AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is sort of a breather chapter in which the focus shifts slightly from Korra and a few of her friends get to take the spotlight. Nothing too game changing, but contrary to Korra's belief this isn't just her battle, and so others might still have a part or two.
Happy Reading!
BOOK TWO: CHANGE
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN:THE DELVE UNDERGROUND
"There ain't no rest for the wicked." Kwan sighed, setting Lin's unconscious form down for only a moment as she took a defensive stance. "Let's dance, you bastards! Come at me!"
But instead of the any of the mecha tanks moving, there was a surreal silence. This wasn't a trap; it was merely a storage facility. The silence was broken by the sound of approaching Equalists (Kwan may not have known for sure, but could guess with an almost certainty that it was Equalists, and would be correct), and she knew she needed a plan.
Kwan stamped her foot, creating a massive hole in the floor with branching tunnels. If there was one thing that made her grateful to be Azula's descendant, it was that her grandmother's prodigious genes seemed to run in her blood the same way they had in Nakkoa's. She stood there, remotely carving out a maze-like labyrinth under the warehouse before looking around for something to leave as a trail. A moment later she got an idea.
There was light dust that had settled in the building simply from a lack of use, and Kwan used her bending to raise it up, before hoisting Lin back onto her back, climbing up to the cockpit of the nearest mecha tank, lifting the hatch, and hopping in. She let the dust fall, with only a few light bits of it disturbed between the doorway and the large hole she had made. She sealed the hole crudely to throw the Equalists off her path as she locked herself in one of the mecha tanks, letting the dust settle back over each part as to make it appear untouched. It was something of a tight squeeze with Lin in there with her, and of course this was the time she came around because that was just Kwan's luck.
"Y'know," Lin grunted, trying to get her bearings together and shift around to get comfortable since Kwan was the one in the seat and at the controls, "this makes Korra's lemur incident look pretty tame in comparison… what in oblivion are you even doing?"
"Shh…" Kwan muttered in little more than a whisper, "Tryin' to lay low.
She paused for a moment before continuing. "On the other hand… how are you feelin'? I mean, I don't reckon you're doing too hot cuz of losing your bendin', but…"
"I've… been worse." Lin sighed, "Just… do your thing, and whatever you do, don't let them get you. Your bending saved my life, Kwan."
"It did?" She tilted her head, "Wait, you were conscious for everything?"
"A little," Lin muttered, closing her eyes, "I'll explain… soon…"
"Right, right," Kwan nodded, "Just rest a bit. I'm sure we'll have a moment or two before they inevitably find us."
"That sounds terrible," Lin grunted, "but I trust you know what you're doing, if you had enough skill and guts to get me out of Amon's grip."
Kwan simply nodded and grew quiet and motionless, letting the warehouse grow quiet again. This silence was also short-lived, as Equalists burst into the area with flashlights, lightsticks, and other luminary objects that lit up the place. Kwan's heart pounded as she feared any of them glancing up at the cockpit of the 3rd mecha tank from the right—because if they did, they would see her, and that would spell doom for both her and Lin.
Fortunately, they fell for her trap, working to smash Kwan's crude stone 'door', before they all jumped down and plunged into the maze. Kwan knew that her time had come.
With a clenching of her fist and a jerk of her arm, she sealed the hole again, before firing up the mecha tank, which, to her delight, actually worked. She smashed her way out of the warehouse, barrelling down the road and getting a good head start on the Equalists. She had no idea where she was going to go, but she'd find refuge—she had to. She was impressed by how fast this mecha tank could go, although now she would have to weave her way through the streets that both she and the Equalists damaged.
"Any idea where the hell you're going?" Lin quipped, since the lurch of the machine had made her uncomfortable position even worse, "or is this just another joyride?"
"When I find out I'll be sure to letcha know," Kwan replied, "but clearly you're smarter than me, and so if I can tell this ain't the place to lay low, I bet you can too."
"I'm just busy thinking about your last little joyride…" Lin riposted.
"Oy now, which one?" Kwan riposted, "was it the one in '64? Or the one back in '59?"
"'64," Lin replied, in reference to the number of years since Avatar Aang stopped the Fire Nation's imperialistic rampage, after which most places in the world started their calendars henceforth. "I still haven't forgotten about that fire, by the way."
"Ouch!" Kwan actually laughed, as she swerved around a corner, "Hey, I spent 8 months in the can for that one, thank you very much. If I'm gonna go back to prison for this little stunt, at least let me get you to safety so you can be the one to arrest me after we restore order and all that."
The beauty of piloting the mecha tank was that nothing short of powerful benders and other mecha tanks could really stand in her way. Considering some of the modifications made to them to better defend their pilots from dangerous benders like Korra (or rather, most likely entirely because of Korra, Kwan thought), even powerful benders might still not be able to stop it. As she thought about being stopped, she wondered how long it would take the Equalists to get on with that, but she was certainly not about to wait around and find out.
