土

Ruined Wharf.

Good. He got in. "Bro. Bro?" Mako pulled away from the binoculars, blinking until his eyes refocused and could clearly see his little brother's concerned features as they stole glances at the massive building that looked as if it had half-sunken into the surrounding water after something had taken a massive bite out of its front, and only attached to land by a very flimsy path of wooden boards gnarled and rotted with age. "We did not just let him waltz in like that!? Tell me we didn't!"

He rolled his eyes, feeling that Bolin was getting too worked up over nothing. "It's all part of the plan, Bo'. "

Bolin nodded, still uneasy about the entire situation despite the unconscious Monsoon members strewn in front of and in the sunken building, a few of them he was certain may have had a few bones broken and ribs fractures. Earlier he could see it in Tai's eyes as he calmly clapped a hand on his shoulder before setting off towards the rotted walkway. Rage.

He looked at his brother, not needing more than a second to know he was going through the same thing. "Bro? Ar- are you sure?" He knew he should have been feeling anger as well, especially how Tahno was the one who did this. But… he couldn't, it wasn't him. All he wanted was to see that she was safe and sound. That was all he needed to know.

"I'm sure. Boto, you finished?" Bolin winced at the sound of someone getting whacked in the head, and felt a little nervous at how intensely he seemed to be hitting the poor guy. When he met him during Amon's takeover he seemed relaxed and almost laidback, but the intensely focused and quiet waterbender 'questioning' the goon behind him seemed an almost different person.

Boto was a friendly guy, he was sure of it. "Yeah. I'm done, he only knows what we already know. We'll take the back entrance into the building." Bolin winced again as he heard a whimper trailing off and a thud on the concrete.

He found that he had the urge to tense a little when Boto's hand fell on his shoulder, he turned slightly and almost paled at the misplaced smile on the waterbender. "Okay, Bolin?"

"Oh, uh, yep!" He smiled shakily, nodding and hiding the gulp in his throat as Boto smiled again and moved on ahead, following Mako as he cautiously made his way over the flimsy floorboards towards the massive structure.

Bolin nervously pushed the tips of his fingers together as he neared the edge of the dock, pretending that he didn't see the vague outlines of wrecked ships or the even vaguer outlines of human shapes that he knew really weren't there at all. He hoped.

Looking away from the dark and turgid waters and shaking a bit of yellowed froth free from his shoe he put a foot down on the first wood plank, immediately a shrill squeak rose from it and he wrenched his foot back on instinct, almost losing his balance as he tipped towards the surface of the water. "Hurry up Bo, can't waste any time!"

He managed to right himself with no more flailing involved, and after hearing Pabu chitter nervously from the inside of his collar he nodded and continued across the boards, going as quickly as he could while still keeping balance. The broken front of the wharf now towered over his head and even though he now stood directly in front of it the interior seemed to have darkened to a pitch black gloom as if openly trying to scare the daylights out of him.

But he wouldn't something like that scare him off. Korra needed him- she needed all of them.

He turned and made his way to where Mako and Boto waited for him, smiling apologetically at his brother's impatient look. He peered over his brother's shoulder, trying to see what was around the corner when Mako hissed angrily and wrenched him back. "S- Sorry." He whispered, his voice almost too small to hear as he saw the angry light in his brother's eyes.

"Be more careful Bolin." Bolin sighed and looked at his feet, just hearing that tone of disappointment floored him. He looked up again as Mako leaned around the corner, and a strange thought surfaced. He had just done the same thing himself, shouldn't he know better being a cop and all?

"Just one guy, I'll take him." He wasn't sure he liked the cold edge his brother spoke in as he walked around the corner and whistled an old show tune.

Bolin waited a few seconds as his thoughts screamed in worry that Mako was doing something stupid. He couldn't take it anymore and peered around the corner, watching as a stream of fire arced into the thug leaning on the railing of a walkway, a pained cry came from him as his hands scrabbled at the flames on his back. Mako walked up to him and swept his legs out from under him, the impact and the sudden shock of the flames enough to knock him unconscious.

He pushed the tips of his fingers together again when he caught the dark look on Mako before he turned and walked towards a door at the end of the walkway, not liking what he had seen at all. He grimaced as he carefully stepped over the thug, cautious not to hurt him anymore than he already had been.

