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Description
Chapter 4

"Are you sure this is safe?" I heard Ling whisper to me as he stuck his head into the tiny, dark room I was currently inside. "Someone is going to see us I'm sure of it!"
"Just stay quiet and keep an eye out for trouble like I told you to!" I retorted, rummaging through the various files and papers that were stashed away into desks and cabinets. This small office room hadn't seen too much activity as of late but it could still hold some secrets waiting to be discovered. I gave a frustrated sigh as another filing cabinet failed to give up anything I didn't already know and shut the door as quietly as I could.
"What exactly are you trying to find anyways?" Ling said keeping his back towards me so he could watch the hallway intently.
"It doesn't concern you," I said, my brow furrowing in concentration. "Besides, if we get caught it would be better for you not to know." Despite how much Ling annoys me I couldn't let him take the fall for what I was doing, it wouldn't be fair.
"I just hope we don't get caught," he said, slight fear tinting his voice.
"We won't! Just focus on the hallway." I said, flipping through more pages of notes and files.
At least, I thought to myself as I searched, I had found some benefit to having Ling as an ally. As much as it pained me to admit it I couldn't have searched this room as thoroughly as I was doing now if it wasn't for his watchful eyes keeping guard at the door. The only problem though, with involving an outsider into your sleuthing is the possibility of your cover being blown by their loose lips. But at this point that was a risk I was willing to take. Besides, I couldn't see Ling blabbing about this to anybody and everybody.
"So, Jiao," Ling said, scuffing the floor with the side of his shoe. "Does this mean maybe we can go out for a drink sometime?"
I froze in shock and turned to look over at him. He was still staring out into the hallway with his back towards me, probably with that same stupid half grin on his face. I couldn't tell however from this angle.
"Look Ling," I said, shaking off my shock and putting the papers back into the files in clumps. "Just because I asked you to help me today doesn't mean I like you. In fact, to be perfectly honest, I can't fucking stand you."
There was a long, silent pause as my words sunk in. Only the sounds of shuffling papers could be heard as I moved onto the next cabinet. I waited for him to say anything in reply, to make some stupid comment or question but there was nothing. It was such an awkward silence I almost tried to remedy it by saying something but decided to keep my mouth shut instead. Hey, at least I had been honest with him.
I had never been the kind of girl to beat around the bush with men. If I knew a guy liked me but I didn't feel the same way I told him so outright. If that made me a bitch then so be it. I know if I was a guy I would want a girl to tell it to me straight. Life is too short to drag things like that out.
He almost startled me when he finally spoke up.
"That was a really shitty thing to say Jiao." he said, his voice sobered and cold.
"If you can't handle the truth then so be it," I said, slamming the papers down into the cabinet and shoving the door closed. "I'm not responsible for your happiness."
"Whatever," he replied dismissively, the contempt evident in his voice. "Just hurry up will you?"
"I'm almost done okay?" I said. I picked up a piece of paper that looked interesting at first but on closer inspection just turned out to be a schematic for the chi-blocking electric gloves. I tossed it back into the drawer with frustration.
Ten minutes later, and with everything put back into it's rightful place, I finally emerged from the doorway into the light. Almost a hour's worth of searching had come up completely fruitless; no new information had been contained in any of the files. I felt discouraged and all I wanted to do was punch someone or something to relieve my frustration. I looked over at Ling who was standing stiffly near the door. Without looking at me he handed over a flashlight, turned and began to walk down the long hallway. I narrowed my eyes at his departing back and switched on my light before following behind him.
I couldn't believe he was acting like this, I mean what else had he expected me to say? Had he been completely blind to all of the signals I had been sending him over the past weeks? He just needed to get over it, I thought to myself as we both literally tiptoed our way down the hallway and around the corner. I needed to be focused on the task ahead of me, trying to garner as much information on the Equalists as possible before my deadline was up. I owed it to myself and I owed it to my fallen brother even more.
