"Lin?"
"mmmph"
"sweetie time to wake up"
"Mmphh g'way, mornings are evil" Lin grumbled sleepily
"wake up, Korra"
"Why did you call me Korra?" Lin had finally opened her eyes and looked up at Kya
"because you were talking like her"
"she has a point though, mornings are evil"
"true"
"Where are we?"
"the other side of the valley"
"Oh so we are"
"there is a problem though, those Transigen scumbags have put up a perimeter around the valley and are checking cars"
"luckily we don't have anything to hide"
"Good morning"
"that... Is open to debate" Lin replied, she saw Kuvira pull up in her car a few cars behind them, "what's going on?" Kya asked after lowering her window
"some missing government property was last seen in this area so we're checking all the cars that travel through this area"
"Oh right"
"hey! Gate five have found something!" another soldier ran up
"What?"
"Gate five have found something!"
"Excuse me, ladies" the first soldier asked politely, Lin nodded, Kya put the window back up and they shared a worried glance
"you think this is because of the kids?"
"bájate de mí!!" a boy's voice yelled, there was a crackle of electricity and a scream
"shit"
"Where's Kuv off to?"
"I don't know"
*
Kuvira had got out of her car and had ran over to the boy who had a blade embedded deep in his side, she took a fighting stance and stood with him under her. "looks like we're up" Lin murmured and opened her door. "what's going on?" Lin yelled at Kuvira, "what are you doing?"
"they just threw a knife at this kid!" Kuvira bellowed back, getting what Lin was trying to do immediately, "i don't care if he shot another three tasers off at these men, they shouldn't be hurting him, he's a kid"
"What?!"
"he's a technopath actually" one of the men grunted, "he's able to manipulate technology and one of our escaped experiments, we own him"
"Last time I checked you couldn't experiment on children? Or own anyone for that matter" Kya growled
"he's not a real child"
"he looks it to me" Kuvira had tilted her head to one side, a telltale sign she was about to attack
"he's a mutie"
"So?"
"So that means he's the property of the United States military"
"And this is Canada, the US have no jurisdiction here?" Kuvira replied, feigning confusion
"True, but we, as a private contractor do. Company name is Transigen, look us up"
"We don't need to" Lin had dropped into a fighting stance
"Where are the others?" Kya followed Lin's lead
"Tell us, and we won't hurt you..." Kuvira growled
"too badly" Lin concluded, she knew she could stop their pathetic weapons if she wished, since Magneto had died there was no reason for the government to stay with the plastic weapons they had used before.Let's use their stupid mistake against them
"you?" another man clicked the safety off of his gun, "there's only three of you"
"more than enough" Kya smirked, "i could kill you all single handedly if I had to" she then looked around at the other two, "once I disable their weapons you two go in and attack, I'll take the child" Kya had whispered incredibly quietly
"right. Ready, Great Uniter?" Lin muttered
"ready, Turtle Duck"
"fire" the lead man barked, there were a few clicks then... Nothing. Lin jumped forward and so did Kuvira, they threw themselves at the Transigen men, quickly bending themselves a blade in each hand in order to dispatch the men. Kya had knelt down by the boy and was applying gentle pressure to his side. Lin and Kuvira made quick work of several of the men in the time it took Kya to kneel down next to the child
*
"aaaaaaaahhh" there was a collective shout and another four children ran into the clearing. one ran forward at the attackers, summoning vines while encouraging the grass to grow and ensnare the attacking Transigen men as she ran, one stayed close behind the girl who was attacking but also near to the three ladies and the injured child, watching the Transigen men carefully and two ran over to the group. One lifted her finger to her head and a large number of the men froze allowing Lin and Kuvira to kill them even quicker and the other held her hand to the injured boy's side once Lin had bent the blade out of him and thrown it through another attacker
*
Once the last Transigen man fell under her and Kuvira's blades, they turned and walked casually back to the group. "n-ice trick with the guns, Kya" Lin muttered
"all I did was jam up their mechanisms" Kya replied while trying to hold on the laughter at Lin's bad pun
"There's the second lot of kids then" Lin smiled at the children surrounding them
"Who are you" one of them asked timidly
"My name is Lin, this is Kya and this is Kuvira. We came to help you"
"I remember you" another declared, "you were in that cave, or at least, you two were" she pointed at Lin and Kya
"what are your names?" Lin paused, "¿cuales son tus nombres?"
