Close Encounter of the Bird Kind [SPLIT]

This was by far the strangest sort of fight he'd had so far. And he's fought a dragon, a self-proclaimed god of destruction, Majins, and that was just back on Earth! Never mind the rest of the bloody cosmos! Hell, he and his crew have fought literal giant worms before on a desert planet that was obsessed with spices for some weird occultist religious reasons! And now here he was tussling with an oversized feather duster, until the two wound up in some kind of town square, which actually looked quite circular...

The Heran rubbed the back of his head as the bird brain started mouthing off to him. Definitely has a short memory that's for sure... "Just one bit of stuff to clear up before we get started." Erbia called over. He hiked a thumb in the general direction of where the Arcosians and a few others had slammed themselves off to. "The Arcosian that was shooting up the place earlier like a twat with their first gun... You with them?" he asked.

"Just so I know I ain't beating up someone who's here to help the locals is all. Would hate to turn you into a roast dinner if it turned out we were on the same-ish side." Erbia said for clarification, a grin on his face. "As for which Heran... I got a pretty good idea based on the energy I can sense over there... But confirmation would help." he mused, his thumb shifting over in the direction of where that particular conflict was kicking off in earnest.

The bird definitely seemed eager for a fight, which honestly only helped to stoke his own desire for a fight higher. Names of who they were working for and all that... didn't mean a damned thing really. He just wanted to make sure that there weren't any messes to clean up later was all. "As for keeping up with you, pretty sure that's my line Birdy. Just make sure you don't go and crow-k before my soul ignites!" Erbia called out, cracking his knuckles and chuckling.

---

MEANWHILE.

Rassica and Korla were slowly managing to excavate the debris when both of them detected Erbia's energy signature crashing nearby, along with another one that was of a similar scale to his own. Nearby being relative of course, probably a block or three away give or take the current state of the wrecked city. "Okay, combat zone is expanding rapidly across the city... We've got to get a move on." the Saiyan said, the Broljin nodding along with the analysis.

The warrior and the thief started to speed up their excavation work, the mech currently supporting the weight of the majority of the debris creaking and groaning as the various pressures around it began to slowly shift. "Ease up!" came a voice from inside the machine, both of them glancing over at the mech. "Let me try and... urgh... nope, can't adjust her. Damned debris from you Saiyans went and knocked-" Before another word could be uttered, Rassica let loose a roar and just sent a massive blast into the debris, carving out a tunnel towards the trapped Tuffles on the other side.

"MOVE IT OR LOSE IT!" she roared, the trapped civilians immediately legging it as best they could through the disintegrating tunnel, both Rassica and Korla taking pot shots at the debris as it crumbled around them! "Move it, move it, move it!" the Broljin called out, the Saiyan spotting an elderly couple barely managing to move. She made a tch-ing noise before bolting into the middle of it all, grabbing both of them by their waists and then rocketing back out again just as the make-shift tunnel collapsed around them.

They looked at the angry Saiyan woman with a confused mixture of thanks and fear, before bowing their heads and shuffling along with the rest of the now refugees. "What the hell was that about Saiy-" the voice of the mechs pilot called out, before Korla quickly interrupted them. "We're trying to help, and all she's been getting is "damned Saiyan" this, and "damned Saiyan" that. All. Day." The pilot went silent for a while before a quiet "Sorry..." was uttered, barely audible over the distant explosions of the battlefield the city had become.

"Apologies can come later. Can you move or are we leaving the mech behind?" Rassica curtly asked, the mecha in question slowly shaking its head. "It's servo damage mostly... Can be quickly repaired, but its going to take a while all the same..." they explained. "Then we're leaving it." the Saiyan stated, holding out a hand as she charged an energy blast. "Where's your cockpit hatch? I'm blasting you out of there."

