Book 1: Air
Lin Beifong, the Chief of Republic City's Police Department and a master earth and metalbender, was in her office as per usual. She was going through the paperwork for the department's budget raise that she was trying to pass through. With the low pay rate for her officers, it was more difficult to find hardworking, skilled people to be apart of her department. She knew that even the people who worked for the Triads got payed more than she and her officers did. She was trying her best to raise her department's pay, and the pay of the officers who she knew deserved, and needed, a couple extra yuans. Thinking about her officers reminded her that she had to get down to the Practice Arena, which was used for benders to practice their bending while in the police station, with Saikhan to assess the new class who had just graduated from the Police Academy. She hoped that some of them had potential and were there for the justice instead of the money, it would really help her spirits today.
After finding Saikhan at his desk, the Chief walked her way through her well fortified station. She walked down the many flights of stairs, not even breaking a sweat. But she could hear Saikhan behind her breathing heavier than usual. The Practice Arena was located in the basement of the building, and was literally a carefully placed hole in the ground. There was a higher platform around the interior perimeter, overlooking the arena. People could pass around on this platform all day without the danger of getting hit in the head with a rock or being burned by fire. There were multiple other doors around the outside wall coming off of the platform. Lin realized she hadn't visited any of these smaller departments within her department since she became Chief, which had been a long time ago. She remembered having to run around the building doing her mother's work because she had once been in the position Saikhan was in, second in command. While her mother had done the major things, Lin had rushed around nonstop doing the smaller, repetitive things. That was part of the reason that she had broken up with Tenzin so many years ago, she didn't have the time or energy for a relationship…
Lin and Saikhan headed down the stairs into the arena where there were about fifty young men and women sparing each other. Lin observed for a couple of minutes to gather some intel about her new choices and which ones she would take and which ones she would not. She counted 16 firebenders, 12 waterbenders, and 22 earthbenders. She also counted a good 14 people of the earthbenders that could metalbend and 4 firebenders that could bend lightning. She was surprised that there were so many since metalbending and bending lightning were hard to learn and took a great deal of patience and time. She would be looking at those ones closely for sure. She continued to watch them bend, noting things here and there about stances and movements and acrobatics. She was so focused on assessing that she didn't see the miss-targeted flame soar toward her head. She saw it coming a little too late and would have gotten a serious burn if it haven't been for a wall of stone coming up out of the ground and colliding with the fire. It fell back into the ground as quick as it had come, causing dust to rise.
"What the hell Yin? Are you trying to kill someone here?"
Lin turned her head to stare at a young girl with long brown hair tied in a high ponytail. She had just come out of an earthbending stance, and had apparently been the one to create the stone wall. She was a little bit shorter than Lin with dark brown eyes. Lin also noticed that she was the only one of the Academy graduates that didn't have a helmet on, much like Lin herself who would never be caught dead in helmet. Lin also noticed that her uniform was on tight, like really tight. It showed off all her curves and features making Lin grow a little bit warmer.
Lin wanted to slap herself. One of her main rules was to never look at any of her officers in anyway besides as her officers. She never looked at them in a romantic way, and she definitely had never had an attraction to a woman before. Sure, she'd had her fair share of boyfriends, but having a girlfriend had never crossed her mind.
She was brought out of her thoughts by the same woman who apparently was in a heated discussion with the officer named Yin and there was a lot of shouting going back and forth.
"Alright! Alright!" Lin yelled, stomping her foot against the rocky ground which made a loud enough noise to gain everyone's attention. "You!"
Lin pointed to the officer named Yin and said: "Watch your aim! I'm not ruining your chances at becoming one of my officers because of one stray mistake, but make sure you concentrate when you bend. I don't want any injuries for myself or for anyone else. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes." Yin squeaked, apparently too scared to say anything else.
"And you." Lin turned to address the helmet-less woman with the ponytail. "What's your name?"
"Emilia, Chief." She said with a cheerful smile. "But most call me Emi for short."
"Well Emilia, thanks for seeing something I didn't see and reacting quickly. You helped to not officially ruin my day."
