Things were, in retrospect, finally starting to look up when it came to trying to expand her territory. Not quite in the manner in which Zero Ika and his brother had been doing so but Zerori liked to keep her trump card where they belonged: Out of sight and out of mind. So when she’d managed to come into enough money to procure a small building on the outskirts of East City, she’d taken full advantage of the space she’d found. A small home base that was meant to be her main safe house. If anyone ever found their way here… it was because Zerori wanted them to find it. Of course, like any respectable criminal that wanted to keep their activities secret, Zerori had a front for her own safe house.

A bakery.

No, an actual bakery. People had hobbies and Zerori really did like her sweets. When the opportunity to make cash on the side came up, that was the very FIRST thing Zerori had decided it was going to be. Sure, it might be weird to see a bakery in the middle of the outskirts of the rural area but people liked having warm pie and donuts and Zerori would have been hell pressed to be convinced otherwise!

From the front of the building to the second floor, it was as normal as one could expect. Windows to the baked goods were lined up for customers to peruse while the second floor would take the role of Zerori’s ‘office’ in terms of looking like she managed the place. Her only regret was that she’d not be able to actually stay with her bakery for longer periods of time. The reason for that would lead into the lower floors of the basement that Zerori had literally retrofitted to nearly take up a VERY large chunk of area. Honestly, it was the reason she’d chosen such a rural area.

Below, it was like walking into a completely different world. Everywhere you looked was communication equipment, bits and pieces of scrap or technology that was either in the process of being welded together or in their rawest form just kept to a pile. Then, taking up the most room, was the Gravity chamber. Rather, the doors to said gravity chamber. Within the confines of the room, however, would be various open wires, lack of paneling and - even worse - apparent modifications that weren’t finished.

Unfortunately, Zerori wasn’t able to finish it before Korn had insisted they give the damn thing a try. It was what she deserved for inviting him in to LOOK at it and forgetting that he was basically a man-child in an adult body.

“This thing could kill us, I hope you understand?” Zerori spoke with as dry a tone as she could muster while looking up at the lumbering Saiyan with a dead panned expression.

The grin she received in response didn’t need to be verbal. With a groan and roll of her eyes, Zerori just approached the door of the chamber - the likeness of which looked more like a submarine hatch - and began punching in numbers on the panel just to the right of it. Korn approached, his tail lashing about with excitement that it hit her right in the hip - earning a hiss from the hybrid woman. He held his hands up in a half-hearted attempt as a nonverbal apology, “I am just…very excited to get stronger. Stronger than I ever have been!”

“Well, try to be careful. While it won’t exactly kill me, it can very much injure you,” Zerori stated, finishing the last few details of how much she could take and for how long. Forty G-forces should have been enough for the both of them… so long as Korn didn’t do anything stupid. Giving one last look to her over-excited companion, Zerori pressed the button to open the hatch and went inside. Just as she’d described to him, it was in a very obvious state of incompletion. “Alright, so I shouldn’t HAVE to say this but don’t touch exposed wires, don’t remove any of the plating that IS in place and NO blasting energy of ANY kind!” She yelled, getting louder and louder as Korn started to take off his shirt and run into the center of the chamber.

Like an idiot.

“When does it start?! What level did you choose?!” Korn laughed, flexing his muscles in a show of masculine pride.

Zerori stayed near the door, knowing that being in the middle of the room was a bad idea when you had no idea what to expect. Still, she humored him, “Right… about… now.” And in perfect harmony, both Zerori and Korn would suddenly feel the incredible weight press against them. As Zerori struggled to keep herself from falling to her knees from the force, visibly shaking from the amount of strength she was using, the sheer satisfaction Zerori felt seeing Korn fall onto his ass because he wasn’t prepared was completely worth the bullshit.

“U-UGH, Zero-... ri- what the hell?!” He roared,likely having almost fallen onto his tail and trying to roll back over to get to his feet. He was very much NOT successful.

“I TOLD you it wasn’t going to be easy! You- damn, this is tough- wanted to use the same level I was!” Zerori chided, slowly getting used to the forces pressing down on her as she walked the room. When she finally managed to make it to one of the bars she’s created that would look like an ‘n’ shape along the floor, she’d grasped onto it for ballast. It helped, immensely, and she silently patted herself on the back for such a simple crutch. “Get to one of these, dumbass - if you can even stand…”

Korn groaned, his muscles flexing so much that Zerori was worried his blood vessels were going to actually pop out of his skin, “I am TRYING!”

With a soft laugh that felt more difficult than normal to do, Zerori would turn her focus to the state of things. The room was stable… sort of. The parts of the walls that were clearly unrefined and bare with wires hanging out had those very same wires swinging wildly with sparks crackling from their ends. She needed to close those wires and panel these walls up IMMEDIATELY before she ever used this thing again but at the very least the visual of it incited a healthy amount of fear that gave her the strength to keep going.

