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The cars flew down the road. Rubber tires screeched against the pavement as both the robbers, and the police car chasing them, ran through red lights, and swerved through traffic.
"This is Chief Beifong," Lin said into the small microphone connected to the police radio, holding down the button on the small device, "Currently in pursuit of robbery suspects escaping in a red vehicle; earlier reported by Officer Mako."
"Roger, Chief Beifong," the radio said.
With only one hand on the steering wheel, and the other holding the microphone to her mouth, Lin wasn't exactly inspiring confidence in her two passengers.
"Lin! Can you please put that thing down," Tenzin shouted, still clutching onto his statue, "I'm not too familiar with driving, but I'm pretty sure you're supposed to have TWO HANDS on the wheel!" Korra could have sworn his face had turned red.
"Nonsense, Tenzin," Lin said, "Unless, of course, you know the proper way to call this in."
"Well, I don't, bu-" the airbender said, before having the small device tossed at him.
He flicked his wrist, and a small whirlwind appeared in the palm of his hand. The microphone was drawn in by the strong currents, and landed safely in his free hand.
"Tenzin, if you're going to complain about my driving, you..." she said, before changing lanes to overtake a large truck, "...just as well volunteered to put yourself to some use. Hold the microphone near my mouth and press the button to turn it on when I say so."
She yanked the wheel to one side, sending the police car into the oncoming lane. She pressed her foot down onto the gas pedal, and the car flew forward. Oncoming vehicles were swerving left and right in an effort to avoid crashing into the police car, honking their horns in an act of frustration against the three. Lin turned the wheel right, merging back into the proper, and now, much more free, lane. Korra looked out the window, in was her job to keep track of the robbers' car.
"There!" she said, spying the red Cabbage Car, "They're around three cars ahead of us, and they're... um... uhh..."
She turned to the Chief. Even after being in Republic City for almost a year, she still didn't understand driving and all its associated terminology.
"Which lane are they in, Korra?" Lin snapped.
"They're..." she said, looking back out the window, before turning back to Lin, "I'm not really sure what a lane is."
"You WHAT!?!" Lin yelled, "You seriously don't know what a lane is?"
"Hey!" Korra said, "Since I use Naga to get places all the time, I never needed to learn how to drive, or what these lane things are."
"And that would explain why I get so many complaints about a giant polar bear dog cutting off traffic," Lin muttered, "Lanes are... you see those straight lines of cars?"
"Yeah," Korra said.
"Well," Lin said, "all those cars are in the same lane. Get it?"
"I think I d-" Korra said.
"Good," Lin interrupted. "Now update me on the Cabbage Car's position."
Korra looked back out the window. The red car was moving, changing... the line of cars it was in, or lane, whatever Lin called them.
"They're one lane to the right now," she said. "They just moved."
"Good," Lin said, before cracking a smile. "Better make sure you have a good grip on that statue, Tenzin."
She swung the wheel right, cutting off a soon-to-be-angry motorist as they changed lanes once again. The statue in Tenzin's hand shifted in his grip, but nothing bad happened to it. The red car was right in front of them. The three motorists watched as the back doors of the car opened up, revealing a few very angry-looking men.
"I don't like this," Tenzin said.
"I agree," Lin replied.
One of the men stood in the middle of the doorway, spread his legs apart and crouched down. He raised his hands as though he were lifting something up, but he wasn't holding anything.
"Oh dear," Lin said.
She turned the wheel to the left, just as a wall of stone rose from the ground in front of them. They narrowly avoided it, the stone wall knocking off only the right side mirror.
"I wasn't using that anyways," Lin muttered.
"Tenzin, press it," she said, before once again speaking into the radio, "To all units in pursuit of robbery suspects. At least one suspect is a bender, and is attempting to wreck my car by bending walls out from the road. Roger?"
"Roger," the radio crackled, "To all responding officers, robbery suspects include an earthbender. Proceed with caution."
Lin pressed down on the gas pedal, and the car's speed increased. She was trying to get to the side of the robbers' car. Suddenly, another stone wall shot up from the ground. Lin swerved to avoid it, sending the car back into the oncoming lane. Lin kept holding the wheel left as they drifted to the left-most side of the road.
"We'll need to cut them off," she said.
