A case of lead
Inspector Chouw Mako was feeling rather unpleasant. After one and a half year he finally had gotten rid of this spirits damned former prince. This man called Wu was everything Mako never wanted to be. He fucked every woman that money could buy and many others, too. He was a coward who needed protection in every waking hour and – for spirits sake – he was a singer and mover star who just acted hilarious all the time! Actually Varrik son of Varrik still wanted Mako to play firelord Ozai in the biggest mover project in history, as he phrased it. Mako had been wavering for a second, a hundred-thousand yuan were quite the money, but as he had seen the robes he should have worn… "Avatar – the last airbender" damn it, who even thought up such a stupid title! Bo Lin of course had volunteered to play "the boulder", whoever that was! Of course his jolly younger brother had not managed to stay in the earth nation´s military without a crazy dictator in charge, he was far too undisciplined for that.
Opal – his freshly wed wife – seemed to be rather fond of his change of careers and who was he to complain. Bo Lin would be the first soldier in history to cripple himself on maneuver, with some crazy accident nobody even thought possible! Actually the young man's shoulders sagged – he was just trying to avoid the unavoidable – namely facing the wrath of Lin Bei Fong. But this case was something he could not handle on his own, it most likely was the tip of an iceberg that could shake the whole united republic, and most likely the Earthern union of lands, too. There had been three murders, which in itself would not have been unusual if the victims had not been brought to death in a very strange way. First off it seemed the equalists were on the rise again – Mako himself had wondered that they had stayed low profile for so long. Of course there had always been smaller protests of nonbenders somewhere, but nothing large and organized arose, which partly had to do with the "self justice" of bending politclubs like the "Republic City bending association" or the "Descendants of Fire", the "Mariners"….
Every nation had their supremacists, even the newly founded air nation! Even if Tenzin denied that very strictly – to Mako the "Sons of the winds" were nothing but another heap of politically motivated thugs. Thing was, three leading figureheads of the bending association had been killed through a small, deformed piece of lead. The little thing always had carried such a velocity it tore cruel, big holes into the bodies of the men. That had to be something that just a very formidable metalbender could do and who would be better to ask for help than the Chief? But there was this old hobo who had insisted that he had heard thunder strike without any kind of lightning, or rain. Just one very loud thunder in the middle of a cloudless night! Worst thing was, Mako was sure the man had NOT lied, he really believed what he had told. He knocked at the office door. "Enter." He heard the Chiefs hard voice. He wondered if Lin Bei Fongs voice had always been that hard and gravelly. The young man entered.
"Ah – long time no see Mako, I almost thought you held something against me." Mako still did not get if Chief Bei Fong was joking or if she was dead serious. He just smiled. "No – I just enjoyed time I had not to spend with Wu the terrible." He responded. The grey haired woman let out a humorless chuckle. "Well – there was nobody else who wouldn´t simply have quitted if I assigned him to this task Mako." She admitted eying her papers. "Whatever - I have a case I need your help with Chief." He responded fiddling with his scarred Arm. There was still a fiery red snake coiling over his skin, and most likely the scar would never disappear, along with the sporadic nervous twitching and random painattacks. The woman just quirked an eyebrow. "You know I never was really good at this detective stuff – I guess that´s one of the reasons I chose this seat." She responded. Indeed, Lin Bei Fong was known for her bad observation skills. Well, the "iron maiden" did not do the talking, she was the head of the cavalry – making the hard calls was her business. "It´s not like I need deductions Chief. Thing is Huan Cheung, Lee Zhang und Wang Qui Chen were murdered yesterday night." The Chief muttered a curse.
