Disused Storage Warehouse

Surprise more than the woman's strength allowed her to shove past Zheng and into his current residence, but he quickly limped after her in as she spoke. Too shocked at the older lady's boldness, the young firebender watched in stunned silence as she ignored his presence and passed a critical eye across his makeshift home before declaring it unfit as a 'training arena'. Plonking herself down onto on of the many crates that lined the abandoned storehouse, Zheng replied to her statements.

"I'm not sure that it was built for, er, training. I'm fairly certain that it's just a storage warehouse", the young man said politely. These thoughts were pretty much identical to the ones he had thought to himself when he had first cleared a space for himself here. But no ventilation meant that there would be no chance of any smoke billowing out in noticeable clouds. The little smoke he produced slipped out of the tiny cracks in the roof, tiny cracks that appeared to have no effect of the heat.

The woman proceeded to demand that he continue in what he was doing and Zheng froze, uncertain what to do. She had obviously figured out what it was that he had been doing inside this place. He doubted that it would take her a great leap to determine that he was not here legally, even though he made sure that his "bed" was out of sight of the casual observer. His dirty clothes as well as the manner in which the debris, selves and forgotten boxes had been rearranged for more space betrayed the fact that he was more than just training in here.

"I, er..." Zheng stammered, stalling for time to think. He could not just do a runner; all of his belongings were still here. True, all those belongings could fit into a small bag, yet without them he would have nothing but the clothes sticking to his back and little chance of getting by without resorting to stealing, something he was stubbornly against doing.

Nor could he simply deny that what she was saying was true. The woman was obviously smart enough to know the signs of firebending to demand that he carried on. But why would she want to watch him train? What did she have to gain from it?

Slowly realising that there was little that he could do except obey her wishes and hope that the opportunity to flee with his few meager possessions would arise, his shoulders slumped and he went to the back to drag out another mannequin. Placing it at the other side of the warehouse like the others he had destroyed, he made certain that the doors were wide open to allow the heat to escape more easily, or for a hasty escape should he need one.

Making his way back to his position and uncomfortably aware of the old woman's eyes on him, Zheng carried on with his attacks, attempting to accurately hit the dummy from a distance. He did not have much more luck than he did previously, his focus disrupted even more by his watcher's attention.

The borrowed shoes on Hangetsu's feet flopped against the floor awkwardly as he followed Lykka. When she created a pillar to keep the door from closing he smiled but tried to hide it. He was glad one of them was a consistent earth bender with reflexes to match. He hadn't even noticed the door.

Hangetsu had been trained in basic interrogation. Like any inexperienced cop he thought he'd be good at it. Make some fake threats, look intimidating then leave the prisoner to his own devices whereupon they confess to everything from murder to the location of their hidden stash of erotic paintings during puberty.
What Hangetsu saw Lykka do was something far more simple and delicate not to mention frightening.

An instructor of his once stated that criminals were a cowardly and superstious lot. They both generated fear and succumbed to it by believing in ridiculous reputations. Grown men weren't accustomed to nearly soiling themselves after a few whispers from a tween girl no matter how superstitious.
The some time metal bender took a breath and muttered to himself.
"That'll just be a cold case." There was something more important happening.

After Lykka gestured for him to join her Hangetsu stared at the large criminal. Rather short and wearing glasses Hangetsu knew that he didn't cut an intimidating figure. Even though he was hardly imposing he had the greatest weapon in the entire arsenal of the police force. Fear of metal benders. Exaggerated feats of metal bending kept circulating around the city. Every criminal heard a story from a cousin who heard it from a friend of a friend who had his gold teeth pulled out from a block away by a metal bender. The more ridiculous the feat the more people swore to the Gods it was true.
Hangetsu learned that a straight face and a bold lie could do a lot of good. It was the only weapon he had on him other than a few coins and his erratic bending.
"Get out of here." He noticed surgical scars on the man's left shoulder and put on his best bluff face. "I can feel the pins in your shoulder. If I feel them anywhere near me I'm pulling them out. Start running now."

