FINALLY! I have just been waiting months and months to get to this point, where the events, the characters in canon really kick off and start to affect the relationship between our two lovers. I really have to figure out a way to pare the contents of these chapters down though, so I can churn them out faster!
With that, enjoy this somewhat different take on the battle scene with the Dai Li from the "Lake Laogai" episode.
Warning: This chapter contains-
Swearing
Attempts to cause injury/death to children.
Injury to children.
A character being dealt a moderately serious wound, with descriptions of bleeding.
A character drowning "off-screen."
Attempted harm to an animal.
Needless harm to animals.
That's what you're getting into.
It is well demonstrated that small, seemingly innocuous decisions can end up having unexpectedly huge consequences. If Hong had somehow been blessed with the gift of prophecy, or even just had a flash of premonition in one of his dreams, he would've happily chosen, even though he was in a state of intense exhaustion, to crawl from Dai Li headquarters if need be to reach the underground tram depot after the night's shift, and from there to the nearest available carriage to get to his actual bed, in his actual house-and so have the luxury of obliviously sleeping through much of that horrible clusterfuck of a day, to say nothing of not getting involved in that embarrassing excuse for what should've been a fairly simple arrest. And he would also definitely have grabbed both his partner and brother to demand that they do the same, for the love of Wu Sheng.
But of course, Hong couldn't have known. And both he and Guozhi were even more fatigued than normal when they strolled back into the eerily lit, arched passageways of headquarters. Not only was a ten-hour stretch of wandering and climbing around the streets and alleys of a Lower Ring district already plenty physically and mentally strenuous, but having to also always keep an eye on his girlfriend had made it even more so, along with the constant (if well concealed) background level anxiety over her safety running through his head-which'd proven to be well-founded. That incident with the Blue Spirit had been a very close call.
Not that he begrudged having brought Rajata along. She'd provided pleasant, beautiful, soothing company during those last two patrols, engaged him in stimulating, intelligent conversation, and a large part of him certainly felt regret that they'd never be enjoying such an experience again.
Indeed, he reflected through his fatigue, letting Rajata come with him last night had actually been for the best-probably even a lifesaving decision. For they'd both agreed, in a brief discussion about the encounter while both agents had been escorting her home, that whoever the Blue Spirit was, he'd been going for what he'd thought was an inattentive, lone Dai Li agent with his back to him, with every intention of committing violence against Hong-and no idea Rajata was there.
He'd saved her life with his timely presence as that deadly snake had been about to strike-and now Rajata had returned the favor, even if by complete accident. And it went without saying that it flooded Hong with a sensation of deep gratitude towards her. Their karmic accounts were even now.
But the fog of exhaustion was what mostly dominated Hong's mind at the moment, and both he and Guozhi had just enough energy to devour breakfast in the cafeteria before plodding to their shared barracks room, slipping their hats off and hanging them by the chinstrap on their respective pegs, shedding their stone gloves onto their desk, shoving the stone of their boots down into the bare floor without any remaining trace after the act was completed, and changing out of their green outer tunic and black inner robe into a simple cotton shirt and trousers before groggily, gratefully sliding underneath the linen sheets of their wooden beds and laying their heads on their down-stuffed pillow.
After grunting a mutual "Sleep well, Gambling Man…You too, Farm Boy," to each other, both Hong and Guozhi plunged the room into blackness by sinking the glow crystal above their wooden beds with a mild push into the wall from an outthrust palm, and then a sweep of the same hand, which covered it with a layer of bedrock. Within seconds, both partners had collapsed into sleep.
Three hours later, Hong was in the midst of a confusing, if pleasant, dream, in which both he and Rajata were seated on a wide, jewel-encrusted stone and gold throne for two together, dressed in silks and affectionately holding each other close as maybe a dozen members of her people performed that aarti ceremony around them, worshipping them as a god and goddess. Very oddly, his skin was sky blue, while hers was bright green.
A distant sound of stone grinding seemed to intrude on the dream then, and then Hong was jarred into partial wakefulness by his brother's voice urgently grumbling "Hong, Guozhi! Both of you, get up, get into uniform, and follow me to Storage Chamber Number 2."
"Can't it wait until later?" Hong distantly heard his partner groan. "Both of us are dog-tired, and our shift is long over."
Hong gave a groggy nod on his pillow.
"Have mercy on your exhausted brother, Zai Tian, and come back some ot- "
"Well, it can't wait," he heard his brother snap in response, as a green light stabbed through Hong's eyelids, and he felt a stone-mailed hand pluck at his shoulder. "Long Feng himself just sent for both of you, in fact."
Now that roused Hong into a greater state of alertness as he snapped open his eyes, sat up, threw off the covers with an invigorating yawn, and swung his muscular legs over the edge of the bed in one fluid motion.
"Long Feng? What does-ow, for the love of Kyoshi, could you be decent enough not to shine that fucking lantern right in my face?!" Hong shouted at his brother as he clenched his smarting eyes shut, placing his hand over them while he winced.
"Yeah, no shit," he heard Guozhi snarl.
"Sorry about that," Zai Tian said contritely, bringing the lantern closer to his body and backing away somewhat as Hong shook his head and blearily blinked. "I should've been a little more considerate. Anyway, both of you get into uniform, and follow me," he repeated, grabbing one of his older brother's black inner robes and tossing it into his hands. "Immediately, per Long Feng's orders."
"Wait though," Hong said quickly, even as he undid the two strap buttons on his cross-collared sleeping robe and flung it aside, grabbing for the black robe a moment later and starting to pull it over his head, hair still in its braid. "I'm not questioning his commands, but did Long Feng give any specific reason for summoning Guozhi and I?
"And at such short notice," his partner added, exchanging a quick, mutual glance of veiled concern as a sinking, awful feeling of dread began to grow within Hong's gut. The Grand Secretariat undoubtably had to have found out, somehow, from another agent about how they'd been seen illegally allowing a civilian woman to follow them around on their patrol.
There was still a way out of being punished for such a transgression, in theory at least-he and Guozhi could always simply claim the witness was mistaken, that they were actually chivalrously escorting a woman who'd been caught out by the curfew back home through the dangerous streets.
But Long Feng was no fool, and Hong didn't have much hope that he'd actually buy that as a cover story. He could already practically feel the whip biting into the flesh of his bare back.
"We have…an inconvenience about to knock on our door very shortly," Zai Tian ruefully sighed. "A major one, and Long Feng has handpicked all three of us to help handle this emergency."
"Oh spirits," Hong moaned, as he looked up at his brother's face and yanked his stone gloves to his hands, the tiles clicking into place over his skin. "Don't tell me those brats have found a way to blab to the Earth King about how this war is a thing, and now he's headed here as we speak."
"Not yet," Zai Tian replied in unease, looking up at the ceiling above them, "but it looks like the Avatar and his buddies, despite Long Feng's best-laid plans, by sheer bad luck, met up with some teenage ruffians of similar age that most of us Dai Li never even suspected they were previously familiar with, managed to piece together enough facts to put two and two together after they all had a discussion-and instead of being occupied with a wild goose chase to Whaletail Island as was intended, have just been seen trekking through these hills, right in the direction of our base!"
"The Avatar's coming for his kidnapped bison. And with backup. Just great," Guozhi sighed, lightly placing a stone-gloved hand over his face.
"Schist," Hong said simply in agreement as he shook his head. "But how in Koh's name did they figu- "
"I'll explain on the way," his brother cut in. "We need to get going, and be in position, on the double."
