Chapter 5

LOK

#49

Bolin could not remember the last time he had so any pats on the back in one evening, so many who wanted him to sit with them. He was forced to choose when an elderly woman took him by the arm and dragged his body to the other side of the circle to sit with the more elderly folk. He began to laugh when one of the elderly men started to tell jokes and Bolin even told some of his own. He told stories of the victories at the Pro-bending arena, which captivated those that started to gather around him. By by electric light he could see elderly, middle, and even teens, each with their own collars and shackles. Located on the back of those collars, he observed some sort of discoloration of the metal... He wondered for a minute what that meant until he felt a small tug on his pants leg.

His eyes of green met the eyes of the same color in a small child. This was the first child he had seen and he was taken by surprise when the child spoke...

"Mooore prwese..." The girl child was too young to pronouce the syllables in "please". She only wore a large shirt that draped to her little toes which she awkwardly balanced on the tip of to get closer. She repeated again, "Prweese?"

The child was then called back by a man, presumably her father, "Iya come back here! Do not trouble the man." and she left Bolin's side.

Bolin could not help but say with a mushy smile, "Aww, It's perfectly alright. Okay kiddo, for you I'll tell you how I teamed up with the Avatar to defeat the fearsome Wolfbats!" He pumped his fist in the air.

He was so excited about telling a story about the championship, a version where their team won, that he did not notice the crowd go silent. But as he started his tale, he did not get very far into it when the audience started to buzz with a new topic. Many of them started to whisper to each other and even ask out loud...

"You know the Avatar?"

"Tell us! Is he good?"

"Is Avatar Aang still alive?"

"Where is this Avatar from?"

Bolin was frozen in place by so many questions about the Avater, he decided to start with... "The Avatar is a she..."

...~

Korra fixed the area of the shirt that started to hike up next to her bust line for the fifth time that hour... she started to grumble a little.

They had waited til the evening to put the plan into motion. While Mako was dressed in one of his brother's green jackets and seemed fine; Korra on the other hand had on one of Bolin's green shirts and used a green sash to tie the loose sides close to her waist, but she looked and felt extremely awkward with the over-sized sleeves and, not that she cared that much, her water tribe pants were not exactly green. Her hairstyle changed to try to look more like the style of an Earthbender, so it was held back in a braid which Mako helped her do; it looked very catastrophic with bunches of loose hair coming from all sides.

The idea was to disguise themselves as Earthbenders and hopefully get confronted by the kidnappers. They would be out at this all night and every night if they had to; what ever it takes to get to Bolin.

The sun was setting behind the skyline of the buildngs and already the streets were lit by the yellow glow of the street lamps. They walked near the park, up and down the street together. A few hours went by and nothing; even as the park cleared out, there was no sign of anyone who looked like they could take a couple of earthbenders.

"Nothing's happening..." Korra growled.

"Do some earthbending, stupid. We have to show them we're earthbenders remember?"

"I'll show you stupid..." Korra growled even more as she stomped the ground and Mako tripped over a small slab of rock that popped out of the ground. She laughed as he flipped to avoid falling on his face, he rolled to his feet. He's really agile, Korra mused, for Pro-bending of course...

"That was not funny." Mako gently brushed off some dirt.

Korra smirked, "Oh yes it was." she hoped anything would get his mind off of the situation... they can't look like they're looking for trouble.

"Stop messing around..." Mako trailed off as he tensed.

Korra felt the tension and went into a battle ready stance, "What is it?"

"I thought I saw some movement behind the bushes..."

"Could be a homeless guy..."

"Could be the kidnappers..." Mako countered as he ran to the bushes.

"Remember let me do all the bending..." Korra whispered.

Immediately a dark figure sprang out of the bushes and leapt at him while Korra was suddenly surrounded by dark figures who stayed out of the lamp light. Mako leapt over the one who launched at him and rolled while the enemy did the same as both got to their feet.

"You should not be prancing around in that get-up. You might get taken..." a furious voice spoke to her...

No.. it can't be... it sounded familiar but she did not want it to be true...

Korra kicked up a hunk of earth that hurled it angrily at some of the figures that surrounded her and a few dodged while one got hit in the gut.

The figures stepped out of the dark just as Mako caught his guy in a headlock.

"White Lotus guards?" Mako said surprised just as the guard he had in his grip, elbows his chin "Ow!"

The guard, Howl, struggled more; being the distraction to keep Mako from helping Korra.

"Damnit!" Korra's fists clenched in anger and growled at the squad leader, "What? ! Did Tenzin change his mind about me helping save my friend?"

"No. We don't need to take orders from him to protect the Avatar. You are going back to Air Temple Island where you will be safe guarded until this crisis is over... the Equalists will not take you from there. And I am sure once Tenzin knows of what you tried to do, he would agree wth the proper- "

"No!" Korra shouted, cutting the Lotus squad leader off, as she struggled as the lotus guards closed in around her. "We need to find Bolin! You can't! I wont-!"

"We thought you might say that..." and cables shot out from seemingly nowhere. "We enlisted the help of the Peace corps, a few of Beifong's metal bending officers."

"It might not be the Equa- Ngh!" She was cut off by the force of the cable wrapping around her chest.

Then more cables wrapped around Korra before she could even react; she could not break free. She tried to kick up some firebendng but her legs were caught by cable before she could.

She was being kidnapped alright... but not by the right people she wanted to be kidnapped by!

Meanwhile, Mako and Howl managed to push each other away, and stopped fighting long enough to see Korra being taken away the lotus guards, "Mako! We'll get your bother back! I promise!" she could be heard shouting. They were the same words as the last time Bolin was taken... they struck Mako inside.

"Korra!" Mako shouted back, but she was out of range by then.

Turing to Mako, Howl spoke, "You should go back to your home..." and he ran after them while Mako was left standing next to the bush.

Alone.

End chapter 5

Tell me what you think and advice and tips are greatly appreciated as I am always trying to improve!

This also has not been beta'd and so there may be some mistakes in spelling.