AFTERMATH
CHAPTER NINE
"So you need spirit vines?" Lin asked. The police chief was standing with Korra, Detective Dakola, and Hong Li at the back of the airship as they discussed their next move towards finding Varrick and Zhu Li.
Korra nodded. "I think I do. I'm still not sure exactly how this thing I can do works or even if it will work with Varrick."
"And you learned this from my mother?"
"Yes when I was in the swamp with her."
"I can't imagine my mother having a spiritual connection with anything," Lin muttered.
"There are spirit vines along the canal that cuts between the farmers market and the south-eastern residential district," Dakola suggested. "We won't be able to land this airship there though, the buildings are too close together."
"All right, I'll get a patrol car to meet us there," Lin said.
As Lin headed to the airship's control room to use the radio located there, Detective Dakola leaned closer to Korra. "So if you've met the chief's mother what is she like? Toph was a bit before my time, but she is something of a legend on the force you know."
"She was different from what I expected," Korra said.
"Oh, how so?"
"Well, I wasn't really expecting a grumpier version of Lin."
"Really, is that even possible?" Dakola asked.
"You'd be surprised how many people say that," Korra commented. Several of the police officers, who had listened in on the conversation, laughed at this. However, Lin's return from the control cabin quickly cut off any laughter and a guilty silence reigned.
"All right," Lin said as she walked back to join them. "A patrol vehicle will meet us at the market, it should be deserted at this time of the night."
"We are nearly there," Dakola said, pointing out of a window towards a line of streetlights that ran east from the edge of the water. "That should be the canal right there. If I recall correctly, the spirit vines are at this end, fairly close to the water."
Lin grabbed a portable radio off a rack at the back of airship and pushed it into Hong Li's hands. "You are on radio duty, rookie," she said. "That means you are coming along with us. Dakola I'll need you as well."
"Yes, chief," the detective said.
"What do you want us doing?" one of the other officers asked.
"You stay with the airship," Lin ordered. "We'll call on the radio once we have a definite location for Varrick and you can join us there. We still don't know exactly what we might be facing, so be ready for anything."
As the officer nodded his understanding, Lin reached up and hit the button that lowered the airship's rear door. With a whining noise the back of the airship dropped down and opened up to form a ramp. Lin walked to the edge and looked down at the ground below, holding on to one of the ramp's struts to avoid falling. They were now flying over the canal and on either side of the waterway multi-story buildings rose into the air. A narrow road followed the left side of the canal and Lin could see one point where the road arched up and around a clump of thick vegetation, most likely the spirit vines Dakola had mentioned.
"This is our stop," Lin said, leaping off and shooting her metals cables out towards nearby buildings to slow her descent. After clipping the portable radio to his belt, Hong Li followed her down, also using his cables to slow his descent to the ground.
Korra picked up her glider staff and was about to follow when she looked over at Dakola who was standing near the end of the ramp and peering down towards Lin and Hong Li. "Do you need a lift," Korra asked, noting that the detective was still only dressed in her dark-grey suit and had no metalbender armour of her own.
"I'm fine," Dakola said and she leapt off the back of the ramp, her suit jacket fluttering in the breeze and she dropped away from the airship and fell towards the earth.
Korra ran to the edge of the ramp and looked down, just in time to see the detective slowly floating downwards with a swirl of air surrounding and supporting her. Korra jumped after her, using her staff to glide down to the road that ran along the edge of the canal.
"You're an airbender," Korra said accusingly to Dakola as she joined the others on the ground.
"I'm a detective who can airbend," the detective corrected her. "I don't know all those fancy tricks they teach you out on Air Temple Island."
"So you were one of the..."
"Yeah, this is all your fault. Before harmonic convergence I was just a simple detective, but since I got airbending everyone expects me run off to join the air nomads and ride a sky bison."
"Tenzin could teach you to understand your powers."
"I don't need to," Dakola said. "I think about it, wave my hand, and air moves about. That's all I need to know, they can keep the rest of that fancy stuff. Besides the robes are ugly, those wing-suits are worse, there is no way I'm ever giving up my mother's roast turtle-duck with orange glaze, furry animals make me sneeze, and I already have a real job."
