Bleach is owned by Tite Kubo, meaning it does not belong to me. I am in no way, shape, and/or form claiming to be the owner/creator of these concepts, though I do claim any characters not apart of the original Bleach storyline (such as Aporro [in character, not name] and Vicenta Acere) mine. As such, I would appreciate fellow authors and readers to give credit where credit is due and not steal any of my characters and/or concepts. Thank you, and have a pleasant day.
"Damn it…" Vicenta murmured, chewing her thumbnail and glaring at her computer screen.
She'd sent ten camera pods out the other day. Only nine remained.
The first unit, PAPA, was gone.
Not that the loss of it mattered in the respect of the rest of the units; after PAPA had uploaded the preliminary data the rest were perfectly capable of operating on their own, individually.
But that didn't excuse the fact that she'd lost her first unit.
PAPA… He'd been her first. He'd been the prototype to all of her large camera units, and when she'd started building more units she'd made sure to get him good and tripped out so he could function on the same level as the others. That included a new shell, modifications to the interior, a new lens…
The loss of PAPA was a bit personal at this point.
Especially considering the SOS embedded in the final report he'd sent seconds before he'd blacked out.
"I have to get him back…" Vicenta mumbled, blinking down at her keyboard before jumping up and running around the lab, preparing a field kit. "Meryl, get me a full printout of the map PAPA managed to make before he died."
"Very well, Miss Vicenta." The printer near the computer whirred to life and a piece of paper started sliding down the tray.
Vicenta swiped her hand across the top of a table and cleared it of the piles of wiring that had been occupying it, laying out a toolkit case and grabbing what she needed, sliding various screwdrivers, pliers, wire cutters, and other instruments into the waiting straps.
"…Miss Vicenta, shall I call your father and request that he come here so that you can brief him on the situation?"
"No." Vicenta shook her head, "No, PAPA is only about fifty miles away… I'll be there and back before a new day starts."
"Very well."
The computer wasn't built to judge if this was a 'good' or a 'bad' idea; it only suggested.
That left Vicenta to judge. And when it came to PAPA, she judged this was a good idea.
All she had to do was follow the map, find the unit, get the black box, come back and build a new unit. And, like she said, retrieval would only take her about a day. It wasn't unusual for her to disappear to her lab for days on end, and so long as she kept the lab locked no one would think any different of it.
Her missing reiatsu would be hard to account for, though…
Whatever. PAPA and the Hueco Mundo Mapping System was her brainchild. No one was about to stand between her and her work, and she wouldn't let anyone chastise her.
If she left The Sanctuary to do her work, that was her own business.
Arranging her toolkit, a first aid kit, and a pack of protein bars and a few bottles of water on the table, she turned and walked over to another table, grabbing a padded box.
It was made of hard, adamantine plastic, had a padlock, and was filled with industrial foam that had a specially cut groove in the center for the black box.
Airtight.
Waterproof.
Shock resistant.
This went into her bag first, followed by the toolkit, the first aid kit, and then the protein bars and the water.
"If I'm not back by o' one hundred hours, tell my father." Vicenta told Meryl, walking to the door and flashing out.
As soon as the door shut behind Vicenta, Meryl brought up a clock and started the countdown.
Aporro shot up, her eyes wide as she looked around blearily, "Vicenta's gone!"
"Calm down, Aporro." Szayel murmured, hardly looking up from his work, "You fell asleep in the lab again…"
Aporro stared at him before standing, leaning against the table heavily and looking around as she expanded her reiatsu, "…No, no, no, I'm not getting any reading from her at all, Szay."
Sighing heavily, Szayel lifted his head and stared straight in front of him, shifting his heel on the ground as he used his pesquisa. A moment later, her blinked, "…She's not here… At all."
"I know!" Aporro snapped, turning back on him, "I just said that, you dumbass!"
Szayel twitched slightly, looking back down at the cadaver he was dissecting, "Grimmjow isn't here, either. They might have gone to the Seireitei so he could challenge Kurosaki again."
