...
Xinfei and Lili were getting close to the site of the Kuang Harbor fires. The epicenter of the commotion seemed to be in one of the small manufacturing districts that were scattered throughout the town. It was still the festival night, so Xinfei had hoped that these industrial streets would be relatively unoccupied. Unfortunately, it seemed many of the other Harbor residents had the same idea to head towards the disturbance. That spectator's instinct always infected most of this city's population. It was probably just what the Masks wanted; more witnesses and victims.
While Xinfei could only think about reaching his brother, Lili was using what little spare breath she had to interrogate other people in the crowd that pushed ever forward to watch whatever was going on some blocks ahead. Startled by the sudden appearance of a pretty girl with a smooth Middle Ring accent, most of them complied involuntarily and instantly.
One volunteered, "There's some big fight, there is. Monsters and earthbenders all fighting it out! I hear even Public Safety was routed!"
Another would be spectator pushed closer in the rushing crowd. "Nah, Public Safety never even showed up. It's the nationalists, they're here to kill everyone whose ever taken a foreign coin! And I hear they've raised a spirit army!"
Lili, not conditioned by physical labor, was struggling to keep up with Xinfei but she still managed to reply between panting breaths. "If...that's true...then...why are you...running towards that?!"
The man shrugged as he jogged. "Might be something to see, isn't it?" Others around him nodded in agreement.
As they got closer, the crowd slowed and compacted as people began to cough from an invisible haze of smoke that now filled these streets. Above the roofs, thick dark plumes reflected lamplight as they rose to merge with the black sky. Then as they neared their final destination Lili caught sight of a name painted in clear block characters on the wall encircling an industrial compound.
It read: Miohuito International.
Lili groaned as she tried to catch her breath, "Oh, my father is not going to like this. Or Mizumi for that matter. Xinfei, for the love of...wait, I..."
Xinfei had been slowly pulling away from her, driven by the heavy pit in his stomach from each thought of his brother. Somewhere far behind them, Lili heard shouting that sounded like several city guard members trying to force their way through the crowd, though they were making no better headway than anyone else. But now there was a change in the flowing, converging traffic of the street. There were screams ahead and half of the would-be watchers were attempting to flow upstream back the way they'd come. Someone slammed their shoulder into Lili and for a moment she thought she was going to fall but then Xinfei's hand clamped around her wrist and pulled her back to her feet. Both Xinfei and Lili were rather slim but they were also both tall and were able to leverage that to their advantage in fighting their way through the swirling human current to get closer to the site of the fires. Then they broke though the final skin into the large halo of empty street that surrounded the entrance to the train-yard.
The first thing Lili noticed was the wooden fire brigade cart smashed against a brick wall, spilling out its load of dirt onto the street. Rather, the very first thing she noticed was the burning factory building whose harsh heat beat against her cheeks but that black and blazing tower was too big to fully take in. It melded into the background of the scene in the way the fiery sun melds into the blue sky and the crackling roar was loud enough to be inaudible. The next thing she noticed were the explosions.
In the middle of the street three earthbenders had set up an ad hoc set of defenses made from paving stones and fragments of the now rather dismantled brick wall even as their qi loudly ripped apart even more. Of them only one was wearing a government uniform and that was that of a fire brigade captain. Another was dressed in a now rather ragged festival costume. The third was only wearing simple dark robes but he was obviously in command as he shot out rock after rock at a blistering pace at their attackers. Their stand might have started as an attempt to protect the property here was now, in the interest of survival, they were doing nearly as much harm to their surroundings as the fire was.
The attackers they battled were just as fearsome. At first it seemed the earthbenders were firing their attacks at a small army because as Lili's eyes darted back and forth to each resounding crack of shattering stone there was always a different form darting away from it to meld with the smoke and dust and now the rising nighttime mist. Then she came to recognized that these masked men were moving faster than she would have thought possible. They weren't men at all. These things glowed with dim shadows clinging to them and strange lights shining out through the holes in the masks on their faces. Lili was beginning to admit that Ayika might have been talking sense when she had mentioned spirits, but when she opened her mouth she just found herself screaming.
Then one of those men or spirits or monsters made a dash for the panicked crowd of spectators up the street and the earthbenders were too hard pressed to stop it. Fortunately, there was another group out on this street. Between the fire and magical battle and the crowd that was now trying to escape stood a small band of men. They were clearly nonbenders, and their clothes and costumes were of the poorest sort but never the less they stood firm as that glowing, growling masked monster charged forward.
"Hold and strike!"
