BOOK I - UNION
Chapter 4: Envoy
"So, umm Mako isn't it? How did Jinora know we were coming?" I asked Mako as the car was moving down the road covered with decreasing density of vines.
"The protector of the spirit wilds, Loung, told Jinora about it. You don't know how don't you?"
"No."
He sighed. "Where to start. Loung's main point of contact with humas is Jinora, if someone did something bad in the spirit wilds he can contact Jinora in turn she can call the police to resolve the problem. Jinora is an airbender in which they are a very spiritual group and through meditation is able to go to the spirit world. Do you follow?"
"More or less, but how can Loung contact Jinora then?"
"Umm, I don't fully understand it either. Its something to do with meditating and stuff the monks do, if you want to know more I think you should ask her yourself when we get to Air Temple Island."
"Alright, talk to the expert themselves huh?"
"Yup." He looked out to the window on his side. "There it is, Air Temple Island. The docks are just a few minutes in front us."
I looked out and saw the same pagoda like structure that I saw when I first came over to this side. Huh, so it is a temple. On the shores of the islands was a small wooden pier just a couple of meters long with and a couple of lamp posts and a few people sitting down, though the island was still too far to make out who they were.
"Hey would you look at that, they're waiting for you guys. Never seen them that excited before." He yawned. "And because of that they dragged me off my bed. First thing I'm doing when we get there is to take a nap."
I looked at my watch and saw it to be one in the morning. Well it IS one so having only a mall amount of cars on the street is fairly nice.
"Hey corporal are we there yet? My fucking lap is getting crushed by Jonathan's big ass." Herman shouted.
"Hey you should be thankful I'm just a hundred and fifty pounds and that my ass has some fats in it." Jonathan smirked. "Unless of course you want me to jump up and down."
"For the love of god don't!"
Keep forgetting these guys are still in their early twenties. Never thought these kinds of jokes carry over all the way to the army. "Few more minutes and we'll be there, then a boat towards the island."
Mako grinned at what he was seeing in the rear view mirror. "Your men are like kids."
"Well, at least it isn't as gloomy and boring as those older guys are."
"Yeah, especially when your boss is always grumpy." He turned on the radio which played jazz music. Huh, its the nineteen twenties alright. "How did you guys end up in the spirit wilds anyway?"
"We were attacked by umm... triads, firebending ones, Agni Kai I think, when we were outside one of the entrances to the spirit wilds. We could kill them all if we wanted to but I didn't so I ordered my men to retreat into the dark creepy place where I hoped we'll lose the triads which we did."
"Agni Kai?" He frowned. "I never thought they'll be that aggressive in this part of the city. Do you know what the leader of the group that attacked you looks like?"
"Yeah, umm he's got a red suite and a, umm pinkish bowler hat, maybe in his thrities."
"That's Raoyang, leader of the downtown sector of the Agni Kai. What the hell did you do anyway?"
"We umm... killed some of them outside the city and gotten.a necklace of some sort, avatar's necklace." I got the small wooden box from my pack and the contract. "Here, see for your self." I opened the box and took the necklace out and with the contract presented it to him.
The car stopped in front of a stoplight and Mako took the necklace and the contract, he inspected the necklace for a few seconds before reading the contract. As he read his brows began to curl and afterwards he sighed and rubbed his eyes. "So it was the Agni Kai who took it. Do you know why they were going to sell it?"
"No, they attacked me when I was... snooping around their camp. But after I got discovered they called me an equalist, what's that?"
"Equalist..." the stoplight became green and the car started moving again. "The equalists were an organization bent on removing bending from this wolrd, Korra defeated them four years ago and they have since scattered. The few who remained abandoned their original views, goals, whatever you call it and is now just another triad group wanting a piece of Republic City."
"I see, revolutionaries turned thugs."
He glanced at me. "You said you killed them, how?" Its a trap.
"Your a cop arn't you? You're going to turn us in after we meet this Avatar, right?"
He was silent. "Its my job." He finally murmured.
"I know, and we're also doing our jobs."
"By the way, how is your world anyways? Like compared to ours." Wow that was an abrupt change of topic.
"Our world? Hmm, in our world this... era, technology is umm... we are ninety years in advance in terms of technology. We do have cars also and all of them have air conditioning." I put the necklace and the contract back into the box before putting it into my pack.
