Chapter 7: The Sword of Zaofu

Zaofu was everything they'd imagined it to be. Glittering towers soared into the sky, bridged by shifting metal walkways and crawling monorail lines. Kuvira's disassembly of the domes had opened up a new era of expansionism in the city of the Metal Clan, as the buildings poured outwards and upwards at once. Experimental architecture had changed the face of many corners of the city, but only one innovation had traveled through the whole city; the soaring skyway.

The abundance of skyscrapers had made certain commutes a bit of a pain, having to go twenty stories down and then twenty stories up again just to get to an office that was, relatively speaking, only about fifty feet away. You could look through the window of a neighboring office but take almost half an hour to get to it. The skyway's changed that. Now railings travelled along the sides of buildings, carrying mobile skyways that allowed you to walk from one skyscraper to another with ease.

"We've got to go on one of those," Sen said. Hanjo agreed.

Unlike the small community of Zang, Zaofu was too crowded for the two new arrivals to receive any special attention. Gun had tunneled himself into the ground shortly after their arrival, so there was nothing that special about the two of them now. They were free to wander the streets with impunity.

They felt like they stuck out, being two modestly dressed teenagers in a city full of men and women dressed in artistic finery and formal business wear, but all the overdressed adults were too busy with their business or pleasure to pay any attention to them. The most attention they got was someone asking them to hold an elevator.

When they finally got to one of the soaring skyways, they realized they had no idea where they were headed. They decided to wing it and hope they ended up somewhere useful. They enjoyed the ride up and down the sides of the skyscrapers, until they decided to change to another skyway. They bustled through crowds, pushing past businessmen, artists, and a young couple on a date to get to another exhilarating ride on the skyway trail.

"How long do you think we should do this?"

"I've got at least forty minutes left in me before it stops being cool," Hanjo said. He pressed his face against the glass to watch the skyscrapers soar past.

"Well, I mean, there's other stuff to do in Zaofu, isn't there?"

"Yeah, but we can do that later. I saw a really tall building over that way and I want to ride the skyway on that one."

The couple they had pushed past earlier stood next to them at the skyway window, apparently un-offended by the way Hanjo had barged past them. The boy was tall, wiry, and a little goofy looking, and the girl next to him was clearly out of his league. She was short, but she had very intense brown eyes that seemed to be looking at everything at once. Sen looked out the window and tried not to make a fool out of himself by staring at the pretty girl.

"If you're looking for something to do," The girl said to Hanjo. "The metalbending museum got a new piece recently. I'm sure you've heard of Sokka's sword?"

Even Sen knew about Sokka's sword, and he was clueless about the outside world. Though it had undergone long periods of obscurity, being lost on the Earth kingdom coastline before Sokka recovered it, and then left unused by the descendant of Sokka who had inherited it, the times in which it had been used were glorious indeed. Though Sokka's grandson had been too lazy to use the blade, his great-granddaughter had put it to good use fighting in the Seventh Kingdom Uprisings, using it to win several battles of the short war. She had apparently decided to gift it to the Zaofu metalbending museum, on the grounds it was connected to the meteor Toph had used to build up her metalbending school.

The attractive girl's geeky-looking boyfriend gave them directions to the museum, and said that they would probably see each other again at the museum. Hanjo and Sen paid little attention to them and bolted off to see the fancy space sword. The crowds around the building were thick, as the sword was apparently a popular new exhibit, but Hanjo and Sen managed to push through. The packed crowd got thicker as they got nearer to the sword exhibit, and they were unable to get too close to the sword. They could still see it, and that was enough for the duo.

It was not especially impressive in its appearance; except for the strangely dark color that the meteoric iron gave the blade, it was a fairly standard Jian longsword. The White Lotus emblem on the hilt still remained intact, one of the only remnants of the old order in the world after the Energybender's attack. The wrappings on the handle had been replaced several times, apparently, but everything else was still the exact same as it had been when Sokka first forged it. It had never even been sharpened; the strange alloy it was made of had an uncanny ability to hold an edge.

