Elementary Alchemy
Chapter 3: The devil's research
By Vox Deruste
Al, Ed, and Korra were surprised by the stacks of papers stacked on top of each other. Staple into volumes.
"Sheska you're a lifesaver!" Edward said happily as he sped read through the first volume.
"Everything I can remember from the notes. Tim Marcoh's Research Notes: 1000 easy recipes." Sheska said with a happy smile. Everyone stared at the pile of notes. They began to skim through it, Except Korra who couldn't read the language. The brother's taught her some words but at most, she can read signs and bathroom labels.
"Three spoonfuls of rice. One-half cup of sugar. Yeah, that's a cookbook." Ross said with a defeated look.
"Ma'am, what made you think this was an important document?" Brosch asked with genuine confusion.
"Sorry, but I wrote the notes as I remember them." Sheska apologized.
"You're sure about that." Edward asked as he flipped through the volume in his hands. "You're absolutely sure there are no deviations."
"I wrote them as I remembered them down the letter." Sheska said sheepishly. Edward picked up a stack of papers and gave them to Korra to hold.
"I'll take them." Edward said triumphantly.
"Excuse me, I don't understand why?" Korra questioned. "Are you going to open a food cart or something?" Edward took out a small book from his coat pocket and showed it to everyone. An Alchemist's secrets are exceedingly dangerous if in the wrong hands so most disguise them as something else to confuse people without the Alchemist's help."
"Brother's notes are written like a travel log, and Mustangs use women's names." Al added as he carried more of the notes.
"Cleaver clear." Korra said with a wide smile. "Maybe I should do something with my journal." She said as she heaved nearly as many papers as Al.
" Me and Al can give pointers." Edward said as he pulled out a pocket watch and a signed piece of paper. "Second lieutenant Ross, please go to the bank and take out that amount from my annual research grants." He said before leaving the room and the sound of exasperated gasp followed afterward from the room.
"How much did you give her?" Korra asked, semi-seriously.
"Enough." He replied. She didn't understand Amestrian currency but she did understand that Edward had money to burn.
After getting to a nearby library. They set down the book into neat piles according to numbers.
"Now the hard part begins." Edward and Alphonse began taking certain books from the surrounding shelves while Korra took a seat. She can't read books, she had no insights into alchemy, she can't really do much of anything in this situation.
In all honesty, she wanted Sheska to take a bit longer to finish her writing so they can keep sparing. Fighting and that bending power she, that she understood, and understood well. She did remember that she did meditate. She remembered being very bad at it but she did attempt it. The Elric's demanded quiet in their workspace anyway. She just hoped that they could get through the notes quickly.
Three days passed before the Elric's admitted the difficulty of their tasks. Korra watched them bang their heads against the table in frustration. Alphonse's head especially having his head stuck in the table because of his horn.
"Maybe we should call Doctor Marcoh." Al sighed.
"We can't! That's admitting defeat!" Edward suddenly had a surge of righteous fury.
"It's a contest now." Al bemoaned. Korra looked over to them from her napping spot on the couch.
"It's important to stay motivated. Maybe pretending it's one will make it go faster." Korra suggested. "That and you can take a break to do Tai-Chi with me."
"What's Tai-Chi?" Al asked.
"I'm not in the mood for sparring at the moment." Edward scoffed. Probably still angered by their win gap.
"It's more slow movement and breathing to center the body and mind." Korra said with a slight shrug. She felt that was a simple thing to say and understand. The brothers stared at her.
" Can you explain in more...realistic or scientific terms." Korra rolled her eyes at Al's words.
"It means it's calming and relaxing for the soul and muscle." Korra reframed.
"Maybe later. We're near the edge of a breakthrough, I know it." Edward said, looking at his list of notes. Before he could take yet another look at them, the door opened and Sheska sheepishly stepped through them.
"I just wanted to see and thank you both." Sheska bowed.
"It was payment for good work." Edward said simply.
"That money helped me with my mother and will let me have some breathing room in my budget." Said with a grateful smile. "Have you deciphered the notes yet?" Sheska innocently asked. The brother gave a depressed grimace.
"Did you find another job yet?" Alphonse asked. She replied with the same stupor.
"Well, I'll keep looking. Thanks again for the money." She had a melancholic look on her face. "It's nice knowing that even a pathetic mess like me could be of use."
"You really shouldn't be down on yourself." Korra said from the coach.
