The sound of discarded newspapers, litter and fallen leaves rustling through the wind, filled the alleyway every so often; along with the echoes of cheers and shouts of drunken city people at the bar situated a few blocks away. It was close to 2am and yet some places of the city still sparked with life. Bars opened up, nightclubs came to life, casinos and strip bars opened their doors to welcome the night goers. But for the most part of the city, it was calm and quiet much like the alleyway where Korra was, who stood waiting for Asami to appear.

The detective fiddled with her handgun once more, growing anxious and impatient. Mako, herself and a handful of other officers repeated and revised the plan over and over again. What to ask, what to say, what to do when in contact with the Red Lotus. Where Mako and the other guards should be positioned at certain times and how they were to track down Korra and the group while they are on route. Extensive revisions of each member of the group were carried out: their dangerous abilities, areas of strength, etc. Back up plans for back plans were also created in case something goes wrong. There was no way that they were going to waste such an opportunity to finally infiltrate the enemy after so many years of attempts. Korra let out a heavy breath as a though surfaced in her head, How did I manage to get this far when the United Forces couldn't even get to where I am years ago? Thanks to her gossipy co-workers, Korra heard about a mission carried out by the great United Forces, who sent their best into the field years ago to carry out the same mission that she had right now. But unlucky, a final report was never made after a year on the field. Nobody but the higher ups knew why the agent failed to follow up a report. But as any realist would think, they were most likely uncovered and killed by the Red Lotus before they could report back to their department.

The sound of screeching tires burning on the road rattled through the alley. A slick black van suddenly turned sharply into the alley way where Korra stood and nearly knocked her over. She quickly holstered her gun into her chest gun holster that hid beneath her jacket, while she recovered her balance. The van then stopped a couple of steps to her left then the back doors were kicked open by none other than Asami.

"Sorry about that, my friend here is a bit too gas pedal happy. Are you okay?" Asami asked. She was wearing a fitting and flexible black jumpsuit sort of clothing that made her literally blend into the dark, and also made it hard for Korra to see her properly in the poorly lit alleyway.

"I'm perfect." Korra smiled hiding her jostling nerves.

Asami smirked in response, "Good to hear, now welcome on board." She gestured Korra into the van.

Climbing inside the vacant seat-less back of the van, Korra could make out two figures on the driver and passenger seat in the also very dark vehicle. Right after Asami closed the back doors shut, the driver let the van speed off onto the road starting their route to wherever it may be. The detective tried to make out the faces of the two strangers with every quick flicker of light the street lights provided as they zoomed down roads. Judging from the brief flicker of visibility of their faces, Korra pieced that they were both young people. Utterly confused on how it was possible, Korra squinted at them even more.

"Korra is that a gun in your jacket?" Asami asked sternly, eyeing the area where her holster laid on her chest.

Shit. "Y-yeah." Korra replied cautiously not knowing how Asami would take this.

"Seriously Korra what kind of job did you think this was going to be?" Asami asked furrowing her eyebrows at her.

A laugh from the passenger's seat was heard causing the two to look over to the owner of the laugh, "Maybe she thought that we were going to murder someone."

Asami looked back at Korra sighing in disbelief, "Korra first off we are not here to kill anyone. Second, you certainly do not need that gun nor do we need to make gunshot noises at the place that we're going to. Now put that aside and put this on." Asami tossed her a jumpsuit similar to her own but conveniently in a size that would fit Korra perfectly. "I hope it fits alright."

The detective put aside her handgun and slipped into the clothing, still cautious and curious of the two people on the two seats in the front. They didn't seem to fit the profile description of any of the Red Lotus members. Korra squinted at them even more, not caring if Asami notices, trying to scan their faces and body frame from the back where she sat. By this point, there wasn't as much light as Korra would've needed. The driver was bringing them, as Korra could tell, outside the central city and pulling into the rich neighbourhoods of Republic City. Where the wealthy stayed and lived, not a financial worry in the world. Shopping malls, high end stores and restaurants, rich private schools and not to mention the various hella expensive houses that also filled the rich community. This was the place that everyone dreamed of living in. Where you were privileged, rich and relevant to the government (since majority of the shitty government officials lived in these areas). The area where the entire city's tax money is spent on lousy parks and irrelevant modern 'art' to make the wealthy Eastern side of the city look all pretty instead of fixing the financially struggling and neglected central side of the city.

"Korra what are you squinting at? It's creeping me out." Asami gained Korra's attention.

Korra looked at Asami taking her gaze away from the two strangers. "I don't know who they are." she said simply as she pointed toward the two people at the front.

"Oh right, I forgot. Sorry." Asami apologized. Korra's eyebrows shot up in disbelief as Asami's casual and sincere apology escaped her lips.

"What?" Asami asked seeing Korra's expression.

"Um nothing nothing. It's just that I've never heard you say sorry to me, much less become a nice and decent person when I'm around." Korra answered honestly and still taken back by Asami's rare kindness.

Asami retorted, "I'm a nice and decent person all the time."

"Yeah right, stop lying."

"Well you're no angel either you idiot." Asami rolled her eyes. "Now shut up and let me introduce you to my friends."

Asami placed a hand on the shoulder of the person in the passenger seat who was typing away on a laptop. "This is Kuvira." She then tapped the shoulder of the driver, "And this guy is Tahno. We work as a team."

"Yo." the driver, Tahno, said simply while he took a turn onto another road.

"Oh hey, Korra is that you?" Kuvira looked back at the detective chuckling, "you remember when I said that I'm looking forward to get to know you better? Yeah I didn't mean it this way pal. I was expecting more of a sit down and coffee with the crew, not on a complicated heist at 2am of a Wednesday morning." Kuvira said jokingly. "But nonetheless great to have you on the team, don't you dare fuck up." she finished strictly.

Asami spoke, "Who knew the new girl was good at stealth huh?" she turned to Korra, "you ready to have some fun?"

Aasmi found a rather baffled looking Korra staring back and forth at Tahno and Kuvira like she viewed them as an insult; eyebrows knitted together in utter confusion, mouth agape and her eyes full of disbelief while darting them back and forth between Tahno and Kuvira. And finally her entire body just slackens in disappointment as if she was just slapped in the face with a joke.

