Chapter Two: Shadow in the Spotlight

Fifteen Years Later

The door to the house swung open and the Minister of Fire Nation Culture stepped out into the crisp morning air. He was decked out in his finest. Robes of crimson red interlaced with glinting gold thread wove a design that showed his political power as well as his pride in his country. Despite his already enormous power he wasn't satisfied as the head of his country's culture department; he was applying for the position of High Chancellor. He was also not aware that from between the window slats of the house opposite him, he was being watched. It was obvious why he didn't know he was being watched: he had been for the last year and had gone none the wiser, why should today be any different?

Jericho Vooluse had been camped out in one of Fallen Fire's safe-houses for the past five hours, waiting and watching for the minister to leave and apply for the newly created position. As the minister began to walk down the street in the direction of the palace, Jericho checked that his own disguise of the minister was identical o the original before slipping out without a sound after him. It was lucky it was still early in the morning; it would have looked strange to see two identically dressed people moving so differently. The minster had a stately walk, one that befitted a powerful politician, or so he thought. In reality it gave the impression that he wasn't important and was trying to look like he was. In stark contrast, Jericho was on the verge of loping and doing so without a sound with a look in his eyes that told of a predator inside of him. The minister didn't even realize that Jericho was following him until he was almost standing right beside him. Before he could do anything, Jericho had shoved him into the alley they had just drawn level with.

Everything had gone according to plan until that moment. Jericho had meant to finish the minister quickly, instead, he recovered immediately, and sensing Jericho's intentions started pumping fire blast after fire blast at Jericho and the entrance of the alley. Jericho quickly went into the alley and produce two fireballs, one in each hand. He then started to block the fire blasts by absorbing them into his fireballs. Once the minister realized what Jericho was doing he stopped, which was a big mistake. Jericho raised the two fireballs which were by now the size of basketballs over his head and took advantage of the minister looking upward. The minister's attention had been caught by two of Jericho's followers pushing a sheet of metal over the top of the alley. Jericho hurled the fireballs into the ground, throwing up a thick smoke screen. The minister noticed and began to back away wearily. Jericho took out an ornate knife and charged through the smoke as close to the right wall as he could. He launched himself through the end of the smoke barrier before the minister could react and had the knife between his ribs and into his heart without even flinching. Fire bending always led to noisy deaths, but that didn't mean that it couldn't be incorporated into this. Jericho pushed the heat of fire throughout the blade scorching everything the blade touched. If the minister wasn't dead by then he wasn't human.

Jericho withdrew the knife and let the lifeless body fall to the ground. He then went further back into the alley and picked up the credentials and papers that the minister had carelessly thrown back in his retreat. He then walked out of the alley, for all the world the Minister of Culture, on his way to work. By the time Jericho reached the palace his heart had stopped racing. He did like getting his hands dirty once and awhile, but it wouldn't do to come into the palace looking panicked. When he reached what was now his department he gave the application and the rest of the papers to one of his workers and left the way he came. He didn't stop until he had arrived back at the safe-house. Before entering he took a long breath. If any of what he had done showed on his face he would be in for it. Even though he was the leader of the Fallen Fire cell, which gave him a lot of power, it didn't save him from Cordow's wrath because he was the leader of the Black Sun; the shadow organization that Fallen Fire was part of.

He checked himself over for blood stains or soot. Satisfied that there was no evidence on him of what he had been doing he went into the safe-house. The inside of the house was quite barren; there was only a cabinet, posters covering three of the walls, and a large fire pit in the middle of the room. The cabinet had hundreds of different identities in it that had every detail imaginable in them. Each one listed habits of speech, regular habits, friends, clients, co-workers, agendas, favourite foods, ambitions, complete life bios, and plans for disguising oneself as them. There were also hundreds of posters on the walls of the safe-house. Posters of the members of Fallen Fire were used for a ranking system. The higher your bounty the lower you were. The main thing that any operative was good at was not being seen. The more well known you were the more that could be attributed to you and therefore you weren't as good. No one could compete with Jericho for his place because the Fire Nation had classified him a couple years go so no one knew his bounty.

The Fallen Fire posters barely covered the smallest wall of the house. The rest were dominated by posters of other wanted criminals along with their bounty. Fallen Fire operatives would often disguise themselves as different criminals to raise their bounty, then change the disguise and bring them in as a bounty hunter and collect. There were also holes blasted in some of them. This was to show that they were now in custody and not to go after them. This was one of Fallen Fire's main incomes because Jericho didn't like letting his sub-ordinates slack off so it had become his cell's hobby.

Neither of these things held any of his interest now. What did was the fire pit in the middle of the room. On first glance there was nothing special about it. On second glance you might notice something odd about it. The embers that littered the bottom seemed to be laid out so that none of them overlapped in the first layer. On closer inspection you might notice that they were all burning on the bottom. The only reason this wasn't obvious was that the cinders underneath them smothered the light coming from it. Jericho raised his hands like he was receiving a bowl of soup and began to make a fireball. He made it grow in size until it was the same diameter as the fire pit. Then he started to make its heat more and more intense. When he was satisfied he lowered it into the fire pit. Before it touched the embers though, they flipped over and the ones around the edges rose up to form a shallow bowl around it. Once this was done Jericho backed up, almost to the door, and then ran head long at it and jumped in like a cannonball.