Part 9.1

The winds of change roll through Verse City, both on the surface and in the underbelly.

In an abandoned warehouse, Commissioner Donquixote Doflamingo subdues General M. Bison, making him an offer he can't refuse.

Elsewhere, Amanda Waller and Vince McMahon play their own game of chess. Moving figurative pieces into place so they may capture their goals.

In the Grand Arena, a Black Swordsman duels a user of the Dark Side. They fight for the victory, they fight for the crowd cheering their names.

In the Common District, three stooges drive their garbage truck under duress. A fleshy monster tries to kill them but all action stops when they crash into the district junkyard.

Across town, a skeletal knight runs for his un-life as the embodiment of kawaii tries to catch him. Their antics get them into more trouble than they bargained for.

And outside of Verse City, an ogre runs through an endless gauntlet of mushroom kingdom iterations alongside an unwanted companion. Both of them journey to find their home.

But we focus now on the Verse City S.P.D. Common District, where we find our heroine Vin Venture in the hands of the police.

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Bridge Carson sat across from the recently arrested Vin. Charges of reckless endangerment, flying without a permit, no registration, resisting arrest and putting two S.P.D. officers in the infirmary were quite the rap sheet for just one afternoon.

He spent the better part of a two hour interrogation trying to reason with her and got nowhere. All he had was her name, that she wasn’t a resident of Verse City, and that she claimed to be a contestant of the Grand Tournament before she got thrown out.

Of course, nobody could verify her story.

“Listen,” Bridge put on the trademark charm, “We’re willing to help you and let you go. Put all this behind us. We are the good guys after all, you know. But you gotta-”

“THE FACT that you put me here in the FIRST place is the problem,” Vin interrupted. “I’ve told you and your men what I was doing in the city. I am not from your world and had no idea I was breaking your laws. That doesn’t warrant attacking me and locking me in here.”

Geez, was she always this combative?

“Hey, I’m sorry.” Bridge replied. “But your response was pretty extreme too. You damaged our vehicle and hurt my teammates. We have rules here and you can’t just do that.”

Vin’s body language, yes Bridge could read body language, was closed off and avoided eye contact. Her wrist cuffs were latched onto the table and did nothing but make her look smaller. Now, she made herself big and stared into Bridge’s eyes. “I’m not in the wrong. Let me go about my business.”

“And what exactly is your business?” Bridge retorted.

Vin crossed her arms best she could and gave no response but to look the other way.

So that's that?

Sigh. Bridge needed a break. Maybe a vacation. “Alright Vin, I tried. When you're ready to talk, you let the Commander know.”

Bridge got up and left the room. He traversed the halls of S.P.D. Headquarters, got himself a coffee, then headed to his desk where the rest of his team waited.

“That woman is insufferable!” Bridge told them, taking a seat in his swivel chair.

Sydney Drew, the S.P.D. Blue Ranger was first to reply, “No luck?”

“What do you think?” Bridge buried his face into his coffee.

Standing alongside Sydney was the team’s Green Ranger, Elizabeth Delgado, or better known as ‘Z’. She was still in her ranger suit inspecting the damage to her helmet when she chimed in, “Some people don’t do well with authority. She wouldn’t be the first.”

“No," said Sydney. "But how many can outrun an Air Delta Cruiser and take on an entire squad of S.P.D on their own? Marika and Umeko are still in the infirmary."

“How are they doing?” Bridge pulled himself from his cup.

“Stable,” Z replied. “They should be fine as long as they take it easy for the next few days.”

“Did you find out how she got so fast and strong?” Sydney asked.

Bridge put down his half finished coffee and rubbed his eyes in exhaustion. “She isn’t budging, guys. I don’t know what else to say.”

“I think I may be able to offer some assistance,” said a voice coming into the precinct.

S.P.D. stood to meet face to face with the district’s resident detective, Denny Colt or otherwise known as The Spirit.

“The Spirit? You have something for us?” Bridge asked in surprise. He didn't think Spirit would be working a case as arbitrary as this was. In fact, the Spirit hardly ever got involved in S.P.D. business.

The Spirit revealed his hand, holding two vials. One empty and one filled with a clear liquid with shavings of material floating inside. “I picked these up from analysis," he said "These are the vials Ms. Vin had on her when she was arrested. They’re composed of different metal types and an oil-based fluid."

“Metal?” Z wondered. “Why would she be drinking that? That’s gross.”

“Maybe that’s how she was throwing us around? She moves metal with her mind whenever she drinks that.” Sydney said, eyeing the vials in The Spirit’s hand.

“It’s possible,” The Spirit said, turning his attention to Bridge. “Captain Carson, did she say where she’s from or how she got here?”

Bridge explained what he knew from Vin. She was a contestant in the Grand Cross-Galactic Budokai Tenkaichi, but was removed from the arena after losing a fight.

“There were others too,” he continued. “An ogre by the name of Shrek and some guy who calls himself General Bison.”

“Not a lot to go on. Wait, did you say ‘an ogre’?” Z said in surprise. Bridge nodded in acknowledgement.

“If she came from the arena,” The Spirit started, “someone there will know something. I can-”

"Not so fast, Detective," Another voice called, this one deep and commanding.

Bridge felt the air in the room chill as the group turned and stood at attention for S.P.D. Commander Brock Lesnar.

As usual the Commander's entourage of twin Machamps were with him. Pokemon built like he was, minus the extra set of arms, they were intimidating and made the Commander look even more so. One of them, Gunter, stood to the right and wore a deep scar across it’s left eye, now pupiless and blind. The other Machamp constantly wore a black tank top with the phrase Suplex City, on front and back. Everyone just called him Suplex.