He walked the short distance towards the closed door as Mako knelt before the door and had his hand held up to the doorknob, a pick and a screwdriver on hand.

Mako listened for the tell-tale click that he found the right position as he drove the head of the screwdriver into the key slot, wiggling it a little until the tip of it had jammed up against the inner pins of the lock. Next he carefully fed the hooked end of the pick into the slot alongside the screwdriver, probing around a bit until he found the first pin he needed to lift up.

Another click told him he had found it, and it didn't take him long to find the others as well. The lock loosened noticeably once all the pins had been lifted out of place. His hand closed around the doorknob as he turned it and pulled the door open, revealing a dusty and dark space with the vague outline of shelves visible. "We're in." He saw Boto's nod and Bolin's nervous gulp, he would talk to him after this.

He pushed the door open, holding onto the edge to keep it from squeaking and alerting any guards Tai may have missed on his way in. Once he was certain no one had heard the door opening he crept through, feeling water lap around his boots as soon as he entered the room. He moved slowly to compensate for the noise of the water's movement, going in between some dusty metal shelves groaning under the heavy boxes on top of them, both of them looking likely to collapse at any moment.

The other side of the room was much the same, with a line of filing cabinets pushed up against it and shelves sitting above them, some of them missing a fixture that resulted in them becoming lopsided.

Mako held up his hand to Boto, signalling that he was going to move out into the main space of the warehouse. Boto nodded his understanding and moved back to whisper in Bolin's ear to tell him as well.

With that taken care of he slowly crept towards the doorframe nearby, his lockpick unnecessary since there was no door standing there he needed to unlock.

The only light came from a large hole in the corner of the roof above, the object that made it currently hanged precariously from a broken and twisted piece of the roof's support structure, the gunpowder inside the conical tip still ready to go off at any moment.

Seeing the Equalist bomb brought back images of the storage room and a grim white mask, and a blue eyed girl getting the only life she knew taken from her by him.

He could hear quiet noises of movement in the gloom but it was impossible to place their location or owner due to how disorienting the dark was. He had a trick up his sleeve to counter that.

Mako took a deep breath and focused on his core, finding the energy kept there in short notice. He directed it down his arms, feeling the familiar warmth flow through his muscles and settling at his fingertips, which began to tingle with sensation and buzz with energy. Concentrating, he exhaled and closed his eyes for a few seconds until he felt a slight tingle in them that made him want to scratch like crazy but he resisted.

Opening his eyes he saw a differently colored world. The gloom was still there, but now punctuated by softly glowing warm-colored clouds of human shape, which when they moved left a trail of the 'cloud' in their wake. He counted four of them as he moved out into the gloom, holding his hands out in front of him to navigate by touch as well since the damp metal and concrete would throw his vision off.

Luckily they were all on the opposite side of the large canal that cut down the middle of the wharf, currently dry with the flood gates up. He frowned as he followed the railing towards the front of the wharf, noticing something big sitting just inside the waterside entrance to the wharf. It was hard to make out what it was from the lack of lighting, so he pushed it to the back of his mind as he found a walkway that ran over the canal to the other side of the room.

The voices up ahead grew louder as he pressed himself against a nearby wall, carefully going down its length until he reached the edge of a door, closed and most likely locked as well. With them so close by he wasn't sure if he could get it open without them hearing his attempts, so he stopped for a moment and started thinking of any ways he could take out the four of them by himself and before they could raise any alarms.

Taking out four bloodbenders by himself was a fairly tall order, he had to admit. A crashing noise in the room put his mind on edge, thinking for a moment that the door was about to burst open and a torrent of water would barrel into him. But the door hadn't moved.

He raised a eyebrow at the sound of four thuds on the floor and tensed his muscles, ready to tap into the flow of energy and let the flames fly. The handle of the door rattled a little before being turned and letting the door open. One of the bloodbenders stumbled through, unaware of him even though he was only a few feet away. Mako found that answer when the middle-aged man collapsed to the floor, a line of bruising all over his cheeks and neck with a few shards of glass sticking from his hands.

