Trained azure eyes surveyed the metropolis below, her hood down unveiling the metallic dark blue helm which was now occupying the front pages of every newspaper in Republic City. The Avatar scowled, warm breath against the cool metal, she remembered one of the headlines. 'Avatar Gone from the Gala?' It sent her to an edge that even Bolin stopped her from hurling bowls of noodles across Narook's. It was evident from the earthbender's alarmed face that his friend would be less interested now in newspapers more than ever. Opal only sighed in irritation. All three of them knew too well that the Avatar was there two nights ago in the gala.

She just inhaled deeply, determined to mind her mission. She gripped the ebony handles, arms outstretched and her body parallel to her airbender staff. She calmed down and focused on soaring through the thin clouds. "Green goggles, burgundy and forest green suits, and golden curves," she whispered under the gusts of the night sky. She told them to herself like a mantra, recalling what the White Lotus have reported to her through her car's radio. Upon hearing the deep and serious voice of the sentry reporting, her thoughts immediately snapped away from last night's encounter.

Patrolling was uneventful last night and it paled in comparison to the memory of finding a certain CEO and a certain detective coming from a hotel, both hungry and seemed tired. She could not help but to jump to conclusions.

"Did they...? Are they...?"

She could not even ask herself with a coherent sentence. Was it disturbing? 'No. Maybe I'm just not comfortable seeing that scene in front of me.' Maybe that was it. Does she care? 'It's none of my business anyway. They can do whatever they want.'

But what was that about Asami's frantic reassurance? The Avatar tried not to care and shook her head to regain focus on her mission in finding the mysterious men in the gala. She would be genuinely scolded again if she would be inattentive now, courtesy of Opal.

The angry green eyes of the airbender kept her sane, while the seemingly sultry green eyes of a particular industrialist kept her at the edge of, well...her sanity.

'Control your feelings, Avatar Korra.'

Just as she was about to reprimand herself, deafening roaring of engines and screeching of tires against the asphalt caught her attention and made her locate the sound. 'It's close. Fantastic.'

"Level four alert! All nearby units to 7th Hakoda Avenue, report immediately! Full suited figures of green and maroon, consider them armed and dangerous! I repeat, level four alert-"

"About time, Saikhan."

Black matte gloves reached and turned off the car radio. It swiftly shifted to gripping the car's steering wheel. Emerald eyes focused with unwavering intensity on the vehicle ahead, her own car's bumper inches away from the other's.

Her right hand slammed a button down beside the gear, it activated a mechanism and shortly after, two grappling hooks sprang from under her car's front fenders. Their steel glinted the moonlight and immediately hid under the bumper of the black van, successfully capturing the metal bars below with a high pitch click.

The black back doors of the van slammed open, revealing one of the mysterious men from the gala suited in similar suit. He took notice of the two ropes gripping their vehicle and punched forward, a burst of fire in its wake directed to the Shadow's windshield. The Shadow gripped her wheel tighter, leather gloves stretching with tense, in feign surrender. The vigilante drove slower, putting a good distance between the two vehicle while the van sped up. The ropes hissed, stretched to their limits, and that was when the Shadow jerked her the asphalt rosteering sideways violently, the Satomobile's rear wheels screeched with protest against the asphalt in a well-trained drift.

It threw the steel-bodied hulk of a van across the road, crashing it against an evidently abandoned house, destroying the front in the process. Groans and moans of agony echoed inside the wrecked van as its occupants held their heads and bodies in pain.

'Good one, Sato.'

When her own car halted, the Shadow sprang outside her vehicle and ran towards the criminals, ready and armed with electrifying gloves. The suited men, the Shadow concluded to be five, adjusted their respective bending stances as they noticed her approaching.

'Heightened senses,' the Shadow figured. She was trained in the art of subtlety all her life, and her gears and movement mimicked that of a shadow, hence her name. 'Because there's no way...'

A surge of blue fire soared through the darkness of the area, aimed at her head snapped her out of her thoughts. She barely missed it, scraping the leather of her suit between her neck and shoulder. 'Blue fire? Definitely heightened.'

Streams of blue flames were thrown at her, barely missing most of them. The fire of their attacks when released, seemed to move around, from behind. Like the art of a water or airbender. Fascinating but unfortunate for her.

She ducked lower, like a plane in the sky, arms outstretched behind her, electricity building up in their blue orbs. She momentarily halted and clapped her gloved hands against each other with force. The sizzling of sparks turned into a loud boom as she concentrated the built energy in her left glove and aimed it at the firebenders. The energy surged and released itself in a bright blue column, striking the the upper torsos of the criminals, also cancelling out their own surges of flames. The electricity engulfed them, bright blues travelling across their bodies, sending them to shiver and throb intensely in the electricity's wake.

