A/N: Legend of KorraBook 2: Spirits has been confirmed along with Book 3 and Book 4. We're in it for the long haul, guys! I can't wait for 2013! In the meantime, enjoy this latest chapter~~~
Chapter Eight: The Invitation
Mommy, what's a Spec?
Where'd you hear that, sweetheart?
Mr. Goja said so.
You heard our neighbor saying "Spec"?
No… he called me a Spec.
Perhaps that was the beginning. Bolin couldn't quite recall. As far back as he could remember, he had known he was special; just didn't realize what that meant. And now, after sleeping on the streets, working in a factory and riding a limousine, he still wasn't sure what it meant. Why was all this happening? He couldn't ask Mako. His older brother got really stiff when the subject of Specs were brought up. Bolin stopped asking questions after that. He just assumed that whatever happened, it had something to do with his being a Spec.
The limousine they were sitting in drove through a set of tall, iron gates. Up along a winding road, a magnificent mansion was visible. Constructed with white marble and decorated with real glass windows. The estate itself was so huge that the drive up to the main house alone took at least ten minutes. When the limousine finally came to a stop outside the mansion doors, the brothers piled out behind Hiroshi Sato.
"Boys, welcome to my home!" Hiroshi announced.
Mako and Bolin could do little but stare in awe.
.
Bolin still remembered his mother's cooking, how she'd always make his favorite dishes with utmost care. Sometimes she'd indulge him with extra helpings even though he'd already eaten his fill, saying that he was a growing boy who needed nourishment. He missed her more than ever.
But sometimes, food – and lots of it – could ease the pain, even if it wasn't his mother's cooking. Right now, for example, he was digging into a mouthwatering dish of poached salmon in between mouthfuls of roast beef, grilled shrimp, bite-size sandwiches, seafood pasta, and a couple of other dishes he couldn't name but which tasted delightful all the same. It was easily the best meal he'd had in the last few days.
"Well, I don't think I've ever met anyone with such a large appetite!" chuckled Hiroshi Sato who was observing from the adjacent seat. "But you should slow down, my boy, too much good food could hurt you, you know."
Bolin nodded hastily but otherwise ignored his host's advice as he continued to eat. To his left sat Mako who was eating just as hungrily as his younger brother but with more composure. Asami was absent as she was taking her meals in her room due to her injuries and Madoka had excused herself after only a few dainty morsels of fruit salad.
"That's what I like to see in a young man: a good appetite," continued Hiroshi genially, watching Bolin slop some food down his front. "Careful now!" Hiroshi leaned forward to wipe Bolin's chin with a monogrammed napkin.
Bolin grinned up at Hiroshi. They were sitting in the dining hall of the Sato Manor, a gigantic mansion of breathtaking dimensions from the outside and equally magnificent from the inside. The best part was the feast that Hiroshi had referred to as "a spot of lunch" before escorting both brothers inside the front door. With a full stomach, Bolin's shining green eyes reflected the glittering crystal chandelier that hung from the ceiling.
"Bolin – do you mind my asking something?" Hiroshi asked, smiling gently down at the small boy. Bolin nodded, his head bobbing up and down. "It seems a bit presumptuous of me but – just out of curiosity – are you an Earthbender?"
"Yeah!" answered Bolin with enthusiasm.
"Sir," whispered Mako.
"Huh?"
"You're supposed to add 'sir'."
Bolin looked confused but Hiroshi came to his rescue with a chuckle. "No need for such formalities, boys! Just call me Hiroshi, everyone does."
Mako looked slightly uncomfortable with this suggestion and immediately took a long drink from his cup of tea but Bolin answered, "Are you a bender, Hiroshi?"
"No, my boy, I'm just a regular old non-bender," replied Hiroshi with a wink. "But I dare say that's neither here nor there. We're all people you know, whatever our innate abilities. It's just that some people think – well… they like to think it makes all the difference. In fact, some of them even differentiate between the same benders, if you'll believe it."
Mako squirmed slightly but Bolin merely grinned and said, "I like your mustache!"
