"Heiwa, wake up!"

Heiwa jolted awake, slamming her head into the face of her twin sister who had been leaning over her.

"Ow..." Heiwa mumbled as Pikatti backed off, rubbing her sore forehead. There was something wrong and Heiwa was blinking lethargically trying to figure it out. Oh ya, it was raining. Heiwa yawned and tried to lay back down, but Nami grabbed her arm and pulled her back upright.

Wait, it wasn't raining, Heiwa was completely dry. The rain had stopped hours ago. There was, however, yelling.

Pikatti was shaking their other siblings awake as Heiwa came to her senses. She saw flashes of light coming from the street and heard the deep rumble of earth being shifted around.

The White Lotus.

It was always the White Lotus. None of them knew what exactly they were after, but if any of the siblings knew anything, it was that the White Lotus was bad news.

They'd killed many a member of Chun's gang, tearing apart the streets, searching for people. What kinds of people Heiwa didn't know, but she did know that she wanted nothing to do with it. Their parents had been caught in the crossfire of one of those searches.

"Let's get somewhere safe," said Pikatti. She was lifting a still groggy Massak to his feet and gesturing the others towards the street.

As one they darted out into the street, running away from where the fighting was taking place. They weren't the only ones making a run for it. Heiwa watched a man in front of them use a jet of air to propel himself over a half-wall into someone's backyard. Heiwa wished she could pull off an escape like that. Instead, she glanced back, just barely catching a stray shard of ice before it lodged itself in the back of Ko's skull. She flung the ice to the side, following it with her gaze. That's when she spotted someone tunnelling through a wall to her left using their earthbending.

"Pikatti, this way!" she shouted.

The siblings ran for the tunnel, ducking through it to emerge safely on the other side. The tunnel's creator was long gone, but it didn't matter. They were unlikely to get hit by any stray bending from over here. The siblings sagged against the wall.

"Sun's coming up," said Kiviuq. Heiwa glanced at the slowly brightening sky. There were still a few clouds left over from the night's rain, but the weather didn't look too bad.

"Damn it!" said Pikatti. "I left the last of our food in the ally!"

Collectively the siblings groaned. "I'm hungry," said Kiviuq.

"Me too," Ko piped up. She was hugging her stomach and huddling up to Nami. "What are we going to do?"

Pikatti rubbed a hand over her face. Heiwa noticed a red spot between her eyes from where the two of them had bashed heads and imagined she had an identical one to match. That'll look good for our busking. Two identical siblings with two identical bruises! Right, busking!

"We should head out to our streets," Heiwa said. "The sooner we get money, the sooner we can eat."

"But I can't bend when I'm hungry!" wailed Kiviuq.

"I can't bend at all," chimed in Massak.

"Fair point young sir."

"Okay," Pikatti said. "We'll meet up at the ally in the evening. If, and let's hope this isn't the case, but if there's still fighting going on we'll meet up on Ju Avenue."

Everyone nodded their agreement and the siblings split off into two groups. Heiwa, Pikatti, and Massak headed in one direction while Nami, Kiviuq, and Ko headed in the other.

"So," Heiwa said as they turned another corner. Most of the streets they busked on were in the same direction, so they had plenty of time to figure out where exactly they were headed. "I was thinking we could head to the Down Street Market. I know some of the shop owners get a little uneasy with buskers there, but it's our biggest seller and we could really use the money today..."

Massak was trailing behind them, adjusting his hat after a stray gust of wind had almost blown it off of his head. The twins slowed down as they waited for their youngest sibling to catch up. "I dunno," said Pikatti. "I was thinking Kawa Street would be a safer bet today."

"Kawa Street?! Nobody every gives us any money on Kawa!"

"Well, sure. But I have a good feeling about it today." Massak had finally caught back up and was sauntering ahead of his sisters. Pikatti went on. "Besides, there's a fountain in front of the library. You'll need to get water from somewhere."

At that moment Heiwa stepped in a fairly sizable puddle. After last night's rain, she wasn't too worried about finding water. Still, Pikatti was their lady in charge, and she was usually right about these kinds of things. Heiwa relented, and the three of them headed off towards the library.

Heiwa turned out to be right. Their attempts on Kawa Street proved fruitless. By the afternoon their busking bowl had no more than a few coins in it, and Heiwa was getting frustrated. Massak had wandered down the street out of boredom, something he did frequently if the sisters didn't plan on including him in their act. Heiwa didn't know what he was up to, she just hoped he wasn't getting himself into trouble. Besides, sometimes he'd come back with a few coins of his own. A young boy looking pathetic enough sitting on a curb sure brought out people's sympathy.

Pikatti had tired out a few minutes prior, and now the sisters were leaning against the wall of a small second hand clothing shop. The display over the shop's door depicted an image of two spirits holding paws. Occasionally they would turn their heads and smile at each other.

Heiwa bent over and picked up their bowl. "There's barely enough in here for a loaf of bread," she mumbled. Pikatti shrugged.

"We should find Massak," she said.

Heiwa wasn't happy. Pikatti's efforts had been practically non-existent. Heiwa felt she had done far more work than her sister all to make up for their less than satisfactory location, and all Pikatti could do was shrug? Yes, they would find Massak and then they would head over to Down Market and hope there were still enough people there to give them a few yuans.

