It was before sunrise when Lin watched San sneak out of the house.
Where could she possibly be going? What is she up to?
Whatever it was it couldn't be good if she had to sneak out to do it.

San shivered a little and pulled her coat closer around her, it was still cold in the early morning light, her breath fogging with each exhale.
It was too early for any respectable citizen to be lurking about the city, but there were still some street kids rummaging through bins for food and ladies of loose morales who called out to men of equally low morality. San, noticed the boy she was after this morning sprawled across the feet of Fire Lord Zuko's statue. She walked over to the base, "Hey, kid! Get down here!" she called up to him.
When Skoochy made no signs on waking up, San punched the base of the statue making it vibrate violently with her bending until Skoochy tumbled off the side and onto the floor at her feet with an "umph".
"Get up kid, I have work to do you have yuans to earn" San said pulling out a folded bunch of notes.
"Alright, alright. What do you wanna know today?" he replied irritated and rubbing his bruised behind.
"Where and when?" San asked pushing the bills into Skoochy's hand.
"Alright, but I don't have much for you this morning..." he said matter-of-factly.
"Oh?" San said, slightly amused but mostly annoyed with the kid who seemed to increase his prices at every chance. She wouldn't mind, a kids gotta make a living, but she was running out of her own funds, she didn't have room for a job in her plans and there was no way she would ask her mother for any, "Why's that?"
Skoochy rubbed his nose and tilted his cap, "My expenses have gone up, it seems the information you're after is a lot harder to come by now than it was last week." he said all business-like.

It wasn't more than three hours after Lin watched San sneak out that she got a phone call from police headquarters. There, of course, was a situation and she had to go in. Reluctantly, Lin got dressed, she was certain her body needed more sleep than it received, but when duty called, Lin Beifong answered it.
When she got to the station, an officer briefed her. A big shot triad member had been brought in. Park rangers had found him on their morning rounds, he had been bound to the railing of a bridge with his own belt and been left there hanging over the water by his bound wrists.
When they questioned him, he had told them some lie about getting himself tangled up on a morning stroll and how if they had nothing to charge him with he would be leaving, "I've got some business to take care of," he said.
Lin ran through lists of this guys charges and called around for witnesses willing to testify.
This is going to be a long day.
Sometimes it would just be easier if she could throw them in a cell and leave them there to rot, but that wasn't justice. She couldn't determine the fate of any one person herself, that was ultimately a choice for the council.

San ran across the bay bridge as fast as she could. She was running late for her reading lesson, which wouldn't normally bother her- she still didn't think she needed to know how to read and write better than she already could, she got by just fine, but she had to keep a tight schedule today, if she was late for her lesson she would be late for her next meeting. San couldn't afford to be late to that meeting, and she was sure she wouldn't have a quiet bed to go home to if she didn't attend her lesson.

Lin had finally finished the necessary paperwork for the triad member from that morning and it was getting late when they brought another two in. Both were beaten a bit and all restrained by their belts to a nearby landmark where they could easily be found by authorities.
Lin decided it was time to discuss the probability of some stupid vigilantly at work in Republic City. The whole thing was a nuisance that she hated. When stupid people went about playing hero in her city, it never ended well for anyone and she was quite confident that if they did not find and stop this vigilante before long, they would be pulling their body out of Yue Bay.
Too tired to work through the night on the new felons and repeating the same process she had only just completed, Lin told her officers to detain the criminals in a cell for the night before she headed home to get some much needed rest.
She had the feeling that this vigilante person was going to be a real problem for her.

San was startled into semi-consciousness when the hand she sleeps with pressed to the floor next to her mattress, felt the vibrations of foot steps approaching the hall. After realizing that it was just the chief, she promptly went back asleep, too tired to greet the probably grumpy woman. She always seemed to be mad with San, well mad with everyone really, except perhaps her metalbenders. Back when she was young, San had hoped learning metal-bending would bring them on friendlier grounds, but of course, it had not.

Lin peeked through the open crack in San's doorway, when she noticed that San was asleep with her covers kicked off the bed, Lin went in to pull them back over San. She stopped to brushed some hair out of San's face with a soft touch Lin hadn't know she was capable of until eighteen years earlier, Lin quietly left to clean up for bed herself.
it wasn't until Lin had turned the light in her bathroom on that the gleam of something red caught her eye.
blood.

Meanwhile, downtown a messenger boy ran through a dodgy building full of questionable characters counting dirty money and shoving it into brown burlap sacks. He crossed some names off on his list and recorded the daily haul from each venue or exploited individual, so he could increase their price next time.
The boy wove his way through the crowd and halls of the house before coming to a halt outside a large wooden door, where he stopped and knocked lightly. There was shouting from within and a buff man opened the door just enough to stick his head out and glare down at the boy who handed the buff the message and high tailed it on out of there.
"A message sir," the buff said turning from the door to face a large desk which sat three men, one sighed and leaned back from his game of pai cho unamused.
"Well, what is it this time? If it's the Buffalo Wolf Triad infringing our treaty again, I'm going to declare war!"
"No, sir, it is not them, it seems that the individual Brutes mentioned earlier."
A man at the table dressed in red slammed his fist in agitation as he lost the game of pai sho spoke up, "Remind me!"
"The one who tied Shivy to the bridge and left him there for the police. Apparently they've done the same to Boss Delt and Boss Zeerj, sir." the doorman informed slipping the folded message onto the desk.
For the first time that night, the third man at the table spoke up, "Well, then, I think we can all agree that this person needs to be made an example. We can't just have people going around questioning, threatening and abusing the members of our... Organization." His blue robes flowed out as he stood, "Arrange it, I want this person taken care of" and his eyes grew dark while he leaned forward, "painfully."

(AN: hey so just updated this chapter, started working on a brand new chapter to do a proper update with today and will hopefully finish it tonight/tomorrow. please review and let me know your thoughts so far.)