Earth, Fire, Air, Water; the four elements that make up the world. Throughout my whole life, I have heard stories of Avatar Aang and how he took down the 100-year tyrannical reign that was the Fire Nation. Now it's been over 40 years since Ozai's rule and now a new threat emerges and a new generation is there to solve the threat. This is a story of how I met Avatar Korra and her friends as well as the adventures we went on.
———
It was the daytime and Kang was hanging out with Kung Lao. The male duo had decided to eat at the outside area at a cafe that was nearby the Pro-Bending arena where Mako, Bolin, and Korra are training.
"Are you sure you have to watch the Avatar?" Kung Lao asked, "you told me your Dad had you watch her."
"She's old enough to take care of herself," Kang said, "I'm also too lazy to watch someone whom I will have to keep an eye on 24/7."
Kung Lao had shaken his head in amusement at his friend's apathy.
"What made you this lazy to watch her?" Kung Lao asked with a hint of curiosity in his voice.
"If you see her at home," Kang said with fatigue in his voice, "then you would understand my reasoning to be reluctant to watch her."
Kung Lao again shook his head as he soon asked, "How's the family?"
"Dad and Pema are doing good," Kang said, "though I haven't seen Mother in a while. I have a fear that she will poach me to join her police force."
"Oh she had with me," Kung Lao said, "it's a good thing I am a student at Republic City University."
"Well thank goodness for that," Kang said, "Oh! Have you spoken with Master Wenwu?"
"Yeah, he's been great, retirement has been treating him well," Kung Lao said, "though I haven't talked to him ever since the Equalist movement started."
This made Kang realize something, "Let's go see him."
Kang soon stood up and threw a massive amount of Yuans onto the table with Kung Lao calling for his friend to wait as he threw some Yuans as well.
…
The two ran down a few blocks and then made a right to a building that led to a small dojo. Kang opened the door and let Kung Lao in first before letting himself in after. As they entered the door, they saw their instructor cleaning up the floors. He looked at the two and gave them a smile.
"Kang, welcome back," the man said.
"Master," Kang said as he and Kung Lao formally bowed to him, "what the hell happened?"
"Oh… just a simple skirmish with some Equalists late at night," Wenwu said, "I've been cleaning since this morning."
"How about we give you a hand?" Kang said. Kung Lao agreed as the two boys cleaned up their old Master's dojo and talked with him. They talked about Kang's adventures mainly during his time in the United Forces. Wenwu was another man in Kang's life that was proud of his accomplishments especially as he was a Captain.
———
After quite some time, Kang had returned to Air Temple Island and was in his room training with a cement pillar by punching and kicking it. It had been through the ringer as it was now starting to crumble due to Kang's abnormal strength. He decided to simply leave Korra to do as she pleases as he just wanted to do his own activities.
He was now resting as he heard a knock on his door and was drinking some water.
"Come in," he said.
The door opened for it to be Tenzin entering his eldest son's room.
"I hope I'm not interrupting," Tenzin said as he was walking in. Kang shook his head, "Not at all," he said while walking up to his father.
"What do you need?" Kang asked.
"Korra left the City to find her friend and I just want to make sure she's safe," Tenzin said.
"And what makes me the best candidate for that?" Kang aske while he crossed his arms.
"Well it's due to your skills," Tenzin said, "With Korra needing your help, your tracking skills may help find her friend faster."
"Just tell me where to go?" Kang asked while putting on a harness that held his escrima sticks and his grapple gun.
"To Republic City," Tenzin said, "towards your Mother's Police Station."
Kang was about to jump out the window, but Tenzin called out for him.
"Good luck," Tenzin said to his son, "and be careful."
Kang nodded as he jumped out of his bedroom window. Tenzin walked towards the sill and saw Kang and his sky bison, Kojo flying towards the city.
———
Korra and Mako with Pabu on his shoulders were riding on Naga as the two were trying to find Bolin. They got a tip from Skoochy that Shady Shin had taken Bolin to the Triple Threat Triad HQ so he can be prepared for a turf war between the other Triads. As the two stopped in front of their headquarters, Mako noticed something weird.
"Something's not right," Mako said, "There are usually thugs posted in the front, we better be careful."
