Authors Note: This is a longer chapter then usual, I just had a lot of information to get out, sorry for those who enjoy short and sweet chapter.
The smell of tobacco stained the air. Puffs of smoke rolled from Chen's mouth after he inhaled deeply. Dropping his cigarette to his side, his finger vigorously tapped on his cigarette making the burnt and crusted parts fall off. He head tilted towards the sun, absorbing the warm golden rays. He leaned against the wall, and glanced over across the street. Many people crossed the sidewalk as did on his side.
His hand lifted towards his mouth and inhaled one final time, the smoke burning the inside of his mouth. A sensation of fire on the back of his tongue urged him for more but he had enough, dropping the still smoking cigarette on the ground. He stamped it out, with his foot.
The man in rags who sat across the street from him did not show his face, and as cars passed along the street his position did not change. On Chen's side of the street was the capitol of the district. Which had held White Lotus VP for the time being, who had come here to negotiate why they should keep faith in them and aware them of their true enemies.
Chen had lost interest in the man in rags. He glanced over at a group of reporters and newscasters who gather around the capitol stairs. Men and Women crossed the streets everywhere to see what was going on. Horns from cars blasted as stupid pedestrians crossed from unexpected spots. A van rushed past Chen, a gust a wind slapped Chen across the face and cleared some of the cigarette scent from the air.
The back of the van busted oped, following a female reporter and her cameraman rushing up to the capitol to get a good spot. She wore a blue button down shirt, her brown hair was tied back, and she wore a black skirt. Metal bending police had already been on scene, blocking off the stairs, front entrance, and the boundaries of where civilians could watch.
Chen watched her carefully, he had completely ignored the man in rags at this point. "Excuse me! Need to get through here. Please move, just trying to get through. Hey asshole move it!", she shouted. Chen snickered as he watched the reporter, "elegantly" make her way to the front line. He moved up a little closer, leaning against the wall and was in perfect view of everything.
He had been far enough so he didn't attract the attention of any of the police. Chen wore an olive green button down shirt, dark grey jeans, and a brownish fedora. He watched the female reporter use her "charm" to by pass others by any mean. A bit of a bitch as usual eh? He thought to himself. Chen's body shivered for another cigarette but he ignored it. However the pack of smokes in his breast pocket didn't help at all.
The capitol doors. Everyone quieted down as Hulin Bei-son, VP of the White Lotus Party walked outside. Once he had reached his podium which had been directly on a special platform in the middle of the stairs everyone clapped. Hulin was a middle age man around his 50's, who had dressed in a nice black suit, red tie, and black dress shoes. A lot of people said he looked right for his position but for Chen he was just another criminal.
Chen spit on ground, and grinned showing his yellow stained teeth. "Our target awaits", said a voice lurking next to him. Chen turned his eyes dragging from starring at the VP. The man who had sat across the street from him, had causally walked up to him, however this did not shock or surprise Chen. He wore a torn brown shirt, stained dark blue shorts which had been torn, and his hair couldn't have been more scraggly and greasy.
"Yu, ya look good, haircut?", Chen said sarcastically. Yu grunted and spat on the ground at Chen's feet, he had been missing a few teeth. "Shut up Chen, when do we move?", Yu was eager and had been swishing around his saliva, getting ready to spit again. Chen sighed heavily, and he looked concern for Yu's health, but ignored it.
"Patience Yu, were about to witness our evidence", Chen said directing his hand at Hulin's direction. Yu mumbled to himself and fell to the ground, sitting with his legs crossed. He could have been mistaken for a hobo. Chen looked down at him, Yu had been drawing in the dirt, messing around with the sticks and rubble on the ground.
Hulin raised his hand for silence, which came shortly after. He spoke, "Thank you all for coming, I'm glad to see so many friendly faces in times as tough as ours. As you all are aware of the Equalists have lost full political control to our district. This is our home and we won't let it be taken over by the enemies which corrupt our nation that was built so long ago. May I remind you and all you Equalist who are watching that this city was created by two benders! One of which being Avatar Aang! The other being Firelord Zuko!", the people cheered, waves of clapping was heard like thunder, echoing across the streets.
