cabbagesforall | LoK AU: Hero-Verse [Open to All! Let's build this verse!]

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korra[au]

LoK AU: Hero-Verse [Open to All! Let's build this verse!]

Legend of Korra: Hero-Verse

The Setting: Republic City, in another place, and a few years ahead of where it normally is...

Once, a long time ago, a normal world gifted the world with something known as Bending - a very rare power to use one's own energy to manipulate the elements. There were many who feared these powers, which came together in him - so he took on a mask and the name of Avatar, becoming a masked hero.

As centuries, and then millennia passed, the mysterious hero's mantle was passed on from generation to generation through reincarnation, someone chosen from each of the Four Nations in turn and from among the very rare ranks of those with the ability to bend the elements.

Flash forward to Republic City, circa the 1930s. For the first time, those who distrust the powers of the benders believe that technology will come to replace them. As the city towers higher and higher, and technological achievement rises even further, it looks like the hero known as Avatar may become obsolete; and there are many sinister forces who are eager to make that tomorrow into today.

Meanwhile, some Benders have taken up mantles of their own - both for good and for ill, while others seek to hide their powers, existing every day with perfectly normal jobs. In the increasingly Art Deco city, there is room for absolutely everyone - and challenges around every corner.

As President Raiko takes an increasingly anti-bending stance, the stage is set for conflicts, challenges, and opportunities to simply erupt...

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Iroh followed more slowly, taking the time to check the tunnel for stability. Without any earthbending, he ran a risk in entering such an ad hoc passage, and he kept himself fully ready -- the right degree of fire could harden the earth, or defend him against whatever he might find, though with the Avatar ahead, he expected to at least have some warning.

Beyond the first few jagged turnings, places where the earth seemed to have ripped itself apart from the stresses to either side, the tunnel widened, into a uniform, though crooked, dimension. It seemed to have been bored through the earth in erratic stages. Occasionally, there were cracks to all sides, which increased Iroh's sense of urgency. He increased his pace to his fastest sustainable pace. The sooner he was out of this, the better.

But even as he sped up, he was aware that he was much slower than Korra, and probably wouldn't catch up with her until she had reason to stop.

He'd get that momentarily as she came to a sharp turn in the tunnel, and had to jump back as a hail of sharp stone pieces came hurling back along the passageway - far too many for her to deflect, and clearly a prepared trap.

She flattened herself back against the wall of the tunnel, waiting for it to abate.

Soon after, Iroh rounded a corner and saw that the way was blocked. Shards of stone hit the earth near him, digging in and embedding themselves, raising clouds of dust and making him cough. It might be temporary, but he'd been keeping track of the twists and the general orientation the tunnel always returned to, and he had an idea.

"Can you try that direction?" he asked the Avatar, pointing at one of the walls where there was already a crack in the direction he thought they should go. Now that he'd caught up to the Avatar and her earthbending ability, he was more bold. "It's a short cut."

"How do you..."

She stopped herself, just nodding. He'd been right so far, after all, hadn't he? Maybe it was instinct, or he knew more than she did - but wisdom was wisdom. She turned to face that wall, taking a deep breath, foot hammering down to the ground as she fell into a strong earthbending stance.

Then thrust her arms forward, fists closed, to widen that crack into an entry way, burrowing forward into the earth.

The trap must have been set near the end of the tunnel, because Korra only had to burrow for a little while before she broke into an open space. Iroh extended his light to reveal a cellar. The area they entered first was filled with dusty wine bottles and ancient, withered root vegetables, but there was an archway to another room, which turned out to be the room where the tunnel entered the cellar.

The first thing Iroh noticed was the stone statue the granddaughter had been riding -- only a statue again -- near the entrance to the tunnel, half buried in earth, and looking a little worse for wear. He hurried over to examine it.

There was also a workshop space, filled with various mechanisms which looked like they'd been flung about in a fight. The laboratory space was further on, near a set of stairs, and mostly undisturbed. There was a bottle of chloroform sitting out on the table, although all the other chemicals were neatly stored on the shelves.

She looked around at all of that when they entered it, and it painted a picture, and not a good one.

"Oh no, oh no..."

She rushed around the lab space, looking at that set of stairs. Where did that lead?

"This is getting very not good."

Iroh poked his finger into a dark, wet spot on the dirt floor, and rubbed his fingers together. It was not blood but mud, a dark mud of a different consistency than the prevalent dirt.

Nodding to himself, he regained his feet, and seeing Korra near the stairs, told her, "I will finish up down here. That trap will be more amenable to disassembly from this end."

Although he was fairly certain, from the lack of any sound from above, and the clear signs that there had been no resistance remaining, that she would find that they had been delayed enough in getting here that the crooks had already fled. "I believe the young girl is alive and not permanently harmed, and there may be a trail. And Avatar, please be careful of other traps. A person who enjoys setting such traps will rarely stick to only one."

As he collected some parts from the workshop -- large pieces good for propping up tunnels -- turning himself into a porcupine of beams and metal until he got them all arranged in a way he could carry -- he said to himself, sadly, "And then someone must deliver the bad news to the good people next door."

She hung her head for a moment before raising her hand. "Let that be me, you're a civilian, nobody should know you're any more involved with this than you are, I can take that. Just...don't spring any traps without me, ok?"

She goes to move her way back up, then looks back at him.

"But...how do you know I'm the Avatar?"

Iroh was visibly surprised; he hadn't expected her to volunteer.

"It would be wise to avoid attention," he admitted after a moment's thought. "But -- forgive me -- is there someone else who can bend so many elements?"

Behind her mask, she smiled.