"To all officers responding to the robbery chase, Officer Mako is requesting updates on location and heading of robbery suspects," the radio said. "He is moving to cut them off."
"See?" Lin said, motioning with one hand to the radio. "I didn't even need to put out the call. That is the sign of a good officer. If we get these guys, your boyfriend could receive a commendation."
"Lin!" Tenzin yelled, "Look out!"
Lin turned the steering wheel, and the car narrowly avoided crashing into a lamppost. Tenzin let out a small sigh of relief. Lin picked up on it, and responded by once again turning the wheel sharply to the right, sending them back through the mess of oncoming traffic, barely avoiding several head-on collisions. As they reached the proper side of the road, Lin kept the wheel right, as they changed into a lane that was a safer distance away from the robbers. Their antics in oncoming traffic had put them a distance of at least a few cars behind the robbers' vehicle. The traffic in their direction had seemingly dried up, as the normal citizens probably decided it was safer to let the police have room for their chase. Korra looked up ahead through the front window. The robbers' car was beginning to turn.
"Tenzin!" Lin yelled, as he once again pressed the button, "Update on red Cabbage Car, suspect vehicle is turning right off 5th onto Green."
The radio crackled as the update was given to the rest of the officers. Lin slowed down as they followed the robbers through the turn. The road in front of them was almost empty.
"Perfect," Lin said.
She pressed her foot down on the gas pedal. The car sped up, and the gap between the two cars began to slowly close. The earthbender started bending more stone barriers from the road. Korra flew back and forth as Lin swerved left and right to avoid them. They were slowly getting closer, even as the earthbender started throwing up walls faster and faster to slow them down. Suddenly, a wall the width of the entire road rose up in front of them.
"Korra!" Lin shouted, pushing the gas pedal all the way down. "I need a ramp! NOW!"
"Roger," she said, raising her hands.
A ramp of earth rose up beneath the police car. As it left the ramp, it flew through the air, over the earthbender's chest-high wall, before crashing back to earth. The force of the impact nearly caused Tenzin's statue to fly from his hands. Korra thought she could feel her internal organs crash against each other as the car hit the hard ground. Thankfully, the car itself came out of the jump with barely any damage. Korra looked out the front, the red Cabbage Car seemed to have slowed down, and was in the middle of a left turn. In fact, though the police car was going fast, it was very close to the intersection where it needed to turn. A little too fast, in fact.
"We have to make this turn," Lin said.
"Lin!" Tenzin yelled. "We're going too fast!"
She turned her head to the left, and spotted a lamp on the street corner.
"Korra, grab the wheel," she said, "I have an idea."
"What!" she said.
"You heard me. Do it! NOW! We don't have the time," Lin shouted.
She reached over the back seats and grabbed ahold of the wheel. Tenzin held onto his statue as if for dear life. Lin turned to her left and broke the car's driver-side window with a blow from her elbow. She looked out of the now-empty frame.
"Get ready, everyone," she said. "This will be rough."
Just then the car jolted as it hit a bump in the road. Korra's hands flew off the steering wheel.
"I CAN'T DRRRIIIIVVVEEEEE," Korra screamed.
"Turn it to the left, Korra," Lin said, not noticing the predicament.
Korra reached forward and managed to grab the wheel, turning it slightly to the left as Lin sent out a metal cable, which wrapped itself around the lamppost. The chief yanked on the metal wire as hard as she could, lifting her feet up and pressing them into the car door as the vehicle flew into a turn.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Korra and Tenzin simultaneously screamed.
The tires screeched against the road as inertia tried to force it out of its turn. The hinges on the car door squealed as Lin was pulled against them. Korra opened her eyes, which she hadn't noticed she closed, to see the road in front of them once again. Lin flicked her wrist, cutting the cable that attached her arm to the metal lamp, and the car flew forward, still in pursuit of the robbers. Lin grabbed the wheel, taking one hand off for a second to shake the pain from it. Before she ducked back into the backseat, Korra looked at the driver's side door. There was a huge dent it where Lin had been pressing her feet during the turn.
"Tenzin!" Lin yelled "Radio!"
Tenzin brought the microphone back up to Lin's lips.
