Part 5: Conference and Conflict
Chapter 24: Idle Negotiations
As Korra had almost left Republic City and brought Firelord Izumi back towards the new addition to Air Temple Island, the Firelord still holding the tuber-vine, she noticed the sky was much darker than when Korra had left to go pick up the Firelord. Seeing Korra staring at the darker sky, Mako said, "It's 4:30 in the afternoon - but I don't quite see how that would make the sky so dark. What's going on, Korra?" An immediate idea occurred to her, and she didn't like it one bit. Korra stopped, her heart racing, placing her hand against the intact pavement, scanning for any anomalous energy. She picked up one signature that made her heart sink and her gut churn - Long Yumao had finally managed to come back into the physical world! After giving only a short explanation to Mako and Firelord Izumi, she launched herself towards the Spirit Portal - apparently, Raava needed to refresh the block on the portal. When she landed, she crashed into a large, centipedal form, feeling some sort of sickening oil on her skin. Part of her wanted to scream, but she knew that would be a fatal move.
Bursting into the Avatar State, she kept a stony face as she bent two elemental prisons around Long Yumao and Koh. She maintained her expression, even as Koh began cursing at Long Yumao, saying, "Fool! I told you, if you want to get me any faces, we need to stay away from the Avatar and Republic City! Surely you haven't forgotten that most of the city was evacuated." Long Yumao hissed, "I don't care if you want quantity of faces - I want some of this insufferable brat's friends out of the picture! When this 'Team Avatar' is broken and their faces yours, then we can go hunting other, less powerful humans." Koh let out a slithering sigh as he clacked his free legs together, saying, "Team Avatar is tight knit, and Korra is rarely away from the others for long. If I had known the Avatar was going to leave for a few hours, I would have pushed to leave earlier - I might have even been able to steal Asami's face. Now we're imprisoned! Korra is too perceptive, and your energy is far too obvious now." Tiring of this banter, Korra remembered her request of Eska and Desna, saying, "I'm going to kick you two back into the Spirit World and refresh the lock on the portal." She deliberately mumbled loudly, "It would be really bad if you two decided to go to the Northern Water Tribe." Seeing Koh's face change to that of a savage monkey, she could see her little ploy worked - they would be met with nothing but ice, soon to be augmented with Raava's power. She tossed the two back into the portal, finally letting her stifled laughter out in torrents.
Her eyes still glowing, she refreshed the block on the Republic City Spirit Portal, figuring it would last two days or more. She felt a familiar surge of energy and her eyes dimmed. Raava, now standing in her field of view, said, "You may as well do to this portal and the Southern Spirit Portal what Eska and Desna did with the Northern Spirit Portal. I did not expect the seal to break so soon, but if you bend earthen barriers augmented with my energy and warning signs, there should be no further problems. Unless Long Yumao grows big enough to shatter earth or endless ice…" With that, Korra felt an energy surge, noticing her eyes glowing once more.
Korra bent large, thick walls around the Spirit Portal, making sure to cap the top physically. To her surprise, the beam continued through the rock unabated. Taking another deep breath, she bent up warning signs, using lavabending to carve characters into the rock. Korra created a door that led directly to the spirit portal, and began pumping her own energy and Raava's into it - she didn't want anyone but herself opening it. Taking a deep breath, she intensified the energy entering the door, spreading large, spidery white lines through the rock that pulsated steadily. Taking a deep breath, she opened the new door and closed it behind her, placing her hand directly inside the Spirit Portal beam, focusing on the Northern Spirit Portal.
Korra felt an odd rush, and she looked around, eyes still glowing - she had teleported to the Northern Spirit Portal somehow without ever seeing the Tree of Time! Not wanting to take any time to ponder how she did it, she capped Eska and Desna's icy handiwork, feeling it equal to her own in Republic City. Again, the beam passed through the ice, neither itself nor the ice breaking. Placing her hand on the ice wall, Korra smiled as she saw thick white lines spreading in the new Avatar-only door she was creating, her expression only broadening when she saw the lines jump and quickly spread all around her. Tiring slightly, she opened the new ice door with the Avatar State, stepped out, and closed it again, letting her eyes normalize after she did so.
Korra missed the cold, and took great pleasure in making an ice blanket and wrapping her body in it, savoring the chills it sent through her being. She heard a loud bump, followed by a smaller one and an eerie slipping sound and the clack of insect legs on ice. Making sure to move herself further away from the portal, Korra laughed as she heard what must have been Koh and Long Yumao cursing angrily, Koh saying, "That little twerp tricked us! I don't like that - I want to be the one doing the tricking! Now I know how Wan Shi Tong felt, that other Water Tribe hooligan tricking him with knots." Long Yumao hissed angrily, saying, "I don't care about Wan Shi Tong. These walls - they burn my skin! I'm done for today, Koh - your face-hunt will have to wait. I need to go warn the other Dark Spirits that follow me about this new little trick of the Avatar's - I can't afford any spirits being incinerated by this energy, or worse, turning!" Korra heard two odd whooshing sounds, assuming the spirits had left. Not wanting to be taken off guard, she placed her hands to the ice, searching - and found nothing.
