Avatar the Last Airbender: A Second Chance - [Fic] Intervention

[William Rose]

Brin walked like a mountain given life, his feet thudding solidly into the ground one at a time, step by step. Over his broad shoulders the long haft of his maul lay with his arms draped over it. The heavy stone head was counterbalanced by a reinforced basket that held provisions for the group that would last a week or two. There were treats inside as well, smoked and cured meats, pickles, fish, and cakes from the town. Brin always made a point to purchase food that they couldn't steal normally, it helped to have a treat other than purloined pies and stolen fruits.

Beside him Rikka moved with more grace and less brute force. The girl looked even younger than her fifteen years next to Brin's hulking mass. She was playing with a handful of glass beads. Moulding them into odd shapes, pulverizing them into sand and then compacting them once more into glass. Brin wasn't sure where they had come from, nor did he care so long as they stayed out of trouble. He warned her often enough that stealing while in town was dangerous but he wasn't going to push the issue after the fact, there was no point.

They were perhaps halfway to their hidden camp, a series of caves that Brin had enlarged over time, when Brin looked down at Rikka and asked, "Did you set the warning lines like I asked?" Brin's voice sounded like it came from a creature even larger than himself, deep wasn't the right word for it, his voice was practically abyssal. The warning lines were a series of tripwires that would trigger decoy birds and marked tree limbs or rocks to the presence of an invader to their territory. Brin had asked Rikka to set them as they joined with the main road to the village but now he noticed that one of them was tripped, or had been left unset.

[Kaitlin Vandussen]

"I totally did - for true!" Rikka claimed with fierce innocence.

The sprightly girl bounced off a boulder taller than her, her beads forming a miniature version of Brin's massive maul, its haft of molded sand, its head glittering glass. Pretty, mobile face set in a bright grin, she brought her tiny maul down on a fist-sized rock, pulverizing it as Brin might have pulverized the rock she jumped off, her maul smashing apart, sand and shards swirling around her like a shimmering veil.

She glanced (way) up at brin, lime green eyes sparkling with truimph, a hand circling, keeping the sand and glass whirling about her in a lackadaisical tornado. "Why-" Her eyes followed Brin's to the unstrung warning line, "-oh."

Suddenly growing serious, her hand turned into a fist, sand and glass compacting in spheres of mottled glass and disappearing... somewhere. With an equally baffling display, one of her exquisitely wrought, crimson crystal blades almost seemed to materialize in her hand. Despite having covered more than twice as much ground as Brin on the walk back from the town, Rikka was poised to move, light and graceful on her feet.

"I really did string the warning lines, Brin. And I didn't... steal anything from the village," she said in a low voice, almost choking over the vile word, 'steal'. She cocked her head, sharp ears straining to hear the sounds of the woods, so different from the desert she grew up in. After a moment, she chewed on a lip, then admitted, "I did find this cute little piece of stained glass with a funny squat man on it. It was on the ground, so the merchant must've not wanted it, but I thought it was cute. I can show you..."

She trailed off under Brin's steady look. "...uh, later. This can be trouble, do you think?" Another crystalline longknife appeared in her other hand.

[William Rose]

"I'm not su- OOF!" A boulder easily as large as Rikka pounded Brin square in the chest and sent him tumbling, the basket of provisions tumbled likewise and spilled out onto the path. Half a dozen men sprang forth from the underbrush. One was clearly, obviously the earthbender, his feet were bare and his stance was wide and rooted to the ground as he pulled another boulder from the earth. The remainder carried various weapons, chains, staves, maces. As one they surged forward before Brin had little more time than to right himself and heave his massive hammer.

The opposing bender snapped, "Xi, Wai, help me with the boy, the rest of you detain the girl," and the with a kick he launched the fresh boulder at brin with the force of a runaway Gorrila Rabbit. Brin's maul swung round faster than one would expect and batted the rock back at Xi, or maybe Wai. With a bellow that reverberated like an explosion Brin waded into the fray, his great stone maul swinging is fast arcs that forced the enemy to dodge lest they feel its impact.

