Match of the Millennium

Description: In her quest to find out what happened to Agent Little, Lieutenant Luwanda makes a trip to Genoa to meet with Daniel's last opponent in the tournament itself. Is she going to like what she hears?

[LITA]
Lita's days were a whirlwind upon returning to England from Japan. She had to return to England, report on her findings to Delta Red. Deal with all sorts of bureaucracy and what have you.

Lita's conversation with Zach Glenn was very enlightening and by itself would be damning. Even still, Lita felt she was better served talking to the one other person she believed could help get a better idea what had happened on Shang Tsung's Island. Delta Red, determining that it wouldn't be prudent to inform Interpol of her findings until she got as close to the full picture as possible, agreed and foot the bill for her to travel to Genoa to meet with the other person believed to have interacted with Agent Little.

In Genoa, Lita had contacted Rose about meeting to discuss the events of Mortal Kombat at a restaurant of her choice, and it would be on Delta Red's dime.

[ROSE]
Well, in that case.

Rose has chosen an extremely upscale trattoria where she has arrived ahead of time and secured a pleasant table in a corner where, she is told, nobody else is expected to be seated. She has a very pleasant bottle of red wine out and is wearing a daring dress with a plunging neckline as well as a very pleased expression.

She is also wearing a peculiar piece of malachite on a necklace, resting in her decolettage. If Lita was present on that Island, she would recognize a Soul Shard.

But now it is empty, perhaps. Probably. "Agent Luwanda," Rose says as her visitor, not to say inquisitor, approaches. "Welcome! And thank you, AND your patrons, for their generosity, not to say their solicitousness. Are you permitted to drink while on duty?"

[LITA]
When Lita arrives, she wears a sleeveless, knee-length, peach coloured dress. On her feet is a pair of three inch heels and on her shoulder is a tangerine purse. She was a tom-boy at heart but while she could move with grace, she never, at least from an emotional standpoint, was comfortable in dresses or heels.

When she arrives at the trattoria, she's immediately informed of where the two will be seated and thankfully of the fact that they didn't anticipate anyone being seated nearby.

She responds with a smile on her lips, "Thank you, Rose, for allowing me to speak with you on such short notice and seeing as this particular duty is to be handled in more of a social setting, I'm being allowed a bit of latitude as far as drinking policy." In other words, she's fine as long as she doesn't get sloppy drunk, which was never her thing anyway.

Seeing as both have arrived, the host guides the two women to their table where they are seated and presented with menus.

[ROSE]
Rose immediately orders three different wines.

At least she went for the middle of the list.

"It's no trouble at all. I've been treating all of this as something of a vacation, though I guess to an untutored eye it would simply seem that I'm reclining indolently," Rose tells Lita, smiling wryly. "But I'm not prone to argue."

"So, then: What may I ask, is on your mind, that you would ask me to such a generous situation?"

[LITA]
Meanwhile, Lita herself orders a wine for herself and some food as well.

Lita's eyes focus directly on the malachite necklace on Rose's neck as she reaches into her purse and fishes out her phone and necklace of her own and places them on the table. The stone on her necklace is a lemon yellow coloured stone carved into a triangular shape and likewise would be recognized as a Soul Shard.

"I apologise for bringing my phone out during a meal but briefcase with a folder of dossiers and pictures would make us look a bit strange in this setting."

Her hand moves towards the cellphone and she swipes to a picture of Daniel Little and moves the cellphone towards Rose.

"During the Mortal Kombat tournament, I was eliminated." She doesn't clarify as to whether or not she means meerly taken out of the tournament or killed. "But at the tail end of the tournament, there was hearsay about Agent Daniel Little's behavior changing near the tail end of the tournament. Because you had fought him in a later round, I was hoping you could tell me what it was like and your impressions of him."

[ROSE]
"It's no trouble at all," Rose says. "I'm very into a casual experience." She leans forwards, her expression growing graver, but she nods along with the explanation.

She takes a deep breath. "I understand," she says, before - "Ah yes, Mr. Little. Well."

Rose considers.

"My primary impression of him was that he was consumed by his regrets and had, as a result, become an evil - forgive me, that's rude to say about your fellow agent. That he had become an /aggressive/ restless spirit. As I understood things a bit better than the average, I chose to restore him to his mortal form, in part for reasons of my own, but in part also, because I felt that he was otherwise a victim of this unfortunate situation."

After a beat, she leans her head back. "Let me try to recall more... Are there particular topics on your mind?"

[LITA]
That answer was enough to satisfy the requirements as to whether or not Agent Little had gone rogue. Two confirmations pretty much. However as much in common the accounts had there were significant differences. Did one have more information in one aspect than the other. So while yes, she had enough to determine whether or not he had gone rogue. The questions that remained were why and was it curable?

"Considering the circumstances that you may have encountered him in, that analysis may be fair."