After she had erected another barrier at the Southern Spirit Portal similar to the one in the north, she returned to the Republic City Spirit Portal, noticing that Jinora, Izumi, Asami, Mako and Tenzin were waiting for her next to Oogi. Jinora said, riding an air scooter to Korra, "I sensed an immense energy coming out of this Spirit Portal and projected myself to Mako, asking him what was going on. He told me that Long Yumao had come back into the physical world, and I alerted my father and Asami. We got here as fast as we could on Oogi, realizing we might have a fight on our hands about halfway here, but I can see you took care of that." Jinora stared at Korra's handiwork, running up to touch one of the thick white lines. "Wow - that's Raava's energy! But, not entirely…" Jinora studied the lines, suddenly noticing something Korra hadn't - there were staring right at a large Earth symbol! Korra whipped up an air scooter of her own, riding around with Jinora, noticing the other three elemental symbols, in proper order, lining the sides. She placed her hand against the symbol for Water, and saw a familiar face momentarily - Avatar Kuruk's! As she told everyone else what she had seen, she felt a familiar energy surge, her eyes glowing momentarily.
Raava, now standing in the middle of the group, said, "This is one of the reasons I had need for your past lives, Korra. Their energy adds to our own power in these barriers, and their humanity is the biggest reason the lines burned Long Yumao's skin and would incinerate any lesser Dark Spirit aligned with him that came into similar contact. He would have to grow substantially in power to break any of the barriers you made." Seemingly anticipating Korra's question before she could even ask, Raava finished, "Koh, as one of the univ- world's most ancient spirits, is not affected by the lines like Long Yumao is, but he does not possess the physical strength and size to break the barriers. Now, let's go - I want some of that sake you yanked me away from earlier, Korra!" Before Raava could vanish, Asami tapped Raava's shoulder. Though Korra was too far away to hear what Asami said with her ears, Korra's bond with Raava let Korra hear Asami say, "Why don't you just hold off on that, Raava - I have something special planned for Korra tonight, and you won't want to be so drunk you miss it." Korra felt goosebumps on her skin, as well as a wonderfully familiar feeling below her stomach - Asami had told Korra before she left that Asami was going on a "shopping" trip, and couldn't wait to see what Asami's plan was.
As everyone climbed on Oogi's back - including Raava - Asami carefully took out a covered tray from Oogi's saddle sack. Lifting the metal lid off, she revealed six large cold cups of tea and a big teapot. Korra noticed with hungry eyes that four raw portions of the last of the shark whale meat were also present, along with two portions of the vegetarian food that Jinora and Tenzin preferred. Asami pointed to the meat and tea, saying, "Someone who appeared at our party unexpectedly told me firebenders can heat tea with their bending. I won't spoil the surprise - everyone else has managed to keep quiet so far. Why don't you and Mako help us out, Korra?" Korra had to concentrate very hard to make sure she didn't boil the tea away with her blue fire, and Mako's first attempt at cooking the shark whale meat did cook the meat properly, but the surface was slightly blackened. Firelord Izumi reach out to take it from Mako, saying, "I always did like my meat seared. Thank you, Mako."
Raava looked like she was going to laugh, but Firelord Izumi gave Raava a glare, saying, "I was telling the truth." Asami gave Korra a cup that Bolin must have lavabended the characters for "Korra" onto, and ended up pouring about half of the tea into Korra's large cup. As they all ate and drank, Korra felt her strength returning. Curious why Asami had given Korra that specific cup of tea, aside from the obvious, she told Korra, "I figured you'd be tired, so I put a much stronger tea into your cup. I got the blend from Zuko, who told me it was some of his Uncle's blend." Remembering how mad Zuko had been at the loss of even a mouthful of his Uncle's blend the day before, Korra asked, "Isn't that extremely rare?" Asami said, keeping a straight and even face, "You'll see why when we get back to the party. I'm not spoiling the surprise now, not when we're almost there." Korra took a deep breath and let out a contented burp - she had just drank a lot of tea, and Asami had let Korra eat her shark whale meat portion. As everyone on Oogi's back laughed, Korra noticed that they were about to land. Oogi's landing was perfect - Korra was very glad that Opal and her clumsy beast, Juicy, hadn't come to their rescue.
When Korra looked around for familiar figures, she was shocked - the handcuffs on Kuvira's wrists had been replaced by looser shackles! Katara, Zuko, Lin and Su were animatedly talking with Kuvira, as well as an unseen figure, apparently in the middle. Intently curious to see what could have convinced Su and Lin to make this drastic change, Korra's heart jumped when she saw the figure in the center. Korra turned around, grabbing a clearly pleased Asami by the hands, yelling, "Uncle Iroh! I can't believe it - you're here!" As some tears streamed down her face, Korra heard Uncle Iroh say warmly, "If it isn't the two lovebirds! I was just talking with everyone else about Kuvira's transformative experience in her visions and the Spirit World yesterday. It appears my dear nephew isn't the only one to have had such a harrowing and rewarding ordeal." Uncle Iroh patted Zuko on the back, saying, "Although my nephew never almost had his face stolen by Koh, and I hope Kuvira doesn't do any 'backsies' like Zuko did in Ba Sing Se." Both Zuko and Uncle Iroh began laughing, Zuko not making any mention of the good-natured slight, and Korra noticed with a smile that their laughter was very similar.