"Rikka, run, tell the others to flee!" He yelled as he slammed one of the men with one of his meaty fists. The target proved a distraction though as he slid back, absorbing the blow as the other two leveled attacks on Brin that staggered the mighty youth to one knee from the sheer ferocity of the attacks.

[Kaitlin Vandussen]

"Brin, I can hel-" the girl protested, making lunges and feints to hold off the three men closing on her, but the towering young man didn't let her finish.

"Do it!" he growled in his rumbling voice as he found his feet at the cost of a fist to the face.

She made a sound suspicious like a whine. "Fine!" she declared with all the annoyance a teenaged girl could muster.

Subtly, the earth melded around her feet, giving her a perfect brace, then she darted forward with all the grace and speed of a fox-antelope. Surprised by her sudden movement, their confident smiles withering, the men beginning to enclose her paused for a moment, a small gap forming between two of them.

Rikka took it, tumbling low to avoid a whirling chain. Her arms crossed, the vermilion edges of her blades flickering in the dappled sunlight and scoring a stinging line across the back of their legs, damaging tendons, slowing them down. Her tumbling roll brought her to the base of a tree and she used her momentum to propel herself up and across to another. In a matter of seconds, she had rebounded off several more trunks then was concealed in the verdant canopy, leaves rustling as she raced along slender branches barely able to support her wait.

"But I'll be back to help you kick their asses!" One of her crystal blades came spinning out of the trees, diving and weaving like an angry peregrine-ferret, slashing several furrows in Wai's - or Xi's - back before whirling back the way it came.

The rustling overhead began again and the one injured man assigned to restrain her ran after her, his naginata probing the branches overhead. The two with their legs cut, in no condition to give chase, turned their attention on Brin, though their movements were hampered by the pain of their injuries.

[William Rose]

"One on five," Brin rumbled, his maul swinging in a long wide arc with one arm while the other raised a defensive wall, "Are you sure you can-"

"Idiot's get the girl, she's the one we're after!" The earthbender yelled. Xi and Wai broke off allowing their injured comrades to take their place and bound into the forest after Rikka.

"-handle me ... hey, aw crud. RIKKA! Wait, Rikka? What do you- oofph!" Brin went down to one knee again and dropped his maul as he fought the weight of bent stone that had come down on him from behind. His arms bracing the stone we simply not strong enough with his feet out from under him, earthbending required a strong stance.

*****

Rikka only heard Brin shout her name. A moment's hesitation was enough for the bounty hunter to catch her, to hook her foot with his naginata, and to drop her from the tree. The girl flipped to her feet almost instantly only to find herself surrounded by three men instead of one. A manriki-gusari lashed out, the weighted chain lashing out at her legs, as the third moved forward with his paired hook swords and the injured man circled with his long curved spear. "You're not getting away from us little girl, the bounty on you if forty gold coins..."

[z-Tora Zheng]

Tora paused Ryka in her rush, drawing the Mongoose Dragon up short with a tug of the reins. She'd heard something, like a boom. Curious, she glanced up at the sky; there were no clouds so there was no storm. Even as she considered the possibility that the weather was the cause of the rumble, she heard another noise: a bellow that sounded like it had come from a mountain. But she knew it was human.

She didn't think of moving on. Helping someone would only take a moment of her time, a paltry diversion for the sake of another's life. She could now hear the unmistakable sounds of Earth-Bending, a sound she'd had the time to get acquainted with in the last few weeks. Someone was getting attacked, and she should at least see who. With a click of her tongue, Tora turned Ryka toward the sound.

They weren't far from the battle, and to a Mongoose Dragon, 'not far' meant 'practically there'. It seemed to only take seconds for them to arrive, and Tora felt anger when she saw three men fighting one, pinning him under a rock. She jumped out of the saddle, her bow clenched in one hand. As quickly as a strike from a Lightning Bender, she snapped off two shots.

The first snaked through the wide, green collar of the man giving the orders, jerking him to the side and pinning him to a tree. The second was less accurate; her arrow pinned one of his wrists guards to the tree, drawing a bit of blood as she nicked the flesh underneath. Inwardly, she winced; that kind of inaccuracy was not acceptable.

