Chapter 10: Sewer Escapade
Khana and Sky ventured into the underground sewers of Republic City. The pungent smell of the sewers pervaded their noses as they journeyed through the dark, smelly caverns.
"Are you able to Earth-bend us out of here by any chance?" Sky asked, desperately wanting to escape.
Khana punched her fist in the air, but nothing happened. She suspiciously stomped her foot on the ground, a loud metal clang echoing throughout the sewers, "It's metal... I can't bend metal," she grimaced, pegging her nose once more.
Sky covered his mouth, "And here I thought every Earth-bender could bend metal these days."
"I considered learning, but Lin said I'd have to go to someplace called Zaofu and become a part of the police. Two things I didn't want to do."
"Any reason?" Sky asked.
"I'm a Kyoshi Warrior. Joining another group seemed wrong. I'm also a protector of the Ava- Claire. I can't forsake that duty," Khana firmly explained.
Sky nodded, the two conversed as they walked, but during their search for an entrance, the Ex-Mercenary almost fell over an edge and into the Sewer water.
However, Khana quickly caught him by the collar of his jacket, pulling him back onto their side, "Oh, great. How do we get over this?" Sky asked, glaring at the massive gap in front of them.
Khana observed the gap, humming and turning her gaze to the Ex-Mercenary, a cheeky grin crawling over her face, "I could throw you."
But Sky scoffed at her offer, "I don't think you'd be able to throw me..."
But despite Sky's confident facade, Khana grasped his wrist and ankle, picking him up and spinning around, throwing him over the gap.
The Ex-Mercenary shrieked and landed on the other side, turning back to Khana and her smug smile, "Alright. Don't underestimate Earth-bender strength..." he stood back up, observing Khana and the gap, "So... how do you plan to get over?"
Khana remained silent, studying the wall to her left before sprinting towards it, leaping up to it and running along the wall over to Sky.
"... Show off," Sky enviously said.
The two continued their ventured further in, spying a light at the end of the tunnel, thinking it to be an exit. The two sprinted over to it, only to find a large open area with fire illuminating the walls. A circular metal platform attached to a giant bronze column in the centre, standing so tall the top spanned into an abyss above them.
"What in the name of Avatar Roku is this!?" Sky exclaimed, stretching his arms out to the side, gazing at the structure.
"I don't know... but my guess is it's one of Kang's works," Khana replied.
"I can see it."
The two looked around, trying to find a way to operate the peculiar circular platform. Sky discovered a lever near the circular platform, pulling on it and making the platform descend towards them. Sky jumped back as Khana rushed on over. The platform stopped in front of them, allowing them to climb aboard and use it to ascend back to the surface.
"Why would Kang build... this?" Khana asked, walking around the platform.
Sky stood before a control panel, studying it before pressing anything, "My guess is it's for stopping criminals using the sewers as an escape route."
"But how would this stop criminals? It's just a bigger version of the lift he has in his lab," Khana asked.
Sky turned around, leaning against the control panel, "There's probably some kind of fail-safe to stop people using it, or a booby trap should you be missing a... key part," Sky replied, the metal clang of a lever pushing forward.
He turned to the control panel, noticing an empty slot to the right of the lever, and without warning, the platform swiftly descended, almost throwing Sky and Khana off the platform as they held on for dear life.
The platform halted, mercilessly slamming and disorientating the two on its metal surface.
"Are you okay?" Sky asked, his head loosely swinging.
Khana she pulled herself off the ground, struggling to maintain balance on her feet, "Not... really," she said, falling back down, "Maybe we should rest for a bit,"
The two dragged themselves over to the control panel, resting against it, heavily breathing and groaning.
"It's just occurred to me: I know very little about you," Sky said through his groaning.
Khana quizzically looked over at him, "Why me specifically?"
"Well, I used to be Kang's bodyguard, so I know enough about him. Claire's the Avatar. But you're like an unopened book to me," Sky explained.
Khana softly scoffed at his comparison, "Where to start..." she pondered for a moment, rubbing her hand through her amber hair, "I'm the protector of the Fire Lord... or at least I was before I joined Claire and Kang."
Sky lightly nodded, "Someone offered me a job to assassinate him once," he blurted out.
Sky's eyes widened as Khana grasped his collar, "Who hired you!?"
"It was some shady Grey-haired man, I declined the job. I was a mercenary, not an idiot."
Sky tried reassuring Khana, her grip slowly releasing as she bit her lip and turned away.
