Damn teenagers. After a eighteen-hour shift and coming home to pass out in front of the library fireplace, just to get up four hours later, all she wanted was a hot shower. Was that too much to ask for? But after the first boy beat her to the bathroom, the second one slid in while she was turning off the coffee.
"Hurry up!" She pounded on the door, extremely upset that she'd been thwarted not once, but twice in the same morning.
"I just got in here!" Bolin shouted back.
"You better get outta there quick! I have to work!" Lin growled, she only knew one person who took longer turns in the bathroom than Bolin, and that was the rich girl.
"Me too! Don't worry, I'll be out in a minute!"
"Yeah, yeah!" She'd better put her bid in for the shower now before the other, even more hygienic, teenager decided to go next, "Girl!" she knocked on her own door.
"Yeah, Lin?" Asami didn't come to greet her. Strange, she usually had better manners.
"I got the shower after the boy."
"Okay." There was...just a certain tone of voice that was setting off alarms in Lin's head. It sounded like a crook who told the cops to 'wait a moment' so they could hide the evidence. Or in this case...maybe a firebender boy. "Where's the firebreather?" She asked suspiciously to the door, not having ample reason to kick it down just yet.
"Right here!" Mako's door opened very slightly, "I'm getting dressed." He added sharply, obviously thinking that there had better be a very good reason for call him before he could finish the simple task.
"Hm." Well, she had no real evidence, just parental suspicion which might be going into overdrive due to the situation. At least she'd get a warm cup of coffee.
Knock, Knock
"Who is it?" Lin asked through her front door. How many people were awake and knocking on doors at this hour?
"It's me." A voice came from the other side, "Open up, Maiden." Lin smiled, there were probably four people left in the world who still called her 'Maiden'. Upon opening the door, she quickly crossed her arms.
"You're still alive?" She deadpanned with a scowl.
"You still don't know how to cook?" The old man asked, carrying bags of food from his shop.
"Come in Xun." Lin ordered with a smirk, taking most of the items from him all the while wondering how his family could let him deliver this much without help when he needed a cane to walk. Not that she'd ever mention it, he was still a proud man.
"You want coffee?" She asked as they dropped the breakfast on the kitchen table.
"I could do with a cup." He sat down, leaning his cane against the table and taking off his hat, "You got any milk?"
"Can't take it straight? You wuss." Never the less, she opened the icebox and grabbed milk.
"At seventy-five, nothin's ever straight." His old co-worker snorted as she set the cup down in front of him, "So, how's it goin'?"
"My house is being over-run by teenagers. How the hell do you think it's going?" Using sarcasm to avoid an unwanted conversation? Maybe, "I can't even get in a shower." she added with a glare at the ceiling.
"Years ago, I remember this cocky rookie proudly proclaiming that she'd never have children. Funny thing is, she looked a lot like you."
"She tried to avoid it. Now she has three." And didn't ask for any of them.
"Word around the shop is that you took in the Sato girl." Speaking of kid number three.
"Who has the loose jaw?"
"Everyone and their brother." Xun wasn't so stupid as to name any names. Sure she couldn't move the earth beneath their feet, but that didn't mean that she couldn't make their lives a living hell.
"Next time anyone comes complaining to you, you tell them she's surrounded by cops every minute of the day." If they couldn't trust the girl, let them take comfort in keeping their enemy close.
"When they came gabbing to me, I told them to trust their Chief."
"Maybe you shouldn't have." She leaned back in her chair and used her hands to rest her head, "Hiroshi was a friend. Not a close one, but just the same, I shoulda seen it."
WHACK! He was pretty quick with that walking cane for such an old man.
"Damn it." She growled, way too proud to admit that hurt and rub her head, "If you weren't a senior citizen, I'd kick your ass."
"Didn't I teach you anything?"
"Yes. You taught us all what to say to our spouses when we wanted to stay out all night drinking." Tell 'em you have to work on a murder case, he'd say, and use as much gruesome detail as possible. She hadn't been lucky with her husband, he was an investigator and such details didn't disgust him into acceptance. Tenzin, on the other hand, all she had to do was say 'dead body' and he quickly wished her luck and hung up before she could mention blood and gore. The wimp.
"Don't let 'em get to ya, Maiden. You'll go stir crazy. 'Sides, even your mom got fooled before."
