Chapter Two: The Bounty Hunter

"These are kids," Kaiya said, looking up and down the printout list Hahn had just handed her.

"They're earthbenders," Hahn said, as if that explained everything.

Hotaru rolled her eyes. "Isn't there someone our age? Anyone?" she asked.

"I know I'm the oldest bender and everything, and, you know, whoever we find to teach me earthbending is therefore going to be older. But this kid, Eddy Fuller, he's ten. Ten, Hahn. I can't be taught to earthbend by a ten year old," Kaiya said stubbornly.

Washi, who had long ago taken himself out of the bender-Avatar-what-do-we-do-next conversation, looked up from his Gameboy. "How old was Tong Fa?" he asked.

From the other three sides of Iroh's kitchen table, Kaiya, Hahn, and Hotaru glared at him.

"What? She's a pretty damn good earthbender, right?" Washi asked.

"We can't recruit Tong Fa," Hahn said immediately.

Now Kaiya turned her glare towards Hahn. "And why the hell not?" she asked.

"Trained by the Elites, Kaiya. Time-bomb waiting to happen," Hahn said from the opposite side of the table.

"We aren't in the White Lotus," Kaiya said, gesturing to herself, Washi, and Hotaru. "We can recruit whoever the hell we want to."

"Kaiya!" Iroh yelled, running into the kitchen from the basement. Washi jumped and fell out of his seat. The others immediately stood up, guessing from Iroh's frantic expression that something very bad was going on down in the fortress. "You have to get out of Ohio! Now!" Iroh yelled, throwing a printout down on the table.

Washi pulled himself up from underneath the table and looked at the paper. "Hey, Kaiya, it's you!" he said, pointing.

Sure enough, Kaiya's face was plastered all over a wanted poster.

Kaiya blinked. "Dead or alive?" she asked. "Who sent this out?"

Iroh let out a deep breath. "The government."

"The Elites!" Hahn said angrily.

"Why would they send out a wanted poster?" Hotaru asked. "Why not just send out an agent?"

"Well, we did turn their best two against them," Kaiya argued.

"Not the Elites," Iroh said loudly, shaking his head. "The government. As in the CIA."

The four friends stood for a moment in silent shock. "The CIA puts hits out on people?" Hotaru asked.

Iroh hit his forehead with his palm. "Not officially, but we all know that's where it came from!" he yelled.

"But what did Kaiya do to them?" Washi asked, picking up the poster. "Dangerous terrorist?" he read off the description of Kaiya. "Armed and extremely mentally unhinged?" he put the paper back down. "What the hell?"

"So, what you're saying is, Iroh, there's somebody else wants me dead, and you're kicking us out of your secret underground fortress," Kaiya said, looking from the really bad drivers' license photo on the poster, to the old man.

"There's a reward, and there are too many people downstairs I do not want to tempt," Iroh said shortly.

"So, being a White Lotus agent doesn't pay very well, then?" Washi asked.

"Of course not," Iroh said. "We're running on untraceable credit cards."

Following Iroh's instructions, the four packed up quickly, piled into Sheila the Van, and flew off into the afternoon traffic. A few miles down the rode, Washi shook his head, saying, "Do we not have enough complications in our lives? No, we gotta get thrown out of the safe fortress and out into the street where crazy bounty hunters are probably lurking behind every corner."

"Yeah, well, at least they won't be benders," Kaiya muttered from her seat just behind Washi.

*****

Carter Reight pushed aside the beaded curtain and walked into Persephone's office, wich was really her kitchen. It smelled of herbs and incense, and the decorations were an odd assortment of knickknacks and artworks from Victorian England teacups to Easter Island Head salt and pepper shakers. No matter how many times Carter sought out Persephone, the state of her kitchen always unsettled him. He'd teamed up with the fortune teller many times before, when the prize was too good to leave to chance. She'd won him a great deal of respect as well as money. With that thought, he threw an envelope down onto her kitchen table. It landed on top of a deck of Tarrot cards.

Persephone sighed from her seat, and looked from the envelope to her intruder. "My cards do not appreciate that."

"Maybe so, but you'll appreciate the contribution to your rent fund," Carter said as he took a seat across from Persephone. He handed her the new poster his contact had just sent him. "And there's more to come if you help me find her."

Persephone looked over the information. Pulling a card at random from her deck, she looked from the photo to the card, then to Carter. "The Tower," she said, showing him the card. "I would think twice about looking for Kaiya Saito."

