The Reality Vortex: Red Reputations

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As Berserk and Bage, using their last bits of strength to pave way for them to go through, since Vegetto had decimated a large horde of them earlier, Lucifer’s eyes narrowed. “That’s a good enough time…” He raised both his hands in the air as rain continue to pour on them. His voice shifted to a darker tone. In a split second, a barrier of black surrounded the angel, raising his head towards the four white orbs. “Don’t underestimate me, boy.” Taking control of the white orbs, it expands suddenly and hurled towards the dark clouds that hovered above the destroyed city. “I have a much better idea.”

Six wings spread out from his body, rapidly expanded in size, nearly eclipse the sea of enemies that stood before them—while providing some cover from the rain. As the white orbs reaches above the clouds, Lucifer clenched his hands. It was filled with so much energy that it exploded into a bright light that engulfed the entire sky above the city for a few seconds. It felt like Lucifer, as Bernkastel stated prior, is making another chance of his ace card to turn the tide of the battle—even just a little bit.

Yet, despite the massive form of energy exploding above them—there was no rain of destruction that befell them and the Xy’phers remained still. Rather, the Breakers and the Xy’phers, instead, no longer felt any sense of water attacking on their bodies. In actuality, Lucifer had seemingly used Cayde’s orbs and his bits of strength to change the weather itself, ending the thunderstorm and clearing the skies of any clouds across the ruin city and beyond.

As the blue-sky shine through, Lucifer had a satisfying smile on his face. “There. No more rain.”
 
Brachi, Bara and Jize looked up at this as they saw Lucifer doing his thing in clearing the clouds and revealing clear blue sky.

"Oh wow!" Bara said, clearly impressed.

"This is definitely a welcome change in atmosphere." Jize said, smiling.

"I only hope we don't catch a cold from this..." Brachi replied.
 
The more Vegetto absorbed and countered his electrical attacks, the more furious the Xy'pher grew, and, in turn, the more unstable. As Vegetto rushed towards him, Eleki smirked, knowing he was much faster than the Saiyan, however, when he tried to move out of the way of his fist, he couldn't! The storm overhead disappeared and took all the lightning and electricity with it. Although it may not have been Lucifer's intention, he ultimately stopped Eleki's main source of power. Now the Xy'pher had to generate his own electricity which cost far more energy.

Upon taking the hit from Vegetto's fist, he skidded on the floor, more cracks forming on his incredibly fragile body. His body started to break off. Pieces of his shoulder hands and face fell off from his body. Even compared to a normal Xy'pher, his body was not built for such brutal hits. However, once those pieces of crystal fell from his body, black energy immediately began to physically ooze from his open wounds. Pushing himself up from the ground, he wobbled as he could barely stand up straight. Suddenly, he noticed the rain stopped.

"W-What happened to my storm?!" Eleki cried out as he looked up at the clear skies. "M-My precious rain..!"

"You did all that to stop the rain?!" Avalon called out to Lucifer. Yet, Eleki's reaction caught his attention. "Looks like it had an effect on the Xy'pher..."

As Eleki freaked out from the lack of rain, the moment Vegetto rushed at him again he panicked. Without thinking, he immediately shot out his hand and fired a bolt of lightning that grabbed a few Xy'phers aiming to strike down Cayde and Lucifer. He yanked them towards him in a feeble attempt to block Vegetto's incoming fist. Not only did the Xy'phers perish, but it also did little to protect him. As he took the massive blow to the head, his crystal body nearly shattered.

"...You are... part of the Breakers..?" Eleki spat out, half of his face missing at this point. His one eye was slowly being engulfed by the black energy, driving him further into madness. He quickly turned to the Xy'phers near the Breakers. "Weaklings! Listen to me..! Forget about the others! Help me subdue this one! This one is the REAL prize!"

The Xy'phers watched the Elite kill a few of their own and immediately stopped rushing towards the Breakers, literal moments before overwhelming them. The reaction they had was instant. The moment they saw the other Xy'phers die by the hand of the Elite, their tone changed. They all watched the Elite as he ordered them but did not move an inch. The rage from Eleki was building and his actions became much more erratic and unstable. The weaker Xy'phers flinched at the Elite barking ordered until he rose to his feet, more pieces of him falling off.

"What?! You refuse to obey me?! I am your SUPERIOR! I am ABOVE you! You will obey ME!" Eleki shouted at the remaining Xy'pher horde then pointed at Vegetto. "So what are you waiting for?! KILL HIM!"

