Percy's POV:
Leo dropped us off near the edge of the mountains and Jason flew myself and him closer to the north-east wall. That was closer to water for my sake. Jason and I would be making a distraction or at the very least a hindrance for Metal Dynasty. Hopefully this would help the others sneak in underground. At dawn we began our work. I called on the sea as Jason called on the sky and together we created a maelstrom of water and wind. I hope this helps because it sure is tiring.
Piper's POV:
Hazel shadow traveled us to the nearest riot spot, almost. She's a little rusty and actually not incredibly good at it to begin with so we ended up a couple miles from the first city. We walked the rest of the way and boy was it chaos. Metal benders, earth benders and non-benders went head to head fight in the center of the city.
"You're up Piper," Hazel said weakly.
"Uh huh," I found a bench to hop on then took a deep breath to gather my power. "STOP FIGHTING!" Every one stopped. "CIVILIANS RETURN TO YOUR HOMES, SOLDIERS GO TO SLEEP."
Obediently all the people present did as told.
"That wasn't so hard," I said cheerfully hopping off the bench.
"Now all we have to do is stop ten more riots," Hazel began. " And me not get us lost on the way there or be convinced by you to sleep," She yawned. "Which might be quite daunting."
"Shall we continue?" I laughed.
Mako's POV:
The plan was going well. We decided to use a separate set of evacuation tunnels from the ones used earlier in case Metal Dynasty was patrolling the other ones. Honestly, this sort of business set my teeth on edge. I was used to having more difficulties than this. We were almost under the center ring and had run into no one. Leo was using his ground-vision-thing to guide us so I suppose we do have an advantage.
"Nico," Leo whispered. "This is your stop."
Nico nodded, "See you soon."
Leo continued forward. Our guide was a Dai Li man named Wian, who grew up in the city. As we moved he'd tell Leo different routes and where they came out. He was unbelievably helpful. Yu Hui hooked us up with the right guy it seems. Finally we arrived at the palace. Leo closed his eyes to focus.
"There's no one in the palace," He straightened. "Wian, where would royalty evacuate to if the city was under attack?"
"Right where we're standing," Wian grimaced. "But since there's no one down here he's likely at one of the Dai Li bases. Unfortunately there's lots of them. Luckily they can all be accessed through the under ground."
"Okay," Leo looked around the dark tunnels. "Which way first?"
"Follow me," Wian took the lead and stopped or swerved when Leo saw people coming. I half wondered if this was like how Avatar Aang had traveled with his earth bender Toph Beiphong. According to Lin, Toph's daughter, she only saw through the vibrations in the ground. Leo's mismatched eyes were still as he watched the world through eyes we couldn't see. He was so focused on the tunnels ahead that he almost walked into the walls, multiple times. It was interesting. We checked most of the Dai Li bases and found nothing. We were all becoming frustrated and tired. So we decided to take a five minute break.
"I don't get it," Wian panted. "Those were all the major Dai Li bases. I doubt they'd take him to any of the smaller ones."
"So if they didn't take him to one of the bases," I inhaled hard trying to catch me breath. "Where would they take him. They had to be expecting a retaliation of some sort, right?"
"Wait- no, they wouldn't," Wian mused aloud.
"What is it?" Korra asked.
"Well there was a Dai Li base, a really big one actually, under lake Laogai," Wian scratched the back of his neck. "But it was destroyed ages ago."
"I remember that," Korra piped up. "Janora looked there to see if any of the air benders had been taken there when we came here rebuilding the air nation. It was still flooded according to her."
"How long would it take to rebuild the base?" I asked Wian.
"If you had the right benders on it and were using the old bones of the base," Wian mused. "Likely less than a day."
"They've had that much time," Leo said.
"And the help," Asami added. "They'd have all the bender help they could need from the prisons."
"So which way to lake Laogai?" Leo turned to Wian.
"Follow me," Wian nodded and we were off running. I hope this works. The way to the lake was long and it took many swerves to avoid all the guards. As we got closer the lake, we had to swerve around more and more people. It was a good sign. We heard from many of the people we hid from in the walls that a massive hurricane had blown out of no where and the march for Republic City had to be put off due to weather. Apparently Wun was furious and getting madder, especially at his hired water benders who "couldn't even stop rubbish weather" as they put it. Strangely, everyone seemed to be talking about the same things, I expected more diversity of topic, apparently not.
"Is it just me or is everyone hyper focused on Wun?" I finally asked.
"I noticed that too," Leo sighed. "Ruler complex, maybe? I don't know."
"Let's just get this over with," Korra moved ahead next to Wian. "How close are we?"
"Close," Wian peered around a corner. "I'm taking us to an old entrance that kids like to play around." Not five minutes later we arrived at the entrance Wian had talked about. He reached up and felt the edges of the door. "They're dry, they're never dry. There's a lake above this and this door never sealed properly after the base was destroyed. They have to be here, there's no other explanation."
"There's a lot of people up there," Leo said eyes closed in concentration. "I can't pick out anyone in particular so I can't tell if Wun is there, but there's definitely benders up there."
"The prisoners?" Asami asked.
"I think so," Leo shifted on his feet as if looking around. "Uh Wian, stop fidgeting, you're distracting me."