"I didn't ask your advice. I asked you to find her," Carter said calmly. He trusted Persephone's sight, but he wasn't about to let a card tell him how to do his job.

Persephone took a deep breath, and still holding Kaiya's picture, closed her eyes and concentrated. "She's traveling with friends. By bus?" She concentrated harder on the image in her head. "A van. She is in Michigan. Near a lake. I see lots and lots of water." She opened her eyes and handed Carter back the poster. "The tower means something is about to be destroyed. This girl is not who you think she is."

Carter smiled. "Good," he said. "Then this should be fun."

*****

Carter caught up with Kaiya Saito and her friends a couple days later. They were staying in Michigan, in a little town nobody heard of called Lake Laogai. The residents were known to be very strange, secretive, and quiet. If Carter had had to choose a place to hide, Lake Laogai would have been one of his top choices. The group of kids had rented out a cabin very close to the lake. They'd paid with a credit card. This made Carter curious, as, well, let's face it, if somebody wants to find you, you are making it incredibly easy for them if you use a credit card. Carter wondered who they had stolen it from.

There was no moon that night, so Carter found it incredibly easy to sneak up close to their cabin and get an idea who he was dealing with.

"We need to keep moving," one of the young men said.

"They are going to find us eventually," Kaiya said from her spot on the couch. She looked very relaxed for someone wanted dead or alive. "And, I think here is a pretty good spot for a battle royale."

The other guy of the group looked up from his map. This was the one who drove the van. Carter had learned he was quirky one of the bunch. He'd overheard him calling the van "Sheila." "I was hoping we could avoid a battle royale. Don't those usually involve lots of guns?"

The other girl traveling with them was reading a rather thick book in the far corner of the cabin. "We can't stay here forever. We need to find Kaiya a teacher."

"Oh, not that again!" Kaiya said, as if she had heard this argument one too many times. "Can't we please deal with one problem at a time?"

"There is always going to be someone out their wanting you dead, Kaiya. We can't exactly wait around for that fact to change. We have to deal with the bigger picture," the girl shot back.

Not for the first time, Carter wondered what the hell Kaiya Saito had done to piss everyone off so much.

Having heard enough of the conversation, Carter snuck back away to a safe distance from the cabin and set off the charges he'd placed. The explosion was, as always, very pretty, but not deadly. It was just enough to get the group's attention and make them all come running out of the cabin.

But then the fires went out. It looked like they had a sprinkler system that activated or something. Water came running down the front steps of the cabin, leaving Carter very confused.

He heard the members of the group yelling amongst themselves. A moment later Kaiya Saito exited the cabin, followed closely by the other girl. The two men came out with swords in their hands. Carter almost laughed at them. They looked absolutely ridiculous. He held his gun on Kaiya while holding another switch in his other hand.

"Next time the whole thing goes to hell, and you four along with it," he said, holding up the device.

Kaiya sighed heavily. "Listen, Bounty Hunter Bob…"

"It's Carter."

"Whatever. I'm going to give you one chance. Turn around and go home. Tell your buddies to leave me alone."

"Little girl, you are coming with me at gunpoint or in pieces. I don't really care which."

"If you blow her up, how are you going to positively identify the body?" the van guy asked.

The other guy looked at him in shock. "Why the hell would you ask that?"

"Well, it just doesn't seem like he's completely thought this through. You know. Doesn't he need a body in order to get the bounty? What, are you going to take the biggest piece of her that's left to your boss?"

"Washi!" the other girl yelled.

Carter hated to admit it, but the guy did make a good point.

"Sorry. Just, you know. Watching too much TV I guess."

Carter was confused. They were ignoring him. "Hey! I'm the one with the gun here, right? So I'm the one you all are going to be listening to from now on!"

Kaiya rolled her eyes. Then all of a sudden, Carter was hit by a gigantic wave of water. Before he could quite figure out what happened, Carter found himself frozen to the ground just outside the cabin. And not a safe distance away from it, either. He struggled to free himself but stopped when he saw Kaiya Saito standing over him with an annoyed expression on her face.

"Once again, Bounty Hunter Carter. Go home and tell your friends not to mess with me."

Carter was even more confused now. "How did you do this to me?"

Kaiya pulled a water whip out of the ground and twirled it around in the air in front of Carter's face. "I'm not an ordinary girl, Carter. Find another bounty to hunt."

Carter nodded, finding this was the only thing he could do in this situation. Next time, he decided he would listen to Persephone's Tarot cards.