Reporters asked questions, each one of them raising their hands and shouting like animals. It was almost like a mosh pit, except people didn't dress like tools. Hulin picked reporters, one by one, each asking a question. Yu, groaned as he sat on the cement. "How much longer?", he said irritably. Chen's head didn't moved, he just eyeballed Yu and looked back towards the VP. "Once he discloses himself", Chen answered.
The female reporter in the green shirt, shouted angrily so could get her question in. Her being the obvious pick, by almost elbowing another reporter in the chin. Hulin sighed at the childish behavior but he gave her, her chance. "Yes, mister Bei-son do we know who the current avatar is, and if not could it possibly be another issue like Avatar Aang? How would we protect ourselves, lets say if the Equalists invade. Let me not remind you of the school incident awhile back", she said eagerly.
Other reporters nodded in agreement to her question. Hulin thought for a moment, then answered, "While the College incident was a tragic, we do not know the current avatar. However this does not mean we are defenseless. More than half of this city supports the WTP and while the armies may be split we have the technological, strategic, and experience necessary for a evil revolution of the city", more hands clapped and heads nodded in agreement of his answer.
More reporters called out, shouting and their hands waving to obtain Hulin's attention. Questions went left, answers went right and all in the middle were cheering and roars of clapping. "Hulin's quite dramatic don't you agree Yu?", Chen asked. Yu didn't say anything he just sat against the wall, waiting and groaning impatiently.
"If this is a waste of time-", Yu was cut off. "Relax Yu, Admiral Geming says this is the guy and we listen to our leader. Right?", Chen interrupted almost as if he was saying this to a child. "Don't talk down to me you slime. Why was I teamed up with you and Monna, I want my old team back", Yu responded angrily.
Chen didn't say anything. There was no point to argue with a old man who still like playing in the dirt or stand up as a matter a fact.
"And what about The Pride?", shouted another random reporter. Chen and Yu's eyes widened. This was it, all they had to do was listen and if they were lucky they could go home and forget about each other for the rest of the day. Yu struggled to get to his feet but he did so instantly. Hulin stopped for a moment to think, then spoke.
"The infamous clan known as The Pride, is a very serious group that must be dealt with. This city will not sleep unless we assure you your political freedom is safe and not threatened by this group of tyrants! Their discrimination against you, your children, and your children's children will not be safe until this district.. no this city is fully guarded! The pridesmen numbers come in the hundreds, maybe thousands, but we will never know until we act! So right now I will act upon a curfew in this district and increase security so we can make it so you can sleep easily and safely at night, thank you!", roars of cheering, clapping, and people praising the WLP shook the city.
Yu looked at Chen vigorously and anxiously. Chen looked back and let out a short sigh and said, "Oh all right, I confess I heard it to. Now it's up to Monna now. Come Yu, lets find our way in", Chen said unenthusiastically. Chen left the crowd and headed down the street with Yu dragging behind him.
One of Hulin's advisers whispered nervously walked down the steps and whispered in his ear. Hulin looked back and nodded. "Alright well as you all sadly know this proud district has lost it's honorable representative due to a heart attack. Yes it's true we mourn him but we must moved on if we want to stop these pridemen. Inside the capitol we will be voting on a new candidate to take his place. I will allow one reporter inside to watch this honorable moment", Hulin announced.
The reporters went insane they pushed forward trying to get Hulins attention, causing the police to form a barrier and push them back. Hulin smiled greatly to see such patriots in his city. "We have your votes, we have your candidates, we just need eyes!", he called out, creating even more chaos. Hulin laughed widely.
A pinch, a mosquito? No it was different, a prick of some sort seemed to have injected a short amount of pain into the back of the VP's neck. He grunted a little, wiping the bug of whatever had caused him that pinch away, not realizing he just wiped away the only evidence that shown what is really was. Hulin walked closer to the crowd, smiling as if he had already forgotten about the pinch.