A stunned Firelord Izumi finally moved from her place, running over to embrace her father and then Uncle Iroh. Tenzin said, clearly confused, "How are you hugging Uncle Iroh? He ran his hand through my legs the other day!" Uncle Iroh laughed, saying, "Any spirit can choose to let a physical body either interact with them directly or pass through their being. Just ask Bumi - apparently, his little spirit friend, Bumju, finally let Bumi put that sweater on his body. Though not for long." Tenzin's mouth dropped open at the same time as Korra's did - Bumi was here? While Tenzin asked, "Where's my sister, Kya?" Korra slammed her palm against the ground so violently it physically made a crack in the marble, scanning for Bumi and Kya. She noticed with a start that they were both talking animatedly with her parents, and ran over to the group. She hadn't planned on this!
Before she could yell in alarm and panic, she felt her body freeze for a long time, as though some internal force had stopped her only a short distance from her target. Korra remembered how Raava had stopped her in her tracks the day before, but this felt different somehow. Her eyes glowed momentarily, and she saw what must have been the culprit in front of her - Aang! He had a sad look on his face, and he said, "I know you didn't have the best of childhoods to instill trust in you, Korra - what with your predecessor being behind the White Lotus treating you like a prisoner, keeping you from your parents. I am not proud of what I did, leaving orders behind to protect you 'at all costs' - it is one of my few regrets in life. Even though I had a family with Katara, at some fundamental level, I just didn't understand how families worked. Bumi and Kya can attest to that. I had been raised by monks, and I turned out fine, and I thought that the White Lotus would act in a similar manner." Korra noticed her mother and father, Tenzin, Katara, Bumi and Kya all standing near her still frozen body - apparently, Aang had waited to come out until all six were near to start talking. This just made Korra even more furious, but she couldn't break Aang's grip.
Seemingly sensing that Korra was trying to break his hold on her, Aang said, "Can you please resist the urge to 'read' Bumi and Kya? As a symbolic first step, if nothing else…You need to start learning to trust people, Korra. Especially if you're going t make any relationship with Asami work. You can't just run around, using your odd new powers of reading and infobending all the time. Would you try and manually read your unborn daughter? Pry secrets from her mind that she'd rather not share with you? Would you risk losing the support of the United Republic of Nations by insisting on reading a likely uncooperative President Raiko?" Korra could feel her eyes - the only part of her body that wasn't paralyzed - start to water profusely, even though all her throat and mouth could manage to do was continue breathing through her nose. Aang's image began to cry, saying, "I will, for the rest of time, regret my orders to the White Lotus, Korra. But regrets won't fix anything. Even though I'm a spirit now, I still get the odd guilty feeling about how I ran away from the Southern Air Temple over 170 years ago. I don't have any solid advice on how to learn trust, Korra - it's just something I learned as an Air Nomad. You just need to have faith in others. While trust did leave me vulnerable at times - I have the feeling without Katara and Sokka at my side and my trust in them, I would have been swindled or tricked into the Fire Nation's grasp." Aang blushed slightly, as though remembering some unsavory detail, saying, "In fact, my blind trust in people led me to believe some merchant that I met in a town on the way to the North Pole was telling the truth about a nearby airbender, when in fact he was an agent of the Fire Nation. He told me about a possible airbender in the surrounding mountains. I snuck off in the middle of the night to go find this airbender, not even telling Katara or Sokka. I was desperate to reconnect with anyone from the Air Nomads." As Katara suddenly remembered this incident, she said at the exact same time that Aang did, "It was a trap." Aang continued, not even cheered by Katara's voice, "Admiral Zhao was waiting for me, along with the merchant and some firebenders with a net. If those fools hadn't used actual Air Nomad artifacts to lay the trap, or at least removed the more useful ones, they might have succeeded."
Korra thought to herself, "This seems like even more reason to not trust people! Why did you tell me this, Aang?" Aang could apparently read Korra's thoughts just as Raava did, as he said, "The reason I told you this is because if I had relied on Katara and Sokka, and told them what the merchant had said, they probably would have convinced me to not go. This little incident, upon reflection, is actually why you need to trust in people, and confide in them without fear of hurt. I had to learn the ropes myself, without any help from Raava's reading ability. Even if an individual is trustworthy now, they may turn on you later." Seeing the confusion in Korra's eyes, Aang continued, "Varrick is a good example - you thought he was your friend, but he stabbed you in the back. A more recent, relevant example? Take Baatar Jr. At first, from what Raava has told me of the events since I was imprisoned that you did not see fit to tell me, he confided in you about the Colossus' weakness after Kuvira tried to blow him up with that spirit weapon. Earlier today, he seemed to unhinge partially, considering anyone who believes Kuvira to be a changed woman a fool or a traitor." Korra, not sure what this had to do with trust, listened as Aang continued, "If you had read him before his altercation with Kuvira, you would have likely gotten a positive or neutral reading - enough to share your secrets with him, probably on the recommendation of Su, his mother. Would you share your secrets with him now, Korra?" Korra felt her mouth unfreeze, and she answered, "No! I don't know what to think of him now, and apparently his own mother has reservations as well. Even if Kuvira is a changed woman, Baatar Jr. still has a lot of unresolved issues to work through."
