Bang!
Bolin shouted in surprise and put his hands in the air when multiple metalbender cops threw open the door and marched into the room. Asami looked furious at the sight of the officers. How dare they storm into her house without even knocking?!
"What're you doing here?" she asked the officers as a scowl started to form on her face. Emilia knew this was going to be hard for the young woman to understand and accept if they were right about her father's criminal behavior. She had already lost one parent, and Emi knew she didn't want to lose another.
"We have reason to believe there's a factory hidden below the mansion," Lin said, not wasting anytime.
"I think I would have noticed if there was a factory underneath my house," Asami said, clearly getting more frustrated, "The lies you people come up with just to persecute my father."
"Where is your father?" Tenzin asked with not a hint of sympathy.
"In his workshop, behind the house."
Everyone exited the room, and went to the workshop that Asami spoke of. The metalbenders set up a perimeter outside the workshop. Emilia was the first to get up to the workshop's door. She turned to Lin who gave her the signal to engage. Emilia nodded back before elbowing the door open and quickly side-stepping into the shop. She was followed by a hand full of other officers who checked the place for anything dangerous.
"Dad! Hello?" Asami called, looking a little confused why he wasn't in the shop with them.
Emilia walked up to Lin and said:
"We have secured the estate, but while things look like they have been touched recently, no one has left the building since we have arrived."
Lin gave Emi a smirk before saying:
"Well, perhaps we just couldn't see him leaving."
With her metal feet tapping across the floor, Lin moved past Emi into the center of the room. Emi watched intently as the Chief metalbent the metal covering her off, and hit the ground hard with her bare foot. Lin closed her eyes, and all the muscles in her face tightened as she concentrated. Emilia knew she was using her Seismic Sense which her mother, the great Toph Beifong, had invented. She had also demonstrated it after the Avatar's party in City Hall, and it helped her see everything around in the earth without using her eyes.
"There's a tunnel beneath the workshop running deep into the mountainside," Lin said as she opened her eyes and covered her foot once again.
"What?" Asami said in disbelief, "There's no tunnel."
Emilia could see that Lin wasn't liking Asami too much. Without answering the brunette, Lin just turned around and metalbent a square piece of metal out of the floor. True to her word, there was a tunnel underneath the floor with a cart and tracks going deep underground. You couldn't even see the end of it.
"Officers, into the tunnel," Lin said, sounding perfectly professional, "Be cautious."
Emilia, who was in front of her rows of officers in her command, stomped her feet together in unison with rest of her officers, which was a basically a subtle salute of respect, before turning to march down into the tunnel. Emi turned her head, and made eye contact with Lin immediately. Lin pointed her right index and middle finger down which was the gesture that said 'Be careful'. Emi smiled and nodded her head before turning back to go down the stairs.
Lin too turned to go down into the tunnel, but upon seeing Bolin, Mako, and Asami doing the same she stopped.
"You three stay up here," Lin ordered, she didn't need more civilians to deal with, "Officer Song, keep an eye on them."
Lin followed Tenzin into the tunnel with the Avatar trailing behind. She came right up to stand next to Emi who was tampering with the mechanics on the cart.
"Just like an airship," Emilia said as she flipped a couple switches.
The cart began to move down hill at a fast but steady pace. Emi's heart began to beat fast in her chest. This was a major assignment, and they might be walking into a fight. They had to be prepared for anything.
As they came to a halt, Emilia was the first to exit the cart and her officers followed. She knew all the officers she commanded by name, and knew their strengths and weaknesses. They were her friends, and she trusted them to watch her back. They continued to side-step forward until the came into a huge room. This room was covered in equipment, machinery, and Amon posters. His judgmental, dead-looking eyes seemed to be watching them as they stepped further into the room.
"Not your average backyard workshop," Lin said as she too was scanning the room for any potential threats.
"And I'm guessing those are the knew weapons," Korra said, stopping to look up at multiple huge, bulky, metal robot suits that were equipped with electrical power busters (much like the ones on the shocking glove that Emilia had strapped to her belt), grabbing cables that could probably shoot out at fast and at a long range considering the pressure-building tubes on the robot's back, and bulldozer-like feet that looked like they could run over a building and keep going. This thing was a weapon, and it was ready to be used.
"Hiroshi was lying alright, but where is he?" Tenzin asked, looking around as was everyone else.
With a large, ringing bang a large, metal door came up out of the floor, and sealed everyone inside the room. On instinct, Lin jumped forward and tried to metalbend the now solid wall in front of them. She gave out of slightly pained "huff" when the wall didn't move, since she had expected it to be as light as a feather.
"I'm afraid you won't be able to metalbend that wall Chief Beifong."
