Chapter 1
This was a bad day; no it was horrible today for Duōyí. It was the most horrible day in Duōyí's admittedly short life. His sister was being taken away. The day he promised that one day, he would be able to protect his sister.
On a hill the two figures overlooked the scene from afar in the night air, one male one female.
"So this is okay with you?" the female asked her white hair blending with the falling snow.
"I am in the middle of an frozen wasteland! I am not okay with this!" the male snapped at his companion.
"That wasn't what I meant and you know it!" the female replied in irritation. "Just look." She nodded to three white-robed adults were dragging a struggling girl occasionally flinging fire, earth, or water at the adults.
The male figured sighed into the icy wind. "Even I can agree that the Order of the White Lotus has the right and duty to train and raise the Avatar. And to that end, the more control they have over her development the easier it will be to train her."
There was a shout of defiance and that snapped their attention back to the child, turning their gaze from the departing group to the girls' family. The mother and father stood in the doorway of their igloo home, the man and woman holding each other in regretful acceptance. But the boy…
The six-year-old stood apart from his parents, just outside the doorway in the frenzied storm as if he didn't feel the stinging cold through his light fur coat. His shoulders were shaking, hands clenched into tight fists at his sides, and face scrunched up in anger. But it was his eyes…
Even at a distance it was obvious, a fire, determination and hatred, practically radiating from him. He shouted again but the storm over took the words before they could reach the observer's ears. The words had no problem reaching the men and woman carrying away his sister though and one of the men stepped away from the group, the taller man wearing spectacles, leaving the other two with having to double their efforts containing the girl. The man took a few steps forward and shot his arm out towards the boy, a blast of fire coming from his fist.
The fire landed at the boys' feet and he fell back with a cry of fear, the snow already melting and turning to steam as his mother and father rushed to gather him up in their arms and flee to the safety of their snow built home.
"It's times like these I'm really glad I never became a full-fledged member of the Order." The male observer said walking back to the small home that was warmer inside.
The female continued watching for bit longer before her heart stopped for a moment. The boy turned to where they were watching. They had no need to hide from the white-cloaked adults in the middle of the storm. They were too far away and hidden by the storm. Without even a lantern to light the way, they were invisible with only they're inhuman eyes to guide them. And this boy looked right at her!
Even as the firebender joined his companions the boy looked at them all the same. In fact he was completely ignoring his parents rushing him inside their igloo house.
"Hey, what is the boy's name?" the female figured asked.
"He's a little young for you." The male grumped.
"His. Name." The female said dangerously.
"I don't know," the male said, "but I intend to find out." Turning to female figure he finished with a roar, "BUT NOT IN THE MIDDLE OF A STUPID BLIZZARD!"
The female sighed; the male figure always had a problem with the cold but no matter. They had accepted their fates long ago, who knows? Maybe they should go there separate ways for a few decades… Either way, the look of that boy's face was too familiar for the female to get out of her head. It was so like someone that there was no way the child would not amount to something. Her brother had that face after all.
0-0-0
The United Republic of Nations, more commonly known as the United Republic, is a sovereign state created by Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko after the end of the Hundred Year War. It was formed from the earliest Fire Nation colonies established in the western Earth Kingdom, and was created to serve as a society where benders and non-benders from all four nations could live and thrive together in peace and harmony. The United Republic is known for having a unique culture, which was shaped by immigration and a technological revolution.
The capital of the United Republic is Republic City, a large, modern metropolis located on the shores of Yue Bay. From there, a political organization consisting of one representative from each nation, the United Republic Council, governed the republic.
This fifth nation would be a society where anyone from around the world would be able to live, governed by a council of five citizens representing each of the nations, with two representing the separate Water Tribes. They named this new republic the United Republic of Nations and established Republic City, located in the northwestern Earth Kingdom, as its capital.
However, the capital began to experience demographic and political problems as a direct consequence of its nature as a large city. Organized crime became rampant, culminating in Yakone's attempt to take over the city through his criminal empire. Yakone used the forbidden art of bloodbending to commit his crimes and torment the citizens of Republic City before he had his bending removed by Avatar Aang in 128 ASC. Forty-two years later, the city also began facing issues with wealth inequality among the citizens.
This once proud city is now divided more than ever, where might is right, and bending is power… power to oppress those who lack the natural advantage of wielding an element… here is the backdrop of our story…
0-0-0
Duōyí watched the protester yell into his megaphone, telling the crowd around him about the glory of Amon and how they could overthrow the "corrupt bending establishment" by joining with him and the Equalist's. He separated from the crowd and started walking away when the protester began listing the injustices and oppression's of the current government leaders and law makers, the United Republic Council with its current all bender membership, was imposing on the non-bending populace both directly and indirectly.
He walked until he could barely hear the protesters' voice, even with it amplified by the megaphone, and stopped on one of the many bridges that crisscrossed the small rivers in the Republic City Park. Duōyí leaned over the rails and watched a group of homeless men and women scour the trash cans for food or items of value not far from a pair of men, donned in fine suits with canes, having a heated discussion about something near an ornate fountain. When he gazed up to the sky he could see one of the ever-present Metal Bending Police airships that continually circled the city, you couldn't look any direction without seeing at least one of them hovering above the city. He dropped his gaze, not wanting to watch as an airship responded to some trouble and the metal benders descended, to the streaming water below him, looking into his own reflection.
He had the light brown skin that marked his Water Tribe descent even though he wore none of the traditional blue fur clothing. Something he learned very quickly in his year of living in Republic City, do not look like an immigrant from any nation; the city wasn't as welcoming as the many people that arrived here every day believed.
Dress like you've always lived here in the local fashions, act like it by adopting their mannerisms, and even talk like it, losing your native tongue to only private moments. Assimilate enough and things got a little easier for you. He may get ugly stares from the occasional local who saw through his act and his fellow Water Tribe members but at least that didn't always end with getting his ass kicked and thrown out of stores at the slightest provocation by xenophobic owners. Once was enough.
He sighed and ran a hand through his black hair and closed his eyes, cutting out the reflection of his violet irises, a trait he shared with a grandfather some generations ago his mother always said. Republic City wasn't what he thought it would be like. Before he arrived a year ago he had to actively fight with his parents to be able to leave home. They wanted him to stay, to take up the family business, only the Souther Water Tribe Chief was not an inherited position, they wanted him to support the tribe but mostly to help keep an eye on his sister. He scoffed at the mere idea of that.
As much as it pained him to admit it Korra didn't need anyone to look out for her, much less her older brother who unlike the rest of their family couldn't even bend. She hadn't needed him the second the Order of the White Lotus confirmed her claim to Avatar, after that they took care of everything. They provided teachers, both for bending and academic, food, and shelter, giving it to her simply because she was the Avatar and would eventually have to throw her life on the line for the good of th-. He sighed and opened his eyes, finding he had dug his nails into the wood of railings with a vice grip. He tended to do that when he thought of the White Lotus. Or of Korra's duties as the Avatar.
It wouldn't do any good thinking like that; she was his little sister and the Avatar. It didn't matter that she barely knew that she had a brother from they few times they could see each other. She would restore balance to the world from whatever crises eventually threatened it and then live the rest of her life in the lap of luxury. He hoped, by spirits he hoped. But she was at the South Pole, and he was here, watching a homeless man get yelled at by the two formerly arguing so-called businessmen.
He had drifted off so he didn't see how the argument started, probably because the homeless man got to close to the men than they could tolerate. But he could see where it was going. The men had combined their former bitterness for each other on the man, assaulting him verbally with cruel insults ranging from his perceived lack of work ethic from his homelessness, his unkempt state of dress, and that his mother was most likely a diseased woman of ill repute. The bum stood up to most of this, giving a visible wince at the mother comment, and tried to apologize for his incursion on their precious personal space. The men would have none of it.
