Ally Testing

Allies. A word for those who you aren’t at war with currently. A word for those who can betray you on a whim. A word for those who you rely on covering your back. What is a good ally if they aren’t strong enough to stand with you. This was Lala's thoughts on it as she opened up the garganta in Hueco Mundo. She was going to see if this 'Monostat, Monusta, Mousta,' whatever it was called. Lala really didn't care what it was called. She just wanted to make sure it just wasn't a group of weaklings. Weaklings pissed her off.

Lala really didn't even know why Shadowfall had allies. All they do is get in the way of your attacks. It didn't matter really to her in the end it was Miss Ashlei's problem if she killed this groups leader. The garganta opened up in the ruins of Sydney, Australia. Lala looked around looking for Stefan. Lala didn't bother hiding her power hoping that he might notice the arrancar's spiritual pressure.

Very rarely did someone such as this go to battle with someone such as that. What is, exactly, the point in fighting beings so far beneath you? To hone your skills, perhaps? The fight would not last nearly long enough for you to get stronger. To gain some sort of fame or infamy? Defeating those weaker than you barely counts for much in that regard. How about to---No. There really isn't a good reason to do it, except perhaps for a single one: denying a challenge is just plain awful. And dishonorable. And kinda douchie, to be completely honest. And so on this day, Stefan Soan Head Commander of the Monsuta, had decided to fully accept the challenge of one of the New Espada of Shadowfall.

Having already discussed the time and place for this fight, the time being today and the place being Sydney, Australia, Stefan was already at the battlegrounds, simply meditating in the middle of one of the long-barren streets. Noticing his opponent coming near his current location, Stefan brought himself to his feet and stood up to his full six feet and three inches of stature. He had also come fully prepared for a fight, having the odachi Joe Sharp wrapped around his torso on his back, the katana Chirijiraden and Orochi hanging around his waist and tethered to his left hip, and his Zanpakutō Mugenku in katana form sheathed in it's scabbard on his right hip. He was prepared for a real fight.

"Skip the niceties, Arrancar. Show me your strength."

“Good. I hate wasting time.” Lala said. She really did hate wasting time. Most fighters liked to fight with low power to warm up, but it just pissed Lala off. She hated peoples warm up time since it just wasted her time. Hell she only fought at low power if an enemy caught her pissed off or pissed her off before she used her Resurrección. Only time she didn't res right away was if her opponent didn't even feel strong enough to waste it, though this guy was different. She could feel he was stronger then most though she wasn't going to back off. She just reached down grabbing her sword. Her large metal hand grasping almost half way up the blade as she drew it. She held it in front of her and spoke.

“Burn, Arrebato.” Her voice had a cold burning sound to it. Almost as if while saying it she was pissed off at Stefan. The sword then broke up in her hand as her shadow extended out far beyond her as if something was casting it behind the human sized arrancar. Then as if the rest her had rose out of the ground without a hole she started to grow. Her human features vanishing leaving behind cold metal. Armor plates growing over her forearms as a large gold vent pushed out of her chest. Silver trip tracing over her lower chest and waist. Her hips flared out forming a black skirt. Her feet appearing to become large metal and black. Her goggles swelling out into large gray pistons and expanding out to from her crown like ridges of a forhead.

Steam let out as her change finished. She also wouldn't give Stefan a chance to strike first as the right arm piston pulsed back and she punched aiming her fist to take off Stefan's head. As her fist surged forward the piston shot back in erupting in a instant cero. Her piston charging took half the charge time without the odvious signs of a cero giving a smaller room to dodge. Meanwhile her left piston pushed out slower.

Post 1

Stefan watched the transformation of the female Arrancar anxiously, excitedly waiting for his opponent to show him just what exactly she was capable of. The Monsuta Head Commander was in the mood for a good fight, so hopefully she would be able to give him one. If not, he'd just destroy her. Stefan really didn't care about what happened to the Espada as they didn't serve directly under him, and as such meant nothing to him. This also means he would be less willing to hold back in a fight with her, and as such would try his darndest to crush her and humiliate the pathetic Espada at the same time.

