this one was for a writing meme i did - someone would send in a "[blank] me", and i'd do whatever the meme said, which for this one was "one character saving another." i pretty much just ended up using this as an excuse to practice writing action scenes, but...


Korra jerked to the side to evade one water whip, turned another to steam in midair with a blast of fire, and spun around to drive her heel into a Monsoon's gut, ducking low to the ground as water cracked again over her head like a bolt of lightning –

Or maybe that was Mako, at the other end of the alley, arms straight and knees bent, smoke curling from his fingers as a man crumpled and the water he had been wielding splashed into a large puddle between them. Mako barely had time to wipe the sweat from his brow before another opponent darted out from behind a dumpster and sent several ice daggers his way –

That was all she managed to catch a glimpse of, because then she was occupied again by a tendril of water snaking around her ankle – she dug in and twisted her foot and the pavement climbed up her leg, grounding her – there was the distant sound of whooshing flames somewhere behind her, more splashes, and a short yell, which was encouraging – Korra pulled a brick out of the wall and shot it at the second Monsoon's head with a nasty thud; he groaned and keeled over while his buddy, stuck with his whip wrapped around her ankle but no way to make the move he'd planned and another officer arriving on the scene approaching from his other side, desperately tried to throw a spinning blade of water at her one-handed.

Had she not been pinned in one place by her own bending, it would've been easy to dodge – it was just lucky he hadn't had both hands free to make the thing, or it would've been much sharper; as it was, it broke the skin where it grazed her under her arm. Hissing through her teeth at the sting, she took hold of the liquid cord and, aided again by bending, tugged as hard as she could: unprepared and caught off balance as he shifted into a new stance to face the cop, he toppled right over, landing hard on his shoulder and allowing the newcomer – a metalbender, apparently – to tie him up and secure him.

That was the immediate threat on one front taken care of, then. Korra released herself from the ground, straightened up, and turned to face the guy she'd knocked down before, but it seemed that once he'd recovered, he'd chosen Mako as his new target and was sneaking up on him from behind. Mako was still holding his own, trading fireballs for shards of ice with the Monsoon using the dumpster for cover, but he was too focused, too immersed in the fight to notice – Korra's heart leapt into her throat –

"Mako!" she shouted, sprinting for him, and – no, idiot, don't just turn around like that, I'm not the one in trouble, you are! An icicle nicked his shoulder while he was distracted and he spun back to throw more flames at his attacker. At least he was aware of the problem now, but there was still no way he could take both Monsoons out in that position – and Korra was still too far away to get a good shot – but maybe if she just –

She stopped running, planted her feet wide, and clenched her fists. Using all her strength, she rotated her arms and tore a huge block of earth out of the street, flipping it up with enough force that Mako's newest adversary was sent flying into the wall, slid down it, and didn't get up.

Mako tossed another handful of flames at the first Monsoon and a brief, but grateful, grin at her. "Thanks."

"You can thank me when we both get home safe," she said as she finally reached him, studying his bleeding shoulder. Before he had the chance to say anything, she avoided his eyes – because he always gave her that look in situations like these, the one that was too heavy to ever hold, and his words always became clear and weighted and glass and she couldn't get all broken up right now – and grabbed his sleeve, pulling him along. His man had just scurried around the corner into an intersecting alley, maybe to look for more water to use, and there were still shouts and the sounds of fighting echoing from the surrounding streets. "Come on, we've got work to do."