The verbal assault had intensified and now the men were threatening him with their canes, raising them in the air as if they were prepared to beat him. As luck would have it they didn't need to, the commotion had alerted a nearby police officer. He didn't wear the metal suit of the Metal Bending units, so he either hadn't qualified for them, was a water or firebender, or, most likely, wasn't a bender at all. Not that he could probably fit into one given the size of his stomach, the park did not need the best the police force to patrol it apparently.
When the portly officer arrived he listened to the complaints of the two businessmen, who had calmed down rather quickly and spoke with a well-educated vocabulary of the grievous crimes committed by the bum. They also nonchalantly spoke of their stature in Republic City and the businesses and companies they owned or worked for, ones that contributed greatly to the city police's funding. The officer, hearing what he needed to hear, turned towards the bum and pulled out a set of handcuffs and told the bum to put his hands behind his back.
The homeless man put his hands up and started to back away, eyes scanning for anyone to help him. The crowd of people just watched silently and the group of other homeless men and women had scattered long ago, he was alone in this fight. When the officer pulled out his truncheon and tried to grab the bum he jumped back out of reach and bolted, trying to make it to the safety of the more wooded areas of the park. He didn't make it three feet before one of the business men raised his foot in the air and brought his shoe crashing down, causing a pillar of stone to shoot out of the paved ground and smash the bum in the gut. Falling to the ground and gasping for air he held his crushed stomach as he tried to stand back up…
Only to have the police officers truncheon smash in the back of his head.
The bum fell to the ground again and tried to crawl away when the officer brought the truncheon down again and again, the blows crushing the man's already weak body. Duōyí looked at the businessmen, who stood next to each other and watched the spectacle with pleased little smiles. He watched the crowd of people, parents pulling their children away from the scene and people just watching in stunned silence. He looked at the officer, whose face was twisted in anger with eyes that hinted of euphoria. Then he looked at the bum, who was looking at him, with eyes pleading for help. And Duōyí was distantly aware that his hands were gripping the bridge's rail harder than ever and that it was starting to splinter and cut into his palm.
By the time the police officer had stopped and the bum was finally cuffed and taken away, the crowd having dispersed and the men in their fine suits returned to their conversation, this time remaining civil and calm, Duōyí was long gone, having turned his back on the poor bum. And over in the distance, the ever-present police airships hovering in the sky, you could hear a protester speaking of equality.
0-0-0
"Yo D-man!" a voice called out to him from the back of the busy bar he had entered. Duōyí looked to the speaker of the voice, a man in a sharp red suit and a bottle of saké in his hand named Nezumi. He had slicked back black hair that was barely reaching the nape of his neck and trimmed goatee with green eyes, all in all it hinted of mixed Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom descent. It suited him for Republic City rather well. He got out of his seat in the back of the bar and made his way through the crowd, the patrons barely noticing him, their interest on the Probending game on the radio above the bar.
"Nezumi." Duōyí said tightly, Nezumi was in with some of the smaller time gangs in the city, acting as a sort of broker and negotiator between them along with providing occasional... goods for purchase. When he could safely get his hands on it. It wasn't a good idea to get too comfortable with him, even with the business you may have done in the past. "Is there a reason you asked for me?" Especially when you get a message saying he wants a meeting.
"Oh don't get like that D-man, you ain't got nothing to be afraid of. I just want to offer you a job." He said putting an arm around Duōyí's shoulders and leading him to his table in the back, several people in the crowd grudgingly parting to let them pass.
"Last time I did a job for you I nearly got burned alive so tell me why I should even listen to you?" Duōyí asked as he sat down in Nezumi's booth.
"Now D, how was I supposed to know that those Agni Kai boys would be waiting for us?" He replied smoothly as he lit a cigarette, "And you were the reason that any of us got out of that alive. When you had Kai uproot the support of that scaffolding so it fell on those bastards? Beautiful." He smiled as he took a drink from his glass of saké.
"It was obvious; anyone could have come to that decision." Duōyí responded, a roar going up in the bar at something happening over the radio. Seemed some people just lost a few bets.
"Yeah well no one else did. You took control and utterly annihilated those sons of eagle-wolves and we got out of their completely fine. Well, more or less." He muttered while brushing his hand over the side his head to a small spot where his hair covered up a small patch of skin that had the hair permanently burned away.
"What do you want Nezumi?" Duōyí asked again sighing. Nezumi leaned forward so no one could hear him and Duōyí did the same.
"There's a shipment coming into the port tomorrow night, some of the smaller gangs have decided to team up and raid it." Duōyí patiently waited for him to elaborate. "And it's a military sh-, now wait! Wait!" But he wouldn't listen and started to get up out of his seat. But a strong arm forced him back down, shooting out of out of the crowd. He glared at the beast of a man who held him down, his head bald with piercing blue eyes and arms thick and covered with tattoos of dragons fighting.
"Now listen D, this isn't as stupid as it sounds. I'm relying on good information here." Nezumi said, this time not being the nice guy he was a few moments ago, now he was the guy that negotiated deals between people who intimidate and killed for a living. "I know what we're going to steal, where it is, how many guards there are going to be around it, and the layout of ship and neighborhood. All I need is someone who can turn all that information into perfection and to make those bickering idiots fight like soldiers if it goes to hell." He leaned back and smiled, it was rather cruel. "And I know that you're hurting for money ever since the nobles and big wigs stopped falling for your Pai Sho games."
Duōyí glared at him and asked, "So you need a mastermind? And what information do you have exactly?" If he was lucky maybe this wasn't nearly as dangerous as he thought.
"The Unagi is a freighter, given a new paint job and a fancy crest on its side so they can call it a military ship." Nezumi began taking a sip from his glass. "It's transporting supplies out of the Mid-Western Earth Kingdom, or the first Southern Trust Territory really. You know Senlin? From the stories about Avatar Aang, had some weird panda demon or whatever?" Nezumi asked while snubbing out his cigarette in the ashtray.
"Hei Bai. It was a spirit that guarded the forest and took out its anger on the village when the forest was burned down by the Fire Nation." Duōyí answered, drawing on his better knowledge of Avatar Aang's journeys. Korra would probably know the details better; she had a teacher dedicated to past Avatar's after all. "If this is all you have, I'm not impressed."
"There's a rumor going around that it's not there anymore, they were stirring up trouble after our boys took back Haru Fortress during that little coup they had a few months back remember? When the province got made into a Trust Territory until they could sort themselves out?" Nezumi asked, gesturing to the waitress to bring another round. "Anyway, now that Senlin is gone the way of Liang Jiang locals got the idea and are a lot calmer, so the military is sending back some of their weapons and all that other good stuff to reinforce the Home Territories." He stopped talking when the waitress arrived with a new bottle of saké. Duōyí refused to order his own drink and they waited until she was back in the noisy crowd before he continued. "I got it on good information from a reliable source that the captain is going to let the crew out on shore leave for the night before they start unloading the next morning, leaving only a skeleton crew to guard it."
"And who is this reliable source?" Duōyí questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"A reliable source." Nezumi repeated with emphasize and scowled when Duōyí frowned at him. "Oh don't give me that, you got bills and protection money you owe just like everybody else. This job will get you enough to put you on easy street for months, even with your high tastes."
"Only if nothing goes wrong, then I end up in a Untied Republic prison. I would prefer to have children someday. Grand theft is a big thing on its own, but theft of military property can be prosecuted as Insurrection and Treason, we'll be executed!" Duōyí growled out.
"They only fix ya if you have a lot of charges or are a repeat offender, then they think something must be wrong with you and its better if you don't spread it." Nezumi replied simply, familiar with the threat of sterilization for his numerous crimes if they ever came to light.