"Tenzin's already tried every argument you can think of," Lin said with a smile.
"Asami designed those wing-suits," Korra said. "I think they look good."
"We have a job to do," Dakola reminded her. She pointed towards a large cluster of spirit vines that grew out of the edge of the canal and up the side of a nearby building. "Will these vines do?"
"They should do," Korra said. "But just don't be surprised if this doesn't work, I haven't had much of a chance to practice the technique."
Korra touched the spirit vine and let her thoughts focus on Varrick. She remembered their first meeting in the Southern Water Tribe capital, the time they worked together to free her father, then her thoughts shifted to his wedding with Zhu Li just a couple of weeks earlier. A vision popped into her head, but it wasn't Varrick that she saw, it was Asami. Her girlfriend was sitting down at her drafting table, her long fingers brushing the page like she... Korra broke her connection with the spirit vine and stepped away, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks.
"Did you find him?" Lin asked.
Korra shook her head. "Give me a moment," she said, taking several deep breaths to focus her mind and clear away the images of earlier vision. "I'll try again."
She reached out and touched the vine again, this time ensuring that she only focused on Varrick, on his thin moustache, on the way he smirked when he was scheming, on the time he had hung upside down after eating a hot pepper. In a flash another vision appeared to her and this time she saw Varrick and Zhu Li. They were busy attaching a metal pipe to a strange glowing, spherical device that was sitting on a table. Behind them was a large metal pipe and Korra was just able to make out writing on it before the vision faded.
"That way," she said, pointing north along the river. "They are underground not far from here, somewhere near the river bank. There is a large pipe with the number thirty-four, then a dash and the number two."
"Sewer pipes," Hong Li said. "All the major sewer junctions are numbered so work crews know where to go."
"You know that?" Lin sounded surprised. "How long have you been in the city?"
"A few months," the young officer said. "But I read all books we were given when we joined the force."
"You must be the first," Lin said. "All right, call it in. Find someone who has a map of the sewers or who knows what those numbers mean and find out exactly where that sewer junction is. The sooner Varrick is back in our hands the safer I'll feel."
"Careful now," Varrick said as he stood over the small power core with a wrench in one hand and a piece of platinum pipe in the other. Zhu Li was also holding the pipe, helping to keep it steady as Varrick guided it towards the valve at the top of the power core. While the mecha suit's main engines operated on the same fuel as other vehicles, this power supply had been designed to charge the suit's weapons, including its flamethrower and the powerful lightning weapon.
"This had better work," Zhu Li said, glancing towards the tunnel again. "I don't think we have much time."
"My inventions always work," Varrick boasted. He glanced up and winced when he saw Zhu Li glaring accusingly at him. "All right, I know, I mean most of my inventions work. Now let the pipe go, I think I have it set in place."
Zhu Li released the pipe and took a quick step back. Varrick also jumped back and crouched down with his hands over his head to shield his face from any sparks or shards of super-heated metal that might come flying his way if the power core exploded.
Nothing happened and he peaked out from behinds his hands. "Looks like it worked," he said with a broad smile. He picked up the spool of wire they had used to bind the guards and cut off a long piece. "Bring the flamethrower," he said.
Zhu Li lifted the weapon, which once removed from the arm of the mecha suit was little more than a long nozzle with a small fuel tank attached beneath and a trigger mechanism at the end. She lugged it over to the power core and lowered it until the core rested just behind the fuel tank, the platinum pipe they had previously attached to the core poking out to one side.
Varrick looped the wire around the power core, binding it to the flamethrower. Next, he bent the pipe he had attached to the core so that the end now faced the opening at the end of flamethrower's nozzle. More wire was used to hold it there. He then fetched a pair of pliers and used them to bind another two pieces of wire together around a lever Zhu Li had broken off the mecha suits controls with a hammer.
"All right," Varrick said, picking up a pair of goggles he had found in a box beneath the table and fitting them on over his head to cover his eyes. He lifted the flamethrower in both hands, sagging a little under the weight. "Let's give this a go," he said.
"Maybe I should," Zhu Li suggested.
