Noatak was sleeping soundly in his bed, his arms supporting the pillows and eyes closed in a peaceful way. Suddenly an equalist chi-blocker tumbles through the open window, and two more barge through the door.
Noatak shoots up and blasts two short bursts of flame to gather some room. While he stood still, trying to gather his thoughts, two more chi-blockers emerge from the shadows and easily jab his pressure points, rendering him useless. Noatak was quickly kicked to his knees.
He sees Korra walking calmly from the shadows, approaching him. She looks at him from behind her mask, and speaks with satisfaction. "When I take away you're bending, you'll be nothing."
Noatak wakes up in a cold sweat, a small yell escaping him. He looks out his window, seeing it's still wide open from the night before. 'Just a dream..' His eyes narrowed and he promptly slammed the window closed in a huff.
Noatak heard footsteps approaching. The door opened calmly, "Noatak I have to go to a council meeting this afternoon, I need you to take care of the kids, and don't forget to meditate." Noatak sighed. He was no good at meditation, he had too much to think about. "Yes sir, I'll be sure to, and I'll make sure the kids don't cause any trouble."
"There's a madwoman running around our beloved city, threatening to tear it apart. We need to create a task force sole mission is to find Korra and bring her to justice." Tarrlok opened.
"Absolutely not! A move that aggressive would only further divide benders and non-benders." Tenzin said flatly. Korra was a wild card, of course it didn't really matter what they did, she would push on doing what she wants no matter what.
"Tarrlok, I'm inclined to agree with your proposal, but who would even head up such a task force?" The council-woman questioned, ignoring Tenzin's input.
Tarrlok stands, bowing slightly. "It would be my honor and privilege to accept such a duty."
"This is just another ploys to gain more power isn't it?" Tenzin accused. Pounding his fist on the table lightly.
Tarrlok grimaces, leaning forward over the table. "All I'm trying to do help. Think back, forty-two years ago, Republic City was threatened by another dangerous person. My father, Yakone. Your father wasn't afraid to face him head on." He glares at the man and his fear and hesitation.
"This is a completely different situation!" Tenzin stands pointing at Tarrlok. "And how dare you compare yourself to Avatar Aang!" He swings his arm ending in a dramatic flourish.
"Korra isn't going to stop with the bending triads. Eventually she'll come for all benders. Our friends, our families. Vote for this task force and I will stop Korra before it's too late. All in favor?" Tarrlok raises his hand, followed by the representatives from the other nations, only excluding Tenzin.
Tenzin huffs, not surprised that they sided with Tarrlok as usual. He leaves quietly, defeated.
Noatak slowly moved through the airbending forms, soft jazz creating a relaxed environment. He was trying desperately to produce a puff of air. 'Air is the element of freedom, let all troubles and worries float away like the leaf...Be the leaf.' He repeated the short phrase over and over like a mantra in his head. When suddenly the music was interrupted by static.
"Evening my equalists, This is your leader, Korra, As you've heard the council has decided to make me public enemy number one. Showing for the millionth time that the benders of this city will stop at nothing to run our revolution into the ground. But we can't be stopped. Our numbers grow everyday, we don't have to live in fear anymore, Now it's their turn to live in fear." Korra's voice rang through the empty courtyard, causing Noatak froze and tensed greatly.
Mako was hot and sweaty from a long day at the power-plant. He wanted nothing more than to find Bolin and Noatak to practice for the next pro-bending match. He ran through the street, when suddenly a young girl on a moped crashes into him as he tried to run from behind a trolley. He crashed to the ground and his hand shot to his head to recover from the fall.
"Oh, no!" Asami climbed off her moped and rushed toward him. I'm so sorry. I didn't see you." She removes her helmet and shakes her hair out.
Mako shifts into a sitting position and rubs the back of his head. "How could you not see me?..I uh...I was just...jus..." He looks at her as her hair is thrown back. "Uh, I was...I-I...wow." He sputters pathetically, and coughs to cover. "I was..." A dark blush crossed his cheeks.
Asami gently grasped Mako's arm. "Are you okay? Did I hurt you? Uh, I'm such an idiot." She pulls him to his feet carefully.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. My brother hits me harder than that every day in practice." Mako said lightheartedly, brushing himself off.
"Wait, I recognize you. You're Mako, right? You play for the Fire Ferrets." Asami asked excitedly.
"Yeah, that's me." Mako replied with a chuckle.
Asami smacks herself lightly on the forehead. I'm so embarrassed!" She reaches out to shake Mako's hand politely. "My name's Asami. Let me make this up to you somehow. Uh, how about I treat you to dinner? Tomorrow night, eight o' clock, Kuang's Cuisine." Asami agreed without any acknowledgement.
"Uh, Kuang's? I don't have any clothes nice enough for a place that classy." Mako admitted with slight shame in his voice. "I'll take care of that. All you need to do is show up." She puts the helmet and goggles back on as she climbed back onto her moped. "So...it's a date?" She asked shyly. "Uh, yeah, I guess so. I'll see you tomorrow night." Mako agreed blushing madly. Asami revved the engine to her moped and sped off toward her home.
"We are grateful for this delicious food, for happiness, for compassion, and..." Tenzin cut off to the sound of footsteps through the corridor. The door opened to reveal Tarrlok stepping through the sliding door.
"I'm not interrupting, am I?" Tarrlok asked, bowing slightly as he walked though the room toward his brother.
