First Encounter (Talon and Ghost One Shot)

[Zuka]

January 11th



For weeks she could think of nothing but the look on his face when she confronted Arrluk, the look of sheer terror when he saw the white mask, the sound of him begging for him to be spared. Zuka had no idea the impact her old Winter Festival mask would have but Arrluk thought she was a spirit come to seek vengeance against him and Zuka did not correct him, it was his fear that got her his confession that cleared her fathers name.

After she left him to think about his choices Zuka woke up the next day in a better mood she had been in days. In fact she was down right cheerful and after she woke and got ready for the day Zuka decided to walk around a bit. Walking the streets of her district Zuka greeted the shop keepers and stopped to talk to a few before taking the trolley to city hall. With a skip to her step Zuka climbed the stairs and made her way to President Raikos office. When his secretary tried to stop her Zuka removed the pictures of Arrluk and dangled them in front of the womans face.

"I need to see the President now." Zuka told the woman cheerfully yet forceful.

The secretary adjusted her glasses and saw the Ambassador getting a pay off which caused her to purse her lips before turning and walking back to her desk and picking up the phone. Zuka listened as the woman spoke to the President in a hushed tone before it ended with a 'right away sir"

After that Zuka was led to Raikos office where she was greeted by the President and told to take a seat.

Zuka showed Raiko the pictures she had acquired and explained how the whole thing had been a set up by some of the Triads.

Raiko listened and looked at the pictures she had brought and after a few minutes of silence he told her that her timing was impeccable because Arrluk had come to him first thing in the morning and confessed to the same crime. Zuka put on her best surprised face and fought the smirk that desperately wanted to come at the knowledge knowing that her plan had worked. Raiko explained that he had confessed and resigned and was now facing criminal charges for his crime....and that after a brief investigation her fathers name would be clear and the statue ceremony would continue on as planned.

During the statue ceremony while Zuka smiled for the cameras and shook hands with the people around her all she could think about was the rush putting that mask on and the knowledge that she had caused enough fear to give himself up gave her and night after night she found herself working on putting together a better, more suited uniform. Lightweight armor that would go under the grey tunic situated in such a way that would still allow for range of movement, reinforced bracers and gloves to block and attack, a better fitted mask that wouldn’t fall off in a fight with dark lenses that covered her eyes and a platinum sword and some other useful toys.  Zuka orginally wanted to continue using her bending but thought against it so no one could connect the dots so she settled on using her weapons skills.  It took weeks for Zuka to get everything, the sword especially but she had been careful in using false names to get it shipped in from the Fire Nation.

Now that she had the look Zuka needed a target and she knew the perfect place to start.

The Triple Threats had been trying to move in on Doll territory and they began forming their own casinos and cashing in on what was hers. What was worse the Threats had turned into trafficking young girls from the poorer villages in the other nations, promising them a good paying job and life in the big city. Little did these girls know that the job was working the halls of the Jade Blossom and being pimped out and sold to the Triple Threats clients, neither of which Zuka would stand for so she was going to put a stop to it personally and send them a message while doing so.

So she waited and watched.

~*~*~*~

Finally, the night arrived; word had been that the threats were getting a new shipment of girls that were to be transported to a warehouse on the outskirts of the threats territory. There the girls would be ‘evaluated’ and explained the ins and outs of their new lives before being sent to their various brothels around the city. The more beautiful girls would be moved to the Jade Blossom for the high profile clients while the others would be placed in the seedier, lower end brothels and fed black fin to make them compliant.

It was a disgusting practice and just another reason for doing what she was.

Getting to the warehouse was easy enough, the buildings in this city were so close together that you could run and jump across rooftops and basically had your own private highway if you were brave enough. Once she reached the roof across from her target Zuka stayed low and surveyed the area around, looking for any easy openings. There didn’t seem to be any security walking the perimeter and why should there be? This was there area and none of the other Triads would be have dared to try to take on the Triple Threats on their own turf, not even the police tried it so they had nothing to fear which made things a lot easier for her.

