The Reality Vortex: Red Reputations

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Berserk crossed her arms with a dejected huff at Bage's response to her, though she said nothing more in objection considering how Detective Goku's general aura was off-putting.

Bernkastel, changed into her daily garb, peeked out into the hallway hearing many voices. It seems everyone had gathered and were ready for Goku's briefing. Just as she was about to speak her greetings-- and maybe a sarcastic quip about construction helmets-- Bernkastel stopped right as she caught onto the last sentence Gogeta was speaking.

Berserk drank out of an orange juice carton as she glanced nervously between Goku and Gogeta; she herself didn't really understand the odd speech pattern he was using, but she got a feeling Gogeta had just said the wrong thing judging by Bernkastel's wide-eyed look that quickly shifted into narrowed eyes and a scowl to fit the glare. She had never remembered mentioning Detective Vegeta in front of Gogeta within the context that said man had perished. It was already off-putting to hear how he spoke, but for Bernkastel, this declaration alone towards Detective Goku sent up a large red flag.

"Who..." Bern's tone was of curt suspicion. "Who told you something like that?"
 
Upon hearing Bernkastel's voice for the first time, Gogeta's silver pupils rapidly darted over to the smaller witch in a strange fashion. The smirk widened slightly, baring his white teeth.

"Ah, there you are! Hello, my beloved not-wife! It's so good to see you; listen...I wanna apologize for my behavior yesterday. I feel absolutely...awful...about what you did to me."

He immediately stifled a small chuckle, waving his right hand dismissively in clearly dodging her question.

"Oh...excuse me. I still have trouble properly communicating...I meant to switch those words. You'll forgive me for that-"

The glare sharpened slightly, his right eyebrow raising.

"Won't you?"
 
Brachi overheard all this while eating breakfast, feeling a bit uneasy at this.

"I don't think we can use any sort of trouble right now, not with what lies ahead of us." She commented, concerned at Gogeta's demeanor as it is, wondering how Detective Goku would react to that, while Jize remained quiet on the subject.
 
Sounds like this morning might be rough too... C'mon dude, don't ruin today too...

Avalon frowned at how Gogeta was acting and rolled his eyes at his remarks. Although he did not understand the intent or meaning behind his words, he felt like it was just used to push people's buttons. Once he saw Berserk, his frown turned to a smile as he approached the girl.

"G' morning Berserk! You look pretty as ever!" He then noticed her drinking directly out of the orange juice. "Gwah! Berserk! You can't just drink out of the carton like that! Other people drink from it too. Ever heard of backwash? It's pretty gross..." He shook his head before putting his hands behind his head. "Well, either way, you should fuel up for today. Detective Goku said yesterday that we're gonna be cleaning stuff so I'll be sure to bring some extra supplies. Doesn't sound too hard of a job, even if it is kinda boring... But hey, I bet we can make it fun somehow! How bad can it be?"

He lowered his voice to a whisper, almost as if to talk to himself, before glancing at Gogeta briefly. "Yeah, that is if this jerk doesn't mess things up again..."



Zenta woke to the sound of the voices of the others as he inhaled deeply, his fur bristling up. He felt the Kitty laying on top of his tail undisturbed. With a gentle lift, he placed the cat on the floor next to him while he began to stretch his body similar to that of dogs. He let out a silent yawn, baring his small canine fangs. A final shake of his fur and he placed the Kitty on his shoulder and exited Cuki's room, following Bernkastel and Gogeta's voice. Sensing Goku and everyone else in the room, he bowed humbly to the group.

"Good morning everyone. I hope you all slept well for the events of today."

Hearing Gogeta's voice made his shoulders slump, especially how he made his slick comments, each making the beast shake his head with a sigh. Zenta walked to Bernkastel for a moment and placed a hand on top of her head before staring at Gogeta. He kept his hand on the Witch's head almost to reassure her that he would keep his promise to be by her side. Eventually, he lowered himself to her height and playfully glanced between the two beings, like a father watching two siblings fight.

"My, my, even the early mornings are not safe," Zenta shrugged as he rose back to his normal height. "Remember the words you told me yesterday, Lady Bernkastel..." He gave the Witch a pat on the head before walking off towards the kitchen counter with the Kitty on his shoulder. "I may be blind but even I see his forked tongue. Can you, my Lady?"
 
Throughout Gogeta’s comments and Cross’ attempt to bring up supposed war crimes against Detective Goku’s character and actions. Although for some, it would driven one to a fit of rage or bulk defensively, the mention of Detective Vegeta seems to lead to the  Detective to become quiet—not because he couldn’t respond to it. Instead, it was another reason.