Knees now buckling under the weight of the improvised weapon, Varrick nodded in agreement and he placed it back down on the table. Zhu Li picked it up and holding it steadily in her arms, pointed the weapon towards the wall. She reached down and pulled the improvised lever and flames shot from the nozzle and combined with a second stream of energy coming directly from the power core. A bright blue-white flame licked across the wall, leaving a long scorch mark.
After Zhu Li had released the lever again, Varrick hurried over and examined the scorch mark, probing it with a screwdriver. "It's cut right into the stone," he said. "This should be strong enough to cut through metal as well, but it will still take some time."
"Do we have enough fuel?" Zhu Li asked.
Varrick consider this. "The power core will last, but the fuel is limited. You get working cutting us a way out and I'll remove the other fuel cylinder so we have a backup."
Zhu Li nodded and was carrying the flamethrower over to the ladder leading to the surface when she stopped. "Quiet," she hissed to Varrick who was already tinkering with the second mecha suit.
Varrick stepped away from the suit and listened. A loud thump sounded, followed by another and then another, growing ever closer. The sound of the heavy footsteps of a mecha suit as it walked down the sewer tunnel towards them.
Zhu Li turned the flamethrower around so it pointed towards the tunnel entrance. "Get out of the way," she told Varrick. As her husband scurried to find cover behind a table behind her, she rested one hand on the lever to activate the weapon and calmly waited for the mecha suit to appear.
The current police vehicles were the latest model satomobiles, keeping the classic satomobile shape but with special supercharged engines that allowed them to catch almost any other vehicle on the road, although Korra suspected that Asami's own custom-built satomobile was several steps up from these police models. Right now though she was concentrating on holding on for dear life as Lin sped through the streets towards their destination with the patrol vehicle's sirens screaming. Overhead and not far behind them the airship followed, its siren and spotlights also activated.
The radio crackled again and a garbled voice at the other end passed on some more information. Whatever the voice said, Lin obviously heard it clearly as she spun the wheel to the right and the satomobile tore around a corner and screeched to a stop in the middle of a street. "We're here," Lin said as she threw open the door and jumped out of the patrol vehicle.
The sewer junction appeared was located on the side of a narrow street lined with unremarkable residential buildings, just one block back from the river. Lin was squatting down near the edge of the road, examining a metal disk in the footpath. "This should be it," she told Korra.
Overhead the airship had arrived and the rest of Lin's strike force began abseiling down to join them. Korra knelt and examined the disk. A number etched into the top of the disk matched the one she had seen in the vision, but the disk appeared to be sealed with no visible way of opening it. "It's sealed," she told Lin.
"Then we are facing metalbenders," the police chief replied.
"I'm going in first," Korra told her.
Lin nodded and looked around at her officers. "When the Avatar goes in, I want you all to follow close behind. We don't know what we are going to find down there, but remember securing Varrick and Zhu Li is the most important part of this mission. They cannot be allowed to fall into enemy hands."
The officers nodded and gathered around Lin and she knelt next to metal disk. She looked up at Korra. "Ready?"
When Korra nodded, Lin pressed her hand on the metal disk, using her abilities to tear it open and then she quickly stepped back and allowed Korra to enter.
Korra glanced once into the passage beneath the disk and then jumped over the edge, falling a short distance and landing on a chuck of rock stuck into the wall. She stamped her foot hard on the rock and used her earthbending to ride it towards the floor.
A jet of yellow flame shot at her from across the room and she put both hands out in front of her and twisted them, bending the flame out and away from her body. A second jet of flame, this one blue, shot out from the other side of the room, but not towards her, towards whoever had attacked her.
Korra quickly looked around the room, spotting Zhu Li as the source of the blue flame. The other woman was crouching down and holding a twisted metal contraption that she had pointed towards a tunnel on the far side of the room. She also spotted Varrick hunkering down behind a table close to her and then in the tunnel entrance she could see a mecha suit standing with one of its arms pointed towards her and the other holding the edge of the tunnel as if to steady itself. This was what had attacked her.
As it shot flame at her again, she briefly entered the avatar state, raising a large wall in front of her to hold back the fire while at the same time she ripped two smaller chucks of stone from the floor and sent them across the room towards the mecha suit. Zhu Li also helped, shooting another jet of blue flame towards the mecha suit.
