Maybe he'd imagined it.

Must've, honestly. It would've made sense, with how little sleep they'd all gotten the past few days.

After the defeat of the Firelord Ozai, the world had promptly entered a new era—an era of growth, of change. In many ways it was not only welcome, it was necessary. The war had inflicted woes upon the peoples of all nations, world-wide. Now the world was going through rapid changes, healing and growing whilst still grappling with the lingering effects of the gruelling conflict, haunting cross-nation relations like a particularly vivid nightmare.

But there was effort. Segragation was slowly giving way to mixed societies, benders from all over beginning to migrate, cultures mixing and melding together like never before—all thanks to Avatar Aang's valiant efforts.

He glanced at Ghost. Underneath that ever-present skull-mask sat the unflappable expression of the stoic firebending Lieutenant—nope, those widened eyes betrayed him. Damnit, no way he was the only one, then. What was happening??

Laswell had tipped him off to a group of benders and non-benders organising and causing some serious trouble in a nearby village. Talk about the lingering resentment between nations...

But when Price and his men finally arrived to the target location, something unusual had caught his eye. A traveller, cornered in some dark, dead-end alley, by at least seven individuals: some of them armed, others in typical bending stances.

He could've felt the subtle tremors from the changes in his men's stances; preparing to fight.

But the stranger was faster.

Had he blinked, he would've missed it. The nimble footwork, as if carried by a gust of wind. The dodging of your opponents like you felt their presence in the air before ever running into them. Too fast and unnaturally fluid for a non-bender, yet no visible signs of it—no burst of flame, no mound of rock gliding along the ground. No water carrying your feet.

"Oi, was tha-"

Soap's stunned question was cut off when the traveller finally came to a stop behind the group of criminals, swiftly kicking the last one in the back, sending the guy tumbling into the next one with a strained sound of alarm.

Too easy, too free. Moving like the air itself. Did you think no one was there to see? Pretending to be a non-bender, yet pulling off stunts like that...

The Captain's eyes widened as he made the improbable connection.

No way..

But well, his train of thought came to an abrupt halt as he suddenly realised: they were surrounded. The organisation seemed to have spread faster than they realised.