Two Dai Li agents stood, back to back, in the narrow alley. A third lay beside them with an arrow protruding from his liver. They peered apprehensively at the shadows around them.

"Come out now!" shouted one. Another arrow zipped through the air, and he almost wasn't quick enough to block it with his stone gloves. "You're going to regret that!" he shouted.

Then the two agents found that they were not alone in the alley. A teenaged boy had dropped from above, landing not three yards from them. His dark hair was long, disappearing into the shadows, and his clothes were accented by bits of armor. In his hands were two vicious looking hooked swords.

Speaking around the wheat stem in his mouth, Jet said "Down you go." It was his signature line.

Down they went.

Zuko stretched in the cool morning air. His muscles were tired from the hard night before. He needed to get more sleep. Vaguely, he considered giving up his role as The Blue Spirit to Jet, who could probably use it far better. But then he decided not to. It was something that had meant far too much to him in the past to give up now.

He yawned. After work the night before, he had "Taken a stroll" which meant that he had sneaked away and killed some more Dai Li agents. He had not gotten back home till almost midnight, and had slept restlessly for the rest of the night. He was finding it more and more difficult to stay awake during the day. He hoped that the freedom fighters would visit the tea shop again that day. He could use the company.

As luck had it, the three did stop in later that day. They were eager to tell Zuko what had transpired after he said goodbye to them the day before.

"Well, we've finally scratched the surface." said Jet when Zuko finally found time to sit and enjoy some tea with them. It's not much, but we did it. We took down three of them last night."

Zuko looked around hastily to make sure no one was listening. "You might want to lower your voice a little." he said. The last thing any of them wanted was to be overheard, and they all knew it.

"Right." said Jet. "Anyway," he continued in a low whisper, "we took out three Dai Li agents last night, and more will follow. If we take them on little by little, we can hardly help but win. They didn't put up much of a fight."

"Oh really?"

"Really."

"That's good. But I think The Blue Spirit did better last night." Zuko pulled a poster out from under his apron and showed it to all of them.

The Blue Spirit's reward had increased, the news bulletin said, and also revealed that the reward had put four new kills under his belt.

"He outdid you by one. This myth you created may actually give you a run for your money with taking them down."

Jet looked at the bulletin in disbelief for a moment, then smiled. "I hope he does." he said. "The closer the better."

For four more days the killings continued. As the Dai Li's losses grew, Jet thought more and more often about meeting the character he and Zuko had inspired, and joining forces, but he could not find him, and they were already fighting on the same side, so there was really very little reason for his concern. They seemed to answer each other's challenges as it was, one killing more in a night than the other and thereby challenging other to do better. The score climbed eventually to seven for The Blue Spirit, and for The Whisperer six. The two looked forward to continuing their struggle the next day.

"What in all of earth is happening to us?" the Dai Li captain shouted. His finger roamed over a map of Ba Sing Se, which was marked here and there with red splotches to note hit zones in which the organization had lost members. There were far too many of them. Normally the Dai Li lost fewer than two members every month, but in only half that time they had lost more than sixty men. There were hundreds of them of course, perhaps even thousands, but a loss like this could not go unfelt.

The other agents in the room stiffened, each one expecting to be slapped.

"We are the Dai Li. We used to be invincible, but now who is this Blue Spirit who keeps taking our good soldiers away, and this whisperer? They are depleting our reputation, as well as our number, man by man, faster than we can replace them. How can this be happening?" he glared at his men.

"Stealth?" offered one.

"Yes, but how dumb are we to let them get the drop on us?"

Another Dai Li member bowed his head before speaking. "For all we know, they could be the same person."

"That's an excellent idea." said the captain, looking at him. "When you kill one, we'll see if the other stops." he pulled out a knife and drove it into the table. "I want you to devote full effort to finding and killing these two!" he shouted.

"Nine?" asked Zuko.

Jet smiled. "That's right, I'd like to see The Blue Spirit top that in one night. I'm sure he will eventually, but I doubt it will be right away." He leaned back in his seat and rested his soar muscles. The night was late, and the tea smelled wonderful.

In an unusual feat of greatness, Jet and his gang had finished their nightly business early, and found The Jasmine Dragon still open when they returned.

"Oh, I have a feeling he will." said Zuko. "He usually does. I think it inspires him."

"Will you ever join us when we do these things?" asked Jet. "I bet together we could rack up a score that will really inspire him."

"I have no doubt we could, but I'm afraid that I need to keep a low profile for now. Given our recent encounter, I think it would be unwise to attract undue attention."

"Good point. Still, any time you feel like doing a little…you know," Jet mouthed the words "fire bending".

"I'll keep it in mind." Zuko moved away from his friends' table, and swept the floor meticulously.

Jet sat in thought for several moments. Then Long Shot looked at him with an expression of urgency, and he quickly turned his head to look at the counter. As his friend had said, four Dai Li agents were ordering tea.

The boys glanced at Smellerbee.

She looked at the table. "Not in the tea shop, we can't do that. It'd be bad for our friends' business."

Long Shot nodded knowingly, as did Jet.

Jet understood the sentiment, but he couldn't stop thinking about it. What can I do to lure them out? he thought.