" She's right, you know." Al agreed. " I think that the type of dedication you show to reading is a talent all on its own. Besides that, your memory is incredible. You should have more faith in yourself." Al said beautifully in Korra's and Edwards's eyes. He seemed to have a knack for talking with people as Edward did with pissing them off. The thought was interrupted by a loud-
"Yo!" said a man with clear glasses and a thin beard. Holding a raised salute
"Lieutenant Colonel Hughs." Edward Identified the man with the raise salute. He seemed to be stern, straightforward in his walking. The star denoting he was the highest-ranked person in the room.
"Major Armstrong me told you two were here." The colonel slammed his hands on the desk the two were working on. "What gives Ed! I told you to give me a shout the next time you make it to central"
" Oh, something urgent came up, sorry." Edward and Al seemed to be close to Hughes. Korra thought. And the way she saw officer Brosch and Ross gossiping in the corner solidified that he was a high-ranking officer. But instead of a stern demeanor, he seemed cheerful and warm. Very talkative as well.
He turned to face Korra.
"Who is this?" Hughes held out his hand for a shake. Korra shook it.
"Korra, I'm kinda the reason these two were busy before the notes." She admitted.
"Well, a friend of theirs is a friend of mine. Call me Huges, Maes Hughes." She shook his hand again. Out of everyone she met so far, Hughes was the most lively and composed person she'd met.
"Korra, I don't remember my last name." Korra said honestly. Maes asked some questions and the people in the room gave him the abridged version.
"Well, it sounds like your bust too." Hughes leaned back into his chair. "So yeah work has been a mess since the case files are in the library. Working without them has been a bureaucratic nightmare and it's keeping me away from my family." The trio nodded sympathetically but they also had a collective idea and looked toward Sheska.
"Hey, Lieutenant Colonel, are you hiring staff." Edward said confidently.
"Well I did read the case records and I do remember them all." Sheska explained.
"That's all I need to hear, You're hired!" Hughes said expediently. "My office pays well so don't worry." Hughes assured her as he dragged a very grateful Sheska away from the room. Ed and Al waving them off.
"That was a masterstroke of motivation bending-"
"I think you mean speaking." Al corrected Korra.
"Maybe I think I got it from a fun, weird old man. Anyway, that was still an amazing thing you did for her Al." Korra said with a smile. "I guess you also helped by telling Hughes but whatever." She playfully downplayed. Edward scoffed.
"Har, Har, Har. By the way Al where did you even come up with that. 'Your dedication is a talent all on its own." Edward asked.
"Well, I see it every time a person I know hits a problem." Al said coyly and Edward's eyes intensified.
"Well let's get back to work so you can keep using that line on people." Edward said proudly. They both went to work while they kept watching over them both. Though it was spaced out by attempts to do some Tai-Chi, attempts to get the brothers to join in mostly ended with them ignoring her. The other officers did join her in time.
She then spent her time teaching them proper moves and forms. Brosch seemed to have some ease of movement while Ross was too stiff.
"You carry a lot of stress in your arms and legs." Korra commented as she tried to re-adjust Ross's footing and arm placement.
"Well, my job does keep me busy." Ross said awkwardly. Korra noticed that they both seemed the most stressed near Edward, Seeing the glance they gave him when he wasn't looking at them. Korra thought about something and led them outside of the room.
"Restart your stances." She said after she closed the door. "No one's else's eyes other than mine." Korra saw them trying again and seeing how, while they still had stiff movement they did perform the moves more fluidly than before. After two days of this, she finally asked.
"You're afraid of Edward aren't you?" Korra asked as she finished the Tai-Chi session with a bow, reciprocated by Brosch and Ross.
"He's the equivalent of a major. All state alchemists are." Brosch explained.
"Me and Brosch are not war hero's or high up in command. I know I want to advance but Edward can undo that with just a few words." Ross admitted.
"And you both believe that he would?" Korra tilted her head. From what she saw of Edward, he will use his station to get what he wants, but he's far from scheming scum or the type of ass that would report people for being annoying to him.
"It's not really about what we think but more of what we expected." Ross said quietly. "I'll admit we may have been influenced by what we heard of State Alchemists. During Ishval they were human weapons and only a few like Armstrong left the battlefield over what they had to do." Ross explained further.
"We kinda assumed that Armstrong was one of the few moral upstanding. He's also a kid...it's hard to see him as our superior officer." Korra let them have that one. It was strange enough to see a man shorter and younger than her having a high military rank. It was still a bit of cognitive dissonance on her part.