He felt as if his eyes had been growing bigger than his sockets. A migraine had started, puzzled by his good health in the past he was confused on what was happening but he tried his best to ignore it. A man, strong, well dressed, and looked the political type stood out amongst them all. Hulin new his choice, he started to raise his arm.
The girl choose the girl! Hulin felt the inside of his head swell up. His brain was as if it had been underwater in a bowl that was his head. The female, green shirt, brown hair, pick her! Hulins arm was frozen, pointing knee level, when an unknown force was telling him turned his head. He had no choice but to comply. Pick her and be free, remember nothing!
Hulin immediately turned to the female reporter, pointing head level. "Congratulations madame, please follow me!", Hulin said completely forgetting about his head pain. "Thank you mister vice president! I promise, I won't be a burden..."
Chen and Yu
Both of them had had walked around the building, nothing they didn't expect though because it had been crawling with guards. They stopped in front of a television store, barred up windows protected the display case. Yu had looked around the corner to see the guards for himself.
"So what you told me in the past is that you can use your earth bending to dig out secret room or long tunnels", Chen said, popping his knuckles. Yu looked at him with the same angry expression as always, Chen was convinced that's all he'd ever shown. "Yes, and I know where your going with this, follow", Yu replied. Chen shrugged his shoulders and followed.
Yu pulled a key from under his shirt and walked over to the next building which had no windows at all. It could had been mistaken for a bar or residential home, but Chen wouldn't think somebody lived here out of all places. Yu struggled to opened the door, pushing and shaking the door knob. The door swung open, sending dust to fly off the top of the door, which had been hiding there for years.
Yu ignored the dust as they he walked into the blackness of the building, however Chen was a little more aware. Chen waved his his hands in the air, trying to clear the rooms of dust and whatever smelled like a rotting corpse. He didn't expect it to be spotless or anyone to clean it but it still smelled like shit.
The room was empty. No windows, carpets, bookshelf's, or painting had decorated the room. A floor and ceiling surrounded by for walls presented itself for Chen and Yu. Chen had known why they were here, it was just difficult to grasp the scent. Yu removed started to removed his torn, brown shirt.
"What the hell Yu, why do you need to take your clothes off to create a tunnel", Chen said putting his arm in front of his eyes, afraid of what more was coming.
"Shut up Chen, it's just my shirt" Yu said, scoffing at Chen. His old man body looked frail as it was about to shatter at any moment but that wasn't the first thing Chen noticed. A metal circlet ringing had rung around Yu's withered neck, however it did not seem to choke him. What the hell? Chen thought. What good is a neck brace on someone as misshapen as that, he continued.
Yu turned around and drew back his fist. Chen grinned, there was more then that neck brace then he thought. A very long strip of metal ran down his curved back, along his spine. More strips ran from the side and hooked around his rip cage. It had disappeared within this pants but Chen could only think it went around his waist. Yu grunted and then his clenched his hands slowly bringing them to his sides, slowly the metal stripe down his spine began to straighten. His back was forced straight, from a frail old man he became a strong, earth bending juggernaut. He had also grown three inches.
Chen was more disgusted then impressed. "The brace straightens out my back, allowing my chi to run through me. This allows me to achieve my full potential of my earth bending skills", Yu said predicting Chen's question. Chen eyed him and snickered. "Well it also increases your vocabulary. I noticed your not talking in choppy sentences".
Yu said nothing but scowled at Chen. Yu then focused on the ground, with a quick punch he made the most neatly constructed tunnel anyone could imagine. The ground didn't even rumble, this was Yu's specialty, they both walked into the tunnel. Yu now walked straight and fair, he didn't drag nor stumble. In fact he walked faster then Chen.
