A/N: Congratulations! You've officially reached the chapter that marks the beginning of the crossover with the actual series! Enjoy.
Chapter VI: The Waiting Game
Saltrall wasn't sure how long he had been parked in the little park, all he knew was that it had been a while.
He was taking the time to grow a beard and mustache as a part of his plan to try to visit Republic City more inconspicuously. He had gone back a few times to try and find more info about a so-called "Anti-Bender Revolution" that was occurring, and he had partially inadvertently, partially completely intended, to get involved in. This decision, of course, led to him finding was more bumps on the head and trips to the police station, either because he had been bumped by the Equalists, or because he had taken the law into his own hands.
It took a while for Lin to trust him, especially after he told her his story, but eventually he managed to create a professional, very two sided, love-hate relationship with Lin. He loved going to the station and messing with her, which she hated. But on the flip side, she loved him for taking a lot of bumps so her officers wouldn't, which he was not a big fan of.
Despite this, he chuckled as he remembered the last time he had been to the station.
"Well, Mr. Time Lord," Lin said as she sat down across from him in the interrogation room, "What did you do this time?"
Saltrall just sighed and shrugged.
"You know, Chief, assault and battery, destruction of property, adultery, the usual." He said sarcastically, putting his feet up on the interrogation table.
Lin didn't smile or find it amusing.
"Cut the crap, you're an alien, but you're an alien in MY city, I can't have you causing so many problems, even if you're helping us track down Equalists, so just tell me the truth."
Saltrall looked down, his sarcasm having faded away "I, uh, I attacked an old lady because I thought she had a weapon." He responded truthfully.
Lin just rubbed her face and sighed.
"Just... Go," was all she said in response. He shrugged and stood before walking out. He shut the door and listened, and a grin spread across his face when he heard her break out laughing from inside the room.
He grinned just thinking about it, and he took a shower before getting ready to head out. He pulled down the monitor on his console and set it to the external camera system to make sure no one was around. He'd had a few awkward encounters with people who saw him step out of a tree, and he tried to avoid as much as possible. Confident that there was no one around he put up his hood and stepped outside.
It was much warmer than last time he went into the city, a warm front had moved in and had showed no signs of leaving any time soon, and he was tempted to put his hood down. The thought of possibly being ambushed again eventually made him decide against it.
It took him about an hour to reach the city and he took in a deep breath, steeling himself for whatever lie ahead.
He kept his head down as he walked into the city. He walked for a few more minutes and found himself in the same park where he had first met Asami. He thought about that meeting as he walked and he realized that he still hadn't called her when he was pulled from his thoughts when he accidentally bumped into someone.
"Hey watch where you're going!" he yelled at Saltrall.
Saltrall just mumbled his apologies and kept walking. He looked the person over, however, and saw that the person was carrying a sign, which intrigued Saltrall. He put his hood down, beginning to sweat profusely under the sun, and sat down on a nearby bench, watching the man set some things up.
The person he bumped into, he realized, was a protester. He hadn't noticed all the posters set up with a picture of a masked man and other writings that, thankfully for him, were translated by his TARDIS' translation core. They were all talking about oppression of non-benders and how a man named Amon was going to save them.
Saltrall just rolled his eyes and sighed, planning how he was going to deal with the man who clearly had ties to Amon's "revolution." He sat and listened to the man preach to a small, yet slowly growing group of people. He hated Amon, unsurprising considering the number of attacks from his goons he'd fought off and other terrorist acts he'd thwarted, but he had to give Amon credit, he had some serious charisma to have followers like this trying to spread his message.
He eventually decided to get up and leave so he could rough up the man later. The thought of Lin scolding him at the station made him chuckle and he smiled as he turned to leave. At that moment, however, he saw a girl ride up on a large animal that looked like a polar bear and a dog put together. His eyes widened when he saw who it was.
"Korra?" He whispered to himself under his breath as his eyes widened. He walked towards her slowly, staying off the sidewalk so she hopefully wouldn't see him. He leaned against a tree and listened to her argue with the protester.
He had to admit, he was impressed with the charisma of the non-bender, he kept the whole crowd against her the whole time, until they forced her to walk away in defeat.
She walked in his direction, and he suddenly grew a fascination with the tree he was leaning against. He stopped looking at the tree when she walked past him and they made eye contact, but he quickly walked away to prevent her from stopping him. He heard her stop for a few seconds before she continued on her way.
He waited until she was turning away before he ran after her. He ran to where she was only to find her standing in the middle of a destroyed road, surrounded by police officers and three, he had to assume, criminals standing on the inside of a building with a destroyed front. Suddenly she got on her polar bear dog and ran off, followed by the police officers. Saltrall sighed and shook his head
He just sighed and shook his head as he walked up to an old woman crouched by a nearby food stand.
"Excuse me, what happened?" he asked her as she stood up.
"Oh, the Avatar just showed up and stopped some members of the Triads," she sighed and looked down the road, "but she destroyed the street in the process, oh this is going to take forever to fix,"
"Yeah that sounds like her," he said to himself before he thanked her and quickly jogged down the road in the general direction that Korra went.
He looked down and stopped when he saw a tuft of white fur lying on the ground, no doubt from his friend's polar bear dog.
He walked over to an alley and pulled out his Sonic. He had tested it several times on passersby of his tree TARDIS, and he'd also used it on some Equalist grunts who tried to attack him, which showed him some flaws in the system. He modified it a couple more times to get it perfect, but now he felt he had it just how he liked it.
He scanned the fur to find out where they were taken, and he got a lock on the police station. He shook his head and chuckled softly.
"Dammit Korra," he said softly while still smiling.
Satisfied with what he found he made his way back out onto the street to begin walking to the station.
He walked for roughly 20 minutes before he reached the police station. He decided to test his luck and headed inside to see if she would recognize him.
He took a seat on a couch in the waiting room against one of the walls. He sat there for a couple of minutes when he saw Korra leaving the holding area, an area he was all too familiar with, with a taller old man with arrow tattoos and a goatee. He saw that they seemed to be arguing.
"Tenzin, please, don't send me back home," he heard her plead.
"Old man's named Tenzin, got it," Saltrall noted to himself, figuring this would not be the last time they would meet.
"You blatantly disobeyed my wishes and the orders of the White Lotus," He replied with disdain.
"Katara agreed with me that I should come, she said my destiny was in Republic City," Korra replied, exasperatedly.
Saltrall saw Tenzin's face turn red in a furious embarrassment, which made him chuckle.
"Don't bring my mother into this!" Tenzin said.
That was when they turned away from him and he couldn't hear what they were saying anymore. He waited for them to finish their argument when a police officer brought them her polar bear dog and Tenzin thanked him and they began to leave.
Saltrall stood up and, being closer to the door, got there first. He held the door open for them as they left. Tenzin thanked him, while Korra again looked at him suspiciously. Saltrall, unable to stop himself, winked at her when she looked at him. Her look of confusion made him chuckle as he left after them.
He walked in the opposite direction of them just in case Korra put two and two together. He decided to go back to the library to do some more research, something he hadn't been keeping up on. He stopped by a newspaper stand on his way back to the library and looked at one of the papers. He let out a low whistle when he saw the month, not knowing it had been that long since he'd arrived, and he just now saw the date. He knew he had been around for a while, but he never really cared about the specific date before. He knew it was becoming summer, and he still didn't really understand the months yet, so he equated it to early June for now. He pulled out a few coins and put them down, just a little bit of the stipend he received from helping Lin with the Equalists, and he grabbed a paper and continued on his way to the library.