Lying convincingly about his bending was something he had to do constantly at the station around people trained to see deception. What gnawed at Hangetsu was lying to a civillian who seemed to rely on him.
"Lykka, I..." He paused to stare at the mechanical splendor of the hidden warehouse elevator and the beautiful glowing stones that lighted their way down. The gap of time between his awe and being confronted by five people who didn't seem like they would obey the will of a haggard police officer out of uniform and in someone else's shoes. Still, Lykka tried reason. It wasn't practical or realistic, but he liked that. The world needed more people who weren't so practical and cynical and he'd be damned if he'd let something happen to one of those rare people.

"There's other elevators in this place. Don't let them take the trucks away, I'm begging you officer !"
Lykka, the young delivery girl from Top of the World Company, had been the first person to ever look at him like a police officer and trust him as such.

For the first time in far too long Hangetsu's confidence wasn't manufactured. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his right palm and smirked.
"You got it, partner. And call me Hangetsu." Ironically, the first person the man who ever teamed up with for law enforcement wasn't even an officer. For some reason he liked that.

He held the only weapons he had on him, a few yuan worth of coins but at the moment he felt confident in his ability to wield them as deadly projectiles.
"Well?" he shouted to the room of thieves.

When the first chi blocker ran for one of the trucks the officer had his answer.

As much as Hangetsu wanted to admire the scenery of the submerged room staring through a glass window was not a viable option with a chi blocker running toward him. Even with that chi blocker partially crushed by a beautifully glowing chunk of crystal it still didn't leave time for taking in the sights.

Hangestu jumped off the mound of crystal and managed an awkward sliding tackle on one of the bola slingers. Since he was an occasional optimist the occasional metal bender thought he could take down both people with one tackle. It was not so.

He had wanted to save Lykka from being bound and succeeded to a degree. After swinging his shin into the head of the man he tackled the second bola wielder used his bola on the officer with the unfortunate tackling ability. Along with being a poor defender in soccer he was now a man with his right arm bound to his torso via bola.

The bender with one usable arm was not ambidextrous but his ability to use his left arm was not too much weaker than his dominant right arm. Despite not being around much, or even much of a male role model at all, Hangetsu's father did give him a wonderful piece of advice. Have a strong and dexterous left arm. The career criminal mentioned that when being cuffed to bounty hunters they typically cuffed his right arm to their left. Therefore the elder Tsukishima preached the gospel of fighting with only the left arm.
Hangetsu had no respect for his father but it was good advice and he took it to heart growing up.

In a feat that secretly impressed him Hangetsu sent a chunk of glowing rock toward a man trying to enter the cab of one of the delivery trucks. One of the trucks he had promised Lykka would not leave this human fish tank. The rock hit the door with enough force to slam the door onto the wannabe getaway driver's arm.
Now they were both men with useless right arms.

Disused Storage Warehouse

Sora watched patiently — for a few seconds. But unfortunately the younger firebender chose that moment to launch his first strike at the mannequin, and his poor form coupled with blatant inaccuracy incensed the older bender to no end. She began to scowl, more and more with each strike. Time lasted only about two or three minutes before she made a sound of disgust, "Ugh!", threw up her hands, and reached way back to grab just one of her canes before goose-stepping over to the man.

"No no no!" she whapped him on his back with her cane. "Your stance is too narrow, it's a wonder you haven't fallen down from lack of balance. Proper firebending requires a nice wide stance; even the old separatist styles used shoulders' widths between front and back foot!" She dropped her cane and added, "Besides, you're not committing enough to your strikes. You release too early, it lacks focus and direction, and your shots fly askew. You release just right, it flies true."

