"Hey Korra!" I chirped nervously. "So uh…."
"Vic!" Korra roared, practically leaping off Naga and slamming into me as she gave me a crushing bearhug.
"Can't! breathe!" I wheezed. "Remember... squishy... meatbag."
"Sorry!" she yelped, thankfully letting me go. Then she punched me in the arm.
"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!" I yelled, lutching my arm as searing hot pain flooded it, instantly numbing the arm. God above that fucking hurt. I mean, it wasn't broken or anything but it certainly hurt like a fucker.
I mean, people were looking in my general direction, and I probably impressed a few kids with a colorful new word but hey, it hurt.
"That's for making me worry! I've been looking everywhere for you. Where were you? I ought to strangle you for all the worry you put me through," she practically screamed, alternating between rage and gratefulness as she ever so visibly restrained herself from giving me what looked like either another bearhug or a knockout punch. I couldn't quite tell which. Most likely both in quick succession.
"Err, can we discuss it over say, dinner?" I quipped after catching my breath, the pain subsiding ever so slowly. "Some food would go down a long way to err… calming things down I hope. Not to mention, I think a little healing is in order."
"Fine, but give me the short version. Now," she growled after a moments hesitation.
"Well…" I said scratching my head. "I went out, almost got mugged-"
"You what?!" she practically screeched.
"Got saved, made a friend, spent the night at her place,"
"Wait-"
"Got my own place, hung out with said friend, then about now we're talking."
"You know what. I change my mind. Explain on the way to dinner." she said, hopping back on Naga.
"Sure," I said as I hopped onto Naga. "Though really, I'd like to state for the record that what I'll say on the way back will… probably upset you a tiny bit."
"I can't be any more frustrated with you right now," Korra stated flatly as she got Naga into a full on sprint.
"Just wait till I start explaining, then we'll see,"I said bracing myself for the worst.
"So let me get this straight," she said as we leisurely walked up the stairs to the temple proper. "You went to town to go shopping while I tried meditating."
"How'd that go by the way?" I interrupted.
"Think I'm getting better at it but don't change the subject," she said as she gave me the most rueful stare I'd ever gotten. "Then you get lost in the city, well into the night by the way, and obviously you get mugged."
"Almost, mugged." I corrected. "I didn't have to give him anything at the end of the day."
"Uhuh, because you got saved by…"
"Ai," I replied (hehe). "She managed to distract the thug enough for me to err… deal a crippling blow to his descendants, then she dragged me away from him and offered to let me stay the night at her place."
"Stay the night, at a total stranger's house." she replied as she stared at my face.
"Well, she did save me." I replied shrugging. "Risked her life to save me really, and she wasn't a bender or anything. Just someone brave enough to stand up to evil when they see it."
"uhuh," Korra said as she narrowed her eyes. "Go on,"
"Anyways, stayed the night at her place while she showed me around town, even found me a place of my own though it is rather cramped. Though…"
"Though what?" Korra said,
"I'm uhh… pretty sure she's an Equalist." I said, bracing myself for a-
"She's a WHAT?!" she roared, whipping around and grabbing me by the shoulders.
"Equalist. You know, people who think benders are causing a lot of trouble, blame the actions of the few bad apples to the and label all of the apples bad and so on."
"Yeah I know that but-"
"Oh look it's Mako!" I said as I noticed the red scarfed stoic standing right by the temple courtyard. "Why don't we go see what he wants first?" I said as I continued to try and deflect attention away from me.
"Vic-"
"Hey Mako!" I said quickly, not giving her time to go and continue to chew me out. "What's up? What brings you here to Air Temple Island?"
"Hey Vic, Korra." Mako greeted flatly. Still as much a cold fish as ever. "Have you guys seen Bolin?"
"I wouldn't honestly know," Though I actually had suspicions. "I haven't been on the island all day."
"Or yesterday," Korra growled. "But no I haven't seen him either. I've been too busy looking for this roosterpig-brained idiot 's why I didn't make practice today."