"I've been meaning to ask, which is rare to me, but doesn't that hurt?", Chen asked. Yu grumbled and rapidly became irritable again. Jeez for a guy to change his appearance he sure didn't change his personality, Chen thought. Yu finally answered. "Chen you are lazy and are inconsiderate! If you must know I was born without feeling pain", Yu said grudgingly.
Chen ignored the random insults, he wasn't going to bother wasting energy of yelling petty at someone who could barley hear. They reached the end of the tunnel, Yu drew his hands up and grip each one, slowly bringing them together. This had crumbled the wall in front of them putting them in the basement of the capitol. They were in a storage like room. Barrels and box flooded the room. Rugs had lead to two doors on each end but the one on the far end had been blocked by box's.
"I must admit, your tunnels are very classy. How's about you make me a hidden bar one of these days?", Chen said slowly walking around the room. He tucked his hands in his pockets and looked back at Yu. "Shut up Chen, lets get through with this", Yu's deep scratchy voice had gotten in the way, he coughed and spat on the ground.
"Attractive", Chen said sarcastically as he searched through and empty wooden crate. Nothing worth swiping Chen though. After they both explored a bit they walked to the only available door. Yu drew his arms to his waist and stepped back with his back foot. Chen eyes squinted a bit more than usual. He held his palm up to Yu's bare chest. Yu turned his head toward Chen, "What?", he growled softly.
Chen smiled, and tilted his fedora. "Six WLP guards, two sitting, three standing, and one nearly asleep, and three representative candidates are in the room, let me do something". Yu looked surprise, how had he known how many people were in that room? In fact why was he of all people actually volunteering to do work, usually the lazy bastard is trying to weasel his way out of something.
Yu didn't make a noise, he actually wanted to see this. Chen closed his eyes and pictured the room he had seen.
"What the!", "Hey!", "Help, Somebody!". Groans and quick cries for help from the room. The ground rumbled a bit but not to alarming. Chen reopened his eyes, smiling and motioned his had to the door offering Yu to go first. Yu glared at him, he quickly slid his front foot forward, shifting the earth to the point where it had launched the door far into the room. Yu starred in amazement, everybody was dead! but how, Chen didn't even see the men he had just assaulted yet they were all dead. The guards sitting on benches had been burying under piles of earth that had been forced out from the wall. Boulders laid on the other two and the remaining had been swallowed by the ground, only their hands shown.
Tapestries were shredded and pillars had ripped through paintings. It looked like the room crumbled and rebuilt itself, the place was in ruin's.
They both explored the room, all three reps had been killed as well. Yu examined a young, maybe early 30's representative. A rock striking them in the back of the head had instantly killed him. Yu turned around to see that Chen had switched his green button down shirt to the top of a brown suit which had been worn by one of the reps. He fixed his collar and looked at Yu and smiled sinisterly. "So.. What'dya think?", Chen asked, messing with his fedora.
"You reek of tobacco", Yu said showing no signs of positive emotion. Chen had a puzzled look on his face and shrugged, "That wasn't the question I asked but.. okay", he muttered to himself. "By the way the guards in front of the staircase are dead as well", Chen said as he yawned. Yu looked at him and back towards the other door the, what Chen said, led to staircase. Yu quickly opened it.
Chen was right! Both guards were down and two little pillars coming out of the walls. It had apparently knocked their heads together. "How did you?", Yu was in to much of shock to finish. "I can sense the vibrations through the earth, anything I declare my enemy that's in a certain area, is on the ground or worse", Chen said as he started up the stairs.
That still doesn't explain how you can earth bend without even lifting a damn finger!, Yu thought. They got to the top if the stairs and Yu had shot out a beautiful side kick sending the door flying into a civilian who had been walking down the hall. Papers he had been holding flew everywhere and the door turned vertically and crushed his throat. "Lets do this!", Chen said eagerly, trying to hold back his smile. In fact his casually whistled the whole way.
