A/N: This story serves as my Round 4 entry for season 2 of the Pro-bending Circuit Competition.
My Main Prompt: Write for the genre: Crime
My Additional Prompts: (dialogue) "You're the last person I would have expected", (smell) blood, (quote) "Failure is a word unknown to me" - Muhammad Ali Jinnah, (element) water
Word Count: 2476
"If the Wolfbats don't do something drastic here the Fire Ferrets have earned themselves another win here today!" The announcer's voice boomed over the loudspeaker. The fans erupted into a chorus of thunderous applause as they looked on at Mako, Bolin, and Korra. Mako raised a small flame in his hand and smiled at the crowd while Korra started doing some fancy waterbending trick with a stream blue liquid. Bolin grinned, levitating a rock disc before spinning around and drop-kicking it towards his opponent. Tahno dropped into the water leaving only the firebender standing on the edge of the platform with the three members of the Future Industries Fire Ferrets standing there ready to strike.
"I got him!" Korra yelled, running forward to attack. The Avatar jumped into the air about to deliver the winning hit when suddenly every light in the arena went out and the stadium was immersed in total darkness. A scream sounded in the blackness of the arena and several seconds passed before the lights came back on and everyone simultaneously let out a horrified gasp.
"Korra!" Mako screamed, looking all around for his pro-bending teammate.
"Where'd she go?!" Bolin asked, looking over the edge of the water to see if his friend had fallen into the water.
"You!" Mako stormed over to the shaken up firebender boy cowering on the edge of the play area and grabbed him by his shoulder pads. "What did you do to Korra!?"
"I… I didn't do anything!" The boy stammered, too shaken up to fight back.
"Alright, alright." A hand came down on Mako's shoulder. "Let's calm down now." When Mako turned he saw that the hand belonged to Police Chief Lin Beifong.
"What's going on!?" Mako demanded, shrugging out from under the woman's hold. Lin looked at Bolin as he came to stand beside his brother and waved one of her partners to come and remove the Wolfbats' firebender from the area.
"This is an active crime scene. I'm going to have to ask you two to go to your locker room and wait for further instruction." Lin turned to examine the spot Korra had last been seen in. Mako followed her, not ready to just give in and wait helplessly.
"Where's Korra?" Bolin asked before Mako had a chance to ask the question himself. Lin sighed and walked forward, standing mere inches away from the brothers.
"I have reason to believe the disappearance of the Avatar was a planned act." She told them, glancing around to make sure nobody else could hear. "The arena was under tight surveillance tonight as a precautionary measure but we weren't prepared for the power to go down. We need to find Korra before it's too late."
"What!" Mako practically shrieked. "What are you going to do if you fail and something horrible happens to her! Then what?!" Mako was about to go off on the officer but Lin held a hand up to silence him.
"Failure is a word unknown to me." Lin answered shortly.
"But you just used the word… obviously it's not unknown to you." Bolin pointed out, missing the meaning Lin was trying to get across. The woman took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of her nose.
…
Korra groaned, rolling onto her side as she woke up, the smell of blood was potent in the small area she could feel she was trapped in. A small whimper escaped from her as she forced herself to sit up and felt the blood rushing to her head. The Avatar reached a chained arm up to touch the sore spot on her head, this was the source of the blood.
"So nice to see you awake." The man, an equalist, who'd hit her in the first place cackled. Korra squeezed her eyes shut, the sound pierced in her head louder than it really was.
"What did you take me here for?" Korra asked, pulling at the shackles keeping her trapped in the cramped cell she'd been thrown in. The equalist didn't answer her, but instead got up and left the room. Korra sighed, picking on the blue sash she wore around her waist to symbolize she was the waterbending member of the Fire Ferrets. Korra had just been thinking she was out of luck when she realized that the ribbon was frayed and had something sticky on it, hopefully someone on her side would find it and come to her rescue. She sighed, the Avatar was no stranger to being kidnapped. Korra blew out a long breath of air and settled in for the long wait she knew she was in for.
…
"We're helping you find her!" Mako argued.
