[color=bfbfbf][sub][table= //////= POST DESIGN v1=\\\\\\][row][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][img]https://i.imgur.com/aiF63jS.png[/img][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/row][row][cell][sup][img]https://i.imgur.com/vcBZ1jb.png[/img][/sup]

[color=2e2c2c]_______________________________[sub]........[/sub][/color]
[/cell][cell][color=white][center][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][img]https://i.imgur.com/DHKvx27.png[/img][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][center][color=2e2c2c]Abandoned Rest Stop   ·   Morning   ·   In collaboration with |@KillamriX88] & |@canaryrose][/color]Abandoned Rest Stop   ·   Morning   ·   In collaboration with [@KillamriX88] & [@canaryrose][/center][/sub][/center][/color][quote][color=2e2c2c]____________________________________________________________________________.[/color]
[color=9f9f9f]Chu Hua looked up, squinting at the glare of the sun in her eyes. These two seemed… earnest. Well, the woman did- the boy looked chagrined. She sighed nearly imperceptibly as Chae Won started speaking, giving Kanna a resigned glance. A day ago, she would’ve been happy to meet these two- fans were, or had been, her favorite part of her career outside of the game- but today she was just done. She didn’t care. [color=firebrick]“Uh-huh,”[/color] she said, face and tone flat. [color=firebrick]“Cool.”[/color]

Kanna returned a glance that said [color=white]”They’re [i]your[/i] fans…”[/color] and would have left her to suffer the attention if it were any other day, but out here, any attention was bad attention. It was something that the both of them hadn’t really considered. Kanna had been so distracted by the events leading to their departure from the city, she’d completely forgotten that back in their normal lives, the both of them were very recognizable. The fact that their escape from the field in the middle of the game yesterday had been broadcast to the entire city only compounded the issue.

Besides that, she found herself fighting instincts she hadn’t had for years. There was no need to step up and put herself between Chu and potential danger, not when it was no longer her place and especially not when Chu could handle herself. Yet, she wanted to.

[color=white][i]...Chu was right. An should have been here…[/i][/color] She thought to herself, recognizing the face of indifference on her ex. She decided the least she could do was try to keep things cordial with the strangers since it’d been made apparent they’d be riding together. She preferred everyone in [i]their[/i] group at least remained friendly for however long the duration of the trip across the desert would be.

[color=white]”It’s uh…always nice to meet fans...”[/color] Kanna answered, struggling to change what would have been a practiced greeting to something more fitting to everyone’s situation. [color=white]”So… are you both… you know... Are you both Benders?”[/color]

Chae-Won felt her whole body cringe with shame as Kanna called her a 'fan'. Was it that obvious? Of course it was.

[color=white]“I’m so sorry. I made it weird, I know I did…”[/color] Chae-Won groaned. Fortunately, Kanna seemed less begrudging of their presence and gave her a less painfully awkward topic to discuss. [color=white]“Oh, uh… yeah I guess that’s the kind of thing we can actually talk about now, huh?”[/color]

Weiyuan, having been on edge the second Kanna had asked, relaxed as Chae-Won. It was true. The pathetically small silver lining to all this was that he was surrounded by people where, for the moment at least, he didn’t have to hide that part of himself.

[color=white]“Yep. Both of us are earth benders. I’d been teaching myself for years, and then I ran into the kid. He insisted on learning, so I figured I might as well make sure he learned right.”[/color] She rubbed the back of her neck. [color=white]“Neither of us are experts or anything. Obviously it's pretty hard to get proper instructions on how to do this stuff…”[/color]

Wait. Holy shit. That meant that at least one of the two women before her were also benders. Weiyuan coud see the lightbulb go off in Chae-Won’s head and rolled his eyes as she suppressed a squeal of delight. 

She actually had something in common with her heroes.

[color=firebrick]“You [i]trained[/i]?”[/color] That got Chu Hua’s attention. She stared at Chae-Won, baffled, looking the other woman up and down with a new appreciation. Training. Bending training. She had those tapes, but she had never imagined those skills might still exist. Bending was just a relic that she had been cursed with. Nowadays, it was something that happened to benders, not something that benders did. [color=firebrick]“[i]How[/i]? Why would you do that? That’s… impossible! And insane.”[/color] She completely ignored the rest of the conversation, now fixing Chae-Won with an intensely interested and, frankly, confused expression on her face. She didn’t disclose her own status- it felt a little awkward- but she imagined it would be fairly obvious from the look of the fresh burns on her hands.

