Run on Caffeine
Chapter 10: Your Own Reality
Author's note: Hello Everyone! Welcome to the finale of Volume one of ROC! This took a long 5 years but here we are! Now after this, I will be going back to Blade Eclipse and finishing that. Then after that, we will return with Volume 2 of Run on Caffeine. Enough talk, enjoy!
"Ah so glad you came all this way! Yes yes! Then again, who wouldn't be so tempted as to come here thirsting, no, desperately searching for hope to reignite the dream of achieving happiness? Not even I passed up such an offer!" Strawberry laughed a little, staring at Pepper. Pepper stayed silent and simply got into a battle pose. Strawberry laughed more at his reaction. "Aw~ did I touch a nerve there? I'm sorry, I'd be upset too if my mother told me she was going to get the milk and never came back~"
"I'll rip off your head and hang it on a spike!" Pepper then put his hands together and fired off a beam of energy. Strawberry laughed more and backhanded it away. Pepper grunted and got angrier.
"Now now, no need to get your panties in a twist!" Strawberry said as she put her hands on her hips. "I did promise to give you a clue if you came here, if you wanna find your mother and bring her home, just wait and see! Watch her appear like magic! And be amazed at the things Ozpin taught and trained her to be! A weapon pointed at the enemy!" Strawberry twirled her revolver then took aim and fired off multiple shots in rapid succession. Pepper deflected all of it with great speed. Without hesitation, Pepper spin dashed and rammed hard into Strawberry's stomach. She fell on top of a shipping crate behind and then jumped up on her feet. She then shot a couple of times at Pepper then jumped up to him. Pepper dodged the bullets but Strawberry kicked him away. Pepper was sent flying and destroyed part of the ground. Strawberry launched herself off the platform and kicked Pepper again and sent him flying into another shipping crate. Pepper screamed briefly before taking flight and started swinging at her. Strawberry dodged his punches with ease. Pepper noticed he obviously couldn't hit her, so during one of his punches, he dropped a bottle filled with combustion dust behind her. Strawberry didn't really notice and just kept dodging all with a smile on her face. "Aw~ You're so cute when you're all frustrated like this~"
"I'll make a bottle of wine out of your blood!" Pepper replied, still throwing punches. The bottle filled with combustion dust blew up and sent Strawberry upwards. Pepper gave chase by flying after her. Using his suit, he shot a combination of wind and gravity dust near Strawberry causing a mini wind vortex. She was spinning all around it pretty fast. Meanwhile, Pepper put his hands together charging up a laser beam, and shot it at the wind vortex. It exploded on contact. Strawberry was now spinning upwards very fast. Pepper spin dashed upwards and past her then stomped on Strawberry's head. Her momentum changed so fast that it looked like she fell down in an instant. Pepper launched himself downwards and punched Strawberry so hard the ground broke more causing a large crater. A moment later, the ground shook and everything began to float. The large crates, debris, and everything nearby were pulled towards the middle. Various crates and debris floated up and in the air staying in place. Pepper shot out an energy blast to propel himself backward onto one of the crates. Strawberry flew up in the middle while she reloaded her revolvers. Both of her weapons floated alongside her as they were being reloaded.
"I must say, I am impressed! I expect nothing less from the son of Cherry! Then again, what did I expect from a Pepper? Being able to keep up with someone like me at your age, is quite frightening," Strawberry then grabbed her revolvers as both were fully reloaded.
"What can I say? I'm a very stubborn man who refuses to let you walk away unlike last time!" Pepper smirked and pulled out his pistol and twirled it all around his hand. "You're not gonna leave here until you tell me where my mother is!"
"I told you before boy, I'm not spoon-feeding you the answers you desire! But I do wonder, why the actual hell do you even have a pistol for? You fist your opponents and blast them with energy, is that pistol a last resort or something boy?" Strawberry raised an eyebrow as she scratched her head with the barrel of one of her revolvers. Pepper, in response, just aimed with his pistol and fired. Strawberry, caught off guard, got hit, and stumbled back quite a bit. "What the hell is wrong with yo- actually don't answer that…"
"Hmph, there's your answer," Pepper took a couple more shots and began running across the crates. Strawberry dodged the shots then shook her head and her grip tightened around her revolvers. So anyway, she started blasting. Pepper kept running forward to not get hit and taking a shot when he could. Strawberry was getting annoyed and her aura glowed. She then shot ahead of Pepper and it caused a large explosion. Pepper got blown back and landed on a crate hard. He slowly got up grunting a little and brushed himself off.