"We can't leave her! She's an experimental prototype! It took my family three generations to get her to this point!" the pilot called out, clearly adamant about the whole thing. Rassica growled before Korla stepped in front of her. "I can probably help fix the stuff needed so they can at least get it out of here... If nothing else, after the battles done they can use it to help speed up reconstruction." she quickly offered, the Saiyan glaring at her shorter counterpart before sighing and nodding. The Broljin nodded before hurrying over to the mech and started to get to work with what tools and parts she had on hand.

Erbia gives a smirk as the oversized talking bird gave him the answers he wanted, the answers the two of them needed for this little contest to get started. They even admitted and confirmed that it was indeed Fukushu who was leading at least one of the factions wrecking Hatchi City. Him and his clan that he'd apparently started up. "That rings a vague bell... Bitterbones or something aye?" he asked, not really expecting an answer honestly.

At the end of the day, it just meant that the long wolf ganger who had insisted on trying to lay low on Earth, before then trying to blow up East City for whatever reason he had, was now finally figuring out that you needed a crew to work with. The Heran still needed to have a conversation with the bastard about that whole debacle though, cus it still didn't add up for him just yet as to how you go from trying to hide out on Earth to then trying to destroy one of its capital cities.

But that was a question for the future. Right now though he had an overgrown feather duster trying to smack him around. Erbia smirked as his body in an instant grew slightly larger, the muscle mass across his form becoming more defined, becoming a bit bulkier than he was normally.

As the wing coated in energy came towards him, he threw his own punch towards the avian menace, smirking as their attacks seemed to cancel one another out once more... although his had held just that extra bit of oomph to it now compared to their earlier clash that brought them here.

"Is that the best you got birdy? Or are we going to be saying bye bye all too soon if you somehow manage to make me start getting serious?" the Heran quipped, noting that he had yet to go full out... He wondered if the bird was similarly holding back as well, or if this was the extent of their abilities? He really hoped for the former, or this was going to get boring really fast. But then again, this was just the preliminaries of their fight after all... Who honestly starts a fight by going all out from the very start eh? 

---

MEANWHILE

Rassica grumbled as she tapped her boot against the cracked cobblestone of the Hatchi city floor, with the two mechanically minded midgets working on the mechas motors in the meantime. The Tuffle pilot had managed to get her machines cockpit hatch to finally open, with it being a whole series of sliding panels rather than just a singular hatch door.

For the sake of everyone involved, the Saiyan had agreed to keep a certain distance to keep a watch out for any rampaging Oozaru or other combatants, whilst the Tuffle and Broljin worked their mechanical magic on the damaged prototypes joints and gears.

She glanced over in the direction of the clashing powers she could sense coming from Erbia's direction, as well as keeping an eye on the rest of the signatures that were clashing and flaring all across the city. Every so often she had something else to occupy her time such as debris shrapnel flying in their direction which Rassica dealt with, but on the whole as ironic as it seemed they appeared to be in one of the few calm oasis of the conflict raging around the city.

Korla handed the Tuffle, a young purple haired woman named Iondu, a set of wrenches and blowtorches before using their respective scouters to act as screens from the bright light of the flames. "So, what makes this tin can so special that it took three generations to get working eh?" the Broljin asked, collecting a screwdriver from her belt and tightening and loosening certain bolts.

"Uilbheist is NOT a tin can!" the Tuffle declared, sounding very offended by the very notion of the whole thing. Korla held her hands up in surrender. Iondu sighed and shook her head. "Sorry... You didn't know any better..." she grumbled, taking a wrench and adjusting some components. "I can't get into the specifics right now, for obvious trust reasons... But suffice to say, if she were fully operational as intended, Uilbheist could take on the duties of defending Hatchi all by herself." the Tuffle stated with a cocksure grin on her face.

Both the Broljin and the Saiyan made non-committal grunts to that statement.

