Outside Federation City
Alex tumbled back until she reached the edge of the mounted cliff. She lay stunned briefly; the pain in her chin spread throughout her entire body once the adrenaline cools off. “Damn...” She struggled for a good moment before finally standing up on her feet.
“That demon definitely knows.” Alex thought to herself, before hacking up blood.
“Bastard nearly shattered my teeth…”
Her demeanor changed when the beast called her out as a Morningstar. “Alright, you got my attention, demon. You seem to be
very acquainted with mother. What is your relationship with Lucifer?!” Since her blade had been shattered and made unusable, she pulled the gun out of her holster and pointed at the beast. “I’ll take out the witch and drag you to headquarters to get any information about mother.”
Alex made a move despite her obvious injury. Her eyes changed to clock pupils as she fired her gun. “Demonic Bullet! Time Skip!” The bullet hurled straight for the witch as it kept vanishing throughout its travels. It was skipping ahead in time within a fraction of a second until it reached within mere inches from Bernkastel’s right eye.
“She’s losing focus.” Battler saw from afar. “Zenta’s provocation is working.” Although he’s not sure if he’s doing it in jest or there are some lingering feelings underneath for someone like Lucifer of all things. Regardless, the Detective did not want to risk prolonging the battle any longer because it would jeopardize their original mission if multiple people discovered a flaw in Alex’s ability.
Another issue had the detective on the fence now. Cadye, despite being rag dolled earlier, was standing next to the Potaran in perfect condition. Vegetto’s injuries practically disappeared. And Victor’s scarecrows seemingly vanished into nothingness. Was this another trick from Bernkastel’s new ability? That was his first thought. But he noticed that Whis hadn’t appeared yet, but he had no record of displaying such abilities before.
“Need to ramp this up.” He deduced.
“I cannot allow neither Vegetto nor Bernkastel to come any close to this.”
His ears picked up sounds of bullets firing towards his direction. Acting fast, he pointed at himself. “Blue Objective!” The bullets from Victor’s Rabbit slammed onto the detective’s body and simply bounced off. “Nice try, old man.” He pointed at the rabbit. “Red Objective!”
The rabbit rapidly transformed into a gigantic, raging beast and turned on Victor. Without warning, he threw multiple strikes at the old man without slowing down.
Some Distant Away
Far away, Spina was facedown on the ground. He wasn’t seriously hurt, but he simply lay there as he thought about his next move.
“She has the same ability as Kassava.” It was clear that in this new reality vortex, time abilities work more functional—although time travel from past and future is still impossible.
He stood up and did a couple of stretches. “Alright. Round 2.”
“No. You have other important things to worry about. Head to Federation City instead.”
Spina narrowed his eyes and looked around. “Who’s telling me what to do!?”
Suddenly, the entire area around the old Saiyan turned pitch black. There were no cities in plain sight; not even mountains or small rocks were present in this. Only Spina stood in the middle of darkness, until an enormous being appeared before him. His physical appearance was broken down into two parts: a head and a large body. He lacks legs and arms but has hands orbiting around him. His head consists of many small eyes around it, with a big giant eye in the middle. Lastly, his devilish smile is ever present.
“I start to wonder why you even torture yourself like this. Are you some kind of masochist?” Brutality asked.
“What the hell do you want now. Can’t you see I’m busy?”
“Busy getting your ass kicked for the nth time. Isn’t that cliché overdone now?”
“Out with it. You don’t appear to me for no reason.”
“Heh.” Brutality chuckled. “You’re not as dumb as you look. Listen, forget about the detective and the Breakers. You should set your eyes on a much bigger prize waiting for you in Federation City.”
“And what’s that?” Spina crossed his arms.
“Yowl Kassava, and of course, Yowl Bernkastel. With all the luck that rabbit gave you earlier, you’ll be able to get there without much interference.” Brutality states.
It didn’t cross his mind to simply ditch them and head straight to Federation City. However, something was holding him back to remain with the group.
“Worry about Bernkastel? You should take heed of the detective’s warning. You’re propping her up as someone that understands you. She doesn’t. She never will. None of them will ever understand. Except me, of course.”
“Tch.” Spina scolded at the thought. “You don’t know nothing—she’s different. The rest, sure, but she’s not the one Battler described.”
“Isn’t she though?” Brutality chuckled. “Because I don’t think she ever told you about Clear Mind, nor Guardian, haven’t she?”
Spina had a confused look on his face when the monster dropped the terms. “…The hell are you talking about?”
“Just as Battler said, she’s not trustworthy. I am an overseer, but I’m not the only one. There’s eight of us in total. And she has one hovering over her to play a game she’s aiming to win.”
“Game?”
“The game to control any situation she pleases—and win without fail. That’s the point of her trying to master Clear Mind. It is a powerful ability without flaws and can shape the ties of any battle she takes part in. Haven’t you noticed the changes of her hair? The Breakers’ journey to these fights is nothing more than steppingstones for her to gain experience. Nothing more. Of course, she’s not telling anyone this because it’ll ruin her chances of winning.”
Spina remained silent.
“Why do you thin she’s so adamant of making you stay the moment you decided to act for yourself for once? She wants to make sure that everything goes her way—the moment you start making a choice of your own, she will use Clear Mind to gear towards her choice. That’s why she’s even entertaining your little fighting obsessive nature. To ensure that you stay by her side like a good dog. That’s why Zenta is there. That’s why Vegetto is there, though he tries to break out of it without much good results. But you, with me, you can escape that trap.”