Upon Detective Bage approaching him for an answer for why Cross continued to accused him of crimes, Detective Goku turned to the junior. For a quick glance, not noticeable to everyone else aside from Bage due to being near him, he smirked. It wasn’t neither a confirmation of Cross’ beliefs nor any sort of arrogance in reflection of Gogeta’s comments. Instead, it seems that he was relatively calm.

“Your absurd attempts to play mind games has gone lost on me, Gogeta. I’m not like your simpleton friends who choke themselves on emotional attachments and crumbled under the weightless words of a fool, driven by nothing but wasted power, rage and inadequacy. It was a mistake of calling you vindictive—that was giving you too much credit, because it suggest you actually have knowledge, but your comments just confirms the opposite for me. I have no interest of a dullard, especially those who exchange pride for power. Now I'm even more confident that Detective Bage has nothing to worry about now.”

Detective Goku turns to Cross, with the same tone of authority and firmness in his voice. “While I amused by the nickname you have given me, it’s becoming quite poignant. I have done none that would fall into the definition of a war crime—no matter how much you tried because I got rid of your little lackeys crawling the city. Your organizations, your “news”, your minions, none of them have no real power, and your attempts to justified them will continue to fall empty. If you are so eager, so confident of my crimes, then I’m all open for your taking. Come at me and arrest me—but we both know the sheer limitations you are, bound by actual law standard, and strength. You will lose.” The Detective turned to the rest of the group, giving no regard to the two. “Are you two done embarrassing yourselves? Yes? Good. I’ll go ahead and explain what you will have to do today.”

Spina stopped by the end of the stairs, remembering the scene from the dream. He turned his head around, seeing Bernkastel and the others in the main area. In an instant flash, he saw nothing, but dead bodies scattered about as Gogeta relish in their blood. He shook his head to snapped out of it. The heated feeling boiling in his stomach, Spina was about to confront Gogeta—but Lilith suddenly appeared in front of him.

Lilith, who not carrying Lucifer and isn’t here yet, didn’t make any gestures. Instead, she joined the others to listen to the current mission that the Detective has to offer.

Despite no response, Spina calmed down for a second. He turned to Bernkastel as images flicker in his head about her mutilated body in his dreams. He tried to not look at her multiple times, but his eyes kept staring at her.
 
“As I said yesterday, you’ll be on clean-up duty on building toss by your teammates. While I cannot arrest you since no one had been killed, and you don’t have the funds to pay the city with, you’ll do this instead. Clean the building and turned it into scrap. However, before doing so, I’m ordering you to go inside the building. I received reports that prior of the city contacting me, several dozen people had gone inside the building to clean it themselves but had never returned. Go in there and bring those people, whether they’re alive or Vortex Coins, out of there. A simple job for a group like you—nearly impossible to screw up.”
 
"Whoever drinks outta the carton first gets it for themselves. That's how it was in my house!" Berserk laughed at Avalon's reaction, jiggling the carton of juice with her hand at him in a teasing manner. "If ya wanted some, you shoulda put your name on it since you slept on the couch again-- the early worm gets the bird! Or whatever Mr. Bage said."

She quieted her antics down when Detective Goku began to lecture them all, pouting in response with crossed arms. It was always irritating to be lectured by grown-ups. The mention about pride and power, however, caused her to raise an eyebrow as to what it actually meant. Berserk didn't understand anything about Saiyans or how pride was a great part of their mindset, so it essentially went over her head. "Pride for power? But isn't too much pride a bad thing? Exchanging..."

Berserk narrowed her eyes with a sour look. "Like 'buying' power that isn't your own to use? Only weak losers get strong like that-- either you make yourself stronger or you make the team strong with what you got. Cheaters are nothin' but posers." Her demeanor quickly reverted back to her usual attitude, turning toward Avalon bright-eyed. "Sorry, I got distracted by something he said. It sounds boring but easy, so let's make it fun with a contest to see who makes the bigger scrap pile at the end!"

Bernkastel hadn't responded to Gogeta's strangely worded apology yet but reacted most evidently to Goku criticizing him by gazing at him directly only for that portion of his lecutre. She more or less remained silent throughout until the Detective was finished giving orders. Her stare mostly was concentrated on Gogeta as she mulled over his words, still looking evidently cautious of something. Bern's eyes narrowed further catching Spina staring at her; since she caught it while Goku was speaking to them she interpreted it to mean he was anticipating her response. Bern thought about it some more while considering Zenta's warning.

