[color=bdbdbd][center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWjKI7Pbgso][img]http://i.imgur.com/Wh18BWT.png[/img][/url] [img]http://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/dHRmLjcyLjAwMDAwMC5RU0JYWVd4cklHbHVJSFJvWlNCRVpYTmxjblEsLjAAAA,,/ringbearer.medium.png[/img] [color=ed1c24]Game currently closed.[/color] [color=39b54a]IC currently open.[/color] [img]http://spectrumhealthcos.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/simple-divider-300x11.png[/img] [color=ffffff]A few days ago.[/color] [color=bdbdbd]Our story starts here...[/color] ...within the walls... ...on the cusp of the centennial anniversary of the end of the Great War... The streets are fire.[/center] It didn't matter who you were. It didn't matter your name. It didn't matter what ring you hailed from. Your future. Your past. Your dreams. Your fears. Your gains and loses. This day wasn't about you. No... this day was for everyone. The man paving a way for sciences for the betterment of the world's future. The woman holding the hope of dozen children in her eyes, reciting to them the truths hidden in a hundred years worth of lies. The son wiping the sweat from his brow as he splits open the Earth for the seeds he intends to sow. For the daughter leading the family's Ostrich Horses back to their stables, quelling their temperament with a gentle touch. A Hundred years ago men bent to the will of gods with the power to move the universe as they saw fit. They held in their hands the possibilities of a hundred lifetimes and with that power, forged the weapons they would wield to destroy the world. The man and the woman and the boy and the daughter had no power over them. All they could do was watch as gods burned the world with a gift they didn't understand. [center]That is until the day men felled the gods.[/center] And that is what the world remembers. And that is what they celebrate now. Galas in the Upper Ring. Parades in the Middle. Light shows and street performances in the Lower. There's laughter. There's love. There's life. Most of all, there's peace. But peace is often broken. And so it would be again... [center]An eruption rocks the city. A synergy storage facility situated in the Lower Ring is decimated knocking out power across all of the Republic and pushing tremors through all corners of the Ba Sing Se that can be felt by everyone. Festivities come to an immediate halt. Shortly thereafter, the populace is plagued by two very distinct occurrence. The first: Those closest to the blast become excessively violent to the point of physical and fatal harm. The second: You and many others are suddenly bending the elements. [img]http://spectrumhealthcos.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/simple-divider-300x11.png[/img] [sub].Collaboration between [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/users/midnightrose][color=c71585]MidnightRose[/color][/url] and [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/users/exit][color=ffffff]Exit[/color][/url].[/sub][/center] Cypher pushed through the crowd trying his best to ignore the incessant buzzing in his ear as he continued to track his target. There were a million things happening all around him and he was having a hard time concentrating. [color=ffffff]"K. Switch comms."[/color] He tapped his ear, switching to a clear channel and waited to hear from a familiar voice. He didn't have to wait long. [Color=c71585]"Cy!"[/color] As Cypher pushed through an unrelenting mass of bodies, his vision blocked, his ears bombarded with the screams of a city that was tearing itself apart, the sound of Koeska's voice cut through clear as crystal. Relief poked at his gut. That was one less thing he had to worry about. [color=c71585]"The hell just happened? Didn't feel like an earthquake. And people are acting insane."[/color] [color=ffffff]"I have no idea."[/color] Another body shoved passed him. [color=ffffff]"Still trying to figure things out but it's good to know you're alright."[/color] [Color=c71585]"What's your position?"[/color] Cypher took a quick look around. He was approaching one of a few main gates into the city, watching as the walls began to fold onto themselves in an attempt to seal off the flood of escaping citizens. Whatever happened had not only knocked out power to the city and destroy a sizable portion of the lower ring, it had also given birth to a number of benders. The smart ones were mixing into the general populace and using the crowds as cover to make an escape and the walls weren't closing fast enough to cut them off. Some of them were going to make it out. [color=ffffff]"K. There are benders escaping the city! Stopping them takes top priority. The RSF can handle the rest..." [i]I hope.[/i] "Meet me at the southern ga-"[/color] Force like a truck found his gut and sent him flying into a wall knocking the air out of his lungs. He slip to the ground with lights in his eyes and a crush diaphragm. He struggled to find any air. Out of the corner of his eyes he watched his assailant, a fairly large man, close the distance between the two of them and before he could object, felt strong hands wrap around his neck and lift him off the ground. Cypher remained suspended in the air long enough to get a good look at the man. Dark skinned. Short hair. Tattered clothes and a fierce expression made all the more unsettling by the pupiless eyes staring up at him. Even more unsettling still was the dark thin shadow standing behind him... staring up at him too. [center][i]...What the f-...