With a flicker of soulfire, Lindon rode a cushion of wind aura down to the ground. In his head, Dross was updating him on enemy locations and general battle tactics.
[You know, if you let them attack you for a while, I'll be able to finish up that earthbending model] Dross mentioned.
'No' Lindon thought back 'That would increase the risk to everyone else, we're finishing this fast'
He began to cycle blackflame madra, the familiar heat rising from his body as he did so. Time seemed to slow as he took in everything and everyone around him. Dross and him planned out his attacks. Finally, Lindon's eyes met the man in charge, Long Feng. They would leave him for last. The volatile power of the burning cloak enveloped Lindon, before he kicked off on the offensive.
The first target was the closest guard to their left, a heavy side kick at top speeds catapulted the man into the building behind him. He was left groaning on the ground as Lindon dodged no less than three stone hands flying at his back. These guards were a calibur above the upper gate guards. Maybe even comparable to Underlords.
Lindon couldn't allow himself to get bogged down with ranged attacks, he pushed off once again. This time down an alleyway where two guards were in the process of pulling a wall out of the ground. They may have been trying to trap him in the street. But they were too late, Lindon switched cores and deployed the Hollow domain. It pulled in the surrounding aura and cut off their technique. A few well placed strikes put the men down. Switching back to blackflame, the burning cloak springing up around him once again.
Back on the street, the Dai Li were preparing a united front. They paired up in a semicircle, one agent would pull a block out of the ground and the other would punch it, launching the projectile at high speeds. It was impressive, and against another bender, it would have been devastating. Lindon ran through the volley like it didn't exist. He could duck a few of them, and batted some away. But for the most part, he just took the hits. He was a peak underlord, with an iron body designed and upgraded to heal him at all costs. A few rocks weren't going to slow him down.
Once he got past the "kill zone" the pairs on the ends of the formation couldn't keep sending bricks at Lindon, or they would hit their fellow guards. The whole thing fell apart after Lindon beat down the first pair. They clearly didn't have a second plan, some pairs stuck together and some scattered to get a better position. After kicking off and removing another pair from combat, Lindon once again switched cores. The hollow domain sprung up, almost catching everyone surrounding him. Without their bending, the Dai Li were not a fraction as formidable as they should have been.
Once Lindon had dealt with the men surrounding him, he felt it was time to speak to Long Feng. The man was still shouting orders to the groaning guards on the ground. There were a few agents still in fighting condition, but they were on the back side of the apartment building. Either they couldn't hear the orders, or had been previously ordered to stay in their positions to catch the Avatar and company. It didn't matter, either way, because Lindon sprinted across the street and secured Long Feng's neck in his grasp.
The man looked equal measures dazed and shocked. He was wide eyed and making gaspy, muttering sounds. Lindon wasn't crushing his throat or anything, but the man didn't seem to be able to speak.
Lindon lightly shook him "Why are you after me?"
Long Feng didn't answer.
Lindon shook him again "What do you know about the Avatar's bison?"
No answer.
Dross floated out of Lindon's face [I think he's broken]
That broke the man out of whatever trance he was in. It didn't help with the questions though, now he was just screeching in terror.
Dross looked confused [That's not very nice. Lindon may be homely, but screaming is rude] he said before huffing and floating back into Lindon's head.
Lindon considered retorting, but just sighed and shouted up to the apartment "It should be safe to come down now!"
It took a few minutes, but eventually, the group flowed out of the apartment entrance. Little Blue proudly marched at the front as fast as her tiny legs could take her; strangely, no one seemed to want to go ahead of her. Once the group got close, Long Feng's muttering cut off. Lindon looked down to find the man leering at someone in the group, a gross, smug smile pulling at his lips.
"The king has invited you to lake laogai" Long Feng spoke through his disturbing smile.
A long moment passed, nothing seemed to happen. Lindon looked from Long Feng to the group, then back to Long Feng.
Dross cleared his throat and spoke up [Was that supposed to do something?]
Another moment passed and all of the hope in Long Feng's eyes died, replaced by anger. "How!? You're under my control! How are you resisting? THE KING HAS INVITED YOU TO LAKE LAOGAI!" He screamed at Jet.
Katara took a step forward "It's no use! I've already healed whatever damage you caused"
Long Feng went limp in Lindon's grasp, he was well and truly beaten, and he knew it. Lindon had taken out most of his fighting force, he had no more cards to play.
