Avatar: Legend of Korra - Calm before the storm.(IC)

[Mercenary Lord]

Felix had been hanging out in the front seat of the truck, listening calmly to the arguing others. Once the topic of death and murder was brought up, he decided to wait there a bit longer. He disliked senseless killing and sadistic death, but sometimes it was necessary for someone to meet an end for the greater good. He wouldn't argue with that. But it was true. They needed to get a move on to save Zhan. Felix opened the door, and slammed it shut, gathering everyone's attention. He motioned to the building.

"Whether or not Xiao should have or shouldn't have done something is irrelevant at this time. We need to get in there, get Zhan out, and look for any leads we can get. Standing out here arguing won't change a thing, and it may very well lead to us losing the slight edge we have." He glanced at Xiao. "I won't condone your actions, nor will I reject them, but this must wait until another time." He set off for the building, and whipped his arms forward, causing a stone staircase to rise up to the emergency exit. "Why did no one ask me to just do this? I believe it would be the most efficient means of entrance. Come on."

He stood aside, and motioned for them to get going. "I'll wait outside. If you need help, just blast the door down." He glanced at Xiao. The man still seemed to have a problem with him, but he wouldn't worry about that now. The man would either hate him forever, or make his peace.

"Quickly, now. We don't have any time. Not even a little bit."

[ackmeow]

Chen's eyes blazed red, or at least they would have if he could will them to. It had not been a good day, and Xiao was making things worse.

"For being such an intelligent man, I'm surprised, Xiao. No, I will not hurt you. Not now at least. Once this is all over, we're going to have... Words."

The capital W was enunciated clearly with the hopes that Xiao got the full intent. Chen had had enough. He looked at the earth ramp Felix made, then turned to everyone.

"Alright, everybody. A few things to go over before we head inside. First off, there have been reports of lots of lightning benders in Musashi Manufacturing working on something important. Whether they are being forced to do so or do so willingly, they are to be considered potentially dangerous. A lightning bender can kill a lot easier than a firebender can, so keep your eyes out and if you hear sparking, dodge." He looks at Siku. "Siku, I hate to say it but waterbending is going to be dangerous. Stick close to me."

"Our objective here is to discover material evidence that'll put Musashi manufacturing down, as well as discover where their shipments are headed. Kara was nice enough to discover a manifest and blueprint for a weapon that detailed a massive shipment heading somewhere. We need to know where that is headed. Find that, and we can all go home."

He began to climb the earth stairs, paused for a moment, then turned and spoke again. "And remember that not everyone is your enemy. I don't want a repeat of the LastDark Hotel here."

----------

Kara and Ren had reached the window when Felix took the initiative and created his earth staircase.

"Huh." Kara muttered, and hoisted herself up the last rung. "We could have done that."

The window to the building was a simple slide latch, one that wasn't locked. However, as Kara opened it, she heard rapid breathing. Someone was inside. She brought a finger to her lips, very slowly opened the window the rest of the way and poked her head in.

There was someone inside; Hidden behind a stack of crates.

Against all pretense of stealth, Kara moved inside and looked at the woman hiding behind the crates. "It's ok. We're not here to hurt you. We're looking for the shipping floor. Do you know where it is?"

[101 Scout1]

Siku nodded, letting out a sigh. Xiao was a water-bender. Of every element, water was one of the easiest to not kill people with, as if it were built to incapacitate others. Fire was destructive and hard to control, Earth was heavy and could easily hurt somebody by accident, and Air... Air was more for escape than battle... But that explained the nomads and acolytes.

The girl huffed and looked to CHen with a nod, "Alright, but don't think I can't handle myself." She gave a teasing smile and stuck her tongue out. She looked back to Xiao, "I honestly couldn't care less about excuses or reasons or whatever you want to call them. You have no right to decide who lives and who dies, Xiao, as a water-bender, it's harder to kill than to not. Chen and I were captive by several chi-blockers and a rather obtuse man... We didn't take one life, despite how badly we wanted to, you should be able to control yourself."

With that, Siku was done with the conversation, her arms falling to her sides. Everything on the subject was dropped and if it were brought back up, she simply wouldn't hear it.

[Celestial]

Ren palmed his face before he followed Kara up. The whole entire reason why he had suggested his more laborious method was to make sure that they maintained a low profile. Needless to say, this hulking earth bended staircase was anything but subtle. It stood out like a fire bender milling about a water benders camp. It just wasn't subtle. Whatever the case it was done... and it was convenient. Now he would just hope that none of the building guards heard it.

Against his reservations of the act, he nodded his thanks to Felix as he ascended the stair case. He jumped up the emergency exit and used his arms to propel himself up. He landed with an ever so slightly thump as he moved silently behind Kara.

The building, when a way around was found, wasn't too surprisingly hard to infiltrate. The two intruders had found themselves within a room with a number of crates stacked amongst each other. Ren heard it too though. It was impossible to miss the rapid breathing of someone. Someone was hiding here.

He followed Kara to where she was knelt. Before the two was a frantic woman. Why she was here? A number of reasons could have been supplied as the answer.

Taking a glance back, Ren saw a doorway that seemed to ascend to the ground below them. That's probably where the entrance was. Now the decision came to this. Open the door for the others right now, or secure Zhan then proceed to open the doors.

He turned to look at the woman. His piercing gaze burned into the woman's eyes like fire. "If you do know, tell us. We have not the time to waste."

[Pax]

Shhh. It's okay, dear. You're safe. Sh sh shhhh...
A voice long gone rumbled in her head as she lay on the cold floor. Sweat covered her face as she simply looked at the doorway. Through that was the stairs, dark, plain, bloodied. And after that, the door, locked. They were surely looking for her now. The bad men. She groaned softly as she tried to think her way out of this predicament. The locked door was surely to be checked soon and even if she did leave this room, the place was crawling with the bad men.