Korra left the avatar state and kicked out with her foot, pressing it hard against the stone wall she had raised just moments earlier. A chuck of rock shot off the top of the wall and smashed into the mecha suit, which now had its arm raised to fend off attacks. Korra could see its green armoured skin was now scorched in several places from where Zhu Li had attacked it, but her rocks didn't appear to have visibly damaged its armour.
Behind her, Lin abseiled down from above using her metal cables, quickly followed by one of her metalbendering officers. The pilot of the mecha suit decided it was time to leave and turned and ran off down the tunnel, another jet of flame from Zhu Li's flamethrower licking across the back of the suit as it departed.
"Secure the room," Lin ordered the other officer who had entered with her. She then ran towards the tunnel, Korra at her side.
"This is going to be tough," Korra said as she reached the tunnel. The stench of the sewer assaulted her nostrils and a thick sludge covered the floor of the tunnel which led off into the darkness. The only sign of the mecha suit was two dim lights vanishing into the distance.
"We can take this thing," Lin told Korra. Back in the room more officers were abseiling down from above. Along with them came Dakola and Hong Li.
"Let's do it," Korra said as they both ran along the narrow stone ledge at the side of the tunnel, the only part of the tunnel that appeared free from the flow of sewerage. She didn't bother trying to stop the mecha suit with her bending, it was too far away, instead she just ran as fast as she could along the ledge. In a couple of places the path was cracked and broken where the suit had stepped on it, but Korra just leapt over those gaps and kept on running with Lin just a half step behind her.
The mecha suit had reached another junction and briefly paused before making a long leap as if crossing an obstacle. When Lin and Korra arrived moments later they soon discovered what this was. This new junction was actually one where four tunnels met above a large hole. The hole led down to an old cistern far below where waste water drained away into the network of pipes that would carry it away from the city. Of more concern now though was the mecha suit which had paused in the entrance of a forth tunnel. This was an overflow tunnel for storm water that appeared to travel out straight on towards the river.
The mecha suit raised its arm and lightning arced across the gap, striking the top of the tunnel just above their head and raising stones down on the two women. Korra glanced at Lin who it appeared was thinking the same thing as her as the police chief nodded, her mouth set in a thin, determined line.
Lin raised her arms and her metal cables shot out and wrapped around the legs of the mecha suit, while Korra entered the avatar state again, raising large pillars of rock directly behind the mecha suit and pushing it forward towards the hole. The suit teetered of the edge of the hole for several long seconds as its mechanical servos tried to keep it from falling, but to no avail. With a screech of metal, the machine toppled forward and as it fell down the long shaft Lin pulled back on her cables, winding them back so she wasn't dragged along behind. A metallic crashing and grinding noise echoed up the shaft as the mecha suit fell, followed by what could only be described as a loud plop.
"Do you want to go down after it?" Korra asked.
Lin shook her head. "I wouldn't recommend taking a naked flame down there either," she said. "I'll get my team to organise one of the sewer maintenance crews to come fish it out."
"Hey!" a voice called out from the shaft.
They looked over the edge again, but it was far too dark to see anything clearly. Lin shrugged and lowered one of her cables into the hole. There was a tug on the other end and she fed out a bit more cable and then carefully tightened the cable, hoping she wasn't damaging their prisoner. As she pulled the cable back up again, a struggling and extremely filthy man came with it, neatly trapped in a coil of metal.
"Do you surrender?" Korra asked, creating a flame with her fist and holding it out in front of her.
"I surrender," the man gasped.
The sound of footsteps came from behind them and Hong Li and two other officers appeared. "Just in time," Lin said. "Rookie, take care of this prisoner."
Back on the surface, Lin and Korra were standing near the police satomobile as the officers from the metalbending squad cordoned off the area. Two large trucks had arrived and earthbenders had cut a hole down into the room below so the two surviving mecha suits could be hauled away, along with anything else of value or interest. A team of officers was still down in the room, scouring every corner and looking for clues.
A doctor had arrived with an ambulance and she was tending to Varrick and Zhu Li, although Korra doubted either would need to attend hospital. In fact, much to Varrick's chagrin, Lin had already insisted that both remain guests of the Republic City Police and stay at the station in protective custody until their safety could be assured.