As we departed from the stale building I breathed in the cold night air with relief. Finally I could go home and crawl into my clean, warm bed with a hot cup of tea and just sleep the night away. It sounded like such a great idea to my tired mind but I felt a slight tug of regret when I remembered my brother. As much as my heart pulled me towards staying up all night trying to find where the Equalists had my brother locked up, my sleepy brain had already made up it's mind. Besides, I wasn't going to function at the one hundred percent needed on only four hours of sleep. I couldn't be much help to my brother if I ended up being captured.
"Do you need someone to walk you home?" Ling asked, his question bringing me back to the present. I looked at his face to judge whether or not he was actually serious. It was rather dark but I could distinctly see that he was genuine, but impersonal, in his offer.
"I think I can handle myself," I replied. "This won't be the first time I have wandered the streets alone at night."
"Are you sure?" he asked again. "Everything is safer in pairs you know."
"I said I would be fine." I reaffirmed, turning and starting to walk away from him.
"Fine," he replied curtly as I began to distance myself from him. "Get yourself kidnapped for all I care!"
"Whatever!" I yelled back. I listened as he paused for a few seconds, as if waiting to see if I would come back, then departed in the opposite direction.
"He needs to get a life." I muttered to myself, pulling my collar up around my neck to shield it from the cold. The cool wind that had been refreshing just a few minutes ago was now bitterly cold and causing me to shiver. I blew into my hands for warmth as I walked through the empty streets of Republic City. I had no idea what time it was and for how long we had been inside that dusty building. Judging from how dark it was it had to be at least past one in the morning if not later.
I knew in my heart I shouldn't have declined Ling's offer to walk me home. I might be a good fighter when well-rested but now I might as well be as helpless as a newborn pup. Amon might have taken out some of the major Triple Triads recently but some were still roaming the streets rogue. Republic City wasn't completely safe yet, at least for the non-benders that is.
Breathing a foggy cloud into the cold air I scanned the streets for any sign of mischief. So far so good, I hadn't heard so much as a peep from the shops that line the current street I am walking down. I only had a couple more blocks before I would finally reach my apartment in far west end of the city. My apartment was definitely not anything to write home about, but I had lived in worst before. With the raise Tarrlok was promising by providing him with the information on Amon's identity I could move to an apartment that would rival the bending elite's. I could almost picture the perfect granite countertops, the large king sized bed, the glittering bathrooms and perhaps even a swimming pool! I could finally start living the life I had always dreamed of. Maybe I could even quit my job forever and take up something less dangerous. A girl can dream I guess...
Wait, did I just hear a faint rustling sound? I stopped in my tracks and listened for the sound to continue, but everything was still just as silent as before. I strained my ears to pick up even the tiniest amount of noise but nothing registered. Pulling my collar tighter around my neck I continued to walk, albeit at a slightly faster pace.
"My tired, paranoid mind is just pulling tricks on me is all," I said out loud to myself. "There is no way anyone is following me." Then why was my heart beating just a hair faster?
Turning onto the next block, and with the noise put far behind me, I tried to force myself to ignore my growing paranoia. I had nothing to fear; if anything it was whoever was following me that had something to fear. People like councilman Tarrlok don't just hire any bum off the streets to infiltrate an organization like the Equalists. I knew how to fight and defend myself, I could handle anyone. My lifted my head high in pride and marched down the street like I owned it. No one was going to sneak up on Jiao Kojima without finding themselves seriously hurt afterwards!
I froze in my tracks as I heard the same rustling sound again, this time much closer and a little bit louder. Anger bubbled up in my chest and I swung around with arms at the ready to face whoever it was that was following me. I scanned the street but it was just as empty as before. The noise had disappeared again. I lowered my arms and turned forwards yet again to resume my journey home. This time I kept a weather eye out while as I walked.
One more terrifying block later I finally arrived at my apartment in one piece. As I unlocked and opened my door I began to wonder why I had decided upon this fourth story apartment room. The entire building was rather empty, the only other tenants lived on the floors either above or below me, leaving me completely alone on the fourth story. I dumped my keys into a small bowl on my hallway table before shutting and thoroughly locking the door behind me. It had definitely been a good idea to get four different locks for my door, I thought to myself as I switched on the dim lights. I let out a relieved breath of air to see my kitchen and living room empty and made my way towards my small bedroom and connected bath.