"Anytime, Chief. It was my pleasure."
The look that Emi gave Lin made Lin almost blush. She had given her look that said 'it was pleasurable in more than one way'.
Lin turned away quickly afterwards, making sure the stare didn't break her professional personality.
She now had everyone's attention so she decided that now would be a good time to begin her assessment.
"Alright everyone, I want you in groups of three. It doesn't matter what element you bend, I just was you to get in a triangle formation. You will bend your element at your other two group members while also avoiding or blocking their attacks. Get going!"
She didn't need to say it twice. All of the academy officers got in groups of three rather quickly and started bending. Lin watched every one of them separately, observing everything. She started to immediately mark off officers in her head. Either they had awful form, they couldn't aim, or they just seemed like horrible people. There were some that thought they were good, but really they were only good at being jerks. They would cheaply hit someone in the stomach or laugh after they hurt someone. Lin almost wanted to hit that smug look right off their faces, but she stayed professional. She would just kick them out later and it would all work out.
After the entire assessment was over, it went a little bit longer than scheduled because Lin did not want to go back to her office, she sent the graduates who displeased her home with a list of lower police forces where their skills wouldn't prove useless and kept the good ones. She had over half of the graduates standing in professional stances in front of her. They didn't move a muscle, they didn't show any emotion, and they didn't break their concentration. Lin nodded her head in approval, and gestures to Saikhan who immediately started handing out papers to each respective, new officer.
"Congratulations, you've made it onto my force," Lin said, observing if any of the officers broke their concentration because of her words (and she was proud that they didn't), "Saikhan here is giving you your schedules as of right now of the routes you will take with experienced officers, so you will learn a thing or two about being in the field. I hear about everything that happens within my force or within the entire city eventually, so don't disappoint me by doing something extremely stupid. Good luck officers, you are dismissed!"
The new officers saluted her and walked toward the arena's exit. Lin was about to turn to Saikhan for an update on the pay raise document when she heard her name being called.
"Chief Beifong!"
Lin turned to see the girl who had saved her from being burned, Emilia, running up to her. Lin raised an eyebrow and said:
"Yes? May I help you?"
"Um, I just had a question," she said as she looked down at her schedule for the force, "Was it an accident that you assigned me to the downtown city day and night patrol?"
"I never make mistakes when it comes to assignments and I definitely haven't stopped now," Lin said matter-a-factly, "It was no accident. From the way you bend and use your head proves to me that you can handle a hard environment like the downtown area especially at night. But if it's too much trouble I could rearrange…"
"Goodness no! I can handle it! I was top of my class at the academy, I'll do it better than anyone ever has before!"
"I admire your confidence," Lin said with a roll of her eyes about the girls high-spirited attitude and beginning to turn around again before she remembered something.
"Oh, and by the way, thank you for saving me from being burned."
Emilia giggled before saying: "No problem at all Chief! I would do anything to save that beautiful face of yours!"
The Chief of Police's eyes went wide and she could feel herself growing warm again. This girl was flirting with her on purpose. She was actually flirting with her. This confused the Chief to no end.
Seeing the perplexed look on the stern Chief's face made the new officer giggle again before she saluted the Chief again a skipped over to the arena exit. The Chief stood in place for a minute, astonished, before she got her professional mojo back and she too headed toward the door. The Chief was walking so fast that, lucky for Saikhan, she couldn't heard the chuckling behind her.
Emilia was standing behind a more experienced officer, who she was assigned to since she was new at the whole officer thing. They were in one of Republic City's many police airships, and were on their assigned patrol around their sector. The officer, by the name of Argo, was showing the new officer how to work the huge ship.
"These buttons are the different stations for the police's walkies-talkies. All the way from the common patrols on the ground, to the other airships, and then to the captains who are in the police department," he said, gesturing to all the buttons on the control panel.
"Wow, so you have connections to the entire force right here?" Emilia asked, "That's helpful!"
"It is, and you need to memorize all of these by the time you're done following me. It's very important."
"I think I have already memorized them actually."