Korra felt her body released from its strange hold as Aang said, "And that is why you must build relationships and trust manually, and not use this new 'morality meter' that Raava provides as a crutch. Human bonds and love that are maintained and taken care of, I think you will find, have a strength that surpasses anything being the Avatar entails. The Avatar State, Raava, bending all four elements - all useless if you do not act like a normal human and form proper relationships." Korra felt a surge of many conflicting emotions from deep inside her - not Raava, not Aang, no one else but her. A vision that was all her own danced in front of her eyes - all her relationships with people, all those she felt love for - friends and family and Asami alike. All the trust others put in her as Korra and not the Avatar, all the things she regretted doing or saying…
She saw Aang smiling broadly as everyone around her took turns embracing her. Aang said, "Now why don't you use infobending for a less serious purpose, and let everyone around you feel those emotions you just felt. Just let information flow, as does water." Aang paused momentarily, adding, "Though you should still keep one secret. Bye!" Korra let energy flow as Aang had said, and as she did so, she could hear Bumi and Kya alternatively laugh or weep - in Bumi's case, sometimes curse - as she let the information flow unfiltered, only blotting out the identity of Jinshu Kuangmai. Apparently in her intense emotions she had accidentally broadcast the information in the Avatar State, as she heard people reacting to events she had experienced since leaving to pick up Firelord Izumi. Feeling the need to perform some damage control, she projected out Aang, saying, "I need to go talk to some people. Why don't you talk with my parents, your wife and kids?" Tenzin said, "That sounds like a GREAT idea! Let me get my kids and Pema over here. Unless you need Jinora, that is, Korra." Korra shook her head, saying, "I need to go discuss matters of war, so the only airbender I might need is Opal. See you soon."
Just as she suspected, the brain trust was arguing among themselves, along with Firelord Izumi. Varrick was trying to negotiate what must have been an extremely steep price for a private, no-conditions deal for spirit weaponry for the Fire Nation's navy, given the expression on Izumi's face. Zhu Li was trying to convince a slightly reluctant Asami to use the tuber-vines for civilian power generation, Asami citing the potential for sudden power stoppage if an evil or unworthy individual deliberately started messing with the plant to sabotage the city. Zhu Li must have made some accusation that Asami did not find funny at all, since she slapped Zhu Li across the face, saying, "NO, I'm not concerned that limitless power will crash the price of oil or the lost profit on Korra's oil find!" Kuvira was standing in a corner, her arms crossed angrily.
Korra approached her first, asking, "You're not arguing with anyone - what's the matter?" In truth, Korra just wanted to avoid the other four at all costs - she didn't want to see an angry Firelord Izumi master the other kind of blue flame on Varrick. Kuvira said curtly, "I thought we were supposed to be banning spirit weapons, not embracing them. I was fine with your little armblades, but this is something else entirely. Even Asami was suggesting mounting them on her hummingbird suits, or some weird new planes she designed." Korra could see this was going to be difficult, but likely not involve any yelling. Korra explained to Kuvira again how the tuber-vines were supposed to work, and seeing that Kuvira was still reluctant, Korra resorted to projecting Raava out. The small form said, "Hey, watch it! We've never projected both a past life of the Avatar and myself this far apart from one another before. Though it seems to be fine." Raava turned to Kuvira, unexpectedly taking on her true form, and the larger spirit boomed, "I know you have regrets over your abuse of spirit vines, but I just want to assure you, these tuber-vines will be used for a good cause. Given what I know of you-know-who's stockpile of spirit vines, it will be very likely that the occupation forces will be up against spirit vine weaponry - even if he can't harvest any more from the Swamp. I imagine he will find out what I did to the Great Banyan tree soon, and begin experiments to attempt to grow more spirit vines." Kuvira sighed deeply, "I am become death, destroyer of worlds," Raava whimpering as though she had heard the words before. Kuvira having noticed Raava's reaction, she said, "What, don't tell me someone else came before me?" Raava stated nervously, "Not quite - go on, Kuvira…" Kuvira shrugged, saying, "I guess the spirit is out of the bottle now: if we don't use tuber-vine weaponry, Jinshu Kuangmai will have a much better chance of winning, and inadvertently plunging the world into darkness under Long Yumao."