She let fly with three quick strikes, first extending her right fist as far as her arm could reach, then pulling it back to her ribs while extending the left fist the same, and then finally pulling her left fist back and extending her right hand with open palm aimed sideways. The shots flew straight and true to the mannequin, a fireball to the head, a fireball to the heart, and then a narrow wheel of fire slicing and burning halfway through the wooden mannequin. Smoke issued from the outside as well as from the scorch marks on the front.

Harrumphing, she slowly reached down to pick her cane back up, cursing her arthritic knees as she did so, and said to counter the negative criticism she had just given, "You do seem to have the speed and agility down though, dearie. But you just can't ignore the basics. It's stupid, and an insult to the traditions of firebending besides."

Even during the chaos Hangetsu made sure to keep at least part of his attention focused on Lykka. He was charged with making sure she made it home safely and was determined to at least do something right that day. It was that distraction that allowed the his enemy to land a blow to his face and knock him to the ground.
Lykka's shield came before he even had time to be concerned.

Using his one unbound arm Hangetsu diverted the path of the crystal shield into the man that had broken the left lense of his glasses. Now not only was he defenseless from the left side but he couldn't see any oncoming attacks from that side.
As tactically horrible as it was Hangetsu was overjoyed to have bended successfully twice in a row. Counting his trip on the wires to the warehouse it had been his best bending day since finding out about his grandfather's death.

It didn't escape the rookie officer's notice that this was his first case as a metal bender even if it was unofficial. It was also the first time someone depended on him for something more important than direction or ushering the homeless out of the park.
He assumed it was the dire situation that kept his spirit from it's usual tangents but part of him suspected that Lykka was good bending luck.


Hangetsu's world got twice as blurry as before when someone's shin met the right side of his face and shattered the last good lens of his glasses. With his eyes gone and even his erratic earth bending senses inaccessable due to his wounded feet

Awkward wresting ensued. The bender listened for ragged breathing and tried to guess where his enemy lied from the angle of the punches that landed on his face. When a hard fist colided with his left temple Hangetsu could feel his opponent's position through the pain with whatever cells remained in his rattled brain.
It was a widely swung elbow blow but he knew it must have connected to something human as his right arm wasn't broken from slamming into the hard glass ground.

Despite being temporarily blind and only having one useful arm Hangetsu never felt tougher. He took the posture he was taught to sense metal in a certain radius. Loose change, fillings, weapons, anything metal other than the trucks.
He felt the brass knuckles coming toward him before he felt them smash into his ribs. The second hurt considerably more than the first.
He could barely choke out a warning. For the purpose of warning her to escape or letting her know that he was in deep trouble, Hangetsu was not sure.

Like their namesake, the Shadowhand moved through the streets of their district in Republic City, carrying two very important items: a metal glove, and a boy. The building they were heading to bore the insignia of the Black Fox, and she was the one to open the door and close it behind them.

A vast, two story warehouse sprawled out in front of them, and Kayako flipped a switch to reveal makeshift lights hung on metal stands. Each row flared to life as they walked by, and the men set the boy on a table in the center of the floor.

"Do you think you can fix him?" She stood over the boy, eyeing the wounds. With deft motion, her fingers plucked the throwing knives from his wounds, earning a glare from Hazen.

"You should have waited until I started healing." The Waterbender stepped closer to the table, picking up a bowl of dirty water sitting on the floor by the table.

"Isn't healing woman's work?" She raised an eyebrow and watched as Hazen, separating the water from its impurities, began to move his liquid-gloved hands over the bloody spots.

"You should thank the spirits that the knives stayed in. He might've bled out." The Waterbender had been a Healer, once upon a time, but bad circumstances led to his current situation.

"Just fix him. Please." She added the last word after he shot another glare at her. "So, what do you think? Did he earn it."

"He did good for losing." Wolfie smiled.

"Agreed. Let's give him some time to wake up. I doubt he'll be willing to cooperate." She turned back to the boy and, seeing that Hazen had mended the wounds, struck a point just above his heart. That would interrupt function to anything below the waist; at least he wouldn't be able to run.