Hanjo caught a glimpse of the goofy-looking boy who had given them directions on the other side of the crowd, though he had somehow lost his girlfriend. The boy vanished into the crowd as quickly as he had appeared. Hanjo elbowed Sen and pointed out the sudden disappearance.

"I can barely see the sword from here," Sen objected. "How was I supposed to see that?"

Hanjo glanced at the sword's display case. It was clearly visible, though far away. he wondered why Sen couldn't see it well. His line of thought was quickly distracted by a hand on his shoulder. He quickly turned around to see the dorky boy standing behind him, having crossed the crowd at an uncanny speed.

"Told you we'd see each other," The boy said. Hanjo was a little suspicious now. This boy was not the unassuming civilian he had first appeared to be.

"What happened to the girl you were with?"

"Oh, she's out and about. I'll introduce you later. I can show you some other cool stuff, if you want."

Sen agreed to the tour before Hanjo had a chance to object. It would just create more problems now if Hanjo voiced his suspicions, so he followed along.

"My name's Canto, by the way," the boy said. He led them to a display of the metal cage that had held Toph prisoner just before she had invented metalbending. Hanjo introduced himself and Sen, using their aliases of Kon and Wei. Canto shook their hands and continued on his seemingly friendly tour. The meteor that Korra had used to become the first metalbending avatar, and the chain she had used in her later battle with Zaheer, were the primary draws of the exhibit focused on Korra, the first metalbending Avatar. Sen felt a strange surge of recognition whenever he looked at the history of Korra laid out before him.

After leading them through the interesting bits of history, Canto took them down to the more abandoned sections of the museum. They stopped in front of a large model that ranked metals by how easy they were to metalbend. The hardest were aluminum and platinum, along with precious metals like gold and silver. At the bottom rung you had unrefined iron, and a whole spectrum of metals in between.

"This one's a bit outdated," Canto admitted. "Nowadays they can refine iron so well it can barely be bent. There's no impurities unless you deliberately leave them in."

It was, technically, possible to bend completely purified metal, but there were very few instances of it being done, and those few times were in very isolated, calm conditions. It was unlikely that anyone would ever bend platinum in a real fight. Canto turned around to look at Hanjo.

"Any chance you're a metalbender, Hanjo?"

"Not yet, at least," Hanjo said. He was still fairly confident he could learn it one day, but it would take some professional training first.

Hanjo saw Sen's jaw drop out of the corner of his eye, and realized what he had done far too late. He'd been duped into revealing his real name with one of the simplest tricks in the book. Canto held up his hands in an expression of surrender. This wing of the museum was nearly empty, but he kept his voice low anyway.

"Don't worry, calm down," Canto said. Sen and Hanjo did not listen at all. If they had to fight in the middle of a museum, so be it.

"You two are really bad at noticing when you're being followed," Canto said.

As he spoke, some of the tourists in this part of the museum gradually shifted around to different exhibits, quite conveniently placing themselves between the trio of young men and all the exits. Canto glanced around, then returned his attention to the Avatar and his companion.

"I'm on your side," Canto said. "You've got a lot of friends here, but that's made it a popular target for your enemies too. It's not as safe here as you think."

"Then we'll leave on our own, thanks," Hanjo said. He backed a few steps away from Canto, and Sen followed him. The tourists behind them tensed visibly. Canto crossed his arms and tapped his elbow eleven times, the number of suspicious tourists he saw. Hanjo took another step back as he saw the suspicious gesture.

"If you're really on our side you won't try to stop us," Hanjo warned one more time. He didn't believe Canto's story in the slightest. If he were to turn around and see the "tourists" rapidly closing in on him, he might change his mind, but he did not turn around until he heard a dull thud and a loud scream.

A spike of ice that might have otherwise impaled Hanjo sailed broad to the side and crashed against the wall of the museum. One of the disguised enemies was bent over backwards, clutching at his gut. Canto's girlfriend was standing in front of the prone figure, and with a heavy swing of her leg, she slammed her heel into the attacker's face like a hammer, shattering his nose and teeth. The display of brutal violence shattered Sen's growing attraction to Ada, as well as the victims jaw.