"mi nombre es Erica, Soy un telépata" a girl stood in front of Lin and smiled nervously, "el chico que pidió tus nombres es Stephan, un technopath" he waved nervously, "la chica que te recuerda se llama Julie, ella puede crear campos de fuerza"
"Hola"
"la niña que sanó a Stephan se llama April y puede curar la mayoría de las heridas"
"hey" she smiled at Lin and the others
"y finalmente la última chica se llama Jamaica, ella es capaz de controlar las plantas"
"Hola" Kuvira smiled at the children. "I'll take them back or you take them back?"
"Either way, we are running out of time" Kya declared
"It had better be you and me, Kya, cos you're a healer, Kuv will you be fine carrying on by yourself for a while?"
"Sure, don't worry about me, I'll try not to save too many lives without you"
"If you see an opportunity to pick up the other children, then do it" Lin ordered
"Whatever you say, Turtle Dick"
"Grrr" Lin growled and bristled, "let's get this lot out of here before I impale the 'Great Uniter' on something sharp
*
she's joking" Kya explained to the children before she and Lin helped them all in and ensured they all had their seatbelts on, they then drove off in a hurry. The female with the telepathic powers whispered quietly and put her finger to her head. All the civilians surrounding what now looked like a chaotic war zone instead of an orderly checkpoint went blank faced for a few minutes, they were forgetting what had just happened right in front of their very eyes. Finally they walked away without so much as a backward glance, got in their vehicles and drove away. Lin and Kya fled the scene as fast as they could, realising they couldn't go back through the valley in case they ran into more checkpoints so they opted on the longer but safer route around the valley instead of through it. Kuvira meanwhile walked up to the checkpoint mobile buildings and went inside, destroying all of the CCTV equipment she found, then she too left the scene and continued heading west in her Audi, back the way they had come.
*
*
Laura and Rebecca were woken for school at the same time as their first day but this time they put their school uniform on. Elizabeth had cooked breakfast for them and herself while Korra helped Rebecca get dressed, some parts of the uniform too fiddly for her to do by herself. Korra had gained back much of her strength in her arms as well as some in her legs and core, the orthoses she had doing wonders for her. "morning" Elizabeth yawned to the girls
"where's mama?"
"your mama is still on the landing in the attic" Korra replied, she watched with pride when Laura shot off to give Asami two goodbye kisses. "aww she's so sweet" Korra whispered, Rebecca looked down sadly and Korra pulled a silly face to make her smile, "there you go there's that smile that can light up even the darkest days" Korra grinned
"I love you" Asami hurried to Rebecca and kissed her, "my daughter"
"mama" Rebecca sighed contentedly, she was then kissed by Korra and picked up by her
"Let's get you out to the car, Rebecca" Korra smiled then smothered her face in kisses earning some giggles from Rebecca and Laura when she did the same thing to her as well. Korra carried Rebecca out to the car since her wheelchair was still in the car
"I'd better get back upstairs" Asami said and hurried off again.
*
"goodbye mommy! Goodbye mama!" Asami smiled sadly when she heard their voices, she wished she would've been able to go with them to school but she knew she had to be there when the other children woke up. Asami sat on the uncomfortable landing while absentmindedly sketching some new weapon designs to use on those 'Transigen bastards'.
"'Sami?"
"Yes, Korra?"
"Do you want breakfast?"
"breakfast in bed, how nice" Asami replied sardonically
"sorry, 'Sami, when mama and mom get back we'll have to ask them if they can get a bed up there 'til we can get the children settled
"Korra, what are we gonna do about school for all of them?"
"Ask that nice head guy?"
"He'd have to put on a whole extra class to cater for all of the children though"
"I'm sure we could pay him to do so?"
"Hmm maybe"
"'Sami, when are we going to tell Laura and Rebecca about what happened?"
"to Jonah?" Asami's thoughts had been full of images of not just Jonah, but the others lying how he was, spread-eagled on the floor, their hair a mess and half their chest and stomach missing. She had always had to stifle a sob when she saw Laura or Rebecca like that. It wasn't that she didn't care about the other children, she did, but she hadn't become attached to them in the same way yet. "I don't know sweetie, there's probably no right time, right?"
