[hider= Nicias before recruitment] 
With Three of his friends in Jail Nicias and his crew were getting a bit desperate. All of their robberies had required group effort, and now that group was dwindling. As a precaution they had already moved the money they had already stolen, in case someone tried to make a deal with the police force. But right now they were clearly understaffed. Nicias was the only earthbender left, and with only two other people left in their little ring it wasn’t looking to good. In a Nicias made tunnel, they made their way underneath the Su Long house, where they believed the vault to be. It was, according to their source, to heavily guarded to sneak in from the outside, so they took an underground approach. It would be too risky to try to open the vault there so they had to take it with them. In hindsight it was a very ridiculous plan but they had no choice but to make it work somehow. 

As Nicias dug through the earth as Quietly as possible, a friend lit the tunnel with a flame. When they had reached their destination, underneath the house, supposedly underneath the vault room, they had to be very very careful. Nicias made a hole in the ceiling/floor so the waterbender of the group could flow some water into the room and freeze it o act like a spy mirror. Their intel was correct, the room was empty, but the vault was quite large. With guards on the outside of the door they had to be extremely quiet. Have you ever heard of a quiet earthbender? 

Nicias rubbed his hands together in preparation and set into a rooted stance. Slowly he raised his arms, which inturn raised the earth infront of him, until the pillar was directly under the vault. His stance changed to a more fluid one, reminiscent of his sandbening roots as the floor beneath the vault slowly turned to sand. She transitioned back to a solid stance and slowly lowered the vault down as quietly as possible. The silent question now was how the hell to get it open, it was made of metal. There wasn’t enough time to crack it open, and Nicias didn’t have enough skill to move it silently. The original plan was for Nicias to ‘sand’ the tunnel so the other earthbender could move the vault more easily. But the other earthbender was in jail. Nicias closed to the hole he made in the Ceiling/floor and looked at his companions. No one spoke but the water bender stepped up with a less then hopeful stride. With the water from his pouches, he soaked door frame, letting the water seep in. Then he froze it, knowing that Ice expands when frozen. While it slightly unhinged the door it didn’t completely open it. It took three more attempts to pry the door open. 

The loot, however, was underwhelming. More gold went into buying the vault that went in the vault. While there was still technically a lot Nicias honestly expected more to be in the vault. When they checked the actual contents, it was a mass of copper pieces and not gold. Thankfully Money was Money. They loaded it all up into a few burlap sacks and made their getaway. The fireball that came barreling down the tunnel towards them caught them off guard. The firebender was able to stop it but they knew they had been sold out. There wasn’t even an announcement of presence, just a shot fired into a dark tunnel. There were bound to be more, and in a tunnel like this it was likely to get them killed. Chances were the only reason they didn’t just cave the tunnel is because the money would be lost. Nicias Put on his mask, a fox mask and got ready for a confrontation. 
There weren’t any more fireballs, or attacks as they moved quickly though the tunnel. The anticipation had put them on edge. Clearly it was a tactic to psyche out the group, make them expect more, have them jumping at shadows. And the worst part about it was, it worked. So well that both the fire and water bender had decided to give themselves up once they got out. Nicias was to Launch them out of the tunnel in a rock sphere. They would come out of it fighting, and try to give Nicias time enough to escape. Of course it didn’t go so well. 

The rock sphere exit worked fine but it was immediately assaulted by flames. Nicias had to shoot the sphere in the air by earthbending a pillar underneath it quickly, like a pinball. Once airborn the sphere broke apart with everyone standing on a lump of stone in the air. The firebender blasted Nicias’s platform with enough force to propel him away from the center of the ambush. With a 2 out of the three burlap sacks on his shoulder Nicias started sandsliding as soon as he hit the ground. The other two wouldn’t let them follow him. He got away clean and hid the money with the rest of the loot. However the next day he found out that the waterbender had been executed, and the firebender was beaten beyond recognition. He probably wouldn’t survive long. 
Nicias was the last one, again everything was taken from him. Sure he had all the money, but he didn’t care about that? He wanted revenge, he wanted real justice. The family of thieves he found in Omashu were all gone. One dead, one about to die, one ratted them out the rest were imprisoned. He had to lay low, he contemplated going back into the dessert but he was tired of running. The Robin hood mesae got everyone locked up or killed so now was the time to fight back for eal. But again he was alone, with a shit tone of money. If he could met with the rising he could joing them and use the money towards funding that initiative. 

-

Nicias knew from the beginning that he would have to be careful of who and how he asked for information. Its not like you can just go door to door asking about secret rebellions. On top of that he was supposed to be laying low, keeping his bending to an all time low, which wasn’t that hard. When he finally made contact with the Rising he was met with notable suspicion. He met with a beautiful redhead named Shila, and made a point not to ask her name. That way if anything went south, he would have no information to give. When they first met, he offered her a coin sack full of Silver pieces. He explained to her in detail, his reasons for wishing to join. He included that as well as his physical service he was willing to ‘donate’ the money he had stolen to the Rising. It only required that She accompany him to retrieve the rest of it as it was a sizable about. 
Once they arrived at the stash site they were surprised to find the Fire nation Police hauling it all into a carriage. Even though Nicias was now being looked at with reasonable suspicion he was more pissed at the Police since there presence meant he was betrayed yet again. Somehow they had gotten the secondary location out of his companion and were here to collect the payload. 

Nicias initiated the strike with several large flying boulders, crushing people beneath them. With the element of surprise still in their favor Nicias plowed through them with a rolling bolder. Before they had a chance to react to him, Shila attack and killed several from behind. With everyone dead or incapacitated Nicias made sure the money was still there. When he accounted for everything he started loading them on to one of the carriages that remained. When he got outside he found everyone dead, even those who he had wounded and or incapacitated. Shila didn’t like loose ends, and given the nature of the Rising, he didn’t blame them. Nor did he honestly care. Once they loaded up the carriage they rode off. When they split up, she assured him that he would make a valuable asset to the Rising and to consider himself a new recruit. There was one condition, no stealing. He could oblige them that, after all he wasn’t a compulsive thief. 
[/hider]

[u] After Recruitment [/u]

The underground City of Omashu was pretty amazing to Nicias. As an earthbender he admired the intricacy and clear amount of work that had to have gone into it. As a Thief he admired the secrecy even more. It was sturdy, secret and somehow soothing. Nothing like the Shifting sands he once called home. The Rising on the other hand was a bit too familiar. They reminded him of his days as a Dessert Raider, but at least this was for a better cause..for now. After his grand tour Nicias Set up his sleeping quarters. Unlike most Earthbenders he hated sleeping on stone so he slowly ground the slab of rock into fine sand and tied it in a bag. Voila a sand bed for the Sandbender, that was made to his liking. So he laid in it and stared at the ceiling wondering what would happen next.

 Would he get to leave the earth kingdom? Would he stay here? Either way he would be content especially since he was already in. He rolled out of his bed and roamed the halls. There were more people than expected but their ranks were by no means numerous. a seemingly ragtag group of pissed off teenagers could be dangerous if used and trained right. From what he was hearing there would be plenty of uses for them, but he wasnt actually sure what that would ultimately. He probably should ask Shila these questions. He turned a corner in search of his recruiter as she would have most if not all the answers.