Asami raised an eyebrow, taking offence from Korra's face and body language. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

Korra shut her mouth and fixed her face. "Nothing." she glanced at Asami's unconvinced face before continuing, "just… surprised, that's all." The detective cleared her throat to regain her senses and posture (even though her sanity was crumbling inside her). "Anyways, where is this road trip heading to?" Might as well just finish this fluke of a mission, she thought to herself discouragingly while trying to push down the thought of disappointment and embarrassment she's going to face after she briefs back to Mako and the chief.

Tahno huffed and flipped a piece of his overly-conditioned hair out of his face before speaking, "We are en route to the fabulously rich neighbourhood of this dude called Wu. Asami would you like to take the honours of briefing in our rookie?"

"Come." Asami motioned Korra to the left side of the van where a white piece of paper with a sketched out floor-plan of a house was taped onto the side. Taking out a flashlight to illuminate the paper, Asami began to speak, "Basically we're going to break into this person's house, which mind you is equipped with highly expensive security systems. Cameras, motion-sensors, invisible lasers, voice command features, you name it. It literally holds the best reliability and the highest quality of security system that a person could ever have in a home. Well I wouldn't exactly call it highly reliable now since I cracked the system a few days ago." Asami added cockily with a smirk.

"For God's sake Asami just tell her the plan then you can impress your girlfriend later." Kuvira jested.

After glare and an insult toward Kuvira, Asami continued, "As I was saying, this is the floor plan of the mansion. And this the big ass mansion's garage," Asami pointed towards the rectangular shape of the mansion drawn on the page with doors, windows, cameras and other various aspects indicated on it. "As you can see there are a lot of cameras and a shit-ton of other security features. Luckily with the new system I designed, it can override the security system and shut it down for an entire minute. So once we enable the override, we have to infiltrate fast."

Korra nodded at the plan comprehending different things. "What exactly are we doing in the mansion though?" she asked while Tahno took a sharp right causing Korra to tilt to the left.

"We're going to steal some cars of course." Asami looked up at Korra from the paper and smiled devilishly with excitement and a determined glint in her eyes.

Korra shook her head, "Wait what? You're-we're going into a mansion equipped with a sate-of-the-art security system that is basically as secure as a fucking prison for cars?"

Asami looked at her with a deadpan expression, "Yes. And?"

The detective sighed in disbelief. "Why are we doing this?"

"Kuvira, Tahno and I need some money. Luckily for us, Kuvira and I work at a repair shop that Tahno owns. So with that in our expense, basically we grab these cars, bring it to the shop, tweak it a bit while adding new parts to make it look brand new and sell it off for good prices. Quick and easy money." Asami explained while making the entire thing sound like it was totally simple and legal.

Korra's mind was whirring with disbelief. A couple of minutes ago she was worried out of her life, fully convinced that she was about to enter the pinnacle of her mission but was ungracefully slapped in the face with a casual, non-life threatening, not-Red-Lotus related heist with a bunch of fellow college students. Great.

"Any more outstanding questions before I explain the plan?" Asami asked hurriedly as they drove closer to their destination.

Korra let out a chuckle, hardly believing the situation and then shook her head once more. "Let's do this. I'm all ears boss."

The van halted to a stop close to the enormous mansion belonging to the unfortunate soul that was going to be robbed in a couple of minutes. Korra watched Kuvira hand Tahno the laptop before putting on a balaclava on her face like the other two girls in the van. Korra adjusted her balaclava as Tahno typed furiously on the keyboard as Asami voiced out commands on how to boot up the override system.

The plan was simple. They had one minute for the entire heist. And each single second had to count.

"Alright ladies, on your mark." Tahno announced aiming his finger on the button that would start the override.

Asami held the door handle of the van readying herself to swing it open. Tahno counted down, "3,2,1…go go go!"

Asami swung the door open and Korra bolted out into the cold night, Kuvira following behind her.

20 seconds to get to the garage.

After curving towards the front gate, Korra turned around and positioned herself to boost Kuvira up over the gate. Clasping a hand on top of the other with her palms facing up, the detective bended her knees as Kuvira ran toward her. With one leap, Kuvira landed her right foot into Korra's hand and was hauled up and over the gate with ease and precision. Before Kuvira landed onto the other side, Asami came bolting right after her and also received a good boost from Korra allowing her to land on the top of the golden flat-top gate. Taking a few steps back, Korra ran up and scaled up the gate to clasp Asami's extended hand who hauled her up and over the gate to join Kuvira. Right when the two girls landed into the property, they saw the guard located inside the guard outpost collapse right before he saw them. At the outpost door, Kuvira came out quietly scanning around for any more guards to knock out. When they concluded that the coast was clear, they sprinted again toward the side door of the unusually large garage which could easily be mistaken as a regular neighbourhood home by the size of it. Damn, how many cars does this guy have? Korra thought to herself as they approached the green metal side door of the garage. Right on time.

"God damn it." Asami muttered as she examined the door lock. "There's no security system type of tech that I can hack into on this damn door."

"What do you mean?" Kuvira whispered angrily as she checked her watch. 5 seconds have passed.

Asami pulled out a pin shaped instrument and started poking it into the door lock. "It means I have to open it manually."

Korra watched Asami fiddle the pin in and out of the lock like she was pressing things inside. The detective didn't know anything about lock picking nor did she find comfort on how long Asami was taking to open the damn thing so she just scanned their surroundings. The mansion's front was adorned with a beautiful kempt garden filled with big tall trees, flowers such as fire lilies, white lotuses, jasmines and roses along with dragon white bushes. A fountain that they passed while they ran to the garage was lit up with beautiful lights that emphasized the beauty of the water dancing around a sculpture modelled after a young man; who Korra presumed was the owner of this home. The sculpture was dressed in a fancy suit with a scarf fashionably placed around his neck. The man's hair was fashionably and carefully styled, one side of his part elegantly curling into a soft wave. His big eyebrows raised as a confident smile was sculpted onto his face. Along the walls of the mansion were multiple security cameras. One was aimed at where they stood, but with the override in effect, it was dead and motionless.

Click.

"Got it! Let's go we have around 30 seconds left." Asami announced as she crept the door open which emitted a squeak from its rusty hinges.

