Finding and Stopping the Selling [Hidoi, or Invite][Job]

Job being Done:

Zansho had spent the majority of her very young life, the past ten years in fact, traveling with her parents and watching them sell their goods - and recently she had begun to help them when they needed her to. She had seen others sell many different types of items as well: clothing, trinkets, weapons, armor, food, candies, and many, many other things. She had been taught to respect others and what they sold; had been taught that everyone had to get by making an honest living. With that said, she had a serious problem with the rumor that had recently reached her ears: apparently there was a dangerous drug being sold to non-benders that made them lethal like a regular bender - only the side effects were not worth the risk at all. People had begun to seriously suffer behind it.

So, while Zansho wasn't the sort to be an all out vigilante, or to try and butt into other peoples business, she did feel a need to try and find out who was behind this new drug and to put a stop to it; to destroy it completely - or at least as much as she could. Her parents had given her some time off from training and so she was using the time to wander the market, going slow and keeping her ears perked for anything that didn't sound quite so right. Any conversation that might have been considered out of the norm - or a little shady. At the moment she was located in a less savory part of the market; the darker area that was known for more shady dealings. She was dressed a little differently than normal; having traded up her Ao Dai for a simple beige colored tunic styled shirt and pants, with her feet in sandals. Her hair was back in a braid that hung down her back. All in all the outfit was meant to help her blend in more - and it did rather well, minus the fact that she smelled like smoke, she just couldn't hide that fact when it came to her being a Firebender.

Zansho paused nearby, acting like she was dusting off her tunic as she listened to a nearby stall owner talking to a customer, trying to pick out any stranger conversation that might lead her in the proper direction...


Word Count: 395

An ear piercing scream came from above. Shoppers and pedestrians looked up to see a man falling from a high building. A child with a cape and a glowing blue ball next to his head was next to him, upside down. The man looked terrified, but the child looked as if falling from a tall building upside down was an everyday thing. He looked comfortable, in fact. Panic began in the streets below, because surely this wasn't going to end well.

”Soooo, you gonna talk, or are you gonna end up as street pizza?”

“I-I already told you, I don't know!!”

”Garbage! I already know it was you clowns behind that “Hard Air” crap. You gotta be the ones who made that new stuff too, that stuff that's making people super strong but it's killing people. Where's it at? Where do you make it? You got about 5 seconds!...”

The man began to panic and flail in mid-air. “...Okay! Okay!... In a basement below Dimsum's grocery! That's where it gets made! I swear!”

”See? That wasn't so hard, was it?”

Hidoi slowed his fall by rapidly channelling the air around his small frame. The thug landed on a pre-made invisible cushion of air which bounced him back airborne a second before he crashed hard onto his chest. Humiliated and hurt, but alive.

He'd been at this several days, interrogating thugs he ran across, and snooping around in spirit form. There were drugs flooding the streets, “Hard air,” which made people see things in slow motion and made them feel as if they were walking on air, and now this new thing, which gave ordinary people the strength and skill of a seasoned Bender, with the side effect of death later on. He had to put a stop to this crap from the source, before any more graves were filled.

Word Count: 315

Zansho had been about to move on, the conversation she had been eavesdropping on revealing nothing but some shady dealing for a sword, when she heard the ear piercing scream that came from above. At first she was confused, up until a second or two later when she spotted what was causing the pedestrians around her to back away, scream, and otherwise panic. Two people seemed to be falling towards the ground, head first; one of which was flailing and freaking out, obviously very unhappy with his predicament, and the other was a kid who seemed completely at ease. The kid she recognized from a few days ago: Hidoi, if she remembered correctly.

She listened closely, tuning on on them and trying to ignore the pedestrians who were freaking out around her. She could hear snatches of the conversation; and from what she gathered it sounded like Hidoi was searching for the same sort of answers that she was - he wanted to know who was going around and selling drugs that made non-benders lethal, and ended up their deaths. But.. he wasn't about to let the guy die, right?

She didn't think he would. He didn't seem like the type even though she barely knew him. She could still remember how he had fought the thugs before - he had just knocked them around, and hadn't ever hit them with anything that could have been considered lethal.

She watched the thug land on what she could only guess was a cushion of air and go bouncing before he landed on the actual ground. He'd likely be embarrassed, but he would be alive. She then turned her attention to Hidoi. "Hello, again. Hidoi, right?" She glanced back over to the thug and then back to him. "It looks like we're both looking for the same thing..."

Word Count: 306 + 395 = 701

Hidoi was on one knee after landing, watching the thug gather himself and stumble off. He half expected some of his friends to attempt some sort of retaliation mission on him, but so far that didn't seem to be the case. Pedestrians and citizens began to go back about their daily duties. These idiots had some sort of drug lab under the local grocery store. He thought of going home so he could pull an out-of-body spy mission, but that would take too long.