[color=white]”Maybe she has ‘naked King Wu’ tapes too.”[/color]

[color=firebrick]“Shut the fuck up, please?”[/color]

Chae-Won’s brain completely short-circuited. Chu Hua was talking to her. Like actually paying attention and talking to her. Talking to her and actually interested! 

[color=white]“O-oh, I-I-”[/color] Aaaand then another hiccup interrupted her thought process. [color=white]“Wait, naked who what now?”[/color] She blinked, but then decided it must be some sort of hilarious inside joke she wasn’t cool enough to know about. [color=white]“W-well…”[/color] This time she was neither interrupted, nor too star-struck to speak. She began sweating a little, realizing the can of worms Chu Hua’s question might open with regard to her past. [color=white]“It’s… um… a really long, lame story that I’m sure you wouldn’t be interested in. Let’s just say I got started one day out of necessity and… just kept going. I just needed something to focus on sometimes and bending was what I had. Then, like I said, I found the kid and had to keep myself sharp for his sake.”[/color]

Well it was definitely a [i]long[/i] story at any rate. One they didn’t have time for, so for now she was probably safe.

That said, even Weiyuan was eyeing her with a look that cried “bullshit.”

[color=firebrick]“Necessity?”[/color] Chu Hua raised a brow, skeptical. [color=firebrick]“Why would you need this shit? It’s awful. I just… you know, I tried really hard not to… but, well. Here I am now, so I guess that didn’t fucking work.”[/color] She snorted, shaking her head. [color=firebrick] “That doesn’t make sense to me. And you, kid, you… wanted to know all this stuff?”[/color] 

[color=white]”I mean… didn’t you also pay a hundred thousand yuan for the tapes? Not that any of this makes sense. How does someone…”[/color] Kanna tilted the stick in her hand toward Chae. [color=white]”...Manage to never get caught while training [i]and[/i] teaching when Chu was over here burying a part of her in her floorboards?”[/color]

Kanna was wracking her brain listening to the multiple perspectives of the same issue. An issue with which she had very little exposure to until only a few days previous and had since then only dedicated time to finding a way to run from. On one hand, Benders were hunted and killed and those who knew they could bend before the accident had spent their lives hiding or trying to bury their powers for fear of the impact it’d have on their lives. On the other hand, there were those who had somehow managed to train and even teach others who wanted to learn. Something wasn’t adding up or maybe she just never understood the whole picture. The world was afterall a big place and Ba Sing Se by itself was massive. Maybe there were more solutions to the problem than Kanna had originally believed buried within the city. Unfortunately for her, that solution hadn’t come in time to save her mother. Instead, she was watching two people put together a puzzle that was supposed to explain their lives and why they ended up where they were. What decisions they made, why they made them and what if anything they could have done to change the present. It was as if anything related to bending was a shit show, just as they’d been told.

[color=white]”Not to mention that she’s right. This is shit. Why try so hard to want it?”[/color] Kanna asked, almost as if addressing all three present.

[color=white]“Look, I’m not a philosopher or anything, and I don’t want to get preachy. You’ll just have to trust me when I say there was a time when I needed it to work for me, OK?”[/color] Chae-Won told them. Meanwhile, she had indeed seen the burns on Chu Hua’s hands. She didn’t speak to her directly, but she did have one other thing to say, [color=white]“But it’s not like it’s a disease. I’ve seen what sick people, [i]monster’s[/i], look like. Astonishingly, most of ‘em weren’t benders… Bending is just another thing in a long list of bullshit people have chosen to tear each other apart over. It helped me when I needed it, and that’s good enough for me.”[/color]

Weiyuan fidgeted with his collar as she spoke. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the glass wasn’t even what she was referring to, but it was all [i]he[/i] could think about when she talked about bending like that.

