Republic City Hustle

Republic City Hustle is an American web series trilogy set three years prior to the events chronicled in The Legend of Korra. It explores the history of Mako and Bolin, who, after the deaths of their mother and father, find themselves orphaned and living on the street. The two boys must do what they can to survive on the streets of Republic City, even if that means swindling and theft.

Written by veteran Avatar writer Tim Hedrick and designed by Evon Freeman, Republic City Hustle employs the talents of David Faustino and P. J. Byrne, the voice actors for Mako and Bolin in The Legend of Korra. "Republic City Hustle: Part 1" was released online on August 9, 2013, and the second installment was published the following week. "Republic City Hustle: Part 3" is scheduled for release on August 23.

Part 1
Mako watches an elderly woman emerge from a grocery store and spots her purse among two bags full of groceries. He turns to a winking Bolin and steals the purse. Bolin tells the woman that he will stop the thief and chases Mako around an alleyway. Out of view, the brothers shout and use their bending to make sounds, giving the false impression that Bolin is actually confronting the thief.



Bolin, pretending to be out of breath and injured, returns the purse to the elderly citizen, who thanks and rewards him with two yuans. Disgusted by the small gift, Bolin asks for more, claiming that he risked his life for her, or so she thinks. Rather than waiting for her response, Bolin takes a loaf of bread from her grocery bags and runs off, prompting her to call him a hooligan. Bolin returns to Mako and shares the bread with him, remarking that it was better than what they had yesterday; Mako corrects him by pointing out that they did not eat anything yesterday.

The two return to the Triple Threat Triad headquarters, where they see the renowned pro-bender Toza, captain of the Black Quarry Boar-q-pines and Bolin's idol, dealing with Shady Shin. The mobster pays Toza ten thousand yuans to throw the match that night, though the pro-bender appears upset with his own actions, prompting Shin to call him ungrateful.



Bolin becomes upset after hearing that Toza will lose the next match, but Mako rebuffs him with the fact that there was no one there to mourn for their losses when their parents died and left them to fend for themselves, and that one must "hustle or get hustled." Overhearing their conversation, Shin warns the brothers that they needed to collect more bets for this scheme to work or they would be returned to the streets. Mako assures Bolin that they will get the job done, and the brothers leave. Smiling wickedly, Shady Shin comments that seeing Mako and Bolin gives him hope for the future.

Part 2


Mako and Bolin travel around town to try and collect bets for Shady Shin. The two stop at Mr. Feng's pet shop, and attempt to talk him into making a bet. Pabu then runs out from the shop, followed by Mr. Feng, and grabs the fire ferret by its tail thanking Bolin for helping him and saying that the animal had been trying to run since he'd found out that he would be fed to a pythonaconda. Then Bolin suggested he buy him, to which the pet responded that it would be five yuans to purchase the creature. Mako rejected the man's offer stating that they didn't need another mouth to feed, and he ignored Bolin's begging to change his mind.

Bolin then spots Toza, who is signing autographs near a spot that is full of posters of the pro-bender. When Bolin approaches Toza, the older man recognizes him as a kid working with the Triple Threat Triad, his face changes from a smile. Bolin tries to tell Toza that he doesn't have to lose like Shady Shin told him to, but Toza defeatedly tells Bolin that he's broke and he isn't good at the sport anymore, then demands that Bolin leave him alone.

After seeing what Bolin attempted to do, Mako chases after his brother exasperatedly asking if he was trying to get them in trouble with Shady Shin. Bolin gets upset and tells Mako that he "can't just turn [his] back on people when they're down."



Later that night Bolin tries to break into the pet shop and steal Pabu, who was already placed in the snake's cage but has yet to be eaten. As soon as Bolin grabs the fire ferret, the snake attacks him and Mako runs in to save Bolin.

Mako accuses Bolin of getting himself into stupid situations repeatedly, to which Bolin agrees but tells Mako that he's not leaving without the fire ferret. Mako agrees somewhat reluctantly, but tells Bolin that Pabu's food is coming out of Bolin's share. Bolin then tells Mako he's decided to name the fire ferret Pabu, and when asked how he came up with the idea Bolin says "[He doesn't] know, it just kind of came to [him] when the snake was crushing [him]."