"You sure you want to walk home alone?" Troy whispered into her ear before nibbling gently on her lobe.
"I'll be fine," she replied with a giggle.
"You positive?" Troy continued to question her.
"Yes, Troy, I'm positive."
"Seriously, Asami, the guy that attacked your house, he's not a nice man. I don't want you getting hurt." He told her pulling her tighter into him.
"I know," Asami replied, "I'll be careful. The fairy docks are only a block away." Asami then stood on her tip toes and pressed a goodbye kiss to Troy's lips. "Good night," she whispered.
"Good night," he told her with a smile, before letting her pull away and walk off. He watched her turn the corner before beginning to walk up his stairs to his apartment that he was staying in while he was in Republic City. He was just about to unlock his door when he heard Asami scream.
He leapt to the bottom of the stairwell, skipping them all, and took off down the street at top speed. He rounded the corner, nearly tripping over a fire hydrant that was smack dab in the middle of the walkway, and found two thugs trying to drag Asami into a van. "Hey!" he called after them, making the fire hydrant explode with the clenching of his left fist. And with precise skill that Asami's assailants had only seen in one other person, Troy was surfing down the street on a steady stream of water.
He landed on the ground in front of them, and made the water stream come around him in a wide circle. One of Asami's assailants let go of the non-bending girl, and began throwing blasts of fire at Troy, who deflected them with ice shards he projectiled out of the ring of water that flowed around him.
Troy's attempt to save his girlfriend was in vain, though, because as soon as Troy turned to try and hit the assailant that still had a hold of Asami, the one he was fighting head on aimed a well-placed kick to his head. And everything went black. The last thing he saw? Min Chang's symbol tattooed on the man's hand.
X
"What happened?" Lin demanded as she shoved past Mako and Bolin, and over to Kao who was crouching over an unconscious dark haired boy with the white coat that had been on the tabloid with Asami Sato.
"Come on, Troy, wake up." Kao urged the boy, shaking his shoulder gently.
"We don't know," Mako told her. "We were walking to the station when we found him past out in the middle of the sidewalk. Kai knew him so we stopped."
"He's going to hate me for this," Lin heard Kao mutter.
"What exactly is he going to hate you f–" SMACK! Before Lin had been able to finish her sentence, Kao had smacked the boy across the face.
"No!" he shot up, and then looked around wildly. "No, no, no, no, NO!" he pounded the sidewalk with an angry fist.
"Troy," the boy kept screaming no, "Troy, look at me!" Kao snapped authoritatively as she grabbed his chin and forced his face to align with her. There was a silenced for a few moments as the boy calmed down, and then Kao spoke again, "Troy, what happened?"
"They got her," he muttered sadly, "The got Asami."
"Who got her?" Lin demanded.
The boy, Troy apparently, met Lin's eyes with his dark blue ones with a hollow look that made her worry for his emotional well-being, "Min Chang's men." He replied.
"He is starting a war," Lin muttered to herself. "Get your friend up, Kao." The girl nodded and helped the boy stand. "We're going to Air Temple Island," she told the four teenagers.
"To do what?" Troy bit out sourly, now angry.
"To discuss what to do about the situation with Tenzin." Kao explained to her friend. "No matter what though, we're going to find Asami." She tried to reassure her friend.
"You better," He sneered at Kao. "Or I'm holding you personally accountable."
"Oh, you're being a jackass," Kao responded, letting go of the boy's arm, allowing him to stumble to try and catch his balance. "It must be an even numbered day; I do so prefer the odd numbered days when you're kissing my ass for a favor." Troy glared at Kao, who just smirked and began to walk off on her own, leaving Mako and Bolin to help the boy up. Lin would have scolded the girl for what she did, but in all honesty, she thought the boy deserved it.
X
"What?!" Tenzin exclaimed, outraged by the news.
The group was all gathered in the sitting room. Tenzin and Pema (with a sleeping Rohan in her arms) were sharing a love seat, with Bei Fong across the coffee table from them in a lounge chair, Troy was seated with the airbending kids on the couch that was to the left of the love seat, and Korra, Mako, Bolin, and Kai were seated across the coffee table from the group on the couch cross legged on the floor. "Why are they even here?" Pema asked, scared.
"Because Min Chang is a power hungry di…dumdum," Troy originally spoke venomously, but that tapered off as he corrected himself from using foul language in front of small children.
"Good save," Jinora told Troy, patting him on the arm.
"I hate to ask the obvious question," Kai spoke, "But, what do we do?"
"Well, my assumption is that–" Troy was cut off by a messenger hawk tapping its beak against the window that looked into the sitting room.
Tenzin furrowed his brow in confusion and went outside to receive the message. He glared angrily at the bird when it bit him, and the swatted it away. When he came back in, he unrolled the scroll and read it aloud.
"My dearest victims," Kai and Bei Fong sneered at the opening. "By now, I assume you know that your friend has been taken. If you want her back, you have two options. One: you can hand over Republic City to me, and she leaves unscathed or Two: you can send the Avatar and her little band of friends to fight me on Orta Island.
"If you choose option two, then I will be waiting for you. You have until the evening of Thursday, June 1 to hand over Republic City, or I assume you have chosen to attack and your friend won't come out so unscathed.
"I await to see your answer, Avatar, my victims, yours truly, Min Chang." Everyone in the room sat quietly for a moment, and then Korra stood up. Her expression was angry. Kai and Troy soon joined her.
"Well, what are we waiting for?!" Korra exclaimed, "We need to get ready to head to Orta Island!"
"Korra, please think about this," Tenzin began to try and reason with the Avatar.
"I don't know what there is to think about Tenzin," Bei Fong spoke, "you are handing over this city over my dead body. Prep the sky bison," She ordered her childhood friend as she stood, "We leave at dawn." Bei Fong then left for her apartment in the city.
Everyone then went to go to their own rooms to pack what they needed.