As Mako was walking up, he noticed a man and the top of his white t-shirt was searching the area. Mako motioned his hand for Korra to come in and she looked in and saw the same thing Mako was seeing which led to her kicking the door open. The two got into a fighting stance. Korra was surprised as she saw who the person was.
"Kang?"
"Korra?" Kang soon holstered his escrima sticks.
"How did you get here before us?" Korra asked.
"Well first I eavesdropped on your talk with the kid," Kang said, "and when I heard where Bolin was possibly headed, I got here and started to search."
Kang soon started to look at Mako, "I'm sorry, but your brother isn't—"
Kang stopped what he was saying as he heard the engine running. The three ran out with Kang leading and he kicked the door towards an alleyway. They looked ahead to see Equalist members driving away while Bolin and some of the thugs were captured.
"Bolin!" Mako called out for his brother, but some of the Equalists were throwing some smoke gas and rode off.
This led to Korra calling out for her polar-bear dog as the trio got on and chased some of the Equalist members. Mako tried to use Firebending to disable the motorcycles, but to no avail, Korra used Earthbending to stop them, but it only led to them having a farther distance away from the trio.
"You guys suck," Kang said. Korra and Mako looked at Kang as he took out a set of shurikens.
"We're not going to kill!" Korra said. She thought that Kang was going to throw the shurikens at the henchmen's heads.
"Rules are meant to be broken, kid!" Kang said, "Sometimes you have to end lives to save 'em! If you don't understand that, then you have no business being the Avatar!"
Before Korra could argue anymore, Kang jumped off Naga and threw three shurikens that popped the motorcycle tires of two Equalist members.
As Kang landed, he looked back at Mako and Korra, screaming, "Keep following, I'll catch up!"
Korra nodded as she and Mako kept pursuing the Equalists, leaving Kang and two Equalist members who took out some bolas. Kang just shook his head as he took out the escrima sticks. The two goons threw bolas only for them to miss Kang as he did a corkscrew flip. When he landed, he got into a guarded stance as he was ready to fight. The two Equalist members got into a fighting stance and tried to attack Kang, but it was fruitless as he was dodging all of their attacks. The two Equalist members were trying their hardest to attack Kang while he was dodging them with little to no effort. He was toying with them and as he saw an opening he made quick attacks to their legs and arms.
As the two were down Kang stood over them, he had eyes that were holding no patience. They tried to crawl back painfully as they felt their bones broken. Kang was slowly walking towards them in a menacing manner.
"Please!" the equalist said, "let us live."
Kang looked over them for a few seconds before he swung his stick, but stopped. Kang saw Korra walking towards him with Mako following her so he holstered his escrima sticks.
"You live by the Avatar's good grace," Kang said, "don't let me catch you guys again because if I do…" Kang glared at the two members, "I'll find you and kill you both myself."
The two saw Kang's glare and knew not to mess with this person which led to them nodding their heads as sheathed his sticks and walked off to meet with Korra. It didn't take Kang long for him to get to find Korra and Mako who seemed to be okay, but they couldn't use their bending due to them being chi-blocked.
"You guys okay?" Kang asked as he approached the two.
"We're fine," Korra said, "but they used the same dirty trick you used on me a few days ago."
She immediately regretted what she said as she saw Kang's livid glare. Compared to Tenzin's it was more laughable as he was always mad about something, but Kang's glare was a different story.
"People who are Nonbenders use chi-blocking because they know benders will cheat with bending," Kang said, "and I can understand why these people are part of an extremist anti-bending terrorist group." Kang walked up to Korra while glaring at her, "It's because of benders who end up willing to use their power to oppress people. Think of the top triads, Red Monsoons, Agni Kais, Triple Threats, and the Creeping Crystals. All these triad groups rob Nonbenders due to their inability to defend themselves. I bet you that some of them lost people close to them because of these damned triads!"
Mako heard Kang and knew he was right, what surprised him though was the fact that the Grandson of Avatar Aang, Katara, and Toph had such a jaded view of the world. Perhaps his time in the Military was the needle in the thread that caused this.
Korra was silent as Kang had a point. The latter sighed as he said, "Look, I'm sorry I yelled. We all can agree that arguing can get us nowhere, right?"
The bending duo looked at each other and nodded as they calmed down. Kang sighed and looked at Mako, "What that hell do the Equalists want with the Triple Threat triad?"