Suddenly, her concentrated glare softened as she gave Gogeta a smile. "Of course... Isn't that what friends are for, buddy?" However, she wasn't looking at Gogeta in the eyes, but up at the V mark on his forehead; given the height difference between the two it wouldn't be very noticeable where she was looking. "It's like Zenta said-- you're not an enemy so it wasn't very nice of me to treat you like one. I know! You can make up for yesterday by teaming up with me on our cleanup job today," Bern folded her arms behind her back as she maintained a friendly tone with him. "It'll be quite a difficult task of manual labor for me if I don't have any helping hands... it's dangerous to wander inside an abandoned building alone, so let's stick together when we go inside."

One of the hands behind her back briefly crossed its fingers, a small gesture nobody would pick up if they weren't intending to observe her directly from behind.
 
Cross says as a matter of fact "I would love to spell out every thing wrong in your(Goku) little statement but we bout know your too self righteous too understand you did wrong and we have more pressing concerns than my grievances with you." Any research on Cross and/or the Vertex would indicate that Goku is dead wrong.

Cross thinks "If it was not fair the others help clean it I would have simple payed payed to deal with the damages my self."
 
Gogeta's eyes turned towards Detective Goku, hearing him speak before Bernkastel could respond. He sat throughout the detective's response, his smirk merely rising more at the response. He shook his head dismissively, chuckling to himself in a manner as if he were chiding a child with a haughty, condescending demeanor.

"Detective...the word vindictive means 'rage without sound reason'. Calling me vindictive would already be the opposite of saying I have knowledge...I understand you're trying to denounce me, but please, at least try not to trip over yourself in this basic attempt to insult me twice!"

He curtly nodded towards Cross, the smirk strong and his shoulders lightly lifting into a shrug once more.

"But you make a good point! It doesn't matter if Cross or you is right; what matters is your strength above his. Just like the Breakers used their strength to overrule Doom's perceived dream for the world...even if he might have been right!"

Gogeta sighed contently, his eyes turning off the Detective and locking onto Avalon.

"You can be as good as you want and hope for justice to prevail. But in the end, justice can only succeed when it has power. No matter who thinks themselves right, the strong survive and the weak serve under their boot. Which reminds me-"

He gently nodded to Detective Goku, winking with his right eye at Avalon.

"You didn't address our master here after he gave us orders. You're supposed to respond with-"

Gogeta raised his dual voice in a pathetic whimper, like a high pitched boy in a mocking tone to Avalon as he promptly clasped his hands together with a pouting expression in his mock begging.

"Oh yes master! Thank you, sir, for the chance to serve you! Please give me praise for being such a good little mutt for justice sir!'"

His eyes shifted before hearing a response from Avalon, however, at Bernkastel's voice. The cocky taunting and smirk instantly vanished, a stern expression forming on his face in an instant in seeing her feign a reaction of her own. Gogeta's stare remained unchanged, and after she finished speaking, the man sat in silence with a serious glare trained on Bernkastel.
 
As Gogeta and Cross continued their rant despite no actions, Detective Goku nodded his head once, without even giving them the courtesy to look at their faces. “Cool.”

The lack of interest greatly resonated; Detective Goku placed his hand on Detective Bage’s shoulders as he explained another element of the mission. “According to another report, there supposedly an item that’s similar to that of the bottle you carried. One of the people that entered the building had that but hadn’t come out yet. Go there to see any confirmation. Once you do the job, returned here so I can give you another mission. The city in question is called Allure City. Small city, with a decent population. It isn’t that far away from here, so I’ll teleport you all to the site in question.” The Detective looked around, noticing that Lucifer was not among them. “Where is the one that can change his age?”

“Lucifer is currently preparing at the moment. He’ll join us once he finished. Don’t worry, he’ll instantly know the location by sensing me.” Lilith said.
“Fine. I’m taking you lot now. Stand near me, so you get everything started.”

As Bernkastel responded to Gogeta’s antics once more, Spina stared at her some more. Before going near the Detective Goku for the mass teleportation, the old Saiyan turned to the witch. “Bernkastel, come here for a second.” He said with firmness in his voice.
 
"Are you serious?" Brachi asked, facepalming at Gogeta's antics, clearly not wanting any more trouble then there already was, before turning to the Detective, slipping into Chi-Chi's voice which hinted at her current annoyance with Gogeta, "Just take us there, so we can get going on with this and find out what has happened to those people." 

Majin Bara was confused at this, wondering if she would be witness to yet another argument brewing, something she didn't like as she, Brachi and Jize went towards Detective Goku.
 
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