"We need to change our strategy," Lieu said, turning the map on the table. "We've been going at it all wrong—Tarrlok's got us wedged in, we need something to break the tie." He rubbed his chin.
"We can't combat the task forces, not with the numbers we have right now." Hiroshi folded his hands from where he was sitting on the other side of the table. Lieu sighed and leaned against the edge of the table, arms crossed, looking over toward the older man. "We're tired."
"I'm not exactly charismatic," Lieu replied, eyebrows raised. The other man snorted. He sighed and tossed down his mask on the desk. "I'm going to go for a walk." Running fingers through his hair, he glanced up. "Fresh air will help me think."
"I'll go back to work," Hiroshi stood as well. "If you need me, you know where I am." Sato stepped forward, and Lieu took his hand, they clasped forearms. "We'll get out of this."
"We've been fighting ten years too long to give up now," Lieu smiled. Sato smiled back, and they split and went their separate ways, Hiroshi back to his workroom while Lieu headed for his private quarters in the underground, shedding the rest of his uniform inside, except for his kali sticks and generator, which he switched for the smaller version of them, just one stick and a mini-generator, able to be hidden on his belt, and changed into civilian clothes, pausing at the mirror, glancing toward the side of his face.
There were grey hairs at his temple. He left and climbed back to street level, pushing aside a sewer cover and hopping onto the pavement, kicking the tunnels closed, before he started talking, whistling in the darkness.
Lately, things had been going badly for the Equalists. Their former leader, Lieu's friend, a man by the name of Halora, had recently been killed. Councilman Tarrlok could be blamed for that, and now the Lieutenant was the de-facto leader of the Equalists. And he wasn't exactly the most charismatic person—he could talk, but none of it had any substance. They needed someone to rally behind, they needed a boost to inside morale. They needed a new strategist to bring new ideas, to kick-start their efforts to get their numerous members out of jail. And right now they were just barely scraping by under Tarrlok's nose, trying to start up a new plan.
They needed a breath of fresh air, and Lieu had no idea how literal that thought was going to be in a moment.
"Leave me alone!" Someone shouted from a nearby alleyway, voice a bit shrill, and he stopped dead in his tracks, reaching for the kali stick sheathed along the back of his belt. "I don't want anything to do with you!" The alley it came from was dark, and then a moment later there was a blast of fire and a figure flew out if it, hit the ground hard, screaming, rolling over, hands pressed to its face.
It was a kid. Short, dark brown hair, wearing Watertribe clothes, and Lieu paused. "Hey," he took a step closer, still not drawing his weapon. "Are you—" the kid looked up at him, two blue eyes like the sea in a storm, and now covered in weeping burns, shaking, hands pressed to his skin, bleeding, smoking.
Lieu moved before he even knew what was going on, jumping in front of the kid.
"What the hell would you do that for?" He shouted into the alley, and three men came out, lead by one grinning asshole, snapping his fingers to form little sparks of fire. "He's a kid."
"He fucked with the wrong trio," the man replied. "He'll be able to get some nice chicks with a scar like that." Lieu grit his teeth, didn't move. Clenched his fists.
"You people disgust me," he growled. The man paused. "Attacking helpless children—you just crippled him for life."
"You don't need your face to live." Lieu grit his teeth. He could hear his anger pounding in his blood. "You got a problem with that, asshole?"
"Yeah," he growled. "I do." And they moved at the same time, Lieu rushing forward, jumping as he watched the Earthbender move (Triple Threat, why was it always Triple Threat) and landed behind them, slamming his fingers into the Waterbender's back, the one on the corner of the trio, quickly pressing every Chi point up his spine and then his arm, before he kicked him in the nuts just for good measure and rolled as fire singed over his head, hand snapping around to his back, grabbing the handle of his yantok and drew it, electricity crackling over the shaft before he slammed it into the Firebender's leg and the man shouted in surprise.
A rock hit his free hand hard and Lieu almost swore, just ducking and rolling instead, flipping the stick over, lightning crackling, and dove toward the Earthbender, leaping up and over his head, just as—
A gust of wind hit the Bender hard in the chest and he slammed into the wall before being lifted up and thrown back into the darkness of the alley. There was the distant sound of him hitting trash cans and Lieu glanced toward the kid with his badly-burned face, who had stopped screaming and now just was shooting punches of air.
