Chapter One:

I was sitting on the couch one day with my family. We were listening to the news. It was quite surprising. The President had been assassinated and the White Lotus had taken over the country.

The door flew open and a man stepped in. He had a flame in the palm of his hand. "Nice house. I'm taking it."

"You can't just do that." my father protested.

"Yes I can." the man replied. "Under the new code, benders can appropriate the property of non-benders."

He approached us, growing the flame in size. "So what's it going to be?" he taunted.

My father took a swing at at the man. While he was distracted, I kicked him between the legs. He turned around and I quickly backed off. He launched a flame that hit the ground a few feet from me.

He prepared another flame but my father put him in a headlock. My mother grabbed objects and threw them at the man. "Run!" my father shouted.

As much as I wanted to help them, I ran toward the door. My mother soon joined me, and we dashed out the door into the street. We stared at the house, hoping dad would come out.

A couple of policemen noticed the commotion and entered the house. They stepped out with dad, but he was in handcuffs. The police then cuffed my mother and me. "What is this for?!" my father complained.

"Resisting appropriation of property." the officer replied.

We were taken the city jail where we waited for a days. We just sat in our cells, watching people being taken in and out. Eventually it was our turn, a group took us out of our cell and lead us to a van.

After a drive we were lead out into another building. We were fitted with padded uniforms and lead down a hall. We stepped out into a wide open room. It was the bending arena. We were placed on a platform and it moved across the gap to the arena floor.

Waiting on the other side was a group of pro-benders. It quickly dawned on me how we were going to be punished. A flurry of bending blasts came at us. Blasts of water, shots of fire, airballs, and rock discs slammed into the people around me.

A water whip hit my chest, and I staggered back. Even with the outfit, it still stung. Then I took a rock disc to the gut. I fell over on to the floor. Around me, many of the other people were knocked down to. They had decided to stay down, and not risk getting further hurt.

The benders came closer to use and continued there barrage. I peered up and saw a bender flinging discs. He was near the edge of the arena. I crawled towards him, and he did not notice.

Right after he threw another disk, I stood up and charged towards him. Before he knew it I grabbed him and pushed him toward the edge. I gave him a shove, and fell of the platform into the water.

Before I could celebrate, a blast of fire hit me in the back. I then fell over the edge and hit the water. The surface slammed into me. I floated limply in the water. A bolt of lightning coursed into the water. I shock violently as my whole body tingled. I soon blacked out.

I woke up with strange people standing over me. "He's awake." one of them said.

"Didn't think he would make it." another one said. "Quite brave of you."

"Where am I?!" I demanded. "Who are you?!" I stood up. "What is going on?!"

"You need your rest." someone said. "You are among friends."

They put there hands on my shoulders, and cushioned me as I fell back down. "

A blond woman walked into the room. "Is he awake?!"

"Yes but he still needs to recover."

The woman looked familiar. She was former Police Chief Kuma Bei-Fong. "You guys are the New Equalists."

"Indeed we are." Kuma replied. "With that stunt you pulled in the arena, we figured you ought to be one of us. That's why I had you retrieved."

"Where are my parents?" I asked.

"Taken to the prisons."

Wasn't beating the crap out of them enough of a punishment?"

"Not according to Arashi."

After a few days rest, it was time to start my training. Kuma lead me into the training room. She pointed to a training dummy. "Let me see you throw a punch."

I slugged the dummy in the gut, and it wobbled a bit. "Harder!" Kuma shouted.

I grumbled and then gave it another swing. "Punch like you mean it." said Kuma.

I pulled back and slammed it with all my might. The dummy shock back and forth. "Good punch." Kuma said. "Let me show you how to do it."

Kuma slugged the dummy and knocked it straight to the ground. "See that, now copy me."

Kuma did the same punch, but slower. I looked at her stances closely and tried to emulate them. After some more hand to hand training, I moved on to bola training. A man approached me. "My name is Akio." he said.

"I'm Fai." I replied.

He handed me some bolas and pointed to a frame of crossing beams. "Try to land them on that."

I hurled the bola at the frame, but it bounced of one of the beams. Akio grabbed a bola and threw it. The bola wrapped itself tightly around the beam.

Having watched his throw, I gave it another go. The bola wrapped around the beam. "Good throw." complimented.

We continued the throw bolas at the frame, and Akio showed me more techniques. "Your really learning fast." he remarked.

"Thanks"

"You've got to help me!" a voice cried out.

I turned and saw a scared looking man lead in by two resistance members.

Akio approached him. "What happened?"

"They burned down my shop." the man cried out.

"Who?" I asked.

"The Triads." the man replied. "They demanded payment, and torched the place when I could not afford the fees."