Chapter 2: Republic Renegade

Sen had shared the news of his new connection with Korra, and had then quickly turned their attention to business. Jung assured them that they had a plan in place, but Ada wasn't quite so sure it would work.

"One of the apprentices on this island, Sang Lug, will be your master. We have hesitated giving him his tattoos, that he might travel in obscurity, but I assure you he is quite talented."

Sang Lug had been one of several airbenders brought up to one day be a master for the Avatar. Of all the candidates, barring one who had vanished before completing their training, Sang Lug was the most qualified. He was an airbending master in his own right, even though Jung had kept him from getting his tattoos. The blue arrows of a Master made them very easy for the Energybender to track.

"Okay, so we recruit Sang Lug. Then what?"

"Then you travel by Sky Bison, cycling between the four old temples, always on the move and avoiding attention."

"Sky Bison? We'd have to leave Gun behind," Sen said. He didn't like the sound of that, and he doubted Gun would like it either. Suda explained the Gun situation to Jung. The old master agreed that it was regrettable, but he saw no alternatives.

"I don't like the idea of moving around so much," Ada said. "It just increases our risk of exposure to the infiltrators among the Air Nation."

"Ada! Our nation is sacrosanct. There are no 'infiltrators' among us."

"Then explain where Howler's airbenders are coming from," Ada accused. "We fought no less than sixteen at Gai Zhu, many of them well-trained, and we have every reason to believe there are dozens, if not hundreds more."

Jung hung his head in shame.

"We know this," Jung said. "We cannot explain it, but it is not our fault. Our records of the airbenders are meticulous."

"There are independent airbenders, right? The ones in the pro-bending leagues and such."

Membership in the Air Nation was not mandatory. Many airbenders lived their lives as independent citizens, mostly in the United Republic, but also in very small numbers throughout the other five nations. Even so, the Air Nation kept close track of them, to ensure they were properly trained and to potentially recruit their descendants.

"We have records of them as well," Jung said. "We have checked and double-checked our records on the days of attacks on Gai Zhu and Shen's Post, and even submitted many to truth-seer interrogation. They are not involved with the Energybender."

"Surely you've lost track of some airbenders in all these years," Ada said.

"Since Harmonic Convergence, only seven airbenders have been truly lost. Four of them were lost more than fifty years ago, too long ago for them to still be serving the Energybender. Of the remaining three, only one has been lost in the past few years."

Jung seemed oddly sad as he spoke. Perhaps the lost airbender was a friend or a student. As sad as the thought was, Sen couldn't concern himself with a single missing airbender.

"Then the only possibility is that some airbenders escaped notice in the days after Harmonic Convergence," Ada sighed. It was a remote possibility, but there had to be at least a few airbenders who had followed Zaheer's path and completely rejected the new Air Nation. Their descendants had come to serve the Energybender through some coincidence. It was not a sound theory, but it was the only one they had left.

"I'm still not sure I trust the air temples," Sen said. "The Energybender has to know I'm done with firebending thanks to our fight at Gai Zhu. He'll be watching the airbenders now, and the population is small enough that it'll be very easy for him to track them all."

"I think it's a risk we have to take," Suda sighed. "It's not like we can recruit someone off the streets. There aren't any bandit airbenders."

Through the ground, Sen felt Jung's pulse change. Sen stared the elderly airbending master down. Jung averted his gaze, perhaps aware that Sen had caught on to something.

"Are there bandit airbenders?"

"No, there are not."

"Don't lie to me," Sen commanded. Jung shook his head.

"I am sorry, Avatar. There is one. But I implore you, do not seek him out."

"I'm keeping an open mind," Sen said. "Suda was a bandit once too. People can change."

"If you must know, then seek out Sang Lug. I will not speak of that renegade."

Jung resisted further inquiries, for reasons of "modesty". Sen got frustrated and started looking for his would-be master. Sang Lug was apparently occupying himself in the courtyard.

They found the young bender at a table in the courtyard, seated at a table opposite a fellow airbending student. He was playing a game called Pagu-Pagu. It involved a board of nine playing cards with black and white sides. The side playing black attempted to make all the cards face up black, and the white side did the opposite. There were a variety of "play" cards that could be used to flip a card as well as a certain pattern of adjacent cards. The game was popular among airbenders because, if both sides played correctly, the game would always end in a stalemate. They used it as a metaphor for good and evil.

