Republic City

Bae would blink as the other three seemed eager to depart, and he'd wave to Leta, "Goodbye." He's left with Bast, and he's a little confused. "You're not going with them?" He'd shrug, "Maybe. You'd have to ask him. My lunch break is just about up though." And he hadn't even gotten anything to eat! "I can point out his office to you if you want." He seemed to be doing a bit better now that there wasn't a big group of them. "Where are you planning on staying?" He had seen Bast get off the boat after all.

Ashya looked toward Rakka and nodded, "Yes, I was supposed to stay with my aunt...but..." she hesitated for a moment and then shook her head. "Plans changed and she can't keep me, where are you two staying?" she asked, looking between the two. She watched as the two groups seemed to separate and turned to follow Rakka and Leta, she didn't want to cause anymore trouble with Bael. She gave a small wave to Bael and Bast as they departed, before turning back to Rakka and Leta. "So Leta, you're from the water tribes?" she asked, trying to start up some small talk. Leta had been mostly quiet through all that, she seemed nice.

Rakka placed his hands behind his head as he walked, listening to Ashya as she spoke. He would give a sort of shrug, before answering her. "I'm putting Leta up for the night in the inn, but if you want to room with her, that will be cheaper on both our wallets. As for me, I'm staying with my parents. They, and my brothers, live in Republic City." He wasn't about to tell her that he she still lived with them as well. That wasn't what a professional Pro-bender did.

Leta looked to Ashya, a little surprised that she was being spoken to. "Yes, I am. The Northern. They don't really care for Pro-Bending, nor for females learning to fight, but I was interested. So I stowed away with Rakka, and came here."

Rakka waved his hands out like she had said something terrible. "It's not really like that. She didn't 'stow away' with me. I asked her if she wanted to play, and then I... snuck her out of the city. It... really isn't as bad as it sounds!" He raised his palm to his face, and rubbed it gently. "Ah... I guess it is a little bad. But she really didn't like it there. So I had to help her." He pat the top of Leta's head, and Leta looked at him, and then to Ashya.

"Where are you from? The Fire Nation Capitol? Or another town near it? I wasn't sure at first if you were a fire bender, because you have green eyes, but now I am pretty sure you are," she said quietly.

"Yeah, I was curious, too. Your eyes really set you apart. Not to say that is bad, or anything," Rakka said, going defensive. "I mean, I like them. They are pretty."

Awk-ward... he thought silently. And it seemed Leta felt the same as well, as she went quiet again.

Bast was sure he shouldn't answer Bael truthfully. He was prepared to sleep on the streets for now; it was better than an igloo anyway. He was watching the other three leave them when he decided to say something. "I'm going to look around I guess, for somewhere suitable."

He peeled his eyes away from the other new comers and looked to Bael with his blinding smile. "Thanks for the help, Baelfire. I would have just been wandering the dock if you hadn't helped." It wasn't true, because if Bael hadn't talked to him, Bast would have asked the very next person. But he felt that Bael might still be prickly after all the bending talk.

Baelfire frowned, "Somewhere suitable?" He wasn't sure if Bast was a bender or not, but he seemed innocent and he couldn't just leave the kid to the streets, especially with the Bender gangs that roamed the streets at night. He knew he was going to regret this, "Look, if you want to stick around until I get off, I can show you the place I live. I think there might be a room underneath mine for rent."

That blinding smile has him blushing, and he looked away from Bast, "Ah, I'm sure that isn't true." He's going to continue walking, "Come on, the office is this way." He'd returned to his gruff demeanor, because he couldn't be nice for too long.

Rakka was looking everywhere for some sort of distract, but Leta didn't seem like she was planning on helping. She had already turned away, inspecting a bit of steam that seemed to be coming from under a wall next to them. He shook his head, but then became distracted as well.

He made his way toward the steam and realized that it wasn't that at all. By the odor, he could tell it was smoke.

"What the--" he started, before the wall burst outward toward them, an explosion behind it expanded outward. With his quick reaction, he pulled Leta back into his as he turned, taking a hit to his back, as he pushed Ashya out of the way. He and Leta flew back into the opposite wall, while debris seperated them and Ashya.

