Chapter X: Rescue
Saltrall was sitting on a bench by an alley, keeping his head down as he waiting close by the secret entrance to the Triads headquarters. A few hours had passed since he had gotten Korra and Mako to come along with him, but they had apparently taken the scenic route because they still hadn't arrived. He looked to his right as some steam started blowing past him from a nearby sewer grate, and he was staring at the partly decrepit building that housed the Triple Threat Triad. He had been here many times, mostly reconnaissance, and he was concerned about the lack of guards by the door.
He heard a commotion to his left and whipped around, drawing his Sonic, only to put it away when he saw Korra and Mako arrive on Naga, and he saw the fire ferret Bolin was performing with earlier perched on Mako's shoulder. They walked over and dismounted Naga.
"Took your sweet time to get here," Saltrall said, standing and facing them. He glared at Mako a little before turning his attention to Korra, "decide to take the scenic route?"
"Saltrall, calm down, not all of us have technology that can teleport through space and time," she replied, a tad aggravated at how Saltrall had been acting earlier, "I explained the situation to Mako, he's sorry for snapping at you earlier, she elbowed him sharply, "right Mako?"
"Right, yeah," Mako said, grimacing a little at the sudden impact before taking a step forward, "I'm sorry for how I reacted earlier, but as I'm sure you can imagine, I was a little overwhelmed by what you'd said," he held out his hand towards Saltrall, "so, truce?"
Saltrall stared at him for a few seconds, examining his face for any signs of insincerity before grabbing his hand and shaking it once, firmly.
"Truce," he said, letting go of his hand and turning towards the building, Mako and Korra taking up positions on either side of him.
"Something's not right, there are usually thugs posted out front. We better be cautious." Mako said as they walked over to the door.
"Yeah, you don't need to tell me twice, I'll stay out here and watch for any guards or something, you guys go inside," Saltrall said, drawing his Sonic and walking to the end of the alley, watching for any signs of trouble.
He watched Korra kick in the door as she and Mako went inside. He turned around and his eyes widened as three Triad goons charged him. He raised his Sonic but it was too late, they attacked him and knocked him to the ground before throwing him into a pile of cardboard boxes, his head hitting the brick wall, dazing him slightly, as a truck started nearby and the goons bolted towards the sound. Korra and Mako ran back outside when they heard the truck and ran over to Saltrall, who was holding his head.
"Saltrall, are you alright? What happened?" Korra asked, kneeling down by him.
"I'm alright, some goons attacked me, I think," he replied, trying to stand, but he felt dizzy and he groaned and stayed on one knee, "you guys go ahead, they hit my head pretty good."
They nodded and ran after the truck, leaving Saltrall there, as he groaned and sat back down. He heard an explosion and saw Naga run past him before he closed his eyes, laid down and passed out.
He was awoken a few hours later when Korra bended some water into his face. He stirred and opened his eyes, groaning and squinting in the morning light. He rolled onto his back, and closed his eyes tight before opening them again.
"Ugh, my head is killing me, how long was I out?" He asked, sitting up and rubbing his temples.
"A few hours at least, but we think we know where Bolin was taken," Mako, who was crouching beside him, said as he stood and stuck out his hand.
Saltrall took it wearily and Mako helped him up slowly. He leaned against the wall to stabilize himself as Mako handed him a leaflet.
"Where'd you get this?" He asked, looking at it, "and what's 'the Revelation?'"
"There's a protester in the park and we decided to pay him a visit," Korra said, looking over at Mako and smiling. Saltrall rolled his eyes because, even in his groggy state, he knew eaxactly what that meant. "Now come on, we need to create a plan."
Saltrall nodded and they all got Naga after making sure he was alright and headed out. They stopped on a bench under the trolley bridge to take a break. Mako and Korra sat on a bench while Saltrall was leaned up against Naga, and they were all looking at the leaflets.
"Why didn't the Equalists put a location on these?" Korra asked puzzled.
"Probably because they didn't want just anyone waltzing into their big "Revelation", whatever that is." Mako replied.
Saltrall scratched his chin, "I bet the information is on here somewhere, look at the backs."
Mako grabbed two more of the leaflets they'd collected, "Yeah, look, there are four different images."
"It looks like it's a map," Korra said excitedly.
The two of them grabbed some more leaflets and put them over a map hanging on the nearby wall, proving that it was a map. Saltrall walked over to them and looked at it.
"It would appear that they are," Saltrall pointed at a factory on the map, "and it looks like we have our meeting place."
They all looked at each other and smiled before getting their things together and hopping on Naga again.
Amon watched as some of his men were preparing the site for their big "Revelation" later in the evening.
"Sir, we have the boy," his lieutenant said, walking up beside Amon, who turned and saw two other Equalists tossing Bolin's unconscious body onto the ground.
"Very good, and thanks to our little Avatar friend, we know a lot more about our mysterious "Time Lord" problem," he said, pulling out a recorder that one of his spies had given him earlier, "those fools were so busy trying to find the Triads they didn't even notice our spy tailing them."
The lieutenant smiled and took it from Amon and began to listen to it.
"All we need to do now is take out the problem at the source," Amon said, turning back towards Bolin, "and our acquisition here will be the perfect way to accomplish that."
Saltrall, Korra, and Mako were standing outside the factory site that housed the meeting, all wearing disguises making them look like regular people, even Saltrall, who usually liked to play things a little risky, decided to play it safe.