The leader of these men yelled out as his front ranks hefted crude but heavy metal clubs with two hands. Those behind them threw bricks that the Mask easily dodged. Well, dodged for the most part. No matter how light on its feet that glowing semi-human thing was there came a time when there was simply nowhere to go. A flying brick clipped its thigh as two metal clubs came down inches away from its head. It jumped back, tilting its masked head from side to side as if analyzing the problematic humanity before it.
The tall young man leading the street defense yelled out again, his height and his black headband aiding in picking him out of the group. "That's right guys! Put the fear into them! We got this! Just need to hold off a few moments more and the guard will be swarming all over here!"
"Xiaobao!"
The young man in the black headband whipped around as he heard Xinfei call out.
"Xinfei? Why the hell are you here?!"
Xinfei ran forward and stumbled to a halt before his brother amid his fellow armed nonbenders. "Me? I came to get you, you idiot! Why are you still here? Run!"
"I can't. There's still...Xinfei, who's this?"
Lili had run up beside Xinfei but now she was hunched over gasping to get her breath back as she reached up to undo her green lace festival mask, suddenly cursing how much time she'd spent making sure the thing was securely attached to her hair. Eventually she managed to look up, unmasked.
"Hi, Maolin. I like your headband."
Xiaobao looked back at his brother with an expression of disbelief greater than any Lili had ever seen before.
"You brought Mister Gaoli's daughter here? You flipping-!"
Someone yelled behind him. "Incoming!"
Xiaobao spun around to see that the Fire Captain was now lying flat out on the pavement. Ma'er and the one local earthbender who'd run out of the crowd to help fight the Masks were not looking much better. Ma'er was now only using one arm in his magical gestures and attacks. Their weariness meant they were less interesting opponents and so there were now two of the Masks who'd grown bored and were focusing on Xiaobao's augmented watchmen instead. Xiaobao looked at the glowing masked men with very little of the fear that painted the faces of his comrades, only weary determination. Lili now noticed that while Xiaobao wielded the same long length of metal that many of his fellows bore he held his in only one hand. The orange light of the fire washed over his bare arms as his muscles flexed in exertion.
When he opened his mouth his voice roared out over the thunder of the burning building. "Stand against them! Protect your homes!" As both glowing Masks began to creep forward Xiaobao burst forward like a charging stallion to meet the one on the left and prevent them from joining up together. Behind him the other men also roared their challenges. A few more volunteers even ran up from the crowd down the street to join them in providing protection.
Xiaobao ran at his chosen foe, sparing only one glance down the street at something. "Let's have it you monster!"
The Mask met him with a wild swing that Xiaobao firmly blocked with his arm but nevertheless still sent him sliding back by its incredible force. Xiaobao tried to use that moment to take a swing at the Mask's knees with his club but the thing saw this attack coming and jumped up to avoid it. Behind the glowing mask that man was grinning but now Xiaobao was grinning too as he suddenly dug his feet in and transferred his block into a grab that allowed him to spin and throw the Mask. For a brief moment the Mask was in the air and all his strength was useless. Then a man-sized slab of stone flew out of the darkness to erase him sidewise from view.
The Mask and his slab both met a brick wall with a smash. Down the street Ma'er finally fell down to one knee after that attack, the exertion of his magic catching up to him. The lone earthbender standing beside him was looking as if he sincerely regretted his decision to come help. Three Masks advanced on him, colored shadows boiling with suggestions of wings and tails and tentacles. The situation looked hopeless and all Lili could do was look up at the dark sky in a silent prayer to the good spirit gods of the city. Then there was suddenly something rushing through the air high above her.
There were seven Masks scattered around the street and in the now exposed factory yard, engaged both in battle and in random destruction. Then, within a single second, each one was driven to the ground by something smashing down on their heads from above. Their supernatural strength had them rising to their hands and knees with in a moment but at that same time there were six sounds of something landing on the tile roof of the building opposite Miohuito's train yard. Six dark robed figures rose up to stand against the starry sky and silver moon. As their hands darted out in violent gestures the ground burst forth into surging stone chains that sought to wrap around the Masks and drag them down to an earthen tomb.
"Thank heaven! It's Public Safety!" Lili yelled out and was only dimly conscious that this was probably the first time those words had ever been uttered in that precise order.
Several of the Masks managed to burst free of the magically animated stones that clutched at them but the others were caught fast. This display of earthbending power seemed to finally penetrate into whatever minds these inhumanly acting Masks might have had left and those that could darted away on glowing limbs before leaping off to escape. They swung and bounced their way off into the distance between rooftops with incredible speed, making their way toward the direction of the Wall as three of the Public Safety agents broke off to chase after them. The remaining Public Safety dropped down to the street level, the ground gently rising up to cushion their falls. In unison they thrust their fists downward and the captured Masks were wrenched further down under their confining bounds of earth and stone. The Masks roared and wailed as they thrashed in attempts to escape. As that unearthly noise buffeted the street the nearest agent actually stepped back in surprise, a rare reaction from the secret knives of the government.
