Description: Zach happens across Quon who's headed to a comedy club in Southtown Village. They end up exchanging info on the status of not just their mutual friend, Antoine but in fact the status of a few more people who appear to be afflicted with a strange corruption of their chi. Before they part ways, Zach gives him a warning about the situation Quon finds himself in.
Quon has been busy. Between moving out of the dorms, finding a part time job and doing his community service he hasn't found much time for himself. Add to that the fact that lately he's found that Shadaloo has been watching him constantly and so he tends to be so much quieter now that he has that knowledge. He's careful about what he says to people and what he does even while alone. Even his web surfing habits have changed.
He happens to have nothing else to do tonight and he was tired of being couped up at home so he decided to hit a comedy club. He could use a laugh after everything he's been through. He has a block to go and still has penty of time before things start.
Shadoloo, as least for tonight, is not the only bunch of dudes with an interest in Quon Chen. Zach Glen (the wandering psychic, youth worker handyman, and general pain in the ass to all groups evil) has been following Quon for the last block or so. He hadn't planned to, really. He had come into Southtown for supplies when he had spotted the youth. Zach's gut being what it is, the psyker doesn't even think about it being a coincidence.
Zach picks up a light jog to catch up to the kung-fu fighter with a light shout of "Hey! Quon!" Zach doesn't seem winded, but he /is/ moving a bit stiffly. "Fancy seeing you here!" Zach waves as he approaches.
The prodigy of Chongquan turns around the moment he hears his name. An eyebrow is visibly raised as he does so. It doesn't go back down until he sees the purple haired psychic. Just as quickly as Quon's eyebrow falls back into place, a smile on his lips replaces the previous expression. "Hey! Zach! What's up?"
The stiffness in Zach's body doesn't escape his notice but seeing as he's been out of the loop lately, he doesn't suspect that it comes from anything except maybe a recent Neo League fight or something.
And Zach's okay with not dispelling that notion, though Quon may notice the bandages hands and lower arms despite the non-fight setting. "Things, mostly. Just got back to Southtown the other day," he replies genially. He looks around quickly for a moment.
"Rust...," and Cammy, "Told me about Antoine," he says with concern on his face and in his voice. "How you holding up?"
"Holding up?" He seems to have a hard time figuring out what to say beyond how completely messed up the whole thing is. "Antoine and have fought each other before but never like that. This is a new experience for me. Seeing a friend who is ready to rip you to shreds without a second thought and to hear him let out a sickening howl as he fights." He visibly shudders.
He takes a deep breath and shakes his head a few times to clear his mind long enough that he can gather himself and then he looks towards the psyker. "And apparently he's not the only one."
"Not according to what I've heard, no," Zach says calmly. "Seems like there's something going around," he says with no trace of humor in his voice. "I know some people who might be able to help with... with whatever it is that has ahold of Antoine, but..." ...I wouldn't get my hopes up? ...there might be nothing they can do? ...that Antoine might be lost forever in this bizarre rage? "...they can be hard to get ahold of sometimes," Zach says.
"Regardless, we'll get through this. The climb's not over yet," he says with a slight grin.
"I've been taking another route." He pauses for just an instant. "I figure we might find a solution if we find the connection between the people who have been afflicted by this condition. If we find the source, it may make finding the solution easier." He shrugs.
"An associate of mine told me about how they found out that Ken Masters was one of the people who were recently corrupted." No need to mention Cammy's name. One it might get back to Rust and two it might get back to Shadaloo. Neither were all that appealing to the Chinese martial artist. "I'm having one of my friends see if they can find the point at which he changed. It may give us an idea or two."
Zach grunts in surprise when Ken's name is dropped. "She didn't name Ken," he says just loud enough for Quon to catch. Odd that his name came up again in a seemingly unrelated conversation. "Well," Zach says carefully, "Antoine, Ken Masters, and maybe one other that comes to mind, they are all chi-users so far." Zach's wheels are turning. He scratches his head as he considers. "But that's not enough information, really."
Zach decides to bite the bullet on this. "I know Cammy seems to want to help," Zach says carefully. "And I know that you know who she works for. Telling her to bug off seems next to impossible, though, so I'm not going to tell you to just ditch her cold. Just..." Zach regards Quon carefully. "Just be careful, okay? It's real easy to get yourself lost when you play it close to the edges."
"She? She who?" It's enough to make the teenager raise his eyebrow yet again. "One other? Any idea who that person may be?" Is what Zach isn't saying something that might be useful to him? He doesn't know. But something that Zach does say is cause for concern. "Chi users? Well. I definitely fall in that catagory and so I really need to tread carefully in dealing with this."
And then Zach brings up Cammy causing an awkward look to appear on his face. "Yeah. Trust me I know." The many times Cammy's loyalties have come up while they've been around each other have become numerous even in spite of their agreement not to talk about her Shadaloo business. "It's one of the reasons I'm trying to handle as much of this situation as I can. As for her trying to help Rust, I told her that if she feels so strongly about how unfair it is to be accused of something she didn't do then she should do something about it. I get the feeling she missed the point completely."
Zach snorts. "Yeah. She's /definitely/ dangerous," he agrees. "But sometimes you gotta wonder just how sharp she is." Zach considers as the two walk towards the club. He's letting Quon lead the way. "I know who the other person is," Zach says quietly. "I met her in Tibet. We... talked for a while. She helped me out a bit." He frowns a little. "I'm surprised you didn't hear about what happened in Metro. Musta been a busy news day or something."
"As much as I want to help Antoine, I want to help her too, if I can," Zach says quietly after a moment of looking at nothing in particular. "She... seemed kind of lonely too."
"I still have to catch up on on current events. Between running around like a chicken with its head cut off doing community service and moving out of the dorms, I haven't really had a chance to watch or read the news." He gives a helpless shrug. Zach, though he didn't give a name, he at least gave a direction to look for more information.
"Let's see if we can. And while I do want to help my best friend, I'm looking at this situation and realizing that nothing good will come out of having those with power running amuk." While he's applying those beliefs in this situation, it's those beliefs that originally put him on the radar with Shadaloo in ultimately caused Sagat's first visit which could be summarized by saying, 'You messed with some powerful people. Keep your head low for awhile.' Little did he know he was going to end up drawing the attention of Cammy.
"Well," Zach says when Quon talks about people with power running amok, "Some of us are better at policing ourselves than others." Zach checks his watch. "Crap," he says as he checks his watch. "I gotta get to the store before it closes for the night." Zach digs out his wallet, and hands Quon a small business card. It has Zach's name, a phone number, and not much else on it.
"If you get something, give me a call," Zach says. "I'm gonna visit Antoine in the morning to see what I can learn before I catch a flight out to Metro City. For that matter, if you just want to talk about anything, feel free to look me up. I'll help you if I can."
Log created on 21:01:51 03/15/2011 by Quon, and last modified on 09:01:50 03/16/2011.