"All? Wow that's quite expensive."
"Not exactly, air conditioning is very common and very cheap. Its also quite small compared to what you have now which is very very big."
"Hey how did you know... Hmm you did say you're ninety years in advance."
"Exactly, though we don't have those fancy fireball trowing experts."
"Firebending you mean, wait so none of you can bend any elements?"
"Umm no?" Uranium bender? "What CAN you people bend anyways?"
"Well there's earth, fire, air, and water." They arn't elements. "Though the avatar can bend all of them, Korra could even energy bend. My brother, Bolin, whose and earthbender could lava bend and I, a firebender, could lightningbend."
"Wait what? What the hell you just shoot electricity out of your fingers?" I exclaimed.
"Yep pretty much, although it takes a lot of training and even then the lightning's path isn't very predictable."
"Of course it isn't, its fucking electricity! How the hell do you even... you know what I don't even want to know, it'll just confuse me more."
"You should let it all sink in first and don't try too hard to understand, it'll come to you. I don't expect someone from another wold would easily understand bending when it doesn't exist there."
"Yeah, kind of like explaining microchips to you."
He raised an eyebrow and looked at me. "A what?"
"Its a small piece of silicone with conductive metals like copper which stores ones and zeros as information about well anything you want to store."
"Huh." He looked back towards the road. "Definitely don't understand that... how ones and zeroes could store information"
"Hey corporal when we get there can you fill us in on what's happening?" Walter said
"Sure, works for me."
"Hey one more thing I want to ask you before we get to the docks, what do you call your language?"
"Its called Deutsch or in another language called English... German."
"Ger... German, D... Doi... I don't even know how to pronounce that."
"It takes time like you said."
"Right."
We arrived at a chain-linked gate with a small guards house to its left, the guard in a white and blue uniform with what looked like a white lotus on the front of his helmet lazily looked up and as soon as Mako saw him he waved. The guard acknowledged and opened the gate letting us in. We drove for several seconds more before stopping in front of another guard house and another man in the same uniform as before and once we got out he used the telephone which was an early one with a separate mouth and ear piece. He talked for a minute or two while we waited in silence before he put the phone down and pointed us towards the pier.
Walking down the wooden pier we were greeted by a woman wearing yellow and red robes, practically the same ones as the Dalai Lama of our world except she had hair tied into a bun.
"Hello lieutenant." She said. Oh, Mako's a lieutenant. She then gave us a quick glance before continuing. "Are these the men master Jinora was talking about?"
"Yeah they are, this is umm..."
"Corporal Geraldt Tchaikovsky of the Twenty First Panzer Brigade." I interrupted.
"Yeah, Jerald, and those are his men."
She looked at us closely before nodding. "Right this way corporal." She walked towards a small boat with an outboard motor on its stern.
We followed her onto the boat and after she fiddled a bit with the motor it revved to life. The boat started moving and in no time we were already in the middle of the bay with relatively calm waters which made the boat only roll slightly.
As we got closer to the island it became clear that there were four people waiting for us and all of them were wearing the Dalai Lama robes. I was finally able to see their faces when we were a couple of dozen meters away, one was a bald old man with a pointed goatee with the blie arrow on his head. That must be their leader or something. Another was a girl, with short hair and the arrow on her forehead. That must be her... the one I met! The next was a younger girl, but she didn't have the arrow and her hair was tied into two buns, and the last was a boy about the same height as the elder girl had very short hair, and was sleeping on the floor. Well then again its already past midnight.
"Those are the airbenders." Mako grunted. "They're very... peaceful so please don't try to make them angry."
"Peaceful monks... huh, okay."
"Sir, are those guys like... those Tibetan monks?" Herman squinted as he tried to look closer at the people on the pier.
"Seems like it private, now just to be clear Mako here said that they're a very peaceful kind of people so ease don't fuck shit up when we get there."
The men nodded. "What are we going to do after we meet them?" Walter asked.
"Hmm... I've no Idea, just go with the flow I guess."
He crossed his arms and nodded. Seeing his mood go down Jonthan added. "Oh come on doc don't be that old guy who doesn't want to have some fun."