Green eyes gleamed with tamed fury as she watched them fall but immediately widened in surprise when she only saw three men toppled down. That was when she heard fabrics brush against each other behind her. She turned around at once, watching in awe as the two remaining men scurried towards her, streams of blue fire sprouting out of their palms. Their flames lighting the dark neighborhood and clearing the thin fog surrounding them. Fluid and facile.

They lept within seconds and their fire never reached her. A sudden whirlwind came and spread their flames too much that they dispersed into nothing. Not giving the attackers another chance for an offense, the ground around each one of them trembled and erupted, encasing them effectively.

Blue leather boots stepped out of the dust filled mist, heels scrunching the earth below were the only sound resonating in the now quiet neighborhood.

"Great work, Saikhan-"

"Hold your sarcasm," the figure cut her off, mirth lining its muffled voice. The dust cleared off, revealing a newspaper native figure. "Great work, Miss Shadow."

"Tell me something I don't know, Miss Avatar," the vigilante turned around and saw the blue bender, her red lips curved into a smirk. 'Heightened senses and an Avatar appearance? This night is interesting.' "I don't suppose that you're here for me."

"Maybe," the Avatar walked towards her, her mask facing the stuck attackers. "And don't worry about the escaped convicts. Trapped them in the metal of their van. You're welcome, by the way."

"That's so humble of you, Avatar," the Shadow sarcastically sneered. "Is Saikhan even trying? The police have yet to arrive and-"

As if on cue, police sirens blared through the night. The red and blue lights striking their eyes with intensity as they got closer. "There we go," the Avatar chuckled.

The wheels screeched as the vehicles halted, but the sirens never did. "I appreciate the effort, really, but this is police business, both of you." Chief Saikhan got out of the first vehicle to arrive, uncharacteristically calm but his voice rough with annoyance. His officers practically bolted out of their cars to arrest the escaped convicts and the mysterious men that made the escape possible.

"You're very welcome, Saikhan," the Avatar sneered. The Shadow swore that she heard her roll her eyes behind that chrome mask. "Tahno was also 'police business' but you passed his witness accounts as insanity."

The Chief gritted his teeth as he stepped towards the heroes, arms crossing in front as he stopped a meter in front of them. "That is highly confidential, Avatar."

"And you're not really confident in your abilities as Chief of Police. What Beifong and Tarrlok saw in you is still a mystery to me. I guess that too is confidential."

"Let me prove them to you."

Before the Avatar or the Chief can bend to strike the other, the Shadow promptly marched between them, blocking their desired opponent in their visions. "Now isn't the time, you two." She barked, her arms outstretched to pry the two away from each other, her hair swinging on the high ponytail as she did.

The Avatar was the first one to snap out of her anger and stormed off towards the still encased men in earth, aiming to know the reason behind all of these. The Shadow followed her when she was sure that the Chief has regained his seemingly calm demeanor back. Sure she was slightly offended by the man's statement about this being a police business, no gratitude and all, but she was also a CEO, logical and calculating. Words are just words to her, unless he would strike her.

"Avatar," an officer greeted the blue hero once he saw her approach the mysterious men. The Avatar gave him a curt bow, one hand in a fist and the other in a blade pressed against each other, just like what the officer did. 'This one's actually better than his chief.'

"Officer," the Shadow appeared on her side, unnoticed, exchanging the same greeting with the officer. "Be sure to have your cuffs ready to aim. They have heightened senses. Impressive but unfortunate if they would escape again."

The surrounding officers heard the vigilante and had their metal cuffs hovering, bending to aim them once the earth walls encasing them are down. At a nod from the nearest officer, the Avatar stomped a feet down. The earth trembled and the men were free, momentarily as the cuffs were immediately on their wrists.

'Peculiar...' The Shadow thought as she walked her way to the nearest attacker. The officer visibly tensed, he was about to reach out and stop her when the Avatar snapped her head towards him and made her eyes glow. He retracted his hand and looked down. This is against protocol but he would rather have his chief mad than the Avatar.

The Shadow, unaware of the exchange behind her, reached for the attacker's glove. She slipped it out of the semi-conscious man and examined it with what little help that the police sirens' lights could give. "They're nonbenders," she breathed in amazement. Her red lips frowned in thought. 'That explains the blue flames. They weren't inherent.'