With the coast clear Zuka stood up and flicked her right arm out to the side, water streaming from hidden reservoirs under her armor. The water was there in case of emergency, Zuka wanted to keep bending to a minimum…or not at all. Didn’t need anyone connecting the dots and she knew her fighting and weapon skills were more than sufficient but in this case bending was necessary. The rooftop of the threat warehouse was too far from the building she was on and she would never make it in a jump alone. Standing back Zuka took a deep breath and started running for the ledge, stepping off and propelling herself across, shooting the stream of water out to latch on to the ledge of the warehouse roof and using it to swing to the side of the wall once she had reached the half way mark and started to fall. Now that she was here Zuka couldn’t dangle on the side of a building forever or else someone would see her. Flicking her left hand out this time the water from her other resuvior surrounded it and Zuka made a small, rounded bit of ice on the brick above her, and then another to the right and slightly above that one and again and again until she had something to scale the wall. Quickly she climbed up the ice and to the roof, bringing the water she used with her and placing it back in its respective containers.

Clearing the rooftop to make sure she didn’t have any unwanted surprises Zuka went to the skylight and unlatched one of the window panes, dropping herself to a support beam below and using that as a catwalk to make it through the warehouse unseen, as she did Zuka removed small explosives from a bag at her side and placed them around the building in her wake.
It took some time but finally she reached a room where a few of the threats men were sitting at a table playing cards. Thick, pungent smoke from their jade sticks filled the room and they were all laughing, relaxed and throwing more money onto the pile in the middle of the table.

Well, they were about to get a surprise.

Zuka positioned herself and dropped down, landing in a crouch in the middle of the table. The men whos reactions were slowed by the use of the sticks didn’t have time to process what had happened before she began to strike. The first that was directly in front of her Zuka threw a punch at his throat and down he went, the second to her right she grabbed by the back of the neck and slammed his head into the table and he too went down. The other two who had some more time to process pushed their chairs back and stood, ready to attack. Seeing this Zuka reacted and grabbed the edge of the table closest to the goon closest to her and put her leg out, wrapping it around the goons neck and bringing the rest of her body with her as she did, with her thigh closed around him Zuka used to momentum to spin herself around and then down, flipping the man over and bringing him to the ground. Once down Zuka released her grip on him and brought her foot down on the side of his head, knocking him out.

All that left was one.

He put his fist up in the fighting position and began throwing fire in her direction. Zuka weaved in and out of his attacks and advanced on him and kept weaving and dodging until she was close enough to grab him. Grabbing the goons wrist Zuka yanked his arm down and twisted, hyper extending it and striking his arm with her free hand, snapping the bone. The goon cried out in pain and fell to his knees which put him in the perfect position for her to knock him in the head and down he went. With the room secured Zuka scanned her eyes around to make sure she hadn’t missed anyone and her eyes settled on the pile of yuans they had been playing with before her attack.

”Why not” she thought to herself and walked back to the table and began piling the yuans into her bag but not before setting a few explosives around the room. Hey, it wasn’t like they were using it anymore and it would be a shame to just blow all of that money up.

Now that that room was secure she had to make her way to the others and she crept through the rest of the warehouse. Most of the rooms were empty but as she neared the southeast corner she could hear voices. Some of them were easy to make out, she could hear the deep voices of the Triad men the next room over but others were harder to hear, and while she couldn’t make out everything they were saying she knew crying when she heard it. This must be where they kept the girls.

As much as she wanted to barge in the room and take them all head on she knew she needed the element of surprise. Looking up Zuka looked for any way into the other room besides through the door and she saw a vent not far above her under a bunch of stacked crates and began to climb. Once at the top Zuka removed the vent cover and crawled inside and nudged herself the short distance to the vent opening in the next room. Grabbing hold of the vent Zuka pushed it out until it gave way and she turned the cover to its side so she could slip it inside, didn’t need that to fall and give away her location.

Slowly she inched herself out of the vent and once again used the support beams to position herself into a position where she could drop down. Unlike the other room there was no center location she could surprise them all at, as this room was full of more men scattered all over the room who didn’t seem to be hindered by any substance to give her the upper hand.

”3, 4..5”

Zuka counted.  Five was doable but she still didn’t like how scattered they were but, she didn’t come this far to get stopped by something so minor. Zuka stat there perched on the beam for a minute as she thought of a plan, ideally, using her bending would be best but she wasn’t that desperate yet and wanted to keep her bending a secret in this disguise for as long as possible. As she sat there one of the men made his way under her and casually stood there while he talked with the others.

