North City was… fine. For the most part, Zerori could accept that this colder city was likely a good place to mine oil or find other more difficult means to turn a profit. To make an inhospitable place a home was no easy task, after all. However, when business had encouraged the mercenary up-start to attend a meeting on the turf of some other bureaucrat, she wasn’t exactly pleased when she read the weather report on where she was going. The entire trip over had her tail shivering and fluffed at odd times to try and retain heat and that was WITH a relatively large sized coat. Sure, she could use her energy to keep herself warm but that was a bad idea on too many fronts. Alert people of her caliber to her where-abouts (No thank you), waste energy that could be used in an emergency situation (Yeah nope) and worse, let her competition know that she wasn’t as weak as they expected her to be?

She’d rather lay low in the unknown city.

After her arrival to North City and receiving the directions to the meeting place (a rather large building that towered over most in the small city) Zerori wasted no time in getting a hotel for the next few days and sending her contact a confirmation that she was there. No sooner had she thrown her shit into her room did she receive a message on her phone that offered the invitation of dinner. With a grimace of confusion, Zerori looked out the window.

Bright and fucking sunny. The meeting would take a few days and they wanted to wine and dine her on day one?

“... I can’t even with these idiots,” Zerori scoffed, texting a polite decline before getting herself ready for the meeting. She ignored the constant chime of her phone until she’d made her way to her meeting. Upon arrival (and as expected) the meeting for a product merge went… exactly as she thought it would. Only a few conversations with the executives bore fruit and gave her a direction for the product line of blasters she’d created. Most of the rest had gone to questioning her methods, trying to learn the secrets to her success and underhandedly insulting her with the idea of selling her business for a mass profit.

It wasn’t all terrible, however.

When they thought she couldn’t hear them outside of the door during a smoke break, she learned some interesting rumors.

”The police force has been growing powerful and bold with the requisition of new weapons. With this deal, we may be able to arm ourselves against them before this city becomes a police state. Where will the profits and freedom of the people go then?”

“We must close this deal and pay SOMEONE to get rid of the police chief, first! If we just get rid of the pawns, more will join or even criminals could be filed into their ranks!”

“In time, we must focus on this, first. Perhaps an offer of dinner again?”

“That… didn’t go so well the first time-”

Having heard enough, Zerori gave a half-heartedly shrug and stomped out her cigarette before opening the door a moment later.

“Alright, let’s wrap this up. I’ve got another meeting with the police chief after this,” Zerori announced, taking great satisfaction in the way the board members seemed to pale at that. Don’t like that I could be the enemy, eh? Well, let’s see what you do to convince me otherwise, Zerori thought with an inward smirk.

Ironically enough, it didn’t take long for their business to conclude before a rather interesting question was sent her way.

“Miss Zerori, you mentioned a meeting with the police chief of the city? You wouldn’t happen to be considering a deal with her blaster line with him, are you?” Even as he spoke clearly and with confidence Zerori could hear the fear in his tone.

“And if I am? I’ve been told they’re on a warpath against crime and that’s always a good thing, right?”

“Please, hear us out -” And the rest was history. They practically gave her the life story on this apparent ‘corrupt’ army of officers that weren’t all even legal officers to begin with. They’d gotten their hands on standard blasters after looting evidence wasn’t enough and had begun to strong-arm their way through the city piece by piece. Now, with the news that she’d arrived with a prototype model, they were eager to get their hands on her as well. At least, that was the bit that she’d made-up herself. They didn’t know about her just yet, she hoped.

“Well, if you’re convinced that it would only harm this city, then… it’s best you take my offer, yeah?” Zerori slyly snuck in, grinning as the board members looked at each other with uneasy glances. This is what they wanted. Just-

“My price of 1,000 zeni per piece is staying gentlemen. If it alleviates any buyer’s remorse you have… I’ll throw in a bonus. I just happen to know someone that might be willing to make your corruption problem disappear. The choice is yours,” She levied, showing her confidence in the deal by leaning back and propping her feet up on the table.