"Update on red Cabbage Car," she spoke into the microphone, "Turning off Green onto 6-"
Suddenly, out in front of them, a police motorcycle flew onto the road from one of the side streets, right beside the robbers' car. The right side of the truck began being bathed in orange flame. They all heard a strange popping sound, and saw something dark fly up into air. Looking forward, they could see that the back right wheel was now bare, and was grinding against the road. They could only watch as the car began losing control, turned, and flipped into the air, landing upside-down, and slowing as it slid across the road.
"Never mind," Lin said, surprise apparent in her voice. "Suspect vehicle disabled."
The police car slowed down, stopping in front of the overturned vehicle. All three of them stepped out of the vehicle, arms raised in a fighting stance. Korra had to admit however, that Tenzin looked rather goofy with one hand suspended in the air, and the other still clutching that weird statue. The groans of the robbers filled the air. It sounded like they weren't going anywhere anytime soon. The officer on the motorcycle had stopped his vehicle inches away from the robbers' car. Despite his gray police uniform, Korra instantly recognized him, and dropped her stance.
"Mako!" she called out, as she ran towards him and embraced him in a big hug.
Mako turned his head, and looked at her. He seemed somewhat surprised.
"Oh, hey Korra," he said, looking down at her. "I didn't expect to see you here. What are you doing?"
"I was heading back to Air Temple Island, when we heard your call on the radio," she grinned, letting go of her boyfriend.
She turned to see Lin step forward, towards Mako, pulling out some handcuffs.
"Say rookie," she said, "Do you need some help with these suspects?"
Mako's eyes went wide with shock.
"Ch-Chief Beifong," he stammered, "I-I didn't expect to see you here either. I thought you didn't concern yourself with small crimes like this."
"Well today has been a strange day on that account. Truth be told, I was planning on ignoring your call, until these idiots..." she said, motioning to the robbers who were now trying to escape the car by crawling out through the windows, "... made the mistake of cutting me off when they ran a red light."
"Still, do you want any help taking the robbers into custody?" she said with a sigh.
"O-Of course," he said. "Could you radio a police van for me?"
"Sure thing, rookie," she said, before performing a mock salute, which undoubtedly made Mako even more uncomfortable. "Right away."
"A-After that, can you come back and help me cuff these guys," he called out as Lin began walking back to the police car to radio for backup.
"Soooo... Mak-" Korra said.
"Korra, can this please wait," he interrupted. "I have to do my job."
"All right," she said.
She turned from him and walked away as he opened the door at the back of the robbers' car. She heard two robbers moaning as they tumbled out when the door keeping them upright fell away. There was a small oof sound as they landed on top of each other in a pile. She walked over to Tenzin; hopefully he was in a conversing mood.
"Hey Tenzin," she said.
"Ah, Korra, what is it?"
"Nothing in particular," she said, "I just wanted to talk to someone while our friends on the police force do their jobs."
"Ah," Tenzin said, before starting to rub the statue with the cloth from his robe, trying to get rid of a blemish, "Thankfully, even after all we've been through, nothing bad happened to Pema's statue. Though, that being said, if anything did happen, it's so misshapen, I don't know how anyone could tell something's wrong."
"Yeah," Korra chuckled.
Tenzin let out a deep sigh. Korra glanced over at Mako, who was beginning to pull one of the robbers out from the front of the vehicle.
"I've had too much excitement today," her mentor said, "With all this stress I'm going through, I can't believe my hair hasn't turned gray yet."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Well, my duties as councilor for the next while are going to be very important," he said. "You know that we are disbanding the council, right?"
"Yeah," Korra said, "Of course. Republic City will be electing a president, right?"
"Yes," Tenzin said, "And the other councilors and I are currently working as hard as we can in order to set up these elections. These last few weeks have been terrible, long hours and such, but I'm afraid it will probably get even worse as the election draws closer. The long hours I spend at City Hall will become even longer."
He looked up from the statue and looked Korra in the eyes.
"However, once we hand over power to the new president, I will have a lot more free time and a lot less responsibility. I'll have the time to help you completely master airbending."
"That's good to hear," she said, looking to the ground. "Hopefully, we'll also have the time to figure out what's wrong with the Avatar State."
"Don't worry, Korra," he placed his free hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure you will be able to reconnect with your past lives soon."
She lifted her head up, and smiled.