"Highly doubtful," Officer Argo said with a roll of his eyes, "I know you have confidence kid, but you can't memorize everything on your first day."
"Try me!" Emilia challenged.
"Ha! Fine," Argo said, looking at all the buttons and switches. "What button is this for?"
He was pointing to a square green button that was blinking.
"That's the button to the main hangar door, but you have to pull that red switch before you push it for safety measures," Emilia answered without hesitation.
Argo looked extremely shocked by this answer before he wiped his face of any emotion and said:
"That's… errr… correct. Which switch is this?"
"That's the switch that lets go of the landing cables."
"What switch is this?"
"That one turns on the headlights, and the one to its right turns on the searchlights below the airship, and the one to that switch's right turns on the searchlights in front of airship, and that one…"
"Okay, Okay," Argo interrupted before she could say another answer correctly, "You're good kid, you're good."
Emilia smiled in triumph before a voice could be heard over the walkie talkie.
"Airship 12-B report. There is a polar bear dog and a water tribe girl approximately 20 years of age running east on 6th street. She is a bender and is possibly dangerous, we need air support. Over."
Argo immediately picked up the walkie talkie and said: "Airship 12-B responding. On my way now. Over."
Her set the walkie talkie back in its holder before addressing Emilia.
"You're a metalbender right?"
"Yep, I am."
"Okay, I'm going to swing this ship around to 6th. I need you to go to the bottom most hangar and be on cable bending duty. You just need to catch the escapee if she and her dog jump or if it's just that easy. We don't want to hurt her if she's that young and is probably just doing something stupid."
"Sure thing! I'll head there now."
Emilia slid down the ladder of the control center and ran to the hangar. She opened the door that officers usually use to jump down for tall building rescues, and arranged the many metal cables so she was ready to bend.
"Okay newbie, we're above 6th and the railroad. Do you see them?" Argo asked over the speakers in the hangar.
Emilia looked down from her eyes in the sky and immediately glued in on her target. "I see them!" She called up. The girl was riding her polar bear dog across the bridge that went over the railroad tracks. She then saw them jump off the bridge and onto a speeding train that was going under the bridge. They got up quickly, and started running fast like they were going to jump off.
"Got you," Emilia whispered before bending the cables. They shot out just as the girl and the polar bear dog jumped off the train. Emilia quickly wrapped the cables around both the dog and the girl who struggled for a minute before letting out a defeated sigh.
"I got them!" Emilia cried shouted up to the control deck.
"Ya, good going kid!" Emilia heard over the speakers, "We'll take them straight to HQ."
Emilia's gave way to a happy smirk as she watched the two escapees, making sure they didn't get away.
After they had landed at the Republic City Police Department, the two fugitives were let down onto the roof of the building where a good amount of officers were waiting for them. Since it had been discovered that the girl was indeed the Avatar, the force decided that it would be best to not take any chances. After getting the Avatar girl in handcuffs and the dog under control, Emilia followed Argo, who was being trailed by two officers leading the water tribe girl, into the Police Headquarters. Argo told Emilia that she deserved a little credit for the capture, so she could tag along.
They all walked down the many flights of stairs to the forum of the huge building where the second in command was standing there waiting for them. Saikhan was the guy's name, it took awhile for Emilia to remember it since she only had to call him 'sir' if they ever met.
"The Chief has scheduled for the girl to be put in Interrogation Room 2A, make sure she gets there officer," Saikhan said in his gruff voice.
"Yes, sir," Argo said before they headed to the stairs that led into the basement of the building. They, again, walked down flight after flight of stairs before reaching the interrogation room corridor. They all moved down to Room 2A, but stopped outside the door.
"Hey kid," Argo said, directing his attention to Emilia, "We need to wait for the person who's interrogating the girl to come. Put her in the room, lock her wrists to the cuffs attached to the table, and make sure she's facing the door. Stay in the room with her until her interrogator is here."
"Sure thing," Emilia said before she gently pushed the girl by her shoulder into the room which she had opened using her metalbending. After the door shut behind her, Emilia placed the girl in the chair facing the door and strapped her handcuffs to the table. While she was doing this, she started to talk.
