The Second Master of Wind

Found

Flying Time Skip

Lloyd's POV

"This is Tozmachi?" Kai asked as they arrived and were looking down below at the small, rundown neighborhood.

"It's even more trashy than Stiix! And that's sayin' something." Jay exclaimed before Nya nudged his shoulder.

"Well if you want to find Aeria, this is as good a clue as I got on her." Ronin told them as he was standing by the edge of the railing where Rex was flying closest to the Bounty.

"So we're basically just going off of nothing then?" Cole grumbled.

"Well, we are here already, we might as well try to find her. And as Sensei has said before 'A misstep could be a step in the right direction'." Xia said as they all got off the Bounty and entered the town.

The entrance was just a sign saying "Tozmachi Population: 87", spray-painted in red on the side "Keep Out!". The town was hidden behind bare trees and miles of sharp rock pierced trails and the town itself was one "street" with a supplies store, where they provided basic necessities like food, water, and hardware tools, a gas station, a clothing store, and an auto repair shop in crumbling and broken buildings.

"Everyone split up so we can cover more ground." Lloyd announced to the group.

"What ground?! This place is only one street with a couple of crumbling shops!" Jay exclaimed, drawing some attention to them before scuttling off to the side, out of sight.

"Just go so we can save time than if we were to go as a whole. And try not to draw any attention, this place looks rough as it is, we don't want to be looking for trouble." Lloyd responded.

Everyone split up: Nya and Jay took the clothing store, Zane, Cole, and Kai took the gas station, Xia walked around the streets as patrol, and Lloyd and Ronin took the auto repair shop.

"How exactly did Aeria get that scar over her eye that didn't show up on our profile of her?" Lloyd asked Ronin as they walked towards the repair shop.

"Couple years back, this guy tried to pull one over on me on a deal, so I had her steal back what was sold to him from his house. Unfortunately, my client had been a former swords crafter-"

"And he scarred her eye that way?" Lloyd interrupted in disbelief.

"Yep."

"Wow..."

"Hey, it wasn't personal, just business." Ronin stated as they entered the shop and found a tall, muscular guy with a name tag that read "Jeff" sitting behind a worn down and chipped desk glaring at them.

"Excuse me, sorry to disturb you, but we're here to-" Lloyd started until Ronin interrupted,

"We're looking for Aeria, ya seen her?"

"Don't know no Aeria and who's askin'?" Jeff asked gruffly.

"A fellow businessman, is Violet around?" Jeff glared some more at the two before finally answering,

"V's out back, I'd duck your head when you get in there, she's a little cranky right now." Jeff smirked and pointed toward a room on the far left from where they were at and they started walking down to the office.

When they arrived at a door that said, "V.L.'s Workshop" Lloyd opened the door and a rusty blade buried itself into the door frame narrowly missing his face.

"Cranky, pfft more like violent." Ronin became irritated as he pulled the blade out of the frame and tossed it aside.

They walked into the workshop to find loads of tools, scrap metal, and various auto parts laying around on the floor and on the counters around the area along with a helmet and, in the far corner of the room, a purple motorcycle leaned against the wall. In the middle of the room, Aeria was kneeling down next to a rusty buggy car screwing the lug nuts onto one of the tires. While doing so, she was listening to loud music with some earbuds, connected into a music player in the pocket of the navy blue coveralls she was wearing with the top off and the sleeves were tied around her waist while she wore a black t-shirt splattered with motor oil underneath and her black hair was tied back into a ponytail while a purple bandana acted as a headband, but her bangs still covered her right eye.

She was so absorbed into her work and music that she didn't even notice Lloyd and Ronin standing behind her until Lloyd accidentally nudged her toolbox with his foot and dropped a screwdriver from the top of it and it rolled over to where she was kneeling.

Immediately, she turned her head around, ripped out her earbuds, and grabbed a large wrench from her pile of tools and brandished it like a weapon in front of her.

"Who are you and what're you doing in my workshop?" She demanded, directed at Lloyd, with the wrench in her hand.

"Woah there's no need to get violent here, we just came to ask you some questions." Lloyd tried to assure her with his hands raised.

"What're you, a cop? I ain't answering anything." Aeria asked suspiciously.

"Nice to see you too, Ari." Ronin spoke sarcastically as he came out from behind Lloyd, causing her scowl to deepen when he came into view.

"Not so nice to see you, Two-Face."

"Two-Face?" Lloyd asked in question.

"What? This guy your new 'assistant'?"

"If you're still mad about last time, I told you-" Ronin started.

"'It's just business' yeah yeah, and so is this." Aeria threw the wrench over to a dented Stop sign on the wall and it pushed in and activated some sprinklers on the ceiling to release smoke. Within seconds, the whole workshop was full of a smokescreen and something was shot at Lloyd and Ronin's legs to keep them from chasing Aeria.

"Where'd she go?" Lloyd coughed out waving his hand in front of his face from where he fell to the floor.

"There." He heard Ronin say and Lloyd saw a faint outline of Aeria shaking off her coveralls, pulling on a black jacket, and grabbing the helmet off the counter.

"I'm warning you! Leave me alone!" She yelled before she pulled on her helmet and opened the garage door so she could ride out on her motorcycle.

"Guys, do you read me?" Lloyd spoke into the comlink he had in his ear as he untangled his legs from the bolas that were shot at the two of them.

"Loud and clear, what's up?" Kai responded.

"We found her, but she's on the move."

"Copy, we'll meet you two at the Bounty." Xia stated.

"There isn't enough time, she's movin' fast." Ronin stated and let out a whistle, calling Rex over to the auto repair shop.

"We'll just follow you two in the Bounty." Kai said.

"Let's move." Ronin called over to Lloyd as he climbed in and they took off after Aeria.

1113 Words