Prologue

Three years ago…

The door in front of Mako opened with a screech. The young fifteen-year-old boy jumped at the noise. He had listened to nothing but the sound of his own pencil scratches for the past several hours. He lifted his golden eyes and immediately stood up when he realized who had stopped to pay him a visit.

"Mr. Zolt, sir," Mako addressed with a deep bow.

"Ahh, Mako. How is my street urchin handling his new promotion?" Lightning Bolt Zolt asked with little interest. Without once making eye contact with Mako, Zolt crossed the room and began shuffling through some files in the far corner. Several other big, burly men entered the room behind Zolt and followed suit. Mako remained standing and bowed to each one as they passed.

"I've always been able to hold my own with math, so running numbers has been a good fit, sir," Mako responded with over-emphasized optimism.

Zolt merely grunted and continued with his work.

"Hey Mako," a tall waterbender called.

"Yes, Mr. Shin?" Mako politely replied, still standing out of respect.

"If you are just going to stand around all day you might as well polish up my shoes," Shady Shin said with a crooked smirk on his face.

Mako immediately grabbed the nearest rag and began to spit-shine the man's shoes until they sparkled.

"And while you're at it," a muscular earthbender said, "you might as well take this coat to the wash."

The earthbender took off the coat he was wearing and chucked it at Mako. It slammed right into his face before he could catch it and slid to the ground. Mako picked it up as gingerly as if it were newborn and bowed his head in the affirmative.

"Alright, boys," grumbled Zolt, "Does anyone else have a meaningless task they'd like to give to our non-bending friend here or can I have the kid get to back to some real work now?"

The men looked down at the ground and shuffled their feet, giving no audible response.

"Alright then. I found what I was looking for," Zolt said, then promptly exited the room. The other men followed single-file behind him like baby turtle-ducks following their mother. Shady Shin was last in line, and on his way out he could not help but announce, "You better be sure not to step on any of our toes, Non-Bender. The only reason you are here is because of your brother. We can kick you back out onto the streets in no time."

Only when Shin had made his exit and slammed the door behind him did Mako retake his seat. He took deep, slow breaths to calm himself down. If he didn't control his desire to lodge his fist in Shady Shin's face then he would end up back on the street, with Bolin to boot. Eventually he calmed down and returned to his work.

Would you look at that! Zolt raised his interest loan rate by four percent last week.

A/N: Hey guys! This is a prologue, which is why the chapter is so short. Future chapters will be longer. This story is meant to be a little bit more political in the sense that it is going to explore the mentality of the non-bender Equalist. I felt that they had a lot more standing than they were given in the show. It started off well, but then as they ran out of time Amon just became an evil dictator maniac. But in reality, there was a lot of non-bender oppression in Republic City that was almost addressed, but then swept aside. That's what this story is focusing on.