Chapter 6: Chapter VI

"Is that the best you can do?" Mako snarked flicking the bobble on the top of my hat.

"It's the only hat I own." I was lucky it still fit, ever since Tenzin had taught me to control the air around me to keep warm even at high altitudes or cold environments hats and winter clothes had been largely useless to me. Meaning I had to find things that Pema had thought I looked cute in over half a decade ago.

"So where are we heading?" Korra asked glancing back at Mako and I. We were seated on the back of Naga, the polar bear dog that thought she was far smaller than she actually was. Korra sat in the front while I held onto her and Mako sat behind me. Placing myself between the pair of them was a calculated move, they were teenagers after all so someone had to make sure they did not have too much fun. That was the entire reason I was here after all.

"To Sokka square, it's Bolin's hangout spot so someone might have seen him." The square was close to the old town with a nice view out into the bay. It was dotted with statues and monuments that had been moved about a dozen or so times as the council had built and rebuilt the square. It was a waste of money in my eyes to constantly tweak a place like this, just stick the statues up and leave it alone. I could still see the empty plinth that had held the disgraced Fire Nation commander the Equalists had torn down just weeks ago.

We slid off the back of Naga and Mako told Korra and I to stay while he asked around if anyone had seen Bolin. Korra had protested but dragging around a giant polar bear dog to ask questions did seem a bit much.

"I hope Bolin is okay." Korra said to me as Mako approached a group of roughhousing children.

"I am sure he is fine." I offered to placate her scanning the busy square, it seemed like a lot of people had very little to do besides waste time.

"I was surprised you wanted to help look for him." Korra smiled at me as if she was implying something.

"It's my job to keep an eye on you, sneaking off with a boy you like is exactly the sort of thing I will be paying attention to." Korra's head snapped about as if looking for anyone eavesdropping completely missing the boy eyeing the pair of us up, he was likely deciding if we were worthwhile marks to pickpocket.

"I-I don't know what you are talking about." She lied, badly. "And besides that, is a terrible reason to come! I thought you cared about Bolin."

"Not enough to go searching though the city at night for him." Especially not when he was likely just chasing some girls, what else would a famous sports star be doing at this time of day? Korra glared at me before she sighed.

"I just… He…" She looked over at Mako who looked to be slipping a child a yuan note.

"Is your age, handsome and has gathered social prestige via his occupation."

"You make it sound horrible." Korra complained crossing her arms and pouting.

"You have known him for a few weeks, your attraction to him was not going to be particularly deep."

"Oh, so I am shallow now?" Ah I had set off a Korra tantrum.

"Not everything we do has to be very deep or meaningful Korra, it's fine to like Mako but I am not here to lie to you." I looked at her as her face softened. "You need to focus on your training."

"So, I'm not allowed to meet anyone?"

"Tenzin and I won't stop you from pursuing a romantic relationship but you need to be aware of the consequences that could happen if you make hormonally driven choices at your age." I looked at her eyes leaning on my staff as she presented me with an over exaggeratedly confused face.

"What are yo-." Her eyes widened. "Tenya I am not stupid! I am not just going to just do… That."

"Good." I glanced over at Mako as he approached, Korra looked like she wanted to fight me but held back now that she was in earshot of one of her targets of romantic intent.

"I know where Bolin got off to, the idiot got himself involved in a sit down with a bunch of the triads." I stared dumbfounded at Mako before turning on my heel to Korra.

"Well then it's time we went home. Let's go Korra."

"Wait, hold on." Korra looked at Mako. "A sit down? What are you talking about?"

"Apparently Bolin met with Shady Shin, the guy was waving around cash and wanted some muscle for a sit down between The Triple Threats, Red Monsoons and The Agni Kai. Seems like a turf war is brewing and I need to get Bolin away from this nonsense." It seemed that I had vastly overestimated Bolin.

"Korra we are not getting involved with anything to do with Triads. You do not want your reputation to suffer via association with criminals."

"I never asked for your help anyway. But just so you know we are not criminals." Mako glared at me as I crossed my arms.

"Yet Bolin walks off with a member of a Triad to act as muscle? You are trying to tell me there is no association there." This entire situation was ridiculous, of course Korra would get involved in this sort of thing.

"You don't know what you are talking about, yeah when we were homeless living on the street, we got to know Shin and some other people but we never broke the law and we moved on from that life." I glanced over at Korra who seemed to be eating the sob story up I had to try something different.

