Zerori was absolutely NOT a Park Ranger. Further from it, she in fact encouraged a little destruction now and then and didn’t really care about the effect it had over the ecosystem or habit of other animals. Maybe she should care, just because she had an animal of her own to take care of and there was SOME sense of guilt there that she could be assisting in the extinction of potentially very cute creatures-

But that was also a lot of emotional work she wasn’t willing to take responsibility for.

So when the earth trembling sound of an explosion had taken place nearby, preceded by some incredibly powerful scream Zerori had never heard before, she was a little freaked out and concerned about what the actual hell was going on. It was always something these days, especially when she was trying to sit down and have some coffee before going back out into the winter storm that had been battering the local area. Another tip from the same mysterious benefactor but she wasn’t too dissatisfied last time. They were, at the very least, not wrong about the potential from reusable scrap metal and where it was located at.

“Son of a-” Zerori growled, tipping the cup back to down the rest of her coffee before grabbing her jacket and heading outside to track the origin. As she followed the source, a beacon of power that seemed to flare a few times, the sudden realization of who was the cause of such destruction had Zerori fly just a bit faster. She could already see what looked like a cycle of debris that marked the majin’s location, “Damn, what pissed you off?!” Zerori hissed in caution, landing just outside of the cyclones’ area of effect before she spotted her on the ground, sitting and curled in on herself. Was this display of power just a tantrum or was there something more to this little girl’s power-?

Well, whatever the case, the commotion was going to bury her if she didn’t cut it out! “Hey! HEY! What’s going on?! You mind literally chilling out for a moment, kid?!” Zerori yelled over the high winds that nearly deafened her. If that didn’t work, she’d gradually start to gather dark energy in her hand - red lightning cracking around her fist - in preparation to try and disperse the cyclone with equal force. The pink color of the air felt as if it was going to choke the hybrid woman if she didn’t help this kid get her power under control.

Zerori wasn’t really sure what she was expecting to happen - especially since her experience with angry Majin children was pretty low. Kids on the street were a different breed than those that were raised with a family but a kid was still a kid, in the end. With a grimace at the ball of energy that was created in the palm of the kid’s hand, Zerori glancing between the energy and the kid’s utterly unamused expression before she huffed through her nose. “Sorry, but no. You’re causing a LOT of trouble for me,” Zerori growled, hardly bothered by the potential attack ready to be thrown in her face, She could sense the power behind it and, while not weak by any definition of the word, it wasn’t strong enough to out Zerori flat on her ass. “I’ll make a deal with you, kid. Either you calm down enough for me to finish what I’m here for, or… I’ll pull rank as an adult and MAKE you stop.”

It was a pretty dumb threat, but Zerori wasn’t exactly great with kids. Cress was a bit of an exception, but that was Athren’s kids so Zerori was probably liked because of that. Still, with the whirlwind of power still throwing debris and rubble in the air, Zerori refused to relent and in fact decided to push the envelope a little more.

If Liari was frustrated because she wasn’t getting the results she wanted, then Zerori was more than willing to expedite the process, “Come on! If you think you’re so tough that you can order me around then put your might where your mouth is,” Zerori raised both hands, grinning purposefully provocative to try and incite Liari’s anger, “I’m right here and I ain’t gonna leave just cuz you tell me to!”

The only downside to this plan? There might be a LOT more damage to the mountain and Zerori might lose her camp to an avalanche. Still, it was better to try and resolve this quickly than to just tuck tail and run away because a kid was losing their temper.

Zerori flinched, her hearing more harmed than her patience, at the little Majin’s scream. Yeah, she definitely had some pipes on her. While her broken english left something to be desired, Zerori was a little impressed that (apparent livid anger aside) the blue Majin pretty much had the right of it. Though, Zerori did NOT like to be accused of being stupid. Unwise, yes. Impulsive, sure. But stupid? With a glare sent her way, Zerori’s grin would fall almost immediately as she stepped up toward Liari, “Now you hang the fuck on, you little-” And she’d hardly gotten the words out before a blast was suddenly thrown in her face mid-sentence and Zerori was so caught off guard the she didn’t have a single defense prepared when she really should have.

