"Knock, Knock." A feminine voice called from outside their room, "You guys decent?"
"Yeah, come on in, Asami."
"I've got them, Bolin." The young woman entered the room, giving Mako a kiss and proudly showed off the box she'd brought with her, "I just need you to put them on so I can see if they need to be adjusted." And she got there just in time to they were already suiting up to go their first mission debriefing.
"They should be fine, you took enough measurements of his arms." Mako rolled his eyes.
"Ha, ha." she tossed his guard back to him, "Thanks for the loan, it helps to have a prototype."
"I hope these work, we can't stick around the island much longer." Bolin pulled out a new set of arm guards. A very stylish set of arm guards made of black medal and fine black leather, with the golden seal of the flying boar in the center of each one, and matching leather gloves. "Wow, um, these are really nice, Asami..."
"What's the matter?" She frowned at the downcast look on his face. Like a child who didn't like his birthday present.
"Well, they're pretty light." Also, very flamboyant. He'd expected something more basic like the ones the equalists took from him, but his best friend did have a taste for the finer things in life. What had he expected, really?
"So otherwise you like them? Great! Don't worry about the weight. I made them out of black titanium, it's stronger and lighter than steel."
"Oh, great, that's good. 'Cause I was afraid they might, you know, break on me." Now it was time for the moment of truth. He put his fingers and thumbs through the rings and slipped them over his arms, "Alright, make way." They gave him a wide berth, he flexed his thumbs and little fingers downward and together. SNIKT, two blades popped out, SNIKT, the two blades retracted. "They work! Yes! My arms won't feel so naked anymore."
"And they match your uniform, perfectly." She had made them to go with almost anything, but she hadn't seen what the task force uniforms looked like, so she was a little worried they might look out of place.
"Oh thank the spirits for you, darling." Bolin put on a snobbish voice, "Now I can finally fight crime with the most fashionable people."
"Hey! I worked hard on those." Asami slapped Bolin's shoulder. Mako shook his head at the scene, but smiled. At least his little brother was telling jokes again, that was a good sign.
"We should get going." He said after glancing at the clock, "the ferry will be leaving any minute now."
"So, you guys ready to do this?" the avatar asked when she caught up to them by the stairway.
"Absolutely! I'm gonna love chucking boulders at a few equalists heads."
"Yeah, Amon won't know what hit him." Korra gloated with a downward glance, falling a few paces behind everyone so that no one would notice. The city needed her to be there, they made that much clear the other night at the gala, she couldn't back down.
"Oh, he'll know what hit him, alright," the team firebender respectfully disagreed, "my fist."
"Sorry Bro, I already called dibs. I can't wait to shove one of these blades straight up his ass-hello Tenzin..." he quickly changed the subject as a flash of yellows and reds came into his peripheral vision, "how are you this evening?" He could literally hear his mother scoff and tell what a 'nice save' it was. But the elder man had much more to worry about than the fowl language.
"I want you three to promise me that you'll be careful." He eyed them wearily, having spent a lot of time trying to convince all of them that they were making a huge mistake, but to no avail.
"We will." Mako answered.
"Sure, Tenzin." Korra replied.
"Yeah." Bolin agreed with the first two.
"And, you boys, be careful of Tarrlok as well. I know why he wants Korra on his task force, but I have no idea what he has planned for you two. Now if you'll excuse us, I would like to speak to Korra privately."
"Don't worry about us, Uncle Tenzin. We already know he's playing us like a koto. We won't turn our backs on him." Bolin reassured the airbender that they knew exactly what they were getting themselves into before boarding the ferry with his brother.
…...
They got into position outside the equalists training facility and Tarrlok nodded. As discussed in the debriefing, Mako and Bolin took point. Bolin smashing the ground leading to the cellar and then jumping down with his brother to deliver earth quakes and fire-blasts, soon followed by a small flood as the waterbenders came in to cover them. Before either of them knew it, the fight was over and Korra was coming back from the hallway with the councilman. Pictures were taken, they were given a pat on the back and sent home, none the wiser about their missing family member. The next night, they went back to do the same thing at another equalists training cellar. They took the point for six more of Tarrlok's raids before it finally happened.