"That aren´t bad news. Three bastards less we have to worry about, if you ask me Mako." She stated dryly. "Well – you´re not entirely wrong, but there are some circumstances of their dead that really frighten me." He responded, wringing his hands. "Stop squirming and bring it up kid." Chief bei Fong rumbled. Mako gulped – why had this small woman to be even more intimidating than Korra in full Avatar mode! "Well- first of all, there was "false god" smeared about their bodies with black paint. Hence I suppose we have a crazy equalist killer running rampant….one who is a metalbender of your caliber at least." He stated dryly. Chief Bei Fong jumped from her chair, her knee hitting the table with a loud thud. She fell back in the seat groaning. "Heavens Mako – you´re heavier at dropping bombs than my mother!" the woman cursed again. "Well – what would you say if somebody tore a hole in a man's chest that in the front was like this." He held up his pinky "and in the back was a crater that was bigger than my whole hand – and the guts were blasted onto the opposite wall two strides behind the victim." He responded, while the gruesome scenery was in front of his inner eye again. He cleared his throath, it was daunting how fast the job had dulled him. If he remembered that he had been retching about a simple stabbing as he took up the batch…
The face of Lin Bei Fong showed puzzlement. "What? That´s not possible – no metalbender can move anything that fast, well I know one man who could maybe kill like that, but he wouldn´t need anything but air for it." She responded while her features looked angry and – hurt. "Master TENZIN?" Mako blurted out indecently. Lin Bei Fong shook her head determined, not even reacting to his statement. "No, Lee wouldn´t ever do something like that – furthermore I don´t know if he even is alive, or where they are living. Either way Mako, it´s not important because I swear by all spirits that Lee Bei Gao is not the man we´re searching for." She stated determined. Mako was wondering who this airbender named Lee Bei Gao was. "Moment Chief…. are we talking about an airbender who was around BEFORE Korra opened the gates to the spirits?" his eyes were round. So the airbenders had never been extinct?!
Lin Bei Fong sighed "Yes Mako, but I don´t like to talk about friends that have disappeared to spirits know where!" She responded. "So - there were this holes and a piece of metal?" she asked disbelievingly. "Yes – take a look for yourself." He responded and pulled a small linen bag from his pocket. He had the bloody pieces of lead in there. Lin Bei Fong opened the bag and pulled the two small pieces out of it. She let one hover in her hand and responded. "Mako, flip the table please, erm you should put the papers somewhere beforehand." She ordered the young detective. The young man followed her instruction, not knowing if he destroyed some kind of system in which Lin Bei Fong had sorted her papers. Then he flipped the table and went behind the Chief of police. She went in a horsestance, took a deep breath and hurled the tiny object with all her might. It whizzed through the air and hit the table with a loud, banging sound. Mako almost expected to see a hole in the table, but there was just a small dent where the Lead bit had hit the wood. Lin tried again and again, until the wood of the table was covered in dents and she was panting heavily. "No- no fucking way Mako…I´m not my mother but I CAN assure you not even she in her prime would have been able to do something like what you described. Not with that rounded, blunt thing. With a Needle or a throwingknife – I guess it would be possible. I´ll try that tomorrow." She smirked shortly. Mako nodded and kicked the table in frustration. "By Agnis ever burning flame." He pinched his nose. "I hate to say that chief. But if all possible suggestions are falsified except one, it must – no matter how absurd it is…be the truth." He sighed in frustration. "Chief…somebody seems to be able to shoot this things with lightning!" Mako responded. The Chief laughed at his words. Then her face dropped as he remained dead serious. Spirits damn it, that was so insanely crazy he would like to believe that the Killer was some kind of Spirit! But how should they kill or catch something that was made out of pure energy – and could disappear into nothingness in an instant. Furthermore the spirits were – SPIRITS – they mostly did not even NOTICE humans! As long as these humans did not pollute their realms or tried to change them into bombs of course.
If Mako thought about Korras opening of the spirit portals, especially the part where she simply tore a new one in the realms... After reading old myths and recent works of renowned scientists and spirit hunting Bushin, warriors who somehow were able to cut through spirits with ease, he was sure that Korra had done the most reckless thing ANY Avatar had EVER done! Forging a bridge between the worlds could go terribly wrong, for example she could easily have opened the doors towards the endless fog, or even better to Shan Gri La, or the ninety – nine circles of hell. An event that easily could have killed everyone in the four nations. The dragon dancers lost their whole culture because they TRIED to open the realm of Agni – they tried and FAILED to keep the door open – which lead to the arrival of the dragons on the mortal planes! That was one of the reasons why Korra did not appear in the media any more, in fact she rarely did leave air temple island. The reason being lot of scientists, self-proclaimed gurus and spirit hunters, which had launched a terrible smear campaign against the Avatar. Which resulted in Korra almost stabbing herself to death. Well she did make this big a mistake, but how amongst the heavens should she have known better? If anybody should have taken the blame, it was the white lotus – because these fuckers should have taught Korra all there was known about the spirit realms! In fact, Mako wanted to burn the face off each fucking Lotus member he came across. These damned scoundrels had not even tried to protect the Avatar – they had proclaimed that Korra had to take responsibility for her actions!
