Chapter 4: Justified Brutality
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"Avatar Korra is doing well with her recovery. However, her injuries were nearly fatal, so she will need more time to fully heal. Thank you," Asami's so called 'interview' was released in one go without a moments breath. Tenzin was quite impressed, she wasn't kidding when she said this was going to be a short one.
The heiress turned around and was about to leave the courtyard, ignoring any further, idiotic questions of 'can you give a specific time and date when the Avatar will be fully heal?' or 'Are the symptoms effecting her bending ability as well?'.
"Do you think we still need Avatar Korra?"
This one sentence froze Asami mid-step, at first with surprise, follow by confusion, and ending with anger. She snapped her head back to look at the owner of that particular question, a smug-looking journalist with a sneaky grin on his face; as though he felt proud that his words drew everyone's attention and made the courtyard fall silent.
"What...did...you...say?" Asami's calm, cold, intimidating voice confronted the guy; snapping Tenzin out of his shock from the previous question.
The journalist either didn't notice or could care less as he explained with a cheerful tone, "With the Air Normad...Sorry!...Air Nation now reborn and taking the front role to deal with the riot in Ba Seng Se. The White Lotus is doing pretty good job hunting down all the remainder of the Red Lotus, and we no longer have any secret society to cause any more of this so call 'revolution'. Is there anything left for Avatar Korra to do? Or did she plan to return to her Pro-bending career? Last time I checked, I believe both of her teammates won't be available, because unlike the Avatar, those two are now actually doing something productive for the society."
"How could you!?..."
"I'm just saying!..." the journalist interrupt Asami mid-sentence, "...that if Avatar Korra is still kicking around, I wouldn't mind at all. However, considering her crippled state, she can't take on any responsibility, or...what did they call it again?... Right!Bring balance to the world. Since we don't know how long will take for her to heal, or even if she going to heal at all..."
Some of the airbender students gasped, if not for the shock that such cruel words would could come out from someone who claimed to be a publisher, they would have formed the same whirlwind they used to take down Zaheer, and blown him along with all of the press out of the island. Any casualty would have been acceptable at this point.
"With that said. We might as well get a new Avatar already! The next one is going to be an earthbender, right? Wouldn't that give something for people at Ba Sing Se to be excited about?..."
That was a last straw, Asami didn't care if this moron knew what he was saying, wanting the next Avatar meant he was asking for Korra to just give up and die! The heiress felt Tenzin's hand catch her arm before she could rush out and rip that ugly smile out of the journalist's face.
Asami tried to struggle out of Tenzin's grip, but something happened that almost wiped her anger clean in the blink of an eye. The ground in front of the journalist shook for a moment before a piece of earth rose up and struck his face dead center, almost looking like he had been punched with a stone fist. The impact sent him flying backward onto his back, near the end courtyard. He managed to remain conscious, attempting to sit upright while covering his now broken and bleeding nose.
"Argh! W...What the!?...
A metallic footstep silenced his whining. The journalist looked up to see the chief of police towering over him, her calm expression now reflected an iceberg that was about to burst into a volcano.
"The interview is over."
Lin's voice sounded like a sharp blade that rubbed softly against everyone's ears. She turned to the rest of the press and repeated her words in the same tone, adding "my men will escort all of you back to the city. Please follow them..."
"How dare you! This is police brutality!" The injured journalist yelled while standing up, pointing his finger at the chief. "You cost me four of my teeth! The President will be informed about this! You'll be..."
Another piece of earth rose up and punched him with presumably the same amount of force as the first time, but possibly a little bit more since this strike tossed him all the way back to the shoreline and knocked him out cold.
"You're lucky I still left you some (teeth) in that disgusting hole you call 'mouth'," Lin whispered to herself before turning back to the rest of the press. Seeing them still standing around, mumbling amongst themselves made her patience finally run dry.
"TO THE SHIP! NOW!"
All of the jibber-jabber ended as they rushed back to the shore with Lin's men following behind. At the same time Tenzin turned to his students and told them to return to their training. Other than himself, only Bumi, Asami, Jinora, and Lin remained in the courtyard.
