suspense, and the fire nation capital, and for the main point Mako never existed. Word Count - 2683
Fire Ferrets vs. ?
"Bolin! Would you come down here your friends are here!" Lin calls outside to the training ground they have in their backyard. Tahno, Iroh, and Korra are all sitting in her living room waiting for Bolin.
"Coming mom!" He calls and sets down the chunk of meteorite he was unsuccessfully trying to bend. Since he was the adopted son of one of the greatest metal benders of all time he was expected to learn metal bending, only he had yet to even make it move. He quickly bends all the dust off of him before he enters the room. "Hey guys! What are you doing here?" He inquires smiling as he grabs a cold water bottle from the ice box and comes back. "We didn't have a team practice today did we?" He asks looking over the calendar.
"No, we didn't have practice Bolin, sit your butt down so we can talk." Tahno says flipping his hair at the end of the sentence. Korra and Iroh are sitting together holding each other's hand and smiling.
"Oh, I can't take it any more." Korra says excitedly. "The Fire Ferrets have been invited to the Fire Nation Capital to do a special Pro-Bending match for the royal family!" Korra exclaims with a slight squeal, her excitement obvious. Bolin starts choking on his water and smacks his chest a few times.
"We wha?" He says gasping.
"We," Tahno points to all of them. "Go to fire nation and perform. Special." Tahno says using hand gestures as he dumbs it down for Bolin. Korra hits his arm. "Be nice, but ya. We're going to the Fire Nation!" She says happily. "Iroh has so graciously offered to transport us on his ship." Korra says rubbing her nose against his, making the other two boys groan. Lin, who had been leaning up against the wall watching, speaks up.
"The Fire Nation eh? My boys really growing up and making a name for himself in the bending world. I'm proud of you kid." Lin smiles at him and he blushes slightly at her praise. "Thanks mom." He says rubbing the back of his head. "When do we leave?"
"Tomorrow actually, it will take us three days to get to the capital and you guys fight the day after we get there." Iroh speaks up. "I'm sure you'll do great."
"Who are we fighting?" Bolin asks. "For the match? Is it just us or are we part of like a tournament or something?"
"No, it's just us and we don't actually know who we are fighting, they didn't tell us. All they said was be ready and train hard. Instead of a traditional bending team with one fire, water, and earth bender we'll be fighting three firebenders."
"Oh… That sounds ominous." Bolin replies sitting down on the single chair.
"Yeah, you're telling us, but we can do it! We've won the last two pro-bending finals so we're pretty good."
"Yeah, but three fire benders? Fire nation firebenders? They're gonna be good and we're used to fighting a traditional bending team not three firebenders." Bolin murmurs then goes quiet thinking about it.
"Do you know any of this Iroh? You are a part of the royal family." Tahno looks over at Iroh.
"No, Mother hasn't told me anything. I'm just in the dark as you three." He shrugs pulling Korra closer and wrapping his arms around her waist.
"Well, looks like you kids are in for a surprise. Tell Izumi hi for me would you Iroh." Lin says putting her gear back on to head back to the station. Iroh nods. "Of course Chief." She rolls her eyes.
"How many times do I have to tell you, it's Lin." She kisses Bolins head. "Make sure you get a good night's sleep and pack for warm weather kid. I'll be at the docks in the morning when you depart." She leaves for the station.
"Bye mom." Bolin calls out then looks back at his team. "Hey Iroh do you think we could train with you and two other firebenders on our trip over? It would be good practice."
"Yeah, I think I could work out a few schedules to make that work." He nods and glances at the clock. "Actually I need to be going, it's almost time for me to return to the ship. Love you Korra." He kisses her quickly then leaves. "Bye Iroh." She waves and leans back on the couch. "I guess I should go pack then," she groans. "I hate packing." They both chuckle at the Avatar.
"Who likes packing?" She sticks her tongue out at them and leaves. "Yeah, yeah, whatever boys. I'll see you bright and early tomorrow at the docks. Iroh says he wants to leave at sunrise." They both nod and Tahno stands up. "See you later Bolin." He waves and leaves with Korra. Bolin heads up to his room and packs what he needs and eats supper before going to bed.
"Just think, in three days we'll be in the Fire Nation, Pabu." Pabu chirps at him as he cuddles into Bolin and falls asleep. "Yeah, I should probably get some rest." Bolin murmurs and falls asleep.
