The cold night air was still. The trees remained motionless, their leaves glowing slightly with the light from the lamp posts. Not a sound was heard, for there were no moving creatures in the area at that point. That specific part of Republic City Park was like a painting, frozen, lifeless, in a way.
Except it wasn't.
In the shadows, a dozen of little lives waited. Their presence, and actions, had scared the nightly fauna, and so they stayed motionless, in hiding. Not entirely motionless, for those of them who didn't have the luxury of more than a layer of clothing — and that was a considerable portion of them — were shivering. It was said Republic City was a land of opportunity, of togetherness, a place singular in the way it allowed for people of all walks of life to coexist, and thrive, pacifically. Bunch of crap. The only thing Republic City had in equality was how it would attempt to equally destroy all of those who weren't fortunate enough to resist its "gift". A girl among the people hidden in the shadows knew this too well.
The thought of the word — equality — sent a different shiver down her spine, reminding her of the latest attraction in the show of horrors that was Republic City: the Equalists. Those freaks thought it was wrong to be able to bend, they thought benders should stand among non-benders as, to use their precious word, "equal". It disgusted her, to think of their selfishness, their ignorance. Being able to bend an element was a gift, and as such those capable of doing so should be entitled to different treating. If it weren't for bending, she wouldn't even be alive anymore.
Her line of thought was broken by a sign, given to her by one of her fellows, hiding a short distance away. Their target was approaching, and so was the moment to strike it. The sound of wheels against the dirt road, and the grumbling of the engine, announced the imminent arrival of the cab. The sound was enough to hide the noises coming from the other side of the road, even from the girl's attentive ears, but she knew what was happening, and what would happen afterwards.
Imperceptible to the cab driver, a bump appeared on the road, right beneath it, connecting with its hind wheels and halting it to a stop. The cab driver, perched on the back of the vehicle, was propelled forward, rolling over the top of the cab and falling to the ground in front of it. Fortunately, for him, the engine's urge to move the vehicle was being completely denied by the bent earth on the wheels.
That was it. Half of the shadow people left their hiding places, revealing themselves in the dim yellow light. Kids, all of them, same as the girl, who was still hiding. She was one of the oldest, her fifteenth birthday coming soon. Sometimes she would think about how unfair life was, to let children fend for themselves in a place like that, but that always reminded her of the orphanages, and she would shiver and perish the thought. "The lesser of two evils", as she had once read in a tattered book.
She watched as the kids got into formation — if you could call that shameful arrangement of inexperienced benders set some distance apart in a road a "formation". Most of them bent terribly, they barely knew any forms, rarely bothered learning new ones, and failed miserably when trying to do so. Even now, as they faced their target, only one of them seemed like a real bender, and it was him who spoke.
"Exit the vehicle", his voice was firm, and his eyes intense. He stood out among the other kids, not only in height, but in other aspects as well. He had to, he was their leader.
The passenger, or passengers, of the cab, shrouded by the shadow of the vehicle's roof, stepped out of it slowly, into the artificial light, which revealed a tall, dark haired man, over forty years of age, dressed in fancy green robes. Earth Kingdom, most likely, or maybe just someone who liked the color. That'd be refreshing.
This was their fourth strike on the park. The first two were a mess, they barely made it into the park without the police spotting them, and it was pure luck that they managed to escape. Or maybe the police let them slide, being street urchins and all, which would be more likely. Then, they decided to get smart, and actually plan this, and study which parts of the park were less patrolled until they found this patch that had no security most of the time — the girl's theory was that it was so the rich lovers could do what they please without the police watching. Their precious privacy would be their downfall, as was proven right when they robbed a fat man, who was sharing a cab ride with a woman wearing tight clothes and heavy make-up. They got a quite a lot of yuans from that strike, but almost all of it was taken from them by some Triad thugs. This fourth strike was the last, they would get the money and go someplace new in the city, try to make a living. The leader was trying to learn lightning bending so he could work at the power plant, and she was trying to find a good waterbender so they could try their hand at pro-bending (the one on their Triad — it looked a lot like on at the moment, why call it something else? — was too young and weak to be able to compete). Things were looking up for once, if only they could pull this off.
The rich man looked at all of them as if they were insects, like their existence meant nothing to him. He shot a glance at the fallen cab driver, but didn't check if he was okay. "That bastard", the girl thought, "I'm one of the people robbing you and even I care if the driver's not too hurt, rich piece of—"
The man's deep voice uttered:
"You may run now, or fight me. Choose."
The shock was common, nobody expected opposition like that. But they had planned for this; he was, most likely, a bender. Things just got harder, but unless he was some great master, their numbers would probably be enough. "Please, let our numbers be enough."