Walter glared at him bit smiled. "There we go doc." Hr patted the medic on the shoulder.
"We're here, get ready." I ordered.
The boat slowed down to just under a knot as it docked on the pier and before the boat was properly docked I could hear one of the girls' high pitched voice asking question to the old man. So its one of those hyper active kids huh.
With the boat properly docked we finally got onto the pier with Mako leading followed by me.
"Hey Tenzin, so are these the guys?" Mako presented us as he talked to the older man.
The looked to the girl with the tattoo in which she nodded. "Yes Mako that's him, right behind you."
He turned around to look at me and shrugged, before looking back at the monks. "Alright I umm got to go, still have some work to do."
"Really Mako? In the middle of the night?" The girl sounded pissed.
Mako waved her off as he got back to the boat. "I need to look at why the Agni Kais wanted Korra's necklace... oh and by the way they have it." He pointed at me. "Show it to them will you?"
I nodded and got the box out and presented it to the older man. His eyes widened as he opened it and inspected it closer as he took it out. "This is Korra's. How did they get it?"
"Don't know, that's why I'm going to look into it." Mako signaled for the woman in the boat to start the motors.
The man gave the necklace and the box to the tattooed girl. "Yeah dad, its Korra's alright and this message... fifty thousand yu-ans! Spirits, somebody really wants this."
Mako untied the boat from the dock and it started drifting away. "I'll come back tomorrow when Korra and Asami return and tell you guys whatever I find."
"Careful Mako!" The girl shouted.
Mako waved back before the boat sailed off. He's not the smiling type of guy huh.
As they were having the conversation I observed the island we were currently in. It was fairly small but also high, the dock is the only part at sea level and in order to go up there was a very long stair that does all the way to the top which from my view contained the pagoda and some other buildings. "So... hi I guess." I spoke up.
"Spirits! We've completely ignored you! I'm so sorry!" The girl spoke up.
"Let us introduce ourselves. I'm master Tenzin and these are my daughters Jinora and Ikki." He pointed at the tattooed girl first before the other. "And my son Meelo... who is apparently not very excited to see you." He sighed as he carried his sleeping son from the floor. "Jinora please lead them to the dining area, I'll rejoin you as soon as I put your brother to bed, and Ikki, please be merciful when you ask questions."
The girls nodded.
"I'll be off then, he's getting heavier by the minute." He started walking up the stairs. Damn that's a long way up.
Jinora clasped her hands after she gave the box to Ikki. "So mister, what's your names?"
"I'm Corporal Garaldt Tchaikovsky. These are my men, Privates Herman Steinmeier, Karl Eckstein, Jonathan Wagner, Walter Ruderford, Hans Hohenzollern." they raised their hands as their names were called.
"Oh, so you're soldiers."
"Yes, yes we are."
"Mister Tchaikovsky why do you have make-ups on?" Ikki asked us with a smile on her face which caught me off guard.
"Ikki don't be rude." Jinora glared at her.
"Its alright Jinora." I said. "Its kind like make-up but its purpose is so that we can blend in with the greenery of the forests."
"Camouflage huh." Jinora rubbed her chin. "I wanted to ask you about this, what's it like in the other side? Me and my dad got over there bit we didn't go far when we saw the town and before we came back we buried the platypus bear that got killed by, I assume you?"
"Uhh yeah, it was me but it tried to attack me." I tried defending myself.
"I know you're non-benders so the only way you could've killed it is with weapons, which I assume that is thing?" She pointed at my rifle.
"Ah yes it is, its called a rifle." I showed it to her. "No touching."
The girls observed it carefully. "How does it work?" Jinora asked curiously. Damn it.
"Uhh... can I explain it later?"
"Sure. Oh and we should get going, mom will get mad when the food gets cold." She signaled for us to follow her which we complied.
"Sir again, what's happening?" Herman whispered.
"We're going to their dining area to eat, and that girl with the tattoo, Jinora, was definitely the one I met on the first day... they seem not really that excited to meet us."
"Yeah I though about that, looks like they were already expecting us."
"In any case don't let your guard down... yet. I trust them, but you never know what this world has to offer."
