Chapter 10 - The Scorpion's Sting Pt.2

"Avatar?" She repeated into the darkness. "Did he just call you the Avatar?"

Yuan uncomfortably fidgeted against his bindings before heaving a sigh and answering, "Yeah … yeah he did."

"You. You're seriously the Avatar?" she asked again, still either unable or unwilling to believe him.

Yuan closed his eyes and clenched his fists in concentration. With some effort he managed to create a decent size fireball around his right hand. The room lit up slightly with this, allowing Yuan to see the Vice President sitting in her cell, her mouth ajar. Quickly the flames dwindled, returning the two back to the darkness.

After a few moments the Vice President managed to utter a faint, "Wow." Yuan began to smirk a little before she continued, "Wow, I had no idea it was this bad."

"Excuse me?" asked Yuan, a mix of puzzled and offended. "What do you mean 'this bad'?"

"I just found out that the current Avatar is a violent insurgent. Not just an insurgent actually, but a colossally stupid one at that." Her voice was harsh and accusatory.

"Hey, I'm right here! And I'm not an insurgent or a terrorist or whatever... And I'm not stupid." he reacted instinctively.

"Really? So you didn't kidnap a high ranking politician with the intent of extorting the government, and you didn't do it with a deranged lunatic who just double crossed you? Am I following this correctly?" She responded, beautifully weaving her sarcasm with condescension.

"Hey, I mean … that's not … you're not …." Yuan stammered at her before uttering a frustrated grunt. "It wasn't completely my choice."

"Oh, but you stand by your actions, right? That's what you told me before you're partner almost slit your throat. If you're what we have for an Avatar, then I think the Church might be on to something."

The words cut deep at Yuan, but instead of shame or embarrassment he felt rage overwhelm him. "You know what, screw the Church, screw the Scorpion, and screw you! All I ever get is a load of crap from everyone because I'm the Avatar so I must be evil, or because I'm from the Earth States so I must be a terrorist! I wouldn't have agreed to join the Scorpion if it wasn't for your nation treating me like dirt, invading my home, and throwing my friends into your secret prisons! If you want to…."

"Wait," she interrupted him. "What was that you just said about your friend?"

"My friend Phen got caught with the wrong people, so you decide it's fair to torture him in some prison underneath Air Temple Island." Yuan explained, his voice still on edge. He was caught off guard when there wasn't an immediate response. His anger slowly began to dwindle as the silence continued, finally switching to concern by the time he heard the sound of one of the walls being kicked.

"I knew it. Goro's always danced around and denied it, but I knew it," she was quietly muttering to herself.

"Wait a minute, you weren't told about the prisons?" Yuan asked.

"Pris-ons?!" she repeated, clearly shocked at the plural. "No... I always had my suspicions, most people do, but President Goro has always categorically denied it."

"So wait, Goro is keeping secrets, even from his own Vice President?" Yuan continued to pry, a little bit surprised.

"Hah, Goro would replace me with a scarecrow if he could. The man hates me. I'm a member of the opposing party, he only gave me this position so he would win the last election. I was actually pretty excited when he told me, I figured I'd be able to positively impact the government. But he's been keeping me sidelined for the past 4 years, making sure I don't have any real power or responsibility. The diplomatic mission I was returning from when you kidnapped me, you know what that was? It was me making an appearance in the Fire Nation Capital for National Tea Appreciation Day. I didn't even talk to anyone, I just drank tea and posed for some photos."

Yuan listened in silence as she explained her plight. After she finished, he thought for a moment about everything she'd said. "Huh. So basically President Goro is more like a dictator? Because if he's keeping something as big as the prisons a secret, I can't imagine what else he's hiding."

He heard the Vice President slowly pick herself up. "Not quite. He's limited by the Quorum, a legislative body I used to be part of. But he has been slowly building up power for the past decade or so. He's really popular amongst the people for being tough on terrorism, but that's been waning recently because of how long we've been involved with the Earth States. Still he's very powerful, and less than scrupulous. He's probably licking his lips right now thinking of the public outcry against terrorism and how he can use it."

The Avatar nodded along as she explained everything, "Well …. crap. Ok, we'll figure something out. I'm not about to give up on saving Phen just yet."