"I got one!" Bolin cheered after he finally managed to hit one the rising pillars of dirt with a blindfold on. The seven-year-old waved his stick proudly, whacking himself upside the head in the process, "Ouch. Hey Grammy, did you see me?"
"No."
"Oh." the joke went clear over his head and he slumped in disappointment as his grandmother smirked.
"She can't see anything, Kid." Lin could not believe her mother still got her kicks from messing with the minds of children. Wasn't she a little old for that now? "She's blind, remember?"
"Oh, yeah." he suddenly burst out into a fit of giggles, "You're funny, Grammy."
"I like you, half-pint. You can take a joke...unlike someone else I know..." Toph put on that insufferable smirk and turned to her daughter's general direction. Gee, whoever could she be referring to?
"Shut up, Dead-eyes." If her mother wanted to play the blind card, so could she.
"I don't take orders, I give 'em, Scar-face."
"I get to choose your nursing home, Midget." Lin reminded her, as she'd seen Lee do to his elder parents.
"Not for another forty years or more, Hag." Of course. Lin had no doubt that her mother would still be living independently long after Bolin threw her in a nursing home, just out of spite.
"Short-stuff." a new voice broke in, pointing to Toph, "Meanie." his finger turned to Lin. There was a moment of silence; Lin blinked, Toph tried to clean out her ears because there was no way they'd heard a seven-year-old call them names. As it turned out their ears were, in fact, working just fine. Bolin had actually insulted both of them. Was this kid brave, stupid or suicidal?
"Well...I am as short as an arctic penguin." The dwarf conceded.
"And I'm as mean as a viperbat." The brute also admitted.
"But I'm also the greatest earthbender in history." The blind one reminded them.
"And I'm a damn fine metalbender." The scarred one pointed out.
"I think he should learn to choose his fights a little more carefully."
"I agree."
3...2...1...
"Get him, Pup."
"Ahhh!" Bolin screamed and took off in the other direction.
"You'd better run, Boy!" Lin shook her fist at his retreating back.
"Well," Toph smirked, feeling the footsteps go further and further away, "That's one way to get a kid to run sprints."
"Beifong!" Her jailer banged on her cell.
"Let's get this over with." she didn't fight back for the last couple of days, she'd let them think they were slowly breaking her spirit. Then when he least expected it, her guard was going to be shellacked.
"Chief Beifong."
"I'm tired of this game Amon. What do you want with me?" This was making absolutely no sense whatsoever, and it was starting to drive her crazy...though now that she thought about it that might be the purpose of this. But if he was trying to make her lose her sanity, there were easier ways than this.
"You have nothing that interests me." Then why did he take time out to visit her every day?
"Then why do you keep me here?"
"Because you're not broken, and therefore, you are still a threat. You would stand on the steps of police headquarters and openly defy me; rally your troops against me." And he wasn't wrong, that's exactly what she'd been planning to do, but he left out the part where she breaks his neck.
"The best way to deal with that kind of threat is to end it." Now some people would call her unhinged for suggesting her own death to the man keeping her locked away, but if he wanted to kill her, he would've done it by now. No, if she had to venture a guess, she would say that he planned to make an example of her. Perhaps by way of public execution, but not here where there was no one, with the exception of his followers, to see it.
"Perhaps." his eyes narrowed, that small detail made Lin think she'd somehow struck a cord. "You've made it very clear that you will go to any lengths to protect your family, Chief Beifong. While people will call you noble for taking a life to save your sons, it does not change the fact that you are a killer. I, however, am not. I am merely an equalizer." he stood up, somehow straighter than she had ever seen him before,"Do not mistake my views for weakness, should it become necessary, I will not hesitate to terminate your life."
"And become a killer like me?" Seemed a little contradictory to her.
"If I must." With that final warning, he left and her jailer came to take her back to her cell.
Like every conversation, she replayed it again and again in her head, trying to make sense of it. But, as usual, it ended up confusing her. Amon's reply to her advice wasn't the kind of response one would expect to hear from a self-righteous terrorist. Had he said that he wouldn't make her a marytr, or throw her officers into a blood thirsty rage, that would sound like a terrorist. It seemed like he wanted her alive and well...but why?
BEIFONG BOYS IN HOSPITAL
BOLIN BEIFONG AND HIS BROTHER MAKO INJURED DURING EQUALISTS RAID