Chapter Five:

Daiki threw blasts down the street at the resistance members. Rocks and bolos came at him and his men. He felt something hit his ankle and glanced down to see a gas grenade. He quickly made a hole and buried it in the street.

When Kuma swung her sword, rocks came at him in thin slices. Only Daiki's most intense blasts could protect himself and his men from them. He had to distract her, and her forces in order to beat them.

He turned towards the building a threw a flame at it. The flame hit the wall of the building and began to grow. More of his men threw mores flames, and building continued to burn. The resistance members in turn, ground the pavement into fine gravel and threw it at the flames, which were suffocated.

The resistance and the gangster continued to throw fire and gravel at the building. Despite the distraction, the resistance members continued to close in on Daiki and his men. Kuma came at them, swinging her sword in wide arcs. The gangster tried to avoid her, but were tripped and tangled.

Daiki lunged at Kuma with a flame in his hand, who backed off and swung two slices. Daiki dodged them, and returned with burning punches. He quickly rolled as Kuma swung an overhead slice, then retreated when she came at him spinning.

Daiki hurled fireballs at Kuma, but she formed a tornado around herself with bits and chunks of rocks and gravel. He looked and saw his men struggling against the resistance members, and decided things were lost.

Daiki began backing off, and signaled for his men to do the same. They all moved down the streets, only turning and running when they reached a safe distance. After the gangster had gotten away they all gathered around.

Daiki looked upon his wery men, seeing the disappointment in their eyes. He wasn't sure if he wanted to scold or reassure them. They all just stood silently, not sure what to say. They were soon joined by a smaller group of gangster.

Daiki remembered sending them out to search for Akio, but he was sure there was supposed to be one more of them. "We had some trouble with some Red Monsoons trying to get into our turf, but we handled them." the leader said.

"And..." Daiki replied.

"And what?" the leader replied.

"You left a man behind." Daiki growled.

The men looked among themselves nervously. The leader tried to speak, but no words came out. "I am tempted to deal with you myself, but I will let Kosuke handle this."

Daiki took the men to Kosuke and explained what happened. He and his men went out to search the city and see what happened to the missing man.

He found him in an alley, just where they said he would be. The man was slumped lifelessly against the wall. He had few physical wounds, but his wet nose and mouth made it clear how he died.

Daiki snarled in anger, both at the Red Monsoons that killed the man, and his own men who abandoned him. He returned to Kosuke. "Arashi promised us that if we all work together everything will go fine." he said. "Now the Red Monsoon's kill one of us. I think we ought to teach them a lesson."

"I understand you, but we can't let this get in the way of our business." Kosuke replied. "Our profits have gone up since this alliance. I will speak to Arashi and see if he can deal with this problem."

"You don't get it." complained Daiki. "They violate the truce, we violate it."

"As I said, I will have Arashi deal with all parties that want to continue this conflict." said Kosuke. "Do you really want to be one of them."

Daiki realized it was a bad idea to talk to his boss that way. "I understand." he said, trying to hide his frustration.

Daiki walked out of the room and gave a loud huff after closing the door. "Problems with the boss." one of his men said.

"He trusts the Red Monsoons too much." Daiki replied.

"Best not to make a move against them, but be ready if they try something on us." the man replied.

"Supposedly Arashi will ensure that." said Daiki. "I really don't know. He is good at what he does, but he sees us as nothing but dumb thugs."

I sat in the base tired from the fighting. "We did great out there."

"The shopkeeper is quite grateful." said Kuma. "We saved multiple businesses and gained many recruits".

"With our new credibility we can begin and greater operation." Katashi added. "We intend to liberate Broad Bend Prison."

"Wait isn't that..."

"Yes, your parents." said Kuma.

"Oh you won't believe how much I have missed them."

For the next few days we went over plans, studying blueprints of the prison and maps of the surrounding area. I spoke to new recruits who were grateful for the work we were doing.

Akio and I stood before the bola ladder, posed ready to through, with the recruits eagerly watching. We let our bolas loose and they hit the rungs, wrapping around tightly. Amazed by our performance they gave it a go with mixed results.

Trying to keep our patience, we corrected there stances and throwing techniques and got improvements quickly. "Great work there." Akio said.

"Thanks, I knew you could teach me to teach."

After training some of the new recruits, we started to move ahead with the plan. I visited the streets leading up to the prison to get familiar with the area. We took note of the local triad and White Lotus patrols.

Despite their presence there were no incidents, as we made a point of not having the same person visit the same area more than once. We also found local people who seemed disgruntled with the triads and spoke to them.

We were able to get further information from them, some of them asking for money and favors, as well as potential safe houses. The days leading up to the operation were increasingly tense.

At one point I was in the house of a local informant. With the shudders just opened crack I observed the patrols outside of Broad Bend prison. There were the normal guards as well as the White Lotus.

At no point was I able to spot the guards, as there were no courtyards that were visible from the outside. I was hoping I could spot my parents, but even if I could see the inmates it was unlikely I could make them out.

We also had some informants on the inside, but none of them could confirm if they had seen them or not. They sent us discreet messages, which we used to understand the behavior of the guards inside.

On the night of the attacks, we approached the prison on the time when the street patrols would be on the lowest. It was a multi-pronged attack, with several groups converging from different angles. Akio lead the group that I was part of.

We quickly and quietly approached the nearest street patrols. Before they could move, we buried them up to there ankles and began to taser them. We scattered into the darkness as another group arrived.

The new group saw first group scattered on the ground. As soon as they turned towards us we attacked. Being outnumbered, the patrols were tripped up and tied up quickly.

We approached the outer fence, and metalbenders quickly cut a hole in it. We crossed the yard, trying to stay out of the spotlights. We turned around and saw a guard suspiciously approaching the whole in the fence. Quickly I threw a bola, and it tied the guard to the fence.

We hurried over to the next fence, and cut threw it the same way. The prison walls grew closer and closer, but the guards grew thicker.