"It's fine. I'm just worried. Bolin has a knack for getting into the stupidest situations."
"That's a defining trait of all little brothers everywhere right?" I piped in. "Stupid little shi-err buggers who would lose their heads without big brother wisdom?"
"I hear ya," Mako nodded in slightly amused exasperation. Finally an emotional response from him. "Anyways, I'd better off. I'll go look for him. Thanks for the info though."
"Wait!" I said reaching to stop him for a moment. "Let us help you out." I mean yeah it's to help Bolin but mostly, it's to get Korra off of my back.
"Nah I've got it," Mako waved us off.
"Hey cool guy, let us help." Korra offered. "We'll take Naga along. She's a great tracker."
"Fine," Mako sighed. "Come on, let's go start looking before he gets himself into something terminally stupid."
A liiiittle late for that Mako. I kinda knew where he'd be but uhh. That would be Bad for me. Like get squashed Bad. Maybe best to play along and then sit back. Away from anyone seeing my face.
Last thing I need is Ai knowing I'm err… on both sides?
So yeah, as I suspected Bolin did go back to the Triple Threats. Got picked up by some guy there, after he was offered some serious dosh. Looks like I still haven't made too much of an impact on canon yet. But hey it's only been a few days. And if the timeline's still correct, and with what Ai implied… the Equalists are going to start their moves tonight.
"So," I said as Naga continued to follow Bolin's scent. "I'm guessing you have history with the Triads."
"Yeah," Mako said as he glared at me. "You have a problem with that?"
"Well you're not a member now right?'
"Yeah-"
"Then we're cool. You do what you've gotta do to survive eh? I don't particularly condone it, but I understand it."I replied as Naga sped up. "Sides, I think Naga here picked up Bolin's trail. Eh? Who's a good girl?" I said as I rubbed her sides.
Naga seemed to pick up her pace and as we turned around the corner I caught a flash of red and Naga barked at the little fire ferret as she gave chase. Pabu quickly ran up a lamplight and screeched at Naga in return.
"That's Pabu! Something must have happened to Bolin!"Mako said as he pointed at the little rodent.
"Naga, stay. Pabu's a friend, not food." Korra ordered.
The little guy went down and gave Naga sniff before going on to rest himself on Mako. He was an adorable little scamp.
"Come on, we've gotta hurry. If he's anywhere, he's going to be at the Triple Threat Headquarters. Hopefully, nothing bad will have happened yet."
"I dunno Mako," I said as Naga raced off. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
It was technically true, as Bolin would most definitely not be there but… well hey. When given opportunities to quote the greats, why not take them?
"You know when you said we'd be visiting Triad Headquarters, some part of me was kind of hoping that it would look like a wretched hive of scum and villainy, not…"
"An empty looking building," Mako continued. We had arrived at a rather quiet, but normal looking building. Problem was that the lights were on but no one looked to be home.
It was quiet. Too quiet.
"Something's not right, there should be thugs up here." Mako said as he leapt off of Naga.
"No shit sherlock," I said as I took a quick peek inside the door. "No one's home." I confirmed as I opened the door.
When I entered, the place really failed to live up to expectations. Though in a way it made sense. HQ's for crime lords should impress and shout "I've got the cash to both kick ass and look fancy" and this place seemed to be aiming higher than the neighborhood it was in.
"Bolin!" Mako shouted. "You in here?"
Then, a roar of engines came from the back. Yep as suspected. "Go!" I shouted as they ran toward the noise. "I'll hang back make sure we didn't miss anything."
As the two ran off to fight off the Equalists and I ever so courageously stayed behind I thought about my current predicament. What had years of exposure to video games ever taught me when one is alone and away from enemies while in the midst of a likely location of useful items ?
It's looting time!
"This is harder than I thought," I grumbled as I continued my search throughout the building. Korra had true to canon, taken Mako and Naga to chase after the Equalists. meanwhile, I'd been searching the building top to bottom for easily accessible loot.