"Whatever it is," Mako said, "It can't be good." He soon facepalmed out of frustration, "Can't believe Bolin got himself into this mess!"
Kang walked up to Mako, "We're going to save your brother, kid. I promise."
Kang decided to take the reins on Naga as they decided to go to the city and try to find him. Korra didn't want to protest just due to not wanting to see Kang's explosively dangerous temper. They kept finding Bolin for hours, just to find nothing. Kang noticed that Naga was getting tired. He looked at Mako with a hint of sadness.
"We've been looking all night, Mako," Kang said, "I'm sorry."
"We gotta keep looking," he said.
Korra who was sitting in the back soon realized something, "I have an idea," she said.
"What is it?" Kang asked.
…
Naga took Kang, and the rest to the city park where Kang and Korra met the Equalist protester. As Kang, Korra, and Mako got off they decided to sit around the fountain.
"When I arrived here, I saw an equalist protester around here," she explained.
"And you think they'll know where Bolin is?" Mako asked.
"I'll make them talk," Kang said.
———
Korra and Mako were sitting next to each other while Kang was standing on watch to make sure that no one was going to attack. He soon came back, "Well I can tell you kids this, no one is going to attack."
After he sat down in front of them Korra looked at Mako and asked a question, "So, why is Bolin running around with the Triple Threat Triads?"
Kang looked at them as he was also interested in what Mako had to say.
"W-Well…" Mako started to stammer, "we used to do some work for them back in the day."
"What?!" Korra was in shock, "Are you some kind of criminal?!" Meanwhile, Kang was calm as he knew that certain people would do anything to make ends meet.
"No!" Mako said, "You don't know what you're talking about. I just ran numbers for them and stuff. We were orphans out on the street, I did what I had to do to survive and protect my little brother."
"I'm sorry," Korra said while looking down in sadness, "It must've been really hard." She looked at Mako, "Can I ask, what happened to your parents?"
Kang looked down, but mentally facepalmed at Korra's lack of prudence. He knew that Korra was being sincere, but the White Lotus didn't teach her about how to be socially tactful with others who came from different backgrounds.
"They were mugged by a Firebender," Mako said, "he cut them down right in front of me, I was eight."
"Mako…"
"Bolin's the only family I have left," Mako said, "If anything happened to him…"
"We will get your brother…" Kang said, "That is a promise, now you two get some rest."
"What about you?" Mako asked.
"Don't worry about me," Kang said.
———
Morning was present as Kang was sleeping on the floor with no pillow and woke up as he heard someone with a megaphone speaking out loud. Kang got up from his nap as he looked to see another protest happening.
"Equality now!" The protester said, "Equality now! We want equality. Nonbenders of Republic City…"
Kang looked to where Korra and Mako were and saw that she was pointing to Amon.
"That's the guy," Korra said.
"Amon calls you for action," the protester said, "take back your city. It's time for the—"
The man gasped as he saw the Avatar and her friends walking towards him.
"It's you again!" The protester said, "You cannot silence me, Avatar."
Before Korra could say anything, Kang held his hand out and stood in front of her.
"You'll be dealing with her predecessor's grandson!" Kang said aggressively as he aggressively marched forward and slapped the megaphone out of the protester's hand.
"Now, shut up and listen," Kang said, "a friend of ours got kidnapped by some chi-blockers. Where did they take him?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," the protester said.
Kang narrowed his eyes and threw the table the protester was standing on and tossed it, leading to some flyers flying everywhere and the protester to fall off. Kang walked to him and grabbed by the collar of his shirt with one hand and threw a punch across the protester's face, making his nose bleed. People were gasping in horror as Korra and Mako covered their mouths in mortification. Korra never knew this dark side of Kang, she understood that he is still adjusting to life as a civilian, perhaps he still is acting like a soldier.
"I think you do," Kang said as he kept wailing on the Equalist protester. Korra ran to Kang and grabbed his arm, "Kang that's enough!"
Kang didn't listen as he shrugged off Korra's hand which caused her to Firebend. He let go of the man and rolled back and was about to fight her.
Mako caught a flier and read, "Witness the revelation tonight, 9:00."
Kang and Korra stopped their standoff and Kang started interrogating the protester, "What is this revelation?"