"I see you're a Kyoshi Warrior, how long have you been one?" Sky asked, curious to find out about her past.
Khana's train of thought broke, turning her attention to Sky, "All my life. Master Suki and Ty Lee raised me and I became a part of their order."
Khana softly smiled at her memories, "Aren't the Kyoshi Warriors an all-female order?" Sky asked.
Khana nodded with closed eyes, "Yes. Except for Master Suki's husband who joined the order... for about half a day."
The two chuckled, but Sky began mulling over her upbringing, "So, an all-female order that protects the Fire Lord raised you... What was that like?"
"It seemed normal to me. I had no experience with family outside of the Kyoshi Warriors. They were my sisters and sometimes more than that," Khana explained, letting out a heavy sigh as she looked to the abyss above them.
"More than being a sister?"
"To put it simply, lovers. Being surrounded by women my entire life and the only man I knew being elderly and married made my romantic interests lean more towards women," Khana bluntly replied.
Sky's eyes happily widened, "Ooh, so that's why you look at Claire the way you do?"
Khana's cheeks flushed red, her muscles tensing as she looked to Sky, "I... you noticed?"
"You aren't very discreet when you ogle at her, even when she's looking," Sky briefly chuckled as Khana buried her face in her hands, "Is something wrong?"
"I had hoped to keep it a secret... She's The Avatar, I shouldn't distract her from her duties to the world," Khana lifted her face, slumping down in her seated posture.
"Claire wouldn't be the first Avatar to have a relationship, and she certainly won't be the last," Sky tried to reassure her, turning himself towards Khana.
"Although true. Love has been a downfall for some Avatars. I don't want to be the reason for her's," Khana gazed to the ground, shaking her head and closing her eyes.
But Sky placed a hand on the distraught Kyoshi Warrior's shoulder, "Love's always a risky thing, especially when the Avatar's involved. But sometimes we have to take that risk to be with the ones we love, or we're doomed to suffer the regret of never taking the chance."
Khana perked up, turning her gaze to the Ex-Mercenary, "Do you think she'll feel the same way?" her face lit up with a dim glow of hope.
"I can't say for certain, but you're her protector and her friend, and you'll always be special to her."
Khana hugged him, "Thank you, Sky."
"Anytime!"
They released their friendly hug, standing up and stretching their muscles, "Let's find a way out of here, I can only put up with this stench for so long," Sky said.
The two began finding a way back to the surface, discovering a ladder leading into the upper abyss of the sewers. Sky ran his finger along it, catching a small amount of grime on his finger, grimacing as he turned his attention to Khana, "I hope you have strong legs!" Sky began climbing the ladder.
Khana smirked, lightly smacking her thigh, "Of course I do!" Khana followed him up the ladder.
The two climbed for hours before stopping their ascent, giving their throbbing legs a break and breathlessly observing their surroundings
"How long until we reach the surface?" Khana asked.
"Hold on" Sky replied, equally out of breath before clearing his throat and looking to the abyss above them, "BALLS~!"
Sky's voice echoed into the Abyss whilst Khana speechlessly hung onto the ladder.
"Eh, we still have a lot of climbing left to do."
Khana lightly scoffed as she reached out to ascend once more, but an ominous metallic sound reverberated around the chamber. Khana's eyes widened, the ladder beneath her giving way, intending to take Khana with it.
But Sky pushed his hands off the ladder, keeping the tops of his feet around the rungs of the ladder as he swung himself down to Khana, grasping her arm and tightly gripping onto her as she dangled, "Well... this is quite the predicament."
"Lend me your other hand!" Khana shouted.
Sky outstretched his free hand, allowing Khana to grab hold and begin pulling herself up against Sky, "Careful!" he said, straining his grip on the rungs.
Khana used Sky as an extension of the ladder, seeing the rungs just within reach, stretching out and pushing herself up with the help of Sky, "Hey! Watch where you put your foot!" Sky called out as Khana placed her foot near the Ex-Mercenary's groin.
"Sorry about that!" Khana replied, pulling herself onto the ladder rungs.
The Kyoshi Warrior squatted and offered a hand to Sky, the sound of the ladder clanging against the metal platform echoing throughout the chamber, followed by a distant, inhuman moaning.
Khana and Sky worryingly looked to each other as they held onto each other, "Looks like we aren't alone down here..." Sky muttered as Khana pulled him up onto the remaining ladder.
