Kwon opened her eyes to find herself in an alley somewhere. She wasn't sure but figured that was a question for later. Standing she moved to the end that led out onto the street, looking out. It reminded her of images of 1920's America but with an Asian flare, the fact the signs were in Chinese characters helped with that little interpretation. It was night, but the lampposts and car lights washed the street with an ambient yellow light. It was a little odd to her, since she was brought up on one of the wards of the Citadel, but it felt somewhat homely.
But this wasn't home. Turning down a street, she walked planning her next her move. The old man, Iroh, said that she needed to look for group of people called the 'White Lotus'. Aside from the fact that he said they could help, she wondered why and how they could help. Maybe there was an incident that happened that she needed to look at? Maybe they knew of some attack? Either way she needed to find it out.
Her stomach growled, making her look down. "Food first," she muttered and looked around.
Off to the side seemed to be a market street that was still bustling with activity. Looking at her tattooed hand she mentally wondered if she still hands the skills for a little 'acquiring'. Growing up in the underside of one of the Wards, one learned to survive. Even if you fought in a life-or-death arena, you learned to 'acquire' whatever you could. Moving up to the market street, she cracked her neck and wrists before moving through the crowd.
Slight of hand was a great tool for 'acquiring' items which Kwon managed to do with ease. But she was careful to pick her targets. While taking everyone's wallet seemed like a good idea, it was counterproductive, the same applied for picking targets. One thing she learned was to be random with her targets. Creating a pattern was something that the police loved and they would grab with no problem. So, you needed to take from others than the rich, because otherwise you were just making yourself a target.
Kwon made it halfway before she made her way to a toilet section to check on her gains. She managed to snag 7 wallets from the dozens of people. Now it was time to check her gains. Moving into one of the cubicles, she locked the door and began to count the money she had acquired. She counted several dozen notes and a good number of coins. Not like the credit chits she was used to, hell she had never seen bank notes outside of museums. Thinking about her options carefully, she decided to take most of the notes and some of the coins.
Putting the money in an inside pocket, she took her ill gotten gains, flushed the toilet and left. Stepping out into the street, she walked back the way she came dropping the wallets at random intervals. Before leaving the street. There was some muttering about lost and found wallets but she largely ignored it as she turned a corner and made her way down the street. She found a noodle bar a good distance from the street she was just in. Seeing it a good spot she walked in and took a seat before looking up at the menu with an odd look.
"Chicken-seal noodles what the fuck?" she muttered in a hushed tone.
The chief moved up to her with a smile. The woman wore a blue outfit with a white apron. She had dark skin and black hair with braids that came from the fringe and attached to a ponytail at the back.
"Hello stranger what can I get for you?" she asked, her smile not wavering.
"I'll take the chicken-seal noodles," Kwon said interested in what they tasted liked.
The woman nodded. "Seaweed noodles, udon or ramen?" she asked as she wrote down the order. "Not everyone likes Watertribe noodles here," she clarified.
"Seaweed is not food," another customer shot.
"That's because your stomach cannot handle them," the chef countered, earning a few laughs from the other patrons.
Shepard just shook her head. "I'll take the seaweed option," she smiled. "Might as well be authentic,"
The chef smiled even wide. "A woman of culture!" she declared. "Rare sight indeed. Better than you lot," that earned her a few cat calls but it was all in fun "And for dink? Kelp tea?"
"Please," Kwon nodded and the chef thanked her moved off to cook.
Seeing a paper next to her, Shepard picked it up and began to read. She wasn't sure how old the paper was, but what she read she didn't like. The 'Earth Empire', lead by a woman named Kuvira, was planning an attack on Republic City to 'reclaim taken territory'. She wasn't sure about the context, but if this city was a big and important by what the paper said, it seemed that it had been established for a very long time. But then again, she wasn't surprised. There were several worlds within the Alliance, and other races, where ownership was contested.
She continued to read, absorbing all of the information she could while listening out for anything else. But the other patrons were either too dunk or too focused on their own problems for her to get any information.
"Food up," the watertribe woman said and Kown put the paper to one side before taking the bowl and tea. "Enjoy," she smiled as she moved to serve another customer.
Its dish smelled of chicken ramen, something she enjoyed. The green texture was a little odd, but she shrugged it off. After all, it wasn't the oddest thing she ate. Picking up the chopsticks, she placed her hands together with an 'itakimasu' before tucking to the delicious, yet somewhat salty, noodle meal.
As she finished up the last of the food and tea, the chef came up. "Enjoyed the food?" she smiled.
"A little salty, but perfect," Kwon smiled back.
"Ahh, the saltiness always gets people," she shrugged, "Nothing new, but us watertribe don't notice it,"
Shepard nodded as she took out the money. "By the way, you don't happen to know where I can find someone from the White lotus?"
The chef reached out to take the money as she thought. "Well, there is a small garrison next to city hall," she frowned. "Outside of that, I'm not sure. I think it's because of that prison that's nearby. But I don't keep up to date on that information," she said as she shrugged as Shepard stood.
"Thanks, that helps," she said as she left.
"Come back soon!" the watertribe woman called as Shepard walked away with a smile and a belly full of noodles.
She had a goal and a location now, something she can act on and she would.
OOOOO
Korra ducked, dogged and weaved as training balls were thrown at her by Samara and Jack with their biotics. Jack was having a little too much fun at throwing the balls at the young woman, but Samara was a little more cautious as she timed her throws well in an effort to hit Korra. But the Avatar managed to avoid a good number of them with only a few bruises. She enjoyed this, enjoyed being in the front and fighting back. But the way she moved also betrayed her martial arts experience and training, which she used to great effect.