Outwardly, she remained calm, even cold as the three attackers looked at her. She had another arrow drawn before the men had even finished looking at the direction of the attack, and this one was aimed at the leader's head. "I don't know what your business with this man is," Tora said sharply, "and I don't care. But three on one is in no way fair. Release him."

"But..." One of the guards blinked and swallowed. "He's an Earth Bender!"

"Then you probably shouldn't be fighting him," Tora said easily. "Release him. Now." For emphasis, she drew her arrow back another inch, adding that much more lethal force to the potential power she could unleash with the flick of two fingers.

[Kaitlin Vandussen]

Originally Posted By: Completely mistaken Bounty-Hunter

"You're not getting away from us little girl, the bounty on you if forty gold coins..."

"Whatever it was, it wasn't me, I swear!" Rikka protested immediately. "Yeep!" Rikka jumped the chain weapon, legs spreading into the splits. "Hey! Liar! There's no bounty on my head!"

"Dong Zhuo would beg to differ, girl," Hook-Sword growled, one of his bent blades yanking a crystal blade from her hand by the circular guard.

"Who? Hey, that's mine!" Rikka yelled. Her empty hand made a wave like motion and the crimson blade rattled along the blade of the hook-sword than flew back to her hand. "Ha! Mine!"

"That's what he said about a certain emerald ring," Hook-sword said, distracting Rikka as she backed away from him and into range of Naginata, who reversed his weapon and went for her legs.

"I FOUND it!" Rikka screamed in fury, crossing her blades, catching the naginata in the 'V' she formed and using the impossibly sharp blades to cut two feet off the half like a pair of sheers. "If he lost it, that's his fault, I would've traded it for something else... maybe."

"And we found you. We're going to trade you for forty gold coins."

Rikka gritted her teeth fiercely, spinning in a circle as she danced away from the probing weapons, her shin throbbing from where Naginata had whacked it. Brin might be able to take a pounding like a mountain, but she couldn't, she needed to get away.

But the forest had very little sand and the rocks were smaller and spread apart. As she whirled and twirled, her blades wove a sinuous dance while she bended what rocks she could find into sand. Slowly, then with rising speed, threads of flowing spun around her, behind her surrounding assailants. When she had enough, she thrust her blades up in air and the sand rushed up into a concealing veil, twenty feet across.

"Blasted hoyden!" "It's in my eyes!" "Don't let her get away!"

Like a flitting shadow, Rikka dealt several stinging slashes then darted out of the veil of sand before Naginata, Hook-Sword, and Manriki-Gusari knew what was going on. She didn't bother taking to the trees this time, just ran full out, wiry legs carrying her in loping bounds.

She burst into a clear and began speaking before taking everything in. "Guys, you have to clear out, there's band-D'oh!"

Flitting and spinning in her own cloud of sand, Rikka had gotten turned around and ended up running back to the same clearing where they had first been attacked. All eyes turned her way, including the golden ones of a girl who hadn't been there before.

"She's the one we want, she's a thief," the three standing bandits stated in unison, pointing at Rikka, who stared back with wide eyes.

"I found it, fair and square!" she rebutted hotly, bringing up her blades defensively and throwing a stinging lance of sand she had trailed behind her straight at the leader's face.

[William Rose]

Brin was on hands and knees, a mound of rock and earth pressing him inexorably to the ground. His freedom of movement limited his ability to simply split the rock or bend through it was compromised. There was a sound, the thwang of a bowstring, and the pressure was lessened. Brin rolled a shoulder and the mas above him shifted. He rolled out from under it and clambered to his feet seeing the opposing earth bender pinned by his collar to a tree.

Brin laid eyes on the newcomer and for a moment faltered. She was no native of the Earth Kingdom, her eyes and apparel spoke of a Fire Nation upbringing. Brin smiled tightly and nodded thanks quickly before stomping his feet into the ground, taking a combat stance once more as the bounty hunters freed themselves quickly. With a stomp of his foot, toes first, he raised five stones the size of guavamellons into the air before him.

He was about to send them lashing out when a storm of sand blew out of the woods and onto the path. All present were forced to cover their eyes against the sand laden whirls but that didn't stop Brin from knowing exactly what was happening. Vibrations made their way to his feet and though his Seismic Sense was crude from lack of practice he knew Rikka had returned.

