Just Like the Good Old Days
Sorry this took so long. I don't own Legend of Korra.
How to Make This Work
Noatak's POV:
I hadn't slept at all last night. I just couldn't. I knew what was coming very soon. There had to be a way for me to help Korra find out about the new weapons and Hiroshi Sato's involvement with the Equalists. I was interrupted from my musings on this when Korra knocked on my door and showed herself in.
"Hey, Noak, I just talked to Tenzin."
"What about?"
"About letting the guys come to live here. Mako and Bolin can't stay at the Pro-Bending arena anymore after what happened."
The memory of the other night stung me once again.
"Yeah, I guess."
"Hey, are you okay? You seem kinda…off."
"I'm fine, Korra." She didn't look convinced. "Really, I'm okay. I just…I've had a lot on my mind lately."
"You wanna talk about it?" She sat down next to me on the bed and I felt nervous at our close proximity to each other. "Because, you know you can tell me anything, right?"
"It's just-it's just…I've been getting this bad feeling lately. I know something's gonna happen and I don't know how to deal with it. I'm worried, Korra. There's something going on and I don't like it."
"Hey," she put a hand on my shoulder, "it's okay. We're all worried. But, everything's gonna turn out fine. I promise."
She got up and left to go and retrieve our two friends. Of course, I already happened to know that Asami Sato was going to invite them to live at the Sato mansion. How could I not know about it? Hiroshi had gone into a tirade at headquarters after he found out. I then heard the sound of someone else entering the room.
"Hello, Tarrlok."
My brother just stood there, I wasn't even looking at him but I could tell he was giving me a glare.
"You can't keep this up, you know?" He said. "You have to find a way to help Korra find out what she needs to know without her having to put herself on the line like last time. If her friends hadn't shown up to help her, who knows how things would have turned out. You could at least do me a favor and give me all the information you remember about what the Equalists are up to."
"To do what?" I snapped. "Send an anonymous tip-off to the authorities? How do you know that they won't just assume it's a hoax or a trap?"
Tarrlok didn't flinch at my outburst.
"Just tell me the truth. You owe me that much. And we owe Korra that much."
"Fine." I relented. "Where should we start?"
"How about we start with when the Equalists are going to plant those crates of weapons at Cabbage Corp? It will help keep an innocent man from losing his business and it might slow down the progress that the Equalists are making."
I let out a sigh. The Cabbage Corp incident had indeed bought the Equalists valuable time. I still felt guilty about the frame-up; it had not been one of my proudest moments to have Mr. Gan-Lan arrested for a crime he didn't commit. Tarrlok looked at me, his expression completely serious, and I told him what I knew.
Tarrlok's POV:
Noatak told me everything about the Cabbage Corp set-up. I knew when and how the Equalists were going to carry out this little caper, now I just needed to think up a brilliant scheme to get them all caught and arrested.
"This is the dumbest idea ever, Tarrlok." Noatak hissed at me as we stood outside the police office a few hours before the Equalists were due to arrive and plant the false evidence in Cabbage Corp. We were dressed in large trench-coats and fedora hats like informants in a radio mystery series. I frowned at him.
"It's not dumb, and stop calling me by that name. What's the point of having code-names if you're not gonna use them?" He rolled his eyes and I stuck out my tongue in response. It was childish, but we had gotten used to bickering in this way.
"Fine. But why does my codename have to be 'Angry-jerk'?" He snapped.
I gave him the look that silently told him 'you just answered your own question'.
"Can't we please just cooperate on this? It's important."
Noatak let out an irritated huff.
"Let's just get this over with. Tenzin will get miffed if he finds out that we're out at this time of night."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I dismissed his statement with a wave of my hand. "Now come on, Agent Angry-jerk. We've got intel to report."
"You've been listening to too many late-night crime-drama radio broadcasts."
"Just follow my lead." I retorted.
"Lead away, Agent Annoying."
"It's 'Agent Awesome'."
"Ego issues much?"
"Can we just do this already?"
He shrugged and I led the way to the back door of the police station. I pulled out a wire and a small nail-file and began to pick the lock.
"Tarrlok." Noatak said, but I ignored him. "Tarrlok." Still ignoring. "Tarrlok." His tone was very aggravated.
"What? Can't you see I'm concentrating?"
"The door isn't locked."
