Min Liu stumbled slightly as her shoe caught the edge of an unevenly raised concrete paving slab. That cracked piece of sidewalk was covered in the omnipresent tan dust of construction and demolition that still coated all of the old Republic City downtown. She hoped that she had not just scuffed the heel as she had spent an embarrassingly large percentage of her last paycheck on these shoes. That was a paycheck that had been received an uncomfortably long time ago in a place she was no longer welcome to return to. She just had to hope that today went well.

Talking a sharp steadying breath, Min ran her hand through her black hair, newly short in the modern style. A snip and a cut to mask how truly unprepared she was on this day. Shake it off, she told herself. Feeling self-pity was not why she had come all the way across the bridge into the center of the city that was just recovering from being a war-zone. Newly resolved, Min clutched her patent leather handbag in front of her, a gift from a generous family member since there was no way she could have afforded such a thing herself. She made her way through the crowds of workmen and construction equipment that clogged the street. Her destination lay at the end of this particular skyscraper lined street, a new massive bamboo-scaffolding draped building who's upper domes were still being built. As her shoes clicked and scratched on sidewalk and grit Min took another deep breath and coughed slightly on the dust that hung in the air. That building on the edge of the city crater was where the real challenge would begin.

That was not to say that even getting to this point had be easy. It had been two years since the war and the last rubble-filled areas of the devastated former downtown had supposedly been open to the general public for eight months. Those who rode the rattling trolleys with Min over any of the river bridges looked out at those tall buildings on the other side of the water looming like reborn landmarks. Their outer stones and bricks had been scrubbed clean of scorch marks. Republic City looked almost as it had before, however Min knew that many of those buildings many were still husks, intact facades held together by hastily bent bands of metal rather than by interior floors. They stood awaiting their own demolition while new construction grew up in plots cleared by destroyed structures. The air smelt like dust and old smoke mixed with the salt of the sea.

The trolly line itself abruptly terminated three blocks from edge of the old city center. Min had climbed out at the end of the tracks along with the endless stream of construction workers and the smartly dressed ambitious entrepreneurs who had snapped up redevelopment property made available when the national government had relocated to the river's other bank. People were moving everywhere as business and industry reclaimed this wounded heart of the city. Still, despite the commotion, it was not likely Min could manage to get lost searching for her destination. Even in the bright morning sun the tip of the peninsula had an erie light. The walls of the concrete canyons were painted with strange glimmerings from the pale spike of energy that lanced from the ground to the vault of heaven.

Min had arrived, surging past the constant stream of trucks and workers that clogged the streets, to reach the most significant piece of new construction in this rebuilt downtown. It was near the center of the lower peninsula, where the busily shifting cityscape gave way to the vast vine-filled spirit crater amid the skeletal frames of new buildings. The impossible pillar of light from the portal formed a focus that the once devastated city now revolved around.

Her destination was the huge low building growing out of a gap in the heavy barrier fence that surrounded that verdant crater of the doorway to the other world. It was the headquarters of the Avatar, a large multi-winged stone affair that Min assumed would be beautiful when it was finally visible from under the crawling mass of builders that scaled the scaffolding wrapping around every surface. Yet even now the young building had majesty, and Min found herself freezing in place at the foot of the wide marble steps that led up from the dusty street. But standing where she was almost got her run over by an overloaded wheelbarrow pushed by a tanned and cursing laborer so she scampered up to the entrance, to advance within those halls armed only with a typing certificate and an assurance that Uncle Sang had 'talked to someone'.

The men in their white and blue uniforms stood rigid at the threshold and did not seem to pay her any interest, but still Min clutched her bag tighter against her stomach as she made her way through those heavy doors. It was quieter there in the main lobby than it had been on the street, though not by much. In the interior distance of building hallways she could hear the echoing cries of earth-bending and other construction. Everyone who was not a White Lotus guard nailed to their post seemed to be walking very fast and there was a constant stream of traffic across the three-way intersection of corridors that capped this entry hall.

For lack of a better idea of how to proceed, Min made her way to a small desk that was set in the middle of the marble floor of this first room. It was staffed by a small woman who seemed to be somehow simultaneously writing in an entry book, typing a letter, and answering the four phones which each rang approximately every fifteen seconds. As Min shuffled up in front of the desk a steady flow of smartly dressed figures of both sexes passed by to each side and all received a permissive wave from the receptionist who could apparently confirm identity from the sound of footsteps alone since she never once looked up from her work.

