"I feel so horrible." Bolin had literally asked for trouble, and that's just what he got. Sitting with his brother in Hiroshi's private box at the finals, he'd said that he wished Amon would show up. But he honestly believed the metalbenders could whip the chi-blockers in a fight. His opinion changed slightly when he got zapped by an electrified glove. What an underhanded trick.
"Don't." Mako put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "You said you wanted the equalists to show up so the cops could catch them, not so they could trash the place."
"Yeah, but man, I really need to learn to keep my big mouth shut." Really, it seemed like he would be doing the world a service.
"Well that's true." His big brother agreed wholeheartedly with a smirk, but for a different reason.
"Aah, shuddup."
"Hey guys." Both turned toward the new voice.
"Oh, Darling, you always show up perfectly dressed for the occasion." Bolin laughed as Asami came up the ladder, ready for a rare day of manual labor, complete with a brand new outfit consisting of workers' pants, boots and a black tank top with matching coat,
"What?" she asked defensively, "I didn't want to ruin my other outfits. You ready to get started?" Though this would be a lot easier if they'd just let her hire some movers. But no, 'we're fine', 'a few more days of magic water-healing and we'll be good as new', and her personal favorite 'we're not invalids, Asami'. They'd better not overexert themselves, she didn't want to bust them out of the hospital again.
"Yeah, just waiting for you." Since his girlfriend insisted that they didn't even think about starting until she got there to help.
"Then let's get to work." They took some of the bigger stuff out to a storage truck first, then started to pack away the little things.
"I still can't believe they're shutting this place down." Mako said as he filled up a crate.
"Yeah, the place was just beginning to feel like home."
"Hey guys!" Another girl came up the ladder, "Tenzin sent me to help you move your stuff to the island."
"Oh, that's nice but- ah," How could Mako say this nicely?
"We're gonna go home," Bolin blurted out, " and look after the place until we get mom back."
"Oh, that's understandable, I guess." And Korra had really been looking forward to having people her own age on the island. The closest one living there now was a thirteen-year-old boy, and they really didn't have much in common.
"While you're here would you please tell these two that they shouldn't be lifting furniture yet?" The heiress asked for some backup, as the two did overwork themselves a little bit.
"Would you please tell Asami that it won't kill us to work a little?"
"Lovers' tiff." Bolin whispered to Korra behind the cover of a hand, "Avoid eye contact and back away slowly." They made their way to the wall, getting as far away from the couple as possible.
"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" Asami demanded, "It's alright to ask for help!"
"Why do you have to coddle me? I'm a full-grown man!"
"Maybe we should get outta here." Korra whispered as she and Bolin had their backs to the wall, horrified as the couple continued to go back and forth.
"That is an excellent plan, there's just one problem. They're right by the ladder...so, you know. Stay put." He did glance around for any other means of escape, but unless the both mastered airbending in the next few seconds, they were stuck. Luckily something in the crate just to his right caught his eye, "I got an idea." he took a deep breath, "Hey, Korra! You wanna see the newspaper I got from when MY MOM TOOK ME TO A TAVERN AS A KID?!" the earthbender swore he heard the sound of screeching tires as Mako's head whipped around. Mission accomplished.
"What?!" He shouted. Not liking Mako ignoring her comeback, Asami put her hand up in a 'now just a minute' gesture, "Time out, Asami. What did you say, Bolin?"
"Mom. Took. Me. To. A. Tavern. See?" he proudly held up the old newspaper, the picture on the front page was of him and his mother sitting at the bar while Kya stood on top of it, telling a story. From all appearances, it looked they were both drinking, but his mug just had juice. It was still enough to make someone wonder about his mom's sanity, though. "Photographic evidence."
"Oh, let me see that." Asami rushed past her stunned boyfriend, "I never did get to see it." Momentarily forgetting the fight she grabbed the paper.
"Hold it!" Mako shouted, finally coming out of his daze, "Lin took you to a tavern when you were how old?"
"Nine." Nine-years-old. What kind of lunatic had his brother been raised by?, "Long story. Short version is, Grammy didn't like tearbending sissies, and Mom really needed a drink."