A crowd of people from nearby buildings had come out on to the street to watch the proceedings, and seemingly out of nowhere a gaggle of reporters has also turned up. All were being held back by the cordon of officers, but flash bulbs were popping regularly, so Korra imagined she'd be seeing her face in the papers tomorrow.
"So who were these people," Korra asked as the second mecha suit hauled out from the room below and winched on to the back of one of the trucks
"They worked for Kuvira," Varrick said. "I'd recognise the haircuts anywhere."
"She's in prison," Korra said. "I doubt she is giving orders to anyone at the moment."
"She won't be," Lin assured her. "I trust Su to keep Kuvira safely locked away. I think this group was working for one of those missing generals I told you about earlier."
"Hopefully we'll find out more once we question them," Dakola said. "Unfortunately only two survived the fight, the one you fished out from the sewer and the woman Zhu Li incapacitated."
"What happened to the others," Zhu Li asked. "I didn't hit them that hard."
"Your little flamethrower battle with that mecha tank finished them off," Dakola said. "We won't get anything more out of them I'm afraid."
"We might learn something from their possessions," Lin suggested. "We pulled a chest full of Earth Kingdom currency out of that room. It's hard to move that amount of cash about the city without someone noticing, so we might be able to trace that back to where it came from and find out who financed this."
"It sounds like you'll be busy," Korra said.
"You're not sticking around?" Dakola asked her.
"I think my work here is done," Korra said. "I'm going home to bed, Lin."
"Come by the station and see me tomorrow," Lin called after her.
Korra grabbed her glider staff from the back of the police satomobile and leapt into the air, sailing down the road towards the river. Catching an air current she glided higher and headed out across Yue Bay on the long journey back to Asami's apartment.
"You know you want to be able do that," Lin said to Dakola.
"I do," the airbending officer agreed. "But there is still no way I'm wearing those airbender robes."
Korra's glider staff snapped shut as she landed on the balcony of Asami's apartment. The lights were still on, but when she pushed open the balcony doors there was no sign of Asami in the bedroom. She leaned the glider staff up against the chair near the door to the dining room. Asami's jacket still lay where she had tossed it earlier than night and nothing else in the room appeared that it had been disturbed. Walking softly so not to wake Asami if she was sleeping on the couch, Korra crept into the dining room where a slumbering Naga had curled up near the table in the middle of the room dreaming her bear dreams of chasing prey across the tundra.
There was another light on in the room that led off the dining room, which Korra recalled Asami had describing as her temporary workroom, so she walked across to that door. Sure enough, she found her girlfriend there, fast asleep at her drafting table where she had obviously been working. Asami's head was resting against the blueprint she had worked on and her left arm had fallen down beside the table. A glint of gold on the other side of the room indicated where Asami's pen had ended up after it had fallen from her hand. Asami's dressing gown also lay pooled on the floor at her feet, having fallen off the back of her chair. Korra picked that up, folded it neatly and placed it on the table next to Asami's head. She also retrieved the pen and put that down on top of the folded dressing gown so Asami would be able to find it later.
Then, being extremely careful not to wake Asami, Korra gently lifted her girlfriend out of the chair and carried her back to the bedroom. Using a quick burst of airbending to blow back the covers, she placed Asami down on the bed and then pulled the covers up again. Asami stirred and rolled over in the bed to face away from Korra, but she didn't wake. Korra began to pull off her clothes to join Asami in the bed but stopped when she smelled the stench rising from her dirty clothes. Grimacing, she gathered up her clothes and deposited them in the far corner of the room, well away from the bed. Then she headed for the shower.
One quick hot shower and lots of soap and scrubbing later, Korra felt much cleaner and she walked back into the bedroom wrapped in a warm fluffy towel. Letting the towel fall down beside the bed, she crawled beneath covers and slid in beside Asami, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend and pulling her close. Asami stirred again and snuggled closer to Korra as if she was seeking out her warmth. Korra smiled and let herself drift off to sleep, safe and secure in Asami's bed.
END OF PART ONE
Part Two coming soon.