We proceeded to climb the stairs and afterwards went into a small wooden building that was connected to the pagoda. All the way to the top Ikki bombarded me with questions regarding our uniforms and weapons while I tried my best to answer them while my men just followed, not understanding anything we were talking about. The island was a small plateau with the top part containing all, including a small guard house with guards wearing the same uniform as the ones in the docks patrolling the island. One of them eyed me closely before moving on with his patrol.
Entering the dining area we were hit with the aroma of well cooked food but were immediately let down when we learned that they were all vegetarians. The table was rectangular with the ground underneath it cut away and the table placed into the slot which the edge of the hole being placed cushions as seats. There were two light bulbs illuminating the room and the walls appear to look like the traditional Japanese houses you commonly see in movies.
We placed our stuff including the packs and helmets down onto a corner of the room. Four of us were seated on one side with me and Walter on the sides and Tenzin, Jinora, Ikki, and another woman opposite of the four. They use chopsticks and the food were all vegetables and each of us were given a bowl of rice.
"I hope these are enough for you. It took me a while to prepare them." The woman beside Tenzin said.
"This is my wife Pema, and umm... i don't think you have introduced yourselves yet."
I repeated what I told Jinora earlier.
"I see, soldiers... well i assume you must be hungry after walking all the way here." Walking, yeah right. "Please, make yourselves comfortable."
"There's a small problem, my men don't know how to use chopsticks so is it okay if they take their sporks out?"
"Absolutely."
I nodded at the men and they took the sporks out of their MRE packages and started chowing down.
"Mmm, sooo good." Jonathan has his eyes closed as he savoured the taste of the tofu.
"Psst be more... modest, we're guests for fuck's sake not in the bloody cafeteria back home." I ordered as I saw the monks looking at him. "Master Tenzin, I apologize for my men being brash about eating."
"Its alright." He replied. "I understand we have cultural differences so it would not concern me that much. Go on and let your men enjoy their meals, seems like you haven't eaten in a while."
"Uh, thanks I guess... Master Tenzin."
The meal continued on loudly with the men talking amongst themselves and even though it was three in the morning, our hosts didn't get pissed off though Master Tenzin did seem to get more agitated as time went by. His daughters on the other hand were constantly asking me questions, questions such as politics, culture, spirituality (which Jinora deemed lacking) and above all our technology. It made me proud to explain what the hell a cellphone was to someone, pride that our world is far superior in technology than they are. They have cars, yes... airships, yes... but we have bigger and better ones.
The exchanges continued well after the men finished eating and seeing that they're satisfied, I sent Walter to report in on Outpost about our current situation which he grudgingly accepted as we went out of the room, grabbing my radio with him.
Finishing their plethora of questions it was my time to ask the girls about their world, the spirits, and this avatar that they constantly talk about. It was intriguing to say the least, to find myself in a world where spirits are in fact a thing and people have bending powers. All the while the girls were answering my questions I was translating them for the men so that they would also have an idea what they're up against with Hans actually taking notes.
It finally ended when Pema had enough and was going to sleep, forcing her children to also do so since it was way way past their bedtimes. Tenzin was relieved when the talking finally stopped and we got our stuff and was to be escorted to the men's quarters for the... morning i suppose. We said our goodbyes to the girls as they went on to the female quarters while Tenzin escorted us to ours.
The view on top of the island was impressive being able to see the skyline of the city in its fullest. Also impressive was the statue of Avatar Aang smack in the middle of the bay, kinda like how the Statue of Liberty was smacked in front of New York City. Ah New York, this one's just like a made in China version of it. The thoughts lingered for a while until we reached our room, it was a big room with at least eight mattresses on the floor. Huh, so they don't have beds? It had just one light bulb to illuminate the whole place and the walls were made of wood with a single large round window with a view of the ocean.
Tenzin said the final goodnights before he closed the room with a the sliding door and disappeared.
"Well, better than sleeping on the forest floor. Say did you ask them if they've got cleaning services sir? Our fatigues sure's dirty as hell, be a shame to ruin the clean bed sheets." Herman was talking his fatigues off, as is most of the men retaining only their gray sweety shirts with the words 'Heer' in black imprinted on the chest area, and trousers.
"I'll just ask tomorrow, too tired for it now. Come on lets just have some sleep and worry about it tomorrow... I mean later." I said as I too took of my dirty fatigues. "Hey Walter, what did you tell Outpost?"