"I'm sick of this teasing! Give me something more! Let me taste more of that so-called Pepper power!" Strawberry put one of her guns in its holster. She held out her hand, lifted up a crate, and tossed it towards Pepper. "Let me show you what your momma could never do!"
"Oh crap!" Pepper holstered his pistol then put his hands together and his aura glowed brightly. He quickly started charging a beam of energy. "Kamehameha!" He fired a beam and destroyed the shipping crate in half. "Hold on, don't these crates have…" Then the dust exploded a second later, and Pepper got blown back by the blast. Pepper curled up into a ball and landed on another crate. He slid a bit before stopping. Strawberry giggled and then her giggling turned into laughter. Pepper grunted and jumped and launched himself using an energy blast. Strawberry's aura glowed and she started shooting at Pepper. Pepper dodged and twirled around the bullets. Pepper swung and punched Strawberry in the face, launching her. Strawberry was spinning backward and then crashed into a shipping container. Strawberry jumped out of the hole while quickly reloading both of her guns. Pepper held out his hand and shot out an energy ball at Strawberry. She jumped out of the way, but unfortunately, The energy did make contact with the shipping container and blew it up. However, Strawberry jumped and propelled herself using the knockback of her gun to move out of the radius of the explosion. She then stayed afloat purple energy sparked off her body. She held her head briefly in pain before she ran across shipping containers floating in place to make a path. Pepper saw this and spin dashed toward some debris and jumped off of it. He jumped forward using debris and containers to move across the way. They met halfway and clashed punches. They kept trading punches with one other. Strawberry dodged one of the punches and counterattacked with an elbow. Strawberry followed up with a few punches and whipped out her pistols mid-combo firing off a couple of shots. She then kicked him into a shipping container. Pepper smacked so hard into the container that it bent it quite a lot. Strawberry's body and hair produced purple electricity and she held out her hands and sandwiched Pepper with the shipping container. She then took two more containers and smashed the three together. She laughed and threw it down hard onto the ground. She then lifted her hands in the air and lifted up a steamroller. While laughing, she flew downwards and crashed the steam roller into the shipping container. There was a huge explosion for a moment until it shrunk back into the hole.
"What?... Oh shit," Strawberry facepalmed realizing the mistake she made. Pepper roared loudly and the debris flew out. His aura glowed a bright dark crimson red! "Gods damn absorbing energy caffeine child!"
"Now it's my turn you fruit basket!" Pepper flew upwards at incredible speeds. Strawberry's eyes widened out of fear. She then quickly loaded in several gravity dust shots. Strawberry screamed again, holding her head for a bit longer. "...Can't keep this up," she then shot some shipping containers downwards toward Pepper. Pepper walled hopped from each crate then punched one back at Strawberry. Strawberry hopped out of the way and Pepper uppercut her. He then grabbed her and kneed her in the stomach multiple times in rapid succession. Pepper backed flipped and threw Strawberry into another shipping container. Pepper followed up with a roundabout kick to Strawberry and launched it into a warehouse. All of the debris suddenly dropped down to the ground, including the containers.
"Time to make wine," Pepper threw a couple of bottles filled with combustion and wind dust into the warehouse. It exploded and swirled up into the air which lasted quite for several seconds. Pepper floated down and landed on his feet. He stared at the warehouse for a while. The front of the warehouse burst open with Strawberry standing on her feet. Her clothes were pretty messed up and her body was cut up and bleeding a bit. "Holy crap, you are as tough as my mother mentioned."
"What? Did you think you actually won against me?! You are just a novice," Strawberry cracked her neck then her knuckles. "That was basically nothing to me boy."