It was the work of only a few minutes for Hong and Guozhi to be in full uniform, stone boots lightly clacking against the bedrock floor as, hands held behind their backs, they trotted down the green-lit halls after Zai Tian. Other Dai Li agents, most in pairs, a few alone, were mobilizing as well, coming out of side halls and chambers to join them.
But Hong was only really focused on his younger brother as he quickly informed them of what had caused a seemingly well-thought out-if rather needlessly convoluted, Hong thought-plan to get the Avatar and friends far away from Ba Sing Se to suddenly fall apart.
Once again, if he'd been in Long Feng's stone boots, Hong would've threatened harm to the bison as a way to ensure that the quartet stayed on their best behavior, instead of concocting such a complex scheme.
Or he would've just flat-out lied through his teeth to them-he knew all about how to do that smoothly and believably-thanking them for their concern, and telling them not to worry their little heads, that he'd take it from here, releasing the bison shortly after for the group to "find" and blissfully fly away on-while not telling either His Majesty or The Council of Five a damn thing. And by the time the Avatar realized he'd been had, there'd be nothing he could do about it.
And for Hou-Tu's sake, there was no getting around the fact that the war with the Fire Nation had taken on a disturbing new turn on the very day the Avatar had appeared on the scene, with that gargantuan drill, a metal, terrifying behemoth like nothing their minds could've ever imagined, boring right through the seemingly impervious Outer Wall. In the wake of all four of the kids undoubtedly busting their asses to stop the great steel cylinder in its tracks for good, the Fire Nation troops manning and accompanying it had regrouped someplace just beyond the horizon, making no move to attack a second time-but also making no move to leave entirely either.
And Hong was privately starting to become increasingly suspicious himself now with each passing day about just what might be going on in that camp, about what the defeated troops might be planning at this very moment, damn Nienhu.
Perhaps the smartest thing of all to do then would be to meet the Avatar halfway, to point him in the direction of the Council of Five, the generals who were stationed on the Outer Wall, allow them to come up with a strategy to actively invade the Fire Nation with troops from Ba Sing Se, go on the offensive-but with very strict orders from the Dai Li that none of them were to tell the Earth King about what they were up to, and most certainly not the city as a whole. As for the Dai Li themselves, they would more or less passively stand by, neither helping nor hindering-but always being ready to jump in and wrest control back if the situation became unfavorable to them, if the curtain was going to be yanked away.
On the other hand, though, between his fellow Dai Li, the city's military, and the walls, Ba Sing Se had been holding up perfectly well on its own over the past century in the Avatar's absence, thank you.
And since Long Feng was the boss here, the one running this show, this city, thinking up alternative, better, less complex strategies to get the Avatar off their backs while still keeping its ruler and residents none the wiser was a meaningless endeavor on Hong's end, to say nothing of actually proposing them out loud.
Besides, surely Long Feng knew what he was doing, right? One unanticipated hiccup in an otherwise sensible plan didn't automatically mean that the strategy was a bad one, after all, that it wasn't viable. Shit happened, as the saying went.
Zai Tian was speeding through exactly how several unfortunate events had come together to produce said hiccup in a hushed, hurried voice.
"Remember that scruffy refugee boy, Jet by name, that Agents Kang and Dingxiang dragged down here for Commander Quan himself to recondition, after he went after those two tea servers, ranting that they were Firebenders?"
"Of course," Guozhi replied with a nod as Hong did the same under his own hat. "We might not be active members of the Reeducation Department, but word gets around-and us members of the Surveillance Department can't help but swap stories about what took place on a recent shift…as long as it's not classified."
Hong gave a vexed sigh. "He went and had a relapse anyway though, after being released to his new life as a citizen, didn't he? Not good."
"Yep," Zai Tian confirmed. "Now, Commander Quan has a well-deserved reputation, from long before Long Feng made him his second-in-command, of being a master at reconditioning people who tried to disrupt the harmony of our city, as we're all aware. But nobody's perfect," he shrugged under his forest green robes.
"A relapse can be triggered at any time," Guozhi said knowingly. "Does anyone have an idea how that happened?"
"I'm getting to that," Zai Tian replied. "To make a long story short, Avatar Aang and his pals were, as usual, being disobedient, putting up posters of his bison in the Lower Ring in an attempt to get any information about its whereabouts."
Oddly, Hong felt the corners of his mouth curve up a little at this information. "They're a headstrong bunch, I'll give them that much," he said.
"To put it mildly," his brother grunted. "Anyhow, while this was all originally above our clearance level, Long Feng decided about an hour ago that he might as well just spill the beans at this point to us, since his plan had ended up failing, and he needed us to help salvage it."
"From what Jet told Commander Quan and his assistants under interrogation," Zai Tian went on, "he actually had a previous, if highly tarnished, history with the Avatar and the Water Tribe siblings-so he was dispatched after the procedure was completed to lead them astray."
He quickly told Hong and Guozhi what the observing agents in that district had seen, how the relationship between Jet and the Avatar's group-the Water Tribe girl in particular-had proven to be far more hostile than anyone had suspected, the waterbender attacking him on sight with such savagery that both agents had been certain she was going to kill Jet where he stood, and that would be it for the plot, over before it'd begun.
But she'd had just enough self-control to stay her hand, Jet had said the right words, totally sincere from his perspective, of having turned over a new leaf and wanting to be of assistance, and he'd led them to an empty warehouse, not far from where he'd been given a job as a leatherworker.
There, they'd come across former agent Fenbi Zheng, coaxed out of retirement to play the role of a doddering, harmless janitor for the day, and get the kids going on a false trail, far into the southern oceans. An impressive job indeed by their boss, Hong thought approvingly.
But all plans carried the risk of an unknown factor suddenly appearing on the scene, changing the outcome entirely, when you least expected it-after last night's events, both he and the Blue Spirit should know.
And in this instance, just minutes after the Avatar and his now four companions had been tricked into swallowing the bait, headed out of Ba Sing Se on a wild goose chase while all the Dai Li could now collectively exhale in relief and laugh into their gold-trimmed sleeves, that wild card appeared in the form of Jet's two close companions, who he'd said under interrogation went by the utterly ridiculous, stupid names of Longshot and Smellerbee.
Things had all gone to schist after that, with a very confused Jet's friends giving the game away by saying right in front of the Avatar and friends that the Dai Li had arrested him, the revelation that the blind earthbending girl evidently had bending abilities so refined that she could use them to detect if someone was lying, Sock-a realizing Jet's mind had been reshaped, and all six teens present immediately taking Jet prisoner right then and there, wanting answers from him immediately, damn it.
"Oh joy," Hong replied sardonically with a sigh, as the implications hit him.
"Yeah," his brother replied grimly.
"Where did they take him after that?" Guozhi said. They were nearly at the training cavern now.
"They dragged him to an empty apartment not far away," Zai Tian said, "where all seven spent the night. Unfortunately, no agents in the area-and they tried, from what I understand-were able to get close enough to clearly hear or see what went on inside-but Jet definitely experienced his relapse sometime last evening, in the company of the Avatar."
"Probably the presence of his former comrades, their coaxing, was what triggered it," Guozhi surmised.
"Or something even more mysterious, more esoteric than that," Hong added. As his brother and partner both gave him a mildly baffled glance from under their hats, he said simply, "We have nine Water Tribe women in this city who serve as licensed healers, who somehow use their waterbending, inducing it to coat and seep into a portion of the body, along with more traditional remedies to cure the ills of their patients."
"Some of our fellow agents have been healed by them in that manner from time to time," Guozhi nodded. "But the practice isn't exactly the sort of thing a waterbender learns in a week's time either, I understand, and I doubt the girl is quite that good at it yet."
