Zerori was never known to take uncalculated risks; everything had a chance of success, failure or simply turning into a different opportunity. East City was typically her turf but branching out (especially if the people she was investing in were talking with the new owners of the city in town) meant that she needed to make riskier decisions or potentially lose it all. Money was going to be tight, either way, and if things really got dicey? She could take what she had in secret and bounce to the stars with a lot less grandiose digs.

Until such time, however, Zerori cautiously slinked around West City for a while. She’d just arrived with the intention to keep her ear to the ground and see just what Zero and Ryme were up to. While she didn’t really see Ryme as a threat in comparison to his brother, she knew what loyalty looked like. It was during her walk around, head covered in a hoodie she’d bought at a store nearby that she caught sight of someone interesting. The black hair was normal - the blue skin… not so much. She’d paused, looking the figure over as she tried to get as many details as she could before it occurred to her that they appeared pretty lost.

How? Who goes out to a place like this and gets lost? Zerori thought, equal parts curious and judgemental. She snorted softly through her nose, stepping away to continue onward and leave the woman to her fate when the sound of gunshots rang out through the air. Very close by. Beneath the hood, Zerori turned to look around and see if it was anything she should worry about; gunshots may not bother her much given she was a Saiyan but people could always get lucky.

She turned back to where the woman was, a grimace on her face as the familiar (and honestly TIRING) tug of her conscience encouraged her to stay just a moment longer to see if this woman was going to get into trouble. By the sound of quickly approaching footsteps, the likelihood of it was becoming higher and higher. In mere moments, the area the woman was standing in was met with at least four to five street-wear dressed individuals and surprise surprise-

They were armed with weapons.

"... Damn," Zerori muttered, looking away for a moment to curse her luck before gradually approaching quietly from the shadows and into view of the woman. While she might intent to make sure this lost little lamb would find their way home out of the 'goodness' of her heart (she'd ask for same cash, for sure), the lack of words or a response paired with the crew approaching her might actually have the opposite intended effect.

As Zerori approached, only just barely able to hear bits and pieces of what the low lives of the area were saying, a cold feeling of dread seemed to grip tightly to her heart as the woman seemed to try and dissuade them with her own words as she backed away. The feeling that bloomed in her chest after that was almost visceral; a hatred so intense that it actually caught the hybrid off guard. Here was a stranger, someone she didn’t know a DAMN thing about, obviously in trouble and about to potentially be assaulted and she was already emotionally held hostage by her anger. Already, Zerori could feel the tendrils of darkness begin to seep from around her - black and red miasma-like energy visible to anyone that would look her way.

It wasn’t quite rage but the wrath that she felt was familiar.

Briefly, before she could stop the vision, Zerori saw the flash of a familiar face from her past. Any chance she had of controlling herself was gone with the wind as they converged on her. She could see the woman defending herself adequately and the fight she gave to them had given her enough pause to see that she wasn’t just a helpless victim… only to watch the apparent leader slam a pipe over her.

She reacted without thinking, her casual footsteps now rage-filled stomps that heralded her intervention like an unstoppable tank. A couple of the scum had turned to her, ready to attack whoever was bold enough to stop them, only for Zerori to swiftly spin kick one INTO the wall in a span of a second and turn to the other with a feral snarl upon her lips and front kick that one into the dumpster. By the way the metal was bent and curved around his body… it was easy to tell that many bones were likely broken upon impact.

Her gaze immediately was turned onto the leader, however, her gaze no longer bearing the blue hue of a controlled woman. Instead, her eyes glowed red with the rage of a Demon crossed. Briefly, she noted the magenta glow of the woman’s eyes - a connection was felt for a second. The same as when she met Athren before it returned to glaring at the man that slammed a pipe over her head. She held out her arm, fingers curled menacingly as she called out to him, “Hey.” It was a firm command, meant to catch his attention. Whether or not she did, however, wouldn’t matter in the least as her black and red energy molded suddenly into a terrifying vector of a clawed arm behind her.

