Chapter 11: Rooting out Corruption

Kang and Khana stood before Claire, the mid-afternoon sun beating down on them, "Alright, here's how it'll go, Khana and I will take turns fighting you, the sidelined one will observe whilst the one fighting will... well, fight," Kang explained.

Claire affirmatively nodded, "Sounds simple enough," she replied, confidently pumping her arms and punching the air in front of her, "bring it on, 'Greatest Fire-bender'!"

Khana stepped off to the side, kicking up an earthy stump whilst Kang stood with his arms crossed.

Claire dashed in, pirouetting before Kang as water bent out from her satchel, spinning around like a razor's edge, but Kang simply pushed himself upwards on jets of fire. Claire ceased her attack, seeing Kang land behind her.

The Avatar kicked a boulder up behind her, kicking back and propelling it at Kang, but the mad inventor turned to face it, casually stepping aboard then hopping off as the boulder flew into the ground behind him.

Claire turned to face the Smugly grinning Kang, letting out a disgruntled sigh before charging in, fire igniting on her fists as she struck out with a flurry of punches and kicks, but Kang weaved between them, no punch or kick landed, and out of frustration, Claire launched herself into a vertical spinning kick, but Kang leapt to the side watching her spin before coming to a halt.

The Avatar flew high into the air, arching her foot up then descending towards the mad inventor, but as her foot came close, Kang rolled forward.

Claire landed behind him as he pumped himself up from the ground, casually sitting on Claire's back.

"Khana!" Claire shouted.

"Yes?" Khana replied, raising an eyebrow to her.

"Is he sat on my back?"

"Yes!"

Claire embarrassingly hung her head as Kang looked down to her, "Would you like a critique or do you want to keep going?"

"... Critique," Claire muttered as Kang hopped off.

Claire stood to face Kang, blushing and looking to the ground whilst Khana approached.

"Well, Ava- Claire. You kinda fight like a... Stylish Ox," Khana explained.

Claire raised a bemused eyebrow to the Kyoshi Warrior, "A... Stylish Ox?"

Khana and Kang nodded and hummed whilst Claire's eyes darted between them, "Basically some of your attacks are flashy but you also fight like an unstoppable force." Kang explained.

"In a fight, unless you're clearly the better fighter, you shouldn't rush in so brazenly. Study your enemy then make your move," Khana explained.

"Your attacks were also fairly predictable... except that water pirouette, that was interesting," Kang said.

But Claire glared at him, "Maybe if you'd have fought back, they wouldn't have been predictable!"

"Oh no, wounded pride," Khana muttered to herself.

But Kang chuckled at the Avatar's snapping, "Oh, trust me, Claire, if I fought back, you'd be on the ground in mere moments."

Kang proudly crossed his arms, "Is that so?" Claire snarled, "you call yourself the Greatest Fire-bender, but all you could do is dodge!"

Claire's arms tensed up, her fists clenching as Kang shook his head, "Are you sure you want to properly fight me?" Kang asked, rubbing his neck.

"Yes!" Claire firmly replied.

"Are you Truly, Truly, sure?"

"YES!"

Claire's eyes flared as Khana backed away, "Alright then," Kang replied, pulling out his Timekeeper, "one minute, one single minute is how long I'll give you."

Kang pocketed his Timekeeper whilst Claire raised her palms to the Mad inventor, but before she knew it, Kang's fist shot into her gut like a rocket, blasting the wind out of The Avatar and propelling her far away from the Mad Inventor.

"Kang!" Khana shouted.

But he simply raised a hand to her, "Sit down, Khana," Kang calmly said, "Now I'm no teacher, but I can at least teach the Avatar a lesson in humility, and that being the Avatar is about more than just strength."

Kang held a condensed blazing flame in his right palm, deeply breathing as he looked to Claire.

Claire stood back on her feet, looking to Kang in the distance, clasping her stomach with a water covered hand, slowly healing the wounded area, grimacing as blood trickled out of her mouth, "By the Moon, that attack was... inhumanly strong."

Before she could say more, an indomitable wall of flame roared towards her. The Avatar quickly formed an Air Sphere around herself, protecting her from the flames, but not from a surprise sucker punch to the jaw from the Mad Inventor.

Claire flew towards the houses, quickly regaining her balance and running up to the roofs, trying to keep her footing as her legs quaked, but Kang appeared out of nowhere once more, kicking her from the roofs before flying over on jets of fire.

