Alright since you guys chose cole to save the three women here goes

Chapter 2: Republic city

Cole looked down upon the three women he had injured; wishing things had turned out another way. He had caused the pain of three kind individuals who were willing to help him for nothing.

"Ahh! What am I thinking to let people rot like this, I shouldn't have even considered leaving them whether it benefits me or not, if it was all about what I wanted I would have saved Trish from falling from that building and not the doctors, but it's not is it" Cole thought to himself as he remembered the night that Trish had died in the Historic district of Empire City, the night where Kessler had gone to such extreme measures for preparing Cole for the beast. He felt anger and pain pulse throughout his body as he tried to forget about what happened to Trish, a small flicker of electricity sparkled over his body as it took him a few moments to calm himself. Cole removed the three women away from the clasped hut and laid them down on the stone ground in the alleyway, making sure no one was around watching him. Cole sighed deeply. "I'm sorry I did this to all of you. And I'm sorry I can't explain why" he addressed the three unconscious women

Cole sent a current through his hands and performed the pulse heal on all three women,

(Good Action: Cole's Karma level is neutral and therefore the colour of his lightning remains blue)

Then quickly scrambled out of sight, to the top of the building he had slightly destroyed with his lightning tether, as the women would most likely wake up within seconds. Cole was glad it was nighttime. He couldn't see or sense any activity on the streets below.

Cole made his way over a few more buildings until he made sure he was far enough from the healing hut to assure the women couldn't possibly track him down. Cole felt like he was manoeuvring around in a 1930' version of Empire city, The buildings Cole jumped across ranged from 3 stories to 30!

"Maybe I travelled back in time" Cole thought as he tethered and launched his way over size varying buildings "Like Kessler" Cole concluded in his head "although as far as I know I don't think I have to unpleasantly prepare anyone for indescribable destruction" remembering the creative methods Kessler had undertaken and how far he went to prepare Cole for the beast.

Cole stopped suddenly as he reached the skyscraper of a building around 25 stories tall. Cole hadn't realised up until now that as he was using his ice launch and lightning tether techniques to manoeuvre across the city, he never once had to ignite his static thrusters in midair to reach a rooftop. It wasn't that the buildings were tightly knitted together; it was the fact that his ice launch sky skyrocketed him twice as high as it had done before in New Marais. Cole's lightning tether also had doubled its range. The strange thing was that his static thrusters didn't even work when he tried to fire them up, even if he wanted to use them, much like when he had fallen out of the sky and entered this strange new place, and how they didn't work for him them either

"Are all of my powers stronger except for my thrusters? Was it because of the RFI? Or was it because I wound up here?" All of these questions were constantly lapping around Cole's brain as he tried to think of ways to answer them.

''Hmmm" Cole thought, "I wonder what will happen if I fire a rocket or summon one of my ionic powers? Cole let out a huge yawn. His curiosity for his newfound force could wait until the morning. Cole was completely exhausted. He sat down on his behind and leant against what looked like an old-fashioned air conditioning unit and eventually drifted off to sleep.

Throughout the night Cole had strange dreams and visions about weird creatures that he had never seen before. Firstly, people in nomadic clothes soaring up into the sky riding on animals with six legs near a temple on a high mountain, he saw people in blue standing by the edge of the lake elegantly move their hands in a push and pull movement. His vision switched to what appeared to be a canyon with a group of muscle bound men in green right in the middle, display a brute and strong form of martial arts as they telekinetically kicked and punched large rocks into the air, his vision changed again to a large volcano with around five men in red military uniforms standing at the base of the dangerously fiery volcano. They began to display a quick and aggressive form of martial arts projecting fire blasts from their fists and palms. Yet again the dream shifted to a large metropolis city, there was a beam of bright light above the magnificent buildings and structures that came from the top of the sky. Once the bright light dimmed a little Cole could make out an attractive young girl in light blue garments floating above the city. Her eyes were glowing a bright white and she started to display all forms of martial arts that Cole didn't know of. First she formed an air sphere that encased her, then a ring of fire appeared across the circumference of the air sphere, next a set of medium sized rocks were formed into a circle which moved around the sphere diagonally and lastly a ring of serene water stretched across the air sphere diagonally opposite to the ring of medium sized rocks. An awe stricken Cole failed to express any thoughts before the dream once more switched to another scene. He was in a wide city street with tall buildings towering over each side. Two people stood at opposite ends facing each other. At one end was the young girl Cole had seen in his previous vision controlling the four classical elements and at the other was a tall hooded figure wearing a menacing looking mask. A lightning storm struck the ground between the two, not fazing either of them. Once the lightning storm ceased Cole saw himself standing between the girl and the masked figure facing away from both of them. Cole saw himself stick two hands up, palms facing both strangers. The palm aiming towards the blue girl radiated with bright blue lightning and the palm aiming towards the masked figure radiated with black lightning outlined in red.