"Sorry about this," She told the water tribe girl, "You seem like a good-natured person with good intentions, but this has to be done. It's protocol."
"Please," the girl said as she tried to move her hands, but obviously couldn't, "Can you talk to the guy in charge? This is a complete misunderstanding. I didn't do anything wrong."
"Unfortunately, the law disagrees with you," Emilia said as she moved to the back of the room like she was taught at the Academy, "And if I talked to the magnificent woman in charge about you I can just kiss my job good-bye. I'm new to this force and new to this city, so I can't just go off breaking rules."
"That's something we have in common," the Avatar said, "I just got here an hour ago. I've only ever been to the South Pole. I've never been to a place like this with all the noises, and angry people, and crime."
"You haven't seen anything yet," Emilia said with a dismissive hand, "But if you're the Avatar then you will soon see all of it. What's your name, kid?"
"Korra."
"Well, Korra, I hope we meet again sometime. You've got a lot of weight on your shoulders, and big shoes to fill. Without the Avatar, Avatar Aang to be precise, I would have been born in a Nation that everyone despised."
"So you born in the Fire Nation then?" Korra guessed.
Emilia nodded her head to confirm she was correct. Emilia then turned her head to the door of the cell when she heard three knocks sound against the metal. That ment 'time to come out' in police language.
"Well that's my sign to exit," Emilia said as she started towards the door, "Nice to meet you Avatar Korra."
"Wait! Before you go," The Avatar quickly cried, "If you aren't going to speak on my behalf, then could you at least make sure my polar bear dog is alright. And perhaps if there is any spare meat lying around you could feed her. Her name is Naga, and she hasn't had anything decent to eat in a while now. She's really sweet."
"That I can do without getting into trouble," Emilia answered before opening the door, walking out, then closing it behind her. She was met by the scared/angry faces of the officers that came down with her, including Argo.
"What were you doing?" He said, gesturing to the door that Emilia had just come from, "We could hear that entire conversation through the speakers. You're not supposed to make small talk with the prisoners."
"It wasn't just small talk," Emilia said without a hint of fear or nervousness in her voice or face, "Have any of you read the Police Academy Handbook?"
"That book is for rookies," Argo said, getting more irritated since a new officer was talking back to him, "The Book of Laws is what a real officer reads."
"Then apparently you haven't read the Book of Laws either Mister Real Officer because in both books it states that if a prisoner that you are interrogating is willing to make small talk with you, and are naive enough to do so, try to get as much information out of them as possible. You are supposed to make them think that they can trust you, and then ask them a ton of questions within the conversation. For example, during that conversation I figured out that she is or thinks she's the Avatar, her name is Korra, her polar bear dog's name is Naga, she isn't from around here, she was born and raised in the South Pole, and that what she did on that shopping street was a complete accident to her way of thinking and that she just wants to help people."
"Good job, Officer Emilia."
All the officers, including Emilia, quickly turned to the corridor's entrance. Chief Lin Beifong stood there with a clipboard in her hands. Her black, grey, and gold metal uniform clanked as she walked down the corridor towards them.
"Uh… Thanks Chief Beifong," Emilia said with a smile. She was so happy that the Chief had heard her little rant. She knew that the Chief knew she was correct since she had to have read the books herself to become Chief. Now the Chief knew she was intelligent, and not just some other officer who can kind of do the job right.
"She is correct gentlemen," Chief Beifong said, looking down at her clipboard, "You are supposed to do that if given the chance, but we don't usually get naive people in our interrogation rooms, so you have probably never seen it done. Officer Emilia here followed all rules and regulations concerning such a conversation, while you yelled at her for it. Go somewhere else where you can actually be helpful."
"Yes, Chief… sorry Chief," Argo rambled nervously before he and the other officers saluted their boss, and walked back down the corridor leaving the Chief of Police and the new officer alone in the corridor.
"What did you say the Avatar's name was again?" The Chief said as she wrote something down on her clipboard.
"Korra, Chief," Emilia responded, trying not to smile, but finding it really hard..
