[Finished] Flooding Therapy...

[Lao Shen]

Lao watched the two tribesmen fight. He sighed and grinned to himself. His eyes cut towards the larger firebender. He watched as the man begin his bending. It started with a fireball that Konei somehow manipulated the waterbender's body to take the heat. He blinked and knew that the larger man's attack would not be as docile as the waterbender's. Lao pulled his hands out of his pockets and cracked his knuckles and loosened his body up slightly. He watched Konei give the firebender a smug look. At least he can hold his own...

Lao bounced on lightly and on one bounce, raised his right leg higher and pushed it down, a large burst of flame erupting from his foot. The flame propelled Lao into the air as the other firebender fired another fireball towards Konei, this one significantly larger than the last. Seconds before it reached Konei, Lao landed in front of him and outstretched his arms, palms facing the fireball. He felt the heat on his palms and took advantage of it and moved his hands to the side, the fireball dissipating as though he ripped it apart.

Lao shook his hands as though he was cooling his hands off. He blew on one of his palms and turned his head to look back at Konei. "Alright... you've had your fun.. now sit back and take a breather." Before Lao turned back, he could hear the sound of fire flying towards him. He turned back towards the man and formed a fist with his left hand, punching towards the fire ball and sent one of his own to intercept it. The fireballs collided and canceled each other out. Lao gave the man a smirk and he returned it, the flames were about to fly.

The firebender unleashed an unrelenting barrage of fireballs, which were met by an array of fireballs and flaming arcs to nullify them. Finally the other bender stopped and looked at Lao. The firebender was wearing himself out and finally realized that Lao was allowing him to. His face curled up into a snarl and he pulled his arm back, a ball of fire forming in his palm that started to grow with each pacing second. Lao saw this and spun slightly and extended his right arm. As he spun, a stream of flame emerged from his hand and he stopped his spin, bringing his arm over his head and down. The stream of fire formed a whip as he did so and followed through with nearly blinding speed, colliding into the man's chest. The firebender fell backwards, mostly out of shock, and Lao moved without hesitation.

Almost instantly, Lao was standing over the man, his hands on fire and his palms were nearly inches from the man's face. The man didn't move and simply stared into the blazing palms. "Pleasure meeting you... Next time you decide to try and mess with me or my comrade here, I'll ensure that your scars are more noticeable than our last Fire Lord." He smiled at the man and winked, the flames vanishing from his hands and he walked back over to Konei. He looked the non-bender in his eyes as though nothing happened and returned his hands to his pockets. "Shall we continue?"

And with that, Lao started to walk again, turning down another street towards the Dragon Flats Eastern residential district.

[Konei Kozuki]

((Sorry for the wait!))

At that point, Lao must have decided not to let Konei hog all the fight to himself. Lao seemed to come from nowhere when the Triad firebender unleashed another fireball towards Konei. This Konei was prepared for; you don’t stay alive as a non-bender without knowing how to evade elemental attacks, but Lao dissipated the blaze with his bare hands.

Konei backed off a few steps. He could handle waterbenders, and even earthbenders, but firebenders had a reputation for a fiery temper and the kind of aggression that made dodging them particularly difficult. Not that that was to say all firebenders were like that, of course, but there seemed to be some sort of correlation between firebending and a quick temper. Or there seemed to be to Konei.

Alright... you've had your fun.. now sit back and take a breather.

And Konei wasn’t about to argue with the guy. After all, Lao seemed to be having genuine fun beating back the Triad. Konei turned his face away from the heat of the fireball slugfest going on between the two firebenders nearby, but he could still follow the flow of the match by the monster shadows being thrown against the walls and floor from the fire.

Konei heard a thud, and he turned back to find that the Triad was on the floor. Lao threatened the man briefly, extinguished his blazing hands, and then turned back to Konei. He had taken the man down rather flamboyantly than Konei had done with the waterbender, but his method was effective.

"You’re some firebender, huh?" Konei said with a laugh. "Where’d you learn those moves?"

[Lao Shen]

Lao thought about Konei's question as they walked. It shouldn't have taken him that long to answer the question, but he seriously thought about it. He shrugged not too long afterwards as he stopped at another intersection. "I would like to think so." His voice was distant as though he was still thinking. He looked to his left and his right and nodded.

"I was trained by my grandfather. He was a general in the Great War. My bending is rooted more in the classical sense of firebending. That guy's... he was different. More agile, but it wasn't as powerful." He turned to his right and put his hand in his pocket. They were at their destination. The eastern section of the Dragon Flats residential district. Lao took his hands out of his pockets and reached back, releasing his hair from the tie in the back. He shook his head, letting his hair flop back and forth, freeing his dreads.

"I have some more studying to do. I wonder if more firebenders are like that." He scratched the side of his neck with his left hand and put his right hand back into his pocket. "Well. We're here. You think you can find your way from here?" He asked as he turned his head so he was looking over his shoulder at Konei.

[Konei Kozuki]

Oh. That didn’t half put a damper on the situation. The Hundred Year War was long over, but the ghosts of the battles and losses haunted the world even to this day. The war wasn’t something people liked to talk about, especially to and around firebenders. There was still a fair amount of prejudice running around against firebenders these days, since the Fire Nation had nearly wiped out the Southern Water tribe, attacked the Earth Kingdom, taken over Omashu and Ba Sing Se, laid siege to the Northern Water tribe and killed the moon spirit. There were a lot of wounds that wouldn’t entirely heal, a lot of old scars still raw with hurt. The elderly remembered the war, and the young felt the weight that hung upon one’s words every time one spoke of it. It was like a vague taboo had descended upon the subject.

And Lao had learned his firebending – the same firebending that had just got them out of a sticky spot – from his grandfather, a man who’d probably been a Fire Nation soldier all those years ago. Not many people used traditional styles of bending any more, especially firebenders. It was as though the old ways were cursed with the wars of the past.

"Yeah. Well, thanks for the directions," Konei said, nodding to Lao in gratitude. "I’ll be fine from here on out. I’ll see you around." He waved to the guy, checked for traffic and crossed the road to his destination on the other side.

[Lao Shen]

Lao nodded to the man. He could feel an air of unease between the two as he told the man where he learned how to firebend. The firebender stood where he was, watching the man, feeling a bit of responsibility to him until he was dismissed. When Konei told him that he could find his way from there, Lao turned to the side. "I'll see you around." The firebender's words were definite, as though he knew he would see the man again.

Lao returned the wave to the man and turned back the way he came. He walked with his hands in his pockets, not caring about much more, seeing how he could measure some of the benders in the city from earlier. That'd be stupid to base it off of those two though.. he thought to himself. He sighed and hummed to himself as he walked at a leisurely pace. As he walked, he noticed signs promoting something called 'Probending'. He blinked and stopped, looking over one of the posters intently. He stared at the three men on the poster with the different color headbands. Lao didn't know much about probending at all and decided to look into it when he got the chance.

Lao smirked as he looked around, making sure that noone was paying him an extraordinary amount of attention. One he was sure that he wasn't being watched, the firebender blasted the ground with a monstrous stream of flame. It left a dark scorch on the pavement beneath him and propelled him into the air. He landed atop one of the buildings next to his previous spot and he started walking along them rooftops, jumping when necessary, making his way back home.

((I guess that's the end?))