"The Water Tribe girl is still rather young to have learned that ability," Hong agreed, "from what I've gathered-especially when it comes to things which afflict the mind-but it's also not impossible that she figured out the basic stuff all on her own-and so was able to remove his mental block," he said thoughtfully.
"Of course," Zai Tian said with a sigh. "It would be just our luck too. At any rate, they've teamed up, and as I said earlier, all seven of them are picking their way among the hills right now, thinking they're being all stealthy," he snickered derisively.
Hong chuckled himself before giving a puzzled frown as he then asked, "If they're deep into the Lake Zone already, then why aren't we out there now driving them away, or detaining them before they find and then penetrate our headquarters?" Then he realized. "Never mind, the Avatar is an airbender at heart, and his instinct would be to take to the air for an advantage."
"Which has its limitations when you have a very thick ceiling layer of bedrock, a lake, and a crack team of earthbenders like us above you," Guozhi smirked. "Who have the advantage of familiarity with these caverns."
"Letting them make their way down to where we want them," Zai Tian agreed, "just like honeybees drawing a giant hornet scout into their hive-before jumping her as one and roasting her alive."
"Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly," Hong commented knowingly.
And then the low, trapezoidal entrance to Storage Chamber Two was up ahead, all three men smoothly entering the immense vault with hands held at their backs among their fellow agents.
Four other agents had already arrived, including Zai Tian's own partner, Shuqing Huang, who he then left Hong and Guozhi to join.
And of course, Long Feng was there, impassively, imperiously watching as sixteen of his agents formed two lines in front of him before giving a small nod of acknowledgement and saying, "I trust you've all been informed at some point about why I've summoned each of you here?"
"We have, sir," Shuqing replied. "We are aware that the Avatar is currently coming here for the purpose of reclaiming his bison, and that he must be detained when he does."
Long Feng gave the briefest nod of confirmation, then a meaningful glance up at the vaulted ceiling, far above, from which spikes of stone and massive pulleys on thick chains hung.
"Positions," he droned simply.
Both Hong and his partner understood very well, pacing over to the nearest wall, focusing their chi into their stone gloves and feet to bind them with the bedrock. And like a pair of immense treefrogs, they began their climb.
For the second time that week, Hong found himself hanging from a stone ceiling by his rock boots in an ambush position, occasionally doing an upside-down stomach crunch or slowly pinwheeling his arms, working his great shoulders, for several seconds to stave off the sensation of dizziness which always resulted from dangling in this head-down posture for any length of time.
But this time, he wasn't doing it for the purpose of a playful prank on his lover.
It would probably be ten, fifteen minutes between the time the gang of seven found the nearest entrance to their headquarters, opened it, entered, and then happened across the small splashes of aged bison urine that Captain Wong had just carefully laid down in a realistic-looking trail, one which should work well enough to entice them right to this chamber.
In the meantime, through the curious sensation of how the weight of both his hat and the braid it was partially supporting were lightly pulling down against his chin and scalp, Hong had some time to think as he craned his neck to glance at where Long Feng and two other agents patiently stood several paces on the door's right, ready to close it and cut off escape as soon as all the kids had obliviously entered.
It was a very good strategy for capturing them, Hong thought approvingly. And once that was accomplished, all seven of those interfering little bastards would finally be brought to heel, mindbent if necessary, into respecting and following the rules which kept this city peaceful and orderly. A shame that it'd needed to come to this, though-but the youths had brought it on themselves through their stubbornness, Hong reminded himself.
At the same time however…
Unease crawled through Hong Yan's gut. For one thing, none of them really had even a vague idea of how to properly hold their own in combat against an airbender, far less any direct experience.
He was also part of a group which, in a few minutes, was only going to attack and do everything in their power to arrest the frigging Avatarhimself, in a situation where he'd feel trapped, confined, desperate, deeply concerned for the safety of his friends-and the reports from General Fong's fortress had made it very clear that putting the Water Tribe girl he cared for in serious danger was naturally a great way to really set him off.
Hong had no difficulty understanding why that would be so.
If Avatar Aang was going to go into that dreadful state of savage, unstoppable power, this would definitely be the time and the place for it. And agents would probably die-including maybe him.
As Hong did yet another slow, upside-down stomach crunch to keep the blood from pooling in his head, he then heard a series of light, soft footsteps approaching the door far below, and a youthful, male voice-Jet's, he figured, for it sounded nothing like that of either Avatar Aang or the Water Tribe youth, whose voices he knew well enough from listening to them during stakeouts-say, "I think it's in here."
And here. We. Go. Hong thought, tensing the muscles of his lithe body in preparation for the strike like one of the immense, cow-pig sized, giant false vampire bats which lived in the Earth Kingdom's jungles, and were said to carry away unwary people in their long jaws on dark nights from time to time, excitement and anticipation surging within him as he gave his partner, clinging upright to a huge chain, a "Get ready" glance as the door was pushed open far beneath them with a grinding sound of stone against stone. Below them, Long Feng's tiny figure, flanked by two more agents at attention on each side, also tilted his face up to give them all a brief, impassive emerald stare.
But in typical earthbender fashion, just like how the defending honeybee workers made sure the hornet scout was well into their hive first before pouncing, they all still waited and watched while all seven youths warily entered, Jet in the lead with hook swords at the ready.
Even if they Dai Li were deliberately letting this ragtag gang of young troublemakers walk right into their headquarters without resistance, even if the seven of them had figured out its location only by an awful series of flukes, the Avatar and friends were still clever-and bold-little shits indeed to have gotten themselves this far, he couldn't help but fleetingly think in a degree of admiration.
At the same time however, not one of them evidently had enough basic sense to look up as they stepped inside and made their way into the center of the hall. Not even Sock-a, amazingly enough. A quarter-wit move.
The sight of both Water Tribe teens briefly brought back to mind a ribald chant Hong had learned at the Stone Fist Training Academy and gleefully sung in off-duty moments with his fellow agents many times since then: I don't know what I've been told/ I don't know what I've been told/ But Water Tribe pu-
With a wave of Long Feng's hand, the door slammed shut behind the startled teenagers, who gave a collective gasp. Too late, they realized they'd strolled right into a trap, and it'd just been sprung.
And too late, they finally glanced up above them, noticing with horror the figures of Hong, Guozhi and their companions. Hong was almost tempted for an instant to say "Hey there kids," or wave at them with a stone gloved hand in mocking welcome as the Water Tribe youth said in dry surprise, "Now that's something different."
Yeah, I bet it is.
"You have made yourselves enemies of the state," the Grand Secretariat declared simply to the intruders. "Take them into custody."
And Hong was happy to oblige, releasing the bond between boots and bedrock, feeling the passing air briefly claw at him for a few seconds as he righted himself in mid-fall, pushing downward through his feet to ensure a soft landing on two sudden new patches of sand, stuck the landing alongside his partner, then charged into the fray with him.
For an instant, all seven teens looked distinctly panicked-as well they should. Then they got a hold of themselves, and went on the defensive, facing outwards in a circle like a musk ox or rein-yak herd protecting itself against wolves.
Things got exciting then as the Avatar jumped, swung his airstaff down, and staggered Agent Liu Cun Chow with a blast of airbending as the clutching stone gloves just missed seizing the young monk by the ankles.
Shuqing sent his own pair of stone gloves whizzing for the arms of Toph, in what should've been an easy capture-but she must've heard them coming, for she flung out a hand and blasted them to bits.
