Prologue

Remember.

We are told to remember the idea, not the man. A man can be killed. Disavowed. Forgotten. But an idea? An idea can still change the world.

And you can't kill an idea.

Republic City, United Republic of Nations, 171 ASC. 11:57 PM.

Eve Hayashi suddenly realized how god-damn stupid she had been. Running errands all day and then, instead of heading home, staying out until damn near midnight? This was always the seediest time of night in the city. She had thought there would be more people out tonight, but, whether by chance or subtle reasons she was unaware of, there were hardly any people around. She wondered if she should have just slept in the damn train station, where there were always at least some people, rather than trying to head as fast as she could on the largely quiet path between the station and her home.

She had actually been assaulted on her way home once, over a month ago. Some loose cannon Triple Threat Gangsters had approached her, but they were caught off guard when she revealed she had secretly learned chi-blocking. She had gotten away from that one.

But the attackers hadn't been arrested, as far as she knew. Could they come back to attack her again, with a vengeance? And why was she putting herself in such a situation? Overconfidence? Total lack of common sense?

She felt as though she was some kind of fictional character in a bad horror story, written by the author as the stupid person doing stupid things that inevitably get themselves killed.

She tried to reassure herself. She could take care of herself. If anyone messes with her, she can take them on-.

She suddenly felt an ice cold vice-like grip wrapping around her waist, and something cold slammed over her mouth, preventing her from screaming. She was yanked off her feet, down into an alley. She felt herself being dragged a long distance, far from the road. When it finally stopped, she tried to look around for her attacker.

"Well, hello miss." A voice said. Eve froze. She remembered that voice.

"I believe we have some unfinished business between us." A deep male voice said, calm, yet menacing.

"You got lucky last time – we forgot that there a lot of you damned chi-blocker scumbags still among us." The man said, stepping out of the shadows. Eve could make out three figures. She had been trapped in a frozen water whip. She tried to break free. She started to break the solid ice apart, but she didn't have time to move before two of the men pinned her down. With her arms out of the fight, Eve started kicking at them. She felt her knee connect with one of the men's crotch. The man yelped in pain, and let go of her to clutch at his crotch. She lashed out with her now-free left hand, aiming for the other man's face. She felt the punch connect, and the grip on her right arm loosened. But before she could try to struggle out, the man responded by punching her in the head, with a fist hard as rock – because it was literally covered in rock – and she started seeing stars. The gangsters quickly subdued her before she recovered, tying her limbs with real rope, and pinning her against the wall.

"But we'll have our way with you yet. Triple Threats do not forget, and we always get what we want." The leader said, igniting a small flame at the tip of his finger, illuminating their faces as he crouched in front of her.

"You have fight in you. We like that. It gives…thrill, to the hunt. Makes you all the more desirable." He said, grinning madly, inching closer than ever to her face.

"Please…don't do this…" Eve pleaded. The man only smiled, and started reaching for her–

"Leave that woman alone."A booming voice suddenly said.

Everyone turned to face the other end of the alley where the voice had come from.

A dark figure stood there, standing very still, but clearly staring straight at them.

"Did you not hear me? Step away from the young lady."

"Just who the fuck do you think you are?" The waterbender gangster asked.

The man stepped forward, allowing his face to show in the light.

All three gangsters gasped. They saw a dark clothed figure, wearing a mask, bearing that terrible, cold, emotionless face. A face most dreaded by benders in every corner of the Republic.

"Amon!" The earthbending gangster managed to say.

The unmistakable figure of Amon stared at them, the mask cold and unrevealing. He raised a gauntleted hand. A glowing circle appeared in the center.

"Release the woman immediately." Amon said.

"We're not afraid of you, uh…Amon-my-period!" The earthbender gangster punned terribly.

"Real funny – but wouldn't that just make me more dangerous?" Amon retorted.

"Enough of your talk! You don't scare us!" The firebending leader shouted. He conjured up a ball of flame, and blasted it at Amon.

Amon braced himself, arms protecting his face. The fire hit him – and did nothing. The fire simply deflected off of his insulated suit, doing no harm.

Amon slowly lowered his arms.

"You asked for it." He said. He suddenly produced and hurled a bola whip at them. The earthbender gangster was caught in it, and fell back onto the ground.

The waterbender immediately tried to immobilize Amon by restraining him with a water whip, totally forgetting that Amon was supposed to be a waterbender himself. Amon, however, didn't respond with waterbending. The gangster had made the mistake of utilizing direct contact with his water whip through his hands. As the whip wrapped around Amon, he touched his electro-glove to the whip, electrifying the water and shocking the waterbender. The gangster screamed, and fell to the ground, while Amon's insulated suit kept him safe.

The earthbender managed to scramble his feet, struggling out of the bola whip. He stomped on the ground, causing the ground to pop up beneath Amon, throwing him back and off his feet. Amon rolled with the attack, somersaulting backwards and quickly getting back on his feet. The gangsters started moving up, keeping the pressure on Amon. The earthbender tried to follow up his attack, but he didn't get a chance.

"Get the earthbender!" Amon shouted. The earthbender was suddenly electro-shocked from behind. The firebender turned around to see two additional masked figures who had come up behind them.

"Fall back! He's mine!" Amon shouted. The two newcomers backed off and went to cover the exits from their section of the alleyways. Amon advanced on the firebender, aiming his dual electro-gloves as he closed the distance.