"Uh, we're taken in by monks and that the city looks like Hong Kong and New York smashed together in the twenties." He replied.
"Good, now lets just have some sleep."
"Yes sir."
"Hey Jerald wake up, hey come on."
"Hmm? Fuck what time is it." I opened my eyes to see Mako leaning on the door not understanding what I just said. Oh right Chinese not Deutsch, oops. I said again "What time is it?"
"Seven in the morning."
"Hmm." I sat up and looked around to see the men still sleeping away. "Well time to wake them up huh. Is everyone else up?"
"Yeah, Korra and Asami just arrive a few minutes ago by an airship."
"Ok" I stood up and walked towards my pack and got a whistle out. "This wouldn't be too loud now right? Since you did say an airship came over."
"Mmmhmm. By the way Tenzin got towels waiting for you on the showers down the hallway to the right and said that after you guys are done I'll lead you to the dining room, a different one from the ones you guys ate in last night, this ones bigger and have several tables." Came the reply.
"Okay." I noticed as the light shined his fave that his eyes have quite the large black marks. Damn did this guy even sleep last night? I sighed and inhaled deeply before blowing the whistle as hard as I could in which the men immediately jumped out of the mattresses.
"Get up you fucking slugs! Now isn't the time to act like little pussies!" I screamed at the top of my lungs to try to get the drowsiness out of the squad as quickly as possible which it looked it it was working. "Form up front and center!"
The guys formed a line in front of me, this was normally done for inspection by the drill sergeants but since I'm the one in charge... "Alright get your toothbrushes and toothpastes and we'll be heading to the bathrooms now, move!" The men quickly scurried to their packs, got their things and hurriedly got back in line.
Mako seemed impressed by the speed of my men but it didn't really show on his face. So is he suppressing it or does he really not have a lot of emotion? In any case the men properly fell in line and afterwards I started marching them towards the showers while Mako stayed back.
I was just under a minute when we got to the showers and by god does it look like home, the floors were white tiles and the walls were also wood, each cubicle had a shower and a wooden door. Outside the cubicles were also four metal sinks with shiny metal faucets. The men quickly rushed towards the showers and the two of us, Me and Walter, who were left behind decided to start brushing our tooth while waiting for them to finish showering.
"That was... fast." Mako said, sitting on the doorway and flicking a small fireball on and off.
"We're in the military alright." I replied. "Come on guys, lets get dressed don't want them to wait for us." The men rushed into the room and started putting on their uniforms which I followed closely behind.
The men after putting the fatigues, boots, and equipments on once again fell in line but this time on a marching formation on the hallway.
"Arn't you guys going to put some make up on?" Mako said.
"Nah, we're in a city. It won't do us any good." I replied.
"Do you really need to put them in line?" He stood up and walked to the front where I was.
"Yep, It'll make us look more... Professional. It'll also make those guards out there at least look at us as soldiers and not some thugs pretending to be one."
"Those white lotus guards? Yeah they're not really the friendly types but they get the jobs done anyhow." He crossed his arms. "Lets go then." He then turned around and started walking.
I nodded before barked the orders in German. "Forwaaaaard, March!"
"Ah Corporal Jeralt had finally arrived, I... we... have heard you shouting shouting a few minutes beforehand giving us time to compose ourselves." Tenzin spoke the moment we entered the dining room.
I felt my cheeks getting hot with embarrassment. Well this is what you get for trying to be 'cool'.
The room was far larger than the ones we were in last night, this one had several windows and tables but the overall design was still the same: wooden walls with big wooden sliding doors. There were quite a few people in there with us, some of those whote lotus guards Mako was talking about, a guy in red with well groomed hair and two girls... Holy shit they're hot. My men stood at attention forming a line from my left to my right behind me, waiting for my orders.
"Right, corporal I would like to introduce you to very special people in this world. Over here we have Avatar Korra." He pointed at a lady with a brown skin tone, short hair and blue clothes with boots. Oh she's the avatar, damn she's hot. Also quite jacked up for a girl, big biceps and all.
I gate a small smile. "Avatar Korra, nice to meet you." She came towards me, shaking my hands she replied.