When the fist of the gigantic Espada neared Stefan, he didn't seem to make a move at all, instead simply standing still as he waited for his opponent to try to attack him. Despite the increased speed of the punch from the Cero, Lala still appeared to be moving in slow motion to Stefan, his perception of speed being so incredible she seemed to be moving at a snails pace to him. When the fist came into range, Stefan simply raised his right hand, having his finger tips pointed towards the sky and his palm facing the Arrancar. When the fist made contact, the pressure from the blow caused a large amount of cement was crushed and Stefan's position sank a foot or two....however, he seemed completely undamaged. He was still standing still in that same position as though nothing had happened, but his head was down and his face was looking towards the ground.

"Is this all the Espada are....capable of?"

Directly after uttering these words, Stefan squeezed the part of Lala's fist he had caught, closing his fist as much as possible on her fist, and using his absolutely unreal physical power, actually began to lift her enormous body right off of the ground, turned his body to the left slightly, and launched Lala through the air, sending her flying towards a rather large stone building with such power and speed that attempting to cushion her landing would be nigh-improbable. This was a simple feat of his strength, something someone like Lala might not be able to comprehend, for he was just a man. Stefan simply glared at the position his opponent now lay in, scoffing at how easily he had overpowered her, despite her being in Ressureccion and being an Espada.

"IS THAT ALL YOU ARE CAPABLE OF?! I WONT EVEN HAVE TO USE MY SWORDS AT THIS RATE!!"

Post 2

The building collapsed as Lala was thrown into it. Her large size and huge weight causing the building to break dropping to the ground. Lala then got up slowly turning to Stefan. It was to be expected this level of physical strength. He was the leader of this organization. It didn't surprise Lala. Well nothing surprised Lala in this form. Her mind being majority machine. She didn't feel any emotions. This was going to be a tough fight for her. She couldn't hold back any. She took a few steps going over the buildings ruins. She then raised her fist up aiming at the shinigami.

The armor on her right arm split open into four sections spreading out from the arm a bit. Steam releasing out to reveal the machinery underneath and the gatling style arm that was hidden under her armor. Her right hand begun spinning as the gatling gun spun the opposite direction. The machinery gained speed until it started shooting energy out at high speed. If one payed attention the the arm while it was shooting instead of dodging. You would see energy building up around the gatling barrels till close to 20 shots were fired. Her arm would follow the shinigami shooting constantly. As the last few energy shots were launched a circle of the built up energy would fire off resulting in a cero like explosion. All 20 shots and energy ring equaled out to one of her regular ceros but the higher multiple of shots made it harder to dodge. Her face was emotionless as her right arm let off these shots. The shots and rings continued endlessly without delay between each others till she had fired out 18 sets of these.

He wanted to see her best so she would show it. While Lala was emotionless most seeing this kind of fire power would hope they didn't live to regret the decision.

"Simpleton Arrancar."

The Monsuta King who stood before the absolutely gigantic Espada, who was now in her Ressureccion form, stood unwavering despite the massive size difference. He had nothing to fear, after all he was the Monsuta King, the Beast of a Thousand Blades. What could possibly frighten a man that had been through so many battles, so many wars, so many lifetimes? At this point, even Stefan himself was unsure what the answer to that question was. One thing he did know for sure was that Arrancar sure like to be flashy, especially with their Ressureccion. This one even had a........giant Gatling gun?! Suddenly Stefan's eyes turned into unrealistically large golden stars! What was the cause of this?!

"Is that.......A GATLING GUN?! SO COOOOOOOL!! JOIN THE MONSUTA, ROBO-LADY!!"

This hapless warrior could do nothing but stare in awe at his opponent, as he was a pretty simple minded individual and things like Gatling guns were just plain amazing to him. However, this didn't mean he would just allow him to be shot and hit by a bunch of energy bullets and Cero. No, he had an easy solution to that predicament. Stefan raised his right hand up to eye level, his fingertips pointing towards the shining sun up above and his palm facing Lala's titanic body. As he did this black smoke-like, yet oddly liquid-like, energy seems to erupt from the very palm of his hand and then moved to cover his fingers as well, coating his raised hand in what is known to Stefan as 'Void Smoke'.