Three metal bending policemen rushed towards Yu, each launching masses of rock towards him. Yu spun around in the air, stopping the two shots instantly, reducing them to dust. At the same time he caught the third one bringing it down, slamming into the ground. Using his earth bending to make two pillars come out of the ground impaling two of the three guards, shooting and pinning their bodies to the ceiling. Blood rained down and ran down the pillar.
The third guard had already charged Yu, his fingertips covered with metal, aimed for Yu's Chi points. He rapidly shot out launching different fingers but Yu had blocked all of them. Striking the wrists and pushing them away he countered with a strong, almost unblockable punch to the gut. This sent the guard flying into a pillar that shot out of the ground.
Yu hadn't done it, he turned around to see Chen still walking casually and whistling. After he noticed Yu looking at him he waved and added a fake smile. How was he doing this without moving!, Yu's mind was in an uproar. "You want to join help at all asshole!", Yu shouted at Chen. Chen shrugged and didn't bother answering the question.
Chen closed his eyes as he walked down the hall visualizing everything that's happening, through the vibration in the ground. He had walked past a door that had just busted open, a guard came out already raising a large rock aimed at Chen's head. He shoot out his arm back when suddenly, the ground shifted. He was pulled back into the room, dropping the rock and the door slammed shut. The ground softened into dirt and wrapped itself around the guards body making its way up to the neck, the guard yelled as he was forcibly pulled underground and fallen into and airless chasm.
Chen acted like he didn't even notice! Yu starred in amazement, trying not to give him a praised look. However Chen new Yu hated him, he just liked toying with him. They continued to walk, and rounded a corner.
"How do you-"
"Later Yu, look ahead", Chen said interrupting him. Seven guards blocked the staircase leading towards the second floor, which was where they needed to go. Three jumped preforming a maneuver when slamming their feet into the ground it pulled up large slabs of stone, they sent it flying towards Yu and Chen. Chen didn't seemed worried, Yu raised his arms making walls of stone to break out of the ground covering Chen and himself from any enemy projectiles.
Yu's earth bending was strong enough to hold the large stones, that flew at them and more oncoming shots. They continued to move forward with their protection still out. Half of the wall forcibly broke, turning into little bullet type projectile that machine gunned down three of the guards. Yu looked worried, "Stop, your destroying our protection!", he shouted.
The guards downed moaned in agony as the rock pellets had pierced through their skin, breaking bones on the way. The remaining four had done the same thing Yu did and brought up protection from the ground. "just relax Yu, I'm only destroying my half, now watch this", Chen said calmly. He stopping walking. Yu had brought up thicker protecting from the wall. The whole room shook, any projectiles thrown at Chen had been instantly crumbled into pieces as if it had hit an invisible wall. Chen stood there with his arms crossed and a boastful grin on his face.
Everything thrown at him was useless, it only crumbled which boggled more in Yu's mind. In seconds it happened, the dirt under the building had guzzled through the cement floors as if he'd struck oil. Without even blinking Chen made the dirt wrap itself around each of the four guards.
"Whats going on!", a guard shouted. "Is he doing this?", another screamed. "Impossible, he's not moving!", another manage to sputter out.
The dirt had covered every part of the guards at this point, instantly the dirt imploded. Blood spewed out blood in every direction, bones were crushed to dust, body parts were torn and shredded, and were tossed all around the room. Yu was horrified, he didn't know if he wasn't seeing it right but Chen did all that and not only did he remain still, he remained motionless.
The room went quiet, the only sound was Yu's heavy breathing. "Tell me", said Yu with a horrified look. Chen rolled his eyes and signaled him to follow, "Oh all right but lets keep moving, I'm getting bored. Anyway here's how it works, the body is made up of chi points right? Chi points rest in the head, heart, arms, legs, chest, and back, almost like pressure points. However when struck the ability to bend become useless. I have learned over my years, impossible to describe really, but over my years I have learned to manipulate this to the point where I can shut off my chi points completely", they walked up the stairs.