With nothing else left to say, she savagely swung her arm across in front of her and - in that same moment - the command of her arm would swing into the man’s side with the intent to launch him like a rag doll into the wall on the woman’s left. Whatever hit the wall, however, wouldn’t be a full body; his head and legs completely separated from his body before it ever hit the wall. Her gaze would have followed his body, the blood work painting the ground and wall before she turned her gaze to the woman and lowered her arm.

The warp of demonic energy hadn’t quite abated as she spoke, “You okay?”

While Zerori was sure she had an idea of what this woman meant by being treated in such a disgusting manner, it didn’t deter the hybrid from giving a scoff and rolling her eyes, “Not something you should be used to… but I ain’t gonna argue. Be glad I was here, though I imagine you might have had that handled well enough,” She gave the woman a once over, the red of her eyes still bleeding a malevolent shine before she tried to meet gazes with the woman. She also needed to calm down before she reacted even MORE aggressively than she felt and with a slow sigh through her nose, the glow of her power began to fade.

When she opened her eyes, the red was replaced with the muted light blue that was so outlandish for her race. All at once, the sudden use of magic in such a short time had her a little dizzy but she did her best to hide it behind a smug smirk at the question being asked, “Me? Normal? Whatever gave you that idea?” Zerori teased, turning away to walk over to one of the other fallen punks she kicked into a dumpster and rolling them over onto their back with her foot.

They were in pain but alive - some of them, at least. The ones that tasted her claws were hardly considered bodies with how she’d ripped them to pieces. She turned back to the woman, taking this moment to ask, “You want to finish these guys off or let them live to tell the tale?” While it wasn’t exactly a difficult question, the morality and nature of it’s reasoning remained. “They’ll either learn their lesson if they live… or tell others about you and bring more and I won’t be around to help you. Or-” She casually raised a leg to the groaning body on the ground, pressing the sole of her boot against his throat.

“I can clean the mess up. I intervened so, naturally, I’m offering to prevent this from happening again. Again - you’re choice…” She realized she was offering to kill trash to someone she didn’t even introduce herself to. “Zerori, by the way. Late introduction but better late than never, yeah?” In spite of her threatening posture, Zerori smirked before speaking with the teasing tone of curiosity, “Do I get to know your name?” She knew they was more to this woman than met the idea and it wasn't like she was trying to withhold information about herself, either. They were two unknowns, similar in nature somehow and meeting for the first time. And both were cautious.

Of all the things Zerori had expected the woman across from her to say, ‘I’ve been to Hell’ wasn’t one of them. With her foot still over the guy’s neck that laid on the ground, Zerori narrowed her eyes in thought as Mayclair finished her reasoning behind not desiring her to finish them off. Upon hearing that she didn’t typically take the lives of others, Zerori would give a half-hearted shrug before taking her boot off of his throat, “That’s fine by me. Can’t say I exactly agree on the sentiment, but I suppose I can accept that the context matters,” She briefly glanced down, a look of disgust crossing her face before she redirected her energy and attention back to more the interesting reason she was even here in the first place. She had a nice name, a little different than she would have expected, “Mayclair, huh? Don’t worry about being rude or anything like that,” She scoffed with laughter, “You’ll find that I like to fuck with people. Default mode, y’know?”

At the suggestion to have a little fun by taking some of these guys for a ride… Well, how could Zerori say no? She looked down at one of the other trash bums that hadn’t had her attention before and walked over to one, leaning down until she was nearly face to face with them - arms casually laying along the tops of her knees, “You know what?” She turned to toss a wink over to her new friend, “-I think I like how you think, Mayclair.”

Weakly, the one she’d set her sights on would try and save himself, “N-No, I don’t wanna-!”

Without much more preamble, Zerori was grabbing one of the men by the pant leg and floating up into the air, “Can’t hear you, let’s GO!!” She laughed, now nearly ten feet from the air and almost laughing loud enough for anyone to hear out in the main street as he flailed and screamed like… Well, like a little bitch. She looked over at Mayclair, waiting for her to grab her own amusing jackass before she floated up higher and higher. “Careful,” Zerori warned, feeling the slightest slipping from the grip she had on his clothes. “I might just drop you without meaning to if you keep wiggling around like a damn fish!”