Even when Berserk's projectile chucks crushed them and Bage's Ki blasts shattered them, they still refused to move. The horde had their sights trained on the Elite-Xy'pher, practically halting their attack on the Breakers at this point. Not one made an attempt to hurt the Breakers anymore, almost as if what Eleki did warranted their attention far more. Suddenly, and in complete unison, all the blank eyes of the weaker Xy'phers started to flash and glitter, as if carefully monitoring Eleki's every move.

"Fine! You're all weaklings compared to me!" The black ooze that released from Eleki's body was similar in consistency to that of blood. It was so highly concentrated with negative energy that it released steam and melted the ground under him like acid. It was so corrupt that it almost had a mind of its own, morphing into the missing half of Eleki's face. He turned to Vegetto with a demented smirk and his body almost entirely covered by a black aura. "I'll kill you..! I'm the strongest..! You... are...NOTHING! Bow to me..!!!"

Eleki shot his hand out towards the horde, black electricity shot out of his palms to form hands that grabbed onto more Xy'phers and ripped them limb from limb, using their sharp appendages to fire at Vegetto. The crystal pieces flung at Vegetto were charged with electricity as well as dark energy. A single hit could drive Vegetto into madness. Eleki grabbed more Xy'phers and forced them to stand in front of him to form a Xy'pher shield between him and Vegetto.

"Weaklings! Everyone..! I am the strongest! I... me!!!" Eleki said hysterically. It was hard to tell if he was laughing, screaming, or crying. "Just... die!"

"W-What's going on with him?!" Avalon said before turning back to the Xy'phers standing mere feet away from them. "T-They suddenly stopped attacking us? W-Why..?"
 
Cayde blinked widely, stopping his run and lowering his gun in seeing Lucifer raising the energy orbs he tossed up moments ago. The android gasped, trying to reach up and grab them as they floated well outside his reach.

"No wait!! Don't waste my Vegetto bombs!"

His cape and hood whipped around violently from the explosion, the android covering his eyes from the bright gleam of the blast. Cayde quickly lowered his arms, and with a groan of annoyance, he rapidly turned his head up to Lucifer.

"What the hell?! Those were the biggest weapons I had in this fight, and you waste them so we can have nice weather?!

Cayde stood by, however, watching on as the Xy'phers' behavior changed course dramatically. He blinked hard a couple of times, taking in the sight and seeing the other Breakers unharmed in a quick check for surroundings. His eyes turned with the Xy'phers, and while the enemies looked on to their ally across the way, Cayde stared on to see what Vegetto would do.




Vegetto landed heavily on the ground after Eleki took the full force of his punch behind the Xy'phers that shattered to bits in defense, his boots kicking up rock and rubble in a small impact that cratered the ground. He straightened himself out, his narrowed eyes glancing around and seeing the masses all standing in refusal of the elite's orders.

He slowly shut his eyes, the opening from the confusion spurring him on to suddenly mount his energy. The dramatic flair of white fire kicked up from around his boots, engulfing the man promptly in a near blinding gleam. The roar of the fire was short lived, however; the energy gradually retreating inward and slowly disappearing from sight. The immense heat and pressure remained around Vegetto's body, the man's eyes opening at the elite's demand for him to kneel.

For a brief second, Vegetto said nothing. The image of the oozing and battered Eleki stumbling forth, while claiming his grandiose superiority and missing most of his face, spurred a deep memory within the Potara fusion's mind. His lips rose slightly into a small smirk, the tension in his arms building while he raised two fingers to his forehead.

Just like old times. Thank you for showing me the way, Clark.

The crackle and shattering noise of the Xy'phers being torn apart was matched in the torrents of wind blasting outward from Vegetto's body, his dual voice raising loudly.

"Thanks for the fight Eleki...but I bow to no one! Let me show you my new move; a technique I learned from an old friend!"

Vegetto squatted down slightly, the impending doom of each electrically charged crystal barreled towards him. With dodging impossible and no where to run, Vegetto's next move would determine victory or death. His dual voice raised into a deep shout, the confident smirk rising as the crystals came within feet of him.

"Final Atom Strike!!"