A half hour later I was crawling into bed and pulling my worn and torn sheets over me. Resting my head upon my musty old pillow I let my worn eyes flutter closed.
---------------------------------------
I had no idea for how long I had been sleeping before I sensed some sort of presence in my room and groggily came back to life. I was still half asleep when I opened my eyes and peered around my room with bleary eyesight. At first I thought I was dreaming, seeing the three pairs of floating, glowing circles seemingly coming towards me. Shaking my head to try and clear it I realized when I saw the outlines of heads and bodies that I was looking into the glowing eyes of three Equalists. I gave out a scream before tossing my body to the side as one of them leaped like a cat towards me. Rolling over the side of my bed onto my feet I faced the four figures that were nimbly twirling bolas in each hand.
"Why are you here?!" I yelled, trying to buy myself some time to figure how to navigate myself out of this mess. One of them responded by quickly ensnaring me with their bola by my hands and tugging it tight before I could try to think straight. Two of the figures front flipped and landed so they positioned behind me and with five well-placed jabs I fell to the floor almost completely immobilized. My feet were tied together before I could respond. With their prey completely tied up they tried to hoist me onto their shoulders to carry out.
I'm not going down without a fight! I thought to myself. Before any of them could get me off the ground I swung my weight forwards and pushed off with my chest to launch myself backwards and onto my feet. I managed to slam into the wall behind me and almost knocked myself out with the force of the move. I blinked my eyes clear fast before one of the figures got me with their bola around my waist and flipped me backwards to the ground again. Looking upwards at the ceiling one of them stood over me, and before I could move, they had delivered a powerful jab to my upper shoulder. Everything began to get fuzzy as my head lolled backwards and I lost consciousness. The last thing I saw before everything went black was the sight of them closing in on me.

Description
Chapter 4

"Are you sure this is safe?" I heard Ling whisper to me as he stuck his head into the tiny, dark room I was currently inside. "Someone is going to see us I'm sure of it!"
"Just stay quiet and keep an eye out for trouble like I told you to!" I retorted, rummaging through the various files and papers that were stashed away into desks and cabinets. This small office room hadn't seen too much activity as of late but it could still hold some secrets waiting to be discovered. I gave a frustrated sigh as another filing cabinet failed to give up anything I didn't already know and shut the door as quietly as I could.
"What exactly are you trying to find anyways?" Ling said keeping his back towards me so he could watch the hallway intently.
"It doesn't concern you," I said, my brow furrowing in concentration. "Besides, if we get caught it would be better for you not to know." Despite how much Ling annoys me I couldn't let him take the fall for what I was doing, it wouldn't be fair.
"I just hope we don't get caught," he said, slight fear tinting his voice.
"We won't! Just focus on the hallway." I said, flipping through more pages of notes and files.
At least, I thought to myself as I searched, I had found some benefit to having Ling as an ally. As much as it pained me to admit it I couldn't have searched this room as thoroughly as I was doing now if it wasn't for his watchful eyes keeping guard at the door. The only problem though, with involving an outsider into your sleuthing is the possibility of your cover being blown by their loose lips. But at this point that was a risk I was willing to take. Besides, I couldn't see Ling blabbing about this to anybody and everybody.
"So, Jiao," Ling said, scuffing the floor with the side of his shoe. "Does this mean maybe we can go out for a drink sometime?"
I froze in shock and turned to look over at him. He was still staring out into the hallway with his back towards me, probably with that same stupid half grin on his face. I couldn't tell however from this angle.
"Look Ling," I said, shaking off my shock and putting the papers back into the files in clumps. "Just because I asked you to help me today doesn't mean I like you. In fact, to be perfectly honest, I can't fucking stand you."