Then a new Public Safety Agent emerged from some shadow as if it had birthed him whole. Unconcerned by the destroyed street, gnashing teeth of possessed captives, or the large and growing blaze that lit this whole display he smoothly walked over to the center of the torn ground where Ma'er was panting and clutching at his injured arm.
Ma'er looked up as Inspector Yang stopped beside him.
The Inspector said, "It seems that your assessment of their spiritually enhanced threat was correct. It might be assumed that there are more than eight of these masks still in circulation? We have received word of another single sighting in the Inner Ring tonight as well as possible action in the Lower Ring."
It was all Ma'er could do to nod, even if that sent stabbing pains through his dislocated shoulder.
Yang gave the slightest grimace. "So these four captures will not lessen their capability. It is always dreadful to have a capable enemy."
The Public Safety Inspector strode across the rubble tossed street, the weighted hem of his dark robe flowing over the rocks and torn slabs like liquid mercury. In the rising mist mixing with the smoke and fire, his calm and composition was just as terrifying as any other monster. He stopped before the nearest buried captive Mask, watched over by one of the agents. The Mask had fallen silent now and seemed almost resigned to his sunken captivity.
Yang ignored all the supernatural signs which bubbled off this confined man and instead bent down to grasp the blue wooden mask by its edge and yank it off. It didn't budge. Yang frowned. He could see the back of this man's head despite whatever faint aura was clinging to him. The securing strap that held the mask on had long since been cut and yet it still adhered to his skin. Yang did not understand and he didn't like things that he did not understand. Then the confined Mask suddenly surged forward with a burst of strength and broke one arm free from the imprisoning earth, swinging at his captor. Yang flicked his hand and snapped more magical stone bonds into place but he was shaken.
The Mask twisted his head up to look at Yang. Those were not human eyes within those wooden holes. The words he spoke echoed with a sound like the roar of a distant hurricane of fire.
"Until next time, human. The crossing grows ever easier as you build the fire higher. The next challenge will find us stronger still."
After that the captive Mask would say no more despite how much the agent squeezed his bones with the stones that held him. He only smiled.
Inspector Yang spared a glance over at the crowd of civilian spectators. Normally Public Safety's first priority with such a strange case would be containment of information, but with hundreds of witnesses who'd arrived before the Agency that option was not available. Within two hours half of the city sector would know some version of what had happened here.
A little ways off, Ma'er leaned back onto his heels as he tried to stand up without reigniting the smoldering pain in his arm. With this nighttime fog beginning to clog the air, the chances of the dispatched agents catching their fleeing prey was low. Those Masks wouldn't be caught off guard by a surprise attack twice tonight. The mists that rose the canals reflected orange light from the burning factory and began to seem even more concealing than they would if the night had been completely dark. Barely visible vapor tendrils slowly flowed up side streets towards the site of the fight, now bringing their haze towards the fallen combatants. In the distance Ma'er heard a dog howl. It was a sound distinct from the strange sounds made by the possessed masks but somehow not different enough for Ma'er's comfort. He saw Yang turn around as if he too was concerned by that lone beast's commentary.
Suddenly there was a clatter on the ground behind Yang and the inspector spun back to see his captive suddenly unmasked and coughing violently, wide eyes and confused by his nearly complete burial.
"Ahh! What!? Ahh! Somebody help! What happened? I...How did I..." At this point the man managed to look up from his fallen blue mask and recognize the dark green uniform of the man looking down at him. He recognized Public Safety and that apparently answered a lot of the questions he had. After that he hung his head and fell silent, although now he at least responded to the interrogative shiftings in his stone bonds with the traditional screams of pain.
Ma'er didn't understand what had just happened but right now he also could not bring himself to care. The masks were off. His arm shot out a new lancing bolt of pain, hot against the chill misty air. Let Yang try to solve this. Ma'er had tried following hunches and instinct tonight and it had just gotten him into an outnumbered fight to protect some idiotic harbor dwellers. Well, one of them had shown some sense. That tall fellow in the black headband had done all right for himself, and even managed to instill some modicum of order among the rest of the rabble. That was the only reason no more of them had died. That guy had been with the Miohuito and Gaoli girls on the night of the Fifth Hill riot too. For a moment Ma'er considered the possibility that the boy was some plant of Yang's but no, the Inspector would have wrapped this up much more quickly if he'd had a reason to trust the reports of spiritual involvement.