[color=06E8DE][i]They hurt me when they found out about my bending… and they hurt me when they didn’t know about it. If there’s no difference, then why shouldn’t I?[/i][/color] Weiyuan mouthed the words, forcing a weak whisper out, though he didn’t really care how much they understood, nor was he in the mood to explain further. He just knew their attitude toward their bending was annoying.

It reminded him too much of his other self…

[color=firebrick] “I didn’t say I was sick or a [i]monster[/i],”[/color] Chu Hua retorted, crossing her arms. She was getting a little heated, despite herself. All that rage inside of her from yesterday was bubbling up, and she rubbed the bridge of her nose. 

It wasn’t that she had never though herself a monster or resented herself for what she was. She had, and in some ways, she did. When she was a kid, she had taken showers as freezing cold as they could go. When she was a teenager, she had burned herself, trying to get herself to associate fire with pain, to get rid of it all. It had never worked. How could these people be so seemingly happy with it? 

[color=firebrick]“Listen, I-”[/color] She noticed Weiyuan trying to speak and stopped herself in her tracks, trying hard to pay attention to his words. Her face softened after she heard him speak, however soft it was. How could it not? [color=firebrick] “Kid, I… I just know I wouldn’t be in this spot if I couldn’t bend. I don’t know if you can understand, but I have- I [i]had[/i]- a career, a life, a family. If I hadn’t lit a stadium on fire yesterday, I would still be planning my wedding for next week. Now I’m not getting married at all. Fuck, what time is it, 9 AM? I’d be in bed with my fiancee second-guessing my choice of cake frosting, not in the desert preparing to travel to god knows where so I won’t be executed.”[/color] She started to get a bit choked up towards the end of her sentence, balling her hands into fists.

Kanna remained silent, finding herself yet again in an emotional situation with someone who needed another’s touch. Who needed the very woman they had both left behind. The worst part of it all was that she could no longer relate. Kanna was no Bender, nor was she expecting to wed anyone. She was just on the run from a life that knew none of the struggle any of the other three had to live through. Then there was Weiyuan who had surprised them both when he started to speak. Only thing was, his voice was like that of a broken whisper and nearly impossible to hear in the ambience of the crowd around them and strong winds from the storm in the distance. In her effort to understand him, it was only then that she noticed the lines carved into his neck half hidden by his messy head of hair. Her eyes glanced from him to the scars marking half of Chae-Won’s face and then to the burns on Chu’s hands.

[color=white]”I’m… sorry.”[/color] Kanna said softly, again as if to all three although she was still looking at Chu. Kanna was afterall half the reason Chu was in the middle of the desert away from the one thing she probably needed. Even if the alternative was death, their running wasn’t shaping up to be much better. Not when every other person like Chu was broken in some way and had the scars to prove it.

[color=white]“I get it. Maybe not specifically that, but none of us ended up here for happy reasons,”[/color] Chae-Won said. [color=white]“And I don’t expect to change your mind about bending today, and I’m almost certain youm don’t want me to try.”[/color] There was more she wanted to say, but it wasn’t her job to lecture Chu Hua freaking Yuan. Besides, she was a grown woman who now would have plenty of time to think things over.

[color=white]“But, if you do want to talk about any of that stuff, we’ll have time… so… just say the word,”[/color] she concluded. [color=white]“Doesn’t even need to be about bending, really. Gonna be a real boring trip otherwise.”[/color] Then again, maybe a little boring wouldn’t be so bad right now.

[color=white]"Yeah, I don't think we're getting... 'boring'."[/color] Kanna said, peering into the sky with a hand shielding the light from her eyes. [color=white]"...What is that?"[/color]
[/color][/quote]
[/cell][/row][/table][/sub][/color]
[color=bfbfbf][sub][table= //////= POST DESIGN v1=\\\\\\][row][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][img]https://i.imgur.com/aiF63jS.png[/img][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/row][row][cell][sup][img]https://i.imgur.com/vcBZ1jb.png[/img][/sup]

[color=2e2c2c]_______________________________[sub]........[/sub][/color]
[/cell][cell][color=white][center][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][img]https://i.imgur.com/DHKvx27.png[/img][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][center][color=2e2c2c]Abandoned Rest Stop   ·   Morning   ·   |@Theyra] & |@vietmyke][/color]Abandoned Rest Stop   ·   Morning   ·   [@Theyra] & [@vietmyke][/center][/sub][/center][/color][quote][color=2e2c2c]____________________________________________________________________________.[/color]
[color=9f9f9f][color=lightblue]"Hey there, friend. I think my car is full up on riders. Now, I'm not looking for any trouble here. I hope you're not looking for any neither."[/color]

The man eyeing the Kyoshi turned to Jin and sized him up.