Aang took a step forward "Where's Appa?" The young boy wasn't yelling, but he held his staff at the ready, as if he meant to strike.
Long Feng didn't even flinch, he just kept on his thousand mile stare in defeat. Lindon physically turned the man's head towards Aang, but Long Feng didn't seem to register it.
Toph cracked her knuckles "Give me a few minutes with him, he'll remember really quick." Katara gave the girl a dirty look and Aang looked torn, but the freedom fighters whispered in agreement. Lindon didn't want to drag this out any more than it needed to be. He turned to the group, Long Feng still in his grasp.
"There are still six guards on the far side of the buildings, they are spread out, so you should be able to single them out and take them down. Why don't some of you do that, and I'll get the information." The group gasped as Dross lit the enemies up in everyone's vision.
In the end, Sokka, Jet, Smellerbee, Longshot, Toph and Zuko went off to clean house. The remaining people gathered around Long Feng, who was still in a daze. Dross spoke up.
[You should just consume him, I'll read his memories, and we'll know for sure.]
Lindon was about to respond when he noticed the looks the rest of the group was giving him, even Long Feng was alert, looking at Lindon in fear. Apparently, Dross had spoken to everyone.
"That sounds a lot worse than it really is, even so, we don't know how it will affect people here. It may only ruin his cores, or it may kill him…or cause some other damage, so we aren't…" Lindon was about to say they weren't going to use consume when Long Feng cut him off in a frenzy.
"The bison is at Lake Laogai, at the…not the lake itself, there is an underground base below the lake. The bison is in a large holding cell at the end farthest from the city. I promise, just…d-don't kill me."
Aang looked ready to attack "YOU HAD APPA THIS WHOLE TIME! WHY!?"
Long Feng flinched "We felt it was necessary to keep as leverage, you've already caused so much damage…" The man went back to murmuring to himself.
Aang was growing visibly more and more angry. Then, his eyes began to glow, the white light seemed to spread to the marking on his body. Lindon opened his cooper sight and marveled at what he saw. The boy's cores were glowing with a blue-silver light and practically vibrating. Focusing on them, Lindon realized vibrating wasn't the right description. It was more like each core was overlaid with hundreds of others, all moving slightly different from each other. Aura began to build around the boy, like he was drawing it towards himself from all around.
The Avatar began to rise into the air, wind whipping around him in a cyclone. Closing his copper sight, Lindon was surprised to see the look of absolute disgust and rage painted on Aang's face.
[I'm not the best at reading humans, but the Avatar might be angry] Dross babbled in his head. [Might want to separate yourself from Long Feng].
Lindon didn't really care about the man, but he guessed it would be much easier to get Appa back with Long Feng alive. He was just about to say as much when Katara stepped up in front of Aang.
"It's okay Aang, we know where Appa is now, let's go get him" She said while reaching up and grabbing one of his hands. Nothing happened at first, but slowly, the boy's face mellowed out and he floated to the ground. He still looked very upset, but his eyes and markings stopped glowing and Katara was rubbing his back.
There was an awkward pause then where no one seemed to know what to do or say. Then a body flew through the air and landed not far from them. It was a Dai Li agent, scuffed up but not dead. He was collecting his bearings and about to get up when Toph blasted into the air on a pillar of earth. She landed directly on the man's stomach. She raised her arms and bellowed "That's another win for the Blind Bandit!"
That broke the awkward moment and Iroh turned to Katara and Aang "I know you are excited to be reunited with your friend. But, this could be another trap. Or Appa could really be at this Lake Laogai, but being guarded. Either way, I'm not sure what he should do with him" Iroh inclined his head towards Long Feng.
Iroh continued on "We could go as a group, which could be tricky with a hostage. Or we could leave people here to watch him, but…I'm not sure we should go back into the apartment. The whole building might come down. I don't think it would be a good idea to stay out in the open either."
He paused and thought for a moment "Whichever path we choose, we will probably be attacked and Long Feng might slip away again."
Lindon knew for a fact that he, with an iron body bathed in soulfire, would be able to keep a hold of Long Fend while he slept. He could have said as much, but instead activated one of his void keys.
A door opened a few inches off the ground, it led to a villa surrounded by what the untrained could assume was junk. They were mostly natural treasures kept in special trunks, cases, and baskets which kept the treasures from deteriorating. The rest actually was junk. Constructs in all forms of completion, with remnant parts and arms and armor speckled in.
