Alright, here's the latest chapter, where the Red Lotus go up against Team Avatar and the rest of the SHIELD agents. For those wondering, Robbie, Korra, Asami and Coulson won't be appearing in this chapter, but they will in the next one.
Disclaimer: I do not own Legend of Korra or Agents of SHIELD.
"I've got to admit, this is an impressive vehicle." Lin said, turning to Agent May sitting in the cockpit.
"SHIELD only goes for the best." She replied, stepping out of the copilot seat and leaving the flying to Agent Davis.
They were standing in the bay of what the people at SHIELD had called a Quinjet, which they had brought in with the Republic dimensional portal technology. And it was far more impressive than any aircraft they had here.
VTOL capabilities combined with rather impressive sensors, even more impressive speed, and the ability to hide itself from visible sight. Mack and May had decided to bring it in after hearing about Zaheer's ability to fly, reasoning that none of them had the ability to do it themselves.
It definitely met with the approval of Lin and Tenzin to a lesser extent. Now, the Quinjet was cloaked and sweeping the area around the Spirit Portal, watching and waiting for something to appear. As it turned out, they didn't have to wait long.
"We've got something." Davis reported from the cockpit. "We've got a small object flying in from the south east, and I'm not getting any engine readings from it."
"Could it be a bird?" May asked, willing to consider every possibility.
"No, it's too big." The pilot replied. "And it's heading straight to the portal."
"Then get us there." Lin said. "It has to be Zaheer."
After a nod from May, Davis directed the Quinjet in the portal's direction, and they soon found that Lin's assertion was correct. Zaheer was indeed present, dueling with the airbenders in mid-air and doing everything he could to keep them all scattered and uncoordinated, to keep him from being caught like last time.
It was time to turn that around.
Zaheer flew past the strange aircraft that had appeared out of nowhere. No sooner had he started heading for the Spirit Portal, and after Amon had left, he had gotten into conflict with the airbenders guarding it.
That alone wasn't exactly a major issue (though he made sure to avoid Tenzin), but then he found himself being hunted by the unusual black aircraft that could disappear from sight.
He had quickly learned that keeping close was the only way to really avoid this thing's weapons, and so he flew around it, the plane sluggishly trying to keep him in its sights while several airbenders moved to intercept him.
He responded by either keeping them out of sight, or clipping their wings, forcing them to spiral out of control and causing some of the others to help them land safely. His tactics were working well, at least until something grabbed his leg, arresting his momentum in mid-air.
He turned to see Police Chief Lin Beifong standing on a ramp in the back of the aircraft. One of her cables was wrapped around a bar, keeping her from being thrown out while the other was currently wrapped around his leg.
Rather than trying to break away from her grip, he changed direction and flew toward her, kicking her away with an air blast. She responded by hurling shards of metal at him, while the non-bender SHIELD agent took aim with a strange weapon.
Fortunately, the confined space and the close quarters brawl that had erupted prevented her from getting a clean shot, at the risk of hitting Lin. Unfortunately, she recognized this and closed the gap, ducking under his wind punch and kicking his leg out.
He let himself float, ignoring the pain in his leg and threw her against the ceiling with a gust of wind, before turning back to narrowly spin away from Lin's cable. Meanwhile, May aimed and shot at Zaheer, but he managed to twist away in the last instant, the rounds pinging off the metal deck.
In response, he unleashed a gust of wind into the cockpit, causing the pilot to lose control of the craft and sending the other combatants flying. May's ICER went flying and Zaheer caught it, quickly turning it on May and firing a couple rounds.
He then pointed the weapon at Lin, but her cable wrapped around his arm and pulled, causing the shots to go wild. At this point, Davis got the Quinjet steady again, just as Zaheer kicked Lin away.
Realizing he wasn't going to make it to the Portal, the Red Lotus leader chose to make his retreat. Scooping up the unconscious body of May to keep the Quinjet and the airbenders from attacking him, Zaheer flew off into the night.
