AUTHOR'S NOTES: And now we enter Book 2, which covers the events of the Equalist Revolution, and all that. As such, we will see several parallels to the show throughout the next several dozen chapters. Don't let the name fool you: I went with "Change" for thematic reasons, and because "Air" isn't really the theme of this book considering Korra already knows airbending at this point. The book/arc where Korra meets Zaheer and the Red Lotus again will therefore also have a different name, but we'll worry about that when we get to that point.
Happy Reading!
BOOK TWO: CHANGE
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: TRIPLE-THREAT TRIADS
Naga was waiting for Korra right outside the Avatar Chamber, greeting her with a forceful pin to the ground and repeated lickings of Korra's face.
"Ow, ow!" Korra laughed, "hey, easy on the right arm, girl!" Some people might have found this treatment frustrating, but Korra reveled in it and enjoyed every second. She reached into her bag and tossed Naga a treat as she got to her feet and brushed herself off, before glancing around, and out into the now setting sun.
"I think I know what drew me here this time…" she muttered, glancing around for any sign of Zoroka, but to no avail. "And it was worth the journey."
Korra spent the evening in the solitude of the deserted temple, still finding a distinct comfort in this mysterious location that she could not really find anywhere else. The Water Tribes were comforting despite her incidents there; the Earth Kingdom was vast and exciting; Republic City was a massive center of entertainment and intrigue, and while she had visited the Northern and Eastern Air Temples in some of her recent journeys, they didn't quite hold the same charm that the Western Air Temple did for her—not even in their respective Avatar Chambers.
Korra also realized that she most likely held the distinction as the only master Avatar that had never been to all four nations, considering that she had yet to set foot on Fire Nation soil. However, with the existence of the United Republic, she had *technically* been to four nations nonetheless. She wondered if that would change between the present and the time when she became a fully-realized Avatar—it was possible, because despite Korra's setbacks, she was still extremely powerful and very close to becoming a fully-realized Avatar, despite her age. Either way, it was an amusing little thought to fall asleep to.
The next day around midmorning (Korra still didn't do mornings well, since she stubbornly asserted that the morning was evil), Korra and Naga took off back to the mainland, with the intention of returning to Republic City. Despite being away so much of the time, she still paid the city an occasional visit, catching up with Asami and Bolin, an even Mako, who appeared to have softened a little bit towards Korra despite her sometimes less-than-ethical life/career choices.
It was true, what people said about Republic City. It was the place to go if someone wished to disappear; and it was part of why so many criminal gangs and organizations were able to thrive and not get caught. The metalbending police force was remarkably effective when they were able to pin down criminals, but even with the dedicated efforts of Lin BeiFong and her sister Suyin's protégé Kuvira, there was still quite the rotten underbelly in Republic City.
Korra was very little help in this regard, often doing more harm than good. She claimed that trouble seemed to be drawn to her, and while most people would write that off as a lame excuse, it seemed to hold some water.
She was excited when she saw posters of her smirking face plastered to various street corners and light posts, seeing that the advertisement for her upcoming "Avatar Gauntlet" was still well under way. She took one of the fliers and began to scan it as she walked through the city, checking in on things because Asami wasn't home at the time.
"Ever wanted to try your hand against the Master of all Four elements in a game of modern speed and skill?" the poster read, "Sign up today for The Avatar Gauntlet and see if your best teams can take on the best of the best the world has to offer, in Republic City's favourite pastime!"
The rest of the information on the flier was mostly just technical details, dates, times, rules and regulations, and the likes. Korra realized she'd be very busy over the next few weeks given how often she was scheduled, which meant she'd at least have to speak to Butakha about this to reassure him she'd be able to make it work. Being that busy didn't bother her in the slightest; the more occupied she was, the less time she had to worry about her past coming back to throttle her again.
On the other hand, she regretted not watching where she was going, as she felt something strike the back of her head and plant her face into the concrete. She rolled onto her back to try and recover, but as she was kicking her feet out to jump back up, rock appeared around her hands, binding them and thus slipping Korra up. She grunted, using her feet to push herself into something of a leaned-back sitting position as she eyeballed her attackers. There was no time to think—it was time to act.
"Who the hell are you hoodlums?" she barked, glaring daggers at three shady looking men who were standing in front of a red Satomobile and now approaching her.