There was a long, silent pause as my words sunk in. Only the sounds of shuffling papers could be heard as I moved onto the next cabinet. I waited for him to say anything in reply, to make some stupid comment or question but there was nothing. It was such an awkward silence I almost tried to remedy it by saying something but decided to keep my mouth shut instead. Hey, at least I had been honest with him.
I had never been the kind of girl to beat around the bush with men. If I knew a guy liked me but I didn't feel the same way I told him so outright. If that made me a bitch then so be it. I know if I was a guy I would want a girl to tell it to me straight. Life is too short to drag things like that out.
He almost startled me when he finally spoke up.
"That was a really shitty thing to say Jiao." he said, his voice sobered and cold.
"If you can't handle the truth then so be it," I said, slamming the papers down into the cabinet and shoving the door closed. "I'm not responsible for your happiness."
"Whatever," he replied dismissively, the contempt evident in his voice. "Just hurry up will you?"
"I'm almost done okay?" I said. I picked up a piece of paper that looked interesting at first but on closer inspection just turned out to be a schematic for the chi-blocking electric gloves. I tossed it back into the drawer with frustration.
Ten minutes later, and with everything put back into it's rightful place, I finally emerged from the doorway into the light. Almost a hour's worth of searching had come up completely fruitless; no new information had been contained in any of the files. I felt discouraged and all I wanted to do was punch someone or something to relieve my frustration. I looked over at Ling who was standing stiffly near the door. Without looking at me he handed over a flashlight, turned and began to walk down the long hallway. I narrowed my eyes at his departing back and switched on my light before following behind him.
I couldn't believe he was acting like this, I mean what else had he expected me to say? Had he been completely blind to all of the signals I had been sending him over the past weeks? He just needed to get over it, I thought to myself as we both literally tiptoed our way down the hallway and around the corner. I needed to be focused on the task ahead of me, trying to garner as much information on the Equalists as possible before my deadline was up. I owed it to myself and I owed it to my fallen brother even more.
As we departed from the stale building I breathed in the cold night air with relief. Finally I could go home and crawl into my clean, warm bed with a hot cup of tea and just sleep the night away. It sounded like such a great idea to my tired mind but I felt a slight tug of regret when I remembered my brother. As much as my heart pulled me towards staying up all night trying to find where the Equalists had my brother locked up, my sleepy brain had already made up it's mind. Besides, I wasn't going to function at the one hundred percent needed on only four hours of sleep. I couldn't be much help to my brother if I ended up being captured.
"Do you need someone to walk you home?" Ling asked, his question bringing me back to the present. I looked at his face to judge whether or not he was actually serious. It was rather dark but I could distinctly see that he was genuine, but impersonal, in his offer.
"I think I can handle myself," I replied. "This won't be the first time I have wandered the streets alone at night."
"Are you sure?" he asked again. "Everything is safer in pairs you know."
"I said I would be fine." I reaffirmed, turning and starting to walk away from him.
"Fine," he replied curtly as I began to distance myself from him. "Get yourself kidnapped for all I care!"
"Whatever!" I yelled back. I listened as he paused for a few seconds, as if waiting to see if I would come back, then departed in the opposite direction.
"He needs to get a life." I muttered to myself, pulling my collar up around my neck to shield it from the cold. The cool wind that had been refreshing just a few minutes ago was now bitterly cold and causing me to shiver. I blew into my hands for warmth as I walked through the empty streets of Republic City. I had no idea what time it was and for how long we had been inside that dusty building. Judging from how dark it was it had to be at least past one in the morning if not later.
I knew in my heart I shouldn't have declined Ling's offer to walk me home. I might be a good fighter when well-rested but now I might as well be as helpless as a newborn pup. Amon might have taken out some of the major Triple Triads recently but some were still roaming the streets rogue. Republic City wasn't completely safe yet, at least for the non-benders that is.
