Chapter 1: Vines and Visitations

Ling

Republic City was a place where it was often said that anything could happen. Poor could become rich, the strong could lose everything in an alley, and non-benders could force the bending elite into bowing to their demands. If someone had a clear enough vision, and the will to make it happen, Republic City was their oyster. Although, Ling doubted anyone had ever predicted the events of the last two days.

When people say "anything could happen" they usually don't imagine anything to include two of the world's most prominent political figures turning into thirty-story, glowing, beam-spewing combatants locked in a duel to the death in Yue Bay. The entire story is only slightly less strange when one learns that the winner of that duel was the young Avatar.

That wasn't the end of it. Spirits were running, fluttering, and slithering all over the city. Giant vines had grown over absolutely everything. People were homeless, most of the roads were blocked, and the stores were quickly running out of food. To top it all off, all of the spirits that could talk, including the ones that didn't have mouths, seemed convinced that they had lived right here since the beginning of time and that it was the people whose homes they had just crashed through who were the real intruders. Ling had yet to even hear of a reasonable spirit, much less an accommodating one.

Ling was someone who didn't quite know his place. He knew where it wasn't, that's for sure. Having the entire right side of his face either horribly scarred or covered in bandages meant he was never going to be a model for the magazines, for example. He would never be a pro-bender, since he couldn't bend a thing. Ling would never have enough money to be considered truly wealthy; he spent every yuan he could get his hands on. Stuff would be worthless in ten years at the rate they were printing it anyway.

Of all things, Ling definitely knew that his place wasn't as a leader of one of the city's fastest growing labor unions. Sadly, things were often out of place these days in Republic City. For instance, almost all of the taxi cabs, carriages and satomobiles, were now being used to distribute food throughout the city. Leaving enterprising young men like Ling to trek across the city on foot.

Ling had long since removed his long duster coat, folding it over his arm as he walked on this unusually hot day. With a fresh set of clean white bandages strategically letting out tufts of his soft brown hair from under his flatcap and showing off half of his clean-shaven face, white collared shirt, dark tie, brown vest, and slacks, Ling thought himself to be looking pretty sharp, ready for business. Though his skin was a bit tanned, there was nothing he could do to hide the dark bags under his exposed left eye. It was a shame, because his usually bright green eyes were the only feature that Ling was actually quite fond of.

Ducking under yet another large root-like vine that had grown over a concrete stairway, Ling finally began the ascent to the Republic City Aerodrome.

"Ling!" A woman's voice was heard over the hustle and bustle of the port.

Ling turned toward the voice and spotted exactly the person he had come to see. Ran, a raven-haired working woman in her mid 20's, was working her way toward him through the press.

With Yue Bay and the highways being such a mess right now, airships had suddenly become vital to bringing supplies into the city. As a result, the entire place was packed with laborers, wagons, trucks, and crates, all moving to and fro.

"Ran! Spirits, this place is busy. No wonder my shipment went missing. How are you holding up?" Ling asked as he gently pulled her out of the path of a rickshaw loaded with goods stacked far too high to be considered safe.

"Somehow." She replied. "I feel steadier than those new towers, though."

Ling glanced at the hastily constructed mooring towers spread throughout the aerodrome. They certainly didn't look very steady.

"Wow, you're not kidding. There are a thousand accidents waiting to happen here." Ling observed.

"We've had eight just this morning. Two ships have been grounded for who knows how long, and three workers from team eight are in the infirmary." Ran sucked some air through her teeth. "Anyway, come over to the customs office. I've got your stuff in there."

Without waiting for a response, Ran quickly turned and strode into the crowd once more. Ling followed as closely behind as he could.

Ran was a woman who could command respect, even from those who didn't know who she was. Her muscular build, hard features, and, above all, her practically visible will allowed her to bully men her senior and push her way through a crowd with ease. She truly had the heart of an earthbender, if not the ability itself.

Ling was none of those things. He was pretty strong for his size, but he hardly looked intimidating. He doubted he could ever command a presence like Ran's, instead being a man of a more roundabout nature. While few would call her pretty, Ling thought she had a peculiar beauty that wasn't apparent in a photograph. Anyway, he would stay as close to Ran as he could, following in her wake as she made her way to a single-story concrete building at the end of the aerodrome.