"Damn it!'' they heard through the door. Edward's rage-filled voice. Everyone went through the floor to see the distraught Elric brothers on the floor surrounded by papers and notes.
"Edward I think you need some sparring, at least so you're not attacking the library out of frustration." Korra lectured, being well aware of the memories in her head where she herself was doing similar things. Honestly, the more she saw her recent memories the more disappointed in herself she felt.
"Yeah, there's no need to be upset over not being able to crack-"
"We cracked the code and decrepit the notes." Alphonse said solemnly.
"Really but that's a good thing, isn't it?" Brosch said cautiously.
"There is nothing good about this damn it! It is the devil's research." Edward said through gritted teeth. " It should have burned in the fire. It's evil." Edward said clenching his fists.
"Why? You have what you're looking for?" Korra tried to get close but Edward stood up and looked her dead in the eyes.
"The main ingredient for a philosopher stone is human life!" The room temperature dropped cold and everyone, aside from Edward, became quiet. "In order to make a single stone, you need to make multiple Human sacrifices."
Korra's mind slowed down to a crawl and all audio information and sensory went blank. Her mind began to be slowly filled with troubling memories. A man in a mask walking toward her with malevolent intent. Dread building in her legs. A man with dreads bending the blood in her body. A man with familial features betraying her. An endless series of fear, anger, and betrayal.
"Korra!" The Avatar was shaken back into consciousness by Al. "Are you alright?" Alphonse asked as everyone's attention seemed to be split. Edward stared at the ground in the near defeat of their discovery. Al was attending to Korra but his face was staring at the floor. Ross and Brosch simply watched all of this.
"Forget that you saw any of this. Pretend that you heard nothing. I'm sorry you got involved with this." The first half was for everyone but the second half felt like it was for Korra, at least in her mind.
An awkward silence fell on the room as the first step of a dark secret seemed to be unraveling.
Asami was having what could charitably be called a rough time. First the events in the South Pole two weeks ago, then the bombing by the Southern Water Tribe Cultural Center by Northern Supremacists. Even then, even more, tangled groups got involved in the chaos. Asami was going to sell some of fathers tanks to the Southern Water Tribe Rebellion but then they were stolen from under her notice.
Everything seemed to get back on track when Bolin stopped a false flag operation by Varrick to kidnap the President, long story. And now everyone knows that Korra is missing.
Asami sat in her office. They got the news from Mako that Korra was supposed to be in the Fire Nation to get Firelord Izumi's help in the civil war. Since they got President Raiko to actually get involved in the civil war, she wanted to contact Korra. But when the Fire Nation was asked, they said Korra never got to their shores.
Everyone was in crisis mode right now.
In her own office were Bolin and Mako, standing in front of a map of the world. They were trying to figure out places Korra could be. Everyone in the room wanted to rule out every possibility that it wasn't her death, after hearing the news from Izumi. But it was hard not to see it as a possibility after going over the facts.
Korra would not run from a fight, so her hiding out was out of the question. Her finding an ally was possible but then why not go to the Fire Nation Capital? The point of this was to rule out death because that was the worst-case scenario, so that was ignored. All that was left was kidnapping. Only so slightly better than death, depending on if they can find her.
"Maybe pirates?" Bolin asked cautiously.
"Not nearly powerful enough." Mako bemoaned as he crossed pirates from the list of potential kidnappers. "There's no money order or blackmail letter, so we can rule out any kidnapping for money." Mako ruled out many other names that were synonyms for a bandit.
"It might be Unalaq." Asami suggested. "There have been reports of spirits around the harbors in the fire nation." Asami circled the area around the Fire Nation on the board. Mako sighed.
"If that's true then we already lost. Unalaq could have her anywhere between the North and South Pole." Mako stared at the map. "Basically anywhere in a long stretch of ocean."
"There has to be something. We need her to stop this." Bolin pleaded to the universe. "Please, Please anything would help. A sign or something."
"Asking is not going to help us find her." Mako said with partially guilty consciousness. She left Republic City after he informed Raiko of her plan to go behind his back; she wanted the navy's help in the civil war. And Mako told Raiko about the plan, they got into a very public fight and he broke up with Korra there and then. She disappeared right after.
He didn't blame himself for disappearing. He did blame himself for betraying her, and for their potential last meeting to be full of heartache and anger. He was also kicking himself for letting Asami kiss him while they were looking into the conspiracy around her stolen tanks.