Well, they didn't hit the ground like Erbia had hoped but hey if everything always went the way you wanted in a fight... well then it wouldn't be quite as much fun! And it seems that his little taunt from earlier was working which meant that Bird Brain here had a bit of a confidence issue. Their power remained the same level though so... Still holding back or was this their peak form?

Well, at least Erbia could figure that the bird was definitely trying to go for it judging by the energy coming off this next attack! The talons this time were starting to glow, and damn were they lighting up like an Earthian Kris Mass Tree! The Heran gave off a grin as he worked on parrying the less significant attacks, some of them managing to get through and claw into his shirt but they were of no consequence to the Heran, his eyes never once leaving the birds own beady red own. Bodies can lie, they can give off feints, but the eyes? The eyes never lied... THERE!

The Heran quickly used his forearm to block the empowered talons, swinging away with his arm like an oversized club or shield of sorts even as he brought up his other arm to try and sock the bird in its jaw... mouth... beak, sock it in its beak! The cloth on his arm of course got torn up a little from the talons, but only revealed the links of metallic chain that lay beneath the fabric.

Similar chained links of metal could be seen underneath the Heran's shirt. "Nice try! But if a dragon couldn't get me to shut up, then I doubt an oversized feather duster's gonna cut it either!" Erbia crowed, laughing all the way as he proceeded to remove the torn cloth from his body. As he took up a proper fighting stance now, he held out a hand and made the universal hand gesture for 'bring it on' or alternatively 'come on then' depending on your part of the cosmos. The grin never once left his face, in fact it just seemed to be getting bigger.

---

MEANWHILE

"Okay, that should do it..." the white haired Broljin said, wiping off some sweat from her brow. The violet haired Tuffle nodded and scrambled over to her mechs cockpit, and began to press some buttons and adjust some levers. The mechs joints started to groan and gasp... before they started to move, breaking free of the debris around it in a burst of dust and shrapnel! Both of the mechanics gave a cheer of success, and even Rassica couldn't help but smirk at the pair of them for their result.

"Well done. Now if we're done playing repair pit stops, you need to get out of this city." the Saiyan ordered, the Tuffle looking at her incredulosly. "But-" she began to say before Korla hopped off the mech and nodded at Iondu. "Like you said, she ain't finished yet. Right now, all she can do is move around, and that's about it... Your families work ain't gonna do you or Hatchi any good if it's busted up any further eh?" Korla pointed out, the Tuffle giving a very obvious inflated pout at the unarguable situation she was in.

"Urgh, fiiiine... But only because I should help out with the survivors, not because you told me to!" Iondu said with a defiant nod towards Rassica, who responded quite maturely by simply flipping her the bird. The mech's cockpit hatch closed up and began to make its way out of the city as quickly as it could. Korla sighed as she sidled up to the Saiyan. "I liked her... think we can convince the captain to hire on another mechanic?" she asked, Rassica shooting her a look. "Riiight, he ain't the one I'd need to convince eh?" the Broljin chuckled.

"No. Now, if that's all the civilians dealt with... we should probably rendezvous with Erbia. Seems he's found himself a playmate..." the Saiyan woman said, nodding in the direction of the two clashing powers. "Yeah... let's see how bad it is before we jump in. You know how he gets when we interrupt his play time after all. Gets all cranky and not even a juice box calms him down." Korla chuckled, the Saiyan joining in with a snicker of her own before the two started to head off.

The Heran grin showed teeth now as the oversized black bird was decidedly getting more ticked off with every passing remark and jibe. He just loved it when an opponent started to get absolutely flustered. They started to make mistakes, focus on different things in the fight, and all in all just made it all the sweeter. Erbia held out his hand, firing off a series of blasts of his own to counter the birds own barrage of energy blasts. Things were really starting to get interesting now.

As the birds own power finally tripled in strength, the Heran let out a whooping noise and clapped his hands together once. "Finally! The warm ups are done... Let's get to the good part!" he roared in glee, his form slimming back down to its original state, but a rush of air escaping around him as the ground sundered and cracked with his own power rising to match his avian opponents own. If Erbia was forced to put a number on it, he'd probably find himself just about ten thousand or so points stronger than the talking bird was... But that just made it all the more interesting for him.