Boto held a sheet of paper in a hand as he nodded. "One of them had this. It's got Asami's company logo on it." He handed it to Mako, who arched a eyebrow as Boto moved past him and went to lean on the railing that overlooked the canal, staring at the blown-apart drain pipe that led into the foundation of the wharf's dock.

Mako stared at the shipping list. "South Pole?" he muttered. He turned it over, being greeted with a hastily scribble list of hard to read words.

"Ah!" He looked up and saw Bolin tumble through the broken window, quickly cupping a hand to his collar as panicked chittering came from it. He yelped as his shoulder crunched into the floor, and Mako shook his head as he walked over and extended a hand down to him.

He kept his eyes on the paper, scanning the words on it and quickly seeing that it was a list of names but had no idea who they belonged to. He pursed his lips as he glanced at his little brother, who had just finished standing up and brushing a few large pieces of glass from himself. "You okay, Bo'?" He knew he had been a little bit harsh with him before, and he didn't like shouting or getting angry at Bolin. That wasn't what a big brother was supposed to be like.

The nervous way Bolin's eyes kept darting away told him all he needed to know. "Um, yeah. I'm good."

Mako nodded, not trusting that he could say anything to Bolin bordering on a apology just yet. He looked up as Boto came back into the room."So... the list of names, got a clue about them?"

The waterbender stroked his chin as he nodded, leaning back against a nearby desk that mildly protested underneath the weight of the armor he wore. "I know a few of those names. Prominent waterbenders from some of the richest families in the city. Those names are also on the lists of people Amon de-bended." He narrowed his eyes as he remembered how angry many of the city's big wigs were at Korra's supposed 'betrayal'. "Rorik must have kidnapped her for a reason." Boto stared at Mako, who he saw had just come to the same conclusion.

"Wait... a lot of those names belong to people with suspected connections to the Monsoons... Shit, Rorik took her to give bending back to his bloodbenders!" Mako's mind went into overdrive, threatening to carry him into a full-blown blind rage until a look from Boto stopped him.

"City's toast if the Red Monsoons get back to full strength." Boto muttered, he looked at the increasingly dark look on Mako, and the incredibly worried expression on Bolin. "We've got to get down there as fast as we can."

Mako nodded once and ran towards the railing, vaulting over and onto the floor of the canal, wreathing his hands in fiercely burning flames sometimes flecked with blue in...Anticipation.

Her muscles hurt.

Once again Korra felt nothing but nausea clogging up her head and the world spun as she dropped to the floor, feeling a numb stinging sensation on her palms that was far from her priorities right now. She took in great gulps of air as tears stung at her eyes, she kept her gaze to the floor and focused on just breathing rather than on the people around her.

She could only watch, she was that exhausted, as Tonrik confidently strode into the dimly lit space and looked down at her as if studying prey. She resisted the urge to shiver or show any kind of weakness as he squatted and grabbed her chin so that she couldn't look away. She closed her eyes and kept focusing on breathing rather than how close she was to his smug features. "Tired again? Back at the compound you could last for a whole day!" He chuckled for a moment in anticipation of hearing her incoming rebuttal, but she wasn't going to satisfy him.

She focused on breathing, she focused on Air Temple Island... she focused on him.

He waited a few seconds before losing patience, growling and releasing his grip on her chin as he stood up, brushing a mote of dust from the fine material of his coat. "Only a hundred more to restore hope to Avatar. Then you can rest."

All she could hear was the sound of her own heartbeat, and it terrified her a little that it was beating so fast. She kept silent as she summoned up her last reserves of strength to push off of the floor and wipe a hand across her mouth to get rid of the saliva from coughing so much. As she did this she kept a burning gaze on Tonrik, striving to keep that up for as long as she could.

Korra watched as he turned and snapped his fingers, a heavyset door swung open somewhere in the pitch black beyond the dim gloom and she heard two pairs of feet walking towards her. Two Monsoons appeared, one of them she could be sure was there when he came for her.

That thought managed a silent chuckle from her. Tai's rescue worked out really well. She held onto the absolute ridiculousness of him running of on his own against bloodbenders, better that than the spirit-crushing amount of worry and fear she felt. She didn't let the confusion show when she noticed that the Monsoon that fought Tai had daggers in his eyes as he focused a glare at the back of Tonrik's head, it disappeared when he turned, replaced by a calm mask of patience.