"How are things going at the harbor?" Ran ushered him into the customs building. "I don't think we can take much more of this."

"Badly." Ling replied. "Those damned vines just grow right back the moment they're cut. They can't clear a path, so they are loading goods into smaller ships in the middle of the harbor, bringing them to new makeshift piers, and building their own damned bridges and roads to get the stuff where it needs to go. They've got every earthbender in the city down there, including Republic City's finest, and it's still going to take them a few more days to clear that traffic jam."

"It's that bad?"

"Ran, I haven't slept a wink in three days. I've still got a dozen of my people who haven't reported in since harmonic convergence. I haven't been home this whole time, but Shin tells me there's a vine twice my size growing through my bedroom window occupied by a not so friendly hedgehog-lizard-thing who called him a 'scum-sucking-codswallop' or some such."

"What in the world is a codswallop?"

"No idea, but it sounds like it describes Shin perfectly."

Ran snorted out a laugh at that remark. "Well you need to take care of yourself too. Whenever you're done with… this stuff, you come over for dinner with me and Lanfen." She gestured to the small pile of wooden crates stacked in the corner of the back room labeled "Alternators."

Ling let out a loud sigh. "That sounds really nice, actually. Good food, good company, and some quiet. I'll see what I can do."

Ran simply stared at him with a look of concern.

"Don't worry, I won't bring any of this stuff near you or your sister." Ling said reassuringly.

"That's not it, Ling. I don't care about you smuggling weapons; I pulled this out of customs for you specifically. I'm worried about you. The Noble Brotherhood of Labor is going to bleed you dry!" She leaned in, getting right into Ling's face.

"If you don't get arrested, or sent to the hospital by triads, or eaten by some spirit bear thing, then you'll end up working yourself to death!" She gripped his shoulder with one hand and brought the other, index finger extended, between them, pointing it right at Ling's nose.

"You will clock out once you deliver these boxes, you will get some rest, and you absolutely will be coming over for dinner tonight. Do I make myself clear?"

Ran was always a forceful sort of person, but she had never shown so much concern for him before. Actually, he couldn't think of anyone, including his parents, who had ever been so forceful in telling him that they cared. Ling didn't know how to respond to the outburst… so he didn't.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. Ling had never found smoking to be a particularly rewarding habit, but it did give one a little time to think during a conversation in a way that saved a lot more face than just saying 'umm..' for a minute.

Slowly he stuck one in his mouth and lit it, much to Ran's chagrin. After a long slow puff, He finally responded.

"Thank you, Ran." He said as her expression softened a little.

"You're right. I'll call it a day once I get the shipment to Tiger Ward. If I'm still awake by dinnertime, I'll be right over. I might just pass out somewhere in between though, so if I don't show up then just assume I'm asleep somewhere." Ling waved his hand to signify uncertainty.

"Nope. You're going to come right over." Ran insisted. "Nobody's going to school these days, so Lanfen can let you in. You're to deliver the goods and go straight to our apartment. If you're not there when I get back, then I'll come and find you. You don't want that." Ran refused to budge on this. She didn't even take a step back, even though Ling knew she hated the smell of cigarettes.

Yup, definitely would've been an earthbender. Spirits, the woman could probably stare a boulder into submission.

"Alright, fine!" Ling said in a defeated tone. "You win. I'll come straight over. Damn, can't you let a guy have a way out every now and then? You're too young to be acting like a stern mother all the time."

"I'm older than you."

"Hardly."

"Mentally speaking, I'm waaaay older than you." Ran's tone became more playful now that she'd won the argument.

"I mean, the way you started sucking on that cigarette the second I put a little stress on you was like a little child and his pacifier." Ran wrinkled her nose as if smelling the smoke for the first time.

"Oh, come off it." Ling shot back. That comparison was uncomfortably accurate.

"You still chew bubblegum for crying out loud! Just last week you were trying to figure out what penguin pop's secret flavor was!"

Ran grinned. "I'm a child at heart, you're a child in mind. It's clearly different."

