Winding Legacies: A 'The Legend of Korra' Rewrite

Epsiode 10: Turning the Tides Part 2

Standing solemnly in front of rows of telegraphs, Chief Saikhan watched the operators quickly work on listening and connecting messages throughout the police headquarters' control room.

"Chief! Air unit seven was just taken out by an Equalist airship. They've crashed into the harbor!" one of the telegraph officers said.

"Send a river rescue unit," Saikhan responded.

"Chief, all the rescue ships have been sabotaged!" another telegraph operator called out.

Saikhan gasped. "What?"

Tenzin came into the room at that moment, pushing open the door and stepping towards Saikhan to figure out his next course of action. "Chief Saikhan," Tenzin nodded.

"Tenzin, am I glad to see you. I was afraid you'd been captured too," Saikhan breathed.

"I'm the only Council member left. What's the status?"

"Amon has launched simultaneous attacks across the boroughs. The police are trying to regain control but we're spread too thin." Saikhan moved forward and gestured towards the telegraph machines, letting Tenzin know that they were at his disposal.

Taking the hint, Tenzin began stroking his beard. "I need to send a wire."

"To whom, Councilman?"

Tenzin leaned over next to the nearest telegraph machine and said, "The general of the United Forces." The telegraph operator shook his head and roamed his hands over the knobs and buttons on the machines. He finished by plugging in one last cord and swirled his chair around to meet Tenzin's eyes.

"Councilman, your wire has been sent." Tenzin smiled, giving the telegraph operator a soft pat on the back. Tenzin turned back around to stand next to Saikhan who let out a sigh of relief, their shoulders deflating until a telegraph operator on the other side of the room suddenly stood up.

"Chief, the phone lines just went dead!" Saikhan and Tenzin glanced at each other and furrowed their brows. Their heads then jerked up as an alarm went off, the alarm shutting down as the power went out. Saikhan pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and pressed it on, pointing it around the room.

Picking up another one, Saikhan threw a flashlight to Tenzin. "Catch," he said. Tenzin gave his thanks, switching his flashlight on and helping the telegraph operators search the room for what went wrong. Tenzin's light traveled over a vent in the ceiling, his light doubling back once he noticed the smoke billowing out of the vents.

"Saikhan, the vents." Saikhan flicked his hands towards the vents and shut his fist, closing the vents as the other people in the room began shuddering with coughs. Wildly watching all the other people in the room, Tenzin swirled his arms around to create an air dome around himself. "We need to evacuate immediately. Everyone stay close to me." Tenzin expanded the air dome and let everyone slowly pull themselves into it before bursting through the control room door and pressing on down the hallway to the exit. At the headquarters entrance, Tenzin was able to push out the door and get everyone out of the smoke and outside to fresh air. Releasing his air dome, Tenzin took a deep breath and looked up only to find six mecha tanks waiting for them at the entrance.

"Not these mecha tanks again!" The tanks held up their magnetic arms and pulled the metal on the police uniforms towards themselves. Tenzin tried to save Saikhan who was almost whisked away with a gust of wind but failed as Saikhan and the other trapped police officers were deposited in a truck. One tank launched a pincer cable at Tenzin, the cable flinging in the other direction as Tenzin blew it away with a stream of air. He rushed forward, deflecting more cables as he ran, and hurling air balls at nearby tanks. A pincer cable caught Tenzin by surprise, and he was flung back against the wall of the police headquarters, a swirl of air softening his fall as he fell towards the ground.