Well…it would still have the element of surprise.

With her mind set Zuka once again positioned herself and jumped down, aiming for and landing on top of the man that was under her. The height of her fall combined with her weight the man went down like a sack of potatoes and his head hit the ground with a crack. Zuka sat there, crouched on their fallen friend and gave the Triads time to think over what had just happened and as soon as they made some movement Zuka was up and running full speed at the man closest to her, grabbing around his waist once she was close enough and pushing him back, flipping herself over him as soon as he hit the ground. As she stood Zuka felt arms wrap around her from behind and start to squeeze. She struggled against him, pushing back and trying to get enough leverage to pull him over her shoulders with no luck.

As she struggled two of the triads began to close in from each side and went to grab her legs. Knowing that if they did she was going to be done.  Zuka pushed back against the man who had her from behind and brought her legs up, kicking the men on each side of her in the jaw. Doing so gave her enough momentum and as her feet hit the ground again Zuka smacked her head back against the guy behind her skull and leaned forward slightly, grabbing the mans arm that had loosened around her and pulling him up and over her until his back hit the ground. As he did Zuka dropped to her knee, putting it on his throat to hold him in place and punched the side of his head twice until he was out cold.

One of the men who she had kicked in the face had not gone down and while Zuka was on top of the other man he ran as her and hit her in the side. She skidded across the floor slightly but rolled until she was back on her feet. While she got back up the last remaining Triad had collected some water from a pouch at his hip and started firing shards of ice at her.

It was almost kind of cruel but she easily deflected is attacks, using her own bending to send the ice shards to the side and Zuka walked through the barrage of ice without a scratch. Seeing his attacks have no effect sent a look of fear across his face and the last remaining Triad in a last ditch effort brought up his fist for a fight and Zuka did the same. The two fought back and forth, each getting in a few hits before it had to end. Kicking the outside of the Triads shin near the knee he went down and she was able to deliver the final blow.

With the last of the Triads down Zuka checked the room once more before going to the door where she could hear the crying and tried the door handle only to find it locked. Of course. Standing back slightly Zuka brought her foot up and kicked the door as hard as she could, just below the handle and the door swung open and hit the wall behind it with force. Inside was a windowless room with a handful of beds and six girls all of varying ages but by looking at them none of them could have been over the age of 20. The girls all screamed when they saw the faceless owl mask and they began to back up into a corner.

Zuka knew the girls were afraid but she really didn’t have time to sit and explain who she was or what she was doing so she grabbed the girl closest to her by the forearm and pulled her out of the room, dragging the struggling girl to a door that would lead outside so they could run to safety. Once at the door Zuka opened it and took the bag she had placed the yuans in earlier and thrust it into the girls hand and pointed to the street outside. The girl looked inside the bag and then to the street outside and realized what was happening and turned to call back to the girls that were still cowering in the room they had just left and told them all to follow her. As soon as they realized this was a rescue the captive girls all quickly followed and one by one made it out of the warehouse. The girl that Zuka had dragged out stayed behind to thank her before following the others out into the city.

Now that that was done Zuka made one last sweep on the warehouse, making sure she didn’t miss any other girls locked away anywhere and setting more explosives along the way. Finally when all of her explosives had been set and the warehouse cleared Zuka made it back to the roof and jumped to the building closest and continued on until she was a safe enough distance away but still close enough for her detonator to work. She pulled the small cylinder out of her pocket and placed her thumb over the button and was ready to push it and watch her work when she heard a voice behind her.

”Nice night”

Quickly she turned around to see the source of the voice, figuring that one of the girls she had freed had made it to the cops and they had come looking for the Triads responsible but, the man across from her was no cop.

”You’ve got to be kidding”

Zuka thought to herself as she looked at the only other person in this city that wore a mask who was casually leaned against a smoke stack. Republic Cities infamous Ghost, she had doubted he was real but enough people seemed to think he was which is why Zuka choose her own alter ego the way she had. Those that saw her thought she was the ghost or at least working with him. They thought Republic City had two angry spirits and that worked for her because she could pin her work on him and that was that. Never did she think she would actually come across the guy and yet…here she was.