Hiroshi smoothed his mustache in an exaggeratedly flamboyant manner which elicited hysteric giggles from both Mako and Bolin.
"Boys," said Hiroshi as though a sudden thought had struck him, "I was wondering – how would you like to spend the night here?"
"That's very kind of you, sir, but –" Mako began, but he was immediately interrupted by Bolin's shrill cheering.
"Yay!" he cried, jumping up and down on his seat. "Sleepover!"
"It would mean a lot," added Hiroshi in a conspiratorial whisper as Mako opened his mouth to speak. "You did save my daughter after all, and the truth is," he leaned closer to both brothers, "Asami could use the company of other children, you know. I'm afraid to say she's somewhat of a loner, is our lovely girl." He looked imploringly at Mako. "What do you say?"
Both Hiroshi and Bolin stared fixedly at Mako who had just been about to decline the offer mere seconds ago. He hesitated at the looks on their faces and then finally sighed in resignation.
"Okay… I guess," Mako mumbled.
"Splendid!" Hiroshi said, clapping his hands together. "I'm sure you'll enjoy your stay here – we do love having guests!"
For some reason – even as an overjoyed Bolin bounced happily on his chair – Mako couldn't help but feel a sense of dread. Was this real, he wondered, or were they about to experience – and not for the first time – a rude awakening?
"It's only for one night but think of it as a paid vacation," said Hiroshi as though he had read Mako's mind. "I'm sure you agree that once in a while, a healthy person needs some decent rest and relaxation. Personally, overwork is not my style. More tea?"
...
A teenage girl ran for her life the alley in the dead of night. She was a beautiful thing: long dark lashes, silky brunette hair braided down her back, a slender figure and hypnotizing blue irises. Right now, those blue eyes were full of fear. She ran harder and harder, her lungs burning, her muscles screaming –
A dead end. She nearly ran headlong into a brick wall. Skidding to a halt, she clawed at it but it was no use, too high for her to climb. Panicked, she turned around, attempting to backtrack. She was to late: out of the pitch black gloom – they came.
"What's the hurry?" asked a woman's voice.
The girl knew that voice, loathed it, and dreaded it. Tears sprung to her eyes and terror gripped her, constricting her throat. Her darkest nightmares, the ones from which she awoke to the sound of her own desperate screams, were coming true.
The woman was at the front, not very tall but emanating a certain power, authority. She was dressed like all the others in a black jacket with her hood up. She had a slight figure but her piercing gray eyes seemed to leer from beneath the hood, like the eyes of a vicious beast. The two men flanking the woman stood a little ways behind this woman, silent and obedient to her every command.
"P-please…" begged the girl, shaking uncontrollably. "I – I'll do anything, please don't take me!"
Her pleas fell on deaf ears. If the three hooded figures even heard her, they did not acknowledge it. After a few seconds that felt like hours to the blue-eyed girl, the woman again spoke, this time, in a soft, silky voice.
"We won't hurt you," she said, her voice strangely soothing. The girl was now crying freely, sinking to her knees on the ground. "No, we would never hurt someone as special as you. Come with us quietly, and I guarantee your life."
"Y-you've got the wrong p-person!" the girl cried hysterically, clinging to the wall behind her. "Please, listen to me! I'm not a Spec! I swear, I'm not! I'm just a normal W-waterbender –"
"An amusing story," quipped the woman. Her gray eyes were merciless and a cruel grin played around her lips. "You can lie to everyone, sweetheart, even your own parents. But you can't fool yourself and you can't fool us."
The girl screamed in fright as the two men darted forward, dragging her upright and pinning her against the alley wall. She writhed and shrieked, the sounds echoing in the night. But the night was empty and no one – not a single living being – was going to come and save her.
The woman approached, her sleek ponytail swishing behind her. The girl tried to silence herself, nearly choking with the effort. Tears tracked down her cheeks and she turned her face away as the woman drew nearer, her gray eyes boring into her.
"There, there," cooed the woman, gently stroking the girl's cheek. "It's okay now…" She leaned in, her lips barely an inch from the girl's ear. "Are you ready to come with us?"