Hong decided to help his brother's partner out a little, rearing back and kicking out a nice big boulder from the floor, sending it flying at the girl's back in an attempt to knock her down-but to his amazement, she flung a clenched fist out behind her back-and blasted the footstool-sized chunk of rock into rubble as well.
It made Hong blink in surprise for a moment. How could she have possibly known?
Then she was flinging her arms to the sides, sending a diagonal pillar of stone bursting out like a battering ram underneath Shuqing and Zai Tian alike.
Shuqing had the presence of mind to twist and grab onto the end of the pillar smacking into him with hands and boots to keep from being thrown, while Hong's brother punched down and forward as his own pillar hurled him forward, chopping several feet away from the front like it was part of a log before riding it down and leaping clear as it smashed into the floor.
Hong couldn't assist him though, for he had his own opponent to deal with at the moment. After glancing around like a panicked antelope for a few seconds, the closest of the teens to Hong-Jet, by a funny coincidence-decided to make a desperate charge for him and Guozhi, swinging his hook swords and uttering a savage growl as he did so. Yeah, such a scary display.
Hong could've burst out laughing at such a suicidally gallant act, the idea that a nonbender, one who'd already had a very good taste of just what the Dai Li were capable of with their elite bending skills, still dared to rush at another pair of agents anyway-in a stone cavern, no less!
Hells, even in a contest of sheer brute strength, he could best the kid within seconds. Talk about being dumb as a rock!
Guozhi hurled his stone gloves through the air, snatching at Jet's wrists, while Hong aimed lower, clutching at his ankles. But Jet was fast, had learned a few things from his last encounter with the Dai Li, and swung one hook sword in an arc without hesitation as he closed the gap, smashing apart Guozhi's gloves into a burst of tiles.
A second later, even though there was a real risk that he'd injure his own legs with the sharp sword blades, Jet wildly made one, two, downward swings with the other hook sword, and shattered Hong's own stone gloves in quick succession, just before Hong could complete tightening them into crushing stone shackles with his squeezing.
Guozhi flung out both hands, and pulled upwards, a pair of inverted stone daggers starting to shoot up out of the floor in response, to pierce through the soles of Jet's shoes-but even as he felt the stone points start to puncture the skin on the bottom of his feet, the punk slammed the ends of his swords against the slightly uneven bedrock floor, and was able to gain just enough precious leverage to raise himself up higher, and then pivot aside before dropping back down again on his feet, clear of the spikes.
This was getting annoying now.
Okay pal, Hong thought, you want to fight us up close and personal, I'll be happy to help your ass out.
Shoving his right hand forward and down, Hong yanked at the stone between him and Jet, now just a few strides away. As anticipated and hoped, Jet lost his balance as he was propelled towards both agents, windmilling backwards while Guozhi grabbed and brutally wrenched his right arm near the hand with another pair of stone gloves, causing the sword he gripped in that hand to fall to the floor with a clang as that Smellerbee girl cried out, "Jet, no!"
But what Hong didn't see coming, even as he prepared to seize this Jet punk by the neck with his own stone gloves in the next split second, use them to choke the teen into submission, was that Jet would suddenly decide to roll with the punches so to speak, instead of resisting and trying to stay on his feet.
Somehow, he was able to use the momentum of the stone being yanked out from underneath him to his benefit, leaning forward, sliding into it before jumping up and attempting a drop-kick, falling on his side as he tried to knock Hong's feet out from underneath him with his own.
Normally, that would also only serve to make Hong scornfully amused, his response being to either elegantly sidestep the drop-kick, or just swiftly pull up more stone around his lower legs with the chi in his lower body, armoring them against any damage from the impact as he sunk his stone-sheathed feet into the ground, aware that his simple inertia would suffice to prevent him from being knocked over by this nonbender.
But Jet still had a hook sword in his other hand, glittering silver as he held it low and swung, the curved end raising up as it chopped at Hong's lower legs-
With palms facing towards each other, Guozhi desperately tried to intervene by reaching at the stone just in front of Hong, causing two heavy blocks to spring up out of the floor and then smashing them together in an attempt to crush Jet's skull as Hong instinctively tried to leap clear of the shining blade, not bothering to use his bending, just the powerful muscles of his thighs and legs.
Hong failed to jump high enough. Guozhi just barely missed as the lethal stone blocks crashed shut on only air and some strands of tousled hair. But Jet didn't.
A sensation of something passing through the flesh of his left calf, underneath his black inner robe, not down to the bone, but fairly deep. A stumbling forward with a confused, shocked grunt as Hong fell to the side, away from a still sliding, rolling Jet, crashing heavily onto his back with a sharp "Unngh!" in what seemed like a random occurrence-but was actually a calculated move in its own right.
After all, Hong had been taught as a cadet that if one or more attackers somehow managed to injure you, throw you off your feet, with no time or ability to stand back up, your best chance of getting out of such a situation alive at that point was to roll onto your back, protect your spine, your nape, the back of your head, while using all four limbs at once-if you could-to bombard your assailants with stone, make the ground swallow their legs, send pebbles or stone tiles shooting into their faces, and generally ward them off in as many directions.
What in Wu Sheng's name had just happened? Or had that punk just done to him, more like.
Immediately, Hong sprung back to his feet like an acrobat, ready to resume fighting-but as he did, he suddenly lurched slightly to his left. Then he saw a scarlet tinge on the metal of the sword a retreating Jet still clutched, and at the same time, although Hong still felt no pain, he began to dimly feel something warm and sticky quickly seeping down into the white fabric of one of the legs of his uniform pantaloons, below his left calf. And he realized what'd just happened.
But the wound didn't seem to be a crippling one, at least for the moment, thank Wu Sheng. In fact, all the punk's lucky shot really did was make Hong rather angry now, as opposed to just coolly trying to carry out an order. Guozhi was angry on his partner's behalf too.
A pair of stone gloves grabbed Jet from behind, by the legs, Guozhi's teeth bared in a snarl as he yanked backwards, the boy crying out "Hey!" as he fell forward on the stone, hard, the bloodied sword falling out of his hand with a resounding clash.
At the same time, Hong shoved the stone gloves off his extended hands, balling them into fists, taking careful aim at certain parts of a prone Jet's body. Long Feng wanted the lot of them taken alive, after all, and Hong was pretty positive the kid could survive having both his shoulder bones shattered.
But in the next instant, the rock gloves themselves were shattered before making contact with flesh-into gravel, no less! -and then Avatar Aang was slapping both of them hard across their faces with a gale-force gust of wind, causing both Guozhi and Hong to automatically gasp and cringe away, Hong windmilling backwards a few paces and nearly falling again as Jet leapt back to his feet and made good his escape. Not that there was any place to escape to, confineddown in here, with the only door currently sealed shut.
In the meantime, Hong's attention was momentarily redirected by the sound of both Water Tribe siblings crying out close by as Agents Taishan and Wulong snatched them off their feet by their clothing with their own rock gloves, yanking the teens to them-until that Toph girl darted in from the pair's right, pulling up a wall of stone with one hand, then shoving it at both agents, forcing the duo to release their captives and smash it apart, before it collided with them.
But even before that point, she'd come charging in with both arms extended, palms outward, pushing a jagged wall of rock before her to protect her friends.
Hong tried for Avatar Aang a second time, punching forward and down with both fists at the young monk's feet during this moment when he was solidly standing, briefly oblivious to Hong's presence as he warded off Agent Xu, flicking the fingers of each hand apart to form a pair of holes underneath the boy's feet-into which his tattooed legs plunged up to the knees.
On a nonbender, a waterbender, probably a firebender, that would've decided the fight, trapping the opponent in place-and Guozhi was already preparing to restrain Aang's arms with his stone gloves. But hey, guess what? This was the Avatar they were up against, bender of all elements!
