The Reality Vortex: Red Reputations

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Bernkastel blinked a few times before looking up at Zenta when he prompted his question towards her, seemingly not paying much attention until he took his bow. "Huh? Oh... for now I'd like to be alone for a bit; it won't do looking like this for my first dinner here."

Bern took a few steps forward before stopping to look towards the beast, thinking of something to say like she'd be able to lighten the mood. "It goes for you too. Why, someone might mistake you for a sheep-- but I'm good at brushing hair." Due to her deadpan delivery, however, it didn't come out as humorous saying it aloud. Becoming increasingly intolerant of the awkward atmosphere in the hallway, Bernkastel chose the closest door for her new room. "You're free to do as you please. But I'm tired." It was ambiguous as to whether she referred to Zenta joining her as a roommate or the situation with Gogeta, and as soon as she said it, she closed the door.

Once inside, the Witch immediately rushed to start the shower and waited for the steam to come out. She looked around the room while holding the spare clothes left for her with a small frown on her face; it was all unfamiliar and foreign compared to her old room. The only comfort she had was the odd sense of nostalgia she got from what she'd seen on her way to the tower. "I said all that to Vegetto yet I'm taking his handouts anyway." Bern glared at the garment as her mind flashed between Vegetto's expression she first saw and Gogeta's face, causing her to grasp it tighter on her way to the bathroom. "What a joke I am... so stupid."
----

"Cranberry juice..." Berserk repeated before making a face of mild disgust, clearly not a fan of it herself. "So dry... I can feel my tongue drying up thinking about it..." She stopped fretting about the accursed flavor when Avalon spoke. "What! A date? The only date you oughta get is with a knuckle sandwich! Cuz you're a big dummy for that stunt you tried to pull!" Berserk pinched both of Avalon's cheeks and began to pull at them until they stretched. "You dummy! Dummydummydummy!"
 
Cayde stifled a small, haughty scoff at Avalon's words.

"Oh don't worry pal, it's gonna be the best thing you've ever had."

His eyes lifted a bit, however, noticing Gogeta walk past the others while they spoke about him. The fusion spoke no words and made eye contact with no one; the slight narrowed stare on the floor the whole way until he found the door to the first room on the right hand side. Without wasting a second, Gogeta entered and disappeared inside the room as the others spoke. Cayde kept a flat stare throughout carefully watching the man; a clear indication that the android's attention was focused on preventing a threat from being realized than concern for a person.

Cayde sighed lightly, grabbing his combat belt on his waist line with both hands. His mechanical face contorted into an absolute look of disgust at Lucifer's demand, sharing similarities to Berserk's reaction to the request but the man stood as if he took offense to the request as well in a response that answered Lucifer's final question indirectly.

"First off...you're disgusting. Second, I'm not your maid. Go get some yourself from the city shops if they're not a good business and actually stock that disgusting drink."

He shook his head with an incredulous stare back to Lucifer.

"Gah...cranberry juice. What do you think this place is? A nursing home?"

Cayde didn't wait for an immediate reply, instead, glancing to the others.

"Get changed and freshen up. I'll come get you all in about an hour or two, and we'll go eat once everyone's changed in better clothes. There should be some washing and drying stuff in the rooms if you wanna keep your outfits."



Once inside the room, Gogeta paused for a moment in standing still. An empty stare trained down on the floor, deep in thought as he slowly walked towards the bed in recalling the scene that unfolded. A feverish excitement to see his only remaining family had been tempered slightly in realizing the damage done in his wake; an overbearing shame. He thought to himself for a moment, where the events leading up to now did little to shake his feelings. Yet now that the shame found its way into his heart, Gogeta cringed in a slightly pain at the loud words of Bernkastel's tantrum after their first fight in the forest, the image of the smaller girl angrily throwing her arms down with blood trailing down her nose clear.

"YOU'RE NO FRIEND OF MINE!!!"

