Match of the Millennium

Description: Lita Luwanda has questions. Zach Glenn possibly has answers.

[LITA]
After her meeting with the Interpol chief in Europe, Lita Luwanda had some things to take care of for both Delta Red and Interpol. The foremost was interviewing a few people of interest in relationship to the Mortal Kombat tournament on Shang Tsung's Island. The findings would determine whether or not Delta Red would pull their support from the Interpol headed International Taskforce.

She started with whom she suspected would be the easiest to speak with from a personality perspective as well as ability to find. Zach Glenn.

After a few days of gathering data, she was able to request a meeting. When she gets dropped off by the cab driver, she approaches the building and rings the bell. Only thing left for the Lieutenant to do now is wait.

[ZACH GLENN]
Zach is, judging from the speed at which the front doors are opened, there to meet Lita at the front gates. He's wearing loose fitting clothing that might remind her of a soldier in a professional fighting event in their cut. He's tense until she steps out of the car where he can get a look at her. Then he relaxes visibly.

A smile quickly graces his face as he waves.

"Lieutenant," he says, prounouncing it more like "Left-tenant." He holds the front gate open, waving her in. "It's..." he pauses for a moment, trying to phrase the sentiment. "It's good to see you got off of that island." He frowns, his voice going softer. "I... saw the statue."

[LITA]
While she appreciates the intended sentiment, she finds it an unpleasant reminder of her less than ideal circumstances of being dead. She already had enough of that when she went into gory detail with the Interpol chief of how she died and brought her skeletal hand with her.

She nods and smiles but in light of the reminder of her death and the questions she'll have to ask soon, the smile of her seems forced as does quip she says next.

"I got better."

She then looks at Glenn once more as she says, "Thank you for letting me speak with you."

[ZACH GLENN]
"I can relate to that," he says with more than a little conviction. He leads Lita across a courtyard. Something goes *DONK!* in the background as Zach brings her to the house, opening another set of doors. The decor is fairly authentic, with very subtle nods to Zach's own heritage placed carefully around the house.

Eventually, the pair ends up in a large, open room with a lot of couches, large monitors, and a bar against one wall. It is incredibly well-stocked. Zach heads over to it, and pulls down a bottle of brandy. He pulls out a glass. "Can I get you something to drink?"

[LITA]
The Lieutenant's eyes wander about as Zach leads her about the dwelling until it eventually it leads to the open room. She eyes the bar for a moment and that's when she hears the host offer her a drink.

"I would say beer but I haven't found a decent beer at any time during my trips to Japan. I'll have water instead."

Lita moves to one of the stools and sits down while she mentally organizes the questions she's going to ask.

"I had been bought back near the end of the tournament so it allowed me to gather some information on the things I had missed while I was..."

She lets the rest of that sentence die. They both know what she meant.

[ZACH GLENN]
"To be fair," Zach says as he gets a tumbler, adding ice and water to it before pouring himself a little brandy on some ice, "I've noticed that the Brits and the Americans have very different opinions on the topic of beer, which are totally different from those of the Japanese." He smiles a bit when he says that, showing no intent to offend.

He slides the water to Lita before taking a sip of his own drink. He frowns quietly, staring at his own tumbler for a second.

"Is this about Little?" he asks quietly.

[LITA]
Lita takes a sip of her water as Zach asks that question. Of course, he'd ask that. It was pretty obvious what the topic would be. She still wanted to delay it because part of her was afraid of what she would find out. She's quiet as she finishes her sip and places the glass down.

"I figured it would be obvious. But yes. It's about Little."

First there's a deep breath and then she takes another sip of her water. She stares at the glass of water for a moment and then she speaks again.

"After my return to the fighters' quarters, I started asking around about what I missed. There was hearsay about Daniel's behavior changing. And how he had been stalking people. But I had also heard that you had interacted with Agent Little around this time and I was hoping you would give better picture as to whether Little has gone rogue."

[ZACH GLENN]
Zach winces, and takes another sip of the brandy. He looks away for a moment. He runs a hand back over pale white locks as he considers things for a moment.

"I'm going to be annoying for a moment, and answer your question with some questions of my own," he finally says. "Were you aware of Little's stance on beings referred to as Darkstalkers?"

[LITA]
The Brit sees the wince and is happy to let the ex-military man consider things for a moment before he speaks. When he does she raises an eyebrow.

"When we had discussed it, it was that Darkstalker should be able to live amongst human kind and that they should be subject to similar laws since they think like humans and feel like human what have you. It is a viewpoint that I agree with."

She looks at Glenn. She's trying to figure out where he's leading with that particular question.

[ZACH GLENN]
Zach sips again, listening. He nods once before setting his tumbler down.

"It's... a nice idea," he says in a tone that would suggest agreement. "It might even work some day. I take it you're aware of what it is I nominally do these days?"

[LITA]
Lita raises an eyebrow when she receives that question and once more wonders where Zach heading with that line of question. At first, she's silent as she thinks about the first time the two met when helping her process what had mentally happened to her during her fight with MURDERHOUSE. She then realizes that he never told her.

"Actually he didn't mention it. He just told me you were an associate who had knowledge of things in relation to my particular problem."

A single brow is once more raised as she studies the white haired individual in front of her.