"Or if you do something as colossally stupid as try to rob a military vessel!" Duōyí said in a harsh whisper. "Then they kill you! So stop acting like sterilization is the worst that could happen! Hell some doctors do that to non-benders if they just go to them for treatment!"
"I know, don't remind me." Nezumi said as he stirred in his seat. "I got this rash on my boys and I'm not risking getting them cut off or injecting me with something while they treat it." Duōyí gave a disgusted noise and Nezumi narrowed his eyes. "What do you care anyway? I thought you Water Tribe got all your medicine from the sea or something, or that you all prayed to the moon and ocean until you were healthy."
Duōyí was able to fight his rising frustration, 'This is going nowhere.' He decided and sighed before looking Nezumi straight in the eye, violet locking with his brown. "You haven't done a spectacular job of convincing me this isn't a horrible idea."
"Do your job right and nothing will go wrong. Besides, what are you afraid of D-man? No metal bender can react fast enough to stop that... "Shopkeepers Special" I sold ya." He argued with a whisper indicating towards Duōyí's coat pocket, where he kept the gun that was sold to him a couple of days ago.
Duōyí didn't say anything for a while, silently weighing his options. Very few places were willing to hire non-benders, preferring to hire benders with abilities that meant they didn't need to buy any special equipment or just because they didn't want to, and the few that would didn't pay well. The rich men and women he usually played at Pai Sho were no longer becoming as regular and it was getting harder and harder to pay rent, his bills, and weekly protection to the local gangs and corrupt cops. He wasn't physically fit enough to stand a chance against another non-bender, let alone a member of the bending gangs, and he wasn't about to risk a job in the factories, where men, women, and children would sometimes lose their fingers and only return home after slavish hours. And he had done these sorts of things before, radioing orders and conducting escape plans from locations usually far away to hide his identity. Usually with Nezumi too.
"Alright, I'll do it." He resigned but held up a finger to stop Nezumi's acceptance. "But I want double my usual rate." Nezumi's eyes narrowed at that and he took a sip of his sake.
"Shit, D-man if you wanted to cod me you could have just bought me dinner and a few more drinks." Nezumi said "But fine, you get double." He gulped down the rest of his glass. "Meet me at our usual spot tomorrow afternoon; I got to go over something's with you before we start." He motioned to the tattooed guard to let Duōyí up.
"Oh and D?" He said as he got out of his seat, "Why did you want that thing anyway? Those are very hot items and you've never been one to try to attract attention. You were yelling about the job gettin' your boys cut off but if they find you with one they're gonna do it for sure." He said with the closest thing towards concern. If it was for him or for his planning abilities Duōyí couldn't be sure but the safe bet would be on the latter. Nezumi would be in a very bad spot if his mastermind weren't in his right mind anymore.
Duōyí 's hand moved to his coat pocket, feeling the shape of his gun, a six-shot Ryû-Revolver with the 15 fen-rounds. The weapons known as guns were an incredible evolution to combat. There weakness was their stamina, and the lack of effect at armored targets. Either way, guns were now contraband for civilians to have and hard to come by. He thought of homeless man getting beaten by police officer at the behest of the businessmen. How defenseless he was against the man's bending and the portly officer and how he couldn't fight back.
But Duōyícould fight now. He had something that would give him a fighting chance to defend himself if he ever got into that situation. Despite the hefty fee, it was well worth the price if he was going to face a dangerous situation.
And he wouldn't lie down and take it.
"Just a little something to even the odds." He said and walked away, not looking back at Nezumi to see the cautious look on his face.
0-0-0
Saikhan had been a captain in the Metal Bending Police Force for twenty years now, half of his life. He had started out like most by walking beats throughout the city, patrolling in squad cars while the airships hovered above, and had plowed through enough red tape to choke a platypus bear. All the while he had refined his earth bending and later metal bending under the watchful eye of his close friend Lin Beifong. He sighed at the thought of the Chief. He and Lin had… disagreements on how certain aspects of crime should be handled among other things.
He respected her immensely and he wouldn't be half the metal bender he was today if it wasn't for the tutorship she could spare. But she was to determined to nail every criminal she could find and refused to try to play nice with the Council. She wouldn't let big fish get away, even if it meant catching a lot of smaller ones and refused to even try to strike deals with the local criminal elements, despite the advantages it would bring. Even criminals had honor and they would turn in those among them who went too far. For the right price of course.
So unlike the Chief he made deals with local gangs, buying information, overlooking operations, and helping them out of trouble when he could. And unlike the Chief he attended the Council parties of his own free will, mingling with the nobles, politicians, and businessmen of the city with a smile on his face, making idle conversation and listening to their uninformed views and ideas on the security of Republic City. Lin would complain of the parties constantly, often standing in a corner and glaring at anyone who dared to approach her. She claimed that she didn't need to be liked to do her job that the upper class of the city did nothing but moan and complain and should let them do their work in peace.
He respectfully disagreed. Which is why he was currently waiting to be let into a meeting with Councilman Tarrlok.
Saikhan was idly staring at one of the many painting that decorated the marble hallways of City Hall in an attempt to not seem bored. It was the final moment of Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Ozai's deciding battle, the young Avatar sealing the Fire Lord's bending away forever. It was a nice piece he supposed, the glow from their eyes and mouths due to Avatar Aang's energy bending was very well done, but he was more partial to landscapes.
"Councilman Tarrlok will see you now." The council page announced, poking his head out of councilman's office. Saikhan got up from the seat he was occupying and followed the page, an old tiny man with a very high-pitched voice, into the councilman's office. Tarrlok was standing behind his desk, his back to the elaborate waterfall decoration of Tui and La circling each other that glimmered in the light of the morning sun, and had a pleasant smile on his face when Saikhan entered the room. Saikhan removed his hat and shook his hand when they got close enough, Tarrlok walking to meet him half way.
"Ah Captain Saikhan, thank you for meeting me on such short notice," the councilman greeted smoothly, "how are your wife and boys?"
"Fine Councilman and it's no problem." Saikhan replied taking a seat in front of Tarrlok's desk.
"Good, good." The councilman said, sitting down behind his desk. "Would you please leave us?" Tarrlok asked the council page.
"Of course sir." The page bowed and quietly left the room. Tarrlok waited a second after the page had left before opening a desk drawer and pulling out a pack of cigarettes.
"Do you smoke Captain?" Tarrlok asked, offering the pack to Saikhan.
"No, but thank you Sir." Saikhan declined. Tarrlok merely put the pack away and lit his own with a match. He inhaled and let out a plume of smoke; Saikhan managed to resist coughing, and gazed out at Republic City.
"Tell me," Tarrlok asked after a moment, "how difficult would it be to arrange some additional security for the docks tonight, without Chief Beifong finding out about it?"
Saikhan kept a straight face at the question, while his mind raced with possible implications and motives, "The Chief personally oversees all deployments and patrols in the city and she requires a constant stream of reports on their current activity, if any fail to report another will be sent to find out why." Saikhan explained, watching Tarrlok's eyes narrow, "But, while she will know eventually, I can pull strings so she doesn't find out right away." Tarrlok smiled.
"That will do." He tapped the ashes from his cigarette into the ashtray and opened another drawer pulling out a file. He removed a photo of a large ship, bearing the symbol of the United Republic Navy on its side. "That is "The Unagi", do not let the name fool you, it is no more fierce than any other freighter. It's cargo on the other hand…" He pulled another photo from the file, a picture of a large circular capsule with valves and pumps along the top.
"What is this?" Saikhan asked, studying the device for any discriminating marks. Tarrlok leaned forward and stippled his hands in front of his face.
"That, Captain Saikhan is a capsule filled with a poison gas."