"Oh, there's Tenzin!" Asami laughed as Korra's eyes got as big as saucers.
"No. HAHAHAHAHA!" The avatar doubled over laughing at the image of her airbending teacher three sheets to the wind and dancing on a table with lampshade on his head. Tears were running down her face and her sides were hurting. And just when she thought she'd regained control, she took another look and busted up again.
"Wow, it looks like that was a wild party." Asami said as they all, even the grumpy Mako, laughed until their sides were sore at every member of the crazy family.
"Yeah, yeah." Bolin wiped a tear away, "Picture if you will, a nine-year-old version of me waking his mom up the next morning with a pot and spoon." Oh, that hadn't been a pretty sight. In fact, looking back he was surprised that she didn't bury him right then and there. She had looked like she wanted to, very badly.
"Really, Bro. How are you still alive?" If somebody... anybody, else had even thought to do half the stuff Bolin had done to her over the years Lin would've buried them six feet under. What love that woman must have for the boy.
"...Did you have a death wish?" Asami asked as well. Knowing the old proverb about letting sleeping badgermoles lie.
"No...I was stupid...and hungry and she just kept shrugging me off, even when I tugged on her fake beard. The child services representative, now she obviously had a death wish." They were all giving him a look that clearly meant, 'Go on', "What? She was hungover, and some moron had the gull to come up to her and threaten to take her kid away! I'm telling you, that woman was asking for it!"
"Is she still alive?" The question that was on everyone's mind.
"Thanks to Katara, Kya, Zuko and Tenzin, yeah." Not that his mom didn't try to remedy that, but she had been outnumbered four-to-one. Everyone calmed down from the fit of laughter, wiped their eyes and regained their composure.
"You know," Asami said thoughtfully as she closed the paper, "I heard that the newspaper factories always put extra copies in storage. I wonder if they ever sell any of them."
"Only one way to find out."
...
"Yo, Bolin." A metabending cop took off his helmet as he came up the Beifong's footpath. The four put the last of the crates down and out of the way.
"Hi... uh..." Bolin recognized him, but couldn't think of his name.
"Lee." That's right. The man was actually one of his mom's best friends. He wondered why he didn't see more of him.
"Right. Korra, this is one of my mom's friends, Lee. Lee, this is Korra."
"Avatar." he nodded, "I came to give you boys your pay." he held out a pile of cash. Bolin frowned, he had been hoping that Lee had come with news. Still, it was nice of him to bring their money to them so he took it without hesitation, Mako did not.
"We haven't been working." Mako reminded him, which is one of the many reasons they were moving back home. They just couldn't afford a new place right now.
"Lin put a years worth of money in the payroll, so I gues-"
"You mean, we've been getting an allowance all this time?" Off to the side, his little brother could be seen trying to sneak way, "Bolin?" The boy in question slowly turned and put on one of his best smiles, only succeeding in making him look even more guilty.
"We thought you wouldn't take it very well." No positive response, so he switched tactics, "Hey, I don't know about you, but I work hard for that money. Um, you're still thinking about killing me, aren't you?" At this point he decided it would be in his best interest to use what his mother called a time-honored airbending technique, he hid behind someone stronger than him...and the person he chose, Mako's girlfriend. Surely he wouldn't burn through Asami to get to him.
"What else haven't you people told me?"
"Um, let's see...hmm, well mom works for the city pro bono. We have land in Gaoling. Grammy built a huge mansion on a huge piece of land outside the city, and yeah, I think that's about it."
"Anyway." Asami used herself as a buffer between the brothers "Why don't we get your couch moved?"
"Fine." Mako grumbled as they went to the storage truck, "Why didn't you guys tell me?" We're they afraid that he might steal the family fortune or something?
"It slips my mind." Bolin jumped in the back and went to pick up the end of a couch, but was quickly stopped by Lee.
"Here, let me help with that." he lightly shoved the boy over, "I'm not in a hurry to get back to headquarters anyway."
"It 'slips your mind'?" Mako asked as he and Korra grabbed the other end to pull it down, "How could that just 'slip your mind'?"
"Look around, Mako." Bolin and Lee jumped off the truck, "This isn't the kinda place you expect a noble to live."