"Rikka-!" Brin began as the sand suddenly dropped out of the air, but was cut off by one of the hunters.

"She's the one we want, she's a thief!"

"Oh for Avatar's sake ..." Brin muttered.

"I found it, fair and square!" Rikka rebutted hotly.

Brin's head whipped around, looking back the way Rikka had returned to see Xi, Wei, and the sixth bounty hunter returning. With a growl that was very nearly tangible he slammed a foot down, toes first, and five rocks the size of guava-mellons rose into the air. With a thrust of his hand the five ballistic weapons lanced out hitting three of the enemy, the three previously injured by Rikka, and sending them sprawling. Wei casually blocked the fourth with his crossed hook swords and their leader contemptuously bent aside the attack on him with ease.

"Well then," Brin said squaring off against their leader, the earth bender, "if you want Rikka, you'll need to go through me."

[z-Tora Zheng]

Tora had evened the odds again; she had a moment's thought of withdrawing from the conflict when chains snapped out of the air at her. With a grunt of effort, she threw herself back and to the side, coming up in a crouch with an arrow in her hand. The man with the chains was spinning it again and the ball was already scything through the air at her.

Tora jumped high, using her arms and legs to control her jump. She curved her athletic form over the ball and chain and landed lightly on her feet. Her arm moved and the bow snapped, and Xi dodged an arrow cutting through the air not far from his shoulder. Thinking himself safe, he looked back at her - only to find another arrow coming at him and a third being set. With a yelp, he tumbled backwards, landing on his butt. An arrow pierced the loose material in his pants, coming very close to bisecting a part of his body he liked in one piece. With a scowl, he rolled backwards and was up on his feet.

With a strong jerk of his arm, his chain was in motion again, the links making the air hiss as it was forced around them. He grinned in presumptive triumph when her dodge away wasn't quite good enough and the ball slammed into her ribs. She made a soft noise as she went to her knees, but he knew she had to be in pain now. And when you hurt a little girl, they always caved.

[Kaitlin Vandussen]

"Who are you- Eeep!" Rikka began to ask the golden-eyed girl, but got interrupted by the rocks flying her way. She was about to protest Brin's actions when she heard the distinct thuds behind her. She looked over a shoulder, then whirled around when she found Wei right behind, his hook swords reaching forward. "Burning Sands! How'd you follow me so quick?"

"The price on your head makes you very attractive, girl," Wei replied, a tight smile on his face. One sword menacing the slight girl's twin blades while the other snagged the back of her knee and almost managed to pull her feet out from beneath her.

"Hey! I'm pretty!" Rikka protested. Footwork as fluid as shifting sands, she arched over backward, flipping away from the trip attempt then responded with a flurry of slashes and lunges. It was all Wei could do to fend off the blurring attacks, his hook-swords crossing and spinning, giving him no chance to retaliate.

Rikka made a frustrated mew - despite being much quicker than Wei, she couldn't get by his defenses, his damned swords always seemed to be in the way. Wei hid his worry - despite keeping the furious wolverine-cat a bay, her crystal blades were cutting deep nicks into his hook-swords.

Rikka took several steps back, glaring at her opponent with annoyance, her knee beginning to sting, and found herself standing next to the golden-eyed girl. She looked at her, than their opponents. Hook-sword was irritating, but if she could get within the reach of Manriki-Gusari's chains, he'd be limited in his ability to counteract.

"Switch?" she inquired softly to the girl getting back to her feet, keeping her eyes on Wei, hiding her intentions.

[William Rose]

Brin's arms moved swiftly, a downward thrust followed by a forward punch sent a ripple at the other bender. He stomped the ground once and Brin's wave broke like water on a stone. A series of quick jabs had Brin blocking grapeberry sized bullets of stone with a sheet of rock. "You're good you man, it would be a shame to harm a potential master over a matter of a thieving girl."

Brin grunted and hurled a boulder at the other man. "Do you have a name?" Brin asked as the boulder broke in two on the man's forearm block and the returned in kind.

