The Blast from the bomb had not hurt me. It had pushed me behind the bench and onto some steps but I'd be fine. My hearing was slowly coming back but I was more worried about my eyesight. Dust from the explosion coated the street, which I couldn't even see anymore. My eyes stung with the dust and rubbing them with my hands would only make it worse. I got up and coughed, my throat was so dry. I was waved my arms to clear the dust in the air. My eyes got better, slowly and painfully but they seem to ignore it once I had gotten up. I stood straight up, brushing the dust and rubble off of my clothes.

My hearing was coming through, Screams echoed throughout the street. The border guards yelled as they tried to clear the area, being sand benders they didn't have much trouble blowing away the dust that had dispersed everywhere. I could only see there silhouettes at first rushing back and forth clearing the dust, but to be frank, I wish they hadn't

Corpses, crushed beyond belief by the stone and rubble. The fallen balcony laid broken in big pieces where the flute player had once stood. But he had been crushed, and blood spilt onto the streets. "Jin you alright?" one of the guards had shouted. "yea I'm fine, hold on lets clear this dust and search for survivors" replied the guard.

One of the benders had thrust his arm out in a palm striking position and a big portion of the dust had been blown away. The thing with sand benders is that not only could they control the sand, but they could control anything that had relations with sand. This was relationship bending, the art where any bender could do the same. Water had ice, Fire had lightning, and Earth had metal.

Air bending however was sort of the odd one out. It was the only one that didn't have a relationship with something else. It was rumored that they could take the break away from anybody and suffocate them just as sand bender could break glass with their fists from a distance. These relations were found out by anonymous benders during the great war, started by the fire nation.

I couldn't stand the sight of corpses anymore, I picked up the parcel that had been blown next to me when the bomb went off. It was covered with dust, and stained with more of a tan color then it's original orange. However, the bomb distracted the guards and I had made my move. I rushed through the border and entered district ten. The thing with the Sand Pit is that is there wasn't really much sand at all. Some of their building had rusted an unusual way, creating a tan-ish sand color. There inhabitants were mostly sand benders which was how it got it's name. Others were Equalist and earth benders, you would rarely see fire or water nation. However the there had been large jars and gourds along the roads, filled with sand in case a sand bending soldier needed to use it. Majority of the benders within Republic City were apart of the White Lotus Party (WLP), which called for equal rights for benders and other political gibberish I could never understand. The WLP was named after five very powerful bender who were said to have taken back Ba Sing Se all by themselves under fire nation hostility during the great war. luckily nobody saw me so reaching the drop off point was an easy part. It took me an extra twenty minutes to reach Shino's general goods store but it had to be an easy walk.

I knocked on the door, the screen door was torn, and the glass on the building was fogged. I cracked my back while I waited for someone to answer, my journey was long and a pain but I had worse, however that was the second time I've encountered an incident in the market. My first hadn't been as bloody so this was a new scare for me. I waited for some time before knocking a second time.

"Hold on I'm coming!" shouted an elderly man that I could classify as Shino. He came to the door and smiled at me "Ah your that courier, Bao kid right?" Shino was an old fellow, 72 to be exact. He had a white beard and hair that circled the edges of his head. "Yes sir, I have a parcel for you directly from the Equalist Board of Republic City" I said entering his shop as he held the door open. The Equalist Board was the council of who determined their rules and regulation and was lead by a man called Amon. It was the party of freedom , the party who acknowledged civil rights and who hated true power and corruption. Oh sorry I had read that off the back of a pamphlet a messenger gave me, which then I resumed to crumpling it up and throwing into the gutter.

Shino was wearing a brown apron and typical outdated worker clothes, which he seemed to wear all the time. "You can set it over there on top those papers" Shino said dusting off his shelves. I did as he told, his shop was cluttered with random papers, scrolls, books and random house hold items. I honestly didn't know how he managed to stay open. "Oh yes, I guess you'll be wanting something for you travels" He said as he reach into a drawer under the front desk. He through a bag containing 25 gold pieces, after counting them, I thanked him and left. A gust of warm air hit my face as I opened the door, and sunlight had blinded me for a couple seconds. I hadn't been there long that my eyes had adjusted a great amount to the lighting, it was just that his shop semed to be directly in front of the sun and blinded anybody who left his shop.

