The triad with the blue suit drops into an inelegant looking fighting stance, favoured by some of the local gangs, "I dunno how old you look, but I'll let the boss sort it out."
Almost the moment he stops speaking, the leader of the triads drops into his combat stance, he leaps forward at Mica and initiates with a couple of surprisingly
While the spin kick he attempts to initiate combat with misses (mostly due to his clumsy form), he uses the momentum from the spin to jam his elbow back into Mica's chest.
Seeming to have intuitively understood that her boss was intending to teach these kids a lesson, the broad woman in the suit stomps her foot solidly to launch a piece of stone into the air, which she volleys towards Tikaani with her fist. She raises some more stone immediately afterwards with a stomp of her other foot, readying for another attack.
"You were warned," Taikahana says simply. "I leave your fate to whom you have challenged."
"You there," Taika points to a Fancy Red companion of the suited man, "You are my opponent."
Taikahana explodes into action as soon as hostile action twinkles in the suited man's eyes. Assuming his companions will be enough for the suited fool, Taika grasps the hilt of Hishen's Blade and steps around the arc of one of the opposing benders reach to come up on her side. The movement is a blur, the eye can barely follow the trained firebending samurai's movements.
In a flash, Taika draws Hishen's Blade and strikes out at the woman in a single motion. His pose ends with the sword far above his head leaving him open to retaliation.
Mica lets out a grunt when the triad leader's elbow unexpectedly connects. Asides from the thin leather armor she wore, her chest did not exactly have a lot of padding. But quick on her feet as usual, she rides the force of the blow, hopping back a step.
"The only thing that your boss will be 'sorting out' is your face," she growls as she kicks up a hard clump of dirt, before sending it flying at her attack with a punch.
The fancy fellow in red points at himself in surprise when Taikahana calls him out, wide-eyed, and before he knows it the gap between him and the samurai is closed and a flash of shining steel has him clutching at his chest, in immense pain but surprised to see that his chest has not been split open.
"Augh!" cries the man in the blue suit, stumbling when the clump of dirt strikes him right in the face, and he orders "Get her!" to the only member of their gang who is not already preoccupied.
When the other fancy red fellow sees his companion struck by Taikahana's blade, he steps away from the traditional warrior in order to put a little extra distance between himself and Taikahana.
Still, he knows who the real target is here. He turns, fire swirling up around himself, and then uprights himself, palm facing forwards towards Mica. The fire he creates swirls around the young pro bender, but doesn't make direct contact. Still, one wrong move, and she may still be set ablaze!
Ready for the man in blue's attack and waiting to take his attack head on when he's blindsided by a sudden large rock which crashes into him full force.
"OW!... that wasn't very nice! Alright hun, if you're going to single me out then I'll play."
The young waterbender attempts to dance past the man in blue to close the gap on the woman that threw a big rock at him. As he moves he draws a stream of water out of a water skin at his hip. "Alright, let's dance." With that he makes a sweeping motion with his arm and the stream of water quickly follows the motion lashing out at the woman attempting to take her feet out from under her.
"Defend," Palili snaps at Siba, then circles the leader, drawing the tonfa slung at her belt and moving in to menace him.
"Call them off or I strike," she threatens in a calm but firm voice, weapons held down the lengths of her forearms.
Jampo frowns slightly at the sudden flurry of movement below him. His tattooed forehead wrinkles with unsightly furrows at the sight.
"Uupa, wait here." The young airbender says with deceptive calm, like the eerie calm before a storm.
With those quiet words, Jampo slips completely over the side of the air-saddle, and plummets towards the ground. Right before one of his otherwise-occupied companions might have noticed his apparent predicament, he twists and spins in mid-air, generating currents to slow his fall. But Jampo also takes advantage of his height and speed to slap the blue-suited ruffian across the back of his head with his newly-gifted airbenders staff.
Jampo lands lightly as a feather, his airbending swirling the dust around him, obscuring him slightly from sight. One arm is extended ahead of him, his palm held forward in warning, his other extends behind him, spinning his perfectly balanced staff so fast it resembles an airplane propeller.
"You have attacked without provocation. That was a warning. Please, desist and we will discuss the situation. Otherwise, I cannot guarantee your safety." Comes Jampo's voice from the swirling winds, soft yet carrying clearly to all.
The man in red near Taikahana is too busy to consider whether his boss wants them to back off or now, as the Samurai in his face has occupied his attention.
He retaliates by replying to the Samurai's challenge, fire swirling around his arm as he thrusts his palm for the unarmored portion of Taikahana's midsection, slamming the same place with his opposite fist to add a bit of insult to injury.
He seems, however, to have understood that this is not a duel to the death, so while he no doubt tries to hurt Taikahana, he seems to be striking for non-vitals.