"Consume......!!"

As the volley up volley of energy attacks, bullets, and Cero reached Stefan's location, they were all sucked straight into the palm of his raised hand and seemed to completely vanish within the small amount of pitch-black energy covering his hand. Despite the sheer amount and power of the attacks coming from Lala the Arrancar, nothing could be done to prevent them from being completely consumed by the Vizard's mysterious black smoke. This was the power of Stefan's Void Smoke, the power to consume all and turn it to absolute nothingness.

When the energy attacks from Lala Vega finally ceased, Stefan lowered his hand back down to his waist and faced his opponent head on. Though the strange black smoke was no longer on his hand, his feet seemed to be gushing the stuff out like hoses and water. It immediately spread out from Stefan's location as well, covering the earth, road, and everything on the surface of the ground in the immediate vicinity. Everything, everything was being covered in this thick black smaug, including entire nearby buildings. Within just a couple of seconds, about thirteen city blocks worth of buildings, cars, trucks, playgrounds, everything imaginable was covered in it. Even the ground beneath Lala's feet would be covered as well.

"Consume."

After that single word had passed Stefan's lips, things began happening suddenly and quickly. Buildings beneath the vastly spread out black void smoke seemed to begin to be eaten away, entire skyscrapers being reduced to nothing beneath the black cloud in mere moments. Within the timespan of a minute, every single thing in the area had been eaten away and consumed by the black smoke, which had by this time returned back to Stefan's body, leaving an empty wasteland where a sprawling, though rundown, metropolis had been just moments before. There was no trace of anything that had been there just recently; hell, even the ground had been partially consumed as the effected area was about three feet lower than the rest of the city surrounding the area.

"Wanna see a neat trick? GAHAHAHAHAHA! LIBERATION....!!"

Before Lala would even be able to notice, Stefan's entire body was covered in the black void smoke that had previously consumed a large portion of an entire city. However instead of consuming, suddenly gigantic pieces of stone, steel, chunks of earth and dirt and rocks, even entire skyscrapers-worth of rubble began flying out of Stefan's entire body, all aimed at Lala Vega, though a good portion of what came out was sent in random directions because Stefan figured more destruction would mean more fun. Everything that had been consumed and eaten by the void just moments ago was all being sent straight towards Lala the Espada, entire city blocks worth of buildings, cement, entire cars and trucks all flying towards the Arrancar at rather frightening speeds. When cars and other vehicles impacted into Lala and the surroundings, they exploded into large fiery infernos. The sheer amount of damage that could accumulate on Lala would be rather tremendous indeed.

Gahahahahahaha! Come on, show me more Espada-san!!"

Post 3

'Ineffective.' Rang though her robotic mind as her gatling attacks were vanishing into the black. 'Calculating.' If one could see her vision they would see readouts live data collected by everything around her. Anything she would need to fight. Right now her focus was gathering information on this black smoke. 'Absorbing 100% of attack, 0% dealing damage, 0% waste. Conclusion black hole.' With that information in her head the shots stopped. After a few seconds for her hand and gatling to stop firing they closed back up.

The black smoke then started going down over the ground. Seeing this Lala figured what would be happening. I would absorb more. With a bit of dust bursting around her feet, Lala lifted up off the ground using her spiritual pressure to lift her giant metal form above the black smoke. Her eyes studying it for more info. She watched it dissolve everything around them leaving a empty wasteland. This was good. It provided more room for her to move without running into buildings. Though this improvement was at a cost. The black smoke retreated to Stefan's form as it gathered for an attack. 'Activating defensive measures.' Was spoken in her mind as she watched the material launch out. In her vision targets hundreds of them targeted all the material that would hit her then it would narrow down the targets calculating the best use of her next move.

