Description: Ken Masters gets an interesting business proposal from an up-and-coming fighter.
It's been a quiet day for a certain chairman. Generally, when Ken's stuck doing paperwork in his office, the phones are ringing like crazy and he has people rushing in and out of his office every two point five minutes. Today has been nothing like that, giving Ken the chance to finish off all the paperwork thats been backlogged since he left to go overseas. Really, it only took him about two hours to do all of it, leaving the rest of his day rather free.
So, what's a good chairman supposed to do when he has free time? Take off the tie, fling it into some random corner of the office and kick back in that nice chair behind the desk. If things like this continues, he might just try and convince Eliza to find a babysitter for the day and go slack off with her somewhere.
Of course, responsibility trumps slacking off, and the blonde Ansatsuken expert sits there, waiting for his phone to ring, or things to get insane once again as interns and employees rush in and out of his office trying to get his approval on things.
"So boooooring..."
Ken gets a beep from the desk phone. "Mister Masters," the hot personal assistan in the front office says through the line, "There is a Mister Glen here to see you. He does not have an appointment." She sounds a bit displeased by that.
"Go ahead and send him up. I've got an opening in my schedule." Of course, Ken doesn't really bother moving from his 'relaxed' position at his desk. He's bound and determined to keep that going.
A moment or three later, Zach enters with a bit of confidence. There is also one other notable thing about the psion's appearance.
He is wearing a business suit. "Mister Masters," Zach says with cheerful politelness. "Thank you for your time. How's things?"
"Please, call me Ken." The blonde Ansatsuken expert sits up in his chair now. He studies the young psion for a few moments, obviously trying to figure out what exactly the younger man could really want. A slight grin appears on his face.
"You actually caught me at a rather good time Zach. I've not got a lot of work going on today, so it's actually good to have some form of distraction. So how can I help you?"
"Glad to be of help," Zach says amicably. He understands the occassional need for a break in tedium. He fidgets with the suit for a moment, trying to prepare his words. He decides to get right to it.
"I want to start a school. For psychics," he says. He stops, and thinks about it for a second. Ideas are racing through his head, seemingly spurred on by Ken's curiousity. Zach opts to stay on target.
"When I started my fighting career, I had almost no clue about the powers I have," Zach explains. "It was, if you'll pardon the French, fucking terrifying. I don't want to see others go through that if I can help it."
"...That's a big undertaking. I'll admit I have little real understanding of it myself." Ken leans back once more in his chair, trying to figure out what exactly this truly could mean. It's not often something like this even gets brought up, and he's not the best resource on the subject.
Ken reaches over and presses a button on his intercom. "Send up some drinks, and hold all calls, visitors and any sort of interruptions that will require my intervening. Unless Eliza calls or shows up, no one is to interrupt this meeting until its over." He releases the button and leans back, staring at Zach now, truly trying to get a grasp on the situation.
"I'm going to be honest Zach. Something like that could pose a huge problem. I'm not trying to say no to it, but.. Psychic abilities are a truly uncharted territory, except by very unsavory elements. We both know of a couple of good examples of said elements, and what worries me is that something like this could be seen as a way of trying to build an army of psychics that don't answer to anyone..."
Zach grins a bit at that. "I know a bit more than I did back then about this. Some of it is experience, some of it is stuff I've picked up from others," he says. "And you're right on all of those counts." Zach pauses, takes a deep breath, then grins again.
"And that's why it's not just going to be a school for psychics. Most of of us," us meaning psychics, "Come into our abilities during the highschool years. I was actually a bit late coming into mine. This school wouldn't just provide training and instruction in the use of those abilities, but it'd offer high-school and graduate education."
Another faint grin crosses Zach's features. "Of course, as an alternative to the physical education requirements, we could also provide training for people who would like to become fighters. Maybe have guest instructors to expose students to a variety of martial art styles."
Zach looks a bit hopeful; this is something he /wants/ to do. "Of course, it's all just an idea right now," he says a bit quietly.
Ken isn't quite sold on it just yet, honestly trying to figure out how exactly something like this truly could work. "Zach. There are a good number of schools around the world that do just that. Taiyo High, Pacific High, Justice High.. even Gedo High. However, those are all in Japan. While they breed some of the next generation of fighters.. none of them specialize truly in what you're thinking of..."