Ling palmed his face in an exaggerated way and gave off yet another sigh of defeat.

"I can't believe you and Lanfen are related." He said, "She thinks that I'm very mature. In fact, I think I'll just take this stuff now and go hang out with her instead." Ling opened the rear door of the building to find a man with an ostrich-horse drawn carriage waiting out back. The man, who had been snoozing in the secluded alley, jumped at the sight of him and gave Ling a quick 'Sir!' before attending to his carriage.

"She's 17, she thinks everyone with a job is mature." Ran deadpanned at him as he strode back over to the boxes. "You just can't handle a woman who can see through your codswalloping."

Ling picked up a crate and turned to face Ran.

"Codswalloping?" He asked, raising his only visible eyebrow.

"Yes, codswalloping. You do it all the time."

Ling jerked awake as the metal door at the far end of the dim warehouse creaked open. Had he really dozed off so quickly? Three men, only one of whom Ling was personally acquainted with, entered the warehouse and approached where he sat atop his small pile of crates he had collected a couple hours earlier at the aerodrome.

"Latto! How are your people doing?" Ling stifled a yawn as he greeted his customer. He fumbled for a small pry bar sitting next to him.

"Not great, everything's crazy out there." The large man responded gruffly, his two companions, tough looking fellows, remained unreadably stoic. Bodyguards?

"I hear that." Ling replied. Somehow, Latto looked even more tired than Ling did. In fact, the man looked completely worn out, yet still under tension.

"Well, I hope I can ease your concerns somewhat." Ling continued. "This stuff will help keep you and yours safe from the triads. With all this insanity going on, the Brotherhood of Labor has been having its own fair share of trouble from them. They see this as one big opportunity to grab some turf and do some damage while we're just trying to get people food and shelter, the bastards."

Ling pried open a box. Packed inside amongst wood shavings was a collection of small black boxes with what looked like horns on the end. Ling picked one up and thumbed the switch on the side, causing a loud crackle as a spark arced between the little metal horns.

"I've got 150 of these new shockers as promised." Ling tossed the device to Latto. "Just squeeze to activate. The thumb switch is a safety. Push that up and the trigger on the bottom can launch the electrodes. They're not big or fast enough to do any real damage, but they're connected by cables to let you shock someone within 5 meters or so." Ling grabbed another shocker and opened up the bottom letting two cylinders slide out, one shiny, one dark. "They use standard FI type 2 batteries. The air cartridges are the same kind used for driving nails into concrete, you can find more of them at any hardware store."

Latto fiddled with the device, checking the switches and examining the batteries and gas canister. "The future is now, huh. Anybody could use this with ten minutes of practice." Latto muttered.

"Yup, even a bender won't be doing much after getting hit with this. It really evens the playing field."

"You're not just showing off your collection though, right?" Latto asked.

"Huh?" Ling was confused at the question. "Of course not, you already paid for it. The shipment's late as it is, and as far as I'm concerned it's already yours." Ling reassured him.

Latto shifted uncomfortably, glancing at the two men on either side of him, who were exchanging looks of their own. Wait, he was scared of them. Ling's eyes widened at the realization and his heart jumped. He was definitely awake now.

Were they triads? Common thugs? RCPD? It didn't matter. Ling was sure they weren't bodyguards. The two men seemed to realize they had been had and lept into action.

Ling leapt from the boxes to kick the right one with a small scar on his cheek, but was stopped in the air by metal cables that extended from under the man's sleeves and wrapped around Ling's wrists. Ling hung there in shock until another pair of cables wrapped up his legs and he fell, slamming into the concrete floor of the warehouse. Ling struggled fruitlessly against his assailants as they rolled him over and cuffed his hands behind his back.

"Ling Shan, you are under arrest for insurrection. Anything you say from here on can, and will, be used against you in a court of law." A familiar voice rang out from the corner of the warehouse. Ling was lifted to his feet by the two metalbenders and brought around to face the newcomer.

"Mako?" Surprise was evident on Ling's face. "What?..." Why was Mako of all people arresting him?

"You're coming to the station with us." Detective Mako said.