Lindon pointed over his shoulder to it "We could keep him in there, if that is agreeable to you?" he asked.
A few of them gasped, Toph turned her head side to side before asking "what happened".
Aang took a few quick steps towards the entrance, his eyebrows switching between being scrunched down and flying up to the top of his head.
"That's amazing! What is this place? It feels…umm…spirit-like?" Aang's last statement came out like a question.
Dross spun out of Lindon's head [We of course it is! It's a pocket space tethered to a void key that Lindon can activate at will. So it's…not spirit-like at all once you think about it.]
The mind spirit rubbed his chin with a purple tentacle before shrugging and fleeing back into Lindon's head. Lindon got the impression that Dross just wanted to talk and be seen, but he didn't comment about that, he just turned to the young Avatar.
"You can go inside if you like, it won't close on its own, it's perfectly safe…" Lindon quickly added, "...just don't open any containers."
Soon, the Avatar was zipping around, enthralled by the various "not junk" scattered here and there. Katara had walked up to the doorway, but seemed hesitant to cross the threshold. That was until Aang sprinted over, grabbed her hand, and pulled her along to look at the "neat stuff" he found.
Iroh was attempting to explain to Toph what the floating doorway and area beyond looked like. Now the rest of the group was coming back from cleaning up the rest of the guards. Besides a few scrapes and bruises, no one was injured. Jet was eyeing Sokka's club, no doubt missing the hooked swords he had been using before.
Sokka, Toph, and the Freedom Fighters moved towards the doorway to the void space; they ranged from awed, to confused, to distrustful.
Zuko quickly moved to stand next to Iroh. They stepped a few feet away from the rest of the group and began to quickly, and quietly, argue about what they should do. No one else would probably hear them; but for Lindon, they might as well have been standing right next to him.
Zuko wanted to leave, not just the group, but the city. He said they were compromised and wouldn't be able to stay as free men. Iroh wanted to stay and help the Avatar find his Bison. He was also very adamant that after the Bison was free, that he would help Lindon find a way home…and maybe have some more of that special tea, if Lindon allowed him to.
While they continued to argue. The rest of the group had made their way into the void space, Lindon dragged Long Feng to the doorway and into the villa. The man had stopped blubbering and was just staring wide eyed at everything around him.
"Wha…what is this? Who are you?" he whispered, more to himself.
Lindon used a wisp of soulfire to control wind aura to levitate a pair of manacles to them. They were actually a very sophisticated set of scripted spirit shackles designed to slow madra cycling to the point of uselessness. But, they were also physically half-silver manacles that Lindon locked around Long Feng's wrists.
Lindon led the man, whose arms were now secured behind his back, to the backside of the villa. There was a structure in the back where they would hold him. Structure…was a kind word for it. It was a tool shed full of junk, but Long Feng would be secure, which is what mattered.
Sokka was creeping up to Lindon, a mix of wonder and confusion wrestling for control of his face.
"How is this possible? Not just the weird bending…but this whole area existing in a doorway suspended in the air!? It just doesn't make sense!" The water tribe boy was getting himself worked up.
Lindon brightened at the questions though. Since the evacuation of Sacred Valley, he has had a resource he'd been short on for the past few years…time. In that time he could fully split his days up between training, scripting, soulcrafting, research, time with his family, time with Yerin, and meditation to better align himself with the Void Icon.
With the extra research into void spaces and transportation; he was more than qualified to explain the finer details of exactly how void spaces were created, bound to keys with script, maintained, and their eventual degradation over time if not maintained.
He was just getting to void key maintenance, when he realized the void space had emptied besides him and Sokka. Poor Sokka looked more confused than before he had walked up.
"Ah, apologies, I suppose we don't have the time to go over the finer details. Let's join the others."
Sokka just nodded and began walking towards the exit. Dross snickered in Lindon's head [You say we don't have time for the fine details, but you were just going over the differences in maintenance procedure between the Ashwind and Rosegold continents.]
Lindon had the good grace to feel a wave of embarrassment, but they were fascinating differences, it was hard not to bring it up while they were on the subject. Void keys were virtually all the same, they should all be maintained similarly. But somehow such major differences existed in different parts of the world. And, they both seemed to work fine, even though they were so different.
'Maybe it was a little much in my explanation for Sokka' Lindon thought before feeling a pang of loneliness. He had gotten used to having people around who he could talk with about high level crafts.
He quickly shook the feeling off and hurried to the doorway back out. He could hear a heated discussion outside.