"Thanks, Tenzin," she said, "Again, it's as you said: probably nothing serious."
She turned to look at Mako. He had just finished pulling one of the robbers from the wreck of the overturned vehicle.
"Now," he warned the robber, "don't you try anything. I have backup on the way, and I'm about to get your friend out."
The robber nodded timidly as Mako lowered himself back down to pull out another one of them from the car. The moment Mako turned his back, she noticed the robber reach into his pocket. He pulled out a small black object, and flicked it opened to reveal the glint of steel. A switchblade.
"MAKO!! NO!!" she cried out to warn him.
She glanced around, and grabbed the closest solid thing near her and threw it through the air. Tenzin's statue smashed into the robber's head, shattering into misshapen pieces of porcelain. The robber landed on the ground with a thud, unconscious.
"MY STATUE!!!" Tenzin wailed.
Korra ran towards her boyfriend.
"Are you hurt?" she asked, now right in front of him.
"No, I'm okay," he said, turning his head to get a better look at the knife. "However, if you didn't intervene there, he probably would have killed me."
"What's going on?" Lin said.
"Korra just saved my life," Mako said, "That robber there tried to kill me."
Lin looked at the scene.
"Next time, watch your back out there. You should have cuffed the guy before you tried to save his friend," she admonished, "Oh, and your backup is on the way."
Korra turned to see Tenzin dejectedly shuffling over to the car. He fell to his knees in front of the remains of what was once his, or rather, Pema's statue. He grabbed one of the broken pieces, and ran his fingers along it.
"No," he muttered, "Why the statue? Why now?"
"Don't worry," Korra said, "If you just stick the pieces together randomly, Pema probably won't even notice the difference."
--
The police van activated its sirens, and started driving down the streets of Republic City to the police station. They had managed to rescue all the robbers, though Mako did take a little coaxing to pull the last robber stuck in the wreckage out. He eventually worked up the courage though.
"You sure the earthbender won't cause any trouble on the ride down?" Korra asked, as she watched the van disappear into the distance.
"Yes," Lin said. "He didn't seem like he was in any shape to bend after that crash. Besides, even if he could bend, the cuffs wouldn't allow him the movement needed to do anything more than shift a pebble."
"What if he's a metalbender?"
"Doesn't matter, all the cuffs my officers used are made of platinum. Only trained metalbending officers are given anything bendable." There was a long pause as they all stood in the street.
"Well, that was fun," Lin remarked. "I should be heading back to the station."
"Yeah," Mako said, before looking down at his wristwatch. "Actually, I need to be somewhere soon. I'm meeting a few friends for lunch."
"Well," Lin said, checking the time herself, "it is almost your lunch break... go enjoy it. I'll make sure those robbers are fully processed into custody."
"Really?" he said, "Thanks, Chief."
He saluted and turned away.
"Oh, and rookie," she said. "Don't be surprised if you find yourself with a commendation, and maybe sometime soon, a detective position."
"Thanks Chief Beifong," he stammered out.
"No problem."
He walked away from Lin, who got back into her police car, ready to drive off. He stopped right in front of Korra.
"Soooo," she said, drawing out the syllable, "Who are you meeting?"
"I'm having lunch with Bolin, he's bringing over the new Fire Ferrets. He says they're big fans."
"Oooh. Can I come?" she asked.
Mako shrugged.
"I don't see why not. I think Bo will be happy to see you," he said.
She turned to Tenzin.
"Can I go?"
"Yes," he said, "I suppose so. I'll head back to the island on my own I guess..."
Suddenly, he began glaring at her.
"... without my statue."
Author's Note[]
Wow... that took longer than expected. Remind me to never make a promise like that again. Sorry about the wait. However, I do have some good news; I've finally found someone to beta-read the story. The reason it took so long was because he was going over it, and I hope that you enjoy the result.
As for this chapter in particular, it was a fun one to write. The bit involving the car swinging around in a tight turn was partially inspired by the 1989 Batman film, which featured a similar stunt, though one with less metalbending and less banter. I always liked to imagine that, though Lin happens to be Chief of Police, if she is given the chance to drive crazy, she will take it. This mainly though, is a breather for the things that will happen next.
If you like the story, leave a review, and if you have any constructive criticism, leave a review too. I really enjoy writing this story, and want to make it great.
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