"Jou Fei, but if you address me as Master Jou, I may spare you." Brin countered the attack by slamming his fists together, causing the rocks to impact each other and shatter. Stone dust and chips scattered backward into the other battle.

"I'll not allow you to take her. She is ... she's family." Brin stepped forward into a low crouch and then powered upward into a standing position with arms overhead and lifted Fei out of the ground on a slab of Earth. Jou brought his own hands over head and the earth wrapped up over him forming a golem like suit of armor and dropping him to the ground once more.

Brin scowled as he defended from a sudden flurry of rocky hand to hand attacks. Fending them off with protrusions of stone, or parries with his own hands. The final blow struck home and impacted Brin's sternum with enough force to send him bowling over and backwards. He rolled as he hit the ground and gathered up rocks and dirt into his own suit of armor. Rising to his feet he took a very low wide stance, arms close to the body, one at the waist and the other half outstretched.

[z-Tora Zheng]

“Very well,” Tora muttered, as if it didn’t matter whom she fought. She moved into combat with her new opponent, even as Rikka headed for Xi. Wei found himself facing cool golden eyes instead of sparkling green ones, which combined with his sense that he’d been stuck with the ugly girl. “Figures,” he grumbled as he moved to intercept her. He’d been looking forward to grappling the cute blond.

Two arrows flew at him with deadly intent; Xi dodged in a tumbling roll that brought him up inside her guard. He was gratified to see the surprise in her eyes, though the face remained serene and calm. He put one hook behind her knee and offered, “Surrender and I won’t hurt you.”

“I offer the same,” she said with a hint of a smile. As he was starting to wonder just who this little girl thought she was, she brought her bow straight up into the air, held horizontally. The center piece was decorated with a metal grip and that caught him full in the nose. Cursing, Wei stumbled backwards before remembering that moving away from the archer was a bad idea. Indeed, she’d taken a step back and he found himself facing another arrow, while golden eyes regarded him with wicked bemusement. “Stand down or face the consequences, sir.”

Wei had faced archers before. They were simply defeated, once you took away your weapons. This one might be different, but regardless, disarming her was a fantastic idea. First step in that was getting that arrow pointed elsewhere. “Look at you, all grown up,” he said. “Think a girl can play with the big boys?”

“I am not playing,” the girl replied.

He just smiled. “And with those Fire Nation clothes and golden eyes – what are you doing here? You’re far away from Mommy and Daddy.” He saw instantly that he’d scored a mark. His mockery about her parents wiped all amusement from her eyes. “Run home, little girl.”

She fired. That he almost wasn’t expecting, the sudden release of an arrow with no angry remark about whatever issue she had with her parents. Still, it was what he needed; her to react, not act. He brought one hook up in a sweeping motion that stopped the arrow’s progress and brought the other around. He had long arms, and it had surprised more than one enemy; his additional reach helped him again as he hooked the bow itself and wrenched it out of her hands.

That should have taken the fight out of her. Instead, she darted forward, wrapped one hand around his wrist and one around his free hook and twisted. He knew the trick and also knew how effective it was, so was unsurprised when his hand opened and released his hook to her. “Nice trick,” he told her, grudgingly. “But I’m a master of these things, and you’re not.”

She just held it higher and Wei shrugged. “Have it your way!” he said as he bounced forward. He tried to hook her leg, then her belt and finally her arm. Each time, she batted his attack away or ducked away from it, staying free. He noted that she was purely on the defensive and he redoubled his efforts, trying to catch her.

[William Rose]

Brin grunted as be blocked yet another attack. And another. And another. The other guy, Jou Fei, was certainly a master. Jou was outclassing Brin at every turn. His raw power wasn't significantly more but he had more experience and that advantage was starting to add up as cracks formed in Brin's rocky armor. He flung a hailstorm of small stones at Jou only to have them diverted as easily as stone diverts water. He lobbed a boulder the size of a baby ostrich-horse at the man and it was sent hurtling back at Brin with astonishing force. Ground slams, earth waves, crevasses, even stone spurs were all avoided, blocked, or returned.