In another part of the city, Mako, Mack and Yo-yo were in one of the police cars, driving to where the report had last claimed Ming-Hua was. All through the drive, Mack was torn between wanting to take fix the car's engine, to annoyed that this world's currently best vehicles were something their Earth had retired nearly a century ago.
Their ride was interrupted as they drove near a canal, where the water launched itself at the car, knocking the vehicle over. It skidded to a halt, allowing the three passengers to extricate themselves.
Miraculously, none of them had been seriously injured, though the crash wasn't soft, and when they stumbled out of the car, they found their path blocked by the waterbender they were seeking.
"Had an accident?" Ming-Hua mocked, walking over to them with her arms at the ready. "You really should be more careful."
"I've got this." Elena said to Mack and Mako before everything happened so quickly.
It only took a second for Yo-yo to cross the distance and punch Ming-Hua in the face, which was enough to send her flying once Elena bounced back to normal speed, causing her water arms to disperse.
The Inhuman walked through the large puddle as the armless waterbender struggled to her feet, two small tendrils of water pushing her up. Time slowed for Yo-yo as she ran forward and gently pushed down on Ming-Hua's chest, putting her on the ground with a painful force to her. Once time resumed its normal pace, the bender was gasping in pain, to Yo-yo's amusement.
"Is that the best you can do?"
Ming-Hua responded by forcing the water Yo-yo was standing in to cover her before freezing it solid. Reassembling her arms, she turned one into an ice dagger and moved to stab Yo-yo in the neck before a burst of fire forced her attention to Mako.
The firebending police officer let loose flames against the armless waterbender, who retaliated with water strikes and ice daggers of her own. All the while, she was careful to avoid creating any large water puddles; she remembered how she died, and refused to let it happen again.
Their little battle went on, the two of them jumping around to avoid the other's attacks. Ice crystals, water bursts and fire blasts all flew across the street as the two benders fought it out, but despite Mako's efforts, Ming-Hua was the superior fighter and she proved it by closing in on him and grabbing him with her arm, throwing him at the nearest wall.
Mako used his firebending to dampen the impact, but it wasn't enough as he found all the air knocked out of his lungs. Coughing, he tried to get back into the fight, but then he found himself pinned to the ground by a sheet of ice, with a water dagger at his neck. Ming-Hua's psychotic glee wasn't pleasant to look at.
"I can't say I won't enjoy this."
Unfortunately, Ming-Hua had forgotten about Mack, who had been forced to check his fire while she and Mako had been battling. She heard a distinctive metallic click and turned, just in time to avoid the shotgun blast aimed at her back.
However, she hadn't been fast enough, and while her water arm slowed the velocity, the slug still pierced her side, drawing a considerable amount of blood and breaking her focus.
She collapsed to her knee and her arms dispersed as the shock and pain overtook her. Meanwhile Mack carefully approached, his shotgun-axe armed and ready to fire another round if necessary.
"Stay down lady."
Ming-Hua powered through the pain and suddenly a pillar of water struck Mack, knocking him off his feet and throwing his weapon from his arms. The water pillar froze him with only his head free, leaving the bender free to concentrate on healing herself.
With careful precision, she removed the bullet from her wound, before using waterbending to heal it completely, all the while gritting her teeth against the pain. She finished just in time to hear the distinct sound of flames rushing towards her.
She ducked under the wave of kicked fire and spun around, once again throwing Mako with her water hand. This time, the blow knocked Mako unconscious, just in time for a pair of Red Lotus benders to arrive at the scene.
"You're late."
"Our apologies." One of them replied. "We were organizing the Triads to keep the rest of the police distracted."
"Good. I'm assuming you have a vehicle?" Right on cue, a civilian truck (stolen no doubt) emerged from around a corner and pulled up to a halt in front of them.
"Load them up." Ming-Hua ordered, gesturing to the two frozen pillars and the unconscious Mako. "We need to leave."
...
