Chapter Text

Mako

“Hey Mako, a bunch of us are going down to Mai’s for some drinks. You in?”

Mako shut his locker and turned to face his partner, Jia. “Sorry, can’t. I got plans tonight.”

Jia scoffed. “You always have ‘plans’. It wouldn’t kill you to let loose once in a while, you know.”

“Next time, alright? Promise,” Mako replied, patting Jia on the shoulder.

“I’ll hold you to that. She better be smokin’ hot, though.”

“Who?”

“Whatever lady keeps taking you away from my charming company.”

Mako chuckled. “You know you’re the only woman in my life, Jia,” he said walking past her and making his way toward the exit.

“ He better be smokin’ hot?” Jia called after him.

“Don’t swing that way,” Mako replied over his shoulder.

Mako pulled his car into an alleyway, making sure no civilians were around. He got out and walked to the back of the alley, where he revealed a keypad, hidden inside a fusebox. He punched in a code and a section of the alley’s back wall slid open, revealing a long hallway. Mako stepped through the newly-opened doorway, which slid shut behind him.

“What’s up, Supercop?” Bolin called, sticking his head out from the changing room.

Mako smiled at his brother. “Hey bro.” Bolin was still in his street clothes, meaning he had arrived at most a minute before Mako. Still, it was a drastic improvement, since Mako usually had to wait around for him to arrive.

Mako joined his brother in the dressing room and was surprised to see Asami was also there, which was odd. She usually deployed from the Cave, since it was right under her estate. When Mako came in, she was already in her costume and just strapping on her boots. Her usual makeup had already been washed off too. “Hi Mako,” she greeted.

“Hey! What’re you doing here?”

Asami shrugged. “I just felt like it. It’s been a while since we’ve deployed as a team, you know? The three of us, together.” She grabbed her mask from her bag and slipped it on. “Hurry up and get changed. I’ll be in the garage.”

Mako and Bolin quickly shed their clothes and changed into their respective outfits then made their way to the garage. “So what’s the plan for tonight?” Bolin asked.

“I think we should stick to the Miyun district tonight,” Mako said. “The Terras have been a little too quiet, lately. They might be up to something big.”

“Sounds good to me,” Asami said. “Let’s get going.”

Asami got into her car, while Mako and Bolin climbed onto their bikes. All three vehicles were works of art, designed by Asami herself. They were faster than anything else on the street, handled beautifully, and were, of course, equipped with weapons designed to slow down or incapacitate other vehicles.

Mako shot out of the garage, taking point, with Bolin right on his tail and Asami bringing up the rear. Once they got to the Miyun district, each of the three heroes went their separate ways to cover more ground. Mako heard Asami’s voice in his ear. “Keep in radio contact guys, and remember, call for backup if you need it. We don’t need a repeat of last month.”

Mako winced at the memory, remembering the awful pain in his leg. He’d probably still have it in a cast if it weren’t for Wen. He lifted his hand to touch the contact near his ear. “Understood,” he replied.

Weaving in and out of streets and alleys, Mako couldn’t help but notice the unnerving quiet. This district was the Terra Triad’s base of operations, and while most civilians knew to avoid the streets after dark around here, there still should’ve been at least some low level thugs lurking around, trying to find some unsuspecting victims.

However, it wasn’t long before said quiet was interrupted by an explosion. Mako turned around to see a column of smoke rising into the sky, not far from his position.

“Uh… did anyone else hear that?” Bolin asked.

“Yeah,” Mako replied. “I’m about half a mile out, I’ll go see what’s up.” He rode his bike into the alley behind the building where the explosion occurred. Using his firebending as a booster, he was able to quickly climb the building’s fire escape up onto the roof. Just as he was leaning out to check what was going on at street level, he heard the sounds of gunfire.

Mako quickly ducked down to avoid getting hit but after a few seconds, he realized he wasn’t the one being fired at. Once again, he leaned over the side of the building to assess the situation. The people down below were wearing outfits that were unfamiliar to Mako, they covered them from head to toe, and they even sported full face masks, complete with goggles so not a single inch of skin or hair was visible. These people weren’t Triad, that was for sure.

“I count ten… no, twelve perps with automatic weapons.”

“Any benders?” Asami asked.