Ignoring her dangling and very vocal victim for the moment, Zerori couldn’t help herself as the tidbit of information Mayclair had mentioned just would relinquish itself from the forefront of her mind, “Yo, you said something interesting earlier!” She called over the sound of wind in her ears the higher up they went over the city. “You really from Hell? As in, you, uh…” She struggled with how to word her question with her hand visibly moving in a ‘c’mon, what is it?!’ gesture before she finished, “-You came from there to here?” She hated the way that made her sound stupid but she couldn’t help it - the idea sounded incredulous!

Whilst her victim didn’t get the ‘trip of a lifetime’ like Mayclair’s human had gotten, Zerori was making sure that the man dangling by his pant leg was able to feel every potential fall as she let her grip slip a bit ever so often while asking her questions. She laughed at her new companions’ teasing, playing along, “Hey now, maybe they just haven’t gotten to go fast enough?!” And that was all the warning she had to give for her guy before just straight up dropping him their current height. Keeping her senses keenly focused on the falling human, however, Zerori would cross her arms and respond to Mayclair, “Wait WHAT?! Go between worlds? That sounds really fuckin’ awesome,” She brought a hand up to her chin, still allowing her screaming captive to fall a bit long before she gave a sigh and smirked, “Gimme a sec,” and dove down at incredible speed.

It took her less than seconds to catch the screaming, crying and - if her nose was right - pissing crybaby with a jerky snatch from the air. Out of breath and practically whimpering from being so scared shit-less, the man in her grip wouldn’t be able to get a word out before Zerori snarled at him only loud enough for him to hear. “I don’t want to see your face again after this. If I do…” Her eyes flashed red briefly before she dropped him the rest of the five feet from the ground and watched him scramble away.

While she was having fun playing Mayclair’s game, Zerori would have rather learned more about that… ability she had.

As she flew back up to meet with her, assuming she didn’t fly down to meet her near the ground, Zerori would linger for just a bit before she got right to it, “Sorry I’m biting down on this like a dog with a bone, but-” She approached just a little bit closer, her expression showing just how increasingly interested she was about this, “I’m not normal, either. I know something about me is similar to something about you and if I can find out anything about myself, I-!...” Zerori stopped suddenly, her words sounding nearly panicked and rushed and THAT was NOT how she wanted to sound. Not to someone that was clearly a stranger and not enthusiastic about talking about herself.

Zerori wasn’t the type to sound desperate and she wasn’t going to start, “Forget what I said. You wanted to play a little longer, yeah?” She could play her games, get to know her - be Human even if it wasn’t in her nature. It was what she was good at, even if this nugget of something new was like a noose around her neck and piece of food on a string in her face.

The more Maycair had explained this power to shift between worlds, the more Zerori’s interest had piqued. An ability to escape in a dicing situation? Yes please! To know, however, that Maycair was actively avoiding her family that lived in Hell, however, was a bit of a shame. While she didn;t have any such desires, Zerori knew just how difficult a family could be to cope with. She was on a different mission, however, and if her mother was a Demon and lived in Hell of all places, well… it was a better lead than most she’d ever had in her life. After having gotten rid of her little captive, Mayfair had seemed to want to do the same and had released her own captive. Watching them scurry off was like watching a couple of mice run from a predator, but while it enticed her to give chase, Zerori wanted to give her full attention to Maycair.