"Not for a decade."
"Beatin' yourself up helping any?" That woman was the only badass he knew that could pout in public without diminishing her rep while she was at it.
"Well, someone has to do it." She blocked the cane before it hit her again.
"Let an old coot have that, huh?"
"Mom!" Bolin yelled from the stairs, "Your turn!"
"Gotta go, I won't get a second chance." To get clean or to get away from this conversation, "Finish your coffee; eat." She ordered on her way to get her cloths.
"I don't wanna, Mom. I poisoned it!"
"That's why you eat first!"
…...
Asami had woken Korra up early. Really early, before Lin got up kind of early, despite some enormous resistance. 'The morning is evil', she'd said, but Asami warned her that if she wanted to freshen up she needed to do it before Bolin claimed the bathroom. He spent more time in there than anyone else she knew. So by the time Lin came pounding on the door, both girls were clean and she was just finishing her makeup.
"Well, guess I better go down and face Beifong." Korra sighed. They couldn't hide her forever, might as well get the shouting over with.
"I'll go with you." Asami volunteered with a smile after checking over her work, "you might need someone to hold her off."
"Thanks," Korra reached for the doorknob and started to head out, "I'll need all-"
"Towel Dash!" Bolin's panicked voice came from the hall. The Avatar caught a glimpse of tan and white before Asami grabbed her collar and pulled her back in the room.
"Sorry. It's just that 'Towel Dash' is code for 'Don't look, I'm running back to my room in a towel'."
"Oh." Korra blushed from head to toe.
"You good, Bolin?"
"Yeah," Mako answered for him, "he's good." With conformation that there were no half naked boys in the hall, the girls headed out...just to run into Lin as she was coming up the stairs. They screeched to a halt as a murderous energy came from the older woman.
"We can explain." Mako assured her as she moved in closer and closer.
"Really?" She highly doubted it. The firebender took a breath and mentally ran over the speech they'd prepared. Then he made the mistake of looking into her eyes, and he suddenly felt his life force draining away.
"It was all Bolin's idea!" So maybe he sold out his little brother. It was all Bolin's idea! Why should he have to die for it?!
"Bye!" Asami grabbed Mako's hand, Mako grabbed Korra's arm and they ducked around her to run down the stairs. It wasn't long at all before Lin heard the sound of a roaring engine followed by screeching tires.
"Boy!"
…..
"Well, I got it all sorted, no thanks to you traitors." Bolin crossed his arms and gave his best glare at the three eating breakfast on a break room table. They seemed unaffected, of course this was probably because Bolin at his worst didn't equal Lin's level of scariness. Though there was that one time, when they spiderratted him out to Tenzin, that he did come way too close for comfort, "You can stay with us, Korra."
"That's great."
"How'd you manage that?"
"Oh," he went from disgruntled to smooth, "you just gotta know how to handle her." nothing but silence. Asami looked over his shoulder with a horrified expression, quickly followed by Mako and Korra "...She's standing right behind me isn't she?" Three simultaneous nods, "Sorry, Mom!"
"She's not behind you."Asami giggled as the laughter filled the room. The earthbender looked behind him to see nothing but empty space.
"You're all jerks." Bolin accused while cackling like a madman. What a relief to know that the person who held his life in her hands hadn't heard his boasting.
"Couldn't resist, Bro. How'd you really convince her?"
"...I begged." With lines such as 'she's all alone now, just like I was', 'nobody's giving her a chance', 'she's trying to help, she just doesn't know how', 'Well then, maybe you could show her how to fight crooks the right way'. "Complete with polarbear pup look." And then he ran before she could change her mind, "And I barely made it out alive!"
"So what's next?" Korra asked the chief as they headed back to her office from a fairly productive interrogation. She was already excited that Bolin not only convinced his mom to let her stay, but to teach her a thing or two (Xun had heard every word. Lin said that the entire police force would know about it by dusk). The excitement turned into full blown adrenalin rush after watching that crook in interrogation start off an unmovable object and end up a crying mess. "We gonna break down his friends' doors and drag 'em down here?"
"No." Well, yes, but it was going to be a little more organized than the kid was making it sound, "We'll plan a search." She said as she found herself regretting this arrangement for the hundredth time in the past five minutes. But she reasoned that the hothead would be a lot less trouble if she were on a leash, so they would stick with it for now.