The panels on her upper waist and lower chest would open to show thirty-two holes smoke would cover her front as five missiles would come flying out. Such a small number would make most wonder as they moved into position. They would then open up letting lose five smaller rocket-propelled silver containers. These smaller missiles would collide in a specific pattern smashing into the wall of material striking explosive bits as well as large chunks. Stefan would see explosions in his wall of material exposing Lala to his vision once again. She had used her missile targeting to blow a hole for her through the flying material letting the rest fly by. It was ineffective to destroy it all. Small remaining bits would give a tink off her metallic hierro. A few sparks as some metal bits tried to scratch it, though overall no damage done. If this large hollow could express emotion Stefan would see a smile come on her face almost taunting him, though emotion was ineffective. She was a weapon. A siege machine for Miss Ashlei.

As if to show Stefan what had destroyed the section of wall, her own smoke would cover Lala's form. This smoke however was gray, a true smoke color, as the rest of her salvos were emptied. The other twenty-seven missiles firing hiding Lala in a cloud of smoke. They would race towards Stefan. About half way there five missiles opened up separating into twenty-five of the rocket-propelled canisters. These however were more tightly pact not programed to cover a large area but instead cover Stefan's body. The other twenty-two full missiles using the other five that had released as distraction would race past and around the shinigami. They would then, as they passed him, release their five each, though these instead of firing forwards would actually fire backwards pelting the shinigami's back. These missiles unlike normal missiles weren't dumb and explode on each other. They would fly past one another before tracing back on Stefan's form if he happened to dodge.

"ARE THOSE MISSILES?! HOW AWESOME CAN YOU GET?!"

Yet again, Stefan was completely dumbstruck and in awe of Lala Vega's gigantic robotic body, as well as her various weapons. This time he was particularly amazed by her missiles, which were traveling towards him to.....kill him. Too bad he didn't care. The missiles, however, needed to be dealt with and as much as Stefan knew he would regret it, took to action to take them out of the equation. He wouldn't be known as the man who was killed by an Espada's missiles.....if only Lala was in the Monsuta. Too bad.

When all of the missiles got close enough to Stefan to the point where they could blow at any minute, he disappeared, only to reappear a couple dozen feet ahead of his previous location. However, he was now performing the action of pushing a sword all the way into it's scabbard upon his left hip, it's blade already mostly inside of it. Why was he doing this, you might be wondering? Why wasn't he taking his weapon out instead of just putting it away? Was he just a fool, or had something else somehow happened? Well, here's exactly what happened in that instant.

You see, even though he had only been fighting with his fists thus far, Stefan was actually a swordsman, and a very skilled one at that. In the timespan it would take to blink an eye, Stefan had performed an absolutely incredible action: he had, near instantly, sliced straight through every single missile that had been heading towards him with only a single sword. He had done so quickly, that they didn't even immediately explode, and instead simply stopped dead in their tracks. However, less than a second after Stefan had reappeared a dozen years away, all of the missiles exploded simultaneously, erupting into a single, massive inferno, though Stefan was safely a ways away. Or, at least, that's what would have happened if something else hadn't taken place as well.

You see, Stefan's blade had been covered in his Void Smoke, which was promptly transferred to the missiles he had cut through, and as such had reacted in a certain way. These missiles were nigh-instantly transported into the 'slate' area of Stefan's Inner Void, keeping them safe from the absolute crushing of the rest of the strange dimension. A large circle of Void Smoke then appeared directly below Lala, which happened so quickly she wouldn't really have time to react.

After doing so, Stefan gazed at his opponent with a great big smile plastered across his face. As soon as this smile revealed itself, the combined explosive power of every single missile Lala had previously launched at her opponent erupted beneath her very feet, destroying everything in the area, including rubble, as well as most likely causing severe damage to Lala's gigantic body, especially considering how many missiles she had launched at Stefan. Despite the sheer size and power of the explosion, Stefan was far enough away so only his clothed flapped behind him due to the strong winds being generated from such a powerful blast, the rest of his body unmoving and unwavering.

"I believe that's what they call 'Having a taste of your own medicine'."

