Bar Fights

Yu marched through the streets with her elites at her back, her light armor chattering as she went. The crowds in the streets parted at their approach, making way for the General of the Kyoshi Legion. It was no average sight in Ba Sing Se. Generals rarely marched their troops through the streets in such a way.

"Captain Lao!" she barked as they made the square near the city gates.

"Yes, General?" said the young female warrior who stepped forward at her command.

"Take your company and report to General Huo at the wall. He's expecting you." Yu commanded, receiving a nod from the Captain, who turned and headed off down one of the streets, the thirty or so members of her company in tow. Yu turned her attention to captains Fei and Tora. "You two are to take your companies to the middle ring." she said, pointing at them. "The Queen wants you to secure the merchant's quarter. Apparently, there has been a rash of shake-downs by a new gang in the area. Your orders are to find and arrest the gang's leadership. Lieutenant Hong is waiting at the Empress for you with more information."

Like Captain Lao before them, both commanders nodded their heads without question and turned, marching their companies off toward the middle ring. Yu was left standing with her chief lieutenant, Major Ai and her company of twenty.

This was pathetic. The city guard and the Dai Li had wholly neglected to assign new officers to the protection of entire districts of the city. As a result, of course, it had fallen to the most immediately available military force. As the Kyoshi Legion was currently stationed in Be Sing Se, that usually meant that Yu was going to get a visit from the commander of the city watch or some equally incompetent idiot begging for aid. It was disgraceful. For the life of her, she didn't know why the Queen tolerated such failures.

Sudden crashing from a nearby establishment caught her attention. Her remaining elites had immediately moved to protect her, but the danger was not hers. The place was a rather seedy looking drinking hole. Out in the square, there was little to fear from a bar brawl. It wasn't her job, however, to stay out in the street, waiting for the city guard or the Dai Li to show up.

"You're with me." she said, marching toward the bar, Major Ai and her warriors following close behind in double file.

Yu was not new to places like this bar. She'd seen many a bar brawl in her day, though she was somewhat surprised to see how thoroughly destructive this one had become. There were more flattened, broken tables than there were standing ones, chairs were overturned, glasses broken, bottles being thrown. There was even a chandelier which had been torn from the roof, it's still-lit candles rolling every which way.

Her warriors did not need her word. They spread out, ready to forcibly subdue anyone who resisted. What little direction was being given was coming from Major Ai, standing at Yu's right side. When her warriors were prepared, Yu spoke up.

"Cease!" she boomed, holding her arms behind her back. "Any who do not comply will be arrested!"

Gysu was there with a man over his head. He was holding the man up and he was about to throw him out the door when a woman that he had seen in passing came through the door of the bar. He let go of the man and then he went over to her. "Hey, have I seen you before?"

Yes. Of course they'd seen each other before. He was the little shit who had impregnated Mulanza and used the child as an excuse to marry the Earth Queen's daughter. Yu had little concern for the details of their relationship. The Queen considered Mulanza to be her daughter and it was Yu's duty to consider her a princess of the land. She snorted in contempt, folding her arms.

"Cease your activities or be arrested." she said clearly and venomously.

Gysu pointed to the man on the floor, "I dropped him, didn't I?" He didn't get what her problem was. He was just doing his job. "So, have you seen the bounties for the leaders of those new gang leaders? They're huge! I already caught all of them! Here, let me show you." He then went over to the other side of the bar and he showed her all of the gang leaders. All of them were beaten down and unconscious.

Yu smiled.

"I'm sure the city guard will be happy to hear it." she said. She wasn't about to let on that the Queen had taken a personal interest. She tilted her head ever so slightly. Her warriors got the message. A number of them approached the incapacitated gang leaders, producing ropes from within their armor to tie the men more thoroughly.

Yu walked forward, peering around the room. The place was hardly something worth noting, but the damage was still extensive. It was going to take a considerable amount of money to pay for the repairs. As it stood, that cost was likely to come straight out of the royal vaults.

"So, tell me," she said finally, turning back toward Gysu. "You wouldn't happen to know how this little... tiff stared, would you?

"This?" Asked Gysu, "This was no fight, it was a game." He looked around, "You see, things like that happen all the time in this tavern. Mostly because the winner of the brawl gets free boarding or free drinks for a week. It's kinda a thing to get people to come here more often. And you're lucky, if someone had yelled "mosh pit" then you would have been in trouble." He looked around again, "Why did we brawl?" He asked everyone, and everyone responded "WE ARE MEN!" Except for the women who yelled, "WE ARE WARRIORS!!!!" There you have it. Care to join us in round two? The queen herself often comes here to join us in these brawls."

Yu smiled coldly. She looked around the room as the various patrons of this little hell-hole chanted their answer to Gysu's question.

"So you're telling me that the proprietor of this establishment lets people rip his place apart and then rewards them with free room and board?" she said, narrowing her eyes at him. "I think you're full of shit. And even if you weren't, brawls are forbidden in Ba Sing Se, landlord's permission or no."

She stepped closer to Gysu, resting her hand on the pommel of her sword.

"You may think that your relationship to the Queen exempts you from the law of this city, but I promise you, it does not." she said in a venomous tone. Though it was barely more than a whisper, there wasn't a soul in the bar that didn't hear every word of it. "So I will ask you again, boy... Who started this fight?"

