It only took six minutes to fly over the city in a diamond formation with Meelo leading the way into the mountsins. It was covered well from the trees with plenty of flora hiding it from below without obstructing the view from the estate of the city. The wall was a nice clay color with green shingles. There was a large gate facing what appeared to be the south facing driveway. The main house stood about a third the way in from the main gate, and the back two thirds of the property was occupied by an expansive garden with a combination of a walking path and a little creek in the shape of a flying boar. It's eyes were marked with koi ponds. There was no mistaking the crest of the Beifong Family.
As Meelo, Ikki, Jinora, and Opal circled back around to get a second look, they had to break formation as a metal net came flying towards them from one of the guard houses on the wall.
"They're trying to shoot us out of the sky!" Jinora yelled as a flurry of cables flew up through the air after them. They flew faster. After the cables missed, a wave of metal strips came towards them. They flew up out of range as the strips of metal plummeted back towards the earth below. They began flying back towards the city just as Meelo's glider got sliced, causing him to fall out of the sky screaming.
"Meelo!" Jinora screamed turning back only to be greeted by more metal strips, this time not from the battlements, but from a metalbender standing on the roof of the main house beside a girl dressed in air nomad colors. Opal dove in front of Jinora closing her glider to bat the metal strips away with an air swipe before diving to grab Meelo. As they came up again. The metalbender watched them. She pushed both arms forward slicing Jinora and Opal's gliders. They let go to free their hands to blast air downwards to slow their fall.
"Ikki! Go get help!" Jinora yelled towards the sky from the ground as metalbending guards surrounded them.
Ikki nodded and flew higher but the young woman flung a metal strip at Ikki, grabbing her ankle and yanking her down as she screamed and lost the glider. The last, in-tact glider. The girl beside the metalbender on the roof seemed to be able to just pull Ikki's glider out of the air before disappearing from the roof.
The four found themselves with their wrists and ankles cuffed together in metal and their torsos all tied to the pillars of a low-rising stone wall in the ornate garden as the young, metalbending woman emerged from the house with the girl carrying Ikki's glider.
"Who are you and why are you flying over our house?" the metalbender demanded. Her emerald green eyes narrowed with suspicion. Her hair was tied back in a bun with two braids emerging from it. There was a meteor bracelet on her left bicep. and corners on her forearm bindings similar to what Suyin wore in Zaofu. This girl had a shiny silver belt with the flying boar on the buckle, and had a spool of cable on each hip. She wore a green tunic over black shirt, and dark green pants with a slightly lighter green split skirt and dark brown leather shoes with retractable metal soles and metal bands holding the leather up just below her knees. "And don't even try lying, I can feel the most subtle of changes in ones heartbeat when he lies," the metalbender added looking straight at Meelo.
"We're sorry for trespassing!" Meelo sighed looking down.
"We were just looking for Chief Lin Beifong," Opal explained.
"What made you think she would be here?" the metalbender asked.
"Well the garden has a flying boar in it and..."
"It is a week day between the hours of seven am and seven pm. She's at work. Everyone in the United Republic and the Earth Kingdom knows that," the metalbender snapped at Opal.
"She's my aunt and we need her help with something!" Opal yelled.
The metalbender turned and glanced at the girl beside her who nodded.
"You can tell me what you need from her, and I will tell her when she gets home," the metalbender said.
"So she DOES live here!" Meelo exclaimed. The metalbender sighed with frustration.
"You never answered my first question. What are your names?" the metalbender said getting visibly impatient. The girl beside her looked much more calm and level-headed.
"I am Jinora and this is my sister Ikki and my brother, Meelo, and this is Opal Beifong, daughter of Suyin and Baatar of Zaofu," Jinora answered speaking almost as quickly as Ikki. "Opal is living with us and training on our island since our dad is the only airbending master in the world."
"Well, teeeeechnically you're an airbending master too," Meelo corrected her.
"But I am only fourteen and don't feel comfortable teaching everything," Jinora replied.
"What is YOUR name?" Ikki asked the metalbender.
The metalbender turned to the girl with two yellow buns on her head like ears of a pandahippo. "My name is not important and you are in no position to ask questions. Tell me what you want me to ask my mother, and we will let you leave. Continuing to stall and waste mine and my sister's time will result in overnight imprisonment at the police station and a formal charge of trespassing for each of you," the metalbender said.
The airbenders glanced at each other. Mother?
"Just show her!" Ikki said to Jinora.
Jinora looked behind her and wiggled her fingers. The metal bender looked away impatiently and released the master airbender's arms with a flick of the wrist, recalling the metal cuff. Jinora fumbled through her robes and produced the photograph. "We were wondering if... your mother, Chief Beifong, could help us identify the people in this photograph," Jinora said truthfully, handing over the photograph nervoursly.
The metalbender's confident and somewhat menacing posture changed dramatically. Her eyes narrowed even more with either hate or pain as she recognized the people in the photograph immediately. Jinora couldn't tell.
