( the fight's over in a matter of seconds. mako slaps cuffs on all three of the downed assailants, hastily trussing them to one-another to impede any escape. he flashes his badge at the shopkeeper. )
Call the cops!
( he doesn't identify himself, but it'll come out anyway, since dick very definitely and loudly called his name. he'll get asked later, who was he with? and he'll have to write this up in his report, worked with a criminal to secure four other criminals. no getting out of it, and mako is too painfully honest by far to lie. plus, he's pretty sure lin would be able to tell.
so he just. bolts out the door. he'll worry about it later. he scans the ground, and then looks up. dick's scarf is fluttering from the top of a fire escape, tied there. breadcrumbs.
but how in the spirit realm did he get up there? there's no ladder. mako propels himself up to the first of the escapes with a jet of fire, and then he climbs the rest of the way. his left arm is killing him, one of the perps had twisted it pretty badly on top of the damage it already has, and he's relying wholly on adrenaline to keep from nursing it as he sprints across the roof.
up ahead, he can see it — the flashes of a fight. dick's engaged with the forth, which is throwing wide curling tendrils of water at him. mako has no idea where the guy is getting the water volume from until he sees it, a burst rooftop reservoir nearby. the waterbender must have ran for it. mako jumps across a gap in the roofing, rolls, comes up soaked to the knees. he hates the idea of fighting a waterbender like this, especially with a civilian. oh, he knows dick is capable, but. mako's still the cop, here.
the bender is backed up to the edge of the roof, multiple tentacles like arms arced above him. mako's only ever seen real masters manage that, and he sets his mouth in a hard line. two-on-one odds are always a good thing, but he isn't about to get cocky. it'll be harder to maintain fire soaked through to the bone, the nearby reservoir still guttering a fine mist over all of them. if the bender even thinks about icing them it's all over.
he heats his skin, an old trick to stay warm, and it vaporizes the majority of the water on contact before he dives into the fight. it. surprises him, how naturally he and dick come together. it's like being back-to-back with anyone on team avatar, they move together in a fluid, instinctive way that transcends training. dick's always where mako wants him to be, always doing what mako wants him to do.
the waterbender's good, but he's not good enough to face off against one of the top firebenders in the world and the most skilled acrobat mako's ever seen. he distracts the guy with shots of fire, pouring it into the air around them, creating a veil of steam the waterbender has to either deal with or endure, and dick kites in, jabs a few pressure points and flips away without breaking a sweat. it's going well.
right up until the waterbender takes a step back. he doesn't mean to, mako can see it in his eyes, the precise moment when he realizes he's about to fall. he flings out a hand to summon the water to stabilize him, but dick's turned off his bending to that arm, and gravity does the rest of the work.
mako wanted to bring him in, not kill him. he lunges after the guy, but dick's a shade faster, and he jumps into the open air without even looking back, leaving mako standing on the edge of the building with an outstretched hand. he's about to watch two people die, messy and splattered on the ground several storeys below. lin's going to want to know how it happened, where he fucked up, and so he just. watches. he watches the whole way down.
except. at the last second, dick... airbends, and rather than hitting the ground at terminal velocity, he lands as gracefully as mako's ever seen tenzin at his best, the waterbender in his arms.
mako stares. and then, after a few seconds of that utter disbelief, he heads for the ladder down. he can propel himself upwards, but the downward force over that distance would still mean he'd hit the ground hard enough to break both ankles, and he's cold and wet and not at his best right that second. better not to risk it. he's half-expecting dick to be gone by the time he gets to the bottom. )
no subject
Call the cops!
( he doesn't identify himself, but it'll come out anyway, since dick very definitely and loudly called his name. he'll get asked later, who was he with? and he'll have to write this up in his report, worked with a criminal to secure four other criminals. no getting out of it, and mako is too painfully honest by far to lie. plus, he's pretty sure lin would be able to tell.
so he just. bolts out the door. he'll worry about it later. he scans the ground, and then looks up. dick's scarf is fluttering from the top of a fire escape, tied there. breadcrumbs.
but how in the spirit realm did he get up there? there's no ladder. mako propels himself up to the first of the escapes with a jet of fire, and then he climbs the rest of the way. his left arm is killing him, one of the perps had twisted it pretty badly on top of the damage it already has, and he's relying wholly on adrenaline to keep from nursing it as he sprints across the roof.
up ahead, he can see it — the flashes of a fight. dick's engaged with the forth, which is throwing wide curling tendrils of water at him. mako has no idea where the guy is getting the water volume from until he sees it, a burst rooftop reservoir nearby. the waterbender must have ran for it. mako jumps across a gap in the roofing, rolls, comes up soaked to the knees. he hates the idea of fighting a waterbender like this, especially with a civilian. oh, he knows dick is capable, but. mako's still the cop, here.
the bender is backed up to the edge of the roof, multiple tentacles like arms arced above him. mako's only ever seen real masters manage that, and he sets his mouth in a hard line. two-on-one odds are always a good thing, but he isn't about to get cocky. it'll be harder to maintain fire soaked through to the bone, the nearby reservoir still guttering a fine mist over all of them. if the bender even thinks about icing them it's all over.
he heats his skin, an old trick to stay warm, and it vaporizes the majority of the water on contact before he dives into the fight. it. surprises him, how naturally he and dick come together. it's like being back-to-back with anyone on team avatar, they move together in a fluid, instinctive way that transcends training. dick's always where mako wants him to be, always doing what mako wants him to do.
the waterbender's good, but he's not good enough to face off against one of the top firebenders in the world and the most skilled acrobat mako's ever seen. he distracts the guy with shots of fire, pouring it into the air around them, creating a veil of steam the waterbender has to either deal with or endure, and dick kites in, jabs a few pressure points and flips away without breaking a sweat. it's going well.
right up until the waterbender takes a step back. he doesn't mean to, mako can see it in his eyes, the precise moment when he realizes he's about to fall. he flings out a hand to summon the water to stabilize him, but dick's turned off his bending to that arm, and gravity does the rest of the work.
mako wanted to bring him in, not kill him. he lunges after the guy, but dick's a shade faster, and he jumps into the open air without even looking back, leaving mako standing on the edge of the building with an outstretched hand. he's about to watch two people die, messy and splattered on the ground several storeys below. lin's going to want to know how it happened, where he fucked up, and so he just. watches. he watches the whole way down.
except. at the last second, dick... airbends, and rather than hitting the ground at terminal velocity, he lands as gracefully as mako's ever seen tenzin at his best, the waterbender in his arms.
mako stares. and then, after a few seconds of that utter disbelief, he heads for the ladder down. he can propel himself upwards, but the downward force over that distance would still mean he'd hit the ground hard enough to break both ankles, and he's cold and wet and not at his best right that second. better not to risk it. he's half-expecting dick to be gone by the time he gets to the bottom. )