As she stood there being ignored, Min began to wonder if she was supposed to make her own way into the halls to find the typing pool, or if there was a separate entrance for the clerical staff. Indeed, she had just raised one foot to turn and go off searching for one or the other when the receptionist's attention suddenly snapped up to meet her.

"Without credentials you need to be signed in before you can pass beyond the security threshold. Your name please." The receptionist's voce was calm and smooth but spoke with such rapid authority that Min found herself answering before her conscious mind had even processed these statements.

"Yes! Min Liu, mam. Um, I was here about..."

"Really!" A new voice rang out as it launched its way into the bustling entrance hall. "Is really it too much to have one blessed day where our own people don't make me want to start tearing the walls down?! I told you we need a new girl!"

Min jumped at the sudden shouting, and was quickly embarrassed to note that no one else in the room reacted at all except with suddenly blank faces hiding amusement or exasperation. At the end of the hall a man in his mid thirties, snappishly dressed in a bright blue brocade silk jacket and a sharply trimmed mustache, swept out from one of the open passageways while continuing his theatrical performance. Half a head taller than most and rather thin, he loomed like a brilliant wading bird racing through reeds. He was trailed by a blank faced young man who held an armful of folders and the brunt of his boss's undirected and well gesticulated ire. With his free hand the assistant adjusted the black rimmed glasses on his face and responded in a reproachful tone as their shoes clacked together across the marble floor.

"Staffing problems have been an ongoing concern, as you know, but we have a replacement already coming in this morning. She should be-"

"Well where is she!?" said his boss in the flashy jacket. "I've got a stack of telegrams piling up and seventeen reporters trying to fit in space for fifteen. It's not like we're choosing a new Earth King here! The people just need to...Well, they just need to show up! Which is apparently really difficult! I really could do with anyone. I mean come on, just look at...er...You!" He suddenly stopped walking and spun around before pointing an interrogating finger at Min.

Min quickly looked behind her before gesturing to herself in confusion. "Me?"

Her well-dressed interrogator sighed the sigh of those beset by an unjust and frustrating world. "Yes, you. Can you type, take shorthand, and manage to not flub reading a communiqué so badly that you reignite a thousand year old land dispute between feuding hill clans?"

"Er, um, yes, yes, and I suppose? I mean I don't really know how I would go about even-"

He threw up his hands. "Excellent! Then why don't you work for us?"

"Actually, I am here about the job for-," Min began to explain.

The man suddenly cut her off, his face brightening. "Hey, she's here already! Hiro, what were you doing making me sweat like that when she was waiting in the lobby? Well come on then Miss, this is a global world. I'm director of communications Chao Wang and we don't have all day."

Min stumbled over her words. She had not expected such a welcoming committee, or indeed any welcome. "Um, actually...I mean I haven't signed in or..."

Chao waved his hand vaguely at the reception desk. "Yes, that's a great system or it would be if we actually knew who was supposed to be in this building yet. Which as you can see is a bit more of a problem than it should be." Then he saw someone and his attention was instantly redirected off down one of the branching hallways. "Aoto, my beautiful man!"

Min took a few hesitant steps forward before a gentle hand pressed against her back guided her up to the proper walking acceleration. She twisted back to look the assistant Hiro who's unreadable face nevertheless expressed a wish that she quickly get with the program if she was going to be here. Soon, Min was racing along an unfamiliar hallway behind Chao's well-dressed one man cavalry charge. The man appeared to be permanently stuck in a higher gear than those around him. Min's understanding of her situation had been left behind at the building's entrance but wherever she was being taken no one seemed to be giving her a second look so she had to assume she was permitted. As she rushed along she wondered if now was the time to pull her typing certificate out of her purse.

However, before she could work up the nerve to do so her new keeper's expansive presence had come to envelop a harried-looking older man with greying hair and a waist trending towards stout who had entered this main arterial hallway from some side passage. If Chao was a colorful egret this man was a grumpy grey owl, feathers permanently rumpled and ruffled. This newcomer appeared to be futilely gesturing that he had somewhere else to be but a silk sleeved arm caught his shoulder and his trajectory was arrested.