0-0-0
Duōyí trudged along to the place Nezumi told him to meet, maneuvering through the late afternoon foot-traffic with practiced ease. The meeting place was another bar, this one more suppressed than the other, the few patrons sitting quietly to themselves sipping their drinks. The owner, a bear of a man with a heavily scarred face, was idly cleaning a glass and giving Duōyí the evil eye as he walked into the back. He moved past the dilapidated bathroom and stopped in front of a wall in the hallway. He raised his hand and knocked three times in a synchronized pattern. A panel opened in the wall and a pair of green eyes glared at him.
"What do you want?" the man demanded on the other side of the door with a gruff voice.
"I'm here to see Nezumi…" Duōyí trailed off as the eyes just continued to glare at him. "He's expecting me, my name is Duōyí…" he added, hoping that it would be enough. However, with the lack of positive response Duōyí sighed and rolled his eyes. "D-man?" he tried again.
The eyes on the other side of the door lit up in recognition and Duōyí mentally cursed Nezumi.
"Ah," the man said, "D-man! Nezumi said you'd be showin' up! Give me a second." The panel snapped shut and a series of clicks followed. Soon an entire doorway appeared as wall section slid open, the guard nodded his head and motioned towards the revealed hallway. "Come on in."
Duōyí stepped past the guard and bumbled down the dark corridor until he reached a door. He swung the door open and walked into the hidden gambling den.
The patrons all turned to look when the door opened and went back to their games when they realized he wasn't a cop. The air was thick with smoke and the clinking of glasses and chips; the space wasn't very large and held only a half-dozen tables and a few ill-gotten slot machines but it was packed nonetheless.
"D!" Nezumi called out from a roulette table waving him over. Duōyí walked over and stood next to Nezumi, resting his hands on table and noting that one of the table legs was uneven when it tilted slightly, watching the roulette wheel spin round and round. The ball landed on four black and Nezumi cursed, his stack of chips on eighteen red disappearing thanks to the table dealer.
"Nezumi, don't tell people to answer to your nickname for me." Duōyí complained laying a twenty Yuan bill down and getting a pair of chips back. He placed both on five red. With the speed the wheel spun…
"Would you prefer if I told them to answer to Du-du?" Nezumi responded with a smile and placed another bet. "Sorry man, but your normal name sucks. Besides D-man, you could really be 'the man' if you wanted to with that head of yours." The wheel spun round and round again and as it was slowing down Duōyí pressed his hand down on the table slightly. The ball, formerly balancing between five red and twenty-four black teetered into five red and Duōyí received a stack of chips, the dealer never noticing his small successful act of sabotage.
"You said you had stuff you had to talk to me about." Duōyí resigned with a sigh. Nezumi cursed again and collected his remaining chips, moving over to the exchange and collecting his depleted winnings.
"Yeah, there's been a bit of a change to the plan," Nezumi said moving to door, "you're going to be a bit closer than before."
"How much closer?" Duōyí asked narrowing his eyes as he followed Nezumi into the dark hallway. Deviations from the plan were inevitable, and Duōyí was flexible about that. However, Duōyí's weakness was a direct confrontation so he compensated by keeping a good distance. It irked Duōyí that his safe distance was going to be less.
Nezumi remained silent until they emerged on the other side and exited the bar, none of the patrons looking up from their drinks as they left, they were used to people disappearing and reappearing from the back. When they got outside Nezumi looked up at sky, watching a police airship cruise through the sky, and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one.
"You're only going to be a couple blocks away." He said, blowing a plume of smoke into the air.
"What?" Duōyí asked, grabbing Nezumi's shoulder and looking him in the eye.
"Now, now D, don't get upset," Nezumi said soothingly, "so it's a few blocks closer to the boat then you'd like. It's not like you're going to be in the middle of the heist, you've got everything else you want and need at the place I've set up."
"And when the police finally start investigating the docks their going to find that one of the nearby buildings had a rented room where a shady looking guy brought in radio equipment and suspicious documents." Duōyí retorted angrily at the risk Nezumi was taking; the job certainly didn't need any more. Duōyí was flawless to scrutiny because of his meticulous caution. The worse anyone could get on him was illegal gambling. In fact, Nezumi was the only direct contact Duōyí had in the criminal underworld. No else really knew he existed outside the Pai Sho gambling circles.
"Now I take offense to that, I am the poster child of trustworthiness. And we won't have to worry about anyone seeing us. Well, no one that will talk to the cops anyway." Nezumi answered, turning to face Duōyí.
"What do you mean?" Duōyí asked skeptically.
"I found you a nice abandoned warehouse to work out of. Hardly any elephant or spider rats too." Nezumi said, gazing up at the gathering clouds. Duōyí rubbed his temples and sighed. "Oh don't get like that. So it's a bit dirty, if you didn't have such high tastes you wouldn't be five weeks behind on protection money you can't afford." Duōyí's eyes narrowed.
"How do you know that?" He demanded.
"I'm very good at finding out information." Nezumi answered with a smile on his face "I don't know why you put yourself with the trouble of living in a bender neighborhood. If you just stuck to The Poles like the rest of the Water Tribe off the boats you'd probably get a decent rate. And you wouldn't have to pay off the cops on top of the gangs for protection."
"I'd prefer not waking up in the middle of the night to find spider-rats trying to eat me alive!" Duōyí replied, the memories of his time spent living in The Poles, the name of the borough that immigrants from the Water Tribes were segregated to, itself separated between Northern and Southern tribe members, still fresh in his mind. He had standards, and spider-rats had kept him up way too late at night.
"They really do that? I always thought the 'Don't leave your baby alone because spider-rats will swarm and eat them' thing was a myth." Nezumi asked with a drag from his cigarette.
"Walk down an alleyway with a piece of cooked meat and see how far you get." Duōyí dared. "If you make through I will be genuinely impressed."
"It doesn't have to be cooked Water Tribe meat does it? Because I don't know what your people do while cooking but the smell." Nezumi said with a gagging sound escaping his throat. "I would have figured that alone would have kept the spider rates away." He checked his watch and stomped out his cigarette. "Come on we got to get going." Duōyí grudgingly followed after him, walking down the sidewalk until they reached a small parking lot and Nezumi moved to a Satomobile.
"Since when do you own a Satomobile?" Duōyí asked curiously, Satomobiles were common in Republic City but by no means cheap. Nezumi opened the driver's side door and grinned.
"I said that this job would make enough to put you on easy street, this" he patted the hood "is what the down payment for my services got me. My clients are paying a pretty Yuan for the supplies in that ship." Duōyí went around and got into the passenger side.
"And who are these wealthy clients of yours? I thought you said that it was a bunch of small time gangs that teamed up for this? Are they the same as that reliable source?" He asked as he buckled himself in. Nezumi's smile disappeared and he glared at Duōyí. Duōyí figured he hit that one right on the mark.
"Just stick to the plannin' D. You'll be better off that way." They remained silent the rest of the way there.
0-0-0
I have known great strife
Yet my power grows from it
So as clockwork turns and plans are laid
As long as I stand firm, things can change
0-0-0
Bolin checked his watch for the twelfth time in half as many minutes. This was such a bad idea, he shouldn't have agreed to this. He and Mako should have found another way to get the money. Spirits he should have told Mako. He checked his watch again, still a few minutes from the start of the job and looked around.
It was near midnight and there was roughly fifty of them, most representatives from various gangs glaring at each other, gathered into a large warehouse with three large trucks lined up ready to be boarded and as far as he knew he was one of the few benders apart of the heist. Bolin looked over to where his "partners" for the job were standing.