"Course it was," Pepper rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Does nothing mean anything to you anymore?"
"There was one thing I cared about," Strawberry shed a tear. "And that one thing I treasured for so long, some might even say I took it for granted, I saw being torn down and abused to hell and back… " More tears formed in her eyes, and her arms shook subtly. "Now, it's gone, the shadow continues to haunt me. I still dream of the day, the possibility of refurbishing what was damaged and starting fresh. Re-experience what I first felt all those years ago." Strawberry looked up to the moon with tears still flowing down her face.
"You could have, for years now…" Pepper closed his hands and tightened the grip. "And yet, you chose not to… You chose to run away from it and my family suffered because of it." Pepper's grip tightened more. "You took everything away from me!"
"Nuh-uh!" Strawberry leaned forward and spoke in a mocking tone.
"What do you mean nuh-uh?!" Pepper yelled.
"Your mother chose not to let go and accept the fact!" Strawberry yelled back at Pepper. "She deceived herself into thinking she could 'save' something when it was already too late!"
"Someone is self-projecting hard!" Pepper fired back. Strawberry was shocked for a moment before her expression changed to being furious.
"Hm, you certainly took after your mother, always in denial about the truth. I would say I wish your mother taught you how to tell the truth. But, how can I expect someone who only believes and knows lies to teach their child the truth? Pity," Strawberry shrugged.
"I'll tear your heart out and bite it like an apple," Pepper threatened as he raised his fist at her.
"First time stealing a girl's heart huh? Usually, they like to be bitten elsewhere," Strawberry had a smug grin on her face, almost looking like she wanted to burst into laughter.
"You sick dried-up rotting fruit!" Pepper, out of rage, attempted to throw a punch with full strength. Strawberry easily dodged it and grabbed his arm. She kissed him on the lips before kicking him away. Pepper was lying on the ground, was very flustered, had a very red face, and was extremely caught off guard. He blinked just staring at Strawberry with all kinds of emotions right now. Strawberry just simply leaned forward one hand on her thigh and another being used to blow a kiss. "What the actual…. I… Why?"
"I can be your mommy~" Strawberry spoke in a sensual and soft tone. She pushed her breasts together and teased Pepper with a little bounce. Pepper was getting a bit nervous as his face got redder.
"Excuse me?" Pepper blinked again, still trying to process what she just said. Strawberry just giggled as purple electricity zipped and zapped around her body. Her body started pulsating and slowly growing bigger. Her shadow grew more and more as Pepper watched in horror. She soon stopped about 50 feet in height and looked down at Pepper still pushing her breasts together.
"Like the view?~ Allow me to fill in the hole that your mother left~" Strawberry giggled as she continued to tease Pepper heavily. Pepper just stood there, sweating nervously and as red as his metal suit. He heard his heart beating in his ears from how flustered he felt.
"Of all the emotions I could be feeling right now, why is it not just pure anger or even fear? Cause you've problems Pepper, cause you have problems," Pepper thought to himself as he just stared up at Strawberry giving him a "show" as he was breathing heavily. "I hate you so much right now."
"You're just mad because I'm right~" Strawberry stuck out her tongue and winked. Pepper shivered violently and just felt grossed out. Strawberry giggled more as she lifted her foot and tried to stomp on Pepper.
"Oh wait!" Pepper fired off a laser beam to launch himself away and Strawberry destroyed part of the ground. He slid backward, did a flip, and landed on his feet. "What the heck is this?! What kind of sorcery produced this?!"
"If you must know, this is one of those so-called 'blessings' I have received from the gods!" Strawberry twirled in place and placed her hand on her chest. "It's quite amazing if I do say so myself."
"Oh, that's just a load of bullcrap! Are these blessings picky or something?! This seems highly biased!" Pepper stepped back, sounding quite annoyed. Strawberry laughed at Pepper's frustration. She then threw a punch at Pepper and he jumped up. He flew upwards and flew all around Strawberry. She tried to swat him out of the air with no success. He then threw a couple of bottles filled with ice dust on the floor where Strawberry stood. Pepper charged up a laser beam and blasted Strawberry. Strawberry tanked the hit rather well and didn't really move anywhere. He flew backward to make space. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."
