Description: As it turns out, Ken's recruiting spree gets a little help from the tenacious Zach Glen. Past events and hurts are smoothed over, especially in the interest of their common cause.
A lot of times Ken gets some pretty funky requests for meeting people at strange and exotic locations. The last request led to a whole lot of trouble for the blonde Ansatsuken master, involving the deaths of a good portion of his personal film crew. A loud yawn escapes his lips as he sits at a table within one of the few private rooms within the Genhanten. This request isn't as strange as the others he's gotten so far.
Already Ken has his drink before him, a large glass of cola, which he sips at idly. A quick glance at his watch tells him that he's still slightly early before this meeting with Zach Glen. It's truly going to be an interesting conversation with everything that has been going on.
Quite possibly, but definitely not nearly as lethal. Zach is precisely on time. He understands that Ken Masters might be a bit skittish after the last call-out. The psychic would not blame Ken in the least for that. The dimunitive fighter looks around as he enters. The Ansatsuken fighter is not hard to spot, really. Zach adjusts the bolong bundle slung over his right shoulder and walks up the veteran fighter.
"Hello," Zach says uncertainly. The last time these two men run into each other, Ken put Zach through storefronts. While Zach knows Ken was under the influence of whatever insanity had gripped Antoine, that doesn't change the fact that Ken could likely repeat that encounter even without the Riot of the Blood raging through him. "Thank you for meeting me." So polite, so formal. So not really like Zach at all.
A slight frown appears upon Ken's face as he stands to shake Zach's hand. It's obvious that the younger man has some trepidition in meeting with him like this, but it was Zach's idea after all. "First.. I know there is nothing I can say to excuse what happened.. but for what its worth, I am very sorry for what happened, even if I don't remember it all."
The blonde Ansatsuken master sighs slightly as he realizes just how this must feel. Right now the world at large is seemingly forgetting the recent events that transpired during the King of Fighters tournament, only for those that were truly affected to have to clean up the mess on their own. "I can understand if you're still upset or angry about what happened.. There is nothing I can truly say or do but apologize.. I really was not in control of myself.."
Zach takes a deep breath and collects himself. His mind knows these things to be true, but his body still remembers the savage thrashing he got. "I know," Zach confirms as he returns the handshake. "You weren't yourself." Zach slides himself into a seat and orders a cola of his own. "A teammate of mine was also caught up in it. I'm just surprised we were able to get him free of it."
Zach takes a long pull of the drink as soon as it arrives. He takes another deep breath. This is awkward on so many levels. "I understand you have an issue with a psychotic criminal overlord," Zach finally says. "His people have given another teammate of mine no end of grief, and I haven't been able to track him down since the tournament. I'd..." Another pull of the drink, another deep breath. He doesn't know precisely what Vega would do to him if the Shadaloo Boss got ahold of him, but the imagination treats him to a lot of scary images. He decides to puch through anyway. "I want to help you with that."
"Might I ask which teammate you're speaking about? Because there are a good number of people that Shadaloo has targetted for various reasons if only just cause chaos." Ken has a slight hunch as to who Zach is speaking about, but without direct confirmation he can't go openly saying names. One never knows who might be listening in the shadows.
"I'll be honest Zach. After what happened to me.. I lost a lot of good people due to believing in Fighters Honor. Vega is a fearsome warrior yes, but he has no honor. This was thrown into my face as he gunned down my camera crew during our SNF match. I expected trouble.. But I never expected this sort of thing. I've had people approach me already saying that I have to fight back. They're right. If we don't deal with him now.. he'll just get worse again."
In response to Ken's question, Zach pulls out a small publicity photo of the Mountain Lions that was taken during the King of Fighters. Zach, with longer purple hair instead of the short, violet-tipped blonde he currently has, with an arm drapped over the massive shoulder of Howard Rust. Zach has an easy laugh on his face. Standing to the side of that pair are two young men. One is of African extraction, and close-cut hair and wears Chinese clothing. The name of the sceond young man should come easily to Ken Masters.
Quon Chen.
"I haven't heard from or even /seen/ him," Zach says as he points to Quon, "Since the King of Fighters. Given what he was mixed up in, I'm more than a little worried about him."
Zach points to the African. "He got caught up in whatever it was what got you," the psion supplies. "I'm still not entirely sure how we pulled him back from that."
Yuri Sakazaki is oddly absent from the photo. Perhaps it was taken before she snuck onto the team.
Ken nods slightly at the picture, knowing just what to say next. "Zach, I think this means that I should show you everything then. There's some things I'd like to tell you that I really can't risk saying when anyone else can be listening in. Sometimes, a degree of paranoia does work."
"Fancy going for a quick ride back to my hotel?" Ken rises up from the table, and motions for Zach to follow him as he heads toward the door, handing the person handling the register a hundred dollar bill. "We were never here." A slight nod comes from the register worker as Ken leaves the building, moving towards a cherry red convertable. Its there he waits now, hoping that Zach does indeed follow while Ken mess with the roof, making sure its properly raised and covering the top of the car as it should.
Zach blinks rapidly at this. The tone of this conversation has turned just a bit, and he wasn't quite expecting it. "Sure," he says with a short nod, following Masters out. His eyes go a little wide when Ken splashes the hundred. Logical measure, and while Zach does alright for himself financially, he remembers his lean times.