The Fox's Den, Southwest District

He was surprised when he finally opened his heavy eyes. The overwhelming yellow of the lights blinded him as he stirred from consciousness. A throaty groan eased from the thin gap between his dry lips. His hands clenched and unclenched as he noticed the alarming freedom his left seemed to have possessed. It felt naked. Feeling the cool air weave in between his fidgeting fingers, he realized his glove was missing. That infuriating woman had taken it, he thought. Anger seethed through his body as he launched his fists at something, somebody-hopefully that deceiving bitch-despite the plaguing nuisance that the stinging brightness brought to his eyes. With a great heave, he lifted his back up a few centimetres off the table before dropping back onto the table. Apprehension kept him bound as he struggled to move his legs. The sudden distress of paralysis marred his conscious- he would have preferred to have been killed instead of being wheelchair bound; the potential reality terrified him. He grinded his molars together, trying to shift his legs again before realizing that the wench had probably blocked the chi flowing to his feet. Now wide-awake, Jun fought with his words.

“The hell am I doing here?” He cried out, pounding against the table with his fists, “The fuck do you want from me?”

While his eyes flickered around in search for the perpetrators of his kidnapping, he noticed how his wounds had been cleaned up. A shiver elicited a nervous gulp. Were they going to let him go eventually or they were saving him for more heinous things? Either way, he pronounced his distaste for his agitating situation with slam of his fist against the table, a vein in his neck bulging as he craned side to side. Jun wanted out.

Hangetsu felt as if someone had dug their fingers into his eye sockets and then pulled his skull apart. He wiped the blood from his eyes but his vision was a shaking blur from his broken glasses and head trauma. It was a painful reminder of what a useless rookie he was. He passed his metal bending test due to a fluke and hadn't a solid instance of earth bending far too long to even consider himself a bender.

Metal benders had to be sensitive to details. They had to detect the tiny earthen elements inherent in metals and bend them. While Hangetsu wasn't a consistent metal bender he could feel when a chunk of earth heading his way. It felt good to have a bending source nearby. It was less comforting to hear the sound of a large man barreling down on him and the sound of a crack in the giant fish tank they fought in.

Drowning seemed like a pleasant means of entering the spirit world when he felt the large man collide into him. That feeling was a pleasant memory compared to how he felt when he was pinned down. It reminded him of a bully at school he had once tried to arrest as a child when being a police officer was a far off goal. The burly youth had only struck the overly enthusiastic child playing cop once before climbing on top of him to beat him.
This time he doubted an adult would pull his bully off of him and his big sister wasn't around to seek revenge at a later time.

He still had that small chunk of crystal Lykka had sent his way but was afraid that at that close of range he'd end up killing someone for the first time. He didn't want his first big collar ending in such a way. The two biggest male role models of his young life, his grand father and his earth bending agreed: Killing was not easy to live with. With a heavy heart he sent a small bit of sharp, jagged crystal at the man attacking him along with a silent prayer to the spirits that he not become a murderer that day.

When Hangetsu stood up he saw the most beautiful of sights through his blurred vision. An immensely large angry man looking to kill him. A living one. He hadn't killed the man but he did send him flying a a good distance.

As happy as the rookie officer was the see the man he didn't feel like being the victim of murder any more than being the perpetrator. He suspected an obvious frontal attack would do no good but an indirect one might.
"Cross!"

Hangetsu launched the crystal ball at Lykka confident that it would be struck before he could receive a lethal foul.

Disused Storage Warehouse

Zheng's next attempt at striking the dummy fizzled out as the old lady made a noise of disgust at him. He flinched away as she grabbed one of her canes from the poker holder she had placed them both on, taking a step back as memories of his father's angry fists flooded uninvited into his mind's eye. His heart fluttered in panic and it took him a few moments to remember that he was not a little boy and that his father was no longer around to harm him.