Hiroshi Sato's voice came over the speakers in the room as bright green lights started to illuminate from the big, robotic suits. Emi had to cover her eyes in order not to be blinded by the new, incoming light.
"It's solid platinum," Hiroshi continued as his robotic suits started to move from their posts to form a half-circle around the surprised benders, "My Meca-tanks are platinum as well. Not even you're renowned mother could bend a metal so pure."
Emilia growled under her breath at the Meca-tank in front of her. Hiroshi Sato sat comfortably in the captains chair of his new weapon of destruction, taking shots at the Chief and at her mother who helped save the world. Emi was furious, as was the Avatar.
"Hiroshi!" Korra hollered, "I knew you were a lying, no good Equalist. Come out here and…"
"And do what young Avatar, face the wrath of your bending?" Hiroshi asked, a cruel smile growing on his smug face, "No. I think I'll fight from inside here where my odds are a little more… equal."
"That source was a setup," Emilia cried, putting all the pieces together, "You lured us down here to be your little test hamster-monkeys!"
"Guilty as charged," Hiroshi said before he pushed one of his many levers.
A cable with a gnarly looking, clawed grabber shot out from the Meca-tanks arm. Everyone jumped out of the way just in time, and started to bend.
"Cables!" Emilia yelled, bending her own cables so that they curled themselves around the nearest Meca-tank.
The rest of the officers obeyed, and did the same. They curled their cables around the Meca-tanks, and held on for dear life. Emilia had one Meca-tank all to herself, and she was constantly moving. She made sure she was always behind the Meca-tank, so that the Equalist controlling it couldn't see her. She was making sure she was pulling enough so that the Meca-tank couldn't go anywhere, but not enough for it to pull her along with it.
Emilia turned her head just enough to make sure Lin was alright. Said Chief of Police was flipping and dodging clawed cables until she had enough momentum to make a jump. With the help of earthbending, Lin jumped up onto the Meca-tank. She bent her uniform's blades out, and shoved them through the glass windows of the Meca-tank. The Equalist driving the tank was so concerned about not getting stabbed by these blades that he backed right up into some metal support beams that fell down underneath the tanks weight.
Korra and Tenzin were both battling the same Meca-tank; Hiroshi's Meca-tank to be precise. Korra was blasting all the fire she could, while Tenzin was blasting air. All they could do was push back the tank enough to gain some territory in the room, but it wasn't enough to stop the machine entirely.
Emilia was sweating hard now, along with all her officers. They were all bending up wedges of earth in order to stay still. Emi could hear the cable gears on the back of her suit wining in protest from all the pulling and weight. She heard a snap. Uh oh.
Her cables started to unwind from around the Meca-tank which gave the Equalist inside time to grab the cables and pull Emilia off her feet. He spun her around before throwing her at the platinum wall. She and her metal suit bounced off of it was a vibrating ring that could be heard throughout the room. Lin heard it and turned away from her stabbing of the Meca-tank she was standing on.
"Emi!" She yelled as the Captain fell to the floor with another painful sounding ring. Smashed bits of debris fell from above, and covered the fallen metalbender where she lay motionless. Lin meant to jump off to help her, but a clawed cable suddenly grabbed onto her, smashed her into one of the fallen support beams, and chucked her across the room. With another ring of metal against concrete, everything to the Chief went black.
All the officers went down in a shock of electricity that shot through their cables, Korra went down from a clawed cable slamming her into a large piece of machinery, and Tenzin went down from thrown wires of electricity. Suddenly the room went silent.
"Well, I'd say that was a near flawless test run," Hiroshi Sato said after he had gotten out of his Meca-tank, "Load everyone into the transports and deliver them to Amon."
Equalists started tying up metalbending officers, and placing them in big trucks. Since everyone was occupied with their ordered tasks, they didn't see the two unwelcomed benders hiding in a newly made hole. Bolin and Mako had tackled the Officer named Song, who wouldn't let them go, and had tied him up in the workshop above. Mako had left Asami up there too, just to be safe.
"Oh no," Bolin said as he saw all the destruction, Equalists, and motionless bodies littered across the room.
"Korra was right," Mako agreed, "We got to do something, quick."
The two bending brothers snuck around the machinery on the walls, staying out of anyone's line of sight. They quietly made their way to where Tenzin, Korra, and Lin were lying on the floor. Bolin untied Tenzin and lifted him onto his shoulders while Mako lift Korra onto his. They both picked up one of Lin's arms each…
"Not so fast boys," Hiroshi said, lighting up the two electrical gloves he had on his hands. He was standing in front of them with Amon's lieutenant on his left. In fear, Mako and Bolin dropped Lin back onto the floor with a painfully eerie ring.
