A/N: Thanks for 1500+ views on this story :)

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Mako smoothed out the front of his uniform as he walked briskly towards the office. He'd nearly ran a curb after receiving an urgent call from the chief while out on patrol. She hadn't disclosed any details whatsoever, which made him nervous.

He knocked on the door. When prompted to come in, he walked into a surprisingly familiar sight: Beifong sat at her desk with Mike sitting in the corner on a chair, looking down at the floor. He didn't move even after Mako had entered the room. "You wanted my assistance with something, Chief?" the policeman spoke stoically.

"I need your opinion, Mako. You've been in a not dissimilar position before; you must have some insight," Beifong started, tapping a piece of paper on her desk before sliding it across for him to examine.

Mako picked up the document and scanned it, then quickly turned his neck to look down at Mike, who had since straightened his posture and was looking at nothing in particular. "So that wasn't a random detail; you really were with the Triple Threats."

"I wasn't," Mike mumbled.

"Mike wasn't," Beifong confirmed. "But the whos and whats aren't important here."

"It says it right here!" Mako said confusedly. "'Confirmed past triad affiliation'. How does that not matter?"

"Sometimes problems don't have clean solutions. This is one of those problems." She gave him the rundown of what happened.

"Sorry, but I don't see how this relates to me, Chief," he admitted. "My situation was never like this." He'd only joined the Triple Threats to provide for his brother and get them off the streets. "Wasn't there already a plan to relocate them?"

"At this point I've run out of options. I can't keep them here, they'll break out somehow. I can't return them to their family outside the city because—well we don't know exactly why, presently, they won't say or deny the existence of one entirely, but it wouldn't happen without use of force that would likely lead to even more collateral damage."

"You could let me go—" Mike chimed in quietly.

"No, that's not an option either," Beifong sighed in frustration. "Still a liability."

"Why not send him back to Air Temple Island?" Mako asked. "He did well over there, there was nothing but good things from the acolytes."

"That was a special, temporary arrangement I made with Tenzin, not an all expenses paid invite to a permanent staycation at the nearest air temple. Not every person of interest can live there."

"Right, not everyone is Korra…" Mako agreed.

"Thank the spirits for that," Mike said under his breath.

"I got nothing," Mako said defeatedly after thinking for another minute. "Sorry, Chief, the options are all bad."

"We'll think of something…somehow," Beifong insisted. "Preferably within the next day. There's always other cases in need of attention."

An alarm suddenly sounded throughout the station.

"You've got to be kidding—Mako, stay here. Make sure he doesn't go anywhere until I get back," Beifong said with a groan, quickly leaving her office.

"They only sound that when someone tries to escape—" Mako remarked with wide eyes as he watched the chief disappear behind the door.

He glanced at Mike, who was covering his ears. "Shut up, shut up, stop yelling—" Mike's eyes were blank, his voice pleading.

"Mako! We could really use another hand! There's been an escape attempt!" An officer burst through the door and spotted her colleague. "It's not looking good—three officers are already down!"

"Chief told me to stay here—but it sounds bad. She'd want me to help my fellow officers, right? Yeah," Mako told himself, following the officer. "Don't go anywhere, Mike, I'll be back!"

Mike would be fine.

They could hold their own if they needed to.

Right?

Getting Zoey her glove back was paying dividends.

Sure, she'd taken out two guards on the way to the room where it had been kept with just her own combat skills, but once she had it back on her hand? It was like she was whole again, laying waste to those silly guards and police officers like they were just mildly inconveniencing her.

Courtney had nearly forgotten how scary those things could be.

It was a good thing they were on the same side!

When the alarm sounded, she scoffed. "So much for stealth, huh," she said as she slashed some water at an incoming officer's wires.

"We'll be fine, we made it this far!" Zoey figured as she narrowly avoided getting wrapped up in metal and landed a kick to knock over the officer and send some chi-blockage through him. "There can't be that many guards left." She looked down the hallway; there were only a couple of doors and no one left in their way, for now. This part of the building was something of a loop, and they were near the back of said loop.

There was a sudden rush of footsteps coming up behind them.

"For Tui's sake—you just had to say it!" Courtney said angrily.

"Hang on—" Zoey checked: nope, couldn't see anyone. The footsteps were almost around the corner. "Here!" She grabbed the first doorknob and yanked, pulling it open and making sure Courtney followed suit.

They waited with baited breath…

The footsteps ran past the door.

"That was close," Zoey remarked, checking that her glove was secured after running.

"Too close. You couldn't have waited for that thing again? We would've been out of here by now without it," Courtney pointed out, irritated and glancing around the room.

"This thing saved you a handful of times in the past ten minutes," Zoey reminded her.

"Whatever. We can't stay in here too long, this looks like someone's office—you!" Courtney suddenly spotted the one other occupant of the room.

"Me? You talkin'a me, miss?" 'Mike' replied, his ears no longer covered by his hands. His hair was swooshed away from his face and he appeared more energized, although his eyes were very clouded, as if he couldn't quite see clearly. "Never met you in my life, but if you got a quarrel then I need to hear it right quick. In a bit of a squeeze, see. Would like to exit fast as an eel hound at feedin' time, and I can't be sittin' chit chatting away with a couple little ladies, pretty as you are." His hands were fidgeting.

"We're not going to buy the ignorant act a second time," Courtney said with gritted teeth.

"Not sure what that means, but I know plenty a things! Including how to get outta here, so if you'd excuse me—" 'Mike' stood up and cracked his knuckles. "This place needs a few more renovations."

The two girls definitely felt something shift underneath the wooden floor. They looked at each other—clearly this wasn't the same person, right? "We're trying to escape too," Zoey spoke up. "Think you could help us out, um…?"

"'Name's Maneng. Call me Mani, though, s'what I go by most days," Mani introduced himself, putting his hand against the exterior wall. "First floor. Piece o' pie, this'll be. We'll be out in no time." He was smirking.

"Don't hear much of a difference, but alright," Zoey replied. "How're you getting us out?"

Mani moved his hand from the wall, made a fist with it, and motioned to hit it while not actually doing so.

"Punching the wall? Really?" Courtney said, unimpressed and impatient. "We don't have unlimited time here."

"This ain't my first time with this lump o' rock," Mani said, grinning. "They ain't replaced it. It's an easy splitter." He gestured with an open hand, this time towards the ground.

Crack!

A shuffling turned into a crumbling.

A wall turned into a hole.

An office turned into an emergency exit, and an earthbender became an accomplice.

An accomplice that lost consciousness from electrically-charged chi-blocking after they were far away from the scene of their escape.

When Beifong made it back around to her office to find no one there except a new hole in the wall, the alarm still not turned off, she didn't say a word.

"Chief, we've checked everywhere but couldn't find any signs of an exi—" Mako barged in, clearly exhausted from running around the station.

Beifong didn't turn around. Unconsciously she deployed her wires behind her and tripped Mako with them. "I told you to stay here," she said coldly. "I told you to stay and make sure they didn't leave."

"Agh…I'm sorry, Chief, there was a request for backup," Mako explained, having hit the floor that was covered in a layer of dust and particulates from the wall caving in. "Officers were dropping and I had to help. I was going to come right back—"

"You'd better hope they didn't make it far. This was your little passion project to begin with, Mako, and look what damage it's caused." She was ignoring the fact that she was partly responsible for them being there.

"I don't care what you do to make it happen at this point, but get. Them. Back. Am I clear?"

Mako swallowed dryly and saluted his Chief. "Yes, ma'am."

Right here is a little under halfway through what is currently written. Feel free to leave any thoughts on the story so far, I like seeing them :)