mortemscintilla | Memes // PSLs

[Korra doesn't understand what her parents are so freaked out about.

They live in the middle of Alaska. They're almost completely inaccessible from the rest of the world except by plane. Who was going to tell the world about her abilities -- the birds? Who on earth would understand what they had to say?

She's mastered the art of sneaking out of the village, though. There's a valley not far where she likes to go to practice her magic. She's there tonight, running through her forms under the light of the full moon.]

[ A finger in every pie. An ear to every wall. That's how the Syndicate operates. ]

[ They've already hacked into the latest Astronomics reports. The info so far: a new star has appeared. Mistaken, initially, for a Moratorium. But too quickly, it becomes apparent it's a Contractor. One with what promises to be devastating power. The Syndicate can't afford to pass up on those types. ]

[ It could, and frequently is, easier to snatch up these new Contractors without offering anything. No negotiations, just a businesslike debrief that's an ultimatum disguised as a choice: Come work for the Syndicate. Or die. But this situation requires a higher level of finesse. Other agencies are after the new star too. Talented field agents are always in short supply. Living weapons (like Pai), on the other hand, are rare as black diamonds. Which is why it's not hard to assume that a number of different players will be circling each other, conducting their own off-the-books retrievals, trying to beat their rivals to collecting this potential asset. ]

[ Keep an eye out, Huang had warned. CIA, MI6, CSIS, even the DST will be running around like a bunch of hyperactive retards. They're going to fuck shit up if they get that shiny new Contractor first. So you're not going to let them. ]

[ It's not Hei's first international operation. But it doesn't mean that, personally, he's liked being a part of them. (Not since Heaven's War.) Still, orders are orders. It's a solo op; none of his teammates are here. He's spent a month blending in, surveying the terrain, scanning for rival players, determining dead-drops and chokepoints. Now, after narrowing out the new Contractor's -- Korra. Her name is Korra. -- location, and spending a week memorizing her daily patterns, Hei makes his move. ]

[ Unmasked but armed (a standard precaution), he's here to 'collect' her, not eliminate her. Not unless she falls into enemy hands. ]

[Korra never goes anywhere without her bodyguard -- Naga, a monstrously large Great Pyreneese. While she trains, Naga keeps a watchful eye on her surroundings. Korra doesn't sense Hei's approach, but the guard dog can't miss it.

She growls warningly, and Korra immediately stops.]

What is it, girl?

[With a quick gesture and a snap of her fingers, Korra calls up a ball of flame. It's been a bad winter for the wolves; they might just be hungry enough to risk attacking a human.]

[ The particulars of Korra's life have already been etched into Hei's mind, each fact as luminous as neon stars burning in the darkness. Her parents. Her friends. Her relatives. Her pet. ]

[ If he can help it, he'd kill the mutt and be done with it. But that's not part of the plan. Korra conjures up a flame, but Hei is too deeply immersed in the treeline to be seen. His dark clothes blend into the gloom, his breathing steady, controlled. Naga may be able to sniff him out. But that's what he's counting on. Perched flat on a dense branch, obscured by lush foliage, he raises a tiny cylinder to his lips. And blows. Though the night stays quiet, he imagines the shrill ultrasonic tone. ]

[ Naga will hear it, though. Hei doubts the animal has been trained to ignore its appeal. Naga may be a bodyguard. But she's no professional attack dog. For one thing, she growls. Noises like that are useless for protection. They alert an attacker and give him a chance to defend himself. ]

[ Right now, Naga is about as useful as the generic burglar alarm. And those can be silenced. All too easily. ]

[There's not much need to use dog whistles in Korra's village. You want to avoid bothering the neighbors? Just go outside the village walls. There is plenty of open space. So Naga hasn't been trained to obey the call of a dog whistle. But it gives her the location of the potential threat.]

Naga, no!

[Korra lets the flame die as she runs after her friend.]