"Ah, honored guests," Sang Lug began. He stood up and took a bow. Sang Lug had apparently been kept in the dark about his appointed destiny as the Avatar's teacher. He didn't recognize Sen.

"Pardon our interruption," Sen said. He was going to use this opportunity to size up Sang Lug as well. If the renegade airbender didn't pan out, Sang Lug would be their only option. "We're told you know about the renegade airbender."

Great anger boiled in Sang Lug's heart, and he excused himself from the game of Pagu-Pagu. He led Sen to the edge of the courtyard.

"Calling him a renegade is an insult to our Nation. He has never been a member, nor will he ever be. He lurks in the slums of Republic City, preying on the innocent."

Sen could see frustration and anger in Sang Lug, an unreasonable amount, in fact. Sang Lug seemed oddly fixated on the renegade.

"I've sought to bring him to justice several times, but he cowers and hides."

Perhaps Sang Lug saw capturing the renegade as his way to earn his tattoos. Jung apparently regarded the boy highly, but Sang Lug did not know that. Without knowledge of the Avatar, he had no idea why he was being denied the mark of a master.

"What exactly are his crimes," Sen asked. Sang Lug shook his head.

"He is- He's a pickpocket. A common thief," Sang Lug declared. "But he distracts his victims, by, well- He uses airbending to manipulate women's garments. It's indecent."

Sen stared blankly forward. Ada crossed her arms across her chest.

"Well, that's not…I mean, it's not really bad, I guess?"

"I did worse," Suda admitted. As far as crime went, pickpocketing and a bit of public exposure was not particularly evil. It certainly wasn't beyond redemption.

"Can you tell us how to find him?"

"He lurks in the Copper Slums," Sang Lug advised them. "He goes by the alias Whistler. I warn you, though, that he will not be found easily. Despite his petty crimes, he is a powerful airbender. We should be thankful he wastes his talent on such nonviolent activity."

Sen bowed to Sang Lug and retreated. He conferred with his allies a small distance away.

"So, he's evasive, he's off the radar, he's very talented," Suda said. "Sounds like a good candidate."

"I object to this," Ada said.

"You wear pants anyway," Sen said. "Just don't start wearing skirts and we should get along swimmingly."

Ada shook her head, but she played along as they journeyed towards the Copper Slums.

The center of the area was the eponymous copper refinery. The structure had once been nearly two miles out of the city center, but after Kuvira's colossus had wiped out most of downtown, the area had rapidly been expanded into. Quick, shoddy housing had been built to temporarily house the displaced residents, and as the refugees were moved back into the reconstructed city center, the vacant housing had been sold at a steep discount to the poor and underclass citizens. Now the area was riddled with poverty and crime. Suda kept an eye on his wallet with every step. This was the exact kind of neighborhood he would have loved in his bandit days.

As they reached the shoddy district of the city, Ada took a brief detour into a clothing store. She emerged wearing, of all things, a skirt.

"Isn't that the exact opposite thing I told you to do," Sen said.

"It's called bait," Ada explained. "Besides, I just rolled up my trousers."

She hiked up the hem of her skirt to reveal rolled up pant legs. Several bystanders looked away, quite disappointed. Her swords were also concealed by the flowing skirt, which made her seem an even more appealing target.

"Now, Suda, I hate to say this, but I think you should turn back now."

"Nah, I get it," Suda said. He flexed his muscles jokingly. "I am rather large and intimidating."

"Exactly," Ada said. Pickpockets and thieves generally favored smaller, weaker targets. Ada patted him on his massive bicep and said goodbye. They would reunite at air temple island later. Now it was just Ada and Sen. They walked side by side into the depths of the Copper Slums.

As they got further into the shambles of the city, Sen's mood got worse. Ada noticed the frown on his face.

"What's wrong?"

"This place. It reminds me of ho- the place I'm from. Beaker Hall, the orphanage."

"How so?"

"There's no hope here," Sen said. He looked around at squalid buildings and grime-covered streets. The few people who walked the roads wore dingy clothes and sour looks. It was a place without love or hope, without any heart at all. There was just half-hearted will to stay alive; nothing else. The people were empty. Sen remembered the days before meeting Hanjo, before discovering he was the Avatar, when he had felt the same way.

