Hiro casually entered the dilapidated building, looking for all the world as if he absolutely belonged there. The key was to not make eye contact with anyone, never apologize for anything, and not sidestep people who were coming towards you. Act like you owned the place, and people would believe it - even if you were only fourteen years old and stood at only five feet tall.

He brushed shoulders with a man who was a good foot and a half taller than him, staring ahead as the man growled threateningly. There were all sorts of types that came to the pro-bending arenas, from amateurs looking to just have a chance to bend with others to near professionals who were looking to have some fun and make some cash. Hiro fell into the latter, and had made a good set of winnings from hopping from various arenas across San Fransokyo and assuming different identities at each.

After all, changing personas in the pro-bending circles wasn't all too difficult when you were the Avatar.

Hiro approached a woman who was quite obviously running the matches at the arena and taking bets. Sure, he had registered to compete before coming, but he still had to check in as a solo fighter. Plus, it was always fun to see the look on the showrunner's faces when they realized that they were about to let a kid who looked like he was barely in high school into the ring.

"What do you want, kid?" The woman said, barely flicking her eyes up from her tablet. "I'm busy."

"Hi, um…" Hiro swallowed, allowing his scared kid façade to come through. "I'm here to check in. My name is Hiro Takachiho?" His sentence trailed off into a question as the fake name rolled off of his tongue flawlessly.

She raised an eyebrow, lifting the finger she had been resting on the touch-screen. "You're registered for a match?"

Keeping in line with his act, Hiro nodded hesitantly, handing her the required entry fee that would later be added to the pot of bets. With a skeptical expression on her face, the woman scrolled through the entries on her tablet, eventually tapping one. "You're a firebender?"

"Y-yes," Hiro stuttered, gloating inwardly as he watched the woman suppress a chuckle. This was going to be too easy. Usually the organizers were the best at sizing competitors up so they could play up the bets and make the most money off of the matches, and this one had bought his act immediately. He hadn't expected the naïve kid trick to get him through at this arena, but he certainly wasn't going to take the luck for granted.

"You fight in fifteen minutes. Good luck, kid." The woman spoke, smirking as she sized Hiro up one last time. "You're gonna need it."

Quickly flicking his eyes downward as a sign of submission, he breezed past her and down several flights of carved out stairs into the arena. It wasn't difficult to hide the large pro-bending arenas underground with the help of several powerful earthbenders. The sport had been pioneered in San Fransokyo as a way of giving benders a way to let off steam as well as make some money. It had started as a team sport, but most of the rings around town hosted mainly solo matches since it was difficult enough not being caught by the increasingly aggressive police even without hosting team practices.

As he reached the arena, Hiro was greeted with a mass of people clustered around the border of the viewing area, looking down at the ring slightly below. The rings varied around town, but this one had a simple border as opposed to a full water moat. It was sunken about ten feet below the spectators, with high walls and chain link borders above to contain errant blasts. Currently, two earthbenders were duking it out, sending chunks of the ground below them into the walls and at each other.

Hiro rolled his eyes, slipping around the crowd to the waiting area. So many of the benders that entered these competitions were too full of bravado to realize that they were woefully unskilled. After taking so many of them down several pegs, he was getting tired of the macho attitude and lackluster skills. He realized that he was at a slight advantage both in having hundreds of past lives experience as well as an older brother who was willing to find him training, but he still expected more out of San Fransokyo's top pro-benders.

Finally reaching the small pool of benders on deck, Hiro shifted his weight from foot to foot as he worried the edge of his hoodie. The other benders shot amused looks at him as well as whispers and snide comments. Some were more discreet than others. Hiro heard the usual comments.

"Who's gonna let a kid into the arena?"

"I don't care, as long as I get some money off of it."

"Isn't it past his curfew?"

Running his hand through his hair in what he knew was an obvious nervous gesture, Hiro smiled to himself. This was going to be too easy. He'd finally be able to get enough money to pick up the airbending scrolls he wanted on the black market. Firebending had come easily for him as his first element, and he had been able to find an earthbending tutor through some underground connections. Tadashi, of course, had taught him waterbending since they had first discovered that Hiro was the Avatar. Hiro's older brother had had the benefit of learning from their mother when their parents were still alive, and with some self teaching, had nearly mastered the element by the time he was fourteen.