The Kyoshi Warrior looked up the ladder, spying a large hole in the wall, "I think there's a hallway just up ahead."
"A hallway that could lead right to our moaning guest," Sky replied.
"I'd rather take my chances with whatever that is than an unstable ladder."
Sky affirmatively nodded, the two ascending towards the large hole, climbing within and finding themselves inside a dark, long tunnel.
The two deftly ventured inwards, entering a giant cave filled with dimly lit crystals, and a massive body of water within its centre, "What Crystals are these?" Sky asked, dinging his blade hilt against them.
"I'm an earth-bender, not a rock enthusiast," Khana sarcastically replied, walking towards the body of crystal clear water and kneeling next to it, "This water looks fresh..."
Sky wandered over, observing the water with her, "Could be the home of whatever it was we heard."
But as they studied the water, the ground quaked, the water rippling as the two backed off and withdrew their weapons. The crystals emitted a blinding light as a large serpentine creature erupted from the pool of water, unleashing a mighty roar at Sky and Khana.
The Kyoshi Warrior glared at Sky, "Yeah, I know. Me and my big mouth..." Sky replied, glaring at the creature.
Without warning, the serpentine beast ejected a pressurised stream of water from its mouth, aiming at Khana and Sky, but they both rolled behind a set of separate crystals.
Khana studied the creature, noting its long whiskers, piercing green eyes and set of large sharp teeth, "That's an Unagi... smaller than I've heard, but what in the world is it doing here!?"
"I'm a Swordsman, not a Fish enthusiast!" Sky sarcastically replied. Khana raised an eyebrow with a slanted gaze as Sky cleared his throat, "Could be a Subspecies... any idea how to fight it?"
"Not the foggiest, all I know is that it's supposed to be native to Kyoshi Island, not Republic City Sewers!" Khana explained.
Sky shrugged, rolling out from behind his crystal covering with three short knives in between his fingers, throwing them all at the Unagi, but to no surprise, the knives bounced right off, barely scratching the Giant eel.
The beast released another jet of water at Sky, the Ex-Mercenary instinctively blocking with his swords. The water blasted him away and onto his back, however, the Water runes ignited on the blades. Sky smirked at the Unagi, clasping his swords tightly and charging in.
Water coursed over the blades, forming long razor-sharp blades of ice. Sky slashed at the Unagi, but it weaved between his attacks, furiously roaring as Sky turned to Khana, "Are you just going to hide down there all day, or are you going to help?"
Khana rolled out from behind the crystals, stomping her foot and shooting up a massive column of the earth at the Unagi, striking its head. It shook off the attack, hissing at the Kyoshi Warrior before unleashing another jet of water.
Khana instinctively erected an earthen wall, but the sheer force of the jet cut right through the wall and almost through Khana herself.
But with the Unagi focused on the Kyoshi Warrior, Sky aimed for a killing blow, slashing towards the Unagi's head, but unfortunately, Sky only caught part of its whisker, sending the Unagi into a violent fury.
The giant eel lunged at Sky with a murderous glare, and with no time to react, the Unagi caught Sky in its mouth, swallowing him whole whilst Khana looked on in horror.
"SKY!"
The Unagi turned its piercing gaze to Khana, intending to chow down on her next, but as it lunged towards her, the beast stopped. Something began penetrating its throat.
Khana quizzically looked to the body of the Unagi, seeing a part of its body point out until an ice blade pierced out from the Unagi's flesh. The blade cleanly sliced through its flesh from the inside, cutting the beast in two.
Sky stood wet and victorious over its decapitated corpse, "Getting eaten is not fun..." he waltzed away from the corpse,
Khana rushed in, feverishly checking him over, much to the Ex-Mercenary's surprise, "Better than being dead!" she chuckled as Sky smirked.
"You've got that right... still need to find that exit though."
The two ventured back through the sewers, finally finding a short ladder which led out onto the streets of Republic City. The two climbed out and emerged onto the streets, finding themselves outside of the Police Station, sitting down in front of it with thankful sighs.
"Next time we investigate a suspicious chief, please don't send us into a sewer," Sky begged.
Khana chuckled, "I'll keep that in mind," Khana stood up whilst passersby gave the pair quizzical and repulsed looks.
"We should get back to Kang's lab, Claire and Kang might be home by now," Khana said, beginning her venture back to Kang's lab.
"She never stops for a break..." Sky muttered
Nevertheless, he stood up following Khana into the Sunset illuminated Republic City.