That was a little weird. "She needs rest, Tonrik." Korra didn't want to believe that one of the Monsoons actually felt any concern for her, but it seemed the case as his measured tone got a chuckle from Tonrik.

"Is that right Yureg? My father's bodyguard is giving me instructions?" Something dark surfaced in his eyes as he took a few steps forward towards 'Yureg', giving Korra a bit of breathing room for a few moments. "Stick to paying off that debt instead of-" Korra saw his body stiffen for a few seconds and was sure his eyes boggled. The strange fit ended as Tonrik drew in great gasps of air. "He wants to see me. Back to the cell with her until the next group arrives." He said it in a growl which more or less came off as a ill-tempered yelp as he pushed past Yureg and the other Monsoon, disappearing into the dark hallways in... wherever she was.

Her breathing was all she wanted to focus on, and she didn't fight as 'Yureg' and the other Monsoon, who she saw was wearing a dark longcoat similar to Tai's, grabbed her arms and pulled her to her feet. "Can you stand, Avatar?"

She couldn't fight the urge to at least look at whoever addressed her, settling on 'Yureg'. Strangely enough he actually seemed to hold some concern for her judging by the look on him. She shook her head and he nodded, guiding her arm behind him until her hand draped over his opposite shoulder. The other Monsoon followed his lead without even looking at her. His skin was so pale she guessed he must be a recruit or something.

They took her into the darkened tunnels, the dripping sound she could hear from inside the room now a loud echo that bounced down the walls into other tunnels or rooms of this section of the sewers. At least that meant she was still in Republic City.

For a while all she could hear was the constant dripping of pipes and the sometimes far-off and sometimes not footsteps with unknown owners, at one point she swore she could hear laughter coming from a room with light poking through a crack in the door, as a radio broadcasted a episode of Slapstick Sokka. She remembered listening to it once when Katara bought her a radio to listen to inside the compound, sometimes it was the only thing she really felt was her own besides Naga and the clothes she wore. At the end of a long day of training, sitting in rooms trying to pay attention to history and geography lessons she would return to her room and turn on the radio for a few hours before taking Naga out for her daily run.

The feelings of loneliness during that time vanished when some of the guards, one of which she nicknamed Howl to his constant annoyance, listened to the radio with her or when Tenzin and the kids came to visit.

She wished she was on the island with them rather than in this place.

Her brain told her not to, but she couldn't help feeling that something was a little different about Yureg, something that set him apart from the other Monsoons. She felt she could ask him at least one thing. "Yureg, is it?" Her voice was absolutely tiny as he glanced at her, nodding that she could speak. "Is he...?"

"A little roughed up, but he's still alive." He fell silent as she nodded, welcoming the relief at knowing he was alright for the moment. "He's very... driven."

Once again she ignored the voice of reason telling her not to speak to the Monsoon as she nodded. "Yeah, he is."

They stopped for a moment as Yureg grimaced before looking at the unknown Monsoon. "Check up ahead, make sure the way is clear." Korra didn't even begin to slip as the other Monsoon nodded and move ahead, releasing his grip on her arm. Yureg supported her by himself as he glanced at her. "I apologize for the rough treatment, if its worth anything to you."

She nodded as the unknown Monsoon came back and looped her arm over his shoulder again. Korra looked up just as Yureg and the unknown Monsoon rounded another corner, and she felt that she should say something before getting to whatever room they had her locked in. "Thank you." She whispered as they stopped just outside a nondescript door that looked exactly the same as the others, Yureg glanced down at her with a unreadable expression, and gave her a curt nod.

Somehow she found the energy to frown as the other Monsoon sighed, and she suddenly realized he sounded very familiar to someone she knew. "No need for that, Avatar. I-" The sound of someone gasping for air interrupted him, he frowned as he glanced at the closed door like he was trying to see through it. He grimaced as he reached a hand forward and pulled.

Two Monsoon's stared straight at them, expressions unreadable within the dark expanse of their hoods. Yureg stopped and nodded to the dark-coated Monsoon before stepping into the room and leaving him to keep Korra standing.