He hadn't expected for Hasook to be here, apparently he and his brother weren't the only ones to do less than reputable work on the Fire Ferrets. He and Hasook hadn't said anything to each other after he asked "Does your brother know you're here?" The argument that erupted had caused quite a stir, even getting the gang members to stop glaring at each other to watch them. And aside from an uncomfortable greeting he hadn't even said anything to his other partner. Not that he wouldn't mind getting to know her better…
She said her name was Hotaru and that was all the information she gave, and was she a looker. Her rich black hair was spiky and framed her face, with blue eyes seemed to shine in the dark warehouse, and that figure…
Needless to say he would have spent the evening flirting with her if he wasn't so spirits damned nervous.
"Alright, listen up everybody!" Bolin turned his attention to the leader of this operation; some guy named Nezumi that Shady Shin put him in contact with for the job. He was standing on top of a crate and motioning everyone to gather around him. "The Unagi docked a couple of hours ago exactly where we thought it would and most of the crew has been let out on shore leave, the arrangements have been made so we get into the docks unnoticed but the ship itself will still be guarded with a skeleton crew." There was a chorus of grumbling.
"What? How the hell are we supposed to rob the damn thing if it's guarded by soldiers?" Hasook angrily asked, a number of people voicing similar feelings. Bolin started to get even more worried than before, how was he supposed to fight soldiers? There was no way this was going to work out. Nezumi just smiled and kneeled down and turned on a radio resting at his feet.
"Because we have him." Nezumi answered and sat next to the radio.
"Good evening everyone, I will be the one in charge of the assault and, if necessary, retreat." A voice spoke through the radio, Bolin and the others gave a confused look to each other.
"Um, Mr. Voice? Can I ask who you are or what your name is?" Bolin asked after an uncomfortable silence.
"My name is not important or necessary." The voice gave a curt response.
"What the hell is this? How the hell are we supposed to trust this guy?" Hasook asked angrily, a few others shared his sentiment.
"You can trust him because I trust him. This isn't the first time I've worked with him and he hasn't let me down before. If anyone has a problem taking his or my orders than you can leave." Nezumi stated, pointing towards the door. No one moved, the reward too big to pass up.
"I'm glad we've settled the matter, now this is what's going to happen..."
0-0-0
Bolin sweated as he and his group sneaked through the docks, hugging the shadows as they neared The Unagi. He poked his head around a corner and saw the shadow of a patrolling guard on the ship; he whipped his head back and pressed himself into the wall they were hiding behind. Bolin took a steadying breath and hefted the portable radio closer to his body. Well, 'portable' was a loose term; it was really just a conventional radio, with a range of only a few dozen city blocks, with straps tied around it so it could be carried on your back and was heavy as hell. Great battery life though.
"Alright G-5 is in place." Bolin reported, holding the receiver to his ear. There was a moment of silence until their mysterious commander responded.
"Good, hold until other units report and then wait for the go ahead." The voice commanded.
"Pfft, who the hell does this guy think he is? We've got names why the hell doesn't he use them?" Hasook complained.
"Quiet! We don't need to be making any more noise than necessary." Hotaru angrily chastised him. Hasook sneered at her and stuck a finger in her face.
"Hey you ain't the boss of me so get the hell off my back!" he retorted angrily. Hotaru looked like she was about to respond before Bolin intervened.
"OK time out, time out guys! I know this is a stressful job, we all do, but we cannot be turning on each other now. If we don't work together then we're all going to at least end up in a United Republic prison." Bolin explained, tiring to smooth things over. "Or were all going to be killed by some dudes who are trained and get paid to do so in the Trust Territories." Hasook and Hotaru glared at each other and gave simultaneous grunts of agreements and Bolin gave a sigh of relief.
"All units are in position. Prepare for assault." The voice commanded. Bolin gave a last-minute check over his equipment. The radio was firmly strapped onto his back and he pulled a dark cloth to serve as a mask over the lower half of his face, the others did so too. 'OK, this is it.' He thought, 'No backing out now...'
"All units begin the assault." The mysterious commander ordered. Bolin, Hasook and Hotaru rounded the corner and sprinted toward the Unagi, the other groups emerging from nearby shadows doing the same. Their group merged with another halfway, then he and their earthbender charged forward, bending the stone out of the dock and forcing it into the air, creating a ramp. They forced segment after segment until the ramp hanged in the air a short distance above the Unagi. Without missing a beat Hasook, Hotaru, and the others ascended the ramp, Bolin and the other earthbender following after, before the soldiers on board could begin to counter the attack.
When Bolin reached the deck most of the surprised guards had been pushed back by the few benders of the group, the nonbenders using the opening to rush below deck to try to catch others off guard. Hotaru flung a pair of fireballs at a soldier, who dodged the first and sent a stream of water from under the grates that snaked around the ship for waterbenders at their feet to nullify the second. Hasook was throwing around torrents of water at his opponents, trying to force them out from behind cover of a steel crate. Bolin searched for an opening and narrowly dodged the hunk of circular earth aimed at his head. He found himself facing a large man in a Republic Navy uniform flinging discs of earth at him, forcing him to duck and weave around them.
'Those look just like Probending discs,' he thought, noticing that they even were dispensed from what looked like a similar rough mechanism built into ship before his musing got him a disc to the chest, sending him sprawling back nearly over the railings. The radio on his back was pressing uncomfortably hard into him at the impact. 'And they feel just like them too.' He held his bruised chest and wished for the protective padding of his Fire Ferrets uniform. He gave a pained cough and tried to stand and caught sight of another disc heading for him. He brought his arm up to try to defend himself but a ball of fire destroyed it. Bolin looked to Hotaru who sent a stream of fire at his opponent, forcing him into the defensive. Her first opponent bent a bit of water into the air and froze it; launching the icicle at her, in response she kicked her leg into the air and sent a wave of fire at the projectile, vaporizing it.
Bolin used the opportunity to charge forward and crash into his opponent, sending the larger man sprawling back. He didn't give the man time to recover, bending the stash of discs at the soldier forcing him back farther and farther with each consecutive hit. Hotaru and Hasook were having some mixed results as they continued their assault; Hotaru gaining ground on her opponent as Hasook began to feel a bit overwhelmed as his opponents began to push back, flinging fireballs and icicles at him.
Bolin flung two discs at the soldier, the first dodged and the second hitting him in the stomach, he doubled over clutching his stomach and Bolin sent a third disc at him, crashing into the man's head. The soldier was knocked unconscious and crashed onto the deck; Bolin gave a triumphant cheer until an angry retort from Hotaru got him back into focus. He sent a pair of discs at Hotaru's opponent; the man destroyed the first with a slash of water and took the second to the shoulder. That was all Hotaru needed. She fired three quick bursts of flame, forcing him back against the wall of the ship, and dodged a stream of water he sent back at her. She pulled back her arms and unleashed a torrent of flames on him, engulfing him. After a few seconds of this she relented and the soldier slumped to his knees, clothing badly singed and hands burned from protecting his head, and finally crashed to the ground.
Beginning to feel the strain of exhaustion Bolin and Hotaru combined forces against Hasook's opponents, he having been forced back to the railing, and started intercepting the men's attacks at Hasook. Bolin sent a triad of discs at the soldier's legs while Hotaru sent a wave of fire; the discs crashed into the ground as they jumped back and were pummeled by the wave of fire that struck a moment later. Hasook sent a stream of water at the now exposed men and nailed one in the head; he fell back and crashed his head into the railing with a wet crack, the other dodged and sent another blast of fire at him. Bolin bent a disc of earth into the air above his arm and held it there, charging forward at the soldier dodging the blasts of flame that he sent at him. When he got within striking distance he launched the disc with an uppercut at the man and struck him in the jaw with enough force to launch him into the air... and over the railings.