The Chief wrote the name down on her clipboard before she turned it around so Emilia could see what she had written.
"Is this everything that you said you found out about her?"
Emilia looked down at the clipboard, and just took a minute to observe the Chief's handwriting before she read the list. You would think that the Chief of Police who wrote down countless words per day would eventually have sloppy handwriting, but not this Chief of Police. It looked like she put about 5 minutes of her time into every, single letter. It was beautiful cursive that Emilia believed would make the greatest professor of grammar cry over.
After she actually did read the Chief's list, Emilia said:
"You didn't miss anything I found out, but I'm sure that if you had been in there instead of me you would have found way more that I did."
"I don't know about that," The Chief spoke with no emotion, but on the inside she was smirking with pride from the compliment, "You got a pretty extensive list from such a short conversation, but expertise just comes from experience. You did well, and I'm happy to know that at least one of my officers has read both the Academy Handbook and the Book of Laws besides myself. I need to go interrogate an Avatar, but I am allowing you to go into the observing room to watch. You could gain a little bit more knowledge about interrogation from the woman in charge."
"I will take you up on that offer, Chief," Emilia said without any hesitation, "Thank you for the opportunity."
"So you are not surprised," the Chief continued, "Hisoka will also be in there. He is my note-taker for the day."
"Thanks Chief Beifong," Emilia said with a smile and a look that made the Chief feel like she was back at the Academy herself and that one of the boys there was flirting with her. Her salute afterwards didn't help that feeling lessen either. After the new officer had shut the door to the observing room behind her, Lin let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding in. After taking a couple steady breaths to calm herself, she put on her professional personality and metalbent the interrogation room door open.
Upon entering the room and shutting the door behind her, the Chief started talking:
"Let's see," The Chief said as she walked around the table that Korra was handcuffed to, "Multiple counts of destruction of private and city property, not to mention evading arrest."
The Chief of Police skillfully slammed the clipboard onto the metal table making the Avatar jump in surprise. Emilia watched intently from her side of the wall. The observing room was a small room with the one desk and chair facing the wall to the interrogation room, which Hisoka was sitting at taking notes. The wall had glass windows shaped in the design of the wall on the other side, so watchers could look in but prisoners and other people in the room couldn't look out. The side of the wall on the inside of the interrogation room was crafted perfectly so it looked exactly like any other wall within the room. Emilia recognized the slamming of the clipboard as a technique used during interrogation to frighten the prisoner into a paranoid state so that they don't think before they speak making it easier to make them unfold.
"You're in a whole mess of trouble young lady," The Chief continued, staring daggers at the Avatar.
"But there were some thugs threatening a helpless shopkeeper and I…" Korra tried to defend herself.
"Can it!" The Chief said, as she picked her clipboard backup, "You should of called the police and stayed out of the way."
"But I couldn't sit by and do nothing," Korra stated, "It's my duty to help people. See, I'm the Avatar."
"Oh, I'm well aware of who you are," The Chief said, disinterest clear in her voice, "And your Avatar title might impress some people, but not me."
Emilia watched as Korra bent her head down in irritation before speaking again.
"Alright, fine," She said, "Then I want to talk to whoever's in charge."
"You're talking to her," the Chief said with so much authority that it almost made Emilia squeal with happiness, "I'm Chief Beifong."
"Wait, Beifong?" Korra asked, realization dawning on her, "Lin Beifong? You're Toph's daughter!"
"What of it?" The Chief said, her disinterest remaining.
"Well then why are you treating me like a criminal?" Korra asked, "Avatar Aang and you're mother were friends, they saved the world together."
"That's ancient history," the Chief said, annoyance now could be heard in her voice, "And it has diddly-squat to do with the mess you're in right now. You can't just waltz in here and dole out vigilante justice like you own the place!"
Emilia averted her attention from the interrogation to Hisoka when the walkie talkie that was strapped to his belt started beeping. He picked it up and turned it on.
"Officer Hisoka here. Over."
"Councilman Tenzin is here outside Interrogation Room 2A demanding we let him talk to the Avatar. Over."