Gogeta sighed, dispelling the thought almost immediately as he sat on the edge of the first bed in the room. The gravity of the situation had risen further, the level of depravity caused in his wake already a mountain to overcome. Yet despite having the confidence to scale such a feat mere minutes earlier, the entire display with Vegetto's outburst had finally undone everything. Gogeta had seen the broadcasts; the stories of the Rogue Breaker saving Reality Metropolis and being the hero that Gogeta knew everyone from their universe had asked Vegetto to be. The heroic image set is why Gogeta sought out the Breakers in the first place, his original mission to meet the new Vegetto finally realized. However, the bout with Lucifer undid that image entirely: the fusion knew exactly what his counterpart had truly become. Gogeta saw the shell of the man Vegetto was supposed to be; a walking void that regurgitated training and intelligence passed onto him, but at his core, he was nothing more than those examples. In the end, Gogeta could see his absolute fear realized in Vegetto: being nothing special on his own. A product that was only special because of those that came together to make it, not the actual result itself.

To see Vegetto as a shell of Whis and an unknown example to him ruined Gogeta's confidence to be better, and the fusion buried his head into his hands with a long sigh.

How can you help me get better...when you can't even help yourself?

Gogeta slowly lifted his head, staring at the wall for a brief moment and speaking softly to himself.

"Damnit...it was never this bad...but Kass always kept him grounded. Now she's gone...what would she do?"
 
Brachi, Jize and Bara went off in silence to the room they had for themselves, getting their outfits washed up and dried within the timespan it was needed in order to get all refreshed.

"I'm going to take a shower first, wait your turn until I'm done." Brachi said, moving up to the bathroom area to do so.

This only left Bara and Jize in the bedroom area, with Jize noting that Bara was looking a bit down as she sat on the bed. 

"I know you miss the others too," the Supreme Kai said to her, "but sulking about it isn't going to bring them here, you know..."

"Then what else can we do?!" Bara responded crossly, not caring if anyone else heard her, "this entire realm is one big mess that doesn't play fair, yet everyone else seems to treat it like it's Tuesday!" 

Jize frowned at that.

"I just don't know any more," the Majin replied, clearly frustrated, "how can we possibly get out of this place if all these threats keep popping up and making things continuously worse?! All this chaos and destruction, and yet we're being used as bloody scapegoats, when we ALL know who REALLY is to blame for getting us in this predicament in the first place! If that Doombot or that faceless voice didn't mess things up for us..."
 
“Hmph. I never thought an artificial intelligence would have such horrific palate.” Lucifer’s face shifted from disappointment with Cayde and Berserk disrespecting the defined taste of cranberry juice. Ironically, he, too, did not like the taste when he was first offered to such by Cuki, but it seems that he developed a liking to it overtime. “Perhaps when you are my age, you’ll begin to appreciate it.”
 
Seeing that Gogeta quickly exited the scene and head to his room, Bernkastel doing the same, and the others leaving to their rooms of their choosing. Lucifer nodded. “I’ll attest the streets once I get my must needed rest.” Seeing that Cayde did not immediately shot down the idea of him traveling the city without a chaperone. 

“No need… I’ll fetch some new clothes. I was quite bored of this outfit anyways. It had been tainted with shame.” Lucifer uttered, referring to the entire incident with Vegetto and Avalon. Turning around, Lucifer faced the room and seeing various objects. With a flick of his wrist, he shrunk everything within the room as small as marbles, except with a chair station next to a window. “Well, enjoy your feasts, Breakers. It was quite a day.” He chuckled, closing the door behind him. It seems that Lilith was not interested in the feast, and seemingly wants to remain on Lucifer’s side—considering that no restaurants will serve food to a snake. He’d removed his drenched jacket, his well-made dress shoes and created a pair of slip-on slippers, the front having an image of a small bear that made a sound upon each step. Naoki had personally brought these for him as a joke, but the angel took a liking to these amusements.

Lucifer took a seat and stare out to the windows: carefully watching each person walking about on the streets as his lights shine like a diamond. As if he was thoroughly enjoying what he was seeing, despite of them just doing their routine by the seems of things. In the room void with no furniture, Lilith slithered and coiled around Lucifer’s neck. “Ah, yes, I sense it too.” Lucifer chuckled upon watching individuals. “Life energy did return to Spina, but not in the way that they expect.” He chuckled as he continues to watch the people down below.
 