[ Loose ends have always bothered Hei. So he's determined to leave none. ]

[ From his perch, he watches the massive dog arrive with such deceptive softness that a normal person would never hear it, unless he was prepared. Fortunate, isn't it, that Hei isn't normal? Eyes flat, he watches Naga's pale shape streak through the night, abruptly materializing near the bottom of the tree. He sees the white teeth glinting, flashing savagely. Before the animal can come any closer, or pinpoint the enemy, he reaches into his knapsack. First things first: a gas mask, its snout-like respirator and blue tinted visor lending him a distinctly draconian appearance. ]

[ Next: a bio-agent. Withdrawing a cannister, roughly tennis-ball shaped, he twists the top and sends it sailing with a neat arc toward Naga. The cannister hits the ground with a dull plop, as unremarkable as a fallen pine cone. Until it hisses, smoke curling into the darkness like an arabesque. A special knockout gas, designed by the Syndicate. Ranging upto ten meters in circumference; effective for up to twelve hours. ]

[ More than enough, in short, to incapacitate both Korra and her dog. ]

[Korra sees Naga go down and screams. The screams turn into coughs -- she tries to bend the air clean, but it's too late.

She goes down in the snow.]

[ It's almost too easy. Candy from a baby. ]

[ Then again, choosing the most vulnerable prey is easy after a lifetime of practice. In the early days, as a soldier, Hei was always too intimidated, too concerned that his performance was not up to scratch -- terrified, he supposes, that his enemies and peers would see through the charade even he could barely sell himself. Except they never had. And as each day passed, he'd sensed his personality shifting to that of the mask itself: silent and menacing. All the perceived shortcomings that haunted his waking self -- a lack of humanity or an excess of it, a feeling he shouldn't be here -- evaporated like water dripped on a searing engine block. ]

[ Out of habitual precaution, he hangs back a moment. Scanning the terrain, on alert for any newcomers who might be attracted to Korra's scream. None. ]

[ Good. Leaping off the branch, he drops to the frosted grass, rolling in a parachutist's pose. Retreating from the dissipating fumes, he simply studies his two victims for a moment. The dog, he can either electrocute, exsanguinate -- or leave alone. It's not a particular priority. The girl, supine, her hair a smudge of charcoal across the snow, he studies for telltale tics. Any signs that she might still be conscious. Nothing. Satisfied, he steps forward. His soft-soled shoes barely seem to touch the grass. After muzzling and hogtying the dog with a spool of wire, he does the same with the girl. ]

[ He has to move quickly. There's no doubt other agencies will be circling the area. He needs to haul his target out of the valley, and to the narrow dirt road where he's left a nondescript car -- covered and fueled. From there, it's a simple matter of getting her to the airport, where the Syndicate have an aircraft waiting. ]

[ No checkpoints. No passports. Easy access. (In theory.) ]

[She wakes up slowly, aware even before she opens her eyes that she's in a car. Naga? She listens until she hears the steady breathing of her constant companion.

Her next thought, of course, is My parents are going to kill me. This is exactly the reason they didn't want her using her ability, particularly alone, and she makes a note to apologize to them when she gets out of here. There's no question in her mind that she'll get out of this. Whoever took her got the jump on her, but she won't be taken by surprise again.

She groans and forces her eyes open.]

Who are you? Where are you taking me?

[The questions aren't just because she's angry (just mostly). She's covering up the sound of a small flame as she cuts the ties that bind her.]

[ It's close to midnight when Korra stirs. It's cold out, the windows milky with fog from the heat trapped inside. Hei drives steadily, his hands relaxed around the wheel. Her sudden voice doesn't make him flinch, though he does narrow his eyes. Strange. The tranquilizer was strong. It's only been three hours; Korra's metabolism can't have burned through it so quickly. He logs this chemical failure as a definite source of concern. Like most agents on a solo op, he's obtained his equipment from an outside source. Habitually, he's double-checked each piece for trackers or signs of sabotage. The only thing he didn't inspect was the bio-chemical cannister. It was Syndicate-issue. It should've posed no problem. ]

[ Maybe it was a glitch? Doubtful. He's never believed in accidents or coincidences, not for things like this. Sure, maybe they exist. But in his profession, you act as if they don't. Most times, the thing that might've been a fluke isn't, and your doubt helps you survive it. And if you're wrong, and the thing was an accident? What's the downside? There is none. And so far, the data isn't accumulating in a favorable direction. ]

[ At length, he glances at Korra. It would've been smarter for her to play doped-up and attack him without alerting him first. But Contractor or no, she's an untrained civilian. Which is why he pretends not to catch the faint whiff of smoke and burnt cord. ]

I'm not at liberty to say.