And Aang reminded them of it by instantly shattering the stone around his lower legs, a grim, tight-lipped expression on his young features as he jumped free, bounded into the air, and whirled his staff at the pair, the air currents forming a sideways tornado.
Twisting winds caught the underside of his hat, the satin chinstrap pressing hard into the flesh of his throat, and his robes billowed, flapped like wings, as Hong found himself cartwheeling for several yards, then sprawling backwards onto his side under the force of the circular gusts.
In all the commotion, Hong still felt no real pain from his leg slash as he righted himself, save for a dull, distant glow in his calf. The blood trickling from it though, seeping through his pantaloon leg and sock, he was very aware of feeling-and for an instant, as the Avatar guardedly watched both agents leap back up, staff at the ready to smack them with another miniature gale if they made another hostile move with their earthbending, Hong was fairly confident he saw the young monk give a small, disturbed grimace at the gruesome sight.
While he wasn't conceding defeat, per se-and why the fuck was Long Feng evidently just coolly standing by over there, not doing shit to pull his weight in this fight, if subduing the Avatar was so Koh-damned important to him? -Hong decided to give up on trying to overpower the tattooed airbender for the time being-but always keeping part of his attention on him, even as Hong redirected most of his focus toward an easier target.
Like the group's lone earthbender, for instance, the blind girl currently avoiding an attack by Taishan and Wulong as they elegantly leapt, spun in tandem, and punched out together in an attempt to knock her to the floor by thrusting herself a good several stories into the air on a pillar of stone as thick as a mature oak tree.
Earthbenders Hong understood. Earthbenders he knew like the back of his stone-mailed hand. He shared a momentary, sidelong glance with Guozhi, a quick, upward tilt of the head in her direction. His partner understood, both of them splitting and bolting to the opposite sides of the cavern as Taishan and Wulong lowered their arms and hurled themselves up at this Toph together on rock pillars of their own.
Wounded in the calf though he was, Hong was still only a few seconds behind Guozhi in reaching his chosen side of the cavern, blood dripping down on the stone as he raced up the wall in a curve-stick, release, stick, release, stick, release, his mind chanted, as his chi flickered between the soles of his stone boots-until he was at the girl's level, at which point he threw himself down into a squat like a frog, slapping his hands down against the bedrock.
Then, in perfect unison with his partner, he punched out a sideways pillar of stone right at her, both agents having every intent of pulverizing her between both battering rams. Long Feng probably wouldn't be very happy about them crushing her into a broken corpse after the fact-but it was always easier to ask forgiveness then permission. Certainly, she had no chance against a four-way attack from men who were at least twice her age, and far stronger.
But incredibly, in a flurry of defensive moves, she punched out a chunk of stone from her pillar to strike Wulong, then Taishan, hard in the chest, knocking the wind out of them as they fell backward through the air. Then she leapt up, and while Hong was hoping that her lower legs at least, would still get smashed between the two columns, she still got even her bare toes clear by the skin of her teeth as the stone pillars crashed together.
Now Hong was truly getting mad. Child soldiers they all might be, but overpowering and apprehending a bunch of teenage kids was not supposed to be nearly this fucking difficult!
In the next instant, he flung out the foot of his uninjured leg and shot forward in a charge at her with Guozhi, reaching out with both hands to shatter and tear the section of the new stone crossbeam this Toph girl was standing on from underneath her, and snatching her by each hand-with a pair of stone gloves this time-before she could get her wits about her again.
Very few earthbenders, in Hong's experience, had the strength, the swiftness of timing, the presence of mind required, to use their bending to somehow still keep the stone underneath their feet relatively stable and solid as you worked to undermine it with your own chi, while also being able to ward off a second offensive move from you at the same time-far less against two Dai Li agents doing just that in tandem. Certainly not a blind girl who probably hadn't even gone through puberty yet.
He was mistaken.
It was self-evident that Hong Yan was no rookie, no weakling when it came to combat, and he rightfully had a high opinion of himself, of his prowess as an elite fighter and warrior. He could earth-skate across the ground at a speed of at least eighty miles an hour, maneuver with the agility of a boar-qu-pine, pluck a bat in flight right out of the air with a stone glove, catapult himself a good twelve stories into space with a stone pillar, deliver a spinning kick to an opponent's head with the force of a camelephant's trunk swing, was as clever and good at thinking on his feet as a quoll-coyote-and could kill a man so quickly and utterly that Hong's target would, at best, barely even have time to realize what was going on.
But he was wise enough to understand that not even a Dai Li agent like himself was somehow invincible, could never be beaten in a fight. It'd happened to him a couple times before.
He never would've imagined it could play out this way, though.
That shocking, humiliating, painful moment was over in a flash, but for Hong Yan, it seemed to happen in an almost leisurely fashion, with plenty of time to take in the details.
As an idle thought experiment, he'd pondered from time to time what a chick capable of actually whupping a Dai Li agent's ass would be like. She'd be tall, unyielding, he figured, a mature, battle-scarred woman, a giantess with a muscular frame, every inch a lady warrior.
Instead, it was a mere girl in peasant clothing who couldn't even see, who stood even shorter than Rajata did.
She raised her arms up, palms down as she pulled a thick stump of rock from each side of the crossbeam, and then shoved them in opposite directions at Hong and Guozhi. Her posture was solid, determined, filled with a confidence-and courage-beyond her years.
And in that long, slow moment, as the stone stump flew for his midsection, Hong suddenly understood that it wasn't the Avatar that he truly should've been concerned about tangling with, but this unassuming, stockily built girl. They, members of Ba Sing Se's elite police force, were going to be too slow, prove inadequate in the face of her skills, had very foolishly, dismissed her as being only modestly talented at fighting, if that. And now he and Guozhi were going to pay the price.
All he could do was tighten his stomach to minimize damage to his internal organs, and not try to keep himself rooted in place with his rock boots as the stone stump crashed into his lower torso, knocking the breath out of Hong and sending him shooting backward.
He didn't know where his partner had been flung to, but in the next instant, Hong still had the presence of mind to wheezily reach out and chop downward with his left hand, splitting the stone pedestal before he was smashed into the cavern wall. Both halves slid apart, then crashed to the floor below, one of them just narrowly missing the Water Tribe girl.
A real shame, Hong thought coldly as he slapped his stone gloves against the beam to stop his own fall, sticking them to the rock while he somehow dragged himself back onto it, his wounded leg now just starting to burn at last as he laid flat and took several tearing, agonizing breaths. He heard Toph give a startled cry, and saw her get yanked down, out of his sight, by another agent's rock glove, grabbing her tunic from behind, between the shoulders.
But he was in no shape right now to see who the glove's owner was. Spirits, he hoped no ribs had been broken by that blow.
After what seemed like ten seconds or so, Hong felt better enough at last to sit up, quickly scanning the turmoil continuing around and beneath him. Where was his partner in the melee? Had he fallen?
Ah, there Guozhi was, spread-eagled on the opposite wall of the cavern, a couple stories below Hong's level, also struggling to regain his breath. A stone ledge jutting out from under his feet, and the great, dragging slash marks in the rock face from bending fingers explained how Guozhi had saved himself from hitting the floor below. Relief flashed through Hong.
But right now, they had to literally jump back down into the fight.
Air streaking up his robes, then an impact which sent a jolt of pain up through Hong's leg, which made him wince and bare his teeth with a hiss of agony before he fought it off.
"Hong buddy, look at your leg, how it's bleeding!" Guozhi said, eyes dilating as he went into a fighting stance next to him. "You should step out!"