”Look, you had your fun but its time to stop playing dress up.” He stood up right and started taking steps toward her ”its bad for business when people think there are two of us and really just annoying so why don’t you just come with me, its over.”

Zuka looked at him and tightened her grip on the detonator in her hand. She was not going to give up before she had even really started and this was just the beginning of her plans.

”I’m not going to ask again. The second time won’t be as nicely.” The Ghost squared his shoulders and stood ready to fight.

Zuka did the same only she braced herself for what was about to come. As he started stepping closer she lifted her hand and pushed down on the button. You felt the ‘boom’ before anything else and as the buildings around them shook the warehouse she had just been in erupted into a mass of flames as the windows blew out from the force. The Ghost brought his arms up to cover his eyes and face as he stumbled back from the force of the blast. Zuka stumbled slightly but regained her footing and took that as her window of opportunity and ran past him, jumping to the next roof top and continuing, trying to put as much distance between them as possible before he recovered and realized she was gone.

She ran and ran and ran, running under clothes lines, past rooftop gardens and bird coupes and when she looked back to see that he wasn’t chasing her she thought she had finally put enough distance between them and skidded to a stop to catch her breath. Zuka bent over slightly and rested her palms on her knees while she took in deep breaths and was just starting to get the burning sensation out of her lungs when she heard it.

”Out of breath all ready? “

”How is that even possible?!” Zuka quickly stood up right and saw the Ghost once again leaning against a wall ”How long had he even been there?” Well, she guess she knew why they called him The Ghost because she was sure he hadn’t been behind her.

”Look, I enjoy a nice run across the rooftops as much as the next guy but enough is enough.” He stood once more and brought his hands up, before pushing them out, the earthen gloves flying off and headed straight at her.

Zuka saw them coming for her and she had spent enough time avoiding the Dai Li during her time in Ba Sing Se and Omashu to know what would happen if they hit her. She had to act fast. Sticking her hand into a smaller pouch on her belt Zuka pulled out a small handful of pellets and threw them at the ground. As soon as they hit a thick smoke began to fill the air and she used the cover to once again take off running, just barely missing the earthen gloves, hearing them hit the wall that had been behind her and shatter.

”Ok then, guess were going to do this the hard way”

Once again she took off at a sprint, jumping to different roof tops to try to lose him but this time he was making his presence known as disk began flying past her. Zuka could hear the ‘whoosh’ as they closed in and she just barely made it out of the way as one had headed right toward her midsection.

When that didn’t seem to work the next thing to come were slabs of earth being lifted under her feet as she ran. Zuka stumbled on the first few but she was able to quickly recover and anticipate the next few, jumping over them as they came up. If she wasn’t running for her life Zuka would almost think of this as a game and all she had to do was clear enough space between them and make it to the bay so she could make her escape and win.

Her path looked to be clear, from here it was a straight shot to the next roof top and then to her freedom and Zuka pressed on, keeping up her speed toward her freedom but that freedom was blocked at two walls shot up in her way. Zuka knew that if she stopped she would be boxed in but if she didn’t she was going to run right into the wall and then it was game over….

or was it?

Keeping her speed Zuka ran head on for the wall and brought her foot up once she reached it, using the corner where the two walls meet to push off, switching between her feet she was able to ‘step’ up the wall and over to the other side and she dropped down and rolled before getting back to her feet and running toward the ledge. She needed to remember to thank her mother sometime in the future because if it hadn’t been for her harsh training she wouldn’t have made it this far.

As she landed on the other side of the wall Zuka could hear a ”Come on!” from behind it before the wall slid back down to show the Ghost behind it.

Almost there, she was almost there, Zuka could see the next rooftop in front of her and all she had to do was jump to it and then into the water and she was home free…only, there was a problem.

The rooftop was further away than she had originally anticipated and she knew there was no way she was going to make that jump and before she could reach the ledge Zuka skidded to a stop. She looked down at the ground below…it was a long way down and there was no telling if she could survive a drop from that height or not but, she heard the footsteps of the man who had been chasing her behind her and he sounded as out of breath as she was. Zuka knew she didn’t have much more running left in her but she wasn’t going to let him get her now.

