Chapter 1: The New Avatar

My name is Nick. I was born in the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se. I'm sixteen and my birthday is April 3rd, the same day that Avatar Korra died. Now, I know that just being born on the same day the Avatar died doesn't mean I'm the Avatar, but I think the fact that I can water-bend in addition to earth-bending makes me a pretty prime candidate.

Anyways I have black hair with brown eyes and, as my uncle says, I'm "built like a tank". I usually just wear a black t-shirt with and a pair of baggy sweatpants. I spend most of my time either in the gym or with my water-bender friend, Nilak.

She looks more like her white mother than her water-tribe father, but usually wears water tribe clothes. It complements her blue eyes and brown hair. She she's usually quiet around people she doesn't know, but once you get close to her she's the nicest person ever (until you piss her off). She's also the only person I told about being the avatar.

On my way home from the gym she came running up to me in a panic.

"What the hell happened to you?" I asked.

"A-Avatar," she managed, struggling to catch her breath.

"I told you not to call me that." I started to turn away, but she grabbed my arm.

"Not you. On TV."

I carried her halfway back to her place before she started walking again.

"What's this about the Avatar on TV?" I asked. "Like some Avatar Korra thing you always get excited about?"

"No," she said. "There's some guy claiming to be the Avatar on TV. How have you not seen it?"

"Maybe because I don't have a TV at my house."

"Yeah, but still. You must've heard some people on the street talking about it."

"I don't listen to other people's conversations."

"Ugh, whatever. He's doing a demonstration in—" she checked the time on her phone "—oh crap ten minutes!"

We raced through the crowd, knocking over a few people and a cabbage cart, but made it with not a minute to spare.

The guy had black hair and a brown eyes. He had a pointed chin and devious smile. His red shirt had a contradicting Earth Kingdom symbol on it. He was also wearing jeans, which in my experience aren't good for water or earth bending.

"My name is Fey Sensu, and here's proof that I'm the Avatar." He stomped on the floor to lift up a chunk of rock and then shot fire at it.

"I haven't been able to use the other elements," he said. "But I think being able to bend two elements should be proof enough. Thank you."

The rest of the show was a little background of where he grew up and stuff like that and debate from bending masters and Pro-Benders, but I didn't stick around to watch that.

"Thanks for showing me this, Nilak." I got up and walked out of the door.

It wasn't too uncommon for minors such as myself to live alone, so there was no one to stop my plan to leave and confront this fraud. I packed a bag and headed out.

"Nicholas Lao Hiroshi!" Okay, maybe there was one person to stop my plans, and that was Nilak.

I turned and got the surprise of my life: Nilak had a packed bag too.

"Do you really think I'm not going with you?"

I put up an earth wall between us.

Nilak apparently also had a water skin because she covered her feet in ice and flew over the wall I made. She tried to teach me how to do that, but temperature control didn't come as easily to me as it did to her. Balance was another thing, though. If I hadn't been there she would have broken her skull on the ground coming down.

"I think my payment for saving your life should be you going back home," I told her, not even realizing I hadn't put her down.

"Sorry," she said, "but that payment's a little too steep."

We looked into each other's eyes until realizing how long we were doing it and I quickly put Nilak on her feet.

"So…" she said when her blush went away. "We heading out or what?"

"What about your parents?"

"I disappear like this all the time," she looked to the sky. "It's not like they ever care…"

"Well," I tried to pick her spirits up as fast as possible. "Let's head out, then."

It took us all day to get to the Middle Ring (thought that's partly because I took almost every wrong turn possible).

"So you want to get a hotel or something or just sleep on the streets?" I asked Nilak as the sun set.

"Let's see how much it is first," she said, not taking her eyes away from the cheap (but still better than what's in the Lower Ring's best shops) water tribe jewelry.

"If you blow all your money on jewelry you won't have enough for your own room."

She looked me in the eyes with a blush. "We aren't sharing a room?"

"Well, I, uh… I mean, I just thought that you'd be more comfortable with your own room."

She put on her best overdramatic act with her hand on her forehead, "But how will I survive the night without the Avatar protecting me?"

"Shut up and help me find the hotel."

We stayed the night in a hotel that left us with just enough money to eat the next day.

"You know how much longer it's gonna take us to get to the Upper Ring?" Nilak asked after we left the hotel.

"Not much longer if we can find the monorail," I told her.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about the monorail. Wait, why didn't we take that from the beginning?"

"I wanted to, but you insisted on coming along. If I wanted to go by myself I could afford one ticket, but you didn't have that much money so two tickets from the Lower to Upper Ring would be more than both of us had combined. From here we should have just enough."

"Then let's find it!"

Another hour of searching before we found the monorail. The next one going to the Upper Ring would be thirty minutes.

"Hey kid," a guy waiting for a train asked us. He was at least 6 foot with a body more muscular than mine. Before I could react he covered me and Nilak's hands and feet with rocks. "That broad's ours now." Two more men came up and grabbed Nilak.

I broke free of the rocks and ran at the man. I tried to punch him, but he caught my fist.

"It's too late. We already have her."

I looked back and the other men were almost out of sight. I lost control. I slid the ground under the first man and hit him with another rock from the wall. While blood trickled out of his head I used fire bending to shoot myself through the crowd to Nilak. I used a rock from the ground to hit one in the chest, and while the other was trying to figure out how I used fire and earth bending I threw him into the wall.

When I got control of my body back I saw a woman with long brown hair and dark skin. She was wearing a light blue shirt and what looked like an animal pelt around her waist with dark blue pants.

"Hello, new Avatar," the woman said. She had a serious tone, but with a hint of playfulness.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Korra. And I know what you're thinking, and yes, that was the Avatar State. You shouldn't use it against such weak people though. Although I do understand protecting your girlfriend."

"She's not my—"

"Whatever. Well, there's no hiding it anymore. Your Avatar training is about to start."