Saltrall stayed back as Mako and Korra made their way to the doorman. Mako showed their invitation and they went inside. After they were inside Saltrall took a deep breath and let it out slowly, pulling out his psychic paper and hiding his open Sonic in his sleeve, and approached the doorman.
"This is a private event, do you have an invitation?" The doorman asked Saltrall.
"Of course I do," Saltrall said, showing him the psychic paper and the doorman nodded in approval.
"The Revelation is upon us, my brother," he said, stepping aside.
"It is," Saltrall said, starting to walk past him before stopping and letting his Sonic drop out of his sleeve into his hand. He grabbed the doorman by his throat and put it against his head, activating it and killing him in seconds.
"It just comes to some of us faster than others," he said coldly, letting the body drop as he put his Sonic away and walked inside.
He walked through a smaller hall and made his way up a flight of stairs and he looked for Mako and Korra from a catwalk, but all he could see was a large crowd of anti-benders, who were yelling at whatever as happening. He stood against the railing and tried to see what the event actually was until he saw movement from the side of the crowd.
"Korra..." He said softly before running to his right, down the catwalk and onto the main part of the second floor.
He saw her run into a side corridor and he cursed softly to himself as he looked for a way down. He saw a tarp strung up to cover something about ten feet below him, so he looked around before hopping over the railing.
He landed on his back, the tarp thankfully held his weight, and he rolled off and onto the floor and ran after her. He looked around for her until he heard her struggling from around a corner. He backed up against a wall and looked around the corner, only to let out a sigh of relief when he that she was alone and trying to open a steam pipe.
He walked up to her and she stopped what she was doing and whipped around, arms up and ready to attack. Saltrall just held his hands up in front of him, and she let out a sigh.
"Dammit Saltrall, I thought you were a guard," she said, rubbing her forehead and going back to the pipe.
"Sorry, about that," he said, blushing lightly out of embarassment and watching her struggle, "need some help?" He asked, leaning over her shoulder. She grunted as she tried to turn it one last time before stepping aside so Saltrall could get in there.
He pulled out his Screwdriver and opened up the three valves in front of them, releasing a bunch of steam. Saltrall ducked as Korra began to bend it into the main room.
"Thanks Saltrall," she said. Saltrall just nodded and moved out from under the trail of steam.
"You're welcome, now let's go save Bolin," Saltrall said with a smile. Korra nodded and they ran back towards the main room. They ran in just in time to see Mako slump to the ground, getting knocked unconscious by a soldier while Amon's lieutenant stood over Bolin.
"You benders need to understand, there's no place in this world for you anymore," he said.
Korra growled and sent a rock pillar flying into the lieutenant while Saltrall charged towards the other soldier.
"I wouldn't count us out just yet!" She exclaimed running up to the unconscious Bolin while Saltrall fought the soldier. She looked over Bolin, making sure he was alright, before turning towards Saltrall just in time to see him standing over the limp body of the Equalist, his Screwdriver still lit up.
"Naga!" She shouted, causing her faithful companion to come running. Saltrall picked up Mako who began to regain consciousness.
"Ugh what happened?" Mako asked, looking around groggily.
"You're alright, I got you," Saltrall said, looking at him before helping him walk over to Korra and Naga.
Korra helped Mako up into the saddle while Naga grabbed Bolin in her jaws. Korra hopped on her back as well, making sure Mako was secure before looking over at Saltrall, who had walked back over to the corpse of the Equalist.
"Saltrall, come on!" Korra shouted to him, causing him to turn back to face her.
"You guys go ahead, I'll catch up!" He shouted back.
"Saltrall, no we-" Korra started before being interrupted, "Just go! I can handle myself if need be!" Saltrall yelled back. Korra just nodded slightly and they ran off. Saltrall pulled the mask off of the Equalist and examined it, but he didn't have enough time to really examine it as more Equalists ran into the chamber, forcing him to drop the mask and run off after Naga.
Saltrall stopped after running outside and slamming the door shut behind him. He turned and used his Sonic on the door, cleansing it off any foreign substances and destroying the locking mechanism, making it impossible to open without breaking it down. He looked around quickly, scanning the area for Amon before running off.
Unbeknownst to any of them, Amon and some of his men were standing on top of the building, watching them escape.
"There goes our little alien friend," He said to the soldier standing next to him, "Follow him, I want to know exactly where he's going."
The soldier saluted and ran off. Amon waved his hand and the others followed after the first one, leaving Amon alone to stare over the city and consider his next move.
Back on Air Temple Island the three men were sitting down, resting outside, looking over the bay while Korra told Tenzin what happened. They sat in silence until Mako spoke up.
"Hey Saltrall?" He said, looking over at the Time Lord to his left.
"What's up?" He asked, looking over at him.
"I just wanted to say thanks, a lot, for today. If it weren't for you I don't know what would've happened to Bolin," he said, smiling and grabbing his brother's shoulder.
"Neither do I, but I'm glad you guys saved my bacon," Bolin chimed in, looking at Saltrall.
Saltrall smiled and nodded, "I help people, it's what I do, especially when it's my friends who are in trouble."
"So we're your friends now?" Bolin asked, grinning.
"Yeah, yeah I guess you are," Saltrall said, smiling and chuckling. He turned and looked behind them when he heard footsteps approaching and saw a serious looking Korra walking over.
"Well, I don't know what happens now," she said, sitting down, "but it isn't good."
The three guys nodded in agreement and Saltrall sighed as they looked out at the city, wondering what will lay before them in the future.