There's a few moments of silence from Ken as he tries to really get this figured out from a business standpoint. "The biggest hurdle is WHERE would it be established? Not to mention.. How could we get people to even come to the school? It'd be expensive, which I'm fairly certain you figured that out already. There's also the stigma of psychics in general. People fear them overall because they don't have any sort of real 'training' on how to control themselves.. So they just run wild, and even trying to get people to admit they have these abilities.."
Zach looks around for a moment before grabbing a chair to sit in. He pulls it under him before looking back to Ken. "It's... not much different from how a good chunk of the world sees fighters, Ken. They don't consider whether they use chi or they use psychic energy. They just see a guy who can shrug off, or punch back, rocket fire, and then they get concerned that the guy will get bad ideas." Zach stares at the floor for a moment, thinking back to Mongolia.
"Especially when you see stuff like Taizhou, and the bombing in China before that whole mess kicked off," Zach says. "One of the aims, a bit down the list as far as I am concerned but still on it, is to educate /everyone/. Not just those who find that they can wield 'powers of the mind', but the people those budding psychics will have to live their lives among." Zach considers for a moment.
Zach says, "I was thinking of building the thing in the States. You have about a ton of schools that teach fighting even periphially all throughout Asia. Metro City's at the top of the list at the moment.""
Of course Zach had to mention Metro City. Ken nods slightly at the idea of it. "Zach... Have you thought about the costs of it yet? How will admission be handled? Some of these things are the problems that'll plague even a simple nursery school from opening. You're talking about a school that leads into higher education as well, which means getting it accredited by the board of education."
Ken sighs loudly, leaning back in his chair as an intern brings in a try of assorted drinks, ranging from water to root beer. It's obvious they didn't bother trying to narrow things down. The tray is set down on the desk, and the intern rushes off, doing their best to make sure they don't interrupt anything important.
"I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but from a business standpoint it's going to be something that will require more then passion. This is the kind of thing I honestly hate the most about getting things going, because it just seems like there's always something else that has to be thought about. Really hurts my head thinking about it all."
"Anything worth doing," Zach says, "Takes more than just passion." Zach glances over the tray, snags the root beer. "I've hit a point, Ken, where I am tired of just knocking people around in a ring. Fighting's fun, and all, but..." Zach takes a sip, glancing at the bottle to see what brand it is.
"But being a fighter was not on my 'things I wanted to be when I grew up," Zach says. "I had to put college on hold because I had to figure out how to stop being a bomb." He holds up an empty hand, "I know, I know. I'm an extreme example. It's not like that for most psychics, but it was for me." Zach scowls as he takes a tug of the root beer. Good stuff! "I'm more than willing to do the groundwork, the legwork, and all the other 'works' that come into play," he says. "To be brutally honest, though," here it is, "This thing's going to require a pretty large investment. My accounts are decent, and I'm working to grow them all the time, but they don't come close to the Masters Foundation."
Zach shrugs, "Could represent a tax write-off."
"Money isn't the issue for me Zach. It's obvious I've got enough to be truly frivolous in any way I want. The biggest issue is the fact that you're going to need more help then you can realize. Something like this would be an amazing thing, as it could help a lot of people. I understand that quite well."
Ken reaches forward and grabs a bottle of water, quickly opening it to take a long swig from the bottle. "If you do this on your own Zach, it'll take you about a couple of years at least." There's a moment where he's no longer quite so sure about it, especially as he tries to figure out the actual overall costs in his head.
"The investment that you'd need is going to be staggering, and that's the easiest part of all. So, I'm going to ask you this once, and I want you to honestly think about it. Is this something you truly believe will benefit the world, Zach?"
Zach stares at Ken for a moment. This is it, he thinks. This is the moment. This has to be, if not perfect, then /right/. He holds the bottle of root beer in both hands, the grip on the cool glass grounding him, in a way.