"I wouldn't know" Korra replied sadly, "I'm going to go and make us some breakfast, then I'm going to the pool to do some hydrotherapy stuff"
"I would come and join you but I can't"
"Don't worry about it, sweetie"
*
Korra disappeared off, Asami heard distant rattling and whistling coming from where the kitchen was and about twenty minutes later Korra had awkwardly climbed the ladder using her abilities to carry the tray up without spilling anything. Korra put the tray down and stood on the ladder. "you need any help?" Asami asked
"I got this" Korra summoned an even bigger ball of air and lifted herself up on to the landing where she took her braces off and tried to get comfortable on the hard floor, the thin carpet not doing much to cushion her behind
"sweetie it's very nice of you getting yourself up here but how are you going to get down again?"
"one thing at a time, 'Sami, first, let's finish this wonderful breakfast in bed" Korra handed Asami her breakfast and she moved so she was sitting next to the darker skinned girl, throwing her bed covers over herself as well as Korra
"Thank you" Asami whispered, she kissed Korra's nose and began to eat in earnest
"we also need to decide what to do about food for that lot, we can't continue getting pizzas for them all every night"
"No, I suppose you're right, maybe look online?"
"good idea" Asami smiled, Elizabeth had been good enough to set the two of them up with accounts on both her laptop and the desktop, with another account for Laura and Rebecca to share, "there is a barbecue outside" Asami commented
"in this weather?" Korra asked, surprised, "the forecast suggests snow will soon start to fall"
"shit..."
"Asami, what?"
"The other children"
"fuck, you're right, we have got to find them quickly else they'll freeze to death out there!"
"Finish breakfast first, Korra" Asami mumbled
"But..."
"no, Korra, you can call them after you finish"
"fine" Korra pouted
"you know, Korra, I've never seen you pout over having to finish a meal before"
"I'm worried about the kids" Korra replied dejectedly
"don't worry, Lin, Kya and Kuvira will find them"
"I hope you're right"
*
Base camp to Turtle Duck and Great Uniter, do you copy, over?" Korra waited for nearly a minute before trying again, "Turtle Duck and Great Uniter, come in please" she heard movement two floors above her but she continued to focus on the radio. "Turtle Duck, Great Uniter, please come in?" Korra waited another five minutes and after trying again she threw down the mic unit. "Shit"
"can't get through?"
"Nope"
"damnit"
"Asami what are you doing down here?"
"The kids are awake, they're just getting dressed now. I told them to go into the bathroom one at a time to get dressed"
"jeez that's gonna take some time once we've got them all here"
"i know, but they are between ten and fifteen, they need privacy"
"I agree"
*
"Good morning" Korra smiled down at the timid children sitting on the couches in front of her, "and welcome to our home, well strictly speaking it's our friend Eliz's house, or her parents' house but for now it's ours" she looked over at Delilah who was translating and smiled encouragingly, "Laura and Rebecca had to leave earlier for school but they'll be back in..." she looked at the clock, "five hours"
"Mommy Korra" Mira whispered
"yes?"
"Why do Laura and Rebecca call you mommy?"
"because we adopted them, Mira"
"why?"
"Because they needed a family"
"is it nice being in a family?"
"i certainly think so, but you'll have to ask Laura and Rebecca when they get home from school"
"otay"
"Are any of you hungry?" Asami had asked, "I'm going to cook porridge and Korra can do toast so..."
"Yes" the children answered as one
"alright then, make two lines, one this side of the counter for porridge, the other for toast, four slices each, right, Korra?"
"right, Asami"
*
Most of the children had lined up on Asami's side, wanting to try this porridge stuff but one had joined Korra. "alright, four bowls of porridge coming right up" she got the biggest saucepan she could find and quickly made the porridge, she was soon spooning out generous portions of porridge and adding sugar to it to make the children even happier. While they were eating, a crackling came across the room
"Korra..."
"On it"
"Turtle Duck to Base Camp, Turtle Duck to Base Camp"
"loud and clear, Turtle Duck"
"prep triage, we are twenty minutes out"
"Shit" Asami swore and hurried off, she dragged a huge box back in while muttering to herself, "ice packs, check, bandages, check, CPAP, check" she continued mumbling while walking. Once she got to the lounge area she pulled out plastic sheets and began covering the floor with them. "Korra would you mind rolling this out to the bathroom?" she asked, throwing a sizable roll of plastic to her girlfriend
"sure"
"Turtle Duck, how many Ducklings do you have?"
"five"
"Anything we should be aware of?"
"Negative, except from the fact that our Ducklings are very muddy"
"Ducklings?" Delilah asked
"Kids, finish up that food, I think it's time for a morning swim, don't you?"
"Swimming? In the morning?"
