Chapter 4

Reveling in Revelations

A/N: Sorry about the last update, I lost my thumb. You have no idea how hard it is to keep track of those. I intend to have this chapter finished by Friday and out on the web on that day to make up for it. Also introducing: Note about… just a section where I rant about things in the fiction and canon. This week…

Note about Mako and Bolin. To the small number of people that caught that hiccup in chapter two were Levi had a conversation with Bolin but thought he was Mako, I, the girl that is currently ranting at you from behind the screen, had actually confused the two, and had thought that Bolin was his brother and vice versa, leading to confusion on Levi's part. That means that when Levi see's Bolin, he'll think Mako. Just a warning.

Let the fiction flow!

…

Levi had thought he was so clever escaping Kame and Yamato in the heat of the moment. But now he had come to a truly terrifying realization; while he could stand his own company, he didn't know how to get back to the station, which just so happened to be the place where he was sleeping. So, like on the first day he had come to republic city and met the Avatar, he was lost. So Leviticus decided that the best thing he could do was try to shadow a couple of people and hope that they could lead him to Iron Square.

This was not a good idea.

The first pair had nearly murdered Levi after the first five minutes, thinking he was a stalker (he was still not wearing his metal-bender uniform) and retaliating with a combination of earth and water bending. But to be fair, Levi had been trying to keep himself from being noticed for this very reason. He just got unlucky.

The second people he stalked…ere, tailed, was a group of burly workmen that should not have thought that he intended to sneak up behind them, knock out their boyfriends, and try to rape them. Unfortunately, Levi soon found that while they didn't suspect him of wanting to attack them, they had decided to screw with him for a while, and it took three revolutions for him to realize that they were leading him in a circle. Frustrated, Levi broke off from the group, trying to ignore their howls of laughter.

The third choice was a mixed blessing, but for the moment, Leviticus had thought he had struck pay dirt.

The group was a small ensemble of two guys and a girl, the standard three to a group that always seemed to find trouble. Every writer knows that two guys and a girl is the prefect matchup for a successful story. The golden trio in Harry Potter, the original Gaang, team Seven in Naruto, the new Gaang… seriously what was up with that?

But Leviticus wasn't about to pass up his chance, and so quickly attached himself to the group, moving a slight distance away from them. Rapidly though, the trio was joined by several more groups, and Levi cut himself off, unsure of what was going on. Obviously it was some sort of gathering, but for what.

Levi waited for the crowd to thin a little, and finally tracked down a pair of kids that seemed to be a little more embarrassed then he was. "Hey, you guys got room for a third." The look of cold apathy nearly turned off Levi.

Nearly.

In fact, Levi was on a razor's edge to leave right then and there, but something stopped him. Maybe it was the triple pony tail, but the girl with the red scarf seemed familiar. It took a moment to register, but when Levi recognized her it hit like a ton of bricks.

He had run into Korra again.

…

"What are you doing at an Equalist rally?" Korra's undertone of a voice suffered from behind the scarf. Leviticus blinked in confusion. An Equalist rally? That was what the people were going to.

"What's the Avatar doing at an anti-bender rally?" He countered, blunderingly. Korra may have been the reincarnation of one of the city's founders, but that didn't give her license to just meander around. It was his city to protect after all!

Leviticus wondered if the Chief was starting to get to him.

"That's none of your business kid. We just want to go in there and see what's happening." The guy with the yellow-orange eyes of a fire-bender had slapped his hand over Korra's mouth to keep her from shouting out her riposte. "Think of it like a date," he added with a smirk that completely brought Korra's thought processes to a halt. Levi took the boy in again. He was a little taller than him and Korra, with a crew cut hairdo and black, unspecific clothes that said, while he lacked anything approaching a sense of fashion, he had a sense of frugality. He was just a little familiar…

"Aren't you that pro-bending champion, Mako's brother?" Levi blinked at him, trying to remember his name. Bo-something. Bowling? Bow? Bowen? No, wait, Bolin! "Your…"

"Mako."