Several miles away, things weren't going much better: Ghazan and a couple of Red Lotus Benders had engaged Kuvira, Bolin, and Opal. While the two Lavabenders fought each other, Kuvira and Opal were working together to fight the other Earth and water benders.
At first glance, it almost seemed like the two lavabenders were evenly matched, but very soon, Bolin proved to be a better fighter thanks to his service with Kuvira's army and then the Republic City police. By contrast, Ghazan had spent the last three years dead, and was struggling to keep control of the battle.
Even worse, the Red Lotus benders facing Opal and Kuvira were similarly outmatched, as the experienced airbender and metalbender easily outfought the earth, water and firebenders that had followed Ghazan. They needed to turn this around.
Thus, once Ghazan had briefly forced Bolin on the defensive, he unleashed a wave of lava at Kuvira, who was forced to divert her attention and create a pillar of rock to intercept it, while also launching herself away.
This left the metalbender open to attack, and both a water and firebender took advantage of the opportunity, striking her with bursts of fire and water. The former she was able to intercept but the latter knocked her off her feet, sending her flying into a nearby store.
Dazed, she was all but helpless as the two benders moved to finish her, but they were sent flying themselves once Opal launched them away with airbending. She then briefly took to the air, avoiding more attacks before retaliating against the rest of the benders.
In moments, the rest of the Red Lotus benders were down, leaving only Ghazan and Bolin still fighting. Less than a minute after, even that was finished: while Ghazan was avoiding a wave of lava, Bolin struck him hard with a rock, knocking him to the ground. Restraints appeared on the ground to hold him down, as both Bolin and Opal approached.
"It's over Ghazan." The answering smirk wasn't what Bolin was expecting.
"Not quite."
Opal's world exploded into pain alongside Bolin as the two of them felt their very bodies disobeying them. For the Earth bender, it was a familiar experience; someone was using Bloodbending on them. His eyes widened as the culprit stepped in front of them.
"You?!"
That was all Bolin could say before Amon increased his power, causing the couple to black out. They collapsed to the ground, just as Ghazan managed to free himself and the while the other benders approached.
"About time you showed up." The lavabender complained, then turned to the other benders. "Grab those two." He pointed to Opal and Bolin. "We need to leave."
Doing as they were ordered, they threw Bolin and Opal into the back of their car and drove away. Behind them, Kuvira staggered out of the store window, still dazed and only in time to witness the car driving away.
...
Daisy and Lincoln were a fair distance away in the outskirts of Republic City. Here, a lot of abandoned buildings were still present, making it a perfect hiding spot. Unfortunately, the Red Lotus took advantage of that, using many hiding places to draw the two Inhumans in.
Now, they were surrounded by several benders and four stolen Earth Empire mechs. If they had been benders as well, this might have been it, but as the two were Inhuman, Daisy knew exactly how to catch them by surprise.
"Down!"
Once Lincoln ducked, she released an omnidirectional shockwave that knocked away everyone near them, as well as the mechs and the car husks. Once that was done, Lincoln electrocuted every bender that tried to stand, leaving only the mechs in their path.
"Four against two?" Lincoln felt a grin in spite of himself. "Could be worse."
"No argument here."
They stood back to back, keeping the attention of two stolen suits each. One fired a blast of lightning, which Lincoln was quick to absorb and fire back with an amplified effect. The lightning quickly short-circuited the suit, rendering it powerless while trapping the pilot inside.
The other suit attempted to hit him with a fire blast, but Lincoln rolled out of the way before hitting the suit's leg with a bolt of electricity. With help from one of Daisy's vibration blasts, he pulled on the beam of lightning, tripping the mech up before increasing the voltage and shutting it down as well.
Meanwhile, Daisy's shockwaves were keeping the mech suits off balance in a way that even Earthbenders would be hard pressed to do. Spying an opportunity, she hurled a car into one of the suits before unleashing concentrated vibrations into the other, shaking out the screws and bolts with it. The mech quickly fell apart, leaving only one left.