"Chief." he bearer of bad news was making her rounds again.
"What?"She hadn't seen anyone shake so much since one of her predecessors delivered an order to give up Bolin. This was interesting, in a very bad way.
"This notice just came from the City Council." Lovely, just want she wanted to hear.
"What's it say, Beifong?" Korra leaned over her shoulder, only to be pushed back.
"Get off me. It says-
To: Chief Lin Beifong
Effective Immediately- Any association with Amon or the equalists is now illegal and punishable to the full extent of the law.
Effective Immediately- A curfew is in effect for all nonbending citizens. Every nonbending citizen is now required to be in their own homes by nightfall.
Signed- one power hungry bastard and the idiots worshiping him. Damn them all."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm afraid that there's nothing Chief Beifong can do." A snobby, sneaky, slippery voice said smugly, "It is the duty of our police force to enforce the law, not make it." The councilman stood straight as the avatar got in his face.
"What's your deal?" Korra felt a firm hand grab her arm and pull her back.
"Can it, Kid. This is going to far, Tarrlok. You can't order the arrest of innocent people." She wouldn't do it. She couldn't.
"Yeah!" Wait? Did they just agree on something?
"It is for the safety of everyone. Has your time in imprisonment," he looked her over with a snide smile, "made you sympathetic towards Amon's goals?"
"No." One day this bastard's luck would run out, and when that day came she was going to kick his ass.
"Then it's settled. Now for the reason I came here. Councilman Tenzin did not appear at today's meeting and I can't get a hold of anyone on Air Temple Island."
"He's still sick."
"Strange. He usually sends for his work when he's sick. On a side note, may I ask why Councilman Tenzin is having the Avatar to stay at your home?"
"Wouldn't want the Avatar to get sick. You got any other business here?" The man was a power hungry bastard, but he wasn't stupid. He had to know something was up, but he couldn't prove a thing...yet.
"No. I believe that just about covers it. Good day, Chief Beifong." He didn't get a reply, she didn't have the boys to cover for her this time.
"What are we gonna do?"
"We're going to get a team and do a search." Like the bastard said, she couldn't do a damn thing about it.
….
Lin was going to kill that bastard, that much was certain. She was just debating whether she wanted to go over there right now and beat him to death so they couldn't put 'premeditated' in front of the murder charge, or if she was going to take some time to plan it out and torture him. Both ideas just seemed so appealing right now.
"Chief Beifong!" The squad room was deathly quiet as a team of Tarrlok's henchmen squared off against the Chief in the center of it. Officers around the team were posed, ready to defend their leader against the intruders, "Chief Beifong, did you hear me?" The head henchman asked harshly, as if he had some authority over her, "It's getting close to nightfall. We're here to escort you to your residence. According to law all nonbenders must-"
"I know the law!"
"Then come with us." He went to grab her bicep, only to have her cold and even voice bring him to a halt.
"Touch me and I'll break that hand."
"That's assaulting an officer!"
"It's self-defense, and your not an officer." A light cheer came from the real officers in the room, "Go back to Tarrlok and tell him that if he's going to play cops and robbers with Amon, then he should send his attack tigerdogs against equalists, not cops." 'Or better yet, let him take on Amon all by himself. Let the psycho do something positive for a change'.
"We have authority to take you by force." Yes, right in the middle of Police Headquarters, these pretend cops were going to force her into their custody...while the sun still shown and she was still allowed to be out. Never was a more thoughtless threat ever uttered.
"I am not a fool. You can't touch me until nightfall so I am ordering you to leave, right now."
"We'll be back at nightfall!"
"I'll be here." She may not be an earthbender, but she was still a badgermole; strong and stubborn. And she would go to jail just to prove a point.
"Mom-I mean- Chief, you should get home before dark." Bolin suggested. Lin glared. This would usually be the part where he hunkered and started to beg for her to see reason, but this time he stood tall and kept eye contact. A tense few moments ensued.
"He's right, Chief." Lee came up behind Bolin to defend him, "You can't do anything if you're locked up."
"We'll take care of everything while you're gone." Another captain chimed in, quickly followed by others,
"Go home, Chief. Tarrlok's not worth it."
