. “Alright… let’s go—”

Suddenly, a figure had leaped from the sky towards the ground. Upon landing, it generates a powerful shockwave that rock the terrain around them, instantly blowing away all the flames in the surrounding area. Raising his head up, with only one of his eyes opened. His costume was yellow, with VM symbol embedded in the middle. Upon seeing Superman, he uttered only these words:

“Found you.”
 
The Hive

As the group had conversed and debated the plans of the Red King, Cayde stood a few feet behind the group in silence that was foreign to his usual outgoing nature. His mechanical mind wandered on the history of his friend now laid out more clearly in context, the shattered bonds that were made coming to light in his mind.

Lucifer's revelation of death occurring suddenly jarred Cayde out of his intense thoughts on the potential emotional baggage the team was carrying, his eyes widening slightly. He quickly fumbled down to his belt line, picking out a small rectangle metal object. A sensor of sorts that he placed on the other fusion before Gogeta had taken off fed into the red light in the center; however, no illumination could be seen that had been there moments ago.

Cayde initially sighed immediately in relief; the signal being gone means that it was most likely destroyed and hopefully to Cayde, it was Gogeta that Lucifer referred to. The android narrowed his eyes a bit, the thought of an intense battle draining Clark that much meaning that Vegetto and Gogeta likely teamed up against the Kryptonian.

It should be fine. They probably got a little heated....blew up some mountains and a Gogeta...and now they're chilled out...being best friends again. There's no way they'd kill each other...

Yet Cayde perked his head back up in time to meet Lucifer's stare; the mischievous eyes that met his own soon leading into an amused cackle only worsening Cayde's doubts on the situation. The android immediately tucked his gun into its holster, and turned on his heel with a cheery tone masking his inner feelings.

"I'll go check on the kids at Rogue City, so don't worry about that. We'll come meet you at Federation City...and then we'll-"

Cayde yelped slightly, the tremor causing the android to nearly stumble forward and fall face first into the floor. He blinked a bit, glancing around in anticipation for a new threat.

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The Snowy Mountains of Rogue City

Vegetto chuckled a bit, reading into Clark's initial concern on the name a certain way while he helped the Kryptonian stand.

"Clark...don't even think about it. I have no interest in this woman at all, and don't you dare try to set me up with her."

With the three moving towards getting out of the now barren mountainside, Vegetto blinked at the sight of the new figure flying down towards the ground. He instinctively braced himself against the intense shockwave from the landing, the blue and orange gi rippling heavily in the winds while his earrings danced around his neck and shoulders. Vegetto lowered his arms slowly, his eyes narrowing at the figure before them. His attention gravitated mostly to the symbol on the man's chest. Recognizing it a bit from the posters he saw during visits to Reflection City, Vegetto lifted his eyes a bit with a small frown. If the man was who he believed him to be, Vegetto hoped he'd be an ally.

However, the rough and powerful display prompted Vegetto to assume this man could be looking for a fight, the Potara fusion tightening his muscles instinctively. He had not recovered enough strength to really pose much of a fight in comparison to the climatic battle moments ago, but he was at least way better off than Clark.

Vegetto stood tall, calling on any reserves left within his body while he moved between Clark and Wordplay to face the new arrival.

"Stay back."
 
Bage went silent, listening to the others speculate about the Red King's plans and the information Avalon managed to obtain in hiding. And after hearing Spina explain how heinous dark energy was brought back the grisly memory of Panich. His heart dropped in his stomach at the thought of her feral and psychotic form. He was a bit tempted to ask more about the energy, but with the subject changing to more pressing matters, Bage held his tongue. The detective masked his concern, listening to the two options the group had been given.

"I don't think we can afford to split up again. The King is getting closer and closer to his goal as we speak and if they catch us off guard again we may not be so lucky to get away a third time and that could mean the end for us."

Bage looked to the Cyborg once he began his suggestion to go to Rogue City on his own. He was beaten to interjecting when the tremor shook the room violently. And a feeling of dread washed over the Saiyan as he looked around the room almost frantically. "What.... is that?"
 
Majin Bara's expression remained unchanged, even as she listened to it all before the room started to tremble. Pointing her headtentacle to the side to have it act as an antenna, she scanned to where the source of the tremor was.
"It appears someone is now in big trouble..." She commented, "I don't know who or what however, but this doesn't feel good."
 
