A Dragon's Gonna be Hard to Steal

OOC: (Check out One Step Behind to get some of an idea of what's going on. Or don't, feel free to enter blind as well!)

Alleyways and secret passages. The two didn't often meet, but when they did you knew it would lead to something cool. Such was Kaizu's feeling when he stepped up to the ugly burly looking earthbender at the entrance, said a password and watched as a whole world opened up beneath his feet. It was very late at night, but Daithi still wore a straw kasa cap with the brim pulled low, just out of habit. It would have been too stuffy to wear his hood. The area was brightly lit with torches, although the smells alone would have been enough to guide him through. He had to walk deep underground before he could even begin to penetrate the cavern, but the aromas of sweat and incense reached him almost as soon as he stepped in. Kaizu walked down a tunnel, the stone at the side seemed to be alive with its intricate patterns that toyed with the eye.

He reached the end, a large fat man in green named Raj looked at Kaizu. They pretended not to recognize each other.

"So my friend," said Raj with a large grin. "What brings you to my cavern?"

Kaizu smiled back.

"I'm looking for a few good souvenirs to take home to the folk," Said Kaizu smoothly.

Raj grinned.

"Well then my friend," Said Raj with a theatrical wave of his hands. "Welcome to the night market!"

The walls peeled back. A universe opened up.



Everything was rock. The seats, the stalls, even some of the owners, who were obviously being controlled by some unseen earthbender. And why not? It was good protection of the identity. The rest were wearing masks or hoods anyway. Shoppers milled around, villains, brigands, even tourists shopped for the outrageously underhanded, and needlessly cheap items sold at the night market. Kaizu went to get a drink.

El tiki bar

Rock counter. As expected. Kaizu got a fruit juice and sat next to a burly looking mercenary. He glanced around. If what Raj had told him was true he'd need some very special items if he was going to be getting that dragon's egg. Absently he fingered a key on a chain around his neck. His prize from killing a gang of thieves who had tried to ambush him. It would probably come in handy later. He took a sip of his terribly sweet fruit juice and glanced around. It would be good to have a partner to help him out in the heist, and he briefly wondered if he should recruit someone then stab them in the back later. He decided against it, he couldn't audition people for a heist, and spreading word around about a dragons egg was bound to attract the wrong kind of attention.

"Refill bro!" Kaizu shouted at the stone barkeep. A slot appeared in the counter. Kaizu dropped a few coins in it. The hole disappeared, a drink popped up. The stone bartender tipped his granite hat. Kaizu smiled.

First he needed to pull a robbery. The egg would be housed in a very special vault. He needed blueprints. It so happened that one of Raj's competitors had a set of blueprints exactly for that building. If he lost a few of his wares Raj certainly wouldn't complain.

Kaizu sipped his drink slowly. He wondered if he should get a refill.

Not the face thought Kaizu. It didn't help. They hit him again. So maybe sneaking into the house of a reputed earth kingdom crime lord alone wasn't the smartest thing he'd ever done. But how was he to know that the the crime lord in question (Vera) had apparently unnatural earthbending abilities that allowed her to sense him coming from a mile away? It just wasn't fair.

"So," Vera asked, she sat on an ornate wooden chair that looked as gruesome as it did expensive, which is to say a lot. "What are you here for?"

She was wearing silk, and a lot of it. Heavy rings adorned her slender fingers and plenty of make up on her very wrinkled face. She was probably 60, but moved with energy that probably allowed her to out maneuver and out think her competition. The two heavyset bodyguards currently pummeling Kaizu probably didn't hurt.

"I'm-" He got cut off with a punch before he could finish his sentence.

"Don't speak unless spoken to," Said the larger of the two thugs.

"But he was spoken to Belker," Said the smaller one, a low life by the name of Firi.

"Oh," Said Belker feigning ignorance. "Right."

They both laughed. It was obvious this wasn't an interrogation, it was amusement.

"He's not law enforcement," Said Vera. "Nor from any of ther other clans, just a petty thief. Deal with him."

Vera got up and went to the nearest wall. She stamped her foot and a portion of it slid back. She walked quickly through it and it closed up behind her. Interesting...thought Kaizu. They were effectively in a square box of dirt. When he had been knocked it he awoke here. But it made sense, probably the house above was just a decoy.