Not being able to do anything infuriated part of him, and he chewed on the idea for a few minutes before pulling a stalk of wheat out of his bag and putting the end in his mouth. It helped calm him.

"Hey! That kid over there is The Whisperer!" shouted a customer, and suddenly all eyes were on Jet. "I recognize that wheat stem!"

"Dang it!" said Jet, then glaring at the old man who had spoken, "It's not even the same one old fool!"

The Dai Li were off their stools in an instant.

Looks like tonight's score is gonna go up to thirteen. thought Jet. "Down you go."

"No," said Iroh, coming from behind the counter, "if they're going down, they're doing it outside! Not in my tea shop!"

"Guys, get outside." said Jet to his companions. He noticed that Lee had disappeared.

Long Shot and Smellerbee did as asked, leaving the tea shop and standing ready in the street, followed by their leader.

Then followed the Dai Li, standing adjacent the freedom fighters. There were only three now.

Where'd the fourth one go? Jet thought to himself. I guess he must have high tailed it to get some more Dai Li. We'd better make this quick. I'll settle for twelve.

The six readied themselves to fight.

One of the agents threw his stone gloves at Jet, but he easily blocked them with his hooked swords, sending them flying into a nearby wall.

Long Shot drew his bow and let an arrow fly at their attackers, but it was blocked by the agent facing him.

Smellerbee lowered herself in her stance, dagger at the ready.

Then the agents rushed forward as one, leaping through the air with stone spurs springing up under their feet to give them greater distance and height.

Jet sidestepped his attacker, and hooked a sword around his ankle, throwing him roughly to the ground, and hoping that it would break some ribs.

The other two agents were a bit more lucky. One kicked Long Shot in the chest, shoving him backwards and to the ground. The other's boot disarmed Smellerbee as he landed, casting her dagger in Jet's direction, but it didn't hit him. The agent who kicked the knife was the closer of the two standing up to the leader of the freedom fighters. As he pulled his arms back in preparation to throw his gloves, Jet hooked a sword end around his wrist, and when he lunged forward he was unable to follow through, which caused the stone gloves to fall to the ground harmlessly.

Jet twisted his sword maliciously, breaking the man's wrist, then kicked him in the groin. As the agent toppled and fell, he turned his attention back to the one who had originally attacked him. He found the agent on his feet, but Smellerbee had her arms around his neck. She twisted, and after a brief snapping sound there was only one agent left.

The last Dai Li member stood at a distance, carefully keeping his eyes on each of the freedom fighters. They stood there for more than a minute, eyeing one another, each praying that the other would make the next move.

A large crowd had gathered, and women gasped as they saw what had transpired. The two motionless agents, one dead, one in agony. The one standing up, and the locally legendary Whisperer.

Then came what Jet had dreaded. On his swords, he caught a pair of them, but he could not stop them all. Six pairs of stone gloves rushed at him and his companions. Long Shot and Smellerbee went down immediately, with the rock shackles binding their hands and feet. Jet's hands were free still, but another pair of gloves slipped under his swords and caught his feet, pulling them together.

He fell to the ground, the stone street smashing his back hard, but in only an instant he had swung his left sword down, smashing the rock and freeing his legs. He leapt to his feet and charged the last of the original assailants, desperately flailing out at him. In a stroke of luck, he snagged the man's throat, killing him.

Then he was facing the rest of the Dai Li. There were six new arrivals, and no doubt more on their way. He gritted his teeth. This could be tough. he thought.

Then something else happened. A blue specter flew from the roof of the tea shop at the Dai Li agents. Any of them who had not thrown, or who had retrieved their rock gloves, cast them at it, tearing it apart in the air. Straw flew everywhere, and the agents studied the thing they had killed as it struck the ground with a pitiful "Whump".

Then a breathless whisper behind them said "I guess you need to work on your aim."

They all turned to look at their new assailant, but two only got one glimpse of him. One slash beheaded them both.

The other four retreated to what they thought was a safe distance, but they had all but forgotten Jet now, and one paid the price for ignoring him when he got too close. Jet hooked his swords together and swung them at the man, catching him in the chest, snapping several ribs, and cutting open his heart.

Jet looked at his new ally. As he had suspected, it was The Blue Spirit.

The vigilante twisted and turned in every direction, whirling his two swords around like the turning petals of a falling lotus blossom, cutting through the legs and neck of one of the agents with ease. He pursued the other two as the crowd parted to allow them through, and Jet ran to his friends. He broke the rocks on their limbs with his swords, and helped them up.

"Thanks." said Smellerbee.

"Any time, now lets move." Jet lead them after their friend, leaping over the bodies of the slain Dai Li. The Blue Spirit had killed another one in the mean time.

Long Shot came to a halt, and pulled an arrow from his quiver. He drew his bow and waited till there was space to shoot without hitting The Blue Spirit, or anyone in the crowd, and fired.

The last Dai Li agent fell.

The Blue Spirit straightened, then sheathed his broad swords and looked directly at Jet. "If I were you," came the same breathless whisper he had used when speaking to the Dai Li, "I'd consider getting a mask."

Then he was gone.