Bolin was the most visibly worried and felt the most helpless. He was not like Asami and Mako and he knew it. He knew it would be those two to find her and not him. The whole Nuttuk basically hammered home that he always just stumbled into things, he stumbled into working for Varrick, he stumbled into Mako's investigation, he stumbled into Varrick's scheme. His saving the president was the only thing that made him feel like he was in control for once.
Then he heard that Korra disappeared. He was also the one who had to tell Tenzin and his family what was going on. There was a lot of silence and awkward fidgeting during it.
Much like the three were doing now. Standing in silence as they wait for anything that could help them locate Korra. The silence was only broken when a knock on the door was heard.
"I'll get it." Bolin volunteered. When he opened the door, he saw a cloaked figure wearing a wooden mask. Every visible part was covered in Blue, red, and Green robes. Bolin went into an impromptu combat stance. The figure held up their hands.
"That is no way to treat a guest." The figure said promptly but without fear or hesitation.
"Who are you?" Mako said, looking past Bolin.
Asami went to grab her shock glove.
"An associate who knows where the Avatar is." The figure said calmly with a direct presence.
Mako created fire daggers in his hands.
"Make me believe." Mako said with a scowl.
"She left toward the Fire nation over a week ago while you three fooled around with tycoons and starlets." The figure said with a sarcastic vigor. The three were ready to force him away from the door. "She was attacked by her cousins and a dark spirit, without the orders of Unalaq for revenge over his failed betrothal." The Figure said truthfully. The trio lowered their arms and let him in the room. "Quite the ship of industry, Miss Sato!" The figure complimented the room as they fiddled around the knick-knacks and models of Future industries tech. "Quite the innovations." The figure meddled with a model tank with their leather glove.
"You never answer the question, not really." Asami said while keeping a firm posture. The figure laughed.
"You may call me Sage. Some do anyway and yes I do know where the Avatar is being held." Sage said while playing with the small tank.
"And we're supposed to believe you?" Mako said with crossed arms.
"You can or you won't? Either can't happen unless I tell you." The figure clapped back. Bolin looked toward his brother.
"Let's hear him out, we're not getting anywhere." Bolin whispered. "If he's crazy we'll send him to Lin." The earth bender suggested. Mako nodded.
"Fine, where is she?" Mako said, quite coldly.
"She's in another dimension. One passed the spirit world, on the other side of a gate that might be older than Vaatu and Raava." The figure said flat out, no gestation or sarcasm. Continuing to play with the tank. What remained of team Avatar stared at Sage in a mixture of confusion and outrage.
"All right he's nuts, let's get him out of here." Bolin said with a defeated grimace. Sage levitated away from the spot Bolin was going to move him from.
"Will this be sufficient evidence that I'm not a normal kind of crazy." Sage asked as Mako and Asami checked below and above him for any wires or tricks. Everyone collectively calmed down.
"Okay say I may start believing that not only you know where Korra is but that she is in a…what did you call it?" Bolin asked.
"Another Dimension, Universe, world. Whatever word works best for you. Do you have more of these...sorry my vernacular hasn't been renewed in decades." Sage asked a confused Asami. She gained an idea.
"How about this?" Asami pulled out several boxes of small models of machines her company sells.
"Cool," Bolin said, picking up a model version of a Satomobile. Asami took the model from him and presented it to Sage.
"How about this." She held the box in front of her. "I'll give you a model for each piece of truth, no warping it or hiding it." Sage turned to look at the myriad of models and prototypes. While they could not see Sage's face, Asami could feel the desire within Sage. She watched the figure's hands, ready to grasp the models.
"I can agree to these terms." Sage went to grab at the Satomobile model but Asami pulled it away.
"First the truth." Asami asked while grasping the models.
"First-" Sage went on to describe a strange set of events. How Korra was attacked by a spirit, how another one rescued her and how it put her in a place where the spirit didn't even know.
Sage then described another story, one about an ancient time. The time before true benders and nations. The time of the first Avatar. How Avatar Wan had his spirit fused with that of the spirit of Raava and how they fought Vaatu. How they trapped the embodiment of Chaos inside the tree of time.
"I believe none of that." Asami said as she gave one of the last models to Sage.
"Again it does not matter if you believe it." Sage said flatly as he played with the various models. "It is as I described. Your Avatar is in another world, with its own history. I assume anyway." Sage explained. Asami thought about Sage's words. She saw the last model in the box. One of the prototypes of the new mecha-tank she was selling to the Earth Kingdom. She showed it to Sage.
