License to Thwart
Kori's 'dining room' proved to be the boxy stone hut out past the workspace where her minions were either putting together a doomsday device of some kind or just setting up a non-guild factory. As they got close to the coffin-like structure, she could even see that there were little curtained windows built into the otherwise plain construction. Mai guessed that Kori herself had used her Earthbending to create the whole setup. The group circled the building and drew closer to the mining pit and its crane, but most of the details of the superstructure were lost in the mix of shadows and crystal glare. Then they finally reached the hut's entrance, and when Mai stepped through it, she was greeted by the sights and smells of a proper Fire Nation dinner. The carved wooden table was long enough to accommodate eight people and plenty of dishes, but as far as Mai could see, she and Sokka were the only guests.
Kori sat down at the head, and immediately reached for a plate of dumplings. "Please, take any chair you like."
Sokka gave Mai a wide-eyed stare. "Is this common in your line of work?"
"Like you wouldn't believe." She turned to Kori and said, "You don't mind if I use my own salt, do you? I import the good stuff from the Fire Nation's Cuo Island; as everyone with any speck of class knows, it does the best job bringing out the food's flavor." She reached slowly behind her, to the knapsack she wore at the small of her back, and withdrew her jar while Kori watched with eyes like a raven-eagle. Once Mai opened the lid and showed the contents, Kori relaxed. Mai took the closest seat and put the container of salt beside her plate, then grabbed for a bowl of fire flakes.
If she was going to have to flip out and start a fight, she didn't want to eat anything heavy.
Sokka slid into the chair next to hers, and began attacking the spread with a gusto Mai had only ever seen from Iroh, but with far less grace. If she was going to keep him, she'd have to teach him a little something about table manners. Then she turned back to Kori, and decided that Sokka's bad habits were more than worth the look of disgust on the other woman's face. It was as close as she'd likely get to horrifying her mother the same way. "Feel free to share my salt. So, how did you find out about the Fire Arm?"
Kori's eyes met Mai's as she took a pinch of the little crystals, yet nothing came of the small confrontation but some slightly salty dumplings. Almost with disappointment, Kori shifted her interest to a goblet of lily wine and took a sip. "I learned of the weapon from Sneers, of course. He lied when he said he didn't know what his uncle was working on. I convinced him that telling people otherwise would only complicate the situation and keep the authorities from discovering who really killed his uncle. He knows I'm more knowledgeable about the ways of cities than he is."
"You arranged the murder."
"Yes. Sneers had some friends, a pair of Freedom Fighters from his rebel days, who came to Yu Dao. You've met them, so to speak: Longshot and Smellerbee. My apologies for the violence; they had orders to remove any interference, and you did chase them. When I first met them, they were rather put out over Sneers retiring to live in the lap of luxury, and I convinced them that he needed to be cut off from his new lifestyle. Stealing the Fire Arm was meaningless to them at first except as a way to ruin the relationship with the Fire Nation, but eventually they realized its potential."
Mai poured herself her own cup of wine. "Potential for what, specifically? Do you really want another war?"
Kori pushed her plate away, and leaned over the table with an intent look in her eyes. "Yu Dao doesn't need acts of pity like the 'Harmony Restoration Movement.' The colonies have grown into our own culture, our own nation! We can raise an army, and if every soldier has a Fire Arm, nothing can stop us from establishing our sovereignty! The Fire Nation is weak; the Regents and people let their land be taken, and surrendered a war they had been winning for a century. The Earth Kingdom has no will; that joke of a King gave the Fire Nation its lands back in exchange for peace, when he and his allies could have wiped their enemies out completely! Both nations will acknowledge the colonies as their equal when we rise up, and I will command the war forge here in the peerless mines of Yu Dao. As soon as the forges and assembly machines are built, I will unveil the Fire Arm to my chosen servants, and we will manufacture enough to wipe out any force that stands against us. Even the Avatar can do nothing against the power of the Fire Arm!"
Sokka made a choking sound at that, but Mai didn't let her reaction show. She tossed some salty fire flakes into her mouth like she didn't have a care in the world, swallowed politely, and said, "That's very... ambitious. You realize that raising an army is a fairly vast undertaking?"