After a moment, Rakka would stand slowly, wincing in pain. "You okay?" he asked Leta, who looked up at him, very afraid of what was happening. She gave a slow nod to him.

"Ashya!" Rakka said, turning to find her, but he found a group of people atop the rubble, looking down at them. They wore masks to conceal their faces and he knew immediately who they were. He first ran into the group when had first moved to Republic City.

"Equalists..." he said, under his breath. Leta gave a sort of 'what' sound, but found herself being pulled by her hand away from the incident.

"I'll explain later. We need to find somewhere safe..." he said, disappearing in between two buildings with her. He found it odd, that they made an attack during the day... Usually they concealed themselves at night. Maybe something big was about to go down...

He was about to round a corner, when he thought he saw another masked person, and he pulled Leta back, pushing her against the wall with his hands on either side of her, shielding themselves from being seen.

Leta's face flushed at the close proximity, though she knew better than to think anything of this. After a moment, the person walked by, being nothing more than a normal citizen, and Rakka let out a relieved sigh. "That was close," he said, frowning.

"What's going on?" Leta asked, as her companion pulled away from her.

"Equalists. I'll have to explain that all to you later. When we find we are in a safe place."

"Okay," Bast answered as he happily followed Bael to the office. He felt like his start in this city was definitely going well; he had made new friends, was getting a job and maybe he would sleep under a roof tonight. He was almost humming with excitement, but refrained from doing so as Bael would probably disapprove. "So how--"

He was cut off by the rumble of an explosion behind them. Bast snapped in that direction and immediately cried out, "Rakka! Leta!" He dropped his things and was sprinting back to where he had just left his new friends. Funny, it was so much easier to run on this ground that through the snow... He reached the rubble much sooner than anticipated and found no one he knew. There were a lot of men in strange costumes with big eyes... Bast back peddled and a wave of tension washed over him. He couldn't help feeling like he'd gotten in way over his head.

The chi blockers were closing in; they could tell Bast was fresh meat by the way he neither ran nor attacked them. Whether he was a bender or not was irrelevant until proven and they began to advance on him. Suddenly, something started to lift the building rubble. From the docks ran a shorter man, wearing green and shouting vows of violence. Bast turned to find the earthbender from before running right at him. The man flipped over Bast and when his feet hit the ground, the earth buckled up to displace the chi blockers.

"You unfortunate fellows have just found yourself on the losing side of a fight with me! Tanaf, the world's best bender!" And with that he started an onslaught of rubble chunks. The uneven pieces were being thrown through the air at the chi blockers who deftly hopped over each of them. This Tanaf guy was relentless however and Bast figured he could probably handle it. Instead, he began to lift and remove the rest of the building debris in case his friends were underneath.

Bael hadn't been expecting an explosion and chi blockers to suddenly appear on the ports, and when Bast ran after them, he tried to grab for his arm and missed, "Damnit kid!" He'd grab up Bast's things and he's hurrying after him, only to run into an earth bender who was tearing up the docks. Baelfire could feel his blood boiling and he'd grab Bast's shoulder, "Come on, this way, we have to get out of here!" Bast is bigger than him, but he's trying to tug the kid along, away from the battle and towards a walkway between two buildings that didn't look like it had much activity near it.

"Stay away from those chi blockers. They must be some rouge faction or something, I don't know." He seemed a little worried, "And that stupid earth bender. He's ruining the docks and he doesn't even care. He's no better than the chi blockers." His grip on Bast's arm lessened finally and he'd let the kid go, "Here." His stuff would be shoved at him, "Metal benders are going to be swarming over this area soon, I bet the ports get shut down for today." He sounded pretty angry too. Could nothing go right for him? Rakka and Leta might see them, or they might not, depending on where they were looking, and which end of the walkway they were at.

After calmly regaining his composure, Rakka took a deep breath and leaned on the wall opposite Leta. The girl would be looking around, trying to understand what was happening.

"So... what are Equalists?" she would asked the male.

"Ugh..." Rakka said, rubbing his forehead and sighing. "They are a group of non-benders... with some benders mixed in as well, who think that we benders are oppressing non-benders. They want things to be equal."

"I don't have any problem with non-benders..." Leta said, sounding a little confused as to why they would be doing this.