"I could give you a line about how this school could be the beginning of the start of a new age where psychics and 'normal' fighters and normal people learn to live together in peace. Or at least learn to coexist with one another. I could go on to tell you that even if there was only one psychic, no other fighters and a few hundred normal students that are getting a good education, then this would be a worthwhile thing in my mind." Zach takes a breath, clutching the bottle. "But that would be a bunch of bullshit," he finishes. "/True/ bullshit, but bullshit all the same. This is something I want to do." Zach finishes off the root beer, then sets the bottle gently on the tray. "So I'm going to do it, one way or the other. Your help would, of course, help to speed things up a bit. You were the first person I came to because I knew you'd see all of that."
And there it is, Zach thinks. He's likely sunk any chance of getting Ken's help with this, he also thinks.
"One way or the other.. Man, I haven't heard someone say that kind of thing in a long time, and actually have the balls to really mean it." Ken grins at Zach, moving to set the bottle of water down on the tray as well.
"The standard principle investment is about twenty to thirty million dollars for this sort of thing. That is of course if you're wanting to build the facility from the ground up. You'll also need to decide on what the tuition is going to be, because since it won't be funded by the government, you're going to have to charge. Of course there's scholarships and so on that're easily handed out to a lot of people to ensure everyone has a fair shot for a private education. Then there's the timeline of repayment of the investment loan."
Ken reaches over and presses another button on his intercom. "Get the main foundation's legal department on the line. I want to speak to all of them immediatly."
"The secret to my power is an iron will," Zach says. It's hard to tell if he is being serious by his tone, but it is true in a great many ways. "I'd likely foot the bill, and the training for, any psychics that come along. I'll be actively recruiting once this gets going, and on the lookout leading up to it." He considers.
"I think a brand-new facility would be best. We're going to have to build some kind of uber-gym for it, after all," Zach says. He is a good deal more animated than he was when he came in. He is quickly approaching the level of personal (but not psychic) energy that he brings to a fight, and doesn't seem like he's going to stop at match level. "I know I said Metro was at the top of the list, but I do want to consider other places in the U.S," Zach says as he pulls out a smart phone. He pulls up a list and shows it to Ken.
It's full of ideas. Some of them stink on ice; Zach has never started a school of any kind before. Others, though, in fact the majority of them seem if not solid then really good. He's been thinking about this, clearly.
Ken holds up a hand as his phone starts ringing. He picks up the receiver, only to start talking. "Listen. I've decided once again to branch the company out in another way. I'm fairly certain my father isn't going to go against it, and will be all for it. So, here's what I need done. I need investment papers drawn up for about fifty million, with thirty of it to be paid back. We're eating the other twenty as a donation. I also want the United States Board of Education contacted, and I want accreditation approval to be put in motion for a high school and college campus with the location to be determined. We'll also need to contact some of the contracting companies we usually go through for my father's hotels. I also need.. lets see.."
The blonde man actually stops talking for a moment, leaning forward to look at the list of locations that Zach has on his phone. "I'll need Mike Haggar contacted, as well as the mayors of Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Portland, Seattle, Dallas, Atlanta, Cleveland, Phillidelphia and let's say Boston. Tell them we want bids for opening a school and college campus in those locations. We're most likely going to end up dealing with Mike on this, but make him sweat it out and really fight to win this."
Ken nods a few times, making quick comments here and there. "Oh hell, add Salt Lake City to that list as well. Also compile a list from the National Teachers Union for high qualified candidates for High School and College courses. Send it to Mister Zach Glen. Yes, we have his contact information on file. Yes, he's sitting infront of me in my office. Of course, this is what I pay you to do since my father stepped down. Okay. Good. OH! One last thing. I want the PR on this to remain downkey until Mister Glen gives the go ahead on it. Okay. No, don't bother sending it to the office. I'm going to take a few days to myself to spend with my family, so just Fed-Ex them to my house and I'll get the rest taken care of on my end. All right. I'll talk to you guys soon."
Ken sighs loudly as he places the phone back on the receiver, staring directly at Zach. "I guess I'll have to tell you how to get to my house tomorrow, now won't I?"
"If you want to talk about this tomorrow," Zach says politely, "Then that might be good." Zach grins a bit. "Or, if you'd prefer, we could probably set up some kind of video conference thing."
Log created on 17:10:42 04/12/2012 by Zach, and last modified on 20:31:08 04/12/2012.