"But she just left." Aporro emphasized, crossing her arms and frowning, "Grimmjow left this morning. There's a three hour time lapse between the two!"
"She might have had something to do in her lab before joining…" Szayel muttered, trying to brush his mate off so he could get back to work.
Aporro glared at him, her hands clenching. She then stormed over to him and cuffed him over the back of the head, turning again and storming out of the lab and leaving Szayel to swear and call after her.
In one of the designated rooms, she opened a garganta and stormed through, feeling Grimmjow out and flashing to where he was.
She didn't feel her, though…
Aporro didn't sense Vicenta.
Too infuriated at this point to care that the non-aggression pact between the Seireitei and The Sanctuary strictly dictated that no Arrancar was to, for any reason, draw their zanpakuto on Soul Society soil, she set her hand on the hilt of Barracuda Bicuda and drew, leaping over the wall she was running straight towards.
Eyes locking onto a flash of familiar electric blue hair, Aporro descended right towards the figure, landing on top of Grimmjow as he turned to her and looked up.
Grimmjow's eyes widened in shock and he yelped as he was thrown to his back and slammed into the ground, which cracked under pressure when Aporro set down on top of him and crushed him even further, the soil breaking, collapsing, and forming a small crater when them in the center.
"APORRO?! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Grimmjow howled, freezing when Barracuda Bicuda's blade was pressed to his throat.
"Where…" Aporro began, her breathing heavy and her eyes narrowed, "Is… Vicenta?"
Grimmjow glared up at her, answering just as slowly, "Fuck… if… I… know." When the blade pressed down further and cut into his skin, he snarled and flipped, slamming Aporro down beside his impression in the ground and pinning her, "Last I saw her was when I left this morning." He said evenly as she struggled against him, pausing and sighing before staring down at her flatly, "Did you just wake up again?"
"No—!" Aporro twitched, then sighed, "Well, yes, but I'm not overreacting this time. She's not at The Sanctuary. Szayel couldn't feel her, said she may be here, but as we both know she's not. She's missing."
Grimmjow blinked, then scowled, standing quickly and pulling her to her feet. "Fine, you've got me. Let's get back to Hueco Mundo and find her."
"Oi! Jaegerjaquez! Where in the hell are you going?!"
"Don't get yer panties in a bunch, Kurosaki." Grimmjow growled, glaring over his shoulder, "I gotta go fetch my mate before her bitch mother gets an ulcer." Ignoring Aporro when she punched him in the side for the 'bitch mother' comment, he gave the shinigami a feral grin, "Don't worry; we'll finish this when I get back."
While her mind was still mostly a mixed haze of anger and worry, Aporro had never met the prodigious shinigami and was more than just passively curious. As Grimmjow walked past her, the woman looked back to where Grimmjow had been throwing his comments, blinking at the rather adolescent-looking, orange-haired shinigami looking right back at her.
They stared at one another for a moment, then Aporro's thoughts snapped back to the present and she spun sharply, flashing after Grimmjow.
They both leapt through a Seireitei-provided and monitored garganta, Grimmjow crouching as soon as they set foot back in The Sanctuary and pressing his palm to the ground.
"…You're right." He said after a moment, standing and scowling, "She isn't here."
Aporro twitched, narrowing her eyes and hissing, "And you people want to know why I feel I need to scream to get my point across…!!"
Grimmjow ignored her and sniffed the air, then turned to her and nodded, "I've got wind of her most recent reiryoku scent; we'll just follow it and see where it leads us."
Aporro quirked a brow as Grimmjow started sniffing the air and walking, following the blue-haired Arrancar with a smirk, "Well, aren't you just a good little bloodhound?"
Growling and setting his hand on Pantera threateningly, Grimmjow continued to scent the air for a moment, then sonidoed forward, Aporro not far behind.
They both bypassed Vicenta's lab when they came to it; it was quite obvious she wasn't in there so at the moment there was no need to go inside.
Coming to a sharp corner, Grimmjow crouched slightly and grabbed the wall, swinging himself around and shooting down the hall like a slingshot.