Apparently sated, Kuvira said, "You will have my support in developing this technology. However, I just thought of a little flaw in the tuber-vine technology." Raava shrunk back to her "new normal" size and scratched her head, saying, "I don't see what the flaw is." Korra didn't either. Kuvira said, "You said that you attuned the tuber-vines to your energy, but from what I know of Harmonic Convergence, that's not entirely true. I'm not used to thinking spiritually, so correct me if I am wrong. Say humanity relies heavily on tuber-vines for the next ten thousand years, and Harmonic Convergence rolls around. Suppose that Korra's far-future successor drops the ball, letting Vaatu win." Korra and Raava grimaced at this thought, and a "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" escaped a now open clasp on the strange teapot. Raava's grimace vanished, replaced by a predatory grin. She stuck her hand into the top of the teapot and drew a tiny squirming Vaatu out, saying, "Don't say I didn't warn you. Korra, bring Asami over here - I have a little Dark Spirit to punish." Korra shot Raava an angry glance, saying, "I don't have time for that right now. I'm too busy listening to Kuvira's supposed flaw in the tuber-vines. Plus, it looks like Asami's too busy fighting with Zhu Li as is." Raava gave an angry grunt, making to put Vaatu away, but Kuvira grabbed Raava's hand, stopping her from putting away the black and red kite, Kuvira saying, "Actually, keep him out, Raava - he figures heavily into the flaw with the tuber vines."
Both Raava and Korra looked at each other - she could feel Raava didn't like where this was going. Kuvira said, "In ten thousand years, unless Long Yumao strips him of his 'Grand Dark Spirit' title, Vaatu will be much, much bigger. If Korra doesn't entrap Vaatu in the Tree of Time - that's its name, right? - and seal all the Spirit Portals, he will be able to challenge Raava during the next Harmonic Convergence. If he wins - " Vaatu let out a louder, "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" much to Korra and Raava's chagrin. Raava gave Vaatu a nasty glare and Kuvira coughed, saying, "Anyways, as I was saying, should Raava lose, I imagine the tuber-vines will switch, turning evil." Raava and Korra stared at Kuvira in shock. Korra only managed to say, "T-t-that sounds about right. Vaatu turned other neutral or light spirits into Dark Spirits in Wan's time." Kuvira continued, "While those tuber-vines will work for now, humans will need to develop a similar power source eventually, not dependent on spiritual energy or judgment."
Raava groaned, stuffing a clearly pleased Vaatu back into the pot, giggling like a naughty little boy who had gotten away with something. Raava threw her hands in the air, saying, "That was the whole point of the tuber-vines: nobody bad can use them!" Kuvira continued, "If Varrick, Zhu Li, Asami and myself can manage to come up with a new power source that's strictly human, there'd be another plus. In the event that the Avatar and Raava lose, humans will have beam weapons capable of hurting Vaatu enough such that something like what Jinora did this time around can happen again." Raava was no longer angry, and she said rather calmly, "A failsafe does sound rather nice. Why don't you see if you can get the rest of the brain trust to stop fighting, Korra?" With that, Raava vanished back into Korra's chest.
When she turned to look at Firelord Izumi, Varrick, Zhu Li, and Asami, Korra realized with a start that they were staring at Kuvira and herself. Apparently, they had begun listening and stopped fighting at some point. Firelord Izumi said, pointing at a large lump of rock she knew to be the remnants of the ore Korra had raised from beneath the sea, "Now that we're done fighting, why don't you and Kuvira bend some of that rock into a mockup of Asami's new designs?" Glad to actually bend again, Korra used the Avatar State to tear off a medium-sized chunk of the rock, removing the metal from the ore and forming two large sheets of metal. Kuvira stared, saying, "Why didn't I just help you recover from your poisoning instead of becoming dictator, Korra? Had I got my hands on that residual mercury that was still inside you after Zaheer poisoned you, we could have just toured the Earth Kingdom together, restoring order when Mother Suyin refused, Korra providing a… moderating influence." Asami blushed in anger, saying, "Hey, Korra's mine! Back off!" Kuvira suppressed a laugh, saying with a snort, "I may have been into a rather feminine man, Asami, but my metal doesn't bend that way. Anyways, why don't you take those aircraft designs out again?"
Korra heard a large gust of wind and a small, excited voice saying loudly, "Aircraft designs? Military?! I want to help!" Meelo dropped down into the middle of the brain trust, followed by … Bumi? This latest arrival's much larger size and less refined bending knocked everyone onto their backs, and Korra heard an excited trilling. Some part of her brain translated it as, "Bumi never makes good entrances!"
While Korra was glad to have two goofballs to lighten the mood, Firelord Izumi was clearly not amused. She said drolly, fixing her glasses, "I know you were a military man, Bumi, but what does Meelo have to offer exactly?" Meelo said loudly, pouting, "My mom told me earlier today that my self-portrait seemed more appropriate for Firelord Ozai. He may have been evil, but at least he was a man of action, which is more than I can say for you, Miss Firelord Izumi!" Firelord Izumi took a deep breath, letting out a small flame of frustration and said, "Very well, Meelo - you can stay. Just try not to get in the way, please."