Running in after Kuvira and Asami, Korra internally gasped at the sight in front of her. The garage was as big as a regular sized home. But instead of rooms and furniture, the enormous room was filled with endless amount of cars from wall to wall. Racing cars, luxury cars, sports cars, retro cars, you name it. If Korra only had the pleasure to stand in this room and drool over the beauty of the collection, she would gladly take the chance. Returning into focus from her momentary fangirling, the girl ran to a car at the front of the garage toward an emerald coloured Lamborghini Aventador. Swinging the car door open, the water-tribe girl quickly slipped into the drivers seat and got to work. Pulling out a phone that Asami gave her, she connected it to the car through a usb cable. Right after plugging it in, the phone's screen illuminated to life, a loading bar filling up the screen. Korra watched the loading percentage rise up steadily as a nervous sweat ran down her body. 20 seconds left until the override shuts down on us.

The device, according to Asami estimation, would take up 10 seconds to override the security system within the cars that they chose. Each car in the garage was equipped with a voice recognition device that would only allow the car to turn on the engine when the owner voiced out a specific password. Save the hassle of kidnapping the owner and increase the risk of the heist, the ever-brilliant Asami designed this second devise to override yet another system. Damn I knew she was smart, but I didn't think she'd be hacker smart. The water-tribe girl glanced around her surroundings as she waited anxiously for the phone to fully load. Further down her right was Kuvira who, as Korra could tell, was searching around the car and fiddling around with the different features of the interior of her car. On her left, two cars down was Asami who was looking ahead looking poised and confident as she waited for her own car to override. As if sensing that eyes were on her, Asami looked over at Korra and made that little smirk that always made the detective's feel like a goofy infatuated teenager who can't get enough of it. Seeing the water-tribe girl's blushing reaction, Asami's face broke into a beautiful smile making it even harder for Korra to pull herself together.

Suddenly Asami's car roared with life, soon followed by Kuvira and Korra's cars. Override complete, the phone indicated on the screen.

10 seconds to make it out alive.

The large garage door opened allowing the girls to speed out onto the front of the mansion. Korra took the lead followed by Kuvira and then Asami. As they turned and drove their cars toward the front gates the clock slowly ticked down. 7, 6, 5…. The front gate opened conveniently as they sped towards it all thanks to Tahno operating the security controls. 4,3,2… the girls floored the gas pedal and sped out onto the street, not giving a shit on how loud their engines roared down the streets. Korra looked at her rear-view mirror and watched the front gates close back into place just in time before the override could fully expire, literally making it seem like nothing happened in the residence.

For a number of minutes the three girls plus Tahno drove along back toward their end of the city. As they drove along Korra drooled over the beauty of the car she was in. The seats were crisp leather with a stylish design of emerald and black contrasting from each other. The slick and smooth passenger dashboard with the brand name imprinted proudly in cursive. Korra smiled in delight as she gripped the leather steering wheel in her hand as she took a turn into a quiet street, the Lamborghini symbol emphasizing itself proudly against the black color of the wheel. She felt the rev of the engine vibrate throughout the car and filling into her bones as she sped through the street. Next the detective glanced down to appreciate the car's simple yet innovative control panel. It consisted of a small touch-screen on top with other car function buttons below it such as the AC, heater, defrost button, radio functions, etc. Stopping at a red light, the curious Korra started tapping away on the car's touch screen.

A soft vibrate from her pocket caught her attention. Opening up her phone she found a blank text from Mako. What does he want? she thought. The detective looked back at her rear-view mirror before accelerating past the green light to check if Asami and the rest were watching her. Putting the phone onto her ear, Korra heard a few connecting beeps before Mako picked up.

"What do you want?" Korra asked stealing another cautious glance at her mirrors.

"Are you alone? In the Aventador?" Mako asked quietly through the phone.

"Yeah I am, what's wrong?"

"We searched up the license plates of the cars you stole and Korra those cars are traced by the department." he informed.

"Wait what? What do you mean?" Korra asked in disbelief, growing nervous.

"The police department offers the services of putting a device type of thing to track a person's car, in case of theft. The person you stole that car from has those devices in his cars. Once the department sees something suspicious in the car's activity and route, they're going to hunt your cars down."

"When the hell did we start providing these services to people?" Korra asked in aggravation.

"Hmm good question actually, let me search it up on the database," Mako hummed in curiosity.

"Mako focus! Be useful for once!" Korra hissed through the phone.

Her partner retorted, "Hey I'm not useless, you prick."

"Well be more useful-er and tell me how to take the tracking thing off before we get to the main city." Korra shouted into the phone.

After hearing a number of unflattering comments of annoyance from Mako, he updated his partner. "Well so far, all I'm getting is complex instructions on how to detach the device from the car but that's not going to help since there's a lot of wires involved. And also with one wrong cut and move it could trigger a tampering signal and alert the department."

"Is there anything else less complex and straight-forward than that?" Korra asked as she was not really the best with anything involving wires and circuits.

"I'm working on it. Just try and detour away from wherever you guys are going so that no one locates your base." Mako instructed continuing his search.

Glancing up to her rear-view mirror once more, Korra prayed to the spirits that her partner would, by some miracle, figure something out before she gets mauled by the heist-squad. Rolling down her window, she stuck out her arm and waved it to gain Asami and Kuvira's attention and then pointed to the left, opposite of where they were supposed to go. Taking the turn, Korra led the confused gang to a road that led to the northern side of the city where the industrial companies settled.

"Okay I'm leading them out," Korra said into the phone, "Please hurry up."

"For how long do you think you can stall and drive them around? This system is being a bitch to disable." Mako grunted as he skimmed through files on his work laptop, his fellow officers growing frustrated as well in the car that they were in, closely following the heist gang from afar.

"Uh," Korra looked into her rear-view mirror again and based her answer off of her sighting; which mainly consisted of a very pissed off and annoyed Asami in her stolen car who looked about ready to run someone over, "Yeah um, today would be very nice Mako."

"Got it!" Korra heard a man cheer in the background of the phone call. A series of multiple voices all talking at once could be heard until Mako spoke into the phone.

"Haruna found codes that could disable the tracking device. Do you have access to some kind of system in the car like a control panel?"

"Yeah, there's a touch screen here. Tell me what to do." Korra tapped the car's touch-screen to life.

"What is she doing?" Asami hissed to herself in annoyance as she followed Korra's car with Kuvira and Tahno in tow. It was late at the early hours of the morning, getting close to 3am. After tailing the emerald Aventador for a number of minutes, Korra finally pulled over, hopefully to explain what the fuck she was doing.