"You can't just go off on your own! Did you forget who we're messing with?" Berserk scolded Avalon after he finished explaining his end of the story with Nia helping to fill in the blanks of what's gone on. "We can't afford to let ourselves get picked off-- you saw how insanely strong Goku was. What if you'd ran into the one running this place and she decided to squeeze every bit of intel outta you?"

Bernkastel rubbed her chin. "We had defeated Doom's lackeys, but they're after them over us? But why..." what caught her attention next was the utterance of the fusions and Superman having been caught in a situation. Could it be the Xy'phers already decided to go for another round seeing they'd been left behind at Rogue City? Her gaze flickered towards Cayde upon seeing him immediately check something on a piece of technology she had guessed to be some sort of radar. His audible sigh of relief followed, casting doubt in her mind whether the death was even related to the trio of men.

"I'll go too," Bernkastel offered. "If they really are after Superman, it would be unwise to go alone in case reinforcements show up... the last thing we need is for the three of them to be captured. We can always destroy the Hive after screwing up their plans to invade." Stretching out her hand to open portals as usual, the shadowy loop of magic coiled and spun... before fizzling out in feeble sparks. She furrowed her brow at this. "What the?"

The Witch performed the same gesture several more times, each attempt becoming more desperate in the bid to make their escape as the tremors intensified around them. All that manifested was a bundle of fizzling magical particles. "What the hell? My portal-- it won't open!"

"Well shit, that 'someone' is gonna be us if we don't find a way to get the hell outta dodge!" Berserk stated with urgency in response to Majin Bara's report, getting into a defensive stance with her sword in hand. "Not like I was expecting for us to ever have a mission where we don't end up fighting someone... but a Xy'pher using that Dark Energy stuff is the last person I feel like fighting today. Good thing I packed extra explosives cause things are going to get really ugly in a minute."
 
Nia was careful to read every piece of paper she found as well as any other mission logs in order to gain more intel. Most of it was stuff both she and the Breakers already knew. As she roamed, she lifted a small trash bin with her psychic powers and shook it around, dropping pieces of paper and uncrumpling them to read the contents.

“I would've bitten off my own tongue before I said I word to them, Berserk! No way am I throwin' you guys under the bus like that. Besides, I knew you'd be worried 'bout lil' ol' me, Berserk!” Avalon puffed his chest.

As Avalon examined the wall further, he eyed Doom and how high up he was in all this. The only things to top Doom were the Moon, the bunny, and barrier, and the mysterious question mark. The ninja was curious since he did read that the Breakers manage to beat Doom and his group, so why were they so low on the wall? It made no sense to him, considering that everyone talks more about the Breakers than the people who worked for Doom. Glancing towards the fighters the Breakers had to deal with, he stared at Demi-Fiend the longest.

“Odd... I've never seen this kid before. He looks younger than Berserk, but why does he give me a weird feelin'?” Avalon said to himself as he followed all the strings that were connected to Doom. Eventually, he noticed that Zenta was directly connected to Doom. “Huh? Zenta? You're connected to Doom?”

“I worked for him, yes.” Zenta said.

“Why? Isn't Doom the biggest enemy of the Breakers?”

“I only joined because Doom promised he would help me find Cuki as long as I worked for him, which was a while. Luckily, she found me instead. I was not a big fan of Doom's ideas, thus I joined the Breakers in order to stop him.”

Avalon narrowed his eyes to Zenta but quickly turned his attention to Nia who was reading the paper scraps. “Did'ja find anything useful?”

“Apparently the King was going to use Ultraman and Hart to attack Bernkastel. Then make Superman attack Vegetto...” Nia rummaged through some more papers. “And finally, have Air Dancer attack Zenta.”

Zenta flinched upon hearing Air Dancer's name, remaining quiet about the information. Of all the people he sends my way... it is Air Dancer. I never did get along with him...

“So why is it in the trash?” Avalon asked Nia.

“Chances are the Dark Xy'pher of his hive threw the plans away... But why? The King would never allow such--” Nia's head immediately shot to the floor, where the tremors and pressure grew. With a face full of worry, she quickly used her psychic powers to create a barrier shielding them from the wall. Whatever she felt was coming right towards them.

“A Xy'pher! It's coming in at incredible speeds! Brace yourselves!”
 