“None on this side, they’ve all got guns.” Mako studied the scene below him, specifically, the target the automatics were pointed at. Whoever, they were, they were hidden behind a wall of earth that had obviously been bent. Mako was about to declare them Terra members defending their turf, until he saw a lone figure pop up from behind the wall and and shoot fire at her assailants. There was only one person that could be. “The Avatar has engaged, but she looks a bit overwhelmed. These guys aren’t giving her any breathing room.”

“Get down there and help her. Landslide and I will be there ASAP.”

“Got it.” Mako leapt off the roof and used a burst of flame to break his fall, landing behind the gunmen. He lost no time in directing bursts of fire at them, breaking their focus on the Avatar, who lost no time in leaping over her makeshift wall and joining the battle. Mako kept in constant movement, refusing to let any of the gunmen get a clear bead on him.

Meanwhile, the Avatar managed to jam two of the weapons, sneaking water she produced from a skin on her side into their barrels and freezing it. The men tossed their now useless weapons aside and attempted to engage the Avatar in hand-to-hand combat. That attempt was short-lived as the Avatar hit them both with a burst of airbending that slammed them into a nearby wall.

Mako’s weaving and dodging eventually brought him close to the Avatar, who was busy throwing rocks at bad guy heads. “Hey, you’re Wildfire!”

“Yeah,” Mako grunted, ducking under a punch thrown at his head and answering with a flaming uppercut.

“Thanks for saving my ass,” the Avatar said as she raised a pillar of earth that violently interrupted a leaping kick from one of the thugs.

“No problem. You mind if we finish this conversation when we’re not fighting for our lives?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Their opponents had pulled back their attacks and were regrouping, trying to get some leverage on the two heroes. Before they could, Mako spied two familiar figures running into the conflict. Their backup had arrived.

Bolin jumped, propelling himself high into the air with a little assistance from his earthbending, yelling his own particular version of a war cry. He landed in the middle of the reassembled gangsters, causing a shockwave as he hit the ground, destabilizing their footing. Asami wasted no time coming in after him, knocking down whatever bad guys weren’t already on their asses. She made sure to shock the most troublesome of them, ensuring that they wouldn’t get back up for a while.

Mako and the Avatar dove back into the fight, making it a priority to disarm whoever was still holding on to their weapons. Mako was in the processes of ramming a guy on the nose with the butt of his own gun when he noticed another thug sneak up behind Bolin, and deliver a series of quick punches to his arms and torso. Bolin fell to his knees, so Mako rushed to meet his attacker. A few well-placed fireballs forced him to back off, and Mako pulled his brother back on his feet.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, thanks bro.”

Their attention turning back to the battle, the brothers noticed that the man who attacked Bolin had pulled out a sidearm. Bolin raised his arms in order to cover him and Mako with a protective wall and… nothing happened. The ground didn’t budge an inch. The gunman now having a clear shot, the brothers did the only thing they could and dove out of the way, trying to throw his aim off. Mako lobbed some more fire at him, but not before he was able to squeeze off two shots.

Mako landed hard on the ground but was otherwise unharmed. He looked around the battlefield for Bolin and found him lying on the ground, clutching his left shoulder. By the time he reached him, Asami was already there, trying to get a look at the wound.

“You need to get him out of here,” he said. Mako felt like he should do it himself, but Asami was the one with the car. She’d be able to safely transport Bolin much better than he could on his bike.

“You’re gonna be okay here?” she asked.

“Yeah, the Avatar and I will handle these guys. Just get him somewhere safe.”

“Alright… we’ll be at the Tower, it’s the closest safehouse to our current position.”

“Noted.”

While Asami held Bolin up and led him to her car, Mako scanned the battlefield for the Avatar. She was a few feet away dealing with the last of the men still in fighting shape and seemed to be easily holding her own. That just left the bastard who shot his brother.

He was on the ground, one of the fireballs that Mako shot having connected with his leg. When he saw Mako coming, he tried to raise his gun to take another shot, but Mako was too quick for him. He grabbed onto the gun’s barrel and used his firebending to heat it. It wasn’t too long before the gun became too hot and the man on the ground screamed as his hand got burned. He let go of the gun and Mako tossed it aside.

Mako then grabbed the man by the collar and rammed his fist into his face. Then he did it again. And again. He was about to go for a fourth when he felt a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, I’m pretty sure you won already.”

Mako looked up to see the Avatar standing above him, looking concerned.