"What? You thought it would be that easy to knock up a woman like that?~" Strawberry chuckled as she covered her mouth. Pepper's eyes twitched and he covered his mouth nearly barfing.
"That's so gross! Why are you like this?! Ew!" Pepper's body shivered more with his mouth still covered.
"I mean I can't help it, no no no~, you've been flirting all night~ How can a girl resist such a charmer like yourself?" Strawberry giggled more. Purple electricity wrapped around her hand and she flicked Pepper. Pepper got sent through a warehouse and out from behind it. His aura flickered momentarily along with absorbing the purple spark.
"...Ow…that hurt…" Pepper slowly got up and pulled out lightning dust then absorbed it to partially refill his aura. "That's gonna leave a mark. Although, I question how she got like this, but I don't know if I'm ready for that answer." Moments later, the warehouse was destroyed as Strawberry walked through it.
"Aw, don't run away now! We were only just getting to the good part! Don't wanna ruin our little date so early into the night," Strawberry laughed maniacally as she stomped after Pepper like a devious child.
"There's nothing romantic nor did I agree to any of this!" Pepper bolted for the other warehouses. Strawberry pulled out her revolvers and started to shoot him. Pepper moved out of the way each time. This chase continued for quite a while. Strawberry destroyed warehouses and the ground with her running. Pepper was trying to think of some sort of plan. A way to distract her long enough for him to get out of sight. "This is a nightmare come true! How in the heck did she do this and much less how do I get away from her? Hmmmm…. Oh! Of course!" Pepper pulled out a bottle filled with Wind and combustion dust. He slid to a stop and then threw it at Strawberry's face. Strawberry stopped as well and got confused before the bottle exploded into a bright light. Pepper quickly and quietly ran over to hide inside of another warehouse. Pepper leaned against the door breathing heavily and his heart beating rapidly.
"She's using me! Please!" A distorted and reverb voice of a woman echoed in his mind. Pepper held his head grunting very quietly to himself. "Don't throw away your life! You're not strong enough to handle this!"
"What the crap? What was that? That didn't sound like the voice from before?" Pepper thought as he heard the stomping getting closer to his location. He quickly rolled out the way when Strawberry busted down that part of the warehouse. Pepper ran to the other side quickly going over to a push-open exit and going through it. He continued running and went over to the electric box. He forced it open, stuck his hand in, and absorbed the electricity from it. He pulled his hand out breathing heavily. His aura glowed briefly looking refreshed for the most part.
"What are you doing?! You need to leave! She's using my power! I'm trapped! I can't control it! You're not strong enough! You have your whole life ahead of you!" The same distorted and reverb voice would echo once more pleading for dear life. Pepper held his head again grunting in agonizing pain while trying to keep balance. This lasted for a bit before the pain subsided.
"'You have your whole life ahead of you'," Pepper looked down at his hands and suit, seeing it's taken quite the beating. "Not strong enough….." He gripped his hands very tightly. "Not today, I have to be strong enough. No one else can do this but me," tears formed in his eyes, and anger began to rise. He then ran off towards the end of the docks. Meanwhile, Strawberry was still stomping around trying to look for Pepper. She was beginning to get all puffy and impatient.
"Hmph! I'm getting tired of this game of hide and seek! A man like yourself should be showing more respect! This is no way to treat a woman on the first date!" Strawberry crossed her arms and cheeks puffed up all grumpy-like. She then saw a bright light and a loud noise. "Hm?" She saw it was Pepper floating in the air, aura glowing bright, and sparking all over his body. "Daw~ Isn't that just cute!"
"There's nothing cute about this! I'm done with you and being treated with disrespect!" Pepper grunted as his body pulsated for a second. The energy zapped the ground and moved in a straight line a few times. "I hate you for taking everything away from me! And today is the day you pay the price for your sins! Now watch as your fantasy shatters before your eyes! Experience the same reality you made the pain you caused! Your own reality you made! FINAL FLASH!" Pepper fired out the beam as the blue light flash happened again and wrapped around the attack. The large energy beam traveled across the air towards Strawberry. She didn't take his threat too seriously. She held her stomach as she busted out laughing.