"NO!" Bolin cried as he grabbed the falling the unconscious man's ankle and tried to haul him up. His hands began to slip and he started to teeter over the edge when two pairs of hands grabbed him and hauled him and the soldier back up. He sat down next to the unconscious soldier and pulled down his mask, gasping for breath.
"Damn, Bolin." Hasook said, pulling down his own mask. "It would have been easier to let the bastard drown."
Bolin didn't respond and pulled out the receiver for the radio.
"This is G-5, the uh, front part of the ship is secure." There was a moment of silence until their leader responded.
"Good, secure any prisoners and then proceed below deck to assist." The voice commanded. Bolin and Hasook put their masks back on and Hotaru moved to begin gathering the soldiers together. Bolin hefted himself up, his bruised chest crying out and got to work.
0-0-0
Nezumi hopped off the truck just as the ramps from inside the ship lowered down to the dock, his boys waving in the trucks as they backed up to begin loading their haul. He walked past the makeshift ramp of earth, making a mental note to have someone retract it back down, and up the ships ramp into the hold. He inhaled from his cigarette and smiled as he examined the stacks and stacks of crates filled with guns and ammunition, explosives, body armor, and field kits. He stomped out his cigarette, he wasn't going to take the chances of having an open flame next to some explosives, and started taking a tour.
The plan had gone off nearly flawlessly, with only a few injuries and one death, a poor bastard who took an icicle to the lung that bled out everywhere when the soldier who conjured the icicle got knocked out, and the police bands on the radios showed no signs of knowing about the heist. Nezumi stuck his hands in his pockets and practically strutted, he was set for months thanks to this job, maybe a year if he was careful; hell he might go on vacation, get out of the city for a while. Some of the Preserved Sectors in the older Trust Territories were rather nice this time of year. He walked past a pair of men loading a crate of rifles onto a wheeled carrier and spotted a familiar head of spiky hair and a pair of very nice, round, large… blue eyes.
"Hotaru my dear, may I say that you look no less lovely in a layer of soot and blood than a lady of high-born elegance in a lovely silk gown?" He flirted with the hot-headed firebender while her partner's eyes flicked between the two. He paid them no mind, he didn't even know their names; he knew one of them was recommended to him by Shady Shin and that the two apparently knew each other.
"Scram, Rat-face!" She growled and conjured a ball of fire in her hand to scare him off.
"Now now Hotaru, no need to get upset, it was merely a compliment on something anyone with eyes could see." He was in too good of a mood to be perpetrated. "How are our gracious hosts feeling?" He peered around the corner to the pile of knocked out and tied up soldiers and sailors.
"They've been quiet for now, don't know how much longer they're gonna stay that way though." The green-eyed boy in the group said, casting a worried glance to the soldiers.
"Well if they even start to wake up give them a nice hard smack to the head, we don't need any more fighting this evening. I think we've had enough." They nodded their heads in agreement and Nezumi walked away, casting a lasting glance at Hotaru's bountiful assets and earning a sneer from her in return. Chuckling he walked further into the hold, dodging the crates as they were unloaded he was stopped by a panting man who practically ran into him.
"Boss, there's an airship heading this way!" he panted between breaths, tired from running from the deck all the way down into the hold. Nezumi's eyebrows raised, his contact Officer had assured him that the docks would be clear tonight, the closest airship would be downtown, too far to actually notice any activity. "The guy on the radio says we should drop everything and run." Nezumi furrowed his brow and then yelled out.
"Alright everyone pick up the pace, load what you can, and then get the trucks out of sight… and someone retract those damn earth ramps outside!" There was an increase in activity as everyone tried to get what they could and leave. He turned to the formerly panting man, still waiting for what he should tell D-man. "Tell him that we'll leave when we get what we came for. We barely got enough to cover the expenses as is." Nezumi continued on his way to inspect a final part of the hold, which contained the true prize of the evening. He rounded the corner and caught sight of the capsule as it was being lowered slowly with a winch and pulley onto a carrier.
"Careful boys, get so much of a scratch on that thing and my clients will have all our balls on a spick." He warned as he stood in front of the large machine, its valves and pumps gleaming in the light of the hold. He didn't know what the Equalist's wanted with this thing and he didn't want to know, all he knew was that they paid very generously to have him retrieve it as quietly as possible without leaving anything to tie back to them. Their money was good and that was all that mattered.
Whatever they wanted to do with what was inside that thing was their business.
0-0-0
Saikhan had grown accustomed to the near silent hum of the propellers on the airships that the Metalbending Police used. He had grown used to the feeling of flying through the air on metal wires that shot out above the uniforms wrists and the rushing of air past his face as he swung through air from line to line. Part of him missed those feelings of freedom, but most of him realized that he was getting too old to do so, so now he commanded from inside the airship as it made its way to The Unagi.
He had managed to acquire roughly five dozen men to aid him, most off duty officers that owed him favors, and had managed to acquire an airship and several patrol cars along with a couple of trucks. He doubted that he would need any of them, but if what councilman Tarrlok believed was true it would be better to patrol the docks than risk some group like the Equalist's getting a hold of military grade poison gas. Spirits only knew what those fiends would use it for.
"Get in contact with The Unagi; I want to know if they've seen any suspicious activity. If they have any questions patch them through to me." The radioman nodded and changed to the frequency of The Unagi. He spent about a minute asking for acknowledgement before telling the captain that they were not answering.
"Move us to over The Unagi, something isn't right." The pilot acknowledged and steered the airship to the docks. Saikhan moved to the front of the airship and looked down below and he felt like he had been stabbed in the gut. There was a trio of trucks parked next to the ship and he could make out the shape of people rushing up and down the ramps of the ship.
"Fire the spotlight on them and give me the microphone." A beam of light cut through the night and landed right on the thieves and one of the officers handed him the microphone. "This is Captain Saikhan of the Metalbending Police Force! Drop all stolen cargo and put your hands in the air!" He only had to wait a second before they all dropped what they were carrying and bolted for the trucks, another before a ball of fire flew at the airship and the 'ping! ping!' sound of bullets striking metal. 'Alright have it your way.' He thought.
"Squads One and Two deploy and apprehend them." After a moment of consideration he added, "Lethal force is authorized."
"Yes Sir!" Came a chorus of responses as the floor opened in the airship and the men leaped down, skillfully dodging various elemental blasts from the benders. However a few of the nonbenders had decided to liberate some of the rifles and smaller guns from the crates, their aim was terrible put they did manage to down one officer before they landed. While lethal force may not have been used before, it surely would be now.
While the metal benders erected walls of earth to use for cover against the guns, the trucks started and the thieves piled in, dropping what they couldn't carry and leaving those who weren't fast enough. As the trucks peeled away those unlucky few, roughly a dozen or so, all nonbenders wielding at least pistols, fled back inside the hold of the ship.
"Orders Captain?" a radioman in Squad One asked from the ground.
"Carefully proceed into the ship and apprehend the remaining criminals, find any surviving crewman, and confirm whether the capsule is still among the cargo." Saikhan ordered calmly, "Squad Three and Four will pursue the trucks." There was another chorus of "Yes Sir!" followed by the remaining squads going after the trucks while those on the ground proceeded into The Unagi.
"Have the officers in the patrol cars and trucks erect walls to block all roads in and out of this district." Saikhan ordered, hoping to trap the criminals like elephant rats and eventually ferreting them out of any hole they may flee into. The radioman sent out the order and they waited until Squad's One and Two reported back.
"Captain," came over the radio a few minutes later, "the capsule is not among the ship's cargo, one of the criminals said that he saw it being loaded onto one of the trucks before we arrived. The crew is mostly unharmed but a few may have concussions." Saikhan mentally cursed but kept a straight face.
"Very well. Squad One rejoins with the ship. Squad Two, stay here and guard the criminals until a truck can come around to take them away." The radioman inside the ship gave a dark "Certainly sir." Saikhan waited a moment and asked what squad that radioman was from.