“Yeah, sorry, it’s just… he shot Landslide.” Mako stood to face the Avatar. “So how’d it go?”

“Most of them ran off. A couple of them are out cold,” she gestured behind her where there were two of the masked men propped up against a wall, “and we’ve got your friend here, so…”

Now that the battle was over, Mako’s every instinct told him to go straight to the Tower and check on Bolin. However, he had a duty to fulfill. He reached into a pouch on his belt and produced some zip-ties, handing two to the Avatar. “These go around wrists and ankles, so these guys don’t run off before the cops show up. You take care of this guy, I’ll get the other two.”

Once all three of the thugs were secured, Mako and the Avatar stood before the hole created by them. “What do you think’s inside?” the avatar asked.

“Only one way to find out.” Mako stepped inside to find that the building had essentially been converted into a warehouse. A warehouse filled with packages wrapped in clear plastic. Mako grabbed one and teared it open, watching as a puff of white powder fell out. “Drugs,” he said. “Probably cocaine, although in a place this size, they probably have a variety of them.”

“You think they have any weed in here?” the Avatar asked with attempted nonchalance.

Mako stared at her. “Seriously?”

“What? It’s legal where I come from!”

“Well, it’s illegal here.”

The Avatar shrugged. “Not my fault the United Republic’s behind the times.”

Mako sighed. “No, they probably don’t have any weed. Terra deals almost exclusively with the harder stuff.”

“Shame…. Hey, where are all the guards?”

Mako had just been wondering that himself. There were easily millions of yuans in drugs in there, yet the place had been seemingly abandoned by the Terras. There weren’t even any corpses, which added a wrinkle to Mako’s investigation. Even if he called Jia with the tip, they wouldn’t be able to work on the case for long. With no bodies to make this a homicide, the case would quickly be handed over to Vice. Still, if Jia was the one to pick up the three mooks outside, he might get a chance at interrogating them.

He once again reached into his belt and pulled out his communicator. He started it up and called Jia, adding a voice mod to the mike as it rang.

“Who’re you calling?” the Avatar asked.

“A friend in the police force.”

Jia picked up. “Wildfire, what have I told you about calling me when I’m off-duty?”

“Yeah, sorry Detective Zhang, but trust me, this is worth it.”

“What’ve you got for me?”

“Corner of twenty-fifth and Kyoshi, there’s a building. It’s owned by the Terra Triad and full of category A drugs. It’ll be the building that’s missing a wall. There are also three perps outside who were attempting to raid the warehouse and take the drugs for themselves.”

Mako heard a sigh from the other end of the line. “Alright, I can be there in fifteen with along with a couple of squad cars. Thanks for the tip.”

“Anytime, Detective.” Mako hung up and was about to put the communicator away when he noticed he had a voice message waiting for him. He accessed it and heard Asami’s voice come through the speaker.

“Seriously, why is your communicator always off? Anyway, listen, Landslide’s fine. It was just a flesh wound. I patched him up and gave him some painkillers. We’ll see you back at the Tower.” Mako breathed a sigh of relief at Asami’s words.

“Who was that?” the Avatar asked.

“Tempest. She said Landslide’s going to be fine.”

“That’s great! So what do we do now?”

At that moment, Mako heard sirens in the distance. “We get out of here before the cops show.”

“Why? Aren’t we all on the same side?”

“Yes, but technically we’re still vigilantes. It’s just better if we don’t directly cross paths.” Of course, Mako left out the more relevant reason why he needed to be gone before the police arrived. He had never let Wildfire and Jia meet face-to-face for fear that she would recognize him, even with the mask.

Mako raced outside and the Avatar followed. He went around the street corner on his way to his bike, where he found Bolin’s parked outside the alley where he left his. “Hey, would you mind following me back? I need to get Landslide’s bike back to the safehouse.”

The Avatar gave him a wide grin. “And get a chance to see your team’s HQ? Definitely!”

Mako decided not to tell her that the Tower was in fact relatively modest as far as Asami’s safehouses went and instead went into the alley for his bike. When he emerged, the Avatar was on Bolin’s bike, awkwardly trying to balance on it. “You have ridden a motorcycle before, right?” he asked, throwing her the keys.

The Avatar turned the bike on and revved the engine. “I’ve ridden a snowmobile. Basically the same thing, isn’t it?”

It really wasn’t.