"Aw, aren't I just the luckiest woman alive? Oh wait a second, that looks like it's coming closer-OH SHIT!" Strawberry was slowly engulfed in the attack and a bright red light exploded. The radius covered the whole area and covered up Pepper as well. The light show lasted for a minute or so before it faded into the night sky.
Back with Sprite, Fanta, and Aquafina, they arrived in Vale and ran towards the docks. The group was on the road with the "Welcome to Vale!" banner and saw the part of the seaport in sight.
"How much longer?!" Fanta asked while the group ran.
"It shouldn't be too much longer!" Sprite answered very quickly looking at her scroll.
"He better be alive and breathing! I hate to lose such a valuable member of team SODA!" Aquafina commented. They turned left and kept running until they saw an explosion of bright red light at the docks moments later. They all stopped and watched as the bright light glowed and swirled around before fading away.
"Oh my gods," Sprite put her hand over her mouth in shock. "Pepper!"
"Holy crap! Was that Pepper? Do we need to hurry?!" Fanta asked as she looked over at Sprite, very concerned.
"Brothers almighty! That's some power! Damn," Aquafina was very much in awe witnessing such power.
"Yes, we need to kick it up a gear! Pepper's body can't handle nor have enough aura to keep going after that! That was way too much power!" Sprite bolted for it and continued to run. Fanta and Aquafina followed suit. They ran for a while getting closer to the docks. As they get closer, they soon see Blake and Sun running in their direction.
"Hey!" Blake waved at them and everyone stopped. "What are you three doing?"
"Our teammate is at the docks and he needs our help," Sprite explained.
"Wait, that guy was your teammate?" Sun asked, being very shocked. "How is that guy your teammate? Seems like a weird dude, very violent but strange dude."
"Sun!" Blake snapped at Sun with narrow upset eyes.
"It's alright, I already accepted the fact that Pepper isn't normal a long time ago. Nevertheless, so you saw him? What was he doing?" Sprite asked.
"We did, briefly, me and Sun were at the docks seeing if the White Fang would show up or not. They were stealing dust and working with Roman Torchwick. Your teammate made quick work of the goons and kicked and pinned Roman against a crate. Kept saying to leave before something happened. We weren't paying too much attention, next thing we knew, we floated up and got flung across into some shipping crates. We did hear a woman speaking to Pepper before we left," Blake explained.
"Yeah! He did some sort of ball move to mess up those grunts! Although I'm still trying to figure out how in the heck he even did that?" Sun admitted as he did hand motions to showcase the move.
"Don't, I've tried, it's not worth looking into," Sprite advised Sun. "Anyway, thanks for the information! It's not exactly good news, but at least we know what he's doing. Could you two help us? We could use the extra hands."
"Yeah, that woman is bad news from what I understand," Fanta added on.
"Yeah, we can help! We were looking to get help anyway, this will do," Blake nodded. Sun gave a thumbs up with an awesome smile and his tail formed a heart.
"Alright, let's go!" Sprite and company all traveled together over to the docks. They quickly ran over to the source of the energy blast. They all saw the utter destruction and mayhem that were warehouses and the rest of the port. The hundreds of warehouses were completely flatten and the ground with so many cracks and holes, it was hard to count them all.
"Oh dear gods, what happened to the port?" Aquafina asked, scratching his head. They all looked around the immediate area then they spotted Pepper lying on the ground. "There he is!"
"Pepper!" Sprite ran to Pepper first while everyone else got over a second or so later. Sprite got on her knees, then noticed his eyes were closed, and started shaking Pepper. "Pepper! Pepper! RedJed! Red! Get up! Are you still breathing?!" She begged as she noticed all the burn marks, the heavily damaged suit, and everything else about him. Cuts, bruises, and other injuries were all over his body. Pepper groaned and opened his eyes slowly.
"What… Ow… is it?" Pepper asked quietly as it was hard to speak since his body was very much in pain. Pepper slowly and painfully tried to stand up. Sprite stood up on her feet and helped up and leaned him against her body.