With an yell, equal parts pain and rage, Zerori would be seen shaking her head of the smoke that had resulted from the impact before roaring at Liari, “That was a CHEAP SHOT!” She would have had more to say if there wasn’t another, more painful attack, throwing her head to the side and knocking her clear across the snowy area like a rock skipping over a lake before her body eventually collided with the rock-side of the mountain. In a clatter of rock, debris and snow there would only be a short lull of silence before the rumble of debris would be lifted and thrown aside.

Revealing a very angry, very pissed off woman in a very ripped jacket that really liked, “I’m done,” Zerori muttered simply, watching as Liari approached in her own aggressive manner and - with a yell - produced a set of dark black and red shadow claws (in record time!) that would pour over her own existing arms to form almost paw-like extensions. She swung her arms forward, intent to interrupt Liari’s little combo with a powerful set of her own - swinging a huge left fist to try and knock Liari to the left before following it up with another with the opposite arm. “You like that?!” Another attempted swing, “Does it hurt?!” Another, almost not even caring if she was actually hitting her, “I can do this ALL DAY until both COVERED IN SNOW!”

Yeah, Zerori might have definitely forgot that she was fighting a child.

Above them, as if Zerori's words and her previous warnings were prophetic, the very faint rumble could be heard. Assuming either fighter could or would be able to come to their senses, the dangerous tell tale signs of an avalanche in the making would begin to roll down the mountain. It would still take time, but as the metaphor went, when things 'snowballed' it really wouldn't take long for the natural disaster to catch up to them.

Zerori had to hand it to Liari - she was some very tough, very stretchy bubblegum. If she didn’t know better from the majin kids she’d met back in the city, she would have been pretty surprised at how durable she was. As she comically kicked her feet in the air while holding her head, Zerori nearly lost the desire to continue because of just… well, shit, it was adorable. “I dunno, what do you think?!” Zerori sassed back while holding out her arms as if that was all the evidence she needed to present. While she was certainly not in the mood to give this kid any pulled punches, Zerori at least had the decency to not bully Liari about the dangers of using one’s HEAD to block a punch!

In the following moment, in fact, Zerori was shifting her body away from the incoming punch at her face as Liari quickly recovered. In spite of being angry and inconvenienced, Zerori was having a good time just seeing what this kid could do. She’d never met a Majin so young that was THIS strong! “Tch! You say that right after crying about getting punched? What are you, five?” The joke, meant to more or less tease Liari, actually had Zerori laughing - though it might have come off as Zerori making fun of the Majin girl just before one of her giant black and red claw paws started to crackle with red energy.

It wasn’t that Zerori wanted to end this quickly, but her pride was not one to be bruised twice. Every bit of mastery of her own abilities was one step closer to her grand plan, after all! “Here, I got another something for ya so you can see if THIS is strong or not!” And with a sudden rush toward Liari, she would attempt a massive right swing with a Phoenix Eraser crackling just a little bit louder than usual. Just for good measure, she’d put an extra bit more power behind this one as a little thank you for the absolutely unnecessary amount of trouble this kid was. If it landed, Liari would find herself being blown backwards towards another wall of ice and rock.

As all this was happening around them, unbeknownst to Zerori at least, the rumble would have grown louder and finally would shake the ground beneath their feet. Breathing heavily, it would take Zerori a few moments to come down from the high of her attack to give pause and look around her. The vibrations she felt were growing so violent now that she almost couldn’t keep her footing and, remembering why she’d bother at all to piss the kid off, she wildly looked around before spotting the barely visible movement of something coming in FAST!

Oh… OH! ...OH FUCK!