I felt like someone had hit me in the face with a shovel.
"I knew that." No I didn't. "I just…wanted to look cool." Okay, that was true.
Noatak just rolled his eyes and opened the door. Police informants always came in this way and we soon managed to get to Chief Bei Fong's office. I really hoped that she wouldn't recognize our voices or anything. We kept the necks of our coats up and the brims of our hats lowered so no one would see our faces.
"Chief Bei Fong." I addressed the esteemed Chief of Police, purposefully making my voice lower so as to sound more adult.
"What do you want? I'm very busy as the moment." She replied.
"My associate and I have reason to believe that the Equalists are planning on setting-up Lau Gan-Lan by planting Equalist weapons in his factory. They should be arriving to carry this out in just a few hours from now."
"Uh-huh." She didn't sound convinced.
"Chief Bei Fong." Noatak stepped forward; also changing his voice (he was much better at it than me). "You must listen to us. If this goes unchecked, an innocent man is going to have his reputation ruined."
She seemed to be buying Noatak's explanation.
"Very well." She sighed. "If you two are so adamant, I suppose it's worth looking into."
"Thank you, Chief Bei Fong. That's all we can ask." Noatak turned to leave.
"Also," I quickly started to add as I followed my brother out, "don't trust Hiroshi Sato. He's an Equalist and-" I was cut off by Noatak grabbing my arm and yanking me after him.
"What?" I fussed at Noatak as we headed back toward Air Temple Island. "She has a right to know."
"One step at a time, Tarrlok. We were pushing our luck as it was."
"So, what are we going to do now?"
"We're going back to the island and we are going to get some sleep and check the news in the morning."
"Aw, come on. Surely we can go out and bust into some Equalist hideouts. I'm sure you know where all of them are."
"This isn't a game! Do you have any idea how confusing this is for me?! All you can think about is breaking into places and beating people up to get your picture in the newspaper!"
"Nuh-uh." I protested. "I care about this city. And who said anything about being in the newspapers? I was thinking we could be like vigilantes or something."
Noatak looked at me like I'd lost my mind.
"You're insane. Getting this second life has made you go completely mad. It was bad enough you had to go all murder-suicide on me when we could have just gone and rebuilt our lives. Now look at us. Come on, Tarrlok. Tell me, what part of this situation makes you think everything is just sunshine and rainbows?"
"We're alive." I shrugged.
"Yeah. Big whoop." He deadpanned as he threw his hat into a trashcan.
"Come on, Noa." I said pleadingly as I walked faster, trying to catch up with him as he stormed away. "Don't be like this. Can't you just enjoy life?"
"Enjoy life? Of course I enjoy life. I've enjoyed the life we've been leading since our second chance occurred up until we set foot in this damned city."
"Come on, Noa." I stopped him. "What's really bugging you? Is it Korra?"
"What? Korra's not bugging me. Why would you say that?"
"You know what I mean." I leaned against the building behind me and crossed my arms. I sighed and closed my eyes. "What's the problem?"
"It's everything, okay!?" He yelled. Noatak never usually exploded like this; ordinarily, he was calm and collected all the time. "I hate this. I hate not being able to change everything completely. I'm just so angry with myself over all the mistakes I made. And I'm upset that this is all bringing Korra so much trouble. And yet, you act like nothing's wrong and drag me off to play detective-vigilante-whatever like it makes a difference. Well it doesn't. It's not going to change anything. And we've put Korra through all this, even though none of it was her fault. It's not like she asked to be the Avatar and yet we went and did all this. And the worst part is that we actually care. Back in the days when we did all this, we didn't know her. We didn't care about her. You played her for your little glory-hogging schemes and I tried to destroy her for no reason other than the fact that she was born with unique gifts and responsibilities that set her apart. I know she's a human being like everyone else, but she is also special and neither of us saw that. All we saw was someone we could use for our own goals, and we preyed on her weaknesses until she finally reached the breaking point with us and brought us both down. And we deserved it."
We both stood there in silence for a long time. Eventually, I broke the tension and placed a hand on my brother's shoulder.
"Come on." I said. "Let's go get some noodles or something at Narook's before we get back to the island." Noatak threw me another disbelieving look and I shrugged. "I'd say you're in need of comfort food, so we are going to get noodles. And maybe some sea prunes too if you knock it off with the looks."