As she strode up to him, he winced as she cracked him across the back with her prop, pushing him to lean weight on his bad leg. Zheng hissed as pain flared up the appendage and anger burned in his chest. He clenched his fist, digging the nails into his palm until the emotion faded away. It did not take that long; his chronic anxiety usually doused his rage without much trouble.

Focusing on what the old woman was saying to him to stop himself thinking about his sore back, he knew that she was completely correct. His display just now was utterly abysmal. He knew that he could do much better, but it had been such a long time since he had performed in front of someone else or had anyone critique his form that he had no idea on how to improve in the years since he and his family ran from his father. The truth was that it was entirely possible that his ability had become degraded from years of neglect.

His companion put her words into practice and sent several blasts of fire soaring at the target that Zheng had been using. Within seconds, the mannequin was wobbling from the force of the strikes the old lady had delivered. The attacks had been far more accurate than anything that he had been able to produce today. Reaching down to collect her cane, she went on to compliment his speed and agility but quickly switched back to criticising him, saying that he was ignoring the basics and the '"traditions" of firebending. A flicker of a mirthless smile appeared on his face for a moment before he began to settle into the wider stance she had advised, putting a shoulders' width of distance between each foot.

"Yes, well, I didn't learn much about 'firebending traditions' the way I was taught", Zheng commented coolly. He had almost spoken out loud how he had only learned what his father could beat into him with force, but had been able to stop himself before he did so. That was really nobody's business but his own.

Taking several calming breaths to still his mind and to refocus his attention away from his bitter line of thought, Zheng thrust his fist towards the mannequin. Fire blossomed out from his clenched right hand, shooting forwards and striking the dummy hard on the shoulder. The blow, while not as accurate as he would have hoped, had been a good one and a wooden arm went flying away. The attack had also knocked the mannequin enough to push it over and it started to topple.

Everything suddenly appeared to slow down for the young firebender, the dummy's descent to the warehouse floor seemingly happening at an ant-snail's pace. Zheng felt his body moving almost as if on its own accord, with his left hand forming a fist and punching forwards across his chest. He could feel his energy forming as fire was birthed into existence as a ball of light, curving through the air and homing in on the mannequin. Zheng was almost certain he could see the dust in the air igniting around the fireball as it passed by. In what felt like a lifetime, the blast of flame finally made contact with the target, smashing into it's chest with such force that it was thrown back into the metal warehouse wall behind it and smashed into several peaces.

Time sped back to its normal pace as Zheng gawked like an idiot at the remains of the smoking mannequin, momentarily forgetting that he was not alone in the his makeshift home.

The Black Fox put a hand up when the boy woke up, swinging his fists around and beating the table. She'd expected him to react the way he did, especially without his glove, but she couldn't help but smile at the fact that she needed to hold the others back. Taking a few steps forward, the leader slipped the gauntlet over her arm; it didn't fit, but she'd be able to use it if she had to. She'd prefer it if the boy did, though.

"Relax. You'll be able to walk in a few minutes." She walked over to the table and stood at his immobile feet, letting the dragon hang by her side. She slipped it off and set it between his legs. "I'm sorry about what happened. You took me by surprise when you mouthed off. People usually know who they're talking to. You're not from around here, are you?"

She took a few more steps and stopped by the arm she'd disabled. "Now, I won't blame you if you run out of here, but until you do, I want you to think about something. I want you to think about joining us."

Truth be told, the Shadowhand hadn't gotten a new member since Kayako, and since then, they'd lost one in a turf war. The loss had been palpable, but she had to slag on and keep things going. The District would have fallen apart, otherwise. Oh, she knew the police would have loved to even hear about some of the things that went on under her, and the gang's, watch. They'd never find out, of course (if she could help it), and she needed all the help she can get.

"Think about it."

Disused Storage Warehouse

Despite her senior moments, Sora was no idiot. She registered several beats too late how the younger bender had reacted to being hit by her cane. No more of that, she reminded herself, and then struggled against the fogs of memory to maintain what it was she was doing no more of.