As I started down the sidewalk I noticed something, a lone apple core was standing upright in the middle of the cement. It was leaning but perfectly straight up, perfectly balanced. I didn't really know why I had noticed this specific thing but it seemed to have drawn my attention. I decided to start walking again but was interrupted by a large object standing beside be that I hadn't noticed at all, I had been distracted. "Come on Khai someone like you isn't knocked over that easily, you loosen game man?" said another person, male, about my age, Ruan. I laughed "Ruan you S.O.B, so this is where you live?". Ruan had been my best friend since I've moved here.

Ruan had been apart of an Equalist family to but he had ignored their hateful ways, he had lived in Republic City all his life, and his whole life he and been picked on for being an Equalist. However Ruan was one of those people who did care for hate, he had been loud and obnoxious when he was little, actually making some friends, I guess they just matured together and when The College of Kyoshi came people had seen him as a funny guy but nobody respects an outsider.

"Yea man, living here in the sand pits have it's advantages..oh who am I kidding this place sucks! Nothing but crime and vandalism but it's great work for my dad", he said. Ruan's dad had been the famous head detective for the Equalist police force. He had solved almost 23 impossible case that had been closed over 10 years before the crime had actually happened and more individual petty ones like robbery and vandalism. One of the things he taught Ruan was distractions to the enemy. His dad was pretty strict, "So your working here at Shino's General store?" I Asked. Ruan nodded "Just until im old enough to join the force, I'll be taken up the family name as head detective", he said proudly, unlike me Ruan actually wanted to take up his fathers job when he got older, he was my age now.

"I'm off now so wad'ya want to do, I imagine you got to get back to your place or your dad's going to kill ya right?", Ruan said

"More or less, yea", I said, I couldn't help but show a smile. "You want to walk around a bit, I need blow off some steam, and I'm not looking forward to returning home to Bo", I said truthfully. I had made the mistake of challenging him in the first place, but my anger had once again gotten me in a new situation with him. A few years back Bo had received second in the Equalist Army for advanced QCB techniques (close quarters combat), but I never actually saw him with a blade.

We started back to the gate of district 10 entering Kyoshi Way "Bo's back from leave?, Ruan smirked then sighed, "Ya know, it's always something with him isn't it, there's always a fight, duel, bet, or some weird contest to see who is greater. Seriously remember that time you told me about that eating contest you had, what was that supposed to prove, c'mon man you got to use your head", we both laughed at the thought of my decisions to challenge him. "So what's it this time?", Ruan added.

"Sword duel"

"Sword duel are you kidding me Khai, he's going to kick your ass, he's in the army, what advantages do you possibly have against that?"

"Wit" I said kind of in a cocky tone. Ruan sighed then laughed a bit, we both did. Talking about the situations we get ourselves into always did. We'd had continued walking until I noticed that I had passed him by a foot. Ruan stood there in his traditional sand robes and sandals and was starring across the street at a bank. I walked back a bit. "Whats going on Ruan?", I asked. I caught a glimpse of a transport unit carrying metal box but it had disappeared through the ally way next to the bank. From the look on Ruan's face I knew he had gotten a good look from it. "follow me, and hurry!", he ordered. I didn't ask questions, when Ruan got that kind of serious look I knew something was wrong but he had already figured it out.

He had led me across the street into a dirt ally way, more like a shortcut through on the side of the bank. We pushed and shoved our way though crowds, people had yelled at us but I couldn't care less at the moment. We had stopped behind a rusty turned over transporter, it had no engine in it and looked like it's been there for years. I took a few moment to care my breath. "Ruan, what the hell what are you doing?", he hushed my and he quickly pulled out his own notebook from his satchel.

A few minutes later he had sketched the whole side of the bank. "What is this, it's just the bank except there's a huge whole is the wall.. and is the smoke?", I was worried. Seconds later a huge blast came from the side of the building chunks cement flew hitting anything in its path, including the car. We both grunted and laid on the ground. Dust, Sand, and smoke filled the air as flames rose from the bank. It didn't take long for screams to erupt and chaos to emerge on the streets.

I was shocked, how the hell did Ruan know that that would happen? "See, what did I tell ya", said Ruan acting impressive. "Well first you got me panicked, then you pushed some people, sat behind a crappy broken down vehicle, and drew a picture. Seriously Ruan how was that impressive", I said sarcastically, I sat there panting. The bank explosion was city accident number three for me, but number two had been much worse.

"Look I'll explain everything but right now we'd better..", Ruan was cut off by the sight of three patrolling Sand benders that had walked up to the both of us

"Ruan, we seem to have a problem, you know who we are, so for these next very long uncomfortable minutes you'll be coming with us, or die!"