And that was what almost had been the finishing blow of the strongest woman he knew! It was the only time in his life he supported a teen slipping out of her room to go party on the docks. Because if Ikki had NOT done this his Korra would not be there anymore. That was also a rather complicated topic – he really was not sure any more WHAT Korra was to him. But he could deal with this another time, he had a job to do after all. "Mako…have you even listened to me?" Lin Bei Fong frowned. "Yes Chief, of course I have." He responded – he had no nerve to deal with an annoyed Chief on top of all these problems! "Hmm…as I said. It´s Tenzin and the council that has to get a pro nonbender campaign running before another Amon waltzes through our cities and raises hell. And I do not fucking care if this hurts the industry – the priests, or anybody." She griped and eyed her phone. "I´m going to make some calls kid, you should get this bastard, and if you get him, get him hard!" she looked stern and picked up the earpiece of the phone. Mako took this as his order to leave. Actually he had no idea where to start looking. Most likely he had to make use of his less "legal" contacts as well. He was not very close with his colleagues, which mostly had to do with him being the brilliant officer he was. And on top of that he was high society, so most of his coworkers wore plain jealousy towards him. That it took him a big amount of hard work to stand where he stood the most guys of course forgot. At first he had to make a plan before heading out. An objective observer of course would have noticed that a lot of the jealousy was nothing but a product of the young mans mind. Mako just alsways kept to himself and was treated with of a much older officer.
He left an occupied his desk. His injured arm jerked and he sent some reports flying, while he hissed in pain. As fast as the fiery pain arrived it subsided and left his arm pulsing numbly. "Monkey feathers." He sighed. Mako had put a lot of effort into the cultivation of his language, words lick fuck, son of a bitch and asshole just spilled over his lips when he was really furious. So he knelt on the floor and started sorting out his papers. An old man, who moved slightly limping bowed down. "Ah – ya feel the weather too Chouw. The damn leg – has been announcing its damned presence…erm absence… the whole day." He grumbled. "I guess it´ll rain tomorrow – a good thing for the cabbages if ya ask ol Ping Hungshu." The captain responded and helped a blushing Mako with the papers. "Thanks." He snapped, obviously infuriated about his handycap. The older man just laughed a hearty laugh. "Y know kid, I was bout yer age when I lost the leg. Hell, were crazy times back then…. Anyways, ya can be angry bout it all the time or ya can just accept things are the way they are an have one hella time! Round o corners, it´s shift change kid. It´s enough when the Ma am is living in the office." the grizzled officer babbled.
Mako sighed. Captain Hungshu of course was right – nevertheless he was angry at his body not doing what it should do at ALL times. Captain Hungshu seemed to be ageless or something along the lines. The Cap was serving in the field even longer than Chief Bei Fong, which could not be said for many. And he did not even think about retiring, in fact the guy still went to almost every party the colleagues threw. He was an old bachelor – so Mako figured the man had not much else to do. "Why not, actually I have a rather strange case at hand Sir." He sighed, he was behaving totally out of his habit. He was at his wits end, because he could not imagine that two toed Ping, four finger Tang or shady shin would know anything about equalists. And IF they did, they most likely would be involved in the organizations businesses, which meant he also would get no intel. "Geez are ya like Ma am… How do you people even sleep when ya always are thinking about work? Man ya need to clear out the head sometimes, believe a guy who´s been in business as yer wer suckling on mommas tits! Speaking of tits how it goin with the ladies?" the old cop asked with twinkle in hes eyes. " I mean, first the Sato, then the Avatar- yer´ve been quite the popular guy right?" he gossiped while Mako just snorted angrily. He HATED people talking about their relationships, these things were called PERSONAL AFFAIRS for a reason. While his older colleague grabbed his upper arm and dragged him out on the street Mako actually still was trying to find an answer to this case.