"Of course." Kori leaned back and smiled. "No need to tease, Lady Mai, I understand that this is a bit much to take in. But you see, this isn't some wild flight of fancy from a bored heiress with too much time and money on her hands. I'm providing the weapons, but I'm just a small part of the effort. I was contacted soon after Fa Ming finished the Fire Arm and wrote to the Fire Regents. I was told everything they had arranged, that they wanted to hide the weapon away. Our organization has people everywhere. The Fire Nation. The Earth Kingdom. Even the Water Tribes. We are a group that sees the potential in the colonies, acts with the strength of the Fire Nation of old, and is dedicated to the idea that only the people with the proper passion and power will profit from the new world. We are... P.H.O.E.N.I.X.!"
"Phoenix?"
"No, P.H.O.E.N.I.X."
"Well." Mai took another sip of her wine. "I have to say, this is a little more than I was expecting."
"Naturally." Kori threw back the rest of her wine.
"And whether or not this organization really exists will affect how I respond to this. If you're just a crazy kid stealing experimental weapons, that's one thing, but a real movement to create a militant breakaway state?"
"I understand your concerns, but you needn't worry. My master- the head of our organization- knows about you, Lady Mai. He wants me to give you a chance, and I'm happy to do so. You're a superb warrior, and the type of agent we can really use. You've seen how weak the old nations and their leaders are, and you chose to strike out on your own. It's a shame you're working for a failure like General Iroh, but we understand that you didn't have many other options. We want to show you what we can offer. My master would like to meet you."
Mai glanced over at Sokka, and then leaned forward and smiled at Kori. "That's perfect. I accept."
"I expected you to." Kori clasped her hands and smiled sweetly. "But you understand, you'll either join us or die. I'll need you to surrender your weapons and submit yourself to our care. If you're sincere, then there won't be a problem."
Sokka swallowed a mouthful of food and cleared his throat. "Um, what about me?"
Kori blinked. "You... ah..."
While the other woman stammered, Mai casually reached into her jar of salt and took a pinch, while her other hand twisted the top to the right, and then smoothly let go and threw another dash of crystals over her fire flakes. Then she grabbed Sokka's shirt, threw him under the table, and dove down after him. Mai heard a loud crack echo through the cavern outside the dining room, and the back of her chair exploded into splinters that fell to litter the stone floor. Sokka squealed something about someone shooting the Fire Arm through the little room's windows, but Mai was too distracted to respond.
She was counting.
At two, she rose up and pushed against the table. She struggled with its weight, but then Sokka joined in and the thing rose up. At three, she tilted the table back towards where Kori had been sitting, and all the food slid off to crash to the stone floor.
At four, her jar of salt exploded, battering the heavy table, and the air suddenly stank of peanut butter.
Amidst the chaos, Kori screamed.
Mai let go of the table, grabbed Sokka, and yanked him towards the door, but before they could escape, the floor bucked beneath them and she went flying. Mai tucked into a ball and hit the ground in a roll that was only very painful. When she came to a stop, she was back out in the large cavern. Mai looked around for Sokka, but he was nowhere to be found. Behind her, the dining room's exit was now sealed by a newly raised stone slab. The windows likewise shuddered and stretched to seal themselves.
Dragon droppings.
Kori was still alive, and Sokka was trapped with her.
Then there was another echoing crack, and a spot of floor near Mai exploded into a small barrage of stone chips that stung her skin. She looked up and into the distance, and spotted a glint of greenish gold glittering just below the mining pit's scaffholding.
Longshot and the Fire Arm.
While the distant sniper reloaded, Mai pushed to her feet and ran around to the other side of the freestanding dining room. The structure would shield her from view, and maybe she could find an open window through which she could daringly save Sokka from certain death just like-
Mai came to stop. Here on the other side of Kori's playhouse, the machine workers were all visible, and they were looking back at Mai with both interest and a certain degree of hostility. Now that she was analyzing them as a threat, their numbers seemed offensively large.
But this threat, she could fight.
Mai smirked and whipped her sleeves free from her wrist launchers.
Five steps from the door, the ground jumped beneath Sokka and his legs tangled up beneath him and he dropped like an elephant-whale trying to fly out of the ocean. When he looked up again, the door was gone.
So was Mai.
Then Sokka heard footsteps behind him, and reached for his boomerang while he turned to face-
-Kori, whose face actually wasn't looking so good. The burn marks weren't as bad as Zuko's, but without a Waterbender healer, there was no way they were going to heal nicely. Her twisted, furious expression probably wasn't doing the injuries any favors, either.