Unfortunately for me, a lot of that was either papers I couldn't read, or locked away in a safe that I found. There was a bit of loose change around but I don't think it amounted to much more than about a thousand yuans.
Though… if I came back with say a large sack and maybe Naga, I could grab some of the fancier looking things here. A vase here, a statue there. Though that had the problem of you know, other Triads maybe being here.
By the time Korra and Mako came back for me empty handed, I decided to just grab a jade dragon statue and a golden lionturtle idol I found in what was probably the Boss' office. It'd probably fetch me a couple of thousand yuans somewhere.
"I take it you guys had no luck," I said noticing a distinct lack of Bolin.
"No," Korra growled. "They were chi-blockers, Equslists. They managed to block off my bending and get away with Bolin. Vic-"
"I'll ask, though… I suspect I know where they took him." I said nodding at them.
"Wait, you know where Bolin is?" Mako said as he grabbed me.
"Woah there," I said while I tried to get him to relax his grip. "Relax it's just a suspicion of mine that's all. I've a … well friend who's an Equalist supporter, though in my defense!" I hastily yelped when sparks leapt from both Mako and Korra's fingers. "I have made some, in my honest opinion, exceptional progress talking her out of it. At the least, she has doubts. Aaaanyways... She talked about a big event coming soon, where their leader would give a speech to everyone."
"Sounds like just the place we need to get into." Korra eagerly replied.
"Yes. Quietly. No telling what they could do to Bolin. Remember, you've got to rescue him so, you have to infiltrate the event." I replied.
"Right, so… where is it?" Mako asked.
… Right. "Err… I don't know? I can't read here okay!" I huffed. "All I know is that it's on those fliers they distribute every now and then. Find a flier, you find the event."
"So what now?" Mako asked.
"I think we should all get some sleep," I offered. "We aren't going to find someone who has what we need now at this time of night. So let's all grab some needed sleep. I think my place is the nearest, and I'd offer to share but I don't think we'd fit."
"I'm sure we could do something totally not awkward," Korra offered as we all hopped on Naga.
"You'd be surprised."
"Spirits, people live in this kind of place?" Korra commented as I opened the door to my room.
"Hey it may be small, cramped and admittedly a little dank," I admitted. "But it's mine. And see? At best, me and Mako can awkwardly share the bed." I said as I hopped onto my bed. "Or sleep on the floor while you take the bed. I think there's enough room for each of us on the sides."
Which was honestly the one thing that my room had well. A pretty damn comfortable bed. God what I would do to have the bed now.
"Well it's too late for us to get back to the island," Korra admitted. "So I'll take the bed."
"Yes m'lady," I grumbled knowing this was part of my 'punishment'. She's even technically if you look at it in a certain manner, royalty too so the statement wasn't inaccurate.
So I took the side by the desk, while Mako awkwardly settled down by the stove. Korra of course took the bed, and seemed to relish in it.
"Vic, this bed… the blanket." she mumbled as she lay face down on my pillow. "It's so-"
"Please, don't remind me." I said as I grumbled down on the floor with a bag as a makeshift pillow. "Or I may forget my gentlemanly ways and shove you out of the bed. Or at least try."
"But... it's so fluffy!" she groaned, clearly wishing to continue the torture. "I think I could happily die here."
I replied with the only thing I had on hand. I grabbed the first thing I reached for on the desk, in this case, a notebook, and threw it at her in the hopes of getting the torture to stop.
It kinda backfired when I overshot and ended up hitting Mako instead, though to be fair he took the hit like any proper Englishmen I imagine, not a sound or complaint out of him. He just soldiered on in his attempts at grabbing a good night's sleep.
"Night Korra, Mako,"I grumbled. "Try to not let anything bite." I said as I turned over and turned off the lights.
As I lay down on the floor and tried to get some sleep, a thought came to me right then and there.
What if Ai decided to pay me a visit tomorrow?
Welp. Just have to hope that luck would be on my side then.
Not that that was a comforting thought once I took a good look at my current predicament.