"I don't like it," Sen said.

The copper refinery at the center of this district filled the air with a peculiar metallic stench. Ledges and other unreachable places were all coated in a thin layer of metallic dust. Some of the residents wore masks around their faces to keep from inhaling the airborne pollution. It was a very sad state of affairs.

"The conditions in this part of town are awful," Ada said. "It's only going to get exponentially worse as time goes on."

"Expo-what?"

"Exponentially. Like, it doubles over time. Two to four to eight to sixteen. That kind of thing."

Sen thought about it for a second. He'd never heard of that kind of math before, but he got the hang of it fairly quickly.

"Okay, I get. It's going to get twice as bad, and then twice as bad as that."

"Did you really not know what exponents are?"

"It's not my fault. All we had at the orphanage was a few Aang-era history books and some biography called My Cabbages: From Cart to Corp. Nothing about math."

Ada nodded. Sometimes she forgot that Sen had never really been to school. There were a lot of things he didn't know, a lot of things he'd never done. Sen was thinking about a particular topic he had no experience on.

"So, you've been to the Spirit World before, right? Do you think we should go that to get to the Poles?"

"I can't recommend it, honestly. There's no day or night in the Spirit World, so there's no way to track time, and even the most well-travelled roads still have hidden dangers. Not to mention that satomobiles just flat out don't work. Travelling that way would be confusing, dangerous, and tedious."

"I'll keep it in mind," Sen said. Hanjo had suggested travelling through the Spirit World once, long ago. Sen had an urge to go to the Spirit World, but he had to keep the opinions of his friends in mind as well.

They talked about the travel options for a while. Sen kept an eye on the flow of chi around him. Hayao had taught him to identify benders based on the energy in the chakras, and since there was supposedly only one airbender in this area, he should be easy to identify. Sen spread his focus, reading the energy across a wide area.

He got the first sign of his target on a rooftop some distance away. A massive spiral surge of energy spiraled through the heart, a sure sign of airbending potential. The energy vanished before reappearing once again. Sen subtly alerted Ada. She grinned slyly to herself. She had prepared a surprise for Whistler.

Some minutes later, their target finally closed in. Ada felt a rush of air around her ankles. The cheap skirt quickly fluttered upwards. The only things exposed were Ada's trousers, her swords, and a paper note attached to her rear that simply said "Gotcha!"

"Ah, crud," Whistler muttered to himself.

The renegade airbender beat a hasty retreat as Sen and Ada pursued. Whistler's airbending made him surprisingly agile, but Sen was just as maneuverable. These slums had been hastily constructed by earthbending, so every possible surface was made of solid stone and was, as such, a potential tool for Sen. Sen made himself ramps, handholds, and other transportation tools as he made his pursuit. He managed to keep close on Whistler's heels. Surprisingly, Ada was actually managing to keep ahead of Sen, despite the advantage provided by his earthbending.

She was astoundingly agile. To keep pace along the walls and rooftops, she was performing acrobatic maneuvers Sen couldn't even dream of doing. She had shed her skirt and was using the enhanced maneuverability to perform all kinds of tricks. She vaulted over a terrace wall and leapt gracefully over a gap between buildings.

"Since when can you do this stuff," Sen shouted across the rooftops. He had always known she was acrobatic, but he'd never actually seen her do a backflip until today.

"I never had an opportunity," she bragged.

Ada grabbed a flagpole and used it to vault herself ever closer to the fleeing Whistler. Sen resolved to close the gap, and he pushed his earthbending further, manipulating the buildings around him to create a clear path. The residents would be slightly inconvenienced by the rearrangement, but the fate of the world was at stake. They would forgive some redecorating.

They approached a sharp drop-off in the rooftops. Ada began to hesitate slightly. She suspected that Whistler was running this way for a reason. Her suspicions were confirmed when Whistler drew a small metal pole and telescoped it into a long staff. With a flick of his wrist, Whistler's staff expanded into a glider. If he made it to the edge of the buildings and glided away, that was the end of the chase, and their chances of ever recruiting Whistler. He would never fall into the same trap twice.