"Turtle Duck to Base Camp, one of our Ducklings seems to be unwell, over"
"Roger that, we're all prepped this end"
"right, we're coming up the drive now"
"last one to the pool is a rotten egg!" Asami exclaimed and she and all the children ran for the pool
"Asami's a rotten egg, Asami's a rotten egg" the children cheered a few minutes later, they had all speed changed and beaten Asami to the pool
"good thinking Asami" Korra breathed
*
The door barged open and Kya came in first, carrying a weak looking teenage girl. "what happened?" Korra asked
"we don't know, she sorta started coughing and burning up on the way back here" Lin muttered, worried
"what about the rest?"
"they seem fine"
The girl in Kya's arms coughed but didn't wake. "I'm taking her to the hospital" Kya declared, she ran back to the car and took off for the hospital, ringing Doctor Smith en route
Ten minutes later, Korra turned to Lin, "These children all seem to be reasonably healthy, a few bruises here and there but other than that they're in quite good shape" she declared, "but we'd better keep a close eye on them for a while"
"Base Camp, this is River"
"go ahead"
"We're at the hospital, she has pneumonia and anaemia"
"shit. Well, at least it's nothing infectious" Lin muttered
"we'll make sure everyone else is taken care of" Korra added
"Good, River out"
"Bath time you four" Korra smiled down at them, she took one of them by their hand and led them into the bathroom that was downstairs, Lin took another one and showed her where the en suite shower room was then returned to the group and showed the last two where the other shower rooms were, they hadn't used the attic bathroom initially because it was too difficult to get to without leaving a horrible mess all over the carpets, but now they had the plastic sheeting it was a lot easier.
*
"well done you" Korra smiled at her mother proudly
"It was a team effort" Lin replied. One by one the new arrivals returned to the room they had come from, being careful not to tread on the filthy plastic sheeting that still covered the carpet. They were all wearing new clothes that had been put out for them by Korra and Lin, their old clothes still in the bathrooms. "hey, there they are" Lin smiled serenely down at the four children who had joined them. She looked slyly at Korra, "do you think they're ready?"
"yes"
"then come with me kids" Lin smiled and led them into the pool area
"Déjà vu" Asami muttered but the yelling and screaming that the children made were a lot louder and exuberant than before as the children took joy in seeing some of the others. They were happy, truly happy
*
"River to Base Camp, River to Base Camp"
"Go ahead River"
"she's not good, they've admitted her to hospital for urgent treatment, she's going to have food, fluids and drugs I think"
"how long?"
"I don't know, someone ought to stay here in case she wakes up though"
"Right, looks like we won't be going back out to the Uniter tonight"
"doesn't look like it"
"Wonder what her name is?" Asami asked quietly
"it's April"
"The healer?" Lin whispered in shock
"yup"
"guess she didn't know how to heal pneumonia and I guess malnutrition isn't easy to heal"
"someone will be there soon to keep you company"
"Don't worry about me I'll be fine"
"but..."
"I mean it, out"
*
*
"Laura!" Elizabeth's voice seemed distant to her, the children she was with had been playing mothers and babies, the boys were playing the fathers with dolls filling the part of the babies and that was enough to induce a flashback. She and Rebecca had been helping out in one of the younger classes but Elizabeth noticed some of the warning signs and had to interrupt the game, "I'm sorry, kids you'll have to carry on without her" Elizabeth whispered as she led Laura away to calm down.
*
"Laura... Laura... Concentrate on the sound of my voice" Elizabeth had taken her to the school hall where the large area would hopefully calm her. Enclosed spaces felt too much like the room she was imprisoned in back at Transigen, the nurse's office reminded her too much of the surgical room where the adimantium was grafted to her bones and the outside reminded her of where her father had died because of the wooded area at one end. "Laura!"
"E... Eliz... Help me" she whispered
"Back off!" Elizabeth demanded when one of the other support staff entered the hall
"Miss Shaw... What?"
"take it up with the principal, he will tell you I have full permission to do whatever I have to to calm her down" Elizabeth glared at him while Laura grew more and more panicked, "you're upsetting her you have to leave!"
He left in a hurry but was very confused by the whole thing. "Eliz... Why did my daddy have to die?"
"Transigen's monster got him didn't it?"
Laura nodded, "and I killed it"
That was news to Elizabeth, "then it can't ever hurt you or anyone else ever again"
Laura sobbed, "i want my daddy back"
"i know... Hey, how about I get mama to come here?" she had already hit the panic button of course but she didn't tell Laura that, there was a distant screech of tyres and shouting.