No longer giving a shit about their fight in favor of getting them the absolutely fuck out of there, Zerori scrambled along the snow beneath her feet straight toward where Liari was (regardless of if her attack had launched her or she'd dodged like a badass) and screamed,
"I'm NOT getting buried and NEITHER ARE YOU!" Before attempting to snatch Liari and book it straight into the air. Dark energy exploded around her, her power doubling in the hopes that it would be fast enough to out-fly the avalanche that was very quickly gaining on them and engulfing anything and everything in it's wake. Her now glowing red eyes expressed the absolutely terror that was trying not to be buried alive by 500,000 tons of white bullshit.

If she weren’t in such a hurry to avoid being buried by the incoming avalanche, Zerori would ave definitely been annoyed that Liari was trying to pull her fingers away from the armor strap. It was, literally, the only thing keeping her from being dropped, forgotten and on her own in the icy wilderness. While it was probably a non-issue with their level of power, nature was no less of a scary bitch! Zerori wasn’t so confident that even SHE could power through tons and tons and possibly hundreds of feet of snow. Zerori was just about to yell some choice words over her shoulder at Liari when it looked like she noticed the incoming wall of impending doom all on her own.

Instead, Zerori made it pretty clear what their options were, “See?! Now would you just- AUGH!” Like some kind of sentient laffy taffy, Liari’s previously dead (and resisting) weight would become like a rope was wrapped around the Saiyan woman. While she did her best to ignore the screams in her ear, Zerori divested herself of nearly all pride and employed a rather unorthodox method to try and gain distance between the avalanche. “Hang-! ON!” She ordered, even if she didn’t really need to say it twice.

Using her enhanced strength and the sheer size of her Shadow Claws, Zerori would look less like a civilized humanoid being and more like a Lynx bounding down the mountain on all fours. She lurched from boulders that peeked from the dense snow and trees that were barely visible but strong and flexible enough to not break under the force of her using them like a spring board. It was just as she was certain the avalanche would overtake them that the sudden drop off of a cliffside would come into view. It was all the motivation Zerori needed! Huffing and puffing with every jump and VERY quickly draining any and all energy Zerori might have saved for the fight, she yelled one last time between breaths, “DON’T PANIC!”

Seconds marking her last ditch escape, Zerori rushed toward the edge of the cliff side, throwing both herself and Liari off the edge and revealing a multiple hundred-meter drop that would have normally not been a problem for beings who knew how to fly. Except, after exhausting all of her power in their ‘Great Escape’, the ripped-jacket clad woman could feel her vision fading to black at the edges of her vision while she began freefalling over the side.

Her fingers twitched as she tried to move them, her tail violently swinging in the wind limply as the ground slowly rushed to greet her and Liari, “C-Can’t m-…” She muttered, struggling to even speak as the wind buffeted her face. Well, this… is gonna hurt, Zerori thought, closing her eyes in preparation. As a last resort, unable to use her energy to stop them, she turned in the air to keep her front aimed to the ground to prevent Liari from bearing the weight of the fall as the last moment.

Time did seem to slow down, and for Zerori it was like falling through molasses as she felt the ground close in on them. She was fine with the pain that could come, feeling confident enough that the impact against the snow wouldn’t kill her. Yet even still, the impending possibility of death was something no one could really escape. Just as she was sure the ground would come, she felt the sudden tightening around her shoulders and waist before a gut-wrenching lurch had her suddenly give a groan from the g-forces that resisted their fall. Confused, Zerori could only guess in her immovable state that Liari had done something - the case in fact proven when the world spun on it’s head and everything became a whole lot more blue. Zerori blinked, unable to comprehend what was happening until she heard Liari’s words moments before impact.