"Squad Two sir." The ship radioman answered. Ah, they had been the ones to lose a man in the descent. He doubted that when the truck got here that the criminals would be in an unharmed condition. By the time Squad One was back inside the airship Squads Three and Four had reported that they managed to flatten the tires of one of the trucks, forcing it to crash, the capsule was not among its stolen cargo. The criminals inside had scattered and only a few had been apprehended or killed as they tried to escape. The two remaining trucks had split up, one continuing to head East into the city and the other swinging South sticking close to the waterside.
"Squad Four, stay with captured criminals. Squad Three, continue pursuing the truck heading East. We will move to intercept the truck heading South." Saikhan ordered easily, one of the trucks carried the capsule and he would find it, no matter what.
He would not let it fall into the hands of the Equalist's.
0-0-0
Duōyí cursed as he gathered up the maps and schematics off of the table he had been using, the Pai Sho pieces he had been using for markers scattering all over the floor. This was bad, very bad. The situation was no longer under his control and he had lost contact with several of his units, they had scattered to the winds at the first sign of trouble refusing to listen to his orders. And Nezumi…
Duōyí growled, Nezumi had directly countered his order to immediately retreat when the lookout had spotted the airship approaching The Unagi saying he needed more time to load some special cargo onto one of the trucks. Duōyí loaded the papers and zipped up his bag, slinging it over his shoulder and overturning the table that the radio was resting on smashing it to pieces, the cries of help from G-5 silenced. He had to make the room appear as desolate as when he arrived with Nezumi hours ago, he couldn't leave any evidence he was here.
Duōyí shut off the light and started to descend the rusting stairs from the foreman's office when warehouse doors exploded and a truck came barreling through, smashing through old crates and barrels. Its tires were flat and it swerved and slammed into the wall on its side, shaking the entire building and throwing dust into the air. Duōyí threw up his arms to cover his face and protect it from flying debris. When the last of the debris had settled and the rusting stairs had stopped threatening to collapse he uncovered his head looked at the tuck. It matched the description Nezumi gave him for the three they would be using in the heist. As he looked at it something strange happened, a collection of green lights gathered on top of the truck and condensed there, taking the shape of a person before fading away.
'What the…' he wondered to himself and finished descending the stairs, running to the truck. When he arrived Nezumi, clutching a bleeding shoulder, fell from the driver's side of the truck and crashed to the ground.
"Nezumi!" Duōyí rushed over to him and helped him into a seated position against the truck. "What happened?" He asked, looking at his shoulder wound.
"The cops have freaking lost it, man." He grunted as he tried to stand. "They freakin' smashed the windshield with their wires and stabbed me, got some kind of spike or blade at the end of them." He got to a shaky stand and began to walk to the back of the truck, Duōyí moved to help him. "I had some of the boys with me; they opened the back and tried shooting the cops following us. They just freakin' flung them out of the truck with their wires, right out into the street at full speed like freakin' dolls." They reached the back and Duōyí opened the back doors all the way. "But I got away with the real prize."
Duōyí looked at the strange contraption that was almost falling out of truck and tried to figure out what it could possibly do. "Nezumi what is this?" He asked, turning to the bleeding man now leaning against the frame of the truck for support.
"Hell if I know, it's worth a ton of money, I can tell you that much."
"Is this what you countermanded my orders for?" Duōyí asked with angered realization. Nezumi managed to stand to defend himself. He didn't get the chance as the capsule suddenly opened in brilliant display of light, the valves and pumps all around it hissing as it depressurized. Duōyí and Nezumi watched stunned as the capsule opened and a woman was revealed inside, her white hair flowing behind her and silver-grey eyes connecting with Duōyí's violet and for a moment he swore he saw recognition, her body confined in a straight jacket. The water surrounding her lost its shape and flowed out and she collapsed in a heap at the bottom of the capsule.
"What the, what is this? Nezumi what the hell is going on?" Duōyí demanded, moving to help the woman out of the truck.
"There was a broad in that thing?" Nezumi said stunned or beginning to experience the effects of blood loss.
"No, the real capsule is filled with poison gas." The two swung around and came face to face with a squad of Metalbending Police officers. "And you're going to tell me where you hid it." The squad commander stated.
'They think we stole poison gas? But Nezumi said that he didn't know what we stole, and all that was inside was the girl so maybe they don't really know what was inside the capsule either or we can talk our way out of this.' Duōyí thought quickly. "We-"
"Quiet boy!" The commander barked at him and pointed to Nezumi who was back to leaning against the truck. "You! You were the driver correct? I remember puncturing your shoulder. Where is the real capsule? When did you make the switch?" The commander demanded the answers from Nezumi, who just stood there and gritted his teeth.
"I ain't gonna tell you shit, you killed my boys. They were good guys who just needed some money and you killed them like they were nothing, just flung them right out into the street and broke their necks!" Duōyí tried to tell him to shut up when he was silenced again.
"They were criminals too lazy to find honest work and stole from a United Republic Navy vessel, in the process assaulting and wounding military personnel and killing an officer of the law." The commander sneered at Nezumi. "The death sentence would have come down eventually on them, we merely sped it up."
Duōyí looked to Nezumi as the commander said this, his partners face turning redder with anger until he screamed out, "Cod yourself, you son of a eagle-wolf bitch!" and reached into his coat and pulled out his pistol and pointed it at the squad of metal benders. Nezumi had said that no metalbender was fast enough to stop a bullet and he was right. The firing of the bullet from the barrel happened at a speed too fast for the human mind to notice it, let alone for a metalbender to make the proper movements.
Nezumi had been born and raised in the streets of Republic City, living in dingy bars and rough clubs for as long as he could remember, during those years he earned a decent reputation for being fast and accurate with a gun. While he had been fast on the draw his wounded shoulder had hampered his aim enough so that his first shot missed the commander's head and went over the shoulder of the man behind him.
This would have been fine if the bullet hadn't managed to strike a collection of barrels of fuel that had been stored in the warehouse illegally to avoid the storage fees. The bullet punched through the metal barrel and ignited it, in the moment that it took for Nezumi to realize he missed and everyone else to realize he had fired at all the first barrel exploded and started a chain reaction that set off the other barrels in the warehouse.
The resulting explosion could be seen half way across the city.
Duōyí hadn't even realized he had grabbed the girl until after he had ran from the burning and collapsing warehouse and stopped in a nearby alley. She had tripped, the heeled boots that the straight jacket somehow required caught on some rubble and she went crashing to the ground. He went to pull her up but collapsed against the alleyway wall holding his head.
'How… how can this be happening?' He was a fugitive. Those officers had seen his face, heard his voice. They knew he was associated with Nezumi, that he was part of the heist. Oh spirits was Nezumi even alive? There was so much fire and smoke, he just grabbed the first thing that felt like a person and ran. He heard the officers screaming after him so he knew they were alive, but not if they were wounded or not. He was going to have to leave Republic City, but where could he go? The United Republic represented every nation; he was practically a criminal in everyone now. He looked over to the girl, lying helplessly on the ground and anger boiled inside him.
"This is your fault isn't it! Who or what the hell are you! Why is this happening!" the girl gave no response, her mouth shut by the straight jacket, and looked at him with something close to pity. He turned his head away from her and sighed, it wouldn't do any good getting angry right now, not when he couldn't even get any answers. He moved to help the girl to her feet when the first gunshot rang out in the distance, then another and another. Soon the air was filled with the sound of gunshots and shouting.
