Prototype

A Legend of Korra oneshot

By

EvilFuzzy9

Varrick was a very clever man. He would be the first to tell you this.

He was a charismatic, creative genius who had managed to build up a global shipping monopoly from nothing more than a canoe and a stick of chewing gum. And the gum was that nasty sugar-free stuff.

But he was clever and resourceful, even as a lad. Varrick knew an opportunity when he saw it, and he had the raw chutzpa to try and do things nobody else would dare. He was not afraid of taking risks. An entrepreneur couldn't afford to get cold feet over a long shot deal.

Varrick was not an idiot. He knew you had to spend money to make money. Every deal was a gamble, every investment a risk. But if you never took risks in life, you would never get anywhere.

A good businessman needed two things: guts and insight. The former he'd had in spades from the very beginning. The latter he acquired the hard way, learning to read people through trial and error from the earliest years of his life.

You had to know what people wanted.

If Varrick hadn't been able to rely on his intuition, his ambitions would have died stillborn. Without his gut instinct, he never would have gotten anywhere. He wouldn't have known what offers would win over which people, never would have been able to tell who he could trust.

Business was a dirty game. There was no nicety, no etiquette, no compunctions about crushing the little guy for that tiniest sliver of extra profit. Major companies had more trouble with spies than wartime governments: there was always someone trying to steal a new idea, leak information to the media, or simply deny certain assets to their competitors.

It was a wolf-eat-wolf world. Not for the faint of heart.

Varrick knew this darn well better than anyone. As a young contender he'd faced pressure from his business partners, opposition from his rivals, and no sympathy from onlookers. It was like swimming in a lake of great white piranhas. They could smell the tiniest drop of blood from miles away. Show any sign of weakness, and it was all over. They would pounce on him and strip the flesh from his bones in an instant.

Metaphorically speaking.

...For the most part. Some guys liked to be extra thorough when it came to taking contenders out of the running.

But you couldn't survive in the business world alone. You needed allies to shore up your flanks: people who feared you just enough to do what you said, but not quite enough to actually want you dead. You needed people on your payroll to do the dirty work and allow you plausible deniability.

But most importantly, you needed an assistant. Someone who served you not out of fear, or for a paycheck, but who was loyal to you, and you alone: a steadfast batman who would keep you fit and fighting, take care of you day and night, obey your orders unquestioningly, and follow you into the saber-tooth moose lion's den.

Varrick was a genius. He would be the first to tell you this.

But he also knew that he never would have gotten this far if not for that rough stone he had picked up so many years ago, that crude and homely rock he had put in his pocket and polished to a peerless shine.

She was a true gem, that girl. An honest to goodness diamond in the rough. He had given her a job, a calling in life, and she had given him unswerving loyalty and devotion.

Some assistants worked only for the money. But she wasn't like that. She was his shadow, his guardian angel, his right hand and most trusted confidante.

She was his ace in the hole.

"Zhu Li, do the thing."

A strap was secured, and a string was pulled. Zip lines whizzed, rough tarpaulin fabric rustling as it unfurled, and the fixed wings of a glider spread wide. They caught the air, just the two of them, gliding clear and free of the prison.

They were free.

You couldn't get anywhere without taking a risk. Varrick knew this dang well better than anyone. So did Zhu Li.

Why else would they trust their lives to an untested prototype?

A/N: Only TWO Varrick fanfics in the whole LOK category? That is an appalling state of affairs, and must be remedied posthaste.

Also, I am admittedly very fond of the idea of Varrick and Zhu Li as a thing together (VARRILI FORSOOTH) but for this at least I decided to have things be purely gen and platonic. That works a little better in this, I think.

Updated: 7-19-14

TTFN and R&R!

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