Unfortunately, it ultimately only took a few minutes, which went to show that they were much more organized than Kwan or her friends gave them credit for. Still, as organized as they were, they had no grip on the Republic City Underground, which was part of why Kwan wanted to avoid her shop. One of the secret corridors beneath the little building led to this selfsame underground, which was not only where she had helped Hasook and his family take refuge, but also where benders and nonbenders lived fairly harmoniously, even if their living conditions weren't always stellar. They had other passages and entrances scattered across the city, but Kwan would much sooner give herself in than betray those people. As such, her journey in the hijacked mecha tank took her across Republic City as she aimed for a target she knew would have no connection to the Underground—and a target that the Equalists would not want to bomb under any circumstances.
"Are you seriously heading towards Sato's mansion?" Lin recognized this path, having been on the police force all the years ago when she and her men had tried busting up the Agni Kai raid that Kwan had helped Nakkoa and a few other Triads escape from.
"Think of it this way," Kwan quipped as the sound of approaching Equalist vehicles whirred behind them, "they ain't going to drop bombs on this address, and I know almost the entire estate and the grounds like the back of my hand. We could hide right under Amon's very nose and no one would be any the wiser for it."
"You do realize my bending's gone, right?" Lin reminded her.
"I do," Kwan sighed, "And I'm sorry 'bout that again. My first idea was to hit up the Underground, but what if we were caught? I can't bust all those poor folks, yeah?"
"I trust your judgment, Kwan." Lin remarked, "Hopefully my trust is not misplaced."
"Look, I don't wanna go back to prison either," Kwan shifted gears as she turned off the road, leading the Equalists through the forest surrounding Hiroshi's Estate, hoping to lose them as she zigzagged through the trees, "but honestly, if that's the price I gotta pay to keep some friends safe, then I'll take it. Surely you know all about sacrifice, yeah?"
"Indeed," Lin crossed her arms, "perhaps I'm a little bitter about the whole situation—losing my bending, being crammed in the side of this cockpit, running for our lives, that sort of thing."
"Don't let anyone say you can't," Kwan assured her, "honestly, if I could have traded places with ya, I would have."
"Well even then, don't you dare give up without a fight," Lin ordered, "Even without my bending and my armour, I can still fight, and you've still got your bending—which I owe my life to, by the way. So I'll fight to my last dying breath—and you better do the same."
"Wouldn't dream of doing otherwise," Kwan promised, "Let me assure you."
And thus began the wild story of how the daughter of Toph BeiFong and the granddaughter of Princess Azula began not only a life on the run, but also forged the foundations of a new and lasting friendship built on trust and understanding.
=Republic City Underground, about half an hour earlier…=
It turned out that the drain pipe Korra and her friends had disappeared into was not just a sewer, but connected to that remarkable underground network that many of Republic City's homeless and vagabonds used. Also to Korra's particular surprise was a woman dressed in sharp green clothing that she recognized from the police force.
"Kuvira?" she tilted her head, "what are you doing down here?"
"The same thing most people are doing down here," she replied, "We're laying low until the United Forces arrive. The Police Force is effectively disbanded, the United Forces are still three days off, and the Equalists have legions of watercraft, mecha tanks and aircraft at their disposal. Fighting them right now would be suicide."
"But why are *you* here?" Korra made the question more personal, "What made you leave the Police Force? It wasn't because of me, was it?"
"In a way, it was you;" Kuvira sat down, glancing at a nearby radio before turning back to Korra. "Less because of you and more how you were treated."
"Go on...?" Korra earthbent a slab of rock underneath her as she took a seat, her hands in her lap as she watched Kuvira's expressions.
"While serving Chief Lin BeiFong, I learned a lot about you," Kuvira explained, "both from meeting and interacting with you personally…"
"Arresting me, you mean?" Korra snarked, her trademark pout appearing on her face.
"Yes," Kuvira riposted with a half-smirk before continuing without even skipping a beat, "and also from BeiFong's reports on you. I warned Saikhan not to try and contain you, because I knew what would happen—and the gaping hole in the prison compound proves my point."
"You knew I was going to blast myself out of there?" Korra raised her eyebrows.
"After your incident at the Southern Water Tribe, it was an educated guess," Kuvira mused, "you are a very peculiar but very interesting woman, Avatar Korra. I like you."
"But you're dodging the question," Korra pointed out, "you mentioned that I was part of the reason you resigned, but what was the other reason?"
"Saikhan's concedence to Councilman's Tarrlok's unreasonable demands and radical policies was part of it too," Kuvira explained, "We were no longer serving justice and order; we were a divisive tyranny that was merely fuelling our enemies' hatred for us. I'm half-convinced Tarrlok and Amon know each other somehow and were in on it together."
"I thought so too for a while," Korra nodded, "but then Amon attacked Tarrlok and took his bending. I don't know what to believe anymore."
"Really now…" Kuvira put a pair of fingers to her chin, "I may have to look into this." she leaned over and turned on her radio, tuning it to reduce static.