The Hive

“Just you?” Spina eyed Bernkastel after she offered to go with Cayde. Regardless of the severity of the situation, it was consistent to her behavior to make him a top priority. It hardly matters now since the portal she attempted to make fizzled out.

In response of growing tremors that became so intense that it replicated the feeling of earthquakes, a barrier was form by Nia to protect the group. Spina looked side-to-side to see where this Xy’pher will come out since the tremors was coming from all over.

Suddenly, the tremors stopped and everything became quiet.

“Huh?” Detective Spawn, fists clenched, said in confusion. He maintains his focus to listen to any sound—even the smallest peck of dirt hitting the ground to alert which direction they’ll emerged. But it all fell to silence. Due to the presence of Dark Energy, it messed up his ability to sense any disturbance of life force in his vicinity. “Nothing…”

Spina turned to Nia, demanding an answer. “You, Rock Girl. What gives?”

A fist emerged from the walls right after Spina finished his sentence and slammed against the barrier. It was so powerful, it went through and shattered it like glass. The old Saiyan turned around in response, but that’s how far his reaction time takes him. Due to his weakened state, he was unable to properly defend himself and took the full force of the punch. His head whipped back; shock wave rippling across the crystal room they were in. Spina flung back and tumbled against the ground. The Xy’pher fully emerged in plain view.

“Captain!?” Detective Spawn recognized the Xy’pher.

Xy’pher Broly tensed his body before letting out a mighty roar. The pressure of his voice alone was shattering everything around the Breakers. He raised his hands towards the air and gathered energy. Once ready, Broly slammed his fists against the ground so hard, it resulted a destructive explosion of energy that led to its collapse. The Breakers fell straight down once again, falling to the deepest part of the Hive.

Spina fell on the ground hard on his back; still recovering from the punch earlier. “Argh…” He coughed up bits of blood and tried to move a bit but couldn’t. “S-shit…”

Detective Spawn somewhat managed to land on his feet. He looked around and realized that they were in some kind of arena. There were some Xy’pher stragglers on the seats, but don’t appear to interest in battle.

Once all the Breakers landed, Xy’pher Broly came down like a force of thunder. All the debris simply bounced off from him; his crystal body glistering brightly brilliantly. He walked several steps forward and slammed his foot against Spina’s stomach. “Hahahaha…” He cackled, kicking Spina towards the arena walls. “Worthy… Opponents.” He said, turning is attention towards the Breakers, especially the Detectives.

“The damn Captain of all things…” Detective Spawn clenched his fists. However, he noticed that something was off. Aside from using their abilities, aren’t Xy’phers simply just tools and don’t really speak, unless so ordered by their King? Why is Xy’pher Broly still acting the same way as himself?

Xy’pher Broly raised his finger and pointed at them. “Spawn, Bage.” He called them out by name. “And the Breakers… ha… You all be the first blood sacrifices!”

Xy'phr Broly.png
XY'PHER BROLY BOSS BATTLE​


The Snowy Mountains of Rogue City

“Ultraman?!” Clark said in surprised. “What are you doing here?”

Vortex Man eyed Clark, seeing the latter’s condition. “I’m no longer called that, Kal-El…” His tone was soft when speaking to him. However, his demeanor changed when his sights locked onto Vegetto. “The moment I felt the drop of his energy that dramatic, I felt that danger was lurking around. Like those rock creatures popping up as of late.”

His eyes sharpened and clenched his fists. “And what do I find? You. Don’t know how you managed to rope Kal-El into your foolish, Gogeta… but that ends here.”

Clark raised a brow, hearing that Vortex Man had confused Vegetto for Gogeta. “W-what—” He coughed a bit. “Wait… a second…” He was unable to properly finish his sentence.

A twirl of yellow aura flashed around him in a speculator fashion; indicating that Vortex Man was gearing himself up for battle. “This time, I’ll finished you off for good.”
 
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May takes out an orb to help slow her fall. May lands on the ground and thinks "So we reached the bottom level." May puts the orb she used as a parashoot away.

May says taking out a rifle with rounds made to harm Broly "Cry and bitch latter we got an Xy'pherfied Broly to deal with." May thinks "I have a feeling that being one of them is just a convent excuse for Broly to fight us. That may be too smart for him, but I can't rule that out either." May is ready to make a move wend ever the others are reedy.
 
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