"Girlie, consider your answer carefully." A Water Tribe man in a blue-grey suit warned, "Do you think that just because… 'you're the Avatar and the world's gotta deal with it'," his tone changed to make a mockery of Korra's trademark statement, "...that you can just waltz right into Viper's territory—MY territory, and then go carousing around Republic City like you own the place?"
"Damn straight I do," Korra stamped her foot, breaking the earthen bonds and jumping to her feet with an aggressive stance. "So are you three gonna be the first ones to run the Avatar Gauntlet, or are you just gonna shriek and yap like Probending fangirls?"
"We'll see about that," the earthbender who attacked her distracted her for just long enough to allow the Viper to strike Korra's abdomen with a hard, swift bolt of water and ice shrapnel. That was going to sting a bit later.
"You picked a bad time to get lost, girlie," Viper taunted as he took another shot. "But now that you've gone ahead and shown you ain't afraid of bleeding… we're going to arrange a little meeting between you and a hospital." Whether or not Viper was ever a Probender was unclear, but he was fast and aggressive. His cronies, who bent earth and fire, also kept her on edge, and none of them seemed too concerned with collateral damage.
"You're the ones going to need a hospital," Korra met their attacks head-on, following up with a gust of wind to deflect the projectiles. "And for your sake," she continued, "I hope there's one nearby!" Korra followed her statement up with a blast of lightning that set the Triad thugs off-balance. It was rare for her to use that ability, but she always had it on reserve. Nakkoa had been good for at least one thing, despite the lasting damage she had done to Korra both physically and mentally.
The earthbender shifted the ground under Korra's left foot sharply to her left, causing her to unintentionally do the splits for a fraction of a second in a way that made her eyes pop and her teeth grit. She recovered and did a spiral flip to prevent getting a blast of fire to her face, and as she flipped backwards her hands pulled up rock projectiles which were in turn reflected by Viper. The firebender was there to meet her, proving that while thugs they might have been, the devious trio worked well enough together. The bolts of flame that hit her were not lingering, but were lighter attacks that popped at the end, with the burst effect launching Korra backwards and through the window of a shop. The thin sheet of glass stood no chance against a 160-lb Avatar colliding with it, and so unsurprisingly, it shattered on impact.
"Sorry!" Korra called out as she sprang back out and spewed a steady stream of powerful flames from her mouth to press her offensive and push the gangsters back. If she had been cut at all by the glass she was completely unfazed.
"At least now I can say I practiced a little before the gauntlet overmorrow afternoon…" Korra thought to herself as she danced gracefully around a slew of rock, water, and flame that put holes in many windows and walls around them. Zaheer's deft footwork training had been one of the many useful things she had learned as well, as well as her own agility in jumps, flips, and the like. She followed up with some powerfully aggressive waterbending strikes much like the ones she used in the Probending arena, aiming them skillfully at the mobsters' projectiles and preventing them from getting a good offensive foothold. She stamped her foot to bring up a quick slab of rock, launching the firebender through a 2nd-storey window, and used airbending to blast the other two backwards towards their vehicle.
"Got any idea of who I am now, chumps!" Korra taunted, although instead of a reply, she heard the roaring of the Satomobile, which was barrelling right towards her. Her initial thought was to whip off her headband, but as the firebender made a skillful jump from the window onto the top of the car before slipping in through a window, Korra realized she was much too close of quarters to launch a combustion beam at them without hurting herself in the process. They swerved to try and hit her, but Korra launched herself over them with a barrel-roll flip, and gave them the illusion she was going to leave them alone, before removing her headband and firing off a well-aimed combustion beam towards the back of the car.
It didn't hit the vehicle, but blasted the road just underneath the back bumper with enough force to send the car spinning through the air and crashing into a building. The mobsters managed to survive, but right as Korra was about to corner them, the shadow of a large airship hovered overhead. Korra had not had too many altercations with police apart from a few that she had managed to smooth-talk her way out of, but she recognized the metalbenders and their ships.
"Police!" the called out, "freeze where you are!"
Immediately, metalbenders descended from cables and moved to apprehend the Triad members. Korra crossed her arms smugly, popping a piece of candy into her mouth as a sort of vindictive celebration, despite her wounds. The bottom of her shirt was stained red, and she was glad that her armband was on her right arm, because were it on her left arm, it would have a large bleeding cut through it.
