Description: Zach and Cammy have a quiet tete a tete in a packed Hyderabad cafe. Zach is apparently squeamish about collateral damage or something, hence no fists.
Zach Glen has had a rough month since his abortive attempt to make a name for himself in the King of Fighters tournament. Crazed martial arts masters, fight hungry fighters, cursed fashion accessories... Zach wants nothing more than to get to his crash pad in SouthTown and try to pretend all of this never happened.
Currently, he is walking the back streets of Hyberadad on his journey back home. He is dressed in such a way that he could pass for a local... if it were not for the pale skin and violet hair anyway. A scarf conceals one of the sources of his woes. Other than that, the disguise really is only so-so; anyone making a point of looking for him would not have a ton of trouble.
Cammy is out of sight, but not out of mind. The Doll has been trailing Zach for some time, and she isn't entirely ignorant of his situation... Shadaloo operatives do have their unusual sources of information, after all. Hyderabad is quite a large and sprawling place, perfect for vat grown assassins to be chasing after mostly unsuspecting victims.
To that end, the Doll is balanced precariously on the roofs of the houses lining the narrow alleys, making her way spider monkey style after Zach. Even if she loses sight of him every so often, he is fairly easy to sense, as targets go, and so the Killer Bee need not have an eye on him constantly.
Zach is largely ignorant of the fact that he is being trailed. There are a metric butt-ton of people in the capital of India, and Zach is hoping that his mostly-native garb will help mask his presence. There's not much he can do if another psychic is tracking him, but the odds of that are not all /that/ great. Can't change it, don't let it drive you crazy. That's Zach's policy.
Cammy's intent, thus far, doesn't seem to be inherently dangerous to Zach, so the shorter psychic doesn't twig to the assassin's presence just yet.
Cammy is, indeed, not inherently dangerous to Zach, Lord Vega has no specific orders to do something horrific to him. On the contrary. No, she has far more peaceful motives.
But she is biding her time, waiting for an opportunity. After all, she's met Zach quite a few times already, and knows what will happen if she jumps down in front of him to say hi. Nothing profitable.
She takes a running jump as Zach crosses a particularly wide street, leaping overhead, red cloak streaming out behind her, uniform momentarily visible, to land with a slight thump upon the concrete roof of the next building along. Confident enough that with all the people around, she will not be detected.
Zach looks up for a moment; he thought he saw something. He shakes the feeling off, chalking it up to paranoia. He frowns a bit, and decides to grab a cup of something to drink. He eases himself into the chair at the sidewalk cafe, moving as if he's in a good deal of pain just from the simple motion.
He adjusts an oblong bundle at his hip to ease the transition to a seated position before picking up a menu to look through it.
Oooo look, he's stopped moving. The Doll, lying low, on her belly on the roof of the building she just jumped on to, carefully crawls up to the lip of the roof, red cloak getting a bit dusty as she goes, until she's settled in a comfy spot, hands resting on the edge of the roof, mostly lying flat.
Hood over her face, so she is just a tiny shadow, she peers down at Zach, waiting - waiting for him to move, perhaps. Maybe waiting for something else.
Zach does not seem to be going anywhere. Having gotten his water, he seems to be in the mood for food. The waiter takes his order, leaving the psychic knight largely alone. Now's as good a time as any for the Killer Bee to make her approach.
It is /entirely/ possible given the way he set up the fight in Egypt, and rumors of his recent troubles, that he may not start a fight here.
Cammy hmms. Well, he looks chill enough now... She gets up onto her feet quickly, and leaps off of the building! Coming down like a meteor, she somersaults in mid air, mainly to just show off presumably, before landing in the street with a very loud thump. Straightening with some difficulty, she walks over to him, bold as brass, and plops down into a chair next to him.
And crosses her legs, army boots and a bit of blue painted calf visible despite her cloak. It would be hard to mistake her for anybody else. "Good afternoon." she says, in her most polite voice.
Zach visibly winces when Cammy touches down. Rubbing his face, which Cammy can now see bears a number of scratches and bruises, Zach takes a quick inventory of his situation. Somewhat crowded cafe, /very/ crowed city. Low mobility on a not-quite-sprained ankle. Chances of getting clear of the masses to avoid innocent casulaties... the next best thing to zero.
