Secret Underground Base

“Let’s face it…” The words came out in a rasp, at first. How long had they been down there? No way of telling, really. Either way… Too long… “I saw this coming from a mile away. After all I’ve been through in the last few weeks, how couldn’t I? It’s been one mess after another, day after day. Never ending bullmoose shit since the start. It’s like some divine being is personally looking down on us, a bowl of fireflakes in one hand and a remote in the other; Watching me suffer like it’s a prime-time event.” He spit on the cold hard floor in front of him. No red this time… Wonderful.

“I’m sure you know where I’m coming from, right?” Izaya looked up from the ground, then, and stared up at the face of one of his captors. His red eyes staring, through the bars of the cell, into the disinterested green eyes of a nameless, robed mook. Izaya had thought the whole cone hat and robed look pretty comical, when he’d first met these schmucks… But after receiving a barrage of stoned fists to the softest bits of his face, he was open to a change of opinion.


“We know where you come from, Fire Nation scum.” The robed man spat back at him; Almost too literally. Izaya wished he had his arms free, so he could at least wipe the spittle from his face. Guy really needed to learn how to keep his saliva in check… Or at least carry a towel.


“Alright, alright… But, before we get to the typical bad guy speech… Let me talk about the week I’ve been having, okay?” He waited a few seconds for a retort, but none came. He decided to take the stony silence as consent to go ahead and complain. “First.. Let’s give you a name, eh? Elevate you from ‘nameless henchman’ status. I’m gunna call you Lee. There’s a million Lee’s, after all… Might even be your real name, eh?” More silence, maybe a cocked eyebrow under that silly cone hat. Clearly he’d hit the mark.


“Well, Lee… I’ve had a hell of a week. All started when I got out of the Republic City enclave. Had some trouble on the boat. Words were said, and the Captain didn’t take well to a certain someone’s bitching. Got tossed out on the wrong harbor for that.” Izaya glanced upwards, accusingly, before moving on. “Lucky I even got to keep my car. I was sure they were going to toss it overboard… Where is that, by the way?” Even more silence. Always nice to have a chatty jailer.


“Anyway, after that we had to cross Si Wong; All desert, by the way. Should be glad there was even a road through it. Anyway, had some problems with the locals there. More words were said, and some shit went down. Had to hightail it out before we were sacrificed to the local sand spirit. Things didn’t really improve from there. Got to Omashu, supposedly the most welcoming place in the Earth Nations…”


“The Earth Kingdom!” Lee corrected, rather violently. A rock sprang from the ground at the man’s exclamation and smacked Izaya in the face. Izaya paused for a moment then, before spitting on the stone floor, again. The red was back. Wonderful. He leveled a steely look at the robed goof, his face clearly showing that he wasn't phased by the man’s violent reaction. He continued on, like nothing had happened.


“Anyways, went to Omashu… Made it in just fine. The guards were rather pleasant, actually. Yun invited us over for dinner. Heard the Cabbage Corp. exec was in town, so we had to go see him. Needed some help in the search, after all. Figured he’d have some info we could use. Sadly, once we got there, my partner felt the need to open his mouth, again. Surprised he’s not doing that now, actually. Though, it is a nice change of pace.”


Izaya looked up then, at the man hanging from the roof. “Why aren’t you talking, by the way? Clearly Lee, here, is a more tolerant audience than most. Why don’t you say hello? I’m sure you couldn’t make anything worse, this time.”

Ru had remained silent, only a slight chuckle when Izaya got smacked in the face by 'another' rock. Though once he was called out. Well then he let out a loud, overly dramatic sigh. "I was just enjoying watching someone else put a beating on you," He said with his trademark smirk. "First off Lee," He paused squirming a tad bit in his confines. "The first two were not entirely my fault.." He said pausing to take a breath before continuing. "You see, some of the workers made snide comments about water benders; and how they were things of the past and were worthless." He said, that smirk still there. "I just had to prove them wrong on that, I sped the ferry up just a bit, it wasn't my fault they fell overboard.." He looked down at Izaya. "The second time, also not my fault; your car broke down, in the desert; and you decided that i had to be the one pushing while you steered."