Korra remained smugly at the scene of the crime. She recognized the Police Captain, Saikhan, but only from pictures in some local newspapers she had read. After the cops had apprehended the three Triad members, they turned to Korra.
"You're under arrest too!" Saikhan pointed accusingly at Korra.
"What do you mean I'm under arrest," Korra put her hand to her chest defensively, "They assaulted me as I was walking down the street, so I defended myself!"
"By 'defending yourself', do you mean smashing up the entire block?" Saikhan gestured behind Korra, where nary a single building's 1st floor had escaped the wrath of the four benders. A few 2nd floor walls and buildings were also damaged.
"Hey, lemme explain!" Korra moved against the police who attempted to restrain her, causing Saikhan to shoot a metal cable around Korra's arm.
"Fuck; not that arm, please…" she grunted, her left arm quivering as she pulled on the cable. Tensing her muscles with that gash on her arm made it that much worse.
"You can explain all you want, down at headquarters." Saikhan answered.
Korra suddenly stopped, whistling loudly as Naga barreled over Saikhan and freed Korra from the cable in the process. The chase was on.
The police knew the city much better than Korra, but that didn't stop the feisty Avatar and her wily polar bear-dog from zigzagging through the streets to evade capture. At one point a few metalbenders attempted to sideline her, but as one approached her, Korra introduced his face to the underside of her boot, giving him a good solid kick that launched him into two of his buddies. She tore through the large park in the middle of town, looking for a less confined space in order to prevent capture, but all this really did was attract more police.
"I am *so* not getting paid enough for this…" She pouted as she pressed Naga onward. So far she remained ahead of the competition, but as she moved to cross a large bridge she saw a spiderweb of cables descending for her.
"You only bend once," She mumbled, before focusing on the center of the cables and blowing them apart with a well-aimed combustion beam.
"This isn't going to be easy," Saikhan radioed Chief Lin BeiFong, "she's resistant, extremely fast, and incredibly powerful."
"Dart her if you have to," Lin replied over the radio, "Avatar or not, justice is blind."
The next motion from the police was subtle, and they pulled back. Korra raced off, vindicated that she had escaped.
However, it was all part of a scheme. Korra ran into Kuvira, who was casually patrolling an otherwise quiet street before she glanced Korra's way.
"Ahh, shit," she grunted, but all this did was get Kuvira to turn.
"Avatar Korra?" the young metalbender raised her eyebrows. "You look like you just crawled out of the bad end of a street fight."
"That's the gist of it," Korra mumbled, "and now the rest of you cops are trying to arrest me just because I might've smashed a few windows. I can pay for that easy-peasy!" It wasn't like she had anything else to spend her money on other than maybe a Satomobile.
"I'm not saying I'm going to turn you in, Avatar Korra," Kuvira began, stalling Korra just long enough for her comrades to make their move. She had been in on the plot to take down Korra, and so when Korra was shot in the back of the neck with a stun dart, Kuvira acted surprised, particularly as Korra slumped unceremoniously off of Naga and into an awkward face-down position with her hips in the air.
"You set me up," Korra grunted as she tried vainly to move, "Come on… did you really have to let me fall face-down, ass up though? This is embarrassing even for me."
"It would have been easier on all of us if you hadn't resisted and ran," Kuvira retorted, although there was a wry half-smile on her face as if she had found Korra's entire stunt rather amusing—since she did.
Naga, while initially apprehensive, seemed to sometimes have more common sense than her master to the point where she did not try to fight off the approaching police, although stayed close enough to Korra's side as if to ensure she was not mistreated as she was helped up and handcuffed before being taken away in a van. Naga followed, not necessarily trying to be stealthy, but also not causing a ruckus, almost like she knew exactly what Korra had done and that she was in fact facing justice. Kuvira made no effort to stop her—for the spectacle was also rather amusing to witness. Besides, Korra wasn't about to get the slammer for life or anything. Kuvira frankly figured the Avatar would be out of there within a couple of hours at most.
AFTERTHOUGHTS: I've always tacked Korra's weight to be between about 150-160 pounds (~68-73kg) given her musculature. Nothing too important; I just needed a number since it comes up at least one other time between now and ch.90.