Korra's POV:
I woke up this morning and went to find the guys. They were both sitting in front of the radio listening to the news. I started to say good morning but they shushed me as a report suddenly came on.
"Chief Bei Fong." The reporter inquired. "How did you know that the Equalists were planning on framing Mr. Gan-Lan?"
"I received a tip-off from two anonymous informants who arrived at my office last night and urged me to launch an investigation of the possibility of Equalists infiltrating Cabbage Corp and planting the 'evidence' of Mr. Gan-Lan's alleged involvement."
"Then, do you have any leads as to who the real manufacturer of the Equalist weapons is?"
"As my sources were leaving my office last night, one of them blurted out his belief that Hiroshi Sato is an Equalist. Therefore, in light of the reliability of my sources, we will be instigating a search of Future Industries."
"Wow." I voiced my thoughts. "It sure was lucky for Mr. Gan-Lan that someone warned Bei Fong before the Equalists ruined his life." Tarro and Noak both nodded but remained silent. "But, Hiroshi Sato an Equalist? That seems a bit far-fetched." The guys didn't respond to my attempt at lightening the mood. "What's with you two?"
They briefly exchanged looks.
"Tired." They both answered at the same time.
I brushed it off. If they wanted to tell me something they would tell me when they wanted to, I could never force answers out of them.
Noatak's POV:
"Why are we here?" I asked as we walked up to the front door of the Sato mansion. "Mr. Sato is being investigated for involvement with the Equalists. I don't think this is a good idea."
"Come on, Noak." Korra replied. "I promised the guys we'd show up. And besides, do you really believe that Hiroshi Sato is an Equalist? He endorsed the Fire-Ferrets. His daughter is dating Mako, who is a Firebender."
"Maybe the supporting your team was just a cover. And maybe Asami doesn't know her father is an Equalist." I stopped and caught my slip. "I mean, you know, if he is an Equalist. But we won't make assumptions until it's proven."
"Exactly, that's why it's important to show that we're not going to jump to conclusions because of what some random person said."
I exchanged a look with Tarrlok and he just shrugged.
We were shown through the mansion by the butler until we reached the swimming pool where our friends were waiting.
"Earthbending bomb!" I heard the familiar voice of Bolin shout right before there was a loud splash.
The butler announced our arrival to the others.
"Avatar Korra, Master Noak, and Master Tarro have arrived."
"Hey, guys!" Mako greeted us.
"Glad you made it!" Asami added.
"Welcome to paradise!" Bolin concluded.
"Looks like you guys settled right in." Korra stated with a sly smirk.
"Pretty much," Mako responded, "except someone forgot to ask her father if we could stay here."
"Yeah, but I smoothed it over with him." Asami pointed out. I felt the sudden urge to laugh, if only she knew. "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission."
After a bit more light banter, Korra decided to get right to the point.
"So, what do you have planned for us today?" She asked Asami. "Let me guess, shopping, makeovers..."
"Ooh! Ooh! I vote makeovers!" Both Bolin and Tarrlok shouted at the same time.
Korra and I both turned to look at my brother in disbelief.
"What?" He replied with a shrug.
"I had something a little more exciting in mind." Asami told us.
Korra's POV:
Wow, I had never thought that racing satomobiles would be on the agenda. I thought for sure that Asami was just some prissy rich girl, boy was I wrong. I'm actually starting to like this girl, and in a way I actually feel kinda bad for her that she's dating Mako, she can obviously do better. Okay, maybe I'm being a little hard on Mako, but he started it. Anyway, Asami took me for a spin in one of the satomobiles and we totally creamed the other driver in the race, it was awesome! Afterwards, I felt like I needed to straighten myself out as I probably looked a total mess after that race. After taking care of 'personal needs' I set about washing up; that's when I noticed the makeup on the sink counter. Why in the world did girls wear this stuff? Was there something about it that guys found attractive? My thoughts instantly switched to Noak, would he notice me more if I acted like these city-girls? I thought it was worth a try. Boy was I stupid. I practically slammed the powder-puff for the face-powder against my face. Note to self, never use makeup in the same way you would attack a bad guy, either that or just stay away from makeup in general. Coughing and wiping the powder out of my eyes, I walked into the hallway and noticed Noak and Tarro crouching beside the door to Mr. Sato's office, I was going to ask them what they were doing when I heard what Mr. Sato was saying on the phone. It made my blood run cold.
