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Right, even though this was one of the prompts I came up with, I really struggled to think of a story with it. Korra as Wonder Woman and Asami as Batman seemed like the most obvious one, but I just couldn't think of a story with that. So instead, I ended up with an idea for a story in a world similar to that of The Incredibles. You'll catch on.
-"Third heist in a week," Tonraq read out loud. "The same high-tech device used to open the store vault as the other two. The police still have no clue who the suspects are."
It filled Korra with both glee and weary resignation. "Dad, this can really be our chance to help them and do some good."
-"No," her parents said in sync, making Korra groan. "You know why we can't," her mother continued. "The government simply won't allow it anymore. Your father had a great record and that's why they are helping to keep us undercover, but you don't have that, Korra. You will be charged with vigilantism."
This was true. After all the collateral damage superheroes did in their heydays, the government forced them to disappear into the crowd. Korra's father, Tonraq, who went under the alias of Power Man, had been one of those people, unable to use his incredible strength anymore for good.
Korra was born not long after that, and it became quite clear quite quickly that in spite of the fact that her mother was normal, Korra wasn't. She had inherited her father's strength and, much to her own frustration, wasn't able to do anything with it. She couldn't even go to the gym or on martial arts, because her strength would immediately give her away.
She just went up to her room and do some pull-ups, because that was all that was going to keep her satisfied for now. She had to vent her frustration somehow.
100 reps later, she dropped down, properly sweaty, when she noticed her father standing in the doorway. "Here," he said, tossing her a bottle of water. "You need to stay hydrated."
"Thanks." Korra took a sip and sat down on her bed, waiting for her father to say something, because it was obvious he was there for that.
-"Look, kiddo, I know it sucks, but this is just how the world works right now. I'm not going to lie to you: I miss it. And not just the glamour and everything, I mean the rush of doing it. It felt great." He let out a sigh telling Korra that it was all real. "But now that I don't have that anymore, I have something better: I have you and your mother, two of the most amazing girls on the planet, powers or not."
Korra chuckled. "You do know you could do both, right? Even have a sidekick."
Tonraq let out a gush of laughter. "Tempting as that sounds, I'm going to decline. I would never want to put you deliberately in harm's way."
Slowly, she nodded. "Fine. Guess that heavy-duty punching bag is just going to have to make do."
Her father chuckled again. "That's more like it. Tell you what, we'll spar in the morning."
"Okay, Dad. You're on."
Night was already falling, so Korra just took a quick shower to wash herself down and decided an evening of Netflix was going to have to do for now, until it was finally time for bed.
And yet... she couldn't sleep. It just kept on going through her head, the fact that she was strong enough to lift a car and not able to help anyone. It was a nice evening, and she walked out onto the balcony of her room, trying to catch some air.
Big mistake. Or maybe not, depending on your point of view.
Korra saw a black van pull up to the store close to them, and out of it came four men, all of them in dark clothing, hoods up and everything. At that moment, Korra knew it; they were there to rob the store.
And she couldn't just let that happen. Daw, the owner, was a nice man, and she couldn't just let this happen to him.
But at the same time, Korra knew she couldn't be recognized either. She quickly went back into her room, slipped on a black long-sleeve training shirt and an old Zorro mask she had as a kid, which was basically a bandana that went over her eyes with two holes in it so that she could see. Luckily, she also had a pair of thin running gloves, and with that, she was ready.
She dropped herself down from the balcony, being two stories up, it was a roll she could easily make, especially with her more powerful muscles being able to absorb a harder impact.
Korra decided the best way to go was to follow the same path the burglars had taken, go through the back door. Weirdly enough, it was simply open, not damaged at all.
Since she was on simple running shoes, there was no way they could hear her coming, these were very quiet. Of course, Korra could hear them conversing softly.
-"I don't get why we're still doing small stores. Why not go after a bank?"
-"Because the boss wants to make sure the tech works, now shut up, I'm nearly in."
Korra could hear a click, which probably meant they had the safe open. She quickly spied around the corner, seeing that they were all armed, and fortunately, the one with the biggest gun was the one closest to her.
With two quick steps, she was next to him and punched him so hard in the head that he went flying, and also stayed down when he landed.
-"What?!" one of the others yelled, but Korra was quick. She rolled through the aisle and stood up with him trying to point his gun at her.
Korra caught the barrel, though, and bent it back on itself with relative ease, disabling the gun indefinitely. The burglar tried punching her in the face, but it didn't do much, whereupon she punched him in the chest to a sickening 'crunch' of ribs being cracked.
So far so good, she'd taken down half of the men and only taken one punch, but that was about to change. Out of nowhere, Korra felt the wind being knocked out of her, but it wasn't like she was punched in the stomach. That had happened to her before, but this was totally different. It was more like she was hit by some kind of wave.