Meelo proceeded to do exactly that, pointing at the two aircraft blueprints Asami had gotten out during the commotion, saying, "Wait - you're still using two wings? Why? Lemurs don't have two wings, and look at how well they fly!" Meelo's lemur, Poki, poked his head out of Bumi's shirt and began flying around his owner's head. Firelord Izumi said, "Poki can airbend slightly, sweetie, and airplanes can't. That's why they need two wings - to generate more lift." Meelo surprised the Firelord by saying, "I overheard my dad talking with Bumi about these tuber-vines, and if you used one of those inside the airplane, I bet you could make something like this!" Meelo grabbed a surprised Asami's pencil, drawing a very detailed, realistic looking airplane in the corner of the blueprint.
It didn't look like any plane Korra had seen - or apparently anyone else, given how the brain trust was staring at Meelo's small doodle. Bumi said, "I know I talked about having only one wing, Meelo - but what's that weird pair of tubes near the … extra horizontal and vertical wings at the back?" Asami handed Meelo a blueprint page of his own and smiled as Meelo drew his plan on the entire page. Apparently, Meelo was quite bored when not flying around or harassing his siblings, as he drew a large assortment of what looked to be weapons "lying" in front of the aircraft. The plane was rather ugly but sturdy looking, and Meelo put the name "The Flying Hogmonkey" at the top of the blueprint.
Pointing first to the two odd, seemingly hollow tubes with what Zhu Li said was a condenser ring in the front, Meelo said, "Dad was talking about how Korra used her blue fire to send a boat flying around on the water's surface. Seeing the blasts that Kuvira's weapon made up close made me think - what if you let out a steady, controlled pulse?" Kuvira asked Meelo, "How do you know what a condenser ring is, and why haven't you ever shown anyone your ideas?"
Korra heard an exasperated sigh from behind her. Everyone - even Bumju and Poki - turned around to see who it was. Korra said to the new arrival, "Hi, Tenzin! You done talking with your dad yet?" Tenzin said, as he grabbed a squealing Meelo, "No, and apparently, Meelo will need to have a talk with his grandfather of his own." Tenzin reached out for the blueprint, saying "How many times have I told you, Meelo - no war drawings! They aren't fitting for an air bender!" As soon as she heard the words "aren't fitting for an airbender", Korra stood erect, her eyes glowing. She forcefully grabbed Tenzin's arm before he could crumple the blueprints.
Korra said to a terrified Tenzin in a multi-voice that was seemingly missing one voice, "Tenzin, son of Avatar Aang, who just finished lecturing ME on trust - what are you thinking? Your words 'fitting for an airbender' remind me an awful lot of what Hiroshi told his own daughter, Asami, when he tried to control her! Do you not trust Meelo to be himself?" Korra felt an energy surge next to her, and she turned her eyes with fading light to see Aang next to herself. Aang said, pointing at Meelo while looking at Tenzin, "Son - you just recently released your control over Jinora's love choices. Given that the forces of good are soon going to be spread thin again soon, the five nations need any advantage they can get - even if they are weapons designed by a nine-year old airbender. I think it's time to let your son be who he really is - more like Bumi, less like you." Before Aang could continue, Asami said bitterly, "I never figured you, of all people, Tenzin, to be one to try and keep someone from being who they are."
In a combination of shock and what seemed to be remorse, Tenzin said through tears of his own "Ever since Meelo was a young boy, he always loved to play soldier. At one time, I let him draw his war pictures, but as he got older, his drawings became darker. When I caught him searching for red pigment, I decided that enough was enough. I should have connected the grumpy look on his self-portrait with this." Tenzin held his son in front of his face, saying, "Meelo, do you forgive me?" Meelo laughed, blowing the tears off his father's face, saying, "I don't know why Grandpa, Miss Asami, or Miss Korra were so upset, but I do know I want to draw some more! Yes, I forgive you. Now put me down before I sick Poki on you!" Meelo's lemur chose to land on top on Tenzin's head instead and purr contentedly instead, making Meelo groan slightly. A laughing Tenzin let his son back down, Meelo studying Korra and Asami's faces with curiosity. Meelo said, "Before I continue explaining The Flying Hogmonkey, I want you to 'infobend' me, Miss Korra. I figure there's a lot of things that no adult will tell me - even my sister Jinora seems to watch her words when she talks with me. I don't like it."
Before Korra could refuse, Meelo added, "Plus, if you want these designs to be effective, I have to know what we're up against." Korra sighed, remembering what Aang had told her about trust - and what she had just told Tenzin about trust - and gave the little boy his wish. Meelo looked at Asami and then Korra after, saying, "So that's why you two were holding hands! Don't worry, I won't tell Ikki." A mischievous grin crawled onto Meelo's face, who continued, "I figure I can annoy her more if I tease her that she doesn't know as much as I do anyways." He broke into a grin that rivaled Aang's, saying, "Thanks for all the information, Miss Korra. Miss Kuvira, will you help me tweak The Flying Hogmonkey?" Kuvira said, "Before we do that, Meelo, why don't you finish explaining what everything on the blueprint means?" As Meelo's eyes glittered, Tenzin let out a small sigh that earned him a dirty look from Aang's image, and walked away. Seemingly pleased, Aang's image moved back to where it had been before the little teleport.