There is a moment of hesitation in Blue Suit's expression when Palila threatens him, and he starts to speak, but then Jampo's staff comes down on top of his head and he growls in surprise, "You're gonna pay for that, kid."
He still seems to be a bit dizzy from the blow to the head, and he stumbles while swiping uselessly at Jampo with his fists, though his unpredictable movements allow him to sidestep Palila's blow.
The woman in the suit falls on her back, but just as quickly hops back up to her feet (leaving herself open to attack). She performs a spin kick, attempting to slam Tikaani with her heel. Despite the power of the kick, it is obvious enough for the pro-bender to be able to dodge easily.
"Hey, you should stay down lady, you caught me with that cheap shot, but I don't want to hurt you more than necessary."
Quickly sidestepping the spinning kick Tikaani follows up with a kick of his own, taking advantage of the clumsy attack to strike at the most opportune time. The kick itself is hardly more than a tap, but precisely timed to work against her spinning momentum, intended to knock her off balance rather than do serious damage. "Sorry, too slow."
Taikahana appears to have grossly underestimated his target as the man knocks the wind out of him so forcibly, he sees stars. His nerveless fingers drop Hishen's Blade where it clatters to the earth.
The shame of this will surely follow Taikahana for the rest of his days.
Mica considers pounding the tar out of Blue Suit, but her teammates seemed to have it handled. Instead she turns her attention to Taikahana, who was in a rather unfortunate position. The earthbender kicks up another clod of earth, shaping it into a rather crude rendition of an earth disk.
"Hold on, Moe! Here's a Mica-Mori-Meteor, coming your way!"
The pro-bending superstar nails the disk with a roundhouse kick... sending it flying over the intended recipient's head.
The tap to the woman in the suit's leg sends her off balance, and she swings her arms in order to remain balanced.
Left to his own devices, the lone slower firebender triad swirls fire around himself and tries again, sending a blast of fire right towards Mica with a second more focused punch.
Seeing that Jampo has decided to keep her opponent busy, Palila takes a short couple of steps to face the only unengaged member of the attackers. Siba trails behind so he can continue to guard.
She makes a swift punching motion that whips the length of the tonfas forward to pop her opponent in the head, not pulling her punches since this woman spit a gout of real fire at one of her companions.
Pressing the advantage with the woman off balance Tikaani once again goes for the legs rotating his hips and shooting a leg out to sweep them out from under the woman, and flowing with the motion of the movement he uses his palm and a quick thrust of water to drive her into the ground.
"You really should stay down lady. I can do this all day." Tik was cocky, but at least had some skill to back it up. Some of the other pro bending teams had described how frustrating The Wolf's style keeping his opponent off balance could be.
A quick glance at his friends shows Taikahana's taking a pretty fair beating, and Mica getting the flame treatment. "Ouch... that might leave a mark. You guys need a hand over there?"
The fire blast heads Mica, eliciting a grunt and igniting a small patch of her clothing. In an instant however, she whips her arms around in what seems to be a practiced form, snuffing out the flame and looking awesome while doing it.
"That all you got, hotman?"
"You're gonna pay for that, kid."
Jampo matches the suited man's movements smoothly, still spinning his staff held out behind him. He easily dodges the clumsy attack.
"I'm sorry. I don't carry money." Jampo says in a calm, simple tone.
Jampo had long ago learned that most folk considered the small Airbender temples to be occupied by antiquated, nearly simpleton monks living in the far past. Despite the fact that it was common knowledge the majority of airbenders gained their airbending abilities during the time of Avatar Korra.
Jampo had been a stone's throw from being a street rat, and possibly ending up like these rent-a-thugs. He had no trouble with playing on the expectations of the ignorant. Especially when they deserved a good spanking. Most thugs didn't really want anything like a fair fight. It was time to give these goons a demonstration of what they were up against, before they worked themselves up to actually injuring someone.
Although he would have paid good money to watch Mica give her opponent the beating he so richly deserved. But enough was enough.
Jampo goes instantly from moving slowly to whipping his airbender's staff around him in a swirling motion difficult to follow. He gathers his winds around him as he does so, launching into a series of spinning strikes on the suited man.
When Palila moves towards the second firebender, he stops lobbing so much fire towards Mica and starts focusing on the non-bender in front of him. Her first strike gets his attention, but he weaves away from the second with his attention refocused.
The suited earthbender is knocked down onto her back again with a heavy thud, growling with displeasure at the blow that Tikaani follows up with. She thrashes about on the ground, trying to kick and punch at Tikaani's legs, but does little but violently thrash like a fish out of water.
The other bender takes the moment that the samurai is winded to unleash a blur of blows to the armoured man's midsection, hammering at any vulnerabilities that he can until Taikahana is on his back. When this concludes, he checks a moment to make sure that the other firebender is not bleeding and has no lethal injuries to treat. He mumbles, "Kid's got some fire in him." Satisfied, he rights himself and raises his fists to survey the battlefield.