"It's just a flesh wound," Hong replied. "I can manage."
Rearing back on his "good" leg and kicking a small slab of rock up in front of him to block an arrow just about to pierce the Earth Kingdom symbol on his outer robe, sent Hong's way by the bow of that quiet boy in the sedge hat, with the stupid nickname-Longshot, right? -who jumped aside before Hong could smash him in return.
In the next moment, there was a whickering sound, and both partners instantly ducked as the Water Tribe boy's boomerang harmlessly sailed over their hats. They turned, and Sock-a was just able to duck down himself, leap to the left as Hong tried to grab him by the collar with another stone glove, while holding his other hand down and pulling up a few blunt spikes around the boy's feet to trip him up.
And Sock-a did trip, nearly fall-but against all odds, regained his balance and got clear of the stone protrusions, leaping up two seconds later to snatch his boomerang out of the air. In his own way, he was good.
But he wasn't good enough-or quick enough-to completely avoid the serrated plank of stone Guozhi sent slashing at him, the saw-like edge just managing to catch and slice into the skin and lean muscle of a dark upper arm, blood welling out as he cried out and fell away beneath it, rolling like an eel.
The Avatar and Toph obviously really didn't like it when someone drew their friend's blood, and instantly rounded on both agents, a furious Aang slapping their legs out from under them before Hong could counter, while Toph spread her arms apart, palms down, raised them back up and nearly slapped them together.
From somewhere very close-although he didn't know where-a fist sized rock came crashing into the side of Hong's head, another one into Guozhi's, dropping both men like they'd been clubbed.
For a brief time, his head ringing like a gong, the pain nearly making him vomit, Hong just laid there on the cold stone, his hat having shifted to awkwardly support his head at an angle.
"Long Feng is escaping!" he heard Aang cry out close by, as he dodged two boulders kicked out at him by another pair of agents and downed them with another lateral air blast.
Not escaping, you clueless thing, Hong managed to smugly think through his groggy pain as he fought to clear his head. He's drawing you away, trying to get you in a position where he can have you alone-and once he has you as his hostage, your friends will have no choice but to suddenly play nice.
Assuming of course, that a panicked Aang didn't simply go into the Avatar state.
Seconds later, he saw the hurried feet of both the airbender and Jet whirl through his unfocused vision a few paces away, then vanish just as swiftly.
Hong buckled down, gritted his teeth, and tried to rally, turn into a prone position and start pushing himself up. It took a bit of time though, and in the interim, there were several more, quick, clipped cries from agents and kids alike, sounds of grinding, clacking, smashing stone.
And incredibly, impossibly, as Hong finally managed to get himself onto his hands and knees, gasping and giving a soft groan as he raised his throbbing head, blinking, he was greeted by the sight of all his colleagues lying sprawled on the chamber's floor, the five remaining kids wasting no time in bolting out the low door-hardly unscathed, but still standing and very much not their captives! And Aang hadn't even gone into the Avatar state.
As they all struggled to recover-some not as successfully as others-a soft series of groans, grunts, and gasps filling the cavern, Agent Xu was the first one to get to his feet.
"Holy schist!" he panted as he looked around. "Where did she learn to earthbend like that?! And where can I learn how to myself?"
Dai Li agents were often far from tactful, saying what they meant to civilians and one another alike as it suited them. But this was a bit too far, and Hong joined the rest of their vanquished band in giving Xu a withering glare, and making the stone floor quiver with his ire as Taishan snarled, "Oh, shut your fucking face, Xu."
Hong staggered to his feet, steadied himself, and sucked in a few deep breaths. Seconds after he was at the point where his head more or less felt normal again, Long Feng came swooping back into the chamber-and braked to a sudden stop, eyes widening slightly as the Grand Secretariat gave a low, droning "Well."
In the span of a few seconds-although reading the emotions on their leader's face was always difficult-shock, disgust, bewilderment, disappointment, concern, and even mild awe all flashed across Long Feng's features. Then it became severe and impassive once more.
"This is certainly not the outcome I was expecting," he said coolly, with a frustrated sigh. "But for now, I want those of you who are still capable of combat to follow me. We can still head off and detain the Avatar and his companions above ground," he said levelly, even as he turned and darted back down the hall.
"Those who can walk, but are too badly injured to join in, you know where our infirmary is. Send healers when you get there for the incapacitated."
The sword slash was really starting to pain Hong now, even though the blood had more or less stopped flowing at this point, and the wound was clotting over, the red-drenched fabric of his clothing now sticking to his skin. An unpleasant, nasty sensation.
But as one of the Dai Li, he wasn't going to let a mere leg wound stop him, and he was going to get those little punks before the day was through, Hong resolved as he skated after Long Feng, Guozhi now at his right side.
His partner had taken a bit of a battering as well, but seemed okay. So did Zai Tian, as Hong did a quick head count on the run.
There were a few different entrances to Dai Li headquarters from the surface-the main one, and three auxiliary access tunnels, each one numbered and marked at their lower end.
Access tunnel Number Two isn't far from here, Hong thought, charging onward even as the growing pain made him grimace, which faces up against that cliff. They'll be scrambling up that right now to make their getaway, no doubt.
But there was really no need for any guesswork on which way the group had gone. The occasional drop of blood from the Water Tribe boy's shallow arm wound made that clear as day.
And not surprisingly, as their squadron neared the access tunnel, Hong could hear the teens frantically clattering and pounding their way up the deep shaft as the waterbender girl hissed in agitation, "Hurry guys!" Two-thirds of the way to the surface, Hong figured from the sounds.
Long Feng gave a quick glance at the tunnel before gesturing at the right half of the group-Zai Tian was among them-brusquely ordering, "Follow them up the tunnel. Chase them down and detain them if you can. The rest of you, come with me. We're going to arrange a surprise for them on the surface."
No explanation was needed. Both Hong and Guozhi understood quite well what Long Feng was getting at. They'd used the same strategy many times before already, either while hunting or outmaneuvering a criminal on the streets, after all. One party played the role of the "drivers," while the other acted as the "blockers," waiting in ambush.
A dash to Access Tunnel Number Three, a few more comrades joining them on the way. A hurried climb up the shaft as part of a single file of agents, Hong hoping that his leg wound was having the courtesy to not drip blood down on the face of Agent Chaoxiang just below. The sun's light and warmth replacing the dim, pale green of the glow crystals as he scrambled out, his hat shielding his eyes against the painful brightness.
The pain of the sword wound was all but buried under a sort of exhilarated desperation for a time as he, Guozhi, two other pairs of agents, responded to a hand gesture from Long Feng by scurrying up the face of a steep hillside with the agility of a rat, while the others stayed beneath on the lakeshore, dashed perhaps five hundred yards to his left across that plateau, then jumped right over the cliff's edge before binding his rock boots to the vertical surface and running nearly to the cliff face's bottom before halting in a perfect row.
As he got into a fighting stance with his comrades, one arm held forward to punch down, the other flung back, his leg shrieked in protest, nearly buckled underneath him, before it occurred to Hong that perhaps he should be supporting the majority of his weight on the limb which had not been sliced into. Done.
And not even five seconds later, there was the Avatar and his three original companions-Hong was briefly, mildly puzzled to see that Jet, that silent Longshot kid, and the short-haired girl hadn't emerged with them, especially in a battle situation where they needed to keep up a united front-racing along the lakeshore below in a blind panic as a clinical, dispassionate part of Hong's mind noted a thread of dark red liquid starting to trickle down the rock of the cliff just beneath him.
