While the group was training, eye's started watching them. Terrance and Michael were the first to notice. Michael nudged at Terrance with eyes that asked, "Who are they?"
Terrance began deducing some possible scenarios. Scouts, recruiters, Karen's?
Michael gave his own hypothesis. "What if it's with that dude who gave us the envelope." With the expression Terrance gave you could almost see a light bulb pop up above him.
"Michael, we have a boss now. Obviously it's called an association, but since he would give jobs through mail, it seems more or less shady."
Leading on with what Terrance was cluing on, "That means we could be new members of a gang. If we're new members that means they got someone watching us in case we flake."
Going on even further, "That could also mean we aren't doing something right, they must've been watching us ever since we left the arena, now that we just noticed them that means these guys are hinting us on what to do."
While the two ponder a long while, Ramen and Damien finally take notice. Even if they couldn't hear much of what they were rambling on. The two then remarked about how late it was getting.
Damien walked up to the murmurs, "Hey, it's getting late. The sun is starting to set."
Terrance and Michael asked Damien for an opinion. "Hey, if we had a boss and they sent people to look for us. What are we doing wrong?"
Damien then thought back a bit. Realizing what might have happened he replied, "Well, we haven't checked our mail yet."
Almost in disappointment in themselves, the duo began walking back home to their hotel. As the duo left, the entire group went along. About a good 15 minutes later the group was able to make it to the hotel.
While on the journey there, Terrance got himself a box of pizza. Sharing it with the group they began to talk. Not forgetting about the mail, Damien walked over to receptionist to get any mail they had. After being given a key with a number attached to it Damien found an envelope, he then went back to the group.
Reading it aloud, "There has been a boss of a pub that's wanting to leave the gang. Normally we wouldn't mind but he wants to keep our money as well. I need you to take him out, the pub's name is Nights Light."
"Well we've got something to do now." Damien then placed the envelope to the side as he took a bite of pizza.
As the group was just eating quietly, Damien wondered what the tai chi stretching would do for him. He meditated for a second, attempting to feel anything. Reading a slight bit in the library, he learned that every living organism has chi.
Normal humans in particular have been able to do miraculous things. Benders who have learned to use their chi have seen an increase as well. Knowing this, Damien attempted again. Unluckily, he felt nothing. After his third attempt which ended up being another failure. He decided to give up on chi altogether.
Whilst the group was munching away at their pizza, all of a sudden a slam of pots and pans was heard from outside. Of course curiosity wanting to kill the cat, the group popped their head out. Like children trying to overhear anything they could they saw Eli on the floor.
"DON'T YOU DARE COME BACK EITHER!!!" A loud shout from a feminine voice was heard. With a mocking voice Eli shouted back, "THAT'S WHAT YOU SAID LAST TIME BUT YA STILL LET ME IN!!" As the door slammed with Eli stuck sitting in the hallway, the boys were noticed by him.
With a somewhat sinister smirk, Eli stumbled over to them, "Could you spare a poor soul some shelter from this cold night." The group then looked at him, knowing damn well summer just ended that it wasn't gonna be cold for a long while.
With puppy dog eyes the man jokingly got on his knees. With whatever compassion was in their hearts, they let him in. "HEYY, that's my boys." Eli strutted inside, as he made himself at home the group huddled around and threw gossip.
"Is he a playboy?" Michael remarked as he shot a stare at Eli.
"Well, he's got a really nice jacket on…" Terrance looked him up and down. Remarking Eli's nice jacket which seemingly looks like one a fighter jet pilot would wear. Damien being the first to break the huddle walked over to Eli with a question or two.
"So, was that your girl?" Damien then sat next to Eli, attempting to be in a more calm position. The rest of the group followed along chattering around, biting what's left of their pizza. Eli with a smirk on his face nods in agreement, "Yup, that's my gal."
The group then looked at Eli a bit more, he seemed a bit suspicious. Young man, looks like he's in his early 20s, fire bender. It seemed like it was almost too lined up. Ramen began to ask the important questions, "So, Eli, what do you do for a living?"
Eli then lazily laid down on the bed, "nothing much, just a man in the world. Tryna live."
"Nothing much you say. Ya know, The Avatar's been missing for about 20 years, and you seem about that ripe age." Ramen gave a demeanor as if he was accusing Eli.
"Well I don't know what much to say, I've got nothing but fire." Eli then snapped his fingers showcasing a small flame. Just like a firefly this ember flew around the room.
Terrence, being very intrigued about Eli, asked him a question. "Hey, Eli. Imma be honest with you. I haven't taken classes in school nor have I really got much knowledge about history. Could you give me a quick course?"
Eli while laying on the bed settles down. "Yeah, guess I could." Like children, the group huddled around to listen a bit closer.
"Well I guess we can go back to Korra. You see, she was quite the feisty one, always causing a mess but always making it out alive. She during her time as The Avatar was able to connect the spirit realm with our mortal realm. Because of this for a while humans and spirits were able to coexist to a certain point-"
All of a sudden Eli was cut off by Damien. "What do you mean by a certain point?"
Eli got up from the bed, went over to the sink with a cup filled half way. Then coming back to the bed he grabbed a small cup of garlic sauce from the side of the pizzas. After pouring the sauce in he began to explain, "Look, the water could be us, the garlic sauce is the spirits. When I first poured in the sauce it splashed inside the water, causing a commotion. The water didn't much like the garlic invading its space, so it pushed it away. In the same sense the garlic pushed back splitting the two. As long as the garlic did nothing to the water and vice versa. There was a balance."
"I guess that answers my question but what really was that certain point, like no metaphors." Damien then pushed the question forward.
Eli being a bit surprised simply replied, "Bit rude of you but to simply put, spirits and humans could live together as long as one did not intervene too much with the other." Eli with the ember sparked it making it brighter.
"Because of the spirits joining us in this world, humans were far too weak to compete. If the spirits wanted they could wipe us out in the blink of an eye. So the world found balance, and humans grew stronger by the years."
Michael with this information wondered about the difference in strength. "So how much stronger is the average human now compared to before? Also, where are the spirits?"
Eli made it pretty simple, simply explained the difference not being that much higher. The average human now is about 2 times stronger than the humans about 60 years ago. Michael then looked at Eli, "What happened to the spirits, I haven't seen them at all."
Eli looked at Michael, "it's hard to explain because really I don't know. After the kid was assassinated the spirits just vanished, yet the humans didn't get weaker. But, there have been plenty of reports of large animals who have begun protecting certain parts of the world."
Ramen interjected, "So what you're saying is that most of the spirits have left us but the ones who stayed are guardians of certain places." Michael added on while walking around a bit, "Huh humans just began to grow stronger and a lot stronger too. If that's the case, how powerful would the strongest be now?"
Eli smiled then closed his eyes, "Well I'm not sure, never met the person." He began to slowly drift into sleep.
While he rested the group all thought to themselves, "How strong is he then…"