Vegetto's body suddenly disappeared into thin air with a loud "fzzt", the immense black energy laced crystals barraging down and crashing into the ground where he stood mere milliseconds ago. Yet a strange white mist seemed to hang over the area where he stood, the cloud carefully avoiding the black energy below. The entire mist began to suddenly shoot forward; octillions of atoms laced in the very white energy Vegetto displayed moments ago all charging forth in perfect unison. Each atom bore the weight and power of a single heavily powered punch that Vegetto could unleash; the culmination of each one striking smashing the Xy'pher shield Eleki built to pieces. The mist shot forward, cleanly tearing into Eleki with the same force of trillions upon trillions of atoms all impacting him with immense pressure and power.

The mist soon reformed into the shape of a humanoid body, and within the blink of an eye, Vegetto landed on the ground. He collapsed down onto one knee, panting heavily with his eyes widened to the brim. His pupils radiated a bright white gleam that vanished almost as soon as he reappeared, his normal appearance returning as he worked to catch his breath.
 
"You cannot touch me, fool!" Eleki mocked Vegetto. "You...can't...TOUCH...ME--!!"

Eleki's voice instantly stopped upon the mist flying through him, his body remaining still for a moment. His Xy'pher shield also remained still. Only until Vegetto had reconstructed himself behind him did the Xy'phers in front of Eleki shattered like glass. Eleki's body ruptured in multiple places, spewing black energy into the area. Every atom that passed through him was more than enough to render the Elite-Xy'pher useless. His body began to break apart slowly, releasing more and more black energy into the area. While the attack completely immobilized Eleki, he was still not dead just yet. He clung on, albeit by a sliver. The Elite gasped for air, black ooze lining his face similar to blood, while he held out an arm to the remaining Xy'phers. His hand was missing and so was part of his forearm. He was practically dead.

"H-Help me... Xy'phers... D-Defend me... Defend your...Elite... Defeat this... man." Eleki coughed as he turned his sights to Vegetto. "Get... him..!"

"Traitor," The weaker Xy'phers chanted. "you have killed one of your own. By the decree of the Red King, we no longer take orders from you. He was watching you..."

"W-What..?! But... the King demands... the Breakers..! Get him now..! He's... weak! They are all... weak!"

The Xy'phers each took one step back from the Breakers they surrounded and faced Eleki. The Coins within their bodies started to glow in morse code. Whatever message they got was in their native tongue so there was no way to decipher it. "We have new orders from the Red King. Report our sightings and bring your remains to the Grand Hive."

"You... YOU..! I order you... to kill them..! Kill them all--" Before Eleki could curse out the Xy'phers, his Coin started to glow a bright red underneath the black Crystal he was made out of. His body floated, contorted, and cracked, allowing more black energy to ooze from his body. Whatever was happening to Eleki seemed to be out of his control, almost as if someone else started to manipulate him. As much as the Elite-Xy'pher struggled, he was powerless to stop whatever was controlling him. Finally, in a quick motion, his neck snapped a full 180 degrees so that his face was literally looking behind him until his body slipped off and slumped on the ground. The head continued to float, and eventually, speak.

The body limped to the side and started to glow, indicating that it would blow up any moment. All the cracks littered on Eleki's headless body started to glow and the liquid energy that surrounded him would begin to melt the ground under him. However, it seemed that the explosion, although not imminent, was not immediate compared to their previous encounters with Black Crystals. They were on a timer.

"Hello Breakers," A voice, entirely different from Eleki, spoke. It sounded too distorted thanks to the corruption of the Black Crystal's energy, but at least the Breakers can understand what was being said. "I am happy to finally be able to speak with you."

"All bow to the Red King!" One of the Xy'phers shouted which caused the others to drop to their knees and bow to the decapitated head of Eleki. "All hail the Red King!"

"I want to apologize to my servants for the wickedness of this Elite. I was going to execute him but this mysterious man beat me to it," The head gazed to Vegetto disinterested before turning to the Xy'phers that remained. "I have activated the self destruct feature from the Black Crystals of the Elite-Berserker. Once it explodes, it will take the entire city, as well as the Breakers, with it. I will be sure to send a search party to retrieve your Cores where you will reform in the safety of the Grand Hive. You all have done well in cornering the Breakers." The floating head said to the Xy'phers, who all cheered at their praise and imminent doom.

The head kept his sights (or rather Eleki's) on the weakened Breakers.

"We have already captured two from the Breakers and they are currently sitting in my castle. I have done many things to them in order to get more information about the other Breakers. They are rather resilient but Earthlings tend to not like pain very much."