Their training sessions occurred whenever both of the brothers were home and willing. Hiro had always had trouble with his waterbending because he lacked the patience and tranquility to truly connect with the element like his brother did. Tadashi was a student at one of the local universities, the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. He had managed to become a master waterbender along with balancing his advanced studies in high school, and was studying robotics. Hiro knew that he was trying to build some kind of health robot - he had gone over the schematics and notes on Tadashi's computer while his brother had been at the dojo one day. It seemed that Tadashi had been trying to bring a robot up to par with his own healing abilities. Tadashi had also managed to find a small group of benders on campus, and they had become fast friends. All of them were studying robotics with various emphases, proving that benders could do much more than just bend. It was also a decent front to keep the police from sniffing around.

Hiro mostly stayed at the café, helping out Aunt Cass with running the business and training on his own. He had graduated high school when he was thirteen because along with being the avatar, he was an academic genius as well. When he wasn't training or fighting, he was tinkering with spare parts and doing Tadashi's homework when his brother wasn't looking. Through his pro-bending, he had come to discover most of the black markets and hideaways for benders around the city and had been able to find teaching material that had been passed down for generations. It was difficult to find consistent tutors when everyone was trying to stay hidden. San Fransokyo had one of the largest bending populations anywhere, but also the most aggressive police force.

There was a dull thud and cheering from the arena as a bell rang and the current match ended. Hiro didn't bother to listen to the announcer, instead watching as two waterbenders entered the ring and various workers placed buckets of water around the edges of the fighting area. The fights alternated in a consistent cycle of earth, water, and fire. Most of the airbenders in the city refused to fight due to their pacific nature, and there were so few that were actually willing to that airbending fights rarely occurred. Air was an element that Hiro was lacking in, even more perhaps than waterbending. By the old cycles, it should have been the second element that he mastered, but there were so few masters willing to teach for fear of capture that he relied on what he could discover on his own and the information that he was able to glean from the few scrolls he was able to pick up from time to time. Tadashi had helped him to design his own glider out of lightweight metal and strong fabric, and he had learned how to fly with it the previous summer when they had traveled out of the city to just outside Berklyoto for a family vacation. Needless to say, there had been a good deal of falling flat on the ground, and he hadn't even attempted to carry someone else on the glider with him.

Speaking of being knocked to the ground…

The waterbending match was beginning to wrap up, and Hiro knew that he was up next. His opponent would be on the other side of the arena, waiting to be let in from another entrance. Hiro moved down a step of stairs several feet behind the spectators to where he would be let into the ring after this match was over. Keeping up the nervous kid act, he shuffled his feet and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. The more the spectators thought his competitor was going to win, the higher cut he'd get of the money the showrunner made off of the bets made. It was going to be a good cut tonight, given the calibre of competitors at this particular arena and the large crowd. He was going to look like a fish out of water as soon as he entered the ring, and he was most certainly going to relish in every second of it.

There was an eruption of cheers from above, and Hiro knew that the match had concluded. He had reached the final staging area before benders entered the ring, and the door before him swung open and a battered waterbender nursing a smarting arm limped through, a patch of soothing water being held over one of his injuries. The loser, then. The attendant at the door glanced at Hiro, raised an eyebrow, then shook his head, waving the teenager inside.

He shuffled into the ring, looking up with wide eyes at the spectators above. There was a wave of laughter - there always was - as the crowd took notice of the fact that a five foot tall child had entered to compete. Hiro was used it. Hell, he wouldn't take any other fourteen year old seriously if they stepped into the ring.

"You're putting me against a child?"

Hiro's head turned from the crowd above to the opposite side of the ring, and he groaned as he saw his opponent. He was none other than the infamous Yama, the reigning firebending champion of this particular arena. The man was massive and stood at least a foot and a half above Hiro himself. Yama laughed heartily, and Hiro made wide eyes as he pretended to be intimidated by his opponent.

"You're allowing him to fight?" Yama called up to the showrunner above, who was standing at the edge of the arena.