"What is wrong with you?! You know how worried we were about you?! Are you alright?!" Sprite scolded Pepper heavily. Pepper chuckled at the scolding.
"Yeah, ow ow ow, I'll be fine. I can walk it off," Pepper smiled slightly and gave a thumbs-up. He covered his mouth and coughed.
"Uh dude, I don't think you are in the condition to just quote and quote 'walk it off,'" Sun used his hands to make air quotes.
"Not with that, cough cough attitude," Pepper sassed back as he covered his mouth again.
"Did you seriously go alone?! Did you really think you could do whatever the hell you just did by yourself?!" Fanta chimed in as she walked up to Pepper and looked up at his face.
"I did, didn't I?" Pepper smiled more as he continued to sass. Fanta rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"You knew what I meant, diabetic sugary drink," Fanta crossed her arms. "Nevertheless, glad to see you're alive…" Her tail swayed from side to side.
"I am too, Doctor," Aquafina gave a light fistbump to Pepper's shoulder. Pepper sighed with relief and looked over across the way.
"Hm, she was standing over there," Pepper weakly lifted up his arm and pointed. Everyone looked over to where he was pointed at. All there was left was a large and burnt hole and no signs of Strawberry being around.
"Think she survived such a blast?" Blake asked Pepper as she turned back to him.
"Absolutely, there's no way I ended her. Especially after what I have witnessed here tonight," Pepper admitted. "I may have not gotten the lead I was hoping for, however, I have attained answers and asked myself more questions."
"What kind of answ-" Aquafina was cut off by Sprite via a hand motion. Pepper blinked in surprise but was appreciative of her kindness. Not too long after, sirens would blare out and everyone would look over to see several police vehicles arriving on the scene. Getting out of one of the cars, Pepsi and Neberpop would be among some of the people. Pepper was very shocked to see Pepsi here much less working with the police. Pepsi rolled his eyes and rubbed the temple of his nose.
"Of course, I ran into this kid again," Pepsi shook his head. "Good night Caroline, this is going to be a long ass night."
"That's the kid you fought from the other night?" Neberpop looked him up and down. "Wow, he's packing." Pepsi glared at Neberpop disappointedly.
"Shut up," Pepsi then closed his door and walked over to the group. Neberpop giggled and followed him. Sometime later, yellow tape, police, huntsmen, and others would be everywhere at the seaport. Some took pictures, others grabbed and bagged and some huntsmen talked to the group to account for tonight's event. Pepsi with Neberpop and Pepper are both talking to one another.
"...And that's what happened," Pepper finished explaining while being slightly on edge. Pepsi taking notes and writing them down in his notepad. Neberpop was just sitting down kicking her legs. Pepsi sighed deeply then closed his notepad and put it away. He then leaned against a large box with his arms crossed.
"One hell of a date you had there, but remind me again, who was it you were fighting?" Pepsi asked.
"Strawberry Pink," Pepper repeated.
"And to be clear, we are talking about the same Strawberry Pink that was a respected member of team CRRS (Cherris), correct?" Pepsi asked again. Pepper nodded. "And you're telling me, once again to make sure I'm understanding right, went toe to toe and held your ground, right?"
"Yes sir," Pepper nodded again as he was sweating a bit. Pepsi, on the other hand, had a hard time not only believing but as well as understanding Pepper. The look in his eyes was one of disbelief.
"Forgive me for being a little skeptical about this, but how did a huntsman in training one v one not only, a trained huntress, as well as a very famous star huntress from Beacon Academy," Pepsi uncrossed his arms and scratched his head. "Something about that doesn't add up."
"I mean, you should know yourself, shouldn't you? We did in fact fight weeks ago," Pepper awkwardly brought up the incident between them two. Pepsi sighed deeply and looked down. He then cleared his throat before lifting his head back up.
"I suppose to some extent I should and it has been some time since we last saw one another," Pepsi admitted. "However, I'm going to need a little more than that."
"Fair enough, but before I get into that, how in the heck did you land on the good side of the police?" Pepper asked, being very confused. "What happened for that to even come about?"