Zenta watched Bernkastel trail to her room, all he did was bow his head to the Witch and her decision. As the others trailed their way to the other rooms, Zenta let out a sigh, happy to know that everyone, at least for now, was behaving a little better.

At times like this, one can finally breathe easy... at least for a moment.

"Gwaaah! Berserk..!" Avalon wiggled at Berserk pinching his cheeks. "You little rascal!" He began to pull and yank at her cheeks just like she did before moving his hands up to mess her hair around. Like an older brother teasing a little sister. "Alright, alright, I'm a dummy. But this dummy thinks that it's time for you to hop into some new clothes. Those wet ones will give you a cold y'know."

Zenta was trailing a hand across the wall, trying to spot where the doors were. He kept a mental note of where the others were so it was hard for him to actually find a room. Avalon watched Zenta blindly struggle on finding a room to enter and gave a nod to Berserk.

"I think I'll stick with Zenta for the meanwhile, looks like he can't find the door... I'll see you later for lunch." Avalon rushed to Zenta's side and aided him by guiding him to a room next to Lucifer's.

The ninja decided to enter with Zenta and help him get familiar with his surroundings and the objects he may find. Zenta, in the meanwhile, lowered himself to all fours and violently shook his body like a dog, getting rid of any last water stuck on his fur.

He's so calm and collected but he's also just like a dog... I guess as tame as he wants to be, even he slips and shows his true side. Still... I wonder...

"Hey Zenta, you're Cuki's master, so that means we come from the same universe, right?"

"Indeed." The beast replied, removing his pants to dry them off. His lower half was also entirely covered in fur.

"Well, how did we end up here? I mean, I woke up with no memory of how I got here. The last thing I remember was looking for some answers and, well, I wake up in Metropolis. What is this place?"

"I see you are a man of truths. Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yeah. I just... I just want to know what happened and how I got here. Once I'm done helping you guys, I'll go back to what I was doing before! I mean, it can't be that bad, right? I was probably knocked out and dragged here..."

"Avalon, I recommend you take a seat. I will tell you everything I know up until the point I perished..."
 
As the other Breakers soon found their rooms and disappeared inside to change, Cayde stared blankly into the hallway for a few moments. He shook his head curtly, sighing to himself shortly after straightening up his posture.

"When you get to be my age...what a weird kid."

However, his stare firmed up as he glanced back towards the hallway where Vegetto had disappeared into, walking down the hallway quickly and disappearing around the corridor.


The gentle fall of snow cascaded down outside of the window Vegetto stood in front of, his arms crossed firmly over his chest. His eyes were shut, as if he were meditating while standing upright in front of the window until Cayde's mechanical voice rung out loudly to pierce the deafening silence.

"You keep this up...and you're gonna lose the bet, boss."

Vegetto's eyes slowly opened, a dejected and heavy stare taking place of his previous expression. The dual voice Vegetto spoke with showed a clear disdain for the presented notion, nearly letting out an exasperated sigh in responding to the android.

"What is it, Cayde?"

Cayde rested his gloved hands on his belt line, standing upright in front of the meeting table in the war room that the Rogues had gathered in to plan for the attack on the Xy'phers.

"I just wanted to let you know that they're all relaxing in their rooms and comfortable. Not sure if you want any of them here, but that's what's happening now so make a call."

Vegetto finally sighed in reply, turning his eyes to the side towards Cayde.

"I already told you; we're not killing them. They'll see things my way soon enough, I'm sure of it."

Cayde frowned in reply, inhaling deeply through his nose while he glanced around.

"Yeah...ok...and how's that gonna happen?"

Vegetto narrowed his eyes a bit, turning to face towards the android from the raised platform over the table he stood on. The condescending stare was strong; the viscous and unrelenting expression as heavy as his words.

"They need to be forced to see it. Spina's alive; he was fine...just like I said. But they keep whining about his health when they're walking around terrifying people just by their reputation alone. They'd let everyone burn for one person...so I need to beat the sense into them that they can't just do whatever they want and expect it to work."

His eyebrows twitched heavily, the glare growing stronger.