"Don't waste time," Said Belker he pulled out a dagger.

That's just annoying thought Kaizu.

Vera strode purposefully towards her vault. It suited her that it wasn't underground at all but hung high above hidden in plain sight. In a city where every second person could read the tiny discrepancies in the earth, the only true option for security was not to place things in the earth, but rather in the sky. So nestled away in a small alley of the city, standing proud on heavy wooden stilts, was a water tower. So many of these things lay across the city, metal barrels to house water that could be dispensed at any time to those who needed it. They were government owned and maintained of course, but Vera paid enough to make sure that it stayed off the grid, and all who tried to use it would find it empty. It had been reinforced of course, none could enter without turning a set of hidden locks in a correct sequence. And of course then there were the traps to deal with. A perfect design. But now she would have to shift her artifacts. The city was becoming too dangerous. Kaizu was but the latest in a line of thieves who had come very close to robbing her of her prizes. She would seek retribution yes, but for now she would safeguard her artifacts.

With a swift wave of her wrist she blocked the alleyways only entrance with a large wall of earth. It would look like the alleyway had merely shrunk slightly from an outsiders point of view. Then with another wave Vera brought herself up the sixteen feet to reach the entrance way. She pulled a thin key of stone from her person and slotted it into a minute almost invisible hole on the side of the tower. Designed to look like nothing more than a spot. Turning the key a small panel of shapes suddenly appeared. 5 slots that she could swivel around. She made the necessary adjustments then turned the key again. The mechanism properly aligned the walls of the water tower slid back to reveal a room that would belittle an emperor. Jewels of all shapes and sizes, ancient weaponry with histories long forgotten, scrolls by the thousands containing such precious precious information. And there was Kaizu sitting in the middle of the room pouring over one such scroll and chuckling to himself.

"Your crossbow trap was rather ingenious," He said pulling out a large crossbow and aiming it at Vera. "I had so much trouble."

Vera's eyes widened Kaizu took no notice and continued reading.

"How did you..." she gasped. "I left you barely two hours ago. Even if you overpowered Belker and Oman you could not have escaped that hole, you are no earthbender."

"There's no earth here Vera," continued Kaizu his eyes still on the scroll that he was tucking into his vest. "You made sure of that, so don't try anything."

His attention focused on her he contemplated pulling the trigger. She was only a danger to him. But of course that would be such a shame. She was, after all, a rich, powerful, and extremely influential person who was definitely not on the side of the masked men trying to manipulate him.

He wouldn't give her more information than necessary, like how he was a firebender and had exploded his way through the ceiling of the room he had been trapped in causing a cave in. Nor would he tell her that he had been stalking her for three days and that he had pickpocketed and duplicated her key an impossibly long time ago. And that he had stayed up most of the past two nights trying out every possible combination for the door. Nor could he explain that he had only even tried breaking into her 'house' just to make sure the blue prints weren't secretly there. But of course there were certain things he could give up. The name of a certain fat oaf for instance.

"Raj sends his regards," Said Kaizu releasing the crossbow bolt. He was an exceptional shot so he aimed as close to her as he could without actually hitting her. Her reflexes were abnormal, with a pounce she leaped back and summoned a pillar of earth to catch her. Kaizu quickly retreated to the back of the water tower and lit a fuse. He had placed a small amount of explosive there. The shaped charge blew a hole in the metal and he quickly shuffled out, jumping down and landing without a sound. Vera was too preoccupied with summoning enough earth to move a mountain than to feel for the scurrying figure far below her feet. Kaizu vaulted the nearest wall then took off into the night, propping his hood up as he did. He was definitely going to have trouble with this job. With luck Vera would strike at Raj and the two would kill each other. With even more luck it might stir up some more trouble for this masked group out to pull at his strings. But he couldn't worry about that now. He had to focus on the job at hand.

When he had glanced at the blueprints he had assumed that there had to be some kind of mistake. But in hindsight it made sense, there was only one place the dragon's egg could have been hidden. A treasure so big it would shake the very foundations of the world. In the Earth King's Palace at Ba Sing Se.


[exit]