Brin was a large, tough youth, but he couldn't survive this indefinitely. Fei was older and battle scarred, but he couldn't keep it up indefinitely either. The boy was skilled, and tough, and seemed to have an amazing well of power to draw on. Given a few more years (or even less) the tables would be different. "Xi! Take the boy!" he yelled to his chain wielding comrade.

Xi looked from Rikka to Brin. "I think not Fei, kid looks-"

"Do it!" Jou commanded and then with an odd motion of his hands he and Xi slide sideways, trading opponents as the earth itself moved them. Brin gawked at that, he'd never seen a technique like it. While Brin gawked Xi wasted no time in lashing his long chains out and around Brin's legs, toppling the youth to the ground in a tangle of steel and limbs.

[Kaitlin Vandussen]

"Hey!" Rikka protested as the earth shifted oddly. She'd been about to sprint straight towards Xi after his chain circled pass once more, but now her opponent had switched again... and she'd hadn't called it this time. "I didn't say you switch! Taaaake... this!" The slender girl tensed, her arms going back, then snapping forward in a single fluid movement, launching her crimson blades at the Earthbender who had stolen the opponent she wanted and who had hurt Brin, who was as good as family.

Hands weaving in a circular motion, Rikka's blades flew in a straight trajectory, the twin blades dancing around each other in a helix. Jou Fei laughed, a deep rumble. "That all you have? Little knives for a little girl?" Hands together, he punched straight towards the ground, causing a slab of rock to thrust up into the path of the crystal daggers.

Rikka grinned fiercely, stretching her arms wide, her blades shooting off into separate directions, avoid the granite shield, then curling around it, seeking the rock-sheathed Bender. "Little, but sharp. Little, but sharp... and they dance! All you can do is stomp!"

The two Benders, one of Earth and Rock, the other of Crystal and Sand, began a serious game of move and counter-move. Jou Fei stomped, throwing shield after shield, while Rikka's arms wove, directing her dancing blades to dodge and weave the impeding obstacles. They locked eyes, trying to anticipate the other. So intent was Jou Fei, that he didn't notice as Rikka began to shift her hips, feet flowing lightly across the ground in a stationary dance.

Rock and Crystal vied for supremacy as sand began trickling growing seams in Jou Fei's Rocky Armour. When Rikka thought it was weakened enough, before Jou Fei grew aware of it, she played her gambit. She sacrificed one of her blades, the crystalline dagger plunging deep into an out-thrust of stone, as she focused on the other. It slashed wildly in a blur of cuts across Jou Fei's summoned armour with sharp clashes of sound.

Jou Fei began to laugh as not a single slash penetrated, but quieted abruptly as he felt the wind blow across his bare arms, his armour falling from him in a multitude of sand-edged pebbles. He looked down in shock, the crystal blade cutting a long slash across his chest before flying back to Rikka's hand.

"Gotcha!" Rikka crowed.

"Damn you!" Jou Fei roared, slamming his hands together with a thunderous slap, sending the remnants of his armour towards the infuriating girl in a storm of blunt shrapnel.

"Eep!" Rikka tried to dodge the cloud of stone, her remaining blade deflecting what she could, but it was too broad. She tucked her head, suffering the brunt of the attack across on arm, before a piece of rock bigger than her foot hit her in the chest, knocking her to the ground. "Oof!"

Stunned for a precious second, Rikka shook her head, then back-rolled agilely to her feet. She gave Jou Fei an angry glare, then sprinted back into the trees in long, bounding strides, using any protrusion to propel herself even faster. The trees surrounding the clearing rustled with swift movements, then Rikka dashed back, running pass her opponent with a Double-Slash, then continuing on to the other side of the without stopping.

Jou Fei barely dodged out of the way of her vicious attack and didn't have time to retaliate. Rikka cut and run, again and again, and each time, Jou Fei avoid dodged slower and slower. Too late, he noticed the sandy remnants of his armour crawling up his legs, anchoring him in place. His hands desperately tore at the sand, but harmlessly passed through it, while still holding him to the ground.

Jou Fei felt a pair of razor-sharp points prick his sides as a lithe figure jumped on his back, locking her legs around his neck. "You better call your men off. I'll do it! I swear I will! I'm not a thief!" Rikka yelled with affronted heat.