"I-I don't know what this revelation is!" the protester said in fear of being pummeled, "And I have no idea what happened to your friend. But if he's a bender, then my bet is he's getting what's coming to him."
Kang stood for a minute and later saw an officer as if to arrest them as Kang decided to run off.
"We need to go guys," Kang said.
Korra and Mako followed with him grabbing a few posters and Korra getting on Naga with Kang behind her and Mako behind Kang. The two rode down to an overpass where the metro was and stayed at a trolley stop. The three were looking at the poster, trying to identify where this Revelation is.
"Why didn't the equalists put a location on these?" Korra asked.
"Why else, genius," Kang said, while looking at the posters "they don't want just anyone making their way into their revelation. There has to be some hidden information on here somehow. Guys, look at the backs."
The two benders listened to the older teen's instructions as they noticed different images.
"There are four different images," Mako said.
"Good," Kang said, "now what would that be?"
"A puzzle," Korra said.
"Correct," Kang said, "for a map."
After Kang connected the four images together he went up to the map of Republic City and looked to see where the Revelation was going to be. And as Kang found the location, he looked back at the two.
"I know where it is and it's not far," Kang said, "now let's move."
———
Kang, Korra, and Mako were near a warehouse as Kang was the one in front of them.
"That's the place?" Mako asked.
"Yep," Kang answered.
As Mako and Korra put on their disguises Kang looked at them, "Wait for my signal and once you get Bolin go get him and don't worry about me."
The two nodded and started to walk off, but Korra was confused.
"Wait what kind of signal should we be looking for—"
Korra stopped talking as she saw that Kang was nowhere to be seen. Mako looked back to see that Kang was gone as well. Korra was not expecting Kang to disappear this quickly as she thought he was a Nonbender, but she learned to never expect anything from the Grandson of Avatar Aang, Katara, and Toph.
"I guess we'll find out once we're there," Mako said as the two started to walk. As the two started to approach the door a bouncer stopped them.
"This is a private event," he said, "do you have an invitation."
"An invitation?" Mako asked before digging into his pockets, "you mean this?" He took out the poster and the bouncer took a quick second to look at it before letting them in.
"The revelation is upon us, my brother and sister," The bouncer said.
From a distance a shadowing silhouette was sitting in a perched squat position as he did a front flip off of where he was.
…
As Korra and Mako were walking down to the stage they were stunned by the amount of people who were attending this event.
"I knew that people hated benders," Mako said, "but I've never seen so many in one place."
"Well come on," Korra said, "we need to get closer so we can get Bolin, because based on Kang's handling of this, I don't think we'll go down without a fight."
Mako agreed as he had witnessed Kang's threatening persona and not to mention what he said to Korra about killing. Mako (just like everyone) knows that Kang who was in the United Forces has killed more people than he could count during his service and in doing so, he is induced into this cycle of death. Mako just hopes that there won't be a lot of bloodshed happening.
Meanwhile outside there were some guards posted on the roof as they were making sure no one would enter from the roof. They did watch cycles in a sense that they walked around to patrol the area. One was walking and started to turn around, but suddenly felt grabbed by someone in the shadows. After a moment, Kang emerged from the shadows and started to enter through the warehouse as he saw a door and small room. He snuck past the guard by staying in a crouched position and being quick as he entered the small room and closing the door behind him. He soon saw a flight of stairs and walked down. As he opened the door he saw that he was in an upper level behind a stage. Kang looked around to see if Bolin was there and saw that he wasn't as he jumped to the top of the stage where he had a good view of Amon's speech and the audience watching this Anti-Bending terrorist. He was also able to see Bolin as well as Shady Shin and Lightning Bolt Zolt.
"When I was a boy," Amon said, "my family and I lived on a small farm. We weren't rich and none of us were benders. This made us very easy targets for the Firebender who extorted my father. One day, my father confronted this man, but when he did that Firebender took my family away from me, then he took my face."
Everyone gasped in shock at the revelation of Amon's origin story as he continued his speech.
"I've been forced to hide behind a mask ever since," Amon continued, "as you know the Avatar has recently arrived in Republic City and if she were here, she would tell you that bending brings balance to the world. But she is wrong, the only thing bending has brought to the world is suffering. It has been the cause of every war in every era. But that is about to change. I know you have been wondering what is the Revelation? You are about to get your answer."