"You seem pretty confident considering we're both at the mercy of your psycho partner," the Vice President remarked with some bemusement.

"If he was going to kill us he would have done it already. Guy just flies off the handle sometimes, he'll cool off by the morning, and after that we can figure out a plan," Yuan said with the confidence plain in his voice.

The Vice President couldn't help but feel reassured by this sentiment. "You know him best I suppose. I'll let you talk to him tomorrow. And thank you for saving my hand, by the way. It was pretty courageous of you …."

"Yuan," he said with a small chuckle.

"Sang," she gave her own name. "Sang Huifeng. I'm putting all my faith in you kid, I hope you know what you're doing."

Yuan gulped at this, but decided to remain silent. Eventually, despite his discomfort with his current position, sleep overtook him. As had been the all too frequent case in the past few days, this night also had a dream.

His eyes fluttered open, and he found himself in the same position he'd fallen asleep. Except instead of metal bands holding him against a wall it was chains dangling him over a pit of lava. Long hair draped over his back and shoulders, and he immediately realized he was the girl again. He frantically looked around the cave he was trapped in and saw three people standing above the lava pit, with two other hooded figures behind them. The man in front of him was speaking at him, but he couldn't make out what he was saying. Involuntarily, Yuan yelled a retort at him, but the context was completely lost on the Avatar. Suddenly the two men in robes stepped forward, one holding a bowl of shining liquid. The other slowly moved his arms, drawing the liquid out of the bowl, before directing it into a stream aimed at Yuan's mouth.

He could tell from the taste as it was being forced down his throat that the liquid was metallic, He struggled and strained against the restraints, but it made no difference. After a few seconds he had swallowed the last of it. Suddenly the world began to go dark around him, his vision blurring and a dull pounding began to sound off in his ears. His body violently convulsed, as his stomach tried desperately to reject the poison. He could feel it permeating every part of his body, from his feet to his brain.

A loud slamming noise woke Yuan, bringing him back to reality. He was just as restrained as he'd been in the cave, but at least now his body wasn't trying to kill itself. "Man, I don't know how this girl keeps surviving, none of these dreams end well for her," he thought to himself.

Looking up, he saw that the Scorpion had entered the room and deduced that it must be morning. "Good morning. Did you sleep well, cause I gotta say, I feel a little stiff," Yuan joked, hoping it would give the conversation a lighter mood. The Scorpion merely grunted in response, as he dug through the cabinets looking for some food. The Avatar took this as neutral sign, and cast a sideways glance, seeing that Sang was also waking up.

After picking a large pear from the back, the Scorpion sat himself down at the table on the other side of the room and slowly ate in silence. The two prisoners stared at him intently, waiting for him to make an indication about what he wanted to do with them. After he finished, he tossed the core to the side and wiped his mouth before speaking. "I managed to get through to the government. They were very careful about what they said, but I managed to talk them into an exchange."

Yuan's face lit up at this. "Really? Well alright, so we give back the Vice President and we get Phen and some other prisoners then?"

"No," the Scorpion answered, his tone grim. "We are exchanging the Vice President, but we're not getting any prisoners. The terms were I give her back and I get my freedom and President Goro has to be there."

Yuan shot him a puzzled look. "Wait the President agreed to meet face to face with you? And you get a pardon just like that?"

"No," this time it was Sang answering. "There's no way the administration would agree to pardon you. What's your angle?"

"You're right, it's almost definitely a plan to draw me out and capture me. There'll probably be dozens of guards and police there. But it should provide enough security to make Goro feel comfortable with coming out," the Scorpion explained.

Yuan's brow continued to furrow, when suddenly it began to dawn on him. "Your whole plan is to get Goro out in the open?"

The Scorpion snapped his fingers and pointed at the Avatar. "Bingo. I didn't even ask for the pardon, they offered. Probably want to try to put me at ease."

"No, you're not doing this," Yuan began to protest. "We agreed before this, no killing. And how would you escape? There's going to be enough guards there that you might not even get a shot at him."

"I've been planning this for quite a while now," the Scorpion assured, keeping his voice flat and neutral. "I'll get my shot. As for escape, I probably won't. But after Goro and her are dead, I could care less what happens to me."