"Hold on a moment, the Chief is interrogating the Avatar. Let me ask her first. Over."
Hisoka turned the walkie talkie back off, and pulled down a lever causing a hole to be made in the wall.
"Chief," Hisoka called out, "Councilman Tenzin is here."
Emilia watched the Chief huff a sign before saying in irritation:
"Let him in."
Emilia watched as Hisoka closed the hole in the wall, and pressed a button on the desk that opened the door to the interrogation room. She continued to watch as a tall man in robes of red and yellow with a mustache, a goatee, and a blue arrow tattoo along the top of his head walked into the room with a stern frown on his face. Emilia recognized him as Master Tenzin immediately, the only Airbending master alive today. He was the son of Avatar Aang and Waterbending master Katara, and lived on the grand Air Temple Island in the middle of Republic City Bay. Anyone who was anyone knew who he was.
"Tenzin."
And the Avatar did too.
"Sorry," She said as innocently as she could, "I got a little sidetracked on my way to see you."
The Airbending master took in a deep breath and let it out, much like a father would do if his child did something wrong but they don't want to get angry about it. He then looked at the Chief of Police who was now respectfully standing in his presence. He put on a cheesy smile that Emilia knew didn't belong on his face and made her cringe before addressing the Chief.
"Lin," He said without respect or interest making Emilia angry, "You are looking radiant as usual."
"Cut the garbage, Tenzin," The Chief retaliated with an equal amount of disrespect and disinterest making Emilia smirk, "Why is the Avatar in Republic City? I thought you were supposed to be moving down to the South Pole to train her."
"My relocation has been delayed," Tenzin answered, his normal stern, emotionless face replaced, "The Avatar, on the other hand, will be heading back to the South Pole immediately where she will stay put."
"But…" Korra tried to butt in, but Tenzin continued.
"If you would be so kind as to drop the charges against Korra, I will take full responsibility for today's regrettable events and cover all the damages."
Emilia watched as the Chief looked back at Korra then at Tenzin, contemplating. She also watched as the Chief gave another sigh before she spoke.
"Fine," she said, making a simple hand gesture that undid Korra's metal handcuffs, "Get her out of my city."
Her voice got dangerously quiet towards the end of her words, but, unlike most people, Tenzin was not fazed.
"Always a pleasure, Lin," Tenzin said with a hint of sarcasm, "Let's go Korra."
Korra, at Tenzin's firm words, immediately got up and headed for the door. She didn't take her eyes off of Chief Beifong the entire time. The Chief gestured with her index and pinky finger to her own eyes then swiped them around to point at Korra in a 'I'm watching you' gesture. Korra looked offended for a moment before she did a sassy mimic of the gesture right back at the Chief of Police before exiting the room. The Chief looked shocked for a moment before she shrugged her shoulders in a 'whatever' way and her face became that of suspicion.
Emilia watched as the Chief walked back into the room to grab her clipboard, and as Hisoka gathered all of his notes and made to leave the room.
"It was a pleasure to meet you Officer Emilia," Hisoka said with a charming smile and a small bow.
"It was nice to meet you too Officer Hisoka," Emilia replied with her own smile as she followed him out of the room.
Emilia watched as the Chief also came out of the interrogation room, and as Hisoka handed her his notes before she dismissed him.
Emilia didn't know if she should talk to Chief Beifong, or if she should just go. Luckily, the decision to this question suddenly dawned on her. She had promised Korra that she would check on Naga and perhaps feed her. With Korra already on her way out of the building, Emilia had a small window to fulfill her promise.
Chief Beifong looked through Hisoka's notes as she headed to the staircase. She nodded with satisfaction at his handiwork before attaching them to her clipboard and redirecting her eyes to the stairs she was about to climb. She heard metal-covered feet running on the stone floor behind her, and she turned to see Emilia, the new officer, who was making a huge first impression and reputation for herself, sprint past her up the stairs. The new officer looked behind her at the Chief with a smile before calling back:
"See ya later Chief Beifong!"
Only after Emilia turned a corner at the top of the staircase did Chief Lin Beifong allow the blush and smile to cross her face.