Although a couple of the younger ones, and that coward Shi, flinched, none of them left, and rapidly adjusted their stance. Glances were shot at the standing man, who stared darkly into Lei's — our leader's — eyes. He returned the stare in matching intensity.
The man, after what seemed to be a calculated pause, said:
"So be it. The ones in the shadows may step out now; I prefer to take you all at once."
Wait, what? How could he know they were there? Their cover was perfect, and the girl was making sure nobody moved an inch. Well, until now, since sounds were coming from all around, from the surprised kids. Most of them weren't expecting to actually fight, they were the backups, it was supposed to be enough for the main team to handle. Things were going off-track too fast.
Personally, the girl wouldn't back away from a challenge — something that had gotten her in trouble several times — but she was aware of Lei's orders. Lei was one of the very few people the girl would listen to, and so, she stayed in place, serving as an example for the rest of her team.
The man talked again, without removing his cold gaze from Lei:
"Suit yourselves."
And then it happened. It was all so fast. The man quickly shifted into a bending stance that the girl had never seen, and started bending the earth using only his left arm and his feet. It was incredible, one motion from the arm to the side, and Shi and one of the kids were catapulted into a lake on the other side of the trees. One sweep from the leg and another one fell flat on his back, incapacitated, quickly followed by the one next to him who, in a bending motion that the girl didn't catch because she was still watching the effect of the previous one, got swollen by the earth, up to his waist. That one was an earthbender, the girl had trained him herself, and he was a good bender as well, but he was terrible under pressure, to the point where he couldn't focus enough to bend his way out his present condition.
All that was left was Lei, who surprisingly maintained his stance. "Not surprisingly, I guess", the girl thought. She had observed for quite a while how Lei remained firm in the face of adversity. She admired that.
The earthbender apparently noticed he was different from the others and saved him for last. Lei started attacking as well as he could, shifting his position to avoid hitting the cab driver, the stuck earthbender and the other kid, sending waves of fire against the man in rapid swoops of his limbs and thrusts of his fists. The flames blocked the girl's vision for a couple of seconds, but when they subsided, it was already over.
The road was deformed with a couple of stone walls, and Lei was struggling to release himself from the grip of a group of rock spikes that both restrained his movements, preventing him from performing forms, and pointed his fists, and the one foot that was off the ground, away from the earthbender, so that even his basic flame blast would be of no use.
The earthbending man spoke again, his strong voice rising above Lei's noises of distress and frustration:
"The ones that remain in hiding, you may fight or flee. Choose."
The girl had a plan set out already. Lei wasn't going to like it, but she had no choice. She signaled her orders to her companions in the shadows, took a deep breath, and stepped into the road.
She didn't waste a single second, and was proud of how her team, if you could call it that, moved efficiently. She quickly bended the earthbender out of the ground and told him to get the knocked out one away, and as she did so, all the kids in the shadow dashed past the road and went to the ones who were thrown in the lake, with orders to abandon everything and leave. As soon as Lei realized what was happening, he opened his mouth to protest, but the words disappeared with his breath when the girl bended the spikes away, crushing some and retracting others into the ground, faster than she ever did, making him fall. She turned to face their opponent, and said to Lei:
"Get them to safety, they need you to care of them, they can't make it on their own."
That seemed to convince him. He only said, before leaving for the rendezvous point:
"I'll come back for you as soon as I can."
She answered with a nod, without looking back, and raised a stone wall behind her.
"You choose to face me alone. Do you think you are better than your fellows?" the man said, while the girl could hear Lei running to meet with the others.
Her answer was a stone sent straight his way, breaking against a recently-erect earth pillar.
"We urchins aren't much for talking", she said dryly, as she slid to the side, skimming the earth as if it were ice, quickly raising another boulder from the ground and sending it on the man's way.
The chunk of earth met a tree outside the road where one of the kids had been hiding a while ago, causing several leaves to fall. Before any of them could reach he floor, she spotted on the corner of her eye the man, on the opposite side of the road from her, bending one of his walls into pieces and sending them her way, one by one.
She gritted her teeth and erected one pillar, then another, but the third one was a little too late, causing her to lose balance as it made contact with a boulder. Suddenly, she felt the ground starting to shift beneath her and rolled to the side as a hole opened up, and she walked backwards on all fours as another one appeared where she previously was. Frustrated, she bent a boulder with a kick, sending it in the general direction of the attacker. She didn't have a second to check on the attack, because she felt the earth was about to shift again, and she was in no position to dodge. Doing the first thing that came to mind, she slammed her feet against the floor and bent the earth to awkwardly catapult herself into the air, backwards.
There was a brief of moment of confusion while the world spun around her as she flew through the air, but it ended suddenly, when she crashed against a tree. She caught a glimpse of the man approaching her as darkness took over and she fell unconscious.