*
"Miss Shu, what are you doing here?"
"Don't get in our way, Mrs whoever you were"
"Mrs Jones, let them in" the principal instructed, "i was told it might come down to this so let them in, their daughter is very distressed and she needs her parents"
"Alright" she buzzed the lock and let them in
"Where is she?"
"In the school hall, do you know the way?"
"yes"
"then get going"
*
"Laura!!"
"Mommy!!"
"Laura!"
"mama!!" Laura ran to her parents with tears flowing freely, "i love you"
"we love you too sweetie, now, come on, let's get you calm" Korra took Laura in her arms and Asami sat behind her, rubbing small circles on her back in an effort to calm her. "we're here, Laura" Korra cooed, "we're here"
*
An hour and a half later, Laura was finally calm enough. They had had to move out of the hall because of lunchtime and lunchtime had started fifteen minutes before the time Laura was finally calm enough to rejoin her peers. "go on sweetie" Korra encouraged
Laura walked out into the hall, her eyes still red from crying. she got a few curious glances as she walked back to Rebecca but when she got there she found herself in a massive group hug, all of her friends wanted her to know that they cared and since it was most of her class and a few from the other class, she had a huge cuddle waiting for her
"you really weren't kidding" Mr Jones had been standing behind them a hint of pride on his face at how most of the children in Laura's class had greeted her
"No, and we have something else to ask of you too"
"shall we go to my office?"
"sure"
A few minutes later they were seated, "now what did you want to discuss with me?"
"we have found more children"
"come again?"
"you remember how we told you Rebecca and Laura are adopted?"
"yeah"
"What we didn't tell you was that we found them, they were homeless, starving and vulnerable when we found them, literallyfound them"
"That links in with the trauma?"
"Partly"
"how many children have you found?"
"we aren't sure on the final number yet but we found another ten"
"ten?!" the principal went white, "how... How did this happen? How did they not get picked up by social services or the police or anyone?"
"we aren't sure, the only thing we knew was that these vulnerable children were out there in the freezing cold in November, December and January are fast approaching with their even colder weather so we did the only decent thing, we took them in and gave them a home"
"You are truly kind people" he commented
"They probably won't be ready to join until the new year but then... they'll need a school"
"both of our sixth grade classes are full"
"well, shit."
"But I could see what I can do, we do have a spare classroom and often have a couple of spare teachers ready to cover should any teacher have to go off somewhere in a hurry"
"Thank you!"
*
*
"fucking hell it's taking them a lot longer than I thought to get back out here" Kuvira sighed, "or even turn to the range extender's frequency so I can actually talk to them"
"Great Uniter, this is Base Camp, testing the new range extenders and checking up on your progress"
"Base Camp! It's about damn time"
"I'm sorry"
To Kuvira, Asami sounded haggard, stressed and upset, "wait what's happened?"
"One of the Ducklings is in hospital and Garra had an episode in school, we're also worried because the snow is fast approaching"
"i know..." you'll be disappointed to know I haven't seen a single sign of any of the others, and whatever trail that would've been left by them tromping through the snow is long gone, that's if they had even walked through the snow of course"
"i know... Uniter, I'm scared, one of the Ducklings has pneumonia and malnutrition and the flashbacks seem to be getting worse, not better"
"Crap"
"and to make matters worse there's still no sign?"
Kuvira saw something out of the corner of her eye, "wait"
"Oh?"
"Stay on the line" Kuvira got out, pulled her coat tight around herself and went to investigate. "Base Camp, we have a problem"
"what is it?"
"Transigen got to them before we did"
"Oh... Oh fuck"
"I'm going to follow the car tracks, get here... Soon"
*
*
"Roger that." Asami put down the radio. "SHIT!"
Korra hurried in, "what?"
"Transigen got them..."
"fuck"
"Hello all, we're home!" Elizabeth wheeled in and saw Korra and Asami's faces, "what?"
"the others have been captured" Korra said simply, relieved that Laura and Rebecca had gone straight through to where the other children were playing
"I'm going to radio Lin and then we're going to go out and free them. Eliz, will you stay here and look after the kids?"
"of course" Elizabeth nodded, "hope they don't mind pizza"
"Turtle Duck, you and River need to return to Base Camp, immediately"
"what's going on?"
"Those bastards got there before we did"
It took a few seconds for it to sink in but then Lin was swearing profusely under her breath, "right, we're on our way" Lin left Elizabeth's phone number with the nurse's station before she and Kya left, just in case