She shrugged, gesturing with her tablet. "He pays, he fights."

Hiro watched as handfuls of money exchanged hands and was passed to the showrunner, no doubt in favor of Yama's victory. He was going to be rich after tonight.

Yama finally made eye contact with him, rolling back his shoulders. "Are you ready, kid?"

Hiro nodded feebly, weakly shifting into what could only loosely be defined as a fighting stance. "I'm ready."

The mountain of a man raised an eyebrow, waiting for the match to start. Hiro merely swallowed, trembling for effect.

As soon as the bell rang, Yama leaped into action with surprising agility for a man of his stature. Hiro ran sharply to the right, narrowly dodging a blast that nearly missed his head. He rolled, staying on the defensive as he leapt away from Yama's excessive attacks and skirted around the edges of the ring. The match would end when one of them was in position to deliver a final blow. Hiro was just narrowly avoiding the situation, instead running as the spectators above laughed. More money exchanged hands, and Hiro smirked.

A blast hit too hard to home, and Hiro was sent sprawling to the ground. He picked himself up gingerly, looking up as Yama sauntered forward, gloating and reveling in what he thought was his victory. Hiro merely smiled toothily, narrowing his eyes as he leapt back up, shrugging off his blue hoodie and throwing it to the side of the ring. He snapped into a bending stance, and watched Yama's expression immediately shift to one of confusion.

And then Hiro sprung.

Leaping into the air, he loosed a blast of flame from his right foot as it kicked toward his opponent. Following up with a two hand thrust, he landed agilely on the ground, watching in satisfaction as Yama stumbled back, obviously surprised. The move had been a bit show-offish, sure, but it was only a small part of what Hiro was able to do. Circling in an airbending style, he dodged a poorly aimed shot from Yama, weaving and retaliating with two precise shots of his own. One caught the edge of the man's tracksuit, and Yama was quick to discard the jacket much as Hiro had done with his.

Showing off a bit, Hiro skillfully bended a ring of fire in front of his face, grinning wildly. He thrust his palms outward, and a stream of flame lashed out towards his opponent. Yama grimaced and dodged, realizing that he had lost the upper hand in the match.

Not willing to let himself be beat by a kid that was half his size, the massive firebender sent a flurry of blasts from his palms that Hiro deflected with ease. Volleying back fireball after fireball, Hiro backed his opponent into the corner of the arena, eventually sending him diving to the ground to avoid a blast that would have struck him square in the middle.

Hiro stood over Yama, flame dagger at the ready. The match was won, and the crowd was shocked into near silence. However, Yama wasn't done, and with a snarl he threw his palms up and let loose a jet of flame at his younger opponent.

Hiro hadn't been expecting it, and he reacted instinctively, sending out a blast of wind as he circled away from the blast. The flames dissapated, but Yama was staring up at him with a shocked expression on his face.

It quickly morphed to anger however, as Yama growled out, "Avatar", picking himself up from the ground as Hiro stumbled back. "You little cheat."

It was at that moment that Hiro made the executive decision to run.

He sprinted out of the door he had entered the ring through, grabbing his hoodie from the edge of the ring on the way and flying up the stairs with a little aid from his rough airbending. Blasting through the straggling back members of the crowd, he shrugged his hoodie back on and flew back to the entrance to the arena, taking the stairs that led back up to surface level three or four at a time. He knew that Yama and any of his thugs for hire wouldn't be far behind, and he had to get out of there before they were able to get ahold of him. Avatar or not, he was going to have a difficult time fending off benders of all different types at once.

He heard footsteps behind him, thundering up the rough stairs. Turning a sharp corner and skidding in his sneakers, Hiro blasted out through the surface entrance of the arena, quickly scanning the alleyway in front of him and trying to decide where to go. Making a snap judgement, he turned and sprinted to the right.

Just as he was entering the side alley, however, water flew out and the ground froze beneath him. Hiro was sent skidding and sliding across the newly formed ice. He slammed into a brick wall, and hurried to pick himself up from the ground and wincing with pain.

He didn't get the chance to run again as strong arms slammed and held him against the wall. Two of what he presumed were Yama's personal thugs had caught up to him. Hiro recognized one as the earthbender who had won the match that he had watched, and he assumed that the other was the waterbender who had frozen the ground beneath him.

