An Echo of Legends: An ATLA Mystery Story (on hiatus)

Chapter 15: Lin

Toph hit the floor of the warehouse, and with a quick motion of her hand, the metal cables flew towards Misako and her two associates. 

"You're all under arrest," she said in a way that seemed almost bored, as the cables bound their hands together. The hooded figures however, did not seem phased at all. A burst of fire in their hands, and one of the figures firebent at Toph. Not towards her face, but towards her bare feet. Toph grimaced in pain as Lin felt a red hot flash of anger, and a burning desire to help her mother. She wouldn't be able to see with her feet burned like that. A bit recklessly, she hurtled over the railing, hoping that Tenzin was thinking the same way as her. Right before she hit the ground, she felt the cushion of Tenzin's airbending, and landed, not exactly gracefully, on her feet. 

With not a second to waste, Lin earthbent the ground around the cloaked figures, making it uneven and shaky. She had just noticed the cables that were tying the other criminals up had gotten loose, as Toph was pouring all her focus elsewhere. Lin was about to metalbend the cables, but she didn't have to, because they had been frozen in ice. Kya was running down the stairs, with Suki close behind, two golden fans in her hands. 

"It's the Kemurikage!" she said. Lin turned her attention back to the four cloaked figures, the Kemurikage? And saw Toph, earthbending blindly at three of them, just barely dodging their lightning fast fire attacks. Lin had never seen her mother... losing.

"Mom!" She shouted, jumping in front of her.

"Lin! Get out of the way! I won't let you get hurt!" Toph yelled, as Lin brought up a rock wall to shelter them from the fire. 

"You were going to get hurt, Mom! They burned your feet!" Before Toph could respond, the earth blew apart, pieces of rock scattering, fire and heat was everywhere. Lin crouched to the ground, felt a hot, stinging pain, and when the earth had settled, she saw her mother, laying on the ground. One of the rocks had hit her head. The three kemurikage were closing in on them, while out of the corner of her eye, Lin could see Suki fighting the fourth, through a blur of fans and fire. Lin planted her feet in the ground, but she knew she couldn't take them all. Then she felt a slight breeze, as the kemurikage were thrown back by a seemingly invisible force. Two of them slammed against the opposite wall, while the third scrambled to her feet and ran. Lin turned to see Tenzin, his eyes wide. Then she heard a creak as the door to the warehouse was opened by the Kemurikage.

"Run," Tenzin said, grabbing Lin's hand and bolting towards the door. Still shocked by what had happened with her mom, she held onto it like a lifeline. The cloaked figure dashed out into the street.

"Stop!" Tenzin shouted. To Lin's surprise the kemurikage did stop, masked face turning towards them.

"This is not your fight," she said in a melodic and singsong voice, "It was started before your time, and it will soon be finished." Out of the corner of her eye, Lin saw an object spinning towards them,  hitting the kemurikage in the head. The mask dropped to the ground, and Lin saw her angry, determined eyes, before, with a flourish, she surrounded herself in fire, and then she was gone. 

"Did I miss?" Lin and Tenzin looked up to the roof of the warehouse, to see Sokka, standing with his boomerang. He slid down to the base of the building. Lin picked up the mask, admiring the detailed wood carvings of it.

"You missed," she said, "But not completely." After a moment, Suki ran out into the port.

"Did you see where they went?" she asked, "The remaining three, they escaped out the back door." Tenzin shook his head and told them how they had only seen one of the kemurikage escape, while Sokka went off to search for them. Emerging from the warehouse was Toph and Kya. Toph sat down against the wall, while Kya bent a globule of water from her waterskin and conformed it to Toph's wounds. The burns on her feet, and a small cut on her forehead. 

"Are you okay?" Lin asked, running up to them. 

"I'll just have to stay off my feet for a few days," Toph said weakly, "Lin..." she prepared for the inevitable reprimand, "Thank you for helping me. I don't know what would've happened if you weren't there." Lin brightened a little bit. Her mother turned to Suki, "What were the kids doing here?" Suki sighed. 

"They were insistent on coming with me, but, it all worked out in the end. We caught the three criminals, just not the kemurikage."

"What are Kemurikage?" Tenzin asked. It was Suki who spoke.

"Zuko's sister Azula, gathered a group of fire nation women who impersonated spirits called kemurikage. They wore masks and dark cloaks, like the one that you just saw."

"And they abducted children," Sokka said, returning from his search, "Also they escaped."

"I'm going to take the three in the warehouse to the station and do way too much paperwork," Toph sighed, "The rest of you, try to contact Aang and company, and explain to them what's going on. Tell them to be careful."

"Careful of what?" Kya asked, "I thought Bumi and Izumi were just lost on the island." 

Toph hesitated, before saying, "It was stupid of us to lie anyway," she rolled her eyes, "We actually think that they were kidnapped, by Azula."

"What?!" Kya shouted. Tenzin was freaking out. Lin was trying to keep her cool, but on the inside, she was feeling hysterical. 

"But your parents are looking for them!" Suki said, while Sokka went back into the warehouse, "And you don't need to worry. They will find them. I promise."                 

"Like we believe you," Kya muttered. 

"Lin, your arm." Tenzin said quietly, and surprisingly calmly, "It's burned."

"Oh!" Lin looked at her right forearm, and realized that it was red and blistering. Through all the chaos, and adrenaline, she had barely noticed, but now, the pain was coming to her. 

"Here, let me help," Kya said, healing her like she had with Toph. The coolness of the water erased any pain that may have been there before. Tenzin inhaled deeply.

"So, they've been kidnapped."

"Apparently," Lin said, "But I don't think there's much we can do about it. All we can really do is wait."

~~~

Thanks for Reading!

There will still be a normal chapter on Monday, this is just an extra for this week.