"All my stars! That was close!" 'Min' laughed. Hue shook her head.
"Way too close. That fella saw me bending. That was some quick thinkin' there, Cahaya! We're gonna hafta move this scam sommere else in case he starts tawkin'."
"We'll pick it up downtown next week, Hue," Cahaya said. She tugged at the wig, pulling it off and revealing that she was skin bald to the truck mirror, "We've still got to hit that Koh den. If we don't, word will get around. And we've got to finish the payment for the stage. That was our rule, Hue. We pay ALL our debts, we don't get tied up in money. We make our cash, pay our dues, and move on."
"This is a lot more dangerous than th' weddin' ring scam, Cahaya. Strung Outs kin be really dangerous, usin' more'n one kind of bending!"
"We can fake any kind of bending between the two of us. They'll be scared out of their pants! Did you get those lights sewed into my robes?"
"Yeah, I did, you'll like up like an Avatar Day statue. Hopefully that feller's circuitry won't zap ya or set ya on fire."
"Woah, that would be cool if I just burst into flame and started hurling fire off myself!" Cahaya laughed.
"Pull in here, I heard this place makes real beetleburgers!" Hue pointed. Cahaya made a face but obeyed, doing a shoddy parallel parking job by driving halfway onto the sidewalk. Cahaya put her wig back on, popped some Yuan into the meter, and followed Hue into the restaurant.
"All right, remember the plan?"
"Hole in the ceiling, flashbangs, and straight into the back of the building where they're delivering the Koh. Find the delivery guy and throttle him for information. Let all the Strung run away and tell their friends the Avatar raided their den," Cahaya recited. Hue nodded, and she put on a blue mask with green teeth stitched around the mouth, making her look like a catgator. They stepped out of the truck and walked into an alleyway. They found the one story building where the Koh den was. The first floor was just where people entered and the stuff was delivered; they'd been staking out the place for almost a month. Cahaya had even went in, bought some Koh, explored, and made a map of the den.
Hue opened her canteen, and Cahaya ran towards the building. Hue fired a spurt of water at her feet as she ran, each one higher than the last, making a staircase that Cahaya ran up and landed on the room. Hue gathered the spilled water, and did the same thing with herself.
"Ready?" Cahaya asked.
"Let's git it done."
Cahaya's fist ignited and she punched the roof, blasting a four foot hole in it and showering the people below with clay and flame. They dropped down into the Koh den. Two Triad members faced them, one of them shooting a blast of fire at Cahaya, who deflected it and started her dance of fire and pair, shooting a volley of blows at the Triad bender, and using the heat to create an air current she manipulated by heating the air in the room, giving the impression she was Airbending as well as Firebending.
"What Koh are you on?" the Triad firebender snarled.
"I'm not," she grinned, "I'm the Avatar!"
Cahaya hit the switch, and the lights lit up, illuminating her face. The Triad bender screamed and tried to run, but Hue tripped him with the water and pinned him against the wall.
"Where's the delivery guy?" Cahaya demanded in the deepest, most booming voice she could manage.
"Downstairs!" he squeaked, "With my boss! Please don't take my bending!"
"Turn away from this life, thug, and I will consider it! And he better be down there!"
"They are!" he nodded furiously, and Hue checked the reception room. No boxes.
"Stay up here, and make sure nobody that isn't a Koh-head doesn't make it out."
"Nu-uh! Ah ain't lettin' you risk yer neck like that alone! Those fellers are dangerous!"
"I'll be fine! I'm the Avatar!"
"You kin still git hurt! Or killed!"
"We can't have him sneaking out! Stay here!" she ordered, and went downstairs without Hue. Hue stomped her foot and cursed. Without Hue, Cahaya could only manage to fake two kinds of bending; she was at a serious disadvantage without Hue.
Cahaya strolled down the stairs, and saw that the people downstairs had made barricades. Most were high on Koh, however, and were ignoring their surroundings.
"I am Avatar Min!" she declared, "I am here for your distributor, and to see you all repented!"
"Burn!" a Triad guy shouted, and he shot fire at her. Another shot water, and she replied with fire at both, evaporating the water and canceling the fire as she jumped off the stairs and landed gracefully on the ground next to a Koh junkie. She lit herself up again and bellowed,
"I AM AVATAR MIN! I AM HERE TO CLEANSE YOU! TREMBLE AND FLEE!"