"Yeah! Maybe we can help." Bolin smiled, trying his best to look innocent. Lin shook her head and sighed.
"This is a police investigation, if you get in my way you're done." The police chief told them. "The only reason I'm saying yes is because you two seem to know the Avatar better than anyone else… that's all."
"Thanks!" Mako smiled, jumping up and punching the air as he ran to the edge of the platform to go look in the water below. He started looking for clues alone for a while before Bolin came to join him with Pabu.
"Pabu wanted to help too." Bolin smiled, putting the little animal down by his feet. While Bolin started talking over the details of the case with his brother, the fire ferret wandered over to the water's edge and stared for a while before jumping in.
"PABU!" Bolin screamed when he heard the splash and saw his little pet in the water. "Hold on Pabu! Daddy's coming! Daddy's coming to help you!" Bolin dove into the water though the animal was perfectly capable of swimming on his own. Pabu made a skreeing noise at Bolin when the boy wrapped his arms around him and tried to get away again. "Mako!" Bolin complained, misunderstanding Pabu's actions to mean he didn't like him anymore.
"No look!" Mako pointed to the little ferret. "What does he have there?" Bolin shrugged his shoulders and swam over to Pabu, this time the animal was happy to climb up onto the earthbender's head to avoid getting wet. Bolin swam back where Mako was standing and pulled himself up.
"What does he have?" Bolin asked, straining his eyes to look up at his pet. Mako gave Pabu a gentle pat before taking a piece of blue ribbon smudged with something black out of the ferret's mouth.
"Good boy Pabu!" Mako praised, he knew from picking up after Korra in the locker room all the time that this was part of her pro-bending uniform. "Bo! This is Korra's!"
"But what's that black stuff on it?" Bolin touched some of it, rubbing it together on his fingers. "It's sticky."
"Hey…" A voice came from the darkened doorway that led to the locker rooms. "Come here. I think I can help you guys."
"Tahno?" Bolin asked, squinting towards the doorway.
"Yeah. Come on." The boy sighed and waited for them to come over to where he was standing.
"You're the last person I would have expected to help us." Mako commented, crossing his arms as he leaned against the wall across from his usually obnoxious opponent. Bolin nodded, he couldn't let the fact that this guy had wanted to crush the Fire Ferrets and anyone affiliated with them not more than an hour ago.
"Look, as much as I don't particularly like Korra she's still the Avatar. Besides, if you don't have a waterbender I can't look forward to wiping the arena floor with you next week." Tahno's usual snarkiness started to seep through in the words making the brother's a little more willing to believe him.
"So what did you think you could help us with?" The firebender asked, trying to get them back on the subject at hand. Tahno flipped his hair with a dramatic sigh.
"I was knocked off the platform right before the lights went out. I saw two men waiting with lanterns by the Satomobile parking area door. I didn't want to get caught because quite frankly I care about my own well-being more than that Korra's, but I saw them take her out that door. I bet there was a Satomobile waiting there to take her away from the arena." Tahno hadn't even finished speaking before Mako was sprinting towards the door he was talking about.
"Thanks Tahno!" Bolin called over his shoulder as he chased after his brother. Mako swung the door open and rushed in, immediately flailing his arms out as he stepped in something slippery.
"Ahh!" Mako yelled as he fell backwards, Bolin caught him before he fell and helped him to his feet.
"Careful…" Bolin chastised him. "It looks like one of the Satomobiles is leaking." Mako nodded and crouched down to look at the oil spilled on the floor. He dipped two fingers in the substance and rubbed his fingers together.
"It's sticky." He commented, looking back down at the dirty blue sash in his hand. "I think we should tell Beifong about this…"
"Okay, I'll get her." Bolin ran to the ladder and scrambled up as fast as he could. While he was off looking for the police chief, Mako continued his search for clues. He couldn't let people get away with kidnapping his best friend. Several minutes passed before Bolin, accompanied by Lin and a few of her detectives rejoined him.