He looked towards Lee to see if the man was having any reaction to what he was saying, other then the obvious look of annoyance nothing changed. "Anyways, when we had a chance to stop and fix it, i couldn't help but find the first clear liquid to drink; I didn't realize it was cactus juice!" He exclaimed shaking his head, “What I said wasn't my fault! I wasn't even in my right mind!" He finished off the explanation on that part. Next came the third and final bad thing that Izaya blamed him for, which this one was entirely his fault. "Now as for the Omashu incident.. That one was my fault" He said and chuckled a little. "All i said was that I didn't like cabbage, and the dude flipped his shit!"

Ru wasn't even being rude, that time. He had just mentioned that he was not partial to cabbage and the man took personal offense to it; As if he had just destroyed a cart of cabbage right in front of him. But of course he hadn't! Ru looked down at Lee, then back to Izaya. "Anyways, Izzy here forgot to mention the third, and most important member of our little team." He said pausing to see if it got any reaction out of Lee. Which of course it did not, least not one he could see. "One of the greatest earth benders in the entire Earth kingdom!" He wasn't going to make the same mistake Izaya made and get hit for it. "Momo the twenty-fourth! An Earth-bender's bender!" He said with a large smile, "And if you knew what was good for you, you'd let us go now and beg for our forgiveness.."

Ru was bluffing; massively. Momo being the name of his flying lemur, who he had spent much of his childhood with. Well... the part after the horrible foster parents, at least. Regardless, he figured Momo would make the greatest of distractions for hopefully Izaya to either blast them outta here, or at least come up with a decent enough plan to get them the hell outta here. "Look Lee, I'm serious you better at least go check the exi---" Screams now echoing down the hall, something about a flying demon attack one of the men's ears or some such. Ru's smile almost taking over his entire face. That was his lemur, he was so glad he had invested just enough time in teaching Momo the best place to bite a person to be incredibly annoying and or incredibly evil… Either or. "Look here he comes, you better get out there and help your friends, before Momo gets em!"

Izaya rolled his eyes as best he could- a rather difficult feat considering how swollen his left eye felt- and gave an audible sigh as soon as Ru began his retelling of the story. He couldn’t help but think that, despite Ru’s attempts to paint himself in a good light, the man’s own version still painted every incident as his fault.

Of course, he’d left out a few large details. He’d left out the bit about his own remarks on the sailors, and their misfortune in not being born water benders, like him… Or the bit about letting them know just how much quicker he could have gotten them to their location, all by himself.

The incident with the Cactus Juice…Well, there was no way Ru couldn’t have been able to tell that there was something up with the liquid in that bottle. He was a water bender! Nor could he have missed the clearly marked label. What had been up with that slogan, anyway? Who, in their right minds, goes with “The Quinchiest” for their product? Utterly absurd! There could have been no way Ru missed it… No, that had to have been intentional.

Lastly, the incident with the Cabbage Corp exec had a few holes in its telling, from both of them. They’d agreed never to share the full details of that story… Lest they face some horrific punishment when they returned to the enclave. They hadn’t only been tossed out for Ru’s negative opinions over cabbages, after all.. They were actually tossed out because they’d neglected to keep an eye on Momo, and the damned lemur had taken off through the building. Before they’d caught the furry bastard, the lemur had devoured every last one of the decorative cabbages. It was highly unlikely that the White Lotus would be receiving any more support from Cabbage Corp, after that stunt… The Grand Lotus would not be pleased.
Izaya glanced back at Lee to gauge his reaction, to find that the robed man’s expression had actually shifted! Gone was the look of the average, lowly mook! Now, upon the weak minded man’s face, a look of slowly dawning realization was taking hold.
“W-water… B-bender…” A look of horror set into the man’s eyes as he looked around the cell, taking in the damp and disgusting quarters. Perhaps he’d even noticed whatever was making the annoying dripping sound, somewhere off in the corner. Anyhow, with a look like that; This had to be the worst turning point in the entirely of poor ol’ Lee’s career. “B-but wh-”

“Why didn’t we already escape?” Izaya cut him off, now lacking the patience to let Lee come to his own realizations. It wasn’t Lee’s fault, really. Any time Ru spoke, his patience seemed to deteriorate. “I’ve got a better question for you, Lee. Why did we let ourselves get caught without a fight?”