Seeing an opportunity, Korra jumped using her new biotic abilities to grab a trio of balls and threw them at the two. The two moved out of the way quickly but Korra didn't stop at that as she grabbed more balls and shot them at the two like a shotgun. That forced the two to raise barriers to block the incoming balls as Korra moved in fast to touch the two and win the match. With that she jumped in victory while Miranda looked over with Jacob next to her.
"She's good," he muttered as Jack cursed trying to hit Korra with more balls.
"She lacks military training," Mirada shot back.
Jacob just gave her a look. "So does Jack, Samara, Tali, Grunt. Yet we recruited them," he countered. "And they work well with the team. The only thing she needs is training,"
"I just… I don't like the idea of…." She sighed looking away. "Damn it, Tali is young, isn't she?" annoyance clear on her face.
"By Quarrian standards, yes," Jacob said seeing what Miranda was trying to do. "Look, we may know nothing about her but that hasn't stopped us before. Who knows, maybe she was sent here for a reason like she said,"
"That's the problem, what reason?" Miranda asked.
"Damn it," Jack growled. "How did you do that?"
"I've been training in martial arts for most of my life as well a bending. So, this isn't new for me," Korra smiled.
The two nodded, with Jack being reluctant. They had been told about their students past and what bending was, but that didn't stop them from being surprised with how well she moved as adjusted to her new biotic powers. While Jack and Samara were, for the most part, taught to hold their ground, Korra, on the other hand, moved like water. Redirecting the flow of the balls and biotic energy around her. It was annoying to the two about how easy she did it, but they did understand that she was relying on her training to get her though it.
It was something that humans did and worked for her. So, they didn't complain much.
"You did well," Samara said. "I am impressed with the way you moved. I am aware of human martial prowess, but not aware of how far it went,"
Korra smiled. "Well, I've been at it for years, so it's like second nature,"
"Well, you're nothing like the commander," Jack smiled. "This one time I…" she began but Miranda chimed in.
"Jack, remember what happened when the Commander found out?" she asked.
Jack's colour drained and she began to sweat at the memory of that particular punishment. "I…errr…I…." she began to stutter while Korra frowned.
"What happened?" Korra asked with a curious tone but Jack regained some of her colour.
"Ahem, never mind, I have some training to do," she said as she quickly left passing Garrus on her way out.
"It's not something we talk about," Samara said in a neutral tone. "While the commander is fair… she can be somewhat… dominating,"
"Yeah, I've known the commander since the Saren chase," Garrus added. "She can be the politest woman you've ever met. But cross her and you won't live long enough to regret it," he shuddered. "But enough of that, firearms training," he smiled with a feral look.
"I will be meditating if you need me," Samara said as she left while Korra and Garrus walked to one end of the room.
"EDI, is the room clear?" he asked.
"The room is clear, setting up firing range," the AI said as the room changed.
While it was flat before, now barriers rose up with a case of weapons coming up in front of Garrus and Korra. Once the barriers were up, several holographic targets appeared in a stance that Korra wasn't familiar with and holding the weapons that she was going to get trained with.
"First, weapons safety," the Turrian said as he opened up the case and pilled out a blocky opened which opened up into a weapon. "Let's begin,"
OOOOO
Jinora, Kai and Katara walked out onto the grounds of Air Temple Island as Oogi, Tenzin's Sky Bison, flew in. The three got an alert that Tenzin was going to come and needed his mother's healing expertise. They weren't sure why, but from the sounds of things from the airbening master, it didn't sound good. Oogi landed and Bolin jumped down followed by Lin. Once on the ground Jinora and Kai's eyes widened as they saw Kuvira getting handed down to them.
The once great uniter now looked weak, drained and more as she was carried by the two. Mako, Tenzin and Asami soon joined the two. Mako had a little trouble due to his arm, but managed to get off of the large creature with help from Asami. While that was happening, Tenzin walked up to his mother and eldest.
"Mother I'm sorry for putting this on you so soon, but I need your help," he said. "Yours too Jinora," he said looking to her before counting. "Something happened with Kuvira, I'm not sure what but after she said something she began to shake and convulse. The doctors couldn't find anything,"
"So, you are hoping I find something," Katara said with a nod. "I cannot promise anything, but I will see what I can do,"
"Thank you, mother," he said as he hugged her before pulling back and looking at Jinora. "Jinora, I need you to go to the spirit world and see if you can find Korra,"
"She's still missing?" the young master asked and her father nodded.
"I'm afraid so. I wish I could help, but I'm needed elsewhere. Zaheer's prison has been breached and I need to investigate," he said earning a concerned looked from the pair of them.
"Dad, be careful," Jinora said as she hugged him and he hugged her back while Katara gave him a small smile which he returned.
Once the hug broke, he quickly moved over to his Sky Bison and took off.
"Why don't you start looking for Korra, I'll go help Kuvira," Katara offered.
"Will do Gran Gran," Jinora said as she hugged her grandmother then took Kai to a pavilion. "If anything happens pull me out," she said.
"Will do," he said as she got into a meditative state and took a deep breath.
Just as she placed her fists together, she yelled out in pain causing Kai to come up next to her. "Hey I'm here," he said as she clutched her head. "What happened?"
She looked up to him wide eyed. "It's Vaatu, he's not inside the tree, he's missing," she said.
Kai's eyes went wide as realisation dawned on him but then a thought came to mind. "Then where is he?" was all he asked as his girlfriend remained silent.