It stunned her, long enough that the fourth guy could pull out a pistol and let off a few rounds. Korra still had the presence of mind to roll out of the way behind a shelf, but that wasn't going to stop a bullet. She needed to get the upper hand again, but with that device, that was going to be hard.
Out of nowhere, the back door flew open again, revealing someone else. This one was wearing some kind of high-tech armor, who instantly stepped in front of Korra and took three rounds to the chest without even flinching. That was some tough armor.
He grabbed the pistol and punched the guy so hard in the chest he flew across the store and into the counter, knocking him out as well. Korra saw her chance and bolted to the guy with the mystery device, seeing him fiddle with the controls. That was none of her concern though, and by the time he looked up, Korra was already aiming a punch at his face, knocking him out.
She locked eyes with the armor, which had an eerie blue glow to its eyes. "Who the hell are you?" Korra asked.
-"I could ask you the same thing," a mechanical voice replied. With large paces, he walked over and grabbed the device from the floor. "You're lucky this thing didn't kill you."
Korra chuckled. "I'm made from some tough stuff, it's going to take more than a little gizmo to keep me down. You seem to know what it is."
-"It's an acoustic retumbler, it uses soundwaves to shift the tumblers in a safe to open. That's how they were able to so easily jack those stores, and now it's up to me to make sure this tech doesn't wind up in the wrong hands any more than it already has."
He prepared to walk away, but Korra stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder and forcing him to turn around. "How do I know I can trust you?"
He chuckled. "Saved your life, didn't I?" Korra let go, because that was a valid point. "Stay out of this, for your own safety." With that, he walked outside, where Korra followed him, just in time to see the suit of armor fly away.
"Damn," Korra muttered to herself. "I gotta get me one of those."
There were police sirens approaching in the distance, so now would be a good time to make herself scarce and climb back to her balcony with relative ease.
As she was flying back, Asami didn't know what to think. First off, this was definitely her father's tech, but how did it end up in the hands of some low-level thugs? This stuff was supposed to be classified, much like her armor.
Second, who was that in the store? Judging by her physique, it was definitely a 'her', but then again, she had knocked out three guys with what appeared to be relative ease. She was definitely a super. But those were all supposed to have disappeared, so why was one beating up thugs again, especially thugs with this kind of tech?
Asami landed at the back of the estate again, glad that she could take her invention for a spin. Overall, it worked wonderfully, even if it was very uncomfortable. Well, it was only the second iteration, comfort was something she could work on for the third one.
As the armor was being taken apart though, she wondered how that acoustic retumbler had gotten out onto the street. There hadn't been any break-ins in either their estate or their factory where her father would work on his inventions.
Now that she was alone in her workshop, she could take a closer look at the device, and it was clear to her that it was fried like an egg. Whatever they had done to it had overloaded the circuits and destroyed the system, even a cursory glance could tell her that much. But that was small potatoes to Asami, because it still didn't answer who made this tech and how they got it.
"How are they doing?" Tenzin asked as he walked onto the scene.
-"They'll live," Lin curtly answered. "Took one hell of a beating though. CCTV shows they were easily overpowered by just two others." The detective pulled Tenzin aside, making sure they were out of earshot of anyone else. "Any of your freaks and geeks involved with this?"
He sighed. "Not that I know of, but I can ask around."
Lin was not pleased by this answer. "I have a suspect in the ER with eight broken ribs from one punch to the chest. You have to do better than 'I'll ask around'."
Tenzin took a deep breath, because he had a pretty good idea what had happened here. "Lin, you know I can't tell you more. Superhero identities are classified information."
-"Yeah, yeah, we've been here before. You promise to do something about it and a week later it's somewhere else. The world's dumbest game of whack-a-mole."
That was actually a really accurate way of putting it, and the sad part was, Tenzin knew why they were doing it. Hell, he had been in on the game, but when he was forced to go underground as well, he decided it to be better to at least stay on the inside, make the other superheroes more comfortable with the idea that they were talking to someone who knew their struggle. "I know," he sighed. "They are just aching to do some good."
-"Then have them donate to charity instead of putting my suspects in the hospital." Lin walked off with large paces, telling Tenzin this conversation was over.
Even though he knew where to go, with this much police around, he couldn't go there directly. So instead, he got back into his car and drove away, making a wide circle before coming back to the other side of the building, where he rang the bell.
-"Who's there?" Tonraq asked.
"It's Tenzin. We need to talk." He was buzzed through with no further questions and soon enough stepped into the Waters' home.
-"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Tonraq asked.
"I'm here on business, I'm afraid." Tenzin handed him a picture of the gun with its barrel bent back on itself. "Store across the street had an attempted burglary last night, but the suspects were caught and beaten up before they could get away. That's your style, right?"