Sokka tried to brain her with his boomerang, but the Earth moved to flip her away and she pulled her meteor hammer from her belt. As soon as she landed she threw the spiked rock-head straight at him. Sokka swung his club, expecting to deflect the other weapon the way he used to knock Mai's flying knives out of the air, but the hammer head did a little dance in midair and turned to wrap the trailing chain around the shaft of his weapon.
Kori pulled the club right out of Sokka's hands, and then clutched her fist to make the floor beneath his feet rise up and form clamps up to his ankles. He windmilled his arms to keep his balance, but Kori grabbed his shirt and yanked him so that he face was hanging right in front of hers.
"Let's see how cooperative that traitor is," she slurred, "with you as my captive."
The thugs rushed towards Mai, only a few bringing their hammers along as weapons, which she took to mean most of them were Benders of some kind. She fired off crescent blades from her wrist cuffs, and once again the shirshu venom did its work and the victims immediately decided they had important nap-related work they couldn't miss. With them massed in a group like that, though, Mai had trouble making sure that each body took just one blade, and the press of bodies didn't let a few losses of a few individuals stop them from surging closer.
Or from raising flames and rocks to throw at Mai.
She fired more blades, but her wrist launchers started making insistent clicking sounds, and she realized that the stream of sharp metal had stopped.
She'd have to do this the old fashioned way, then. It was a shame, not just because she'd likely get hurt, but also because she was almost certainly going to have to strike without concern for life.
Mai drew a pair of razor discs, and stood her ground.
Then a ragged chorus of war cries echoed through the cavern, and Fire Army troops began streaming into sight.
Against all good sense, leading them was a figure with gold trim on his armor and extra points on his helmet. Unlike all the other Firebenders, his face was left visible, including the dark scar over one eye. When he saw Mai, he made his way over to her, and she acknowledged him with a nod. "Good timing."
"I can't take credit. Something exploded and I figured that was as good a time to push in as any." Zuko gave a quick look around. "Who are we looking for?"
"I'm going after Kori Morishita. You can stay here and handle the less delicate operations."
Zuko frowned. "And the weapon?"
"If you find it, you can have it." She didn't bother mentioning that it had already been fired at her once in this cave already, just like she hadn't told Zuko what the weapon was in the first place. "Don't you have a battle to lead, glorious Fire Regent?" Mai left Zuko to get on with that, and ran off back to Kori's little rock bungalow.
She had a Sokka to rescue, and a Fire Arm to recover.
"Would you believe that this isn't the first time a crazy would-be little conqueror-girl has dragged me along with her as a hostage during an attempt to escape a half-baked all-stupid ambush?" Kori clenched both her fists, and the stone clamps around Sokka's ankles tightened painfully. He bit back a groan and tried to make himself meet Kori's glare, but with portions of her face now resembling strips of jerky it wasn't an easy prospect.
"If you know how this works," she growled, "then I don't have to convince you that if you cause me more trouble than you're worth, I'll kill you in a heartbeat." She broke off the staredown, turned to the nearest 'dining room' wall, and used her Earthbending to shape a new door right in front of her. Sokka stared past her to see where she was taking him, and was pleased to see that the scene in the cavern had become a little war between Fire soldiers and Kori's thugs.
It seemed that Zuko had finally learned how to do good timing. Sokka had been skeptical of the Prince Regent's capabilities back when Mai outlined her plan to scout the caverns while Zuko moved his troops into place and set up to invade. It couldn't be denied, though, that the guy had come through. That was good. Really good. Now Sokka just had to figure out how to use this to somehow get free, defeat Kori, and save the day.
No problem.
"So," he drawled, "you know that whole plan you had to arm a rogue uprising from your fancy little cave with its pretentious dining room? Yeah, that's just been buried in a big ol' pile of slush, now. Those are Zuko's troops. Even if you have another hidden surprise that can win this battle for you, Zuko knows where you are. He can come back with his whole army, the Avatar, and even his crazy sister. And if they don't want to bother, I'm sure the Earth King will be all over it. You've lost."
Kori stomped a foot, closing up her new door and cutting off the sight and sounds of the fighting. She whirled on Sokka, who couldn't help but jump when her burned face swung back into the center of his vision. "Do you want to die? Is that it? Keep talking, snow savage."
Sokka held up his hands in a peaceable-type gesture. "Hey, no need to start dehumanizing me with unimaginative slurs against my nation; I just don't want anyone else to get hurt. Your scheme is over. Surrender, help us end this, and we can work something out. Please? You have nothing to lose, at this point."