Kodai, the blue wisp-like spirit hovering next to his head, began to glow a little brighter in the presence of another bender. She didn't speak very often, but when she did Hidoi found that she could be quite nasty and sarcastic, especially to people she didn't know. He thought maybe it was because she used to be a Queen, and used to having people grovel at her feet. She was never nasty to Hidoi personally, and that much he was thankful for. Hidoi looked to see a girl he'd seen once before, when there was a gathering of several different benders.

”...Zan...sho, right? Or something like that. You're looking for these guys too? Why? Did they grope you?”

Hidoi stood up straight and moved his cape around in front of him. The grocery store wasn't far from where they were. If they did anything to this girl it was just another reason to bust in and beat them all up.

Word Count 247 + 315 = 562

Zansho nodded to him getting her name correct, and then took notice of the blue glowing thing next to Hidoi but didn't comment on it for a moment; she figured maybe it was an Airbender thing, Avery had a talking panda cub after all, something she had found out after meeting her and her cousin Houjin several days back. She shook her head no as she focused back on Hidoi. "No, nothing like that. They're costing my family business. No business, no money, no money, no food... "

She nodded in the direction that the thug went. "Whatever they're selling people are starting to whisper that it's my family; or other traveling merchants. They don't believe it's anyone whose been here for a long period of time, so the travelers are taking the heat. I wanted to find out what was going on so I could fix things: and make things better for the traveling merchants before any incidents happen."

At least, that was the plan. Find out who was doing the selling, take them out, and work her way up until she stopped the idiots manufacturing something so dangerous. Not only would it help out the traveling merchants who were beginning to be blamed, but it would also help those who were buying the drug, taking it, and dying. She had never really whooped someone's ass before outside of training or spars, but she had been more than trained to do so, and she figured it was about time to put those skills to use. "So, I'm assuming that's where you're headed next? Mind if I tag along? I feel the need to do something about all of this..."

Word Count: 279 + 701 = 980

So these idiots were killing people and tarnishing the reputation of Zansho's people. They take the blame while the thugs sell crap and get rich. Well, all of this was about to come to an end.

”Sure, i'd guess you'd wanna clear your name outta this stuff. That clown that just ran off said they're making that crap under a store that close to here. It might be a trap, so if it gets too heavy I wouldn't blame you if you backed out.”

Hidoi started walking through the crowds of people, shoppers and pedestrians. Sure Zansho was right with him, he made his way through the crowded floating city to Dimsum Market. If there was some sort of secret factory below the place, there had to be a secret way inside as well. He began to walk slowly around the market, keeping his eyes open for anything out of the ordinary.

”These clowns, they probably have some secret lair under this place, and some secret way of getting in there, let's look around. What's it your family sells, by the way? Food? Or is it stuff like treasures and whatnot?”

Word Count 195 + 562 = 757

Zansho nodded; glad that he wasn't attempting to tell her she shouldn't get involved - several of the adults who knew what she had been planning had told her that already, not that she had obviously listened to them. She was determined to get to the bottom of all of this, and see it through no matter how dangerous it might get. She followed after Hidoi, letting him lead the way since he likely knew exactly where they were going - where as she had never heard of that particular location even though her and her family had been here for a while.

"I'm not the type of person to back down... especially when someone's doing something that threatens my family and friends.", she said, the words spoken in a tone of voice that wasn't high-and-mighty, but serious and knowledgeable: proof that she wasn't on an ego trip, but did in fact know of the dangerous she might face and was willing to face them regardless.

She kept her eyes peeled, looking for anything that might look out of the ordinary for the location; anything that might have seemed out of place but that otherwise would have been looked over any other day. "Uh.. trinkets, mostly. Jewelry and stuff; though some of it is old and ancient from rare places - it causes people to try and rob my father and us from time to time. But, my mom's really good at making home made stuff to make people feel better and stuff. It's not exactly medicine, but it works better in my opinion. But, she doesn't really sell that sort of stuff though. She's got this soup she makes that causes heat to spread around your body, only it's not painful, it's really nice: helps people feel better almost at once and lasts for a long time."

She spoke as she looked, and suddenly paused, noticing an old panel that was just leaning up against the wall. It wasn't nearby the garbage cans, and it didn't quite match the paint color of the building itself, which made it very out of place to her. "That's... odd.", she said as she nodded her head towards the place. "It doesn't match the building, and it's too far away to be part of the garbage they have out..."

Word Count: 386 + 980 = 1,366