And it was ‘time to get shit off our chest’ time. Fuck, here we go, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to hear the girl’s story - it fact, it was exactly what she wanted, but nothing in life came for free and that meant she had to give up her own life story. This woman was kind, though, and Zerori could put a money bet down on Maycair not having a forceful bone in her body to pressure Zerori in talking. Maybe it was because there was a similar connection, there…

Listening to the offer and, in a matter of moments, feeling silly for her aversion to talking about herself Zerori would give a nod after a few brief moments, “Honesty I can give, even if there are some secrets I have to keep… to tell you the truth, I thought the same thing, too. I only met one other person besides me and let me just say, it’s complicated between the two of us!” She laughed, adding in a moment later, “-he’s fun, though. Tough guy. Bleedin’ heart sort, even if he won’t admit it…” She swallowed, missing Athren. Clearing her throat, Zerori continued, “I’m the same, though we’re pretty different - you and I,” She cocked her head, getting a good look at Maycair before she crossed her arms with a smirk. “It’s kinda cool, honestly, since I’ve hardly met any other Demons that looked-... uhm,” She struggled for words, scratching the underside of her jaw. “Demony? Horns, little forked tongues - shit you see in movies honestly and yeah. I know. That sounds fuckin’ dumb.”

She was getting comfortable. Was that a good thing? We’re they ‘vibing’, as the kids said? Maybe she didn’t have to talk about her reasons? Taking a moment, Zerori would just throw her line out there. “I’m looking for someone. Not sure if they’re even alive but one day they were there and the next they weren’t. My old man is gone, I’m sure of that but my mother could still be out there. She taught me the magic I know today but there’s a lot I still don’t get,” Shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, Zerori finally finished, “You’re the first lead I’ve had on the other part of me in 15 years. No offense, but…” Zerori grinned widely, “-I’m probably gonna annoy the shit out of you if it means learning how to get to Hell.”

It was a HUGE risk making her intentions honestly known but if Maycair wanted honesty and that would help her to learn whatever technique she had to get to Hell-? Pride be fucking damned.

Zerori listened with patience, confident that Maycair was receptive to the idea of helping her out with her own goal. What she heard, however, had the hybrid woman’s smirk gradually fade away. To not only be treated as less but only considered a weapon? By her family?! It left a bad taste in her mouth, especially when aycair had made it clear that she didn’t want to go back to Hell while she was being searched for by that very same person. Could she afford to wait? Demanding something like making her go back felt like Zerori was making Maycair walk into a prison. “...I’m sorry. That’s not something anyone should have to go through. We don’t have to do this if you-” But stopped her words as she heard Maycair continue. Out of respect, she wasn’t going to tell her to stop or force her to ‘do her bidding’ because they were both half-breeds of the same race.

What was said, however, shocked even Zerori and made her incredibly uncomfortable. It wasn’t that Maycair wasn’t in the right by asking for trust… It was just a difficult step to take when this was their first meeting. However, just as quickly as the feeling had arisen, Zerori trampled them back down. If she was going to ask for May to go back to a place she’d specifically run away from, Zerori was going to pay the same value back!

“Hey,” Zerori called to Maycair, bringing up a hand to pat the side of her shoulder in what she hoped was comforting, “I’ll do you one better! When you come back from whatever planet your going to and teach me how to go to Hell, I’ll help beat the shit out of your mom if she tries to keep you there as her personal fuckin’ weapon,” Emphasizing her offer by punching her fist into an open palm for good measure. “Hit me up when you’re back, alright?” She held out a hand, offering her palm to shake, “It’s not very common and I’m not really used to this kind of thing, but… I trust you. Makes sense I do the same, yeah?”

She wasn’t going to Hell right away or being offered to learn this ‘ability’ to go to hell right now but Zerori was satisfied that they’d even come to an agreement at all. Besides, Maycair wasn’t the only one that had unfinished business to take care of. Before Zerori might try and take her leave, she took a step back and pulled both arms behind her head to rest them with the fingers interlocked. Casually, she dropped, “So, before we end our festivities tonight, do youuu… wanna grab a drink?” She gestured with her head in a random direction, grinning at Maycair in an attempt to liven up the mood of their roller coaster ride of an introduction. ”No pressure, by the way. I’ve got some things to finish up tonight if you’d like some time to, like… relax and shit. Figured drinks were a good option!”