He's not going to be able to fight this one out, it seems. Zach supposes that he loses nothing by being polite, just this once. He gestures to an empty chair at the table. "Such as it is," Zach replies surprisingly without malice. "Here to bring me to your master?" he asks evenly. "Perhaps do some experiments on me to see what makes me tick?"
Cammy arches a brow at that. "Not right now, no. Maybe in the future. Who knows what Lord Vega will one day wish for." she replies, with a shrug. She gets up and switches to the offered chair, which is opposite Zach. "Though Lord Vega would be pleased to hear of the apparently easy acceptance of His will... if he cared. But no, nothing to do with the Master today.".
The doll nosewrinkles, peers at Zach suspiciously for a moment, from beneath her hood, before drawing the hood back. "I just have a few minor questions to ask you, is all.".
Zach's eyes narrow in response to Cammy's peering. By some miracle, or perhaps an effort of will, Zach's hand doesn't move for the sword inside that bundle he has with him. The waiter sets Zach's drink down before taking one look at Cammy. The poor guy starts to inch slowly away before moving at a /very/ fast walk to get away from the assassin.
Zach takes a sip of his cola, then sighs. "Well, you have me cornered. I am clearly not going anywhere for the moment," he finally replies after forcing down a handful of insolent or petulant responses. "Ask."
Cammy blinks at the waiter - and frowns. She hates it when people are afraid of her! The frown remains, when she turns back to Zach. "A sudden change of heart. How odd." she notes, curiosity inflamed. "I will not question it though, merely accept it.".
She leans forward a bit, gaze intense. "I am looking for people who may be an entry in Rust's address book, which as you may know, was stolen. I am fairly certain that your name was in it. Which means whoever stole it, would have the means to contact you, perhaps, as that is what address books are for. Which means... maybe they have contacted you?".
Zach frowns when the address book comes up. His reaction would tell Cammy that yes, he /was/ in fact in Rust's address book. A cell phone number, an email address, and another phone number that was /strictly/ for emergencies. As in 'holy crap the world is ending where the hell are you' emergencies. It was an American phone number, oddly enough, one just outside of Cleveland, Ohio if one were to really look into it.
Zach considers for a moment. There is an outside chance that Cammy is actually playing straight with him on this. It is a very outside chance, but a chance nonetheless. "I had one person I did not know contact me in the last month or so," Zach replies. "They found me in my hospital room in Zambia. Which probably doesn't help you much, I would bet." Sip.
He seems honest enough.
"Hmm. Have you had an... anger management problem, since then?" Cammy asks. "Like Antoine has. He was... altered by some sort of force, made more bestial, more vicious. He attacks people, like a wild animal now. I can tell you this, as Quon already knows, so you will know soon enough from him, or Rust, if you do not know already. Antoine is not the only one to suffer from this.". Who else, though, Cammy does not divulge.
"I think that this is linked to the address book, as well. So these people may be dangerous, and may be involved with you. Has anything like that happened to you since you met this person in Zambia?".
"Nope," Zach says, telling a half-truth. "I'm pretty stable, emotionally speaking." It's a very specific half-truth, in fact. Zach leans forward uncomfortably. "Tell me about these changes. Better yet, tell me who else has had them," he asks. The fact that this... beastial rage has afflicted Antoine would explain some things.
Rust had mentioned something about disappearances to him before the fighting started. Maybe there's a pattern here that goes beyond the address book.
"Emotionally speaking.". The Doll smiles a thin smile at that, but shrugs, apparently paying it no mind. "At least one other, who is a famous fighter, much more famous than poor Antoine. And as for what changes, well. It was like... one of those werewolf movies, perhaps. Except he did not grow fur and teeth. He was biting, though, and he ran away in the end, on all fours. Fortunately, I am a difficult target to try and bite. ".
"There seems to be memory loss as well, and corrupted chi. Which is one reason why I am curious about you. You would be an easy target to disappear, as you are on your own so often, but you do not have chi. What did this person in Zambia do?".