"Chao, I really need to get to..." the man began.

Chao, Min's prospective employer or pressganger as the situation might yet reveal, did not appear to hear this beginning of an excuse. He had other things on his mind. "Aoto, did you hear this insanity about the Fire Nation this morning?"

The older man, Aoto as Chao had called him, rubbed the bridge of his nose wearily as he gave up thoughts of escape. "Yes, I understand that it sounds bad, but you...my comments were taken out of context. What I was trying to say was that-"

Chao interrupted, "Wait wait wait. What comments?"

Aoto stopped, suddenly looking up at Chao with guilty suspicion. "What were you talking about?"

These men were on the same side, presumably the Avatar's but at this point Min was not sure. The International Conclave was in this building too. She just had to hope she had not accidentally signed onto working as a typist for some foreign country. That would really stretch her commute budget.

Chao spoke quickly. "The Fire Nation's contribution gift came in late last night and it's not what we were expecting. But one more time, what comment?"

With a weary sigh of one who saw this confrontation coming, Aoto reluctantly explained as he absently brushed his greying beard. "All I said was that with all this concern about careful distribution of reconstruction contracts so that everyone gets a share and no one is offended blah blah blah, the United Republic would be better off if they just stuck to the Fire Nation firms for the metal work suppliers. They're going to do a better job anyway and have less political influence here than the domestic companies. Less potential for graft that way."

Chao threw his hands up in the air again. "Of all the bloody...Aoto?!"

"Well it's true!"

"That's not the issue! The papers is going to go wild with that statement! What's the point of having a communications director if you are making communications without me there to direct? The political advisor should not be talking to the press!" Chao took a breath to collect himself. "All right. All right. Who did you say this to?"

Aoto mumbled, "Riu of The National Times."

"The...!?" Chao choked, before waving his spread palms before him. "I can not deal with you right now. And on the same morning I have to give a press seat to the Verrimedia rep."

Now it was Aoto's turn to look flustered and disbelieving. "Verrimedia as in Verrik? As in Iknik Blackstone Verrik? That man's been indicted more times than I've had hot dinners and we're giving that guy a seat?!"

"That particular comparison might say more about your own dining habits than about him."

"My wife is not an ambitious cook."

Chao waved his hand, trying to get back on track. "Well that aside, what am I going to do about the Avatar's political advisor championing preferential treatment of foreign firms? We can not afford this becoming the story."

Min came to her senses, realizing that it seemed she had been completely forgotten in the midst of this strange hallway-meeting. She was still slightly dazed at the rapid back and forth chatter that these two men fell into with total lack of concern for their surroundings. They seemed competent, but the entire building had an air of someone who was making up procedure as they ran along, Uncertain of her place, Min found herself only absently mumbling responses to questions she had not been asked under her breath. However, someone must have heard her speak because she suddenly once again felt a hand at her back and found herself pressed forward into the narrow space between the verbally sparring managers.

Aoto stopped in mid sentence to look over at Min with blinking confusion. "Er, yes? Chao, who is this?"

Chao was leaning forward slightly to inspect her closely as though there was something on her face he had missed before. "No idea. Now what was that you were just saying? I heard 'you ought to' and 'bidding'?"

Min's lips were pressed together in a tight terrified line as her eyes grew wide. These were two very high ranking men and they had heard her mumbling. She had been in the building for all of five minutes and had now managed to basically stumble over implying she was smarter than her bosses by blurting out her thoughts on issues she knew nothing about. Why couldn't she have kept her mouth shut? She shot a dark glance at the ever impassive Hiro. The assistant simply stood quietly behind her and betrayed no sign of just having pushed her. Oh well, the damage was already done. She might as well take the plunge.

"Well, sirs," she began. "All I was saying is that if the Fire Nation companies are really better at this like Mister Aoto said, then it might be possible to just blank out the location information from the bidding? Make it so no one is able to say they were chosen for any political..."

"Blind bidding." Chao said softly. Then he be began to smile "Yes, wait, that might work. I mean we have no authority to even suggest it, but when has that stopped us? The Fire Nation firms should be able to underbid the UR firms we have a problem with. We come out for blind bidding in UR redevelopment contracts and...Ha! We could even phrase it as a way to counteract any charges of favoritism to Future Industries based on their connection with the Avatar, not that the reporters want to directly touch that issue with a ten foot pole anyway." Now his eyes were starting to gaze out into the imagined distance and his voice took on a performance quality. Hiro manifested a notepad from somewhere and began transcribing Chao's spontaneous monologue.