Kori smiled, a hideous twisting of her face. "Wrong. I can lose my chance to kill you and Lady Mai for my master. And why would I want that?"
Sokka deflated as much as he could with stone clamps locking his feet against the floor. "Great. See, I saw the parallel from the beginning. You and Azula are both crazy killers who don't know when to quit."
"I'm not like Azula! I won't fail like her! And I won't go back to being Colony Trash!" She took an Earthbending stance and moved her hands in a circular motion. A piece of the floor dropped away in the same shape to reveal another mining passage below. Kori hopped down, and the clamps on Sokka's ankles slid over into the hole and dropped to follow her. "My servants still have the Fire Arm, and no one else even knows about it. I can rebuild elsewhere. P.H.O.E.N.I.X. will rise from the ashes!" She took a low bow stance and flung her arms out wide like wings, propelling her forward to glide along the rock. Sokka's stone shackles were pulled along behind her, dragging his feet across the uneven stone floor with enough speed to make him ramp off the bumps in the crudely carved tunnel.
It was just as well that the bumpy travel kept Sokka from delivering more of his wonderfully clever banter, because he was pretty sure that Kori wouldn't appreciate his criticizing her use of metaphors that were tired back when Azulon first noticed the Water Tribes.
Behind them, he heard something like an avalanche, and light streaming down into the tunnel was cut off like the lid had been laid down on a coffin.
Mai returned to Kori's crazy underground dining room just in time to see it collapse into rubble.
Her innards went cold and the only thought that was able to grind its way through her frozen brain was that she had just witnessed Sokka's death, but Mai didn't need warmth to operate. The gears and springs in her head shook off the ice and got moving again, and she remembered two things: Sokka was too resourceful to die in such a way, and Kori was an Earthbender.
Okay, then. Time to find someone with answers.
Mai began running around the pile of rock rubble towards the mining pit she had seen earlier, towards the crane mechanism that had been built over it like a bridge to the Spirit World.
She ran towards the source of the earlier shots.
She ran towards the Fire Arm sniper.
Kori hadn't said who was 'Smellerbee' and who was 'Longshot,' but Mai was willing to be that the one with the aiming skills was Longshot. He fired again as she ran, but Mai was zigzagging like Ty Lee on a sugar rush, doing her best to throw off not only his aim but also his expectations. As she closed in on the pit, she was able to make out the details of the scaffolding above it, and was surprised to recognize some of the components. It was a lot like the mechanized gondola system used at the Boiling Rock prison her uncle ran back in the Fire Nation, but instead of standard people-carriers, it supported an odd assortment of platforms and buckets ranging in size from just large enough to fit a person to bigger than a Fire Nation crawler-tank. A series of thick lines were strung out between two wide towers on opposite sides of the pit that could carry loads back and forth between them, but the towers were also connected by a line of scaffolding into which additional engines had been set. Mai guessed that they could be used to lower and raise things out of the pit, before the the loads were shifted over to the towers. It must be a pretty deep hole to require that kind of complex setup.
As Mai neared and another shot missed her, she pinpointed Longshot standing waist-deep in a bucket-like carrier dangling right over the center of the pit. That certainly isolated him from the rest of the battle and let him take potshots to his content. Mai would have to climb her way over there while dodging fire, and then fight Longshot in a daring midair battle, if she wanted to be difficult about things. Instead, she spotted the controls for the whole mechanism, and threw a knife at the 'On' switch. With a clunk, the engines started up, sending Longshot's perch swaying and starting to carry it back to the closest tower. Mai looked forward to meeting him there.
Then something fast and human-sized bolted out from a shadow, and Mai was disheartened to realize that Smellerbee intended to run interference for her friend. Well, she had no intention of fighting a trained swordswoman again while Longshot got himself stable and took potshots at her.
With a sigh, Mai dashed over to the scaffolding and began climbing, a sword-wielding ragamuffin right behind her.
There was a light at the end of the tunnel, but Sokka was quick to realize that this reflected neither death, rebirth, nor an end to being hauled around through old mines by a crazy girl with an inferiority complex bigger than Appa's backside. Kori skated into the light of more glow-crystals, and Sokka was dragged along behind her. They skidded to a stop in front of a little jail cell. A portion of the wall had been dug out but left in shadow, and metal bars- probably made from the oh-so-slushing-annoying Yu Dao steel- cut the space off from the main tunnel.