"Sorry," Wian breathed deeply. "It's just, this place is legendary, you know. I always wished I could have visited it and now I am."
"Understandable," Leo nodded. "Ah, I found Wun's lava benders."
"And Wun?" Korra pressed.
"Can't tell," Leo grimaced. "I found the lava benders because they were bending, but there are dozens of earth and metal benders. I wouldn't be able to tell Wun from Keto in this mess."
"Great," I grumble. "What now?"
"We could try to blend in with the crowd," Bolin suggested. "You know like undercover stuff, inconspicuous."
"A Dai Li agent, the avatar, the CEO of future industries, the best metal bender in the world and princes Woo's body guards walk into a crowd of enemy soldiers," I say sarcastically. "Yeah, we totally blend in."
"Fair point," Bolin sighed. "Then what do we do?"
"Find another way in," Leo said firmly. "We can't go through here, but there's got to be another way. And if there isn't I'll make us a hole, simple."
"Not simple," Wian grimaced. "If you break the wrong bit of the floor you could bring the place down on us, remember how much water is above us. We're under a lake."
"True," Leo shrugged. "Find another door it is." He paused for a moment looking around. "Found one, come on. Now the only possible trouble with this door is it could be a trap."
"Why do you say that?" Asami asked.
"Because every other door is guarded," Leo approached with unease. "I'm not sure how much Wun knows about my powers, but according to Woo, Wun is a good tactician. If I were him, I'd leave one door unguarded as a trap."
"How do you trap something that's unguarded?" Korra asked. "There aren't any physical traps are there?"
"Not that I can see," Leo opened his eyes. " But one area not guarded, surrounded by areas that are guarded sounds like a trap to me."
"Do we have another choice?" Wian asked.
"Doesn't look like it," Leo admitted. "I'm not supposed to make a hole so we have to use an entrance."
"Then this is our best shot," Wian said with a sigh. "Who wants to open it?"
"Right," Korra moved forward and bended it open then hoped through. "I don't see anyone."
Carefully we piled in after her. It was dark, but there was enough light from the crystals scattered around the room that we could see. It was damp and surprisingly spacious. Echoes and creaks resounded from everywhere. Made me jump at every noise.
"People are moving," Leo warned. "Come on, this way!"
We ran after Leo as he led us down a dark corridor. From far and near, we heard many shouts behind and all around us. They were gaining on us. Leo had been right, it was a trap. Now we were running out of options.
"Shit!" Leo yelped, then began making us a tunnel of our own.
"Leo the structure!" I yelled after him.
"Korra can bend us out of this if it collapses," Leo shot back. "I'd rather that then you all dying by lava."
We turned and snaked through the ground. Sometimes we'd break out into one of the base's caverns, sometimes we'd hit a hall. We struggled at times with guards, prisoners, and soldiers, but Leo kept us away from the lava benders.
"We're running out of places to run!" Leo warned. "Wian, any idea how to get out of here without bringing the lake down on us?"
"Maybe," Wian turned down a hall we had just burst out onto. "Follow me!"
"Wian, wait!" Leo yelled in alarm, but it was too late. Wian was encircled in a ring of lava.
"Move so much as a pebble and he burns," The male lava bender warned as he stepped into view. "You all have caused enough trouble."
Damn it! I cast about for an escape, but I couldn't think of a solution that got us all out alive.
"Leave me!" Wian yelled, his eyes fearful, but set. "Run! The Earth Kingdom needs you more than it does me!"
"Wian..." Leo hesitated.
"Shut up and run!" Wian shouted.
"I'm sorry," Leo whispered before turning, the rest of us fast after him. We all felt wrong leaving him, but we knew we had to.
"Leo, where are we going?" Korra asked.
"I-I'm not sure," Leo seemed distracted. "I don't want to watch what they'll do to him..."
"Then don't," Asami suggested. "Focus on the road ahead."
"Y-Yeah," Leo shook his head for a moment. "I still can't find an exit."
"The way we came in?" Bolin asked.
"Too far," Leo grimaced. "I could make an exit..."
"Wian said that would bring the place down on us," I reminded him. "We've already made too many holes in the walls."
"So what's our plan?" Korra asked, worry etched into her face.
"There's people coming from all over!" Leo warned. "Wait, Wian, he's running from the group behind us!"
"He got away?" I turned to look over my shoulder and sure enough Wian was running full tilt towards us. His hands were wrapped in earth gloves in the classic Dai Li fashion and he had burns all over his body, but he was alive.
"Wian!" Leo slowed as our Dai Li friend caught up to us. "You escaped-"
Leo didn't get to finish. As Wian caught up to us he threw his earthen hands at us. Not expecting the blow, Leo took it straight to the head and fell to the ground unconscious. Wian's second hand hit Korra in the chest dazing her. She tried to struggle into a fighting position, but Wian slammed his knee into her head before any of us could move to stop him. Korra hit the floor hard. Asami moved to her defense, but took an earth hand to the throat and fell to the ground for the lack of air. Bolin and I tried to fight him off, but more benders arrived and soon we were over powered. Just before I blacked out I saw the lava benders come up next to Wian like old friends and shake his hand, congratulating him on a job well done.