Meelo said, first pointing to Zhu Li and then to the odd, large condenser ring, "Miss Zhu Li took me for a tour of Mister Varrick and her's boat after she finished hitting Mister Varrick over the head. She showed me all sorts of things, and I recognized one from my exploration of the Colossus' husk the day before. She told me it was a condenser ring, used to direct a flow of spirit energy." Pointing to what was apparently a side-view of the aircraft, Meelo explained, "My idea is that a low flow on spirit energy is released to the rear, providing thrust that can be increased or decreased. This plane is supposed to be hard to destroy and fly low, near the ground." Seeing that even Kuvira was staring at him somewhat blankly, he drew in what must have been the pulse on all the depictions of what must have been the aircraft's engines. Kuvira said, "It's a very good idea, but getting fine enough control of the tuber-vine's power to do that would be very difficult." Meelo said, pointing at Korra, "That's where Miss Korra comes in! She can channel Raava's energy into a stationary engine, and everyone else can take readings." Meelo pointed back at the aircraft, saying, "With what Miss Korra infobended to me, I can tell that the extra armor I added to The Flying Hogmonkey won't be enough. It sounds like Jinshu Kuangmai has a lot of vines." Meelo puzzled over the design until Asami got an idea, saying, "What if we put spiritwire on the surface and led the wires towards the tuber-vine? It might be able to absorb the energy of a spirit weapon."
Meelo drew lines on The Flying Hogmonkey's surface, resting a finger over the weapons in front of the plane, erasing and re-drawing some. Meelo pointed at what looked like an odd circular honeycomb and said, "This is a Lipowder firework launcher. I'll name them Meesiles, 'cause it's my idea! They launch from the tubes like a firework and have a Lipowder warhead that explodes when it hits. The plane can also carry bombs like the Equalist aircraft did. But those aren't The Flying Hogmonkey's main weapons." He pointed to two objects that vaguely resembled Kuvira's spirit cannon underneath the aircraft's wings, along with a strange form in the aircraft's nose that just looked like six holes. Meelo said, "The spirit cannons underneath the wings are directly connected to the tuber-vine, so they can fire longer pulses faster than Kuvira's weapon. The six little rings in the aircraft's nose are a Lipowder weapon that I thought up, but will need some help to make a reality. All I could think of is the barrels rotate in a circle, firing relatively large projectiles rapidly from a magazine like the thing Asami is making Miss Opal. I don't know how to make it work."
Bumi picked up Meelo and said, "My boy, you're a genius!" Firelord Izumi said, "This project sounds like it will take a long time and a lot of resources, from multiple nations. Meelo, I want you to come to the Ember Island conference with us all tomorrow, and present your idea." Firelord Izumi paused, saying, "You seemed to have another aircraft design in mind, given your glittering eyes. Something tells me it has to do with my aircraft barges. Care to elaborate for us?" Meelo snatched another blueprint from Asami, drawing another, slightly different looking plane, as well as an odd, long line on top of what Korra assumed to be an aircraft barge. Meelo looked at the aircraft barge, made a funny face, and asked Asami for another blueprint. Meelo drew his version of an aircraft barge, one that more closely resembled one of the URN Navy battleships that had proven oh so useful. Korra said so out loud, making Meelo laugh and say, "You might want to revamp those too - they didn't do so well against Equalist airplanes or Kuvira's Colossus."
Showing uncharacteristic focus - Meelo must have been really excited to finally be drawing "war pictures" after all - Meelo pointed back at the new aircraft, saying, "This plane - The Ferocious Lemur - is intended to take on air targets mainly, with the ability to hit ground targets as well. It can carry bombs just like The Flying Hogmonkey, and has a smaller repeating spirit cannon in its nose. That's not what is special about this plane, though. This plane would be best piloted by a metalbender, due to its main armament, but as long as it gets close to its target, even a nonbender should be able to pilot it. No offense, Miss Asami, Miss Zhu Li and Mister Varrick." Korra silently wondered why Meelo was being so polite - probably Pema's doing. Before any one of the three nonbenders could say, "None taken" Meelo pressed on, saying, "The reason a metalbender would be the best pilot would be this plane's special air-to-air Meesiles. They shoot forward and are guided by a long wire that a metalbender could guide with their bending, or anyone else could guide with a special control schematic that I don't know how it would work." Varrick said, after letting out a "Hmmm" or two, "Meelo, I think I know a way to make those missiles work even better. I'd need an extremely small camera, some kind of strong light source, and 'fins' on the missile, though." Varrick drew his idea to the side of Meelo's special Meesile. When he had finished, Varrick pointed to what looked like an eye on the Meesile, saying, "There's a camera in the nose that sees a point of light projected by the aircraft - or maybe a projection of Raava's energy from the tuber-vine. That would work better - Korra could 'paint' a target for it. Anyways, the camera sees the spot and helps control the fins of the rocket, guiding it towards its target. While Meelo's idea could be implemented almost immediately with metalbender pilots, mine would take more time than we have currently to perfect." Varrick drew a war balloon that closely resembled those Kuvira had used, saying, "Plus, if our opponent is this slow hunk of junk, we could just shoot it down with a spirit cannon. Given that, I'd say The Flying Hogmonkey should be given priority - its spirit cannons and Varrick gun would make quick work of any war balloons we come across."