"That damn witch...I've been trying to do right by her, and she pretends to cry over Spina just to spite me. Playing those damn fools and making them think she actually gives a damn about Spina when all she wanted was to make me look bad. Then this Lucifer; threatening everyone's lives to stop me, the one who saved them? And some how, they support him over just showing me the respect I deserve? They're insane!"

Vegetto unfolded his arms, cracking his right knuckles in his left hand.

"So I need to force them to see things my way. I'll make them see the threats they keep ignoring right under their noses; they need to be shown they're wrong and I'll prove it so they can't deny it."

Cayde kept his frown, watching on while Vegetto twitched violently. It was clear the Potara fusion was about to snap once again; the words of misguided intelligence thrown further into a downwards spiral in the clear wounded pride plastered on Vegetto's face. The android cleared his throat audibly, a near sarcastic tone.

"Yeah, um...how about instead...we don't do that. You're really strong boss...but this isn't the way to teach anyone."

Vegetto kept his stern stare, meeting Cayde's eyes. Both men held their ground, and the android remained strong in the delivery of his next point.

"They're tired, they don't really care about their image, and there's clearly that unresolved issue of you leaving. You trying to beat sense into them with this, would fail just as hard as trying to beat your wife into a Super Saiyan."

Vegetto's eyebrows immediately twitched, his arm muscles tensing heavily at the final sentence.

"Don't...bring her into this."

Cayde stood firm, shrugging his shoulders with an aloof cant of his head in a contrast to the heavy, murderous stare from the Potara fusion across the way.

"Sorry boss...you told me the story...and you need to hear this. It won't work; you gotta be better than this and let it go."

Vegetto broke out into a half smirk, shaking his head in disbelief in staring back at Cayde.

"Are you kidding?! I'm the one that has to let this go?! They're in this mess because they got to live whatever lives they wanted, hurting whatever people they wanted, and failing to provide for anyone other than themselves"

He slowly moved down the steps, the dual voice raising into a shout very quickly.

"Why should I let this go, when I was the only one who lost everything?!"

Cayde sighed, shifting a bit in his stance in clear discomfort at the situation. He paused for a moment, glancing towards the door leading back out of the room. Yet the android remained tall, soon turning his head back to Vegetto with a firm stare.

"You weren't."

Vegetto stared back at Cayde in arrogant defiance, yet despite the obvious indication to continue proclaiming his stance, Vegetto surprisingly remained still in his position. His eyes turned down; the sting of Kassava's death long gone from his feelings and his memories encircling back towards the others. As he recalled the faces of the grieving Breakers all lamenting on the lost ones during the Doom saga, Cayde spoke again with a firm mechanical voice.

"Look boss...I'm not gonna get into this with you again. I told you I have your back until the end, and whatever you want to do, I'll support it. But you said you wanted to do things right...and the truth is...you gotta be the one to build that side of things. From the stories you told me...you never had a good relationship with them and the only reason you guys even had a reason to talk to one another...was because of your wife. Now she's gone...and when she wasn't there to help you be better, you showed them your true colors."

Vegetto kept his stare down, Cayde lowering his arms to his side.

"Why should they trust anything you say, huh?"

Vegetto glanced around for a brief moment, a long and heavy sigh soon breaking his frustrated stare. He slowly straightened himself out, tired eyes lifting to meet Cayde's once more.

"Then what do you think I should do?"

Cayde blinked for a moment, the question and near defeated expression on Vegetto's face catching him off guard. He leaned forward a bit, squinting his mechanical eyes for a moment at Vegetto with a low whisper.

"Did I do it? Did I finally break through?"

He quickly shook his head, clearing his throat audibly.

"Well...I think that they're dangerous. They're reckless...they can do whatever they want and we all have to suffer if it's not good for us. This is also the second time they've been hunted, and if their power gets seized, then we wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it. Meaning that maybe, it might be best if you let me just walk into each of those rooms and put a bullet in their heads."

Vegetto looked down for a moment, a solemn stare in his eyes while Cayde paused for a moment. The android's voice rung out with a more carefree tone shortly after, a lighthearted aloof nature to his speech.