Surprise, exhaustion, and a heavy degree of helplessness on their young faces as they stopped, realizing they'd already been cut off, Zai Tian helping to literally box them in from behind as agents rose up on immense, vertical slabs of stone on either side.
The kids were confused, looking noticeably tired-and in about three seconds, were going to have landslides of falling rock slabs and boulders dumped on them from as many different directions.
Did you really think you could evade our grasp? Hong internally smirked, flexing his fingers underneath a stone glove.
For an instant, he found it to be so amusing that he truly had to choke back the impulse to burst out laughing when even the Avatar's charming flying lemur seemed to concede defeat, spiraling tightly and briefly landing on his shoulder to utter a few quick, chattering purrs of evident farewell before leaping into the safety of the sky, vanishing up into the sun's glare with the speed of an arrow shot from a bow.
It occurred to Hong then that as an airbender, the Avatar might decide to imitate his pet and try to escape the same way in the next few moments, abandoning his friends for the time being. And Aang certainly looked like he was thinking about it. He got ready to help grab the monk out of the air the second he tried it…
A resonant, bovine bellow of aggression. The kids suddenly looking inexplicably delighted. An expression of shock and trepidation on his brother's face, snapping skyward. A shaggy, gray and white behemoth very swiftly entering Hong's peripheral vision, and what in the names of Hou-Tu and Wu Sheng was the flying bison doing here, outside and free?!-right before the horned monster smashed through Long Feng's, then Zai Tian's, stone barriers like a bolt of wooly lightning, sending green and black figures flying.
He had just enough presence of mind to send a volley of several stone tiles at the bison's tawny eye from his fingers- but they harmlessly clattered of the animal's horn instead as Hong abruptly found himself being catapulted over the surface of the lake with Guozhi.
What th-oh yeah, that blind Toph girl. He should've known.
He was so sick and tired of this, of being defeated.
But even as he joined his partner in crying out in shock and fear and anger, there was nothing to do about it right now. Turn in the air so that he was facing head downward, clapping his hands together and extending his arms to brace himself against the impact with the water.
A stinging, cool slap, a hastily snatched, then held, gulp of air as Lake Laogai's waters enveloped him in an inverted geyser. Instantly releasing his stone gloves and boots before they could drag him too far down-Hong had read about and seen painted depictions of how in the coastal areas of the Earth Kingdom's tropic belt, bending-capable pearl divers, seaweed gatherers, and shellfish harvesters would use similar stone boots to keep themselves from drifting back up to the surface as they tromped around the coral reefs, sand flats, and rocky bottoms, but that obviously wasn't desirable here-and pushing his broad hat off to reduce drag as he stroked up toward the light, letting it float up beside him as he left it behind. A pity, but someone in a junk could collect it later.
The robes of his uniform of course, couldn't be so easily shed-but Hong was strong, and it turned out there'd been a method after all to what he'd originally thought was complete madness by his instructor Shenshui during academy training, when he'd had Hong and the other cadets spend several days swimming as far as half a mile in full costume.
He broke the glare-spangled surface and drew in a harsh breath, blinking the water out of his eyes just in time to see Guozhi pop up several yards to his right, and then the bison sending Long Feng himself flying through the air with a toss of the huge head, the man's leg clenched in its teeth, and the struggling Grand Secretariat being sent skipping like a stone over the surface, coming to a stop somewhere behind Hong's head.
But there was nothing he could do about that right now as Guozhi gasped out, "I've really had enough of these little shits. You all right Hong?" he asked, wet hair shining.
Hong could only nod grimly, already turning away to breaststroke and frog-kick in the direction of the craggy shore, fighting the drag of his robes all the while.
On reaching it, he spat out water as he staggered upright, Zai Tian there to help him up and out. "You're all right, thank Guanyin," his brother sighed in relief. "All things considered."
Drops of blood from his calf wound colored the lake water rose for a brief moment before dispersing, as Hong gave his brother a thankful smile and nod, then glanced aside to check on a panting Guozhi.
He quickly glanced around in a full circle, taking stock of all his fellow agents who'd been flung into the drink with him, their location, even as he automatically started squeezing the heavy, cloying water out of his robes and made his way onto dry land.
Long Feng had appeared at last, his expression determined and grim as a storm cloud as he swam in their direction. His own partner was there, of course. Agents Yongrui, and Hu, vomiting out water and coughing. A suddenly disturbed, increasingly concerned Agent Junjie, green eyes wildly scanning the surface of the lake as he sloshed back into the shallows and cried out, "Fan! Fan, can you hear me?! Say something!"
But there was no sign of Agent Fan to be seen in-or out of-the lake. Not at its surface, anyway.
An awful weight began to form in Hong's gut as he looked at his own partner, then at his brother for confirmation of what he desperately hoped wasn't true.
Zai Tian just sadly shook his head as he leaned forward and glumly whispered, "He sunk. Never came up."
Hong was beyond furious already that he and his fellow agents had just been bested by a bunch of teenagers and a giant flying cow-even if one of said teenagers admittedly was the Avatar. But now one of their own was dead thanks to their meddling!
For a wild, cruel, animal moment, as the pang of loss and outrage pierced him, Hong deeply considered just hauling off and slapping his own partner, standing next to him, across the face to make himself feel better, as hard as he could. But that wasn't going to solve anything, or improve what he knew was an equally bad day for Guozhi.
He could only curse and helplessly, bitterly watch as, too far out of range now to even hope to hit, the bison soared away with its quartet of passengers over the lake which had now just become Agent Fan Kuang's grave.
And the brats didn't even bother to look back, to give a damn.
On the island Aang had chosen for a landing site, Sokka winced and glanced away as his sister raised her hands, a luminescent sphere of water suspended between them, then pressed it against, into his arm wound. "Ungh…"
A soothing coolness, a sense of things being sealed off, the body's healing processes being sent into overtime as bloody, exposed tissues knit together, his sister holding the magical, chi and compassion-infused fluid against his upper arm all the while as she informed him, "You were lucky. This slash only went down through your fat, and a finger's thickness of muscle, Sokka, without severing any major blood vessels or hitting the bone."
"Or chopping it off entirely," Aang added with a shudder, as he glanced up from where he was currently glued to Appa's face.
"Yeah well, fortunately I'm just too quick on my feet to land a solid blow on," Sokka grinned as Katara bent the remaining water away from his skin, letting it fall to the ground at her side.
"Too bad you're not nearly as quick-witted," Toph sardonically scoffed in reply.
"Very funny," Sokka said as he tested his arm, flexing it up and down twice, then moving the limb in a slow circle. Much better. "Great work with the healing, sis."
She gave him a quick, appreciative smile before saying, "I'll give it another treatment later. After that, there shouldn't even be a noticeable scar."
"That's almost kind of a pity," he sighed. "I was looking forward in a way to showing it off to 'admirers' later on, telling them a story of my deeds in battle," he smugly grinned.
"But speaking of battle, wow, going up against those Dai Li down there was no joke," he went on, shaking his head. "Especially that one pair of agents, who managed to slice into me-they sure fought something fierce."
Aang turned away briefly from Appa and nodded. "I think one of them-Jet wounded his leg-tried to shoot Appa in the eye too, when he charged in."
"Well, even so, we still made it out. And just look at us!" Sokka said enthusiastically as he sprung off the rock and to his feet. "Not only did we escape from the Dai Li themselves, but we've got Appa back-I'm telling you, we should go to the Earth King now, and tell him our plan. We're on a roll!"
When Long Feng trudged, stormed, through the shallows of Lake Laogai, the water rippling against the shoreline from his poorly concealed, desperate fury, his scattered agents were there to greet him.