Sokka turned to Kori and brought his hands up as if he could ward off bad ideas. "You don't want to do this. Look, hostages only work if the other side believes you actually have hostages, and Mai is really a stab-first-and-realize-there-were-questions-to-be-asked-later kind of person. Not that I'd shed a tear if you got yourself killed trying to intimidate Mai, but it would inconvenience me a little if you died and no one knew I was down here."
"She's not here to imprison you," came a husky voice from beyond the bars. "She's here to finally deal with me." A rounded shadow moved out of the darkness of the rest of the cell, and Sneers stepped into the light to grip the bars.
Sokka's jaw dropped. "You? Here?!" He turned to Kori. "You are the worst girlfriend ever!"
Neither member of the couple (ex-couple?) paid Sokka any attention. Sneers stared at Kori, and gripped the bars hard enough to whiten his knuckles. "If Sokka's here, then you've been found out, just like you were afraid of. You're panicking, Kori."
"No! I can fix this! I just need to kill Lady Mai. She's probably fighting your Freedom Fighter friends now. If you help us kill her, I'll let you go. I really did like you, Sneers, but I have a duty to my people I can't ignore. Mai is Fire Nation, anyway. She probably killed lots of people during the war."
Sokka was going to object to that, but before he could, Sneers grunted, "Fine. But then Longshot, Smellerbee, and I are leaving. I don't want anything more to do with Yu Dao."
Kori sighed. "I wish you could have accepted my vision, but I understand." She brought her fists up, bent her arms at the elbow, and then made a yanking motion. The bars of the cell slid down into the earth, and Sneers stepped out. As he walked over to Kori, he reached up to smooth his hairbun and bangs, and then-
-and then he pulled out the cord that held his hairbun in place and wrapped it around Kori's neck.
Both of them went down in a struggling heap, making noises that could never be confused for the sounds of lovers. Kori was gasping and choking with a shallow timbere that spoke to the lack of air passing through her throat, while Sneers was grinding out grunts of, "Traitor!" through gritted teeth. Kori was pulling at the cord around her neck while her face turned colors, but then she collapsed and let her hands fall to the floor.
Then the stone of the floor rose up to meet her hands and cover them like gloves.
Her first punch merely shook Sneers. Her second weakened his grip. Her third rocked him back and left him struggling to stay off the floor. Her fourth put him down.
Her fifth stilled him one last time.
Once the fight was over, Kori lost her manic strength. She panted and struggled to rise, and eventually had to lean against the cave wall to manage it. It would have been a great time for Sokka to strike and defeat the villain like a true hero, but Kori's distraction and weakness didn't have any effect on the rock she had willed to keep Sokka's feet locked into place. Once she caught her breath, she looked back at Sokka, muttered, "Just you, then," and once more proceeded to skate along the stone tunnel and drag him behind her on an invisible Earthbending leash.
At least she hadn't noticed him grabbing Sneers' improvised garrote while she had been recovering from the fight.
The cave started sloping upward, and Sokka bided his time while he abided by the universal hostage code.
Mai flung herself up the last few rungs of the ladder so that she spun in midair, and pulled out a pair of razor discs the moment her boots touched the metal flooring. As soon as Smellerbee's head popped up over the edge of the platform, Mai let fly with the discs, but Smellerbee's reflexes were too good and she let go of the ladder to drop down a rung. Mai had only taken a step forward when Smellerbee reappeared, using the momentum of her fall to swing herself up onto the platform. Her landing was half stumble, so by the time she recovered and drew her weapons, Mai had a pair of knives ready to deflect the swinging swords.
Mai backed away along the platform. She had plenty of room here, as this platform was where cargo would be loaded and unloaded from the crane-like elevators. It stretched out perpendicular to the cables running out over the mining pit, and a mechanized bullwheel was mounted in the center to turn the looping cables and move the cargo haulers back and forth over the pit.
As Mai gave ground against Smellerbee, one of the larger haulers, big and blocky like a tank, swung right in front of her, forcing both fighters to hop back to avoid getting hit. These haulers were nothing more than giant metal boxes, but the top half of every side was cut out to allow full visibility. It swung around the bullwheel, and then passed back out over the pit to travel to the opposite tower.
By then, Mai and Smellerbee were crossing blades again.