[color=white]"Actually I recognize this..."[/color] He said, tapping the side of the vehicle. [color=white]"A Kyoshi. You only see this in one place."[/color] The man's eyes narrowed. [color=white]"That pipe you protect? I heard it's all but busted up now since the accident. No synergy being pumped through the damn thing and it's making a lot of people nervous. People need the stuff, you know? So... you wouldn't happen to have any on you by chance, would you?"[/color]

[color=white]"ERR! Nope! We've got none! So sorry, sir!"[/color] Sumire chimed in from behind Jin, shaking her head although the motions were slightly exaggeration. The bunny ears on the helmet tucked under her arm began to wobble slightly.

[color=white]"You sure about that? Because if you did, I could buy it off of you for a [i]very[/i] fair price. Right now, with the shortage, stolen synergy is probably worth more than this entire trip. Very valuable stuff. Very dangerous stuff and I'd be willing take some off your hands. Wouldn't want that trouble you're not looking for to find you instead."[/color] The man said, placing a hand on the piece on his hip.

[color=white]"TIKAAANIII!"[/color]

Both the man and Sumire looked up toward the source of the yell. On top of the tower was a man who was waving at everyone below and pointing at the sky. [color=white]"COMPANY!"[/color]

Curious, Sumire took a step forward and tried to see what the man was pointing at, throwing on her helmet again when the sun was making it difficult to see.

A dark figure was falling out of the sky at a fairly high rate of speed, drifting away from another object above it that looked to be moving further South.[/color][/quote]
[/cell][/row][/table][/sub][/color]
[color=bfbfbf][sub][table= //////= POST DESIGN v1=\\\\\\][row][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][img]https://i.imgur.com/1YPSKdk.png[/img][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/row][row][cell][sup][img]https://i.imgur.com/iT78gYP.png[/img][/sup]

[color=2e2c2c]_______________________________[sub]........[/sub][/color]
[/cell][cell][color=white][center][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][img]https://i.imgur.com/DHKvx27.png[/img][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][center][color=2e2c2c]Landing in the Tower   ·   In collaboration with the LSF[/color]Landing in the Tower   ·   In collaboration with the LSF[/center][/sub][/center][/color][quote][color=2e2c2c]____________________________________________________________________________.[/color]
[color=9f9f9f]The HUD on Zhen’s helmet ticked off the distance to the target and provided a line to follow. She didn’t need to, but she was using her own augment to count the time and distance alongside it, validating that both agreed. On the way down all she had heard was the noise of the wind around her wingsuit, the air currents rolling off the white folds of the fully extended airfoils, along with her counting down the time to Jin. When they were close, so close that Zhen could see the windows of the building and the people on the ground with her own eyes, Zhen said [color=white]“Beginning deceleration for terminal approach. Please keep you limbs by your side during this process. The G-Forces will be substantial but you’ve endured equivalent amounts during your training.“[/color]

Landing precisely in the top of the tower took creative thinking to slow down so rapidly. It was tricky to make the bending motions when the wind was whipping around, and how closely Jin was strapped to her added to the difficulty, she could feel the weight of their body with every move. She executed the required motions with all of the grace she could, treating it just like she was in the training room and not plummeting through the air as made the sweeping and spinning gestures of airbending. A burst of air erupted from the roof of the tower, shattering the windows, tossing the furniture, threatening to burst the eardrums of anyone inside the room atop it. Zhen used the time it took for the blast to reposition her arms and legs to, stretching them out wide, and turn herself upright, catching the pressure wave like a sail. She winced at the forces, but to an external observer it all looked like a graceful slowing down, like leaf falling off of a tree.

