Description: Ace Detective Daniel 'Jack' Little of Interpol returns back to his hotel room after his deadly encounter with the fierce ninja gorilla Noboru. Little does he know that, waiting for him, is his rival Zach Glenn. The ex-marine has a message for the detective, and it is none too good. Will Daniel Jack be able to handle this uninvited guest? Or will he find himself in... Trouble At Motel 666!? (The cover shows an elegant and high-class hotel room, filled with a kitchen, a giant foyer, and of course a queen sized bed. Standing by the bed, however, is Zach Glenn, dressed in the uniform of the US Marines. The man is enraged, and the brutish Zach Glenn is in midpunch. His fist is squarely on the lantern-jawed, topless and musclebound Daniel Jack, spittle and blood bursting from his face as the blow lands. Lying on the bed is Honoka in a strapless red gown, writhing and shutting her eyes tight as she clutches a bottle of whiskey in her hand.) (45 cents)
Well, Daniel Jack had a tough night.
The detective was in the elevator to his hotel, right in the Southtown Village. With the Todoh-Ryuu Dojo in the area, Daniel Jack could get better rates from the locals over 'favors' in the past. Besides, it was closer to where he needed to investigate. A string of bodies, right here in Japan. He thought it was a monster. Instead, he ended up meeting the mysterious ninja Noboru. Who nearly beat his ass into an early grave. But was not behind the bodies, and warned him... warned him about the King of Fighters?
What the hell was going on.
The still bruised Daniel Jack emerges from the elevator, limping towards his room. Groaning a bit, he just keeps focused on the room. He needed to sleep. He just needed... just needed to rest. He didn't want any more drama tonight. He didn't want any more trouble. He approaches his hotel door, holding the key. And deftly, he inserts it into the lock.
What could make today any worse.
One man, possibly.
Zach Glenn, after receiving his King of Fighters invitation, had basically spent the day alternating between pounding asprin and pounding alcohol. The memories that were his and yet not his, came back in force when he had opened the envelope. After the hangover, the psion cleaned himself up and started making arrangements. Having gotten a team together, Zach needed to reach out to one more person. The man needed to know some things. Torchlight, thanks to contacts at Interpol, gave Zach an address.
"Agent Little," the psion calls out, seeing Daniel about to head into his room. "Could I have moment of your time, please?"
Zach is wearing a long coat over a business suit, empty hands at his sides. No apparent aggression about the young man, just an honest request.
Oh, this wasn't worse at all.
The moment he hears the words, Daniel perks up. "Zach!?" He blurts out, turning over to the man. "Ah! Zach! What the hell are you doing here? Hot damn, scuzzy." The detective states firmly, a smile coming over his face. The man's pain was gone. Yeah he had bad blood before but that's under the water. Daniel Jack opens the door. "Come in, come in man! You got time? We can split a bottle, hot damn." He motions for Zach to come in.
"What is new with you, man?"
Zach waves once, grinning faintly. "No," he answers when the bottle is offered. "Too much of that too recently." Zach reaches inside his coat, pulling out an envelope with a broken wax seal. Daniel will recognize the King of Fighters invitation. "I'm guessing you got one of these?"
King of Fighters.
Daniel Jack gets a strange look on his face. Not shock, not anger, not fear. Just... curiousity. He leads Zach into the tiny hotel room. There wasn't even a proper desk, just a bed. He invites Zach to take a seat on the bed, in fact. "You got an invite? Not surprised; you are a world belt holder right? Champion Red or Blue or something. I actually didn't get a proper invite; I'm on a team though. Team Interpol." Daniel Jack says with flourish, as he takes a bottle of cheap whiskey on a night stand, and pops the top.
"Just finished up registration for it too."
Taking a swig from the bottle, he turns back to Zach. "How about you? You gonna do a monster hunter team? Or maybe a bunch of ex-marines. I heard Guile is planning something. Just..." He grimaces on the corner of his mouth. "Just tell me you aren't teaming up with Honoka, right? Because I still think that girl is trouble for you." He pauses a moment, taking another swig.
"Now you did slow things down with her, right?"
Zach frowns faintly. "This kind of goes back to that thing we talked about during that interview," Zach says, not answering the question directly. "That other Zach... he was in a King of Fighters as well." Zach heaves a sigh. "It's how I know that this tournament. It's more than just a tournament. There's going to be something else, moving behind the scenes."
Zach scratches the back of his neck. "I just wanted to put you on your guard about it, is all. The last one I remember, world nearly ended. People like me were hunted down because of our talents. People died, and not all of them had it coming." Zach takes a deep breath, eyes the bottle, then shakes his head.
"It's not going to be obvious to most, but you were going to figure it out pretty quickly," Zach pushes forward. "Zach Glenn is not entering the tournament. Instead, Honoka Kawamoto is entering a Twilight Star Circus team. Two of the members are regular performers for the circus. One of them is going to be an as-yet-unnamed new performer." Zach pauses for a breath.
"I'm going to come at this from the fairly obvious angle. Someone with some actual ability to dig up facts needs to come at this from another direction." Zach pauses. "You were the first person I thought of."
Daniel Jack stops his swigging, to listen carefully.
The interview. The past. The alternate timeline. Daniel Jack sits on the bed with Zach. And when Zach explains... Daniel suddenly knows. He suddenly recognizes. He suddenly connects. All he can do is nod at this point, by the time he gets to the end. He was with Honoka, but that seemed so unimportant right now. Zach was saying that there was a good reason to believe something sinister was behind this tournament.