"But I felt that way about you once....and even...about myself. So why don't we just keep trying, and make baby steps. We can always try not being the center of the universe...and maybe...do some good by them without expecting them to be good to us. Cause we've done that before, and I think we turned out...sort of...ah who am I kidding, we're actually terrible."

Cayde broke out into a small smile.

"Yeah, you know what? I think I'd rather see you lose this bet and have to buy me spicy ramen from the Noodle Stand for the rest of eternity. So I vote we kill them."

Vegetto raised his head once more, meeting Cayde's eyes again. The Potara fusion remained still, seeing the light hearted smile on the android's face soon forcing one to his own. Vegetto shook his head with a small chuckle, soon breaking out into a cocky smirk and nodding towards the door.

"Go do it then. Kill all the Breakers...right now."

Cayde reached down, yanking his massive hand cannon from his holster and twirling it up into his hand. He kept a small grin, shaking his head with a playful teasing voice while he nodded at Vegetto.

"You don't think I will? I'll get the midget first; I'll just keep firing and be magnificent as I murder school girls and strange beast men."

Vegetto shook his head, the smirk on his face while he turned back around. He slowly crossed his arms, a warm and softened expression on his face as he let out a deep sigh.

"Alright Cayde...you win. I'll...try...to do this right. I still have a lot to learn...and it'd be nice if I could do something right by them for a change."

Cayde let out a relieved sigh, nodding his head.

"This is great. Do you want a hug? Hugs?"

The room grew silent for a moment, Vegetto still facing forward while Cayde held out his arms openly for an embrace from the man many feet away from him in the large room.

"No?....alright...no hugs then."

The android lowered his arms, turning on his heel and walking towards the door.

"Have a good night boss, I'll see you in the morning."

Vegetto glanced over his shoulder slightly, watching Cayde depart the room to leave him by himself. He kept his smile forward, sighing to himself.

Even now, I'm still learning what you tried to teach me...honey. I failed you...and I failed them. But they're still here...so there's still time to make things right.

His expression softened, his eyes turning out to the snow falling.

I don't want to lose any more loved ones. 


The Next Day

Unlike the loud screeching of the birds that normally abused the Breakers' ear drums at Cuki's apartment, the serenity of the brisk morning of Rogue City allowed the team to finally rest and relax without worry from annoying nuisances. However, Cayde happily marched into the hallway that led to many of the rooms the Breakers slept in, and promptly pulled out his hand cannon from the holster.

"Alright Breakers!! Rise and shine!!!"

He suddenly aimed the pistol down the hallway, and in a sudden blitz, began firing the deafening loud hand cannon from his hip. The bullets shot through the hallway with ease, Cayde's free hand fanning the hammer of the gun to lead a rapid succession of explosive sounds from the gun itself. Fourteen shots ripped through the air down the hallway and out through the window that shattered on the other side of the hallway.

The momentary explosions coming from the gun ceased once Cayde ran out of ammo in his clip, but the android flicked the gun to the side and exposed the empty cartridge in the round chamber. He began to fiddle with the mechanisms, prepared to reload and go again in another rapid fire shooting bonanza as a method to wake the Breakers up.
 
A bleary-eyed Brachi soon emerged from her room, dressed in a nightgown, clearly not pleased with this method.

"Was that really necessary? A simple alarm clock would suffice too, unless you've been gunning for the heavy sleepers among us," She simply commented to him, "even Celicia knew better than that!"

Jize simply yawned as she got up, while poking a bundle underneath the blankets, from which Bara soon emerged, looking up to see who woke her.
 
Avalon was up early and he was busy writing things into his scroll but his expression seemed more depressed than usual. Avalon was only stuck in his boxers and all over his back were hundreds of scars, most of which seem to be inflicted using a whip of some sort. Upon hearing the loud noise of the bullets echoing through the halls, Avalon immediately flailed up to his feet. With the door wide open, the sound of the bullets bounced louder in both his and Zenta's room. Avalon quickly rolled over to one side and covered his head, fearing that someone was attacking them.

"What's going on?!" Avalon panicked. "Zenta!"