Some looked away from him, in a gesture of guilt and embarrassment. Some stood firm and resolutely stared back, ready to accept whatever orders or punishments might follow once their leader was ready to give them out.
Six-no, five-of his agents stood hatless on the lakeshore, soaked to the skin like him from their unexpected plunge. One of them had his head in his stone-sheathed hands, clearly distraught, his shoulders slumped. Another was bleeding from the leg.
They all hurled questions at Long Feng as he earth-skated up onto higher, drier rock a few feet above.
"Are you hurt, Minister Long Feng?"
"Is your leg broken, sir?"
"Where is Jet and his two companions right now, sir? Did they release the bison?"
"Did you see any sign of Agent Fan out in the lake, sir?" Agent Junjie inquired desperately.
"Should we head to the Imperial Palace now, sir?"
"Enough," Long Feng grumbled, holding up a hand and silencing his underlings as he worked on pressing as much of the lake water out of his clothing as he could. "No, I do not know if one of Jet's two comrades released the Avatar's bison-but they will certainly pay for it if they did. Just like he did," he said grimly.
He then turned to Junjie and gave a brief, regretful sigh before telling him, "I saw no indication that Agent Fan had surfaced, I'm afraid. I am deeply sorry for our mutual loss." Agent Junjie was understandably devastated at the news, crumpling to his knees with a blank, helpless look as he turned his gaze away from the lake. It was a blow to Long Feng as well, and stoked his anger.
But there was no time to let grief, sympathy, or any other emotions get in the way. The Avatar and his companions might well decide to simply leave the Dai Li to their city and games of political intrigue, wash their hands of Ba Sing Se at last, now that Appa had inexplicably been released and reunited with the foursome. Somehow though, Long Feng really doubted they'd be content to stop at that-especially the Water Tribe boy.
He took the time to bend out a short pedestal of stone under his feet with an upward flick of both hands before looking around at his defeated agents and the rubble left by the bison, acutely aware now of the crushing pain from the animal's bite.
"I am highly displeased by how our attempt to apprehend the Avatar and his associates has played out," he told them smoothly yet sternly, "with the loss of Agent Fan, one of our own brethren, being just one of the many disastrous consequences of this bungling of what I'd hoped would be a straightforward task."
"At the same time however," he acknowledged, "our performance was also affected by unforeseen circumstances and unanticipated skills on the part of these individuals which played against our favor, so do not think the fault lies entirely with you."
"We are far from ready to concede defeat, sir," one soaked, dripping agent panted.
"We will gladly follow you to the Imperial Palace sir, to help block the Avatar from gaining access to the Earth King, if that proves to be his intention," another, rather drier agent resolutely added.
"No, although your willingness is gratifying," Long Feng. "You've all put in more than your share of effort today, and from this point onward, are dismissed from any further orders. In the meantime, I must gather our commander and captains, quickly don a rather drier set of clothing-and then catch a train," he commented with an irritated sigh, not bothering to wait for any replies as he turned and streaked for the blasted open mouth of Access Tunnel Number Two.
A few seconds later, he noticed another agent, also well-soaked and missing his hat, sliding up on his left, the one who'd been wounded in the calf. At first, he assumed his subordinate was merely traveling on the same path, to reach the infirmary.
But the agent, in his late twenties, glanced over then at him, saying, "Permission to accompany you to the palace sir? I am still very much willing and capable of assisting in repelling any attempt by the Avatar to access the Earth King."
"Such fortitude is impressive," Long Feng conceded as they rapidly gained on the tunnel's entrance, "but for the second time, you are no longer needed in the wake of this skirmish, Agent Hong."
"I beg your pardon sir, but- "
"Indeed," Long Feng went on without even looking over at Hong, "on account of having been injured in the leg by a sword slash, the only sensible place for you to be going right now would be our infirmary, and after that to home. Allow your captains, Commander Quan, and I as your leader to manage whatever the Avatar and his companions may attempt from this point onward."
"I shall then, sir," Hong agreed, although with some reluctance, starting to slow down a little. "If I may ask before we part ways though sir-if you are able to tell me-what became of Jet after he joined the Avatar in pursuing you?"
Long Feng shot Hong a cool, quick glance as he reached the tunnel entrance.
"He had a relapse, despite my initial success with the command, and proceeded to turn on me instead of his intended target of the airbender. And so, I dealt with him in the customary way that one would with any other out-of-control creature," he informed the surveillance agent before quickly slipping into the darkness of the tunnel-and toward Commander Quan's office, for starters.
"In other words, sir, you put him to death," Hong said simply.
"That I did."
And during that last glimpse of Hong Yan before he was left behind, the Grand Secretariat saw a thin smirk of malicious satisfaction spread across the man's broad features in response.
Getting the injury to his calf and the heavy bruises more or less fixed up in the medical bay of headquarters didn't take up as much time as Hong had expected, thankfully. He certainly wasn't as badly beaten up as a few of his comrades were.
A drink of bitter-tasting water, infused with powdered poppy resin to numb the pain. Stripping down to his loincloth before lying down on a stone slab and digging his fingers into the rock itself, focusing all his attention on a glow crystal as Healer Zihao stitched up and bandaged his lower leg with a curved needle. And the procedure was over.
There was nothing left to do then for Hong but thank Healer Zihao with a bow, go find wish Guozhi to wish him well, tell him to look after himself, and then make his unsteady way up the nearest ramped tunnel to where a hospital carriage was waiting to take him back to his Upper Ring home for badly needed rest.
The poppy powder elixir and bandaging certainly made Hong feel much physically better as he limped the short distance above ground towards the stationary carriage, hair flowing free and dressed in a simple, dark green cotton tunic and pants, secured by a citron yellow sash, shod in a pair of straw sandals as he used a wooden staff to help support himself.
Emotionally though, he was still a mess, seething. Humiliation. The worry of having been proven second-rate at last. Anguish over Fan's death-but not even close to what his new wife, their young twin sons, his parents were going to experience on hearing the news! Outraged astonishment that fucking teenagers had defeated him, one of the Dai Li! Fury over the gang's stubbornness, their refusal to respect the rules and just keep plowing ahead.
All of them fed into Hong's pool of fury like streams into a lake.
A motion caught his eye, some distance off to the right, of flapping wings. A flock of hoatzin-lizard birds, gracelessly hopping and gliding about as they sheared off and swallowed leaves in a cluster of tall bushes. Ugly, smelly vermin with wings that no one would miss.
But right now, he wouldn't have cared if they were rare, rainbow-plumaged sunbird-lorikeets. He turned, pulled a new pair of stone gloves out from the rocky ground beneath his feet, flexed his fingers, formed them into the interlocking puzzle of tiles, and then sent the rock hands, fingers spread wide, shooting like arrows into the panicked flock of hoatzin-lizards.
Hong managed to kill five of the birds with both stone gloves before he let the rest go, his ire and humiliation sufficiently vented. Three were punched out of the air in an explosion of feathers and blood. Two were snatched in the stone fingers and yanked somewhat closer to Hong before he used the force of his chi to crush them good and dead before dropping the corpse.
He didn't give the dead hoatzin-lizards a backward glance, or even much of a thought, as he wearily, gingerly stepped into the hospital carriage, laying back on the padded bench and deciding to lightly dose until it reached his front walk.
Although it wouldn't undo this debacle, or change the fact that he'd been shown up by a blind girl, Hong Yan was in a much better state of mind now.
Next up, Rajata's reaction when she finds out her man has been hurt in the line of duty.
Please do read, and then review!