"What? Not Bolin?"

"Bolin's my brother." The person that was previously Bolin eyed Leviticus with confusion and suspicion, but Levi was just annoyed that he had confused the pair. Regardless, why were Korra and Mako zt an Equalist rally? Leviticus voiced the question again, and Korra gave the haunting reply.

"Mako's brother Bolin, was kidnapped by the equalists. We're here to rescue him."

Leviticus's jaw dropped.

The Equalist's did WHAT!

Levi was on deck and had Korra fill him in before Mako could raise any objections. One way or the other, he was in for the long haul with them.

The first step to find Bolin was to get into the warehouse that the Equalist's were camped in. This was easier said than done, because when the trio got to the door, a single guard stopped them.

"This is a private event. Do you have an invitation?"

Korra and Mako searched their pockets, and Korra turned out a flyer. The guard smiled. "The revelation is upon us brothers and sister." He opened the door, letting the group step in and see for themselves what this revelation was. Levi just wondered if he had walked in on a cult. But the next sight took his breath away.

The tunnel opened into an enormous warehouse floor, densely packed with men and women of all persuasion and age. But Levi was positive that not a single bender was present in the dense crowd, save perhaps for the pair next to him. Unbidden, Leviticus began to quietly intermingle with the collection of people, staring at the many that took benders as the greatest threat to their continued existence. Levi didn't even notice when he had left behind Korra and Mako.

The throng suddenly stilled and directed their attention forward, Levi following suit, enraptured by the quiet. Rising on a pneumatic platform was a tall, hooded man wearing a white mask and flanked by a troop of similarly uniformed men. "Brothers and sisters," the hooded man began, "You have come here for the Revelation of our knowledge. And so I shall grant you this knowledge, if only soon." Levi's jaw then dropped again as he realized that he was staring at the actual visage of Amon, the leader of the Equalist revolution. The shock was enough to turned him back to the crowd as it surged and ebbed around him, shock filtering through the air. Amon commanded a powerful presence, and could neither be taken for a fool, nor lightly.

Levi tried to tune out Amon's speech and started picking through the crowd for Bolin. Needless to say, Bolin wouldn't be in the crowd, but trying to find the kidnapped earth-bender was a fine way to avoid listening to Amon. The orator had the eerie quality to make you think that he was speaking directly to you, personally and confidently, as though one was a trusted friend and conspirer. It was an altogether unnerving experience.

Then just as Levi was sure he had fully tuned out Amon, the crowd gasped and recoiled slightly, one man nearly knocking him down. Levi turned his attention to the front, but had seemed to miss the grand proclamation. But with his attention fully front, Levi was not to miss the sudden rise of another pneumatic platform behind Amon, bearing with it several people of numerous elemental affiliations… and Bolin!

Levi turned his full attention to the stage, watching as Amon offered to let "Lightning Bolt" Zolt, the leader of the triple threat triad "fight", for his bending, whatever that meant. Then, with a true dance of death, Levi watched Amon almost beautifully fly through the onslaught of fire and eventually lightning bending from Zolt. Then, immobilizing Zolt, he placed his thumb and fore-finger on Zolt's forehead, and as the floundering mobster continued to bend, began to hum.

Then, slowly but surely the lightning turned to fire.

Then, the fire to nothing.

Zolt, so much like fire-lord Ozai seventy years ago, had lost his bending.

Leviticus was floored.

Did he just…

NO WAY IN HELL!

Leviticus just barely restrained himself from screaming in shock as the crowd exploded with ecstasy. The benders weren't as untouchable now. The days of bending was numbered.

"Long live bending." Leviticus croaked. The next man in line lost his bending as well, and the next followed swiftly. Leviticus started to force his way through the crowd, struggling to turn his mind to a plan to rescue Bolin. If Bolin lost his bending, especially this early in the season, the ratings would tank!

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately if looked at form a future perspective, Leviticus didn't have to think of a plan. The convenient steam cloud took care of that.