"Wait, you don't need…" Sang began, but was cut off by a metal band slapping itself across her mouth. She gave several muffled screams as the Scorpion shot four more bands around her limbs, pinning her to the ground.

"What are you doing?" Yuan was the one yelling now. "You said no killing if I agreed to work with you." Before he could continue he saw a metal flash shoot out of the Scorpions sleeve and felt a sharp prick in his neck. "I … I … why?"

The Scorpion walked up to the Avatar, cupping his face with his hand. "We're not working together anymore, Avatar. I want to assure you, this needle had a real poison in it. It's The Lung Constrictor, a slow one, probably going to take a few hours. Too fast and your body might know something's wrong and enter the Avatar state. The Red Lotus learned that one the hard way with your predecessor."

"Red Lotus?" Yuan thought to himself. "Avatar Korra was poisoned? Wait a minute, that's right, I know this one. The Red Lotus was one of the earliest terrorist groups ever. They kept on trying to kill the Avatar." Suddenly through his short random thoughts, he made the connection in his mind. "That was Korra in my dream. I was Korra"

The revelation stunned him, but he was quickly brought back to reality as the Scorpion slapped his face. "I'm sorry our partnership has to end in such a way, but I can't let you interfere."

Yuan shook off the slap, and tried to arrange his flurry of thoughts. He was only just beginning to realize that he'd been poisoned. "You don't have to do this. There's got to be a better way."

"I wish I shared your confidence," the Scorpion remarked as he began to ready his equipment, and gather several weapons. "Maybe your successor will be able to truly change something."

Yuan shouted more protests, but the Scorpion ignored him. The Avatar thrashed and struggled with all his strength, but the bindings were too tight, and he wouldn't budge. After readying all his supplies, the Scorpion ripped apart the bars on Sang's cell and lifted her into the air by the bands around her wrists and ankles. She weakly uttered some muffled protests, which the Scorpion easily ignored. The two exited through the front entrance, leaving the slowly dying Avatar to his fate.

Kunchen and Nerrivik sat next to each other, eating a modest breakfast on one of Varrick Estates many extravagant banquet tables. Ahnah had graciously offered to let the two stay with her, an opportunity they had been keen to jump on. The estate catered to their every need, feeding them, allowing them full access to the pool, and even letting them check out Varrick Industries latest inventions and gadgets. All this served as distractions as everyday turned up no news about Yuan.

"Did you see the blueprints for their gyro device?" Kunchen asked, breaking the silence. "It's actually a pretty cool concept, you see…"

"We're failures, Kunchen," Nerrivik cut him off.

"You see it'll allow the passengers and pilot to hover in mid-air. It also makes altitude adjustment easier," the airbender continued, seemingly ignoring her.

"It's been 4 days and we haven't seen him. Even with Ahnah's help we can't find him. He's probably not even in the city anymore," Nerrivik pressed.

Kunchen heaved a sigh. They'd had this conversation a few times over the past several days, and it was becoming harder and harder for him to ignore their lack of success. "We don't know that. For all we know who could be lying low in a homeless shelter or in one of the refugee neighborhoods."

"Or prison," the waterbender added. "They kept him detained for hours at the border, there's a huge chance they might have recognized him after the fact."

Kunchen slammed his head against the table. "I know, I know, but what else can we do? It's not like we had any luck by ourselves. And you heard the news yesterday about the Vice President. I don't want to be a conspiracy theorist, but there's no way Yuan isn't connected somehow."

"I remember, it's all you talked about last night. But unless you can think of a way to find the only person in the city more wanted than Yuan, I don't know what you want to do."

"Something! Anything!" he exclaimed. "We've been looking for days, and we finally found something that might, almost, possibly be a clue. This is our best bet and we've got to look at it. It's not like anything is going to just fall into our lap."

As if on cue, one of Ahnah's several butlers emerged from the door nearest them in the hall holding a phone. "Pardon me for interrupting your meal, but theres a call on the line for Master Beifong."