Massak, as it turned out, wasn't too far down the street. He was sketching something on the ground with a stubby piece of white chalk that came from who knew where.

"Come on Massak, we're going to Down Market," said Heiwa.

"Uh, no we're not," said Pikatti, crossing her arms. "I know you can keep going forever, but I'm way too tired to keep bending."

"So what are we going to do then?" asked an irritated Heiwa.

"We'll head back," said Pikatti. "Pick up some food on the way. But first, I wanted to stop somewhere."

"No way," said Heiwa.

"Come on, you sounded pretty interested in the subject yesterday."

They were standing in front of the library.

"I'm not going in there."

"Come on, it's free."

It's not that Heiwa had a problem with reading, she just didn't like big public spaces. Dirty homeless kids wandering into a building like that? Usually they got kicked out. Often they got sneered at, or people crinkled their noses and made rude comments about the smell. The closest thing any of them had to a bath recently was last night's rain.

"Pikatti, I appreciate that you want to help me, and I want to learn more about my bending, really, but I'm not going in there."

"Can't we just get some food?" said Massak.

"Speaking of food, did you really pick the worst location for us to busk today because it was close to the library? Pikatti, that's not okay. We're all hungry and I'm sure the others aren't going to be happy with what we bring back."

Pikatti sighed. "Fine, have it your way. We'll just head back and get yelled at by Nami. That sounds appealing."

"It's your doing," Heiwa countered. Pikatti was so deserving of the glare she was getting right now.

"I'm still hungry," said Massak.

"Okay! Let's go."

The three of them started heading back in the direction of the ally. They stopped by a food cart on the way back and bought the plainest loaf of bread Heiwa had ever seen. Hopefully the others had fared better.

They ducked back through the tunnel they had escaped through that very morning. The street was quiet, many people having probably decided to avoid it for the time being. Heiwa wasn't too worried though. The White Lotus didn't usually stick around after a fight.

Far above, a small red spirit with fiery wings was perched atop a holographic advertisement for platinum infused microchips or something. Heiwa didn't understand technology all that well, and she didn't really care. She listened to the spirit chatter noisily as they came near. What she didn't hear was the chatter of their siblings as they got closer to the ally.

"I guess they're not back yet," said Pikatti.

"I guess," agreed Heiwa. But as they rounded the corner to the ally, Heiwa suddenly realised why it was so quiet.

The others had returned, but they weren't alone. Chun and about eight other members of her gang were standing just inside the entrance to the ally. It was hard to see behind them, but Heiwa could just make out her two brothers lying on the ground. Her breath caught in her throat.

They weren't moving.

In front of them was Ko, who was on her hands and knees beaten, bloody, and crying. Three gang members hovered over her in attack stances as she sobbed. Chun glared coolly at the new arrivals. "Good, you're back," she said.

"What are you-"

Chun stepped sharply up to Pikatti and jammed a finger into her chest. "I told you to stay out of our streets," she said. She stood on her toes, face inches away from Pikatti's. "You didn't listen."

Pikatti's breaths were rapid. "What? We didn't-"

"Then why were they," Chun pointed to the prone siblings. "...out in Cha square? That's our area and you know it."

"What? No! They wouldn't-"

"They did."

Chun backed off and turned slightly to glance at the grubby girl sobbing on the ground. "And now you have to face the consequences."

"Pikatti, I'm sorry!" Ko wailed right before a spike of ice impaled her chest.

Heiwa couldn't breathe. Chun's gang was turning on them now but all she could hear was Pikatti's yelling and Massak's panicked shriek. Ko gasped for air, blood gurgling out of her throat.

Ko...

Two teenage boys were advancing on Heiwa, jets of fire burning in their fists.

Ko's panicked eyes stared at Heiwa as the young girl began to slump to the ground.

Chun was yelling something as Pikatti got into a fighting stance. Massak screamed.

Behind Ko, Heiwa caught a glimpse of Kiviuq's sightless eyes. He and Nami...

Heiwa growled. She turned on the approaching gang members with a fire in her eyes and watched them back up, startled. Heiwa didn't know what she was doing, it was instinct. She felt a gust of wind pick up around her, whipping Chun's hair around as the gang leader turned and stared.

"What the-"

But Heiwa wasn't paying attention to her. The metal walls of the buildings surrounding them rippled in response to her anger. She felt so... powerful.

"She's-" started one of the gang members as the others attempted to escape back into the ally. They only cornered themselves as Heiwa released a massive jet of fire above their heads that singed almost all of their hair. They had nowhere to go, and the wind was picking up. Panels from the surrounding walls were beginning to detach themselves, hovering in the air as though by magic. Heiwa didn't know how, but she could feel them.

Chun appeared to be paralysed.

The metal panels liquefied, swirling around the gang once before leaking over the ground. They tried to step out of the liquid metal but as feet were being pulled up, the metal was solidifying, trapping them. Soon each gang member was encased up to their waist in a silvery prison.

Chun, trapped in her own metal statue at the front of the group, finally overcame her shock. Eyes wide, she turned her head to look at her gang, each of whom was struggling valiantly to escape. "I can't believe it," she said. She turned her head back towards Heiwa, who was finally calming down somewhat.

"The White Lotus is going to love you."