"You know you're not going to come out of this looking good, right?" Tenzin's question was mixed with both gratitude and concern towards Lin.
"I'm sure looking forward to tomorrow's morning paper," Bumi said.
Lin sighs with relief, she was finally able to let out her pressure on someone who deserved it, before responding Tenzin, "No rubbish words from them is going to harm me more than it's going to harm Korra."
Lin turned to Asami, who has appreciation in her eyes at the fact that Lin was the one to step up so she didn't have to ruin her public reputation; and also because no matter what Asami intended to do with that guy, it was not going to surpass smashing him with blunt rock, twice.
Lin softly gripped the girl's shoulder, knowing that the scum reporter's words probably hurt her the most, "I'm sure you familiar with the nonsensical brains of the press, but in case you don't, let me remind you. That moron's word didn't mean anything, don't remember it, don't even think about it, and most importantly...do not tell Korra about this. It isn't worth her time."
Asami nodded, there's no way she's going to let that journalist be a setback for Korra on her recovery. She was willing to sabotage all the radios and burn all the newspapers on the island if she had to, in order to keep those venomous words far away from Korra.
Lin stomped her foot to plop all the rock she summoned back into place before leaving. Asami hurried back to Korra. Tenzin, his brother and daughter were about to go inside the temple, when they noticed a figure approach from the shore shortly after the ferry with Lin and the press left.
A good looking young man with an almost bald head, and dressed like a wanderer, walked into the courtyard. He bowed his head to greet all of them before asking politely, "Master Tenzin. Do you have a moment?" His good manners hinted to them that he wasn't with the press.
"Yes, young man. How could I help you?"
Instead of answering, The stranger spread his arm out and waved it around, creating a small whirlwind in front of him before returning to his relaxed pose. He bowed his head again as if to offer his previous performance to Tenzin for consideration.
"You're an airbender!" Jinora said happily.
He turns to nod at her before introducing himself, "My name is Ton-gla. I was born as a non-bender, but not long ago I discovered that I suddenly had the ability to airbend. I had been traveling around the world and only recently received word that there is a new establishment of the Air Normads..."
"Nation," Bumi corrected his words, only to receive an elbow to the rib from Tenzin for interrupting their conversation.
"My apologies! Air Nation. Anyhow, I wish to be the part of the long lost culture that has reborn once more, but...I'm not sure if there's any condition or standard that required from me in order to join the other airbenders."
Aside from his daughter, Tenzin felt like this was the only other young airbender who had a passion in the history of their culture that he had ever met. He would have given the boy big hug by now if he didn't have a teacher's reputation to keep. Tenzin only smiled and answered calmly, "Being an airbender is all that's required. Welcome to Air Temple Island. Ton-gla."
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Korra felt the darkness around her slowly crumble, replacing the void and numbness with a soft light piercing through as her eyelids opened. The first thing Korra saw was the concerned face of Asami.
"Oh!...Sorry, did I wake you up?"
"...Seems so, though I don't quite remember falling asleep."
The heiress secretly sighed without the Avatar noticing, Korra had scared her for a second there. After returning to the garden and seeing her friend sitting still with her eyes shut, Asami thoughts had returned to that journalist's words. This had set an alarm off in her head about that ignorant death curse becoming true.
Of course it turned out the only one who stopped breathing was Asami herself when she rushed to check Korra pulse; she held her breath tight before hearing a light snore and a small shift on Korra's face. A huge relief washed over her before turning into a slight embarrassment for being so paranoid.
"So, how was the interview?"
"It was...fine..."Asami forces her smile to look convincing, "I just told them that you're getting better, and that's it."
"Really? The press just gave up and let you leave?"
"Whether they gave up or not I don't know, and I didn't care. I just walked away and tuned my ears out. Tenzin probably took care of them after that."
Korra chuckled before noticing that Naga was laid out beside her, the polar bear dog must have come to her after she fell asleep. Korra scratched Naga's head while Asami looked around, "by the way, where is that guard? Did he just leave you here alone?"