Still, she didn't feel like babying this man-child, so she settled for a combination of scowl and sugar-sweet smile in response to his excuse about his former training. Any bad training can be overcome with dedication... and a good trainer, she said to herself rather than saying aloud, not wanting to distract the boy from trying his shots again. Her gambit worked — he released a one-two punch with a kicker that shattered the wooden doll against the framework of the training arena--er, the warehouse.

Sora nodded with a pleased expression on her face, hands folded over the top of her cane. "Much better," she complimented the young man. "With some better instruction, you'd be a formidable opponent. Of course, these mannequins don't move the way a normal opponent would, but I suppose for a beginner, it's a good start." She hobbled back over to her former seat, gently nudged another mannequin out of a tumbled pile with her cane, and then dug her heel forward across the floor, using a small, almost lightning-charged flash of fire to propel the dummy back over to the young firebender.

"Now just set that one up, dearie, and I'll show you the next thing you ought to be working on," she said sweetly, shuffling back over to her new pupil with one hand rubbing her lower back.

Despite the pain Hangetsu was in a terrific mood. He couldn't file an official report or take any sort of credit without getting in trouble but it was still his first big bust and nothing could take that away from him. He imagined he looked ghoulish smiling with a face full of blood.

"Thank you...for going so far to help me."
Hangetsu's smile widened and he reached into the inner pocket of his white suit jacket for a spare pair of glasses using his one untied hand. At the moment seeing clearly was more important than using both hands. He wanted to see Lykka's face.
"Thank you for trusting me. You're the first person to trust me with something important."

"Do you think the police will be there soon?"
Hangetsu helped the soccer player with the bolo until he was freed and then rotated his now free arm.
"Nah...we're pretty far down so they won't notice for a while." He scratched his face and sighed as he debated what to say next. It was a pivotal moment for him and he knew it. It would help decide what kind of cop he was.
"These trucks will need to be impounded because they're evidence. If we don't have evidence we can't arrest these guys." This was partly to relay important information to Lykka but mostly to remind himself of the situation. A by-the-book cop would simply state that all the trucks were needed and disappoint the young girl. A renegade would let her take the trucks and find another way to nail the perps.

Hangetsu sighed and rubbed his eyes under his small rectangular glasses.
"Okay, you can call someone to take your trucks on two conditions. One: Someone testifies in court and these guys go to jail. Two: I'm not mentioned. I took you home and that was it. I can get in a lot of trouble for this." He blushed a little as he admitted he was afraid of getting into trouble. Though it meant losing his job and most of his self-esteem Hangetsu was more afraid of being yelled at by his superiors. They intimidated him greatly.

He stuck out his hand. "Deal?"

Disused Storage Warehouse

When his older companion complimented his attack, a weak smile appeared on his face for a second. Had being in a different stance really improved his abilities so much? It did not seem likely. He had been taught that breath was the most important part of firebending. Yet the smashed up mannequin told a different tale. While what she was saying about the way that the dummies did not move was obviously true, he had never been able to pull off a move like that in his life. Maybe this was that "spark" that his father had always said that he had? Zheng had thought that it had only been a trick to push him into continuing his training.

The old lady shoved a fresh mannequin his way, asking him to set it up so that she could carry on with the lesson. Taking hold of the dummy and dragging it to the other side t=of the warehouse, Zheng frowned to himself as he wondered why this person was trying to help him. In his experience, strangers did not do things for nothing and he was starting to grow suspicious of her motives. What was she going to get out of giving him pointers for his firebending? Was this the prelude to something far more sinister? Whatever the case, he decided to keep a closer eye on her in the chance that she began doing something out of the norm.

Squaring the mannequin up to face where he would be standing, Zheng trudged back to the spot where he had stood previously and looked at the old woman silently as she prepared the next lesson she had in store for him.