Description: The Mountain Lions team has a stop in Egypt before their final destination for the first match of King of Fighters - something to be blamed on Rust not reading the fine print about these cheap plane tickets closely. Finding Zach having been freed from interrogation after an incident some time earlier, the two catch up about things to worry about... and what to put behind them, as they all look forward to the first grand challenge before them. Will they be able to rise to the task?
Zach's finally free! Released from holding and interrogatings by what passes for Egyptian authorities following that tussle with Cammy and, quite literally, Zach blowing the roof off a building to get the attention of the soldiers Cammy was about to assassinate. He walks around the airport, stretching his arms over his head. He pulls out his ticket, and then the clock. He still has a few hours to kill before his connecting flight to Kenya.
He decides that now is as good a time as any to grab a bite to eat; the McDonalds here is somewhat passable. Or as passable as Micky D's gets, anyway.
"Christ! There you are!" Comes one Howard Rust's voice. For reference, he's been on pins and needles since the flight /out/ of Southtown, for a variety of reasons that, largely, border on the dangerously mundane and almost not worth mentioning. They remain many, they remain harsh, and most importantly, they remain an ever stronger reason to keep his blood pressure going higher and higher yet.
Assuming one Mr. Rust's knee popping doesn't give him away, he's ambling along over to where Zach sits at one of many McDonalds restaurants set up all over the globe. He's not looking any better than he was hours ago.
"I heard you went out and, and got into some serious trouble," the teacher starts as he puts his left hand on the table, "do you, do you even know what the hell's goin' on right now?"
He grunts, shaking his head in self-admission of a hard fact, "yeah, yeah, maybe I shoulda read the flight plans a bit... y'know, more carefully, but god damn."
Zach looks up from his double quarter with cheese to see Rust. He grins slightly as he swallows the bite in his mouth and sets the burger down. "I was stopping Cammy from giving some of the president's guards terminal lead poisoning," Zach replies. "I may have overdone it," he concedes.
"Unless you're referring to the riots out there," Zach says gesturing to the television. The protests are pretty much the only thing on right now. "I have no clue about anything else right now. Been stuck here almost since they began."
Good thing /Zach/ can take his momentary bit of true heroism with a smile! When the name Cammy comes up, the older man frowns, relaxing his hand from the table. "Ugh, and she wonders why I don't want to see her around Quon, trying to... trying to lie and cry her way through... gah."
The teacher resigns himself to taking a seat near Zach, though he has no food on hand. He raises a hand again. "I'm not... I'm not cursing you out for, for standing up to her," he tries to reassure, though his voice is still laden with stress and worry, "it's just... y'know, now I gotta worry about master Sakazaki's daughter runnin' 'round with us, and... I think I mentioned the address book thing at, at some point," he continues, arms on the table as he exhales loudly.
"Wait," Zach says, looking sharply at Rust. "What?" He looks a bit confused for a moment before getting the context of Rust's reference to Cammy. "Shit, man," Zach says with a scowl. "If I knew she was trollin' Quon, I'd have hit her harder," he says with a bare touch of rage in his voice. Zach hates him some Shadoloo.
His brain rewinds and replays the rest of Rust's rambling, holding a hand up to slow Rust down. "Maybeee," Zach says slowly, "We should start from the top here." He frowns slightly, "You mean Yuri, right?"
"I'm in favor of, favor of hitting her as hard as you can," he speaks candidly, his own patience with her antics having been stretched well past their limit. The older man wipes some sweat away from his brow. That sweat is there for a reason. He's been yelling at airport people to let the whole lot of them out of the country, ignoring the fact they so willfully came here.
"Yeah, Yuri," he nods from behind his head, "y'didn't notice her at Southtown? She's why I got charged for, for... five tickets." He exhales loudly again. "Her dad, uh... let's say I was there, he... he doesn't approve of her being in King of Fighters."
He looks up from where he's buried his head. "Y'know what, what he's gonna do when he finds out, don't you?"
Zach is calm until Rust brings up Takuma Sakazaki. He goes a bit pale. Takuma is a legend in his own right. "I'd imagine," Zach says quietly, "That he is against Yuri being in the tournament?" Rust's posture pretty much confirms it. "...well then," he finally says. "We may be in trouble, then."
"We /are/ in trouble," the man puts emphasis on this, "or... or, well, I guess, maybe... maybe just me." He buries his head again. "Ugh. I got to say, Zach... this, this King of Fighters thing, haven't even had our first match yet... 'n it's, it's not off to a great start."
Zach keeps the snap response to himself, that it will only get more turbulent from here. "Well," Zach says after a moment, "What's this about an address book?" Back on track, man. Back on track.
"'bout a, a week back, and some days," the teacher starts, "someone... someone broke in 'n took it." He lowers the hand from his face. His combover, always an abominable blight on anyone's eyesight, just seems that much more worse for the wear as he sits up in his seat. He flexes one of his legs to get some stiffness out of his knee.