Tonraq sighed. "It used to be, but this wasn't me. I think I might know who it was, though."
When Korra heard Tenzin at the door, she knew it wouldn't be long before she would get an earful from her mother, her father, Tenzin, or all three. After all, this was exactly what they had talked about earlier.
And so be it. The answer turned out to be her parents, with Tenzin standing in the corner with a disappointed scowl on his face.
"So now what are you gonna do to me?" Korra asked when a silence had fallen in her parents' rants.
They looked at each other and at Tenzin, who ultimately spoke up again. "Well, you did engage in vigilantism, but there is no solid evidence putting you directly at the scene. CCTV is vague at best, and the suspects could only identify someone in a black mask as you. Your powers are considered a state secret, so there's nothing to hold you on. I will work with that, provided you tell me everything you learned last night."
It wasn't much of a dilemma. Either Korra told a man she trusts everything or she risked being branded as a rogue super. "I'll tell you." It turned out to be quite a story, the guy in the armor, the device, how it was used to knock her out, everything. Tenzin diligently listened and took a lot of notes, occasionally nodding.
-"What do you know about the armor?"
"Not much," Korra admitted. "Tough piece of kit though, three shots to the chest and not a dent in it. You're looking for some kind of engineering genius there."
Tenzin stroked his beard. "Hmm... A new player?"
"Probably. You wouldn't need a suit of armor like that if you already have powers."
-"You say that, but I can fly and still get around by car," Tenzin noted, which Korra had to give him. Sometimes subtlety works. "Okay, I think I have everything," he said as he closed his notebook. "Call me if you remember anything else."
"Will do," Korra nodded. "And Tenzin?" She hesitated a little as he was about to step out. "Thank you."
He smiled. "You're welcome, Korra. Just don't do anything rash."
That was the one thing she couldn't promise him.
Asami just couldn't make ends meet. Somehow, this all connected to her father and his invention of the arc reactor.
The acoustic retumbler was powered by a more basic and less powerful version, probably an earlier model, but definitely his design. She was one of the few people she knew who had access to his designs, that's how she made the power source for her armor. It had been hideously complicated but definitely worth it in the end.
But this was a development from that system. Someone had been tinkering with the design, probably to make it more powerful for the acoustic retumbler to be used as a weapon. And it hadn't worked, but from what she'd seen, the girl in the shop was a super.
But the more Asami thought about it, the more she wanted to talk to her, maybe even make a few scans of her and see what its effects were. "Merlin, you there?"
-"Always, Miss," the computer replied.
"Analyze the footage from the shop. I need to find the girl who was there."
-"Right away."
Asami chuckled to herself. Merlin had been crucial in creating the armor, with his computing power and easy accessibility, even doing a lot of the work for the fly-by-wire system. It was a good system and, like any AI, good at tedious tasks.
-"She's a super," Merlin continued. "She appears to have the same set of powers as Power Man did in the late 1980's. He went underground after the government clean-up, but given her height and voice, it's not unthinkable she's his daughter."
"Great. Any clues where I can find her?"
-"Not yet, Miss. That's a state secret. I can run a few algorithms to narrow the focus, but it will take time."
Asami sighed. "Guess I don't have anything better to go on. Do that, and keep an eye on the police band. If she is mentioned again, I want to know about it."
It had been three days since the store brawl, and even though Korra did have the urge to go out and fight crime, urgent looks from both her parents meant she wouldn't. Even if she did go out, she wouldn't know where to start. The burglaries had been solved, the men locked away, and Tenzin was looking into any further connections there may or may not be with other organizations.
So instead, Korra just went on an evening run, since she needed some way to get rid of her energy, and found this was the best one.
Running along the edge of her neighborhood was always the best for her, as she liked the view over the fields. Gave her a sense of freedom, and the dusk only made it more special.
She had her music, sure, but it was a perfectly normal evening run like she had done so many times. For it was because of the music that she couldn't hear what was approaching behind her.
Suddenly the suit of armor landed in front of Korra, blocking her path. It looked powerful, even more so in the evening light than it had in the dark store. "You!" she called out.
-"Me," the voice said. It sounded different somehow, less mechanically altered, and most surprising, more... feminine. The mask opened, and it revealed a beautiful young woman behind it. "Korra, we need to talk."
I am gonna leave this one here for now. I know the focus wasn't hugely on Korrasami, but this idea is actually taking hold of me, and I think it's going to be a first chapter of a new story. That story will be Korrasami focused, so I'll probably continue it later. Also, yes of course Korra's costume is based on season one Daredevil and Asami's on Iron Man. Anyway, see you tomorrow.
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