The airbender sat up and walked over to grab the line. "Seriously Yan, call me Kunchen. 'Master Beifong' weirds me out." After receiving an affirming nod from the servant, Kunchen picked up the phone. "Hello? Uh-huh…. Yeah…. No we aren't….. Wait, right now?... Yeah I'll turn it on now!"

He quickly hung up the phone and waved for Nerrivik to follow him out the door. The two emerged into an enormous foyer, with three ornate couches in front of the largest Telescreen ever created, at 24x24 inches. Kunchen turned it on, and twisted the dial until they reached one of the news channels. On the screen they could see a mob of people gathered outside an enormous, palace-looking building. Lights flashed from all the cameras in the audience, although the noise of the throngs was muted to the Telescreen. A man's voice droned over the video, commenting on the nervousness and tension in the crowd. At the front of the crowd there was a shorter middle aged man, flanked by several guards in metal armor. The man was speaking to the crowd, making several sweeping gestures and keeping a confident smile on his face.

"What's going on?" asked Nerrivik. "What was that phone call about?"

"It was Ahnah. Apparently The Iron Scorpion agreed to give up the Vice President. That guy up front is President Goro, I think." The two continued to stare intently at the screen, listening as the droning voice explained Goro's answers to the reporters. This interview continued for about a half an hour, until a sudden hush fell over the crowd.

Everyone's faces slowly began to turn away from the President, and towards the road leading up to them. As the camera began to pan, they could see several metalbending guards appear from the within the crowd. They moved towards the center and split the crowd apart, creating a large pathway to the President. Overhead a zeppelin flew, bearing the marking of Republic Cities Police Dept. Eventually the camera managed to pan and focus enough that the two viewers got a clear look at what was drawing everyone's attention. About 100 meters away from the President stood a lone man, with a woman helplessly dangling in mid air behind him, a floating blade aimed at her neck.

After what felt like an eternity of struggling, Yuan went limp. Exhausted, he panted and sweat. With each inhale he felt himself struggling more and more. He remembered the Scorpion's lesson about the Lung Constrictor. It was a subtle poison, almost impossible to notice at first. Slowly the person would feel themselves growing more and more tired, and breathing being harder and harder. If they didn't find a place to rest they would normally collapse of exhaustion after a few hours. Their bodies would begin to go numb, as their muscles became weaker and weaker. Finally breathing would become impossible all together and they would slowly suffocate, prone and helpless.

"I've probably just helped the poison with all that," he thought to himself in frustration. "And for all the good it did!"

He began to bash the back of his head against the wall. Equally futile, but at least this was cathartic. Maybe he'd even kill a few brain cells and save himself some suffering later on. Eventually the pain of the wall became overwhelming and he force himself to stop. Dazed, he stared at the ground for several minutes, unable to form a coherent thought.

After a few moments of this he regained his composure. His eyes darted around the room, panicked, looking for anything that could help him. He opened and closed his hands trying to reach out and find something he could bend. With his arms restricted he could feel the wall behind him, but he couldn't do a thing to budge it.

"It's hopeless," he finally thought to himself in defeat. "I'm actually going to die down here. I'm the most powerful person on the planet, and I'm going to die in a pit, with the antidote like twenty feet from me. I might be the worst Avatar ever."

"Well with an attitude like that, yeah you probably will be."

"Huh. I don't remember hallucinations being part of the side effects," he thought to himself, nonchalantly. "Maybe I hit my head a little too hard."

"Your brain's been damaged since the day you were born, but that's not the issue right now. The issue is you're poisoned and we need to get you un-poisoned."

"Ok crazy-head-voice, and how do I do that? I'm just a little stuck right now," he retorted, accepting the voice without question. At this point, he'd be willing to try anything.

"You're an earthbender by birth, and you're telling me you can't metalbend?" the voice was beginning to grow testy.

"No, alright. I've already tried a few times and I can't do anything," Yuan was getting just as annoyed as the voice.

"Oh ho, a few times? Well then, I guess we're done here. Clearly you've done everything in your power to save yourself. How dare I question your resolve."

"Was there a memo put out about being a sarcastic jerk to me? Seriously I feel like everyone's in on this one."

"Maybe if you'd stop being a whiney baby about everything people would stop treating you like one. Oh it's not fair, people are mean to me because I'm the Avatar or because I'm from the Earth States. Oh poor me, I bet no one else gets treated as bad as me."

