Rebel

Korra

It's been three hours since Kade left for his Unit patrol duty. Margo left soon after him to get food or something. Hunter is with Annie playing with Mr Bear, making a story for him to follow for Annie's amusement. I love that kid. I've been doing absolutely nothing productive for the past few hours. Well... except nap. I smile at the thought.

But I get easily bored. I swing my legs over to the side of the bed and push myself up. I notice Hunter look at me from across the room. I take long strides until I reach them.

Hunter greets me first, "Did you enjoy your nap, sleeping beauty?" He says that without looking up.

"Yes. Yes I did, thank you very much."

"Actually, the term beauty was a lie. You look hideous when you sleep. Also, you snore... really loud." He glances at me once, very quickly. "You look hideous now too," he adds as an afterthought.

I brush down the static that is my hair, "I'm pretty sure I don't snore as loud as you."

"Oooh! Burn!" Annie chimes in. Hunter looks at me. Then Annie. Then me again.

I raise my eyebrows up and down once as if to say 'I win.' Hunter looks away in defeat. "Great. Thanks Annie. And I thought we were friends."

I hear a door open, followed by a gust of wind mixed with rain. Margo stands in the doorway, holding a plastic bag. "Margo!" Annie squeals.

I stand up and rush over to her. She already made her way over to the small, circular table by the door, "You bring gifts!"

"I bring food."

Hunter walks over, "Even better."

Annie skips over along with Mr Bear, "What food did you get?"

"I got stuff from the market. For free too," Margo replies. "Thanks to Asher."

Asher is Kade's best friend. We've known each other since before our dads were arrested. He's a Unit, along with Kade for the same reasons. But Kade is a higher rank than Asher. I sort of feel bad for him. Especially since Asher is three years older than Kade. And me. He's twenty-one. When he's not a Unit, he's a bag boy for our Chain's bodega.

"Who's Asher?" Hunter asks.

I open my mouth. But Annie beats me to the answer. "He's Korra's boyfriend." That was not the answer I wanted. I guess not Hunter either because his face is as perplexed as mine... and Margo's. Hunter responds first, "What?" He turns to me, "Did she just say... does she know what she said?"

Annie just laughs, "I'm just kidding. I'm not stupid."

I shake my head and ignore what just happened, "He's not on duty?"

"No, he was not summoned to duty. Speaking of which, did you see what's going on a couple blocks down in the square?"

Hunter raises his eyebrows, "What's happening?"

"There's a riot," Margo says. "It's a pretty big one too. There's like twenty VoiciBots."

I cross my arms and raise my eyebrows, "Really?"

"I want to see!" Annie whines.

Margo shoots Annie a look that is a mix of concern and astonishment. "No, Annie." Her voice is firm. It reminds me of Kade's whenever I do something wrong.

"Yeah Annie. I agree with Margo. If it's as bad as she says it is, then I don't want you to get caught up in that." I add in at the same time Hunter nods.

Annie's face changes to a look of betrayal, "Okay. Fine. Whatever you say then." With that, she walks over to her bed and continues to play with Mr Bear.

"I'm going to go check it out," I say.

Hunter chimes in, "I'll join you."

"Yeah, go ahead. I'll stay here with Annie." By the time she finishes her sentence, Hunter and I are already out the door.

As we get closer to the square, screams begin to fill my ears. Hunter only said one thing in our run, "It's raining." Memories cloud my vision of yesterday night when I took him in. Only because he said the exact same thing. But I don't respond.

Hunter stops mid track and catches his breath once we've reached the square. I do the same. When he finishes, Hunter looks up to see the commotion. "Korra."

"Hang on." I say, still trying to catch my breath. My breathing returns to normal and I look at him, "What is it?" But he's not paying attention to me. He's pointing to the Graphs. I snap my head in that direction. By the time I finish reading the Graphs, my face turns to see a look of horror on Hunter's face. My stomach drops to the floor as I read the message in big bold letters:

ALL YOUTH 18 NOT EMPLOYED AS UNIT MUST MEET IN MIDDLE OF SQUARE TO BE TRANSPORTED