"What exactly is your plan? Walk up a triad sit down and just ask if you can leave with Bolin?" From his sheepish expression it looked like I hit the nail on the head.

"We can't just leave him there, Tenya… Bolin could get hurt." Korra said putting a hand on my shoulder as she argued for the stupidest course of action possible.

"I am going to the Triple Threat headquarters to get Bolin, hopefully nothing has gone down yet. I am not wasting my time arguing with you, go home if you want." Mako said dismissively as Korra grabbed Naga's reins.

"No, we are coming." We were not!

"Korra!" I snapped only for the woman in question to childishly stomp her foot.

"Tenya, we have to stop Bolin making a huge mistake and getting involved with criminals, I am going no matter what and if you don't want to help your friend then go home like Mako said." She started following after Mako and I considered there and then if I should use force to bring her home but a fight in the middle of the street would reflect poorly for both my reputation and that of the Avatar.

I suppressed a sigh and marched after the pair of them, I had no illusions that I would regret not beating some sense into Korra.

---

"Something's not right, there are normally thugs posted out front." Mako said approaching what looked like a normal commercial cum apartment building. "We need to be cautious."

"Oh wonderful." I said approaching the front doors as Mako's head turned on a swivel looking for any signs of activity. "I am sure everything is going well inside."

Whatever Mako was going to say in reply was cut short as Korra marched up to the front doors and planted her boot in the middle ripping the pair of them from their hinges and creating a bang that echoed out into the street. I was about to bring the back of my hand across her head when the chaos inside the building became clear. Tables were overturned and chairs smashed in what looked like a nasty fight that had recently taken place. Curiously the floors, walls and ceiling had no scorch marks, water stains or loose earth about the place. Nor was there any blood or bodies.

"Bolin? You in here?" Mako called out and at his words a fire ferret I recognised as Bolin's pet Pabu rushed towards Mako and climbed onto him.

"Well, he must have been here recently." Korra said looking around at the chaos. "Something must have happened."

"Of course som-." My biting comment was cut short as several engines roared to live from behind the building. Korra wasted no time in charging though to the fire exit and out into a backstreet where a truck and a fleet of motorcycles were turning out into the main street. The back doors of the truck were still open and about half a dozen men were tied up including Bolin. Whoever they were they must have only just managed to kidnap career criminals…

No something was wrong here. The truck and the bikes were brand new and all of them had the same uniform that covered them head to toe.

"Korra, Mako. Go to the police station now!" I unfurled my staff and threw myself into the air as Korra called Naga. The dense maze of buildings made following the convoy difficult but I needed to know where they were taking the kidnapping victims so I could report that to the metal bending Police.

I counted five bikes with a single occupant and the truck. With one person on the back of the truck the criminals numbered between seven to ten and were able to take out an entire room of carrier criminals without anyone being able to perform any meaningful bending. I was distracted from my pursuit by a bolt of fire flowing past one of the bikers as Korra and Mako chased the convoy on the back of Naga into a large public square.

Why does that girl never listen to me! I watched as the convoy darted into the dense maze of streets that made up the old town. With the area being relatively poor the small cramped streets were easy to pass though as there was not a single other car parked that would have slowed them down. That was very likely the intention of the route picked for this getaway. This was a carefully planned operation.

I pulled away from following the truck and directed myself to the wide courtyard where Mako and Korra were struggling against two assailants. The pair of them were backed into a corner in a panic as the pair approached with malicious intent. Naga was struggling with a bola wrap that had tied her legs together and rendered her unable to defend her master. I folded up my glider staff and allowed gravity to carry me forward with my momentum. That rush in the core of my being that came with the feeling of falling was a familiar comfort as I focused the energy within myself to direct my fall twisting mid-air.

I landed feet first into the back of the larger figure, I had picked the bigger one to knock out of the fight in the hope it would force the smaller more feminine figure to surrender. He crumpled after breaking my fall but I could still feel my joints rebel against the painful landing but I had felt worse. His fellow panicked at my sudden appearance darting back away from me as I hopped off the groaning man under my feet.

She was dressed head to toe completely covered with a gas mask that had faintly glowing eyepieces. Over her body was a button up overcoat that looked tailored to her proportions allowing her a great degree of freedom of movement. A glance at her fellow showed an identical outfit. With the lack of bending from both the attackers and Mako and Korra there was a good chance that they were Chi Blockers, very likely followers of Amon. Yes, these Equalists had to have a great deal of funding to deploy a strike team with this sort of equipment. The woman in front of me was likely wearing close to forty thousand yuan.

