Tai's eyes were wide with fear. Flying through the air in a metal tube connected to more, exploding tubes had the tendency to do that to a person. Trains were not meant to fly, even if the bullet trains often felt like that.
Anything and everything, whether it was bolted down or not, tumbled through the interior, adrenaline and hard-won reflexes making everything look like it was moving slowly. The only thing keeping Tai from getting crushed was metalbending. A section of the floor was used to shield the blast and block more flying objects from entering when the train car tore in half, cartwheeled as it hit the ground
Earlier…
A duo stood atop the ridge over one of the many mag-rails that stretched across the continent, black clothing blending in with the night. Their hoods were drawn over their heads, concealing their features. Snow patched the landscape and a bitterly cold chill cut through the air; winter on the border between the north and central portions of the fragmented Earth Federation.
A buzzing from the pocket prompted one of them to pull out his mobile. The greeting message splayed across the screen.
"We secure?" he asked.
A couple of seconds passed before the response was relayed.
"Secured," the message read. "Go ahead, Hei."
"We're in position," said Hei. "What's the status on the target?"
"Train is running on time," read the reply. "Reinforcements are on standby."
"What's the troop composition?"
"Two platoons worth of soldiers, plus some hired guns. At least a dozen benders on board. Standard CQB kits for everyone else."
Hei grunted in approval as he closed the mobile. It locked automatically and encrypted the dialogue exchanged. If he were to be captured, or his device fall into unwanted hands, they would find nothing. Standard protocol for people of their line of work.
His partner was squatting along the edge of the cliff, taking in the scenery. Hei refrained doing anything to compromise the mission. It would be best to get the reminder out now.
"Remember:" Hei said. "We have to secure the cargo. The bosses spent some considerable resources lining this job for us. Don't screw this up, Tai."
Tai gave a curt nod and stood up.
The faint sound of a train approaching cued the duo to make ready for their jump. Hopping onto a high-speed train would be suicidal for any normal person. Thankfully for the duo, normal did not strictly apply to them.
Hei gave his partner the signal and both let gravity do most of the work. Sticking their hands out, they hovered over the roof of the train while maintaining their positions, neither of them drifting more than a couple meters from their landing point. Gently easing their push against the metal surface, the duo settled onto train.
Phase one: complete.
[SoT]
Captain Ling was reading through missives on his tablet when he heard the thumps. Down the car, one of the security troopers looked up, using seismic sense to confirm the presence of the intruders.
"They're here," he said.
Ling nodded and turned to the rest of his entourage. "You know what to do."
The rows of Earth Kingdom soldiers stood up, weapons charged.
"Yes, my lord!" his men answered back.
[SoT]
"Okay," said Hei. "They know we're here. Do your thing, Tai."
Cracking joints, his partner walked atop the train and then ripped the roof open. A barrage of gunfire flew through the opening, but not a single round landed on Tai's person. The metalbender answered with a spray of metal darts, piercing armor and flesh alike before falling into the opening to finish them off and deal with the remaining resistance.
With the entrance clear, Hei followed the wake of destruction.
Good work, Tai, he thought to himself. Words he would never say out loud.
Clearing out the stragglers, Hei quickly ran to the nearest emergency break, broke the protective glass, and mashed the button in. It would be a while before they would come to a complete stop, but it would be enough for the second team to make their entrance. Sending a quick message to said team, Hei made his way to the next objective, phase two now finished. Tai had already torn into the cargo car, allowing him to rummage with relative impunity.
A series of thuds heralded the arrival of the second team. A momentary distraction. Prying open the crate, Hei smiled. A safe made from an alloy meant to thwart metalbenders. Not that it would do any good. He had seen dozens of safes and vaults more secured than this.
He unhooked the metal slabs from his bracers, narrowing them to points and wedging them into the minute gaps around the door, slowly prying the door off.
"How we doing?" someone asked.
"Fine, Wei," Hei answered. "See what else you can find."
A distant thump reverberated through the car.
"It sounds like our ace is doing well."
"Just shut up and loot the place."
Hei had just finished opening the safe, when a sudden lurching threw everyone off their feet.
"Did someone just disconnect the cars?"
That's not right, Hei thought. He looked into the safe to recover his prize, but instead, found a display counting down. He had seconds to shout a warning and pitch himself out the nearest window before a series of explosions tore through the train.
[SoT]
Ling coughed as he rolled out of the wreckage. The car that he had been in had essentially flown through the air, tumbling around until it came to a stop at the edge of a cliff. He could feel several cracked ribs, a broken nose, and he was going to be seeing some pretty hefty bruising in the days to come. Bending would be a bit difficult, but it could have been worse.
The back wall of his car had been blasted off in attempt to get rid of the thieves and had nearly caught him in the blast as well. The smoke was clearing when he saw a silhouette against the dawning light. With a hefting motion, the slab of metal, a makeshift shield was thrown out the new opening. Likewise, a pair of broken goggles followed it to the ground.
The figure threw a hood back, revealing a dirty face. Dark hair was short and swept to the side, slightly mussed from the hood, strands framing the face and bangs drifting over one eye.
"Well, that sucked," she muttered.
"They sent a little girl after us?" Ling wheezed, incredulous
Said girl turned to him. "Oh, one of them survived," she said, dryly.
"Yeah." Ling unsnapped his holster and whipped out his pistol. The girl did not even flinch, even as the weapon slipped out of the holster. Definitely one of the benders. Gotta be quick. Ling took aim and pulled the trigger.
With scarcely any motion on her part, the bullet flew around the girl's head and swung back to nail Ling in the forehead.
The shot echoed, then silence reigned as Tai watched on, dispassionately, as the Earth Kingdom soldier slumped down into the snowy ground. Sounds of the wreckage settling around her mingled with the wind picking up around her.
A shadow approached her from behind. The slight limp to his step implied an injury, but she recognized him easily enough in spite of the disturbance.
"Brother," she said.
"Tai," Hei replied, breathing a little strained and ragged. Stepping into a stream of light, she could see some cuts her brother had received. "I see you escaped unharmed."
"This operation was a setup."
Hei shot her a glare. "Of course it was," he growled, face twisting with a burst of anger, which quickly subsided when a familiar whine of engines approached. "That's our ride out."
Stepping into the hold of the hovercraft, the pilot's voice came over the intercom.
"Is that everyone?" she asked.
"All that's left," Hei replied.
"What happened back there?"
"We were betrayed."
New Earth Kingdom Territory, 291 AG…
A/N: Since Naruto: Re is moving out of the station, I'm putting up this starter the future Avatar project I've had in the wings for a while now. In short, this story will be following Korra's successor in a distant future of a world that had already developed things like power armor, bullet trains, and freaking laser beams. Expect some cyberpunk influence.
The plot outline still needs some work (something I will be working in the near future), so it might be a bit before this SoT gets moved to an active status. Until then, this story will be marked with a completion status.