Jampo's blows land on the man in the blue suit, and as the last blow smashes into his chest, the thug coughs and falls forward on his face, his breath becoming more haggard.
:P
Jampo immediately leans over the fallen man and begins to check on him.
Upon realizing that he is not faking, Jampo drops his staff and carefully examines the man's chest.
"This man needs a healer!" Jampo calls loudly but calmly.
Jampo very carefully and gently rearranges the man's position, to ease his pain and hopefully restore his breathing.
Seeing Jampo's whirling flurry batter the blue suited man who drops heavily and doesn't looks to be in real bad shape. "Whoa, time out! Tikaani makes a T shape with his hands. "That guy does not look good. Gimme a sec, I'll take a look."
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What a mess... Mica thinks with a frown, seeing Taikahana on his back and the blue-suited man in rather dire straits. She did not much care for the latter, but she hardly wanted to kill the guy. Deciding to dispense with the showboating in the interest of ending things quickly, Mica kicks up a particularly dense lump of earth and punches it at the one responsible for downing Moe. No special move name for this one.
Seeing Jampo's whirling flurry batter the blue suited man who drops heavily and doesn't looks to be in real bad shape. "Whoa, time out! Tikaani makes a T shape with his hands. "That guy does not look good. Gimme a sec, I'll take a look."
Jampo nods and moves to make room for Tikaani. The young monk knows the basics of medicine of course. (It's hard to live and train in a temple dedicated to Airbending, and not pick up some knowledge of first aid after all. Even Pacifists can do quite a bit of damage with Bending when learning to control their abilities!) But he's no healer.
As he moves to make room for the waterbender, he looks at the remaining thugs.
"I think this discussion is over. Don't you? Or, do we still have a problem?" Jampo asks quietly into the sudden silence after Mica's last powerful Earthbending strike.
With a glare at the fallen enemies, Palila dashes over to Taikahana's sprawled and motionless form to check his signs of life.
The firebender who was engaged in combat with Taikahana looks over when Tikaani calls a time out, but the block of earth to his face sends him in a three quarters midair rotation to land on his face next to the samurai.
While the triad earthbender remains on her back, the other firebender puts up his hands and says, "Hey, whoa, was just following orders. Now that nobody's watching... I should get my friend," he gestures to the other firebender, "Outta here. Mee, pick up Slick, let's ditch."
Mee stands back up and approaches the man in the blue outfit.
"Ah. Wisdom is beyond price my friend. Be glad that you have it." Jampo says, inclining his head to the outspoken firebender.
The young monk steps aside and allows 'Mee' to retrieve his fallen blue-suited comrade. But he watches him like a hawk. And the shadow of Uupa overhead reminds the thug that they are, indeed, being watched.
Tikaani shifts over to kneel next to the blue suit man just as Mica's rock smashes into the firebender "Mica! During a time out? That's dirty."
Inspecting the man on the ground Tik shakes his head "Wow, you really did a number on this guy, but you patched him pretty well too... I think I can help" Pulling a stream of water to his hand Tik then guides it over Blue Suit Guy's wounds his hands on either side the water glows with a silvery blue light.
Seeing the healing technique appears to be working well he looks up at Mee as she approaches and gives her a grin "While I'm famous for more combatative bending, I'm not slouch when it comes to healing either, the picking up might not be necessary."
Jampo looks crestfallen to have caused such injury. Although he gives a wan smile at Tik's complement on his meager healing skills.
"Thank you. I am sorry, I did not mean to hit him, quite, so hard. I half expected him to dodge the blow. Too used to practicing with fellow airbenders I suppose." Jampo says quietly.
Jampo's look seems to say that he approves of Tik's healing methods. :)
Taikahana's slight concussion begins the usual work of erasing the recent memories of the trauma from his mind. Sadly, despite the lack of specifics, once Taika awakens, he will still know he has already disgraced Jian's gift of Hishen's Blade.
"Maybe you did too good a job healing him," observes the firebender when Slick starts to stir. Still, despite Tikaani's words, Mee lugs him over her shoulder and starts off, while the firebender does the same to his similarly dressed counterpart. "Alright... Flameo!" he throws up a hand lazily in farewell to the benders who just trounced them and walks back towards the city.
Jampo gives a bemused, half-hearted wave in return. Then he turns to his companions.
"Um. OK. What, exactly, just happened?"
"Hey, we're not standing in a stadium. This isn't pro-bending," Mica responds, giving Tikaani a dirty look. As the triads run off with their tails in between their legs, she dusts her hands off, even blowing a puff of dirt off her knuckles. "Okay, so maybe that was some pro-bending. I mean, not my best work, but still. All in all, good work, everyone."