"I just got poisoned!" Yuan thought incredulously.

"So, who hasn't? The worlds always gonna give you a hard time. That's life, get used to it. You're the Avatar, you don't get the luxury of a pity-party. There are people out there that are gonna need your help, you've got to be there for them. I'm here to make sure you get to be there. And to do that, I'm gonna need you to metalbend these braces off and get yourself that antidote."

Yuan sat there in silence for a little bit. Finally a smirk crept over his face. He'd always been 'a kick in the butt is a step forward' kind of guy, and this is just what the doctor ordered. "Ok crazy head-voice, tell me what to do."

"Finally. Metalbending's easy, you just need to realize that all metal has earth inside it. Once you find that earth, grab it. The rest is just like bending."

Yuan exhaled through his nose and closed his eyes in concentration. His fingers stretched out from his palms and began to slowly flutter up and down. He reached beyond him, searching for earth where the bands were. There was resistance as he poked and prodded around. He began to focus on these tiny pockets, feeling their shape and size. Finally he latched onto it, and found the earth he'd been looking for.

Knowing what it felt like now, he spread his search to the entire bands. He was surprised when he found that the bands, were almost completely coated in these tiny pockets of earth. Finally with a grunt and a yell, he grabbed the metal and ripped his arms and legs from the wall.

He fell to the ground, landing gracelessly on his face. Slowly he stood up and stretched out. He was beyond stiff, and the poison was tying his insides in knots, but nothing could compare the sheer freedom he felt. Suddenly he remembered why he'd broken free in the first place. He lurched forward, towards the cabinet. Tearing the lock off with ease (ok metal bending was pretty cool), he sorted through the various poisons and antidotes until he found what he needed. Ripping the cork off the top of the vial, he quickly downed half the contents. He then collapsed in a chair and let the antidote work it's magic. After a few minutes, the storm in his stomach began to quell and he felt good enough to stand up. "Well alright, looks like I live to fight another day. Thanks crazy head-voice, I owe you one."

He sat in silence for several seconds waiting for a response. After nothing came, he began to think about how crazy everything that just happened had been. "Maybe I was just hallucinating. But why was it a woman's voice? And why was she such a jerk? And what did she mean that everyone has been pois- oh holy crap that was Avatar Korra!" It suddenly all made sense, the dreams, her voice, the talk about poison. He could talk to his past lives? Why had no one told him about this before. He was gonna need to have a talk with Kunchen about this.

With the thought of the airbender came the sudden realization that there was a world outside the bunker. A world that was about to have a few less people in it, if Yuan didn't do something. Grabbing a few select antidotes to drink on the way, Yuan tore the exit off it's hinges and sprinted to the surface, hoping he wasn't too late.

The flash of all the camera's and the din of the gathered crowds was more than the Scorpion had ever experienced. He let it wash over him, feeling the energy coming off the hundreds of people before him. The idea of a willing audience was new to him, but he felt it was only fitting, considering what was about to happen.

The Vice President had stopped her struggling shortly after they had reached the surface. Her expression was numb, but the dried trail of tears down her cheek stood as a testament to her fear. The Scorpion was silently grateful that she had settled down, it now required little energy or thought to keep her and the blade in place.

He stared forward, seeing Goro standing at the center of several metalbender guards, an overconfident smirk plastered across his fat face. All told there were about 25 guards, 15 controlling the crowd and roughly 10 on the President. There was also the issue of the airship, but the Scorpion had planned for that as well. "It's all come down to this," he thought to himself. "One shot. I'll be with you soon, Mingyu. We'll finally be together again."

Two guards, that were previously handling the crowd, stepped forward. Both had determined looks on their faces, and the Scorpion couldn't help but feel sorry for them. They had no what they were about to get into. When they were within earshot, the taller of the two spoke up, "Scorpion! President Goro has wisely negotiated the safe return of Vice President Huifeng. Both sides have agreed to a peaceful exchange! Relinquish the Vice President and you will free of all charges!"