"I intend to arrest you, please do not resist." Everyone in the courtyard stared at me dumbfounded for a moment before the woman, who was very likely an Equalist, darted forward. Considering Korra and Mako looked largely unharmed but were not using bending to defend themselves at the current moment one of them was a Chi Blocker. It could be that the person I had knocked out but I was rarely that lucky.

"Watch out Tenya! They are Chi Blockers!" Mako shouted as I swung my staff in a lazy strike to keep the Equalist at a distance and gathered energy within me to propel me back even more. Now with around ten to fifteen meters between us I began to energise the air around me using forms I had drilled into myself more than a decade ago.

Seeing my motions, the Equalist rushed to close the distance between us, if she had attempted a ranged attack, I could dance away from it with ease while continuing to develop my position in the fight but that was clearly not an option. I could send a weak attack at her and hope it gave me enough room to develop an attack to finish the fight or I could try something I had been curious about for a while now.

With an open palm I let a concentrated blast of air fly towards the Equalist's head, something she moved to dodge instantly. At this distance I never expected an attack not directed at the centre mass would have a hope in hell of hitting. Breaking out of the ingrained motions was a bit more awkward than I expected but I dropped my centre of gravity and lifted a leg before bringing my heel to the ground in a sloppy stomp.

The concentrated blast of air passing harmlessly by the Equalist's head let out a deafening crack as I used the energy within myself to pinch as much of the gas I had projected towards her into as small a shape as possible. From there physics did the rest, the air was forced away from the compressed space creating an overpressure wave and a resulting sonic blast that echoed out across the city sounding like a gunshot.

The result was instantaneous, the Equalist let out a scream and clutched her head dazed by the unexpected attack. I wasted no time throwing myself forward battering her with a series of neat attacks that would keep her off balance before jabbing the end of my staff into her midsection sending her sprawling.

I hesitated hoping the fight had ended before with an impressive display of core strength the Equalist threw themselves back onto their feet. I moved to disengage again and repeat my attack only for her to close the gap more aggressively than expected. Rather than bother with bending I dropped my staff and planted my fist into her ribs as she lent into the attack and planted a flurry of weak punches along my midsection.

I could feel the painful feeling of my solar and heart chakra being disrupted and contracted but without trying to force myself to bend the pain was very mild. In my old life the training I had received was largely useless without magic granting me inhuman strength and agility. In this life I had trained this body daily, while I had never intended to gain considerable strength building muscle was inevitable.

There was very little grace in the half-remembered stances, I balled my hands into fists and hammered into my opponent whenever she offered an opening. She was bigger than me, were this my first life she would be considered to have an entire weight class on me, but it seemed the idea of a Bender abandoning bending to fight with her fists alone was enough to render this fighter off her game. Her desperate attempts to abandon chi blocking and join me in pure boxing was too little too late as the wounds I had inflicted caught up with her.

You are reading story The Meditations of a Young Woman at novel35.com

To end the fight, I focused on my root chakra and allowed what energy I could flow into my leg. A single neat kick with a bit of airbending to give the attack a little oomph sent the Equalist to the ground with a groan.

With that the fight was over. I looked over at Korra and Mako as they restrained the man I by all rights should have crushed with the momentum I had when I struck him. I had learned a long time ago that the energy within one's self when cultivated could make up for or allow for someone to go beyond the biological limits of the human body. No doubt he would be dead and the groaning woman before me would be deaf if they were not fighters who had cultivated that energy when learning Chi Blocking.

I pushed the woman Infront of me into her front and pulled off her mask. She had an enraged and understandably pained expression on her face as I kept her restrained.

"You won't stop the Revelation! You Benders will be swept away by Amon!" Awfully chatty for a terrorist. The choice of words was particularly interesting, she was talking about a Revelation rather than the Revolution that was on the lips of all the street preachers that the Equalists had peppered around the city. It was very likely she was referring to a particular event rather than the movement itself.

"You are under arrest." I informed her calmly as she regained some of her strength and struggled under me before Korra dropped on top of her pinning the Equalist with ease.

"Where is my brother!?" Mako ripped the hooded gas mask off of the male Equalist and grabbed the man by the throat.

"Enough of that Mako." I called out drawing his attention in a savage glare.

"They took Bolin!" He protested as I approached. "We have to follow the truck!"

"We won't find it now." I said calmly. "I can't fly like this so we will take our friends here and take them to the police station."

"Damn it!" Mako shouted as Korra got off the now tied up woman and tried to punch the air.