"What?" Chief Saikhan then appeared at the scene. His voice was annoyed once again, because this really was against protocol.

"Nonbenders, Saikhan," she repeated as she spared him a glance and looked back at the dark brown glove. It achingly looks like her own, only the gloves were evidently heavier, bulkier, and have large tubes sprouting on the sides of it. The same can be said about all of the other gloves when she commanded an officer to turn on a flashlight for her to inspect the other gloves. "They're all nonbenders."

"How do I know that you're not involved in this? You're also a nonbender who uses armed gloves," the Chief scoffed, crossing his arms yet again.

The Shadow turned to him and smiled, those red lips sending an unwelcome shiver down the Avatar's spine. "I would be smart enough to design them for comfort and efficiency. These are bulky and so noticeable." She looked back at the glove that she held. "Also, their chambers for the flames are really inefficient. Large but holds no more than 30 000 fluid ounce. Barely a liter, really. Also, I didn't know that, it's actually written here." She offered the glove to the Chief, who snatched the glove away and inspected it himself.

The Shadow was right and the Avatar was turned on. The latter gulped, having felt a strange feeling that she had not felt since her last encounter with a particular CEO. The former turned to her and smiled. That smile would be the death of her.

She steeled her nerves and made an image of an angry Opal appear on the forefront of her thoughts, snapping her out of her attraction if only for a few moments to do her duty. 'You're actually gayer than you thought, Avatar Korra. Congratulations.'

The Avatar marched to the nearest attacker and formed her fists under his suits collar, to the panic of the officers around her who could not make up their mad between who to follow between the Avatar or their chief. She roughly lifted him up in the air and snarled. "Who are you and why are you here?!"

Her other hand released his collar and yanked his mask to reveal his face, which caused the chief to gasp in sudden disbelief. "Lieutenant?" Saikhan gaped, annoyance was nowhere in his voice.

"Chief," the lieutenant smirked at him. He was about to say something with that devilish smirk on his face when the Avatar shook him violently, enough to alarm the Shadow and make her place a firm hand on the blue hero's shoulder. "Answer me!" The Avatar snapped, ignoring the slight protest of the vigilante.

Her eyes began to glow and it made the lieutenant's smirk grow. "Amon. He's coming for you, Avatar. He's coming for all of you! You benders who abuse your powers!" He bellowed. His light blue eyes looked directly at the glowing eyes of the Avatar's mask and sneered. "He knows exactly who you are, Avatar."

"He doesn't!" The Avatar snapped and threw him on the ground. The officers were quick, enough to catch the sneering man who was now looking at the Chief. 'Questionable...' Thought the Shadow who was the only one who noticed.

"Arrest all of them," Saikhan gestured to the gloved men, his voice stern but surprisingly low. 'Questionable indeed.'

The Shadow turned to the direction of the Avatar, only to see her meters away, taking off in her blue airbender staff. She decided to do the same, slipping out into the darkness of the night, blending in the shadows.

"Is serving under the Queen still unbearable, General?" A voice asked, calm and direct. It has a body of a pale man, dressed in grey robes, his hair equally grey flowing with the wind around them.

The general scoffed, her forest green eyes rolling in irritation. "She's worse than the Beifong sisters combined," her gloved hands beckoned for a black haired man, whose long locks would rival ang woman's when it comes to its luster. A hand bent a small rock at him, to which he caught a bent using his own abilities. Not long after did embers appear at the edges of the small rock. He smirked as he made it spin fast, effectively cutting off the chains that held the other man's wrists.

"Thank you, Ghazan," the man smiled and Ghazan did too. The general watched the exchange and cleared her throat. "Our deal still stands, Zaheer. Screw up or you'll have to face the wrath of the entire Earth Empire."

Zaheer smiled at her, it seemed so genuine that it made the general a little bit suspicious. Criminals should not be smiling like that. "Of course. I would also like to thank you for making our escape possible. Don't worry, Amon is progressing. Republic City will be part of the Earth Kingdom at long last. You have the word of the Red Lotus."

The General only smiled in satisfaction, she turned her back and gestured to her officers to escort the Red Lotus towards their assigned vehicle. Hands primly resting on her lower back, she called out to her men below her.

"Republic City will be ours and the Avatar cannot stop us."

Her men stood up with determination, proper under their general's unwavering gaze. They shouted in unison, "All Hail the Great Uniter!"

'Such a charismatic leader. Too bad.' The grey haired airbender smiled, too kind for a criminal who was locked up for the last 13 years.