Facing off against someone of equal strength was a rare thing for the Heran. His opponents were usually either far weaker than himself lately, or obscenely powerful by comparison. But this... This was damned near equal. Hell, it practically was equal given the way the fights been going so far! And just think... a little bit longer in this fight, and he can maybe really go all out at his maximum power... Just the thought of that moment of possibility made Erbia chuckle and that chuckle grew into a boisterous laugh!

Rassica and Korla soon arrived on the scene, just as the Heran was laughing his head off. The two of them took one look at the scene before taking up posts just leaning against the nearby rubble. "Well, he's certainly enjoying himself then." the Broljin mused, reaching into her pack to pull out a white cylinder, lighting it and then taking it in her teeth for a moment.

The Saiyan rolled her eyes at her green skinned counterpart before taking a couple of steps away from her. "What? The smell of battlefield fire smoke, the discharge of energy blasts and all that other stuff is fine for you, but me enjoying a little cig is still the limit?" she asked, a faint trail of smoke leaving her lips.

Rassica just nodded, keeping an eye on the darkly glowing bird. Whilst she and Korla could maybe have helped out at the avian's base state, in its current form they were really just here in case the Captain decided he was done having fun... Which knowing Erbia was going to take a while.

The Heran glanced over as the rest of his crew arrived and gave them a brief nod of acknowledgement, before returning his focus to the talking black bird circling overhead. Both of them gave a sigh and shake of their heads as they got a good look of the manic grin plastered across Erbia's face. "He's really getting into this fight isn't he..." the Broljin said with a sigh, exhaling another puff of smoke.

The Saiyan nodded with a sigh of her own. "Aye... but he's going to be at a bit of a disadvantage for a moment or two..." she mused, nodding towards the stress marks present on the Heran's flesh if you knew what you were looking for. Erbia using that Max Power technique of his always has this drawback on his body, because once he comes out of it he has to slow down for a few moments before he can pick up speed again. The bird on the other hand can keep on gaining in power and speed if it manages to spot this...

Which it looks like it might just have with this next attack of its! Erbia's grin drops for a second as he curls his hand into a fist before he simply slaps the energised feather based attack into a nearby structure. The structure in question began to crack and crumble from the combined force of the redirected attack that had initially been thrown in his direction. "That really all you got Bird Brain?! Shooting feathers and glowing talons?!" he roared out, cracking his neck from side to side. 

The Broljin gave a little giggle at the situation. "Uh oh... He's starting to get pissed." she snickered, immediately taking cover as the Heran shot a ball of energy towards her, aiming intentionally to just skim past her. Korla immediately started crossing her arms in front of her like the letter X after the detonation sounded behind her. "Okay okay okay! Sheesh..." Rassica just rolled her eyes at her thieving counterpart, keeping her eyes on the avian combatant. For the moment it didn't consider either of them a threat... But that could change at any moment if it sought to gain an advantage against Erbia by involving them in some manner.

Birds very rarely flew solo after all...

Erbia grin returned in force as the bird made themselves even stronger. Seemed they could pull the same kind of stunt as the Heran could! Which meant that they might get on an equal footing sooner rather than later once again! He held out a hand in Rassica's direction, already sensing the attack that was coming before the Saiyan could shout out a warning. "I know... This is where the real fun begins!" he yelled out, laughter filling his words as he slammed his fist straight into the birds wing as they collided!

If the oversized bird was going to be giving this their all, then damn it all so was he! He put as much effort into his Star Rusher as he could muster, his body starting to get back into the groove and once more picking up momentum as the battle continued to unfold. As the Heran prepared to fire off a retort, the avian pulled off one more trick up its non-existent sleeves! Another pair of strikes soon collided into Erbia, the first one his Heran physiology managing to take off the worst of from... but then the second one came in full force and left him a little winded.