The cat-like Arrancar smirked when he heard Aporro curse loudly and sped up, leaping over several innocent bystanders and knocking them over with the force of his sonic boom alone.
Aporro ducked and weaved through the falling bodies, doing her best to keep herself out of Grimmjow's turbulence and scowling deeply.
Though Grimmjow was, technically, older than her, he still acted like an uppity punk and that pissed her off to no end, often to the point where she wondered just what supernatural force was jabbing at her brain the day she agreed to allow Grimmjow to court and mate with her daughter.
Still, for the brutish, annoying creature he was, she would admit that he did have his merits… though only to herself. There may have been a time, back when she was human, that she might have told this to Szayel, but now that she was an Arrancar she understood completely what Szayel had meant all of those times when he spoke of Arrancar independence.
Not telling Grimmjow she actually valued some of his aspects and consistently ragging on him when the situation called for it seemed… completely natural.
Other than her relationship with her mate and her daughter, getting too close to others made her feel smothered.
Frankly, she didn't understand how in the hell Szayel had learned to deal with her needy, human self.
…Well, actually, she did.
A fair share of his affection towards her back then had been of a pseudo, sick, twisted fatherly type, one that stemmed from the fact that she had become the subject of one of his prized and cherished experiments.
Now, though… though neither of them would ever outwardly admit it beyond a few exchanged looks, touches, and those three words humans loved to string together (as did Aporro, to some extent) when they were alone, now the affection ran deeply.
It bound them together in a way that was beyond even the psychological and was practically metaphysical for their species; it joined their twisted, patchwork souls in a union that could be broken only by death (if even that, according to some of Szayel's speculations).
This, of course, all looped back around to the relationship between Grimmjow and Vicenta, where they, too, had this sort of bond.
It was one of the things Aporro valued about the little blue-haired prick in front of her, who threw a cocky smirk back over his shoulder at her before taking another sharp corner and launching out of sight.
Aporro sighed and slowed, taking the turn calmly and walking over to the control panel.
No matter how fast they ran, it didn't change the fact that the great equalizer, the door that connected The Sanctuary to the world above, barred their path until she entered the code.
…Of course, that wasn't to say that they didn't rocket out the door once it had opened enough to allow them passage, because they did.
Ignoring the faint tingling sensation of the generator-powered reiatsu sealant that was one of the many security measures Szayel had (somewhat obsessive compulsively) installed on the three-foot-thick door, Aporro jerked to a halt and blinked, sand spraying up and fanning out on either side of her feet as she slid across the sand a short ways.
It had suddenly hit her.
They were outside of The Sanctuary.
"…Grimmjow, are you sure she came out here?" Aporro asked with a frown, glancing over at the cat-like Arrancar.
Grimmjow glanced at her briefly before looking around with a scowl, "Yeah… Her scent led right out the door and goes in that direction." He pointed.
Aporro glanced.
Though Hueco Mundo was in a separate dimension from Earth and, thus, had no magnetic fields by which any Earthly compass would be able to pick out a definite 'North', Szayel had long since (in his 'infinite' wisdom) labeled pseudo-cardinal directions.
Using the door they had just come out of as a reference, she judged that Grimmjow was pointing roughly northwest… Which was odd.
Other than Las Noches, the surface of Hueco Mundo was a veritable wasteland with its only defining features being scattered caves, boulders, and randomly placed colonies of Hollows.
Las Noches was, in comparison to The Sanctuary, to the east, so what was northwest…?
…Nothing, as far as Aporro knew. Nothing but sand and Hollows.
Then again, when she'd spawned as a Hollow she'd been born somewhere far east of even Las Noches, so she wasn't familiar with this area…
"…What the fuck's out there?" Aporro mumbled to herself, frowning deeply.
"Nothin' but Vasto Lorde territory," Grimmjow grumbled back, "If you go far enough…"
The woman glanced at him, pausing before asking, "You know who?"