[ Which is a universal truth, in the Syndicate. You don't indoctrinate a freshly-plucked recruit about your organization's MO. Not unless you're in a neutral zone. ]

[She growls, an unconscious imitation of the noise Naga would make. (A habit she picked up in her childhood, when Naga was her only companion.]

I'm not going to let you take me anywhere.

[Another second and her hands are free. She's less cautious about burning off the cords around her feet. As tempting as it is to blast him in the face right now and be done with it, she needs full mobility if she's going to get out of here.]

[ Make that two people who'd prefer full mobility -- though to be fair, Hei's priorities stem from a different source. The road is narrow, crusted with ice. Snow blows across it in places, serpentine in long dusty lines, piling up along the edges. Houses have long since disappeared, and the view -- unrelentingly thick shrubbery, looming trees -- has a windswept air, a white-black-green enchanted forest. If she attacks him, and the car crashes here, there's no hospital for miles. ]

You don't have a choice, [ he says, and there's nothing about him that betrays either concern or interest. He can log her movements easily from the rear-view mirror. But she's not his focal point -- unpredictable as she may be. His mind is still on the faulty gas-cannister. Perhaps it's the low-level paranoia that surges with every mission. But he feels like he is driving through aspic. The roads are too miraculously clear, his contact's directions too good. Every glance at the clock on the dashboard shows he's made much-too excellent time. It's troubling. There are several other players who have the advantage of him, sped by some miasma of greed and influence and misguided convictions that that they have a right to claim this new Contractor. But they're not here. It keeps Hei on edge. ]

[ There is no such thing as a perfect mission. ]

[ Mildly, without glancing over, ]

If you're going to attack me, this isn't the ideal spot.

Edited 2014-01-23 01:06 (UTC)

Like I'm going to trust you!

[But she doesn't attack him. Instead, she grabs the still-sleeping Naga with her free hands and kicks at the door. It explodes, sending bits of metal flying, singeing her skin but she doesn't care. In the next heartbeat, she and Naga roll out of the car. Slinging the dog's dead weight over her shoulders like it's nothing, she takes off running towards the nearest patch of forest. Her turf, her rules.]

[ Expect the unexpected. And no matter what, be unexpected. ]

[ It's not just a cutesy phrase. It's how you maintain grip on the Syndicate's rattling ladder. With that in mind, Hei's not exactly surprised by the move she pulls. But it's a headache he could do without. It all happens fast. He sees a flash of movement in the rear-view mirror. Then the crash, a blast of chilly air, and hot metal bits pinging off the car's interior. Hei feels bits of his scalp pitted with burns as if a shower of Zippo-heated coins have been flicked at him. Korra hauls the dog up like a knapsack and leaps out of the car. He has just enough time to see her bolting into the woods. ]

[ Scowling, he slams on the brakes, wheels raking shrilly across the snow. Perfect. Anyone's first instinct would be to chase her. But she can't go far. She may not realize it yet, but there's a tiny microchip buried into the sole of her right boot, a shockproof tracker if the target escapes. With that in mind, Hei's top priority is intercepting her before an enemy does. A few feet from the road, he turns to a gravel access path that leads toward the forest. Along the route, heavy road equipment has been parked for the night. His intention is to leave the car here, and pursue the girl. ]

[ But as he drives, the sharp crack of gravel pelting the underside of the car makes him... paranoid. He peers past the car's headlights toward a looming tanker truck that rumbles in his direction. Frowning, he watches it suddenly veer. ]

[ It blocks the road. ]

[ Shit. Vans streak from behind the heavy equipment, flanking the car. Arc lights blaze into the darkness. ]

Ugh --!