"M-my bending! I can't bend!"

"Calm down, it's because of the Chi Blocking, it will wear off." Mako said as I approached Naga and untangled the poor animal earning a disgusting lick to the face.

"Who are these guys?" Korra asked now that her fears about her bending had been salved by Mako.

"Chi Blockers, Amon's stooges." Mako spat on the seething Equalist.

"Enough of that Mako, do you know how to ride a motorcycle?" It had been a lifetime since I had been on the back of one and I was never taught how but I should be fine.

"No." Mako said lifting one of the Equalists to throw him over Naga's back. After that he strode towards me as I inspected the discarded vehicles that the Equalists had used.

"Well, we will have to leave one here and hope it does not get stolen or recovered before we can bring it to the station as evidence."

"Why does a monk know how to ride a motorcycle?" Mako asked skeptically I flashed him a smile but did not elaborate as I inspected them.

They were high performance bikes, it seemed no expense had been spared on them as they had what was likely a nickel plating on the metal parts and an excellent paint job. Curiously the bikes also had no manufacturer markings. The expense of the equipment was adding up quickly and it was clear that the Equalists had far more influence and money then I had at first thought.

This attack required highly trained Chi Blockers, fighters that had been training for years and the equipment they had ran into the hundreds of thousands of yuan. I took off my hat and slipped the hooded gas mask over my head wincing at the previous user's halitosis before looking out across the square. It was primitive and dim but the masks offered a small degree of night vision capabilities. Fitting that sort of technology into such a small piece of equipment was well out of place for a grassroots political movement. It was out of place for this technological era!

Ah, now I understand. Innovation like this could only come from one place. Utterly unimaginative, again trying the same thing over and over until it works. The Equalists were the puppet now, my passive efforts seemed utterly stupid in light of this. I had to act or this world would turn to chaos just like the last.

"What are you doing?" Korra asked leading Naga towards us as I took off the mask and bit back a curse.

"They have a sponsor, a rich one too…" This sort of equipment had not reached the market yet and the bikes were cutting edge, I needed to find out who was manufacturing this sort of equipment and what connection they had to Amon and his Equalists…

Amon, was it him? Far more subtle than the last attack dog, it would be foolish to assume that no lessons had been learned.

"What are we waiting around for?" Mako asked and I could not agree more. Without a word I climbed onto the back of one of the bikes and after a moment to get comfortable I took off unsteady at first from the unexpected torque on the bike but settling in with Naga following close behind.

---

"I don't know what you expect from the police, in my experience they do as little as possible or just make situations worse." Mako complained, not for the first time, as we waited inside one of the police stations break rooms. When a Councilwoman, even one who was not currently sitting, made a report it was taken very seriously. Bringing in a pair of Equalists dressed like they were also helped.

"I expect that the police will manage to offer at least one of them a deal to reduce the sentence for attacking me. The deal should include the location of kidnapped Republic City citizens."

"Yeah right, like the police care about a bunch of Triads." The Firebender seemed eager to complain, his brother had just been kidnapped so it was only reasonable that he was upset I supposed.

"It does not matter who they are we don't let Equalists terrorise citizens." Mako, Korra and I turned to the door as Lin Beifong stepped into the room. She looked terrible and considering the time she had likely just gotten into bed before being called back into work.

"Thank you for coming Lin, I am sorry for any inconvenience caused." I bowed my head, being polite was the least I could do considering how much I was going to rely upon the chief of police to crush the Equalists and any threat to the life I had built here.

Korra quickly glanced over at me before bowing her own head in a rare display of humility. "Thank you Chief Beifong."

"Enough of that." Lin snapped. "I am only doing my job, now I have two supposed Chi Blockers in the holding cells and my detectives are feeding me a bunch of nonsense, what the hell is going on?"

"The Equalists kidnapped my brother! You need to get the Chi Blockers to tell us where he was taken!" Lin raised an eyebrow at Mako's impassioned words and looked over at me.

"Several hours ago, a well-equipped Equalist group attacked a triad meeting and kidnapped the attendants. Among the victims was Mako's brother Bolin, a famous pro bender. While attempting to find Bolin the three of us came across the kidnapping and gave chase. I told Korra and Mako to go to the police station here and report the incident but they chose to chase the Equalists rather then listen to me." I gave a pointed look at Korra and Mako. At least the former had the grace to look guilty while the latter just glared as I continued to report what happened.