Korla pulled out her pistol and began to take aim at the bird as it came down towards the ground, but Rassica threw her hand in front of the barrel. "Not yet..." she ordered, her eyes never leaving the black birds form. The timing had to be perfect on this... And Erbia would probably kill the pair of them if he let them get in the way of this fight.

The Heran gave a slight cough as he got his breath back, spitting out a little blood before he looked on at the oversized black bird now that it was on the ground with him once more. "Not bad... That's more like it... Don't you agree eh?" Erbia asked, chuckling as he nodded at his opponent. "This thrill... of colliding powers... It doesn't come often. Never thought I'd feel it against an oversized crow from Earth though..." he chuckled, and there was no malice or mockery in his tone. Just pure and simple joy and pleasure from this whole thing. "Never did get your name Birdy..."

Rassica narrowed her gaze before slowly nodding. As much damage as Erbia had taken from that exchange of blows, he had managed to deal some damage to the avian menace as well. He'd even managed to force them out of their empowered form for the time being it seemed. When the raven corrected the Heran on calling them a crow, he couldn't help but chuckle. "Fair enough." he said, before hiking a thumb over in Korla's direction. "People keep thinking she's a Heran just cus we've both got green skin." Erbia chuckled, the Broljin in question just sighing and shrugging her shoulders.

When the bird asked why he wanted to know her name, no doubt to stall for time, the Heran just gave a snort of air from his nostrils. "Well you know mine, so figured only fair. And besides... gives me a name to look up for after this whole things done and we go our separate ways. Unless you want to join my crew afterwards of course." he explained, grabbing himself a nearby piece of cracked debris before propping it up like a chair. "I mean, what fun would there be in killing an opponent you're having an absolute blast with eh?" Erbia asked, gesturing towards both himself and Metabo.

Both Rassica and Korla sighed and started to make themselves get comfortable, with the Broljin offering the raven an apologetic look for what was going to come next.

"Sure, you get the taste of victory as you stand there with them dead and you alive... But afterwards? Well, it just becomes harder to find someone else on your level. Someone else to strive against..." the Heran mused, cracking his neck from side to side and rolling his shoulders. He hikes a thumb in the distant direction of the clashing powers that were far beyond either of them right now. "That lot... Sure, they're maybe a goal to reach numbers wise..." he said before he began to clench his hand into a tight fist. "But do they know why they seek or sought out their power?" Erbia asked, a little bit rhetorically.

His gaze turns back to the raven, this biological experiment of someone back on Earths. "It's clear you enjoy fighting, just as much as I do. We crave power, and we love to measure that power in the only real way anyone can. In battle." the Heran said, a grin still across his face. "But there's something even I've not been able to figure out yet. Do we fight in order to gain more power, or do we gain more power in order to fight?" he asked, partially wondering if maybe Metabo could provide an answer of her own to this conundrum.

Erbia looked behind them towards the raging battles across, above and under the city and sighed. "They seek out strength in order to accomplish some goal... To defend their home, or to enact vengeance, or to simply tear everything apart that stands in their way... Or maybe some other reason, who can say but them?" the Heran mused, dusting himself off and spitting out some blood. He returned his gaze towards the raven.

"That's why I asked for your name Semonine, or Metabo whichever you prefer..." Erbia explained, standing himself back up and kicking the makeshift rubble chair away into the distance, clearing the "arena" for the next stage of their battle. "Because after we're done here, I want to find you again and again and again, so we can test ourselves, so we can measure ourselves, and keep getting stronger and stronger, so we can keep on having the time of our lives!" he laughed, stretching his arms out wide as he did so. "Because don't try to deny it, you're enjoying this as much as I am... It's a part of you after all." he stated with a wolfish grin, pointing straight at the oversized raven. "It's a part of being alive."