And Daniel believed him.
"Zach." The detective says flatly. "I just got a lamppost smashed into me by a ninja named Noboru. We're all cool now though. Sorta. God damn ninjas. But he told me that he wanted to call me up down here... because he is investigating the King of Fighters tournament too." The detective fixes his gaze hard on Zach. "So uh, yeah. Between him, and you? I am pretty sure SOMETHING the hell is gonna happen. Like, in this previous timeline, just so I know any details you know..."
"What happened, in detail?"
"Noboru, huh?" Zach says. "Blonde ninja? Built like a freaking gorilla? He was there. Near when the memories stop." Zach shakes his head. "Off topic. To answer your question, there was more than one King of Fighters event. I... he was only involved in one."
Zach takes another deep breath. "The one I can tell you about, though, there was a group of people trying to resurrect... or maybe awaken some ancient has-been god called the Orochi. They were planning to basically wipe out humanity so that the earth could heal itself." Zach fumbles for a bit.
"Okay, you know the difference between the energy I use and the energy you use, right?
"
"That's the dude."
As Zach mentions the details that he... remembered him, the detective just nods firmly. Daniel Jack could see -something- that's for sure. Orochi. Wipe out reality. It sounded like there was more than just Zach that had memories of the last time line. And Noboru... Noboru might know more things. As Zach asks the detective a question back, the detective purses his lips, and nods firmly.
"Kiiiinda?"
"Like, okay it is more tactile than informed." Daniel admitted. "Whatever you do, and what other people do with their psionic energy crap, hits my nervous system instead of my aura. That part I recognize, -hard-. With other people doing ki stuff, you just throw ki right back, and either blast it back, or let it flow past. But with the psi stuff you pull? Throwing energy back doesn't -work- and you just have to tank it out with your nervous system." The detective nods firmly at that assessment. "I hate your energy, by the way. Really is a dick to fight against. But like, you don't... really use your aura much either." The detective tilts his head.
"Why is that, anyways?"
"Because we use our will," Zach responds. "The power you use, it exists in everything that lives. Everything that breathes. The power I use can be found in any living thing that also thinks and feels. You can still use ki blasts to cancel out blasts of psychic energy. The reverse also works. Anyway, people who can touch those energies tend to be predisposed to one and can't really use the other. Part of it, I think, has to do with the sheer amount of work it takes to reliably access that power. How long did it take you before you could toss around Kasane Ates? I'm betting it took years of training, and your first few were probably not all that spectacular."
"It's /kind/ of the same with psychics," Zach continues, falling back on lessons learned over two lifetimes, "Except we don't train to touch the power. The talent usually kicks in right around puberty, and then we spend time bringing it under usuable control."
Zach talks and... Daniel understands.
"Okay, okay, I think I understand then." The detective states, nodding his head. Putting the bottle on the nightstand, he uses his hands to try and... gesture the understanding. "I started building my aura first, and THEN getting the energy out. With you psionics, you have to get your power under control, so you have to go ahead and get your nervous system or something in check in order to focus. Internal training as much as external training. Okay, I dig that. But uh..." Daniel Jack pauses a moment. "Sorry for that detour."
"But where were you going with that?"
"The people behind the events. They viewed people like me as abominations. Something that should not exist." Zach says, and then takes a deep breath. "There was an organized campaign to wipe out or otherwise... invalidate any psychics they could." Zach shakes his head. "It didn't quite go that way. The plot was stopped, the world was saved and at peace for a time." Zach scowls and stands up.
"Anyway, I just wanted to let you know to keep your eyes open," Zach says. "I can't say for sure how it'll play out, just that I have more than a hunch that it /will/."
"Alright, alright, it is starting to sound like we need to coordinate."
Daniel Jack takes an air of control and command. "We know that Noboru is in the know. We know that you are in the know. And we know that I am in the know. We have to be careful how we coordinate while the tournament is underway, so we don't get banned for collaborating or something. And I don't know how to contact Noboru. Okay, but I know how to contact you. LIke, can you use an alias and warn me? I can use an alias. I'll make something up, but you'll know it is me." Daniel Jack goes back to the bottle, and takes a swig. Groaning, he takes another, before talking again.
"God dammit, I really hope this isn't worse than what went down at RUMBLE."
Zach hands Daniel Little a card. Zach's card, actually, with Torchlight Securities. "Goes right to a voicemail box. Caller ID on the phone will let me know who it is." Zach frowns. "You take care of yourself, Agent Little. People are depending on us."
With that said, Zach leaves the hotel room and heads out onto the street.
Daniel Jack takes the card, and inspects it.
"Huh. Voicemail box. I'll be sure to leave a message, scuzzy." Funny how only a few months ago, they were willing to tear each other apart. Maybe that was telling about the characters of both men. "You stay safe, though, you dig?" He states, escorting Zach to the door. "Ninjas are out. Plus murderers. I don't like.. I am worried that the Yakuza is making a storm again." And with that, Zach was gone. The detective returns to his bed, and sits on the foot of it, where Zach was sitting. Bouncing a bit, he sighs, reaching for the bottle again.
"God damn ninjas."
Log created on 12:37:45 05/20/2016 by AY4M3, and last modified on 22:40:13 05/21/2016.