"I attempted to follow the truck in the air so I could report its location but Korra and Mako engaged the Chi Blockers on the ground and I was forced to call off my pursuit and join them in the fight. I requested that both of the Equalists surrendered before engaging." A little white lie never hurt anyone. "But they refused and engaged me, after restraining them both we were unable to follow the truck that continued the kidnapping victims. We gathered what evidence we could and came here." I collected several of the forms I had been filling out while waiting to be seen and handed them to Lin who looked them over. "Here is my written report and the charges I am bringing against the Equalists you have in custody."

"Well… I am glad you are okay." Lin said softly as she scanned the forms. "I will make sure this is filed and the Equalists we have are charged."

"That's it! My brother is still out there!" Mako raised his voice and slammed his hands against the table in frustration.

"I can't just snap my fingers and give you what you want kid! The police will do their best to find your brother but I have other priorities." I raised a hand to prevent the reply from Mako.

"This case is to receive emergency priority, the police should use any and all resources to find the location of the people kidnapped as well as find and arrest Amon."

"What! Tenya what has gotten into you? I can't do that and you know it!" Mako and Korra both looked as shocked as Lin as I got to my feet and clasped my hands behind my back.

"The Equalists have demonstrated themselves to be a true crisis and threat to the safety and stability of Republic city. I can assure you that you will have authorisation from the council and I will personally be visiting Tarrlok to gain his support." The man had been itching for a chance to take the Equalists down a peg, if anything he would think I was being conservative.

"Tenya… I can't…" She sighed her hard expression suddenly tender as she looked at me. "I need the order first, I-I'm sorry I can't just order…" I might have gotten carried away there, ordering her to take actions without official warrant to do so. I waved a hand.

"You are right, I am getting ahead of myself. I will go and speak to Tarrlok and get your warrant." I offered Lin another bow as she stepped back seemingly taken aback by the whole encounter. Korra and Mako quickly rushed after me as I strode though the halls of the police station heading to the exit.

"Who is this Tarrlok guy?" Mako asked from my side struggling to keep up despite his longer legs.

"A member of the council. He is staunchly anti-Equalist and with his help I can begin dealing with the Equalists."

"Well after the police refused to help it's good to hear that someone will." I looked at Korra as she spoke, did she attend a different meeting to me?

"I told you the police won't do anything, what should we do while you meet this guy?" Mako asked from my right. The pair of them were a clear liability here.

"Go home to the Air Temple." I said as we left the station. Both of them rounded on me to argue but I continued before they could spout off some nonsense. "Korra this is too dangerous for you, I am telling you to go home now and inform Tenzin that I need to speak to him. Mako, you go with her, you will only get in the way or impede the police investigation. I am not going to argue with you, trust me when I say I will find Bolin." That should satisfy the pair of them. They began to protest as I unfurled my staff and took to the skies heading towards Tarrlok's apartment.

Fast and direct action needed to be taken and that required throwing around what political influence I had. The game had never stopped, I had just stopped paying attention and I needed to catch up.

---

"Can you believe her! She expects me to run away to an island and do nothing while Amon and his henchmen have my brother!" Mako raged in the street outside of the police station as Korra watched Tenya raise into the night sky. She had acted like an entirely different person ever since the fight with the Equalists.

Every time Korra though she understood Tenya she would do something that threw everything onto it's head. She could go from calm gentle master to furious storm. She had even talked down Chief Beifong like it was nothing! Not to mention the way she took down the Equalist. Korra had never seen someone fight like that before.

Then Tenya told Korra to run away and hide like some kid, rush off to the white lotus bodyguards and wait for someone else to solve a problem that the Avatar should be solving! Tenya made Korra so mad sometimes! She was always telling her to be patientand slow down or that she needed protection, she had only come to help look for Bolin so she could protect Korra from Mako like she needed that sort of protection.

Korra sighed, it was hard to stay mad at Tenya. But it was clear that Korra had to do something, Tenya was incredible but it was not like she was guaranteed to find Bolin…

"Wait, I think I have an idea for how we can find Bolin." Korra said excitedly as Mako raised an eyebrow at the Avatar.

"How?" The handsome Firebender asked as Korra grabbed his hand and dragged him towards Naga.

"Come on I will explain on the way, it was this guy I met when I first came to the city…"

You can find story with these keywords: The Meditations of a Young Woman, Read The Meditations of a Young Woman, The Meditations of a Young Woman novel, The Meditations of a Young Woman book, The Meditations of a Young Woman story, The Meditations of a Young Woman full, The Meditations of a Young Woman Latest Chapter