Chapter 3

Adventures in Republic City

"Wow, this place is way bigger than I thought!" Chun grinned as the walked the streets of Downtown Republic City.

Zhen simply sighed as she adjusted the pair of sunglasses she had bought the three of them. "Just no big theatrics like in Omashu, I doubt getting out of here would be as simple as it was there," Zhen glanced over to Kuvira who was still examining the buildings.

"Huh, they are still doing repairs,"

"Did you live here or something?" Chun asked as Zhen scoffed.

"She might have if she actually conquered it," Zhen made a quip as Chun scratched the back of his head.

"What?"

Zhen grumbled, "really, can you at least make a basic effort to keep up with current events? It has not even that long ago, the person we are currently keeping company with is also the woman that tried to unify the entire earth kingdom," Zhen stated as Chun simply looked at his cousin before shrugging.

"You know me, I don't really care what famous people are doing, all I know is that I'm hungry!" Without saying another word Chun wandered into a restaurant without even consulting Zhen and Kuvira.

They both gave a strained sigh as they wandered in to the restaurant. Inside was people eating and having a merry good time, from tall to large were people enjoying themselves. It was almost the the attempt to take over Republic City never happened, then again considering everything that constantly happened in the city perhaps a giant robot with a canon wasn't even that big of a deal.

Chun had already picked out a seat as Zhen followed him sitting down, Kuvira relaxed a little. Despite it being an obvious public place she doubted any one in the city would be able to tell it was her even if they had a wanted poster.

"Hey, when do we order?" Chun frowned as Zhen grumbled.

"Idiot, you have to wait until a waiter or waitress comes to us, you should actually check what kind of restaurant you are going to before just running in," Zhen said bluntly as Kuvira noticed a man sitting in the corner of the room constantly staring at them. She was tempted to warn the other two, he had short black hair with amber eyes.

He was wearing a red jacket and black pants. Despite the jacket he wasn't wearing a undershirt. The main simply continued to stare at their table before he grinned to himself and got up from his seat. Kuvira was about the warn the duo but their waitress was already at the table.

"What would you like to order,"

Before Chun could even say anything the main walked up to their table and placed and slammed his hand on it. "Give them everything on the menu, I'll be paying," he then smirked at Chun as Chun's eyes widened for a moment.

"Hey Lan!" The waterbender smile as as wide as Kuvira had ever seen, which was saying something considering how happy a person Chun was.

"Oy Chun, didn't expect run into you here," the man named Lan casually pulled up a chair as Zhen grumbled.

"Lan se... are you here to waste our time,"

"You know boys would ask you out more if you weren't so naggy," Lan laughed a bit as Kuvira simply stared at him for a moment.

"Oh, I apologize, I'm Lan se, but please call me Lan for short. And I'm this idiot's older brother," he pointed at Chun as Zhen cleared her throat.

"Now that, that is out of the way, why are you here Lan!" Zhen frowned as the older firebender crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes.

"Not even a, hi, whatever," Lan shrugged as before he continued, "I'm actually here with dad believe or not..."

Chun tilted his head at the statement, "huh? Dad's here?"

Lan nodded, "yeah, apparently one of his old 'friends' from when he was in the police force stole something from him and he's hiding out in this city. I've come to take it back," Lan placed his feet on the table as every single worker shot him an irritated look as Chun tapped his bottom lip for a moment.

"Huh, who is this guy..."

"Chun, we shall not helping..." Zhen was blunt as Chun glared at his cousin.

"What? Why not, I mean we are here anyway, we might as well look into it,"

"Fool, have you forgotten that we still need to deliver this to grandmother? She is probably wondering why we are late, I am the one that will get the tongue lashing if things are not handled appropriately,"

Lan simply laughed, "still trying to get into grandma's personal guard huh. At this point I think she's just pulling your leg!" Lan said as Zhen eyes twitched. She didn't know why, but his expression, his body language, everything at that moment irritated her.

"You lazy, no good, ugh," Zhen held back a scream as Lan shrugged.

"Hey, at least I'm blue,"

Kuvira wondered what he meant by that, but there was something else that she was more interested in. "The man that you are looking for, I want to know more about him," Kuvira casually said as Lan closed one of his eyes and scanned her for a moment.

"Hmm, is she your girlfriend or something Chun?"

Kuvira did not comment on such a thing, though to much of her surprise, it was Zhen that corrected that statement.