The next day came and Cole was slowly starting to wake up from a most unpleasant sleep. His head hurt, his spine was aching due to the way he had slept on a hard unforgiving air conditioning unit. And to top it all off he felt weak. Like all the power had been stolen from him during his slumber. Cole covered his eyes from the killing brightness of the sun as he slowly got to his feet. He drained the electricity from the air conditioning unit he had been sleeping on. It only took a few seconds for Cole to leech all of the electricity until the unit had nothing left to give him. "Wow that wasn't much" Cole muttered in a dissatisfied tone. "Now about that rocket" Cole said as he remembered that he was going to test out his increased strength. Cole walked towards the edge of the rooftop and looked down. The quiet street from last night had turned into a bustling market area filled with people wearing all sorts of strange looking clothes, shops that sold food that Cole had never seen before. Cole stayed out of sight as he peered down below from the rooftop. "Well everyone seems pretty preoccupied" Cole thought. "Guess it won't hurt if I fire a large electrical rocket into the sky, I don't think too many people would notice, well unless I hit something" Cole gave a light chuckle at the thought.

Cole walked back over towards the air conditioning unit and aimed his hands towards the sky. His left hand in front of his face for guidance and his right hand to fire next to his neck, like a modified javelin throw stance. Cole charged up his right hand, palm open, ready to shot a standard alpha rocket. Cole thrust his right hand up as hard as he could while quickly pulling his left arm back and fired an electric missile of energy. The rocket he had fired happened to be only slightly bigger than his bolts; they hadn't changed at all really. Cole felt confused and disappointed, "I would have thought it would look more impressive" Cole thought.

Cole recomposed himself to fire another rocket, testing his strength again. He fired but got the same result. On the street below, the soaring blue missile was attracting some unwanted attention. There were oooh's and ahhh's from small kids with parents and adults were questioning if it was some sort of scientific phenomenon. "Crap!" Cole muttered under his breath noticing people had witnessed some of his electrical powers. He quickly ran to the opposite side of the rooftop and took in his surroundings. He jumped off the top of the building and fell 50 ft through the air, landing with a graceful commando roll on a wide but quiet street

Cole looked up and realised he was being stared at by a couple of shopkeepers standing next to each other with their mouth's hanging wide open. Cole quickly changed his demeanour to one that looked casual. "Oh! Nothing to see here ladies, just…ahh" Cole thought for the right words to say "just practising some parkour" Cole said unconvincingly. The two women twitched their faces in confusion at the word "parkour" they looked at each other for a moment than turned back to Cole.

"You just jumped off a building!" the one on the left said.

"Umm yeah it's gets pretty intense sometimes" Cole replied lamely.

The two women just stared at him in bewilderment "and you are not at all injured?" the one on the right questioned

"Oh no I'm fine, actually it's these new shoes that helped me pull that little stunt off" Cole said trying to sound as relaxed as possible. While Cole did have special shoes designed specifically for parkour, he knew that wasn't the reason as to why he didn't have a scratch on him after taking a 50 ft fall. "that was way too careless" Cole thought. "Wait these guys must be locals, maybe they can tell me where the hell I am".