"Ada, brace yourself," Sen shouted. She weighed much less than Sen, so she was the best option for what Sen had in mind.

As they drew dangerously close to the buildings edge, Whistler took hold of his glider and prepared to make the jump. Sen focused on Ada and stomped his foot.

The stone beneath Ada's feet aggressively burst out of the ground, sending Ada catapulting forward. Just as Whistler went airborne, the impromptu projectile that was Ada slammed into the back of his glider. She hastily grabbed on and held tight as they careened over the edge of the building.

Whistler managed to stabilize the plummeting glider and bring it on a steady glide to the ground. With Ada weighing him down, he would never get very far, but he also couldn't let go of his glider to try and remove her. He resigned himself to a continued chase. Sen constructed a ramp for himself and quickly surfed downwards on a slab of stone, heading for Whistler's landing site.

Whistler landed as awkwardly as possible, jostling Ada off the glider and destabilizing her. While Ada was briefly disoriented from the landing, Whistler spun his staff and sent Ada flying with a burst of air. She was prepared for that, and took hold of the ground to keep herself from flying away. She drew a single sword and lunged towards Whistler.

She didn't want to fight him, but Whistler clearly wanted to fight her. Ada blocked a heavy, swinging blow from his staff and retaliated in kind. Whistler took a spinning leap away, and then spun back towards Ada, swinging his staff to generate gusts of air. Ada leapt to the side, away from the concussive gusts.

Ada had studied the way Airbender's fought, and she'd fought many of the energybender's minions herself, but she was surprised at the way Whistler fought. It wasn't like the brutal, offensive airbending of the Energybender troops, but it wasn't quite like traditional airbending either. Whistler favored circular motions, as the old Air Nomads did, but unlike the Air Nomad technique of circling to give evasion and maneuverability, Whistler circled towards his enemy, giving his blows weight and inertia.

Whistler spun his staff towards Ada, and a circular blade of air followed through, striking Ada in the stomach and knocking her backwards. Sen closed the distance as Ada was pushed away.

With Whistler briefly on the ground, Sen could finally get a good look at him. He had deep black hair that hung raggedly around his face, obscuring his eyes. The ragged look was further substantiated by baggy, rugged clothing and a layer of dirt on the boys face. Whistler paused for a moment, meeting Sen's eyes for a brief second, and then the renegade airbender turned and ran.

Whistler headed for the wall of a nearby tall building. He used airbending to push bystanders out of his path, giving him a clear shot to freedom. As Whistler reached the wall, he dashed upwards along the vertical surface. This normally difficult feat was made easy by Whistler's potent airbending. Sang Lug had not been exaggerating when he'd spoken of the renegade's talent. That just made Sen's chase even harder.

Sen reached the wall and used a chunk of earth to pull himself upwards along the walls surface. Whistler had the head start, so he quickly vanished over the roof edge, but Sen was very close behind. By the time Sen reached the roof, though, the only person in view was a very shocked-looking girl.

"He went that way," She cried, pointing to the left. Sen raised his eyebrow.

"Oh, crud," Whistler mumbled.

Sen trapped the renegades feet in earthen prisons, holding him to the ground. It was a very convincing disguise, but Sen was more observational than most people. It had been easy to read the chakra's in Whistler's body and see who he really was.

"Well, that always works," Whistler said. He was intent on maintaining the girl disguise, apparently. His voice was rather high-pitched. "Good show. How'd you see past the disguise?"

"I can see things," Sen said. That had sounded better in his head.

"Alright, so you got me," Whistler said. He relaxed as much as he possibly could while his feet were locked in stone. "What's your deal? If you're the police then they have seriously lowered their recruiting standards, and if you're from a gang they're probably, like, the worst gang ever. So what's your deal?"

"I have an offer for you, Whistler."

"I don't do teamwork," Whistler said with a shake of his head. "I am a lone wolf on the prowl, buddy. One woman versus the world."

"One man," Sen tried to correct.

Whistler seemed very amused. He grabbed Sen's arm by the wrist and placed it forcefully on his chest. Sen was not particularly well acquainted with the characteristics of the fairer sex, but some things were obvious even to him. He drew his hand back quickly.

"You're a woman?"

"Yup," She replied. "Perfect crime, right? That's how I make all my great escapes. Drop the men's clothes and suddenly I'm a whole different person."