The Sato proceeded to get out of her car along with the water-tribe girl and approached her in front of her Ferrari car.

"You better have a good ass reason for leading us off to the opposite direction Korra." Asami glared with irritation.

The other girl let out a classic cheeky confident cute smile. "Oh please, when did I ever disappoint you? Can I?" Korra gestured to Asami's stolen Ferrari car.

With a eye roll and shrug Asami muttered a 'sure' and let Korra enter her car.

"Hey what's going on?" Tahno asked as her jogged up to the car with Kuvira.

With another silent shrug, the three went over to the Ferrari to see what the water-tribe girl was doing. With Asami taking the shotgun seat and Kuvira and Tahno standing outside beside her with their heads popped into the car, they watched Korra tapping away on the car's touch-screen accessing different settings and functions.

"Care to explain what you're doing Korra?" Tahno asked suspiciously.

"Well um, I was just screwing around with the car's functions because y'know, why not? And I found out that these cars are hooked up with these police security systems type of things," Korra explained bluntly as she typed in endless amounts of codes that Mako gave her, "And luckily an ex-cop friend of mine from way back gave me some secret codes in the past to disable these systems." she lied.

"How did you just conveniently manage to get police codes?" Asami asked unconvinced.

Korra chuckled a bit before looking up to address Asami, "What? Did you think that this is my first car heist?"

Kuvira laughed in response, "Well I guess we pegged you wrong rookie, you just saved our asses."

The detective typed out the last of the security codes into the system of the car and the screen flashed with the words System Deactivated.

"You're welcome." Korra finished and glanced over to her fellow heist members who were staring at her in awe. "What?" she asked.

Asami stared at her in disbelief causing Korra to smirk confidently at her with a little cocky eyebrow raise as if saying 'bitch you thought'. Seeing this, Asami rolled her eyes once more in irritation but a nod and small smile of recognition made its way onto her lips.

"Hey Korra share some of those codes holy shit!" Tahno exclaimed excitedly pulling out a piece of paper and pen out of thin air and literally barrelled over Asami as he squeezed into the car toward Korra, items in hand extended towards her.

"Excited and happy Tahno, that's a rare sight to see." Asami pointed out in surprise.

The heist squad eventually made their way home back into their part of the city and arrived at their destination. Opening the door, Korra entered the main garage of Tahno's automobile mechanical shop. Throughout the medium sized garage were tool boxes, work benches, gas tanks of some kind, various amounts of scattered car parts and car lifts (some of which were actually occupied by cars). The walls were adorned with a range of car parts such at bumpers and rims which contrasted against the creamy white of the walls. In one corner of the garage played a small radio which sang a soft calming melody after a night of unexpected adventure (at least in Korra's part). The store owner was in his desk, where the radio sat, working away on the computer while brushing his unusually glossy but well kept hair. Kuvira was nowhere to be found, possibly in the garage's storage room in the back, Korra presumed. Inevitably Korra found herself walking toward where Asami was, working on her stolen Ferrari car. Approaching from behind the car, the detective found the other girl's legs sticking out from underneath the vehicle possibly tinkering with something.

"Having fun down there?" Korra loudly asked, making her presence known.

Bang. "Oww." Asami grunted in pain from under the car. Korra then watched her slide out from underneath holding her greased forehead.

"Did you just?-" Korra tried to stifle her laugh.

"Jesus Korra you scared the shit out of me." Asami complained while rubbing her forehead which was now turning a slight pink.

It was then that Korra howled in laughter to the point she had to clutch her stomach out of breathlessness.

"Shut it!" Asami protested as she sat up and threw her greasy work rag at Korra's face which the water-tribe girl easily evaded. "I just dozed off for a bit by accident and you shouted and caught me off guard."

Regaining her breath, Korra's lips were filled with a cheeky smile, "Well good morning to you too." Seeing Asami glare at her, Korra eased off with her teasing. "Okay okay I'm done with my laughing, let me take a look." she said crouching down and taking Asami's face into her hands, allowing her to have a steady view of her forehead.

"You're forehead's fine, the color is fading easily." Korra reassured her, "But I can't say the same from your cheeks though."

Korra watched the girl blink a few times back into reality and realize the shameless blush growing onto her cheeks.

"I-I'm not blushing, it's just hot that's all." Asami bluffed.

Korra chuckled at the rare(-ish) sight of the blushing Asami. The detective let out another lopsided grin watching Asami get all flustered, trying to hopelessly convince her that she was totally not just blushing like a dork right now. Blushing dork or not, it suddenly made Korra aware of their position right then and there. Faces close, bodies close, no one around them to see them in plain view. Yes, this made Korra very aware. With all of these in mind Korra couldn't help but glance down briefly at the other girl's lips as if they were taunting her to just lean in and close the gap. Glancing back up, Asami held a rather distant looking stare back at her as if she was having the same internal struggle herself but nonetheless held no indication that she wanted this uncertainty to stop. Korra's breath picked up as she found her bold hand snaking up to the back of the raven-haired girl's head, slowly guiding Asami's head towards her own. When the water-tribe girl felt no ounce of resistance from Asami, she let her eyes close and let her body take control. As she felt Asami's breath so close to her own lips- Asami turned head turn to the side avoiding Korra's lips completely.

The detective's eyes flashed open and found herself looking at the other girl's turned cheek. Korra dropped her hands and scrambled onto her feet. "I-I apologize, I didn't mean to assume that you wanted to um-"

"It's fine. It's not that I didn't want to it's just- I can't and-" Asami failed to explain. She let out a deep breath then cleared her throat to change the subject, "Good job today by the way. I expected little from you in the start and you proved me wrong tonight."

Korra scratched the back of her neck with lingering nervousness and awkwardness, a very old habit she never quite got around of losing. "No problem 'Sami, it's a pleasure proving you wrong from time to time." she said with an uneasy laugh.

"Don't get used to it you idiot." the mechanic smirked, "anyways, we decided that you deserve a little thank you gift for your save earlier. So we decided that you can keep your car for yourself."

"Wait what?"

"You know what I said, don't act humble."

Korra's face lit up with her wide grin. "Holy shit. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you." she repeated over and over again unable to contain herself.

Asami tossed Korra's new car keys towards her and shook her head in amusement. "You're such a dork, you know that?"