The Scorpion cocked his head to the side slightly, trying to decide if he should say anything. He figured that it made no difference either way, and instead opted of action. In a lightning fast motion he shot his right hand forward. Two needles flew out from his gauntlet, landing in the unsuspecting guard's necks. Both slapped at them and quickly collapsed to the ground.

Others saw this and quickly sprang into action, as the crowd began to shout and panic. Six guards rappelled down from the airship, ready to fire off metal blades at the terrorist below. The Scorpion took a cannister from his belt, pulled it's pin, and threw it to the ground. Smoke soon coated the area, reducing visibility to nothing. Putting on a pair of goggles, the terrorist sprang into action. Several guards who had begun running toward him down the stretch of road, now found themselves lost in the smoke. With several quick motions, the Scorpion managed to take out each one with a carefully placed needle. Once he was at the edge of his smoke cover he looked up to see the airship guards all desperately looking for a place to fire. The Scorpion loosened the drawstring on his side pouch and pulled out a handful of clay explosives. He flung them upward and, with some earthbending, guided them into the ships back turbine. The entire back of the ship combusted into an enormous fireball, careening it into the side of a building. Anybody unfortunate enough to be on the side of the ship was unceremoniously flung either into the building or onto the ground.

The smoke began to clear, and the Scorpion looked forward to the chaos unfolding. Many in the crowd had already fled, with the exception of a few bolder reporters taking every picture they could and random bystanders unable to take their eyes off the carnage. Five guards, fruitlessly trying to maintain order, took notice of the Scorpion now standing in front of them. They quickly formed a line, and all aimed their arms at him, prepared to seize him in their cables. With a flick of his wrist he dragged the Vice President through the remainder of the fog, levitating her in front of him like a human shield. All five guards hesitated as he pressed the blade into the skin on her neck. The brief lapse was all the Scorpion needed, allowing him to place his arm on the Vice Presidents shoulder, and fire five needles into their necks.

With all the guards in front of him taken care of, he marched forward just behind his captive. Goro stood behind four remaining guards, his face determined and unmoving. The guards bunched themselves around him, trying to make any shot impossible. The Scorpion casually launched a ball of explosive clay at their feet, flinging all of them in every which direction. Sending a needle into each of their necks for good measure, he strode towards Goro, who was just picking himself up from the blast. Once the Scorpion was within about 20 feet, he turned to a particularly dedicated cameraman who was filming all of this from afar. "You! Bring the camera forward! All of Republic City should see this!"

The man panically nodded his head and rushed forward as Goro was dusting himself off. The President glared at the Scorpion and said, "I wasn't quite expecting all of this when you made your demands, Khan. That is your name right?"

The cameraman got just close enough to keep the two men and woman in frame. The Scorpion turned to face the camera before speaking. "That was my name once. It was my name before my family and I were uprooted from our home, and thrown in one of your dungeons. It was my name before you tortured us on suspicions of terrorism! It was my name before my wife died because of you and your countries sick sense of justice! My name is The Iron Scorpion and for the first time in decades, I will show The United Republic true justice! Hoten Goro, Sang Huifeng, for crimes against the Earth States and humanity I sentence you both to death!"

He took the Vice President and forced her beside her boss. Leveling his arm, he prepared to fire two blades into their necks. A quick and violent end, just as they deserve. Right as he was about to fire the shots, a shadow appeared overhead. The two blades fired from his arm as he looked up to see what was above. Just as the blades were about to meet their marks, a figure dropped down and slapped both away. The Scorpion stared in disbelief as the person looked up, revealing an enraged looking Yuan.

Kunchen and Nerrivik's faces had been glued to the screen as the entire chaos unfolded on camera. Neither had managed to utter a word as the the Scorpion methodically tore through the President's guards. Both looked away before the Scorpion fired on the President and Vice President. After a few seconds of silence, Nerrivik peeked through her fingers at the screen. Soon she had both eyes open and was squinting to recognize the new figure on camera. Suddenly it hit her, "Kunchen! Kunchen! Look!"

The airbender looked up from his hands, "Wait what is - Holy crap, is that him?!"

"What's he doing their?!" Nerrivik asked, unsure what emotion she was feeling.

"Who cares?! We need to go get him!" Kunchen was already making a break for the door.

