Legend of Marvel Book 1: The Mighty Korra
Legend of Korra and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon. Daredevil and all related characters belong to Marvel Comics
Long ago when the world was young, long before the time of The Avatar, a great evil ensnared the Earth. A dark spirit who known only as the Trickster set loose a mighty serpent against the world. The Trickster wished to use the great beast to enslave humans as playthings to do with whatever the spirit's chaotic mind thought of. No one, not even the early benders could stand against the might of the gigantic serpent, but soon help arrived. A great spirit with a mighty hammer known only as the Thunderer sent the Trickster and his serpent back to the Spirit World and imprisoned them. The Thunderer then vowed to forever protect the Earth should the Trickster or any other Spirit threaten it.
One day the Thunderer disappeared, some assumed it was likely due to the Trickster having finally gained his revenge and many feared his return but... Nothing of the sort happened. Life went on and soon the world had a new protector, The Avatar, though the Thunderer was not forgotten.
The legend of The Thunderer and The Trickster was passed down from generation to generation. The Thunderer was easily remembered, marked by a red cape, and most important of all the storm creating hammer. The Trickster on the other hand would go through many versions, from being a giant, to a malevolent demon, to being able to change into the serpent itself.
Thousands upon thousands of years later and the legend is still fairly popular, often treated as a bed time story for children. However, as with all legends... They are based in fact.
Avatar Korra sighed as she waited in the cargo hold of the ship she was on. The trip to Republic City was taking a lot longer than she had expected and being a stowaway, Avatar or not, meant she most likely would not be getting the same kind of entertainment other passengers had. Her polar bear-dog whined a little as she nuzzled against her master.
"Shh, girl... We'll be there soon. You're as tired of sitting around as I am aren't you?" Korra said, petting her loyal companion on the head. Suddenly the ship began to shake, throwing her around the cargo hold as she tried to gain her footing. The mighty roar of a creature echoed as the ship began to buckle and fill with water. She saw out the porthole that there was something scaly on the outside. Suddenly the cargo hold began to flood with water as the ship began to sink down, and down, pinning Korra and Naga to the inside of the hull. She used her waterbending to keep an air pocked around herself and Naga, but that would only hold out so long. After seven long minutes of being trapped the ship slammed down onto the bottom of the sea, with the hull finally cracking and giving way to the ocean floor below.
Korra was thrown down and nearly screamed in pain when her arm landed on something incredibly hard. Pain lanced down her hand and forearm, she looked for the offending object, momentarily forgetting about the danger of drowning. As she got a better look, using her free hand to ignite some kind fire, keeping the other focused on the air bubble, she saw a massive hammer lying on the floor of the ocean. A metal handle, wrapped in brown leather with a leather thong at the end, pointed straight up. The hammer itself was a thick rectangle of gray metal that shined due to the sparks coming off the now dying flames of Korra's fire.
Reach out
Korra heard a voice whisper ever so lightly. She looked over at Naga who was poking her head into the air bubble, the rest of her too large to fit properly.
Reach out... Prove your worth
The voice whispered again, this time more clearly. Korra then slowly turned her head towards the hammer, looking at it in disbelief as she started thinking...
"No way... Just stress Korra... Hammers can't talk." She said, trying to reassure herself and think of someway out of this situation. Unfortunately her options were less than limited. If she tried to earthbend the rocks under them, the chances of causing the rest of the ship to tumble and crush them increased. While she could swim out and propel herself to the top easily enough, she knew Naga was too large to navigate her way through the maze of broken metal and floating debris. And she was not about to take a 100 year nap in an iceberg like her predecessor.
Lift the hammer... Gain the power
The voice called out, this time almost forcefully as Korra turned to the hammer once again. Deciding there was little good it could do, or that it could make things worse, she complied.
"Great, listening to voices in my head... This is how crazy ax murderers get started." Korra said to herself as she grasped the handle and pulled. Due to her position of mostly lying on the floor she only managed to lift barely a fraction of the hammer off the sea floor... But as soon as she did a thunderous boom was heard.
On the top, part of the ship was still floating, though barely as it was sinking fast with the sea serpent roaring as it slithered around it. This was extremely odd as serpents of this size usually kept to mountain range lakes or near islands for better hunting, but it seemed this one had decided to venture out of its domain for some reason. The sailors were terrified and screamed as the serpent reared back and was about to slam its massive jaws into the rest of the ship. However before it could a massive wave came up from where the front of the ship had sunk and with it, thunder and lightning from nowhere. One of the sailors got a vague look at what seemed to be someone in a cape... Carrying a polar-bear dog. The serpent turned to the noise as a bolt of lightning struck it, causing it to roar in pain.
A red streak flew the polar-bear dog to the remaining part of the ship and set it down safely. With a mighty crash of thunder and a bolt of lightning the serpent was struck dead. The end of the ship was then lifted up by a massive gust of wind and carried extremely fast. For a solid day the remaining crew could not see what was propelling them through the air, but it mattered little as by the next morning they were set down in the shipyard of Republic City, having arrived a good three days ahead of schedule.
The crew told of what happened, but everyone found it hard to believe. The Thunderer had saved them? While the damage was clear, only a handful of people had sighted the massive half of the ship being dropped down into the shipyard, so there was a lot to be skeptical about. And for one Chief Lin Beifong, being skeptical was part of her job description. She spied a young Water Tribe girl, a walking stick propped on her shoulder riding a polar bear-dog away from the scene. She walked up to the girl and gave her a quick glance.
"You see anything that happened? Any kind of thunder and lightning?" The Chief of Police said, scoffing a little as she said that last part.
"Nope, can't say I have." The girl said as she smirked, riding off into the city.
"Yes... Everything according to plan." A voice, filled with both merriment and malice, said as he watched the scene with interest from some form of orb. He cackled, a golden horned helmet catching the glow of the orb and casting a dark shadow against the wall.
"Soon that fool Unalaq will unleash Vaatu... And with that? My freedom." The figure said as he cackled once more.
PLEASE REVIEW!