Jin was somewhere between elation and fear as they soared through the air. They were silent, as the oxygen mask around their nose and mouth kept them breathing at high altitude. But their green eyes were lit up like twin emeralds behind their goggles. They were going to remember this for a very long time.

Flying, as it turned out, was [i]fucking awesome[/i].

As the two of them slowed, Jin took another slow and steady breath to calm down. The burst of air to the tower wasn’t a surprise, as they had gone over that part of the plan. What did shock Jin was the force of it. It was like a bomb had gone off. And this was just air. Benders were truly a terrifying species.

The speed was right and the structure was fast approaching. Zhen tilted more, leaning back, aiming to enter with her feet first. The window was narrow, entering it was like threading a needle but now wasn’t the time worry about if it was possible. The calculations had told her it was, any doubts she might have had no say in the matter. As they entered the wings on her suit stowed away and they sailed through the empty pane of the shattered window. Her boots met the ground and dug in, skidding to a stop but not before did the necessary footwork and motions for one more airblast, slowing the pair down to avoid any possibility of flying out the window on the other side. As soon as they had stopped she pulled the quick release on the straps and separated herself from Jin, then began to scan the room, paying special attention to the stairwell

Jin dropped and rolled neatly to their feet as soon as they were released from Zhen. Their gun pulled up and they scouted the other side that Zhen wasn’t eyeing. It was relatively quiet in here, aside from sand and insects. Once they noted the room was clear, they pulled free the oxygen kit. Deftly stepping over broken glass, Jin stepped toward the edge and lined up a shot to disable one of the farther vehicles. 

The modified sniper rifle was about half as tall as they were. The barrel was marked with a single purple dot. It was unwieldy to most, but Jin had all but slept with this gun under their pillow in training. Some people had pets; Jin had [i]Mifeng[/i], or 'Bee'.  [color=a187be]“Got a clean shot. Ready when you are.”[/color] They spoke quietly into their earpiece.

[color=bca346]”Go.”[/color]

[/color][/quote]
[/cell][/row][/table][/sub][/color]
[color=bfbfbf][sub][table= //////= POST DESIGN v1=\\\\\\][row][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][img]https://i.imgur.com/aiF63jS.png[/img][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/row][row][cell][sup][img]https://i.imgur.com/vcBZ1jb.png[/img][/sup]

[color=2e2c2c]_______________________________[sub]........[/sub][/color]
[/cell][cell][color=white][center][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][img]https://i.imgur.com/DHKvx27.png[/img][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][center][color=2e2c2c]Abandoned Rest Stop   ·   Morning   ·   |@Theyra] & |@vietmyke][/color]Abandoned Rest Stop   ·   Morning   ·   [@Theyra] & [@vietmyke][/center][/sub][/center][/color][quote][color=2e2c2c]____________________________________________________________________________.[/color]
[color=9f9f9f]A room three quarters of the way up the tower exploded from a seemingly random burst of air sending furniture and other debris flying through blasted windows. Shattered glass shards and heavy objects began raining down on the panicked masses closer to the base of the outpost.

[color=white]"Shit!"[/color] Sumire screamed.

[color=white]"Looks like time is up."[/color] The man who had been addressing Jin and Sumire pulled the gun out from the holster on his hip.

[color=white]"What?! Hey!"[/color]

Sumire was again first to move, but just as he was bringing the weapon up to bear and Sumire had stepped in between him and Jin, the tire on a nearby parked vehicle exploded. The resulting bang, release of pressure and bits of rubber showering the three of them caused him to flinch and pull the trigger. The gun in his hand barked once.
[/color][/quote]
[/cell][/row][/table][/sub][/color]
[color=bfbfbf][sub][table= //////= POST DESIGN v1=\\\\\\][row][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][img]https://i.imgur.com/aiF63jS.png[/img][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/row][row][cell][sup][img]https://i.imgur.com/vcBZ1jb.png[/img][/sup]