She was speechless at the sight of some richly dressed brat laying a barrage of punchs and kicks on Tai, curled on the floor and constantly trying to rise only to be downed by a kick to the ribs.

Damn, being beaten really took it out of him sometimes.

Managing to find the strength needed to open his eyes, immediately his vision swam horrible as his mind slowly switched on, the aches and bruises all over his body along with it. He groaned as he rolled onto one of his most likely many bruised ribs, swallowing as a way to keep his mind from focusing on that just a little longer.

He gritted his teeth and counted to three before rolling over again, biting back a scream as his ribs started to protest constantly. He could breathe more easily now that he was facing the ceiling, which looked almost identical to the floor so it wasn't that much of a scenery change.

With almost herculean effort he managed to lift up one arm, grimacing at all the scratches and bruises dotting both sides of his hand and wrist. He went to lift the other and almost lost himself as the nerves in his hand caught fire and sent rolling waves of pain down his arm and into his skull, worsening the pounding in his head and making his vision swim again.

Well, they were smart enough to restrain at least one of his hands. He kicked his feet uselessly for a few seconds before finding a bump or rock in the floor, moving a little closer towards the ring fixed to the floor in the corner of the dark room.

Summoning up any dregs of strength he had left, he took a deep breath and managed to sit up straight, immediately shuffling towards the wall and pressing his back against it as a way of support. His vision continued to swam as he realized someone else was in the dark room. "There's no water nearby... So I can't heal you."

He froze for a few seconds, not even blinking as he heard her voice. "Have they-"

"You idiot." He fell silent, couldn't even find anything to say to that. She was right about that, but then again she didn't know about the plan. As he found the ability to speak again, to tell her about the plan he stopped when he heard her sobs.

"Its-" His mind switched tracks from telling her the plan to stopping her from completely breaking down.

"They'll... They'll probably..." She trailed off as the sobs increased, stoking a fire inside of him as he shook his head vehemently, hoping that she would see that.

"I'm not waiting around to let them!" He hissed, forcing his brain back onto thoughts about the plan. "Look, the others are on their way, as soon as we-" He cut himself off, cursing the opening of the door, and cursing the two people that walked in. All of the fatigue drained away and his aches and bruises were pushed down as he glared at Tahno, not caring for the remorseful look on the pretty boy as he clenched his fist, keeping it behind his back as the door closed behind them. Just move a bit closer...

"Well, well, recovered already? You grow back like the mould in the servant quarters." His mind switched to the new target presented by the grinning Kerisa junior as he sauntered into the room, directing a look at Korra he didn't like at all. He gritted his teeth as he glared up at the three of them, aiming to beat the crap out of them all when they made a break for it.

Although judging by the way Korra seemed to be sitting, almost like she had no muscle at all, that break was going to be slow-going. "So, Kerisa? Wanna tell me about all the beatings or are you actually going to show me?"

He summoned up the energy for a little smirk, enough to get a twitch in the rich brat's eye. "Provoking me isn't healthy, airbender."

"I think I know what you can dish out. Just a few bruises. Really? You can do better than that?" He kept the smirk up, even as Kerisa's boot flew into his cheek, slamming him to the floor.

He heard her gasp, and saw the smile on Kerisa as he squatted above Tai, flicking him on the nose. "I think she likes what I'm doing. Don't you?"

Tai focused on keeping a steady flow of air to his lungs as he grinned in response, getting another twitch in the rich brat's eye. "Can't complain. Maybe." He chuckled as Kerisa's skin turned livid as he swung a fist into his side, turning his chuckles to coughs and sputters.

"Keep this up you speck, there won't even be enough for the shark-rats to devour!" He shouted as Tai felt more and more kicks in his stomach, soon feeling nothing at all but a series of dull thuds. That might bruise a little, he was sure of it.

"Stop it!" Tai swore under his breath at the almost hysterical tone to Korra, and could only watch through half-closed eyes as Kerisa straightened and loosed one vicious kick at her.

Just the sound of that one impact made Tai's blood burn as a familiar and old anger took him over. "You'll regret that!" All other thought vanished as he summoned up the energy for a air sphere, trying to concentrate on moving the air above his outstretched palm.