"I mean, I know someone broke in, they busted a window. 'n... 'n the funny thing is, I accidentally left the, the tickets and my wallet on the table." He exhales again. "I mean, if they were a common thief, they'd have, they'd have snatched those up. Hell, I'd have deserved that, but... nope, they took my address book."
The man looks off to the side. "Pretty sure that was one of, one of Cammy's goons, but, she denied it... started turning on the waterworks, 'n everything. It's the same god damn girl who joked that she could, she could look at my bank account at any time!"
Never joke about that, in this new era of fiscal responsibility and identity thefts.
"Who also works for an international criminal that attempted to conquer a small country in Asia," Zach comments. "What all was in the address book?" Zach's mind is racing, but he needs more information.
"I dunno what's up with her, she's... she's always just, just brushed that aside when I bring it up." The man frowns ever some more, thinking better of using the heavy word 'terrorist' in these parts when Egypt, as a whole, is on edge. "Crazy-ass girl."
The man sighs yet again. "Address book... y'know, contact information for, for a bunch of people out and 'bout Southtown... you and Quon're in there too. But, uh, some of those entires're probably out of date by now."
"I don't know what they'd want with it, unless, unless they're thinkin' of trying to hold somebody hostage, but... I called everyone I remembered 'bout the break-in, so, so they know to watch out."
For all the good that might do them, at least. There's only so much a single man can do.
"Guess I'll have to sleep with one eye open then," Zach mutters. He knows he's on some list of theirs. They'll either come or they won't. No point in sweating it right now. He thinks for a moment.
"So what's been going on outside of Egypt, man?"
"Ahh... wouldn't... wouldn't know what to tell you." The older man concedes as he starts to roll one of his shoulders, leaning back tiredly. He is so going to be sleeping the rest of the way, this whole ordeal has been nothing short of exhausting as much as it has been stressful.
"Before we left Southtown, uh, they say people've been doing weird things behind the scenes... 'n, disappearances, and such." The man looks off again. "On the way here, I overheard some people talking 'bout the same stuff, I mean, the same stuff here too." He looks back, lowering his head again with his hands on the table. "They better not be planning another god damned invasion again."
Zach snaps to alertness at this. "Disappearances?" Zach asks quickly. His eyes narrow a bit. "Like who?" Zach shakes that thought off. He heaves a sigh. "Noone said the life of a fighter would be boring," Zach finally says. "If they are, Southtown will kick their asses to the curb, man."
He chews on some french fries thoughtfully. "You've got too much in your head, man," Zach finally says. "You gotta pick something to focus on," he says sagely.
"Ahh, I wouldn't... know any pattern, just... I don't know names or faces off the top of my head," and let's face it, Mr. Rust is never good with names, or with the top of his head. (Zing!)
It was nothing short of a miracle that people were able to fight back at last, but they got what they wanted in the end, didn't they? Did Southtown really win? It's hard to say, when the man can really only be glad he at least has his life and job after all that.
"Somethin' to focus on, huh," he asks, "like... like what?" It's hard for him not to think about every little worrying thing going across his mind leading up to today.
"We got a match coming up, right," Zach asks after taking a sip of his drink. "Who we fighting?" Zach's mind is moving at a pace more approaching normal at the point. He's taking a page from his father, in a lot of ways. This may not be high school counseling, but the basics are the same, right?
"Yeah... yeah, we do," the middle-aged man nods his head again. "We're up against a team they're callin' the... uh, what was it," he snaps the fingers on his left hand. See? He's not great with names.
"Wrestle... wrestlefiends?" It's missing the letter 'r' but it's close enough. "Headed up by that Russian wrestler, Zangief." Not just /any/ Russian wrestler, one of the greats! "They got... they got El Fuerte, I, uh, I ran into him a couple times," the circumstances of which were always bizarre and full of need for further explanation he never received, "the, uh... damn, a guy from Mexico with a griffon mask, wasn't it... wasn't it the Griffon Mask?" It's Tizoc, but, close enough? "Then there's a young girl, a wrestler who goes by... uh, Rainbow Mira?" The man is entirely unsure if he has it right, but it was something very close to this.
Howard eyes Zach's food. Maybe he should go and buy some while he's here, lord knows he hasn't eaten well. "Pretty... solid stuff, I mean, some established names in there."
"Mika. Rainbow Mika," Zach says politely as he slides the tray forward, inviting Rust to grab some fries. They were dumped into the top of the burger box, and they taunt Rust. "So we have a quartet of people who are going to want to get in close and grapple," Zach says almost meditatively. "Well, Fuerte's Hispanic, right? Luchalibre, I'd bet. I'd wager Mika is a bit the same. Japanese puroresu takes a few pages from the same book."