Kang latched his grip onto Claire's face, pushing her down to the ground, embedding her as he pushed himself and the Avatar along on jets of flame, Claire stared in utter confusion whilst Kang smugly grinned.

Claire kicked Kang off, the mad inventor releasing his grip as he jumped back. Claire firmly punched out a wave of stalagmites at Kang, but his presence loomed behind her, the Avatar's eyes widened, a chill running down her spine as Kang kicked out at Claire's head, striking her with merciless force, firmly planting the Avatar's face in the dirt as the force of the kicked ploughed the ground.

Zu and Li walked out of their house, hearing the commotion, only to see Kang looking at his Timekeeper, whilst Khana frantically shook Claire.

"Oh dear, looks like Kang gave the Avatar a thrashing," Li said aloud as the two ran over.

"Kang, what did you do!?" Zu asked.

The Mad Inventor looked up to the Giant, "Well, she wanted me to fight her properly, and I did."

"Buddy, just because someone asks for it, doesn't mean you should give it to them," Zu explained.

But before Kang could reply, Li waved the two back, "You two bicker later, I've got an Avatar to revive."

Li knelt next to Claire, inspecting her, "Can you help!?" Khana frantically asked.

Li affirmatively nodded, "Best healer in the city, just give me a minute."

Li bent two spiralling rings of water around his palms. He swished the spiralling water along Claire's body, a brilliant light radiating from it before fading away, "She'll be good as new in three... two... one..."

Claire's eyes shot open, her vision blurred and ears ringing, the sounds of Khana calling out to her muffled against her hearing.

"So... that's what it's like to go toe-to-toe with the Greatest Fire-bender," Claire thought to herself as she gazed to the sky, "Here I thought being the Avatar meant I was on top of the world... stronger than any other... boy was I wrong,"

"One minute... I couldn't last one minute against Kang... good thing he's a friend..."

Claire sat up, her hearing and vision returning to normal, "Claire! Are you okay?" Khana asked as she held her hands on the Avatar's shoulders.

"... Never better," Claire replied with a wry smirk before turning to Li, "and thanks for the healing."

Li smirked, "Hey, can't let you go making a tradition of Northern Avatar's dying young."

Claire chuckled as she and Khana slowly stood up, "Oh, hi Zu," Claire greeted him.

Zu briefly bowed his head "Avatar."

"So... Khana, up for some training?" Claire asked, surprising the Kyoshi Warrior.

"Are you... sure?" Khana nervously asked, looking Claire up and down.

"Best. Healer. In the City," Li whispered, the Giant lightly nudging him.

"Of course!" Claire happily replied.

Khana shrugged, taking her position in front of Claire whilst The Boys strolled off to the side, Zu kicking up an earthen chair for each of them.

"Don't worry, Claire. I'll be gentle," Khana told her in a sultry tone as she raised her fists.

The Avatar's cheeks flushed with a rosy red as the jaws of The Boys hung slightly ajar, "Oh my," They said in unison, watching the ladies engage in combat.

Whilst Khana and Claire trained, Lin and Hou rounded up all of her police officers to begin the interrogation. The Police Chief lined all fifty of the police officers up, whilst Hou sealed off the room.

Hou approached Lin, clearing his throat before cupping his hands on his abdomen, "We're ready to begin, Lin."

Lin glared at her officers, slowly sizing them up, "I will ask you all individually, one question, and you will answer with a yes or a no. And don't even think about lying!"

Lin approached the first officer in line, placing herself in a sturdy upright stance, looking them dead in the eye, "Do you follow Amon?"

"No, Ma'am!" The officer replied.

A brief second of silence came over the hall, "You're free to go."

Lin replied moved to the second officer, "Do you follow Amon?"

"N-no, ma'am!" The officer replied.

A grimace overcame Lin's face as he spoke. The Police Chief delivered a vicious strike to the second officer's gut, followed up by a powerful uppercut to their jaw, launching the officer off the floor, then crashing down on the floor.

Hou winced as the officer groaned, "Thank you for serving as an example," Lin bitterly told the officer as Hou walked over and wrapped them in a metal coat, taking them away.

Upon seeing how Lin planned to deal with Amon's followers one officer bent the earth beneath them and slid away down into the prison cells below as the two stood next to him stepped closer together to conceal his disappearance, however, Lin detected something going on and approached the two.

"Are you two up to something?" Lin asked them.

"No, ma'am!"

Detecting that they were telling the truth, since they weren't the ones up to anything, Lin returned to interrogating the other officers.