The three stood in a row, blocking the entrance to the precinct. The Commander snatched the vials from The Spirit’s hand. “This is evidence. And I don’t remember asking you to tell me what you think it is.”

Bridge, being the team’s Red Ranger, felt like he had a duty to speak up. “Sir, he was just-”

“And you, Carson,” Commander Brock turned his attention to Bridge as he handed the vials to Gunter. “You let your whole team get thrashed by a perp and then you embarrass yourself by getting nowhere with I.D.ing her. It’s been two hours, Carson. What the hell have you been doing?”

“Commander Le-”, Bridge started to explain, but Lesnar wasn’t finished.

“Shut up. You’re the goddamn Red Ranger. Start acting like it.” The Commander was clearly in a worse mood than usual.

"Now do your jobs and take the detainee to the holding cells. We’ll give her a few days so she can learn how to talk again."

“Commander Lesnar," The Spirit said, "Holding that girl for that long seems unethical. If I may just ask a few questions--”

“I gave an order," said the Commander. "I expect it to be followed. This isn't whatever backwards agencies you were from, this is the Verse City S.P.D."

The Commander turned to leave with his entourage in tow but stopped short of the door. "I’ll remind you all that anyone caught without a record of Verse City identification is not a citizen of our city. She has no rights here. As far as I'm concerned she's a potential threat to the safety and security of our city. So we'll keep her here as long as we need to."

And with that, Bridge was alone with his squad and Detective Spirit. None looked to happy about the Commander's decision or attitude. But it was their job to follow orders...

"I guess that’s that," said Z defeated.

Bridge felt like he should say something encouraging, something a leader would say. But silence remained as everyone dispersed.

All that remained was to do the job.

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--Holding cell inside Verse City S.P.D.

 

S.P.D took Vin downstairs for lockup. After passing security doors and winding corridors, she found herself at the jail cells. Six cells along a stone wall complete with metal bars.

Metal. The irony wasn't lost on her. If she only had more of that in her system.

Vin burned too much of her metal reserves during her fight with Bridge and his team. Honestly, if she'd just been more careful by walking the streets of the city instead of steel pushing, she wouldn't be in this situation right now.

But she had to toss that thought aside. She needed to stay focused if she wanted to get out of this mess. With no vials left on her person, she took mental note of what she had stored in her body.

No steel. No iron. She had still had tin, something she would need to enhance her senses for a chance to escape whenever an opportunity arose. Plenty of copper and bronze, though they wouldn’t be of much use in a world without other mistings. She had zinc and brass which might come in handy to distract or enrage the guards. But only enough pewter to last three or four seconds. That was it. She needed to find her vials that they took from her.

Without a word, the spandex guards locked her in one of the cells. It wasn’t large by any means, but it was certainly better than she’d been treated back home in similar situations. One bed on either side of the cell for her and a cellmate. A green creature with raggy-looking clothes sat on his bed, his large black eyes were almost expressionless. He didn’t seem hostile though.

The two guards that escorted her left, leaving three others in the room. These guards looked nothing like the spandex ones Vin had encountered so far. They were shorter and less human. They wore matching blue and grey uniforms and talked amongst one another, ignoring their captives.

Besides herself and the green cellmate, there were three prisoners. A man and a woman shared a cell and wore large red “R”s on their uniforms.

The other was a large man in a cell to himself. Dark shades over his eyes with a ridiculous haircut. And he was loud.

“Come-on,” the man said. “Can’t you see I’m innocent?”

"Quiet down, you pervert!”, one of the guards responded. “You've been singing that same tune this whole time. Nobody's buying it.”

"Hey now have a heart,” the man continued his plea. “I’m not a bad guy, my momma said so.”

“I don’t care what your momma thinks. The girl was sixteen, Mr. Bravo. Galactic Patrol and Verse City law states you are indeed the bad guy.”

“She said she's single!"

This back and forth continued well into the next day. Vin kept to herself and searched for opportunities to break free of this prison. She learned more about her cellmate, Greedo. He was a petty criminal and didn't speak in any language she understood.

The big guy was Johnny Bravo and he didn't seem like a fighter. The other two, Jesse and James, told their story in rhyme and didn't seem like they would be any help either.

Guess it was up to Vin.

Vin's plan formed in her mind when Bridge walked into the jail.

“Hey Vin. Feeling up for a chat?”

Vin responded with silence.

“I’m asking you to talk to me,” he tried again. “I’m sure this is a misunderstanding because I don’t think you’re a bad person.”

Bridge was naive and easy to manipulate. She flared zinc. “You wouldn't understand the things I've done. You're too simple.” Vin said.

"Simple?" Bridge looked hurt. The zinc was working on flaring his emotions. "I'm trying to be nice and your just making things harder."

"You're a fool. You're the one who told me to talk to your Commander. So where is he?"

For a second Vin wasn't sure if it was going to work. But then he pulled a guard to his side. "Let her out. She's right, the Commander will talk with her."

The guard opened her cell and in one swift motion Vin grabbed the keys, elbowed the guard in the face and knocked Bridge down with her knee.

She tossed the keys to Greedo. "Help the others!"

He caught the keys and sprang into action.

________________

 

Vin will be rushing for the door to find her other vials and escape. The vials are being kept in the contraband lockup. Bridge will try to stop her and Greedo from freeing the others and escaping but will try not hurt them if he can help it.