'What the hell is going on?' Duōyí thought as he moved to the mouth of the alleyway, guiding the girl with an arm on her shoulder. He peeked around the corner and saw a mob of people running down the street shouting and waving guns, throwing bricks and bottles, occasionally firing at an unknown enemy. 'Are the people rioting? Did the explosion set them off?' People living near the docks had never been on good terms with the police before and would rather turn to the local gangs, mostly consisting of people who had grown up there, for protection.
His answer came when a stream of flame set a man on fire and a uprooting of earth launched a woman into a nearby wall. The people scattered as the attacks became more frequent and a pair of police officers chased them down, killing members of the crowd as they went.
'No, this is a massacre.' Duōyí realized with a dull horror. He knew that Metalbending Police was corrupt but this? What was important enough to justify this? They weren't even trying to subdue people, just cutting them down. He cast a glance at the girl next to him, but she only stared back at him. "Come on, we got to get out of here." He said as he guided the girl across the street.
Their trip through the docks was terrifying. They passed body after body, burned out Satomobiles, burning buildings as the fire from the warehouse spread, they had to duck out of sight from passing officers riding the power lines, and the sound of gunfire increased as they got farther and farther into the city. They were walking over a pile of rubble into a warehouse when a man ran around the corner screaming and a wire with a blade at the end soared through the air and punctured his back. He tripped over his own feet and fell, the wire sticking out of his back. It took a few tugs but the blade slipped out and a bloodstain spread around his back.
"Report!" a voice ordered out of sight but it was enough to raise the hairs on Duōyí 's neck. It was the squad commander's.
"Nothing but a few nonbending civilians sir." A younger voice answered, unfazed by the murder of said civilians. Duōyí indicated to the girl to follow him back out the way they came, but slipped on some of the rubble causing some rocks to fall and clatter to the floor. There was a tense moment of silence before he heard the sound of retreating footsteps and gave a sigh of relief.
Then a pillar of rock launched him and the girl into the air.
He landed on his side with a crash and gasped out in pain, clutching his side and trying to get to his feet.
"Well, look who it is boys." Duōyí turned to look at the grinning commander and his gathered men, their armor a little singed and dented but they no less worse for wear. "I have to hand it to you; I thoroughly believed you had given us the slip. We've had to deal with this little riot so we weren't able to track you down, but I never expected you to walk into the same room as us." He gave a cruel sounding laugh, motioned for his men to grab Duōyí and the girl. They took the girl to the side and shoved him against the wall.
"You bastards, why? These people were unarmed!" he yelled angrily pointing at the piles of dead men, women, and children, none of them holding a weapon.
"They were sheltering rioters and refused to divulge information about their location or that of the capsule." He answered smoothly. "An example had to be set. Besides you nonbenders breed like elephant rats, their numbers will be back in no time." He gave a sneer and kicked the body of a young woman as if to prove his point.
"Stop it!" Duōyí shouted, the officers getting into a fighting position and preparing to attack.
"Well boy as interesting as this has been unless you have any information on where your accomplice hid the poison gas capsule, and I'm guessing you don't," Duōyí gave no denial of this, "then will have to take your friend and work her over to see if she knows anything about the gas capsule. You on the other hand will have to be disposed of." Duōyí heard this and reached into his coat to pull his revolver out. Only to have it fly out of his hand and twist and contort in the air, the captain using his bending to destroy the weapon.
"Ah, ah ah. I wouldn't be a very good officer if I fell for that again. But I'll tell you something, I'm going to make it quick for you." The commander said, smirking and readying to fire his wrist wire.
"NO! He mustn't die!" the girl cried out, her straight jacket loose enough to allow her to speak and jump out in front of Duōyí. The commander's wire launched and plunged directly into her chest, puncturing her heart. She fell to her knees and the blade retracted from her heart, she let out a choking gasp and fell to the ground. Duōyí watched shocked as a pool of blood spread out around her.
'She saved me? Why? She doesn't know me? I haven't done anything to deserve this.' He fell to his knees next to her and stared at her body.
"Hmm, a shame but she was not necessary to find the capsule, we'll find it once the people here have been brought to heel." The commander thought aloud. Duōyí didn't hear him; he was lost in his own thoughts.
'I'm going to die. Nezumi is probably dead, this girl is dead, and now I'm going to die and I haven't done a single thing with my life. I barely passed my coming of age rite in the Southern Water Tribe; my only jobs have been overseeing criminals in small time heists and gambling at Pai Sho, and I'm never going to see my family again.' The thought of his family, or rather one member of it brought him back a little. 'I'm never going to talk to Korra again. I'm never going to patiently listen to her try and explain how awesome Probending must be. I'm never going to secretly make fun of the White Lotus guards and teachers with her again. I'm never going to see her again.' Korra, his little sister who so strong with her bending, who was so sheltered, never leaving the compound that was her home for so long, everything she heard from the outside world censored or altered by the White Lotus. Even a year ago she would have been ecstatic to see him, just to hear what things were really like in the outside world, the White Lotus standing nearby glaring disapprovingly and their parents standing by and doing nothing to stop it.
Suddenly the girls hand shot up and gripped his ankle and a jolt ran up to his head, everything around him changing. He was floating in the air, strings of energy trailing off into space connecting to his hands and feet, with strange patterns covering the world around him.
/"You don't want it to end here do you?"/ the girls voice rang out all around him.
"What?" he asked stunned, the world changing again to a white abyss.
/"You have a reason to live."/ Her voice rang out again.
'Is that the girl? That's impossible, she's dead.' He thought stunned.
/"I ask of you: if I grant you the power to fight your enemies would you go on? I propose a deal."/ She said as the world changed again, this time into a horizon of a far-off planet, the sun growing brighter and brighter.
/"In exchange for these powers you must agree to make my one wish come true. Accept this contract and you accept its conditions. While living in the world of humans you will live unlike any other. A different providence, a different time, a different life."/ He was floating in the whiteness again.
/"The Power of the King will condemn you to a life of solitude; the Element of Freedom will allow you to fight your enemies in a way they will never be prepared for. Are you prepared for this?"/ she questioned, and far off in the distance Duōyí thought he could see a gathering of men and women in a strange looking metal temple, with strange angles and heights.
"YES! I hereby accept the terms of your contract!" He shouted into the abyss. Everything changed and he found himself back in the warehouse staring at the body of the girl. But now…
"Tell me," Duōyí said, rising from the ground covering his left eye, "how should a man who sees nothing but cruelty, corruption, and incompetence from those who have sworn to lead and protect us live his life?"
"What was that? You some kind of radical from the Trust Territories or an Equalist?" the commander angrily asked, but took a step back when he saw the floor. The dust was starting to kick up around Duōyí.
"Why not fire your wire blade into my heart too." He asked the dust starting to rise higher and faster, a wind starting to whip his and their clothes around. "Or have you finally realized…" the air now whipping the loose boards on the ceiling around and the men were backing away in fear, "the only ones who should kill, are those who are prepared to be killed!" Duōyí removed his hand from over his eye and revealed the strange sigil in it, glowing with power.
"What, what is this!" the commander screamed as the winds began practically ripping the room apart, the walls shaking and threatening to collapse.
"I command you, all of you, DIE!" Duōyí ordered with a harsh whisper, casting his new power out onto the men. The men twitched for a moment and then slumped their shoulders. And looked at the ground, then the commander began chuckling.
"Certainly sir!" His head shot up with a manic grin on his face to match the racing wind all around them, "Men ready yourselves!" they, with matching grins, pressed the blades against their necks. "NOW!" the commander cheered out, dragging his blade across his throat, spilling his blood down his chest, his men soon followed suit, all of them falling to the ground with manic grins on their faces. Duōyí realized what had happened and stared shocked at the dead soldiers laying at his feet, the wind settling down to gentle breeze and then ceasing.
Then, Duōyí smiled. And the world was changed forever.
"Well then…"