Grimmjow sighed and growled lowly, rubbing the back of his head before answering, "Last I checked, and mind you this was back when I was a Hollow, it was one fuckin' strong-ass son of a bitch named Daramos. The only ones who would have been qualified to seek him out, had Aizen decided to 'recruit' him, woulda been Barragan, Stark or Aizen, himself. He was put on the backburner, though, 'cause Aizen had gone on a 'recruiting' splurge and we had at least a dozen new Arrancar who needed to be settled. That, and it was back during one of the earlier sets of the Espada, when Nnoitra was the Octava."
Aporro flinched. When she'd met Nnoitra Jiruga, he'd been the Quinta, or fifth strongest Espada.
Szayel had been the Octava, and compared to Nnoitra or even Grimmjow, Szayel was little next to nothing.
Now, however…
The last set of Espada had been immensely strong, and the time that would have elapsed between Nnoitra going from Octava to Quinta would have been great. If even during that time, and taking the last set of Espada's power into consideration, the only ones who would have been able to bring Daramos down would have been the Segunda, the Primera or the Lord of Las Noches himself, the creature would still be massively powerful.
Definitely no one Aporro would ever want to fight.
But Vicenta had gone off in that direction…
"Let's get going." Aporro growled, setting her hand on the hilt of her zanpakuto tensely, her eyes narrowing and a shimmer of instinctual bloodlust flashing in her eyes out of worry.
Grimmjow nodded, and both Arrancar leaned forward and shot off, dual rooster tails of sand arching and glittering through the air in their wake.
Fun in The Sanctuary~!
Who is the Strongest…?
"You know, Perfect Being…" Mayuri purrs, making Szayel stiffen, "I've noticed you've put on a bit of weight…"
While most would have been insulted (and, indeed, Szayel was slightly indignant), Szayel knew it was, indeed, true. "And your point, shinigami…?"
"Well, I was just mildly curious…" Mayuri glances back at Szayel as the Arrancar glances at him, a smirk twisting on the shinigami's lips, "If you Arrancar are letting yourselves go, who amongst the former Espada is now the strongest?"
Now, Szayel is insulted.
However, it does get him thinking…
"Well… While Stark is, inarguably, still the strongest in terms of reiatsu vastness, I believe Halibel would give him a run for his money in technique, considering he hardly practices anymore, so Primera is between them."
Mayuri nods, a malice-free look of pure curiosity and focus on the conversation on his face.
"Then…" Szayel sighs, "Much as I am loath to admit, Grimmjow has been the only one amongst us who has been fervently training on a constant basis, so he would be the new Trecera. And I, of course," The pink-haired Arrancar flips his hair dramatically, "Would be the Cuatra."
"Of course." Mayuri nods, stroking his chin as he contemplates. A sly grin forming on his face, he then gets to the meat and bones, the real reason behind his sudden questioning, "And if we threw your mate into the mix?"
Szayel pauses and actually considers, falling fully into the shinigami's trap as he runs several numbers and personal statistics through his head.
Mayuri watches him closely, his excitement building as he draws ever closer to deciding if the woman would be a suitable subject for observation.
"Truthfully…" Szayel mumbles, "If I were to throw Aporro into the calculations… several of us would move down in the ranks… I believe she would fall around the rank of—"
"SZAYEL!!"
Mayuri jumps, watching as said woman jumps down from the ceiling and lands on Szayel, smashing him into the ground.
"I believe we've been over this." Aporro hisses into Szayel's ear, taking his arm and twisting it behind his back, "A lady never reveals hidden skills unless the situation calls for it!"
"Lady?" Szayel rasps, grinning darkly, "I don't see any lady-yyyyyaaaaaagh!!"
Mayuri twitches slightly at the resounding crack and snap. It would appear as though choosing not to approach the woman directly on the matter had, indeed, been the best course of action.
"APORRO!! I CAN'T FEEL MY—YYEEEAAAAAAH!!"
…However, perhaps asking her to assist in 'interrogations' wouldn't hurt…
"MY COCCYX!!"