"Why do you want the Breakers in your army? Is it for power? Fame?!" Avalon shouted to the King. "And who are the two you captured?!"

"I heard that the Breakers are the mightiest warriors of this planet. I believe that if I capture them, the morale of this planet will dwindle and it will make it easier to spread my colonies. ...As for the names of my two prisoners, I care not for a lowly specimen as they. They are worthless in my eyes and will die as such. The only thing I care about is their Breaker status and any information they can give me about the Breakers."

"My lord, we have information for you!" A Xy'pher ran out from the crowd. It was Holmes covered in cracks and scratches. He made his way to the floating head and dropping to his knees yet again, bowing to the mere distorted voice of the Red King. The Xy'pher-Detective quickly pointed to Vegetto. "This man claims to be part of the Breakers! He mentioned it as he fought toe-to-toe with the traitor!"

"Is that so?"

"Absolutely, my lord! He was the one who stopped the Elite-Berserker singlehandedly as well as cut our horde numbers! He performed a special move that broke the Elite, as well as the Xy'phers shielding him, into pieces!"

The head slowly turned to shift its gaze from the Breakers to Vegetto. The decapitated head of Eleki rose a brow, curious of Vegetto now.

"Quite the feat for a human. I am not impressed but you have certainly piqued my interest, to say the least. Tell me, What is your name..?"


(I'll let you guys react or ask a single question before Eleki blows up.)
 
Brachi merely scoffed at this.

"So what is this all about? Are you just another petty ruler trying to conquer everything? Let me ask you this: What are you really after?" She asked.

"What do you mean by that, Brachi?" Jize asked.

"There is always some fool who wants to rule the world, always forcing others to do what they can't do for themselves." Brachi replied.

Bara blinked at that, not expecting this.

"So, I just want to know what his ulterior motives are. Clearly that fool has no regard for his own subjects if he just intends to blow them up and regenerate them later... it reminds me of Frieza in a way, given how ruthless he dealt with Eleki due to treachery." Brachi replied.

"And you believe he's going to just tell it right to you?" Jize asked with a frown.

"Why not? He's got us cornered, right? I just don't see how we are so significant for him to go after, regardless of our status as the 'mightiest warriors' as he puts it." Brachi replied.

Jize frowned at this... what was Brachi planning here? Again biding time? Getting some more information out of their enemy? Was Brachi curious to know what they were up against so she could plan accordingly?
 
With a smile on his face, Lucifer grabbed his hair to let out all the excess water from it. “Yes, it is quite troublesome to continue being drench like this. If I were to perish by the hand of this horde, I would like to die dry than this.” Seemingly not aware that the effects of changing the actual weather itself would have any effect on the Xy’phers. He simply got tired of constantly being out in the rain without no umbrella, his suit being all muddy and his favorite dress shoes is wrecked beyond repair for constantly running.

Despite Cayde’s protest and scolding him for using his white orbs for his own benefit, Lucifer turned his head slightly to hear the exchange between Eleki and Vegetto. It seems that changing the weather did something to turn the tides of the battle—at least, prevented Eleki from abusing his electric attacks. “Oh? Did something happen because of such?”

Unlike the others, Lucifer was not present during the battle with Doom, so this was the first time to see his battle aside from rumors he heard in other cities. Equally odd, the Xy’phers had seemingly stopped moving in their pursuit, instead turned to Eleki after the latter used them as shields to deal the blows. Seeing Avalon asking questions, the angel narrowed his eyes. “Just simple observation, Avalon. It seems that they do not take kindly of using them as a shield and consider this an act of a traitor. The letters that our dear detective implied such penalty.”

Not keeping his sights away from the battle, Lucifer seems a bit eager of the fruitions of Vegetto’s energy. It was if the energy is pooling around his body constantly without any form of blockage normally in place to prevent any harm done. Yet, seemingly so, he was able to pull this off quite efficiently. “Once again, the Breakers have showcase something that I don’t see quite often. Zenta, Bernkastel, Cross, Spina and now this one.” He stated. As Vegetto disappeared and reappeared behind Eleki—the battle was over.

“I suppose that our deaths won’t be happening today, Breakers.” Seeing Vegetto’s strange technique was something that also peak his curiosity, much like Zenta’s energy destruction move that shattered his core, resulting him to his child-like state weeks ago. However, sensing the Dark Energy oozing from his body, especially since his body is made of Black Crystals, Lucifer smiles. “Well... maybe today is the day.”