"The old hag gave me something," Zach says, a bit of anger edging into his voice. He takes another sip of cola with a frown. "I'm still trying to figure out how to get rid of the damn thing," he finally allows.
"I see. An item, then. But no emotional change in yourself. And your item is tied in to psycho power, no?" Cammy asks, quite bluntly. The psychic doll has been on the receiving end of Zach's psi attacks after all, and while her own psi power is much more subtle, she wouldn't be surprised if Zach recognises her for what she is at the end of the day.
"What item is it, out of curiosity?" she asks, voice sounding slightly more bored somehow.
Zach stares at Cammy for a moment. "You could say that," he finally says as he tugs at the scarf around his neck to reveal... a strangely colored choker around his neck. It has a distinct serpent motif to it, and the coloration might bother Cammy on some level. It just seems... wrong somehow.
"It acts as a booster of sorts. If it were all about flat-out power output, I could probably give your boss a challenge with it." Something in his voice says that this is not brag. A bit of conjecture, maybe, but Zach seems pretty confident about his conjecture.
Cammy smiles one of her thin sort of smiles at that, the ones reserved for when she really is in proper Killer Bee mode, rather than drink soda with Ibuki mode. "May be. I guess you could always try that out and see what happens.". She glances over the choker, and shakes her head. "As interesting as that is, I do not think that is what I am seeking. Especially due to the lack of emotional response. I think if you were afflicted, you would be attacking me right now.".
A slight pause, and then she notes, "Just like old times.".
"Tactically," Zach notes after sipping his cola, "The situation favors you way too heavily to make that a good idea. I don't particularly like you. Your boss scares the hell out of me." Sip. "Any other time, we probably would be fighting right this second." Sip. "Just like old times."
"I have kicked you in the face many times." Cammy notes, remembering cannon spikes down through the ages. "You deserved it, though. You have never been the object of any mission of mine. And I am not even sure that I have always even been on mission when I met you. You are quite irksome, I seem to have caught you in a rare, reasonable moment.". A slight pause, and then she notes, "I hope you will be reasonable in the future if you happen to see me having time off in Southtown with my friends, as that really would annoy me, otherwise.".
A well-timed sip of his drink hides Zach's expression when Cammy mentions that she has friends. "I'm generally reasonable," Zach says politely, "Just less-so when I'm dealing with assassins who work for people who decidedly don't have my best interests at heart." Zach has had nightmares of Vega coming after him, cold and implacable. The young psychic adjusts his scarf to cover that bizzare accessory from view. Glen goes silent, considering some things.
"What is best for Lord Vega is best for the world, and besides, he treats /me/ very well." Cammy points out, the favourite doll and all around teachers pet. "I do not know what you people have against him. He is a great man. In any case.".
The doll gets up from the chair in which she is sprawled. "I do not think you have yet been targeted by the people I am looking for. It may be that being a psychic, you are not of interest to them. I am attempting to find them, for a friends sake. If you find them, perhaps you can contact me about it, on the principle that the enemy of an enemy is a friend. You can give any messages you have for me to Quon.".
"Cripes," Zach complains, "That is /so/ not a true statement. Your enemy's enemy could want you just as dead, just for different reasons."
"Well, whatever, I do not, or I would not be sitting here talking to you would I." Cammy says, a little exasperated. "You are irksome, but that is all. You have not greatly hampered me as I go about my duties.".
"I think," Zach finally says, "That you and I work towards goals that aren't ompatable." He doesn't deliver that typical shonen 'don't underestimate me' line; it is somewhat implied by Zach's first statement. "Just something you might want to keep in mind," he says after finishing his drink. The food arrives just then, and Zach gives the plate in front of him his attention.
"Maybe. I do not care. Just leave me alone when I'm drinking soda in the Pao Pao Cafe is all. In any case, that concludes our business I suppose. You have not been attacked by these people, or had anything to do with them, it seems to me. Maybe you will be. The offer remains open, if you want my help." Cammy repeats, narrowing her eyes slightly.
"And now I shall leave you to your food.".
Zach gives Cammy a surprisingly polite wave as he digs in.
Log created on 18:17:44 03/03/2011 by Cammy, and last modified on 15:10:54 03/05/2011.