Zach pauses, considering. The depth of Zach's knowledge might surprise Rust; on further contemplation, Zach's kind of surprised at himself. "Zangief and Tizoc can put the hurt on a guy." Zach thinks a bit more. "I'd probably be a good lead-off. You would too, I bet."
Just as Zach slides those fries forward, Howard points at them with his right hand as if to ask, 'would it be okay if I had a handful of them?' With this unspoken request granted almost instantaneously, he takes a couple fries.
"Thanks," he says before he starts munching on them, while Zach gives the rundown of what he knows. Zach's been around the fighting circuit longer than him, Zach knows the scores for the most part - his older friend, the team leader, only knows as much as he's seen from Neo League matches and such.
"I dunno, I dunno which of the three we'll be, uh, matching... I mean, everyone fields three guys," he says after he swallows his share of the fries. "I... I wouldn't put you in front of Zangief or that other guy if, if I could help it."
He knows how scrawny Zach is in comparison to sheer physical strikes. He's short, small, and quick. That in itself has a good number of advantages, admittedly.
"I know Yuri's gonna, gonna want to force herself in, she's... she's really strong-willed," he puts it lightly, knowing full well how headstrong she is. "Not that, uh, not that she's not capable, I've, uh... I've fought her empty-handed twice, she got the best of me every time."
Of course, she's a skilled Kyokugen practicioner. He himself is a mere yellow belt in comparison, even if the sum of his talents can see him matching people a grade or two higher than that.
"Antoine... pretty solid, pretty... pretty understated. Quon, though... I got to say, I don't... I don't agree with what he did in regards to Cammy, but, he's a good kid. You wouldn't believe how far, Zach, wouldn't believe... how far he'd be willin' to go on a lot of things."
"Well, yeah," Zach says. "Me against either of the two big guys would end pretty painfully," he admits. He considers for a moment. "I guess we can deal with Yuri at gametime," Zach says with a slight roll of the eyes. He's willing to roll with the sudden addition, but only so far, and definitely not right this minute.
Something else occurs to Zach, in a flash of insight. "Do you want in on this first match?" he asks after a moment.
"I'm, I'm not gonna lie, Zach," the teacher speaks up as he helps himself to another few fries with his left hand, and starts shaking them in Zach's direction as though illustrating some point or another that... probably doesn't actually need fries for this picture.
"I know, I know I'm nervous, but... but I've been lookin' for this all my life, Zach. It's, it's a really big deal for me, that's... that's why I've been, y'know, fussin' left and right. Making sure our trip goes well," it so far hasn't, "workin' out all the stuff like... identification, 'n getting vaccines," hopefully everyone has gone and done just that like he has, "it's, it's a lot of work, Zach, but... but, y'know, a part of me really can't believe that... after forty years, I'm finally in, in the biggest god damned tournament there's ever been."
This is a man whose opportunities often left him dangling or were yanked away from him cruelly at almost every step. "But... but I don't want to rob the rest their shot either, Zach - it's, it's as big for them as it is for me. Antoine... I knew his old master, he ain't with us any more." A sullen moment. "He's, he's carryin' on his legacy out of respect for all he did... Quon, I'm sure he's in the same boat, and got all the reason to want to be stronger... Yuri."
He pauses to think about how to say this.
"I'll tell ya, Zach, if my dad heard I was in King of Fighters, he... he wouldn't like it either, but... Yuri, even though I, I don't like that she just forced herself on the team," seriously, how the hell did she pull that off? Is King of Fighters administration that lax, "but, she's someone who... who truly respects what she's been taught, even if, even if she and her dad don't see eye to eye about any of it. She wants to help him, she wants to, to show the world how strong the style is, she truly loves it."
His expression darkens a bit as he shakes his head. "I still don't, don't think she ought to be, but... a part of me's havin' a hard time saying no, from watching her train, 'n practice, 'n argue with, with her family."
He reclines back in his chair. "We got, we got time to work out our lineup, so, once we're there... I'll have it all sorted out by then. Just, just got a whole lot to think about now."
Zach finishes off his drink, the last of the beverage causing that classic 'not-totally empty straw' sound for a second. "Well, focus on what's in front of you. You've done what you can to prepare, so it's done. Doesn't matter if it was enough or not, it's not like you can go back and re-do or un-do it. All of the turbulence getting to now, it's behind us."
Zach leans back in his chair, spreading his arms wide. "We. The two of us. We're in the King of Fighters. I mean, you're right. It's the biggest game in town when it comes around. And we're in it. There is absolutely /no/ point in /not/ enjoying it while we can." He grins. "As for whoever doesn't get in on the first match, well, the people who /do/ get to fight are just going to have to make sure there's a second match, right?"
Log created on 20:20:37 02/03/2011 by Rust, and last modified on 23:01:48 02/03/2011.