[color=2e2c2c]_______________________________[sub]........[/sub][/color]
[/cell][cell][color=white][center][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][img]https://i.imgur.com/DHKvx27.png[/img][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][center][color=2e2c2c]Abandoned Rest Stop   ·   Morning   ·   |@KillamriX88] & |@canaryrose][/color]Abandoned Rest Stop   ·   Morning   ·   [@killamriX88] & [@canaryrose][/center][/sub][/center][/color][quote][color=2e2c2c]____________________________________________________________________________.[/color]
[color=9f9f9f][color=white]"Chu! Get in the fucking car!"[/color] Kanna yelled as soon as the room in the tower had erupted. She turned just as the figure in the air landed inside the recently cleared room and as she rounded the back of the Kyoshi and made for one of the passengers doors, there was a flash from one of the open windows.

Kanna flinched momentarily to the sound of the exploding tire and when she turned to look, she saw the driver of her car driver and the girl who had been with him fall over. The man they had been conversing with fell too and all three disappeared on the other side of the frame of the car out of view. It was impossible to tell what had happened, but as they fell away, she was instead treated to the chaotic scene unfolding beyond them.

What had previously been a stagnant sea of exhausted people waiting to leave was now a force of fear and panic that threatened to turn into a wave. People were throwing themselves on top of cars that were already well beyond capacity. Those within it were trying to kick them off. One car had already taken off and was moving with such speed and reckless abandon that a few who hadn't quite gotten in yet had fallen off with one slipping under the chassis of the vehicle. With the situation devolving so quickly into violence and mayhem, it was inevitable that bending would soon follow. Kanna witnessed a man pour a gout of fire from his hands over a group of people trying to climb onto the back of his car. All of them were immediately engulfed in flame and their screams were loud enough to drown out the panic from the rest of the those trying to escape.

[color=white][i]...What the fuck...[/i][/color]

Kanna turned to Chu. [color=white]"We need to leav-!"[/color] A second explosion, this one further away but much larger, erupted just North of the remaining cars with enough force to knock Kanna off her feet and throw her into the side of the Kyoshi.
[/color][/quote]
[/cell][/row][/table][/sub][/color]
[color=bfbfbf][sub][table= //////= POST DESIGN v1=\\\\\\][row][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][img]https://i.imgur.com/1YPSKdk.png[/img][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/row][row][cell][sup][img]https://i.imgur.com/iT78gYP.png[/img][/sup]

[color=2e2c2c]_______________________________[sub]........[/sub][/color]
[/cell][cell][color=white][center][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][img]https://i.imgur.com/DHKvx27.png[/img][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][center][color=2e2c2c]Landing to the North   ·   In collaboration with the LSF[/color]Landing to the North   ·   In collaboration with the LSF[/center][/sub][/center][/color][quote][color=2e2c2c]____________________________________________________________________________.[/color]
[color=9f9f9f][color=white]"Good effect on target."[/color] Reported Yi. [color=white]"Alright you two. Hang on to something."[/color] Yi pushed forward on the stick and put the craft into a steep nosedive, dropping the Firefly out of the sky and swooping down hundreds of feet to close the distance between themselves and the chaos they had started on the ground. In the middle of the drop, and while still hanging on, Nelu moved over to 141 and knocked on the edge of the cage with his first.

[color=bca346]"Leave some for us, alright?!"[/color] He yelled to the towering abomination. He received no response back.

[color=white]"Drop point two."[/color]

[color=bca346]"Go!"[/color]

Underneath 141's cage, a panel slid open leaving it and its cage suspended over nearly a hundred feet of open air. Nelu gave it another nod just as the locks holding it in place were released and the entire holding pen was dropped. As soon as 141 cleared the floor of the bay, the panel slid shut. A handful of seconds later and Yi reported over the radio.

[color=white]"Drop is good. He's already on the move."[/color]

Nelu turned to Kata. They would be the last two to exit the Firefly. [color=bca346]"Get us on the ground before he kills everyone, Yi!"[/color]

[color=white]"Yessir!"[/color]

Within the minute, Yi had swung the aircraft back around to the crater made by their missile and touched down. Nelu was first off the aircraft, stepping onto hot desert sand that had been scorched a faded black from the recent explosion. Bits and pieces of those unfortunate to have been standing too close to the impact site were strewn in every direction. Not much further from the center of the crater were those who had been standing a little further away. They lay spasming on the ground in the throes of their final moments, struggling to hold on to the life that was slipping between their fingers. Nelu calmly walked up to the closest victim, pulled out his pistol and burned a hole the size of a ping pong ball into the side of their head with a bolt of plasma.