[ Hand up to shield his eyes, Hei swerves to miss the truck, slamming the brakes. The car skids, jolting against a caterpillar, throwing him forward. His head whacks the steering wheel. Blinking the red spots from his eyes, Hei jerks a glance at his surroundings. Ambush. Should have known. He doesn't know which agency these people belong to. Doesn't care. He needs to get away, forcing the occupants of the van to chase him, lead them into a choke point and eliminate them one by one. ]

[ All before they get to that damned girl. ]

[ Slipping his mask on, he opens the door and leaps out. Dodging the caterpillar, racing to avoid the spotlight, blinding his attackers with a brilliant flash of electricity that fizzes from his free hand. He hears shouts and doors banging open in the vans. A car skids to a stop on the road. Footsteps crunch on cold gravel. The spotlights track him, chasing his fast shadow across a snowy stretch of fields. ]

[ In the murky woods beyond the spotlights, Hei vanishes. ]

[Korra hears explosions behind her. Good. Maybe that asshole creep is dead. It'd definitely make her life easier. (Her father would be horrified to hear her think like that, being a man as pro-life as they come, but the fact is, her kidnapper can't chase her if he's dead.

She's not about to count on it though.

A few hundred feet into the forest, she finds a tree and climbs as high as she can into the safety of its branches. She can't keep running with Naga trussed up like this. She's ridiculously strong, but she has limits. She carefully burns off the cords around Naga's feet and then strokes her muzzle.]

Come on, Naga. Wake up. [If she’s dead, I’ll kill him myself. Except thoughts like that wouldn't help her friend.

Korra trembles a little and forces herself to take a deep breath.]

Spirits help me. [She closes her eyes and lays her hand across Naga's forehead, trying to get a sense of the dog's energy. An elder had once mentioned something about how the body's energies could be used to heal; she wishes she had listened more. She doesn't know what she's doing; this will never work; it was a dumb ide-

There. She can see the blockage, clear as moonlight. Little threads of energy caught in a knot. It's the easiest thing in the world to untangle.

And just like that, Naga whimpers and opens her eyes. Korra smiles and hugs her close.] Shhhhhh, good girl. We're going to be fine.

[ When the pieces fall in place, it isn't complicated. ]

[ Hei's imagined the various scenarios, looked ahead and backward, assumed the most logical tactics, and understood what's going on. He's been set up. Not by a third party, but by the Syndicate itself. It's not a tradeaway. Not a double-cross. It's a test. Each Syndicate assignment is like evolution. And in evolution, Mother Nature throws everything she's got at a species. If it makes it, she knows that species is fit to live. If not, then it dies out, and no harm done. That's what the Syndicate is like. They want to know who's fit enough, smart enough, to be allowed to work for higher-level ops with them. ]

[ In assignments like these, they weed out the survivors, and kill the rest without having to waste their own bullets. ]

[ With that in mind, Hei sprints through the woods. Trees flash around him. No enemies in view yet -- until he sees a trio fanning out at his right flank. Moonlight glints off their Uzis. Behind him, he hears shouts, glimpses the glow of torches. The abrupt roar of gunfire is amplified by the ambience of the forest. Bullets wallop against tree trunks, flinging splinters. But already Hei has whipped out a wire. It snags a branch high above, and the gears on his belt whir. Charging harder, he's airborne, swooping through the periphery. Homing in on on the trio, he lunges in like a shadow. The nearest man glances up, too late, unprepared for the heel of Hei's palm slamming against his ribcage. The electric shock is brief but dazzling. As the man groans, slumping, Hei tugs the Uzi from his grasp and swings to spray the other two agents down. ]