She turned to the girl next to her who held Ikki's staff.
"Have Luong prepare a car and then bring Captain Peng here," she ordered.
"Right away," the girl said dutifully as she handed the metalbender Ikki's staff and ran off. Within seconds, the metalbending captain of the guard appeared.
"Captain, will you please get these four off the property as soon as possible?" She asked.
"Where would you like me to take them?"
"You will take them to the docks in Republic City, board a ferry to Air Temple Island and don't leave them until they are back on the island and in the custody of either Councilman Tenzin or the Air Acolyte Pema. Make sure nobody harm comes to any of them along the way," the metalbender ordered the guard before turning on her heel to head back towards the house.
"But wait! Our photograph!" Jinora said running after her, easily passing the guard with her airbending and her arms and legs free. Jinora almost reached the photograph in the metalbender's right hand before the metalbender turned and lifted her left hand above her head. A metal strip encircled one of Jinora's wrists, lifting her into the air as Ikki, Meelo, and Opal gasped.
"This," she replied turning holding the photograph up. "This was NEVER yours to see, and will never be yours to keep!" She said on the verge of tears before tossing Jinora back towards Opal, Ikki, and Meelo and breaking into a run back to her house. She seemed so angry, so hurt as she fought back tears that threatened to fall down her previously perfectly composed and confident face.
The metalbending Captain, Peng, cuffed Jinora's wrists and ankles again and levitated her, her siblings and Opal and levitated them, dragging them through the air by their metal cuffs. He walked them around the house to the front where a brand new Sato Mobile was waiting with the doors open and a valet nearby holding the keys.
"Thank you, Luong," Peng said taking the keys as they both bowed to each other. Peng placed Opal gently in the front seat of the car beside him and the three children in the back seat before closing their doors and climbing into the driver's seat. "She said to the docks, right kids? You home is on Air Temple Island?" Peng asked adjusting the mirrors of the fancy car.
"No, you have to drive us all the way to Ba Sing Se first and then to Omashu to ride the mail system, and then to Zaofu to see Opal's mom and THEN to Air Temple Island!" Ikki replied rapidly and sarcastically. Peng simply chuckled as he turned the key and started the engine.
"Excuse me, Captain, who is the metalbending girl that interrogated us?" Opal asked politely.
"She is the eldest daughter of the Lady Beifong," Peng replied pulling out of the courtyard in front of the house, and driving through a pair of large cherry wood gates with the flying boar carved into both sides of it.
"I didn't even know Chief Beifong had children," Jinora said in disbelief.
"What is her name?" Ikki asked.
"Hui-Fan. It is a very fitting name. Hui-Fan is a very clever and intelligent girl. She is incredibly strong and accurate, lethal when fighting. I've only sparred with her twice, when she was ten years old, and barely lasted a minute!" Peng chuckled again with a warm smile.
Opal looked at the others in the back seat. Hui-Fan was written on the back of the photograph beside the number 8.
"Um, Captain Peng, do you know who her father is?"
"We're not supposed to tell outsiders, thaaat. Sorry kids."
"But Captain, if she is Chief Beifong's daughter, then she is my cousin! Don't I deserve to know?" Opal asked.
"Sorry kid, can't tell." Peng said. "Can't betray the misses."
They drove the rest of the way in silence, parked the car by the docks, then boarded the ferry. "What happened?" Kya and Pema asked running down to the docks, Rohan in Pema's arms.
"Is one of you the Air Acolyte Pema?" Peng asked.
"I am she," Pema said shifting Rohan in her arms. "They were caught trespassing over private airspace, Ma'am. But don't worry. We will not press charges this time since they did no harm, nor foul. But please, make sure it doesn't happen again. Here are their staffs." Peng said handing Kya the four gliders.
Pema and Kya just stared open mouthed at the metalbending guard as he told them what happened. He finished and saluted. As he lowered his hand, the metal flew off of the children's wrists and ankles and onto the cuffs of his forearms. "Good day ladies, children," he bowed and headed back towards the ferry. As he turned, they could see the golden seal of the flying boar stamped onto the shoulder of his armor.
"Okay?" Pema said watching him go with apprehension before turning to her children and Opal.
"WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GO THIS AFTERNOON?! AND WHY DID THEY FEEL THE NEED TO SEND YOU HOME IN CHAINS?!" Kya screamed while Pema just looked at them with confusion. She looked as she may explode with the confusion and a building stress, yet could never bring herself to yell at her children in any condescending way.
"We weren't actually trespassing. Just on a scenic flight around Republic City and, well, the owner of the house didn't like our flying. Thought we were snooping out a place to rob or something but when she saw we were just kids, let us go!" Opal explained.
"Letting you go is not the same as sending you with an escort to make sure you get home," Kya clarified for the kids.
"Your father is definitely going to hear about this," Pema informed them. "And all four of you are grounded until further notice. No gliders or bisons or lemurs for a week!"
"Awwww!" the children groaned as they headed up to the house.