Carved In Rock || ATLA

Feel Something

The Blind Bandit Fin

"I don't wanna die but I don't wanna live like this. I just wanna feel something, I just wanna feel. I just wanna feel something, I just wanna feel. Something really real so that I can feel like a person again." - Bea Miller

🌊 ⛰ 🔥 🌪

Toph didn't know who would have the balls to attack her home but with her parents, she didn't care to be the one to find out why. She'd rather let the guards take care of this one than be forced to rat herself out to her father. She needed to get Twinkle Toe's and the Akira out of here before she had to save their butts. Toph reached back for the airbenders hand and took off running towards the guard's quarters and just hoped the firebender would be smart enough to follow.

By this point, Aelita could start to feel the ground beneath them shake as she followed the others. "We won't make it!" She skidded to a stop when a tree caught the corner of her eye. She punched out a ray of fire and set the tall oak ablaze. This should catch the guards' attention much faster than they could run, even with the extra yards Toph and Aang now had ahead of her. "They're on top of us." She didn't realize how wrong she was. The attackers were deep below.

Toph kept on running, her feet looking everywhere trying to figure out who the hell the intruders could be but by the time she felt the tunneling beneath her it was just a second too late. She and Aang sank just enough to trip them both up and send them toppling to their hands and knees. Before either of them could stand or Aelita could make it to them heavy coffin-like cages made of thick metal crashed over the top of them both, the only holes in them being the opening at the bottom and a small window for the prisoners to see out of. The Gopher, a skinny and squirrely fighter from the Earth Rumble popped out of the ground, giggling the whole time. Aelita moved to strike when she heard a loud thud. The Hippo stood one foot on top of either cage near the estate wall, stomping his feet down and making them sink lower into the ground.

These two? The Blind Bandit hadn't even fought them, Aelita couldn't figure out what the hell they'd want with any of the Beifong's. Neither of them seemed like the run-of-the-mill street thugs or thieves she'd been expecting. Regardless of who they were, she needed to get Aang and Toph out of those cages. Hearing the ground crack behind her she ducked just in time as a jagged rock soared past where her head had just been. Shit. Scanning the yard stood a handful more men, all in costume get-ups, all fighters from the rumble. Dammit, where were the guards?

The dirt beneath her feet began to crumble and suddenly shot in the air, the Akira flipping backward off of it and landing on feet even farther away from the cages. She bent water from the stream to pool around her feet and lifted it into the octopus form as one of the earthbenders leveled the ground back out. She was ready to strike until she saw Xin Fu holding an unconscious Aang up by his collar through the hole in his cage, a large knot already forming on his temple from hitting his head, hauntingly sharp rock in the announcer's hand.

"Now now." The older man smirked. "Let's not do anything hasty, shall we. It would be tragic for someone so young to have to watch a friend bleed out because they messed with the wrong man." He saw the waterbenders brow twitch. She hadn't drawn attention to herself the way the monk did, Xin Fu didn't recognize her, or she'd be in a cage too. "Drop the water and pass on a message to the Beifong's and your friends will make it out of this alive, is that clear?"

Aelita glared on but dropped her hands, the water splashing down onto the grass below. "Crystal. What do you want with them?"

"Isn't it obvious?" He chuckled. "They owe me some money." Striking like a viper his other hand snapped out and the arrowhead shot towards the girl. When she moved to dodge The Boulder popped over the estate wall just in time to hit her over the back of the head with a brick big enough to knock her out but small enough not to kill her. As she dropped they could hear the sounds of the guards clamoring toward them. Fu dropped the airbender and tossed the ransom note down with the waterbender. It was time to disappear and wait.