[ Blood splatters everywhere. But Hei doesn't wait. No time. He leaps across the men he's dropped, then races in a zigzag pattern through the trees, snagging his wires along the trunks, weaving a pattern like a spider with a web. When he's finished, he spins again with the Uzi, firing a warning volley at the men in pursuit, so they'll charge in his direction. Straight into his nest of wires -- alive with lethal volts of electricity. It happens quickly. Shouts. Torches. Footfalls. Men collide with the wire-mesh. The sound that follows is like a magnified bug zapper, a horde of insects smashing into it. Zzzzzzzzzt. Brilliant blue light. Leaping sparks. The sounds of convulsive screams and the stench of burnt flesh and ozone fill the air. ]

[ From there, it's easy to eliminate the stragglers. Now all that's left is finding the girl. ]

[Korra hears the screams. He’s not dead.

Well fuck.

She runs through her options with ruthless efficiency. She can't stay here -- he's not just going to give up on her, and the best defense is a good offense. Ideally she would move through the trees, but Naga can't, and she can't just leave Naga up here. Too much could happen and being up here would only hamper the dog's ability to defend herself.

Carefully, silently, she helps the dog down the tree. She creates a small cave in the ground, easily covered and completely natural looking.]

Stay. I'll come back for you.

[She takes off at a run, easily using her ability to cover her tracks behind her. If she's where she thinks she is -- and the humming in her bones says yes, then there will be a river not far. Ample water and earth and room to move; everything she needs.]

[ It takes as little as fifteen minutes to kill the survivors. ]

[ Clouds drift across the moon. The night air is chill and crisp in contrast to Hei's burning sweat. Around him, shadows flicker, the forest a deep green, like a cloud before a tornado. But his movements are silent, relentless. The terrain, despite its superficial differences, reminds him of the jungles in South America. The spongy loam absorbs his footfalls. The dense foliage conceals his flashing shape. On a hand-held scanner, he watches the red Korra-blip move through the forest. The area is bisected by a river. She seems to be headed in that direction. Adrenaline surges. Hei's eyes narrow. You won't get away that easy. ]

[ Nor will she like it when he finds her. It's been a hell of a day and he can feel that familiar, crazy urge to unload on someone. If this stupid girl wants to give him a reason, too bad for her. ]

[ The path of frost, soil and sparse underbrush leads higher. Through a break in the trees, the encroaching darkness flattens the moonlight into a thin white artery between the thick trunks. The river stretches below a rocky outcrop, shimmering. Alert, controlling his breathing until it's a steady in-out, Hei scans the area. Korra can't be far. It's difficult to run while carrying a big sedated dog. More than likely, she's hidden the animal somewhere. (Of course, the fact that she'd risk taking the pet along, at all, pings off his brain in a white-hot ricochet. It's not very Contractorly.) ]

[ But he's not here to puzzle her out. Just deliver her to the Syndicate -- relatively undamaged. ]

[She doesn't have much of a lead on him, but it's enough. She's at the bend of the river, perched on top of a giant boulder, but down just low enough to hide herself behind it.

Just a little closer to the water and she can get him.]

[ Hei's learnt never to ignore his inner-rader. Right now, it's going haywire. His scanner shows him the girl is nearby. But she's staying still -- which only means she's planning something. When it comes to versatility of powers, she has the advantage. But in tactics, she's still an amateur. He has a lock on her location, after all. Depending on his mood, Hei may attack her -- or retreat, until she's lowered her defenses so he gets a drop on her. But right now, he's content merely to flow from spot to spot. Determined to surprise her, preventing battles rather than fighting them. A different approach than had characterized his younger days in Heaven's War, yes, when his style had more to do with aggression and bravado than it did with neatness and efficiency. Since then, however, he's learnt that it doesn't matter what size, skills, or other advantages your enemy has if you don't give him a chance to deploy any of it. ]

[ And he's not planning to give her any chance at all. ]

[ Silently, he makes two circuits, the first wide, the second more direct, dropping wired explosives in a strategic star-shape around the periphery. Then he approaches Korra's location, edging closer to the forest than the water-line. Around him: egg-sized stones, rounded smooth with each tide. Dark skeins of mold. Blackness of water leeching into the sky. Moonlight glitters in rhythm to the water's movements. ]

[He's not heading for the water. Why isn't he heading for the water? She curses under her breath. She'll have to use earth. She'd hoped to use water -- it's pliant but powerful, easy to control. Fire has power, but it would only give away her location. (If only she knew that was already compromised.) Air was poor for offense. Earth was powerful & stubborn, but she could attack him without giving away her position.