"She's nobility? Really?" he deadpanned.
"I'm sorry bro, I just forget. I think mom does too, sometimes. And she doesn't like being rich," She despised most rich people, she always said they were as useless as they were helpless, "I actually grew up thinking that being rich was a bad thing, so I did my best to hide it."
"Beifongs..." Lee mused, "you're all nuts."
"We know." The young Beifong grinned.
"They just don't care." Mako seethed.
"Not really. So Lee, is there any leads on my mom?" He knew it was wishful thinking, but he wouldn't be able to sleep if he didn't ask and make sure.
"No, but let's bend this thing to the house and we'll talk." Why did earthbenders love houses made of stone? Because remodeling was easy. They just took the earth underneath the couch opened a hole to the basement, pushed the furniture in and closed it; didn't take them two minutes. Now Lee was filling a glass with his mom's alcohol.
"Should you be drinking on duty?" Mako asked with raised eyebrow.
"The way Saikhan's running things, I don't give a damn." He frowned, taking a long swig, "If Lin could see what he's doing to her force..." she'd kick his ass all the way to Ba Sing Se and back. Then pack him in a wooden crate and ship him to the Northern Water Tribe where he couldn't do anymore harm.
"What's he doing?" Sure Saikhan wasn't as good as his mom, but could he really be doing all that bad?
"Letting that two-faced politician, Tarrlok, run the police." Lee downed the glass and poured another.
"What?!"
"He's going along with everything Tarrlok says, even blaming a rookie avatar for the arena screw up."
"That wasn't my fault!" Korra tried to get to Amon's airship, but she just ran out of steam before she could get to the roof, "I couldn't reach Amon!"
"It was our fault, Avatar. But Tarrlok wants to keep his little pet as acting Chief as long as possible, so he's pushing the blame off. But that's not the worst of it." He took a big gulp, "The way Tarrlok's starting to treat the nonbenders, it's not gonna be long before we have civil war in the Republic."
"Then we really need to find Mom fast, she can stop Tarrlok."
"Yeah, sure Bolin." Who was Lee to tell the kid that his mom was probably dead by now?
"Chief Beifong." Amon greeted with his normal well-mannered tone. Lin scowled, she agreed to behave, not to be polite.
"What do you want?" Same question, as always. At this point she was really just doing her best to annoy him. That wasn't typically her style, but this guy was really pissing her off.
"Nothing except a conversation."
"Go talk to your lieutenant, I think he's starved for affection." For one reason or another. Whether it was hero worship or lovers envy, Lin couldn't tell. All that she knew was that his second-in-command was fiercely loyal and didn't take kindly to his boss meeting with her.
"My lieutenant thinks that I should leave you to rot in your cell." The masked man replied, unfazed by her comment, "You would rather I left you to sit in silence?"
"Given my options, absolutely." Even though she had so much time not to work on an escape plan and nothing to read except that newspaper. Even though she'd read the thing so many times that she even had the gossip column memorized, "I'd rather go stare at my cell walls then stare at your mask."
"It's my mask that offends you?" He asked putting his hands to his face.
"Don't flatter yourself," Lin scoffed, "everything about you offends me." As she spoke, she noticed the mask starting to move away from his face. Interesting. He'd told her the sob story he used on all his recruits, but she never expected him to show anyone his face.
"Perhaps you prefer me like this." The scar dominated most of his face, destroying part of the left side of his mouth. After taking a good look at the burn marks she simply shrugged.
"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Alright, she'd admit, she was numb to such scars because she grew up seeing Zuko's, and sometimes Aang's. And if he wasn't inciting a war in her city, or threatening her boys, she would definitely buy him a few drinks as an act of goodwill for someone else who had one hell of a traumatic childhood. But he was, so there would be no trace of sympathy on her end.
"No, I don't expect you would be. Your scars merely added character to your face." Oh, yes, they added character, and she still couldn't go anywhere without people pointing and whispering. Every person who had the courage to mention them made it a point to tell her that she still looked pretty, that they just gave her face a little more character. They made her look tough, though, that was good. Nothing told a lowlife 'I've faced a lot worse than you' better than visible scars.