He simply must have overlooked something, some little dirty detail that would solve the puzzle. "You think I have time for relationships Cap? Actually I guess it´s for the best that I hav not, don´t think my efforts made anyone happy." He responded nonchalantly "I aim to be your successor, you know?" he shot back. Ping Hungshu let out a barking laugh. "So you wanna become Captain when time itself ends heh? Man ya should know they call me Hungshu the Immortal, Lord of corners, god of dices!" he responded with the flair of the dramatic. Somehow this guy seemed like an older, one legged, version of Bo Lin – they even wore the same beard. Finally then entered the "Iron Lily" a pub that was second home to most of the cops who lived in the bunks. There were many well known faces waiting and Ping Hungshu was greeted enthusiastically. Mako stood awkwardly in the entrance of the cozy bar, which smelled strongly of tobacco, alcohol and fried flesh. He just heard thundering voices "My man Ping – pay up yer Pint!" "S up oldie!" "Make way Uncle Pingie deserves a hug you sweaty assholes!" "Ping you motherfucker – come ere, where´s my damn report." "CORNERS CORNERS" a drunken woman cheered. Mako felt out of place and tried to leave, as the tiles under his feet moved and he tumbled into the guestroom. "I PRESSSEEEEENNNNTT YOUUU ALLLL MAKO THE FAIR, THE BOLD HERO OF THE DESK – THE MAN WHO SLAYED A THOUSAND PENCILS!" Ping Hungshu roared with gusto, while the people started laughing about Mako, whose face was as red as a strawtato.
"What the heck are ya bringing that guy in here for?" a cop asked. "Ah shut the fuck up Chen, I know a certain guy who pissed himself on his first patrol – guess who that is ol spoilsport!" Ping retorted, which lead to further laughter, this time not directed in Makos direction. Some guy who was working in the archives pulled out a chair and clasped Mako on the back with a surprising strength for somebody who looked like a living skeleton. "Take a seat bud – that´s our forces living room. Yellow dragon?" he asked offering Mako a smoldering pipe. Because the young man was too baffled the pipe ended up in his hand. He absentmindedly took a drag, the tobacco was spicy and sharp -and then pain exploaded in his throath. It made him cough viciosly. "I thought you were a scriv, no fucking stalwart!" he pressed out while his whole throath was on fire, while the railthin man took back his pipe as if nothing had happened. "You´re a demon Tarro – nobody who hasn´t sold his soul to wan shi tong can smoke this cracking shit you shove in there!" a watertribe woman blurted and moved a white pai cho stone. "Seven Pillars Miki!" she replied with a sing song voice. The old lady, who obviously was the owner of this bar, because she did not carry some part of a police uniform, hit the table. "Stop blinking with those pretty eyes Sitiyok – you vile creature!" than she scratched her chin, while there was a cacophony of voices, in which midst Ping Hungshu was sitting and mixing the cards for a game of corners. The old woman got up, went to the bar, and poured some mugs. There were seven barrels of rootbeer mounted on the bar. Meanwhile the Captain, grabbed himself a bottle of plumwhine in one hand and a chair with the other. He then artistically made his way through the full bar and squeezed himself between Tarro the scriv and another cop Mako had never spoken with. "That´s fer ya Chouw." Mako looked at the big bottle, which would easily enough take him out twice. It was old wine from the earthern kingdoms, good stuff. "Eh – why that? I mean, yeah just serve a round on my badge." He mumbled disturbed and slightly frustrated. The Captain laughed. "That´s yer stand in drinking kid – and if anyone besides you gets a slick of that bottle I´ll personally whip yer ass!" he cheered. Mako opened the bottle and took a swig.
The whine exploded in his mouth, plum, honey, elderberry and some other notes he could not distinguish. It was without a doubt the best wine he had tasted in his life. He let out a relieved sigh, while his features softened and the fire bender looked more like the young man he was. "That´s an excellent wine." He responded "A Shame there is no cup with it." He stated eying the bottle. "Man we´re not in Kuangs cuisine. " Tarro responded. "Come on Tarro, Chouw is an upper class gentleman - you boorish fart!" Ping Hungshu joked and started handing out cards. Mako forgot about the case as they played a few rounds of corner, while the alcohol was relieving the stress that had ruled him for weeks. He had already forgotten why he came here, as the Captain pulled out a small leather bound book and brandished a pencil "An now tell Tarro n me bout that fucking case ya have on yer mind." He spoke while relaxed dragging on his pipe. It was then Mako understood the lesson which the old man had tried to teach him the whole evening – he was grateful for it.