[/i][/center] An audible [i]crack[/i] broke through the commotion in the air and the man's head suddenly exploded. Cypher fell to the ground in a breathless heap. [color=c71585]"Don't scare me like that!"[/color] Koeska was yelling at him now and looking over his neck and face searching for any injuries. He figured he was fine and returned to the man and his shadow. However Koeska had already stepped over the body and behind there was no shadow to be found. Returning to Koeska, Cypher coughed up the [color=ffffff]"thank you"[/color] lodged in his throat and proceeded to find his lungs. [color=ffffff]"The g-"[/color] He coughed. [color=ffffff]"The gate. We don't have enough time to stop everyone that's escaping."[/color] He was on his feet again and dusting himself off. [color=ffffff]"You'll have to seal everyone in."[/color] A fast moving shadow stepped up to Koeska from behind, arms stretched out in an attempt to wrap itself around her form and slam her smaller frame into the ground. That was until it's head snapped back with violent unnatural force and a red mist erupted from the back of it's skull. It landed at Koeska's feet defeated. Cypher didn't bother putting the gun away. [color=ffffff]"Get to the gate. Seal it. Then we go after the rest."[/color] It was a heavy request. Even if no words were spoken there was this realization in the both of them, an understanding of what he was asking her to do. With all this chaos innocent people were bound to get hurt if locked in. However she didn't hesitate. She nodded before standing up and cocking her pistol. [color=c71585]"I'm on it."[/color] She replied with a playful smile before bolting for the gate, diving into the crowd and moving through it with an ease he was entirely unfamiliar with. He tried to follow but was immediately swept up in an angry wave of people. They carried him closer to the gate and he let them, content with watching as the walls began to shut faster than they had been before. Within a handful of minutes, the walls had been sealed and though the crowd had stopped moving, the commotion had not. They swelled in their need to panic and in the chaos, Koeska's voice cut through on comms again. [color=c71585]"I'm not supposed to kill non-targets but if you don't put me down we're gonna have a problem honey,"[/color] Cypher's eyes flicked over to the wall and he immediately caught sight of Koeska being pinned against the wall by her hair and a particularly dead man getting in her face. He shoved his way over toward the pair, pushing another man into the ground and closing the gap between himself and Koeska's overly aggressive date. The man opened his mouth. "You threatening me bi-" Before he could finish his sentence, Cypher snaked his left arm through the the loop created by the man's left elbow and his back and then pushed in and pulled up to both pin the man's own arm against his back and expose the fingers of his left hand. Cypher grabbed the smallest of the set and torqued it up toward the sky eliciting a yelp of pain and releases Koeska's hair from his grasp. She landed on her feet. A quick kick to the back of the leg and the man dropped to a knee. [color=ffffff]"That would be a mistake."[/color] Cypher whispered in the man's ear through gritted teeth. [color=ffffff]"Apologize."[/color] The man growled in pain but knew he was clearly bested. He looked up to Koeska, "S-sorry," he grumbled grimacing. Koeska calmly ran a hand through her hair. [color=c71585]"Come on Cy. We don't have time to play. We've got work to do."[/color] She said glancing around, though she did take a second to shoot the man's leg where he knelt before her. The man shrieked in pain. [color=c71585]"Oh quit whining. It won't kill you,"[/color] Koeska said lightly before turning her attention back to the crowd. Now that the gate was closed even more fighting had broken out as people descended further into panic. [color=c71585]"This should be fun,"[/color] Koeska said cheerfully, cocking her pistol and shooting an earthbender, she noticed, in the arm. [color=c71585]"Like fish in a barrel."[/color] [color=ffffff]"Yeah."[/color] Cypher watched as Koeska spit metal at the crowd and large airships moving into position above began dropping warnings. RSF officers hung from the exposed ribs of large black birds yelling into the chaos below. When there was no one to heed their words, they dropped bombs instead. Bright metallic casings tumbled from the sky like a thousand falling stars, their shells cracking against the dirt and releasing a thick black mist. This mist brought with it sleep and as it slipped into the lungs of unsuspecting men and women, they found themselves ushered into a soundless slumber. The rest of the day was spent locked in a wondrous dance of blood, metal and smoke. Cypher, Koeska and officers of the RSF would eventually manage to cull the rest of the riots in the streets, incarcerating a large number of "dangerous" individuals and executing the rest. The men and women who had lost their minds to anger and blood had to either be put to permanent rest or captured. There was no way to stop their hallucinations and because the very nature of their affliction was a mystery, Cypher figured it was best they were taken to their resident doctor. It was there they could be taken in for a medical and psychological evaluation in the hopes that the City could understand what was happening and find some much needed answers, the most important of which: What was the cause of the sudden influx of benders in the world? For now... the city was left decimated. Left defeated. Left dead. [center]Men and women lost... ...sons and daughters missing... ...within the walls... The streets were fire.[/center][/color]