An Airbender. Lieu froze—and then it didn't matter, he might fight for Non-Bender rights but this kid had just gotten his face burned off by a Triad member, he had as much right as any to be protected. Lieu landed just as the Firebender started to shoot fire, kicked him in the back of the knee, hit two pressure points on the back of his spine and then jabbed his kali stick point-first into the nape of the man's neck, held it there until he fell, boneless, to the ground, and then looked up at the kid, and put his weapon away, approaching, hands held out.
"You all right?" Well, he wasn't, and the kid rolled onto his side, face pressed into his hands, sobbing wordlessly in pain. Lieu took a step closer. "Hey—"
"Leave me alone," it was choked, pained.
"We need to get you back to Air Temple Island," Lieu said. He hadn't known there were any Airbenders this age—maybe he had gotten some of Tenzin's kids' ages wrong. "Councilman Tenzin is going to be furious—"
"Who?" The boy whispered, looking up. Eyes like the stormy sea. "I'm not…from there."
"Oh." Lieu stared. Well…then. He hesitated, sheathed his weapon, stepped closer. "We need to get you to a healer—"
"No Waterbending," the kid whispered, shaking. "I—please—"
"I'll get you," Lieu stepped closer, and the kid shook, sliding back. "I promise. No healers." The boy hesitated, and then let Lieu pick him up, and they went back into the sewers, vanishing, leaving the three men unmoving, groaning as they started to get back up and move, and Lieu took the young man to get cleaned up.
"How are you an Airbender," Lieu asked, two weeks later, changing the bandages on the boy's face. He had given his name as Amon, of the Northern Watertribe. Nobody had been too weirded out by him joining them—he wasn't the only Bender in their ranks. "I thought Tenzin and his kids were the only ones."
"I don't know," Amon replied, looking down at his hands while Lieu finished unwinding the bandages about his face. "Nobody does, not even my parents. At first they thought that I might be the Avatar but…" he looked down at his hands. "I can only Airbend. Nothing else. Korra of the Southern Tribe is the Avatar."
"Might be someone a ways back in your family tree," Lieu picked up the tube of healer's salve and started rubbing it into Amon's burns—no healer, and he was going to have these scars for life.
"Yeah," Amon said quietly, looking down at his hands. "Maybe."
After he healed, Amon had joined their ranks. He took to Chiblocking happily, preferring to use that over his Airbending, since people started looking askance when he did that. And he very quickly became someone for people to rally behind—fifteen and he was at every planning meeting, advising Lieu and Hiroshi with quiet words and calm reassurances and good logic, his plans helping them make up ground against Tarrlok and the Metalbender Cops. He took to wearing a mask to hide the terrible scars on his face, destroying his features. And he and Lieu grew closer every day.
There was a rally, and it went over perfectly. Amon spoke, instead of Lieu, a memorised speech, and people cheered—he was still not exactly all that tall, but his voice had broken early, and while it still sometimes caught, he was more charismatic than Lieu would ever be. And people rallied.
Not that he wasn't still fifteen, underneath that. Because he was. He hated doing chores, spent long hours avoiding everybody and locked in his room when there was nothing else better to do, and got awkward crushes.
After the rally, waiting in the alley beside the building, Lieu was perched on his motorcycle as Amon climbed on behind him. "Celebratory noodles?" the older man asked as Amon settled into his spot, wrapping his arms around Lieu's chest and leaning against the back of his shoulder. "And sea prunes?"
"Definitely sea prunes," was the response, and Lieu kick-started the motorcycle, roaring out of the alley, only to skid to the side as four cars squealed around the corner. Police cars. The chase was on.
"Hold on!" Lieu shouted, and looked over his shoulder. "Get us some tailwind!" Amon's blue-grey eyes nodded back, and Lieu floored the gas and they went flying forward, his fingers clenched tight around the handles of the bike, the wind parting and closing around them, squealing around corners and into tight streets, trying to shake off their followers, losing the cars one by one until there was just one racing after them.
A glance in the mirror showed it to be Councilman Tarllok driving with the Chief of Police in the passenger seat. Amon throwing up a solid wall of air behind them gave them a few more moments before Lieu sped over a bridge, trying to get over to the other side, only for the ground to fly up in front of them as Beifong dragged it up.