"Hello Mr. Sato," Bolin said, putting on a terrified smile while trying to keep Tenzin on his shoulders, "Wow, what a really swell, scary factory you have here under your giant mansion."
"Sponsoring our team, supporting the Avatar, it was all just a big cover," Mako said, fury building up inside him at Sato for lying but also at himself for not believing Korra.
"Yes," Hiroshi confirmed, glaring at Mako intently through his now misplaced hair, "And the most difficult part was watching my daughter trapes around with a firebending, street rat like you."
He ignited his gloves in a threatening manner as he and the Lieutenant took a step towards the brothers.
"Dad stop!"
Hiroshi spun around to make eye contact with Asami who looked on the edge of tears.
"Why?" She asked weakly.
"Sweetie," Hiroshi said, addressing his daughter with a guilty voice, "I wanted to keep you out of this for as long as I could. But now that you know the truth, please, forgive me. These people, these benders, they took away your mother, the love of my life. They've ruined the world! But with Amon we can fix it, and build a perfect world together. We can help people like us everywhere."
Hiroshi unstrapped one of his gloves, and presented it to Asami.
"Join me Asami."
Asami cautiously walked forward, aware of everyone's eyes on her. She hesitantly reached towards the glove while everyone held their breath. In the end, she took the glove and put it on, looking down at it like a monarch looked over their kingdom.
"No," Mako whispered, sounding defeated.
"I love you Dad," Asami said before she pounced.
She attacked her father with her new glove, causing him to yell out and go unconscious in seconds. Amon's Lieutenant attacked next, swinging his electrical, sword-like, metal poles at Asami. She dodged the first o
ne, but tripped over her skirt. Before the Lieutenant could land a final blow, he was punch straight in the face with enough force to knock out a charging Moose-lion.
Emilia collapsed to her knees after delivering the punch. She felt like she was going to split apart at any second with the pain she was feeling.
Asami got up, and helped the injured Captain to her feet. After Emilia regained her footing, Asami said:
"Thanks for saving me." She gave Emi a smile as Emi found her balance.
"No need to thank me, it's my job," Emi said, straightening her back, "You didn't do too bad yourself choosing us over Hiroshi, but now we need to move."
Equalists had finally heard what was happening in that certain corner of the room, they went into attack mode. While Bolin and Mako went running with their knocked out people on their backs, Emilia rushed over to Lin. She heaved the Chief of Police onto her own shoulders, and jumped into the hole right behind Asami. She made sure the earthbend the hole closed as they made their escape.
They scampered onto the cart, and Emi quickly pressed the button to make it go up. As they started to ascend towards the entrance, Emi could feel Lin shift on her back. She slowly and gently placed the Chief of Police on the floor, back first. Lin opened her eyes fraction of an inch, and Emi went down onto her knees. Emi intertwined her fingers with Lin's, and smile grew on the Captain's face when Lin squeezed back. The gesture was not missed by the now awake Avatar who smiled along with the metalbenders. When they got to the top, Emi put one of Lin's arms around her shoulders to help her stand up. The Chief was awake, but just barely. Emilia helped her up the stairs and when she stopped at the top, she couldn't help but laugh.
"Come on, Song," She told the officer who was still tied up at the top of the stairs from when the bending brothers had attacked him, "This is kinda pathetic."
She heard Song sigh beneath his gag, and saw him roll his eyes at her childish play. She couldn't help but laugh again before cutting him free of his bonds. Song immediately went to help her with the Chief, placing the Chief's other arm around his shoulders. Together they heaved her out of the workshop and toward the police airship.
"Come on people, let's move it!" Bolin called from the open door of the main hanger. He was obviously on edge, and Emi couldn't blame him. She too was a bit on edge.
After they entered, the airship immediately took off. The two officers took Lin up to the main deck.
"Thank you Song, I've got her from here," Emi told the officer who detached himself and gave her a salute before he walked away. Emilia placed Lin on her back on one of the cots that were there, and grabbed a pillow from a cabinet nearby. She lifted Lin's head enough to put the pillow underneath, and then gently set her back down. Lin's eyes were closed, and her breathing was ragged. Emi smoothed down Lin's cheek with the back of her knuckles before turning to the group of people at the back of the deck.
She walked up to the brothers, and smacked them both hard across the face with one hit.
"Ow!" Bolin complained, rubbing his now sore cheek.
"What was that for?" Mako exclaimed as he also rubbed his cheek.
"That was for tying up Song!" Emilia growled.
"Thank you," Song said from where he was leaning up against the wall.
Emi came back around from the other side, and smacked both brothers again on the other cheek.
"Ow! Stop it you crazy woman!" Bolin yelped, jumping out of her reach.