Breathing a foggy cloud into the cold air I scanned the streets for any sign of mischief. So far so good, I hadn't heard so much as a peep from the shops that line the current street I am walking down. I only had a couple more blocks before I would finally reach my apartment in far west end of the city. My apartment was definitely not anything to write home about, but I had lived in worst before. With the raise Tarrlok was promising by providing him with the information on Amon's identity I could move to an apartment that would rival the bending elite's. I could almost picture the perfect granite countertops, the large king sized bed, the glittering bathrooms and perhaps even a swimming pool! I could finally start living the life I had always dreamed of. Maybe I could even quit my job forever and take up something less dangerous. A girl can dream I guess...
Wait, did I just hear a faint rustling sound? I stopped in my tracks and listened for the sound to continue, but everything was still just as silent as before. I strained my ears to pick up even the tiniest amount of noise but nothing registered. Pulling my collar tighter around my neck I continued to walk, albeit at a slightly faster pace.
"My tired, paranoid mind is just pulling tricks on me is all," I said out loud to myself. "There is no way anyone is following me." Then why was my heart beating just a hair faster?
Turning onto the next block, and with the noise put far behind me, I tried to force myself to ignore my growing paranoia. I had nothing to fear; if anything it was whoever was following me that had something to fear. People like councilman Tarrlok don't just hire any bum off the streets to infiltrate an organization like the Equalists. I knew how to fight and defend myself, I could handle anyone. My lifted my head high in pride and marched down the street like I owned it. No one was going to sneak up on Jiao Kojima without finding themselves seriously hurt afterwards!
I froze in my tracks as I heard the same rustling sound again, this time much closer and a little bit louder. Anger bubbled up in my chest and I swung around with arms at the ready to face whoever it was that was following me. I scanned the street but it was just as empty as before. The noise had disappeared again. I lowered my arms and turned forwards yet again to resume my journey home. This time I kept a weather eye out while as I walked.
One more terrifying block later I finally arrived at my apartment in one piece. As I unlocked and opened my door I began to wonder why I had decided upon this fourth story apartment room. The entire building was rather empty, the only other tenants lived on the floors either above or below me, leaving me completely alone on the fourth story. I dumped my keys into a small bowl on my hallway table before shutting and thoroughly locking the door behind me. It had definitely been a good idea to get four different locks for my door, I thought to myself as I switched on the dim lights. I let out a relieved breath of air to see my kitchen and living room empty and made my way towards my small bedroom and connected bath.
A half hour later I was crawling into bed and pulling my worn and torn sheets over me. Resting my head upon my musty old pillow I let my worn eyes flutter closed.
---------------------------------------
I had no idea for how long I had been sleeping before I sensed some sort of presence in my room and groggily came back to life. I was still half asleep when I opened my eyes and peered around my room with bleary eyesight. At first I thought I was dreaming, seeing the three pairs of floating, glowing circles seemingly coming towards me. Shaking my head to try and clear it I realized when I saw the outlines of heads and bodies that I was looking into the glowing eyes of three Equalists. I gave out a scream before tossing my body to the side as one of them leaped like a cat towards me. Rolling over the side of my bed onto my feet I faced the four figures that were nimbly twirling bolas in each hand.
"Why are you here?!" I yelled, trying to buy myself some time to figure how to navigate myself out of this mess. One of them responded by quickly ensnaring me with their bola by my hands and tugging it tight before I could try to think straight. Two of the figures front flipped and landed so they positioned behind me and with five well-placed jabs I fell to the floor almost completely immobilized. My feet were tied together before I could respond. With their prey completely tied up they tried to hoist me onto their shoulders to carry out.
I'm not going down without a fight! I thought to myself. Before any of them could get me off the ground I swung my weight forwards and pushed off with my chest to launch myself backwards and onto my feet. I managed to slam into the wall behind me and almost knocked myself out with the force of the move. I blinked my eyes clear fast before one of the figures got me with their bola around my waist and flipped me backwards to the ground again. Looking upwards at the ceiling one of them stood over me, and before I could move, they had delivered a powerful jab to my upper shoulder. Everything began to get fuzzy as my head lolled backwards and I lost consciousness. The last thing I saw before everything went black was the sight of them closing in on me.