The firebender readied himself. As soon as Amon was only feet from the firebender, he thrust his left hand forward and discharged his electrified glove. The firebender caught and dispersed it with his lighting-bending. He jumped back, and quickly responded by firing a concentrated lightning bolt straight at Amon.

The lightning bolt struck Amon, who took a couple of steps back in reflex. But he was otherwise unharmed, thanks to his insulated suit. The firebender took several steps back, trying to keep Amon at distance.

Amon, showing apparent annoyance, despite his masked face, then put his hands down, standing up straight, deactivating his glove.

"What the hell is he doing?" The firebender thought.

Amon reached for something on his waist. The firebender readied himself. Amon procured a –

What the hell was that thing?

No matter, it was a threat. The firebender immediately tried to shoot a lance of fire at Amon – but had no time to get the attack off before a loud bang come from Amon's hand.

The firebender felt as though he had been punched in the chest. He fell over on his back. When he got a look at his torso, he was shocked to see blood flowing from it.

He heard footsteps approaching him. He looked up to see Amon towering over him, aiming his strange weapon at his head. Amon began to speak.

"It's people like you, who abuse their power to take advantage of the weak, that have really messed up this supposed "Republic."

"For too long, you benders had a natural advantage over nonbenders. Too many of you chose to abuse your powers. And nonbenders couldn't do anything about it. Oh, they tried, yes, but after my predecessor's exposure, and his fall, they lost their direction, lost their will. And benders have started becoming smug and complacent in their power once again, believing they will always be the elite, even believing that nonbenders will always depend on benders, that the Equalists only came close to succeeding because their leader was a bender. The council has refused to yield its power, and it has refused to give nonbenders the ability to protect themselves. They say it is a recipe for chaos. I think they are hypocrites who fear what may cost them their power."

"…But no longer. No longer will the weak have to fear any man, regardless of their size. I am the justice that nonbenders deserve, and the equalizer they need. A storm is coming. It is inevitable. It will hound us until it's thirst is satiated. If you don't like it, you better batten down your hatches. Because you can't stop it."

The firebender suddenly tried to conjure up one last flame in his hand, and attempted to hurl it at Amon.

He never got the chance.

Another bang resounded, and the firebender's brains exploded out the back of his head.

Amon holstered his weapon, looking down at the corpse of the firebender.

"You can't stop the future."

Eve was dumbfounded by what had just happened. She had been attacked by some Triple Threat thugs, and then out of nowhere, freaking Amon came to save her, and with a strange weapon seeming almost as terrible as bloodbending. She noted that this Amon seemed different from the Amon everyone knew. There even seemed to be an alteration to the mask, but she was too confused and shocked to think about it.

Amon turned to the lady, noticing her just staring at him, still slack-jawed. He approached her.

"Hello, young lady. What's your name?"

"Uh...ee-…Eve." She stammered out.

"Eve? What a pretty name. Suffice to say, though, trying to live up to what your name implies doesn't seem to be working out for you." Amon said, as he crouched down, procured a knife, and started cutting her out of the ropes. Meanwhile, his underlings went over to the bodies on the ground, tying up the live ones.

"Just who are you, really?" Eve asked. Amon had mentioned something during his monologue, that the Amon that everyone knew was his predecessor.

"Who am I? I believe it has been established that I am Amon." Amon responded, ignoring what he knew she really meant.

"The police and an ambulance are on the way. I suggest you don't avoid them, you really need to get looked at by the paramedics. You probably have a concussion."

"What am I supposed to tell the police?" Eve asked.

"You don't have to tell them anything, if you don't wish." Amon said.

He paused for a moment.

"But by all means, if you do talk to the cops…do what you want with the story. I'm not going to tell you what should come out of your mouth."

Amon finally cut Eve free from her bindings. She did not resist as he then picked her up, and started carrying her out of the alley.

When they reached a curb, he put her down on the sidewalk, leaning her against a wall.

"Don't worry. The police are coming for you. And we're still here for you. You're safe now." Amon said softly, before disappearing back into the alleyway.

Eve waited for a moment, wondering if, knowing her luck, something else bad would happen. But, wait, Amon had said something about…them being still there for her? What the hell did that mean –"

She suddenly heard footsteps rapidly approaching. Oh shit, was her luck really this bad-?

"Eve?! Eve!" The approaching person shouted. Wait, she knew that voice –

"Eve! It's me! Hirano!" The man said, as he ran up and crouched in front of her.

"Huh?...Oh my….oh my god, Hirano!" She exclaimed, hugging her boyfriend.

"Please…don't do this again…" Hirano said, hugging her back.

In the back of her head, Eve recognized the implications of what was going on, but she didn't care in the slightest.

She could now hear sirens in the distance, and chose this time to finally let herself pass out in Hirano's arms, knowing no harm would come to her.

Author's Note:

So, Amon seems to back! And he's brought a weapon that is blatantly obvious what it is even though I haven't yet called it by name!

As you can probably tell, this was indeed partially inspired by the opening of V for Vendetta. I couldn't help but see a fair amount of similarity between Amon and V.

So, what do you think so far? Any constructive criticism of any kind?

Unfortunately, it may be quite a few chapters before the aftermath of this prologue is properly addressed (I hadn't planned the prologue before, and only came up with it recently, and had already structured the story in my head in a different way that I don't want to change.) The first part of the story will actually cover chronologically previous events eventually leading up it. I am actually kind of wondering if I'm not getting a little ahead of myself with this prologue.

Nevertheless, I hope you won't be disappointed by the next coming chapters :).