She felt the smoothness of the floor as she lay curled in a ball. Today was the day she'd be taken again. Away from the freedom she had received. She could fight, she could kill, but numbers beat skill. Always. It's all a matter of how many bodies pile up.

It's always better to hide if a man is wary. A wary man is a prepared man...

That voice again. Whose it was, she couldn't place. Hana simply lay there, hiding. Waiting for one of the bad men to find her and take her who knows where.

Then the window opened. It couldn't be the bad men. No no. Keep quiet. You have to keep quiet. Hana tried to slow her breath but only succeeded in making it shaky as she lay shivering on the ground, fearing the unknown entity that was making its way to her hiding place. She whimpered as she saw its shadow creep around, over her.

"It's ok. We're not here to hurt you. We're looking for the shipping floor. Do you know where it is?"

Hana remained shivering and whimpering. She couldn't be real. No no. There was no safety here.

You're never safe anywhere...

Hana dismissed the young woman's voice as a hallucination and continued to do nothing but cower in her hiding place. Looking at the wall, feeling the cold floor, her fists clenched.

She heard footsteps again, and voices, faint, coming from out the window. Things were too real. Perhaps things were as they seemed. She was safer now. Safety in numbers. Her breathing took an a stable albeit rapid rhythm as she let her ears tell her what they could. Another shadow crept out from behind the crates. Then a man, her age, knelt in front of her, blocking her view of the wall. Her eyes were forced into his. His orbs that bored into her head. Looking too deep. She didn't like it. Not one bit.

H̳̪̫͊u̐ͫr͇̥̺̹̤͕ͅt̘͔̗ͬ͊̾ ͎̩̘̪̝̓̊ͯ̄̚h͉̮̯̼̳͙ͣͩ̍̀̐ͅỉ̥̤͍̬͔̟̃̃m̱̐̿̏͑.̙͇̦͊ͧ̎ ͚

She couldn't though. She needed them. She needed them to get out without being taken. She looked back into his eyes and said nothing as her fists unclenched. Crackling could be heard from the ceiling as several concrete stalactites, sharp and brutal, splintered and cracked before disintegrating into grey sand.

Hana's voice came out faint, shakily. As she got up from the floor into a sitting position. Her workman's shirt and pants were stained with something dark, reddish-brown with a smell of iron. Blood. Splattered all over her side and hidden when she had her side pressed into the ground. Tears welled up in her eyes as she spoke, relief flooding through her.

"Yes I do. Yes. I-It's on the b-bottom floor behind the workman's d-dock. You can't go there though. They're destroying everything, capturing people and killing who they can't. I- I... I got away, hid in here. Th-They're still looking for me. The lightning benders are still here. You have to take me with you. Please! "

[Celestial]

"Yes I do. Yes. I-It's on the b-bottom floor behind the workman's d-dock. You can't go there though. They're destroying everything, capturing people and killing who they can't. I- I... I got away, hid in here. Th-They're still looking for me. The lightning benders are still here. You have to take me with you. Please!"

Immediately noticing the copperish smell, Ren zeroed in on her clothes that were drenched in blood. For now, he neglected to answer the frantic girl. Though he was in a hurry, he couldn't leave her like this. It didn't feel right. He reached into his back pocket as he began to tug out an emergency medicare kit.

"How bad is it?" he asked as he nodded to the girls wound. He made en effort to soften his gaze. He didn't want to terrify her now. "And we won't leave you here. After I patch you up, if needed, just go to that window," he pointed towards the still opened window, "and head down the stairs, more of our friends will be waiting below. Do you understand me? They'll make sure you'll be safer then here."

He pulled out a disinfectant before he did anything else. "Now lets see the wound...," he said. He had remembered when he had to stop a wound on a girl whom had interfered with a gang shake down back in the fire nation. She screamed as she slapped him thinking that he was doing something else altogether. It took him some time before she finally believed that he wasn't by repeatedly telling her that he was with the fire nation army. It was bothersome to say the least.

"Kara, would you mind watching the door? Lets not get surprised until we're ready to go again." He turned to face the unknown girl as he offered a ghost of a smile. "Thanks for the info. Now. Lets see the wound real quick, alright?"

(Since there is blood Pax, and because Hana is crying, Ren will just automatically assume she's hurt... Just wanted to let ya know the little reasoning behind his reactions xD...)

[Pax]

Hana stared at Ren with confusions as he took out the kit from his pocket. Too engrossed, in his actions to listen to what he said she simply watched him remove the disinfectant from the kit.

What was he doing? She wasn't hurt. She looked into his eyes and followed his gaze. She looked down at her bloodied clothes, still damp with blood. Then it made sense. He thought her wounded. If the mistake wasn't so grim and the actual circumstance so morbid it may have been amusing. Hana sighed as she waved off his disinfectant. Her voice came out as a whisper.

"This isn't mine."

She motioned at the blood that stained her all along her left side from shoulder to knee.

"Th-This blood isn't mine."

She started to shake as she said it again. Her tears flowed out in greater number as she shook. He doesn't know what she's talking about. She didn't mean to. She just didn't want to be captured.

Hana pointed towards the stairs, her finger jerking in the air as she sobbed softly. She pointed to where the source of the blood was. Crumbled on the stairs was a corpse. Or rather, the shreds that would have made one. A man's body, mangled, ripped and torn lay on the cold concrete steps. Blood had dried on the walls and ceiling around him. His stomach was torn open and his arms lacerated. His eyes were nowhere to be found. Most disturbing though was what shouldn't have been there. The abundance of sand that had settled around him, that was in his mouth and his eyesockets, that could have been seen if one looked into his blown out stomach.

Hana pointed at that and sobbed. She didn't mean to. It was forced of her.