Kang narrowed his eyes as he leaned closer to listen while not getting off balance.
"Since the beginning of time," Amon says, "the spirits have acted as guardians of our world and they have spoken to me. They say the Avatar has failed humanity, that is why the spirits have chosen me to usher in a new era of balance. They have granted me a power that will make equality a reality. The power to take a person's bending away permanently."
Kang's eyes narrowed with skepticism, the only person whom he knew had the ability was Grandpa Aang, but he died and he was taught by a giant lion-turtle in the Spirit World as he was the Avatar.
'This can't be…' Kang thought
"And now for a demonstration," Amon said as he brought a Triad over, "please welcome Lightning Bolt Zolt. Leader of the Triple Threat Triad and one of the most notorious criminals in Republic City."
Everyone started to boo at Zolt but he said, "Boo yourself."
Kang looked to the left to see others and Bolin who was last in line. Kang's plan was to wait for Bolin to be up so he can create a distraction for Korra and Mako to get Bolin and Kang can take care of Amon by himself and kill the henchman he has. As of right now, Bolin is too far away and the distraction won't work.
"Zolt has amassed a fortune by extorting and abusing Nonbenders, but his reign of terror is about to come to an end," Amon said, "now in the interest of fairness I will give Zolt to fight to keep his bending."
Kang inspected the man untying Zolt and saw the Kali sticks holstered on his back, he will be a problem. He shifted his attention to Zolt who tried to attack Amon with Firebending, but all those attacks were fruitless as Amon dodged them and soon grabbed an arm that shot out lightning. He soon grabbed Zolt's neck with one hand and put his hand on his forehand with his thumb on Zolt's forehead and pointer on the temple. Kang noticed that Zolt's body seemed frozen as he witnessed what Grandpa Aang did to Yakone over 20 years ago.
After Amon let Zolt go, he tried to bend and he looked at Amon.
"What did you do to me?" Zolt asked.
"I took your Firebending is gone forever," Amon said.
Everyone started gasping while Kang's eyes narrowed and brows furrowed with rage as he just witnessed a Nonbender take someone's Firebending away.
"The era of Bending is over," Amon said, "a new era of Equality has begun."
Amon looked down as a smoke pellet rolled to his feet and all of a sudden smoke started to surround the stage and then the whole building. Amon looked up and saw a man doing a pounce attack from above and dodged the attack. Amon looked and saw Kang in front of him.
"We shall see each other again," Amon said, "Grandson of Avatar Aang."
Before Kang could do anything Amon walked off and in his place stood a series of Equalist troops who were ready to fight Kang. Kang started unholstering his escrima sticks as he twirled them and narrowed his eyes.
———
Korra and Mako found Bolin and ran out of the building without any trouble. After Korra dropped off Bolin, she went back to Air Temple Island.
…
Tenzin had been worried sick not only about Korra, but about his oldest son. And on top of that, Tenzin knew that Lin would freak out if she found out that their son was missing despite him being an adult.
But Tenzin got distracted as he saw Korra coming towards him.
"Thank goodness," Tenzin said, "I was about to send out a search party, did you find your friend?"
Korra nodded, but didn't seem okay, "Kang helped Mako and I get Bolin, but I don't know where he is—"
Korra stopped talking and she and Tenzin saw Kang, but not in a good way. Kang stood there, he didn't seem tired, but there were massive amounts of blood stains on his white t-shirt and pants.
"Kang…" Tenzin walked to his oldest son who simply said nothing, but nodded.
"I'm fine," he assured his father as he looked at Korra, "you're welcome."
Before he walked off, Korra asked, "What did you do to them?"
Kang said nothing as he kept walking ahead.
———
A/N: This is a rewrite of the story and this will take longer to write! I also want to let people know that this story is inspired by Ominious442's story, a Test of Metal as it has an interesting what-if scenario; that being while Lin and Tenzin were together, what if they had a son. I took some liberties as instead of Kang being an Earthbender, he couldn't bend any element at all. But to make up for it, Kang is not only a master martial artist and acrobat, he also has a sense that assassins do which is called Eagle Sense in the Assassin's Creed fandom, but in LOK, it's a sixth sense that only Kang has. Here is the character and his VA:
Kang Beifong - (CV: Crispin Freeman - Sounds like Roy Harper from Young Justice and Kyon from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)