She touches a fingertip to her chin for a moment while she mulled it over. While she knew bits and pieces of what the Butcher was like, her problem was her details were piecemeal mostly as a result of Interpol insistence on the denial of the supernatural which may or may not have doomed him. She does think back to something Zach Glenn had said about him being similar to the Butcher. She had fought Daniel, she trained alongside him and she was responsible for getting him ready for their runner up placement in the King of Fighters. She knew how he fought almost as well she knew some of the recruits for Delta Red

"What could you tell me of his fighting style. Were there any notable idiosyncrasies that you could note fighting him that were distinctly not human? Was there anything he said that seemed out of the ordinary?"

[ROSE]
"It's difficult for me to say, because at the time he was manifesting himself as a sort of shade. He insisted he was not dead when he challenged me to Combat - excuse me, Kombat - and he was surrounded by a sort of energy of black mist. You understand me?" Rose says.

"His first maneuver was to try to throw me off the bridge," Rose then muses. "Does that sound like something he would have done? Hopefully with less lethal stakes."

[LITA]
"Mist?"

There's something that was not familiar to her and it elicits a thoughtful expression on her face as she compares it to the Butcher. And yes. That aspect fits.

"That mist bears striking resemblence to one of the cases he had been investigating before the tournament. I don't know the finer details but enough of it fits that it lends credence to another account. He was a mostly pragmatic fighter, but not quite a killer. So if it had deadly obstacles below, that wouldn't have been his style."

She considers her next question carefully. Having been dead for a good chunk of time on that island meant she missed out on a lot. She never quite felt like she managed to catch up on everything she missed.

"How did he move and behave once you restored him to, as you put it, his 'mortal form?'"

[ROSE]
"Well, he had asked me to contact Fio Tessitore for him," Rose muses, "but then I was able to use the soul shard to restore him to life - oh look, it's the wine, how timely!"

Wine is delivered. Rose got an entire bottle, so she fills a glass, kills it, refills it, and then looks back to Lita. "He was speaking that he would 'kill again,' and had pled for me to kill him... which I did not do, for reasons of my own. Let me try to remember his exact final words..."

[LITA]
"Blimey..."

In Lita's case, only had received a glass. And she personally kills her glass and feels like she's in dire need of an entire bottle of her own. She lets out a heavy sigh as her palm touches her forehead.

"Fio 'Brought an army Jiangshi during the King of Fighters on live TV for shits and giggles' Tessitore. Fio 'Partially responsible for the mess in Metro City' Tessitore."

It's clear she's not enthused about this part especially considering what she had seen on TV about her and what Zach Glenn had said but she remains open to what else Rose has to say.

"If you can remember it, please do."

[ROSE]
Rose's brow furrows. "I thought he meant - oh - yes, that would be Fio Germi."

Rose is looking somewhat dismayed. "That would explain why she was upset with me."

HIGH RATIO: NO SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY WHATSOEVER

"Tell them," Rose quotes, "not to look for Daniel Jack; he's gone. He's real gone. All that's left is the Lady Killer."

Rose lapses into Italian to mutter to herself, "<Well now I have guilt.>"

[LITA]
Final nail, meet coffin. Coffin, meet final nail.

As Lita visibly cringes at that final line she then gets a picture of the timeline in her head and a clearer picture of what happened after, thanks in particular to talking with Zach. When the food arrives, Lita for the most part is quiet trying to work out where things went wrong and if there was anything she could've done about it.

After a while, Lita speaks softly with sadness in her voice. "Thank you, for taking the time to speak with me."

[ROSE]
"If there is any way that I can... help, going forwards," Rose says, a little hesitantly. "I do not know how difficult he is, and of course I don't mean to slur the strength of Delta Red, but... I mean, I do share a certain responsibility."

As in, all of it, because she brought him back from Super Death.

Rose digs into her wine. And the entree once it arrives.

[LITA]
"Thank you, I greatly appreciate it. You've already been helpful in terms of allowing me to find out what really happened on the island."

As she eats the rest of her entree. She thinks about how to prevent something like this from happening again. The whole thing was filled with an educational moments and if a International Task Force for dealing with supernatural was going to work, it was going to first of all acknowledge that the supernatural existed. That was Interpol's mistake. There was going to need be care to be taken in selecting non problematic assets. That was Daniel's mistake and it was her mistake in not calling him on it. There was going to be a need to acknowledge that there were things that they did not know and as a result would need to call upon people from the outside who have an expertise like Zach or possibly Rose. And Rose's mistake came from information she didn't have so Lita was willing to forgive her.

"I will keep the lines of communication open if there is anything you can do to help or vice versa."

Eventually the check comes and she pays for it in cash rounding up to the next euro. She then as she collects her things, she rises from her seat and smiles towards Rose.

"I hope that we can meet under better circumstances next time."

She exits the trattoria and when she gets about 20 ft away, she pulls out a cellphone and after few moments she says, "I've received all the information we need to make a final report to Interpol. My suggestion is to withdraw Delta Red's support from Interpol's task force."

Log created on 19:49:27 06/29/2017 by Lita, and last modified on 19:10:25 06/30/2017.