In the corner of his eye Yureg stepped forward from his position by the door, tapping Kerisa on the shoulder as he had his leg swung back for another kick. He whipped around, only to have a gloved fist crash into his cheek and slam him into the wall, the impact instantly knocking the rich brat out cold. Yureg glared down at him for a few seconds before squatting and patting the pockets on the finely made coat, quickly fishing out a small and worn key and standing back up.

He couldn't believe his ears or even his eyes as he slotted the key into the manacles around Korra's feet and hands, turning it and releasing the lock on them. The metal rings clattered to the ground as Yureg directed a glance at him before tossing the key into the air and turning back to the girl, grabbing a flask of water from his belt and placing it in her barely moving hand.

Tai caught it, anger tempered by confusion as he fitted the key into the locks on his manacles, surprised that it even fitted. He ignored the burning pain in his legs and everywhere else as he stood up, swaying for a moment before placing a hand on the wall for support. "Why?" He muttered.

"I don't need to tell you. Just get out of here." Yureg answered in a calm tone, despite the fact that a injured and exhausted girl held onto his shoulder for support. He glanced at her. "Avatar, this is my apology."

He moved towards Tai with a hard look in his eyes. "Your weapon is in a room at the end of the tunnel." He nodded as he shifted Korra from his shoulder and over to Tai, who quickly grabbed her shoulders to stop her from falling to the floor. Yureg glanced at Tahno. "We don't have much time."

The former Wolfbat jumped a little as if startled by the words, not looking at Korra or Tai as he nodded, moving out of the room and into the dark tunnel.

As Yureg turned to leave as well, Korra lifted her head from Tai's shoulder. "Thank you, Yureg."

He stopped for only a moment. "There's a drainage chute at the end of the tunnel. Use it." He nodded once and ran into the darkness outside the gloom filled room, leaving the two of them standing there.

Tai stared at the dark expanse outside of the doorway, completely silent as his head worked in overdrive to figure out what the hell that was about. A pained grunt from Korra tore him out of his thoughts as he directed all of his attention on her as she tried to get the cap of the flask open, hands scrabbling at the lip. "Let me." She nodded slowly as he took the flask from her steadily loosening grip, unscrewing the cap and handing it back to her.

She tipped a mouthful of the clear water within into her mouth, keeping it slightly tipped as she thought about taking another mouthful. Korra closed her eyes to lose herself in the refreshing sensation of the water going down her throat, not even caring that a few droplets had splashed onto her chin. With a gasp she swallowed and handed the flask back to Tai, who quickly screwed the cap back on and renewed his grip on her. "Well... no time to waste." She smiled weakly at the frown on him, probably due to how hoarse and small her voice was.

Every part of him ached and all he wanted to do right now was sleep for a week or so. But that wasn't going to happen unless they got out of here first. He nodded, grunting with the effort of moving forward while making sure she stayed properly supported. He thanked the fact that his boots made little to no noise on the damp concrete, but even so he still timed his steps so that he only touched down when something splashed onto the ground and echoed throughout the sewer.

He stepped out into the impenetrable darkness, standing still for a few seconds as his eyes adjusted to the pitch black, only being able to do so courtesy of the light reflecting off of the water running down the middle of the tunnel, the light from behind a nearby door providing just enough for him to see by. He caught a strange smell on the air, only to realise that it was fresh water. Close by.

That was probably where the chute Yureg mentioned emptied out. He took a step away from it towards the doorway the light shined out from, going slowly in case anyone was in there.

The sound of some show that had a guy talking about his coveted boomerang carried through, nothing but noise to him given the current situation as he stopped in front of the door, looking at the wall nearby. He glanced at Korra, her chin dipped and her face hidden from view. He tapped her shoulder gently, rousing her. "Hey. I'll be right back." He whispered to her, pointing at the wall as he guided her over.

She nodded slowly as she pushed away from his shoulder, almost failing to do so and threatening to fall backwards as she swayed for a moment. She righted herself and turned, breathing heavily as she pressed her back to the wall and nodded. "Hurry."

Tai nodded as he rolled his shoulders and neck, going into a crouch that made him grit his teeth as he forced himself to stay like that. He crept forward and placed a hand on the door, pulling it back a little as he formed a plan of dealing with whoever was inside.