Zenta, who slept like a dog on its back, immediately flipped on to all fours and rushed to the open door, staying low to the ground as he stared down the hallway to notice Cayde. He calmed down and let out a sigh of relief. The beast tapped Avalon on the shoulder to let him know everything would be okay. The beast did not have pants but his legs and waist were entirely covered in hair, usually hidden by his pants. His fur was still poofy and flat thanks to him laying down on the ground.

"Sheesh! Is that any way to wake people up!" Avalon poked his head out to see Cayde. He pouted his face. "Gosh, you could've just knocked on our doors, y'know!"

Avalon groaned slightly. He barely rested and he had dark rings under his eyes but he was definitely better than how he was yesterday. He yawned loudly and leaned over to grab his scroll, examining the countless things he wrote in it. The ninja appeared at a loss, almost as if there was a weight on his shoulders or a dark cloud looming over his head.

"Well then," Zenta said stretching his body as a dog would. "I believe today is a new day which means new possibilities. Yet, my fur continues to embarrass me... Let us hope that everyone else has rested."
 
Throughout the night, within the medical facility where Spina is kept within the healing tank, the old Saiyan made small movements with his right hand. The serious wounds inflicted upon his body was somewhat healed, but the bearings remain permanent markings on his body. The cracks seemingly have receded almost completely, except for the hole where he was pierced from a pipe during the bout against the illusionist, Roya.

Based on his movements, it seems apparent that some life was returning, but the unusual sensation from that energy is off—it cannot be sense by any means. In fact, it was impossible to determine such energy at all other than sense of “pressure” when you tried to seek him out. There were slight eye movements, twitching quite a bit as if he were having a nightmare—but whether he was afraid or actively fighting cannot be determine from small movements he makes. By the time morning hints, his healing tank was engulfed with water bubbles.

=======

Morning

Upon the sounds of erupted through the hallways, Lucifer emerged from the room with a new look this time around. As noted earlier, Lucifer expressed that his energy had to be completely rebuild from the ground up to the unexpected attack from Zenta’s movesets that the Coin Hunter had used in battle. Slowly, although there were times where he had to make effort to assist the Breakers, his energy build, and the more it returns, the older he becomes. Freely, however, Lucifer can take shape and appearances he solely wishes, but only when his energy is back to normal.

Spreading his bigger wings, Lucifer was taller in comparison to his teenage self. Clearly, the night rest was enough for him to rebuild his energy back. Either suggesting that he may be holding back his abilities, or perhaps, the abilities he did proclaim was not enough to regress back to his child-like state. He took the appearance of a young adult, around his 20s, and because of that, he’d easily towers over someone like Avalon and Berserk—despite being in the similar age group.

Seeing the others emerges from their rooms in reaction to the sounds of gunfire, Lucifer adjusted his tie with his signature smug face—even more pronounced than before. “Ah, deafening sounds of bullets—although not as quite pleasing to the ears like the screaming crows, but this is a good substitute, Cayde, was it?” He said, sporting a slightly new outfit: a light sky-blue color suit, black dress shoes and a red tie.

“I wouldn’t mind if you aim the bullets in our actual direction. Make sure that our senses are alerted at all times—” Lucifer chuckled after making such a joke. “My, where is Gogeta? I don’t see a sight of him.” He looked around before eyeing on Avalon and Zenta, both were not really wearing much clothing, although the beast had fur to covered himself. “You [Avalon] haven’t slept much. Did someone die? Haha.” He said, poking at Avalon’s facial expression.
 
At the sound of the gunfire, Bage was startled awake and found himself tangled in his blanket as his body tumbled to the ground. A loud thud came from the detectives room, then there was rustling before the door flew open. 

"Stop stop...!! We're up!" The Saiyan nearly shouted. He blinked repeatedly as he looked out into the hallway, his vision blocked a bit by his sudden woken state. It was weird for Bage to have slept in on a normal occasion, but as the detective remembered, this was no normal occasion. He hadn't noticed just how much that Xy'pher attack had taken out of him until now. He sighed and ran his hand down his face slowly when there was finally silence and simply looked on at Cayde waiting for some instruction.
 
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