Book One - Air
The stringy man dances like a praying mantis atop the old soap box as he shouts to uninterested city folk. Behind him on a giant poster a masked figure in hood and cloak looks upon the cheerful city park and frowns. "Down with non-bender oppression!" The man preaches, but few listen. Not even the summer pigeons seem to care. He pours his heart and soul through his loudspeaker, but Republic City is uninterested in his righteous cause. They should care. "The benders have the power to destroy us all, and they will use it!"
A woman in her middle age, wearing her hair in a librarian's bun, walking briskly before her ears were snared by the soap box man's words, speaks. "Now hold on!" She exclaims. "My husband and my son are benders! How dare you say such things!"
"Yeah!" Comes another voice, a young man in the prime of his life, full of gusto. "I have friends who are benders! You've got a lot of nerve talkin' like that!"
"People, please!" The man on his box shouts. "It is only bending I curse, not your family or your friends, for bending is indeed a curse! We want to free them, don't you see? While your husband and your son, ma'am, I'm sure are wonderful people, a power as great as bending should be deserved, not unfairly doled out by luck at birth! The Equalists call only for equal treatment among all peoples, benders and non-benders alike! For after all, why should benders be given special treatment? It makes no sense! Doesn't it rile you to your soul? This is not equality we live in!" The people don't care for equality. They prefer destruction. "So why do we stand for it?" He continues. "Alone we non-benders are weak and fragile, but together we far outnumber those in power! Join us and rise up to bask in equality!"
"How?" The fiery man watching asks.
"Yeah, how?" Repeats a new voice to the crowd.
"Our leader, Amon!" The man cries out in happiness, thrusting a palm onto the poster behind him. "He has devoted his life to learning how to combat the benders' unfair gifts, and will impart this wisdom unto any who join his cause to bring down the oppressive establishment!"
The woman who first heard him out speaks. "But what you're talking about is practically rebellion!"
"And if it is?" The man responds. Many gasp. "The bending regime uses force to subdue us non-benders. If the threat of rebellion is what it takes to obtain our freedom, then perhaps that is the road the Equalists must take." He extends a hand out to the people before him. "But we can do nothing and we will achieve nothing without the hands of the people at our side. Will you join us, brave citizens, and for the first time in your lives taste equality?"
There is a ghostly silence that follows his invitation, a thinness in the air, until at last I speak. "I will." I have to. These people are the right path for me. The preacher swerves his crane neck from side to side to see who spoke. The others turn my direction as well. I am small in stature and in voice, but I am spotted.
"Excellent!" He exclaims. "We do not discriminate against age, little girl; if you hold in your heart the burning desire for equality, then the Equalists welcome you."
"Thank you." I say, nervous. "But I'm actually sevente-"
"Your name?" He interrupts.
I contemplate using a fake, but decide against it. There's no one here who could ever know, anyway. "My name is Ming Ku-Sim."