"Hey can I talk to you guys for a moment, I have a couple questions". Cole called out to the two women

The two women were slightly taken aback by this and backed up in fear towards the door of their shop

Cole widened his eyes slightly at this odd manoeuvre but then again, maybe it wasn't ordinary for people to be jumping off high buildings and landing without so much as a tiny cut.

"Hey you guys have nothing fear from me" Cole called out. " Jumping off building doesn't automatically make me a bad guy right?" The conduit said rhetorically

"How do we know you aren't a triple threat who just wants to mug us?" one of the women yelled

Cole was puzzled "the hell's a triple threat?" Cole questioned, slightly agitated

The two women looked at each other again and then nodded to gesture Cole to enter their shop. Cole understood the gesture and walked towards the street and entered the shop.

The two women then faced him, one was rather young in her mid twenties who wore a simple long blue dress and had brunette hair, and the other was old but not grizzled and wore similar clothing but had grey hair. Cole could clearly still see that they feared him.

Cole closed his eyes and sighed "look I'm not a triple… whatever it is and I'm sorry you were a bit taken by surprise by my stunt but I desperately need to ask you ladies a few questions. I would greatly appreciate it if you guys could help me, and I promise I'm not going to hurt you" Cole said trying to sound reassuring

The old woman sighed in relief "well alright I suppose we can help you" she said in a tired voice. "What did you want to ask us"

"Okay" Cole began "this is going to sound unbelievable and really weird but I actually have no idea where I am right now "

The two women looked at each other, puzzled before the younger one spoke "you're in downtown republic city" she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Republic city? I didn't know there was such a city" thought Cole. Cole never payed too much attention while he was a t college. But he felt he at least had solid general knowledge.

"Did I miss something?" Cole asked. "What country am I currently in"?

The two women stared at Cole in utter disbelief "what happened to you?" The younger one asked. "Which nation are you from? She continued

Cole thought for a moment before answering, "hmmm I could tell her that I'm from Empire city, United States. "But is it possible that when I was sucked into that vortex I was somehow... no it can't be that's completely absurd, but then again I've never heard of Republic city, I'll just tell her I'm from somewhere near, I don't want to start ranting about mysterious universe transportation crap".

So…? The women prompted snapping Cole out of his trance

"Oh yeah I live East from this city and I was travelling here and I got lost while travelling and I wound up here"

"oh" she said in a lighter tone "you must be from the earth kingdom right?"

"Umm yeah that's right," said Cole unconvincingly

"Well you certainly don't wear earth kingdom clothes" the old woman said with a sceptical tone. "I've never seen that kind of clothing anywhere"

Cole struggled for a moment to say something appropriate "ahh yeah well I live in a remote town in The earth kingdom, it's far away from any urban life" Cole answered.

"I see" the old women said while rubbing her chin with her fingers.

The younger one smiled cheerfully "so have you ever been to Ba sing se before?" she asked

"umm" Cole thought while rubbing his neck. "well I lived in a very remote town, that was extremely sheltered from the outside world" Cole said thinking that would be enough to get him by "I really don't want to have to come clean" Cole thought.

The younger woman looked down while the older one frowned at him. There was an awkward silence before she started speaking. "well stranger" she began let me just ask you one thing "what the flamio is that thing strapped to your back"

Cole looked behind him "the amp!" Cole thought "I didn't realise I still had it"

"Oh that? Gesturing to his amp as e pulled it out of the holster attached to his back this is the weapon I usually use when I unfortunately get involved with combat, I call it the Amp". This out of all things Cole had said was at least mostly true, however he definitely had other weapons, not that he would be showing them anytime soon around these two.

The younger woman eyed curiously the strange shiny piece of metal as Cole held it in two hands "sure doesn't look like any weapon I have ever seen "she said with an intrigued gaze

"Anyway" The old women interrupted, having lost interest in the amp. She then looked at Cole with stern warning eyes "if you are a tourist you have definitely come to republic city at the wrong time, it is politically unstable, everyone is becoming greedy for power and money, gangs have been rising, people here are ready to explode. "Speaking of gangs" the old women, continued "you are currently in the territory of one of the most notorious gangs in all of republic city.