"You're not the only one with burn marks on your face. You're not the only person who's lost family. And I don't care which spirit showed you how to remove bending, you're still nothing but a bigot and a terrorist."
"I think we're done for today."
Korra's brain felt like tigerseal jelly. Her friends had decided to meet up at Asami's mansion to figure out a new plan of attack, one that in no way involved the police force. This effectively fried all their brains to the point where Asami suggested they go to the testing track and relax for a little while. It was fun, Asami even took her for a spin, but they weren't any closer to solving their problem.
"No, no, I assure you everything is going exactly as planned." Korra paused, having just stumbled onto what sounded like a suspicious conversation, "Um-Hmm. Yes." He continued to talk not realizing she had snunk over to look through the peephole, "Luckily, the Cabbage Corp investigation has bought us enough time. Trust me, by the end of the week we'll be ready to strike." He hung up the telephone and she started to panic. This was bad. Really bad. She needed to tell someone, but who?
"Guys." She grabbed Bolin and Mako by the sleeves and pulled them off to the side, "Sorry, Asami, this is private." The other girl raised a curious eyebrow, but made no objections, "Listen, I just overheard Mr. Sato on the phone." After a hurried and slightly hysterical explanation, they stared at her with their mouths agape.
"You were spying on Hiroshi?!" Mako shouted, "What's your problem?!"
"Why were you spying on my father?!" Asami joined in the discussion on her father's behalf.
"Mako, Asami," Bolin waved his temperamental brother and offended best friend off, "she just heard something that sounded bad and came to warn us."
"That's right!" At least someone was siding with her.
"She just heard wrong, that's all." He explained simply.
"I didn't hear anything wrong!" Korra knew what she heard, and she heard Sato talking about an equalist attack.
"What did you hear as you were spying on my dad?" With the flaring tempers, this could quickly become a sparing match if no one did something about it. Mako wouldn't be of any help, he was just as offended as his girlfriend, so it was up to Bolin.
"Uhh...look," he carefully maneuvered in between the two girls and put his hands on Korra's shoulders to steer her away from the other two, "I'll handle this one, guys." Taking her outside for a breath of fresh air he sat on the steps, "Korra, I know what you think you heard-"
"I know I heard it!" Why wouldn't anyone believe her on this?
"I believe that he said what you said he did, but I don't think that's what he meant."
"Just because he's Asami's dad doesn't mean he's not an equalist."
"He's my mom's friend..." and that meant everything to Bolin, "and he's always been kinda like an uncle to me. I mean, sure a firebender killed Ms. Sato, but he doesn't hate us all for it."
"Asami's mom was killed? That's terrible."
"Yeah, it was a long time ago. Asami was only six."
"But that would explain why he's with the equalists!" She jumped up and ran towards the front door, ready to take down a dangerous equalist. Meanwhile, Bolin yelled for her to stop, but to no avail.
"That...didn't go as planned." he said to himself before jumping up and running in the house as well, where he (like his friend had only a few seconds before) skidded to a stop.
"Hey..Hiroshi...we we're just talking about you." He tried to make his voice as pleasant as possible.
"I know," he smiled, "Asami and Mako told me all about it." with a playful shake of the head he addressed the avatar, "You see, you misunderstood me. My number one competitor was knocked out of the game. It's providing me with an opportunity to strike the market with a new line of Satomobiles."
"See, Korra, he was just talking business talk. Honest mistake."
She hadn't been convinced. In fact, she'd stormed out right then and there. Bolin had come by the island a little while after sunset and tried convince her that Asami's dad was a good man, but there was no changing her mind. Korra told him that Hiroshi wasn't the man everyone thought he was. An argument was struck and it ended with the line 'well, why don't we just search the entire mansion'. He had been trying his hand at sarcasm, but to Korra it sounded like a good idea. Bolin vowed once again that he would learn to keep his big mouth shut.
So the next morning Asami, despite her grievances, got her father out of the house so they could search it. His office turned up nothing but some blue prints for his new line of vehicles and some business papers that needed translation from Asami to be understood. His bedroom yielded no results whatsoever. Nor did any of the guest rooms, closets, servants quarters, kitchen, library, dinning room, rec room, workshop, pool house, or green house. Their final stop, just so they could honestly say that they searched everywhere, was Asami's bedroom.