The radio continued to play as he frowned, seeing four Monsoons collapsed into a groaning pile of tangled limbs. He spotted movement in the corner of his vision, whipping his head up to see the hatch on a vent cover slide shut as something moved about within.

Whoever was in there knew it wasn't going to hold, right? He shook his head and moved forward, stepping over the unconscious men and grabbing the black scabbard laid out on the table next to the radio. As soon as his hand close around it he felt safer and more able.

He grabbed the end of a loop on his sword belt which still held the scabbard, guiding it around his shoulder and under his opposite arm until both ends met over the middle of his chest. He fastened the belt tight and rolled his shoulders as they felt the familiar weight, and turned to leave the room. He looked to his left and moved towards Korra, who had slid down the wall into a sitting position, obviously unable to hold herself up for long. "Looks like someone's helping us out." He whispered, extending a hand to her.

She nodded, focusing on breathing rather than talking as she gripped his hand as tightly as she could. He hoisted her up and looped his arm over her neck and onto her shoulder once again, this time turning around and facing the opposite end of the tunnel.

Voices carried down it to them. He muttered a swear, picking up speed and keeping a firm grip on her as he went in the opposite direction. The voices grew louder and at the pace he was going he wasn't sure if they could make it to the chute in time.

His feet clanged against the grated flooring above the water as he stared down one of the other tunnels, eyes widening as he spotted a hooded figure at the end, a sword in hand and his profile almost completely swallowed by the pitch black. With no time to waste he pushed Korra into the tunnel, aiming to apologize for the rough treatment later on. If there was going to be one.

He tumbled into the chute after her, his view of the world quickly closing in around him against the sound of rushing water.

The truck gunned down the empty highway, belching a black cloud of smoke from its twin smokestacks on top of the driver's cab, allowing the gargantuan engine block hidden under the truck's bonnet to drive the huge machine forwards to its destination. A completely enclosed compartment sat behind the cab, three slits on each side for the occupants to look out from.

Six giant wheels supported the heavy load, connected by a intricate system of hydraulics that ensure the vehicle would stay level on even the roughest terrain. At the front sat a pointed iron prow like those usually found on one of the United Force's Ironclad tanks, although far larger and far sturdier in construction.

Asami frowned as the stars whipped by, the ability to think about what she was heading into clouded by the titanic roar of the truck's engines, which filled the back compartment of the Police truck with a incredible amount of noise.

Notably Lin managed to be heard over the din as Tenzin sat next to her, a frown on his features as he stroked his beard. "We should be coming up on Tin-La street soon, once we get there we'll rappel down and set up at the mouth of the drainage tunnel. Be ready for anything." She looked at Ishi and Washi. "I want the two of you to hang back, keep up communication with the airship patrols and update them on any move the Monsoon's make."

The two of them nodded, while nearby Makei glanced at her as he kept a firm hold on a ceiling handle. "We'll be outnumbered once down there, Kya and her Medics will be on hand to assist." He nodded to Lin.

"Lin, how will the boys contact us?" She steadied her gaze on Tenzin, sighing at what her next words will have to be.

"Boto knows of a few side access tunnels in the sewers underneath the Wharf, if they can't find Korra or Tai... they'll contact us from there in a few hours." She frowned as he nodded, knowing that he was going absolutely frantic inside. "Tenzin. She'll be fine."

A few raps on the metal fencing behind her made her turn, as the Truck lurched to a halt, the engine's rumbles dying away to nothing as the compartment stopped shuddering. "We're here, ma'am."

She nodded at the driver as Makei moved to a wheel near the back of the compartment, turning it to gradually open the doors and lower the ramp. As the middle portion of the floor fed towards the rear of the truck, separated from their feet by a carpet of steel meshing she pointed to the outside and her five officers nodded and gave off a quick salute, filing down the ramp and out into the street outside.

Tenzin was still as she started moving, and as she went past she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "They're both alright, Tenzin. Let's go." Tenzin rose and nodded to her, fixing his cloak before moving out of the truck and outside as well.

Asami followed Lin out, stepping off of the ramp and onto the middle of the street where a large square gap in the ground yawned in front of her. She moved forward and peered down it, remembering the time spent here during Amon's takeover.

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