Cole's eyes narrowed slightly. he was so used to cities with gangs, it would be nice for a change if they just didn't exist but at least it gave Cole some solid target practise. Cole folded his arms "and what do they call themselves?" asked Cole as if he was so bored by the prospect of dangerous gangs roaming around cities.

"They're called the Triple threat Triads" the young woman spat in disgust.

The older woman nodded solemnly in agreement. But Cole however was smiling. A sort of devious smile. The two woman looked up at Cole in surprise as he kept smirking, h then spoke "The triple threat triads hmmm?" Cole thought out loud. "I have to hand it to them, that is one hell of a name, I never would have guessed it" Cole sniggered.

The two women frowned in unison. "well it's great that you find their name appealing" she said sternly "but do you have any idea what they are like? If you knew id don't think you would find anything funny about" she said coldly. "they murd-

Cole cut her off "yeah let me guess they take what's yours such as food, money, people to recruit anything they can get their hands on that will benefit them in some way" Cole said indifferently as he turned away from the two stunned women to look out of the curtained shop window

After a few moments the older woman spoke "well you could say that's part of but-

"Yeah I know. Don't worry I've dealt with this kind of thing before" Cole interrupted.

"They are scheduled to be coming around today" the young woman said worriedly after a few moments of silence. "They are planning to tax us for living in their area. And we have already payed them twice this week, we're not sure my grandmother and I can pay the money this time and if we don't pay them they will destroy the shop and leave us on the streets where we can get abducted by the very people who destroyed are home and business. And who know what they will do to us then. The young woman cried burying her head into her grandmother's shoulder as she comforted her.

The old woman comforted her grandmother for a few moments before she spoke again "to make matters worse stranger, there is a rumour going around that a strange man with odd bending abilities destroyed a water healing hut not too long ago. "Although the women survived, their facilities and resources have been completely destroyed, these healing huts are essential to our survival and with them being destroyed it only makes us more vulnerable to the triple threats" she said sadly.

Cole felt a slight pang of guilt swell up inside him as he remembered what he had done to those poor water-controlling women. It's not like he meant to do it, he didn't know he would fire a bolt of such magnitude and destroy the whole hut. Furthermore he had no choice. Water was lethal to his body. He also remembered the three women vaguely talking about this gang; the triple threats, from whom he was apparently rescued from.

"What time are they coming" Cole asked abruptly

"what?" the old woman replied confused.

"What time are they coming here?" Cole asked firmly as he turned to look back at the two worried looking women.

"uhh in a couple of minutes as a matter of fact" "why?" she asked confused as to why this stranger would care when the triple threats were coming to her house, let alone why he was still here knowing they would come.

Cole smirked "I'll figure something out" he said as he opened the shop door.

"Wait! Don't try anything heroic, these men are dangerous" she protested but before she could say anything more he disappeared from view. The young woman went out on the street and looked for the strange visitor who had just disappeared she stopped however when she was roughly shoved into the front of the now closed shop door by a menacing looking man with a brown leather jacket and a western looking round bucket hat.

Cole stood up on the roof five storeys above street level watching the three rough looking men advance towards the helpless young girl. He was waiting, waiting for the right opportunity to strike; hopefully the women would have enough money to pay the three men so they would leave them alone, then Cole could swoop in, take them down, bring the money back and interrogate the three thugs, that would be the best case scenario as there would be no potential chance of civilians getting hurt or killed. After all Cole knew his powers could be a little volatile at times.

Karmic moment: Wait or strike

Hey guys, sorry it took me a while to update i've bee extremely busy with school and stuff, but i promise the chapters will get more action packed as the story goes on, i tried to make this chapter a lot longer than the first two, i hope you enjoyed it. and by the way i am reading all of the reviews and i greatly appreciate them, i will try to respond to as many questions as i possibly can.