Nerrivik ran up beside him. "Ok, you race on ahead, I'll get there as fast as I can."

The airbender nodded in assent. Once outside, he propelled himself into the air, and unfurled the flaps on his suit. Creating a draft beneath himself, he flew as fast as he could to the Presidential Offices, no idea what to do when he got there.

The two men stood in front of each other for a moment, both unsure how to proceed. Suddenly the Scorpion flung another blade, which Yuan quickly smacked away. "I see you finally learned metalbending," the terrorist acknowledged.

"Didn't have much choice," replied Yuan, his voice icy and on the edge of anger.

"So I see," the Scorpion quickly fired a series of needles at his former apprentice. Yuan managed to knock a few to the side, but many landed along his arms. He quickly brushed them off, unaffected by whatever toxin the Scorpion had been using. "And I see you grabbed some antidotes as well."

Yuan rushed him, kicking up a rock and flinging it at his head. The Scorpion ducked and fired a cable at the Avatar. It wrapped itself around his arm, locking the two in a tug of war. After a few seconds of struggling the Scorpion released the cable from his gauntlet. It snapped back at Yuan, hitting his nose, and splattering blood across his face. The Scorpion took advantage of this distraction, and drew the earth up around the Avatar's feet to trap him. Yuan instinctively reached out and grabbed at the Scorpion's metal armor. He squeezed his hand into a fist, causing the armor tighten and constrict around his enemies body. The Scorpion reacted in turn by trying to crush the Avatar's legs in their earth prisons.

The two held each other in place for what felt like an eternity. Eventually the lack of oxygen became too much for The Scorpion, who released the earth around the Avatar's feet, and began to tear off his own metal armor. Yuan kicked up the bindings around his legs, aiming the debris at his opponent. The stones hit the Scorpion in the chest as he tore the final bits of armor off his body. He flew back, landing flat on his back, the wind knocked out of him.

Yuan picked up a heavy piece of earth from the ground and brought it down on the Scorpion. The terrorist recovered at the last second and managed to roll to the side. Springing to his feet, he drew two stones up with him and in two quick punching motions, sent them flying at the Avatar. Yuan caught both and promptly dug his fists into them, giving himself stone gauntlets before he charged the Scorpion. The terrorist sent a barrage of stones at him, but the Avatar managed to deftly bob and weave as he advanced. Once in range, he brought one fist back while quickly uppercutting with the other. The Scorpion ducked down to avoid the telegraphed punch, but was caught in the chin by the uppercut.

Stumbling backwards, he managed to regain his balance surprisingly fast. After spitting out some blood he cocked his head back and sneered. Yuan let out a small grunt at this challenge and began charging him. Before he could throw a punch, the Scorpion grabbed at the stone gauntlets and pulled them to either side of the Avatar. Yuan stumbled as his arms crossed over his chest. As he tripped, the Scorpion raised his leg and delivered a sharp kick to Yuan's stomach.

He fell back from the kick, causing his head to bounce harshly off the pavement. Blinking to try and regain his composure, his vision unblurred just in time to see the Scorpion deliver another kick to his stomach. Yuan groaned and rolled over, as more and more blows rained down on his body. Finally the Scorpion stopped, pulling the Avatar to his feet by the collar. Yuan managed to look up at his former partner only to see a steel blade pointed at his face.

"You really disappointed me, Yuan," the Scorpion's voice had an eerie calm to it. "You could have done so much to help this world, but instead you throw your life away defending these monsters."

Yuan coughed up a little bit of blood in response, "I'm sorry then, cause I've got a lot more disappointing to do." He inhaled as if he were about to have another coughing fit, but instead of blood and spit coming out, his mouth erupted into a blazing inferno. As the flames caught the Scorpion in the face, he screamed and released Yuan. Blinded by the fire, his hands uselessly pawed at his eyes, trying to regain vision.

Yuan kicked into the ground, causing a spike to fly from the ground and ram into the Scorpion's ribs. In one final labored motion, the Avatar lifted a fist sized rock into the air and brought it down on his opponent's head. The terrorist splayed out on the ground, motionless except for breathing.