The more lucid Koh users yelled and screamed and charged for the stairs. Cahaya took advantage of the chaos and, more importantly, the heat that the bum-rush caused, and attacked the Triad benders with heated fists and heat currents. There were three of them, one of them a non-Bender that brought a cut-down sledgehammer, sized to be used in one hand. The water bender lashed out with the water catching her on the wrist, but she swung him about as the non-Bender swung at Cahaya, and the hammer came down on the Waterbender's should. He let out a yelp and the water whip lost consistence and fell as a puddle on the floor.
The Firebender snarled and shot blasts of flame at Cahaya, who ducked and ignited her hand.
"SHO!" she shouted.
"DIE!" the Firebender's own hand ignited and he came down on a chop. Cahaya's flame exploded in size.
"RYU!" she continued, ducking to the side and lowering her shoulder.
"KEN!" she screamed, jumping in a spin as she made an uppercut punch, knocking the Triad firebender into the air. He lurched in the air, screaming, "NOOOO!" which echoed through the room. He landed on the ground, passed out. The non-Bender took four steps back. Cahaya lifted her fist to her mouth and blow out the lingering smoke.
"Kay-Oh."
She turned to the hammer-wielding Bender, who charged at her. She let out a curtain of fire towards the ground, which knocked him on his butt. He dropped the hammer, and she kicked it away.
"Where's the delivery guy?"
He pointed, "Don't hurt me!"
"Run, and turn away from this life, and I might consider it. If I catch you again, I won't be so merciful."
"Yes, Avatar Min!" she yelped, and he scrambled away on his hands and knees, and Cayaha stepped over the Waterbender and opened the door to where the Triad boss and the delivery guy were talking things over. There were four in there, one of a big, muscular man that stood at almost seven feet. Another was in a full cloak, and she couldn't make any features out as their back was turned. There was one behind a wooden desk, who stared at her with cold, dispassionate eyes. To his left was a man with a backpack, whose eyes were full of startle and fear. The big man took a step towards her, and the figure in the cloak held up a hand.
"Tell me, 'Avatar Min,'" the cloaked figure said. His voice was deep and cool, with a hint of a slight rasp, "Would you like to hear a joke?"
"What?"
"What did the Firebender say to the Waterbender?"
"I…Don't know, what did the Firebender say to the Waterbender?"
"Nobody knows. It all just evaporated into the wind," the figure turned to her, and raised his hand, letting out a blast of air at her, knocking her back into the smoking room. The big man chuckled at the joke. He lowered his cloak hood, revealing a black mask that covered his eyes and cheeks. On his bald head was a blue arrow that pointed towards his forehead. He stalked towards Cahaya, who scrambled to her feet. He let out a sweeping kick, and she tripped over again. The airbender jumped into the air, and handed on her belly, not ahrd enough to do serious damage, but hard enough to knock the wind out and cause some serious pain. Cahaya lifted her hand to blast him, but couldn't find the will. He grabbed her by the shoulder and dragged her to the office.
"We'll settle this argument right now, Wuxun. I'll show you the quality of my Koh."
Cahaya's eyes widened and she struggled against the airbender's grip, but the large man pinned her against the desk, freeing the cloaked man's other hand, who produced a needle. Cahaya screamed as the Airbender came closer to her arm with the needle. Instead of the sharp, sudden pain, there was a THUNK and a bit of mud pinned the Airbender's hand to the desk. Cahaya looked out the door, and saw Chagatai and Hue standing in the drug den. The rest of the Koh users had abandoned the room.
"Let her go," Chagatai growled. The Airbender raised his other hand to the mud, and simply snapped his fingers. It wasn't just a crack of the snapping of fingers, but rather more like an explosion of a crack, that caused everyone but the Airbender to wince. The sound cracked the dirt, and it crumbled apart. He put the needle on the desk.
"Knock out the girl," he instructed the large man, who punched Cahaya in the head, and she went limp. The Airbender stood straight, and regarded Chagatai, who was just a bit shorter than the lean Airbender.
"You're a Sandbender, aren't you? What, with the curly hair? You should walk away now, or I'll shove sand in places even you can't bend it out of."
Chagatai squinted, confused, and shook it off. The big man made another laugh.
"We're not leaving without Min."
"Fine. Would you like to hear a joke? Why do Claybenders like drug-dealing Firebenders so much?"
"What?"
"Without them, they couldn't get baked."
Chagatai ignored the joke (whereas his large associate thought it was hilarious), and stomped a stone out of the concrete floor and kicked it at the airbender, who clapped his hands, causing a ripple of ear-crushing sound that crushed the rock, and brought Chagatai to his knees.