When the door was kicked in, the attentions of all the Kyoshi Warriors immediately snapped to the entry, Yu's included. Far from being a new thread, however, the woman who entered was a familiar face. In respect, Yu bowed to Queen Meili, placing a hand over her heart while the other continued to rest lazily on the pommel of her weapon.

"Your Majesty." she said as she bowed. She straightened up before any of her warriors dared to. "It is a pleasure to see you."

Gysu bowed down low, "My queen, I can never express my gratitude to your mercy on me after what I did. It is true that the land lord does in fact set up these brawls. You see, he makes a lot of money because many a crime lord comes here to release stress. As you could see from the set that I had just recently handed over to your... general."

Meili Mitali Zalika

Meili snorted. "then it looks like I have more arrests to make than just one. I will not have such riffraff in my city, and just because something is profitable does not mean it is legal, or that I will allow it." she glanced towards Yu with a glint of doubt in her eye meant for Gysu. "General Yu," she replied, "would you care to explain to me your part of the story?" it was firm, but with less sternness with Gysu, since Yu had a much higher reputation, especially in being honest. Meili would not have made Yu her trusted general if Yu was not trustworthy.

Mood: No-nonsense Condition: Healthy

Link:

"We were responding to a disturbance in this establishment, your Majesty." Yu explained, inclining her head respectfully. "I was overseeing the deployment of my warriors to various tasks in the city when we overheard the commotion. By the time we arrived..."

One of the more inebriated patrons of the bar chose that moment to take a run at Yu from behind, hollering a battle cry. He was so drunk, he slurred it. He got within five feet of Yu before Major Ai stepped in and promptly removed him from his feet with a jab of a folded tessen to the throat and a follow up chain of pressure point strikes. Yu hadn't so much as batted an eyelash at the would-be surprise attack. Completely unphased, she continued to speak through the entire affair.

"We found the place like this. I have a sneaking suspicion that our young friend here started a brawl just to capture these men for the bounty." She turned her sharp gaze back upon Gysu.

Meili Mitali Zalika

Meili's eyes narrowed and her arms crossed. "well... that certainly wouldn't be the first time it happened." she was unfazed by the random drunk who attacked, although it did inspire another drunk to amble up behind Meili. she stamped her foot without even turning around and clocked him under the jaw with a stick of earth. "while removing thugs from my city is an admirable trait, Gysu... there is no need to do it in... such vandalistic ways. You do not need to be a vigilante doer of justice--the Kyoshi Legion and my Dai Li agents are well-ahead of it when they're put in the right hands."

Mood: No-nonsense Condition: Healthy

Link:

"You know," Gysu said to Ai, "He was drunk, all you had to do was trip him." He then turned over to face Yu, he turned in such a way that his feet stayed in the same spot. "Me? Start this? I beg your pardon miss, but I work here! You see, while this is a normal occurrence, it was too out of hand. It's my job to stop it once it gets out of hand. Those lot I gave to you were just the icing on the cake. They were extra, I get paid for stopping brawls when they get out of hand. Nothing more, nothing less." He then turned in the same fashion that he had done before to face the queen again. He once again bowed low, "If you do not trust me, than I give you permission to cut off my head where you stand and where I bow. May the spirit Dood Brenger not come to take me to his place of torture and punishment." He said the last part as a prayer, he did not want to meet the one spirit that his mother had warned him about.

Yu looked down at Gysu with a contemptuous grin curling the edge of her mouth. To her credit, Major Ai hadn't so much as flinched an eyebrow at Gysu's reprimand. It was more than Yu could say of herself. Her fingers tightened around the pommel of her sword ever so slightly. Part of her was sorely tempted to take him up on his offer. If only the offer had been to her. But regardless, she subtly waved her warriors to take the gang leaders and leave. They did so quickly and without a sound. Once the gangsters were out the doors, she signaled to the other warriors with a short and expressive whistle to remove all other occupants of the bar from the premises. Within moments, the room was clear save three warriors, Major Ai, the Queen, Gysu, and Yu herself.

Yu gave the Queen a sidelong glance. She wasn't wearing her swords, but that didn't make her harmless. Still, a beheading required a blade. Queen Meili had but to ask and Yu would giver her the Jade Tiger to cut this fool down with...

Meili Mitali Zalika

"I will be frank." she said sternly, "excuses are like assholes insomuch that everyone has one and they're full of shit." when he offered himself up to be executed, however, Meili wasn't entirely against the idea. however, she decided that she was biased enough as it was. She drew her metal shards, forming them into blades. "You know the situation better than I do, Yu," she replied, handing them to her, "if you wish to do the deed... I authorize you to make the move."

Mood: No-nonsense Condition: Healthy

Link:

This wasn't the first time Yu had been offered the final decision in such matters. She was usually first on the scene if she and Meili were there. It used to be she was offering Meili her permission for such things, all those years ago. But that was then and this is now. She considered the weapon she was being offered carefully.

After a few moment, she lifted her free hand and dug it into her the inside of her cuirass, extracting a small leather drawstring pouch. It jangled with coins. She weighed the pouch in her hand briefly and then tossed it at Gysu's feet.

"Your bounty." she said, letting her arm fall to her side again. "After damages, of course. We will have to reimburse the proprietor for this damage, and you can be sure the treasury will not be involved."

She stepped toward him and leaned down, speaking in his ear.

"I spared you for the sake of your family." she said. "Cross the Queen's law again, and you will not be so lucky."

She straightened up and turned on the spot, marching out of the bar without another word. She had prisoners to oversee. They'd get their just rewards at the Breach.