Korra caught the keys and kissed it. "Yeah but now I'm a dork with a cool ass Aventador."

The mechanic stared at the giggly Korra, taking pleasure in the sight of the dork making the biggest and most beautiful smile that she has ever seen. Who knew that Korra's bright smile could lighten up the room and make Asami feel warm on a cold December day at 4am in the dark morning.

The following evening, the two detectives shuffled out of the chief's office after a long and disappointed lecture from their boss after they briefed the mission's progress. As expected, the Chief of Police was not at all pleased with being handed the news of one of her best detective's telling her that, instead of cracking down the walls of the Red Lotus, she was out late at night in a measly robbery with a bunch of college kids. You told me that you were in on the Red Lotus, not on an after school heist club! Korra could hear her boss' voice. The chief went along with how the department couldn't afford to drag the mission on as Mako and Korra sees fit. They had to act quick and effectively- nothing less.

If you two can't get anymore valuable progress or intel I'll have no choice but to shut down the mission, Lin informed her detectives at one point. Upon hearing that, Korra couldn't help but feel her heart grow heavy.

"Let's go and get some work done before Chief finds something else to shout about." Korra told her partner as they both entered Korra's car and made their way to their next destination.

Mako cleared his throat striking up conversation, "So how are you and Sato?"

"We're good, I guess." Korra answered carefully as she remembered their last talk about the girl.

"Any progress between you two?"

Not knowing how this conversation was going, the girl glanced over to her partner who was casually looking out the car window. Concluding that there wasn't any sort of sarcasm or stab in his question, Korra answered.

"Well we've gotten a lot closer lately. By closer I mean less fighting and sarcastic insults which is a big deal considering the both of us." Korra explained. "And to be honest Mako, we uh, nearly kissed last night."

Korra heard an exasperated sigh to her right. She expectantly waited for some type of lecture from her best-friend after her honesty. Here we go again…

"Okay."

After a few moments of unexpected silence from Mako, Korra pressed on. "Okay?"

"Yes I said okay. We've already had this talk and you know how I feel about you and that Red Lotus girl. But when have I ever been able to stop you from anything?" Mako said with a tinge of never fading annoyance, "I trust you partner, but just remember to put the mission first before your goddamn feelings."

Ending the conversation, Korra rolled her eyes and gave out a breath, "Yes Dad."

The duo entered one of the roughest areas in the 'great' Republic City. Colorful, yet also some obscene, graffiti decorated every corner of the area. Drunken men and women hollered incoherently at 6pm in the evening talking enthusiastically to each other. Crime piled up in this part of the south-western side, even more than the central region of the city where Korra and Mako resided.

"Makes a lot of sense why the crime rates are high here." Mako commented as a random teenager tried to sell a pack of gold watches in his jacket to passersby on the street, which Mako assumed were stolen by the looks of it.

"Don't judge a book by it's cover bro, everyone just tries to get by in the city in different ways." Korra replied, "hell, I literally just stole this car last night but I live in the not-as-ghetto part of the city."

Mako nodded, "Good point. We're here."

Parking the car at the area at which Mako pointed at, the detectives stepped out and observed their surroundings. They were in a particularly secluded area where only a handful of people roamed the street they were in. The neighbourhood looked very worn down, more than the streets in the central side of Republic City. Mako led the way into an alley that was flanked on two sides with high building walls of closed down businesses and were splattered with graffiti and the frequent bullet holes that scarred the brick walls. Korra lifted the big hood of her jacket over her head to cover majority of her face when she kept her head down. It was part for the security of her identity. Both her real one and alias. She can't be seen with Mako, nor can she been seen walking around in suspicious areas asking suspicious questions with a man without being deemed as suspicious herself by the people she was trying to infiltrate.

"How do you even know these alleys and back roads anyway?" Korra asked as Mako led her through series of corners and shortcuts.

A short silence lingered between them as Mako continued to lead the way. Then he answered, "Bo and I used to live around here, or at least used to float around in these parts of the city when our parents died. We stayed here for a number of months, while I did whatever I could to keep us safe and alive."

Korra's eyes went downcast while Mako continued, "Well it wasn't until your dad found us after he heard about the news. If it wasn't for him, me and Bo could've been street dealers or something of the sort. Or even worse, dead."

A chuckle suddenly escapes the other detective's lips. "I can't imagine even you doing illegal things. You're far too professional and dutiful to your job to have the ounce of courage to do a slight bit of wrong."

"Shut up."

"Oh shush, you outright refuse to download music online and that is like the most basic form of illegal."

"Basic or not, it's still illegal." Mako affirmed, glancing back at his smirking partner.

"Understood Detective." Korra replied mockingly.

As they travelled down from alleyway to alleyway on foot, Korra noticed that their surroundings seemed to emit a suspicious type of aura. A collection of hooded people whispered in the corners of buildings, hushing instantly when Korra and Mako walked by within earshot and gave cautious glances toward them. The streets were littered with trash and pieces of shattered beer bottles, showing the rough reputation of the neighbourhood. Hookers danced on the sidewalks in few pieces of undergarment, swaying their hips as they approached potential costumer's cars. After walking by a 24 hour adult shop, a man suddenly flies out of a bar door, an angry bartender screaming threats towards him if the drunken mess ever dared to come back inside.

"Remind me of where we're going again." Korra spoke as they walked by the now unconscious, yet still breathing, drunk man.

"We're here to meet a person that I used to know when me and Bolin were kids. He's basically a gang leader, who specializes in the drug trade. Highly respected, outstanding rep and not to be fucked with," Mako explained as Korra nodded at him to continue, "And with every gang comes a land of territory. I suspect that the drug that killed the Earth Queen was created in this area, where majority of the world's best drug makers, or maybe even poison creators, thrive. So I figured we could get at least a good source and lead to help us find the creator of the poison. And what better way than to ask a gang and territory leader; because what ever happens in his turf, he knows about it in one way or another."

"Should we be worried about this gang leader? Cops and gangs aren't exactly the best of friends last time I checked." she said worryingly.

Mako let out a long visible foggy breath due to the cold winter weather. "Just let me do the talking today partner, I've dealt with these kinds of people before. Be on your toes though, we're here."