Yama himself approached, cracking his knuckles threateningly. "I don't like getting beat," he began as Hiro struggled futilely against the men holding him in place, the hood of his jacket bunched up behind his neck. "I especially don't like getting beat by cheating kids."

Hiro swallowed, thinking it was wiser not to respond.

Yama continued. "I saw your little trick back there, Avatar. Thought you could cheat and use multiple elements in a match and still get your money?"

Stuttering, Hiro spit out a rough, "No - no, I didn't… didn't mean to…" as he feebly pushed against the men restraining him.

Yama chuckled, keeping his eyes locked with the younger boy's. "You didn't mean to cheat and humiliate me in front of an entire crowd? I'm not going to buy it." He turned to his two men, nodding and turning back to the arena. "You know what to do."

With that he left, and Hiro was alone with the waterbender and earthbender, hopelessly pinned to the wall. They let him down with a shove, and backed into bending stances in front of him. He readied two fire daggers, shooting the flames out of his hands. "Come on, guys, you wouldn't hurt a kid…"

Tadashi Hamada was speeding through the streets of San Fransokyo.

Again.

Apparently, Hiro had just as much success keeping himself out of pro-bending matches as a moth did keeping itself away from a flame.

Tadashi bit his lip irritatedly as he turned through the alleyways, trying to find his way through the back streets of the financial district to where Hiro's tracker was leading him to. He had started to plant trackers on his younger brother about two months ago after Hiro had come home singed and three hours later than he should have after avoiding the police for half of the night. Sure, there was a decent chance that the trackers would get shorted out by errant blasts of water or flame, and of course the occasional chance that Hiro would find one himself and remove it, but it gave Tadashi some peace of mind when his brother decided to sneak out to go compete.

Plus, it made it a hell of a lot easier to find the fourteen year old Avatar when he decided to risk his neck on nights like tonight.

Tadashi knew he was close, and hung a right as he snuck a glance at the display screen of his phone. Suddenly, he heard a commotion and nearly groaned as he heard Hiro's telltale cocky but somewhat nervous voice from around the corner. "Come on, guys, you wouldn't hurt a kid…"

Tadashi turned the corner of the back alleyway just in time to see two men shifting into fighting stances at his younger brother, backing him into a brick wall. He skidded down the alleyway, grinding to a halt a foot in front of Hiro who had two fire daggers ready in defense. "Get on!" He called out as he quickly froze the ground beneath the two thugs, watching as even the waterbender fell to the ground.

As soon as Hiro's arms were secure around him, he revved the engine, sending them speeding down the alley and past the front for the bending arena. "You're the best!" Hiro crowed into Tadashi's ear, clinging onto his middle as they hung a sharp left turn.

"Are you hurt?" Tadashi yelled, not turning back as he focused on the pavement ahead.

"No!"

"Any burns!"

"I'm fine, Tadashi!"

"Then what were you thinking, knucklehead?" Tadashi snapped, turning back briefly to slap his brother as he chastised him.

"Come on, Tadashi, you know how much fun it is!" Hiro called back, leaning back slightly. "You just get to bend the entire time - don't tell me you wouldn't love that."

"Yeah," the older brother replied as he was forced to double back upon reaching a dead end. "But it's so illegal! Come on, Hiro, what would you do if you got caught?"

"Uh, I wouldn't get caught," Hiro answered, obviously cocky. "That's kind of the point."

"Hiro -" Tadashi was cut off as he realized that they had doubled back in the direction of the arena and that the pro-bending junkies were still after them. The largest, a man that Tadashi knew as Yama because of his fame in the underground bending leagues, was waiting with a snarl on his face and flame daggers in his hands.

"Hold on!" Tadashi yelled, veering to the right of the alley and aiming for a ramp that had been made out of planks. The moped took off into the air, and Tadashi's stomach fell as he realized that despite the daring move, they weren't going to clear Yama's reach. However, Hiro loosened his arms from Tadashi's middle just in time and bended up a large current of air, giving the brothers just enough altitude to clear Yama.