"Just the best work for the best price! And of course the excellence of native industry would shine through once your removed the glimmering trappings that have so enraptured many politicians. Those who troll for votes in the immigrant neighborhoods where..."

Aoto turned away from Chao to speak with Min. "He's on a roll now, we may have to leave him to it. That was very quick, Miss...?"

Min blinked as she was still listening to Chao spin off webs of crafted rhetoric to an imaginary audience while his assistant Hiro quietly converted it to a few quickly inked key words on his notepad. Then she remembered that she had been addressed. "Oh, Min Liu, sir. And I did not actually mean to suggest that I thought it was my position to tell anyone what to..." She stopped and gathered herself. "I am actually here about the typing..."

The Political Affairs Director waved her off, "Don't worry about putting yourself forward. We are in the early days of being an organization here so everyone wears a lot of hats." He glanced over. "Ah, it looks like Chao is finally coming in for a landing."

The communications director was verifying that his assistant had gotten the key points of his extemporaneous performance and seemed to have forgotten the other people standing in this hall.

Aoto was the first to speak up. "Didn't you say you had a meeting with the Verricorp rep this morning?"

"Yes, but that is not until..." Chao looked at his expensive wristwatch. "...two minutes ago. Perfection. Now I just have to find the room I scheduled this meeting to take place in. I swear they move this building's walls around at night. I've got to run. Aoto, you make sure to give Future Industries the heads up we're doing this!"

Aoto was not happy with this new task assignment. "So we're actually doing that? And I'm the one to tell the Avatar's...Do you want me to stick my head in any gatorlion mouths while I'm at it?" But even as he grumbled he was nodding and turning to go. "At least we're about to hand her company a nice check for that airship contract. Thank you Fire Lord's timely donation money. I'll check back in with you later."

Now Min was left in the hall with Hiro and Chao, wondering if she should find out what exactly this bidding process she had crafted policy on was actually about. Chao once again remembered her existence and as he absently smoothed his jacket he turned his questioning back Minward.

"I'm sorry, I got distracted. What was I having you do before?"

It took Min a second to find her voice. "I really don't know, sir."

"Well whatever it was, forget it. Follow me. This morning is just chaos. It's not normally this bad. Though at least I am not on the team trying to figure out how they are going to dock a new Fire Nation airship on this building when our mooring spire is not built yet. Hiro! Keep your eye out for the Chrysanthemum room! I know it has to be one of these doors right here."

Chao strode off through the busy halls of the Avatar's headquarters with Min and Hiro trailing behind him.

...

Minutes later and far away, the three of them continued to search through the arteries of this building which was still struggling to emerge from its architectural chrysalis. Most of the windows were covered in protective boards or only showed lashed bamboo scaffolding outside so Min had long since given up on keeping her notions of orientation. The hallways were broad and spotted with alcoves that would probably hold ornaments or artworks at some point in the future but for now were bare save for little brass nameplates on each of the doors themselves. They had just uncovered the Juniper room and the Maple room and were about to continue on their quest for the illusive meeting place when a large set of double doors at the end of the hall burst open and a young man in a green trimmed suit came striding out, holding his hands before him as if he was pushing back an invisible crowd.

"Whooo! Do nooot go over to the International Conclave Wing right now. Trust me, she is in a bit of a mood."

Chao responded warmly as the man drew closer. "Ah, Bolin, perfect! Would you happen to know..." Then he caught notice of what exactly had been said. "Wait, she's in a mood? What did she hear?"

The young man stopped in the hallway and absently ran a hand through his thick black hair before he seemed to notice he was messing it up and tried to hurriedly repair the rumpling before giving up just as quickly. For someone who worked in an intensely political organization his thoughts were written plainly across his face.

He shrugged broadly at Chao, "You know how it is in the Conclave, the same as always with the Earth Nation. The separatist republicans are fighting with the unionist republicans who are fighting with the monarchists who want to execute the imperialists who are insulting the commonwealth supporters. By now I think she is one more outburst away from deciding the level the whole continent herself and starting over from scratch."