The two Inhumans turned their attention to it, and between their powers, it stood no chance. Daisy's vibrations tore the weapons and most of the frame apart while Lincoln's lightning shorted out what was left and electrocuted the pilot. In a moment, the expensive and complicated machine had been reduced to a scrap pile.
"You know, considering they lack widespread computers, this is is pretty impressive." The energy manipulator noted.
"Iron Man is still cooler." Daisy said simply, causing Lincoln to chuckle.
Whatever he was going to say in response was interrupted when they heard a strange sound like a shockwave. Then an explosion sent the two Inhumans flying, thrown several meters away by the explosion.
Daisy was the first to rise to her feet, seeing a woman with black hair and a stylized eye tattoo on her forehead standing on the roof of a dilapidated single story building. A small projectile emerged from the tattoo, which Daisy scrambled to avoid, narrowly missing the explosion.
Grabbing Lincoln's arm as he was still rising, she pulled her boyfriend to the nearest cover, which happened to be an adjacent alleyway. The Inhumans made it to the cover just in time to avoid another blast.
"So, I'm guessing that's who we're looking for." Lincoln muttered, before another explosion buffeted them. Fortunately, while annoying, the explosions didn't seem to be that powerful, at least not yet.
"It looked like it." Daisy said. "Matched the picture we had."
"And she has explosive powers." The electrokinetic sighed. "Why does that feel so familiar?"
"You know what?" Daisy ducked as another blast buffeted her cover. "I think she might be more annoying than James."
"With her powers? Agreed. Personality-wise, that's still in the air." Lincoln said over the explosion. "How are we going to do this?"
"We just need to get her to our level." Daisy replied, peeking around the corner. "Cover me."
As soon as another explosion passed, Daisy ran out of cover, running for the downed mechs. P'Li responded in kind, firing more combustion blasts as the Inhuman ran. Lincoln took the opportunity to emerge from cover, firing bolts of electricity in her direction, one of which caught the combustion bender in the shoulder.
Annoyed, she turned her blasts toward Lincoln, causing him to duck back behind the alley way and allowing Daisy a chance to get closer. The SHIELD agent made her way to the building, coming to a halt on the other side of the street.
She let loose concentrated vibrations into the structure, damaging the foundation of the already dilapidated building. P'Li noticed this too late, losing her footing as her perch collapsed around her.
Miraculously, she managed to land atop the pile of masonry, though she didn't land softly. Daisy didn't give her a chance to get her bearings, instead shifting the rubble pile so that she stumbled and fell to the ground, landing painfully in a heap.
P'Li struggled to get to her feet, but Lincoln approached and electrocuted her with a bolt of lightning, sending her back to the floor. The energy manipulator slowly approached, hand outstretched and ready to shock her again if need be.
"Stay down."
"Lincoln!"
He turned to see what Daisy was worried about. All the benders he had shocked into unconsciousness were back on their feet, and wasted no time attacking them. Daisy retaliated with another large shockwave as Lincoln turned to help her.
Unfortunately, this allowed P'Li a chance to attack and she took it, firing an explosive blast between the two Inhumans. The other Red Lotus members wasted no time in knocking them unconscious and restraining them.
"Get the car." P'Li ordered. "We're taking them with us."
When May awoke, she was bound to a chair with restraints of metal around her arms and legs. Immediately finding lock picking useless when the cuffs around her had none, she instead took stock of her surroundings.
She was in a bare room, no doubt a makeshift cell of some sort. The bars on the door were a bit of a dead giveaway in that regard, but she also realized she wasn't alone in the room.
Mack and Yo-yo were also in the cell, in similar chairs with similar restraints. Opal was also in here, chained to the wall alongside them. She was the first to stir awake, followed by Mack and then Yo-yo.
"What happened?" The mechanic asked, briefly struggling against his bonds before realizing the futility.
"I guess things didn't go well on your end either." May said.
"You could say that." Yo-yo groaned.
"Are we the only ones?"
"Judging by her presence." May tilted her head towards Opal. "I doubt it."