Izaya twisted his hands a bit in his… Manacles? Manacles of stone, he thought… Seemed like they had to be, given the feel. And with the way Ru was bound up- his body wrapped up in stone, all the way to his midsection- these guys couldn’t be metal benders. Any metal bender worth his iron wouldn’t resort to something that inefficient. The manacles were definitely made from stone, then. Maybe even segmented stone, like those stone gloves they seemed to like so much. Maybe his luck wasn’t so bad, after all.

“We ambushed you…” Lee began, giving his defense as he inched closer to the bars of the cell. His look of horror had changed to one of defiant anger. Maybe he, too, had noticed that the clamor from down the hall had gotten louder. One would think an organization like this wouldn’t have such a hard time with a lemur.

“You could justify it that way, sure. You guys did catch us right as we were about to head on to Ba Sing Se… But don’t you think we could have fought back, just a little?” Izaya fidgeted his hands about some more, trying to get them into a more workable position, while continuing to talk Lee into giving him what he needed. “Instead, we just asked you a question. ‘What are your intentions’ or whatever Ru said, instead. How about you answer that now, eh? What do you plan to do with us?”


“Your minds will be wiped, and you’ll be made to attack the town above.” Lee began, his tone growing confident as the hall quieted down. Maybe they’d finally caught Momo and gotten things under control? Izaya sincerely doubted that. “Then we will subdue you, and have you publically executed. The townspeople will praise us as their protectors, as in the days of old. Take comfort in knowing your deaths will support a great cause. The reunification of the Earth Kingdom!”

“Ah, there’s the bad-guy speech I was talking about. Nicely delivered, really. Gave me everything I needed to know.” Lee’s expression changed once again, becoming one of clear confusion. Izaya continued, as he started to move his hands back and forth in the manacles, at a steadily building rate. “You see, Lee, we’re under pretty strict orders, Ru and I. We’re not allowed to use force to defend ourselves, unless our lives are explicitly threatened, or the life of our charge might be put in danger. So, you see, we couldn’t fight back up til now because none of you mooks made it clear what you planned to do with us. Thanks for clearing that up. Good night, Lee.”

As those words left his mouth, a flash of blue flame ignited behind Izaya’s back, spraying small chunks of stone in every direction. Before Lee could react, Izaya brought his arms forward and slammed his palms together; Producing a massive gout of blue flames that shot through the cell bars and into Lee’s stunned face. The flames hit the man with such force that he flew backwards across the hall and smacked the back of his head against the bars of another cell with a loud ‘CLANK!’ Needless to say, the man was out cold. He’d be lucky if he even remembered who he was, when he finally woke up.

“Well, I’d say I’ve had enough of this place. How about we get out of here, eh?” Izaya said as he stood and raised a hand to the stone binding Ru to the ceiling. With a quick flick of his hand, he ignited a small, surging flame at the tip of his finger and set it to the stone. Where it touched, it melted through the weak rock and left behind a glowing trail. With care and precision, Izaya began cutting around the edges of the binding, doing his best not to hurt his companion. “Hopefully they haven’t caught Momo, yet. The distraction might give us enough time to find our stuff.”

"Stop! Theif!"

This was not her best morning.

Chiyo's pockets clinked heavily with coin as she dashed between shops and carts through the middle ring. It was that rich lady's own fault for leaving her purse so unguarded beside her at the Fancy Lady's Day Spa. Her eyes covered with cabbage leaves, her face smeared with some concoction that Chiyo couldn't identify exactly, but smelled like Owlcat dung and avocado. Just sitting there. Open. Wide open! Not even on her lap! It was just begging to have Chiyo call it to her hand, softly, slowly--until it fell over with a noise loud enough to draw attention. It was just so full of coins!

That was all the way in the Upper Ring but the police had chased her into the middle ring, spying her as she called handholds out of the stone walls to climb to her escape. She would have hung up there unnoticed, if one of the coins hadn't fallen on an officer's head as she struggled to heft the heavy coin purse over the side of the wall. It was at that point that Chiyo ditched the purse all together, opting for her own (zipperable) pockets.