Imagine her surprise when the meeting ended rather profitably in the span of about 10 minutes.

Now the real work could start and Zerori had to admit - she was excited for the extra bit of exercise. Given her focus on business, she’d neglected her training and while it wasn’t entirely necessary for the goal she had in mind - she didn’t like to be caught without an ace up her sleeve. Having her ass beat in the heat of the moment because she was too cocky once was one too many times to learn her lesson. God forbid it happen again.

—-

Hours later, under the dark of night, Zerori was ready to finish her end of the bargain as the ‘bonus’ to her own deal. Maybe some people knew who she was under the mask, maybe they didn’t - what mattered was that she was the one people feared at night when she had her eye on something and they were in the way of that. Before finding herself enjoying the city scape at night high above the air-cars and curious eyes, Zerori had done some digging on the supposedly ‘corrupt’ Police chief and what he’d been doing prior to all this nonsense.

Apparently, this had been going on for only a few months - something had changed rather suddenly and Zerori had an idea that it wasn’t as simple as the chief having a sudden change of mind. If she had to guess… the police chief wasn’t really a police chief at all.

Her visor glowed dimly with the light of the feed she was reading on the inside, similar to a scouter but it allowed her to see more than just text data. Audibly, the mumble of a feed fed her police radio right into her ear. Private channels painted the prettiest picture of a set-up against some zoanthrope civilians and by the twitch of a smirk on her lips - the mercenary was interested.

“Let’s have a little fun,” She chuckled, taking to the air and following the directions of the radio to the site of the ‘crime’. Within minutes, she was landing in a dark alley on the southernmost part of the city. It was dark and nearly deserted, sans the few people she saw and the officers on the scene with the animal-like criminals being detained.

Unfortunately for the tiger-like zoanthrope, Zerori wasn’t in the habit of being a hero and, in fact, needed them to be taken into custody. Thankfully, she didn’t need to wait long before they were roughly placed in the squad car and taken away - leading Zerori right where their little nest was. Which, funnily enough, wasn’t the police station. Hardly a handful of miles away, a nondescript warehouse was where they’d driven up to and inside. It immediately stunk of a bad time for the supposed civilian and Zerori knew she only had a few minutes before they were likely going to ‘disappear’.

With a crack of her neck, Zerori began her approach the warehouse from above. Once she’d slipped inside, swiftly breaking the lock on a window, the armored hybrid quickly sized up her opposition.

One, two… six, seven… damn, eighteen? You’re really tying my hands, aren’t you? Zerori thought with the quirk of a smirk on her face. It wasn’t terrible odds, honestly, but it WAS enough to keep her from getting to the big fish. Which was the problem since she didn’t see them anywhere. Well, she could always beat it out of one of these guys, but if they didn’t know anything then she was just alerting them to her presence and making the NEXT encounter a lot more difficult.

She allowed a minute more of searching, knowing she had little time, before the arrival of someone from inside what looked like an office had her giving a soft ‘yes!’ in relief. With the walk of a man with everything, Zerori knew this guy just had to be the target she was looking for. And not too soon, either, as the other officers had the tiger-like zoanthrope on the ground with their little blasters at the ready.

“Show time,” Zerori grinned, standing and placing her foot on the top of the railed catwalk before launching herself off and landing with force enough to crack the floor in front of the tiger man.



Caught completely off guard, the handful of officers flinched back - almost forgetting that they had blasters in their hands. Using the stunned silence, Zerori would turn to the Zoanthrope, “It’d be best if you found some place to hide. It’s gonna get messy and I don’t tend to watch where I aim,” Pointedly giving the corner of her mouth a sensual lick, she turned back to the copious amount of targets she was going to get to play with. She could hear the scramble of body parts along the ground behind her - signifying that he’d taken her warning seriously.