The earthbender looks over at Jampo and shrugs. "I dunno. Maybe this was nothing personal for them. Triads like being all... professional. Besides, it's unsportsmanlike for the loser to cry foul." Mica nods to herself, because this is clearly an example she has followed herself. Yep.
Jampo is clearly confused.
"I'm sorry, I did not hear the conversation. They said they were paid to attack you? Us?" The young airbender asks, clearly whatever he had been expecting, THIS was not it.
"Why? What? They don't want us to find the avatar?"
"Oh, that," Mica replies, only now understanding what Jampo was referring to. She tilts her head to the side and proceeds to clean her ear with her little finger. "Sounded like they had some half-baked theory that I'm the Avatar. I guess they thought that there had to be something more to this mission of ours."
"Ah." Says Jampo calmly. He clearly still does not understand why the men assaulted the group. He also clearly does not want to be thought of as an idiot. So he nods.
"Perhaps, we might reconsider riding on Uupa together? As loathe as I am to leave your friends behind, we will make better time. And it might help avoid any more,... half-baked theories?" He smiles.
Tikaani shrugs his shoulders at Jampo's suggestion making his way over to Taikahana as he speaks "As much as I want to get up there and fly with Uupa, I know that suggestion's not going to fly."
Kneeling by Taikahana the waterbender once again draws out some water placing it over his companion's wounds as it starts to glow faintly.
"I don't think the suggestion is fair, we can't just leave friends behind because it's easier that way. Those guys know we're no pushovers now, they'll think twice before trying to strong arm us again."
Standing he comes over and puts an arm on Jampo's shoulder talking more quietly to the airbender, though if the others tried to listen in they could probably hear.
Jampo simply nods once, his face impassive.
"You are wise Tik." Is all he says.
Taikahana stirs after the waterbending does its job restoring some of his vigor.
"Unh..." he says, his tongue thick.
"Hey, enough with the locker room talk!" Mica calls out to the boys as she scratches her head, clearly oblivious to the context of their conversation. She looks over at the now conscious Taikahana and offers him a hand.
"That goes for you too, Moe. On your feet! We need to get a move on."
"Are you well, Taikahana-san?" Palila asks softly, still kneeling by the fallen firebender. Seeing him stir, she rises and wordless offers a hand to help him up, following Mica's example a little uncertainly.
"Master Taikahana, I would be honored if you would join me in riding Uupa as we begin once more. As we left, I just realized how,... lonely, it would be up there, with everyone else traveling on the road.' Jampo phrases his request carefully, not wishing to upset the very traditional-minded samurai. But he was concerned that the knock he took might have rung the fire-benders bell. And not in a good way.
"Perhaps, we can all take turns? Riding and traveling both via the road, and on Uupa? That way we will all get the chance to visit and get to know each other. What do you think?"
Taikahana rises to sitting and looks up at the two young women offering him their hands.
"Ahh..." he looks more than a bit embarrassed.
Then he sighs and reaches up to allow Mica & Palila to pull him to his feet. He quickly releases his grip once standing. He gingerly bends down to pick up Hishen's Blade. His face is ashen as he looks it over for damage.
He breathes out and suddenly moves. He pushes the blade up and then flips it blade down and begins to pull it towards himself in a blur of motion. Then with great control the motion slows, and he carefully and smoothly sheathes the katana.
He turns to Mica, "Apologies for my original disdain. You have certainly proven you are worthy of the search for the Avatar while I have yet to do so."
Taikahana then bows from the waist with his hands at his sides.
Tikaani grins seeing Taikahana's apologize to Mica, he lightly claps a hand on the older boy's shoulder when he's completed the bow. "Glad she has impressed, now you see us pro benders weren't picked just for our good looks."
He gives the fire bender another once over "That guy got you real good though... Well, don't let it get to you, everyone has their of days, and in our line of work everyone gets the clocks cleaned once in a while. Even me, believe it or not." That was probably meant to offer some kind of comfort "We're a team now so if you get knocked down we'll pick you back up, and vice versa."
The young water bender smiles towards Jampo at his suggestion "Hey that's a good idea, let everyone have a chance to get off their feet for a while. Taikahana can go first, and I get the next ride!" Just as eager as ever to get a chance on the flying bison. "And Taikahana" He says looking back at the samurai "You'd better let me give you another treatment before we settle in for the night. Being a pro bender you might think I'm only good in a fight, but I've been told I'm a reasonably competent healer as well. Same to everyone else" Tik says addressing the whole party "If anyone took some hits I can give you a once over before we hit the sack to make sure we're all right as rain in the morning."
"I am unharmed, thank you. Should we move on? I think you shamed them, but they might return with reinforcements if they are of low character," Palila suggests, calling Siba to her and scratching the creature's ears and the base of its beak. Siba's feathers, which had been puffed in alarm, slowly flatten to their normal, calmer state.