"I regret to say that the plan at Cabbage Corp didn't go as it should've. Apparently, someone tipped-off the police. Yes, yes, I understand, but we've lost too much time already. No, no-I assure you that I will do everything I can, but it's not easy with the police breathing down my neck. It seems their informant let something slip that made the police suspicious. Don't worry, I intend to make good on my promise. Trust me; by the end of the week, we'll be ready to strike."
I couldn't believe it. Hiroshi Sato? An Equalist? I looked at the guys who turned to me with serious looks. Then, I noticed what Tarro was holding. It looked like a recording device.
"What's that?" I whispered.
Tarro whipped the thing out of sight.
"Nothing." He replied, but I already knew he was lying.
"Where did you two get a recorder?"
They exchanged nervous looks.
"We borrowed it." Noak stated. At the same time, Tarro answered: "Birthday present."
"Tarro, your birthday's not for another month." I quietly snapped. "And don't you guys lie to me."
"Is this really the time?" Noak retorted. "We've got information that we need to get to the authorities."
"Fine, but how are you gonna get that thing out of here without getting noticed?"
A devious smile crossed Tarro's face, causing Noak to facepalm.
"Not the trench-coats. Please, Tarro, for the love of Yue, no." He moaned. Okay, now I was really confused.
We heard sounds, we began to worry that someone was coming.
"We don't have a choice." Tarro said.
For whatever reason that Noak and Tarro had brought a trench-coat with them, we managed to keep the recorder hidden underneath it. We quickly made our way for the door where we were accosted by our friends.
"You're leaving?" Asami asked us. "But, I thought-"
"Uh, sorry. We forgot, we're supposed to air-sit, I mean baby-Bend, I-I mean babysit the Airbender kids. Bye!"
"Thank you, we had a lovely time." Noak said as I grabbed his arm and dragged him out as quickly as I could. As we were leaving, I managed to overhear Bolin say something.
"Is it just me, or does Tarro look different somehow?"
"He was wearing a trench-coat." Mako answered.
"Huh, you'd think we would've noticed that earlier."
Tarrlok's POV:
The message was no less eerie when we replayed it on the recorder for Chief Bei Fong and Tenzin.
"So, it was Sato who manufactured those gloves for the Equalists?" Tenzin asked us.
"Yes." Noatak replied. "The three of us overheard the conversation and recorded it as proof."
"Wait a moment," Bei Fong interrupted, "where did you three get a recorder?"
Noatak and I exchanged looks for at least the second time today.
"Never mind how they got their information," Korra interjected, "the point is, we now have proof that Hiroshi is up to something. And we think it may even be bigger than just the electric gloves."
"I have a theory-" Noatak started before I cleared my throat. He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine. Tarro has a theory."
"Thank you." We had decided as of the other night that I would divulge the information he had, so as to make it less awkward for him. "We suspect that Mr. Sato is working on a bigger project, something none of us have encountered thus far. Whatever it is he's working on, he would know better than to keep it hidden in any part of Future Industries. It would be the first place anyone would look." I then turned to look at a map of Republic City, holding up one finger in the way that detectives always do when they deduce stuff. "Therefore, I suspect that he has a secret base of operations."
I could feel Noatak rolling his eyes behind my back, but I knew everyone else was listening intently.
"I would imagine that he would want to keep a location like that close-by, but in a secret location so the authorities won't find it."
"But, why would Hiroshi help the Equalists in the first place?" Korra asked.
"He does have the means…and he has a motive." Bei Fong pointed out.
"A motive?"
"Twelve years ago, the Agni Kai Triad robbed Sato's mansion." Tenzin explained. "A Firebender killed Sato's wife during the break in."
"That's terrible."
"And therein we find our answers." I continued with a smug look on my face. "Master Tenzin, I do believe you've answered two questions." Everyone gave me confused looks except for Noatak. "We know why Mr. Sato would be involved with Equalists. The death of his wife would prompt him to have anti-Bender sympathies. And, where better a place to hide the location of his endeavor for revenge, than in the very place where those sympathies began?" Everyone gave me awed looks, except Noatak who just rolled his eyes again, but I soaked up the admiration. "The Sato mansion."
Korra rushed over to me and pulled me into a hug.