"Well... a lot of us don't. But a few bad benders have to ruin it for everyone. So, that's why they are here. Those guys back there are chi blockers. They can temporarily block your ability to bend. Kinda scary, if you think about it --"

He stopped, hearing people at the end of the alley, and he moved to protect Leta again, but noticed Bast and Bael were there. "Oh. Are you guys okay?" he shouted out, almost having forgotten they were at the docks as well with all that had happened.

Bast looked over his shoulder in concern for the earthbender still fighting, but he stopped rifled through debris and let bale haul him off. His heart was heavy with sadness at the way people treated each other here. It might be harder for him to fit in than he first thought. He followed Bael quietly, because it was obvious that he was in a worse mood now.

When he saw the other two his face lit back up with hope. "I'm so glad you're okay!" He ran up to them, looking them over for any visible injuries. When he couldn't find any, he embraced Rakka first and then Leta.

Bael watched Bast run off to the other two benders, and his first inclination was to just leave, but he remembered that Bast didn't actually have a place to stay, and somewhere deep in his chest was something that was vaguely heart shaped. He'd follow at a much more leisurely pace, until he was within speaking distance. "They'll probably close the ports for the rest of the day when the police get here."

Almost as if by magic, after he'd said that some trucks would roll by with the announcement. The ports were closed for the rest of the day. Everybody was to go to their own homes, if they wanted to report someone missing, they were to go to the south docks to the police set up.

Bael would look at the three of them, "Wasn't there one more of you a minute ago?" He could be wrong, but he seemed to remember another girl snapping at him.

Rakka looked to Bast, holding out his hands to stop the male from hugging him, but failed, and he winced in great pain as he was hugged. "My... back..." Rakka said, with pained words. Once Leta was free from Bast's embrace on her, she looked to her friend, and frowned.

"You hurt yourself... Let me heal you..." she said, raising her hand up to him, but he stopped her.

"No... I'm fine. I don't want you to slip back into the habit of being a healer, anyway," the fire bender said, stubbornly.

"I won't slip back --" Leta started, but then heard Bael speak. She blinked and then looked past him to see if Ashya had made it out. But the girl was no where to be found.

"Ah... I pushed her out of the way of the debris... but that was the last I saw of her... I hope she got away," Rakka said, looking a bit worried.

Bast spun around. "We have to go back, to check on her!" He had wanted to help Rakka too, but it seemed like he didn't want anyone to bother. If he wasn't going to let the tribesman lend a hand, then he may as well turn back and see who he could help. Tanaf surely needed his assistance!

He began to walk back toward the chi blockers.

Bae would reach out and grab Bast's arm as he walked by, "Are you nuts kid? This place is crawling with police and I don't even know where those chi blockers went. Let the police handle this one. I'm sure you'll run into your little friend later."

His attention would drift to Rakka and Leta, and he still hadn't let go of Bast's wrist. If the kid was determined to go on, he was literally going to have to drag Bae along with him. "If you guys are really worried about that girl, you should go report at the far end of the docks." He didn't really care though, Leta said she wasn't dead and that was good enough for him.

Rakka wanted to think that Ashya was okay, but he couldn't help but doubt it. There were quite a few of the chi blockers, and if they couldn't catch him and Leta, they may have turned back to capture her. He hadn't known about the Earth bender, though.

He clenched his fists tightly, before giving a loud sigh. "Bael's right, we can't go back. It wouldn't do us any good to be caught by chi blockers, or taken by the metal benders for questioning..." He shook his head, before he turned to Leta, who still looked concerned. "Don't worry, I'll get you some place safe."

Leta would shake her head lightly, letting him know he wasn't worried about that. "Bael... Bast... what are you going to do? You both were back at the docks when this happened. Do you have a place to go? You both weren't hurt, were you?"

"How about we continue on and ask such questions later... The Equalists are going to be looking for an escape from the police, and I don't want them coming down this way." Rakka took a hold of Leta's arm and motioned for Bael to follow. He quickly made his way down the side walk, cutting around a few corners, before he stopped to catch his breath in front of a noodle shop.

Bast was fine and he told them so, but he was still trying to think of reasons to go back and make sure everyone was okay. He could have helped them! However, Bael and Rakka had be insistent that they leave and he found himself being led away. He did not answer when Leta asked where he would stay because Bast did not want to impose.

