Korra grinned seeing the ferry approaching the island because it meant her boyfriend was paying a visit. Training had been very blah recently, and it would be nice to see him off work for once.
"Mako!" She yelled out across the water.
He waved back but quickly put his arm back down. He was holding some papers and wearing his police uniform…oh, great.
"Hey Korra," he greeted her after stepping off the boat.
She hugged him. "Good to see you, although you know this is a work free zone, right?" she joked.
"Sorry, I wouldn't have brought this to you if it couldn't be handled by the police."
Korra's brow furrowed. "So it's Avatar business." She sighed. "What's up? What happened?"
He handed her the papers. "Not a what. Who."
"How is this even possible?" Korra was pacing back and forth in the courtyard; the winds off the water made for a cooling breeze that kept the temperature pleasant enough to stay outside.
"I wish I knew. He acted very strangely. At first I thought the guy was lying about being a non bender, which I was right about. Then I saw him firebend the candle I put out as a test, and he earthbent the wall and escaped without making a sound!"
"I'm the Avatar. I have the power, the sole power of all four elements. And you're telling me some random guy who works at a fruit stand…" Korra groaned. "Just when I'm starting to get the hang of it, too!"
"Well, he didn't waterbend. You've got that on him," Mako half joked before visibly thinking. "Which is the most confusing part, since he's half Water Tribe and his name says as much, if he was going to bend two elements you'd think one of them would be water."
"I think I need to meet this kid," Korra decided. "Assuming we can find him again after you scared him off."
"I have a feeling he didn't go too far."
"Where have you been? What was all that business with Hatchet's crones, I don't care if they don't like the melons, we've put a roof over your head this long and look how you repay us, destroying said roof!" the shopkeep yelled up at him. "
Mike was packing his few things into his one worn out bag. He was breathing heavily and barely holding himself up. His hair was sticking to his face from sweat. "I can't stay here anymore, Dwayne, I'm sorry," he said stoically as he placed his miniature radio inside, the one he'd bought with his first few paychecks and only had three stations that worked: news, 24/7 pro bending analysis without actually covering the live matches, and, for some bizarre reason, a Fire Nation-run children's show.
Dwayne started up the stairs. "What? No, don't pack your things, we still need help with the shop! You can repay me by fixing the roof, I'm not losing my only employee-"
Mike shut the bag with its small loop and button closure. "The police are after me. It's better that I leave," he insisted.
That was a shock. "The police?" his boss parroted.
"I made a mistake, or someone did, I don't know, I don't know everything that happened today, I just know I need to go somewhere that isn't… here." He picked the bag up by the strap. He really didn't want to leave. He liked working at the fruit store.
Dwayne appeared more worried than angry now. "Where? Where will you go? When you came to us last year you were alone, hungry, and hurt. I gave you a job and a place to stay. Where could it possibly be better for you?" Truthfully he'd felt he had a paternal obligation to this young man at this point. Mike was the same age as his own son, and had trusted him when he'd been down on his luck.
"Somewhere, I don't know!" Mike had raised his voice. His body shook. The strap of his bag appeared singed, the smell of burnt leather was in the air. "I didn't even come here the first time, I just woke up one day in your house…one of them brought me here." He turned his head to actually look at Dwayne. "I don't want them hurting your family."
"We'll be fine. I'm big and strong now, not a little kid anymore," Junior commented from downstairs.
Dwayne hesitated to put his hand on his shoulder, but when Mike didn't shrink away from it he followed through. "You're in bigger danger if you face all this on your own…I don't understand who 'they' are, and it sounds like you don't either, bud. I'm just a fruit man. But maybe we can get you help."
"We're beyond needing help. There's no fixing us, we don't need to be fixed," 'Mike' snapped back, the burn on the bag strap growing in length. His voice had lowered.
Dwayne sighed. "You can fix one thing, whoever it is I'm speaking to, and that's the roof. After that…then make a decision about what makes sense." None of this made much sense, but he wasn't going to push anything. He'd spent long enough as a dad to know when to drop an issue at the right time.
The bag handle dropped out of the hand that held it. The body the hand belonged to followed it. Dwayne barely mananged to catch them and sit them on the bed. "I'm so tired…" Mike mumbled as his eyes were closing.
"Get some rest, and you can start in the morning on the repairs, okay?" Dwayne said gently.
A knock on the door downstairs.
"Uh, we're closed? Is the blown up roof not enough to show that—woah. No way." Junior widened his eyes.
"Hey, kid, got any rogue earthbenders in here?" Korra asked, poking her head in the doorway and looking around nosily.
Junior grinned. "You're Avatar Korra. This is so cool! What are you doing here?"