Korra found herself walking into a front entrance of a dark club, heavy bass music rattling into her bones from where she stood. The club was surprisingly packed considering that it was only evening on a weekday. Gotta love Republic City, Korra groaned to herself. The two detectives squeezed their way through the hallway entrance and into the rave-light filled club. The smell of musky sweat, alcohol and possibly a number of drugs, all mixed together and filled Korra's nostrils. The noise of the deafening music made it hard for Korra to concentrate on where she was going as she tried to follow her partner through the mass of dancing people. Korra squinted at Mako's back, sometimes losing him through the crowded, dark and barely lit room as they walked toward the back of the club. The girl could feel herself sweating under her jacket and hood, the compact crowds and area making it far too hot in the building.

Finally exiting the dance floor section, the two ended up at the booth area which was considerably a lot calmer and a bit less humid. Mako nodded at his partner, making sure that she was okay. Korra gave him another nod in response and then both proceeded to a far corner where a door was guarded by a man.

"Fuck off. No one is allowed in here." the man greeted them with his blunt tone.

"I'm here to see Ping. Tell him Mako is here to speak with him." Mako replied.

The man snorted, "That shit won't work with me sharkbrows, I heard that excuse too many times. Get lost."

Mako's jaw tightened as a scowl crept up his face. He walked up and grabbed the man with all his strength by the collar and lifted him into the air and finally slammed him hard against the brick wall. Korra could see a dangerous glint in Mako's eyes as he gave a fiery glare at the victim in his hands. The man started to roar in protest trying to escape from Mako's grip but was slammed into the wall once again.

"I said," Mako spat, "I'm here to speak with Ping. Now it's either you go in there and let me in or I'll smash your face into the wall and let myself in. Your choice."

The terrified man squirmed, "Okay okay! I'll tell them, just let me down please!"

With a grunt of satisfaction Mako released him ungracefully, throwing him off to the side. The man landed hard on his side but quickly scrambled up onto his feet and bolted into the door and slamming it shut.

"Uh, you okay there partner?" Korra whispered growing slightly uneasy looking at the intense hard look on Mako's face.

"Yep. It's great to be back here." Mako answered sarcastically, "Can't get what you want unless you threaten or beat the shit out of people."

The door finally swung open revealing a muscular man, tattoos covering his broad arms. He stepped to the side inviting the two inside. Mako led the way and they entered a hallway that branched off to different hallways and doors.

"Fifth door down the hall on your left." the man told them.

Mako nodded, "Thanks."

The man let out an amused chuckle, "No problem kid, nice to see your face again."

A small smile escaped Mako's lips and waved goodbye to the old acquaintance of his and followed the directions given to them. They made their way down the decently lit hallway and walked by a number of doors. The sound of a man screaming echoed through the hallway from somewhere. The two detectives couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from and unnerved them both with every scream of pain. They could only guess that he was getting beat up by a group of people. Besides the sound of pain, they heard a number of drunken voices singing songs from a door on the right of them. Further down the hall they heard loud moans and screams of pleasure coming from a door on their left, accompanied by the sound of something banging rhythmically on the wall. The music from the club was hushed to a soft hum as they walked towards their destination. Mako lifted a hand and knocked on the door.

Korra took a deep breath as the door opened and they were greeted by a woman who eyed them suspiciously. "Are you that Mako guy that Batu was shitting himself about?"

"Yes ma'am." Mako answered bluntly. "Can I see Ping now?"

The woman scoffed and let the two detectives pass. Upon entering, the smell of harsh cigarette smoke surrounded them making Korra cough a bit. A small, but efficient and decent, light bulb hung on top of a poker table where two people were seated puffing on cigars and throwing money onto the table as they played poker. At the sides of the room were a handful of men and women bearing guns from handguns to large automatic rifles. They must be the guards, Korra concluded. The walls were grey, dull and neglected looking that somehow made Korra a tad bit more nervous. Mako began to walk towards the table before a hand to his chest roughly pushed him away.

The woman from the door walked in between Mako and the men on the table, who gave no attention to anyone but themselves. "Can't talk to the chief until we clear you. Hands up." she ordered, "you in the hood, take it off."

Korra who had her head down tilted her head up slightly to look up at the woman who had a handgun strapped onto her belt then glanced at Mako who nodded at her to do what she was told. Korra sighed and took off her hood and allowed her face to be illuminated by the light. Welp so much for the cool hood. The woman started to pat down Mako's body from top to bottom. She took slow deliberate pats on Mako's body, making sure to not miss anything.

"What the-" the woman questioned as she reached his waist and saw Mako's badge. She shouted, "they're cops!"

In a heartbeat the room was filled with the loud sounds of guns being armed and loaded with a click from each person and Korra found an automatic rifle aimed right at her head. By instinct, Korra already had her hidden handgun aimed at the woman in front of Mako who also had her gun out but aimed towards Mako's head. Mako had his hands up as he stared carefully at the gun in front of his face, careful not to give the owner any other reason to pull the trigger.

Korra's mind started to whir with though as she observed the situation. 10 armed men and women versus two detectives; one of which was armed with only a handgun. Korra glanced at Mako praying to everything that is holy that he can think, do or say something to get them out alive. She tried to formulate different ideas but each who result in them getting shot to pieces. The air around everyone became still with tension, each daring the other to move a muscle. A roar of laughter from the table rattled everyone standing. Everyone turned toward the source of the sound and watched a man stand up with his hands thrown in the air.

"I win! Yes baby!" he cheered as he scooped all the poker chips toward his end of the table, his opponent groaning in frustration.

Still laughing and smiling, the cheerful man turned towards the tense group of guards and raised a confused eyebrow. "What's all the fuss here ladies and gents?"

A skinny boy that held the automatic rifle at Korra's head spoke, "These two are cops boss, we'll pop their brains out in no time don't ya worry boss."

Korra cautiously took a side glance at the boss man and studied his appearance carefully. He owned a rather suspicious looking face, one that would deem him as untrustworthy or malicious to most people. He wore a black jacket with it's collars popped and a red scarf underneath it. The man held an aura of power the longer you stared at him; one that gave the impression that with one slip of a finger, he could easily command your death. He held that command of power with boasting confidence as he raised an amused eyebrow and sly smile towards Korra, not showing a glimpse of fear towards a figure of law and order.