For the first time, Lucifer’s eyes widened in shock—he did not think the Red King itself would allow himself to speak with the Breakers this early on. He thought that they would not encounter him until the very end. Before he could ask a single question, he was being drowned out by Avalon and Brachi asking a series of them, causing him to cringe at the way they are phrasing it such.

“It’s not that complicated, Brachi.” Lucifer stated. “We know he goes after those that are considered a great asset to his military. He stated as much a second ago. Considering us, and he will have the advantage with the usage of our coins at maximum power without any drawbacks. Did you already forget your battle with Hart and how difficult she was using the Vortex Coins? Both of you need to broaden your perspectives. We’re on burrowed time now that Black Energy has been activated.”

Lucifer turns to the head of Eleki and smile, with a single question. “King, are you after the one on the Vortex Moon?” He did not clarify what he meant and purposely avoid any names.
 
After the battle had died down immensely in pressure, Cayde blinked at the sudden display. He clutched tightly onto his gun in one hand, the other balling into a fist while he watched on. His orange eyes turned up while Lucifer criticized the others in how they questioned the Red King, and chimed in with a near sarcastic voice as well.

“The kid’s got a point, and intel is good and all. But maybe, we should be using that time to get the hell out of here, instead of playing 20 questions?”

Vegetto’s dual voice rung out from afar after Cayde’s presented point, a confident tone behind it while he shouted.

“Don’t worry about that Cayde...I got it covered.”

Vegetto’s eyes turned back to the head that floated in front of him, his arms at his sides in fully straightening himself out.

“Since I’m the fusion of Vegeta and Kakarotto, you can call me Vegetto. The Rogue Breaker is what the locals call me; it’s a shame I won’t be able to save my city a second time.”

His eyes narrowed a bit, avoiding tacking on a question onto Lucifer, Avalon and Brachi’s points of request. His smirk remained, opting to threaten the man across the way.

“Try coming out here in person next time, and I’ll show you just how impressive I am.”



As Vegetto finished his threat, the sound of mud schlopping around rung out behind the Breakers along with the groans of a familiar duel voice. Gogeta cringed heavily in a strained effort to pull Spina through the mud by his one arm, coming in a few feet behind the others and stopping once he was within range. He tossed Spina’s arm into the mud with a haughty annoyed grunt, attempting to pat himself down and brush off the mud from his hands but only made his baggy pants dirtier in the motion.

Gogeta perked his eyebrows in turning to the others; the characteristic non chalant attitude returning in his demeanor for the Breakers to see for the first time since they met.

“Hey guys, what’d I miss?”
 
As the Breakers conversed among each other, Berserk stood back in shock at all that was being told to them. "We're gonna get blown up? Just like that?..." With her eyes wide and a shaky hold on her sword, Berserk's thoughts all overlapped each other in overdrive to the point she stopped paying attention to what the others were saying. Who was already captured? How'd they end up like this? And why couldn't she stop thinking about that terrible dream they all seemed to have? Maybe it was supposed to end differently, but not like this.

"None of that matters now! Did you guys forget what he just said?! If we don't do something, we're gonna die here! You're crazy if you think I'm gonna stick around for you to invite their King out to dine on our corpses and shit!" Berserk turned on her heel with a look of urgent panic on her face. "I say we run, now, and maybe we'll have a lesser chance of--" The powerpunk stopped her sentence, having turned right as Gogeta came into view. Stunned to silence, her eyes followed Spina's limp body in the mud. "H-huh? How the hell are you guys still alive and not zombified?!"
 
With all this information being tossed into the air, Bage was now back in panic mode. The Red King had already taken two Breakers, the city was on the verge of exploding along with them in it, Vegetto, the Rogue Breaker, was back- Aghh! the Detective groaned heavily, unable to think of what he should deal with first. He turned toward the Breakers he had been traveling with.

"Berserk, just calm down. We don't know how long we have until the explosion. Doesn't mean we should be lax but... I doubt taking off now would give us the distance we need to get away in time. So the best thing to do would be to leave it up to Vegetto to get us out of here."

He then turned to see Gogeta dragging a half-dead Spina like a garbage bag. The detective took a sharp inhale, holding back any irritation to focus on the more pressing matter. "Well... at least we're all here now."
 
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