"Cheating Avatar!" The mountain of a man snarled from behind them, but the Hamadas were already far past him. Tadashi hung a left, trying to retrace the way that he had come. They should be alright as long as the police didn't show -

The sound of sirens echoed near them and Tadashi swore under his breath as he saw the telltale flashing of red and blue light several alleys over. Without thinking, he veered in the opposite direction, taking off down a different alleyway than he had originally planned. It was only going to have been a matter of time until the police started getting smarter and learned where all of the biggest pro-bending matches were. And of course, Hiro had started to show up at all of them, playing as a different type of bender each time. As long as the police still thought he was a regular bender, though...

"Tadashi!" Hiro yelled, his voice finally panicked. "They know I'm the Avatar!"

"Hiro!" Tadashi snarled exasperatedly, making a random turn and hoping that it was for the best. "You have to be more careful! If they're caught, or if we're caught…"

"It was an accident! I just reacted, and then I was airbending, and-"

The sound of other bikes in the vicinity caught Tadashi's attention, and the pit of his stomach dropped as he realized that the police hadn't only set up a blockade, but they were actively pursuing the benders as they fled from the arena. The city's policy had grown more stringent in the past several years, and they had become more aggressive in trying to catch benders all around the city.

And of course, Tadashi was lucky enough to have the moon blessed Avatar as his brother.

He swore under his breath, feeling Hiro cling to his back even tighter than before. He had taken a right when he should have gone left, inadvertently circling them back and in the wrong direction and effectively trapping them. On both sides, he could see the flashing lights and hear the loud engines of police special issued motorcycles. He scanned the alley that he was trapped in, and realized that there was no way that they would be able to drive out. They were trapped, and they were going to get Hiro, and oh Tui -

Wait.

Tadashi threw off his helmet, hopping off of his moped frantically. "Get off," he said to Hiro, frantically unstrapping something from the side of the bike.

In his hand was a metal rod, and as he hit a hidden cache, it expanded and unfolded into a glider. He thrust it into Hiro's hands, watching as confusion spread across his younger brother's face. "I modified it earlier for easier transport. I figured it'd make it easier to have it on you, and I brought it with me on a hunch."

Hiro's eyebrows contracted in disbelief. "Tadashi, I can't leave you here! Look, we both can -" He was was cut off as they heard the police cycles just one alley over, searching for stragglers from the match.

Tadashi grabbed his younger brother's shoulders. "Hiro, you need to go now. I'll be fine, but you are the Avatar, and the world needs you. I'll be okay, I promise."

"Tadashi-"

"Go!" Tadashi yelled as the police lights finally made it into their alley. Hiro pushed back, briefly releasing a blast of flame from each hand in frustration before leaping off of the ground with a blast of air and taking off into the night sky. Not wasting time, he bended up a water whip from a puddle on the ground, ready to hold the police off of Hiro for as long as he could. He knew that it wouldn't be for long, however. He was greatly outnumbered. Someone must have spilled that the Avatar had come this way, and the police had sent the brunt of their forces to attempt a capture. At the very least, Tadashi thought, they wouldn't have Hiro. Not tonight.

"Halt! You are hereby placed under arrest by the Police Department of San Fransokyo for illegal practices. Raise your hands and keep them still."

Tui and La, have mercy, Tadashi thought as he shifted into bending stance, lashing the whip out defensively and preemptively. Officers approached him from both sides, and he found himself backed into a wall with nowhere to turn. He was cornered, and he knew that it was only a matter of time before they went in for the capture.

"Force will be used if you do not stand down!"

Tadashi swallowed, preparing for the inevitable. The officers advanced on both sides, and even though he saw them raise stun guns he was only able to deflect three with his whip. One officer found his mark, and the waterbender groaned as enough electricity to stun a firebender coursed through his body.

He fell to the ground, and felt himself being hefted up by police arms as everything faded to black.

AN: Thank you for reading this first chapter of Malleable. The title is up for debate, but we'll see how that changes in the time ahead. I've been sitting on this chapter since like November trying to write ahead, so I hope to be able to put out regular updates. I plan to update every Friday, and I'll try to notify you if I won't be able to update. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line.

-emrys-ite