"Bolin told me what you found…" Lin started. Mako nodded, happy his brother had thought this far ahead as he toyed with the frayed end of Korra's ribbon.
"I also found a smeared part of the oil with half a footprint in it. I think it means the criminal who took Korra slipped in the oil like I did on his way in." Mako theorized, Lin nodded in agreement.
"Now you're really thinking like a detective! That theory would also explain how Korra's belt was greasy and all the way over there in the pool." Lin started to explain the facts of the case but was interrupted by police static coming in through the radio she wore. Mako and Bolin watched her nod before muttering a special code back to the officers on the other end. After this Chief Beifong walked over to her Satomobile and opened the door, when she didn't hear footprints she turned to look at the brothers. "You boys coming or not?"
"We're coming!" Mako called back quickly and ran to get in the passenger side. Bolin got in the backseat with Pabu and they took off tires squealing.
"Where are we going?" Bolin asked, holding Pabu tight on his lap so he wouldn't go flying every time Lin took a corner. The woman looked at the earthbender from the rearview mirror.
"We're going to save Korra…" She answered shortly. Mako frowned and looked over at her.
"What do you mean? I thought you didn't know where she was. Isn't that why we were all working so hard to solve this case at the arena?" The firebender boy asked, somewhat aggravated that all his work had seemingly been for nothing.
"Well, we were gathering evidence against the people who were stupid enough to commit this crime, but I had other officers tracking down Avatar Korra's whereabouts."
"Unbelievable!"
…
"You're not going to get away this time." The equalist, who'd returned with a few tools of torture, told Korra. The young, inexperienced Avatar had been chi blocked and hadn't been able to find a way out of this predicament yet, but she could feel her bending coming back.
"And you're not going to get away with kidnapping me." Korra rolled her eyes, she was trying to stall until she could unleash the full wrath of the Avatar State on the equalist. "You do realize kidnapping is a crime right?" The man seemed to hesitate for a moment before continuing with his previous task of setting up his equipment.
"Whatever Amon wishes is above the law." He retorted, filling a bowl with water and placing on the tray. Korra flexed her hand a bit and the water sloshed a bit. A smile spread on Korra's face as she willed the water towards her and slashed the cuffs off and let the water fall to a puddle at her feet. The girl took a solid stance and stood back, getting ready to metalbend the bars to free herself. The equalist was two steps ahead though and had already slipped his electrifying, chi blocking glove and shocked the water.
…
Lin, Mako, and Bolin had just arrived at the scene and jumped out of the Satomobile just as Korra's screams sounded through the late night air. The other officers had the scene secured and were holding the perimeter for Lin.
"Kor-" Bolin started to scream, but Lin clamped her hand down over his mouth.
"Shut up!" She hissed. "Don't give our position away!"
"Lin!" One of the lead officers yelled, breaking formation as Mako kicked the door open and ran into the building.
"Korra!" He screamed, following her cries of pain down to the cellar. When he got there he was alarmed by the amount of blood on her head paired with the fact that she was writhing on the ground in the tiny puddle that had led to her downfall.
"What!" The equalist turned quickly but Mako used his moment of surprised hesitation to gain the upperhand. The quick thinking firebender kicked a fireball towards the man and jumped over him to get the keys off the conveniently placed hook behind his desk.
"Korra!" Mako yelled, dodging a zap from the glove as he made his way back to the cell door and unlocked it. The firebender grabbed onto the door and used the momentum of his bodyweight swinging it open to place a powerful kick to the center of the man's chest. Before Mako turned his back on the man he tipped the desk over and let it fall over and trap the equalist.
"Mako…" Korra choked out, trying to sit up though she was still too weak to do anything.
"Shh. I have you." The firebender reassured her as he scooped her up and ran past the equalist and up the stairs.
"You're in a world of trouble young man!" Lin called as she passed Mako on the stairs while she moved in on the criminal with the rest of her team.
"Korra's safe. That's all I care." Mako shot back as he continued up the stairs with the weakened Avatar. Even from outside the building he could hear the police chief.
"You're under arrest for the kidnapping of the Avatar. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you…"