If she stopped moving at any point in here, that could very easily spell a death sentence.

A loud vibration beside her as Zerori look back just as Korn was finally getting to his feet with the angriest expression she’d ever see on his face, “Wow, you okay there, buddy?” She called out, realizing that it was getting a little easier to breath the longer she just let herself get used to the stationary position.

By the glare she was given, it was easy to tell he was not. She just-

-didn’t expect him to attempt launching himself at her! With heavy, inconsistent steps that looked just fucking painful to look at, Zerori felt the hackles on her tail raise immediately before she yelled, “You absolute FUCK-!” And she didn’t even have a chance to finish before she was tackled to the ground and released a horrified scream of pain as her back hit the floor with the weight of- well, of forty of her weights as well as forty of KORN’s weight. The sheer lack of air that was knocked from her and pressed against her chest had her lungs burning and her ribs feeling as if she’d been crushed in a hydraulic piston.

For a moment, Zerori was sure she blacked out. She didn’t remember anything until she came to with the edges of her vision still fading in and out of blackness. What she saw in front of her however, was Korn thrown into a wall and the room’s light flickering rapidly. It was pretty obvious what had happened by the feeling of dark energy surging through her body, but that didn’t make her any more relieved because she stood there, seething at Korn, as he seemed to finally come to himself.

“Why the fuck would you do that, huh!? I TRUSTED you here and you nearly KILL me?!” Zerori bellowed, her increased power allowing her to more easily bridge the distance between them in the gravity chamber. She needed to calm down; needed to let her body continue to naturally adjust to the gravity or this wouldn’t stick at all.

Taking a moment to stop, Zerori closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Slowly, like water trickling out of a faucet to only drip and then cease, the darkness ebbed from her body until Zerori almost let herself relax. She stabilized her stance, opened her eyes and snarled at Korn, “I’m going to hurt you. I’m going to hurt you while NOT at my best so I can get something out of your stupidity today!”

With wrath and spite as her motivation, Zerori stomped over with her arms starting to crackle and spark with red energy. Korn, for his sake, finally had the dignity to look scared as she approached him. “W-Wait, that’s not a g-good idea-” He tried to reason, either with a rare moment of clarity or just an attempt to avoid getting hit by one of her most powerful attacks. In this case, it would be the former.

Behind him, only just scant inches away from actually touching his skin, the exposed and frayed wires swung terrifyingly close to his body and he HATED getting electrocuted.

“Don’t care,” Zerori dismissed, finally bridging the distance and swinging her arm back, “Take it like a MAN!”

“Zerori-!” Was his last scream before she swung her arm forward and satisfyingly sunk it into his stomach - effectively pushing him into the wall and right into the wires. Of course, we all know what happens when conduction it as it’s most effective. In a matter of seconds as Korn found himself in a near death situation, Zerori would also give a pained yell as her own body was raked with painful electric shocks that wasn’t like her demonic essence at ALL.

They both struggled to break free of the current, their muscles locking up from the pain and forced electric stimuli, until finally Korn was able to throw his fist back and swing it right across Zerori’s jaw. She would have been VERY pissed off for the sucker punch attack if it were intended to knock her out of harm’s way.

She slid along the ground like a trowel in dirt, without the dirt being dug away, and slumped to the ground as gravity took over and cemented her to the floor. From the hole in the wall, Zerori could hear Korn bellow out to her, “Turn.. it OFF!”

In any normal, but also dumb situation, Zerori would have a scathingly insulting remark ready for him. Fortunately for him, Zerori also wanted to turn off the Gravity for a while and fix everything that could kill them beyond the gravity itself. Taking a few short, stuttering breaths, Zerori pushed herself up to her feet and staggered over to the console set at the door. With fatigue and her muscles STILL cramping up, it felt like it took her agonizing hours to get to the panel and flip the kill switch.

The room was soon bathed in darkness, light, gravity and the flickering of wires all absent from the room with only the sound of the two Saiyans heavily breathing from their new injuries. A moment later, the sound of a latch rotating with a squeaky groan would have light spill into the chamber from the conjoining room, “I’m going to sleep… eat… and then finish this fuckin’ thing,” Zerori would say between panted breaths of exhaustion before she turned to Korn as he got to his own feet with a hand over his stomach where she’d punched him.

Absentmindedly, she brought a hand up to her own jaw and winced at the swelling there but it didn’t deter her from speaking at least, “If you’re here when I wake up, I’m going to kick you in the nuts.”

The only response she got was a scoff before she turned away and struggled up the stairs. Left to the lone darkness of the chamber, Korn would watch her leave with a somber expression. He never really understood why she hated him, even after all these years that they’d supported each other. He was there for her in High School and even after she’d embarked on her own weirdly unique path of being an organized criminal. Was it because he couldn’t give her what she wanted? Or… because he asked for too much of her?

With a slow shake of his head, he followed her up the stairs a few moments later and decided to eat with her one last time before taking off.