"Mako, stop!" Everyone stopped their search as the owner of the room screeched at her boyfriend who had just mindlessly went to open a drawer. The offender froze, trying to figure out what he'd done wrong. Bolin looked on humorously while Korra looked on distrustfully. "That's my underwear drawer." Mako turned red as his scarf and jumped away like it was going to bite him.
"So close..." Bolin snickered, "bad luck, Bro."
"Very funny, Bolin." His big brother straightened up to salvage what dignity he could. Korra went over to make sure no equalist glove was hiding away in the personal drawer. The earthbender tried not to laugh at the scene because in the mirror, he could see some sort of mild shock come over the avatar. She had probably never seen frilly underwear before... Bolin only knew of these garments because his faithful pet accidentally ended up snatching a pair. It hadn't really been him letting his curiosity get the better of him or anything...and he hadn't threw the incriminating cloth on Pabu's head to avoid a well-deserved slap or anything. Nope, sometimes animals did the strangest things.
And then something on the dresser caught his eye.
"Lin, did you see that?" Bolin hollered to his caretaker as she watched him and his new friend, Asami, play in her indoor pool.
"Yes, Boy." She said tiredly, of course she'd seen it, she wasn't going to let two little kids play in a pool without keeping a close eye on them. He was just trying to make her play with them by showing how much fun the water could be.
"Come in and try it. I bet I can stay under longer than you can." He was learning, she'd give him that. If someone wanted to push a Beifong to do something, little worked better than a challenge. That being said, Lin found no real challenge in staying under water longer than a six-year-old, so her stubborn family pride wasn't wounded by turning him down.
"For the last time, I said I don't want to swim." What she wanted was to curl up with a steaming cup of tea and a good book, but that wouldn't be happening any time soon, "You two can play." He pouted, but went back to playing with the eight-year-old. As with any friends of any age, a splash fight was soon underway. Asami accidentally splashed Lin's left pant leg and she cowered, being completely afraid of the scary woman. Lin looked at her leg, then looked at the girl...
"That's the final crack." Without warning she jumped into the deep end, fully clothed and chased the girl to a much shallower part of the pool where everyone's feet could touch the bottom. Bolin, knowing that this was just like the game they played in the overload cell, grabbed onto the woman's waist.
"I'll save you, Asami!" He cried heroically, before being pulled off and gently tossed into the water. He tried again, this time dunking under and trying to uproot her foot. Again, just to be pulled up and thrown away. Now that the front line soldiers had been dealt with, Lin went for her prize. The little girl huddled against the side of the pool, apologizing over and over.
"Hold your breath, Kid," she warned the girl as she picked her up, "your going under."
"Not today!" The boy shouted, grabbing her left arm and hanging from it. Hmmm...what to do? A lesson needed to be learned here, but Bolin was blocking her from delivering the blow.
"Better hold your breath." She warned again, falling backwards, going under and taking the kids with her.
"Get her!" Now was Bolin's chance, Lin wasn't so tall now. He jumped into her lap before she could stand. Asami, finally realizing this was nothing more than a game, hopped onto the woman's back. The old badgermole smiled as they worked together to put her under, never knowing there was a maid with a camera standing in the doorway.
Man, that took him back to a much simpler time where there was no Amon, equalists, or politicians to worry about. The only thing wrong with those days was the absence of his brother. Granted that was a big part of his life to be missing, but why couldn't things be that simple anymore? 'Better not let Mom see that picture.', he mused, 'If she finds out that there's evidence proving that she can be fun and lovable, she will destroy it'.
"I think it's time for you to leave." Asami's suggestion to Korra snapped him back to reality, apparently the avatar still wasn't convinced that Hiroshi was innocent. Asami and Mako were both reaching the end of their ropes.
"Fine." She glared before storming out. She seemed to be really good at that.
"Korra!" he stopped her outside, "Hey, what's wrong? We checked the place, he's just a regular business man." So maybe he using the guy from Cabbage Corps's jail time to help his business. Probenders did the same thing every time a member of the opposing team had some sort of injury, it didn't make them evil, just...not very nice.