Yu had been looking back and forth between policemen and Chen, he had defending his teammate who was more then capable of protecting himself. A policemen had came up from the ground, handcuffing Yu by surprise, however he countered with a spinning hook kick to the side of guards head putting him into a deep coma. he easily bending the bending right off and sent it flying into another guards heart, Chen continued.
"So when the chi is distributed, depending on what your bending type is, it become divided and less powerful. However when shut off except on one chi point it becomes amazingly powerful however you cannot bend with any other part of the body, for the time being. Now another good thing is that when struck by special chi blockers like Equalists, you do not loose you ability to bend because you had no chi there. I had mastered earth bending at the age of 15. I won national competitions, won championships multiple times, and at 19 joined The Pride", Chen was cut off my policemen shooting out the rocks that had fitted their gloved that looked like fists.
However they just stopped in mid air and were sent back at them but with twice the speed. "I don't care about your childhood, tell me about your damn ability!", Yu said impatiently. Chen's mood didn't change, he saw madness and anger a distraction so he had eliminated those emotions. They continued rounding corners and advancing floors, 3rd, 4th, and eventually the 5th floor. They had must've killed out 50 guards.
"Okay, okay it's coming. So by me converting my chi only to the chi point to my head, I can send out my earth bending abilities through my mind, without moving at all! However this requires tons of concentration. What I didn't tell you is that I had mastered the earth vibrations technique at age 10 and with those two abilities active and my elite earth bending skills, I can completely control my surroundings without lifting a pinky", Chen finished.
Yu was impressed that such a lazy moron like Chen could have accomplished something like this, and at an early age. No guards stood in their way, until they reached the roof. A flat roof laid and Yu and Chen casually walked out, Chen almost tripped on a piece of rubble. The VP stood surrounded by five guards, and behind them a private mini blimp stood that could hold maybe four men. Behind him was the female reporter.
The earth benders, each had rocks drawn up and ready to fire but Hulin wanted to say some last words. "You sicken me! People like you who take to much pride in their abilities need to be locked away forever!", Hulin shouted over the blimps engine.
"Funny, he sounds like Amon", Chen muttered to Yu. "However you are very dramatic", Chen said changing directions to Hulin. Hulin didn't say anything back.. to them.
"Kill them", he said to his guards. They launched multiple large rocks at the pridesmen. However both Yu and Chen stood completely still as Chen stopped the rocks and exploded them exploded in mid air and reverted back to tiny shards like shrapnel. Funny enough the guards kept luanching rocks until they recognized that their effort were useless.
"Would you like to try again?", Chen asked sarcastically. He didn't even hesitate, he sent the wall of shrapnel back at them. Slicing through the air impaled all expect for the VP, mist of blood spurting out of the exit wound. The Guards dropping one by one, blood flooding the rooftops.
"Your monsters!", shouted Hulin running for his private blimp. He started to climb aboard when his waist was wrapped in a water bind, throwing him at Yu's feet. He groaned as the cement split his chin, blood dripped onto his hand and his suit wasn't as clean anymore. His head now engulfed in a water bowl like prison, strained for air, he clawed at the water trying to pulling himself free, he was suffocating.
Chen and Yu watched at the female reporter known as Monna froze the water, encasing the VP head in a block of ice. "Ironically enough the bastard wasn't a bender, yet he was the VP of the WTP", Monna said, looking strangely at them. Especially at Yu who's body had been encased with that damn harness. She looked back at Chen who was dressed nicely then he had arrived, admiring his new look.
"Nice work, you assholes pulled it off perfectly. Not as subtly as I would had wanted it but it was done but the plan went as is. As you two did this job, those other sand bending dick heads, Kenten, Kessen and Sento assassinated the Equalist VP, they just messaged me", Monna said, still looking at their new apparel.
"New look.. nice", Monna said nodding in agreement at Chen. Chen nodded and gave a surprising look at Yu, who was scowling at Chen. "Oh shut up!", Yu growled. Chen laughed and they all walked off and entered the private blimp.