The next two days passed slowly for Korra and Asami. The house they were staying in was opulent enough, but hiding in the basement to avoid being seen was tedious. It was hard on Naga in particular, not being able to go outside left the polar bear dog sulky and irritable.
"Just be patient Naga, we'll be able to go out soon I promise." Korra didn't really know if that was true, but anything to keep the dog from chewing on the furniture again. Their host hadn't said anything, but there had been a few quick glances at the damage already.
Naga huffed in response and turned away, her tail hitting Korra in the head. Asami giggled at the sight "It's a good thing you can fall back to being the Avatar, you're terrible at being persuasive." Asami was lying on a couch nearby, her head resting on her hands.
Korra walked over to the couch before putting her hands on her hips as she looked down at the other woman. "I'm just a bad liar, I can be persuasive when I want to. How do you think I ended up with you?"
Asami looked up at Korra in disbelief before doubling up as she started giggling "Oh is that what you're telling yourself now? I did everything short of grabbing you by the hair and dragging you into my bed to make us happen."
Korra smiled slightly as she lay down on the couch sliding her arms around Asami "Mmm, that sounds like it might be fun." She dropped her head onto Asami's shoulder and closed her eyes. Asami pulled one hand out from under her hair and rested it on Korra's ribs.
The two of them lay there in a complacent silence for several long moments, enjoying the warmth of each others bodies and the stillness of the room. Even Naga seemed content as she started napping. Eventually Asami broke the spell as she looked down at the Avatar. "Korra...what are we?"
Korra opened her eyes, the question taking her by surprise. Various answers ran through her head, mistress and pet, lovers, girlfriends, partners, but nothing stood out as the correct response. She bit her lip trying to figure out how to respond. The silence grew pointed as Asami waited for Korra to say something.
Iroh picked a fortunate time to enter the room, saving Korra from having to stammer through an answer. He had a few leather cylinders underneath one arm and a disappointed expression on his face. "Sorry this took so long, but we didn't have very much luck and decided to keep looking."
Asami's eyes flicked towards Korra for a split second before she got up and moved to sit in another chair next to a coffee table. "You didn't find the lab?"
Iroh shook his head "I'm afraid not, we scouted out all the locations that were using a lot of electricity like you suggested, but came up empty every time. We're back to square one I'm afraid." Asami looked at the cylinders he was holding "What are those?" "Some copies of the maps and records we were using during the search."
Asami tapped her chin for a moment "Let me see them, maybe I'll spot something you missed." Iroh hesitated for a moment before shrugging and spreading them out on the table in front of her. Asami leaned forward looking it over. She looked at the key for a moment seeing what the colored lines and symbols were representing. "This is the capital city here?" She pointed at a central location on the map covering the entire Fire Nation. There were a few smaller ones that showed various cities in more detail as well.
Iroh nodded and pointed at a couple of the other ones "These are some villages and towns to the west, that one is to the south. There's a few places on the islands, but those aren't included in these."
Asami started following one of the backbone distribution lines with her finger. There were a number of spots that had been circled and then crossed out.
She traced one line into the mountains. It had a spots that had been checked but there was nothing at the end of it. "These buildings here? What are they?" Iroh leaned forward looking at the spot she was asking about. "Those? That's an old coal mine that was shutdown a few decades ago. There were too many tunnel collapses and cave-ins so it was abandoned until recently."
He stopped talking thinking that was it, but Asami didn't move her finger as she continued considering the spot. "And nothing has happened there since then? Anything at all?" Iroh frowned considering "Wait...now that you mention it, there was a news article that someone bought the mine a few months and was looking for rare metals in the mountain. It was a joke for a few days then people forgot about it."
Asami shook her head "No, this is it. It's the perfect location, there's nobody around that deep in the mountains. It's directly connected to the power grid's backbone so getting power isn't an issue. And if there's some explosions, they can just say that the tunnels collapsed."
Iroh frowned and started flipping through a stack of paper "But the power meter records are..." Asami shook her head "If you're only using local meters to record power usage, then it'd be easy to fake. Just swap the unit out at the end of each month, maybe they bribe the collectors or edit the records, it doesn't matter. This is it."
Korra got off the couch as she moved over to join them "And what if you're wrong, this could be a waste of time." Asami scowled at her, irked from Korra's lack of an answer earlier "I'm not wrong, all the pieces fit perfectly. The site is there. How soon can we go Iroh?"
He glanced between them, uncertain. Korra shrugged at him while Asami looked determined that she had figured it out. "I hope you're right Asami, but give me an hour to go collect my friends and meet up back here. We can go after that."
After he left, Korra turned back towards Asami "So...who do you think these 'friends' of his are?" Asami shrugged dismissively "He is a Prince here, houses loyal to him, people he grew up with, someone hoping to curry favor, some mix of the above. I don't know how skilled they'll be or if they can be relied on, but I'm going to trust Iroh's judgment here."
True to his word, Iroh was back an hour later with his so called friends. Korra had been wondering what kind of group he would cobble together and how competent they would seem. She only half listened as he introduced them, paying more attention to what they looked like.