"Please Lan, even someone like Chun would have better taste in women...she is," Zhen was having trouble trying to find words, after all she couldn't just blurt out the name. Not in front of everyone in the restaurant. So she did the logical thing and remained silent, Chun glanced over the Zhen and started to open his mouth only to have it covered Zhen.

Zhen was going to leave it up to Kuvira if she was going to tell Lan anything.

"Man these looks, fine I won't ask for a name," Lan got the hint as his smiling expression slowly faded. "The man I'm looking for name is Shīlì, he was a former captain in the Republic City Police force around 23 years ago, he's probably in his late fifties by now,"

"Former?" that made Kuvira wonder, did the man retire.

"Heh, that man quit, can't blame him. Having your wive and kid murdered will do that to you,"

At that moment both Zhen and Kuvira's eye twitched. The entire mood became far more somber, she honestly didn't really know how to respond to that.

"Hey, where's our food!" Luckily Chun was able to break any tension that with his words.

"Fool, it's going to take awhile anyway, Lan ordered everything on the menu remember?"

Lan chuckled for a moment, "anyway, what the man stole is some high grade blasting jelly, something that can only be mixed together using both waterbending and firebending. It's pretty potent, and the man took tons of it right from under mom's and dad's noses, honestly this is why the entire situation is kind of top priority. Since from the sources I gathered what he is planning to do with it isn't good..."

"Huh, what do you mean by that"? Zhen asked as Lan crossed his arms.

"With that amount, he probably plans to just blow up the entirety of downtown Republic city, pretty much erasing any lower class citizen,"

"What..." Kuvira had to state that bluntly, she did not expect something like that, things just escalated rather quickly.

"I know I may be asking too much, but Lan...do you not think you should alert that authorities?" Zhen pointed out as Lan bobbed his head for a moment.

"Eh...no good, I wasn't even suppose to tell you that much, plus that situation has nothing to do with me. That and I don't have the best relationship with the Police Force right now,"

Zhen frowned as her eyes narrowed once again. "I was wondering how you got all this money,"

"Hey, I just took something as payment, nothing comes free!" Lan laughed as the door leading into the restaurant opened.

Kuvira instantly flinched as she covered her face before burying it in the table. That was someone she recognized, even if she could put a name with the face she knew it was someone that could identify her.

A tall man with tangerine colored eyes and black hair entered the building. He was in the Republic City Police force no doubt, his uniform gave that much away, it also gave away the fact that he was most likely a detective. He glanced over to Lan as Lan simply grinned.

"Speaking of Police Force..." Lan removed his feet from the table before shifting his body so he was facing the man, he was most likely in his early twenties. "So, they sent detective just for me, I should feel flattered,"

"Are you Lan se?" He glared at Lan as Lan simply sighed.

"Man, one of those guy blurted huh? I thought I messed them up enough they wouldn't say anything, then again I shouldn't leave while shouting, 'the one who gave you those burns was Lan se, Mr. Blue'" Lan laughed as the man grumbled.

"We don't take kindly to vigilantes in this city, raiding a known Agni Kai Tirade warehouse...10 men was hospitalized, all of them with burns that may never heal..."

"Hey, maybe they shouldn't pick fights!" Lan shrugged as the man continued.

"That's not all of it, the warehouse was known for hording money from sold and stolen goods, we were planning on seizing it. However when we got there half of the money was gone..."

"Hey, I only took half, I mean I have to eat too..."

"You're under arrest, do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

"Well, I'm right here...not running, I think that's up to you," Lan smiled as the detective gritted his teeth, however before the fight could start the officer's eyes wandered to Kuvira as his heart skipped a beat. Her head was still low and she hadn't said a word.

"Wait, you're..."

Before he could finish a chair slammed into the officer, a long string of red liquid attached to it.

"Chun, what are you doing?!" Zhen nearly pulled her hair out.

"What, it's way too late to try to hide the fact that she's Kuvira," all the patrons in the restaurant gasped. Even Lan twitched slightly as the officer got back up, glaring at all four of them.

"You're all under arrest!"

"Okay..." Chun replied.

A moment of silence followed before all of them made a dash towards the front door. The officer closed his fist before firing a ball of flame towards their direction.

However it never reached them as a flash of blue flame intercepted it. The fire mixed as Lan stood in the doorway as he smirked.

"I guess I should mention, I'm Blue..."