Canto pulled a sword seemingly out of nowhere, and tossed it to his girlfriend, who removed a matching blade from a matching hiding place. Twin swords in hand, she went to work dismantling the attacking force. There were benders among the enemy force, and though she displayed no bending of her own, her martial skills and her swords made her more than a match for every single one of the eleven attackers. Sen was equal parts impressed and distressed by the display. She was talented, but she was unrestrained, using her blades without a care in the world for the pain she inflicted on her targets. Sen knew in the back of his head that cutting people is what swords were for, but it wasn't something he liked to see.

He looked closer at the battlefield, and in between the gleaming blades, Sen saw the glint of a smile on her face. Something about that made him incredibly uncomfortable.

"Ah, I said I'd introduce her," Canto said. "This is Ada."

Hanjo took in the sight of battle. All of the enemies had stopped focusing on the boys to deal with the female maelstrom of blades that had dropped into their midst. Hanjo looked to Canto.

"You going to help her or what?"

"Does she look like she needs my help?"

As if on cue, Ada swept her blade across the heels of the last attacker, sending them to the ground. Once she was certain that all her opponents were soundly defeated, Ada turned to the trio and gave a light smirk. Sen's face turned red, but then turned pale again when Ada strode confidently over to Canto and kissed him passionately.

Ada let go of Canto and shook her head, regaining her senses. None of the training she had done had prepared her for the sheer exhilaration of combat. Her heart was pounding, her adrenaline was pumping, she felt like she could take on the world. Despite her adrenaline high, she did have some duties to attend to. She straightened her hair and bowed towards the Avatar.

"My name is Ada," She said. She had not heard Canto introduce her, preoccupied as she was by completely dismantling a superior force, so she got a bit redundant. "It's an honor to meet you. But we should leave."

The commotion had attracted undue attention, and spectators were starting to gather. Ada led the way to an employee area of the museum, and quickly led them through winding maintenance tunnels. Sen kept pace as Ada led them into increasingly darker tunnels. Hanjo was still having his misgivings about the whole scenario, but Ada had proven quite decisively that she was there to protect them. He decided to play along for now.

Ada came to a dead halt in the walls of the maintenance tunnel, right next to an arrow-shaped chalk mark on the wall. She slammed her arm against the stone wall and waited. Nothing happened, so she turned to Sen.

"There's a safehouse back here," she said. "Can you open it up for us? Someone's supposed to be stationed inside, but they aren't."

Sen held his questions and walked up the portion of the wall with the chalk mark. He pressed his hands against it and moved the stones slowly, trying to get a feel for where the opening was. When he was confident, he began to dismantle the wall in their way.

"Are neither of you benders," Hanjo asked. It seemed strange that in a city defined by metalbending, the first people they'd met were both nonbenders.

"Unfortunately, no," Canto said. "There's meant to be one in every safehouse, but I guess they're slacking off."

Sen removed the last piece of the brick wall, and a cloud of dust rose up. Apparently the agent who was supposed to be stationed here had been slacking for quite some time. The area was covered in dust and cob webs. The four hurried inside, and Sen and Hanjo teamed up to rebuild the wall, completely disguising the fact that it had ever opened. Once they were safe, Ada offered them some long overdue explanations.

"We're with the Beifong family, technically," Ada said. "They knew they'd be spied on by the Energybender, so they trusted a family friend, our master Ko Rin, to handle supporting the Avatar in secret on their behalf. This way they can give you the support you need while still avoiding suspicion themselves."

The Beifongs were heavily involved in world affairs to this day. Huan's daughter ruled over Zaofu, an entire province of the Earth Kingdom, and her cousin Rannoch Beifong served as a Minister in the United Earth Kingdom Parliament. Since some of the other provincial leaders and Ministers were more heavily opposed to the Avatar, the Beifongs overtly giving Sen support would spark tension across the whole country. It made sense for them to keep their support under wraps.

"So the Beifongs use people like you as proxies," Hanjo said.

"Technically. We serve Ko Rin, not any of the Beifongs. Our operation was started by Baatar Junior shortly before his death. With him gone, no one in the Beifong family knows about us. They're often scrutinized by truth-seers, so secrecy is key."

