Chapter XII: Reunion Part 2
Saltrall went back outside where Korra was, but saw that she wasn't there. Confused and slightly concerned, he went looking for her. He searched around for a few minutes before he poked his head into her bedroom. He saw her lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling, lost in thought. He stood there for a few seconds, debating whether or not to let her know he was there, but he decided that it would be better to just leave her alone. He closed her door and sighed as he turned around, only to be confronted by Naga.
"Whoa, hey there, big girl, you scared me," he said, chuckling nervously while he waited for his rapid heartbeats to return to normal and he patted her on the head.
"Don't worry, I was just leaving," he said when she growled at him softly and he opened the door for her so she could be with her master. She walked in and he closed the door behind her.
He went back to his TARDIS and went to the bathroom to clean up before he went to bed. He groaned when he looked in the mirror and saw his reflection. He had streaks of dirt and grime along his cheek and a small scratch on the bridge of his nose that he had failed to notice earlier. He ran a finger along it and sighed. He also noticed that he had bags beginning to form under his eyes from the lack of rest and overall adrenaline rush of the last few days and he threw some water on his face to try and clean up a little. He jumped in the shower real quick after that and got out before going to bed.
He awoke early the next morning and got ready for the day. He put on a blue t-shirt and a black zip-up hoodie with blue jeans. He took his TARDIS into the city while sipping a cup of coffee while looking for a place to eat. After last night at the island, he decided to give Korra some alone time. He landed and parked the TARDIS and made sure to grab his baseball cap as he walked out the door onto the street.
He took in a deep breath and smiled as he stretched and looked around. The street was quieter than usual, with only a few early morning workers and food carts out and about. He put on his cap and walked down the street before eventually stopped at a small food cart he had eaten at a few times and bought a simple breakfast. He sat down to eat and was about halfway through his meal when he heard an all too familiar voice from behind him.
"Hey Saltrall, long time no see," it said, causing him to choke a little.
He managed to get the food down before he replied.
"Asami, hey, yeah, long time," he replied while coughing slightly as she sat down across from him at the the circular table.
"What have you been up too?" She asked with genuine curiosity, setting her moped helmet down in front of her and resting her hands on top of it.
"Oh you know, alien... stuff," he replied, looking down and taking another bite from his meal before taking a sip of water.
Asami chuckled and shook her head before pulling a pocket watch out and checking it.
"Alright, I see, playing hard to get," She said as she stood.
"You can understand my concern, the last few times we've met you unintentionally brought trouble my way," he replied, teasingly.
Asami just rolled her eyes playfully before picking up her helmet, "luckily for you, I just sat down to say hello, now, I have a meeting to go to, so I'll catch you later."
"Oh, uh, okay, see you later, I guess," He said, slightly confused but he waved back when she waved goodbye at him before she got on her moped and sped off.
Saltrall took another bite of his meal while he watched her ride away. He blinked a couple times and shook his head a little, getting back to reality as he sipped his water.
"Huh, that was weirdest thing that's happened to me all day," Saltrall muttered to himself, rolling his neck neck softly, trying to work a couple kinks out of it while sighing.
He looked around and did a double-take when he saw a mysterious man wearing an eerily familiar pair of goggles staring at him from about thirty feet away in a small crowd of people who seemed to completely ignore him.
"Guess you spoke too soon, Saltrall," he said, staring at the man before standing up and throwing his trash away, looking around for possible escape paths. He looked around one more time before sprinting across the street towards the stranger, who took off down a nearby alley.
"Yeah, that's not suspicious at all," Saltrall said as he held up his Sonic and made it emit a loud, high-pitched squeal, causing the crowd to disperse as he ran down the alley after him. He reached it just as his observer jumped up some boxes onto a rooftop, making Saltrall groan.
"Rooftops, it's always gotta be freaking rooftops," he muttered to himself, remembering what happened last time he was in this position, but he kept up the chase and followed after him.
The stranger was looking over his shoulder at Saltrall, who stopped and pointed his Sonic at him, using it to explode a small metal crate that was next to the stranger, throwing him off his feet about 10 feet to the left. Saltrall put his Sonic in his pocket and ran up to the grunt as he was trying to get up.
"Who are you?" Saltrall asked, kicking him in the chest so he was on his back before picking him up by his collar.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" He replied, spitting in Saltrall's face.
Saltrall didn't even flinch and instead ripped his hood down.
"You're one of Amon's men I assume?" He asked, recognizing the symbol on his goggles "Yeah, of course you are, no else cares about me but him."
"Clever aren't you, Time Lord?" He asked, still smug.
"Smug little bastard, ain't ya?" He said as he drew his Sonic again, "perhaps this will change your tone."
Saltrall pressed the button freezing his stalker's limbs.
"Ha, Amon knows more about you then you think," he said, unperturbed by Saltrall
"Yeah, somehow I'm not surprised, everyone seems to be one step ahead of me, I've lived a while, I've learned the drill by now," Saltrall replied, annoyed, "but I've got a little message for him."