"This is my home, Tarrlok. We're about to eat dinner." Tenzin protested, he wasn't in the mood to deal with the man. He glared at him trying to send the message that he was unwelcome.
"Good, because I am absolutely famished. Airbenders never turn away a hungry guest, am I right?" Tarrlok asked pointedly. Knowing Tenzin was bound to welcome him according to Airbender morals.
Tenzin sighs heavily. "I suppose." He sits back down next to Pema, whom scowls at him. In response he raises his hands in surrender with a look of 'What am I supposed to do?' played across his face.
Tarrlok takes a seat beside Noatak, flashing a smile at him. "Well brother how does it feel to be the hype of Republic City? It's a lot different from the North Pole eh?"
Noatak chuckled. "Much different. I'm actually not sure how I feel about the attention. The public speaking I don't mind, it's the tabloids that bother me. I cannot practice with Mako and Bolin without having an article about it."
Ikki leans over the table toward Tarrlok. "Why do you have three ponytails?" She inhales deeply with her nose. "And how come you smell like a lady? You're weird." She remarked quickly.
"Well aren't you...precocious?" He directed his attention back to his brother. Disregarding Ikki's glares."So, I've been reading all about your adventures in the papers. Infiltrating Korra's rally, now that took some real initiative brother."
"Well, I needed information. I need to know everything I can about the revolution so that I can calm it the best way possible." Noatak stated.
"Well the city is much better off now that you're here." Tarrlok said sweetly, openly kissing up to his brother.
"What do you want brother? I have enough on my schedule as it is." Noatak replied, his eyes rolling.
"Well, As you may have heard, I am assembling a task force that will strike at the heart of the revolution and I want you to join me." Tarrlok said, braving up.
"Oh really? What makes you think that I would want to be apart of said task force?" Noatak asked.
"We need to stop the equalists before they hurt anyone." Tarrlok tried to appeal to his brothers protectiveness of the people the best her could. Noatak sighed heavily. "I'm sorry brother but I have too many things I need to do first."
"Ah, welcome to Kuang's Cuisine, master Mako." a man said politely, bowing before him.
"Uh. master?" Mako asked, bewildered.
Mako is pulled into a back room, the server who greeted Mako as he walked in unfolds a shirt from a box and dresses it on Mako. The server pulls up Mako's pants, ties his shoes, styles his hair, and gives him a formal-looking jacket to wear. Mako examines the clothes with pleasure. He then grabs his red scarf from the table behind him and puts it around his neck. The server glances at it and starts to pull it off, when Mako prevents him from doing so by catching the server's wrist.
"The scarf stays." Mako says passionately. As you wish, sir." The man bows again. "This way please." He leads Mako into the esteemed restaurant.
Mako finds a seat beside Asami and it isn't long before the begin to talk about his pro-bending career.
"All of them? Wow. Honestly, I wish there were a few you hadn't seen." Mako said with a laugh.
"Oh, don't be ridiculous, you're amazing. I can't wait to see you play in the tournament." Asami admitted, impressed.
"Yeah, well, ah, maybe next year." Mako said, crestfallen.
"What do you mean? You made it in." Asami inquired.
"It just isn't in the cards for us right now."
Asami scowls, she rests her hand on top of Mako's. "Tell me. What's the problem?"
"We don't have the cash to ante up for the championship pot. So, it looks like we're out of the running." Mako said sadly.
"That's not fair!" Asami nearly yelled.
The server walks to them with a large silver platter. "Pardon me, Ms. Sato." He removes the lids. "Your main course."
"Ms. Sato? You wouldn't happen to be related to Hiroshi Sato, creator of the Satomobile?" Mako asked, amazed.
"Yeah. He's my dad." Asami said chuckling.
Mako's jaw could have slammed to the floor in shock. "Get out of town!"
"I'm serious. You want to meet him?" Asami asked.
"Meet the most successful captain of industry in all of Republic City? Yeah, I'll take you up on that." Mako replied, a bit too quickly.
Bolin waltzed cheerily toward where Noatak was lying on the ground reading.
"Hello, fellow teammate!"
Noatak looked up from the book to see Bolin approaching with Pabu crawling across his shoulders.
"Evening Bolin." He puts his book down, standing to face him.
"We missed you at practice this week bro." Bolin said, a grin on his face.
"I'm sorry about that, I have been very busy lately." Noatak said, scratching the back of his head.
"Nah, that's alright. We're probably out of the finals anyway unless some money miraculously drops out of the sky by tomorrow. Anyways, the reason I came by was to give you this." Bolin takes out a small bowl filled with Noatak's favorite noodles from Narook's, as well a scroll on airbending that he's 'borrowed' from Tenzin.
Noatak accepts the gifts with a smile. "What's this for Bolin?" Noatak asked. Wondering what he did to deserve such kind gifts.
Bolin scratches his chin in mock thought. "Uh, oh I can't remember now. Oh yeah, now I remember. You saved me from Korra!"
"Oh that? Don't worry about that it was no big deal." Noatak said, shrugging.
"No big deal, are you serious? I was totally freaking out when he was coming at me with his creepy mask all, "I will take away your bending forever." He motions and speaks like a zombie trying to comically replicate Korra. I mean that is scary stuff; I still can't sleep well." Bolin admits, he steps forward give the older man an awkward hug.
Noatak smiled. "Really, don't worry, you're my friend Bolin. A good one at that. I would do anything I can to protect you."