As promised, Lin was there at the docks waiting to say goodbye. "Hey kid." She coos affectionately. "You be safe and have fun over there, okay?" She kisses his forehead and ruffles his hair.
"I will mom." He smiles down at her. "I know, kid. Make sure you stay out of trouble and kick those firebender's butts. I know you'll do me and our family proud. I love you, kid." She kisses his head once more then leaves. "Love you too." Bolin calls then boards the ship. Korra, and Tahno are there talking to each other.
"Ready to go guys?" He says setting his suitcases down. Pabu is on his shoulder, his red tail wrapped around Bolin's neck. "Yeah, we are." Iroh says as he walks towards them, the ship starts and leaves the bay.
"I'm so excited! The Fire Nation, I've never been there before." Bolin says excitedly as he leans on the railing, watching the silver spires of Republic City get smaller. "What's it like Iroh?"
"That depends where you go in the Fire Nation, some places are way too hot to live in, others are absolute paradise. Like Ember Island, it's a beautiful resort island that my family always went to every summer when I was a kid. The Capital itself is a place any where any firebender would feel at home." He says with a smile. "I'm actually quite excited to go home." Korra chuckles. "I can tell."
Three days later they are pulling into the Fire Nation Capital, Bolin and Pabu 'oohing' and 'ahhing' at everything they see. "Welcome to the Fire Nation capital." Iroh anounces happily. "How I've missed this place." He whispers to Korra who is holding his hand and smiling. When the ship docks there is a group of people waiting to welcome them.
"Welcome home Prince Iroh." They all bow to him then stand. "Oh behalf of the royal family we would like to welcome you all to the Capital." Several of them take their bags and load them into a car. "We will take you to your home for your time here." The man says and ushers them into a car that takes them to a house right outside of the royal palace. "Prince Iroh, the Fire Lord asked I give this to you." He hands Iroh a letter then they all leave.
"Ooooh, what are these?" Bolin says smelling a flower. Iroh looks up and chuckles.
"Those are fire flowers, a type of rose that only blooms once a year. From the looks of it they came from mother's garden." Iroh opens his letter and starts reading.
"They smell amazing." Bolin moans and takes a deep breath. Tahno looks around and rolls his eyes then leaves to go unpack his things.
"I need to go see mother for something." Iroh says and kisses Korra goodbye then leaves.
"So we still don't know anything about who we're fighting?"
"Nope, nothing at all." Korra says plopping down on the couch with a bowl of fruit. "I wonder if they'll just be people from the guard or if they are like some super special hand picked team." She munches on the berries and hums. "These are good." Pabu comes over and eats several, making Korra giggle.
"I think we should go out back and practice some more, I want to feel more prepared than I do."
"That sounds like a good idea. Tahno!" Korra yells. "We're going out back to practice!" She hollers and heads out with Bolin to the back yard. They start practicing with each other and Tahno soon comes out in his practice gear and starts practicing with them. An hour later they finish and head back into the house, plopping down on the couch as they drink water.
"Well, I think we're about as ready as we're going to get." Bolin mutters sipping his water and stroking Pabu.
"Yeah, I think so too, we were really in tune with one another out there. I think we'll do Republic City proud." Korra agrees stretching. Tahno nods and lays back on the couch, flipping his hair to perfection.
"You guys ready?" Iroh asks as they all suit up. "You fight in 10 minutes." They all nod, feeling a little nervous now that they actually had to fight the firebenders. "Alright, you guys will do great. I'll see you after the game Korra." He leaves and they all finish getting ready, each one going through their own warm up routine. They hear their announcement and head out to the plat form, a roar going up as the crowd sees them. Mostly the screams of adoring fans, but several boos.
Bolin smiles brightly and flexes his muscles, several high pitched screams could be heard. Bolin smirks and changes the angle. Korra rolls her eyes then decides to blow some fire out of her mouth, the roar of the crowd gets louder. "That's how it's done Bolin." She smirks. Tahno rolls his eyes at both of them before bending some water into the air and freezing it and bending the ice apart to make snowflakes.
"The Fire Ferrets!" The announcers yells. "And their opponents!" A door on the other side of the ring opens and the outline of three people could be seen behind some smoke. A gasp erupted through the entire crowd.
"Sweet flameo." Korra mutters when they can see their opponents, her face deathly white.
