Running from the target (bailey, loolaalee)

Kaia thought back to the letter she had received by messenger hawk that morning. It was from the man who hired her.

Kaia. I know it's only been a day since you returned from your last mission, but we need you again. There is a man who has been trying to steal jewels across the nations, and our agents tell us he is in the Eastern Air Temple. You job is simple: You must locate this man, secure him, and bring him back to headquarters, alive. Also, we need you to find out where his hideout is so we can find the stolen items and return them to where they belong.

The letter had no signature, but that didn't matter. The orange ribbon on the hawks foot was enough to tell her that it was from her current boss. She was just walking into the Eastern air temple's main gates when she heard a crash and a scream. She turned and grabbed one of her fans, holding it out in front of her, ready to throw it if necessary.

She ran toward a small building about a block away from the entrance and looked around. This building was a family owned shop that sold precious jewels mined in the nearby mountains. The window to the shop was broken as well as a glass case that seemed to have been holding all of the jewels before they were stolen. She looked around for the thief, but he had already gotten away. Then she heard whimpering behind the counter. She looked back there to find a woman ducked under the counter. She jumped over it to the other side and reached out her hand.

"Are you okay, ma'am?" she asked. The woman looked up, and seemed calmed by Kaia's young age. She took her hand and let her help her up. "Y-yes, I'll be alright. But..." her voice trailed off. "What? What is it?" Kaia asked her. She looked at Kaia. "That man...he took everything. Not just the jewels, but my husbands life."

Kaia stared at the woman in disbelief. She hand't been told that this man was a killer, just a thief. This mission just got a whole lot more dangerous, she thought. Then she turned back to the woman. "Can you give me a description of the man, and what direction he rean off in?" she asked, and the woman gladly gave her the information, and Kaia took off down the street.

Clarissa walked down the street, on vacation from Omashu and needing a new perspective for life, when she heard someone running hard toward her. Ranger started to bark wildly before jumping up and attacking the man who would have ran into her if her fox hadn't gotten in the way. Pulling the surrounding earth around the man, Clarissa separated Ranger from him and locked him in a jail like structure. "Did anyone ever teach you to watch out for younger people? We aren't very tall, you know." Clarissa complained as she pulled the bars closer to him. "What are you running from anyway? Not like you could have done anything illegal. I would have.." Clarissa stopped talking as Ranger slithered between her feet. A commotion grabbed her attention and she turned to figure out what was going on. She could hear people screaming and complaining about something, but wasn't too sure what they were saying cause she was too far away.

Kaia scrambled down the street, looking left and right for anybody that matched the woman's description of the man. In all the panic, she manage to run smack into Clarissa's earth cage. She stepped back. "Hey! Who leaves a random earth cage in the middle of th-" she stopped as her eyes fell on the man inside the cage. He was exactly the man she was looking for. She looked up at the girl standing by the cage, who had a fox with her. "How did you do that?" She asked, but her amazement was short lived as more men dressed similarly jumped out of the shadows. Oh great. Looks like they didn't give me all the information...again. She thought. She had thought it was only one man, but APPARENTLY there was a whole team of them. And they were all heavily armed. One of them stepped forward. "You messed with the wrong people, girls. And now you're gonna pay for it!" He shouted, then charged at Clarissa.

Clarissa smiled as she heard the man slip from her cage. The girl who ran into the cage surprised her, and she dropped the earth back to its normal shape. "Doesn't matter" She told the woman before focusing on the man and his gang. "I'm not going to be paying for anything you do." Clarissa yelled back as Ranger jumped at one of the men and the other one came right for her. She waited until he was a few steps away before stomping the ground and slamming a solid pillar into his face. "You guys don't know who your messing with."

Kaia watched as the earthbender took care of a few of the men. Meanwhile, another one had drawn his sword and was walking toward Kaia. Kaia grabbed one of her fans, but instead of opening it, she used it to knock the blade out of the way, and she punched the man in various pressure points, blocking his chi. She watched as he fell to the ground, completely limp.

She turned, opened her fan, and threw it like a Frisbee toward another of the men, who was farther away and had a crossbow with an arrow knocked. The fan struck his wrist, and he cried out in pain, dropping the crossbow. Kaia then lunged toward him, her knife drawn, and buried the blade into his stomach. His eyes rolled into his head as Kaia yanked out the knife, and he fell to the ground. Kaia turned, and stared in shock, realizing that more men had joined the party. There were at least 50 of them now. Too many for the two girls to handle on their own.

Kaia looked over at the earthbender. She ran toward her, standing next to her. "Got any ideas? Cuz im drawing a blank." she said, trying to keep the talking to a minimum. She looked around for an opening, then finally saw a gap in the defenses-right off the edge of a balcony. "You see that balcony over there? I have an idea. On three, we run toward it, and jump. Make sure to stay close to the mountainside." she said.

Clarissa turned and acted like she knew exactly what Kaia was talking about with the balcony. She could see a drop off a little bit away, but not what they would have to jump over. With a nod, she started to count. "One, two, three." Clarissa counted out, fearing that they wouldn't have much time before the group started to attack. "Ranger, now!" She yelled as she ran for the drop off. Ranger jumped before Clarissa could notice what he was jumping over. She jumped like Kaia had said, but her jump was a bit short and her foot was caught on the railing. Clarissa tumbled forward, pulling the mountainside to her to catch her fall. Ranger immediately ran to her and whimpered as he tried to help her back up. Clarissa placed an hand on his head and retracted the ground to pull her back to the mountainside where she was supposed to meet Kaia.

Kaia kept her cool as she fell from the pathway. She looked up, seeing some of the enemies looking over the rail. She grinned wickedly to herself. In all the confusion, nobody had realized that she had grabbed the bag of stolen goods, and was planning to return them. At just the right moment, she shoved her blood-stained knife into the cliff wall, stopping her fall. She then used some climbing gear to move along the cliff to a small ledge, where the other girl was waiting. "Sorry that took so long. But we're safe now, and I got the stuff he stole." she said, but knew that their victory would be short lived. The enemies may think they're dead for now, but if they found out that the two girls were still alive, Kaia knew very well that they would come after them and get revenge. Groups like that don't like people meddling with their plans. Kaia decided not to worry about that, and turned to the girl. "Im Kaia, Kaia Menma. What's your name?" she asked.

Clarissa sensed the girl get closer and fixed her glasses on her face. "I'm Clarissa, Clarissa Burke." She said as she placed a hand on her ankle. It stung from where the rail had caught her, but wasn't too badly hurt. Pulling her hand away, she felt a little bit of a stickiness that made her hiss a bit at it. Ranger whined and nuzzled against her hand. "Oh, and this is Ranger." She pulled her hand around Ranger's muzzle to quiet him. She knew he was worried about her ankle, but she was more worried about the thugs at the top of the cliff.

Kaia smiled at her. "Nice to meet you!" she said happily. She figured that since they were in this situation, they might as well get to know each other a little bit. They could easily be stuck together for a LONG time. Kaia noticed that Clarissa was touching her ankle, and looked at it, seeing a red area where a bruise was forming. "Hey, what happened back there? It's not like the railing was that high. Are you okay?" she asked.

Clarissa nodded, So that's what I tripped on.. She thought as she looked at the girl. "I just clipped the railing, that's all." She smiled a bit, hoping Kaia wouldn't see through her disguise. Ranger stopped whining and moved in between the two of them. "How about you, are you okay?" Clarissa focused on the location of the people above them. They were slowly retreating from the ledge, leaving only one person standing by the rail.