"I'm not sure..." The Avatar tried to recall the memory, "I was talking to him until I saw a butterfly, and then I completely forgot about him."
For some reason, Naga made a snarled sound in her throat while they talking about the mysterious guard. The polar bear dog had to admit, that one bite she took while she fought with that guy, tasted pretty good.
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"Where is it?...Where is it?..."
On the beach beneath the high cliff, a young man whose clothing was torn apart had some wounds visible where the uniform couldn't cover. A few blood stains splashed on the white cloth but none of the injuries would be fatal, even if left untreated. He continued searching for something around the beach area, looking behind every rock with worry.
"Where is it?...Where is...There you are!"
Bilan pick his electric glove out of a tide pool near the cliff. The weapon had a huge bite mark across the palm, many parts had cracked when the Avatar's pet had tossed it away. It's actually a miracle that the glove didn't shatter to pieces considering how high it had fallen.
"Doesn't look...that bad. Just add some glue here and there, and you'll look as good as new..."
"You on the other hand, would require more than that."
Bilan almost jumped out of his skin, but when he turned around to see Ton-gla standing behind him, the Equalist sighed heavily in relief, "Don't sneak up on me like this! I almost had a heart attack!"
"Then I'll just use that glove to resuscitate you," The airbender darted his eyes all over Bilan, looking unimpressed and not the least surprised, "So...what went wrong?"
"A dog," The Equalist mutters.
Ton-gla managed stop his chuckle in time and asked back with a calm expression, "You lost to a dog?"
"A polar bear dog! The Avatar's pet! ..."
"Oh. Naga was it?"
"Whatever! It caught me off guard and almost ate me! The Avatar is more cunning than when I last encountered her..."
"So cunning that she made you and your friend chicken out by simply entering the Avatar state? She must have taken year to plan that ingenious move."
"Could you stop rubbing it in for a second!?" Bilan yelled angrily.
Ton-gla shook his head before place his hand on the Equalist's shoulder, "It's alright, Bilan. We learn from failure, not from success."
"I think I learned enough, success once in a while would be a pretty good change of pace," Bilan frowned. He had a moment of glory literally in a palm of his hand, and he had lost it, again. "But you're right... I could learn from this failure. All I need is a pipe and a sleeping dart! Next time the Avatar wonn't know what hit her!..."
"I'm afraid that not going to happen. We have an agreement, remember?" Ton-gla's words suddenly made Bilan notice that his friend was now wearing an airbender uniform. He couldn't help but think that it was a far worse fashion choice than the White Lotus uniform, and that was making a statement. It made the wearer look like an upside down half peel banana, "So...you already..."
"Infiltrate their rank. Yes. I set my plan in motion while you were failing your assassination attempt."
"Oh! So you were so sure that I was going to fail!?"
"Your history record showed me everything but confidence in your success."
Bilan would have punched that mild face if he hadn't been afraid of getting blown back by a wind blast. Ton-gla hand him a small leather pocket with a first aid kit in it, "Here, ease your pain and bind your wound. You may have to lay low for a few hours before the next ferry comes to the island."
The airbender's first sentence sounded overly dramatic, but Bilan took comfort in it knowing that Ton-gla does show concern for his comrade's well being.
"So I only had one shot, and now I have to sit around and wait? Praying to the spirits that you two might be successful?"
"Yes, although..." Ton-gla glared back towards the city. Bilan followed his line of sight.
"Praying won't be necessary for the next attempt. She probably already has that covered."
"Right, but tell me, why do I need to listen to you? I'm the one who tracked the Avatar for the past year. If it wasn't for me, you and that spirit hippie wouldn't even have had the guts to begin this plan in the first place! Don't I deserve at least a second try?..."
Bilan's request was roughly cut short when the airbender spoke up, "While your information and...inspiration were appreciated, it was my order that was responsible for crippling the Avatar. Do not forget that."
The Red Lotus member glared harshly at the Equalist, as if challenging him to say otherwise.
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