She knew the streets of Ba Sing Se better than anyone--she felt. Plus, not many others could open and use the old passages in the stone walls. Bending was mostly obsolete. Had she not been caught making handholds--she would have simply slipped into the walls and waited for the Police to lose her trail. But now they would probably be expecting that. At least, anyone old enough to remember or any stray benders that MIGHT be police. Very rare these days. Instead, she weaved her way through the maze of people in the Middle Ring. It was mid-afternoon, so the city was bustling with life. People shopping, carts being pushed by people or pulled by animals. Should be easy enough to lose a few coppers. They weren't exactly--smart.

Chiyo was small for her age, borderline scrawny. Not unsurprising, considering she grew up in the Lower Ring, the poorest section of the city. There was a time when the separation had been demolished after the hundred year war--but Chiyo had only heard stories of this time. For a time things had been better for the Lower Ring residents (much to the Upper and Middle Ring's chagrin) but then the Slave Labor started. Thankfully, this was again something that Chiyo had only heard about. For her whole life, any military government or monarchy had been abolished.

Instead, Ba Sing Se had been broken into "independent states" by President Wu. This system was comparatively young, but still had been the "working" government for Chiyo's whole life. The idea had been to eliminate the class separation in Ba Sing Se, but old traditions die hard. Old parts of the original destroyed ring walls were built back on by the votes of citizens to their elected officials. Representation for the "Lower Ring States" was still badly done, while the "Upper Ring States" greased the wheels of the young government. Nothing really ever changed. Though, that suited Chiyo just fine.

"Let the Government fight itself," her father Bunta had often said. "It will be too preoccupied to bother with our business."

The shouts of "Theif! Catch her!" were fading into the background as Chiyo artfully navigated the streets. She took the longest route possible, doubling back and covering her face with her hood as she went. She didn't return to the Lower Ring until she was sure they had completely lost her trail. Most of them never bothered going in to the Lower Ring state areas anyway. They protect their own here.

She had slowed to a leisurely pace, strolling the familiar streets. The smell of traditional food cooking on open fires, melting metals, trash, stale alcohol and infrequently washed bodies felt like home to her. It was said that only people from the Lower Ring States could stand the smell. That again, suited Chiyo just fine. It made escape from any easy targets in the other "States" much more likely. In fact, she had never failed to lose Police by the Lower Ring.

"Oi! Chi!" Came a raspy voice, punctuated by a phlegmy cough. Chiyo turned with a smirk, her hands dug into her pockets, enjoying the heft of her stolen coins. That voice was nearly as familiar as her own father's.

"Hullo, Gen." She replied to the man. He was working his usual open-air noodle stall. Gen's noodles were not only Chiyo's favorite thing to eat in all of Ba Sing Se, but Gen was a soft-hearted (Though terrifying-looking) man. Often when Chiyo and her siblings were low on funds, Gen managed to slip them some broth and noodles. He had probably saved the family from starvation more times than Chiyo could count--or would like to admit. She wandered over to Gen's steaming cart, looking smug. Gen was a broad-shouldered, stout man with a bald head and a long, dark beard. He was missing an eye, and wore a metal patch (her father's own tech invention) that helped him to "see" better than ever before.

"Got an awful lot o' coin there--eh?"

Chiyo grinned impishly. He could see metal items with his special patch.

"Yep! Freshly gained, courtesy of the Fancy Lady Day Spa!" Unhesitatingly, Chiyo hefted a handful at Gen, who grinned toothlessly back at her. It was a silent agreement that she paid him when she could for any help he could give her family is more lean times. Gen tucked the coin into his thick beard.

"Always a pleasure, Chi." Gen growled affectionately and hefted a bowl of steaming broth and noodles at her. Chiyo gratefully gobbled the food down at once, as if it might be taken from her if she didn't. With a small burp of pleasure, she thanked Gen and continued on her way.