Hanjo nodded. He'd been hoping to meet Wing and Wei while they were here, but he understood why that wasn't possible. The name Bataar Junior troubled him slightly, but Kuvira's former fiancee had spent most of his life atoning for his part in creating the Spirit Cannon, so Hanjo felt like he could trust this last effort. Hopefully the fact that his final act had helped save the new Avatar's life would help further redeem Bataar Jr.'s tainted reputation.

Canto had taken up position at the dusty radio and was trying to use it to connect to Ko Rin, intending to fill their master in on all the details, but he was having no luck so far. If this was a phone everything would be so much easier, but it was hard to get a phone line into a secret safehouse. He passed the time by helping Ada answer the Avatar's questions.

"So how do you two know who we are?"

"Technically, we only know who Hanjo is. Our allies recovered his documents from the orphanage, and it was easy to get his description from fellow orphans. You, however, were much more troublesome, Avatar. We don't know your name, your parents, your history. Anything."

"Well, um, I'm Sen," He said. "That's actually all I can tell you. I don't know any of that other stuff either."

Most of Sen's life was a blank slate, now that he thought about it. His years at the orphanage had been very uneventful.

"It's an honor to meet you, Avatar Sen."

Ada bowed deeply. Sen had never been bowed to before. He should probably get used to it. He had the feeling it was going to happen a lot more in the near future.

"So how did you two find us?"

"Coincidence, actually," Ada admitted. "We really were heading to the museum when we met you."

"Ada is very interested in swords," Canto chimed in. Ada rolled her eyes.

"There's a little more to it than that," Ada mumbled. The real explanation was long-winded and convoluted, so she spared Sen the details. He had other questions anyway. Sen asked a few questions about the Energybender. Unfortunately, Ada had no more answers than Sen did. The man known as Howler was still an enigma, rarely making public appearances or speaking to anyone outside of his organization. His methods, his agenda, and the true extent of his powers was still a mystery. One of the only conclusive facts, thanks to the last survivors of the White Lotus, was that this Energybender was likely a successor or partner to the one who had destroyed the White Lotus. The Energybender responsible for attacking the Lotus Headquarters had been an elderly man with a plain face; the current Energybender who had appeared at Beaker Hall was young, with grey circles around his eyes.

The radio suddenly crackled to life, catching all those in the room off guard. Canto grabbed the mouthpiece and started listing off a sequence of numbers, completely meaningless to any random listener, but a very meaningful signal to Ko Rin. It said that they were in a secure location but were being pursued, and that they had the Avatar with them.

"My location is likewise secure, we may speak freely," an elderly mans voice said. Canto explained the full situation of the museum attack. The radio was silent for a brief moment when Canto finished his summation.

"May I speak to the Avatar?"

Canto relinquished the radio, and Sen reluctantly sat in front of the microphone.

"Hi, this is Avatar Sen," He said sheepishly.

"I regret that we cannot meet in person, Avatar," Ko Rin said. "I would like to know more about your situation. What skills you have, where you have been, anything that may help me serve you."

Sen gave Ko Rin an abridged version of his adventures thus far, including people who might know he was the Avatar, as well as the fact that he had little to no skills in earthbending.

"My agents will take steps to ensure that the town of Zang and the train worker Tserang remain secure, then. As to your bending training, I believe I can find you a master that should suit your needs. The process may take several days, to ensure the utmost security. You should be safe for the moment, so rest easy. Ada can lead you to a more comfortable safehouse at nightfall, when travel is more secure. I will be in contact when we are ready to move."

The radio crackled once more and then fell silent. Sen happily stepped away from the radio and looked over his new allies. As impressive as Ada was, she was counterbalanced by Canto, who did not exactly exude usefulness. They made an odd pair. Sen wondered how a talented warrior had ended up with a quiet dork like Canto. Maybe that was just some latent jealousy talking, though.

"So, when we get out of here," Hanjo began. "What then?"

"We'll cycle through several safehouses until Ko Rin finds you a master. Our enemies will be watching us closely after this attack, though, so this may take a while."

"I like the idea of moving faster, though. Could we leave today?"

"In theory," Ada said roughly. "We have resources set up in advance to help you, but the question is finding a master. Among other concerns."