In spite of both of them having very suddenly not falling at bone-crushing speed the impact was still jarring. For Zerori, the damage was pretty much a really annoying headache that throbbed incessantly. Yet for Liari, Zerori suspected it was so much worse. Heart rate suddenly picking back up, Zerori forced her body (that only now she realized was able to move) to roll over. She could feel a smaller body under her and that immediately jump-started her brain. “Fuck-!” Zerori cursed, ignoring the burning pain in her muscles as she shuffled off of Liari’s body and along the snow. “Hey! HEY!” She called, her hands hesitating for a few moments before she tried checking for vitals.

Fingers her pulse points felt for a rhythm, removing her gloves to hover her palm over Liari’s mouth to feel for warm breath… For a few painfully slow moments, Zerori waited until she could just barely feel the ghost of a breath. With a sigh of relief, the hybrid would be grateful that Liari wasn’t dead. “Stupid, stupid kid,” She mumbled, her body leaning over from the sheer exhaustion that was weighing her down in equal measure to her relief. “I woulda be been fine… Hurt, but fine… Tch,” In spite of that, however, Zerori would allow a warm smirk to lift her lips before she leaned up and started to pat her body down.

Within her coat, tattered as it was, she was able to find exactly what she was looking for and (a gleam is mischief in her eye) uncapped the small flask. Gently, she tilted the little Majin’s head up and carefully assisted in getting some of the contents into Liari’s stomach. It wasn’t much but Zerori hoped she didn’t need to give Liari too much of her favorite elixir to help her stir back to the world of awakening. After all, it wasn’t every day you drank 80 proof scotch and managed to sleep through it. “C’mon, kid, wakey wakey,” Zerori muttered, waiting to see if her spirits did the trick.

The tired hybrid laughed when she realized that - in spite of having overreaching her own limitations just as she had - the Majin wasn’t just okay but also wanted to sleep. Alas, Zerori wasn’t going to have that just yet in the middle of a small snow crater. Their conditions were just… not great. After she managed to get the girl to drink even just a little of the elixir, Zerori would have to quickly jerk away to avoid getting her head smashed in by Liari’s visceral reaction and flopped onto her back into the snow. As Liari coughed and hacked which - completely normal reaction to high alcohol spirits, Zerori would look at her flask that had fallen into the snow with a sorrowful pout, “O-Oh…” She wasn’t mad, not at all, but that was expensive stuff.

Before she could mourn it’s loss, the sudden scream that preceded Liari launching herself upon her again had Zerori give a choked, ‘ugh!’ before she was the proud recipient of a very tight hug she wasn’t expecting while covered in snow. Still, the feeling was… nice and she felt herself smile before hesitatingly bringing her own arm up to pat gently at the Majin’s back. “Heh… Sorry, kid. Still, that's probably gonna happen pretty oft-” When Liari pulled back, looking her right in the eye, Zerori’s eyes would widen as Liari’s forehead was then pressed to her own. She'd been so caught by the unexpected action that her brain just kind of shut down.

While no stranger to physical... 'interaction', Zerori wasn’t exactly in her element when it came to affection of all things. The doting action left her surprised, warm and feeling… cared about. It wasn’t a very familiar state for the hybrid, unfortunately.

Still, she closed her eyes contentedly and smiled lopsidedly, “Aight, you’re gonna make me puke with all that sappiness,” But didn’t pull away for a long moment, just enjoying the foreign feeling of what she assumed was familial love before she brought a hand up and ruffled the Majin’s hair tentacles and stood up - with or without Liari wrapped around her. “You wanna come to camp with me? I assume you’re, uh… not angry anymore?” Honestly, she wasn’t sure why the kid was angry in the first place OR why she’d interfered in the first place but given she made a new friend out of it - she wasn’t going to complain.

When she got to her feet, however, she’d give a wince before looking around in an attempt to find her camp. “... Huh. I’m-... not real sure where my camp is, actually.” She brought a hand up, scratching her cheek with a finger as she tried to recall any kind of landmarks in the area. Unfortunately, she’d find out later that the avalanche had actually buried the camp just as she’d feared. She'd deal with that later, however.