The Avatar stood there for a few moments, unsure of his victory. Only after it became apparent the Scorpion wouldn't be getting back up, did Yuan look up. A crowd of stunned reporters and bystanders surrounded him. Perhaps the two most surprised faces in the crowd were those of President Goro and Sang. Yuan stared dumbly around the crowd, unsure of what to say or do. His confusion and uncertainty were only compounded as a familiar looking airbender suddenly fell from the sky. "Kunchen?" he asked, still dazed.

"You have no idea how much we've been looking for you," his friend replied. Yuan managed to stammer a noise, but was cut off when Kunchen brought him in for a hug.

The embrace was cut short as another familiar face suddenly sprang out of a nearby canal. Before Yuan could greet her, Nerrivik quickly smacked him across the back of the head. "Do you have any idea how worried we've been about you? We thought you were dead!"

"Ow! So this is how you greet me? I just got beaten half to death, so you think it's a good idea to finish the job?" asked Yuan, rubbing the back of his head.

"That's what you get for running away! How could you just leave us like that?" her voice was still angry, but Yuan heard some hurt in it as well.

"I didn't run, I was-" he started.

"Ahem"

All three turned to see that President Goro had walked up to them. "I'm sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I'd be remiss if I didn't thank you for saving my life. It's also not everyday that someone gets to meet the new Avatar."

Yuan stared blankly at the older man, completely dumbfounded. Thoughts quickly crashed and banged around in his head, but a coherent train refused to form. "Oh... right," was all he managed to squeeze out after several seconds of silence.

Li Chen, Phu, and two other Rising Earth agents stood over a sprawled out map of the local area. They were inside a former spiritual shrine, which they had repurposed into their base of operations in the Urumqi region. They're campaign in the region was only a month in, but was already beginning to come apart on them. This small town was one of the few they held onto securely, and was dozens of miles away from Urumqi and the United Republic's main base.

"So what happened to the team we sent to Urumqi directly?" Li Chen asked.

"They were intercepted by Ryu's forces before they could plant the explosives," an older man answered from the other side of the table. "We don't have clear casualty numbers, but we believe there were no survivors."

Li Chen slammed his fist against the table. "Arghhh! Everytime we try to hit him, he always manages to get the drop on us! Have they responded to any of the demands we've made?"

"We executed 4 more hostages in Midong, but there only response was that they would put more pressure on retaking the city. They've already made a significant push in Karamay and now control most of the city. We're running out of resources and our commanders in the city believe retreat is our only option," explained the second man.

Letting out another enraged roar, Li Chen began to stab at the table with a small knife he kept on his side. "We've lost! There's no way we can keep up a campaign like this! We might as well surrender now, and refocus our efforts somewhere else!"

"I didn't know I placed cowards in charge of my organization," a cold and commanding voice rang across the room.

All four men looked over and immediately dropped to a bow upon seeing there previously leader. "Haiyan! We had no idea you were returning so soon. Please forgive my words, I didn't mean to speak with such carelessness," Li Chen began apologizing as fast as he could.

Haiyan strode across the room. A tall man and well muscled, his imposing figure cast a shadow clear across the room.. All the more intimidating was his wild long hair that flowed behind him and his full beard, which hung just below his neck. His bare feet slapped against the clay bricks on the floor and his billowing brown cloak trailed behind him as he walked towards his subordinates. Once he was upon Li Chen, Haiyan placed a reassuring hand on his subordinates shoulder. "There is nothing to forgive. In my absence I left you all without support, and you performed your jobs admirably. With my return I've brought several of our forces from around The Earth States. Now is the time to fight back my brothers! We will strike at Urumqi and drive the United Republic invaders from our homeland for good!" He picked up Li Chen's knife and stabbed it down on Urumqi's dot on the map.

This speech was met with rapturous applause from the men in the room. The oldest of them, looked up and down their commander and asked, "How was your sabbatical, Haiyan?"

"Enlightening," the man answered as his eyes scanned over the map like a hungry deerwolf. "But you'll see a demonstration in good time."

Coming Soon: Chapter 11 - Avatar Duties

Thank you everyone for reading! This is the halfway point of book one, so a pretty significant milestone. Hope the chapter was worth the wait. Like always leave some feedback if you can, it all helps the writing process.