Scrappers didn't look like any business most people would recognize. It was really only a "business" in the loosest sense of the word. But it was her father's pride and joy, and by extension, Chiyo's pride and joy too. The only sign on the building was a large metal "S" that her father had bended, thick and almost grotesque to look at. Her father had affixed bulbs to it--but none of them ever really worked. The place looked like, and in fact was for all intents and purposes, a garage. The door had to be moved by a bender, lifted up with metal bending for each day. So it only made sense for Bunta to pick his eldest, Chiyo to succeed him. They were partners now that she had turned 20. Chiyo was proud beyond words. One of her sisters and her youngest brother were also benders like her father--but Chiyo had the talent for it. "The gift" her father had always said. Metal bending and Earth bending had always come as naturally to Chiyo as breathing. The other two were still young though, and needed more practice before their father would even let them near Scrappers main floor.

Scrappers was attached to their small home. So Chiyo first stopped in the main house, and was immediately tackled by her youngest, smallest brother, Tu. Tu liked to greet his eldest sister this way, attaching himself to her legs like a pentapus and often summoning the earth floor to trap her up to her knees.

"Welcome home!" Tu intoned, his voice cracking in his excitement.
"Welcome home!" chimed in three other young voices. Her two sisters were busying themselves with the general house work like cleaning and this morning--cooking. The smell of meat cooking wafted to Chiyo's nose.

"Smells good in here." Chiyo moaned. Though she had just eaten.
"Papa caught a wild Rabbaroo--he said they've been breeding like crazy since some escaped from the Zoo last year." This was her younger sister, second eldest in the family, Tatti. She was turning the rabbaroo meat on a spit over the fire. Many homes in the Middle and Upper Levels had real "electric" run ovens to cook on. But Chiyo didn't know of anyone with such a luxury in the Lower areas.
"What did ya bring us?" Tu asked, curiously poking Chiyo's overstuffed pockets.
"Shopping money!" Chiyo chimed happily, turning out her pockets into Tu's hands and (after some dragging and cracking) onto the dusty, dilapidated kitchen table. Tu's eyes went wide.
"Wow. This could feed us forever!" Chiyo laughed weakly, knowing how quickly this coin would go. As it always did.
"Maybe." Chiyo said, ruffling her brother's hair.
"Or maybe your head is full of HogMonkey dung." pipped up the bitter voice of the middle boy, Jun from behind a large heavy book, propped open on the table.

Tu and Jun bickered loudly among themselves per usual, so Chiyo headed to the garage, knowing she would find her father in the Scrappers part of their home. She could hear Tatti scolding the boys for their fighting as she left.

"Papa! I'm home!" Chiyo called, swinging the garage door open with a heavy bang.

Ru let out a groan as he heaved a large chest with gold and jewels into the trunk of Izzy's car. "Ugh, I can't believe you made me lug this stuff outta there.." He groaned looking over at his partner. He then threw a glare at Momo. "and I can't believe you didn't even try to pitch in!" His faithful Lemur enjoying a relaxing nap in the passenger seat. Ru could only huff, sweat running down his forehead and into his eyes before he had a chance to wipe it away. They had managed to get out of there intact, mostly thanks to their bending, but also to their flying lemur sidekick; Momo.

He picked up his little lemur pal, before taking the seat and placing momo in his lap. When he was freed, the first thing he did was use the water dripping around the cave, and the moisture in the air to form small pool near the entrance. As Momo flew in tailed by guards they were caught like fish. He raised the water around them before sealing them in blocks of ice (leaving their heads out for taunting purposes) and pushing them sliding towards a wall, there were many puns and taunts to be had as they ran through the underground base, making it to the vault where their gear was kept; and tons of gold and jewelry.

He had personally protested taking any of it, as it would just slow them down, but of course Izaya had other plans. Not only were they now fighting to get out; they were fighting just to survive with extra loot that they did(n’t) need. He did happen to get a minor bit of revenge as he managed to hang a couple of them from the ceiling with ice. It was glorious! A smile growing on his face from the memory. He had already settled into his seat, he took a moment to peek at his partner.

He had known Izaya for years now, though their personalities clashed a lot, they worked well together. He rested his hands behind his head and chuckled. “Hey Izzy, we should probably get going; we’ve got enough gold for the entire trip and then some!” He then pointed to where the entrance to the “Secret” base was. “Besides the ice should be melting pretty soon; and not the mention the dude with no eyebrows is gonna be pissed when he gets up”

Opps