Baelfire actually blushed faintly at Leta's attention, and he'd look away from her, "I'm fine." She's asking about where they are staying though, and he bristled, "I have a place to live." He wasn't a hobo guys, come on. "And Bast is staying with me until he finds something better." Maybe it's best if Bast just smiled and nodded, Bae was being super bossy.

Bae would nod at Rakka. He didn't know who these guys were, but the guys he knew...they wouldn't blow up a building. That was too much, and as much as he refused to admit it, he didn't want these guys to be caught by those chi blockers, because as far as he knew, they hadn't done anything wrong.

He's probably still got his hold on Bast's wrist, and he starts following along after Rakka, only letting go of Bast when he was sure the boy was going to follow and not go running back to the Ports. They're soon standing outside a noodle shop, and Bae looks up, "Here should be fine. Besides, I'm hungry. I skipped lunch to show you guys around."

Rakka listened to Bael, and frowned slightly. The male hadn't been forced to show them around, so there was no need to bring up the fact that he had missed his lunch to show them around. But he supposed that he was just looking farther into his words than Bael had intended, so he just shrugged it off. He just didn't like the fact that someone seemed to dislike him for the mere fact that he was born with a bending ability.

"Well, since they are getting food, do you--" he started, about to ask Leta if she wanted to head to the inn, but she wasn't where he had left her. He glanced around, and found that she had wandered to the noodle stand, and was currently paying for a bowl of noodle and chicken broth. He quickly made his way up to her, watching her give away the Yuons, and whispered quietly to her.

"You do know that we need money for the Pro-bending tournament, right?" he said. Leta stopped to look at him, about to speak, when the noodle stand owner looked at Rakka and laughed.

"Enter the Pro-Bending tournament?" he laughed. "A bit late for that, aren't you?"

"What do you mean?" Rakka replied, not sure what the man was trying to get at.

"I mean... that the Pro-Bending Tournament has already started? And even the Avatar joined. They are having a match tonight, you know..."

Leta held her bowl, and looked at Rakka, not sure exactly what that meant. But Rakka sure looked like he knew, as he began to grow more and more distraught.

"A-are you kidding me?!" he finally yelled, throwing his head back and pulling his hair lightly with his hands as he paced about. "How long was I gone?! Long enough to miss the registration by a lot apparently!"

Leta remained calm, looking that the male, before she spoke quietly. "That will give us plenty of time to prepare for next year's tournament..."

Rakka threw out his hand at her, looking at Bael and Bast. "Look how calm she is! After taking her from her home, with a promise to fame and fortune, and she doesn't blame me for any of it! I don't think she is real!" He ignored the fact that she was now slurping up the noodles quietly.

"I wanted to Pro-Bend this year..." Rakka sighed, resting his hand on his forhead, and shaking his head slightly. "Yeah... I guess there is next year. And if the Avatar is in it this year, I don't think we would have stood a chance anyway, now that I think about it. But the match is tonight. I'm interested in watching that..."

Bast leaned forward and put his hand on Leta's shoulder. She would probably look up at him in confusion, but Bast had confirmed that she was real and nodded at her. Falu tried to run down his arm as fast as possible to dive into her noodles, but Bast grabbed him as he ran over his fingers.

"No, Falu. That isn't ours." He looked to the noodle shop and pouted every so slightly. He really needed to get some money for things. He had not thought his move to the city through very well before leaving the tribe. Instead of noodles he would just have some more seal jerky from the South. He looked at Rakka, shewing his meat as the man had a small break down.

"I would go see the tournament; expecially if I could see the Avatar play."

Bael watched Rakka have his fit, "Chill out. It's just a game." Bae wasn't into pro bending at all, so he really didn't see it as a big deal. He'd nod at Leta, "She's right. If you want to be good at anything you need practice. I guess even bending applies." Bae'd wrinkle up his nose, as if saying that left a sour taste in his mouth. He's heading over to the noodle shop, and he motions for Bast to follow him after noticing his mousething trying to get Leta's noodles. He'd get two of the same thing Leta got, "Carry your own food." He'd feed Bast apparently, but he wasn't going to be nice about it.

"Try not to get lost on your way to the tournament kid." He'll begin eating his noodles then, he really wasn't interested in going.