A few gestures and the earth rumbles beneath Hei's feet, the only warning he gets before he's bombarded with giant rocks.]

[ NC-108's dossiers detailed her ease in manipulating the four elements. In the dark and organized space of his mind, Hei is ticking off the possibilities. An air-blast? Ineffectual. Fire? Too bombastic; too great a risk of being discovered. He's too far from the river for her to attack him with a wave. ]

[ That means ... ]

[ The ground vibrates beneath his feet. Pebbles rattle. A hot-cold surge of adrenaline rushes through his veins, right before a hailstorm of rocks collide around him. He hears the relentless staccato bursts as they slam all around him. One whacks against his shoulder, shooting a strobelike flare of pain behind his eyes. A second whooshes past his skull, coming dangerously close to denting it. Instinct takes over. Pirouetting, Hei lets a wire fly, snagging the closest outcrop of trees. With a jerk, he leaps into the air, gaining traction, rocketing forward to avoid being pelted with more rocks. In the same movement, he clicks the button on an activation device within his coat. The explosives he'd scattered throughout the area ignite -- a deafening orchestra. They're dirty bombs, low on chemicals, high on noise. A dizzying distraction, if you're unprepared for it. ]

[ And distractions are always windows of opportunity. It's what he needs to swing toward Korra -- and incapacitate her. ]

[I didn’t do that! Korra instinctively dives and rolls as suddenly the world is exploding around her. She keeps rolling, ignoring the cuts and shocks from the explosions, until she hits the water. Hei's attack just barely misses her.

She rises from the water encased in ice solid enough to stop bullets yet fluid enough to let her move unimpeded. Her eyes glow pure red, bright enough to kill.

And then she hears a familiar growl.

Damn it, Naga!]

[ Hei skids to a halt near the water's edge, just in time to see Korra dive in. The valley reverberates with the fading after-echoes of the explosives. Pebbles adhere to the damp sheen of his coat, making it look like black bedazzled leather. Blood fizzing, his chest like a bellows, Hei scans the froth-tipped surface of the river. The girl's less daredevil than she is idiotic. In this weather, the water will be freezing. In the next breath, he backs away, caught off-guard, as a shape juts from the water a few knots out. Moonlight bleeds along the girl's shape to make her appear as a drowned siren slicing up out of the surf -- mystic and fire-eyed and fierce. ]

[ Automatically, Hei aligns his stance for the next attack. ]

[ Then a growl emerges, rumbling behind him. Whirling, he spots the dog -- Naga, she called it -- a few feet away. In that instant, Hei makes his choice. Before Korra can make her move, he surges toward the dog. Ten feet, five, two, and he's hurled a wire at Naga, catching one of its legs and bringing it down with a powerful but non-lethal electric shock. In a blink, he's crouched over the fallen animal, knee braced across its chest, a blade whipped out and upraised. ]

[ Over the sloshing river, his voice is flat. ]

Stand down.

[There's a moment's hesitation as Korra calculates the odds of her knocking the knife out of Hei's hand before he can hurt Naga. Then she stands down. Ice turns to water which returns to the river and Korra steps out of it, completely dry.]

Don't hurt her.

[It's not a plea; it's a threat. She knows she can't beat him, but it's clear he wants her alive. Korra's not so sentimental to say Kill me instead of Naga, but she won't hesitate to say Kill Naga and I'll kill myself. Her life is the only leverage she has right now; she's not afraid to use it.]