Leviticus watched as the steam cloud expanded to fill the room, and wasting no time, threw a punch at the back of the head of a nearby equalist. The man turned and returned the punch tenfold, his fist landing right in the gut…

…Of a steal worker that obviously didn't want to be punched.

Levi bucked as the brawl expanded with the steam cloud, making his way for a back door. One of the guards raced by Levi, who opportunely punched him in the noggin, seeing as the man didn't need to be conscious right now. The earth-bending training had really left him a killer right hook. Levi broke into a run, sprinting through two doors and under a low hanging support beam before bursting out into a narrow alley. The alley was filled with an unconscious boy, and two dueling forms, one an electric wielding equalist, the other an earth-bender. Obviously Bolin.

"Run man, I'll hold him off." Levi broke into a run, coming up fast behind the electric equalist. The equalist turned to face him, a smooth move that let an earth disk through and past him. Levi dodged the stone and concrete projectile. "Hey, look out! I'm on your-."

The next disk caught Levi on his forehead.

…

Please let me go home.

I want to see my family and friends.

I want this to be over.

Please let me go.

…

Leviticus opened his eyes, only to shut them tightly again. 'I did not just see Amon, I did not just see Amon, I did not just see Amon.' Levi opened an eye again. Amon was still there. Levi closed the eye again, repeated the mantra of I did not just see Amon and reopened his eye. "That can't be healthy," Amon quipped, "but it's good to see that you are awake. You had quite a fight with the earth-bender."

Levi opened an eye sardonically. "He knocked me out in ten seconds flat, and I didn't get within twenty of him. If that's what you call a fight, I might just live though the war." Levi pushed himself up from the bed he had been lain on. "Plus the electric man did all the work."

Amon chuckled. "The electric man. I've never heard Izumo referred to as such. But don't worry, you missed the main act." Amon leaned closer from his seat on the opposite side of the room. "The Avatar arrived and attacked us."

Levi almost gasped aloud and exclaimed in horror when he caught himself. He knew that Korra was at the rally, was even friends with her, so why would he act like that was such a shock.

'Because Amon wants you to,' said a small voice in the back of Levi's head. Levi again caught his reaction, this one to recoil from the manipulator. Amon seemed a capable controller, easily getting the masses to act the way he needed them to too groom his own power. It was almost ironic really, how Amon could take someone's bending away and could talk someone around to a concept while making them think it was their own idea, whilst Korra could bend all four elements and couldn't argue for her life...

"I see I've over stayed my welcome." Amon rose from his chair, nodding wordlessly to the pensive metal-bender-in-training. "I shall send for your doctor." Amon came to the small door and opened it, only to stop when Levi took his attention once more. "If I may ask, why did you take me in here? I could be a spy for the council, or working for the triads, or a police in deep cover." Levi's eyes drilled into Amon's mask. The mask twitched in such a way that implied that Amon was smiling. "We had a doctor examine you when you came in. You have no aptitude for any form of bending." The revolutionary turned and left, completely missing Levi's downcast expression.

No aptitude for bending whatsoever. How could anyone, even a fanfiction writer, fix that?

…

The rest of Levi's day in the equalist compound passed with little fuss. The only visitor he had was a partly doctor that seemed to think he needed to be warmed up and handed him a black scarf with a red sun on it. Levi accepted it gratefully, but was otherwise stoic. According to the Doc he would be led out of the base under cover of night, blindfolded, to somewhere in the vicinity of the police square. This wasn't as terrible as he would have thought of it two weeks ago, having spent that time gaining a fairly large map of the area surrounding the station, outer limits not included. But that weapon smith wasn't too far away from it, so he considered it close, if that made sense.

That night, Levi was quickly stuffed into a truck, wheeled out to god knew where, and finally tossed out onto the street.

It was, in short, not too much off a bad ending for the long misadventure that was Leviticus's first (but definitely not last) encounter with equalists.

Long Live Bending!

A/N: So in this week's edition, Leviticus actually met Amon. Go figure.

Oh, and all updates are now bi-weekly until further notice.

Have a nice day.