Many of them did not follow Amon, but fourteen of them did: Six who lied and eight who proudly admitted it, but Lin judged them all equally, savagely beating all the police officers who worked for Amon before Hou took them away.

As the interrogation ended, Lin realised, she only interrogated forty-nine officers, a chill slithering down her spine, "Quickly! To Amon's cell!"

Lin rushed to the prison cells, pursued by a bemused Hou, realising Lin's fear as they arrived: the rogue police officer had set Amon free.

The Rogue police officer who sneaked off had freed Amon and returned him to his hideout.

"It's a shame Lin uncovered my followers in the police force," Amon said

"We will remember their sacrifice, Boss!" The rogue police officer replied.

"Indeed, we will," Amon coldly said as the two fled for the hideout.

The night had dawned on the city, Kang, Claire and Khana returned to the lab to rest, and as Kang's small device hit seven o'clock a loud ringing went off in his Lab, making Claire and Khana jump in surprise from their rest.

Meanwhile, Kang arose peacefully stretching out his arms, aiming an index finger at the source of the loud ringing and shooting a small flame at it, turning it off, "Good evening!"

The two ladies regained control of their breathing, Khana looked at Kang, seeing he still had his goggles on, "Do you ever take those things off?"

"Nope!"

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to."

Khana shrugged, "Did you... sleep?"

"Bold of you to assume I sleep."

Khana raised a worried eyebrow, "I think I've heard enough judging for one day, let's go invade that hideout!" Claire said as she flipped up into the air, landing on her feet, followed by Kang rolling off his chair and onto the floor, pressing his hands against the floor then pushing himself up into a handstand then flipping onto his feet.

"Show off's!" Khana chuckled as she stood up normally.

The three ascended out of the lab and into the derelict estate, striding out into it as Claire looked around at the dilapidated buildings, "Why don't the governors try fixing up this estate?"

"It would cost too much to fix up the entire estate, plus it's the home of multiple gangs," Kang explained, making Claire shuddered as they continued into the city.

"So, where is The Dragon Flats Borough again?" Claire asked as the three stood at the border of the Derelict Estate.

"It's to the west of the city, not too far from here. Khana can use her earth-bending to get us onto the rooftops once we're there," Kang explained before leading the way.

The three made it to the Dragon Flats Borough a dingy estate with an odd smell to it and an ominous silence lingering over it.

Khana pushed an earthen column out of the ground, ascending them up onto the rooftops. Claire deftly floated from roof to roof, whereas Kang propelled himself with jets of fire and Khana acrobatically leapt across with them.

After leaping from the rooftops for several minutes, Kang pointed down to the ground, "Look over there!"

Claire and Khana looked down to see the red door they were told about, the Mad inventor then gestured towards the vent, but instead of just a hole in the wall like he remembered, a metal grate had covered it up, "Hold on, that shouldn't be there!"

His exclamation caught the attention of Claire and Khana, "Don't worry, I'll handle it," Claire reassured him with a smirk.

She latched onto the wall, digging her hands into the earth and climbing down to the vent, taking a deep breath before grasping the vent and squashing it in her hands, slowly lifting herself upwards, pulling the vent grate from the wall whilst keeping her feet latched onto it, her core straining as she threw the vent to Khana, who caught it and placed it down on the roof.

"Oh yeah, I forgot she could do that..." Kang commented, pausing for a moment, "Wait, I didn't even know she could do that!"

Kang realised he had never seen Claire metal-bend, as Khana looked at him with a surprised expression.

Claire pushed herself from the wall, deftly floating in the air before flowing into the vents.

Kang held his hand out to Khana, who quizzically grasped his hand as he pulled her into a cradled position, propelling himself over to the vent on jets of fire, allowing Khana to crawl in with Claire before following in behind.

The three crawled through the cramped, stuffy ventilation system whilst avoiding detection from Amon's followers still present in the hideout, as they came across two followers conversing to one another. Kang signalled for Claire and Khana to be quiet, eavesdropping on their conversation.

"So, are you going to be anywhere later tonight or tomorrow?" the follower asked.

"I didn't really have any plans. How about you?" the other follower asked.

"I was just thinking of going to the Tea Shop down at little Ba Sing Se, I heard they got a new Tea there, dedicated to the new Avatar or something."

"Oh yeah, White Emerald or something like that."

Claire grinned at the sound of a tea named after her whilst her friends shook their heads.