[ The Syndicate wants her alive, true. But no one said she had to stay undamaged. Besides. He has training for this. She doesn't. ]

[ When she steps out of the water, miraculously dry, Hei keeps his gaze fixed on her, his weight settled on the knee braced across Naga. It's clear by her inflection -- Don't hurt her -- that she's not capitulating. The opposite; she's angling to use herself as leverage. There's a part of him, that hotheaded risk-taker, that's tempted to call her bluff. See if she has the balls (or stupidity) to do as implied. Offing yourself to save a fucking dog ... he doesn't know anyone, human or Contractor, who'd be that shortsighted. But the other part of him, spinning webs of calculations intersected with rules of good spycraft and common sense, knows that a Contractor's pragmatism isn't something you're born with. It's learned; it's instilled; it's socialized. ]

[ This girl has been raised as just that. A semi-ordinary girl. ]

[ With that in mind, Hei makes his move. There's a rock jutting upright beside him. Hei topples it to the left -- as a distraction, to make it seem he is diving to the ground. At the same time he pivots to the right, whipping out a wire, aiming to snag Korra's leg. If it connects, he will release a blinding surge of electricity. Enough to guarantee she's out cold for several hours. ]

[Threatening to off herself for a dog -- big difference. She's certainly counting on the fact that it won't come to that.

When he moves, she doesn't go left or right -- she jumps straight up, using fire to give herself a little extra lift. Considering she hadn't made any threatening move, there was no reason for him to dive to the ground.]

I’ll go with you! [She lands hard, in a defensive stance.] Don't hurt her, and I'll go with you.

[It's really the only chance she has. She's at too much of a disadvantage here.]

[ At an angle from Korra, Hei crouches, blade upraised. His gaze is on Korra's; a thread stretches and vibrates in the air. She says I'll go with you, and there's a moment's faltering. Wondering if she's lying. Except her expression, her stance, her gaze -- everything radiates a peculiar desperation. As much for herself as for her stupid pet. It's that which makes him pause. Attachment, he thinks with a bite of contempt. How much foolishness can you hide under the cover of it? Allowances made to trample others or let yourself be trampled because -- because what? Because of a pet? Because you value something that weakens you? ]

[ An acrid flash of memory -- Pai thigh-deep in a red pool, floating bodies, spiraling stars, a sweet smile smeared with blood -- invades. Shaking it off, he regards Korra a moment more. Jigsawed thoughts click neatly into the slots of his mind. And all at once, the tension diffuses. On the surface. A breath, before he straightens, with one foot still planted over the dog. ]

All right. [ His tone changes; a sharp order. ] Get on the floor. Hands behind your head.

[Korra bites back a snarky comment -- You mean the ground? -- and obeys. She can feel her body get twitchy as the spirits demand their repayment for the power she used without paying her dues. Just a little longer, she promises them.]

What now?

[ Ground. Floor. Same difference. His English, though unaccented and idiomatic, is nonetheless rusty from years out of practice. He's learned it young enough to pick up slang and colloquialisms, but not quite young enough to eradicate that occasional clunkiness. Steps and heart rate steady, thinking Careful everything in perfect focus, he draws closer to Korra. Contrary to rumors, Contractors don't melt like the wicked witch if they can't make their payment. It's simply a compulsion, a meaningful repetition to satisfy that irrational aspect of their natures. Her twitchiness doesn't go unnoticed. But he's not about to let her fulfill her payment. She'll survive if it's delayed by a few hours. ]

[ Kneeling, he plants a knee in the middle of her back. Her arms get tightly bound behind her, crossed inward at the wrist. No way to burn through the cord this time. Not without scorching her skin with third degree burns in the process. Satisfied, he plants a widespread palm across the back of her skull. ]

Now shut up and behave. You've caused enough trouble for one night.

[ It's all the warning she gets -- before he lets off a zapping tendril of electricity. Enough to knock her out cold, until he's found another vehicle, and bundled her -- and the dog -- out of the area. The agents he fought will have back-up stationed closeby. Once they notice their squad's radio silence, they'll be swarming the forest. By which time he needs to be gone. ]

Memes // PSLs

blend into black

<333 such tldr omg

best tldr

u///u<33

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