Hiccupping slightly, the girl managed to force herself to meet the woman's gaze. It was like being doused with icy water – such was the coldness in those steel gray eyes.
"I… I'm not a Spec," the girl repeated, her voice barely audible.
"Not a Spec, are you?" said the woman, her head tilting to one side thoughtfully. "Well, there's an easy way to find out."
She nodded at the two men who roughly turned the girl around so she was facing the wall. Then, with a loud ripping noise, one of them cut open the back of her dress, exposing her bare back. They held her firm as she struggled, trying to free her arms from their vice-like grip. It was useless.
"Hold her still," came the woman's voice and the girl saw the men standing back as far away from her as possible, their heads turned away.
"Wait!" the girl protested, her heart pounding so hard she felt it would burst. "Stop! I'm not –"
But she never got to finish the sentence. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the alley light up right before she felt her back being scorched off. Her screams were both inhuman and all too human as the fire ate up her skin, the woman unyielding as she seared the very flesh with her ruthless Firebending. It seemed to go on forever until the girl was half gone –
She fell to the ground, smoke rising from her charred flesh. Her breathing was shallow, the pain all-consuming. Death would have been referable at that moment but the woman had let her live –just barely. The girl thought she heard the three figures conversing. She slipped into unconsciousness.
"Give me the water," Ona said to one of the men.
He handed her a hipflask which she uncorked. She knelt down near the girl who was lying motionless but alive. Her backside was completely blackened, the charred flesh still smoking slightly. Ona upended the hipflask onto the burned area. The water pooled in the blackened wound. For a second nothing happened but then, as though the water particles were knitting the skin back together, the burn healed. The progress of the healing spread outward from the point the water touched the wound, momentarily leaving a luminous glow wherever the water touched. In less than a minute, the girl's backside was whole again, smooth skin replacing the spot where Ona's fire had ravaged the flesh black just minutes ago.
Ona gazed down at the young girl's pretty face and smirked inwardly. "I knew you had it in you," she whispered before getting to her feet again.
The two men bound the unconscious Spec's arms and feet before moving her. Ona followed behind them, keeping a close watch on the surrounding area. They were in the Dragon Flats District, a rundown nonbender neighborhood. Unfortunately for the Waterbender Spec, the residents living here would sooner feign death than come out to investigate the screams of a young girl in the middle of the night. A good deed or just simple curiosity could be the difference between life and death.
The group exited the alley and into a dimly lit square. The entire area was deserted save for a Satomobile that was waiting nearby. The driver came out to help the two men load the Spec into the trunk while Ona got into the back seat. She was not alone.
"How'd it go?" Ty Rhan asked her once she had shut the door.
Ona shrugged. "She struggled; we subdued her. The usual."
"Yes, and I must have been imagining those piteous shrieks," he replied, amused.
"She claimed to be a normal bender. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and make sure."
Ona heard the trunk slam shut behind them. The driver returned to the car while the other two men mounted their motorcycles, driving off ahead. The car engine roared to life; Ona and Ty Rhan were soon following the two motorcycles out of dilapidated neighborhood.
"Interesting catch we have tonight," Ty Rhan remarked, brushing a hand through his dark hair. "A Spec with the ability to instantly heal on contact with water. Very intriguing."
"Gee, I'm so excited," replied Ona sarcastically. "Any news?"
Ty Rhan leaned in closer to Ona. She did not move away but met his gaze with studied indifference and ill-disguised annoyance. She didn't like it when people invaded her private space and she was certain Ty Rhan knew this.
"As a matter of fact, there is. You're gonna enjoy this one, Ona," he whispered, his face very close to hers. He grinned. "We've found him. Him and his Firebender brother."
To be continued...
A/N: I had a long discussion with my older sister a while back about the various Spec abilities I could use. It was hard at first because everything in the Avatarverse is so well established as it is. But I did like the idea of the instant-healing ability which was shown in this chapter. Basically, the idea is that this Waterbender Spec would be a very efficient fighter in rainy weather because of the auto-healing skill.
So anyways, Ona is hot on Bolin's trail now and things are really gonna get heated up in the next couple of chapters. Finally! XD