"And that was for dropping Lin!" Emi yelled, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Oh, you saw that," Mako said, smiling sheepishly as he rubbed his other cheek.
Emi didn't answer, and instead stormed away, back towards Lin. She heard Korra laughing at them about being smacked four times with two hits. Emi kneeled down, and held her head in one hand. The other hand started combing through Lin's silky, smooth locks since Emi remembered Lin liked it. Even when she felt someone walk up to stand behind her, she didn't stop her hand. She didn't care about anything right now except the injured metalbender in front of her. If the world knew she and Lin were a thing, so be it.
"Why do you hate me so much?"
It was Tenzin, and he was speaking to Emi.
Emi gave a frustrated huff before turning around to look at him.
"Why do you direct every conversation to yourself?" Emi asked, her voice rising, "You're extremely selfish. Do you want the full list of why I hate you because if you do, we're going to be here a while."
Emilia turned back to Lin and waited for a reply. Lin, unlike when she was sleeping in her bed in Emi's arms, had pained creases on her face and her jaw was locked. She was in pain, and she needed a doctor.
"How long have you two been together?" Tenzin asked which almost took Emilia off guard, almost.
"Since that City Hall party to honor Korra," Emilia answered as she started to comb her fingers through Lin's hair again, "She is a lovely, strong, brave woman, everything one should want in a spouse, and yet you broke her heart. I'm not happy with you."
"We had disagreements," Tenzin answered, acting like it wasn't that big a deal, "She wanted one thing, I wanted another. We knew it wouldn't work out."
"What did you want? Children?" Emi asked, turning back around to glare at him, "Lin wanted her career to take flight while you wanted her to stay home and have children. You wanted your Airbender Nation to rise again, and she wanted her own life. Like I said, selfish."
"I'm guessing Lin told you that," Tenzin said, looking at everything besides the Captain's hard eyes.
"No, I figured it out myself."
Tenzin looked at Emilia with alarm.
"How did you…?"
"I'm a detective you know," Emilia said, crossing her arms over her chest, "And I'm a Truth-seer. That is one of many things my dad was able to teach me growing up. I'm not as good at it as some other earthbenders, but I can still sense extreme differences in people's heart rate and breathing. You lie a lot more than you think you do, and it's annoying. Do everyone a favor, and shut up forever."
Tenzin, for once, was speechless. He opened and closed his mouth for a minute, and then walked away. Emilia took a deep breath to calm herself. He had gotten her really worked up, and she knew why. He had hurt Lin enough for her not to go looking for anymore possible mates. He had caused her to fear emotional rejection, and it made her blood boil. How could you hurt someone so special, and then wake up every morning feeling good about yourself.
When Emilia felt a soft hand close around her clenched fist, all of her muscles relaxed. Emi turned around, and knelt back down so she was eye level with her now awake girlfriend. Lin was smiling in a way that Emi hadn't seen before. It was a relaxed kind of smile, like she felt relieved.
"How much of that did you hear," Emilia asked, rubbing circles on Lin's knuckles.
"Since you started your rant," Lin said before she took in a great gasp of air that didn't in anyway sound normal.
"Okay, easy, no need to talk," Emilia said, panic setting in her at how awful Lin sounded, "Do you want to sit up? Would that make it easier to breath?"
Lin gave a nod of her head, and Emilia slowly lifted her into a sitting position. Lin went into another coughing fit as her lungs expanded to their full size. Emi rubbed comforting circles on her back, helping her relax all of her muscles. Lin rested her head against Emi's chest as she regained a normal breathing rate. Emi rested her head onto of Lin's, continuing with the soothing circles.
"Do you really think I'm that great?" Lin asked, using a little air as possible when she spoke.
"Of course I do, is there any question?" Emi said, hugging the Chief close to her chest, "You are everything to me, I've been in love with you as long as I can remember."
"My best metalbenders are on their way to Amon right now, and it's all my fault," Lin choked out.
"That is not your fault!" Emi exclaimed, "No one knew what was going to be down there, and we were ambushed. They knew the rights and wrongs of what could happen, and they took that chance themselves. You are not to blame."
"But I failed," Lin said, pushing back enough to look Emi right in the eye, "We didn't get Sato, or any of those Equalists, and my best officers are going to get their bending taken away right now and I didn't stop it. Tarrlok is right, I failed as Chief. As soon as I can, I'm going to turn in my resignation."
"No, I won't let you," Emilia said as her panic grew, "If Republic City loses you, then we really are going to lose this war. Think of those officers! We're going to need your help to save them."
"I am going to find them, but I'm going to take the way with the least amount of obstacles."
"What way is that?"
"Outside the law."