Chao seemed relieved. "Ahh, so just the normal situation." His assistant Hiro handed him a small sheet of paper which jogged something else in Chao's memory. Min supposed that Mister Verrik would have to keep waiting for his meeting as all their momentum was thoroughly lost. "Ah, yes, here this is. Did you hear about the message from Chin?"

Bolin said, "Who's Chin? Or wait, Chin the province? Or rather the 'provisionally autonomous region' now I guess."

"Or kingdom or pile of rubble depending on what she decides in there. Yes, that Chin. Apparently they are about to get hit by big storm or hurricane coming in off the ocean. They have word from some Fire Nation vessels cabling it in but even with time to prepare it still looks like they are going to be taking it in the teeth." Min was excited. Chao was finally talking about the kind of work she had imagined went on within these walls. This was about helping people all across the world, matters of life and death and all that other stuff she had always assumed the Avatar dealt with.

Bolin, however, was still muttering to himself about what he had seen through the doors to where the Conclave met. "She said that breathing fire was an accident but I am not sure the Zaofu rep believed her even though we extinguished him right away."

Chao clapped, "Bolin, hey! This is aid work, this should have been coming across your desk."

"Yes, of course." He shook his head. As he focused his face grew serious and intent in thought. He moved over to lean against the wall. "Sure we can get them help down in Chin. My department's got a good store of relief supplies built up and actually with that new airship we are going to be getting I should be able to get my team down there for the reconstruction before the place finishes drying out. The rest can be sent on rail from Omashu once we can survey what kind of damage we are actually talking about from-"

"Oh, actually our airship just came in today. But they are not asking for your team, they want the Avatar."

Bolin blinked. "Really? It came today? I could have sworn that Asami was still working on... All right, we may actually be able to swing this. Showing up personally for the reconstruction would cheer people up. This session of the conclave is ending this week and I think we may be able to clear her schedule, though she really needs to get a new..." He trailed off as a new idea occurred to him. "The weird thing is it might actually be quicker to send her through the portal so when she exits in the south she can make her way up on bison-back. I think she can control where she goes when in the spirit world. Man, these logistics are really weird but I can ask Opal if the Air Nation could..."

Min got the sense Chao was deliberately keeping a straight face through Bolin's rambling through process. He waited for a small band of workmen laden with tools to make their past before he interrupted. "No, they don't want the Avatar to help with the reconstruction after the storm. They want her to stop it."

Bolin halted. "Stop...it? The hurricane? They want her to stop a hurricane. A hurricane. A hurricane that is hitting land in, what?"

Hiro chimed in. "Seven to seventeen hours."

"Seventeen hours! A hurricane! What...What do they think we are here? And they are just cabling with this now?" He exclaimed, as though the worst part of this impossibility was the poor scheduling.

Chao was now openly smiling, though somewhat ruefully. "I suppose one of the problems with working for a god is that people expect miracles."

Bolin smiled a little as well, but he was less cheerful. "And the thing is, when we tell her, she might try to do it."

This had occurred to Chao as well. "Let's let her terrorize the delegations for a while longer. It is a long way to Chin."

"Yeah, but if she..." Bolin started to say before something occurred to him, "... if she hears this evening then even she wouldn't have a chance of making it there before the storm." He turned his broad shoulders back towards the wide double doors which hid the way to the Avatar. "You're right. I'll have the guys start getting the relief supplies ready. Sometimes this job is not the best.."

Chao clapped him on the arm, "I have something that might be a little sweeter to you. I'm finally having to give a press seat to your friends over at Verrimedia. They might be excited to meet the Hero of the South?" He looked around the web of intersecting hallways that had stymied him. "Or I will be if we can ever find where they put the Chrysanthemum room."

"Chrysanthumumum? But aren't all the flower rooms on the north side of the building? We've just got trees over here like oak and spruce and ash. Is Ash a tree? I think Ash is a tree. I mean at least trees can turn into ash, you know if you use fire or some-"

Chao clapped his hands loudly, making Min jump. "You're right! We have heading, let's set out on this voyage! Bolin, you shall be my navigator! This lovely lady, the vigilant lookout! Hiro, you can be the keel."

Hiro bowed his head magnanimously. "Thank you sir."

"Right, then we're off!"

...