Post 4

The missiles worked or at least it appeared to. They headed straight for the Monsuta leader before he vanished. The missiles curved to go to his new location before they suddenly were split. Then they all vanished. Lala knew something was wrong. This was similar to that previous move he did with sucking up all the debris. Distance was the only protection. Distance would add time to see what would happen and calculate the best counter. She had to back off quickly.

Suddenly out of the back of the skirted hips smoke came off as a spike launched off her. Looking close it was still attached with a chain as it flew back with impressive speed slamming into the ground, imbedding itself. Lala's gigantic body suddenly began to move back as she reeled in the chain. It moved back with a good bit of speed faster then one would suspect of a body this size. Though it wasn't enough. Lala detected the energy from her missiles below her and folded her arms to cover her waist and up as she moved back.

The explosion went off blowing up everything around. It filled the area around her in the fires that normally surrounded her enemies. She heard a snap as the chain went limp and her body jerked to a stop. The fire cleared leaving smoke obscuring her form. Damage to her was undetermined, unseen, but could be felt by her opponent. In her mind her systems ran insanely fast diagnostics to determine the full extent of her damage. According to the files they had on him, she had time to do this. He wouldn't strike quickly while she was obscured by the smoke. She couldn't read his mind but her robotic intelligence did analyze what he might do in the given situation based on their files on him.

Stefan would be able to feel the missiles did do damage. Not as much as would be expected. Wether he knew it or not those large shields on her arm absorbed and deflected a lot of the force of the blast. While it still did damage it wasn't as much as it would have been against another without her large shields. Though in Lala's mind she just found out the extent of her damaged body. Her left piston still contained the full charge and kept charging. Waiting for the right time. Though she was out of missiles. She was down one chain hook. 'Analyze complete. Assessment: Draw him in. Must use melee capability.'

The dust cleared as Lala's eyes glowed red as if the giant robot was just turning on once again. She was ready. “Our files say you are master of blades. A melee combatant. Yet you rely on only ranged capability. Only using your void.”

Spoke without emotion but in a human you would see a smirk. “I must inquire. Do you suspect you are not capable of damaging me in close proximity.”

"Is this really all you're capable of?! I was expecting more of a challenge, Espada! If I had known you were this shitty, I wouldn't have agreed to this fight! What a waste of my fucking time."

Stefan finally reached his right hand to his left hip, placing it on the hilt of the weapon situated on his hip. From within the sheathe, Stefan drew forth a sword with a magnificent blade, his Zanpakutō. This blade glinted in the sunlight, though despite its beauty, something was off. Lala Vega would be able to sense an absolutely immense amount of both power as well as terrifying killing intent emanating from the weapon, which would very likely instill fear in the Monsuta King's opponent. She would also be able to tell that by drawing his weapon, her enemy was preparing to end things right here, right now. The ending of this fight was clear, and so was the victor.

Stefan Soan raised his weapon above his head, its sharp tip pointing up skyward, its deadly edge facing the Shadow Espada standing before him. In an instant, the blade's position moved. As a matter of fact, it moved far too quickly for someone of Lala's caliber to see, even with the advanced technology covering her entire body. However, she would notice the sheer amount of immeasurable physical force placed behind the swing, especially because she was caught up in it. The terrifyingly powerful swing sent forth a monstrously large wave of pressure that extended from the ground, to far above Lala's head. Everything in its path was instantly destroyed and torn apart, and it moved extremely quickly as well. The entire thing would quickly come to consume the Arrancar, and if she attempted to block it, her shields would be torn straight through, and her body would still be severely damaged, as not even her metallic body would be anywhere near enough to block or defend from this blow. If she attempted to block it with energy, the energy would be split in half extremely quickly as well. It was over.

Stefan placed this Zanpakutō back into its sheathe, and turned around, beginning to walk away from his opponent. "You should count your lucky stars I even showed my sword to a sorry piece of shit like you. Before you try and fight me again, get stronger. I want a REAL fucking fight next time, not this sorry excuse for a skirmish."