Smellerbee was quick and mobile, forcing Mai to fight likewise, but that wound up being helpful in other ways, too. Another crack echoed throughout the giant cavern, and a loud clang sounded where Mai had been standing a moment before. It was Longshot, of course; his bucket had stabilized enough to allow him to shoot again. And now he would be drawing closer to Mai, while Smellerbee kept her too distracted to do anything about the sniper.
Mai decided to user her talent for messing with people she didn't like.
Another tank-sized hauler swung over the platform, and she broke away from Smellerbee to run towards it. She jumped aboard and threw herself flat so that the half-walls would shield her from the Fire Arm. Wu Gi said it could punch through personal armor, but Piandao's sword had resisted it, and the metal of the haulers was thick and solid enough to manage mining operations. Her hypothesis turned to fact when she heard another crack and the wall near her clanged with the impact of the shot.
Ha! Deal with that!
Then the hauler shook again, and Mai looked up to see Smellerbee coming to a landing right in front of her.
Mai spun to her feet and flowed into a sidestep as she drew her knives and took a defensive position. That brought her to the other end of the hauler, putting her a few paces away from her opponent.
Mai and Smellerbee eyed each other, looking for an opportunity to strike, sure that her opponent was doing the same. "Sneers said you guys used to be Earth rebels. Did you and your friend with the Fire Arm lose your scruples, or did you miss the fact that Kori has delusions of Fire Nation nobility and she's working for an organization named after the mythical fire bird?"
Smellerbee's grip tightened on her swords. "The Fire Nation is evil, but the Earth Kingdom isn't any better! We went to Ba Sing Se, and that city killed our leader and handed Fire Regent Zuko the world on a plate!" She stabbed out, but Mai retreated a step to put her back up against the wall. The hauler shook a bit with their movement, but both kept their balance. "If Kori wants to make a new nation, Longshot and I will help it happen!"
"And your friend Sneers? I notice he's not around. Did he not buy into this? Or does he hold a grudge against petty things like murdering his family?"
Smellerbee stabbed again, but this time Mai struck out at the blade with one her knives and knocked it wide. Smellerbee brought her other sword up to defend, but that was fine with Mai. She smacked her knives against that blade, too, and was pleased to see Smellerbee wince. "How's your arm? Was it only this morning that I stabbed it?" She moved forward again to press the advantage, but Smellerbee recovered and met her attack. The two traded ground, dancing around each other in the limited space of the hauler. Mai might have been able to push through Smellerbee's defenses, especially with her opponent wounded, but doing so would have meant staying still for a moment, and she was acutely aware that behind her Longshot probably had the Fire Arm loaded and ready to shoot. She let the duel run on while her hauler was carried out over the mining pit, allowing the timing of its movement to embed itself into her senses.
Then, when the feeling came, she feinted at Smellerbee and then broke off as the other took a defensive position. Mai grabbed the pipe-like edging of the hauler's corner and swung herself out to slice at Longshot just as his bucket passed alongside. He must have been expecting it, though, because he brought up the Fire Arm so that the blade on the underside was facing Mai, and used it to deflect her slashes. Her momentum swung Mai around again and she brought her knives up to catch Smellerbee's blades. As the two vehicles moved apart, Mai purposefully kept her back to Longshot as she once again deflected a set of sword swings.
She reached into her own instincts, the nebulous senses that pierced through all manner of distractions to tell her when she had a perfect shot, and for once willfully identified as a target. She saw herself at the focus of piercing eyes, translated her own movements into a discernible pattern, and judged things like distance and breathing and shadows and all the other factors that went into a perfect shot.
In the instant just before Mai's instincts would have her throw a blade with enough strength to make it a streak of light, she dived to the floor of the hauler.
There was a sound like a firecracker, and when Mai looked up, Smellerbee had a hole right in the center of her chest armor.
Before Smellerbee could even think about falling over dead, Mai stood up and pushed the other woman over the short wall of the hauler to fall into the dark depths. She turned around, and saw Longshot standing in his bucket as it was carried away. He was staring with complete shock, his eyes wide enough to burst, and his grip on the Fire Arm was loose. Apparently, he still had one friend he couldn't stand betraying.
Before he could recover or be pulled too far away, Mai ended his misery with the throw of a single blade. Longshot didn't move until it struck, and then he and his weapon both dropped to the floor of his bucket and out of sight.
Some problems just couldn't be settled reasonably.