"Cops eh? Pathetic. You're wasting my precious time and pleasure for the night. How rude of you to intrude my game." he said. A long thin scar ran across his left eye from his cheek bone up towards his eyebrow. The mischievous twitch of Shin's smile made Korra's hand sweat in nervousness. Korra gripped her gun tighter. "What a shame. I can't let you go that easily after you show your face officer. You see, you're way out of your territory. You're on a foreign land, my foreign land. My turf, my rules and darling you have broken my laws."

A small laugh was shared throughout the group of thugs, one that made Korra's blood grow cold.

Mako, who was at the moment completely invisible to the boss, turned his head toward the gang lord and dared to speak, "Ping it's m-".

Bang. The sound of a gunshot ripped through the silence.

"Ah!" Mako scrambled to his side throwing his hands in front of his face, distancing himself from the woman who was aiming her gun right to his head.

"One more word and I won't miss that spiky head of yours kid." the woman spat.

Korra breathed heavily from the other side of the room, her pulse screaming as she analyzed her partner. A bullet hole opposite to the woman appeared after the gunshot. A warning shot, Korra thought in relief, He's okay. Korra's gun still stood, loaded, aimed at the woman. But eight guns were now aimed at her, the barrels of some stuck onto her back giving off a more terrifying warning. "Same goes for you missy, flinch once and this bullet is gonna rip through your heart." a voice laughed from behind her.

"Hold up, Mako boy is that you?" a man from the poker table stood up and laughed. This man wore a water tribe blue jacket, styled with simple light blue waves on his collar, shoulders and on the ends on his jacket. He had a white button up shirt inside with matching blue lining, finished off with a simple gold necklace hanging from his neck. The man stroked his thin goatee on his chin as he walked up towards Mako and crouched down to study him.

Mako looked up at the man and let out a small smile, "You still remember your best recruit Shin?"

"It is Mako boy!" the man, Shin, laughed, confusing everyone in the room, including Ping.

Mako was helped up onto his feet while an expression of recognition washed over Ping's face. "Holy shit it is Mako. How've you been boy? Guns down, these two are guests now." Ping announced, ushering Mako and a very confused Korra towards the poker table seating them down.

The woman spoke up, "But boss they're-"

"I don't give a fuck. They are guests now. Understand?" Ping shut her up as she nodded.

Korra looked at Mako for some answers, but instead just gave her a reassuring and small smile as Ping fussed over them and handed them both a pint of beer. "Drink up, drink up! Mako boy, how've you been? It's been like wha? 10 years?" Ping asked.

Mako stared as the rim of his drink and let out a small laugh, "Yeah a lot of years. Well, I've been great. Having food and a roof over my brother and my own head is great. It's great to be off of the streets."

Shin sat down with them. "So you're a cop now huh? Kind of ironic for one of my best smugglers in the past."

Korra choked on her beer that she was drinking. "You were a smuggler?" Korra coughed out loud before she could shut herself up.

Mako gave her a pained and embarrassed look while the two men laughed at her reaction. Ping turned to her, "Darling, Mako was the best of the best when he was a kid. He literally boosted my business into it's prime, which where it is now. Shame that he disappeared after a few years under my service. What happened to you kid?" he asked Mako.

"Some kind people took me and Bolin in and raised us as their own." Mako answered, referring to Korra's family. "They were family."

Shady Shin leaned into the table, "So you sayin' that us Triple Threat Triad weren't your family?"

"No no! Of course you guys are still family to me and Bo." Mako answered hurriedly and nervously. "You guys are literally the only reason how me and my bro survived that long in the streets. Even though I'm on the opposite scale of things since I'm a cop now, I still am grateful to have met you guys."

Two-toed Ping laughed and slapped Mako's back out of affection, "Aw kid when did you get so sensitive? Did the police academies soften you up?"

Mako laughed. He shook his head as Shin patted his back in amusement. Korra (along with the other guards) watched them laugh together, sensing a rekindled friendship coming back up again. Heh who knew Mako "The Good Cop" had drug dealing friends? Korra laughed to herself. The three old friends joked some more about their shared past, caught up with each other (though Mako held back a number of things for his own and other people's safety) and laughed and drank some more. Though Korra found a bit of Mako's body language appearing to be rather distant and different from his happy smile, Korra started to enjoy the company until the topic inevitably changed to a more serious note.

"So Mako boy," Shin said, "why did you decide to drop by all of the sudden with that badge of yours and partner? You hear to shut us down or something?"

Mako chuckled but then sat up to push the subject into a more serious note, "No. Not because of that, or because of any of you for that matter. I came by to ask a couple of questions for a case that we have."

"How can we help?" Ping asked in curiosity.

Mako studied the two drug lords for a while before speaking, "A couple of weeks ago, as you might've heard, the Earth Queen was murdered by the Red Lotus. After that day, we found some kind of lethal poison in her body, a poison that made her entire cardiovascular system turn black in color. It's one of the most toxic poisons the department has ever seen and we need to detain the creator of this poison and confiscate their ingredients before the Red Lotus get their hands on a new load and kill another person."

Ping spoke up, "What d'ya want us to do? Hunt down the Red Lotus punks? Get to the point hot shot."

The detective rolled his eyes at Ping's impatience, "I'm here to get some intel. Do you know any dealers or makers that supply and create these types of poison? Since you guys have control over most of the area here, I'm sure you guys would've heard about or know something about this?"

"Is there anyone you know, or know of, that would have the capability or intent to create that bitch of a poison?" Korra helped them with their thoughts.

Ping leaned back on his chair and took a long sip of his beer bottle, deep in thought. Shin leaned on the table, staring at his ring on his finger, thinking. The two started firing out names of different dealers and potential poison makers, but disagreeing or deducting the list of names.

"It might be Hope or Zhuang." Ping suggested.

"No, they're not even that bright to get a deal with suppliers. It must be that girl that Viper knows. The one with only three fingers on one hand."

Ping snapped his fingers in agreement. "Yeah yeah that kid! There's this woman, a woman that Viper used to always drink with, well before he got rounded up by you cops that is. It must be her. Her name's Mai, smartest piece of shit you'd ever meet. That smart ass has got to have the biggest underground reputation in the world I tell ya. Mind you, even though she got the biggest rep, only a small few know where to actually find her. She's so invisible, some people just call her the Hidden Venom."

Mako leaned toward him, his eyebrows knitting in seriousness, "But through Viper, you know who she is. So do you also know where she's located? Where can we find her?"