Apparently, Yang had decided he had more important matters to attend to than a retired Dai Li so at the moment no one was paying much attention to Ma'er. The other agents were involved in preparing rendition bonds for the newly unmasked combatants and constructing double-security evidence containers to transport the suddenly inactive masks. Off to the side, one agent saw to holding back the crowd of spectators who'd very quickly forgotten their previous fear the instant the fighting had ceased. As Ma'er began to limp off down the dark and hazy street he felt the temperature rapidly shift from the radiating heat of the burning factory building to the chill of the night mist.
Suddenly someone drew up next to Ma'er; someone who didn't move like Public Safety. Ma'er's defensive instincts were dulled by bone-deep weariness but fortunately he recognized Xiaobao quickly enough. Beside the young man were the other urchin kid, now dressed in a fake jeweled vest and furry armbands, and none other than the daughter of Aizhang Gaoli, now all in pale green. How she'd fallen in with this crowd, Ma'er was no closer to understanding but of all the chaos gripping this part of the city some inexplicable class mixing was the least of his concerns.
Ma'er nodded to Xiaobao and then concealed the pain this motion provoked. The young lunk nodded back respectfully and said:
"I've got to thank you, mister. You saved us back there."
"Rrm. Where's your tribal friend? The girl. She was seeing the magic on these people before I could. If she has some special sensitivity she could be a key asset to solving this crisis." Ma'er felt distantly uneasy about the prospect of handing over some young foreign girl to Yang, even if it was the sensible choice. He'd been out of government employ for a long time now. Unhelpful instincts like mercy were creeping in.
The skinny boy interjected himself into the conversation. "Hey, we're not saying nothing to someone who obviously lied to us. You told us you weren't working with Public Safety anymore. You've clearly been following my brother since that you nabbed us off the Fifth Hill. Our friend's going to stay safely away from you. Even if I knew where she was."
Lili Gaoli stepped forward. "She's with Mizumi at the party right? Mizumi told me she was going to invite her along but I suppose she might have kept that as a surprise."
"Lili, don't tell him anything!"
"Relax, 'the party' is hardly a direction tonight. If he wants to search ten thousand festival parties across the whole city he's welcome to."
Ma'er's tired mouth replied almost without his intending to, "So she's in the Inner Ring near the Kuang tram line gate. Sub-Minister Chao Erliao lives up there."
Lili suddenly blanched at the thought that she'd given away far more than she thought possible. "...No? How...?" The other two boys blinked in surprise, evidently they hadn't known to begin with.
Ma'er sighed. "Mizumi is a Fire Nation name, and there aren't many in the city who have any contact with that sort, whether positive or negative. Also, Public Safety had reports of another Spirit Mask attack in the Inner Ring and by now I expect you kids to be at every trouble site in this sector. Since there were two crisis points tonight I guess you had to split up to reach them all." A long career had taught him the world was preposterously improbable with infuriating regularity.
All three kids stopped, frozen, as Ma'er continued his hobbling. His shoulder really hurt. He wasn't looking forward to the trip back to his Lower Ring house especially since he now remembered that the Harbor Tram had been discontinued for passengers. His assistant Tian wouldn't be home to welcome him with a drink and bandages this time. The young man was still missing somewhere out in the city, thrust into something far over his head by Ma'er's own ego. But distracted as he was he still heard the whispered conversation being held behind him.
"He's hurt."
"What of it? He's government. They'll take care of him."
"I don't think so. That Public Safety Agent hardly even glanced at him. Look at him, he needs to see someone."
"Well, who'd we even take him to? Ayika's Grandma Aka isn't around anymore."
"What about that Mama Mua? Isn't Ayika training with her? She's a healer if Mizumi's letters are right."
"I guess, but Ayika sounds like she still had doubts about that one. And I still don't even think we should hang around this guy. We should focus on getting Maolin out of sight. The government doesn't like people who start organizing things like his neighborhood watch."
The muscular young man in the black headband took control of his friends. "He saved me, Xinfei. We're helping him. Um, sir?" He now addressed Ma'er with the curiously soft voice of a large boy who'd tried to learn to hold back his strength. "We know a healer who's fairly nearby. She's a waterbender."
Ma'er stopped walking. He had heard about the Water Tribe healers before, and under the expected disparagement of foreign superstitions what he had heard had sounded complimentary. Also, his shoulder did really hurt. And in the end, what would it really matter if he followed these kids? There was a time when Ma'er would have considered a fight like tonight a learning experience. After all these years, he'd learned enough. He tried to remember his training regarding waterbenders and then quickly resolved himself to not caring. His own city was sprouting spirit possessions on each corner, who was he to judge a little foreign magic?
He looked Xiaobao in the eye. "All right," he growled. "Lead the way."
...