When Lin arrives at the Police Station a letter is waiting for her on her desk. She takes her seat and opens the letter. A smile appears on her face as she reads it. "I do think that's a lovely idea." She mumbles and stands. "Saikhan!" She yells into the room out side her office. Saikhan comes running over. "I'll be taking a few days off, you're in charge."
"I-I what?" He asks dumbfounded. Lin never took time off, the only time he could recall her doing that was when she found Bolin and went through the process to adopt him.
"You. In charge. I didn't think that was that hard to understand Saikhan." She jokes and writes down something on a paper for him. "I'll be back within the week, don't break my city." She hands him the paper and leaves the station, heading for her apartment to pack then to the airship that was sent to get her.
"Is… Is that the Fire Lord?!" Bolin gasps as the crowd starts screaming their adoration for the royal family.
"Well, this sucks." Tahno mumbles. Their opponents are the Fire Lord, the Prince, and the previous Fire Lord.
"We have to fight… oooooh this is bad." Bolin mutters. "No, I don't know anything! It sure looks like you didn't know anything Iroh." Izumi, Zuko, and Iroh take their places on the other side of the ring.
Iroh flashes Korra an apologetic look as he takes his place by his mother and grandfather.
"Let's get this over with." Korra mutters and takes her place in the ring, the other two follow and fall into position. Each one of them bow to show their respect to the Fire Lord. She smiles back and cracks her knuckles making Bolin gulp. The ref tells them the rules then starts the battle. An explosion of fire was all the spectators could see, the Royal family fighting furiously against the Fire Ferrets. As they fight Bolin is thankful that they fought against those firebenders on Iroh's ship, there defence against the full out attack by the firebending trio was decent.
It only took a minute for the Fire Ferrets to get over their initial shock and fall back on all their training. They start fighting like the team Republic City knows them to be. One shot after the other, Korra, Bolin, and Tahno push back their opponents dodging the balls of fire like they are nothing. One major thing that they'd changed was instead of rounds it would just be one round and the last team standing was the winner. Seven minutes into the game the Fire Ferrets managed to get Zuko off the ring, but Tahno is blown off the ring by Izumi only a moment later.
Bolin and Korra fight hard together against Fire Lord Izumi and Iroh, in an incredible display of power Izumi and Korra hit the other and are both flung out of the ring and into the water. Iroh and Bolin paused for a moment to look at the other. The Fire Ferrets had claimed a zone against them and Bolin was going to use that to his advantage. They both suddenly spring into action and start fighting furiously. Unable to stand up against the onslaught by Iroh, Bolin is pushed back three zones.
"Don't you dare lose! I know you can do better than that Bolin! You uphold your family name with pride and victory!" Lin screams at Bolin. Hearing this Bolin starts fighting back fiercely. He would do his mother proud, he had to. Bolin starts thinking off all the times Lin had done so much for him. The time she saved him from the streets, the time he taught him to earth bend, the time she left work to come home and care for him when he was sick. He would do this! He was a Beifong! Bolin lets out a mighty roar and starts pushing Iroh back quickly. Bolin can feel his arms tiring and he knows he has to finish this soon. With one final push Bolin takes a fireball to the chest but in doing so he hits Iroh and he flies off the ring. Bolin rolls put stays on the ring.
"The Fire Ferrets win!" The crowd screams as Korra and Tahno run onto the ring and hug Bolin.
"That's my boy!" Lin smiles. "That's my boy."
After the battle the Fire Lord had invited them all to dine with her and her family. That's were they all were, seated around the Fire Lord's table, Bolin and Lin sitting by Izumi and Zuko, Tahno sitting by Korra and Iroh.
"You three fought very well, if I'm honest I didn't think you could take us." Izumi speaks up. "Especially you Bolin, I'm very impressed. I should have known, however, being a Beifong and all." Bolin puffs his chest out in pride.
"Thank you." He smiles and hugs his mom. "I'm so proud of you kid." Lin smiles and kisses his cheek.
"You have done your family name honor." Zuko speaks up and smiles at Bolin. He blushes slightly and smiles. "Thanks sir." They all eat and talk about adventures they'd all have, every person enraptured by Zuko's stories of his adventures with Aang. They spend the rest of the night telling stories and recounting adventures.
Meanwhile in Republic City. Saikhan is taking a complaint when suddenly a car hits a wagon full of cabbages.
"Not my cabbages!"
A.N. Review would you, let me know what you liked or didn't like. - Nova