"If you're in jail, Saikhan takes over."
"You still have time to leave."
"We'll call if anything happens."
"You can't go to jail on us."
"Just leave."
"...Fine." but it was under protest. She had a police scanner at home, she could keep an ear out. And that's just what she and Asami did until a very disturbing call came through. Equalists had taken to the streets and they were calling for all available help. The phone rang, obviously her officers were keeping their promise to call if there was trouble, but Lin was already out the door. This may be the all-out war she had been fearing, sitting on her hands simply wasn't an option. She went to an area of the city that was blackened with a small area lit by spotlights.
"Was there an outage?" Asami asked as she pulled her car up behind the Chief.
"I thought I told you to stay in the house." she growled. Nevertheless, "Good question." And she highly doubted that she was going to like the answer.
"Wait a second, these people aren't armed or dangerous." the girl said after a quick evaluation.
"Hm." Tarrlok must have his hand in this. They found him arguing with Korra, while Bolin and Mako stood behind her in case she needed backup.
"Round up these equalists!" He shouted.
"Hold that order!" She shouted, there were a few things to clear up before people got hauled of to prison.
"Yes, Ma'am." She heard someone, Lee from the sound of it, shout happily, "Thank you, Ma'am."
"What are you doing, Tarrlok?"
"Beifong, Tarrlok turned off these people's power and now he's trying to call them equalists."
"Chief, you are interfering in my department's affairs as well as breaking the law. Officers! Arrest Lin Beifong." Everyone stood still, except for two people. Mako and Bolin, and they didn't do as Tarrlok hoped. They stood to each side with arm blades extended at the ground. It went without saying who they would be pointed at if a fight were to break out. "She is a nonbender out past curfew!"
"She's just a chi-blocked earthbender." Bolin reasoned.
"Don't be ridiculous, she can no longer bend, so she a nonbender!"
"So it's a very long-lasting chi-block." He reasoned more ludicrously.
"Besides, she's obviously not with Amon." Mako couldn't see how anyone could think Lin of all people would join the equalists. She should be exempt from that stupid rule.
"Now that it's settled, what the hell are you doing, Tarrlok?" She wasn't scoring any points with him, but frankly she didn't care. His few lackeys were vastly outnumbered by her officers and he had no real power as a result.
"These people are the enemy and I am ordering you to order your officers to arrest them!" He pointed at her and then to the crowd. Korra stepped up again,
"You can't treat them like this!"
"Enough!" Lin couldn't take this childish bickering anymore. She pointed to a mother in the crowd, "You. What happened here?"
"We were just finishing supper when we saw a police truck go by. Then the lights went out. We looked outside and saw the lights still working in the next district. Well people started leaving to find out what happened and then the cops show up."
"Lee." she called her old friend, he'd never lie to her, "What happened?"
"A call came over the scanner. When my team got here, we saw the electric was out. They said they'd go back inside when we turned it back on, but Councilman Tarrlok and Captain Saikhan told us to block off the streets. He's trying make them go back without their power." All of this brought two questions to mind,
"Who turned off the power? And why?"
"Councilman Tarrlok, Chief. I don't know why."
"Kid." she gestured to the avatar, "Speak your peace." The girl looked like she was dying to put in her opinion.
"These people didn't do anything. Tarrlok's abusing them." she turned to him and pointed a finger in his chest, "He should turn the power on and leave them alone." Well, everyone had a chance to make their arguments, now the decision was up to her. It was a easy decision, but it was going to come back and bite her in the blubber.
"Councilman Tarrlok, you are under arrest." A moment of pure shock was shared by everyone present as Lin took out her handcuffs, "For 'Disturbing the Peace', 'Inciting a Riot', 'Unlawful Deprivation of Rights', and 'Attempted Unlawful Arrests'." There was a split second when Lin thought he was going to fight her, but he allowed himself to be bound.
"I'll have your badge for this."
"Take him away." She ordered her men before she took the microphone from Saikhan to address the cheering crowd, "Return to your homes. Your power will be turned back on." She motioned for Bolin to take care of it.
"Thank you." The mother said tearfully before following the crowd and leaving. As much as Lin would love to chalk this up as a job well-done, there was so much more to do. First, the idiots following Saikhan and Tarrlok needed to learn a lesson. Raising the mic again she addressed her officers.
