The sun had already set and the alleys of Shu Dai were as dark as ever. Even so, Hasook knew the way like the back of his hand. He'd been walking along the path since the day he first learned to walk. As he approached the edge of Shu Dai, electric lanterns began to illuminate the way, basking everything in a warm hue of gold. After walking for a little while, Hasook finally reached coastline looking out onto the central peninsula's glistening highrises. The only sound he could hear was the faint lull of waves hitting the pier and the distant hum of the trolley. Realizing he was about to miss his trolley, he darted as fast as his legs could carry him to the small stop down the road. Panting, he handed his ticket to the foreman and boarded the nearly empty car.
Not even ten minutes into the ride, Hasook felt a sudden jolt as the car screeched to a halt. Curious, he got up to glance out the window, but the darkness made it nearly impossible to see anything clearly. The foreman had stepped outside and was looking at something, but what exactly, Hasook didn't know.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news," he said as he re-entered the car, "however it seems the tracks ahead have been damaged so that the trolley cannot proceed. Future Industries apologizes for this inconvenience and hopes that you reach your destination safely. Good night."
Hasook looked around in awe that no one else on board seemed at all perturbed by this. He thought to himself, "Don't these people have anywhere to get to? Why else would you be on the tram so late at night?" When he noticed that still no one had reacted, he just shrugged, collected his things and climbed out of the car onto the quiet street corner. Having no real idea where he was, Hasook hurried over to the nearest tram stop he could find to look at the map.
"Fenghuang Street? That's like 30 blocks from the Arena. Damn it." He kicked the metal post of the sign in frustration before angrily walking off in the direction of the Arena. "At least I made it to the central peninsula..."
Judging by what he'd seen on the train map, Hasook figured that the quickest way to the Arena quarter would be to just follow the coast. After walking along a few side streets he saw the glistening waters of Yue Bay again with the piers projecting into the horizon. The silence was eerie. He'd worked on these docks before, but always during the daytime when they were bustling with tons of people and freight. Seeing it so empty and lifeless was unsettling. As he passed the Main Eastern Pier, he noticed the time on the tall, free-standing clock: 19:30. He only had 30 minutes to get to the Arena before the Fire Ferrets were slated to go on. Panicking he decided to try and navigate through some of the alleys unlisted on the main map as a way to try and cut travel time. With his equipment bag secured on his back he quickly weaved through the tiny passages, judging his progress through intermittent glances at the nearby pier. By his estimates he was only about 10 blocks away from the arena now. He'd definitely make it with time to spare.
While running through the streets he was brought to a stop suddenly when out of the corner of his eye he spotted a member of the Agni Kai gang intimidating a young couple. Just as he was about to run over to assist them, two ninja-like men in tight olive green bodysuits and what looked like gas masks hopped out of the darkness. The surprised gangster quickly shot a few blasts of fire at them, but they dodged them easily. With a fluid series of movements the one man quickly immobilized the gangster's left arm while the other took out his legs. The quickly tied him up and pulled him onto their cycles without a word and drove towards Hasook. The taller of the mysterious assailants seemed to notice Hasook was wearing pro-bending pads on his calves and arms and quickly signalled the other. They hopped off of the cycles effortlessly and sprang towards Hasook in silent flight.
Instinctively, he quickly threw off his gear bag to make it easier to dodge and uncorked his waterskin. He was used to probending sure, but fighting against opponents who were actively trying to harm you rather than just win a game were two completely different things. Luckily, probending had made Hasook relatively flexible so he was able to dodge the first bout of attacks narrowly. The pair landed and immediately charged him from each side. Thinking quickly he froze some of the water into needle-like icicles and quickly flung them at the attacker on his left. This however opened him up to a strike to leg by the other attacker before he could retaliate. Feeling the tingle of numbness in his leg, he realized exactly who he was fighting against: chi-blockers.
Thoughts raced in his head. "I can't let them keep getting hits on me or I'll be helpless!" Realizing that long range bending was probably the only way he could fight them without opening himself up to attack he withdrew a large amount of water from the skin and created a ring around himself.
Noting the defensive stance he'd taken, the chi-blockers broke coordination and attacked from different angles trying to get around his defenses. While the maneuver allowed him to fight off attacks from theoretically any angle, it was extremely difficult to track the two ghost-like attackers with any sort of precision.
He felt three short pointed strikes to his left arm and the water beneath it fell to the ground. As quickly as he could he used his left leg to whip the fallen water back at the attacker as blades of ice. He managed to slice his thigh, but the wound didn't seem to slow the barrage down at all. Fighting with only one bending arm he tried desperately to maintain his defense, but the quick painful strikes kept adding up. His left arm and right leg were blocked now, but he wasn't prepared to go down quietly. As the shorter assailant ran in for an attack on his right arm, Hasook quickly spun around and absorbed the blows with his chi-blocked left arm. The pain was pretty intense, but it provided him with the opening he needed. Using his free arm Hasook quickly solidified a thin blade of ice and stabbed the the attacker through the shoulder, sending him reeling. Eager to end this as soon as possible, he kicked up a ball of water with his left leg and quickly bent it into the water whip with his arm, sending the chi-blocker flying backwards. The taller one seemed unfazed by the attack on his teammate and quickly ran in for an assault on Hasook, managing to get in a single hit on his shoulder before being flung back by a water blast. The other was too injured to continue and retreated slightly to the cycles while the taller kept fighting Hasook to a standstill. After what seemed like an eternity the chi-blocker managed to hit most of the major points in his arms and legs making his bending almost non-existant. Not one to be deterred by adversity, Hasook quickly shifted to fighting hand to hand with attacker. Growing up with non-bending parents did have its advantages. His father had taught him from a young age while his bending was still very weak how to defend himself. A swift kick to the torso and like his teammate the masked assailant somersaulted backwards to his cycle and sped away.
Breathing heavily, Hasook fell to his knees in the pool of motionless water below him. The plaza's clock read 8:15. Shit.