A Vanguard AI offloaded behind the Captain, quickly shouldering its rifle and immediately putting rounds into the scrambling crowd ahead of them. Kata followed soon after and as he cleared the aircraft, Yi took the Firefly back into the air and moved into a holding pattern around the tower. A gun swiveled free from under the chassis and it too began dumping arounds into the crowd.

Only a few seconds after his commander and friend Nelu, Katakuri exited the Firefly. He watched as his friend approached a victim of the explosion and put them out of their misery. Katakuri laughed at the situation but did not find it amusing that the person was in pain or needed to be put to death. The fact that his commanding officer simply shot a hole through their head amused him, [color=9e0039]"I suggest shoving the gun down their throat or right at the nap of their neck [i]– if you want to end their suffering more quickly.[/i] The frontal lobe can be damaged with some chance of survival, but separating the brain stem is superior."[/color] He said before putting himself next to Nelu.

The only distinguishing feature was the agent’s body shape, which allowed one to determine that it was a person. With a few red accents, the suit was primarily black and charcoal gray. To be better protected from the mob, Katakuri was wearing plated armor with slight improvements. The entire purpose of the [url=https://i.pinimg.com/564x/b2/de/5a/b2de5a55d08b68c77dae1908c1d8b8ff.jpg]suit[/url] was to keep everything light so he could move more easily while protecting his head and vital organs.
 
[color=bca346]”I’ll admit that I’ve never been as efficient with this part of the job.”[/color] Nelu said, turning to Kata. [color=bca346]”I’ll keep that in mind.”[/color] He then gestured towards the crowd where two people had broken away from the others and looked to be squaring off with them. One of them wildly swung their arm vertically toward the sky, pulling a wedge of earth from the ground and tossing it in Nelu’s direction. However, his stance was poor and the power behind the swing was unsure of itself and weak. Despite its size being large enough to make dodging difficult, the projectile moved far too slow and Nelu side stepped it easily. [color=bca346]”Do what you do best, Kata.”[/color]

He watched the earth-bender get into a stance before launching a sizable piece of land their way, and shrugged at the other man's comment, [color=9e0039]"I do not like to leave people in pain, so I might be nitpicking."[/color] He stood still because he knew the boulder would miss him, and he observed as his commanding chief moved to the side. The bender lacked self-confidence and used shaky bending techniques.

Katakuri was smirking behind his mask as he slowly approached the man who attempted to use earth-bending. [color=9e0039]"The most difficult style to master is earth-bending, and you gave me complete permission to eradicate you. Why did you attack my commanding officer?"[/color] The way Katakuri spoke was dispiriting towards the unknown man. Being on missions caused him to become almost emotionless in tone.

Katakuri mocked the exact stance the earth-bender used before pulling his dominant arm back, saying, [color=9e0039]"We haven't done anything directly to you, so you put yourself in a bad position."[/color] He drew his arm back for a moment, then threw it forward in a hurry, landing a punch on the man's jaw.
[/color][/quote]
[/cell][/row][/table][/sub][/color][table=bordered][row][sub]Prompt:[/sub][/row][row][cell]
[color=9f9f9f]In addition to the above, people are beginning to rush the remaining, still operational, vehicles and force their way in. The nearby explosion has temporarily interrupted this near the Kyoshi, giving those who are meant to be inside a chance to get in and defend it.

When writing your post, keep in mind the number of people in the area, their state of panic and what they may or may not be willing to do to find safety. Also consider that some of these people are benders and are still empowered.

As a summary of the LSF arrival, there are two individuals in the tower, one individual standing between the cars and their path into the desert and the sandstorm ahead, and two more exiting the dust cloud of the crater behind the cars. In the sky is an aircraft that is shooting into the crowd.

Reference the battle map below for positions.
[/color][/cell][/row][/table]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/013LGBp.jpg[/img]