Whistler smiled playfully at Sen. The Avatar rubbed his hands together as if he were trying to clean them.

Now that he was looking with the right mindset, Sen could see that Whistler really was a young girl. She had square, boyish features that made it easy for her to cross-dress convincingly, but now that she had shed that disguise, her femininity was showing through.

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because I can tell from your reaction to grabbing my fun bits that you're too much of a good guy to do anything to hurt me," Whistler boasted. "Now save us both some time and get me out of these dumb ankle locks. I'm chafing."

Sen shook his head. Whistler looked disappointed. She had been expecting this to be easier.

"Look pal, I ain't interested in anything you're selling," Whistler said. "Unless it's cookies, in which case I'll take ten."

"I'm saving the world," Sen declared. "You might be my best chance of doing that. I need your help."

Whistler put a hand on her chin. Now that was an offer she hadn't heard before. She decided to hear the guy out. Sen didn't really like Whistler's attitude, but he needed an airbending master, and he was sure he could convince her to change her ways.

"My name is Sen. I'm the Avatar. I need an airbending master, someone who can travel with me and teach me in secret. I think you're meant to be that master."

Sen demonstrated his point by generating a small fireball. Whistler was quite intrigued. But not intrigued enough.

"Nah," she grunted.

"What?"

"I said no, Avatar," Whistler continued. "Not me. Nope. Nuh-uh."

"But, no, Whistler, this is your chance to redeem-"

"Do I look like I want to be redeemed," Whistler shouted, suddenly much more hostile. "I do what I do because I like it, and because I'm good at it. I like doing this stuff, and I'm going to keep doing it, whether you're in charge of the world or Howler is."

"You can't be serious," Sen said. "Howler's destroying entire cities!"

"He ain't destroying me," Whistler said. "I could give two cents about the rest of the world."

Sen was at a loss for words. He'd never met someone so supremely selfish before. Sure he'd met a lot of evil people, but they'd at least had the decency to have an ulterior motive. Whistler was just bad.

"Whistler, listen to me," Sen pleaded. "If there's any part of you-"

"Oh, heard this one before," Whister groaned. "You try to appeal to my basic human nature, right."

Whistler leaned forward and looked deeply into Sen's eyes.

"The only reason I don't use bending to suck the air right out of your lungs right now is because it would get me in too much trouble," Whistler threatened. Sen could see she was telling the truth. She wasn't a petty criminal because she was unwilling to hurt people; only unwilling to deal with the trouble it would cause her. Whistler leaned back.

"Now, I do not particularly care about you," Whistler said. "But I don't particularly care about Howler neither. So, you let me go right now, and you can consider your secret safe with me. You try and take me in, and I tell all the police and all the jury and all the prisoners I meet about your little secret."

"And what'll you do if I let you go?"

"I go right back to doing what I love," Whistler boasted. "Breaking things and hurting people. But not too bad, I promise."

Sen stomped his foot, and the bindings disappeared. He didn't really have a choice. Whistler retrieved her staff and headed for the edge of the roof.

"Been fun, Avatar."

"You disgust me," Sen grumbled.

Whistler stuck her tongue out at Sen, then leapt off the edge of the roof and glided through the alleyways and across rooftops. She was gone.

Sen returned to ground level and retrieved Ada. She seemed surprised that Whistler had glided away.

"He didn't accept your offer?"

"She," Sen corrected. "The male outfit was a disguise. And no, she didn't, and I wouldn't have taken her anyway. She was selfish and despicable."

"That's unfortunate," Ada said. "I suppose we have no choice but to work with Sang Lug now."

Sen grunted and headed back towards Air Temple island. The whole ordeal had put him in a foul mood. Ada saw the look on his face and suggested a distraction.

"Or, instead, I heard the Kimani Corporation is putting on some kind of display today. Maybe we can go find a screen somewhere and watch the show."

"I guess that sounds fun," Sen mumbled. Ada led the way out of the slums. Crowds were already gathering around massive screens that the Kimani corporation had put up across the city. They were apparently planning the first full-color TeleVarrick broadcast. The broadcast would reach the capital city of every country in the world.

That was precisely why the Energybender now stood in the Kimani Corporations broadcast studio, ready to deliver his message to the world.