"Are you the spirit that sends her to this other world?" Asami had a crossed look on her face. Mako and Bolin shared the look as they stared into the cloaked figure.
"Perhaps." Sage said coyly. "The spirit might want their name to be out there while Unalaq and Vaatu running things in the spirit world." Sage explained. Asami and the others didn't trust his words but his logic was sound. They knew that Unalaq had bending that affected spirits and while they were skeptical about this story about Vaatu, they sensed the hint of seriousness in the figure voice. "If you need an incentive." The figure took out out the glove from the left hand and revealed a hand made for Green Flame. Putting the glove back on after everyone looked at it.
"Okay, you might be a spirit." Mako admitted. "That does not mean you're telling the truth but it means I can't rule it out." Mako looked toward Asami and Bolin.
"I guess I can't either." Asami relented.
"It's...weird seeing a spirit for the first time. What's the spirit world like?" Bolin tried to inject his usually peppy attitude into the dower conversation.
"Colorful and painting-like." Sage said honestly. "Now then which one wants to get her from the other world?" Sage asked as he played with the collection of mecha tanks he had assembled.
"What?" they all asked simultaneously. Sage looked at them with their confused looks and remembered the reason.
"Well only one of you can go through the portal at a time. So who's going in the gate first?" Sage explained. "Be Careful I think the world that your Avatar is in is quite a bit dangerous."
The last two days after the horrific discovery was somber and quiet. The Elric's were held up in their room in shame while Korra tried to calm herself with Tai-Chi and meditation. It helped a little but it barely got the idea of human sacrifice out of her mind. How do you get that out of your head? She thought to herself. She could barely imagine what it was doing with the Elric's, the item of their tireless search was a horrific artifact of human suffering. The devastation and despair must be overwhelming.
Korra wanted to help but she did not how she could. She didn't know if there was a bright side to this if there was an alternative, or even if there was any hope for them after this. Given her own surge of memories, she was having dower thoughts about herself as well.
She started to remember, of all things, enemies of hers. The inequality and problems of her home...and a sharp realization. Korra had the Elric's tell her the general history of their home so that it could jog some memories. To an extent, it worked but not in the proper way.
Her own memories and information in her head clashed with that of Edwards. Her memories made her sound like some kind of international celebrity, a figurehead of peace, yet one knew her here. That and they had radically different histories from one another. Amestirs had many wars but not one that officially lasted a hundred years and not with a nation that built itself around a fire. Korra kept the clashing to herself, she didn't outright lie but all she said was that it wasn't right. A half-lie, which she also hated. She tried to drive her mind away from that.
"Edward, you need food." Korra said, looking down on the young alchemist. Laid out on the couch like it was a bed. A sorrowful look on his face.
"I'm not hungry." Korra knew that was a lie.
"We could split one of those steaks." Korra tried to suggest, making sounds like a request and more that she was giving him whatever he wanted or not. Edward held up his metal arm.
"You know Korra It's like…. we try so hard to grasp the truth but it always slips away. And now that we have caught it, it turns out the truth is too dangerous to hold." Edward started a self-deprecating smirk. "I'm starting to think this is God's special way of torturing people who commit taboos."
"You know I don't like it when you start to rag on yourself like that." Korra said. "You may have committed a taboo….put you wanted to see your mother again. What child should be punished for that?" Korra didn't understand their concept of a 'God' and clashed with her ideas of spirits and nature. She especially didn't want to agree with the pessimist/ tortured view that Edward had. He seemed to go back and forth between not believing and saying God is punishing him.
Edward didn't answer Korra's question and simply looked at his arm. The steel armored and the chill of the metallic leg. In Edward's mind, it didn't matter why, they were punished for even trying. And now they might be punished even further for trying to undo it. Their salvation was the stone of a demon.
There was a loud knock at the door.
"Elric brothers I know you're in there, This is the Major!" Called a familiar male voice.
"What do we do brother?" Al asked.
"We ignore him, that's what." Edward said dismissing the urgency in the Major's voice. Major Armstrong ignored Edward and busted down the door with sheer strength.
"I know what it said, Edward Elric!" The Major announced as he strode into the room with part of the door in his hands. The teenage Trio was blown away by the force of the door letting loose from the hinges as Armstrong started to dramatically cry his eyes out.
"How tragic! To think that the legend of the philosopher's stone was built around such a terrible secret!" Armstrong cried out as a waterfall of tears sprayed from his eyes.