A tall bear of a man with a barrel shaped chest holding a guandao stood next to a slender man with tattoos on his face, a bow on his back and arrows in a quiver at his hip. She glanced at the other two men. One seemed too handsome to be a real fighter and the other looked like he had broken too many bones in his face while falling out of a tree. Both had relaxed into the same pose that Iroh used when he was standing around, former United Forces firebenders most likely she figured. The last was a raven haired woman wearing a tight leather outfit that accented every inch of her ample curves.
Korra felt her face reddening from looking at her but couldn't pull her eyes away in time to avoid being noticed. Asami glared at Korra for a second then turned towards Iroh "We can't leave Naga in the house while we're gone, she'll tear everything up. You guys take your cars and we'll meet up a kilometer away from the lab on that ridge to the south."
The ride towards the lab was mostly quiet as Naga loped through the woods. Korra made an attempt at placating Asami "I wasn't trying to dodge your question earlier or -." Asami cut her off, her tone firm enough to dissuade any further conversation "Not now Korra, let's focus on getting rid of this lab."
Korra and Asami arrived at the meeting point first, the others had to leave their cars further away to avoid making noise and hike in on foot. The sun had set by the time they arrived. Korra tossed Naga some snacks and rubbed the polar dog's snout "Wait here until we get back, ok girl?" Her pet gave her a lick and laid down on the ground, looking happy that she was outside again.
Korra crept forward to the ridge's edge and looked down at the buildings below. After a minute she turned towards the others as they joined her "We don't know how many people are down there or how many guards their might be. We'll split up into pairs, one bender per group, and search the place. If you find any techs or workers, try not to hurt them if you can, but get them out of here. Once everyone is gone, we can plant the charges and get rid of this place."
The others nodded before splitting themselves up and disappearing into the night leaving Korra and Asami together. Asami checked her electrical glove one last time before they started moving towards the buildings below.
Korra kicked the door open moving inside expecting an attack at any moment. The lights were on, but the first room was empty. So was the second but there plenty of signs people had been here recently. Coats hanging on hooks, open drawers, papers strewn about, chairs had pushed back, one table even had a half eaten sandwich on it.
"Where is everyone Korra? There should be watchmen even if all the workers are gone. I don't like this, something's wrong here." Korra glanced around, an uneasy feeling growing in the pit of her stomach "I'm not sure, let's keep looking. Maybe they're just in another building."
The second building was as empty as the first one they had checked. Asami spotted an open door that neither of them had touched before. She peeked through seeing that it led to the parking lot behind the building they were in. Asami started to turn away, but a faint acrid smell caught her attention. "Korra, give me some light over here."
Korra ignited a flame over her first as Asami looked at the ground. There were several skid marks on the ground, all leading away from the building they were standing next to. "It looks like everyone left in a hurry...they must have known we were coming. This has to be a trap Korra, we need to leave. Now."
Korra shook her head and pointed up to where the mine itself was "I'm not leaving until this lab is gone and it's not much of a trap if we know it's coming. The lab must be up there, let's go." Asami sighed to herself as Korra started heading towards the mine entrance, but followed anyways. She wasn't about to let Korra try and do this without any help.
There was a sizable building at the mine entrance that looked like it extended into the mountain. Korra was heading straight for it, but she was staying off the road, instead opting to move up through the trees.
Like before, the building was empty of anyone. There was plenty of machinery in here that Asami didn't recognize, but could guess the purpose of. She gave Korra a satisfied smile at being vindicated that they were in the right place.
They slowly moved deeper into the building trying to watch every direction at the same time. Eventually they came to a heavy metal door that looked decidedly newer then everything around it. Korra looked at it before sweeping her gaze along the wall to both sides. "There's platinum in this wall, but this door is iron. This is the only way in."
Korra planted her feet as she reached out seizing the door and wrenching it off it's hinges before sending it crashing to the floor with a thunderous clang. Korra put one hand on the door jamb and looked inside as well as she could before entering, the lights were off leaving the far side of the room darkened.
This particular room was larger then the rest of the building put together. There was a conveyer belt coming out of one wall and running almost all the way to the other end. Asami followed Korra in and glanced around for a light switch. She saw it a few feet away and moved over to turn it on.
Korra turned away from Asami looking at the far wall now that they could see it. Sitting in a neat grid of cubbyholes were vines encased in metal/glass cells. Korra turned to grin at Asami "Come on, let's-."
Thump. Thump. Explosion.
The combustion benders surprise attack sent both of them flying away from each other. Korra crashed into the ground several feet away from the door they had come through while Asami was tossed over the conveyer belt.
Korra groaned as the wind was knocked out of her and her side started aching from the impact. She shook her head in a daze as she tried to gather her wits and get back to her feet. Just as she started to stand again, she felt a pair of hands grab her and throw back onto the ground. A knee in her lower back and a hand on the back of her head held her down as another person walked up and hit her several times along the spine.
Those strikes felt oddly familiar to her, someone had done that once before. It took her a second to realize what it was, but her daze disappeared as the realization sobered her instantly. Her bending had been blocked.
Ginger's voice sounded so very pleased with herself, the woman was practically purring. "You really should visit the Fire Nation more often Korra, it's always so enjoyable."