Spina stood there in shock that Bernkastel would do something like that, but the events after finally acting on his own decisions started to make sense in his head. When he wanted to leave for the first time, Bernkastel made it her mission to stop him from doing so. It wasn’t because she cared for him on a personal level—he was nothing but a pawn to keep around so she can complete her mastery of Clear Mind. So, she’s in absolute control in all decisions.
The old Saiyan furrowed his eyes in anger. “Tch… fooled again, huh?”
“This is why I’m here. Remember, I know everything about you. I’m trying to set you up for success.” Brutality chuckled. “And here’s something that you definitely would love to hear.”
Spina stared at Brutality as the life in his eyes became dejected.
“There’s a reason why Battler is so adamant of stopping from you getting to Kassava. Yowls are natives to this world, yes, but they do not have any concept of feelings whatsoever. You can call them nothing more than mere husks; they extract personalities based on who imprinted on them. And when a Yowl reached their final stage in life, they would explode violently and take out several large cities with them upon death. However, their violent deaths can be prevented if they are killed by someone that gave them a heart.”
Brutality let out a sinister chuckle. “When a Yowl experience an overwhelming emotion from someone, whether positive or negative, they will form a heart. And when that happens—they cannot be killed by any other thing except by the person that gave them one. Meaning, that person will give them a choice to live or die.”
The overseer hovers around Spina . “If you go there and give both Kassava and Bernkastel such an emotional reaction that they’ll form hearts, which means YOU decided their fates. YOU will decide if they live or die! I’m sure that Vegetto-Black is aware of this fact on a surface level, but if you can beat him to the punch… then it’ll be YOUR choice and no one else! And if they’re on the verge of exploding, you can prevent that and kill them on your own terms!”
Spina narrowed his eyes, the light in them becoming clear again. “Is that so? Heh... no wonder Battler is desperate to keep those two away.” He clenched his fists. “Fuck it. I’ll give them a heart, and I’ll decide if they live or die!” He powered up.
“Good to hear! Go forth, Spina.” The pitch darkness vanished and everything returned to normal. Spina smirks and flew towards the sky, heading towards Federation City.
Federation City
Kassava blushed a bit when Sinister described her purpose. She was envious that she could feel that way. A feeling that she doesn’t have—and a shame of, despite dotting on Vegetto-Black. She grabbed her chest, but she felt nothing beating there.
“Thank you for the kind words.” Kassava wanted to say more, but she heard her name called. When she arrived at the cash corner and saw Vegetto-Black pointing the blade near his neck, she knew that something was up.
The clerk misread the situation. He felt like if he even tried to gulp, his throat would be silt immediately.
“I think I messed up. He’s crazy!” Such thoughts ran through the clerk’s mind.
He did not want to say more, but it was clear that Darkseid was arriving anytime soon. Mustering up the courage, he took Vegetto-Black’s bait.
“You’re a dumb one if you think anyone would love you!” He blurted out. “He just using you! Or you are using him! He called you a creature, you know! Once Darkseid sees what you’re doing, you will regret the day—"
The clerk’s head suddenly explodes, turning into a coin soon after. But it wasn’t the clerk that exploded, the entire building they were in got swept away from Kassava’s attack. Yowl Kassava pointed at him with a single finger as her facial expression looked grim. “Do not talk about Vegetto-Black like that. You know nothing of our special relationship.”
She didn’t let him finish. Just merely insulting him would have full wrath of her. “Sorry for dealing with that. Insulting you… makes me feel disgusted. Our love is true, right?” She looked around, realizing that store was practically in ruins. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to go off like that. Come, we can find another shop—”
“Ah, there you are, young one.” A deep voice interrupted Kassava. A large man standing on a levitating hoverboard appeared before the trio. It was none other than Darkseid, the person they were looking for. “Your display of powers is as grant as ever. Unfortunately, it is used for the wrong reasons.” He spoke. His tone was that of authority; it trembles the city as he spoke.
“Darkseid!” Kassava said. “That’s him. He’s the one who knows a thing or two about the lab!”
Darkseid turned his head to Vegetto-Black and Sinister Bernkastel. “Red Witch… and you must be the one who poison Kassava’s mind. I advise you leave the city and leave the young man to me. If you do, I’ll look away your transgression and spar your lives.”
Federation City Underground: Doom’s Lab
“Whoa! The stuff inside the lab is pretty crazy…” Daiman said. “I guess each lab is different… make sense that Kire wanted to explore them all.” He saw the tree with the million coins as leaves. “What is that…”
As soon he saw Jaz slipping through the barrier, there was a bit of hope in him. “This is easier than I thought. Maybe I freaked out over nothing.”
Behind them, there were loud footsteps deep further from the cave. A loud, ghastly sound of deep breaths that ringed their ears. And an explicit dangerous aura flourished across the tunnel, which made clear that killing intent is presence.
Daiman turned and fear took over him as chilled ran down his spine. “Spoke too soon.”
A red light blade glowed in the darkness, lighting up the entire cave. A man wearing dark armor had appeared before them.
"There's fear in this cave, and walking dead men." He spoke.