"Wer-we're really sorry."
"It's hard to keep quiet when someone like him asks you." Ross and Brosch sheepishly admitted. As Edward and Korra stared daggers at them.
"Imagine the military being behind something like that. Often the truth is much cruller than we bargained for." Armstrong lamented as a thought went through Edwards' head. A passing one but one that might illuminate their current puzzle.
"Al, you remember what the Doctor said at the train station." Edward turned to his brother.
"Maybe you can find the truth hidden within the truth?" Al tried to parrot.
"What could that mean?" Edward posited. "It might be like alchemical notes. What you can see is only a portion of the real truth."
"What do you mean?" Korra asked as the conversation seemed to lift Edward from his gloom.
"There's still more to find, there has to be." A flurry of papers and maps were brought into the room. A map of the city chief among them.
"Okay now what are we doing?" Korra asked as she saw Armstrong circle four buildings.
"If there is a conspiracy here, then we need to investigate the other alchemical laboratories." Armstrong pointed to the labeled ones. "These are the ones that have close connections with the government. We can narrow it down to the third laboratory, Marcoh worked there." Armstrong said confidently.
" Al and I visited all the laboratories and none were doing anything extraordinary." Edward accounted, until seeing a building that had a black X over it. "What about this one?"
"It was designed for the fifth laboratory, the building was structurally unsound so it's been made off-limits."
"It has to be that one." Edward said grimily.
"Makes sense." Korra agreed.
"Am I the only lost one?" Brosch asked.
Al pointed to prison next door.
"The main ingredient is live humans." Al explained.
"There would be plenty of condemned prisoners. Officially they will be labeled as executed." Edward's cold logic fell on the minds of everyone in the room.
"This is becoming a nightmare." Korra groaned as she knitted her eyes.
"I'm sorry if it makes you feel any better. I don't like talking about this any more than you." Edward sympathetic.
"Prisoners from other jurisdictions might be used as well, I wonder if the government might be involved." Alphonse casually laid out a conspiracy plot.
"Why do I get the feeling we're getting involved in something really dangerous." Ross lamented.
"And this is why you keep quiet, you get more people involved." Korra said pointedly. Armstrong shook his head and rolled up the map.
"This has a political nightmare written all over it. I'll look into what we talked about." Armstrong promised. "In the meantime Officers, Korra, speak none of this to no one." The officer saluted and Korra did it half-heartedly. She was the one who kept quiet, the brother revealed it to the officers, who revealed it to Armstrong. "You Elric brothers, behave yourself's," Armstrong said strongly. The man fumed at the boy's, grasping at the map. "I know you, two boys, you were thinking about sneaking into this building and taking a look around! Weren't you! Admit it!" Armstrong said furiously.
The Elric's put on a big show of them saying they weren't before he left. When the Major left, his glare firmly on the boy's, only then did Korra turn to them.
"We're sneaking in aren't we?" Korra asked, opening a window toward the direction of the laboratory.
The boy's answered by taking a peek at the Major in the halls and using alchemy to make a makeshift ladder. Making their way quickly to the laboratory. Night has fallen on the city. The gaslight of street lamps, illuminating the darkness. They jogged their way to the laboratory, a square building with high walls and barbed wire on top. A sneak around the corner revealed a guard posted at the door.
"Any guess why an abandoned building needs a guard from the military?" Korra asked.
"That is suspicious." Alphonse agreed. As they tried to find another way in.
"Alchemy?" Korra asked Edward.
"It causes a light they can see." Al answered.
"Al and I have a way in but what about you?" Edward asked. Korra smirked as she hugged them both.
"Don't scream." Korra said with a wicked grin as she launched them both with a pillar of earth, above the gate. She used a blast of air to stop them from crashing down, as they held onto her. Aside from the hard shock of falling, I landed safely.
"They might hear and notice-"
"Way ahead of you." Korra interrupted Alphonse. As she stomped her foot on the ground and the sound of earth shifting lasted for a brief second before settling. "We should move more quickly though." They all stared at the walls of the building and saw that the only way in, aside from the door near that guard. Korra saw an opening above that was a small hole. A snug for her and a perfect fit for Ed. They boosted each other up, leaving Al behind.
"We'll be back later Al, just hang in there and keep watch." Edward assured his younger brother. Korra and Edward looked at each other, making a silent agreement to have each other's back as they scooted their way into the vents from the opening.