They hit the ramp hard, Lieu losing control, Amon catching himself on air, launching off the bike and hitting the ground, rolling to his feet, pulling out his slingshot while Lieu threw himself free, hit the ground hard on one shoulder, and stumbled up as well, pulling both his kali sticks—barely keeping hold of the one on his now injured shoulder, lighting them both up.
They were a good ten feet apart as the motorcycle slammed into a nearby wall, and Beifong jumped out of the car, shooting her cables, only for Lieu to run forward, flipping over Amon, hitting the ground in front of him and spinning his sticks, to catch both her cables, lighting them up like the wire they were, the woman screeching in pain as the electricity lanced up her body, stumbling, and jerked them away, Tarrlok jumping out after her, the rest of their force skidding up behind.
Lieu glanced to Amon. The kid might be fifteen, but he was the closest thing they had to a leader, next to Lieu. And he wasn't a leader—he was the Lieutenant. Amon's eyes were narrowed behind his mask as he sent the slingshot flying, caught an approaching cop around the neck, threw him into the one behind him.
Their eyes met. Amon nodded. That was all the sign Lieu needed. Lieu had taught the boy to fight—they knew each other's styles as well as they did their own. Tarrlok came at them with a wave of water, icing it as it flew forward, Lieu dodging, using it to speed his momentum and slide forward, smacking the Councilman hard in the small of the back with one electrified stick even as Amon came flying, leaping over it, catching two cables in mid-air and jerking both cops forward, smacking them into each other, flipping to kick Lin in the back and down her before he launched off her shoulders and slammed into another one, using his momentum, and Lieu left the two big bads alone, joining the younger man.
He didn't notice his feet iced to the ground until too late, until Tarrlok had his hands too. "Enough!" the man shouted, and Amon paused. Lieu struggled, desperately trying to get free, his sticks flashing with electricity, and Tarrlok jerked the water around his wrists, slammed both of them into his own knees.
Only his boots and gloves were rubber. Lieu screamed in pain and would have fallen if it wasn't for the ice around his ankles, stumbling, dropping to his knees, only for Tarrlok to grab the top of his head and jerk his mask and goggles off, two cops taking advantage of Amon's frozen state to shoot cables toward his hands.
"Let him go!" Amon shouted, his voice cracking in the middle. He struggled against the bonds. "Don't you touch him!" Tarrlok sneered and grabbed Lieu's mask, jerked it off, snapping Lieu's head back as he did it, making his teeth click, his jaw rattle.
"Get a picture, boys," the Councilman said, coldly, and Amon shouted in anger, dragging on the cops that had him, only for two more to get his ankles. "Their Lieutenant and their poster boy."
"Go," Lieu groaned, loudly enough for Amon to hear. He had Airbending, he could still get out. "Get out!"
"No!" Amon screamed back. Tarrlok reached down, pried one of Lieu's kali sticks from his hand, and turned it, pressing the button. The end lit up, sparking brightly in the night. He smiled.
"Let's see how much you like it." And then he pressed it to the top of Lieu's spine and he shouted in hoarse pain, eyes rolling back in his head—the man had it pressed to a pressure point—and then something broke.
"No!" Amon shouted, throwing air, knocking all the cops that had him to the side, Lieu slumping, the ice on his ankles released, barely able to catch himself and avoid faceplanting on the pavement, laying boneless on his side, his entire body jerking in pain in the aftershocks, and he watched in quiet awe—
Amon's eyes were white behind his mask. Bright, glowing white. He raised up on a pillar of air, his hood flying back, hands out. Out of the corner of his eye Lieu saw Lin and Tarrlok move, turning.
"The Avatar?" Tarrlok whispered in awe.
"No," Lin replied, just before she was hit in the chest with a gust of wind and went flying, Tarrlok next, Lieu's kali stick falling to drop into his field of vision, the rest of the cops scattering like leaves before a storm, the water under the bridge flying up, blasted by the winds, and Amon spun up walls of air, sending all the cars flying, eyes still glowing, before he fell back to earth, stumbling.
His eyes weren't white anymore. He barely managed to keep himself upright, taking three hesitant steps before he got his feet back and practically tripped to Lieu's side, hands shaking. "No," the boy whispered, grabbing at him. "You're all right you're fine—"
"You are the Avatar," Lieu whispered, just as another group of Equalists came speeding around the corner, a trio on motorcycles. They had clearly heard and seen the commotion, dismounting and running to their sides. "Amon, you are."
His blue eyes stared back at Lieu in shocked terror