Good, Zerori’s hands clenched and unclenched, the spark of dark red energy crackling around her before the rush of shadow-like tendrils would begin to overtake her arms. It was still a work in progress but she was getting better at using her Shadow Claws with every use. Instead of creating an extra ‘set’ of arms, Zerori enhanced the size and length of her own arms until a frightening set of black claws with a terrifying outline of a red shine overtook her own.

Finally, knowing that this was a LOT more dangerous than before, the officers brought their blasters up just as Zerori laughed loudly. “FIRE!” One of them screamed just before a hail of energy bullets were launched at her.

With angile grace, Zerori dashed to the side just before the barrage damaged the vehicle behind her. The next moment, she was launching herself upwards into the air while pulling her arm back with a wild look in her eyes. Slamming her fist down into the line of officers, she took great satisfaction in the concussive force of her fist blowing them back and destroying the ground beneath them in a show of force. “Come ON! Where are you aiming?!”

In the midst of some of the officers trying to get back to their feet to run and others trying their luck and trying to hit her, Zerori made sure to keep a keen eye one her target of choice. And what did she see but the target in question actually sticking around to watch the scene. Wrong move!

With a few more swings that launched at least three officers into the side of the warehouse, the catwalk across from where she entered the building and into the ground (respectfully) Zerori turned her sights on the chief and closed the distance between them in a matter of seconds.

He didn’t even see her coming as she bridged what had to be at least fifty FEET in two seconds, crouching on the fall protection bars right in front of him. She leered, her eyes covered by her visor as she took in the look of fear on his face, “Hey there. Heard you had an obsession with crime,” She held up a large claw, wagging a finger at him, “-Dangerous profession. You should really leave that to the professionals!”

Backed up, he tried to put on a brave face, “Who the fuck are-” But before he could finish, because Zerori didn’t really care to heard regurgitated lines she could predict from a mile away, the chief would find himself grasped around the neck and thrown behind Zerori and into the thick of the confused group of officers.

Right where she wanted him.

She stood up to her full height, still balanced on the fall protection bars of the catwalk, before addressing everyone in the room. “Last chance, guys! Five seconds-” She held up a large claw, counting down, “Five!”

The sound of blasters getting primed could be heard in revving up through the warehouse.

“Four!” Another bombardment of energy blasts could be heard releasing all at once. Her eyes watched them approach, the blue of her iris suddenly bleeding red. A mess of destruction would soon overtake the area where Zerori stood - obscuring her body as the office she’d stood in front of was rendered into a pile of smoldering scrap and melted metal. She was nowhere to be found in the debris sadly.

“-Three!” Came an amused laugh, bringing the attention of the officers to the other side of the warehouse where a collection of squad cars were. “Runnin’ out of time, guys! Two-!” They turned on her, the guns revving back up for another barrage. With a shake of her head just before the sound of the blasters could be heard, Zerori muttered. “I was giving you guys a chance to run. Oh well-” With a final shrug as the storm of blaster fire finally reached the fleet of vehicles, the sound of metal being rent and engines exploding from the attack was nearly deafening in the warehouse.

When the smoke finally settled, instead of Zerori having made a quick escape her silhouette could be seen as the smoke cleared. Before the smoke could clear completely, however, her body would rocket from the debris in a terrifying show of speed, roaring with a lust for battle, “TIMES UP!”

What followed next would sound more like a massacre than a beat-down, leaving more than half with injuries and others maimed with pretty life-threatening work done to them. Tables were destroyed, the debris of which evidently strewed around some of the officers. Left to fend for themselves, the officers would find their ‘chief of police’ suddenly absent. An hour or so later, at the actual police station headquarters just before they were about to close up for the night, the crash of a body being thrown through the front window of the building would alert the authorities of rather… radical delivery method.

Painted with the words ‘Liar’ and ‘Fraud’, it would be clear that the man hogtied and beaten black and blue while still wearing the chief of police’s uniform was not affiliated with the police at all. She didn’t need to kill him, but she really wasn’t one for arrests, either.

That didn’t mean she couldn’t have a little fun, though.