"Hi corporal! Its amazing to finally see one of you... here in front of me." He returned a smile. "Tenzin had all sorts of texts of what Aang saw in his visions, never had one of them myself though, not a spiritual type of person." She pouted. "Anyways, good to see you!" She released my hand and took a few steps back.
"Now, here is Asami Sato the CEO or Chief Executive Officer of her company, Future Industries." Tenzin pointed at the other girl who was standing beside the avatar, she got gorgeous long black hair with a very pretty face with green fiery eyes to accompany it. God she looks a hell of a lot sexier than the avatar.
"Hi there." She came up and shook my hands. "Delighted to finally meet you, I didn't expect you to look very much like us." She had a warm smile. "If it doesn't bother you I would like to talk more about your world after this."
"Sure.. uh, ma'am. Whatever you say." I stuttered.
She grinned before taking a few steps back.
Tenzin continued. "Now we have General Iroh II, he's the commander of the United Forces... its our military you see."
"Corporal." He greeted me and before he came close to me I made my decision to salute him.
"Squad! Preseeeeent, arms!" I shouted, saluting him at the same moment while my men did so too but with their weapons.
He was plesantly suprised and a second later he returned a salute. So they salute just like us eh? I lowered my arms after he lowered his and ordered my men to 'order arms'. I then walked forth to shake his hands with him grinning.
"Corporal! I see that our militaries have quite a lot in common." He shook my hands then looked onto my men who were still standing at attention. "I believe that is unecessary corporal, have your men relax a bit. This is more like an introduction and not a full military affair... yet" He grinned once more.
"Uh, yes sir." I turned around, ordered my men to be at ease, then got back facing the general. "Good to see you general."
"Likewise corporal." Smilng he got back to where most of the people are standing as Tenzin continued.
"Now corporal, this is our ministerer of foreign affairs Haoyung."
He came forward and shook my hands. "Hello corporal."
"Hi" I replied with a straigh face. Politicians? For fuck's sake, I mean I understand that they're a democracy and all just like us but why here? And a minister of foreign affairs? Are they that excited to make some kind of embassy?
"Ah, I see that you are a bit puzzled as to why I'm here, are you not?" Wow, politician indeed and a clever one too.
"Uh yeah minister."
He looked back at Iroh slightly unsure but as Iroh nodded he turned back and blurted out his reasons. "My government, our government had been... talking within ourselves how to best contact yours, so we decided that if you approve of it then we shall follow you through to your world and make contact with your government."
I was quite stunned at what i heard. Fucking hell we have just got here a day ago and now he wants to have diplomatic bullshit with us? Are they really that quick? What the fuck?
"So corporal, what say you?"
I realized that I was just staring into him blankly. "Huh? Well i still need to ask MY general about it, you know, chain of command and all that stuff."
"I see, well then we shall meet again soon."
"Wait, to be clear who's coming?"
"Me, General Iroh, Avatar Korra, and Ms. Sato."
"Woah woah woah, hang on a minute. So a minister, the HEAD OF THE ARMED FORCES, THE spiritual leader and a CEO?"
"That's right."
"What the..." I threw my hands up. "Oh come on. Care to tell me why?"
"Only if we're going to the your world." Oh you cheeky fuck.
"Ugh fine, I'll ask command about it."
"Thank you." He bowed "We'll be waiting for their answer then."
"Yeah. By the way Tenzin can I go out for a moment, I'd like to make a call first."
He frowed. "Call? Our phones are at the other building, we don't have one outside."
"No worries Tenzin i have a radio."
He frowned again before realization hit me. "No Tenzin, our radio isn't the ones used for listening at night, its more like a wireless phone."
His face lit up as he understood. "I see. Well see you later then."
"I'll be very quick, few minutes tops." I waved at the guys standing. "I'll be back."
My squad staryed behind since It'll be such a hassle to move everyone out abd then back in again.
Getting onto what looked like a small garden I took a seat at one of the wooden chairs spread throughout the place and took my radio out. "Expedition to Outpost, Expedition to Outpost, how copy?"
"Hey expedition, this is Outpost, what's up?" Well so much fore radio discipline.
"Outpost I think we have a problem."
"What is it?" His voice suddenly became more serious.
I sighed. Fuck, where do I even start?