[ZACH GLENN]
Zach makes a quiet "ah" sound, then sips the brandy again. And then he takes another sip. "My family," he finally says, "Has a tradition of community service. Has for literally hundreds of years. Back in the old days, we had terms for the jobs that we did. People like you and me, who use strength of arms to protect people or put themselves in harm's way were..." Zach frowns. "The term translates more or less to 'shield.' We protect, we defend. However, there are people who even a lot of martial artists can't do much about. You and I can still be put down through most mortal methods. We can still be poisoned, still be shot at long range with sniper rifles, that kind of thing. Darkstalkers are... in addition to being very different forms of humanity, much more difficult to contain if they get up to trouble."

Zach reaches under the bar and leans a sheathed claymore against his side of the bar. The weapon does not seem like much, visibly, other than the pure white hilt of the weapon. But contemplating the weapon further gives one a sense of... presence around the sword. As if it is more than just that. "In most generations, though," he says after making sure the weapon will not fall over again, "There is one person who is called The Sword." He nods towards the weapon. "The title comes with that sword right there, and with a job. To combat things the things that go bump in the night."

He takes another sip. "Some Darkstalkers are willing to obey laws, not hurt other people, and generally get along with their neighbors." He nods towards the sword again. "In the cases of the ones that /don't/? I get called in, and usually not before people are dead or worse."

[LITA]
Did Lita know this before hand? No. Is she surprised? Not in the least. However there's a moment of pause after Zach stops speaking. It's at that point that she lets the words roll around in her head.

"Essentially the same function as the task force that Major Nash had been trying to achieve, I guess which would be for modern times."

She glances at the claymore before she looks up and nods to the man that she's speaking with.

Her tone seems to come from a place of agreement as she says, "Fair enough. Also I would imagine that our penal systems would have to adjust to deal with creatures, with strength, durability, and lifespans beyond a mortal being's. So at the moment putting those down who don't may be our only option until the prison systems and judicial systems can catch up."

[ZACH GLENN]
"Little would disagree with you on that," Zach says carefully. "He's..." He thinks about how to word it. "He's never been a soldier, and thinking like a cop. Major Nash's program would probably run up against some of the things I get called in to deal with but he'd also, I hope, have something like legality to back him up on the matter. That unit would also deal with some of the stronger martial artists, the ones that could throw down on a military force without too much trouble." Zach takes another sip.

"Interpol policy dictates that there is no such thing as Darkstalkers. Incidents that involve them go down in the books as acts of terrorism." He shrugs, sneering a bit. "Like Metro City."

[LITA]
"Would and have. It was a point of contention even during Mortal Kombat. I looked at it as war because for all intents and purposes, Mortal Kombat was a war."

Lita brushes the blonde bangs out of her eyes as she raises her glass of water to her lips to take another sip she's thoughtful.

"Something I came face to face with not too long ago. When I was brought back, my original body was so far gone that new body had to be created. I brought back my skeletal hand because I knew that they wouldn't believe me without some proof. I chopped the bone and marrow and drew my own blood right in front of him because he didn't believe that the tests that Delta Red ran were legit."

The British Spec Op officer grits her teeth. She recalls how angry that conversation made her.

"Interpol's bloody head in the sand policy is going to cause them unnecessary loss of agents, dealing with this stuff without acknowledging that it exists. It's why I need to know... Based on your last interactions with Agent Little, would you say he's a rogue agent?"

[ZACH GLENN]
Zach gives the rest of the brandy in his glass, sets the thing down slightly more forcefully than is strictly necessary before throwing in a couple of fresh cubes and some more brandy. "I'm getting there," he says after taking another sip. "He wasn't a Darkstalker before the island, I don't think. Something happened there, and I think someone by the name of Fio Tessitore was responsible for it. You're going to want to look into the Butcher Case files if you can. You'll learn a bit, but what the files probably won't mention is that the Butcher feeds on the souls of people. She... turned him into something very like that." Zach takes a deep breath, and another sip. His cheeks are starting to flush, contrasting against the ghost white of his hair. The last information I have on /her/ has her dying on the island." He stares at the tumbler for a moment.

"Up until that point, she was working for one Jedah Dohma, the being responsible for what happened to Metro City and at least one other incident like it. Now Daniel Little is working for him, and he's trying to find a way to bring her back to life... and back into the fold. I don't know the source of the information too well, but I don't think he was lying about this." Another deep breath, and Zach simply /drains/ the refreshed drink. "He loved her," he says, a bit hoarsely. "It was tearing him apart."


[LITA]
Lita is quiet as Zach relates the story of the Butcher. She was already familiar with it. In fact she used it against the Chief, so indignant about the refusal to acknowledge that the supernatural exists. She felt that the only way they were going to be able to deal with those situations. To be able survive them and ensure that the future members are able to survive, they were going to have to learn and pass knowledge around. As long as Interpol disavowed the existance of the paranormal, they were flying blind into a situation they had no hope of understanding. That would either get them killed or in Daniel's case gone rogue through no fault of their own.

"So... Yes. He has gone rogue. Thank you for your time and your hospitality."

She takes a deep cleansing breath as she tries to keep her temper in check. It would be poor form for her to give in to her her urge to smash something in her gracious host's home.

[ZACH GLENN]
Zach does not meet Lita's eyes, looking down and not quite at the glass he holds in both hands. "Yeah," he says softly. "That's a safe bet." He looks up at Lita. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry." He starts to stand. "At least let me walk you out."

Log created on 11:18:40 06/09/2017 by Zach Glenn, and last modified on 18:04:11 06/11/2017.