Seemingly anticipating Meelo's grumpy face, Varrick said, "I'll be the one to try and get the six-barreled 'Varrick' gun working. I already have experience with lots of fancy machines. Speaking of machines - why don't you explain that weird line on the top of your aircraft barge, Meelo?" Meelo's frown vanished as he pointed animatedly to what he called an aircraft barge, saying, "From what I could guess, it sounds like the Fire Nation has no way of reliably getting their biplanes off the aircraft barge. A barge also can't hold very much. This aircraft carrier would have below-deck storage for more planes, ammunition, spare parts, and crew. This thing would be huge!" Meelo spread his hands as far apart as they could go, making everyone laugh. He continued, "For power, it would need more than just one tuber-vine, or a really big one. Why? The weird line on the top is like a catapult, but powered by… steam, I guess. It would launch the planes hooked into it on top of the deck at a high speed, generating lift. A cheaper option could be to have an airbender on board, helping generate lift, but we aren't exactly common." Meelo made a show of his "rare" talent as Varrick said, "I think I know a better way - electromagnets! After I saw the electromagnetic pulse take out everything but the Colossus, I wondered if I could use a big pulse of magnetic energy to propel a piece of metal. I remember my test run earlier today on the back of the Zhu Li shot clear through the wall and sunk an already panicked fisherman's boat - he kept babbling about some huge, random blue fire that almost torched him the day before when Zhu Li and I picked him up." Korra laughed, realizing this fisherman must have been who she nearly hit while mastering her blue flame, wondering what he had done to earn the Universe's ire.
Meelo said, "Think you can draw a gun based on that?" Varrick began doodling on another piece of blueprint, saying, "Tada! The VarriMag. If you want a big projectile, I think you'd need a tuber-vine power source. The piece of metal I shot was about as big as my thumb, and took a lot of power to shoot." Meelo shuffled through the growing pile of blueprints, clearly not finding what he wanted. Deciding to just describe his idea instead of taking Asami's last piece of blueprint paper, he said, "I think the URN battleships are cool, but they need an update. Tuber-vine power source, spiritwire coating to absorb spirit weapons or energy, some large spirit weapons of their own, a mix between Lipowder and spirit weapon anti-aircraft guns, and a single VarriMag gun." Korra said to a confused Kuvira, "You never know if Jinshu Kuangmai will come up with a way to stop spirit energy of his own. You did say he was always innovating."
Kuvira said, "I suppose you're right. One thing from all this, though - we only know of three tuber-vines in existence, and I doubt we're going to find a whole field of them any time soon. Care to project Raava out here?" Korra did so, Raava saying, "I'm afraid there aren't that many tuber-vines currently, and I can't make any more until the Spirit Civil War is over. You'll have to be very careful in your use of them - at the very least they have regenerative properties." Raava vanished back into Korra's chest, and Bumi finally spoke, saying, "I think it would be wisest to use the tuber-vines we do have for research and development of the two spirit energy driven aircraft and the VarriMag gun. The best weapon system to actually power with a tuber-vine is the battleships - two of them. I think the URN Navy has already salvaged parts of the ones Kuvira sunk, and we could always take a ship from the Fire Nation Navy and outfit it with Meelo's suggestions." Realizing something she should have done long ago, Korra said, "Let me see how many tuber-vines there are right now." Ignoring the conversation that erupted around her, she was shocked by the answer she got from her reading - there were almost thirty, scattered around Republic City! Most were inaccessible except by bending multiple elements at once, and she realized this was no accident, especially given they were Raava's gift.
Korra realized she was beginning to feel tired, and told everyone else, "I just found out there are a total of thirty tuber-vines - more than enough to actually produce limited numbers of aircraft and a single aircraft carrier. I will have to access most of them, however - it appears Raava placed them in spots that only multiple people working as a team or the Avatar can access." Seeing that some people had a confused look on their faces, she said, "For instance, one is located inside a large cavern outside Republic City on an old wooden relic behind a raging waterfall. A waterbender wouldn't be able to access the waterfall, and an earthbender wouldn't be able to get past the waterfall or bend the tuber-vine out. A metalbender trying to grapple it might slice it in half." Feeling her stomach growl, Korra said, "I'm starving, and need a bite to eat and something to drink. Given the look on Asami's face, she does as well. We're all out of blueprint paper anyways - Asami used the last one to sketch out Meelo's suggestions on the battleships. I think I'm done for today."
After she and Asami had eaten some good food that Pema had brought for dinner, drank plenty of water, they both saw the various guests off "their" private island. Given the gleam in Asami's eyes, Korra could tell they weren't going to bed just yet. Remembering what Asami had whispered in Raava's ear at the Republic City Spirit Portal crater and her "shopping trip", Korra felt the same wonderful feeling below her stomach again. As she brushed against Asami's body, Korra felt sparks course through her own.