"Tarro," she said, "you are a Water Tribe genius."
I saw Noatak smile at me a little, which confused me.
"You know, little bro, I don't care what everyone says, you're pretty smart." He told me.
I beamed for a moment until I realized what he was implying.
Noatak's POV:
I knew that the mecha-tanks still had a few kinks at this stage; Hiroshi had needed those extra couple days to finish them in the other life. We would hit fast and hit hard, we were moving in on the Sato mansion immediately. I knew Tarrlok felt on top of the world for being credited with 'figuring out' the truth about Hiroshi Sato, even though I was the one who gave him all the information. I had to give Tarrlok credit though; he sure knew how to put on a good show and play his part well. We all stormed in, complete with a large number of police officers. I knew for a fact that Hiroshi wouldn't be prepared if we found the secret factory right now, he would be expecting us to search Future Industries like in the other life, which took a few days and gave him the time and opportunity he needed. As we entered, we ignored the shocked looks on the faces of our friends, and headed straight for Sato's office. Of course he denied everything.
"Then you won't mind if we search the premises?" Chief Bei Fong asked.
"I-of course not." Hiroshi replied. I could sense that his heartbeat had picked up its pace as he became nervous. He hadn't expected us to search the estate. We had him cornered.
We looked around the grounds, until we came upon the workshop.
"Chief," I said to Bei Fong, "perhaps someone should keep an eye on Mr. Sato while we inspect his workshop. Just as a precaution." Of course I knew perfectly well that Hiroshi would head straight to the secret factory if he realized we were on to him.
"Good idea, kid." She turned to some officers. "Kindly escort Mr. Sato out here. If we find anything, I don't want to take the chance of the suspect evading our watch."
"Yes, ma'am." The officers said and went to retrieve Sato.
"I suggest we take a look in the workshop." Bei Fong stated as the search tea moved towards the building in question.
Asami Sato was still professing her father's innocence, Mako was practically fuming, and Bolin just seemed really confused as always. We followed Bei Fong into the workshop.
"Are you satisfied?" Asami inquired with irritation. "Will you drop this now?"
"Not just yet." Bei Fong replied. She then Metalbended the armor off the bottom of her foot and struck it to the ground, using her Earthbending to sense the vibrations. "There's a tunnel under here running deep into the mountainside."
"What? There's no tunnel." Asami insisted.
Bei Fong then Metalbended the floor up to reveal the secret tunnel underneath.
Bolin gave a gasp.
"Do you think your dad knows about this tunnel?" He whispered to Asami.
Just then, the Metalbender officers entered with Hiroshi, who had a look of shock on his face when he saw that we had located the tunnel.
"This is all a big misunderstanding." He tried to convince us, but no one was buying it. Even Asami looked skeptical. "I assure you, I can explain this."
"I think this merits a little investigation." Bei Fong stated.
Korra's POV:
I still couldn't believe what we found down there. Giant mechanical things that were impervious to Bending attacks, luckily only a few of them had been finished. If Hiroshi had even had two more days before we found his secret factory, it would have been disastrous. Asami was shocked and horrified upon learning the truth about her father, before the cops began to drag him away he pleaded with her to help him, but she just turned away ashamed to even look at him.
"I'm sorry about your father." I told her as we waited on the front steps of the mansion as more officers came in and out to continue investigations and to confiscate the offending weapons.
"I can't believe it." She replied. "I can't believe he would do something like this."
"I really wish this didn't have to happen. I'm so sorry, Asami."
"No, you have nothing to be sorry about." She turned to me with a sad smile. "You're a good friend Korra. I'm sorry I didn't believe you when you and the police showed up."
"Hey, it's not your fault. I probably wouldn't have believed me either."
Mako and Bolin came to sit down next to us.
"Hey." They said.
"Hi." I replied.
"I just can't see how this is all even possible." Mako thought aloud. "Sponsoring our team and everything. It just doesn't make any sense."
"I know, it still seems hard to believe, even after what we all just saw."
I glanced up at Noak and Tarro, who were busy relaying more information to the police. They both glanced over at me for a moment and gave small, reassuring smiles. A silent understanding passed between the three of us, things were going to be different, that much was certain.
Phew. Finally. Took me forever to focus long enough to finish this chapter. I finally decided that Noatak and Tarrlok should make some serious changes to the story, hope you liked it. Please review.