"Yeah, that's what you guys keep telling me." She shot him a look and continued along. He ran up and stood in her path.
"We woulda found something if he was evil, but we checked everywhere!"
"Not everywhere." It could be at one of his factories, or one of the warehouses.
"Where else is there to check?" he misunderstood her meaning, and slapped the ground comically and repeatedly "See?" he pointed out with closed eyes, "Nothing left...except the tunnel that leads to a large bunker." He opened his eyes to see the gears in her head turning, "Which is probably used for severe weather or other dangerous situations...fine." she wasn't going to back down, "Mako and Asami are gonna kill me."...
"Come on, Bolin." Mako groaned after his brother finished explaining.
"I can't believe your siding against my dad!"
"Hey," he held up his hands defensively,"I'm with you on that. But we did say we'd check everywhere, and we haven't."
"Yes we did, we don't have a bunker."
"You were seeing things, Bolin, the stress is getting to you."
"First off, I didn't see it, I felt it. Secondly, what does it matter? We're not going to find anything." They huffed and drug their feet, but they went along with it. They couldn't get through the entrance under the workshop, because after Hirohi came home he said he'd be in there for a few hours, so Bolin tunneled downward, with Mako's flame to guide the group. Two jaws dropped as they came on the metal exterior of the tunnel, "Secret tunnel," he sang, "secret tunnel... secret, secret, secr-"
"Bolin. Stop."
"What? It just sorta popped into my head...okay, tough crowd." he followed the tunnel until they got to a container that didn't have a bottom, "Under, up and...in." he helped everyone to the floor, "Uh-oh. I'd...like to change my vote. I'm with Korra on this one." They stared at the decor, no denying that it had an equalist owner, if the banners of Amon were any indication.
"I knew it!" Korra said a little too loudly, "Oh, I'm sorry, Asami."
"How could he?"
"What are these machines?"
"I'm guessing those are the new weapons."
"Very astute, young avatar." A wall slammed behind them. The lights dimmed. The machines came to life, one moved and stood guard over their entry hole. Five more surrounded them.
"Hiroshi! I knew you were a lying, no-good equalist!" Korra yelled, "Come out here and-"
"And do what? Face the wrath of your bending? No I think I fight from inside my mecha tank were my odds are a little more...equal."
"Dad, stop!" Asami ordered.
"Restrain her!" At her father's command, one of the five fired a cable at her. She dodged. Not a second later, cables were fired at the rest of them forcing them to scatter. Bolin dodged the one to his right and used the earth to propel him on to the head of the mecha tank. A flex of the fingers and his blade popped out which he used to smash through the glass. He sliced a few controls and jumped away as the thing went haywire, only to be ensnared and electrocuted by another one.
"Shoulda saw that one comin'." He zoned out as his vision started to go blurry. He soon blacked out and the others didn't last much longer. The only one still conscious was Asami, and she was securely trapped in some cables. Now that the battle, if it could even be called that was over, Hiroshi proudly climbed out of his own tank,
"Well, I'd say that was a nearly flawless test run." Even if it was against three half-baked benders, "Load them into the transports and deliver them to Amon."
"Dad...why?" Asami asked, near tears.
"Sweetie, I wanted to keep you out of this for as long as I could, but now that you know the truth, please forgive me. These people, these benders, they took away your mother, the love of my life. They've ruined the world. But with Amon we can fix it, and make a perfect world together. We can help people like us, everywhere." he took off his right glove and offered it to her, "Join me, Asami."
"Dad..." she looked around. Her boyfriend, still passed out on the ground from the blow to his head. Her best friend and the one who tried to warn them all, both of them were tied up on and on the trucks, but were awake enough to watch the scene, "is Amon going to hurt them?"
"No. They'll just become like us. They can still live happy, normal lives." he turned to glare at the two conscious benders, "They just won't be able to hurt anyone, anymore."
"As long as he's not hurting them." she nodded and the mecha tank operator released the bonds. Her father gave her the glove and pulled her into a tight hug.
"I'm so proud of you, Asami."
"Thanks, dad."