"It hurrrrts!" Hue moaned. Chagatai clutched his ears, but stood to his feet. He took some dirt off the ground, bended it into pebbles, and shoved them into his ears.
"Clever."
"Baoyin!" the fat man behind the desk shouted, "Don't destroy my business!"
"Your business is already destroyed. Too much attention has been drawn to this place. I will find you a suitable replacement, don't worry. Your Triad won't go bankrupt. I've gotten sloppy with my Soundbending. I'm a bit out of tune!"
Only the big man laughed, but Baoyin didn't both to pat himself on the back as he attacked Chagatai again, clapping his hands. Chagatai raised a stone wall, which was turned to sand by Baoyin's attack. The sound was too much for Hue, who slumped to the ground. Chagatai gathered the sand into a tornado, which Baoyin tried to dispel with normal Airbending. The sand shot out in an arrow, leaving a hoe lint he wall where Baoyin's head had been before he dodged out of the way.
Chagatai stomped, lifting a stone under Baoyin's foot in an attempt to trip him up, but Baoyin used Airbending to lay flat on the top of the stone, his nose towards the floor. He pushed off the wall, a cushion of air keeping him afloat, and he kicked his heels together towards Chagatai, who was knocked back and towards the wall. He slumped against it, coughing. Baoyin stood on his feet and he rolled his neck around.
"That was a pretty good fight, kid," he picked Chagatai up by the collar, "But it looks like I've got you weathered out."
The big man let out another laugh, and Baoyin lifted his fist to deliver the final blow to Chagatai, when Chagatai's eyes opened, glowing white.
"Wh-What! What is this!"
"Leave now, and you won't get hurt!" a woman's voice, and a thousand others, bellowed out of Chagatai's voice. Baoyin threw his punch, but Chagatai let out a blast of fire from his mouth. He pulled water out of Hue's canteen and it turned to ice, smacking Baoyin across the fire as if it were a stone.
"Y-You're the Avatar!" Baoyin coughed, his mask cracked where the ice had hit him.
"I am. And you are violating nature with your actions. I will not let you continue your crimes!" the woman's voice bellowed out of Chagatai again.
"Not today, Avatar!" Baoyin called out, smacking a pellet onto the ground, and he covered his mouth with the cloth of his hood. Chagatai lifted an arm to continue bending, but he took a whiff of the smoke, and fell to the ground, the light fizzling out of his eyes. Chagatai regained consciousness quickly to see the large man following Baoyin out. He stood, coughing the smoke out of his lungs, and his vision blurred. He helped Hue to her feet, smacking her across the face to try to wake her up. She stirred, but didn't wake. Chagatai took a step towards the fat man and his skinny associate, but his knees wobbled.
"Give me…Min…And you can go!" Chagatai snarled.
"Not a chance, kid!" the Triad leader laughed. He produced a metal weapon with a round ball at the end of a stick and a cylinder behind the stick, which was mounted on a handle. He pulled back on something on the handle, and pulled the trigger, sending a bolt of electricity at Chagatai, who screamed and fell to his knees again. His muscles moved and tensed without him telling them to do so. The fat man walked out from behind his desk, and waddled to Chagatai, aiming the device at him. Chagatai's eyes went wide as the weapon was aimed at his face. A burst of wind wing past his ear, and the weapon was knocked out of Wuxun's hand.
"Step back!" Chagatai heard Jampa snarl. He turned lazily, and saw her wielding an Airbender's staff. Wuxun stepped into his office, and picked up the Koh syringe. With one hand, he lifted Cahaya, supporting her up by wrapping his hand under her arm and beneath her breasts. He held the syringe to her neck.
"This is what's going to happen. We're going to walk out of here, and you're not going to chase us. We'll leave her at the stairs. Try anything, and she gets a needle full of Koh!"
Jampa kept her staff trained on Wuxun, but kept her distance as they made their way to the stairs.
"Let her go, now, and I won't chase you."
"No, you won't."
He jabbed the needle into her neck, and pushed on the syringe, injecting her full of Koh. Wuxun dropped Cahaya, and the two bolted up the stairs, faster than it seemed possible for either of them. Jampa caught Cahaya before she hit the ground. Hue was back on her feet, coughing. Chagatai was still clutching his chest where he'd been shocked, wheezing. He turned, and stared at his hand.
"Jampa…I'm…I'm glowing…"