With one last look back at The Ghost Zuka turned back toward the ledge and took a few steps back, she was going to do this, she could do this… Again she ran for the ledge and just as her feet left the roof she heard ”Enough!”

Shooting out a metal line Kenji aimed it at Zukas ankle and wrapped it around, once it was secure he yanked her back and she landed hard on her side. With her finally down he started to reel her in toward him, this was going to end right now.

Zuka grunted as she hit the roof and as he started to pull her toward him Zuka reached for the sword on her back and unsheathed it, bringing the edge of the blade down on the metal line cutting it in half. With her ankle free Zuka kicked off the excess line and got to her feet, holding her sword out and ready.

As the line snapped back at him Kenji reeled it back in and watched and she stood with her sword drawn. He heaved a heavy sigh as his gauntlet extended and sharpened into his own blade. ”Just can’t be easy, can it?” He asked as readied himself ”you really don’t want to do this” he warned but Zuka was not going to back down. She was a master swordsman and she would be damned if she was beaten by him. With his threat noted Zuka lunged at the attack, swinging her sword and bringing it down on him to which he blocked. As he did Zuka used her free hand and started to hit him in vulnerable areas only to be met with the sound of metal and a pain in her knuckles. She cried out in pain but kept attacking with her sword and hitting him, hoping to find some kind of weak spot but there was none, his whole suit was made of metal and now she had lost feeling in that hand.

Every hit she made Kenji laughed until he had had enough of it and used the momentum of her next punch to deflect her and knock her off balance. With that done he swung his foot under hers and down she went, once down he kicked her sword away and trapped her arms with earth from the roof.

”Had enough yet?” Kenji asked as he returned the blade to its regular form and stood over her. He had to admit, this night had turned out nothing like what he had imagined and he supposed he should thank her because it had clearly turned out more interesting than anticipated.

When Zuka went down the impact had knocked the wind out of her and she laid there as he trapped her a moment to catch her breath again. It wasn’t over, she was not going down like this, not yet. As soon as her breath returned Zuka tightened her muscles in her right hand to give her enough force to break free from the earth around it and as soon as her hand was free she sat up and headbutted Kenji, it hurt but at least her mask had taken most of the blunt of it. With her attack The Ghost stumbled a little and Zuka pulled a smaller knife from her boot and stuck it in the bottom of his coat and plunged the blade into the roof. She knew it wouldn’t hold long but long enough to do what she needed to do.

With her hand free and the Ghost preoccupied Zuka snapped the earth off her left hand and feet and kicked her foot into the middle of Kenjis chest. She knew it wouldn’t hurt him with his armor but it would knock him down and give her enough time to escape. As soon as he was down Zuka got to her feet, bent down and grabbed her sword and sheathed it back in its holder on her back and took off running toward the edge of the roof. This time she did not hesitate and jumped right off the ledge and to the street below.

As she began to fall Zuka pulled the water from her hidden containers and used them to slow her descent. When she finally landed she landed hard and it sent a shockwave through her legs but not as hard as it would have been but she didn’t have time to think over the pain her body was feeling and was quickly to her feet before taking off the small distance to Yue Bay. As soon as she reached the waters edge Zuka dove in and disappeared.

When he had gone down he quickly went to get back to his feet but stumbled as her did as the corner of his jacket was stuck and pulled him down. Giving it a yank the fabric tore on the blade and he looked to where this girl had just been only she was gone.

”She didn’t” he thought to himself before walking over to the ledge and looking down. There was no sign of her. With the battle over Kenji finally had a minute to catch his breath and think about what had happened tonight. Clearly someone was using his name to carry out their own vendetta against the Triads and that wasn’t good. He had already been getting flack for scaring the Watertribes ambassador into confessing about Councilmen Sota which he clearly did not do, and now there was this…Things were going to start getting difficult the longer he allowed her to carry on but he was already thinking of a plan for the next time they crossed paths.

Knowing that he was not going to catch her now and frankly not even wanting to try Kenji decided to call it a night and he began to journey home but not before he walked back to where they had just finished their battle and bent down and picked up the blade she had left behind. Who knows, it might come in handy the next time.