Wandering Firebender

One Hundred: Water & Blood

HAAAA!

Elio was woken up by a girl's scream echoing through the hall of the Fire Lord's palace. He rolled off the bed and stumbled to his feet. He felt instantly awake but also disoriented by how quickly he was up and moving.

He fumbled with the doorknob, forgetting for a moment to unlock it. Then he threw it open and stepped out into the hall just in time to see what was unfolding.

A man in a mask and dark clothing ran right past his room followed by several Kyoshi Warriors who were all trying to bring him down. They were throwing weapons and traps at him but somehow he was avoiding all of them.

"Elio! We need your help!" Ty Lee shouted to him.

"Right!" Elio snapped to attention and began to run after them.

"W-What's going on?!" Cindra asked as she stepped out of her room.

"Cindra!" One of the Kyoshi Warriors stopped the chase to fill Cindra in on what was going on. Elio picked up his pace to catch up with the chase.

His bare feet slapped against the marble floor as he ran as fast as he could. He kept his eyes on the man running away, scanning for any distinguishing features. This intruder was covered from head to toe. He couldn't even see a single strand of hair.

"What's going on, Suki?!" Ellio asked as he ran up alongside her.

"We caught this guy in Zuko's private bedroom! It was an assassination attempt!" She shouted back.

"Got it." Elio huffed under his breath before pushing himself to run past her.

As he made his way forward, he started throwing quick fire blasts towards the intruder. The man jumped from side to side, avoiding each one. Elio tried to push himself to get in closer, but as he was gaining, the man suddenly jumped up onto one of the walls right against a corner.

Everyone had to stop awkwardly, giving the man time to climb against the decorative gold on the wall corner and get to the ceiling. He jumped onto the support beams up above and used them to avoid being hit by any fans thrown by the Kyoshi Warriors.

The man hopped across a couple beams and climbed up into the roof. Everyone's eyes widened in surprise. Two Kyoshi Warriors started climbing up after him.

"He cut a hole in the roof and snuck to Zuko's room using the beams on the ceiling!" Suki realized.

"This guy's crafty. He's leaving the same way he came in. I need to get to the roof." Elio said, rushing down the hallway.

"You're not going through that way?!" Suki called after him, pointing towards the ceiling.

"I can't climb like that!"

Elio sprinted right for the door to the courtyard. He threw it open with enough force to break past the lock. As he stumbled outside, he was immediately sprayed by a heavy downpour of rain. He grunted in discomfort, wiping the water from his eyes and looking up towards the roof.

It was dark but in the flashes of lightning he could see the figure of that masked figure running full speed across the middle of the roof. Elio let out an exasperated sigh, brushing his hair back with his hand to get it out of his face.

He took one step forward and pushed fire out of both his hands and feet. He propelled up into the air, awkwardly curving up towards the roof and landing in front of the cloaked assassin. He slid back on the balls of his feet and kicked up some water before standing up straight.

"Stay right there! Drop your weapons!" Elio shouted loudly before getting into a fighting stance.

"You're persistent, captain!" The man said with a laugh, pulling out a knife and spinning it around in his hand. Elio's head tilted suspiciously at the use of his title.