Ada and Canto glanced briefly at Hanjo, then tried to act like they hadn't. Their training in stealth was apparently subpar, because Hanjo definitely noticed.

"What's that look supposed to mean?"

"Well, if we could use you to track the Avatar, Hanjo," Ada explained. "So could anyone. It's nothing personal, but we think you should part ways with the Avatar."

"That's not going to happen," Sen stated. Hanjo had rarely heard him be so decisive. Ada shrugged.

"It was only a suggestion. I understand wanting to keep people close."

Ada and Canto smiled warmly at one another. Perhaps this situation dug up some fond memories for the young couple. Sen was just glad they weren't trying to take him and Hanjo apart. Hanjo had been his only direction so far, even if he insisted on keeping their destination secret. He would be a very confused Avatar without Hanjo leading the way.

The four of them broke off into their pre-determined pairs, Ada with Canto and Hanjo with Sen, to discuss recent events. Hanjo and Sen mostly discussed business, and while Ada and Canto started out much the same, they rapidly devolved into more flirtatious behavior. Sen was surprised that he didn't feel bothered by this. His earlier attraction to Ada had been a very passing thing, apparently. With that out of his mind, he could focus on planning with Hanjo. Hanjo eventually had an idea that required the input of the flirty couple. Hanjo forced them out of their game of winking and whispering and made them listen to him.

"You said you had a way to get us out of here already, right?"

"We do. We have a vehicle and supplies ready to go once Ko Rin is done."

"And why are we waiting on Ko Rin?"

"Because we need an earthbending master for Sen."

"We can find another one," Hanjo explained. "Probably a better one. If the Energybender really is watching you that closely, he'll notice if a talented master suddenly disappears."

Hanjo had a point. Howler would likely be watching out for sudden disappearances like that, especially in Zaofu. It might be better to recruit a master from a town under less heavy scrutiny, so their travels with the Avatar would go unnoticed.

"I think we should leave now. If Ko Rin has to worry that much about security, we should just leave him out of it. He can't let the enemy know if he doesn't know."

Ada shook her head intensely.

"No way. No. We're not going behind Ko Rin's back on this one. We need him to make sure we can travel stealthily, so we can avoid attention."

"But can't you two do that?"

"Not on such short notice. It would take a long time to plan all that out..."

"Not if you went with them," Canto said. Sen could see Ada's shoes come loose as she nearly jumped out of them. Hanjo had actually been thinking something along those lines, so he nodded in agreement.

"I was actually going to invite both of you," Hanjo added. "If you're willing."

"I'm no good on the road or in a fight," Canto said, and Hanjo didn't doubt it. Inviting Canto had mostly been a courtesy move; you could tell just from looking at the wiry nerd that he was no good in a fight. "I'd only use up supplies. Ada will be much more help."

"What do you think, Sen?"

Sen was of two minds. Ada had a lot of the things they needed; she had intelligence, combat skills, and resources. They'd be much better off for having her. On the other hand, Sen could not shake the image of her slicing Energybender troops to ribbons from his head. She was overzealous in combat, to the point where Sen worried about being in a fight with her. He couldn't just say that to her, though; she seemed to be nice enough when she wasn't in the middle of a fight, and Sen was loathe to hurt her feelings. He decided to leave it up to her.

"I'd like to know what Ada thinks," Sen said. Nobody had yet asked her opinion on this plan. She had been sitting around looking confused while Hanjo and Canto had discussed things. The three turned to her, and she shook her head slowly.

"I can't just- I can't leave so suddenly. I mean, my parents, and Ko Rin, what would they think? And Canto, you-"

"I'll explain everything, doll," Canto said with a sickeningly saccharine tone. "This is the kind of thing you were born to do. I mean, the way you fought earlier, I've never seen you so excited! You were meant for adventure."

Ada could remember the earlier rampage. She'd never felt quite so alive, not in all her years of training, or dating Canto, had anything made her quite as excited as the rush of combat. She could feel something like an addiction already. She wanted to fight again. She needed to fight again. She looked at Sen, the Avatar, and saw the adventure of a lifetime. The thought of it set her heart pounding, and she made up her mind. Sen caught the eager look in his eyes and almost regretted his decision.