"Officers. Everyone present is hereby ordered to partake in sensitivity training. Report to Headquarters' sandpits in two hours." Groans, sighs and grumbles came from her men, most of whom thought they were being treated unfairly. But the excuse, 'I was just following orders' didn't cut it with her. Second, she did have to enforce this stupid law, as much as she hated to do it, "Girl! Come here!"
"Yeah, Lin?" Asami jogged up to her cheerfully, and so trustingly. Oh spirits she didn't want to do this.
"Put your hands behind your back, Kid. You're under arrest for being out past curfew." The girl looked at her like she was waiting for the punchline of the joke.
"What?! You can't do that!" Her boyfriend came to defend her.
"I have to, Mako. Let's go Asami."
"It's okay, Mako. You're not really a member of the family until you get a nickname from Toph or thrown in jail by Lin. It's just my initiation." Asami laughed a little as the doors shut on her. It was an old saying that couldn't be put into effect anymore, but whatever made the young couple's separation easier for them.
"Alright Chief." Bolin bounced back, "Power should be back on in a minute."
"Good. You three, get back to Headquarters. Bolin, take Korra down to the sand pits. I want two-inch thick ice on the floors, walls and ceiling. No earth, no metal."
"O...kay." Why?, "Hey, wait. Where are you going?"
"I have a few errands to run."
"Right. Hey, where's Asami?"
…..
"Ow, I thought you said you knew how to drive!" Korra shook her fist at Mako from the backseat.
"I got us here in one piece, didn't I?" He asked bitterly after hitting the curb.
"Boy...if Asami asks, we had a licensed officer drive it here."
"Agreed."
"So," Bolin opened the doors to the room, "these are the sand pits." Actually, there were no pits...or sand for that matter. Bolin had no idea why they called the earthbending gym that, it was just one of those things. It was just an empty room on ground level with no floor so the earthbenders could actually get to the earth. But now his mom didn't want them touching their element.
"Why does Beifong want me to do this, anyway?" Korra asked as they opened the water barrels.
"She's...going to hold a skating contest?" Bolin shrugged innocently before he got two sets of raised eyebrows, "Or, she's going to hold an extra training session this month."
"How's she gonna do that when she can't bend?" His big brother asked.
"How should I know? That woman's mind is twisted and I gave up trying to understand it a long time ago."
There was no other way to put it...the police officers were scared. As they stood outside the sand pits they could only speculate about their future.
"Sensitivity training?" One asked his friend.
"Beifong hates sensitivity." The friend answered.
"Man, something's not right." A third could feel something...it felt like their demise.
"This has got to be a training exercise."
"How can we have a training session when Beifong can't bend?"
"Captain Saikhan." A gruff voice belonging to the woman of the hour cut through the air.
"Yes, Chief."
"You're relieved of your duties. Take off your armor, clear out your desk and leave."
"But I was following-"
"You knew better." Saikhan was the highest of her captains, the majority of the blame rested on his shoulders, "Get out."
"...Yes, Chief." He bended off his armor and went to get his things.
"Officers!" The rest of her underlings snapped to attention, "Take off your armor and follow me." Into the sand pits.
"Well," Lee said, "Gotta face the facts. We all earned an ass-kicking tonight. Might as well get it over with." They'd only make Beifong angrier by resisting. With head held high he took off his armor and strolled into the room to find...himself on his butt after slipping on ice.
"Get to the center of the room." Their Chief barked at them. Lee was helped up and they all slid over to the center, "When you became an officer, you swore to protect the citizens of Republic City. All of them, not just the ones who are the same as you. This will be your first and last warning. You'll treat every citizen equally or you will join Saikhan. Understood?"
"Understood, Chief."
"Good." With a hand signal several waterbenders came onto the ice. Two stood back and barricaded the door while the others skated over to the metalbenders, surrounding them. They began to use water whips to break them up and send them running...or sliding. She gave these benders specific orders, scatter them, humiliate them, but don't hurt them. They needed to know how those people felt as they were helpless against people who had power.
"Beifong has arrested Tarrlok, Amon."
"He will not be in there long. If he is, then we will liberate him, from both his prison and his impurity."