"Ozpin is quite the oddball of a man, he helped us out and pulled some strings. In return, we work for him!" Neberpop smiled as she explained happily.
"Yeah, that did happen, not one of my proudest moments, but hey it's whatever," Pepsi shrugged it off. "By the way, what's your name again?"
"Dr. RedJed Pepper," Pepper answered, then pulled out a bottle of Dr. Pepper and drank some of it. Pepsi and Neberpop both blinked and just stood there processing. A couple of minutes passed before Pepsi spoke again.
"Pepper, as in like Cherry Pepper?" Pepsi sweated a little and got nervous.
"Yeah, that's my mother," Pepper nodded again. "Something wrong?" Pepsi just stood dumbfounded. His face said it all, the realization and regret were clear as day in his expression.
"Oh gods, I smacked around the son of Cherry Pepper," Pepsi placed his hand on his chin while rubbing it. Neberpop was still confused.
"Uhm, I assume she's like famous or something? Not entirely sure why you're getting all uppity for," Neberpop asked.
"You don't understand, team CRRS was led by Cherry Pepper. A very strong and well-beloved and very well-respected huntress. And I beat up her kid, my ass is going to die if she ever finds out," Pepsi explained as he began trembling.
"Oh, oh I see how that could be bad," Neberpop nodded now understanding. Pepper just chuckled as he watched Pepsi have a mental breakdown while Neberpop was just there watching. While that was happening, Cherry and another woman with long purple braided hair wore a dark blue like the night sky kimono with sparkles scattered throughout her outfit standing on a roof nearby but out of sight.
"You know Cherry, he's gonna find out one day about your family's power," the purple-haired woman crossed her arms and looked over at Cherry. "You can't keep it hidden from him forever."
"I know Raisin," Cherry looked down, sighing. "I'm just delaying the inevitable for as long as possible. For his own safety, however, I do fear I might have caused more damage to him than I want to admit." Cherry shed a single tear and sighed. Raisin patted her back gently.
"It's already bad enough you had to leave your family behind," Raisin moved her hand off Cherry and crossed her arms. "Much less trying to help that manic you call a friend."
"Hey! Strawberry is our teammate and my partner! I refuse to just let her suffer!" Cherry glared at Raisin while putting her hands on her hips. Raisin just rolled her eyes and looked away.
"You know I don't particularly care, not one for 'human' emotions," Raisin turned her back to Cherry, sounding very cold and uncaring.
"Don't think that's true, you just don't like showing it," Cherry had a big ol smirk on her face. Raisin turned around glaring at Cherry with narrow eyes.
"Whatever woman, shall we be off?" Raisin uncrossed her arms. Cherry nodded and then gave a thumbs up. "Let's go," both of them turned around and walked away. Cherry stopped and took one last look at her son. She smiled.
"I'm proud of you son, you'll make a fine huntsman, and make a great hero. No, the greatest hero the world has ever seen. I love you, RedJed," Cherry blew a kiss and continued on her way. Back with Pepper, he was laughing at seeing Pepsi having a mental breakdown with Neberpop now trying to calm him down. In his laughter, Pepper felt a shiver suddenly traveled through his body.
"Huh, that felt familiar, feels like," Pepper realized it felt like a kiss from a mother. "Oh, mother," he smiled and looked up to the sky with hope in his eyes.
The next day, Pepper was out in front of the church, located on the opposite end of the downtown Vale, standing in front of the statues of the gods. Pepper was specifically standing in front of the goddess of reality's statue. He stood there in deep thought thinking about last night. He thought about the voice in his head that spoke to him and what that meant. I don't mean the words that were spoken, more of just the fact it even happened in the first place. He wondered why absorbing that energy resulted in that.
"Hm, that energy felt familiar in a way," Pepper pulled out a Dr. Pepper. "Reminded me of that blue light thing, speaking of which, it flashed again last night. Why? Why did it flash?" He then drank some Dr. Pepper. "None of this makes sense," he shook his head before he turned around and walked away. The statue of reality, briefly glowed dimly.