"They took me and Bolin." The airbender said. "We never stood a chance against him."
"Who? Ghazan?"
"No. Amon, the one who caught us. And if he's here, then we're all in trouble."
"Why?" Mack asked. Opal's answer wasn't comforting.
"He's a bloodbender."
"That's not ominous at all." May snarked. "So, judging by the name, he can control the blood in someone's body?"
"Yes. And there's more. The one who took us, Amon: He was thought to be dead." Opal continued. "And I'm guessing the Darkhold brought him back like the others."
"A dead guy who can control blood." Mack sighed. "Gotta admit, that's a new one for us."
"Don't forget painful." Opal grimaced as she sat up. "Wait, where's Bolin?"
"He's in here." Mako's voice unexpectedly emerged from the wall. "They locked us in together; I think they're mad that we killed them."
"What's your condition?"
"Completely immobile." Mako frustratedly answered. "We're basically locked in metal coffins."
"Really starting to wish I'd learned metalbending." Bolin's voice came through the wall this time. "Opal, are you alright?"
"I'm fine, we're all fine." The airbender replied, sighing with relief.
"Though we can't say for how long." Mack interjected, before realizing something. "What about Tremors and Sparkplug? Were they taken?"
"I think so." Mako said. "I thought I saw them being brought in earlier."
"Maybe they can get us out." Yo-yo was answered from an unexpected and unwelcome source.
"Don't count on it." Amon's mask appeared outside the bars of their cage. "You're not escaping."
...
Several cells away, Daisy Johnson stirred, groaning from the headache she felt. Still, pain was good; it meant she was alive. Of course, given the metal restraints holding her to this chair, she wasn't exactly free yet.
"Daisy?"
"Lincoln?" She turned to see her boyfriend in similar restraints. "How long have we been here?"
"Hard to say." The Inhuman replied. "I only woke up about a minute before you."
"Where are we?"
"I'm guessing the Red Lotus HQ." Lincoln replied. "And we're not alone. I heard some of the guards say they brought in others."
"So, the old 'hold friends and loved ones hostage trick.'" Daisy rolled her eyes. "How cliche can you get?"
"I guess we're busting out?" Lincoln whispered, wary of any guards hearing them. Daisy merely nodded and set to work.
She unleashed a small shockwave on her bonds, breaking them open and quickly helped Lincoln escape his. She then moved to the cell door to blast it open, but suddenly her arm twisted painfully and she fell to her knees.
"Daisy!"
Lincoln tried to electrocute the masked man behind the door, but found the same thing happening to him. The two Inhumans fell to the ground, struggling against Amon's bloodbending and failing.
"Don't try to fight it." The masked man said. "Or this will just get more painful."
While the two Inhumans were frozen in pain and by Amon, a couple of Red Lotus agents opened the cell door, grabbed the two and bound them to their chairs again before quickly leaving. Finally, Amon's power loosened, but the bender in question was still there, to ensure they didn't try again.
"Guess we're stuck here." Lincoln finally muttered as the pain went away. The answer came from an unexpected source.
"Don't worry, you won't be prisoners for long." Zaheer emerged, standing next to Amon. "Once we have the Avatar, you and your friends will be free to go."
"For some reason, I find that hard to believe." Daisy struggled against her metal bonds to prove the point.
"We have no quarrel with any of you." The airbender shook his head. "Once we have Korra in our possession, we will release you."
"Really?" Daisy scoffed. "You're not the first anarchists we've encountered. They tend to go back on what they claim."
Zaheer said nothing, instead walking away to talk to one of the few metalbenders working with the Red Lotus. He and a couple others were the ones responsible for binding all of them in their restraints.
"Bring them." Zaheer ordered, as the metalbender nodded. "And be sure to gag them all."
Alright, and that's the end of this chapter. If anyone missed Robbie and/or Korra, don't worry, they'll definitely be appearing in the next chapter, I can promise that much.
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and reviews are always welcome.