"Alright, I'll do it."

Canto clapped his hands together and stood up. Ada got up, stretched out her arms, and then gave Canto an uncomfortably long kiss. Hanjo and Sen waited awkwardly for the two lovers to part lips. Hanjo coughed lightly as it dragged on. They pulled their faces apart at his insistence.

"Call me when you get the chance," a deeply lovestruck Canto said.

"Of course," Ada said, in a tone so light-hearted you'd almost forget she had single-handedly demolished eleven trained soldiers just an hour earlier. Even the biggest badasses had to get a little flowery sometimes.

Hanjo tore open the brick wall of the safehouse, and the two lovers reluctantly parted ways. Canto ran off to an unknown destination, while Ada led Hanjo and Sen to their exit from Zaofu. They escaped the museum, which was now surrounded by police and curious bystanders, and dove through open streets and hidden passages. Eventually their frantic sprint took them to a tunnel underground, merely on part of a complex network. The amount of earthbenders that lived in Zaofu made secret tunnels such as this very easy to make.

A quiet march through underground tunnels first led them to a hidden armory, a stockpile of weaponry and armor. Hanjo was very excited to see some of the fancy tools, but Ada insisted they only take a few things. She handed Hanjo a smoke canister hidden within a rock; the rock around the gas dispenser could be earthbent like any other stone, making it more useful than a traditional throwable canister. She gave Sen a few platinum orbs; she explained that there were stones in the center of each. Someone who knew about the hidden stones would be able to bend them, seemingly defying the laws of metalbending and preventing other earthbenders from stealing or deflecting the stones with their own bending. She then took one last thing, a small round device, but refused to explain what it was. Sen didn't like that she was already keeping secrets, but decided to trust her, since he was apparently stuck with her now.

Finally, she grabbed two swords, a pair of short Dao swords with a strange mechanism on the back. She traded out the blades she had used earlier for the new pair. With a flick of a switch, an electric current ran through both swords, explaining the function of the strange device on the flat of the blade. Sen would not want to be on the receiving end of such a vicious pair of swords. Luckily Ada was now on his team.

Abandoning the armory just as quickly as they had arrived, Ada continued their slog through the dark tunnels of the underground. They were barely illuminated by crystals that gave off a dull green glow. Sen wished he could firebend, just so he was actually able to see. Ada seemed to have an instinctive knowledge of where to go, and they soon arrived at their detination. They emerged from the tunnel network into what seemed to be a garage.

Hanjo admired several silent rows of satomobiles as they walked past. They were in various states of disrepair, many of them having been cannibalized for parts, but others were still in very good shape. Ada led them past rows and row of the vehicles, stopping in front of one covered by a tarp. Hanjo got very excited, and what was under the tarp did not disappoint. It was a beautiful machine, gleaming black and silver like it was fresh out of the factory. Ada noticed Hanjo's admiration.

"Some of us call it the Avatarmobile," She said.

"That is exactly what I was going to call it," Hanjo said with a smile.

"Everything we need should already be inside," Ada said. Hanjo took a look at the interior. It was just as posh as the paintjob on the outside, probably the fanciest upholstery available all around. Looking at the seats, it had room for six people. No cupholders, though. Sen had other concerns.

"We're never going to fit Gun in there," he said.

"Who's Gun?"

As if in answer, Gun emerged from the rocky ground of the garage. He took one look at the rows of Satomobiles, snarled, and vanished back into the earth immediately. Apparently he didn't like satomobiles.

"That was Gun," Hanjo said. "Animal guide."

Ada looked deeply concerned by the fact that she was going to be travelling with what was, by all appearances, a feral animal. She took a deep breath. travelling with the Avatar was the ultimate adventure, she recalled to herself, it was worth any amount of animal companions.

"You know, I have the feeling it'll be alright," Sen said. Gun had showed an uncanny ability to follow them in the past, after all. "Let's go."

Ada hopped into the drivers seat, as Hanjo barely knew how to drive, and started the engine. Hanjo and Sen tucked themselves into the backseat, relaxed, and enjoyed the ride.