"Police business," Mako cut in, "that Korra is helping resolve. That's all you need to know."
Junior gasped and pointed. "And you're Mako of the Fire Ferrets! This is the greatest night ever—Dad! Come down here!" he called upstairs.
Dwayne checked on Mike one more time; whoever was in there before had fallen asleep, the tiny smoke trail coming off the bag dissipating. "Alright, let's see what they want," he said to himself as he closed the door behind him and walked down the stairs.
"Sir, we have reason to believe that the person responsible for the damage to your shop and the police station is your employee Mike. We would like to know where he is. Your cooperation will make this process as smooth as you want it to be," Mako recited.
"It is an honor to be visited by the Avatar, but I haven't heard from Mike since this morning. We were visited by some very not nice men and he disappeared shortly after that. I didn't see him do any damage at all," Dwayne half-lied with mild nerves. "My wife might have, but she went home already with a headache."
"Even if you didn't, he still blew a hole in the side of the police station. He's a danger as long as we don't have track of him."
Dwayne raised an eyebrow. "How could he do that? He's not a bender." He had never witnessed Mike produce fire from his fingers or break the earth beneath them.
"Oh, really?" Korra challenged, holding a hand to her own head. "Then why does it feel like a spiritual thunderstorm is going on in your fruit shop?"
"I'm confused. There are no spirits here, save for my own and my son's."
Korra pushed past the shopkeep and made for the stairs. Several baskets of fruit burst into a flurry of colorful water that she bent over to her side. "I'm not great with the spirits yet, but I've been learning how to feel the sort of spiriual energies of other people around me. Helps with finding them when they go missing. Stronger ones are pretty easy."
"My fruit! That's my last shipment for a week, how dare you?" Dwayne said with a frown. "I don't care if you're the Avatar, you can't break into my shop like this!"
Korra could hear distant breathing on the other side of the door. She kicked it down and—
No one. Just an open window, an empty bed, and a bag on the floor with a burn mark on the handle.
He couldn't have gone too far.
"I'm going after him," Korra declared, running straight for the window and air bending to propel herself out.
When she landed on the street, she spotted him running in the very near distance. He wasn't fast, likely due to being tired, so it should've been easy to catch up.
She wasn't prepared for the wall of earth appearing in front of her. "Agh!" she exclaimed before using the water from the fruit to cut through it. "What the-"
"You ain't catching me, Avatar. The ground is my good mate, and it wants to meet you!" 'Mike' taunted with a big grin on his face. He stomped the road and kicked another chunk towards her before sprinting away again.
"You're an earth bender all right, you coward!" Korra said with anger, slicing the chunk in half. "You just exposed yourself! You can't run forever!" She sent the water towards him.
He turned abruptly and took a deep breath. "That is where your incorrectness shines, miss!" Their voice changed again, sounding more effeminate, before leaping into the air with a whoosh!, avoiding the water by several feet of space and landing out of a backflip onto a nearby low roof. They bowed and put their arm up in a flourish. "I am the best there is!"
"You're really asking for it now, punk," Korra growled, re-bending the water straight up and at them; they just avoided it again with airy elegance. "How are you doing this?!"
"I was made this way, Avatar, I do not understand this question," they said with a click of the tongue. Did their eyes sparkle like that before?
Korra heard sirens behind her; Mako must have called backup. She turned for a second to look and felt herself pushed by a hefty wind. "Only the Avatar can bend more than one element," she insisted.
"Silly, I am not doing that, I am only bending one!" they replied with a tired sounding laugh.
"You earthbent two seconds ago!"
They shook their head. "No, that wasn't me."
Korra gritted her teeth and sent several punches of fire towards them. "You're going to come with us, and you're going to talk!" she yelled in frustration.
"I have nothing to say! I have just met you! Greetings of flames and anger are so unfortunate, we could have had great friendship." They sent a wave of air to dissipate the flames, only to be hit with the last of the water immediately after, pulling them off the roof to the ground. They appeared to be knocked out.
"You don't get to be friends with me by destroying police stations and stealing my brand," Korra said with a huff.
"You've done that yourself on a number of occasions, Avatar," she heard Beifong point out behind her.
"I had good reason to!" she protested.
"He probably thinks that too. In any case, we're booking him for real this time." Several metal benders surrounded his still, unconscious body and shot their wires at and around him.
Back at the fruit shop, Dwayne was watching from the doorway. They were too far to hear now, but it had been easy to see the damage.
"He was hiding something like that from us? I thought he was a nice guy…" Junior commented.
"He is," Dwayne assured him. "They never attacked her."
"They?"