"Still," she replied, "a lot of people think I'm a phoney. Or just an old legend to try and keep the bad guys in line. You don't even seem surprised."

"My family," Iroh said, mixing simple acknowledgment with the gentle irony of the disinherited.

"For centuries, my family has been exactly the people who make a point of knowing the truth of power. Power, when it is used, always leaves a trail."

She nodded.

"Informative, but cryptic." She gestured over her shoulder. "You're not gonna disappear if I go handle this, right? It's kinda nice having someone watch my back, for once."

Iroh gave a little bow, causing all the things he was carrying to rattle. "I am honored," he said.

Then he chuckled. "I am rather substantial to just disappear," he said. But, seriously, "I'm here to solve a problem. Surely you're here for the same reason. When everything else has been handled, we should compare what we know."

"Substantial is, I think, the right word in a bunch of ways-" she replies, pointing at him, "and I'm not going to insult you by underestimating you. But yes - I'll be back."

She paused, though, about to head up.

"I didn't stop these people when they last turned up. I'm not going to let somebody get hurt this time around."

"We'll do everything we can," Iroh said, and on that note he turned to attend to the task he'd set for himself.

She made her way back up, just in time to see a huddle of worried, confused faces around their erstwhile entrance.

"It's alright, citizens!" she began, putting on her best The Avatar voice. She began to quickly give her reassurances, specifically to the grandmother that her granddaughter would be returned safely to her, and soon.

All the while she kept her ears open for what she knew would be coming - the faint sirens of the Republic City Police.

"Where is she? I saw that young man from next door screeching away. If she-- She hasn't..." The grandmother looked around furtively, saw that many of the people who'd gathered were watching her with various degrees of curiosity, and shook her head, shutting her mouth on what she had been about to say.

"I told her parents that my mother left the island and brought our family here to Republic City for a reason," she moaned instead, just a few seconds later, as if the pressure inside of her was too great to shut down all speech. "I would have told his parents too, if we'd been speaking. Not that it would have done any good. Children...they never listen."

She looked sharply at Korra, and caught her listening, but maybe to something more distant. The grandmother hmpfed, but then a second later inquired anxiously, "Do you hear something? Is something else happening?"

"Just listening for sirens. You're going to have to have a story for the police, ok? Just tell them...mostly the truth. Leave out a few details. But I promise you I'll bring your granddaughter back to you, unharmed. You've got the word of the Avatar."

She can only hope that means something to the woman - it tends to carry more with the older generations to begin with.

"But I'm not waiting for them, and if you read the paper you know we're not on the best of terms, so...maybe you didn't see me, ok? It's your decision, though. But you'll hear from me. Soon."

And she started to make her way back down. Promises made, promises to be kept.

The word of the Avatar seemed to mean something to the grandmother; she straightened up and looked around to make sure that everyone around had seen and noted this sign. "Thank you, Avatar," she said. "I hope that you and the police can resolve your differences, and I--" She pursed her lips. That was more difficult; she respected the authority of Republic City along with the Avatar. "You saved my life, but I have been an honest citizen of this city for most of my life. I will only tell them if they ask."

She glared at the bystanders as if daring them to say anything. The little crowd began to disperse under the force of her personality, now directed toward making sure the police didn't ask about any masked heroes.

Meanwhile, Iroh had entered the tunnel in the cellar only to find it completely blocked not very far in by a large machine, exactly the same diameter as the tunnel. The machine had been rigged to activate when someone got within range on the other side.

It wasn't difficult for him to take apart the trigger mechanism, it was a delicate arrangement that fell apart harmlessly at the first precision blow. But the machine itself was more of a conundrum. In the end, he removed several parts that seemed vital to its operation as well as a radio and took them back to the cellar to examine them in the workshop.

She made her way back down into the earth, seeking out Iroh again. She found him by the machine, frowning behind her mask and regarding that...thing.

"What is this..." she said, half to herself, calling up some flames to her hand to look at closer details.

It looked like it was cobbled together, but there were a lot of Sato components in it. Interesting. That could be something, couldn't it? Some of them looked really specialized. She gently removed a small assembly, which looked like it handled coolant of some sort. It was unusual enough it might be something she could trace.

She made her way back to the workshop, turning it over in her hands.

"Well that's a thing I've never seen before. I didn't even know there were underground machines, let alone whatever that is."

In the workshop, Iroh hooked up one of the parts to a power source and began flipping all the tiny switches at the base, watching as the globular portion swelled and shrunk. "This is like something I found left behind in the tea shop," he said. "My nephew broke it trying to get it to do something more. But there were hundreds of them back there..."

He unhooked that part and considered the next, in turn. "Isn't ingenuity wonderful? When it's not being used to kill you, of course."

It didn't look like he knew any more about it than that, though. He glanced at Korra. "What have you found?"

[Hey, I've been basically running on fumes for this thread for a while and I think I need to step away. If you want to ping me in a month or two and see how I feel about it, that would be fine, or if you want to get someone else to go from here with you that's cool too. Feel free to use the stuff I PMed you about background and how the stuff I've been dropping in fits together and was going, or feel free to go in a completely different direction. It's all cool. Thanks and sorry!]

[It's been fun enough I can wait, or we can move on to other things in other places. Your Iroh is great, and I certainly hope I get future opportunities. If it returns, it returns. :) If not, hope for new things down the road - I play a lot of characters, so non-zero chance we just run into each other. Good luck, and no apologies necessary.]

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LoK AU: Hero-Verse [Open to All! Let's build this verse!]

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Welcome back, btw. :) Hope all is well!

Thanks!

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