Ping let out a rather mischievous laugh and smirked at Mako. "To answer your first question: Yes I do. And to answer your second question: well, let's say we need a bargain for my response."

"Wait what?"

"Oh don't fuck with me Mako. You know the drill. Valuable information, which you oh so desperately need, in exchange for something that would hold some value to me." Ping smirked, his aura of power emitting once more.

"Don't fuck with me now Ping, I'm family to you." Mako growled at the drug lord, surprised with his change of tone and behaviour.

Ping leaned back onto his chair and eyed Mako down. "You may be family to me, but you know how it is here Mako boy. You see, since I let you cops into my poker party as guests, it stains my image as a boss. A drug lord having beer with a bunch of cops? Dishonourable. I bet half my guards are already questioning me after this, but I can't lose their trust and respect entirely just because of you." Ping stated, "Life's a game Mako. And you better put all your chips on the table, giving me a good reason to spare you cops after tonight and hand you scarce information or it's game over. It was fun catching up with you Mako, but now you're a cop and I'm a drug lord. And by nature we won't get along as smoothly as we used to."

Mako's jawed clenched in anger as he stared at Ping. He knew that this type of bargain would happen. No cop ever gets released with their lives by gangs and street groups easily without a bargain. And good pieces of information were never given out without a price. One good ass deal in exchange for their lives and a good lead for the mission - Fucking great to be back, Mako complained.

Korra banged her fist onto the table, clearly equally as enraged by the constricted situation. "Name your goddamn price."

"My dear, Mako already knows what we want. After all, business has been rather slow for us lately." Shin chimed as he looked expectantly at Mako.

After a few seconds of thought and inner conflict, Mako angrily gave in. "Fine. One shipment. A truck, nothing more. You can smuggle in whatever you want through Kyoshi Bridge. I'll get it through and into the city I promise, I'll see to it."

"Whatever we want?" Shin clarified.

"Yes. Now give us what we need and we'll be on our way." Mako pushed on irritably, an enraged fire in his eyes. Korra eyed her partner with concern. He was never one to give into illegal bargains. Not once. He was always the good cop, seeing things as black and white and never settling for grey. They made eye contact. Mako held a stare that spoke the shame that he felt while allowing the drug lords to have it their way.

Mako looked back at Shady Shin and Two-toed Ping who were smiling victoriously at him. Mako's anger flared once more inside of him, fuelled by disgrace in himself. His vow that he made which was to never commit or associate with any illegal actions after Bolin and him got back on their feet, clawed his heart. He joined the police force to right his wrong from the past, to uphold the laws established within the city - the ones he disregarded while working for Viper, Ping and Shin. He joined the force to redeem himself, to prove that he wasn't like any of them. The Triple Threats were a poison to him that threatened to overtake him, to pave his future and make him into a lawless and illegal man. He never wanted any of that anymore.

"Tell us now." Mako clenched his fist to hold himself together as he spat out his demand.

"It's in a flower shop on Omah street. Two blocks from the Stadium. The Nectar, I think that shop was called, it has this big yellow and green sign on top." Shin answered.

Korra took out a small pocket-sized notebook and wrote down the information. With a nod, the two detectives stood up to take heir leave. They walked towards the door as Ping called out to them without turning around. "Nice seeing you again Mako boy. It'd be great to have you back y'know."

"Fuck off." Mako growled as they exited and slammed the down shut.

The two detectives spent the rest of their day in Korra's living room, discussing their new found information and deciding their next few moves. Once going over the details, they both slumped down onto the comfortable couch and retired for the day. Korra glanced over to her friend who was quiet and brooding. Even though Mako was always a quiet and brooding type, this type of quiet and brooding somehow felt really different.

"You want to talk about whatever you're thinking about Mako?" Korra asked as Mako flicked through different TV channels, clearly not showing any interest in any.

Mako sighed, "Not really. It's just shitty memories and guilt catching up to me from the past. You know with all that shit I did with the Triple Threat Triad."

"Oh." Korra took in the sensitive topic. "Well just to remind you bro, you've become the better version of yourself . You can't erase the past but you've sure as hell fixed your mistakes. You did what you had to do, and without that, Bolin wouldn't have turned into the happy and teddy bear self he is today. And you wouldn't have been the successful, honourable and dutiful detective you are now. You're a better person than you think you are Mako." The boy scoffed playfully at the compliment. Korra punched him on the arm. "Shut up sharkbrows. I'm trying to be nice here you asswipe."

Mako shook his head and smiled. "Yeah yeah, I know. Thank you asshole."

The TV suddenly picked up in volume as the nightly news came on. A news anchor spoke:

"Following the tragic and unexpected death of the late Earth Queen, the RCPD have began hunting down the murderers responsible for the heinous act called the Red Lotus."

A footage of a press conference appeared on the screen showing the Chief Beifong herself answering various questions of the press as camera flashes scattered on the woman's face as she gave her responses. "We are handing this case with priority, efficiency and delicacy. We are not holding back any resources that are available in our service for this tragic case nor are we holding back any of our efforts. On behalf of the entire department, I assure you that we will stop at nothing to hunt down these men and women responsible and to bring them to the hands of justice for good." the chief announced with the voice of authority and confidence.

The news anchor came back on:

"As majority of Earth Nation citizens mourn over their Queen's death, a few brighten with anticipation of their soon-to-be-King that will be crowned in a coronation taking place a few weeks from now. Though a definite date has not been established, the preparation for the important event is already on the way. After many years, the great-nephew of the Queen, Prince Wu, has been living and studying in Republic City and has been residing there for a number of years. Shortly after the news of his great-aunt's death, kingdom officials contacted the Prince in concern of his safety and for discussion of his inheritance of the royal crown."

Korra and Mako listened on about the Prince of Earth Kingdom. Growing weary of the topic, Mako picked up the remote to click onto a different channel before an image of the Prince appeared on screen. Seeing this, Korra burst into a huge coughing fit after choking on air, recognizing the boy. Dressed in a fancy and expensive dark green suit, a golden coloured scarf around his neck. Fashionable hair that looked elegant and styled. Big eyebrows and a big confident smile.

"Is everything okay Korra?" Mako asked in confusion.

Korra stared at the screen before turning to Mako, "Holy shit, I broke into the Earth Prince's garage and stole his Aventador."