"Oh yeah, and what's that?" The goon asked, still smug, even in the face of his imminent death.
Saltrall opened his Sonic and placed it against the man's head.
"I don't show mercy to my enemies," He said pressing the button, killing the stranger.
He stood up and sighed, closing his Sonic and setting it to search mode. He found a tracking device in his pocket, no doubt so that they could pick him up from his little scouting run, but he left it on. He wanted to send Amon a message: Don't mess with a Time Lord. He started to walk away but looked over his shoulder and went back over to him. At the factory he didn't have time to study the goggles, but this time no one was stopping him, so he grabbed he pair that the grunt wore and carried them as he hopped off the roof.
He made it back to the TARDIS without any further problems, but when he sat down on the couch and leaned back to relax. As he closed his eyes, however, a thought occurred to him.
"How did that guy know I his a Time Lord?" He thought as he opened his eyes and stood up. He went through all of his pants pockets and didn't find anything before going through his jackets. He thought it was a bust until he reached into his favorite coat pocket and felt something he knew didn't belong there. He grabbed the object and pulled out a tiny, bug shaped metallic object.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" He said, examining it, "so that's how you learned about me, eh Amon?" he said, talking into the bug before smirking, "nice try," and he crushed it in his fingers.
The Equalist engineer on the other end of the bug, listening through it, took off the headphones he was wearing and stopped the machine.
"Master Amon, the Time Lord discovered and destroyed the bug," he said, standing at attention and facing the Equalist leader's back. Amon, who was staring at his map and talking softly with his Lieutenant, turned towards the engineer.
"I knew this would happen eventually, thank you for telling me," he said, nodding softly, "we have gained more than enough information, we're just waiting for our scout to reach the rendezvous point."
Right after he said that, another foot soldier ran in and whispered something in his ear, making him growl in anger.
"Disregard that last comment," he said to the engineer, his voice slightly agitated and angry, get a truck ready, we have an unfortunate pickup to make."
The engineer's eyes widened and he nodded once he realized what Amon meant and he quickly ran out of the office, leaving Amon to quietly fume with his officers.
The Equalists were disguised and Amon wore a hooded cloak as they climbed to the rooftop where the body was lying. There were already other Equalist soldiers examining the body as Amon walked up.
"Sir, there's no obvious signs of external trauma that could've killed him," one of the head Equalists said, standing up and turning to Amon.
"Well, we already know that's one of his little tricks, now don't we?" He asked, looking around, "the real question is where are his goggles?"
The other Equalists looked around and found nothing.
"Sir, I think he took them," one of them said, causing Amon to growl angrily.
"We need to find him, and when we do, he needs to be destroyed, he can't be allowed to study our technology," Amon said, growling slightly as he turned and jumped off the roof.
Later that evening Saltrall was having dinner with Korra and Tenzin's family. He was leaving with his food to go eat in the TARDIS, despite Tenzin's insistence on having him eat with them, he politely excused himself.
"I have some things I need to look at and I need to be alone to do it," he explained as he excused himself.
As he was leaving he bumped into Tarrlok, the Northern Water Tribe representative to Republic City. Neither man said sorry to the other and Saltrall looked over his shoulder at him and stopped, putting his food down and quietly walking back to the doorway. He leaned against the wall next to it and listened to the conversation in the other room.
"As you may have heard, I am assembling a task force that will strike at the heart of the revolution and I want you to join me." He heard Tarrlok say.
"Really?" Korra asked in surprise.
"What?!" Tenzin exclaimed, leaning forward in shock.
"I need someone who will help me attack Amon directly, someone who is fearless in the face of danger. And that someone is you." Tarrlok said, gesturing to Korra.
"Join your task force? I can't." Korra responded, sipping her drink.
"I must admit, I'm rather surprised. I thought you'd jump at the chance to help me lead the charge against Amon." Tarrlok admitted.
"Me too." Tenzin muttered under his breath.
Saltrall shook his head and decided he had heard enough, so he grabbed his food and went back to his TARDIS. He contemplated what he heard while he walked.
"A task force to stop the revolution?" he thought, opening the door and setting his food down on the console, "Boy, that really does not sound good," he thought aloud.
He sat down with a sigh and rubbed his face. He tossed his Sonic in the air and caught it, still thinking about what he had heard before spinning his chair around to face the console and pulling out the goggles he'd taken from the Equalist.
"I'm sure they know by now I've got you," he said, talking to the goggles, "now let's find out why they'll want them back," he said while looking at them from all sides before putting them on.
"Whoa, what the hell?" he said as he looked around. The TARDIS' interior was illuminated green, like night vision, but with various statistics like heat signatures and other readings showing up in front of him. He looked around a bit more before taking them off, "now I know why they wear these things, and why I need to take you apart."
He set them down and pulled some food out and started to eat while he used his Screwdriver to scan them, with the conversation he'd heard inside still at the back of his mind.