"Oh hey, speaking of the Avatar, The boss got out of Prison before The Police chief could root out all our guys."

"Really? Well good for us, we can finally get back to bringing about harmony and putting those thuggish benders in their place!"

"Yeah, although the ones a part of our cause are alright people."

The followers walked away to continue their conversation elsewhere whilst Claire, Kang and Khana all looked at one another and knew they needed to inform Lin.

"Who's going to go inform Lin?" Claire asked

"You'll need Kang's knowledge of the building, and your versatility should you run into trouble. I'll go," Khana replied.

"Move quickly!" Kang told her as Khana nodded, quickly climbing over Kang, before shuffling back through the vent as Kang curiously watched the Kyoshi Warrior.

"Does Khana have a secret third Dagger?" Kang asked.

Claire raised a befuddled eyebrow to her Mad Inventor friend, "Well, it would make sense... if she lost her others she'd have a backup!"

Kang silently thought to himself for a moment, "A bloody big back up."

The two continued further into the hideout, finally breaking into Amon's room. But no one was home and Kang began snooping through his stuff, finding a slender silver locked box, the Mad inventor heated a flame on the end of his finger like a blowtorch, burning off the lock and opening the box, discovering the blood-bending scrolls Amon mentioned, an odd amulet, and a Card with a woman within two circling black and white snakes, surrounded by a sea of gold stars with various items in the card's corner.

"These look old... I wonder how Yakone got his filthy hands on them," Kang said as he picked up the scrolls.

"Yakone? Is that Amon's actual name or something?" Claire asked as she began inspecting the scrolls.

"No, Yakone was a crime boss in the city... Until he got stripped of his bending by Avatar Aang, then to add insult to injury, Chief Beifong and Zu, squished him," Kang explained.

"Lin killed him?!" Claire whispered in shock.

"Not Lin; Toph. And yes! Like a bug. She said, 'he's too dangerous to be kept alive' then together, Zu and Toph squished him under a rock, much to Aang's dismay," Kang recollected the tale, smirking as he did.

"... Brutal," Claire replied, gazing into the open box and pulling out the odd amulet whilst Kang pulled out the Card.

"X I I 'The World'," Kang muttered as he gazed upon the card.

"Any idea what this thing is?" Claire asked as she observed it, tossing it between her hands.

"I've seen nothing like it or this card before... best not to mess around with them," Kang nervously told her as Claire clasped the amulet for a moment before both placing their items back in the box.

Before they could investigate further, Kang and Claire could hear a loud booming voice in the distance, and as they listened, they determined it was Amon, making Kang drop the blood-bending scrolls before he climbed back into the vent, and as Claire followed she looked down at the blood-bending scroll, picking it up and hiding it in her shirt, before propelling herself back into the vent with a gust of wind.

As she entered the vent, a perplexed Kang looked back at her, "I was letting you get a head start, I didn't want to be... too close."

Kang nodded and continued towards the sound of Amon's voice. His voice became more distinct until they looked through a ventilation grate, seeing him stood atop a pedestal, surrounded by hundreds of his followers.

"My followers! My people! Tonight is the night we take Republic City from our weak government! We shall take the city into our own hands! And with these hands: we shall forge a city of true Harmony! No longer shall our oppressors squash us!" Amon proclaimed as his fanatics cheered.

"Now I know you all know by now that I am myself a water-bender, but I pray that will not impede on our united goal!"

Charisma oozed from the masked man's voice as an odd presence spread out amongst his fanatics, the crowd cheering his name as they threw their fists in the air, praising him whilst Amon smiled under his mask.

"Then come, brothers and sisters! The full moon hangs high! And our time has arrived!" Amon's voice bellowed as a gate opened up before them, his followers aligned like a military parade, beginning their march out into the streets with Amon at the centre of them all.

Claire quickly punched through the top of the metal vents, forming a hole large enough for her and Kang to climb through, punching through a section of the earth to break out onto the roof of the building.

They looked down at Amon's army of fanatics. The sight of hundreds of fanatics marching together, their mighty stomps reverberating throughout the area in unison, instilled fear into the both of them.

"I need to go get help, Claire. Keep an eye on them and see where they're going!" Kang said as he began running toward the Derelict estate.

But as Claire watched him leave, she pulled out the blood-bending scroll from her shirt, "It's a necessary evil..." the Avatar thought to herself, unravelling the scroll to practise the blood-bending forms, and as she browsed, she found an odd-looking page with cryptic symbols on it, showing the movements Amon used against his victims.