It was time to take stock of the situation. Mai was now moving towards the tower on the far side of the mining pit, and she could see that, in the distance, the fight between the Fire Army and the P.H.O.E.N.I.X. minions seemed to be winding down. There were a lot more of Zuko's soldiers standing than Kori's minions, and Mai saw no sign of the girl herself. Nor did she see even the smallest flicker of the color blue.
The hauler was pulled into the tower, passing over its main loading platform, but Mai stayed in her ride. It would be a quicker way to get back to the other side of the mining pit, and time might be an issue if Sokka needed her. As she passed out over the pit again, Mai did an inventory of her knives. Her wrist and ankle launchers were all empty, and she was down to just a handful of knives on her actual person. That was the problem with Flying Daggers style. It took a lot of daggers. She redistributed for ease of access while trying to think of a plan. Kori- most likely taking Sokka with her- had gone underground, but where? Probably back to Yu Dao, to make cat-doe eyes at her Mayor father and get some kind of protection, at least long enough to get in touch with this crazy terrorist group she claimed to be representing. Mai would never be able to figure out which tunnels would lead back to the city, so she'd have to get outside again and ride her eelhound back.
The hauler pulled in to the tower where Mai had started her airborne journey and she jumped off, ready to head straight for the ladder down to the cavern. If Zuko tried to stop her, she'd just have to-
And then Kori stepped out from behind the bullwheel and turning mechanism, the Fire Arm in her grip. She kicked a figure out along with her, and Sokka tumbled into view, wrapped in the chain of her meteor hammer.
The Fire Arm was aimed right at his head.
The viciousness of Kori's smile was only enhanced by the burns all over her face. "Hello, Lady Mai. Let's have you back up a bit, so that these haulers don't get in our way, and then I want you to put your knives down on the floor. All of them." She poked Sokka's head with the dragon-shaped barrel of the Fire Arm, and added, "I've used this before, so don't think you're fast enough to stop me."
Mai knew Kori was right. All it would take was a little finger pressure, and those one of flying pieces of lead would be flying through Sokka long before any blade of hers could reach its target. So, teeth gritted but face utterly blank, she stepped out across the platform in the direction Kori had indicated. Then she began pulling her knives one by one and laying them out on the floor. She put out a fair number, enough to satisfy Kori, and then raised her hands. "All done. What next, exactly?"
Of course, Mai knew what was next. Kori wanted to kill her, and then kill Sokka. Giving in to her would accomplish nothing but playing for time, but time could be as valuable as gold, as valuable as dinner to the starving. Zuko and his troops might finish up and come looking for her, or Mai would get an opportunity to throw one of her last blades right between Kori's eyes.
Kori smirked. "Since you carry so many blades around, why don't we make sure you didn't forget one or two? It would be a natural mistake. Take off your clothes so that I can be sure you're completely disarmed." She poked Sokka with the Fire Arm again.
He, in turn, grunted. "You've threatened me already. Doing it over and over just makes you look insecure."
Kori poked him a third time, harder, and it took all of Mai's self-control not to taunt the other woman mercilessly. That wouldn't accomplish anything just now, and considering that Kori was crazy, flinging sarcastic comments would be too dangerous even for the worst action-addict.
Mai took off her black overvest, revealing one set of empty holsters for her knives, and then shed those as well and dropped them beside her weapons on the floor. Next, she shed her red blouse, revealing yet more blade repositories, and the sleeveless top she wore below that. Kori poked Sokka again when she saw the two razor discs that Mai had 'accidentally' left in their sheathes, so she doffed all those holsters and added them to the pile. Next, she undid her belt and got rid of her outer slacks, showing off some leg, her shortpants, her Piandao sword strapped to her right leg, and a dangling work belt that normally would have had its pouches stuffed with razors, but now had just one that glistened in the light of all the glow-crystals. With a sigh, Mai deposited the sword and the belt on the pile with the rest.
She raised her hands again. "So, you want me to go down to my wrappings, or is what I'm wearing tight enough to prove that I don't love knives nearly as much as gossip claims?" It felt strange to be underground, on a battlefield, without the weight of at least her layers of sheathes to insulate her from the world. Even at the beach, she wore several holsters with stainless steel blades hidden away.
Sokka looked stricken, but Kori just shrugged and said, "That's enough, Lady Mai. I have no desire to humiliate you in front of your boy here. You may keep what modesty you have... and take it to your grave."
Then she raised the Fire Arm to point straight at Mai's head and pulled the trigger.
TO BE CONTINUED