"Whatcha doing now?" Korra wondered if this was part of her remarks, or more just something she was doing on the side.
"I'm wondering what the police scanners are saying now that the police aren't running them," Kuvira explained, "I don't imagine the Equalists would just let that resource fall by the wayside."
And sure enough, they didn't. Reports for a while were mostly just patrols and certain statuses across the city, but then after a few minutes it suddenly turned to something a little more urgent.
"Division 360," the radio spoke, "backup required at soonest opportunity; we've got a hijacked mecha tank, serial number ISI-444, with two hostiles on board."
Even Pabu, Bolin, and Mako stopped what they were doing to peer over at what the radio was saying. Asami had leaned in shortly after Kuvira and Korra had started conversing, and both of them were already paying close attention to the radio.
"Driver is a renegade lavabender," the report continued, "headed down the 7200 block of the New Moon District; she's got the ex-Police Chief in there with her. Do not pursue from behind; half of that street has been turned molten by the renegade."
There was a moment of awkward silence before Korra broke said silence.
"Hahaha, fuckin' Kwan!" she surprised everyone in the room when she threw her head back and howled with laughter. "Why did I know it was gonna be her?"
"That magnificent bastard…" Bolin muttered under his breath, "She got Lin outta there too! Earthbending goals, ladies and gentlemen. Earthbending goals."
"Think you'll be a lavabender someday, Bo?" Mako chuckled.
"Hey, a guy can dream!" Bolin smirked.
"ISI-444 is on its way out of the city." The radio report continued a moment later, "It appears to be en route to Hiroshi Sato's Estate. All divisions plan your moves carefully, and cease aerial operations unless absolutely necessary."
"Now that takes some gall!"a homeless fellow passed by and stopped to listen in, "Frankly, my associates and I never really understood this whole Equalist nonsense. We've got benders and nonbenders living down here together, but do you see us fighting? No-siree! We've figured out how to harmoniously coexist!"
"That's how it should be," Kuvira crossed her arms, nodding approvingly, "unity; strength. There is a lot more order to this underground than I would have suspected, Gommu."
"You know this guy?" Korra looked at them curiously, and they affirmed it with a nod.
"It helps to pool our minds together," Gommu flashed a toothy grin, "and our collective knowledge of the Underground can get us almost anywhere. We've got connections to Republic City Park, the Probending Arena, the City Hall, a few homes of powerful citizens, and even this little earthbebnder's mechanic shop."
"That same little maniac who hijacked the mecha?" Kuvira quipped. "Kwan, is it?"
"If my memory serves me…" Gommu chuckled, "She's mentioned a thing or two about it to me before. Say, that reminds me… you all are the Fire Ferrets, right?" he glanced at Mako and Bolin.
"We were," Bolin frowned, "y'know—till they closed the arena down."
"Well, have you heard from your buddy Hasook lately?" Gommu turned to them again, "cuz if you know Kwan, you'd know where his and his family are."
"Are you saying he's been hanging out down here?" Mako raised his eyebrows.
"Welcome to the Underground!" Gommu beamed again. "Make yourselves at home; have a look around! Down here, bender and nonbender alike are safe and sound!
"Nice rhyme…" Bolin chuckled as Korra stood up and took a walk to stretch her legs, "it seems you've got it made this time… and that's sublime!"
Mako and Asami exchanged looks, but Gommu looked utterly thrilled at Bolin's response.
"I can do it again you know…" Gommu put his hands together. "But we should keep it on the down-low… I don't imagine Amon would be too thrilled if he heard of our show…"
"Definitely not," Bolin riposted, "but we'll give it all we've got… and soon even the Equalists will realize that we're hot!"
"Now isn't this just grand!" Gommu clapped, "Come on now, friend... come and stand! You've got yourself a strong and loyal band!"
"If we could put this back on track…" Mako interrupted them.
"Sorry bro," Bolin interrupted him, "I can't even cut you any slack. Amon and his goons could suddenly launch an attack!"
"He's got what it takes!" Gommu laughed, kicking an old upside-down crate over to seat himself on, "for goodness' sakes! Now let's see what kind of fun this rhyming makes!"
"Not gonna lie; this is fun..." Asami chortled as she rose to her feet, "although I should find Korra, so I guess I'm done… y'know—watching you two fight for number one…"
"You too, Asami?" Mako shook his head, but the fact that he and Kuvira were both listening attentively to Bolin and Gommu's rhyming showdown betrayed their interest. Asami merely chuckled as she sauntered off in Korra's general direction. The Avatar had not looked too upset when she got up and left, but Asami still felt obligated to check up on her. As silly as it was, Bolin and Gommu's little rhyming game had lifted even her spirits, and so she figured that Korra could use a little spirit-lifting herself. It was not like Korra to wander off on her own unless there was something weighing her down, and Asami knew Korra well enough by this point anyways to know the subtle signs the Avatar gave that she may just have needed a little attention from her lover. Thus, Asami planned to provide, as she so often did.