Zach stops short when he sees the convertable, letting out a low whistle. The psychic may not be a car person, but even he can recognize nice when he sees it. The thought that this may be some kind of trap /does/ occur to him; Ken's still a stranger and all. However, the shorter man figures he can blast his way clear if it came to that. Might as well enjoy the ride.
Once the engine to the car is started, Ken once more starts to speak as he quickly throws it into reverse. "Quon is doing better. It seems that after Shadaloo had their way with him and left his life a wreck, he went into hiding fully. It took a LOT of work to find him. He's obviously severely nervous for anyone to find him and realize who he is, but its understandable after everything Shadaloo did to him." The words are spoken quickly, as while he can drive like a madman, it won't take long for them to get to their next destination.
"I went and hunted him down, because after investigating some things during the King of Fighters tournament, I noticed some coincidences by the name of Cammy White. I was worried when he vanished from the Neo League, and after all that had happened, I wanted to see if there was something I could do to try and help someone else that had been affected by the crap that was going on, even if I didn't do it."
"Another thing is this. I showed Quon the full footage of my SNF match with Vega. Quon is up for this as well."
Zach's hands tighten around the bundle he has with him. Cammy White. "/That/ bitch," Zach all but growls. "I've had a run-in or two with her as well." Zach turns his gaze to Ken, his eyes sharp. The expression softens when Ken explains that Quon is, in fact, not /dead/ (as Zach had feared), but simply gone dark. The psion can understand /that/ completely. He also understands Quon's desire to fix this, and get him some payback in the process.
"So," Zach states simply. "What can I do?"
"Right now? Find anyone you can who would be willing to get involved with this sort of thing. I'm going after some others, but I can't find everyone. If there are other people you know that could be interested, talk to them. Get them to agree. Vega has an army, so we'll need everything we can throw at him to topple the bastard once and for all." There is a sharp turn down a street that makes the tires squeel slightly, but its still not as bad as some of the other drivers on the road currently.
"There's a few things I'm not sure about, but I was targeted this time, which means that my family is in danger now. I'm not going to allow this to continue. I'm honestly surprised you came to me about this. I'm still unearthing a lot of things about what happened while.. I was spellbound by Orochi's power, and there is a /LOT/ that did happen."
Taking a long moment to organize his thoughts. There was a lot that was... very pertinent to his interests surrounding the King of Fighters, and not just the whole 'survival of the human race' bit.
"The people who were following the Orochi. The Cult of Gaia," Zach finally says slowly, "Were after people like me. I know what it is to be hunted." Zach's grip loosens around his package. "I didn't much like it, and I figured you wouldn't either." Zach leans back, staring at the road ahead. "It's not easy to rally our commmunity, and our interests... intersect on this matter. Doing something like this on your own, regardless of how strong you might be, it's almost impossible."
Ken once more nods his head, only to slow the car down as they near another intersection. "I've been trying to repair the things I've done. No matter what, I am still responsible for my own actions, even if I wasn't in control... Which lead.. to a couple of very nasty encounters already. A lot of people will be for something like this.. If I could ever get in touch with my sister-in-law's husband, he'd be joining this as well, and after having someone plead with me to lend my aid fully.. I've decided that I'm going to do this. I have to."
"Zach.. I truly am sorry for what I did to you. I won't ask you to forgive me, but I am glad that you're going to be involved in this. You've seen first hand how Shadaloo makes those close to us suffer.."
Zach looks at Ken out the corner of his eye before fully regarding the Ansatsuken Warrior. "We're cool," Zach replies honestly. "I know you had something inside your head, that it was driving you to do what you did." Zach goes back to looking at the road. "I... talked to Antoine. The other young man," Zach supplies, "While he had a somewhat lucid moment." Zach considers as he brings a hand up to look at it. A hand capable of great destruction. A hand now capable of easing someone's pain, of healing their physical hurts.
"We're both powerful people, Ken," Zach says quietly. "So it falls to people like us to stand up to people like Vega. Because so few actually /can/." He shrugs, grinning a bit, as he absently rubs a spot in the center of his chest, massaging a scar he received in a fight what seems like a lifetime ago. "And letting the past get in the way of that seems pretty stupid, now that I think about it."
"Yeah." Ken falls silent for a few moments as he starts to near the hotel. He reaches forward and pulls out a small card which he then holds out to Zach. "This is my personal cellphone number. I'm more inclined to answer it then my business one. What the rest of the world didn't see was Vega's full declaration, as well as what fully happened during the SNF match. Thankfully, the match was cut, but.. it isn't pretty."
"Someone just got done telling me that it falls to us to be the examples of justice and right in this world because we have the power to. I honestly had never thought about that. More and more though, this is a giant wakeup call to make me realize that I personally can't stand by while everyone else tries to fix the problems they see while I have so many people who do look up to me."
Zach takes the card, regarding it intently for a moment, before handing it back, along with a card of his. "Better not to have it on me, I think," Zach says carefully. See? He can be paranoid as well. "My number. I answer it regardless," he says to explain his card, "Since I don't give it out all that much." He shrugs as he fidgets in the oh-so-comfortable seat. Will he have something like this when he gets to where Ken's at?
Probably not, he realizes after some consideration. Zach's life is a bit too nomadic for that, people already after him for his talents, or his actions. Houses and safehouses. Maybe Zach fights groups like Shadaloo so that he can stop running and hiding.
"We do what we have to," says after that moment of contemplation. "So that we can eventually do what we /want/ to do."
Log created on 15:29:03 01/19/2012 by Zach, and last modified on 19:45:06 01/19/2012.